There is Only One Lord and One God - The Two-Lords Doctrine is Not Biblical

The Holy Eucharist - the Most Holy Sacrament of the Church

Full Restoration Comes Only When The Central Administration is Fully Established Backed in Rome or Jerusalem

Aleteia: How a radical atheist became a Catholic priest

Source: Aleteia by Philip Kosloski | Aug 14, 2017

He hated the Church until one event changed his life forever ... and his story would later impress Maximilian Kolbe.

Born into a wealthy Jewish family in France in 1814, Alphonse Ratisbonne was set to become part of his uncle’s large banking firm. At first Ratisbonne was a nominal Jew, but when his older brother converted to the Catholic faith and became a priest, a hidden rage woke within him.

Ratisbonne wrote, “When my brother became a Catholic, and a priest, I persecuted him with a more unrelenting fury than any other member of my family. We were completely sundered; I hated him with a virulent hatred, though he had fully pardoned me.”

Furthermore this hatred for his brother was broadened to include all Catholics, and Ratisbonne explained how it “made me believe all I heard of the fanaticism of the Catholics, and I held them accordingly in great horror.”

This also affected his personal beliefs and he came to no longer believe in God. Ratisbonne was too busy following worldly pursuits to worry about his Jewish faith and his deep hatred for Catholicism only pushed him further away from any type of religion.

He eventually began to feel the void in his heart, but at first sought to cure it through marriage. Ratisbonne was betrothed to his niece, but because of her young age the wedding was postponed. During this time of waiting Ratisbonne decided to travel without any singular purpose.

His trip started out by traveling to Naples, where he stayed for about a month. After that Ratisbonne wanted to go to Malta, but took the wrong boat and arrived in Rome. He stayed there, making the best of it, and ran into an old friend.

One day when visiting his friend Ratisbonne encountered a Catholic convert, Theodore de Bussieres, who knew Ratisbonne’s priest-brother. While this made Ratisbonne hate the man, he enjoyed conversing with him because of his knowledge.

Later Ratisbonne visited de Bussieres again. They had a heated discussion about Catholicism and de Bussieres made a wager with Ratisbonne.

Have you the courage to submit yourself to a very simple and innocent test? Only to wear a little something I will give you; look, it is a medal of the Blessed Virgin. It seems very ridiculous, does it not? But, I assure you, I attach great value and efficacy to this little medal. [Also] you must say every night and morning the Memorare, a very short and very efficacious prayer which St. Bernard addressed to the Blessed Virgin Mary.

While at first Ratisbonne protested at wearing the medal (which was the Miraculous Medal), he decided to put it around his neck and say the prayer each day. He figured that it couldn’t do any harm and would prove to all the ridiculous nature of Catholicism.

Ratisbonne lived up to his side of the bargain, finding it easy to recite the Memorare. Then one day he was traveling in the city with de Bussieres and they stopped at the church Saint Andrea delle Fratte. When Ratisbonne entered the church it appeared to be engulfed in a marvelous light. He looked to an altar from where the light was coming and saw the Virgin Mary, appearing as she did on the Miraculous Medal.

He left the church in tears, clutching his Miraculous Medal. Several days later he was received into the Catholic Church. After returning to Paris his betrothed was shocked and rejected him and his new religion. Ratisbonne then entered the Jesuits and was ordained a priest.

This amazing story of conversion would later influence Saint Maximilian Kolbe to found the Militia Immaculatae and convinced him of the power of the Miraculous Medal. He firmly believed in Mary’s role in bringing the world to Christ.

Why is there a picture of the Virgin Mary sleeping?

Source: Aleteia

By Philip Kosloski | Aug 12, 2017

The image corresponds to an early belief of the Church called the "Dormition of Mary."

Public Domain

Many in the ancient world described the act of dying as “falling asleep.” This concept is also found in the Bible, where in the Psalms we find this prayer, “Consider and answer me, O Lord my God; lighten my eyes, lest I sleep the sleep of death” (Psalm 13:3).

St. Paul also uses this imagery in his Letter to the Thessalonians in reference to Jesus raising the dead, “God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep” (1 Thessalonians 4:14).

When contemplating the mystery of the Virgin Mary’s departure from this world, many early Christians referred to it as the “Sleep of Mary,” or “Dormition of Mary” (from the Latin domire, meaning to sleep). This highlighted the belief that Mary died before being assumed into heaven.

St. John of Damascus, in the 8th century, relates how “St. Juvenal, Bishop of Jerusalem, at the Council of Chalcedon (451), made known … that Mary died in the presence of all the Apostles, but that her tomb, when opened, upon the request of St. Thomas, was found empty; wherefrom the Apostles concluded that the body was taken up to heaven.”

This particular tradition was very common in the early Church and has different variations, but most revolve around Mary dying in the presence of the apostles. The Eastern Church still celebrates the Feast of the Dormition of the Mother of God on August 15, the same day that Roman Catholics celebrate the Assumption. Both celebrate the same event, but use different terminology and emphasize different aspects of it.

[Read more: What does it mean to be “Roman” Catholic?]

Officially the Church does not teach the exact nature of how Mary was assumed into heaven or if she died first. The Church teaches only that “the ever Virgin Mary, having completed the course of her earthly life, was assumed body and soul into heavenly glory.” However, St. John Paul II did mention in a General Audience, “To share in Christ’s Resurrection, Mary had first to share in his death.” The dormition/assumption was a unique grace given to Mary, a fruit of her Immaculate Conception.

With this in mind many ancient artists depict Mary’s dormition as her sleeping on a bed, surrounded by the apostles. Christ is typically in the center of the picture, often holding a miniature version of Mary, representing the action of Jesus taking Mary’s pure body and soul up to heaven.

[Read more: When art came to the rescue: Depicting Marian doctrine]

It is a beautiful image to meditate on, and brings to mind the only way we can truly rest in peace, in the arms of our Savior.

SOLEMNITY OF THE ASSUMPTION OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY INTO HEAVEN!

TOMORROW August 15 - SOLEMNITY OF THE ASSUMPTION of the Blessed Mother into HEAVEN. It is a Day of Obligation for all Catholics which is equivalent to Sunday Mass. Missing the Mass without valid reasons is a Mortal Sin that needs to be confessed before receiving a Holy Communion on Sunday!

Jesus Christ Just Founded One Church! And the rest are Heretical!

CBCP News: Priest relieved over trafficking allegations of 13-year-old girl

MANILA— A Catholic priest has been relieved of his duties pending a police investigation into human trafficking allegations involving a minor girl.

Monsignor Arnel Lagarejos was relieved from his Taytay parish after he was caught in a police entrapment operation with a 13-year-old girl he allegedly met through a pimp on social media.

Antipolo Bishop Francis De Leon also stripped the priest all his other positions in the diocese including his being the president of Cainta Catholic College.

Citing a local police report, the diocese said the entrapment was conducted supposedly to apprehend minors involved in prostitution.

Initial investigation revealed a that 16-year-old gay pimp mediated between Lagarejos and the girl.

The priest was caught when he arrived at the at the Blue Wave Mall in Marikina City on Friday evening, where the entrapment was conducted.

The involved minors are now under the custody of the Department of Social Welfare and Development.

The 55-year old priest, on the other hand, has been subjected to inquest proceedings and facing possible criminal violations.

In an official statement, the diocese assured it “respects the necessary procedures as provided by law in order to further investigate this matter.”

The diocese also called on the public to “refrain from issuing unnecessary comments that might worsen the situation” and instead appeal “for all the faithful to pray that the truth may come out.” CBCPNews

Official statement of the Diocese of Antipolo regarding the case of Msgr. Arnel Lagarejos.

21 Benefits Of Making The Sign Of The Cross

Source: Catholic Digestt

Photo Source: THOUGHT

The Sign of the Cross is a simple gesture yet a profound expression of faith for both Catholic and Orthodox Christians. As Catholics, it’s something we do when we enter a church, after we receive Communion, before meals, and every time we pray. But what exactly are we doing when we make the Sign of the Cross? Here are 21 things:

1. Pray

We begin and end our prayers with the Sign of the Cross, perhaps not realising that the sign is itself a prayer. If prayer, at its core, is “an uprising of the mind to God,” as St. John Damascene put it, then the Sign of the Cross assuredly qualifies. “No empty gesture, the sign of the cross is a potent prayer that engages the Holy Spirit as the divine advocate and agent of our successful Christian living,” writes Bert Ghezzi.

2. Open ourselves to grace

As a sacramental, the Sign of the Cross prepares us for receiving God’s blessing and disposes us to cooperate with His grace, according to Ghezzi.

3. Sanctify the day

As an act repeated throughout the key moments of each day, the Sign of the Cross sanctifies our day. “At every forward step and movement, at every going in and out, when we put on our clothes and shoes, when we bathe, when we sit at table, when we light the lamps, on couch, on seat, in all the ordinary actions of daily life, we trace upon the forehead the sign,” wrote Tertullian.

4. Commit the whole self to Christ

In moving our hands from our foreheads to our hearts and then both shoulders, we are asking God’s blessing for our mind, our passions and desires, our very bodies. In other words, the Sign of the Cross commits us, body and soul, mind and heart, to Christ. (I’m paraphrasing this Russian Orthodox writer.) “Let it take in your whole being—body, soul, mind, will, thoughts, feelings, your doing and not-doing—and by signing it with the cross strengthen and consecrate the whole in the strength of Christ, in the name of the triune God,” said twentieth century theologian Romano Guardini.

5. Recall the Incarnation

Our movement is downward, from our foreheads to our chest “because Christ descended from the heavens to the earth,” Pope Innocent III wrote in his instructions on making the Sign of the Cross. Holding two fingers together—either the thumb with the ring finger or with index finger—also represents the two natures of Christ.

6. Remember the Passion of Our Lord

Fundamentally, in tracing out the outlines of a cross on ourselves, we are remembering Christ’s crucifixion. This remembrance is deepened if we keep our right hand open, using all five fingers to make the sign—corresponding to the Five Wounds of Christ.

7. Affirm the Trinity

In invoking the name of God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, we are affirming our belief in a triune God. This is also reinforced by using three fingers to make the sign, according to Pope Innocent III.

8. Focus our prayer on God

One of the temptations in prayer is to address it to God as we conceive of Him—the man upstairs, our buddy, a sort of cosmic genie, etc. When this happens, our prayer becomes more about us than an encounter with the living God. The Sign of the Cross immediately focuses us on the true God, according to Ghezzi: “When we invoke the Trinity, we fix our attention on the God who made us, not on the God we have made. We fling our images aside and address our prayers to God as he has revealed himself to be: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.”

9. Affirm the procession of Son and Spirit

In first lifting our hand to our forehead we recall that the Father is the first person the Trinity. In lowering our hand we “express that the Son proceeds from the Father.” And, in ending with the Holy Spirit, we signify that the Spirit proceeds from both the Father and the Son, according to Francis de Sales.

10. Confess our faith

In affirming our belief in the Incarnation, the crucifixion, and the Trinity, we are making a sort of mini-confession of faith in words and gestures, proclaiming the core truths of the creed.

11. Invoke the power of God’s name

In Scripture, God’s name carries power. In Philippians 2:10, St. Paul tells us that “at the name of Jesus every knee should bend, of those in heaven and on earth and under the earth.” And, in John 14:13-14, Jesus Himself said, “And whatever you ask in my name, I will do, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask anything of me in my name, I will do it.”

12. Crucify ourselves with Christ

Whoever wishes to follow Christ “must deny himself” and “take up his cross” as Jesus told the disciples in Matthew 16:24. “I have been crucified with Christ,” St. Paul writes in Galatians 2:19. “Proclaiming the sign of the cross proclaims our yes to this condition of discipleship,” Ghezzi writes.

13. Ask for support in our suffering

In crossing our shoulders we ask God “to support us—to shoulder us—in our suffering,” Ghezzi writes.

14. Reaffirm our baptism

In using the same words with which we were baptized, the Sign of the Cross is a “summing up and re-acceptance of our baptism,” according to then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger.

15. Reverse the curse

The Sign of the Cross recalls the forgiveness of sins and the reversal of the Fall by passing “from the left side of the curse to the right of blessing,” according to de Sales. The movement from left to right also signifies our future passage from present misery to future glory just as Christ “crossed over from death to life and from Hades to Paradise,” Pope Innocent II wrote.

16. Remake ourselves in Christ’s image

In Colossians 3, St. Paul uses the image of clothing to describe how our sinful natures are transformed in Christ. We are to take off the old self and put on the self “which is being renewed … in the image of its creator,” Paul tells us. The Church Fathers saw a connection between this verse and the stripping of Christ on the cross, “teaching that stripping off our old nature in baptism and putting on a new one was a participation in Christ’s stripping at his crucifixion,” Ghezzi writes. He concludes that we can view the Sign of the Cross as “our way of participating in Christ’s stripping at the Crucifixion and his being clothed in glory at his resurrection.” Thus, in making the Sign of the Cross, we are radically identifying ourselves with the entirety of the crucifixion event—not just those parts of it we can accept or that are palatable to our sensibilities.

17. Mark ourselves for Christ

In ancient Greek, the word for sign was sphragis, which was also a mark of ownership, according to Ghezzi. “For example, a shepherd marked his sheep as his property with a brand that he called a sphragis,” Ghezzi writes. In making the Sign of the Cross, we mark ourselves as belong to Christ, our true shepherd.

18. Soldier on for Christ

The sphragis was also the term for a general’s name that would be tattooed on his soldiers, according to Ghezzi. This too is an apt metaphor for the Christian life: while we can be compared to sheep in the sense of following Christ as our shepherd we are not called to be sheepish. We instead are called to be soldiers of Christ. As St. Paul wrote in Ephesians 6, “Put on the armor of God so that you may be able to stand firm against the tactics of the devil. … take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.”

19. Ward off the devil

The Sign of the Cross is one of the very weapons we use in that battle with the devil. As one medieval preacher named Aelfric declared, “A man may wave about wonderfully with his hands without creating any blessing unless he make the sign of the cross. But, if he do, the fiend will soon be frightened on account of the victorious token.” In another statement, attributed to St. John Chrysostom, demons are said to “fly away” at the Sign of the Cross “dreading it as a staff that they are beaten with.” (Source: Catholic Encyclopedia.)

20. Seal ourselves in the Spirit

In the New Testament, the word sphragis, mentioned above, is also sometimes translated as seal, as in 2 Corinthians 1:22, where St. Paul writes that, “the one who gives us security with you in Christ and who anointed us is God; he has also put his seal upon us and given the Spirit in our hearts as a first installment.” In making the Sign of the Cross, we are once again sealing ourselves in the Spirit, invoking His powerful intervention in our lives.

21. Witness to others

As a gesture often made in public, the Sign of the Cross is a simple way to witness our faith to others. “Let us not then be ashamed to confess the Crucified. Be the Cross our seal made with boldness by our fingers on our brow, and on everything; over the bread we eat, and the cups we drink; in our comings in, and goings out; before our sleep, when we lie down and when we rise up; when we are in the way, and when we are still,” wrote St. Cyril of Jerusalem.

[we extend our sincere thanks to Catholic Exchange for letting us re-publish this excellent content by Stephen Beale]

The Catholic Church and Iglesia ni Cristo: Major differences - Rappler

While both claim to be of divine origin, the former traces its authority to St Peter and the succession of popes, while the latter, from the late Felix Manalo, its founder

Aries Rufo for Rappler
Published 11:00 AM, July 23, 2014
Updated 2:15 PM, July 23, 2014

MANILA, Philippines – About 2,000 years separate the Roman Catholic Church and the homegrown Iglesia ni Cristo. While both claim to be of divine origin, the former traces its authority to St Peter and the succession of popes, while the latter, from the late Felix Manalo, its founder.

A wide gap of doctrinal differences also separates the two faiths, and in the Philippines, leaders of the Catholic Church and the INC do not see eye to eye – even politically.

Sometimes, they even find themselves on opposite sides of the political fence, obtaining mixed results in the process.

How different is the Catholic Church from the INC, and vice-versa?

In anticipation of the 100th anniversary of the INC, Cotabato Archbishop Orlando Cardinal Quevedo prepared a primer to act as a catechesis guide for Filipino Catholics. Quevedo, a Canon law expert and a Church scholar, stressed that differences in religious belief should not hinder unity and harmony.

“The respect we give to the religious belief of others should motivate us to get to understand those deep beliefs, as this is demanded by the requirements of sincere dialogue. Differences in what we believe do not make us distant from those who hold those beliefs…among ideas contradictions are inevitable, but not among persons,” Quevedo said in the foreword.

Rappler summarizes the main points in the primer.

1) The divinity and humanity of Christ. To the Catholic Church, Jesus Christ “is the Son of God” and the “Second Person of the Blessed Trinity.” He is the central figure in the apostolic teaching. For the INC however, Christ “remains man in His state of being. Christ is never the true God. He is a true man.” That Christ “was subjected to the experiences and circumstances of human life” is proof that Christ was never God.

2) Central teaching about God. To the Catholic Church, the Trinitarian Faith guides its belief in the oneness of God. That there are 3 Persons in God: the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, that “equally possess the fullness of the one and indivisible human nature. This mystery of the Most Blessed Trinity forms the central mystery of the Christian faith and life.”

To the INC, however, “there is only one God. He alone is God (Ps. 86:10).” Another Bible verse says “For I am God and there is no other.” As such, “the INC interprets these as proofs against the Trinity of Persons in one God."

3) Sources of divine revelation. For the Catholic Church, there are two: Apostolic tradition and the Holy Bible. Apostolic tradition “is the transmission of the message of Christ brought about from the very beginnings of Christianity by means of preaching, bearing witness, institution, worship and inspired writings.” It occurs in two ways: through living transmission of the Word of God and through Sacred Scripture.

To the INC, however, only the Bible is the source of divine revelation. “They believe that the words of God are written in the Bible; that when the Bible speaks, God himself speaks. So when the Bible is silent, the INC is silent too, for it recognizes no other basis and authority in serving God except the Bible.”

4) What’s in a name? The Roman Catholic Church began to be called as such in the 4th century. St Ignatius, the bishop of Antioch and a disciple of St John, is credited for it when he said, “Where there is Christ Jesus, there is the Catholic Church.” The word "Catholic" is from the Greek word katholikos, which means universal.

The INC, using the *Lamsa version of the Bible, took its cue from various verses in the Holy Book, where the Church that Christ built is called the Church of Christ, or Iglesia ni Cristo in Filipino. To them, the INC is the only true Church.

(*George Lamsa authored "The Holy Bible from ancient Eastern Manuscripts." He based his translation on Aramaic, not Greek. The Lamsa version is also accepted by the Jehovah’s Witnesses and the Christadelphians. Apart from the Lamsa version, the INC also adheres to James Moffat’s version of the Bible. It is the Moffat version that INC founder Felix Manalo “used as source of the identity of God’s last messenger. “From the Far East will I bring your offspring.”)

5) Path to salvation. The INC adheres to the exclusivist doctrine that outside of it, there is no salvation. “To be reconciled and to be saved, one must become a member. Unless he becomes a part of the Church of Christ or the Body of Christ, he is not embraced by the redemptive death of Christ.”

In comparison, the Catholic Church teaches that eternal salvation is also granted to “those who, through no fault of their own, do not know the Gospel of Christ or His Church, but who nevertheless seek God with a sincere heart and, moved by grace, try in their actions to do His will as they know it, through the dictates of their conscience (from the encyclical Lumen Gentium).”

6) Apostate Church. The INC accuses the Catholic Church of “unfaithfulness” or apostasy. Citing the prophesy of Apostle Paul, the early Church strayed away from the teachings of Christ. They cite the words of St Paul, who said that after his death, “men will arise who will speak perverse things to draw away the disciples of Christ after them (Acts 20:30)." The INC also cites St Peter, who said that false prophets will preach heresies “denying the Master, the Lord Jesus Christ, by rejecting him as Head of the Church…and by rejecting His name.”

The INC believes the descriptions squarely fit the Catholic Church. “The Catholic Church denied the Lord Christ’s headship by putting Peter and the Popes in His stead. It rejected His name, Christ, by sporting such an unscriptural name as Roman Catholic Church.”

The Catholic Church however, counters that it “has been faithful at all times to the Revelation” amid erroneous teachings and persecutions. The martyrdom of early Christians in the first 3 centuries is proof of the fidelity of the Catholic Church to Christ’s teachings.

In the first place, if the Catholic Church committed apostasy, “why does the INC use the Holy Bible that was ratified by the same Church in the 4th century?”

7) Heretical Church. For the Catholic Church, the teachings of the INC “are a mere repetition of the ‘heresies’ of the early centuries of Christianity, in particular, Monarchianism (from the Greek word, monarch, which means principle/source) of the 2nd century.” Monarchianism taught that God “is only God the Father, thus it denied the Trinity, the eternity of the Logos (The Word, the Second Person), and reduced the Holy Spirit to a mere force of God, the Father.”

8) Prophecy. The INC believes that founder Manalo was the Last Messenger of God as prophesied in the Bible. Isaiah 46:11 said: Calling a bird of prey from the east, the man of my counsel from a far country. I have spoken and I will bring it to pass; I have purposed and I will do it.”

The INC considers Manalo “as the bird of prey because the sons and daughters of God from the Far East are being hindered by the north and the south (the north representing Protestantism and the south, Catholicism) and the messenger of God has to bring them out of these 2 religions (Is. 43:6)

Manalo also supposedly fulfilled the prophecy in Revelation 7:2-3: “Then I saw another angel rising where the sun rises, carrying the seal of the living God.” – Rappler.com

July 27, 2017 - 103rd Year of Lies and Deceit

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Catholicism is leading all CHRISTIANS to the real Jesus, the real Church and the real Sacrament!

SOLEMNITY OF CORPUS CHRISTI!