I will be gone today, so I wanted to post one meditation before I go for my readers. This is from the Diary of St. Faustina."During Holy Mass, I was so enveloped in the great interior fire of God's love and the desire to save souls that I do not know how to express it. I feel I am all aflame. I shall fight all evil with the weapon of mercy. I am being burned up by the desire to save souls. I traverse the world's length and breadth and venture as far as its ultimate limits and its wildest lands to save souls. I do this through prayer and sacrifice. I want every soul to glorify the mercy of God, for each one experiences the effects of that mercy on himself. The Saints in heaven worship the mercy of the Lord. I want to worship it even now, here on earth, and to spread devotion to it in the way that God demands of me....(745)
"The mercy of the Lord is praised by the holy souls in heaven who have themselves experienced that infinite mercy. What these souls do in heaven, I already will begin to do here on earth. I will praise God for His infinite goodness, and I will strive to bring other souls to know and glorify the inexpressible and incomprehensible mercy of God" (753).
Read more from the Diary of St. Faustina
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Hello, this is katharine again. I pray you are well! I have some more questions and thoughts for you. I have never understood the exact nature about why Catholics pray to Saints. I totally understand the concept of sainthood, but why pray to them? Do you believe that every born again believer in Jesus is now considered a Saint? What qualifies a person to be a saint? Can you pray to other believers ? Thanks for answering all my questions! I appreciate it! Oh one more question. In your beliefs, what must a person for salvation? Meaning, is it s matter of "accepting Jesus as your Savior"? Or something more?
Hello, Sarah.
For Salvation, it is more than just saying "I accept Jesus as my Savior". We must actually live a Christian life. We need to be compassionate towards others, follow the Commandments, etc. Just saying "I accept Jesus" is not enough.
In essence, we believe faith and good works (meaning living a Christian life) are both needed. Protestants say only faith is needed. Catholics believe we are saved by Grace Alone. "Grace" is defined as God's freely given friendship. We can lose sanctifying grace in our life-time by committing a mortal sin. For us to commit a mortal sin, three conditions must apply: It must be serious matter (against one of the Commandments), The individual must know it's wrong when he/she does it, and the individual must have full control of will (ex. he/she is not dreaming or forced to do it)
Please see this article of mine under "Are we saved by faith-alone" for a much more indepth look at this:
http://www.freewebs.com/acatholiclife/faithalonecoredemptrix.htm
Also, we believe that non-Christians may be saved. For example, what about children in Africa that have never heard of Jesus or will never before they die? They will be judged on how they lived their lives. God is mercy and He will not condemn them because they had never heard the Gospel.
Do you believe that every born again believer in Jesus is now considered a Saint?
A saint is someone that is in Heaven. Even those of us that believe and follow Our Lord can lose our salvation by committing a mortal sin. We are in full communion with the saints in Heaven, so we know they hear our prayers and can pray for us.
I'm sorry I don't have a lot of time today, but I will refer you to an article of mine that will explain much more.
http://www.freewebs.com/acatholiclife/saints.htm
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