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Almost 2000 years ago, there were eleven men who had abandoned their leader in his time of need. Twelve men, if you count the one who betrayed him with a kiss for 30 pieces of silver. The rest scattered as HE was arrested, scourged and then lifted like a snake in the desert. For three years these men clung to their leader, absorbing HIS every Word as HE traveled around teaching and performing miracles. They watched as HE healed paraplegics, cured those with leprosy, gave sight to the blind, and untied the tongues of the mute. They even witnessed...

And it came to pass, that, as he was praying in a certain place, when he ceased, one of his disciples said unto him, Lord, teach us to pray, as John also taught his disciples.( Luke 11:1)I really want to give you, my dear readers, the best possible teaching on the most practicable and usable subject…prayer. How we need prayer! We need to develop a steady communion with God in these last days. There are so many soul deadening distractions, and so much to clutter and even to crowd out the inner life. There is so much more temporal gratification...

What I offer today is a dissertation I stumbled upon while doing research for a book I plan on writing. The subject of my book is the time when Jesus visited the Temple with His parents when He was 12. I was investigating the various rules and regulations concerning Jewish boys. While in my search I stumbled upon a few commentaries discussing what the age Christ's Disciples would have been. As usual, I found my self going on a tangent away from my main topic. However, this was one rabbit hole I enjoyed so much that I felt it worthy...

The Ascension of the Lord Matthew 28:16-20 Friends, in today’s Gospel Jesus assures us that he will always remain with us. Only when we realize that our lives are situated in a context of a Life that stretches infinitely beyond them, only when we know that our wills are related to a Will that encompasses and surpasses the whole of the cosmos, are we ready to live. Matthew brings his Gospel to completion with Jesus’ Great Commission: “Go, therefore, and make disciples of all the nations. . . . And behold, I am with you always, until the end of...

Mark 16:14: "Afterward He (Jesus Christ) appeared unto the eleven as they sat at meat, and upbraided them with their unbelief and hardness of heart, because they believed not them which had seen Him after he was risen." In spite of all the Old Testament prophecies, Jesus's repeated promises that He would rise again, and every single teaching and counsel and love and guidance and miracle that the disciples witnessed as Christ healed, delivered and saved thousands of people--His disciples abandoned Him in the garden when He was arrested and fled into hiding. It really, really makes you feel to...

Department of Justice Office of Public Affairs FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Tuesday, October 8, 2019 Three Gangster Disciples Leaders Convicted of Racketeering Conspiracy, Attempted Murder and Other Crimes   A federal jury has convicted three leaders of the Gangster Disciples (GD) national criminal organization of offenses including racketeering conspiracy (RICO) involving murder, attempted murder in aid of racketeering, drug trafficking conspiracy and other crimes.Lewis Mobley, 42, of Atlanta, Georgia, was convicted of RICO conspiracy, including a sentencing enhancement for murder and a sentencing enhancement for drugs; committing an attempted murder in aid of racketeering and using a firearm to do so and possessing...

Dimensions of Discipleship - A Homily for the 25th Sunday of the Year Msgr. Charles Pope • September 23, 2017 • credit: זלדה10, wikimediaWhat Jesus teaches in this Sunday’s Gospel is one of those parables that rock our world and challenge our worldly way of thinking. Frankly, that is one of its purposes. We are tempted to side with the laborers who worked the longest, thinking that their being paid the same amount as those who worked only for an hour is unfair.Think very carefully before asking God to be “fair.” What we really should ask of God is...

In this Easter Season, we continue to reflect on how the risen Lord Jesus minsters to us and supplies our needs. Last week we considered him as our shepherd. This week we learn how He is the vine and we the branches on the vine, wholly dependent on Him for everything. As we consider how he cares for us as his disciples, we need to rescue the word “care” from its rather sentimental modern sense. True care does not merely include more pleasant things such as giving food and shelter and other basic needs. Sometimes care involves difficult things necessary...

Unintended Consequences: How the “relevant” church and segregating youth is killing Christianity. I recently spent six-months doing a rotation as a hospital chaplain. One day I received a page (Yes, hospitals actually still use pagers). Chaplains are generally called to the rooms of people who look ill: People gray with kidney disease, or yellow with liver failure, discouraged amputees, nervous cancer patients. In this room, however, was a strikingly attractive 23 year-old young lady sitting up cheerfully in the hospital bed, holding her infant daughter and chatting with family and friends. Confused, I stepped outside and asked her nurse, “Why...

<p>They were unlikely leaders. As the Bible tells it, most knew more about mending nets than winning converts when Jesus said he would make them "fishers of men." Yet 2,000 years later, all over the world, the Apostles are still drawing people in.</p>

An amateur archaeologist and film maker claims to have identified what could be the remains of some of Christ's 12 disciples in a first century burial chamber buried beneath a block of flats in Jerusalem. A team led by Simcha Jacobovic, a Canadian documentary director, used a robot to photograph a number of limestone burial caskets, found below a block of flats, which may provide an unprecedented glimpse into Christianity's earliest days. But the potential significance of the discovery is almost certain to be overshadowed by controversy, with Mr Jacobovic using it as new evidence to bolster his widely disputed...

Featured Term (selected at random):SILVANUS See: SILAS All items in this dictionary are from Fr. John Hardon's Modern Catholic Dictionary, © Eternal Life. Used with permission.

“Love for Disciples” (John 13:1-17, 31b-35)“Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end.” Yes, he did. Maundy Thursday is all about Jesus’ love for his disciples. “Love for Disciples” to receive, “Love for Disciples” to learn. Love for disciples to receive--in the footwashing. Let’s set the scene. It’s the evening of the Passover. Time for the Passover meal. This is the meal all Jews ate every year on that date, to commemorate the night the Lord brought Israel out of bondage in Egypt. It was a special occasion, solemn and sacred. Jesus had...

For several weeks now, I have been slowly realizing again the call of Christ when it comes to pursuing things of eternal significance. The election had consumed me to the point of where I became a ranting idiot and hated the Democrats. The Spirit has convicted me, showing that hatred isn't the way, for no man should be hated. Yes, I still find myself in "battle mode" quite often; those ranting moments still occur. But, thanks to God's faithfulness and calling, I am not the same man that I was just a few months back. He has made me realize...

May 30, 2004 Pentecost Sunday Mass During the Day Psalm: Sunday 25 Reading I Responsorial Psalm Reading II Gospel Reading IActs 2:1-11 When the time for Pentecost was fulfilled, they were all in one place together. And suddenly there came from the sky a noise like a strong driving wind, and it filled the entire house in which they were. Then there appeared to them tongues as of fire, which parted and came to rest on each one of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in different tongues, as the Spirit...

Through the Holy Spirit we are restored to paradise, led back to the Kingdom of heaven, and adopted as children, given confidence to call God "Father" and to share in Christ's grace, called children of light and given a share in eternal glory."- St. Basil, De Spiritu Sancto

God Glorified in the Nobodies by: John MacArthur Stained-Glass Saints? If you've ever visited the great cathedrals in Europe, you'd think the apostles were larger-than-life stained-glass saints with shining halos who represented an exalted degree of spirituality. But actually, they were very, very common men. It's a shame they have so often been put on pedestals as magnificent marble figures, or portrayed in paintings like some kind of Roman gods. That dehumanizes them. They were just twelve completely ordinary men—human in every way—and we shouldn't lose touch with who they really were. So what qualified those men to be apostles?...