Is it Mary, or is it Ashtoreth? I dunno, you tell me! They're both Queen of Heaven, either way.
Posted on 08/08/2010 5:18:01 AM PDT by Titus Quinctius Cincinnatus
Callous treatment of a skilled drug-addicted nun-surgeon by her peer group in the Catholic Medical Missionary Order caused me, a dedicated nun, to become disillusioned. Within every person lies a marvelous adventure story of his life. Here is my story and the three torturous, separate paths I took on my journey toward peace and reconciliation with God. My first path was that of religion as a Medical Missionary Nun for thirteen years. Then I searched in vain for fulfillment as a United States Air Force nurse for six and a half years. Finally, on the third path as a married homemaker on a Texas ranch I found “the peace that passeth all understanding” when I received Jesus Christ as my Savior. I can now say with Jeremiah 31:3, “The Lord hath appeared of old unto me, saying, Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love: therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn thee.”
My First Path: Religion
I was raised in a devout Roman Catholic family of six children in Cascade, Iowa, and entered a Medical Missionary Order at age eighteen. In my idealistic youth, my goal was to help less fortunate people. After two and a half years of strict religious training, I professed vows of poverty, chastity and obedience. After receiving a nursing degree from prestigious Georgetown University School of Nursing in Washington, DC, I was sent to the mission field in Rawalpindi, Pakistan. My experiences in the convent included working in a hospital for Muslims and a tour attending pregnant girls in a home for unwed mothers in Philadelphia.
In one case Sister Barbara, a skilled surgeon, was literally worked to death by unselfishly attending Muslim women. In Pakistan no male surgeon could touch a Muslim woman to perform needed operations, therefore as the only woman surgeon at her clinic, she worked excessively long shifts to the point of exhaustion. When she began taking Demerol to keep going, her associates looked the other way. Soon she was a confirmed addict. When I met Sister Barbara, she was hopelessly addicted, left to wander about the hospital grounds and was neither given treatment nor sent away from the source of drugs, simply forgotten. After thirteen years, being psychologically unable to adjust to convent life as a nun, I requested and received a dispensation from my vows. At age thirty-two, I left the convent with a nurse’s license, a release from my vows, a new conservative suit and fare home. The main reason for leaving was great disillusionment with the hypocrisy and lack of love among the nuns. I also found it a psychologically sterile, unfulfilling life; the convent rules imposed abnormal emotionally lonely conditions. Lonely, lonely, I wanted to relate to someone and eventually get out.
My Second Path: USAF Nurse Corps
Shortly thereafter, I joined the USAF Nurse Corps as a captain, originally based in California. This pathway in my life was exciting and filled with new worldly vanities. Like an uncorked bottle, I threw myself into these pursuits with the same “gusto” I had as a nun. I learned to drink, have sex, buy luxuries and taste the pleasures that the world offers.
On the surface, my assignments were interesting with a tour of duty at Travis AFB, California, then two years as a flight nurse in Yokota Air Force Base, Japan. This was during the Vietnam War. I served as an Air Evac Nurse attending wounded military men on their evacuation from Vietnam battlefields through Pacific hospital stops to home via Alaska or California. I saw the world and lived a wild life for six and a half years. During all of this I managed to sear my Catholic conscience and justify my lifestyle. I had no inner peace and the void in my soul grew even greater. Religion had offered nothing and the “lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life” made for more discontent. I found myself running to confess my many transgressions to a priest with no real repentance.
A Third Path: Marriage
During my last tour as a Major at the air base near Del Rio, Texas, I met and married a retired veterinarian-rancher. I resigned my Air Force commission and began living the third chapter of my life as a ranch housewife thirty-five miles from town. Although I was “living in sin”, I was a nominal Catholic, continuing to attend Mass, to pray to Mary, and to practice all the rituals of the Church. My husband was a divorced Protestant, so I was not supposed to receive the sacraments (whatever good that does). This supposed transgression was viewed by the Catholic Church as much worse than all the past years of party and sexual perfidy with married men, etc. After all, those sins were absolved by the priests. My soul was not at peace though I led a quiet life on a beautiful Texas ranch. I continued to feel a restlessness in my soul. My marriage was not enough to fill the longing in my spirit.
My Introduction to the Truth
After four years of married life, I attended a family reunion in Iowa. Unknown to me, my older brother had gotten saved. He spent the rest of his life witnessing to our family as well as others who were blinded to the truth by their devout Roman Catholic position. My sisters warned me about my “Bible thumping” brother before I arrived. Due to my Jesuit indoctrination, it was now my duty to straighten him out. My brother gathered the whole family around the dining table with an open King James Bible before him. I shut my mouth, put down my martini glass, and listened to him with astonishment and confusion. He told the family that there is “one Mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus” (1 Tim 2:5) and that we were all headed for hell.
He said that we were trusting in our Roman Catholic Church, worshiping Mary (a fake substitute for Jesus Christ), celebrating the Mass (a cannibalistic mockery of the death of Jesus Christ), and observing the Catholic sacramental life with its many anti-biblical doctrines such as Purgatory. According to Catholic teaching, Purgatory is the place you go after death to burn until God decides you have suffered enough to enter heaven. What a crock! It is not in the Bible! My brother emphasized that salvation was a free gift, the only thing necessary on man’s part is believing on Jesus Christ as Savior. “That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.” (Romans 10:9). There is no need for self-righteous works to earn your way to heaven as taught by the Catholic doctrine. This was a shocking concept and I was confused to say the least. The next day my brother again opened the Bible and showed me the fallacy of the Catholic position in almost everything I had held as infallible truth for forty-four years. Psychologically I had such a trust and attachment to Holy Mother Church, I naturally resisted the obvious truth that my brother presented. I returned home to Texas still in a state of confusion. How could the Church which I had loved and trusted completely be so totally anti-biblical and full of lies? I had never dared to question the Church’s claim to be the exclusive way (conduit) to forgiveness of sin and the key to heaven or hell. My wise brother advised me to read the Gospel of John and the Epistle of Paul to the Romans which states so clearly, “God commendeth his love toward us in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8) and “Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ” (Romans 5:1). He also quoted Ephesians 2:8-9, “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God; not of works, lest any man should boast.”
True Liberty
From deep within my soul, I cried to my Savior to save me from my own selfrighteousness. The “peace that passeth all understanding” flooded my being for the first time in my life. The shackles of all those years in bondage to the Catholic Church slowly crumbled and I began to know the true liberty of a child of God. I was a new creature in Christ. This new birth in Christ is the most wonderful of miracles. After studying my King James Bible for years this miracle has become clearer. The gift of salvation which is eternal life is not a process but a onetime birth into the family of God.
An Urgent Plea
My dear Catholic friends, I beg you to do as I did. Come to Jesus Christ as a lost soul and trust His blood atonement at Calvary to pay for your sins. He took your place on the Cross to pay for the sins of the whole world. Receive this gift of eternal life from Him by your acceptance of His complete payment of your sins by His death, burial and resurrection. The Catholic Church has deprived you of the simple plan of salvation and has substituted a tortuous plan of works. There is no need for the pagan sacrifice you make at Mass or the futile confessing of sins to a priest. Jesus Christ awaits you, as He did me, when I was a lost Roman Catholic, to believe on Him for salvation. Once saved, the Lord does not abandon us. There is provision for learning and growth in His Word. “Rightly dividing the Word of truth” is the only protection from the many cults of our day which sound so logical and attractive. The Lord is faithful to provide all we need.
Ping!
You have had a very interesting life and now, you have a powerful testimony..Thanks for sharing all this with us..God Bless You! Carry on..
While on the one hand, I can be happy for you, that you have found that which pleases you, I am likewise compelled to say that your devotion to what your are calling your “Bible Only” lifestyle is centered around an altered book. The King James edition is less 7 books, and thus, incomplete. Those missing books are God’s words as well. No offense, but no thanks. I’ll stay with the Catholic faith, always. Hopefully, you’ll find your way back. I’ll pray for you, as well as the Church.
Jesus warned the Pharisees and Sadducees that obedience to man’s traditions and rituals made a person disobedient to the Word of God. People obey tradition to please men and gain status, but we obey the Word to please God. Tradition deals with ritual, while God’s truth deals with reality. In many churches today, man-made teachings are often considered as authoritative as the Word of God even though they contradict His Word. By obeying these traditions, Christians rob themselves of the power of God’s Word.
Demerol to "keep going"? I don't think so.
Just ridiculous! On and on it goes.
So this article has to be totally false! What a crock! It never ceases to amaze me!
What you fail to mention is that those 7 books are part of the Apocrypha which consists of 15 books of Jewish literature written during the intertestamental period. Some of them have historic value, but all are spurious, of unknown authorship and without claim of inspiration or authority. Some are legendary and fantasy. Many of them are written to reinforce post-exilic Jewish opposition to idolatry.
They were never quoted or alluded to by Jesus Christ or any of the apostles. The sermons in the Book of Acts, which outline Jewish history, do not include apocryphal events. They lack the power and distinctive elements of the Word of God.
I think I’ll go say a rosary!!
I say it every week on sunday with the nicene creed and apostles creed.
We believe in one God, the Father, the Almighty,
maker of heaven and earth, and of all that is, seen and unseen.
We believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ, the only Son of God,
eternally begotten of the Father, God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God,
begotten, not made, one in Being with the Father. Through him all things were made.
For us men and for our salvation, he came down from heaven:
by the power of the Holy Spirit he was born of the Virgin Mary, and became man.
For our sake he was crucified under Pontius Pilate; he suffered, died, and was buried.
On the third day he rose again in fulfillment of the Scriptures;
he ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father.
He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead, and his kingdom will have no end.
We believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life,
who proceeds from the Father and the Son. With the Father and the Son he
is worshipped and glorified. He has spoken through the Prophets.
We believe in one holy catholic and apostolic Church.
We acknowledge one baptism for the forgiveness of sins.
We look for the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come.
Amen.
Apostles' Creed
I believe in God, the Father Almighty, Creator of Heaven and Earth
And in Jesus Christ His only Son, Our Lord Who was conceived of the Holy Spirit
Born of the Virgin Mary Suffered under Pontius Pilate Was crucified, died and was buried.
On the third day, he rose again He ascended into Heaven and is seated at the right hand of God, the Father Almighty.
He will come again to judge the living and the dead. I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Holy Catholic Church,
the Communion of Saints, the forgiveness of sins,
the resurrection of the body, and life everlasting.
Amen.
Gee, I think that reads and is spoken as a Confession of faith. I believe that Jesus was raised from the dead by God. Every Sunday! I will soon so proclaim as required! Today is Sunday. Praise Jesus!
“That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.” (Romans 10:9).
Which is said in the Apostles creed. Which is part of the Rosary. Bless you Sister praying for Us. What a great biblical pray. I just said mine. Going to Divine Mercy now. But have to make coffee before I go to church today. Bless you for confessing your faith to God and man as a living witness.
Praise his HOLY NAME!
“Demerol to “keep going”? I don’t think so.”
LOL! Knocks me on my rump!
When will their LIES STOP?!?
LIAR LIAR...PANTS ON FIRE
/s
The trick is to see beyond the books and to concentrate on God alone. Some people do that via the Catholic tradition, and some by the Baptist, and some by the Episcopalian. The particular strand of Christianity that she ascribes to now is not one that does much for me, but If God has chosen to touch her in this particular way, that is between her and God. It’s not for anyone else to pass judgement.
Is it Mary, or is it Ashtoreth? I dunno, you tell me! They're both Queen of Heaven, either way.
I dont think the Church (as in the Church universal, the complete body of believers that transcends our individual denominations) can afford to indulge in squabbles over doctrine like this, not when the barbarians are at the gate.
There it is again...Idol worship...and yet catholics call it something other than. I still haven’t figured out what the ‘other’ is when the evidence before ones eyes is so clearly seen. And there are many many more just like this “parade” of paganism to a God who is not God....to other than Christ.
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