Eureka Thinking

@JMDeVito2 @farmingandJesus JM, I understand your concern about such Fatima quotes. If interested, ex-Presbyterian Scott Hahn's addresses similar concerns biblically in his talk "Fatima, Coredemption & the Bible": youtu.be/sTZqs0OXI08?si… And his conversion story: youtube.com/watch?v=P-bz4k…

@eurekathinking @farmingandJesus Fatima - I will perform a miracle for all to see and believe. Miracles aren't for belief in Mary. Fatima - sins committed against the Immaculate Heart of Mary. Sins are committed against God. Psalm 51. Mary puts herself in the place of God. I have more, and not just Fatima.

They always talk about Mary when they talk about “falling in love with the Catholic faith” it always comes back to Mary, a fellow sinner saved by grace. Every. Single. Time. Thank God for the reformation.

@ThirdCrossMusic @Truth_matters20 Latin is part of our heritage, but most Catholic churches today have Mass in English or the local language. If you wish, you're welcome to critique Scott Hahn's testimony. He's a Protestant minister who studied Scripture deeply and became Catholic: youtube.com/watch?v=P-bz4k…

@eurekathinking @Truth_matters20 Who speaks Latin anymore?

Jesus said that John the Baptist was greater than Mary (Matt. 11:11). All you have to do is open up your Bible and read it.

@ThirdCrossMusic @Truth_matters20 ThirdCross, are you alright? Anyway, please keep up the good effort in studying God's Word. Btw, I am baffled by your statement about "someone speaking in a language that no one understands" in a Catholic church. I've no idea what you are referring to.

Show me where I am wrong with scripture? Not church history, not papal decree, not church fathers. Scripture. When I am studying the Word of God, I use what is called an Interlinear Bible. It contains scripture in the original languages, whether Aramaic, Hebrew or Greek, so I can see exactly what was written. I also have Vine's 'Concise Dictionary of Bible Words' so I can be even more sure of what I am reading. I also use commentaries, not because I look at them as authoritative, like you do the writings of church fathers, but because I want to see what other people think about what scripture says and if it lines up with what is written. I show up to church not for the 'vibe' or the pageantry, with Jewish smoke machines and someone speaking in a language that no one understands. I show up to church to learn from my elders, and to take what they taught and compare it to what was written. Every Sunday I come home from church with the pastors sermon notes and sit down and study what he preached compared to scripture. Not that I do not trust him, but we are told over and over to test what you are told by the scriptures. So unless you can back up what the cult of Roman Catholicism practices with the Word of God and not the word of man, you will not get any sympathy from me.

@ThirdCrossMusic @Truth_matters20 ThirdCross, you are stereotyping Catholics. Snap out of this bad habit.

@Truth_matters20 RC's do not read their Bibles, they do whatever daddy pope tells them, unless he tells them that Mary is not an intercessor, then he is wrong.

@Truth_matters20 Danny, you posted a half-truth. Anyone reading the complete wording of Mt 11:11 will disagree with your view. Do yourself a favor: open up your Bible and read Mt 11:11 in its entirety 😊

@JMDeVito2 @farmingandJesus JM, I'd like to see things from your point of view and not assume. Care to explain in what way(s) you believe Catholics make Mary a virtual goddess?

@eurekathinking @farmingandJesus Honoring Mary is not placing your fabrication of her in the position where she is a virtual goddess.

@jp_life_legacy Prayed for him 🙏♥️

Another update: My GPA passed away this morning at 8:10 am CST. May the Eternal Light of the Beatific Vision greet him and may he hear the words of todays communion antiphon: "Well done, good & faithful servant, come share your Masters joy."

@Joeinblack Thanks for sharing this, Father! There are many ways to interpret or react to your sharing. I've heard stories of Catholics leaving the church coz they couldn't endure fraternal correction. So I admire your obedience to your Bishop and your faithfulness to your priestly vows.

I was ordained in 1998. I took a group of sophomores on retreat at a retreat center. We had a hard leave time because we needed to take the bus to get back to school before the buses left. So, it was time to pray mass and when I went to the sacristy to vest, I could not get in: a priest was in there hearing confessions from another retreat. In the end, I got a stole from my truck and explained to the students I was not able to wear vestments because of a weird situation. I told them this shouldn’t happen but I couldn’t figure out another way. During mass, the Bishop (Karl) came in to see the mass. The next day, he called and tore me a new one for 20 minutes. He was furious. I explained the situation and he told me in the future to not pray mass if I was not able to vest properly. I asked his forgiveness and learned my lesson. I say this because priests are normal people. We make mistakes and learn and grow. Somewhere out there is a picture of me praying mass in my clerics and a stole. You can post it and condemn me or rejoice that I learned something. The outrage machine is consuming people like this poster I’m replying to and it’s a tragedy. Jesus promises us that the measure we use to measure others will be measured back to us. I think of that every day.

@shannonsnotions Redemptive suffering... God is with you 🙏♥️

I was discharged from the hospital yesterday. Today I woke up this morning with 103 fever and an excruciating pain. I am back in the ER. I can’t help but laugh to be honest, lol. Sometimes it really blows my mind that the chemicals that were supposed to cure me; destroyed me. It’s Lent, and God is still sovereign, and if this is his cross for me to bear, then I must carry it like Jesus did. This is me, and I’m grateful.

@lyndarenner25 @Burgess7281975 @TradCathGuy @Catholic_bro Lynda, I'm praying for you 🙏

@Burgess7281975 @TradCathGuy @Catholic_bro Brian ... You need to read your Bible.

Go to confession

@mark_petereit @iamrjknight Mark, I see you're proficient in English. Salute you! But the Bible wasn't written in English. It got translated into English much later. So please go back further in history and check the original wording. Happy sleuthing!

@iamrjknight “The rock” that Jesus said he’d build his church on was NOT Peter. The rock was what Peter had just SAID, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” It was Peter’s REVELATION—not Peter himself.

I see many Roman Catholics commenting about Peter being the rock on which Jesus built His church on my post, "Understanding Church and Its Purpose" and they say it in a mocking way as though they alone have the true church. Let us answer that with the Word of God itself. If Jesus built His church solely on Peter, then why do we see the apostles themselves speaking of the church as a gathered body of believers in homes? Paul says in Romans 16:5, “Greet also the church in their house.” That is not Peter’s chair in Rome, it is ordinary Christians gathered together under the headship of Christ. In 1 Corinthians 16:19 we read, “Aquila and Prisca, together with the church in their house, send you hearty greetings.” Again, this is not the Roman institution but the true church wherever believers gather around Christ. If Peter was the exclusive foundation, then why do the apostles repeatedly declare that the foundation is Christ Himself? Paul wrote clearly in 1 Corinthians 3:11, “For no one can lay a foundation other than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.” In Ephesians 2:20, he says that the church is “built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus Himself being the cornerstone.” The Word does not say Peter alone, nor Rome, but Christ as the cornerstone with the witness of all the apostles and prophets. Even Peter himself does not claim to be the rock of the church. He writes in 1 Peter 2:4-6 that Christ is the living stone rejected by men but chosen by God, and that all believers are living stones being built up as a spiritual house. Peter points us to Christ as the rock, not to himself as a pope. How many times is Christ Himself called the Rock in Scripture? Over and over we see it - Deuteronomy 32:4 says “The Rock, His work is perfect.” Psalm 18:2 says “The Lord is my rock and my fortress.” 1 Corinthians 10:4 makes it plain, “That Rock was Christ.” Scripture leaves no doubt who the Rock truly is. So I ask the Roman Catholic... if Jesus meant Peter as the singular rock, why do we not see Peter himself teaching that? Why do we see instead local gatherings called “the church” in many places, all built on Christ? Why is Scripture silent about papal authority but loud about the sufficiency of Christ and His Word? Even history bears witness. The earliest church fathers never spoke of papal supremacy. Cyprian of Carthage, who died in AD 258, said all bishops were equal and rejected the idea of one universal head. The papal system came much later, built on human tradition rather than apostolic truth. Rome has built a fortress of tradition around a single verse while ignoring the weight of the entire New Testament. But Christ declared that the gates of hell will not prevail against His church, and that church is every assembly of true believers resting on Him as the cornerstone. To say otherwise is to exalt man above Christ, and that is a foundation God never laid.

@GatorRob777 @Adam_FaithfulM Rob, yours is a classic Protestant position on why your Bible has 66 books. Prominent Catholic apologists like Scott Hahn, Marcus Grodi, Jeff Cavins, Steve Ray and Francis J. Beckwith disagree with that. All are ex-Protestants, and 3 were also ordained ministers/pastors.♥️

The question of why the Bible contains 66 books is not answered by appealing to a later council or human authority, but by recognizing how God preserved and bore witness to His own Word across history. Scripture itself teaches that holy men “spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost” (2 Peter 1:21), and that the Word of God is something God commits to His people, not something man invents or votes into existence (Romans 3:2). The canon, therefore, is not something the church created—it is something the church recognized. God, who controls all things, also governed which writings would be received, copied, preserved, and used among His people. In the Old Testament, the Hebrew Scriptures were already established and recognized long before Christ came. The Jews were entrusted with the oracles of God (Romans 3:2), and they preserved a defined body of writings—the Law, the Prophets, and the Psalms (Luke 24:44). These correspond to the same content found in the 39 books of the Old Testament (though counted differently in Hebrew arrangement). Notably, books later called “apocrypha” were never part of this Hebrew canon. They were not written in Hebrew, were not accepted by the Jews as Scripture, and were never treated as authoritative by Christ or the apostles. Jesus Himself confirmed the boundaries of the Old Testament canon when He referred to the Scriptures from “the blood of Abel unto the blood of Zacharias” (Luke 11:51), covering the entire recognized Hebrew canon from Genesis to Chronicles. He consistently appealed to “the scriptures” as a fixed and authoritative body (John 10:35), and never once affirmed the additional books that some later traditions attempted to include. This is critical—because Christ, who is the Truth, bore witness to what was and was not Scripture. The New Testament writings were recognized in a similar way—not by human decree, but by divine marks. The apostles were uniquely commissioned witnesses (John 16:13), and their writings carried that authority. Early believers immediately received these writings as Scripture. Peter even refers to Paul’s letters and places them alongside “other scriptures” (2 Peter 3:16), showing that the New Testament canon was already being recognized within the lifetime of the apostles. These writings were consistent in doctrine, widely received among the churches, and bore the internal witness of truth. By contrast, the books that people attempt to add—such as the Apocrypha or later writings—fail these tests. They were not written by prophets or apostles, they contain historical and doctrinal errors, and they were never universally received by God’s people. Many of them promote ideas contrary to Scripture, which reveals they are not inspired by the Spirit of truth (1 John 4:6). God is not the author of confusion, so anything that contradicts the established Word cannot be from Him. Historically, when councils later discussed the canon, they were not creating Scripture but simply acknowledging what had already been recognized and preserved. The 66 books of the Bible stand apart because they alone bear the marks of divine inspiration: consistency, prophetic authority, apostolic witness, and preservation through time. This is why they have endured unchanged, while other writings have remained outside. Ultimately, the certainty of the 66 books rests not in human reasoning, but in God’s sovereign preservation and the internal witness of His Word. “My sheep hear my voice” (John 10:27), and the elect recognize the truth because God opens their understanding (Luke 24:45). The same God who inspired Scripture also ensures that His people receive it. The canon is closed because God has finished speaking through His appointed witnesses, and what remains is the faithful preservation of that completed Word.

The final verse in the Gospel of John is truly impressive. “Jesus did many other things as well. If every one of them were written down, I suppose that even the whole world would not have room for the books that would be written.” (John 21:25)

@WWUTTcom I guess anyone who is confused by your words should ignore you? Coz you sound confused by saying what is not, and not what is. God bless you!

The Muslim god is not the God of the Bible. The Mormon Jesus is not the Jesus of the Bible. The Jehovah’s Witness Jesus is not the Jesus of the Bible. The Roman Catholic Mary is not the Mary of the Bible. The Bethel Church holy spirit is not the Holy Spirit of the Bible.

@Chad4328 @Vitus_osst Thanks for yet another Bible verse! I'm going to confession within the next few days! ❤️

Go for confession. The priest will never judge you but will help you come back to Jesus Christ 🙏. Please Catholics I am kneeling go for confession and reconcile with Jesus Christ

@GatorRob777 @Adam_FaithfulM Help me on this: Jesus said there are 66 books of the Bible?

@Adam_FaithfulM That could really be said about any persons life. The day to day things would fill books. Yet, we have confidence everything He wanted us to know was included in the 66 books of the Bible.

@JeninGA93 🙏♥️

PRAYER REQUESTED for my sister who had a stroke and a brain bleed. She and lives alone. My brother found her this morning laying beside her bed. We don't know how long she had been there. She was rushed to a hospital an hour away. She is in ICU for now.

@SecretFire79 Thanks for sharing this very profound and beautiful account ❤️

What St. Padre Pio Actually Saw When He Looked Into Heaven?🇻🇦🕊️ Did you know that we actually possess exact, verified records of St. Padre Pio visions & reflections on Heaven! Because he was bound by the vow of obedience, his spiritual directors (Father Agostino and Father Benedetto) ordered him to write down all of his mystical experiences. Through his preserved letters in his Epistolary, we can read exactly how he described Paradise in his very own words. ✨ The Nightly Lifting of the Veil Padre Pio frequently experienced visions of Heaven right as he was falling asleep. In a profoundly beautiful letter written to Father Agostino in October 1912, he described how the barrier between Earth & Heaven would literally vanish: "At night, when I close my eyes, the veil is removed & Paradise opens in front of me; & gladdened by this vision I sleep with a smile of sweet beatitude on my lips, & in a perfect calm I wait for the little companion of my infancy [his guardian angel] to wake me up." 🧠 It Cannot Be Understood by the Human Mind Whenever spiritual children & fellow friars pressed him for specific visual details about the geography of Heaven, Padre Pio insisted that the human brain simply lacks the capacity to process it. He taught that earthly wonders are only the faintest shadows of heavenly reality. He said: "Heaven is total joy, continuous joy. We will be constantly thanking God. It is useless to try to figure out exactly what Heaven is like, because we can't understand it. But when the veil of this life is taken off, we will understand things in a different way." 🌸 The Seasons of Heaven Even though he said human words fail to describe the visual reality of Heaven, he once offered a stunning metaphor to explain its perfection. He compared it to an eternal cycle of the absolute best earthly seasons: "In Heaven, everything will be spring as far as beauty is concerned, autumn as far as enjoyment is concerned, summer as far as love is concerned. There will be no winter; but here on earth winter is necessary to exercise self denial & a thousand other little but beautiful virtues." ☀️ A Realm of Blinding, Growing Light Rather than physical mansions or landscapes, Padre Pio described Heaven primarily as an encounter with uncreated light. For him, Heaven looked like the overwhelming radiance of God, which he perceived even while still living on Earth: "As the days pass, I see ever more clearly the greatness of God, and in this light, which grows brighter and brighter, my soul burns with the desire to be united to Him by indissoluble bonds." 🕊️ Visions of Souls Entering Paradise Padre Pio did not just see the environment of Heaven. He frequently saw the specific souls who resided there. He had an intimate knowledge of the afterlife & often comforted grieving families by confirming their loved ones had reached Paradise. For example, on October 9, 1958, the very day Pope Pius XII died, Padre Pio told a fellow friar with absolute certainty: "Pius XII is in heaven. I saw him during Mass." He also frequently saw the souls of the dead. He once told a friar that more souls of the dead from Purgatory than of the living climb his mountain to attend his Masses and seek his prayers. He noted that he often spoke to souls who stopped to thank him for his prayers on their direct way up to Paradise! ⚔️ Earth is a Battlefield, Heaven is the Homeland Because Padre Pio was allowed to see the staggering beauty of Paradise, he viewed Earth strictly as a temporary testing ground. He constantly reminded his spiritual children to keep their eyes fixed upward: "Let us always keep before our eyes the fact that here on earth we are on a battlefield & that in paradise we shall receive the crown of victory...we are now in a land of exile while our true homeland is Heaven to which we must continually aspire."

@newoldtalk God works in marvellous ways ❤️

Went to Spanish mass because I accidentally napped through the 5pm 😔 but the priest was talking to people during the homily and asked an English speaker a question and ended up doing some of the homily in english after that. So I got to understand 😂

@crowe_justinp Keep it going! ❤️

I’m 4 days in on “The Catechism in a Year” with Fr Mike Schmitz. Great so far! The Catechism was instrumental in my journey to the Catholic Church. @AscensionPress @frmikeschmitz link.ascension-app.com/KPhdSvPZw1b