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Show 85: How are we to obtain eternal happiness · The Uncensored Catholic

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A, Hey, y'all, welcome today's show. Will get write it back
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into Father Sparago's wonderful explanation of the Catechism in just a moment. But let's
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start, as we always do, with two or three questions and answers from
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the classic book Radio Replies. You know, I think one of the reasons
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I like followed Sparago's book so much written about the eighteen nineties and the Radio
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Replies series, the first of which was published in I think nineteen thirty one.
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It's kind of before the world went crazy, you know, when you
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think about it, Catholicism was far more orthodox. We didn't have all the
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controversies of a Vatican two and are you a traditional or norvis ordo? We
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didn't have novus ordo. We didn't have any of that. Okay, you
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know, yeah, World War wonted happened, but that was like a large
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scale traditional European conflict that America got sucked into. By the time, you
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know, the world went crazy after I mean, sure, yeah, it
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started with the French Revolution. We can definitely go back that, but I'm
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saying most of the world was still very traditional and rooted and grounded in traditional
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Christian morals, whether they were Catholic, a Protestant, or even non religious,
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because their culture was Christian throughout Europe, throughout the United States, you
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know, yeah, there was nietzschee, there was all, you know,
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all that kind of stuff you had learn in school, Darwin and all that,
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but ninety five percent of the population was still living pretty much a said
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grandparents had, you know. I mean, this was like by the nineteen
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thirties. Yeah, the Industrial Revolution is well under way. Things are changing
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rapidly, but morals were still grounded. And then, of course, you
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know, did we get into the communist revolutions and the Nazis and the fascists
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and the progressives in America, And I mean you got to remember in the
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nineteen thirties, you know, Harvard was still a very Christian university where they
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taught theology. All the Ivy League colleges were Oxford was for Pete's sake,
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I mean, you know, by nineteen fifty, following the world wars,
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following especially the Second World War and the rise of communism, which of course
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began in the eighteen nineties, ran along with Father of Spiago, but it
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didn't take hold right away. Obviously, a little bit before then. Actually,
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it was really about the time of the Civil War, around the eighteen
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sixties. But the neolistic, modernistah, progressive, communist, socialist, whatever
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you want to call it, liberal, which is really a bad term.
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The classical liberal is not the modern liberal. It is not the progressive.
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But that doesn't test either here or there. These books were written for an
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audience that had not yet lost its mind. Was put in that way compared
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to what we see and what we hear, even within our own churches today,
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like the German bishops and all that nonsense. People had not yet lost
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their minds. So anyway, the questioner though, very interestingly this is okay.
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So one of the first movements I've actually talked about this before anti Catholic,
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major anti Catholic movements in the United States and England, especially where it
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was the Temperance movement outlawing alcohol. It was a socialist, progressive movement couched
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in Christian terms, like with the Salvation Army. Several of its leaders,
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the founder will not come to me right now, but it's thought leaders were
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very anti Catholic. You know, you outlaw wine and you can't have the
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Eucharist. You know, they took over public education. You know, they
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advocated for very much associated with the Suffragette movement of giving women the right to
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vote. Sure, hey, as far as iverser, women have the right
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to vote, but our laws at the time we were still a republican non
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democracy. As a republic, property owners had the right to vote. We
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did not have a universal franchise. And since we became a democracy giving everyone
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the right to vote, you know what did tatak will say? Democracy can
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only exist until the people realize they can vote themselves money out of the treasury.
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Non property owners, people without a stake in the game, skin in
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the game, as they say, People who don't pay, who don't pay
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income taxes, who only pay sales tax usually may not even pay property taxes,
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suddenly had as way a vote as someone who worked themselves to death to
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establish a home and property for their family, to give jobs to other people,
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an intelligent leader of their community. Suddenly the bomb on the street had
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the same You know, someone lived in the housing projects had the same right
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so called to vote. Which is a principal democracy, not a republican form
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of government. Remember when Benjamin Franklin left the Constutional Convention and was asked,
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what have you wrought. People actually used to talk like that because they were
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educated. He said, a republic if you can keep it. Not a
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democracy. Okay, you may be surprised if you don't know history. Basically,
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we used to the people who were eligible to vote, and there was
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an eligibility test and requirements, voted for their state legislature and usually their congressmen.
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The state legislature then chose their senators. You didn't vote for your senator,
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and then the senators elected the president. Congress essentially elected the president.
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We did not have popular vote the way it's interpreted today and all this crap
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they're talking on TV about how Donald Trump broke the law because he challenged election
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results and he's overthrowing democracy. One, what he did was perfectly legal and
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constitutional. He didn't do anything that Hillary Clinton didn't do four years earlier,
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and Democrats have been doing all along. And two, we're not a freaking
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democracy. People were a republic. Democracy is the anathema. It is the
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antithesis of what our founding fathers created in the Constitution, as outlined in It's
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in the Decoration of Independence and especially the Federalist papers whenever you hear Joe Scarborough
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say you know Donald Trump's an enemy of democracy, turn your TV off.
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I would say, turn to another channel, but you probably don't have a
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decent news channel. I mean where I live, we only got the big
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names. You know, Fox, which is a total sellout, worse in
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many ways in CNN. Fox is totally anti Trump, anti religion, pro
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gay marriage, pro abortion. I haven't watched Fox in over three years,
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and I'll never turned on again, except for Maria barb Romo on Sunday mornings
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because that's I still like watching her shows. That's it. No Fox and
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Friends, No, absolutely, No Brian Kilmeade or Doucey there. Man,
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you talk traders. Benedict Arnold a trumpted everything for them, everything, and
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then they turned turned on him and and his voters like me. No,
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So I don't get Newsmax where I live. It's okay. News Max is
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good. Real America's voice is better. I watched that online Frank speech Mike
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Lindell's channel. Yes, the you know he doesn't think much of Catholicism.
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I don't think he's a very evangelical Christian. Brandon House is somewhat anti Catholic
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actually, but you get good news from them with with their own slant,
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and you know, war room dot org uh fantastic. Steve Bannon is the
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best thing we got going now. And he is a traditional Catholic, believe
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it or not. His his show and Jack Pasovic show are very Catholic,
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very Catholic, and very maga, very pro make America great again. You
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know, if you've got a problem with making America great again, maybe I
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would to decide whose side you're on. But anyway, this person references one
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of those progressive thinkers of the era. Ingersoll said that the moment we admit
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that a book is too sacred to be doubted, we are mental serfs.
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Well, it may have progress us the wrong word. It's a little bit
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earlier than that, but you know, same mindset. Anyway, they said,
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so Ingersoll said that, did he? Well the point is what did
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he? What? If he did? Say? It is ingersol so infallible?
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Has he any more authority than other men that you should attach such talismanic
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value to his words? Or do you regard this as a solemn ex cathedra
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ex cathedral you know from the cathedral utterance binding all irrational men throughout the world.
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They're pretty sharp, you know, these guys. They had sharp tongues.
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A couple of priests. We really need priests like them these days.
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And wait until we get into Father Spirago's absolute condemnation of Freemasonry and communism.
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He's going to blow your mind. I mean, they did not pull punches
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back then. These were masculine Christians. These were men who were willing to
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fight. They were willing to cast the money changers out of the temple.
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They were willing to die as martyrs to defend the faith. It was none
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of this wishy washy. You know, Pope Francis go on to get along,
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act like everybody's okay, be inclusive, have a synod on signidality,
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and he may as well as bet an ice cream with Joe Biden. Okay,
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okay, said it before. I accept him as legitimate pope. I'm
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not a set of agonists. But I don't think he's a good pope.
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I don't think he's a good pope at all. He's not Pope in I
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think the sixteenth that's for sure. God's Rottweiler he is not, Nor is
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he. Uh you know. A friend of mine started calling him John Paul
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the Great, and I think it's yes, I think he deserves that title.
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Pope Saint John Paul the Second should absolutely be called Pope Saint John Paul
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the Second the Great. I guess I don't know how you get the second
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in there in the grade at the same time. But yeah, Pope Pious
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the tenth, he certainly is not. Pope Pius the tenth would probably take
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his cane and beat Pope Francis to a pulp. I'm just saying, the
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man who wrote the Oath against Modernism would not be putting up with Pocky Mama
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or whatever that idol was he brought in there. You know, whatever people
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say, it's always not an idol. It's representation of culture. That's not
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how it was portrayed and displayed at all. It's not how it was portrayed
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and displayed. We got some problems, we got some real problems in the
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Vatican, and my friend in Rome says it all comes down to Freemasonry,
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that the Freemasons have so infected the Church and undermined Orthodoxy in every way that
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Jesus Christ found it will stand for all time, until the end of the
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world, and will be prevented from error by the Holy Spirit. But the
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Catholics got to get a whole lot more active. There's a great group called
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Catholics for Catholics. Check it out. For some reason, the bishops in
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the person's diocese who founded it don't like it. They don't think Catholics should
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actually be for Catholic teaching. Yeah, we got a problem there, We've
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got a big problem. But anyway, question number two. If God is
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the author of the Bible, why did he select words with several meanings knowing
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this would ultimately cause confusion and skepticism. That's not a bad question either,
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actually, but you have to remember it's not words with different meanings, it's
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different interpretations of those words. In many cases due to languages. When Jesus
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spoken Aramaic, his words were far more clear than when they were translated into
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Greek and then translate again into Latin. But anyway, let's see what they
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say. The progress and mutation of an essentially variable human language is unavoidable.
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There you go. They just said it better than I did. And God
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did know that changing mentalities of subsequent generations would lead to confusion. To obviate
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this danger, he could do one of two things. He could stabilize the
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human race. He could stabilize human reason and prevent each human being from mistake
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in the original sense. Or he could establish certain men to teach in his
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name, and finally, if necessary, an infallible tribunal which men could consult
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in matters of religion. He chose the letter. You know, God doesn't
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interfere with hum free will. If you want to misunderstand the Bible, He's
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gonna let you. But he gave us the Church to teach infallibly. He
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chose the latter course, and thus never intended Scripture to be the ultimate guide
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in religious belief. The Bible alone sola scriptura, which is the foundation of
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protidant doctrine, as I've said so many times, is untenable. It falls
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apart for one reason. The Bible didn't say it was the sole authority.
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It said the Church was the Philip Pillarn foundation of the truth. I mean,
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well, anyway, and it repeatedly tells Christians in the New Testament to
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obey their bishops and listen to their teachings, and not to form schisms or
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take the scriptures out of context. But anyway, he said, they say
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men who will not accept the Catholic Church but insist on puzzling out the sense
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for themselves have only themselves to blame if they endim skepticism. If the government
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establishes an inquiry office as a guide to the city and a complete stranger refuses
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to use its services, he is to blame if he gets lost. Very
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common sense. A person goes on read the Bible, and you will soon
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admit that God could not possibly be the author of such a book. They
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answer, I have read it many times. You know, protesn'ts say Catholics
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don't read the Bible. We're actually basically commanded by papal authority to read the
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Bible. Ignorance of God, ignorance of scriptures, ignorance of God. But
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it's also read to us at every mass. You know. Another reason the
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whole Sola scripture argument follows apart is. First of all, Jesus didn't hand
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his disciples of Bible. It was and compiled and published by the Church over
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a period of nearly four hundred years at least three hundred depending on how you
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added up, and then propagated out to the churches and read aloud by the
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priests who would then explain to people what the words meant. And it was
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about eighteen hundred years one thousand, eight hundred years before most people in the
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world, in the Western world we're not even talking China and Africa, South
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America. We're talking Western Europe, and to some exit the United States could
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read were literate. If Jesus had just appeared and had this amazing ministry with
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healing miracles and all that, and handed people a Bible, it never would
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have gotten. There would be no Christianity because no one could read it.
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The few people that could read it did not have the I mean, if
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that was it. The few people that could read it will each have their
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own interpretation. He established his church to tell you what the Bible means,
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and to give you a Bible, and to give you the sacrament so you
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can be saved and go to heaven, which the Bible actually says, unless
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you eat of my body and drink of my blood, you have no life
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in you. Unless you partake of the eu Chrius, you will not be
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saved. And yet Protestants deny that. Protestants deny the words of the Bible.
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Those who sends you forgive, they are forgiven and those who sends you
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retain, they are retained. Which you bind on earth, We bound on
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earth. And what loose in heaven will be loose in heaven. Bind in
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heaven. I'm getting my tongue tied. But the words of the Bible actually
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give the authority the basis for the one true Catholic Church that gives you the
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Bible. Without the Catholic Church, you don't have a Bible. You have
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no way of understanding what's in it, what it means, and you actually
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have no religious tradition that's been passed on to you from your parents and grandparents
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and great great grandparents. The Bible never says go to church on Sunday.
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The Bible never explains the Trinity. It's mentioned twice, I think, but
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it doesn't tell you what it means. The Bible doesn't give you the Apostles
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Creed. The Bible doesn't give you Christmas in Easter for that matter. You're
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a Christian. Tradition that you grew up in is Catholic. Whether you're a
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Baptist or a Methodist, or a Lutheran or a Seven day Adventist. Even
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though you will deny Sunday worship, your Bible that you base that on comes
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from the Catholic Church. Anyway, they answer, I have read it many
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times, but nothing in the Bible disproves the fact of its inspiration. It
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may be difficult to secure the right interpretation of certain passages or to grasp the
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principles involved, but our difficulty in comprehending everything, difficulty which is to be
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expected, avails nothing against the known fact that the Bible is the word of
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God. And why do we know the Bible's the word of God because the
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Catholic Church says so. The only reason the Lutherans and the Anglicans and the
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Baptists and the Presbyterians and the Methodists, etc. Etc. Believe that the
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Bible's word of God is because the Catholic Church gave them the Bible and said
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this is the word of God. There's no Bible without the Catholic Church.
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There's no authority that says of the authenticity of the Bible without the Catholic Church.
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That is why several saints have said there is no salvation outside of the
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Catholic Church, because all salvation comes from the Catholic Church. Even if a
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Protestant is to be saved it's using the tools and doctrines and beliefs of the
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Catholic Church, the power of the Catholic Church given to it by Jesus Christ.
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So now let's see what Father Sparago has to tell us today. And
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by the way, my voice is a little froggy. I got a little
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bronchitis going on. At least I'm not coughing my head off like I have
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been so clear my throat, and a sip is something to drink. And
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we'll see, Father Sparago begins, how are we to attain eternal happiness?
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What does everyone want but eternal happiness? Eternal happiness consists in union with God
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through the exercise of the intellect, contemplating God and the will loving Him.
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It's a actually a unique Christian principle. Okay, you remember when George W.
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Bush came out and made his freaking moronic, idiotic speech after nine to
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eleven in which he said Islam means love. Actually, Islam does not mean
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love. It means obedience. If you want to get to the meaning of
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the word in its original language, it means obedience and very very similarly to
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how you know, the ancient Jews understood the Law, the Ten Commandments,
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Salvation was gone through obedience to God. In the Hindu religion, they don't
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have a love of God. They have a devotion to several gods. In
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Buddhism, well, I always say, they're like, I don't know a
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thousand different schools of Buddhism that can be as different as night and day.
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Some Buddhists worship Hindu gods because Buddhism comes from Hinduism, and some actually worship
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the Buddha himself, who was just a man and never said otherwise. And
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some are idle worshipers actually, and some are more in the zen Buddhist category,
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and they don't even say if there's a God or not. Okay,
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it's more of a philosophy. But we could go down the list of different
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religions. You can go back to the ancient Greek and Roman gods. You
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can go to the Egyptian gods, and they had duties they imposed upon people,
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honor, people were supposed to show them. Love of God, love
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of God for man, and love of man for God is a very radical
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concept in the way that we understand it as Christians. And in this case
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he's explaining because God respects our intellect, our free will. Part of our
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union with God comes through the exerci eyes that the intellect. In contemplating God.
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We have to exercise our intellect, use our minds to meditate on the
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nature of God, if you will, his creation of the universe, our
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role in that universe, et cetera. And this is the key point,
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the will loving Him. The human being has a choice. It has a
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free will. You can choose to love God or not. You also make
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choice if you choose to be indifferent. Eternal happiness, as Father Sparaga said,
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consists in the union with God through the exercise of the intellect and contemplating
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God and the will loving Him. If we wish to attain it, we
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must begin to draw near to it. In this life. We must seek
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to know and love God. Of God consists in keeping his commandments. Jesus
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said, if you love me, you will keep my commandments that went beyond
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You know what God said to Moses, and Moses told the people, you
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know you'll keep these commandments, for God will punish you. This actually said,
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if you love me, you will keep my commandments. From this,
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it follows that we shall attain to eternal happiness by the following means. We
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must strive to know God by means of faith and the truth He has revealed
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to us. Our Lord says, this is eternal life, that they may
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know thee the only True God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.
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It's from the Gospel of John. What is to say the knowledge.
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That is to say, the knowledge of God brings man to eternal happiness.
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Two, we must fulfill the will of God by keeping his commandments, our
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Lord says to the rich young man, if thou wilt enter into life,
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enter into life, keep the commandments by means of our strength. We can
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neither believe nor keep the commandments. For this we need the grace of God.
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Another uniquely Christian concept is grace, the free gift of God that we
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cannot merit on our own. By the way, even Adam and even the
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state of innocence needed the help of grace. He who travels to a distant
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country, besides his own exertions, needs money for the journey. The farmer
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cannot cultivate his land without the aid of sunshine and rain. Man too,
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has a special weakness by reason of original sin. This makes grace the more
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indispensable. The blind man needs a guide, the sick man strengthening food.
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We are like a man who, through weakness, has fallen to the ground
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and has no power of himself to rise. We must look around for one
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to aid him. So our Lord tells us, without me, you can
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do nothing. As the sun is necessary to the earth to enlighten and warm
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it, so grace is necessary to our soul. We obtain the grace of
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God through the means of grace instituted by Jesus Christ. Something. I had
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conversation with Philip over it miss your day the other day, and I had
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just made a broad statement. You know, grace is obtained through the sacraments,
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and he reminded me that grace is also obtained through belief and prayer.
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Very true, God gives us grace in many ways, but the fullness of
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the graces given to us by God come only through the sacraments of the Catholic
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Church, beginning with baptism and confirmation, and then the Eucharist and reconciliation confession.
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The reason we have so many divorces and failed marriages in this country today
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are because the sacrament of marriage, instituting the Catholic Church is a sacrament,
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just like baptism or confirmations, a permanent binding together of two people, and
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the grace given to those two people is sufficient to maintain that relationship. Without
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the grace given to us for the sacrament of marriage, a man's relationship,
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man and woman are doomed to failed relationships. I mean, that's what it
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comes down to. And we can look and see that among the group with
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the highest divorce rate in America are Evangelical Protestants. Yeah, the most spirit
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fielled, excited in love with God. Of all the Protestants have the highest
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divorce rate. If they had the sacrament of marriage as institute through the Catholic
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Church, they would receive the grace for that not to be the case,
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but they'd also receive instruction. They'd have about a year of marriage counseling.
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The priests may say you two, you shouldn't get married, and he won't
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marry him. You know, there is a lot of reasons what Catholic marriages
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generally last longer than Protestant marriages. One is that Protestants believe divorce is okay,
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and Catholics, who at least are orthodox and faithful to the teachers of
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the church, don't you know, in extreme cases and annoyment may be acceptable,
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but divorce was prohibited by Jesus in all four Gospels. Only the Catholic
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Church still teach us that, even the Orthodox, even the Orthodox Church.
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My good friend who's Eastern Orthodox, explained to me that, you know,
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she basically had a trial marriage with her husband when she was in college,
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and they were allowed to be divorced because they're both Orthodox. They don't see
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the sacrament of marriage the same way as the Catholic Church, you know.
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And I told my priests that, and he said, you know, you
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really you can't date her because in the eyes of the church, she's still
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married. She'll have to get an annoyment through a Catholic church or you're both
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committing adultery or in danger of And I'm like, oh, boy, being
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Catholics harder than I even realized. Yeah, it is, it is.
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It's hard. Jesus said it would be. So we obtain through the means
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of grace institute by Jesus Christ, which is his Church, and the sacraments,
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and prayer and belief and read the Bible and you know, various things,
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but especially through the Eucharist more than anything else. Number three, We
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must therefore avail ourselves with the means of grace, of which the chief are
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holy masks, of sacraments and prayer. And if anyone wants to take issue
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when I say you can receive grace just through belief, because it does tend
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to be like the Tenant Protestantism. Just remember Abraham says in the Bible he
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believed in God and it was afforded to him as righteousness. So yes,
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you can but receive grace through belief in God alone. But you will receive
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the fullness of grace through the sacraments of the Catholic Church. So we must
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avail ourselves of Mass, the sacraments, in prayer. The means of grace
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are a channel through which grace is conveyed to our souls. Faith is the
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road which leads to heaven. The commandments are like signposts by the way.
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The means of grace are the money for the journey. The way that leads
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to life is narrow and thorny. The way that leads to destruction is broad,
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And many are they who go in thereat. Okay, so follows Rago's
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sometimes translation of the scripture is not familiar to our modern ears. I mean,
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like they're act We don't use words like that anymore. I will try
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to remember, like when he spells Noah you know e instead of you know
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h, he is that right? Ah? I'm dyslexic. Sorry, I
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can't see the word in my head. Did y'all know I'm dyslexic. By
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the way, it is actually through the grace of God that I can read
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from a book to you, or I can write and make my living as
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an author. I am so dyslexic. I can't do basic math, so
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this is actually somewhat of a miracle. But getting back to a way what
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I was saying, Father Spiaga doesn't spell Noah, for instance, as we
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would. He spells it the old way n o e. So I'll try
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to catch myself and not say no when it's Noah you know or Noah or
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whatever. But yeah, sometimes his wording will be a little odd. It
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is also true that he who desires happiness must have religion. Religion consists in
33:00
a knowledge of God and a life corresponding to the will of God. Religion
33:05
is not a matter of feeling. I remember, we just boy did we
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go through that one the last show of last week. I pretty much rip
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people up one side and now on the other for saying I feel this instead
33:16
of I know it to be true. Religion is not a matter of feeling.
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It is a matter of will and of action, and consists in following
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our principles that God has laid down. Following out the principles that God has
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laid down. Mere knowledge does not constitute religion, else the devil would have
33:35
religion. Think about the devil actually believes in God. In many ways,
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the devil was more religious than most modern Americans who are atheists or agnostic.
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Yeah, he believes in God and then rebels against God. Yeah, So
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I mean think about that next time you're debating with an atheist who says an
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atheist can be good and doesn't have to have religion to be good. Remind
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them the author of evil even leasing God and they don't even go that far.
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Yeah. Oh well, okay, I go on that in tangent for
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a while. The service of God is necessarily included in it. We do
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not call him man a baseball player or a cricketer because he knows the rules
34:16
and nature of the game. Practice is also acquired. That's a great point.
34:20
I love Fellow Sparago. He says things like that, we do not
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call hi man a baseball player just because he knows the rules of the game.
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I've never understood cricket. Okay, so I don't even know the rules
34:31
of the game. Beautiful game, but I don't even understand it. I
34:35
absolutely love rugby, by the way, and I have no idea how that
34:37
game's played, even though I played it for about five years, I never
34:42
understood the rules. So one can actually be a rugby player without understanding the
34:47
rules of the game. So I think that just further emphasizes Fallow Sparago's point
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that the practice of religion is more important than the knowledge of religion. It
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is also true that he desires should be happy, must strive to be like
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God. Man becomes like to God when all his thought and action resemble the
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demand the divine thought and action. This command the commandments of God are a
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mirror in which we recognize whether our actions are like or unlike those of God.
35:24
Beautifully said, you know, I'm reading Thomas's Kempus. Thomas Thomas kempuses
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on the imitation of Christ ors It's usually just called The Imitation of Christ.
35:37
And that's what's all about, you know, kind of looking at these simple,
35:42
simply profound. That's why Kempus's book has been popular, I guess since
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the fourteen hundreds. He gives you these profound truths in a way that's so
35:51
simple a child can understand them. And it's a beautiful book. It's a
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short book. If you're going to read, well, probably if you're going
35:59
to read one religious book this year other than the Bible, the Catechism,
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whatever, and you haven't read The Imitation of Christ, you should absolutely read
36:08
The Imitation of Christ. Yeah, it's just fantastic. And you look at
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what are the qualities of Jesus and how am I imitating them or failing so
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to do? And I think the thing about campus is he can meet you
36:27
at whatever level, from the new Christian or like probably a nine year old
36:32
kid, to you know, a theologian with advanced degrees, or I mean
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many of the saints. Several saints have been very inspired by that book.
36:43
Definitely picked that one up. So y'all, I'm gonna wrap it up here.
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In the words of Saint Padre Pio, pray, hope, and don't
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worry and I will talk to you on OMAR