Month: April 2019

I have been through fire and blood and come back again through the mercy of God

Published on by PhilotheaLeave a comment

My Friends,

The year (2018) was a trying time for my Faith; quite possibly, I went through the hardest trial I have ever had to face. After this experience, I had resolved to share what I had discovered through my research, but I became overwhelmed with the vastness of the material I would have to go over to show you, the reader, what I had seen. So I put it off for a while and began to wonder whether I would publish this at all… Well, I made a few decisions. Each person who truly wants the Truth will come to discover what God is leading them to, and so I will only be a voice – a testimony – of one whom God was pleased to show mercy and love to in this regard among many others. I pray that by reading my testimony, it will inspire you to look deeper and listen to the God’s Voice in your heart. 
What follows is what I began to write last year with a few edits.

I have been studying my Faith a lot recently; especially around the Salvation issue, and with God’s Grace, I am finally ready to share what I have discovered. I am not saying this as a theologian, but more as a testimony of my belief for my peace of mind, and so that my friends may understand where I stand and why. Also, for the benefit of others who may be trapped in this mindset which I myself fell into, but which I am gratefully free from, now, purely through God’s Goodness and Mercy which I was not worthy of.

For a little background, I will share an email with an acquaintance I had been having extensive discussions with concerning this issue and who had helped me to reject the true Catholic teaching and embrace error/heresy. This email is what I sent him once I discovered the Truth. It follows:

Hi XXX,
I have some serious news to tell you… Over the weekend around the first of September, I went home. What an intense weekend that was! I have been through fire and blood and come back out again through the ineffable Mercy of GOD! Not through my own merits.
  My parents had been studying the Baptism issue very hard and deeply from all angles over the past week or two prior to that and they were bound and determined to show me everything they had discovered. I am only strong in Christ Who gives me strength, but I knew that if I closed my mind to Christ, His strength would leave me. Therefore, as they were talking to me, explaining based on the research and in humbly submitting to the Church, that Baptism of Desire and Blood was an impossible teaching when compared to the actual documents and decrees from Holy Mother Church, I was loath to ignore the words of Holy Mother Church, but I insisted on reading the actual documents for myself to see if they could mean otherwise than how my family had interpreted it. I discovered a few things on observation:

  1. All the support for BOD and BOB were from fallible documents – even the Code of Canon Law and the Catechism of the Council of Trent are fallible based on the teachings of what is infallible. 
  2. All the documents which mentioned Baptism and the necessity of the Sacrament of Baptism never mentioned BOD and BOB or ‘some other way of attaining Heaven’, in fact, they Always spoke against that idea. 
  3. And the saints and Fathers of the Church were in fact Not unanimous in their belief of Baptism of Desire and Blood which would have been a requirement for this teaching to be a dogma coming from Ordinary Magisterium – such as the fact Mary only had one Son. 

[The website you shared with me] contains a large list of Saints and Fathers of the Church who were oftentimes in contradiction in the way they believed in salvation without the Sacrament of Baptism – some saying only martyrdom was viable and others saying desire was viable in this way, and others that way. And then, as an example, St. Gregory of Nazianzen was quoted incorrectly because in a different place (Oration 40), he pretty much slams Baptism of Desire as being a possibility. Finally, in conscience, faced with these facts, and faced with the warning from one of the popes teaching not to look into the dogmas “for a deeper understanding” (or something like that) contained in the dogmatic decrees, I couldn’t dismiss all this as being some group’s “personal interpretation” of Holy Mother Church, but as in fact, the teachings of Holy Mother Church.  In confusion among the teachers of the Faith, one must with humility and trust in God, look to where Christ has preserved His True Teachings in the infallible decrees and pronouncements of the Church. It is not up to man to pick and choose through the decrees and teachings of the Fathers which agree with his own point of view – this would be prideful and a sin when it is seen as different from what the True Teachings of the Church actually are. …I do not pretend to be a theologian, but in these times, when we have false teachers abounding all around us, we must use the means God has given us (internet, for one) to find what the Church has really taught so that we can humbly submit to it.
I said earlier that that weekend was really intense; it was perhaps the most intense weekend – or more specifically Friday night – of my entire life. After they gave me their arguments, they asked me what I had to say about it. I couldn’t answer – I was confused and didn’t know where to turn. So I turned to prayer and being alone with God and Mary. It was in the evening, but I excused myself to be alone, pray, and process everything I had learned on both sides. …Under the stars, I begged God and Our Lady not to turn away from me. I begged them to not blind me in my desires of the flesh or in a false doctrine whichever way that meant. I prayed the whole Rosary out there in the moonlight. I stayed out there in prayer – begging over and over again to know the Truth – for at least 5 hours. You can well believe me when I say it was the most intense, stressful, and perhaps even prayerful moment in my life. When I felt the Spirit move me, I went back into the house. The boys had already gone to bed, but Dad and Mom were awake. In fact, …Dad was searching for me outside though I didn’t realize it when I first felt it was time to go back home. I met him outside and we walked in together. I was hoping to have the answer, but I didn’t have it yet, though I had a feeling. It was the next day after seeing some more material that I just had to submit to God. If I had resisted any longer, I would have sinned against the Holy Ghost by “Resisting the Known Truth.” When Mom found out that I had had a change of heart, Mom revealed to me that she had been wearing a black penitential ring for me, but that that very day, she had lost it.
XXX, this one thing I beg you, please be open to the Voice of God in your heart. Please pray over this. …I care about you, and I will pray that you will see the Real Truth. Baptism is a Three in One Sacrament – but that is it; it is a Three-in-One-Sacrament, which has form, matter, and substance.
The Bishops of today are not infallible – they are not the Ordinary Magisterium. Men can make mistakes. We have to turn in loving trust and confidence to God and the Chair of Peter.
May God Bless you,
me

Facts:

  1. Outside the Catholic Church there is no Salvation.
  2. The Sacraments are absolutely necessary for Salvation though “each person need not receive them all.” (Vatican Council I – see link below)
  3. The Church teaches infallibly from the Ordinary and Solemn Magisterium of the Church.
  4. The requirements for Papal Infallibility according to the First Vatican Council: “the Roman pontiff speaks EX CATHEDRA, when, in the exercise of his office as shepherd and teacher of all Christians, in virtue of his supreme apostolic authority, he defines a doctrine concerning faith or morals to be held by the whole church; he possesses, by the divine assistance promised to him in blessed Peter, that infallibility which the divine Redeemer willed his church to enjoy in defining doctrine concerning faith or morals. Therefore, such definitions of the Roman pontiff are of themselves, and not by the consent of the church, irreformable.” (Taken almost word-for-word from http://www.papalencyclicals.net/Councils/ecum20.htm)
  5. Additionally, whatever is in Tradition or interpreted from Sacred Scripture with the unanimous consent of the fathers must also be held as infallible/dogmatic/Divinely Revealed.
  6. AND the Fathers of the Church HAVE NOT BEEN UNANIMOUS IN BELIEF CONCERNING WHETHER BOD AND BOB ARE POSSIBLE SUBSTITUTES FOR THE SACRAMENT OF BAPTISM. I’m sorry, but they just AREN’T. 
  7. And Finally, there is not one infallible proclamation which clearly teaches that one can be saved without the water of Baptism which is integrally needed for the Sacrament with is absolutely necessary for Salvation. The opposite is taught instead:  
    1. Pope Paul III, The Council of Trent, Can. 5 on the Sacrament of Baptism, Sess. 7, 1547, ex cathedra: “If anyone says that baptism [the sacrament] is optional, that is, not necessary for salvation (cf. Jn. 3:5): let him be anathema.”
    2. Pope Paul III, The Council of Trent, Can. 2 on the Sacrament of Baptism, Sess. 7, 1547, ex cathedra:  “If anyone shall say that real and natural water is not necessary for baptism, and on that account those words of Our Lord Jesus Christ: ‘Unless a man be born again of water and the Holy Spirit’ [John 3:5], are distorted into some sort of metaphor: let him be anathema.” 

I believe the best source to consult to answer any questions one may have concerning this dogma is Bro. Peter’s book, Outside the Catholic Church There is Absolutely No Salvation (link). He goes in depth to demonstrate the Catholic Church’s position in the face of all the facts. All the arguments are brought to the table, and all the arguments against this dogma are dismantled one-by-one. Bro.’s Michael and Peter also have many videos on the topic which one can find on their YT channel here.
The important thing to remember is that no matter the supposed “good intentions” of the people from whom this error originated and grew, Truth is Truth no matter what, and God’s Truth will overcome all the lies contradicting it.
May God bless you and grant that you may be of goodwill in your search for the Truth.

“The spirit, and the water, and the blood: and these three are one.” (1 Jn. 5:8).”

“The sons of God… Who are born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God” (Jn. 1:12;13)

Holy Passion

Published on by PhilotheaLeave a comment

Passion Sunday is coming soon. All of Lent we have been meditating on Christ and His most holy Passion, but this Sunday we commemorate how the upcoming Passion of Our Lord filled His Sacred Mind. Out of His great Love, He longed to sacrifice Himself for sinners, but in His Humanity, He feared the grievous and horrendous tortures which awaited Him in His Passion.

Is it any coincidence that the word, “passion” has the meaning today of drive, or devotion for some particular activity, or even the beloved activity itself? Consider that… Christ suffering and dying for us, shedding His blood, being insulted and blasphemed, loaded with contempt, was HIS Passion. He loved the Cross, longed for it and embraced it, because it would lead to our unification with Him in Heaven; that is, if only we respond to the graces He has obtained for us through His Most Holy Life, Sufferings, and Resurrection. All we have to do is follow Him, carrying our daily crosses, obeying all His Commandments, and following His inspirations out of love and gratitude for Him.

So as we continue on this journey of the Cross with Him, let us remember the love, devotion, and drive with which Our Lord embraced His sufferings on our behalf. Let us count ourselves blessed that He accepts every effort we make to sacrifice ourselves for Him, even though we can’t help but realize our puny efforts cannot in any way compare to His, or appear as an adequate repayment of the debt of love and gratitude which we owe Our Lord. Let us be courageous and continue to fight sin and imperfections in our lives. But let us remember that we must pray all the time for His Strength, without which we shall surely fall. Ejaculations such as, “All for Thee, O my Jesus, All for Thee!” and “Jesus, Son of David, Have mercy on me!” are great ways of praying throughout the day. I would be remiss if I failed to mention the importance of the Holy Rosary in honoring God, fighting our evil passions, and obtaining all manor of graces in our lives and for the lives of our loved ones as well. Pray the 15 decades everyday and Our Lady will not fail to take you under her special protection.

May God bless you and grant you a holy and blessed Lent.