Posted on 11/04/2017 12:24:50 PM PDT by Salvation
Question: Are the saints in heaven active in the affairs of Earth? — Robert Bonsignore, Brooklyn, New York
Answer: Yes, we have a lot of evidence for that. But exactly how and to what extent they are aware and active is not fully known to us.
It seems unlikely that the saints can merely look down and watch us as though they were watching a movie, or that they can know our inmost thoughts. Such things are probably beyond their capacity and might even be considered intrusive of our privacy.
It seems safer to assume that the saints are aware of our needs and condition to the degree that God reveals this to them. Thus, if I am asking St. Anthony to pray for me, his capacity to hear my request is facilitated by the Lord and due to the membership both St. Anthony and I have in the Body of Christ. By analogy, the two members of my body that I call my hands can interact by the fact they are coordinated through my head. Jesus is the Head of the Body, the Church and everything in his Body is under his authority and coordinated by him, including the awareness and communion of various members of the body with each other.
PWND
broad is the way that leads to destruction and many are there who find it and narrow is the way that leads to life and few find it.
Your criticism of his “narrow” beliefs is ironic in light of Scripture.
2 Timothy 3:16 NIV
All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness,
“This thread quickly became an embarrassment. I can’t imagine any non-Christian who stumbled upon it ever considering the possibility that Jesus Christ is the Word of God.”
This is not an embarrassment. It is a wonderful learning experience and an opportunity to apply Jesus’ teachings.
Strange; but the Book that Rome assembled so long ago states nothing of the kind.
HMMMmmm...
One may indeed be conversing with someone who has had a LOT of edjekatin'.
They just feel no need to go on boasting about it.
Nah, because if they are Catholic, they don't pray to God either...You have all these people praying to someone who no one knows for sure is up there...
Well; have no fear; as MANY of your Catholic brethren (and cistern; too) know EXACTLY how Christ feels if a nasty Prot says something that goes against the picture that Rome has painted over the simple image of His mother found in Scripture.
palimpset
It is a proven FACT that 50% of all doctors graduated in the lower half of their class!
Why do we Prots have to continually relearn this??
I have asked other to pray for me and have prayed for others but would never ask them to pray to other than God Himself.
Involving another, living human being in the prayer route helps those who pray whether it affects you or not. Jesus gave us the Lord's Prayer and He prayed directly to the Father who He also created a direct route to for us.
Some may feel it's the same but in my mind it makes no sense to pray to dead mortals when the everlasting God is directly available.
Out of the abundance of the heart; the mouth speaks.
Once in a while, one can worry that one is praying to a mental construct...almost like a mental idol. Jesus said to use his name when praying.(One can be assured that the prayer gets sent to the “right address”) It can also help when praying to address one’s prayer to the “God who knows that he is God”.(then using Jesus’ name in closure) There are lots of evil things that try to pretend that they are God and one’s head can get into a muddle worrying about it...but there is only the one most high God who “knows that he is GOD”...and this God sent his son!
What do you think of Francis?
Is he doing a good job or what?
"One indeed is the universal Church of the faithful, outside which no one at all is saved, in which the priest himself is the sacrifice, Jesus Christ, whose body and blood are truly contained in the sacrament of the altar under the species of bread and wine; the bread (changed) into His body by the divine power of transubstantiation, and the wine into the blood, so that to accomplish the mystery of unity we ourselves receive from His (nature) what He Himself received from ours."
--Pope Innocent III and Lateran Council IV (A.D. 1215)
I don't think sin can burn...You got any evidence for your theory???
Your comment: “The doctrine of Purgatory is false because it is not supported by Scripture.”
That is just your unsupported opinion and lack of understanding of the Bible and the teaching of Jesus.
Contrary to what many Protestants think, the Catholic Church didn’t make up the dogma of purgatory. It’s a belief that comes from our Lord himself as found in Sacred Scripture. Therefore, the Catholic Church can say in good conscience that it has been faithful to the great commission to teach all that the Lord has commanded.
https://www.catholic.com/magazine/online-edition/did-jesus-believe-in-purgatory
Let’s consider Matthew 12:32 first:
And whoever says a word against the Son of man will be forgiven; but whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven, either in this age or in the age to come.
Putting aside the question of what the unforgivable sin is, notice Jesus’ implication: there are some sins that can be forgiven in the age to come, whatever that age may be.
Pope St. Gregory the Great says: “From this sentence we understand that certain offenses can be forgiven in this age, but certain others in the age to come” (Dial. 4, 39).
I would argue that the “age” (or “world,” as the Douay Rheims translates it) that Jesus refers to in this passage is the afterlife.
First, the Greek word for “age,” aion, is used in reference to life after death in Mark 10:30, when Jesus speaks of eternal life as a reward in the “age to come” for those who give up temporal things for his sake. This doesn’t mean Jesus is teaching purgatory is eternal, since he teaches souls who are there can get out by having their sins forgiven, but he is asserting this state of being exists in the afterlife.
Aion can be used to refer to a distinct period of time in this life, as in Matthew 28:20 when Jesus says he’ll be with his apostles until the end of the “age.” But I think the context suggests it’s being used for the afterlife. Just a few verses later (v. 36) Jesus speaks of the “day of judgment,” which, according to Hebrews 9:27, comes after death.
So what do we have? We have a state of existence after death wherein the soul is being forgiven of sins, which in light of the Old Testament tradition (Psalms 66:10-12; Isaiah 6:6-7; 4:4) and Paul’s writings (1 Corinthians 3:11-15) means the soul is being purged or purified.
This state can’t be heaven, since there are no sins in heaven. It can’t be hell, since no souls in hell can have their sins forgiven and be saved. What is it? It’s purgatory
Read the rest of the article. May the Holy Spirit help you understand.
There MUST be cattle; somewhere; or else from where has all this BS come??
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.