Catholic

Why God Gives US Problems Hope this will help you to see opportunities behind the threats! Why God Gives Us Problem? LIFE IS A SERIES OF PROBLEM-SOLVING OPPORTUNITIES. 1. God uses problems to DIRECT you. 2. God uses problems to INSPECT you. 3. God uses problems to CORRECT you. 4. God uses problems to PROTECT you. 5. God uses problems to PERFECT you. The problems you face will either defeat you or develop you -- depending on how you respond to them. Unfortunately most people fail to see how God wants to use problems for good in their lives. They react foolishly and resent their problems rather than pausing to consider what benefit they might bring. Here are five ways God wants to use the problems in your life: 1. God uses problems to DIRECT you. Sometimes God must light a fire under you to get you moving. Problems often point us in a new direction and motivate us to change. Is God trying to get your attention? "Sometimes it takes a painful situation to make us change our ways." Proverbs 20:30 2. God uses problems to INSPECT you. People are like tea bags ... if you want to know what's inside them, just drop them into hot water! Has God ever tested your faith with a problem? What do problems reveal about you?"When you have many kinds of troubles, you should be full of joy, because you know that these troubles test your faith, and this will give you patience." James 1:2-3 3. God uses problems to CORRECT you. Some lessons we learn only through pain and failure. It's likely that as a child your parents told you not to touch a hot stove. But you probably learned by being burned. Sometimes we only learn the value of something ... health, money, a relationship... by losing it. "It was the best thing that could have happened to me, for it taught me to pay attention to your laws." Psalm 119:71-72 4. God uses problems to PROTECT you. A problem can be a blessing in disguise if it prevents you from being harmed by something more serious. Last year a friend was fired for refusing to do something unethical that his boss had asked him to do. His unemployment was a problem, but it saved him from being convicted and sent to prison a year later when management's actions were eventually discovered."You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good." Genesis 50:20 5. God uses problems to PERFECT you. Problems, when responded to correctly, are character builders. God is far more interested in your character than our comfort. Your relationship to God and your character are the only two things you're going to take with you into eternity. "We can rejoice when we run into problems ... they help us learn to be patient. And patience develops strength of character in us and helps us trust God more each time we use it until finally our hope and faith are strong and steady." Romans 5:3-4 Here's the point: God is at work in your life even when you do not recognize it or understand it. But it's much easier and profitable when you cooperate with Him! ~~by Mena Haryanto

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"The devil is a big trickster. Sometimes when we believe in the devil, he is everywhere," said Lebar, a Catholic exorcist.

"Father Lebar said you don't have to have faith in Jesus -- just faith, which is something most priests don't say," Mike Green (senior-archaeology) said.

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Two Catholic women ordained as priests Published: Nov. 12, 2007 at 8:41 AM Print story Email to a friend Font size: ST. LOUIS, Nov. 12 (UPI) -- A couple of firsts: Two women were ordained as Roman Catholic priests Sunday in St. Louis -- and the ordination was in a synagogue.The ceremony for Rose Marie Dunn Hudson, 67, and Elsie Hainz McGrath, 69, was held at Central Reform Congregation with 600 people looking on, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported.The Roman Catholic church doesn't allow women to become priests and St. Louis Archbishop Raymond Burke sent the women a letter condemning their plans and informing them they would automatically be excommunicated if they went ahead.Burke also criticized the Central Reform Congregation, threatening to cease all participation in interfaith events with the congregation, the newspaper said."For us in St. Louis today, the (Gateway) Arch is a symbol for the gateway to justice and equality for women," Patricia Fresen, the ordaining bishop with Roman Catholic Womenpriests, told the Post-Dispatch.The women said they plan to hold services in a Unitarian church, as part of an international organization called Roman Catholic Womenpriests.McGrath is a great-grandmother, who edited at a Catholic publishing house and served as a campus minister at St. Louis University, a Catholic institution. Hudson, who said she wanted to be a priest since she was 14, is a grandmother who taught in St. Louis schools for more than 40 years.

Lesson seen in group learning spiritual director was suspended priest SPRINGFIELD, Mass. (CNS) -- A recently confirmed report that a priest long forbidden to function as a cleric had been heavily involved with a local Springfield private prayer group shows the difficulties Catholics can run into when they support unofficial spiritual groups, according to church officials. It also illustrates the difficulty church authorities have tracking the activities of a small number of priests who continue to defy orders not to exercise their ministry. In early September, the Diocese of Springfield was contacted by Vic Valois, a Catholic and a former member of a group called Seeds of Hope. He reported that Father John J. Szantyr had been the group's long-standing spiritual mentor and occasional sacramental celebrant. Father Szantyr, 76, is allegedly a repeated sexual offender with victims in more than one diocese. He has been forbidden to minister in any way or to publicly present himself as a priest since being removed from ministry by the Diocese of Worcester, Mass., in 1988. Yet, until recently, he has continued to wear clerical clothing and refer to himself as "Father" in violation of the canonical restrictions against clerics who face credible charges of sexual abuse of a minor.

Natural family planning gets government, insurance recognition ST. LOUIS (CNS) -- The medical coding system used by the government, insurance companies, medical clinics and health care providers now includes two codes specifically for natural family planning. Behind the push for the new codes was the American Academy of FertilityCare Professionals, a national organization that promotes the use of the Creighton Model FertilityCare System, which is used for natural family planning and women's health and infertility issues while upholding Catholic teaching. Diane Daly, director of the Office of Natural Family Planning for the St. Louis Archdiocese and a member of the academy, headed the committee that worked several years for the new codes. On Oct. 1, the International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision, Clinical Modification (ICD-9-CM) published the following codes for natural family planning: V25.04: Counseling and instruction in natural family planning to avoid pregnancy, and V26.41: Procreative counseling and advice using natural family planning.

Hotel chain offers free rooms for Marys and Josephs at Christmas

From the Decree of Damasus (attributed to Damasus): The arrangement of the names of Christ, however, is manifold: Lord, because He is Spirit; Word, because He is God; Son, because He is the only-begotten son of the Father; Man, because He was born of the Virgin; Priest, because He offered Himself as a sacrifice; Shepherd, because He is a guardian; Worm, because He rose again; Mountain, because He is strong; Way, because there is a straight path through Him to life; Lamb, because He suffered; Corner-Stone, because instruction is His; Teacher, because He demonstrates how to live; Sun, because He is the illuminator; Truth, because He is from the Father; Life, because He is the creator; Bread because He is flesh; Samaritan, because He is the merciful protector; Christ, because He is anointed; Jesus, because He is a mediator; Vine, because we are redeemed by His blood; Lion, because he is king; Rock, because He is firm; Flower, because He is the chosen one; Prophet, because He has revealed what is to come.

Youssif is able to smile again. He will still undergo more surgeries to correct his lower lip and tweak other scars.

But once they gave him the shot of morphine he deteriorated rapidly.

Tattered and taped together, a journal the Rev. Ron Camarda kept with him in Iraq contains names and notes about the soldiers over whom he prayed. Photos by JON M. FLETCHER/The Times-Union

The Labrecque resurrection bears all the hallmarks of the miraculous cure. It is medically mysterious, spontaneous and quick. It happened to a religious believer who knew that dozens of other believers were praying for him. Most importantly, the retelling of the story --if not the healing itself -- relied on the intercession of a saintly figure. In this case, it was not just the former pope, whom the Labrecques admired deeply, but also the founder of the Army of Mary, Marie-Paule Giguere, an 86-year-old Quebec mystic who claims to be a reincarnation of the Virgin Mary, a photo of whom Suzanne had hung above the hospital bed.

The Catholic Mass is also misrepresented as being a "new sacrifice" of Jesus Christ. That is, at Mass, Jesus is "re-sacrificed." Mass is NOT a "new" Sacrifice of Jesus Christ. The Roman Catholic Church teaches Mass is Jesus "one-time" bloody sacrifice "made present" in an unbloody manner. The Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches: 1366. "The Eucharist is thus a sacrifice because it re-presents (makes present) the sacrifice of the cross, because it is its memorial and because it applies its fruit: (Christ), our Lord and God, was once and for all to offer himself to God the Father by his death on the altar of the cross, to accomplish there an everlasting redemption. But because his priesthood was not to end with his death, at the Last Supper 'on the night when he was betrayed,' (he wanted) to leave to his beloved spouse the Church a visible sacrifice (as the nature of man demands) by which the bloody sacrifice which he was to accomplish once for all on the cross would be re-presented, its memory perpetuated until the end of the world, and its salutary power be applied to the forgiveness of the sins we daily commit.[Council of Trent (1562): DS 1740; cf. 1 Cor

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