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23 May 2024 Thursday of week 7 in Ordinary Time Shrine of Saint William of Perth — Rochester CathedralReadings at MassLiturgical Colour: Green. Year: B(II).First readingJames 5:1-6 ©The Lord hears the cries of those you have cheatedAn answer for the rich. Start crying, weep for the miseries that are coming to you. Your wealth is all rotting, your clothes are all eaten up by moths. All your gold and your silver are corroding away, and the same corrosion will be your own sentence, and eat into your body. It was a burning fire that you stored up as your...

In the first part of this article, we noted that God has created everything. Nothing exists without Him. This position is clearly supported in the Scriptures just as the case for His omnibenevolent, omniscient, and omnipotent nature is also supported. These are matters which are beyond question if one studies and accepts the Scriptures responsibly. All that being so, it’s tempting to feel that if an omnipotent, omniscient, and omnibenevolent God really exists, then evil should not. If God is who the Bible claims He is, then how does evil fit in? This awkward truce of disparate truths is not...

Part 1: An Apparent Contradiction of Logic An unsettling question may arise when one ponders the implications of John 1:3 which states, “All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being.” That unsettling question is, “Did God create evil?” Let’s step back a few paces to get a big-picture view. After each sequence of bringing the heavens and earth into existence in Genesis chapter 1, God considered His creative work to be good. Over and over, it is repeated, “And God saw that it was good.” The point is...

"All things are lawful for me, but all things are not expedient: all things are lawful for me, but all things edify not." "Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God. Give none offence, neither to the Jews, nor to the Gentiles, nor to the church of God: "Even as I please all men in all things, not seeking mine own profit, but the profit of many, that they may be saved." John 19 1 Then Pilate therefore took Jesus, and scourged him. 2 And the soldiers platted a crown of...

It really makes you wonder when you look back at Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi’s statement of April 23rd, less than a month ago, as he threatened Israel with annihilation. It was during a visit to Pakistan that Raisi referred to Israel as the “Zionist regime,” whose destruction he promised if they would dare to attack Iran. Because when thinking about the Biblical accounts of cause and effect, it’s only natural to make the comparison of someone who, after threatening the Jews, ended up hanging on his own gallows. But who was Ebrahim Raisi, and is it possible to connect his...

CVS Health Corporation settled with nurse practitioner Robyn Strader after she sued the company after it stopped providing religious accommodations regarding “pregnancy prevention services.” Strader said she had been granted a religious exemption for six years permitting her to not prescribe contraceptives, and filed the lawsuit in January 2023 after having been fired following the policy change in 2021, according to the press release. First Liberty Institute, which represented Strader, announced Monday that CVS had agreed to a settlement of which the terms “were not made public.” “We are thrilled that Robyn was able to reach a resolution with CVS,”...

This article might be the most controversial and incendiary but most accurate ever written in the last 120 years regarding the Islamic belief system. All I request from our readers is to judge its contents not based on emotions or perceptions but entirely upon its accuracy grounded upon the Islamic scripture and sources. 20% of humanity is Muslim, and 80% is none Muslim. Both Sunnis and Shia Muslims are the enemies of 80% of humanity, whom they call Kuffar/Infidels. Among the 20% of Muslims, 85% are Sunnis and 15% are Shia. Each considers the other Kuffar. Therefore, according to Islam,...

22 May 2024 Wednesday of week 7 in Ordinary Time Basilica of Santa Rita da CasciaReadings at MassLiturgical Colour: Green. Year: B(II).First readingJames 4:13-17 ©You cannot know what will happen tomorrowHere is the answer for those of you who talk like this: ‘Today or tomorrow, we are off to this or that town; we are going to spend a year there, trading, and make some money.’ You never know what will happen tomorrow: you are no more than a mist that is here for a little while and then disappears. The most you should ever say is: ‘If it is...

21 May 2024 Tuesday of week 7 in Ordinary Time Our Lady of Mercy and St Godric, Durham, UK Readings at MassLiturgical Colour: Green. Year: B(II).First readingJames 4:1-10 ©Resist the devil and he will run awayWhere do these wars and battles between yourselves first start? Isn’t it precisely in the desires fighting inside your own selves? You want something and you haven’t got it; so you are prepared to kill. You have an ambition that you cannot satisfy; so you fight to get your way by force. Why you don’t have what you want is because you don’t pray...

"For though I preach the gospel, I have nothing to glory of: for necessity is laid upon me; yea, woe is unto me, if I preach not the gospel! "For if I do this thing willingly, I have a reward: but if against my will, a dispensation of the gospel is committed unto me. "Know ye not that they which run in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize? So run, that ye may obtain. And every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown; but...

20 May 2024 Mary, Mother of the Church on Monday of week 7 in Ordinary Time San Bernadino de Siena Parish Church in Xochimilco, Mexico City Readings at MassLiturgical Colour: White. Year: B(II).There is no choice between ferial and memorial readings today, because all readings are proper to the memorial.First readingGenesis 3:9-15,20 ©The mother of all those who liveAfter Adam had eaten of the tree the Lord God called to him. ‘Where are you?’ he asked. ‘I heard the sound of you in the garden;’ he replied ‘I was afraid because I was naked, so I hid.’ ‘Who told...

The church set up by Mica Miller's disgraced pastor husband has a total value of properties worth at least $5.59million, DailyMail.com can reveal. And it has its own plane, a $430,000 four-seater, supposedly to be used for missionary work, but which flight records show has only made two trips all year. Scrutiny has been mounting on Solid Rock Ministries in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, after it was revealed that church leaders plan to allow John-Paul Miller back to the pulpit following allegations of 'sexual encounters' with underage girls. Last Sunday the congregation was only around 30 people including children The...

Has the definition of Premillennialism changed in the past few decades? I ask this because during the past several years, a few pastors told me they were Premillennial, but they didn’t adhere to a futuristic interpretation of the book of Revelation or the restoration of a kingdom to Israel. For me, Premillennialism has always signified a belief in Jesus’ return to earth after a literal seven-year Tribulation at which time He will setup His thousand-year rule over the nations of the earth, which certainly includes a gloriously restored Israel. What’s causing the shift away from these beliefs that were a...

"Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth. "As thou hast sent me into the world, even so have I also sent them into the world. "And for their sakes I sanctify myself, that they also might be sanctified through the truth. Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word." John 17 1 These words spake Jesus, and lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, Father, the hour is come; glorify thy Son, that thy Son also may glorify thee: 2 As thou hast given him power over...

Sunday 19 May 2024 PentecostSt. Dunstan Catholic Church, Millbrae, CAReadings at MassLiturgical Colour: Red. Year: B(II).These readings are for the extended-form Vigil Mass on the evening before the feast.These readings are for the simple-form Vigil Mass on the evening before the feast.These readings are for the day of the feast itself.These readings are for the extended-form Vigil Mass on the evening before the feast.First readingGenesis 11:1-9 ©The tower of BabelThroughout the earth men spoke the same language, with the same vocabulary. Now as they moved eastwards they found a plain in the land of Shinar where they settled. They...

In James 1:27, the apostle James gives us insight into what pleases God: “Pure and undefiled religion in the sight of our God and Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by the world” (NASB). The word for “undefiled” is translated “faultless” in the NIV. When interpreting any verse in the Bible, including James 1:27, we should always look at its context to get an idea of what the verse means within the surrounding verses. In this case, we can look at what comes immediately before James 1:27 and get some...

18 May 2024 Saturday of the 7th week of Eastertide Basilica di S. Venanzio, Camerino, ItalyReadings at MassLiturgical Colour: White. Year: B(II).First readingActs 28:16-20,30-31 ©In Rome, Paul proclaimed the kingdom of God without hindrance from anyoneOn our arrival in Rome Paul was allowed to stay in lodgings of his own with the soldier who guarded him. After three days he called together the leading Jews. When they had assembled, he said to them, ‘Brothers, although I have done nothing against our people or the customs of our ancestors, I was arrested in Jerusalem and handed over to the Romans....

One hundred fifty-seven Christian leaders representing different streams of Christianity in the United States, wrote a letter to U.S. President Joe Biden, under the banner of American Christian Leaders for Israel (ACLI), to express their disappointment with recent actions by his administration towards Israel. In the letter, the leaders warned that these actions would embolden the mutual enemies of both Israel and the United States and encouraged Biden to make “a course correction.” Among the actions the leaders specified were: Holding Israel responsible for all civilian casualties in Gaza, despite Hamas being the official government of the people there. Repeatedly...

For centuries, the Vatican has been carefully guarding their most precious secrets. In recent years, that has been especially true regarding what they know about UFOs, aliens and the mysteries of the universe. So why have they chosen this exact moment in history to publicly talk about these things? The press conference at the Vatican on Thursday is the very first time that the Vatican has held a press conference about UFOs, aliens and “apparitions” since 1978. So this is a really big deal. It is being reported that the Vatican has decided to issue new guidelines “on aliens and...

ST. LOUIS (AP) — Advocates for victims of abuse at Missouri boarding schools on Monday urged the state’s attorney general to launch an investigation, work with local prosecutors and take other steps aimed at stemming the tide of abuse. Three Christian boarding schools in southern Missouri have shut down since 2020 amid wide-ranging abuse allegations levied by current and former students. Several people affiliated with those schools are facing criminal charges. Advocates who worry that more abuse is going unpunished gathered Monday outside Republican Attorney General Andrew Bailey’s St. Louis office to demand action. “This is a structural problem,” said...