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Listening To Mary’s Voice: Part 1, Confusion   Jan 15th, 2012 by Gary Zimak.  We have been blessed with several Church-approved apparitions of the Blessed Mother throughout the years.  In each of these appearances, Mary has urged repentance and the importance of following Christ’s commands.  As we struggle to lead holy lives, wouldn’t it be nice if Mary could speak to us and give us the necessary encouragement to keep on the right path?  Fortunately, that is entirely possible and it can happen TODAY!  By opening up our Bibles, we can hear the Blessed Mother speak directly to us and...

The pontificate of Paul VI produced many a disaster, in my opinion, but when it came to a crucial turning point, in the face of diabolical opposition Paul VI issued Humane vitae.I suspect many of you have never actually read Humanae vitae, though you have heard many invoke it for good or ill.Here is an excerpt: Consequences of Artificial Methods17. Responsible men can become more deeply convinced of the truth of the doctrine laid down by the Church on this issue if they reflect on the consequences of methods and plans for artificial birth control. Let them first consider how...

Chicago—In 1835 a traveling curiosity peddler of Egyptian mummies arrived in the small town of Kirtland, Ohio. He caught the attention of Joseph Smith (1805-44), the controversial founder of the Mormon religion. Smith secured a large sum of money from his followers ($2,400, or $60,000 in today’s dollars) to purchase four Egyptian mummies with scrolls of papyri. Smith announced that he could do what no one else could do: translate the ancient hieroglyphics. Smith asserted that the papyri contained the writings of the biblical prophets Abraham and Joseph. He titled his translation of the papyri the “Book of Abraham.” Smith’s...

Featured Term (selected at random):IMPETRATION One of the fruits of prayer and good works, especially one of the four ends of the Eucharistic Sacrifice. Impetration with right disposition and the fulfillment of prescribed conditions invariably obtains from God what is asked of him, provided it is to our spiritual advantage. It is ensured petition. (Etym. Latin impetratio, the action of procuring or obtaining by request or entreaty.) See Also: ENDS OF THE MASS All items in this dictionary are from Fr. John Hardon's Modern Catholic Dictionary, © Eternal Life. Used with permission.

First of all let me tell you how much I like Mark Levin, who is known by many conservative media icons as “the Great One”. I personally was totally looking forward to Mark’s new book and knew that it would be an excellent read or listen if you have an IPod. Mark starts out in his new book looking at the spectrum of philosophic views and utopian ideals of six men, their published works and ideologies, Plato, Thomas Moore, Thomas Hobbs, Vladimir Lenin, John Locke, Charles Secondat Baron de Montesquieu and the Founding Fathers. Each look gives great insight into...

From Slave to Saint The Story of St. Josephine Bakhita By: Jill Boughton The girl was walking in the fields some ways off from her home, when two strangers appeared and asked her to pick them some fruit. Brought up to show courtesy to adults, the nine-year-old hurried to obey. Not until she was in the forest did she realize it was a trick. “I saw two persons behind me,” she later recalled. “One of them briskly grabbed me with one hand, while the other one pulled out a knife from his belt and held it to my side....

CHAPTER III: THE REAL OBSTACLES In the last chapter I have dealt in a preliminary fashion with the Protestant case in the conventional controversial sense. I have dealt with the objections which I suspected very early of being prejudices and which I now know to be prejudices. I have dealt last and at the greatest length with what I believe to be the noblest of all the prejudices of Protestantism: that which is simply founded on patriotism. I do not think patriotism is necessarily prejudice; but I am quite sure it must be prejudice and nothing else but prejudice, unless...

The readings at daily Mass currently focus on the kingship of Solomon. Perhaps the high point of his life was, when presented the opportunity to ask anything whatsoever from God chose not gold or glory, but Wisdom. Today we read of the Visit of the Queen of Sheba and saw a description of his Court and Kingdom in all its glory. Her early years are a portrait of a man deeply rooted in God. But later in life Solomon turned from his first love and his infidelity ultimately led to divided kingdom. It is a moral tale that contains a...

In recent years, several self-proclaimed evangelicals, or those associated with evangelical institutions, have called into question the historicity of Adam and Eve. It is said that because of genomic research we can no longer believe in a first man called Adam from whom the entire human race has descended. I'll point to some books at the end which deal with the science end of the question, but the most important question is what does the Bible teach. Without detailing a complete answer to that question, let me suggest ten reasons why we should believe that Adam was a true historical...

Featured Term (selected at random):ROME The diocese of the Pope, also called the See of Peter, the Apostolic See, the Holy See, and the Eternal City. According to ancient tradition, St. Peter first came to Rome in A.D. 42; St. Paul arrived about A.D. 60. Both were martyred here under Nero, most probably in 64. The history of the city from that time to the present can be divided into several periods: 1. the age of persecution, to the Edict of Milan in 313; 2. freedom recognized by the empire and the building of the first churches, to the fall,...

Featured Term (selected at random):COTERIE A small circle of persons who form an intimate group, applied to the followers of some school of thought or sectarian belief. All items in this dictionary are from Fr. John Hardon's Modern Catholic Dictionary, © Eternal Life. Used with permission.

Obama administration’s contraceptive mandate evokes bitter memories of past persecution.The Obama administration's recent decision to require Catholic institutions to provide contraceptives through their health care plans has been met with firm resistance from Catholic leaders, and incredulity even from the president’s own supporters, who warn that the administration is walking into a political minefield. "One of Barack Obama’s great attractions as a presidential candidate was his sensitivity to the feelings and intellectual concerns of religious believers," writes the Washington Post's E.J. Dionne. "That is why it is so remarkable that he utterly botched the admittedly difficult question of how contraceptive...

2:25 PM 2/7/2012 — For thirty years the Catholic bishops of the United States have trivialized their moral authority by wasting their teaching authority within the Church by embracing every liberal social initiative that came along, from expressing concern for migrants and refugees to lecturing the government on the plight of illegal aliens. All the while, Catholics were ignoring the Church's teaching on a whole host of moral issues like the infallibility of the Church's teaching on contraception without so much as a word from the bishops. Catholics in public office, like Nancy Polosi and Kathleen Sebelius, are not even...

Featured Term (selected at random):CONFESSIONS OF ST. AUGUSTINE One of the great autobiographies of Catholic Christianity. Written about A.D. 400, Augustine's life story is a masterpiece of theological synthesis woven around the theme of his conversion from unbelief and Manichaeism to the Christian faith. Its central theme is the necessity of divine grace to cope with human weakness, and the power of this grace to transform a sinner into a saint. All items in this dictionary are from Fr. John Hardon's Modern Catholic Dictionary, © Eternal Life. Used with permission.

Video: The Mysteries Surrounding the Tomb of St. PaulFebruary 5, 2012. (Romereports.com) Symbols of art, archeology and of course religion are all part of the Basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls. Most recently there's been more attention on the tomb of St. Paul...and whether or not he's actually buried in it. The story goes back centuries of course, but just a few years ago, a new phase began. Fr. Prof Scott Brodeur S.I Pontifical Gregorian University “Archeologists found remains of human beings in there, through their scientific tests,they were able to determine that it went back to the first...

Featured Term (selected at random):APODICTIC Absolutely certain and conclusive. The term is used in philosophy to describe a method of reasoning from premises that are evident. Opposed to dialectical reasoning, which is argumentation with probability and consistency on open questions. (Etym. Greek apodeiktikos, from apodeiknynai, to demonstrate.) All items in this dictionary are from Fr. John Hardon's Modern Catholic Dictionary, © Eternal Life. Used with permission.

Saint Paul Miki and Companions Denver, Colo., Feb 5, 2012 / 08:03 am (CNA/EWTN News).- On Feb. 6, the Catholic Church honors the 26 Martyrs of Nagasaki, a group of native Japanese Catholics and foreign missionaries who suffered death for their faith in the year 1597.During the 16th century, the Catholic faith reached Japan by the efforts of the Jesuit missionary Saint Francis Xavier (1506-1552). Jesuit outreach to the Japanese continued after his death, and around 200,000 Japanese had entered the Church by 1587.Religious tensions led to a period of persecution during that year, during which many churches were...

Though the victims were mostly Jews, the Holocaust has affected all humanity. Not only were non-Jews, notably the Roma, also murdered by the Nazis, but the fact that the crimes were committed in civilized Europe has shaken the very foundations of western culture. ..A touching manifestation of this reorientation is a recent report in the British Catholic Herald about a nun who is likely to be canonized by the Vatican. Mother Riccarda Beauchamp Hambrough was born in England but lived most of her 79 years in Rome, where she died in 1966. In recognition of her many talents, she rose...

TWO-hundred-and- fifty years ago, in early 1762, the House of Commons of the Kingdom of Ireland, meeting at College Green, refused to admit as member for Tipperary one Thomas Mathew, although he had polled the second highest number of votes in the two-seater county constituency at the general election in the previous year.In his place they declared elected an evangelical Protestant landowner called Sir Thomas Maude who had finished third with 486 votes against Mathew’s 532. Maude had petitioned the House, contending that Mathew was disqualified from election because “he had professed the Popish religion many years after his age...

Featured Term (selected at random):EASTER CONTROVERSY A protracted dispute in the second and third centuries over the date for celebration of Easter. The Eastern Church terminated Lent and began Easter celebration on the fourteenth day of Nisan regardless of the day of the week on which this date fell. The Jews celebrated Passover then, and the Pasch kept by Christ was also on that day. It was claimed that this practice was received from the Apostles Philip and John. The Western Church always celebrated the Christian Pasch on the Sunday following the fourteenth day of the full moon of the...