God & Faith2 min read
What was the basis for the probable opinion of Ingersoll that he alone had read the Bible through that year? An opinion, to be probable, must have good reasons. A guess won’t do. Ingersoll’s only reason was that other men did not come to his own conclusions. Therefore they could not have read the Bible! If he can get a probable …
Mary, Saints & Angels1 min read
By the restriction of its activities according to the limitations of the created agent of torture, and by the intellectual apprehension of the suffering fire normally causes. But difficulties concerning its method of action make no difference to the fact that it exists.
Last Things & Salvation1 min read
God has not deigned to satisfy our curiosity on that point, and the knowledge is not of practical importance to us. The fact that there is a purgatory has been revealed by God. And when He reveals a fact, we cannot say to Him, “Well, I for one refuse to believe it until You tell me more about it.” God proves a thing by saying it…
Last Things & Salvation1 min read
Heaven is the destiny in which a human soul will, if saved, be happy in the clear and immediate sight of God for all eternity. Before the resurrection of the body the soul alone enjoys this vision of God; after the resurrection, the body will be re-united with the soul and will share in its glory and joy.
God & Faith1 min read
Had he left the Catholic Church in order to become a better man himself, and in order to make his people better, you might have a case. But he did not.
God & Faith1 min read
The stream of converts from the ranks of intelligent men is sufficient answer to that suggestion.
God & Faith1 min read
I have not to believe that, and I do not believe it. Yet I believe in Christianity. Why should you, a non-Christian, prescribe for me what I have to believe? You might at least leave that to Christians.
Last Things & Salvation1 min read
Religion is natural to man, almost as natural as breathing. Men are therefore naturally inclined to cling to the religion they already possess, until the truth is put before them and clearly apprehended by them. But these old religions have gone through many changes, and are essentially vague and imperfect. Nor can they be compa…
Last Things & Salvation3 min read
That the soul will, and indeed must, survive the death of the body is demonstrable from many points of view. Firstly, its essential structure forbids dissolution by death. Death is the disintegration of parts. Only composite things can die. Yet the soul is not composite. Its power of pure immaterial thought proves its independen…
The Church1 min read
Not unless they live good lives, or at least die repentant of their sins. They must save their own souls just as others, and can lose their souls if they wish.
The Church1 min read
If he has confessed his sin sincerely and with genuine sorrow, his sin will be forgiven and his soul saved.
Last Things & Salvation2 min read
She could not, were her view of things limited by her present inadequate ideas. But with an unclouded view of what really constitutes goodness, and of what really constitutes evil, she will have very different estimates in heaven which will render happiness not only possible but a fact. Let us try to grasp it. Hell being a fact,…
Last Things & Salvation1 min read
Yes. “It is appointed unto men once to die, and after this the judgment.” Heb. IX., 27. Retribution follows immediately after death. Souls are judged individually at once, so that probation comes to an end with this life.
Last Things & Salvation1 min read
He is the last man from whom you should seek information about the Catholic Church. I am a Priest, and know as much about the Catholic Church as Joseph McCabe ever did. And my judgment is not warped by hatred. The doctrine of purgatory was revealed by God. It is not a lucrative doctrine invented for financial reasons. Popes, Bis…
Last Things & Salvation1 min read
There is no need to be atrociously wicked in order to need purification, any more than there is need to be on your death-bed before you need medicine. But there is need to attain to a high standard of purity and holiness before one could be fit to enter the glory of God’s presence.
God & Faith1 min read
No. You must be a non-Catholic to suspect that the Church did invent it. The idea that there is no purgatory is the invention of Protestants. The reformers corrupted the true doctrine, and many good Protestants, realizing this, are returning to the Catholic religion of their forefathers even as I myself have done. Meantime, if I…
God & Faith1 min read
By reason alone any ordinary man can know that God exists, that He has given a revelation to man, and any ordinary man is capable of learning the fundamental teachings of Christianity. Yet the perception of the vital force and the sheer reality of the truths God has revealed, with consequent belief in them, requires grace from G…
God & Faith1 min read
That is because you do not understand the Christian religion, nor the nature of the eternal moral law. Hell exists, and since it does exist, it is treason to the God of truth and treachery to man to try to blind men to the fact.
The Bible1 min read
The first resurrection is the mystical resurrection from the death of sin. We rise with Christ in Baptism, and those who die still retaining the grace of their baptismal rebirth possess a permanent title to the glorious second and actual resurrection of the body at the last day. On such as these the second death will have no eff…
Last Things & Salvation1 min read
Because Mary is undoubtedly in heaven, and Jesus is King of heaven. Since Jesus is “King of kings and Lord of lords,” it is certain that Mary His mother rejoices in queenly dignity.
God & Faith1 min read
All decent Protestants are getting rid of that principle as rapidly as possible. Faith alone without a good moral life is not enough. Everyone is disgusted with the man who professes a Christian life yet who lives an evil life, and no one really believes that to be the road to salvation. St. James tells us that “Faith without wo…
The Bible1 min read
All, whether good or bad, perish as far as this earthly life is concerned, by natural death. But the cross is folly to those who are spiritually dead in sin. When a man commits serious sin he drives God’s grace out of his soul. His soul is then dead to a spiritual and supernatural life until he recovers God’s grace by repentance…
The Bible1 min read
All childbirth involves some risk, and the merely possible danger would not oblige abstinence. Childbearing, too, is normally accompanied by pain. It is an inescapable penalty. “In sorrow she shall bring forth children.” Christ Himself has said that a woman, when she is in labor, is in distress; but that her sorrow is turned to …
God & Faith2 min read
The Holy Spirit dwells not only in the Church, preserving her from error, but also in the soul of every Christian who is in the grace of Christ. In the individual soul the Holy Spirit inspires love for God and the desire of Christian virtue, and in that sense He is called the Sanctifier of the soul. But since God cannot contradi…
