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Show 188: Vice · The Uncensored Catholic

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Speaker 1: Ay, we all welcome today's show. We will we'll get
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into the subject of vice today in Father Sparago's exhaustive Catechism. Again,
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not a topic many people talk about these days, but
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it really is important in discussing sin that vice is
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essentially an addiction to a sin. And in our culture today,
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seems like nearly everyone is addicted to pornography. And I
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mean we're talking like probably eighty percent of men and
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sixty to seventy percent of women, which that's very different
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than things how things used to do. Now just I mean,
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there's so many different sinful addictions. I mean, obviously, you know,
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illegal drugs and such they can kill you through overdose,
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which harm your body. But yeah, we're going to get
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into that topic and it is interesting and it's really
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one that needs to be discussed. I mean, we've been
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in just the past what two decades basically normal well, well,
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I'll say since the late seventies normalized homosexuality. Homosexuality is
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not gosh not normal, but I'll just put it that way.
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It is. Actually, you're not born homosexual. God doesn't make
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anyone homosexual. No, some people are born you know, men
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can be born effeminate women can be born more masculine
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than not. But heterosexual sex is the only normal non
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nonsinful sex. Okay, and anyone who indulges in homosexuality generally
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it's a mental and emotional disorder. Okay, Like I said,
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it's not. They've never found a gay gene. I'll just
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put it that way. If you're scientists, go back and
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look at your genetic makeup, you would think that, Okay,
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this heterosexual man had a heterosexual I mean, this homosexual
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man had a homosexual mother or father or grandparent, and
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there would be a gay gene, because that would be
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how our behaviors and how our makeup or passed down
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through the generations. Well, on its face, it's ridiculous because
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you'd have to have several homosexuals engaging in heterosexual marriage
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to pass down their homosexual genes to a gay child. Okay,
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on its face, that's ridiculous, but just it's soon that
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they did, right. It would also go against the biological
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imperative of reproduction, which science essentially holds as the highest
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drive in human behavior. And even if it did exist,
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it would be a recessive gene. It would be like
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blindness and for one of the main reasons or you know,
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mental retardation or dwarfism or something, right, I mean, those
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are recessive genes. One of the main reasons that the
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homosexual community has not tried to find the so called
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gay gene. They just say I'm born this way without
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being able to prove it is because if it's a
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recessive gene, then it would by definition be a essentially
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a disease. And if there's a disease or a disorder
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or a birth defect we could call it, it has
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to be cured or co compensated for. I mean, if
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you were born with you know, one leg shorter than
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the other, you need a lift in one of your shoes,
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you compensate, or you try to cure or whatever. I mean,
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you know, someone's born mentally handicapped, they have to be
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cared for. We generally speaking, do not like to celebrate
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our recessive genes, so they by instead of addressing that
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question of how really you can't be born gay, they
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just celebrate it and say you have to accept it
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and you cannot question it. Actually it's a vice. It's
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addiction to the sin of homosexual sex. Now someone can
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have same sex attraction. Many people do. That's not sinful
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in itself. Okay, acting on it is, fantasizing about it,
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is watching gay porn, is writing gay fantasy novels or
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romance novels. All serious sins which stem from vice. That said,
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just about everybody these days it has some form of vice.
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Someone may be an alcoholics, some of them may have
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a drug addiction. Someone may and like I said, most
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people are addicted to some form of sexual sin. And
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there's you know, in and of itself, heterosexual sex between
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a married couple is not only not sinful, but a
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really good thing God commanded go forth and populate the world.
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You know, it's a beautiful thing created by God. Anything
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outside of that is a sin, and that is probably
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the most addictive of all sins. Actually, I mean, I
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don't know if it's true or not, but scientists say
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that pornography effects the brain the same as cocaine does.
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I have no idea, maybe be stronger than cocaine. I
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don't know, but it is a topic we need to
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address because normalizing vice, normalizing any coin sin does not
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make it go away. You could say abortion doesn't murder,
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but it is. It's still murder, you know you can.
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The French, for instance, are pretty much famous, well the
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Italians and English too actually for basically normalizing adultery doesn't
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make adultery not sin. Just because everybody in your country
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has a mistress doesn't mean that's okay. And I'm not
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trying to single out any single group. The heterosexual Catholic
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that goes to Mass every week who's having an extramarital
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affair or stealing from his work or whatever. Maybe he's
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just very vain or you know, it could be anything.
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His sins know greater or less than the hostsexual having
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you know, sexual relations in an unnatural way. But that's said,
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as we have stated, not all sins are equal. We
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do believe as Catholics immortal and venial sin and adultry
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is a mortal sin. Someone who views pornography that in
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itself venial sin not mortal, but masturbation is mortal, and
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you know, dad actually does one leads to the other.
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So we do need really not to minimize any of
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these because the small things lead to the big things.
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And what that habit is established, it really is an addiction.
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It is just like you know, drugs or whatever, and
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it could be many things. That's smart. Start very small,
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very small, but they add up. The venial sins add
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up to be mortal sins. So let's get into First
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of all, though, let's start with Rumble and Cardi, the
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two priests who did the book. Radio applies And the
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questioner asks, you said that Protestant. You said that a
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Protestant in good faith could be saved. Does not that
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admit that his religion is sufficiently true? And the answered, no,
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Such Protestants are saved not because of, but in spite
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of their erroneous religion. They have simply been true to
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a conscience which was erroneous through no fault of their own.
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And the person says, what are the conditions for the
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salvation of such a good Protestant? In the answer, he
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must have baptism, at least of desire. Now, a lot
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of Protestants these days deny the efficacy of baptism. Okay,
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I was told, I don't know if this is true.
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You know, I went to school with some of the
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Billy Graham's grandsons. I never well grandchildren. I never thought
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to ask them. But it has been stated that he
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told his family members not to be baptized. If so,
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it's really bad. Now, Baptism is necessary to be a Christian.
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Baptism is necessary to be forgiven from original sin. Baptist
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nothing impure can enter Heaven, and therefore no one unbaptized
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can interhaven. But there is a caveat baptism of desire.
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If someone wanted to be baptized and died before they could, Okay,
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that's baptism desire. That's outright, that's obvious. Right. There's also
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the condition that if a Christian of good will, a
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person of good conscience, as they're saying, were taught the
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importance of baptism through their love of God, they would
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want to follow God's will and do it. In that
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case that they had not been taught God, so I
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can hold it against him. In other words, now it's
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still going to be difficult. They're going to have to
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go to purgatory. Of course most of us will. But
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a non baptized Christian throughout their life has many problems.
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They're open to demonic possession. A baptized person cannot be
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possessed against their will, according to the teachers of the
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Catholic Church. And I've actually been told that by a
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pagan shaman. That essentially, the spirits that talk to them
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will not talk to a baptized Christian, at least not
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against their will. I suppose a baptized Christian could renounce
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their faith and open themselves up to demonic possession. But
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just like read the Old Testament, well, no, read the Bible,
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read the Gospels. I mean, there were so many possessed
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people when they were Jews. They believed in the true
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religion and the true God, but they were not baptized
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in the name of the Father and the Son and
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the Holy Ghost because or spirit, because Jesus hadn't come
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yet and the Spirit was not given to everyone. A
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baptized person receives the Holy Spirit in baptism, they don't
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receive the fullness of it though, until they're confirming to
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a Catholic Church. So an unbaptized person hopefully not one
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of the grand kids that I knew. I mean, they
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all seem to be pretty good people, well most of them.
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They No, I don't have anything against them. You know,
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they do a lot of good honestly, but this if
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they're universally respected. Apparently Grandfather Billy Graham insisted that they
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not be baptized. Well, they haven't really received the Holy Spirit,
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incept in an inspirational way. You know, a grace is
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given by God in different ways. The Jews basically mostly
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did not have the Holy Spirit, but then they had
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profits among them that did. Okay, none of them, not
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even the greatest prophet, I mean Elijah or somebody, received
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as much of the Holy Spirit as the average Catholic
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does through baptism and come from it, and then it's
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fed in the strengthened through the Eucharist. So I really
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hope it isn't true about them. If I run into
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one of them, I guess I could ask him sometime.
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I don't get over that way very much anymore. We
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live in two different counties, but I haven't seen him
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in years. They're open to what they don't have. They
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certainly don't have the fullness of the Holy Spirit. Will
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put that, because the fullness of the Holy Spirit comes
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through confirmation, but even baptism. You know, if they don't
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even have that, they can't understand the words of the
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Bible as God intended because they don't have the Holy
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Spirit to guide them. Only He gave it to his
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apostles in his church to teach what the Bible actually
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means and actually to write it. I mean, you know,
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Jesus didn't leave us a Bible, We left a church.
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The church then wrote the Bible. But they're open to
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demonic possession in all manner of error, and that's really
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a dangerous place to be. Even the the I don't
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even know how to put it, Even the most average
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Catholic has a better chance of salvation than an unbaptized Protestant.
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And of course we insist on infant baptism because we
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want them to be protected from evil and inspired by
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the Holy Spirit at the very first possible opportunity. Most Protestants,
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in fact, almost all, well not all, I know the
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Anglicans are a little different, but anyway, most Protestants do
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not believe in infant baptism. They don't really believe in
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the power of baptism. They believe that you're saved by
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confessing a belief in God, which you can't do till
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you reach the age of reason. The thing is in
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the Bible, demons recognize Jesus as the Messiah. Okay, so
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just simply knowing that Jesus's Lord and admitting it accepting
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it does not save your soul. You know, it's part
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of it. It's a necessary step. But then you have
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to go further. You have to renounce evil, you have
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to renounce Satan. It always works, you know, the things
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we say in baptism. So how many Protestant children die unbaptized, Well,
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you may say, with their children they're sinless. A lot
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of these churches won't baptize a kid until about thirteen
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or fifteen years old. I don't know about y'all, but
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I've been up to a lot of bad stuff by
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the time I was fifteen years old. I've been up
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to a lot of bad stuff before I was thirteen
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years old. So really very important to talk with your
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Protestant friends and say, you know, this is the actual
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power of baptism, and we can go You can show
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them old church documents and everything that talk about how
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it protects one. But you say, you know, you do
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understand that baptism takes away original sin. It makes one
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part of the body of Christ. What if you're, you know,
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nine year old child gets hit by car, do you
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really want to risk that? What if you're a three
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year old falls out a window or something do you
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really want to risk that? You know it really important.
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Infant baptism is biblical. You know, it's when the Apostles went,
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they said they baptized you know, whomever came to believe
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in Jesus and his entire household. Well, at that point
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in time, you'd have three four generations living together. That
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household would have had children in it. They didn't say
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they baptized hisn hire household except for the children. No. Actually,
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Jesus holds up the child as the ideal. Really important
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that we make clear the teaching on infant baptism and
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the necessity of baptism in order to help Not only
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are Protestant brothers and sisters, but there are a lot
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of Catholics that don't get it right, tons of them.
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A lot of Catholics do not understand the afflicacy importance
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of baptism, and they'll put it off and make a
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big show and ceremony over it. No, you got to
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baptize that child, like immediately after they're born. It doesn't matter.
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They're not capable sin. Every person's born with original sin.
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Nothing impure can enter heaven. Jesus said, unless you're washed
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by water and the blood. Protestants say, are you born again?
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I always say we could you give me the full
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passage and it says you must be born again of
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water and blood. In other words, you must be baptized
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and receive the Eucharist, the blood of Christ, body and
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blood of Christ. They if they don't practice baptism, that's
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bad enough. But none of them believe in the Eucharist.
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There's not a single Protestant church that teaches us about
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the real presence of Christ, nor that has the authority
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to transform bread and wine into the body and blood
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of Christ spiritually. It's you know, they rant and rave
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about being born again. They never finished the sentence. What
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did Jesus actually say? You must be born again of
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water and blood? And they don't believe in either. Some
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do as far as baptism, none do as far as
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the Eucharists. So anyway, so the person must at least
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to be saved. A Protestant must at least have the
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baptism of desire. He must be ignorant of the fact
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that the Catholic Church is the only true church. He
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must not be responsible for that ignorance by deliberately neglecting
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to inquire when doubts have perhaps come to him about
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his position, and he must die with perfect contrition for
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his sins. That's another tough one. Perfect contrition and with
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a sincere, sincere love for God. You know, people who
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are taught that homosexuality is just fine, or divorce is okay.
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How can they die with perfect contrition for their sins?
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They know the Bible says Jesus's in all four Gospels,
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no divorce. They know the Bible says the homosexual and
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we're not in the Kingdom of God, we'll not in
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her heaven. How can they die with complete contrition if
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they refuse to admit the sinful nature of their favorite sins?
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But such good dispositions are implicit, are and implicit? Will
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to be a Catholic? For the will to do God's
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will is the will to fulfill all that he commands.
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Such a man would join the Catholic Church? Did he
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realize that that that was part of God's will? In
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this sense, the Catholic Church is the only road to heaven,
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and all who are to be saved belonging to her,
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either actually or implicitly. And we'll wrap it up with
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this one. Since Protestants can be saved, and it is
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ever so much easier to be a Protestant. Even this
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Protestant admits it is easier to be a Protestant. They have,
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you know, they don't have holy days of obligation and
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fasting days and all that. Where's the advantage of being Catholic?
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And they said, finally, remember the conditions of salvation. For
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a Protestant, if he has never suspected his obligation to
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join the Catholic Church, it is possible for him to
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be saved. But it is necessary to become a Catholic
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or be lost if one has the claim of If
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one has the claims of the Catholic Church sufficiently put
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before him, I myself could not attain a salvation. Did
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I leave the Catholic Church, unless, of course I repented
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sincerely and of so sinful a step before I died. Secondly,
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it is easier to live up to Protestant requirements than
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to leave up than to live up to Catholic requirements.
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Non Catholic churches do not exact so high a standard
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their followers as does the Catholic Church of hers, but
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that is not the question. It is much easier to
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be a really good Christian in the full sense of
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the word as a Catholic than as a Protestant, and
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surely that is what we wish. What advantages contribute to this, well,
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there are really too many to enumerate briefly. The Catholic
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is a member of the one true Church established by Christ.
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He has the glorious certainty of the true faith and
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complete knowledge that the whole Christian truth is much better
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than partial information, if not erroneous information. Actually, by submission
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to the authority of Christ in his church, he has
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the advantage of doing God's will just as God desires.
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If he fails at times in sin, he has a
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certainty of forgiveness by the sacramental absolution in confessional. He
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has the privilege of attending the Holy Mass on Sunday
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after Sunday and the immense help of Holy communion, by
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which he may receive Our Lord himself as the very
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food for his soul. He has the privilege of sharing
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and the sufferings of Christ. By observing the precepts of
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fastening and mortification. He receives innumerable graces from sacraments and
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from the special blessings of his church. He may gain
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very useful in indulgences, counseling out much of the expiation
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of his sin, which would otherwise have to be endured
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in purgatory. And he is more loved by God in
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virtue of his being a Catholic, even as God loves
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the Catholic Church more than any institution on the face
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of the earth. In short, even as there is an
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advantage in being a Christian rather than a pagan, so
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there is an immense advantage in being a true Christian
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and belonging to the one true Church, than to some
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false form of Christianity. And yes, any church it isn't
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Catholic is false. Thus a good Catholic has many advantages
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over those possessed by a good and sincere Protestant. But
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as I have remarked, if a Protestant begins to suspect
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his own church to be defective, inquiries of the matter,
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inquires in the matter, and becomes convinced of the Catholic
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Church as the one true Church, he has no option
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but to join that church if he desires to avoid
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the risk of eternal loss. All right, and now we
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will get into the subject of vice. You know what
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another vice is? That is practiced by many, many, many
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Christians of otherwise goodwill in the United States and beyond.
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That would be refusing to believe the truth of the
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Catholic Church. You see, if all other churches are false,
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all other doctrines are false, to continue to believe them
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when shown the truth, to refuse to accept Catholicism is
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actually a sin. And so many anti Catholics, that like
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really anti Catholic bigots that just hate Catholics, are essentially
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addicted to the protest of Protestanism. They get so angry,
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and anger is a sin, actually, and it's actually an
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addictive sin. If you've ever known someone that had anger issues,
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they're as possessed by that sin of anger, addicted to it.
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It's as much a vice for them as would be
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a drug or some form of sexual devinsy or something
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like that. And you know a lot of times, I mean,
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you're wearing your crucifix in the grocer store and someone
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starts screaming at you. That's a person who has a vice,
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which is hatred of Catholicism, hatred of God and his Church,
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even though they call themselves good Christians. So then you
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have to ask, are they going to be held accountable. Well,
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how much to what extent are they responsible for it?
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Have they read the arguments in favor of Catholicism? Have
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they read, you know, true criticisms of their own doctrine
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and suspected there may be something in that? Are they
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over confiscating for a lack of any foundation, a lack
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of security? Actually, yeah, they suspect the Catholic Church may
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actually be right. Now if they're just stupid, you know,
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what are you gonna do. God's not gonna God's gonna
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hold them accountable for their rage and any violence they do.
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But are they responsible for the vice of being essentially
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addicted to their hatred of Catholicism. Hmm, that's a tough one.
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I'm going to leave that one to the priests and theologians.
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You know. But bigotry is against any race religion. I mean,
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just hating a person because of whom they are is wrong.
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It's simple, We're all made in God's image. Bigotry against
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like all black people because you know you grew up
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in a q klux Klan family whatever, that's wrong. Bigotry
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against all Jews because you know you were taught as
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a child Jews were evil that's wrong, You're gonna be
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held accountable for it, and vice versa. A lot of
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hatred towards just white people of European descent these days,
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quite obviously. But anyway, on the topic of vice, Father
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Spirogra says to us, vice is proficiency in the practice
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of evil and the confirmed tendency of the will towards evil,
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which is acquired by habitual sin. Everything is evil, which
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is contrary to the will of God. A horse, when
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put into a harness for the first time, tries to
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shake off the collar. By degrees, he becomes accustomed to it,
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and in time, when led out of the stable, he
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goes of his own accord to be placed into the shafts,
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although he has to undergo toil and fatigue. That it's
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a cart horse that, you know, people used to draw
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carts with horses. I grew up with that. Actually, my
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grandfather was very into antiques. So we had a beautiful
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old surrey that belonged to the governor of North Carolina
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that in the late eighteen hundreds he restored to just pure,
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you know, was it. And we had a team. It
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was pulled by two horses, and so I learned how
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to do that, and how to steer those surrey and
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work with the horses and all that, and absolutely some
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of my most fond memories. We mainly did parades and such.
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You know, he goes show it off in a parade
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or a political event, and that would be the time
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he'd be getting the horses ready. He'd so go go
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in and make us some lunch, and I go make
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fried egg sandwiches with mustard and white bread, and we'd
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get a couple of coc colas and some boiled peanuts.
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You know, that was that was just fantastic, fantastic.
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Speaker 2: So so man becomes accustomed to the server to sin.
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A dog who has trained in the chase will, in
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his eagerness, outrun his master, that's for sure.
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Speaker 1: I used to have some. I used to have one
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great hunting dog and yeah, he was a Vishla trained
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bird that was given to me and abandoned by his owner,
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and very smart dog. And boy did he love to
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chase rabbits and birds. And I mean if I missed,
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he would turn and glare at me. He was so disappointed.
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I'm not kidding. Oh he loved to fish too, My gosh,
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that dog loved to fish. He'd sit by me with
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a fishing pole, and if he saw a catfish or
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something going by, he just jump in and grab it.
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You know, he was good. He was a good dog.
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Let's see. So the man who is habituated to sind
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makes more haste to sind than the devil does to
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incite him. There too, the habit of vice is easily formed,
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but it requires a great struggle to give it up.
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And the longer a man has indulged in vice, the
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more difficult that struggle becomes. Nothing is so easy as
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to learn, and so difficult to unlearn, as are vicious practices.
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That's actually where we get the word vice. It comes
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from vicious. I don't really think about it that way anymore.
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The vicious drift down stream, the virtuous swim against the current.
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Good works are arduous to perform, but it is easy
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enough to do evil. To cast off the yoke of
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vice requires a hard battle. It is easier to fall
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into a pit than it is to get out of
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it again. The devil entangles the center with in his toils,
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as the spider makes the fly fast in his web.
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When the sinner tries to shake himself free, he finds
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a flimsy web has become a heavy chain, as a
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vessel which has got loose from its moorings, and a
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river swept downwards, snapping like threads the ropes that hold it. So,
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Neither admonitions nor any considerations whatever prevail to arrest the
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downward course of a man who is addicted to weiss.
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When he is carried away by his passions. The longer
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he goes on in sin, the stronger will be the
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habit formed, and the more difficult his conversion. The deeper
29:52
a nail is knocked in, the harder it is to
29:54
pull out. So the longer a man persists in sin,
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the greater the effort needed to break off the habit.
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Those who shrink from jumping over the steam way it
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is a mere rivulet, a small trickle, in other words,
30:06
will find themselves unable to cross when it has become
30:09
a wide river. The repetition of the sin forms a habit.
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The habit becomes a necessity, and ere long it is
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impossible of eradication. The impossibility leads to despair and eternal damnation.
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According to Saint Augustine, a man who is addicted device
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cannot amend of his own power. He needs the mighty
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assistance of divine grace. Nor can he amend on at once.
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A long and strenuous exertion of the will is required
30:36
to achieve his conversion. Furthermore, he must commence by combating
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one fault, only that very one to which he is
30:44
most prone, and in other places. Father's progresses take one
30:49
a year, and eventually you'll be all right. Very few
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of us have just one vice. In all honesty melt
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unless the warm breath of spring passes over them. Nor
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can a man rise superior to his sins without divine grace.
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Those who have fallen into the pit of sin can
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only be lifted out of it by the help of
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God's grace. And old tree whose roots have run deep
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in the soil cannot be torn up or bent down
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by ordinary means. So powerful graces are needed to affect
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the conversion of a heart and center. Remember the circumstances
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of Saint Paul's conversion. For eighteen years, Saint Monica continued
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to weep and pray for her son's conversion. It's Saint
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Augustine's mother. If you've read his confessions, you'll know I
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the sinner must first of all, implore the aid of
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divine grace, so who will never be able to reform,
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better still if others will intercede for him. In other words, yeah,
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good to ask people to pray for you. Good to
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ask you know, to pray for other people. And the
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saints are our best friends. The saints and angels are
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our best friends, and aids and assistants in that manner,
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especially your guardian angel. A man cannot all at once
31:59
throw off the yolk. A vice constant, and persevering exercise
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of the will is necessary. Habit must be overcome by habit.
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A physical ailment of long standing takes a long course
32:11
of treatment for its cure, and the maladies of the
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soul can only be removed by a patient's resolution. For
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even after the sacrament of penance, and probably to the
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long indulge, a propensity to the long indulged sin still remains.
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Evil passions are rady to spring up again unless one
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is ever on guard. If one who is addicted de
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vice desires to reform, he must grapple first with one fault,
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and precisely that one which has most dominion over him.
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A bundle of wood cannot be broken unless the sticks
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are drawn out one after another and broken separately. The
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same course must be pursued in regard to our vices.
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If one is overcome, all others are in great measure subdued.
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A military commander who is about to fall upon a
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hostile army makes the attack at the point where the
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enemy is the strongest, because if he takes that position,
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the conquest of the remainder will be an easy manner.
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Thus we must overcome our dominant fault. We shall soon
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obtain mastery over the lesser ones. If every year here
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we go, if every year one rooted out one vice,
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we should soon become perfect men's. That should be a
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goal for everyone. It's a goal for me, and I
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have not done very well with it, but it should
33:30
be a goal for all of us. And you know,
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pray for me that I can root out every vice
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at the rate of one a year. That would be
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pretty amazing. Unhappily, too many Christians only correct their lesser
33:44
failings and allow their dominant faults to grow in for
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flourish there's the word. Or they rid themselves of one
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vice and become enthralled by another, like servants who leave
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one master only to take service with another habitual. Sin
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makes a man ex extremely unhappy, because it deprives him
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completely of sanctifying grace, subjects him to entirely to the
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domination of the subjects him entirely to the dominion of
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the devil, and brings down on him many temporal judgments
34:15
as well as eternal damnation. The Holy Spirit does not
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dwell in the heart where vice reigns. Respectable people will
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not enter a tavern which is the resort of the
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drunken and dissolute. For the good have no fellowship with
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the evil. God will not make his abode in the
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sin stained soul of the sinner, as one would rather
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live in the humble cottage, provided it be clean, than
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in a palace that was unclean and infected. So God
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will not visit the soul which is defiled and infected
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with the pestilence of sin. The vicious are completely under
34:47
the dominion of the devil. The Roman emperor Valerium, having
34:50
been taken prisoner by the King of Persia, was forced
34:53
by the latter to make himself his footstool when he
34:56
dismounted from his horse. Thus, Man, the son of the
35:00
King of Heaven, falls under the thralldom and servitude of
35:03
the devil. By the practice of vice. The just man
35:07
is ever free. They'll we wear chains of a slave.
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The sinner is ever enslaved, even on the throne, And
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every vice in which he indulges adds one more to
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its degrading fetters. Of course, of vice brings great misery
35:23
upon a man's life, a loss of property, of health,
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of reputation, besides anxiety, discontent, etc. Sometimes God sends public
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calamities for chastisement of nations set of sin. Sin makes
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nations miserable Proverbs fourteen thirty four. Was not Attila, the
35:41
king of the Hun's surname the scourge of God. He
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was just recently watching an interesting history program on Attila
35:50
the Hunt, and well he was. He was a tough dude.
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They ate dear enemies, the Hans basically eight their enemies.
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Those who are servants of vice shall not possess the
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Kingdom of God. First Corintheums six nine and ten. If
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you live according to the flesh, you shall die Romans
36:12
eight thirteen. Those who do the works of the flesh
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shall not obtain the kingdom of God. Galatians five nineteen.
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When the fatal results of sin come upcome the ciner.
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He makes good resolution, but before long he has again
36:25
led astray. Each time he repeats his sin, his power
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to resisting it is lessened. Finally, it works his ruin,
36:32
both for time and for eternity. The wicked did not
36:35
possess sanctifying grace. Consequently, their understanding is greatly obscured, and
36:40
their will greatly weakened. The understanding of the sinner is
36:44
completely clouded. As a cataract destroys the bodily sight, so
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vice obscures the eye of the soul. The passions which
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make their home in the heart of the sinner, cloud
36:55
his spirit and darken his intellect. As one who looks
36:58
through a colored glass, these everything colored. So one who
37:02
is the slave of his passions cannot judge of things aright.
37:07
He views them in a false light, nor can he
37:10
attain a true knowledge of himself. His mind is like
37:12
troubled water, which reflects one's countenance in a distorted manner.
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The habitual sinner is so blinded that he regards to
37:20
borring vices as virtue, and is angry if his attention
37:23
is drawn to his evil habits. Their disgraceful nature and
37:26
their fatal consequences. Reason is, however, never completely dethroned by
37:31
rebellious passions. The will of the sinner is greatly weakened.
37:34
He becomes powerless for good. The more a man's sins,
37:38
the weaker he becomes. If one who has fallen into
37:40
a deep sleep is called to awake or otherwise roused,
37:43
he opens his eyes and makes an effort to rise up,
37:46
but overcome by drowsiness, he sinks back on the pillow.
37:50
So it is by one who has sunk in the
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slumber of sin, he may be seriously admonished death, held,
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judgment attorney set before him. He listens to it all,
38:00
acknowledges it to be true, and makes some slight effort
38:02
to amend, but the habit of sin and the love
38:05
of the world hold him captive. He presently relapses into sin.
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It is almost as impossible for one who lives in
38:13
habitual sin to do good as for the Ethiopian to
38:16
change his skin color. That's from Jeremiah thirteen twenty three, Ethiopiens,
38:21
of course, being very darkly black. So that's what we're
38:25
talking about. The habitual center beautiful teeth. Though if you
38:29
ever notice what great teeth they have. My work good
38:33
food too. The habitual center ceases to struggle against sin.
38:37
One is annoyed to see the first spot on a
38:39
white garment, but after second, and third and many others,
38:42
one considers it as soiled, and one does not care
38:46
what stains it may contract. The ordinary sins are the
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seven capital sins pride, disobedience, anger, avarice, in temperance, in
38:54
eating and drinking, unchasty, and sloth. These are the seal
38:58
seven sins, the proclivities of the human heart, which are
39:03
the origin of every sin. All of their sins take
39:05
their rise from them as their source. They are called
39:08
vices because they are productive of permanent disorders of the soul.
39:12
They are also simply called sins because their outward manifestation
39:16
may be venial or mortal sin according to as the
39:20
offense as in a more or less weighty manner one
39:23
isolated active sin does not proven that the sin has
39:26
to be habitual. They are called capital sins because each
39:30
one of these, each one of these propensities is the
39:35
head or sinner which other sins perceive. They are like
39:38
commanding officers who come at the head of the whole
39:41
army of sins to lay waste to the heart. Each
39:44
one is a poisonous root which will bear deadly fruit.
39:47
The seven deadly sins, in their turn, originate in temptation,
39:51
to ambition, avarice, and luxury one John two sixteen. A
39:55
full enumeration of the principal sins is not possible because
39:59
the dispositions every individual are utterly different, and the evil
40:03
tendency is very no less some reckon melancholy or in
40:08
vain glory to be capital sins. Envy is often placed
40:13
among them, or again, it is not mentioned as being
40:16
the offspring of covetousness. Pride is the just in case
40:22
anybody worry, we don't consider melancholy to be a sin.
40:26
Despair is a sin. Melancholy, which may also be called depression,
40:30
is often due to circumstances or a chemical imbalance, or
40:37
just one's personality. I actually tend to word melancholy, believe
40:40
it or not, not, on its own. It's not the
40:44
sin he's talking about. He's talking about despair, which is
40:47
when you say, you know there's no hope. I'm so bad.
40:50
God can't save me. It's never going to get any better.
40:52
I pray for God's blessings, but I don't believe I'm
40:55
going to get them. That's a sin against the Holy Spirit.
40:57
So I just want to just want to qualify that
41:00
pride is universally knowledged to be the queen of sins,
41:05
to it is given precedence over all the other sins.
41:08
He who is under the permanent dominion of a capital
41:11
sin is the server of idols as Ephesians five to five,
41:16
because he makes the creature, whether the self or a
41:20
fellow being, gold, or the pleasures of the table, even
41:23
et cetera. You gluttony is actually sin, and you know
41:25
how much I love food. This one I struggle with, actually,
41:30
But anyway, he makes the creature itself his final end.
41:34
Such a one serves Mammon and not God Matthew six four.
41:39
As the seven deadly sins close the portals of Heaven
41:42
against us, they may be compared to the seven nations
41:46
which opposed the entrance of the Israelites into the Land
41:48
of Promise in Deuteronomy seven to one. They are the
41:52
seven devils whom our Lord cast out of Mary Magdalen,
41:55
Mark sixteen nine. They are seven wicked spirits who enter
41:59
into the man who has lost sanctifying grace Luke, eleven
42:03
twenty six. They are the seven fatal diseases of the
42:07
soul which end in death. Pride resembles, madness, disobedience, blood poising, anger,
42:12
a fever, covetousness, consumption in temperance, dropsy, unchasty, the plague, sloth, paralysis.
42:22
He who will be a friend of God must divest
42:24
himself of these vices. Before we lay out a beautiful garden,
42:27
the thorns and weeds must be rooted up. So those
42:31
who desire their own sanctification must first eradicate their faults. So, yeah,
42:37
I'm sure we all have to work on this, so
42:40
know no shame in admitting that. But his father Spirago says,
42:46
if we were to write down a list of our
42:48
worst habitual sense for proclivities toward right, and just take
42:55
one a year, just one a year, imagine what you
42:57
could accomplish in five or ten years. You know, you
43:01
could actually become a saint if you did that. Receive
43:05
communion regularly, you know, and work on eradicating those constant
43:12
things that are holding you back. Yeah. So, anyway, in
43:17
the words of a great saint, Padre Pio, pray hope,
43:21
and don't worry and I'll talk to you next time.