Catholic Bible 101

Who am I?  Just an ordinary Catholic layman who reads a lot about apologetics, the Bible, and the Church, and who listens to a lot of Catholic Radio, EWTN TV, and Catholic CDs.  One day, I just decided to write down all of the nuggets of Catholic truth I either read or heard onto an easy to read webpage for everyone to become aware of.  Too many times, I have found, The Church takes it for granted that everyone knows the basics of the bible and the catechism.  I personally have not found this to be true.  In my own sinful life, I have discovered that I need to be constantly reminded of these truths or else I forget them as I get older and the world wears me down. And if I forget them, I certainly can't apply them to the events in my daily life.  And we all will be held accountable for these truths when we are being judged by Jesus Christ.  At the time of our judgment, God's justice begins.  That justice may include purgatory time for us (amazing that even when his justice takes over, he is merciful to us. Purgatory means that we still go to heaven, through purification).  Hopefully, we will have led Christian lives so that we don't send ourselves to hell.  Revelation 21:27 says that no unclean person shall enter heaven. Purgatory is our cleansing process.

I also tried to make this site easy to read, entertaining (I had a lot of fun writing "The Memo from the devil"!), and edifying, even if you only have 5 or 10 minutes to spend reading.  One of the big problems with Church documents is that they are somewhat wordy, and use language that most people don't ordinarily use. Therefore, very few Catholics read lengthy papal encyclicals and other Church documents, even though they are great documents.  IMHO, if you were to read 2 of the webpages on this site every day for a month, you would know more about the Biblical roots of the Catholic Church than 90% of the Catholics out there.  Of course, then the problem becomes how to apply these teachings to your day-to-day life, something I continually struggle with.  But struggling with them is a lot better than blithely going about your day, not knowing what they are, and stumbling into hell as a result. If we persevere  in our Catholic faith with humility and courage through the storms of suffering and disappointment we ALL have in our lives, we will eventually overcome the world, the flesh, and the devil, by the power of Jesus Christ, and finally attain heaven, along with other people we inspire along the way.  Let's all start that journey TODAY!  Remember, life on earth is short, and eternity is forever.  The time to choose Jesus and His Church is now, wherever you are and whatever state of life you are in.  Most of the people reading these words now will not be on planet earth 50 years from today.  For some, sooner, for some later, but for sure, all of us will either be in heaven or hell eventually.  Choose wisely, love greatly, forgive generously!  And don't forget to take care of the poor, per Matthew 25:31-46 (the poor are really Jesus in disguise).  It's not good enough to just go to Church on Sunday.  We all have to bear good fruit, or we will be thrown into the fire (Matthew 7:19). Mother Teresa set the example for us all, and while none of us will be able to attain the things she did, we can certainly help the poor in our own way, according to the state of our lives.  The poor may be like diamonds in the mud, but a diamond is still a diamond, muddy or not.  It's our job to help them sparkle and shine!  According to Romans 2:6, we will be judged on our works, so if your goal in life is to just watch TV, or to make lots of money, or to eat like a king, or to have sex all of the time, you need to turn your life upside down and start helping the poor.  They will benefit from it, your faith will grow as a result, and the devil won't have as much power over you as he currently does.  Why?  Because while he has a superior intellect to us, he doesn't have a heart, and he can't understand why anyone would choose to help the poor over the carnal allurements he has to offer (1 John 2:16).

It's important to remember that as Christians, we are royalty; that is, we are the adopted sons and daughters (Galatians 4:5) of the King of Kings, Jesus Christ.  We all need to start acting like the princes and princesses we truly are. The devil tries his best to hide this fact from us.  So now that you know who you really are, please start acting like it with true humility, helping the downtrodden, and visiting your Father King in His tabernacle as often as possible.

Pax Christi and Ave Maria - Jude

To contact me, e-mail me at divinemercy@catholicbible101.com