Called to Communion with Doctor David Anders - April 19, 2021

again two call to communion here on ewtn it's the program for our non-catholic brothers and sisters if you've got a question about the catholic faith or if there's uh some sort of a idea about catholicism what it really is what it teaches maybe there's something you're unclear about we can help here is our phone number 833 288 ewtn that's 833 288 3986 if you're listening to us outside of north america please use the u.s country code for your country and then 205-271-2985 you can also text the letters ewtn to 5500 wait for our response and then text us your first name and your brief question message and data rates may apply and those of you watching us on tv today you can participate as well our email address ctc at ewtn.com ctc at ewtn charles berry is our producer we also have ryan penny handling the phones and jeff burson is on social media we are streaming on youtube and facebook live right now so if you want to put a question in the comments section that will get right to us here in the studio i'm tom price along with dr david anderson how are you today very well how are you my friend grateful to be catholic grateful to be alive well you and me both we're going to lead off with a very interesting email here from patricia patricia says i have been raised catholic went to and graduated from catholic schools was even in a convent and finally as a novice at the convent i realized that catholics worship the sun god it is demonstrated in the monstrance i'm not kidding i am grateful my salvation is in christ's work on the cross not in a church i believe in repentance not penance through memorized prayers burning of candles and confession to a priest that's why i could never be a catholic it's a religion and i have a relationship big difference any uh thoughts there for patricia david um yeah thanks i really appreciate the question so like where to start i know i know where to start so first of all the claim that catholics worship the sun god of course is historically philosophically and theologically false if by that you mean that catholics have adopted say the roman imperial cult to soul invictus it was you know a particular deity in the pantheon of deities and and we imagine god after that fashion or or uh or that you know the use of certain elements of of uh you know roman stylistic choices in in uh church architecture somehow reflects uh paganism in here and our belief that to me that's just an astonishing claim for somebody to make it makes me think that they've never actually read any doctrinal statement that the church has ever produced about the belief in god you know to take one just the top of my head the farmiter produced by the fourth lateran council defines the catholic concept of god in the most precise and philosophical terms as indivisible and and uh immutable and ineffable and and the first principle of all creation and clearly none of those things would apply to a material object like the sun i mean the catholic understanding of god of course best expressed by saint thomas aquinas is that the god we worship is the very act of being itself subsistent being and uh and that clearly is not reducible to one item in a in a catalog of material or immaterial items whether it be the sun or anything else so that just is a to me that's just an amazing claim now perhaps it's because you know monstrance is uh you know has this sort of light ray kind of construction in it oftentimes you'll see blessed sacrament at the center of a monstrous and then kind of a gold construction that would appear to be something like rays of light flowing out from the monsters well that's just an embellishment a visual embellishment of the fact that we think that jesus christ is truly present the blessed sacrament and christ is the god man and you know the god side of that equation is glorious yes glorious and so we capture that glory attempt to represent that in our language in our art and our poetry and our song but forever falling short now you know something that the catholic church has in its canon of the bible that non-catholic christians often don't is additions to the book of daniel if you remember in what is it daniel chapter 3 the prayer of the three children that are in the fiery furnace you won't find this in protestant bibles but you will find it in the catholic bible i was reading it this morning that's got to have it on the brain the the sacred writer is acknowledges you know everything seems to be going badly for us uh but i guess we're getting what we deserve and lord we can't make you any sacrifices and offerings because heck we're in a fiery furnace but we'll offer you ourselves and then begins a hymn and the hymn is let all of god's creatures bless the lord and then we get this catalog yes as the sacred writer identifies all the different elements of the created world from the sun and the stars and the moon down to the earthworms under your feet and the cry is let each of these individual items bless the lord who is their maker that is the catholic attitude towards the created order this is a creature the son included all of it exists to exemplify but in a finite way the infinite glory of god um when it comes to the other items in your list you might have to touch on some of those after the break um but you know the first of all catholics of course believe in repentance the contrition for sin and change of life the very prayer i just mentioned that's in the catholic bible and not the protestant bible petitions god in the hope that my contrition the change of heart in my life absent all other sacrifices and offerings would be sufficient to reconcile me to him and that lies at the heart of the catholic doctrine of the sacrament of penance namely contrition genuine sorrow for sin and a firm purpose of amendment lies at the heart of the change of life that all catholics are called to but that christ appointed a sacrament of penance is evident in the bible itself when he said to the apostles in john chapter 20 receive the holy spirit whoever sins you forgive are forgiven all right there you go hey patricia thank you so much for your email we really do appreciate that we're going to go to the phones in just a moment here at ewtn's call to communion what's stopping you from becoming a catholic let's let's talk about it the way uh you know we we received the email from patricia talked about that let's talk with you at 833 288 ewtn that's 833-288-3986 call to communion here on ewtn stay with [Music] us the people who call more to life are often hurting so much i just want to reach through the radio and hug them i want them to know how loved they are and how much god wants to fill their hearts with his healing grace and his deep desire to completely transform the life of anyone who's open to the movement of his holy spirit more to life with dr greg and lisa popchak tomorrow morning 10 a.m eastern on ewtn radio this is a messy family minute with mike and alicia hernan early in our parenting we were introduced to the importance of first time obedience now some of you out there might be thinking this is an impossible concept for toddlers let alone teenagers to understand but it's not mind you while it is possible we didn't say it would be easy as we form our children we need to understand that obedience is a virtue a very important virtue that includes respect self-control and the training of the will how do you train your child in obedience first you expect it you set the expectation that your child will listen the first time not when you count to five not when they feel like it not when they agree with you but right away and then second when your child doesn't obey the first time give them a quick reminder and then a consequence yes some children will need to be reminded again and again but that's okay because remember parenting is a marathon not a sprint for more help on discipline and other resources visit us at messi family minute what's stopping you from becoming a catholic let's talk about it here on ewtn's call to communion i'm tom price along with dr david anders and we have open lines for you right now looks like two of them at 833 288 ewtn that's 833 david just heard from jackie watching us on youtube right now jackie says my son and i are now catholic his girlfriend went through rcia but the priest said she had to get the annulment forms finished before she could be confirmed is that correct uh the the priest certainly can set the conditions for reception of somebody into the church and judge you know whether they're it's time for them to come in now i i'm not going to get into the internal questions of conscience about how this woman is living her marital life and what might be involved in that that's what the priest is going to do in the internal forum um but clearly uh you know if somebody's in an irregular marriage you know barring certain sort of uh uh interest of delicacy it won't go into it but you know barring certain conditions that yeah definitely could be an impediment to being received into the church so that's yeah very good all right thank you so much for checking in with us on youtube jackie here's an email from ricky dr david anders mentioned the term anthropomorphic recently one speaking of the god of the old testament could you please explain further what you mean by this yeah anthropomorphic means to represent something in the form of a human being right or having the characteristics or properties of a human person and went so for example when the sacred writers describe god as walking in the garden god doesn't have feet right so that's the kind of anthropomorphic condescension to the human understanding and ways of speaking and the catholic doctrine is that almost everything that we say about god almost everything that we say about god is limited by our own condition by the limits of human language in our own experience and so there's a technical word for this kind of thing uh to to say something univocally means that the word i use means exactly the same thing applied to me as applied to god all right and there's there's absolutely nothing that we can say of god universe means the same thing in us as it means in god saint thomas aquinas says not even being not even not even the word is we say god is is doesn't mean the same thing applied to god as it means to us right even is is a is an is an analogical concept uh even more so when we use some physical descriptions of god like you know sit seated his right hand he doesn't have a right hand god walks uh when descriptions of god having human emotion like passion anger regret longing all of these things are this is language drawn from the human experience of thinking and knowing and being and willing that can be used in logically of god metaphorically of god but not should be taken to be strict descriptions of god's inner nature god who is invisible and no one has seen and who christ reveals to us um and uh uh but they're still useful right so you know to speak about god being wrathful for example well god doesn't have fits of passion you know he didn't get up in the morning have a bad day right um and yet uh it's not wrong to describe god as wrathful even though wrath can't mean in god what it would mean in us me means like my face gets flushed and my heart starts pounding and my you know my hands get clammy and i want to suck something god doesn't have those bodily sensations doesn't have human passions or emotions in that sense and yet i can experience alienation from god that is like experiencing the alienation that i would have with another human being with whom i was at enmity okay and so that kind of language is appropriate metaphorical way of talking about my union or alienation with god very good and ricky thank you so much for your email call to communion in progress here on ewtn if you're ready now let's go to the phones at 833 288 ewtn we begin with mary who is in kentucky watching us today on ewtn television a first time caller hi mary what's on your mind today hi and thank you well i need help myself in dealing with my sister that is a catholic nun that supports the democrats and also does centering prayer the whole whole convent does and it i feel like responsible to change it and i don't know what to do okay thanks mary i think i can help you i really do think i can help you you're not responsible to change it it's totally not your responsibility right and uh you know when you when you see someone practicing the faith in a way that you think well that's not the way they ought to do it all right um you can unburden yourself of that because you're responsible for you right and your household and whatever else the lord or the church has given you jurisdiction over right um the person who's responsible for the spiritual care of that convent is the superior of the convent uh the bishop the ordinary uh to whom they owe uh uh uh obedience and and in whose jurisdiction they fall the holy father uh especially if it's a pontifical right uh institution and that's that's their job that's not that's not your job and you know christ himself dealt with this among his own apostles you remember the apostles came to jesus and they said jesus we found this guy and he was doing stuff he was casting out demons in your name and he wasn't he wasn't one of us uh what should we do make him go stop christ said leave him alone leave him alone and uh when they got a bad reception one time in town uh james and john come and say jesus we want to call down fire and brimstone on these guys burn them up that's how they got the nickname sons of thunder go jesus says leave him alone it'll all wash out it'll all come out in the wash right and uh again christ dealt with this in the parable of the the sower and the tears and the wheat the church is always going to have people in it that some doing good some doing bad uh and we can get real bent out of shape of that and try to root out from the lord's field everybody that we think is not doing what they ought to do christ again says leave him alone the angels will sort it out at the end of time and my job is to try to follow christ imitate him embrace him indwell him so that the beatitudes begin to flow in me and uh and i will do far more good for the kingdom of god if i focus first on becoming a saint and and and not worry about taking the the log or the splinter out of my neighbor's eye yeah mary thank you so much for your call that opens up a line for you right now at 833 288 ewtn that's 833 eight three nine eight six call to communion in progress here on ewtn bradley is watching us on facebook today bradley says if there is no sin in heaven won't the life of heaven get boring wouldn't the overall narrative of heaven become static and dull and boring with absolutely no wrongdoing and no evil to combat dr anders has often said that the problem of evil makes god a good storyteller so won't the story of heaven be rather mundane yeah i really appreciate the question so uh first of all saint paul tells us that i has not seen nor ear has heard what god has prepared for those that love him we can't even begin to imagine we can't even begin to imagine the glory of heaven but we can conceptualize aspects of it so the church teaches that we will have what's called the beatific vision that is the vision of god in his essence not a physical vision with the eyes but an intuitive vision means an immediate conscious awareness it's not even mediated by by words ideas or concepts right we know most things through concepts that we abstract from images and sounds that we hear things that we test touch and taste and smell and get some sort of idea of them form a concept in my mind but there are some things we seem to know without concepts we just kind of know them immediately like my own existence i mean i'm just here i just know it you know you can't contradict that i know that i'm here i know that i exist and uh well we'll know the inner nature of god with that kind of intuitive immediacy we can't even imagine what that would be like yeah all right now we know god as through a glass darkly and very much mediated by concepts so i have a concept of god as say like the first cause well i know what causes are i know what cause and effect is i i can have an i can have some idea of what a first cause is like the first in a chain of ordered causes going all the way back to the beginning all right that's a concept of god i can i can think about it through the concept of love god is love all right i mediated through these ideas but then i'm going to know him immediately without even the benefit of concepts just intuitively and and to know god in that means that i will know infinite goodness infinite love infinite being infinite wisdom saint paul says that we will know him even as we're fully known it'll be the satisfaction of every kind of desire whether intellectual or or any other kind absolutely everything that we could experience so you know take a trivial example i often talk on this show about how i love pecan pie that i can no longer eat unfortunately my pecan pie days are over i'm sorry but i can remember them and think back on them and i can savor the taste you know well abstract that sense of goodness from the particular sweetness and pecaniness of the pie right magnify that to infinity and you have some vague notion of what that immediate experience of god will be now also keep in mind that we will have bodies yes we will also have bodies which means we will have senses we will exist in a temporal everlasting but temporal way what would we do with those bodies all right and i like to go to the analogy this is just a metaphor of the artist imagine an artist who has before him an infinite supply of canvas paint brushes and subject matter who whose capacity for enjoyment in his work in the beauty that he beholds and creates is magnified to infinity and has said you have everlasting resources to explore enjoy create and paint whatever you want it'll all be beautiful and you can't sin in doing it now you know tom and i have a mutual friend guy named floyd he's a professional artist yes how are you doing floyd is usually followed by the production of a sketchbook right and and and his capacity to marvel over a leaf is marvelous it's beautiful it's endearing to me to see how much enjoyment and pleasure one man can take out of a simple sight of some finite particular beautiful thing and if you've ever known an artist with that kind of capacity or the musician who can who can thrill over a single note played in the right place right i think you have some kind of intimation of what a life of sinless perfection with the with the experience of the beatific vision might be like wow fantastic there you go bradley thanks for watching us today on facebook call to communion here on ewtn our phone number eight three three two eight eight ewtn that's eight three three two eight eight three nine eight six tony is in new jersey right now watching us on ewtn television hey tony what's on your mind today uh yes uh thanks for taking my call i appreciate it i know the show's almost over i'll try to be brief uh we have a friend of ours who's protestant and says if you don't break the ten commandments and you you uh pray that the jesus prayer turning your life over to jesus that when you die you go right to heaven of course they don't believe in purgatory or progression for you know minor offenses venial sins and all and uh she feels that you don't have to be perfect to be in heaven and see god and doesn't god say be perfect as my heavenly father is perfect now i wonder if there's any scriptural backups for purgatory um oh yeah there's quite a few there's quite a few but let me first go to this thing about you just have to refrain from breaking the ten commandments so and you're right to point to christ's command that we be perfect as our father in heaven is perfect scripture definitely represents that there is moral and spiritual progress even within the christian life definitely represents that so christ says for example if you pray in public to be seen by men you have received your reward in full but if you pray in secret your father who sees you in secret will reward you so so merit that we can do things that wins recompense from god which implies a kind of progress is built into the fabric of jesus's teaching the book of hebrews says we have to we have to put aside the first elements of laying on of hands and washing and things of this sort and move on to the deeper elements of the faith st paul in book of ephesians both in chapter 1 and chapter 3 speaking to christians who have received the light of the holy spirit says i pray that the eyes of your heart will be enlightened that you might know the fullness of the depth and the width and the height of the love of god that surpasses knowledge so understanding that there's a beginning stage to faith that's real and genuine and gracious and inspired by the holy spirit but that there's a deepening union with him over the course of our life a spiritual illumination that we pray for we long for and we seek for saint james and his epistle says that we all stumble in many ways right even christians who are trying to live the right life they stumble in many ways but the man who can control his tongue is a perfect man i don't know about you but i like that tongue business i mean i'm like i got a long way to go i'm working on that one 50 years old and i'm just beginning to get my head wrapped around and shut your mouth and shut your mouth right um so definitely progress in the moral spiritual life the progress that merits reward so there's not just you know kind of a one level uh you got your ticket you come in that's not the way scripture presents the next life um now in in the aspect of purgatory brings in something else which is that when we sin we are alienated from god and from our neighbor and we repent and god forgives us and our neighbor forgives us is that the end of the story was it ask yourself like if you offended your wife or your child you said i'm sorry and they said it's cool i forgive you would you not do something to make up for it would you not would you not you know buy a box of chocolate or bring a bouquet of flowers or do something as an act of love in reparation of course you would in scripture represents that our relationship with god is the same thing it's what we call penance and it carries over into purgatory a question i'll have to take up later be right back in this year of saint joseph join us and make the 33-day consecration to saint joseph tonight nine eastern after the rosary with father grow shell on ewtn radio living the beatitudes with father bjorn blessed are the merciful for they shall obtain mercy we get what we look for saint therese of les you has an interesting insight on this once in a discussion over the possibility of avoiding purgatory the future saint told another member of her community sister maria fabronia that god was more father than judge and in this discussion debate she finally took the liberty of saying to the other sister if you look for the justice of god you will get it the soul will receive from god exactly what she desires are we full of wounds and anger and hurt and do we want to inflict that on other people are we allowing god to heal us if we receive his mercy we have to show it to others the beatitudes are the heart of jesus's message let's be transformed by them blessed are the merciful for they shall obtain mercy for more about the beatitudes visit ewtnrc.com i've got a quote for you from mother angelica's perpetual calendar the reason we're not really christian is we don't have the guts we don't want to make a decision imagine the joy when you make a decision for jesus when you stand up for the lord can you imagine the exaltation in the kingdom and the humiliation and the depths of hell when you a puny insignificant sinner say no to the enemy and yes to god mother angelica's perpetual calendar is available at ewtnrc.com hi this is scikel at old man great show on catholic ants was live today steve ray on the masses of sacrifice joe heshmeyer on the beliefs of the earliest christians catholic answers live 6 pm eastern on ewtn radio now back to call of duty communion dr david anderson it's called a communion here on ewtn if you have a question for dr david andrews or if you'd like to explain why you are not a catholic love to hear from you today at 833 288 ewtn that's 833-288-3986 so before the break we were talking with tony in new jersey david uh regarding purgatory and a friend of his who is denying purgatory a protestant friend uh and maybe we could tony was asking specifically for some scriptural references there yeah thanks so before the break we we unpacked the notion of salvation as something that begins in a kind of seed form in the christian heart with god giving us his grace but growing through the course of the christian life through an illumination that leads to a perfect union with god and along the way the opportunity to acquire merit all of which is biblical scriptural teaching especially in the new testament the flip side is to merit is demerit right and that we can sin we can alienate ourselves from god and people and even though we say i'm sorry and we receive forgiveness in the order of justice and love it's appropriate to offer something in reparation for an offense or a fault that we that we commit and we see this in human relationships quite easily by you know let's say i um god forbid i'm leaving the ewtn studios and i'm back in tom price's car oh and i put a dent in the car right i'm not going to do this thomas i can help it but imagine i did that and i ran into the radio office i said tom tom tom i'm so sorry i backed into your car and tom would say enters it's cool as an accident stuff happens i forgive you and i'm like all right see you later [Laughter] no that's not the end of the story the end of the story is here's my insurance card you know you take it to the body shop see what the estimates are i'll pay for it yeah now tom tom's not saying to me anders i'm totally not forgiving you right the condition of forgiveness is you gotta you know you gotta pay up no that's not what he said he forgave me right off the bat but in the order of justice and love i gotta do something to make up for the fault and the same thing is true in the spiritual life i mean that is the spiritual life for crying out loud if it doesn't affect my relationships with people it's really of no value and and uh but it's true in our relationship with god also and i see this in psalm 51 king david is conscious of sinning grievously against god and he says god i'm so sorry and i know you're going to forgive me that's what he says you wash me and i'll be clean take not your holy spirit from me renewing me a right spirit but then he goes on and says and i will offer sacrifice i will teach sinners your ways i will do these good deeds in reparation for my fault in second samuel chapter 12 second samuel 24 we see this in action in a narrative twice david sins grievously against god he's rebuked by the prophet he repents he's forgiven and then he goes and does penance he offers sacrifice he makes acts of reparation he does penance it's a biblical idea penance now purgatory is just the extension of the idea of penance to the next life that when we need to make satisfaction we need to purify our attachments that we can do that in this life and in the next and that that there is such a place we can infer from the fact of prayers for the dead which is a biblical practice second maccabees chapter 12 clearly evidences the church's faith in prayers for the dead we find it in saint paul's correspondence with timothy he prays for his friend anissa forrest who's not he prays that god would have mercy on him so the the fact of praying for the dead the need to do reparation and penance indicates the the logic behind the doctrine of purgatory now you add to that the weight of sacred tradition which is also divine revelation and this is really when you're having a conversation with a protestant fellow about some catholic doctrine you really shouldn't let the bible alone be presumed as the basis of the conversation the protestant usually says well we agree on the bible let's just talk about that you should never do that you said no no christ never told us to rely on the bible alone we must do what christ says christ gave us sacred tradition we gotta we gotta admit that to the conversation sacred traditions very plain on the existence of purgatory and the efficacy of prayers for the dead and on top of that christ also said that the church had the power of binding and loosing what you bind on earth will be bound in heaven which you loose on earth is loosed in heaven give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven so when the church declares as a dogmatic fact that purgatory exists that it's real that catholics are bound to believe in it that also is divine revelation so from scripture from tradition from magisterial authority from from uh reasonable moral philosophy from field from theology we can be certain in the existence of purgatory okay well there you go uh tony we hope that's helpful for you thank you so much for your call it's called a communion here on ewtn what's stopping you from becoming a catholic love to talk with you today at eight three three two eight eight ewtn lines are open right now at eight three three two eight eight three nine eight six brent has an interesting email that came in on a recent show he says dr anders said we should not proselytize eastern orthodox so i was wondering how this applies to protestants especially lutherans and anglicans who are a little closer to catholicism than some others thanks brent yeah okay so first of all let's let's define our terms here okay um uh proselytism and evangelism are not at all the same thing and the church is very clear that we have a moral duty to evangelize uh but we ought not to proselytize um let me give you an example of proselytizing okay when i was protestant before i was catholic i eagerly wished to proselytize catholics i mean that was my stated objective i wanted to get them to leave the catholic church and join my little group and i once met a lady at a prep class for the graduate record exam the gre over a coke right at in a at a break stand you know between lessons and uh and i had and when i found out she was catholic man i jumped on that like a like a carnival barker after a mark man i was determined i was gonna coerce this lady into praying my little protestant sinner's prayer and get her out of the catholic thing and into my group and i used every tool at my disposal to confuse upset manipulate cajole promise you know encourage excite uh and uh and it worked like inside of 15 minutes i had her all twirled up in theological gobbledygook and i got her to pray my little prayer and i smiled gleefully and went back to my gre class wow and went home proud with a feather in my cap that i had quote unquote one somebody from the lord saved them from that horrible catholic church i really had that really happened that's a true story right did i know her name i don't do i know what her family situation was no did i really care what happened to her no was i really trying to help her no why did i do it for my own ego it was self-aggrandizement pure and simple i had an agenda to manipulate another human being for my own spiritual satisfaction out of my own pride that's what you call proselytizing all right um here's evangelizing here's a hurting person in need right i come alongside them i love them i get to know them i i understand where their issues are i care for them and i try to let the truth and the reality of christ's life shine forth in me in my character in my attention in my love and in my words in such a way that perhaps they see or hear or understand something of value that may allow the light of christ to penetrate into their situation and bring healing and uh and i'm that doesn't that doesn't mean i can't use strong methods yeah right i mean i can get in there in the face of well you catholics worship mary you catholics do this you i can use rigorous apologetical tools i mean i can i can argue i can debate right but the spirit behind it is my agenda is not to convert and change this person for my ego right but because i care about them as a human being and i'm trying to resolve difficulties answer questions illuminate a mystery you know get rid of misconceptions of the catholic faith but i leave the work of conversion up to christ in the holy spirit and that bears not only does it bear more fruit than proselytizing it bears far better fruit because the proselyte the person who's been cajoled and manipulated into making a decision for someone else's self-aggrandizement that person has shallow roots and they will fall away or worse they'll they'll become a shallow self-seeking christian who goes out and does the same thing perpetuates that same type of conquest tutorial you know uh christianity or they become a disciple they become someone who genuinely seeks to live like christ to be changed in their inner character and then goes out as light and salt in the world to make a real difference in human lives so evangelism is powerful to bring moral spiritual and intellectual change proselytism builds ideological division and shallow self-serving sect sectarian christianity so we don't proselytize anybody we evangelize everyone now but when it comes to the specific question you raise about protestants versus eastern orthodox there is a key difference and the difference is that the church recognizes that the orthodox churches are churches in the fullest sense of the word they have holy orders they have sacraments they have apostolic succession the orthodox church came into existence as an independent body as catholic bishoprics split away from obedience to rome but they did not lose their valid orders their apostolic succession or their sacraments and so the work of reconciling them is really a matter of bringing those dioceses bringing those patriarchates back into full communion with the bishop of rome and it doesn't require it would not require that they lose any of the sort of integral goods of being eastern christians they would retain everything of their eastern christian patrimony as an authentic expression of the catholic faith i mean to give you an example i mean they like john chrysostom we like john chrysostom you know they like maximus the confessor we like maximus the confessor i mean we're reading the same people oftentimes we're saying the same liturgies we're venerating the same saints right all you got to do is acknowledge the pope basically and and this system is healed it comes down to that right but with protestants it's not that way so you take an episcopalian for example more needs to happen than for the archbishop of canterbury to just acknowledge the pope he's not even an archbishop yeah not really he doesn't have valid orders he doesn't have apostolic succession they have no sacraments they got our buildings yeah they took them in the 16th century you know they got our buildings but the church is not reducible to a building they don't really have priests they don't have sacraments except marriage and baptism they've got but everybody has that right so um you know if they would and and their roman right i mean the english church is roman right so if they come back to the church of their obedience and back to the church of their heritage and batch it back to the church of their patrimony there is no such thing as an anglican rite they were roman right and of course the lutherans don't even pretend to have valid apostolic succession and they gave that up in the holy priesthood in the 16th century as did the calvinists and the rest of them so these they they were roman right catholics who left the church they have to come back to the church of their obedience okay hope you understand all that uh brent and the the various distinctions that david went over for either thank you so much for your email it's called a communion here on ewtn your last chance to call in on today's show at 833 288 ewtn if you have a question or something to say to dr david anders 833-288-3986 we have just a moment here i want to tell you about something wonderful now being offered by ewtnrc.com that is our religious catalogue and it's something very special for you the spiritual wisdom of mother angelica boxed set this is a special set including all seven volumes of mother angelica's spiritual wisdom i'll just tell you what they are praying with mother angelica mother on christ in our lady mother on suffering and burnout which can certainly happen mother's quick guide to the sacraments mothers praying and living for the kingdom mother angelica on god his home and his angels and mother angelica's guide to practical holiness all seven books will arrive to you beautifully boxed in a decorative board box check it out right now at ewtn rc.com ewtnrc.com i think you will really enjoy it beautiful uh beautiful presentation of mother's wonderful wisdom here's an email now for you david on call to communion this is from carolyn she says we were taught about fatima as little kids i remember reading that our lady said many souls go to hell because they have no one to pray for them this always upset me because it implies that our salvation depends on other people as if god almighty is saying whoops you didn't have enough people praying for you so down you go who does our salvation depend on thanks carolyn all right uh does our salvation depend on us yes does our salvation depend 100 yes does it depend 100 on god yes does it depend 100 percent on the intersection of the saints yes yes yes and yes so here's how think about it this way god is in control of everything 100 percent god's providence extends even to the amoeba that you know goes left rather than right i mean literally everything falls within the scope of his providence not a sparrow falls jesus says apart from the will of our father and that includes even the whole process of human salvation no one comes to me jesus says except the father draw him so god's in control of the whole show from start to finish but but that includes god is in control of our free human actions our free human actions god's providence extends to our free human decisions the means of our being saved is our freely cooperating with the grace of god and you say well how can our freedom coincide with god's total providence that's a theological question to get into later but in terms of the spirituality of the thing we are completely responsible for our resp free response to god's initiative and god is totally in control of the outcome but is another element how does god extend his grace to us how does he make it available to us he makes it available to us through instruments through media through the priesthood through the sacraments through the prayers and intercessions of the saints that's integral to the process of salvation it's it's not an accessory it's not like you know i can pray to receive jesus on my own and oh yeah the saints are over there that's a nice thing maybe i'll get into that one day no i'm sorry the saints the communion of saints is integral to what it means to be saved we are saved in and through and by the community the society that god founded that christ founded which is the catholic church now here's the nice thing well you don't have to worry about that the church always prays for all of her members every day in the holy sacrifice of the mass she even prays for those who have no one to pray for them i mean they're specifically remembered and and the mass is offered for the church everywhere throughout the world all the time and there are prayers constantly being offered for those who have no one to pray for them so do you need to pray for souls absolutely are those souls totally responsible for themselves absolutely and is the whole thing within the scope of god's providence absolutely all right carolyn thanks so much for your email let's go back to the phones and talk with mark now marcus in jackson michigan listening on good shepherd catholic radio hello mark what's on your mind today well thanks for taking my call i have some orthodox friends uh one is the local pastor of an orthodox church in our area and uh others are uh members of a different orthodox uh church in a different town but um i know the pastor once when i asked him if i would be welcome if i visited would i be welcome to receive communion there and he said no um but i wasn't certain as to whether orthodox people were welcome to receive communion in my parish the other way around yes so there is a a kind of a weird uh it's not even double standard it's kind of like a triple standard at work here okay so here's how it here's how it plays out uh catholic should not our our canon law like the law of catholics would not permit us to receive communion from an orthodox priest except in a case of urgency so what would a case of urgency be let's say you were you were tracking around on vacation in greece and uh you know you had some sort of a terrible accident and you were in danger of death and you desperately needed to have last rites and there was no catholic priest you know within 500 miles but the local eastern orthodox priest was there you would be permitted by catholic law to receive the sacraments from an orthodox priest in that kind of circumstance but normally just you know on a sunday or out of ecumenical concern you shouldn't go to communion in an orthodox church because they're not in communion like they're literally they're not in communion with the bishop of rome and the sacrament is the among other things is the bond of our visible unity with the sea of rome and with the whole catholic church so i don't want to receive a sacrament that suggests that we possess a kind of unity that for the moment we are denied so catholic ought not to go to communion in an orthodox church except in you know case of absolute necessity or urgency okay um now uh the orthodox don't permit catholics to come to communion in their churches because they don't respect you know the the catholic position right so that's why your orthodox friend would say no you can't receive communion now here's where the wrinkle comes in the catholic church says that orthodox faithful can receive the sacraments most of them in a catholic church they can all right they can come to communion they can they can they can go to confession right um and uh uh and why why does the church say that well it's because the church recognizes that the faithful of the orthodox uh church i mean you know for many of them i mean this this is not a system of their personal choosing you know they're not they're not personally obstinately in opposition to the holy father you know they're there this is the church of their family and their background their heritage and their communion and and for many of them there's a profound longing to be at one with the catholic church and to have this thing healed right and i i know orthodox who avail themselves of that perspective and of that privilege and though they worship in the orthodox church in their eastern right they they will come to the catholic church and receive those sacraments when they're properly disposed so that's the way it that's the way it flows out there you go mark appreciate your call call to communion here on ewtn let's go to uh clarissa now in san antonio listening on the great guadalupe radio a first time caller clarissa what's on your mind today hi thank you i was listening and learning about you talking about the different effects of churches and i wanted to ask specifically about the ordinariate of the chair of saint peter and they call themselves anglican right catholics so did they come from the episcopalians and then converted to catholicism and that's how they maintain their anglican right or how does that work i don't know the history of it yeah sure sure i really appreciate the question so technically speaking they're not really a right the word right in catholic tradition has a very specific meaning and it really is a it's a it's a family of liturgy and law going all the way back to the apostles rights are very very ancient traditions within the church and they have a kind of um you know uh integrity that that lasts over the millennia uh the ordinary of chair st peter the angle so-called anglican ordinary it's not a right in that sense it's not something that goes back to uh to the apostles um what this was was a kind of a condescension that pope benedict allowed because there were many anglican protestants who felt a profound longing to be to come back to the catholic church but they had come to appreciate elements of their anglican patrimony and they wanted to see if there was a way to be catholic while retaining some of that spirituality and sensitivity and so the church created a special canonical structure called an ordinary not a right but an ordinary by right these people are latin right they're the same right of the church as the as the roman catholics of the west right uh but they have a kind of a special little place in the the latin catholic rite called an ordinary where they're allowed to retain those elements of anglicanism that are still compatible with catholicism but their priests have to be absolutely ordained in the catholic church so you know if if an anglican priest or an episcopal priest wants to join the ordinariat he actually has to be ordained as a catholic priest and and then take obedience to the catholic ordinary bishop of the ordinarian and then he's allowed to pastor one of these parishes and sometimes the whole parishes come over in one fell swoop you know have a whole kind of group conversion over together but that's the difference okay there you go clarissa thank you so much for your call today here on ewtn's call to communion let's go to nancy now in cleveland listening on am 1260 the rock and uh nancy what's on your mind today it's a question about the spiritual works of mercy when we are to admonish the center um which center or what kind of center are we to admonish his reflection okay yeah i got you i got you here here's who you admonish you you only admonish sinners when the sin is grave when the sin is grave so you know like you don't you don't admonish somebody for chewing gum right it has to be grave sen um and chewing gum is not ascendant by the way just in case you're working here um uh the person is likely to listen to you and you are the best person to make the admonition you know so let's let's let's test case public politician involved in some you know gross impropriety sin grave yes likely to listen no no you're the best person to make the admonition probably not yeah right no need to do to do admonishing um now here's a really beautiful historical case of admonishing the center saint dismiss thief on the cross all right other thief starts cursing christ grave sin you bet right um is dismiss well placed to make the admonition i should think so yeah he's hanging right up there with the guy likely to listen hmm that one was a tough call dismas made a judgment call in good faith and christ rewarded him for it today you'll be with me in paradise yeah and we're glad of it too nancy thank you so much i'm so glad we could get to your call at the very end of the show had to leave a couple of people on hold we apologize for that please call us back on our next show we'll put you at the head of the line hey dr david anders thank you sir thank you tom don't forget we do the program monday through friday right here on ewtn radio on the radio site anyway not the tv side but radio we are on live monday through friday at 2 p.m eastern with an encore at 11 p.m eastern and of course you can always check out the podcast 24 7 by going to ewtnradio.net ewtn radio my thanks to our fantastic team behind the glass and i'm tom price along with dr david andrews see you next time right here on ewtn's call to communion god bless you

Channel: EWTN

Views: 3,787

Rating: 5 out of 5

Keywords: Catholic, EWTN, Christian, television

Id: 3G4JkNBwUgM

Length: 53min 30sec (3210 seconds)

Published: Mon Apr 19 2021