• Starting today August 7th, 2024, in order to post in the Married Couples, Courting Couples, or Singles forums, you will not be allowed to post if you have your Marital status designated as private. Announcements will be made in the respective forums as well but please note that if yours is currently listed as Private, you will need to submit a ticket in the Support Area to have yours changed.

  • CF has always been a site that welcomes people from different backgrounds and beliefs to participate in discussion and even debate. That is the nature of its ministry. In view of recent events emotions are running very high. We need to remind people of some basic principles in debating on this site. We need to be civil when we express differences in opinion. No personal attacks. Avoid you, your statements. Don't characterize an entire political party with comparisons to Fascism or Communism or other extreme movements that committed atrocities. CF is not the place for broad brush or blanket statements about groups and political parties. Put the broad brushes and blankets away when you come to CF, better yet, put them in the incinerator. Debate had no place for them. We need to remember that people that commit acts of violence represent themselves or a small extreme faction.

Corr Links

My father is currently a prisoner at the Old Colony Correctional Center in Bridgewater, Massachusetts.

He would like to establish an email connection between himself and his brother Robert, who lives in Florida.

Could he use the CorrLinks system to communicate with his sibling?

Note, my father is not in a federal prison.

Could you please explain the exact steps that my father and his brother would need to take, in order to establish a connection through CorrLinks?

Thank You

Pastor arrested for helping woman hide vehicle after man killed in hit-and-run

A pastor has been arrested for helping a woman hide a vehicle involved in a hit-and-run that killed a man in Texas. Authorities say the woman was a passenger in the vehicle driven by a man who fled the scene after the crash.

The Conroe Police Department said the crash happened shortly after 7 p.m. on Nov. 9 in the 200 block of North Loop 336 East, where 46-year-old Brett Wilborn was struck and killed while crossing the road, according to KTRK. Investigators reportedly said he was first hit by a dark-colored SUV that fled, then by a second vehicle whose driver remained at the scene and called 911.

Police officers who arrived at the scene found Wilborn lying in the main lanes of traffic. The Traffic Incident Reconstruction Unit responded along with patrol officers, the Crime Scene Unit and representatives from the Montgomery County District Attorney’s Office, Woodlands Online reported.

Continued below.

Corr Links

My father is currently a prisoner at the Old Colony Correctional Center in Bridgewater, Massachusetts.

He would like to establish an email connection between himself and his brother Robert, who lives in Florida.

Could he use the CorrLinks system to communicate with his sibling?

Note, my father is not in a federal prison.

Could you please explain the exact steps that my father and his brother would need to take, in order to establish a connection through CorrLinks?

Thank You

Party like it’s 1399: 12 tips for better celebrations from the Middle Ages

The room feels stuffy, the music is a bit too loud, and the atmosphere is anxiety-provoking. Dressed in your most uncomfortable formal attire, you are at your company’s regional corporate holiday party. You didn’t particularly want to attend, but networking is essential, your boss reminded you. The RSVP specified that children aren’t welcome, so your spouse is home with the kids. Standing alone, holding a glass of mystery wine in one hand and a rubbery stuffed mushroom in the other, you look around anxiously, trying to see someone who looks important, and to whom, therefore, you should introduce yourself.

Clearly others are thinking the same — someone from another branch you haven’t met comes up to you. In between the awkward small talk, you reveal your lowly position in the firm. Promptly your conversationalist needs a drink refill and disappears. You know he will not be coming back. Others in the room are similarly anxious, and their discomfort manifests in different ways. Several people are glued to their phones. One has been stationed at the bar the entire time, drinking excessively. In one corner of the room, an argument seems to be brewing. Based on snippets of the conversation, whose volume has been rising, you know it’s a political argument. You’re staying clear.

At last, you glance at your own cell phone, realize that you’ve been here for more than an hour, and decide that you’ve made enough of an appearance to be able to politely disappear. You breathe a sigh of relief as you start your car and drive home. But straightaway sadness sets in. Parties are supposed to be fun, or so we’ve been conditioned to believe from a young age. So why aren’t they?

Continued below.
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‘Say thank you to someone’ this Thanksgiving, Pope Leo XIV says

Pope Leo XIV on Tuesday suggested that people “say thank you to someone” this Thanksgiving and he addressed concerns about violence in Lebanon ahead of his trip there later this week.

Speaking two days before Thanksgiving, the first U.S.-born pope celebrated what he called “this beautiful feast that we have in the United States, which unites all people, people of different faiths, people who perhaps do not have the gift of faith.”

The pope urged all people, not just Americans, to take the occasion “to recognize that we all have received so many gifts, first and foremost, the gift of life, the gift of faith, the gift of unity … and to give thanks to God for the many gifts we’ve been given.”

Pope Leo answered questions from reporters as he left for Rome after a daylong stay at the papal villa of Castel Gandolfo.

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Bishops lead Stations of the Cross at Colorado ICE center, urges dignity for migrants

Hundreds of Catholics gathered in front of the Denver Contract Detention Facility — an ICE detention facility in Aurora, Colorado — on Nov. 22 for Stations of the Cross led by Archbishop Samuel Aquila and Auxiliary Bishop Jorge Rodriguez of the Archdiocese of Denver.

Sponsored by the Committee for Pastoral Care for Migrants, individuals from over 36 local parishes gathered for a peaceful procession and to stand in solidarity with undocumented immigrants who are being impacted by the mass deportations taking place across the United States.

“I want to thank all of you for coming today as we have prayed and walked the Stations of the Cross. They are reminders to us of God’s love for all people and for the immigrant, for the stranger, for those who are sick and suffering, and for all those who are in need of our prayer,” Aquila said according to a statement in the Denver Catholic.

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We shall not all "sleep"....

Peace in Christ.

There are 2 groups of Christians….the dead and the living. Jesus both died and rose, and revived for us all so that He may be the Lord of both the dead and the living.

What we have witnessed so far in Christian history are the “dead” as they have all mortally perished without inheriting an age-lasting life (aka “eternal life”).

They were/are the “flock of the slaughter”…the “vessels of wrath”… as their “pastors” did not feed them the Word of Truth (because of their lack of understanding of the gospel) and were led astray down the broad way to their mortal destruction. They believed in Christ but were led astray from the path that leads to His manifest life. MANY have gone down the broad way that led to their mortal destruction. Matthew 7:13-14 .

But Christ is both the Lord of the “dead” and the living. The "dead"...the first group of Christians... are the last in the resurrection (AT the last day of this age)...while the "last" group of Christians in this age are FIRST in the resurrection.

Rom 14:8-9 KJV
(8) For whether we live, we live unto the Lord; and whether we die, we die unto the Lord: whether we live therefore, or die, we are the Lord's.

(9) For to this end Christ both died, and rose, and revived, that he might be Lord both of the dead and living.

The “dead” Christians shall live again as they will be resurrected AT the “last day” of this age. They believed in Christ but they had mortally died (as they were led astray by false prophets.) The "first" group (the MANY "dead") shall be "last" in the resurrection. the first shall be last and the last shall be first.

Joh 11:25-26
(25) Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead (though he died), yet shall he live:

But the “living” Christians are those who shall live and believe in Him. They shall NEVER DIE into the age. They will be kept mortally standing here by Christ in this earth TO the “last day” of this age. This is the last group of Christians that are yet to be. The last shall be first in the resurrection. They will be the "few" who will find life. Can we believe this?

(26) And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die (INTO THE AGE). Believest thou this?

The “living” Christians are the “firstfruits” as we shall hear the Word of Truth and will believe in it.

The “dead” never got to hear it and have fallen asleep in Christ. They are termed "asleep" for the duration of this age. He will bring them back again AT the last day of this age when death (the last enemy) is defeated.

Jas 1:18-20 KJV
(18) Of his own will begat he us with the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures.

We are to be swift to hear the Word of Truth and slow to speak and slow to wrath.

(19) Wherefore, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath:
(20) For the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God.

We…those who will hear the Word of Truth and believe in it…are the “living” who will manifest the presence of Jesus in our mortal flesh so that the people of the outside world may see and also believe and receive an age-lasting life. His manifest life in our mortal flesh keeps us mortally standing here now in this earth for the duration of this age....an age-lasting life.

1Co 15:22-26
(22) For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.

Christ the firstfruits are the “living” Christians who will be kept standing here mortally in this earth manifesting the life of Jesus to the people of the outside world. We are the firstfruits of His “creatures”….who are the people of the outside world.

We HEAR the Word of Truth and believe while the people of the outside world will SEE and believe as we manifest His presence to them.

They are His at His “coming”…that is, PRESENCE (Parousia.) The believers among the people of the world (who will SEE His presence being made manifest through us His firstfruits) shall also receive an age-lasting life. They will NOT DIE but will continue to live to the last day of this age.

They are the “eagles” who will gather together around the living body of Christ. Luke 17:37 . The eagles SEE the living prey and are drawn to it.

They are the “clouds” of heaven that the Son of man (those who manifest His life) comes upon.

(23) But every man in his own order: Christ the firstfruits; afterward they that are Christ's at his coming (Greek: Parousia = PRESENCE).

We…with Christ…will put down all rule and all authority and power….THEN the end of this age comes. We have an age-lasting life to achieve this through Christ. We will not mortally die.

(24) Then cometh the end, when he shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father; when he shall have put down all rule and all authority and power.
(25) For he must reign, till he hath put all enemies under his feet.

The last enemy of this age to be destroyed is death. This comes AT the last day of this age.

(26) The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death.

At this time (at the last day of this age), the “dead” Christians will then be resurrected. They will have missed out on the gathering of everything in Christ on this earth.

The “living” shall not “sleep” for the duration of this current age at all as they will be kept standing here mortally in this earth TO the last day of this age. They will then be changed from mortal into immortal thereby circumventing death completely in Christ.

At the last trumpet of this age…the last day of this age, the “dead” Christians that had mortally perished (the “corruptible”) will then be resurrected incorruptible….nonperishable. They believed in Christ but had mortally perished because they were led astray by false prophets to their deaths. But we are assured that God will bring them back with Jesus.

1Co 15:51-52 KJV
(51) Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed,

(52) In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.

The “dead” Christians will be raised AT the last day. They had mortally died. They lost their mortal bodies…but God will give them a body as He determines.

But the "living" Christians will have kept their mortal bodies until then which at that time shall be changed from mortal to immortal. They will have never mortally died but will have kept living until the redemption of the body.

1Co 15:35-38 KJV
(35) But some man will say, How are the dead raised up? and with what body do they come?
(36) Thou fool, that which thou sowest is not quickened, except it die:
(37) And that which thou sowest, thou sowest not that body that shall be, but bare grain, it may chance of wheat, or of some other grain:

(38) But God giveth it a body as it hath pleased him, and to every seed his own body.

‘An encounter with Jesus’: Artist behind living wall memorial for unborn shares mission

Amid the sounds of Arkansas’ waterfalls, women who have had abortions will someday be able to find healing at a “living wall” memorial covered in flora and fauna, where the names of unborn children will be inscribed on the hexagonal stone floor thanks to local artist Lakey Goff, who submitted the living wall design, which was selected for Arkansas’ monument for the unborn.

The memorial will be on state property, but funding must come from the people. Now Goff and other Arkansians are fundraising for the living wall.

On Saturday morning, participants gathered at sunrise at Two Rivers Park in Little Rock to kick off the first annual Living Wall 5K — a race to fundraise for the memorial.

Continued below.

Pray Jesus Christ heals & comforts & provides for all those affected by the fires at an apartment complex area in Hong Kong

Pray Jesus Christ heals & comforts & provides for all those affected by the fires at an apartment complex area in Hong Kong:

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Caritas Ukraine leads efforts to reintegrate children taken by Russia in war

On Friday at the Vatican, Pope Leo XIV met with U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minnesota, and a delegation of Ukrainian mothers, wives, and teenagers forcibly taken to Russia during the war. The group discussed the ongoing efforts being made to secure the return of civilians to Ukraine, particularly children.

At the forefront of the work of repatriation and recovery of Ukrainian children swept up in the country’s war with Russia is Caritas Ukraine, which has prioritized the reintegration of these children, according to Liliia Chulitska, an information expert with Caritas Ukraine.

Caritas Ukraine is made up of cooperating organizations and operates as part of the international network Caritas Internationalis, the social ministry of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church. It has been implementing humanitarian, social, and recovery programs throughout Ukraine for over 30 years, with a primary focus on humanitarian assistance in more than 15 regions of Ukraine.

Chulitska explained that when it comes to the repatriation of Ukrainian children, Caritas Ukraine cooperates with Ukraine’s Ombudsman’s Office once children are returned to Ukraine and, as a service provider, assesses the children’s needs and provides direct assistance.

Continued below.

Slovenia rejects euthanasia law in referendum, freezes issue for at least a year

Slovenian voters have rejected a proposed euthanasia law in a Nov. 23 referendum, blocking legislation that would have allowed terminally ill patients to end their lives. The bill, passed by the Slovenian Parliament four months earlier, was opposed by 53.43% of voters, preventing it from taking effect.

Under Slovenian law, Sunday’s vote freezes the matter for at least 12 months, after which Parliament may consider a new version of the bill.

A year earlier, a nonbinding referendum indicated public openness to regulated euthanasia, prompting the governing coalition to draft and pass the legislation in July 2025. But opposition quickly mobilized. The Slovenian Democratic Party (SDS) and other conservative groups denounced the proposal as undermining human dignity and devaluing the lives of the most vulnerable.

The Slovenian Bishops’ Conference also publicly opposed the legislation. Citing Article 17 of the Slovenian Constitution — which states that “human life is inviolable” — the bishops urged lawmakers to strengthen systemic medical, human, and spiritual support for those in need. They called for greater investment in palliative care and related services rather than pursuing policies that permit the direct termination of life.

Continued below.

The USCCB Views the Church Through a Political Lens, Leaves Out Christ

A GREAT POLITICAL ANALYSIS OF THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN POPE LEO AND THE USCCB AND THAT’S THE PROBLEM, FOR SO MANY CATHOLICS, BISHOPS, CLERGY, RELIGIOUS AND LAITY, THE CHURCH IS VIEWED THROUGH A POLITICAL LENSE AND LEAVES CHRIST AND HIS SALVATION OUT OF THE DISCUSSION!​




Don’t get me wrong, the article I link by pressing its title is a great political analysis. But please, tell me where you read anything about the Most Holy Trinity and the exclusive way God redeems the world through Jesus Christ. Where is there anything about Mariology, Sacraments, Morality, Spirituality, devotions and the like?

This is linked from Rorate Caeli:

Leo and the American Bishops - the USCCB Election and Fake News Pushed by American Liberals


Continued below.
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Baseball Great Darryl Strawberry: God ‘Set Me Free’ With Pardon From Trump

During a sermon on Sunday (Nov. 23), former New York Mets star Darryl Strawberry thanked President Trump for pardoning his crimes and thanked God for forgiving his sins. Strawberry, an eight-time All-Star who has overcome legal and substance-abuse problems, preached for 45 minutes at Sheridan Church in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

The former outfielder, now 63, referenced the presidential pardon he received on Nov. 6. “God just completely set me free when he gave me a pardon from President Donald J. Trump,” Strawberry told congregants. “Other presidents had opportunities, but they didn’t do it.”

In 1995, Strawberry pleaded guilty to tax evasion, and in 1999, he pleaded no contest to cocaine possession and solicitation of a prostitute. After numerous parole violations, he served 11 months in a Florida prison from 2002 to 2003. Since then, Strawberry has recovered from addiction and traveled extensively to talk about his Christian faith.

Darryl Strawberry: From ‘Pit’ to Pulpit


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UFC Star Conor McGregor Claims He Met Jesus During Psychedelic Medical Treatment

Following a brief social media hiatus, Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) superstar Conor McGregor (37) posted that he met Jesus while undergoing ibogaine treatment.

According to the Addiction Center, ibogaine is “a plant-derived compound used for its psychoactive effects. It is currently being studied for its potential in treating substance use disorders.”

“Ibogaine causes hallucinations and vivid dreams,” says the center. “It may have a positive effect on substance cravings by acting on several receptors in the brain.”

Throughout his fighting career, McGregor, who is nicknamed “Notorious,” has been known as one of the most arrogant, brash, charismatic, passionate, trash-talking fighters the sport has ever experienced.

Continued below.

Confronting Blasphemous Gay Activists at a Church

Leftists are no longer content with simply pushing the LGBT agenda onto conservative religious believers. They’ve escalated their attacks on religion and God. They’re engaging in gleeful public displays of bigotry meant to anger and humiliate faithful people in their community. But MassResistance activists are letting them know that regular citizens won’t stand for it.

A Loathsome, Offensive “Church” Event​

Melrose, Massachusetts is a suburb north of Boston (population ~29,400). Catholics make up the largest faith community in the city at about 40 percent.

Almost two weeks ago, MassResistance was contacted by “Patrick,” one of our long-time supporters in Melrose and a devout Catholic. He was distraught. The far-left Unitarian Universalist church located across the street from the Melrose Public Library was putting on an unbelievably offensive and disgusting event. It was open to the public. The church was advertising it on signs, on flyers, and through social media as one of its “Thoughtful Thursday” events.

Continued below.
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How Is Eternal Damnation Consistent With an All-Loving God?

Sin deforms us, closes us in on ourselves and makes us unfit for communion with God.

Q. The Catholic Church teaches that hell is eternal. How is that consistent with an all-loving God who wants the best for us? If you’re an unrepentant sinner for 50, 60, 70 years or more, does that warrant spending eternity in hell without any hope of “parole?” Even after a couple hundred thousand years, wouldn't even the most hardened sort feel repentant?

A. The idea of an everlasting hell is troubling, to say the least. How can an all-loving God, who “desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth” (1 Timothy 2:4), allow some to be lost forever? Isn’t eternal punishment incompatible with God’s infinite mercy?

The two may at first seem incompatible, but when we look at the problem in the light of human freedom, we see they are not. God truly desires that all come to know and love him, but he has made us free to choose — and that includes the freedom to reject him. A creature unable to choose freely could not love. Although God invites us and enables us to love him, he never compels us, for coerced love is not love.



Freedom and Self-Determination​


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THE MASS OF POPE PAUL VI AS IT CAN AND SHOULD BE CELEBRATED AND WHERE WE SHOULD PLACE OUR ENERGIES IN IMPROVING ITS CELEBRATION!

My Diocese of residence, the Diocese of Charleston, is a booming diocese from the Low Country where I live, which is the coastal southern part of South Carolina, to the midlands and upstate.


Of particular note is the metro area of Greenville, South Carolina, at the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains. It is about 100 miles from Augusta, Georgia where I grew up and where I visited as a young child.

The Catholic Church in the Greenville Metro area is booming and it is a Post-Vatican II Church with the Modern Mass celebrated as Vatican II intended, not some liberal/progressive hodgepodge of neo-Arianism mishmash, kitschy and banal hymns from the 70’s and 80’s folk era.

The National Catholic Register has a great article about the Catholic Church in Greenville, which you can read HERE. Of particular note is what is happening at Greenville’s downtown Catholic Church since the early 2000’s, St. Mary Church.

The video below is their Solemn Sung Mass for the Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe from this past Sunday.

It is the Modern Mass at its best:

1. Please note the Entrance Procession with the proper chant flowing directly into a marvelous metrical hymn embellished by the great choir. But note, too, how the laity are singing both the Proper Chant and then the metrical hymn!

2. Please note how crisp the Introductory Rite is, with no stupid bantering by the celebrant prior to introducing the Penitential Act. The Kyrie chanted in Greek and the Gloria in Latin, with the Collect in English. There is a great mix of Latin and vernacular in this Mass.

3. Please note the excellent lector wearing Sunday Best for a layman!

4. The Credo is spoken which seems to be the default in Modern Masses. I don’t see why one sung version of the Credo, in Latin or English can’t be used and memorized by the laity when used weekly!

5. The Liturgy of the Eucharist is Ad Orientem and has been so at this parish since the early 2000’s. Please note the number of altar boys. This parish has provided a considerable number of candidates for the priesthood in the Diocese of Charleston.

6. Please note the Communion Procession. There are Extraordinary Ministers of Holy Communion, both male and female and all in appropriate Sunday Best clothing.

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National Parks to raise fees by $100 for international tourists to popular U.S. parks

Another "shoot ourselves in the foot" move by this administration. Imagine if you were to visit Banff National Park in Alberta, Canada. "You're not Canadian, that will be an additional $100 to enter the park."

The National Park Service said Tuesday it is going to start charging the millions of international tourists who visit U.S. parks each year an extra $100 to enter some of the most popular sites, while leaving them out of fee-free days that will be reserved for American residents.

The fee change will impact 11 national parks, including the Grand Canyon, Yellowstone and Yosemite, according to the U.S. Department of the Interior.

As part of the changes, which are set to take effect Jan. 1, foreign tourists will also see their annual parks pass price jump to $250, while U.S. residents will continue to be charged $80, according to the department's statement.

Fire at historic Canadian church investigated as arson amid spike in attacks

A fire that destroyed a historic Anglican church in Canada in the early hours before Sunday worship last year is now being investigated as arson. This comes as the nation grapples with a rise in church arson attacks.

St. Anne’s Church of Toronto, a congregation of the Anglican Church of Canada, was destroyed by a fire that completely engulfed the structure on June 9, 2024.

The Toronto Police Service announced Monday that authorities were now investigating the fire as a “suspected arson.”

In response to the news, the Anglican Diocese of Toronto and St. Anne’s released a joint statement expressing sadness while also thanking authorities for their work.

Bishop Kevin Robertson, a suffragan bishop of the Toronto diocese, was quoted in the statement saying that he was “devastated to hear that the fire that destroyed the congregation of St. Anne’s building on Gladstone may have been deliberately set.”

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Why 'Third Wayism' is modern gnostic heresy

What happens when we separate God’s law from His Gospel in the name of political neutrality? If you’ve been paying attention to Evangelical discourse recently, you’ve likely encountered what’s now called “Third Wayism” — a term for the modern Evangelical approach to political and cultural engagement without the baggage of moral or political absolutism.

The premise sounds reasonable enough on the surface: Occupy a middle ground between the Left vs. Right culture war, avoiding strong alignment with either major political party, platform, or group.

Proponents claim they’re simply being “winsome” and “balanced” — rising above tribalism and transcending versus trendsetting in order to proclaim a pure Gospel untainted by political entanglements.

Third Wayism often sounds like this: “Jesus is neither right nor left.” Or “Jesus wasn’t an elephant or a donkey. but the Lamb.” Or “Jesus would be too liberal for conservatives and too conservative for liberals.”

That’s true enough, but is that all that needs to be said about our cultural and political divide? What actually happening here? Third Wayism has become a Trojan horse for laundering progressive ideas into the Evangelical churches under the guise of neutrality.

It’s a form of bait-and-switch theological liberalism that prioritizes cultural accommodation over biblical faithfulness. And while Third Way advocates claim to critique extremes on both sides, their focus disproportionately critiques conservatives while blindly ignoring radical leftist policies like sexual indoctrination in schools, transing our youth, leftist political violence, mass illegal immigration, socialism and government theft, and a host of other issues.

Continued below.
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Saint Sylvester

Saint Sylvester propers & commentary (EF)

Wednesday of the Thirty-Fourth Week in Ordinary Time readings & commentary (OF)

Wednesday of the Thirty-Fourth Week in Ordinary Time readings & commentary (OF)
Other Commemorations: St. Sylvester, Abbot; St. Leonard of Port Maurice, Priest

Daily Gospel

St. Sylvester Gozzolini

Saints of the Day

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Fixing Our Eyes on Jesus

“Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.” (Hebrews 12:1-2 NASB1995)

When the Scriptures were originally written, they did not have chapters and verses. Those were added much later to help us readers navigate through the Scriptures and to be able to locate particular passages of Scripture. So, when you see a sentence begin with “therefore,” you should look back to see what it is there for, I have always been taught. So this is in reference to the saints of old who were commended for their faith in chapter 11. They did not all live perfect lives, but they all were honored for their faith at some time.

But lack of perfection is never to be used as an excuse for deliberate and habitual sin. We who believe in Jesus Christ were crucified with Christ in death to sin, and raised with Christ to walk in newness of life in him, no longer to live as slaves to sin, but as servants of righteousness in walks of obedience to our Lord’s commands. So we are to lay aside the deeds of the flesh and all hindrances to our walks of obedience to our Lord’s commands, and we are to die to sin daily, for sin must no longer be our practice.

And then we can “run with endurance the race that is set before us,” i.e. we can live according to God’s calling upon each of our lives to die to sin, to obey his commands, and to follow our Lord wherever he leads us in surrender to his will and purpose for our lives, all in his power and wisdom. We can live for our Lord in doing his will when, by faith in him, we put aside our former lives of living in sin so that we can now serve our Lord in obedience to his commands in being who he desires us to become.

But this is not something we can do in our own flesh of our own willpower. We can only live for our Lord as we surrender our lives to him and we depend upon his strength and wisdom to get us through every day. And if our eyes are fixed on Jesus, that means that our minds, hearts, and attitudes are centered in our Lord and in his will for our lives, and we are now following his leading in our lives, and we are no longer going our own way, doing our own thing, living for the pleasures of this sinful world.

For Jesus Christ is the author and the perfecter of our faith. Our faith is not of our human flesh, of our own willpower, and of our own thinking and reasoning. The faith to believe in Jesus comes from God, it is gifted to us by God, and it is persuaded of God as to his holiness and righteousness, and of our sinfulness, and of our need to die to sin and to walk in obedience to our Lord’s commands, in surrender to his will. So our faith will then align with God’s will and purpose for our lives, not in accord with our human flesh.

[Hebrews 12:1-2; Ephesians 2:8-10; John 1:12-13; John 6:44; Acts 26:18]

For Jesus Christ taught that to come to him we must deny self, take up our cross daily (die daily to sin), and follow (obey) him. For if we hold on to living in sin and for self, we will lose our lives for eternity. But if we deny self, die daily to sin, by the Spirit, and we walk in obedience to our Lord and to his commands, in his power, then we have eternal life with God. For not everyone who calls him “Lord” will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one DOING (obeying) the will of God (see Luke 9:23-26; Matthew 7:21-23).

[Matthew 7:13-14,21-23; Luke 9:23-26; John 10:27-30; Acts 26:18; Romans 1:18-32; Romans 2:5-10; Romans 3:23; Romans 6:1-23; Romans 8:1-14; 1 Corinthians 10:1-22; Galatians 5:16-24; Ephesians 2:8-10; Ephesians 4:17-32; Ephesians 5:3-6; Titus 2:11-14; Hebrews 3:1-19; Hebrews 4:1-13; Hebrews 10:19-39; Hebrews 12:1-2; 1 Peter 2:24; 1 John 1:1-10; 1 John 2:3-6; 1 John 3:4-10; Revelation 2:1-29; Revelation 3:1-22]

As the Deer

By Martin J. Nystrom
Based off Psalm 42:1


As the deer panteth for the water
So my soul longeth after You
You alone are my heart's desire
And I long to worship You

You alone are my strength, my shield
To You alone may my spirit yield
You alone are my heart's desire
And I long to worship You

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Fixing Our Eyes on Jesus
An Original Work / November 26, 2025
Christ’s Free Servant, Sue J Love

Nightmare caregiving situation/death issue

So my 93 year old grandmother is dying too. This woman is my dad's father, is an unbeliever, and she's not a nice lady to put it mildly. Wonder where my dad got his abusive behavior from?

My dad's going to have to bring her home to live with us because she needs 24/7 care and there's no way else for her to get it without paying an astronomical fortune of money. His siblings have all abandoned her because of how nasty she is. Only he will take care of her.

Meanwhile he's going to have to rely on his siblings to sell her house in Ohio and sell her things. One sibling has already tried to get more than his fair share of the inheritance. He is also an unbeliever.

I guess, pray for an alternative care situation to be found or that she dies, or whatever else you feel like praying for. You'll probably think of something more intelligent than me. I'm not sure how I'm going to survive both working a job and dodging her all of the time.

what did the Bible teach you about death?

It taught me not to fear death, that death is not the ending but will be a beginning of an eternity in paradise.

And that a gruesome end doesn't mean that God wasn't with us. God doesn't promise us a peaceful death in a hospital bed surrounded by loved ones, we could be eaten by a shark for all we know, or get into a bad car accident.

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