Sacraments & Worship1 min read
The Clergy of that Church wish to adopt the titles and ceremonies of the Catholic Church, but not the obligations of Catholics. No Requiem Mass was really celebrated. A service was held, and called a Requiem Mass. At the Synod held shortly after this event Bishop D’Arcy Irvine protested most strongly against the whole affair. He…
Last Things & Salvation1 min read
Christ rose with a material body, but not in a material body limited by all the conditions of matter as we know them. He rose with the same, yet with a changed body, the change in no way altering its identity. St. Paul predicts a somewhat similar and mysterious change in our own bodies after our own resurrection. “So also in the…
Last Things & Salvation1 min read
Then what are you going to do with Satan? He is a creature of God even as we. Is he going to reform? Will he ever come out of the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels? No. And granting the fact that God is punishing one of his creatures like that, responsible human souls can certainly meet with the same fate. I do …
The Bible1 min read
The word soul here does not refer exclusively to the immortal part of man’s nature. Ezechiel is pointing out that not only the sins of our parents, but also each man’s own personal and individual sins deserve punishment. In verse 24 he says that, if the just man turn from his righteousness and do evil, he shall die, and all his …
Last Things & Salvation1 min read
God does know all. He therefore knew that they would be free, and that there was no must fall about it. There was no necessity to fall, and they could have resisted the temptation. You may say, “But they did fall, and God must have known that they would fall.” That is correct. But the fact that God knew this did not make them fa…
Last Things & Salvation2 min read
The Scala Santa, or Holy Staircase, consists of twenty-eight marble steps. They are said to have been brought to Rome from Jerusalem by St. Helena, the mother of Constantine, in 326 A.D. At Jerusalem they led up to the one-time court of Pilate, and the feet of Jesus had trodden them as He went down to be crucified by men. With n…
God & Faith1 min read
No. Such Protestants are saved not because of, but in spite of their erroneous religion. They have simply been true to a conscience which was erroneous through no fault of their own.
Last Things & Salvation2 min read
Both are equally correct. After the child was born Joseph and Mary waited 40 days for the Purification; then came the flight to Egypt, followed by the return to Nazareth, as mentioned by St. Matt. II., 23. St. Luke omits to mention the flight to Egypt, and mentions only the Purification, and the return to Nazareth. In II., 39, S…
Mary, Saints & Angels1 min read
The Pope. Before he defines that a given soul is indeed a Saint, the advocates of the cause must prove that the person in question exercised all Christian virtues in a heroic degree—supreme faith, hope, and charity; perfect prudence, justice, fortitude, and temperance. Also God’s own testimony by proven miracles wrought through …
The Bible1 min read
It has never been revealed that any particular soul is in hell. Christ said of Judas, “Better for him had he never been born.” That does not look too hopeful in his case, for no matter what a man has to endure, if he attains eternal happiness in the end, much better to have been born. However, even of Judas, no man has absolute …
Last Things & Salvation1 min read
No one. The Catholic Church says that it is a mortal sin for a Catholic to eat meat on Friday knowingly and wilfully, without a sufficiently grave and excusing reason. Then that Church says that if a man dies in unrepented mortal sin, he will go to hell.
The Church1 min read
Since Christ died for all, it follows that He wants all to belong to the one Church He established and endowed with His authority.
Last Things & Salvation1 min read
According to the findings of your simple readers there must be hundreds of conflicting plans of salvation, all revealed by the one Christ! As for the capacity of your children, you might as well give them the article in the Encyclopaedia Brittanica on Spectroscopic Analysis as the subject matter of their studies. But the Bible i…
Last Things & Salvation1 min read
Faith in Christ is one condition of eternal life. If a man’sees the facts and will not believe, he cannot be saved. If he does believe he can be saved, but it does not follow that he must be saved. By mere belief in Christ no man has certainty of salvation. St. Paul believed in Christ yet had to write, “I chastise my body and br…
Mary, Saints & Angels1 min read
Yes, but by God alone. We can but ask Him to accept indulgences on their behalf. But we can certainly offer them with a definite conviction of their normal acceptance by God for those we love, even as we can share our goods in this life with more needy friends. This too is implied by the doctrine of the Communion of Saints.
Last Things & Salvation1 min read
He has. And if he does not, he will not even go to purgatory if his sins be grave. Purgatory is not a place for repentance, but for purification. If two men repent on their death-beds, one of whom broke one commandment and the other, all the commandments often, both are saved by their repentance. But they are not both equal befo…
Last Things & Salvation1 min read
A living human body is not the same thing as a corpse. Now the soul is the difference between a corpse and a living being. A dead body cannot move, eat, think, express itself, enjoy, or be miserable. It can but fall to pieces and go back to dust. There is something that stops your body from doing that now. It is your soul. For e…
Last Things & Salvation1 min read
Human experience does show us that man can no more escape death than the beasts. But man’s condition is not the same, for his soul lives on, still capable of knowledge and love, happiness or misery. Thus the same Book, in XII., 7, tells us that “the dust shall return to the earth as it was, and the spirit shall return unto God w…
Last Things & Salvation1 min read
All are to rise from the dead. “The hour cometh wherein all that are in the graves shall hear the voice of the Son of God. And they that have done good things shall come forth unto the resurrection of life; but they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of judgment.” Jn. V., 28-29. Thus, too, St. Paul tells us, “Behold I te…
God & Faith1 min read
You are not asked to believe anything which cannot be substantiated in order to be saved. By what rule of evidence, then, can the miracles of the Gospel be substantiated? By sworn affidavit, or in other words, by written declaration on oath. If, in a modern court, I offered documentary evidence given by my friend Jones, the cour…
Last Things & Salvation2 min read
CHAPTER 4. — HEAVEN AND THE NEXT WORLD.
Last Things & Salvation1 min read
The Church offers hell to no one. She does all she can to prevent people from going there. Meantime hell is not in this life. Those in hell are irrevocably lost, and no one is irrevocably lost while still in this life. Until his very last breath every man has the opportunity offered him to save his soul. Nor are the ills and suf…
God & Faith1 min read
Yes. Revelation confirms the conclusions of reason which I have explained already. The account in Genesis of man’s formation proves it. God is immortal, and cannot die. He made man in His own image and likeness. But our bodies are nothing like God in appearance, and are mortal. Therefore the real image of God is in our soul, and…
Last Things & Salvation2 min read
If I could not, that would but prove something wrong with my own ideas on the subject. For it is certain that God is loving, just, and merciful; and He has revealed that there is a hell. So the ideas cannot be repugnant. However God’s love, justice, and mercy demand that there be a hell. His love demands a hell, for the more He …
