Of all the books there are, the very short Book of James gives us the most good reasons to be Catholic in the fewest pages.
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Question 63: “Does St. James tell Catholics how to be more pleasing to God?”
Answer: “Yes! James 5:12 gives us some good advice. ‘Above all, my brothers, do not swear by heaven or by the earth, or use any oaths at all. If you mean ‘yes’, you must say ‘yes’; if you mean ‘no’, say ‘no’. Otherwise you make yourselves liable to judgement.’”
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Question 64: “Why is that important?”
Answer: “We must not magnify our importance by saying that we are speaking for ‘heaven’ or ‘earth’! We must humbly state our beliefs and try to keep them in line with Every Word of Jesus, including: ‘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.’”
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Question 65: “How else does St. James guide us?”
Answer: “At any time, each of us is either at peace or in ‘trouble’. We are either ‘happy’ or sad. Verses 5:13 tells us: ‘If any one of you is in trouble, he should pray; if anyone is feeling happy, he should sing a psalm.’”
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Question 66: “We are also either healthy or sick! How does St. James tell Catholics to deal with that?”
Answer: 5:14-15 explains: ‘If one of you is ill, he should send for the elders of The Church, and they must anoint him with oil in the name of The Lord and pray over him. The prayer of faith will save the sick man and the Lord will raise him up again;’”
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Question 67: “What if our soul has been made ‘sick’ by sins?”
5:16 of The Book of James tells us what to do! ‘. . and if he has committed any sins, he will be forgiven. So confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another, and this will cure you; the heartfelt prayer of a good man works very powerfully.’”
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Question 68: “Can we ‘confess our sins’ to anyone, or to a Catholic priest?”
Answer: “We should confess our sins to those we have hurt. And, we should take advantage of The Great Gift Jesus gave only to His Catholic priests in John 20:23: ‘Those whose sins you forgive on earth are forgiven in Heaven.’”
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Question 69: “Does The Book of James give us an example of The Power of Prayers to God?”
Answer: “5:17-18 gives this example: ‘Elijah was a human being like ourselves – he prayed hard for it not to rain, and no rain fell for three-and-a-half years; then he prayed again and the sky gave rain and the earth gave crops.’”
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Simple Reasons to be Catholic. https://catholicfundamentalism.com/
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The best book of the last Century is “The Diary of St. Faustina”. It lets each of us realize how much Jesus loves our soul. https://www.saint-faustina.org/diary-full-text/
