Stephen K. Ray's Blog, page 90

Day 6: Swiss Alps, St Gianna, Milan Italy

Sad to leave Zürich, but we have to get to Italy. After a good night’s sleep and a hearty breakfast we boarded our buses and headed through the Swiss Alps which are always stunning. It’s hard to take in all of the grandeur of these mountains and the surrounding countryside and villages.

The highlight of the day was our meeting with St. Gianna Molla’s daughter Gianna. We met the Saint’s daughter at the cemetery and she gave us a short talk about her “Saint Mother”. We also saw the church where her kids were all baptized and had Zmass there in Magenta Italy. Extraordinary gift to all of our pilgrims.

St. Gianna gave her life to save her daughter at birth  she was canonized by Pope John Paul II in May 2004.

Then on to Milan Italy for dinner and the night to be rested for all day Milan tomorrow.

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Free Sacraments Chart

Clip on image to see or download the whole chartFree Sacraments Chart
by Steve Ray

Want to know all about the Sacraments in a handy, short reference format? Download this link and print out your own 2-page chart — Seven Sacraments of the Catholic Church. It gives you references from the Bible and the Catechism.

This chart was made to go with my 7 talk series on the Sacraments: Food for the Journey, Weapons for the War. You can purchase this set by clicking here.

I had to fight my way into the Church! In the process, I learned a lot about the Catholic truth and the Sacraments.

This series was done in front of a live audience and is presented first from my old Evangelical perspective. I explain what I thought and taught as a Protestant. Then I step to the other podium and argue with my old view and explain the Catholic teaching on the Sacraments. It is full of stories, anecdotes and examples.

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Day 5: Zurich All Day

How can you not love Switzerland? Everything is clean, polite and organized. It is a gorgeous country with great food and drink and a feast for the eyes. It’s religious and political background is quite intriguing. It is a country with four primary languages: the majority speak German, then French, Italian and a minority speak Romansh.

A morning walking tour of the city to view some of its beautiful buildings and churches, then lunch and the quaint area where everybody could find their own cafés and restaurants and relax and shop and enjoy the city.

Mass at Liebfrauenkirche (“literally “Church of Our Dear Lady”). We celebrated Corpus Christi Sunday Mass. Free afternoon with dinner at the Echo Restaurant.

 

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Are You Born Again? Questions I Answered on Catholic Answers Live

https://catholicconvert.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/ca180321b.mp3

Questions I Answered on Catholic Answers Live

Topic: “Are You Born Again?”

1.   What do you say if someone asks “Are you born again”?  What is the Catholic understanding of being Born Again?

2.   A former Catholic, now Evangelical asked: “I was born Catholic but I never had a relationship with Jesus. I’m an Evangelical now and I want to know what Catholic would say if I asked them if they were born again?”

3.   I was told we should not read the Bible. What do you say?

4.   Are there two different and distinct baptisms? Is there a baptism of water and a separate baptism in the Holy Spirit?

5.   My sister won’t have her children baptized saying that they are fine until getting baptized later. How should I respond to her about infant baptism?

6.   What is the difference between Catholics and Protestants on the view of “faith and works”?

7.   A pastor from a small country Protestant church stopped by my house and told me if I prayed with him I would go to heaven and there was nothing that could cause me to lose my salvation. How would you respond to him?

8.   Where do we find the idea of water baptism and being born again in the Old Testament?

9.   What is the evidence that you have been born again since the Bible says “By their fruits you shall know them”?

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Day 4 Germany thru Austria to Zurich Switzerland

Fun day! Enjoy!

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Day 3 Oberammergau Passion Play

Today was the highlight of the pilgrimage. Everyone was delighted and overwhelmed with the fantastic production of the Passion Play. Five hours with eyes glued to the stage. It was all in German, but we had the whole script in our hand. We also had excellent seats in row 15 and 16.

Live animals, probably 1000 people at times on the stage, amazing costumes and real life situations in the life trial and crucifixion of Jesus. The crucifixion scene was amazing! So is Judas hanging himself. He

They asked us not to take pictures and videos but I did get a few very discreetly without interrupting anyone. I wish they were better for your sake, but I did get a few just to give a sense of what we experienced. However, there’s no way this video will do justice to what we experienced yesterday today.

 

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My Thoughts While Waiting In Line for Confession

My wife and I recently went to confession. The line was pretty long (which was good to see, though I hate lines   As I sat and waited it struck me again that the Church is not just a loose association of like-minded followers of Jesus. It is not just “Jesus and me” as we believed when we were Evangelical Protestants.

We had a dinner scheduled afterward with an Evangelical who would hold confession with disdain. “All we need to do is confess to Jesus himself, not a priest.” Why would they think that way? Because of a fundamental difference in perspective on what the Church is. Is the Church an invisible association of lovers of Jesus or is it a familial organization with a government?

Jesus said, “I will build my Church (not churches)” and later says, “If your brother sins…take it to the Church.” (Matt 16:18; 18:15, 17). Jesus also gives the authority men to forgive or retain sins (Jn 20:23). If the words of Jesus mean anything, there must be an authority in the Church and it needs to be worldwide and we need to know where to find it. If a Baptist brother sins against a Methodist brother, where is the church with authority that can deal with the issue? There is no such mechanism among Protestants.

There were 120 people in the Upper Room and that is significant because in Jewish society it was necessary to have 120 people to leave the larger community (city) to start their own community with courts, judges, binding and loosing. Even the Israeli Knesset today has 120 members. The Church IS that new community. The Greek word for “church” in the New Testament is ecclesia which means the “called out ones.”

Called out for what? To be a new society, a new city, a new community, a new kingdom. The Church is the new Israel, so we would expect it to be similar in structure and authority. This “Church” would necessarily have laws and rules, the authority to legislate and to adjudicate. In short, using the biblical terms, the authority to “bind and loose.”

This government, this Church, this family was never promised perfect sinless leaders. That has been proven in spades throughout history and in vivid color this summer. But just because there are rogues who often infiltrate the leadership does not negate the truth of this one, holy, Catholic and apostolic Church.

Even Jesus had a Judas in his small band. We don’t leave Jesus and Peter because of Judas. If it can last for 2,000 years with every conceivable onslaught having thrown at it–and it still exists around the world bringing us the grace and forgiveness of God, laws and courts, beauty and worship–it is obvious that it is not from man but from God.

Sitting in the line for confession I realized that by virtue of my being there, I was acknowledging that I am part of something bigger than just “me and Jesus.” I was part of the governmental entity that was started in the Upper Room and continues today. I am accountable to Jesus, yes. But he is building a Church and I am a member of this new visible kingdom. My going to confession is a clear statement of that fact and of my submission to and recognition of that kingdom’s authority.

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Short Thought on If or When it’s OK to Break from the Church

We must admit that the Catholic Church today is the same organization with unbroken continuity with that organization (Church) started in the 1st century. A reading of the Apostolic Fathers, the hinge figures between the Apostles and the later 1st and  2nd century, makes that clear.

The question is whether at some point the one visible, holy, Catholic and apostolic Church lost its legitimacy, thereby releasing the faithful to leave and start rival churches and communities.

Of course, if Jesus started the Catholic Church, we (and He) would expect it to continue until His 2nd Coming at the end of time. If it fails to the point of illegitimacy then His promise that the gates of hell would not prevail against it was a lie or He was not competent enough to keep His promise.

I think the conclusion should be obvious. Protests against Jesus’ Church are not legitimate, nor are churches set up to rival it.

Is the Church perfect? No, because I joined it and I am a member. I know my own sins.  Even if the Church was perfect before 1994 when we joined, it certainly wasn’t afterwards. There was never a Golden Age (just read St. Paul’s 1st Letter to the Corinthians). The Church is always reforming and always in need of reform because it is full of people like me. It is not only a haven for saints but also a hospital for sinners

Jesus said He would build His Church — not “churches.” Jesus prayed that His followers would be perfected in [visible] unity which is now quite visibly gone (except in the still unified universal Catholic Church). The Catholic Church has never lost its legitimacy and the faithful are not released to start rival communities or to join them. This was Luther’s great sin of schism.

“Throughout history, many splinter groups claimed the name “Church”, but as Cyril of Jerusalem said in 350, ‘And if ever you are visiting in cities, do not inquire simply where the House of the Lord is,—for the others, the sects of the impious, attempt to call their dens the Houses of the Lord,—nor ask merely where the Church is, but where is the Catholic Church. For this is the name peculiar to this holy Church, the Mother of us all, which is the Spouse of our Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God’.(Catechetical Lectures 18, 26, in Jurgens, Faith of the Early Fathers, 1:359).” (Crossing the Tiber, pg. 70).

Bottom line: it is NEVER OK to break with the Catholic Church that Jesus founded 2000 years ago.

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Day 2, Part 2: Munich all Day: Rembrandt Art, Munich Tour, Glockenspiels, Ornate Mass and Beerhaus

We could not fit today in one video so I uploaded our tour of Dachau Concentration” Priest Camp” on an earlier video.

On this one we share with you our day touring Munich and enjoying this beautiful German city.

Enjoy!

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Day 2, Part 1: Munich: Touring Dachau – Very Moving!

Video of Dachau is a video all by itself. Very profound. If it could happen in Germany, it could happen in America.

Day 2, Part 2 coming soon.

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