Stephen K. Ray's Blog, page 111

My Incredible Mother’s 100th Birthday Party!

I can’t write this without tears welling up in my eyes. My mom is incredible and still remarkable at 100 years old and as sharp as a tack. Can’t slip anything past her and she remembers everything.

She had a hard start in life. Her parents divorced in 1924 when she was only three years old. She lived in an emotionally abusive situation and went to 13 different grade schools — hard to do today, but even more difficult and a stigma back then.

She met my dad and married at 17 years old. She resolved that her children would never experience what she had experienced. She broke the cycle of dysfunctionality and was an exceptional wife for my dad for 73 before he died. She was also a devoted stay-at-home mom who wanted to devote her life to her kids.

I was the blessed recipient of that love and devotion.

In 1953 my mother heard the Reverend Billy Graham on the radio. She had never heard anything like that before and fell on her knees on the kitchen floor and asked God to save her “the way that man just said on the radio”. My mother was never the same. My parents joined Joy Road Baptist Church in Detroit.

 

That conversion indelibly marked my mom forever. My parents put Jesus first in everything and gave us three boys an example of godliness and Christian faith. They lived what they preached and they preached by their lives the truth of the gospel. Of course, they were opposed to the Catholic faith but they instilled in my a deep devotion to Jesus, the Bible and the Christian life. Their example made it easy for me to be a husband and father — I had good teachers.

Today she is in a nursing home and needs assistance to get out of bed. During the covid hysteria, we were forbidden to visit her for over a year, but we came to her window with pictures, signs and expressions of our love. Now we can take her out to lunch, for rides in the car, and especially out for her 100th birthday party celebrated with over 50 family and friends. My brother Tim and his wife Tish have been heroic through this whole time and I can’t thank them enough.

So we count each day with Mom as a treasure and know it won’t be long before she will join her husband Charlie at the Golden Gates. She never tires of saying, “I can’t wait to meet Jesus and see Charlie again.” But until then we will treasure her presence with us here.

Happy Birthday Mom! We love you!

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“Coming into the Catholic Church this Easter!” From Anti-Catholic to Avid Believer

Hi Steve –  (I edited out names and places for obvious reasons, but she gave me permission to share her e-mail she sent me.)

With how many emails you receive I don’t know if you will ever get the time to respond to me or maybe you’ll never even see this email but I wanted you to know that you and Sr. Norberta have changed my life.

Sr. Norberta said that she met you when you came to speak here many years ago and also went on a pilgrimage with you to the Holy Land in 2010. She just lent me the video of her pilgrimage with you and I can’t wait to watch it.

Before I had kids, I worked at the switchboard at the local hospital for 5 years. I saw Sister often and had to call her often for pastoral care. One time, Sr. Norberta stopped at my window and asked me if I was Catholic. I told her I was protestant and she asked me if I knew the 10 commandments. I only knew one or two. She gave me a paper with them on it and told me to memorize them. That stayed in my mind for many years.

I said I believed in Jesus but just lived how I wanted. Started out baptist as a child and bounced around to different churches (sometimes going for many years without going to a church at all and God the farthest thing from my family’s mind). 

My family then ended up just being non-denominational. Once I had my oldest daughter, Sr. Norberta came back to my mind and I decided to look into the Catholic Church to see if it was true. I wanted to make sure I knew what I believed to teach my children. 

My eyes were opened by you. Watching your videos and reading your book “Upon This Rock” changed my life. I hope I can meet you one day and join you on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land and other places. My life is crazy though currently with 3 kids 4 and under.

It took many years for me to see and learn the truth of the Catholic faith. It was only God who could have opened my heart up to even consider looking into the Catholic Church. It was very VERY difficult to get out of my anti-Catholic upbringing, accept the truth I could no longer turn away from and also tell my family (who still are having a hard time with my conversion) but your guidance in your books and videos have been key for me and my husband.

So I wanted to send a thank you. People like you and Sr. Norberta have helped change my life, my husband & our family tree to raise our kids in the fullness of faith. It’s like we’ve unlocked a key to so much more depth in the Christian faith. We’ll be coming into the Catholic Church on Easter Vigil this coming year.

I pray that you see this email and it gives you encouragement to keep on keeping on in spreading the truth. If you don’t see this, I hope I get to meet you in person on a pilgrimage but if nothing else I hope to meet you in heaven and thank you from the bottom of my heart that you helped me win the race.

God Bless you and all that you do.

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“He Descended into Hell” – a very lyrically and beautifully stated ancient homily

The Lord’s Descent into Hell

By an anonymous ancient homilist

SATURDAY, MARCH 31, 2018  Posted on The Catholic Thing (which you should definitely subscribe to

What is happening? Today there is a great silence over the earth, a great silence, and stillness, a great silence because the King sleeps; the earth was in terror and was still, because God slept in the flesh and raised up those who were sleeping from the ages. God has died in the flesh, and the underworld has trembled.

Truly he goes to seek out our first parent like a lost sheep; he wishes to visit those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death. He goes to free the prisoner Adam and his fellow-prisoner Eve from their pains, he who is God, and Adam’s son.

The Lord goes in to them holding his victorious weapon, his cross. When Adam, the first created man, sees him, he strikes his breast in terror and calls out to all: “My Lord be with you all.” And Christ in reply says to Adam: “And with your spirit.” And grasping his hand he raises him up, saying: “Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give you light.”

“I am your God, who for your sake became your son, who for you and your descendants now speak and command with authority those in prison: Come forth, and those in darkness: Have light, and those who sleep: Rise.

I command you: Awake, sleeper, I have not made you to be held a prisoner in the underworld. Arise from the dead; I am the life of the dead. Arise, O man, work of my hands, arise, you who were fashioned in my image. Rise, let us go hence; for you in me and I in you, together we are one undivided person.

For you, I your God became your son; for you, I the Master took on your form; that of slave; for you, I who am above the heavens came on earth and under the earth; for you, man, I became as a man without help, free among the dead; for you, who left a garden, I was handed over to Jews from a garden and crucified in a garden.

Look at the spittle on my face, which I received because of you, in order to restore you to that first divine inbreathing at creation. See the blows on my cheeks, which I accepted in order to refashion your distorted form to my own image.

See the scourging of my back, which I accepted in order to disperse the load of your sins which was laid upon your back. See my hands nailed to the tree for a good purpose, for you, who stretched out your hand to the tree for an evil one.

I slept on the cross and a sword pierced my side, for you, who slept in paradise and brought forth Eve from your side. My side healed the pain of your side; my sleep will release you from your sleep in Hades; my sword has checked the sword which was turned against you.

But arise, let us go hence. The enemy brought you out of the land of paradise; I will reinstate you, no longer in paradise, but on the throne of heaven. I denied you the tree of life, which was a figure, but now I myself am united to you, I who am life. I posted the cherubim to guard you as they would slaves; now I make the cherubim worship you as they would God.

The cherubim throne has been prepared, the bearers are ready and waiting, the bridal chamber is in order, the food is provided, the everlasting houses and rooms are in readiness; the treasures of good things have been opened; the kingdom of heaven has been prepared before the ages.”

Prayer:

Almighty, ever-living God, whose Only-begotten Son descended to the realm of the dead, and rose from there to glory, grant that your faithful people, who were buried with him in baptism, may, by his resurrection, obtain eternal life.

(We make our prayer) through our Lord.

(Through Christ our Lord.)

– Prepared by Pontifical University Saint Thomas Aquinas

 

 

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Catholic Students Supporting Abortion: Archbishop Cordileone Writes them an Excellent Open Letter (share with your young people)

Published by First Things. Archbishop Riordan High School, a Catholic school in San Francisco, recently held an all-school assembly featuring pro-life activist Megan Almon. During the assembly, a number of students walked out in protest of the event.  Archbishop Cordileone went to Riordan High School to meet with student leaders in small groups on November 8. What follows is the letter he sent to all students in preparation for these meetings.

Dear Students of Archbishop Riordan High School,

Every stage of life has its blessings and challenges, its gifts to offer the broader society and its blind spots. As young people, you are idealistic, full of energy to be advocates for justice and changing the world into a better place. It is a joy for me as your archbishop to see this energetic idealism in you when I visit your school.

This is a great blessing, and it is the gift that you offer to the rest of us. However, you still have much growing and learning to do; much success and failure, joy and suffering lie ahead for you—and learning as well. To be learned is to seek truth that is given to us by God. My prayer as your archbishop is that you will be open to learning and growing in your knowledge, and especially open to hearing and trying to understand points of view different from your own, even points of view with which you strongly disagree. I wish that is what those of you who walked out of the speech by a pro-life activist recently would have done. This action put on full display one of the blind spots of youth due to young people’s lack of extended life experience: gullibility. Let me explain.

While every generation has valued science and contributed to its advancement, your generation, more than any other in the past, looks to science as a guide for navigating oneself through life. Let’s then look at what science has to say about abortion.

Abortion is the killing of a human life. This is a scientific fact. The fetus in the mother’s womb is a unique, growing human being, with its own unique DNA. The method of killing depends on the stage of pregnancy and type of abortion, but often involves such techniques as dismembering the limbs, crushing the skull, and burning the body. No matter the method, abortion is a horrendously violent act. This is not hyperbole. It is scientific fact.

Science is a very important guide for us, but it is not the only one—nor the most important, for that matter, since the knowledge we acquire from science is always evolving. Abortion, just as any other major social issue, has many other dimensions to it: political, societal, emotional, spiritual, relational, economic, and so forth. Primarily, though, it is, like any other major social issue, a moral issue.

For the whole excellent letter, click HERE.

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The Church’s Riches

This quote was in today’s The Loop and Carl Olson is a good friend. Love his comments!

THE CHURCH’S ‘RICHES’  When a professional baseball player visited the Vatican, he complained about the opulence – the statues and artwork which he said could be sold to feed the hungry. “For it just to be sitting there I think is a crime,” he said. Carl Olson notes that “no other Christian group in the world operates as many charitable organizations, orphanages, schools, hospitals, hospices, and shelters as does the Catholic Church.” But Olson also adds: “And what about his multi-million dollar contract, paid for by fans coming to watch grown men throw and hit baseballs in huge, expensive stadiums?”  READ

Reminds me of a blog I posted a while back on the same topic entitled…

“Atheist Thinks we should Sell Churches and give Money to the Poor“

A friend just shared an objection his atheist friend had to the Catholic Church. It went like this: “My atheist friend told me one of the things she disliked about the church was that they had all these great big fancy churches in poor countries but still asked for money from the poor and why they didn’t sell all the fancy stuff and help the needy.”

Here was my answer, maybe a bit more animated than necessary, but . . .

“Your friend has it back-asswards. I have been to the poorest areas of the Philippines and India and visited their beautiful churches. Who owns those churches? The Vatican? No! They are owned by the poor people who scratched every dime together to build a house for God worthy of him.

The Church, funded by these poor and wealthier donors, has also built the hospitals, schools, clinics and it feeds the poor. One quarter of the world’s population has no health care but that provided by the Church.

Why does your friend have a better house and nicer car than she probably needs? It is certainly much more opulence and expensive that people who live in poor countries. Why not quit being a hypocrite and sell her possession and distribute them to the poor? Let her put her money where her mouth is? Let her learn the real truth before she criticizes and condemns?

In the Philippines on the island of Cebu (as everywhere else) they have Mass every hour on the hour 12-14 hours a day in churches that are only separated by a few miles. The Masses are every hour on the hour starting at 5 AM and there is standing room only at every Mass. I’ve seen the same in India, and many other countries.

Who would DARE to take confiscate those churches and sell them? These churches are the center of the community, educators of the people give me five minutes and where they are always baptized at first I’m buried at that. The poor people would rally around their churches and kill anyone who would dare touch them.

One day while praying in St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome I thought, “What does God think about all this magnificence, beauty and expense? Is He shaking his head in disapproval?”Then an example came to me.

Imagine my son Dominic works hard all summer to earn money and spends his summer building something magnificent to give to me—his grandfather whom he loves. Now imagine the day arrives and he presents me with an extravagant gift that represents his heart and soul and labor.

What would happen if I responded by saying, “Dominic, this is a big waste of your time and money! You should sell it and give it to the poor.”

Another blog I posted on why the Church CANNOT sell most of what it owns

“Should the Vatican Sell its Treasure to Feed the Poor“

Geez, I used to say that myself in my former life as a Protestant – when I was an anti-Catholic. Actually, if you added up all wealth and property of the Protestant churches and organizations it would FAR exceed that of the Vatican or all the individual dioceses around the world! Since it is often Protestants who make this challenge, do they ever suggest Protestants should sell all their land, buildings, pastors’ fancy cars and the mega-church $ millions?

Most people don’t realize that most of the Catholic Church’s “wealth” is in property, hospitals, schools, social services and churches. We are the largest health care provider in the world. To learn more about this, watch the fantastic video put out by www.CatholicsComeHome.com here. Click on “Epic Commercial.” This video make me PROUD to be a Catholic!

But, should the Catholic Church sell everything to feed the poor? No, first it shouldn’t and second it can’t. To find out why, read this article from Zenit (provided below). It was written several years ago but it is the same cogent argument and needs to be repeated often….

For the whole article, click HERE.

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Self Defense and the Case of Kyle Rittenhouse

In our country we have always upheld the right for one to defend themselves and their family and property. The Left has promoted violence but attempted to eliminate honest American citizens from defending themselves.

Today the jury exonerated Kyle Rittenhouse of murder and upheld the right to bear arms and to defend ones self against agression and bodily harm.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church, basing itself on Scripture and Tradition and the constant teaching of the Church, expounds on this right and even duty of the individual.

CCC 2263 The legitimate defense of persons and societies is not an exception to the prohibition against the murder of the innocent that constitutes intentional killing. “The act of self-defense can have a double effect: the preservation of one’s own life; and the killing of the aggressor.… The one is intended, the other is not.” 

CCC 2264 Love toward oneself remains a fundamental principle of morality. Therefore it is legitimate to insist on respect for one’s own right to life. Someone who defends his life is not guilty of murder even if he is forced to deal his aggressor a lethal blow:

“If a man in self-defense uses more than necessary violence, it will be unlawful: whereas if he repels force with moderation, his defense will be lawful.… Nor is it necessary for salvation that a man omit the act of moderate self-defense to avoid killing the other man, since one is bound to take more care of one’s own life than of another’s.” (St. Thomas Aquinas, STh II–II, 64, 7, corp. art.)

CCC 2265 Legitimate defense can be not only a right but a grave duty for one who is responsible for the lives of others. The defense of the common good requires that an unjust aggressor be rendered unable to cause harm. For this reason, those who legitimately hold authority also have the right to use arms to repel aggressors against the civil community entrusted to their responsibility. (2240)

Catholic Church, Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2nd Ed. (Washington, DC: United States Catholic Conference, 2000), 545–546.

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Most VAXXED Nation on Earth Just Canceled Christmas Over ‘Exponential Rise’ in Covid Cases

As one retired California nurse asked of the San Diego County Board of Supervisors, “Why do the protected need to be protected from the unprotected by forcing the unprotected to use the protection that didn’t protect the protected in the first place?” (Source)

Published by Freedom First Network: “How do we know mainstream media will cancel all mentions of the nation of Gibraltar for the foreseeable future? Because their extreme Covid vaccination protocols have utterly failed to prevent a massive spike in cases and hospitalizations. This betrays the narrative they’ve been ordered to propagate, so Gibraltar is officially a taboo topic for the press.

“The nation averages 2.79 doses of Covid-19 jabs administered per person.

“Despite everything we’ve been told by government, media, Big Tech, academia, the healthcare industry, and all the other pawns of Big Pharma, Gibraltar has not defeated or even slowed Covid-19 from spreading. In fact, they may be a shining example demonstrating the theory that the so-called “vaccines” actually aid in the spread of the disease. Now, they’re officially recommending against celebrating Christmas with friends and family….”

Read more HERE.

Read also how Sweden, who took a whole different approach to covid, lockdowns and the vaccine is faring much better than other countries HERE

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US bishops approve Eucharistic document that ignores Communion for pro-abortion politicians

Wed Nov 17, 2021 – 3:29 pm EST

BALTIMORE, Maryland (LifeSiteNews) – The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops has voted to accept the much-discussed document on the meaning of the Eucharist in the life of the Church which completely avoids any mention of the reception of Holy Communion by pro-abortion politicians.

Assembled members of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) decided the fate of the document in a secret, electronic ballot, while meeting in Baltimore November 17, as part of their Fall Assembly.

The document, entitled “The Mystery of the Eucharist in the life of the Church,” was approved with 222 votes in favor, 8 against, and 3 abstentions. Such an approval margin is far greater than during the USCCB Spring Assembly, when the document’s drafting was approved by 168 to 55.

The clear and ready approval of the document in the Fall Assembly could be due to the notable absence of any discussion of the distribution of Holy Communion for pro-abortion politicians.

The public sessions of June’s online meeting were marked by visible dissent, as certain bishops and cardinals were concerned that the document might contain the Catholic Church’s teaching prohibiting those who “obstinately” persevere “in manifest grave sin are not to be admitted to Holy Communion.”

Prominent amongst such dissenting voices were Cardinal Cupich of Chicago, Cardinal Joseph Tobin of Newark, Cardinal Wilton Gregory of Washington, Bishop Robert McElroy of San Diego, Bishop John Stowe of Lexington, Bishop Medley of Owensboro, and Bishop Joseph Bambera of Scranton. These prelates wished to avoid any mention of refusing Holy Communion for pro-abortion politicians, such as Joe Biden.

Days after the close of the Spring meeting, the USCCB released a short document, stating that the content of the proposed Eucharistic document would avoid forming any “national policy on withholding Communion from politicians.”

For the whole article, click HERE.

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St. Paul and the “Evil Beast” People of Crete

Before the virus hysteria, we were touring the island of Crete in the Mediterranean Sea. We had about 100 happy cruisers along with us on this pilgrimage.

St. Paul visited this island after his two-year imprisonment in Rome around AD 63.

After his release St. Paul set out again on apostolic travels. During this time he and Titus visited Crete.

Paul writes to Titus, “Paul … to Titus … for this reason, I left you in Crete [as bishop].” (Titus 1:1-4)

We are always told to be NICE. We should not speak disparagingly about people.

When writing to Titus, Paul did not have very flattering words for the Cretans. He spoke his mind — and it is recorded as inspired Scripture. This is what he wrote to Titus about the Cretans,

“‘Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, lazy gluttons.’ This testimony is true.” (Titus 1:12)

When I have been to Crete on numerous occasions, I found the Cretans quite nice folks, but a lot can change in 2000 years.

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Updated and New Myth Added: Shepherds Swaddled Lambs – Six Biblical Myths Debunked

There are six “truths” I’ve been asked about many times. People think I’ve never heard these “truths” before and attempt to explain them to me — though I know them all to be myths.

In each case, there is no historical, biblical, or actual basis for any of the six myths. Someone started teaching them, made an assertion on the internet or a book or magazine. It gets picked up by good intentioned teachers and as the old saying goes, “If something is said often enough, it becomes true.”

So we will address each of these myths briefly and set the record straight.

1)  Shepherds break the legs of wandering lambs

2)  The “Eye of a Needle” is a gate, not a needle

3)  The Folded Napkin in the tomb meant Jesus would come back

4)  Jesus couldn’t have been born December 25 because sheep aren’t out in the fields in winter

5)  Saul was given a new name at his conversion

6) Shepherds swaddled newborn lambs

For the full article, CLICK HERE.

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