Importance of fasting

Let us now talk in more detail about Christian and Catholic fasting and how The Lord uses it to purge and speak to us.
The whole point of this discussion is to go beyond any type of dogma or religious ritual and talk about fasting as a means to penetrating the spiritual world for revelation, deliverance, freedom and a true encounter with the Almighty creator of the heavens and the earth. The purpose of fasting is spiritual focus, self discipline, imitation of Christ, and performing penance .
Christian and Catholic Fasting is a powerful practice that places you face-to-face with the Spirit of the Living God.
It ought not be trumpeted to all that you are fasting. It is a very personal and sacred time of prayer, worship and meditation.
A time of reviewing our lives and the challenges we are facing. Christian and Catholic fasting is a time when we realize that without Christ himself we are very limited.
That HE is and should always be the center and source of our lives in every way, shape and form
Facts about fasting brought to light in Medjugorje by Our Lady

Fasting is an armament, as Our Lady calls it, the "arms" in which to destroy Satan's power in your life. There are 26 main statements Our Lady has told us about fasting. The facts about fasting are as follows:

1.Fasting stops wars.
2.Fasting can suspend the laws of nature.
3.Fasting reduces punishments from God.
4.Fasting is an "arm," a weapon of significant power to defeat (of which atomic power does not compare).
5.Bread and water is the best fast.
6.Fasting, to be powerful, must be done with the heart.
7.Through fasting, the whole plan of Our Lady, that God himself planned for the world's salvation during this special time, will be achieved.
8.By giving our fasting to Our Lady, it "forces" Satan not to be able to seduce us to evil and drives him away.
9.Fasting purifies our hearts from the sins of our past (Through Confession, sins of the past are forgiven, but healing from life-long vice or memories that Satan uses against us to lead us back into sin, requires purification).
10.Fasting, coupled with prayer WILL obtain EVERYTHING you ask for (the exception would be something illicit).
11.Fasting sanctifies you to receive the Holy Spirit.
12.Humility is a fruit from fasting, when coupled with prayer.
13.The present fasting in the Church is not adaquate. Our Lady desires this to change. She said fasting has been forgotten in the last quarter of this century in the Catholic Church.
14.Fasting is one element that keeps Satan from conquering us. Faith and prayer are the other two. We, in turn, are to conquer Satan. The arms to do so are fasting coupled with prayer.
15.Satan is enraged against those who fast and convert.
16.Fasting for the sick can cure them along with faith and prayer.
17.Fasting, along with prayer, was offered as a remedy by Our Lady to stop arguments among the Holy Priesthood.
18.Fasting will bring the Kingdom of God among us.
19.Fasting makes Our Lady happy.
20.Fasting will make prayer more vigorous.
21.Our Lady will make the maximum good come from our fast. She wants us to give your fast to Her in which she "disposes of them" according to the will of God.
22.Fasting, coupled with prayer, especially community prayer, will protect you from Satan's aggression in destroying marriages, creating division amond priests and will crush him in his plans for obsessions and murders in society today of which Our Lady says he is responsible.
23.To obtain a grace from God, it is best you let no one know you are fasting.
24.We are to fast out of gratitude.
25.Fasting is to be encouraged in others.
26.Our Lady tells us to fast to prepare for the coming of Jesus.

God bless each one of you !

Catholic Conversion Story - Anna

Continuous fight against the fallen angels

Continuing his series on the Year for Priests, Bishop Olmsted looks at the devil we face and fight in the common life .
The influence of the devil can never overcome the power of God’s grace.
Jesus assures us of this when He tells Peter (Mt 16:18), “I say to you, you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my Church, and the gates of the netherworld shall not prevail against it.” But the evil one, nonetheless, continues to tempt and test all of us during our life on earth.
Satanic attacks were commonplace in the life of Fr. John Vianney.
For 35 years, the devil taunted and harassed him, not only in spiritual ways but even in tangible and audible ones.
These latter, demonic acts normally are quite rare. But, by the influence of the devil, the Cure of Ars’ bed was moved about, crashing noises resounded, fires were ignited, and other harassments occurred, all in an effort to stop or at least to curtail the priestly ministry of Fr. Vianney.
Why did God allow these to occur? How did the saint respond?
We shall examine these questions today. We shall also look, in subsequent parts of this series, at other defining characteristics of his life, namely his love for beauty, and his pastoral service of hearing confessions.

Fallen angels, also known as devils and evil spirits, try to hinder all of us in our pursuit of holiness. Their ordinary ploy is by means of temptations, which God allows so that we can make good use of our freedom in resisting them and thus growing to fuller maturity in Christ.
In addition to these ordinary ploys, demons resort to other extraordinary acts, on rare occasions, with the same intention of thwarting the plan of God and undercutting our filial trust in Him.
These harassments can be of three kinds: infestations, obsessions and possessions.
With infestations, the devil makes use of noises, outcries, rattling, apparitions and other extraordinary outbursts of some sensible nature aimed at terrifying people, intending to undercut their confidence in God. He used these repeatedly on the Cure of Ars, sometimes to keep him from getting badly needed sleep, at other times to disturb his peace of mind and to try to shake his trust in God. All these were aimed at disrupting the effective ministry of this holy priest.
Early on, Fr. Vianney became aware that these infestations were most outrageous just before an outstanding action of grace was about to occur through his priestly ministry, usually the conversion of a sinner. In fact, he remarked that the worst assaults of the devil happened when he was on the verge of “landing a big fish,” by which he meant welcoming back a baptized person who had fallen far into the darkness of despair. With this insight, Fr. Vianney calmly ignored the infestations, and looked forward with joyful hope to the next victory of grace about to occur through the Sacrament of Penance. If we ever have to deal with similar harassments, we should follow this saintly priest’s good example of calmly ignoring the devil, confidently turning to God in prayer, and deepening our communion with Christ through the Eucharist and the other sacraments.

More about this important article read in the Catholic Sun
May Lord bless , keep us safe and protect against the fallen one !

Protest against so called " Madonna " actually Loiuse Ciccone

This is not real Madonna , this fake is Louise Ciccone .

Read more about protest on The American Society for the Defense of Tradition , Family and Property
Tuesday, August 4, 2009
When it was announced that American pop-singer Madonna ( actually Louise Ciccone ) would be performing in Warsaw’s Bemowo Airport on August 15, the Feast of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the American TFP joined the firestorm of protest sweeping Poland.

Madonna "Sticky & Sweet" tour is causing a stir because August 15 is not just any Catholic feast day or Polish national holiday. It is the day when hundreds of thousands of pilgrims arrive at the foot of Our Lady of Czestochowa shrine at Jasna Gora after many of them spend weeks of pilgrimages on foot from all around the country.

Many see the choice of this special day as a provocation. It only adds to the controversy surrounding the 50-year-old singer who has long mixed blasphemy with sexual themes. Even if the event were to be on another day, Madonna’s message is clearly offensive to Poles. In 2006, she offended Poles by having her face appear on the cover of the Polish magazine, "Machina," parodying Our Lady of Czestochowa. Promotion material for the present tour claims: “There is no room for two queens in Poland.”

The American TFP is joining with other organizations in Poland in protesting the event. It is sponsoring an email protest campaign to Poland’s Minister of the Interior asking him to prevent the concert that is scheduled to be held at the publicly-owned Benowo Airport. The email notes that the event does not promote the common good and that since its promoters have shown that they intend to offend the religious sentiment of Polish Catholics, it is a violation of Article 196 of the Polish Criminal Code.

Numerous Catholic groups are getting involved in the protest. The American TFP hopes that Catholics all over the world will join in. One does not have to be Polish to defend the Blessed Mother. If enough Catholics from all over the world lodge their protest, the promoters of this show will find out that there is indeed no room for two queens in Poland. This is only one queen in Poland and her name is Mary, the Mother of God.

Send your instant e-protest to keep Madonna’s blasphemy from showing in Catholic Poland on the day of Our Lady’s Assumption by clicking here!

Why to Catholics believe that their Church is the one true Church of Jesus Christ?

Wouldn't it be more reasonable to believe that Christ's true Church is a spiritual union of all Christian denomination?

Catholics believe that theirs is the one true Church of Jesus Christ, firstly, because theirs is the only Christian Church that goes back in history to the time of Christ.
Secondly, because theirs is the only Christian Church which possesses the invincible unity, the intrinsic holiness, the continual universality and the indisputable apostolicity which Christ said would distinguish His true Church .
Thirdly, because the Apostles and primitive Church Fathers, who certainly were members of Christ's true Church, all professed membership in the same Catholic Church (See Apostles' Creed and the Primitive Christian letters).
Wrote Ignatius of Antioch, illustrious Church Father of the first century: "Where the bishop is, there let the multitude of believers be, even as where Jesus is, there is the Catholic Church."
Our Lord said: "There shall be one fold and one Shepherd" ( John 10:16 ), there is only one Church and one door into it, and one Shepherd over it. Yet it is well know that the various Christian denominations cannot agree on what Christ actually taught. Since Christ roundly condemned inter-denominationalism, that house cannot stand." (Mark 3:24-25), Catholics cannot believe that He would even sanction it in His Church .

The Marks of the Church

In the Creed we profess the Church to be one holy catholic and apostolic.
These four characteristics, inseparably linked with each other, indicate essential features of the Church and her mission.
The Church does not possess them of herself; it is Christ who, through the Holy Spirit, makes His Church one, holy, catholic, and apostolic, and it is He who calls her to realize each of these qualities.

The Church Is One

John 17:11
Holy Father, keep them in your name that you have given me, so that they may be one just as we are.
John 17:21
... so that they may all be one, as you, Father, are in me and I in you, that they also may be in us, that the world may believe that you sent me.
Eph 4:4 - 5
There is one body and one Spirit just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of us all.
1 Cor 10:17
Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body, for we all partake of the one bread.
John 10:16
(Jesus said) "there shall be one flock, one shepherd."

The Church is Holy

The Church of the apostles was holy. When we say that the Church is holy, we mean among other things that she had the all-holy God as her author.

Eph 5:25 - 27
Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish.
1 Tim 1:15
Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.

The Church is Catholic

The third great historic mark, or note, of the one true Church is that this Church is Catholic. Catholic means "universal." It refers as much to the fullness of the faith she possesses as to the undeniable extension in both time and space that has characterized her virtually from the beginning.
Mark 16:15
He said to them, "Go into the whole world and proclaim the gospel to every creature."
Col 1:5 - 6
The word of the truth ... in the whole world ... is bearing fruit and growing.

The Church is Apostolic

Finally, the Church that issued from the commission of Christ to the apostles was apostolic. Christ founded the Church upon the apostles.
John 6:70
"Did I not choose you, the twelve?" (Jesus) asked them.

Loving endlessly God , essence of Catholic Faith

To be a Catholic then is to desperately fall into the love with God.
Catholic Faith is to seek and respond to the love of God, to live out the love of God towards our neighbors including those closest to us, and to spread the love and peace to counter the evil influences of the world.
Catholic Faith is to fall in love with the Word of God in the Bible.
Catholic Faith is to love to, to long for, and to make efforts to receive Jesus present in the Holy Eucharist in the Eucharistic celebration.
Catholic Faith is to experience and to witness the true peace of God.
Catholic Faith is to be overflowed with joy and love of God in witnessing Catholic Faith in the family, at work, or at school.

Unconditional Love of God

Catholic Faith believes in the value and dignity of each individual person, including the weakest.
The love of God towards us is unconditional. Catholic Faith preaches the profound love and forgiveness of God, which we may better experience when we also forgive other people.
Although the fruit of Catholic Faith should include striving to perform acts of love, Catholic Faith is not a religion that only preaches justice and the need to do good deeds. Justice is already known to many people without Catholic Faith. The profound love and forgiveness of God surpasses even the justice of God. The coming of Jesus is not to bring justice but to reveal the unconditional Love of God.
Catholic Faith believes in the gifts of different talents to each individual in order that we may use them to serve others in our daily work at home and at work.
Catholic Faith believes in the love and healing from God especially when one has been deeply hurt by people in the world.
Catholic Faith believes in the use of God's gift of sex only within marriage in order to experience the love of God and to build up families with love.
Catholic Faith believes in the love of God present in us. However the lack of love and hurt from many people often makes it more difficult to believe in the love of God. It may take strong Faith to believe in and to rediscover the love of God.

Talking about Morality and Soul Purity

Well , Morality still exist and not only like a common dictionary word . True catholics ( christians ) still practice and keep living in the grace of Morality .
Morality means a state of mind reflected in this picture

while evil is the first enemy of Morality from the beginning of times ..
Catholic morality is about Life: "I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly." (John 10:10)
Faith & baptism give us new life in Christ. That life involves far more than simply following a set of rules.
Catholic morality's basic moral code describes the minimum necessary to live in union with Christ. If we fall below that level, then the life of Christ cannot live within us.
That's the meaning of mortal sin: an action which shows God that we refuse his offer to become "children of God" (John 1:12) and "partakers of the divine nature" (2 Pet 1:4).
In the last instance is to live in purity , to do good and avoid evil in all his manifestations ( including pornography , promiscuity , occultism and any kind of witchcraft, demonism, fortune telling, astrology )
The Bible teaches that those who seek to communicate with spirits or with the dead, become defiled and are unfit to appear before God to worship Him. "Regard not them that have familiar spirits (mediums), neither seek after wizards, to be defiled by them: I am the Lord your God." Leviticus 19:31.
God cuts off from among His people all who turn to mediums for help. "And the soul that turneth after such as have familiar spirits, and after wizards, to go to whoring after them, I will even set my face against that soul, and will cut him off from among his people." Leviticus 20:6.
Witchcraft, fortune telling, crystal reading, necromancy, and palmistry are related to spiritism and are strongly condemned by God. "There shall not be found among you any one that maketh his son or his daughter to pass through the fire, or that useth divination, or an observer of times, or an enchanter, or a witch, or a charmer, or a consulter with familiar spirits, or a wizard, or a necromancer. For all that do these things are an abomination unto the Lord: and because of these abominations the Lord thy God doth drive them out from before thee ... For these nations, which thou shalt possess, hearkened unto observers of times, and unto diviners: but as for thee, the Lord thy God hath not suffered thee so to do." Deuteronomy 18:10-12, 14.
God bless and keep you all !

For Catholics, the seven sacraments are the center of our life as Christians.


Our baptism removes the effects of original sin and brings us into the Church, the Body of Christ. Our worthy participation in the other sacraments provides us with the grace we need to conform our lives to Christ and marks our progress through this life. Each sacrament was instituted by Christ during His life on earth and is an outward sign of an inward grace. The sacraments are Christ's own gift that provide us with his grace.
They are the divine helps which God gives us to enable us to: believe the truths of His faith , live according to Jesus moral code He taught us , grow in His gift of Divine Life .
The seven sacrements are a fundamental part of the Catholic faith.
The Latin word sacramentum means "a sign of the sacred." The seven sacraments are ceremonies that point to what is sacred, significant and important for Christians. They are special occasions for experiencing God's saving presence. That's what theologians mean when they say that sacraments are at the same time signs and instruments of God's grace.

Let's talk about Saints

The Catholic is never alone. God is always near. The Catholic remembers Mary. He remembers her saying Yes to the Incarnation. He remembers those who have gone before him: the vast parade of Saints whose personalities and attributes are so various, so free, and yet so devoted to the singular path that leads to holiness and union with God.

Catholics aren't divorced from history. They are not alone with their Bibles and their consciences. Catholics live History. They are part of the continuum of 2,000 years (or with the Old Testament, even longer) of man's pilgrimage with God.

In the Apostles' Creed, the earliest formulary of Christian belief that we have, the Bible is never mentioned. Individual conscience is never mentioned. What is mentioned is history: "born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried." And what is affirmed is belief in God; in the life, resurrection, and coming judgment of Jesus; and then the final litany: "I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Holy Catholic Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and life everlasting."

To the Catholic, life is good; the body is good (which is why it will be resurrected); and it is good for man, if we remember Genesis, not to be alone. In the Catholic Church, he is never alone but lives within the body of Christ, the Church Militant, wherein he receives the sacraments of his earthly pilgrimage; in his prayers for the dead, he remains in prayerful connection with the Church Suffering; and in his emulation of the saints and prayers for their intercession, he looks ahead to the Church Triumphant in heaven.

And what saints there are. "St. Michael the Archangel, defend us in battle"; the beloved St. Francis, "Lord, make me a channel of Your peace"; the "Dumb Ox" of logic and reason's call, St. Thomas Aquinas; St. Ignatius Loyola, who showed what miracles of conversion "the Pope's marines" could achieve when they were all devoted and orthodox (let us hope that they will be again); and on and on in endless panorama. All this belongs to the priceless Catholic heritage. Catholicism does not circumscribe and narrow the truth and practice of religion as all heresies do but celebrates the fullness of humanity and God's creation.

The saints show us the way. Catholics do not presume that they are saved through faith alone -- as do Protestants. Salvation, of course, comes through God's grace. But as part of our free acceptance of that grace, we are called to become holy: to work, to act, to participate in that constant drama where we struggle to live the life of a saint -- to live, that is, the life of Christ. None of us is the elect, predestined to salvation, with the remainder (the majority) predestinedly condemned to hell, as Calvin taught. The Catholic believes he is called to acts of corporal and spiritual mercy and that these help him, by God's grace, to achieve expiation of sin. Our models and aides in our never-ending effort to achieve sanctity are Jesus, the apostles, and all the saints.

(taken from InsideCatholic )

Daily Catechism of Catholic Church

Prologue

I. The life of man - to know and love God

1 God, infinitely perfect and blessed in Himself, in a plan of sheer goodness freely created man to make him share in His own blessed life.
For this reason, at every time and in every place, God draws close to man.
He calls man to seek Him, to know Him, to love Him with all his strength.
He calls together all men, scattered and divided by sin, into the unity of His family, the Church.
To accomplish this, when the fullness of time had come, God sent His Son as Redeemer and Saviour.
In his Son and through Him, He invites men to become, in the Holy Spirit, His adopted children and thus heirs of His blessed life.

2 So that this call should resound throughout the world, Christ sent forth the apostles He had chosen, commissioning them to proclaim the gospel: "Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, to the close of the age."( 4 ⇒ Mt 28:19-20 ) Strengthened by this mission, the apostles "went forth and preached everywhere, while the Lord worked with them and confirmed the message by the signs that attended it."( 5 ⇒ Mk 16:20 )

3 Those who with God's help have welcomed Christ's call and freely responded to it are urged on by love of Christ to proclaim the Good News everywhere in the world. This treasure, received from the apostles, has been faithfully guarded by their successors. All Christ's faithful are called to hand it on from generation to generation, by professing the faith, by living it in fraternal sharing, and by celebrating it in liturgy and prayer. ( 6 Cf. ⇒ Acts 2:42 )

~~~~~~
Nihil Obstat .

Daily Catechism of Catholic Church

Cathechism of the Catholic Church is one of the major key to opend the knowledge "door" for the catholic spirituality and basics of catholic living .
The fundamental beliefs of Roman Catholic Church are illustrated also in the Nicene Creed.
Nicene Creed represent the most convenient summaries of the main points of Catholic belief. The Catechism of the Catholic Church gives a systematic presentation of the faith and a complete exposition of Catholic doctrine :
We believe (I believe) in one God, the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth, and of all things visible and invisible.
And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God, and born of the Father before all ages. (God of God) light of light, true God of true God.
Begotten not made, consubstantial to the Father, by whom all things were made.
Who for us men and for our salvation came down from heaven.
And was incarnate of the Holy Ghost and of the Virgin Mary and was made man;
was crucified also for us under Pontius Pilate, suffered and was buried;
and the third day rose again according to the Scriptures.
And ascended into heaven, sits at the right hand of the Father, and shall come again with glory to judge the living and the dead, of whose Kingdom there shall be no end.
And (I believe) in the Holy Ghost, the Lord and Giver of life, who proceeds from the Father (and the Son), who together with the Father and the Son is to be adored and glorified, who spoke by the Prophets.
And one holy, catholic, and apostolic Church.
We confess (I confess) one baptism for the remission of sins.
And we look for (I look for) the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come. Amen.
Pray and compare with your own Creed , if you belong to other religion , then see the difference .
God bless and be with each one of you !

I was just surfing around , in the most awesome world of catholic journals and blogs , and I said to myself : what incredible beautiful world , simply expression of wisdom and sensibility .

faith is best taught by action and example rather than by words

The best examplea are :The Swiss Guards and the French Foreign Legion

Though only one of these institutions is under the direct supervision of the Vatican, both qualify as Catholic institutions that should warm the very cockles of our hearts. Indeed, next time you meet a Protestant who asks you why you are a Catholic, try telling him this: "I'm a Catholic because I believe in the one, holy, catholic, and apostolic Church as founded by Jesus and His disciples and as led through the power of the Holy Spirit by the pope in Rome who is himself guarded by the Swiss guards of the Vatican whose uniforms were designed, at least some believe, by Michelangelo." If your interlocutor doesn't immediately seek instruction to convert, you know you've met a hard case.

As for La Légion Étrangère, it seems to me that as the product of a Catholic culture, showcasing a Catholic militarism by accepting men of all nations and backgrounds, devoted to one common goal, and by bestowing a sort of secular forgiveness of sins via its traditional offer of anonymity for recruits, it is a good reflection of the Catholic spirit.
( quoting InsideCatholic )

I'm reopen the old journal "Quo Vadis Domine " under the name " Nothing without God" Nihil Sine Deus .
Many use to ask me : what's so great , where's the joy to be catholic ?
Well , here one can fine some answers , sometimes personal apologetic random thoughts , but only taken from reality and religion history , from the only truth about the earliest christian church : Catholic Church . This is the only true answer about catholics , they are members and elect to the church founded by Jesus Christ, acting in the fullness of His Divinity .
The Roman Catholic Church was not started by any one person , it is the original form of Christianity; as promised, the Holy Spirit has continued to guide the understanding of the Church, and Her doctrine has developed over the course of 2000 years. Since Christianity is really the fulfillment of the promises of the Old Testament, its core belief preceded the Incarnation of Christ. Christ's message allows us to see the faith of the Old Testament from a new perspective. The idea is that the Old Testament believers believed in the promised Messiah (Christ) before he came and New Testament believers ("Christians") believe in the promised Christ who came.
Roman Catholics have known and demonstrated, since immediately after the Ascension of Christ, that the Apostle Peter was the first leader of the Church. Most Protestant Christians reject this fact and assert that Peter was an equal among many Apostles. However, the Book of the Acts of the Apostles shows, repeatedly, Peter clearly acting as the leader .
Teachings at variance with apostolic tradition were rejected as "heresies", that is, as false teachings. Only the truth as Christ passed it on to the Apostles is true. Eventually, in the 4th century, these apostolic traditions became the basis for the establishment of the Canon, that is, the collection of sacred writings Christians worldwide today call the Bible. The Church reviewed thousands of texts, measuring each against apostolic Tradition, and included only those which did not differ from those Traditions. The Christian Bible, whether used by Catholics or Protestants, is a Catholic text. It is interesting to note that, although the Catholic Church organized and established the canon of Scripture, there are many today who try to find within Scripture proof that the Church lacks authority or authenticity. Should that argument ever be found to be true, the Bible itself loses authority; if the Church that chose the canonical texts had no real authority to do so, then the canon itself must be seen as suspect. This is clearly not the case, for the Truth of Scripture has been borne out over the course of nearly 2000 years of human experience.
The keeping of the Traditions, which formed the early Church and led to the structure of the Bible, was, and remains, a central obligation of the Church. Even in today's secular world, when many people reject the fullness of the faith because it is inconvenient, or because individualism makes an authoritative Church seem outdated, the Church maintains that it is not within its power to change the Traditions as handed down by the Apostles.
Nihil Obstat .