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Often times I doubt whether I make a difference in the case of abortion.  Especially when I see the leader of our country is a proponent of choice.  It is such an emotional topic for everyone, but knowing such a powerful ally is against you can zap the wind from your sails.  The other day my friend Dave, whom I sing with in the choir, asked me to help him to pass out some flyers before mass.  You see there is this act, it is called The Freedom Of Choice Act.  This act is misnamed though for it should be the Freedom To Kill Act. This act allows our country to conduct more abortions.  It makes it easier to kill babies.  It will make it possible for the government to force Catholic Hospitals to abort babies.  We need to stop it. We need to pray that it does not pass even if we think we are going to lose.  The babies need us.

That weekend I shed a few tears while I talked  to people before mass.  Knowing already that over a million unborn babies are a borted here in the United States.  We passed out information pamphlets and post cards for the parish to sign.  Each post card was addressed to the two Nevada Senators and one congressional representative. We did 2000 post cards.  More then we thought we would have. We passed out post cards at the Saturday mass and then I returned home and tried to get it out of my mind.  All night long I handed post cards in my sleep. I could not relax. All night I thought of the unborn being put to death.

I guess when the President of the United States says it is not ok not to toruture terrorist but it is ok to kill babies, it makes you pray  harder to the Lord.

After working all weekend on this project though my mind prayed a lot not just for the  unborn but for the people that support pro choice.  I prayed that they would see the Light of God for Jesus said, I am the Light.

Eventhough the President carries a lot of weight.   I saw that God and his angels were working over time as I saw the church respond so strongly to the call to fill out the cards.  Regardless if the Act passes or not, I knew I made a difference.God was with us.

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If I had to plead my case to St. Peter, I would take my friend Rose.

Dear Friends in Christ,

Somebody told me that I should start putting back the prayer list in my letter so that we can all pray for these people.   I guess times are hard and we need to pray as much as possible.  The focus is on abortion, now that President Obama is here we must constantly be vigilant and monitor what our Catholic Vice President and the President is doing.  Remember on Catholic America we have Fr. Frank Pavone’s website if you want more info concerning this cause you can just click on it and it will take you right there.  (catholicamericatoday.net)

I was very emotional today.  My friend Rose whom I met over Christmas was helping me out with some old tickets; she is a lawyer and a very hard worker. Rose use to make six figures and she is now adjusting to considerably less money.  At times she barely has money to put in her gas tank. Nevertheless she is the kind of person who will give you the shirt off her back and go out of the way to help you.  She is the lawyer that is helping Catholics Against Pornography to file for non profit.  Anyways she related to me this story.  She was walking one rainy evening to go buy something to eat at the local store.  Near the entrance to the sandwich shop she noticed a mother and child huddled in the corner.  The people were obviously hungry and cold and looked like they had no where to go.  This made Rose sad.  She bought the sandwich but she could not leave the store.  She walked up to the lady and child and offered her food to her and then told the lady that it was too cold and wet for her and her child to stay out in the rain.  Rose, you almost had me in tears after I heard this.  Sainthood is not that far away.  I wanted to share this with everyone else.

Announcement:  Catholic America Today is selling advertising space.  We are averaging over 2000 viewers a month.  This is a great job for those who are retired and want to make some extra money.  It is commission only and it is sales from your home.  We give you all the leads.  If you are interested or know of anyone that is interested it pays up to 25% depending on experience.  Please contact me at vernpaul@catholicamericatoday.net

CAP still needs funds to go non profit.  We need 75.00 so if you believe in our fight against Porn please write a check to Catholics Against Porn and send it to,

7055 E. Lake Mead # 2095

Las Vegas, Nv 89156

Prayers:

Pray for Lori’s friend Rolly that he may get healthy.

Pray for Cece’s friend Dave that he may heal from his health problems.

Pray for the Hee family that they may recover from the loss of Vern Peter.

Pray for AC and her friend that their relationship may be blessed by the angels.

Pray for Bo and his health.

Pray for the President of these United States that he may be guided by the Lord in all his decision making.

God Bless You all,

Vern Paul Hee

Times are tough and I do not always feel like going out there.

Sometimes I feel so restless and can not pray. I feel trapped. I just want to leave the area and be alone, to be with God. Other times I just want to put up my hands and give in to temptation and tell the Lord, I feel so alone and I am really tired of fighting. Then the calm voice of the Lord would overwhelm me. He would let me know that it is ok. He would somehow reassure me that everything will be ok. It might be a friend that would call or just seeing my sons eyes looking up at me. What ever the sign maybe I see it and I am instantly his again.
I say Lord, I have sinned against you and you still love me. Your love is so powerful and forgiving, Can I do no wrong to offend the? I would answer that in my own thoughts for I already know the answer to that. He is infinite Lovc and He always will forgive. He is Light and when you let the Lord in His light shines so bright that you can not any wrong. Jn 8:12 I am the light of the world; he who follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”
Once you have accepted the Lord he will always be there for you.

catholicamericatoday.net….go here for more

I myself am a cradle Catholic but in 1993 I fell in love with Catholicism all over again through the rosary. Mary has a neat way of making us regain our faith. In this instance she came to me to get me to go to see the Pope, at the time I was sinning big time and still single. I needed to be inspired. She first sent me to the Medj. Peace conference in Irvine where I spoke to visionaries that had seen the Blessed Mother. I then met up with a group at St. Josephs Church in Santa Ana Calif to pray the rosary. That is all that it took. Saying the rosary to me is like falling in love all over again. I need nothing else but prayer and solitude. When I am meditating on the mysteries of the rosary it is the one thing that gets me through these hard times.

The rosary and the Eucharist is all I need to get me through these harsh times. I recently took out my well used copy of Scott Hahn’s Rome Sweet Home to revitalize my faith. A good conversion story gets me going. I feed off the energy of Scott’s book. I first got hooked on Scott, sort of like hooked on Phonics…when I listened to his tapes while I worked alone in my garage years ago. Notice I said tapes. Now I take out the worn tattered cover of his book and reread it when my spirits are down.

Now I would like to write a short montage of Catholic converts that were drawn to the religion through the rosary. If you are one of those, tell me your story and send it to me by emailing me at vernpaul@catholicamericatoday.net

also post it here so others may see it too. Inspire me once again people, for my business is down and I wonder if I will make it through these hard times. Pray for me as well and this great country of ours.

Share The Love:  go to catholicamericatoday.net

The Eucharist His Personal Gift To Us

Scripture references for the Real Presence in the Eucharist:

Jn 6::27
Jn 6:31
Jn6: 34-35
Jn 6: 51-52
Jn 6: 53
Jn 6: 54-57
Cor. 11:23
Lk 22:19
Mt. 26:26
Mk 14:22

One of my goals is to present different works from different authors. Here are some quotes from three of my favorite Catholic Scholars on the subject of the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist:

Kenneth Baker: The circumstances of the Last Supper itself give added reason for taking Christ’s words literally. It was his last meeting with his Apostles before going to his death; his last words were like his last will and testament. In such situations people speak clearly and openly , not symbolically. (pg 234 Fundamentals of Catholicism, Kenneth Baker, S.J.

Karl Keating writes: There was no attempt to soften what was said, no attempt to correct “misunderstandings”, for there were none. His listeners understood him quite well. No one any longer thought he was speaking metaphorically If they had why no correction? On other occasions, whenever there was confusion, Christ explained what he meant.
(pg 233, Catholicism and Fundamentalism, by Karl Keating)

And finally Scott Hahn: But after lots of prayer and study, I realized that Jesus could not have been speaking figuratively when he taught us to eat his flesh and drink his blood. The Jews in his audience would not have been outraged and scandalized by a mere symbol. Besides, if they had misunderstood Jesus to be speaking literally when he meant his words to be taken figuratively he could have easily clarified his point.
(pg 50 Rome Sweet Home, by Dr. Scott Hahn)

A recurring theme here is if Christ was talking figuratively in his dialog with his followers and the Jews, knowing full well how some of his audiences would get upset about this topic and the eating of the flesh, why did he not clarify the point. He does not clarify this because he was talking literally. Such clarity in the three above arguments for this point just hit home. If you are going to read a book about the topic, probably one of the easiest scholars to understand, is Dr. Scott Hahn. I think the reason is because Dr. Hahn is a teacher and is use to getting his point across to young people. His writing does not get too technical. He writes his books in easy to understand language. I applaud him for this and encourage all to pick up one of his books. One of my dreams is to meet this man. One dream at a time.

Vern Paul
Catholicamericatoday.net

January 9, 2009

Dear Friends in Christ:

Oprah, how can she be considered dangerous to us?  She helps so many people.   So how can she be considered on my top ten most dangerous celebrities to Catholics?  Oprah is not dangerous because she helps people.  Oprah is dangerous for what she preaches day in and day out on her show.  Her message has been over the years, “Me First”  and “Help Thy Self Feel Good”  This goes against Catholic teaching in my opinion because it promotes helping yourself over helping others.  She very rarely will promote someone that is into helping others.  Even her ministers that she says are Christian are very anti Catholic.  Oh sure the minister comes on and says they believe in Christ and that they follow basic Christian tenets, but when you really dig into what they believe you come up with a church that is more into “how you feel” and “your feelings” then others.  Christ was not like that.  His ministry was caring for others first.  He put himself last and others first always.

The majority of the spiritual ministers on Oprah are of the New Age type.  They fail the Christian Test when they put self before all others.  Sin is watered down to the point they tell you not to worry about it.  Hell is just a state of mind.  Hell is not an actual place it is just where your mind goes when you are feeling bad.  We often ask ourselves why the divorce rate is so high in the United States.  One of the reasons is this New Age Christianity.

When you put yourself and your feelings before all else no wonder your marriage does not last.  I am not going into what a good marriage is.  I am not qualified to do that.  I am qualified to tell you that New Age ministries are dangerous.  I am going to be publishing in CAT my findings on the New Age Church, The Unity Church and Rev. Marianne Williamson, author and Oprah regular.  She is quoted as saying that, “you have made no sins, just mistakes.”  This is what her church believes in regard to Jesus,

Do we Believe in the Divinity of Jesus:  Yes, Unity teaches that the spirit of God lived in Jesus, just as it lives in every person. Every person has the potential to express the perfection of Christ as Jesus did, by being more Christ like in everyday life…

In other words Christ was like us and not God.  You see how they twist things around?  Perhaps unity needs a vocabulary lesson in the meaning and definition of “divine”.  I promise I will be nice to Oprah. Her regulars though, I am taking off the gloves.

MEGA CHAT IN CAT…Catholic Fellowship Here and Tonight!

CAT News, we are having Mega Chat tonight at 7:00 pm pacific standard time join us in the chat room as we try to talk to all those who have come and gone.  We want them back.  All my mingle friends come by and register for free and come into chat and say hi.

Vern Paul

catholicamericatoday.net

Prayers:

Pray for CECE and that she may finish school.

Pray for Lori’s son that he may come home soon

Pray for the health of David that he may heal

Pray for Rolly that  he may heal

Pray for Adelina that she may heal

Pray for The Hee family that  they may heal

Pray for Mark that he may realize how loved he is

Pray for all couples seeking love that they may realize that God loves them equally.

The Importance of Confession

Have you often wondered why it is necessary to confess your sins to a priest? Why cannot you just confess them straight to God? This has been a source of controversy since the Reformation. Where does it say in scripture that you must confess your sins to a priest? There are plenty of references for the Catholic looking for the biblical foundation in scripture. I defer to two sources, Kenneth Baker author of, Fundamentals of Catholicism and Karl Keating, author of Catholicism and Fundamentalism.

Jesus for gives sins in scripture, Jn 8: 1-11, Lk. 7:48 and Mk 2:10. The first step to cleansing us of original sin comes from baptism. According to Kenneth Baker:

The Catholic Church requires that each and every mortal sin committed after Baptism must be revealed to a priest in a secret confession. Thus it is not sufficient to say, “I am sorry for all my sins,” or “please forgive me Father, for I am a sinner,” one must state which mortal sins have been committed and how many times they were committed…

The sacrament of reconciliation can be found under, Jn 20:22-23. So when people use the argument, …”oh I can just tell my sins to God myself”. God through his son told us to do it a certain way and he left this power with his direct apostles. Thus Jesus states, “I promise you all that you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and all that you loosed on earth shall be loosed in heaven” Mt 18:18 Those same people that argue that one can confess all sins to God personally, would state, that these powers that were given to the apostles died with them when they died. Not so. This is why we say we are an apostolic church. The priesthood has an unbroken line of succession from Peter passed down to all Bishops and priests. Along with this succession was passed all the powers. Frank Keating states the following:

The powers absolutely necessary to maintain the Church as a living, spiritual society had to be passed down, generation to generation…Christ ordered the apostles to “make disciples of all nations…Teach them to carry out everything I have commanded you. And know that I am with you always, until the end of the world. Mt 28:19-20

Christ is ordering his disciples to make new ones and thus giving them the power to pass on their powers. Many fundamentalists would argue that this power of reconciliation was simply an invention. If this is the case Keating makes a powerful argument, he basically argues that if the church invented this, why were there no protest of this in the early church documents.

If it was something foisted on the young Church by ecclesiastical or political leaders, we would expect to find records of protest. In fact, in early Christian writings we find no sign of protest concerning priestly forgiveness of sins.

Confession should be a part of your faith. It helps to maintain your soul in grace. It keeps you in communion with Christ and helps to promote a healthy spiritual existence on this Earth. It plays a vital role in keeping Evil from becoming a part of your life. Good and Evil fight for control of this Earth on a daily basis. Evil preys upon those that sin, and feed daily on those that have mortal sins on their souls. Communion is wasted if we partake of it with a mortal sin on our soul. Yet the amount of people continuing to partake in this sacrament is on the decline. In my opinion we need to educate our fellow Catholics about this Sacrament. Maintaining a clean soul should be a goal of all Catholics.

I use to find it such a pain in the you know what to go to a priest every time I committed a mortal sin. In addition some find it embarrassing to go. People say, “I hate going to my pasture or my church priest for confessions…” There are alternatives. If you are embarrassed, go to a neighboring parish to confess. The priests do not care. Go where now one knows whom you are. The important thing is to go.

Now I have changed my mind in my personal thinking about this sacrament. I think the main reason why this change came upon me was mortality. My father just passed and when it struck home that I would soon be his age, I just started to take care of business. I confess every little thing regardless of weather I think it is a sin or not. I did not want to be one of those Christians to finally get my affairs straight at the end of my life. I wanted to be an example to my son and my relatives. I wanted to finally get rid of the party hardy life style and be a responsible Catholic. My life can be compared to St. Augustine. St. Augustine was one of those Saints that changed his life style late in life. That is why he is my Saint. I can relate to him.

All Catholics should just make this a part of your regular spiritual life. It is hard to do at first. As you do it more often and get a regular confessor in your life, it gets easier. The cleansing of your soul can be very therapeutic and when combined with daily prayer very powerful. You will find that major sins and temptation will just fall away. Praying the rosary or just talking to God during the day will keep you in touch with The Lord. You will find that sin has no time or power over you once you do this.

My friends thank you for the support in our cause and keep the new people coming to our site. We are averaging over 75 visits per day to Catholic America Today. Keep viewing us and Thank you.

God Bless,

Vern Paul Hee
catholicamericatoday.net

References: Kenneth Baker, Fundamentals of Catholicism pg 292-293
Karl Keating, Catholicism and Fundamentalism, pg 182-186

January 6, 2009

Dear Friends In Christ,

Today I would like to introduce to you Eddie Olivas from Pomona, California.  he has volunteered to write for us. Eddie Olivas is a extremely experienced substance abuse professional, and 4th year MFT Trainee at Azusa Pacific University. He has over 23 years experience in substance abuse counseling in such varied environments as hospitals, clinics and out patient settings. He holds a double certification in substance abuse counseling, a bachelors of science in addiction studies, and a masters in organizational management with an emphasize in humane services. His current research and study is in systems theory, adult children of alcoholics and addiction. His specialization rest in the area of profound addictions, professional coaching, and stress management. Moreover, over the years he has been successful with even the most treatment resistant relapse prone individuals. He is a member of the National Association for Addiction Professionals and has been instrumental in both creating implementing alcohol and drug programs to many throughout southern California.  So when you have the time pop into CAT and send him a welcome.

What is the purpose of the Church on Earth?  I quote from Fundamentals of Catholicism, by Kenneth Baker:

<I><strong>“So the immediate purpose of the church is the sanctification of men and women by the communication of the whole Gospel, of the commandments and of the grace of Christ in the sacraments…the church is a supernatural and spiritual society.  The ultimate goal of the Church lies not in this world but in the world to come.  This truth is summarized by Jesus when he says, “Give back to Caesar what belongs to Caesar and to God what belongs to God”  Mk 12:17  Baker then concludes, “Since the purpose of the Church, then, is a purely religious one, she has of herself no direct political, economic, social or cultural tasks to perform.  Vatican II says clearly:  “Christ, to be sure, gave his Church no proper mission in the political, economic or social order.  The Purpose which he set before here is a religious one.(constitution on the church , no 42)</strong> </I>

After reading this it sounds very black and white.  The Church should only engage in the spiritual realm.  This sounds so easy and yet how often in our own lives does the spiritual realm cross over to our personal realities.  Think of any controversy that our society is engaged in and our Church is involved in it.  A good example of this is abortion.  This is such a huge political controversy that our church is involved in.  How can that be.  We just read that the Church has no mandate to pursue such causes.  In my opinion the Church has no choice but to fight back in cases such as abortion.  Abortion, the destruction of life, must be fought at all levels and this means the political arena. 

Another evil that I chose to fight and the church is slowly addressing is pornography.  My reasons being very personal, the why I chose to fight this can be summed up by Kenneth Henderson.  (hopefully soon to be ally) He writes:

<I> <strong>Catholic men have been silent, absent or non-committal and even wimpy for far too long. Society and sin has twisted God’s definition of “masculinity” to be synonymous with “power”, “money”, “domination”, or “sexual prowess”. We are at war, and unless we rise to the challenge we, and our families will suffer great losses. The family is the target of the enemy in this war…He knows that if he can destroy the father, he can destroy the family! The effect has been the destruction of many families and family values over the past century…</strong> </i>

So in his words, “we are at war…”  When are family values are being attacked in the political arena and outside it, the Church must fight back to survive and beat back the enemy whenever it can.   I know there exist a fine line and too often those lines are crossed.  When it comes to fighting for family values though those lines are not crossed enough.  This October we fight for Family values.  I want you all to mark the 24 of October on your calendar and come join us To Fight For Catholic Family Values.  Rosary Walk Las Vegas 2009 will be a reality and it will be a victory for Family Values and our Church.

I am truly excited.  I am God has been putting people into my lap.  This new writer came out of the blue.  Finding Kenneth Henderson’s web page just jumped out at me while writing this letter.  God is with us.  He truly is and I am so happy.  I need an accountant type to help us.  We have one here for CAT but I want an outsider to take our funds and donations when they come in.  We are forming the non profit as we speak.

Thanks for the people who support us now.  Tell a friend.  Come join us.

Love you all,

God Bless,

Vern Paul Hee

January 5, 2009

Dear Friends in Christ,

As I was writing a good friend today I was thinking of the Rosary Walk in Las Vegas.  What is this fight about?  Sure, I said the cause is a fight against Porn but how is that connected to the rosary and Mary.  So I started explaining this to my dear friend Karen.  The fight is for the family unit.  Mary is part of the Holy Family.  Our prayers go to her and Jesus to keep our family units strong.  Porn is attack on the family unit.  It causes division and takes the focus away from the family.  Porn is telling people that pleasure comes first over all else.  Our generation suffers from the “me first” syndrome where everything has to evolve around the person.  Our divorce rate as a society is hovering around the 50% rate, which tells us that we are always looking for the greener pasture.  By focusing on Mary we bring the focus back to the Holy Family.  Porn represents just one evil that is attacking our family unit, but it is a start.  We attack porn but the real focus is family.  We come together as brothers and sisters to celebrate the family and say no to the evils of the flesh, and porn. 

People look at me and ask me, how can you talk about family, you are divorced.  Yes I am, but I still have my son.  He is my family and I must let him know that I still pray for families to succeed where I failed.  My family now is the church.  I may have failed at marriage but I fight on as a father who wants to be the best father I can be so that my son may some day succeed where I failed.

It is not just because I live in Las Vegas that I have chosen to walk in prayer for this cause.  This happens to be the Mecca for the 8 billion dollar strong Porn industry.  We walk in the midst of evil.

My mind is full of things I have to do for an event that is not until October 24 2009.  I have to speak to the Bishop.  I have to get a PR. person.  I have to get permits to walk, I have to get the non-profit set up, sponsors for the walk, I have to get people to help.  No I am not doing this all on my own.  Build it and they will come.  The people will come.  I know they will.  I am not worried about that.  People who are not Catholic will often ask what the Rosary is.  Quite simply we believe the Rosary was given to us as a gift from the Virgin Mary.  It is our way of honoring Mary. Do we Worship Mary, no.

Just as a reminderHere is an article I wrote on that.

Do Catholics Worship Mary?

Filed under: Everything Catholic — vernpaulwriter @ 11:13 pm

As a Catholic I frequently get asked by my fellow protestant brothers this question, “Why do you Catholics worship Mary?”  I would then respond, “We do not worship Mary we honor or venerate her.” Do you honor the Ten Commandments and believe Jesus followed them to the letter?  If you do then you too must honor Mary. This honor is founded in biblical principle, which will be all to clear momentarily.

I once read in a book by Scott Hahn, a Catholic theologian, one time protestant minister and author of Rome Sweet Home, that the reasons that we honor the Blessed Virgin is founded in two biblical principles.

The first is founded in the Old Testament.  Mary is worthy of honor and praise because she is the mother of Jesus Christ.  Jesus honored and glorified his mother in accordance with the Ten Commandments.  The second principle is found in the New Testament.  Jesus calls us to be like him.   As Catholics we strive to imitate Christ.  To be Christ like is to follow his example. Hahn suggests that, Jesus honored his mother and his father because the commandments told him to do this. He honored both fully, and in the end ” bestowed his divine glory upon Mary.” As Catholics we strive to imitate Christ and therefore we honor his mother.  According to Scott Hahn the result is, “we simply imitate Christ not just by honoring our own mothers but also by honoring whomever he honors and with the same honor he bestows.”

Hence this is why Catholics honor Mary with a living Prayer the Rosary.  The honor of Mary can also be found in scripture.  Luke 1:48; “Henceforth all generations will call me blessed.”

If you know anyone that loves to volunteer for fund raisers, now is the time to ask them.

God Bless

Vern Paul Hee

Catholic America Today

Catholicamericatoday.net

I am torn on this.  Our Church needs to help those in need period.  Matthew 5:7  “Blest are they who show mercy; mercy shall be theirs.  Yet we do have laws in our country about coming to this country.  Again though our laws do not prohibit a church from aiding human beings in need.  I think some people are upset when this aid gets in the way of deportation.  There are many Catholics in this country that believe that a law should be followed and that any who break it must suffer the consequences.

The bottom line is as long as the church does not break the laws of the host country then let them help those who need to be helped regardless if they are legal or not.

These are my thoughts for the day.  On another note, I want to thank all who read this.   I have no idea who you are.  The only way I can thank you is by giving you a free membership to my website which is dedicated to being a positive influence on the net and fighting Porn.  If you want a VIP membership just register and then email me with your screen name at this address.  vernpaul@catholicamericatoday.net.  The site is Catholicamericatoday.net  and it is a catholic online magazine dedicated to Catholic Fellowship.  Thanks for reading this blog.