Catholic? Who me? RESPONSE TO ANONYMOUS

Anonymous wrote to us again.  Our response is highlighted in yellow.

I am a blessed, highly favored, can't be cursed, Christian. I am saved [You will know if you are saved or not when God judges you when you die.  Until then, you are redeemed, not yet saved.]by the blood of Jesus who died on a cruel cross at Calvary as he took all the sins of the world apon (sic) him for us because he loved us so much. I am sanctified, Holy Ghost filled by his power. Living for Jesus. It does state in the bible [you mean Bible, right?] that in order to get to the Kingdom of God, you must follow the Lord Jesus.  [It says a lot more than that]God sent his only son to save the world not condemn it. When a person dies, he is "absent from the flesh and present with the Lord".  [Are you sure that he is present with the Lord?  How do you know?]He would have had to accept Jesus into his heart and ask for forgiveness of his sins in life. The Bible says if you reject the Lord Jesus, then the Father will reject you. He stated to go out as fishermen [Fishermen, really?  Not apostles?]and spread the good word. That Jesus came and abolished the Laws. [100% wrong, Anonymous.  “Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill.”  Matt. 5;17, King James Version] We celebrate a persons life at there death and funeral, provided they have not rejected HIM. [So you only celebrate the funeral of those who have not rejected Him.  Are you the one who knows who has and who has not rejected Him or is that left up to God alone to decide?]The bible also states even the righteous man falls short of the Glory of God, but if you follow the Lord and to stay in the word ( the Bible), pray and talk to the Lord as a relationship not a religion, minister to others to bring them aboard for salvation, ( remember fisherman). [Anonymous, we don’t bring anybody on board for salvation.  We bring the word and the example to them to help them to open their hearts to the presence of God and to accept His invitation to be disciples of His.  That’s all.  Salvation is His work, not ours.]  As Christians we do not pray for a dead body's soul, as once they take there (sic) last breath they are either in heaven or hell. There is no such thing as purgatory. No mention of that in the Bible at all. I respect that we all love and adore the same God, but following the exact teachings of the Bible is important. [Anonymous, you yourself are preaching to us and yet it is clear that you are now a very profound student of the Bible] I never got a bible when I was a catholic. [When you were Catholic you were read from the Bible every time you went to Mass.  You prayed the psalms.  You prayed the Our Father.  You had the Bible staring you in the face.  If you owned a missal, (most Cathlics did) you had about 45% of the Bible in your hands full time.  Were you listening?  Were you reading?]They stated only certain people were allowed to have it. [This is 100% wrong.  I am 75 years old and I got my first Bible when I made my first communion at age 7.  Spare us from your ignorance.]  We as followers of Christ are all saints !!!! You do not pray to anyone other than The Lord God Almighty. We honor mother Mary but do not pray to her. [In avoiding praying to the Saints and Mary you are denying 20 centuries of Christian practice.] We pray to the Lord directly. We ask for a relationship with him. [You ask for a relationship with Him?  Have you forgotten the words of the covenant?  He has given us His word that we are His people and He is our God.  Do you think for a single moment that you can cause Him to enter into a relationship with you on your terms, outside of His Eternal covenant?  You have the arrogance to say  “I am a blessed, highly favored, can't be cursed, Christian. I am saved…”  yet you do not accept that He has reached down and given you the grace of a relationship with Him without your having to pray for it.] That is what he want (sic)from us and to lead a righteous life. No getting drunk after the funeral....to be drunk is a sin. I am not saying you can't have a glass of wine but without the intention of getting drunk. All in all have a blessed and wonderful day, yours in Christ 

I will and I will also eat His flesh and drink His blood in conformance with the New and Everlasting Covenant, (John 6, remember that one?) all the while trying to figure out where you are coming from.

RESPONSE TO "ANONYMOUS"

ParishWorld.net Theology Editor responds to the recent comment of "Anonymous."


"You say you are asking Him to forgive when u are actually praising mary;"  We write Mary
Right you are.  By praising Mary in God’s presence, we are letting Him know that we are sorry for our sins and that we trust that by showing Him our deep reverence for His Mother that He will be generous with His merciful forgiveness of our trespasses.  What better way to show some atonement for our sins than to show Him that we are glad to talk to His mother in prayer.  We can praise her night and day if we want.  It is God that we adore, not her.  Do you adore God, or do you worship him?  Do you know the difference?
"the bible says not to pray repetitiously" The Bible?  Notice upper case “B” Are you afraid to quote the person who is credited in the Bible with that instruction?  Are you afraid to say that it is in the Gospel of Matthew?  We Catholics know our Bible too.  We Catholics also know that the instructions that are present in the Bible have a personal source.  We know that the personal source of the instruction is God Himself, and in the case of the instruction you mention about prayer, it is Jesus Himself, God Incarnate.  Yes, we Catholics believe that Jesus is God.  Do you?
You don’t quote Jesus but just say “the bible” because for you the Bible is a weapon that you use to sustain your hatred against Catholics.
Jesus, remember Him? told His disciples not to pray like the Pagans by repeating and using many vain sounds [that’s from the Greek, by the way].  This is the way of praying of the Pagans…the mantra.  This comes from the spiritualities of the Middle and the Far East and Jesus and His disciples knew this.  It’s a shame that you don’t.  So we pray by repeating the same prayer over and over again, but it is a prayer and it keeps rolling the spiritual thoughts through our consciousness.  We do not multiply sounds in the hope that the sounds themselves will have a spiritual effect.  That would be superstition.
"many other cults have prayer beads too" Thanks for the insult, Anonymous. But look at it this way.  Catholicism is a cult.  Catholicism and Orthodoxy are the first Christian “cults”.  The Bible that you so proudly refer to comes from Catholicism and Orthodoxy.  So you too, Mr/Ms Protestant must be a member of a cult.  Oh, maybe not.  I forgot Martin Luther, that Catholic Augustinian Monk upgraded your Protestantism to the level of an honest to goodness Religion.  Too bad I forgot about that.  Jesus must be very glad that Luther got Him that upgrade.
"..its not a new thing or a catholic thing...it is pagan...outright pagan:  Do you think for a single instant that we Catholics do not know where prayer beads come from?  Why do you Protestants constantly, in season and out of season throw that at us?  Do you think we are stupid?  Oh yeah, I forgot that too, yes, you do.  I do know that you don’t know that the Rosary is a meditation prayer dedicated to the 20 great historically important moments of Jesus’ life.  While we are praising Mary, we are thinking of Her Son who is going through life on His mission to save us.  Did you know that, Anonymous?  So while we are praising her, we are adoring Him.  Pretty neat trick.  Right?
It is also important to straighten out the definition of Pagan.  Notice I used the upper case there.  I have noticed that your computer doesn’t seem to have a shift key on it.  You have all the important words in your comment starting with a lower case letter.  So, do you know the definition of Pagan?  Really.  The Muslims use prayer beads.  Are they Pagans?  For all you know, you are a Pagan too.  Consider the Bible that you so proudly flaunt around.  Have you read it through, from page 1 through to the final Amen in the book of Revelation?  Do you know that the Bible is the source of God’s pedagogy to reveal himself to us?  If you use the Bible to win arguments against Catholics, you are the Pagan.  Think about that.  I mean it.
"Hail Mary..." how is that asking Jesus to forgive you?" I explained that to you above.  By the way, you do know that “Hail Mary”…is from the Bible, right?
"the Lords Prayer" is not a prayer but a model or outline on how to pray..but u all have to say it over and over again like robots  Ah, yes.  We’re back there again.  Plus, “The Lord’s Prayer” is not a prayer.  Well, in that case, Anonymous, call it “the Lord’s Plan for Prayer.”  You have to be consistent in your thought process.  You’re reaching here, I know you are.  You hate us “cultists” so badly that you’ll say anything to get us riled up.  You’re an interesting person.  Here’s why I think so.
You don’t pray the “Hail Mary;” you don’t pray the “Lord’s Prayer” because it is not a prayer to begin with. So you probably don’t pray too much.  Do you pray when you awaken in the morning?  Do you pray before meals?  Do you pray in the evening before retiring?  Do you pray during the day?  Do you pray for the people you love?  Do you pray for your enemies?  Do you pray the Bible?  Do you pray Hannah’s prayer?  Do you pray Solomon’s prayer?  Do you pray Moses’ prayer?  Do you pray Samson’s prayer?  How about the prayer of Abraham when he is bargaining with God about the people to be saved from Sodom and Gomorrah?  Do you pray Zechariah's prayer?  Do you pray Mary's "Magnificat"? Do you pray the Psalms?  That’s a lot of prayer.  Do you do any of it?  I doubt it, and here’s why:  I repeat, you don’t have enough respect for the Bible to write it with an upper case “B”.  That, Anonymous, is Paganism.

Why do we say the Rosary at Catholic funerals?

By Paul Dion, STL

The question of the week for the is one that you are going to have to figure out for yourselves. I don't think that there is a source that you can consult for the answer to this one.

This question was presented to me by a member of my RCIA class, seeking Baptism through the Rite of Christian Initiation at St. Christopher parish, Moreno Valley, California.

I deeply appreciate this question because it is a seriously probing one. I had an answer ready for them which I will share with you in the Grand Inquisitor's wrap-up.

"Why is it that Catholics always have the recitation of the Holy Rosary as a part of their funerals?"

It's all yours. Tell us what you think.

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