Question 1: “Why was St. Stephen the first of the Catholic Bishops Ordained by Jesus to be killed by those who hated to hear about Him?”
Answer: “Acts 7:51-8:1 tells us how much some Willful Protestants hated to hear their vanity described and rejected! ‘Stephen said to the people, the elders, and the scribes: ‘You stiff-necked people, uncircumcised in heart and ears, you always oppose the Holy Spirit; you are just like your ancestors.’”
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Question 2: “How were they ‘like their ancestors’?”
Answer: “St. Stephen answered with a Simple Question: ‘Which of the prophets did your ancestors not persecute?’”
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Question 3: “What did The First Catholic Martyr do next?”
Answer: “He reminded them of what earlier Willful Protestants had done: ‘They put to death those who foretold the coming of The Righteous One, whose betrayers and murderers you have now become.‘ Then, he reminded them of The Simple Truth: ‘You received the law as transmitted by angels, but you did not observe it.’”
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Question 4: “What did the angry mob of Willful Protestants do?”
Answer: “‘When they heard this, they were infuriated, and they ground their teeth at him.’”
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Question 5: “What did The First Catholic Martyr do?”
Answer: “He stopped arguing with them! ‘But Stephen, filled with the Holy Spirit, looked up intently to Heaven and saw The Glory of God and Jesus standing at the right hand of God, and Stephen said, ‘Behold, I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.’”
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Question 6: “What did those Willful Protestants do when they saw St. Stephen’s ‘Act of The Apostles’ coming to an end?”
Answer: “‘But they cried out in a loud voice, covered their ears, and rushed upon him together. They threw him out of the city, and began to stone him.’”
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Question 7: “What did another Willful Protestant do?”
Answer: “‘They laid down their cloaks at the feet of a young man named Saul’ who approved what they were doing.”
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Question 8: “What did St. Stephen do as he died in agony?”
Answer: “He asked God for two favors! 1. ‘As they were stoning Stephen, he called out, ‘Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.’ 2. Then he fell to his knees and cried out in a loud voice, ‘Lord, do not hold this sin against them.’; and when he said this, he fell asleep. Now Saul (who was proud to be a Willful Protestant) was consenting to his execution.’”
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Question 9: “Do The Psalms in Today’s Catholic Reading help us understand?”
Answer: “The Readings from Psalm 31:3-8, 17 & 21 include: ‘Be my rock of refuge,
a stronghold to give me safety — Into your hands I commend my spirit; you will redeem me, O Lord, O faithful God. — My trust is in The Lord; I will rejoice and be glad of your mercy. — Let your face shine upon your servant; save me in your kindness. You hide them in the shelter of your presence from the plottings of men.’ At every Psalm, we make the same response that St. Stephen made: ‘Into your hands, O Lord, I commend my spirit.’
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Question 10: “Where do St. Stephen’s death and the Psalms lead Catholics?”
Answer: “They lead us to The Incredible Catholic Miracle that no Willful Protestant wants to understand! John 6:35: ‘Then Jesus declared, ‘I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to Me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in Me will never be thirsty.’”
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Question 11: “How are we supposed to connect That Word of Jesus with St. Stephen’s painful death”
Answer: “Catholics realize that we are a ‘different species’ of people. Atoms in our DNA, or the positive and negative neurons in our soul, have been changed by receiving The Body and Blood of Jesus Christ in Catholic Communion! John 6:30-35:
‘The crowd said to Jesus: ‘What sign can You do, that we may see and believe in You?
What can You do? Our ancestors ate manna in the desert, as it is written: ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.'”
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Question 11: “Did Jesus come to earth to give Catholics that ‘life-giving bread’?”
Answer: “‘So Jesus said to them, ‘Amen, amen, I say to you, it was not Moses who gave the bread from heaven; My Father gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is that which comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.’”
‘So they said to Jesus, ‘Sir, give us this bread always. ‘Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to Me will never hunger, and whoever believes in Me will never thirst.’”
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Catholics are given our ‘life’ on earth by obeying The Call to Catholic Communion that Jesus repeated 12 times in the last half of John 6 and 2 more times at The Last Supper: ‘If you do not eat My Body and drink My Blood you do not have life in you.’”
Jesus gave His Life to Speak One Church Into Being that could provide That Holy Food by The Miracle of Transubstantiation at the hands of Catholic priests in The Only Church He gave His Life to Speak Into Being with His Church-Creating Word:
“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.”
May every Willful Protestant mind be blessed to Think Clearly enough to realize: “St. Stephen did not die from being “stoned”. He had received Catholic Communion and had “life in him”!
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