A Heart Like Magdalene

Mary as revealed through the Scriptures from The Old Testament to The New Testament Welcome to this five part series on Mary and why Catholics believe different dogmatic traditions. Our beliefs about Mary as Catholics are not new. Writings of the early Church Fathers from the first century on, show evidence of this. In this series I will explain in great detail through the Sacred Scriptures about her calling since the beginning of time and different dogmas believed by Catholics. The goal of this series is to prove that Mary was no ordinary woman but the most revered woman throughout all of Christian history, especially from those in the early church and today’s Catholics.  Let’s start with some terminology.  Christology is the Theological study of Jesus Christ. Mariology is the Theological study of Mary, the mother of Jesus Christ. Typology is the Christian Theology and Biblical exegesis is a doctrine or theory concerning the relationship of the Old Testament to the New Te...

If Jesus kept the Sabbath then why do some Christians not keep the Sabbath? Sabbath: The seventh day of the week among the Hebrews, the day being counted from sunset to sunset, that is, from Friday evening to Saturday evening. There is an impressive amount of evidence in Scripture that show Christ and the apostles changed their day of corporate worship from Saturday to Sunday. In Jesus’ early earthly ministry, he started to prepare the way in changing the Sabbath by showing special honor to Sunday throughout the New Testament. We know that Jesus raised from the dead on a Sunday and that he appeared to the disciples on that same Sunday evening. The Sabbath was set aside specifically for Jews to rest and worship. Sabbatarians argue that because Jesus observed the Sabbath that we should imitate him in this. This however, fails to consider that Jesus was still under the old covenant. He enunciated a new covenant at the Last Supper, this happened to be on Sundays. It was on Sunday that the...

Why must we confess our sins to a priest? Is it not enough to confess them directly to God?    Let's start by clearing up a major misconception. Catholics do not confess their sins to a priest instead of to God. We confess our sins first to God directly then we go to the Church and God then forgives us through a priest which is appointed by our Lord as an official stand-in for Christ (alter Christus).   Three basic Scripture passages underlie this practice:   Matthew 16:18-19   "And so I say to YOU, YOU are Peter [instant change of name from Simon], and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.  I will give YOU [Peter]  the keys to the kingdom of heaven.   Whatever YOU [Peter] bind on earth shall be bound in heaven; and whatever YOU [Peter] loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven."   God revealed a new and radical calling to a sole person. This would happen each time he changed someone’s nam...

Lets begin with the meaning of Purgatory: PURGATORY: “ All who die in God’s grace, but still imperfectly purified, are indeed assured of their eternal salvation; but after death they undergo purification, so as to achieve the holiness necessary to enter the joy of heaven.” CCC 1030 Let's try to answer this question: How many of us will be perfectly sanctified a.k.a. in perfect grace at the time of our deaths? I know personally that although I am saved by Grace, that the day I die, unless repenting and confessing immediately before death, there will be some things that will make me impure if I am not in a full state of Grace. For example, I repent and pray daily but let's just say that I look at someone with some sort of contempt, judge someone in a condescending way or even say a lie to get myself out of something. Now what if I die before coming before God and asking him to forgive me? As Protestants like to say "a sin is a sin" no matter how grave. Am I to be conde...