I have so much to be grateful for and I am blessed in more ways than I could ever start to explain.
Ronnie’s Prayer
“Lord, help me to quit playing GOD. Help me this week not to be critical or judgmental, to watch my mouth by not gossiping and passing on damaging information. Help me to build up others and share only things that are encouraging. Lord, thank you for your mercy in my life. Thank you that you don’t give me what I deserve, but you give me what I need. Help me to do that to others, passing on to them what they need. I pray this in Jesus’ sweet name. Amen.”
I came into the Catholic faith earlier this year. You pick a Saint name that you admire during that process. Looking back now on almost 50 years I think the Saint was already chosen for me long ago.
St JOHN of CAPISATRANO PRAY for US - The Saint of Military Chaplains and of Justice patron saint of jurists (legal experts, including lawyers and judges)
The Collect Prayer from the Roman Missal (prayer to St. John, used in Mass on his feast):
O God, who raised up Saint John of Capistrano to comfort your faithful people in tribulation, place us, we pray, under your safe protection and keep your Church in everlasting peace.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever. Amen.
Father Brown, G. K. Chesterton’s Catholic priest detective. In the stories he learned the human psyche through listening to confessions which helped him in solving cases- Chesterton was a late in life convert to the Catholic Faith. Chesterton was received into the Catholic Church on 30 July 1922, in a makeshift chapel in the ballroom of the Railway Hotel in Beaconsfield, because the town had no Catholic church yet. The priest who received him was Father John O’Connor of Bradford, the real parish priest Chesterton had met in 1904 and the model for Father Brown.
JRR Tolkien - Catholic and he knew the sins and Evils of the world and that heroes must fight
C.S. Lewis - thanks largely to Tolkien made his journey to Christianity. Tolkien did have hope that one day he would make it to the Catholic side of the faith but he never did. But they remained great friends.
Palmer Luckey quotes Tolkien often and I fully agree: "The central theme of the book is the contrast between the Hobbits (or "the Shire") and the appalling destiny to which some of them are called, the terrifying discovery that the humdrum happiness of the Shire, which they had taken for granted as something normal, is in reality a sort of local and temporary accident, that its existence depends on being protected by powers which Hobbits forget, against powers which Hobbits dare not imagine."
-CS Lewis, close friend of JRR Tolkien
Catholic social teachings began with Pope Leo XIII who also wrote the St. Michael’s Prayer about defending us in battle and many other things. Catholic Social teachings were expanded in the 1930’s during the Great Depression.
I often wonder if the story about Pope Leo XIII’s Vision was real. Did he overhear a conversation between God and Satan? Was Satan given extra powers to try and test/destroy the church? If so what was the allowed amount of years to try and accomplish that task?
I also know the controversies of the Catholic Church over the centuries but like any man led organization, government, or corporation of course there would be decay and attacks from within. Even the connections to Operation Gladio. None of that means the core teachings and foundations of the Catholic faith are wrong. It means that it was attacked from within as well and leaders of the church sometimes made poor overall decisions.
Leaders of many churches of man have made many poor decisions and used Christianity as a tool for personal agendas or interpretations of Gods word. “The Church” is Jesus
If you Remove God from Education, Health, Government, Corporations, and Society what becomes the new incentives of them all? Sins?
If you wake up every morning before your feet hit the ground and find one thing to be grateful for, it changes your whole mindset for the day. — Debbie "Mama" Lee
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