Stephen K. Ray's Blog, page 82

What is Wrong with this Picture? What is Missing? Is this the “New Normal”?

Where is the Father? Is this a promotion of the “new normal”?

This magazine arrives in our mailbox four times a year; not because we subscribe but because we live in this community. We never sent our kids to public schools, choosing rather to educate them at home.

When I grabbed the mail and walked back to the house I had not even reached the front door before I saw the cover and was instantly grabbed by the image on the cover. I stepped into the house and asked, “What is wrong with this picture?”  It didn’t take everyone long to say “No father.”

There are two other families shown in the brochure, and sure enough again, no father.

No fathers anywhere in the magazine; are men and fathers irrelevant?

I am not suggesting these mothers are not heroic; maybe they made bad choices earlier in life and are now doing the best they can. Or, maybe they were dealt a bad hand coping, doing their best to raise their children alone. There will always be some single parent households for many reasons and we should love and support them all we can. But should we promote a fatherless family as the new normal? Is this what we think the family is today?

I wrote a blog a few days ago entitled, “What Happened to Detroit?” where I discuss the moral basis for the downfall of a once spectacular city. The fathers left and now 75% of the children are in one parent households. There is also a 50% illiteracy rate and boys look up to the pimps, drug lords and gangs as models and substitute families.

The family is disappearing. With the push for “gay marriage” (a misnomer) and every other sort of “relationship” being dubbed a marriage, we are losing the basic building blocks of a civilized society.

My heart goes out to these kids raised in “the new normal” which is leaving them scarred and inclined to perpetuate the same dysfunctional lifestyle with no idea or concept of the “normal normal.”

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Hollywood Actor’s Conversion to Catholicism

The troubled movie star has found some much-needed peace in the arms of the Catholic Church.

In some positive news from Hollywood, the actor Shia LaBeouf has converted to Catholicism after studying for his lead role in the upcoming Padre Pio movie. It might not come as surprise to many, considering the Italian saint is a pretty powerful intercessor.

When the actor started preparing for the role as the famous mystic and stigmatist, he reported being in a very dark place due to a number of personal scandals and accusations, as Fox News reported:

“I had a gun on the table. I was outta here. I didn’t want to be alive anymore when all this happened. Shame like I had never experienced before — the kind of shame that you forget how to breathe. You don’t know where to go. You can’t go outside and get like, a taco. But I was also in this deep desire to hold on.”

His decision to take the role of Padre Pio was essentially for his career, and not for his faith. Yet, the actor seemed to be looking for some sort of guidance to help him through his personal trials and tribulations.

Although while growing up, LaBeouf was influenced by his mother’s Jewish faith and his father’s Christian faith, the actor had moments in his life where he didn’t believe in God. However, it seems that God had plans for him by giving his career a certain nudge in a very positive direction.

In an interview with Bishop Barron, with whom LaBeouf had spent time while preparing for his role, the 36-year-old shared: “The reach-out had happened. I was already there, I had nowhere to go. This was the last stop on the train. There was nowhere else to go — in every sense.”

Interestingly he also pointed out: “I know now that God was using my ego to draw me to Him. Drawing me away from worldly desires. It was all happening simultaneously. But there would have been no impetus for me to get in my car, drive up [to the monastery] if I didn’t think, ‘Oh, I’m gonna save my career.’”

Heavenly intervention

The actor also explained how he felt that God had been a little “tricky” in his approach to drawing him closer to Him:

“When I got here, a switch happened. It was like Three-Card Monte. It was like someone tricked me into it, it felt like. Not in a bad way. In a way that I couldn’t see it. I was so close to it that I couldn’t see it. I see it differently now that time has passed.”

The Transformers star also explained how the Christian approach to repentance was also instrumental in helping him come out of his dark place. While having to admit to himself the wrongs he’d committed, he also had to learn how far-reaching God’s mercy can be.

“It was seeing other people who have sinned beyond anything I could ever conceptualize also being found in Christ that made me feel like, ‘Oh, that gives me hope,’” LaBeouf shared with Bishop Barron in the interview. “I started hearing experiences of other depraved people who had found their way in this, and it made me feel like I had permission.”

It’s worth watching the interview in its entirety, as the actor shares much more about his conversion and his role as the beloved Capuchin friar. However, one rather charming, and stressful, point that LaBeouf shared was the pressure he felt from the friars with whom he was staying who said the following to him about playing Padre Pio:

“Don’t get it wrong. He’s the only one we have.”

While we await the release of the upcoming Padre Pio, we can already give it a five-star rating for inspiring a very troubled actor to enter the Catholic faith. And no doubt Padre Pio is smiling down from above for the role he played.

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“Q & A for Non-Catholics” – Questions I Answered on Catholic Answers Live

A wide-ranging and lively discussion with some challenging questions. Fun show!

https://catholicconvert.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/ca220824a.mp3We opened the show with the question: “Where do you find the Assumption and Queenship of Mary in the Bible. Why Protestants usually read the Bible incorrectly and have a wrong view of how to interpret it.14:56 – How does religious freedom account for the freedom of people that aren’t Catholic? Should Catholics have free speech?22:43 – I’m Catholic but my Protestant friend has a question. He doesn’t like the fact that there’s non-parallelism in the Jewish roots of Mary. How could Eve be the new Mary since she is the wife of Adam?34:23 – I’m 90 years old. I’ve been Catholic for 2 months, so I was a non-Catholic for 87 years. I am so happy being Catholic and being filled with the fullness of truth. If I can do it at my age, others can too!41:55 – I have discovered through studying eschatology that everything that the Protestant church understands as our traditions actually came from early Christians. Do Catholics believe that they decided to create a new sabbath on their own, not understanding the scriptures, but out of a dislike for Jews because they killed Christ?47:29 – I’m Catholic but my friend is an Atheist. He says the Bible doesn’t talk about the evil of slavery. Why is it not addressed?52:22 – Why is being married in the Church so complicated? I’m divorced and annulled but now married outside of the church. Why is it so legalistic?

YouTube version of the show – starts at 2:00 minutes into the video.

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Free Webinar with “The Veil Removed” – Steve Ray on a wide range of topics including Love for the Eucharist

Register now to join the conversation with Steve Ray on “The Veil Removed” with interviewer Diane Rinehart who wrote, “We believe your conversion story, your love for the Eucharist, and your vast experience with pilgrimages to the Holy Land would all create great content!”

So that is what we will do and — a whole lot more. It will be a lively and wide-ranging interview.

Register now to join the conversation on August 28 at 8 PM Eastern. Click HERE to register for free.

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Two Radio Shows Wednesday: Teresa Tomeo and Catholic Answers Live

Busy tomorrow with two EWTN shows. At 9:15 AM I start with Teresa Tomeo on Ave Maria Radio to discuss the Queenship of Mary. What is the Old Testament foundation and is there any New Testament verification?

Then I will be taking questions from Non-Catholics on Catholic Answers Live at 6:00 PM.

Always great to join these two quality Catholic radio shows!

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Queenship of the Blessed Virgin – August 22

Last week was the Feast of the Assumption of Mary and today, August 22 is the Queenship of Mary.

The other day a man called to say my argument for the Assumption of Mary from the Old Testament was wrong. I had quoted 1 Kings 2:19 where Solomon had raised his mother to Queen of the Kingdom was the ONLY case of a mother being queen in the Old Testament. He prefaced his comment by saying he knew the Old Testament. Well, it seems he is incorrect.

In the Old Testament, the queens of the Judean kings were their mothers — with one exception of the queen being a grandmother. Solomon had 1,000 wives and concubines — but he only had one mother. Click here to read the section on The Great Lady or Queen Mother in Roland de Vaux’s book Ancient Israel: Its Life and Institution.

The Queen Mothers of the earthly kings of Judah were not always good queens. Many of them were sinners and would make improper intercessions to the king. But, this takes nothing away from the perfect King and Queen –Jesus and his mother Mary.  It is the pattern and the office that is important.

Jesus is a king sitting on the throne of his fathers David and Solomon and all the subsequent kings of Judah. They all had queens and the queens were not their wives, they were their mothers. This is the pattern and ultimately Christianity and the Kingdom of God are based on the Old Testament model.

Click on Mary or her to see our DVD “Mary, Mother of God” filmed entirely on location

Follow the logic: 1) The kings of Judah, following Solomon who raised his mother to Queenship, had their mothers as queens which became established as an official office; 2) the mothers were referred to as the Queen Mothers or the Great Lady; 3) they sat on a throne near their sons (1 Ki 2:19); 4) Jesus is the quintessential Jewish King with an eternal kingdom; 5) Jesus is the fulfillment of the Israelite offices of Prophet, Priest & King; 6) As the Davidic king, Jesus would honor his mother more than earthy kings honored their mothers; 7) It is biblical, historical, and reasonable to expect the perfect Jewish king to follow in the stead of the kingdom and his fathers by assuming his mother to a throne at his right hand. 8) It is proper and biblical to consider Mary in a position of intercessor.

To see a picture of the Church of the Dormitian, built over the place Mary “fell asleep”, click here and here. To see the grotto below, click here.

For more articles on Mary by Steve Ray
visit his  Free Resources page.

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Bold Nuns Open-carrying Dangerous Weapons

If you have not yet heard of the Atlantic article that refers to the Rosary as an “extremist symbol” and a dangerous weapon — it has sure made a media splash and is quite an embarrassment for the magazine.

Notice this picture of nuns openly carrying these dangerous weapons in public!

It stated, “On this extremist fringe, rosary beads have been woven into a conspiratorial politics and absolutist gun culture. These armed radical traditionalists have taken up a spiritual notion that the rosary can be a weapon in the fight against evil and turned it into something dangerously literal.”

Babylon Bee has a hilarious commentary on this stupid article and others have commented as well.

We Catholics have become a despised subculture, so get ready for more stupid articles and for hostile actions against us.

 

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For the Lighter Side, a bit of good British Humor

Funny 2 minute episode with a brain surgeon!

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St. Anselm: Can you solve this medieval saint’s puzzling riddles?

St. Aldhelm wrote a collection of 100 riddles called “Aeinigmata.”   This was originally published by Aleteia.

“Adept at music and poetry, Aldhelm composed ballads that remained popular as late as the 12th century, and played the harp, fiddle and pipes.

“As Abbot of Malmesbury, Aldhelm noticed that the local people spent their time at Mass gossiping instead of listening to the monks preach. So one day he stood on a bridge and began to sing his ballads. Once a crowd had gathered, he began to preach the Gospel.

“Among Aldhelm’s best-known works are “Carmen rhythmicum,” a 200-line poem about a trip during a strong storm that blew the roof off a church, and a treatise on “De Virginitate” (“About Virginity”), which he wrote for an abbey of nuns.

“He also lent his talents to the art of riddles. One hundred riddles make up his “Aenigmata,” which has been translated by the poet A.M. Juster, in the book Saint Aldhelm’s Riddles. See if you can solve them!”

1. “I share with the surf one destiny; In rolling cycles when each month repeats.
As beauty in my brilliant form retreats, So too the surges fade in cresting sea.”

2. “When times of year for weaving threads resume, My hairy threads fill sallow flesh with weight,
And soon I climb the leafy tips of broom, To craft small balls, then rest with twists of fate.”

3. “My name’s a hybrid since antiquity. I’m called a “lion,” then an “ant” in Greek,
A blended metaphor, a sign that’s bleak; I can’t defend birds’ beaks with my own beak.
May scholars probe my name’s duplicity!” (Granted this one is very obscure)

4. “My nature rightly copies my twin name, Since birds and shadows each retain a claim.
I’m rarely seen by people in clear light, For I will hide in star-borne nests at night.”

5. “No one can hold me in his palms or sight; I scatter sudden clatter far and wide.
I want to hammer oaks with mournful might; Yes, I strike sky and scour the countryside.”

This was originally published by Aleteia.

Answers on the website above.

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Europe 8 Comments, Farewells and Updated Critique of the Passion Play

Our journey through Europe has come to an end. And what a wonderful pilgrimage it was! Today you will see a lot of folks sharing their thoughts, saying goodbye and reminiscing. Our final dinner together was a delightful time. And here’s a picture of our group earlier in the day in front of the cathedral Duomo in Milan.

Also at our final dinner the pilgrims asked me again to give my impressions of the Oberammergau Passion Play — so I did. (My first critique after our June viewing is here.)

After our second viewing of the play, reading every word of the script again, reading interviews and articles and taking many notes, I shared my thoughts. It’s not the whole critique but it’s the heart of it. I tried to be fair about all that was good but also about the disappointing portrayal of Jesus who is more a social justice warrior than a savior from sins — more a political martyr for the cause than the eternal Son of the Father come to redeem mankind from sin and reconcile them to God — opening the doors of heaven. He is portrayed as a confrontational, non-conformist rabbi trying to right the social ills of the world.

The play has been very “protestantized” and secularized. In the director’s own words (and the Jesus actors) he attempts to show Jesus’ own inner conflicts and leaves it up to everyone in the audience to answer the question, “Who do you say that I am?” However, Jesus did not leave that as an open ended questions for a modern world. He was quite clear who he was, especially when Peter exclaimed, “You are the Christ the Son of the Living God!“ Jesus responded by saying, in effect, “Bingo!

I wish I could’ve seen the play when it was distinctly Catholic 100 years ago and compared it with the script of today.

We are all glad that we came and saw this spectacular production with a 400 year history and one of those “bucket list” items people wanted to see. The acting, music, special effects, costumes and the choir were stunning. And all the other things we did through Germany Switzerland and Italy made for a marvelous time together.

We did take time to thank all of those who made this amazing trip possible, even with all the delays and hassles caused by covid hysteria. We especially wanted to think John Hale, Mark Slater and Bridget Yurko at Corporate Travel Services who did a magnificent job of navigating through all the mine fields to provide us with a marvelous pilgrimage and experience.

And thanks to all those 62 pilgrims who weathered the travel storms and stuck with us to the end. According to their own words it was worth every bit of the wait.

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