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THE DECAY OF CONSCIENCE. CHARLES G. FINNEY. http://www.gospeltruth.net/1868_75Independent/731204_conscience.htm Brethren, our preaching will bear its legitimate fruits. If immorality prevails in the land, the fault is ours in a great degree. If there is a decay of conscience, the pulpit is responsible for it. If the public press lacks moral discrimination, the pulpit is responsible for it. If the church is degenerate and worldly, the pulpit is responsible for it. If the world loses its interest in religion, the pulpit is responsible for it. If Satan rules in our halls of legislation, the pulpit is responsible for it. If our politics...

The Cause for a Modern Prophet The Cause for a Modern Prophet | Michael Coren | CWRProlific and paradoxical, Gilbert Keith Chesterton was as witty as Wilde, as original as Joyce, and as clever as Kafka When even mass-circulation British newspapers cover a story about the Church and beatification, you know it matters. The Daily Mail recently reported that, “Author G. K. Chesterton, best known for his Father Brown stories, has been put on the path to sainthood – with the blessing of the Pope. Just days before he was elected Pope in March, the then Archbishop of Buenos Aires, Cardinal...

Teitzei means “to go out” in Hebrew. It is in the book of Devarim (Deuteronomy 21:10 – 23:26). What many do not realize or appreciate is that the Torah is based on connecting principles. Not just that, but that the world is based on connecting principles, and that ultimately God Himself, so to speak is consistent and runs the universe consistently based on connecting principles. Thus, is something at some point seems disconnected or dissonant at any given point in time, it will be redressed and reconnected and the final consequence will be such that not matter what seemed out...

Featured Term (selected at random):OLIVE BRANCHA universal symbol of peace. It is the sign of reconciliation between God and humans, shown when it was brought by the dove returning to Noah's ark after the Deluge. All items in this dictionary are from Fr. John Hardon's Modern Catholic Dictionary, © Eternal Life. Used with permission.

Featured Term (selected at random):PREDESTINATIONIn the widest sense it is every eternal decision of God; in a narrower sense it is the supernatural final destination of rational creatures; and in the strictest sense it is God's eternal decision to assume certain rational creatures into heavenly glory. Predestination implies an act of the divine intellect and of the divine will. The first is foreknowledge, the second is predestination. According to its efficacy in time, predestination is distinguished as incomplete or complete depending on whether it is to grace only or also to glory. Complete predestination is the divine preparation of...

Denver, Colo., Aug 10, 2013 / 06:03 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Although a controversial new book on the “historical Jesus� is topping best-seller lists, claims made by its author are tired when it comes to New Testament scholarship, a Scripture professor says. “There's basically not a lot new,� Dr. Andre Villeneuve from Denver's St. John Vianney Theological Seminary said of Reza Aslan's recent “Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth.� “It kind of re-hashes what's been said in the last – not just 20 or 30 years – but the last 100 or 200 years about the search...

Why did God destroy Sodom and Gomorrah? Was the most extensive judgment found anywhere in the Bible outside of the book of Revelation actually for the sin of inhospitality, not homosexuality?People find what they want in the Bible. If one looks hard enough, he can find "biblical" support for reincarnation, Eastern religions, Jesus as a guru, divorce for any reason, and flying saucers. Every cult of Christianity uses the Bible to validate its claims and so does some of the occult.It's not surprising, then, that a recent trend in biblical scholarship holds that a careful reading of Genesis in...

Featured Term (selected at random):SHROVETIDEThe few days before Ash Wednesday, particularly the day before, Shrove Tuesday. It is associated with confessing one's sins and has in many places become a time for holding carnivals, as the last time for festivity before the Lenten season of penance. All items in this dictionary are from Fr. John Hardon's Modern Catholic Dictionary, © Eternal Life. Used with permission.

  Jesus: Prophet, Priest, and King At your baptism you were marked with oil as a sign that you are consecrated to God and anointed by the Holy Spirit. Your anointing also was a sign that you are joined to Christ and share in his threefold mission as prophet, priest, and king. The Israelites anointed their priests and kings with oil. They spoke of their prophets as being anointed with the spirit. Jesus, known as the Christ, the anointed one, fills all three roles. According to Luke, at the outset of his public ministry, Jesus read from Isaiah and...

The Old Testament answers some of the greatest questions of all time—where did we come from? Why do we desire the good yet do evil? Why do our souls yearn for eternity while our bodies yield to death and decay?Yet, the Hebrew Scriptures leave so many other tantalizing questions unanswered. These mysteries have nagged at the Christian imagination for centuries, inspired epic quests, and stumped some of the greatest minds of the Church.Here are six of the greatest mysteries of the Old Testament. (Note to readers: the focus is on historical questions, not scientific issues, such as the six days...

Featured Term (selected at random):SACRISTYA room attached to a church, usually near the altar, where the clergy vest for ecclesiastical functions. The sacristy affords storage for sacred vessels, vestments, and other articles needed for liturgical use. The sacrarium is usually located there. (Etym. Latin sacristia, from sacrum, holy, sacred.) See Also: PISCINA All items in this dictionary are from Fr. John Hardon's Modern Catholic Dictionary, © Eternal Life. Used with permission.

Uncovering Israel’s Past Posted By Christopher S. Carson On August 6, 2013 @ 12:12 am In Daily Mailer,FrontPage | 34 Comments It seems that many educated liberals who wish Israel didn’t exist are turning to archaeologists to succor their agendas. These archaeologists are called biblical “minimalists,” and loosely affiliate themselves with the “Copenhagen School” of archaeology. They believe that the scientific evidence in the dirt is irrefutable—there was no Moses, there was no Exodus, there was no period of the “Judges,” there was not a Conquest of Caanan by Joshua or anyone else, and there was no glorious “United Monarchy”...

Featured Term (selected at random):PATRON SAINTA saint or blessed who, since early Christian times, has been chosen as a special intercessor with God for a for a particular person, place, community, or organization. The custom arose from the biblical fact that a change of personal name indicated a change in the person, e.g., Abram, to Abraham, Simon to Peter, Saul to Paul; and from the practice of having churches built over the tombs of martyrs. All items in this dictionary are from Fr. John Hardon's Modern Catholic Dictionary, © Eternal Life. Used with permission.

Readers of First Things probably know this already, but here’s a follow up on a story from earlier this year. In February, archaeologists confirmed that they had discovered the remains of King Richard III beneath a parking lot in Leicester. Richard died in battle at Bosworth Field in August 1485; the Tudor victors gave him a rather unceremonious burial in what was then a local abbey. Richard will now be re-interred in Leicester’s Anglican cathedral, most likely next May. Back in February, some Catholics objected that Richard, who was Catholic, should by rights be buried in a Catholic ceremony in...

A huge building which during the Crusader period was the largest hospital in the Middle East has been discovered in the heart of Jerusalem, the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) announced on Monday. Located in the Christian Quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem, the 1,000-year-old hospital was identified following a decade-long reconstruction operation. “Until a decade or so ago the building served as a bustling and crowded fruit and vegetable market. Since then it stood there desolate,” the IAA said in a statement. According to Renee Forestany and Amit Re’em, the IAA excavation directors, the structure, only a small part...

Featured Term (selected at random):CAUSALITYThe influence of a cause in the production or modification of a being. An efficient cause exercises efficacy on the effect produced; the final cause gives purpose or attraction; an exemplary cause gives guidance; and both material and formal causes communicate their being to the effect, the material supplying that from which a thing is produced and the formal giving it the specific nature it acquired. All items in this dictionary are from Fr. John Hardon's Modern Catholic Dictionary, © Eternal Life. Used with permission. 

New research published in Science shows that our most recent common female and male ancestors could have been alive at the same time.Thousands of years ago, somewhere in Africa, lived a man who – probably – had no idea that he, among all the other men in his group, would go on to become humankind’s most recent common male ancestor. Scientists would call him “Adam.” Now, a new paper published in the journal Science significantly narrows the time during which Adam could have lived – about 120,000 to 156,000 years ago – putting him in about the same time period...

Featured Term (selected at random):ENDOMETRIOSISA gynecological illness caused by the abnormal presence of tissue that more or less perfectly resembles the lining of the uterus (endometrium) but growing outside of the uterus itself and distributed in other pelvic areas. Since this aberrant endometrial tissue responds to the hormone-induced changes of the woman's menstrual cycle but, unlike the true endometrial lining of the uterus, is entrapped in other tissue such as bone and muscle, its cyclic changes of menstruation, causes the problem to repress, and even after the pregnancy improvement is sometimes sustained for a period up to three or...

Which Pope Said What? Take The New York Times Challenge August 2, 2013 By Frank Weathers The Gray Lady wants to test your knowledge of the Pope’s unique voice. So they put together a little multiple choice quiz asking readers to differentiate between the sayings of Popes John Paul II, Benedict XVI, and Francis.Give it a try below.How Recent Popes Differ on Key Issues. Choose the Pope who said each quote on seven critical issues. 

Featured Term (selected at random):SOLEMN BAPTISMThe sacrament of baptism, administered by a priest or deacon who performs all the ceremonies prescribed by the Church's ritual. All items in this dictionary are from Fr. John Hardon's Modern Catholic Dictionary, © Eternal Life. Used with permission.

Most Rev. Alexander SampleArchbishop of Portland As most readers are surely aware, Pope Francis has issued already his first papal encyclical letter to the whole Church. It is entitled Lumen Fidei (The Light of Faith). Our Holy Father openly acknowledges in the first paragraphs that the work on the encyclical was largely that of his predecessor, Pope Benedict XVI. Pope Francis humbly adds that he took up the work of Pope Benedict’s almost completed draft of the letter and “added a few contributions of [his] own.� But make no mistake; this encyclical is that of Pope Francis.The encyclical is...

Featured Term (selected at random):MASS FOR THE PEOPLEThis is a Mass that pastors and others must celebrate, applying it for the intention of the people entrusted to their care. This Mass is to be offered on all Sundays and holy days celebrated as feasts of obligation in a country. Among those bound by the obligation are resident bishops, abbots, and administrators of a diocese or parish when vacant. All items in this dictionary are from Fr. John Hardon's Modern Catholic Dictionary, © Eternal Life. Used with permission.

St. Francis de Sales: How to make the Sign of the Cross by Stuart Dunn on July 31, 2013 ·    “In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.� These words roll off every Catholic’s tongue so frequently that we often forget the significance of what we are saying. Sometimes we make the Sign of the Cross at Mass so haphazardly that we look like a coach on the first base line at a Major League Baseball game. Worst of all, sometimes we don’t even make the Sign of the Cross because...

Mercy and Confession: 10 Tips on How to Confess Well by Fr. Ed Broom on July 23, 2013 ·   In the context of an Ignatian retreat it is always beneficial to prepare oneself to make an excellent Confession. To make a good confession demands prior preparation!  The better the prior preparation, the more abundant the graces and the more overflowing the river of peace in your soul! Following are ten short helps to make the best confession in your life!1.    IMPROVEMENT/UPGRADING THE RECEPTION.  As Catholics two of the most important actions we can accomplish are to go to Confession and to...

In his book Rules for Radicals, Saul Alinsky states “Tactics are those conscious deliberate acts by which human beings live with each other and deal with the world around them. In the world of give and take, tactics is the art of how to take and how to give. Here our concern is with the tactic of taking; how the Have-Nots can take power away from the Haves.� p.126Saul Alinsky’s 13 “power tactics� are inconsistent with Catholic teaching and prove to be anti-Catholic as you will see below. Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, and current community organizers have followed and do...

In most traditional Catholic settings we usually think of the veil as something a woman wears, and as a sign of traditional modesty and prayer. In this sense we think of it as something good and positive, though perhaps some among us are less than enthusiastic.But in the readings of Mass from this Wednesday, the veil is presented in far more ambivalent terms:As Moses came down from Mount Sinai with the two tablets of the commandments in his hands, he did not know that the skin of his face had become radiant while he conversed with the LORD….the children of...

The Torah portion of Re’eh is in the Book of Deuteronomy. History, religion and literature have many examples of good and bad leaders but it gets very murky when trying to figure out good or bad spiritual leaders. As in all domains, one man’s bread is another man’s poison. One person’s hero is another person’s villain. And in today’s age of the relativity of truth, where everything is relative, even the worst leaders can somehow be accepted as great by some people. Extreme left wingers who are personally atheists can accept religious leaders they find appealing and likewise fanatical right-wingers...

Featured Term (selected at random):OBEDThe son of Ruth and Boaz. From Obed descended Jesse, David, and Jesus (Ruth 4:17-22). All items in this dictionary are from Fr. John Hardon's Modern Catholic Dictionary, © Eternal Life. Used with permission.

The Foundation for Apologetic Information & Research (FAIR) is bringing its annual FAIR Mormon Conference to Provo on Thursday and Friday. The organization, whose mission is to discuss and defend criticisms against The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, used to hold its annual conference in Sandy, but chose the Utah Valley Convention Center this year because of a growing audience. FAIR has seen increased interest recently, both within the church and from outsiders, as the Internet increases access to -- and questions about -- the entirety of church history. Daniel Peterson, an Arabic professor at Brigham Young University...

The times in which we live are often described as “secular.� This word comes from the Latin “saecula� meaning “world.� Hence in saying our age is secular is another way of saying our times are worldly. We may think it has always been so but such is not the case. To be sure, it IS the human condition to be a little preoccupied with the world. But previous times have featured a much more religious focus than our own. The Middle Ages were especially known for way in which faith permeated the culture and daily experience. The Rose window to...

What We Can Learn from St. Ignatius He shows us how to pay attention. By: Fr. Mitch Pacwa, SJIn third grade Sr. Cordelia gave out free tickets to the movies for every student in the class. In fact, Catholic school kids throughout Chicago were offered the tickets to see a movie about a Catholic saint. We talked Mom into driving us to the theater. What made an impression on me then was a big battle at a castle and a brave soldier wounded there. After the fights ended, not much else made sense to me. Ten years later I...

Featured Term (selected at random):MANICHAEISMA dualistic heresy initiated in the third century by a Persian named Mani, Manes, or Manichaeus (215-75). He was considered divinely inspired, and he gained a large following. In the Manichaean system there are two ultimate sources of creation, the one good and the other evil. God is the creator of all that is good, and Satan of all that is evil. Man's spirit is from God, his body is from the devil. There is a constant struggle between the forces of good and those of evil. Good triumphs over evil only insofar as spirit...

Featured Term (selected at random):AGNUS DEI (liturgy)The invocation Lamb of God is sung or recited at Mass during the breaking of the bread and the commingling. It may be repeated as often as necessary, but the conclusion is always "Grant us peace." All items in this dictionary are from Fr. John Hardon's Modern Catholic Dictionary, © Eternal Life. Used with permission. 

Kiev, July 27, Interfax - The Russian Orthodox Church Synod has called on the authorities of Kievan Rus countries to mark anniversaries of Kievan Rus' Christianization as state holidays or even make them days off. "Bearing in mind the exclusive importance of Kievan Rus' Christianization for the history of countries within the area of canonical responsibility of the Russian Orthodox Church, to appeal to the administrations of the countries, which have not made this decision, for making anniversaries of Kievan Rus' Christianization state holidays and, wherever that is possible, days off," says a resolution of the Synod, which convened in...

Featured Term (selected at random):FREQUENT COMMUNIONThe daily reception of Holy Communion, as Pope St. Pius X explained the meaning of "frequent." The conditions required for daily Communion are freedom from conscious, unconfessed mortal sin, and the right intention, namely to honor God, grow in Christian charity, and overcome one's sinful tendencies. In the early Church, daily Communion was common. Later on it fell into disuse, and only in modern times is the practice being gradually restored. The Church's grounds for urging the faithful to communicate daily are based on patristic tradition. "We are bidden in the Lord's Prayer," wrote...

I love praying the Rosary. It always has given me peace whenever I have recited it, and my family prays the Sorrowful Mysteries together each Lent. However, the person who had the greatest devotion to the Rosary in my family was my Protestant Uncle Ralph. When I was growing up my family lived next door to Uncle Ralph and his family. Uncle Ralph was my favorite uncle. He always had a sense of fun, loved to shoot the breeze with kids and did a hilarious Donald Duck imitation. My Dad’s family were all Protestant; my brother and I were Catholic...

The Catholic Church is the longest-enduring institution in the world. Beginning with the first Christians and continuing in our present day, the Church has been planted in every nation on earth. The Catholic Church claims Jesus Christ himself as her founder, and in spite of heresy from within and hostility from without, she remains in the twenty-first century the steadfast guardian of belief in his life, death, and resurrection. The teachings and redemptive works of Jesus as told in the Gospels are expressed by the Church in a coherent and consistent body of doctrine, the likes of which cannot be...

MOSCOW, July 25 (RIA Novosti) – Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday praised the role of Orthodox Christianity in the country’s history and congratulated the heads of the world’s Orthodox churches on the 1025th anniversary of the Christianization of Kievan Rus, a medieval state comprising parts of modern-day Russia, Ukraine and Belarus. “The adoption of Christianity became a turning point in the fate of our fatherland, made it an inseparable part of the Christian civilization and helped it turn into one of the largest world powers,” Putin said in a message addressed to participants of a commemorative celebration on Red...

The Gift – The Testimony of Former Roman Catholic Priest Charles Chiniquy I was born and baptized a Roman Catholic in 1809, and I was ordained priest in the year 1833, in Canada. I am now in my seventy-fourth year, and it is nearly fifty years since I received the dignity of the priesthood in the Church of Rome. For twenty-five years I was a priest of that Church, and I tell you frankly that I loved the Church of Rome, and she loved me. I would have shed every drop of my blood for my Church and would have...

Featured Term (selected at random):HIS HOLINESSA title of honor and respect reserved in the Western Church for the Holy Father, the Pope, because of his administrative office of holy things. The term is sometimes applied to patriarchs in the East, e.g., to the Melkite patriarch in Antioch, in union with Rome, who is called "Most Holy in the Liturgy," and the Orthodox patriarch of Constantinople, who is spoken of as "His All-Holiness." All items in this dictionary are from Fr. John Hardon's Modern Catholic Dictionary, © Eternal Life. Used with permission.

This document was adopted at a regular session of the Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church on July 16, 2013 (DECR #69). Beloved in the Lord Your Graces the archpastors, all-honorable presbyters and deacons, God-loving monks and nuns, dear brothers and sisters! This year, we commemorate a significant event – the 1025th anniversary of the Baptism of Rus’. In the distant tenth century, Rus’, through the labors of the Holy Equal-of-the-Apostles Prince Vladimir, adopted the Christian faith and culture, making a choice of religion and civilization which defined the vector of the historical development of our peoples. As Metropolitan...

Life Begins in the Womb “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you; I appointed you a prophet to the nations." (Jeremiah 1:5, ESV) Every Christian living in the United States is confronted with a question. Is abortion permissible? Abortion is lawful. Many people consider it a viable alternative to an unwanted or unplanned pregnancy. Many of the people who espouse such a belief are intelligent and appear to be well informed. Regardless of a person's social status or level of education, that person is still subject to truth. Truth...

(The Destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, Joachim Patinir, 1520)In (Part I) of this question we looked at Deuteronomy 7:1-2 where God calls Israel to “utterly destroy” the nations they will confront in the Promised Land. We know it’s never morally acceptable to intentionally kill innocent persons. We also know that God is all good. So what was God asking Israel to do in this passage? Was he calling them act in an evil way by killing innocent persons? Two other stories in Scripture should help to answer this question.Abraham, God, and Sodom (Genesis 18-19) In this story, Abraham is like...

I’ve just returned from Heidelberg, Germany, where I joined brothers and sisters from around the world to celebrate the 450th anniversary of the Heidelberg Catechism. In addition to illuminating papers and warm fellowship, we enjoyed one of the city’s several museum exhibits celebrating the anniversary. Of special note was the Heidelberg Palace exhibit, “The Power of Faith: 450 Years of the Heidelberg Catechism.” Frederick III, ruler of the Palatinate and imperial elector, was nicknamed “the pious” by fellow princes. Embracing Reformed teaching, he was distressed with the low level of knowledge of even the basics of the Christian faith in...

Featured Term (selected at random):PREAMBLES OF FAITHThe main premises of reason on which the act of divine faith depends as on its rational foundation. They are mainly three: 1. the existence of God; 2. his authority, or right to be believed because he knows all things and is perfectly truthful; and 3. the fact that he actually made a revelation, which is proved especially by miracles or fulfilled prophecies performed in testimony of a prophet's (or Christ's) claim to speaking in the name of God. (Etym. Latin praeambulus, walking in front: prae, in front + ambulare, to walk.) All...

Featured Term (selected at random):AUSTERITYThe quality of being severe in one's demeanor or way of life. More commonly in the plural, austerities. These are vigorous forms of bodily penance that persons impose on themselves in order to bring the passions under control, expiate one's own or other people's sins, and help the spirit to more effectively respond to the will of God. Austerities are only a means to perfection and not an end in themselves. They are to be undertaken only under competent spiritual direction. (Etym. Latin austerus; from Greek austeros, harsh, severe.) All items in this dictionary are...

On 24 July 1936, exactly a week after the Spanish Civil War broke out, three women, who had taken up the habit of their countrywoman, Saint Teresa of Avila, were brutally executed by the anti-Catholic Republican faction in the Castilian city of Guadalajara. Their names were Sister Maria Pilar of St. Francis Borgia, age 58; Sister Maria Angeles of St. Joseph, age 31; and Sister Teresa of the Child Jesus and St. John of the Cross, who was only 27 years old when she was martyred with her two friends. The three had fled from their Discalced Carmelite monastery two...

eatured Term (selected at random):MAJOR BASILICAA title of honor conferred by the Holy See on certain outstanding churches in the Catholic world, namely the patriarchal basilicas in Rome. Among the major basilicas outside of Rome the best known is St. Mary of the Angels in Assisi, Italy. All items in this dictionary are from Fr. John Hardon's Modern Catholic Dictionary, © Eternal Life. Used with permission. 

From the Daily Mail:Revealed: Buzz Aldrin took Holy Communion on the MOON (but NASA kept it secret)Former astronaut Edwin ‘Buzz’ Aldrin may have been the second man to walk on the moon, but he was the first – and only – person to celebrate Holy Communion on it. Inside the lunar module just hours before following Neil Armstrong onto the heavenly body in 1969, Aldrin celebrated the Christian sacrament with wafers and a bottle of wine – a fact the U.S. government reportedly refused to make public at the time. The Apollo 11 astronaut’s plan to broadcast the religious...

Last week in the Breviary we read the remarkable story of King Jehoshaphat and the victory of Israel against the Moabites, Ammonites and Meunites (2 Chronicles 20). It is a story that speaks of the power of praise to defeat a numberless army. Simply singing a hymn of praise can cast out demons, avert war, and send evil threats limping away.Yes, praise! It is not always weapons of iron and steal and fiery bombs that wins the day. Often it is simple praise, hands lifted in prayer, voices raised in praise.Never underestimate the power of the liturgy to change world...