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What Are Some Similarities Between Catholics and Orthodox Christians?

He Was a Satanic Priest Who Became a Saint!

Gary Zimak recommends spending time as often as possible in the presence of God, especially in Eucharistic Adoration, to anyone who worries about what God&#8217;s plan is for his life.
Transcript:
Host: Let&#8217;s go to Mike in Dalton, Ohio, listening on Living Bread Radio. Mike, your question for Gary Zimak.
Caller: Hi guys.
Gary: Hi Mike.
Caller: Great show, thanks for taking my call. I&#8217;m a recovering worrier&#8211;not so recovered, but anyways, my question&#8211;and I have a lot of questions about worry, but my main one was pretty specific&#8211; basically, I got a bunch of racehorses. I inherited them from my family, and I love them but I worry that not what God wants for me in my life, to have a bunch of racehorses. Because they take a lot of time, they take money. I mean I&#8217;m hoping someday to make money with them, but that&#8217;s&#8230;it&#8217;s basically a big gamble. and I worry a lot about&#8230;just&#8230;does God have&#8230;is He definitely making sure that I&#8217;m doing His will in my life? You know what I mean?
Gary: I do. Mike, that&#8217;s&#8211;I&#8217;m gonna tell&#8211; first of all, I&#8217;m going to congratulate you; the fact that you care to do God&#8217;s will, that&#8217;s really, that&#8217;s impressive, you know. And that&#8217;s gonna really please Him. He wants that. The fact that you care, &#8220;Am I doing God&#8217;s will?&#8221; How do you know whether you&#8217;re doing God&#8217;s will or not? This is something that I have dealt with. I continue to deal with it, almost on a daily basis. I would say: spend some time with Him every day. Ask Him&#8211;you know, if you can go to Eucharistic Adoration, that&#8217;s been one of my&#8230;the most helpful things to me, to spend time with the Lord in His presence, and you get that feeling. &#8220;Lord, am I doing this? Is this what you want me to do? Make your will obvious to me.&#8221;
It takes time sometimes. In my case, He doesn&#8217;t give me an answer right away, but ultimately&#8211; if the Lord wants you to do something, if He wants you to maybe get rid of some of the racehorses and give more money to the Church, He&#8217;s going to make you aware of this. And the fact that you&#8217;re having that feeling, He might be saying that. But just see what happens. Continue to ask Him, and see if that feeling to do this or to do that remains. And He&#8217;s going to let you know.

I Worry That I’m Not Doing God’s Will in My Life

Even though we cannot attend Mass while we shelter in place, we can experience real liturgy in our homes by praying the Liturgy of the Hours— and it&#8217;s more accessible than you might think. Fr. Hugh Barbour explains how, even during the suspension of public Masses, you can still not just watch but participate in real liturgy.

Experience Real Liturgy in Your Home

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How Should We Share the Gospel with Trans People?

How could we be happy in Heaven knowing souls are in Hell?

<div>Which came first, the Apostles’ Creed or the Nicene Creed?</div><div>The original creed is the threefold profession of faith in the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Both of these creeds are modeled on this baptismal profession of faith that we still have in the church at baptisms.The Council of Nicea simply adopted a baptismal creed and made it more precise to confront the Arian heresy. The Apostles&#8217; Creed is probably older than the Nicene Creed, since it is based on the baptismal profession of the early Roman Church. Both creeds, however, have the same ancient origin. The Nicene Creed is definitely the more important of the two in Church history as a dogmatic definition of the faith and a frequent liturgical form.
</div>

Which Creed Came First, Apostles’ or Nicene?

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Did they really find Jesus’ tomb? 👀

Jimmy Akin joins Cy for a conversation about the historicity of the Joseph story in Genesis. Is the biblical depiction of Egypt believable? What does modern scholarship add to the story?

Joseph in Egypt

<div>If the Eucharist is really Christ, shouldn’t it heal sick or wounded people who receive it?</div><div>Not necessarily. By that reasoning, the sacrament of baptism should accomplish the same thing, because we receive God in his divinity—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—in receiving baptism. And while baptism washes away our sins and gives us the gift of sanctifying grace—and there is nothing greater than that—the healing of sick or wounded people typically doesn’t accompany reception of baptism.
Similarly, in the Eucharist, we receive Jesus Christ in his divinity as well as his glorified body, blood, soul, and divinity, but physical healings don’t typically accompany reception of the Eucharist. And yet, again, we receive an increase of sanctifying grace and grow closer to our Lord Jesus, and so we truly experience a foretaste of heaven.
</div>

Shouldn’t the Eucharist Heal People?

The Most Evidence for a Marian Apparition Ever!

The founder of <a href="http://shamelesspopery.com">shamelesspopery.com</a> defends the Catholic understanding of the interior life and shares tips for developing yours.

Interior Life

The nature of marriage has been a subject of much discussion and debate over the last couple of decades. Receiving somewhat less attention are the differences among religions over marriage, particularly the differences between Islam and Christianity. In many respects, Islam and Christianity share a common view of the importance of marriage, but there are some significant differences that all Christians should understand.
The Catholic faith teaches that marriage is an unbreakable bond between a man and a woman. The foundations for this understanding can be found in both the Old and New Testaments:
<blockquote>So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth.” . . . Therefore, a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh (Gen. 1:27-28, 2:24).</blockquote>
<blockquote>Husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. For no one ever hates his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ does the church (Eph. 5:28-33).</blockquote>
The Catechism builds upon God’s call to this fruitful, loved-filled, and unbreakable bond:
<blockquote>The matrimonial covenant, by which a man and a woman establish between themselves a partnership of the whole of life, is by its nature ordered toward the good of the spouses and the procreation and education of offspring; this covenant between baptized persons has been raised by Christ the Lord to the dignity of a sacrament (1601).</blockquote>
Holy Scripture affirms that man and woman were created for one another: “It is not good that the man should be alone.” The woman, “flesh of his flesh,” his equal, his nearest in all things, is given to him by God as a “helpmate”; she thus represents God, from whom comes our help (CCC 1605a).
To Catholics, marriage between baptized persons is a sacrament, which has the meaning of oath or covenant. This covenant bond is a lifelong exchange of persons with God as witness. This exchange forms the basis for a community of love that reflects the sacrificial and holy love God has for his people and is ordered for the good of the man and woman and toward the begetting and education of children. We heed Christ’s words—“Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate” (Mark 10:9)—so, after a baptized couple consummates a validly contracted marriage, it is <a href="https://www.catholic.com/magazine/print-edition/did-jesus-say-adultery-is-grounds-for-divorce">impossible</a> to break that union except by death. (Non-sacramental marriages, where one or both spouses are unbaptized, are also ordinarily indissoluble except in certain <a href="https://www.catholic.com/qa/can-marriages-between-unbaptized-people-be-dissolved-by-divorce">rare cases</a>.)
Like Christianity, Islam values marriage as an important institution for the building of family and society and an integral part of salvation. Various hadiths (traditional religious sayings) bear this out. For example: “There is no foundation that has been built in Islam more loved by Allah . . . than marriage. . . . Allah loves no permissible like marriage, and Allah hates no permissible like divorce” (Mustadrak al-Wasa’il). “Whoever gets married has safeguarded half of his religion” (Wasa’il al-Shia).
The Quran and tradition give further guidance and reasons to marry:
<blockquote>And marry off the single among you and among the righteous of your male and female slaves. If they are poor then Allah will supply their needs from his generosity. And Allah is expansive, knowing. And let those who do not find marriage hold back until Allah grants them of his generosity (Quran 24:32-33).</blockquote>
<blockquote>O young people! Whoever among you can marry, should marry, because it helps him lower his gaze and guard his modesty, and whoever is not able to marry, should fast, as fasting diminishes his sexual desire” (Sahih al-Bukhari).</blockquote>
<blockquote>Whoever chooses to follow my tradition must get married and produce offspring through marriage (and increase the population of Muslims), so that on the Day of Resurrection, I shall confront other Ummah (nations) with the (great) numbers of my Ummah (Wasa’il al-Shia).</blockquote>
Marriage is so important within Islam that no other option is recognized as praiseworthy. Unlike Catholics, who view celibacy for the sake of the kingdom as a high calling, Muslims <a href="https://www.catholic.com/magazine/online-edition/what-islam-says-about-chastity">see the permanent celibate life as unnatural</a>, given men’s sexual needs and the community’s need to grow. Muslims are encouraged to marry early in life in order to avoid forbidden sexual relations (known as zina).
The Arabic word most often associated with marriage is nikah, which means “contract.” A widely quoted definition from influential Salafi cleric Ibn ‘Uthaimin states that marriage is “a mutual contract between a man and a woman whose goal is for each to enjoy the other, become a pious family and a sound society.”
Now, a contract is a promise regarding an exchange of goods. A Muslim marital contract is brokered between two men—the husband-to-be and a representative for the wife-to-be. The contract stipulates the exchange of a mahr, or “bride price,” in exchange for the woman’s hand. It dictates that married life be conducted in accordance with the Quran and requires consent by the woman and two witnesses.
The first and most common category of marriage is the nikah between one man and one woman.  A second category, though, is called a nikah mut’ah, or temporary marriage. This type of “marriage” is common in <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shia_Islam">Shia Islam</a> and is designed to make otherwise illicit sexual acts licit by a short-term legal arrangement. Although most <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sunni_Islam">Sunni Muslims</a> reject nikah mut’ah, they accept nikah misyar, in which both prospective husband and wife agree to give up certain normal marital rights, like living together, equality between wives, rights to income, and rights of homekeeping, in order to be married. This can be understood as a middle ground between a nikah and a nikah mut’ah.
In addition to these different types of marriage, in Islam, one man can have multiple wives and contract several different types of marriages at the same time. “And if you fear that you will not deal justly with the orphan girls, then marry those that please you of [other] women, two or three or four” (Quran 4:3). This verse and others like it condone polygynous relationships (between one man and multiple women—but not one woman and multiple men). Men are allowed to marry up to four women, provided that they can treat them all equally (see Quran 4:129).
Classically, Muslim men were also allowed to conduct sexual relations with their female slaves, a practice that was brought back recently by ISIS and is found in the Quran: “And they who guard their private parts except from their wives and those their right hands possess [concubines] . . . they will not be blamed” (23:6).
Divorce by either party is allowable within Islam, though it is discouraged. “And when you divorce women and they fulfil their term [of their ‘Iddah, or post-divorce waiting period], either keep them according to reasonable terms or release them according to reasonable terms, and do not keep them, intending harm, to transgress [against them]” (Quran 2:231).
If either party violates the conditions of the signed marital contract or if they have irreconcilable differences, they can obtain a wide variety of types of divorces: from khul’ (mutual contractual divorce initiated by the wife) to talaq (a variety of simple ways for the husband to repudiate the wife, usually requiring a waiting period before the divorce is finalized) to three different types of divorce oaths and finally judicial divorce. Historically, this last right was given to men only, but recently, in some places, women have been given the right to divorce as well.
So although from a distance Christian and Muslim marriages may look a lot alike, there are major differences. Marital contracts within Islam elevate marriage above the mundane while allowing for the reality of man’s frailty, but Islam&#8217;s allowance for multiple wives, temporary sexual arrangements, and partial forms of marriage expose a baser contractual view of marriage that falls far short of God’s plan for lifelong covenantal relationships.

Marriage: Christianity vs. Islam

Psalm 91 says that the one “who dwells in the shelter of the Most High, who abides in the shadow of the Almighty, will say to the Lord, ‘My refuge and my fortress; my God, in whom I trust.’”
It’s a powerful and profound psalm asking for God’s protection.
But will the psalm itself protect you?
Some people are saying that this psalm has unusual protective abilities. And that you should leave your Bible open to it if you want protection. But is that true—or is this a matter of superstition?
The answer is that we need to approach this psalm in a balanced way.
The Catechism of the Catholic Church says that superstition “can even affect the worship we offer the true God, e.g., when one attributes an importance in some way magical to certain practices otherwise lawful or necessary.”
The Catechism says, “To attribute the efficacy of prayers or of sacramental signs to their mere external performance, apart from the interior dispositions that they demand, is to fall into superstition” (CCC 2111).
So if you think that Psalm 91 is a magical text that will somehow protect you all by itself, that would be superstition.
It’s also superstition if you think leaving a Bible open to Psalm 91 will somehow protect you.
But that doesn’t mean you can’t pray Psalm 91 for protection.
After all, it is a prayer.
So if you pray Psalm 91 and ask God to protect you, that’s just fine. Because it’s God that you’re asking for protection. It’s him that you’re putting your trust in—not the words of the psalm.
In the same way, if you want to leave a Bible open to Psalm 91 as a kind of enacted prayer—
Like saying to God, “O Lord, please look down on the words of this psalm. They are my prayer to you. Please protect me.”
Then you are again asking God for protection and trusting in him to provide it.
This doesn’t mean that you’ll be protected from any and every danger.
God allows us to face difficulties in life.
As St. Paul says in Acts 14:22, “It is necessary for us to undergo many hardships to enter the kingdom of God.”
But we can also trust God to help us get through those hardships.
He will guide us, he will protect us, and he will make sure that we arrive in heaven at the end.
But it is in him that we need to put our trust.
Not in a particular set of words—including the words of Psalm 91.
So don’t trust in words.
Trust in God.
He loves you.

Psalm 91: Prayer for Protection vs. Superstition (Let’s Debunk)

In 1971, Irish band the Dubliners had a hit with &#8220;<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AoCagUKAhik">Hand Me Down My Bible</a>&#8221; about a hard-living sinner who repents. The refrain of the song is:
<blockquote>Oh oh glorio,
Now I’m the Lord’s disciple 
Oh oh glorio, 
Now hand me down my Bible</blockquote>
That’s a good jumping-off point to talk about Sacred Tradition, which is all about “hand-me-downs.”
<a href="https://www.etymonline.com/word/tradition">The word comes from</a> the Latin tradere, to deliver or hand over, which is itself a compound word made up of dare, “to give,” and the prefix trans, “over.” (That’s also the origin of the word traitor, which was used to describe Christians who cooperated with the Romans in handing over sacred things—or other Christians). Of course, the New Testament word for tradition isn’t from Latin but Greek, but it’s remarkably similar. The Greek word <a href="https://www.blueletterbible.org/lang/lexicon/lexicon.cfm?t=kjv&amp;strongs=g3862">paradosis</a> also means to hand on, and <a href="https://www.blueletterbible.org/lang/lexicon/lexicon.cfm?Strongs=G3860">the verb form</a> also has the secondary meaning of betrayal.
In both Latin and Greek, it’s handing something on . . . or handing someone over.
I mention all of this because something gets lost in our English word tradition. Both the Latin and Greek nouns come from verbs, but English doesn’t have a verb form of the word. So we end up thinking of a tradition as “the way we tend to do things,” when it actually is a thing handed on.
With that understanding, you see why Catholics and Protestants often talk past one another on this topic. Protestants tend to hear “custom or rule,” whereas Catholics mean “something passed on.” And it’s too bad, because you simply can’t have Christianity without Tradition.
Think about it this way. How do we:
<ul>
<li>Have the biblical texts?</li>
<li>Know that the Bible is trustworthy?</li>
<li>Know which books belong in Scripture?</li>
<li>Understand how they’re to be interpreted?</li>
<li>Know information about Jesus, Mary, and the apostles that isn’t spelled out in Scripture?</li>
</ul>
The answer in every case involves trusting those who came before us: those who handed down the words of Scripture, handed down which books were inspired, and handed down how to interpret them. Each part is Tradition.
Jesus didn’t place a leather-bound New Testament directly into your hands. He created a Church, in which these texts were written, preserved, and passed on, under the ongoing guidance of the Holy Spirit. In other words, Jesus transmitted divine revelation via Tradition, so if you can’t trust Tradition, then you can’t trust the revelation.
Since Sacred Scripture is part of Sacred Tradition, that means Tradition is bigger. It tells us things about the Bible that the Bible doesn’t say about itself (for example, there’s nothing in the Bible that tells us which books belong in the Bible). The apostles recognized this about their own writings—that they were part of a broader transmission of the Faith.
That’s why, in 2 Thessalonians 2:15, St. Paul instructs his readers to “stand firm and hold to the traditions which you were taught by us, either by word of mouth or by letter.” The mode of transmission—written or unwritten—is irrelevant. It’s all Tradition.
The Second Vatican Council describes this relationship between Scripture and the rest of Tradition beautifully:
<blockquote>The apostolic preaching, which is expressed in a special way in the inspired books, was to be preserved by an unending succession of preachers until the end of time. Therefore the apostles, handing on what they themselves had received, warn the faithful to hold fast to the traditions which they have learned either by word of mouth or by letter (see 2 Thess. 2:15), and to fight in defense of the faith handed on once and for all (see Jude 1:3). Now, what was handed on by the apostles includes everything which contributes toward the holiness of life and increase in faith of the peoples of God; and so the Church, in her teaching, life and worship, perpetuates and hands on to all generations all that she herself is, all that she believes.
This tradition which comes from the apostles develops in the Church with the help of the Holy Spirit. [&#8230;.] The words of the holy fathers witness to the presence of this living tradition, whose wealth is poured into the practice and life of the believing and praying Church. Through the same tradition the Church’s full canon of the sacred books is known, and the sacred writings themselves are more profoundly understood and unceasingly made active in her; and thus God, who spoke of old, uninterruptedly converses with the bride of his beloved Son; and the Holy Spirit, through whom the living voice of the Gospel resounds in the Church, and through her, in the world, leads unto all truth those who believe and makes the word of Christ dwell abundantly in them (see Col. 3:16).</blockquote>
As “one sacred deposit of the word of God” and “flowing from the same divine wellspring,” Scripture and Tradition “merge into a unity and tend toward the same end”—the reliable handing-on of the Faith.
Of course, not every theological hand-me-down is divine revelation traceable to Jesus through the apostles. Some things come from other sources, and these “man-made traditions” are fine if they help us understand the gospel, but they become a problem when they interfere with it. In Mark 6:7, Jesus accuses the Pharisees of abandoning God’s commandments in favor of the tradition of men. Some cite this verse as anti-Tradition, but it’s not. Rather, it’s against man-made tradition . . . when it interferes with the commandments of God.
The New Testament uses the word paradosis in exactly this dual way. In some cases, like 2 Thessalonians 2:15, it’s used for revealed, apostolic Tradition, and there it’s treated as sacred and binding. In other cases, like Mark 7:8, it’s used to refer to things handed on from other sources—and there it’s condemned if and when it interferes with adherence to the gospel. But a lot of Protestants don’t understand that Sacred Tradition is good, or even that there’s a difference between Tradition and man-made traditions.
One reason is the Protestant bias against the word tradition that is reflected in some Bible translations. The popular NIV, for example, translates paradosis as “tradition” any time it’s used negatively. But when paradosis is used positively, the NIV tends to change the word to “teachings” (even though that’s not really what paradosis means). So, for example, it renders 2 Thessalonians 2:15 as “stand firm and hold fast to the teachings we passed on to you, whether by word of mouth or by letter.”
And in 2 Thessalonians 3:6, where Paul warns the Thessalonians to “keep away from any brother who is living in idleness and not in accord with the tradition that you received from us,” the NIV again changes the word to “teaching.”
It’s important to realize and, when discussing Tradition with Protestants, to point out to them, that the biblical word to describe good hand-me-downs that we should accept is the exact same word used in all the places where bad, man-made hand-me-downs are rejected (when they obstruct the gospel).
The Bible doesn’t reject Tradition as inherently evil. Some Bible translations seem to, but that’s because translators put their own theological tradition over faithfully translating the sacred texts.