Fr. Corapi’s Conversion

Fr. Corapi’s Conversion Story - Condensed Version

Liturgical Abuse

This is why we have the General Instruction of the Roman Missal which regulates exactly what may be said and done at Mass. This doesn’t even look winsome. Hopefully this sort of thing will vanish as these folks enter their dotage.

Master of Puppets — Call to Action Liturgy

Infant Baptism

Baptism confers the grace of forgiveness of all sin both eternal and temporal. Jesus told Nicodemas (John 3:3-8) that he must be born again of water and the spirit. So through baptism we are born again unto eternal life. We have examples in Sacred Scripture of adults being baptized and whole households (presumably including children) receiving baptism.. There is nothing in Scripture ithat prohibits infant baptism or commands baptism only after the age of reason.

Catholics believe that baptism actually confers the grace of initial salvation. Therefore we give our children this advantage. Many Protestants deny this and for them baptism is only a public witness of their faith in obedience to Christ. So they see no need to baptize infants. But, Presbyterians and Anglicans for example do baptize infants.

I Pet. 3:21
“…baptism now saves you”

Baptism in the New Covenant corresponds to infant circumcision for the Old Covenant.

Baptism is not the only requirement for salvation once one reaches the age of reason and begins to be culpable for sin. Then we have contrition, repentance and confession as a remedy for sin and Eucharist in order to obtain eternal life.

Jn 6:53 So Jesus said again, “I tell you the truth, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you cannot have eternal life within you. 54 But anyone who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise that person at the last day.

Interpretation… ‘has made all the difference’

Q. Where in the Bible does it say that a leader of a church can forgive anyone of sin?

James 5:13-16

He should call the elders (priests) of the church to pray over him and anoint him with oil in the name of the Lord. 15 And
the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord
will raise him up. If he has sinned, he will be forgiven. 16Therefore
confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may
be healed. The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective.

Q. In James 5:13-20 he is saying share with each other your faults and concerns
and yes even your sins. But that does not mean I can forgive you of that sin.

A. Correct. You cannot because you are not a Catholic priest.

Q. Only God thru Jesus can forgive sin.

A. Incorrect. Jesus gave His apostles the authority to forgive sin IN HIS NAME.

John 20:19

On the evening of that first day of the week, when the disciples were together, …As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.” 22And with that he breathed on them and said,”Receive the Holy Spirit. 23If you forgive anyone his sins, theyre forgiven;if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven.”

Jesus gave His disciples a special gift of the Holy Spirt (before Pentecost) to
empower them for the sacrament of Confession. This is how the Catholic Church
interprets or reads this passage.

Protestants will explain away this Catholic understanding by interpreting it differently. But the truth is the words of Scripture must be read and interpreted or lead to an understanding. Scripture is not always literal but sometimes it is.

Who determines when to be literal or not? You? Me? Your pastor? My pastor? or the Church founded by Jesus Christ? The only Church with apostolic succession for 2000 years? I know I am not infallible. And I seriously doubt you think you are infallible.

Then who decides what the scriptures really mean when we do not all agree on what they are saying? (And we all do agree on most of them)

Q.Why wouldn’t Jesus have told everyone, “oh keep on sinning then hit the
priest for confessionand start all over again. We always want the easy way out.

A. Dealing with your last comment, first…Going to confession to a priest is
not the “easy way out.” Protestants have dumped the sacrament and it’s grace in
exchange for what is the really easy way out. Protestant just ask Jesus to forgive them
for their sins. They are not even required to name their particular sins. There is only a vague, admission that “I am a sinner.” Just a blanket confession. There is no examination of conscience, no nightly confession of daily sins, no
actual need to even think about them again unless they are really bad. Thus,
it is more difficult to grow in holiness for Protestants. Of course this is a generalization, so there are exceptions.

Any Catholic who goes to confession without true sorrow and repentance for sin, a desire not to do it again, may fool the priest but they cannot fool God. They DO NOT RECEIVE absolution for sin even if they did suceed in fooling the priest. For the sacremental confession to be valid contrition and repentance must be present.

I do not understand why you would think that going to a priest for confession somehow involves such flippancy on the part of Catholics? Why do you think that confession automatically means we think we can just, “keep on sinning then hit the priest for confession and start all over again”

Doesn’t this strike you as a bit uncharitable?

Q. The Jewish people were saying one thing and doing something else.
The church had even gotten into the act. They were living as if they did not know
who God was or even cared.

A. What scripture do you think says in James– The church had even gotten into the act. They were living as if they did not know who God was or even cared.?

Q. When he told Peter the Gates of hell will not prevail, means that no matter what Satan tries to do, he can never defeat the followers of Christ.

A. Are you aware that this is your interpretation because of your prior Protestant beliefs? Because in context, Jesus says to Peter,

You are Rock and on this rock I will build MY Church and the Gates of Hell will not overcome IT.

The pronoun IT refers to His Church.

Q. We have already won. Satan just wants to take as many with him as possible.

A. Agreed.

Q. The Church is the people,you and me. Followers of Christ ARE the Church! Not
some denomination.
A. No. The Church that Jesus founded 2000 years ago is the Catholic Church. All of the Protestant denominations broke away; first from the Catholic Church and then
from each other (other Protestant groups). There are not many Churches. Jesus only founded ONE CHURCH. There are Ecclesial Communities of Christians(usually called denominations.These are our separated brethren of the ONE, HOLY, CATHOLIC, APOSTOLIC, CHURCH. All of them were founded by men without any signs or wonders to authenticate them as founded in the will of God.

Q. It is not just the Catholics, or just the Nazarenes, or just
the Baptist and so forth. It is the ones who have accepted Christ as personal
Lord and Savior.

A. We are all a part of the Body of Christ by virtue of our Baptism. Yes! And His Body is the ONE TRUE CHURCH.

Q. Not every Catholic,Nazarene, Babtist is going to heaven.

A. Unfortunately that is probably true.

Q. When the Church is raptured lots of so called Christians will be left and asking, but I was good, I went to church, I fed the poor. What about me?

A. I don’t believe in the pre-trib rapture, never did…even as a Protestant. That belief has only been around for about 100 years. But I do agree that Matthew 7:21 is one of the most sobering passages in Sacred Scripture.

Matthew 7:21 “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. 22Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons
and perform many miracles?’23Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’

LORD HAVE MERCY

Purgatory?

Q. Do you understand, that God never expects us to be perfect in this
 world?

A. Yes, He knows we will not reach perfection in this life.

Q. Jews believed that when they died, they would have to go to
Gehinnom where the soul spends time being cleansed. See the Jewish
people believe that they must do that because they are still waiting
for the Messiah (Jesus). They still believe that way today. 

A. True. And Christianity was born out of the Jewish faith.
My point is that the Catholic Church did not invent Purgatory or
the concept of purification. So of course they still believe this
since they did not accept Jesus as Messiah. But Jesus never condemned
this belief or corrected it.

Q. See when Jesus died he went and took the keys of death and
hades. He brought all the ones out of Gheinnom, but only the
deserving ones. After that Jesus said I am that High Priest that you
were having to come to for atonement. I gave my life so you would not
have to scrafice any more. That is why the veil in the temple
was torn from TOP to BOTTOM. 

A. True. But the words Hades, Sheol and Gheinnom or ghenna can be confusing. All the dead went somwhere
other than Heaven in the OT awaiting the one who would open Heaven. I think this is Sheol or Hades but
Hell or Gheinnom is the place of final damnation.

Q. We will be made perfect when we set foot in heaven.

A. Amen! We would simply say we must be made perfect BEFORE we can
set foot in Heaven. We call this perfecting a action of God PURGATORY.
We both believe we must be made perfect before entering into the
presence of God. So we agree on the concept. We give it a name but
you cannot give it a name because you are confined by the Protestant
doctrine of scripture alone, which is itself not found in scripture.
But there is nothing about this doctrine that contradicts scripture.

Q. The grace of God has given that right to go into heaven.
Where does Jesus ever say we have to suffer AFTER we die?

A. There is no scripture that says this explicitly  because the Bible is not a book of systematic
theology. But we do see this implied by 

I Cor 3:15 But if someone’s work is burned up, that one will suffer
loss; the person will be saved, but only as through fire.”

But Mt. 5:8 Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God. 
So one must be pure in heart in order to see God. And Jesus Himself
said, 

Mt 12:32 “but anyone who speaks against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven,
either in this age or in the age to come.

So, sin can be forgiven in the age to come but not this particular
one.

Q. The Jews wait for Jesus who has come, they rejected him while he
was on earth. If you feel you have no hope of going to Heaven without first going to Hell then you have no
hope at all! 

A. Purgatory is not Hell. Hell is final damnation, the second death
and permanent. Pugatory is the place of the dead, Sheol or Hades not
Ghehenna (sp) This is where the souls of the righteous went before
Jesus opened up Heaven by His death and resurrection. This is where
they were purified and awaited the Messiah. We know it exists and
there is no scripture that says it ceases to exist except Rev 20:14
when death andHades are thrown into the Lake of Fire at the end of
time.

Q. Sin is Sin in the eyes of God. There are no little sins or big
sins. 

A. Then you deny the plain teaching of scripture in 

I Jn 5:16 1f anyone sees his brother
commit a sin that does not lead to death, he should pray and God will
give him life. I refer to those whose sin does not lead to death. There
is a sin that leads to death. I am not saying that he should pray about
that. 17 All wrongdoing is sin, and there is sin that does not lead to death..

Q. It is more that good deeds, and he will not have you
spend time after you die to get perfect. You are already perfect
if he is Lord of All!

A. But we know for a fact that WE ARE NOT PERFECT. We are saved, yes.
We are justified, yes. But we must be “pure in heart’ in order to see
God. So, somehow or other we must be perfected, purified, made
Holy as He is Holy. We do not believe most of us achieve this in this life. That is why we will need to be
purified after we die in Purgatory.

Priesthood of all believers

Q. What does the “priesthood of all believers” mean?
A. All of God’s people, both Old and New, are members of a priesthood.
In Exodus 19:6“…and you shall be to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation,” refers to the Israelites of the Old Testament. In the New Testament, I Peter 2:9 (“But you are … a royal priesthood, a holy nation”)refers to Christians. So, in both covenants God considers the faithful, members of a priesthood. The function of a priest is to offer sacrifices to God. The ‘priesthood of all believers’ offer their own individual and personal spiritual sacrifices to God (I Peter 2:5)

Q. Then, why do we have priests if everyone is a part of the priesthood?
A. In both covenants God also, ordained a ministerial priesthood, separate from the ordinary faithful, who offered sacrifice to God for the people. In the Old Testament: Exodus 28:1 “Have Aaron your brother brought… along with his sons …so they may serve me as priest. Lev 21:1,10 “Then the LORD said to Moses,”The priest who is the highest among his brothers, on whose head the anointing oil has been poured and who has been consecrated to wear the garments....” In the New Testament: Acts 14:23 “And when they had ordained them presbyters in every church…” (Greek “presbuteros= English-“priest”) The priests in the Old Covenant offered the daily animal sacrifices on the altar, in the Temple in Jerusalem. And Catholic priests, today, offer daily the eternal sacrifice of Christ on our altars all around the world.

You can read more about the the Catholic Priesthood …Here For an explanation of how the OT Priesthood of all Believers and the ministerial priesthood was retained in the NT Church click HERE

Technorati Tags: Catholic, religion, priests, priestesses

The Great Global Warming SWINDLE

A year ago BBC’s Great Global Warming Swindle was available all over the net. For some reason the links to these keep changing and becoming “No longer available”

This is the third time I have changed the link and it keeps getting harder to find it. I thought originally that they wanted to sell the DVD instead of having it available on the internet. But there doesn’t seem to be much availablitliy of that either.

So, as of May 2008, Here is the link to this movie click HERE

What Did Jesus Die For?

Q. If we have to go to purgatory when we die. Then I want to know one thing. Why did Jesus come and die for our sins?

A. In order to reconcile us to God.

Q. And which sins did he die for? Just some of my sins? Or all of my sins?

A. Jesus died for all sin both past, present and future.

Q. If he didn’t die for ALL my sins then he died for nothing.

A. What you are not understanding because you have never been taught, is that there are two consequences for sin. Eternal and Temporal. Jesus died for the Eternal consequences of sin but we must suffer and be purified of the temporal consequences of sin

CCC 1472 To understand this doctrine and practice of the Church, it is necessary to understand that sin has a double consequence. Grave sin deprives us of communion with God and therefore makes us incapable of eternal life, the privation of which is called the “eternal punishment” of sin. On the other hand every sin, even venial, entails an unhealthy attachment to creatures, which must be purified either here on earth, or after death in the state called Purgatory. This purification frees one from what is called the “temporal punishment” of sin. These two punishments must not be conceived of as a kind of vengeance inflicted by God from without, but as following from the very nature of sin. A conversion which proceeds from a fervent charity can attain the complete purification of the sinner in such a way that no punishment would remain.

Please click HERE for scriptural evidence of the necessity of Purgatory.

Q. I will never be perfect til I enter the gates of Heaven.

A. That is exactly right. So if you don’t think that you will be perfect by the end of your life but you do believe that you will be perfect in order to enter Heaven…then you implicitly agree that there must be a perfecting or purification in order to be Holy as He is Holy before entering into His presence. We simply call this Purgatory and teach about it.

Q. If my name is written right now in the Lambs Book of Life, then why do I have to be purified.

A. In order to be perfect, pure and Holy as He is Holy. We cannot do this ourselves we must depend upon Him. It is a privlege accorded only to the children of God.

Q. It is like you paid your house off and the bank handed you the deed free and clear. Then the next day you go to the bank and continue to make payments on something that is paid in full. Isn’t that what you are doing?

A. Your analogy does not apply to the spiritual, salvation, justification and purification. No, it is not what we do because we are completely incapable of atoning for the ETERNAL consequences of sin since we are mere finite creatures.

Q. Jesus paid it all!

A. Then how do you understand this verse?

Colossians 1:24 Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I do my share on behalf of His body, which is the church, in filling up what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions.

Q. You don’t have to do anything else! Just be his servant.

A. There are hundreds of verses that instruct us in how we must live, what we must do and not do etc. Can you show me a scripture that nullifies all of these?

I Jn 1:9 If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and ^(AC)to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

I jn 2:3 By this we know that we have come to know Him, if we keep His commandments. 4The man who says, “I know him,” but does not do what he commands is a liar, and the truth is not in him. 5But if anyone obeys his word, God’s love is truly made complete in him. This is how we know we are in him: 6Whoever claims to live in him must walk as Jesus did…. 9Anyone who claims to be in the light but hates his brother is still in the darkness…. 15Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him…the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he has and does—comes not from the Father but from the world.…24 See that what you have heard from the beginning remains in you. If it does, you also will remain in the Son and in the Father

I Jn 3:3Everyone who has this hope in him purifies himself, just as he is pure….6 No one who lives in him keeps on sinning. No one who continues to sin has either seen him or known him. 7…He who does what is right is righteous, just as he is righteous. 8 He who does what is sinful is of the devil, because the devil has been sinning from the beginning….9 he cannot go on sinning, because he has been born of God. 10This is how we know who the children of God are and who the children of the devil are: Anyone who does not do what is right is not a child of God; nor is anyone who does not love his brother….11 We should love one another. 12Do not be like Cain, who belonged to the evil one and murdered his brother….Anyone who does not love remains in death. 15Anyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life in him….17If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him? 18Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth. because we obey his commands and do what pleases him. 23And this is his command: to believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and to love one another as he commanded us. 24Those who obey his commands live in him, and he in them.

This is just three chapters in I John and does not even scratch the surface of the directives given to us in all of the New Testament. For Catholics, we are taught that everyone commits lesser sin or venial sin throughout their lives, but what John is talking about here is the commission of serious, deadly, or mortal sin. This differentiation between mortal and venial sin is found in I john 5:16-18.

Because Protestants do not admit there is any difference in the gravity of sin they are forced to explain away these passages in I John about not sinning if you are a Christian. We are able to avoid deadly sin but venial sin is another story b/c sometime we commit them without thinking or on purpose. All mortal sin is on purpose.

Q. We simply Live for him.

A. Yes, we should live for Him…but this too is “doing something”. So, you see, even you believe in doing something.

Contraception and Bulimia

Q. If bulimia and contraception are abuses of the pleasure of eating and sexual union, then why do I agree that bulimia is disordered but contraception doesn’t seem disordered at all?

A. Contraception doesn’t seem or feel as disordered because in our culture bulimia is still disapproved of but contraception is highly approved. We are steeped in the teaching of our culture. In all the surrounding culture contraception is not just OK but it is a duty. It is a duty if you are not married to your partner. It is a duty if you have financial problems. It is a duty if you already have two children, especially, if you have a boy and a girl. This is often unspoken but this mindset lies behind the comments to the newly pregnant woman like, “Oh, a surprise pregnancy, right?” “Don’t you know what causes these things?” or from a friend, “sigh…..Now it will be even longer before we can do lunch. (I have seven children so I have heard these and more for myself)

This worldly wisdom seems practical and logical based on the little we know about ourselves. But God knows fully what is best for us. He knows how this Sexual Union Abuse wounds our souls and our marriages. The abuse of the sexual union with contraception, both in and out of matrimony has created chaos in the culture, disordered relationships, and deeply wounded hearts and minds.

Compare the mindset of most people today with the convictions of respected leaders from the very recent past:

Contraception is the one sin for which the penalty is national death, race death; a sin for which there is no atonement–Theodore Roosevelt

The abandonment of the reproductive function is the common feature of all sexual perversions. We actually describe a sexual activity as perverse if it has given up the aim of reproduction and pursues the attainment of pleasure as an aim independent of it.–Sigmund Freud

Contraceptive methods are like putting a premium on vice. They make men and women reckless. Nature is relentless and will have full revenge for any such violation of her laws….If (contraceptive) methods become the order of the day, nothing but moral degradation can be the result. As it is, man has sufficiently degraded woman for his lust, and no matter how well meaning the advocates may be, (contraception) will still further degrade her.”-Ghandi

“Contraceptives are an insult to womanhood. The only difference between a prostitute and a woman who uses contraceptives is that the former sells her body to many men, the latter to one only . . . It is the work of our generation to glorify vice by calling it virtue.”–Ghandi

By accepting contraception, the world is trying to form a civilized but non-
Christian mentality. The experiment will fail; but we must be very patient in awaiting its collapse; meanwhile redeeming the time so that the Faith may be preserved alive through the dark ages before us; to renew and rebuild civilization and save the world from suicide.”–T. S Eliot

These are “the consequences of methods of artificially limiting the increase of children. Let them consider, first of all, how wide and easy a road would thus be opened up towards conjugal infidelity and the general lowering of morality. … men—… growing used to the employment of anti-conceptive practices, may finally lose respect for the woman and, no longer caring for her physical and psychological equilibrium, may come to the point of considering her as a mere instrument of selfish enjoyment, and no longer as his respected and beloved companion” –Pope Paul VI: Humane Vite 17.

We have slid

way,

way

down

the

slippery

slope of immorality.

Technorati Tags: Catholic, contraception, bulimia, sex, sexual+sin, sin

Golgotha-The Protestant Site in the Garden Tomb.

My Mom asked me to go with her and her church–Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa to Israel . Before my conversion to the Catholic Church, I and my husband had enjoyed Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa and others as well. He even taught at the Bible College in Murrieta for a short time. The first time Mom asked I begged off using the Iraq war and possible escalation in Israel as an excuse not to visit the Holy Land. But I also did not really want to go on a non Catholic tour. I wanted to go to mass in all those holy churches every day like we did on a tour of Rome and Malta with Scott Hahn. But, when she asked again last fall I decided I should go. She really wanted to go and who knew how much longer she would be able to travel. So, we went.

I thought we would still be visiting a lot of Catholic Churches b/c they are at all of the holy sites. But the tour avoided them and went to other nearby locations instead. I sneaked away on several occasions and visited the Catholic Church but I was always afraid I might get Left Behind because there was no precise or even estimated time schedule.

But on to our topic. I knew of course that the Church of the Holy Seplechure was supposed to be built over the site of Jesus’ tomb. I did not know that it is also built over the site of Golgotha also until I went online yesterday to find out what was what, when I had gone by myself for mass on Sunday. It is a HUGE Church.

On the last day of our tour we went to the Garden Tomb. First we were taken to site overlooking a rock formation that looked very much like a skull and given a little talk and Bible readings.

This is what “Golgotha” looked like at the time of my visit April 2008.
Click on the thumbnails for full size view.

Then we were taken through a lovely garden to the Garden Tomb.

There was a channel in front of the door to roll a large stone, almost like a millstone.

There was a window and inside a supposedly unfinished tomb site. After going inside we came out and waited for the whole tour to view the tomb. While waiting I ran up to the gift shop and bought one of the fold out souvenir post card packs with lots of pictures of the Garden Tomb etc.

Then the crucifixion and resurrection of Christ was recounted as we gazed at the entrance to the Garden Tomb reclining comfortably in the shade of the lovely garden trees surrounded by nicely landscaped rock gardens. Chuck Smith did admit that we don’t know that this is actually the tomb of Jesus, but of course , much of what was said implied that this really might be it.

I was feeling convinced myself but then I had reservations b/c I knew the Catholic Church had a very good track record of keeping track of Holy Sites and had existed continually since the time of Christ. Whereas this Garden Tomb was not discovered until a century ago and was left in complete obscurity by every church. And even our Israeli guide had very clearly informed us that the Garden Tomb had absolutely no archeological support for it being the tomb of Christ. Still, it was a lovely site and close to what we might imagine the garden and tomb would have actually looked like 2000 years ago. Therein lies its appeal.

The day before, Sunday, I had visited the Church of the Holy Seplechure. I went for mass and a quick look around. But due to time constraints I had no guide and no audio guide. So I had no idea what I was looking at. While waiting for mass to begin in a chapel of the Blessed Eucharist I saw and heard a wonderful procession, in Latin I think. There was Gregorian Chant echoing around the interior of the gigantic church and organ music that sounded majestic ( I don’t really care much for organ music ordinarily but here it was absolutely chills-down-the-spine-BEAUSTIFUL. Then this procession came in to our Chapel and we had the unexpected pleasure of exposition and benediction of the Holy Eucharist. What a grace! At ten minutes after the hourI I was getting worried there might not be mass after all. But, after the procession left preparations for mass began and I heard mass in Italian. When I left it was getting dark so I hurried off to catch a taxi. I came close to getting robbed or worse but that is another story.

Yesterday as I said I looked at photos of the Church of the Holy Seplechure (CHS). I don’t think I ever saw the Tomb but I did kneel and pray and touch the rock of Golgotha…someone spoke English and explained it that day to me. I would like to know more about the history of this site. But the fact that the Catholics, Armenians, and Orthodox all have a presence at the CHS argues for its authenticity. If the Garden Tomb was even a plausible alternative why wouldn’t one of these transfer their veneration to the Garden Tomb instead of CHS? Especially in light of the altercation at the Church last week between the Orthodox and the Armenians.

As a Protestant I heard and also on this tour I heard again some irritation at the fact that Churches had been built on all the Holy Sites. Of course, ornate Catholic and Orthodox Churches are in complete opposition to the style of a Calvary Chapel Church in a warehouse or storefront or even in the decor of a proper church building in the Protestant Tradition.

So, Protestants in general are somewhat repulsed by all the gold, silver, and decorative elements meant to honor the holiness of historical Christian sites. They really want to go to the Holy Land and see what Jesus saw. But this is impossible. If the Catholic Church had not built churches on these sites the memory of their location would undoubtedly have been lost. Years ago, the Muslims did not destroy the Church in Bethlehem because they saw a depiction of the Wise Men in Arabian dress, for instance.

But, I have to admit that when you go to the CHS it is hard to envision what it must have looked like before the Church was built over Golgotha and the Tomb. But it is much more edifying to be in the very place Jesus was crucified and buried. The Garden Tomb is more a representation of what it might have been like but I have to reject that it is authentic.

Remember the post card folder of pictures I bought? I saw in it two cards picturing “Golgotha” in the Garden Tomb area, the place of the skull. They looked very different. I asked the salesgirl why and she said one picture was an earlier photo

Early Black and White Photo

The more recent photo looks much more readily like a skull….so I think someone or many people have been fiddling with the site.

Communion was served, but I did not partake, of course. However, sensually the whole experience was very aestetically pleasing. IMO the Garden Tomb could be visited to gain a sense of what it might have looked like, sort of, but keep clearly in mind that it is a sort of reproduction. And the Protestant alternative to visiting a Catholic Church. But, the Church of the Holy Seplechure has the REAL THINGS–Golgotha and the Tomb.