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Many thanks for keeping this great thread active.  I offer a prayer I wrote.
Prayer of Hope
Heavenly Father, Divine Trinity,
We praise You and thank You
for Your Grace of Love and Hope and Faith.
As we grow in Understanding of Your gift of Love,
We grow more secure in Knowing Your Love for us
and feel Hope more fully in Your Grace and Mercy.
The more we know of Love and Hope,
the more we feel Faith,
which grows because of our Hope
in Your Divine and Eternal Love.
Help us grow in understanding and Hope,
that we might follow Your Will
with patience, joy, and fortitude
and share with our neighbors
Your Grace of Love and Hope and Faith.
We pray in the Name of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
Amen

The Hussite Wars occurred from 1419 to 1434.   
They were a series of civil wars fought between the Hussites and the combined Catholic forces of the Holy Roman Emperor Sigismund, the Papacy, and European monarchs loyal to the Catholic Church, as well as various Hussite factions.

I admit again to concern about frequent criticism and exaggeration of Catholic involvement in war, as well as the frequent inherent implication that God would never call us to violence or war.  Could your source (or you) have duplicated this entry to make the list look longer?  And why include this at all when the post starts with wars of the 16th century?
Do you really believe the German peasants or these others were really fighting about liturgy or theology?  Have you read The Catholic Controversy that Shin recently commented on?  It covers St Francis de Sales conquest of 75 000 Calvinists, mostly with pamphlets.  I'm sorry to grumble, and I deeply appreciate your posts and effort, but I hope to persuade you this is misleading.

This is from St. Francis de Sales 'The Catholic Controversy', which is apologetic work against Protestantism, one of the popular heresies of which is somehow relying on the Bible alone without the Church.

I take it as along the lines of those who only read the surface meanings of the scriptures, rather than the true meaning and take the Holy Scriptures outside of their true context in the Faith. In other words, their understanding of the words is often superficial and flawed due to their lack of knowledge of the spirit or deeper meaning of of the passages as well as the source and context within Church history. This repeatedly occurring causes quite immense misunderstandings and heresies.

Who can properly understand the book of Apocalypse without referring to the teachings of the Church and the saints on the subject for one example?


The Church's authority and the unchanging rule of Faith handed down from the apostles is necessary to even begin to truly understand Holy Scripture.

Many thanks for your comment.  I had searched without success all 16 references to St Jerome in St Francis' Introduction to the Devout Life.  I also have The Catholic Controversy, but it has 31 references to St Jerome, some of which are multiple pages.  I'm sad to admit I can be impatient-would it be a bit better to say over-zealous?  I will keep searching, but if it's available the page number would be a great help.  And would you know if St Jerome was justifying the Vulgate or perhaps some other text altogether?

The Hussite Wars occurred from 1419 to 1434.   
They were a series of civil wars fought between the Hussites and the combined Catholic forces of the Holy Roman Emperor Sigismund, the Papacy, and European monarchs loyal to the Catholic Church, as well as various Hussite factions.

                                 {A} Pansy Envy   
                                 {B} A showy flower   
                                 {C} But death entered the world because of the devil's envy.   
                                           Wisdom Chapter 1

'According to the degree to which the intellect is stripped of the passions, the Holy Spirit initiates the intellect into the mysteries of the age to be.'

St. Thalassios the Libyan

'And it is clear that this dark contemplation is in these its beginnings painful likewise to the soul; for, as this Divine infused contemplation has many excellences that are extremely good, and the soul that receives them, not being purged, has many miseries that are likewise extremely bad, hence it follows that, as two contraries cannot coexist in one subject - the soul - it must of necessity have pain and suffering, since it is the subject wherein these two contraries war against each other, working the one against the other, by reason of the purgation of the imperfections of the soul which comes to pass through this contemplation.'

St. John of the Cross

If I come across a difficult passage in scriptures or a particular subject that is difficult I always look for any authoritative Church decrees on the subject and the consensus of the saints in their writings.

This is from St. Francis de Sales 'The Catholic Controversy', which is apologetic work against Protestantism, one of the popular heresies of which is somehow relying on the Bible alone without the Church.

I take it as along the lines of those who only read the surface meanings of the scriptures, rather than the true meaning and take the Holy Scriptures outside of their true context in the Faith. In other words, their understanding of the words is often superficial and flawed due to their lack of knowledge of the spirit or deeper meaning of of the passages as well as the source and context within Church history. This repeatedly occurring causes quite immense misunderstandings and heresies.

Who can properly understand the book of Apocalypse without referring to the teachings of the Church and the saints on the subject for one example?

The Church's authority and the unchanging rule of Faith handed down from the apostles is necessary to even begin to truly understand Holy Scripture.

It happens quite often that a quote puzzles me, and I feel pressed to ask for some explanation of the context from which it was taken.  Almost always I resist making the request to avoid distraction or confusion, but in the case above of both Ss Francis de Sales and Jerome I would be very grateful for further comment.