Are Catholics Christian?

But I have seen a Catholic kiss the feet of a statue of Christ.

GADEL — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 20:55:05 +0000

If I kiss the photograph of my mother, am I honoring a piece of cardboard? Or is it a tribute of love and respect offered to my mother? A Catholic reverences images and statues only in so far as they remind him of God, of Christ, or of Our Lady and the Saints. Where a pagan adores and worships a thing of wood in itself, I kiss the cross not because it is a piece of wood, but because it stands for Christ and for His sufferings on my behalf. And I am sure that Our Lord looks down from heaven and says, “Bless the child; he at least appreciates my love for him.” Your mistake is that you try to judge interior dispositions from exterior conduct—a dangerous policy always.

From: Questions about Images and Statues

I have seen Catholics on their knees adoring and praying to statues in their Churches.

GADEL — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 20:51:03 +0000

You have not. You have seen Catholics kneeling at prayer, and perhaps kneeling before an image of Christ, or of Our Lady. But if you concluded that they were praying to the statues that was not the fault of the Catholics. It was your own fault in so far as you judged them according to your own preconceived ideas. Without bothering to ask for information, you guessed, and guessed wrongly. Before an image of Mary, Catholics may go on their knees and pray to God through the intercession of that Mother of Christ whom the statue represents. But you have no right to accuse them of praying to the statue. Were you to kneel down by your bedside at night for a last prayer, could you be regarded as adoring or praying to your mattress?

From: Questions about Images and Statues

God forbade us to worship plaster statues as Catholics do; yet you send missionaries to convert heathens who do the same thing.

GADEL — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 20:36:34 +0000

God absolutely forbids us to worship wooden and stone statues, and Catholics are not so foolish as to commit so serious a sin. But Catholics do honor representations of those who are in heaven, just as we all honor our dead soldiers by tributes of respect to the Cenotaph. If I lift my hat to the flag of my country as I pass the memorial to our dead soldiers, am I honoring the cloth or the stone, or what it stands for? If it be lawful in that case, it is certainly lawful to honor the memorials of the dead heroes of Christianity, the Saints. Our missionaries go to heathen tribes to save them from the idolatrous worship of man-made gods.

From: Questions about Images and Statues

I have seen more idols in Catholic Churches than sincere Christians.

GADEL — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 20:30:18 +0000

You have never seen an idol in a Catholic Church. An image is an idol only when it is the object of divine worship. You have seen images in Catholic Churches, but every Catholic knows that divine worship cannot be offered to such images. Would you call the Statue of Liberty, in New York harbor, an idol? As for your not seeing sincere Christians in a Catholic Church, you cannot expect to test the sincerity of a Christian by the color of his tie or the shape of his shoes.

From: Questions about Images and Statues

Why are Catholic Churches decorated with images and statues in direct violation of the second commandment?

GADEL — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 20:21:08 +0000

The second commandment is, “Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain.” Protestants, of course, call that the third commandment. But they are wrong in doing so, having taken that part of the first commandment which refers to images as the second of God’s commandments. But do those words forbid the making of images? They do not. God was forbidding idolatry, not the making of images. He said, “Thou shalt not make to thyself any graven image of anything in the heaven above, or in the earth beneath. Thou shalt not bow down to them nor worship them.” God deliberately adds those last words, yet you ignore them. He forbids men to make images in order to adore them. But He does not forbid the making of images. You will find the commandments given in Exodus, XX. But in that same Book, XXV., 18, you will find God ordering the Jews to make images of Angels! Would you accuse God of not knowing the sense of His own law? He says, “Thou shalt make also two cherubims of beaten gold, on the two sides of the oracle.” In other words, the Jews were to make images of things in the heaven above. And if your interpretation be true, why do you violate God’s law by making images of things in the earth beneath? Why images of kings and politicians in our parks? Why photographs of friends and relatives? On your theory you could not even take a snapshot of a gum tree. You would be making an image of a thing in the earth beneath. You strain at a gnat and swallow a camel! This is the fruit of your private interpretation of Scripture. No. God does not forbid the making of images; He forbids the making of images in order to adore them.

From: Questions about Images and Statues

Christians Sanctify Their Homes

Margaret — Sun, 15 Jan 2012 22:23:36 +0000

The early church was not only very poor, but under increasing persecution. No matter whether one thinks those early Christians were Catholics or not, worship services were necessarily in the homes.

We have been blessed to have beautiful and ancient churches and Cathedrals to worship in, and yet, always and truly, church ALSO needs to be a DOMESTIC church.

For one thing, creating a prayer space at home derives its power and importance from our primary and public worship. Having one sanctifies the home and invites Jesus in, giving the master the place of honor at the table.

It assists families to pray together, gaining God’s blessing and the grace to remain faithful to each other and the Divine Will.

It provides a beautiful little prayer space for personal prayer; in times of great trouble and grief it will be, with use, a powerfully comforting area.

It teaches children to place God in the FIRST place in their lives, and thereby gain His blessing on their entire life. It will be no challenge to them to find ways to make the first commandment live and breathe for them.

All Christians, and especially Catholics, benefit from being, and creating, a domestic church place in their homes.

Nativity Pictures and Nativity Wallpapers

GADEL — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 19:03:10 +0000

Infant Jesus pictures

GADEL — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 18:26:34 +0000

St. Padre Pio quotes

GADEL — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 17:36:39 +0000

Prayer is the best weapon we have; it is the key to God’s heart. You must speak to Jesus not only with your lips, but with your heart. In fact on certain occasions you should only speak to Him with your heart. ~St. Padre Pio

Saint Philip Neri quote

GADEL — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 17:20:25 +0000

Sufferings are a kind of paradise to him who suffers them with patience, while they are a hell to him who has no patience. ~St. Philip Neri