Podcasts about dismas

Why new heavens and new earth? Is God speaking to me? Dismas' good works? Join us for Called to Communion with Dr. David Anders.

Why new heavens and new earth? Is God speaking to me? Dismas' good works? Join us for Called to Communion with Dr. David Anders.

EWTN CEO Michael Warsaw joins to discuss the life and legacy of Pope Francis. Joan Lewis from Rome with news on the happenings there in this busy time for the Vatican. Plus, Cindy Kellick, Coordinator of St. Dismas Ministry to the Incarcerated, highlights their ministry and the impact of Pope Francis' dedication to those behind bars.

4/17/25 6am CT Hour - Fr. James Wallace John, Glen and Sarah chat about Chrism mass at the Vatican, President Trump's Easter Dinner, power of foot washing on Holy Thursday and What's That Sound. Fr. James goes into detail on characters like Veronica, Barabas, Dismas and more.

Sonntagspredigt aus dem Standort Bochum. Du bist neu hier? Du möchtest mehr über uns erfahren? Dann connecte dich mit uns: ⁠https://kircheimpott.de⁠____________________Du hast dich für Jesus entschieden, möchtest Teil unserer Kirche werden oder für dich beten lassen? Dann meld dich doch gerne. Wir freuen uns dich kennen zu lernen: ⁠https://kircheimpott.de/kontakt/⁠____________________ Finde eine FamilyGroup: ⁠https://kircheimpott.de/familygroups/⁠ Instagram: ⁠https://www.instagram.com/kircheimpott/⁠

Father Edward Looney reads and comments on The Life of Jesus Christ and Biblical Revelations: From the Visions of Anne Catherine Emmerich.Day 277Volume 4THE DOLOROUS PASSION AND DEATH OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRISTChapter 48: The Crucifixion of the ThievesChapter 49: The Executioners Cast Lots for Jesus' GarmentsChapter 50: Jesus Crucified. The Two ThievesChapter 51: Jesus Mocked. His First Word on the CrossLEARN MORE - USE COUPON CODE ACE25 FOR 25% OFFThe Life of Jesus Christ and Biblical Revelations: From the Visions of Blessed Anne Catherine Emmerich Four-Book Set - https://bit.ly/3QVreIsThe Dolorous Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ: From the Visions of Anne Catherine Emmerich - https://bit.ly/4bPsxRmThe Life and Revelations of Anne Catherine Emmerich Two-Book Set - https://bit.ly/3yxaLE5The Life of the Blessed Virgin Mary: From the Visions of Anne Catherine Emmerich - https://bit.ly/3wTRsULMary Magdalen in the Visions of Anne Catherine Emmerich - https://bit.ly/4brYEXbThe Mystical City of God Four-Book Set - https://bit.ly/44Q9nZbOur Lady of Good Help: Prayer Book for Pilgrims - https://bit.ly/3Ke6O9SThe Life of Jesus Christ in a Year: From the Visions of Anne Catherine Emmerich is a podcast from TAN that takes you through one of the most extraordinary books ever published. Follow along daily as Father Edward Looney works his way through the classic four-volume set, The Life of Jesus Christ and Biblical Revelations, by reading a passage from the book and then giving his commentary. Discover the visions of the famous 19th-century Catholic mystic, Blessed Anne Catherine Emmerich, a nun who was privileged by God to behold innumerable events of biblical times.Anne Catherine's visions included the birth, life, public ministry, Crucifixion, and Resurrection of Jesus Christ, as well as the founding of His Church. Besides describing persons, places, events, and traditions in intimate detail, she also sets forth the mystical significance of these visible realities. Here is the infinite love of God incarnate and made manifest for all to see, made all the more striking and vivid by the accounts Blessed Anne has relayed.Listen and subscribe to The Life of Jesus Christ in a Year: From the Visions of Anne Catherine Emmerich on your favorite podcast platform or at EmmerichPodcast.com.And for more great ways to deepen your faith, check out all the spiritual resources available at TANBooks.com and use Coupon Code ACE25 for 25% off your next order.

This week on Vaticano: In anticipation of Pope Francis canonizing Carlo Acutis, we delve into the inspiring lives of several teenage saints. Join the Grand Chancellor of the Order of Malta as he examines the Order's dedicated efforts in Ukraine and the Holy Land, and discover the remarkable story of St. Dismas, the repentant thief crucified alongside Jesus.

4/3/25 6am CT Hour - Fr. Brice Higginbotham/ Tony Gratacos John, Glen and Sarah chat about the reaction from Liberation Day, Supreme Court ruling if Planned Parenthood can participate in Medicare, LA Dodgers breaking records and play What's That Sound. Fr. Brice breaks down why Jesus had to die on the cross and endure immense suffering for our salvation. Tony talks about his book which fictionally depicts the life of the thief who died on the cross, Dismas and brings his story of redemption to life.

For The Other Side NDE Videos Visit ▶️ youtube.com/@TheOtherSideNDEYT Purchase our book on Amazon

Friends of the Rosary,Today, amid the Lent's austerity, we celebrate the Solemnity of the Annunciation of the Lord, the most sublime moment in the history of time, when the Second Person of the Holy Trinity assumed human nature in the womb of the Virgin Mary.At midnight, when the most holy Virgin was alone and absorbed in prayer, the Archangel Gabriel appeared before her and asked her to consent to become the Mother of God in the name of the blessed Trinity.Saint Irenaeus, a holy bishop and martyr of the second century, showed us that Nazareth was the counterpart of Eden.The angel of darkness, the serpent, tricked Eve, who longed for the forbidden fruit and was impatient to enjoy independence. She ate the fruit, and death took possession of her: death of the soul, for sin extinguishes the light of life; and death of the body, which, being separated from the source of immortality, became an object of shame and horror and finally crumbled into dust.Meanwhile, the spirit of light in Nazareth respectfully bowed before her, speaking heavenly language: “Hail, full of grace! The Lord is with thee! Blessed art thou among women!”Mary heard the angel's explanation of the mystery, and the will of heaven was made known to her. She, the humble maid of Nazareth, experienced the ineffable happiness of becoming the Mother of God. Mary told the divine messenger, “Behold the handmaid of the Lord: be it done to me according to thy word.”The obedience of the second Eve repaired the disobedience of the first. The eternal Son of God became present in the chaste womb of Mary, and He began His human life. A Virgin is the Mother of God, and, consenting to the divine will, conceived by the power of the Holy Ghost.The Mother of God, the Immaculate Conception, would become the Queen of all creation.This is Solemnity Day, “Lady Day” or Annunciation, when our Lenten penance obligations are lifted. We should celebrate with some special food or dinner. This feast day forecasts the event of Christmas.The Roman Martyrology commemorates St. Dismas, the Good Thief, and St. Margaret Clitherow (1556-1586), wife and mother, one of the English martyrs.March 21, 2025, marked the fifth year since we started praying the Holy Rosary of Mary daily within this community. We are grateful and rejoice in the Holy Virgin as we have found favor in her Rosary — a special grace given to us!-Ave Maria!Jesus, I Trust In You!Come, Holy Spirit, come!To Jesus through Mary!+ Mikel Amigot | RosaryNetwork.com, New York• March 25, 2025, Today's Rosary on YouTube | Daily broadcast at 7:30 pm ETEnhance your faith with the new Holy Rosary University app:Apple iOS | New! Android Google Play

Experience the incredible story of a thief who, in his final moments, finds forgiveness and the promise of paradise through Jesus. Follow the journey of Dismas, a condemned thief, as he encounters Jesus on the cross and discovers the boundless grace and mercy that leads him to eternal hope. Today's Bible verse is Luke 23:43 from the King James Version.Download the Pray.com app for more Christian content including, Daily Prayers, Inspirational Testimonies, and Bedtime Bible Stories.Pray.com is the digital destination for faith. With over 5,000 daily prayers, meditations, bedtime stories, and cinematic stories inspired by the Bible, the Pray.com app has everything you need to keep your focus on the Lord. Make Prayer a priority and download the #1 App for Prayer and Sleep today in the Apple app store or Google Play store.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

A message about comparing the two thieves on either side of Jesus's cross.

Victory Over Sin is a show hosted by Mark Renick that addresses issues pertaining to returning citizens and the challenges they face coming out of incarceration. Victory Over Sin airs Saturdays at 12:30 pm. On KBXL 94.1 FM Idaho's Treasure Valleyhttps://svdpid.org/advocacy-systemicchangeofid/facebook: systematic change of IDInstagram: systematic change of IDhttps://www.imsihopecommunityphaseii.com/IMSI HOPE COMMUNITY PHASE II can also be found on facebook as well as Instagram and Youtube. Correspondence can be directed to: Address: 1775 W. State St., #191, Boise, Idaho 83702Phone: 208-629-8861 Podcast Website: https://941thevoice.com/podcasts/victory-over-sin/

Patrick answers a plethora of deep questions from children about everything from why God created mankind if he knew we would sin, to who the first saint was, and why did Saint Michael fight the Devil, can babies see angels, and were Adam and Eve ever babies Aiden 9-years-old – If God knew we were going to be great sinners and might go to hell, why did he create us in the first place? Anthony 6-years-old – Can babies see angels? Antonio 6-years-old – Why did Jesus have to die? Caleb 12-years-old – Do you have any bible verses that would point to the Catholic Church being the one true church? Sophia 11-years-old – Can you still be Catholic if your parents don’t want you to be catholic? Evan 12-years-old – Did St. Dismas go to heaven at the same time as Jesus? Cole (8-years-old) – How do you know if someone is ready for first confession? Maryann 9-years-old – Were Adam and Eve ever babies? Veronica 7-years-old – Did Jesus want to die? Warren 11-years-old – There is a Church in my state that only does Vatican I Mass. Can the priest consecrate the Eucharist? Nora (7-years-old) – Who was the first saint? Why did Saint Michael fight the Devil?

durée : 00:11:20 - Le Disque classique du jour du vendredi 20 septembre 2024 - Zelenka a compris mieux que pratiquement tous ses contemporains comment élargir les règles musicales de son époque ; il a composé de manière très complexe et contrapuntique, employant de longs thèmes qui s'écartent souvent des structures conventionnelles.

durée : 00:11:20 - Le Disque classique du jour du vendredi 20 septembre 2024 - Zelenka a compris mieux que pratiquement tous ses contemporains comment élargir les règles musicales de son époque ; il a composé de manière très complexe et contrapuntique, employant de longs thèmes qui s'écartent souvent des structures conventionnelles.

On September 6th, 1952, Betty Butler viciously murdered Evelyn Clark, while fishing at Sharon Woods. An argument occurred, and once they were back to shore, multiple witnesses saw Betty attack and drown Evelyn. No one denies Betty is guilty, not even Betty herself, but what happened to cause such a violent crime? Join us as we peel back the layers of this case and try to understand why Betty did it. Tea of the Day: Shaka Sunrise TeaTheme Music by Brad FrankFor a full list of sources, go to https://tea-time-crimes.simplecast.com/episodes.Sources:Deadly Women: Season 10, Episode 13, “Friends to Foes.” Episode aired Nov 26, 2016, Director: Ryan Osmond, https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6276114/Spooked by Ken Summers, “Dead Women Tell No Tales…Or Do They?” Wednesday, August 3, 2011, https://moonspenders.blogspot.com/2011/08/dead-women-tell-no-tales-or-do-they.html“'A War of Currents': The Real Story of Thomas Edison and the Invention of the Electric Chair.” By Kevin Martin, May 08, 2019, Magellan, https://www.magellantv.com/articles/a-war-of-currents-the-real-story-of-thomas-edison-and-the-invention-of-the-electric-chairReport: Ohio's Capital-Punishment System Remains Unworkable, Ohio Attorney General, April 1st, 2024, https://www.ohioattorneygeneral.gov/Media/News-Releases/April-2024/Report-Ohio%E2%80%99s-Capital-Punishment-System-Remains-UnDepartment of Rehabilitation & Correction, “Capital Punishment: Overview.” https://drc.ohio.gov/about/capital-punishment/capital-punishmentDeath Penalty Information Center, “History of the Death Penalty.” https://deathpenaltyinfo.org/state-and-federal-info/state-by-state/ohioSTATE v. THOMPSON (2002): Supreme Court of Ohio, The STATE of Ohio, Appellee, v. THOMPSON, Appellant, No. 2001-0333, Decided: May 15, 2002, https://caselaw.findlaw.com/court/oh-supreme-court/1152986.html“West End Woman Strangled, Drowned in Sharon Woods.” The Cincinnati Enquirer, Sun, Sep 07, 1952, Page 1, https://www.newspapers.com/image/102828410/“Rival Choked and Drowned; Woman Held for Grand Jury.” The Cincinnati Enquirer, Mon, Sep 08, 1952, Page 14, https://www.newspapers.com/image/102828825/“Indicted for Murder.” (AP) News Journal, Sat, Oct 04, 1952, Page 1, https://www.newspapers.com/image/294545519/“Jury Seated Tentatively In Lake Murder Trial.” The Cincinnati Enquirer, Wed, Mar 04, 1953, Page 8, https://www.newspapers.com/image/100606455/“Bus Balks Jury's Trip.” The Cincinnati Enquirer, Thu, Mar 05, 1953, Page 26, https://www.newspapers.com/image/100606557/“State Complete Testimony In Willful Drowning.” The Cincinnati Enquirer, Sat, Mar 07, 1953, Page 14, https://www.newspapers.com/image/103287432/“Blame Killing on Victim.” The Cincinnati Enquirer, Tue, Mar 10, 1953, Page 5, https://www.newspapers.com/image/100607200/“Murder Case Near End.” The Cincinnati Enquirer, Wed, Mar 11, 1953, Page 8, https://www.newspapers.com/image/100607276/“Woman Gets Death In Park Slaying.” The Cincinnati Post, Thu, Mar 12, 1953, Page 29, https://www.newspapers.com/image/762608222/“Betty Butler Third Woman to Face Execution From Hamilton County Since ‘37.”  The Cincinnati Enquirer, Fri, Mar 13, 1953, Page 16, https://www.newspapers.com/image/100607434/“Strangle-Drowning Killer Asks New Trial.” The Cincinnati Post, Mon, Mar 16, 1953, Page 4, https://www.newspapers.com/image/762608491/“Plea For Mercy Is Made In Death Sentence.” The Cincinnati Enquirer, Tue, Mar 31, 1953, Page 8, https://www.newspapers.com/image/100612836/“New Trial Denied.” (AP) The Marion Star, Mon, Apr 06, 1953, Page 1, https://www.newspapers.com/image/296626177/“Refuse to Show Mercy To Woman Condemned to Die.” (INS) The Daily Times, Wed, Apr 08, 1953, Page 4, https://www.newspapers.com/image/83973405/“Death Sentence for ‘Sex Slave' Slaying.” The Plain Speaker, Sat, Apr 18, 1953, Page 15, https://www.newspapers.com/image/503493891/“Woman Facing ‘Chair' Taken to Reformatory.” The Tribune, Thu, Apr 23, 1953 ·Page 1, https://www.newspapers.com/image/321713424/“Drowning Slayer Gets Death Stay.” The Cincinnati Post, Tue, Aug 04, 1953, Page 4, https://www.newspapers.com/image/762515136/“Death Sentence is Upheld in Park Slaying.” The Cincinnati Post, Mon, Oct 19, 1953, Page 18, https://www.newspapers.com/image/762810610/“St. Dismas, St. Paul, and Christ… Betty Butler sketches in death-row cell.” By James T. Keenan. The Cincinnati Post, Fri, Nov 27, 1953 ·Page 15, https://www.newspapers.com/image/762835455/“Betty Butler Doomed To Die Same Day As Dovie Dean.” The Cincinnati Enquirer, Tue, Dec 01, 1953, Page 10, https://www.newspapers.com/image/100630664/“To Hear Appeal.” (U.P.) The Daily Advocate, Sat, Feb 20, 1954, Page 8, https://www.newspapers.com/image/651646674/“Betty Butler Files Appeal From Date With Death.” The Cincinnati Enquirer, Sat, Mar 13, 1954, Page 29, https://www.newspapers.com/image/102838386/“Court To Hear Murder  Appeal.” The Zanesville Signal, Wed, Mar 17, 1954, Page 9, https://www.newspapers.com/image/1045690534/“Betty Butler Gets Reprieve.” The Akron Beacon Journal, Mon, Apr 05, 1954, Page 3, https://www.newspapers.com/image/150110769/“Pardon Board Hears Plea of Woman Slayer.” The Newark Advocate, Fri, Apr 09, 1954, Page 15, https://www.newspapers.com/image/287290882/“Letters Poured In!” New Pittsburgh Courier, Sat, Apr 17, 1954, Page 5, https://www.newspapers.com/image/40032549/“Betty Butler Paints, Studies Religion as Death Nears.” By James T. Keenan, The Cincinnati Post, Fri, May 07, 1954, Page 17, https://www.newspapers.com/image/762604071/“Betty Butler Wants Simple Food And Solitude as Death Nears.”By Scripps-Howard Newspapers. The Cincinnati Post, Fri, Jun 11, 1954, Page 1, https://www.newspapers.com/image/762784627/“Betty Butler Dies in Chair For Murder.” By Post State Wire, The Cincinnati Post, Sat, Jun 12, 1954, Page 14, https://www.newspapers.com/image/762785655/ 

Experience the incredible story of a thief who, in his final moments, finds forgiveness and the promise of paradise through Jesus. Follow the journey of Dismas, a condemned thief, as he encounters Jesus on the cross and discovers the boundless grace and mercy that leads him to eternal hope. Today's Bible verse is Luke 23:43 from the King James Version.Download the Pray.com app for more Christian content including, Daily Prayers, Inspirational Testimonies, and Bedtime Bible Stories.Pray.com is the digital destination for faith. With over 5,000 daily prayers, meditations, bedtime stories, and cinematic stories inspired by the Bible, the Pray.com app has everything you need to keep your focus on the Lord. Make Prayer a priority and download the #1 App for Prayer and Sleep today in the Apple app store or Google Play store.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Questions Covered: 11:55 – Should I be reading the bible from cover to cover? 16:59 – I'm protestant looking into Catholicism. What is 1 Tim 3? How come priests can't be married? 21:01 – Why does Elijah and Moses appear in the Transfiguration? 29:31 – A Protestant told me that Catholics worship the same God as Islam. How do I respond? 34:36 – Is there anything that supports the idea of cultural Catholicism? Saying if the culture doesn't accept it, then the Church shouldn’t enforce it. Does the bible accept or reject it? 41:28 – The Gospel of Matthew says that Jesus condemns divorce except for the case of unchastity. What is that? 44:06 – I’ve been grappling with the issue of women’s silence in the church, as mentioned in 1 Corinthians 14:34-35. Could you help me understand why it states that women should remain silent in the church and ask their questions to their husbands? I have read so many articles and watched videos but didn’t satisfy. 47:19 – You said a person cannot divorce, remarry and receive communion. Is this true? Did I hear you correctly? 49:39 – Was St. Dismas the first saint in heaven? Where were the other souls of the Old Testament? …

Join Taylor as she delves into the history of Clinton Correctional and the layout of the town that was host to chaos in June 2015. Check us out on our socials https://linktr.ee/adkcrime Show Notes & Links: History:  https://www.dannemoravillage.com/history#:~:text=In%201845%2C%20New%20York%20State,Dannemora%20in%20all%20weather%20conditions. https://www.correctionhistory.org/html/chronicl/docs2day/clinton.html https://www.townofdannemora.com/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clinton_Correctional_Facility https://www.newmanministry.com/saints/saint-dismas https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Church_of_St._Dismas,_the_Good_Thief https://www.dannemoravillage.com/clinton-correctional-facility Books Referenced: Wild Escape by Chelsea Rose Marcius Dannemora : Two Escaped Killers, Three Weeks of Terror and the Largest Manhunt Ever in New York State by Charles A.Gardner The Invisible Walls of Dannemora by Michael H. Blaine Shows/Movies Referenced: Escape at Dannemora available on Showtime We Stand Corrected: Dannemora available on the Roku Channel New York Prison Break: The Seduction of Joyce Mitchell Pictures / videos: https://www.northcountrypublicradio.org/news/images/gardenplot4.jpg  https://adirondackcountrystore.com/cabin-decor/adirondack-art-wall-decor/adirondack-park-map-on-wood/ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WVuftGUjRBE (Video of the Church) --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/adk-crime/support

Monday of Holy Week Saint of the Day: St. Dismas, the "good thief"; a pious, unsubstantiated legend has Dismas and his partner, Gestas, robbing the Holy Family on their way to Egypt; but Dismas buys off Gestas so that they will not be harmed; and Jesus prophesies that the two will be crucified with him in Jerusalem, but that Dismas will accompany him to paradise Office of Readings and Morning Prayer for 3/25/24 Gospel: John 12:1-11

The two thieves crucified with Christ hang before us like a microcosm of Judgment Day. Enthroned on His Cross between them is the Judge, with the "sheep" at His right hand and the "goat" at His left-one on his way to eternal life, and the other to everlasting punishment. Dismas' example gives to even the worst of us a reason for hope, and a motive for humility. St. Augustine summed it up: "Do not despair; one of the thieves was saved; do not presume; one of the thieves was damned."When they came to the place which is called The Skull, there they crucified Him, and the criminals, one on the right and one on the left. ... One of the criminals who were hanged railed at Him, saying, "Are You not the Christ? Save Yourself and us!" But the other rebuked him, saying, "Do you not fear God, since you are under the same sentence of condemnation? And we indeed justly; for we are receiving the due reward of our deeds; but this Man has done nothing wrong." And he said, "Jesus, remember me when You come into Your kingdom." And He said to him, "Truly, I say to you, today you will be with Me in Paradise." - Luke 23:33; 39-43With excerpts from:The Dolorous Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ by Bl. Anne Catherine Emmerich (https://bit.ly/3kaeP6l)The Mystical City of God by Ven. Mary of Agreda (https://bit.ly/3IhySaO)SUBSCRIBE FOR DAILY NOTIFICATIONS AT LENTPODCAST.COMUSE COUPON CODE PASSION25 AT TANBOOKS.COM FOR 25% OFF YOUR NEXT ORDERGET THE BOOK - The Passion: Reflections on the Suffering and Death of Jesus Christ by Paul Thigpen (https://bit.ly/3IiSNpM)

Everything outside of planet earth we call “space” or “outer space.” This inversion is about reclaiming wonder for “the heavens,” which has been lost during the onslaught of “The Enlightenment,” for which a better name would be “The Great Flattening,” “The Vanilla-ing,” or perhaps “The Vacuuming” since we have undergone three centuries of sucking the enchantment out of life, making heaven and all spiritual things prohibited from the public square. Instead of lying in the grass or on rooftops looking up in awe at the incredible depth of the heavens, we now are face down looking at Webb telescope pictures of space on our phones. What a buzzkill. The pictures are amazing, but the wonder is gone if we just see the pics as the images of a mechanical automation spun off by an absentee creator. Even the word space tastes like a saltine cracker compared to the triple-fudge sundae of the word heavens. Perhaps you noticed that the word is plural in some translations of the opening line of Genesis. “In the beginning, God created the heavens and earth.” In some translations, heaven is singular, but most use the plural form. This requires some inspection because we tend to only think of heaven as where God is, but the bible uses this word to mean the sky, the stars, and where the angels and saints live. Before going too far in this inversion, let's set a stake in the ground as a marker. Whether we say “heavens” or “heaven” matters little in the end. What matters is enchantment. When you are re-enchanted to say “heavens” instead of “space,” heaven becomes larger and more inclusive than what the engineers and physicists have taught us to believe. Seeing the “heavens” opens creation back up to link the immaterial with the material. Much like the composite of our body and soul, so are the heavens of the angels and the stars and the saints and the sky. All of God's creation brings the believer a collective wonder. So how many heavens are there? Or how many levels? Dante had ten. But according to St. Paul, there are three. Let's stick with St. Paul. He said, “I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago was caught up to the third heaven.” In the days of creation, we can also read of the three heavens: * Atmosphere or air, the place of birds and clouds.* The starry heaven, what we now call by more dull names, like space or the universe.* Highest heaven. The third heaven. The heaven closest to God. The unseen, invisible realm, is best described in the book of Revelation. Also known as paradise. We still use terms like this today when speaking of the heavens, but we mean different things when talking about heaven at a funeral versus talking about the heavens in astronomy class. The first answer everyone wishes to know is: what is this third heaven? Is it a place? Is it a dimension? We often use metaphors of mountains or clouds with our imaginations, but imagination is a bit dangerous. Popular ideas about heaven imagined by artists suggest that it's all harps and pearly gates. Seems kind of weak. This is likely why many people would rather rock out at a music festival than pursue heaven. Harps and golden gates lack appeal. Did it ever appeal to anyone? I think not. Please set those old artistic images aside and think of them no longer, because Jesus doesn't elaborate when he tells the apostles that he will go to make a place for them, making no mention of harps or gates. He only speaks of “dwelling places”:In my Father's house there are many dwelling places. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, so that where I am, there you may be also. (Jn 14:2-3)So it is a place, but a place we cannot fully know yet. It's a house of some kind. A good spiritual reading on heavenly places is The Interior Castle by St. Teresa of Avila. Now there is a mystic that needs to be read by modern people. She embraced the mystery of the heavens and had the gift of articulation for this place that can never be fully articulated in human words. Mystics like Teresa of Avila can lead us toward God without giving us a formulaic answer. This is frustrating for us in the age of data because we want to know all the details, but Jesus says if we know him, we will know the way to this house - and that is sufficient for our salvation. We want all the data, but one of the most important steps toward humility before God is accepting that we cannot know all because we are not God. This concept of the “place” of heaven where the saints exist is a mystery, and the greatness of the act of faith, from the Trinity, to the Incarnation, to the Eucharist at Mass is enmeshing our whole minds, hearts, bodies, and souls into these mysteries in humble prayer. This “place” of heaven is yet another wonderful mystery, which is why meditating on the Glorious Mysteries of the Rosary every Wednesday and Sunday is a great way to spend a holy hour. But like many mysteries, Jesus gives clues. “I go to make a place for you,” tells the apostles there would be a place for them to be after earthly death. The third heaven is that place. In other words, what we usually think of as heaven means the third heaven that St. Paul speaks of when his friend in Christ was “caught up” to the third heaven. This is powerful language. St. Paul, like his friend in Christ, is a saint, which means his soul is in the third heaven, even though the bodily resurrection has not yet happened. A few people have been “taken up” body and soul to heaven already. We know that Jesus' resurrected body and soul went to heaven on his own power, in the mystery of the Ascension. The only other human we know for certain was taken up body and soul into heaven is the Mother of God, Mary. She was assumed into heaven, as in pulled up body and soul. As for us regular humans who experienced the effects of the Fall, we know of three specific people in the bible who seem to have been pulled up to the third heaven. * Enoch in Genesis 5: “walked with God; then he was no more, because God took him.” * Elijah goes up to the third heaven in a fiery chariot. * Moses' resting place is unknown and it is a traditional pious belief that he was taken up to heaven. This brings us to one of the strangest events in the Gospels, which is why you should pause on this mystery every Thursday during the Luminous Mysteries of the Rosary. I'm talking about the Transfiguration, which has much to do with heaven. Jesus takes three apostles to a mountaintop. Jesus turns into pure light. “There he was transfigured before them. His face shone like the sun, and his clothes became as white as the light. Just then there appeared before them Moses and Elijah, talking with Jesus.” Now, the light aspect of this event requires a whole chapter of its own, but for now, just consider who appears with Jesus. Moses and Elijah, two spiritual heavyweights, flank Jesus. Notably, these two men are believed to have gone straight up to heaven. Could it be a preview of the third heaven for the apostles? Could it be that Jesus is showing a glimpse of the unseen, invisible heaven? Yes. Of course it is. What are Moses and Elijah doing? They are talking with Jesus. Understand, please, that this is heaven. They are face-to-face and talking to God. To paraphrase another quote from St. Paul, he says that here on earth we see through a glass darkly but in heaven we will be face to face with God. What is happening at the Transfiguration? We see in heaven Moses and Elijah are face to face, speaking with God. That's what heaven is. No harp is needed. Consider the sixth Beatitude: “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.” Those who have been purified live in rest, in peace, with God, face to face.No wonder Peter is stunned and stammers some nonsense. He hasn't been purified yet for heaven. James and John also fall to the ground when God speaks. And what mere human wouldn't fall to his knees and stammer at this sight? That is actually the correct response. They see their infinite unequalness to God's glory. Seeing Jesus turn blindingly bright and talking to the long-deceased Moses and Elijah - that alone would bring jaw-dropping wonder. Enter in the booming, thunderous voice of God. Then add the glory cloud of the Holy Spirit. Peter, James, and John are alive in space and time, yet somehow amid the Holy Trinity and two of God's most holy chosen people who bore crosses for God to the end, who endured and gained their eternal souls. This would be enough to make us all fall to the ground. But that is the point. That is how we should experience the Trinity. After all, fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and wisdom comes from humility before God. Peter repeatedly learns that God is not his equal or just some extra thing in his life, but that God is infinitely higher and utterly central to his life. Best of all, his preview of heaven in the Transfiguration was recorded by the apostle John so that we can all go there, to the mountain, again and again, and see the preview that Jesus offered. Contemplative prayer done on the mountain of Transfiguration is where the intellect, will, and even the dangerous imagination can seek a glimpse of heaven. We can see the sky and the stars, but we cannot see the third heaven without the help of scripture and prayer. The invisible realm is beyond reason and requires the submission of our intellect and will to see. Another example of a clue about heaven is when Jesus is dying on the cross. He tells St. Dismas, the Good Thief, that “today you will be with me in paradise.” He's not talking about Hawaii. He's talking about the third heaven. It is the place of everlasting worship of God, where everyone lives in obedience to God. And what is paradise? It's not likely what you think. Basically, paradise is where everyone just lives out the Ten Commandments. That is what heaven is: people living in joyous obedience to God and singing together, without trying to win or one-up God or each other. That is what the music of the birds and clouds and stars and planets and angels and saints is. Paradise is kind of like the end of How the Grinch Stole Christmas where all the Whos in Whoville sing together out of joy even after all their consumer stuff is stolen. In fact, the Good Thief in his humiliation on the cross is being purged and purified for paradise right alongside God incarnate. He has a change, a repentance, a turning to Jesus. Obedience to God comes late to him, but the only thing that matters is this: it comes. It happens. Yes, perhaps he only labored in the field for an hour, but Jesus is generous and gives him the full day's wages. He's already singing God's praise while being tortured to death. St. Dismas now desires to be obedient, not out of fear, not for the promise of heaven, but out of the joy that comes from the forgiveness of a loving Father. He wants to follow the Commandments and live in harmony with God's will. And what happens when his turn is pure and true? He is granted entry into paradise by Christ. Jesus says that heaven is paradise. Again, no harps. In the end, the third heaven isn't that hard to understand, because it's just people living the commandments and embracing God's love by giving up their will and ego. What St. Dismas discovers in his last hours is what many of us never will, because our own will is in the way of God's will. Regarding this mysterious third heaven, the question of time arises. I spent a lot of time discussing the nature of time in the first inversion. But here we must consider the nature of time once more. This falls into mystery territory as well. Jesus is like a best friend who won't tell all the spoilers, he only tells us what we need to know to have ultimate enjoyment, or what is known as the beatific vision - pure happiness - upon reaching heaven. If we are talking about heaven as the sky and stars, then time certainly exists, as we can track asteroids and land rockets on Mars. We measure wind in terms of miles per hour. But if we mean the third heaven, empyrean - the highest heaven of the angels and saints - then I'm afraid that knowing the nature of time is beyond my pay grade. God is eternal, outside of time, because he created time. The Maker, the Prime Mover, the First Cause is most certainly outside of time, but can also be present in time, as the Holy Spirit at Pentecost and the Incarnation of Christ prove. However, what of time in the heavens of the angels and saints? There is an idea from St. Thomas Aquinas and others called aeviternity, which is not quite the same as eternity. This is not much spoken of today, but I wish it were. Time may be different in St. Paul's “third heaven,” where the saints are. Does time exist in the highest heaven? What do we need to know about it, if anything? Jimmy Akin's “Hitchhiker's Guide to Heaven” can help us here. Connected with the question of whether heaven is a particular place is the issue of whether time exists in it.A popular conception is that it does not. The logic is fairly simple: God exists outside of time. God dwells in heaven. Therefore, there is no time in heaven.That's true enough when heaven is conceived of exclusively as the dwelling place of God, but it is not true when it is conceived of as a place that is occupied by angels and by humans after their deaths. In that case, a different sense of the word time is involved.The First Vatican Council taught that God “from the beginning of time brought into being from nothing the twofold created order, that is the spiritual and the bodily, the angelic and the earthly, and thereafter the human which is, in a way, common to both since it is composed of spirit and body.”This indicates that the spiritual realm is created and subject to time. Thus John Paul II taught that eternity, in the sense of being beyond time, “is here the element which essentially distinguishes God from the world. While the latter is subject to change and passes away, God remains beyond the passing of the world” (General Audience, Sept. 4, 1985). In short, time may exist in the highest heaven, or some form that we don't fully understand. But the good news - great news - is that if we partake in the Sacraments and die in a state of grace, we will learn the answer. As far as salvation goes, we need not know the details about the place Jesus prepares. This is difficult, but this is where the mysteries of the faith can be great sources of meditation and humility. God is first. The heavens are mentioned as his initial step in creation. Earth comes afterward. Worth noting here is that the heavens are created, as God created “out of nothing.” That is to say, the heavens did not exist before or concurrently with God. Like time, it was also created. Like the stars and the sky, the highest heaven is also created. The thrones, dominions, powers, and principalities - all are created by God who created all out of nothing. In this order of introduction regarding creation, heaven gets top billing over earth. This doesn't belittle earth, it simply makes an argument that the spiritual realm existed before matter. This is why spirit is higher than matter. This is why we should realize that our soul has a body, too, as the spirit gives life to the material realm. This order also places us in the proper posture of humility before God, because there is an order to creation and even beings within creation.Interestingly, this ordering fits with modern science, but I don't think that's the main point, since the sacred writer was making a point about religious truth, not modern physics. Genesis is not a math book or science book, but a book of higher truths. But still, it makes me pause to notice the accuracy: according to the Big Bang theory, the heavens were created first, if by the word “heavens” we mean the parts needed for making stars. Truly, heavens is a term worth much contemplation, because it can mean the stars and the sky, or it can mean the spiritual realm - or it can mean both - and it does. Just as we have both souls and bodies, so do the heavens. There is the spiritual heaven and the starry heaven. As it turns out, astrology is mostly nonsense, but they are correct about a couple of things: the position of Saturn and Jupiter and Alpha Centauri do matter to us, because like the planets and stars, we also have matter and all of these bodies have a gravitational effect on each other. But the effect of the stars and planets is not focused on us. That's the mistake of astrology. The music of the spheres in the heavens has the purpose of glorifying God, and that's all. Indeed, these heavenly bodies matter to us, because like all of creation, they matter to God. But they do not dictate our moods or beliefs, because all things created by God that didn't experience the Fall are still rightly aimed at God in their purpose. The birds and clouds in the nearest heaven are good, just as the harmonic motion of the starry night is good, but best of all is the highest heaven, where the angels continually sing God's praises. However, the angels are just doing what the stars and birds are, which is glorifying God. Like the birds, we should live our lives as a small humming in the great song of creation. Just as birds sing, we should make our own song of praise. Birds are fruitful and they multiply, working and singing, and so should we. The stars are in motion, dancing and giving light, and so should we. The saints give witness to the lights that we too can become through the humble offering of ourselves for the glory of God. No bird or star competes with God, rather, they are in concert with God. No bird or star attempts to make a name for itself, rather, they make a name for God. The birds, stars, and angels give us the same lesson that Christ did. The education of Christ surrounds us in the heavens, if only we would forget about ourselves to partake in the great play of creation. The goal of life is to reach heaven, yet as Jesus said, “The kingdom of God is among us.” “Repent and believe, for the kingdom of God is at hand.” Forget honor and wealth; look upward to the heavens, as the birds and stars and angels do. The point here is to be inverted in your understanding of the heavens: all of creation glorifies God, from the birds to the stars to the seraphim. This is why the “Sanctus, Sanctus, Sanctus” is sung right before the Eucharistic prayer at Mass. The “Hosts” of this song are the seraphim, the cherubim, and the angels, in the highest heaven, the third heaven. Like any concert, there are lights raised in the audience, moving in unison, and to partake in the divine nature, we raise our light to play a part in this amazing show, so that while we are just one little light, we can see that we are part of a whole. Every anonymous star adds to the majesty of the night sky, despite getting no name or notice. Our little light of faith is part of the whole, and we can share in the joy because of the certainty that God is at the center of all things, not us. Next time at Mass, when you sing the following words, know that you are part of a choir that includes all of creation, from us on earth and upward to all three heavens. This is why the Mass is more than just an obligation, it is a gift: Holy, holy, holyLord God of Hosts.Heaven and earth are full of your glory.Hosanna in the highest.Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord.Hosanna in the highest.Further reading:How many heavens are there?The Hitchhikers' Guide to HeavenHow not to think about heaven - Bishop BarronBlasting Holes Through the Buffered Self - Bishop BarronRe-Enchanting the Secular - Matthew Petrusek. Secularism is the predominate worldview in the West. However, it does not answer the deepest longing of the human heart. Did God Create Heaven?Is heaven a place or only a state of mind? This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit whydidpetersink.substack.com

Here is where we come to the inversion known as ex nihilo, which means, “out of nothing.” If you are like most modern people, Latin phrases may make you uncomfortable, which is why they are probably good for you. They can jostle us out of our spiritual slumber. But this is one that you should know about for mental health reasons. Prior to God, there is nothing. This was discussed briefly in the previous inversion, but it is so important that it requires an extended look. What does this mean? Consider a woodworker who wishes to build a birdhouse. To do so, he needs wood, nails, perhaps glue, a saw, a tape measure, and a few other things. To create, we need material that already exists. God, on the other hand, does not. He creates from nothing. The book of Genesis states that God is the beginning of all things. Nothing is before God, not even chaos. There is a reference to a watery, formless void in the verse that follows, but God is prior to this amorphous blob. Also, this “formless void” does not get a proper noun like the Greeks give to “Chaos,” as if it were an American Gladiator. The formless void is just a watery meh. It's nothing. But good luck thinking of “nothing” because we cannot with our finite abilities. Nothing is incomprehensible to us. Ghostbusters did a nice job of showing that we cannot think of “nothing.” The monster tells the Ghostbusters to “Choose the form of ‘The Destructor.'” Venkman then tells his buddies: “Empty your heads! Don't think of anything!” But poor Ray can't think of nothing. He can only think of something. That's when he thinks of the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man and says, “It just popped in there!” Then the Ghostbusters do battle with a giant marshmallow and make cinema history (and flatten spiritual things into the material realm, but I digress - that's for a later inversion). We cannot think of nothing. We can try to contemplate it, but we can't achieve it, because even if we believe we've found the nothing, we are either thinking of God or fooled, because nothing existed before God. He is first. The Buddhists aim their meditation at nothing and think of the self as god. Catholics do the opposite. Catholics focus prayer and meditation toward God, who created everything out of nothing, including us - and most importantly - perhaps the most critical thing of all to remember is this: we are not God. Repeat after me: “I am not God.” And this is why Buddhism and Christianity are incompatible at the very root; the first principles are in opposition. Buddhism rejects a creator and rejects creation ex nihilo.That's what this inversion is about, as are all the inversions. Not only does God's creation out of nothing disagree with Buddhist thought, but it also rejects Greek and Sumerian myth systems, as well as many modern pseudo-scientific theories where the universe was created from pre-existing parts. Today, some will claim that the atoms have always existed, but the Jew, Muslim, or Christian rebuts this by saying, “I know who made the atoms. They did not always exist.” In ancient times, if some would say that water was first, Abraham would say, “I know who made the water.” In the Sumerian creation mythology, water is first and the gods come later. It's not surprising that we might think of water, the sea, as a primordial source of life, since water supports life, but water alone cannot bring life. The substance of water can quench our thirst or destroy us with a flood. It is a healer and a destroyer. But water itself is not “Being”. Water cannot create life. Water cannot create planets. Water cannot create the protons and electrons is requires to be water. The old myths fail in light of modern science, but creation “out of nothing” does not. Ex nihilo outlasts even science, because God made all things that make science possible. He created science by creating. All of it depends on his being and his act of creation. A scientist has no paper to write without the atoms, just as a woodworker can build no house without the wood that God made. This idea of water is associated with Chaos in various myth models, and the modern arguments of “which came first” do not sound very different from the Sumerian and Greek disorder of where Being came from. Water is not Being, water is material. In other words, it is created by something prior to it. There is nothing before God in Genesis. Not water. Not time. Not a chaos monster. Not an island. Not a pie shop. Nothing. God is first. We cannot describe God, but we can know what he is not, and he is not merely water. To mention something as being prior to God is to misunderstand why God tells Moses his name is “I AM”. In other words, God is “Being Itself.” This first Being must precede everything, even chaos and formlessness. This is the road to mental health. Why modern psychiatry has not yet caught on to this is simultaneously sad and comical. Listening to the modern cures for mental health that exclude God is like watching a coach execute a play repeatedly that hits a brick wall of defensive lineman, when a simple bootleg would bring an easy touchdown. When Jesus says, “I am the way, the truth, and the life,” and when he says “I am the vine” and when he says “I am the bread of life,” he is saying, “I AM” just as God said to Moses at the burning bush. This “I AM” cannot be stressed enough, and if I fail in this series to fully hammer home the importance of understanding the first “Being” of God, then I too am like the quarterback running the failing dive play instead of the rollout bootleg for the touchdown. For this reason, I do believe Big Pharma fears a comeback of creation out of nothing, but really, I wish they would sell a sugar pill called “ex nihilo” and use their marketing prowess to sell it, because they truly would change people's lives with something better than the dubious SSRI pills they sell. But the more people I meet who believe in the idea of “ex nihilo” have astonishing sanity and positivity toward life. Please, if you're out there Pfizer, Merck, hear my plea: start selling ex nihilo, and make one of those ads where people are prancing about in clover fields, full of joy, but be sure to include a picture of them kneeling in humility before God, otherwise its just another snake oil. The same reason SSRIs fail to fix anything is the same reason that “whiskey ain't workin' anymore,” as the country singers say. Pills and booze are band-aids for a spiritual malady. The inversion of marketing with pills and booze is to pretend that something man-made can fill the void, the sense of nothing, when only one thing can do that, and it is God who created ex nihilo. The many forms of nihilism today extend directly from this rejection of God as the first being, because we often think that nothing existed before God. Modern philosophers and psychologists got stuck in neutral over this issue, with the big names all being atheists, like Heidegger and Sartre and Freud and Jung and Foucault. Is it any wonder that depression is at an all-time high, when the replacement for certainty in the rock of God is a watery void of endless therapy and “vibes”? Can anyone seriously struggle to understand why the “Self” is a crappy god to believe in, when one seasonal cold or inflamed elbow joint can render us weak? When we are unsure that God was first, and before him there was nothing, then we have a gap in our consciousness that nothing cannot fill. In particular, the Self cannot solve it, nor can serotonin. I call this giant, gaping void the “Big Empty” (shoutout to Stone Temple Pilots). And the Big Empty can only be filled by God. The inversion here is that God existed, has always existed, and will exist forever. Once again, the nature of time matters for sanity in knowing that there was a beginning, and being came from God, who preceded all things. That God created “out of nothing” means that you can stop worrying about everything, because quite literally “he has the whole world in his hands.” The children's song is not just a feel-good happy-clappy preschool ditty: it is the key to mental health - because God does indeed have the whole world, the wind and the rain, the little bitty baby, you and me brother/sister, and yes, even ev'rybody in his hands. Why? Because there was nothing before God, and so there is nothing without God. Thus, with God, who created all things, there is also nothing to fear, because he created all things and saw that it was good (more on that later). Because of this, even death is not something to fear, because he has the whole world in his hands. This is also important because when the devil tempts Jesus to make bread from stones, Jesus answers, “It is written, ‘One does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.'” Thus the Word of God feeds us, because it is the source of everything, the pipeline that nourishes all life. The tree of life is rooted in God. The tree of knowledge leads to death. A simple lesson in making choices is to choose the tree of life over the tree of knowledge. Knowledge is a like side hobby, whereas the tree of life is where the joy of connection to the source never ceases. There is nothing before God speaks all into existence. This should comfort you. This should give you focus, not anxiety. We cannot actually think of “nothing” so the closest thing is a formless void. This language is stunningly complex while using simple words, but “beginning,” “created,” “without form and void” - if only I could write so concisely and meaningfully, but I can't. So let's continue with the long-form non-academic journal style that a hack writer like myself loves to use. One way I try, rather pathetically, to imagine the pre-creation nothing is a painter's easel with a blank canvas on it. The canvas can be black or white to represent the absence of anything. But even then I'm not thinking of nothing, I'm thinking of a canvas. Or, I'm thinking of a space like that whitespace in which Neo trains against Morpheus in the movie The Matrix. Yet that is also not nothing, it is a three-dimensional empty space, which is something. I can dimly understand what it means to say “out of nothing, God created the heavens and the earth.” Ex nihilo is a powerful idea that gets brushed aside too easily today by those who believe that atoms always existed, or that there never was a time when the universe did not exist. The bible says that God “created” the numbers, atoms, time, three-dimensional space, and every possible thing that we can think of (or not think of). He created the heavens and the earth, which means a material and spiritual realm, thus even that which we can imagine comes from God. Angels and Elves and Orcs and Fairies and Furies are attempts by us to think of something to explain the spiritual realms, the “heavens,” and as St. Paul said, we only look through a glass darkly now, but will someday see God face to face. But we aren't prepared to do that now, not in our mortal state. To do so in this finite form would destroy us (more on that inversion to come). As created things, as creatures, we can only think in terms of time and space, we cannot think of nothing, nor can we comprehend the infinite. This is why so many people err in an understanding of God in the bible because they think of him like an idol, as something that exists in space and time. God is not like Zeus who lives in a mountain. God made the mountain and everything else out of nothing. He is the Author of all things who lives outside of his work of art, called “Creation.” Famous atheists like Bertrand Russell swing and miss on this when they compare God to objects within the universe. Carl Sagan and Richard Dawkins make the same category error. God is outside of time and space, because he created time and space. Ideally, everyone would read the opening to the Catechism of the Catholic Church so we can get our terms straight, because like the word “Love” today, people mean very different things by it. We've flattened “Love” into one word when it can mean four different things - sex/passion, fraternal love, familial love, or agape (total self-giving). Few people say “Love” and clarify what kind. We do the same thing with God and “create.” We are speaking in babbling tongues to each other even when using the same language of English, hence the confusion. When we create, we use existing materials. When God created, he did not. He made the materials - including the materials that make us and allow us to create. He made the immaterial things, too. Stephen Hawking wrote a book called God Created the Integers. This is a terrific title. I almost tip over with joy, for Hawking is so close to faith in the source of Being, but he worshipped the nuts and bolts of the creation that he studied instead of the Creator. He was in hot pursuit of the truth, and was close, yet so far. In his quest for the holy grail of the origins of time and space, he was bringing the language of mathematics so near to theology that he almost wrote a love letter to God. Math is indeed one of the places where our finite minds can get close to this idea of ex nihilo. To say, “God created the integers” is to realize that when God first spoke, he did include the number “1” because before that there was zero - as in nothing. For God to create the number 1 is to create “out of nothing,” and without the number “1” there could never be such a thing as the number “2”, or “3”, or any number beyond. All numbers can only come from God who is infinite, and like the infinite, is comprehensible and incomprehensible at the same time. Physics is not even far back enough in the chain, because its laws could be different than they are. But math basics cannot be different. God could have made the gravitational constant different and thus changed the universe. But the integers cannot lie, nor can God. 2+2 must always be 4, and that applies to both God and humans. Mathematics is one path to God, oddly enough. Who would have thought the nerds in math league could be mystics? With mathematics, to contemplate the Integers as a creation of God is to get close to the concept of ex nihilo - creation “out of nothing.” For even the Integers did not exist before God made them. Stephen Hawking, even if he didn't believe, had so many gifts, that it always seems worth sending up a prayer for his soul (and for the many other seekers who never came home) just in case Purgatory is his residence. He appeared to pass away with the same rejection of Bertrand Russell on his lips, saying, “Not enough evidence, God, sorry.” Perhaps he sealed his eternity by the rejection of God, by dismissing the first commandment, but surely there is hope in his turning in the last hour, to confirm his belief in who “Created the Integers.” This is why the danger of knowledge can lead to pride over humility, and pride is the false guide of so many souls. St. Dismas and St. Gertrude: pray for Stephen Hawking, and pray for us all. In short, we are finite - we are in a box called the universe, or space-time. Yet there is a spiritual reality that we can feel, know, sense, and even reach somehow in prayer. Because we are creatures, no amount of LSD or marijuana will allow us to escape our state of being, even though we know there is another dimension, or perhaps more than one. Although trippy drug experiences may seem transcendent, it can never grasp what it means to be God. Worse, drug experiences are all about pulling God toward the self, and not the reception of God's grace. We cannot bootstrap our way to God, we have to be silent to let the still, small voice enter our ears. This is why prayer works, because when you pray, you need to stop trying and just be. Because what is “Being”? It is a connection to God. When Jesus said, “I am the vine and you are the branches,” he was telling us that “to be” is to connect to the source of all being. This is why Christians who are born again make no sense to unbelievers - they have a life in them that is inexplicable. In other creation stories, matter exists before creation, which seems odd until you hear modern people say that “the atoms have just always existed.” This is an echo of the Greek philosopher Democritus who felt that atoms and motion were eternal. Thus the writer of Genesis shouts, “No! Atoms did not exist before God. Before God was nothing, not atoms, not photons, not electrons, not strings, and not even the greatest invention of all, not even ice cream.” Again, we pass over this inversion with a yawn, despite the fact that like the first inversion, time, this inversion dumps a whole pantheon of gods and assumptions into the dumpster. Zeus? Get serious. Gaia? Take a number. All of the Canaanite, Egyptian, Greek, Sumerian, and Roman gods are booted out of the Biblical worldview. And I say good riddance, because it is much more fun to read Ovid as literature anyway. However, the ancient writers of Genesis did not have the luxury of looking at Moloch or Zeus as literary figures that explained phenomena in the world. No, this was a deadly bet in the declaration of the creation story, because the people of Abraham, Jacob, and Moses did not go with the flow when it came to creation. They did not believe in the maxim, “When in Rome, do as the Romans.” (I realize that's an anachronism). To say, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth” is to elevate God, the one true God, over all the human-like gods of their surrounding peoples. To give an example of what this would be like today, consider how people react when someone takes a knee during the National Anthem during an NFL game. Or, you can test this today, simply by posting on social media: “Abortion kills a human life.” This upsets the worldview of others. Overzealous patriots worship the flag, and those who worship the self do not believe in the souls of certain people groups, especially the unborn. To speak of God as a reality today still invites anger. The twentieth century had more violence than any century in history and repeatedly the Jews and Catholics were killed for their association with belief in God. Right now in Nigeria or Nicaragua or Israel, your declaration of faith is a deadly statement. That is what Genesis is doing - it is giving a voice to that view, that opinion. It is inverting the idea of what God is. It is asserting a concept of God that makes all the king's horses and all the king's men look foolish for offering sacrifices up to absurd idols. Our current idols and religions are really not that different from Moloch or Zeus. What is most important in this inversion is that it tips over the canoe in which Zeus, Protagoras, and Richard Dawkins were all riding in, paddling backward in their fictions. Why is this inversion so powerful? This is a threatening implication because creation out of nothing kicks the stool out from faulty origin stories and causes them to tumble. Most myths, including ones from modern science, are attempts to invert the worldview of Moses, Elijah, and Jesus. They claim that water or atoms or a turtle was first. The Jewish and Christian origin story says that there was no-thing, not one thing, before Being Itself, and that Being is more commonly known as God. And how mighty a being he must be to craft such delights, like integers, atoms, time, gravity, the nuclear forces, light, water, earth, fire, wind, and (much later) pie shops - all out of nothing. That is a creator before whom we must kneel in awe and wonder and love and a healthy fear. Poets like William Blake understood this wonder. When he wrote about the fierce beauty of a tiger with its stripes, we can get a sense of the power, depth, and stunning awesomeness of God's ability to make things:Tyger Tyger, burning bright, In the forests of the night; What immortal hand or eye, Could frame thy fearful symmetry?He is asking: “Who or what could possibly create such a thing as a tiger?” The answer is God. Once this is understood, we can also begin to know why the Proverb says, “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom.” For it is only infinite power and glory that can do such a thing as creation ex nihilo.Further reading: Isn't Creation Ex Nihilo Logically Impossible?The Case for Creation from NothingChurch fathers comments on ex nihilo This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit whydidpetersink.substack.com

Questions Covered:  06:10 – Can any member of the Trinity assume a nature that isn't rational?  09:15 – Can I go to a protestant church for apologetic research?   17:08 – I struggle silence. Do you have any recommendations to help my prayer life?  22:44 – Are there exceptions to RCIA?   28:52 – Is there a way for Catholics to discern if something is divine or demonic?  35:31 – What is our understanding of animal suffering prior to the fall?   42:47 – What can we do to discern if the news we hear is accurate or not? 47:32 – How would I respond to Eastern Orthodox friends who share the Papacy wasn't established till 8th Ecumenical council.   51:32 – Why is St. Dismas not considered the first Martyr?   52:53 – What is the reason for the Paul VI Audience Hall looking like a serpent’s head?  …

Encore from 04/10/2023 Patrick answers a plethora of deep questions from children about everything from why God created mankind if he knew we would sin, to who the first saint was, and why did Saint Michael fight the Devil, can babies see angels, and were Adam and Eve ever babies Aiden 9-years-old – If God knew we were going to be great sinners and might go to hell, why did he create us in the first place? Anthony 6-years-old – Can babies see angels? Antonio 6-years-old – Why did Jesus have to die? Caleb 12-years-old – Do you have any bible verses that would point to the Catholic Church being the one true church? Sophia 11-years-old – Can you still be Catholic if your parents don't want you to be catholic? Evan 12-years-old – Did St. Dismas go to heaven at the same time as Jesus? Cole (8-years-old) – How do you know if someone is ready for first confession? Maryann 9-years-old – Were Adam and Eve ever babies? Veronica 7-years-old – Did Jesus want to die? Warren 11-years-old – There is a Church in my state that only does Vatican I Mass. Can the priest consecrate the Eucharist? Nora (7-years-old) – Who was the first saint? Why did Saint Michael fight the Devil?

It's easy to take it all for granted and go through life feeling invincible-especially if you've spent your life successfully facing challenges, overcoming obstacles in the way, and working hard to improve yourself both mentally and physically. Yet for all of us, this feeling of invincibility is an illusion.From Sudden Death to Paradise shares one man's story of suddenly facing his mortality and coming to terms with what he experienced. After being exposed to toxic chemicals while in the military, and unknown to him, author T. S. Dismas developed an autoimmune disease that would kill him-one night, Dismas suffered sudden heart failure and died for ten minutes. Yet in that moment, he had a near-death experience and visited heaven, where he would learn a valuable lesson about himself, his life, his faith, and God.No amount of suffering could take away his joy and peace, and after his experience, life was now sweet and truly a gift. With a new heart-both literally and spiritually-he was able to realize his previous life was not part of God's plan, and that embracing God's love is the only way to sustain happiness and find meaning in this life.This show is part of the Spreaker Prime Network, if you are interested in advertising on this podcast, contact us at https://www.spreaker.com/show/4858435/advertisement

K.A. Owens interviews Professor Dismas Masolo. Professor Masolo explains how Africa views the United States. Recorded Friday January 26, 2018, 2PM.

In dieser Sendung haben unsere Hörer die Möglichkeit, den Bibelexperten, Autor und Professor für neutestamentliche Exegese, Prof. Marius Reiser aus Heidesheim am Rhein, zu all jenen Bibelstellen live zu befragen, die Ihnen unverständlich oder widersprüchlich scheinen. All diese Themen und viele mehr können von Ihnen in diesem Grundkurs des Glaubens thematisiert werden! -Was ist mit der Gerechtigkeit des Vaters gemeint? -Warum musste/hat Jesus sich Taufen lassen? -Altes Testament: Esau ist "rötlich, am ganzen Leib wie ein härener Mantel" beschrieben worden, bezieht sich das auf die Haarfarbe oder die Hautfarbe? -Wie kann man sich den Verklärten Leib Jesu nach der Auferstehung vorstellen? Warum durfte Maria Magdalena Jesus nicht berühren, obwohl andere Menschen davor schon durften? -Braucht der Verklärte Leib Jesu Nahrung? -Gott als Vater UND Mutter? -Joh. 2,4 : "Was willst du von mir, Frau?", Wie ist die Beziehung von Jesus zu Maria? -Warum verhärtet Gott das Herz des Pharaos im Alten Testament? -Vaterunser: "...und führe uns nicht in Versuchung...", wie kann man das verstehen? -Jesus wird gleichgestellt mit Gott, warum soll er weniger gut sein, nach eigenen Angaben? -Ist beim Reumütigen Schächter (Dismas) am Kreuz ein Komma falsch gesetzt in der Bibel? -Ist das wichtig, dass Christus nicht Berührt wurde, damit er nicht verunreinigt wird?

Homily for the 25th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year A. Based upon Is 55:6-9; Ps 145; Phil 1:20c-24, 27a; Mt 20:1-16.

We've all been raised on heroes and politicians and athletes that feign perfection. But in the Old Testament, the characters are all flawed. They are also all limited, because they are human, not divine. Some do awful things. In fact, they are just like real people. Thus, we all have our limitations, in that the specs of our design cannot exceed various parameters. We may feel ten feet tall but no one has ever been near that height. We may feel bulletproof but every king who has ever lived has passed away into death. This is going to take me a while to get to it, but we are like NASCAR, in that we have predictable speeds and power. We all seek power, but because of our limited dimensions and parameters, dictators and bullies end up like stock cars passing by, with the same engines and spoilers, but with different decals on the exterior to pretend they are unique. Each car is different, while each is the same. This is a both/and scenario. You can see this positively or negatively, but the end goal of each makes all the difference. What are you racing toward? That is the only question that matters in the end. If it's not toward the highest good, then even if you finish in first place, you lose. The Bible also shows our limitations as a group, such as the scapegoating mechanism and tribalism. Biblical characters would be cancelled today in our unforgiving modern era (depending on what party they belonged to). We live in a similar time of scapegoating as the Israelites did. This is because the law of Moses actually understood the problem with scapegoats and had a day of Atonement for sin management. You could call this an SMS - a Sin Management System, to use modern IT language. But today…we just have sin. We don't manage it, because we don't believe in it. We sweep it under the rug and pretend it isn't there. Sin is old-fashioned, so we think. To follow the stock car analogy, this is like ignoring wires showing on tires, where a blowout is imminent. But to use a different metaphor for a moment: sin is best likened to a disease like cancer, where our past unconfessed sins remain with us and grow to enormous proportions. When we read a medical article about someone who had a fifty pound tumor, we all say, “How could someone not know they had a fifty pound tumor?” The articles usually have a picture of the person with the glaringly obvious medical problem. It's baffling to us how someone would not realize something was awry. But most of us walk around carrying fifty pound spiritual tumors, from sins never repented. The sins from one-night stands, burned bridges, anger, hatred, and self-loathing all continue to grow on our souls, and will continue to do so, until the disease is loosed in confession. If only we could see each other's souls. Interestingly, others usually can see our sins better than ourselves, as it's so easy to know why someone else is spiritually ill, but we cannot see our own spiritual tumors. And so much of our sin is about power, or gaining an edge over someone, or protecting our little grove that we consider the self to be the king of. We all have a grove, even if it's only our social media profile, where we feel like the king. But we're not the king. I'm not the king, and realizing that is the greatest relief I've ever had. Knowing I'm a sinner allows me to stop pretending, stop fighting, stop squabbling over the scraps. There is a king, and it's not me, and surrendering to the loving, living God is like having the massive tumor cut away, and all that ugly growth from many years of power-seeking behavior can be put aside. This is why I like the Old Testament. We can see the diseased state of sinful lives. It's so obvious. The supernatural reading of the Old Testament changes everything. (Michael Heiser, who recently passed away, has a documentary for helping you get started in this. Unless you believe in God, and the devil, you will read the Bible like a 21st century American and miss the whole point.) Whenever someone points out the shortcomings of the Old Testament patriarchs or prophets, I want to remind them that, yes, exactly, you are catching on: sin is narrated in the Old Testament for a reason, and that reason is that these people were not the incarnation of God, like Jesus was, but were struggling in the world to work toward his grace, but failing and often choosing sin. The Old Testament, unlike other mythology systems, shows the ugly side of humanity, and if you disagree, go read about Samson again in Judges and see if you still think he was a model for living. If you think of Samson as a saint, please stop and re-read his story. St. Augustine famously said, “It is narrated, not praised,” to help us understand a guy like Samson. But rest assured, Samson is in there for a reason. In fact, the Good Thief who repents on the Cross next to Jesus in his last minute is in there for a reason, a very good reason. His name is St. Dismas, and wouldn't we all be so lucky to turn and see Christ in our last hour, in our last breath? (St. Dismas, pray for us.)There is much to learn from the story of Samson, it's just not that he was a good guy who could do whatever he wanted because God said so. If you read the Bible in that way, such that anyone under the banner of the Chosen people is flawless, then you have spiritually drawn the Monopoly card that reads: “Return to Go, do not collect $200.” You need to start again. If you read about Samson and say, “Well, clearly he was predestined and chosen, so he could do whatever he want.” Just stop. Think about what you are saying. Does it make any sense at all? Samson was supposed to be a monk consecrated to God (a Nazirite) who doesn't sleep around, drink, touch dead things, or cut his hair. And what is his story? It's doing all of those things, and even when he destroys the Philistines, he's not doing it for the glory of God, he literally asks for strength to get revenge. If anything, Samson proves the old adage of “The Lord works in mysterious ways,” and the reason the story of Samson is important is because we see the strangeness of history, of sin, of leaders, of salvation history. When you go to read the Old Testament with “Chosen People” blinders on, you miss the richness of the narrative. As I said, the “white hat/black hat” Cowboy story that Americans want to find - it ain't in the Old Testament. But perhaps Samson did repent in his last hour. Perhaps God used him in ways radically beyond our finite minds. God takes care of the particular judgement for each person, not us. Sacred scripture illustrates lives and the arc of salvation history, and we are like ants catching a glimpse of something so far beyond our understanding, like a rocket, or a surgery, that we must stand in awe of creation and continue on in our faith and work without full knowledge. And that is the mystery of faith - though we can never know all things, we can know some things, and catch glimpses of God's glory and learn the repeated lessons of redemptive suffering, with the Crucifix showing us over and over, that there is no way to heaven but through the Cross. And even Samson can show us that story. Trent Horn wrote, “The Bible is not a sterile collection of perfect people who always follow God's will. It is instead a drama about how God redeemed imperfect people and used them, in spite of their flaws, to accomplish his sovereign and holy will for mankind.”And thank God for that, because a story of perfect robots is not a human story, and is not interesting unless you are under ten years old. The Great Story of Israel has much more going on than Wyatt Earp's showdown. There is indeed a good guy and a bad guy, with God reclaiming the world from the fallen angels, but that is what we forget while we zero in on the individual character or verse. Not only are there fallen angels, there are fallen people, but here's the point: those people are redeemable. Arguably, even the Pharaoh of Exodus is redeemable. Thus, when people get fired up over the violence in Joshua, or 2 Peter calling Lot “righteous” after he offers up his daughters for rape, they are reading it in a way that we don't read or watch anything else. Why are we so dense at reading the Old Testament when we can follow intricate narratives in a ten-season TV shows that shows the depth and nuance of individual characters in a slow-burning plot? Why do we choose to read it like children? It's simple. Most of us haven't really read it. If we have, we have not since we were children, so we got the white hat/black hat version of it, which is fine…until you are no longer a child. We haven't even had a tour of the adult version, which is a much more serious and dark version. The flood story alone goes from being a happy pack of animals on a ship to an utterly terrifying world-ending mayhem. Another possibility is that we received a dumbed-down fundamentalist reading of it, which is great for becoming familiar, but not for depth and nuance. And when I say fundamentalist, I mean both the Fundamentalists and the New Atheists, because both read the Bible in a way that gets little or nothing out of it. I can't stress this enough: reading the Bible using the four senses of scripture is how it opens up into a four-dimensional trip. So many people charge in and say, “I'm going to read the Bible in a year” and they get to Leviticus or Numbers and stop because it's boring and appears to be unrelated to the modern world, when in reality, all of it is central to the experience we are living in right now. If you are going to read the Bible in a year, follow the Bible in a Year tour guide, Father Mike Schmitz, and it will go far, far better than doing it on your own. But the main reason why adults read the Bible like cowboy stories is this:We read the Old Testament like ten year old pro-wrestling fans because we don't understand that we are living in a spiritual war. In our modern assumptions about the world, we forget that ghosts are real. We use the word soul but laugh at the idea of ghosts. But the word is the same. We just have a cartoon version of “ghost” now due to TV shows like Scooby-Doo and Caspar, but we still know that we have souls in the quiet places of our hearts and minds. Our adult, data-driven minds forget that there is more types of knowledge than what can be graphed or measured. We don't accept that there is more than just matter, but also spirit. Admitting that angels and demons are real does not often come from college educated lips. Why? Because we think we know better. Frankly, we don't read the Bible believing that God is real. Thus, we don't understand the overarching story that leads to Christ's defeat of the devil, and thereby miss the entire point of the entire library known as the Bible. If you don't believe in the devil, then you probably don't believe in God. If you don't believe in God, you probably don't believe in souls. If you don't believe in souls, you don't believe that you could spend eternity in either heaven or hell. But you can. And you will. This is the root problem for many of our social and mental maladies as well. We have numbed the part of our brain that allows for belief in the supernatural. We have flattened God into “all religions are the same” when they are anything but the same. This is why whenever I read about an academic paper that suggests “all prehistoric peoples were egalitarian” I know immediately that I am reading modern propaganda, because not only do we not know that, but the authors of such things also have an agenda and bias, usually one that matches either liberalism, utilitarianism, postmodernism, post-colonialism, or (most often) socialism and communism. In short, an anti-Christian bias. And if you don't think that is true, enroll in a modern University and test this hypothesis. Attend any class in the departments of anthropology, history, English, or really any of the humanities, and listen for commentary on organized religion or belief in the supernatural. Anything that poses as science denies the supernatural, as it should. But, many things that pose as science are not actually science. There is an ideology creeping in everywhere, and the goal of any ideology is power. Universities have a spiritual nature, too, but the spirit is not from God. And in denying God, they fear language that speaks of God. A bias against Christianity is dogma today in nearly every school, public or private. The only lens you as a student can choose is the tinted goggles of modern scholarship. The creeds of modernism demand a denial of the supernatural, which is odd, because in the end, the supernatural will deny the modern man and woman who doesn't cooperate with the free offer of grace. If a history professor in his hiring interview suggested that Israel was a chosen people by God selected to bring about the Savior of souls, it's difficult to imagine a callback happening for a second interview. That alone would be immediate cause for moving on to the next candidate to find someone who assented to the belief that all cultures were equally un-chosen. In higher education, the era of Christendom is treated like a child, one that never matured, but now we know better. It almost seems like the academic world has tried to put Catholicism into a group home for the elderly, so that it could be ignored. But the primary reason it's not talked about is not that Catholicism isn't true, it's that Catholicism is a constant thorn in the side of the polite power grab, and power requires its enemies to be silent. The creed of today is more aligned with the religion of humanism or socialism than Catholicism, but it is every bit as religious in nature. Because of this, universities have become a self-congratulating, backslapping loops of nonbelievers, where the jockeys in the horse race for tenure require adhering to specific speech codes, and shutting out all comers. We are in the Grove. The nonbelievers have a standing army, and whoever comes to slay the slayer will be the next priest-king. But the thing about power is that it's all the same. Meet the new boss; same as the old boss. It's like NASCAR (back to the main metaphor). Every power seeker is ultimately the same. It is only the king who is the Suffering Servant that is different. Every single other power-seeker preaches the opposite of the Beatitudes. Like race cars, ideology that seeks power is trying to win a race. What is the race for power? It's the idea that there is a solution to all the world's ills through a set of ideas, rather than through God. In NASCAR, cars must be built a certain way. Mechanics and engineers can only massage and tweak the strict engine and chassis requirements so much before the speed tops out, as by physics there is a limit to what can be done. There's a blocker on what can be done with these cars. It's the same with ideology, because like stock cars, ideas cannot exceed their worldly dimensions. Materialism, in all its forms, can only use the things of this world. Thus liberalism, capitalism, socialism, scientism, techno-utopia, postmodernism, utilitarianism, and the rest all have “the solution” to win the race, to stave off pain, to bring worldly victory, to bring heaven to earth. But if there is one thing Jesus showed us is that suffering is part of our lives here. Even he who cured diseases and cast out illnesses still had to suffer, and suffer greatly because of sin in the world. The cause of all suffering is personal sin, not external enemies, and until everyone realizes that we will indeed have oppression and suffering. The remedy is to follow both Commandments, to love God first, and then to love others as Jesus loved us. This is the lesson: that we must first seek the kingdom of God, and accept what suffering may come. When God is ready he will bring heaven to earth, and not before. The stock cars of auto racing are like the stock beliefs of ideology that block the supernatural from our lives. I do believe that there is half of us that love God (or think we do) and another half that loves others (or pretend we do), and both are firing on only three cylinders instead of all six. You must put God's love and love of others together to exceed the restrictions of this world's physics, and yet - and yet, like NASCAR, there are still rules to follow while doing it, called the Commandments, and the way to do so is spelled out in detail in the Catechism of the Catholic Church.But our modern gods of culture is limited by the constraints of unbelief. Unbelief in corporations, academia, and the media means we must assent to belief that we are alone, that God is not alive. So obviously, our efforts try to solve all suffering with ideas, and to break the physical and spiritual laws using ideology, which always ends up breaking all rules because it turns into a religion. This is why we can all laugh (and cry) at the line: “In capitalism, man oppresses man. In communism, it's just the opposite.” Power that defers to no Higher Power cannot accomplish what it sets out to do, which is to create heaven on earth. All of the kings of this world are the same people. What Democrats and Republicans in America often do not understand is that they are the same people, just as the Nazis and Communists were. It's like any NASCAR feud. Take the skirmishes between Chase Elliott and Kevin Harvick at Bristol, for instance. Two drivers nearly duked it out over a race, while the crowd cheered it on. What are the drivers after? The Cup. The championship. The power. What does the mob want? They want whichever car they cheer for to get power, so by proxy they can feel powerful. That's what fandom is, just like world politics. We only wave flags because we want our side to win, because our side, we believe, has the ideology that deserves to win. But whoever wins the power only matters in how they wield the power and to whom they give glory toward. To follow this through a bit more: both drivers are pretty much interchangeable, just like the cars they drive. They have both been blessed to be in racing families and God-given talent and surely a convenient sets of fortunate happenings to get them into the elite and small field of NASCAR racing. They have, in a sense, hit the lottery of gifts in terms of auto racing. Now, if Kevin Harvick's soul was swapped into Chase Elliott and vice versa, it's likely the drama would be the same, because they would still be driven to win the Cup. But it would also make a good Freaky Friday style of movie, as after the swap, Kevin Harvick would realize that Chase Elliott and his mechanics are probably decent guys in the same pursuit of the Cup. Perhaps he might return to his own body full of love for his enemy and a new appreciation of the sport of racing. Better yet, a terrific ending would be when both resume racing for the greater glory of God, like the dude in Chariots of Fire, who ran for love of the game, not the trophy, as his angry opponent did). The reason Jesus is so interesting to every generation is because he's obviously different from every other power seeker in human history. Why is he so different? Because he's not seeking power. He already has it. All of it. And so he's giving it all away, all the time, and serving us all, who really don't deserve it. He's like the lowest guy in the Pit Crew who hands the lead mechanic the wrench and gets yelled at for doing it too slow, and then doesn't object or complain despite being the inventor of the automobile and greatest mechanic in the universe, the Creator of all things. Thus, reading the Bible in the light of power is illuminating, because we are living in a time where the West, that has been under the power of classical liberalism and humanism, is turning toward atheism and strange brands of Gnosticism, and quite literally every heresy since the Resurrection. For those who win power on earth, they will have their prize. They will gain the “Commanding Heights” of economies and governments - for awhile. Then when we tire of that driver, another stock car will come along, with a new ideology and flag, and will replace it. And whoever wins the Cup, inherits the fear of losing it. The shame and honor culture is ballooning now, and will continue to do so, and when power is lost, or perceived to be threatened, the scapegoats will be trotted out, as usual. Power games are so predictable that it looks no different than the Daytona 500, except the Daytona 500 brings more joy to people, because the winner of a car race doesn't promise heaven. As soon as the winners in society get what they want, and believe they have saved the world (if only everyone would fall into line with their plan), they begin to oppress the world in a new way. Some winners are better than others, and those are the ones that - at least nominally, like Thomas Jefferson - tip the hat to God for what they have been given here on earth. But the tip-o-the-hat to God can be used as a smokescreen for blatant power grabs, too. All ideas and movements that promise to bring heaven on earth are false. Because only God will do that, and he will do that in the last day, when Jesus returns. (Also, pro-tip: the “Rapture” as you may understand it was invented some 1800 years after Jesus. As I advise friends out of love, stop reading fiction by Dan Brown, and do the same for Tim LaHaye.) When the Bible is read as it is not intended to be read, it becomes a dead letter. When it is read through the lens of NASCAR, you can easily see what the Assyrians, Babylonians, Herodians, and even what the Israelites are doing. But the lesson is this: no power is given here on earth except what has come from God above. This is what Jesus tells Pontius Pilate, who thinks his hard work and pluck has made him governor of Judea. This is incorrect, according to Jesus. This also explains the violence in the Old Testament, and how a tiny army could overrun Canaan, or how Abraham with three hundred men could overrun the Five Kings who capture Lot. Just as the nation of Israel gets its power from God, it is also taken away by God, through other people. Other nations appear to “take” the power, but God's plan is somehow always working within this world, especially when we cannot understand it. In many ways, we are like a dog staring at a stock car race, having no idea why cars are going in a circle. All power here in this world is given by God, and we should serve in humble gratitude if it comes to us, as we have free-will to reject or cooperate with God's grace. He gives us all sufficient grace to use our intellect and will to realize that we need a savior, and no one in the end can say, “I didn't have enough evidence to believe,” as Bertrand Russell famously imagined he would tell God after he died. Any political power or NASCAR champion must understand: the Lord gives, and the Lord takes away. And the answer in both cases, winning or losing, is to become humble before God and to keep his Commandments. When Israel conquers Canaan, people fail to understand that God is granting power to Israel, and when the nation later sins terribly, and repeatedly, God takes away what was given. This is not Prosperity Gospel interpretation, this is Humility Gospel. In the book of Job, after he loses his family and wealth, his buddies say, “Perhaps you just weren't holy enough, and that's why all this suffering has come your way.” That's the Prosperity Gospel in one line. “You just weren't holy enough to be rich.” To which I would say: who is more holy than Jesus Christ, who is God incarnate? And what happened to him? He suffered. Even if you serve God, you may suffer in this life, and still the answer, as Jesus showed us, is to pray and bless the name of the LORD. Even in his agony, Jesus cried out to God, quoting the 22nd Psalm, which many people are confused about. I was confused. “And about the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, “Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?” that is, ‘My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?'” As a child I thought, “How could Jesus seem to think God left him if he is God?” The problem was that I had no idea that he was quoting the first line of a Psalm, which is a beautiful prayer for times of suffering. He was praying from the Cross, and even in his final words, he offered his spirit to God, and when he appears most defeated, most powerless, he is about to show what real power is on the third day when the women come to the empty tomb. Jesus doesn't need power over the Romans, because he has power over what the Romans fear most, which is death. Seriously, I urge you: get a good study Bible and read using the four senses of scripture. If we only read it as “Bible as Literature” or as breadcrumbs for cultural or archaeological or historical events (and we now define “history” much different than the sacred authors did), then it's no wonder that confusion around the truth is making such a comeback. At least the fantasy of Norse gods addresses a need for the supernatural in people. People need religion, one that transcends this world. And if they don't follow a religion, they will find one or invent one, and what it leads to is ideology, and always in the end, the will to power. This is exactly what Jesus came to destroy. Because that kind of “power based” thinking is from the accuser, the divider, the father of lies. If we see the world as a power struggle, then we cannot yet say, “I was blind, but now I see.” The Christian way of seeing the world is not the same as Nietzsche or Marx or or Hitler or Stalin or Foucault or Kendi. You must put on the mind of Christ to step out of the circular “head that eats the tail” model of the world. If you forget this, and think power is the narrow gate to heaven, you won't see the big picture. You will forget that God exists. To forget this is folly. To forget God is the same as rejecting God. Because you will lose the context, and perhaps much else. If you are looking for single verses to mock, you may become more focused on the body than the soul, and though the body is important, it is not the only thing to be concerned with. When you lose awe, wonder, and reverence for the real power that created all things, you may forget the most important thing, which is the Creator. The danger then is to think that this world and your body is all that there is. Once that happens, you will be distracted, which is what the devil prefers. Jesus gave us clear instructions. He said, “Do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul; rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell.” If you think Jesus was just some nice guy, some dude who came to permit everything, you might want to re-read the Gospels carefully. We are not meant to be the king or the judge, we are asked to follow, in servant mode, as Jesus did. He is the one who can give us the rest and peace that we are really looking for, rather than the false power we imagine will bring us happiness. Don't waste your life chasing the little kingdoms and title belts of this world, unless you are doing it for the greater glory of God, and even then, should you somehow be granted power, of any kind, remember gratitude to the real power. Because it didn't come from you. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit whydidpetersink.substack.com

It's easy to take it all for granted and go through life feeling invincible-especially if you've spent your life successfully facing challenges, overcoming obstacles in the way, and working hard to improve yourself both mentally and physically. Yet for all of us, this feeling of invincibility is an illusion.From Sudden Death to Paradise shares one man's story of suddenly facing his mortality and coming to terms with what he experienced. After being exposed to toxic chemicals while in the military, and unknown to him, author T. S. Dismas developed an autoimmune disease that would kill him-one night, Dismas suffered sudden heart failure and died for ten minutes. Yet in that moment, he had a near-death experience and visited heaven, where he would learn a valuable lesson about himself, his life, his faith, and God.No amount of suffering could take away his joy and peace, and after his experience, life was now sweet and truly a gift. With a new heart-both literally and spiritually-he was able to realize his previous life was not part of God's plan, and that embracing God's love is the only way to sustain happiness and find meaning in this life.This show is part of the Spreaker Prime Network, if you are interested in advertising on this podcast, contact us at https://www.spreaker.com/show/4858435/advertisement

Patrick answers a plethora of deep questions from children about everything from why God created mankind if he knew we would sin, to who the first saint was, and why did Saint Michael fight the Devil, can babies see angels, and were Adam and Eve ever babies Aiden 9-years-old – If God knew we were going to be great sinners and might go to hell, why did he create us in the first place? Anthony 6-years-old – Can babies see angels? Antonio 6-years-old – Why did Jesus have to die? Caleb 12-years-old – Do you have any bible verses that would point to the Catholic Church being the one true church? Sophia 11-years-old – Can you still be Catholic if your parents don't want you to be catholic? Evan 12-years-old – Did St. Dismas go to heaven at the same time as Jesus? Cole (8-years-old) – How do you know if someone is ready for first confession? Maryann 9-years-old – Were Adam and Eve ever babies? Veronica 7-years-old – Did Jesus want to die? Warren 11-years-old – There is a Church in my state that only does Vatican I Mass. Can the priest consecrate the Eucharist? Nora (7-years-old) – Who was the first saint? Why did Saint Michael fight the Devil?

Patrick answers a plethora of deep questions from children about everything from why God created mankind if he knew we would sin, to who the first saint was, and why did Saint Michael fight the Devil, can babies see angels, and were Adam and Eve ever babies Aiden 9-years-old – If God knew we were going to be great sinners and might go to hell, why did he create us in the first place? Anthony 6-years-old – Can babies see angels? Antonio 6-years-old – Why did Jesus have to die? Caleb 12-years-old – Do you have any bible verses that would point to the Catholic Church being the one true church? Sophia 11-years-old – Can you still be Catholic if your parents don't want you to be catholic? Evan 12-years-old – Did St. Dismas go to heaven at the same time as Jesus? Cole (8-years-old) – How do you know if someone is ready for first confession? Maryann 9-years-old – Were Adam and Eve ever babies? Veronica 7-years-old – Did Jesus want to die? Warren 11-years-old – There is a Church in my state that only does Vatican I Mass. Can the priest consecrate the Eucharist? Nora (7-years-old) – Who was the first saint? Why did Saint Michael fight the Devil?

Today we invite you to meditate on the words of St. Dismas, "Jesus, remember me when you come into your Kingdom."

So we are back at the start. Or we are back at a kind of start. Like Abraham. Like Agnes. We are back to the place where Abraham was called out of Ur of the Chaldees. We are back to the day that Moses was called out of Egypt. We are back to the Annunciation where Mary said Yes to Gabriel. We are back to Christ going into the wilderness to defeat the devil. And we are back to Agnes rejecting her culture and choosing a life of chastity and marriage to Christ over the chaos and immoral culture surrounding her. We are back to the place where the calling comes to say “No” to the culture and “Yes” to God. We are back to where professing Christ's Crucifixion and membership in the Catholic Church that Jesus founded is the ultimate counter-cultural act. We are back to the time when obedience to God and his Church are the best way to lose friends and alienate people. And thank God for that! The time of Agnes has, once again, arrived. It seems clear to me that Agnes and Abraham would have much to speak about if they ever ran into each other at a waiting room. But it might be a short conversation.Agnes: “So, Abraham, I hear you had to leave your family and your city and your entire way of life?” Abraham: “Yes, the culture…I just had to leave it.” Agnes: “Oh, I completely understand,” (Her phone starts buzzing, and she picks it up) “Sorry, Abe, someone is calling.” Abraham: “I know who it is.” Agnes: Hello? God? Yes, it's me, Agnes!”Fist bump. The struggle today is to come up for air, because the culture has a pole that tries to keep us shoved underwater, gasping for air. But truth always rises. So no matter how much dancing and singing we can see underwater, we are meant to breathe easy. We eventually come up for air and have to fight off the pole, by necessity. Hardship, suffering, or a death in the family will make us sick and tired of all the gasping. What we really want, most of all, is to rest in the truth, and his name is Jesus. As they say in recovery circles, we become “sick and tired of being sick and tired.” Enough nonsense, give me something real. Enough TV, enough books, enough beer, enough video, enough news. At some point you just want to stop pretending that what is not important is important. I want to rest in something more. Let me be free to love God and follow him and not care who laughs. Let me be open to the Holy Spirit and let it transform how I see everything. For many years, the saying of Jesus, “Let the dead bury their dead” confused the heck out of me, but once you experience the conversion of this earthly life, “the dead” makes incredible sense. This life is not all there is. There is so much more that we cannot see but can somehow know, because God is impossibly far but infinitely close to us. Who can possibly explain it? Not me. But I can tell you that once it happens, you will know what St. Paul meant when he spoke of seeing dimly through the glass, because the reflection of the self will be gone and the world, both physical and spiritual, will be seen:When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child; when I became an adult, I put an end to childish ways. For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then we will see face to face. Now I know only in part; then I will know fully, even as I have been fully known. And now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; and the greatest of these is love. (1 Cor 13:11-13) What amazes me the most is that some saints come to know that as teenagers. Others have to wait, and some have to wait until the moment of death, like St. Dismas, the Good Thief, who is crucified with Jesus and finds him in the final hour. When you see someone come up for the air, and they completely change their life, you will witness a miracle. They are no longer dead in their sins. When we do come up for air, we get an opportunity to see that the underwater world we thought was real was only an aquarium. The plants are fake, the rocks are artificial, even the scuba man at the bottom is plastic. Reality must be faced, and powerlessness against time and space is a fact that we are all dealt at some point. At these moments of inflection in our lives, God is speaking to us, and we get to choose: will we play against him, or with him? But we all have to learn this our own way, on God's time. Nothing can be coerced. Wealthy men, academics, and for-profit media has preached and prayed for us to submit to the false gods, the sex god, the money god, the self god, the sports god, telling us that the only way to fulfillment was through our achievements, affiliations, and our reproductive parts (which we try not to ever use for the actual purpose of reproduction now). Bank accounts and awards and entertainment try to console us in our pursuit of false happiness. Pills and plastic devices have been engineered to un-engineer the nature of our organs. We are told that the design of our bodies is not for unity and procreation with the obvious complementarity of man and woman, but instead only for our temporary pleasure, not much different from a bowl of delicious Cinnamon Toast Crunch (which I no longer keep in the house). What's most strange is that in our separation of body from soul, the most scientifically minded fellows, who harp on the need for objective reality and truth, willingly abandon that noble goal of objective reality like a Soviet scientist in order to be fashionable for the cultural zeitgeist. Fads that lack basis in objective reality silence otherwise serious people. Even what is known through the naked eye somehow befuddles modern scientists, as the idea of womanhood has proven too hard a nut to crack for academic cowardice and timidity. For 30,000 years of evolution, this required no diploma to articulate. For most of us who can see the naked emperor, we just say it out loud, but many academics, even those trained in the hard sciences, insist that the Emperor's clothes are glorious. Something is amiss. “Follow the science” has become as amorphous as “Support the troops” or “The future is female.” What we now call “the science” is a moving target, because real scientists, actual biologists, refuse to tell us what a woman is, for fear of reprisal. This is why another Agnes is coming. I am fairly certain that babies know what a woman is better than professors today, because they know their food comes from a woman, a mother, not some man dressed up as a woman or mutilated to play the part. Putting away childish things means living in your body, which is a gift from God, for the purpose for which you are. Anything else is fantasy, as much as wishing to be born in another place and time, or taller, or better looking. When I saw dimly through the glass I only saw a reflection, but when God calls you no longer see the reflection of yourself but the Imago Dei, the image and likeness of God, in yours and every other face, and then you can go forth, reborn, without the self. What's sad is seeing so many adults willingly donning the shock-collar of fear. Afraid not to look “progressive” enough, we turn into clams. Growing up in America, I heard the propaganda that only in the Soviet Union would adults have to conform their data to the party line. Surely such a thing could never happen here! Yet here it is. A kind of quietism is happening as universities today, but unlike mystic meditation where you seek God, the great thinkers are afraid to step anywhere or make a peep for fear of stepping on the devil's toes. Of course, this fear has a lot to do with the loss of employment and missing mortgage payments, because job loss is the cudgel the party-line uses instead of Siberian prison camps. That's why Agnes will triumph again. Teenage girls have neither the baggage of adults nor the filter. When the next Agnes discovers who and what she is, she will reject the culture and the culture will attack her because the culture cannot look upon its sins honestly. Most wonderful is the irony. Catholics are mocked for faith in the Eucharist as the Body and Blood of Jesus, but modern people have more faith in things that cannot happen or do not exist at all. Many highly educated people believe in magical transformations of boys turning into girls by putting on a skirt, or in the mysterious bat in China that caused Covid (an animal that will never, ever be found because it came from a science lab). For this reason, the truth claims of our culture need to be examined and re-examined because many of the claims require as much faith, if not more, than believing in the 37 miracles performed by Christ. Frankly, believing in Jesus walking on water is far easier for me to believe than that teenagers can transform into a cat, simply by the act of posting on social media and declaring a feline transformation. The pitch for this sale is weak. The story is so bad. What stuns me, especially after my own falling away and returning, is the staying power of the Gospel story. Why is that? Because it is a better story. It's the greatest story ever told, and I've read a lot of stories. The awful story that comes from the modern universities, the media, and influencers, and the dull hook of it all is that through some sexual act we will reach the mountain of knowing. Through some pile of money, we'll be happy. Through some act of the self-will, we will “manifest” or self-actualize. But we won't. Let's use a quote from Fight Club to round this out.“We've all been raised on television to believe that one day we'd all be millionaires, and movie gods, and rock stars. But we won't. And we're slowly learning that fact. And we're very, very pissed off.” But there's no need to be angry. Once the post-adolescent teenage angst wears off, the solution is waiting. This is the Good News: there is a solution. There is an answer. No, it's a not a Fight Club, or a bank account full of money, or an orgy, or a pill. No, it's far stranger than that. The answer is a person. He's a person and you can know him, but you have to talk to him. You don't need to be angry, or join a Fight Club. But you do have to do one thing. All you have to do is give up everything you thought you knew. And very soon will come another Saint Agnes, who will show us exactly how to do that. In the verse below, substitute “teenage girl” for “man”, and female pronouns for male pronouns, and you will hear once again the ancient message of St. Agnes that cries out to our world today.Then Jesus told his disciples, “If any man would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. For what will it profit a man, if he gains the whole world and forfeits his life? Or what shall a man give in return for his life? (Mt 16:24-27) This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.whydidpetersink.com

Welcome to The Saint of the Day Podcast, a service of Good Catholic and The Catholic Company. Today's featured saint is St. Dismas If you like what you heard, share this podcast with someone you know, and make sure to subscribe!

Saints du jour 2023-03-25 L'Annonciation du Seigneur et Saint Dismas, le bon Larron by Radio Maria France

Elizebth Gail Chandler has degrees from Berea College in Kentucky and from The New School in New York City. She served three years in the Marine Corps during the Vietnam era. In 1976, she became the first female deputy warden in a male prison in Kentucky and enjoyed a career in corrections working in four state facilities and directing a Dismas halfway house. . In 2003, Dismas Charities published her nonfiction book, Sunflowers on Market Street, in 2009, Finishing Line released her poetry chapbook, Where the Red Road Meets the Sky and in 2016, He Read to Us.

Join us for week 3 of our Lenten Mini Series as we go Behind the Scenes of The Passion of Christ through the eyes of the supporting cast. Fr. Nick Ware & Fr. Kyle White  guide us on this Lenten journey as we learn more about the hidden figures who walked with Jesus to Calvary.Week three of Lent, we dive into the story of Dismas. Dismas was the “Good Thief” that was crucified at the right hand side of Jesus.  He asked Jesus to remember him, and Jesus told him that he would be in Paradise with him that very day.  ✝️ Reflections:-The repentance of this Good Thief shows us the importance of the necessary steps we must take to arrive at salvation through Christ. How are we living like Dismas? Can you see yourself in him? -People have Calvary experiences every day. Are you noticing how meticulous that Lord has connected the dots of your life? 

3/6/23 6am CT Hour John and Glen chat about Ohio train derailment, winter weather out West and Spring Training for baseball. Kristan explains the different avenues woke companies and Pro-Choice movement are trying to devalue life and reveals the dichotomy that they will pay for death of children but not benefits that will actually help women thrive. Annabelle shares how saints like St. Patrick, St. Dismas and St. Frances teach us how to pray in challenging circumstances.

Bible Study: (1:37) Gn 1:20—2:4a Expecting Perfection  Mk 7:1-13 Father discusses giving it all to God Letters (15:18) - Did Simeon and Anna know Mary?  (18:57) - Father discusses what the Gospels are for Word of the Day: Mystery of God (27:40) Callers (35:17) - Why did the Jews and Samaritans dislike each other? (35:17) - Have we lost anything by not having the Precious Blood at mass? (41:59) - Was St. Dismas the first person to go into paradise? (46:45) - Clarification on the mystery of the kingdom of God

It's easy to take it all for granted and go through life feeling invincible--especially if you've spent your life successfully facing challenges, overcoming obstacles in the way, and working hard to improve yourself both mentally and physically. Yet for all of us, this feeling of invincibility is an illusion. From Sudden Death to Paradise shares one man's story of suddenly facing his mortality and coming to terms with what he experienced.After being exposed to toxic chemicals while in the military, and unknown to him, author T. S. Dismas developed an autoimmune disease that would kill him--one night, Dismas suffered sudden heart failure and died for ten minutes. Yet in that moment, he had a near-death experience and visited heaven, where he would learn a valuable lesson about himself, his life, his faith, and God.No amount of suffering could take away his joy and peace, and after his experience, life was now sweet and truly a gift. With a new heart--both literally and spiritually--he was able to realize his previous life was not part of God's plan, and that embracing God's love is the only way to sustain happiness and find meaning in this life.

Emma Jones, ex-Space Marine, and Xara (calling herself Domino) the Ruxol-Made Clone, enter the strange alien structure buried under the low mountains of the Dismas steppe. Roman Pirch, the Panumanic Agent Provocateur tags along with three of the native Leo Tybins he has been able to befriend. Session 3 never made it to audio, so for a recap on what went down in that thrilling episode head on over to the blog. https://vanishingtower.blogspot.com/2022/10/fgus-space-opera-lower-frontier-session.html --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/vanishingtower/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/vanishingtower/support

Political Analyst Dismas Mokua on 100 days in office of the UDA Government #DriveInn with Davina by Capital FM

Patrick answers listener questions about what is the Churches teaching on gun ownership, is it okay to attend a protestant wedding, do reindeer have any biblical significance, and who was the first saint in Heaven? Matthew - What is the Church teaching on gun ownership? Christina - My daughter started putting pronouns on her social media. How do I talk to her about this? Mary - Niece getting married in a protestant church but was baptized Catholic. Can I attend? Emily - Do Reindeer have any biblical significance in Christmas? Evan 12-years-old - Did St. Dismas go to heaven at the same time as Jesus? Who is the first saint in heaven? Where did Elijah go in his chariot since heaven was not opened? George - At Mass, a transgender was giving out communion. Is that okay? Darren - Would it be scandal to share pronouns on social media? Should the laity have a spiritual adviser? Susan - What is the difference between Noves Ordo and Latin Right Baptism?

The words of the Dismas (the "good thief") in the Gospel of Luke echo in our hearts as we claim Jesus Christ as our King: "Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom!" November 20, 2022 - Cathedral Rectory - Superior, WI Fr. Andrew Ricci - www.studyprayserve.com  

A meditation preached by Fr. Eric Nicolai at Kintore College on the solemnity of All Saints, November 1st 2022. I read a book that dramatizes in first person the personality of the Good Thief. As he looked at me, I thought he was trying to smile, and then he said, “I promise you, today you will be with me in paradise.” He died that day, but we know he became St. Dismas. This is our dream. Saint Josemaria too had that dream: He would repeat that phrase: Dream and your dreams will fall short. Music: Carlos Gardel, Soledad, arranged for guitar by Bert Alink. Thumbnail: Portico of Paradise, in the Cathedral of San Martin de Ourense, Spanish Romanesque. For more meditations, check my channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/EricNicolai/videos