Faith Healers Again

Yesterday I stopped in at a Publix to pick up a few canned goods, and I made use of the electric cart.  So of course as I can't find the strength to lift some of that cans to the conveyor belt, the topic of cancer comes up.

I nice Protestant lady insisted on 'praying over me' as she helped me load my car.

It's the same old thing, people are always looking for that extraordinary evidence of God, and want to think their prayers will somehow provide a miracle cure.

It occurs to me that as  traditional Catholic who affirms extra ecclesium nulla salus, that I missed an opportunity here.

The next time I get a sentimental Protestant who needs to pray over me, I should return the favor, but this is what I intend to say next time:

In John chapter six, Our blessed Lord told his disciples that unless they eat the flesh of the Son of Man and Drink his blood, they would have no life in them.  Many of Jesus's disciples could not stomach this saying, and did no understand it.  They left him. However, the apostles remained, and Jesus asked if they would also leave him. To which they responded, "Lord to whom shall we go? Your words are full of everlasting life." 

These apostles who remained, were later at the Last Supper, and did eat this bread, and they became the true church established by Christ on the rock of Peter.

I pray for my friend here N.N., that he may one day come to know the only true faith that can provide this Bread of Life our Lord requires us to eat, and that my friend may be saved by this true faith and accept the Bread of Life.

Who knows if that will ever take on someone, but I do firmly believe that all Non-Catholic 'Christian' faiths are deceptions of the Devil, and will only lead to ruin in the end, because they are not the Church that Jesus established and made Peter the head.

Yes the Roman Catholic Church has many distinctive qualities that non-Catholics can argue against ad nauseam.  But if we focus on just the one thing, the Blessed Sacrament, and all the biblical evidence to support that the Catholics got it right - I think there would be more conversions.

Many times I've had very long winded debates with well meaning Protestants, but I've come to the conclusion that if we can't get them to the conclusion to agree on the Blessed Sacrament and transubstantiation as we teach it, all is lost anyway.

So much is tied to it, for example, if we profess there's only one place that has the pedigree to consecrate the Blessed Sacrament , well that certainly speaks to apostolic succession and who truly possesses it.

And then of course it also leads to the Sacrament of Reconciliation - because you shouldn't be receiving the Blessed Sacrament unless you are properly prepared.

Then there's the favored Protestant phrase, "Have you let Jesus into your heart?"  To which a Catholic can say, "not only my heart, but my mouth, my stomach and my whole body."

If you do desire to make Catholics out of Protestants, then you should just focus on the Blessed Sacrament, if they assent to that, EVERYTHING else will fall into place. And if they can't assent to it, nothing else will matter anyway.