Wow! Today’s Reading is a “Hidden Prophecy” that shows how far Catholics have come! In Acts 4:32-37, “The community of believers was of one heart and mind, and no one claimed that any of his possessions was his own, but they held everything in common.”
“Communal Living” only works when leaders take Holy Vows of Poverty, Chastity, and Obedience that put “loving God and our neighbors as ourselves” ahead of personal desires.
That was a requirement of Communities formed by The Only Church Spoken Into Being by The Church-Creating Word of Jesus to His First Catholic Pope: “And I say unto you thou art Peter and on this rock I build My Church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. I give you the keys to The Kingdom of Heaven.”
Between 500 and 1,500 AD, Catholic Communities took form in monasteries and convents across Christendom. They owned one-third of the land in England. Families were given homes and jobs in factories, workshops, farms, inns, hospitals, forests, mills, and mines. Priests and religious occupied tiny “cells” where they could pray when they were not working.
Today’s Reading is also a “Hidden Prophecy” of every evil group on earth. Vicious leaders with “two hearts and minds” would use being “communal” as an excuse to kill and enslave their neighbors while using terrorist groups to enrich themselves.
History is a record of how Donatists, Goths, Arians, Episcopalians, Lutherans, Communists, Muslims, and other groups of “two hearts and minds” would seize Catholic lands and property. They would give it to those who followed their Marketing Plans into slavery and self-destruction.
In every age, greedy people attack Catholics for the same reason: “I want to kill you and take your property!” They take Catholic land and keep people from Catholic Sacraments and Teaching. Incoming waves of looters destroy shrinking populations of people lost in the confusion of Protestantism.
Today, computers and cell phones allow people to dispense with many structures. The Catholic Call to Holiness is followed without the burdens of as many possessions as were once necessary.
Between Masses, guidance from our Catholic priests and religious now comes through broadcasting and the internet. What a blessing to be Catholic and be more invisible to oppressers and looters.
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Today’s Simple Rhyme: “Catholics who pray / have ways to stay / Catholic today!”
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