Hi all. I wrote this article some time ago to encourage other Catholics and 1P5 decided to publish it recently. Hope you all like it. God bless. From: https://onepeterfive.com/5-good-reasons-to-become-or-remain-a-catholic-christian/ 5 Good Reasons to Become (or Remain!) a Catholic Christian Are you going through a time of trial in your Faith? Are you wondering if it is all worth it after all? Absolutely, it is worth it! There is a rich reward in Heaven waiting for you if only you persevere till the end. But you cannot do it on your own, you need the Grace of God, as we all do. Here are 5 good reasons why everyone should become, or remain, a Catholic Christian, designed especially for those struggling through a period of difficulty or dryness in their prayer life, a “dark night of the soul.” 1. Eucharistic Miracles – Signs and Proofs of Christ’s Divine Power to Miraculously Transubstantiate A non-Christian friend of mine called Eucharistic Miracles “the most powerful evidence for (Catholic) Christianity.” It is easy for us non-skeptics to understand why. For skeptics and doubters, these miracles serve as supernatural signs. Vatican I explains it well: Quote In order that the submission of our faith should be in accordance with reason, it was God’s will that there should be linked to the internal assistance of the Holy Spirit external indications of His Revelation, that is to say divine acts, and first and foremost miracles and prophecies, which clearly demonstrating as they do the Omnipotence and Infinite Knowledge of God, are the most certain signs of revelation and are suited to the understanding of all (Dogmatic Constitution on the Catholic Faith: Chapter 3, On Faith). Christ worked the wondrous Eucharistic Miracle of Lanciano in response to a poor Priest struggling through his own dark night. He wondered if Christ really was present in the Eucharist, as Christ had promised in the Gospel. In His Mercy, the Good Lord chose to answer the doubts of this “doubting Thomas” with a Eucharistic Miracle. It reminds us of His post-Resurrection apparition to St. Thomas. The next time you are at Holy Mass, or Eucharistic Adoration, just remember the Living God is truly present in the Host. Some believe because they have seen. But blessed are those who believe even without seeing, as Our Lord said. Believing without seeing will merit a great reward in Heaven. 2. Marian Apparitions – Heavenly Reminders from Our Loving Mother of Her Maternal Presence Non-Catholics, including Non-Catholic Christians, have become Catholics thanks to Our Lady of Fatima’s Public Miracle of the Sun. 70,000 astonished eyewitnesses[/iurl] saw the Sun move and their rain-drenched clothes quickly dry. Even the secular press reported it. These astonishing miracles do not happen outside the Catholic Faith. They are manifest evidence of a Supernatural Power. Fatima has been called the “Greatest Public Miracle since the Resurrection of Jesus.” It is a great grace God gave us![/color] To doubters and skeptics who try to explain away Fatima, a former Russian Orthodox Christian puts it like this:[/font][/size] Quote The thing that initially triggered my move towards Catholicism is Our Lady of Fatima. One of my friends was telling me about the fruits Fatima had on her own life. She read what the Theotokos had said to the children about modesty, and it caused her to become more modest in her dress. She also told me about how her priest had visited Fatima and when he came back, he preached a fiery sermon about the reality of hell. I had been told by my fellow Orthodox Christians that Fatima was at best a hoax and at worst demonic, so I decided to investigate Fatima for myself. The view that Fatima is simply a hoax cannot be the case. It has a miracle connected with it that was witnessed by thousands of people, many of whom were atheists who came to the event specifically to refute what the children were saying. Skeptics have argued that it was simply a mass hallucination, but Christians should be skeptical of this argument. Skeptics of the resurrection of Jesus often respond to the fact that there were 500 witnesses by pointing to Fatima. If Fatima was a mass hallucination, so could the resurrection of Jesus have been. No other mass hallucination has ever been recorded though. In reality, Fatima was actually the most seen public miracle since the time of the exodus about 3500 years ago. Fatima is God’s Mercy revealed to a hurting fallen world. Every day, as we pray Our Lady’s Rosary, we should thank God for the grace of having been born Catholics, or having become such later on. Our Catholic Faith is the most Priceless Grace of our life! Our Lady of Guadalupe’s Miraculous Tilma and Her marvelous conversion of 9 Million Souls is yet another miraculous proof of the Catholic Faith. Our Lady is one of the Most Successful Evangelists! It is said that one missionary, Flemish Franciscan Peter of Ghent, baptized with his own hands over one million Mexicans! “Who will not recognize the Spirit of God in moving so many millions to enter the kingdom of Christ,” wrote Fr. Anticoli, S.J., Quote and when we consider that there occurred no portent or other supernatural event … to attract such multitudes, other than the apparitions of the Virgin, we may state with assurance that it was the Vision of the Queen of the Apostles that called the Indians to the Faith.” 3. The Miraculous Shroud of Turin – Powerful Evidence of Our Blessed Lord’s Glorious Resurrection We cannot forget the Miraculous Proofs Our Lord gave of His own Resurrection – something that should console and edify all doubting Christians. Our Lord is unique among all people who have ever existed. Everyone else died and remained dead. He alone died and gloriously rose again. As mentioned in the quote above, there were more than 500 eyewitnesses to that historical fact. But the Shroud of Turin is a miraculous relic that gives even visible evidence of it. A recent study showed only a great burst of energy, more powerful than any laser on the market today, could have produced the Image of the Holy Face on the Shroud. “The ultraviolet light necessary to [simulate the image] exceeds the maximum power released by all ultraviolet light sources available today,” says Di Lazzaro. It would require “pulses having durations shorter than one forty-billionth of a second, and intensities on the order of several billion watts.” If the most advanced technologies available in the 21st century could not produce a facsimile of the shroud image, he reasons, how could it have been executed by a medieval forger?
4. Saints and Martyrs Leading up to 2.5 Billion Christians Do you believe that Christianity is perishing, over and done-for? It is not. Maybe it’s time to broaden our outlook to Universal Christendom, to Global Christianity. There are, as of 2021, more than 2.5 Billion professing Christians in the world. Islam is a distant 2nd at less than 2 billion. Christianity is not going anywhere. It is going to remain the world’s most popular religion for a long time to come. Catholic Christianity leads all other Christian denominations combined at roughly 1.3 billion. While Euro-America is declining, the global south is exploding with Christianity in what Philip Jenkins calls “The Next Christendom[/iurl].”[/color] Do you think you’re having a hard time for your Faith? Well, according to Open Doors, some 340 million Christians experience high level of persecution for Christ last year. We cannot forget our brothers and sisters who are suffering for Christ’s sake. We should pray for and console one another, so that we can all prevail amidst our suffering. Through the Cross, we have victory. If one member suffer any thing, all the members suffer with it; or if one member glory, all the members rejoice with it (I Cor. 12:26). We should respect all suffering Christians, as we respect soldiers who die for our country. But once more, Catholic Christianity has unique Saint-Martyrs like St. Padre Pio. A saint who lived crucified with Christ, who miraculously and mystically bore the Wounds of Christ like other saints and mystics going back to St. Catherine of Siena and St. Francis of Assisi, St. Padre Pio suffered “White Martyrdom” like St. John the Apostle. He suffered more than enough to be a martyr, and his voluntary acceptance of suffering gained great graces for the Church. St. Paul mentions a similar principle in Col 1:24: I now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up those things that are wanting of the sufferings of Christ. Where are the St. Padre Pios of today? It’s your chance and your choice, to be a spiritual son or daughter of St. Pio, and become like him.[/font][/size] 5. The Crown of Glory waiting for you in Heaven This Crown is granted to those who persevere. Blessed is the man that endureth temptation; for when he hath been proved, he shall receive the crown of life, which God hath promised to them that love him (Ja. 1:12). St. Padre Pio was known for praying 200 to 250 decades of the Rosary during the day! 250 decades! No wonder he became a saint. And he persevered in doing this for over 50 years. If you want to become a saint, you can do so by praying the Rosary like he did. St. Montfort: Quote We should do this so that we ourselves may receive three crowns from Jesus and Mary. The first is a crown of merit during our lifetime, the second, a crown of peace at our death, and the third, a crown of glory in Heaven. If you say the Rosary faithfully until death, I do assure you that, in spite of the gravity of your sins “you shall receive a never fading crown of glory.” (1 Pet 5:4) … “(Let) no man take thy crown”: take care that your crown is not stolen by somebody who has been more faithful than you in saying the Holy Rosary. It is “thy crown”—Almighty God has chosen it for you and you have already won it halfway by means of the Rosaries that you have said well. Unfortunately someone else may get ahead of you in the race—someone who has worked harder and who has been more faithful might possibly win the crown that ought to be yours, paying for it by his Rosaries and good works. All this could really happen if you stand still on the beautiful path where you have been running so well: “You did run well.” “Who hath hindered you?” Who is it who will have prevented you from having the Rosary crown? None other than the enemies of the Holy Rosary who are so numerous. Our Lord said, Be thou faithful until death: and I will give thee the Crown of Life (Apoc 2:10). Claim that Promise! Look forward to it in joyful hope and eager anticipation! If we are faithful unto death, Our Lord will, according to His Promise, give us the Crown of Life! That should make us happy! We have something glorious to look forward to. Let us complete the 9 First Fridays to the Sacred Heart, the 5 First Saturdays to the Immaculate Heart, the Great Double Novena to the Twin Hearts together, pray the Rosary every day, wear the Scapular, and then we know that we will die in Grace, with the Sacraments of the Church, receive Final Perseverance and go to Heaven. We ought to live a blessed and happy life expecting this! And should we evangelize? Of course! It is well said, and piously believed, that each soul we help bring to Jesus will be like a beautiful jewel on our eternal crown! What a thought! It should motivate us to try and bring multitudes to Jesus in the course of our lifetime. Each good work done with faith in Christ, by the Grace of God, merits an eternal reward. Truly, we are so blessed!
something that turned me away from Protestantism is the belief that ecumenical councils can make mistakes even the first 7, this is something deeply disturbing because it means that in the early Church the faithful did not have the full guarantee of true doctrine, this at a time when there was no full consensus of which books of Scripture were divinely inspired
I'm on thirty per day but cannot seem to break that barrier. Must ask Padre Pio for insights on prayer I suspect time was suspended somehow for him to pray so many that is in a mystical way. He could bilocate so there are perhaps other gifts like the gift of prayer - praying without ceasing.
