Latest / The Uncensored Catholic / Show 251: The Stations of The Cross
Transcript
- 0:54Speaker 1: A by all, welcome this week's show. Today we will
- 1:03talk about the Way of the Cross, which is of
- 1:05course one of our most important Catholic devotionals. Before we
- 1:10do that, we're going to get back into the book
- 1:12radio replies where the Protestant and atheist questioners are asking
- 1:18the priests about the subject of marriage, and this one says,
- 1:22did not the Pope grant divorces to Leuis the twelfth
- 1:26and Henry the fourth of France, and very nearly to
- 1:29Henry the eighth of England, being prevented in this case
- 1:33by fear of Charles the fifth. And they answer, the
- 1:37two prior marriages you mentioned were declared to have been
- 1:40null and void from the beginning. Therefore no true marriage
- 1:43had ever existed. Lewis the twelfth proved conclusively that he
- 1:47had not been a free agent, having been compelled by
- 1:50his father Lewis the eleventh, to submit to the ceremony.
- 1:54So too, the first marriage of Henry the fourth was
- 1:57declared nol and void because Marguerite did v A L.
- 2:04O I s had been forced into the marriage by
- 2:07her mother, Queen Catherine for political purposes. The free consent
- 2:11of both parties is necessary for a true and binding
- 2:14marriage contract. In the case of Henry the eighth, the
- 2:19power of Charles the fifth was a motive why his
- 2:22marriage with Catherine of Aragon should not have been declared
- 2:24noel with out rigid proofits of its invalidity. At the
- 2:28same time, the enmity of Henry was to be avoided
- 2:31if at all possible, and theologians did all they could
- 2:35to see whether the first marriage's first marriage were null
- 2:40and void, but it was impossible, and at the risk
- 2:43of losing England to the Holy See, a negative decision
- 2:46had to be given. Henry promptly declared himself head of
- 2:49the Church of England and took the divorce. Rome refused
- 2:52to grant person. Aska did not the pope given a
- 2:57Napoleon divorce, and they say no. Napoleon married Josephine in
- 3:01seventeen ninety six, a marriage validated by a dispensation from
- 3:06the Pope. From that marriage, Napoleon never secured any divorce
- 3:10by lawful ecclesiastical authority. He forced a declaration of nullity
- 3:15from some unauthorized clerics, and they put him through a
- 3:18second marriage ceremony in eighteen ten, But this attempted remarriage
- 3:23was a mockery. The whole thing was a violation of
- 3:26the laws of the Church, and the Church has never
- 3:28acknowledged the second marriage is valid at all. And the
- 3:31person asked Marconi secured a divorce and was remarried to
- 3:35the Catholic Church, and they answer Marconi secured a degree
- 3:40of civil divorce from the state, but for the Catholic
- 3:43Church he secured a degree of nullity. The civil divorce
- 3:46broke no real bond of marriage, but merely released the
- 3:49parties from any further civil obligations. The Church declared that
- 3:53in the form of marriage Marconi went through with Miss
- 3:56Beatrice O'Brien on teen nineteen oh five was null and void,
- 4:03and that both were really single people mistakenly believing themselves
- 4:06to be married. Nullity was proven by sworn evidence given
- 4:10by Marconi Beatrice or Beatrice O'Brien, a Protestant. In many witnesses,
- 4:15the defect of the first marriage was not that it
- 4:18took place in an Anglican Church, but that neither party
- 4:21consented to a marriage until death. In the Christian sense
- 4:23of the word. They attempted to contract a marriage until
- 4:27they should grow tired of each other. Both lacking the
- 4:30knowledge that such a temporary contract is not a valid
- 4:33Christian marriage. I think that would invalidate many many marriages
- 4:37in America these days, with it until you grow tired
- 4:42of each other. That does actually seem to be pretty
- 4:44much the norm these days. The person asked were they
- 4:48living in adultery and were their children illegitimate? And the presansor
- 4:52even though objectively their marriage was invalid, they were both
- 4:55in good faith believing their state to be lawful. Therefore
- 4:58they were not guilty of a sin of adultery, nor
- 5:01would each children have been illegitimate, for children of a
- 5:05putative marriage are entitled to legitimacy. Oh boy, we got
- 5:12a lot more questions and answers. Marriage. I'm telling you,
- 5:17Protestants love divorce. If there's one thing that divides Protestantism,
- 5:20it is divorce my word. All right, Now, let's get
- 5:23on to follow Spaco's exhaustive explanation of the Catechism of
- 5:28the Catholic Church, and believe it or not, after nearly
- 5:32two years it maybe a little more than two years now,
- 5:37we're getting very close to the end of this book. Yeah,
- 5:41for every week I miss one, I think I may
- 5:43have missed two weeks when I was really sick. I
- 5:46had to you know, bad flu. But I missed a
- 5:49week or two two shows at most over the past
- 5:53three years. And we have just now gotten to page
- 5:57seven hundred and eight of page seven point fifty of
- 6:01this book. It is huge, and I'm very pleased to
- 6:04tell you that Tan Books, right here in North Carolina,
- 6:09down in the Gastonia Charlotte area, has just released a
- 6:14new publication of follow Spiago's book, and they say it
- 6:19is absolutely essential for priests, for practicing Catholics, for parents,
- 6:26for anyone who truly wants to understand Catholic doctrine. You know,
- 6:31I don't know that they've done an audio version, and
- 6:36I don't work for them. They have not authorized me
- 6:38to do anything. I've been reading from the eighteen ninety edition.
- 6:42And I'm very pleased to say that you can now
- 6:46buy a paper copy from Tanbooks, which is one of
- 6:48the best publishers in the entire Catholic world of publishing.
- 6:52And you have my podcast, which is essentially an audio
- 6:56book of this incredibly important work. It's pretty cool, actually
- 7:01think cool the way things just you know, always kind
- 7:03of line up. It seems to always be that way
- 7:05in the Catholic Church. Doesn't It almost as if we're
- 7:08not really in charge. Huh, Just pawns in the game,
- 7:12Just pawns of the game, all right. So the Way
- 7:14of the Cross. It is said that the Way of
- 7:17the Cross owes its origin to the Mother of God.
- 7:19Tradition says that the Blessed Mother of God was wont
- 7:22often to walk in the steps of her son to Calvary,
- 7:26pausing at spots marked by some special incident. The early
- 7:31Christians flocked in crowds to the holy places to follow
- 7:34the Via Crusus, the Way of the Cross. But when
- 7:37in the Middle Ages the Holy Land fell into the
- 7:38hands of infidels and the devout pilgrim could only visit
- 7:42the scenes of Our Lord's suffering at a great risk
- 7:45to his life, the stations were erected in churches and
- 7:49enriched by the popes with large indulgences. Saint Francis of
- 7:53Assisi contributed greatly to the spread of the devotion. The
- 7:57Way of the Cross is the name given to the
- 7:59fourteenth stations, which depict the way along which our Redeemer
- 8:03passed bearing his cross from Pilot's Palace to Mount Calvary.
- 8:07The Fourteen Stations consists of fourteen wooden crosses, to which
- 8:10pictures and inscriptions are generally added. They are erected in churches,
- 8:14sometimes in the open air, on the slope of a hill,
- 8:18occasionally in cemeteries. The manner of performing the Way of
- 8:21the Cross is to go from one station to another,
- 8:24making a meanwhile, a meditation on our Lord's passions passion.
- 8:29Let me get zip a water here, but TODs get
- 8:31a little dud, all right. It is not necessary to
- 8:37go from station to station in the church. If one
- 8:39stands up and kneels down as every station is being made.
- 8:43It is enough to meditate on the Passion in general,
- 8:46without making a special meditation at each station, and Our Father, Hell, Mary,
- 8:51and active contrition are generally recited at everyone. By performing
- 8:57the Way of the Cross, large indulgences may be gained.
- 9:00We may also obtain contrition for sin, and are incited
- 9:06by the practice of virtue. Daily meditation of the Passion
- 9:09of Christ is more profitable than fasting every Friday in
- 9:12a year on bread and water, or taking the discipline
- 9:15of blood. A single tear shed in compassion for our
- 9:20Lord's suffering is of greater value in God's sight than
- 9:23a pilgrimage to the Holy Land. We learned how acceptable
- 9:26meditation on his passion is to our Lord from the
- 9:30revelation of Saint Bridget Our Lord once appeared to her
- 9:32with blood streaming from all his wounds. She asked what
- 9:36had reduced him to this pitable condition. He answered, it
- 9:39is the doing of those who never consider the great
- 9:42love I manifest towards them all. By all I suffered
- 9:47upon the cross, it was a continual memorial of his
- 9:51passion that our Lord instituted the holy sacrifice of the Mass.
- 9:55The same indulgences are granted for making the way of
- 9:57the Cross as for visiting the corresponding place in the
- 10:00Holy Land. What these indulge. What the indulgences are, we
- 10:04do not know precisely. Let us be content to know
- 10:07that they are great and numerous. They can, however, only
- 10:11be gained once in a day. The wooden crosses must
- 10:14be blessed by a Franciscan or some priest who has
- 10:16the requisite powers, and the stations must be visited without
- 10:20any break. The way of the Cross as a means
- 10:22of obtaining the grace of contrition, as Israelites who were
- 10:26bitten by the fiery serpents were healed by looking upon
- 10:29the brazen serpent. So sinners are healed by the deadly
- 10:33wound of sin by frequent meditation of the passion of Christ.
- 10:37The way of the Cross is also an incentive to
- 10:40the practice of virtue. The saints often tell us that
- 10:43meditation in our Lord's passion impart strength to the sufferer,
- 10:47not merely only with patience, but with joy. Our arrogance,
- 10:51our avarice, our anger will be cured by humility, the poverty,
- 10:56the patience of the Son of God. If o man
- 10:59you would progress virtue to virtue, contemplate with all possible
- 11:03devotion the sufferings of your Lord, for this is the
- 11:06most For this is most conducive to sanctity. If we
- 11:11are prevented from making the way of the Cross, you
- 11:13can gain the indulgence by reciting the Our Father, Hell, Mary,
- 11:17and Gloria twenty times, holding meanwhile crucifix blessed for the
- 11:20stations in our hands. I did not know that that
- 11:24is interesting, Okay, I don't have a specific crucifix blessed
- 11:31for the stations of the Cross. I guess next time
- 11:34I speak with a priest. I need to deal with that.
- 11:38But yeah, that's interesting, Okay, it's important. It's important to know.
- 11:42And you know, hey, maybe you were a cradle Catholic
- 11:45who grew up knowing all this stuff. I converted to
- 11:48Catholicism in two thousand and four. I have been a
- 11:54Catholic now for twelve years. I still don't know all
- 11:58this stuff. I mean seriously, I mean I don't know
- 12:02how many lifetimes it would take me to learn all
- 12:06that the Catholic Church offers us, And in this one,
- 12:08no one ever told me. Yeah, I'll need to take
- 12:12care of that. So anyway, the hindrance must be of
- 12:15a significant nature, such as long distance from a church
- 12:18or sickness, etc. The cross for performing the stations at
- 12:22home must be of a strong material with the figure
- 12:24of their Savior attached, and it must have been duly
- 12:28blessed for this purpose. Of course, I have a house
- 12:31crucifix blessed. I do not have one specifically blessed for
- 12:35this purpose. The indulgences are not gained at the crucifix
- 12:40is not the property of the individual using it, but
- 12:43as several persons perform the devotion together, it is enough
- 12:46for one to hold in his hand with the cross.
- 12:48For this, for the sick, it suffices to take the
- 12:51cross in hand and make an act of contrition the
- 12:54Our Father, Hell Mary, and Glory b to the Father
- 12:57or recited fourteen times for the fourteenth station, five times
- 13:00in honor of the five wounds of our Lord, and
- 13:03once for the Holy Father. If the cross has been
- 13:06blessed by a redemptionist, the prayers only need to be
- 13:09repeated fourteen times. Well, okay, I had no idea about
- 13:14any of this, did you? I mean, seriously, if you
- 13:19grew up knowing this, drop me a line. Tell me
- 13:22how who taught it to you? How you found out?
- 13:25This is not in our modern catechism. I don't recall
- 13:30anything about this in the Boston Catechism, and no priest
- 13:35ever explained this to me whatsoever. In fact, you know,
- 13:39I'll go even further than that, Having been a Catholic
- 13:42now for what I say, twelve years. Stations of the
- 13:46Cross are of course in the church. No one ever
- 13:49explained to me how to pray the stations of the Cross.
- 13:54I honestly did not know you were supposed to pray.
- 13:56And Our Father Hell Mary in a Glory be at
- 13:58each one. I think I probably have done that most times, just,
- 14:05you know, because that's what we normally do. I've got
- 14:09an old missile from the nineteen forties which has a
- 14:13way of the Cross inside it, you know, when you
- 14:15could pray silently in your mind. They never mentioned anything
- 14:18about a blessed crucifix, and they never said pray at
- 14:23our Father, glory be at a hell Mary at each station. Yeah,
- 14:30you know, I guess in many ways, you know, you
- 14:34may wonder why have I gone through a seven hundred
- 14:37and fifty page book from the eighteen nineties, And it's
- 14:39because so much of this I didn't know. No one
- 14:42ever explained to me, you know, as a new Catholic
- 14:45that the house of our Lady in Loretto was carried
- 14:50there by angels. How would I know? No one told me. Now,
- 14:55I think, you know, maybe a lot of cradle Catholics,
- 14:57older Catholics just kind of take things for granted. And yeah,
- 15:03things shouldn't really not be taken for granted. Without a doubt,
- 15:07things should not be taken for granted. I had a
- 15:12very disturbing conversation earlier today with a presumably a Baptist.
- 15:18I don't know. Someone in a Japan actually a Protestant
- 15:22in Japan, and they were talking about the baptism of
- 15:26the Holy Spirit. Now, of course I went to a
- 15:28Baptist college. I understand what they're talking about. And I
- 15:32explained to her. I said, there is no such thing
- 15:34as the baptism of the Holy Spirit. Baptism is baptism
- 15:40by water and in the name of the Father, the
- 15:43Son of the Holy Spirit. And you know, she didn't
- 15:45understand this. I said, no, you actually have to be
- 15:48baptized with water in the name of the Father, of
- 15:51the Son and the Holy Spirit. When you do so,
- 15:55you're joined at the body of Christ, and the Holy
- 15:56Spirit interests you. And she's like, what about pentecost. I'm no,
- 16:01two entirely different things. That's not the baptism of the
- 16:05Holy Spirit. That's when the Holy Spirit came fully upon
- 16:10the apostles, and in large part that's what Catholics receive
- 16:15at Confirmation. But look at the powers that the apostles
- 16:18were given, essentially the ability to read minds and hearts. See,
- 16:23they could touch a cloth and someone could be healed
- 16:26with it. They could literally raise the dead if they
- 16:28want to, and strike someone dead if they lied to them.
- 16:31And when Saint Peter struck, Oh what were these two
- 16:35people's names? I can't remember, but he said they lied
- 16:38to the Holy Spirit. Okay, very unique to the Apostles,
- 16:43very very, very few Christians have ever received that measure,
- 16:47that level of the Holy Spirit. If you don't believe me, okay,
- 16:52see if you can kill somebody who lies to you,
- 16:54see if you can raise the dead, or he'll sick,
- 16:57you know, seriously, that's what the Holy Spirit in Pentecost
- 17:02gave to the Wezard, Virgin Mary and the Apostles. No
- 17:07baptism is by water in the name of the Father's Son,
- 17:10the Holy Spirit. And I had to explain to her
- 17:12if someone has not been baptized, the Holy Spirit does
- 17:16not dwell within them. They don't understan, they're not guided
- 17:20by the Holy Spirit in understanding the words of the Bible.
- 17:25And people started freaking out, how can you say that
- 17:29that's not biblical. Well, went through chapter and verse. Jesus said,
- 17:32you must be born again of water and the spirit
- 17:36to have life in you, to be saved, to be
- 17:40born again. I mean that they keep saying we're born again. No,
- 17:44not if you haven't been baptized. You're not born again,
- 17:47you're not part of the body of Christ, but you
- 17:50don't have it. Well, okay, so when oh gosh, which
- 17:55was which apostle? Was it that James? Right? It was
- 17:58James that was taken by the spirit. Well, okay. So
- 18:04he met the Egyptian eunuch Ethiopian sorry, Ethiopian eunuch who
- 18:09was reading the Bible. He is caught up by the
- 18:12spirit and catches up to him and he says, do
- 18:15you understand what you're reading? The eunuch says, how can
- 18:17I if I have no one explain it to me? Well,
- 18:19right there, that should tell Baptists and such they can't
- 18:22read the Bible without somebody explain it to him. But
- 18:25of course they skip over that passage and he explains
- 18:28the Gospels. The guy comes to believe in Jesus and
- 18:30they come to a place with water, and he baptizes him.
- 18:35Is it acts or Paul and says, by baptism, now
- 18:38you are saved. There is no you can't be a
- 18:43Christian without being baptized. And I mean literally people absolutely
- 18:50freaking out because no one had ever explained to them.
- 18:55The Bible says you need to be baptized with water
- 18:59in the name of the Son in the Holy Spirit.
- 19:01Jesus actually commanded his apostles go and baptize in the
- 19:06name of the Father of the Son in the Holy Spirit.
- 19:09And it does say by baptism you are now saved.
- 19:12That's not symbolic. It actually means with water. I mean,
- 19:18look up the word baptism. You don't believe me, Ask
- 19:21a Grock, Ask a you know open AI. Ask your
- 19:25Google assistant what is baptism? Computers AI know exactly what
- 19:31baptism is. Only people who lie can say something else.
- 19:37And unfortunately there are millions of people in this world
- 19:39to whom to who have been lied to about baptism.
- 19:45Franklin Graham and Billy Graham before him to this day
- 19:47say that baptism is not necessarily you're baptized by the
- 19:51spirit when you believe in Jesus. But Jesus said, if
- 19:55you believe and are baptized, you will be saved. And
- 20:00and he never once said believe and you're saved. He said,
- 20:04believe and are baptized. You know, there's so much that
- 20:10has to be explained to people, and I wonder it
- 20:15can't just be me because actually, I mean, you know,
- 20:19I'm a Catholic author. I read more and write more
- 20:22about Catholicism than the average Catholic, obviously because I make
- 20:26a living at it. I mean, I have to continually
- 20:29read the early Church Fathers. I have continually go through
- 20:33the doctors of the Church. This is how I do things,
- 20:37you know, I mean, this is actually my job. There's
- 20:41so many people that may have been born raised Catholic.
- 20:45No one's born Catholic. Okay, that's another common misconception. You
- 20:49could be born Jewish. You can't be born Christian. You
- 20:52become Christian at baptism. It doesn't matter how holy your
- 20:55parents were. It does not matter if you were you
- 21:00have five saints in your heritage. You're not born Christian.
- 21:04You become Christian at baptism. Believing in Jesus does not
- 21:08make you Christian at all. You have to believe and
- 21:13be baptized, and then to be Catholic, you have to
- 21:17be confirmed, where you receive the fullness of the Holy
- 21:19Spirit in similarity to what the Apostles experienced at Pentecosts,
- 21:25not at the same measure, because they were appointed by
- 21:29Jesus Christ himself to be the heads of the Church.
- 21:33You know, they were given powers to forgive sins, they
- 21:35were given powers to ordain other priests. I mean, you know, etc.
- 21:39Et cetera. Turn bread and water into the body and
- 21:41blood of Christ. It's but in measure to our station
- 21:46we receive the fullness of the Holy Spirit at confirmation.
- 21:51It is so sad that there's so many people who
- 21:54believe in Jesus, who love God, who pray every day,
- 21:58who read the Bible, and who do not have the
- 22:01Holy Spirit. Well, you may say to me, okay, wait
- 22:03a minute, Okay. You know, someone can be saved without
- 22:08being baptized if they have the intent, if they were
- 22:12fully informed, or if their children, or if they're martyrs.
- 22:17You know, the church says they're baptized by their blood.
- 22:20The thief on the cross next to Jesus, well, the
- 22:23Church says he had the full intent, he believed in
- 22:26Jesus Christ as Lord, and had he not been dying
- 22:29at that moment, he would have been baptized if Jesus
- 22:33had asked him to be baptized. Right, that's pretty obvious.
- 22:36If he says, you know, I believe you're God, He's
- 22:40going to do what you say. What God says, right,
- 22:44so you don't absolutely have to be baptized to be saved.
- 22:47But that's the way Jesus intended. So you could say, well,
- 22:53all right, so let's say these you know, Southern Baptists
- 22:55and whatever, believe in Jesus, and if they really understood,
- 23:02if they really fully understood the necessity of baptism, they
- 23:05would be obedient to the commands of God and be saved. Okay, yes, absolutely,
- 23:11But what of this. Every time you commit a mortal sin,
- 23:18the Holy Spirit leaves you a person a state of
- 23:22moral sin. Just as nothing empirical inner heaven, the Holy
- 23:28Spirit won't dwell in someone who is in a state
- 23:30of moral sin. How many of us have gone through
- 23:35life without committing a mortal sin. Now, maybe you know
- 23:40you're listening to this, you don't really understand what mortal
- 23:44sins are. You know, Jesus said there are sins which
- 23:48are to death, and their sins that aren't. Those that
- 23:52aren't are venial. Mortal sins kill the soul. They literally
- 23:56kill the holiness of the soul. And in basic terms,
- 24:01we could say it's the Ten Commandments. But then go
- 24:04through your catechism and Bray breaks down all the Ten Commandments. Yeah, yeah,
- 24:12I mean thou shalt not commit adultery. Well, what did
- 24:14Jesus say If a man has lusted in his heart,
- 24:18he's already committed adultery in his heart. Thou should not steal.
- 24:25If you may not steal, but you're covetous. You want
- 24:30what someone else has, And that's also one of the
- 24:33Ten commandments. Don't covet thy neighbor's wife, or we'll go
- 24:37with Donkey in this case, but covet someone's position, possessions,
- 24:44what they have. How many of us have not been
- 24:46jealous at some point in our lives? Okay, depending on
- 24:51how jealous we are, that can be a mortal sin.
- 24:55I mean, that's literally the mortal sin of coveting. I mean,
- 25:01how many people resent Donald Trump for being rich? Every
- 25:04single one of them is covetous. I mean, seriously, they
- 25:08hate rich people. Well, that's actually a mortal sin, because
- 25:12gets up to God to give out his blessings as
- 25:14he pleases, whether the person worked hard for it or not.
- 25:18It's not up for you. That's a mortal sin. Murder.
- 25:26You may say, I've never killed anybody. What does Jesus
- 25:28say if you hate someone you've already committed murder in
- 25:33your heart. How many of us have gotten through life
- 25:36without being so angered or hurt by another person that
- 25:39we hated them. I mean, in school, were you bullied?
- 25:43Did you hate that bully? Did you fantasize about killing
- 25:46that person or beating the crap out of them? Yeah?
- 25:49I did, And I a lot of times fought with
- 25:53my fists. But yeah, I mean sometimes I had a
- 25:57knife to my throat and couldn't fight, And you don't
- 26:00think I seethed. I mean, really, we can go down
- 26:06the list. Thou shalt not steal. I mean we're going
- 26:09back into covenousness again. Honor thy father and thy mother.
- 26:13How many arguments have you had with their parents? With
- 26:15your parents, whether justified or not, you may have been
- 26:18perfectly justified, Yeah I have been. My dad's not a
- 26:23good guy at all. But you know we're held accountable.
- 26:28You know, Jesus provided an example that is very, very
- 26:35hard to follow. And when he say you must be
- 26:38perfect as your heavenly father is perfect. Wow, huh? Okay,
- 26:48what's another ten commandments? Observe the sabbath? How many of
- 26:53us have skipped mess for less than necessary? Cause you know,
- 27:00if you're deathly ill, if you're sick, if you can
- 27:02change us, you should not go to mess. How many
- 27:06of us have found a reason to skip mess? You know,
- 27:11every one of us? I mean seriously, I mean every
- 27:15one of us. Really don't take the Lord's name in vain? Well,
- 27:21most of us do. Sometimes don't mean to slips out,
- 27:26you know, especially when we get angry. If you're angry,
- 27:30you've actually, according to Jesus, guilty of murder to some extent, slander,
- 27:40you know, don't bear faulse witness how many people gossip?
- 27:43How many people repeat things they believe, even if they
- 27:46believe are true about another person, and even maybe they
- 27:50are true. We actually have a charitable duty not to
- 27:54speak ill of other people only if we were like
- 27:57legally bound to say so and so did something thing.
- 28:00Should we ever repeat the sin of another person? Ever? Okay, seriously,
- 28:07have you upheld that one? You know? I used to
- 28:11work in journalism. I had to report things that made
- 28:14me very uncomfortable, crimes committed by politicians. Did I know
- 28:20there were one hundred percent they were true? No? I
- 28:23believe they were true. Had evidence to convince me they
- 28:26were true? Did I have an actual picture of them
- 28:29in the act. Nope, but I would fully believed it
- 28:34and had a duty as a journalist, an investigative journalist,
- 28:39to report that it was very likely they had. Yeah,
- 28:44that's actually one of the reasons I quit doing journalism.
- 28:47I did not feel that as a Catholic that should
- 28:51be my role as a responsible journalist. I had no
- 28:54choice as a Catholic. I had to say, even if
- 28:59the person did do it, it's not my place to
- 29:03be airing their dirty laundry. It's on their conscience. Now,
- 29:08we live in a representative republic, not a democracy, but
- 29:13people do have to be informed about who they're voting for.
- 29:16And it's a very, very, very dirty job. And I
- 29:18couldn't do it anymore. How many have I been through
- 29:22seven eight I don't know, but you get the idea, right, coved, steel, murder, bear,
- 29:33false witness, honor of the Father, Mother, observed the Sabbath.
- 29:39I have no other gods before me. Now there's a
- 29:42big one, isn't it. Okay? You may think, well, I'm
- 29:45a Christian. I love God, I love Jesus, I love God,
- 29:48the Father and the Holy Spirit. What does Jesus talk
- 29:53about the mammon of iniquity. How often have we put
- 30:00our careers before our faith? How often have we been
- 30:05more concerned about money, about security, about food, about relationships
- 30:11than we have our faith? How many people go to
- 30:16Mass and hold their opinion on certain subjects is right
- 30:21when it disagrees with Catholic teaching. Good example, I mean
- 30:26extreme example. But let's say you're a Catholic who believes
- 30:30abortions just fine. You just made an idol of yourself. Actually,
- 30:38you said your opinion is higher than that of God
- 30:40and his church. You believe people are born gay and
- 30:44it's fine to engage in homosexual sex. You just made
- 30:49an idol of your self. You can make an idol
- 30:53of politics very very easily. You can make an idol
- 30:56of money even easier. You can make an idol of
- 30:59sex easier than anything else, more than likely. I mean yeah. So,
- 31:07every single Christian on the face of this earth, in
- 31:13one degree to another, has committed a mortal sin since
- 31:18their baptism, and the Holy Spirit left them at that
- 31:21point and does not return until one goes to confession
- 31:26and is absolved by a priest. Now there are exceptions
- 31:30to the rule, just as Jesus was able to exercise
- 31:35a special grace for the thief on the cross beside him.
- 31:40He was not baptized. He was still with Jesus because
- 31:43he had the baptism of intent. Had he understood the
- 31:47necessary necessity of baptism, he would have been baptized had
- 31:51he had the opportunity. But he was literally dying at
- 31:53that very moment. We can look at the Old Testament.
- 31:57How we can look at like King David Solomon and
- 32:00all those who repented, acknowledged before God their sins and
- 32:07begged forgiveness, usually with fasting and sackcloth and ashes and
- 32:12all that. Now, you know, the Baptists will say, well,
- 32:15that's all that's necessary. Only God can perceive sins. Yes,
- 32:17it's true. And yet what did God say, Okay, because
- 32:22you repented, you're not going to die, but your son's
- 32:25gonna die. Think about that. That's what God said, This
- 32:32sin will not this would not be unto death because
- 32:34you repented with fasting and sincere contrition and sackcloth and
- 32:39ashes and all that. But your son's going to die.
- 32:43That's pretty I mean, that's pretty pretty harsh, isn't it. Yeah?
- 32:51And so because of that, because that penalty was still there.
- 32:56God came in the form of Jesus Christ and took
- 32:59on the penalty of death and then instituted well before
- 33:04that institute, I guess I should say, and the Gospel
- 33:08of John you can look it up. He gave priests
- 33:11the power forgive sins. Those who sins you forgive, they
- 33:14are forgiven, and those who sends you retain, they are retained.
- 33:18At that institution, it was no longer the will of
- 33:22God for someone to confess their sins through prayer, which
- 33:28I mean it, well, okay, only I should say, only
- 33:32and do penance they assign themselves and fast and all that.
- 33:38Those are still very good things. We should absolutely every
- 33:41single day examine our consciousness, our conscience, ask forgiveness from God,
- 33:47do penances, fast, abstain from me on Friday, whatever it takes, right,
- 33:52pray the Rosary every day. Right, But there's one sure
- 33:56way of your sins being forgiven, and that's to go
- 33:58to a Catholic priest making confession with sincere contrition, and
- 34:03in the person of Christ, through the power given to
- 34:06him by God, he will forgive you your sins, and
- 34:11your sins are forgiven, just the same as if Jesus
- 34:13Christ himself is standing there and forgive you your sins.
- 34:17He will give you a penance, and that penance he
- 34:20has the authority. Jesus said, what you bind on earth
- 34:23would be bound in heaven. Which you loose on earth
- 34:25would be loosed in heaven. He has the authority to
- 34:27give you a penance. If you fulfill that penance, you're forgiven.
- 34:34The Holy Spirit comes back into your heart and you're
- 34:37back in communion with the Catholic Church and as the
- 34:40surest way to get to heaven. So there are a
- 34:43few million Baptists in this world. Unfortunately, there should never
- 34:48have been a church other than the Catholic Church. Is
- 34:49a fake church, as a false church, and they led
- 34:52millions and millions of people astray by saying, one you
- 34:54don't have to get baptized. Holy cow. I mean really,
- 35:00And I know Father and Father Dan. Father Dan would
- 35:04get on my cases for saying holy cow. He says,
- 35:06you know, you shouldn't call anything sacred that isn't sacred. Sorry,
- 35:10I apologize, but what am I supposed to say? Jesus
- 35:15said you must believe and be baptized, be saved. They
- 35:20say you don't have to be baptized. All it's necessary
- 35:24is belief. Wow huh. Okay, Then whether baptized or not,
- 35:35at the first mortal sin, they lose the Holy Spirit
- 35:39and have no way of getting it back because one
- 35:41they're not baptized, they never see the Holy Spirit in
- 35:44the first place. If they did get baptized, you know,
- 35:49before they became Baptist, or maybe they went to some
- 35:53Baptist churches, do still do water baptism. I mean that,
- 35:57you know, actually is practice. They just don't believe it
- 35:59has power. But if it's a valid baptism, they do
- 36:03it more not tradition than anything else. But if they
- 36:05are baptized in the name of the Fathers on the
- 36:07Holy Spirit and their water is sprinkled or they're immersed
- 36:11in it and they're dipped in or whatever poured on
- 36:12their head, what it doesn't matter. It's a valid baptism.
- 36:16They believe in Jesus and they're baptized with water in
- 36:18the name of the Holy Father's son, the Holy Spirit,
- 36:20they are validly baptized. They commit a mortal sin, which
- 36:26every single person on this earth does. The Holy Spirit
- 36:28then leaves them again. They have they're not certainly not
- 36:35led by the Holy Spirit in the understanding of the Bible,
- 36:38they're not praying with the Holy Spirit when they say
- 36:40their prayers. They have no relationship with their guardian angel
- 36:45because they're in a state of moral sin. Guardian angels
- 36:48sitting to the side praying for them. But there's you
- 36:50know whatever, it's a bad situation. It's a really really
- 36:56bad situation. So I think of, you know, all the
- 37:01the graces and promises and knowledge I've received for the
- 37:05Catholic Church in the last twelve years, and I'm still
- 37:10struggling to struggle every day to stay in communion with
- 37:13the Catholic Church. I mean, we all do, if we're honest.
- 37:21Then I think of people who have never been told,
- 37:26and they're actually told by people like Billy Graham. People
- 37:30they believe in that they shouldn't be baptized, not only
- 37:34it's unnecessary, but that it's they shouldn't do it. And
- 37:40I just have to shake my head. And I mean,
- 37:49you know, I have said one time, maybe about Paul Harvey,
- 37:53it seems like it was Paul Harvey that you know,
- 37:56the greatest trick, the greatest lie that ever overtold, that
- 38:01led more people astray than anything else. Was to convince
- 38:04people that he didn't exist. I'll go a whole lot
- 38:07farther than that. The greatest victory of the devil is
- 38:14to convince people that they can love Jesus and be
- 38:19Christian and go to heaven without the Church and the
- 38:24sacraments that he established specifically for that purpose. In other words,
- 38:31the so called Protestant Reformation. It's terrifying and saddening beyond
- 38:41words to realize that. Well, anyway, yeah, we will keep
- 38:49learning together. Next week, we're gonna talk about adoration or
- 38:54his father Sparago calls it the exposition of the Blessed Sacrament,
- 38:59and then we'll talk about missions and such as sad
- 39:02all very interesting stuff. And yeah, pray for the unity
- 39:08of all Christians. Always, always pray for the unity of
- 39:12all Christians. There, I mean, honestly, we need to pray
- 39:18that there will no longer be any Protestant churches. Does
- 39:22that's an extreme No, That's what we're praying for. In
- 39:25the unity of all Christians. We have to pray that
- 39:29all Christians will abandon, renounce Protestantism and return to the
- 39:36Catholic Church. We also have to pray that the Orthodox
- 39:39will stop their schism and return to the Catholic Church.
- 39:43Jesus prayed that for unity, that all would be one.
- 39:47He did not pray that there would be fifty thousand
- 39:51so called Christian denominations, all of whom disagree with each other,
- 39:56and all of whom despise the Catholic Church. Protestant. The
- 40:03word Protestant is based on the word protest They are
- 40:06Protestants because they reject and hate the Catholic Church. So
- 40:11pray for the unity of all Christians, and understand that
- 40:14actually means we are praying for the end of the
- 40:16Baptist Church, the Methodist Church, the Presbyterian Church, the Anglican Church,
- 40:21the Lutheran Church, etc. Etc. Etc. We are praying for
- 40:27the end of all Protestant Bibles, the Gideon Bible, the
- 40:31King James version. We are praying for everyone to be
- 40:36Catholic when we pray for the union of all Christians,
- 40:40because that's what God intended. God said, Jesus said, pray
- 40:46that they all be one, united in faith and doctrine,
- 40:49of one mind, one heart. And he said, if you
- 40:52love me, you'll keep my commandments. Well, he commanded that
- 40:54we all be one. Anything that's not part of the
- 40:59Catholic Church is a rejection of the commandments of God,
- 41:04which is also a mortal sin. So I mean, even
- 41:07just being a Protestant puts one in a state of
- 41:10mortal sin. If they do so with the understanding of
- 41:13what they're doing. Now they may not understand, and God
- 41:16will sort that out because you're judging on what you know.
- 41:19But we have to pray that they change because it's
- 41:26very clear teaching that you really do need to be
- 41:31baptized to go to heaven. If you understand the need
- 41:36to be baptized, you have to be baptized. And I
- 41:42don't know where that puts a lot of people. I
- 41:46really don't. I do not know where that puts a
- 41:49lot of people. Just thank God for purgatory because if
- 41:54you know, that's where they're going to figure it out,
- 41:57if they get the chance, and they're going to have
- 41:59a real shock purgatory, because it's certainly all right. Y'all,
- 42:02have a good one and I will talk with you
- 42:04next week.