Gina's notes

May 10

• Beginning of novena for Pentecost--from today up to and including the Saturday before Pentecost.
• These are the last 10 days to meet your Easter Duty.
• Sequence for Pentecost
• NOT ON THE LINE. Rosemaria [sent to CAC on Wednesday...]: Asking prayers for a man named Tom who fell and was severely injured. He is in the hospital and may not live long. A friend of the family called to ask me to spread the word for prayers for a miracle. I know his wife through pro-life activities.
• NOT ON THE LINE. Donna from the Southern Tier: My 41-year-old daughter, Anne Marie, is suffering from bone cancer. I feel devastated.
• NOT ON THE LINE. Alice. Batavia, New York. Please pray for me, as I am having problems with my right eye.
• NOT ON THE LINE. Anonymous. Would like prayers for finding an immediate place to stay and also for the funds for getting a home of their own in order to unify the family. Also, prayers for all of her family to return to the faith.
• Patti from e-mail: Imagine Sisters wants to make Jesus loved by introducing the world to religious sisters in love with Christ through media and personal encounters. We want to encourage and inspire a culture of vocations to women’s religious life by fostering a deep desire for holiness through the witness of religious sisters.
• From CAC Facebook page [maybe dealt with on Thursday]: Laura Beyer Hafner: If we our bodies are to be raised up at the end of times, why is organ donation in agreement with the Church?
• Tony from Depew:

1. Why did God allow polygamy in the Old Testament? Dt 21:15-17 gives a law for two wives, while 1 Kings 11:3 says that Solomon had seven hundred wives of royal rank and three hundred concubines.
2. Why wasn't Abraham married to Hagar?

Recent questions

Who are the vultures?

• From Awesome Lawson: I was told by a priest that the verse, "Wherever the corpse is, there the vultures will gather" (Mt 24:28) refers to Eucharistic adoration. Is that true?

Seal of Confession

• Phil from Indooroopily, Australia, not too far away from Woolloongaba, via Facebook: We had a Catholic priest in Brisbane many years ago who broke the seal of confession (publicly) and everyone saw that as a reason they don't need to confess to a priest. They say they can confess directly to God.

Internal Forum Solution

• Erica from Buffalo, New York: There is a woman I know who is having a horrible, down-spiraling, Catholic-hating time as her second "husband," Bob, left her, because he now believes that they were not married and have been fornicating all these years. Both were previously married in the Catholic Church. Bob's first marriage was annulled; Linda's first marriage was not. I tried to explain to her that without an annulment, one cannot remarry, as she is still married in the eyes of the Church. She replied, "Our priest explained to Bob and to me together that, while getting an annulment is preferred, the Church knows some Catholics do not want one for whatever reason. The priest claimed that Vatican II acknowledged that the Church needed to embrace those people and created a new method of dealing with broken marriages called 'the internal forum solution.'" Is she right about that?

Proper form of the sacraments

• Anonymous from e-mail: If a priest, at the end of Confession, says "I absolve you in the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit," omitting the words "of your sins," does that constitute a valid absolution?

Doubt about past sins

• Anonymous from e-mail: I was reading the Supplement to the Summa (Question 6, Article 4) in which St. Thomas says that if we are doubtful about whether we confessed all of our mortal sins in past confessions, we should mention the doubt to the priest in our next confession. Is that good advice?

Footwashing

• Letitia: Footwashing is for everybody--everybody should do it to everybody. She sent slippers, a towel, and foot cream to her nieces and nephews, and asked them to wash their mother's feet. Jesus said, "Do as I do. Such love and humility. Jesus took the place of the last and the least. Usually done by the Gentile slave, by wives for their husbands, by children for their parents, and by disciples for their teachers.

St. Malachy and the End of the World

• St. Malachy and the End of the World

Seven Pilgrim Churches

• Wikipedia, "The Seven Pilgrim Churches Of Rome."

Why trust the New Testament?

Anonymous from Buffalo: Someone recently asked you how the authenticity of the sayings of Jesus could be verified. Your answer was that they cannot be verified according to modern standards of scholarship. So, if the sayings of Jesus in the New Testament cannot be verified against objective sources, why should anyone trust the gospels? How did the Church identify authentic gospels? On what grounds did it falsify other gospels?

Protestant rejection of Tradition

• John Z. from Facebook: Why do so many of our protestant brothers and sisters reject tradition? It is as though they center their teaching on fragments from St. Paul's letters. I have listened to a lot of Pastors, and they never seem to preach on the Gospel passages that command us to express our faith in good works. In Matthew 25, for example, Jesus separates the sheep and the goats according to things they did or did not do for the least of His brethren.

Praying for ourselves

• From a Facebook friend:

- Is it "right" to ask for a real miracle for oneself or is it the epitome of selfishness?

- What is the best way to pray and how often? I've been locked in virtually the same words and number of times a day for decades. Will God understand, or forgive me, if I change the wording, or the frequency?

Catholic Children's Bible

• For parents: The Catholic Children's Bible by St. Mary's Press.

Calling the Pope "Father"

• From a friend of a friend via e-mail: "Is calling the Pope 'Holy Father' officially described in doctrine of the Church, or is it something which one could disagree with while remaining Catholic?"

Titles of the Pope.

Soteriology

• Zach from Amherst: How does the death of Jesus make reparation for our sins? Does God just want us to be content in not knowing exactly why He wills what He does, but just know that He wills it?

Atonement

Consolation and Desolation

• Patricia from Facebook: Father my friend would like a definition of what a consolation would be, or an experience of such.

Fr. Walter Ciszek, SJ

• Suellen Ann from Facebook: I just saw a beautiful documentary on EWTN about Fr. Walter Ciszek, a Jesuit who was held captive in Siberia for 15 years. Could you talk a little bit about his life and works?

Walter Ciszek, SJ

Jewish roots of Catholic liturgy

• John from Facebook: Is the tradition of having a sequence of annual feasts rooted in the Church's Jewish heritage?

Jewish Liturgical Year

Catholic understanding of marriage

• Nicole from e-mail: I spoke w/a 20-something co-worker regarding male/female complementarity one day when she mentioned that people who don't accept "same-sex marriage" are bigots. She listened to me kindly but did not accept the idea that opposite genders go together because of procreation. Her immediate answer was, "well, the couple can use IVF." I find that many younger people have a utilitarian point of view - the end justifies the means. How can I present the Church's teaching on marriage and the natural law in the most effective fashion?

Ordination of Women and Priestly Celibacy

Amy from e-mail: I recently spoke with some women friends about the ordination of women and allowing priests to marry. They claimed that these two issues are founded on human law rather than divine law, and then argued that because some day there will not be enough priests to serve the people, other options must be discussed. Are these issues open to discussion?

Andrew from e-mail: Sylvia Poggioli did a piece on NPR recently entitled "With New Pope, Catholic Women Hope To Regain Church Leadership Roles." What are we to make of the argument that ancient mosaics and epigrams talk about women priests (presbytera) and bishops (episcopa)?

Year of Faith Website

• David M. from Rochester: Here is the Vatican’s website for the year of faith: www.annusfidei.va.

Common Bible includes "Apocrypha"

John W. from e-mail: I was very surprised this afternoon when you quoted Tobit 4:8 on giving. You said, "The Protestants don’t have Tobit in their Bible." Here in Canada, or at least Toronto, we DO! We also have Judith, Wisdom, Baruch, 1&2 Maccabees, and the other Deuterocanonical Books in the pew Bibles of at least our local Anglican and Presbyterian churches, and probably in the local United Church too. The pew Bibles are the “New Revised Standard Version (with Apocrypha).” These are logical developments based on Vatican II, which began fifty years ago, and the first Anglican-Roman Catholic Common Declaration and the establishment of the Anglican-Roman Catholic International Commission forty-six years ago. Most Protestant churches are also using the Revised Common Lectionary. Is this just a Canadian thing?

- Apocrypha in Common Bible.

Lives of Saints for Young Children

Veronica from Ithaca made some extra suggestions: Good books for God's children.

Psychology and Catholicism

• John from Facebook: At the school I work, they are doing workshops on motivation and learning. They presented a workshop on William Glasser's "choice theory," which seems to me to advocate faith but no God. When the Church provides counsel through Catholic Charities or even through a priest, how does it merge psychology and faith?

Godly Gynecology; Pregnancy Support Services

• Melissa from Kenmore, New York: "A friend of a friend of mine was told for decades that she had a thyroid problem that would prevent her from becoming pregnant. The doctors were wrong. When she began to gain weight because of a pregnancy, her doctor just adjusted her medication, thinking that her weight gain was due to thyroid problems, not a pregnancy. This was a devastating situation for her, as she ended up having an abortion. Many women who opt for abortion are not FOR abortion in and of itself. Many just do not have the support of the father or their family, and do not know who would help them cope with an unplanned child at the time of birth. Could you list some resources women in such a situation can turn to?"

Pacifism required?

• Anonymous: Why do some candidates who are pro life still support violence via wars, detainment, and the like? Why can't being pro life mean being more vigilant in ending wars through diplomatic talks rather than continuing what seems an endless fight in another country? Our military wants to come home. Does war ever make any sense?"

- Just War Theory.

Feeling guilty after Confession

• Anonymous: "I have a hard time forgiving myself, even after I confess a sin in confession. Is that also a sin?"

Prayer request

• "Just wanted to say thanks for the prayers. I know that you prayed that I can get back with my wife. It really isn't possible. I don't know what is going on with her. She has started a lot of problems, and she is hanging around with violent people. I don't want to keep her from seeing her daughter. Yet at the same time I fear what she may do. I am fearful for my daughter as well as my own as well as my family's lives. Please pray for me. I am so scared."

Interceding for Sinners

• Anonymous: "What is the consequence if someone who is not Catholic receives the Eucharist in ignorance. Besides educating them, is there a penance one can do for them?"

What should I do when I see others sin?

Forgiveness Prayer.

Spiritual Warfare

• John Z. from Facebook re: spiritual warfare.

• Can people be used by demons to try and fight and create turmoil and strife?
• Are there angels and demons duking it out fighting for our souls?
• Also, I saw on a blog where a guy said to look in the Old Testament as to how many people Satan killed vs God. He claims that Satan only killed ten and God killed thousands. So, in his view, the whole Christian idea of God is false, and Satan got a raw deal.

How to Create Extra Pages

There are two ways to make more pages for yourself. Well, three, I guess. The first two require being logged in.

1. Search for the title of the page you want to create. When the search fails, click on the red link to create the page.

2. Put the name of the new page you want to create in double square brackets on a current page. When you save the page, the name of the page you are about to create will appear in red.

Here is a red link; if you click on it, you may choose to create the page: Gina's test page.

3. Ask me to create the page(s) for you.

After you have created a page, putting the name of the page in double square brackets makes a blue link to the page. So, for example, I have been working on the book of Jonah for a few days.

To create an external link, use just one pair of square brackets:

Year of Faith

This does depend on a space between the URL and the text that is shown to the reader.

You can link to an existing page using double square brackets and a pipe: This is an active link to my old show preparation page. None of the words you see here in blue are the name of the page. The real name of the page is hidden from view.