Stephen K. Ray's Blog, page 18

The Catholic Church: Home of the Good, the True and the Beautiful – listen to this…

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My Analysis of the Overthrow of Syria and it’s Effect on the Middle East

My Analysis of the Fall of Assad in Syria and the Implications, especially for Christians Syria’s President Assad was a dictator who controlled Syria like Saddam Hussein had used brutality to keep public order in Iraq. Both were ruthless dictators, but in general protected the Christians. The Arabs in the Middle East are tribal. For the most part, they don’t understand or desire democracy. They have tribes with chiefs. When Saddam Hussein (the big chief) fell, Iraq turned into chaos with competing Muslim fanatical groups — a bunch of “tribes with little chiefs” — fighting for control. The most radical Muslim groups won out. Look at the rampage of ISIS. I anticipate the same happening in Syria. Assad was secular, educated, and somewhat predictable. He kept order and balance between the various tribes. Israel and the rest of the world had a leader they could anticipate. His replacement(s) will have no unity, and be hysterically religious Muslims and uneducated warlords. They will divide Syria up into competing Sunni and Shia factions. And of course, like in Iraq, the Christians will be the first to suffer. It was also repeated with Mubarak in Egypt and Qaddafi in Libya. For Israel, President Assad, even though an enemy, offered some governmental stability and was somewhat predictable. Russia and Iran used him as a puppet, but things were relatively stable. He allowed Iran to smuggle arms into Lebanon which will certainly end now. But now that he’s gone the Sunni Muslims from Turkey will try to take Iran and Russia’s place controlling Syria, which is probably no better than Iran and Russia. For Israel, they were fighting on three fronts (Hamas in Gaza, Hezbollah in Lebanon and the West Bank) which have all been emasculated along with Iran. Trump coming into office is already expected to put the squeeze on the wars in the Middle East and elsewhere. The downfall of the Assad Regime now opens a fourth front for the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) in the Golan Heights along the Syrian border. Israel is now working to establish a buffer zone with Syria and destroying Assad’s weapon deposits and chemical weapons plants that existed in Syria so they don’t fall into the hands of the rebel groups. My initial inclination is that it will be unpredictable for a while. But we can expect Syria to be in chaos. Christians will be threatened. Hamas is defeated, Hezbollah severely weakened (decimated) and Israel has been doing in the Middle East what no one else had the courage or ability to do confronting the evil of Iran along with its proxies I hope I am wrong, but precedent with other rebel takeovers and consulting some Middle East associates suggest that my assessment is probably correct. Please pray especially for the dwindling Christian population and the protection of the churches and the holy sites.

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Pilgrimage Updates! Exciting Developments – possibly even the Holy Land

1.  Danube River Cruise has only three cabins left! This is our 20th Anniversary extravaganza with our own ship.

2. The amazing and much anticipated “Poland and Her Modern Day Saints” is filling up. We have Divine Mercy Sunday Mass at the Divine Mercy Chapel with the Sisters of Maria Faustina!

3. We are opening up our “Saints & Shrines of France” pilgrimage in Oct 2025. We will emphasize the amazing Catholic heritage. Also D-Day and Omaha Beach. We will also have Mass in the newly restored Notre Dame Cathedral.

4. For the Jubilee Year 2025 our popular “Saints & Shrines of Italy” is filling fast. Only a few seats are left. Starting in Milan in the north, we wind our way through Florence, Assisi, Siena, Loreto, Manoppello, Lanciano, Padre Pio and San Giovanni Rotondo, Rome and much more. Teresa Tomeo joins us in Florence and Assisi.

5. Join us on a Marian trip on one of our most popular pilgrimages is to Lourdes and Fatima, along with Santiago de Compostela, Loyola and more.

6. Also anticipating THE HOLY LAND in March 20-28, 2025 (brochure soon if/as things open up). With Trump elected president things are already changing fast. In talking with our “boots on the ground” in the Holy Land it seems a pilgrimage in March is possible, maybe even likely.

A number of people have contact us ready to go.  We are watching carefully. We will never take people into harm’s way, but we are hopeful this could happen. If you would be interested in being the first ones back to the Land of Our Lord and Lady, contact me at sray@me.com. No lines! No crowds!

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Forty-Eight Years ago Today! Smartest Thing I Ever Did! Pictures before and after…

Forty-eight years ago today I made the smartest decision of my life. Never looked back, every day has been a blessing.

Two pictures then:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Two pictures now (Top picture: 3 1/2 years ago — Bottom picture: current with 3 members missing)

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Questions and Discussions on Catholic Answers Live – Getting along with Family & Friends during the Holidays

On Monday evening I got a call from Catholic Answers Live, “We lost our guest for the 7 PM slot — can you fill in at the last minute?”

“Sure, I’d love to.”  Our topic was “Loving Witness to Non-Catholic Family & Friends” or “Steve Ray’s 7 Rules for Dealing with Non-Catholic Family and Friends.”

We went through my Seven Rules and answered questions along the way. One guy called in to fight by asking a question totally unrelated to our topic. He asked, “Do Catholics think they get saved by faith or by works?” I had a good time answering him

https://catholicconvert.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/ca241202b.mp3

Questions Covered:

20:45 – My husband is a revert to the Catholic faith. His family has not reverted, they’re non-denominational. How can I as the in-law discuss with them why we need to have time to go to Mass? 36:14 – How do works play into our salvation? 47:00 – My high-school-aged son is “Catholic” but he says there’s no God. 53:20 – I have two sisters and a brother-in-law who have left the Church because of their spouses. What are some strategies to get our siblings to at least think about investigating that as a reason? 

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President Reagan Understood Christmas and America!

Ronald Reagan’s Christmas message in December 23, 1981. It is not a bad idea to watch this short Christmas greeting from President Ronald Reagan again.

It is good to again hear about God and the faith in the White House. Hopefully starting in 2025 we will hear more like this!

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Protestant asks, “Are Protestant churches dying; why are so many looking to the Catholic Church?”

Interesting YouTube about a young man asking what the church is and why the modern American Protestant churches seem more like rock concerts and entertainment. He is wondering why so many intelligent people are becoming catholic and why it seems like Protestant churches are dying.

Very interesting conversation. He could’ve done it in half the time, but it’s still interesting to see this young man doing some soul-searching and looking in the direction of the Catholic Church for the answers.

I wrote to him and said that Protestant churches are “re-creating the church” every generation. No need to re-create the Church. Jesus founded the Catholic Church 2,000 years ago and it is still here waiting for you. Come home to the fulness of the truth and faith.

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Keeping Your Kids Catholic

Fun 40-minute exchange with Bryan Mercier. Hope it is helpful to a lot of parents and grandparents.

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St. Paul and the “Evil Beasts” Populating Crete

Several years ago we were touring the island of Crete in the Mediterranean Sea. We had about 100 happy cruisers along with us on this pilgrimage.

The book of Acts ends around AD 62 with St. Paul under house arrest in Rome for two years.

After his release, Paul set out again on apostolic travels. During this time he and Titus visited Crete. After starting new local parishes, Paul left Titus as the bishop to put things in order.

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 use disparaging generalizations about people. Being nice is almost added as the 11th Commandment. Dare to break this new commandment and you will be labeled as a racist or a bigot.

When writing to Titus who was in Crete, Paul had no flattering words for the Cretans. He spoke his mind — and it is recorded as inspired Scripture. This is what he wrote,

“One of the Cretans, a prophet of their own, said, ‘Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, lazy gluttons.’ This testimony is true.” (Titus 1:12-13)

By the way, was Jesus always nice? See my article on that interesting topic.

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

 

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Danube River Cruise with our own ship! ONLY 12 MORE FOLKS TO FILL THE SHIP!

Our 20th Anniversary Danube River Cruise is ALMOST SOLD OUT!  The whole ship is chartered for just US!

We first announced this celebration cruise only to past pilgrims. Over 100 signed up immediately. Over the last few months it has filled up. Now we cabins for only 12 more people!

Over the years, thousands of you have traveled with us on life-changing pilgrimages in Israel, Jordan, Italy, France, Poland, the Mediterranean, and many other biblical and Catholic destinations. Now we’ve add this new destination for our anniversary!

Join us on this once-in-a-lifetime pilgrimage along the Danube River to celebrate this milestone! This exclusive, privately chartered cruise is limited to 150 pilgrims. We will “own the ship” just for our intimate group. The itinerary is very unique, featuring Catholic sites never before visited on a Footprints of God Pilgrimage.

 Click here for all the details, map, brochure, pricing and itinerary!

We led our first pilgrimage in 2005 — 20 years ago! Janet and I couldn’t think of a better way to celebrate 20 years than with all of our pilgrims who have made this possible. See our FIRST group below, twenty years ago!

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