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Showing posts with label grace. Show all posts
Showing posts with label grace. Show all posts

Saturday, August 25, 2012

Prayer For Courage

Dear God, give me courage, for perhaps I lack it more than anything else.

I need courage before men against their threats and against their seductions.

I need courage to bear unkindness, mockery, and contradiction.

I need courage to fight against the devil, against terrors and troubles, temptations, attractions, darkness and false lights, against tears, depression, and above all fear.

I need Your help, dear God.

Strengthen me with Your love and Your grace.

Console me with Your blessed Presence and grant me the courage to persevere  until I am with You forever in Heaven.

Amen.

Reprinted with Permission of AskACatholic.Com



Friday, June 29, 2012

Are We All Destined For Hell?



If ever there is a sign for all of us here in this country that the world is about to come to an end, we can take a good look at the Democrat party and say - yup, they're leading us all straight to hell because of this health care law, because of abortion, because they want to take away our religious freedom and force us to pay for birth control and other sins, and now they side totally with gay marriage rights. Worse, and perhaps the biggest disappointment in all of this, is how a conservative judge could actually give Obama what he wanted - a health care law that is going to ruin a lot of lives, take away a lot of jobs, and cost trillions.

Do these people in our government not believe that there is a hell - put there for all of us to be punished for our sins? Are not the Catholics in the government aware of this? I just want to know.

I heard a news story today that said Kathleen (excommunicated Catholic) Sebelius doled out over two billion dollars to planned parenthood before the law was passed because she, and others, believed it was going to fail, too, and she wanted to give them money to stay in business. Did we not pray hard enough or is it too late for our prayers now? Is God tired of listening to us or are we just past the point of righteousness and on the bring of damnation?

The other question, is, will Mitt Romney really get rid of the health care law if he becomes president or is he just saying that since he wants to be president? Seriously, who can we trust or believe anymore?

Maybe Justice Roberts was right in his ruling. But think of this. If he is right, then did the democrats pull the wool over our eyes by telling us that this law will invoke a penalty if we do not buy health insurance, knowing full well that the law had this little tax issue in it? Our first clue should have been when Obama told us that it would be inforced by the IRS. Pretty skanky. Now they are raising our taxes by over 500 billion? AND medicare is going to be cut by 500 billion? What is happening?

These are just a few of the many questions I now have and I'm sure others have regarding all of this. I believe most mouths dropped open when that decision was read by the Supreme Court yesterday.

Well dear Lord, come and get us. What are we waiting for? Why allow our country and our world to continue in its sins - get rid of us. We are a horrible people. We have horrible people running this country. We are losing Catholics, Christians and so on in the name of evil. Catholic don't listen to the Church regarding birth control, abortion, and gay marriage. People do not care. People are living as if there is nothing to worry about. You know, like hell.

And actually I believe I have been living as if there is nothing to worry about either. But if you do a search on youtube and find people who have supposedly had near death experiences and landed in hell and then came back to tell us what it is like, we would all be changing our lives pronto and turning to God and leaving the things of this world alone forever. And for some of the people who ended up there, I'm sure they never gave hell a second thought. Some did not know where they even were because they weren't taught about it.

For example, one person was a born again Christian and he ended up there. What happened, wasn't he "really" saved?

A mormon lady ended up there and it changed her in to a Christian. And we're supporting a mormon for president?

The videos I watched (can't say if they are all true or not) were enough to start me thinking and praying again. I, for one, have wasted the past year doing everything BUT giving to God what He deserves - my love and attention and gratitude. Forget purgatory - that's only for people who actually listen to God and try to do as God wants. And it's really very simple. Love Him. And love our neighbor as ourselves.

Well, for me I need a total attitude adjustment. And a realization that I, like so many others, am one step closer to hell than I am to heaven.

People, we need to start praying and praying hard and not stopping. We need to pray for a conversion for those in government who now control our life and very possibly, our death. They kill the unborn. Who's to say they won't start killing others, now? Like the elderly.

When we are told in Scripture to persevere in our prayer and Christian life, God wasn't joking.

Wake up Americans. Our lives are not our own. They belong to God. And if we believe that God won't send us to hell because He is a loving God, think again. WE will send ourselves there, not God. He does not want us there. But His justice requires it. He just wants us to love Him as we were created to do. And of course, obey Him. And the Church. That's it.

So what's the answer to all of this? To start with, turn off the television and if you do watch for a while each day, watch something that doesn't have ads. Many ads could almost be classified as porn. The network channels are no better. It has gotten so bad that if I am watching something, I walk out of the room when the garbage comes on.

Also, read Scripture daily. Pray as often as you can, espcially the rosary, each day. Do penance along with fasting. Pray for the conversions of our congressmen and women and president. Attend Mass daily, if possible. Go to confession at least once a month and more if possible. You'll find that the more you go to confession, the more you become aware of your sins as they happen. We need God's grace to be saved and receiving the sacraments is the only way to receive sanctifying grace.

Follow the precepts of the Church. These are the laws our Church has made to help us in our walk. Go to mass weekly, on holy days. Fast and abstain on appointed days. Don't shop on Sundays. That day is reserved to our Lord. Try to live up to the beatitudes.

If you do use artificial birth control, stop now and confess your sin. Trust in God to give you the children he wants you to have or not have. Fight against abortion, reminding the pro-abortion people that they are killing an unborn child - a living person created by God, who formed us in the womb. If you have had an abortion, go confess it now because you have officially excommunicated yourself from the Catholic Church and cannot and especially should not receive Holy Communion, with a mortal sin on your soul. As should any of us receive with mortal sin on our soul.

If you are gay, please do your soul a favor by NOT receiving either. And same goes for hetersexuals who are living together or just live a very immoral life. Do not go to Communion. We drink judgement on ourself by doing to Holy Communion with mortal sin on our soul. We must not offend the Lord anymore than He is already offended.

Most of all have faith in Almighty God in each and everything we do. And when it comes time for you to die, request the final sacrament of the Church, IF you are lucky enough to not die suddenly. You are going to need it. We have up to the moment of death to confess any sins we may still have. God knows what we have done so there is no sense to lying or hiding them to a priest. He has been given the power from Jesus Himself, to absolve ours.

Finally, visit the blessed sacrament as often as possible. Tell God everything. Cry to Him. Ask Him for help. He WILL help you. Tell Him "Jesus, I Trust In You" and begin trusting Him in every aspect of your life. And pray for those who are leading all of us down the wide path to hell.





Wednesday, May 2, 2012

Priest Marries in Australia

A news story has broken about a priest in Australia who has admitted that he has been secretly married for a year. The article also says that there are many more like him in the world. The link is at the bottom of this article.
 
Now MSNBC ran the story and since I believe MSNBC lies through their teeth about most things, I'm taking it with a grain of salt.

Still, if it is true, then this priest is saying that there are more priests like him and if that's true, then I'm pretty sad about the whole situation.

We understand they have those same needs as most men seem to think they need, but as a man of God, God gives our priests the grace to not desire things of this world but only of the next.

I'm not entirely against a priest being married, but there are some reasons for celibacy. One, St. Paul talks about how it is better to be celibate, but if you can't be, then be married. Course in today's culture, being married is no longer a prerequisite to people having sex.

As I stated in my previous post, tv plays a lot into how people lead their lives and priests are human, too. If priests watch the same garbage the rest of the world watches, I would think that it would be pretty hard for them to live their life of celibacy.

What many people fail to understand is that celibacy is a discipline, not a doctrine and began when men, themselves, decided to forsake others in favor of living for God alone. God does not exactly say a priest has to be celibate, but again, we fall back on St. Paul's words regarding his own vocation of being celibate. And he was a priest of God's.

Mary, herself, was given so many graces to help her in this life retain her virginity, to not lust for man. Priests are given these very same graces and are not required to become a priest, but rather have chosen to be one. It is an admirable profession, even if most of mankind doesn't recognize it as such.

I was glad to see that his bishop is removing him from his duties. The same thing happened to Father Corapi. These men are given a long discernment period in the beginning to decided, can they be a priest, do they really want to be a priest and can they live up to their own vows, just as we are to live up to our marriage vows.

So we need to pray hard for our priests. The devil is working hard today to try and take them from God before the end of time. If we are in the end times, then our prayers need to be especially fervent for those men who are to lead their flocks to heaven.

http://worldnews.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/05/02/11497228-catholic-priest-in-australia-ive-been-secretly-married-for-a-year?lite