A Couple of Questions

Dear Group,

1) what is "Ordinary Time?" (as in the twelth week in Ordinary Time)

2) Also, in todays Gospel Reading, I am wondering if Christ is refering to Protestant Christian groups or so called "Cult" ministries (i.e. Mormons, Jehovah's Witnesses, etc.)

Ordinary time is that which is not Advent/Christmas nor Lent and the Easter season, which goes for a few weeks after Easter Sunday until Pentacost. It simply is the time of the liturgical year where there is no distinctive liturgical season.

For your second question, I think that we don't truly know who He was talking about specifically. I suspect there have been false prophets thoughout the centuries both from inside the Church and from outside the Church.
Since we don't know what is in anyone's heart, we don't really know who is a false prophet and who is simply misguided.

BillC wrote:Ordinary time is that which is not Advent/Christmas nor Lent and the Easter season, which goes for a few weeks after Easter Sunday until Pentacost. It simply is the time of the liturgical year where there is no distinctive liturgical season.

For your second question, I think that we don't truly know who He was talking about specifically. I suspect there have been false prophets thoughout the centuries both from inside the Church and from outside the Church.
Since we don't know what is in anyone's heart, we don't really know who is a false prophet and who is simply misguided.

OK let's see if I can approach this from another direction: We know that there are some bad sects in the Christian Religion, and we also know that there are bad religions like atheism, buhdist, and other "New Thought" religions. Some of these religions are wolves with sheep clothing.

Now, when I was first looking into Catholisim, I was told to stay clear from Protestant ministries because they teach truths from the Bible and not nesassarily the "fullness of Truth."
I guess what I am wondering is if the Protestants will be with us in Heaven while those that are in the New Thought movement and other false sects are in the group of individuals that Christ was speakingh about in the reading.

I think we need to be very careful about labeling an entire group as not being heaven bound. God judges each individual heart. I think we'll be surprised to find people of non-Christian religions in heaven... However, I do believe this passage applies to all those who knowingly (and maybe even unknowingly) teach a false gospel. This will include some Protestant denominations, other faiths and even Catholics who break from the fullness of truth and teach their own false ideas.

Amber wrote:I think we need to be very careful about labeling an entire group as not being heaven bound. God judges each individual heart. I think we'll be surprised to find people of non-Christian religions in heaven... However, I do believe this passage applies to all those who knowingly (and maybe even unknowingly) teach a false gospel. This will include some Protestant denominations, other faiths and even Catholics who break from the fullness of truth and teach their own false ideas.

Hi Amber,

I hear you on all counts there, I guess my concerns are reflective on the idea of wheater we as Catholics should pay attention to P:rotestant ministries. My Spiritual Director says looking in on these other Christian channels ia ok as long as it feeds our spirit. I personally have tried to watch some of these since my conversion, and have comer to the conclusion that EWTN is by far the best of all the Christain TV networks.

I might have to disagree with your Spiritual Director here. Sometimes we believe something is feeding our spirit when it could, in fact, be leading us in the wrong direction. One must be very strong and knowledgeable in the faith before considering Protestant channels and/or activities.

For example, I've heard several accounts of parents who allow their teens to become a part of a Protestant youth group, only to find later that their teens no longer want to be Catholic because the youth group has proselytized them and they didn't know their faith well enough to defend against it. The Protestant arguments against Catholicism often sound "correct" to poorly catechized Catholics.

Similarly, there are Catholic adults who are invited to Protestant Bible studies. They attend thinking, "Hey, they're Christian (which is true, of course) so how bad can it be? I'm sure we'll just have a few differences, but I'll take the good and leave the bad." Do they get some spiritual food out of it? Sure! But it also opens up the door for the Catholic's faith to be questioned, causing doubt... and if they don't know their faith, they will often find themselves unable to defend it and leave the Church.

I was attending a Bible study in the midst of my conversion and I can tell you that the most anti-Catholic people in the study were the former Catholics who had been taken out of the Church because of these exact types of scenarios. But they, even growing up in the Church, held all the most common misconceptions and refused to listen to my explanations of what the Church ACTUALLY teaches.

In fact, I run into entirely too many former Catholics who have been, in my opinion, deceived out of the Church with good intentions, but deceived nonetheless. I would highly discourage the watching of Protestant programs and attendance of Protestant events unless one deeply understands the Catholic faith. I would completely disagree with this statement if non-Catholic Christians didn't work so hard at getting Catholics OUT of the Church... I know how rough those anti-Catholics can be to a Catholic in a study... I once was one myself.

I would have to agree with you that EWTN is by far the best of all Christian TV networks!