Preaching the Gospel in Season and Out
Finally, I imagine most every priest and deacon who preaches from the pulpit wants to be well-received. The consolation that comes from a pat on the back after a good sermon feels good. Thus, to broach on subjects that make people squirm in their seats means risking to be disliked.
Pope Saint John Paul II foresaw this and has an exhortation for those facing this human frailty.
[click to continue...]Third, this all leads us to the third problem: the indoctrination of children in the modern, public school system. Parents who send their children to the public school system are subjecting their children to some or all of the following:
No prayer in schools
Little tolerance for Christian beliefs
Belittling of the Bible, if it is mentioned at all
Abhorrence for belief in Creationism
Morally bankrupt sex education
An erosion of traditional family values
And the list could go on from there.
[click to continue...]There is a difference between serving the public and killing the public, as Fr. Frank Pavone likes to say. Any politician who thinks murdering children makes for a successful public policy should not be worthy of anyone’s vote. Yet, we see politicians stumping for the “right” to have one’s own child dismembered.
[click to continue...]I have seen comments in chatrooms and on social media where couples lament that NFP “failed” them and they became pregnant. They swear they practiced the steps as their instructor told them to do for charting. And despite their best efforts, they still became pregnant.
[click to continue...]“For this reason, America, your deepest identity and truest character as a nation is revealed in the position you take towards the human person. The ultimate test of your greatness in the way you treat every human being, but especially the weakest and most defenseless ones” – Pope Saint John Paul II
[click to continue...] Yet, contraception seeks to put a wall up between the spouses.
It says to one another, “I love you, except I reject your fertility.” Clearly, this is anything but a totality in exchange of persons during the conjugal act.
“This moral condemnation also regards procedures that exploit living human embryos and fetuses—sometimes specifically ‘produced’ for this purpose by in vitro fertilization—either to be used as ‘biological material’ or as providers of organs or tissue for transplants in the treatment of certain diseases. The killing of innocent human creatures, even if carried out to help others, constitutes an absolutely unacceptable act” -Pope Saint John Paul II, Evangelium Vitae, 63, emphasis added).
[click to continue...]“This moral condemnation also regards procedures that exploit living human embryos and fetuses-sometimes specifically ‘produced’ for this purpose by in vitro fertilization—either to be used as ‘biological material’ or as providers of organs or tissue for transplants in the treatment of certain diseases. The killing of innocent human creatures, even if carried out to help others, constitutes an absolutely unacceptable act” (Evangelium Vitae, 63).
[click to continue...]“Even if the presence of a spiritual soul cannot be ascertained by empirical data, the results themselves of scientific research on the human embryo provide ‘a valuable indication for discerning by the use of reason a personal presence at the moment of the first appearance of a human life: how could a human individual not be a human person?’
[click to continue...]The late Holy Father, Pope Saint John Paul II addressed the Bible’s silence on direct abortion. He speaks about it in section 61 of his papal encyclical, Evangelium Vitae (‘The Gospel of Life’).
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