Why do Catholics Sit, Stand and Kneel?

That Catholic Show – Sit, Stand, and Kneel

Conception Benedictine Abbey Blessed With Vocations

5 bob to Roman Catholic Vocations which reports:

 “Conception Abbey Blessed With Vocations“Photo at left – from left, Brothers Paul Sheller, Victor Schinstock, Guerric Letter, Pachomius Meade, Anselm Broom, Abbot Gregory Polan, Brothers David Wilding, Placid Dale, Macario Martinez, Bernard Montgomery, and Novice Adam Burkhart. Photo courtesy of Jarrod Thome.

To read all go to article at Roman Catholic Vocations

September 30: Blessed Federico Albert

Blessed Federico Albert
1820 – 1876

VOCATIONS TUESDAY: The Institute of Christ the King Sovereign Priest

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The Institute of Christ the King Sovereign Priest is a society of apostolic life whose goal is the honor of God and the sanctification of priests in the service of the Church and souls. Its specific aim is missionary: to spread the reign of our Lord Jesus Christ in all spheres of human life. Our work is carried out under the patronage of the Immaculate Conception, to Whom the Institute is consecrated.

His Holiness with our founder Msgr. Gilles WachThe Institute was founded in 1990 by Monsignor Gilles Wach and Father Philippe Mora in Gabon, Africa, where we still have missions. Today, the motherhouse and international seminary of the Institute is located in Gricigliano, in the Archdiocese of Florence, Italy.

Recognizing the importance of a deep harmony between faith, liturgy, life, and the power of beauty in attracting the human senses to the things above, an integral part of the Institute’s charism is the use of the traditional Latin Liturgy of 1962 for the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass and the other sacraments. Great care for a solemn liturgy, complete fidelity to the doctrine of the Church and the Holy Father, and awareness of the central role of Grace, especially Charity – these are essential elements of the Institute’s spirituality, which is drawn from its three co-patrons, St. Benedict, St. Thomas Aquinas, and St. Francis de Sales. Our motto, taken from St. Paul, is “Live the truth in charity.” The Institute operates in more than fifty places in twelve countries, where our priests focus on the care of souls in many different ways. To assist our priests in their apostolic work, the Institute also has clerical oblates. In 2004, a community of religious sisters was canonically established to aid the priests in their mission through prayer and apostolic work.

History of a Young Institute
Solemn Mass in the traditional Roman riteThe Institute of Christ the King is, for ecclesiastical standards, a very young foundation. Our founder, Monsignor Gilles Wach, STD, supported decisively by the co-founder, Father Phillipe Mora, STD, had the Institute canonically erected the Semptember 1, 1990. Originally, the young French abbé, Gilles Wach, never intended to start a foundation at all, but during the 1980’s, working for Cardinal Silvio Oddi in Rome and with a priestly association in France, he was approached by more and more young men who wanted a traditional Catholic formation to the priesthood. Finally, he decided to make an attempt to bring them together and to follow their formation in some way. Several Roman Cardinals, though, urged him to decide for the foundation of a religious community, so that the idea of the Institute took form already as soon as 1988.

From Africa to Italy
Divine Providence, at this moment, helped to find a bishop who

September 29: Blessed Dario Hernández Morato

Blessed Dario Hernández Morato
1880 – 1936

Kosovar Catholics Rip Off Their Burkas

5 bob again to Nan!

Out of hiding, some Kosovars embrace Christianity
By Fatos Bytyci
Reuters
Sunday, September 28, 2008; 9:11 PM

KLINA, Kosovo (Reuters) – Hundreds of Kosovar Albanians gather on Sundays to attend religious services in a still unfinished red-brick church in the Kosovo town of Klina.

Turning away from the majority Muslim faith imposed by the Ottoman Turks centuries ago, these worshippers are part of a revival of Catholicism in the newly independent Balkan state.

“We have been living a dual life. In our homes we were Catholics but in public we were good Muslims,” said Ismet Sopi. “We don’t call this converting. It is the continuity of the family’s belief.”

Sopi has commuted 40 km (25 miles) every Sunday from central

Geert Wilders: “In a generation or two, the US will ask itself: who lost Europe?” or “America As The Last Man Standing”

5 bob to Jihad Watch where this text was found.

The speech was sponsored by the Hudson Institute on September 25.

Dear friends,

Thank you very much for inviting me. Great to be at the Four Seasons. I come from a country that has one season only: a rainy season that starts January 1st and ends December 31st. When we have three sunny days in a row, the government declares a national emergency. So Four Seasons, that’s new to me.

It’s great to be in New York. When I see the skyscrapers and office buildings, I think of what Ayn Rand said: “The sky over New York and the will of man made visible.” Of course. Without the Dutch you would have been nowhere, still figuring out how to buy this island from the Indians. But we are glad we did it for you. And, frankly, you did a far better job than we possibly could have done.

I come to America with a mission. All is not well in the old world. There is a tremendous danger looming, and it is very difficult to be optimistic. We might be in the final stages of the Islamization of Europe. This not only is a clear and present danger to the future of Europe itself, it is a threat to America and the sheer survival of the West. The danger I see looming is the scenario of America as the last man standing. The United States as the last bastion of Western civilization, facing an Islamic Europe. In a generation or two, the US will ask itself: who lost Europe? Patriots from around Europe risk their lives every day to prevent precisely this scenario form becoming a reality.

My short lecture consists of 4 parts.

Padre Pio, Priest And Victim

Stop by Vultus Christi to read Padre Pio, Priest and Victim

Dutchman Creates Noah’s Ark Replica

Am I alone in thinking that this would make a cool church? It would beat Oakland’s new cathedral, that is for sure!

Dutchman Johan Huibers’ ark is a fifth of the size of Noah’s and will carry farmyard animals. The total cost of the project is estimated to be just under 1m euros (£0.7m; US$1.2m) and was funded with bank loans.

The ark is 150 cubits long, 30 cubits high and 20 cubits wide.

16 Postulants For The Franciscan Friars Of The Renewal: “All these years and now we see who we have been praying for!”

Franciscan Friars of the Renewal welcome 16 new postulants!
Pray for them all, and pray for more!

CFR Postulant Class – 2008
(l-r) Aaron Ocello (NJ); Oisin Martin (Ireland); T.R. Hoffman (CA); Bob Monahan (IL); Alan Fimister (England); Joe Fino (OH); Larry Napier (GA); Declan Gibson (Ireland); Stephen Dufrene (Louisiana); Alain Guiteau (NY); Emmanuel Pena (NY); Matthew Bourgeois (LA); Mike LeFever (VA); Matthew Manders (IA); Eric Forrest (GA); Kris Meiergerd (KS); Fr. Luke Fletcher, CFR, Postulant Director; Fr. Gabriel Bakkar, CFR, Vocation Director.

 For more photos go to:

Catholic Calendar Online

A great site that is new to me is called Catholic Calendar. Among other things, it has a succinct daily summary of the liturgical calendar with the readings and mysteries of the Rosary. 

Very cool.

H/T: Heckling Soul

The Most Potent Culture War Video I Have Ever Seen

“Blessed are they who are persecuted for the sake of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when they insult you and persecute you and utter every kind of evil against you (falsely) because of me.Rejoice and be glad, for your reward will be great in heaven. Thus they persecuted the prophets who were before you.” (Matthew 5: 10-12)

“I Divorce Thee”

x82!

Nigerian Man ordered to divorce 86 of his 84 wives…

My guess would be keep the most fertile four…
 
Honestly, he can divorce and remarry all of them at whim – and arrangements can be made to be married “temporarily” to them “as needed”…

5 bob to TBC reader Nan

The Church Jesus Founded

Q. In Matthew 16, is Jesus going to build His Church on Peter’s confession or on Peter?
A. Both, in one way, because certainly the Church is built on “Christ the Son of the living God”. However, the plain sense of Mt. 16 has to be speaking about Peter. Peter is the Rock on which the Church will be built. After all, Jesus changed Simon’s name to Peter and what does the name Peter mean? Rock.

In addition to this, in v. 18 “And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church”, the pronoun “this” must have a noun that it is referring to, an antecedent. Antecedents are usually the closest noun that came before the pronoun. In this case that noun would be Peter.

Often, when trying to explain away Peter as the rock on which Jesus will build His church some have said, “No, the rock is not Peter it is Peter’s confession that is the rock on which Christ will build His Church.” That seems reasonable until you think about the rules of grammar. The pronoun “this” is in verse 18. Peter’s confession is in verse 16. That is two verses, three sentences and seven nouns away.

16: Simon Peter replied, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”
17: And Jesus answered him, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jona! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven.
18: And I tell you, you are Peter, and on THIS rock I will build my church

If pronouns in English or any other language could have seven nouns in between the pronoun and the antecedent it would be incomprehensible. For example:

I have a car. I love to drive. I also have a truck. My house has a two-car garage with a pool. IT is beautiful.

What is beautiful? The pool or maybe the house. Who would contend that the writer meant that the car was beautiful? And yet, that is the sort of grammatical gymnastics required to assert that Peter’s confession was the rock upon which Jesus would build His Church

Technorati Tags: Peter, petros, petra, rock, pope

September 28: Blessed Amalia Abad Casasempere

Blessed Amalia Abad Casasempere
1897 – 1936

In Memorium: Servant Of God John Paul I

1912-1978

“The Smiling Pope”

Salvation by Works

Q. Don’t Catholics have to earn their salvation?
A. No. We cannot earn salvation for we have been saved by grace. However, as always in all of God’s covenants with men: God does His part and we do our part.

+God gave Adam and Eve a garden; Adam and Eve were supposed to not eat from one tree
+God warned Noah to build an ark and fill it with animals so they would survive a flood; Noah built an ark and gathered the animals God saved them all.
+God promised Abraham to make his descendants as the stars of the sky; Abraham had to leave his home go to where God showed him
+God told Moses He would bring the Israelites back to the Promised land; the Israelites had to leave Egypt and conquer the Canaanites
+God sent His son to pay the eternal consequences of sin by death on the cross; we must pay the temporal consequences of sin through our sufferings in this life or the next.

Catechism of the Catholic Church

The Punishments of Sin

1472 To understand this doctrine and practice of the Church, it is necessary to understand that sin has a double consequence. Grave sin deprives us of communion with God and therefore makes us incapable of eternal life, the privation of which is called the “eternal punishment” of sin. On the other hand every sin, even venial, entails an unhealthy attachment to creatures, which must be purified either here on earth, or after death in the state called Purgatory. This purification frees one from what is called the “temporal punishment” of sin. These two punishments (eternal & temporal) must not be conceived of as a kind of vengeance inflicted by God from without, but as following from the very nature of sin. A conversion which proceeds from a fervent charity can attain the complete purification of the sinner in such a way that no punishment would remain.

II Sam. 12:13 Then David said to Nathan, ” I have sinned against the LORD ” And Nathan said to David, “The LORD also has taken away your sin; you shall not die. 14″However, because by this deed you have given occasion to the enemies of the LORD to blaspheme, the child also that is born to you shall surely die.”

Here we see God forgives David for the eternal consequences of his sin of sleeping with Bathsheba and having Uriah her husband killed; when David confesses and repents. But punishment for the temporal consequences of sin remains and his child from the adulterous union will die along with many other punishments and sorrows pronounced by Nathan in:

II Sam 12:10-12‘Now therefore, the sword shall never depart from your house, because you have despised Me and have taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your wife.'”Thus says the LORD, ‘Behold, I will raise up evil against you from your own household; I will even take your wives before your eyes and give them to your companion, and he will lie with your wives in broad daylight. Indeed you did it secretly, but I will do this thing before all Israel, and under the sun.'”

In the New Testament verse below we see the doctrine of the necessity of purification from the temporal punishment for sin peeking out of St. Paul’s letter to the Colossians:

Colossians 1:24 Now I rejoice in what was suffered for you, and I fill up in my flesh what is still lacking in regard to Christ’s afflictions, for the sake of his body, which is the church.

CCC 1473 The forgiveness of sin and restoration of communion with God entail the remission of the eternal punishment of sin, but temporal punishment of sin remains. While patiently bearing sufferings and trials of all kinds and, when the day comes, serenely facing death, the Christian must strive to accept this temporal punishment of sin as a grace. He should strive by works of mercy and charity, as well as by prayer and the various practices of penance, to put off completely the “old man” and to put on the “new man.” http://www.scborromeo.org/ccc.htm

Technorati Tags: Catholic, salvation

September 27: Blessed Herminia Martínez Amigó

Blessed Herminia Martínez Amigó
1887 – 1936

Suffering and Purgatory

Q. I have heard that Purgatory was a late invention by Roman Catholicism to make money to build Catholic Churches.
i.e. TETZEL the Dominican friar who sold Indulgences in 1517 in Germany.

I do believe as a Catholic that there will be some form of Purification after death in order to prepare us for heaven.

I am not just keen on the SUFFERING BIT of purgatory as nobody likes to suffer!

A. Yes, Tetzel’s selling of indulgences in Germany lit the fire under Martin Luther. And Luther was correct, Tetzel was abusing the the teachings of the Church in order to raise money. But Purgatory was NOT invented as a fundraising scheme in the 1500’s. As you may have seen the Jews long before Christianity believed in a purification after death. The Name PURGATORY was given to conceptualize this purification, just like Trinity and Incarnation which we have already said are not in the Bible. This name may have come into use later but I don’t know at what date.

Try not to worry about the suffering in Purgatory. We also suffer here in this life and if offered up in union with Christ it will enable to remove some of the suffering we are due in Purgatory. Just as the suffering in this life is not unbearable so our suffering in Purgatory will be bearable. But our Catholic doctrine of suffering is so very beautiful. If we can recollect ourselves and rejoice in our suffering as Peter says in his epistle and offer it up for our own purification or the Holy Souls in Purgatory we can begin our Purgatory in this life. It changes every suffering great and small and brings us so much peace in the midst of our suffering; unlike those who just grit their teeth and bear it, and believe there is no purpose or reason for their suffering. We can also avoid time in Purgatory by giving alms and of course diligently AVOIDING SIN.

September 26: Blessed María Jordá Botella

Blessed María Jordá Botella
1905 – 1936

September 25: Saint Albert, Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem & Martyr

Saint Albert of Jerusalem
1149 – 1215

September 25: Blessed Antonio Cid Rodriguez

Blessed Antonio Cid Rodriguez
1890 – 1936

Who Were the Brothers and Sisters of Jesus?

Q. If the Blessed Virgin Mary was always a virgin, then who are the brothers and sisters of Jesus in sacred scripture ?

A. There are two possibilities. The oldest view was that St. Joseph had been previously married and was a widower of great sanctity and devotion to God with children. As Mary was dedicated to the temple and virginity, she needed a protector once she reached adolescence. Joseph was chosen to be her husband/brother and so the brothers and sisters of Jesus were actually step siblings.

The second view, put forward by St. Jerome, is that the word in Greek (adelphos) can be translated as brother meaning a literal sibling; or it can be translated to mean a kinsman. St. Paul uses the exact same Greek word in Galatians 1:11 as is used in Mark 6:3 —adelphos.
In the Mark passage the reader could easily and legitimately interpret it to mean literal siblings of Jesus. But, in the Galations passage, it is obvious that Paul is addressing them as kinsman or brethren in the Lord and not as his own literal brothers/siblings. Protestants freely interpret the passage in Mark as sibling and sibling ONLY and will not allow any other interpretation; and yet when it comes to the exact same word in the Galations they interpret it to mean “brothers of the Lord” and not literal siblings. And yet there is no reason why both passages cannot be interpreted to mean something other than literal “siblings.” And this is what the Catholic Church does. At times from the text we know that the word adelphos refers to literal siblings. And at other times adelphos is used to mean kinsman or something more like…”Bro” or “brother of the Lord.” The Protestant rejection of the doctrine that Mary was ever -Virgin (Calvin and Luther accepted this doctrine) causes them to approach the Mark passage with an entrenched bias.

Also, if we start looking into the historical record, we see that the Mark use of adelphos, in this case, must also mean either step-brothers and sisters or kinsman/cousin/relative. It has always been known to Christians that Mary had no other children after Jesus. Even the Reformers all taught and believed in Mary’s Perpetual Virginity. As did the witness of the early writings of the Church Fathers. She was vowed to perpetual virginity (why else would a betrothed woman ask how could she possibly get pregnant) Therefore we understand the Mark 6:3 passage to be referring to kinsmen of Jesus and not siblings of Jesus.

Reformers on Mary’s Perpetual Virginity

Early Church Fathers on Mary’s Perpetual Virginity

September 24: Blessed Colomba Gabriel

Blessed Colomba Gabriel
1858 – 1926

Founder of the Benedettine di Caritá.

Vietnamese Gang Rransacks Catholic Chapel As Police Stand By (CNA)

Pray for the Catholics of Vietnam.

Hanoi, Sep 22, 2008 / 04:56 pm (CNA).- The simmering property disputes between the Catholic Church and the Vietnamese government were again aggravated on Sunday when a Hanoi official accused the Archbishop of Hanoi of inciting riots, making false allegations against the government, ridiculing the law, and disrespecting the nation.

Full article…

September 23: Blessed Bernardina Maria Jablonska

Blessed Bernardina Maria Jablonska
1878 – 1940

VOCATIONS TUESDAY: Norbertine Fathers

Norbertine Fathers

St. Michael’s Abbey
19292 El Toro Road
Silverado, CA 92676 – 9710

Yes, something VERY good can come out of Orange County!

The photo above is just of one year’s class… The Norbertines have actually done something that no other religous based in California I know of have accomplished – they have outgrown their current location and are pondering where to move to have enough space for all the fine men joining them.

Pray for them regularly. Consider making a donation if you can.

Also, consider joinging them!

PURGATORY – Part 2

Click here for :PURGATORY PART I , and Early Fathers on Purgatory, or all my posts on Purgatory.

Q.The Lord Jesus, the founder of Christianity, never said anything about Purgatory and the Gospel and New Testament references are few and INDIRECT: many have different interpretations to them.

The Lord Jesus just talked about Heaven and Hell in the Gospels.

If you read John Chapter 14 verses 1 -9 Jesus is talking to his disciples and about when he had prepared a place for them in Heaven he would take them to where he was in HEAVEN: NOT PURGATORY!!!!

When I DIE I WANT TO GO TO HEAVEN TO BE WITH JESUS NOT PURGATORY.

A. You have obviously been influenced heavily by Protestants who believe anything not found in the Bible is not worthy of belief. And yet the Protestants have nothing, zip, nada in Scripture that commands this restriction or even recommends it. It is a Protestant Tradition. The doctrine of sola scriptura is a recent doctrinal invention; first contrived by Martin Luther 500 years ago.

Your objection to the sparsity of scriptural support for Purgatory is exactly the same sort of objection that the Jehovah’s Witnesses have to the doctrine of the Trinity.

“Where is it spelled out in Scripture?” they ask.

For that matter:

Where is the incarnation spelled out clearly and indisputably in scripture?

They are indebted to the Catholic Church for everything they have. For all that they have lost, they are indebted to the relatively recent reformers.

Jn 20:30 Jesus did many other miraculous signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not recorded in this book.

Jn 21:25 Jesus did many other things as well. If every one of them were written down, I suppose that even the whole world would not have room for the books that would be written.

From these scriptures, it is obvious that all Jesus did and said is NOT even close to being contained in the Sacred Scriptures.

A man may write his autobiography. But all that he was, cannot be contained in a book. A person who is intent on more deeply understanding that man can certainly get a whole lot more information by interviewing those who actually lived with him and knew him best. Protestants will not accept anything beyond a book. Catholics want to know and have preserved everything that those who knew Jesus best passed on by word of mouth and by letter. And they treasure these things in their hearts and in their Faith.

I hope you go to Heaven too. Whether you or anyone else believes in Purgatory or not will not help you avoid it if it is necessary in order for you to “be HOLY as HE is HOLY.” If at your death you are perfectly Holy then you too will go straight to Heaven.

The Duggars: #18 On The Way!

This sort of blows my mind.  No one is asking every Catholic family to have 18 children…  But the folks who think more than two is a burden…  I wish they could meet some of the larger families I have known.  The larger families do not have the biggest homes, granite counter tops, stainless steel appliances.  They have each other.

I bet their house is fun.

No, they are not Catholic or Mormon, they are Evangelicals who are involved (very much so, obviously!) with the Quiverful movement. That being said, if they ever did decide to come into the Catholic Church, they would be a boon for any parish.

——————————-

Woman pregnant with 18th child

By JILL ZEMAN, Associated Press WriterFri May 9, 5:25 PM ET

It’s a happy Mother’s Day for an Arkansas woman — she’s pregnant with her 18th child. Michelle Duggar, 41, is due on New Year’s Day, and the latest addition will join seven sisters and 10 brothers. There are two sets of twins.

“We’ve had three in January, three in December. Those two months are a busy time for us,” she said, laughing.

September 22: Blessed Germán Gozalvo Andreu , Spanish New Martyr

Blessed Germán Gozalvo Andreu
1913 – 1936

“Kill More Canadians”

“Kill More Canadians!”

With apologies to my family in Canada and our 5 Canadian readers, do please read it all for context.  (Little hint for the slow, it is called “satire“.)

5 bob to Catholidoxy.

The Kingdom of Heaven

I love the movie Kingdom of Heaven. It combines my three favorite subjects in the whole world: the Church; the military and history. I was thinking about that movie and modern popular culture in America this past weekend. For all of my love of the movie, there are things about it that just drive me up the wall. My opinion is that if you are going to make a movie based on historical events then get the history right! The producers got so much of it right that it would be easy to overlook what they got wrong. The costumes were right, the major events were (for the most part) right, the weapons were right, the tactics were right and the characters were (mostly) right.

One thing I found particularly offensive was the portrayal of the monastic orders of knights. A major blunder was that none of the characters portrayed as Templar knights were actually Templar knights in real life. Teutonic knights were portrayed as little more than thugs and henchmen better suited to make an appearance in a mob movie.

September 21: Saint James Honoré Chastán, Martyr Of Korea

Saint James Honoré Chastán

SABBATH/ DAY OF REST CHANGED TO SUNDAY

Q. Who gave the Catholic Church and the other Churches the authority to change the THE DAY OF REST from Saturday to Sunday?

A. The change of keeping the day of rest on Sunday instead of Saturday was by the authority Jesus gave to Peter and the Church He founded. By giving the keys of the kingdom to Peter and the Church and the power to bind and loose (a rabbinic formula meaning “authority to Rule) the day of rest and worship was changed to Sunday in celebration of the resurrection of Jesus. Interestingly, Jesus did nothing on Saturday or the Jewish Sabbath. But Friday was consecrated by His death and Sunday by His resurrection. Also, most if not all of His appearances to His apostles and others occurred on SUNDAY. At first the early Christians kept both Saturday and Sunday but when the first generation of Jewish Christians died keeping the Sabbath faded away.

So, of course those who do not accept the authority of the Catholic Church to rule would reject this change based on scripture alone. And others who also reject the Catholic Church and yet accept the sabbath change to Sunday accept this Catholic TRADITION and several others. Some of the other Catholic TRADITIONS Protestant accept are the canon of the New Testament, the Doctrine of the Trinity, and Incarnation. Because as I have said elsewhere, the New Testament and even the whole Bible is NOT a Systematic Theology text. Someone must interpret it. The question is: Who has authority to interpret it infallibly?

September 20: Blessed Clemente Marchisio

Blessed Clemente Marchisio
1833 – 1903

LifeSiteNews: “Contraceptive Hormones Mutating Fish in St. Lawrence River”

Exactly how many times must this study be replicated and in how many different places before the mainstream media starts to take note and report it?

Where exactly are the “environmentalists”?

Contraceptive Hormones Mutating Fish in St. Lawrence River

By Hilary White

MONTREAL, September 18, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Estrogen from birth control pills in highly populated areas of Canada is washing into the water table and flooding the St. Lawrence River, a new study has found. University of Montreal researchers said that the St. Lawrence River near Montreal has an alarmingly high level of estrogens that are mutating male fish.

Downstream from the island of Montreal, one of Canada’s most

September 19: Saint Alonso de Orozco Mena

Saint Alonso de Orozco Mena
1500 – 1591

Taylor Marshall – Listen Up!

The Jewish Origins of Catholicism Podcasts
by Taylor Marshall

• Jewish Tevilah, Catholic Baptism
• Jewish Passover, Catholic Mass
• Jewish Manna, Catholic Eucharist
• Jewish Levites, Catholic Clergy
• Jewish Vestments, Catholic Vestments
• Jewish Temple, Catholic Cathedral
• Jewish Synagogue, Catholic Parish
• Jewish Nazirites, Catholic Monastics
• Jewish Marriage, Catholic Marriage

Catholic Apocalypse Podcasts
by Taylor Marshall

• Three Catholic Keys to the Apocalypse
• Why is the Church Centered in Rome and Not Jerusalem?
• Do Catholics Believe in the Rapture?
• Mary and the Book of Revelation
• Concept of Antichrist in Catholicism
• Mark of the Beast and Caesar
• Will the Jews Be Converted Before the End?

WHO CREATED GOD?

From Volume 1 of Radio Replies, p.2

Q. You, a priest, argue to a clock-maker. I, as a rationalist, ask, “Who created your uncreated clock-maker?”

A. That is not a rational question. I say that the universe is obviously created and that what is created supposes a Creator who is uncreated, or the problem goes on forever, the whole endless chain of dependent beings as unable to explain itself as each of its links. It is rational to argue to an uncreated clock-maker. It is not rational to ask, “Who created this uncreated clock-maker?” God was not created. If He were, He would be a creature and would have a creator. His creator would then be God, and not He Himself. God always existed. He never began and will never cease to be. He is eternal.

Bread From Heaven– Because we are created…have a beginning and an end …our intellects have trouble comprehending an uncreated Being. Everything in our concrete experience has a beginning and an end. We even assume a beginning and an end to the sun and the universe.

An ant cannot understand telephones. (I don’t even understand them.) Would we consider an ant or a human being who is unable to understand telephones wise or foolish to reject the possibility of telephones just because of their inability to understand them?

September 18: Blessed Fidel Fuidio Rodriguez, New Martyr Of Spain

Blessed Fidel Fuidio Rodriguez
1884 – 1936

PIE IN THE SKY

From: Radio Replies, Vol. 1 P. 2

Q. There is no need to talk of future balancing of the Scales. Virtue is its own reward in this life, even as the wicked endure remorse.

A. That will not do. Consciousness of virtue is not much good to a man about to be wrongfully hanged and who cannot live to enjoy it. Nor does vice always bring proportionate remorse. Many are too hardened to experience deep remorse. There will be a levelling-up some day, after this life, and by God.

September 17: Blessed Sigimondo Felice Felinski

Blessed Sigimondo Felice Felinski
1822 – 1895

TRADITION

 

 

 

Q. As long as tradition can have a parallel to the Bible it is as the Bible. But do not be confused, some traditon is not Biblically correct. The doctrine of Vatican II is something Catholic and is not in the Bible..

A. When the Catholic Church talks about Tradition it is referring to the Teachings of the Apostles. This is not changeable either. These are not the “teachings of Men.” As the years passed we understood this teaching more deeply. For instance the Trinity is not explained anywhere in the Bible but it was taught in Oral TRADITION. It is only obliquely referred to in Scripture. That is why the Bible only Jehovah’s Witnesses reject the Trinity.
The reason no doctrine of the Catholic faith contradicts anything in scripture is because the Bible actually came out of the Teaching of the Apostles or the TRADITION of the Catholic Church. Some of it got written down but a lot of it was taught and passed down orally. As St. Paul said:

2 Thessalonians 2:15 So then, brethren,stand firm and hold to the traditions which you were taught, whether by word of mouth or by letter from us.

Unlike most of our Protestant brothers and sisters, who take the Bible and determine the doctrines of their faith by study of the scriptures the Catholic Faith came long before the Bible was canonized. Therefore, we do NOT sit down with the Bible and derive our doctrines OUT of Scripture Alone/ Sola Scriptura. Luther invented that doctrine 1500 years after the time of Christ. And the Catholic Church rejects Luther’s doctrine. We take all of our doctrines directly from the Teaching of the Apostles of Jesus Christ –BOTH ORAL and WRITTEN.

September 16: Saint Andrew Kim Taegon, Martyr Of Korea

Saint Andrew Kim Taegon
1821 -1846

WHY CAN’T WOMEN BE PRIESTS? Part 2

Q. Why won’t the Catholic Church ordain women to the priesthood?

A. There is no precedent for it. Jesus never ordained a woman to the priesthood. He chose all males as His apostles-the first Christian priests. This choice was not about men being superior to women. It was not about Jesus being afraid to buck the culture. He did it all the time. If Jesus wanted His Church to have priestesses, who better to be the first, than His holy and immaculate mother?

But, no, Jesus chose men. And, only men have been ordained to the priesthood in both the Catholic and Orthodox Churches. Pope John Paul II infallibly settled the question in a short and to the point, two page encyclical Ordinatio Sacerdotalis in 1994.

“…in order that all doubt may be removed regarding a matter of great importance… in virtue of my ministry of confirming the brethren. I declare that the Church has no authority whatsoever, to confer priestly ordination on women and that this judgment is to be definitively held by all the Church’s faithful.”

You can read more about male typology and the Catholic Priesthood …Why Can’t Wome be Priests Part 1 Here

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Russia, The Catholic Church, And Patriarch Aleksi

Speaking in Moscow, the Orthodox prelate charged that Catholic clergy and religious still maintain “an ultimate goal of proselytism among the Orthodox population” in Russia, the Interfax news service reports. Catholic officials have repeatedly denied such a goal.

Oh Balderdash!

He either just doesn’t get it… or just doens’t want to see.

What is Patriarch Aleksy -or “Comrade Drozdov—the ‘blackbird’”, as he was known in the KGB parlance – afraid of? Less than 700K Catholics against the state church that is full of priests, monks & seminarians, has history, state support, and the culture behind it.

You know if JP2 of blessed memory, had designs on a “uniate invasion” of Russia, it certainly could have been started.

From around the world it is easy to imagine 1000s of priests and religous mobilized and sent forth – a few dozen Jesuits here, a few dozen Franciscan there, toss in some Dominicans, some Divine Word missionaries, a cadre of Oratorians, a couple of Missionaries of the Poor, toss in some Opus Dei, add a few Miles Jesu members, grab a handful of Legionairies, relieve the over-flowing Benedictines of France of a few members, and relocate some Norbetines, a few extras from the FSSP, some diocesan priests, and a few busloads of newly ordained, rosy-cheeked 20somethings fresh out of the Ukrainian underground and before you know it, you have the makings of a unia and you could be doing land-office business. 4 Million baptists in Russia, you know… Heck, open up a university, and start opening Catholic schools, and they would have filled.

Hey, we all know that there are convents full of little old Fillipino and Italian nuns that can make rosaries faster than you can tie a shoe! Statues of OL of Fatima and scapulars enough for every man woman and child could have flooded the land. Priories, novitiates, seminaries, and other houses of formation could have been filled up. I truly believe more than a few Orthodox priests could have been entreated to enter a unia.

But we didn’t. The Pope didn’t direct that. Some of us might even be tempted to say placation was the order of the day. How many Ukrainian Catholics were exiled? How many parishes do they have in Russia?

Inconvienant fact #1: Catholics who were exiled into the depths of Russia are still Catholic, they live there now, they deserve priests and parishes. It isn’t a Vatican conspiracy. We didn’t plant them there as fifth-columnists. Remember who did.

Inconvienant fact #2:]: There is no “Orthodox gene” in Russian DNA. Holy Osmosis has not set in. The idea that the whole of Russia is Orthodox is blind hubris. [url=http://www.ecpat.net/eng/Russia.asp] Russia is now one of the main producers of child pornography in the world, 6 out of 10 pregnancies in Russia end in abortion. The black market is thriving, drugs & HIV infections are worse than ever… This is not a nation that has wholesale turned to Orthodoxy. I wish to God it were, that’s for sure. But it isn’t.

Inconvienant fact #3: Some Russians – I met two a decade ago in Chicago – have read their way into the Catholic Church. Having access to the world wide web and a command of (in this case Englisyh & German, some Polish) they read about the Catholic Church, and found they agreed with the claims made therein. Some Russians have come to accept the apologia for the Roman Church on their own. Others, not forgetting efforts by the KGB to infiltrate the ROC, do not want to belong to it. We didn’t go looking for them, they came looking for us.

Inconvienant fact #4: Islam is gaining ground in a real and serious way in throughout the whole of the Russian Nation. Does the Patriarch prefer to stymie the growth of the Catholic church so he can deal with that? How does “Catholic proselitizing” compare to the Saudi money that is funding the growth of Islam in Russia and the ex-USSR?

From The Wikipedia article, Religion in Russia:

Using these numbers, one attempt to estimate numbers of practicing followers of different religions in Russia arrives at the following results: 3-15 million Russian Orthodox; 2.8 million Muslim; over 1.5 million Protestant (including at least 900 thousand Pentecostals); no more than 500 thousand Buddhists; 300 thousand followers of New religious movements; 60-200 thousand Roman Catholic; 50-80 thousand Old Believers.

What if the methodologies in that study were problematic and the numbers were double or triple or quadrouple what was reported? That still leaves us with a window of 12-60 members out of a population of 141,377,752

Its time to give up the ghost and quit the saber rattling that “The Catholics are coming! The Catholics are Coming! Jesuit uniate-makers have been spotted on the horizon!”

It is old, it is tired, it is false, and his time and efforts to oppose Catholicism would definately be better spent trying to grow and teach his own faithful.

One wonders, what is he really afraid of and why?

September 15: Blessed Anton Maria Schwartz

Blessed Anton Maria Schwartz
1852 – 1929

Why Do Catholics Add to Scripture?

Q. Why must the Catholic church add to the word of God by writing a catechism?

A. The Catholic Church is not adding to the word of God anymore than any commentary is adding to the word of God. Or an expositor of scripture is adding to the word of God.
After all, the Bible is not a book of systematic theology, if it were there wouldn’t need to be books of systematic theology written. The Bible is a collection of histories, letters, poetry, apocalyptic writings. There is NOTHING systematic about the way the Bible presents theology except at times for differing lengths. But no one would say the Bible presents to us systematic theology. It requires a great deal of study and cross referencing and keeping hundreds of details and concepts organized.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church is really a simple systematic theology written for every man.

Q. Yes, there is a point to summarizing the scriptures, but unfortunately, I do not see the catechism quoting much scripture. Every statement needs to be backed up with scripture.

A.Why does every statement need to be backed up with scripture? On what authority is this request made? There is no verse in scripture to this effect.

Q. Where is the scriptural teaching on much of what the Catholic church teaches?

A. But there is very much scripture in the CCC. It’s in the footnotes when it’s not in the text.

September 14: Saint Gabriel John Tauin du-Fresse

Saint Gabriel John Tauin du-Fresse
1750 – 1815

Anamnesis

Q. Jesus said, “This is my body given for you; do this in remembrance of me.” How does our Catholic Church get from remembrance to the idea of calling the mass a sacrifice?

A. The Greek word ANAMNESIS is the Greek word that translates into English as REMEMBER. It would seem to the casual reader of the Gospels that all Jesus is asking for us to do is to Remember his sacrifice.

Luke 22:19

19And when He had taken some bread and given thanks, He broke it and gave it to them, saying, “This is My body which is given for you; do this in remembrance of Me.

But you may not be aware that, in all of scripture, this word only occurs 8 times. All but once (Wisdom 16:6) it is in a sacrificial context. (Lk 22:19. I Cor 11:24, Heb 10:3 Lev 24:7, Num 10:10 & Ps 30 and 70)

In Lev 24:7, for example, 12 loaves of bread were offered to the LORD each Sabbath as a memorial portion or sacrifice. So this word has sacrificial overtones or connotations.

Lev. 24:1 The LORD said to Moses, 2 “Command the Israelites to bring you clear oil of pressed olives for the light so that the lamps may be kept burning continually. 3 Outside the curtain of the Testimony in the Tent of Meeting, Aaron is to tend the lamps before the LORD from evening till morning, continually. This is to be a lasting ordinance for the generations to come. 4 The lamps on the pure gold lampstand before the LORD must be tended continually.

5 “Take fine flour and bake twelve loaves of bread, using two-tenths of an ephah ^[a] for each loaf. 6 Set them in two rows, six in each row, on the table of pure gold before the LORD. 7 Along each row put some pure incense as a memorial portion to represent the bread and to be an offering made to the LORD by fire. 8 This bread is to be set out before the LORD regularly, Sabbath after Sabbath, on behalf of the Israelites, as a lasting covenant. 9 It belongs to Aaron and his sons, who are to eat it in a holy place, because it is a most holy part of their regular share of the offerings made to the LORD by fire.”

An interesting note is that these loaves were to be placed on a golden altar with a continuously burning lamp and eaten only by the priests “in the holy place because it is most holy of the sacrifices…” v.9

This corresponds to the Eucharistic Sacrifice given to us by Our Lord which is kept in the holy place with a continuously burning lamp, and eaten by the priesthood of all believers.