Keep
your eyes open!...
April 30, 2021
(Rev 11:19-12:1) And the temple of
God was opened in heaven: and the ark of his testament was seen in his
temple. And there were lightnings and voices and an earthquake and
great hail. And a great sign appeared in heaven: A woman clothed with
the sun, and the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve
stars.
MIRACLEHUNTER.COM: Marian Apparitions
The earliest known claim was from
St. James the Greater who saw the Virgin Mary while he was in preaching
on the banks of the Ebro River in Saragossa, Spain in 40 A.D.
Today, apparition reports occur more frequently. Some scholars estimate
the total number of apparition claims throughout history to be
approximately 2,500 (with about 500 of those coming in the 20th century
alone). According to the Dictionary of Apparitions of the Virgin Mary,
throughout history 308 apparitions are attributed to Saints or
Blesseds. They are generally unofficially recognized by Church
authorities (or at least the orders and congregations that they have
founded or belonged to). Only 7 Popes throughout history have witnessed
Marian apparitions.
Although not officially approved by
the Roman Catholic Church, visionaries in Medjugorje,
Bosnia-Hercegovina and elsewhere currently distribute messages
attributed to the Blessed Virgin.
The most famous apparitions have
been those reported in Guadalupe, Mexico (1531), Rue du Bac, France
(1830), Lourdes, France (1858), Fatima, Portugal (1917), and
Medjugorje, Bosnia-Hercegovina (1981).
The most recently Vatican
recognized apparitions are those from Le Laus, France (1664) which were
approved in 2008. The most recently occurring apparitions with Vatican
recogntiion are those from Kibeho, Rwanda which ended in 1989. The
apparitions in Itapiranga, Brazil (specifically those from1994-98) were
declared to be supernatural by the local bishop in 2009 but that
decision was later reversed. The 1859 Robinsonville, WI, USA
apparitions which were declared authentic on December 8, 2010 are the
first and only episcopally approved apparitions in the history of the
United States. The most recent approval by a local bishop was that of
the Bishop of San Nicolas, Most Reverend Hector Cardelli, who In May
2016 approved the apparitions received by Gladys Quiroga de Motta as
supernatural from the years 1983 -1990 (although the messages continue
to this day).
The Catholic Church has been very
cautious to approve purported miraclous events. In fact, in the 20th
Century, of the hundreds of public claims, there have been only 12 with episcopal approval
(4 of those with Vatican recognition) and a handful of others that have
not received official approval but have been approved for faith
expression at the site. A total of 28 apparitions
(now reduced to 26) throughout history have been investigated and have
received episcopal approval (16 of those have been recognized by the
Vatican). Additionally, there have been four Egyptian apparitions
approved by the Coptic Orthodox Church in the last 50 years. The list
of rejected claims continues to grow.
LINK: A world map of Virgin Mary apparitions
NCR ARCHIVES: Our Lady of Akita, Japan, and Today’s Crisis
CERVANTES: Dire prophecies the Blessed Mother wants revealed to all
Supernatural communications are
aplenty most especially now, but the same messages were already being
told us earlier, such as in the 1950s in the case of Blessed Elena Aiello.
I felt some hesitation in sharing
the following messages which are largely terrifying prophecies (please
be forewarned now), but the messages also came with a mandate from the
Blessed Mother to make them known. And so with a feeling of exhaustion,
I yield.
Background: Elena Aiello (10 April
1895 – 19 June 1961) was an Italian Roman Catholic nun and the founder
of the Minim Sisters of the Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ. In April
2011, Pope Benedict XVI okayed the beatification of Venerable Elena
Aiello. She was declared Blessed on September 14, 2011, in Piazza dei
Bruzi in Cosenza, Italy.
Now here's the prophecy given to her by the Blessed Mother on Good Friday, April 16, 1954:
"Listen attentively, and REVEAL TO ALL:
"My Heart is sad for so many
sufferings in an impending world in ruin. The justice of Our Father is
most offended. Men live in their obstinacy of sin. The wrath of God is
near. Soon the world will be afflicted with great calamities, bloody
revolutions, frightful hurricanes, and the overflowing of streams and
the seas’.
"Cry out until the priests of God
lend their ears to my voice, to advise men that the time is near at
hand, and if men do not return to God with prayers and penances, the
world will be overturned in a new and more terrible war. Arms most
deadly will destroy peoples and nations! The dictators of the earth,
specimens infernal, will demolish the churches and desecrate the Holy
Eucharist and will destroy things most dear. In this impious war, much
will be destroyed of that which has been built by the hands of man.’
"Clouds with lightning flashes of fire in the sky and a tempest of fire
shall fall upon the world. This terrible scourge, never before seen in
the history of humanity, will last seventy hours. Godless persons will
be crushed and wiped out. Many will be lost because they remain in
their obstinacy of sin. Then shall be seen the power of light over the
power of darkness.
"Be not silent, my daughter,
because the hours of darkness, of abandonment, are near. I am bending
over the world, holding in suspension the justice of God. Otherwise,
these things would already have now come to pass. Prayers and penances
are necessary because men must return to God and to My Immaculate
Heart—the Mediatrix of men to God, and thus the world will be at least
in part saved.
"Cry out these things to all, like
the very echo of my voice. Let this be known to all because it will
help save many souls and prevent much destruction in the Church and in
the world."
In another message of April 8, 1955, the Blessed Mother, with tears flowing, said:
"My daughter, it is thy Mother
speaking to thee, listen attentively, and make known all that I tell
thee, because men, in spite of repeated warnings, are not returning to
God. They refuse grace and are not listening to my voice. You must have
no doubt about what I am making known to you, because my words are very
clear, and you must transmit them to all.
"Dark and frightful days are
approaching. Mankind is obscured by a thick fog, as a result of the
many grievous sins, which are well nigh covering the whole earth.
Today, more than ever, men are, resisting the calls from Heaven, and
are blaspheming God, while wallowing in the mire of sin.
"My daughter, look upon my Heart
pierced by the thorns of so many sins; my face, disfigured by sorrow;
my eyes, filled with tears. The cause of such great sadness is the
sight of so many souls going to Hell, and because the Church is wounded
– inwardly and outwardly.
"The rulers of nations make so much
ado and speak of peace. But instead, the whole world will soon be at
war, and all mankind will be plunged into sorrow, because the justice
of God will not be delayed in fulfilling its course, and these events
are near. Tremendous will be the upheaval of the whole world, because
men — as at the time of the Deluge — have lost God’s way, and are ruled
by the spirit of Satan.
"Priests must unite by prayers and
penance. They must hasten to spread the devotion to the Two Hearts. The
hour of my triumph is close at hand. The victory will be accomplished
through the love and mercy of the Heart of My Son, and of My Immaculate
Heart the Mediatrix between men and God, By accepting this invitation,
and by uniting their tears to those of My Sorrowful Heart, priests and
religious will obtain great graces for the salvation of poor sinners.
"Launch forth into the world a
message to make known to all that the scourge is at hand, The justice
of God is weighing upon the world. Mankind, defiled in the mire, soon
will be washed in its own blood, by disease; by famine; by earthquakes;
by cloudbursts, tornadoes, floods, and terrible storms; and by war. But
men ignore all these warnings, and are unwilling to be convinced that
my tears are plain signs to serve notice that tragic events are hanging
over the world, and that the hours of great trials are at hand.
"If men do not amend their ways, a
terrifying scourge of fire will come down from Heaven upon all the
nations of the world, and men will be punished according to the debts
contracted with Divine justice. There will be frightful moments for
all, because Heaven will be joined with the earth, and all the ungodly
people will be destroyed, Some nations will be purified while others
will disappear entirely.
"You are to transmit these warnings
to all, in order that the new generation will know that men had been
warned in time to turn to God by doing penance, and thus could have
avoided these punishments."
When Blessed Elena asked when these prophecies would happen, the Blessed Mother replied:
"My daughter, the time is not far off. When men least expect it, the course of Divine Justice will be accomplished."
Thoughts
and Sayings of Saint Margaret Mary: The Practice of Virtue
13. Our falls are the result of the
continual revolt
of our passions. But we need not be troubled, cast down or discouraged
by them: we must do violence to ourselves and draw profit from them.
April 28, 2021
(Gal 1:8-10) But
though we, or an angel from heaven, preach a gospel to you besides that
which we have preached to you, let him be anathema. As we said before,
so now I say again: If any one preach to you a gospel, besides that
which you have received, let him be anathema. For do I now persuade
men, or God? Or do I seek to please men? If I yet pleased men, I should
not be the servant of Christ.
FR. MARK GORING, CC: On the Verge of Schism?
THE CATHOLIC THING: Schismatic Stratagems
NATIONAL CATHOLIC REGISTER
DAILY COMPASS: Germany, 10 May: the schism begins with gay unions
Already 2,500 German parish priests and deacons have signed up for the
day of the blessing of all lovers, including homosexual couples. And
some bishops have already made known that do not intend to impose any
sanctions on the "rebel" priests. This is the gauntlet that the German
Church has thrown down to Rome after its "No" to the blessing of gay
unions.
Teutonic "Catholics" have been
upset, in no small measure, by the position taken by the Congregation
for the Doctrine of the Faith against the blessing of homosexual
couples. A simple Roman congregation dared to obstruct the Synodal Way
of the church that holds the Geist: outrageous!
And so, without further ado, the
now clearly schismatic opposition has taken remedial action, organising
a day of blessing for all lovers on 10 May, specifically including
homosexual couples, the main object of contention. Obviously, it is
organised in German style: a website has been created with the "highly
original" title #liebegewinnt
(love wins), through which it is possible to register as individuals
and as parishes. There is also a Google map, with flags identifying the
places where the blessing celebrations will be held: helpful for the
seven angels of the bowls of God’s wrath to locate their targets...
After the critical remarks on the Congregation's Responsum
by Cardinal Reinhard Marx, the president of the German Bishops'
Conference, Monsignor Georg Bätzing, the Bishop of Osnabrück, Monsignor
Franz-Josef Bode, and the auxiliary bishop of Münster, Monsignor Dieter
Geerlings, now move on to action. And they do so with a clearly
polemical intent: "In view of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the
Faith's refusal to bless same-sex couples, we raise our voices and say:
we will also accompany couples in the future who are in a stable
relationship and bless their relationship. We will not deny them a
blessing ceremony" (see here). The emphasis on the blessing of the
relationship is therefore an explicit rejection of the main thrust of
the Responsum of 22 February, which stated precisely that the problem
of such blessings lies not in individuals, but in "relationships or
[...] partnerships, even stable ones, that involve a sexual practice
outside of marriage (that is, outside the indissoluble union of a man
and a woman open as such to the transmission of life), as is the case
with unions between persons of the same sex".
In concrete terms, the initiative
on 10 May is an invitation "to use numerous creative signs to show how
many people in the church perceive the colourful diversity of people's
different life plans and love stories as an enrichment and a blessing",
by organising "a service of blessing in many places, preferably at the
same time, 7 p.m. Couples taking part in this ceremony must receive the
blessing that God wants to give them, without hiding away".
In the meantime, the bishop of Essen, Msgr Franz-Josef Overbeck, has already made it known (see here)
that he and other bishops do not intend to impose any sanctions on the
priests who, on this occasion, will impart blessings to the various
couples present. Because for them, dialogue with Rome goes like this:
either you write what we want, or we go our own way. A position which,
from a canonical point of view, is called schism. Rome has been warned:
the decisions on homosexuality, female priesthood, and contraception
are made by the Synodale Weg.
Thoughts
and Sayings of Saint Margaret Mary: The Practice of Virtue
12. Virtue does not consist in making
good resolutions,
nor in saying fine words, but in keeping one's resolutions and carrying
out one's good intentions.
April 26, 2021
(Mat 5:10-12) Blessed are they that
suffer persecution for justice' sake: for theirs is the kingdom of
heaven. Blessed are ye when they shall revile you, and persecute you,
and speak all that is evil against you, untruly, for my sake: Be glad
and rejoice for your reward is very great in heaven. For so they
persecuted the prophets that were before you.
CNS NEWS REPORT: Coptic Orthodox Christian executed by ISIS affiliates in Egypt
A PILLAR EXPLAINER: ‘Descent into hell’ - What the Catholic Church faces in Haiti
ACN REPORT SUMMARY: Most of world’s population live in countries that violate religious freedom
Religious freedom is violated severely in one out of every three
countries. In the last two years, the fundamental right to freedom of
belief was not respected in 62 (31.6 percent) of the world’s 196
countries; 67 percent of the world’s population, or 5.2 billion people,
live in countries that exhibit grave violations of religious freedom,
including China, India and Pakistan, three of the world’s most populous
countries. And Christians are most often targeted by persecution.
LINK TO EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: https://www.churchinneed.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/RFR_2021_Executive-Summary.pdf
LINK TO ENTIRE TEXT: https://rfr.acninternational.org/home/
THE CATHOLIC SUN: Aid to the Church in Need sees increased violations of religious freedom globally
The religious persecution exercised
by China and North Korea, restrictions on religious freedom in dozens
of countries and the continuing threat of violence at the hands of
religious fundamentalists belonging to a variety of faiths all have
worsened since 2018, said Aid to the Church in Need, a papal foundation
and Catholic charity.
The problems “have been exacerbated
by the COVID-19 pandemic. States have used the insecurity to increase
control over their citizens, and nonstate actors have taken advantage
of the confusion to recruit, expand and provoke wider humanitarian
crises,” said an analysis published with ACN’s annual report,
“Religious Freedom in the World.”
The report, released April 20, said outright persecution exists in “26
countries which are home to 3.9 billion people or just over half — 51%
— of the world’s population.” In addition to China, North Korea and
Saudi Arabia, the list includes a dozen African countries, such as
Somalia, Libya, Nigeria, Congo and Mozambique, as well as Myanmar
because of its treatment of the Rohingya, a Muslim minority in the
predominantly Buddhist nation.
While the charity found the overall
situation worsening globally, it did find a glimmer of hope, saying
that from 2018 to 2020 there had been “significant progress, especially
in interreligious dialogue, as well as the increasingly important role
of religious leaders in the mediation and resolution of hostilities and
war.”
Obviously, the lockdowns and
restrictions on public gatherings enacted by national, state or local
governments also had an impact on citizens’ freedom to worship.
“It is difficult to assess to what
extent the right to religious freedom was threatened universally
because each country, and in some cases each region, responded
differently to the global event,” the report noted. And while
governments were obliged to act to protect the common good, “it is also
clear that there were cases of abuse and attacks on religious freedom,
in part by means of disproportionate application of restrictions to
religious activities, as compared with commercial activities, but also
through aggressive police and military tactics in addressing breaches
of restrictions related to religious practices.”
As an example, the report cited “examples of disproportionate
restrictions on religious practice” in some U.S. states and in Spain
“where attendance at religious services was very restricted while
places of business or recreation were allowed to welcome customers in
greater numbers.” “The COVID-19 pandemic opened an important debate
around the world about fundamental rights, including the right to
religious freedom, the implications of legislative overreach and
whether, in some cases, aggressively secular governments are adequately
able to discern the importance of these rights,” the report said.
As for China, the charity said
state control of anyone identifying with a religion has become
“relentless.” “Mass surveillance, including artificial
intelligence-refined technology, a social credit system that rewards
and punishes individual behavior, and brutal crackdowns on religious
and ethnic groups, enforce the state supremacy,” the report said,
pointing particularly to the “mass internment and coercive
‘re-education programs’ affecting more than a million, mostly Muslim,
ethnic Uyghurs in Xinjiang province.”
VIDEO INTRODUCTION: 2021 Religious Freedom in the World report
Thoughts
and Sayings of Saint Margaret Mary: The Practice of Virtue
11. Great graces are
often attached to what seems
trifling.
April 23, 2021
(Jas 4:7-8) Be
subject therefore to God. But resist the devil: and he will fly from
you. Draw nigh to God: and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your
hands, ye sinners, and purify your hearts, ye double minded.
ROMAN CATHOLIC MAN: Things Accelerate Toward the End- Prophecy of Archbishop Fulton Sheen
MARK MALLET BLOG: Evil Will Have Its Day
CRISIS MAGAZINE: How Catholic Men Can Rise Up and Fight: A Practical Guide
EXCERPT: Courage is Contagious by Ted Flynn
America over the last several
generations has become a pagan land. Albeit, we have technology the
world could never could have imagined years ago. In 1969 we sent three
men to the moon and brought them home safely, we have broken the
genetic code of man, and countless other technological feats. We are
pagans in our beliefs and practices, with great technology in our
hands. We have, devolved into a moral wasteland filled with pagan
people. If one were to look at what the U.S. government funds for our
social policies, and what we practice and believe, we have become
outright pagan, similar in practice and views to the people Paul
visited on his mission journeys.
Saint Paul’s writings are majestic truth in every sense of the word
because of his uncompromising clarity. There is never any ambiguity
where Paul stands on any moral issue. In an age where 2 + 2 = 5, and
the truth is hard to find, it is going to take more of the directness
of Paul to make Christian doctrine clear. The insanity of gender shows
just how far we have drifted spiritually. When a woman can be called a
man because they will it due to dysfunctional thinking, and the
government endorses it, that is not just confusion, that is moral
depravity. Moral relativism has taken us to another dimension when we
can’t make it clear there is a difference between something as simple
as the differences between a man and a woman’s gender. The U.S. is a
modern-day pagan Rome whether we care to admit it or not, and speaking
directly as Paul did to the Romans, is a partial remedy for the
culture.
Saint Paul described the Romans behavior and views in the first chapter
in his letter to them. Paul is speaking as if he is on a street corner
among friends. He is speaking in the vernacular and understandable. It
is direct, clear, and brutally frank what he thinks these pagans in
Rome really are, as he gives very emotive descriptions of their
behavior. There is no confusion where he stands. It is not sugar coated
like we see people talking about the state of American degeneracy and
what we have become as a nation.
Paul writes to the Romans what he
thinks of their behavior, “Ever since God created the world His
everlasting power and deity—however invisible—have been there for the
mind to see in the things he has made. That is why such people are
without excuse: they knew God and yet refused to honor Him as God or to
thank Him, instead thy made nonsense out of logic and their empty minds
were darkened. The more they called themselves philosophers, the more
stupid they grew, until they exchanged the glory of the immortal God
for a worthless imitation of a mortal man, of birds, quadrupeds, and
reptiles. That is why God left them to their filthy enjoyments, and the
practices which they dishonor their own bodies since they have given up
divine truth for a lie and have worshipped and served creatures instead
of the creator, who is blessed forever. Amen!
In other words, since they refused
to see it was rational to acknowledge God, God has left them to their
own irrational ideas and their monstrous behavior. And so they are
steeped in all sorts of depravity, rottenness, greed and malice,
slanderers, enemies of God, rude, arrogant, boastful, enterprising in
sin, rebellious to parents, without brains, honor, love, or pity. They
know what God’s verdict is: that those who behave like this deserve to
die—and yet they do it; and what is worse; encourage others to do the
same (Romans 1: 20-25, 28-32).
Paul is talking to people about the
state of depravity in men’s souls due to the ravages of illicit
conduct. Sin clouds the mind from grace to have clear thoughts, thus
you produce monstrous behavior and all the descriptions St. Paul uses
to describe people who are lost. Ultimately, one’s world view is based
on a belief in God or not. Atheism brings out the beast in man and this
is what is prevailing today. History has shown man is capable of
horrific crimes when the divine is removed from the affairs of man. Sin
prevents grace and light from entering the soul of people, thus the
morally aberrant conduct that encourages others to do the same.
Historian Will Durant in his book Lessons of History, writes how great
nations do not perish at the hands of enemies from without, but they
commit suicide. Over the last generation in particular, as we have lost
our moral standing, we are following the path of other great
civilizations to the ash heap of history. The insanity observing it, is
hard to watch for people who grew up in 1940’s-70’s in the United
States.
Our state of depravity is so complex to fix today, most have given up
trying to find a remedy. The national past time is talking about the
problems and disseminating e mails on the reprobate state of the
country. Very few (yea verily) provide solutions. Believers have all
the tools necessary to remedy the situation, but their silence is the
problem. Jesus told Saint Faustina, “Fear is useless, what is needed is
trust.” Edmund Burke’s famous quote is still appropriate, “the only
thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.”
The left has a near monopoly on controlling the narrative, while most
believers just respond to their nonsense. It is time to do as Heaven
has asked with the spiritual tools it has given us. First and foremost
is speaking the truth. The Word of God is an offensive weapon. There
are two thousand years of established doctrine and truth behind us.
Philosophy, theology, natural law, and science back stop a believer yet
they often cower when confronted for fear of appearing confrontational.
II Timothy states, “all Scripture is inspired by God for doctrine,
reproof, correction, and instruction in righteousness, that we all may
be made perfect (II Tim. 3;16).
One place to start is in social settings is to be clear as Saint Paul
is in what the culture has become when the subject comes up. Proverbs
says “a gentle answer turns away wrath, but a grievous word stirs up
anger (Proverbs 15:1. A response from the left does not have to be
rooted in sarcasm, anger or ending in a brawl. The truth if spoken by
one is still the truth. It can turn around a family, a parish, or even
a community over time because it makes people think. It may also
encourage another who shares your views to be more courageous
expressing the truth rather than beaten down by progressives. Courage
is contagious. But hiding the light is a mistake and has brought us to
this place of insane behavior we find ourselves today. We are in this
spiritual malaise because good people ceased to speak up when lies were
expressed. The day of being the turtle on a fence post must end if we
are to save this generation.
JESUS I TRUST IN YOU
REPORT: Homicide Rates Are Soaring As Hearts Grow Ice Cold All Across America
Thoughts
and Sayings of Saint Margaret Mary: The Practice of Virtue
10. Our self-love is
so subtle; at times it makes
us believe that we are seeking God, because we are so much attached to
the things of His service, that we feel some annoyance when obliged to
leave them. This is because we seek our own satisfaction rather than
God;
a heart that wishes for Him alone, finds Him everywhere.
April 21, 2021
(Psa 139:14-16) I
praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your
works; my soul knows it very well. My frame was not hidden from you,
when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the
earth. Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written,
every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there
was none of them.
VICTIMS OF ABORTION: Broken Branches Newsletter Issue 142, Apr/May 2021
HLI: Abortion is Never a Human Right
RECENT NEWS HEADLINES
ARCHBISHOP SAMUEL J. AQULA: For the church to live in Eucharistic coherence, we must be willing to challenge Catholics persisting in grave sin
EXCERPT: Statement on the Reception of Holy Communion by Those Who Persist in Public Grave Sin by Cardinal Raymond L. Burke, D.D., J.C.D.
6. Pope Saint John Paul II presented the Church’s constant teaching
regarding procured abortion in his Encyclical Letter Evangelium Vitae.
Referring to the consultation of the Bishops of the universal Church in
the matter by his letter of Pentecost of 1991, he declared: “Therefore,
by the authority which Christ conferred upon Peter and his Successors,
in communion with the Bishops – who on various occasions have condemned
abortion and who in the aforementioned consultation, albeit dispersed
throughout the world, have shown unanimous agreement concerning this
doctrine – I declare that direct abortion, that is, abortion willed as
an end or as a means, always constitutes a grave moral disorder, since
it is the deliberate killing of an innocent human being.”[4] He made
clear that his teaching “is based upon the natural law and upon the
written Word of God, is transmitted by the Church’s Tradition and
taught by the ordinary and universal Magisterium.”[5]
7. It is sometimes argued that a Catholic politician can personally
believe in the immorality of abortion, while favoring a public policy
which provides for so-called “legalized” abortion. Such was the case,
for instance, in the United States of America at the summit of certain
Catholic moral theologians who espoused the erroneous moral theory of
proportionalism or consequentialism, and Catholic politicians, held at
the compound of the Kennedy Family in Hyannisport, Massachusetts, in
the summer of 1964.[6] Pope Saint John Paul II responds clearly to such
erroneous moral thinking in Evangelium Vitae: “No circumstance, no
purpose, no law whatsoever can ever make licit an act which is
intrinsically illicit, since it is contrary to the Law of God which is
written in every human heart, knowable by reason itself, and proclaimed
by the Church.”[7] In his Encyclical Letter Veritatis Splendor, Pope
Saint John Paul II corrects the fundamental error of proportionalism
and consequentialism.[8]
8. It is sometimes said that the denial of Holy Communion to
politicians who obstinately persevere in grave sin is the use of Holy
Communion by the Church for political purposes. On the contrary, it is
the Church’s solemn responsibility to safeguard the holiness of the
Holy Eucharist, to prevent the faithful from committing sacrilege, and
to prevent scandal among the faithful and other persons of good will.
9. It is rather the Catholic politician, who publicly and obstinately
promotes what is contrary to the moral law and yet dares to receive
sacrilegiously Holy Communion, who uses the Holy Eucharist for
political purposes. In other words, the politician presents himself or
herself as a devout Catholic, while the truth is completely otherwise.
HLI: Prayers for a Culture of Life
Thoughts
and Sayings of Saint Margaret Mary: The Practice of Virtue
7. I think you would
please our Lord by going to
Him with the dispositions of the prodigal son, in such wise that fear
may
not banish confidence. It is not said, however, that this son, after
having
returned to his father, left him a second time.
April 19, 2021
(1Pe 4:12-16) Beloved,
do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test
you, as though something strange were happening to you. But rejoice
insofar as you share Christ's sufferings, that you may also rejoice and
be glad when his glory is revealed. If you are insulted for the name of
Christ, you are blessed, because the Spirit of glory and of God rests
upon you. But let none of you suffer as a murderer or a thief or an
evildoer or as a meddler. Yet if anyone suffers as a Christian, let him
not be ashamed, but let him glorify God in that name.
FROM THE MAILBAG
VIA Ron Smith: This missive is a bit different as it did not develop
pursuant to one of your questions. I have been praying for a friend’s
husband who is disabled from a terrible back condition. The Holy Spirit
then prompted me to research and write about why God allows us to
suffer. This missive is what I have found! Link to missive: Suffering.doc
ARKANSAS CATHOLIC: Walking through suffering to peace and hope
ALETEIA: Catholic prayers for strength
EXCERPT BISHOP ROBERT BARRON: Should Suffering Shake Our Faith?
An altogether standard objection to belief in God is human suffering,
especially when it is visited upon the innocent. The apologist for
atheism or naturalism quite readily asks the believer, “How could you
possibly assert the existence of a loving God given the Holocaust,
school shootings, tsunamis that kill hundreds of thousands of people,
pandemics, etc.?” But I must confess that, in another sense, I find
this argument from evil utterly unconvincing, and I say this precisely
as a Catholic bishop—that is, as someone who holds and teaches the
doctrine of God that comes from the Bible. For I don’t think that
anyone who reads the Scriptures carefully could ever conclude that
belief in a loving God is somehow incompatible with suffering.
There is no question that God loves Noah, and yet he puts Noah through
the unspeakably trying ordeal of a flood that wipes out almost all of
life on the earth. It is without doubt that God loves Abraham, and yet
he asks that patriarch to sacrifice, with his own hand, his beloved son
Isaac. More than almost anyone else in the biblical tradition, God
loves Moses, and yet he prevents the great liberator from entering into
the Promised Land. David is a man after the Lord’s own heart, the sweet
singer of the house of Israel, and yet God punishes David for his
adultery and his conspiracy to murder. Jeremiah is specially chosen by
God to speak the divine word, and yet the prophet ends up rejected and
sent into exile. The people Israel is God’s uniquely chosen race, his
royal priesthood, and yet God permits Israel to be enslaved, exiled,
and brutalized by her enemies. And bringing this dynamic to full
expression, God delivers his only-begotten Son to be tortured to death
on a cross.
Once again, the point, anomalous indeed to both believers and
nonbelievers today, is that the biblical authors saw no contradiction
whatsoever between affirming the existence of a loving God and the fact
of human suffering, even unmerited human suffering. Rather, they
appreciated it as, mysteriously enough, ingredient in the plan of God,
and they proposed various schemata for understanding this. For
instance, sometimes, they speculated, suffering is visited upon us as
punishment for sin. Other times, it might be a means by which God
effects a spiritual purification in his people. Still other times, it
might be the only way that, given the conditions of a finite universe,
God could bring about certain goods. But they also acknowledged that,
more often than not, we just don’t know how suffering fits into God’s
designs, and this is precisely because our finite and historically
conditioned minds could not, even in principle, comprehend the
intentions and purposes of an infinite mind, which is concerned with
the whole of space and time. Practically the entire burden of the book
of Job is to show this. When Job protests against what he takes to be
the massive injustice of his sufferings, God responds with a lengthy
speech, in fact his longest oration in the Bible, reminding Job of how
much of God’s purposes his humble human servant does not know: “Where
were you when I laid the foundations of the earth . . .”
Once again, whether they half-understood the purpose of human suffering
or understood it not at all, no biblical author was tempted to say that
said evil is incompatible with the existence of a loving God. To be
sure, they lamented and complained, but the recipient of the
lamentation and complaint was none other than the God who, they firmly
believed, loved them. I don’t for a moment doubt that many feel today
that suffering poses an insurmountable obstacle to belief in God, but I
remain convinced that this feeling is a function of the fact that
religious leaders have been rather inept at teaching the biblical
doctrine of God. For if human suffering undermines your belief in God,
then, quite simply, you were not believing in the God presented by the
Bible.
Thoughts
and Sayings of Saint Margaret Mary: The Practice of Virtue
6. It is only necessary to say energetically "I
will," and all will go well.
April 15, 2021
(Joh
20:22-23)
When he had said this, he breathed on them; and he said to them:
Receive ye the Holy Ghost. Whose sins you shall forgive, they are
forgiven them: and whose sins you shall retain, they are retained.
FR JAMES V. SCHALL, S.J.: To call a sin a sin is simultaneously an act of courage, justice, and mercy.
REGINA PROPHETARUM: How to Make God Postively Blind to Our Sins
CATHOLIC WORLD REPORT: On the intimate nature of Confession
NCR: Inside the Confessional Sacramental Insights From 4 Priests
FIVE MIN VIDEO : The Beauty of Repentance
DAILY POST: Give Peace A Chance
We Catholics also recall that, in the Old Testament, offerings for sin
were through the mediation of a Jewish priest. “When a man is guilty…he
shall confess the sin he has committed, and he shall bring his guilt
offering to the LORD… and the priest shall make atonement for him…”
(Leviticus 5:6) And: “When a man or woman commits any of the sins that
men commit…he shall confess his sin…” (Numbers 5:6) And much later,
after the Exile and with their return to Jerusalem: “…the people of
Israel…stood and confessed their sins, and the iniquities of their
fathers.” (Nehemiah 9:1-2) Then, at the Jordan with John the Baptist,
the people: “…were baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing
their sins.” (Matthew 3:6) So confessing sins is nothing new, but
something even from of the beginning of the worship of God. In it we
are reconciled with God in cherished peace. There is something
hard-wired within us that wants to admit to our wrong, and only then do
we find the peace that otherwise eludes us.
Very often we hear the slogan: “No justice, no peace!” But even more
essentially, Jesus emphasizes a great truth: “No forgiveness, no
peace.” Grudges and hatred are poison to the soul … forgiveness—given
or received—the prescriptive balm. Very often we priests and ministers
encounter those (sometimes even ourselves) who have held pointless
grudges for years and decades for even minor slights and offenses, the
“offended” finding some sort of perverse pleasure in a false
self-righteousness. Yet all the while his spirit decays in the false
promise of pride—pride being perhaps the first sin, for Eve wanted to
“be like God”. That’s what WE want when we expect people to crawl
before we’ll deign to forgive.
For the Christian at least, such an attitude is opposite of what Jesus
teaches … and lives. Did He not readily forgive all humanity when He
cried: “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” (Luke
23:34) Therefore, O Christian … do you still refuse to forgive? If we
rebel against the teaching of Jesus, do we not “abandon” Him as did the
apostles, preferring our own pride instead? Does He not teach us the
prayer: “…forgive us our trespasses, AS WE FORGIVE those who trespass
against US?” Go reread Matthew 6 and 18.
Certainly we work for justice, for INjustice invariably leads to
resentment, hatred and even war. But we also have to be spiritually big
enough to recognize inevitable human fallibility, and dare rise above
emotional reaction to seek reconciliation and peace per God’s own
desire and command. Yes, human fallibility is a two-edged sword,
because try as we might, we may have difficulty forgiving. But
forgiving is an act of the will, and thus it is within our ability to
do so. Read Immaculée Ilibagiza’s account, for example, of learning to
forgive even those who butchered her family. Few are called to do as
much. We may not forget, but we can forgive nonetheless. And imagine
Our Lord’s joy when He hears us say to one another His own words:
“Peace be with you.”
MEDITATION: Thoughts
by St Theophan (1815-1894)
The eyes of the Lord are in every place, beholding the evil and the good (Prov. 15:3).
Oh, if only rational creatures would always keep this in mind!
Then not only would they not dare to commit excesses openly and
to give themselves over to dissoluteness of the flesh, but also
inwardly, in their thoughts, and in the movements of their heart,
they would not allow anything unpleasing to God.
They would stand then like soldiers at the front before the king, with
all attention and strictness toward themselves, that they not be
found ignorant of their orders, and not be subject to the king's
wrath and punishment.
The orders given to rational creatures are the commandments of
God, which determine the proper form of their thoughts, and how
their feelings and dispositions ought to be; they would then be
quite well-ordered.
Thoughts
and Sayings of Saint Margaret Mary: The Practice of Virtue
5. This strong insistence of grace that you feel
amidst so many relapses is, to my mind, a very good sign, because it shows
the ardent desire that God has to save your soul; this, nevertheless, He
will not do without your cooperation.
April 13, 2021
(1Pe 2:16) Be free, yet without using freedom as a pretext for evil, but as slaves of God.
ARCHBISHOP CHAPUT:
The U.S. is “a great and, in its best ideals, a good nation,” he
writes, but it also is “a nation of chronic racial injustice, deep
sexual dysfunctions, self-flattering elites, great disparities in
wealth, and the intentional destruction of more than 50 million unborn
children.” “We’re in bad shape” as a nation, he told CNS. “I didn’t
want to minimize it. The best place to begin is the truth. But because
we’re Christians, there’s always hope … in God. We can be pessimistic
about the future, but we must always have hope. Hope gives us joy.”
THE CATHOLIC THING: Once Upon a Time, in America
HLI: Gender Ideologues Are Gaslighting Us
NEWS ITEM: New York parent seeks OK to marry their own adult child
BLOG: America Loses Plumbing Within The Next 3 Generations
EXCERPT CATHOLIC LEAGUE: The Holocaust's Moral Lessons
At Nuremberg, the standard Nazi defense was to claim that they were
only doing what they were instructed to do. It did not work. The London
Charter of the International Military Tribunal determined that
“following orders” did not exonerate them. Though the Tribunal did not
explicitly invoke natural law—e.g., we know in our heart of hearts that
certain acts, such as the killing of innocents, is wrong—it essentially
validated what Aristotle broached and what the Catholic Church later
pioneered.
We need to remember this moral lesson because of the prevalence of
moral relativism in our culture, the notion that there are no objective
truths. This pernicious idea is not new, though it is more widely
embraced today—allowing for glaring inconsistencies—than ever before,
especially on college campuses. Its legacy is rich with irony.
“There is no such thing as truth, either in the moral or in the
scientific sense.” Many professors and their students would fully
endorse this view today. Hitler is the author.
Before Hitler there was Nietzsche. He spent his adult life trashing the
teachings of the Catholic Church. He is famous for opining, “There are
no facts, only interpretations.” The Nazis later agreed. Martin
Heidegger also embraced Nietzschean relativism and, not surprisingly,
he was a big fan of Hitler.
The idea that there are no objective meanings also marks
deconstruction, a school of thought that originated in France in the
1960s; Jacques Derrida is its intellectual father. In this country, his
views achieved currency through Paul de Man. Many intellectuals were
shocked when it was revealed that de Man had been a Nazi collaborator
in Belgium. If they understood the logical consequences of denying
moral truths, they wouldn’t have been shocked.
In a survey of college seniors, conducted in 2002, three-quarters of
them said they were taught that right and wrong depend “on differences
in individual values and cultural diversity.” When James Q. Wilson, a
professor of political science who taught at UCLA and Harvard,
discussed the Holocaust with his students, he found no general
agreement that the Holocaust itself was a moral horror. “It all depends
on your perspective,” one student said.
Professor Roger Simon, who taught at Hamilton College, experienced the
same reaction. He estimated that 10 to 20 percent of his students could
not condemn the Holocaust. “Of course I dislike the Nazis,” one student
told him, “but who is to say they are morally wrong?”
Even more troubling, philosopher Christina Hoff Sommers found that
students at Williams College, who were taught that “all knowledge is a
social construct,” doubted the Holocaust even occurred. As one student
said, “Although the Holocaust may not have happened, it’s a perfectly
reasonable conceptual hallucination.”
The good news is that the reality of objective truth cannot be erased,
even in our cancel culture, though admittedly it is harder to voice
this verity than ever before. It is incumbent on those of us who know
better to point out the flaws inherent in moral relativism.
Thoughts
and Sayings of Saint Margaret Mary: The Practice of Virtue
4. What punishment will not that servant bring
upon himself who knows the will of his Master and does not do it?
April 11, 2021
(2Co
5:21) Him, who knew no sin, he hath made sin for us: that we might be
made the justice of God in him. Sin for us... That is, to be a sin
offering, a victim for sin.
CNA NEWS: Pope Francis to offer Divine Mercy Sunday Mass in church with St. Faustina’s relics
FR. CHRIS ALAR VIDEO: Divine Mercy Sunday Explained: How to Receive the Graces
THE DIVINE MERCY: Frequently Asked Questions
MY CATHOLIC LIFE: The Feast of Mercy Divine Mercy Sunday (Year B)
Saint Faustina writes in her Diary:
On one occasion,
I heard these words: My daughter, tell the whole world about My
Inconceivable mercy. I desire that the Feast of Mercy be a refuge and
shelter for all souls, and especially for poor sinners. On that day the
very depths of My tender mercy are open. I pour out a whole ocean of
graces upon those souls who approach the fount of My mercy. The soul
that will go to Confession and receive Holy Communion shall obtain
complete forgiveness of sins and punishment. On that day all the divine
floodgates through which grace flow are opened (Diary #699).
It was Jesus Himself, through the
mediation of this humble and holy religious sister, Sister Maria
Faustina Kowalska of the Blessed Sacrament, Who instituted the Feast of
Mercy that we celebrate today. In addition to the above quote from her
Diary of Divine Mercy, Jesus spoke on numerous other occasions about
His desire that this feast be instituted as a universal Feast of Mercy
to be celebrated throughout the world on the eighth day of Easter every
year.
From the time of her death in 1938,
the private revelations from Jesus to Sister Faustina began to be read
and shared. At first, the Feast of Mercy was celebrated by only a few
who knew of these messages. As these private revelations began to
circulate further, there were some within the Church who questioned
their authenticity. Thus, on March 6, 1959, the writings of Sister
Faustina were put on the “forbidden” list by the Holy Office, Rome.
However, in 1965, with the permission of the same Holy Office, the
Archbishop of Kraków, Poland, Archbishop Karol Wojtyla, began an
informative process in which new light was shed upon Sister Faustina
and her writings. This process concluded on April 15, 1978, with the
Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Rome, issuing a new decree
permitting the spread of Sister Faustina’s writings and the new
devotion to The Divine Mercy. Then, by the providence of God, just six
months later, the Archbishop of Kraków, Karol Wojtyla, was elected
pope, taking the name Pope John Paul II. A little over two decades
later, on April 30, 2000, Sister Faustina was canonized a saint in a
ceremony presided over by Pope John Paul II. During her canonization,
the Holy Father also instituted the Feast of Mercy for the universal
Church to be celebrated on the eighth day of the Octave of Easter every
year.
The providence of God is truly
amazing. God started with this humble cloistered nun. He allowed His
private revelations to be scrutinized by the Church and ultimately hand
picked one of the greatest popes our Church has ever known to introduce
these private revelations to the world. It’s amazing to ponder the
process by which these revelations went from the silent cloister of
Sister Faustina to the universal Church. One thing this process truly
tells us is that God must deeply desire that we immerse ourselves in
the messages of Divine Mercy given through Saint Faustina. It was by
God’s providence that these messages slowly moved from the silence of
the cloister in Kraków, Poland, to the universal Church beginning in
the year 2000. Though it may be tempting to think that these messages
are old and outdated, we should realize that God knew how long it would
take for them to become instituted as a universal feast for all.
Therefore, though these messages were first revealed before 1938, it
was God’s plan that they would especially be needed and read starting
in the year 2000 and beyond. The message of Divine Mercy is especially
for us today.
Reflect, today, upon this beautiful
providence of God in bringing forth His message of mercy. Allow His
providential methodology to not only inspire you but also to greatly
encourage you to immerse yourself in the messages given to us from
Jesus through Saint Faustina. Try to commit yourself to reading these
messages so that, through them, God’s providence will be able to come
to fruition.
Most merciful God, You are The
Divine Mercy, You are Mercy Itself. Help me to continually ponder this
glorious gift of Your Mercy in my life. May the inspired writings of
Saint Faustina especially be a gift to me so that their messages will
bring forth Your mercy more fully in my life.
Jesus, I trust in You.
EXCERPT: Cheap Grace and Cheap Mercy
''When Christ calls a man, he bids
him come and die," writes Dietrich Bonhoeffer in his spiritual
masterwork, "The Cost of Discipleship." And Bonhoeffer did die. For
him, the cost of opposing the Nazis, in obedience to Christ, was to be
executed vindictively, just two weeks before the Flossenburg
concentration camp, where he was imprisoned, was liberated by the U.S.
military. This weekend is the anniversary of his death, April 9, 1945.
The timing is appropriate to
Bonhoeffer's spiritual insights, because of his famous criticism of
what he called "cheap grace" (German, "billige Gnade"). One might just
as well translate it as "cheap mercy."
A central passage captures the essence of his thought: "Cheap grace is
not the kind of forgiveness of sin which frees us from the toils of
sin. Cheap grace is the grace we bestow on ourselves. Cheap grace is
the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism
without church discipline, Communion without confession, absolution
without personal confession. Cheap grace is grace without discipleship,
grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ living and
incarnate."
Grace is costly, Bonhoeffer insists
in contrast: "It is the pearl of great price to buy which the merchant
will sell all his goods. ... it is costly because it cost God the life
of his Son."
For Bonhoeffer, the logic of
salvation is that grace, or mercy, has cost the life of the Son;
therefore, the first act of a believer in response to the call of the
Son is obedience, which has as its limit giving up one's life,
following the Son.
He quotes the Gospel of Mark, "And
as he passed by he saw Levi, the son of Alphaeus, sitting at the place
of toll, and he saith unto him, 'Follow me.' And he arose and followed
him" (2:14), and comments: "The call goes forth, and is at once
followed by the response of obedience, not a confession of faith in
Jesus."
"But how could the call immediately
evoke obedience?" he asks, and his book in answer to this question
says, in effect, that to have faith is to obey, and to obey is to have
faith. The two are inseparable.
Thoughts
and Sayings of Saint Margaret Mary: Various Subjects
24. As often as you can, make the following aspiration:
I adore Thee and love Thee, O divine Heart of Jesus, living in the heart
of Mary; I beseech Thee to live and reign in all hearts and to perfect
them in Thy pure love.
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