Called to Communion with Dr. David Anders - March 1 , 2022

[Music] ewtn i don't understand why i have to earn salvation with 1-833-288-3986 david anders on the ewtn global catholic radio network hey everybody welcome again to call to communion here on ewtn radio this is the program for our non-catholic brothers and sisters if you've got a question about the catholic faith and you've kind of run out of places to get that question answered well here's one more and we stand with the church so you know that if you get the cancer here it's going to be exactly what the church teaches here's our phone number 833 288 ewtn that's 833-288-3986 if you're listening to us outside of north america please dial the u.s country code and then 205 271-2985 you can also text the letters ewtn to 5500 i'll wait for the response and then text us your first name just your first name please and a brief question message and data rates may apply and of course you can always send us an email ctc at ewtn.com the address ctc ewtn.com charles berry is our producer matt kabinsky our phone screener jeff burson handles social media for us if you want to ask a question via youtube or facebook live we're streaming there right now and you can just put your question in the comments box jeff will see it he'll shoot it to us here in the studio and hopefully we'll get it on today's program i'm tom price along with dr david anderson tom how are you today i am well how are you i'm doing decent thank you are you ready for lent i suppose so do you have any thoughts as to giving something up or you know taking up something uh you know that's a good question that's a good question and uh this is something catholics uh traditionally do yeah that's absolutely right and i i suppose that i um i've made some personal resolutions about the time that i spend in meditation and prayer okay and i think that i could do no better than to double down on my resolutions and maintain them good man that sounds fantastic my wife adrienne has uh stated to me that she wants to start getting to daily mass if at all possible she's a very busy person but i think that's quite noble absolutely so we're going to lead off and we usually don't do this but today we are going to do it we're going to lead off with a text remember a couple of minutes ago i was talking about text the letters uh ewtn to 5500 got a couple people here who did exactly that john says dr anders in this text that came in where in scripture do you see the apostles praying to anyone but god or exhorting one anyone else to do so thanks john thanks so i don't know that i see an example of the apostles praying to anyone other than god in sacred scripture and that is not the way that i go about determining the content of christian doctrine so you know if i'm not limited in my christian faith or practice in only those things that i witnessed the apostles doing so for example there's no evidence in the new testament of the apostles ever giving holy communion to women so if i follow your rule then you shouldn't give holy communion to women because we don't see the apostles ever doing that and yet i don't think you would want to draw that conclusion right um you know i uh i don't see any rubrics that is detailed instructions for how to celebrate the sacraments in sacred scripture paul doesn't give you know a blow-by-blow description of how you actually administer a sacrament um and uh and in fact we we don't really see them administering sacraments directly we don't have like a narrative description of their administering sacraments uh does that mean that there's not a proper way to celebrate the sacraments you see i mean i i can i can play this game all day right so i think you're going about it the wrong way i think i think the better way to do it is to begin how do we in fact discern the content of christian faith how do we go about doing that and christ actually gave us instructions for how to do that when he told the apostles to make disciples and teach everything he had commanded them and that he would be with them until the end of the age and whatever they bound on earth is bound in heaven so christ's instructions for handing on the faith are the transmission of his oral teaching because he didn't write anything down and a promise that he would guarantee the teaching office of the church and its maintenance of the deposit of faith so if i want to know what the christian faith is i want to look to the tradition of the church that was founded by christ with his promise of divine ascension so that would be the catholic church now when i do that i find that prayer to the saints has always been a part of the deposit of faith from the very beginning now i do see evidence in scripture although this is not determinative i do find evidence in scripture that the saints in heaven pray for us right and revelation chapter 5 for example clearly shows the saints in heaven offering our prayers to god second maccabees chapter 15 shows the righteous dead of the old covenant clearly praying for the church on earth god himself commands the servants of job at the end of the book of job to ask for the intercession of job on their behalf because he's not going to listen to them but he'll listen to job abraham moses both of them plead with god on behalf of other people and god grants their prayers when he refuses the prayers of the other people so there's this plenty of scriptural warrant for this idea of the intercession of saints both in this life and the next and that we should seek their intercession but in terms of a narrative description of the apostles performing every liturgical practice that you might want to perform that's not the way to go about it all right very good thanks so much for your text uh amanda's watching us on youtube right now hey amanda amanda says i know that tomorrow is a day of fasting could you please go over exactly what that means and can i have coffee in the morning uh sure sure so the church's law on fasting is that on a fast day you're not supposed to eat is fasting and abstinence so you're not supposed to eat meat right um and you can have one main meal and uh you can have two other meals during the day that together should not be more than the contents of the way one main meal so like two half meals in a meal and no snacks and no meat can she have coffee um i'm gonna have coffee good man i'm gonna have coffee there you go amanda you're all set have that cup of coffee and uh so that's that's the rule and you know like in our family our that one meal that we're going to have to uh tomorrow will be the evening meal because that's when we'll be all together and then you know if you take something in the morning take something at midday the two of them together should not add up to a full meal thank you so much for your question i think a lot of people have that question in a moment we'll be talking with jeff in spokane marion dartmouth connecticut alex in houston lots more straight ahead on this edition of call to communion with dr david anders do stay with us [Music] tomorrow morning on the sunrise morning show we'll mark ash wednesday by looking at our call as a church to come together for 40 days in a spirit of prayer fasting and almsgiving father ezra sullivan will join us with more thoughts on developing habits of virtue and we'll start giving up worry for lent with gary zimac plus news weather sports and everything you need to start your day the sunrise morning show tomorrow at 6 a.m eastern on ewtn radio [Music] father benedict grochelle i'm going to tell you about the most abused woman i ever met in my life you know her name as roe as in roe versus wade i talked to roe this woman is a great penitent a woman is a humble person who was deeply hurt she was kneeling in the basilica of the immaculate conception the national shrine in washington when i met her and i thought what reverence i didn't know who this woman was but she was praying with reverence with great fervor and i asked a priest friend of mine who is that he says oh that's wrong god is not mocked this woman was abused by those who propagate the killing of children ewtn live truth live catholic [Music] call to communion on this uh if you will fat tuesday here on ewtn the global catholic network our phone number eight three three two eight eight ewtn that's eight three three two eight eight three nine eight six you may wanna write that down don't call right now because we are sold out phones are totally full let's uh get going here if if you're ready uh with jeff in spokane washington jeff is listening on the great sacred heart radio hey jeff what's on your mind today hey there with easter coming up i never understood why it's called good friday i mean on that day jesus was put to death was purely innocent it really seems like it should be called sad friday to me yeah it's a great question it is so you know saint paul said in the book of galatians chapter 6 he says as for me i will boast only about the cross of our lord jesus christ for it's by means of his cross that the world is dead to me and i'm dead to the world so the cross of christ is the means of the redemption of the human race and so though it is a tragic event in its own right it is something out of which god brought an inestimable good to the human race namely the possibility of redemption and new life in christ does that make sense to you jeff yes i appreciate that yeah thank you thanks for your call that opens up a line for you and they're going fast 833 288 ewtn that's 833-288-3986 here now is mary in dartmouth connecticut listening on the ewtn app hey mary what's on your mind today hi uh thank you doctor and just for taking my call um in terms of creation god created a woman from the rib of a man from adam and um i was always under the impression that that was the also a uh a shortage of ribs on for a man so that he had one less rib than a woman and i was confronted with this just a couple of days ago and i said well i'm going to find out the right answer um how does how do we uh solve that problem from uh genesis yeah thank you i appreciate the question well i don't know that it's a problem and i mean in terms of uh counting ribs it's just a matter of you know doing the numbers and i'm i'm not an anatomist nor the son of one but my understanding is that that that there's no difference in the rib cage numbers of ribs in in men and women and i think uh in terms of the book of genesis the important thing is not that the experiences belong to man's pre-history but that they are always at the root of every human experience that's what john paul ii said in his wednesday general audience from 1979 december the 12th that these stories tell us something perennial about the spiritual condition of the human race they're not primarily oriented to giving us insight into modern anatomy that's just the wrong set of questions to bring to the texts i think mary thank you so much for your call call to communion here on ewtn radio let's go to alex now in houston listing on the great guadalupe radio alex what's on your mind today sir well um kind of back and forth with my wife about uh salvation uh through baptism you know of course we always believe that you you're saved you know by trusting in the work of christ that is when uh salvation actually takes place um and you know as i was showing her some verses you know john 3 3 passage another one in peter that speaks of you know salvation uh baptism now saves um and she was like no but that's not what it really means and um so we just kind of been involved in the back and forth one thing that i one thing that i just thought of was uh paul when he tells the corinthians that he wasn't sent to baptize right and so we're talking about that a little bit well if baptism was that important why did paul say that he wasn't sent to baptize i was just wondering if he could maybe make sense and kind of clear up the uh are we saved through the actual baptism when we're actually in the water or are we saved when the moment we believe in christ and what he's done for us yes thank you i appreciate the question so i really think that we have to get to the root of what we mean by being saved i think that's the root difficulty that you're having here in your conversations what do we mean when we say that we're saved now jesus said in matthew chapter 24 the one who stands firm to the end will be saved the one who stands firm to the end will be saved and there are many passages of the gospel that warn that a person who has begun to live in imitation of christ who's become a christian who's been baptized or had faith or whatever conditions you establish for initiation into the life of christian faith that people who are in the christian life are still at risk of not being saved and that it is possible to shipwreck your faith and go back to the life of sin and dissipation and to be lost saint peter ii peter actually chapter 2 warns that it is better not to have entered the way of righteousness than to have started out and then turn back you know to your old life book of hebrews chapter 6 says the same thing so many many warnings saint paul the whole book of galatians he writes to people who have christ he says you baptized you're clothed with christ you've received the gift of the spirit but you're in danger of losing everything because you're turning away from the faith that of christ that saves you so to be safe doesn't mean that you've crossed some threshold in your personal biography and that you can never go back from that and that is the way many people use the term but they do so illegitimately that's not the way scripture talks about salvation we we receive the grace of christ but then we have uh the obligation and opportunity to cooperate with that grace throughout our lives to grow more and more in the likeness of jesus and so if we persevere to the end then we will be saved so i let's look at it this way what actually happens in baptism well in baptism we become members of christ we become members of his body the church and we receive that gift of grace now this is clearly the teaching of sacred scripture saint paul writes in romans chapter six that we die with christ in baptism and are raised again with him to new life so that that that death to self death of the old man to that principle of concupiscence and sin and us that has led us astray that dies in us and we receive new life in jesus we're born again christ says in john chapter 3 born a new born to a new life peter writes in first peter chapter one so that's what takes place in baptism because members of his body of the church receive that gift of grace and so that starts us on the christian life and that can never be taken away from you never be taken away you're a member of christ's body once you're baptized but then we have to persevere we have to stay the course we have to cooperate with that grace and be nourished by the other sacraments especially the eucharist in order to in order to stay the course so when peter writes in first peter chapter three baptism now saves you that's not a guarantee that all the baptized will go to heaven because clearly there are baptized people who walk away from the church right it is a guarantee that we have died with christ and risen again with him and been clothed with him and received that grace to start the christian life but we still have to persevere till the end appreciate your call alex it is called a communion with dr david anders here on ewtn radio the global catholic network as you know we do have studios literally all over the world including in ukraine we've got a beautiful studio and chapel in kiev very proud to bring programming from ukraine to ewtn all over the world one of the other big bureaus that we have is the rome the rome bureau the vatican bureau where we bring you news from rome to your home you can watch all the important events from rome even if you don't have tv access we have now made it possible to watch the latest news from the holy see delivered directly to your home via live streams so you can watch live on ewtn's youtube channel also follow us on facebook instagram and twitter call to communion here on ewtn going now to ricky in virginia listening on the ewtn app as well hello ricky what's on your mind today hello thank you for taking my calls so my husband and i would like to have our marriage blessed or gotten validated in the catholic church and i wanted to give you a little chronology um we invest and we were both anglicans anglicans you said you're both anglicans yes okay episcopal and anglicans okay and we wanted to marry in england and look in church but i have been married before so they said i had to have we had to have a civil ceremony so we had a civil ceremony and they allowed us to have a blessing in the anglican church and then about 15 years later we converted to catholicism and we did hope and as we did so i have my marriage and null um so they would allow us in the catholic church and now we would like to have either a blessing or a con validation in the catholic church but we don't know which one is um the right one to ask for and i think the priest doesn't really know what we're asking okay okay okay i can help you so let me get this straight you were married previously then you married your husband in a in a civil ceremony and received a blessing in the anglican church when you became catholic you received an annulment for that first relationship but at no time on your entrance to the church or after the annulment did any priest conduct a marriage ceremony for you so that you would be validly married in the catholic church that is quite astonishing to me quite astonishing that that that that oversight took place not your fault not your fault this is a pastoral oversight i mean a failure of oversight on the pa on the part of um of the priest who was kind of in charge of your case so what you need to do is you just i would go to the priests and say we we we just come to our attention that we are not validly married in the eyes of the church yeah i mean you put it as stark as that that we we i got that first annulment but we never got our our marriage convalidated in the church so we're not validly married in the catholic church we need to be can we get this done like tomorrow at you know 9 please now yeah and i mean most priests they do this all day long i mean this is bread and butter stuff for them they know about this process so you don't just want a blessing you want to be convalidated you're going to actually have to go state your wedding vows again in the presence of a priest it's very simple it just takes 10 minutes but to be validly married in the church if if you if you're not already validly married yeah to be valid and married for catholic you need to state your vows in the presence of a catholic minister priest or deacon is that helpful for you ricky yes but i wanted to just say that the priests are all saying that when we came into the church our marriage was automatic automatically validated that would be true that would be true uh if if um if you hadn't had that previous relationship so to see this is where they are confused i i now i see what the problem is protestant marriage is valid protestant marriage is valid so the fact that you were an anglican is not an impediment to having been validly married and you know two two baptists can be validly married two episcopalians can be validly married if they become catholic they do not have to have their marriage convalidated so you have to emphasize with the priest this is not a converting from anglican to catholic problem that's not the issue the issue is that the the the anglican wedding was never valid to begin with because you had a previous relationship that needed to be an old right and then you got you got married again without having that annulment so the second relationship is invalid on the face right you that's the issue that you need to raise with the priest not i converted from anglicanism but my marriage is not valid and here's why okay ricky thanks so much for your call glad we could clear that up for you call to communion here on ewtn finally a couple of lines have opened up you can snag one of them right now at 833 288 ewtn that's 833 ken is listening uh in bryan texas go aggies a first-time caller listening to red sea radio hey there ken what's on your mind today sir no it's me i'm on now you are on yeah sure uh yeah okay so i was married for four years like 4 40 years ago 40 me and my wife had a son and but we were got divorced and uh neither one neither one of us were catholic and and uh but the church the catholic church won't set marriage and mold but you know which is fine with me if they want to know it just to know it but they wanted oh yeah we want names and phone numbers of people who knew you back dead and i go uh i don't think i could furnish it and even if i could i don't think um we really want to 40 years ago you know dredge up something so you know if you want to know it and know it i don't know you know or not right right i think i can help so see the the issue from the church's point of view is the church cannot just by fiat declare a marriage null right so you're saying well if you want to know it and know it the only way they can annul a marriage is if they do a finding of fact and determine that there's no marriage there right it's kind of like you know in this is a this is a trivial example but in in u.s uh contract law uh if i sign a valid contract with another party i mean the the the courts and the government enforce the contract and i can't just say well just declare it null just just just you know break that trade when i when i when i sold google way too soon you know just make it that i didn't do that you can't ask that of the authority because it's a matter of fact you know if you are validly married then they can't say you're not validly married and the only way they can make that determination is to do the investigation now you're absolutely right this is onerous and burdensome it's one of the reasons that the pope several years ago instituted some policies to try to speed up the process to make it less onerous and burdensome for people but i mean i had a candidate tell me one time you know he wanted to do everything in his power to help people everything in his power to help people get their marriages convalidated you know get the annulment they needed so they could be right with the church but there was one thing he was not going to do he says i'm not going to go to hell for anybody you know i'm not going to lie i'm not going to say something is the case that i can't verify is the case so um your situation is not unique and of course the the the candidates deal with these kinds of issues all the time they're familiar with them and you just do the best you can it's tough because we're talking about something from 40 years ago i can't even imagine it was a what a what a what an what a horrible burden yeah i mean i i'm totally sympathetic to you but you know best effort right best effort is uh gonna win the day there i think uh ken thank you so much for your call in a moment we'll be going to margaret a first-time caller in illinois also robert in cleveland pearl in new york looks like matt is screening somebody right now and one little old line open for you at 833 288 ewtn that's 833 288 it is called to communion with dr david anders on fat tuesday here on ewtn stay with us here's one of gk chesterton's great prophetic insights he said you are free in our time to say that god does not exist you're free to say that he exists and is evil you may talk of god as a metaphor or a mystification and it's not merely that nobody punishes but nobody protests but if you speak of god as a fact as a thing like a tiger a reason for changing one's conduct then the modern world will stop you somehow if it can we are long past talking about whether an unbeliever should be punished for being irreverent it's now thought irreverent to be a believer spend more time with the apostle of common sense visit chesterton.org for more information and go to ewtnrc.com to discover more books and programs written and inspired by gk chesterton you can be a part of call to communion text ewtn to 5500 wait for a response then text us your first name and question it's that easy message and data rates may apply wherever you are in the world you can access the ewtn global catholic network it's everywhere you can get ewtn's great catholic programming on your car radio at home on your tv computer or smart speaker with ewtn's app you can take ewtn everywhere on your phone or mobile device if you want your news in print turn to ewtn's paper of record the national catholic register ewtn the global catholic network matt swaim here tomorrow on the sunrise morning show will mark ash wednesday by looking at our call as a church to come together for 40 days in a spirit of prayer fasting and alms giving now back to call to communion [Music] hey what's stopping you from becoming a catholic let's talk about that here on ewtn's call to communion with dr david anders our phone number and we do have two lines open look at that eight three three two eight eight ewtn that's eight three three two eight eight three nine eight six hey we'd like to uh congratulate several of our ewtn family members saint paul catholic radio wker in augusta georgia celebrating their 10th anniversary this week fantastic and billings catholic radio kjcr in billings montana now celebrating 11 years of solid catholic radio congratulations from all of us at ewtn back to the phones now for margaret a first-time caller in illinois listening on the simple radio app not familiar with that one have to check that out margaret what's on your mind today um well i've been a catholic for about a year and a half and i don't i don't really understand everything but at church one of the women asked me if i wanted if i would like to be one of the um i don't really know what she lector ministry i think she said okay something like that and i'm really not sure well uh i'm a woman and i i'm kind of an old-fashioned person i uh i don't think women are short changed i mean i think jesus loves women uh very much so i don't have any stigma about being a woman other than um is it appropriate our pat our priest doesn't have any help really we don't even have a bishop we're very small and so you know he does need lay people but i'm thinking should it be more like men instead of women sure i know i'm not i can help you there i appreciate it margaret so uh the church absolutely permits uh the the ministry of of the lecter to to women and so if that is something that you feel drawn to then don't hesitate on that account now you're under no obligation to take up this work and if you feel uncomfortable about it then you're not obligated to do it but if it's something that you feel drawn to then you're you're permitted to now uh you know there is a role in the liturgy that is reserved for men only and not all men but only the ordained men and that is the celebration of the mass the priest is the only one that can celebrate the mass and confect the eucharist and offer and affect the sacrifice uh women can't do that and most men can't do that so there are there are divisions of roles in the church this is not one of them and so if you wish to perform that ministry you certainly may i know a number of uh women who are lecters and uh they're excellent they're really really good all you're going to be doing here margaret if you choose to take this up you're going to read or proclaim however you want to say it the first reading of the mass and then the second reading of the mass and then uh very often the lecter reads the prayers of the faithful and yes not not much to it i've been doing it for many years i have only one pet peeve about this and that was just me this is just my humble opinion which is you know worth less than a cup of coffee all right i would never impose myself on say the music ministry of a local parish and and pretend that i could accompany the the mass on the organ that would be that would be just a devastating thing if i attempted to do that you know it would fail miserably and i think there are people who have who are very talented at the use of their voice and reading and pronunciation and tom you're one of them i i've always valued it when i'm at mass and you're the lectern right i just really enjoy that um you know not everybody has that gift and so i would say if if it's a gift that you have you think you're you can articulate well and pronounce the words well and be understood by people by all means share that gift if you have another gift find some other place to serve in the church it's an interesting margaret thank you for your call it's interesting that margaret would bring bring this up because our pastor has asked me if i would lead a class in you know current lectures and future lectures that's going to come up next month i'm actually looking forward to it taking some notes right now um one thing you're the man for the job whatever i you know whatever i can do i'm i'm glad to be able to offer you know my my little talents there but one thing you might want to do margaret is to get the lau laudate app for your phone and listen to how other lectures do it you're not asked to be you know bringing great drama to the words i mean the words speak for themselves uh but you want to be as clear as possible and not to just read it in a monotone but you know give it a little bit of inflection as as you would in a normal conversation right david yeah absolutely there you go appreciate you call margaret let's go now to uh robert in cleveland listing on our great affiliate there am 1260 the rock hey there robert what's on your mind today well good afternoon tom dr andrews thanks for taking my call i don't have a question about a passage in the bible uh particularly where christ says not to judge individuals but my question is then why does paul and james and so many apostles in the bible go about admonishing so many communities tell them don't do this or don't do that also popes after them shortly after them who are saying tulsa ended up admonishing various communities um i know also additionally as a catholic it is a work of mercy to admonish the center and i know uh dr andres you said you know one must consider whether or not to make that admonition based on whether an individual will list or not but christ playing simply says not to judge people and two final things also how can a pope for example make a proclamation of excommunication on somebody if they hadn't made a judgment about an individual and also finally i know that as catholics you know we don't believe in sola scriptures so considering all this i mean do we then just ignore christ's words on this one since yes i can help you thank you so much i really appreciate the question so jesus is really speaking here about a character trait i think that's the way we have to understand his his admonition in the same way that christ says for example you know if anyone wants to come to me and he doesn't hate his father and mother in his very own life he can't be my disciple we're not going to take those words quite literally as if christ were exhorting us to hatred right he's really talking he's speaking in a hyperbolic way that we shouldn't put anything ahead of the kingdom of god or the love of god he says call man call no man father well he's not telling me i can't call my dad dad you know that's not what he's saying again it's the same thing don't put something above uh the honor of god and the pursuit of the kingdom of god i think the remarks about not judging should be read in the same kind of light jesus has in mind a certain kind of person who is always picking out the speck from his neighbor's eye and ignoring the log in his own one of the one of the few sort of uh well i won't say bad words but insults that jesus articulates in the gospels is to call certain people hypocrites right that is a big thing for jesus not to be a hypocrite and so if you're going to be one of these sort of fault-finding nitpicking people who thinks they're going to improve the world by improving their neighbor jesus's admonition is start with yourself not saying that you absolutely can never issue a judgment about anything ever but rather don't be that kind of individual jesus himself does a lot of judging in the gospels now when it comes to the question of excommunication it's christ who gives us the rule for excommunication in matthew chapter 18. he spells out the conditions under which the church can excommunicate and it's when you have an unrepentant sinner who's publicly scandalous and won't listen to private admonition and he won't listen to the admonitions of the church then that person is to be excommunicated that's in matthew chapter 18. so saint paul does this and first corinthians is a prime example of paul exercising this power to excommunicate over a center in first corinthians 5 who refuses to repent and come to his senses and paul says well you have to kick the guy out he also goes on to say i'm not suggesting you should judge everyone this is paul talking he says don't judge people in the world they're not going to listen to you but you should judge people within the household of the faith making sure that the church itself is is free from scandal so i don't think there's a contradiction at all as long as you don't confuse say the character trait of being a judgmental hypocrite and the necessity of say like a judicial ruling on well you know this is this is an evil act we can't permit it clearly we have to form those kinds of judgments appreciate your call and uh thank you so much for it robert call to communion here on ewtn we will get to as many calls as we can here is pearl a first-time caller in new york listening on the station of the cross hi pearl what's on your mind today good afternoon good afternoon i'm interested in the book of sacred tradition do the traditions have they ever changed do they get added into do they get deleted i don't know yes thank you i really appreciate the question so uh sacred tradition in the catholic church is not just something that is uh recorded within the pages of a book although there are clearly books that give accounts of sacred tradition in a broad sense sacred tradition just means everything that the church does to hand on the deposit of faith down through the ages and that's a pretty big category and a lot of it is the sort of thing that's actually probably never going to be actually put down on paper um uh you know the church's whole liturgical and devotional tradition um church is missionary activity uh the you know the the preaching of of her ministers um all of this falls in a certain sense under the rubric under the the category of sacred tradition now there are some more specific ways we use the term when um when the church issues official rulings on matters of dogma for example the doctrine of the trinity was fully articulated in 325 at the council of nicaea in the council and then later the council of constantinople gave us a formula of faith a profession of faith that we still recite in the mass to this day now we're not changing that that's been handed on since the fourth century as a the authoritative interpretation of the biblical teaching on the trinity so in that sense the tradition can develop because you can have an encode sort of basic idea that we discern from the deposit of faith or from sacred scripture that calls for later elaboration and clarification and as things can be misunderstood sometimes it's necessary to do that any number of times and as the church intervenes authoritatively on matters of controversy those interventions themselves become part of the body of sacred tradition appreciate you call pearl it is called a communion here on ewtn you know back in the day golly ewtn went on the air in 1981 on television then later in 1992 on radio one of the very first things that mother angelica did was get the mass on the air she was very adamant about that and rightly so because it touches so many people who just can't get to mass for whatever reason and so we invite you to join us every day for holy mass from our lady of the angels chapel right here on the ewtn campus we bring it to you every day monday through sunday really at 8 a.m eastern on ewtn radio and television don't miss it let's go now to claire a first-time caller in new jersey listening on the ewtn app claire what's on your mind today hi thanks for taking my call dr anders uh the question um i've heard that to drive out demons in a loved one a period of fasting along with prayers is needed i'd like to make an excellent lent this year i mostly pray prayers three times a day the rosary the divine mercy and the seven sorrowful prayers um all all of all with my main intention of course others um is there a prayer during lent that can apply directly to that intention needed with prayers and fasting to do it well during lent or any time i'm fasting okay and you're talking specifically for we i got stuck on the first part of the question about casting out demons from loved ones is that the particular intention yes yes okay so i don't know that there is a single authoritative prayer that the church prescribes for this purpose uh to be used by laypeople there are however many many prayers for deliverance that lay people can certainly make use of now a resource that comes to my mind uh is by dan burke the writer is dan burke and the book is called spiritual warfare and the discernment of spirits and uh and and dan includes just the kind of prayers from the tradition for deliverance that you're talking about now i will uh i will add that if it's a matter of demonic possession as opposed to just you know i think this person is under some sort of temptation or assault exorcism is reserved for a priest who's designated by his bishop for that ministry and is not to be undertaken by laypeople appreciate that uh claire thank you so much for your call one other resource for claire might be for the program that comes after this program uh open line tuesday with father wade menezes oh yeah very very plugged in um very holy priest who is uh could probably come up with some prayers boom boom boom i bet you're right absolutely all right let's go now to uh joe joe is in san antonio today listening on the great guadalupe radio joe what's on your mind today hi hi there how you doing howdy yeah i have a question it's about the bible um where does the bible say that you're called for marriage or like if you're called marriage and how do you like get us about yeah thanks i appreciate the question so there are a number of things one should consider before entering into marriage and the criteria that might guide your decision so let's say for example you might be contemplating a call to priesthood well one of the things that you would need to discern particularly in the latin right of the catholic church is can you live a continent celibate life that's not the only criteria for priesthood let's hope not but that's that is a cinequa noon you've got to have that one and saint paul says yes about scripture references in first corinthians chapter 7 that if you cannot contain yourself as it were then you should marry because it's better to marry than to sort of be carried away with your passion so to speak and that's not a gift that everybody has so that's a definite consideration can you can you live a continent celibate life and if not then maybe you need to pursue marriage for the lawful sexual outlet um now ephesians chapter 5 is a beautiful description of what catholic marriage is meant to be all about and it really is this self-donation giving myself entirely for the sake of my spouse as christ did for the sake of the church and while the sacrament of marriage brings a grace to enable me to fulfill that life worthily it does require a host of natural virtues and my intentional cooperation so before one enters into the state of marriage i also think one ought to count the cost can i give myself away like this am i willing to bear those burdens and sacrifices and my life ceases to be my own and i'm there for the sake of my spouse and for the sake of my children even to my own hurt um that's a big that's a big determination and it should not be entered into lightly and i would rid myself of any romantic notions right at the outset the whole romantic ideal about relationships is lie uh you know you cannot place the burden of your happiness on another human being and many people try to do that they want they want their spouse or their loved one to take the place that a well-balanced meaningful life and a robust spiritual life should play in their life god is what you ultimately desire the good the greatest good the ultimate good the common good of the whole universe and the entering into the life of god is a lifelong project that takes all of my heart and all of my soul and all of my effort i have to rid myself of of all my sins and concupiscence and pride and seek to be ever more open to the work of the holy spirit in my life that should be the great burden of meaning in my life i don't want to put that on my wife that's what romanticism does i'm gonna marry you know the sleeping beauty or prince charming and that person will make me happy forever if you go in with that expectation you're going to lose yep you're going to lose so those are some considerations can i give myself away in charity like this and rid myself of all sort of romantic notions that hollywood might deliver to me about marriage can i live a continent celibate life if i don't and if the answer to both of those questions is no then it's time for some spiritual direction right to figure those things out yeah appreciate your call joe thank you so much it is called a communion here on ewtn let's go to lori now laurie is a first time caller in michigan listing on holy family radio hi lori what's on your mind today i i just have a question i'd like to know how dr david anders responds to this situation i received a video from a friend who is not catholic and i am catholic and she knows i am and it was about was from a particular ministry and i don't know if i'm allowed to say the name on the air or the name of the man or the name of the ministry i don't want to get into any kind of legal trouble or slander or anything like that why don't you just tell me what the content was it's about end times at first i thought it was conspiracy theory but it's about end times and he quotes daniel and he does extensive quoting in revelation and basically he's saying i mean they even went so far as to call the catholic church the not babylon but the catholic church they talked about um how the lion is england and the eagle is america and all these different symbols in revelation and it was just horrifying to me i don't even know what to think about it and i just wondered what you think about it i i laugh i laugh i laugh at the absurdity and i'm very familiar with this stuff i grew up in this kind of stuff before i was catholic i was raised in a fundamentalist group in alabama the bible belt and so this sort of thing is very familiar to me and uh in fact it's it's been around for a long time this charge that the pope is the antichrist and the church the of babylon goes back even before the protestant reformation into into the late middle ages the 14th and 15th centuries but it really got picked up by the protestant reformers and so it has been a part of protestantism from the beginning to condemn the pope as the antichrist and the church is the of babylon and this kind of date setting apocalyptic mentality where i'm going to show you the end times are coming and this party over here is you know stands for this character in the book of revelation and this part of the book refers to that world power that is an old game that's an old game here's the problem with it they're always wrong see they've been doing this for six seven hundred years now and they've never gotten it right and here's why here's why these books are highly figurative and highly symbolical texts and they name perennial human problems in particular corruption in political and religious authority that's what the book of revelation is about it's about corrupt political and religious leaders that oppress the people of god guess what you're always going to find somebody that fits that description yep you're always going to find somebody that fits that description saint john says in his epistles that you have heard that antichrist will come but i tell you that many antichrists have come and they've done all kinds of nastiness right you're always going to be able to find someone that fits that very vague and general description now from st john's point of view in the first century i believe the book of revelation is largely about events transpiring in the church of his day and there may be specific historical reference for some of these characters but those reference are long dead they're people like nero caesar who is almost certainly the referent in when john writes about 666 being the mark of the beast that's almost certainly our reference to nero caesar so what should we do with these books today as catholics i think the proper way to look at them is not to try to pick out that person from from contemporary political or religious culture and say well that's obviously the character here but to recognize that these books name again perennial traits in human society and that we should always see ourselves as in confrontation with evil powers and trust in the and the mercy and the promise of god to protect the church in the face of suffering that's the way we engage these texts not as some kind of uh you know map of of modern geopolitics hey lori did you receive that on a dvd no she sent it to me in like a text with a link to a video okay now you know i'll add one other thing um this way of reading the bible is profoundly irrational and it causes people to be profoundly irrational because it makes them shut down their critical faculties of discernment and instead of sort of looking at the geopolitical situation or your catholic neighbor with with humane and rational eyes you reduce them to an ideological category and identify them with the devil and then you can't possibly engage in dialogue or discernment or be contradicted because you conceive of yourself and your party and your group is on god's side and all those other people as benighted heretics who need to burn in the lake of fire it is a terrible way of being a human being and it it does incalculable harm to christians who hold that point of view and to their enemies and you'll be depressed all the time who needs that um uh or or you you're infused by kind of schadenfreude you know this sort of delight and bad news and you think aha this is it you know the bad guys are going to get it yeah and that's again a con an attitude very contrary to the one that jesus instructs us hope that's helpful for you lori thank you so much for your call let's go quickly to darren in clayton new mexico daryn we just have a couple of minutes here what's on your mind today dave yeah gentlemen good talking to you again um just a quick question i'm working my way through the new testament and um i watch a lot of uh apologetics and atheist debates probably way too much probably an unhealthy amount but um question this topic experiment was proposed that let's say i lived a good life i went to church every day i accepted jesus at my heart and everything but my 13 year old son let's say who i've tried to you know show him the path indoctrinate him but he can't develop in in his mind this relationship with jesus on walking with jesus because it obviously has to be developed in your mind because i can't physically touch or talk to this person and so we get into a car accident i've accepted god i'm at philly gates and then i then i'm told that well you know your son he didn't uh accept jesus as in heart he didn't walk with jesus so he's going to burn in eternal hell how could i well fortunately that's not what the catholic church teaches fortunately the way you have described it is nothing to do with catholicism at all so we have a relationship with christ by follow by obeying his teaching following his example and trying to walk in his steps after him to see the world as jesus sees it and that means basically that we turn to the outcast and the poor and the alienated and we seek to be love the face of god's love and mercy to those people and we forgive our enemies jesus says if you want to be sons of your father in heaven then forgive your enemies and pray for them now it's not necessary to have a lively imagination in order to live that way one does not have to picture a little small homunculus jesus in the minds talking to you in order to live that way of christ the way of compassion and humility and faithfulness and mercy in fact it is possible to do that without even having conscious knowledge of jesus as clearly many of the saints of the old testament have and those whom god reaches in ways known only to himself outside the household of the christian faith and the catholic church says that those people also can be saved so to be united with god ultimately we simply need to be united to him in charity and the the sort of the details of the faith in the sacraments are meant to help us grow in that charity right but it's certainly not necessary to have this kind of uh sort of imaginative relationship with jesus in your mind as you depict it in order to live that life we hope that's helpful for you darren thank you so much for your call and uh be thinking about uh lent as we're approaching lent those of you who perhaps follow me on facebook well i will see you after easter because that's one of the things i'm going to give up is social media taking up too much of my time anyway that dessert couple of other things but i'm hoping to take up a few things as well these are good things to be thinking about as we're approaching lent dr david andrews thank you sir thank you tom don't forget we do this program monday through friday 2 p.m eastern live at 11 p.m eastern for the encore on behalf of our fantastic team this is michael drollman communications director for core christie broadcasting in central washington state we rely on catholic

Channel: EWTN

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Keywords: Catholic, EWTN, Christian, television

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Length: 54min 0sec (3240 seconds)

Published: Tue Mar 01 2022