Founding of Christendom: Persecution Returns - The Trials of St. Cyprian -- post 24

St. Cyprian

Emperor Decius, was the emperor of the Roman Empire from 249 to 251 AD–not a long reign. But he did a lot of damage and something new. He launched an empire-wide persecution of the Church. Not since Nero was there such a universal persecution, before this, it was usually just local and sporadic. Nero outlawed Christianity and the law stayed on the books, but was only enforced when politically convenient, usually by regional authorities 

During his reign, Decius attempted to revitalize the Roman Empire, in January 250, which led to persecution, because he blamed the slow decline of the empire on Christians.  He began by killing Pope Fabian, and other bishops. In the past, Nero and Domitian had killed popes, but it was more by chance, than by design.

Amazing World: St. Charbel's miracle in Phoenix

I recently saw a post on FB mocking Christian miracles.

I believe miracles happen, but some "Christians" make it into a superstition or a business. They DEMAND a healing from God. Magic is when one claims power over the world according to one's own will, not God's.

Why does God allow bad things to happen ? I don't know.

But when we pray we ASK not demand a miracle. Prayer is always submissive to God's will. That is not to say that one can not keep praying, but it is pleading and asking not demanding. Jesus even said to persevere in asking.

Luke 18:1 : "Then Jesus told them a parable about their need to pray at all times and not lose heart"

Here is an example of a miracle below. A woman was healed from being blind here in Phoenix, about 5 years ago.

There are millions of miracles all over the world. But in the Catholic Church it needs to be documented to classified a miracle.
Meaning -- if it is an illness, the illness needs to be well documented by medical science, and it needs to be documented as an unexplainable healing, again by scientific  investigation.
 

Apologetics: Mary and the Protestant Pulpit

On the Journey with Matt and Ken and Kenny, Episode 99:

Matt Swaim and former Baptist pastor Ken Hensley are joined by Kenny Burchard, a former Foursquare Church pastor, to begin a series discussing what led each of them to embrace Catholic teaching on Mary.

Ken and Kenny share how they used to preach about Mary as Protestant pastors, why they used to think about her as unimportant, and what it was that began to open their hearts to start thinking of Mary as more than just a background character in the Bible.

Amazing World: St. Charbel: The Saint with the Most Miracles Ever?

 Fr. Chris Alar explains the incredible life, miracles, and incorruptibility of St. Charbel (or Sharbel) Makhlouf of the Maronite Rite in Lebanon. His feast day is July 24.

Since 1950, the year the monastery began to formally record the miraculous healings, they have archived more than 29,000 miracles, Matar said. Prior to 1950, miracles were verified only through the witness of a priest. Now, with more advanced medical technology available, alleged miracles require medical documents demonstrating the person's initial illness and later, their unexplainable good health.

Amazing World: Relics of Saint Anne-- Mother of the Virgin Mary

 

Bad Popes --reply by Scot Hahn.

 

God, UFOs, and The Physics of Star Wars with Hugh Ross

Astrophysicist Hugh Ross, the founder of Reasons To Believe, talks to The Babylon Bee about extraterrestrial alien life, UFOs, and the reasons from science to believe in the God of the Bible. They also talk about how faster than light travel would completely kill you dead.

Founding of Christendom: Calm Before the Storm: Origen of Alexandria -- Post 23

Origen the Theologian

Pope Fabian reigned from 236 AD to 250 AD  as captain of the Bark of Peter, while a relative calm descend on the Church.  He tended to the  Church with a missionary spirit,  appointing 7 missionary bishops to go throughout France, bringing them the Good News. Most of them were martyred, however not by Rome this time, but by pagan barbarians.

Origen of Alexandria. (185 AD –  253 AD) became famous for a debate he had with a pagan philosopher, at this time. Christianity had grown to the point that pagan philosophers felt the need to address this movement.

Origen is still considered to be one of the greatest Bible scholars of all time. He was a teacher at, The Catechetical School of Alexandria, which was the oldest catechetical school in the world. It functioned similarly to a college of today.   St. Jerome records that The Catechetical School of Alexandria was founded by St. Mark – the writer of the second Gospel.

Under the leadership of the scholar Pantaenus, the school of Alexandria became an important institution of religious learning, where students were taught by scholars such as Athenagoras, Clement of Alexandria , Didymus, and the great Origen, who was considered the father of theology, and  a leader in the field of commentary and comparative Biblical studies. Many scholars visited the school of Alexandria to exchange ideas and to communicate directly with its scholars.

10 shocking things I've learned as a pharmacist

drugtopics.com

The culture shock between pharmacy school and the real world is mind-boggling.

I assumed that pharmacy school would largely reflect the real world. How wrong I was! The culture shock between pharmacy school and the real world is mind-boggling.
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Dennis Miller, RPhStudents graduate with egos that professors have built to stratospheric levels and with a belief that they are God’s gift to our healthcare system. Then, in the real world, they are immediately confronted with the realization that the only thing that matters is how fast they fill prescriptions.

What about you? Did you graduate from pharmacy school with noble ideas about promoting health? Did you find yourself becoming more skeptical, the more you experienced the real world?

Here’s my list of what shocked me the most. What would yours look like? (This is not a rhetorical question. Please write and tell me.)
Pills rather than prevention

1. I was shocked to see that our healthcare system prefers to throw pills at people with elevated blood pressure, elevated blood sugar (type 2 diabetes), elevated cholesterol, and other diseases of modern civilization rather than aggressively focus on a diet of whole, nonprocessed foods, lifestyle change, and weight loss.

The Merck Manual (16th edition, p. 984) says that most cases of hypertension and type 2 diabetes are preventable: “Thus weight reduction will lower the BP [blood pressure] of most hypertensives, often to normal levels, and will allow 75% of type 2 diabetics to discontinue medication.” Ninety percent of diabetics have diagnoses that fall under the heading of type 2.