Overview

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The Vision of St. Augustine

St. Augustine devoted more than 30 years working on a treatise to explain the mystery of the Holy Trinity. One day he was walking on the beach contemplating and trying to understand this great mystery when he saw a small boy repeatedly dipping a sea shell into the ocean and then carrying and emptying it into a small hole in the sand. The boy said he was trying to empty out the ocean and pour it into the hole. Augustine told the boy the obvious: what he was attempting was impossible.

The following is from Our Lady of Mercy Lay Carmelite Community website.

“That is true,” the boy said. “It would be easier and quicker to draw all the water out of the sea and fit it into this hole than for you to fit the mystery of the Trinity and His Divinity into your little intellect; for the Mystery of the Trinity is greater and larger in comparison with your intelligence than is this vast ocean in comparison with this little hole.”

“And then the child vanished.

“What does it mean?

“Some say that St. Augustine had been talking with an angel sent by God to teach him a lesson on intellectual pride. Others say it was the Christ Child Himself who came to remind Augustine of the limits of human understanding in relation to the great mysteries of our Faith.”

The audacity of our website is self-evident. Its objective is to demonstrate that God has not only provided ample evidence of his Being but possesses a love for us so profound and deep that we could spend the next 30 years trying to unravel its mysteries and stand a better chance of emptying out the ocean. God understands our limitations and made our journey to him simple. He gave us empirical proof of the biblical Jesus and the means to approach him. Since we are not mere animals, but made in the image of God, he also gave us free will to accept or reject him. We are sadly mistaken if we think pure logic will bring us to the doorstep of God. The intellectual approach can be a good start, but it can only be a beginning. It would be like trying to empty the ocean into a hole in the sand. A sturdy faith is available only to those who recognize their limitations and approach the Lord with child-like humility. God made it pretty simple for us. Don’t muck it up.

This site is intended to help the person who in good faith is trying to find the Lord or who could use some guidance to help others find the Resurrected Jesus. Here is a quick roadmap for accessing the information on this site. Be sure to go to Help my Unbelief for a summary of each of these points.

1.          Atheist Objections

2.          Traditional Apologetics

3.          Help my Unbelief

4.          Prayer

4.1       Brother Lawrence: Remaining in the Presence of God

5.         Evidence Independently Verified

5.1       Appearances by Mary

5.1.1    Our Lady of Fatima and the Miracle of the Sun

A.     Fatima’s Messages of Love

B.     Our Lady of Fatima 1917: The First Four Appearances

C.     Our Lady of Fatima: The September 13th Miracle

D.     Our Lady of Fatima: The Effects of Her Appearances

E.     Fatima and Islam

F.     Our Lady of Fatima: The Floundering Skeptic

5.1.2     Our Lady of Lourdes

5.1.3     Our Lady of Knock

5.1.4     Our Lady of Zeitoun

5.1.5     Our Lady of Guadalupe: Crushing the Snake

A.     Our Lady of Guadalupe: Gilding the Lily

5.2      The Shroud of Turin: A Brief Introduction

5.2.1     The Shroud of Turin: Historical Documentation

5.2.2     The Shroud of Turin: Facts that Compel Belief

5.2.3     The Shroud of Turin: Evidence against the Shroud’s Authenticity

5.2.4     The Shroud of Turin: Proving the Supernatural

5.3     The Sudarium Confirms the Shroud of Turin

5.4     Holy House of Loreto

5.5     Science and Evolution

5.5.1     When God Shows Off!

5.6     Miraculous Healings

5.6.1     Jack Traynor

5.6.2     Marie Bailly and Nobel Laureate Alexis Carrel

5.6.3     Gabriel Gargam

5.6.4     Marion Carroll

5.6.5     Francis Pascal: Blindness Cured

5.7     Miraculous Events

5.7.1     Miracle of the Holy Fire

5.7.2     Great Peshtigo Fire

5.7.3     Our Lady of China

5.7.4     Cokeville, Wyoming

6     A God of Love

6.1     Evil and Suffering

6.2     Unanswered Prayers

6.2.1     Alexandrina da Costa of Balasar

6.3     The Savior’s Incredible Love

6.4     Why did Jesus have to Suffer and Die?

6.5     Hell: A Loving God and Eternal Punishment?

7     Trustworthy Bible

7.1     The Resurrection

7.1.1     The Resurrection: Complementary Gospel Accounts

7.2     Incongruous Doctrines and Events

7.2.1     The Apostolic Conspiracy

8     An Incomprehensible God

9     Glimpsing Eternity

9.1     Near Death Experiences

9.1.1     To Heaven, Hell and Back

9.1.2     Heaven is for Real

9.2     Portrait of Jesus, Ruler of All

10     Remaining in Christ

10.1     Praying to Mary

10.1.1     Mary’s Love and Fidelity

10.2     The Rosary

10.2.1     Understanding the Rosary

10.2.2     The Rosary: Its Power and Importance

10.2.3     The Rosary: A Quick Tutorial

10.2.4     The Joyful Mysteries: The Birth and Childhood of Jesus

10.2.5     The Luminous Mysteries: Jesus Proclaims the Gospel

10.2.6     The Sorrowful Mysteries: Christ Crucified

10.2.7     The Glorious Mysteries: Resurrection and Promise of Eternal Life

10.3     Gospel through Inspirational Music

10.4     Seven Last Words of Jesus from the Cross

10.4.1     First Word: “Father, forgive them . . . .

10.4.2     Second Word: To the good thief: “. . . you will be with me in Paradise.”

10.4.3     Third Word: “Behold, your mother!”

10.4.4     Fourth Word: “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?”

10.4.5     Fifth Word: “I thirst.”

10.4.6     Sixth Word: “It is finished.”

10.4.7     Seventh Word: “Father, into thy hands I commit my spirit!”

11     Sharing your Faith

11.1     Christian Unity and Division

The gospel message is simple, clear and succinct: “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” John 3:16. If you keep this passage in mind and follow the above outline you will hit a home run. God’s love is limitless, which means it includes you – if that’s what you want.

Footnotes and Attributions

The Vision of St. Augustine by Sandro Botticelli (1445-1510) retrieved from Wikimedia Commons.

Last modified September 15, 2019