This is what it was really like when Columbus discovered the New World:

"I claim this land in the name of their majesties Isabella and Ferdinand of Spain, and in honor of our Holy Savior, I name it San Salvador. Let us give thanks."

"Note, Euthymios, that St. Maximus defended the Romans... St. Maximus the Confessor, one of the greatest Greek Doctors, clearly believed that the Holy Spirit proceeded ineffably from the Father dia mesou tou Logou (i.e., “by means of the [Incarnate] Word”) or through the Son."
—James Likoudis, The Divine Primacy of the Bishop of Rome and Modern Eastern Orthodoxy

"What is absolutely crucial to understand, Euthymios, is that the Eastern tradition did not exclude the Son from participation in the procession of the Holy Spirit."
—James Likoudis, The Divine Primacy of the Bishop of Rome and Modern Eastern Orthodoxy

"[S]trong doctrinal divisions remain among the Orthodox [on the issue of the filioque], which work against the claim to possess unity of faith."
—James Likoudis, The Divine Primacy of the Bishop of Rome and Modern Eastern Orthodoxy

"[Vatican II's] texts, according to their literary form, have serious claims upon the conscience of Catholics; their pastoral dispositions are based on doctrine, and their doctrinal passages are suffused in concern for men and for Christianity of flesh and blood in the world of today."
—Joseph Ratzinger, Cited in Dr. Lawrence King's Dissertation on the Authoritative Weight of Non-Definitive Magisterial Teaching

"For the wages of sin is death" (Romans 6:23).

Whenever I gravely sin these words are always at the front of my mind. I truly believe that upon committing mortal sin everyone intuitively understands, deep in their heart, that they deserve to die. Having this explicit understanding myself, rather than a mere intuition, makes it all the more clear that distractions are the only way we can try to trick ourselves into thinking that we don't deserve hell for our failings. If not for a constant reorientation towards Christ, and a constant background of the truth about sin, it becomes much too easy to simply distract myself from the reality that when I sin I have essentially committed spiritual suicide. Reconciliation is the only medicine that can bring us back from the dead.

"The seat they occupied, then, which was not theirs but Moses’, compelled them to say what was good, though they did what was evil. And so they followed their own course in their lives, but were prevented by the seat they occupied, which belonged to another, from preaching their own doctrines."
—St. Augustine of Hippo, On Christian Doctrine Book IV

Pope Francis has declared a day of fasting, penance, and prayer for peace on Friday, October 27th, 2023.

⚔️ A Message From God (Judges 3:20–21) ⚔️

Our Patience Has Its Limits