Abba, Father

GAL 4:4-7

Brothers and sisters:                                                                   
When the fullness of time had come, God sent his Son,
born of a woman, born under the law, 
to ransom those under the law, 
so that we might receive adoption as sons.
As proof that you are sons, 
God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, 
crying out, "Abba, Father!"
So you are no longer a slave but a son, 
and if a son then also an heir, through God.

Happy 2018!   It has to be the greatest feeling in the world to know that YOU are loved.  I don't mean that God loves all of  His children, although He does. No, I mean he loves you, just as you are right now today on this first day of the New Year. He stands ready to be your father, no strike that, just like Paul says, he is your Abba, which is your daddie.  It is a term of endearment that children used.  It means the person who personally loves and protects them and who knows each of them just as he knows himself. 

Start 2018 with this in mind.  Your father is there ready to go with you every step of the way this year.  There will be no issue so great that you and He cannot work out together.   You may be close to Him now, but just you wait, by the end of this year you will be even closer, you will understand Him better and your vision of His plan for you will become even clearer tor you.  He will strengthen you when you need to be strengthened. He will wipe your tears when you need to cry and tell Him how you have failed.  He will raise your spirit up and assure you that your failure is part of His plan and you just have to wait to see the seeds you planted take root and grow.

There will be many challenges ahead of us in this year of 2018 and much room for personal growth in our love of the God and man.  Our Abba, our daddy will see us through all of it and we will help make His kingdom come.  

💔 Please join my new prayer ministry for the Poor Souls in Purgatory.  There is no paperwork to fill out, you don't even have to tell me that you joined, just promise to pray at least once a day for the Poor Souls in Purgatory and once a month say the prayer of St. Gertrude the Great and offer up one communion for the soul who has been in Purgatory the longest and has no one else to pray for them.  I promise, it will take only a minute or two out of your busy day but it will mean so much for our brothers, sisters, mothers, fathers, friends, and relatives who just might be there.  You loved them in life, pray them into eternal life!  Here is the prayer of St. Gertrude the Great:  

According to tradition, St. Gertrude the Great was told by Our Lord that the following prayer, each time she piously recited it, would release 1,000 souls (or a vast number) from their suffering in purgatory:

“Eternal Father,
I offer You the most precious blood
of thy Divine Son, Jesus,
in union with the Masses said
throughout the world today,
for all the Holy Souls in Purgatory,
for sinners everywhere,
for sinners in the universal Church,
for those in my own home,
and in my family. Amen.”

The Goal

Brothers and sisters:

I consider that the sufferings of this present time are as nothing

compared with the glory to be revealed for us.

                                                                                                        

There are tough times that come into everyone's life.  As Matthew Kelly says it is not an "if" but a "when" the next storm will befall us.  So often we try so very hard to make our way out of the raging storms with its roaring waves and flashes of lightning without any help.  To ask for help is seen as being cowardly or if you are a man, unmanly.  We are taught from early on to stand on our own two feet and to grit our teeth and bear it.   Asking for help in times of need does not feel good to our ego.  Asking for help is seen to put us under an obligation to the one that assisted us.  But we forget that the so-called obligation to that other person is already there because we are to help one another bear each other's burdens.  As Christians, we are there to serve, not to be served.  So, asking for help is what one Christian does to another Christian. 

What happens when even though you ask for help, it does not come?  Some burdens are ours alone to carry for reasons known only to God.  When everything seems to be going against us and we can find no one to share the burden with us then we have to remember that we will not be tested beyond our strength.  God loves us so deeply that He will help us if we let Him.  

In the end, the sufferings we encounter in this world will seem like nothing once we arrive in heaven.  Once there all knowledge will come to us and no subject will be too complex for us to understand.  We will see those things that we considered burdens in our former life, God considered stepping stones.  The storms of life we endured, God saw as passing spring showers that would make the seed of goodness inside of us grow.  The darkness that was in our life will be recognized for what it really was, an opportunity to search for the light. 

Our sufferings in this world will come, some of them will be intense, but none of them will be spiritually fatal if we trust in God and in His Son Jesus.  

Remember our brothers and sisters in purgatory.  They need your prayers and want your friendship.  Please take a moment and read about purgatory by clicking on the link at the right. Pray for them today in your spare time.  It will mean so much to them.

Waiting,Watching, Keeping Time and Eternity

"Therefore, stay awake,  
for you know neither the day nor the hour."

Eternity is a long time.  Just when you think you've been there for a long time, it dawns on you that you've only just begun.  This reality is the reality for all of us, Christian, non-Christian, Buddhist, Atheist, or whatever.  Each of us bears within us a never-ending supply of life.  This, even more than the speed of light, is the one law that will affect all of us.  In a week, or in a year, or maybe tomorrow we will cast off this temporary housing and find ourselves standing before the judgment seat of God and there we will see in His awesome beauty, Jesus Christ,  The Son of God.  We will render an account of our life to Him and the location we will choose where we will spend our eternity in, either heaven with God, or if we choose, hell, without Him.

Thomas A' Kempis in the Imitation of Christ tells us that we should not put off doing a good deed until later because we do not know if we will even draw one more breath.  That is what the story of the virgins waiting for the bridegroom means. Be ready at any moment because we do not know the time that Jesus will call us.  This lesson, for me, is easier to understand now as I am older than it was when I was very young.  The youth feel the seed of immortality more keenly than the old because it is so close to the surface and it has not taken root as it has in the more mature.  The young in the spring of life interpret this feeling as being applicable to their lives here on earth and the door to eternity is so far away that it bears no consideration. 

Be watchful, young and old, men and women, for the chances to do good that come your way. Do the good not out of fear of losing heaven if you do not do them, for heaven is a free gift. Do the good deeds in celebration of the life that you have been given with the knowledge that what you do for others will please our Father in heaven. 

The poor souls in purgatory cannot pray themselves out of there and into heaven.  They depend on us to help them. I believe that praying for the poor souls is the ultimate good deed - remember to pray for them today and dedicate your weekly Mass to them.  You will be glad that you did. 

Tolerable is a Point of View

What Happens In Sodom Stays in Sodom...or does it?

Whoever will not receive you or listen to your words—go outside that house or town and shake the dust from your feet.

Amen, I say to you, it will be more tolerable
for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah on the day of judgment than for that town."

There is a wideness in God's mercy, but as we see both in the fate of that great pillar of society, Sodom, and the fate of those that refuse the Word of God it has a limit.  There is no way to sugar coat this, refusing to believe is to commit the sin against the Holy Spirit, the only non-forgivable sin.  If a person spends their whole life turning away from God, mocking His laws, breaking His commandments in spite of the grace that God showers down personally on every human being, well, there will be no hope for them on the day of judgment, none at all. 

We are responsible for what we hear and we are responsible for sharing the Gospel with those around us.  This sharing of the Gospel is called "The New Evangelization." In America as in any developed land, there is no reason at all for a person to be ignorant of Christ. There are signposts all along the way of life and the ignorant still are receiving grace and are responsible for working out their own salvation even if no other Christian ever approaches them with the Gospel.  But, woe to the Christians that ignored their brothers and sisters and failed to at least give them a hint of the great gift that Jesus brought into the world, they share the fate of the lost brothers and sisters they could have helped in that their place in heaven will be less than it could have been. 

Today, make it point to share the joy of being a follower of Jesus with at least one person.  You can be sneaky about it and just show them a big smile and loving tender care or you can add to that a word or two about the Gospel.  Just do something, there is no need to be afraid.  The Holy Spirit will guide you.  For heaven's sake, listen to that little voice and be a signpost to heaven for someone that really needs to be shown the way.  God Bless! 

One Plus One Is One

And I have given them the glory you gave me,

so that they may be one, as we are one,

Here is a stumper for you, explain the Trinity.  Is our God actually three Gods?  Those of you of ancient times might remember the Baltimore Catechism's definition of who are God actually is.  Do you remember?  Well, the answer is that The Trinity is Three Divine Persons in one Divine Being. There, we got that figured out now don't we?  Or do we?   St. Patrick used to arrive at a village and the first thing (the story goes) he would do would be to find the meanest, strongest, bad boy living there and beat the tar out of him.  This got the citizens attention and then he took out a shamrock and used it to explain the Trinity, one plant, three leaves, all united.  Is that a true story? I don't know, but it sure is a good tale.  It makes one good point, that the Trinity is united, they are one even though they are separate and distinct.   The idea of three Divine Persons in One Divine Being is hard, no, impossible to get your hands around.  It is one of those things that we may never, in all eternity understand.  

The most important thing about the Trinity, as I said is that they are united, they are one.  Jesus prayed that all of His followers be of one mind but when we came to the fifteen-hundreds, we kind of messed that up now didn't we?  I am not going to get into a finger pointing session here because there was enough blame to go around.  Luther was too prideful and the Church didn't listen as well as she should have. 

Unity in our religions is something that we need to work towards.  The Catholic Church cannot move any closer to our separated Protestant brothers and sisters by changing doctrine that has remained unchanged since the Church was founded.  She can and should to try to attract her lost children back to her. We do not do that by pointing out the error of our brothers' ways and shaking our fingers at them. To do this would make us no better than old Jack Chick and his poison tracts. We must attract them by showing them what a real Christian community is like.  This is something that we have not been too good at since Luther banged a few nails into a church door.  

How do we do this?  We make the light of Christ brighter and brighter in our church communities that they cannot fail to see that we are different and that difference is the life of Christ in us shining out. We must open doors and windows.  We must be ready to be friendly and loving to those who might not really trust us because we bear the label Catholic.   The new evangelization is not new at all. It is something that we should have been doing all along.  You don't need to become a street preacher, you need not say even a word. You may let your actions do your talking for you.  What I suggest is that we take some time and look around and find a need and fill it.  Listen for the Lord to speak to you.  He is looking for men, women, and children to build his Church.  Enthusiasm will generate enthusiasm!   Love will generate love in return.  The hardest part is to start.  

That is all for today.  I hope I have given you something to think about.  God bless and don't be afraid to leave a comment.  

Are Protestants Really Christians?

©1985 by Jack T. Chick LLC
Used in this blog under the fair use clause

Okay, buckle your seatbelts, helmets and eye protection is recommended because we are about to descend into the murky anti-Catholic world of Jack Chick.  Don't worry, we are not going to hang with him long because quite honestly both your and my time is too valuable to listen for long to the nonsense he prints in his tracts. In this gem, he patiently goes through the life of a Catholic girl and comes up with reasons that although she is a Catholic, she is not a Christian. Here is a brief summary of what he says:

• She is not a Christian because she was baptized as a baby.
• She is a citizen of two countries, the USA and the Vatican.
• She goes to confession which he says is not Biblical.
• He casts doubt on priests, nuns, monks and says that these are not mentioned in the Bible.  Then again, neither is the Trinity nor is there any mention of a pastor. 
• He rejects the Real Presence of the Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity of Christ in the Blessed Sacrament in spite of the Biblical evidence in the Gospel of John. 
• Jack then condemns the Sacrament of Confirmation, the Sacrament of the Anointing of the Sick and says that the Catholic girl is hell bound because she was never "saved." 
• Next, he accuses Catholics of worshipping Mary. He states that our affection for Mary is caused by a devilish plot to take our eyes off of Jesus. 
• Finally, he says that what we should do is to pray his version of the sinner's prayer, can't find that in the Bible, but he is okay with that and we should reject the Catholic Church as the whore of Babylon. 

Good Grief!  Let's rise up out of this muck and mire and get back to the clean world!  Jack and his poison pen are tools of the devil.  It is very sad but some Catholics can be pulled away from the Church because they are not well-grounded in the truths of the faith.  It is a sad thing in this day and age that otherwise intelligent men and women do not take an interest in learning about their faith. But that is a subject for another post.  I want to tackle the question that forms the title of this post, "Are Protestants Really Christian?"

In the Bible, we are granted something amazing.  We are privy to a conversation between Jesus and God the Father.  Jesus pours his heart out to God. In this prayer, he prays that all be unified even as He and the Father are unified. At this very meal, he made it possible for us to be one with Him when He instituted the Holy Eucharist.  For over fifteen-hundred years there was no doubt about what the Eucharist was. It was believed by all Christians that it was the Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Christ. It is this sacred meal that makes us one.  Most Protestant denominations do not believe in the True Presence, they see the bread and wine (they use crackers and grape juice) as mere symbols that have no meaning outside of a memorial to Christ. The unity conferred by the Eucharist is therefore broken between the Catholic Church and the Protestant denominations.  But does this take away their birthright to be called Christian? 

Martin Luther did have a good reason for being upset at some of the practices that were going around in the sixteenth century.  The sale of indulgences by a minority of clergy was abhorrent and took something that is good, holy, and part of the treasury of faith administered by the Church and put it into a bad light. Protest against this was a righteous act and Martin Luther was right to condemn it.  However, Martin strayed into sin when he decided that it was his way or the highway.  He did no favors for the world by striking out and forming a new church. He was culpable for the sin of schism. Those that followed him away from the church also sinned by association. Once broken the unity of the Church started to run like an old sock. Today we have thousands and thousands of denominations of Christians that are not in full communion with the Catholic Church, the Church founded by Christ which is the vehicle that will help us attain salvation. 

Are the people that meet in the Baptist Church down the street or the Presbyterian Church on the next block, are they Christians?  After all, they worship outside of the unity that Christ prayed for and their forefathers sinfully split the Church asunder so can they be considered Christians?  Without a validly ordained clergy can these thousands of offshoots have any claim on being Christian? 

The answer, of course, is yes.  Those of us that call Jesus, Lord, are brothers and sisters in the Lord.  Unlike the dreary world of Jack Chick, the Catholic Church does not impute guilt to those, through no fault of their own, are born into a different Christian tradition.ey are in fact our brothers and sisters in the Lord.  They do not carry the burden of the sin of schism on their souls.  The fact is, many of our separated brothers and sisters love the Lord more than we do.  Many of them model their lives more directly akin to that of Christ than some of those born into the Catholic faith.  So, we must pray that someday, and that day may not be until the return of Jesus, that all will be one again.  The fact is simple, there will be one flock and one Shepherd.  

What about Catholics that are ripped from union with the Church by fundamentalist evangelists?  I, for one, cannot fathom why one would leave the Eucharist for the Book. The Bible is an important way to meet Christ and it is said that ignorance of the Bible is ignorance of Christ. The fact is that people who leave the Catholic Church do so because they are not well grounded in their faith.  Every Monday night I watch a show on EWTN called "The Journey Home."  This show features former Protestants, former atheists, reverted Catholics all sharing their testimony and prove that all spiritual roads lead to the Catholic Church.  I am not qualified to say whether or not these poor people have sinned in leaving the Chruch. Perhaps it is a situation similar to the act of suicide.  In old days the souls of a suicide were consigned to hell. Today we have a better appreciation for the complexities of the human mind and very often the person doing away with himself is not able to fully consent to the act because of mental disturbance and therefore has not committed a mortal sin.  A Catholic kidnapped by the honey-laced words of an evangelical is in a similar situation.  He is unable to defend his faith because he does not have the requisite knowledge. I do not believe that our God who knows what is in our hearts would reject the hijacked should because of the soul's ignorance of Catholic doctrine.  

Finally, I do believe that there are people out there that would do anything to bring down the Catholic Church. I do not fear them because their mission is doomed to fail.  The Jack Chick's of the world base their teaching on hate and discord and it shall never, ever, prevail.  We as Catholics have a duty to remember that all that profess the name of Jesus as savior are brothers and sisters in the Lord.  We as Catholics have a duty to be willing to defend the Church from those who wish it ill.  We as Catholics have a duty to work towards the unity and brotherhood of all in the One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church. We as Catholics have a duty to learn about our faith and safeguard it as the treasure it really is.  We have the duty to evangelize our separated brothers and sister while respecting them as kindred spirits. 

Live Truth - Live Catholic.