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Faith Check 30 – Persecution of Catholics in England

Persecution of Catholics in England

You’ve heard how the Pilgrims fled religious persecution in England, but have you ever heard how Catholics were persecuted there?

Recent scholarship such as Eamon Duffy’s book The Stripping of the Altars show that the vast majority of the English people did not freely choose to leave the Catholic Church, but were coerced into it. In fact, prior to King Henry VIII’s break with Rome, England was known throughout Europe as “Mary’s Dowry” because of its great piety. But under King Henry, Queen Elizabeth I, and others, failure to outwardly conform to the new state religion resulted in fines or imprisonment. Hiding a Catholic priest was considered a treasonable act punishable by death. Many suffered dearly, including famous martyrs like Sir Thomas More, or the 40 English martyrs that Pope John Paul II canonized.

Those openly professing Catholicism were barred from important positions in government and society well into the 1800s, and English law to this day prohibits a monarch from being Catholic.

Convincing evidence also shows that William Shakespeare was one such underground Catholic and that his plays included veiled appeals to the Queen for religious toleration.

So let us thank God that we can freely and openly practice our Faith, and honor all those who could not.

Pope Benedict on Prayer 18 – The Holy Family is the model for the School of Prayer

VATICAN CITY, 28 DEC 2011 (VIS) – Prayer in the Holy Family of Nazareth was the theme of Benedict XVI’s catechesis during today’s general audience, which was held in the Paul VI Hall in the presence of 7,000 pilgrims.

“The house of Nazareth”, the Pope explained, “is a school of prayer where we learn to listen, to meditate, to penetrate the deepest meaning of the manifestation of the Son of God, drawing our example from Mary, Joseph and Jesus”.

“Mary is the peerless model for the contemplation of Christ”, he said. She “lived with her eyes on Christ and treasured His every word. … Luke the Evangelist makes Mary’s heart known to us, her faith, her hope, her obedience, her interior life and prayer, her free adherence to Christ. All of these came from the gift of the Holy Spirit, which descended upon her just as it descended upon the Apostles according to Christ’s promise. This image of Mary makes her a model for all believers”.

Mary’s capacity to live by the gaze of God is “contagious”, the Holy Father went on. “The first to experience this was St. Joseph. … With Mary, and later with Jesus, he began a new rapport with God, he began to accept Him into his life, to enter into His plan of salvation, to do His will”.

Although the Gospel has not preserved any of Joseph’s words, “his is a silent but faithful presence, constant and active. … Joseph fulfilled his paternal role in all aspects”. In this context, the Pope explained how Joseph had educated Jesus to pray, taking Him to the synagogue on Saturdays and guiding domestic prayer in the morning and evening. “Thus, in the rhythm of the days spent in Nazareth, between Joseph’s humble dwelling and his workshop, Jesus learned to alternate pray and work, also offering up to God the fatigue by which they earned the bread the family needed”.

Benedict XVI then turned his attention to the pilgrimage of Mary, Joseph and Jesus to the Temple in Jerusalem, as narrated in the Gospel of St. Luke. “The Jewish family, like the Christian family, prays in the intimacy of the home, but it also prays together in the community recognising itself as part of the pilgrim People of God”, he said.

Jesus’ first words – “Why were you searching for me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house” – pronounced when Mary and Joseph found Him sitting among the teachers in the Temple, are a key to understanding Christian prayer. “From that moment, the life of the Holy Family became even richer in prayer, because the profound significance of the relationship with God the Father began to spread from the Heart of the boy (then adolescent, then young man) Jesus to the hearts of Mary and Joseph. The Family of Nazareth was the first model of the Church in which, in the presence of Jesus and thanks to His mediation, a filial rapport with God came to transform even interpersonal relations”.

“The Holy Family”, Benedict XVI concluded, “is an icon of the domestic Church, which is called to pray together. The family is the first school of prayer where, from their infancy, children learn to perceive God thanks to the teaching and example of their parents. An authentically Christian education cannot neglect the experience of prayer. If we do not learn to pray in the family, it will be difficult to fill this gap later. I would, then, like to invite people to rediscover the beauty of praying together as a family, following the school of the Holy Family of Nazareth”.
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“Rachel weeping for her children…” – Reflections of Msgr. John Esseff – Discerning Hearts

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Msgr. Esseff not only laments the horror of the massacre of the Holy Innocents in Bethlehem

2000 years ago, but the tragedy of the continued holocaust of children within their mother’s womb that occurs

today. He reflects on the passage from Revelation which recounts the hatred the devil has for the womb of the woman: The enemy HATES life. Msgr. Esseff reminds us of the VICTORY of Christ and discusses the forgiveness and hope found with God. He shares the stories of two seperate women named Maria, both of whom touched his life and who can help show us the way.

“Allow God to gaze upon you” – Reflections from Msgr. John Esseff – Discerning Hearts

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Msgr. Esseff shares some of his challenges, and yet, through it all God has been his strength. Allow God to gaze upon you. Ask the Father when He has found delight in you. Rest

with that. He shares a story of when he was a young boy, 10 cents, and the meaning of Christmas.

Be sure to visit Msgr. Esseff’s website: Building a Kingdom of Love

IP#128 Brandon Vogt – The Church and New Media on Inside the Pages

“The Church and New Media: Blogging Converts, Online Activists, and Bishops Who Tweet” is a must have for anyone who ventures on the internet. Brandon Vogt offers us a fascinating exploration of the many aspects of New Media; opening our eyes to the exciting opportunities and many of the dangers which occupy those who travel the “digital sea”.

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“The Church and New Media is the best kind of reading: timely, vivid and rich in valuable information. For anyone seeking to understand and use today’s new technologies in advancing the Catholic faith, this book is an unsurpassed resource.”

Archbishop Charles Chaput,Archbishop of Philadelphia

Be sure to visit Brandon’s website: The Thin Veil

ST13 – Seeking Truth with Sharon Doran – John Chapter 20 “Doubting Thomas”

Episode 13 – Seeking Truth with Sharon Doran, hosted by Bruce McGregor. John Chapter 20 “Doubting Thomas”

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Sharon Doran serves as the teaching director of “Seeking Truth.” An experienced Bible Study teacher, Sharon has a passion forscripture that will motivate and challenge you to immerse yourself in God’s Word and apply His message to your every day life.

Episode 13 – Sharon and Bruce discuss “Doubting Thomas”. John Chapter 20. Why Thomas was allowed to touch Jesus and Mary Magdalene was not. The significance of the actual wound in Jesus’ side and implications for the Church. Why this interaction between Jesus and Thomas is more important than what we think. What is ahead for Thomas, but also what is ahead for the Body of Christ.

“Seeking Truth” is an in depth Catholic Bible Study, commissioned by the Archdiocese of Omaha in response to John Paul II’s call to the New Evangelization as well as Pope Benedict XVI’s exhortation for all Catholics to study scripture. To learn more go to:www.seekingtruth.net

IP#126 Katie Davis – Kisses from Katie on Inside the Pages

Katie Davis is “just a normal girl who is trying to do what God has asked her to do”. “Kisses from Katie: A story of relentless love and redemption” is written by 22 year old Katie, who went to mission for a “short” time in Uganda and found God had another plan. Now she is the adopted mother of 13 girls and founder of Amazima Ministries, which encourages orphaned and vulnerable children and the poor in the country of Uganda. In the Lugandan language, Amazima (uh-mahz-i-muh) means “truth.” Amazima desires to reveal the truth of God’s unconditional love through Jesus Christ to the Ugandan people. Katie is remarkable and inspiring and a joy to read and talk with. Please, say a prayer for her and her “kids” today.

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You can find the book here

Katie’s blog is here

Pope Benedict on Prayer 16 –Divine Revelation Does Not Follow Earthly Logic

VATICAN CITY, 7 DEC 2911 (VIS) –

Benedict XVI dedicated the catechesis of today’s Wednesday audience, celebrated in the Vatican’s Paul VI Hall, to the Messianic Hymn of Jubilee, Jesus’ prayer of praise recorded in the Gospels of Matthew and Luke, which constitutes the “apex of a path of prayer in which Jesus’ profound and intimate communion with the Father in the Holy Spirit and His divine filiation clearly emerges “.

Already at the opening of the hymn, the Pope observed, Jesus addresses God by calling him Father, a term that expresses “Jesus’ awareness and certainty of being ‘the Son’ in close and constant communion with Him. This is the central point and the source of Jesus’ every prayer. … The name of ‘Father’ is followed by a second title: ‘Lord of heaven and earth'”, which “recalls the great biblical narration of the history of God’s love for human beings that began with creation. Jesus … is the pinnacle and the fullness of this history of love. … Through the expression ‘Lord of heaven and earth’ we also recognize how, in Jesus, the one who reveals the Father, the possibility of access to God is opened to humanity”.

But, to whom does the Son want to reveal the mysteries of God? “Divine revelation”, the pontiff explained, “does not occur within earthly logic, according to which humans are the wise and powerful who posses important knowledge and transmit it to those who are more simple. … God’s style is another: His communication is addressed precisely to the ‘childlike’. … And what is this childlikeness that opens humans to a filial intimacy with God and to welcoming His will? … It is the pureness of heart that allows us to recognize the face of God in Jesus Christ. It is keeping our hearts as simple as those of children, without the presumptions of those who are locked in themselves, thinking they have no need of anyone, not even God”.

“In Matthew’s Gospel, after the Hymn of Jubilee, we encounter one of Jesus’ most moving pleas: ‘Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest.’ Jesus asks that we go to Him, the true wisdom, to the one who is ‘meek and humble of heart’; He proposes His ‘yoke’, the path of evangelical wisdom, which is neither a doctrine to learn nor an ethical proposal, but rather a Person to follow: He himself, the only-begotten Son, in perfect communion with the Father”.

“We also can address God with the confidence of sons and daughters”, Benedict XVI concluded, “calling Him Father when we pray. But we have to keep the heart of a child, the heart of those ‘poor in spirit’, in order to recognize that we are not self-sufficient … that we need God, that we have to seek Him, listen to Him, speak to Him. Prayer opens us to receiving the gift of God, His wisdom who is Jesus himself, in order to accept the will of the Father in our lives and to find consolation in the weariness of our journey”.

At the end of the audience, Benedict XVI greeted the pilgrims present in the hall in their various languages and noted that the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception, which is celebrated tomorrow, “reminds us of Mary’s singular acceptance of God’s salvific plan. Preserved from any stain of sin in order to be the holy dwelling place of the Incarnate Word, she always trusted fully in the Lord”. The Pope especially urged the youth to make the effort to imitate the Virgin “with pure and clean hearts, letting yourselves be shaped by God who, in you as well, desires to bring about ‘great things'”.

YFFC Show 12 – Teens and the Birth Control Pill w/ Dr. Thomas Hilgers – Discerning Hearts

Show 12 – Teens and the Birth Control Pill

The dangers we place our teen age girls bodies in when we place them on the birth control pill. Dr. Hilgers also discusses other drugs and vaccines they would give our girls, as well as the problems with condems. Dr. Hilgers speaks as well of the importance of the need for the proper sexual education for our kids. Timely and important discussion for us all who wish to stand against the “culture of death”.

“Your Fertility Care Consult”
with Dr. Thomas Hilgers, founder of the Pope Paul VI Institute
for The Study of Human Reproduction
hosted by Kris McGregor

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listen to the entire series at Dr. Hilger’s Discerning Hearts Page

The Pope Paul VI Institute, founded in 1985 by Thomas W. Hilgers, MD, is internationally recognized for its outstanding achievements in the field of natural fertility regulation and reproductive medicine — 30 years of scientific research and educational program development; allied health professional education programs for couples and professionals; professional, caring, and morally acceptable patient services. The Pope Paul VI Institute for the Study of Human Reproduction is building a culture of life in women’s health care through its major developments — Creighton Model FertilityCare System and NaProTechnology.

http://www.popepaulvi.com/

IP#125 Virginia G. Breen – I Am In Here on Inside the Pages

The subtitle of this show is “insights from today’s most compelling authors”…I don’t think there’s a more compelling author than Elizabeth M. Bonker, who along with the help of her mother, Virginia Breen, has authored “I Am in Here: The Journey of a Child with Autism Who Cannot Speak but Finds Her Voice”. A powerful and poignant book, the conversation with Virginia is hope-filled as she shares with us all the challenges and love she has found in being the mother of Elizabeth and the strength they have both found in their relationship with God.

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“Elizabeth’s beautiful poetry clearly shows that some individuals with autism who appear to be low-functioning have real abilities. Elizabeth’s first words when she was able to type were ‘Agony. I need to talk.'”–Temple Grandin, New York Times bestselling author

Me

I sometimes fear

That people cannot understand

That I hear.

And I know

That they don’t believe I go

To every extreme

To try to express

My need to talk.

If only they could walk

In my shoes

They would share my news:

I am in here.

And trying to speak every day

In some kind of way.

Though she cannot speak, Elizabeth Bonker writes poetry that shines a light on the hidden inner world of autism and the world around us. I Am in Here is the spiritual journey of a mother and daughter who refuse to give up hope, who celebrate their victories, and who keep moving forward despite the obstacles. Elizabeth’s poetry and her mother’s stirring storytelling combine in this inspirational book to proclaim that there is always a reason to take the next step–with hope.