Question on the final judgement

 I've heard that at the Final Judgment, each soul has to make account of his sins.

According to Scripture:

2 Corinthians 5:10 For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive recompense, according to what he did in the body, whether good or evil.

The Catechism says:

1039 In the presence of Christ, who is Truth itself, the truth of each man's relationship with God will be laid bare.626 The Last Judgment will reveal even to its furthest consequences the good each person has done or failed to do during his earthly life:

All that the wicked do is recorded, and they do not know. When "our God comes, he does not keep silence.". . . he will turn towards those at his left hand: . . . "I placed my poor little ones on earth for you. I as their head was seated in heaven at the right hand of my Father - but on earth my members were suffering, my members on earth were in need. If you gave anything to my members, what you gave would reach their Head. Would that you had known that my little ones were in need when I placed them on earth for you and appointed them your stewards to bring your good works into my treasury. But you have placed nothing in their hands; therefore you have found nothing in my presence."

What about the sins we confessed in the Sacrament of Confession?  Aren't they forgiven and forgotten?  

Yes. They are forgiven and forgotten before you get to the Judgment Seat. But not before Final Purification. Let me back up.

They are forgiven. But there remains a price to pay for the "temporal consequence" of the sin.

Baptism washes away sin. There is nothing that remains of sin when one is baptized. No temporal consequence. Even Original Sin is washed away. Nothing remains. If a person dies right after Baptism, without having committed any other sins. He will have a clean slate when he appears before the Judgment Seat.

Confession is different. If a man is baptized and then commits sin again, as most of us do. He must return to the fountain of grace, the Sacrament of Confession and ask forgiveness. The sin is forgiven, if the man is sincere. But, there remains a "temporal consequence" which must be atoned by suffering or by doing good deeds.

For me, the best illustration of this concept is in the Bible, when King David had an adulterous affair with Bathsheba and murdered her husband. God sent the Prophet Nathan to visit him and the story goes like this:

2 Samuel 12:
Nathan's Parable.  1 The Lord sent Nathan to David, and when he came to him, he said: “Tell me how you judge this case: In a certain town there were two men, one rich, the other poor. 2 The rich man had flocks and herds in great numbers. 3 But the poor man had nothing at all except one little ewe lamb that he had bought. He nourished her, and she grew up with him and his children. Of what little he had she ate; from his own cup she drank; in his bosom she slept; she was like a daughter to him. 4 Now, a visitor came to the rich man, but he spared his own flocks and herds to prepare a meal for the traveler who had come to him: he took the poor man’s ewe lamb and prepared it for the one who had come to him.” 5 David grew very angry with that man and said to Nathan: “As the Lord lives, the man who has done this deserves death! 6 He shall make fourfold restitution for the lamb because he has done this and was unsparing.” 7 Then Nathan said to David: “You are the man!

Nathan’s Indictment. “Thus says the Lord God of Israel: I anointed you king over Israel. I delivered you from the hand of Saul. 8 I gave you your lord’s house and your lord’s wives for your own. I gave you the house of Israel and of Judah. And if this were not enough, I could count up for you still more. 9 Why have you despised the Lord and done what is evil in his sight? You have cut down Uriah the Hittite with the sword; his wife you took as your own, and him you killed with the sword of the Ammonites. 10 Now, therefore, the sword shall never depart from your house, because you have despised me and have taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your wife. 11 Thus says the Lord: I will bring evil upon you out of your own house. I will take your wives before your very eyes, and will give them to your neighbor: he shall lie with your wives in broad daylight. 12 You have acted in secret, but I will do this in the presence of all Israel, in the presence of the sun itself.”

David’s Repentance. 13 Then David said to Nathan, “I have sinned against the Lord.” Nathan answered David: “For his part, the Lord has removed your sin. You shall not die, 14 but since you have utterly spurned the Lord by this deed, the child born to you will surely die.” 15 Then Nathan returned to his house.

Notice that God forgave King David. But read the underlined words. All those punishments came to pass. If you read on, you will see that David's own son tried to kill him, chased him out of the Kingdom and slept with David's wives on the roof of his house so that all of Israel could witness it. Not only that, but his children went to war with one another and his Kingdom was divided.

God forgave David, yet David had to pay for the "temporal" consequences of his sins.

We also must pay. God was kind enough to send His only begotten Son to die for our sins upon the Cross. Thus, we were washed of those sins in Baptism.  He made us Priests, Prophets and Kings.  And God then made us part of His household. God made us His own children. But then we chose to sin again. For His part, God forgives us, if we repent. But, we must pay for the temporal consequence of these sins, ourselves.

If we haven't paid for them before we die, we will be cleansed of them in Purgatory. The Final Purification.

Now, when we appear before the Judgment Seat. Our sins, which we confessed in the Sacraments, are forgiven and forgotten.

Answering an anti-Catholic's questions about Mary

Annunciation

Anti-Catholic asked:

Where do we see anything in their writings of any mention of her by name? Where do we see any of them exhorting believers to pray to her?

Have you read in Scripture that Jesus is our example?

1 Corinthians 11:1
Be ye followers of me, even as I also am of Christ.

Mary is the mother of Jesus Christ. Therefore, as her Child, Jesus had to ask Mary for comfort, nourishment and protection from the elements. He is our example. Therefore we do the same.

Now, most Protestants say, "She was His mother, not ours." But you are mistaken. Jesus appointed Mary our mother. That is plain in Scripture. To be more precise, Jesus appointed Mary the mother of all whom He loves and all who love Him.

First:
John 19:26-28
26 When Jesus therefore saw his mother, and the disciple standing by, whom he loved, he saith unto his mother, Woman, behold thy son! 27 Then saith he to the disciple, Behold thy mother! And from that hour that disciple took her unto his own home. 28 After this, Jesus knowing that all things were now accomplished, that the scripture might be fulfilled, saith, I thirst.

Catholics are taught to read Scripture as though God was speaking to us. Now, are you a beloved disciple of Christ? To put it differently, are you a disciple whom Jesus loves?

Catholics would answer, "Yes" to that question and therefore accept Jesus command to take Mary as our mother and bring her into our home (i.e. heart).

For the second part of this explanation, you need to be aware of other verses in Scripture.
Genesis 3:15
15 And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.

The seed of the Woman is not just Jesus. Let me show you:
Revelation 12:17
17 And the dragon was wroth with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.

Do you consider yourself someone who keeps the Commandments of God and the testimony of Jesus? If so, then you are seed or a child of the Woman. That Woman is Mary. And therefore, Scripture says that all who fight the good fight on behalf of God in Christ, are children of Mary.

God appointed Mary our spiritual mother. Jesus gave Mary to the disciples whom He loves. Therefore, as any good children, we ask our mother for that which Our heavenly Father provides us through her.

Sincerely,

De Maria

Rebutting even more anti-Catholic objections to Marian Doctrine

Anti-Catholic said:
If Joseph was a man 

He was and is a man.

then this is something he would have needed to deal with.

Have you ever read in Scripture that God will give you the grace you need to fulfill your vocation?
2 Thessalonians 1:11
King James Version (KJV)
11 Wherefore also we pray always for you, that our God would count you worthy of this calling, and fulfil all the good pleasure of his goodness, and the work of faith with power:

After all, one of the benefits of marriage is for the man and the woman to express their sexuality towards each other in holy and godly way.

What do you think is a greater benefit? To serve God or to have sex with your spouse? This is what Scripture says:
1 Corinthians 7:
32 But I would have you without carefulness. He that is unmarried careth for the things that belong to the Lord, how he may please the Lord: 33 But he that is married careth for the things that are of the world, how he may please his wife.

There is no reason to think Joesph did not have normal sexual desires and wanting to have children of his own. Same would apply to Mary. 

You are projecting. To us, we are taught that God satisfies all our desires:
Our Heart is Restless Until it rests in You
Saint Augustine of Hippo

Apparently, you are taught that the highest blessing is sex with your spouse. But that is wrong. We are made for God. St. Joseph and the Virgin Mary received a blessing beyond calculation. They were united to their God in this life.

Children without brothers and sisters do not experience family life the same way that those that do. Does not mean they are less but they don't have this experience.

Does that make them less human? You admit it doesn't, so why even bring that up?

Sincerely,

De Maria

Baptism justifies and saves

Naaman washed, 7 times, in the Jordan

Baptism does not justify.

Christ justifies through Baptism. Do you, like Naaman, deny that God can work through the water?

2 Kings 5:10 And Elisha sent a messenger unto him, saying, Go and wash in Jordan seven times, and thy flesh shall come again to thee, and thou shalt be clean. 11 But Naaman was wroth, and went away, and said, Behold, I thought, He will surely come out to me, and stand, and call on the name of the Lord his God, and strike his hand over the place, and recover the leper. 12 Are not Abana and Pharpar, rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? may I not wash in them, and be clean? So he turned and went away in a rage.

God can even heals through the mud:

John 9:11 He answered and said, A man that is called Jesus made clay, and anointed mine eyes, and said unto me, Go to the pool of Siloam, and wash: and I went and washed, and I received sight.

This is all plainly taught in Scripture.

Christ justifies

Through Baptism.

Baptism is a sign

It is an effective sign which accomplishes what it signifies by the Power of God.

How silly to believe that someone is committing blasphemy by knowing that it is the power of Christ, not water that justifies.

How silly to make that claim. We know that it is Christ working through the Sacrament. That is the Catholic Teaching:

1127 Celebrated worthily in faith, the sacraments confer the grace that they signify. They are efficacious because in them Christ himself is at work: it is he who baptizes, he who acts in his sacraments in order to communicate the grace that each sacrament signifies. The Father always hears the prayer of his Son's Church which, in the epiclesis of each sacrament, expresses her faith in the power of the Spirit. As fire transforms into itself everything it touches, so the Holy Spirit transforms into the divine life whatever is subjected to his power.

But Christ has connected justification and the water by the Word. Therefore, the Sacrament is efficacious:

Ephesians 5:26That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word,

Certainly we never want to take anything away from baptism,

But you have already in declaring your unbelief that God can use the water to wash away our sins:

Mark 16:16 He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned.

but we need to realize that it is not baptism that makes one a Christian--it is knowing Christ and being known by Him. 

It is both. Christ has established the Sacraments so that we can know that we are washed of the Spirit and born again children of God:

John 3:2 The same came to Jesus by night, and said unto him, Rabbi, we know that thou art a teacher come from God: for no man can do these miracles that thou doest, except God be with him. 3 Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. 4 Nicodemus saith unto him, How can a man be born when he is old? can he enter the second time into his mother's womb, and be born? 5 Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.

What we must believe to be saved is told to us in Romans 10:9-13,

Romans 10:9 That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. 10 For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. 11 For the scripture saith, Whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed. 12 For there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek: for the same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon him. 13 For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.

Belief doesn't mean "claiming faith". Belief means putting God's words into practice:

Matthew 7:21 Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. 22 Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? 23 And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity. 24 Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock: 25 And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell not: for it was founded upon a rock. 26 And every one that heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man, which built his house upon the sand: 27 And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell: and great was the fall of it. 28 And it came to pass, when Jesus had ended these sayings, the people were astonished at his doctrine:

The statement that you are justified by taking part in a sign is analogous to the early controversy over circumcision, about which Paul said in Romans 2:25-29,

That's the meaning of Mark 16:16. Any man who is baptized but does not believe in the power of Christ which is poured forth in this sacrament has condemned himself. If a person is baptized who does not believe in Christ, that person has condemned himself.

But let's examine that verse:

Romans 2:25 For circumcision verily profiteth, if thou keep the law: but if thou be a breaker of the law, thy circumcision is made uncircumcision. 26 Therefore if the uncircumcision keep the righteousness of the law, shall not his uncircumcision be counted for circumcision? 27 And shall not uncircumcision which is by nature, if it fulfil the law, judge thee, who by the letter and circumcision dost transgress the law? 28 For he is not a Jew, which is one outwardly; neither is that circumcision, which is outward in the flesh: 29 But he is a Jew, which is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter; whose praise is not of men, but of God.

Note that there is a spiritual circumcision. What does St. Paul say that is?

Colossians 2:10 And ye are complete in him, which is the head of all principality and power: 11 In whom also ye are circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, in putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ: 12 Buried with him in baptism, wherein also ye are risen with him through the faith of the operation of God, who hath raised him from the dead.

Spiritual circumcision is accomplished in Baptism. As Scripture clearly illustrates.

Likewise, justification is a matter of the heart, by the Spirit.

Absolutely! It is in Baptism that we are washed and regenerated by the Spirit of God:

Titus 3:5 Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost;

Rebutting more anti-Catholic objections to Marian Doctrine

Anti-Catholic says:Point 4 is enough to show that Mary was not a life long virgin. 

No, it has been effectively rebutted several times. Please read the responses rather than ignoring the points of rebuttal. That is the only way you could make this claim.

Point 1 does not mention anyone in the NT having sex either. Should we assume that it never happened to the people mentioned such Peter or Jarius?

Your logic is faulty.
1. You claim that Scripture does not say that Mary is a perpetual virgin, therefore you conclude that Mary is not a perpetual virgin.

2. To support that contention, you provide an example of Scripture not mentioning that anyone had sex. To be consistent with your first claim, you should conclude that therefore, since it isn't mentioned in Scripture, it can't be true. But you conclude the opposite.

3. Your logic supports the Catholic position.

If Mary was a perpetual virgin then how does Joseph deal with his sex drive?

With the grace of God. Do you really believe the myths that men will go blind if they don't have sex?

Where do you get the idea that "Sex is never done after contact with the Divine Presence" from Scripture? There was nothing from the angel when he spoke with Mary that it was forbidden for her to have sexual relations with her husband. 

Was there anything that said it was permitted?

There is absolutely nothing to be gained theologically by Mary not having normal sexual relations with her husband and having more children.

That is because you don't discern the meaning of Scripture spiritually. Mary is not simply a vessel which carried the Divine Being of Christ. She is the Spouse of the Holy Spirit.

If she were to have sex with St. Joseph, she would become an adulteress and St. Joseph an adulterer.

Now, let me show you that Mary is married to the Holy Spirit. The important terminology here is "overshadowed".

A euphemism for marriage in the Old Testament is covering:
Ruth 3:
7 And when Boaz had eaten and drunk, and his heart was merry, he went to lie down at the end of the heap of corn: and she came softly, and uncovered his feet, and laid her down. 8 And it came to pass at midnight, that the man was afraid, and turned himself: and, behold, a woman lay at his feet. 9 And he said, Who art thou? And she answered, I am Ruth thine handmaid: spread therefore thy skirt over thine handmaid; for thou art a near kinsman.

Ruth, effectively asked Boaz to marry her. If you read the rest of the story, you will see that Boaz understood and was determined to do so.

To a Jew, it is clear that when the Holy Spirit "overshadowed" the Virgin Mary, He took her to Himself and the logical outcome is that a Child would be born. The Virgin Mary then married St. Joseph for righteousness sake. The same reason that the sinless Jesus was Baptized.

St. Joseph, being a righteous man, would have known better than to go into the Virgin Mary, having been informed in a dream that she bore the Child by the Holy Spirit:
Matthew 1:20
But while he thought on these things, behold, the angel of the LORD appeared unto him in a dream, saying, Joseph, thou son of David, fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife: for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost.

Before Jesus was born it would have been since the prophecy said He would be born of a virgin. See Isaiah 7:14. After this prophecy was fulfilled there is no reason for her to remain a virgin. 

You say this because you know neither the Scriptures nor the power of God.

Also, if Jesus was to experience humanity to the fullest extent then being part of a family where He had brothers and sisters would be expected.

Being an only child makes one no less a human.

Sincerely,

De Maria

Is it in the Spirit of the Mass to pray in the Orans position during the Our Father?

The orans posture is an ancient “prayer” posture. It is, sort of, humorously described, in an incident where Moses, prayed with arms outstretched, for the Israelites to defeat their enemies. His hands got so tired that his attendants had to hold his arms up. Because every time his arms drooped, the Israelites would begin to lose the battle. They eventually won. 
Read More...

Lent and the Redemptive Value in Suffering

Jesus fasted in the desert, 40 days

When Jesus walked with the Apostles, He was confronted by an objection:

Matthew 9:14 Then came to him the disciples of John, saying, Why do we and the Pharisees fast oft, but thy disciples fast not?

Jesus responded in this manner:

15 And Jesus said unto them, Can the children of the bridechamber mourn, as long as the bridegroom is with them? but the days will come, when the bridegroom shall be taken from them, and then shall they fast.

To this day, people wonder why we have to suffer.  The answer is given in Scripture:

1 Peter 4:1 Forasmuch then as Christ hath suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves likewise with the same mind: for he that hath suffered in the flesh hath ceased from sin;

Thus, Scripture says that suffering is redemptive.  

Scripture also says:
1 Peter 2:21
For even hereunto were ye called: because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that ye should follow his steps:

Therefore, we are to suffer for the salvation of our brethren as Christ suffered for us.

Scripture says elsewhere:
Colossians 1:24
Who now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh for his body's sake, which is thechurch:

And again:
2 Corinthians 1:⁵For as the sufferings of Christ abound in us, so our consolation also aboundeth by Christ.
⁶And whether we be afflicted, it is for your consolation and salvation, which is effectual in the enduring of the same sufferings which we also suffer: or whether we be comforted, it is for your consolation and salvation.
⁷And our hope of you is stedfast, knowing, that as ye are partakers of the sufferings, so shall ye be also of the consolation

Therefore, the Catholic Teaching of the redemptive value of suffering is completely in line with Scripture.  And this is why, the Catholic Church expects us to fast and give up certain things during Lent.  In order that we may imitate Christ and unite ourselves to His suffering.