becket again!!! "SAVED - What Catholics Believe About Salvation." Totally worth it...
fathershane reblogged
It’s easy and tempting to convince ourselves that we don’t need Jesus Christ. That we can achieve a level of moral perfection, a level of holiness even, by our own hard work and determination. But hard work alone won’t rid us of unclean spirits and effort alone will not make us into saints. Grace is the key.
Bishop James Conley (Denver, aux.)
Source: archden.org
Anonymous asked:
hi im catholic. my born-again christian friend ask me, why catholics have this symbols/images of Jesus Christ and saints? she said its wrong according to Exodus 20:4 Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. I dont know the answer. please provide one bec im confused also.
A very important question... The answer is complex! After all, God commands Moses to make statues in Exodus 25 for the Ark of the Covenant, of all things! Here's a very complete answer to your question.
God bless you!
- Father Shane
Intense Weekend
Just got back from 4 hours of confessions. Manhattan "street mission" confessions. The intense kind. :-)
Tomorrow a retreat all day (talks, Mass, confessions), then 2 or 3 Masses on Sunday and maybe a few hours of confessions at a conversion retreat.
One good thing is that my total number of Tumblr friends in NYC that I've actually personally met is going to skyrocket from 2 to 3. :-)
And it's a weekend of witnessing God's grace in industrial quantities. There's nothing like being a priest.
If you seek Jesus in everything, you will surely find him, but if you seek yourself, self you will surely find, but to your own ruin. By not seeking Jesus, we hurt ourselves more than the whole world and all our enemies could hurt us.
Thomas a Kempis, Imitation of Christ, II, 7
Father Shane, recently I've been thinking about the differences between Catholics and Protestants (I'm Catholic) and aside from the problwms with Catholic traditions that many Protestants have, the theology always seems to split at a the same point. So here is my question: do we as Catholics believe that Jesus died to pay for our sins? Protestants believe that as long as you put your faith in Christ you will be saved because he has already made the sacrifice. Catholic perspective please?
Do we believe that Jesus died to pay for our sins? Certainly. It's all over the New Testament. "For I handed on to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures" (1 Corinthians 15:3). Here's how the Catechism puts it:
"By the grace of God" Jesus tasted death "for every one". In his plan of salvation, God ordained that his Son should not only "die for our sins" but should also "taste death", experience the condition of death, the separation of his soul from his body, between the time he expired on the cross and the time he was raised from the dead. (#624)
Now if you put your faith in Christ will you be saved? Certainly. In Acts 16:31, Paul and Silas are asked "What must I do to be saved?" and they respond: "Believe in the Lord Jesus and you and your household will be saved." In Romans 10:9, we read "If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved."
But wait a minute... the story doesn't end there. Mark 16:16 says this: "Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved; whoever does not believe will be condemned."
And then Jesus never says "Just say something once and you'll be saved forever." He requires a certain type of lifestyle from his followers, and after saying "Remain in my love" (John 15:4) he explains that this means keeping his commandments (John 15:10), and then says this: "Anyone who does not remain in me will be thrown out like a branch and wither; people will gather them and throw them into a fire and they will be burned" (John 15:6). Now that should strike us as awfully scary, whether we're "saved" or not!
In other words, Jesus takes discipleship too seriously to let stand our little human ideas of how we should get a guaranteed ticket into heaven. So Catholics believe along with Protestants that yes, faith leads to salvation, but we take "faith" to mean a lifetime and a lifestyle of faith and "in Christ", which will transform us ever more into his image here on Earth and eventually make us worthy (by his grace!) of eternal life with him.
You can tell that I'm vastly oversimplifying a very complex issue: there are far more Bible quotes here.
One of those questions where terminology gets pretty important. God bless!
- Father Shane
Present-day society is no longer content merely to administer our common patrimony, so whether it wants to or doesn't, it's got to set out and seek the Kingdom. And that Kingdom is not of this world. Which means they'll never find it. Yet they'll never be able to give up the search.
Georges Bernanos (from The Diary of a Country Priest)
Quote of the Month
I am created to do something or to be something for which no one else is created; I have a place in God’s counsels, in God’s world, which no one else has; whether I be rich or poor, despised or esteemed by man, God knows me and calls me by my name.
God has created me to do him some definite service; he has committed some work to me which he has not committed to another.
I have my mission — I may never know it in this life, but I shall be told it in the next…
Somehow I am necessary for his purposes, as necessary in my place as an archangel in his — if indeed, I fail, he can raise another, as he could make the stones children of Abraham.
Yet I have a part in this great work; I am a link in a chain, a bond of connection between persons.
He has not created me for naught. I shall do good, I shall do his work; I shall be an angel of peace, a preacher of truth in my own place, while not intending it, if I do but keep his commandments and serve him in my calling.
Therefore I will trust him. Whatever, wherever I am, I can never be thrown away.
Blessed John Cardinal Newman
Anonymous asked:
Hello Father ShaneI have a problem I have a strong Catholic faith, and I have a cousin who goes to this church and I researched about them, and they are a bible based church but they don't believe in the trinity. They talk about other religions and faith, and claim they are the true church of Christ. She keeps nagging me asking me if I want to go to the church she attends. She understand that I am a devout Catholic and sometimes I don't know what to say I'm too afraid to say No to her. She's been inviting me to her church since last year. My cousin was Catholic but her faith was just so weak. It was easy for other religions to tell her false facts about the church. How do I tell her I don't want to go to her cult church? I want her to stop inving me! I need help please?
So the real question is, "What's going on inside her head?"
Is she intellectually convinced, after much study, that the history of doctrine and the words of the Bible point to her church, and that the Catholic Church has some specific problem that disqualifies it from being the true one? It can happen to some people, but it's usually not that simple. Usually folks don't know their own faith well enough to defend it.
Is she getting pressure to bring more people in with her? That can happen, both directly and indirectly. Does she feel insecure about her own option and feels deep down that she might have made a mistake (sometimes that where the "boldness" comes from), or feel driven away by some moral teaching of the Church? That can happen too.
Depending on what the real reason is -- and hopefully you know her well enough to pry that open -- you can find the right way to go. Will it take getting to know Church history and doctrine? (Probably not, but it's always an option, of course.) Will it be pointing her in the direction of what she has left behind (the Eucharist, Confession, the Nicene Creed, 2000 years of heritage, etc.)? Or possibly a firm and repeated "No, thanks, I'm happy where I am, and I'm receiving the Eucharist on Sunday." Or a "Do you really realize that you've left behind a doctrine that's so essential to Christianity that 99% of Christians in the history of 2000 years since Jesus disagree with you, let alone the Gospel itself"?
Despite the way she treats you, you have to be able to say No to any human being if they're getting between you and God.
And pray a lot for her, as I'll do for you! God bless.
- Father Shane
For the folks who wonder why Protestant talk about "salvation" is so different from Catholic talk about "salvation"... sometimes it's a terminology problem.