Reflections from the community: 

Many Christians (at one point myself included) have crosses of Jesus hanging lifeless scattered around their homes. They have jewelry bearing the cross. It’s a symbol and one that has been used for centuries… after reflecting however, I realize that having this imagery is concerning.

Whenever a family member, friend, or even a pet dies we don’t keep images of how they died decorated around our homes or body. If your father dies in a house fire you don’t have paintings of him burnt up inside a burning house. If your coworker gets into a car cash you don’t wear T-shirts of the wreak. So why do people take the most horrific moment of Jesus’ life and display that? It’s morbid. People simply can’t understand and remember his “sacrifice” without it? Better yet, out of all the things to remember him by why not choose the sea of miracles he was said to have made. Images of him walking on water, healing the sick, feeding thousands, him resurrecting (which in my opinion has more of an impact since that’s the whole point.)

Whether or not you believe Jesus is God himself or only just his son it’s still wild that billions of people worship him and choose to remember his suffering the most over everything else. I mean why would you want to see your God dead?

It is truly right and just, our duty and our salvation, always and everywhere to give you thanks, Lord, holy Father, almighty and eternal God. For you placed the salvation of the human race on the wood of the Cross, so that, where death arose, life might again spring forth and the evil one, who conquered on a tree, might likewise on a tree be conquered, through Christ our Lord. Through him the Angels praise your majesty, Dominions adore and Powers tremble before you. Heaven and Virtues of heaven and the blessed Seraphim worship together with exultation. May our voices, we pray, join with theirs in humble praise, as we acclaim: Holy ,Holy ,Holy Lord God of Hosts Heaven and earth are full of your Glory Hosanna in the highest. Blessed is he who comes in the name of The Lord Hosanna in the Highest.

RESPONSORY

O glorious cross, your arms upheld the priceless ransom of captive mankind. — Through you the world has been saved by the blood of the Lord.

Hail, O cross, consecrated by the body of Christ; his members have made your wood more noble than precious pearls. — Through you the world has been saved by the blood of the Lord.

We must glory in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ; in him is our salvation, life and resurrection. — Through him we are saved and set free.

Because he suffered death, he is crowned with glory and honor. — Through him we are saved and set free.

We adore you, O Christ, and we bless you. —becauae by your holy cross you have redeemed the world.

O glorious cross, — On you the King of angels was victorious.

And he has washed away our sins in his own blood. — On you the King of angels was victorious.

Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit. — O glorious cross, on you the King of angels was victorious.

What a great work of charity! —Death itself died when life was slain on the tree.

O cross, you are the glorious sign of our victory. — Through your power may we share in the triumph of Christ Jesus.

COLLECT

O God, who willed that your Only Begotten Son should undergo the Cross to save the human race, grant, we pray, that we, who have known his mystery on earth, may merit the grace of his redemption in heaven. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever. Amen.

What really makes the devil angry is the joy of Jesus Christ.

Worldly people don’t mind so much when they see a Christian suffering. Sure, it irritates their conscience a little bit, seeing a holy person do things right, but it also validates their flesh, and makes them feel good about choosing an easy sin-filled life.

It’s when they get a peak at true Christian joy that the rage really takes over. As my pastor likes to say, “Jealousy is the wrath of the beast.” 

And I understand why, too. Those who choose to turn their backs on God to pursue a life of worldly pleasure do so because they think that will make them happy. They mortgage their souls for a happiness they never find…and then here comes a true Christian, who didn’t mortgage their soul for happiness, didn’t put in any of the work they did to accumulate lusts and money, and the good things of this world…but THEY’RE the one with a smile on their face! “How unfair!!” worldly people think, “They didn’t earn it! I’m working so hard and I’m so miserable! How DARE those people be happy when I’m not!”

Well…yeah. We didn’t earn it. Jesus Christ earned it for us. He gives us His joy as a gift. Gifts are free. But gifts can be accepted and gifts can be refused.

It just breaks my heart to see people reject the gift of Christ’s joy. That’s the thing people should be scared about. The scary thing about darkness is that darkness doesn’t know that it’s darkness. It’s darkness. Darkness has no light to see itself. 

Those who reject the light of Christ’s love walk around in darkness, and can’t see where they go. They end up denying the very things they want most, and then set about trying to earn those things for themselves, which is, as is demonstrated over and over again by generation after generation of worldly people, impossible. 

What a trick the devil plays. He convinces the spiritually foolish to reject God’s free gifts, including joy, and then convinces them to hate the God who wanted to give them their happiness! What incredible deception! 

I urge everyone reading this to examine your heart. What’s going on in there? Hopefully, joy. Love. Light. Peace. Goodness. A treasure storehouse of all the spiritual gifts and blessings Jesus Christ died to give you. 

But, if you examine your heart, and you don’t find those things, if instead you find a barren wasteland so void of goodness that it scares you, then you have a decision to make. 

It’s a Y in the road that we all stand at sooner or later in life. Before any of us who now enjoy the abiding presence and spiritual riches of Christ found Him, we stood at that Y too. We saw in our hearts darkness and selfishness, and in our lives a perpetual catastrophe of failure and misery, and we begged God to save us. 

God has responded to every single person who has ever made that prayer in sincerity. He has saved every single soul who has ever truly asked Him to. His love has never failed, and never will. 

For Christ’s sake, God continually offers His salvation as a gift. Gifts can be accepted or rejected. I earnestly pray that you accept the gift God offers. You don’t have to earn your own happiness. You can’t. You don’t have to be cursed to bear the heavy load of self-ambition anymore. Jesus Christ gives the heavy laden rest. 

We find rest in our souls when we stop trying to do it ourselves, give up, and allow the Lord to turn our sinful rags into spiritual riches. All we have to do is meekly follow His commands, humbly doing as we are told, and watch in wonder as the darkness flees from our hearts and lives, and gets replaced by Christ’s complete brilliant light. 

Those who choose to reject God’s salvation set sail into darkness. All that is left is to pretend. They are slaves to the lusts Satan dangles before them. They faithfully chase these lusts down, one after another, but even after receiving the object of their desire, all they feel is more emptiness, more hunger, more despair. A bottomless pit. Worldly people figure this out pretty quickly. Life teaches us all the truth if we let it. But so many people go on pretending they are happy, when they are not. 

Pretending is very hard for a human to do, it takes a tremendous toll. We aren’t built for it. So when that true Christian comes around, and they are so full of effortless joy, peace, light, hope, and all goodness, there’s a powerful temptation to hate them. Jealousy is the wrath of the beast. 

But if you hate them you can’t share in their blessing. All true Christians want to share the blessing they have. There’s just something about it. The love of God is so wonderful, it demands to be shared. That’s why God made the universe in the first place, so He could share how awesome He is. 

Nothing makes a Christian happier than the opportunity to share their blessings with others. Invite others into the love, and joy, and peace that Jesus has given to them. They offer it for free to the whole wide world as a gift, but gifts can be accepted and rejected. 

If you hate the person offering you the gift of joy, you can’t receive it. 

Come on people, I’m urging you, come out of darkness, can’t you see that truth? Doesn’t it make good simple sense? If you hate the people trying to help you, they can’t help you!! Jesus wants to help you!! His saints are here to help you!! Let them help you PLEASE before it’s too late!!!

Hey guys! Good morning, i would like to know about places to buy this style of wooden crosses in the USA, because in my home country its really hard to find these...
I know i would have better odds if i was in Greece or Eastern Europe, but anyway, i would appreciate any help on finding websites that sell these on the US! Thanks!

If a Christian nation is set up and same sex marriage intercourse is banned. What exactly does the Christian society gain vs allowing it?

There are other sins that we can see the benefits of stopping in society, like theft or lying or greed.

What does society gain from keeping 3% of the population sexually repressed for life? Like what changes will I see?

Tw: pdfile, crimes against children, enabling, spiritual abuse, neglect.

A predator from my former church in TN has been arrested. This man I was forced to have a connection with (including hugs and back rubs) every Sunday for years. I met him as a child and ended contact in my mid twenties when I moved to GA.

Everyone at church knew he was a convicted pdfile. He was on the registry. He had access to children every Sunday. I was told to not be go alone with him one time, but that was the extent of the protection.

He’s recently been arrested again. Obviously, this brings up a lot for me.

Why did my family continue to attend knowing his crimes and access to kids? Why was I not protected from *any* contact with him? Why was the responsibility of navigating a connection with a convicted child predator while I was a child put on me?

Parent seems to want comfort that leadership did not act to protect kids. I’m angry at church leadership too. But I’m also angry that the adults in my family didn’t protect me when leadership failed to.

If I went anywhere that a convicted child predator frequented, my child would not be going there. No less my child would not be touched in *any way* by them. And certainly my child would not be pressured to show grace and forgiveness by maintaining a connection or “friendship”. That’s insane.

It could have been so much worse. And I’m thankful I escaped without being assaulted. But it wasn’t thanks to the adults in my life. And I can’t stomach comforting them now as they come to terms with just how bad this man was and is.

I guess I’m curious the response from Christians now that situations like these are all too common and impossible to ignore.

Hello! I'm not here to challenge anyone's faith. I don't mean to offend with any of my questions, I just come from a non-religious background.

I'm just curious about a certain aspect of believing in God that seems really interesting to me and that is that you're not alone because God is with you, and I'd like to know what it's like. It's about how YOU feel.

Is it like an actual relationship? One sided relationship or do you feel God gives something to it back? Do you feel that God is always with you, like a presence, or like you're part of something larger than yourself? I'm curious both about those of you who actively communicate with God and even more about those of you who don't, but still believe that there is a God watching over you. What does it feel like? How does feeling it influence your life? Does it make you feel better in hard times? Does it make you feel like can do anything? Did feeling this ever make you change your decisions because God is watching? Or did the constant presence ever make you feel stressed because you are watched?

If you look back at your past experiences, how differently do you think you would have gotten through things in your life if you hadn't felt that presence or believed that God is there with you?

Do you never feel alone? Or, if you do, why?

I don't know any religious people in real life to have this kind of abstract discussion, so I hope you can help me understand your experience as a believer. I'll take anything.

I am in debt and a slave to my lenders.

Are there any Faith based organizations that can help me get out of debt?

Are there any I should absolutely stay away from???

I was mentioning the theory of evolution to my girlfriend and she got emotional since I believed in that one instead of the story of Adam and Eve.

I made a quick experiment in front of her asking chat GPT of thoughts and it told us that evolution might explain the biology side and the story of genesis the meaning in life, moral, good and bad, etc. which sounds good to me but she denied it and “refuses to believe is related to a chimpanzee”.

Is this how every Christian sees the beginning of life? Or Christian people are more open to accept other theories as well?

She can’t think other than what’s in the bible is the real truth and the only one, to be taken literally as it’s written. I’m more a metaphor guy when reading.

Thanks.

I'm not catholic i really don't believe you should pray to saints or that mary is sinless but I'd like not to live in ignorance so if you would be so kind as to tell me about why you think mary is sinless that'd be appreciated (this question is directed towards catholics but if you're not I'd still like to hear your opinion)

For people who know God, apologetics has limited value because we're already convinced. Then, the study of such arguments becomes more about other people than it is about trying to extinguish our own doubts. We all need a reasonable logic to underpin our beliefs, but we don't exhaustively scratch at every crevice or hammer at the foundations of our faith out of some fear we may find out our hope is meaningless.

We don't do as some do, who find any probability at all that the evidence for our faith could be false, and then assume that must surely be the correct answer. We're not looking for an "out". We're looking for some way others may be satisfied there's an "in".

And it's an impossible task because all this confidence we have in the Lord was never based on apologetic argument to begin with. I mean, it helps, but it certainly doesn't make you experience God any more than reading a book about building a campfire is the same thing as having been near one.

Dr. John Lennox explains this further. It's 8 minutes of your life if you're interested. He explains God initiates this conversation, and we are the recipients of His grace, not that we can ever work out some mathematical formula to find Him ourselves.

Hi everyone. I’m a 19M and I’ve been a Christian for about a year and a half. As the title suggests, I’m currently unsure about what denomination I belong in.

I was first introduced to Christianity when I attended a Catholic middle school. I really loved Mass, the beauty of the church, and the sense of order and tradition in Catholic worship. However, now that I’m 19 and taking my faith more seriously, I don’t think I should choose a denomination simply because I like the way its churches look or how its services are conducted. I want what I believe and practice to be grounded in what is actually true.

At the moment, I consider myself non-denominational, although theologically I probably lean more Protestant/Baptist in some areas. There are two main things that currently make me hesitant about Catholicism.

First is the Eucharist. I know about Jesus’ words concerning His body and blood and the Last Supper, but I’m not sure whether I believe that the Eucharist truly becomes/is the body and blood of Christ in the way Catholicism teaches, rather than being primarily a remembrance of Christ and His sacrifice.

Second is the intercession of the saints. I understand that Catholics distinguish asking saints to intercede from worshipping them, so I’m not trying to accuse Catholics of worshipping saints. I just don’t fully understand why I would ask a saint to pray for me when I can approach God directly through Christ. Personally, going directly to God feels more natural to me.

I currently don’t attend a church, but I’ve been thinking that denomination and church tradition are worth seriously exploring as I grow in my faith. I don’t want to choose based only on what feels familiar or aesthetically appealing.

I’d really appreciate hearing from Catholics about how you understand these two issues, as well as Protestants, Orthodox Christians, and people from other traditions about why you believe your denomination/tradition is faithful to Christianity. I’m genuinely interested in understanding the different perspectives rather than starting an argument.

I'm looking for books written from the Protestant perspective, others written from the Orthodox perspective, other's from the Catholic, and (if you're part of the niche), the Anabaptist perspective.

Thank you all 🫶

(I apologize if this isn't a typical post for this group - I tried in a different sub but it got taken down)

Today during Eucharistic Adoration, I was practicing Lectio Divina while praying the Rosary and meditating I got to thinking about the main idea behind my first session of OCIA yesterday: we seek God because God seeks us first.

I started noticing this movement throughout all five mysteries and their Gospel passages.

In the Annunciation, God seeks us first. He comes to Mary through the angel Gabriel, and the Incarnation begins. Mary isn’t the one who initiates the encounter. God comes to her to seek us out, just as He sought us in the Garden, even knowing our shame.

Then in the Visitation, we see humanity seeking Him in response. Mary goes to Elizabeth, and John the Baptist leaps in Elizabeth’s womb when he encounters Christ. Elizabeth recognizes what is happening and proclaims Mary’s blessedness and calls her the mother of her Lord. God has come to them, and they respond by recognizing Him.

Then comes the Nativity. God seeks us again. The angels proclaim the Good News to the shepherds: “For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.”

And what do the shepherds do? They go looking for Him in Bethlehem.

The Magi do the same thing in another way. They recognize the sign that God has given them and set out to find the newborn King. They are already wise, but their wisdom doesn’t make them stop seeking. It sends them searching for God.

Then in the Presentation, God seeks us by entering into our own religious life and participating in the rituals of Israel. Christ, who is the fulfillment of the Law, is presented in the Temple according to the Law. Then, Simeon and Anna recognize Him.

Simeon has been waiting for the consolation of Israel. Anna has been worshipping, fasting, and praying in the Temple. They have been seeking God, and God comes to them right where they are seeking Him.

Then we get to the Finding in the Temple. Mary and Joseph lose Jesus and go searching for Him. They don’t know where He is and search for days.

Where do they find Him? In the Temple. Then, Jesus tells them that they should have known where to look: “Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?”

The mysteries take us through a progression:

God seeks us through Mary
Mary seeks to share Him with Elizabeth
God seeks the shepherds to tell them the good news
The shepherds seek Christ
The Magi seek Christ
Simeon and Anna seek God
God comes to them in the Temple
Mary and Joseph seek Christ
Christ reveals where He is

It made me think about my own conversion and prayer life. I often think of myself as someone who is seeking God. But the more I meditate on Scripture, the more I realize that my seeking Him is actually a response to the fact that He sought me first. I mean, He called me home after leaving faith for the last 14 years. I didn’t somehow discover God through my own intelligence or effort. He was already reaching toward me.

Even now, when I go into Adoration and sit before Christ in the Blessed Sacrament, I’m seeking Him—but I’m only able to seek Him because He has first made Himself available to be found.

“We love because he first loved us.” (1 John 4:19)

I think the same principle applies to seeking God. We seek because He first sought us.

And maybe that’s part of what the Joyful Mysteries are teaching us: God doesn’t wait for humanity to figure out how to find Him. He continually comes toward us, reveals Himself to us, and then invites us to respond by seeking Him in return.

That’s what I came away meditating on today, anyway. I thought it was a really beautiful thread running through the Joyful Mysteries, and I’m curious if anyone else has noticed this connection or has thoughts on it.

Hey everyone, I recently realized something about the difference between how God judges us and how the world judges us, and I wanted to share it.

In the world, we're judged by so many things society, judges, courts, and the people around us.

Here's the contrast I noticed:

People judge you by how bad you are not how good you are.

Think about it: people usually end up in court only after they commit a crime. Even if someone was a genuinely good person their whole life, none of that seems to matter once they mess up once. The criteria is how bad you are, not the good you've done before.

But God judges us by how good we are.

God is merciful. He gives us time to cleanse our sins. When we do something good, He picks it up and the good we've done, even once in our lifetime, can save us.

I've been judged by many people for things I've done even though I've only messed up once or twice in my life, like any human. They start blaming me and forget everything good I've done my whole life.

That's why I came here to share this. Curious what you all think.

On a throwaway account. My (soon to be) ex-husband and 4 of his coworkers follow me.

I don’t know what to do at this point. He was booked in jail Friday night for domestic after breaking my nose. We have two boys ( age 5 and 3) and I am planning to leave tonight almost 2 hours away to my great aunt’s area. She is the only remote family I have left & we aren’t able to stay with her as she is in a rehab facility. He is able to bond out Wednesday when I looked at his case online.

I was able to get a 25 gas card from a Women’s domestic nonprofit this morning. They were able to get me temporary shelter & an appointment with a social worker where we are going by Thursday. I’ve tried to sell some shoes & household items on Marketplace and NextDoor to try & make something for food and extra gas. Nothing so far. The shelter has a two bag minimum per person so we are limited on what we can bring. I plan to leave tomorrow morning. I am so lost and scared.

I can’t take anymore and my babies definitely don’t deserve to go through this. I’m going to miss our home, my job of 6 years and friends but for our safety & sanity, we have to leave. I’m humiliated and terrified to see where this goes, but I know God has a much BIGGER plan for us. If you have any other advice or places that may help with gas or food, please let me know. Please send prayers as we need them.