This is a great video about the Advent season. Thanks to phatmass.com for bringing it to my attention. Enjoy!

A friend forwarded this video of how Steve Harvey would introduce Jesus Christ at the Second Coming:

Vanessa Barnes of the Houston Examiner has an interesting article about 10 Episcopal nuns converting to become Catholic nuns this past Thursday, Sept. 3. The sisters cited “orthodoxy and unity” as the reasons for their conversion, and the report explains that these nuns “became the latest in a long line of defectors leaving the Episcopal denomination divided over the approval of women’s ordination and the ordination of a gay bishop.”

Get the full article here: “Episcopal nuns become Catholic nuns“

We all know that this world is full of trouble – and these days there is plenty to be anxious about. In worry-filled times, it’s important to remember the promises of God:

Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and do not rely on your own insight. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths. (Proverbs 3:5-6)

Have no anxiety about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which passes all understanding, will keep your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 4:6-7)

“Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you shall eat or what you shall drink, nor about your body, what you shall put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And which of you by being anxious can add one cubit to his span of life? And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they neither toil nor spin; yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O men of little faith? Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the Gentiles seek all these things; and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things shall be yours as well. “Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Let the day’s own trouble be sufficient for the day. (Matthew 6:25-34)

At every mass, we are reminded of these promises in the doxology said by the priest, right after the Lord’s Prayer: “Deliver us Lord from every evil and grant us peace in our day. In your mercy, keep us free from sin and deliver us from all anxiety…”

Many non-Catholics object to our use of the title “queen of heaven” in reference to the Blessed Virgin Mary. They do so because in the Old Testament, a false goddess – apparently Ishtar, the Assyro-Babylonian fertility goddess – was called the “queen of heaven” (see Jeremiah 7:18, 44:17-19, and 44:25). Using the title when speaking of Mary, they reason, means that Catholics worship Mary as a pagan goddess. Obviously, this would be a wrong thing to do.

But take heart! The good news is that Catholics neither (a) consider Mary to be a goddess nor (b) worship her.

Catholics think that it is appropriate to call Mary the “queen of heaven” for two reasons:

• Her son is the King, making her the queen mother. More than just an honorary role, the queen mother was an office in the Davidic kingdom. As one Protestant encyclopedia explains, “The gebhirah, or queen mother, occupied a position of high social and political importance; she took rank almost with the king.”
• The Bible depicts her as “wearing a crown of twelve stars” in heaven (Revelation 12:1), which is appropriate given her role as the queen mother of Christ the King.

But does the title’s pagan usage make it inappropriate to apply in a Christian context? By all means no! Just because the title was applied to a false queen of heaven in the Old Testament does not mean that the title cannot be used for the true queen of heaven.

There is strong Biblical precedent for this in the title “king of kings”. In the Old Testament, two rulers who were no friend of God’s people were called “king of kings”:

• Nebuchadrezzar, king of Babylon – Daniel 2:37 and Ezekiel 26:7.
• Artaxerxes, king of Persia – Ezra 7:12

In spite of the pagan use of “king of kings”, we appropriately apply the title to Jesus Christ, our ultimate and true King of Kings, in 1 Timothy 6:15, Revelation 17:14 and Revelation 19:16.

So we see from Scripture that it is certainly appropriate to call the Blessed Virgin Mary “Queen of Heaven.”

I ran across this inspiring quote today and thought I’d share it:

“The Lord has turned all our sunsets into sunrise, and through the cross brought death to life.” – St. Clement of Alexandria (from his work Exhortation to the Heathen)

“Come and see.”

These words of invitation were spoken to Nathanael by his brother Philip after his initial encounter with Jesus (John 1:46). It is also an invitation to us all. Who is this Jesus? “Come and see.”

Perhaps you are not a believer. Jesus invites you to begin a journey with him. His message is simple. The problems facing our world and you as an individual are rooted in sin – a disunity with God our Creator. Jesus came into the world with a mission: to save sinners (1 Timothy 1:15). He lived a perfect life, suffered and died for us (Romans 5:8), and rose again for our justification (Romans 4:25). You and all of us are invited to repent and be baptized (Acts 2:38). Start this journey of forgiveness and new life. If you aren’t sure, give it a try: simply “come and see” who this Jesus is and what his Church is all about.

Maybe you are already a Christian, but not a Catholic. “Come and see” are words to encounter Christ at a deeper level by full communion with the one Church he established (Matthew 16:18). Maybe you are Catholic but haven’t been to church in a long time. The Lord is patiently waiting for your return. And like the father in the story of the prodigal son (Luke 15:11-32), he would welcome you not with anger but with loving, open arms. “Come and see!”

You could be a regular churchgoing Catholic, attending mass each and every Sunday. But maybe you aren’t taking full advantage of the sacramental life of the church. “Come and see” can be an invitation to a closer walk with Christ. Beyond our Sunday obligation and receiving communion, pray frequently, attend mass during the week (not just on Sunday), study the Bible, and participate in what the Apostle Paul called the “ministry of reconciliation” (2 Corinthians 5:18): the sacrament of confession. Many feel anxiety about confessing their sins to a priest. But while a good examination of conscience is never comfortable, it can be comforting. After all, confession is a sacrament of healing (see the Catechism of the Catholic Church, paragraph 1421). Take advantage of it on a regular basis and you will experience great comfort and a closer relationship with the Lord. “Come and see!”

This is one of those questions I never thought to ask. But apparently it was a big enough issue in the late 19th Century to address in the 1873 Boston Catechism (p 64)…no joke:

Q: Should we abstain from spitting after having received communion?
A: Yes; we should endeavor to refrain from it for the space of a quarter of an hour, out of respect for the sacrament.

Everybody got that? No spitting for 15 minutes after communion.

There are many Christians that understand “being saved” as a one-time event. A moment comes when a person repents of their sins and accepts Jesus Christ as their “personal Lord and Savior” – a phrase which is never used in Scripture, oddly enough. This once-in-a-lifetime conversion event removes all penalties for past sins and is a guarantee that no matter what happens afterward, the new believer is destined for heaven – nothing whatsoever can undo salvation. Some adherents to absolute assurance describe it in the slogan, “once saved, always saved.”

Those who think that believers have an absolute assurance of salvation cite two key passages to support their view:

1 John 5:13 – “I write this to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life.”

John 10:27-29 – “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me; and I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish, and no one shall snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand.”

At first glance, these passages seem to make the point that believers cannot lose their salvation. However, when viewed in the context of the rest of the New Testament, this assurance needs to be understood as a moral assurance, not an absolute one.

In writing “you have eternal life,” John is stating that every Christian can have an assurance of salvation. John also explains that no other person or external force can snatch a believer out of Christ’s hand. However, individual believers can sever that relationship on their own. In 1 John 5:16-17, John explains mortal sin. Anyone who dies unrepentant in that state will have lost their salvation because they will have, in a sense, jumped out of Christ’s hand of their own volition. Other parts of the Bible emphasize that remaining in a “saved” state is conditional on our continued belief and fidelity to the Lord:

Romans 11:20-22 – They were broken off because of their unbelief, but you stand fast only through faith. So do not become proud, but stand in awe. For if God did not spare the natural branches, neither will he spare you. Note then the kindness and the severity of God: severity toward those who have fallen, but God’s kindness to you, provided you continue in his kindness; otherwise you too will be cut off.

Hebrews 10:26-31 – For if we sin deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a fearful prospect of judgment, and a fury of fire which will consume the adversaries…. How much worse punishment do you think will be deserved by the man who has spurned the Son of God, and profaned the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and outraged the Spirit of grace? For we know him who said, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay.” And again, “The Lord will judge his people: It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.”

2 Peter 2:20-21 – For if after they have escaped the defilements of the world through the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and overpowered, the last state has become worse for them than the first. For it would have been better for them never to have known the way of righteousness than after knowing it to turn back from the holy commandment delivered to them.

These passages explain that if a believer returns to a life of serious sin, they lose their salvation. Paul also writes of this in 2 Timothy 2:11-13: “If we have died with him, we shall also live with him; if we endure, we shall also reign with him; if we deny him, he also will deny us; if we are faithless, he remains faithful – for he cannot deny himself.”

Christ also speaks of believers falling away:

Matthew 18:21-35 – In the parable of the unforgiving servant, Jesus told that although the merciful king forgave his debt, the unforgiving servant proceeded to mistreat a fellow servant. When the king discovered this, he reinstated his debt and threw him into prison! Jesus stated, “So also my heavenly Father will do to every one of you, if you do not forgive your brother from your heart.”

Matthew 7:21 – “Not every one who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.”

John 15:5-6 – “I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in me, and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. If a man does not abide in me, he is cast forth as a branch and withers; and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire and burned.”

Knowing that our infidelity to Christ can sever our relationship to him, Christians ought to remain faithful to our Lord and take comfort in his words: “He who endures to the end will be saved” (Matthew 24:13).

Today is the 41st anniversary of my baptism!

Christ taught us that to enter heaven, we must be “born again of water and the Spirit” (John 3:5) – a statement that from the earliest days of the Church have been understood to refer to baptism. St. Peter taught that “baptism…now saves you” (1 Peter 3:21), and St. Paul wrote that God “saved us…by the washing of regeneration and renewal in the Holy Spirit” (Titus 3:5). So, when I was baptized 41 years ago, I was “born again” the Bible way!

I was four months old when I was baptized. The Methodist congregation our family attended shared the same belief in infant baptism that is practiced in the Catholic Church. In fact, most non-Catholic groups also practice infant baptism – Orthodox, Lutheran, Reformed/Presbyterian, Anglican/Episcopal, Methodist and more. Infant baptism is not followed by some Protestant groups, in particular those that stem from the Anabaptist movement that came later in Reformation history.

Interested in learning why we baptize infants? Here are two helpful articles from Catholic Answers and Steve Ray (in addition to his blog post, which is about baptism in general, read the PDF of his article on infant baptism which he links to in one of the comments).