Defenders of the Faith Part I
By Bob Lord and Penny Lord
()
About this ebook
Biographies of these Saints:
Saint Philip Neri
Saint Francis de Sales
Saint Jane Frances de Chantal
Saint Vincent de Paul
Coincidence; Holy Coincidence; or Holy Design that two Saints of the Counter-Reformation were born in the same year (1515) that Martin Luther began to espouse his theory on Justification through Faith alone and his criticism of Papal Indulgences which would culminate with the nailing of his controversial ninety-five theses on the doors of the Wittenburg Castle, two years later? As one of God’s disciples is tripping and falling, God is sending down two disciples, one in Spain-Teresa of Avila and one in Italy-Philip Neri, to defend the Faith and counteract the misery which followed from this one act.
Bob Lord
Bob and Penny Lord renowned Catholic Authors and hosts on EWTN. They are best known for their media on Miracles of the Eucharist and Many Faces of Mary. They have been dubbed experts on the Catholic Saints. They produced over 200 television programs for EWTN global television network and wrote over 25 books and hundreds of ebooks.
Read more from Bob Lord
The Many Faces of Mary a love story Book I Part I Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Many Faces of Mary Book II Part III Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSt. Catherine Laboure and the Miraculous Medal Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsConfession Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Franciscans Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Many Faces of Mary Book II Part I Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Saints Francis de Sales and Jane Frances de Chantal Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSaints Maligned Misunderstood and Mistreated Part I Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Saints and Other Powerful Men in the Church Part III Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Related to Defenders of the Faith Part I
Related ebooks
Saint Frances (Mother) Cabrini Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Saint Paul Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSaint Catherine of Genoa Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsPope Pius VII Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSaint Vincent de Paul Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSaint Philomena Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Infant of Prague Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSaint Angela Merici Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsBlessed Anna Maria Taigi Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSaint Philip Neri Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Saint John of the Cross Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSaint Faustina & Divine Mercy Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Saint Leopold Mandic Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSaint Benedict Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Saint John Bosco Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsPope Gregory the Great Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSaint Joseph of Cupertino Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsVisions of the Saints Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsOur Lady of Lourdes Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsPope Pius XII Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsArchbishop Fulton J. Sheen Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Divine Mercy Message and Messenger Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Saints and Other Powerful Men in the Church Part I Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSaint Clare of Montefalco Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsJourney to Sainthood Part II Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe English Martyrs Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSaint Veronica Giuliani Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Luminous Mysteries Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Who are the Angels? Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Christianity For You
The 5 Love Languages: The Secret to Love that Lasts Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Mere Christianity Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Winning the War in Your Mind: Change Your Thinking, Change Your Life Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Good Girl's Guide to Great Sex: Creating a Marriage That's Both Holy and Hot Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Book of Enoch Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Purpose Driven Life: What on Earth Am I Here For? Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Your Brain's Not Broken: Strategies for Navigating Your Emotions and Life with ADHD Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Bible Recap: A One-Year Guide to Reading and Understanding the Entire Bible Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Don't Give the Enemy a Seat at Your Table: It's Time to Win the Battle of Your Mind... Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Reflections on the Psalms Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Screwtape Letters Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership: Follow Them and People Will Follow You Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Boundaries Updated and Expanded Edition: When to Say Yes, How to Say No To Take Control of Your Life Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Imagine Heaven: Near-Death Experiences, God's Promises, and the Exhilarating Future That Awaits You Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Uninvited: Living Loved When You Feel Less Than, Left Out, and Lonely Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Girl, Wash Your Face: Stop Believing the Lies About Who You Are so You Can Become Who You Were Meant to Be Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Wild at Heart Expanded Edition: Discovering the Secret of a Man's Soul Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Winning the War in Your Mind Workbook: Change Your Thinking, Change Your Life Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Story: The Bible as One Continuing Story of God and His People Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Decluttering at the Speed of Life: Winning Your Never-Ending Battle with Stuff Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Boundaries Workbook: When to Say Yes, How to Say No to Take Control of Your Life Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Present Over Perfect: Leaving Behind Frantic for a Simpler, More Soulful Way of Living Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Anxious for Nothing: Finding Calm in a Chaotic World Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Law of Connection: Lesson 10 from The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5I'll Start Again Monday: Break the Cycle of Unhealthy Eating Habits with Lasting Spiritual Satisfaction Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Everybody, Always: Becoming Love in a World Full of Setbacks and Difficult People Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5How to Lead When You're Not in Charge: Leveraging Influence When You Lack Authority Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Reviews for Defenders of the Faith Part I
0 ratings0 reviews
Book preview
Defenders of the Faith Part I - Bob Lord
Defenders of the Faith Part I
Bob and Penny Lord
Published by Bob and Penny Lord at Smashwords
Copyright 2011 Bob and Penny Lord
Discover other titles by Bob and Penny Lord at http://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/bobandpennylord
This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you are reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of the author.
All rights reserved. No part of this ebook may be reproduced or transmitted by any means without permission in writing.
Defenders of the Faith Part I
Table of Contents
Saint Philip Neri
Saint Francis de Sales
Saint Jane Frances de Chantal
Saint Vincent de Paul
Saint Philip Neri
Apostle of the Laity
Coincidence; Holy Coincidence; or Holy Design that two Saints of the Counter-Reformation were born in the same year (1515) that Martin Luther began to espouse his theory on Justification through Faith alone and his criticism of Papal Indulgences which would culminate with the nailing of his controversial ninety-five theses on the doors of the Wittenburg Castle, two years later? As one of God’s disciples is tripping and falling, God is sending down two disciples, one in Spain-Teresa of Avila and one in Italy-Philip Neri, to defend the Faith and counteract the misery which followed from this one act.
The Lord made a promise and He will not allow hell to prevail against His Church! During this dark period in the Church, Jesus had all sorts of future Saints balancing the scales; from Spain: Ignatius of Loyola, Teresa of Avila, John of the Cross; from Italy: Charles Borromeo, Philip Neri, Pius V, Robert Bellarmine, Catherine dei Ricci; from France: Vincent de Paul, Francis de Sales and Jane Frances de Chantal; from England: Thomas More and John Fisher. The Role Call of Defenders of the Faith goes on, with us just mentioning a few.
In the Garden of Eden, although God was sorrowful because the enemy had seduced his first human creatures, He immediately set a plan in motion for our Salvation, using His Son as the Spotless Lamb Who would redeem the world and a Spotless Vessel from which He would come into the world, our Mother Mary. The enemy, angry that God would send His Only Son to suffer and die for the very humans who would crucify Him, began unleashing his anger and hatred.
For two thousand years, the enemy has been doing everything in his power to destroy the Church. And God has always raised powerful men and women, Defenders of the Faith to counterbalance the enemy, or as in this period bring about a Counter-Reformation. In Europe, 6,000,000 Catholics were lost, as they were led, innocent lambs into a strange pasture; no more would they say the ancient prayers of their ancestors, attend the Sacrifice of the Mass or receive the Seven Sacraments. They didn’t know they had been deceived into leaving their Church, until it was too late.
God, always true to His promise, balanced the books! He sent His Mother to the New World and the Church gained in less than seven years, 8,000,000 converts to the Catholic Church! Then why raise up these Saints? After all, the Church was well and alive; maybe not in Europe but in the New World. But as the Lord counts every hair on our heads, and created each of us in His own Image, so precious is each soul to Him that He grieves at the loss of one of His lambs, and immediately summons a new army of shepherds to lead His lambs back to the pasture.
The Church has been attacked and is wounded! From where will God call His next warrior?
[Bob and I say that one day, a light will rise in California that the whole country cannot fail to see, no less the world. It has to come from California, because this beautiful land, blessed by Junípero Serra and the first missionaries, has in many instances done so much harm. Not only shall this come to pass in this state; but a renewal has begun in this country, consecrated to the Blessed Mother, and our land will take her rightful place in the world as she was founded to be, a nation under God.
]
Why do we speak of this in connection with a Saint from a land across the sea, in a time almost five hundred years past? Because sadly and joyfully, history repeats itself. Whenever I look at the world at different periods of time, and how the Church and her children not only survived but triumphed, I have hope for our Church, for our country, for the world. But then as now God called forth Defenders of the Faith and they said Yes!
A child is born who will be an instrument of love and peace
The world is in a mess, but no one knows it. Oh, there are a few voices in the wind, but everyone is too busy living the Dolce Vita to heed their pleas, no less convert and go back to God. Bath houses and revelry took the place of churches and reverence. They called it the Renaissance; today we have all sorts of names for those who even need justification to destroy all we have held dear - New Age is one; the One World Order is another. Then as now, the going philosophy was: There was no sin and only those who couldn’t afford sin were against it. But God loves to raise soldiers who will fight, purposely choosing contradictions in the world, to confound the enemy. To make a fool out of the devil, God raised a young noble from the land of the Renaissance and called him to Sainthood.
The Good News is that the devil always goes too far, as with today, and people suddenly wake up, recognize who it is, and what it is he is doing, and they react! The only ever present danger that lies ahead with this turn-about-face is, if the faithful are not careful they will follow someone who sounds good, with the best of intentions, but who will lead them none-the-less far afield from the road to the Kingdom.
The Sixteenth Century was such a time; with no easy answers or quick fixes. Preachers were stemming from every hamlet, small and large, calling people to repent! And that was good, but they did it at the cost of unity and peace, supplanting the decadent past with a divided future. The Renaissance brought about a Luther and a Calvin, the pendulum swinging from the extreme left, to what was being touted as the extreme right. One of the big problems was that everyone became a lone ranger, teaching his own brand of religion.
What will stem the tide of promiscuity that threatens to flood Rome and then all of the papal states? Place an apostle right smack into the womb of the Renaissance. So, in the year 1515, as a raging storm ushered in a loud tempest of dissent in the north, in the proud city of Florence a soft breeze, carrying the hope of the Church, introduced Philip Neri, future Saint and Apostle of Rome. God planted this true contradiction in his time, the Province of Tuscany, a land of the proud, willful and insolent, to a family of the nobility, who although righteous and good, were far from spiritual; their god, as