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Tribulation Times

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READ THE BIBLE IN ONE YEAR: http://www.oneyearbibleonline.com/january.asp?version=63&startmmdd=0101

February 2, 2012 

(Act 5:27-29) And when they had brought them, they set them before the council. And the high priest asked them, Saying: Commanding, we commanded you that you should not teach in this name. And behold, you have filled Jerusalem with your doctrine: and you have a mind to bring the blood of this man upon us. But Peter and the apostles answering, said: We ought to obey God rather than men.

EXCERPT COMMENTARY: The Jesus mandate vs. Obama’s mandate by William E. Lori, Bishop of Bridgeport, Conn

Recently the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services issued a mandate: Virtually all employers, including Catholic schools, hospitals and social service agencies, must buy coverage for sterilization and contraceptives, including drugs that can induce an abortion, for their employees. Catholics and other people of faith are required to comply although in doing so they must violate their teaching and their conscience. If they do not comply, they face stiff financial penalties that will gravely impact their ability to fulfill the mission of service entrusted to them.

Yes, there is an exception to the HHS mandate. But for religious institutions to claim this exception, they must serve primarily members of their own church, synagogue or mosque, and so choose not to feed or clothe, heal or educate practically anyone of another faith or creed.   

A long time ago, the Catholic Church received a mandate from a higher authority: “Go out to all the world and spread the Good News.”  It is the mandate of Jesus Christ: “This is my command: Love one another.”

When people in need walk into a Catholic institution we serve them.  We serve our neighbor based on need, not creed. The HHS mandate would reverse that, telling us we must serve based on creed not need for the government to consider us an organization deserving religious liberty. Here the HHS mandate steps on, indeed tramples, the mandate of Jesus Christ.

The effect the HHS mandate will have on our neighbors and on society is alarming. In short, the administration is dictating that Catholic institutions and individual employers violate what America has always considered inviolable—their religious liberty and freedom of conscience.

LETTERS BY BISHOPS READ ALOUD AT MASS THIS PAST SUNDAY

Diocese of Lincoln: http://www.dioceseoflincoln.org/Documents/PDFs/BishopLetter_Jan29_2012.pdf

Diocese of Harrisburg: http://www.hbgdiocese.org/Admin/Uploads/Bishop/Bishop%20McFadden/Documents/Letters/Letter%20to%20Parishes%20on%20HHS%20decision%20January%202012%20(2).pdf

COMMENTARY BY ARCHBISHOP DOLAN: Obama Administration ‘Treats Pregnancy As Disease’

NATIONAL REVIEW ONLINE: Free Birth Control vs. Freedom of Religion

BIBLICAL STUDY:  Act 5:29 But Peter and the apostles answered, “We must obey God rather than men.

The first thing that we should notice is that God Demands First Place.  The apostles were going to be obedient to God instead of to man when there was a conflict between the laws of God and the laws of man.  God demands that man love him with all his heart, soul, mind and strength.  When Jesus was asked which is the greatest commandment in the law, he replied that man is to love God with his whole being (Luke 10:27).  This kind of love will lead man to obey God even though the law of the land demands contrary action.  This was a lesson that the apostles were learning well.  They refused to yield to the pressures from the society they lived in to compromise the Word of God.

The second thing we need to see is that God Deserves First Place.  It is not an unreasonable thing that God should demand first place in our hearts and lives because he deserves that place.  He deserves that place because he gave us life, and breath, and all things (Acts 17:25).  He preserves our lives “in Him we live and move and exist” (Acts 17:28).  He gave his Son to die for us to save us from hell (John 3:16-18).  Since He has given us all, He deserves first place in everything.

But there is another concept that we should see here.  God deserves our first love and obedience because he is over all governments.  No government has a right to demand the first love and loyalty of a citizen, what that government is itself in subject to God (Romans 13:1-6).  Even governments are subject to God (Daniel 4:28-37).  If a government demands our first loyalty it denies it subjection to God and sets itself in the place of God.

Thoughts and Sayings of Saint Margaret Mary: Various Subjects

15. What are the joys of life where nothing is lasting? They pass like a dream, and I cannot understand how a heart which loves God and which seeks Him can take any pleasure save in Him alone.

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This month's archive can be found at: http://www.catholicprophecy.info/news2.html.