Messiah

  • A Prodigal Son Returns Home

    The Prodigal Son - RembrandtThis is the story of my return to the Catholic Church. I will attempt to explain how my walk with the Lord these past years has led me to this important and difficult decision, yet one that I make in peace and joy. It is addressed to my Evangelical Christian and Messianic Jewish friends in Israel, and particularly to those who do not believe that one can be a "true believer" and a Catholic at the same time. It is also written as a personal testimony for my many good friends around the world who may be interested in my walk of faith. To them I dedicate this essay and pray that it will help us to grow in unity in loving and worshiping the King of Kings.

  • A Secret Seeker Finds the Messiah

    Orthodox Jewish womanI am an Orthodox Jew by adoption. That is to say, I am a convert to Judaism, according to the halacha. I live in the company of other Orthodox Jews, with my husband and four children, in a religious community in Israel. I also love Jesus and the Gospel message, which I am still learning, and this means that I live my faith life mostly inwardly.

  • Bible Course I: God's Story, Our Story

    Moses

    Salvation history from creation to the coming of the Messiah. Covers the Old Testament, New Testament, and the basics of the Christian faith.

    Content outline: God, creation, man, original sin, God’s covenants in salvation history, messianic prophecies, Jesus and the New Covenant, the Trinity.

  • Bible Course II: Living in the Kingdom

    The EucharistAn introduction to the Catholic Church, and how the Church continues Jesus' work of salvation in history.

    Content outline: The Church, revelation & authority, the papacy, Mary & the saints, sin, salvation & justification, grace, life in Christ, liturgy & sacraments, the family, Church history.

  • Bible Course: Portal to Lessons

    Salvation historyA general overview of the two parts of our Bible course:

    Part I: God's Story, Our Story
    Part II: Living in God's Kingdom
  • Christ, the Glory of Israel

    "Fr. Raniero CantalamessaWe know that God gave Israel the land but there is no mention of his taking it back again forever. Can we Christians exclude that what is happening in our day, that is, the return of Israel to the land of its fathers, is not connected in some way, still a mystery to us, to this providential order which concerns the chosen people and which is carried out even through human error and excess as happens in the Church itself?"

  • Did Jesus Suspend the Observance of the Law?

    Jesus was an observant JewDid Jesus Suspend the Observance of the Law? This article examines some of the Biblical arguments in support of the traditional doctrine that exempts, not only the Gentile, but even the baptized Jew from keeping the Law of the Torah. We will examine here certain episodes which have been interpreted to show that Jesus suspended the observance of the Law: Jesus and the kashrut dietary laws, Jesus and the Sabbath, and Peter's vision of the animals in Acts 10. 

  • God's Plan of Salvation in a Nutshell

    Jesus bridges the gapTen basic steps outlining God's plan of salvation for us: God created us out of love and made a covenant with us; by sinning we have broken His covenant; God sent Jesus the Messiah to restore us to communion with Him; and He restores this communion through the Catholic Church He established and especially the seven sacraments.

  • How Are We "Catholics for Israel"?

    Pope John Paul II and chief rabbi of Rome Elio Toaff Catholics for Israel is an apostolate faithful to the Magisterium, the living teaching office of the Church to whom Jesus has entrusted the task of authentically interpreting the word of God (DV 10).  This means that official magisterial teachings of the Catholic Church, most especially chapter 4 of the declaration Nostra Aetate and the Catechism of the Catholic Church, form the core of our beliefs concerning Israel and the Jewish people. 

  • Israel: A Prophetic Sign? Part I: The Story of Israel and the Church from Abraham to Today

    Marc Chagall - The White CrucifixionPart I: Israel and the Church from Abraham to Today - The origins of Israel: the Patriarchs; the Exodus and Mount Sinai; the kingdom of Israel; exile and return. Hebrews, Israelites and Jews.  The Messiah and his rejection by his own people.  The birth of the Church. Early Jewish-Christianity, the growth of Gentile Christianity, and the parting of ways.  Israel in the patristic writings: the rise of "replacement theology." Christian anti-Semitism in the Middle-Ages. Theological evaluation: Israel and the Church in the New Testament. 

  • Israel: A Prophetic Sign? Part II: Israel and the Church Today

    Pope John Paul II at the Wailing WallPart II: Israel and the Church Today - How Vatican II and Nostra Aetate transformed the Church's relationship with the Jewish people. Church documents on the Jewish people from Vatican II to the 21st century. The promised restoration of Israel according to the prophets. An evaluation: can Old Testament prophecies still apply to Israel today? The Catholic Church and the modern State of Israel. Israel's "passion, death and resurrection"?

  • Israel: A Prophetic Sign? Part III: Messianic Judaism and Christian Zionism

    Israel and the CrossPart III: Messianic Judaism and Christian Zionism: The rise of the Zionist movement in the late 19th century. Early Christian Zionism. Early Hebrew-Christians and early Hebrew-Catholics. The turning point: 1967. From Hebrew-Christians to Messianic Jews. The Messianic movement today in Israel and among the nations. Messianic theology and faith; Messianic congregations and worship; Messianic culture and life in Israel. Christian Zionism and Christian supporters of Israel today. Toward Jerusalem Council II - welcoming Jewish believers back into the Church.

  • Jesus and His Disciples Kept the Law

    Jesus teaching in the synagogueIs the baptized Jew obligated to keep the commandments of the Jewish Law? In the first part of this series, we see how Jesus did not abrogate the Law of Moses that was given to the Jewish people. We also see how the early Jewish-Christian community continued to live in accordance with the Torah. 

  • Jesus as the Incarnation of G-d's Name

    Jesus ChristThe Name of G-d is like a Temple: Just as a Temple locates G-d's Presence and offers men an opportunity to enter that Presence, the Name of G-d is the "place"—that through which-- we encounter the Presence of G-d.

  • Our Mission

    St. Peter's Church'To reunite all his children, scattered and led astray by sin, the Father willed to call the whole of humanity together into his Son's Church. The Church is the place where humanity must rediscover its unity and salvation. The Church is "the world reconciled." She is that bark which "in the full sail of the Lord's cross, by the breath of the Holy Spirit, navigates safely in this world." According to another image dear to the Church Fathers, she is prefigured by Noah's ark, which alone saves from the flood.' (CCC 845)

     

  • Prayer for the Salvation of Israel

    Yeshua, Messiah of IsraelLORD, that which You have given us, give to all Israel. May all Israel discover the sweet gentleness and sublimity of the Messiah, who is still waiting, and has already been with us for twenty centuries, Yeshua, the Lord. And together with the Messiah, may Israel discover the stunning beauty of the Good News that comes from heaven, the New Covenant capable of bringing to Israel the peace of her God, shalom upon Jerusalem.

  • The Catholic Liturgical Life as New Exodus

    The desert TabernacleThe Exodus, God's deliverance of Israel out of Egyptian slavery through Moses, prefigured God's redemption of all humanity from the slavery of sin through a new and greater Savior, Jesus the Messiah. The liturgical life of the Israelites in the desert on their way to the Promised Land prefigured the liturgical and sacramental life of the Church as it heads towards its heavenly Promised Land.

  • The Divinity of the Messiah

    Christ PantocratorIs the Messiah to be a mere man, as is commonly thought in traditional Judaism, or is he divine, as it is held by Christians? Did the concept of a divine Messiah derive from Greek pagan influences, or is it rooted in the Bible? Is it a New Testament innovation or can we find hints and traces of this idea throughout the Hebrew Bible and Jewish literature? Read about the divinity of the Messiah in the Patristic writings, in the New Testament, and in the Hebrew Scriptures and Jewish literature.

  • The Feasts of Israel: Foreshadowing the Messiah

    The Jewish FeastsThe Feasts of Israel commemorate God's deliverance of the Israelites from Egypt and his care for them during the Exodus. Yet the feasts also foreshadow God's salvation plan for humanity in Christ. This essay examines the significance of these feasts for the Jewish people as well as their messianic and typological fulfillment in Christ.

  • The Hidden Reality

    Ariela AvidanFinding My Jewish Past and My Catholic Present - Growing up in New York City in a very strict Catholic home I began questioning the doctrines of our faith at a very young age. Little did I know that this very same quest brought me to a moment in my life in which I would have all these questions answered for me by G-d, Himself!

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Latest Articles

Antoine Levy - 17 February 2024

When we meet cats who grin, that is, people who are naturally nice and warm, we tend to think that they are good people. A grin of the sort gives itself out as an implicit promise of support in time of need. Somebody whom we identify as empathic will be most likely to help. What is very curious is realizing that certain people's cordial grin amounts to...

Gavin D'Costa - 12 February 2024

The unconditional gift of the election of the Jewish people is the theological foundation of Catholic Zionism. Many New Testament texts support the notion that Catholics should endorse ­Zionism. Jesus himself was a Jewish Christian ­Zionist. Catholics accept that the Jewish people still have a providential role to play, and their return to the land of...

Gerald McDermott - 09 February 2024

Critics of Christian Zionism usually dismiss it for one of three reasons: (1) They say it contradicts the New Testament, which replaces the Old Testament focus on a particular land by the vision of a whole world; (2) They think it is the exclusive concern of premillennial dispensationalists; (3) It is said to be more political than theological, attached to...

Yehuda - 04 February 2024

On the one hand, there is the Christian message of unconditional love and its emphasis on self-sacrifice at the hands of those who hate you unjustly: "No one can have greater love than to lay down his life for his friends." On the other hand, there is the logic of war: you want to liquidate those who hate you to the point of murdering your nation by all...

Gerald McDermott - 29 December 2023

Gerald McDermott explores the notion of supersessionism in Christian theology, which suggests the promises made to the Jewish people in the Old Testament, including the land promise, have been superseded by the Christian church. This view has dominated Christian interpretation since the fourth century, leading to the marginalization of the New Testament's...

André Villeneuve - 20 December 2023

Dr. André Villeneuve discusses the role of Israel in the age of the Church on Michael Lofton's "Reason and Theology" podcast. Topics include God's covenant with Israel, supersessionism, the idea of the Church as "new Israel", Israel's role in the age of the Church, the modern state of Israel, Zionism, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and Israel's role in...