Keep
your eyes open!...
August 28, 2019
(Mat 4:8-11)
Again the devil took him up into a very high mountain, and shewed him
all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them, And said to him:
All these will I give thee, if falling down thou wilt adore me. Then
Jesus saith to him: Begone, Satan: for it is written: The Lord thy God
shalt thou adore, and him only shalt thou serve. Then the devil left
him; and behold angels came and ministered to him.
POPE FRANCIS:
“Many people say: ‘But why talk about the devil, which is an ancient
thing? The devil does not exist.’ But look at what the Gospel
teaches you,. Jesus confronted the devil, he was tempted by
Satan. But Jesus rejects every temptation and comes out
victorious.”
CNA: Exorcists to Jesuit head: Satan is real
EXCERPT ARCHBISHOP CHAPUT: Some thoughts for late summer
In my own reading this summer, I’ve
been revisiting the work of Romano Guardini, one of the great Catholic
theologians of the last century and a key influence in forming the mind
of Jorge Bergoglio, now Pope Francis.
In recent days I’ve been struck by
a particular passage from Father Guardini’s chapter on “The Enemy” in
one of his greatest works, The Lord.
“There are moments,” he wrote, “when … the angels must deride and
laughter peal through heaven at the stupidity into which the mighty,
the cultivated, the intelligentsia falls when it becomes godless.” Or
if not godless, blind to the nature of good and evil; blind to the
reality of the devil.
So what’s this got to do with the price of bread?
Just this: Earlier this month the leader of a major Catholic religious order was reported as saying that Satan “exists as a symbolic reality, not as a personal reality.”
True, his words may have been misinterpreted or taken out of
context. But if so, it’s not the first time; he said much the
same in 2017.
Jesus, of course, was rather
explicit about the devil as a personal reality, having dealt with him
firsthand, as the Gospels note. So is the Catechism of the Catholic Church. So is Pope Francis. And so was Romano Guardini, who wrote in The Lord:
“Satan is no principle, no
elementary power, but a rebellious, fallen creature who frantically
attempts to set up a kingdom of appearances and disorder.”
And again, Guardini, in The Faith and Modern Man:
“In reading the
New Testament attentively, we come across a number of passages where
Jesus refers to the Adversary of God and man — Satan. He speaks
of him as the enemy of light and goodness, or the author of physical
and mental disease, or He challenges him to open conflict. This
fact has greatly embarrassed contemporary men, and they have tried — in
so far as they have sought to hold on to Jesus at all — to eliminate
from their mental picture all idea of Satan. They have evaded the
troublesome words and acts, and have concentrated attention on the
‘purely spiritual-ethical’ aspects of the person and Gospel of Jesus,
or they have stated plainly that belief in Satan belongs to a primitive
mode of thought, or to a decadent time. What of this appears in
Jesus is merely a survival from a past not wholly shaken off.
“But let us be
perfectly clear on this point, for knowledge of the existence of
spiritual beings, rebellious toward God and hostile to men, among them
their ruler, Satan, belongs ineradicably to the picture of Jesus and to
His consciousness of His mission. Without this consciousness,
indeed, there is no Jesus.”
In a time of internal and external difficulties for the Church, it
would be helpful — to put it kindly — for the leader of a major, global
Catholic religious community to avoid creating havoc on matters of
fundamental belief. It’s a simple request. It shouldn’t be
too much to ask.
Ladder
of Divine Ascent excerpt: Step 26- "Brief Summary on Discernment"
26. As steel is attracted to the magnet even against
its will, for it is drawn by an inexplicable force of nature, so he who
has contracted sinful habits is tyrannized by them.
August 26, 2019
(Psa 139:14-16) I will praise thee, for thou art fearfully magnified:
wonderful are thy works, and my soul knoweth right well. My bone is not
hidden from thee, which thou hast made in secret: and my substance in
the lower parts of the earth. Thy eyes did see my imperfect being, and
in thy book all shall be written: days shall be formed, and no one in
them.
LIFENEWS.COM: Catholic Bishop: Fighting Abortion is the “Most Important Human Rights Issue of Our Time”
CNA: 'Life is always beautiful': What 81 years and 6,000 babies have taught Flora Gualdani
EXCERPT VICTIMS OF ABORTION NEWSLETTER: Broken Branches Issue 132 – Aug/Sept 2019 : I Fell in Love with my Daughter at the First Cell Division.
We have over recent times on all
forms of media including Facebook, seen feminists make statements which
bring shudders to the heart. Statements like “I killed by baby
and I feel good about it” or “I have had so many abortions and I don’t
feel anything. In fact it was the best thing I ever did.” And a
real horror words spoken to me “If mine had survived I would have
strangled it.” Said when she learned what job I do. I had two
choices when I heard these words (throttle her-and I would have done
what she said she would do) or walked away and asked God for mercy,
which seems to be what I ask for a lot these days. Mercy.
As I hear more and more openly
brazen boasting about killing of “babies” not even using the imageless
foetus but with a new bravado an acknowledgement that it is a baby that
is killed. Not an imageless “baby. ” Killing of one’s own
child has become almost a rite of passage to join the infernal
sisterhood.
With an abortion what is lost is
not motherhood because this cannot ever be lost because it’s imprinted
in every woman born, however what is lost through abortion is
mothering. An abortive woman refuses to mother. She chooses
other and not to mother. She distances herself from the very idea
of her child and refuses to draw near so that the bonding which is
natural is not permitted to occur.
We have on our television screens
at present an ad which speaks about oxytocin, a love hormone which
assists in bonding process. This add is so important in the
message it delivers because it’s a hope that there is understanding
that with all pregnancies oxytocin is present. The love hormone
which is part of the generation of new life. One does not have to
labour for this hormone to be created but it is naturally present where
love or happiness, or pleasure is found. With a pregnancy and
birth this hormone is found.
I have recently spoken to a young
nurse during the course of my treatment and she asked what I did when I
said I had to recover quickly because I have work to do. On
telling her about my work a smile crossed her lips and she gently said
that it’s a work much needed in these days. She knows of many
many women in pain over this decision.
She then proceeded to tell me that
she was faced with the same decision early last year and I asked her
what happened, thinking that she also made the same decision. She
told me that for her it was never an option even though her partner
left because of her decision to keep the baby. She even told him
she doesn’t want financial support as she earns well.
I was so happy I nearly burst into
tears then I asked an unusual question even for me “When did you fall
in love with your baby” Thinking that she would say something like “OH
at first sight when I saw her I fell in love. But no she stunned
me when her response was “at the first cell division” I know that as a
nurse she would know her biology but to use those words means that for
her the baby was a baby and life from the first cell division.
Her daughter Harper Marie was her daughter and loved so much from
conception. This young lady said that there was not an instant
where she has regretted her decision and she and her daughter are an
item. Together they love each other deeply.
Dear friends you know my work and
the sadness that I hear about, so hearing these words helped to make my
desire to continue this work and do more and better for as long as
possible. I want all mothers, even abortive mothers, to love
their child from the first cell division. “to fulfilment of the
office slotted to her by nature” (Casti Connubbii 58) Yes it’s possible
to love their aborted baby and when healed and well this happens.
When it doesn’t happen it’s because there is a stucked ness in the
manner of the dying and not the dying itself.
Well done and beautiful, gentle
counselling will always result in loving even that baby “at the first
cell division” because love isn’t restricted by space and time but love
knows no boundaries and love is oriented towards life. Those of
us who do this work and do it will know that it is one of the most
important works of our day because this counselling done well renews
woman and brings into our society more oxytocin. More joy so that
all of society can heal.
Ladder
of Divine Ascent excerpt: Step 26- "Brief Summary on Discernment"
25. When poor men see the royal treasury, they
are still more conscious of their poverty; and so too when the soul reads
about the virtues of the Fathers, it at least comes to a more humble frame
of mind.
August 23, 2019
(Luk 18:7-8) And
will not God revenge his elect who cry to him day and night? And will
he have patience in their regard? I say to you that he will quickly
revenge them. But yet the Son of man, when he cometh, shall he find,
think you, faith on earth?
CNA: Survey on Catholic belief in the Eucharist prompts calls for better catechesis
THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT: Reverence for the Eucharist
EXCERPT FR. REGIS SCANLON: Corpus Christi: The Real Solution to Healing the Divisions in the Church
According to the teaching of the Catholic Church, which was passed on
by Christ Himself in the Gospel of John, after the consecration of the
Eucharist, there is no bread and wine for Jesus to be “in.” Under the
appearance of bread and wine, Jesus “is.” He “is” that which we touch
and handle. One can say that Jesus is “in” the Mass or “in” the
Eucharist or “in” the Sacrament because each of these refers to more
than the bread and wine. But, after the consecration, one cannot
say that Jesus is “in” the bread and wine because the bread and wine no
loner exist.
The doctrine of the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist has made
explicitly clear for people in our own day by two statements of
St. Paul VI: one in No. 46 of the Encyclical, The Mystery
of Faith (Mysterium Fide) and the other in No. 25 of Credo of the
People of God (Solemni Hac Liturgia). These statements make use
of the key phrases that after the consecration of the Mass, the ”
physical ‘ reality of Christ is bodily present” and the bread and wine
“cease to exist.”
This means that every Catholic who has the white Host placed in his
hand or on his tongue comes in “bodily contact” with the “physical
reality” of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. We are touching God
even though the sensation is that we are touching bread. When we
say today that the consecrated bread and wine are really Jesus Christ,
we proclaim the same thing that the apostle John was talking about when
he proclaimed that “which we looked upon and have touched with our hands” —“the Word of Life” Himself– Jesus Christ (1Jn.1:1. My emphasis).
I believe that, if this true teaching of the Catholic Church on the
Real Presence of Christ in the Mass and in every Church tabernacle
throughout the world comes to the forefront of the consciousness of the
Church, it will lead to a lasting peace by drawing all into unity with
Jesus Christ.
FIRST THINGS: Look! It is Jesus
What do Catholics believe happens to the bread and wine that are consecrated during the Liturgy of the Eucharist?
As the philosopher G. E. M. Anscombe put it in a
classic essay from 1974, the easiest way to explain what we are
supposed to believe is by thinking about how to introduce the concept
of transubstantiation to a young child:
Not of course
using the word “transubstantiation,” because it is not a little child’s
word. But the thing can be taught, and it is best taught at mass
at the consecration, the one part where a small child should be got to
fix its attention on what is going on. . . .
Such a child can be taught then by whispering to it such things as:
“Look! Look what the priest is doing. . .
. He is saying Jesus’ words that change the bread into Jesus’
body. Now he's lifting it up. Look! Now bow your head
and say ‘My Lord and my God,’” and then “Look, now he’s taken hold of
the cup. He’s saying the words that change the wine into Jesus’
blood. Look up at the cup. Now bow your head and say ‘We
believe, we adore your precious blood, O Christ of God.'”
NATIONAL REVIEW:
Mahatma Gandhi is often reported to have said something like: If
Catholics really believed that God Himself were present in the
Eucharist, they would crawl toward the altar on their stomachs.
Ladder
of Divine Ascent excerpt: Step 26- "Brief Summary on Discernment"
24. As the man under sentence who is going to execution
will not talk about theatres, so he who truly weeps for himself will never
gratify his stomach.
August 20, 2019
(Psalm 46:10) Be still and see that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, and I will be exalted in the earth.
POPE FRANCIS:
The adherence to the fire of love that Jesus brought to earth envelops
our entire existence and requires worship of God and also a willingness
to serve our neighbor. Adoration of God and willingness to serve
our neighbor. The first, to adore God, also means learning the
prayer of adoration, which we usually forget. That is why I
invite everyone to discover the beauty of the prayer of adoration and
to practice it often.
THE CATHOLIC THING: Prayer and Asceticism
EXCERPT INSIDE THE VATICAN: Letter #47: To the Priory
FATHER PRIOR MARK KIRBY: “Eucharistic adoration is not
simply for the person praying in adoration,” Father Kirby said to
me. “It is for the entire Church, and for the entire world.
“What happens in adoration may be
likened to what happens when someone receives a transfusion. It is
as if God places a very tiny needle into the soul of the adorer, and by
means of an attached tube, transfers his very life into the soul of the
adorer. As in a hospital, the tube brings medicine and liquid and
helps to heal whatever disease the person is suffering from. This
is happening on the spiritual level, bringing spiritual healing.
“But it is not just the soul of the
single adorer that is affected. Through the mystical communion of
all believers, that transfiguring and healing divine energy is passed
through the single adorer into the entire mystical body of the Church,
purifying the Church.
“When we go into adoration, we are
disposing ourselves to become nodes, conduits, for the purification of
the entire Church, and through the Church, of the entire world.
“So it is not a meaningless action,
or even an action aimed at one’s own personal purification. It is
the essential action to bring Christ’s eucharistic purification into
the entire body of the Church, to do reparation for all sins and
abuses, and to begin to heal them.”
UNIVERSALIS: From a sermon of St Bernard of Clairvaux I love because I love, I love that I may love
Love is sufficient of itself, it
gives pleasure by itself and because of itself. It is its own
merit, its own reward. Love looks for no cause outside itself, no
effect beyond itself. Its profit lies in its practice. I
love because I love, I love that I may love. Love is a great
thing so long as it continually returns to its fountainhead, flows back
to its source, always drawing from there the water which constantly
replenishes it. Of all the movements, sensations and feelings of
the soul, love is the only one in which the creature can respond to the
Creator and make some sort of similar return however unequal it may
be. For when God loves, all he desires is to be loved in return;
the sole purpose of his love is to be loved, in the knowledge that
those who love him are made happy by their love of him.
The Bridegroom’s love, or rather the love which is the Bridegroom, asks
in return nothing but faithful love. Let the beloved, then, love
in return. Should not a bride love, and above all, Love’s
bride? Could it be that Love not be loved?
Rightly then does she give up all other feelings and give herself
wholly to love alone; in giving love back, all she can do is to respond
to love. And when she has poured out her whole being in love,
what is that in comparison with the unceasing torrent of that original
source? Clearly, lover and Love, soul and Word, bride and
Bridegroom, creature and Creator do not flow with the same volume; one
might as well equate a thirsty man with the fountain.
What then of the bride’s hope, her aching desire, her passionate love,
her confident assurance? Is all this to wilt just because she
cannot match stride for stride with her giant, any more than she can
vie with honey for sweetness, rival the lamb for gentleness, show
herself as white as the lily, burn as bright as the sun, be equal in
love with him who is Love? No. It is true that the creature
loves less because she is less. But if she loves with her whole
being, nothing is lacking where everything is given. To love so
ardently then is to share the marriage bond; she cannot love so much
and not be totally loved, and it is in the perfect union of two hearts
that complete and total marriage consists. Or are we to doubt
that the soul is loved by the Word first and with a greater love?
Ladder
of Divine Ascent excerpt: Step 26- "Brief Summary on Discernment"
23. Just as clouds hide the sun, so evil thoughts
darken and ruin the mind.
August 2, 2019
THE TRIB TIMES WILL
RETURN IN ABOUT TWO WEEKS AFTER A SUMMER RECESS, GOD WILLING (James 4:15).
(Pro 16:6) By mercy and truth iniquity is redeemed; and by the fear of the Lord men depart from evil.
IRISH FRANCISCANS OFM: Feast of Our Lady of the Angels of the Portiuncula
Franciscans world-wide celebrate on 2 August the Feast of Our Lady of
the Angels of the Portiuncula, a time linked with the Portiuncula
Indulgence or the Pardon of Assisi, as the Italians called it. The Portiuncula
is an ancient church dedicated to Mary under the title Our Lady of the
Angels and is located in Assisi, Italy. It was a spot very dear to the
heart of Saint Francis.
The Porziuncola is the place where Franciscanism developed, and where Saint Francis lived and died.
The chapel, of antique construction and venerated for the apparition of
Angels within it, belonged to the Benedictine monks of Subasio. It was
on a piece of land called “Portiuncula” and later, the name of the land
passed to the little church itself.
It was abandoned for a long time and was restored by Saint Francis. It
was here that he understood his vocation clearly and here that he
founded the Order of the Friars Minor (1209) “establishing here his
home”, St. Bonaventure tells us, “because of his reverence for the
angels, and of his great love of the Mother of Christ” to whom the
little church was dedicated. The land and the Chapel were gifted to him
by the Benedictines for making it the centre of his new religious
family.
On 28 March, 1211 Clare, daughter of Favarone di Offreduccio received
her religious habit here from the hands of Saint Francis and so
initiated the Order of the Poor Clares.
In 1216, in a vision, St Francis obtained from Jesus himself the
Indulgence of the Pardon of Assisi that was approved by Pope Honorius
III. This plenary indulgence may ordinarily be gained on August 2 and
15; pilgrims may gain it once a year on any day of the year.
At the Porziuncola, that was and is the centre of the Franciscan Order,
St Francis assembled all the Friars in the Chapter every year to
discuss the Rule and to renew their dedication to the Gospel Life. The
Chapter of Mats (Stuoie) in 1221 was attended by more than 5000 friars.
The Porziuncola is situated now inside the Basilica of Saint Mary of the Angels in the town of the same name around 5 km from Assisi.
Here he began and grew in his religious life; here he founded the
Franciscan Order; here he manifested his love and great devotion to the
Mother of God. When Francis knew he was dying, he requested to be
brought to the Portiuncula to end his earthly life.
EXCERPT REFLECTION: Feast of the Portiuncola by Thomas Hartle, OFM
A few years ago, I visited Assisi on August 2 and spent the day at the
Portiuncula. While there, a well-dressed gentleman approached and asked
me to tell him why there were thousands of people standing in line to
enter the small church. Not quite understanding his question –it was,
after all, the day of the feast of the pardon, the man readily
acknowledged my puzzled expression. He then went on to share with me
that he was Jewish and that several weeks earlier had spent some time
praying in the small church.
While in the Portiuncola, he experienced a stirring deep within himself
and knew he had to come back and spend more time in the Portiuncola. I
explained to him that this was a special day for all Franciscans, the
Feast of the Pardon. I went on to say to him that this was the
Franciscan equivalent of Yom Kippur, the great day of atonement. He
readily understood the significance of the day and proceeded to kneel
on the marble floor outside the Portiuncola with his head pressed
against the stone wall and entered into deep prayer oblivious to the
thousands moving around him.
As Francis had desired, this day is for all God’s people. May it ever be so!
LINK: St. Francis of Assisi National Shrine: Franciscan Prayer
CNA: On Aug. 2, you can get this St. Francis-themed indulgence
The Catholic Church teaches that
after a sin is forgiven, an unhealthy attachment to created things
still remains. Indulgences remove that unhealthy attachment, purifying
the soul so that it is more fit to enter heaven. Indulgences are either
plenary (full) or partial.
A plenary indulgence also requires
that the individual be in the state of grace and have complete
detachment from sin. The person must also sacramentally confess their
sins and receive Communion up to about 20 days before or after the
indulgenced act.
Anyone who visits a Catholic church
with the intention of honoring Our Lady of the Angels and recites the
Creed, the Our Father, and prays for the Pope's intentions, may receive
a plenary indulgence on Aug. 2.
“Any kind of a prayer form that
helps people come closer to God is obviously a good prayer form, and
certainly an indulgence is one way,” Fr. Convertino said.
“It helps us focus on, in this
case, the meaning of the Porziuncola and the Franciscan tradition, how
it's situated in the greater idea of the Church.”
RELATED: What an Indulgence is NOT
Ladder
of Divine Ascent excerpt: Step 26- "Brief Summary on Discernment"
22. As galloping horses race one another, so a
good community excites mutual fervour.
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