In response to:
so many fools who choose their own finite imaginations, limited knowledge and infantile understanding over the only salvation available to mankind.
who but a fool would ask, or even mores foolishly expect, people to believe their ignorant posturing over the self-sacrifice of the Incarnate Word and the Church He established?
to what depths of ignorance and intellectual vacuity has the government run schools reduced so many americans and their children? to the depths that so many are unable to recognize the choice is between believing that mankind must reason to their own salvation instead of accepting the salvation offered to all by the Incarnate Word through His self-sacrifice on the cross on Calvary.
A Christian can be crushed gazing at the picture of Mary standing at the foot of the cross, watching her beloved son suffocate and die. But in that vision, she stands there for hours, patiently enduring her suffering. For two millennia, she has been a role model for Christians, a woman who practiced obedience in the most difficult of human circumstances, with fervent hope for what this sacrifice will offer all mankind as it struggles with sin.
This is why it seems so hard to reflect that vision of patience when black-hearted "artists" practice character assassination on the Blessed Virgin...
I didn't lose my religion in "government run schools". I lost it in church. I went once or twice a week throughout my childhood, was baptized, officially joined the church, etc. And the more I listened to what they were preaching, and the more I read the Bible, the more it became clear that the whole thing was made-up nonsense. My church had its version of the truth, the church down the street had a slightly different one, and other religious organizations around the world had their own versions of divinity and salvation. So, was my church the "right" one, and all the others "wrong"? It finally dawned on me that they were ALL dealing in fiction.
it is doubly sad that you are in this situation when the Creator of the universe has given mankind all of the information it needs to live with hope and love through faith in the Creator's own sacrifice of His human self on the Cross on Calvary.
i realize only almighty God can give a person the theological virtue of faith and I pray everyday that almighty God does exactly that for all His human creatures.
I've seen many amazing things in my life (like my son picking up his room without being told), but never something I'd call a miracle. How about you?