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952 Kelly Rd., Mt. Jackson, VA 22842
Tel: 540-856-8453 E-Mail: director@kolbecenter.org
"For me You have created the skies scattered with stars...and all the beautiful things on earth."
St. Maximilian Kolbe
Dear Friends of the Kolbe Center,
Pax Christi!
The first and second books of Maccabees were undoubtedly part of the Septuagint version of the Old Testament that was quoted extensively as Scripture by Our Lord and the Apostles. The Second Book of Maccabees describes how at a critical moment in the history of Israel leading up to the coming of Jesus, Judean leader Judas Machabeus faced a massively superior army under the Syrian general Nicanor. In the fifteenth chapter, the sacred author describes what took place after Nicanor had heaped scorn upon the Hebrews' belief in God's revelation of the six days of creation:
[1] But when Nicanor understood that Judas was in the places of Samaria, he purposed to set upon him with all violence on the sabbath day. [2] And when the Jews that were constrained to follow him, said: Do not act so fiercely and barbarously, but give honour to the day that is sanctified: and reverence him that beholdeth all things: [3] That unhappy man asked, if there were a mighty One in heaven, that had commanded the sabbath day to be kept. [4] And when they answered: There is the living Lord himself in heaven, the mighty One, that commanded the seventh day to be kept, [5] Then he said: And I am mighty upon the earth, and I command to take arms, and to do the king's business. Nevertheless he prevailed not to accomplish his design.
[6] So Nicanor being puffed up with exceeding great pride, thought to set up a public monument of his victory over Judas. [7] But Machabeus ever trusted with all hope that God would help them. [8] And he exhorted his people not to fear the coming of the nations, but to remember the help they had before received from heaven, and now to hope for victory from the Almighty. [9] And speaking to them out of the law, and the prophets, and withal putting them in mind of the battles they had fought before, he made them more cheerful: [10]Then after he had encouraged them, he shewed withal the falsehood of the Gentiles, and their breach of oaths.
[11] So he armed every one of them, not with defense of shield and spear, but with very good speeches and exhortations, and told them a dream worthy to be believed, whereby he rejoiced them all. [12] Now the vision was in this manner: Onias who had been high priest, a good and virtuous man, modest in his looks, gentle in his manners, and graceful in his speech, and who from a child was exercised in virtues, holding up his hands, prayed for all the people of the Jews: [13] After this there appeared also another man, admirable for age, and glory, and environed with great beauty and majesty: [14] Then Onias answering, said: This is a lover of his brethren, and of the people of Israel: this is he that prayeth much for the people, and for all the holy city, Jeremias the prophet of God. [15] Whereupon Jeremias stretched forth his right hand, and gave to Judas a sword of gold, saying:
[16] Take this holy sword a gift from God, wherewith thou shalt overthrow the adversaries of my people Israel. [17] Thus being exhorted with the words of Judas, which were very good, and proper to stir up the courage, and strengthen the hearts of the young men, they resolved to fight, and to set upon them manfully: that valour might decide the matter, because the holy city and the temple were in danger. [18] For their concern was less for their wives, and children, and for their brethren, and kinsfolks: but their greatest and principal fear was for the holiness of the temple. [19] And they also that were in the city, had no little concern for them that were to be engaged in battle. [20] And now when all expected what judgment would be given, and the enemies were at hand, and the army was set in array, the beasts and the horsemen ranged in convenient places,
[21] Machabeus considering the coming of the multitude, and the divers preparations of armour, and the fierceness of the beasts, stretching out his hands to heaven, called upon the Lord, that worketh wonders, who giveth victory to them that are worthy, not according to the power of their arms, but according as it seemeth good to him. [22] And in his prayer he said after this manner: Thou, O Lord, who didst send thy angel in the time of Ezechias king of Juda, and didst kill a hundred and eighty-five thousand of the army of Sennacherib: [23] Send now also, O Lord of heaven, thy good angel before us, for the fear and dread of the greatness of thy arm, [24] That they may be afraid, who come with blasphemy against thy holy people. And thus he concluded his prayer. [25] But Nicanor, and they that were with him came forward, with trumpets and songs.
[26] But Judas, and they that were with him, encountered them, calling upon God by prayers: [27] So fighting with their hands, but praying to the Lord with their hearts, they slew no less than five and thirty thousand, being greatly cheered with the presence of God. [28] And when the battle was over, and they were returning with joy, they understood that Nicanor was slain in his armour. [29] Then making a shout, and a great noise, they blessed the Almighty Lord in their own language. [30] And Judas, who was altogether ready, in body and mind, to die for his countrymen, commanded that Nicanor's head, and his hand with the shoulder should be cut off, and carried to Jerusalem.
[31] And when he was come thither, having called together his countrymen, and the priests to the altar, he sent also for them that were in the castle, [32]And shewing them the head of Nicanor, and the wicked hand, which he had stretched out, with proud boasts, against the holy house of the Almighty God, [33] He commanded also, that the tongue of the wicked Nicanor, should be cut out and given by pieces to birds, and the hand of the furious man to be hanged up over against the temple. [34] Then all blessed the Lord of heaven, saying: Blessed be he that hath kept his own place undefiled. [35] And he hung up Nicanor's head in the top of the castle, that it might be an evident and manifest sign of the help of God. [36] And they all ordained by a common decree, by no means to let this day pass without solemnity: [37] But to celebrate the thirteenth day of the month of Adar, called, in the Syrian language, the day before Mardochias' day.
The protestant leaders who mutilated the Bible by removing this and other books quoted as Scripture by Our Lord and the Apostles deprived their disciples of this important testimony to the reality of the communion of saints, to the importance of prayers and sacrifices for the souls in Purgatory, and to the importance of preserving a true record of the past. All of these truths were either denied or diluted by the protestant revolutionaries, thus helping to pave the way for the modernist revolution with its ultimate denial of the true history of the world and its replacement with the modern myth of molecules-to-man evolution.
This diabolical substitution of a naturalistic myth for the sacred history of Genesis has made it all but impossible for young Catholics to believe that they are the "apple of God's eye," since they are told that science has "proven" that they hold a completely insignificant position in time and space, the first human body having evolved after billions of years of death and destruction in a remote corner of the universe. If they are to acquire a sense of their importance in God's sight, it must be achieved not on the basis of truth, but on the ground of feeling-hence, the rise of emotion-driven youth ministry, producing emotional highs that compensate for the bleak and depressing "truth" of evolutionary science dutifully imparted to them in most Catholic schools and universities all over the world.
On the other hand, Catholic young people who learn the truth about their position in time and space do not need to be manipulated into feeling that their lives have value. They know it! Moreover, in recent years, advances in many areas of natural science have confirmed the truth of the sacred history of Genesis while exposing more and more of the fatal flaws in the molecules-to-man evolutionary hypothesis. Advances in genetics and the study of the human genome in particular have led to a series of remarkable discoveries that confirm the truth of the first eleven chapters of the sacred history of Genesis.
One scholar who was converted from a belief in theistic evolution to the true Catholic doctrine of creation by his study of genetics is Dr. Patrick Redmond, a member of the Kolbe advisory council with a Ph.D. in History who worked on a study sponsored by IBM and the National Geographic Society called the Genographic project. In his words, the purpose of the project was "to chart new knowledge about the migratory history of the human species, by using sophisticated laboratory and computer analysis of DNA contributed by hundreds of thousands of people from around the world." He has graciously allowed the Kolbe Center to publish the revised edition of his book From Adam and Eve to the Present: A Human Journey as an e-book on the Kolbe website in which he explains how the results of this study confirm the literal historical truth of the sacred history of Genesis. In his introduction to the work, he explains how the study was conducted:
In 2005, IBM and the National Geographic Society initiated a study, One of two tests was offered. Men could select an analysis of the Y-chromosome, which is found only in males. The National Geographic website explains why the Y-chromosome was analyzed. The human body is made of some 50 to 100 trillion cells. Most cells have a similar basic structure. An outer layer called the cell membrane and a nucleus that controls the cell and houses the genetic material in structures called chromosomes. Chromosomes carry hereditary genetic information in long strings of DNA called genes. Each human cell has 46 chromosomes in 23 pairs - 22 numbered pairs of chromosomes and a single set of sex chromosomes xx in women and xy in men. Why focus on the Y chromosome? The Y-chromosome is passed on intact through the male line, changed only by random mutational events. It is thus used to trace genetic lineages far back in time. Spencer Wells, the director of the Genographic Project, in his book Deep Ancestry adds: "Some regions of shuffled chromosomes maintain themselves for many generations before they are broken up. These are called haplotype blocks. People who share markers have a common ancestor. The second test, which men and women could select, was an analysis of the mtDNA. Once again, Wells explains: "The mtDNA is actually a piece of DNA that falls outside of the nucleus where the genome proper (like the chromosomes, such as the Y) is found.
The mtDNA is found inside a structure known as a mitochondrion, which lives out in the cytoplasm (or main body) of the cell. The mitochondrion has its own membrane and DNA. Your results will reveal your deep ancestry along a single line of descent (paternal or maternal) and show the migration paths ancestors followed over time. Your results also place you on a particular branch of the human family tree. I took the Y-chromosome test for men. The analysis of my DNA showed that I belonged to Ychromosome Haplogroup R1b, M343 (subclade R1b1b2, M269). This haplogroup, R1b, M343 (subclade R1b1b2, M269), is very common in parts of Spain and Ireland, where more than 90% of men belong to it. Therefore, whether you are a Redmond, Hennessey, Walsh, McGuire, Corbett, O'Leary, Kinsley, Murphy, O'Grady, Currie, Collins or Ross or any other Irish family, this history applies to you, with rare exceptions. Initial Thoughts on Analysis The results of the DNA analysis were intriguing. They showed clearly the dispersion of modern humans from the Near East throughout the entire world. Indeed, the DNA analysis suggested that humans had their origin in the Near East, even though the National Geographic Society, which interpreted the DNA analysis provided by IBM, claimed human origins were in Eastern Africa. Also, given the DNA analysis of modern man and predecessors, as well as of the pattern of dispersion of modern man, the claims for evolution of man from earlier species, leading back to a common ancestor with the monkey, seemed dubious at best.
These initial conclusions on the DNA analysis were reinforced by comments made by others who have written about DNA analysis and its impact. For example, I.L. Cohen, researcher and mathematician, member of the New York Academy of Science and officer of the Archaeological Institute of America, wrote: "At that moment, when the DNA/RNA system became understood, the debate between Evolutionists and Creationists should have come to a screeching halt." Francis S. Collins, who led the Human Genome project, said that creation has become intelligible to us through science. He said with joyful astonishment: "The language of God was revealed" The more one studied the data, the more it suggested a suddenly emerging and rapidly spreading modern man, not a man slowly evolving from a distant and little known past. Moreover, it became ever clearer that this suddenly emerging man was created and did not evolve. Prior to joining IBM I had taught history and archaeology at university. So I understood the arguments for evolution. Yet now, when analyzing my DNA and confirming my origins it became obvious that evolution did not provide a believable explanation of my origins. Attempts at it, in the data sent to me, were very unconvincing, as we shall show. Indeed, in the end one must accept that evolution (variations include naturalism, theistic evolution, Darwinian evolution, neo-Darwinian evolution, punctuated equilibrium, biochemical evolution, molecular phylogeny, cladistics, cataclysmic evolution, directed panspermia or creation by aliens and DNA mutations) and creation by God . . . are two distinct philosophical systems of belief. Individuals follow one or the other. Can either be proven?
Some say not through science alone. As Jeremy Walter writes: "Scientific evidence can be compiled to support one model of earth history as compared to another, but such work amounts to a feasibility study, not proof. Science is the human enterprise of seeking to describe accurately and quantitatively the nature and processes of our universe through observation, hypothesis, and experimental validation... We have no human record of observed events from great antiquity, but rather interpretations of recent observations of present realities." Karl Popper referred to Darwinism as "a metaphysical research program" because it is not a testable scientific theory. Velikovsky called it a faith. When commenting on the theory of uniformity promoted by Charles Lyell, and on which Darwin built his theory of evolution, he writes: "The scientific principle which insists that whatever does not occur at the present time has not occurred in the past is a self-imposed limitation. Rather than a principle in science, it is a statute of faith. And Lyell ended his famous chapter accordingly, with an appeal to faith and with a precept for believers; 'If he (the student) finally believes in the resemblance or identity of the ancient and present systems of territorial changes, he will regard every fact collected respecting the causes in diurnal action as affording him a key to the interpretation of some mystery of the past'." Those who follow evolution, then, propose and accept an ever-changing series of interpretations, or hypotheses, all of which to date have been shown to be inadequate or proven wrong. On the other hand, those who prefer the philosophical interpretation which states that man was created by God, do claim a record of observed events - the Bible. They use this record to guide them in their study of origins. Indeed, the Catholic Church accepted this record for nineteen centuries before entertaining doubts due to the influence of those promoting theistic evolution and other theories.
We shall look at both philosophical interpretations in Chapter One and show how the evidence is considerably stronger for creation by God than it is for evolution.
I hope that many of you will take advantage of this opportunity to learn how cutting-edge genetics confirms the truth of the sacred history of Genesis so that you can confidently teach your children and grandchildren and all who will listen that they are indeed the apple of God's eye, for whom from the beginning of creation the Most High God created the heavens, the Earth, the seas and all they contain.
Yours in Christ through the Immaculata,
Hugh Owen
P.S. Our annual regional leaders retreat will be held at Conception Seminary in Conception, Missouri, from June 10-16. The retreat equips attendees to be regional leaders who can advance the mission of the Kolbe Center in their local areas. The retreat is open to adults, to teenagers 16 years of age or older with their parents' permission, and to families with children. Activities will be organized for the children every morning except Sunday throughout the retreat. If you are interested in attending, please email me at howen@shentel.net as soon as possible to reserve a place.
P.P.S. On February 2, 2018, which is the day celebrating the double
Feast of the Presentation of Jesus in the Temple and the Purification of the Blessed Virgin Mary, there will occur throughout the United States the gathering of faithful in their parish churches to pray the Rosary for the intention of the Purification of the Church, and the Triumph of the Light of Christ over all sin and error. While being inspired by the Rosary on the Borders in Poland, this Rosary event - entitled Rosary To The Interior: For the Purification of the Church - does indeed have a different and very specific intention. Recognizing that the Catholic Church alone in this world was blessed and commissioned with the Light of Christ necessary for triumph over the Darkness of sin and error, and that this Light has now been severely obscured by the sin and errors of its own members, this Rosary asks us to turn our eyes inward in order to effect that interior purification which alone can once again make Christ's Light manifest in its fullness to the world.
A website has now been established, which offers a more complete explanation of both the nature and structure of this event. It is found here.
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Latest Products from the Kolbe Center:
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From Adam and Eve to the Present: A Human Journey by Patrick Redmond - E-Book (PDF)
When IBM and the National Geographic Society implemented the Genographic Project to chart the migratory history of the human race through sophisticated laboratory and computer analysis of DNA contributed by hundreds of thousands of people worldwide, the author participated by having his DNA analyzed. The analysis showed he belonged to Y-chromosome Haplogroup R1b, M343, a haplogroup very common in parts of Spain and Ireland, to which more than 90% of men belong.
Further analysis of the results proved intriguing. It suggested a recent, dramatic worldwide dispersion of people from the Near East, from a couple known as Adam and Eve, not a slow evolution from earlier species in a distant and little known past.
Even more remarkable was the similarity between the movement of his ancestors, as traced through markers in the DNA, with information provided by Greek, Roman and other ancient manuscripts and documents as well as recent studies.
Combining the journey provided by the DNA analysis to these historical and religious documents unveiled a fascinating history of the origins of the Irish and others with a similar Haplogroup, which started in the Near East and, from there, moved through Iraq and into Iran and neighbouring lands, then westwards into Europe and through it to France and ultimately the British Isles and Ireland. During this journey, groups regularly split off and, over time, started other peoples and nations throughout the world.
The result is an explanation of Irish history going back to Adam and Eve that accepts a theistic interpretation of creation in which God created humans as a unique, distinct species in the recent past, and then remained involved in their evolving history.
$5.00
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