Wednesday, November 29, 2006
Why am I Catholic?
I believe in the God of All Creation, that is to say, I believe in the One, Triune God, One God in Three Divine Persons, God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. The same God Today, Yesterday and Forever, whose nature is always to have mercy.
I believe in the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church as she exists in Communion with the Bishop of Rome, who is the Successor of St. Peter the Apostle and first Pope.
I believe all that is stated in the Nicene Creed.
I believe that the Catholic Church, in Communion with the Bishop of Rome (the Pope) is the Church that was founded directly by Jesus Christ nearly 2000 years ago, and is the Church that compiled and Canonized the Bible and that members of this Church were the authors of the New Testament, inspired by God the Holy Spirit.
I believe that I may unite my emotional and physical afflictions, sorrows and sufferings to the sufferings of Christ Crucified for the sake of the Whole Church, and I believe that our personal sufferings are great means of personal Sanctification.
I believe in the Queenship, Divine Motherhood, Perpetual Virginity and Intercession of the Theotokos also known as the Blessed Virgin Mary and I believe that she can and does hear our prayers and can pray for us to her Divine Son, Jesus Christ who is God. The Bible teaches us that we must intercede for each other based on the Mediatorship of Jesus Christ (1 Timothy 2:1-5), the Bible teaches us that the Prayers of the Righteous are powerful (James 5:16) and the Bible teaches us that the Saints and Angels in Heaven offer our prayers to God in the form of incense (Rev. 5:8, Rev. 8:1-4), and the Bible has examples of prayer to the Angels and Hosts of Heaven (Psalm 103:20-21, Psalm 148:1-2). I believe that the Most Holy Ever Virgin Mary, Mother of God is an excellent person to go to for intercessory prayer.
Jesus teaches us that through Him, we may have Eternal Life. Based on this, I believe that the Saints in Heaven are very much alive, can hear our prayers and do intercede for us. Some claim that praying to Mary and the Saints and Angels means that we are worshipping them. This is not so. Prayer in itself is not an act of worship. The word "Prayer" means "Request." So when we pray, we are making a request, and in the case of prayer to Saints, we are requesting THEIR intercession (1 Timothy 2:1-5) to God on our behalves based on the Mediatorship of Jesus Christ.
I believe that Christ is truly present in the Eucharist; the source and summit of our Catholic faith. Protestants reading this may say that the Passover isn't finished until Calvary, I would suggest that Calvary is really begun in the Upper Room with the Eucharist. When does Jesus' sacrifice really begin? Well, He insists on the fact that His life is not being taken away from Him. He is laying it down. Now in the trial, in the passion, it's being taken away; but in the Upper Room, prior to all of that, Jesus lays it down. He says, "This is my body. This cup is the blood of the New Covenant." Christ could not have used clearer, more explicit words than "This is My body." He did not say, "This is a sign of My body," or "This represents My body," but, "This is My body." I together with 1 billion Catholics take Christ at His word because He is the omnipotent God. On His word we know that the Holy Eucharist is the the body and blood of Christ.
To reiterate, I believe in the Catholic Church and ALL that she teaches. This is the Faith handed on to us once and for all by Jesus Christ and His Apostles.
Labels: Catholic Belief, Video
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