Author: Dorcas
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Judaism
THE TEMPLE WILL NEVER BE REBUILT – JESUS PUT AN END TO THE JEWISH SACRIFICE – MINUTE 38′
Jews and Judaism – Descendants of Jacob (Israel) and their religion
https://www.catholic.com/encyclopedia/jews-and-judaism
Benedict on Judaism and Christianity – Did the New Covenant replace the Old Covenant, making the Jews irrelevant? The pope emeritus, for one, believes not.
https://www.catholic.com/magazine/print-edition/benedict-on-judaism-and-christianity
Why “Jew” Should be Catholic!
https://www.catholic.com/audio/cot/why-jew-should-be-catholic
If Jesus Was a Jew, Why Are We Catholic?
https://www.catholic.com/qa/if-jesus-was-a-jew-why-are-we-catholic
The Jewish People and the Old Testament Canon
https://www.catholic.com/audio/ddp/the-jewish-people-and-the-old-testament-canon
Jews and the Rapture – How does the nation of Israel line up with the Rapture? And what does the Church have to say?
https://www.catholic.com/magazine/online-edition/jews-and-the-rapture
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Matthew 1:24-25: “And Joseph knew her not till she brought forth her firstborn son.”
Matthew 1:24-25: And Joseph rising up from sleep, did as the angel of the Lord had commanded him, and took unto him his wife. And he knew her not till she brought forth her firstborn (Gk. prototokon) son: and he called his name Jesus. (Douay-Rheims)
ARTICLE #1: https://www.catholic.com/tract/brethren-of-the-lord
EXTRACT FROM THE ARTICLE:
“Fundamentalists insist that “brethren of the Lord” must be interpreted in the strict sense. They most commonly make two arguments based on Matthew 1:25: “[A]nd he did not know her until (Greek: heos, also translated into English as “till”) she brought forth her firstborn son.” They first argue that the natural inference from “till” is that Joseph and Mary afterward lived together as husband and wife, in the usual sense, and had several children. Otherwise, why would Jesus be called “first-born”? But they are using a narrow, modern meaning of “until.” In the Bible, it means only that some action did not happen up to a certain point; it does not imply that the action did happen later.
Consider this line: “Michal the daughter of Saul had no children till the day of her death” (2 Sam. 6:23). Are we to assume she had children after her death?
There is also the burial of Moses. The book of Deuteronomy says that no one knew the location of his grave “until this present day” (Deut. 34:6, Knox). But we know that no one has known since that day either.
You get the idea—nothing can be proved from the use of the word “till” in Matthew 1:25. Recent translations give a better sense of the verse: “He had no relations with her at any time before she bore a son” (New American Bible); “He had not known her when she bore a son” (Knox).
Fundamentalists claim Jesus could not be Mary’s “first-born” unless there were other children that followed him. But this shows ignorance of the way the ancient Jews used the term. For them it meant the child that opened the womb (Ex. 13:2; Num. 3:12). The first male child of a marriage was termed the “first-born” even if he turned out to be the only child.”
ARTICLE #2: https://www.catholic.com/magazine/print-edition/the-case-for-marys-perpetual-virginity
EXTRACT FROM THE ARTICLE:
“Scripture’s statement that Joseph “knew [Mary] not until she brought forth her firstborn” would not necessarily mean they did “know” each other after she brought forth Jesus. Until is often used in Scripture as part of an idiomatic expression similar to our own usage in English. I may say to you, “Until we meet again, God bless you.” Does that necessarily mean after we meet again, God curse you? By no means. A phrase like this is used to emphasize what is being described before the until is fulfilled. It is not intended to say anything about the future beyond that point. Here are some biblical examples:
- 2 Samuel 6:23: And Michal the daughter of Saul had no child to (until) the day of her death. (Does this mean she had children after she died?)
- 1 Timothy 4:13: Until I come, attend to the public reading of scripture, to preaching, to teaching. (Does this mean Timothy should stop teaching after Paul comes?)
- 1 Corinthians 15:25: For he (Christ) must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. (Does this mean Christ’s reign will end? By no means! Luke 1:33 says, “he will reign over the house of Jacob forever and of his kingdom there shall be no end.”)
In recent years, some have argued that because Matthew 1:25 uses the Greek words heos hou for “until” whereas the texts I mentioned above from the New Testament use heos alone, there is a difference in meaning. The argument goes that Heos hou indicates the action of the first clause does not continue. Thus, Mary and Joseph “not having come together” would have ended after Jesus was born.
The problems with this theory begin with the fact that no available scholarship concurs with it. In fact, the evidence proves the contrary. Heos hou and heos are used interchangeably and have the same meaning. Acts 25:21 should suffice to clear up the matter: “But when Paul had appealed to be kept in custody for the decision of the emperor, I commanded him to be held until (Gk. heos hou) I could send him to Caesar.”
Does this text mean that Paul would not be held in custody after he was “sent” to Caesar? Not according to the biblical record. He would be held in custody while in transit (see Acts 27:1) and after he arrived in Rome for a time (see Acts 28:16). The action of the main clause did not cease with heos hou.”
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The Holy Spirit
The Biggest Heresy You Rarely Hear About
https://www.catholic.com/audio/cot/the-biggest-heresy-you-rarely-hear-about
Where Does the Bible Teach That the Holy Spirit is God?
https://stpaulcenter.com/posts/where-does-the-bible-teach-that-the-holy-spirit-is-god
The heresy of Pneumatomachi
https://www.catholic.com/encyclopedia/pneumatomachi
The 21 Ecumenical Councils
https://www.catholic.com/magazine/print-edition/the-21-ecumenical-councils&lang=en
Pneumatomachianism Refuted: Defending the Divinity of the Holy Ghost
Pneumatomachi
https://www.catholic.com/encyclopedia/pneumatomachi
Holy Ghost – The Third Person of the Holy Trinity
https://www.catholic.com/encyclopedia/holy-ghost
The Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed Explained
Understanding the Holy Spirit – BISHOP BARRON
The Holy Spirit is a person, it’s not an impersonal force. It is The Third Person of the Most Holy Trinity.
In theology a person is an individual substance of a rational nature and so the Holy Spirit is a person, it is of the same essence of God The Father and of God The Son, it is the same Divine Essence, the same Divinity therefore it is God but it has its own intellect and will.
A careful study of the Holy Scriptures perfectly shows that the Holy Spirit speaks, the Holy Spirit says, the Holy Spirit prevented Paul from going to Asia (Acts 16: 6), the Holy Spirit moves into action, the Holy Spirit is saddened…. the Holy Spirit is quoted in dozens of texts in specific action cleary proving that He is a rational person with an intellect.
A person is a substance with a will and an intellect with a rational nature is the same difference between a human person and an animal: we would never say that an animal is a person because, although it has some instinct and even feelings,it doesn’t has an intellect nor a rationality and neither an intelligent will. An animal doesn’t reflect upon itself. Most animals don’t even know that they are their own entity: a cat may mistake his own image for another cat in the mirror they don’t have this intellectual concept of their individuality, they don’t have a will, they don’t plan the future as we do, they don’t worry, they don’t study, they don’t rationalize as we do that’s why we do not consider animals as “persons”.
Yes they do have a body therefore having a body doesn’t define a person, having an intellect and a will does.
Likewise, angels are persons. Every single angel is an individual person.
Also God is one God ,only one Divine Essence, only one Divine Nature, it’s not three Gods, there is ONLY ONE GOD but in three persons:
God The Father, God The Son and God The Holy Spirit do have their own individualities within the Holy Trinity and this Divine Holy Family forms the Family we are called to belong to, to be Sons and Daughters of the Holy Trinity. They become hosts of our souls and we are to receive the Holy Trinity inside the temple of our body, blood soul and humanity. Inside each of our own human inner personal universe, we are to receive the Holy Trinity as a guest into our souls.
SEE SECTION ON “THE HOLY TRINITY” AND ARTICLES “DEFINITION OF A PERSON” – https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/dictionary/index.cfm?id=35539&randomterm=false#:~:text=AND https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/11726a.htm
We get to pray for the Holy Spirit to come, to enlighten us, to guide us, to impart to us His 7 gifts as recorded in Isaiah 11:1 -3. The seven gifts of the Holy Spirit are, according to the Catholic Tradition: wisdom, understanding, counsel, fortitude, knowledge, piety, and fear of God. Starting to develop a personal relationship with God The Holy Spirit adds a whole other dimension in our relationship with God!!!
SEE ARTICLES “The Seven Gifts of the Holy Spirit – What are the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit, and why do they matter?” https://www.catholic.com/magazine/print-edition/the-seven-gifts-of-the-holy-spirit AND https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seven_gifts_of_the_Holy_Spirit#:~:text=
DEFINITION OF A “PERSON”
In Catholic theology, a person is fundamentally an individual substance of a rational nature, defined by intelligence, will, distinctiveness, and self-subsistence (incommunicability), meaning they are complete in themselves but called to communion with others. This definition applies analogously to God (the Trinity), angels, and humans, but for humans, personhood also involves being a body-soul composite, uniquely reflecting God’s image through intellect and love in relationship, and possessing inherent dignity from conception.
Core Characteristics
- Individual Substance: A complete, self-existing entity, not a part of something else.
- Rational Nature: Possesses intellect and will, enabling knowledge and love, distinguishing persons from animals or inanimate objects.
- Incommunicability: Each person is unique and distinct, unable to be completely merged into another.
- Openness to Others: While distinct, persons are made for communion, not isolation, finding fulfillment in relationships, especially with God.
Types of Persons in Theology
- God: The Holy Trinity is three distinct Persons (Father, Son, Holy Spirit) in one divine nature.
- Angels: Purely spiritual, intellectual beings, existing as individual persons.
- Humans: A unique composite of a rational soul and a body, made in God’s image, with inherent dignity from the first moment of existence.
Key Distinctions for Humans
- Body-Soul Union: Humans are not just spirits but are embodied, allowing for unique forms of thought, love, and procreation.
- Capacity for Change: Unlike angels, human persons have the capacity for growth, development, and change through their embodied lives.
- Dignity: Every living human individual, regardless of developmental stage or capability, is a person with intrinsic worth and rights, reflecting God’s image.
Person
According to the generally accepted definition of Boethius, a person is an individual substance of a rational or intellectual nature. The notion of person is subject to analogical differences depending on whether the term is referring to human, angelic, or divine persons.
PERSON
“An individual substance of a rational nature” (Boethius). Therefore every individual intellectual substance which is complete in itself, uncommunicated and existing for itself, is a person. Essential to person in theological terms are intelligence and substantiality, wholeness in oneself and especially individuality. From individuality flow such features of personhood as distinctiveness, incommunicability, and uniqueness. Among human persons there are also the elements of responsibility and possession of distinctive rights. (Etym. Latin persona, actor’s mask; character; supposition of a rational nature.)
Person
https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/11726a.htm
The Latin word persona was originally used to denote the mask worn by an actor. From this it was applied to the role he assumed, and, finally, to any character on the stage of life, to any individual. This article discusses (1) the definition of “person”, especially with reference to the doctrine of the Incarnation; and (2) the use of the word persona and its Greek equivalents in connection with the Trinitarian disputes. For the psychological treatment see PERSONALITY.
The classic definition is that given by Boethius in “De persona et duabus naturis”, c. ii: Naturæ rationalis individua substantia (an individual substance of a rational nature).
Substantia — “Substance” is used to exclude accidents: “We see that accidents cannot constitute person” (Boethius, op. cit.). Substantia is used in two senses: of the concrete substance as existing in the individual, called substantia prima, corresponding to Aristotle’s ousia prote; and of abstractions, substance as existing in genus and species, called substantia secunda, Aristotle’s ousia deutera. It is disputed which of the two the word taken by itself here signifies. It seems probable that of itself it prescinds from substantia prima and substantia secunda, and is restricted to the former signification only by the word individua.
Individua — Individua, i.e., indivisum in se, is that which, unlike the higher branches in the tree of Porphyry, genus and species, cannot be further subdivided. Boethius in giving his definition does not seem to attach any further signification to the word. It is merely synonymous with singularis.
Rationalis naturae — Person is predicated only of intellectual beings. The generic word which includes all individual existing substances is suppositum. Thus person is a subdivision of suppositum which is applied equally to rational and irrational, living and non-living individuals. A person is therefore sometimes defined as suppositum naturae rationalis.
The definition of Boethius as it stands can hardly be considered a satisfactory one. The words taken literally can be applied to the rational soul of man, and also the human nature of Christ. That St. Thomas accepts it is presumably due to the fact that he found it in possession, and recognized as the traditional definition. He explains it in terms that practically constitute a new definition. Individua substantia signifies, he says, substantia, completa, per se subsistens, separata ab aliia, i.e., a substance, complete, subsisting per se, existing apart from others (III, Q. xvi, a. 12, ad 2um).
If to this be added rationalis naturae, we have a definition comprising the five notes that go to make up a person: (a) substantia– this excludes accident; (b) completa– it must form a complete nature; that which is a part, either actually or “aptitudinally” does not satisfy the definition; (c) per se subsistens–the person exists in himself and for himself; he is sui juris, the ultimate possessor of his nature and all its acts, the ultimate subject of predication of all his attributes; that which exists in another is not a person; (d) separata ab aliis–this excludes the universal, substantia secunda, which has no existence apart from the individual; (e) rationalis naturae–excludes all non-intellectual supposita.
To a person therefore belongs a threefold incommunicability, expressed in notes (b), (c), and (d). The human soul belongs to the nature as a part of it, and is therefore not a person, even when existing separately. The human nature of Christ does not exist per se seorsum, but in alio, in the Divine Personality of the Word. It is therefore communicated by assumption and so is not a person. Lastly the Divine Essence, though subsisting per se, is so communicated to the Three Persons that it does not exist apart from them; it is therefore not a person.
Theologians agree that in the Hypostatic Union the immediate reason why the Sacred Humanity, though complete and individual, is not a person is that it is not a subsistence, not per se seorsum subsistens. They have, however, disputed for centuries as to what may be the ultimate determination of the nature which if present would make it a subsistence and so a person, what in other words is the ultimate foundation of personality. According to Scotus, as he is usually understood, the ultimate foundation is a mere negation. That individual intellectual nature is a person which is neither of its nature destined to be communicated–as is the human soul–nor is actually communicated–as is the Sacred Humanity. If the Hypostatic Union ceased, the latter would ipso facto, without any further determination, become a person. To this it is objected that the person possesses the nature and all its attributes. It is difficult to believe that this possessor, as distinct from the objects possessed, is constituted only by a negative. Consequently, the traditional Thomists, following Cajetan, hold that there is a positive determination which they call the “mode” of subsistence. It is the function of this mode to make the nature incommunicable, terminated in itself, and capable of receiving its own esse, or existence. Without this mode the human nature of Christ exists only by the uncreated esse of the Word.
CATECHISM OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH
I. “IN THE NAME OF THE FATHER AND OF THE SON AND OF THE HOLY SPIRIT”
232 Christians are baptized “in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit”53 Before receiving the sacrament, they respond to a three-part question when asked to confess the Father, the Son and the Spirit: “I do.” “The faith of all Christians rests on the Trinity.”54
233 Christians are baptized in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit: not in their names,55 for there is only one God, the almighty Father, his only Son and the Holy Spirit: the Most Holy Trinity.
234 The mystery of the Most Holy Trinity is the central mystery of Christian faith and life. It is the mystery of God in himself. It is therefore the source of all the other mysteries of faith, the light that enlightens them. It is the most fundamental and essential teaching in the “hierarchy of the truths of faith”.56 The whole history of salvation is identical with the history of the way and the means by which the one true God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, reveals himself to men “and reconciles and unites with himself those who turn away from sin”.57
235 This paragraph expounds briefly (I) how the mystery of the Blessed Trinity was revealed, (II) how the Church has articulated the doctrine of the faith regarding this mystery, and (III) how, by the divine missions of the Son and the Holy Spirit, God the Father fulfils the “plan of his loving goodness” of creation, redemption and sanctification.
236 The Fathers of the Church distinguish between theology (theologia) and economy (oikonomia). “Theology” refers to the mystery of God’s inmost life within the Blessed Trinity and “economy” to all the works by which God reveals himself and communicates his life. Through the oikonomia the theologia is revealed to us; but conversely, the theologia illuminates the whole oikonomia. God’s works reveal who he is in himself; the mystery of his inmost being enlightens our understanding of all his works. So it is, analogously, among human persons. A person discloses himself in his actions, and the better we know a person, the better we understand his actions.
237 The Trinity is a mystery of faith in the strict sense, one of the “mysteries that are hidden in God, which can never be known unless they are revealed by God”.58 To be sure, God has left traces of his Trinitarian being in his work of creation and in his Revelation throughout the Old Testament. But his inmost Being as Holy Trinity is a mystery that is inaccessible to reason alone or even to Israel’s faith before the Incarnation of God’s Son and the sending of the Holy Spirit.
II. THE REVELATION OF GOD AS TRINITY
The Father revealed by the Son
238 Many religions invoke God as “Father”. the deity is often considered the “father of gods and of men”. In Israel, God is called “Father” inasmuch as he is Creator of the world.59 Even more, God is Father because of the covenant and the gift of the law to Israel, “his first-born son”.60 God is also called the Father of the king of Israel. Most especially he is “the Father of the poor”, of the orphaned and the widowed, who are under his loving protection.61
239 By calling God “Father”, the language of faith indicates two main things: that God is the first origin of everything and transcendent authority; and that he is at the same time goodness and loving care for all his children. God’s parental tenderness can also be expressed by the image of motherhood,62 which emphasizes God’s immanence, the intimacy between Creator and creature. the language of faith thus draws on the human experience of parents, who are in a way the first representatives of God for man. But this experience also tells us that human parents are fallible and can disfigure the face of fatherhood and motherhood. We ought therefore to recall that God transcends the human distinction between the sexes. He is neither man nor woman: he is God. He also transcends human fatherhood and motherhood, although he is their origin and standard:63 no one is father as God is Father.
240 Jesus revealed that God is Father in an unheard-of sense: he is Father not only in being Creator; he is eternally Father by his relationship to his only Son who, reciprocally, is Son only in relation to his Father: “No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and any one to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.”64
241 For this reason the apostles confess Jesus to be the Word: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God”; as “the image of the invisible God”; as the “radiance of the glory of God and the very stamp of his nature”.65
242 Following this apostolic tradition, the Church confessed at the first ecumenical council at Nicaea (325) that the Son is &uot;consubstantial” with the Father, that is, one only God with him.66 The second ecumenical council, held at Constantinople in 381, kept this expression in its formulation of the Nicene Creed and confessed “the only-begotten Son of God, eternally begotten of the Father, light from light, true God from true God, begotten not made, consubstantial with the Father”.67
The Father and the son revealed by the spirit
243 Before his Passover, Jesus announced the sending of “another Paraclete” (Advocate), the Holy Spirit. At work since creation, having previously “spoken through the prophets”, the Spirit will now be with and in the disciples, to teach them and guide them “into all the truth”.68 The Holy Spirit is thus revealed as another divine person with Jesus and the Father.
244 The eternal origin of the Holy Spirit is revealed in his mission in time. the Spirit is sent to the apostles and to the Church both by the Father in the name of the Son, and by the Son in person, once he had returned to the Father.69 The sending of the person of the Spirit after Jesus’ glorification70 reveals in its fullness the mystery of the Holy Trinity.
245 The apostolic faith concerning the Spirit was confessed by the second ecumenical council at Constantinople (381): “We believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord and giver of life, who proceeds from the Father.”71 By this confession, the Church recognizes the Father as “the source and origin of the whole divinity”.72 But the eternal origin of the Spirit is not unconnected with the Son’s origin: “The Holy Spirit, the third person of the Trinity, is God, one and equal with the Father and the Son, of the same substance and also of the same nature. . . Yet he is not called the Spirit of the Father alone,. . . but the Spirit of both the Father and the Son.”73 The Creed of the Church from the Council of Constantinople confesses: “With the Father and the Son, he is worshipped and glorified.”74
246 The Latin tradition of the Creed confesses that the Spirit “proceeds from the Father and the Son (filioque)”. the Council of Florence in 1438 explains: “The Holy Spirit is eternally from Father and Son; He has his nature and subsistence at once (simul) from the Father and the Son. He proceeds eternally from both as from one principle and through one spiration… And, since the Father has through generation given to the only-begotten Son everything that belongs to the Father, except being Father, the Son has also eternally from the Father, from whom he is eternally born, that the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Son.”75
247 The affirmation of the filioque does not appear in the Creed confessed in 381 at Constantinople. But Pope St. Leo I, following an ancient Latin and Alexandrian tradition, had already confessed it dogmatically in 447,76 even before Rome, in 451 at the Council of Chalcedon, came to recognize and receive the Symbol of 381. the use of this formula in the Creed was gradually admitted into the Latin liturgy (between the eighth and eleventh centuries). the introduction of the filioque into the Niceno-Constantinopolitan Creed by the Latin liturgy constitutes moreover, even today, a point of disagreement with the Orthodox Churches.
248 At the outset the Eastern tradition expresses the Father’s character as first origin of the Spirit. By confessing the Spirit as he “who proceeds from the Father”, it affirms that he comes from the Father through the Son.77 The Western tradition expresses first the consubstantial communion between Father and Son, by saying that the Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son (filioque). It says this, “legitimately and with good reason”,78 for the eternal order of the divine persons in their consubstantial communion implies that the Father, as “the principle without principle”,79 is the first origin of the Spirit, but also that as Father of the only Son, he is, with the Son, the single principle from which the Holy Spirit proceeds.80 This legitimate complementarity, provided it does not become rigid, does not affect the identity of faith in the reality of the same mystery confessed.
III. THE HOLY TRINITY IN THE TEACHING OF THE FAITH
The formation of the Trinitarian dogma
249 From the beginning, the revealed truth of the Holy Trinity has been at the very root of the Church’s living faith, principally by means of Baptism. It finds its expression in the rule of baptismal faith, formulated in the preaching, catechesis and prayer of the Church. Such formulations are already found in the apostolic writings, such as this salutation taken up in the Eucharistic liturgy: “The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.”81
250 During the first centuries the Church sought to clarify her Trinitarian faith, both to deepen her own understanding of the faith and to defend it against the errors that were deforming it. This clarification was the work of the early councils, aided by the theological work of the Church Fathers and sustained by the Christian people’s sense of the faith.
251 In order to articulate the dogma of the Trinity, the Church had to develop her own terminology with the help of certain notions of philosophical origin: “substance”, “person” or “hypostasis”, “relation” and so on. In doing this, she did not submit the faith to human wisdom, but gave a new and unprecedented meaning to these terms, which from then on would be used to signify an ineffable mystery, “infinitely beyond all that we can humanly understand”.82
252 The Church uses (I) the term “substance” (rendered also at times by “essence” or “nature”) to designate the divine being in its unity, (II) the term “person” or “hypostasis” to designate the Father, Son and Holy Spirit in the real distinction among them, and (III) the term “relation” to designate the fact that their distinction lies in the relationship of each to the others.
The dogma of the Holy Trinity
253 The Trinity is One. We do not confess three Gods, but one God in three persons, the “consubstantial Trinity”.83 The divine persons do not share the one divinity among themselves but each of them is God whole and entire: “The Father is that which the Son is, the Son that which the Father is, the Father and the Son that which the Holy Spirit is, i.e. by nature one God.”84 In the words of the Fourth Lateran Council (1215), “Each of the persons is that supreme reality, viz., the divine substance, essence or nature.”85
254 The divine persons are really distinct from one another. “God is one but not solitary.”86 “Father”, “Son”, “Holy Spirit” are not simply names designating modalities of the divine being, for they are really distinct from one another: “He is not the Father who is the Son, nor is the Son he who is the Father, nor is the Holy Spirit he who is the Father or the Son.”87 They are distinct from one another in their relations of origin: “It is the Father who generates, the Son who is begotten, and the Holy Spirit who proceeds.”88 The divine Unity is Triune.
255 The divine persons are relative to one another. Because it does not divide the divine unity, the real distinction of the persons from one another resides solely in the relationships which relate them to one another: “In the relational names of the persons the Father is related to the Son, the Son to the Father, and the Holy Spirit to both. While they are called three persons in view of their relations, we believe in one nature or substance.”89 Indeed “everything (in them) is one where there is no opposition of relationship.”90 “Because of that unity the Father is wholly in the Son and wholly in the Holy Spirit; the Son is wholly in the Father and wholly in the Holy Spirit; the Holy Spirit is wholly in the Father and wholly in the Son.”91
256 St. Gregory of Nazianzus, also called “the Theologian”, entrusts this summary of Trinitarian faith to the catechumens of Constantinople: Above all guard for me this great deposit of faith for which I live and fight, which I want to take with me as a companion, and which makes me bear all evils and despise all pleasures: I mean the profession of faith in the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. I entrust it to you today. By it I am soon going to plunge you into water and raise you up from it. I give it to you as the companion and patron of your whole life. I give you but one divinity and power, existing one in three, and containing the three in a distinct way. Divinity without disparity of substance or nature, without superior degree that raises up or inferior degree that casts down. . . the infinite co-naturality of three infinites. Each person considered in himself is entirely God. . . the three considered together. . . I have not even begun to think of unity when the Trinity bathes me in its splendour. I have not even begun to think of the Trinity when unity grasps me. .92
IV. THE DIVINE WORKS AND THE TRINITARIAN MISSIONS
257 “O blessed light, O Trinity and first Unity!”93 God is eternal blessedness, undying life, unfading light. God is love: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. God freely wills to communicate the glory of his blessed life. Such is the “plan of his loving kindness”, conceived by the Father before the foundation of the world, in his beloved Son: “He destined us in love to be his sons” and “to be conformed to the image of his Son”, through “the spirit of sonship”.94 This plan is a “grace [which] was given to us in Christ Jesus before the ages began”, stemming immediately from Trinitarian love.95 It unfolds in the work of creation, the whole history of salvation after the fall, and the missions of the Son and the Spirit, which are continued in the mission of the Church.96
258 The whole divine economy is the common work of the three divine persons. For as the Trinity has only one and the same natures so too does it have only one and the same operation: “The Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit are not three principles of creation but one principle.”97 However, each divine person performs the common work according to his unique personal property. Thus the Church confesses, following the New Testament, “one God and Father from whom all things are, and one Lord Jesus Christ, through whom all things are, and one Holy Spirit in whom all things are”.98 It is above all the divine missions of the Son’s Incarnation and the gift of the Holy Spirit that show forth the properties of the divine persons.
259 Being a work at once common and personal, the whole divine economy makes known both what is proper to the divine persons, and their one divine nature. Hence the whole Christian life is a communion with each of the divine persons, without in any way separating them. Everyone who glorifies the Father does so through the Son in the Holy Spirit; everyone who follows Christ does so because the Father draws him and the Spirit moves him.99
260 The ultimate end of the whole divine economy is the entry of God’s creatures into the perfect unity of the Blessed Trinity.100 But even now we are called to be a dwelling for the Most Holy Trinity: “If a man loves me”, says the Lord, “he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him, and make our home with him”:101
O my God, Trinity whom I adore, help me forget myself entirely so to establish myself in you, unmovable and peaceful as if my soul were already in eternity. May nothing be able to trouble my peace or make me leave you, O my unchanging God, but may each minute bring me more deeply into your mystery! Grant my soul peace. Make it your heaven, your beloved dwelling and the place of your rest. May I never abandon you there, but may I be there, whole and entire, completely vigilant in my faith, entirely adoring, and wholly given over to your creative action.102
IN BRIEF
261 The mystery of the Most Holy Trinity is the central mystery of the Christian faith and of Christian life. God alone can make it known to us by revealing himself as Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
262 The Incarnation of God’s Son reveals that God is the eternal Father and that the Son is consubstantial with the Father, which means that, in the Father and with the Father the Son is one and the same God.
263 The mission of the Holy Spirit, sent by the Father in the name of the Son (⇒ Jn 14:26) and by the Son “from the Father” (⇒ Jn 15:26), reveals that, with them, the Spirit is one and the same God. “With the Father and the Son he is worshipped and glorified” (Nicene Creed).
264 “The Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father as the first principle and, by the eternal gift of this to the Son, from the communion of both the Father and the Son” (St. Augustine, De Trin. 15, 26, 47: PL 42, 1095).
265 By the grace of Baptism “in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit”, we are called to share in the life of the Blessed Trinity, here on earth in the obscurity of faith, and after death in eternal light (cf. Paul VI, CPG # 9).
266 “Now this is the Catholic faith: We worship one God in the Trinity and the Trinity in unity, without either confusing the persons or dividing the substance; for the person of the Father is one, the Son’s is another, the Holy Spirit’s another; but the Godhead of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit is one, their glory equal, their majesty coeternal” (Athanasian Creed: DS 75; ND 16).
267 Inseparable in what they are, the divine persons are also inseparable in what they do. But within the single divine operation each shows forth what is proper to him in the Trinity, especially in the divine missions of the Son’s Incarnation and the gift of the Holy Spirit.
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“The Father is greater than I.”
Jesus Is Equal with the Father
Answering claims that Jesus denied equality with his Father
https://www.catholic.com/magazine/online-edition/three-persons-one-divine-nature
“The Nicene Creed states that Jesus is “consubstantial with the Father.” This means that Jesus is one in substance with the Father, having full possession of the one divine nature and thus equal to the Father.
But some quasi-Christian sects, such as Jehovah Witnesses, challenge this belief with a variety of bible passages.
One such passage is John 14:28. Jesus says, “The Father is greater than I.” How can Jesus be equal to the Father, so it’s argued, when he explicitly says the Father is greater?
One answer is that Jesus attributes this lesser status to himself insofar as he is man, not God. St. Thomas Aquinas explains,
Thus when he says, the Father is greater than I, he does not mean I, as Son of God, but as Son of man, for in this way he is not only inferior to the Father and the Holy Spirit, but even to the angels: “We see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels” (Heb. 2:9). Again, in some things he was subject to human beings, as his parents (Luke 2:51). Consequently, he is inferior to the Father because of his human nature, but equal because of his divine nature (Commentary on the Gospel of John 14.8).”
FOR MORE, READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE https://www.catholic.com/magazine/online-edition/three-persons-one-divine-nature
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Spiritual Warfare: Demons III
Satan, Beelzebub and Lucifer: same demon with a split personality – Watch Minute 3h02mn
Satan the Father of lie – The inversion of the Father
Lucifer – The inversion of Christ
Beelzebub – The inversion of the Holy Spirit
Whey they unknowingly made a sacrifice to Satan. Important reminder!
When Satanists want something big from Satan, they’ll perform abortion. Catholic priest explains.
DEMONS AND SATAN WANT TO KILL AND DESTROY HUMANS TO HURT GOD AS WE ARE WHAT HE LOVES MOST AND THEY USE ABORTION IN THEIR RITUALS.P. Robert Cruz: «Desde hace 20 o 25 años, los demonios ya no se esconden»
https://www.infocatolica.com/?t=noticia&cod=53558
CATEQUESIS-DE-SATANAS-EN EXORCISMOS-PELLEGRINO-ERNETTI.PDF
ABSOLUTE MUST SEE: What the demon told the exorcist, when he prayed the Our Father. Catholic exorcist FATHER WINSTON explains – Minute 6′
Catholic exorcist explained what happened: Witches love to go to Churches for their victims?
What is perfect possession
THE BEASTS OF THE REVELATION
COMMUNISM AND FREEMASONRY
«El diablo existe, y la Iglesia sigue luchando»: un anciano cardenal albanés recita la oración de exorcismo en la Basílica de San Pedro de Roma
https://www.infocatolica.com/?t=noticia&cod=53704
STATISTICS FEBRUARY 2026 – MINUTE 2.24′
POSSESSION 0.5% 1/200
OBSESSION 25%
OPPRESSION 10-15%
THE DEVIL POSSIBLY HIGHEST OF THE CHERUBIM – SEE MINUTE 3h14mn
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Absolute Must See
Here are some of the absolute gems that I have come across in my research that left me flabbergasted at the beauty and depth of the Catholic Faith!
Father Steven Scheier’s Judgment Experience
Father Steven Scheier judgment experience SECOND interview with Mother Angelica
Testimonio de Catalina Rivas – Vidente de la Eucaristia
Catalina Rivas of Cochabamba, Bolivia, who now dwells in Mérida, Yucatán, México. She is said to receive Messages from Jesus, Mary, and the angels. She has the approval of her Bishop, René Fernández Apaza, who has given his imprimatur to her Messages. The following text is the reproduction of booklet, “The Holy Mass,” in which Our Lord and Our Lady explain to Catalina what is really going on during the Mass in the spiritual realm, and how we should be more concentrated on the great mysteries that are taking place.
Bo. Daniel Gagnon, OMI, of the Commission for the Doctrine of the Faith of the Archdiocese of Mexico, wrote about this book: “I do not find anything against the faith or the customs of the Church. It is not my function to confirm its supernatural character; nevertheless, I recommend it for its spiritual inspiration.” https://luisapiccarreta.co/?page_id=4033
El Gran Milagro: La Santa Misa · Testimonio de Catalina Rivas
ABSOLUTE MUST READ: LA SANTA MISA EN EL SIGLO II SEGÚN SAN JUSTINO EL MÁRTIR
En los Hechos de los Apóstoles encontramos evidencia de que las primeras comunidades cristianas celebraban la Eucaristía, a este respecto resulta muy interesante el relato que nos hace San Justino Mártir para el año 155. […] Sabemos que las primeras comunidades eran perseguidas y acusadas de realizar sacrificios humanos en su culto a Dios. Se conserva una carta que San Justino le envió al emperador romano Antonio Pío para el año 155 en la que el santo explicaba, en un lenguaje que el “César” pudiera comprender, cómo era exactamente eso que hacían los cristianos en aquellas extrañas reuniones dominicales.
MUST READ https://tengoseddeti.org/article/la-misa-de-los-primeros-cristianos/
Fr. Donald Calloway – Conversion Story. South Louisiana Tour – Metairie, LA
¿JEHOVÁ O YAHVÉ? El increíble error histórico sobre el Nombre de Dios. El Tetragrámaton.
JUAN MIGUEL ZUNZUNEGUI. Los mitos de la conquista
Los SECRETOS OCULTOS de LA GUERRA CIVIL ESPAÑOLA
Hail Holy Queen: Scripture and the Mystery of Mary
THE DIVINE WILL
The Cross: Jewish or Pagan?
GOD WILL PROTECT THE ONES MARKED BY THE SIGN OF THE CROSS – REVELATION: THE SIGN OF PROTECTION IS THE MARK OF THE CROSS
What Do Catholics Believe About Christmas? Part 1
EUCHARISTIC REIGN OF CHRIST – JESUS REIGNS INTERIORLY
MILLENIAL REIGN – THE THOUSAND YEARS
Fr. Joseph Iannuzzi: Christ will reign physically on earth before the final coming. This is heresy.
THERE ARE TWO JUDGMENTS: ONE AT DEATH, ONE AT FINAL DAY -THE IMPORTANCE OF DIVINE MERCY SUNDAY TO CLEAR UP PURGATORY TIME
Los pilares de la Leyenda Negra. Con Luis Antequera
ABSOLUTE MUST READ: La Inquisición española pilar fundamental de la “Leyenda Negra” – Por Luis Antequera
Cifras de víctimas en España
Las cifras de víctimas de la Inquisición española han sido objeto de todo tipo de especulaciones. El primer trabajo al respecto, y el que ha dado pábulo a la peor “Leyenda Negra” de la institución, es el de Juan Antonio Llorente (1756-1823) quien, en su Historia crítica de la Inquisición española, escrita en 1818, habla de 300.000 procesos, con 31.192 quemados vivos, y 17.659 quemados en efigie –esto es, mediante un muñeco que representaba su persona– por no haber podido ser capturados, aunque sí juzgados in absentia.
Llorente es un personaje singular. Ordenado sacerdote, y tras ser comisario del Santo Oficio y secretario de la Inquisición de Corte, simpatizará con el movimiento religioso llamado “jansenismo”, condenado como herético por el Papa Urban VIII. Se une luego al bonapartismo, siendo componente de la Junta Nacional que reconoce como rey de España a José I Bonaparte, con el que es consejero de Estado para Asuntos Eclesiástico. Como tantos afrancesados, según se los llamaba, en 1813 abandona España y se instala en Francia, concretamente en Burdeos –como Goya, que lo retrata–, de donde es expulsado por su relación con la masonería. Con el Trienio Liberal, vuelve a España, donde muere al poco.
Su obra sobre la Inquisición está muy cuestionada, tanto por la animosidad que observa hacia la institución –de la que había formado parte, no lo olvidemos–, como por la oscuridad de sus fuentes, muchas de las cuales, de hecho, no se conocen por haberlas destruido él mismo, cosa que es lo último que haría un investigador bien intencionado y veráz.
Ya en tiempos más modernos, son muchos los trabajos que sobre la famosa institución se han hecho en lo relativo al número de víctimas.
El británico Geoffrey Parker cree que el tribunal causó unos cinco mil muertos. El también británico Henry Kamen, en su obra Inquisición Española, Historia y Mito, calcula que la Inquisición condenó a muerte al 2% de los acusados, lo que sobre 150.000 procesos, daría una cifra de unos 3.000 ejecutados.
El trabajo más preciso, aunque fragmentario, es el titulado El banco de datos del Santo Oficio. Las relaciones de causas de la Inquisición Española, donde el danés Gustav Henningsen examina los documentos del Consejo de la Suprema y General Inquisición en el período 1550-1700, ciento cincuenta años, la mitad de la vida del tribunal, estableciendo que durante ese periodo, las causas abiertas fueron 44.674, de las que el tribunal condenó a muerte a 1.346 personas, un tercio de ellas en efigie, o sea unas 900 personas.
La actividad del tribunal en América es un tema muy estudiado por el propio Henningsen y por Jaime Contreras, que menciona exactamente 73 víctimas mortales: 38 condenados por el tribunal de Méjico, 32 por el de Lima, y tres por el de Cartagena de Indias; de los cuales sólo fueron ejecutados 50 en persona, los otros 23 en efigie.
Entre ellos, un único indígena, por cierto, Carlos Ometochtzin, quemado por herejía y por bigamia, en 1535, y ni siquiera propiamente por el tribunal, que aún no había sido implantado, sino por el obispo Zumárraga, en su condición de inquisidor apostólico de la diócesis de Méjico. Llegado el caso a oídos de Carlos I, éste se indignó, obligando incluso a la devolución de los bienes confiscados. El caso, en realidad, venía instigado por los propios familiares de Ometochtzin, y ocultaba toda una trama dinástica, pues el acusado pertenecía a la familia real azteca. El resto de los ajusticiados son españoles y europeos, ya que ejerció también la Inquisición española en América su jurisdicción sobre piratas protestantes, tal es el caso de los que componían la flota de John Hawkins, o de John Drake, sobrino de Francis Drake.
Comparación con otros procesos de persecución religiosa
Ningún hecho histórico puede ser juzgado en solitario, y ha de ponerse necesariamente en contexto con los procesos similares, única manera de conocer su alcance y gravedad. Sin ánimo de ser exhaustivos, se puede hablar de los siguientes genocidios por razones religiosas, contemporáneos todos ellos, aunque concentrados en períodos de tiempo infinitamente inferiores a los tres siglos y medio que dura la Inquisición española, lo que arroja índices de letalidad muy superiores a los del hispano tribunal:
- Matanzas medievales de judíos realizadas por lo general en una única jornada, o dos, o tres: Worms (1096), 800 judíos; Meinz (1096), 1.100 judíos; York (1189), 150 judíos; Londres (1265), 500 judíos; Estraburgo (1349), 2.000 judíos; Basilea (1349), 600 judíos; Toledo (1355), 1.200 judíos; Viena (1420), 1.000 judíos. En Granada (1066), la matanza perpetrada por los musulmanes rondó las 4.000 personas.
- Caza de brujas (1450-1750, con un pico entre 1550 y 1650). Con una cifra de víctimas mortales en toda Europa de unas 60.000 personas, esto es, veinte veces la cifra de la Inquisición española en un periodo similar pero incluso inferior. La palma se la lleva Alemania, sobre todo los estados protestantes, con unas 25.000. En Suizase ejecutan unas 10.000 (¡tres veces más que la Inquisición en tres siglos y medio!). En Francia unas cuatro mil. En las Islas Británicas, unas 2.000. En España, la caza de brujas se encomienda a la Inquisición, y las ejecuciones no superan 60. El principal proceso es el de las brujas de Zugarramundi, con seis quemados en persona y cinco en efigie. El inquisidor Alonso de Salazar y Frías concluirá que se trata de un proceso de histeria colectiva, que debe ser tratado con poco rigor.
- Guerra de los campesinos alemanes, llamada en alemán Deutscher Bauernkrieg (1525) con unos 100.000 campesinos muertos en el marco de la Reforma Luterana, una matanza avalada por Lutero con palabras como éstas: “La autoridad debe actuar con tranquilidad y asesinar con buena conciencia. Ésta es su ventaja, que los campesinos tienen mala conciencia, y hacen cosas injustas, y serán asesinados por ello, y presa eterna del demonio”.
- Consistorio calvinista de Ginebra (1541-1564): Fabián Granobles da cifras muy exactas: 68 ejecuciones, entre las cuales Miguel Servet, y 76 destierros, en apenas cinco años, sobre una población de 000 habitantes. La ratio es bestial. Entre 1558 y 1559, el Consistorio imparte 414 condenas.
- Reforma anglicana: Hasta la fecha, la Iglesia católica ha elevado a los altares a 265 mártires producidos en las persecuciones ocurridas entre 1535 y 1681 en Inglaterra y Gales.
- Matanza de San Bartolomé, en Francia (1572). En apenas unos días, unos 3.000 hugonotes –así se llamaba a los protestantes franceses—, son masacrados sólo en París y hasta 20.000 en toda Francia.
- La Vendeé (1793-1796): el movimiento contrarrevolucionario y de inspiración católica severamente reprimido por las autoridades de la revolución Francesa, acontecido en la región francesa de ese nombre, en el poniente francés. Alberto Bárcena, autor de La guerra de la Vendeé, recoge el dato de Reynald Secher según el cual son asesinadas y ejecutadas 117.257 personas. Y eso que el protagonista de los hechos, el general Hoche, asegura a su gobierno el 12 de febrero de 1796 haber acabado con la vida de 600.000 ciudadanos, sobre una población de 800.000, esto es, tres de cada cuatro habitantes de la región.
Our Lady of Guadalupe: scientific details
ABSOLUTE MUST READ: BOOK “Some facts and more facts about the self-styled “Pastor” Charles T. Russell” (of Millennial dawn fame) [microform] (External link)
ABSOLUTE MUST READ https://archive.org/details/cihm_87677
Pennsylvania Superior Court reports v.40 (1909)
Pennsylvania Superior Court reports v.22 (1903)
THE TERRIBLE HABIT TO PRAY THE ROSARY QUICKLY AND NOT FROM THE HEART
Evolution & the Culture of Death ~ Fr Ripperger
Icons of Evolution: Fossil Records ~ Pam Acker, MS
THE BODY AND THE SOUL WERE ONE BEFORE SIN
Catholic Exorcist Explains the link between Sin and some Natural Disasters
OFFERING YOUR SUFFERINGS AS CARLO ACUTIS
Ex-Abortion Doctor Tells The SHOCKING Truth About Abortion
Pro-abortion Politicians: Can We Actually Dialogue?
MISSION OF ADAM IN EDEN – MINUTE 53′ ONWARDS
Original sin affecting the entire creation – Adam replacing the Devil in charge of all Creation
Breaking Negative Soul Ties – Explaining the Faith with Fr. Chris Alar
SOURCE OF MATERIAL COSMOS IN THE SOUL – MINUTE 24’29
When witch doctors infiltrated a Monastery in the Philippines – Catholic exorcist explains. Monasteries, consecrated homes and seminaries work as protection for the town.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RHRbxMgf5IE
3 STEPS FOR CASTING OUT DEMONS FOR EXORCISTS
1 – IN THE NAME OF JESUS / ASK GOD, ST MICHAEL TO DO IT
2 – COMMAND THEM IN HIS NAME TO LEAVE
3 – SEND THEM SOMEWHERE
DEMON TELLS EXORCIST TO SAY THE FATHER PRAYER “FROM THE HEART”!!!!!
Fr. Joseph Iannuzzi: Crying out to God to intervene and send chastisement?”
Danger of Godless Atheist Agnostic World View – Minute 16’16
Holiness Conference 1/5: What is Holiness? ~ Fr. Ripperger
WHEN YOU SUFFER GOD RESTS IN YOU, WHEN YOU REST GOD SUFFERS
Difference between grace, virtue and gift – Minute 1’16
A virtue grows and is increased by its contrary – Minute 5’22
How to build virtue – Minute 10’19
Speaking in Tongues, Exorcist Fr Chad Ripperger, is it real?
ABSOLUTE MUST SEE: Explaining What the Creed Means Line by Line: Explaining the Faith with Fr. Chris Alar
ABSOLUTE MUST READ: IS DECEMBER 25th PAGAN?
by Mark Shea
Everybody knows that Christmas is really just a warmed-over Celebration of the Feast of the Sol Invictus by Mark Shea Guess what? Everybody’s wrong! Another little excerpt from my book(s?) on Mary, Behold Your Mother (sans footnotes, but trust me, the citations are all in order): Pseudo-Knowledge and “Pagan Christmas” Time was when I, like most people, took it for granted the winter solstice and, in particular, the Roman Feast of the Birth of the Unconquered Sun were simply pagan celebrations that hung around into Christian times. In fact, when I set out to write this book I still thought this. But I discovered the reality is far more complicated and interesting. Indeed, it turns out this widely assumed “fact” that “everybody knows” is probably another sample of pseudo-knowledge. For according to William Tighe, a church history specialist at Pennsylvania’s Muhlenberg College, “the pagan festival of the ‘Birth of the Unconquered Sun’ instituted by the Roman Emperor Aurelian on 25 December 274, was almost certainly an attempt to create a pagan alternative to a date that was already of some significance to Roman Christians. Thus the ‘pagan origins of Christmas’ is a myth without historical substance.” For the fact is, our records of a tradition associating Jesus’ birth with December 25 are decades older than any records concerning a pagan feast on that day. [T]he definitive Handbook of Biblical Chronology by professor Jack Finegan (Hendrickson, 1998 revised edition) cites an important reference in the Chronicle written by Hippolytus of Rome three decades before Aurelian launched his festival. Hippolytus said Jesus’ birth “took place eight days before the kalends of January,” that is, Dec. 25. Tighe said there’s evidence that as early as the second and third centuries, Christians sought to fix the birth date to help determine the time of Jesus’ death and resurrection for the liturgical calendar—long before Christmas also became a festival. To make a long and complicated story short, there was agitation in the early Church concerning, not Jesus’ birthday, but the day upon which the historical Good Friday and Easter fell. It finally ended up that, in the Eastern Church, the tradition focused on April 6 as the date for the original Good Friday, while in the Western Church it was widely held that the date was March 25. Why does this matter? Tighe continues: At this point, we have to introduce a belief that seems to have been widespread in Judaism at the time of Christ, but which, as it is nowhere taught in the Bible, has completely fallen from the awareness of Christians. The idea is that of the “integral age” of the great Jewish prophets: the idea that the prophets of Israel died on the same dates as their birth or conception. This notion is a key factor in understanding how some early Christians came to believe that December 25th is the date of Christ’s birth. The early Christians applied this idea to Jesus, so that March 25th and April 6th were not only the supposed dates of Christ’s death, but of his conception or birth as well. There is some fleeting evidence that at least some first- and second-century Christians thought of March 25th or April 6th as the date of Christ’s birth, but rather quickly the assignment of March 25th as the date of Christ’s conception prevailed. It is to this day commemorated almost universally among Christians as the Feast of the Annunciation, when the Archangel Gabriel brought the good tidings of a savior to the Virgin Mary, upon whose acquiescence the Eternal Word of God (“Light of Light, True God of True God, begotten of the Father before all ages”) forthwith became incarnate in her womb. What is the length of pregnancy? Nine months. Add nine months to March 25th and you get December 25th; add it to April 6th and you get January 6th. December 25th is Christmas, and January 6th is Epiphany. And because these traditional, albeit competing, birth dates were already being revered in the rapidly growing Church, the emperor of a failing pagan empire instituted the Feast of the Unconquered Sun not only as an “effort to use the winter solstice to make a political statement, but also almost certainly [as] an attempt to give a pagan significance to a date already of importance to Roman Christians.” In addition to this there’s another small, but telling, point. We also find St. John Chrysostom (a patriarch of Constantinople who died in 407 A.D.) noted that Christians had celebrated December 25 from the Church’s early days. Chrysostom reinforced his point with an argument that used Scripture, not pagan mythology, for corroboration: Luke 1 says Zechariah was performing priestly duty in the Temple when an angel told his wife Elizabeth she would bear John the Baptist. During the sixth month of Elizabeth’s pregnancy, Mary learned about her conception of Jesus and visited Elizabeth “with haste.” The 24 classes of Jewish priests served one week in the Temple, and Zechariah was in the eighth class. Rabbinical tradition fixed the class on duty when the Temple was destroyed in A.D. 70 and, calculating backward from that, Zechariah’s class would have been serving Oct. 2-9 in 5 B.C. So Mary’s conception visit six months later might have occurred the following March and Jesus’ birth nine months afterward. So how did it become “common knowledge” that Christmas is really just a warmed-over pagan festival? It happened through a series of ironies capped by yet another example of pseudo-knowledge. The first irony is the reaction of the Christians of the late Roman Empire to Aurelian’s attempt to co-opt Christmas and make it a pagan day of celebration. Instead of fighting with Sun-worshipers who were trying to rip off their feast, early Christians simply “re-appropriate[d] the pagan ‘Birth of the Unconquered Sun’ to refer, on the occasion of the birth of Christ, to the rising of the ‘Sun of Salvation’ or the ‘Sun of Justice.’” Mark that, because we shall return to it. The next irony happens in the 17th and 18th centuries, when the myth of “pagan Christmas” really took hold.
Paul Ernst Jablonski, a German Protestant, wished to show that the celebration of Christ’s birth on December 25th was one of the many “paganizations” of Christianity that the Church of the fourth century embraced, as one of many “degenerations” that transformed pure apostolic Christianity into Catholicism. Dom Jean Hardouin, a Benedictine monk, tried to show that the Catholic Church adopted pagan festivals for Christian purposes without paganizing the Gospel. In the Julian calendar, created in 45 B.C. under Julius Caesar, the winter solstice fell on December 25th, and it therefore seemed obvious to Jablonski and Hardouin that the day must have had a pagan significance before it had a Christian one. Note that: Jablonski began, not with evidence, but with an assumption that the winter solstice must have had a pagan significance before it had a Christian one. In other words, Jablonski simply noticed a correspondence between the Julian calendar’s solstice and Christmas and assumed the pagan feast must have been the prior one even though he had no proof for his theory. Meanwhile, Hardouin, rather than challenge that assumption, simply went along with it. And it’s upon these two authors that the entire myth about Christmas being a warmed-over pagan Sun-worshiping feast is based. But in fact, the date [December 25] had no religious significance in the Roman pagan festal calendar before Aurelian’s time, nor did the cult of the sun play a prominent role in Rome before him. There were two temples of the sun in Rome, one of which (maintained by the clan into which Aurelian was born or adopted) celebrated its dedication festival on August 9th, the other of which celebrated its dedication festival on August 28th. But both of these cults fell into neglect in the second century, when eastern cults of the sun, such as Mithraism, began to win a following in Rome. And in any case, none of these cults, old or new, had festivals associated with solstices or equinoxes.
What Can We Learn From This? It is vital we not get bogged down in minutiae and miss the blazingly obvious. So, for instance, we must not get distracted by the irrelevant question of whether Roman Christians were right to place Jesus’ birthday on December 25. Nor should we waste time saying, “Ah ha! Some early Christians relied on the unbiblical Jewish tradition of ‘integral age’ or Chrysostom’s ‘rabbinic tradition’!” Again, granted: the date of Christmas isn’t found in Scripture. But that isn’t what matters. The crucial thing is not, “Did the early Christians get the date of Christmas right?” It is, rather, “What mattered to them as they determined the date of Christmas?” And when you look at that, you again immediately realize that what dominates their minds is not Diana, Isis, sun worship, or anything else in the pagan religious world. What interests them is, from our modern multicultural perspective, stunningly insular. Their debates are consumed, not by longing for goddess worship, or pagan mythology, or a desire to import Isis and Diana into the Faith, but the exact details of the New Testament record of Jesus’ death, alloyed with a Jewish—-not pagan—-theory about when Jewish—-not pagan—-prophets die. They don’t care a bit how pagan priests ordered their worship in the Temple of Diana at Ephesus. They care intensely about how Levitical priests ordered their worship in the Temple of Solomon at Jerusalem. These Christians are completely riveted on Scripture and details of Jewish and Christian history and tradition. They don’t give a hoot what sun worshipers, Osiris devotees, or Isis fans might think. A Common Objection At this point some people object, “But you yourself acknowledge the early Christians ‘re-appropriated the pagan “Birth of the Unconquered Sun”’ to refer to the birth of Christ”. True. That is, I’m willing to grant that when Aurelian tried to co-opt a Christian holy day by designating it as the date for a pagan festival, Christians checkmated Aurelius by refusing to allow him to claim a sort of copyright on the Sun for paganism. Instead, they insisted on returning the Sun to the service of God its Creator—Whom Scripture calls the True Light of the World and a Sun and a Shield—and did not make the blunder of worshiping the creature. They behaved rather like modern Christians who offer punning riffs on current cultural phenomena (“Jesus: He’s the Real Thing” “Christ: Don’t Leave Earth Without Him,” etc.).
Exactly what they did not do is take passages of Scripture which referred to Jesus and apply them to Apollo or some other pagan deity. Nor did they look to Apollo or some other pagan deity to tell them about Jesus; they knew perfectly well Jesus could be represented as the Sun of Justice and Light of the World long before Aurelius invented his pagan festival. That’s because early Christians were behaving in a way perfectly consistent with Scripture, becoming “all things to all men” (1 Corinthians 9:22), not “holding the form of religion while denying the power of it” (2 Timothy 3:5). This matters immensely because it bears directly on the first moment when the early Catholic Church really did borrow something from pagans. And not just any pagans, mind you, but actual adherents of Babylonian Mystery Religion. And most amazingly, the early Catholics’ decision to do so receives the complete approval of, and even hearty defense by… Evangelicals.
ABSOLUTE MUST SEE: Father Chad Ripperger – Signs of the Mark of the Beast & Rise of the Antichrist & Forms of cursing, oppression, possession, obsession, subjugation…
¿POR QUÉ ESTALLÓ LA GUERRA CIVIL ESPAÑOLA? – Fernando Paz LO EXPLICA
Valley of the Fallen [Valle de los Caídos] documentary. Part 1.
Valley of the Fallen [Valle de los Caídos] documentary. Part 2.
La VERDAD de Las Masacres de PARACUELLOS y El Bombardeo de GUERNICA
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We all have a loving mother: The Most Holy Blessed Virgin Mary is a Mother to us all
I didn’t know!!! I didn’t know until January 2022 when I realized, listening to father Schmidt, that when Jesus died on the cross and he told Saint John: “This is your mother” and he told Mary: “Woman, this is your son”, he was giving his mother to all of us, to all mankind!!! And me little orphan like girl coming from where I come from, from the heartache of the childhood that I went through – that I explained in my biography (SEE “ABOUT” SECTION), I have yearned my entire life to be loved by a mother and now I do I have a mother: Mother Mary, the Virgin Mary!!! She is here for all of us!!!
God has resolved the impossible existential conundrum of the orphans: God is the Father of all of us, all of us whatever the circumstances, orphans with living parents who ignore us, who do not know how to love us, who hated us, who abused us, who hurt us, who harmed us, voluntarily or unvoluntarily, knowingly or unknowingly, for whatever the reason, or people who had parents who died, or who never knew their parents, or were given up for adoption, or were simply abandonned, all of us, at some point in lige whatever our background, we need loving parents. So God has resolved this issue: He is our Father, we do have a father Papa the Father that we pray in Our Father prayer “Our Father who art in the heavens”, “Abba Father”, we have a Father, all of us without distinction, we have a Father who loves us and who is waiting for us to be part of his loving family and who wants to adopt us by the adoption of the Catholic baptism. By the Catholic holy Sacrament of baptism we become children of God, Sons and Daughters of God the Father Almighty by adoption in Jesus Christ and we have a mother. We have a mother!!! God has sent us the holy Virgin Mary as a mother to every single human on the planet: there is no longer a human that is without a mother: we have a mother; her name is Mary
Her name, her very name comes from “Amor”, “Amour”, “Love”, She is love itself. She came to adopt us as her children.
We have a mother!!! We have a loving mother!!!
SEE SECTIONS “THE VIRGIN MARY”, “ABOUT”, “SAINTS”
HERE MY FAVORITE EXPLANATION OF THE ETYMOLOGY OF THE NAME “MARY, MARIA”:
“In 1906 Zorrell advanced another explanation of the name Mary, based on its derivation from the Egyptian mer or mar, to love, and the Hebrew Divine name Yarn or Yahweh (Zeitschrift fur katholische Theologie, 1906, pp. 356 sqq.). Thus explained the name denotes “one loving Yahweh” or “one beloved by Yahweh”.”
https://www.catholic.com/encyclopedia/mary-the-blessed-virgin
FR. MIKE SMITH – ASCENSION PRESENTS: MOTHER MARY, SAINTS, WORSHIP?
VIDEO: Do Catholics Worship Saints?
VIDEO: Why Catholics Call Mary Their Mother
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Jesus is right here in the Holy Eucharist
For more than 40 years I lived on the planet Earth ignoring, not knowing at all that Jesus Christ was right here on Earth, in every single piece of Eucharist, in every single Catholic Church, in every single Tabernacle of Catholic Churches and Chapels all around the world. Jesus is not just seating at the right hand of God the Father Almighty in Heaven, far away in Heaven… He’s right here!!!!
THE GREATEST GIFT MADE TO HUMANITY, THE TREASURE OF ALL MANKIND HIDDEN IN PLAIN SIGHT, THE GREATEST INVENTION OF ALL TIME: JESUS CHRIST THE VERB THE LOGOS THE SECOND PERSON OF THE HOLY TRINITY ON EARTH IN THE FORM OF THE HOLY EUCHARIST!!!!
Jesus had promised in Matthew 28:19 and 20: “And I will be with you all the days until the conclusion of the system of things” and He did keep His promise. He went to Heaven and He came back in the form of consacred hosts: every time a Catholic priest pronounces the blessing on the bread and the wine, the bread becomes the flesh and body of Christ and the wine His Blood, both are the Living God Jesus Christ. Not only He is here, not only can wH go and see him, spend time with Him, worship Him in the Exposition of the Holy Sacrament of the Altar but also every Catholic who is baptized and who has received the Sacrament of the First Holy Communion can actually RECEIVE Jesus Christ in the Holy consecrated host and consume Him and become ONE with Him and welcome Him in the house of his soul!!! We eat Him, we drink Him, we consume Him and we become ONE with Him, we become Eucharistic Souls!!! And Jesus is not just sitting in a tabernacle as consacrated hosts, He also becomes part of us as we partake of the Holy Communion. He becomes ONE with us, we consume Him and we enter inside his Divinity: we become ONE with Him and we can take Him home with us in our hearts as He dwells inside of us. He becomes ONE with us. We are ONE!!! We become ONE!!! The Apostle Paul says in Galatians 2:20: “It’s no longer I who lives but Jesus who lives in me.” For 40 years I had no knowledge, no concept whatsoever, of the fact that Jesus was on Earth and that I could become so intrinsically and intimately united with Him!!! It is a whole other dimesion of spirituality!!!
Jesus is here!!! Jesus is here on Earth!!! Jesus is right here!!!
If someone was telling me that Jesus was here, on Earth, in flesh and blood, in Times Square, at the Eiffel Tower, or at the Plaza del Sol in Madrid, I would be the first one to run and go see Him, to touch Him, to hug Him, to listen to Him, to ask Him question, to beg Him to heal me, to explain my life to Him that He already knows but stil to talk to Him and pour out my heart to Him, to heal my broken heart, to bless me, to hug me…! But wait… HE IS HERE!! We can go and see Him and spead time with Him in every single Catholic Church with a tabernacle where the Holy Consacred Host resides!!! GOD IS HERE!! That is mind-boggling!!
I would be like Mary sitting at the feet of Jesus, mesmerized, drinking His words, listening to Him, speaking to Him, asking Him all the burning questions I have in my head, talking to Him, asking Him the millions of questions I’ve have my whole life, asking for a blessing, asking Him to talk to me, to explain to me my life, to guide me, to give me counsel, to bless me, to forgive me, to put His hand on my head, to heal me, to heal my body, to heal my heart, to heal my painful years, to heal my broken heart….!!! My dream was always to be at the feet of Jesus as Mary had been and I absolutely always loved that story in the Gospel but as a Jehovah’s Witness I had no hope of ever seeing Jesus because if you are not of the 144,000 you’ll never go to Heaven and according to the Jehovah’s Witnesses you’ll never see Jesus in person, you’ll be on earth in a paradise far from Him… No!! No!!! No!!!!!
As a Catholic, I now know that Jesus gives to all of us THE GREATEST GIFT OF ALL MANKIND, THE BIGGEST TREASURE OF ALL HUMANITY HIDDEN IN PLAIN SIGHT: HIMSELF, GOD HIMSELF, GOD THE SECOND PERSON OF THE HOLY TRINITY, THE LOGOS, THE VERB, JESUS CHRIST ON EARTH IN EVERY SINGLE CONSACRED HOST , IN EVERY PIECE OF THE HOLY EUCHARIST, IN EVERY CORNER OF THE EARTH.
He is here!!! He is here!!! He is here!!!! He lives in every consacrated host and as we partake of the Holy Communion He lives in us, inside of us, He comes home with us, He sleeps in our hearts with us, He goes through everything we go through, He accompanies us in our trials, in our tears, in our hopes, in our dreams, He lives with us, He experiences what we experience, He accompanies us, He carries our crosses for us, He lives inside of us… We are never alone!!! He lives in us, He lives with us, He’s here. He is the biggest treasure of all humankind hidden in plain sight, the greatest gift of God to humanity: Jesus Christ, Our God Lord and King, present in every piece of Holy Eucharist on the planet Earth.
Anytime you see in a church a red candle, He is there inside the tabernacle or in the monstrance in the Exposition of the Holy Sacrament of The Altar: that is the Divine Holy True Presence. Stay with Him. Accompany Him. Bathe in His Divinity and in the rays of his Holy Presence and grace that invades the entire church, you will never be the same and the more you are in His presence, the more you realize how much He heals you, how being with Him is like already having a foot in Heaven, and how much you need Him and what a privilege it is to be able to have a private audience with Your King and God every day of your life!!! Since August 2023, I spend minimum 2 hours evry day in worship of the Holy Sacrament during the week and on weekends I easily spend 4 to 7 hours, even 11 hours sometimes, (or entire nights in a 24/7 chapel we have in Madrid) there is no better place on the planet to be at!!!
So the next time you think: “if only I could speak to Jesus…. if only Jesus was here… if only I could see Jesus I would…”, here is the greatest good news that every single human soul must know:
“BUT HE IS HERE!!! RIGHT HERE!!! YOU CAN GO AND SEE HIM EVERY SINGLE DAY OF YOUR LIFE!!! HE HAS BEEN WAITING FOR YOU!! COME AND SEE!!!”
ABSOLUTE MUST READ: LA SANTA MISA EN EL SIGLO II SEGÚN SAN JUSTINO EL MÁRTIR
En los Hechos de los Apóstoles encontramos evidencia de que las primeras comunidades cristianas celebraban la Eucaristía, a este respecto resulta muy interesante el relato que nos hace San Justino Mártir para el año 155. […] Sabemos que las primeras comunidades eran perseguidas y acusadas de realizar sacrificios humanos en su culto a Dios. Se conserva una carta que San Justino le envió al emperador romano Antonio Pío para el año 155 en la que el santo explicaba, en un lenguaje que el “César” pudiera comprender, cómo era exactamente eso que hacían los cristianos en aquellas extrañas reuniones dominicales https://tengoseddeti.org/article/la-misa-de-los-primeros-cristianos/
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Our Ultimate Calling is to be divinized. to possess God, to become participants to God’s Divinity by grace and to be reunited to God in Heaven
Our Calling on this Earth is to love God and to be inserted into the Divine Family, to be part of His Divine Family, to participate with God to His Divinity, to “become God by participation”, to be participant to His Divinity, not by nature but by grace. We were created to possess God and to live off of Him and to live off of the three Persons of the Most Holy Trinity. We were created at the image of God so much so that we are designed to be formatted and conformed to receive God, to become temple of God and to welcome Him as the Host of Our Souls so that we become dwellings of God: The Holy Trinity comes to live in us and reside in us and dwell in us. Saint Catherine Siena wrote: “The soul is in God and God in the soul, just as the fish is in the sea and the sea in the fish.”
God has loved the world so much that He wants to share with us everything He has, He wants to insert us, to graft us, to welcome us inside his Holy Family and He wants us to be His children as part of His Divine Holy Family God the Father God the Son and God the Holy Spiritin the Holy Trinity.
He wants us to be His Children. The Father sent His Son to the Earth so that gathered in the arms of the Holy Spirit He would bring all of His Children back to Heaven to live with Him as part of his Divine Family.
SEE SECTIONS “GOD IN MY LIFE”, SAINT TERESA OF AVILA”, SAINT JOHN OF THE CROSS”
SEE ARTICLE “What “So that We Might Become God” Means” – https://www.catholic.com/qa/what-so-that-we-might-become-god-means
SEE CATECHISM OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH CCC460: The Word became flesh to make us “partakers of the divine nature”: “For this is why the Word became man, and the Son of God became the Son of man: so that man, by entering into communion with the Word and thus receiving divine sonship, might become a son of God.” “For the Son of God became man so that we might become God.” “The only-begotten Son of God, wanting to make us sharers in his divinity, assumed our nature, so that he, made man, might make men gods” (CCC 460).