“If it is real, it would make no difference whatsoever.”
You’re saying facts don’t matter. Seriously, that’s what you’re saying. If the shroud is real, then that means there is physical proof of the life, death and resurrection of Christ. How can that possibly not matter?
“Salvation comes ONLY through Faith in Christ as the Savior by Gift of the Holy Spirit. Nothing else matters. Nothing.”
Salvation comes through Grace. Grace comes through faith and Christ’s works in us. It’s easier for a man who has no faith to come to faith if he has reasons for faith. Facts are reasons FOR faith.
“There is nothing anywhere in Scripture that tells us to revere artifacts.”
You might want to read Acts 19:12. You also might want to ask yourself why someone like Spurgeon could write “This ark was the object of great reverence and very fitly so...” about the Ark of the Covenant. https://www.spurgeongems.org/vols25-27/chs1621.pdf
“There is, on the other hand, Scripture that tells us to reject any and all artifact worship.”
No one is worshiping the shroud. The scriptures also tell us not to lie. Don’t do it.
All the stuff in the world is nothing in comparison to the evidence of a changed heart and life in the believer.
Anyone's life that has been so touched by Christ does not need further *evidence*.
Let's show them the truth; Vlad!!
(Given to St. Dominic and Blessed Alan de la Roche)
| 1 | Whoever shall faithfully serve me by the recitation of the Rosary, shall receive powerful graces. |
| 2. | I promise my special protection and the greatest graces to all those who shall recite the Rosary. |
| 3. | The Rosary shall be a powerful armor against hell, it will destroy vice, decrease sin, and defeat heresies |
| 4. | It will cause virtue and good works to flourish; it will obtain for souls the abundant mercy of God; it will withdraw the hearts of people from the love of the world and its vanities, and will lift them to the desire of eternal things. Oh, that souls would sanctify themselves by this means. |
| 5. | The soul which recommends itself to me by the recitation of the Rosary, shall not perish. |
| 6. | Whoever shall recite the Rosary devoutly, applying Himself to the consideration of its Sacred Mysteries shall never be conquered by misfortune. God will not chastise Him in His justice, he shall not perish by an unprovided death; if he be just, he shall remain in the grace of God, and become worthy of eternal life. |
| 7. | Whoever shall have a true devotion for the Rosary shall not die without the Sacraments of the Church. |
| 8. | Those who are faithful to recite the Rosary shall have during their life and at their death the light of God and the plentitude of His graces; at the moment of death they shall participate in the merits of the Saints in Paradise. |
| 9. | I shall deliver from purgatory those who have been devoted to the Rosary. |
| 10. | The faithful children of the Rosary shall merit a high degree of glory in Heaven. |
| 11. | You shall obtain all you ask of me by the recitation of the Rosary. |
| 12. | All those who propagate the Holy Rosary shall be aided by me in their necessities. |
| 13. | I have obtained from my Divine Son that all the advocates of the Rosary shall have for intercessors the entire celestial court during their life and at the hour of death |
| 14. | All who recite the Rosary are my children, and brothers and sisters of my only Son, Jesus Christ. |
| 15. | Devotion of my Rosary is a great sign of predestination. |
"The Most Holy Virgin in these last times in which we live has given a new efficacy to the recitation of the Rosary to such an extent that there is no problem,
no matter how difficult it is, wheter temporal or above all spiritual, in the personal life of each one of us, of our families...that cannot be solved by the Rosary.
There is no problem, I tell you, no matter how difficult it is, that we cannot resolve by the prayer of the Holy Rosary."
Sister Lucia dos Santos