Posted on 03/30/2010 10:38:29 AM PDT by NYer
WASHINGTON, D.C., MARCH 29, 2010 (Zenit.org).- This Easter, thousands are planning to become Catholic, including a man who almost lost his life five times.
The U.S. bishops' conference shared the story of Jeremy Feldbusch, 30, from Blairsville, Pennsylvania, who is among the thousands preparing to enter the Church Saturday evening.
Feldbusch was in the armed services in Iraq, and on April 3, 2003, he was wounded with shrapnel from the conflict, which resulted in blindness in both eyes and traumatic brain injury.
He was expected to die shortly after, or if he lived, to sustain extensive brain damage. Doctors put him into a coma with a ventilator for six weeks in order to reduce brain swelling.
The medical professionals attempted to remove the ventilator five times, but on each attempt, Feldbusch "died" and had to be resuscitated. On the sixth try, he finally regained consciousness.
The patient, who had been baptized a Methodist, asked his father, "Why did God take my eyesight?"
His father replied with a different question, "Why did God let you live?"
The bishops' conference reported that through the process of rehabilitation, Feldbusch "began to think that things happen for a reason and resolved to spend his life helping other wounded service members."
He decided to enter the Catholic Church, and will be received on Saturday, the 7th anniversary of his life-changing injury in Iraq.
Growth
The conference press release noted that thousands more will join Feldbusch, with especially high numbers of new Catholics expected in the South and Southwest regions of the United States.
The Diocese of Dallas, Texas, is preparing to receive 3,000 new Catholics. Of these, 700 are catechumens (never before baptized) and 2,300 are candidates (already validly baptized into the Christian faith, but seeking full communion with the Church).
Also in Texas, the Archdiocese of San Antonio is reporting that 1,112 people will enter the Church. A good number of these are young people, who have already reached the age of reason, including 214 child catechumens and 124 candidates.
The Diocese of Forth Worth in that same state will welcome around the same number of new Catholics.
The Archdiocese of Atlanta is preparing for 1,800 new Church members, which is the largest group ever recorded for that region, the press release reported.
On the West Coast, the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, which is the largest diocese nationwide, will receive 2,400 new members.
In Seattle, 682 people will be baptized into the Church, and 479 welcomed into full communion.
The Archdiocese of Portland, Oregon, will welcome 842 new Catholics.
Other dioceses who are expecting over a thousand new members are: Detroit, Michigan (1,225); Cincinnati, Ohio (1,049); Denver, Colorado (1,102); Arlington, Virginia (1,100); Washington, D.C. (1,150).
In the Archdiocese of Washington, 18 of those preparing to enter the Church are students from St. Augustine School, the oldest African American school in the nation's capital.
The conference communiqué noted that the Catholic Church, which is the largest denomination in the United States, with over 68 million members, has shown a 1.5% increase in membership numbers this past year.
Thank you for the passages from the 2 letters Luke wrote. It would serve you well to actually read the rest of the story. But, then the RCC is hermeneutically challenged and pays no attention to how the true Gospel comes out. I'll help.
Matt. 18:16ff
The young ruler asks how to inherit eternal life. Jesus tells him it is simple...just do the commandments. The young man asks, "Which ones?" Oh, you know, the easy ones like "You shall not commit murder" and so on, Jesus tells him. "I've done these, what is left?" Oh, right, just go and sell all your possessions and give the money to the poor and follow Me, Jesus adds. (Curious, have you done this part, Mark?) But, I digress.
The man gets despondent and leaves. Jesus announces "Again I say, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God." The disciples are "astonished", rocked, shocked and stunned. "Then who can be saved?" Answer, "With men this is impossible (to save themselves), but with God all things are possible." Jesus, game, set, match.
So, try all you want Mark. Your efforts are perceived by God to be inadequate. You, according to Paul's further explanation in Romans, are not actually seeking God, but some relief from your pain, escape from your guilt, life after death...who knows? But, according to Paul, you are not seeking God. Romans 3:10,11 "There is none righteous, not even one MarkBSnr or Dutchboy88. There is none who understands, not even MarkBSnr or Dutchboy88. There is none who seeks God, not even MarkBSnr, in spite of his own hand hewn theology or Dutchboy88's attempts following the admonitions of MarkBSnr."
And, further, Rom. 4:4 "Now to the one who works, his wage is not reckoned as a favor (the way grace is administered) but what is due. But to the one who does NOT WORK, but believes in Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is reckoned as righteousness." Now if this is a business transaction wherein you are exchanging your trust for grace, you my FRiend, are still looking at faith as work.
Of course God demands men repent. The question is, "Who gets to repent?" Anyone who exercises their "free will" and joins the Catholic Church and, and, and, but I digress.
Read John 6:44 (which incidentally comes after John 3), "No one can come to Me, unless the Father who sent me draws him; and I will raise him up on the last day." Now either (a) you are a universalist and think everyone has been drawn and therefore will be saved, or (b) you are ignoring the important fact that all the general calling to the world to repent does not bring them unless God individually draws them to Jesus (again, even read Orange) and then they begin to understand the faith they have been given. The RCC is not mentioned, the will is not mentioned, the persuasion of MarkBSnr is not mentioned. Just God drawing them to Jesus to repent and believe and be rescued. Hmmmmm.
Then coupled again with Paul's claim that, "So then it does not depend on the man who wills (chooses) or the man who runs (acts), but upon God. And He will have mercy upon whom He will and He will harden whom He will." Rom. 9 But, this requires that the reader apprehend the entire counsel of the Scriptures (not stop 2/3 through the story), use the text properly (not as a stick on people's back), and be willing to flush the errors of Rome where they belong.
You see Mark, the Scriptures you quote fit our message of the Gospel perfectly, and yes they are true. But, the Scriptures I quote cannot fit into the Roman cult practices and must be ignored or rewritten to get them out of the picture. That was the great contribution Calvin made...he said, "Rome is wrong". We agree.
I must leave FR now for a busy day, but I leave you with a possible shaken faith in Rome...if God permits.
I won't question God's motives. He tells Moses-- and this has to be a paraphrase because I haven't found it yet but will, it's in Exodus, I believe. That He will be merciful to whom He will be merciful and if He choses not to, well that's an option too.
You conviently skipped a very relevant part of Paul's first letter to Timothy:
4 According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love:
5 Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will,
6 To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved.
7 In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace;
8 Wherein he hath abounded toward us in all wisdom and prudence;
9 Having made known unto us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure which he hath purposed in himself:
10 That in the dispensation of the fulness of times he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth; even in him:
11 In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will:
“So try all you want, Mark. Your efforts are perceived by God to be inadequate. You...are not actually seeking God, but some relief from your pain, escape from your guilt, life after death...who knows? But according to Paul, you are not seeking God”
This is a very “personal” post.
I ask how it is that you know what is perceived by God. Did God tell you how He “perceives” Mark?
Did God tell you that Mark was “not actually seeking Him?”
How can one man know anything about another whom he has never met personally and pass judgment on that man’s relationship with God?
When you finish your unsolicited and sweeping commentary on Mark’s spirituality, you finish by saying...”who knows?”
That’s the only thing you got right in that paragraph—who knows?
Not you, not me and not anyone else but God.
And the anonimity of a forum like this doesn’t make it any more valid for one man to judge the soul of another. You know your Scripture and must be aware that judgement belongs to God and that none of us can assume that we are appointed by God to do it for Him.
We have also been told that we must account for our every word.
1Peter 2:17
You use that old cliche not to judge others. Do I have to show you the scriptures that tell us to judge other believers, and the one that says that we will judge Angels? Yes, those are in YOUR Bible. There is a scripture that even says to not only judge a believer but to kick his butt out. (after reasoning with him first, of course) Funny how some believers find one scripture and take it out of the “whole†to make a point.
Welcome, brother!
Sounds like you’ve swallowed the Old Grey Lady’s lies, hook, line, and sinker. Do some reading from sources OTHER than the MSM, and you’ll find out the facts behind the attacks on Pope Benedict.
The only way that's possible is that she must have slept through the Liturgy of the Word at every Mass, as well as the homilies. During a three year period, the Church's readings cover almost the entire Bible, Old and New Testaments. If you pay attention, you'll learn the readings, and if the priest is doing his job, his homilies will 'illuminate the Scripture', and folks will learn what the Bible is teaching us.
Then the logic would conclude that the priest was NOT doing his job. Being a nun for many years I’m sure she had the base of Catholicism covered but felt that that was not enough to fulfill her spiritual needs. I’ve experienced that myself in the past. Come out of a Sunday service that was actually boring and then during the week attended a Bible study where when I left felt uplifted and said, why can’t church be like that. Sometimes it’s to do with the personality of the teacher and charisma of the leader.
I’ll stick with my take on it.
There are just as many Scriptures, I am sure, that also tell us what our attitudes are to be towards our “brothers”, and I don’t recall one of Jesus’ counsels being to “kick butt”.
In fact, one one occasion He mentioned something about that plank in our eye......
One might say he kicked butt at the temple entrance when he removed the money changers.
He was the Lord. We are not.
By all means. This is very gracious of you.
You conviently skipped a very relevant part of Paul's first letter to Timothy:
Very relevant. The great thing that the Reformers put aside was Gospel, then NT, then OT inclusion. We Catholics use the mathematical operator "and". Therefore, we have Jesus willing all men to be saved; we have Jesus predestining people to receive His inheritance (eternal salvation); we have people that reject that inheritance. We must put all of these ideas together, and not engage in duelling verse. We do further believe that the NT must be read through the prism of the Gospels and the OT must be read through the prism of the NT. This also sets us apart from many of the Reformers who began to pick and choose certain selections of verse that they liked better (the epistles of Paul, and the book of Isaiah, for instance) to supersede Gospel teachings.
Astute and relevant, sir. However I would urge you to consider the traditional Catholic viewpoint of Biblical inclusion, with the words of Jesus more important and more relevant than, say, the words of the Chronicler in 2 Chronicles 25.
Interesting statement. My Bible contains no letters from Luke. The only books that my Bible has attributed to Luke is the Gospel according to Luke, and Acts of the Apostles. Which Bible are you reading from?
The young ruler asks how to inherit eternal life. Jesus tells him it is simple...just do the commandments. The young man asks, "Which ones?" Oh, you know, the easy ones like "You shall not commit murder" and so on, Jesus tells him. "I've done these, what is left?" Oh, right, just go and sell all your possessions and give the money to the poor and follow Me, Jesus adds. (Curious, have you done this part, Mark?)
If you consider the poor my children, then that will be correct. May I ask if you have done anything similar?
The man gets despondent and leaves. Jesus announces "Again I say, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God." The disciples are "astonished", rocked, shocked and stunned. "Then who can be saved?" Answer, "With men this is impossible (to save themselves), but with God all things are possible." Jesus, game, set, match.
Since this does not depart from Catholic orthodoxy, what is your point?
So, try all you want Mark. Your efforts are perceived by God to be inadequate.
By themselves, yes. But the parable of the servants in Matthew 25 plainly says that the efforts of all men will be Judged by the Master, according to the talents that He gave them. I look at Calvinist theology in terms of the servant that buried his talent under a rock. He didn't do anything with it and therefore was thrown out of the Master's sight. This will happen to all men who do not labour in the Master's vineyards. Some come early, some come late, but all those who labour are given their reward.
Read John 6:44 (which incidentally comes after John 3),
I notice that you do not address any of my Gospel verses, but merely post duelling verses. Why is this?
And, further, Rom. 4:4 "Now to the one who works, his wage is not reckoned as a favor (the way grace is administered) but what is due. But to the one who does NOT WORK, but believes in Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is reckoned as righteousness." Now if this is a business transaction wherein you are exchanging your trust for grace, you my FRiend, are still looking at faith as work.
This is a major (and deliberate, I believe) invention of the Reformers in order to help justify the Reformation. No Catholic believes that any man is worthy of his own accord, or that grace is given in some sort of business transaction.
You see Mark, the Scriptures you quote fit our message of the Gospel perfectly, and yes they are true.
Actually, in your posts to me you have ignored them completely and posted duelling verses which may be taken by incomplete interpretation as opposing the verses that I posted. God wills all men be saved does not fit into Reformed theology whatsoever and neither does most of Matthew, or Luke for that matter.
But, the Scriptures I quote cannot fit into the Roman cult practices and must be ignored or rewritten to get them out of the picture.
Once again you have misstated Catholic doctrine and then say that Scriptures don't fit into that misstatement. You are correct in that the Scriptures do not entirely fit into either Calvinist theology or Calvinist misrepresentation of Catholic theology.
That was the great contribution Calvin made...he said, "Rome is wrong".
Calvin's master must be very pleased. His attacks on the Church this holy season are very high. His puppets are good ones. And they do persist.
The Reformation was the first major revival of Gnosticism in over a thousand years.
1Peter 2:17
Matthew 12:36-37 (men will be judged according to their words); Matthew 16:27 (every man will be rewarded according to his works); Romans 12:19 (God will repay men for the evil they have done); 2 Timothy 4:14 (God will reward this evil man according to his works).
I thank you for your interest, ROE. The lord of this world is very busy this time of year and since the rest of what might be called Christendom is spiraling down the moral and doctrinal drain with noisy slurps, he sees that he must attack the Institution of God. He has the institutions of men right where he wants them. Mostly unconscious.
Yet he did no other great violence and stopped those who would be violent to protect Him in the Garden.
He not only “was” the Lord but in my house He still is.
“Was” and “is” isn’t necessary here.
I think I was clear in what I said. You referenced an incident that was recorded in the Scriptures, and I responded to what you brought up. It WAS an incident that WAS recorded and which happened in a moment of time in which the Word Incarnate walked among men.
Of course, He is always the same yesterday, today and forever, because He is the Lord.
He is the Lord of my home and family also.
You’re welcome.
I don’t like it when posts are made on this forum that are highly personalized, as was done to you.
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