Happy Saint Patrick's Day!

Tomorrow we celebrate the heroic virtue and faith of Saint Patrick, a fifth century bishop, missionary and planter of Churches on the Emerald Isles.
In honor of St. Patrick I offer you my arrangement of Be Thou My Vision. I first heard this hymn sung in my previous evangelical church. I of course had no idea that the melody of this song was from the 6th century based on a song called Slaine written in honor of Saint Patrick. He defied the pagan king by lighting candles on Easter's Eve, knowing he was risking his life by openly celebrating the Resurrection. The king actually admired his moxy and did not imprison or kill him!
The melody has always been attractive to me and I released an arrangement of it played on a 1993 Martin D41 on Scarecrow's Lament CD. where you can down load it in most glorious stereo for 99 cents. All my guitar parts on each CD are recorded with two mics in XY pattern that are then widely panned on mixdown giving that full sound that fills your head, particularly with a good pair of headphones

Here's my live u tube version on a Martin 00015s in DADGAD (of course)

Sleeping Giant-A Parody of All Along the Watchtower Concerning the HHS Debacle

Free down load!

Catholic Multi-Media Evangelization: Goodness Reigns Film School

"The purpose of the Goodness Reigns Film School is to empower Christians to spread the good news of Jesus Christ using video." Check out this u tube channel of this young Catholic who is obeying the Holy Father's call to cast out into the deep in the New Evangelization through film media

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Protestant Seminary Ultimately Led to Catholic Conversion

Rebecca was a Methodist seminarian when she realized that she needed to find an absolute truth to escape the theological liberalism she was experiencing in seminary. The books she read that comforted her the most were written by Catholics. Here's her story at Why I'm Catholic.

"Have You Been Born-Again?" or How Calvin’s View of Salvation Destroyed His Doctrine of the Church”

 Dr. David Anders, Catholic convert from Calvinism has a great article over at Called to Communion. He points out the evolution of Calvinist theology over the past 450 years and how it has affected the relationship of the believer to the body of Christ.

"As a very young child, I believed that salvation came through recitation of a mantra: the sinner’s prayer. As I grew older, I learned to nuance this with a more thorough understanding of the doctrines of grace, justification, and election. Eventually, the question of sacraments arose. And then the relationship between assurance and the moral life. As I surveyed the Reformed tradition, I learned that there was literally no consistent way of framing these issues. As clear as I once thought salvation was, I learned that there was simply no universal Protestant answer to the question, “How do I get to Heaven.” Now I thank Heaven for the clarity of the Catholic Church." Dr. Anders

National Catholic Bible Conference Coming to Philadelphia!

This summer, the NCBC will be in Philly! Just 55 miles as the crow flies from where we live.
Converts from evangelical Protestantism, Dr. Scott Hahn, Tim Gray and Jeff Cavins along with Edward Sri and others will be presenting.

Chastity in America

With the current  attack on all things pure, good, and holy in our culture, the Catholic Church fights back at a grassroots level explaining the need for chastity of mind, heart and soul. This is a maligned and misunderstood concept and is not for singles only. We are to remain chaste in marriage as well. The Pure in Heart organization is providing the wherewithal for young people to stay pure in opposition to the  current our society is moving in.
Check out Seth DeMoor's interview with a gentleman from Pure in Heart apostolate.

 Pope Benedict recently encouraged the American Church on this very topic.
       
  "In this great pastoral effort there is an urgent need for the entire Christian community to recover an appreciation of the virtue of chastity. The integrating and liberating function of this virtue (cf. Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2338-2343) should be emphasized by a formation of the heart, which presents the Christian understanding of sexuality as a source of genuine freedom, happiness and the fulfillment of our fundamental and innate human vocation to love. It is not merely a question of presenting arguments, but of appealing to an integrated, consistent and uplifting vision of human sexuality. The richness of this vision is more sound and appealing than the permissive ideologies exalted in some quarters; these in fact constitute a powerful and destructive form of counter-catechesis for the young.
"Young people need to encounter the Church’s teaching in its integrity, challenging and counter-cultural as that teaching may be; more importantly, they need to see it embodied by faithful married couples who bear convincing witness to its truth."

Holy Painting!

David Garibaldi: Jesus Painting

Are There Born Again Catholics?

                                                             (a 2 or 3rd century baptism)


A reader asked me after reading my post "The Reason Why I Blog:"  

So does this mean you are a born again Catholic? Why are not all Catholics born again? Why are there different sects inside the Catholic church? Are all of them recognized by the pope?

My response was this:

Dear Dianna:

The long story is that I would suggest you read my conversion story, here.
The short answer is yes, I am born again, but the biblical definition of that is this:  I have been baptized by water into Christ, in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, which is what the term Born Again has meant for almost 1800 years. In the first 18 centuries of Christianity, no one referred to someone as a "Born-again Christian". This term was used by fundamentalist Protestants to describe a personal spiritual re-awakening, but the New Testament as well as all the Christians for the most of Christendom defined born again as being baptized. You can read an excellent post on this here . The concept of asking Jesus to be your personal Lord and Savior making you "born again" is not biblical. Should we all ask Jesus to be our savior and invite Him into our hearts? Yes, absolutely, but that one-time affirmation doesn't guarantee that person a place in heaven. If he or she is born again through the waters of baptism which the bible says "saves you" and repents and lives a life pleasing to the Lord, they will ultimately attain heaven.

"Whereunto baptism being of the like form, now saveth you also: not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the examination of a good conscience towards God by the resurrection of Jesus Christ."
 (1 Peter) 

As Catholics we believe the sacrament of baptism is what ultimately saves us, assuming we cooperate with Christ and live a life pleasing to him, "so as to attain the goal, as Saint Paul hoped. But baptism isn't a irrevocable ticket to heaven if you choose to live like the devil! Neither is asking Jesus "to be your Lord and savior" in the Sinner's Prayer.


I was Catholic kid in the 60's and early 70's who was baptized as a baby, but as an adolescent was in a dark place spiritually, going to Mass but living like the devil. I had a conversion at a bible study where I did surrender my life to Jesus. At the time that was called being "born again", but it was really just a moment of surrender, which the Lord honored. Sadly, I left the Catholic Church because this group of Protestants were anti-Catholic and taught me many false and libelous things about the Church, which I should have looked into for myself. Thanks be to God, I returned to the Catholic faith 7 years ago.

Are there born again Catholics? All Catholics are born again meaning they have been baptized. Are all baptized Catholics living faithfully for Christ? Sadly the answer is no, not all, and this can be found in any protestant church as well. When I was a protestant, there were many who would say they had been saved and "born again" on a Sunday, but lived a very different life the rest of the week.
     I, as a physician, had many of these folks as patients, and unfortunately, being "born again" did not keep them from worldly vices, nor make them any better at paying their bills for my services than the "non-born again" patients. So my personal experience tells me that calling yourself a "born again Christian" doesn't always translate into someone who is truly attempting to live for Christ on a consistent basis.  I proved this in my own life by getting into some serious sin but still thinking I was on the path to heaven because I said a prayer at a bible study as a 14 year old kid. If I had died in my sins during some of those occasions, I am fairly certain I would not have found myself in heaven. Hypocrisy unfortunately comes in all shapes and sizes and is prevalent among all religions, Catholic and non-Catholic. People are people, and there is no guarantee that one group will behave any better than another. The Church is full of wheat and tares, the Lord tells us, and only at the end does He know and decide who ends up on the threshing floor to be tossed out and burned.  That being said though, I still maintain that being Catholic and receiving God's amazing grace through the sacraments is definitely the best formula for saintly living,  Catholics have a 2000 year track record of lives lived with heroic virtue based on their receiving all the grace He offers. Look at John Paul 2, Mother Teresa, St. Maximilian Kolbe,  St. Edith Benedicta Stein etc.

To answer your final question, there are no sects in the Catholic Church. We are all (theoretically, not always practically) in submission to the pope in Rome, meaning we trust that God leads and guides the Church through him. (We don't worship the pope, by the way) 

There are different rites within the Church, meaning some use a different liturgy- the byzantine rite, for instance, but we are all still Catholic. That is what it means to be Catholic=universal, all as one, believing the same doctrines. Catholicism by definition IS THE CHURCH Jesus started, and there are no sects within it. Hope this helps.

Here is another excellent answer to Are Catholics Born Again?

Christian Unity Banjo Opus

I don't think this is what Jesus had in mind when He prayed we would be one.