Psalmoetry - "To My Soldiers" Slideshow (Memorial Day Tribute)

Coudn't agree more, Steve ...

Church's Name:
Sad or Humorous?

Why Catholic Bibles Are Bigger

The Mother of God visits her cousin, Elizabeth...

Today is the Feast of the Visitation!! When the 'Baby Jesus' in his mother's womb, made John the Baptist 'leap' with joy inside his mother, Elizabeth, and when Elizabeth proclaimed Mary the "Mother of my Lord!" aka: in other words - the Mother of GOD.

Lk 1:39-56

Mary set out
and traveled to the hill country in haste... See More
to a town of Judah,
where she entered the house of Zechariah
and greeted Elizabeth.
When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting,
the infant leaped in her womb,
and Elizabeth, filled with the Holy Spirit,
cried out in a loud voice and said,
“Most blessed are you among women,
and blessed is the fruit of your womb.
And how does this happen to me,
that the mother of my Lord should come to me?
For at the moment the sound of your greeting reached my ears,
the infant in my womb leaped for joy.
Blessed are you who believed
that what was spoken to you by the Lord
would be fulfilled.”

And Mary said:
“My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord;
my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,
for he has looked with favor on his lowly servant.
From this day all generations will call me blessed:
the Almighty has done great things for me,
and holy is his Name.

He has mercy on those who fear him
in every generation.
He has shown the strength of his arm,
he has scattered the proud in their conceit.
He has cast down the mighty from their thrones,
and has lifted up the lowly.
He has filled the hungry with good things,
and the rich he has sent away empty.
He has come to the help of his servant Israel
for he has remembered his promise of mercy,
the promise he made to our fathers,
to Abraham and his children for ever.”

Mary remained with her about three months
and then returned to her home.

And You Will Know the Truth ...

When God gives someone a new name it signifies a new role. For example, He changed Abram to Abraham. Abraham means father of many nations, which is what Abraham became. Peter means rock, which is what Peter became. The standard argument against this is that Peter in Greek is petros (πέτρος), meaning pebble, and that ro...ck is petra (πέτρα,meaning mass of rock. Since Peter is a pebble he can't be the rock. Those who support this argument fail to take into account John 1:42: "Jesus looked at him, and said, 'So you are Simon the son of John? You shall be called Cephas.'" The Apostle Paul refers to Peter as Cephas eight out of the ten times that he mentions him. Cephas is the transliteration of the Aramaic word Kepha. Aramaic is the language that Jesus and His apostles spoke. KEPHA means ROCK the same as PETRA.

from Sebastian R. Fama on explaining & defending the Catholic Faith

StayCatholic

h/t Margie

Virgin Mary Video

A most beautiful, human and honest blog...

This made my day today, while doing a Google search on Peonies, I stumbled upon a most delightful blog. I find her writing colorful, poignant and thoughtful. Enjoy The Anthropologist's Daughter. Her "description line" is THE BEST! God bless you, Sweet Peony...and I really mean that!

"If truth is relative, why are you mad at me?"

Many "bible Christians" interpret this very incorrectly...

We are not saved by "faith alone" but by faith AND works. Faith "WORKING" itself out IN love. For if our 'faith' cannot be SEEN, we are pretty much fooling ourselves or potentially fooling ourselves about 'being saved.' Batimaeus DID something, he did "works" after Jesus healed him. He didn't just grab a bible and remain isolated as a "me and my Jesus" Christian.

One Bread, One Body

CLOAK ROOM

Bartimaeus "threw aside his cloak, jumped up and came to Jesus." —Mark 10:50

Blind Bartimaeus is sitting by the Jericho roadside. There's a big crowd following Jesus as He passes by. Bartimaeus may be blind, but with eyes of faith he sees that Jesus is the Messiah, that is, the "Son of David" (Mk 10:47). He also realizes that Jesus is merciful, so he cries to Jesus, "Have pity on me!" (Mk 10:48)

When Jesus calls him over, Bartimaeus throws aside his cloak (Mk 10:50). This is a tremendous act of faith for a blind man. His cloak is his only means of staying warm. If Jesus does not heal him of blindness, he may never be able to find that cloak again in such a big crowd. In addition, by throwing aside his cloak, Bartimaeus can't prevent someone from stealing it. By throwing aside his cloak, Bartimaeus professes his faith in Jesus far more loudly than any words he screamed.

The way we live screams to the world whether or not we believe Jesus is Lord of our life. What are you holding onto? Is there something you need to throw aside before you are free enough to come to Jesus? Throw it away, and "get up," for Jesus "is calling you" (Mk 10:49-50).

Prayer: Jesus, I will consider everything I have to be "rubbish" so that You can be my Lord (Phil 3:8).
Promise: "You too are living stones, built as an edifice of spirit, into a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ." —1 Pt 2:5
Praise: St. Augustine brought King Ethelbert into the Church and, with him, much of Great Britain.
Similar Reflections
http://www.presentationministries.com/obob/obob.asp?d=5/27/2010

John Paul II always accepted pain, never asked for sedatives, reports papal physician :: EWTN News

John Paul II always accepted pain, never asked for sedatives, reports papal physician :: EWTN News

I can totally relate to Kristine's story ...

Kristine Franklin explains her conversion to becoming a "completed evangelical" when she entered into the Catholic Church.

The last few paragraphs of her testimony for those who don't have time for the complete article:

There was a lot of speculation about why we were becoming Catholics, much of it unpleasant, all of it inaccurate. Some thought we'd simply grown weary of fighting the "good fight." Others thought we couldn't handle the pressures of missionary life and had popped our spiritual corks. Some thought we must have been lured by the strange attractiveness of the Catholic liturgy, or by some wily, fast-talking, Scripture-twisting priest. One of my family members told us we had lost our faith completely and had walked straight into the jaws of Satan.

The truth was just the opposite. We had found Jesus Christ in the last place anyone, ourselves especially, could have imagined, and His arms were opened wide to welcome us.

Blessed Sacrament Church was packed for the Easter Vigil Mass. At Communion, the priest leaned close and whispered, "Kris, you've waited all your life for this." Then he held up Jesus Christ, the Bread of Life and smiled and said, "The Body of Christ."

"Amen," I said. "I believe it." As I received Jesus sacramentally in Holy Communion for the first time, I thanked Him with all my heart for the miracle of grace He had worked in my life to unite me to Himself in this way, in a wonderful, mysterious way I could never have imagined possible. The day we landed in Guatemala City for the first time, I had hoped we were home. In reality, we were only en route to our real home, the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church.

In the Catholic Church we have found the fullness of the Christian Faith. Not seventy-five percent of the Truth, not ninety percent, but all of it, one hundred percent. We have found real worship, shaped by and focused on Jesus Christ, not on this minister or that minister's opinion about this or that passage of Scripture. We have embraced the Faith of our Fathers, the teachings which Christ intended us to have.

We found in our long, circuitous journey home to the Catholic Church that there is indeed only one Gospel, the Catholic Gospel. There is only one place where one can find the fullness of truth and the most personal of relationships with Jesus Christ - and it isn't Protestantism. The last place we looked for truth was where the Truth had been all along. We are home to stay.

A comment at a great Facebook site...

After reading this brilliant comment that made me grin from ear to ear, I figured it needed to be posted post haste ... so I posted it over here. As found at: "Catholics ARE Christians!" as written by Chris Timson
Enjoy. - susie


"I'm sorry but I was almost crying from laughing so hard at this! When I left the Church I went from "church" to "church", from cult to cult and always came up empty when it came to my questions being answered. Every single experience also proved to me that at some point, the "church" I was going to at a particular point, had ALWAYS changed the Bible to suit whatever made them comfortable. "If it's not in the Bible, I won't believe it!" was always a common cry.

Mary IS mentioned in the Bible and so is her Magnificat, yet protestants and others call us heretics and sinful for recognizing it when they don't. Christ instructed the apostles to have the Last Supper done again in His name, as we do through our celebration of the Eucharist. It's in the Bible and yet the protestants tell us we have it all wrong. We recognize Our Lord Jesus Christ in the Holy Eucharist but protestants cry that it's sacrilege. Confession is in the Bible yet protestants deny it.

So, if what we're doing what IS in the Bible, how did we become "heretics" and "sinful" and "blasphemers?" Why do protestants say it isn't? Perhaps it's because we don't change the Bible to get comfortable and they do. Ours is not a religion or faith of convenience or comfort. Jesus told us that we would be persecuted and that if we are to follow Him we must pick up our Cross (trials and tribulations) daily and follow Him.

Let us pray that the eyes of the "doubting Thomas-es" outside our Faith will be opened to the True Word of God. Let us pray that they will repent and believe the Good News of the True Gospel. Let us pray that God will yet have mercy on this world for all the pain and suffering that others have committed in His Holy Name. Amen.

Have a truly wonderful and Blessed day! :)"

False Ecumenism.

Catholics ARE Christians. Check it out on Facebook. h/t TJ (Russ) for the page where Catholics can proclaim the good news to HONEST seekers of TRUTH. God bless you, Russ. Thanks!