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If you love me, keep my commandments Yahshua Messiah said: ohn 14:15-17 If ye love me, keep my commandments. And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever; Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you.

“How do I receive the redemption, the forgiveness that God has given me, the making of me a son with His Son? Lovingly, tenderly, with freedom? Or do I hide in the rigidity of the closed Commandments, that are more and more “safe” – with emphasis on the scare-quotes – but that do not give joy, because they does not make you free." (Pope Francis in his homily today at Casa Santa Marta)

If you from various kinds of bad thoughts and you lost your peace, this is a sign that "you live according to the flesh." Do you know that when you think of the Spirit of God there is neither ‪sadness nor ‪‎disappointments? Have you ever seen a disappointing saint? That's why the Apostle Paul taught to walk "by the spirit." (Romans 8: 5; Gal. 5:16). This is the only real way to overcome worldly difficulties and bad habits because when your mind is governed by the Spirit the result is peace and real life. If you want peace, walk by...

Is It Ever OK to Lie? Msgr. Charles Pope February 2, 2016 Many of you know that I write the Question and Answer Column for Our Sunday Visitor on both their newspaper side and in their magazine, The Catholic Answer. Every now and then a question comes in that seems like a good topic for the blog.The following question comes up frequently whenever I teach moral theology classes and we cover the issue of lying. In a way it is remarkable that the format of the question almost never changes, and that the usual (and I would argue questionable)...

And God spake all these words, saying, I am the Lord thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. Thou shalt have no other gods before me.Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth.Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the...

Unbelief in Our Culture Is More Serious Than Most Imagine – A Reflection on the First Commandment Msgr. Charles Pope • September 28, 2015 • But, frankly, all of us should be concerned at the rise of unbelief in our culture, whether it is atheism, agnosticism, indifference, or the rampant secularism that relegates God to a marginal place. We should be concerned because unbelief on a wide scale (as we are seeing today) is not only unhealthy for a culture, it is dangerous to it.This danger is fairly obvious when one considers that, in the end, unbelievers think they answer...

The Oklahoma Supreme Court has rejected a last ditch attempt by the state to keep a Ten Commandments monument next to the Oklahoma Capitol. The court ordered it removed, and on Monday denied a request from the state to reconsider that order. The monument must be removed because it violates a section of the Oklahoma Constitution prohibiting state property from being used to further religions, the court said. "Obviously we're pleased with the decision," said Brady Henderson, legal director for ACLU Oklahoma. "The whole case is controversial, but something that is undeniable is that the court is getting this right....

The Whole Law, standing on one foot! A Homily For the 30th Sunday of the year By: Msgr. Charles PopeThere was an expression common among the rabbis of Jesus’ time, wherein one rabbi would ask another a question, and request that the answer be given while “standing on one foot.” This is a Jewish way of saying, “Be brief in your answer.”And that sort of expression may be behind the question that is raised in today’s gospel by the scholar of law, who asks, “Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?”Just as an aside, it is likely that...

“Bear ye one another’s burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ.” (Galatians 6:2) The law of Christ misunderstood Some people read this verse out of its context, as if it suddenly fell from the sky, and they conclude that there is a new law given by God under the New Covenant, called the law of Christ, in contrast with the Law which they call “the Law of the Old Testament”. They say the Christian does not have to keep the Law of God (which they call the Law of the Old Testament), because the Christian is not under...

What if, instead of climbing Mount Sinai to receive the Ten Commandments from God, Moses had turned to the Israelites and asked: Hey, what do you guys think we should do? Considering the Hebrews' bad behavior in the Bible, what with the coveting of neighbors' wives and murdering their own brothers, that might have been a disastrous idea. But in our own more enlightened age, we're perfectly capable of crowdsourcing our own commandments -- or, at least, that's what a new project would have us believe.

Pacifists use a mistranslation of the Sixth Commandment in the King James Bible to justify their cause. Ask almost anyone to recite the commandment in the Ten Commandments that prohibits taking a life, and you will be told, “Thou shalt not kill.” That is the King James translation of the Sixth Commandment. Overall, it is a magnificent translation. But this one has led to much moral confusion. Yesterday, PragerUniversity.com, which has had more than 20 million views this year, released eleven courses (each five minutes long) — the Ten Commandments and an introduction. The reason we made these video courses...

That is the King James translation of the sixth commandment. It is a magnificent translation. But this one has led to much moral confusion.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TK57RiMqTdkNo document in world history so changed the world for the better as did the Ten Commandments. Western civilization -- the civilization that developed universal human rights, created women's equality, ended slavery, created parliamentary democracy among other unique achievements -- would not have developed without them. As you will see when each of the Ten Commandments is explained, these commandments are as relevant today as when they were given over 3,000 years ago. In fact, they're` so relevant that the Ten Commandments are all that is necessary to make a good world, a world free of tyranny and cruelty. Imagine...

Lesson 23: Romans 7:1-12 GodÂ’s law is not appreciated by fallen man. The corrupted moral nature we inherit from Adam makes us long to be free from moral obligations, and free from our feelings of guilt. Some who abhor the idea of answering to some higher authority than their own desires make fun of the moral laws of Scripture. They ridicule the God of the Bible. They believe they are naturally smarter than believers because of what they see as superior assumptions about the way things are and came to be. By convincing themselves that they are more intelligent, they...

http://www.washingtonpost.com/posttv/national/pope-franciss-10-secrets-to-happiness/2014/08/01/ed283448-1996-11e4-88f7-96ed767bb747_video.html From this video it is apparent to me that he is talking to all people, even those who might have Sunday jobs. Words printed out the site.

One of my readers, we'll call him Moses, is the publisher of a mainstream newspaper in California. He wrote me the other day with an insightful observation. Since Moses works in one of the most liberal industries, in one of the most liberal states in the union, I won't divulge his real name. We don't want Moses tarred, feathered and banished to Oklahoma with a scarlet "C," for Christian, emblazoned on his Harris Tweed sport coat. (Note: I have antipathy toward neither Oklahoma – I once lived there – nor Harris Tweed, though I do recommend against wearing Harris Tweed...

It seems to be a matter of common sense to say that good people will go to heaven and evil people will go to hell. Something would be terribly wrong if God could send an innocent, sincere, charitable, helpful person to hell. Yet sometimes people suggest that a person's salvation depends upon his faith alone, and not upon the good things he does, or how he lives, or whether he obeys the Ten Commandments. The Bible never mentions "faith alone" (except in one passage which says faith alone is dead--James 2:24) The concept first came into existence during the Reformation,...

Fix it or Forget it – It cannot be underestimated how important the family is for the very existence of society and civilization. The widespread breakdown of the family in our own time already shows the grave results that flow from such a breakdown. Can our civilization be secure or stable if such a breakdown is allowed to continue? The importance of the family for the life and well-being of society entails a particular responsibility for society to support and strengthen marriage and the family. Authority, stability, and a life of relationships within the family constitute the foundations for...

Why aren’t we more concerned about how even many of our fellow Catholics are engaging in behaviors (“lifestyles”), or accepting, or even approving them, in others, that scripture says will exclude them from the kingdom?A soul being rescued from purgatory.Right after Vatican II, there was an explosion of interest in moral theology. The “fundamental option” theory gained wide notice in both scholarly journals and in popular Catholic culture. Many people got the impression—and many still have it—that if one’s overall life is pointed in a good direction, particular sinful acts may not exclude us from the kingdom. This interpretation was...

Old utopians may die, but utopianism never does fade away. While speaking at a summit of Nobel Peace Prize winners in Warsaw on Monday, Nobel Laureate and former Polish president Lech Walesa added Modern-day Moses of Magog to his résumé, advocating a “secular Ten Commandments” as a basis for universal values. Said Walesa, “We need to agree on common values for all religions as soon as possible, a kind of secular Ten Commandments on which we will build the world of tomorrow,” reports France 24. Ah, “build the world of tomorrow.” Somehow that reminds me of WWI being “the war...