Podcasts about for catholics

The Catholic cardinal Jorge Mario Bergolio ascended to the papacy in 2013. In honor of Saint Francis of Assisi, he chose as his papal name Francis. For a dozen years he was the head of the Catholic Church and a major figure in the moral and cultural life of the West. After a prolonged illness, Pope Francis died on April 21 of this year. There are over 1.4 billion Catholics in the world, and they play a significant role in the production of Western culture and Western opinion. The foundational structures of Europe are derivative of, or inseparably woven into, the history of the Catholic Church. And whether the pope strengthens or undermines the moral confidence of Western nations matters: it mattered during the papacy of John Paul II during the cold war; it mattered in the confrontation with jihadist terror during the papacy of Benedict XVI; and it cannot but be a factor in the horizons of Western civilization. This podcast focuses on a particular dimension of the late Pope Francis's legacy, namely, how he engaged the Jewish people, Israel, and the Middle East. To discuss the legacy of Pope Francis, the Church's engagement in the Middle East, and who might be the next Catholic pope, Mosaic's editor Jonathan Silver sat down with Father Benedict Kiely. Kiely was born in London, ordained a Catholic priest in Canterbury, and has spent most of his ministry in the United States. In 2014, he founded Nasarean.org, a charity that supports persecuted Christians around the world, and especially in Iraq, Syria, and Lebanon. One of his aims is to see the church grow closer to its Middle Eastern roots, and that means, in some grand spiritual way, closer too to its Jewish roots. For Catholics, the question of the Church's attitude toward Zionism and Israel is not perhaps among the most pressing of ecclesiastical priorities. One would not expect it to weigh heavily on the Vatican's conclave in the election of the next pope. This conversation thus takes the perspective of an outsider. Moreover, there are very deep theological matters that will always divide the Catholic Church from the Jewish people. And some of those very deep theological matters also shape the way that Catholics tend to think about Zionism and the modern state of Israel. The Jewish people are animated by a belief in covenantal chosenness, and a sense of sacred obligation to uphold God's ways in their actions, in their families, and in their nation. That obligation is structured by tradition and law, and it is expressed nationally in the people of Israel, which, after a long hiatus in exile, again has a sovereign state in the land of its fathers. For Catholics, of course, the Church is the new Israel, and despite very welcome and laudable developments since the promulgation of Nostra Aetate in 1965, that is an unbridgeable theological chasm. Nonetheless, friendship between Christians and Jews is essential to revitalizing our shared civilization and passing it on to future generations. Musical selections in this podcast are drawn from the Quintet for Clarinet and Strings, op. 31a, composed by Paul Ben-Haim and performed by the ARC Ensemble.

FAN MAIL--We would love YOUR feedback--Send us a Text MessageBishop Robert Barron's compact 138-page book "An Introduction to Prayer" delivers profound spiritual wisdom that far exceeds its modest length. Exploring the concept of contrition—literally "crushing" from Latin—we're guided through an unflinching examination of conscience using the Ten Commandments as our framework.The journey begins with confronting our fundamental spiritual orientation: Who or what do we truly worship? Everyone has an ultimate concern, but when that concern is anything other than God—whether sex, money, power, status, or our ego—we experience spiritual fragmentation. The examination becomes increasingly challenging as we move through commandments addressing speech about God, concrete worship practices, family relationships, and how we handle violence in our lives.As we progress deeper, the questions become more uncomfortable. How does sexuality serve as gift rather than self-indulgence in our lives? Do we steal, even in small ways? What is the quality of our speech—how often do we tear others down? Do we covet what others have, feeding the competitive conflicts that Rene Girard identified as the source of so much human suffering? Just as Jesus cleared the temple in Jerusalem, we're invited to identify what needs clearing from the temple of our souls.Holy Week provides the perfect opportunity for this spiritual inventory and house cleaning. For Catholics, the increased availability of the Sacrament of Reconciliation during this sacred time offers a concrete way to express contrition and experience God's mercy. Whether through formal confession or personal prayer, this spiritual exercise prepares us to fully celebrate the resurrection with renewed hearts. Remember, Christ waits for us, rich in mercy, ready to transform our brokenness into Easter joy.Key Points from the Episode:• The prayer of contrition involves honestly confronting our sins and their impact• The first commandments challenge us to examine what we truly worship• Honoring family relationships serves as a foundation for all other relationships• Questions about violence extend beyond physical harm to our speech and impact on others• Sexual ethics should center on gift and authentic love, not self-indulgence• Our speech patterns often reveal our tendency to tear others down• Coveting leads to competitive conflicts that damage human relationships• Jesus clearing the temple serves as a metaphor for spiritual house cleaning• Regular examination of conscience reorients our souls toward GodThis Holy Week, take time for honest self-examination and, for Catholics, visit the sacrament of reconciliation. Our Lord is waiting for you and is rich in mercy.Other resources: Want to leave a review? Click here, and if we earned a five-star review from you **high five and knuckle bumps**, we appreciate it greatly, thank you so much!

Please hit Subscribe/Follow and leave a 5-Star Rating. Leave a coment about your thoughts on this subject. Click here to go to Jen's Poshmark Closet. https://poshmark.com/closet/happie22 Click here to go to our Patreon Page. https://www.patreon.com/c/222ParanormalPodcast Click here for Joe's Book. https://a.co/d/0aqVMxw Click here to go to our website. https://www.222paranormal.com/    Welcome to the 222 Paranormal Podcast! In today's episode, we explore a fascinating and mystical subject—the opening of the Holy Doors, a significant ceremony in the Catholic Church marking the beginning of a Jubilee Year. This sacred event is steeped in symbolism and ancient traditions, representing both spiritual renewal and the passage of time. During a Jubilee Year, which occurs every 25 years, Holy Doors in various cathedrals and basilicas around the world are opened for the faithful to pass through. This ritual is believed to offer a special opportunity for forgiveness and indulgence, as it is a moment for pilgrims to experience a deep connection with their faith. We'll dive into the history and origins of the Holy Door tradition, tracing it back to the 15th century when Pope Boniface VIII first declared the concept of a Jubilee Year. The Holy Door is sealed for most of the year and only opened during the Jubilee to create a passage for spiritual purification. For Catholics, walking through the Holy Door symbolizes stepping closer to God, with the door acting as a gateway to grace and divine mercy. In addition to the religious aspects, we'll also examine the paranormal connections that many claim to experience in and around these sacred spaces. From mysterious apparitions to inexplicable phenomena, the Holy Doors have long been a subject of intrigue for paranormal investigators. Are these doors truly portals to a higher realm, or is it simply the power of belief that makes them so spiritually potent? Join us as we uncover the supernatural mysteries surrounding this ancient and sacred Catholic tradition on this episode of the 222 Paranormal Podcast! The opening of the Holy Doors is a ceremony that takes place at the beginning of a Jubilee Year in the Catholic Church. The Pope opens the doors, which are sealed from the inside, to mark the start of a Holy Year. How it works     The Pope symbolically pushes the door open.     The doors remain open for the entire year, allowing pilgrims to pass through.     The doors are sealed again after the Jubilee. Why it's important     The opening of the Holy Doors symbolizes forgiveness and renewal. It also symbolizes the journey of conversion and the encounter with Christ. The message of the Holy Doors is that God's mercy reaches out to mankind. When it happens The Holy Doors are only opened during a Jubilee Year, which occurs every 25 years. The last Jubilee Year was in 2000, and the next one will be in 2025. Where it happens     The Holy Doors are located in the four major basilicas of Rome:         St. Peter's Basilica         St. John Lateran         St. Paul Outside the Walls         St. Mary Major Discover the world of the supernatural with the 222 Paranormal Podcast, your ultimate source for spine-chilling tales and expert insights into the unknown. Each episode delves into a variety of paranormal phenomena, from ghostly hauntings and cryptid encounters to unexplained mysteries and psychic phenomena. Join us as we interview leading experts, investigate haunted locations, and share true stories that will keep you on the edge of your seat. Our podcast covers everything from the latest in ghost hunting technology to historical accounts of paranormal events. Whether you're a seasoned investigator or just fascinated by the supernatural, our content is designed to captivate and inform. Tune in to our Paranormal Podcast for engaging discussions, detailed investigations, and thought-provoking theories that challenge the boundaries of reality. We also offer practical tips for aspiring ghost hunters and reviews of essential paranormal equipment. Don't miss out on our exclusive episodes that explore the most haunted places and the most enigmatic phenomena. Subscribe now to stay updated with our latest content and join a community of paranormal enthusiasts eager to explore the mysteries of the beyond. Experience the thrill of the unknown with the 222 Paranormal Podcast today!

This blogcast explores “Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence" written and read by Jonathan Sitko.In this blog post, Jonathan reflects on the popular Advent hymn and it's connection to the Nativity of Christ. As a brief refresher, it is a song whose lyrics are based on the Divine Liturgy of St. James and has been used as a hymn in Greek since around the third or fourth century. Speaking about the awesome power of Christ and his gift to us through the Eucharist in vanquishing the powers of hell and bringing eternal light, this hymn was revitalized during the Oxford Movement of the 19th Century and adapted to English. For Catholics, we believe in the Real Presence, so our understanding and awe hopefully go much deeper when sung with lyrics such as: “King of kings, yet born of Mary,As of old on earth He stood,Lord of lords, in human vesture,In the body and the blood;He will give to all the faithfulHis own self for heav'nly food.” For me, this song about Christ Jesus descending and giving of his own life and blood for us – simply because he loves us – is a powerful and calming reminder of what Advent is really about. It is not just about Christmas, and the gift giving, or even just the celebration of Christ's birth. His birth is not what saved humanity. It was his sacrificial death and gift of the Eucharist that provides us that opportunity to join him in heaven for eternity as fulfillment of the covenant between God and his people. In a season with some of the darkest and coldest days for us in America, a song like this helps us remember that even in our darkest moments, Christ is there as a hopeful light. While the season of Advent is wrapping up, I invite you to take a few moments during your busy season to reflect on the power and awesome love of God's gift to us, and the preparations we need to make for his return. Author:Jonathan Sitko is the Director of Programs for the Catholic Apostolate Center, where he focuses on managing and implementing programmatic elements of the Center. His work also includes coordinating relationships with the Center's affiliates and collaborating organizations, including the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, St. Joseph's College Online, and SLIconnect – an online formation ministry at St. Luke's Institute. He also manages program development for any Center-focused programs and production, including webinars and videos, websites and online resources, podcasts and other audio productions, and events. Follow us:The Catholic Apostolate CenterThe Center's podcast websiteInstagramFacebookApple PodcastsSpotify Fr. Frank Donio, S.A.C. also appears on the podcast, On Mission, which is produced by the Catholic Apostolate Center and you can also listen to his weekly Sunday Gospel reflections. Follow the Center on Facebook, Instagram, X (Twitter), and YouTube to remain up-to-date on the latest Center resources.

It's Monday, November 4, A.D. 2024. This is The Worldview in 5 Minutes heard on 125 radio stations and at www.TheWorldview.com.  I'm Adam McManus. (Adam@TheWorldview.com) By Adam McManus International Day of Prayer for the Persecuted Yesterday was the International Day of Prayer for the Persecuted!    If you missed it, get your free prayer guide through a special link in our transcript today at www.TheWorldview.com.  Find out how to pray across six regions of the world. Plus, access inspiring stories and specific scriptures to pray. For example, Pemaya, a Hindu witch doctor in Nepal, was tormented by spirits.  PEMAYA: “My grandson started attending church for a couple of weeks. He would sing the songs in the morning and the evening.  He told me church is so good and joyful. And he brought the New Testament and read it to me. And when he was reading I felt really joyful.” Like thousands of other new believers, she received an audio Bible that allowed her to hear God's Word despite her inability to read it. In the face of her family's threats of abandonment and persecution, she trusted Jesus Christ as her Savior and was baptized. Dr. James Dobson shares his presidential voting guide In light of tomorrow's presidential election, Dr. James Dobson, host of Family Talk heard on 1,300 radio stations, put together a compelling presidential voting guide. In announcing this guide, he wrote, “We are living in a time of great moral divide. Unless Christians engage in the upcoming election, this beloved land of liberty, which has been a beacon of hope to the world through the centuries, may become a distant memory that future generations will only read about in history books. It saddens me to think that this could be the fate of our children and grandchildren. “I pray for the emergence of Americans who will come out of their hiding places to let their voices be heard on Election Day, November 5th.” Get Dr. Dobson's voter's guide in our transcript at www.TheWorldview.com.  And please share it widely on social media! Joshua 24:14-15 says, “Now therefore, fear the Lord and serve Him in sincerity and in faithfulness. Put away the gods that your fathers served beyond the River and in Egypt, and serve the Lord. … As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.” Excellent voter guidance on your state-wide races For guidance on your Senatorial, Congressional, and other state-wide races, go to iVoterguide.com. After you type in your address, you'll find federal and state candidate scorecards, contributions they've made and received, endorsements by groups, and answers to the conservative Christian iVoterGuide.com questionnaire. The legislative candidates are ranked from liberal to conservative and the judicial candidates are ranked from activist to originalist -- referring to the U.S. Constitution. Trump: Liz Cheney is “a radical war hawk” On October 31st, Donald Trump talked with Tucker Carlson for 90 minutes in Glendale, Arizona about his candidacy. He took issue with former GOP Congresswoman Liz Cheney of Wyoming, who has endorsed Kamala Harris, for being a war hawk. TRUMP:  “The reason she couldn't stand me is that she always wanted to go to war with people I don't want to go to war. She wanted to go she wanted to stay in Syria. I took them out. She wanted to stay in Iraq. I took them out. I mean, if it were up to her, we'd be in 50 different countries. Number one, it's very dangerous. Number two, a lot of people get killed. And number three, I mean, it's very, very expensive. We spent $9 trillion bombing the Middle East. And what did we get? Other than lots of dead people, including our people, we got nothing.” Trump emphasized that Liz Cheney liked to sound tough in her former ivory tower when sending American soldiers to unnecessary wars. TRUMP: “She's a radical war hawk. Let's put her with a rifle standing there with nine barrels shooting at her, okay? Let's see how she feels about it, you know, when the guns are trained on her face. You know, they're all war hawks when they're sitting in Washington. Let's send, let's send 10,000 troops right into the mouth of the enemy.” Kamala Harris, the Democratic Presidential nominee, claimed that Trump's rhetoric was violent. HARRIS: “He has increased his violent rhetoric, Donald Trump has, about political opponents and in great detail. Suggested rifles should be trained on former representative Liz Cheney. This must be disqualifying anyone who wants to be president of the United States who uses that kind of violent rhetoric is clearly disqualified and unqualified to be president.” Cardinal urges Catholics to vote for most pro-life presidential candidate On October 31st, EWTN anchor Raymond Orroyo interviewed U.S. Cardinal Raymond Burke about the moral obligation for Catholics to vote, reports LifeSiteNews.com. ARROYO:  “Cardinal Burke, you recently posted moral questions regarding voting on your website. It's a guide for Catholics voting in the U.S. election next week. And you write this. ‘For Catholics, as for all men and women of good will, the question is, in fulfilling our civic duty to vote, how can we be obedient to the law of God written upon our hearts in the present situation of deplorable moral, and therefore cultural, decline and decay.' “In your guide, you emphasize human life, marriage, family, religious freedom as the pre-eminent issues for the common good for Catholics to consider as they go into the voting place. How and why should Catholics prioritize those above party allegiance or personality which seems to govern a lot of the vote today?” BURKE:  “We are servants of God, first of all, and being good servants of God, then we are good servants to our country. And if we don't obey God's law, then we're not going to serve well our country.  And so, these three goods -- human life from its inception to natural death, safeguarding the integrity of marriage and the family, and religious freedom, are written on the human heart. That's how God made us, inscribed His law on our hearts. “We must be obedient to that law. And in that obedience, we serve not only our own good, but the good of our neighbor, the good of the nation. And so, it's as simple as that.” Psalm 19:7-11 says, “The law of the LORD is perfect, reviving the soul. The testimony of the LORD is sure, making wise the simple. The precepts of the LORD are right, rejoicing the heart. The commandment of the LORD is pure, enlightening the eyes. The fear of the LORD is clean, enduring forever.” Dog rescued from floating shopping cart in canal And finally, a 10-year-old dog was rescued after it was found floating down an Arizona canal on a submerged shopping cart, reports the Good News Network. No one knows how long it was stranded, After passersby alerted the Humane Society, an emergency animal medical technician and some firemen were able to save it. Upon examination by a vet, they discovered it only sustained minor injuries. After news reports of the dog trauma, the dog named Dorothea has since found a new home and is now living with a family in Youngtown, Arizona. Close And that's The Worldview on this Monday, November 4, in the year of our Lord 2024. Subscribe by Amazon Music or by iTunes or email to our unique Christian newscast at www.TheWorldview.com. Or get the Generations app through Google Play or The App Store. I'm Adam McManus (Adam@TheWorldview.com). Seize the day for Jesus Christ.

In this episode, we delve into the heart of the Catholic faith—the Eucharist. For Catholics, the Eucharist is a profound and central mystery, yet it can be challenging to understand its depth and significance. We'll start with the basics, using real-life stories and questions to explore the beauty and miracle of the Eucharist. Join us as we uncover why the Eucharist holds such an essential place in a Catholic's daily life.   The Golden Box (Tabernacle): Exploring why Catholics kneel before the tabernacle and what it signifies. The Real Presence of Jesus: Understanding how and why Jesus chose to remain with us in the form of the Eucharist. How the Eucharist Nourishes Our Lives: Examining the spiritual nourishment the Eucharist provides. Helping Children Understand Eucharistic Reverence: How parents can teach their children the importance of reverence toward the Eucharist. Practical Tips for Fostering a Love for the Eucharist in Your Children: Strategies to increase and sustain your children's love and devotion to the Eucharist.   You can:  Follow us on Instagram @growingheartspodcast  Find out more about the Pared Foundation: visit our website  Discover our schools by visiting: pared.edu.au/openday  Remember to hit FOLLOW so you don't miss out on any of our future episodes 

https://www.foxnews.com/lifestyle/ultraviolet-light-reveals-scientists-hidden-bible-passage-1500-years-later (for Luke) Unique passages: https://www.julianspriggs.co.uk/pages/UniquePassages  Bibleref.com commentary on Mark 6:5: https://www.bibleref.com/Mark/6/Mark-6-5.html  Thanks Biblehub.com's parallel chapters tool.   Words of Jesus ("All the Red Letter Scriptures") https://www.jesusbelieverjd.com/all-the-red-letter-scriptures-of-jesus-in-the-bible-kjv/    Parallel Passages in the Gospels https://www.bible-researcher.com/parallels.html#sect1     The Eye of the Needle (crossword/sudoku feedback): https://www.theguardian.com/notesandqueries/query/0,5753,-25583,00.html#:~:text=The%20%22Eye%20of%20the%20Needle,in%20order%20to%20enter%20heaven   Camel needle w/Aquinas citation (of Anselm of Canterbury)-- Anselm of Canterbury as cited in Catena Aurea, Thomas Aquinas, CCEL Edition. https://classictheology.org/2021/10/12/through-the-eye-of-an-actual-needle-the-fake-gate-theory/    The Widow's Mite: https://numismatics.org/pocketchange/the-poor-widows-mite/    Miracles of Jesus reference list: https://sunnyhillschurch.com/3301/the-37-miracles-of-jesus-in-chronological-order/ LINK BIBLEREF.COM MENTIONED IN CHAPTER 8 SECTION (“Can't” do miracles in hometown- keyword absolute for lookup)   Welcome to the Popeular History Podcast: History through Pope Colored Glasses. My name is Gregg and this is episode 0.21f: Sayings of the Savior Part VI: Messages from Mark.   All of these aught episodes are made to let us build our Pope-colored glasses so we can use the same lenses when we look at history together. If you're lost, start at the beginning!   In previous worldbuilding episodes, we looked at quite a few of Jesus' words: the sermon on the mount and the sermon on the plain, plus all the Parables and miracles on our list, and his sayings closely tied to all those.   All that made for a good start, but if we're going to look at the sayings of the Savior, we should be comprehensive to avoid cherry-picking. So we spent the last of these worldbuilding episodes going chapter by chapter through the first gospel in order of appearance, the Gospel of Matthew, up until things caught up with where our rosary themed tour of the New Testament will carry on when we get to the next mystery. I am aware that what was once upon a time supposed to be a couple quick background episodes introducing my listeners to, well, all of Catholicism has ballooned wildly into wheels within wheels, but hey, I wouldn't have it any other way.   Anyways, next up in the traditional ordering is the Gospel of Mark, so that's our mission today. We'll go chapter by chapter, glossing over what we've already discussed and focusing on the Sayings of the Savior, since, you know, that's the deal here.   MARK 1 opens with a description of Jesus' cousin John the Baptist, and you'll never guess what John does to Jesus when He shows up. Actually you probably will because I was trying to set you up with a fake out where John refuses to baptize Jesus but it turns out that initial refusal is in Matthew but is absent from Mark's generally sparse account. Anyways, we get Jesus' first words in Mark only after he's baptized and had an express version of the temptation in the desert. Sometime after John was arrested, we're told Jesus preached a message that sounded a lot like what John had been saying,   MARK 1:15 “The time has come,” … “The kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the good news!”   GREGG Of course we just got a bit meta, since “Good news” is where the word Gospel comes from. A very “Begun, the Clone Wars have” moment. This urgent call to repentance has been a consistent refrain throughout Christian history, with the good news bring that repentance really can lead to reconciliation with God. Shoutout 0.1 if you need a refresher on why such a reconciliation is needed in the Catholic perspective.   Having begun to declare the Good News, Jesus the Christ soon picks out folks to help him, starting, like all good missions, with a pun. Talking to two fishermen, the brothers Simon and Andrew, Jesus says   MARK 1:   Follow me, and I will make you become fishers of men   GREGG When I covered this section in Matthew- we're deep in parallels here- I stuck with my usual NIV translation. Not because I'm an NIV snob, but because the New International Version is the one that shows up first on biblegateway.com and it's good enough, especially when I'm doing a LOT of scripture quoting like I have been with this series.   But because the NIV went for inclusivity, they translated the line as “make you fish for people”, which simply isn't as smooth a pun. I did check with my toddler-level skills and it looks to me like the pun is present in the Greek, so it's worth calling out. Jesus' humor is often downplayed, which is a shame.   If you're wondering why I'm going on about this, well, honestly, Mark is short and we've already covered most of what's there in Matthew. So we might as well take our time. There's plenty there, to be clear, I don't want angry letters from scholars whose primary focus is Mark saying I'm dismissing it offhand.   Alright, enough dilly dallying, what's next? Jesus calls more fishermen–the sons of Zebedee, James and John–but His actual words and possible new pun are not recorded. The next time he speaks he's talking to a demon in one of the healing miracles we discussed in 0.20, followed by another miracle–the healing of Simon's mother in law–later in the same chapter. Then, after assorted other miracles, Jesus goes out to pray by Himself in what's described as a quote unquote “desolate place”. When His disciples track Him down and tell Him everyone is looking for Him, He says   MARK 1:38 Let us go somewhere else--to the nearby villages--so I can preach there also. That is why I have come.   GREGG Though Jesus' disciples did in fact say no to Him on a downright alarming number of occasions, they went along with His plan this time, and another montage of undescribed healings and exorcisms finishes off with the healing of a grateful leper who ignores Jesus' command to tell no one. Mark 1 concludes with Jesus getting mobbed with requests for miracles as a result.   Chapter 2 opens with the healing of the paralytic who had been let in via the roof–a great bit of drama, but something we already covered under our review of miracles. After that, He called His tax collector disciple, who we got to know as Matthew in the Gospel of, well, Matthew, but who's listed as Levi here and in Luke. Using different names in different contexts was absolutely a thing,  but both Matthew and Levi are Hebrew names so the usual Greek vs Hebrew divide doesn't seem to be the culprit here, and what's more neither Mark nor Luke explicitly identify Levi with the apostle Matthew, though the inference isn't a terrible reach over all.   In the end, our main hook in this particular series is the actual sayings of the Savior, and this calling is carried out with a simple “follow me”, so perhaps we shouldn't dive into it too much.   After taking out a section of parables we covered in 0.21c as part of a SYNOPTIC ROUNDUP, we arrive at Mark 2:23, notably without leaving the SYNOPTIC ROUNDUP room because you can also follow along in Matthew 12 and Luke 6. As a reminder if you're rusty on Jewish customs, the Sabbath rest begins Friday at sundown and continues through the day on Saturday. Picking grain as we're going to see here would be considered working on the day of rest and therefore a violation.   MARK (2:23-2:28, NIV)) 23 One Sabbath Jesus was going through the grainfields, and as his disciples walked along, they began to pick some heads of grain.   24 The Pharisees said to him, "Look, why are they doing what is unlawful on the Sabbath?”   25 He answered, "Have you never read what David did when he and his companions were hungry and in need?   26 in the days of Abiathar the high priest, he entered the house of God and ate the consecrated bread, which is lawful only for priests to eat. And he also gave some to his companions."   27 Then he said to them, "The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.   28 So the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath.”   GREGG this section is one of the earlier signals of what would become a core piece of Christianity: its distancing from the Law of Moses. There are still aspects of continuity, for example most Christians including Catholics actually do still maintain *a* day of rest, just Sunday rather than Saturday and they'll generally skip the night before business though some of that has carried over in the form of vigil practices, as we'll see when we get there.   Anyways, I've always thought those last couple lines were pretty baller, and it turns out they're one of the few bits unique to Mark, so let's go ahead and hear them again:   QUOTE The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. So the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath. END QUOTE   This bold claim lies at the heart of what will in time lead to the followers of Christ being seen as a religion separate from Judaism, which is fair enough but also don't sleep on just how much that takes, given there's such a thing as secular Jews and Jewish atheists. There have been other messiah movements in Jewish history; though they fizzled out it's not much of a stretch to imagine a world where Christianity is still seen as part of a wide tent Judaism, indeed there is still a common heritage. But there are absolutely differences as well, principally, of course, centered around Jesus, the Son of Man, Lord of the Sabbath.   That other part   “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.”   is the context for the start of the next chapter, serving as a good reminder that, while convenient for finding your place, chapter and verse divisions are not part of the original texts of the Bible, so it's important to not treat them as fences where you have to stop. You see, in Mark 3 we have the healing of the man with a withered hand in the synagogue on the Sabbath:   MARK 3 2 Some of them were looking for a reason to accuse Jesus, so they watched him closely to see if he would heal him on the Sabbath. 3 Jesus said to the man with the shriveled hand, "Stand up in front of everyone.” 4 Then Jesus asked them, "Which is lawful on the Sabbath: to do good or to do evil, to save life or to kill?" But they remained silent.   GREGG I mean, it's a bit of a false dichotomy perhaps, are those really the only two options? But obviously I'm siding with Jesus here, mark me down as pro-healing when one can heal. And yeah, we actually already covered that exchange when we talked about the miracle in our miracles roundup, but the words are important there and Mark is short so forgive me for fitting it in here too.   Mark 3 continues with Jesus dealing with crowds now that word is getting around due to His miracles, and simultaneously He's ordering demons not to share the apparent secret that He is quote “the holy one of God”. We don't have his exact words in commanding the demons here so there's more room for interpretation than usual but the general take on these sort of passages is that it's tied to His time not having yet come to be revealed as the Messiah. Of course, unless I missed something, the specific instances where Jesus talks about His time having not yet come are in the Gospel of John, so reading that into Mark is something most modern scholars wouldn't go for- especially since the general consensus is Mark came first by a fair stretch- but that sort of quibble wasn't much of a barrier for most of the history of Christians reflecting on Scripture, so the traditional interpretation is what it is and I don't think it's too much of a reach.   After telling assorted demons to hush up, Jesus appoints the Twelve Apostles starting in verse 13, no direct quotes there so no need to tarry though interested folks are always welcome to check out the naming differences between the Gospels.   Starting in verse 20 we have the house divided parable, covered in our parables series a few episodes back, then in verse 28 we hit “the unpardonable sin” section, and believe it or not it's not being a weeb, it turns out it's, well, let's let Jesus explain:   MARK 3 28 Truly I tell you, people can be forgiven all their sins and every slander they utter, 29 But whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will never be forgiven; they are guilty of an eternal sin."   GREGG When we covered the parallel text of this in Matthew 12–seriously, over 90% of Mark is parallelled in Matthew–I focused on the idea of the sin against the Spirit as being despair. But Mark's telling has a bit of context that has lead to another popular interpretation, especially among–Catholics cover your ears– *whispers* Protestants.   MARK 3 30He said this because they were saying, "He has an impure spirit.”   GREGG Using that verse, which at a glance is simply explaining why Jesus said what He said, the passage is taken to mean that rejecting Jesus as the Son of God slash Savior slash Messiah is the sin against the Spirit being referred to here. And though I called out Protestants specifically a minute ago, it's not like that interpretation is unheard of within Catholicism, typically it's a both/and sort of thing, accepting the despair angle and the “ya'll need Jesus” angle. Nor are the two interpretations unrelated, as someone wholly given to despair will have a hard time accepting Jesus' offer of salvation.   Of course, when I speak of accepting Jesus' offer of salvation, now I really AM getting into the fundamental faith vs works discussion. That's faith and works in the context of salvation from sin. We'll be getting into it in more detail in future episodes, but as an overview all major forms of Christianity agree that faith in the saving power of Jesus Christ is fundamentally necessary for salvation. The disagreement comes in whether anything else plays any role- “anything else” being summed up under the umbrella term of “works”, or it might help to rephrase the question as whether our actions have any meaning when it comes to our salvation.   For Catholics, the answer is yes, while for most Protestants, the answer is no. Generally speaking when there are fights about it, Protestants will take the position that your works having meaning, as Catholics argue is the case, means that you can save yourself through your works. Some people do think that, of course, but not Catholics, at least not Catholics who know their onions, as the Catholic Church condemned that position as a heresy over thousand years before Protestantism became a thing. However, the Church is far from perfect, and in the time of Martin Luther, whose teachings are typically seen as the spark that ignited the Protestant Reformation, it's clear that some within the Church were comfortable blurring the lines for financial gain.   I've got more on faith vs works and Catholicism vs Protestantism planned for future episodes, and I don't want to bury that conversation where no one will look for it, so let's leave that there for now and get back to Mark, with chapter 3 verse 31 to 35   MARK   31 Then Jesus' mother and brothers arrived. Standing outside, they sent someone in to call him. 32 A crowd was sitting around him, and they told him, "Your mother and brothers are outside looking for you.” 33 "Who are my mother and my brothers?" he asked. 34 Then he looked at those seated in a circle around him and said, "Here are my mother and my brothers! 35 Whoever does God's will is my brother and sister and mother.”   GREGG Thanks to the Marian doctrine of Our Lady's perpetual virginity we discussed back in episode 0.14, the surprising fact that Jesus doesn't immediately attend to his family members isn't the most discussed aspect of this passage when it comes to Catholicism. No, that would be the fact that Jesus' brothers, the Greek term is Adelphoi, show up. Generally these are understood as Jesus' half brothers, via his earthly father Saint Joseph from a previous marriage.   As for the question of whether Jesus just kind of blew off his family here, half brothers or cousins or full brothers or whoever was there with Mary, while I can see how you might get that impression, it's not like His every action is recorded. It's entirely possible that He checked in with them after making a quick positive observation- one that I don't want to lose in the rest of this analysis so I'll repeat it:   MARK 3 “35 Whoever does God's will is my brother and sister and mother.”   GREGG   Anyways, as is the custom with Mark, we're on to the next scene in a hurry, launching into Mark 4 with the next verse as a classic transition:   MARK 4 1 Again Jesus began to teach by the lake.   GREGG I'm not going to go into detail about what He taught by the lake here, because Chapter 4 is made up entirely of miracles and parables we've already covered in 0.20 and earlier in 0.21, respectively. We've got the Parable of the Sower, then the Lamp on a Stand, then the Growing Seed and the Mustard Seed, capped off by Mark's account of Jesus calming the storm at sea.   Similarly, Mark 5 is a string of by-now familiar miracles- and if any don't seem familiar you know by now Miracles are in one of the 0.20 episodes, right? The Gerasene Demoniac, the Bleeding Woman, Jairus' Daughter, they're all there, and in Mark 5 too.   Mark 6 give us a bit more food for thought on Jesus' local life and family dynamic. A sign of how things hit differently at home, it's worth a long quote:   MARK 6:1-6 6 Jesus left there and went to his hometown, accompanied by his disciples. 2 When the Sabbath came, he began to teach in the synagogue, and many who heard him were amazed.   “Where did this man get these things?” they asked. “What's this wisdom that has been given him? What are these remarkable miracles he is performing? 3 Isn't this the carpenter? Isn't this Mary's son and the brother of James, Joseph, Judas and Simon? Aren't his sisters here with us?” And they took offense at him.   4 Jesus said to them, “A prophet is not without honor except in his own town, among his relatives and in his own home.” 5 He could not do any miracles there, except lay his hands on a few sick people and heal them. 6 He was amazed at their lack of faith.   GREGG Many of Jesus' sayings have become proverbial, and while it's not in the level of turning the other cheek, “a prophet is not without honor except in his own town” has some popularity. It does seem to speak to a common truth of celebrities.   I do like the touch that He was unable to do any miracles there except for the miracles which He did do, which evidently still failed to impress. Of course, the idea of Jesus being *unable* to do miracles is theologically interesting, since He's, you know, God. Of course, God does seem to have had some trouble dealing with iron chariots back in Judges 1:19, so maybe there is some precedent.   But we've got our Pope-colored glasses on, so not only is Jesus God but God is omnipotent, so it's fair to ask: what gives? It could be that old favorite, the translation issue, but I admit my personal Greek skills are basically at the naming barnyard animals level, so I decided to bring in an expert to verify. An expert by the name of bibleref.com, linked in the show notes. Their commentary on the passage notes that in the parallel passage in Matthew, it simply says Jesus “did not” perform many miracles in his hometown, which isn't as controversial though of course it's always fair to ask why God doesn't just fix everything for everyone since he's all good and all knowing and all powerful. But that popular question isn't where we're at today because apparently it's not a translation issue, Mark 6:5 does specifically say Jesus *could not* perform the miracles in the Greek according to the commentary. But it goes on to note that there can be multiple senses of inability, like how you can't touch the ball when playing soccer, or football for my non-US listeners, and yeah, I'm not counting goalies. Anyways, obviously you can physically touch the ball, but you cannot in the sense that it's against the established rules of the game. If that's the sense, it makes some sense that Jesus quote unquote “can't” perform miracles in His hometown because His miracles are supposed to draw people to Him and they aren't having that effect at home. At least not much, keep in mind he did do some miracles there according to Mark, so in any event the whole “can't” thing definitely isn't absolute.   Of course, I personally find it awful to think that God would play games with our salvation- hence my quasi-universalism. I get respecting our free will, but I also know He's omnipotent and isn't going to give up on us, no matter how much we try to give up on ourselves if there's another chance we can get He's going to give that to us. But we have to accept at some point, so don't think I'm downplaying the urgency there.   Anyways, let's get back to Mark 6, now in Verse 8 where He's sending the disciples out in pairs with the following instructions:   MARK 6:8-11   8 Take nothing for the journey except a staff--no bread, no bag, no money in your belts.   9 Wear sandals but not an extra shirt.   10 Whenever you enter a house, stay there until you leave that town.   11 And if any place will not welcome you or listen to you, leave that place and shake the dust off your feet as a testimony against them.”   GREGG As you should by now have come to expect, these instructions do have a parallel in Matthew that we covered in the last worldbuilding episode. But it's not as close a parallel as you might think. Often, as we've talked about before, parallels in the synoptic gospels are so close that you'd get dinged for plagiarism, with maybe a word being changed here or there. But here, it basically reads like two different people were told to write down a speech shortly after they finished hearing it. Which, I mean, matches tradition, for what it's worth. The most obvious difference is that Mark's telling skips Matthew's bit about only going to Jewish households, forbidding visits to Gentiles or Samaritans. Though as we've seen Mark's Jesus was already laying the groundwork for some serious reframing of Mosaic Law by taking on the title of Lord of the Sabbath, I think on the whole it's more likely that in Mark's account that's simply taken as a given and perhaps left off for brevity rather than this being a separate incident or its absence being a sign that the disciples were to ignore those cultural barriers at this stage.   The rest of Mark 6 is taken up by his narrative of the death of John the Baptist, where, unusually for the Gospels, Jesus is offstage, and then there's two banner miracles, the Feeding of the 5000 and Jesus walking on water.   Which brings us to Mark 7, which has Jesus… let's see… excoriating the Jewish authorities… then calling a woman a dog… and let's not forget giving someone a wet willy.   Don't believe me? Let's go.   MARK 7   1The Pharisees and some of the teachers of the law who had come from Jerusalem gathered around Jesus 2and saw some of his disciples eating food with hands that were defiled, that is, unwashed. 3(The Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they give their hands a ceremonial washing, holding to the tradition of the elders. 4When they come from the marketplace they do not eat unless they wash. And they observe many other traditions, such as the washing of cups, pitchers and kettles.) 5So the Pharisees and teachers of the law asked Jesus, "Why don't your disciples live according to the tradition of the elders instead of eating their food with defiled hands?” 6He replied, "Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you hypocrites; as it is written: "'These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. 7They worship me in vain; their teachings are merely human rules.' 8You have let go of the commands of God and are holding on to human traditions.” 9And he continued, "You have a fine way of setting aside the commands of God in order to observe your own traditions! 10For Moses said, 'Honor your father and mother,' and, 'Anyone who curses their father or mother is to be put to death.' 11But you say that if anyone declares that what might have been used to help their father or mother is Corban (that is, devoted to God)-- 12then you no longer let them do anything for their father or mother. 13Thus you nullify the word of God by your tradition that you have handed down. And you do many things like that.”   GREGG Note that while there's a close parallel between these passages and Matthew 15, Mark is apparently much more concerned with explaining Jewish custom to his audience, suggesting the intended audience is not Jews themselves.   The rest of the chapter we've covered before, from the Parable of the Heart of Man to the two miracles that give the tibits I teased earlier. Jesus calls the syrophoenician woman a dog in the runup to healing her servant, and he totally heals a deaf guy via wet willy at the end of the chapter. But I already covered both of those in 0.20c, so check them out there for more.   So that means we're on to Chapter 8, which opens with… another miracle! Turns out Jesus did a lot of those! Who knew?   That's the feeding of the four thousand, but you know the drill, we're skipping that and on ahead to verse 12, where Jesus is responding to a group of Pharisees asking for a sign.   MARK 8:12 He sighed deeply and said, "Why does this generation ask for a sign? Truly I tell you, no sign will be given to it."   GREGG Ok. Remembering that by a sign here they mean a miracle, we've got the guy known for working miracles getting annoyed at requests for miracles. Why? You'd think He'd be all about that. Is it another sort of hometown situation, where folk's lack of faith is an impediment?   Well, kind of sort of. But not quite.   In the parallel passage from Matthew 16, which I admit I kind of glossed over last time because I was excited to get to the Papally significant Matthew 16:18, Jesus calls those asking for a sign “a wicked and adulterous generation”, which can help explain why Jesus is refusing the request–after all even in Mark's shorter version their motives are implicitly questioned, with Jesus asking why they're asking for a sign.   The typical interpretation goes that Jesus is refusing the request for a sign because the Pharisees have the wrong *motives* in asking. Unlike those in His hometown, they seem to believe Jesus can work miracles, but they just want to see a show, they aren't interested in Jesus' message beyond that. And Jesus for His part, is interested in signs *for the sake of* His message, He isn't there to entertain.   These various passages that show Jesus specifically not working miracles could be taken to suggest some embarrassment by the authors about Jesus' miracles not being as renowned as they would like, forcing them to give explanations for why that's the case. I can definitely picture some neckbeard arguing if God wanted to make everyone believe he'd make miracles known to all and be undeniable. Which is a reasonable enough thought except unless God removes free will, there's never going to be such a thing as undeniable anyways.   In the next few verses, Jesus warns against the teachings of the Pharisees and Herod. Though technically the “teachings” part isn't spelled out in Mark, so it could be He's actually meaning to go in another direction with things than He does in Matthew's version, though I think their teaching or at least their general influence is His most likely target. Let's hear it and regroup after.   MARK 8 14-15 14The disciples had forgotten to bring bread, except for one loaf they had with them in the boat.   15"Be careful," Jesus warned them. "Watch out for the yeast of the Pharisees and that of Herod.”   GREGG Certainly He isn't talking about literal bread, as is evidenced from His reaction. Also, it's interesting that Mark warns against Herod's yeast specifically, while Matthew leaves Herod off in favor of tossing in the Sadducees to accompany the Pharisees. If Mark is the rougher, earlier version as most scholars currently argue–and as I'm inclined to believe looking at the two side by side these last few months–then it seems like one can argue Matthew's account has been modified to perhaps be a little more authority-friendly in this case, keeping in mind the Herodians were the client-kings in charge of the area in Jesus' day. Check out 0.13 on the Hasmoneans for more on that.   After a miracle interlude–healing the blind man in a two-step process where the miracle is evidently incomplete at first–a fairly intriguing Mark-only one that is arguably sanitized out of other accounts, but one we already covered so I'm not getting back into it today– anyways after that we hit Mark's account of Peter's testament, you know, with the binding and loosing and the keys and all that. Except actually *without* all that in Mark's version.   Here's the whole exchange as Mark tells it:   MARK 8:27-30 27Jesus and his disciples went on to the villages around Caesarea Philippi. On the way he asked them, "Who do people say I am?” 28They replied, "Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, one of the prophets.” 29"But what about you?" he asked. "Who do you say I am?" Peter answered, "You are the Messiah.” 30Jesus warned them not to tell anyone about him.   GREGG Like I said, not a key in sight. Peter does give the critical answer, but none of what would become the principal text for the Papacy is presented here. And again, if you consider Mark as the older account, as most scholars do, it's fair to raise an eyebrow at that. Yet in the end, one way or another, we have a Pope, and I do think there's something to be said for the unifying force of the role. After all, if no one is Pope, then everyone is Pope. But I digress.   Of course, poor Peter can only wish he were simply downplayed in Mark 8. The reality is he does pop up again later in the chapter, in a familiar but unflattering way:   MARK 8:31- 31He then began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests and the teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and after three days rise again. 32He spoke plainly about this, and Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. 33But when Jesus turned and looked at his disciples, he rebuked Peter. "Get behind me, Satan!" he said. "You do not have in mind the concerns of God, but merely human concerns.”   GREGG So there you go. If you want to make a case for the Pope not always being right, there's an easy one. Not everyone gets called Satan by, well, God. Of course, there's a surprising amount of room where you can accept Papal Infallibility *and* the idea that the Pope isn't always right, but we'll get to that in time.   The chapter finishes with Jesus reflecting on what his stated fate means for his followers, and it's, uh, not the cheeriest image. It bleeds into chapter 9 so don't put your Bible down too quickly If you're following along.   MARK 8:34-9:1   34Then he called the crowd to him along with his disciples and said: "Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. 35For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me and for the gospel will save it. 36What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul? 37Or what can anyone give in exchange for their soul? 38If anyone is ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will be ashamed of them when he comes in his Father's glory with the holy angels. CHAPTER 9 1And he said to them, "Truly I tell you, some who are standing here will not taste death before they see that the kingdom of God has come with power.   GREGG Goodness, Jesus, it's hard for me to keep my running joke of treating the Crucifixion as a spoiler when you're literally telling your disciples to take up their crosses before it actually happens. Oh well.   Mark 9 continues with The Transfiguration, but like I mentioned in our Matthew discussion, that's it's own mystery of the rosary that we haven't gotten to yet, so pardon me and I'll skip that here too.   After that, we have a miracle- the boy with an unclean spirit that can only be driven out by prayer and fasting. So on to verse 30, where we have more talk of the upcoming Passion:   MARK 9:30-32 “30They left that place and passed through Galilee. Jesus did not want anyone to know where they were, 31because he was teaching his disciples. He said to them, "The Son of Man is going to be delivered into the hands of men. They will kill him, and after three days he will rise.” 32But they did not understand what he meant and were afraid to ask him about it.   GREGG Jesus was speaking pretty plainly here, so it's not immediately clear why the disciples didn't understand what Jesus meant, but it's probably related to the way Jesus keeps telling folks either to talk or not to talk about things. There's definitely a focus on pacing the spread of the Good News throughout the Gospels, especially in Mark, and it seems like a supernatural barrier to the Apostles' understanding here would fit in with that.   The fear of asking is more easily explained: if someone you know is really good at making predictions and you're pretty sure they just predicted something awful, you may well be hesitant to confirm that with them.   Being hesitant to talk about stuff with Jesus carries us into the next few verses, where Jesus apparently puts His omniscience to good use in a wonderfully passive-aggressive way:   MARK 9: 33-35 33They came to Capernaum. When he was in the house, he asked them, "What were you arguing about on the road?" 34But they kept quiet because on the way they had argued about who was the greatest. 35Sitting down, Jesus called the Twelve and said, "Anyone who wants to be first must be the very last, and the servant of all.”   GREGG The first will be last is one of Jesus' recurring themes, and the whole “I'm-pretty-sure-I-heard-you-but-since-you-won't-confirm-I'm-just-going-to-respond-indirectly approach reminds me of dealing with the drama of children, though I suppose a lot of things remind me of interacting with children these days given my current life situation, and that approach is not necessarily one that exclusively applies to children. Either way, Jesus does bring children into the conversation as His next move.   MARK 9:36-37 36He took a little child whom he placed among them. Taking the child in his arms, he said to them, 37"Whoever welcomes one of these little children in my name welcomes me; and whoever welcomes me does not welcome me but the one who sent me.”   GREGG That passage is one of the more often-remembered portions of the Gospels, in part because it's in all three synoptics [air horn], but also in part because it's a handy pastoral lesson to push back on folks who might complain about the presence of children in worship services. As they say, if no one in your church is cryin', it's dyin'.   Next up we have some verses you might wish had been left off if you've ever gotten tired of hearing “in Jesus' name” a lot:   MARK 9:38-41 38"Teacher," said John, "we saw someone driving out demons in your name and we told him to stop, because he was not one of us.” 39"Do not stop him," Jesus said. "For no one who does a miracle in my name can in the next moment say anything bad about me, 40for whoever is not against us is for us. 41Truly I tell you, anyone who gives you a cup of water in my name because you belong to the Messiah will certainly not lose their reward.   GREGG Personally I'm thankful for that passage, because I'm a big supporter of ecumenism and cooperation, and “whoever is not against us is for us” is an immensely helpful sentiment in that context.   For the next section, where Jesus gets pretty intense, there are several verses that simply aren't present in my go-to NIV version, presumably for bible nerd manuscript reasons. Now, the point of the Sayings of the Savior series is to make sure we cover *everything* Jesus said in the canonical scriptures, and those verses are speaking lines for Jesus, so that won't do. Thankfully the King James version has us covered, so I'm going to switch to that for those verses.   So you can tell the difference easily, I'll be switching to a guest narrator as well. Lebron James hasn't responded to my calls, so the King James Version of the King James Version will have to wait, but my brother has come in clutch for podcast purposes. PJHERE MARK 9:42-48 42"If anyone causes one of these little ones--those who believe in me--to stumble, it would be better for them if a large millstone were hung around their neck and they were thrown into the sea. 43If your hand causes you to stumble, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life maimed than with two hands to go into hell, where the fire never goes out. [NIV leaves off verse 44 “44Where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched.”-KJV] 45And if your foot causes you to stumble, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life crippled than to have two feet and be thrown into hell. [NIV leaves off verse 46 “46Where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched.”-KJV] 47And if your eye causes you to stumble, pluck it out. It is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than to have two eyes and be thrown into hell, NIV leaves off verse 48 “48Where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched.”-KJV]   GREGG So yeah, by “verses” I kind of meant “one verse used as a refrain”, but it's officially verses 44, 46, and 48, so I am technically correct, which I'm told is the best kind of correct.   Thanks to the reference to “leading little ones astray”, the great millstone imagery has had some use in response to the sexual abuse crisis, though the most commonly cited of these evocative instructions is plucking out the eye, thanks in no small part to the frequency of admonitions against pornography in the online era. Cutting off the hand is also referenced, while I think most folks if they're being honest won't even necessarily recall cutting off the foot is among the scenarios mentioned.   Anyways, Jesus finishes this section with a few salty verses that initially bear a strong resemblance to Matthew 5:13- the salt of the earth bit from the Sermon on the Mount. I'm thinking I might have actually pointed these verses out when I was going over that due to the similarity, but just in case, here they are:   MARK 9:49-50 49Everyone will be salted with fire 50"Salt is good, but if it loses its saltiness, how can you make it salty again? Have salt among yourselves, and be at peace with each other.”   GREGG “Have salt among yourselves” is an unusual turn of phrase, the typical interpretation of this Mark-only phrase is that Christians are supposed to bring out the best in one another, the way salt brings out the best in food.   We're now entering Mark 10, which- surprise surprise, has close parallels to Matthew 19 and 20. I'm not going to give the Matthew sections as a side by side, partly because we've already covered them independently, partly because this episode is already going to be one of my longest despite Mark being the shortest Gospel. But it's worth giving it a thorough treatment since scholars tend to think it's the oldest and also because if I'm going to go all-out it might as well be with the shortest of the bunch. You know, for efficiency.   Anyways…   MARK 10:1-12 1Jesus then left that place and went into the region of Judea and across the Jordan. Again crowds of people came to him, and as was his custom, he taught them. 2Some Pharisees came and tested him by asking, "Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?” 3"What did Moses command you?" he replied. 4They said, "Moses permitted a man to write a certificate of divorce and send her away.” 5"It was because your hearts were hard that Moses wrote you this law," Jesus replied. 6"But at the beginning of creation God 'made them male and female.' 7For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, 8and the two will become one flesh.' So they are no longer two, but one flesh. 9Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate.” 10When they were in the house again, the disciples asked Jesus about this. 11He answered, "Anyone who divorces his wife and marries another woman commits adultery against her. 12And if she divorces her husband and marries another man, she commits adultery.”   GREGG This version of Jesus' teaching on marriage and divorce notably does not include the exception for adultery we saw in Matthew's account. Additionally where Matthew focused on Eunuchs for the kingdom–and other kinds of Eunuchs–Mark concluded with that extra condemnation of divorce, with remarriage as adultery.   In the next passage, the conversation changes direction:   MARK 10:13-16 13People were bringing little children to Jesus for him to place his hands on them, but the disciples rebuked them. 14When Jesus saw this, he was indignant. He said to them, "Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. 15Truly I tell you, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.” 16And he took the children in his arms, placed his hands on them and blessed them.   GREGG We'll meet the Church Father who was allegedly one of the children in this scene as we go about our big timeline, once we get through this worldbuilding and go into that. But for now, it's time for one of the most inconvenient passages in the Gospels, at least if you're rich.    MARK 10:17-31 17As Jesus started on his way, a man ran up to him and fell on his knees before him. "Good teacher," he asked, "what must I do to inherit eternal life?” 18"Why do you call me good?" Jesus answered. "No one is good--except God alone. 19You know the commandments: 'You shall not murder, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not steal, you shall not give false testimony, you shall not defraud, honor your father and mother.'” 20"Teacher," he declared, "all these I have kept since I was a boy.” 21Jesus looked at him and loved him. "One thing you lack," he said. "Go, sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.” 22At this the man's face fell. He went away sad, because he had great wealth. 23Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, "How hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God!” 24The disciples were amazed at his words. But Jesus said again, "Children, how hard it is to enter the kingdom of God! 25It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.” 26The disciples were even more amazed, and said to each other, "Who then can be saved?” 27Jesus looked at them and said, "With man this is impossible, but not with God; all things are possible with God.” 28Then Peter spoke up, "We have left everything to follow you!” 29"Truly I tell you," Jesus replied, "no one who has left home or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields for me and the gospel 30will fail to receive a hundred times as much in this present age: homes, brothers, sisters, mothers, children and fields--along with persecutions--and in the age to come eternal life. 31But many who are first will be last, and the last first.”   GREGG There is a surprisingly thorough and ranging discussion of the whole “eye of the needle” bit in the digital edition of the British newspaper The Guardian, in the Nooks and Crannies section of their Notes and Queries page. Which I think makes it the most random thing I've cited here, but hey, it's got it all so let's get a sampling going:   First, the original query: The Guardian.com “I recently read that one of the gates into Jerusalem was named "The Eye of the Needle," and was quite tricky to negotiate, since it was quite small. Does this mean that when Jesus said "It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of Heaven," He meant that, far from being impossible, it was merely tricky?” Dara O'Reilly, London, UK   GREGG The first reply is a fairly representative take on the gate theory:   GUARDIAN The interpretation that seems to make sense is this. The "Eye of the Needle" was indeed a narrow gateway into Jerusalem. Since camels were heavily loaded with goods and riders, they would need to be un-loaded in order to pass through. Therefore, the analogy is that a rich man would have to similarly unload his material possessions in order to enter heaven. Rick, Brighton Uk   GREGG But then the plot thickens, as William Elsom of the UK is having none of it:   GUARDIAN No. The failure is in the translation. The original word that should have been translated was "camella" which means rope. (presumably Greek, but I am open to this being corrected.) "It is easier for a rope to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of Heaven" makes more sense as a comparison. William Elsom, UK   GREGG There's something of a scholarly telephone game going on in the background, as basically every “mistranslation” take offers a variation on the root word and apparent correct meaning. Which is fairly normal for translations especially when there are different alphabets involved, but still, I chuckled.   GUARDIAN I am currently studying the Aramaic language and indeed the word "gamla" (transliterated) does mean both "camel" and "thick rope." Assuming the original manuscript with that teaching of Jesus was recorded in Aramaic and later translated to Greek, the translator may have been familiar with only the "camel" definition of the word. I have not been able to find any reliable information on a city gate called "The Eye of the Needle." -Xakk, FL USA   GREGG As much as I hate agreeing with someone who spells Zach Xakk–though presumably that's a choice his parents made– anyways as much as I hate to admit it, this overall take seems the most likely to this non-Aramaic specialist. The general meaning is still the same, it's not something you're going to get done.   It's also worth noting that at least as of the return from the Exile, if the Book of Nehemiah is to be believed, there was no “Eye of the Needle” gate in Jerusalem. And I can state that with confidence because as longtime listeners will recall, I had a whole special episode devoted to the topic from July 2020 entitled “Literally A Detailed Description of the Gates of Jerusalem and Who Fixed Them in the Time of Nehemiah”, which, despite being exactly what it says it is, has been a pretty popular episode. In any event, it *could* be that an Eye of the Needle gate was established at a later point, though really the whole gate thing feels like wishful thinking on the part of the rich or the would-be rich to me.   Of course, as you might expect, there are also literalists who agree it's wishful thinking and would rather cut to the chase. Plus people like my man David:   GUARDIAN The translation is irrelevant. We all know in our hearts we cannot love money above God.   David Porter, Orangevale, US   GREGG Let's conclude with my favorite take:   GUARDIAN “Blessed are the cheesemakers?” Mike Conn, San Francisco,    GREGG After the second Gate-Gate scandal we've come across in this show (shoutout Samson if you've forgotten), we arrive at Jesus' third prediction of His own death in Mark   MARK 10:32-34 32They were on their way up to Jerusalem, with Jesus leading the way, and the disciples were astonished, while those who followed were afraid. Again he took the Twelve aside and told them what was going to happen to him. 33"We are going up to Jerusalem," he said, "and the Son of Man will be delivered over to the chief priests and the teachers of the law. They will condemn him to death and will hand him over to the Gentiles, 34who will mock him and spit on him, flog him and kill him. Three days later he will rise.”   GREGG Mark gives no record of the Apostles' reaction to this third prediction, unless the next verse is the actual reaction, which is a hilarious thought because it would be shockingly tone deaf. But yeah, it's the very next verse without any transition except the word “then”, so you can certainly read it that way:   MARK 10:35-45 35Then James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came to him. "Teacher," they said, "we want you to do for us whatever we ask.” 36"What do you want me to do for you?" he asked. 37They replied, "Let one of us sit at your right and the other at your left in your glory.” 38"You don't know what you are asking," Jesus said. "Can you drink the cup I drink or be baptized with the baptism I am baptized with?” 39"We can," they answered. Jesus said to them, "You will drink the cup I drink and be baptized with the baptism I am baptized with, 40but to sit at my right or left is not for me to grant. These places belong to those for whom they have been prepared.” 41When the ten heard about this, they became indignant with James and John. 42Jesus called them together and said, "You know that those who are regarded as rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them. 43Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, 44and whoever wants to be first must be slave of all. 45For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.   GREGG It turns out James and John, the Sons of Zebedee, have massive… cojones. But in the end their reward is understood to be martyrdom–perhaps not what they had in mind, they certainly seem to have had more of an earthly kingdom in mind.   In any event, here we have more of the “first will be last” motif popping up, and Scriptural background for why the Pope is considered, at least in theory, the “Servant of the Servants of God”.   Mark 10 finishes up with the healing of the blind Bartimaeus, so it's on to Mark 11, with Jesus' triumphal entry into Jerusalem:   MARK 11:1-11 1As they approached Jerusalem and came to Bethphage and Bethany at the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent two of his disciples, 2saying to them, “Go to the village ahead of you, and just as you enter it, you will find a colt tied there, which no one has ever ridden. Untie it and bring it here. 3If anyone asks you, 'Why are you doing this?' say, 'The Lord needs it and will send it back here shortly.'” 4They went and found a colt outside in the street, tied at a doorway. As they untied it, 5some people standing there asked, "What are you doing, untying that colt?” 6They answered as Jesus had told them to, and the people let them go. 7When they brought the colt to Jesus and threw their cloaks over it, he sat on it. 8Many people spread their cloaks on the road, while others spread branches they had cut in the fields. 9Those who went ahead and those who followed shouted, "Hosanna!" "Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!” 10"Blessed is the coming kingdom of our father David!" "Hosanna in the highest heaven!” 11Jesus entered Jerusalem and went into the temple courts. He looked around at everything, but since it was already late, he went out to Bethany with the Twelve.   GREGG We'll talk more about Palm Sunday in the future, for now just know that this scene is the basis for that. It's also a sign that Jesus is approaching the end of His earthly ministry, though we've still got another couple chapters for today after we finish this one.   We'll skip verses 12-14 as that's the cursing of the fig tree we covered under miracles--and that's right, it's a non-healing miracle. At least His target is a tree and not a human as happens in some of the apocrypha.   Which brings us to Mark's version of the scene with the moneychangers in the Temple:   MARK 11:15-18 15On reaching Jerusalem, Jesus entered the temple courts and began driving out those who were buying and selling there. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the benches of those selling doves, 16and would not allow anyone to carry merchandise through the temple courts. 17And as he taught them, he said, "Is it not written: 'My house will be called a house of prayer for all nations'? But you have made it 'a den of robbers.'” 18The chief priests and the teachers of the law heard this and began looking for a way to kill him, for they feared him, because the whole crowd was amazed at his teaching. 19When evening came, Jesus and his disciples went out of the city.   GREGG Mark's somewhat abbreviated account leaves off Him making a whip, which is a loss, but hey, the core is there. As a reminder, and yes, I'll say this every time, just remember when someone asks “what would Jesus do” that flipping tables is absolutely a valid option.   Then, we're back to the fig tree, seeing the result of the curse on the way out, and this is extra special because this is actually an extended Mark only reflection. Including another King James specific verse that the NIV leaves off. Let's hear it!   MARK 11:20-26 20In the morning, as they went along, they saw the fig tree withered from the roots. 21Peter remembered and said to Jesus, "Rabbi, look! The fig tree you cursed has withered!” 22"Have faith in God," Jesus answered. 23"Truly I tell you, if anyone says to this mountain, 'Go, throw yourself into the sea,' and does not doubt in their heart but believes that what they say will happen, it will be done for them. 24Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours. 25And when you stand praying, if you hold anything against anyone, forgive them, so that your Father in heaven may forgive you your sins." [NIV omits but KJV has] 26But if ye do not forgive, neither will your Father which is in heaven forgive your trespasses.]   GREGG Of course, when I said “Mark exclusive”, that may have been a bit of an oversell, because while the now-proverbial “faith to move mountains” doesn't appear in Matthew's fig tree discourse, it does line up closely to another section, Matthew 17:20, several chapters before Matthew's fig tree. As for the rest, the sentiment is overall familiar, but worth repeating so I'll say it again:   MARK 11:25-26 if you hold anything against anyone, forgive them, so that your Father in heaven may forgive you your sins." [NIV omits but KJV has] 26But if ye do not forgive, neither will your Father which is in heaven forgive your trespasses.]   GREGG Next up we've got an attempted trap that Jesus turns around, Bugs Bunny style.   MARK 11:27-33 27They arrived again in Jerusalem, and while Jesus was walking in the temple courts, the chief priests, the teachers of the law and the elders came to him. 28"By what authority are you doing these things?" they asked. "And who gave you authority to do this?” 29Jesus replied, "I will ask you one question. Answer me, and I will tell you by what authority I am doing these things. 30John's baptism--was it from heaven, or of human origin? Tell me!” 31They discussed it among themselves and said, "If we say, 'From heaven,' he will ask, 'Then why didn't you believe him?' 32But if we say, 'Of human origin' . . . " (They feared the people, for everyone held that John really was a prophet.) 33So they answered Jesus, "We don't know." Jesus said, "Neither will I tell you by what authority I am doing these things."   GREGG Mark 12 opens with the Parable of the Tenant Farmers, which I personally prefer to call the Parable of the Bad Tenants since I think just calling them farmers ignores the amount of murdering they do in the parable. But anyways, we're not covering it here, ‘cause parable. So on to Verse 13:   MARK 12:13-17 13Later they sent some of the Pharisees and Herodians to Jesus to catch him in his words. 14They came to him and said, "Teacher, we know that you are a man of integrity. You aren't swayed by others, because you pay no attention to who they are; but you teach the way of God in accordance with the truth. Is it right to pay the imperial tax to Caesar or not? 15Should we pay or shouldn't we?" But Jesus knew their hypocrisy. "Why are you trying to trap me?" he asked. "Bring me a denarius and let me look at it.” 16They brought the coin, and he asked them, "Whose image is this? And whose inscription?" "Caesar's," they replied. 17Then Jesus said to them, "Give back to Caesar what is Caesar's and to God what is God's." And they were amazed at him.   GREGG This tax exchange, which we saw in Matthew and we'll see again in Luke (SYNOPTIC ROUNDUP AIRHORN?) is intended to be a sort of sting operation, with the expected result being Jesus objecting to the tax and therefore being guilty of rebellion against the Roman government. But I don't think Jesus even needed to tap into His omniscience here, they were acting pretty suspicious with the leading flattery and line of questioning. Plus, what does God ultimately need money for?   In the end, of course, everything we have ultimately comes from God, so while I mentioned it with Matthew it's worth mentioning again now- when we give Caesar what is Caesar's and God what is God's, God gets everything.   Next up we've got Jesus fielding yet another insincere question from religious authorities, this time from the Sadducees:   MARK 12:18-27 18Then the Sadducees, who say there is no resurrection, came to him with a question. 19"Teacher," they said, "Moses wrote for us that if a man's brother dies and leaves a wife but no children, the man must marry the widow and raise up offspring for his brother. 20Now there were seven brothers. The first one married and died without leaving any children. 21The second one married the widow, but he also died, leaving no child. It was the same with the third. 22In fact, none of the seven left any children. Last of all, the woman died too. 23At the resurrection whose wife will she be, since the seven were married to her?” 24Jesus replied, "Are you not in error because you do not know the Scriptures or the power of God? 25When the dead rise, they will neither marry nor be given in marriage; they will be like the angels in heaven. 26Now about the dead rising--have you not read in the Book of Moses, in the account of the burning bush, how God said to him, 'I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob'? 27He is not the God of the dead, but of the living. You are badly mistaken!”   GREGG That last bit– “You are badly mistaken!” is a Marcan flourish that helps emphasize Mark's generally less Pharisee-slash-Sadducee–friendly stance, underlining the intensity of Jesus' disagreement with them.   The next section is the part about The Greatest Commandment which we used to open the Sayings of the Savior, so check out 0.21a for that. Then we have a theological question apparently designed to further undermine the Credibility of the Teachers of the Law. This time around, it's Jesus who picks the fight,   MARK 12:35-40 35While Jesus was teaching in the temple courts, he asked, "Why do the teachers of the law say that the Messiah is the son of David? 36David himself, speaking by the Holy Spirit, declared: "'The Lord said to my Lord: "Sit at my right hand until I put your enemies under your feet."' 37David himself calls him 'Lord.' How then can he be his son?" The large crowd listened to him with delight. 38As he taught, Jesus said, "Watch out for the teachers of the law. They like to walk around in flowing robes and be greeted with respect in the marketplaces, 39and have the most important seats in the synagogues and the places of honor at banquets. 40They devour widows' houses and for a show make lengthy prayers. These men will be punished most severely.”   GREGG “The large crowd listened to him with delight”, we're told, as Jesus excoriated the religious establishment of His day. Sounds like a political rally almost. No wonder He was condemned as a revolutionary.   The last scene in Mark 12 is one we haven't seen before- it's one of the few passages in Mark not paralleled in Matthew- and it's one of my favorites:   MARK12:41-44 41Jesus sat down opposite the place where the offerings were put and watched the crowd putting their money into the temple treasury. Many rich people threw in large amounts. 42But a poor widow came and put in two very small copper coins, worth only a few cents. 43Calling his disciples to him, Jesus said, "Truly I tell you, this poor widow has put more into the treasury than all the others. 44They all gave out of their wealth; but she, out of her poverty, put in everything--all she had to live on.”   GREGG This scene is generally called the Widow's Mite, not because “mite” was the term for small copper coins in ancient Judea–though they would retroactively be called mites–and not because the mite was the term for small copper coins in 17th century England where the King James Bible was produced, though they would pick up that name, but rather because the King James translation used a Dutch term for some small denomination coins that had originally been picked up for Biblical use by William Tyndale.   For once, I'll spare you a deeper rabbit hole, and move on from the names of coins to the lesson of the coins.   I mentioned before this passage is one of my favorites. While I appreciate the challenge behind Jesus' admonition to be perfect that we saw in Matthew, here we see that if all you have isn't much, God still sees the effort and meaningful sacrifice. There's something comforting in that for extremely inadequate folks like myself.   On the other hand, there's the lesson that giving out of your abundance may be mathematically and physically helpful but it's not spiritually significant. It's the right thing to do, of course, but an even better thing than giving your excess is to give beyond just your excess.   “But I need the rest”, you might argue. And it's certainly true, you may well have just reasons for keeping some aside. It would be irresponsible of me to sell all my worldly possessions and go live in a cave, as even if my wife signed onto it we've got kids too young to voluntarily renounce the world, it's our responsibility to care for them.   So, where's the line? When do we go from taking care of our responsibilities at home to hoarding?   Well, if you have any money, you should be giving. It doesn't have to be all you have, especially if you've got responsibilities to those in your household, but it should absolutely be more than nothing, and everything is best.   Ultimately Christians are not to see money as theirs to use how they see fit, as something they've earned. That simply isn't a Christian mentality. Money is a means by which you can help others–those you have primary responsibility for first, like your children, and those in need should be prioritized urgently as well. The Church speaks of the “preferential option for the poor”.   I'm not saying you need to become a shell of a human, doing nothing for yourself and allowing your own mental and physical health to collapse- though certainly some saints lives point in that direction. But putting yourself first is something that needs to be balanced against your ability to be a blessing to those around you.   This isn't the last time I'll bring up this sort of thing by any means, and it looks like I avoided one tangent only to go into another, so let's get back to Mark, now in Chapter 13, which opens with a prophesy of the destruction of the Temple, then flows into a description of the End Times– keep in mind from the Christian perspective time has not only a beginning but an end–that parallels Matthew.   It's understandable to want to read this as being written after the actual historical destruction of the Temple in 70AD, but as I argued in my chat with Garry Stevens last June, it's not like it was hard to see such a calamity coming during Jesus' life, Rome was already in control of a rebellious Judea with the Temple as a potential center of nationalist resistance. And that's of course if you discount the possibility of actual prophecy, which, remember, we're making our Pope-colored glasses, so Jesus actually prophesying Is the most straightforward explanation. Either way, a post 70AD dating for Mark is really pushing the outward edge of scholarly dating for the work, keeping in mind scholars tend to argue it's the oldest of the Gospels.   Without further ado, here's a long quote, going from Mark 13:1 to 27.   MARK 13 1As Jesus was leaving the temple, one of his disciples said to him, "Look, Teacher! What massive stones! What magnificent buildings!” 2"Do you see a

Episode 81: Year B – 10th Sunday of Ordinary Time In this episode, we focus on two details found in the readings for this upcoming 10th Sunday of Ordinary Time, Year B, both of which have to do with Mary. The first detail, found in the first reading, taken from Genesis 3:9-15, is the enmity that God promises to set between the devil and the “woman.” For Catholics, as we shall see, this relates to Mary's freedom from sin: both original and personal. The other detail is found in the Gospel reading, taken from Mark 3:20-35, where Jesus seems to downplay the role of Mary by talking about who…

Most people who are even a little familiar with church history will recognize the image of Martin Luther nailing his 95 Theses to a church door in Wittenberg. While there's no conclusive evidence that he actually did this, we do know that the Augustinian friar succeeded in kicking off the Protestant Reformation by promulgating his then-controversial treatise and that his primary objection was to the practice of selling indulgences. Basically, Luther thought the institutional church was in the business of “selling salvation.” But what is an indulgence, really? Is it a “get out of hell free pass,” as some seem to think? Did the church really take money in exchange for the promise of forgiveness of sins? How did this practice originate, and how did it deteriorate into something associated with widespread abuse? , Does the Vatican currently have a stance on indulgences, or is this one of those practices that the church changed or discarded over time?  On this episode of the Glad You Asked podcast, hosts talk to guest Kathleen Manning about the concept of indulgences, how the practice developed, the controversies around it, and what Catholics believe today.  Manning teaches history at Loyola University Chicago and is a frequent contributor to U.S. Catholic's Glad You Asked column.   You can read more about this topic in these links. “The Catholic view on indulgences and how they work today,” by Myriam Renaud  https://theconversation.com/the-catholic-view-on-indulgences-and-how-they-work-today-193066 “For Catholics, a Door to Absolution Is Reopened,” by Paul Vitello https://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/10/nyregion/10indulgence.html#:~:text=You%20cannot%20buy%20one%20%E2%80%94%20the,indulgence%20per%20sinner%20per%20day. “Can Catholics celebrate the Reformation?” by Jacob Kohlhaas https://uscatholic.org/articles/201702/can-catholics-celebrate-the-reformation/ “The surprisingly Catholic Martin Luther,” a U.S. Catholic interview https://uscatholic.org/articles/200409/the-surprisingly-catholic-martin-luther/ Glad You Asked is sponsored by the Claretian Missionaries. https://www.claretians.org/

Today Dr. Will Ryan and Dr. Matt consider the incarnation of Jesus and the ramifications regarding Original Sin. We want to give a Shout out to Warren McGrew of Idol Killer and Will and Brian of The Church Split for their series' on Original sin and for helping us articulate some of the content in this episode. • The immaculate conception of Mary is a late dogma created to prop up original sin. But not only this a “preservative redemption” is also needed for Mary to remain sinless • The Virgin birth in both Protestant and Catholic circles is used incorrectly to promote the doctrine of Original Sin. o For Catholics it deals with the issue of concupiscence o For Protestants it actually does nothing as Mary was born of human parents and still would transmit Original Sin o We affirm the virgin birth but in Isaiah 7 it is called a sign pointing to the miracle of the messiah and has nothing to do with original sin. • The way Protestants try to get around this is the hypostatic union, which we also affirm, but Protestants use it incorrectly to support this Doctrine. • 3 points of the incarnation: o Jesus came in flesh- he was fully human like us (yet fully God). He experienced what we do. o Jesus had no sin in him (he wasn't born with it) o And Jesus never sinned • Thus, no Original sin if Jesus assumed exactly what we are and partook of the same nature yet did not sin. • If Original Sin is true and Jesus was spared it through the immaculate conception then Jesus was not like us in every way and cannot sympathize with our weaknesses and Hebrews 4:15 is a lie and Jesus is an unfit High Priest. o This is what the Doctrine of Original Sin gets us into. Conclusion/ The Better Way Jesus was fully God and Fully Man. He assumed all that we are so that he could make us all that he is and heal us. The Incarnation o We saw that Jesus came in the flesh just like us (but also fully God) o We saw that there was no sin in Jesus (no original sin) o We saw that Jesus did not sin We also looked at Mary and all the gymnastics that needed to happen with her to hold up this unbiblical doctrine. We looked at how Calvinists have no foundation to stand on with Original sin in the Virgin Birth (we affirm it!), the Hypostatic Union (in which they downplay Jesus' humanity), and they come dangerously close to many Gnostic heresies. The Better Way As humans it is comforting to know that Jesus went through all that we did and was still sinless. He has redeemed us and comes beside us to conform us into his image. So rather than focusing on the negative theology of Augustinianism and Calvinism look at the beauty that is in Jesus becoming just like us in every way to heal us and make us whole! _________ Visit www.expedition44.com for posted articles and more. If you have comments or questions please email us at: ryan@expedition44.com, matt@expedition44.com --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/expedition44/support

Praying for the intercession of Virgin Mary and the Saints can sound like we can try to get “Friends in High Places” to run interference for us, although here on Earth we sometimes seek friends in order to get a speeding ticket fixed, buy merchandise at a lower price, or have some problem resolved. For Catholics, that is definitely not what devotion to Mary or the Saints represents. God alone is the source of all grace and blessings. The Saints or Mary do not fix things for us apart from God or convince God to do anything other than his holy will for us. You are about to hear how one woman received beautiful spiritual insights and experienced an intense feeling of peace, love, grace, and mercy during a visit to the Rosa Mystica house of

AcknowledgementThank you to my colleague, Mr. Sean Maddigan, M.Ed., for his assistance in the research and formulation of many of the finer points of the atonement of Christ in this episode. Thanks, Sean!Perception of Serious Problems - Selling Indulgences?If you say the word “indulgences” to most people today, they would bring up Martin Luther. However, indulgences have been explicitly preached in Catholic theology since the 11th Century, and there have been reductions of penalties since at least the 9th Century. So, where and when does Martin Luther enter the scene?On October 31, 1517, Fr. Martin Luther an Augustinian monk and lecturer at the University in Wittenberg, Germany, issued his propositions for debate concerning the question of indulgences. The proposed debate was intended to be with Fr. Johann Tetzel, a German Dominican friar and preacher. Fr. Tetzel was an appointed papel commissioner for indulgences and was sent to his native Germany to make money to help build St. Peter's Basilica in Rome.From 1503 to 1510, Tetzel preached on indulgences and was effective in doing so. There are countless modern sources which say that Pope Julius II authorized the sale of indulgences, and that, likewise, Pope Leo X sold indulgences too and used the money to build the magnificent St. Peter's Basilica in Rome. However, the claim that indulgences, as such, were sold seems to be a myth. At one time, one of the spiritual acts that you could receive an indulgence for is contributing to a charitable cause, such as the building of a church. Charitable organizations offer incentives today to increase donations. In the 16th Century, the building fund of St. Peter's Basilica did increase as the result of Tetzel preaching indulgences. There were absolutely abuses in the practice of indulgences, to be sure! But it is important to understand what they actually are. One of the main contributing factors to knowledge of the controversy was Martin Luther's “95 Theses.” In Luther's time, and especially now, there is no end to the horribly wrong interpretations of the Catholic teaching on indulgences. I have also had a few friends ask if I'd be willing to do an episode on indulgences. So, here you go, gents!Catholic Understanding of AtonementAfter the Fall of Adam and Eve, it was fitting that the atonement or reconciliation of mankind be made by a man. However, what mere man could stand in place of all of humanity? When Jesus Christ died on the Cross, He did so as fully God and fully man. Thus, His death and resurrection were offered in our place, in His humanity, and offered perfectly, in His divinity. In the sixth Session of the Council of Trent, chapter ii, we hear:“Whence it came to pass, that the Heavenly Father, the Father of mercies and the God of all comfort (2 Corinthians 1, 3), when that blessed fullness of the time was come (Galatians 4:4) sent unto men Jesus Christ, His own Son who had been, both before the Law and during the time of the Law, to many of the holy fathers announced and promised, that He might both redeem the Jews, who were under the Law and that the Gentiles who followed not after justice might attain to justice and that all men might receive the adoption of sons. Him God had proposed as a propitiator, through faith in His blood (Romans 3:25), for our sins, and not for our sins only, but also for those of the whole world (I John ii, 2).”There are a lot of things to unpack here. God the Father sent His Son, who was foretold, to redeem the Jews and the Gentiles. This redemption brought with it adoption of each of us by God the Father, in Christ, by the power of the Holy Spirit. The reconciliation or atonement (literally meaning to become “at one” with), comes through the propitiation of sins merited by Jesus' death on the Cross. The just wrath of God earned by our sin was turned away by the self-offering (the sacrifice and oblation) of our Lord Jesus on the Cross. By His wounds, we are healed, quoting the Prophet Isaiah. The Nicene Creed we profess each Sunday at Mass reminds us of this reality:“who for us men and for our salvation, came down, took flesh, was made man; and suffered…”Jesus did not come for Himself, He came to give His life as a ransom for many. We say “many” because not everyone will accept this gift, sad to say. However, this does not diminish that the gift of Christ's atonement was won for all mankind, without exception. But what is this ransom? Who was holding the souls of the fallen men? It is the Enemy, Satan.In his commentary on Psalm 95, St. Augustine puts it this way:“Men were held captive under the devil and served the demons, but they were redeemed from captivity. For they could sell themselves. The Redeemer came, and gave the price; He poured forth his blood and bought the whole world. Do you ask what He bought? See what He gave, and find what He bought. The blood of Christ is the price. How much is it worth? What but the whole world? What but all nations? (Enarration on Psalm 95, no. 5).”He goes on to explain, in a figure of speech that the Cross was like a trap for the Enemy:"The Redeemer came and the deceiver was overcome. What did our Redeemer do to our Captor? In payment for us He set the trap, His Cross, with His blood for bait. He [Satan] could indeed shed that blood; but he deserved not to drink it. By shedding the blood of One who was not his debtor, he was forced to release his debtors (Serm. cxxx, part 2).”The debt owed to Divine Justice was paid in full by Jesus Christ. Divine Justice was satisfied. But not everyone agreed with St. Augustine's reasoning. St. Anselm and Peter Abelard, for example, rejected the notion that Satan had some sort of right over man. St. Anselm held that an equal satisfaction for sin was necessary to pay the debt to Divine Justice. Abelard, though, did not hold to this strict notion of satisfaction and he argued that God could have pardoned us without requiring satisfaction. So, the Incarnation and the death of Chirst was the pure love of God. And Abelard was condemned by St. Bernard for this view because he argued the effect of the atonement was only moral influence and not any objective payment of a debt.St. Thomas Aquinas, later, agreed with Abelard in rejecting the notion that full satisfaction was necessary. He agrees with Abelard in so far as the atonement was the greatest demonstration of love, but still holds that under God's economy of salvation, the sacrifice of Christ objectively paid the debt of justice (which Abelard denied). Restoring mankind to grace was a work of God's mercy and goodness. It was fitting that Christ should die on the Cross to show the depths of God's love for us, but not absolutely necessary. Along the ages, Blessed Duns Scotus and St. Bernard of Clairvaux had differing opinions than Abelard and Aquinas.Though there is disagreement among theologians throughout the ages, what is shared among them is this. The Atonement is essentially a sacrifice and an act of love. The outward Sacrifice is the sacrament of the invisible sacrifice which comes from the heart of God. As the Catholic Encyclopedia puts it so well:“It was by this inward sacrifice of obedience unto death, by this perfect love with which He laid down his life for His friends, that Christ paid the debt to justice, and taught us by His example, and drew all things to Himself; it was by this that He wrought our Atonement and Reconciliation with God, ‘making peace through the blood of His Cross.'”Imperfect in the Old, Perfect in the NewIn the Old Covenants, the Jewish people would offer “sin-offerings” in which a cereal offering or animal was immolated, offered to God in worship, and then consumed by the priest. Likewise, we get the word scapegoat from the ancient practice of placing, so to speak, all of the sins of the town onto a goat and then releasing the goat to wander into the wilderness, presumably to die. This ancient notion of atonement was no clearer than on Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement. The Day of Atonement is centered upon repentance, fasting, asceticism, and the confession of sins. However, the annual nature of this event shows that it is an incomplete and imperfect atonement. Atonement is made perfect in Jesus Christ, who died once for the sins of man and then rose from the dead, to die no more. In the Holy Mass, Christ does not die again. Instead, the Cross of Christ, a propitiatory Sacrifice is renewed daily in a bloodless manner on the altar. What Is An Indulgence?What does any of this have to do with indulgences? Well, everything, really. An indulgence is classically the remission of a debt. In Roman law, it meant to be release from imprisonment or punishment. The Catholic Encyclopedia defines an indulgence as “a remission of the temporal punishment due to sin, the guilt of which has been forgiven.”So, an indulgence is not permission to sin, it is not stockpiling forgiveness for a future action, nor does it forgive sin or the guilt of sin. An indulgence presumes that God has already forgiven the person receiving it! What is being remitted is the temporal punishment due to sin.Our sins affect us, our relationship with God, and our relationship with others. Particularly egregious sins, like rape and murder, have lasting effects which cannot be put right this side of Heaven. And putting things right is in the nature of justice. God will always set things right, one way or another, though we might not see it until the end of things. Nonetheless, once someone experiences contrition, there is a deep desire, rooted in justice, to make restitution. Imagine that you are a kid playing baseball in the street. Of course, this is a bad idea. Mistakes will happen. You know this, and, yet, you wrongly believe that you are special. So, nothing bad will happen. You will hit the ball perfectly and everything will be just fine. Then… you hit the ball and it goes sailing through Mrs. Johnson's bay window. Immediately, you feel terrible about it. You did not mean for anything to be broken. You experience contrition for the wrong you have done. You knew, of course, that you should not be playing baseball in the street. What did you expect to happen?! Now, you have a choice: run away and hide or go and fess up to what you have done. You decide to go and ask for forgiveness. You ring the doorbell and Mrs. Johnson answers. You immediately apologize for breaking the window and tell her that you are truly sorry. And she forgives you! … That's it, right? That's the end of the story?... No way! You still have to make restitution. You have to pay for the window. In this example, we can see analogously, how we can be forgiven for something, but justice still demands restitution, satisfaction, and even punishment. This distinction between forgiveness and the temporal punishment due to sin seems to have gone by the wayside in Protestant theology over the last five hundred years. Really, if we look at it with fresh eyes, hopefully we can see that it is basic common sense that a wrong done demands restitution. So, why can Protestants not go there? The answer really has to do with Martin Luther. In Luther's view, we can do nothing to merit our salvation and Catholics agree we cannot merit the gift of initial justification; it is completely a gratuitous gift from God whereby we are covered by Jesus Christ. Nothing in the Lutheran view demands cooperation with grace or even the internal change brought about by Baptism, which Catholicism has always held. How, Theologically, Does an Indulgence Work?But with Baptism there is a true change, right down to the core of our being. And grace is given, but our free cooperation is necessary. God's love does not force itself upon us. This means that our good actions, united with Christ, are meritorious. Our sinful actions require restitution. The Atonement won by Jesus Christ on the Cross is superabundantly meritorious, to use the language of the Church. When we unite our actions with the Cross, they do not add to the merits of Jesus Christ, but they come into communion with them. Likewise, the forgiveness of sins is a communion with the Cross of Jesus Christ! But, in justice, our bad actions still require temporal punishment and restitution. As the 14th Session of the Council of Trent puts it:“Add to these things, that, whilst we thus, by making satisfaction, suffer for our sins, we are made conformable to Jesus Christ, who satisfied for our sins, from whom all our sufficiency is; having also thereby a most sure pledge, that if we suffer with him, we shall also be glorified with him. But neither is this satisfaction, which we discharge for our sins, so our own, as not to be through Jesus Christ. For we who can do nothing of ourselves, as of ourselves, can do all things, He cooperating, who strengthens us. Thus, man has not wherein to glory, but all our glorying is in Christ: in whom we live; in whom we merit; in whom we satisfy; bringing forth fruits worthy of penance, which from him have their efficacy; by him are offered to the Father; and through him are accepted by the Father (The Council of Trent: On the necessity and on the fruit of Satisfaction).”Some Protestants hold to the erroneous view of “penal substitution” which is a theory of the atonement that holds that God punished Jesus on the Cross. But there is one glaringly huge problem: an innocent person cannot be justly punished. Jesus took upon Himself the sufferings and death that were due to our sins, but He did not take on the just punishment for our sins.Understanding How Christ Took on Our Punishment (And What That Means)Jesus Christ took our punishment upon Himself. As St. Thomas teaches:“Now by Christ's Passion we have been delivered not only from the common sin of the whole human race, both as to its guilt and as to the debt of punishment, for which He paid the penalty on our behalf (ST III, q. 49, a. 5, co.).”When discussing the fittingness of the death of Christ, St. Thomas also mentions:“... in this way Christ by His death brought us back to life, when by His death He destroyed our death; just as he who bears another's punishment takes such punishment away (ST III, q. 50, a. 1, ad. 3).”Satisfaction means taking up a penalty voluntarily in order to restore justice. St. Thomas Aquinas speaks of taking up this voluntary penalty as someone experiencing something against the will out of charity. In the case of sin and justice, in charity this action makes up for sin because sin is voluntarily doing one's own will at the expense of charity. In other words, satisfaction derives its power from the strength of the charity of the one offering it. There is no need for Jesus to suffer the pains of Hell to save us because even one drop of His Precious Blood could have satisfied the wrath of God. The payment of Jesus, who is sinless and perfect in charity, merits not only release from punishment. By the Cross, He merits for us eternal life!When a debt is to be paid, the punishment is measured. In merit, the root of charity is measured. When one merits for another, he merits more for himself. Yet, when one satisfies for another, he does not also satisfy for himself, because the measure of punishment still covers both him and the one on whose behalf he is satisfying. In the case of Jesus, who is without sin, He has no debt to pay. He is satisfying for sinful men out of perfect charity. The punishment He bore made satisfaction for the sins of all mankind and merited more than any man is capable of: eternal life!Back to IndulgencesTemporal punishment acknowledges that the eternal punishment for sin has been taken away on the Cross, but the temporal consequences of sin still remain. These temporal effects of sin require restitution, to the ability that we are able. We ought to make amends for wrongs done. Expiation, satisfaction, amends, and reparation all mean the same thing when referring to the temporal consequences and punishment due to sin.Going back to this notion of the superabundant merits of Christ on the Cross, we can also add all of the meritorious actions of the Baptized faithful through the ages, most notably the saints. The Treasury of Merit, as it is called, is the collection of the perfect, infinite, and superabundant merits of our Lord Jesus Christ, the expansive merits of our Blessed Mother and St. Joseph, and the merits of all the just. Our Lord gave to St. Peter, and to the Apostles and their successors, the authority to apply the fruits of these merits at their discretion when He said: “And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven (Mt. 16:18-19).”Likewise, in St. John's Gospel, Jesus says to the Apostles, and their successors by extension:“And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you withhold forgiveness from any, it is withheld (Jn. 20:22-24).”When a confessor gives absolution to a penitent in the Sacrament of Penance, he is applying this forgiveness of sins which comes from God alone, through the instrument of the priest and the Church. Our guilt for sin and eternal punishment for sin are absolved, but the temporal punishment for sin remains. An indulgence is outside of the sacraments and it does not forgive sins. Instead, it applies the satisfaction of the Treasury of Merit to an individual thereby remitting their temporal punishment due to sin. In other words, by the merits of Christ and the saints, the debt of temporal restitution has been paid in full. The superabundant merits belong to God's mercy and justice, not to the Church absolutely. So, these concessions or diminishments of punishment are administered by the Church but they come from God as a free gift. There is value in what Christ has done for us. But there is also value in what Christ does through us. Either way, the primary action is God. But with our cooperation, we unite ourselves with the Sacred Action of Jesus. As St. Paul said:"Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I complete what is lacking in Christ's afflictions for the sake of his body, that is, the church (Col. 1:24).”What could possibly be lacking in the sufferings of Christ, except for our cooperation with His grace and our own meritorious actions? Not only do our good actions possess the value or merit, they also certainly possess the value of satisfaction.Luther Had a Couple Good Points, But a Lot of ErrorsIt must be said that Martin Luther had some great points in his 95 Theses. In fact, only 41 propositions of Luther's from the 95 Theses and his other writings up to that point, were rejected as heretical, scandalous, erroneous, seductive of simple minds, in opposition to Catholic truth, or offensive to pious ears by Pope Leo X in 1520. Let us look at the first three of the 95 Theses:* “When our Lord and Master Jesus Christ said, ‘Repent'' (Mt 4:17), he willed the entire life of believers to be one of repentance.* This word cannot be understood as referring to the sacrament of penance, that is, confession and satisfaction, as administered by the clergy.* Yet it does not mean solely inner repentance; such inner repentance is worthless unless it produces various outward mortification of the flesh.”All three of these are true. Interior repentance is a reorienting of one's entire life, not just a momentary “I'll try a bit harder.” This call of our Lord to repentance does not refer to the Sacrament of Penance because it is a call which is first addressed to those who do not yet know Christ and the Gospel. And finally, interior conversion should find expression in visible signs, gestures, and penitential actions. It does seem, though, that Luther is presupposing that indulgences were being sold, with official authorization. This myth is prevalent today and it appears it was in Luther's day as well. Indulgences are drawn from the Treasury of Merit and applied freely when those seeking them fulfill the requirements with proper disposition. Luther's 95 Theses presents many theological errors in this regard. These errors are still being repeated today. For example, this 2009 article from “The New York Times” which gets it wrong from the title (the content of the article only goes from wrong to worse, by the way): “For Catholics, a Door to Absolution is Reopened.”By the way, to show just how seriously the Church took these abuses, Pope St. Pius V, in 1567, issued a decree which canceled all grants of indulgences involving any fees or other financial transactions.Seeking an IndulgenceMany Catholics think that indulgences, per se, were an abuse. They are not. And though it was a focal point in the Protestant Reformation, indulgences did not go anywhere. As the Catechism of the Catholic Church stated in the 1990s:"An indulgence is obtained through the Church who, by virtue of the power of binding and loosing granted her by Christ Jesus, intervenes in favor of individual Christians and opens for them the treasury of the merits of Christ and the saints to obtain from the Father of mercies the remission of the temporal punishment due for their sins… to spur them to works of devotion, penance, and charity" (CCC 1478).Everything that I have presented about indulgences belongs to the infallible teachings of the Church. We are not at liberty to dismiss them, diminish them, or disbelieve in them. The Council of Trent's anathema makes this clear:The Council of Trent "condemns with anathema those who say that indulgences are useless or that the Church does not have the power to grant them."The Church does not remit temporal punishment due to sin with magic or the wave of a pen. The person who suffers those temporal punishments must be disposed to repentance and faith. As Pope St. Paul VI said:"Indulgences cannot be gained without a sincere conversion of outlook and unity with God (Indulgentarium Doctrina, 11).”Before the Second Vatican Council, indulgences were said to remove a certain number of “days” from punishment. Instead, this was to show that indulgences have two types: plenary and partial. Plenary, meaning full, means that all temporal punishment due to sin that a person owed is being remitted. Whereas, a partial indulgence remits part of the temporal punishment due to sin. In order to make this clearer, Pope St. Paul VI revised the handbook of indulgences (called the Enchiridion).As we have covered, satisfaction and temporal punishment for sin are ordered towards justice on the one hand and purification on the other hand. So, the actions for which one might receive an indulgence should likewise be ordered to justice, charity, and purification. Because the justice of God has been satisfied through the merits of Christ and the saints, applied to our lives, then the “time,” so to speak, needed for purification in charity after death has been lessened. Just as a checkpoint or reminder: indulgences remit the temporal punishment due to sin, not eternal punishment. Eternal punishment is remitted fully by the Cross of Jesus Christ, the merits of which we receive in the Sacrament of Baptism. Knowing rightly what an indulgence is, how can we receive this great gift? Please forgive the following lengthy quotation, but Jimmy Akin put it concisely and excellently in his Primer on Indulgences for EWTN:“To gain any indulgence you must be a Catholic in a state of grace. You must be a Catholic in order to be under the Church's jurisdiction, and you must be in a state of grace because apart from God's grace none of your actions are fundamentally pleasing to God (meritorious). You also must have at least the habitual intention of gaining an indulgence by the act performed.To gain a partial indulgence, you must perform with a contrite heart the act to which the indulgence is attached.To gain a plenary indulgence you must perform the act with a contrite heart plus you must go to confession (one confession may suffice for several plenary indulgences), receive Holy Communion, and pray for the pope's intentions. (An Our Father and a Hail Mary said for the pope's intentions are sufficient, although you are free to substitute other prayers of your own choosing.) The final condition is that you must be free from all attachment to sin, including venial sin.Because of the extreme difficulty in meeting the final condition, plenary indulgences are rarely obtained. If you attempt to receive a plenary indulgence, but are unable to meet the last condition, a partial indulgence is received instead.”The Church offers us special indulgences, both plenary and partial, for all sorts of things. But there are a couple of partial indulgences worth mentioning here. Partial indulgences are given by the Church for: * Devoutly spending time in mental prayer, * Reading Sacred Scripture with veneration as a form of spiritual reading (this one is plenary if done for at least 30 minutes), * Devoutly signing oneself with the Sign of the Cross and saying the customary formula: “In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.”ConclusionIndulgences are not magic. They are a part of the infallible teaching of the Church. And they are for our spiritual well-being. We should not be wary of officially promulgated indulgences. We should be grateful to God for His superabundant mercy and His justice. Recognizing that we are sinners in need of His grace, we approach the Sacrament of Penance. Then, we do penance to seek temporal satisfaction and restitution for the consequences of our sins. All the while, we ought to seek out indulgences, because they are nothing more than being union and communion with Almighty God and striving to be more in love with Him who loved us first.Will Wright Catholic Podcast is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Get full access to Will Wright Catholic Podcast at www.willwrightcatholic.com/subscribe

For Catholics, Easter is EIGHT DAYS LONG! Here's how to celebrate the Octave of Easter and do it on any budget. Music in this episode is by Dylan Gardner – check out his album Almost Real on iTunes, Spotify, or wherever you listen to great music. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/walletwin/message

Today's Topics: 1) The definition of Morality is the set of principles a person develops, concerning the distinction between right and wrong or good and bad behavior.  For Catholics, it is living a virtuous life. Throughout the show Greg and Mark speak about the death of their San Gabriel Regional Bishop David O'Connell https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DubZMoOJXAo 2) Sadly, because of the Fall, we also suffer the impact of Original Sin, which darkens our minds, weakens our wills, and inclines us to sin. Baptism delivers us from Original Sin but not from its effects— especially the inclination to sin, concupiscence, 3) Deuteronomy 30:15-16 proclaims, "See, I have today set before you life and good, death and evil. If you obey the commandments of the LORD, your God, which I am giving you today, loving the LORD, your God, and walking in his ways, and keeping his commandments, statutes and ordinances, you will live and grow numerous, and the LORD, your God, will bless you in the land you are entering to possess." 4) An important foundation of Christian morality is the understanding of moral acts. Every moral act consists of three elements: the objective act (what we do), the subjective goal or intention (why we do the act), and the concrete situation or circumstances in which we perform the act (where, when, how, with whom, the consequences, etc.). Theme: "Salve Regina" performed by Floriani. All rights reserved. Used with permission. For more information please visit Floriani.org

A few weeks ago, we talked about the passing of Pope Benedict XVI. For Catholics who believed that B16 is still the pope, and Pope Francis is an anti-pope, if the College of Cardinals don't elect a new pope 20 days after his passing, the Seat of Peter will be vacant. This is against the teaching of Vatican I that says the Papacy will never be vacant. Lucky for us, and unbeknownst to many, a Papal Conclave was held. This link tells us the result (but don't get spoiled by it, listen to the episode first) --> https://www.fromrome.info/2023/01/30/53048/ Also, we'll talk about this Pope Francis' statement that "Homosexuality is not a crime" --> https://www.ncronline.org/vatican/vatican-news/papal-first-francis-backs-decriminalization-homosexuality-not-crime And, Pope Francis vs the German Synod --> https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/253461/pope-francis-decries-german-synodal-way-as-neither-helpful-nor-serious You can help SUPPORT THIS PODCAST by buying me a coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/thejayarugashow or through GCASH: 09204848046 Sign up for The Jay Aruga Show Newsletter where you will have direct access to behind the scenes stuff, more detailed stories about an episode, and where we can write to each other as well. -> http://TheJayArugaShow.com Subscribe to The Jay Aruga Show Youtube Channel --> https://bit.ly/3ijo5kp Episode Music: 'Vaikuntha' by Spacebar, "Bayaw" and "Throw Pillow" by Sando --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/thejayarugashow/message

Catholic Drive Time - 877-757-9424 Date – Wednesday, November 9, 2022 - Feast of the Dedication of the Lateran Basilica in Rome INTRO – Republican ‘Red Wave' Stops At Florida As Initial Midterm Tallies Leave House, Senate Majorities In Question... Joshua Mercer from CatholicVote.org gives us the results so far. And – Why do so many Catholics align more with their political party than they do their Catholic faith? Mother Miriam of the Lamb of God joins us. Also – David L Gray - Americans in five states voted on the issue of abortion during the 2022 midterm elections. Quick News - - For Catholics in the Archdiocese of Chicago, Sunday Mass will ONCE AGAIN become obligatory... it comes more than a year and a half after dioceses in other parts of the U.S. began lifting their dispensations. - Technicians in Arizona's Maricopa County have changed the printer settings, which seems to have solved the that caused BIG problems Tuesday with voting machines that impacted more than 60 polling stations. - 25% of Ireland's Catholic priests will age out in next 15 years.... only 2.5% of Irish priests are below the age of 40. - Voters in three states approved ballot measures that will change their state constitutions to curtail the use of prison labor and involuntary servitude as punishment for crime, while those in a fourth state rejected the move. Join Email list! GRNonline.com/CDT GRN to 42828 What's Concerning Us? – Joshua Mercer – CatholicVote.org Mid Terms – NO Red Wave Big night in Florida – DeSantis winning with large margin... looking more presidential Voting problems in AZ, Harris County, New Jersey, PA and more Arizona upset Fettermen wins over Oz Looking at a runoff in Georgia Senate Race Hochal wins reelection NH goes blue Rep. Mayra Flores looses her seat on the Texas border Guest Seg. - Mother Miriam of the Lamb of God - Daughters of Mary, Mother of Israel's Hope Why do so many Catholics live their politics more than their faith? Is our country headed for a great divorce? So many place the economy and inflation above marriage and life So many WANT the LGBTQ agenda So many are NOT conserving what is Good, True, and Beautiful 2nd Guest Seg. - David L Gray – the Abortion referendum across the USA - Loss in Kentucky -Vermont putting abortion in its constitution -Prop 3 passed in Michigan – also adding abortion to the constitution -California's Pop 1 looks like it will pass Joe Social Media IG: @TheCatholicHack Twitter: @Catholic_Hack Facebook: Joe McClane YouTube: Joe McClane Rudy Social Media IG: @ydursolrac Youtube: Glad Trad Podcast Adrian Social Media IG: @ffonze Twitter: @AdrianFonze Facebook: Adrian Fonseca YouTube: Adrian Fonseca YouTube: Catholic Conversations Visit our website to learn more about us, find a local GRN radio station, a schedule of our programming and so much more. http://grnonline.com/

Delivered by Cynthiana Santos from Holy Family Church, Archdiocese of Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia. 1 Corinthians 2: 10b-16; Rs psalm 145: 8-14; 17a; Luke 4: 31-37 SPIRITUAL PERSON The theme for our meditation today is: Spiritual Person. There were two persons, the husband and his wife tourists came to visit Indonesia. They stayed in Bali for five days, and the next five days they were in Labuan Bajo. While in Bali they were accompanied by a Hindu guide. While in Labuan Bajo they were accompanied by a Catholic guide. The guides equip their cars with religious symbols and always pray during the trip. The two tourists realized that they have not prayed for a long time. They have forgotten that they have been baptized in the past. They honestly said to the guides who are Hindu and Catholic in this way: "We realize that as human persons with less spiritual qualities, it makes us ashamed to see you in your religious practices". With this humble self-recognition, their discomfort disappeared and they were reminded of the very important spiritual aspect of human life in this world. So far, spiritual things have not been their concern in their daily lives. We need to honestly admit that when we are busy with everything from morning to the moment we go to bed, there are so many experiences and situations that we immerse ourselves in various worldly ways. It is very reasonable to make us act, think, feel the way the world wants us to be. Only when there is an opportunity for mental examination and awareness, for example before going to bed, do we really realize that in one day, the spiritual dimension is just so little or even nothing come along with us during the entire day. For Catholics, Sunday worship is an obligation. But this is not simply an obligation or driven by other motivations. The real motivation is the need for constant self-renewal, so that created in them the spiritual human persons who accept Christ, and they continue to live in Jesus Christ day by day. This is what we mean by the spiritual person which Saint Paul emphasizes in the first reading today, the first letter to the Corinthians. Being a spiritual person is the duty of every follower of Christ. With that spiritual quality, we can act like Jesus Christ, such as casting out evil spirits that always threaten our lives. Where there are human persons with adequate spiritual qualities, their smell and light can attract others to them, to also grow stronger in their spiritual life. Even evil spirits who are moved by their evil and powerful ways, would already know right away that the quality of spiritual persons is far stronger and more powerful than their best strategy and desire. Let's pray. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit ... O God, strengthen our faith so that we can fight against all the evil powers around us. Hail Mary full of grace ... In the name of the Father ... --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/media-la-porta/message

August 5: Dedication of the Basilica of Saint Mary MajorFifth centuryOptional Memorial; Liturgical Color: WhiteA venerable basilica preserves its ancient auraA house is more than a building. When it personifies the family within, it is a home. Or at least it should be. That an office building contains businesses; a house—a family; a barracks—soldiers; and a hotel—guests, is merely to cite particular instances of the architectural credo that “form follows function.” Buildings look like what they do. When they don't, everyone suffers from the incongruities. A modern sports stadium doesn't look like a gothic cathedral, because the two architectural forms have two different functions: to entertain or to worship God. Today's feast commemorates a building, not a person. It is a memorial to the “baptism,” or dedication, of one of the oldest churches in Rome dedicated to the Virgin Mary. The Basilica of St. Mary Major (meaning the “greater” or “larger” church of St. Mary) was first built in the 350s, in the decades after the legalization of Christianity in 313, when the Church could finally build big. After the Council of Ephesus' dogmatic definitions on Mary as the God-bearer in 431, the Basilica was restored and rededicated.Of the four major basilicas in Rome, St. Mary Major most retains the atmosphere, the “feel,” of antiquity. The sites of the Basilicas of St. Peter and St. John Lateran are ancient, but the present baroque structures date from the sixteenth through the eighteenth centuries. And the ancient, Paleo-Christian Basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls burned almost entirely to the ground in 1823. The present structure is an impressive replica, but relatively modern. The fourth-century core of St. Mary Major is, however, intact. It has been embellished, added to, and redecorated over the centuries. Nevertheless, it is to Christian Rome what the Pantheon is to pagan Rome—a complete, entire, and unscathed survivor from a built environment which has otherwise disappeared.For Catholics, every church is a Domus Dei, a house of God. Whether it is full of one thousand souls, or silent and empty, it is a house of God. A church does not just keep one warm when it is cold, or dry when it is wet. A church does not become such only on Sunday. A church is more than a shelter, just like a home is more than a house. A good church is theology in stone. It reflects the truths it teaches in its very shape, in its steps, in its arches, windows, doors, lighting, marble, statues, mosaics, floors, and altars. Every Catholic church should be able to pass the “deaf test.” That is, when a hearing-impaired person enters a church, he or she should be able to easily understand what that church is teaching without hearing a single word from the pulpit or one verse sung from the choir. A religion's hierarchy of truths should be expressed, in a confident and certain manner, by the structure where that religion's faithful gather to worship God. One should understand with the eyes. It is not for the Catholic to “shiver in the barn of the Reformation,” as one theologian wrote, and to guess what the building is trying to say.If God himself were to pull open the immense doors of St. Mary Major, one imagines He would walk down the central nave, look to his His right and to His left, smile, and slowly nod His head in pleasure and agreement. There, in an ornate chapel to the right, is Pope Saint Pius V. “How well he guided the rudder of my ship on earth.” There, under the altar, are the bones of Saint Jerome. “Oh cantankerous Jerome, you gave my Church the definitive text of my Word.” There, below the high altar, is a relic of the manger of Christ. “And there it all started. Resting in that wood, My Son brought the Old Testament to an end.” And on and on and on: saints, popes, the Virgin, the tabernacle, the confessionals, the Stations of the Cross. God the Father would not be a stranger in St. Mary Major. He would feel at home, surrounded by the things, signs, pictures, and emblems of the family life of the Universal Church.Rome is a small planet of art and beauty. The density of artistic treasures in St. Mary Major, and so many other Roman churches, exercises a gravitational pull drawing all those enamored with God and His beauty toward the sacred core of the eternal city.Holy Trinity, our worship of You is a matter of justice more than charity. We owe You reverence in the same way a child owes honor to his parents. Our love is inflamed by the sacred beauty of churches where You, Mary, and the saints are honored with such effusions of human genius.

What do you love about Easter? For Catholics, this season is rich with beauty and brimming with significance. Today we explore the vast beauty of Catholic culture and traditions during the Easter season.Episode 21 Show Hosts: Deacon Harold Burke Sivers, Nick De La Torre, and Ellen Holmes Steeves LeBlanc SUPPORT our show! Go to theprodigallife.com Show Page: https://www.awakencatholic.org/the-prodigal-life/catholic-culture-and-traditions-for-easter Download the official AWAKEN App: http://theawakenapp.io Find us on Apple Podcasts and Spotify! The Prodigal Life Podcast

Gwen Ifill famously coined the expression “missing white woman syndrome” to describe our national obsession with a small subset of missing persons–largely white and female– to the exclusion of many other victims, especially persons of color.  This week Gloria talks to Natalie Wilson, co-founder of The Black and Missing Foundation, Inc., a Maryland-based non-profit dedicated to searching for missing people of color when police and the media fall short. Their work is also the subject of the award-winning 4-part HBO documentary series, Black and Missing, produced by Geeta Gandbhir and Soledad O'Brien.  For Catholics, this should be a pro-life issue, and one that we examine seriously.  Forty percent of the about 600,000 people who went missing in 2019 were people of color — most of them Black. And Black people's cases take four times longer to resolve.  Gloria and Natalie also discuss how the Black Lives Matter movement encompasses more than police violence; it extends to the issue of police neglect to investigate cases of Black persons gone missing. Lastly, if you've been enjoying the Gloria Purvis Podcast please consider sharing some feedback in this brief Listener Survey! Links: The Black and Missing Foundation   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

When a draft opinion by Justice Samuel Alito overturning Roe v. Wade was leaked last month, the person host Mike Jordan Laskey most wanted to interview was Gloria Purvis. Gloria is the host of the Gloria Purvis Podcast, a show produced by America Media. She's also a longtime pro-life advocate and one of the most outspoken Catholic commentators on racism. The way she ties these two justice issues together in particular is so impressive. One common temptation for American Catholics is to try to fit our faith's teachings into the platform of our preferred political party. For Catholics on both sides of the aisle, it's often the case that party affiliation is a stronger predictor than Church teaching for where we'll come down on issues like abortion, racism, immigration, economic justice, physician-assisted suicide and so many others. Gloria is a refreshing exception to this trend. You can't fit Gloria neatly on our partisan spectrum. She spoke with Mike last week about both of these central issues to her, why they're connected, and how she handles the vitriol and hate mail sent her way from all sides. The Gloria Purvis Podcast: https://www.americamagazine.org/gloria-purvis-podcast Follow her on Twitter: https://twitter.com/gloria_purvis The Helen M. Alvaré article Gloria mentions in the conversation: https://www.thepublicdiscourse.com/2011/01/2380/ AMDG is a production of the Jesuit Conference of Canada and the United States.

When things are going well, we consider ourselves in charge. But the minute things go sideways in our relationships and expectations, we transplant the blame owed to people onto anger at someone else, and that someone is often God. If I am mad for something that I was not given, or about some thing that was “taken,” or at someone who did something to me, or at someone who did not do something to me, then perhaps my concept of God is too small. In fact, that concept of God is so small that it makes the creator into a creature of the creation (and that only happened once, a few thousand years ago). God does not make deals and does not bargain with us. In fact, that's exactly the devil's occupation. If God is the creator and the mover of all things, the devil is the dealmaker who tempts us and accuses and divides and sows doubt. This is what the classic play Faust and the country music song The Devil went Down to Georgia both point out. The devil is “willing to make a deal” and he dangles a million varieties of the “golden fiddle” in front of each one of us. God does not deal in transactions. He has no need of us. It's us who need him. His moves are beyond our understanding, yet we must make choices in this world to do his will the best that we can. On the flip side, the devil needs us, so he offers bargains, persuading us to trade our souls for golden fiddles or honor and prestige. We gladly barter temporary shiny poisons of this world over eternal life of our souls and think we came out on top of the bargain. Human flaws are a common blocker among many of the fallen away. For me it was a huge blocker. For Catholics, the sex abuse scandal made it very difficult to justify continuing on with the faith. But God did not commit those acts, people did. Right now, today, there are adults committing those same horrors - literally, right now, these things are happening. I suspect in twenty years, tales from the pandemic will begin to seep out of locked-down households. Where secrets live, sins hide. There is no question that these sins revolt us, every one of us, but God did not commit these sins. People did these things. People do awful things when no one is watching. It is not the first time and won't be the last time. No matter what religion brings in the faithful, or political party takes power, no matter what ideology wins the culture, these same sins will continue. These things flourish under secrecy and isolation. For humans, there is no other way. As a child will steal a cookie when a parent walks away, adults who have full reason can conjure far worse actions than pilfering food - but the root cause remains the same as the child. When no one is watching, the self and ego take over. When authority disappears, the apple re-appears. The genius of the story of the Garden of Eden is that you can witness it every single day happening like clockwork as the human heart, wired for God, is so easily short-circuited by temptation and evil. This is not the sole problem of just one culture or skin color or religion or political party or nation or family or age group or parenting style or diet or climate. The same flaw exists in every person who has lived, is living now, or will live in the future. And likewise, regardless of time, place, or physical attributes, there is but one cure for it and that is turning back to God. To do so can be humiliating, but it fixes the short-circuit and restores the heart. For me, the abuse scandal of the Church shoved me away from God more than I already was, as I had focused on the people who had committed the acts. I did not think of the billion people worldwide that did good things with their faith, who found meaning, who did great works of charity, and who loved God first and foremost. I saw the trees amid the forest, the sick and twisted trees, as representative of the whole. I felt that all the trees should be torn down if such a forest allowed such horrors to grow. But then I realized that thousands of school teachers a year are accused or convicted of the same crimes as those disturbed clergy members, yet I never called for the end to all public schooling. Families all over the world commit abusive acts against one another, but I never sought the destruction of the family. I had reserved my worst anger against those who failed at holiness, and I tried to corral God into the same pen as those men who failed, the people. The abuse scandal of the Church horrifies and sickens me to the core, as the Church holds a higher standard, as it must, as it is meant to do, which makes the abuse of trust that much worse. If a claim to holiness is made, then departures from that claim are magnified. To think of the Cardinal McCarrick story or the 300 Pennsylvania priests' abuse brings forth a rage in me. Ugly realities should and must be held up for all to see, to ridicule the hypocrisy, as the awful reality of child abuse will forever be one of the primary reasons for lost faith in a creator or loving God. The hypocrisy of false holiness is the greatest scandal of all! It's a scandal to be a holy fool and scare people away from God with manic literalism, but far worse is to be a holy pretender who is rotten at the core. You know who else hated hypocrisy? Jesus Christ, that's who. And as far as children goes, he said this:“Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a great millstone hung around his neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea. Woe to the world because of things that cause sin! Such things must come, but woe to the one through whom they come!” (Mt 18:6-7)Pain and suffering will remain with us, for reasons unknown, but the Church is God's light on earth. Thus the horror of the abuse scandal damages the victims plus millions more, to the point that the faithful should be and must be the most outraged. We should be the most angry, both clergy and laity. The worst part of it is that the small percentage of predators in the Church through the era of abuse have sullied and destroyed the work of the many good and uplifting priests and bishops and deacons and believers. Priests that I have known and interacted with, who create joy and guide people, suffer from the choices of criminal colleagues. Clearly a culture that allowed it to happen must be gutted and ripped out, while remembering that God did not do this, nor did the Sacraments, nor did celibacy. It was a subset of corrupted human beings who shrugged off authority for ego and pleasure. While the disgusting wound keeps healing and re-opening, it is the work of those who believe to eradicate the problem, from stem to stern, so that the trust of the faithful, and especially of children, can never be used against them again. As of now, steps are being taken, too late for those victims, but the addition of zero tolerance policies, training for all volunteers, Safe Environment training, background checks, Codes of Conduct - all of this and more will be needed, forever going forward. For a good read beyond my rant, read Bishop Barron's A Letter to a Suffering Church. Prepare to be sad and disturbed. But there is hope. There is always hope. Until I finally set aside my own anger about other people's sins, perceived or imagined, correctly or not, I could not let myself be open. I had somehow forgotten: we don't pray to people. We pray to God. And I think of the moment when people left Jesus after they were disturbed about his teaching, “Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me and I in him.” This revolted some disciples and they left him, and Jesus asked the twelve, “Do you also want to leave?” And Simon Peter says the words that those of us who believe still know to this day: “To whom shall we go?” We know he is the way, the truth, and the life. Peter says the words we all feel: “You have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe and are convinced that you are the Holy One of God.” And so we must remain and carry on and restore the Church, since we believe it is his Holy Church passed on through Peter and the apostles. That is a short yet complete summary of why we'll stay, and run into the burning building to save it instead of fleeing the flames. The root cause of this failure is not God, and never was God. Nor was it Jesus or the Holy Spirit. It was human beings, flawed and fallen, but allowed to sin and abuse trust. So the fix must be made not with the Trinity, but with humans, as it was in the Garden, as it was at the Crucifixion, as it is today, as it will be again tomorrow, as it ever shall be until the Second Coming, on the day we cannot know that will arrive like a lightning flash across the sky. That was the problem for me. I conflated humans with God. As a child, we are not taught to pray to a person. No, we are taught to pray to God. So now it makes no sense that I doubted God when it was always a person or my expectations that let me down. What a revelation to learn that people will always let you down if you put your entire faith in them. There is a saying among recovering addicts: An expectation is a planned resentment. I find that to be a fact repeatedly as I gain hindsight on past decades and phases. If a person or persons drove me away from God, then what in the heck was I expecting of them to begin with? I can tell you, I was not even considering God during my drift away from faith. I was focused on people, places, experiences, and expecting the impossible from flawed creatures, resenting the world when people did not act a certain way. If people are not the thing keeping you from faith, here's another common possible fence that's keeping you out: you are too busy. Career or school or raising a family may be exhausting you. I took this route. (I took various wrong routes.) The weekend became something for social gatherings and parties, but never, never for God. I felt too weary to consider Church because the world of the weekday siphoned the energy from me. The weekend became about relaxing and mingling and recovering for the week. Then the weekend was never about God, not even for one hour. For one hour I couldn't rouse myself from the couch. How many us married couples have elevated our children above our marriages and even over God? How many youth sports tournament and leagues and practices have overtaken Sunday mornings? Then there is just the lazy pajama morning. How many Netflix and video game marathons have swallowed the hours of Sunday? The amusing distractions of sports and media carry us smiling toward our own spiritual deaths. There was time, but never enough, so I thought. But it wouldn't have mattered if had unlimited time, because I claimed that I was too tired and too indifferent. For one hour a week, out of the 168 hours in a seven day week, I could give neither the time nor the energy to offer up a single prayer of thanks. World weary, with a heavy heart, I slumped in the couch to restore myself. Like the apostles in the garden who could not stay awake with Jesus for one hour as he approached his torture on the cross, I could not give one hour. I could not move from the comfort of the couch. But I made sure I spent multiple hours watching sports, or going to the gym, or the brewpub, or shopping, or engaging in pleasure - but I could not give that one hour, or even a single minute. I fell asleep instead of giving that one hour to God, which is where the heart wanted to go all along. I stifled it and told it to be quiet. “I'm too busy for that, I need to watch this three hour football game. I need to stare at this phone to finish reading this editorial.” The hard truth was that the screens were draining me, never restoring me. Even writing requires a screen, so here I sit a hypocrite, as usual. I imagine that what I'm doing on the computer or phone is important, but it's just being busy. Reading news or information seems important, but it's not. "Learning something” is wonderful, but it can feed the ego more than the soul, depending on what you are learning. If I'm learning about a new programming language or how to build a birdhouse, then there is benefit, but if I'm reading about the latest news story, then it does nothing but agitate me, and we can all name people whose news obsession has infected and overtaken their actual lives. This gossip and garbage information empties me out of the all vestiges of grace, and kills off any sense of sanctity that I might have carried with me into the virtual realm. Holy, sacred, sanctity, hallowed - those words meant nothing to me, until the turn back to trust in a Higher Power happened. Those holy things and ideas were words to be mocked and reviled because they blocked progress, knowledge, and efficiency in getting things done. Yesterday I heard someone say that art class in elementary school is a waste of time because it would never “get kids anywhere in life.” But where are these kids going? Where is a child going that art, religion, music, or literature classes won't get them? I think it will get them exactly where they need to go. For a time, I was in agreement with that sentiment. Too busy for foolish things. Too busy for unproductive pursuits. What happens then is that the busy schedule becomes progress itself, until after performing that act for several years you discover that foolish things and unproductive pursuits are often the very spice of life if those things even touch an edge of art, music, religion, and literature. Business and industry replace the sacred. Sitting still becomes the enemy. Being busy pretends at being “good” behavior: working, taxiing children to activities, exercising, politicking, watching the latest TV show - that was a list of what seemed “useful.” This pursuit of all these things made for a constant chase of knowledge at a thin, surface level. Like the narrator of The Great Gatsby, I aimed at becoming “that most limited of all specialists, the ‘well-rounded man.'” This goal of being versed in all subjects or having knowledge in all areas is a fantasy. Consider how people sit around fires with friends today compared to before the invasion of the smart phone. Conversations dug up questions that had no answer in the present company, and when the answer was unknown, we made up stories and jokes about the possible answer amid the firelight. Today, the moment a question is introduced, hands reach for phones to pull back the answer, the “truth.” All of the imagination and joking is killed off instantly, as the spark upon such kindling for conversation has water drown it immediately. There is so much less wonder, imagination, and conversation because Google exists, although software companies spend much in advertising to assure us the opposite. The fireside story or tale has become someone who loves their phone reading a Wikipedia article to those seated at the fire, and the dead imaginations nod and say, “TIL: Today I learned.” But as for me, the pursuit of knowledge was a thinly veiled pursuit of approval and acceptance and self-justification. I can hardly see it as any different from the constant cleansing of the Pharisees, or like modern Muslims who wash many times a day for prayer. This “cleansing” is also done to our modern obsessions, those things we want so badly, that knowledge or sex or money or power. What we want is love and respect, to be seen, to be relevant, and desperate for the approval we will try to “wash” ourselves constantly. Then there is the possible horror that I'm still pursuing approval, among readers, in writing a blog and recording a podcast. The horror here is that I've learned nothing, and this very writing that you are reading is only the latest pursuit of approval. Yet I feel I have to share the story, as the experience of surfacing from a drowning state into drying out compels me to write now. The change from pessimism to optimism happened. Slowly at first, then seemingly overnight. There were markers along the way of how I lost my trust in God, and markers where I took turns to come back. The last turn I took led to radical trust, and now nothing is the same. The change struck me so hard that the “fix” made total sense. That I could suddenly stop seeking approval in all of the old places jarred my entire sense of universe, earth, self, soul, meaning, and purpose. Realizing that putting my trust in that old “sky-fairy” was the key to the door that opened to peace shocked me so much that this sentence proclaims it here and now. The abandonment of any need for pharmaceuticals confirmed to me that the God-shaped hole in our hearts is a real thing. And so I am almost grateful, in a way, for the culture today that silenced and hid God away from me, lured me away from this secret, discouraged talk about the subject, encouraged me to look for answers elsewhere in work and physical ability and alcohol, coaxed me explore all the avenues of self worth, only to make me so fully aware in the end that the one glaring omission of meaning sat sidelined through it all. Sitting on end of the bench of my roster of meaningful pursuits sat Jesus of Nazareth, the last player to enter the game. The humble one, ignored, avoided, mocked, sat patiently while all the other flashy players (who talked a big game) limped back from the field of life. I finally turned to that one remaining person, and said, “Ok, Jesus. Let's try this. I've tried everything else.” Only to find, of course, that the last player is the the greatest of all time, and now he is the only one needed. All along, he was the only player, coach, owner, and fan that I ever needed, and the joy of gaining this valuable knowledge would seem a shame not to share. For anyone else that might be thrashing about in those same waters and not sure where the life buoy is located, I feel that I should share it, as it took me so long to reach for the hand that was waiting to be grasped the whole time. 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

Diff between precision and accuracy, precision is hitting the target every time and accuracy is hitting the right target.  Both important, but precision w'o accuracy is foolish and arguably legalism, diligently following a checklist or set of rules but following the wrong rules.   God made the world based on laws and His way of doing things.  If you don't know His way of doing things, i.e. accuracy, you can be as precise as you want but what's the point if you're not following His rules.  If you think you're not following rules, I would ask you if you put on a mask against your better judgment at some point over the last 2 years.  Where there's a vacuum of rules, someone will fill that vacuum.  The Devil will gives us all sorts of rules if we don't follow God's rules, or he will tell us that we should make our own rules. I'm concerned about the talk among conservative Christians who are still talking about Donald Trump like he's our savior and that there's going to be a great awakening around what?  Freedom?  Is that our ultimate goal, freedom?  It depends on what your definition is of freedom. Romans 6:16 NKJV says "Do you not know that to whom you present yourselves slaves to obey, you are that one's slaves whom you obey, whether of sin leading to death, or of obedience leading to righteousness?" Romans 2:20 NKJV says "I have been crucified with Christ; " is that freedom, being crucified?  it is if you understand the meaning of true freedom. We talk about slavery as the ultimate evil or thing to avoid, but we should strive to be slave to Christ.  To me that's a big part of what being Torah observant is all about.  Being obedient to our Creator. Jesus said if you love me keep my commandments in John 14:15.   1 John 3:4 says "Whoever commits sin also commits lawlessness, and sin is lawlessness." What law is that talking about?  It's certainly not talking about man-made laws but God's law.  The word Torah means "the law". When we read about slaves in the Old Testament, it was a different situation than what we saw with African-Americans in the earlier part of the U.S. history.  People often became slaves, or what was called bondservants by choice, or sometimes because they needed to pay a debt. Ex 21:2-6 says "If you buy a Hebrew servant, he shall serve six years; and in the seventh he shall go out free and pay nothing. 3 If he comes in by himself, he shall go out by himself; if he comes in married, then his wife shall go out with him. 4 If his master has given him a wife, and she has borne him sons or daughters, the wife and her children shall be her master's, and he shall go out by himself. 5 But if the servant plainly says, ‘I love my master, my wife, and my children; I will not go out free,' 6 then his master shall bring him to the judges. He shall also bring him to the door, or to the doorpost, and his master shall pierce his ear with an awl; and he shall serve him forever." To me that picture of a man choosing to have an awl driven through his ear to declare being a slave to someone forever, is similar to our choice to be a slave to Christ forever, and give up the world's version of freedom, which can be summed up by the phrase do what you want.  You may have heard the phrase "Do what thou wilt" which was a book written by occultist Alister Crowley.  That's always been the message of Satan, along with the questioning of what's God wants us to do.  Satan said to Eve "Has God indeed said you shall not eat of every tree in the garden" and he says similar things to us in various ways, questioning God's law. Well, we should never be OK with not knowing what God expects from us. What does this look like if we pursue what God's will is for us through His Word. Well, for me one of the first implications of this was that me and my family could no longer justify doing celebrating a pagan holiday we call Christmas that God never told us to do. and in fact He said very clearly we should He did not want his people to worship as the pagans did but told us how He wanted us to worship him and gave us specific appointed times when he wanted to meet with us, in Hebrew these are called Moedim. So we stopped participating in Christmas and then Easter and then realized were not obeying the 4th commandment, which in Ex 20:8-11 says "“Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. 9 Six days you shall labor and do all your work, 10 but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God. In it you shall do no work: you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your cattle, nor your stranger who is within your gates. 11 For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it." Here are some quotes from the Catholic church about this issue: from the Catholic Record, Sept 1, 1923 ". The Bible still teaches that the Sabbath or Saturday should be kept holy. There is no authority in the New Testament for the substitution of Sunday for Saturday. Surely it is an important matter. It stands there in the Bible as one of the Ten Commandments of God. There is no authority in the Bible for abrogating this Commandment, or for transferring its observance to another day of the week.” “For Catholics it is not the slightest difficulty.”…“The Church is above the Bible; and this transference of Sabbath observance from Saturday to Sunday is proof positive of that fact. " Chancellor Albert Smith for Cardinal of Baltimore Archdiocese, letter dated February 10, 1920: "If Protestants would follow the Bible, they should worship God on the Sabbath day [which] by God is Saturday. In keeping the Sunday, they are following a law of the Catholic Church." Our Sunday Visitor (February 5, 1950): "Practically everything Protestants regard as essential or important they have received from the Catholic Church... The Protestant mind does not seem to realize that in accepting the Bible and observing the Sunday, in keeping Christmas and Easter, they are accepting the authority of the spokesman for the church, the Pope." Catholic Priest T. Enright, CSSR, lecture at Hartford, KS, Feb 18, 1884: "I have repeatedly offered $1000 to any one who can furnish any proof from the Bible that Sunday is the day we are bound to keep...The Bible says, “Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy,” but the Catholic Church says, “No, keep the first day of the week,” and the whole world bows in obedience." So if you consider yourself a Protestant and not a Catholic, I would encourage to ask yourself why you're worshipping on Sunday?  The reformation corrected many wrong doctrines of the Catholic church but left many unchanged and this is one of them. And that's just one of the 10 commandments, which are just 10 among all of the Torah. You may have heard phrases like "Jesus nailed the law to the cross" or that "Jesus did away with the law". I won't take the time to counter those arguments here, but I will say that if you are hungry to know the truth about these matters you can start with a few of these youtube channels: The Parable of the Vineyard, ShemaYisrael, Zach Bauer at An American Homestead, or TruthUnedited. But I'll leave you with this.  In Matthew 5:17 Jesus said "“Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill."  I've heard many quote this verse to suggest that when Jesus said fulfill He meant to do away with or destroy.  If that were true, Jesus would have been saying "I did not come to destroy but to destroy" which obviously makes no sense. In John 14:15 Jesus said "“If you love Me, keep My commandments." Hebrews 13:8 says "Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever." 2 Kings 17:37 says "And the statutes, the ordinances, the law, and the commandment which He wrote for you, you shall be careful to observe forever; " Another thing you may have heard is that Jesus blasted the Pharisees because they were following the law.  That's the opposite of the truth.  The Pharisees had made up all sorts of rules that they considered to be fences, extra rules to make sure that you never broke the Torah, which may have been well intentioned, but they got to a point where they weren't following the Torah they were just following their man-made rules and in so doing they missed the spirit of the law and they were out of relationship with their Creator, so much so that they didn't even recognize the prophesied messiah when He arrived. In the same manner, if we don't follow God's law and meet Him in His appointed times, will we recognize Jesus when He returns? So before I wrap this up let me make an application to our work so this isn't a total departure of the content you're used to receiving. So I want to bring us back to this idea of precision and accuracy.  I recently received some correction at my work.  It wasn't because I wasn't working hard, but rather I wasn't working entirely on the right things.  I was busy being precise, but my accuracy was off, and ultimately I was doing things as I thought they should be done but not as my boss wanted them done, and that is not a sustainable situation because my boss ultimately has a say about whether I continue to work with him or not, and I do not. It's the same with our heavenly father.  He gives us freedom to choose, but if we choose not to follow Him and His ways, and not to meet Him when He wants to meet with us, we will not end up spending eternity with Him.  

Today's readings are from Notebook 1, numbers 36-38. Why must we suffer? In our world, most of us try to avoid suffering at all costs--only comfort and pleasure are sought. We are even seeing people take their lives if they experience any amount of suffering. This is understandable when suffering seems to have no point. For Catholics, we can come to see that suffering and pain bring about growth and burns sin off of our souls.     

For Catholics, saints are remarkable Christian witnesses worthy of emulation. But what happens when a saint or hero is found to have acted contrary to the gospel? Fanatic enthusiasts may try to explain it away, says Dawn Eden Goldstein, when they should be acknowledging and denouncing it. Goldstein reflects on the life and legacy of beloved English writer and Catholic apologist G.K. Chesterton whose writings have inspired millions of Christians, but include some controversial and prejudicial claims about the Jewish people. Gloria and Dawn discuss why "othering" groups of people is so destructive, especially when it's done by our heroes–from the saints to the founding fathers–and how their cheerleaders can show love and appreciation for them through penance and reparations. Support the podcast and access America's content with a digital subscription! Links: Dawn Eden Goldstein's address on why GKC's fans must reckon honestly with his anti-Semitism Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Bible is the most misquoted and misinterpreted book in the history of the world. Part of that is because many people, believers and non-believers, have a misguided understanding of what the Bible is. For the most part, people have difficulty with HOW to read the Bible. For Catholics, these difficulties can be frustrating especially when we engage in a conversation with skeptics who use scripture to attack the faith, or even when we engage with those who call themselves Catholic who have a completely wrong understanding and end up promoting false teachings that go against Scripture and the Church. In this episode I will explain what the Bible is and share a few tips on how the bible SHOULD be read in hopes that anyone listening can pick up the Bible and begin to read it with a new perspective that will hopefully give them a more clear and precise understanding.

City of the Lord In this episode, Malcolm interviews Tim Keller about his experience in community. Tim discusses the importance of community life and describes the spirituality and activities of the City of the Lord, a Charismatic covenant community which he has been part of for 40 years. We all have a covenant Tim explains that, far from being esoteric or unusual, covenant community is fundamental to the Christian life. Every Christian is part of a covenant relationship with the Lord and with other Christians, simply by virtue of baptism. For Catholics, this is reinforced by the Eucharist, the Sacrament of unity. Community as an “altar call” Building a community is a way to reinforce and claim the covenant we have already entered into with the Lord. This covenant gives us rights and responsibilities that are difficult to live out alone. The community helps individuals to affirm and ratify their commitment. God’s face to the world We discussed the amazing reality of our Christian mission. As members of the Mystical Body, we have to show Christ’s love to the world. The love in a community is the best way to show others the love of Christ. Commitment to one another Tim discussed a fundamental shortcoming that limits the effectiveness of many Catholic programs, from men’s groups to youth outreach: those in the groups are not actually sharing the whole of life together. If the men in a small group, for instance, were actually sharing the whole of life and knew one another’s families, they would be more effective at offering support and guidance. (See our blog post on supporting one another in community here.) “The poverty of riches” In the past, community was natural; people needed one another. Tim pointed out that today, our wealth has created a certain kind of relational poverty. We need to rebuild the kind of caring community that once existed. The City of the Lord Community For 40 years, Tim Keller has been a member of the City of the Lord community, which is based in four cities in Arizona and southern California. It is a Charismatic Covenant Community in which groups of families come together to share life in Christ with one another. Tim described the activities of the community, ranging from block parties to healing ministries, and the many small groups that met under the umbrella of the wider group. For several years, he was also part of their Brotherhood, a group of single men in the community who lived a monastic-style life together. Geographic Relocation Over time, many of the families that made up the community relocated to live near one another in an urban neighborhood in Tempe, Arizona. This made it easier for the community members to maintain an informal social life with one another in addition to more formal planned events. Outreach The community of believers is for a mission, to show the world the love of Christ. Tim Keller described the many ways the City of the Lord reached out to the wider world. Just by living in community, the members were able to provide an attractive witness to others. The Next Episode This is the first of a two-part interview with Tim Keller. In the next episode, Tim will talk about the mistakes that can be made while building community, the Sursum Corda community he is helping to form in New Mexico, practical steps for community building, and the four pillars of community life. More Information You can find the City of the Lord website here. You can find the website of Tim’s community, Sursum Corda, here. Tim mentioned John Paul II’s letter Christifideles Laici, which can be found here. Cover image: Arizona desert. CC BY 2.0: Kevin Dooley

[Comment: Crucifixion] Friends of the Rosary: Today, Good Friday, we commemorate the crucifixion and death of Jesus Christ. We observe Holy Friday as part of the Paschal Triduum preceding Easter Sunday. It coincides with the Jewish observance of Passover. For Catholics, it's a fasting and prayer day. There is no celebration of the Eucharist. In the afternoon, ideally at three o'clock, we attend the celebration of the Lord's Passion, including the Veneration of the Cross. We say the prayer of surrender to the will of the Father in Heaven: “Father, into your hands I commend my spirit (Luke 23:46)”. The Father accepted the ultimate sacrifice of His Son's earthly life for the salvation of the world. We gaze upon the crucifixion of Jesus and reflect on His brutal agony and earthly death. We see Jesus' total surrender as an act of perfect love for the Father — an act into which we are invited to participate. We use this prayer as a way of uniting ourselves with the eternal Son. Ave Maria! Jesus, I trust in You! + Mikel A. | TheRosaryNetwork.org, New York ___ Premiere Daily Broadcast at 7:30 pm ET on YouTube.com/TheRosaryNetwork | Today's Holy Rosary in Video after the broadcast

The Vatican recently released a statement – a "responsum," in official terms – regarding whether the Church could bless same sex unions. The responsum contained a single word: "Negative." There was an explanatory note attached that explained the Church "does not and can not bless sin." For Catholics who have hoped that Pope Francis was moving the Church in a more progressive direction, this was a difficult piece of news to take in. Is this the end of their dream of a Church that supports the LGBTQ community? Our guests discuss it: Stan "J.R." Zerkowski, director of the Diocese of Lexington LGBT Ministry, and executive director of Fortunate Families Bryan Wilkinson, tech professional who considered pursuing the priesthood

For Catholics who support LGBTQ+ equality, this week’s statement from the Vatican prohibiting church blessings for same-sex relationships felt like a big step backwards, especially after the new tone defined by Pope Francis’s earlier comments about LGBT people: “Who am I to judge?” At the same time, a powerful new book calls for white evangelical […]

Today's readings are from Notebook 1, numbers 36-38. Why must we suffer? In our world, most of us try to avoid suffering at all costs--only comfort and pleasure are sought. We are even seeing people take their lives if they experience any amount of suffering. This is understandable when suffering seems to have no point. For Catholics, we can come to see that suffering and pain bring about growth and burns sin off of our souls.     

The season of Advent is here and we are still under the Covid -19 Pandemic lock down : For Catholics and all Christians it a good time to explore the meaning of Advent: And a great opportunity to draw closer to Christ. The season of Advent is the start of the Church Liturgical year . --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/ned-jabbar/message

For additional notes and resources check out Douglas’ website.IntroductionIn these NT character podcasts, we have already heard a lesson on the apostles Paul and Andrew. We continue our study with the balance of the better known apostles; the lesser known ones we will cover all together in the final podcast on the apostles.For Catholics he is the majestic prince of the apostles, as a visit to the Vatican will quickly remind one. The Orthodox view is nearer that of the Protestants: although he is a major apostle, he is no pope. Yet Protestants further downgrade Peter, perhaps in overreaction to papal claims. What is the truth about this man?Peter is mentioned nearly 180x in the NT (compared to nearly 300 mentions of Paul/Saul). Yet, though there isn't as much biblical material on him as there is in Paul's case, still Peter is a monumental character, and it would be impossible to sum up his life in a single podcast.He is often mentioned in the Gospels and in Acts 1-12. Then he appears in Acts 15. Paul refers to him in Galatians 2. Peter identifies himself in the salutations of 1 and 2 Peter. Further (speculative) information about Peter, lacking in the Bible, was more than made up for in later tradition!His letters reflect many of Jesus' teachings in the gospels. In addition, one historic event is alluded to -- the Transfiguration (2 Peter 1:16-18).Personal The name Petros (English Peter) comes from the Greek word for rock. In Aramaic he was Cephas, pronounced kay-pah (John 1:42; 1 Corinthians 1:12, 3:22, 9:5, 15:5; Galatians 1:18, 2:9,11,14). We might call him "Rocky." Since he's the son of Jonah (bar Jonah), a modernized equivalent for his full name would be "Rocky Johnson."Peter hailed from Bethsaida, which was also the home of Philip (John 1:44). This town has been excavated from 1987 on, and was soon afterwards identified as the biblical Bethsaida. What then about his "house" in Capernaum?Peter was a simple fisherman (Matthew 4:18; Mark 1:16; Acts 4:13).He was married; in Mark 1:29 his mother-in-law was healed, and in 1 Corinthians 9:5.As for 1-2 Peter, like most ancient writers, Peter employed the services of a scribe. The man who helped him write 1 Peter was Silvanus (1 Peter 5:12), also called Silas. Who assisted Peter with his second letter, we do not know. MinistryIntroduction to Jesus"We have found the Messiah" -- recruited by his brother Andrew (John 1:41).He was first called of the apostles, and this appointment is recorded in Matthew 10:2, Mark 3:18, Luke 6:14.Phase I: Training with the Twelve (Matthew 4-Acts 1), 27-30 ADPhase II: Twelve Years of Church Ministry (Acts 2-12), 30-42 ADPhase III: Later ministry (Acts 15, 1-2 Peter, later traditions), 49-64 ADConnection with Mark. 1 Peter 5:13 -- He is now in Rome (represented by the code-word "Babylon"), and close to Mark, who Papias says recorded Peter's words: "Mark having become the interpreter of Peter, wrote down accurately whatever he remembered. It was not, however, in exact order that he related the sayings or deeds of Christ. For he neither heard the Lord nor accompanied Him. But afterwards, as I said, he accompanied Peter, who accommodated his instructions to the necessities [of his hearers], but with no intention of giving a regular narrative of the Lord's sayings. Wherefore Mark made no mistake in thus writing some things as he remembered them. For of one thing he took special care, not to omit anything he had heard, and not to put anything fictitious into the statements. -- Eusebius, Church HistoryPreeminence?"For they say that Peter and James and John after the ascension of our Savior, as if also preferred by our Lord, strove not after honor, but chose James the Just as overseer of Jerusalem." -- Clement of Alexandria, c.190 AD.Papacy -- Orthodox do not recognize Peter as having been over the church at Jerusalem.Evidence of Acts 15.Spheres of influence -- see 2 Corinthians 10:16, Galatians 2:8.Snapshots Matthew 16:21-24 -- misunderstanding the call to follow Christ.Matthew 26:51-54 (see John 18:10, and hear the podcast on Malchus) -- Peter is rebuked for using force to prevent harm coming to Jesus.John 21:15-22 -- challenged to love Jesus above all, and without comparing his situation to those of other disciples.Acts 10:1-11:18 -- challenged to rethink the old law, in full acceptance of Gentiles as fellow believers.Galatians 2:11-14 -- challenged by Paul not to vacillate on this important principle. (2 Peter 3:15-16 -- continued respect for Paul.)1 Peter 5:1 -- a fellow elder and witness of Christ's sufferings. Peter had walked with the Lord a long time, received many corrections, and learned a lot about leadership by the time he was in his 60s.Martyrdom "Very truly I tell you, when you were younger you dressed yourself and went where you wanted; but when you are old you will stretch out your hands, and someone else will dress you and lead you where you do not want to go.” Jesus said this to indicate the kind of death by which Peter would glorify God. Then he said to him, “Follow me!” (John 21:18-19). Crucified upside-down in Rome (Acts of Peter). Josephus comments that Roman soldiers used to amuse themselves by crucifying persons in various positions.Passages and sources mentionedMatthew-John; Acts 1:14, 10:1-11:18; Galatians 2:8, 1 Peter 1:1, 5:1,13; 2 Peter 1:1, 3:15-16.Apocryphal works: Acts of Peter, Gospel of Peter, Preaching of Peter, Apocalypse of Peter, Judgment of PeterEusebius, Church History, Book 3, Chapter 39.15-16.You might also want to read the 9 lessons on 1-2 Peter in the NT Studies series (this website).Lessons for usMoral lesson 1: Think before you speak.Moral lesson 2: Be humble. God isn't limited to doing great things in your life only when you are "top dog."Life observation 1: People change, especially when they follow Jesus long enough.Life observation 2: The Christian journey is full of corrections. We need get good at accepting criticism from others (in humility).Life observation 3: Better step out in faith and be corrected than hold back in timidity. Growth comes through daring to act.

October 15th is Pregnancy and Infant Loss Remembrance Day. For Catholics this day is an opportunity to pray for the souls of all children who died before being baptized through causes such as miscarriage, stillbirth, or infant loss. Bishop Strickland and Dr. Trasancos sit down to discuss what the Church has to say on this issue. For those who would like to learn more, please read "The Hope of Salvation for Infants who Die without being Baptized" by the International Theological Commission.

Join us for an examination of Peter Leithart's "Reformational Catholicism." Should we be Ecumenical? For Catholics and Protestants together? Website: https://www.fullarmourministries.org Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/fullarmourmin Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/fullarmourm... Podcast: https://cr101radio.com/fullarmourradio Thanks for watching!

Join us for an examination of Peter Leithart's "Reformational Catholicism." Should we be Ecumenical? For Catholics and Protestants together? Website: https://www.fullarmourministries.org Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/fullarmourmin Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/fullarmourm... Podcast: https://cr101radio.com/fullarmourradio Thanks for watching!

Catholics and Protestants use different Bibles. Protestants omit what they call the Apocryphal books. Catholics call these books the Deuterocanoncial books: Sirach, Baruch, Wisdom, Tobit, Sussana, and Judith. John Calvin, one of the great Protestant thinkers, thought that the Church usurped the authority to determine canonicity--which books belong in the Bible--which properly belonged to the individual believer relating directly to God. The canonicity of books of the Bible is self-evident, according to Calvin, acting like a divine seal of veracity, and one does not need an institution to validate the veracity of a book. For Catholics, though, determining the veracity of a spiritual text cannot come through private revelation, since even highly trained Christians can disagree over what they think authentically comes from God. A pronouncement of the Church, built up through long stretches of struggle and debate, is needed to resolve disagreement over canonicity. The Protestant method of individual interpretation is dangerous, as it cannot provide a bulwark against cultural shifts and individual prejudices. You can find a nice article on this topic here: https://www.patheos.com/blogs/davearmstrong/2020/09/church-authority-the-canon-vs-calvin-59.html?utm_source=Newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Catholic+For+All+Seasons&utm_content=45 --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app

Hi guys and welcome to another episode in the RE series. In today's episode we will be looking at the four qualities that are necessary for the Catholic Church to exist. In addition, we will be revisiting what the Apostolic Succession is and what the Magisterium is. If you are aiming for the top grades why not try some exam questions: 1) "For Catholics today, 'apostolic' is the most important mark of the Church. " Evaluate this statement and give arguments for and against this statement [12 marks ]. I hope you find this useful, don't forget to share this resource with your friends. God bless

What does it mean to kneel? For Catholics, who are a liturgical people used to kneeling, we have a sense for that. My guest today is himself Catholic, he is himself steeped in the liturgy, and yet what he thought he knew about kneeling changed when George Floyd was killed on May 25, 2020. This is Leonard DeLorenzo on Church Life Today. My guest is Eric Styles, one of my colleagues at the University of Notre Dame, where he serves as rector of Carroll Hall. He is also Associate Artistic Director of Afro-House, a music driven performance art company. I’ve asked him to join me today to talk about his article which appeared in our Church Life Journal, under the title “Black Bodies, Kneeling, and the Liturgy.” We’ll also talk about the neglected testimonies of African Americans, and systemic racism in relation to the call to solidarity and the Catholic Church. ------ Live: www.redeemerradio.com Follow Redeemer Radio on Facebook/Twitter/Instagram: @RedeemerRadio Follow McGrath Institute for Church Life on Facebook/Twitter/Instagram: @McGrathND Subscribe to the Podcast: iTunes | Google Play | SoundCloud

For Catholics, the heresy of Modernism has tentacles that have insinuated themselves in the life and thinking of the Church for over 100 years.   For the rest of the show notes, watch and subscribe in YouTube Website: Patrick Coffin Media Follow me on Facebook, and Twitter Check out our store

The mission of this podcast is to highlight the beauty and diversity of God's Church – both in Chattanooga and the Church at large.What do Catholics and Protestants believe about the Eucharist/Communion? For Catholics, this may be the most important episode of this season, and it's certainly one of the most theologically complex. Adam and David discuss the commonalities and disagreements among various church traditions as they explore transubstantiation.Like many of the topics covered this season, there's significant agreement between Catholics and Protestants about the Lord's Supper: both believe that Jesus' sacrifice transcended space and time, and both believe that Communion has a physical and a spiritual component. But unlike most Protestant denominations, Catholics believe that once the bread and wine of the Eucharist are consecrated, they become both physically and spiritually the body and the blood of Jesus Christ through transubstantiation. Listen in on this episode to hear Adam and David dispel myths about how and why the Eucharist is observed. Bonus: don't miss equally interesting discussions about shampoo and Bible editions.   About Adam WhitescarverAdam is passionate about seeing God's people possess vibrant prayer lives to help them make a difference in the sphere of influence God has given them. In ministry since 2001, Adam enjoys his family, teaching, singing, and reading a myriad of subjects. He and his wife, Stephanie, live in North GA with their four children. Jump Through the Conversation:[2:00] Intro – “The Catholic bugbear”[2:38] Mischaracterizations of the Catholic understanding of the Eucharist[3:51] Anamnesis[5:00] Disclaimers and discussion of various editions of the Bible[7:33] Four main theological positionsCommunion is a memorial/signCommunion elements are physically bread and wine, spiritually Christ's body and bloodCommunion elements exist alongside Christ's body and blood (consubstantiation)Communion elements are physically and spiritually Christ's body and blood (transubstantiation)[10:16] Explanation of transubstantiationAccidents vs substance before and after consecrationOverlap with other traditions/denominations [15:15] The significance of the Last Supper and Jesus' death being outside of time[18:40] Adam's summary and explanation[20:33] Appeal to emphasize Communion as a “means of grace”[21:55] Nuances of the memorial perspective and anamnesis[24:41] Historical precedents and arguments[27:30] Connection between the Eucharist and the priesthood  Links and Resources:A Beautiful Church websiteChattanooga House of Prayer websiteGive todayDavid Carter's ministry Thanks for listening! Don't forget to subscribe! If you like what you heard, please leave a review on iTunes and share what you liked about the show.

If you use a liturgical desk calendar, you will notice the word abstinence stamped on every Friday page throughout Lent. Abstinence is a self-enforced restraint in bodily activities that are widely experience as giving pleasure. For Catholics 59 years of age and younger, abstinence is meant to elevate the believer's spiritual journey throughout the 40-plus

For Catholics conversion is not simply a one-time event: we are called to a life of ongoing conversion. Fr. Braun and Doug sit down to discuss the importance of the Sacrament of Confession and how Christ has, through His Church, provided us with this opportunity of continually turning away from sin and embracing a life of union with Him. Episode 10.

2020 Resolves For Men - "Go To Joseph!" - Mike Church Show Red Pill Diaries Listen To This Entire Episode of The Mike Church Show, Click Here! Mike Church's exhortation to ALL men on how to deal with the crisis of masculinity in our modern porn drenched culture, as Mike put it "In 2020, I challenge you and I take the challenge myself, Go to Saint Joseph. Become that knight who actually sits on a white steed ready to defend his family from the cult of death and lead them to do so by the light of The Holy Family and especially Saint Joseph." A Call To Arms! Join The KingDude In The CRUSADER Knights of The Most Holy Rosary Confraternity and Take Action! Talk taken from this HEADLINE: No Church for Young Men by Eric Sammon We see young flocking to the door once they leave the house. For Catholics, if religion was “very important” in the family, then 73 percent of the time the kids remained Catholic after leaving the house. If it was “not too/not at all important,” only 38 percent remained Catholic. This shouldn’t be surprising to most people involved with youth outreach; they know it from experience. This is why many look for ways to involve parents in their youth activities. However, the model remains directed toward the kids, separate from their parents. How Can We Do This? -  Institute ad orientem worship. Ensure there are only men and boys at the altar. Maintain silence before and after Mass in the church. Sing traditional hymns, not the 1970s folk drivel so popular today. Institute men’s groups (i.e. the Holy Name Society) that focuses on concrete, practical activities. Call for sacrifice. Tell it like it is. Learn the St. Joseph prayer and PRAY IT! Learn Psalm 69 Incline unto my aid, O God. - O Lord, make haste to help me.  BIOGRAPHY Mike Church Biography – “Too Catholic For Satellite Radio” In May of 2015, Chris Ferrara wrote a bio pic essay on a talk-radio host who was then completely unknown to Catholic, talk-radio fans. The Mike Church Interview: A Remarkable Conversion to Tradition Changes the Face of Political Talk Radio Featured Chris wrote of me back then, words that were too kind but serve as a basis for this biography. Indeed, over the past year or so Mike Church has emerged as the only traditionally Catholic conservative in talk radio today, anywhere in the world. And I mean traditional. Not only during my appearances on the show, but now thematically, Mike has turned the longest running political talk show on Sirius Radio into an unabashed presentation of the Social Kingship of Christ, traditional Catholic moral teaching, and even the traditional Latin liturgy as the solution to what is evidently otherwise a terminal civilizational crisis. I have been invited on the show numerous times to defend all of these things explicitly, to speak of the one true Church, and even to call upon conservative Protestants to enter the Church if they are serious about saving our nation and our civilization. From there, on October 26, 2015, my 13 year run on Sirius Satellite Radio came to a close when my contract was not renewed. Chris would follow the above bio with an updated one titled, The Mike Church Show – Too Catholic For Satellite Radio. MIKE CHURCH BIOGRAPHY FACTS Born, February 2nd, New Orleans Begun talk-radio in 1992, WSLA, Slidell LA, I have been off air a total of 7 months since. Launched the Sirius Satellite Radio service as its FIRST – LIVE talk-show on 10 March, 2003. Promoted to Morning Drive on the SiriusXM Patriot Channel, May 2009, the 3rd most listened to show on the platform From July 2007 – present, founded Founding Father Films, wrote, produced, narrated and directed 9, full length audio features, two that made it to DVD! Returned to the Roman Catholic Church’s Tridentine Mass and Tradition in 2013. Consecrated to Our Lady via de Montfort’s formula in December 2014.

On this week's show, we address the close connection between the Catholic Church and Sacred Scripture with popular apologist Jimmy Akin as we discuss his newest work . About Jimmy Akin: Jimmy Akin is an internationally known author and speaker. As the senior apologist at Catholic Answers, he has more than twenty-five years of experience defending and explaining the Faith. Jimmy is a convert to the Faith and has an extensive background in the Bible, theology, the Church Fathers, philosophy, canon law, and liturgy. Jimmy is a weekly guest on the national radio program Catholic Answers Live, a regular contributor to Catholic Answers Magazine, and a popular blogger and podcaster. His personal web site is . About : In The Bible Is a Catholic Book, Jimmy shows how the Bible cannot exist apart from the Church. In its origins and its formulation, in the truths it contains, in its careful preservation over the centuries and in the prayerful study and elucidation of its mysteries, Scripture is inseparable from Catholicism. This is fitting since both come from God for our salvation. For Catholics who sometimes get intimidated by the Bible (especially scriptural challenges from Protestants), The Bible Is a Catholic Book will help them better understand and take pride in this gift that God gave the world through the Church. And the clarity and charity that Jimmy uses as explains how the early Church gave us the Bible will make it accessible to non-Catholic Christians as well. Check out  and find all of our book and movie suggestions at  For Lisa's speaking schedule visit . Send your feedback to  or connect with Lisa on social media @LisaHendey.

Father Josh answers questions about how to live Advent in a meaningful way, whether Catholics should listen to Christmas music during Advent, and what the “Christmas season” is according to the liturgical calendar. Snippet from the Show _For the secular world, Christmas season begins on Black Friday and ends on Christmas day. For Catholics, Christmas season begins on Christmas day and continues until the Baptism of Christ the Lord in mid-January. _ SHOWNOTES Glory Story (1:56) Feedback (4:20) How to Have a Meaningful Advent (7:52) Hey Fr Josh, What practical advice can you give to have a more meaningful Advent and truly enter into the mystery of the Incarnation? I know the world has a different way of preparing for Christmas, but all that builds up to is simply good feelings and gifts that will probably go obsolete. Also, I’m the only actively practicing Catholic in my family, I want to ensure that my soul is ready to welcome the Baby Jesus and make Him the king of my life. I don’t want to view the Nativity as a cute little story, but as the moment where the world’s and my salvation was born. Thanks for your service to Mother Church. Chris Christmas Music during Advent (11:32) Greetings, Fr. Josh! Thank you so much for dedicating yourself to this podcast as part of your ministry. Many times your words have convicted me to dive deeper into certain aspects or practices of our faith, and my relationship with Jesus has greatly benefited as a result. I appreciate the wide variety of topics that you address on the show, and I LOVE your glory stories. They encourage me to "keep on keeping on" and they remind me to continuously look for God's blessings in my everyday life. Know that I am praying for you and for all of your listeners as we journey in the faith together. On to my question. I love Christmas music, and as a professional singer and a music teacher, I often start preparing Christmas - themed songs for holiday performances in September (both in my own practice and with my students). I also love listening to Christmas music, and have traditionally started listening to Christmas songs in November (or at the very least singing along with the radio stations that play Christmas tunes at work or in stores). However, recently some Catholics I know (close friends of mine, as well as more well-known public figures) have advocated for not listening to or playing Christmas music much (if at all) before or during the Advent season. Instead, they suggest focusing more on traditional Advent-themed hymns such as "O Come O Come Emmanuel" and "O Come Divine Messiah." I definitely love incorporating these traditional hymns into my prayer and worship during Advent, but I struggle with the idea of completely ignoring Christmas music (especially sacred Christmas carols) right up until the Christmas liturgical season begins. This is particularly impractical for me given my current vocation as a musician and teacher. Do you have any thoughts on how Catholics should approach listening to Christmas music (both sacred and secular) before and during Advent? Thank you so much, and may God continue to bless you in your ministry! Anna-Marie Timing of the Christmas Season (19:35) Dear Fr. Josh, Thank you for creating such an inspiring and informative podcast. My husband and I really enjoy listening to it on long car drives, and discussing the topics further together. My question for you is when does the Christmas season end? I know in the Church it officially begins on Christmas Day itself, but it's difficult for me to find a good answer on when it ends. Some say Epiphany (but I've heard for years that this isn't the case). Others say the Baptism of the Lord, but is that just up until then or the day of (since priests return to green vestments that day). Further, I've read that it goes through Candlemas on February 2nd, as the Alma Redemptoris Mater is used through then with its Christmas vesicle and prayer. Could you please enlighten me and other listeners as to which one is most correct? Thank you and God Bless Hannah Resources Rejoice! Advent Meditations “Advent at Ephesus” by the Benedictines of Mary, Queen of Apostles “Lent at Ephesus” by the Benedictines of Mary, Queen of Apostles Email Father Josh at askfatherjosh@ascensionpress.com The Birth of Jesus the Messiah (Matthew 1:20-21)

Hello and Peace my friends. For Catholics, the new Liturgical Year commences with the first Sunday of Advent. The beginning of a renewed commitment to the faith by all those who follow Christ. Peace be with you.

Reflecting on Pope John Paul II’s encyclical Redemptor Hominis, Colin reminds us that Christ the redeemer is the center of the entire universe and all of human history. But is he the center of your own personal universe and your own personal history? As Catholics, we need to re-situate Jesus Christ as the center of our reality. Everything we do, say and believe should orbit around him. The devil is looking to sidetrack us and lead us to focus on anything other than Christ the redeemer. For Catholics, it might be Church politics, our families, our work— even a specific spiritual practice— but if we place any of these at our center, we need to re-calibrate our lives and put Christ back in his rightful place. Only when our lives are reordered around him will we be fully redeemed. _ Snippet from the Show:_ Christ the Redeemer is the center of the entire universe and of human history, but is he the center of your universe?

What I wish I knew BEFORE I married young Show Notes and Links Engaged and Catholic? Wondering what it might be like on the other side of your wedding vows? There are somethings we won’t be able to prepare for in life, and marriage is one of those things. For Catholics, we know we’re getting married for life, but that doesn’t mean it’s going to be any easier for us. John shares his experiences from his own Catholic marriage and how he’s learned a lot that he wasn’t expecting when he was in a dating relationship. ⚡️ Action Item ⚡️ Make an outline of the person YOU want to be. Watch it on Youtube

Top 100 US ESG companies for 2019 by CR Magazine. Profitably invest in harmony with your spiritual or religious ideals. Solar power breakthrough—but investing in solar has its perils. A valuable investing tip that really works. Confused who’s best, Uber or Lyft? An analyst compares them. Vanguard launches actively managed ESD ETF. And more. PODCAST: Top US ESG Companies, Solar Power Breakthrough, Investing Tip Transcript & Links May 26, 2019 Hello, Ron Robins here. Welcome to my podcast Ethical & Sustainable Investing News to Profit By! for May 26, 2019. Presented by Investing for the Soul. investingforthesoul.com is your site for vital global ethical and sustainable investment resources. Now to this podcast. And for any terms that are unfamiliar to you, simply Google them! Also, you can find a full transcript, live links and often bonus material at my podcast page located at investingforthesoul.com/podcasts ------------------------------------------------------------- The first item to discuss is CR Magazine's 100 Best Corporate Citizens of 2019! CR Magazine reviewed 1,000 US companies for their ESG practices. Robbie Lock, a writer for 3BL Association, commenting on the research results wrote that “Owens Corning tops the ranking, followed by Intel, General Mills, Campbell Soup and HP Inc… Twenty-seven companies are new to the ranking in 2019 including Allstate, Delta Airlines and Mondelez International. Biggest gainers include Ball Corp., CBRE, Ford and Xylem, Inc.” Mr. Lock provides further clarification as to how CR Magazine obtains the rankings. Quoting him again, he says, ”The 100 Best Corporate Citizens ranking uses 134 total corporate disclosure and performance factors in seven categories: climate change, employee relations, environment, finance, governance, human rights, and stakeholders and society.” Also, that the, “There is no fee for companies to be assessed. To compile this ranking, information is obtained from publicly available resources only, rather than questionnaires or company submissions. Companies have the option to verify data collected for the ranking at no cost.” Close quote. I like the idea that companies don’t pay to be included in the research and the data compiled is from publicly available sources. ------------------------------------------------------------- The 100 Best Corporate Citizens demonstrate various degrees of above average corporate ethics, and ethics is a central theme for those wanting to apply their spiritual or religious beliefs to investing. If you’re interested in applying spiritual or religious values to investing, Meredith Jones just published in MarketWatch a post that could be of interest to you. It’s titled, “Opinion: When your faith guides your investing decisions, can you still beat the stock market?” And she says the answer can be yes. Ms. Jones reviews the leading ETFs and mutual funds for investors interested in Catholic, Jewish, Muslim, and Christian-Bible related ethics and principles. For Catholics, she likes the Global X S&P 500 Catholic Values ETF, LKCM Aquinas Catholic Equity Fund, and the Ave Maria group of funds. For those of Jewish persuasion, she says there’s only one for now and that’s the AMIDEX35 Israel Mutual Fund which invests in Israeli companies. For Muslims, there’s the Imam Fund IMANX the Amana group of funds and ETFs listed on the London Stock Exchange including iShares MSCI World Islamic ETF ISWD and the iShares MSCI USA Islamic ETF ISUS. And under the umbrella of Christian-Bible offerings, Ms. Jones reviews the Timothy Plan and Guidestone family of funds. For links to these funds go to my podcast page for this edition at investingforthesoul.com/podcasts. ------------------------------------------------------------- In my last podcast, I introduced the research of Tim Nash at Corporate Knights. Well, he’s produced another research report that compares the pros and cons of investing in Uber or Lyft. You can read his full post under the title of Tim Nash’s sustainable stock showdown: Uber vs. Lyft. Personally, I’m not keen on either company because I believe competition—not just between them but also other entrants including potentially motor vehicle manufacturers themselves—will force them to keep user prices low which will continue to severely restrict profits. Also, their environmental benefits are overplayed as I mentioned in my podcast of April 12. Anyhow, this is what Mr. Nash says in conclusion, “I’d put Lyft ahead by a headlight in this week’s Sustainability Stock Showdown, but anyone that’s interested in investing in either stock should be ready to fasten their seat belts and brace for a bumpy ride.” ------------------------------------------------------------- One big area that I know might interest you is renewable energy. I have several items of news and information that I want to share with you concerning investing in this area. The first thing you should know is that developments in new products are almost overwhelming. This industry has numerous innovative players and it’s very difficult to know who will eventually be a leader. Sure, you can buy renewable energy ETFs—and a good read on what to buy is an article that appeared recently on Nasdaq, titled, 5 Clean Energy ETFs to Buy for 2019. But if you’re interested in individual companies, here’s what I’ve seen in the past two weeks. The New York Times ran an excellent piece reviewing a Danish company called Orsted. They produce massive offshore wind turbines whose energy costs are rapidly declining while already being highly competitive with new natural-gas fired plants. In solar power, there’s been a tremendous breakthrough in producing new solar panels that appear to be 20-25% more efficient than the best existing panels. A paper outlining the breakthrough appeared in ScienceDaily under the title, Breakthrough in new material to harness solar power. Who will manufacture, market and install such panels wasn’t mentioned. Incidentally, these panels do have a downside—they contain some lead. I’m sure testing in rainy and humid environments will be needed and manufacturing processes and end-of-life disposal policies will be needed too, considering that most countries will want assurance about the safe removal of lead. I did a detailed study on solar panel manufacturers a few years ago and discovered that the manufacturing processes themselves can be highly toxic. Furthermore, most countries had no end-of-life policies in place to deal with the safe disposal of the toxic components of solar panels—and that is deeply concerning! It’s possible that the companies engaged in the manufacturing, marketing and installation of solar panels could at some point be hit with levies or fines in dealing with these issues. At the time of my research, I was most impressed with SunPower and its environmental efforts. So, one thing you might want to find out before investing in solar panel manufacturers is how they perform environmentally. A great resource for this is the Solar Power Scorecard produced by the Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition. However, their last scorecard is a little dated and I’m hoping to see their new one soon. Incidentally, Fox Business just reported on the huge growth of solar panel installation in the US in a post, titled, 2 Million U.S. Solar Installations Are Just the Start. By the way, a tip for checking how investment analysts rate solar companies—or any companies for that matter—is simply to type into Google Search the name of the company followed by Reuters—the name of the media company—after it. Click search and then click the search item that says the company name and the text Reuters quote. Reuters will then bring-up a research report. Click on analysts in the links bar and you can see how analysts rate the stock of the company you’re researching. By getting the information on how analysts rate the companies you’re interested in can be terrifically helpful in deciding which companies to invest in. It saves you a lot of time and effort. And this is exactly the kind of tip and help you get in my DIY Ethical-Sustainable Investing Pays Tutorial! This tutorial will be the most worthwhile 1-hour you’ll ever spend getting help with your investments! ------------------------------------------------------------- Some other exciting new developments that might interest you are the following. Vanguard, one of the world’s largest fund companies, has launched its first actively managed ESG ETF, called the Global ESG Select Stock Fund (ticker VEIGX). It will officially begin trading on June 4. This is big as ETFs are mostly ‘passively’ managed, that is they pick a group of stocks typically based on an index, whereas active management means selling and buying different stocks as the managers see fit. In recent years passive investing has usually outperformed active investing. However, who knows what the future will bring. Also, S&P Dow Jones, who have had ESG indices for many years is launching something new. They are launching ESG global indexes based on core regional and country benchmarks. What is especially interesting is that these indexes, and quoting their press release, provide “a return profile that's consistent with mainstream benchmarks that have been widely followed for years.” As an aside, what you can do, where possible, is to review the indexes that interest you and see what companies are included in them. You can often get useful ideas for new companies to look at! ------------------------------------------------------------- So, these are my top news stories and tips for ethical and sustainable investors over the past two weeks. Again, to get all the links or to read the transcript of this podcast and sometimes get additional information too, please go to investingforthesoul.com/podcasts and look for this edition. And be sure to click the like and subscribe buttons in iTunes or wherever you listen to this podcast. That way you can help promote not only this podcast but ethical and sustainable investing globally. And remember, I’m here to help you grow in your investment success—and investing in opportunities that reflect your personal values! Please don’t hesitate to contact me if you have any questions about the content of this podcast or anything else investment related. I can’t say I’ll have all the answers for you and some answers I can’t give due to licensing restrictions. But where I can help I will. Now, a big thank you for listening—and please click the share buttons to share this podcast with your friends and family. Come again! My next podcast is scheduled for June 7. Bye for now!

Fr Martin Browne OSB introduces our listeners this week to ecumenism. For Catholics, the word ecumenism refers to all of the activities and initiatives of the Church and her members to promote mutual understanding and, ultimately, unity among all Christians. Inter-religious dialogue is the dialogue between different faiths such as Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Buddhism etc. Fr Martin takes us through the journey for the search for Christian unity in the 20th century and how christian's of all denominations have taken up the prayer of Jesus at the Last Supper that we " may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me." and reminds us that unity has to start with each one of us genuinely seeking it in prayer before the Lord.

For Catholics, it is one of the holiest sites in the world, but was Fatima a miracle or a deception? L.A. Marzulli discusses his new movie and the controversial events surrounding the 1917 Marian apparitions in Portugal. Marzulli also discusses the news report of a new scientific study that concludes that ancient humans had sex with 'non humans.' Is this scientific proof of the Genesis 6 account? Why the present DNA manipulation and life extension technologies bring closer than ever to the return of Christ. Do the Serpent and Circle Mounds provide evidence of an advanced non-human race?

“For Catholics, the life and dignity of human person is not a ” narrow cause” but a way of life. For this reason, no Catholic should vote for a political program or law that would contradict the fundamental principles of our faith. In sharing our social w

All of us are on a spiritual journey from sin to salvation. Like the Israelites longing for a return to Egypt, many of us occasionally desire our old addictions, providing the anxious ego with comfort and security. Far from Egypt, the Promised Land is the spiritual space of complete dependence upon God. But the Israelites are not there yet. They need to eat the manna from heaven. For Catholics, this is the Eucharist. It is the means to getting God’s divine life within us.

CTU's Joy of the Gospel podcast gives insight into Evangelii Gaudium through select passages which illuminate the vision of Pope Francis for the Church. CTU's Vice President and Academic Dean, Sr. Barbara Reid, OP, reflects on the quote: "We need to create still broader opportunities for a more incisive female presence in the Church." For Catholics and those from other faith traditions who want to learn more about this powerful document in a format that is both substantive and accessible.

CTU's Joy of the Gospel podcast gives insight into Evangelii Gaudium through select passages which illuminate the vision of Pope Francis for the Church. CTU's Professor of Mission of Culture, Steve Bevans, SVD, provides an introduction to the series. For Catholics and those from other faith traditions who want to learn more about this powerful document in a format that is both substantive and accessible.

Summary of today's show: The HHS mandate of the Affordable Care Act is an unprecedented infringement on religious liberty, according to a wide cross-section of religious leaders and political observers. Scot Landry talks to Kim Daniels, an attorney who specializes in religious liberty issues and coordinator for Catholic Voices USA, about the HHS mandate and other attempts to infringe on religious liberty during this Fortnight for Freedom called by the US bishops. Daniels will be one of the panelists on the Fortnight for Freedom town hall airing on CatholicTV and WQOM tonight at 8pm. Listen to the show: Today's host(s): Scot Landry Today's guest(s): Kim Daniels, Coordinator for Catholic Voices USA Links from today's show: Today's topics: Religious Liberty and the HHS Mandate 1st segment: Scot said tonight Cardinal Sean will be hosting on the live town hall meeting at CatholicTV at 8pm on the topic of religious liberty. On of the presenters joining is Kim Daniels, an attorney working on religious liberty issues and is a coordinator for Catholic Voices USA and lives in Maryland. Scot said he met Kim when he attended a meeting in Washington, DC, of Catholic Voices USA. Kim said the group is lay Catholics who stand up and talk about our faith and why we love it, making the Church's presence felt in the public square. They don't speak on behalf of the bishops, but do speak authoritatively because they know their faith well. It's an outgrowth of a similar successful group in England last year that began before the Pope's visit. Scot said Catholic Voices is launched while we're fighting to defend our religious freedom. Kim said they saw a need for lay Catholics to be out there on this issue.They want as many lay Catholics talking about it as possible because it's important we tell everyone how it's under siege today. Scot asked Kim to provide background on the HHS mandate. She said it's part of the Affordable Care Act. Last August, the Dept. of health and Human Services put out a regulation that all employers provide insurance for contraceptive services under the ACA or face a fine. The only exemption was for a narrow definition of churches. Church-related organizations were not exempted. In January this year the president affirmed that this was going to be the rule and then later proposed an “accommodation” which was only an accounting trick. For the first time, religious believers would be forced to provide a good or service that violates their faith. Kim said the problems with the “accommodation” includes the idea that insurers would be forced to provide the coverage rather than the employers, but of course the costs would be passed along to employers. The employers would still be forced to participate. Also, many church organizations are self-insurers. Kim said religious liberty is our first freedom. One of the central reasons people came to this country was to escape religious persecution and that's what the first amendment was about. For Catholics especially, it's important, because it it's the glue that holds civil society together. Catholics found civil society institutions that stand between individual and government and provide the glue for society. Scot asked what makes the HHS mandate so bad. Kim said the mandate has an extremely narrow definition of what counts as a religion. You're a religious organization if you primarily employ people of your faith and promotes your faith. If reduces religion to freedom of worship within the four walls of the house of worship, not freedom of religion. Mother Teresa would not qualify for the exemption. Scot said we don't serve other because they're Catholic. We serve others because we're Catholic. That's what defines us as Catholic. Free exercise isn't freedom of worship, but freedom of religion, which is prayer, belief, and action, and more. Kim said look at the list of the Catholic organizations that have signed on to lawsuits against the HHS mandate: publishers, colleges, nursing homes. For every corporal work of mercy, you can find an organization that has signed on. Scot said some people believe Catholics have been targeted specifically. Cardinal George of Chicago said this is an unprecedented requirement that we be forced to act contrary to what we believe. This has never happened in the US. Kim said we know there's been plenty of religious bigotry in history. It's important to remember here that what's going on is that people are being forced to pay for something that violates their deeply held religious beliefs. Once this precedent is set, you can violate beliefs in other places as well. A good example is conscientious objection to serving in war. That could be threatened. Scot said when there are laws passed, there's usually a robust set of exemptions for different groups. Scot said the Affordable Care Act has many exemptions, but the exemption for Catholics was so narrow it violates our religious liberty. Scot asked Kim how exemptions work in laws like these? Kim said we have a longstanding bipartisan census in favor of religious liberty and exemptions for religious conscience. President Clinton signed int o law the religious freedom restoration act. Ted Kennedy had written to Pope Benedict that he was in favor of strong exemptions for Catholics. But what happened here is the Obama administration has set all that aside. Scot said the troubling part of this is that the Secretary of HHS came out with a list of preventative care that's covered under the law that included contraception and abortifacients, when real preventative care wasn't included. Kim said wouldn't it be great to have free health club memberships or blood pressure medicine or the like? But instead contraception, sterilization and abortifacients are. That shows they are presenting pregnancy as a disease to be prevented. Kim noted that the Amish got an exemption from the Affordable Care Act as did millions of people who were grandfathered. 2nd segment: Scot said on this issue, Catholics of all stripes were all united that this was a massive violation of religious freedom. Kim said when the mandate first came down, she heard people talking about in her parish in a way that you don't see normally. They saw it as an attack on them and it's created a solidarity. The lawsuits show a wide array of groups participating from small to large and across the viewpoint spectrum. An important development last week saw the Catholic Health Association, which had supported the Affordable Care Act, came out against the HSS mandate and the supposed accommodation. Kim said the institutions that will not provide the objectionable goods and services will be subject to fines of $100 per day per employee. For large organizations and small ones that is significant. It will lead some to shut their doors. Others will reduce their services. It will have a big impact on our network of schools and social service providers. Scot has asked if there's a precedent for fines that are so crippling? Kim said this is what's unprecedented: That the government is forcing us to make that choice between our religious beliefs and paying these crippling fines. Because we are an institutional church, we work through groups we form, not just through individuals, it affects us uniquely. It's not just a Catholic issue, but it particularly affects us. Scot said there are about 200 Catholic universities in the US, about 7,000 secondary and elementary schools, 1,400 long-term healthcare centers, and hundreds of hospitals. The most important thing for the common good is not the the number of institutions, but the people who are served here. Kim said the key issue to remember is that at the end of the day this will harm the poor, kids in schools, those served by Catholic services. Kim said when the government says to some that they are not meeting the narrow exemption, it involves the government coming in and defining whether they are religious. The government becomes entangled in the practice of our religious faith. Scot said this violates the separation of church and state. Kim said it goes to the Establishment clause. It's setting up a regulation that determines what it means to be religious. Scot asked Kim to respond to the claim that the Church is trying to impose its views on others, including employees who don't agree. Kim said the Church only seeks to retain the constitutional right to propose it's views as a full participant in public life. It's the government is coming in to tell the Church what it should believe about contraception and abortion.Kim said contraception is cheap and widely available and the government could take many steps to provide it easily without forcing religious believers to violate their beliefs. People coming to work for the Church know or can easily know what the Church believes coming in the door. Kim said when the Catholic Health Association came out against the mandate, they made this argument. Scot said he's also heard that the Catholic Church is trying to hurt Obama's re-election campaign. Kim said the plaintiffs in the lawsuits have all different political views. If anyone is trying to politicize this issue, it's the Obama administration. Scot said that's another slogan he's heard, that this is a War on Women. Kim said it's clear that it's a manufactured war. It's patronizing for the administration to claim that religious freedom isn't as important to women. 30,000 women have signed up for an inititiative to say this. Kim and her neighbor Helen Alvare, who is a prominent pro-life Catholic, started this initiative on the grassroots level, sending it out to their friends without a big budget or infrastructure. She's heard of women taking up the initiative on their own to stand up for their religious liberty. Scot read the open letter from the website called “Don't Claim to Speak for All Women”: We are women who support the competing voice offered by Catholic institutions on matters of sex, marriage and family life. Most of us are Catholic, but some are not. We are Democrats, Republicans and Independents. Many, at some point in our careers, have worked for a Catholic institution. We are proud to have been part of the religious mission of that school, or hospital, or social service organization. We are proud to have been associated not only with the work Catholic institutions perform in the community – particularly for the most vulnerable — but also with the shared sense of purpose found among colleagues who chose their job because, in a religious institution, a job is always also a vocation. Those currently invoking “women's health” in an attempt to shout down anyone who disagrees with forcing religious institutions or individuals to violate deeply held beliefs are more than a little mistaken, and more than a little dishonest. Even setting aside their simplistic equation of “costless” birth control with “equality,” note that they have never responded to the large body of scholarly research indicating that many forms of contraception have serious side effects, or that some forms act at some times to destroy embryos, or that government contraceptive programs inevitably change the sex, dating and marriage markets in ways that lead to more empty sex, more non-marital births and more abortions. It is women who suffer disproportionately when these things happen. No one speaks for all women on these issues. Those who purport to do so are simply attempting to deflect attention from the serious religious liberty issues currently at stake. Each of us, Catholic or not, is proud to stand with the Catholic Church and its rich, life-affirming teachings on sex, marriage and family life. We call on President Obama and our Representatives in Congress to allow religious institutions and individuals to continue to witness to their faiths in all their fullness. Scot said it's a beautiful letter. He's said the issue can turn in this country if women stand up and say that NARAL and NOW don't speak for them. Women aren't one-issue voters who only care about abortion and contraception. Kim said it's patronizing for the Obama administration to call this a women's issue because it involves contraception, abortion, and sterilization. Scot said 43 Catholic institutions filed a lawsuit on one day in late May, adding to 11 previous lawsuits. Kim said it was an unprecedented coordination of lawsuits among Catholic groups. As a civil rights matter it's striking to see organizations come together to file suit across the country to show that it matters to all of us. It's also important it was filed then because the Supreme Court's decision on the Affordable Care Act is imminent. Plus the clock is ticking: Catholic organizations need to purchase insurance. Scot said some in Boston thought the Archdiocese of Boston should have filed a lawsuit too. There are 195 dioceses and parches in the US. He asked what about groups that didn't file a lawsuit? Kim said the suits are directed against just the mandate. There are lots of reasons while you would have some plaintiffs sign on and others not sign on and why you would file in the some places and not in others. It's mainly a tactical question. Scot asked how long it will take to see this resolved. Kim said it depends on what happens in the next few weeks and months on these issues. You could see them happening in the next year. Scot asked how the 43 lawsuits might be affected by the Supreme Court decision on the Affordable Care Act itself. If the Court rules the law constitutional or only part of it is unconstitutional, the lawsuits will move forward. If the court rules against the whole Act, then it's an immediate win for the plaintiffs and we return to the status quo of strong religious freedom protections. Scot asked what the likelihood for that is. Kim said her sense is the Court will strike down part of the Act and these cases will move forward in court and they will win. Scot asked Kim what she hopes to come from the Fortnight for Freedom. She wants her own kids to see Catholic standing together on an important issue. It's also a wakeup call about what's going on with religious liberty. Even if it seems like it's removed in Washington, the Fortnight can bring this home to parishes. Scot said he's been thinking about those who gave their lives in our history for the sake of religious freedom. What message would Kim have to the listeners on why we should educate ourselves and do something about this now? Kim said religious liberty isn't always attacked in a grand way, like bombing of churches and Christians being murdered. What we have here is the slow whittling away of our religious liberty. But this will really affect all os u. It will set the precedent in the law that religion is what happens within the four walls of a house of worship.

End Time Current Events: 5-13-12–Part 2 Table of Contents: Part 2: For Catholics, Another False Door to Absolution Is Reopened: Indulgences are back! Our “Lady of China” will merge Buddhism with Rome ContendingForTruth.com USB Flash Drive Update Audio Addendum Regarding Elimination of Gluten in the Diet Click Here for the Part 2 Audio PDF: End Time…

End Time Current Events: 5-13-12–Part 1 Table of Contents: Pope Benedict XVI present while a Catholic Deacon Invokes Lucifer during the Easter Vigil Mass The NIV Bible Calls Lucifer, Jesus Christ Part 1: For Catholics, Another False Door to Absolution Is Reopened: Indulgences are back! Click Here for the Part 1 Audio PDF: End Time…

Thanks to Jake from The Imaginary Friends Show Podcast. You can check out his show here, and his book here. Video: Amendment 1 pastor gives parents 'special dispensation' to use violence against LGBT kids!!! Cardinal Brady will not resign over 'abuse failure' For Catholics, a Door to Absolution Is Reopened http://harmlessmovie.com/ Religious blogs have a higher malware risk than porn, study finds Tennessee Passes Abstinence-Based “Gateway Sexual Activity” Bill Religious Beliefs Killed Boy, Kept Parents From Seeking Care Report: Fifteen Percent Of Earth's Population Believes the World Is Coming To An End In Their Lifetime and Ten Percent Believe The Time Is Now Jesus lives: altar wine prevents goat sacrifice Check out all the links at our website: http://dissonancepod.com

Thanks to Jake from The Imaginary Friends Show Podcast. You can check out his show here, and his book here. Video: Amendment 1 pastor gives parents 'special dispensation' to use violence against LGBT kids!!! Cardinal Brady will not resign over 'abuse failure' For Catholics, a Door to Absolution Is Reopened http://harmlessmovie.com/ Religious blogs have a higher malware risk than porn, study finds Tennessee Passes Abstinence-Based “Gateway Sexual Activity” Bill Religious Beliefs Killed Boy, Kept Parents From Seeking Care Report: Fifteen Percent Of Earth’s Population Believes the World Is Coming To An End In Their Lifetime and Ten Percent Believe The Time Is Now Jesus lives: altar wine prevents goat sacrifice Check out all the links at our website: http://dissonancepod.com

Today's host(s): Scot Landry and Fr. Matt Williams Today's guest(s): Father Paco Anzoategui, Pastor of St. Stephen in Framingham and Director of the Spanish Apostolate Links from today's show: Today's topics: Fr. Paco Anzoategui and Hispanic ministry in Boston Summary of today's show: Fr. Paco Anzoategui joins Scot Landry and Fr. Matt Williams to talk about his journey from Mazatlan, Mexico, to the priesthood in the Archdiocese of Boston and how he credits the Blessed Mother for his vocation in a direct way. Fr. Paco also discusses Hispanic ministry in the Archdiocese and the US, including the trend of the growing Hispanic majority, plus why some Hispanics leave the Catholic Church for Evangelical churches, and how to make one parish family that includes both English- and Spanish-speaking communities. 1st segment: Scot welcomed Fr. Matt Williams back from a month off from the show. Last week he was a the Theology of the Body institute in Pennsylvania. He heard Dr. Janet Smith, an expert on Catholic teaching on human sexuality. The institute's mission is helping people understand Bl. John Paul's Theology of Body, which is all about love. 2nd segment: Scot welcomed Fr. Paco to the show. Scot said Fr. Paco is both a pastor and director of the Spanish apostolate. He asked him to share his background. He grew up in Mazatlan, Mexico, in a very Catholic family. That was the origin of his vocation. He went to Catholic schools his whole life, most of them in a Xaverian missionary school. The missionary zeal appealed to him in high school, but he didn't think of being a priest. But he was finishing high school in 1979 when Pope John Paul came to Mexico. This made such an impact on his life and that of all Mexicans, especially when he addressed the young people of Mexico as the hope of the world. Something happened to him then and he couldn't stop thinking about those words. The Lord made clear to him that he was being called to be a priest. He became a Xaverian priest in 1988. He studied for the priesthood in the United States. He came to the run by the Xaverians. He was quickly found by the bishops and inserted into the Spanish apostolates. He was incardinated as a diocesan priest in 2004. He lived there for his first 9 years of his priesthood. It's especially beautiful because of the walking rosary and at Christmas they put up many lights. Scot asked Fr. Paco to explain the process of incardination. Fr. Paco said it's a canonical process by which a man who is already a priest becomes part of a diocese at the request and agreement of both the superior of the religious congregation and the local bishop. It lasts for five years. He was first assigned to St. John the Baptist in Peabody, and the pastor at the time was Msgr. John McDonough. At the end of the five years, he was incardinated. He was sent then to St. Patrick in Lawrence for two years and then to St. Rose of Lima in Chelsea. Now he's in St. Stephen in Framingham. All those parishes have large Spanish-speaking populations. His entire priesthood, he's been assigned to multicultural parishes. Fr. Matt asked Fr. Paco about his great devotion to Our Lady. Fr. Paco said if he's a priest today, it's because of Our Lady. Growing up in Mexico, the devotion to Our Lady of Guadalupe is very prevalent. He grew up with that devotion. He remembers at the end of high school as he considered the priesthood, he was afraid he wasn't qualified. One day he prayed in church and was led to a picture of Our Lady of Guadalupe where he consecrated himself to her at that moment if the call to vocation was true. He has since had amazing confirmation that she was listening to his prayer. He was ordained in the Marian Year of 1988 at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception on the Feast of the Annunciation. He had lost his parents and sister six months before his ordination and his devotion to Our Lady kept him going. As he walked down the aisle of the church and saw the statue of the Immaculate Conception, he felt Our Lady telling him that she brought him to this moment. Then his first assignment was Our Lady of Fatima shrine. At the important moments of his life, she was there. He tries to spread devotion to her everywhere because she always finds a way to keep us close to her son. Scot asked if Mexicans are particularly close to Mary because of Our Lady of Guadalupe. Fr. Paco said Mexico may be 95% Catholic but 100% Guadalupano. Even the non-Catholics have picture of Guadalupe in their homes and cars. He remembers his mother praying the Angelus at noontime every day and praying the rosary. Scot asked if Spanish speakers in Peabody, Lawrence, and Chelsea came from the same places. Fr. Paco said St. John the Baptist had a young Hispanic community when he arrived at the time. The community was mostly Dominicans and some Puerto Ricans. In Lawrence, they were majority Dominican again. But in Chelsea it was mainly Central American—Salvadoran and Guatemalan. In Framingham, it's also Central American, but also Colombian, Mexican, and Cuban. 3rd segment: Scot asked about St. Stephen Parish. Fr. Paco said he is in team ministry with Fr. Albert Stankard. The majority of the community is Hispanic. They get close to 700 people for Mass on Sunday. They are trying to integrate the two components of the parish, so they are one parish family. They have made great progress to bring the community together. Every year they have a Family Day, bringing dishes from their cultural background. They also have a parish picnic. During Holy Week, they have bilingual services together. When people pray together and see the same love for the Lord and Our Lady, it transforms people. Scot said when he travels to Rome, he loves to see the universality of the Church and the richness of all the cultures within the Church. He said in the history of the Archdiocese, we've solved the immigrant Catholic problem in different ways. We used to build a different parish for each language group. Today, we try to integrate communities into one. This helps prevent the necessity of closing parishes in the future when the language need has gone away. Fr. Paco said one thing that helped a lot was working with the staff to convey the spirituality of integration. They found people of both Anglo and Hispanic backgrounds for parish council and other ministries. It's only when you bring two groups to the same level, that both feel that the other is not favored, that they can become integrated. One way to do that is to make sure that you don't do everything separately. Over time, it conveys a powerful message to the parish: This is who we are and we're going to celebrate who we are. We are not threatened by each other. We are family. They also do bilingual bulletins and have worship aids that are bilingual. So they all hold the same hymnal and look at the same bulletin, even if they are looking at different languages on the page. When people see each other during worship, during social events there's a willingness to reach out and get to know each other better. Fr. Matt asked about the youth groups for different languages. Fr. Paco said they have two groups for different age groups. Anglo youth are often younger than the youth involved in Hispanic youth group. He added that in the youth group, the children are usually second generation and are very comfortable in English. Many even want to take religious education in English. This makes it easier for the young people to bridge the cultures. 4th segment: It's time to announce this week's winner of the WQOM Benefactor Raffle. Our prizes this week are two audio CDs by Catholic theologian and educator Jeff Cavins: “Are You Happy?” and “How to Simplify Your Life”. In “Are You Happy?”, Jeff notes that everyone wants to be happy, this seems so obvious that it hardly needs mentioning. But what is the secret to happiness? We all want to be happy, but how do we achieve it? To answer these crucial questions, Jeff asks a more fundamental one: “What is it in your life that you are continuously desiring and seeing?” Answering this question is the key to understanding what will truly make you happy. For “How to Simplify Your Life”, Jeff observes the chaos of modern life: got to get it, got to see it, got to have it, got to be it; deadlines, commitments, the things I need to do, whether for work or family. How can you navigate though the stress and strife? “Just simplify,” Jeff says. But don't just buy a weekly planner or listen to an Anthony Robbins “success” tape or read Seven Habits of Highly Successful People. As Jeff points out, simplicity is not an external but an inner struggle. In this inspiring presentation, you will learn practical ways to separate the wheat from the chaff in your life; to stop organizing the frantic and urgent calls in your life and answer the one true call to right relationship with Christ. As Jeff notes, we live in a world filled with worry, and this worry translates into excessive activity that “burns out” many in our culture. Discover discernment tools to help you clear away the internal and external clutter in your life, and learn the keys to true success, joy, and peace. This week's benefactor card raffle winner is Debra Michalski from Somerset, MA. Congratulation, Debra! If you would like to be eligible to win in an upcoming week, please visit . For a one-time $30 donation, you'll receive the Station of the Cross benefactor card and key tag, making you eligible for WQOM's weekly raffle of books, DVDs, CDs and religious items. We'll be announcing the winner each Wednesday during “The Good Catholic Life” program. 5th segment: Scot said many statistics say that most of the growth of the Church in the US is due to Hispanics. For Catholics under 35, a majority are Hispanic. This trend is likely to continue in this direction. Fr. Paco said according to the latest US Census, there about 50 million Hispanics in the US and about 68% are believed to be Catholic. By 2025, it's believed that Hispanics will be the majority of Catholics in the US. Hispanics come to this country mainly with a Catholic heritage. Protestantism doesn't have a large footprint in Latin America, although even that's been growing. He noted that the 15% of Hispanics in the US who are Evangelical has been doubled in the past 10 years. He said some of the younger generations are being assimilated into the dominant culture. More important than maintaining their culture, they need to maintain their faith. They need to help them have an encounter with Jesus that transforms them. Fr. Matt asked why they're leaving and why are they going to Evangelicalism? Fr. Paco said there isn't one answer. One reason is that Hispanics in general are seeking to be in community. Sometimes the policies in some US churches don't make it easy for them to get the sacraments, especially since the policies in their own countries were less rigorous. For example, to receive confirmation they need to go through a formation program in the US, even if they know their own faith very well. If someone moves a lot, they can't complete a long program. This is particularly acute for migrant farm workers. Fr. Paco said we need to be accommodating. We need to be more welcoming and not to be so precise in everything. Not that we don't need regulations, but that we have to look at the particular circumstances and be flexible. Because this is what they find in the Evangelical churches. They find a welcome and a sense of community. For Hispanic people, the church is their second home and the priest is like their father, and if they don't find that in the Catholic parish, they will find it elsewhere. Fr. Paco said 80% of Hispanics in the US find the Catholic Church very welcoming. Scot said storefront churches are specifically targeting immigrants by using very Catholic-like symbolism to encourage them to come and check out their church. Fr. Paco in many parishes with Spanish Masses, they don't offer anything beyond the Mass. Cardinal Seán has said he wants parishes with Spanish ministry, they must offer more. Hispanics want Bible studies, charismatic groups, Marian groups, and youth groups. That connects people to their parish more. Scot said 37 of the 291 parishes in the Archdiocese have at least one Mass in Spanish. How does the Apostolate coordinate and connect those parishes? Fr. Paco said his office offers services to respond to the needs of each of the parishes. They provide programs that bring people together rather than multiplying efforts. They also try to find Spanish-speaking priests and other lay pastoral ministers for parishes. He also said so many of the priests who have served part of their priesthood in the St. James Society in Latin America come back speaking Spanish and knowing much more of the culture. This means that priests are available to provide the sacraments. Fr. Paco said he has seen a growth in the Spanish-speaking diaconate and lay leadership programs, including catechists. They are doing well for the near future. As for priests, they are counting on so many priests who should be retired already. Fr. Paco said the charismatic movement has been a part of his spirituality and he has found it appeals to more than just Hispanics. People who follow the spirituality helps people to grow in their faith and grow more excited about it. They have prayer group Mondays in English and Fridays in Spanish. Fr. Matt said he met Fr. Paco while he was in seminary at a healing service and asked him to explain healing ministry. Fr. Paco said it happens within the context of the charismatic renewal ministry. It comes from the miracles of Jesus and brings them closer to people, with the message that Jesus is alive and continuing to heal people today. When people open up to the power of the Holy Spirit, he's seen miracles. He noted that it's distinct from the Sacrament of the Sick. Everyone can come forward and receive prayers of healing.

Praying for the intercession of Virgin Mary and the Saints can sound like we can try to get “Friends in High Places” to run interference for us, although here on Earth we sometimes seek friends in order to get a speeding ticket fixed, buy merchandise at a lower price, or have some problem resolved. For Catholics, that is definitely not what devotion to Mary or the Saints represents. God alone is the source of all grace and blessings. The Saints or Mary do not fix things for us apart from God or convince God to do anything other than his holy will for us. You are about to hear how one woman received beautiful spiritual insights and experienced an intense feeling of peace, love, grace, and mercy during a visit to the Rosa Mystica house of prayer in Edmeston, NY. If we ask our friends on Earth to pray for us, why not ask our firends in heaven to do the same? Friends in High Places...That's Our Focus!

TRANSCRIPT As you know, Church Militant is always helping you understand the connections between the culture and the Church, the crossover between both worlds. Those two worlds parallel each other in many ways — they're practically mirrors. And, theologically, it makes sense. As Bp. Sheen used to say, the world is the theater of redemption: It's where the great spiritual war rages. So as we look out on all of this, we see something happening in each arena. There is a great realignment occurring, in the Church and in the culture. In many ways, the old labels, which used to categorize things neatly, no longer apply. Consider, for example, "conservative" and "liberal." There's so much confusion over those classifications — especially liberal — that no one really knows what they mean. The old labels are so ineffective at describing the new realities that, oftentimes, you find adjectives popping up in front of them which pretty much redefine them. So the old word is used, but there is a totally different meaning behind the word. We no longer have just Catholics, but 'CINOs': Catholics in name only. For example, there aren't just plain old Republicans anymore. But now there are actual Republicans and then there are RINO Republicans — Republicans in name only. Notice, to bring up the point of the crossover between culture and State, we also no longer have just Catholics, but "CINOs": Catholics in name only. And, of course, we have not just Catholics but "cafeteria Catholics." All these adjectives are now necessary because the terms no longer mean what they used to mean. All of this redefining is going on because there is, underneath it all, a massive realignment going on — in the culture and the Church. In the political world, Donald Trump has become the symbol of all that, not to mention also a precipitating cause. Tens of millions of Americans were beginning to sense a political shift, a new paradigm emerging where they, as individuals, no longer mattered. They sensed correctly that the world they knew was being buried under a mountain of globalist Marxism. In the Church, faithful Catholics likewise sensed a major shift happening. They couldn't put a finger on it, but they knew something was up, something was off. So they began realigning themselves, leaving the Church of Nice and hunting out the actual Faith. It's like a Catholic version of the Walkaway movement that is rippling through the Democratic Party — a movement of Democrats who have woken up and realized the party no longer represents them. And so they are walking away from it. The Marxist Left, up until the arrival of Donald Trump, was able to keep the truth of its agenda under wraps. There is a huge ideological shift, an enormous immigration, a mass migration where people are seeking out like-minded individuals and associating themselves with them. It's all over social media. It's all over politics. It's all over the Church. It's all over the place. People are choosing sides, and in that choosing up sides, some people are waking up and realizing that the folks they thought they had a lot in common with, they really didn't. So they cut ties and are establishing new ones. Now, some people find this upsetting. They bemoan the division, they lament the lack of unity. Frankly, that's a stupid response. There can be unity only if it's a unity around truth. In fact, this entire realignment is about the truth. Some waking up to it, others wanting to destroy it. But truth is the cause. When truth is present, there are only two responses. It is either embraced or raged against. The Marxist Left, up until the arrival of Donald Trump, was able to keep the truth of its agenda under wraps, to conceal the truth. But now, it's all out there. Nothing is hidden. And people are making choices. And that's a good thing. Even on the side of evil, it's good to know who's who. For Catholics and other Christian denominations — remember, this is how things will be at the end of the world. Truth will cause one great, final realignment — and it will be final.

TRANSCRIPT Church Militant (a 501(c)4 corporation) is responsible for the content of this commentary. There is no doubt — no doubt whatsoever — that the very existence of America is on the line this coming November. For Catholics, most of whom have homogenized into a barely warmed-over pagan culture, this might not be on their radar. It will, however, be front and center if the communist Democrats and their demonic duo of Biden and Harris win. The Marxist Democrats have all the pieces in place to topple whatever remaining vestiges of freedom and the so-called American dream remain. Interestingly, among the various immigrant and credal populations that seized hold of the American dream were Catholics. They came to America by the millions during the influx of immigration around the Industrial Revolution and integrated better than any other group. As it turns out, they integrated too well. After massive discrimination and killings and exploitation, they survived and eventually thrived. They fought off enormous hatred from the ruling Protestant class and made their way against pretty steep odds. Perhaps the single hallmark achievement of the Catholic struggle was Catholic education and, eventually, the crown jewel: the Catholic university. Until the Sexual Revolution of the Marxists in the 1960s, Catholic universities and colleges turned out leaders, visionaries, men and women who would be able to shape the course of history, informed by their Catholic faith. But that all changed almost overnight — almost overnight. Remember, this revolution was embraced by Catholic colleges and universities across the nation during the Sexual Revolution. While Fr. Theodore Hesburgh had lots of help in overthrowing Catholicism at Catholic schools, it was his personal efforts that served as catalyst to the whole movement. In 1967, Hesburgh pushed a document known as the "Land O' Lakes Statement" which destroyed the Faith on Catholic campuses all over the country. The major author of the document was homopredator Theodore McCarrick — a man who seems to have had his fingers in every single effort to blow up the Church. Secular schools were doing the same, but those were secular, not Catholic. Nonetheless, for the Marxists to make strides under the Catholic umbrella was a level of success even they had only hoped for. Generations of subversives were born of the Sexual Revolution — the only fertile aspect of that movement. Millions of graduates were unleashed in the world of academia, science, the Church, the courts, government, business — all trained to destroy. And each year, their numbers increased, until today: They are in near-total control. Boardrooms all over the country have been taken over; human resources departments, senior management and so forth. As the BLM protests and violence have engulfed certain American cities, giant businesses actually cheered them on and financed them. Look at the donors list of the Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation. It reads like the Fortune 500: Amazon, Microsoft, Nabisco, Gatorade, Deckers and other large American firms. In his 2001 book, The Long March: How the Cultural Revolution of the 1960s Changed America, Roger Kimball said those students from the 1960s (and following) have graduated, and they are now part of the government and large corporations, subverting Western culture from within. That book is 20 years old. It's only gotten much worse. And to prove the point, many of you know that Church Militant got deplatformed by Vimeo (our video hosting service) earlier this year. Just this past weekend, we learned that Amazon has removed Church Militant as a recipient of charitable donations from their purchases. So if you have been funneling a portion of your purchases to Church Militant through the "AmazonSmile" program, that is now over. If you are a faithful Catholic, you are being stood up and mowed down — even from within the Church. For example, former Notre Dame Fighting Irish national championship coach Lou Holtz publicly castigated phony Catholic Joe Biden for his phony Catholicism. That, of course, brought down the ire of the emasculated president of Notre Dame, a weak excuse of a man — Fr. John Jenkins — who rushed to Biden's defense and torched Holtz for calling out the fake Catholic. Holtz forgot to mention Fr. Jenkins as another fake Catholic. Jenkins said we should never judge the sincerity of someone's faith. But he did just that when he gave the university's highest award to Biden in 2016, the Laetare Medal, given to an American Catholic "whose genius has ennobled the arts and sciences, illustrated the ideals of the Church and enriched the heritage of humanity." Yeah, that's Joe all over. As long as you made it past the abortionist's razor-blade vacuum-suction machine slicing you to ribbons, then you could be a witness to his genius upholding the ideals of the Church. Do any of these men realize they are on the road to Hell — to eternal damnation? Probably not. Not as long as Barron and company keep whispering in their ear they have a reasonable hope of being saved. (They don't.) Too many U.S. bishops are part of the Marxist plot to overthrow America. This entire crowd of anti-God and anti-American subversives keeps telling us America is evil and must be punished for our sins. Systemic racism is the rule of the day, multimillionaire athletes (most of whom are black) keep saying. They make tens of millions of dollars for playing with a ball on a court or a field. And yet, somehow, they are discriminated against — deprived of the American dream. Fellas, shut up. All lives matter, especially the lives of the preborn. Most especially the lives of the preborn because they are the most defenseless. In fact, what percentage of these black athletes, crying about violence towards blacks, have actually murdered their own children through abortion (thus directly attacking the lives of black Americans)? These athletes possess enormous fortunes, fortunes which provide them with lives of however much sex they want. How many abuse women and then murder the black children in the wombs of those women? So please forgive us if we roll our eyes at your hypocrisy of holding your fists in the air and ignoring the blood running down your own arms. This past August, Catholic attorney general William Barr laid out the plan of the Left in an interview with Mark Levin. So how is it that a faithful lay Catholic like Barr can see this and say it but Catholic bishops can't? Oh yeah, that simple little word: "Faithful." Most of the bishops are not, and the laity speaking the truth are. It's just that simple. Remember, this revolution was embraced by Catholic colleges and universities across the nation during the Sexual Revolution. The bishops today, the heirs of the original wicked bishops, have done nothing to prevent the evil from spreading (and, in some notable cases, have worked to advance it). As Our Blessed Lord said to the wicked religious leaders of His time, "How can any of you escape damnation?" Too many U.S. bishops are part of the Marxist plot to overthrow America because America must be taken off the board in order for them to achieve global dominance. Yeah, this election is that important. It is, in fact, for all the marbles.