CALLED TO COMMUNION - Dr. David Anders - June 16, 2020

spective visit EWTN news com I'm Teresa Tomeo and call to communion with dr. David Anders starts now what's stopping you from becoming a Catholic why can't women become priests why do Catholics worship Mary why do I need to confess my sins to a priest where is purgatory in the Bible I think the Pope has too much authority what's stopping you you are called to communion with dr. David Anders on the EWTN global Catholic radio network hey everybody welcome again to called a communion it's the program for our non Catholic brothers and sisters those of you who have questions about the Catholic faith maybe you're looking around trying to get those questions answered we are here for you here's our phone number eight three three two eight eight EWTN that's eight three three two eight eight three nine eight six if you're watching or listening to us outside of North America please dial the u.s. country code and then two oh five two seven one two nine eight five you can also text the letters EWTN to five five zero zero zero wait for our response and then text us your first name and your brief question message and data rates may apply and of course for those of you watching on TV today you can also participate by emailing us ctc at ewtn.com CTC at ewtn.com Michael McCaul is our producer today we also have Ryan penny screaming the phone's Jeff Burton is on social media he'll pass on any questions you might want to send to us via Facebook or YouTube just put those in the comments section Jeff will send us to those to us right here in the studio I'm Tom price along with dr. David Anders doing very well how are you my friend I'm doing well thanks glad to hear that we're gonna lead off here with an email from Jim who's watching on YouTube actually Jim says I am waiting to be baptized into the church does my baptism sponsor have to be in a state of grace at my baptism oh thanks I appreciate the question mizo much mean but I have to be right your baptism we'll be valid your baptism will be valid regardless of the moral condition of your baptismal sponsor however it certainly would be preferable that we all be in the state of grace and there's there's such a thing as now your your your sponsors not the celebrant right but he's a participant in the ceremony and and we want to we want to engage in the worship of God and sacrament is one way in which we worship God in a worthy manner so in preparation for the celebration of any sacrament anyone who's who's gonna participate in any fashion should examine themselves and and determine whether or not they are whether they're gonna participate in a worthy manner in fact some of the sacraments actually configure us specifically to the worthy participation in other sacraments so you consider for example the sacrament of ordination well when a priest is ordained in the Catholic Church he receives this mark on his soul that enables him to confess and to absolve sins and do these sorts of things but he also receives an infusion of sanctifying grace so that he can do these things in a worthy manner hmm now if he doesn't cooperate with that grace and he's not in the state of grace the sacraments he offers will still be valid but he himself will be in a bad way and he's not gonna benefit from the the the that he's not gonna receive the merits or the benefits that would accrue to him as the celebrant if he's not in a in a worthy state so we should all try to be in a worthy stay sure all right Jim thanks for watching us on youtube here's a question now from looks like a SAM also watching us on YouTube he says my brother-in-law is a Jehovah's Witness and he says there is no hell and that it's a greek insertion to our faith how can I convince him that hell is a real place okay thanks so first of all the sacred scripture talks about the doctrine of hell really clearly in book of Revelation chapter 20 when we read that the last day God's going to open the book of life judge people by their deeds whether they were good or bad and if your deeds were good you get to go to heaven and after evil you're gonna be cast into the lake of fire prepared for the devil and his angels and Christ Himself speaks of the weeping and gnashing of teeth that await those who die without the grace of God those who say Lord Lord but don't actually follow that up with the works of mercy that are required for salvation like feeding the hungry including the naked and so forth so it's a pervasive theme in the scriptures but I will grant to you that if all we had was the Bible somebody might say well I'm gonna interpret that differently I'm gonna read that some other way and of course people have been doing that for 2,000 years the scripture says one thing but that will interpret it this way was there any way out of that conundrum only if Christ gives us an authoritative interpreter if Christ gives us authoritative interpreter then there's no ambiguity on the dogmas of the faith long hold he did he gave us an authoritative interpreter he gave us the teaching church so in Christ himself when he gave instructions for handing on the faith he just hand us a book he handed us a society he handed us authorized individuals the Apostles empowered by his promise whatever you bind on earth is bound in heaven whatever you loose on earth is loosed enough and whoever hears you hears me I'll be with you to the end of the age so that we can have certainty in our act of faith so not only do we have the teaching of Holy Scripture we have sacred tradition and the teaching office of the church which has declared as a dogmatic fact Jesus and so he'll all right Sam thank you so much for watching us on youtube also watching us on Facebook right now is Mara ma yra I think it's Mara anyway Ameri says if God created the angel who became the devil why did God let him dwell on earth where Adam and Eve lived yeah thanks I appreciate the question so really this is a as a singular instance of the more general problem of why is there evil at all why is there moral evil why did it exist in the devil why did it exist in Adam and Eve what does exist in meat why does God God's all good why does he prevent moral evil and the answer to the question is that God permits evil doesn't cause it but God permits evil because he intends to bring a greater out of it and you know we we will even as parents or law enforcers or whatever do this all the time hmm there's there's some particular evil that you have seen that you can anticipate and you know well I could rush in and stop that evil but if I do right there may be some some longer-term vision that will not be realized think about the police officer who's who can bust the guy on the street corner but he's going for the head of the gang you know the parent who could stop this particular transgression but lose an opportunity to teach development in virtue I mean there's all kinds of reasons why you can permit a particular evil because you have some greater good in view well that's what God does he permits some particular moral evils but he intends the moral education of the race the salvation of the whole world in conformity to Christ as the long-term plan that's why Jesus could say there's more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner that repents than over ninety-nine righteous people that have no need of repentance the sin and repentance and redemption of the individual stole is ultimately the plan of God mayor thanks for watching us today on Facebook in a moment we'll be talking with Joseph in Kansas listening to us online we've got a line open for you as well if you have a question for dr. David Anders the number eight three three two eight eight EWTN that's eight three three two eight eight three nine eight six four call to communion here on EWTN stay with us unplanned the true story of Abbey Johnson I would be the youngest director and Planned Parenthood history she believed in a woman's right to choose I've had an abortion myself so I don't have any problem with another woman making the same decision until the day she saw something that changed everything it was just gone now she's pulling back the curtain on the abortion industry unplayable at EWTN RC comm and the EWTN app father John Ricardo when you and I come to Mass we're accustomed to thinking of the beginning of the mass what we call the Liturgy of the word as a time when someone or someone's they kind of get up they read from this book which most of us have limited understanding of about a people who we really don't grasp with names that are very hard to pronounce what you feel embarrassed about ringing out loud because you just know people are going who's shealtiel for crying out loud you know when the Word of God has proclaimed at Mass it's happening now it's an event the wondrous deeds that God has done in human history are being proclaimed in our midst now and to that you and I have to respond and we do respond we either respond with so what I don't care this is irrelevant to my life or we respond by saying yes Lord I believe this and I want you to take over more and more of my life the people you know and trust are on EWTN [Music] glad you're with us for EWTN s call to communion if you're ready now let's go to the phones at eight three three two eight eight EWTN we're going to begin this time with Joseph Joseph is in Lenexa Kansas and watching us or listening to us rather on online ewtn.com a first-time caller hey Joseph what's on your mind today hi Tom hi Dave good to talk to you both thank you I had a question I had a question about first samuel 21 I was listening yesterday and I heard first Samuel I thought maybe it's my question but in 2021 when David visits ahem elec and says I need bread and the hem elect says I've only got the bread of the presence when even Jesus points out in mark or at Matthew 12 that it's not lawful for David to take the bread of the presence but he seems to be rewarded he gets Goliath's sword and he gets the bread he needs I don't know what to make of that can you help me out well I'll do my best all right so the first thing I want to suggest to you is that when we read the Old Testament we read the historical narratives of the Old Testament we don't necessarily have to regard the actions of the characters even of those that in retrospect we know to be heroic characters as in every aspect exemplary right I mean clearly the rest of David's life was not altogether exemplary I know so he stumbled and fell from time to time in it and and sometimes quite grievously in other instances David is operating under duress in a state of grave confusion I mean he's not clear about what he himself is supposed to do in the present case that Dave of course fleeing from his life for his life from from Saul who's out to kill him and so he's just trying to stay alive basically what would I do if somebody were coming after me and my family and my life was on the line I'd have a hard time making moral decisions I'm sure I'm sure now Christ of course looks back at this allegorically right he's drawing a specific point from the narrative of David life namely that that the particulars of the Mosaic law are our less important than than the certainties of the natural law right and you know above all what are those things what are those certain is the natural law well the primacy of God the preservation of life that would be two principles and you you can't subvert those principles but the cultic ritual of the Old Testament you both can and it has been right abrogated for Christians so you know and I and I read this text like all texts of the Old Testament in light of what I know about the totality of all of Scripture ultimately fulfilled in Jesus so when I want to really have a moral exemplar for the Christian life you start with Christ you don't start with these obscure passages from the life of David right you start David's only a type of Christ and he himself was not the Messiah I start with the Messiah and then I read I read that back into the narratives in the Old Testament all right hey Joseph thank you so much for your call we do appreciate hearing from you that opens up a line right now for you at eight three three two eight eight EWTN that's eight three three two eight eight three nine eight six it's called a communion here on EWTN let's go to Bernadette now in Kansas City on the Missouri side listening on the great Catholic radio network Bernadette what's on your mind today hello my question is it's deeply grieved to me with the quarantine that Catholics did not use holy water right now at the churches and it seems to me we were taught as children that it was a powerful Sacramento for protection against evil and so it would seem very logical to me that they simply could keep a bottle of hand sanitizer right but right by the holy water fault you know in our churches and my question is what options do the laity have in addressing these concerns with whoever might be an authority to change these rules and I understand that the rules are for protection of course but you know there's other I would think options that we have to keep ourselves safe at the same time available to avail ourselves of this powerful sacramental okay thanks I appreciate the question so first of all when you ask what what is available to the lay with whom can they advocate for the change of a policy you can always talk to your pastor and ultimately to the bishop of your diocese and that's where the buck stops and if the pastor of the parish or the bishop of the diocese has Maine that needs something and they've taken counsel they've heard pros and cons and listen to objections and once they come down on the policy that's the policy that's the policy and if the policy is we're gonna be very cautious in the way we distribute holy water then then we the laypeople are gonna work with that you know as our Bishop directs now I know in my own diocese the holy water fonts are standing empty but but we're not deprived of holy water there's still a way to get ahold of the holy water but you have to you have to just distribute straight from the tank into your own container so there there are parishes that have made provisions within the parameters set by the health guidelines and so forth from the public authorities and our bishops now I'd also like to suggest to you and I listen I commend to you for your use of holy water and your and your attention to sacramental this is an important part of the prayer life of the church and it is a great resource and we should address we should advocate for it we should take advantage of it it's not the only sacramental that we have access to so here's a very neglected sacramental in the life of the Christian faithful the priestly blessing and in fact holy water derives if its efficacy from that primary sacramental and so so you know I remember the other day my wife and I were going to to drive through confession drive through confession because that's one of the provisions that's been made in my diocese to try to offer the sacrament in a way that's sensitive to public health and we got there too late and the priest was just getting in his car to drive off and say Mass at another parish and I drove up next rather wait wait wait wait wait father can't hear confession will you give us the blessing oh sure so we got the priestly blessing and so be be very profligate and asking for priestly blessings it's a great sacramental you know don't forget relics the sacramental that is a relic in the church and of course you know some people have relics and they're at home some people have friends that have relics many monasteries and churches have reliquaries on display you know there are a lot of ways to take advantage of sacramentals in the church all right and Bernadette we appreciate your call thanks for checking in from from Kansas City it's called a communion here on EWTN we do have a line available for you if you have a question for dr. David Anders now is a good time to call eight three three two eight eight EWTN that's eight three three two eight eight three nine eight six Martin has a question Martin is watching us on Facebook right now he says in the eyes of the church is it ever wrong to not turn the other cheek is it ever wrong yeah not to turn it well sure sure I can be wrong not to turn the other cheek absolutely I think maybe what you mean to ask is is it ever okay not to turn the other cheek I think so so so when we read these these little epigrammatic statements of Jesus these little pithy summary type exhortations they have to be they have to be applied prudently in the context of a Christian life and a lot of times Jesus says things to kind of shock us out of our out of our lethargy you know if you don't hate your father and mother you're not worthy of me let the dead bury their own dead I mean he says some pretty wild stuff it really wakes you up but obviously he doesn't want us to go off hating our father and mother and he doesn't want us to go you know be just spend all our time burying people or what not I mean you're like these these have to be applied in the context of a human life the Beatitudes these are these are habitual dispositions in our soul that are the gift of grace all right it's more more even than command so we have to live up to they're really the principles of the Christian life flowing from within the soul that's been renovated by by belief in Christ and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit and and so they're there a promise to be realized as much as their command to be followed and so someone that has this disposition somebody who is forgiving to their enemies and loving and hungry thirsting for righteousness and seeking to make peace and so forth they're going to be the kind of person who is somewhat heedless of our own personal welfare and will be willing to make sacrifices for the love of the other and for the sake of the common good and so forth and that'll characterize their whole approach to their interactions with human beings there's a there's a father a desert father from from fourth century Eastern Christian history name of Agrius pontus it was a great influence on John Cassian who in turn was an influence on Gregory the great Pope Gregory the Great then ultimately on Benedict of Nursia and Thomas Aquinas the whole Western monastic tradition so Evagrius kind of stands at the headwaters of that he said in one of his texts that the monk should regard other men as God after God right Lord they're like they're like divinities too because they're so important to you and the other man's salvation as is important to you as your own Wow Wow what up what a tremendous exhortation right that's the disposition of the Christian life but if you live that way well you're all be obviously gonna attend to civil justice as well sure and if you if you have a care for the care of the community civil justice civil law well crimes gonna have to be punished crimes gonna have to be deterred the innocent are gonna have to be protected you're gonna have to have a police force you're gonna have to have a standing army you're gonna have to have these things that may involve the the judicious use even of violence to protect the common good of society does that conflict with that disposition of charity and self giving that's poured out into the heart by the Holy Spirit no no it doesn't so there may be instances where we're either and I may have to pertain but doesn't mean that's going to be the outflowing of your heart right that's going to be a necessity for civil justice all right Martin thanks for checking us out on Facebook today called a communion here on EWTN it looks like two lines open right now at eight three three two eight eight EWTN that's a three three two eight eight three nine eight six all right let's get over to Larry in Kenosha Wisconsin listening on wsf I 88.5 FM hey Larry what's on your mind today good I'm Greg Flynn I heard you say yesterday the lion in the lamb and which brings Isaiah 11:6 and it's actually the wolf and the lamb and the calf and the lion doesn't get mixed up there and the other other two questions if I can get them in real quick here is I hear a prayer on Catholic radio that says something about mercy and mostly to the people that are most need of mercy aren't we all in need of mercy and how to Catholics handle Amazing Grace where it says the line that saved a wretch like me ok ok thanks I appreciate the question the first question I don't understand and I'm gonna pass by I didn't follow the first question I'll jump into the second question in the chaplet of divine mercy I'm sorry in the in the Fatima prayer that we had to append to the Rosary we off we pray for for Christ's mercy especially those most in need of His mercy and your questions don't we all need mercy well sure we do does that mean we all need the same amount of mercy absolutely not absolutely not some people are subjectively suffering more than others or objectively rather I mean some people's situations are more desperate than other people that's this is a fact sure and and so you know we talk about mercy ministry in the church you go out and try to care for the indigent not everybody's indigent not everybody you know starving not everybody is sick or crippled or blind or whatever and the same thing would be true in the order of grace not everyone is as is as far from the health and healing and wholeness and holiness that God desires for some people are in greater need in that department Pope Francis has made a singular emphasis of his pontificate that the church should go to the peripheries that's how he puts it go to the peripheries and seek out the lost sheep like Christ talks about the guy who goes and leaves the 99 on the hillside to go find the one mm-hmm we should seek out those lost sheep heard not being reached by the church's pastor well outreach and find creative ways to reach them my wife used to engage in a ministry back when you could get into the nursing homes of going through the nursing homes in my town and looking for Catholics who had been lost to the sacraments for 10 20 30 40 50 years even and saying would you like me to go get a priest and come hear your confession and very often she'd get a positive response and folks that have been away from the church for decades might have opportunity to go to confession receive viatical and then they'd be deadly next week see us an example of going out to the peripheries finding those people most in need of of Christ's mercy and in the final question is what do I think about the line from Amazing Grace that he saved a wretch like me well are you sure you can put a Catholic interpretation on that absolutely because without the grace of God we're all wretched we're all wretched you know Saint Agustin said that our hearts are restless until they rest in God and we all know what that feels like I think to have those moments of confusion and loss and woundedness and sin and egotism and neuroticism we're all kind of bound up in our own little world of pain and and we want hope when we want healing we want salvation and that comes to us through Christ and and what a tremendous gift it is yes indeed Larry thank you so much for your call we do appreciate that a quick question here from mark watching us right now on facebook he says was it wrong for the founders the founders of our country to secularize the Constitution by removing all biblical references during the process of framing it in 1787 okay thanks I appreciate the question so this is very complex question mm-hmm and you know the United States tried something unique in world history in framing a constitution like this many countries have constitutions but historically there's something that's organic and embedded in the actual institutions of the country right there's a way that they do things but it may not have been constructed as an abstract document you know sort of out of whole cloth as it were in order to establish some new social experiment the way the United States was and it's a tough it's a tough call right if you live in a pluralist society and you're trying to figure out what is the way what is the best way to try to accommodate to just to to seek the common good of as many people as possible who may not all share a common conception of the nature and origin of the human person our ultimate destiny and God how do you do that and that's a tough call now we know as Catholics that the ideal is the more explicitly we can bring the social order into a conscious awareness of God and the church and the dynamics of salvation and the moral life the better overall will be but it's always a work in progress and you have to make prudent choices in the moment about how much you can actually you can actually accomplish when you if you if you seek to simply mandate the Christian faith by by legislative or judicial Fiat and the hearts of the people are not with you you might end up doing more harm than good absolutely mark thanks for checking us out on Facebook in a moment here we'll be talking with Chuck in Ashburn Virginia also Michele in Indiana a couple lines open at the moment if you have a question for dr. David Andrews eight three three two eight eight EWTN at st. three three two eight eight three nine eight six four call to Communion stay with us dr. Greg Papa we want listeners to see that God has a unique and unrepeatable plan for their lives and how to rejoice in the work God is doing in their hearts and in their homes the leading Catholic voices are on EWTN radio this is dr. Theresa Bertha creats for life with her life update men come to suffer from the abortion of their children and many of them repent of having shed the blood of the person God entrusted to their care love and protection other men tried to protect their child I'm not allowed by the child's mother or by the law to intervene to stop the abortion men in these circumstances need to know that they are not alone and that healing programs such as Rachel's vineyard exist for them too it's okay for a man to admit his pain and to show his grief many are finding Christ healing and if you're a man who suffers from the abortion of your child or if you know such men invite them to seek the mercy of Christ more information is available at Rachel's birth this is dr. Theresa Burke on the EWTN global Catholic radio network Catholic Answers live one of the things that we often think about in our spiritual lives is how to do something big for God but really most of the time we should focus on how we can do something small for God it's these small things that help us consecrate our ordinary daily activity and help us do everything for Jesus Christ Catholic Answers live tonight 6:00 Eastern on EWTN radio hi this is cycle at two of the best in the world later today on Catholic Answers live open forum both hours Trent Horne than Tim staples Kathy gasps who live 6:00 p.m. Eastern on EWTN radio now back to called the communion about your David Anders it's called a communion here on EWTN glad that you're with us today our phone number eight three three two eight eight EWTN that's eight three three two eight eight three nine eight six and if you're watching us today on TV you can participate participate by emailing us ctc at ewtn.com CTC at ewtn.com all right back to the phones right now here is Chuck and Ashburn Virginia listening on Sirius XM channel 130 the first time caller hey Chuck what's on your mind today hi dr. Anderson I try to get it all in before my phone dies when you're saying when you're saying the formal prayers like the Hail Mary and the Our Father I'm saying the rosary do you really have to say Amen at the end of each of those since all you're doing is saying so be it or whatever something similar to that and the other thing is when you're saying the Hail Mary and it's V and now but I hear a lot of people saying you instead of V and now and I wonder how that impacts it and also in a phrase where it might say so be it to those who are just leave out some words and say so be it to those if there's something like that yes good are we doing the prayer sure thank you appreciate the question so the only time when a Catholic must follow a particular verbal formula is when we are following the the rubrics for the liturgy which is the official prayer of the church and the sacred actions that were given to us by Christ and then it's very important that we say what's written in black and and do what's written in red if you've ever opened up a missile and you know what I'm talking about then we have to follow the words that the church gives us and she gives us these words in these formulas for good reason right so first of all so that the people of God can be united in their liturgical action they can do one thing psychologically it's very powerful not to be sitting around waiting you know for the other shooter job because you don't know what the celebrants going to come up with next and and also these the the prayers have been composed and many of them develop organically over centuries to reflect the best theology and and the best disposition of the heart towards God so it's very important to follow the exact formula given to us in the rubrics for the church's liturgy when you're talking about private devotion the prayers that we pray outside the context of the mass no such obligation exists and and devotions are there and sort of selectively and and you can you can choose those prayers and devotions that speak to your heart and they really they're for your own subjective prayer life and you can use you can use a formula you can use no formula and in fact ultimately the church advises us to move in the direction of the mental prayer that's not reducible to any verbal formula but but has to do with with with shaping and orienting our heart and our affections towards God and then ultimately into a contemplative prayer that would be beyond words altogether because it's just a sort of an experiential knowledge of God poured out as a gift by the Holy Spirit which language ceases to really even be operative yeah you know if you if you like to use a certain form of prayer you like to say I'm in and say thee and now we'll have at it but if that's the stumbling block to you and it impedes your ability to think about God and you get all caught up in the language whether you're not really you're not really accomplishing the purpose of Prayer at that point God is he I mean he can listen to you in Latin French Greek Hebrew English vernacular he knows it all so he's not going to be confused okay Chuck thanks so much for your call it is called a communion here on EWTN let's go to Michelle now in Indiana listening on Ave Maria radio hey Michelle what's on your mind today hi dr. Anderson thanks for taking my call we recently found out that our pastor is going to be administering confirmation for our daughter and that he was asked that when she has confirmed that she's going to be anointed with the oil by a cotton ball and I'm just wondering is that valid matter um yeah that's that's highly questionable it's highly questionable and I have never had to research this topic until the present age and so I'm not I wish I had more information to give you right now but but the little bit of research I've done suggests that this is problematic and there are some sacramental theologians that have that have grave doubts about the validity of confirmation through the medium of a cotton balls different with anointing anointing the cotton balls are permitted but for confirmation there is definitely a question about it so I would not I wouldn't just leave that unaddressed you may want to check with open line Friday Colin Donovan sure he might have some more information for you Michelle thanks so much for your call it is called a communion here on EWTN interesting question here from Paul watching us on Facebook right now if a child is born stillborn can original sin be cleansed through a baptism of desire on the part of the parents okay thanks I appreciate the question so if a child is stillborn the practice of the church is to actually baptize the child mmm right and and you say well what what good does that do if the child's dead well the church we can know when somebody is dead physiologically medically speaking we can give a definition mm-hmm metaphysical death metaphysical death is much harder to put under a microscope and so you know even if somebody's expiring in the hospital room the priest is on the way and to anoint or baptize or whatever and the nurse meets him at the door and says sorry father you're too late he says excuse me I'm coming through and he does business now there's a limit I mean he's not gonna go in a week later and do it right but if it's within moments then then we then the Church baptizes the church anoints the church confirms does these things right and and so and so we don't make that judgment call now there's another possibility and that is that God himself God himself can infuse sanctifying grace into a soul in some extra sacramental way known only to God and when it comes to the death of infants really the mind of the church on this is to sort of presume on the mercy and the love of God we don't have a guarantee mm-hmm right there's no there's no scriptural or traditional promise revealed to us by Christ that all unbaptized infants will be saved but it definitely seems out of place with God's mercy and the personal responsibility of the child not to not to hope in their salvation Paul thank you so much for your question there and we're glad too that you're watching us today on Facebook called a communion here on EWTN couple lines open at the moment eight three three two eight eight EWTN that's eight three three two eight eight three nine eight six here now is Jeff in superior Wisconsin listening on the great real presence radio hey there Jeff what's on your mind today yes god bless you and your radio ministry here this is great thank you um my question is regarding the Great Lakes region the missionaries who came through here hundreds of years ago I believe that they focused on the Incarnation I don't know but I'm curious because I wonder if you can haven't give me any insight into what prayers they prayed because I believe they were very successful in their mission work and I think that that spiritual reality fills with us here in a great way yeah thanks I appreciate the question so you know if I were going to investigate this question the way I would go about doing it is simply reading biographies of the missionaries who ministered in this region at that time and that'd be a useful thing to do I would caution however against the idea that well if I want to replicate the success of the early missionaries in the Great Lakes region that the way to do that is to figure out the exact verbal formula that they used in prayer and then do that right as if as if the the spiritual power or efficacy of their mission depended on on copying that verbal form you rather than let me let me imitate their spirit their zeal their virtue their devotion to God their love of neighbor their self-sacrifice these are the things ultimately that made their mission fruitful and their their prudence and wisdom and and that would be consistent with with with many different prayers and we see this across the history of the missions right those at the Great Lakes those in West Africa perhaps those in South America for that matter you know the Roman mission to the to the English Augustine who went was sent by Pope Gregory you know to evangelize the angles these missions were successful because the men and women who undertook them loved God loved the church loved Christ loved their neighbor and were willing to make heroic sacrifices beautiful thanks so much for your question it is called the communion here on EWTN let's go to Roger I believe in San Antonio listening on Guadalupe Radio Roger what's on your mind today yeah hi good afternoon thanks for taking my call I have a question I regarding abortion well we just Catholics understand it's forbidden I'm trying to make an intellectual argument against my brethren who do not believe in this Catholic doctrine now I'm looking at spoke of Psalms and Ephesians to give you a reference as far as the value of a preborn child is there something specific mr. if directing quote that forbids abortion yeah thank you I appreciate the question so so the argument against abortion begins with the humanity of the unborn child and and so it would be covered by the command thou shalt not murder thou shalt not kill and that of course that's a universal command we're not supposed to kill anybody right and and so it really begins it's grounded in you the humanity of the child and the arguments that that that I would offer first of all I mean we can't offer scriptural arguments 'men lord says before you born I knew you and this kind of thing that's not conclusive I don't believe I think philosophical arguments really come to our help here in dialogues with non-catholics in a more potent way there is the embryological argument right we can we can know scientifically that the fetus the even the zygote is a distinct human being from the mother entirely dependent on the mother of course but but genetically biologically organically distinct from the mother we can we can perform certain philosophical thought experiments that will confirm this foundation of much in social ethics is the principle of the Golden Rule don't do to somebody else what you don't want them to do to you now there are some situations where it makes no sense to apply that rule I mean I can't say well if I were a tree I wouldn't want to be chopped down its incoherent because I can't put myself in the place of a tree I'm not a tree right never was one never got to be one but I can say if I were a fetus because I was one and we all know that we all know that we can we can put ourselves in the shoes that makes the wrong metaphor in the womb so to speak sure of somebody else's situation because we were there and we know that we'll have children that'll be there we can do that thought experiment if I were a fetus would I want to be aborted and if you value life the answer the question is absolutely not absolutely not you know we can here's another one so let's say that you we sat well a nurse I'm not sure about that I don't really know if the fetus is a human being I'm not I'm not persuaded okay alright if you're not persuaded Fura when I was a kid I had a football coach that loved to hunt and he always told us hunting stories and he told us about a lot of times that he failed to pull the trigger didn't pull the trigger had a great shot didn't pull it her cuz he wasn't sure if he was looking at a white-tailed deer or some kid in a white t-shirt ooh if you don't know you don't pull the trigger sure right so so you'd have to know with certainty as a principle of reasonable doubt right you'd have to know with certainty that it's not a human being you know directly to pull the trigger and you could never know that we can know it's a human being we can know scientifically we can know philosophically but we can also say even if you don't know it still doesn't give you carte blanche doesn't give you license to go pull the trigger and the biblical principle which is also one we can know from the natural law is you don't kill people absolutely Roger thank you so much for your call we're very glad to hear from you today called a communion here on EWTN you know it seems like everybody is coming up with smart speakers they are very very popular now whether it's the Amazon version or the Google version or even the Apple version everybody is making them and I'm proud to report that EWTN is on all of them so you can listen to EWTN on the smart speaker of your choice let me give you an example you could say Alexa asked EWTN to play call to Communion and boom we're gonna be playing just for you or you could say on a general basis Alexa play EWTN radio and off you go one more reason why EWTN is everywhere and we're very glad to be on all these new smart speakers it's a great way to evangelize I think called a communion here on EWTN let's go to Joan now in Stuart Iowa listening on Iowa Catholic radio a first-time caller Joan what's on your mind today hello thank you for taking my call I was listening and the lady asking about the holy water yes and I have a couple of questions actually but I have holy water at home I can bless myself with that can't I of course and this okay well this was something I had thought about you know would that be right or wrong because I know you can you know in an instance bless somebody else and I do have another question when my grandchildren were small they went to church and then catechism and I took them to that and they were small and their mother was raised Catholic but their father was in the course and I've left them at the font is that an actual glass thing okay thanks I appreciate the question so first of all yes people can of course make use of holy water they can cross themselves and they can they can bless their family members and holy water like like all sacramentals is efficacious because it participates in the in the prayers of the church that's that's where the power of the holy water comes from it's the blessing of the priests and the prayers of the church and we tap into that all right the st. Paul says in Colossians chapter 1 he says I fill up in my own flesh what is lacking in the sufferings of Christ for the sake of his body the church all the members of Christ by our prayers and works and sufferings and sorrows joined together with Christ work together for the good of the body we don't just seek our own salvation but our prayers and merits and sacrifices become as it were the kind of common property of the church the church distributes those those graces generally to all her members the stronger to the benefit of the weaker and one of the instruments that she uses to do that of course is the holy water that has that capacity through the blessing of the priest and we can make use of that we can bring our our children and our friends and relatives and so forth within the orbit of that blessing now there is something uniquely powerful about the blessing of a priest and I can't do that I can't do because the priest operates directly with the jurisdiction given to the church by Christ to the bishop and then to his to his collaborators which would be the priests and and so the layperson doesn't doesn't participate in that jurisdiction in the same way but we do participate in a general way in the prayers and merits of the whole body of the church in our and our own prayers and merits of course also can avail for on behalf of others all right Joan thank you so much for your call called a communion here on EWTN glad that you're with us today here is Edie now in Melbourne Florida listening on Divine Mercy Catholic radio one of our longtime partners hey there ed what's on your mind today hey good afternoon I'm Catholic and I have a good friend in fact I was his best man he was my best man who was non Catholic but Christian and faithful Christian he's going through an ugly divorce and it's been it was a long time coming over the past year I had been work with him or confiding him he has been confiding in me and I've been trying to be there for him and had and tried to work it out unsuccessfully his wife filed for divorce against his will and he's sort of at the receiving end of this so I'm wondering as a Catholic and he doesn't have any intentions of becoming Catholic can I advise him in good conscience or he's entertaining possible the idea down the road of being remarried again and I'm thinking you know if your non Catholic Christian that's that would be adultery and or fornication so how can i as the Catholic advise my non Catholic friend to take the right moral path on that yeah then I really appreciate the question and so let me let me I'm gonna clarify the dilemma we have here if if your friend were Catholic and he fell within the jurisdiction of the Catholic Church then there is an objective authority that could determine the question of his marriages validity and that be the marriage tribunal merit tribunal could could determine that his that his previous relationship was not in fact a valid marriage issue an annulment and then he would be free to marry again because in in no instance is any Christian permitted to be validly married and then take another spouse while the first bough still lives and civil divorce does not does not eliminate the the bond of a valid marriage and so that would in fact be adultery your friend is not going to avail himself of of that great benefit the certainty and conscience that would be provided by the marriage tribunal to determine whether or not his first relationship was in fact valid now and of course the church doesn't issue directives in this kinds of instance because the church teaches the Catholic faith and and advise people in to participate in the Catholic Church it's not telling Presbyterians how to run their show right right so all we have to go with here is principle and and so I'm hesitant to specify this is exactly what he should do right the principles are the same because he's a Christian and he potentially has a sacramental marriage that number one I would presume the validity of the sacrament so my I'm going in with the presumption that he is in fact validly married and and that this that this divorce is a is is a travesty at at best and an abuse at worst and and he should not go forward in thinking about forming another relationship in a very Cavalier way but if that's his intent he needs to attempt to satisfy objectively in some objective manner the question of the validity of that prior relationship now if only he had access to the Catholic Church we could settle that forum in a you know in an authoritative objective and perfectly clear way but that's the that's the hurdle he's got to get over and he has to be committed to the principle of the indissolubility of marriage the one thing that he's at great risk of here is if he thinks well you know I get in a marriage it doesn't work out that's terrible but I can always try again if that doesn't work no doesn't work that way marriage is by definition lifelong into soluble Union and it involves you necessarily in the commitment for better or for worse which means the willing embrace of suffering if that's the path that happens to come your way and look it's coming all our way at one time or another is part of the package that's part of the package okay Edie we hope that's helpful for you and ultimately for your friend as well thank you so much for your call call to communion here on EWTN let's go to Patricia now on Long Island listening on Sirius XM 130 a first-time caller Patricia what's on your mind today hi thank you for taking my call I wanted to know if God knows everything about me how my life how I live my life how will how I will live my life how it ends why do I pray what I always pray and give thanks first and foremost but why would I pray and ask for you know that I get well that my loved ones get well why do I pray yeah thanks I appreciate the question for several reasons why you would pray first of all it's good for you God doesn't need it it's not good for God but it's good for you right and I'll talk about that in a second it's also it's also the means that God uses to bring your life into conformity with his a wise priest told me one time prayer is about conforming our will to reality reality being the will of God and you can contrast pick prayer in this way to the superstition that people call magic you think about a magician what does a magician want to do a sorcerer or wizard he wants to use some formula to bend reality to his will he has some appetite he wants to satisfy and he's gonna you know dance in the sacred circle or whatever and try to get the powers and the stars aligned to bend reality to his will Christian prayer works exactly the opposite from magic we are trying to bend our will to conform to reality to conform to God's will Christ is the ultimate model of this when he said Lord let this father with his cup pass from me but not my will but thine be done prayer is the instrument that God uses to bring our wills into conformity to his now it is you know when I it it one of the ways in which it benefits us of course is by bringing our self conception and our life and all of our needs consciously interrelationship to God so you know I have a son I have force on some one daughter my youngest son he's 11 there are all kinds of things that he wants and needs I will for him to have them most of them alright and and I could just set out all of the things that he wants and needs like you know put him out in his bedroom walk away and let him access them on his own I could put out the food the school the videogames the LEGO sets and just say have at it right but I know it will be better for him if if he lives his life makes these choices in a conversation with me even though he and I both know in advance how I'm gonna respond mm-hmm right I mean he already knows what the parameters and the conditions are but if he can bring them into a dialogue in the form of a loving relationship it'll it will work in him in a way that would be distinct from just interacting with an inert object and the same thing is true in our relationship with God when we when we understand ourselves to be living in relationship to a loving father and that and the yes and the know that we receive in the process of prayer comes from from his benevolence rather than just some blind fate then the effect in us in terms of our hope and our confidence and our virtue is entirely different as a Catholic well I can't give you the illustration I was thinking of course here comes the music oh well Patricia what a great way to close this program it's a good reminder why we pray why we do what we do very very important so we thank you so much for your call today hey dr. David Anders maybe we can do that story on a future show everything I'd love to hear that thank you so much keep in mind we do the program Monday through Friday on EWTN radio at 2:00 p.m. Eastern Time with an encore at 11:00 p.m. Eastern Time also on the radio side we bring you a best of call to Communion on Sundays on the radio at 2:00 p.m. Eastern on behalf of our great production team here today Michael McCaul also Jeff Burson and Ryan Penney I'm Tom price along with at least 12 feet away from dr. David Andrews have a wonderful day we'll see you next time here on call to communion god bless [Music] hello this is father Wade my niece's are the fathers of Mercy Oh

Channel: EWTN

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Keywords: Catholic, EWTN, Christian, television

Id: z_sVEhgpkFU

Length: 54min 16sec (3256 seconds)

Published: Tue Jun 16 2020