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HE INCREASES AND SHE DECREASES By MARK P. SHEA  Some friends are always good for a cheery disagreement--like my pal Bill. Here he is, a guy who modestly describes himself as "The Last Bastion of the Reformation," a guy who sings "A Mighty Fortress is Our God" in the shower, a guy who keeps ribbing me about being Catholic when he knows that I can scarcely resist the challenge to respond. Consider the letter I got the other day, written with Bill's usual joie de vivre, in which he urged me to get a recent book devoted to "critiquing" Marian...

Forms of the word "repent" appear in the Bible 37 times. It is the most common theme found in the exhortations of the prophets, and its imperative is found in the book of Revelation six times. Scripture consistently reveals an intrinsic relationship between repentance and salvation. It should surprise no one that it is the central message of the preaching of Jesus Christ.In the Gospels of St. Matthew and St. Mark, the message of repentance is the first command given by Christ. Even prior to Our Lord's public ministry, St. John the Baptist preached a baptism of repentance, calling man...

I went looking for Hell the other day. No, not the one supposedly down there -- that one the demons would have to drag me to, kicking and screaming. I mean the Hell found in Scripture. Opening the New American Bible, I quickly flipped through some of the verses where I expected to find it, without success. Maybe a computer search would pick up what my eyes were overlooking? No such luck. No wonder I couldn't remember hearing Hell mentioned at Mass for a very long time -- someone has taken the very word out of our Bible! Thinking about the...

Some Christians believe that Catholics are not encouraged to read the Bible.  In fact, the opposite is true...and why wouldn't it be, after all, the Bible is a Catholic book.  What do I mean by that?The Catholic Church, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, wrote the Bible.  The Catholic Church assembled the Canon (List) of books in the Bible, and the Catholic Church has safeguarded the Bible for 2,000 years.  The Church treasures Sacred Scripture because it is the Word of God.  The Church loves Holy Writ, so much so that she orders her prayer and worship around it.First,...

LOS ANGELES, CA, December 14, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Barbara Walters likes to receive Christmas greetings from high-profile celebrities and leaders, but apparently not if they refer to the Bible. On Thursday's episode of ABC's The View, Walters expressed dismay that President and Mrs. Bush would send out greetings containing Scripture. During the segment, Walters showed the other gals some of the "highfalutin Christmas cards," and explained the White House card:

COLLEGE STATION, Texas — Many Catholics praised the speech Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney delivered here Dec. 6 (see Register editorial, page 8). It powerfully affirmed the role of religion in public life But Romney ducked one key question some Christian voters are asking in the context of his candidacy: What does his Mormon faith actually believe about God and Jesus?Indeed, given that Mormon theology differs so radically from orthodox Christianity, can Mormonism even be regarded as being part of the Christianity?Romney said in his speech that “I believe in my Mormon faith, and I endeavor to live by it,”...

From Christianity Today, this fascinating bit of news: While the ballroom sessions of the first day of the Evangelical Theological Society meeting had more attendees, no session was as packed as J.P. Moreland’s “How Evangelicals Became Over-Committed to the Bible and What Can Be Done About It.” While the average breakout session seems to be attended by fewer than 50 people, easily more than 200 packed the room to hear Moreland’s talk, with dozens standing and more listening outside the door. ... “In the actual practices of the Evangelical community in North America, there is an over-commitment to Scripture in...

VATICAN CITY, NOV. 14, 2007 (Zenit.org).- Benedict XVI expressed his joy at being able to pray before the relics of St. Thérèse of Lisieux, which are in Rome accompanied by pilgrims and the bishop from the saint's home diocese. At the end of today's general audience, the Pope greeted the faithful from the French Diocese of Bayeux and Lisieux, and Bishop Pierre Auguste Pican, who are in Rome on pilgrimage, with the relics of St. Thérèse of the Child Jesus and the Holy Face.The Holy Father recalled how "120 years ago, Thérèse of Lisieux came to Rome to ask permission...

I was recently asked to give a talk on the biblical defense of Catholicism. Initially this seemed like an easy task, for the primary reason my Presbyterian heart was turned toward home was because the truthfulness of the Catholic Church was proved to me through the study of Scripture. Books upon books upon tapes upon CD s reiterate the sound biblical footing of our Catholic faith. Regardless, I encountered difficulties as I thought of my perceived audience. Vincible Foes First, I remembered that from which I came and the hoards of anti-Catholics who believe there is no biblical defense of...

Introduction The Catholic Church teaches that when a priest repeats the words of Christ at the Last Supper over bread and wine that these become truly the Body and Blood of the Lord, even though the appearance of the bread and wine remain. In addition, the Catholic Church teaches that the celebration of the Eucharist renews in an unbloody manner the Sacrifice of Jesus on Calvary, forming a unity with it. How can Catholics, who in every other way appear sane, hold these outrageous beliefs that utterly defy ordinary human sense? Moreover, how can Catholics maintain, in the light of...

When I was 26, I had never once believed in God. Raised entirely without religion, I was a contented atheist and thought it was simply obvious that God did not exist. I thought that religion and reason were incompatible, and was baffled by why anyone would believe in God (I actually suspected that few people really did). After a few years in the Bible Belt, I became vocally anti-Christian. Imagine my surprise to find myself today, just three years later, a practicing Catholic who loves her faith (I entered the Church at Easter 2007). This is the chronicle of my...

A bit of exegesis from Christopher CookA little preamble for context purposes: I LOVE discussing theology, but I don't get to do it often, because I am so steeped in politics all the time. I don't represent a denomination or an agenda, and I'm certainly not a scholar. This is just a bit of exploration, the kind I really enjoy but rarely get to do. Let's see...maybe I can come up with a little accidental percipience on the subject of Matthew 7:16. "You will know them by their fruits." It seems to me that the production of fruit is, in...

  In this short paragraph are hidden 16 names of books in the Bible. Can you find them all? I once made a remark about the hidden books of the Bible. It was a lulu, kept people looking so hard for facts, and for others it was a revelation. Some were in a jam, especially since the names of the books were not capitalized. But the truth finally struck home to numbers of our readers. To others it was a real job. We want it to be a most fascinating few moments for you. Yes, there will be some...

Sometime around the year 107 A.D., a short, sharp persecution of the Church of Christ resulted in the arrest of the bishop of Antioch in Syria. His name was Ignatius. According to one of the harsh penal practices of the Roman Empire of the day, the good bishop was condemned to be delivered up to wild beasts in the arena in the capital city. The insatiable public appetite for bloody spectacles meant a chronically short supply of victims; prisoners were thus sent off to Rome to help fill the need. So the second bishop of Antioch was sent to Rome...

The following is the transcript of Scott Hahn's audio and video tape presentation, "Mary: Holy Mother" as it appears in the "Catholic Adult Education on Video Program" with Scott and Kimberly Hahn. As you probably know, this is our third installment in a series of five sessions that we are spending together discussing how to answer common objections, questions regarding key tenets that are distinctive to the Catholic Church. We have focused upon the Pope and yesterday we looked at purgatory. This morning we want to focus on Mary and the Marian doctrines and devotions of the Catholic Church to...

Mr. Meangenes paid a visit this afternoon and discussed a wild variety of topics. This isn't really an excerpt: It's a teaser.

HANOVER, N.H. – In the final moments of the Democratic presidential debate here last night, after nearly two hours of wading through their differences on Iraq, health care, tax policy and a variety of other weighty matters, the candidates were asked a crisp question: What is your favorite Bible verse? Senator Barack Obama: “The Sermon on the Mount, because it expresses a basic principle that I think we’ve lost over the last six years.” Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton: “The Golden Rule: Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. I think that’s a good rule for politics,...

As an active Protestant in my mid-twenties I began to feel that I might have a vocation to become a minister. The trouble was that while I had quite definite convictions about the things that most Christians have traditionally held in common—the sort of thing C.S. Lewis termed "mere Christianity."I had had some firsthand experience with several denominations (Presbyterian, Anglican, Lutheran, Methodist) and was far from certain as to which of them (if any) had an overall advantage over the others. So I began to think, study, search, and pray. Was there a true Church? If so, how was one...

Appearing only briefly in both the Old and New Testaments is a mysterious figure named Melchizedek. The identity of this first priest mentioned in the bible is as strange as his name. Yet his importance, particularly as emphasized by the writer of Hebrews, warrants our attention, especially if we’re trying to understand the true meaning of Christ’s words, "This is my body … this is my blood of the new covenant."Before we examine the texts in Hebrews, however, I would like to call your attention to some words from the first Eucharistic Prayer, the Roman Canon. The priest with hands...

If you happened to be in a crowded room at The Beacon Drive-In one Wednesday in late August, you would have heard a man in a suit reference Genesis Chapter 50, the book of Isaiah, and using two fish and five loaves of bread to feed thousands of people. It wasn't a sermon. It was former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, a 2008 presidential contender, during a stump speech in front of a room full of Republicans. Using biblical references on the campaign trail isn't unusual, especially in the conservative core of South Carolina. Often, they can be heard when candidates...