Why should we pray to Virgin Mary? The reasons are many.
Why do Catholics pray to Mother Mary? Is Rosary really powerful?
The intercession of Mother Mary is very powerful as Jesus cannot neglect His mothers commands.This can be proved by the first miracle Jesus did at the wedding at Cana. – (John 2:1-11). Mother Mary told Jesus “They have no more wine.” And what was the final result? He turned water into wine.
In “The Poem of the Man-God” by Maria Valtorta, she says that Jesus told her about this incident as “I did it for Mary”. This proves that the intercession of Mother Mary is very very strong.
Mother Mary was blessed with Holy Spirit abundantly. We can see this as we read “At that time Mary got ready and hurried to a town in the hill country of Judea, where she entered Zechariah’s home and greeted Elizabeth. When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the baby leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit.” (Luke 1:39-41) ; just by Virgin Mary’s greeting.
Listen to the talk from Apologetics on Mary, Purgatory and The Bible
What the angels thought on this matter:-
When angel appeared before Zechariah,father of John, angel just greets him by his name ,nothing more although he was “upright in the sight of God, observing all the Lord’s commandments and regulations blamelessly.” – (Luke 1:6)
When angel appeared before Joseph, the greeting was like this: “an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit.” – (Matthew 1:20). Angel greeted him ‘son of david’, thats all.
Now let us see how did the angel greet Virgin Mary. It goes like this: “The angel went to her and said, “Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you.” (Luke 1:28). See the difference….
Also read the article Mary, The Mystical Rose
THE LAST SUPPER
31st March I994 (Holy Thursday)
Jesus:
I give you the divine blessing in this great day of the institution of the ecclesiastical hierarchy, because it is on Holy Thursday that the Church was born in its priestly reality handed on to man by God.
Holy Thursday was for Jesus Christ the day of the greatest miracle wrought during His earthly life: the one of donating Himself as nourishment. The first miracle of His public life was to turn water into wine and the last miracle was to change wine into His Blood. Holy Thursday was the most solemn day of His public life as Teacher and Lord of His apostles. The meal that took place was consumed in a purely religious spirit, and the nutritional value of the meal consumed by Jesus Christ and His apostles was insignificant.
The Last Supper was the passing from the old alliance to the new one. Men who attribute to this solemnity the quality of a meal are only correct if they think of its value as a eucharistic meal of spiritual nourishment. In fact that ritual was not a meal simply destined to provide only for the needs of the corporeal life.
Jesus Christ, the Host offered and already sacrificed, was without bodily appetite. The greatness of the circumstance was such that nothing human should affect that consecration nor the communion of the Apostles with the objective of the sacrifice. The Last Supper was only the fulfillment of a ritual which the guests have the serious duty to perform. When men refer to that great and sublime event of the sacrificial act unfolding in time, to the offering of the sacrificial act and to the offering of the One sacrificed, no one should ever suspect that it could allow for the least satisfaction of a bodily appetite.
Regarding that gift of Myself, I was already carrying the Cross, and its weight was already in a way physically present upon Me. And in every celebration of the Holy Sacrifice of Holy Mass, I am the One offering the sacrifice and equally the Victim of Holy Friday. In that august night of the first celebration of the Holy Sacrifice, I already was both. The One offering the sacrifice and the One Sacrificed.
It is thus every time the Holy Sacrifice is celebrated, every time the concrete and painful reality of that unique act of the One sacrificing and the gift of the Victim resounds in time. The pain is as real on the altar of the sacrifice as it was on the Wood of the Cross. The last Supper of the Holy Thursday was itself also the fulfillment of the Passion and of the Divine, redeeming immolation of My humanity.
This is why to compare the Last Supper to a joyful celebration is the greatest insensitivity. When the ministers of the Holy Church, in that day commemorative of so lofty a divine event, debase it to the level of human appetites, they are guilty of irreverence and grave fault.
THE PERMANENCE OF THE HOLY SACRIFICE
1st April 1994 (Holy Friday)
Jesus:
On this most holy day, I give Myself to humanity in the most concrete and real manner as when I donated Myself in the actual time of the Crucifixion. God is the same in time and out of time, in the world and out of the world. For Him, the past of humanity is no different than the present because everything is under His ever-present control: time, as well as creatures.
I, therefore, give Myself in sacrifice “today†and it is on “this†day in time as it was in the historical day of My death on earth in the time of Crucifixion that this great divine work of Redemption takes place.
This is the great reality, but few Christians are aware of it.
I did not just die on earth in the years usually assigned as the year of My earthly death. I also die and offer Myself in holocaust for the salvation of humanity “today.â€
I will also speak of My Mother, the Most Holy Virgin Mary. I wept because of the passion of My Mother, but My eyes remained dry for those who looked upon My suffering. I have wept, yes, but not because of My suffering. I wept because of the suffering of My Mother. I wept for the loss of many souls; I wept for the dreadful state of many creatures; I wept for the pitiful state in which creation has fallen due to corruption. I suffered in My flesh and I died because of this corruption, and I wept over this corruption. I conceived the earth and its creatures in such a beautiful way – so pure and so noble — that I suffered all My life for this corruption and for each manifestation of decadence. I suffered as much in My life as in My death for humanity.
I continue to suffer due to the total and perpetual donation I made of My life, and in the passage of time this donation is as real, painful, constant and perpetual as the work of Redemption is. I am the One sacrificed — truly living and alive in the Holy Eucharist: It is I.
I am God and God “is.†I am the suffering Servant; I am the offered Victim. This is Who I am and Who I am forever, and My flesh “is.†My divine Blood remains “to be shed,†I do not cease to shed it. This is the great and perpetual triumph of God in His creatures and the divine reward takes place in Heaven. The time of the earth is Redemption which is being accomplished, but time is fulfilled in Heaven. This is why it is necessary to live in this very same spirit. Redemption which will be celebrated soon is the joy which is reserved for those who share in the victory. It is the fruit, the result of the divine action of Redemption, but it is not yet the present state of those who are still on earth. The earth is the place of incessant fighting against the enemy of God, and Heaven is the reward of the winners.
THE TRANSUBSTANTIATION
27th April I994
Jesus:
I bear the greatest suffering of the world, but only a few know it. I am truly present and really crucified in every Holy Mass, but few are those who understand the reality of the Holy Sacrifice of Holy Mass. Faith cannot be only a theory — it is necessary to put it into practice, but very few possess this totality of faith.
I take the appearance of bread which has become My Body, just like the flesh that was My Body. I take on the material look that I desire, and this means It is accessible to all creatures so they can participate in the divine life in its plenitude. I dress the material reality as I choose in the visible world, and I have instituted My Holy Eucharist with the aim to remain, in a real manner, accessible and permanent in My Church. At the moment of consecration, I assume the aspect of bread which was offered for this intention, and from the moment of this reality I am crucified and affected by physical pain.
I assume the natural aspect of a host, and since the Host is My Body, it is receptive of all the influences of the Divine Soul which inhabit it. For this reason it is fitting that the host to be consecrated is in the image of the plenitude of holiness and immaculate openness of God. The white and flat host is the most fitting one for the Divine Soul, while the brown host and the rough one with holes are not fitting for the Divine Soul.
#1603,
You didn’t reply to my direct questions about this before; instead heading off onto various hide and seek games, of varying degrees of irrelevance; therefore I won’t answer yours because as far as I know you have already forfeited my challenge to you on this issue. I am somewhat surprised that you want to raise the dead issue once again. You cannot blame me, remember it was you (#1547-48) who have decided to discontinue when you feel your argument went kaput. I know you are up on something but your strategy won’t work on me. Do you not know that you are really very predictable? You created this argument before but somehow now after several days you turn around 180 degrees by denying the relevancy of Apostolic succession in the history of Christianity. What a waste of time and energy discussing with you because there is really something wrong in your mindset that needs to be fixed first before you continue so that discussion would be fruitful and intelligible. Perhaps there is wisdom to brother’s Liam saying goodbye to you and he alone knows why or what is the reason.
And the bragging #1604…terrible indeed, here is what Prov. says of a man whose character went above his head, (Prov. 14:3); “The fool’s mouth contains a rod of pride, the wise man’s lips watch over him.†And, (Prov.12:6); “The words of the wicked men are snares to shed blood, but honest men have an answer and elude them.â€
Jesus king of mercy I trust in you!
Ave Maria!
#1606-#1610:
Dear Eddie,I can’t help but admire the splendour and beauty of the messages you shared with us, keep it up brother!
Ave Maria!
Nathaniel Fernandes in his post at #1196 made known the facts of an un-sound orthodox mystic by name of vassula ryden and her so called TLIG messages ) which are compositions of demonic influenced messages she blasphemously says are conversations with Jesus. Only people with un-sound minds will post such trash. Surely we are nearing the end times.
#Christine Marie (#1615):
You didn’t reply to my direct questions about this before.
Did I refuse in the first place? May be my mind was pre-occupied with some other thing. You should at least give me the benefit of the doubt. Also i remind you that you must have a mind-set to know the deep things of God and its application in your life and do away with the intentions of throwing challenges of winning debates that only seeks to make you feel good. At least i don’t have the intentions when i made the decision to share scripture teaching on this website blog. At the very beginning, my observation of the tone of your posts revealed a negative approach you intended to take.
know you are up on something but your strategy won’t work on me..
This statement of yours is a dead give away of your negativeness. Always doubting.. being suspicious. Try and understand that i don’t feel defeated if you check-mate me after all I am a man, who like yourself, is not perfect (except Jesus) .. and off course, we are here to learn the truth. And we must gracefully accept the truth and not be overcome by sentiments. No favoritism just because you belong to a certain denomination. You may have noticed Liam has asked which church i belonged to. But i never replied and will never will, because i am a truth seeker so whether whatever church it may be (Catholic, Protestant) is immaterial to me. My intentions are not overshadowed by church teachings, but rather to look into those church teachings and compare if they line up to match the standard declared in the Bible – the scriptures.
The apostolic succession is a sly way to “usurp” with deceitfulness, the foundations that were the already laid down by the Apostles and the apostolic teachings that have been passed on to all Christians as their rightful inheritance.
Did you know that only the Apostles were conferred with 5 special gifts of Apostleship and these 5 special gifts ceased to exist when the last Apostle died? Now today there are even evangelical pastors to carry append the title “Apostle” e.g. Apostle Mr.XYZ – i can give you live examples of video footage on your tube. No one can claim in the present time to be an apostle of Jesus after the last of Jesus’s Apostle died, because any person claiming to be one must also exhibit the five special gifts of Apostleship given to Jesus Apostles. Nobody can claim to have 2 or 3. It has to be five. No when the popes are claiming Apostolic succession, therefore keep in mind they also have to have those special 5 Apostleship gifts but I must say that none of the popes ever possessed them. Do you know about the 5 special apostleship gifts conferred on Jesus Apostles?
Thank you Bro. Eddie! God bless you…
OUR EUCHARISTIC GOD
Oh,Lord Jesus, You are the One and Only God as You through Holy Scripture claimed… for no One but You, who created all, could become man And offer His Flesh and Blood as Eternal Food For our salvation. Again, a truth confirmed in Various parts of Holy Scripture.
Oh, Bread of Life, You became a man because You Are Love and Your Love for us ensured our Creation,followed by our Redemption… but the Previous two can not compare with the gift of Yourself as Food on our way through this life To our eternal abode.
Oh, Eternal God, may I receive You daily
On Calvary at Your Holy Mass- for You are Our God, Our Eternal Eucharist, and without Your Love we are all but a myth.
A great clash will become apparent and man will separate from man. Brother against Brother.
On September 5, 2012 @ 2:30 pm
My dearly beloved daughter nation after nation is going through a transition right now.
Not one nation can fail to understand that much change is in the air.
Not only do the laws, which govern their countries, begin to change, but the faith they once had seems to have evaporated.
Fewer priests, fewer servants in My Christian Church, are coming forward to defend the Laws of God.
Nor do they shout their allegiance to Me. Instead their voices are but whispers amidst the noise of voices, which rant and promote self-love.
The Word of God is being devoured by the voices of the atheists who disguise their voices behind the cloak of government laws, which are being amended in the name of so called Justice, tolerance, for the good of all.
The lies being presented before you are designed to destroy not only the Word of My Father, but Christianity throughout the world.
The apostasy has spread like wildfire and has almost reached breaking point.
This is the time for the intervention of God. Enough lies.
The King of Lies deceives God’s children everywhere. Do not follow your governments who proclaim the Word of God to be a lie.
Do not accept new laws, which condone mortal sin. Fight, all of you. Stand up for what is right.
Do not allow laws, promoted by the King of Lies, to grasp you and your families into a bottomless pit.
Should you allow laws, which ban the practice of your faith, you will suffer. Your souls will lack nourishment and you will become distant from Me.
But should you accept murder and abortion and not stand up against such evil, then your country will be punished by the Hand of God.
While the apostasy continues to spread everywhere, conversion is on the other hand growing and soon the two will collide head on.
A great clash will become apparent and man will separate from man. Brother against brother. Neighbour against neighbour.
There will be two camps. Those who love God and those who don’t.
I will give every soul the chance to decide which camp they wish to become part of, in the hope that they will choose Me, their beloved Saviour.
You My disciples, through your prayers, especially the recital of the Litany of the Grace of Immunity, can bring more souls to Me.
Then I will snatch the good into My Bosom as foretold and in the blink of an eye they will be taken to safety.
My Promise is to save mankind.
But the final choice will be down to each soul through their own free will.
Your Jesus
ON THE EUCHARIST
Nov. 18, 1947
JESUS :
Listen well, Maria, this is a great lesson: The most proper name of the Mass or Sacrifice of the Altar, as you all now call it, is the “Breaking of the Bread.” First, because the Mass originated on the evening of Holy Thursday. And secondly, because the Mass is the perpetual remembrance of My love which extends beyond that hour and that moment.
My Passion, Crucifixion and Death were the historical hour and moment of My love, but the Eucharist is the always of My love for all of you.The Mass is the immolation of the Christ—contemplated not just in relation to the material consummation of My sacrifice, with My sufferings, wounds, beatings, crucifixion and death: caused by men and willingly suffered by Me in obedience to My Father’s Will for the salvation of the world. The Mass is also the loving and willing immolation of a God: of the Word Who breaks Himself in order to give Himself as Bread, as Food for men, humiliating Himself even more than by His death on a Cross.
Nor is “humiliating” an improper word. Think, Maria, of those who sometimes receive Me, those into whom I descend: I, God, the Pure, the Holy. I began at the table of the Last Supper to fuse Myself with the sacrilegious, with sinners, rebels against the Ten Commandments of Sinai and My Two Commandments of love. I began these fusions of Myself with sinners by descending into Judas. Since then, I: the Saint of saints, the Pure of the pure, the Most Perfect, have been “welcomed” by impure lips still warm with lust, by lips blaspheming My Father, by homicidal hearts, by fevers of concupiscence: by beings in whom there is denial, heresy, commerce with Hell, all the rottenness of fallen man, all the duplicity of false sentiments, all the calculating exhibition of a false faith, which in them is not true faith. Only God, and those with Him in Heaven, know the horrors that are consummated at the altar. And these horrors are much greater, immensely greater than the sacrilegious waves of Good Friday…
Yes, Maria. The Mass is the Breaking of the Bread, the Eucharistic sacrifice, which recalls the Sacrifice of Calvary. Because at the table of the Last Supper, already contemplating My immolated Body and My Blood shed for men, I had said: “This is My Body and this is My Blood, the Blood of the new eternal Testament which will be shed for you and for many for the remission of sins.” But the Mass is above all the sacrifice of My love, the remembrance and perpetuation of My divinely, and therefore infinitely, insane love for men.
And it was the Breaking of the Bread (or “the Mass” if you prefer) that you saw, Maria, in the vision of the supplemental Pasch, when I Myself, taught the Bishop of the Church of Christ, and the Bishop of Jerusalem: Peter, and James of Alpheus, to celebrate it.
After the supper of the brothers, came the consumming of My Body and My Blood: left by infinite love in the Food and Drink of salvation. By the grace of the Lord, My priests can summon that Body and Blood from Heaven; nor do the Body and Blood refuse that priestly summons. They can summon It in order to transubstantiate3 the bread and wine into the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ—therefore into Jesus Christ: alive, true, complete, present in the consecrated Species, now transubstantiated into the Holy Body and Blood, the Soul of Jesus, and the Divinity of the Word of God, One with the Father and with Love.
After the fraternal agape, came union of their Divine Brother with His brothers of Earth, with the holy brothers, among holy brothers whom love made equal, though greater ones were there: the priests; and with the little ones: the faithful—union with Him Who knows only how to love, and Who asks love and union with his loved ones.
The need for instruction: one must keep present the fact that the Apostles, deacons and priests of the first centuries of the Christian era, were in the situation of instructing pagans, that is, those who were truly illiterate in the Holy Religion. This need for instruction caused additions to the Breaking of the Bread—Itself so simple and brief. These additions instructed those who aspired to Christianity how to enter into the Sheepfold of Christ: by knowing the Shepherd and Wisdom, by knowing the ancient and eternal Law, and the Words of the Master. Hence the reading of the apostolic epistles and the Gospel were introduced. In the first times, just at the beginning, instead of those readings there was direct preaching: that is, the recounting of ancient times, or the verbal counsels of the apostles, or else the verbal instruction of the sapiential books. And so also there was the verbal narration of My works in the three years of My public life, and of My Birth, Death and Resurrection.
Later, as the Church was growing, there was an insufficient number of true eyewitnesses—i.e., Apostles and disciples—for the growing number of churches. Moreover, though the disciples were full of good will in repeating the episodes of My works and life, they were still subject to man’s shortcomings: to involuntary variations of these episodes, and to arbitrary interpretations of them. Though this was done with a right purpose, yet, it was done…humanly. Hence, the Heads of the Priesthood wanted fixed texts to be read in the Meetings, and then to be explained to the catechumens in that part of the Meeting which preceded the Breaking of the Bread and the praying of the Our Father: just as I intoned this Prayer at the First Breaking of the Bread, and also at the second supplemental Pasch2 —in the presence of the faithful, and after consuming the Species.
Truly, I had then made the Communion precede the Our Father. For centuries now the opposite has been done, and you believe, O men, that you do well. To do this is not a sin, but reflect: What is the Our Father? The prayer of Jesus to the Father. The divine prayer which I taught to men. The perfect prayer. If there were only that prayer, and nothing else but that were said well, you would have all, O men, for your spirit and for your flesh. And you would give to God that which pleases Him, if you lived the Our Father.
I had said: “Our Father”. With every right I could say to the First Person: “Father”. But you,…although God is your Father—you can say it with much less right. Because too infrequently do you reflect in yourselves and in your works the divine likeness to your Father. Sins and inclinations disfigure the Father’s image in you, sometimes even canceling it out.
But see: I transfuse Myself into you. I come into you. I assimilate Myself to you. I deify you at My contact. I come in the Species, and I am in you. And you—voice of man fused with the voice of the Son of God, and your mind on fire from the love that I bring with Me, you are a sanctified altar (I speak of one who eats the Bread of Heaven without sacrilege) which sings and is fragrant from the Holocaust that radiates upon it: the Body of the Lamb of God—you can say “Father” to the Father, with every right. For you have in you the Son of the Father and your Brother. You can pray, knowing what you say. You can offer and ask with perfect power: I give you My Power living in you.
A holy prayer, the Our Father: because said at the moment that Grace—the Christ—makes of His Body and Blood your food, just as He has transubstantiated the species of bread and wine into His Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity. Thus the Eucharistic Species are transformed into you: into your blood, into your flesh. You live from Me, even in your mortal flesh… This is why Viaticum for the dying is always Life, even if sometimes it is not additional life added to one’s finished life. This is why the Eucharist is the life in you that keeps you alive, Maria, soul of Mine.5 I am your oil that pours itself into the lamp of your exhausted body and keeps you alive. I am your Physician. I am your Donor of blood. I am your Lord Who wants you to be: My lamp, My echo, in this spent, cold, dark world, mute of blessed voices.
The other parts of the Mass are adaptations, sometimes necessary, resulting from heresies that emerged down the ages and had to be fought. Anxious adaptations—oh! all good—these adaptations made by My servants. But through man’s own tendency to amplify, tangle, and make things heavy, My servants added, amplified, made heavy, and even entangled—especially for little souls—the so beautiful, simple, initial Breaking of the Bread, and the catacomb Meetings so divinely inspired. But they did it wanting to honor Me, to love Me and make Me loved. And therefore they did a good work, though one not necessary or useful for the Eucharistic Rite.
These adaptations are the superstructures from times of religious peace. Do you think that you Christians today are not in times of religious peace? just because you are calumniated and scorned? and because some priests fall under the fury of a son of Satan? Oh! You do not know! When the times prophesied have come, those who are believers at that time and know of the present times, will be able to say: “For them there was peace; for us there is an atrocious war.” And those superstructures will no longer be possible. They will not withstand the catapults of Satan. Nor will the faithful have time to redo them when they have fallen away.
But the essential, the unchangeable will remain: the Breaking of the Bread, the Meeting together of the faithful. Because those come from Me, and from the Holy Spirit Who inspired the Apostles. And that which comes from Us is eternal.
This is the lesson, Maria.
You will give these pages to the new Isaac,6 just as they have been written under My Dictation, reserving for yourself to copy them afterward into the directions. You will tell him [Isaac] to copy them with the typewriter and to send you the copy for Rome, so that you may transcribe it or join it to the directions. Thus he will see that I love him, and that when I dictate to you and give you the strength to follow Me — sometimes I do not give it to you fully for My own inscrutable reasons — you do not err in one word.
And now rest in your double warmth: of love for Me, and fever for yourself. Stay in peace, soul of Mine.
THE BEATITUDES IN THE MAGNIFICAT
Sept. 8, 1948
SEER:
The Most Holy Master makes me reflect on the words “my Savior” [Lk 1:47], which prove that Mary was unaware of Her lot as the Immaculate and Her destiny as Mother of God.
JESUS:
Did the Madonna know that She was to be the Mother of the Messiah?
NO. “And troubled by these words, She pondered what sort of greetings that might be” [Lk 1:29].
“Then Mary said to the Angel: ‘How will this happen, if I do not know man?'” [Lk 1:34]
If She had known, She would not have been troubled at that greeting, nor would She have asked what it meant. She would simply have thought: “The hour has come for the conception of the Word in My womb through the work of the Holy Spirit.”
Whereas She is so unaware of it that She asks how it could happen to Her to become a mother if She does not know man. From this question it appears evident that Mary was unware of being the one destined for the divine Maternity, and She was unware as to how and by Whom the act could be accomplished that would give flesh to the Word, and in what manner it would be accomplished.
It is true, as St. Thomas [Aquinas] says, that the Annunciation was willed by God through the free consent of Mary. But it is also true that the Angel had the task of enlightening Mary. Before that, She was unaware.
When She sang the “Magnificat” some days later, She knew it [then], but because Gabriel had announced it to Her.
“Fiat” [“Be it done”], yes. Because She was not unaware of the prophetic pages about the Christ [Messiah], and therefore of the suffering of the Christ-Redeemer.
Contemplate the beatitudes in the Magnificat, and the great Truth hidden in the words “my Saviour.” To those who object to you, Maria, about the “second-begotten” of God, about “the soul of Mary [as] part of God,” have them consider these two things:
I – That Mary was born of a human marriage and, like all men who believe in the Christ [Messiah], was saved (pre-saved or preserved) in view of the future merits of Christ the Savior.
If She would have had a divine nature, as some want to take My exact words to mean—badly understanding them and always literally, because they do not know how to read with the life which is spirit—then Mary would have had no need of being saved. And therefore, being by now filled with the Holy Spirit, She would not have called God “Her Savior”.
II – Every soul, being a “breath, puff, or spirit of life” infused by God in the flesh of man, is a “part of God.” With more perfection would that “breath,
puff or spirit,” be “part of God” which God infused in the flesh of His future immaculate Spouse, Mother, Ciborium of God, and His Ark.
But let them be. Only the eagle fix their gaze on the sun. From flowers only the bees draw honey. The others cannot fix their gaze on the Infinite Light
which is Truth. And again, the others make of flowers only straw or hay for cud-chewing.
But the truth is this: the soul is part of God and the soul of Mary was Part of God.
Yet, let them be! They will bow their foreheads here, before the Truth on His sublime Throne, when forever and for a moment they will see the Sun Who is Truth, and they will be “living eagles” for eternity, or eagles struck down for eternity. For now, they are pigmies who believe they are giants, nocturnal birds who exchange the foolish fire of their science for the Sun of My Wisdom…
Contemplate the beatitudes again, the first ones [contained] in the Magnificat. For whoever knows how to read it, they are the prelude to the beatitudes of the Sermon on the Mount. Look: I will enlighten you, Maria.
[Blessed are the Poor in Spirit]
The beatitude of poverty of spirit: Mary [My Mother] had not gluttonous or avaricious. She did not desire Her own glory, and as soon as She possesses it, She shares it, and from that moment on, She shares it always with all humanity. She brings grace to John, charity to Her cousin, the miracle to Zecharia. Later She will bring Grace into the world. She will give It to men,. She will sacrifice Her own love of a Mother and Her Heart, everything, in true poverty of spirit. And for this She will be Queen of the Kingdom of Heaven. Mary offered Herself meekly, to be an instrument of the greatest and most painful will of God: the Redemption. And She became the Mother whom all generations of the Earth will call blessed.
[Blessed are the Meek, for They shall Inherit the Earth]
She inherited the Earth, after inheriting Heaven, because She was meek besides being without greed and without avarice. Mary, professing Herself a handmaid of God not only in Her words, She consecrated Herself to weeping and sorrow; but Her spirit already exulted in God Her Savior, because those who weep will be comforted.
[Blessed are Those who Hunger and Thirst for Justice]
Mary was ravenous and anxiously thirsted for justice, standing with Her hands raised in offering from Her tenderest years, so that justice might triumph in the world. And God filled Her with Himself, the Supreme Good.
[Blessed are the Merciful, for They shall Obtain Mercy]
Mary made Herself a handmaid out of mercy for Humanity, and Mercy became incarnate in Her and was born of Her.
[Blessed are the Pure of Heart, for They shall See God]
Mary had feared God and therefore She was angelically pure, and saw God in His double Nature, nursed Him, cared for Him, Loved Him like no one else.
[Blessed are the Peacemakers, for They shall be Called Sons of God]
Mary, the Peaceful One, begot Peace, Peacefully, in the continuous poise of the just, in the perfect self-dominion of the innocent, She welcomed the supreme honor and the supreme burden of being Mother of God and Coredemptrix; and God had done so many mighty things in Her that, among all those born by the will of man, She is the true and beloved Daughter of God.
[Blessed are Those who are Persecuted for the Sake of Justice, for Theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven.]
Mary is the humble one, and therefore is exalted above every creature. She is the persecuted one because of Her faithful love for the sake of justice, and for this the Kingdom of God was in Her and She is in It.
The humble woman of Nazareth: insulted, calumniated, ridiculed and scorned even by those of Her own blood, just as She Herself sang in Her jubilation—it is She who glorifies the Lord for His infinite power, charity, justice. She is the first Voice of the choir of the Saints, who have come to the Kingdom by being poor of spirit, poor of means, but rich in virtue; by being meek, afflicted, lovers of justice, merciful, pure, peaceful, persecuted.
Truly, I say to you, that as Mary was born by the will of man and from the womb of a woman and is the Daughter of God, Queen of Heaven, so everyone born of man can, with his will, have that which Mary had: God in himself, and the Kingdom of his Father for ever and ever.
Alan, your slaying zeal (utmost gloriously fruitful work than a fruitful work) is counted for righteousness (Ps 106:30-31). Have you ever seen those verses before, brother? How great your love for Jesus our Father is! After reading those verses and read Number 25 about Phinehas’s zeal in killing people, I felt something weird. Ask yourself: Did Paul ever read those verses? If he did, he would never be supporting “faith alone†doctrine. Or otherwise, he could have edited those verses.
Does John 3:16 really tell you to believe in Jesus in order to be saved once for all? Let me make it clearer for you. Suppose you believed in Jesus during a special moment, is this how you received salvation once for all and became full of joy but not fear and trembling? I would like to see your response on that one. Perhaps, you want to make it clear that I do not get a wrong idea.
Maybe we could both avoid the long road ahead of us.
Is Church Apostolic?
First, we must begin with the Bible. Of course, Apostles are the chosen ones who carried the Word of God and wrote the Scripture for all branches of Christianity. It is not a matter of “Scripture vs. Tradition†but rather just an interpretation against other interpretation.
Remember Paul writes: you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built upon the foundation of the Apostles†(Eph 2:19-20). Apostle John shows us that the Apostles are the “twelve foundations†of the walls of the heavenly Jerusalem†(Rev 21:14). The household of God, the heavenly city – that is, the Church – rests upon the sure foundation of its apostolicity. Interesting, huh?
Psalm 109:8 states “His bishopric let another take.†Luke is discussing here the “office†of Apostle, which the Church even then understood under the title “Bishop†for we understand “episkopen†literally means “overseerâ€. This is why Judas, a bad Apostle, had to be replaced with a new Apostle who was assigned to preserve the Church belonged to Jesus, “the church of the living God, the pillar and bulwark of the truth†(I Tim 3:15). It goes the same down the generations whenever leaders either die or are excommunicated.
Jesus didn’t say to Peter “Go build Me a church†but instead he said “On this rock I will build MY Church†(Mt 16:18). Notice Jesus did not exchange in Greek language. In Aramaic, there is only one word for “rockâ€. The Church is One because Paul repeatedly described the Church as “one body,†identified with the integrity and uniqueness of Jesus’ own body (Rom 12:5; I Cor 10:17, 12:12-13; Eph 2:16, 4:4; Col 3:15). Paul says “I appeal to you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree and that there be no dissensions among you (all misinformed Catholics, strong Baptists, and Protestants), but that you be united in the same mind and the same judgment†(I Cor 1:10). The only candidate for such unity is the Catholic Church, which transcends all ethnic, national, and cultural boundaries. It is the only Christian body that professes one faith, undivided, unchanged, throughout the world and throughout the ages. Those separated Christians who profess “scripture alone,†on the other hand, have multiplied denominations into the tens of thousands. Presbyterians and Baptists disagree on how old the children should be baptized as well as Baptists and Lutherans disagree on the nature of sacraments. However, Baptists and Protestants have something in common that is “faith alone†doctrine, not taught by the Catholic Church. I think that is enough for now.
I can attack Marian doctrines and other Catholic teachings all day long like many Christians do. The only thing that changed my mind about Catholics is the adequate evidences that stand against the “faith alone†doctrine.
Faith Alone
“What is Reformed Theology and what are the Doctrine of Grace?†Simply put, Reformed Theology is the theology that developed out of the Protestant Reformation of the 16th and 17th centuries. As the Reformers – men such as Martin Luther, John Calvin, Ulrich Zwingli, and John Knox – were expounding their doctrine and fighting against the errors and abuses of the Roman Catholic Church, certain “catch phrases†or “slogans†developed that summarized their teaching and how it differed from that of Rome. The slogans were (along with their Latin equivalents): 1) Faith Alone (Sola Fide); 2) Scripture Alone (Sola Scriptura); 3) Grace Alone (Sola Gratia); 4) Christ Alone (Sola Christus); 5) To God Alone be the Glory (Soli Deo Gloria).
The first slogan we will look at is faith alone, or more precisely justification by faith alone. What did the Reformers mean by this phrase? To answer this question, we need to have an understanding of what is meant by justification. Justification is a legal term and, biblically speaking, it refers to one’s legal standing before God. Do we have a legal standing before God? Absolutely! Because of the fall into sin (Genesis 3:1-24), Adam and all his descendents were judicially declared guilty before God (Romans 5:12-21). We are dead in our sins and trespasses (Ephesians 2:1) and unable to make ourselves right (or non-guilty) before God.
Justification by faith alone is the answer to our guilt problem before God. How a man (a woman, a person) is made right – justified – before God is through faith alone. This begs the question: Faith in what? Or more precisely, faith in whom? Paul, in his letter to the church in Rome (not the Roman Catholic Church), wrote, “For there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith†(Romans 3:22-25). We are justified by faith alone in Christ Jesus.
Another question that can be asked is how is this controversial? How does justification by faith alone differ from the teachings of the Roman Catholic Church? In the Council of Trent (1545 – 1563), the Catholic Church responded to the teachings of the Protestant Reformers, and in the sixth session (1547) they declared as heresy the doctrine of justification by faith alone (see canons IX, X and XI of the sixth session). Rome’s doctrine of justification is to say that faith is a necessary ingredient of justification, but that it is not sufficient. We must combine with our faith good works. This is not to say that Rome believes in “works righteousness.†What Rome sees as justification is what Protestants see as the process of sanctification; i.e., the process of growing in practical holiness (putting off sin and growing in righteousness). Roman Catholics see the two as inseparable, whereas Protestants see them as distinct because the bible sees them as distinct.
So we are justified by faith alone, but how exactly is this accomplished? Roman Catholic critics will claim that the doctrine of Sola Fide is a “legal fiction.†The way this works is through imputation. Imputation is a technical word that means, “to ascribe something to someone by virtue of a similar quality in another.†In the sense of justification, it is imputed to Christians through their faith in Christ. To put it another way, the perfect righteousness of Christ is imputed to Christians through their faith (2 Corinthians 5:21). Jesus Christ lived a perfectly sinless life in complete obedience to the law of God. He did so because we, through our sin, could not fulfill the law of God. He then died on the cross in order to pay the ransom for our sins (1 Peter 1:18-19). Our faith, then, acts like a conduit through which the righteousness of Christ is imputed to us and our sin is imputed to Christ. Therefore, we who believe and trust in Christ can righty say that our sins were paid for on the cross (Colossians 2:13-14) and that we are now holy and blameless in God’s sight (Colossians 1:21-22). Justified by faith alone in Christ alone!
John 3:16?
“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”
I believe John 3:16 is the most important verse in the entire Bible. The whole Bible is important, but without this verse, humanity would be going to hell right now. There wouldn’t be any Jesus that came to save us from our sins. It would also show us that God would not have loved the world that much, either. And all these false doctrines about losing your salvation or getting baptized to go to Heaven would now be true IF if weren’t for John 3:16. You can say that there are other verses in the Bible that tell us how to get saved and go to Heaven, but, without this verse, it’s just one verse less for a person to have faith into getting saved.
So many professed Christians say that in order to be saved, you must get Baptized. I ask this of you though, what does John 3:16 say?
Do you see ANYWHERE in that verse that says in order to be saved, you must get Baptized? No! All you have to do to get saved is believe in Jesus Christ to forgive you of your sins and take you to Heaven when you die! It don’t get much simpler than that.
So many professed Christians say that you can loose your salvation if you get to far away from the Lord. Again, I ask of you, what does John 3:16 say?
I don’t see ANYWHERE in John 3:16 where the verse read that you can loose your salvation. On the contrary, once you believe in Jesus Christ to forgive you of your sins and take you to Heaven when you die, you are, according to John 3:16 saved FOREVER. That is why John 3:16 is so important! This Verse GUARANTEES our everlasting salvation! It guarantees that we, who believe in Jesus Christ to forgive us of our sins and take us to Heaven when we die, WILL BE SAVED FOREVER!!!
So many professed Christians say that a sign of them being saved is when they speak in “tongues”. I ask this of you, yet again, what does John 3:16 say?
Do you see ANYWHERE in John 3:16 where the verse says speaking in tongues is a sign of your Salvation? No! John3:16 clearly tells us that if we just believe in Jesus Christ to forgive us of our sins and take us to Heaven when we die, we are saved forever! That is our sign of Salvation! John 3:16 says so! We asked Jesus to come into our hearts and declared Him as our Personal Saviour! Why must “Christians” speak in tongues when John 3:16 makes no mention that speaking in tongues is a sign of your Salvation? It’s not.
I can literally apply this verse to every false religion and false doctrine in the world today and expose them with just John 3:16! I pray that you will see just how important this verse really is. If you stick by John 3:16, you will see just how many cults are really false; just how many false doctrines are really false; and just how the world likes to hide this verse from Christians so they will never know what to believe in. You want truth? Apply John 3:16 to every thing. The results might surprise you…
SavedbyGrace or SavedbyWorks? (#1625):
1.) … is this how you received salvation once for all and became full of joy but not fear and trembling?
I cannot tell the reader how many times I have heard the Pharisaic spirit disguised as a minister of the gospel use this verse to instill fear into people warning them that this verse means that one can lose their salvation–that they had better walk a tight rope lest they fall into the unending fiery flames of hell. And this verse has been abused to instill a great deal of fear in many people, especially Catholics.
When these darlings of darkness (preachers) quoted this verse to instill fear in me, I always wondered why one should fear God if in fact God was in me to work out His will in me. Why should I fear? Was He not going to turn all things to my good? (Rom. 8:28) I would think that I should actually jump up and down in excitement that the very creator of the universe chose to take up residence in me to bring about something for me that was for my very own good! I should be dancing, not trembling in fear.
t did not seem likely to me that Paul in writing to the Philippians could have meant literally that they were to work out their salvation in a condition of anxiety and nervousness. We all know that fear destroys love and spoils relationships, and a great deal of the New Testament is taken up with getting rid of the old ideas of fear and substituting the new ideas of love and trust. I realized that the Greek word translated ‘fear’ can equally well mean ‘reverence’ or ‘awe’ or even ‘respect’.
Surely the same Spirit who inspired Paul to write to Timothy that ‘God has not given us the spirit of fear; but of power and of love and of a sound mind’ could not also have meant us to live our entire lives in a state of nervous terror. I cannot imagine any real Christian minister being encouraged and refreshed by a display of nervous anxiety.
2.) Psalm 109:8 verse taken out of context. Read what 109:9, the next verse says.
3.) 1 Timothy 3:15 But if I tarry long, that thou mayest know how thou oughtest to behave thyself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth.
Catholics always try to show this verse that the Church is the “truth”. Is this really?
So, what does this passage mean? Paul is using a building imagery. A pillar rests on immoveable ground, and together they support a structure. Thus the church upholds and supports the truth revealed by God. God’s people are called to preserve the pure teaching of His Word, which is the truth. It is their duty to be light in this dark world. But that does not imply that the church fulfils this great duty perfectly and infallibly. Even in the New Testament, we read about churches (such as