EVERY REASON TO BELIEVE

• Jesus
  • The many proofs of Christ’s resurrection
  • Saint Thomas Aquinas: God gave all the divine proofs we needed to believe
  • The surpassing power of Christ's word
  • Lewis’s trilemma: a proof of Jesus’s divinity
  • Jesus spoke and acted as God's equal
• Mary
  • The Virgin Mary has appeared or intervened more than 2000 times throughout History!
  • The prophecies about "she who is to give birth" (Mi 5:2)
• The Church
  • The stability and permanence of the Catholic Church and magisterium
  • The concept of Revelation presupposes the concept of Magisterium
  • Humane Vitae: a striking argument in favor of Catholicism (1968)
• The Bible
  • The authors of the Gospels were either eyewitnesses or close contacts of those eyewitnesses
  • Onomastics support the historical reliability of the Gospels
  • The New Testament was not altered
  • The New Testament is the best-attested manuscript of Antiquity
  • The Gospels were written too early after the facts to be legends
  • Archaeological finds confirm the reliability of the New Testament
  • The criterion of embarrassment proves that the Gospels tell the truth
  • The dissimilarity criterion strengthens the case for the historical reliability of the Gospels
  • 84 details in Acts verified by historical and archaeological sources
  • The unique prophecies that announced the Messiah
  • The time of the coming of the Messiah was accurately prophesied
  • The prophet Isaiah's ultra accurate description of the Messiah's sufferings
  • Daniel's "Son of Man" is a portrait of Christ
• The Apostles
  • Saint Peter, prince of the apostles
  • James the Just, “brother” of the Lord, apostle and martyr (d. 62 AD)
• The martyrs
  • Saint Blandina and the Martyrs of Lyon: the fortitude of faith (177 AD)
  • Thomas More: “The king’s good servant, but God’s first”
  • The Martyrs of Compiègne (1794)
  • Blaise Marmoiton: the epic journey of a missionary to New Caledonia (d. 1847)
  • Saint Maximilian Kolbe, Knight of the Immaculate (d. 1941)
• The monks
  • Saint Benedict, father of Western monasticism (d. 550)
  • Blessed Angelo Agostini Mazzinghi: the Carmelite with flowers pouring from his mouth (d. 1438)
  • Monk Abel of Valaam's accurate prophecies about Russia (d. 1841)
  • The more than 33,000 miracles of Saint Charbel Maklouf (d. 1898)
• The saints
  • Saints Anne and Joachim, parents of the Virgin Mary (19 BC)
  • Saint Nazarius, apostle and martyr (d. 68 or 70)
  • Saint Lupus, the bishop who saved his city from the Huns (d. 623)
  • Saint Dominic of Guzman (d.1221): an athlete of the faith
  • Saint Anthony of Padua: "everyone’s saint"
  • Saint Simon Stock receives the scapular of Mount Carmel from the hands of the Virgin Mary
  • The unusual boat of Saint Basil of Ryazan
  • The extraordinary conversion of Michelina of Pesaro
  • Saint Rita of Cascia: hoping against all hope
  • Saint Anthony Mary Zaccaria, physician of bodies and souls (d. 1539)
  • Saint Ignatius of Loyola (d. 1556): "For the greater glory of God"
  • Saint John Vianney (d. 1859): the global fame of a humble village priest
  • Saints Louis and Zelie Martin, the parents of Saint Therese of Lisieux (d. 1894 and 1877)
  • Saint Faustina, apostle of the Divine Mercy (d. 1938)
  • Brother Marcel Van (d.19659): a "star has risen in the East"
• Doctors
  • Saint Alphonsus Liguori (1787): a lawyer takes on supernatural work
• The mystics
  • Saint Margaret Mary sees the "Heart that so loved mankind"
  • Lutgardis of Tongeren and the devotion to the Sacred Heart
  • Saint John of the Cross: mystic, reformer, poet, and universal psychologist (+1591)
• Visionaries
  • María de Jesús de Ágreda, abbess and friend of the King of Spain
  • Sister Benigna Consolata: the "Little Secretary of Merciful Love" (d. 1916)
  • The 700 extraordinary visions of the Gospel received by Maria Valtorta (d. 1961)
  • The amazing geological accuracy of Maria Valtorta's writings (d. 1961)
  • Maria Valtorta's astronomic observations consistent with her dating system
• The popes
  • Pope Saint Celestine V: at 84, nothing predestined him to become Pope
  • Saint John XXIII: Obedience as the path to peace
• The great witnesses of the faith
  • Saint Augustine's conversion: "Why not this very hour make an end to my uncleanness?" (386)
  • Thomas Cajetan (d. 1534): a life in service of the truth
  • Blaise Pascal (d.1662): Biblical prophecies are evidence
• Christian civilisation
  • Cathedrals are true windows to Heaven
  • Christianity gave rise to modern science
  • Hollywood discovered something that Christianity knew all along
• The depth of Christian spirituality
  • The incoherent arguments against Christianity
  • The "New Pentecost": modern day, spectacular outpouring of the Holy Spirit
• Christ's interventions in history
• Marian apparitions and interventions
  • The Life-giving Font of Constantinople
  • Cotignac: the first apparitions of the Modern Era (1519)
  • The Virgin Mary delivers besieged Christians in Cusco, Peru
  • Saint Joseph’s apparitions in Cotignac, France (1660)
  • The Holy Name of Mary and the major victory of Vienna (1683)
  • Heaven and earth meet in Colombia: the Las Lajas shrine (1754)
  • Gietrzwald apparitions: heavenly help to a persecuted minority
  • The silent apparition of Knock Mhuire in Ireland (1879)
  • Fontanelle-Montichiari apparitions of Our Lady "Rosa Mystica" (1947)
  • Zeitoun apparitions
  • Maria Esperanza Bianchini and Mary, Mary, Reconciler of Peoples and Nations (1976)
  • Luz Amparo and the El Escorial apparitions
  • The extraordinary apparitions of Medjugorje and their worldwide impact
  • The Virgin Mary heals a teenager, then appears to him dozens of times (1986)
• Angels and their manifestations
• Exorcisms in the name of Christ
• A wave of charity unique in the world
  • Saint Camillus de Lellis, reformer of hospital care (c. 1560)
  • Frédéric Ozanam, inventor of the Church's social doctrine (d. 1853)
  • Pier Giorgio Frassati (d.1925): heroic charity
  • Mother Teresa of Calcutta (d. 1997): an unshakeable faith
  • Heidi Baker: Bringing God's love to the poor and forgotten of the world
• Amazing miracles
• Miraculous cures
  • With 7,500 cases of unexplained cures, Lourdes is unique in the world (1858-today)
  • Mariam, the "little thing of Jesus": a saint from East to West (d.1878)
  • The miraculous cure of Blessed Maria Giuseppina Catanea
• Preserved bodies of the saints
  • Blessed Antonio Franco, bishop and defender of the poor (d. 1626)
  • The incorrupt body of Marie-Louise Nerbollier, the visionary from Diémoz (d. 1910)
• Bilocations
  • Souls in purgatory appear to Italian mystic "Mamma Natuzza" (d. 2009)
• Inedias
  • Therese Neumann (d. 1962): a medical enigma
• Levitations
  • Saint Philip Neri: a heart dilated by the fire of the Holy Spirit
  • Rosanna Battista of Grottaglie (d.1663): a heart on fire for Christ
• Lacrimations and miraculous images
  • The Rue du Bac apparitions of the Virgin Mary to St. Catherine Labouré (Paris, 1830)
  • Mary weeps in Syracuse (1953)
  • Teresa Musco (d.1976): salvation through the Cross
• Stigmates
  • Blessed Maria Grazia Tarallo, mystic and stigmatist (d. 1912)
  • Elena Aiello: "a Eucharistic soul"
• Eucharistic miracles
  • A host came to her: 11-year-old Imelda received Communion and died in ecstasy (1333)
  • Faverney's hosts miraculously saved from fire
  • Buenos Aires miraculous host sent to forensic lab, found to be heart muscle (1996)
• Relics
  • For centuries, the Shroud of Turin was the only negative image in the world
  • The Holy Tunic of Argenteuil's fascinating history
  • Saint Louis (d. 1270) and the relics of the Passion
• Jews discover the Messiah
  • Edith Stein - Saint Benedicta of the Cross: "A daughter of Israel who, during the Nazi persecutions, remained united with faith and love to the Crucified Lord, Jesus Christ, as a Catholic, and to her people as a Jew"
  • Cardinal Aron Jean-Marie Lustiger (d. 2007): Chosen by God
• Muslim conversions
  • How Aïsha, a Muslim convert, found Jesus (2004)
• Buddhist conversions
• Atheist conversions
  • The day André Frossard met Christ in Paris (1935)
• Testimonies of encounters with Christ
  • Near-death experiences (NDEs) confirm Catholic doctrine on the Four Last Things
  • Blessed Dina Bélanger (d. 1929): loving God and letting Jesus and Mary do their job
  • Gabrielle Bossis: He and I
  • André Levet's conversion in prison
• Providential stories
  • The superhuman intuition of Saint Pachomius the Great
  • Joan of Arc: "the most beautiful story in the world"
  • In 1947, a rosary crusade liberated Austria from the Soviets (1946-1955)
  • The discovery of the tomb of Saint Peter in Rome (1949)
  • A protective hand saved John Paul II and led to happy consequences (1981)