Open Line, Monday with Fr. John Trigilio - 091321

from the studios of ewtn this is open line with today's host father john tragiligo in north america call toll-free 1-833-2888 that's 1-833-288-3986 outside north america call [Music] you can also 1-205-271-2985 the letters ewtn to 5500 or send an email to openline ewtn.com a tremendous monday to each and every one of you thanks so much for tuning in to ewtn's open line as we kick off another week father john tragillo is in the house if you've got a question the number is 833 288 ewtn it's a free phone call anywhere in north america eight three three two eight eight three nine eight six if you're outside the united states and canada we'd love to hear from you that number is one two zero five two seven one two nine eight five and if you are outside of the united states and canada we'll even put you straight to the front of the line at one two zero five two seven one 271-2985 you can always send us an email openline ewtn.com or you can text your question to father john text the letters ewtn to 5500 wait for a response text your first name in your question message and data rates may apply i'm jack williams michael mccall producing the program your call screener will eventually be matt gubinsky but the activity on my screen tells me that matt has not gotten into the room yet but he'll be there shortly and uh jeff berson handling our social media efforts so if you're watching on youtube or facebook live you can type a question into the chat window and it may find its way to us by the end of the program and our host as he is every monday from the mount father john tragelio how are you i'm doing well how are you you know what if i were any better i'd be jealous of myself and i'm i'm particularly excited francis has made my day because i love it when people email me questions that i could actually answer and uh and there aren't there aren't very many of those in this folder that's why we have you um but francis asks are saint john the gospel writer saint john the beloved one and saint john of patmos all the same individual yes it's going to be an easy like that for brevity it's going gonna be a difficult day with you isn't it father john yes despite what some crackpots uh scholars and historians and theologians claim you know have people actually tried to propose an alternative theory to that oh yes when i was in the seminary we had all kinds of bizarre ideas that uh john the john the evangelist was not john the beloved disciple nor was he the one that ended up in patmos where he took care of the blessed mother and died at the age of uh we think around 100 or more and uh they said these were all three different individuals and that maybe one or two of them didn't really exist well that's not what the church maintains uh they're all three in the same person now john the beloved john the disciple john the evangelist is not john the baptist however that's a different saint and when i was in grade school sister gertrude was going around the classroom and she said well you're named after john the baptist because his mother was elizabeth like your mother i said yeah but i don't want to lose my head sister i'm going to be john the beloved it does seem to be a little bit better fate doesn't it yes 288 ewtn is our toll-free number 833-288-3986 i like this next question too um you know there's often you often hear of at least i do of the debate of some as to whether jesus knew he was god and the like but here's one that i i've never heard i'm sure you probably have but it's it's interesting to me deanna would like to know did the blessed mother know that she was free from original sin oh that's an interesting question i would presume not because uh one it wasn't necessary did she know that and i don't think anybody necessarily tipped her off but uh the the archangel gabriel did say to her hail full of grace grazia plana in latin or que corito mene in the greek and she certainly pondered what did that mean full of grace uh but he didn't give her a copy of the catechism and certainly she didn't have a theological library to look look it up so i'm sure she contemplated what that meant but nevertheless uh the immaculate conception was operative at the moment of her conception in st anne's womb and throughout her entire life you know the grace of that american conception persisted so um although she probably most likely did not know she had it she still you know expressed her fiance done to me according to that word and um you know i'm sure that uh even though she went to the temple at an early age i'm sure saints joke him and anne probably had a pretty good idea that there was something special going on here yeah especially since she most likely was born when st anne was considerably old and according to the um the non-canonical uh proto-invading jaleon of saint james uh it said that you know her her her father saint joachim was sort of shunned at the temple because it was considered embarrassing that he had no children at his and his wife's old age and yet uh she conceived and uh they presented mary to the temple 833 288 ewtn is our toll-free number a couple of open phone lines for you at 833-288-3986 gary would like to know what is the catholic teaching on physician-assisted suicide we're completely and uh opposed to it um because just the whole concept of you know the idea of assisting someone in their suicide is being an accessory all right and you can be you know morally considered uh culpable of homicide now that being said uh a person who's dying who has a terminal disease who's in intense agony and pain and suffering you can give them as much medication to alleviate their pain without it actually causing their death so you can give them as much painkillers as they can tolerate but once it starts to actually be the the impetus for death i know a lot of these pain medications you know you get to a certain level where that is it becomes the uh the cause of death it stops this it slows down the breathing and then they die from the pain medication but you can give as much as possible that before that happens you make him comfortable as pope uh saint john paul the great made it very clear you know when he he was in his later years um you know he never advocated assisted suicide and he said that everyone's entitled to nutrition which is food and hydration which is water as long as your body can assimilate that and of course normal care which means you know you give them a blanket or a pillow and you comfort them but to actually participate in causing their death or helping them kill themselves is considered morally reprehensible again 833 288 ewtn is our toll-free number 833-288-3986 [Music] you know i know we've all had little revelations uh in the past that once we come to the realization of something it immediately makes us wonder oh my lord what else do i not know and nathan has a question along those lines he says do you have any advice on how to seek out what you don't know yet i've recently had some revelations on our faith and what we believe and now i wonder what else i'm missing i wanted i want to keep learning well that's good i mean it reminds me of what donald rumsfeld said during the the gulf war he said you know there's known unknowns and unknown unknowns there's a lot we don't know we don't know that's why getting a copy of the catechism is absolutely essential and obviously having a copy of your catholic bible handy with it as well and i would say get get the companion to the catechism too because that gives you the explanation and citation all the footnotes um and that's why we have these wonderful shows on tv and and radio where people call in and ask questions and you can listen to people asking questions and say yeah i never thought of that so being a an active listener viewer to these wonderful things we have on ewtn i think is going to be a big help to you eight 833 288 ewtn it's a free phone call anywhere in north america straight ahead we'll talk to jeff in dallas texas sandy in madison alabama and we've got plenty of time for your phone calls as well the number is eight three three two eight eight e w t n that's eight three three two eight eight three nine eight six if you're outside the united states and canada your number is one two zero five two seven one two nine eight five and we'll even put you straight to the front of the line at one two zero five two seven one two nine eight five you can always send us an email openline at ewtn.com that's openline at ewtn.com and put monday or father john in the subject line and we'll get it to the appropriate location and you can always text your question text the letters ewtn to 5500 uh text your first name and wait for a response and then text your first name and uh your question and we may find its way it may find its way to the air during one of our broadcasts it's ewtn's open line monday with our monday host father john tragillo [Music] [Applause] from september 12th through the 15th pope francis journeys to slovakia with a message of hope and peace ewtn brings you complete coverage as the holy father brings the 52nd eucharistic congress in budapest to a close and embarks on his historic papal visit to slovakia pope francis in slovakia now through wednesday on ewtn television archbishop cordeliani talks about the national catholic register the register's content is so critically important in the society we're living in now there's an absence of the practice of religion in public life so all the more important is it for people to be reading the register so that they can acquire more understanding of our catholic faith i've appreciated the catechetical benefits of the content of the register it presents very clear catholic teaching in a way that is easily digestible to get six free issues order online at nc register dot com forward slash radio or call 800-421-3230 and mention code radio that's ncregister.com forward slash radio or 800-421-323 and mention code radio call or click today the national catholic register read faithfully this is open live on the ewtn global catholic radio network if you have a question call 1-833-288-ewtn that's 1-833-288-3986 outside north america call 1205 271 or send us an email to openline ewtn.com you know through redemptive catholic journalism ewtn news helps advance the gospel and teachings of the church and you can get our trusted catholic news in your email inbox every day simply visit ewtn.com and click on subscribe 833 288 ewtn is our toll-free number two lines open for you at 833-288-3986 our lead off hitter today is jeff in the big d dallas texas listening on guadalupe radio jeff thanks so much for holding welcome to the program thank you very much good afternoon father john i have a friend of mine who reads from the ray bible i'm sure you know what that is and he claims that part of christ's payment for our sin was when he descended into hell and i believe that that the catholic teaching is that he descended to to bring out the righteous people that were there before his coming um can you give me any clarification on that yes i know some people have heard this proposition that jesus descended into the hell of the damned and some of sometimes is called the harrowing and i read somewhere that that might be part of a movie that be coming out the catholic church though doesn't believe that jesus went to the hell of the damn because that's the essence of hell is that you completely totally separated from god for all eternity and so for jesus to to go to hell literally what one would be insulting to his divine dignity and two it would be like you know him going down to the people in hell going you know you know you're nothing's gonna good gonna happen to you we believe he went to the hell of the dead which as you point out is where adam and eve abraham isaac jacob everybody in the old testament including good saint joseph because he died before jesus died on the cross so all those people who could not get to heaven until the savior saved them would have been in the hell of the dead and then there's a beautiful icon of jesus on good friday as he's dying and has a picture of him underneath the hill of calvary breaking the chains of adam and eve and letting all the people from the hell of the dead uh into heaven so that's what we believe happened when in the creed we say descended into hell not the hell of the damned of the of lucifer and all the the demons and those people who are what we call the reprobate but the hell of the dead the righteous who are waiting for heaven does that help jeff uh well just a just quick follow-up that wouldn't have anything to uh do with with christ crucified and at the end of the crucifixion he says it is finished so uh this guy's saying that well you know the him descending into quote hell was actually part of him paying for her since that's that yeah yeah that i would say is com is is totally unsubstantiated or uncorroborated theologically or scripturally uh when jesus said consummato mess you know it is finished his death on the cross is what saved us and there was no other and i know there were some crackpot theologians when i was in the seminary was maintaining that you know this uh canotic theory that he surrendered his divinity on the cross he never did it was his sacred humanity that died but is one divine person jesus who died on the cross and who rose from the dead so he never you know divorced himself from his divine nature it would have been ontologically impossible to do that and that's again why he could not have gone into hell because he's the second person of the trinity and so jesus wasn't split into two and one did one thing one did the other there's one person and that's a divine person eight three three two eight eight e wtn is our toll-free number 833-288-3986 next up is sandy in madison alabama listening on the ewtn app sandy you are on with father tragellio hi father um i'm wondering if there is such a thing as levels or layers to heaven i i myself just want to give them the door um but i was talking to another catholic who is asking me this question and so she said if you can find out i really want to know that's why i'm asking you yes well i mean the church has not uh issued a dogmatic statement that there are they feed a different levels of of heaven now some of the great saints doctors of the church uh have talked about the different levels of paradise of heaven um certainly we believe that you know your glory in heaven is proportionate to you know the the faith you've had here on earth therefore you don't want to just get in under the lie under the wire so to speak because your glory will be much more intense the more grace you've received and cooperate with cooperated with here on earth otherwise if it's just the matter of getting in under the wire then you know that's the constantinian uh proposal that the emperor constantine had he waited until the very moment before he died to actually convert and be baptized you don't take that chance and secondly you're depriving yourself of all these graces so it's like a balloon the more air you pump into it the bigger it gets the more grace we receive and are open to the holier we become and so when you in heaven you want to be as close to the virgin mary you know and all the angels and states as you can i know it's a typical uh thing of modern day uh men and women that you know well i'll just get you know the lcd lowest common denominator just get in no don't rob yourself of that say i want to get as high as i can get obviously it's it's contingent on god's grace but he respects our will so the more we want of grace the more we cooperate with it thanks so much we appreciate the phone call 833 288 ewtn is our toll free number one line open at we 833-288-3986 next to the great state of nebraska eileen is a first time caller listening on spirit catholic radio eileen you're on with father john thank you father john for taking my call my question is i is it a sin to stop taking your medication i had is that considered killing your body against the fifth commandment that would depend i mean obviously i know people who have a terminal disease we make a distinction in moral theology between ordinary and extraordinary means so if the dying process has already taken place and let's say someone has terminal cancer and it's just a matter of time then they're allowed to refuse medication i know some people can say i don't want to be on the dialysis machine because their organs are already starting to shut down and this is just prolonging the process as long as what you're doing doesn't become the actual cause of your death so like starving yourself to death is not a good thing uh refusing food and water if you're able to assimilate it physically my father you know had leukemia and towards the end his body couldn't absorb anything more i mean you know if you if you were to put a feeding tube in him that fluid or whatever you put in him would have just stayed there and his stomach is you know all those digestive things were already shut down so you can refuse extraordinary procedures and medications if all it's doing is prolonging the the ultimate as long as that doesn't become the actual cause of your death just something you talk about with your confessor your spiritual director obviously hopefully with some of your loved ones so uh you don't want to become a means of suicide but you can utilize your free will and your rational intellect and say okay i'm you know i i knew people who were on who had cancer who said no i don't want chemo i don't want radiation and they're at that stage where the doctor says it's just a matter of time especially if they're not you know they don't have a family that they need to take care of but someone's in the prime of their life they've got a wife or husband and children who needs them they need to put up a good fight as much as they can does that help you at all eileen i'm actually in very good health other um i'm 82 but i'm just tired of taking medication yeah my mother was the same way she was just so sick and tired of the pills and every time the doctor or nurse would come in and say here's your pills and i don't want it anymore we used to find pills in my dad's pocket in his bathrobe um i know they're you know i i take a bunch of pills myself uh it's not fun um but if it keeps you alive and you know it's just inconvenient all right but it's not painful like someone's sticking a needle in your arm and you're getting dialysis um but if it's just a you know an annoyance i would say offer it up and and and do the best you can god bless you eileen we'll keep you in our prayers eight three three two eight eight e w t n is our toll free number eight three three two eight eight three nine eight six uh bernadette is in the republic of texas today listening on guadalupe radio bernadette you're on with father john trugillio thank you very much it's an honor pleasure to speak to you father to julio i happen to hear an interview with catholic answers the other day and a young lady called in and asked you if there were certain prayers that she might pray after receiving holy communion i don't know if this was a take whether it was live i didn't call in at the time but i've always grown up ever since i was having received my first holy communion and was instructed and encouraged to pray the prayer to jesus christ crucified and also soul of christ have those fallen out of favor are they still especially since they are basically grant a person who praise it and praise them are granted personal indulgence father oh no it's not discouraged i just didn't want people to feel that they were limited to just those two i was instructed that way when i made my first communion that was back in i think 1970 maybe um yeah um but there's no set prayers that the church says these and they don't even give any high preference but certainly you know the anima christi is a beautiful prayer uh praying on the five wounds of christ but you can even do um you know attai damn glory to god because it's an act of thanksgiving you're grateful for receiving the body bullets on divinity of christ so obviously those two prayers you mentioned are most appropriate but we're not limited to them that was my point to the lady on catholic answers god bless you thanks bernadette we appreciate the phone call 833 288 ewtn is our toll-free number [Music] 833-288-3986 straight ahead we'll talk to patrick in bismarck north dakota and we'd love to hear from you the number again is eight three three two eight eight ewtn that's eight three three two eight eight three nine eight then you can always send us an email openline ewtn.com that's openline at ewtn.com uh and put monday or father john in the subject line and we'll get it to the appropriate folder and father john is a 21st century kind of uh seminary faculty member so if you can text your question to father john text the letters ewtn to 5500 wait for a response text your first name and your question message and data rates may apply 833 288 ewtn pick up the phone [phone] it's open line monday with father john tragillo [Music] [Applause] in any language it means the same live truth live catholic ewtn i'm doug keck this is an ewtn bookmark brief just had the pleasure of speaking with austin ruse about his latest book under siege no finer time to be a faithful catholic published by crisis publications available naturally through the ewtn religious catalog ewtnrc.com under siege no finer time to be a faithful catholic what's this book about i begin with the school prayer decisions quite frankly in 1962-63 with their federal government that is that the supreme court determined that the object and purpose of government had to be secular and this is a part of the bible reading case in 1963. what followed almost immediately was the contraception decisions roe v wade gay marriage the sodomy decisions and this is now imposed through the federal government all the way down to the local grade school where we live so i argue in the book that there's a newly established religion it's not ours but they are coming for us under siege no finer time to be a faithful catholic austin roose is the author available through our ewtn religious catalogue i'm doug keck this has been a bookmark brief we appreciate you stopping by see you next time 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 tomorrow on more to life got guilt having a hard time overcoming guilt will help you learn to forgive yourself that's tomorrow and more to life now back to open line with father john tragellio this is open line on the ewtn global catholic radio network 833 288 ewtn is our toll-free number eight three three two eight eight 288-3986 we head next to bismarck north dakota patrick is in north dakota listening on real presence radio patrick you're on with father john hello thank you what's your question today um first of all thank you for taking my call i think i have a beam of wood in my eye um oh so to say uh patrick's been to mass recently so yes along the risk of being too scrupulous when deciding whether or not to own stock in a company how far do i ask about the morality of the company's business decision yeah that's a very good question and i know some there are some excellent catholic resources out there in which they can help guide you not necessarily into what to invest in but what to avoid obviously we want to make a distinction in moral theology between remote and proximate material cooperation and evil so if you have moral certainty that a particular company is directly investing or using their money and their facilities for immoral purposes for example they're using um aborted fetal tissue intentionally uh to produce whatever they're gonna make and you have the option of not investing in that company then you should not um if if you work at that company that's a different matter where you have to this you know as long as you're not directly doing something that's like if you're at a hospital and you're not in the operating room while the abortion's taking place you're not the doctor you're not the nurse or whatever but if you work in the cafeteria you're not held morally responsible for what's going on in that operating room however if you're investing in a company you need to know what kind of things they're they're doing and um trying to find out are they subsidizing uh planned parenthood are they subsidizing or promoting pornography or other immoral activities uh trying to like in some cases their proliferating contraception around the world and uh other things like that or do they have policies that their company uh that doesn't respect the sanctity of marriage and other things like that some of those things you may not ever be able to find out so if you have any ambiguity you know you can invest but i would say the more prudent thing was to be invest those those places where you either know for sure they're not doing anything or there's no inclination or suspicion that that they may but some of this information you may need to do a little research on people research these companies to find out if it's a good financial investment so i tell catholics do the same make sure that it's a moral investment um i i can't think of anything of any of these particular places offhand but i know there are some catholic investors i think we even had a show once or twice on ewtn where they explained you know what to be looking for uh in terms of morally ethically investing your money does that help you patrick thank you for the answer thank you we appreciate the phone call 833 288 ewtn is our toll-free number 833-288-3986 [Music] next up is robert he is in omaha nebraska you're number one in nebraska today father listening on spirit catholic radio robert you're on with father john trujillo yeah i wanted to tell you about the order of the brown scapular and what it means okay the brown scapular which a lot of people uh wear around their neck is a mini version of the full length scapular because it covers the scapula of the bone uh on your shoulder and the religious the men and women who are carmelites they wear it's like a flap on the front and in the back and that's the full-blown scapular for the lay people who are like third order carmelites and for other people who are enrolled in the brown scapular it's a much smaller version because obviously it wouldn't be too practical for you to wear that and go to work so it's a smaller version it's just uh two strings with a front and the back uh little piece of cloth uh that you you wear over your your neck and it's like i said over your chest and over your back um there are many privileges attached to the brown scapular uh you don't necessarily have to be a third-order carmelite to to wear it um but the blessed virgin mary at fatima uh told the chil told the children to promote a devotion to the scapular saint simon stock is the one we believe first received the the gift of the scapular and uh obviously there's other privileges attached to it uh you're asked to uh go to mass on the first saturdays of the month um also to celebrate the carmelite holy days when possible but it's a beautiful testimony and i know some people say well if i wear it that'll prevent me from going to hell well it's not magic it's not a good luck charm so that if you're you know like a terrorist and you say well i'll wear my scapular and that'll keep me safe well guess what it doesn't work that way and i'm sure uh you know somehow that's that's gonna stay on your neck but even if it did uh you committing a horrible heinous crime a mortal sin is not going to be trumped by the the thing that you wear around your neck it's a reminder though to you that you want to have the gift of final penitence that you want to be in the state of grace at all times can any priest enroll you in the bronze scapular any priest can you don't have to be a carmelite priest to do that and it's a bit and once you reach once you are enrolled you never have to have the your your new scapular blessed because the blessings upon the person not the scapular so anytime that you your scapular comes apart or you lose it you just ask the priest or deacon for a new one they just give you one you don't have to be re-enrolled you don't have to have it get blessed and you can also there's a scapular medal for those people who cannot wear the scapular my dad had a typical hairy italian chest just irritated him and so our our pastor said here here's the medal for your dad 833 288 ewtn is our toll-free number 833-288-3986 next stop is raleigh north carolina joachim is in raleigh listening on divine mercy radio joachim welcome to the program sorry how are you terrific thank you good i have a question about the trinity i understand that based on the relationship between the father the son and the holy spirit my question is when was it established by god because it always existed or did it come into existence when jesus was born and then he believed the holy spirit um and i also have a couple of protestant friends who believe the trinity is based on a hierarchy so i was wondering what the catholic teaching is on that okay well i like to use a little terminology that was in vogue maybe 30 40 years ago you can make a distinction between what we call the imminent trinity and the economic trinity has nothing to do with finances though okay the imminent trinity is how the trinity relates in and of themselves so from all eternity the father son holy spirit have always existed all three persons okay three persons one god all three persons share the one and the same divine intellect and divine will so what one knows all three know what one wills all three will even the terminology father and son there was never a time where there was no son so you know the father could not have existed before the son because he couldn't call him father and the son always needed a father and the holy spirit is the mutual love of the father and the son now in terms of the economic trinity that's how the trinity has revealed itself in chronological human history so god the father you know we see present at creation we see god the son in terms of redemption he's dying on the cross and resurrection and then god the holy spirit at the birth of the church at pentecost but where one person is all three are present so all three were there on good friday all three were there on easter sunday all three were there at the moment of creation it's just through what we call appropriation that we give one particular work ascribed to one of the persons but they're always there so the father is not superior to the son that was arianism that's why we say in the creed consubstantial with the father because it was arius who maintained that it was jesus had a similar substance to the father and the council of nicaea said no it's the same so that's why you say khan substance in in the greek so all three persons are god and they've always been the holy trinity it's just that in our human experience it has been gradually revealed to us what about a hierarchy within the trinity it couldn't exist because that would make one superior to the other so the only hierarchy would be chronologically in terms of our experience but in terms of god in and of himself the father son and the holy spirit have always existed and they're all equal thanks so much joakim we appreciate the phone call 833 288 ewtn it's our toll-free number plenty of time for your calls at 833 teresa is a first-time caller in jefferson city missouri listening to covenant radio in the capital city teresa you are on with father john hello father john hello um i have a question i have a granddaughter i have three grandkids all in the same family two of the grandkids were baptized the mother and father are baptized but they wouldn't baptize the baby the only thing i can come up is that they don't attend church regularly on a regular basis due to their work and due to they can't all go together those two reasons i just don't know if there's anything that my daughter could do to besides going to church on a regular basis which is going to be really hard if just one of them can take the children to church if that would help or what yes i would say i mean certainly it's important to get the children baptized but they have to be baptized with a reasonable hope that they'll be raised in the faith because once you're baptized catholic you're catholic and you're bound by the catholic rules and laws of the church and that includes marriage so that if somebody's baptized catholic they have to be married in the catholic uh form as we say and if they're not it wouldn't be a valid marriage and so that's why we do not indiscriminately baptize people uh only you know if there's endangered death then anybody can baptize and because you know you want to give them that final chance but if they're normal and healthy i would say yes if both parents can't get to church at least if one of them or in the case of a grandparent a grandparent or the god parent can say i will assure the priest or deacon that i will personally take them to mass and make sure they get catechesis and they receive all the sacraments of initiation that's all the priest or deacon needs is some reasonable assurance that someone mom or dad grandma or grandpa uh godparent you know someone's going to do that then they can proceed with the baptism otherwise you know we need to say postpone it we never deny someone baptism but we may need to postpone it does that help teresa yes it did thank you so much you're very welcome thanks for the call 833 288 ewtn is our toll-free number we've got another first-time caller susan she's in marlow oklahoma listening on oklahoma catholic radio susan thanks for holding welcome to the program thank you so much thank you for doing the program what can we do for you well i've been wondering this for a long time um you know it says don't let your right hand know what your left hand is doing and then matthew 6 1 says take care not to form righteous deeds in order that other people may see them and then in matthew 5 16 it says just so your light must shine for others that they may see the good and that you're doing and glorifying your heavenly father so do we do it in secret or do we announce it what's a girl supposed to do here father that's an excellent question i think i'm gonna use it in my next retreat i give um it's the it's the thing that we need to be cautioned about is our motive why are we doing these things so like the the case where jesus gives you know there's the the man in the temple who's way in the back who beats his chest be merciful read oh lord i'm a sinner and then the guy up front saying thank god i'm not like the rest of these people i'm not like that tax collector he doesn't want us to announce what we're doing so that we get the esteem of others but we need to edify others we need to encourage them that's why i tell people i say it in seminarians especially when you're out in public whether you're wearing your collar or not say grace before meals but you do it not to attract attention so people say oh look at a holy person over there but to edify them i think there was a commercial made by ewtn where a family just very quietly uh said grace and other people saw them some laughed others said we haven't done that in a while we need to do that so always giving good example is a good motive edifying but not for the desire or motive or intention that you people think well of you so your deeds in secret mean you know you're not doing it for recognition but we are to give good example so that there's it's a fine line to be sure but as long as you have the right motivation you want to do it and always ask yourself why am i doing this how am i doing it but giving good example is always a good thing does that help susan yes it does i kind of thought that but i just thought i should have clarification thanks for the call thank you so much for your answer and god bless you thank you god bless you eight three three two eight eight ewtn is our toll-free number 833-288-3986 mother angelica live classics tomorrow night 8 p.m eastern time let not your hearts be troubled mother talks about tough times that people go through and uh though god allows difficulties in this life we can know that god will only do what is best for us again that's mother angelica live classics tomorrow night 8 pm eastern on ewtn radio and television next up is another first time caller ned in cincinnati ohio listening on sacred heart radio ned you are on with father john hello father john hi hi um i have a little dilemma i i have several nieces and nephews actually and uh one of my older nieces uh been married for seven or eight years wonderful girl has a wonderful husband uh honestly i do not know because they haven't lived in town for ever you know the whole time they've been married but uh she's very successful and i i don't really know if they go to church they did get married in a catholic dirt uh beautiful wedding and actually in a franciscan place here in cincinnati but she uh they've had difficulty having a child they've tried had several miscarriages that has you know been having difficulties i have no idea what doctors they went through and everything but i assume at one point they're like you know i don't think this is going to happen well one of my other nieces who actually has three children and is probably a couple years older than her said look i will have a baby for you so my assumption is that they you know they took a sperm from him and an egg from her and fertilized it and then and planted it in her which against the teaching of the church as far as i know so my question is i really don't know how to approach these two but i will see them usually a couple times a year and you know i certainly pray for a healthy baby and all that but i'm i just really i'm wondering how i should approach it yeah if it's an already done deal that it's already i mean the the conception has already occurred there's nothing you can do all right uh it it's too late you accept the child as you know as a human being as a child of god but if it hasn't yet taken place i would uh if possible urge them to reconsider because in the process of this procedure it's like in vitro what they often do is they take a number of eggs uh and fertilize it with the sperm of the donor and then they pick the most optimum one or two and then discard the other ones well that discarding of those embryos is abortion so this isn't just don't take one egg and one sperm and that's it they do what they do is in vitro they do a number of them so that's considered morally wrong and then the fact that you've got you know someone else's egg uh implanted in in this woman okay the the child's mother is actually from where the egg came from even though you know the the embryo is growing in the womb of this of of this lady the mother biologically the dna everything is going to be that other you know even though they may be sisters i've heard this happen before but it's not the best route to go because in addition to obviously making a nice novena to st gerard magellan there's something called napro which is using the techniques of natural family planning but at a higher degree that's very successful but this surrogate motherhood is not good for a number of reasons thanks ned we appreciate the call 833 288 ewtn 833-288-3986 annette is in jamestown north dakota listening on real presence radio annette you're on with father trujillo hi thanks for taking my call i have a question i remember hearing a little bit about when i was younger is it the nine days of darkness it's the three days of darkness could you explain that to me a little more yes that's a private revelation that has not been approved by the church it hasn't been officially condemned either so it's considered uh private revelation which even you know fatima and lords are considered private revelations i personally believe in fatima and lords but you can as a good catholic say i don't believe it happened and not be considered a bad catholic the three days of darkness is something that was allegedly revealed to someone and even saints can have visions and apparitions but if you know if that's not formally approved by the church you know that means you know you can take or leave it and i as a priest i i need to promote those ones that are officially endorsed by the church like fatima lords are endorsed and are approved the other ones you know the jury's still out you can believe in those things so this idea of three days of darkness and there's been a certain it's almost like the rapture these are things that people firmly believe in i when i was a pastor for 16 years and in a proka vicar for many more years people come to me and say father i need to have all this holy water bless they would want like 20 gallons of holy water blessed they would want five pounds of salt exercised and then all these candles blessed that they kept in their basement for the three days of darkness i said well it's a good idea to have water and candles in case there's a natural disaster but i said whether or not there's three days of darkness you know that's a personal choice if you want to believe that or not um but i would stick to the formally authenticated uh visions and apparitions first is that helpful in it it very helpful i didn't know it wasn't approved i just had vaguely remember hearing that yeah there's good people who support it so i don't want anyone to think bad of them but again i'd stick with lords and fatima any day of the week 833 288 ewtn is our toll-free number another first-time caller patty is in springfield illinois listening on siriusxm channel 130. patty welcome to the program hi thank you thank you for taking my call um yeah my question is about angels and ever since i was a little girl i just always had two angels in my life that they were julian sandia strom and all my powerpoints when i was a little kid um and i just always been very drowned and fascinated and just felt close to angels um had some experiences in my life or just honestly been rescued and um so i'm just like the archangels there's all the different terra from cherubim the different um principles i i was just wondering just um origins and kind of their you know their jobs and and uh just a little bit about angels okay well that that's very good um uh and you know we're gonna be coming up on the feast of the holy archangels michael rayfield and gabriel uh this month uh the angels are messengers of god and the nine choirs of angels that are described particularly by saint thomas aquinas and obviously you know we learned them from the in the baltimore catechism um their different ranks of angels the highest rank of angel is the seraphim and all they do morning noon and night for all eternity is praise god uh the lower angels angels and archangels they're sent on missions and so uh you know whether it's you know to when the angels visited abraham or a lot or out through all of scripture the angel wrestled with with uh with jacob all these angels and certainly our guardian angels which uh i firmly you know i believe mine were working overtime i had a few mishaps uh here and there with the automobile and policemen said well your guardian angel's been working overtime father i said i know i home big time don't have to remind me um yeah they're there to protect us but to guide us they cannot interfere with us but they can guide us in the same way that on the opposite end the devil tries to lure us okay to tempt us our angels are there to hopefully give us courage and encouragement now each angel uh you know it's it's a very philosophical concept that each angel exhausts his own species which you and i are human beings all human beings are part of the human species each angel is exhausted of his own species it's a very philosophical point that's how grand and glorious they are uh they have all the information they will ever get at the moment they're created it's infused knowledge that's why when lucifer and one-third of the angels went bad they can never repent because their will is not designed to change their mind it's an irrevocable choice whereas you and i you know our will can change from time to time and that's why every day we have to renew our will uh to do good and to avoid evil uh so we certainly believe in angels we believe in the guardian angels um and those like i said those feasts are coming up the end of september and beginning of october what about the the notion of of uh developing a relationship with your guardian angel which i think you're probably in favor of but i think the church is sort of frowned a little bit upon uh naming your garden yes the church has more than just you know they have actually condemned the practice of naming your angel because you didn't create your angel now you might feel a little bit nice uh closer because you named your angel fred or mary but god decides what their name is and it's not good to have names for angels because then you can you might have this idea of summoning them like we they do the demons so just be content that you have an angel and don't worry they they know who you are and you can communicate to them through prayer father would you leave us with a blessing absolutely benedict was only potent amen amen on behalf of our host father john tragillio our producer michael mccall call screener matt gubinski and our social media maven mr jeff person i'm jack williams thanks so much for tuning in to ewtn's open line monday back at it tomorrow talking faith family and fellowship with father wade menezes until we get together then god bless [Music] i do listen and i love ewtn my mother love dwtn it's just a wonderful way

Channel: EWTN

Views: 1,287

Rating: 4.8873239 out of 5

Keywords: Catholic, EWTN, Christian, television

Id: MeFH18jdtaw

Length: 54min 10sec (3250 seconds)

Published: Mon Sep 13 2021