Tribulation Times
April 20, 2012 (Joh 3:3-6) Jesus answered and said to him: Amen, amen, I say to thee, unless a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. Nicodemus saith to him: How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born again? Jesus answered: Amen, amen, I say to thee, unless a man be born again of water and the Holy Ghost, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh: and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. CATHOLIC TESTIMONIESSeveral testimonies were posted during the Lenten season at http://www.hereiamlord.com/testimonies.html. The last seven posted Catholic (katholikos from katholou — throughout the whole, i.e., universal) testimonies include two from America, and one each from Poland, Sri Lanka, Australia, New Zealand and France. Share the blessings of belonging to the Catholic Church!
ONLINE VIDEO: Being Born Again: A Commentary by Fr. Barron BLOG: Are Catholics Born Again Christians? by Fr. Dwight Longenecker EXCERPT CATHOLICHERALD COMMENTARY:
What makes us Catholics? Prayer, love and forgiveness are not enough in themselves At Mass yesterday morning – Divine Mercy Sunday – we were all given the little cards devised by the Department for Evangelisation and Catechesis for the Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales. On one side is the famous quotation from Blessed John Henry Newman that starts “God has created me to do Him some definite service. He has committed some work to me which He has not committed to another…” On the other side are several precepts that “as a Catholic I am called to [practise]”.
They include prayer, forgiving others, loving my neighbour as myself, celebrating the sacraments regularly, using the gifts I have been given wisely and sharing with others “the joy of knowing Jesus Christ.” Apart from the mention of the sacraments (which High Anglicans would also accept) there is nothing in this list that is specifically Catholic rather than generally “Christian.” They are high general ideals and if we Christians did live them properly we would change the world.
But what gives a Catholic identity? A member of the Ordinariate would immediately answer: obedience to the magisterium, the teaching authority of the Church. So perhaps I would have added to the list above: “Loyalty to Rome.” That was what Saints John Fisher and Thomas More lost their heads for, after all. Their opponents who followed the new Protestant faith would have agreed to everything listed on the little cards. Mention of Rome gives a certain hard edge to the other precepts, almost a suggestion of divisiveness. Perhaps that is why it was not included.
Not to carp, I was glad to see at the top of the list the one about “sharing with others the joy of knowing Jesus Christ”. This is something that we Catholics are not generally good at; we leave it to the evangelicals to want to share the fervour of Christian faith. We can get preoccupied by “truth” at the expense of “charity”, forgetting that they are both sides of the same coin; the one depends on the other.
EDITORIAL:
David Quinn: The beliefs of the church are not going to change by poll The findings of
the survey commissioned by the Association of Catholic Priests (ACP) are not even in the tiniest bit surprising. We have known for years that on issue after issue many or most Catholics, even weekly Mass-going Catholics, do not believe what their church believes.
The press release by the ACP says the survey "reveals a significant disconnect between official Catholic Church teaching and what Catholics actually believe".
That is absolutely correct, but the question is what should be done about it? Does the church alter its teachings in line with the latest opinion poll or must it instead do a much better job explaining to Catholics and the general public why it believes what it believes?
Continue..... Thoughts and Sayings of Saint Margaret Mary: The Practice of Virtue
12. Virtue does not consist in making good resolutions, nor in saying fine words, but in keeping one's resolutions and carrying out one's good intentions.
Prayer request? Send an email to: PrayerRequest3@aol.com This month's archive can be found at: http://www.catholicprophecy.info/news2.html.
Posted via email from deaconjohn's posterous
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