Benedict Ven ⚜️

In the Old Testament I've found one of the beatitudes (Psalm 36:11), the counsels not to take a high seat in order not to be humbled (Proverbs 25:6-7), love thy neighbour (Sirach 27:18), forgive sins so that your sins will be forgiven (Sirach 28), feed the hungry, house and clothe those in need (Isaias 58:7), even the golden rule (Tobit 4:16). As well as a multitude of prophecies which are repeated in the New. Only a cursory glance could make someone who calls themselves "Christian" dismiss or condemn the Old Testament as if it's somehow opposed to the New.

II Machabees 5 16 And taking in his wicked hands the holy vessels, which were given by other kings and cities, for the ornament and the glory of the place, he unworthily handled and profaned them. 17 Thus Antiochus going astray in mind, did not consider that God was angry for a while, because of the sins of the inhabitants of the city: and therefore this contempt had happened to the place: 18 Otherwise had they not been involved in many sins, as Heliodorus, who was sent by king Seleucus to rob the treasury, so this man also, as soon as he had come, had been forthwith scourged, and put back from his presumption. 19 But God did not choose the people for the place's sake, but the place for the people's sake. 20 And therefore the place also itself was made partaker of the evils of the people: but afterward shall communicate in the good things thereof, and as it was forsaken in the wrath of almighty God, shall be exalted again with great glory, when the great Lord shall be reconciled. 19. Place. Temples and victims are for our own advantage. Isa. I. 11; Jer. vi. 20, and 3 Kings viii. 27. God has often suffered sacred places to be profaned, when piety had been disregarded. C.

Louis of Granada The Sinners Guide Chapter 3 Oh! that you had ears to hear the voice of creatures appealing to you to love God. Their expressive silence tells you that they were created to serve you, while yours is the sweet duty of praising your common Lord not only in your own name but in theirs also. I flood your days with light, the heavens declare, and your nights I illumine with the soft radiance of my stars. By my direct influences all nature bears fruit in season for your necessities. I sustain your breath, the air tells you; with gentle breezes I refresh you and temper your bodily heat. I maintain an almost infinite variety of birds to delight you with their beauty, to ravish you with their songs, and to feed you with their flesh. I maintain for your nourishment innumerable fishes, the water exclaims. I water your lands, that they may give you their fruit in due season. I afford you an easy passage to distant countries, that you may add their riches to those of your own... Thus can the whole universe with one voice cry out: Behold how my Master and Creator has loved you. He has created me for your happiness, that I might serve you, and that you in your turn might love and serve Him; for I have been made for you, and you have been made for God.

April 17th. St. Simeon, Bishop of Ctesiphon, And his companions, Martyrs. A.D.341. Sozomen writes, that the names of sixteen thousand who were crowned by it, were upon record; but adds, with St. Maruthas, that those whose names were not known on earth were innumerable. Of these glorious martyrs, St. Simeon and his companions were the most illustrious... After the hundred martyrs were executed, St. Simeon also received himself the stroke of the axe, together with his two companions, Abdhaicla and Hananias. The latter, as he was putting off his clothes, was seized with a violent but involuntary trembling; which being observed by Phusikius, or Phasic, who had been a few days before created by the king the Karugabarus, or prefect of all the king's workmen, cried out, "Hananias, banish all fear: shut your eyes one moment, and you will behold the light of Christ." He had no sooner said this, than he was seized and carried before the king, who reproached him as ungrateful for the honour lately conferred upon him. Phusikius answered, "I could desire to exchange my life for their death. I renounce this your honour, full of cares and trouble, and beg their death, than which nothing can be more happy." Butler's Lives of The Saints 1926

April 20th. St Agnes of Monte Pulciano, Virgin and Abbess. A.D. 1317. This holy virgin was a native of Monte Pulciano, in Tuscany. She had scarce attained to the use of reason, when she conceived an extraordinary relish and ardour for prayer, and in her infancy often spent whole hours in reciting the Our Father and Hail Mary, on her knees, in some private corner of a chamber. At nine years of age she was placed by her parents in a convent of Sackins, of the Order of St. Francis, so called from their habit, or at least their scapular, being made of sackcloth. Agnes, in so tender an age, was a model of all virtues to this austere community; and she renounced the world, though of a plentiful fortune, being sensible of its dangers before she knew what it was to enjoy it. At fifteen years of age she was removed to a new foundation of the Order of St. Dominic, at Proceno, in the county of Orvieto, and appointed abbess by Pope Nicholas IV. She slept on the ground, with a stone under her heard in lieu of a pillow; and for fifteen years she fasted always on bread and water, till she was obliged by her directors, on account of sickness, to mitigate her austerities. Her townsmen, earnestly desiring to be possessed of her again, demolished a lewd house, and erected upon the spot a nunnery, which they bestowed on her. This prevailed on her to return, and she established in this house nuns of the Order of St. Dominic, which rule she herself professed. The gifts of miracles and prophecy rendered her famous among men, though humility, charity, and patience under long sicknesses, were the graces which recommended her to God. She died at Monte Pulciano, on the 20th of April, 1317, being forty-three years old. Her body was removed to the Dominicans' church of Orvieto, in 1435, where it remains. Clement VIII. approved her office for the use of the order of St. Dominic, and inserted her name in the Roman Martyrology. She was solemnly canonized by Benedict XIII in 1726. Butler's Lives of The Saints 1926

@roseromaunt I'm currently up to the last book in the Machabees (OT), everything is clearly inspired, and the sum of it is repeated and fulfilled in the New Testament (see my pinned.)

Reinventing marcionism

Heres a movie about the life of Hardini, a Maronite monk who worked miracles 1808-1858. The 14th part deals with the "beatification" by the antipopes, so it should be seen with reservation, but its otherwise a really good movie. youtube.com/playlist?list=…

@DanielvsBabylon Sons of God refers to the Sons of Seth. For a more in-depth analysis, watch this video: youtu.be/Hw8_hW9rTl8?si…

Angels didn’t mate with humans in Genesis 6.

Louis of Granada The Sinners Guide Chapter 3 Consider in addition to this benefit the rich and delightful banquet of nature prepared for you by your Creator. Everything in this world is for man's use, directly or indirectly. Insects serve as food for birds, which in their turn serve as food for man. In like manner the grass of the fields supports the animals destined also for man's service. Cast your eye upon this vast world, and behold the abundance of your possessions, the magnificence of your inheritance. All that move upon the earth, or swim in the water, or fly in the air, or live under the sun are made for you. Every creature is a benefit of God, the work of His Providence, a ray of His beauty, a token of His mercy, a spark of His love, a voice which proclaims His magnificence. These are the eloquent messengers of God continually reminding you of your obligations to Him. "Everything," says St. Augustine, "in heaven and on earth calls upon me to love Thee, O Lord! and the universe unceasingly exhorts all men to love Thee, that none may exempt themselves from this sweet law."

“Fr.” Mike Schmitz (Ascension Presents) - False Theology Exposed (New Video) youtube.com/watch?v=v33YBi…

April 19th. St. Leo IX., Pope, C. A.D. 1054. This great pope received in baptism the name of Bruno. He was born in Alsace, in 1002, with his body marked all over with little red crosses, which was attributed to the intense meditation of his pious mother on the passion of Christ. He reformed the manner of celebrating the divine office, and performing the church music, in which he took great delight. A soul that truly loves God, makes the divine praises the comfort of her present exile. The saint was indefatigable in his labours to advance the service of God and the salvation of souls. Amidst his great actions it was most admirable to see how little he was in his own eyes. He every day served and washed the feet of several poor persons. His life was an uninterrupted severe course of penance, by the practice of secret austerities, and a constant spirit of compunction. Patience and meekness were the arms by which he triumphed over envy and resentment, when many strove to bring him into disgrace with the emperor and others. Miracles which followed his death proclaimed his glory with God. His name is inserted in the Roman Martyrology. Butler's Lives of The Saints 1926

Louis of Granada The Sinners Guide Chapter 3 There is not a movement of your eye, there is not a step you take, which is not by God's power. For if you do not believe that it is through Him you live and act, you are no longer a Christian; and if, believing it, you continue deliberately to offend your Benefactor, how can I say what you are? If a man on the top of a high tower held another suspended by a small cord over an abyss, do you think the latter would dare to address injurious words to him who held him thus suspended? How is it, then, that you, whose existence hangs by a thread which God can sever at any moment, dare excite the anger of this infinite Majesty by outraging Him with the very benefits He mercifully preserves to you?

Zacharias 1 Behold the days of the Lord shall come, and thy spoils shall be divided in the midst of thee. 2 And I will gather all nations to Jerusalem to battle, and the city shall be taken, and the houses shall be rifled, and the women shall be defiled: and half of the city shall go forth into captivity, and the rest of the people shall not be taken away out of the city. 3 Then the Lord shall go forth, and shall fight against those nations, as when he fought in the day of battle. 4 And his feet shall stand in that day upon the mount of Olives, which is over against Jerusalem toward the east: and the mount of Olives shall be divided in the midst thereof to the east, and to the west with a very great opening, and half of the mountain shall be separated to the north, and half thereof to the south. 5 And you shall flee to the valley of those mountains, for the valley of the mountains shall be joined even to the next, and you shall flee as you fled from the face of the earthquake in the days of Ozias king of Juda: and the Lord my God shall come, and all the saints with him. 6 And it shall come to pass in that day, that there shall be no light, but cold and frost. 7 And there shall be one day, which is known to the Lord, not day nor night: and in the time of the evening there shall be light. 8 And it shall come to pass in that day, that living waters shall go out from Jerusalem: half of them to the east sea, and half of them to the last sea: they shall be in summer and in winter. 9 And the Lord shall be king over all the earth: in that day there shall be one Lord, and his name shall be one. 10 And all the land shall return even to the desert, from the hill to Remmon to the south of Jerusalem: and she shall be exalted, and shall dwell in her own place, from the gate of Benjamin even to the place of the former gate, and even to the gate of the corners: and from the tower of Hananeel even to the king's winepresses. 11 And people shall dwell in it, and there shall be no more an anathema: but Jerusalem shall sit secure. 12 And this shall be the plague wherewith the Lord shall strike all nations that have fought against Jerusalem: the flesh of every one shall consume away while they stand upon their feet, and their eyes shall consume away in their holes, and their tongue shall consume away in their mouth. Ver. 6. No light; viz. in that dismal time of the persecution of Antiochus, when it was neither day nor night, (ver. 7,) because they neither had the comfortable light of the day, nor the repose of the night. Chn -Darkness denotes distress. The citizens shall be in despair. Matt. xxiv. 22; Ezec. xxii. 8; Joel ii. 2; Apoc. ix. 2. C. Ver. 7. In the time of the evening there shall be light. An unexpected light shall arise by the means of the Machabees, when things shall seem to be at their worst. Ch.

April 18th. St. Apollonius The Apologist, M. A.D. 186. It is the perogative of the Christian religion to inspire men with such resolution, and form them to such heroism, that they rejoice to sacrifice their life to truth. This is not the bare force and exertion of nature, but the undoubted power of the Almighty, whose strength is thus made perfect in weakness. Every Christian ought to be an apologist for his religion by the sanctity of his manners. Such would be the force of universal good example, that no libertine or infidel could withstand it. But by the scandal and irregularity of our manners, we fight against Christ, and draw a reproach upon His most holy religion. Thus, through us, are his name and faith blasphemed among the Gentiles. The primitive Christians converted the world by the sanctity of their example; and by the spirit of every heroic and divine virtue which their actions breathed, spread the good odour of Christ on all sides: But we, by a monstrous inconsistency between our lives and our faith, scandalize the weak among the faithful, strengthen the obstinency of infidels, and furnish them with arms against that very religion which we profess. "Either change thy faith, or change thy manners," said an ancient father. Butler's Lives of The Saints 1926

Louis of Granada The Sinners Guide Chapter 2 But perhaps you will urge that these benefits common to all seem the work of nature rather than graces emanating from God; and why, you ask, should I be grateful for the general order which reigns in the world, and because things follow their natural course? This objection is unworthy of a Christian, of a pagan, of any but an unreasonable animal. Hear how the same philosopher answers it: "You will say, perhaps, that you receive all these benefits from nature. Senseless man! in saying this you but change the name of God, your Benefactor. For what is nature but God Himself, the first and original nature? Therefore, it is no excuse, ungrateful man, to urge that you are indebted, not to God, but to nature; for without God there is no nature. Were you to receive a benefit from Lucius Seneca you would not dare to say that you were indebted to Lucius and not to Seneca. Such a subterfuge would change your benefactor's name, but would by no means cancel your obligation to him.

April 17th. St. Stephen, Confessor, Abbot of Citeaux. A.D. 1134. It was his first care to secure, by the best fences, the essential spirit of solitude and poverty. For this purpose, the frequent visits of strangers were prevented, and only the Duke of Burgundy permitted to enter. He also was entreated not to keep his court in the monastery on holy-days, as he had been accustomed to do. Gold and silver crosses were banished out of the church, and a cross of painted wood and iron candlesticks were made use of; no gold chalices were allowed, but only silver-gilt: the vestments, stoles, and maniples, &c., were made of common cloth and fringes, without gold or silver. The intention of this rule was, that every object might serve to entertain the spirit of poverty in this austere Order. The founder, with this holy view, would have poverty to reign even in the church, where yet he required the utmost neatness and decency, by which this plainness and simplicity appeared with a majesty well becoming religion and the house of God. If riches are to be displayed, this is to be done in the first place to the honour of Him who bestowed them, as God Himself was pleased to show in the temple built by King Solomon. Upon this consideration, the monks of Cluni used rich ornaments in the service of God. But a very contrary spirit moved some of that family afterwards to censure this rule of the Cistercians, which St. Bernard justified by his apology. Let not him that eateth despise him that eateth not. (Rom. xiv. 8,6.) And many saints have thought a neat simplicity and plainness, even in their churches, more suitable to that spirit of extraordinary austerity and poverty which they professed. Butler's Lives of The Saints 1926

Osee 12 1 Ephraim feedeth on the wind, and followeth the burning heat: all the day long he multiplied lies and desolation: and he hath made a covenant with the Assyrians, and carried oil into Egypt. 2 Therefore there is a judgement of the Lord with Juda, and a visitation for Jacob; he will render to him according to his way, and according to his devices. 7 He is like Chanaan, there is a deceitful balance in his hand, he hath loved oppression. Ver. 7. Chanaan. The Phœnicians were so called, and all merchants. Here the title is given reproachfully (C.) to all the posterity of Jacob. H. -Thus Rome is styled Babylon. (Haydock.)

Louis of Granada The Sinners Guide Chapter 2 St. Augustine, speaking on this subject in one of his soliloquies, says: "Man should think of God as often as he breathes; for as his being is continous and immortal, he should continually return thanks to the Author of his being." This obligation is so deeply graven in nature that even the philosophers and sages of this world earnestly inculcate gratitude to God. Hear the counsel of Epictetus: "Be not ungrateful, O man! to this sovereign Power, but return thanks for the faculties with which He has endowed thee, for thy life itself and for all the things which sustain it, for fruits, wine, oil, and whatever advantages of fortune thou hast received from Him; but praise Him particularly for thy reason, which teaches thee the proper use and the true worth of all these things." If a pagan philosopher teach such gratitudes for benefits common to all men, what should be the gratitude of a Christian, who has received the light of faith in addition to that of reason, as well as other gifts vastly superior to those we have just mentioned?

@CarlPendleton6 Truth! Visit vaticancatholic.com

Very….. anti pope John Paul II was not Catholic. Last true Pope was Pope Pius XII