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rockytopva · 2025-07-11T09:28:33-0500

And... Again while having the Singing Cookes out... Kids holding on tight as a train out of West Virginia climbs the divide from the New River to the eastern part of the state with tons of coal behind her...

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jas3 · 2025-07-11T09:18:45-0500

@Michie looks like you accidentally posted a link to the New Advent home page instead of the article

Matthew 16 and a Parallel for Peter

Protestants will insist that Peter is a contrast to the ‘rock’ on which Jesus built his church. But the truth is the exact opposite.

www.catholic.com

Just read the whole thing, I'm kind of surprised he held on to the idea that Petros means "small stone." I guess his spin on it being synthetic parallelism could be a good apologetic tactic for someone who's convinced that the name Petros must mean something different from the word petra, but the real answer is that Peter's name is masculine because men's names in gendered languages are masculine. He couldn't have been named Petra. That leaves aside too the argument that kepha in Aramaic would have been used in both places.

FredVB · 2025-07-11T09:17:21-0500

There are good reasons for growing a lot of things for food, and even some things for any other items, like medicine, and materials like fiber. This is really healthy. Seeds for all such things should be brought along, to good land for it, and be planted, to have the plants that will be needed growing, with tending them. Others should be along to join in this. All this is needing time. No one getting out at the last minute can manage doing this, and it is very unlikely any but a very few getting out at the last minute possible would even find others who had planned ahead and are already in a place with enough growing. Those who do should not be close to any cities, or communities of civilization, anyway. They would become completely independent of civilization as that is needed.

essentialsaltes · 2025-07-11T09:12:20-0500

essentialsaltes said:
Sacramento Bishop backs San Bernardino diocese in urging immigrants to skip Mass amid ICE fears

John Andrews is the vice chancellor of the San Bernardino diocese and said that Bishop Alberto Rojas wrote the decree last month after several arrests on church grounds,

A crisis of faith: ICE raids force some churches to take ‘extraordinary’ action

[Story leads with the above]

In May, following immigration raids in Nashville, the city’s diocese became the first to say that no Catholic would be “obligated to attend Mass on Sunday if doing so puts their safety at risk.”

It’s a rare step for a bishop to excuse congregants indefinitely from Sunday mass, said Brett Hoover, professor of theology at Loyola Marymount University.

Archbishop José Gomez of the Los Angeles Archdiocese, who has long called for immigration reform, criticized the Trump administration in a column published in Angelus last month, saying it has “offered no immigration policy beyond the stated goal of deporting thousands of people each day.”

“This is not policy, it is punishment, and it can only result in cruel and arbitrary outcomes. Already we are hearing stories of innocent fathers and mothers being wrongly deported, with no recourse to appeal,” he wrote.

In Orange County, Bishop Kevin Vann has not offered a dispensation from attending Mass, but the diocese has started bringing Holy Communion to celebrate Mass in the homes of people who are afraid to go to church.

[Neat, kinda like house churches in China under the CCP!]

Isiah, who had paused attending Mass during the raids, said church is really the only place he feels safe anymore. He has faith that the spiritual strength found inside the building — a place where he goes to worship God — will shield him from harm.

“My belief is that if the police came, the church and God would protect me.”

Akita Suggagaki · 2025-07-11T09:08:36-0500

"We are living in a time when false mysticism is a much greater danger than rationalism.
It has now become much easier to play on men’s emotions with a political terminology that sounds religious than with one that sounds scientific.
This is all the more true in an age in which the religious instincts of millions of men have never received their proper fulfillment.
A nation that is starved with the need to worship something will turn to the first false god that is presented to it."

"False mysticism is often viciously anti-intellectual. It promises man a fierce joy in the immolation of his intelligence.
It calls him to throw his spirit into the hands of some blind life-force, considered sometimes as beyond man, sometimes as within himself.
Sometimes this mysticism is political, sometimes religious. It almost always exalts emotion above thought, and its reply to intellectual argument is sometimes a program of systematic violence— the suppression of schools, the destruction of books, and the imprisonment of learned men. Why all this? Because the intelligence itself is regarded with suspicion." p 59-60

https://stmaryscathedral.ca/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/11288825.pdf

This resonated with me in different ways. On has to do with the literal biblical innerrentist who sometime snot only believe in 6 day creation a few thousand years ago but also flat Earth. regardless of what seem more rational, regardless of what our intelligence might indicate, they cling to a personal mysticism that rejects science. Perhaps we all do it to some degree.. believing that our personal insight is special and true no matter what.

Then again there is the political manifestation. We are seeing higher education undermined and science thrown into doubt if it does not support a larger agenda.

Merton wort this in 1951, not long after WWII. Unfortunately I think it is more relevant today than ever with the rise of interest in Christian Nationalism.

"When the truth is not what we want it to be, we twist its image out of shape in our own mind to fit the pattern of our desires. In so doing, we do not hurt the truth itself: we ruin our own spirit." p 56

Hazelelponi · 2025-07-11T08:49:57-0500

9Rock9 said:
Hello!

I am exploring eschatology to have a better understanding. I see arguments for both premillennialism and amillennialism, though I admit to being biased towards the former due to my denomination and upbringing.

One view I am considering is progressive covenentalism. It seems pretty compelling from a biblical standpoint and I think it fits the best with the New Testament. I do think it's pretty obvious, based on the text, that Jesus is the true Israel and all who are grafted in are heirs to the promise, including the promise of the land.

However, I am on the fence between progressive covenentalism and progressive dispensationalism.

My issue is that I do think there is some kind of significance to the return of the Jewish people to their land and I anticipate a future Messianic kingdom like in Acts 1:6, but I think dispensationalists can go too far with the separation between Israel and the Church. So, I don't want to say that Israel and the Jewish people have no significance at all to God's greater plan, and some verses do seem to teach that the Jewish people will be restored.

What are your thoughts?

Studyman · 2025-07-11T08:35:28-0500

ralliann said:
You however seem to be making this about the Sinai covenant??

I am not making it about any Covenant. Bob is, you seem to be, but not me. It's about what is actually written in Scriptures. In the religious system of this world God placed you and I in, "who come in Christ's Name", it is taught that God's commandments and Ordinances relegated Faithful Gentiles as without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world: But Paul isn't saying that at all and as you can SEE, God's Commandments teach no such thing.

That is what I'm making it about.

ralliann said:
I see it by the Abrahamic covenant...Both covenats are a covenant of circumcision

But it was the Priesthood Covenant that God changed. There was no promise or prophesy to "Destroy" or "nail to the Cross" God's Laws in HIS definition of HIS New Covenant. You can read it for yourself. 2 things were prophesied to change.

#1. The manner in which God's Laws were received.

#2. The manner in which the remission of Sin is provided for.

Jesus said not to even "Think" HE came to destroy God's Laws. Clearly HE saw the "Many" deceivers who would "Come in His Name". shall i not believe Him?

ralliann said:
De 30:6 And the LORD thy God will circumcise thine heart, and the heart of thy seed, to love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, that thou mayest live.

Ephesians goes on to speak of jew and gentiles with regard to priesthood. Which under Moses law non levites were "strangers" from.

Where is your evidence of the underlined? It is true that the duties of the Temporary Levitical Priesthood were to be partaken of by Levites only. Levites that were supposed to promote God's Laws to the people. Like the following.

Lev. 19: 33 And if a stranger sojourn with thee in your land, ye shall not vex him. 34 But the stranger that dwelleth with you shall be unto you "as one born among you", and thou shalt love him as thyself; for ye were strangers in the land of Egypt: I am the LORD your God.

So if the "Levite Priests" had taught God's Commandments, instead of their own, there would have been no "Wall of Separation" between Faithful Jews and Faithful Gentiles. There would be a faithful people, and a Priesthood who provided for them, as they were commanded by God to do, while they waited for the Prophesied Priest of God "After the Order of Melchizedek" that Moses told them about.

But they didn't rallian. They, that is, the Rulers of the Temple in the city of David, corrupted the Priesthood Covenant of Levi, had departed out of the Way God instructed them to go, they led many astray, they caused "Many" to stumble at God's Laws, they created their own religion, their own high days, their own judgments and their own commandments which relegated the Non-Jew as "without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world". And they called their religion, "The Law of Moses".

Jesus Exposed these "children of the Devil" that professed to know God, HE "spoiled the principalities and powers" that deceived so many people, he made a shew "of them" openly, triumphing "over them" in it.

As they declared, "WE have a Law, and by OUR Law, Jesus should be Killed". But His Father Raised Him from the Dead, causing HIM to "Triumph over them", exposing and Nailing to His Cross forever, the commandments of men they taught for doctrines. Which exposed to greatest religious sect of the world, in the time of Jesus and Paul, as children of the devil.

To believe Bob and the other "many" voices, who come in Christ's Name, in the world God placed me in, I would have to believe that it was God, whose Commandments relegated faithful Gentiles as "without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world". I know this to be a lie, as I have read His Commandments, and I have challenged others to provide a commandment of God who relegated a faithful Non-Jew as "without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world". And no one can provide one, because God's Commandments teach just the opposite.

I would have to believe the principality and Power that Jesus Spoiled, was the Power of God. I would have to believe that Jesus made a show "OF God and HIS Words" Openly on the Cross. I would have to believe that HE triumphed over "GOD and His instruction in righteousness that Jesus Lived By, and instructed me to Live By" in His Death and Resurrection.

Why would I do that, unless another voice in the garden God placed me in, had convinced me that God is a Liar. I used to believe men like Bob, Wherein in time past I walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience".

But Jesus nailed the "coarse of this world" and the commandments of the prince of the power of the air, to His Cross.

AV1611VET · 2025-07-11T08:28:32-0500

rockytopva said:
NASA, SpaceX targeting July 31 for launch of Crew-11 astronaut mission to ISS... The question is... Do they feel lucky?

Hebrews 11:1 Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.

Richard T · 2025-07-11T08:08:58-0500

ozso said:
In my line of work which I've been doing for over 30 years, I've worked with innumerable people who came here from another country. And I know the industry if full of them. And I know the background checks we have to pass are way too stringent for them to have not achieved full citizenship.

I too admit it is still possible to get a U.S. visa and citizenship. However, that is harder now than at most previous times. Some though are locked out like this pastor. He had temporary status and Congress never paved the way to make it possible for him since he was illegal twice and likely banned. Without Congress all Biden and Obama could offer was a bandaid. Trump follows the law more strictly and seeks to remove the temporary status of hundreds of thousands. So here we are. Some prefer Trump's actions, others do not.

Michie · 2025-07-11T08:08:44-0500

Two sisters who attended St. Rita Catholic School in Dallas were among the victims of the Texas Hill Country flash floods that have devastated parts of the state, the school confirmed in a statement on Saturday.

Blair Harber, 13, and Brooke Harber, 11, were vacationing with their parents and grandparents on the Guadalupe River near Hunt, Texas. The flash flood raised the river more than 22 feet in half an hour in the early morning hours of July 4, dislodging and carrying away their cabin, in which they were staying with their grandparents.

They were discovered in Kerrville, 15 miles from their cabin community, with their hands clasped together, according to reports.

Their grandparents, Charlene and Mike Harber, have yet to be found.

Continued below.

2 sisters, Catholic school students, lost in Texas flood remembered for faith

Two sisters who attended St. Rita Catholic School in Dallas were among the victims of the Texas Hill Country flash floods that have devastated parts of the state.

www.catholicnewsagency.com

SarahsKnight · 2025-07-11T08:04:17-0500

.Iona. said:
Hey, I'm new here. Been feeling sad about being single but praying for God to show me what His plans are for me.

Hello all

Then, welcome, Miss .Iona. *bows*

The community's gotten a lot more scarce these days than it used to be, but even so, we're glad to see a new face. ^-^
Hope you find your time here both welcoming and worthwhile. :angel:

FireDragon76 · 2025-07-11T07:59:24-0500

bèlla said:
At what point in my response did I mention the Jesus prayer or a specific practice? You jumped the gun.

~bella

Psychophysical discipline and asceticism are part of praying the Jesus Prayer, as it is traditionally practiced. These aren't necessarily "new age", just because they are foreign to certain western forms of Christian (often Protestant) religion. Many forms of Christianity are embodied in practice, and not merely intellectual or affectivel/emotional; even the body participates in sanctification and glorification.

By psychophysical discipline, I mean certain ways of praying the Jesus Prayer involve:

1) posture, often bowing the head or closing the eyes
2) breath control (sometimes, though not always)
3) nespsis and apatheia (mindfulness and inner calm)
4) placing the focus on the heart (the physical heart, not just as a metaphor).
5) use of a rope or prayer beads (often, but not always).

Michie · 2025-07-11T07:42:52-0500

*You are in the Catholic forum*

If we believe we have to ‘honor the Sabbath day,’ why aren’t Catholics obliged to attend Mass on Saturday instead of Sunday?

One of the most appealing teachings of the Seventh-day Adventist denomination is their insistence that Christians must obey the Ten Commandments . . . all ten of them. They rightly expose the errant thinking among many Protestant Christian sects that claims, “We don’t have to keep the Ten Commandments for salvation anymore.”

Of course, Jesus has a reminder for us:

And behold, one came up to him, saying, “Teacher, what good deed must I do, to have eternal life?” And [Jesus] said to him . . . “If you would enter life, keep the commandments” (Matt. 19:16-17).

Given our agreement on this point, the Seventh-day Adventist commonly asks: “If you believe we have to keep the Fourth (our Third) Commandment, why aren’t Catholics obliged to attend Mass on Saturdays instead of Sunday?”

We can draw our first source from the the Catechism, which declares,

Since they express man’s fundamental duties towards God and towards his neighbor, the Ten Commandments reveal, in their primordial content, grave obligations. They are fundamentally immutable, and they oblige always and everywhere. No one can dispense from them. The Ten Commandments are engraved by God in the human heart (2072).

Thus, the Third Commandment is “fundamentally immutable” because it’s one of the Ten Commandments, which Jesus said we must follow to attain everlasting life. However, the Catholic Church teaches the particular day we celebrate in keeping the Third Commandment to be ceremonial, or an accidental component of the law that is changeable. Here’s how the Catechism puts it:

Continued below.

Sunday Is Not the Sabbath

If we believe we have to "honor the Sabbath day," why aren’t Catholics obliged to attend Mass on Saturday instead of Sunday?

www.catholic.com

ViaCrucis · 2025-07-11T07:39:44-0500

David Lamb said:
I know very little about artificial intelligence, but I thought that any information AI has to work with came in the first instance from human beings. The idea that AI can "believe" something sounds extremely unlikely to me.

AI can't believe, because AI can't think or reason, AI isn't alive.

-CryptoLutheran

d taylor · 2025-07-11T07:27:13-0500

-

What Type of Salvation Is James Talking About? – Grace Evangelical Society

The bottom line is this: salvation in James refers to the deliverance of born again people from God’s wrath. James is not talking about what we do to be born again except for a brief reference in James 1:18. Regardless of one’s theological persuasion, anyone who reads James with eyes to see will discern that James is talking about blessings and curses in this life. The only way to miss that is to be blinded by one’s tradition. Compare John 5:39-40.

HAWK2567 · 2025-07-11T07:21:21-0500

Canada is my home
And I am proud to live in Canada
I have been living living in Canada
For 45 years
Also I have friends
That are also Canadian
And Canada is a country that is not in war
We have peace keepers
That are fighting over seas
To work towards peace

Michie · 2025-07-11T07:11:47-0500

Have you ever actually read the entire terms of use for a new app on your phone? If so, did you understand everything in it? Even if you didn't, you probably still checked that you would “read and agree” to everything in the document. This kind of half-hearted consent is similar to what happens for a lot of Catholics every Sunday. When we get to the creed, many Catholics aren’t really paying attention to what their words mean, but are merely going through the motions. We all know it happens, but the real question is - if we aren’t giving our consent, can we have real conversion?

The answer is no. This is because conversion requires our consent.
Unlike a legal contract, conversion requires more than an outward act.

WHAT IS CONVERSION?
The root of the word “convert” means to “turn around”, “change”, or “transform”. Think of turning from sin, death, evil, and hell to now orient yourself toward God, grace, goodness, virtue, heaven, and everlasting life. It is the transformation of the human heart, by an act of God's grace.

Thus, we sometimes call one who becomes Catholic a “convert” which means they have turned from their previous beliefs and now are Catholic. We all know that many of the most vibrant Catholics have come from other faith traditions or no faith at all, to become Catholics. Why are they so vibrant? It is because they had to consent to becoming Catholics and their consent made all the difference. Consent is found in responding with a “yes” to an invitation by Jesus.

Notice the dynamic of conversion in the Bible:

Continued below.

https://catholicmissionarydisciples.com/news/conversion

Michie · 2025-07-11T06:58:31-0500

The three priests of Taybeh in the West Bank issued an urgent appeal for justice this week after Israeli settlers reportedly escalated their acts of violence and intimidation against Christians in the region’s only remaining all-Christian town.

“We, the priests of the three churches of Taybeh — the Greek Orthodox Church, the Latin Church, and the Melkite Greek Catholic Church — raise our voices on behalf of the people of our town and our parishioners to strongly condemn the ongoing and grave series of attacks targeting Taybeh,” the three pastors wrote in a letter.

Continued below.

Priests of West Bank’s only remaining all-Christian town issue urgent appeal against Israeli settler violence

ShareThe three priests of Taybeh in the West Bank issued an urgent appeal for justice this week after Israeli settlers reportedly escalated their acts of violence…

catholicvote.org

Michie · 2025-07-11T06:53:41-0500

Today is July 11, the Memorial of Saint Benedict, Abbot.

We read at today’s Mass, “‘Behold, I am sending you like sheep in the midst of wolves; so be shrewd as serpents and simple as doves'” (Mt 10:16).

That line describes St. Benedict perfectly — a man who founded an entire movement by combining wisdom and humility. But it also brings to mind Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati.

Pier Giorgio wasn’t afraid to live his faith boldly. Though gentle in spirit, he stood with clarity and conviction. In today’s world, living that way — meek and courageous — is like being a sheep among wolves. But Pier Giorgio shows us it’s possible. And part of what gave him that strength was the way he encountered God in nature, especially in the mountains.

A sacred space

Continued below.

Encounter God in the heart of creation

The wisdom of St. Benedict and the faith of Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati inspire encountering God in the quiet strength of his creation.

www.oursundayvisitor.com

Michie · 2025-07-11T06:49:27-0500

Follow St. Benedict down the humble path to greatness

Discover how St. Benedict's rule of prayer, work and humility reveals the path to true freedom through discipline and obedience to God.

www.oursundayvisitor.com

Quasiblogo · 2025-07-11T06:44:44-0500

timothyu said:
I agree, but we are also told to put the Kingdom into practice, acting in servitude to the Father and each other in need.

Not to be coy, Timothyu, be for me, that’s the answer. We know there’s no cookie cutter approach to how to practice and serve, although the light of the Scriptures gives guard rails. Okay, there are concrete things to say, but we cannot exhaust them—the Spirit of Messiah in us being that creative.

Michie · 2025-07-11T06:42:54-0500

Hail Mary,
Full of Grace,
The Lord is with thee.
Blessed art thou among women,
and blessed is the fruit
of thy womb, Jesus.
Holy Mary,
Mother of God,
pray for us sinners now,
and at the hour of our death.
Amen

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A crisis of faith: ICE raids force some churches to take ‘extraordinary’ action

If we believe we have to ‘honor the Sabbath day,’ why aren’t Catholics obliged to attend Mass on Saturday instead of Sunday?

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