Why You Should Not Be Afraid

Silence in the face of evil allows evil to grow. Evil is a lie— the antidote is truth. Be not afraid to speak the truth.

“Draw your strength from the Lord and from his mighty power, Put on the armor of God so that you may be able to stand firm against the tactics of the devil” -Ephesians 6:10-11

Pope John Paul II stood on the balcony of St. Peter’s, he said, “Be not afraid,” and in closing prayed, “Let the Spirit descend. Let the Spirit descend and renew the face of the earth, the face of this land.” While this prayer and exhortation were said to the world, the Polish people, especially, knew he was addressing them. Lech Walesa said that these words energized the Solidarity movement in Poland. At the same time, Yuri Andropov, then head of the KGB, commenced a study of the implications of a Polish pope, concluding that this papacy would destabilize Poland and undermine Soviet authority in the communist block.

That is precisely what happened. Despite attempts by the Soviets to squelch the Pope and false media reports, the Pope drew massive crowds where ever he went. “You are not who they say you are, so let me remind you who you are.” He emphasized the need for spiritual and cultural renewal, preserving Poland’s strong faith, and the transforming power of Christ’s love. In response, the people chanted,

“We want God, we want God, we want God in the family, we want God in the schools, we want God in books.” In 1980, the government recognized Solidarity as the first independent trade union in the communist bloc.

President Reagan said to a friend, “I have had a feeling, particularly in the Pope’s visit to Poland, that religion may turn out to be the Soviets’ Achilles’ heel.” Faith in Christ is, in fact, the Achilles heel of all evil. Satan shutters even at hearing the word Jesus. A proclamation of the faith, however, is not enough. Real faith is needed that engages the believer to stand up to the devil and to proclaim the truth, proclaim the Gospel. It is a difficult battle, but as Christians, we already know who wins the war, it is not Satan. We must reclaim the virtue of courage and develop the fortitude to fight and “Be Not Afraid.”

“Christ cannot be kept out of the history of man in any part of the globe,” the Pope said in his homily, at Mass, this touched off applause and chants from the worshipers shouting —”We Want God.”

Hundreds of thousands crowd into Warsaw’s Victory Square for the Pope’s open-air Mass.

There is little doubt that today we are living in a world where many have become afraid, afraid to be a witness to Christ. Inch by inch, Western civilization’s values are being torn down by a minority who have beaten the majority into submission too afraid to speak the truth. Even many of our Catholic schools have become Catholic in name only and surrendered to the minority. Regretfully, many people have become afraid. We fear to lose a friend or a job, or not being liked. Speaking the truth will undoubtedly cost you some friendships, but it will gain new ones, closer ones, because they are based on truth and respect. There is a price to pay for speaking out, and there is also a price for lying or remaining silent.

President Franklin Roosevelt’s received an honorary Doctor of Laws from Oxford in 1941. At the time, Britain badly needed the inspiration to fight on in a war for freedom. Borrowing from Emiliano Zapata, the Mexican revolutionary, Franklin said in his speech at Oxford:

“We, too, born to freedom, and believing in freedom, are willing to fight to maintain freedom. We, and all others who believe as deeply as we do, would rather die on our feet than live on our knees.”

As George Weigel observed in his second biography of the pontiff, “The End and the Beginning,” Pope John Paul “did not live without fear; still, less did he deny fear. Rather, he lived beyond fear, and his courage was an expression … of his faith.” In his book titled “Men of a Brave Heart: The Virtue of Courage in the Priestly Life, Archbishop Gomez describes the influence Pope John Paul II had on his life. He reminds us that the central underlying theme of Pope John Paul II’s entire pontificate was one of fearlessness and courage.

Nine Days That Changed The World is a powerful documentary that chronicles the courageous Popes visit to Poland as he stood up to the evil communist regime.

Why The Name “Christmas”

By the Middle Ages, Christians were celebrating the remarkable event of Jesus’ birth with an extended season that began with Advent (four Sundays before Christmas) and continued for the 12 Days after Christmas (up until Epiphany on January 6th). The time preceding Christmas used to be a solemn time of fasting, whereas the days after Christmas were the time of celebration. Christians looked forward to the Midnight Mass of Christmas Eve with great anticipation, because it was the service that marked the transition from fasting to feasting. This service, known as “Christ’s Mass,” eventually became a description for celebrations of Jesus’ birth throughout the world. The word Christmas has its origin from the old English term Cristes Maesse, meaning “Christ’s Mass.”1

Though the word Christ is commonly used as Jesus’ name, it is actually a title. It comes from a Greek word that means “Anointed One” (the Hebrew word is “Messiah” — a term that Old Testament prophets used to describe the coming Savior). It should be noted that the abbreviated term Xmas does not necessarily take the “Christ” out of Christmas. The first letter of the Greek word for Christ (Χριστός) is “X” (pronounced “kai” in Greek), and it has been used throughout history to represent Jesus’ title.

The word Mass comes from the Latin word missa, which means “dismissal.” During the Middle Ages, the term became a general description for the Eucharistic service (the bread and wine of which Christians partook in remembrance of the body and blood of Jesus).2 The word gives insight into how medieval Christians understood at least one of the significant aspects of the Eucharist — they gathered together to remember the body (and great sacrifice of Christ), so that they would be strengthened to go (or more specifically, be “dismissed”) back into the world to BE he body of Christ.

The apostle Paul told of this mystery when he wrote to believers in Corinth, “Now you are the body of Christ, and each of you is a part of it” (1 Corinthians 12:27).

FOOTNOTES:

^₁ Martindale, C. Charles. “Christmas.” The Catholic Encyclopedia. Robert Appleton Company, 1908. Retrieved July 20, 2008 from New Advent: http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/03724b.htm.

^₂ Pohle, Joseph. “Sacrifice of the Mass.” The Catholic Encyclopedia. Robert Appleton Company, 1911. Retrieved July 20, 2008 from New Advent: http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/10006a.htm.

Image Credit: Definition of “Christ” from Merriam-Webster.

Originally published in https://www.celebratingholidays.com/?page_id=996

Why Thanksgiving Is Always On A Thursday And Why Thank Squanto

Thursday was a special day for Puritan colonists in New England, with ministers giving a religious lecture on Thursday afternoons, so that could have contributed to the Thursday Thanksgiving tradition (although, for a brief five-year period in the 1600s, Thanksgiving was held on Nov. 25). At any rate, Thanksgiving has been held on a Thursday in November since George Washington’s presidency.

Washington declared a day of thanksgiving and prayer in 1789, partly to honor the new U.S. Constitution but mostly to acknowledge “the providence of Almighty God, to obey his will, to be grateful for his benefits, and humbly to implore his protection and favor”

It took the trauma of the Civil War to make Thanksgiving a formal, annual holiday. Lincoln issued his proclamation on Oct. 3, 1863, three months after Union Army victories at Gettysburg and Vicksburg, and at a time in which ultimate triumph appeared in sight.

Writing that the nation’s many blessings “should be solemnly, reverently and gratefully acknowledged” by the American people, Lincoln declared: “I do therefore invite my fellow-citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next as a day of thanksgiving and praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the heavens.”

Why Thank Squanto

Behind it, all was Squanto, the Catholic Native American, a member of the Patuxet tribe best known for being an early liaison between the native populations in Southern New England and the Mayflower Puritans (Pilgrims).

Years prior, Squanto had been captured by the English and freed by Franciscans who educated and catechized him. It is not known with complete certainty that he converted to Catholicism, but it is highly likely, as his Christianity is documented.

When the Mayflower landed in 1620, Squanto worked to broker peaceable relations between the Pilgrims and the local Pokanokets. He played a key role in the early meetings in March 1621, partly because he spoke English. He then lived with the Pilgrims for 20 months, acting as a translator, guide, and advisor.

The First Thanksgiving Was In Flordia

Today many historians recognize that the truly first thanksgiving celebration in the new land was most likely in St. Agustine Florida 55 years before the pilgrims arrived in Plymouth

Secrets of Spanish Florida ~ The First Thanksgiving Was Actually in St. Augustine | Secrets of the Dead | PBS

55 years before the Pilgrims even arrived in Plymouth, the first true Thanksgiving took place in St. Augustine, Florida. Enjoy Secrets of Spanish Florida? For more on early Florida settlements, check out the 4-hour extended version of “America’s Untold Story” now available on DVD.

Whatever its original roots the important aspect of thanksgiving is best summed up in the words of the late Cardinal George

“Recognizing that none of us is self-made and unwilling to declare ourselves a cosmic accident, we turn to the Author of all that is and say thanks. In the face of a gift that cannot be matched in return, all one can do is be grateful.” —Cardinal Francis E. George

Six interesting facts about Thanksgiving You May Not Know

Democracy Doesn’t Work Without Religion

French diplomat, political scientist, and historian, Alexis de Tocqueville analyzed the improved living standards and social conditions of individuals as well as their relationship to the market and state in Western societies. His most famous work, Democracy in America, was published after Tocqueville’s travels in the United States and is today considered an early work of sociology and political science. He wrote that Catholics “constitute the most republican and the most democratic class of citizens which exists in the United States.” The reason for this, he argued, was Catholicism’s emphasis on equality:

Many of the Framers believed religion was indispensable to their republican experiment. George Washington, Gouverneur Morris, Samuel Adams, and Benjamin Rush and John Adams who once said that the U.S. Constitution “was made only for a moral and religious people.” all, believed that good government cannot exist absent sound religious principles.

Harvard professor Clay Christensen spoke with a Marxist Economist for China who came to the United States to study democracy. When Christensen asked the economist what he learned that stood out the most the economist from China replied:

“I had no idea how critical religion is to the functioning of democracy.”

The reason why democracy works is not because the government was designed to oversee what everybody does. Rather, democracy works because most people most of the time voluntarily choose to obey the law.

In your past, most Americans attended a church or a synagogue every week, and they were taught there by people who they respected. Americans followed these rules because they had come to believe they were uncountable to society, they were accountable to God.

Prayer-Not Politicians Will Change History

Scott Hahn is a convert to the Catholic Church, a theologian, author and teacher at Franciscan University In Steubenville, Ohio.

God Uses Prayer to Change Everything | Watch the Promise & Fulfillment series at https://goo.gl/pS6Y77 | By Scott HahnFacebook

Watch the Promise & Fulfillment series at https://goo.gl/pS6Y77

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Why I Hate Religion

These days it’s popular to make such claims like: ” I love Jesus but not like organized religion. “ Or the ever-popular: “I am spiritual but not religious .” I often remind those making the latter that the devil was spiritual also, and he believed in Jesus as well.

The devil in fact wants us to believe all we need is the belief in Jesus, and if we are a good person, whatever that means, we don’t need religion or to go to Church. Jesus, on the other hand, has quite a different idea. He started a Church with Peter as its first leader and he prayed that his Church would be one and that there would no dissension.

Jesus replied, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah! For this was not revealed to you by flesh and blood, but by My Father in heaven. 18 And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock, I will build My church, and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it. 19 I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven. Whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.”…Matthew 17

God, who has called you into fellowship with His Son Jesus Christ our Lord, is faithful. 10 I appeal to you, brothers, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree together, so that there may be no divisions among you and that you may be united in mind and conviction. First Corinthians 1: 9

No Church is perfect, just as Peter himself was not. Remember Peter denied Christ yet Christ chose Peter as the leader of his Church. None of the other Apostles were perfect either. But that doesn’t negate Jesus’s desire for us to participate in His Church— the One –Holy –Catholic –Apostolic Church. The one he promised the gates of hell would not prevail against.

Church on Sundays… Hold The No Sex Until Marriage

A friend recently posted the article below with comments in somewhat of despair and frustration. He is a devout practicing Catholic, meaning he takes the Church and ALL of her teachings seriously. He doesn’t just pick and choose from it like a menu at a fast-food restaurant. I will have the number 1 please:

Church on Sundays, but hold the no sex until marriage, and light on the regular confessions they give me a headache.

There is nothing new here…we constantly here from Catholics and Non-Catholics alike why people are leaving Catholicism for another Christian denomination. It has little to nothing to do with modern buildings, congregations or otherwise. After-all this started with Martin Luther in the late 1500s.

The fact is, as we move more and more towards an— individualistic culture— the focus on what is objectively true has no bearing. In fact, the very idea of objective truth has become a medieval idea like the Church buildings described in the article. What is important is subjective (self) truth. In other words, you become your own authority.

That is at the heart of individualism. Protestantism —with its Bible only multi-denominational— you don’t like this one go to the next one or start your own Church, is very appealing to the individualistic follower. He gets to be his own authority while still feeling like he is Christian. In short, they allow you to feel good being in sin.

With that said the Catholic Church could, of course, do a better job forming its adherents. Many self-proclaimed Catholics do not go to Church regularly, at least they do not feel the obligation to attend Sunday Mass (a mortal sin). They rarely go to confession and they practice contraception and pre-marital sex at similar rates than those outside the Church. In short, most Catholics do not even understand what Catholicism is. I know, I was one of them for a long time. What drew me back is the same thing that draws thousands of others who have lost their way— it’s true.

I suspect what will draw people to Catholicism will not be bigger screens, the promise of more prosperity, better pancake breakfasts, or more modern buildings centrally located. No, what will draw people will first have to be the decision to accept the truth. The truth, however, is not a popular word these days, at least not when it comes to morality. We like truth when it comes to what we should eat, what causes cancer, and other things that will make our physical body last longer and look better, but not when it comes to what will make our souls live forever.

So today its Pentecostalism tomorrow it’s Joel Olsteen prosperity Gospel and the next day? …well you get the idea. The simple fact is Christ said: “I am the way the truth and life” . He never wrote a thing, instead, he taught 12 unscrupulous knuckleheads about his truth and promised them the keys of the kingdom. Ironically he also prayed that his Church be one. “I pray that they will all be one, just as you and I are one—as you are in me, Father, and I am in you. And may they be in us so that the world will believe you sent me.” Nothing about I hope they learn to read the Bible and interpret it correctly.

Ten Reasons Why the Pentecostals Are Whooping the Catholics

Christmas Is Not A Pagan Holiday

Christmas is not a pagan holiday it is the day Christians celebrate the birth of Christ. Many Anti-Christians will claim that Christmas was a pagan celebration. There are several claims often used. One is that Constantine invented Christmas from the Roman holiday Saturnalia, the feast dedicated to the Roman god Saturn. Another frequent myth is that Christmas was taken from Sol Invictus .

Fr. Mitch Pacwa and Dr. Scott Hahn, theologian and convert to Catholicism discuss these errors in the video below.

Historically we know the pagan celebrations and Christmas celebration existed at the same time. Whether Christians baptized a pagan holiday or not doesn’t dismiss the birth of Christ and the reason we celebrate Christmas.

Continue reading more about Christmas here

It is important to know that Christians do not hold exclusivity to the truth. Just because a certain religion does not hold the —whole truth— does not mean it contains— no truth. God can, in fact, leave hints of truth in other religions and worldviews. Borrowing or “baptizing” pagan practices and to Christianize them would do nothing to dismiss the unique claim of Christianity.

The essence of Christianity is not an idea, not a system of thought, not a plan of action. The essence of Christianity is a Person: Jesus Christ Himself. That which is essential is the One Who is essential. To become truly real means to come to know Jesus Christ and to learn from Him what it means to be human.” ~Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger (now Pope Benedict XVI)

The Reason for Choosing December 25

Although the date of Christ’s birth is not given to us in Scripture, there is documented evidence that December 25 was already of some significance to Christians prior to A.D. 354. One example can be found in the writings of Hyppolytus of Rome, who explains in his Commentary on the book of Daniel (c. A.D. 204) that the Lord’s birth was believed to have occurred on that day: Continue reading

Whether or not Christ was born on that exact day is not important what is important is the celebration itself. I celebrated my birthday 35 days after my actual birth-date.

Did You Know This About Christopher Columbus….?

This Monday, 10/12/2020, the United States celebrates Columbus Day. In recent decades the rewriting of history has depicted Columbus as a bloodthirsty scoundrel. This has left some states to rename Columbus Day Indigenous Peoples Day.

Worse yet, violent left-wing activists have promised to destroy Christopher Columbus statues on Monday.

While Christopher Columbus was certainly no Saint much of this new history is a distortion and some of it downright lies.

One central problem with re-writing any part of history is that it is often re-written through a contemporary lens. Even Tony Soprano realized this as he teaches his son A.J. in this clip from the HBO series “The Sopranos”.

Imagine criticizing a doctor from the early 20th century for not having an MRI performed on a patient. MRI machines were not invented until 1977.

In her book “Columbus and the Quest for Jerusalem”, Stanford Anthropologist Carol Delaney, explains Columbus’s apocalyptic beliefs. Watch this interview with Professor Delaney as she explains how she discovered this little unknown fact about Columbus

Michael Knowles from the Daily Wire points out just a few things many do not know about Christopher Columbus and why many are seeking to no longer celebrate Columbus Day. Watch the video for much more detail. Here are a few takeaways …

Columbus adopted the son of a native American Indian
There was never a portrait of Columbus made all images of him are based on descriptions
A devout Catholic who said confession and took the Eucharist before leaving Spain.
He instructed his crew to Pray the Our Father, Apostles Creed, Hail Mary, Hail Holy Queen all during their voyage
Christopher Columbus died on the Feast of the Ascension

Christopher Columbus Actually Was A Great Man | Michael Knowles explains the difference between leftist lies and reality, and why Christopher Columbus is the Left’s public enemy #1. | By Daily WireFacebook

Michael Knowles explains the difference between leftist lies and reality, and why Christopher Columbus is the Left’s public enemy #1.

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The Only Catholic To Sign The Declaration of Independence

1846.2.1-Charles Carroll of Carrollton (1737 – 1832), Oil on Canvas Michael Laty (1826 – 1848), ca. 1846
Copy From Original Owned By The Maryland Historical Society. No Reproduction Without Permission

Charles Carroll of Carrollton was one of four Marylanders to sign the Declaration of Independence. Carroll was the only Roman Catholic and the last survivor of all 56 signers dying in 1832 in his 96th year. Charles Carroll and his family played a major role in the framing of the governance of Maryland and the emerging United States.

Carroll’s accomplishments and persistent efforts to promote and establish the concept of religious toleration were embodied in the founding documents and laws of our country still used today for “all men who are created equal.” Continue reading the whole story here