This week, I want to share my testimony with readers, beginning with my calling into ministry…
THE homilies were dry. The music was dreadful. And the congregation was distant and disconnected. Whenever I left Mass from my parish some 25 years ago, I often felt more isolated and cold than when I came in. Moreover, in my early twenties then, I saw that my generation was completely gone. My wife and I were one of the few couples that still went to Mass.Continue reading
First published October 5th, 2006.
WITH my writings of late on the Pope, the Catholic Church, the Blessed Mother, and the understanding of how divine truth flows, not through personal interpretation, but through the teaching authority of Jesus, I received the expected emails and criticisms from non-Catholics (or rather, ex-Catholics). They have interpreted my defence of the hierarchy, established by Christ Himself, to mean that I do not have a personal relationship with Jesus; that somehow I believe I am saved, not by Jesus, but by the Pope or a bishop; that I am not filled with the Spirit, but an institutional “spirit” that has left me blind and bereft of salvation.
Artist Unknown
WITH the ongoing scandals coming to surface in the Catholic Church, many—including even clergy—are calling for the Church to reform her laws, if not her foundational faith and morals that belong to the deposit of faith.
The problem is, in our modern world of referendums and elections, many do not realize that Christ established a dynasty, not a democracy.
THERE is a Great Storm coming, and it is already here, in which those things built on sand are crumbling. (First published October, 12th, 2006.)
Everyone who listens to these words of mine but does not act on them will be like a fool who built his house on sand. The rain fell, the floods came, and the winds blew and buffeted the house. And it collapsed and was completely ruined. (Matthew 7:26-27)
Already, the driving winds of secularism have shaken apart several mainstream denominations. The United Church, the Anglican Church of England, the Lutheran Church, the Episcopalian, and thousands of other smaller denominations have begun to cave in as the raging flood waters of moral relativism pound at their foundations. Permission of divorce, birth control, abortion, and gay marriage has eroded the faith so drastically that the rains have begun to wash large numbers of believers out of their pews.
Forgiven by Thomas Blackshear II
AT a recent event, a young married Pentecostal couple approached me and said, “Because of your writings, we are becoming Catholic.” I was filled with joy as we embraced one another, delighted that this brother and sister in Christ were going to experience His power and life in new and profound ways—particularly through the Sacraments of Confession and the Holy Eucharist.
And so, here are two “no-brainer” reasons why Protestants should become Catholics.Continue reading
SCANDALS, shortcomings, and sinfulness.
When many people look at Catholics and the priesthood in particular (especially through the biased lens of the secular media), the Church seems to them anything but Christian.
Rembrandt van Rinj, 1631, Apostle Peter Kneeling
MEMORIAL OF ST. BRUNO
ABOUT thirteen years ago, my wife and I, both cradle-Catholics, were invited to a Baptist church by a friend of ours who was once a Catholic.
We took in the Sunday morning service. When we arrived, we were immediately struck by all the young couples. It dawned on us suddenly how few young people there were back in our own Catholic parish.
Photo by Michael Buehler
MEMORIAL OF ST. FRANCIS OF ASSISI
I HAVE many Protestant readers. One of them wrote me regarding the recent article My Sheep Will Know My Voice in the Storm, and asked:
Where does this leave me as a Protestant?
AN ANALOGY
Jesus said He would build His Church on “rock”—that is, Peter—or in Christ’s Aramaic language: “Cephas”, which means “rock”. So, think of the Church then as a Mountain.
Foothills precede a mountain, and so I think of them as “Baptism”. One passes through the Foothills to reach the Mountain.
Vast sectors of society are confused about what is right and what is wrong, and are at the mercy of those with the power to “create” opinion and impose it on others. —POPE JOHN PAUL II, Cherry Creek State Park Homily, Denver, Colorado, 1993
AS I wrote in Trumpets of Warning! – Part V, there is a great storm coming, and it is already here. A massive storm of confusion. As Jesus said,
…the hour is coming, indeed it has come, when you will be scattered… (John 16:31)
