We are ALL Children of the Same God --- excerpts
I am a cradle Catholic. I attended a Parochial school for eight years. My mother, five sisters, brothers, and I went to Mass every morning so we could receive Holy Communion. We brought our fried egg sandwiches and chocolate milk in a paper bag and ate it during class. Every day of summer vacation started with attending Mass. It was all part of my life. I was proud of the fact that I belonged to the true church. I can still hear the sound of my parents lulling us to sleep as they knelt by our bed chanting the rosary in French. Whatever religion classes we had in school went in one ear and out the other because I had the true faith and I knew everything I needed to know to get to heaven.
Starting my High School years, I attended a convent with the intention of becoming a nun. After my sophomore year I discovered boys and I left the convent. I married a protestant boy and we had seven children together. I tried to bring them up in the Catholic Church as I had been brought up but, since my husband was a good, Christian man who attended his church regularly, they began asking questions and demanding answers I was unable to give them. We had no Catholic school in Lamar so everything they had to learn about their church came from their Confraternity of Christian Doctrine Classes and me.
My two older boys were altar boys. One day they came home early from Catechism Class and when I questioned why they were home early, they simply said, “One of the boys acted up in class and Father dismissed us saying he refused to teach us any more.”
I went to Mass the next day with my five children (all I had at the time) and from the altar our priest said, “Iwon’t teach that bunch a hoodlums again and even the Pope can’t make me!”
While he was still speaking, I gathered up my five children and walked out of the church. I felt I was having a hard enough time trying to raise my children Catholic, and if I didn’t have the help of my Priest, what hope did I have?
We all joined my husband at the Church of the Brethren and for ten years we worshiped, shared, loved, laughed, and cried together. I came to the realization that Catholics weren’t the only Christians God loved. Still, there was something missing. I had an emptiness in my heart that refused to go away.
In the meantime, my oldest son married a teacher from Lamar in the Episcopal Church and became a member of her church. My second son went into the Peace Corps and while there, married a Colombian girl in the Catholic Church but, after a bitter divorce, is at present an Agnostic, bordering on Atheism. Number three son, Errol, had a conversion experience on the ditch bank and decided to go to Bob Jones University to study to become a Baptist minister. My fourth child, Karen married a man from Lamar and continues to go to the Brethren church. No. 5. Gina married a man from Holly and started going to the Methodist church there. Number six child was married in the Presbyterian Church and later joined the Brethren Church. She and her husband and two children still attend the Brethren church but are also involved with the First Christian Church because their two children are members of their choir and band. My seventh son is no longer Catholic but is simply searching for truth. As you can see, we became a very Ecumenical family and I kept consoling myself with Luke 9; 49-50:
John said, “ Master, we saw someone casting out demons in your name and we tried to prevent him because he does not follow in our company.” Jesus said to him, “Do not prevent him, for whoever is not against you is for you.”
Starting my High School years, I attended a convent with the intention of becoming a nun. After my sophomore year I discovered boys and I left the convent. I married a protestant boy and we had seven children together. I tried to bring them up in the Catholic Church as I had been brought up but, since my husband was a good, Christian man who attended his church regularly, they began asking questions and demanding answers I was unable to give them. We had no Catholic school in Lamar so everything they had to learn about their church came from their Confraternity of Christian Doctrine Classes and me.
My two older boys were altar boys. One day they came home early from Catechism Class and when I questioned why they were home early, they simply said, “One of the boys acted up in class and Father dismissed us saying he refused to teach us any more.”
I went to Mass the next day with my five children (all I had at the time) and from the altar our priest said, “Iwon’t teach that bunch a hoodlums again and even the Pope can’t make me!”
While he was still speaking, I gathered up my five children and walked out of the church. I felt I was having a hard enough time trying to raise my children Catholic, and if I didn’t have the help of my Priest, what hope did I have?
We all joined my husband at the Church of the Brethren and for ten years we worshiped, shared, loved, laughed, and cried together. I came to the realization that Catholics weren’t the only Christians God loved. Still, there was something missing. I had an emptiness in my heart that refused to go away.
In the meantime, my oldest son married a teacher from Lamar in the Episcopal Church and became a member of her church. My second son went into the Peace Corps and while there, married a Colombian girl in the Catholic Church but, after a bitter divorce, is at present an Agnostic, bordering on Atheism. Number three son, Errol, had a conversion experience on the ditch bank and decided to go to Bob Jones University to study to become a Baptist minister. My fourth child, Karen married a man from Lamar and continues to go to the Brethren church. No. 5. Gina married a man from Holly and started going to the Methodist church there. Number six child was married in the Presbyterian Church and later joined the Brethren Church. She and her husband and two children still attend the Brethren church but are also involved with the First Christian Church because their two children are members of their choir and band. My seventh son is no longer Catholic but is simply searching for truth. As you can see, we became a very Ecumenical family and I kept consoling myself with Luke 9; 49-50:
John said, “ Master, we saw someone casting out demons in your name and we tried to prevent him because he does not follow in our company.” Jesus said to him, “Do not prevent him, for whoever is not against you is for you.”
Anne T. Oxley
at home with her newly published book
"We are ALL Children of the Same God"
at home with her newly published book
"We are ALL Children of the Same God"
We are All Children
of the Same God
Written By Anne T. Oxley
This 6" X 9" book has 276 pages.
Paperback ----- $14.97
Hardback ---------$25.77
of the Same God
Written By Anne T. Oxley
This 6" X 9" book has 276 pages.
Paperback ----- $14.97
Hardback ---------$25.77
Get Anne T. Oxley's book "We are ALL Children of the Same God" and know with certainty that there is Hope for a more Peaceful tomorrow with the Salvation of Jesus Christ, based on the Historical Foundation of the Catholic Church.
You will find the answers to your questions about conflicts in the Middle East, religious confusion, and ongoing missunderstandings of the tribes of Israel. You will find the answer to such common questions as:
* IS Mary the Divine Mother of God, or simply a seventeenyear old Jewish Girl God chose to be the mother of Christ?
* Who is Jesus Christ?
* What is the Trinity?
* Who is the Holy Spirit?
* Where did Mohammed come from?
Click on one of the buttons below and order your copy of "We are ALL Children of the Same God" Today!
You will find the answers to your questions about conflicts in the Middle East, religious confusion, and ongoing missunderstandings of the tribes of Israel. You will find the answer to such common questions as:
* IS Mary the Divine Mother of God, or simply a seventeenyear old Jewish Girl God chose to be the mother of Christ?
* Who is Jesus Christ?
* What is the Trinity?
* Who is the Holy Spirit?
* Where did Mohammed come from?
Click on one of the buttons below and order your copy of "We are ALL Children of the Same God" Today!
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Ponder Ezine
Ponder Ezine
In the first 500 years, when the Councils and the Synods were trying to find the truth about the Incarnation and whether Mary was truly the Mother of God, (Theotokus) one side was always ‘for’ and the other ‘against’ and they always ended up more angry and more divided than they were before they started. Cyril, Bishop of Alexandria, in the year 430 A.D. finally took charge and railroaded it through by deliberately choosing a date, which made it impossible for Bishop Nestorius of Constantinople and the Antiochene Bishops (who were all opposed to it) to arrive on time and Mary was declared The ‘Mother of God.’ (Theotokus)
Calling Mary, the Mother of God gives her an importance beyond which God the Father and Jesus intended. It gives the connotation that Mary is Divine and, for many people, praying to her supercedes their praying to the Father who demands our praise and Glory. Even Jesus, in teaching the Apostles to pray said, “Our Father, who art in heaven.”
We must love Mary as the little seventeen-year-old Jewish girl that God chose to be the mother of his beloved son, Jesus. We must allow her to lead us to her son but we must not get bogged down in praying to her exclusively. This is what Protestants cannot understand. We must emulate her by saying ‘yes’ to Jesus as she did and by being Holy so our souls can magnify the Lord, as hers did.
Jesus is the ‘word’ (wisdom) of God made flesh. He is part of God and one of the persons in the Blessed Trinity. But there is ONE God, The Father. The Son and the Spirit are part of Him - but they are not God. Is Mary mother of the Holy Spirit? He is as much God as Jesus. When we call Jesus ‘God’, we are saying there are three Gods, God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. God the Father and the Son of God both declare themselves to be the Great I Am and they are because Jesus is the ‘word’ or the mind of God. He was with God from the beginning of time. The Holy Spirit comes from both of them and is the Spirit of God. God the Father is with us through his Son and his Spirit and they cannot be separated because they are one.
Calling Mary, the Mother of God gives her an importance beyond which God the Father and Jesus intended. It gives the connotation that Mary is Divine and, for many people, praying to her supercedes their praying to the Father who demands our praise and Glory. Even Jesus, in teaching the Apostles to pray said, “Our Father, who art in heaven.”
We must love Mary as the little seventeen-year-old Jewish girl that God chose to be the mother of his beloved son, Jesus. We must allow her to lead us to her son but we must not get bogged down in praying to her exclusively. This is what Protestants cannot understand. We must emulate her by saying ‘yes’ to Jesus as she did and by being Holy so our souls can magnify the Lord, as hers did.
Jesus is the ‘word’ (wisdom) of God made flesh. He is part of God and one of the persons in the Blessed Trinity. But there is ONE God, The Father. The Son and the Spirit are part of Him - but they are not God. Is Mary mother of the Holy Spirit? He is as much God as Jesus. When we call Jesus ‘God’, we are saying there are three Gods, God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. God the Father and the Son of God both declare themselves to be the Great I Am and they are because Jesus is the ‘word’ or the mind of God. He was with God from the beginning of time. The Holy Spirit comes from both of them and is the Spirit of God. God the Father is with us through his Son and his Spirit and they cannot be separated because they are one.