Stephen K. Ray's Blog, page 38

God Still Calls, Wise Men Still Follow – Spurn Evil Rulers & Worship the Eternal King

Happy Epiphany – Manifestation of the Divine King to the Gentiles! Celebrate richly and wisely!
Worship profoundly with all your heart, soul, mind and strength!

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Questions I Answered on Catholic Answers Live: Epiphany and the Magi

It was a fun and fast-paced show tonight dealing with Epiphany and the Magi. Enjoy!

https://dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/cdn.catholic.com/wp-content/uploads/ca240103a.mp3

Questions Covered:

11:03 – Should we take it literally that a star led the Wisemen? Was it possibly an angel? 19:11 – The Wisemen didn’t come for like 2 years right? 24:00 – Was Jesus’ family wealthy because the Wise Men brought gold, etc. in their treasure chests?  29:35 – Do they think Jesus was born at midnight? Or sometime during the night. 33:12 – why have they made up names for the three kings since those names are not in the Bible ( like Balthasar etc..)? 35:38 – Are we supposed to bless our homes with chalk on the Epiphany? Why and how? How did the writing with blessed chalk above one’s household door come about, and why is it okay (i.e., not some kind of spell casting)? 37:38 – Why do they say we are celebrating Jesus’ baptism when it was really a circumcision since they are not the same?  – In the Byzantine liturgical tradition, the Magi are always depicted as gentiles. But in contemporary biblical studies, they are generally considered as Jewish. What do you think? 47:37 – Hello my brothers! I’m from Mexico and when I was a kid my grandma and other family members used to tell us that the three stars aligned in the sky were the three magi and I used to be so excited looking up during these special days of the epiphany and in Mexico we receive our Christmas gifts January 6th and you write a letter to the magi not Santa jaja have you heard of these traditions? Especially the one about the stars? What do the gifts represent: gold, frankincense and myrrh?

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Thirty years ago today I sat down and started to cry…

Thirty years ago today I called Al Kresta and said, “Happy New Year! Guess what, I am a Catholic!” There was stunned silence at other end. Finally he replied, “What did you say? You are the last person I thought would ever say that!”

After studying for months and spending the whole day talking with my wife Janet I suddenly sat down on the living room floor and started to cry. Janet asked why I was crying. I said, “I just realized, I am a Catholic!”

It was a glorious day and we entered the Church on Pentecost Sunday, May 22, 1994. We have never looked back. Anniversaries are good. They remind of the goodness of God and the passage of time. Blessed be God forever.

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My Video Talk: “How can a John Paul II Catholic Survive in a Pope Francis World”

REPOSTED: At the 20219 investiture of new Knights and Dames into the North Central Lieutenancy of the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre, I was asked to give the keynote talk on Sunday morning with a good number of bishops in attendance and several renowned theologians and radio personalities.

(Photo: Janet and I with Patriarch of Jerusalem Saba at Mass at the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem on Easter 2004)

Janet and I have been members of this order for nearly 25 years now. Since Janet and I have been to Israel over 200 times, I assumed they would request a talk on the Holy Land, the Holy Sepulchre and the local Christians that we support. So I accepted.

But as the date drew nearer I asked which topic was chosen for me. The Lieutenant of the North Central Lieutenancy informed me, you shall speak on “How can a John Paul II Catholic Survive in a Pope Francis World”.

I was a bit shocked but said I would do it. Having written two books on the Papacy published by Ignatius Press (The Papacy and Upon this Rock) and an on-location document (Peter, Keeper of the Keys) I have a bit of knowledge about the papacy.

The talk was given the morning after I returned home from Israel at 10 PM the night before. I was exhausted and jetlagged but asked God for strength and clarity. Hope you find the talk helpful and encouraging in these strange days in which we live.

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Love my new T-shirt!

Proverbs 17:6: “Grandchildren are the crown of the aged, and the glory of children is their fathers.”

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What St. Paul delivered over to Satan, we now bless?

Here’s a very interesting article about how St. Paul dealt with irregular and sinful relationships within the church of Corinth. Seems like we’ve moved away quite a bit  from the apostles.

The article Is in Crisis Magazine written by Monica Miller. It begins,

“St. Paul was wrong! His first Letter to the Corinthians, the apostle not hiding his anger and frustration, is loaded with corrections to the neophyte Christian community. And here is Paul’s first complaint against them:

“It actually is reported that there is lewd conduct among you of a kind not even found among the pagans—a man living with his father’s wife. Still you continue to be satisfied, instead of grieving and getting rid of the offender! As for me, though absent in body I am present in spirit and have already passed sentence in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ on the man who did this deed. …I hand him over to Satan for the destruction of his flesh, so that his spirit may be saved on the day of the Lord. …Expel the wicked man from your midst. (1 Cor. 5:1-5)

Two thousand years later, according to a peculiar “development of doctrine,” the man expelled by Paul, and his mistress/stepmother, far from being excommunicated, may actually receive a priestly blessing as a couple in an “irregular union” according to the arguments and logic of Fiducia Supplicans (FS)—the formal declaration issued from the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith by Cardinal Victor Fernández with the approval of Pope Francis.

If you think the reference to St. Paul’s discipline is hyperbolic—let us closely examine how the new declaration makes it possible, for the first time in the history of the Church, for priests to bless couples in objectively sinful relationships—including same-sex unions.”

Read the rest of the article HERE.

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Not all animals are created equal

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Was Jesus a Palestinian Jew Born to a Homeless, Unmarried Mother?

Every Christmas we get swamped with all kinds of crazy ideas — attempts to debunk Jesus, Mary, Israel and the Catholic Church.

This year we have heard repeatedly that Jesus was a Palestinian. Even scholarly works seem to assert the same.

Was Jesus a Palestinian?

The answer is, NO! The word “Palestinian” originates from the word Philistine, and it was applied by Rome in teh 2nd century to the land of Israel — Galilee, Samaria, and Judea. Jesus, living in the first century was a Judean Jew, not a Palestinian. He would’ve never heard the Roman imposed word in his lifetime. Anyone who uses that word in realtion to Jesus is being anachronistic and should be corrected.

The land surrounding Jerusalem, the land known to Jesus was called Judea. We find the word “Palestinian” zero times in the Bible, but we find the word Judea 45 times. If one wants to be historically and biblically accurate, they would never say Jesus was a Palestinian Jew. They would say he was a Jew from Judea. In fact, the word Jew itself originates from the word Judea.

Was Jesus born to an unwed mother?

Anyone who says that Jesus was born to an unmarried woman has no clue what they’re talking about. Even today in the Middle East betrothal means legally married, though the spouses have not yet moved in together. Marriage is a two-step process. To be betrothed is to be legally contractually married. However, about a year later the groom comes for the bride and takes her into his home. Today there is a ceremony that that seals the deal. This is hardly unwed. Mary was not an “unwed mother”.

Were they exiles and immigrants?

Also no. They had family, in Nazareth, and Bethlehem and in Egypt. There was a large Jewish community in Egypt — modern day Cairo. All of these areas were in one Empire, under the Roman Empire and therefore you could travel between them “without a passport”. They were hardly exiled to another country or illegal immigrants. And when King Herod died, they left their Jewish community in Egypt and went back to their Jewish community In Nazareth.

Be very careful what you listen to. The secular, modern media has every reason to spew their secular propaganda. They have every reason to deceive us in the promotion of their anti-Christian agenda. They try to deceive us. They are also very ignorant of the facts.

Frankly we should just say “no thanks” — and then rebuke them!

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6 Bethlehem Myths: 20 Minutes with Teresa Tomeo on EWTN

My recent show with Teresa Tomeo was 20 minutes long on Ave Maria Radio and EWTN was entitled “Myths of Bethlehem and the Nativity.”

Click on the image to listen to the show. God bless you and Merry Christmas!

Jesus was born in a barnWe really have no idea where Jesus was bornThere were exactly three Wise MenChristmas couldn’t be December 25 since it is too cold for sheep in the fieldWe shouldn’t celebrate Christmas since it is the date of a pagan festivalLambs were swaddled at birth like the baby Jesus was swaddled

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