Imitation of Christ

There is an old saying that says that the greatest compliment a person can receive is when someone imitates them. This may or may not be true. But what we are called to do as followers of Christ is to imitate Him in all we do. This is a very tall order for us to fill. Let's examine just what it means to imitate Christ. To do so we have to examine just what it is that Christ did and then how we can best emulate it. 

First and foremost Jesus came to earth.  Now, how in the world can we imitate that feat? Are we defeated before we have begun?  No, because what Jesus did we CAN do.  He left heaven and came to earth, stepping out of "his comfort zone" so to speak.  So to imitate this we need to do the same. We need to choose to work with people that we normally would not work with. Maybe the homeless, maybe stepping up and working with right to life, the opportunities are there we just need to seek them out. 

Next, Jesus spent His life doing the Father's will.  We need to determine what the Father's will is for us and we need to act on it. I think it just means to be open to the promptings of the Spirit and taking up the challenges that are presented to us day by day.

We need to become bold. Many people think that Jesus never would say a cross word (no pun intended) to anyone and that He was always gentle and meek.  Well, He made a whip out of cords and drove the money changers out of the temple.  We need to show people we are pro Christ and we have to be ready to point out errors and sinfulness where we see it.  This is a dangerous activity because as you know the incident at the temple was one of the things that led to the Crucifixion of Jesus. We can and should do this with charity, but we must be prepared for the fallout because Christian ways go counter culture to the rest of the world.

We need to pray and to take care of our spiritual selves by imitating what Christ did. The New Testament mentions many times where Jesus went out and spent time in prayer. Time spent in prayer looks to the world as if it were time spent doing nothing. But our strength as Christians comes from our communication with God.  He will give us the strength to complete the missions that are presented to us.  Trying to complete a ministry without prayer is like trying to swim with a four hundred pound rock strapped to your back. Once you get away from the shore and into deeper waters you will certainly drown. 

Christ held nothing back, he gave it all when he stretched out his arms on the Cross for us. This is the hardest thing for us to imitate. It requires a level of trust in the Lord that may of us haven't yet cultivated.  We have to be so much in love with Jesus that we have to accept even death should that be where our ministry takes us.  I think of the Christians killed by ISL.  They lined up the Christians and had them kneel. To a man they kept praying as long as they could. Their example is what we must be prepared to do. Is this something that I have come up with from the deep pit which is my imagination?  No, our Lord and Savior in Matthew 16:24 says very clearly: 

If anyone wishes to come after me, 

let him take up his cross and follow me.

So, the essence of following Jesus is the Cross. If we are to be His ambassadors we have to be willing to carry the cross, falling and rising as he did, moving ever forward towards resolution and seemingly dissolution on Calvary's hill.  The advantage that we have that Jesus didn't is that the parts of our cross that are too heavy He will bear for us. All He asks of us is to try our best and He will help with the rest.  

God bless and keep you and your family this day. May the light that is Christ light your way to His side. 

Convert - A - Catholic Challenge 2016 is off and running.  If you are a Protestant, save this poor cradle Catholic.  Tell me in fifty thousand words or less where the Catholic Church has got it wrong and how your denomination now has the complete truth about how to be a Christian.   Clink this link to begin --->   LINK 

Heaven - The first place on my bucket list !

A little bit of heaven as I imagine it.

I someday, maybe soon maybe a long time off, maybe today I will be summoned home to give an account of my life to the Just Judge.  I hope that Jesus finds me worthy of being with Him in heaven for all eternity. 1 Cor 2:9 tells us that "eye has not seen nor ear heard...what God has prepared for those that love Him."  So the first thing we know about heaven that it is going to be better than anything that we can imagine. This being said, we can imagine the joy our spirit will feel when we hear that heaven is the place for us.  The fact that the battle is over, the victory over sin and death that Jesus won for us on the Cross is now made manifest to us and we enter into the Kingdom of God. This joy of knowing that you will never have to struggle, you will never be tempted or sin again has to be the thing that is greatest about heaven.  But what do we know about the particulars?  Not a whole lot unfortunately at least from authoritative sources.  There are a plethora of stories of people who say that they have visited or have been granted visions of heaven. 

I personally have never been granted a vision of heaven but I believe in my heart of hearts that I have been privileged to have been given a small sample of what it is like to be a citizen of The Kingdom of God Triumphant. Many years ago I believed that I had a calling to religious life and I joined an order called the Third Order of St. Francis which at the time was based in a little town in the Allegheny mountains called Loretto PA.  I lived on the old estate of a man who was a millionaire around the time of the first world war by the name of Charles Schwab.  It was a beautiful place with formal gardens and tree lined paths and I lived in a building called Bonaventure Hall, first in the "Tower Room."  Here is a picture of the place.  I have to tell you, it did not look quite as nice back in the 1970's when I lived there for a year. No, it was in was 

Bonaventure Hall

need of some repair and updating some of which we postulants  were set to work doing during that first year of training for religious life. It was a wonderful time in my life, not without struggles but it served to help me to grow both as an ordinary human and it helped me grow in my religious life.  Our class celebrated investiture for around thirty brothers. We lost several along the way. That is what the formation years are about, you discern if you have a vocation or not. Living with a bunch of men can be difficult and yet because you all believe the same things you almost automatically get closer to God as you support each other. It was not a life that was perfect, there were things that I did not like, but that will be the subject of another post some time.  

Class of 1977

This is a picture taken of the brothers that were selected to continue study at the novitiate in Winchester VA.  This picture was taken of the 24 Novices the day before we left Bonaventure Hall.  I blurred everyone else out except me to prove to you that I was actually there. Prior to this we went on a week long retreat for which I was the sacristan and had to set up the chapel for each of the conferences. On the last day of the retreat I asked Father Pat, our postulant master whose favorite saint was St. Isidore, the patron saint of farmers, if I could have this last day off of being sacristan so that I could immerse myself more readily into the retreat.  He appointed a substitute for me and that Sunday I got more out of the retreat than on the other six days because I had no duties to perform.  The last conference finished and my substitute set up for Mass. It happened while we were singing a song that had been left to us by the previous years class.  The title of the song written by two of the novices was entitled Caught Up in Wonder.  The song went something like this: 

Let me sing of your wonderful name,

Let my lips tell the joy of your love. 

The heavens proclaiming the glory of God 

And yet no sound can be heart 

The world and it stillness are wrapped in your silence

Now Father give us Your Word....

When we got to those last words something happened to me. I believe my soul left my body.  No I did not have an out of body experience, no I did not travel towards the light or anything like that. I felt a joy that was so great unlike anything I had felt before and unlike anything that I have felt after.  There are no words to describe the joy I felt. I could not hear the music being played anymore and for one time in my life I was centered upon Christ and could just feel the love He had for me radiating out from Him, the Center and Creator of the universe.  This joy lasted but a moment, had it continued longer I would have died right then and there because the Illuminating Love flowing from Christ into me was something I wanted more and more of.  I no longer had to have faith on God, I knew that He existed just as I knew that two plus two equals four or if jump of a building I will die. I felt His power and His love for me.  Not for the whole world but me personally, Michael J. Spoula, a well renowned sinner! Of course God loves the whole world but I think I was granted this experience to show me how important I was to God. God loves his children with a burning love hotter than the seraphim angels that surround the throne of God with their burning love for Him, Now, think what you want about this. Some might say that I had some sort of psychotic break with reality. Some might say that it was just your imagination or it was just a good spiritual day. But I was there and I know what happened to me and I thank God for this sample of heaven every day even forty years after the event I remember it like it was yesterday. 

So that is my experience with heaven. There are any number of writers that have captured stories from people said to have been there or those that have been given vision of heaven. The "seers" in Medjugorje have described it in detail as as place of great beauty where people all are no older than the age of Jesus and that they have seem them in beautiful park like settings.  All four of the "seers" give similar stories about when the Blessed Virgin showed them Heaven, Purgatory, and Hell.  I put the word "seers" in quotes because the Church has not ruled on the vision said to have been continuing since the 1980's so we have to treat what they say with discretion. 

Other non-catholic sources claim that they were in heaven and were told to return. All of them describe it as a happy place (of course) and most of the accounts I have read claim that you know everybody's name.  

What is your opinion on heaven?  I would love to have your comments. 

We Are One Body - How To Live A Saintly Life

One of the joys in my life is music. I love to listen to it and I love to sing it.  I am a member of the St. Mary of Vernon Choir and I look forward every week to singing at Mass. This does present a bit of a problem.  I do not read music very well so I am a bit timid when I am the lone tenor at Saturday evening Mass. It is really a lot of fun for me when other tenors present.  Jerry and Todd, two of our expert tenors make it look so easy and as they are "singing in my ear" the notes on the page seem to come alive and I have a better time of keeping with the group.  This is First Corinthians 12 in action! 

Yesterday I wrote how the Catholic Church formally canonizes those people she considers as worthy examples for us to emulate in living our life. But what can you and I do as people in the real world to become a holy person? 

First let's define what a hole person is. A holy person need not be a religious person. As a matter of fact I know some religious people that are not living a holy life (forgive me for judging them.)  A holy person is a person that is whole.  Their whole being is turned to God.  They are hopelessly in love with God and do not want to turn away from him. This burning love to God is a hallmark of a holy person.  Well, I hear you say, that lets me out.  Not so fast there good buddy. You don't become a whole person overnight, it takes a long time.  For some of us it will take to our last breath and that is okay. A holy person is a person that is making the attempt to be better.  So you probably are on the way to becoming a holy person. Here are some things that we have to accomplish to complete on our journey.  Consider it our bucket list to heaven.

• PRAY.  Prayer is the beginning to establishing a relationship with God.  It is also a simple thing to do. Talk to God like you are talking to a friend.  After a while, perhaps years, you will realize that you are doing all of the talking. That is okay but you may realize that a relationship where one does all of the speaking can be improved. 
• LISTEN.  When we realize that God may have something to say to us we will try to listen.  It is NOT an easy thing to do. When you quiet your mind and start to focus on God events of the day, issues you are dealing with, outside distractions will tend to intrude. That's okay. Chase them away.  Be kind to yourself, do not be discouraged.  At the start if you can be in absolute silence of mind and focused on God for thirty seconds, then consider that a success.  Be faithful.  Talk to Jesus every day and after you have had your say, quiet your mind and try to listen for the voice of the Lord.  If you were able to do ten seconds one day, try for eleven seconds the next time you pray. Slow and steady progress is what you strive for.
• ACTION.  The word Christian and Catholic should bring to mind action. Prayer is good and is heartily recommended but we must be people of action.  As Mother Theresa once said we must be willing to do small things with great love.  Christian action can be as simple as helping a child tie shoe or giving a cold drink of water to a man on a hot day. In other words your actions do not have to be earth shaking. We are presented with dozens of events over the course of a week where we can be Christ to another person, watch for them. 
• CONFESS.  End every day with a brief examination of conscience and an act of contrition. Once a month walk into the confessional and confess your failings. The Church only requires you to go to confession once a year. Would you take a shower once a year?  Would you wash your car once a year?  Would you scrub your floor once a year?  No, each of these things are routine maintenance items. Confession for some reason terrifies some people so they do not go to confession.  When I was a kid we went every week and the priests would be available for three hours on Saturday afternoon and there was always a line to get into what Edith Bunker, Archie Bunker's wife in the 70's sitcom All in the Family, "Telephone booths to God."  I don't know why confession has fallen out of favor today. Maybe people don't sin anymore. But confession will give you graces that will help you to defeat sin and you will have a fresh start. 
• COMMUNION.  Go to communion every chance you get. We can get no closer to Jesus on this mortal earth than when we take Him into us, Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity.  When you take communion Jesus is truly present in you.  Talk to Him, do not ignore Him.  He wants to hear your needs, your apologies to Him, your praise.  He gave us this great sacrament as a sign of His ever loving care for us until He returns to bring us home. 
• FORGIVE.  This is very important and for some of us it will be very hard. But when you say the Our Father we ask God to forgive us our sin as we forgive those who have sinned against us.  When my mother passed away my heart was filled with rage against the doctor that mis-diagnosed her and indirectly caused her to die young.  I carried that rage inside of me for six long months. During that time I was also in a deep depression. Had that doctor stepped in front of my car I would have done my best to run her down, and this is not a joke.  One day on my way to work I passed a Catholic Church and a thought entered my head. I realized that the Blessed Sacrament was only yards away and brick and glass could not shield me from His love. I knew at that moment what I had to do.  I had to forgive.  When I did my depression left me and the rage I felt was replaced by a deep seated feeling of peace.  Since that time it has become impossible for me to hate anyone.  Would I eat lunch with that doctor? No, I do not hate her, but I also realize that she is one of God's beloved children and I have no right to hate her. So when I released my hate and rage, God granted me a deep peace. So forgive your enemy, you will be doing yourself a great favor. 
• PRAY FOR THE POOR SOULS.  It is a fact that most of us will not make it directly to heaven. There will be imperfections on our souls that will need to be scrubbed away before we will feel that we can enter heaven. Once in Purgatory we can no longer help ourselves. We have to wait until we are ready for heaven or our time can be cut short because of the prayers of the people still alive for us.  If we pray for the poor souls and if we pray even one soul out of purgatory and into heaven, he or she will not forget us when we are in need. 

I think that if we do these things we will begin to enjoy heaven right here on earth because we will have stepped outside ourselves and shared the love that has been showered on us by the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. 

May the light that is Christ guide you this day and this week. 

How To Become A Canonized Saint

Sainthood - is it for me?

What is it that God wants of us? What is closest to His heart? What dream does he dream for us?  

God's fondest wish for us is to be with Him in heaven forever. He wants to share the perfect happiness that we mortals cannot even begin to understand how very wonderful it is!  That is why we are on earth.  Okay, then the question becomes if God is so gungho for us to be with Him in heaven then why did He place us on earth?  Well, go back to the very beginning. Adam and Eve were placed in the Garden of Paradise, which I've always thought of as kind of an earthly type of heaven where everything was perfect. He put us there because he wanted to see if we would want to be in relationship with Him by our own free will.  Well, we know how that turned out.  Using our free will we turned away from Him and he immediately planned and began to implement our return to relationship through the sacrifice of His Son, Jesus. 

The people who have died in God's friendship and live with Him in heaven are called saints. The media latches on to the Church's formal recognition of certain people as having lived heroic Christian lives through canonization. The last one you may have heard of was the canonization of Father Junipero Serra, the missionary that helped bring Christianity to California. There are literally thousands of canonized saints that have been enrolled by the Church.  But does that mean that only those that the Church recognizes and has canonized are in heaven? Certainly not!  Besides the thousands of canonized saints there are untold millions of people, men and women just like you and I that have lived holy lives and are with God in heaven. The point here is that there is nothing more glorious than a soul entering heaven to be with God forever and nothing so sad and forlorn as a soul that through a life wasted on rejecting the Father's friendship ending up in a place without God.   I believe that we will be welcomed with great joy into heaven by Jesus and the Saints, all of them!  

Okay, let's say you are the type of person that only wants the best/ None of this anonymous sainthood for you. You want the full treatment and full recognition of the Church that you lived a life worthy of being emulated by the faithful.  How do you go about it? Well, I could spend some time discussing canon law but I won't. Here in layman's terms is a rather whimsical view of how get your life recognized as being saintly.

The Canonization Process – Very Simplified

So, you want to be a canonized saint.  Make 

sure you put this document with your will so that your heirs will know what to do.  The most important thing is that you be dead, so take care of that first.  Then make sure your heirs do the following:

1.       WAIT FIVE YEARS.  Candidate has to have been dead for five years.  This is to allow time for “cooler heads to prevail. It allows more objectivity. 

.       GET YOUR FRIENDS TOGETHER. The cause is started in the diocese where the candidate lived.  A promoter group, for example the parish, religious congregation, or pious association asks the bishop to open an investigation. The bishop asks Rome who sends a letter of “nulla osta” or “no impediment” and a tribunal is formed.

.      PRESENT THE FACTS and WRITE ‘EM UP and GET ‘EM TO ROME. The tribunal calls witnesses to recount the facts of the candidates life and how the candidate exercised Christian virtue especially; prudence, justice, temperance, faith, hope and charity. Documents are gathered and sent to Rome, to the Congregation for the Causes of Saints.  If the Candidate has made it this far, he (she) is entitled to the title “Servant of God.”

       WIN THE ELECTION. The documents and evidence are examined in Rome by nine theologians. If the Servant of God gets at least five votes the congregation presents the results of the Pope who will give his approval (or not) and authorizes a public decree which is publicly read and distributed.

.       PERFORM A MIRACLE. For beatification a miracle, verified after his (her) death is necessary. This miracle is investigated and if it is shown to be a miracle, a decree is read. The candidate is now called “Blessed.”

   PERFORM AN ENCORE. For final canonization another miracle occurring AFTER his beatification.  It is investigated as was the virtues and first miracle were and the matter is sent to the Pope who can make the final decision if the Blessed candidate is to acquire the title of Saint.  

There you have it!  It is a simple and straight forward process and you will really get to  know who your friends are if they stick it out.  Oh, I almost forgot - you should make some provision to pay the expenses involved in the process.  Here is what you should allow for:  

For decoration of the Basilica, lights, architectural designs, labor, and superintendence — 

Lire 152,840.58 

Procession, Pontifical Mass, preparation of altars in Basilica —  Lire 8,114.58 

Cost of gifts presented to Holy Father —  

Lire 1,438.87 

Hangings, Sacred Vestments, etc.

Lire 12,990.60 

Recompense for services and money loaned — 

Lire  3,525.07 

To the Vatican Chapter as perquisites for decorations and candles Lire 18,000.00 

Propine and Competenza    (unforeseen expenses)                            Lire 16,936.00      

Other incidental and unforeseen expenses —  

Lire   4,468,40 

Total Lire 221,601.05

Total US 1913 Dollars        $42,816.87

Lawyers and Documents     $20,000.00

Total US$                            $62,816.87                                                                                               

Grand total in 1913 US$    $62,816.87   which is approximately 

$209,601.05 in 2010 dollars.

Let's remember, too, that prices may have gone up since 1913!

This whole process can and in some cases has literally taken hundreds of years.  The church is very careful who she canonizes as a saint.  There are a lot of rules that are not mentioned here, for example a "devil's advocate is appointed who brings out the less savory incidents of your life, if he can find any. 

This may be irreverent but I think of canonized saints as those that made the All Star team, and are people we should imitate and respect.  Remember too, that for every canonized saint there are thousands of millions of saints that for whatever reason did not go through this process.  The total number of saints in heaven is known to God alone.  I hope you will be the first human to count them all when you get to heaven.

Angels

Do you remember the TV series "Touched By An Angel?"  I was a big fan of that series.  If you never had the chance to watch it the show depicted four angels doing their work on earth at the behest of the Father.  It was a great show and it dealt with a lot of different human issues. The show included the angel of death. Angels are real.  We know this because they are mentioned in the Bible.  Mary, the Blessed Virgin Mother of God, was visited by an angel and it was then that she accepted the mission that God had planned for her.  She became the mother of Jesus, a person worthy of the greatest respect.  We also have an angel appearing to Jesus during His agony in the garden where he prayed the all too human prayer asking for the approaching suffering to be taken away. The angel was there, says Jim Bishop in his wonderful book "The Day Christ Died" to offer comfort and to confirm to Jesus that he had to undergo the coming trials. Angels are mentioned in the Book of Revelation. They are the constant servants of God. The a Seraphim are the closest to God, they guard the throne of God. They burn with love for God. 

Angels are superior to us in every way yet there are two classes of angels. The good angels and the evil angels. At one time there was only one class of angels and all served God.  The brightest among these was Lucifer. He was so puffed up with his greatness that he fermented a rebellion in heaven.  He fought against the angels who were loyal to God and lost. The leader that threw Lucifer down to hell was the Archangel Michael, the strongest warrior in heaven. With Lucifer went all of the rebellious angels who form the cadre of devils and they will remain in hell forever.  They proudly proclaim that it is better to reign in hell than to serve in heaven. They spend their time tempting us to sin.  They want nothing more than the ruin of our soul so we can join them in eternal darkness, grief, and punishment. 

God has made provision for each of us in the form of a personal angel called our guardian angel. Our guardian angel is there and tries to guide us in the path of right but he is not allowed to interfere with our God given free will. Mother Angelica relates her encounter with her guardian angel when she was young.  A truck was heading right for her. She was unable to get out of the way. She closed her eyes and when she opened them she was out of harms way on the side of the road, safe.  She did not walk herself, she gave credit to her guardian angel. 

The website I clipped the above from included a long prayer to St. Michael the Archangel.  We Catholics are more familiar with with the shorter version: 

Angels and especially guardian angels are just another way that God shows His care and his love for us.  

The Truth Within You

No, I am not some New Age guru selling chants and magic stones.  Far from it.  The New Age movement and all of its beliefs are incompatible with Christian beliefs. And I do not mean just Catholic beliefs. The things taught by the new age people are simply a return to pagan thought. Am I narrow minded? When it comes to these tools of the devil you bethcha!  No, I am talking about the Truth that lies within each one of us.  When we were created God programmed us to know good from bad.  This programming was augmented hopefully by our upbringing. That is why when I stole a cookie when I was a child I knew I did wrong.  I also knew that I did wrong when I lied about it. I should have wiped the crumbs from my lips before I told my tale, but I got caught. 

We Christians, Catholic and Protestant, are taught from young age to listen to the little voice inside of us. That voice is the voice of your conscience. It is one of the best gifts we have received from God.  When it comes to conscience we have two choices. We can listen to and be guided by it or we can stifle it and do what we want to do. 

If we have formed our conscience in the way of the Lord we will never be taken down the wrong path if we listen to it.  If we choose to do our own thing well, that will soften volume of the warning our conscience gives us in the future. 

The path to hell is lined with things such as "just once" or "a little won't hurt" or "no one will notice."  Each of these excuses is our way of quieting that little voice and justifying our sin to ourselves. Done often enough and the voice becomes quieter and quieter. It will never completely disappear but we can train ourselves to ignore it.  This is very dangerous to our spiritual health. 

A Christian needs to listen keenly for the wisdom being broadcast by his or her conscience.  Before taking action we need to realize that our conscience should be our guide.  When we are born we have basic instructions inside of us as a gift from God.  Our parents and teachers and clergy, if they are doing their jobs properly, will help us augment our basic conscience. We ourselves will sharpen our database by studying scripture.

So next time you come to a fork in the road listen carefully to what the truth within you is counseling you to do. If you do this and if you actively follow Christian principles in your life you will never be led down the path of selfishness and vainglory.  God has given you your conscience.  Thank Him for it and use it. 

My book "Journey to Emmaus" is available for your Kindle.  It is a thirty day, five minute a day, journey through scripture that will bring you closer to Jesus.  

You can purchase your copy at Amazon. The link below will take you directly to the page that shows the book. 

Journey To Emmaus - Click Here

Feeding Frenzy

The past week all over America there was a feeding frenzy of sorts. You know what I mean of course, we all got caught up in it, the Powerball Lottery. Now I never play the lottery, except this time I did, yes this straight laced Catholic Christian boy plunked down four hard earned US of A greenback dollars for the privilege of dreaming and dreaming big!  For a couple of days I was thinking how I would outfit my new Gulf Stream jet and who I would invite for the initial ride. I thought what my parish would do with the ten percent of the winnings that they would get right off of the top.  I envisioned a five story PADS shelter. I would have funded research into finding cures for cancer.  I would have funded a food bank that would wipe out hunger in my state.  There would have been scholarships galore for those whose grades like mine were average or slightly above. I was planning to do so much good.  That is what my four dollars bought me as I joined the feeding frenzy that captured the minds of my fellow citizens.  I have to tell you that it was kind of fun and all in all was worth the four George Washington's I plunked down to the man of mid-eastern extraction behind the counter at the Peacock Mobil Station who pushed a button that caused a machine to spit out two lines of random numbers.  

Well, I am back in the real world again.  The next lottery drawing will come and go without capturing my attention. My dollar bills will stay comfortably inside my wallet until they are called upon to purchase some pedestrian need. But I take solace in the fact that although I cannot fund my large dreams, I can fund smaller ones. I can look out for opportunities to be kind, to be generous, to let the light of Christ shine through me. If I do this without expecting any reward or payback, my example may be what brings a sinner home like the prodigal son, home to God the Father who loves him without end. My example, my love expressed can be the difference between heaven and hell for someone I do not know. 

So yes, I proved my humanity and jumped into the middle of the feeding frenzy.  It was fun and it allowed me the opportunity to think once the announcement of where the winning tickets were sold and my town was not mentioned, that I was luckier than the winners because I have Christ in my life.

Peace to you today and may the light of Christ flood your soul. Act on your good intentions today. Spread a random act of kindness wherever you go.  God bless you and yours. 

The Convert-a-Catholic Challenge is still waiting it's first daring Protestant to take up the cause. Convince this cradle Catholic that the Catholic Church has got it all wrong and that your denomination has got it all right.  Chick to start the debate rolling.  Click here/

Catholic Resources for your use: 

Catechism of the Catholic Church   (Click Here)  don't live in ignorance. If you are going to criticize or even condemn her, use her own words against her.  This free resource tells what we believe in an easy to read format.

Catholics Come Home  (Click Here)  If you are a Catholic and have been away from the Church for awhile, well, we have missed you and consider this an invitation to come home. 

Headquarters - The Vatican - (Click Here)  Nose around at the Vatican. Get to know Pope Francis a little bit better. Find out the inside story right from the horse's mouth. 

Marriage

This week my wife and celebrated our Twenty-Third wedding anniversary.  We drove to southwestern Michigan to my father's house in a blizzard. The journey which normally took three hours took over six hours. The next day dawned clear, the sky was so very blue and the sun so very bright. We drove from my father's house to a the county seat, Paw Paw Michigan.  There Mary and I exchanged vows in front of a judge.  We were civilly married. Our marriage was blessed two years later when Mary's annulment came through and we reaffirmed our vows in front of God and His Church.  From day one I have taken my marriage vows very seriously as I not only promised them to my bride Mary, but also to God.  I believe God brought Mary and I together, it was His plan and I am bound to fully cooperate with it.  

Our marriage is a marriage between one man and one woman. This is how marriage has always been from the very start. Go back to the story of Adam and Eve. Adam did not find a partner from among any of the creatures of the earth. God therefore created a special being for him, a woman.  All through Bible history most of the people God chooses for special tasks are men that have but one wife. God considers the bond of marriage a sacred thing, not just an ordinary relationship but relationship where man and woman can cooperate together and bring new life into the world.  This is the reason why a man leaves his family and clings to his wife, to join God in the creation of new life.

Gay marriage is something that does not exist.  Our Supreme Court may say it does, our president may paint the gay rainbow in light on the White House, but that does not make gay marriage any more legitimate. Marriage is about the creation of life. Two men or two women engaged in a sexual act cannot consummate the act to join with God in creating a new human being.  You can scream all you want to about "equality under the law" but the spiritual nature of marriage and the marriage act itself makes such equality something that is impossible to achieve in the Congress or in the courts. 

But why is the Catholic Church so homophobic?  Homosexual action organizations trot out the homophobic label when they detect any disagreement with their positions. It therefore removes a persons right to disagree with their position by in effect saying that those that disagree with them are in some way irrational.   The Catholic Church do not see homosexual men or women as sinful people. The Church, however, does see the sexual acts between people of the same sex to be contrary to God's natural law.  The Church can never approve of these acts as they are not able to produce life.  On the other hand those who are afflicted with same sex attraction are welcome to be Catholics practicing and living their live in a chaste and celibate way.  Does this seem unfair?  Hardly, the Church calls all her children to be chaste and celibate and to make use of the physical act of love in the way God gave it to us, to be used to pro-create between one man and one woman.

The Church also sees a redefinition of marriage to include same sex unions to be a danger to society. Same sex marriages lack the solemnity of genuine marriages. Same sex marriages are based solely on the feeling one person for another. It does not have the same depth as a genuine marriage because no matter what the two men or women can never use their procreative powers in the way that God intended.  The feelings of love one has at the start of a relationship change through the years.  With man and woman love becomes less of a feeling and more of a way of life.  A homosexual union will go through the same sort of change, the original feelings of love will give way and the relationship will no longer meet the emotional needs of the partners and they will split and go their separate ways. 

Well, maybe two men cannot mate and procreate but they can certainly adopt can't they?  Unfortunately this is true. The children pay the price for having two mommies or two daddies. A child needs both male and female influences for them to grow up emotionally.  This balanced nurturing is required for healthy growth. 

Finally, the proponents of gay marriage are trying to change society to recognize homosexuality as a normal way of life.  They are trying to achieve acceptance of the straight community for no other reason but to silence the nagging doubt in the back of their conscience that something is wrong in their life.  Legal pronouncements will do nothing to assuage their conscience, it will remain standing in the way of a complete joyful life because they are looking for something that does not exist nor has it ever existed. 

Am I homophobic?  No, I am not.  I am a realist, I am a Catholic, and the reading and research I have done tells me that everything we do in life that goes against God's natural law leads to sadness, sin, death, and eternal loss of one's place with God.  I also because of my beliefs have to stand up and point out that homosexual actions are wrong, are against God's law and will lead to pain.  I have to stand up for what is right no matter what rabid gays thing and say.  I am a gentle person, I love life, I love people but I also must stand tall and speak my beliefs.  I have this right and duty.    

Why Catholics Go To Church Every Sunday

The Main Ceremonial doors leading into St, Mary of Vernon
Church in Indian Creek, Illinois. 

One of the features of being a Catholic is the requirement that we attend Mass every Sunday and holy day of obligation.  For the average Protestant actual attendance at Church is not a requirement although there are many Protestants that attend both on Sunday and come back on Wednesdays, but this is not a requirement that binds under sin.  For a Catholic Sunday is the most important day of the week and attendance at mass is mandatory. Failure to attend is considered a very serious sin.  But, why is this so? Why is it considered so very important? There are any number of excuses that can serve to allow us to blow off Sunday Mass.  For example, we might just not feel like going, or we may feel that it is boring, or maybe we are convinced that we can worship God anywhere and do not need to be so formal about prayer and worship.  Maybe we think that we are too busy, too tired, or any number of other self-serving excuses. But as we will see, none of these excuses work very well. 

With thanks to Our Sunday Visitor here are ten reasons why Catholics believe attendance at Sunday Mass is so very important. 

• God asks us to make one day holy. We are to set aside one day to refocus physically, mentally, and spiritually. Going to Mass allows us to see things from a different perspective. We realize that not every idea that we have about God or how to live a Christian life is exactly on target. We exchange our agenda for God's.  We receive inspiration and strength for the week ahead. 
• Jesus gives us the gift of Himself. When we gather as a community we fulfill the command of Jesus to love and to be loved by God. We receive and are fed by the Word of God, the Scriptures that we hear proclaimed and we receive the very Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity of Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament. 
• We need to be part of a community.  Man is a social creature. A human being who keeps themselves away from other human beings can become an authority in themselves in that they begin to believe that their ideas are the only view of the world that are correct. They have no one to answer to but themselves. This is scary. When we are in a Christian community we give each other support, we make each other accountable and we give encouragement to one another, sometimes just by being there.  We see that we are not alone and we are reminded that we are part of the Body of Christ. 
• God has a special message for us.  We come together and listen to the Word of God and the prayers of the Mass and God speaks to us in a special way.  Each Mass should allow us to walk away with one thought that will help us in our spiritual lives. We receive this gift simply by focusing on what is going on around us and we open ourselves to what God is telling us. 
• People need our prayers.  Scripture commands us to pray for one another.  Certainly we can (and should) do this at home but when we pray for others at Mass we pray in a special way.  We pray as part of the Body of Christ, the Communion of Saints, and heaven and earth are united and the bonds of space and time are loosened. 
• We need to stand up for what we believe.  Being a follower of Christ calls us to be counter-cultural. Think back to the early Church. People would attend the Breaking of the Bread knowing full well that they might be arrested and become entertainment for the emperor in the arena. Today too our attendance shows that we are not closet Christians but rather Christians that are testifying to the Truth by being publicly present at public worship. We pray the Nicene Creed and publicly proclaim what we believe and who we are.  
• We need to acknowledge our mistakes.  At every Mass we have an opportunity to review the previous week and see where we have fallen short in word, deed, and thought. We admit that we have sinned in what we have done and what we have failed to do and we seek the forgiveness of God.  This serves as a reality check.  Are we as "good" as we think we are? Before communion we acknowledge that we are not worthy and ask God to heal us. 
• We need ritual in our lives.  Mass is a ritual. This means that through the prayers, movement and the changing of bread and wine into the Body and Blood of Christ we are formed, disciplined and consoled. The sameness of the Mass carries us along the spiritual journey and we pray even if we don't feel like praying. 
• We need to experience something bigger than ourselves.  At Mass we share in the death and resurrection of Jesus and enter into God's great plan for our world to bring the Gospel message to all people. At Mass heaven and earth are joined in expressing praise to God and we join the choir of angels and sing the eternal praise of God when we sing; "Holy Holy, Holy..."  The Mass gives meaning and purpose to our lives and gives us a sense of wonder and awe.  

So you can see that for a Catholic going to church each Sunday while it is an obligation, it also provides many benefits.  I think that regulations, such as the "obligation" to go to Mass every Sunday are written for the people that only want know what the minimum requirements are.  For most Catholics attending Mass on Sunday is the high point of each week and they attend willingly and are very sad indeed when serious circumstances do not allow them to attend. 

May the Lord Jesus Christ brighten your life this week and may you feel a part of the Communion of Saints. 

The 2016 Convert - A - Catholic Challenge is underway. I am looking to be saved from the Catholic Church and looking for your most compelling arguments as to why I should join your denomination.  Write me by clicking this link.Click Here 

Ten Answers to Your Questions About the Catholic Church

Happy New Year to all of you. I am starting 2016 with a top 10 list.  These are the top ten questions that Protestants ask Catholics about the Catholic Faith.  I am indebted to Our Sunday Visitor for the information that I am going to share with you today.  Catholics are often misunderstood by our Protestant brothers and sisters. Sometimes it goes deeper than misunderstandings for example Chic publications prints what they know to be untruths about the Catholic Church and unfortunately people believe the stories he tells.  There are also great tomes, such as Roman Catholicism by Bettner that spreads lies about what Catholics do and what we believe.  So I want to take this opportunity to answer the top ten questions Protestants ask about the Catholic Church. 

Question 1: Are your beliefs found in the Bible?

"All Catholic beliefs can be found in the Bible in some form, whether plainly or by indirect indication."   The Bible itself does not teach that all beliefs Christians should have need to be in the Bible.  For example Paul says; "Stand firm and hold to the traditions which you were taught by us, either by word of mouth  or by letter. (2 Thes 2:15)  The early Church did not have a Bible to open to settle differences. They held councils which made binding decrees.  (Acts 15: 1-29)  The canon of the Bible was not decided by the Church until the late fourth century so Tradition and Authority were necessary for us to even have a Bible to open today! 

Question 2: Why do you obey the Pope? 

Jesus knew that he would be returning to heaven. He knew that His Church would need to have a leader. In the Gospel of Matthew Jesus said to Peter; "And I tell you, you are Rock and upon this Rock I will build My Church.  He also told Peter that "I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven" (Matt 16: 18-19)  The Pope can make infallible pronouncements binding the faithful under certain conditions. The Pope is protected by the Holy Spirit from teaching error.  This does not mean that the Pope is sinless, he is a man and he can sin.  As a matter of fact the Pope generally goes to confession at least once a week.  Some of the worst popes, the ones with secret children, concubines also had this faculty to and even these Popes never taught heresy.  the worst among them were too busy enriching themselves to bother with teaching anything. Because of the Pope and the Cardinals we have an authority to look to for correct interpretation of scripture. This because of Papal authority the Church, unlike the Protestant denominations believe one truth and are unified in worship as Jesus prayed for at the Last Supper. 

Question 3: Why do you call your priest "father"?  Christ said "Call no man father."

Jesus did say call no man father in Matt 23:9 but you have to understand what he meant. He is not speaking in an absolute sense.  If he was then what we call the husband of your mother?  Jesus is saying that the ultimate authority is God the Father. Jesus Himself uses the term Matthew in Matt 15: 4-5 and several other places. In the story of Lazarus Jesus has addressing Abraham as Father Abraham, twice (Luke 16:24, 30) St Paul also writes in 1 Cor 4:15 "I became your father in Christ Jesus through the Gospel." 

Question 4: Why do you pray for the dead? Dead is dead.

For the Christian, death is not an end but rather a change. We exhale our last breath on earth and take our first breath standing before the Lord to be judged. In 2 Maccabees the living prayed for the dead who died because they were wearing idols that were forbidden for them to wear.  St. Paul writes of being baptized on behalf of the dead.  In this case the term baptized indicates prayer and fasting for the dead.  Also Paul is praying for Onesiphorus in 2 Tim 1:16 -18.  

Question 5: Why do you pray to idols (statues)?

The answer to this question is very simple.  We do not worship or pray to statues. What does a statue and baseball bat have in common?  Both are made of wood by human hands.  Neither of them have any extraordinary powers. Statues serve the same purpose as photographs of loved ones that most people carry around in their wallets. The pictures in our wallets remind us of our loved ones and statues remind us about our loved ones in heaven.  No Catholic prays to a statue. We pray to the saint that is in heaven and ask them to pray to Jesus for us.  It is no different than you asking me to pray for your surgery to be successful.  The statue can be there or not, our prayers are just as effective and are heard. 

Question 6 Why confess your sins to a priest? 

The picture to the left is slightly out of date because in most churches today the confessional is a room where there is a kneeler and a screen where you can confess your sins without the priest seeing who you are and a couple of steps away from the screen there is a chair that you can sit and confess face to face.  This is the method most people use today.  Jesus gave the Apostles the authority to forgive sins when He said in Matthew 16:19 "If you forgive the sins of any they are forgiven, if you retain them they are retained."  With these words Jesus instituted the sacrament of Reconciliation, AKA confession, AKA penance.  If we don't confess our sins out loud to the priest how will he know which ones to forgive and which ones to retain?  See also Matt 3:5-6, Acts 19:18 and 1John 1:9. 

Question 7: Why do Catholics worship Mary?

Once again the answer to this question is quite easy, we don't.  We venerate her. Worship is reserved for God alone.  Mary is the greatest of all the saints in heaven. We show her veneration, or great respect because of who she is.  She is the Mother of God!  Think of this if you want to understand why Mary deserves the respect we give her.  She was the first Christian. She believed she was carrying the Messiah in her womb. Mary began life without the stain of original sin. This was done to her by God as a special gift to her who would be the Mother of God. Remember, God is not bound by time or space. He knows what will happen and He could see the redeeming death and obedience of His Son on the Cross. Mary needed to be saved and so He applied the merits of Jesus' death on the Cross to Mary at the time she was conceived, thus we call her The Immaculate Conception as one of her titles.  Mary is very humble and while she does not speak much in the Gospels what she does say conveys her humility and she never points to herself but always to Jesus.  What did she say at the wedding feast at Cana?  "Do whatever he tells you."  Good advice both back then and now. 


Question 8:  Why do you worship wafers?

The bread and wine that are consecrated at mass are not simple wafers, they are the Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity of Jesus. Most Protestants are not too familiar with the Gospel of John, especially the sixth chapter. Protestant ministers have a hard time dealing with this chapter as they deal with the rest of the Bible. Protestants generally believe that the bread and wine are mere symbols and the act a simple memorial of the Last Supper. The Gospel of John reports Jesus saying repeatedly that "he who eats my body and drinks my blood has eternal life." Also, Paul tells us that if you take communion unworthily that you are guilty of profaning the Body and Blood of the Lord (1 Cor 11:27).  We cannot sin against the body of someone by destroying their picture which is a symbol of the person.  Also, read in the accounts of the Last Supper and look at the words of Christ. He does not suggest that the bread and wine are mere symbols, the word eat that he uses in Greek is the word that is used for gnaw or chew, the actions you use when you eat something real.  Finally, Jesus is portrayed as the Lamb of God and our Passover. Go back into the Old Testament, what did the children of Israel have to do so that the angel of death would pass over their house?  They had to mark the doorposts with the blood of the lamb and they had to eat the lamb. Jesus is the Lamb of God.

Question 9: If you died tonight would you go to heaven?

I have assurance of salvation if I am faithful and keep the commandments of God.  If I die in this state I will immediately enter heaven. But since nothing unclean can enter heaven I might need further purification to purge these imperfections from my soul. This purging takes place in purgatory.  It purges the soul of anything that is imperfect.  Once again let us look to what Paul says about this subject in 1 Cor 3:13, 15, "Each man's work will become manifest; for the Day will disclose because it will be revealed with fire and the fire will test what sort of work each one has done...if any man's work is burned up, he will suffer loss, though he himself will be saved but only as through fire." 

Question 10: Are you saved? 

Short answer is YES. I as a Catholic am as sure as anyone else that I am in God's good graces. But because God has given me free choice, the gift of my salvation can be cast off any time I choose.  Once saved always saved is not a Biblical concept which makes no sense at all. For example on day one I say the sinners prayer (where is that found in the Bible anyway?) and according to the principle of once saved always saved, I've got it made. From that day forward I live a good, clean, Christian life. I  pray, I tithe, I go to church.  Then one day I wake up, grab my pump shotgun and rob a bank and in doing so I kill no less than three innocent people.  As I am leaving the bank I walk into a hail of bullets and am killed. Would it be fair for me to enjoy the bliss of heaven with the blood of three people on my hands?  Can you imagine this unholiness being in heaven?  Yes, for most of my life I was "saved" but in the end I chose to throw my salvation away in pursuit of money.  My friendship with God is completely voluntary and I can walk out of relationship with him by making sinful choices at any time.  Notice please that it is I that walk away from God. He never leaves us.  He is always but arms length away from us even when we are like the prodigal son wasting our inheritance on riotous living. So even at the last moment of life I can turn back to Him providing am contrite for what I have done.  

I hope that these ten little paragraphs help you understand the Catholic Church a little better.  I am one of the luckiest people ever born on this earth. No, I've not won Publisher's Clearing House or the Power Ball lottery. I was born into the Catholic Church and through it have access to the complete truth of the Gospel, guaranteed by the Holy Spirit.  I am a member of the one true Church founded not by a mere man but by Jesus Christ, the Son of the Living God.  Through her I receive grace through her Sacraments including forgiveness of my many sins through the Sacrament of Confession and I receive the very Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity of Christ in the Holy Eucharist.  I am the luckiest man alive. 

God bless you on this Feast of the Epiphany when Jesus was recognized by the three wise men.  May the light of the Christ Child light your way today.

The 2016 Convert-a-Catholic Challenge has been made and I am waiting for one of you to accept the challenge and to convert this cradle Catholic to your denomination.  Just prove to me where the Catholic Church went wrong and I will convert to your denomination,  Click here to begin.  

Thanks to Our Sunday Visitor for their pamphlet "Top Ten Questions Catholics are Asked"