Latest / The Uncensored Catholic / Show 69: Catholic teaching about the Blessed Virgin Mary, part 3 and 9/11

Transcript

Show 69: Catholic teaching about the Blessed Virgin Mary, part 3 and 9/11 · The Uncensored Catholic

0:47
Hey, y'all, welcome to today's show. I apologize that it's been so
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many days since I did my last podcasts. You know, I intended to
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do an entire series on Catholic teachings on the Blessed Virgin Mary last week.
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But while I was doing my podcast last Tuesday, I began sneezing. I
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edited all that out. You know, I've got my cough button here,
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I got everything in need. But by Wednesday morning, I was really sick,
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bad head cold, Still sick, but things have subsided enough that I
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can get back to doing the podcast and pick up where I left off.
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So my voice sound may sound a little funny, and there may be a
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couple of odd gaps as I hit the Paul's button to cough or sneeze or
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bloil my nose or something, but there is, Yeah, there's something going
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around. I don't know what it is. You know, people, oddly
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enough, people think that because I'm an herbalist, I must never get sick.
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Well, that's actually the reason I study herbal medicine is because I do
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get sick, and I'll have the herbs I need rather than go sit in
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a doctor's office to be ignored and abused for a few hours and sent home
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with a useless prescription for an antibiotic when what I have is a viral head
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cold. Yeah, but hey, that's just me anyway. I'll try to
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avoid that topic for now. Of course, I get into that all the
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time on my Southern Appalachian Herbs podcast. And I don't think much of modern
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medicine. I don't think much of it at all, not to say it
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doesn't have its place. Sure, if I break a leg or have a
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heart attack, I'm going to a doctor. But God gave us many many
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natural herbs and well other elements actually that we can use to cure our elements,
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and actually everything that we need can be found in nature. We just
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have to learn how to use it. This is my opinion. I'm not
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offering any official medical advice, and that statement has not been vetted or guaranteed
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or endorsed by the FDA or anything like that, American Medical Association or anything.
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I'm just a guy talking about stuff, an herbalists talking about herbs,
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A plant geek if you want to talk think about it that way. But
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we'll start as usual with the radio replies series. This questioner, who is
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a modernist I think probably a communist, maybe not. He does seem to
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enjoy his wealth, but he has said before that he thinks well. He's
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endorsed some which will say socialistic positions. But this is someone who actually seems
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to be rather wealthy. He says, I have no religion and I am
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well off. The poor wretches who practice religion do not seem to gain much
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by it. I think a lot of people would make that argument today.
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A lot of are you know, secular modernist people who care only about money
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and success. You know, a lot of the Hollywood and Wall Street types
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you know, certainly promote that ideology. They answered, religion is not supposed
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to be an easy road to temporal prosperity in things which death takes from those
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who have them. It is a road, not always comfortable, to never
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ending an eternal happiness. We do not expect religion to result in earthly advancement.
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If it did, men would rush to it as a good business proposition
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and offer to God a devotion quite without value. Temporal things are subject to
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the natural course of events. You are not materially well off because you have
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no religion. There are thousands who have no religion are not well off at
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all. So too, the poor are not poor because they practice religion.
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They are well to do people who also practice their religion. And if the
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poor gave up their religion, they would not suddenly become rich. Meantime,
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you prosper because of natural circumstances or naturability, or because God is giving you
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temporal rewards for such good as you do. Everyone does good to some extent.
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Sometimes for the poor, God often reserves their compensation for the next life.
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He responds, I am perfectly happy. Your kill joy religion will leave
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you feeling a dreadful fool when you find that death ends all. They respond,
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if you are perfectly happy, then you're the only one on earth who
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is. Is there absolutely nothing further you would like to have of which you
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do not yet possess? Anyway, religion is not a killed joy. One
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of the really happiest men who ever lived with Saint Francis of ASSISI born and
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bred in the Catholic spirit. The simple priest finds more joy in one Mass,
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and the least of our Catholic people in one communion. Then you have
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experienced in your whole life. Then too, I have already shown that death
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cannot end at all. If it did, the religious man would hardly be
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able to feel a fool. But if it does not, as it cannot,
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you will scarcely enjoy meeting a god whom you have consistently ignored. The
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idea that death ends all is not the result of thought, is a result
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of refusing to speak to think. Very true. Recently, that's had a
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conversation with someone Chinese, obviously raised in the Communist Party atheistic mindset, who
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would become a capitalist apparently and was making a lot of money but still rejected,
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was still fully an atheist, and I was trying to explain to her
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something. I guess it comes down to that experiential thing again. It's hard
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to explain to a person something they've never experienced, you know. I can
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tell someone food tastes salty because they know what salt tastes like. I can
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tell someone grass is green because they've seen the color of green. If if
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someone has never been confirmed into the Catholic Church and receive the Eucharist, one
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does not understand the impact that has on your life. It literally changes everything.
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I don't understand. I can far more understand an atheist or an agnostic
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or whatever. Who or even you know a Protestant or someone of a different
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who rejects Catholic teaching because they've never experienced it. I can farm better understand
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them than I can one who is Catholic who leaves the church that having been
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Protestant, you know, being a convert. I don't take it for granted,
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and I don't in any way dismiss the incredible changes that took part of
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my life once I was confirmed in the Catholic Church. I am a very
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different person and a very happy, a much happier person, and my life
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is so much richer and full of joy, even though you know, to
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most people, I don't fit the mold of what they would aspire to be.
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I'm not rich, I'm not married, I don't have kids. You
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know, I'm a self employed author and wood carver who lives in a you
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know, a cottage built in the nineteen twenties in the middle of a national
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forest, rather isolated and from many people they would look. You know,
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I drive an old, beat up pickup truck out of choice. I like
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it. I you know, that's my choice. But my contentment definitely comes
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from God, definitely was not there. Before I became Catholic, I was
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very you know, if you read my book Confirmation, Autobiography of Faith,
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you will get an idea of how painful it was to convert a lot of
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things. I went through a lot of the rejection. But that rejection and
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you know started, you know, when my parents divorced when I was five,
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and my dad went on to have another family and didn't really have anything
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to do with me again, etc. I was very angry. Like I
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said, I was self destructive. I was depressed. A lot a lot
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of people struggle with depression and anxiety, and they would be greatly helped,
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if my experience is any indication by becoming Catholic and going to confession and receiving
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the Euchist greatly helped. The anger was and the sadness and the loneliness,
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especially after two thousand and eight and the Great Recession and losing my business and
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my social status and basically all social opportunity for you know, it was a
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good ten years of not interacting in the way I had before. You know,
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I almost lost my house, I almost lost everything, and it took
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ten years to get out of debt. Were king lousy jobs, a lot
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of contract work, a lot of physical work. Worked at you know,
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someone with my education background who had been influential in politics and all that had
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I had to, you know, embrace humility to take on that work.
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And I was glad to have it. I mean, every dollar I made
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was a blessing and I came to recognize it as that. But no dating,
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you know, I was twenty four, I think, when everything fell
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apart and single and so no dating for ten years because I couldn't afford it.
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I couldn't afford to go out on a date. No you know,
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no concerts, no vacations, just hard work, head down and you know,
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a miracle God brought me out of debt and to the other side of
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that. But the the loneliness, the isolation, the anger was intense,
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absolutely intense. And praying the Rosary and going to receiving the Eucharist is what
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made the difference. And that's one of the main reasons I want to impress
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upon people, Catholics and Protestants alike, the importance of praying the Rosary.
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It is the greatest consolation next to the Eucharist you will receive in confession.
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You know, a sacrament and kind of hard to put into words if you
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haven't experienced it. So I'm going to turn back to Father Jonathan Ashley.
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He wrote this was a two part series, Theagorious Power of One Hill Mary,
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and you can find his article on the Catholicism rocks dot com website.
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It's on the blog section. You also see on my podcasts. You know,
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good place to hang out. We have a good form. Needs to
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be a lot more active. If you're listening to this, you know,
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please get involved and just start chatting. We need to get a little more
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chatty over there, bring more people in. Father actually said, our lady's
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prayer, that's the Rosary is historically traced back to the eleventh century. Hers
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then is a time tested way that the faith will have long practice that have
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long praised the trying God for his most exalted creature. Mary, the flower
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of humanity and the hope of Christians and all of humanity have recourse to her.
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That is true. Mary has actually, you know, there are many
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marrying apparitions, you know, where she's appeared to people and spoken to them,
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and several times she's appeared to Muslims, and she has promised that she
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will convert through her Muslims to Christianity, before the apocalypse, before the end
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of the world, before the Second Coming, whatever you want to call it.
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So we're not there yet. You know this is I'm actually recording this
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on nine to eleven, September eleven, and a day that still makes me
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unbelievably sad. Day changed my life. It changed everyone's wife that was there.
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Say say Helm Mary for all that were all, all those who were
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killed in the nine to eleven attacks, and all those who have died in
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the war since, and for their families, say hell' Mary, for the
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repose of their souls and for the comfort of their loved ones. And you
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know, Protestants may listen to this thing. Whoa that you can't pray for
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the dead. I don't know why you think that. Nothing in the Bible
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says not to pray for the dead. And again, if you had a
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complete Bible, you would have a Bible that contains the books, the two
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Books of Maccabee's in which we are instructed to pray for the dead. Once
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again, Martin Luther stripped those books from the Bible because he was not a
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good man. He removed from the Bible anything that disagreed with his doctrine.
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He changed the words of Jesus to say by faith alone instead of by faith
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and works. And when asked on what authority he did that, he said,
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you may tell the papists. He was a very bigoted man. I
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did it by the authority of doctor Luther, not by God, not by
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any context contextual reason in the Bible, but because he set himself up as
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his sole authority. He was an anti Christ who has led countless millions of
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people astray. Martin Luther was not a good man. Say how Mary,
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for the pose of his soul too, he trusts me he needs those prayers
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now, and I bet unless he assuming you know that he did have some
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genuine love for God and was not just pure evil, he isn't inhale and
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would profit from your prayers, even though he didn't believe that in his life.
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We pray for the soul in purgatory to help expiate their sins, to
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help them get into heaven. Also very biblical, and I've done a whole
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couple of podcasts on that as well. So if you don't understand where it
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says that in the Bible, just go and look for my podcasts on purgatory
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anyway, he says the church is not seeing her accolades without reason when it
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developed and added the second half of the Hell Mary Prayer, Holy Mary Pray
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for us centers. Now, at the hour of our death, the Lord
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gave us his mother that she might indeed be a pre eminent source of maternal
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care and welfare for all of God's children. Quoting from the Gospel John,
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now there stood by the cross of Jesus, his mother, and his mother's
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sister, Mary, the wife of Clopus, and Mary Magdalen. When Jesus
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therefore saw his mother and the disciple, whom he loved, standing by his
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mother, he said, woman, behold your son. And then he said
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to the disciple, behold your mother. And from that hour the disciple took
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her and took her to his own home. So Jesus didn't say, yeah,
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John, behold your mother. He said, man, behold your mother.
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He did not say, Mary, behold your son. He said,
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woman, behold your son. These are very formal words in the dialect of
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Aramaic spoken by Jesus, said indicate that Mary was to become the mother of
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all Christians. She was the woman the new Eve, the first Eve is
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the mother to all. Right, there are our first parents, Adam and
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Eve. Mary is the new Eve, the mother to all Christians. If
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I'll say again, if we are brothers and sisters in Christ, and the
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Mother of God is blessed Virgin Mary, all brothers and sisters in Christ,
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by reason of logic, if nothing else, even if there was nothing written
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in the Bible, all brothers and sisters in Christ, have Mary as our
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spiritual mother. Saint Thomas aquinas a search that her very name is a sign
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of her status before God and men. Mary is full of grace, and
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she exceeds all the angels in the plenitude of grace. And because of this
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she is fittingly called Mary, which means enlightened in herself. With his typically
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comprehensive scope, Saint Thomas adds that this is why the Church adamantly applies a
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apropriate scriptural references of celestial bodies to her. Saint Thomas wrote, above all,
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she would enlighten others through the world, throughout the world, and for
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this reason she is compared to the sun of the moon. In other words,
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Mary is no fading flowers. Father actually says, and we have seen
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that the first half of her prayer tests and Mary's holiness and fidelity. Hell,
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Mary, full of grace. The Lord is with thee blessed art thou
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among the women, and blesses the fruit of thy woman. Jesuses are all
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words directly from the Bible, from the Archangel's words to her to Saint Elizabeth's
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words to her. The second half presents her petitions to God. On her
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behalf with Mary, and through her we pray to God for enlightenment, namely
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that our hearts and minds be led by the light of His grace. Pray
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for us centers. Now, she who is sinless, assist centers such as
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such is the doctrine of salvation. As the mediatrics of grace. She is
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privileged to share God's blessings with us. But Mary does so as a human
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being in no way as she divinizes. Though the Lord goes out of his
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way to emphasize to all creation how wonderful his mother is by her perfect conformity
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to himself, quoting from Luke. Because Jesus was saying these things, a
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woman the crowd called out, blessed is the mother who gave you birth and
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nurse your nurse you, he replied, blessed, Rather of those who hear
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the word of God and obey. Mary above all hurt the word of God
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and obeyed, She who has proven herself to God, is now offered by
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Him to all as a source of secure blessing. How wondrous the Lord's ways.
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And so we ask pray for us sinners now and at the hour of
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our death. Just as we ask our living relatives on earth to pray for
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us, we ask our living relatives in heaven to pray for us. He
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goes on. Perhaps the majority of us live. Perhaps the majority of us
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lives mainly in the present, wondering and worrying how to pay bills and manage
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the responsibilities, while eking out a little time for pleasantries as time slips away.
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But those who are wise about their own mortality and inherent weakness are moved
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to do more than simply live in the present. We acknowledge her favorite status,
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the Lord is with thee, and invest ourselves accordingly in prayer, in
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trusting Mary with our mortality for the grace of salvation, pleading that she extends
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her maternal protection and care. Her advice for every age is the same as
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was offered to the wine stewards at the wedding of Cana, Do whatever he
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tells you. Her collaboration with the Holy Spirit and the work of salvation has
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been shown to be more than advice, for she also doles out God's graces
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to those who requests them. We should acknowledge that she in a human way
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to prayers of humility, generosity, and fidelity. Although she is perfectly harmonized
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with God's will, Mary maintains our own freedom and dispensing graces as well.
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Sometimes it is said that she holds back the Lord and his wrath for our
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sins, and for her sake, he indulges her. Please. She who
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found favor with God, that's Luke one thirty, is then rightly granted the
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privilege of favoring those who approach God with humility and charity, and being human,
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it is natural that she also favors those who favor her. Mary extends
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special graces to all who entrusts themselves to her care, as was the Lord's
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wish when he entrusted us to her through Saint John the Evangelist. And this
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is why Catholics offers seemingly endless, endless Rosaries, meditating on the death,
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meditating on the Lord's mystery while reciting pray for us centers now at the hour
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of her death. Probably something Protestants don't know about the Rosary is, while
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we pray the Rosary, we're actually on every bead meditating basically from a scene
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from the Bible, a passage of the Gospel, an aspect of our Lord's
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life. Mary's prayer is but one of numerous ways the Church acknowledges and requests
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Our Lady's intercession. Through Nevina's vigils, groups that gathered to Falster, awareness
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of her blessings, and many other studies and devotions. Catholics take the Lord
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to his word and entrusts themselves to His Mother, calling on her in time
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of need. It is our Lady herself who has given us many of these
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means, as tradition recounts when she offered the scapular to Saint Simon Stock Although
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the Rosary remains her favorite prayer, so whenever you see the faithful Catholic,
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you will also see a devotion to Mary in the Rosary. There is a
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final prayer I wish to highlight as a personal favorite that honors our lady one
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composed by the molliculous. I love that word. I can't pronounce it very
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well, but I like it. Doctor of the Church, Saint Bernard of
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Clear the Memorari. Now I pray the memorari every single day. I recommend
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no matter what religion you are, you pray them memorari every single day.
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State your needs and petitions. In this case or nine to eleven, I'm
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going to pray this memorari for those who died in the attack, those who
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died in the wars that followed, those who were injured, and for all
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their friends, family and loved ones. You can tell. Nine eleven just
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breaks me up. I I haven't gotten over it. I hope none of
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us ever. Do remember, almost, Gracious Virgin Mary, that never was
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it known that anyone who fled to thy protection, implored Thy help, or
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sought their intercession was left unaided. Inspired by this confidence, I fly into
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the Virgin of Virgins, my mother to thee. Do I come before the
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I stand sinful and sorrowful, a mother of the word incarnate, despise not
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my petitions, but in thy mercy here and answer me amen, following sign
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the Holy Spirit, I'm in Saint Bernard's praise. If Jesus flowed like honey,
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as did his love for our lady, which can be readily recognized in
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this beautiful prayer. Old gracious virgin Mother of our Lord, pray for us
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now and at the hour of our death. Name and Father and the Son
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and the Holy Spirit. Yeah, all right, y'all. Hopefully I'll be
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a tad better tomorrow, and well I'll talk to you then. Have a
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great evening. Hey, there's the Braves are playing a double header against the
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Phillies today. So if you're a baseball fan like I am, this,
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you know, as sad as this day is in many regards, what a
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great day to be a baseball fan. Uh, you know, grab a
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hot dog and some Sara kraut and onions. I like a little hot sauce,
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some mustard on their open a cold beer, and enjoy a baseball game.
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And yeah, I'd be really, really really thankful for that privilege,
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for that privilege. All right, y'all, Toddymorrow,