Wednesday, December 18, 2019

Galatians-Set Free to Live

Good morning All,

Thank you so much for the gifts you gave me-I am thoroughly enjoying all!

The parish office is now accepting sign-ups for the Galatians bible study which will start in early Feb 2020 and will run for 8 weeks. More info on the study here: https://ascensionpress.com/collections/galatians-set-free-to-live.

I will facilitate the Friday morning sessions-we are limited to 50 participants. There will also be a Thursday evening session.

I wish you and your families a Blessed Christmas,
Krishna Smith
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Monday, November 18, 2019

Prayer request and addendum re: questions

Hello again All,

John (and Mary Kay) Sokop's daughter, Silvia has passed away from Stage 4 cancer. Please pray for all-she has two teenage girls in the Denver area. May Silvia's soul rest in peace.

Also, thank you to Debbie Schaning for this podcast link from Patrick Madrid's Relevant Radio show-it is about the 2nd coming of Christ and is excellent. It's only 5-10 minutes long. Look for minute 39:00 on this podcast: 

Podcast from Relevant Radio: The Patrick Madrid Show: November 12, 2019 – Hour 2
https://relevantradio.com/2019/11/the-patrick-madrid-show-november-12-2019-hour-2/

God bless,
Krishna
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Sunday, November 17, 2019

Galatians Bible Study/Answers to Questions/Thank you!!!

Hello All,

We have our last session of the Revelation bible study this coming Friday. I have found this to be an inspiring study that has personally provided me a great deal of hope! And so timely with the current Mass readings about the last things! You will be able to view Jeff Cavins' lectures on line until 12/31/19. 

If you are interested in our next Friday morning bible study, Galatians: Set Free to Live, another Jeff Cavins study, please put a reminder on your calendar to sign up with Cheryl at the parish office on or soon after December 2, the first Monday of Advent. The Galatians study is 8 sessions beginning Friday February 8, 2020 and is WAY less intense than the Revelation study! We'll focus on the Mosaic Law, justification under the Law vs by faith, etc. Bulletin announcements begin the first weekend of Advent. We will be limited to 50 participants on Friday mornings. I do not know if a second evening session is planned. If you would like to learn more about the study and even preview the first episode, please look at this link: https://ascensionpress.com/collections/galatians-set-free-to-live.

Many interesting  and important questions were raised in Friday's session. This afternoon I read the Catechism sections 988-1065 covering the resurrection of the body, death, the Particular Judgement, Hell, Heaven, Purgatory, the Last Judgement, and the hope of the New Heaven and the New Earth. Please read it! Most of the questions brought up on Friday are answered in these sections-so beautifully written, so comforting, countless scripture references-many from Revelation. You will completely understand it after doing this bible study and you will be able to explain it to others!

Here are some references from the Catholic Answers website that also answer the questions raised:

Particular vs. General Judgement: if a person's soul is in Heaven after their particular judgement, can they be sent to Hell after the General Judgement? The short answer is NO. Longer answer in the CCC and also here: https://www.catholic.com/qa/how-can-there-be-a-general-judgment-and-a-particular-judgment.


Are we saved by grace through faith? or by our righteous deeds? Stay tuned till fall, 2020 when we will study James, also by Jeff Cavins. Here are a few quick references:

Finally, I would like to sincerely thank several people:

Dr. Mary Utzerath-for so graciously facilitating a second small group for the first sessions of the Revelation study! And for providing the delicious baked goods every week!
Joyce Lex-for so graciously facilitating a group in my absence in September!
Mary Jo Gordon and Ann Sarnowski-for so generously making coffee for us!

And to all of you for your inspiring participation! It is very clear to me that the Holy Spirit is present in the room with us-your questions and answers are so inspiring and there is a wonderful feeling of community among us as well. A great blessing.

I wish you a Happy Thanksgiving and a Blessed Advent! If any questions come up at the final session, I'll send a quick email in the next few weeks.

And please pray for the recoveries of Dee Powers and Steve Koehler who recently underwent surgery and for the soul of Dorothy Wiegel, mother of Mary Jo Gordon and grandmother of Ann Sarnowski. May she rest in peace.

God bless,
Krishna Smith

 



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Wednesday, October 30, 2019

Bible Study Questions AND information for you about Catholic Apologetics!

Hello All,

Here is are links containing answers to questions asked during the last two sessions. I realize it is a lot of information, but as you know, all of the emails I send you also go directly onto our bible study blog: stjeromebiblestudy.blogspot.com. 


Will the Jerusalem temple be rebuilt?

What does the Catholic Church teach about the general and particular judgements and the resurrection of the body? (also see CCC 988-1065)

Who is the "Ark of the New Covenant"? I think we covered this last week, but this question was asked 2 sessions ago, so I'd already found this reference.)

Why did the Christians leave Jerusalem before the destruction of the Jerusalem Temple in AD 70?

Last session we had a few brief discussions about the place of devotions/such as the Rosary, the prayer for the intervention of St. Michael the Archangel  in the spiritual life of the  individual Catholic Christian. Other topics that may come up at Friday's session may be the role of faith/works in salvation, Catholic moral teaching on divorce/remarriage, the practice of homosexuality, prayer to saints for their intercession, etc (I watched the lecture!).

I would like to provide some reliable sources for Catholic Apologetics: apologetics specifically means "a reasoned defense or justification" of the teachings of the Catholic Church-knowing why we do what we do, believe what we believe. learning to explain and defend the Catholic faith with confidence and ease".  1 Peter 3:15 calls us to "always be prepared to make a defense to anyone who calls you to account for the hope that is in you, yet do it with gentleness and reverence".

Catholic Apologetics has absolutely exploded over the past 15+ years! There are many good resources that will answer all of your questions about the faith and help you to explain it to others:

1. The Coming Home Network: chnetwork.org. Many excellent resources on this website. One in particular that is my FAVORITE are archived episodes of The Journey Home which I have watched for many years-others have commented that it is one of their favorite shows. https://chnetwork.org/journey-home/. These are 1 hour in-depth interviews of individuals who have converted to Catholicism from a variety of Protestant denominations and other world religions such as Judaism Islam and agnosticism and atheism. All of the Catholic doctrines and dogmas are discussed in great depth and in a very gentle and thoughtful way by Marcus Grodi, a former Presbyterian pastor, who is an outstanding interviewer.

2. Catholic Answers podcasts https://www.catholic.com/audio and  the Catholic Answers website catholic.com which I use to find answers to the questions raised in the Bible Study.

3. Catholic Apologists whose books/articles you may want to "google" and read: Jeff Cavins, Scott Hahn, Tim Staples, Steve Ray (who is speaking at the upcoming Women of Christ Conference)- all of whom were Protestant pastors. Patrick Madrid is another.
Representative books: 





https://www.amazon.com/dp/0964261081/ref=nav_timeline_asin?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1 -there are 3 books in this series of conversion stories.

Anyway, all of the above have been extremely helpful to me in my search for the truth of the Catholic faith, so I thought I'd share them with you as we discuss these common questions in Catholic Apologetics!

See you Friday, God bless!
Krishna Smith





Sent from my iPad

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Tuesday, October 15, 2019

Bible Study Questions

Hello All,

Here are some resources for the questions that have come up in the past couple of weeks:

1. Will the Jewish people be saved? What about other non-Christians?

Thank you to Dr. Mary Utzerath: please refer to CCC 674, Romans 11:25 and Lumen Gentium specifically paragraph 16 http://www.vatican.va/archive/hist_councils/ii_vatican_council/documents/vat-ii_const_19641121_lumen-gentium_en.html. 

2. What about the four living creatures in Revelation 4:7? 

First, I was asked to send you this description from the commentary I have been using to prepare for this study: "Beginning in the late second century AD, Christian writers identified the four creatures in the heavily throne room with the four gospel writers…although first century readers would not have understood the creatures in this way…Matthew's gospel has the human face because it begins with a genealogy that traces Jesus' human origins. Mark is identified with the lion because it beings by calling Jesus the 'son of God', referring to his royal power. Luke is the ox since his gospel begins in the temple where sacrifices were made. John is the eagle, since his soaring introduction of Jesus as the Word of God points to his heavenly origin."

Thank you to Brian Higgins for his further research: "On Friday I asked when did the church assign the four living creatures from Revelation 4:7 to the four gospels.  Your guide said it was the 2nd century which my research concurs.  I then asked how did the oxen get assigned to Luke. One reason I asked this is that in the Jeff Cavin video he talked about the daily custom was to sacrifice two lambs a day at the temple.  Since no clear answer could be given, I agreed to research this myself and provide a report.

All my research concludes that the oxen was assigned to Luke based on Luke 1:9 which describes the priestly duties of Zechariah, father of John the Baptist, in this manner "And it came to pass, when he executed the priestly function in the order of his course before God, according to the custom of the priestly office, it was his lot to offer incense, going into the temple of the Lord." The only conncection between this priestly duty and an oxyn is that incense was used as part of the daily sacrificial offering.  We have to conclude that Zechariah was also involved with preparing the burnt offering, which may have been an oxen, but could have been something else.

Further research lead me to Leviticus 22:19 which says that "a burnt offering, to be accepted you shall offer a male without blemish, of the bulls or the sheep or the goats."  An oxen is a form of a bull so it qualified, and a lamb is a form of a sheep.  Also, in Genesis 22:13, a goat is sacrificed instead of Isaac. 

What I have concluded was that since the gospels had already been written and accepted 100 years before the Catholic church assigned the four symbols, a certain amount of literary license was employed to get the four symbols to fit.  Not just for Luke, but getting a lion to fit Mark relies on Mark 1:4 describing John the Baptist in the wilderness and Mark 1:13 describing Jesus in the desert with wild beasts. Close enough, Mark gets the lion."

3. Why was the tribe of Dan so much worse than the other tribes of Israel that Dan was not included in the list in Revelation 7? I had a difficult time finding a Catholic source for the answer to this question. Here is one: https://www.patheos.com/blogs/christiancrier/2017/02/20/9546/

4. Is suffering offered up to God by any other religion besides Catholicism? https://www.fisheaters.com/offeringitup.html

God bless
Krishna Smith







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Wednesday, October 2, 2019

One Group in Fireside Cafe on 10/4!

Hello All,

A few items: 

1. Due to an expected drop in attendance due to vacations, etc, we are now able to move back into the Fireside Cafe to view Jeff Cavins' lectures and conduct our discussion as a single group beginning this Friday Oct 4. We will no longer meet in the Youth Room unless there is a funeral on a Friday morning-I will inform you via email if that is the case.

2. A question raised in discussion 2 weeks ago related to Revelation 1:5-if Jesus is the "firstborn of the dead", what happened to those who died before? Did everyone go to hell?

Please see the discussions in the links below: 


3. If you are trying to find previous emails I have sent, are looking for the code to watch the lectures on line, etc, I request that you refer to our bible study blog: stjeromebiblestudy.blogspot.com. You can sign up for email alerts whenever I make a new blog post. This will save you (and me) from having to go through our old emails!

Finally, a sincere thank you to Dr. Mary Utzerath who graciously facilitated a second discussion group during this transition! As in previous years, we will now shift to a single discussion group in the Fireside Cafe which has worked well for many years.

See you Friday at 9am!

God bless,
Krishna Smith
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Saturday, September 14, 2019

Revelation Bible Study-PLEASE PRINT/SAVE THIS EMAIL!!!

Hello All,

It was good to see you all on Friday and I look forward to seeing/meeting those who weren't able to attend the first session at a later date!

This email contains details about the Bible Study that we discussed at the first session.

1. Our weekly meetings will start at exactly 9am by viewing the Jeff Cavins lecture in the Youth Room. Please stop by the Fireside Cafe early to grab a cup of coffee generously made by Ann Sarnowski and Mary Jo Gordon. Feel free to chat but be sure to be in the Youth Room by 9am! The 50 minute lectures will be followed by discussion of the questions in the lesson. New this year: Because we have such a large group (nearly 70) and no Thursday evening session-we will split into two groups for discussion. I will facilitate one group and Dr. Mary Utzerath will facilitate the other) We will end promptly at 10:30am.

2. We have 10 more sessions beginning next Friday, September 20 and ending Friday November 22 (the Friday before Thanksgiving). Each week we will cover one session in your books/binders. Next week we will cover Session 1. Your study guides are self-explanatory regarding the Scripture and Catechism readings, discussion questions to be prepared prior to the session, and responses to discussion questions which are helpful for review prior to and after the sessions.

3. Those who have purchased a new book are able to view all of Jeff Cavins' lectures for the Revelation study on line. To access the lectures go to https://study.ascensionpress.com/study/map_search then click on the "Redeem Code" button, enter this code: VFPRWS and you will be able to view the lectures. If you don't already have an account at ascensionpress.com, you will have to create one, free of charge, with a username and password. If you have difficulty getting onto the site/getting the lectures, I would ask you to please call Ascension Press by phone at 1-800-376-0520 and have one of the representatives walk you through the process while you're on your computer.

If you are using a ring binder study set from several years ago, you will not be able to access on line lectures. Ascension Press requires that you purchase a new book which you can do, if desired, on their website. Otherwise, you are most welcome to contact the parish office to view the dvds in the Fireside Cafe at your convenience.

4. All communication regarding the bible study will be done via email.

5. In bad weather, the bible study will be cancelled if St. Jerome School is cancelled. I will do my best to send an email early in the morning, but please check the usual TV stations/websites for school closings. Since we'll end before Thanksgiving, we will probably not run into bad weather but you never know!

6. We have a blog! The address is: http://stjeromebiblestudy.blogspot.com. Please go onto the site and register for emails to be sent to you whenever a blog entry is made. All emails I send to the group will also appear on the blog. important. Please either print this email and keep with your bible study materials or refer to the blog to sign in to watch the lectures.

7. If you are interested in purchasing the Bible Timeline chart or the Great Adventure Bible, please use this link: https://ascensionpress.com/search?type=article%2Cpage%2Cproduct&q=Bible+Timelinej. In addition to a Catholic Bible (either RSV-CE or New American Bible), you will need a copy of the Catechism of the Catholic Church: https://www.amazon.com/Catechism-Catholic-Church-Second-U-S/dp/0385508190. Finally, some have asked about the commentary series I use for preparation of the discussion. It is: https://www.amazon.com/Revelation-Catholic-Commentary-Sacred-Scripture/dp/080103650X/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=Revelation+commentary+peter+williamson%27&qid=1568469784&s=books&sr=1-1


I think that is it for now! See you next Friday. Please email me with any questions: fkdcsmith@wi.rr.com.

Prayers for a wonderful study of Revelation!

God bless, 
Krishna Smith




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