You've got to be centered on Christ. It's a work of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit forms Jesus within us. No cross? No crown. No pain? No gain. No way around it - if there was a shortcut, I'd know it and I'd tell ya.
You need to know your faith. You cannot give what you do not have.
In the end, forever, you and I will be in Heaven or Hell. Period.
God has placed clear limits on Man’s intelligence, but none on his stupidity.
The older I get, the more I feel like an exile, that I don't belong here. And I don't. I was made for heaven, and my heart is longing for it.
There are people who say, 'Oh every time Catholics make the sign of the cross they re-crucify Christ.' Look, that's what comes under the theological classification of happy horse manure! That's bologna, absolute bologna! They don't know anything about our religion, and I don't purport to know anything about theirs. I respect theirs, respect ours. When we make the sign of the cross, we are simply making a statement of faith. I believe in the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, and I believe in the sign of the cross, because that is the sign of our salvation!
More than once I've had discussions with persons who say things based on a misunderstanding. 'Oh you Catholics worship images.' No we don't, 'yes you do,' no we don't, 'yes you do,' no we don't! The final retort to that is: I have a doctorate in Catholic theology that I have earned the hard way - by sitting in university classrooms for twelve years. I know what we believe! You get a doctorate in Catholic theology? What do you know about it? Nothing! You don't know anything about it. You're saying things that are born of misunderstanding or ignorance.
