DAY 16: Becoming a Saint....

     It is extremely hard to find information on this subject. And I'm still left with some questions that I can't seem to find the answers to. Maybe I'll ask the priest at church tomorrow and add more to this post....

     The official process of initiating someone into sainthood is called canonization. It appears that to become a saint you have to die. Oftentimes, the process starts years after death to add evidence/proof of saintliness. A local bishop will then analyze the person's life and writings to see if it matches with church doctrine. If they pass that first test, the information is then sent to the Vatican where a panel of theologians evaluates the candidate. "After approval by the panel and cardinals of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, the pope proclaims the candidate 'venerable'."
     The next step is called beatification and requires that the candidate has performed a miracle. I am unsure if the miracle HAS to be performed after this person dies or if it can be while they are living but http://www.catholic.org/saints/faq.php#num says, " Since miracles are considered proof that the person is in heaven and can intercede for us, the miracle must take place after the candidate's death and as a result of a specific petition to the candidate. When the pope proclaims the candidate beatified or "blessed," the person can be venerated (respect or awe inspired by the dignity, wisdom, dedication, or talent of a person) by a particular region or group of people with whom the person holds special importance. " Such as Mother Theresa and India...  However a saint needs 2 Miracles to be canonized as a saint.

     Pope John Paul II is in the process of becoming a saint.  On January 14, of this year, he was reported to have passed the beatification stage on the road to sainthood. The miracle that he performed occurred after a French nun prayed for him to intercede. She then recovered from the disease which John Paul had during his lifetime - Parkinson's. He will be publicly venerated on May 1, 2011.

I'm so grateful to the people who are reading my blog. Outside of the United States and Canada, I've had people from the UK, Ireland, and Austria read it. Thanks everyone! : )


Edited on March 30th...
PS: You don't have to die to become a saint because it's up to the pope, but it's kinda necessary since the miracle performed has to be post-mortem. Also the reason Catholics often quote the saints, is because the Saint's teachings are checked by the Vatican before they can be beatified.

 

DAY 15: Well, That's Fishy (pun intended)

     As part of the Lenten tradition, I am not eating meat today. The only "meat" I am allowed to eat is fish. The reasoning behind this is:

       A) fish is a large part of the New Testament. There is the loaves and fish story and Jesus telling some of his disciples "Come, and I will make you fishers of men." (Mark 1:17 )
     B) During the Middle Ages especially, the Church really tried to unify the Catholic peoples. To do this, they required nobles (the people who could afford meat) to eat fish on Fridays to connect with their poorer brethren.

     Do you know what the fish symbolized for the early Christians? It was a communication tool to identify fellow Christians in the early church- when we were first being persecuted for our beliefs. When two strangers met and thought maybe they were fellow believers, one of them would draw, on the ground, the upper half of the fish symbol.
                                               
If they knew the symbol, the second person would add the other line to complete the drawing of a fish.

      If not, then the second person would assume that the other was just drawing in the sand, and the Christian's identity would stay hidden.

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     Just as some of the first Bibles were written in the Greek language, so also were some of the early Christian codes. For Example: The Greek word Ichthys means fish. Yet, it is also an acrostic:
                                                                                Iesous
                                                                                Christos
                                                                                Theou
                                                                                Yios
                                                                                Soter
                                                        or Jesus Christ, God's Son, Savior. 　

     The fish symbol may have also originated from the Greek letter "a" or "alpha." It looks very similar to the fish we see today.
                                                         

                           As God says in Revelations, " I am the ALPHA and the Omega."

                                         God Bless! <>< :) <-- Do you like my fishy?

DAY 14: History of Christianity. Who came first in recent Christianity?

Something I've been wondering about is the divisions of the Church. I mean, after the great divide between Catholics and Orthodox Christians, what happened? So this post is going to essentially all about the divides: when they were and what new religion came out of it.

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There are now over 33,000 sects of Christianity that have branched off of the first Catholic Church... They have all divided when man makes an error. (Like the Protestant Reformation which occured because Catholics were, at the time, promoting indulgences.) All of the divisions occur because of:
man's ignorance
man’s failure
man’s pride
man’s lust for power and position
man’s selfishness
man wanting to do his own thing in his own way

(http://www.middletownbiblechurch.org/churchhi/church12.htm, and http://www.catholicbeacon.com/timeline.htm)


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The first divisions of the Church...

So this is a chart of the divides. The sects listed on the side all branched off from Roman Catholicism at some point after the Protestant Reformation.

DAY 13: Confession

     Even though this is one of the biggest misconceptions of the church, I was going to try to avoid this subject until I had a better grasp of it, but then I found a website that explains it pretty simply. : ) http://catholiceducation.org/articles/apologetics/ap0140.html

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    Confession in the Catholic Church is called a sacrament (signs of sacred things that "cause grace in the souls of man"- catholic encyclopedia) It is when sins that are committed after baptism are forgiven. One of the biggest problem Protestants seem to have with the Sacrament of Confession is the direct link to God. "Only God can erase your sins. So why don't you (Catholics) ask Him for forgiveness?" Don't get me wrong, we do, but, speaking from personal experience, it does help to hear the priest say " I absolve you of your sins."

     The first thing I need to cover, I suppose, is this. When we sin, we separate ourselves from God. That link with Him is not broken, but it becomes strained.  As the above website says "when we sin, we rupture our relationship not just with God, but with His Body, the Church (since all Catholics are interconnected as children of a common Father). So when we apologize, we need to do so to all parties involved — God and the Church.
     Think of it this way. Imagine you walk into a store and steal some of their merchandise. Later, you feel remorse and regret the sinful act. Now, you can pray to God to forgive you for breaking His commandment. But there’s still another party involved; you’ll need to return the merchandise and make restitution for your action.
     It’s the same way with the Church. In the confessional, the priest represents God and the Church, since we’ve sinned against both. And when he pronounces the words of absolution, our forgiveness is complete."

     The Priest is the connection between his Church and God.  He is the only one who can say the words "I absolve you of your sins" and then he is speaking for God. Of course anyone can forgive the sins of others. It's in the "Our Father." We pray, " and forgive us our trespasses, AS WE FORGIVE THOSE WHO TRESPASS AGAINST US."
      The Sacrament of Confession has been part of the Church since the beginning. There are two examples where confession is written into the Bible. The first is in the Gospel of John and the second in the Letter to James.

“Jesus said to them again, ‘Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even so I send you.’ And when he had said this, he breathed on them, and said to them, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.” (John 20:21-23)

                                                                                            and

“Is any among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord; and the prayer of faith will save the sick man, and the Lord will raise him up; and if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven. Therefore confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed.” (James 5:14-16)

Remember, I don't have a degree in any of this stuff. I'm just trying to explain it in a way that everyone can understand. If you have any questions or I said something wrong, please comment. Thanks!

DAY 12: Praying to the Apostles and Saints.

     Much like praying to Mary, Catholics pray to the saints and the apostles because they were ideal Christians. Sure they had their lapses of faith- none of them were perfect, they're only human after all... but they all were strong enough to live their faith and perform miracles in Jesus' name. Another reason we pray to them is because they have a certain authority in heaven. They have known Jesus like no common Christian has for they have seen Him in all His glory. When we pray to them they intercede(or talk) to God on our behalf. 

     I have tried to explain this to a couple of people already but I think the best example I've found is this:
Have you ever asked someone to pray for you? (yes)
Well, do you ever talk to your dead grandparents in heaven (yes)
Okay... so think of it this way: the saints are my friends in heaven and when I pray to them I ask them to pray for me. That's all.

     Praying to the Saints has been part of Christianity since the early days of  our religion and is shared by 3/4 of Christians...( Catholics, Eastern Orthodox, the other Eastern Christians, and even some Anglicans) It first started being criticized during the Protestant Reformation... ( you know, this blog is really making me realize how big of an effect Martin Luther had on History and Religion...)
     Some say that the saints (and Mary) can't hear are prayers but John depicts the saints in heaven offering our prayers to God in the Bible (Rev 5:8) under the form of  "golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints." Therefore our prayers must be heard.
     Another argument (which I have had personally directed at me) is that "You don't need to pray to the saints to reach God. That link with God is already there." Amen I say to you who comes up with this argument. I wholly agree with you, but that is not what I'm saying. Yes, we do have that link to God, but praying to the saints doesn't change that. Jesus is the only one who can truly mediate between God and man (you must think I'm contradicting myself, but I'm not...) It's just that I am asking them (the saints) to pray for me.  "Paul says that Christians should intercede: "First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all men, for kings and all who are in high positions, that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life, godly and respectful in every way. This is good, and pleasing to God our Savior, who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth" (1 Tim. 2:1–4)." ( http://www.catholic.com/library/Praying_to_the_Saints.asp)

I like this example I found on the above website:  Some ask, "Why not pray directly to Jesus?"  Catholics answer, "Of course one should pray directly to Jesus! But that does not mean it is not also a good thing to ask others to pray for one as well. Ultimately, the 'go-directly-to-Jesus' objection boomerangs back on the one who makes it: Why should we ask any Christian, in heaven or on earth, to pray for us when we can ask Jesus directly?"

I have my first follower!!!!!! Thanks Adriana, I appreciate it. : )

DAY 11: More books.

     Essentially,  a lot of people claim that the Catholics added books to the King James version... Au contraire. The 7 books that were "added" to the Catholic Bible were actually "removed" to create the ing James. Sorry. /: The seven books that were removed by Martin Luther (he was a German monk; not a civil rights activist.) when he created the Lutheran/ Protestant Church were Tobit, Judith, 1 Maccabees, 2 Maccabees, Wisdom, Ecclesiastes, and Baruch. These 7 books are called the Septuagint.
     The Septuagint were excluded during the Protestant Reformation in the 1500s  because they were not included in the Hebrew canon (book list) which was established by Jewish rabbis in the 1st Century CE/ AD. (So, after Christ died...) But the 7 books were included in the Greek canon (the one the original disciples used.) The books were fixed into the Church's Bible in 397 CE/AD (the same century.)
     Unfortunately, it is this difference of Bibles across the world ( because Greek and Slavonic Orthodox Christians have even more texts) that causes a such big divide between the different sects of Christianity. As I've said before, it's not so much as we have different Bibles, it's that we all believe that Jesus died for our sins and that he has and will forgive us if we ask for it.