Keep
your eyes open!...
June 23, 2022
THE TRIB TIMES
WILL AFTER A SHORT SUMMER RECESS, GOD WILLING (James 4:15).
(Zec 1:3-6) And
thou shalt say to them: Thus saith the Lord of hosts: Turn ye to me,
saith the Lord of hosts: and I will turn to you, saith the Lord of
hosts. Be not as your fathers, to whom the former prophets have cried,
saying: Thus saith the Lord of hosts: Turn ye from your evil ways, and
from your wicked thoughts: but they did not give ear, neither did they
hearken to me, saith the Lord. Your fathers, where are they? and the
prophets, shall they live always? But yet my words, and my ordinances,
which I gave in charge to my servants the prophets, did they not take
hold of your fathers, and they returned, and said: As the Lord of hosts
thought to do to us according to our ways, and according to our
devices, so he hath done to us.
CATHOLIC CULTURE: For the fallen away: The line between charity and cowardice
VIA FRANK REGA: Are we in the last times? Printable pamphlet: https://www.sicutincaelo.org/downloads/TLT_Print.pdf
VIA FACEBOOK: Commentary by Desmond Birch
This mornings 1st Reading at Mass
inspired our parish priest to make some observation about today's
reading from the Book of Kings. It describes one of Israel's Old
Testament periods of moral decline. Then Father candidly described how
closely the USA today mirrors that same fall from grace. [But in
fairness, the same observation could be fairly made about virtually any
of Western Civilizations countries today.] Please read it now, and even
if you heard it at Mass this morning, read it again. And then we'll
hear Father's observations. [I kept thinking to myself - it sounds like
what I and so many of my friends here at Facebook would or could have
said on the same subject.
Reading I 2 Kgs 17:5-8, 13-15a, 18
Shalmaneser, king of Assyria, occupied the whole land and attacked Samaria, which he besieged for three years.
In the ninth year of Hoshea, king of
Israel the king of Assyria took Samaria, and deported the children of
Israel to Assyria, setting them in Halah, at the Habor, a river of
Gozan, and the cities of the Medes.
This came about because the children
of Israel sinned against the LORD, their God, who had brought them up
from the land of Egypt, from under the domination of Pharaoh, king of
Egypt, and because they venerated other gods. They followed the rites
of the nations whom the Lord had cleared out of the way of the children
of Israel and the kings of Israel whom they set up.
And though the LORD warned Israel and
Judah by every prophet and seer, “Give up your evil ways and keep my
commandments and statutes, in accordance with the entire law which I
enjoined on your fathers and which I sent you by my servants the
prophets,” they did not listen, but were as stiff-necked as their
fathers, who had not believed in the LORD, their God. They rejected his
statutes, the covenant which he had made with their fathers, and the
warnings which he had given them, till, in his great anger against
Israel, the LORD put them away out of his sight. Only the tribe of
Judah was left.
Father observed that the moral
decline and rejection of God and His Law by so many Americans is
identical to what led God's "anger" to pull back His protecting hand
from the land God gave the Jews ... of the land North of Juda, the
'Northern Kingdom' within Israel.
He even tells them all that they need to get back His protection is to
return to love of Him [instead of their Idols] and to obey His
Commands. That's all. And he sent a virtual small army of prophets to
warn Israel about this - and to call them to repentance. But Israel
instead refused and murdered His prophets ... for which Israel paid the
price - they paid the consequences of their faithless acts.
As Father pointed out, idols are not limited to carved statues. Here in
the USA, we have made money, power, sex as recreation, convenience sex
without love or children which has produced our abortion industry. He
added that it is not too late for the USA to convert. If enough of us
who believe will begin to live lives of heroic virtue ... He still
could spare us the total destruction of our country.
San Paisios of Mount Athos: “The
answer to our anxiety is not drugs, alcohol, tranquilizers or
psychiatric treatment. It will not be cured by Yoga or some oriental
meditation practice. The problem is that we have lost God at the center
of our life. Once we make our love for God the primary focus of our
life and allow his grace to work through us, then we will be comforted
and embraced in his love, regardless of the circumstances we encounter
in life. All anxiety disappears. This is the purpose of the Orthodox
way of life: to put God first and to seek the Holy Spirit. The
anxieties of modern life are only the symptoms of our separation from
God. "
Thoughts
and Sayings of Saint Margaret Mary: Love of the Cross, Contempt and
Suffering
6. I think He intends to try you like gold in the
crucible, so as to number you amongst His most faithful servants.
Therefore you must lovingly embrace all occasions of suffering, considering
them as precious tokens of His love. To suffer in silence and without
complaint is what He asks of you.
June 19, 2022
(Mat 26:26-29) And whilst they were
at supper, Jesus took bread and blessed and broke and gave to his
disciples and said: Take ye and eat. This is my body. And taking the
chalice, he gave thanks and gave to them, saying: Drink ye all of this.
For this is my blood of the new testament, which shall be shed for many
unto remission of sins. And I say to you, I will not drink from
henceforth of this fruit of the vine until that day when I shall drink
it with you new in the kingdom of my Father.
CNA: Corpus Christi Sunday 2022: Inspiring words from the saints about the Eucharist
THE PILLAR: The history of Corpus Christi
CHURCHPOP.COM: Why Catholics Believe in the Real Eucharistic Presence, Beautifully Explained in Infographics
UNIVERSALIS: "On the feast of Corpus Christi", by St Thomas Aquinas
O precious and wonderful banquet!
Since it was the will of God’s only-begotten Son that men should share
in his divinity, he assumed our nature in order that by becoming man he
might make men gods. Moreover, when he took our flesh he dedicated the
whole of its substance to our salvation. He offered his body to God the
Father on the altar of the cross as a sacrifice for our reconciliation.
He shed his blood for our ransom and purification, so that we might be
redeemed from our wretched state of bondage and cleansed from all sin.
But to ensure that the memory of so great a gift would abide with us
for ever, he left his body as food and his blood as drink for the
faithful to consume in the form of bread and wine.
O precious and wonderful banquet, that brings us salvation and contains
all sweetness! Could anything be of more intrinsic value? Under the old
law it was the flesh of calves and goats that was offered, but here
Christ himself, the true God, is set before us as our food. What could
be more wonderful than this? No other sacrament has greater healing
power; through it sins are purged away, virtues are increased, and the
soul is enriched with an abundance of every spiritual gift. It is
offered in the Church for the living and the dead, so that what was
instituted for the salvation of all may be for the benefit of all. Yet,
in the end, no one can fully express the sweetness of this sacrament,
in which spiritual delight is tasted at its very source, and in which
we renew the memory of that surpassing love for us which Christ
revealed in his passion.
It was to impress the vastness of this love more firmly upon the hearts
of the faithful that our Lord instituted this sacrament at the Last
Supper. As he was on the point of leaving the world to go to the
Father, after celebrating the Passover with his disciples, he left it
as a perpetual memorial of his passion. It was the fulfilment of
ancient figures and the greatest of all his miracles, while for those
who were to experience the sorrow of his departure, it was destined to
be a unique and abiding consolation.
DENVER CATHOLIC: Q&A: Reviving a reverence for the Eucharist
Thoughts
and Sayings of Saint Margaret Mary: Love of the Cross, Contempt and
Suffering
5. In God's sight, our cross is as a precious balm
which loses its aroma on exposure to the air; therefore we must make every
effort to hide our cross and carry it in silence.
June 15, 2022
(Mat 5:43-45) You have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love
thy neighbour, and hate thy enemy. But I say to you, Love your enemies:
do good to them that hate you: and pray for them that persecute and
calumniate you: That you may be the children of your Father who is in
heaven, who maketh his sun to rise upon the good, and bad, and raineth
upon the just and the unjust.
US ROE V WADE BASED WARNINGS
FROM THE MAILBAG: Message of Hope From Archbishop Vigano
¡ Viva Cristo Rey ! Long May Christ be King!
NEWS REPORT: Vladimir Putin ally warns US of ‘horsemen of the apocalypse’
One of Vladimir Putin’s most loyal allies has claimed the “horsemen of
the apocalypse are on their way” as he warned the US not to supply
Ukraine with weapons.
Dmitry Medvedev, Russia’s former president, threatened the West with an
all-out attack over its military support for Ukraine, The Sun reports.
Known as Putin’s “yes man”, 56-year-old Medvedev was previously seen as
more moderate than the Russian leader, although he has taken an
increasingly hard line in recent years.
As deputy head of Russia’s national security council, he issued a chilling threat to Ukraine and its allies last week.
Referring to his fiery posts on the messaging app Telegram, he said: “I
am often asked why my Telegram posts are so harsh. The answer is I hate
them. They are b******s and degenerates.
“They want death for Russia. And while I’m alive, I will do everything
to make them disappear.” It follows an earlier warning from Medvedev,
who served as Russian president between 2008 and 2012, that Russia was
ready to expand its military operations if it came under attack from
Western missiles supplied to Ukraine.
“The horsemen of the apocalypse are already on their way,” he said.
Ex-Russian opposition MP Dmitry Gudkov has claimed Medvedev is preparing a power grab if Putin is forced from office.
“He is trying to please the hardliners in the hope that they will
promote him, in the event of Putin leaving office,” he told The Times.
In April, he wrote a rambling Telegram post justifying the invasion of
Ukraine and calling for the expansion of Russian influence across all
of Europe and Asia.
He said that the “complex tasks” of “demilitarisation and
denazification of Ukraine” were the key goals and that they would not
just be decided “on the battlefield”.
In a longwinded letter, he wrote: “To change the bloody and full of
false myths consciousness of a part of today’s Ukrainians is the most
important goal.
“The goal is for the sake of peace of future generations of Ukrainians
themselves and the opportunity to finally build an open Eurasia - from
Lisbon to Vladivostok.” While last month, Medvedev called on the West
to stop supplying arms to Ukraine.
He said: “The endless talk by foreign analysts about a war between NATO and Russia continues unabated.
“The cynicism of Western ‘talking heads’ is becoming more and more
blatant. The thesis that Russia threatens the world with a nuclear
conflict is being pushed to the top of the agenda.
Thoughts
and Sayings of Saint Margaret Mary: Love of the Cross, Contempt and
Suffering
4. Prostrating myself at the foot of my Crucifix
I said: "How happy should I be, O my loving Savior, if Thou wouldst imprint
on me the likeness of Thy sufferings." To which He replied: "This
is what I intend to do, provided thou dost not resist Me and on thy side
dost contribute thereto."
June 12, 2022
(Joh 16:12-15) I have yet many things
to say to you: but you cannot bear them now. But when he, the Spirit of
truth, is come, he will teach you all truth. For he shall not speak of
himself: but what things soever he shall hear, he shall speak. And the
things that are to come, he shall shew you. He shall glorify me:
because he shall receive of mine and shall shew it to you. All things
whatsoever the Father hath are mine. Therefore I said that he shall
receive of me and shew it to you.
HOMILY: Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity
CATHOLIC DAILY REFLECTION: The Inner Life of God!
The Trinity! The inner life of God! The Greatest Mystery of our Faith!
We all are used to the idea that there is one God. And we fully accept
that this one God is the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. On the surface,
this seems like a contradiction. How can God be one and three at the
same time? It’s a mystery that is worth penetrating and contemplating.
First, we need to understand that God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit
are three divine Persons. Each one distinct from the other. Each Person
has a perfect intellect and free will. Each one is capable of knowing
and loving to a perfect degree.
But it is this “perfection” of their ability to know and love that
makes them one. They each share in the one divine nature and, within
that divine nature, are perfectly united. This means that each one
knows and loves the other perfectly. And that knowledge (an act of
their perfect intellect) and love (an act of their perfect will) brings
about a unity so profound and deep that they live and act as one God.
What’s also inspiring to know and understand is that the unity they
share by their mutual knowledge and love also offers each one of them
perfect fulfillment as a Person. This shows that “personhood” is
fulfilled by unity. What a wonderful lesson this is for each of us.
CNA: Trinity Sunday 2022: 10 illuminating quotes from the saints about the Holy Trinity
The Solemnity of
the Holy Trinity, also known as Trinity Sunday, is observed on the
Sunday following Pentecost. This year’s feast falls on June 12, and
draws our attention to the mystery of the Trinity — Father, Son, and
Holy Spirit.
Saints over time have commented on
the importance of the Holy Trinity, speaking on its greatness,
simplicity, and power to transform the souls of believers.
To pay tribute to the Holy Trinity, here are 10 illuminating quotes from the mouths, minds, and hearts of 10 different saints:
- St. Augustine: “For to have the fruition of God the Trinity,
after whose image we are made, is indeed the fullness of our joy, than
which there is no greater.”
- St. Teresa of Avila: “The three Persons are distinct from one
another; a sublime knowledge is infused into the soul, imbuing it with
a certainty of the truth that the Three are of one substance, power,
and knowledge and are one God.”
- St. Seraphim of Sarov: “In spite of our sinfulness, in spite of
the darkness surrounding our souls, the Grace of the Holy Spirit,
conferred by baptism in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy
Spirit, still shines in our hearts with the inextinguishable light of
Christ ... and when the sinner turns to the way of repentance the light
smooths away every trace of the sins committed, clothing the former
sinner in the garments of incorruption, spun of the Grace of the Holy
Spirit. It is this acquisition of the Holy Spirit about which I have
been speaking.”
- St. Patrick (from ‘St. Patrick’s Breastplate’ prayer): “Today I
put on a terrible strength invoking the Trinity, confessing the Three
with faith in the One as I face my Maker.”
- St. Catherine of Siena: "O Trinity, eternal Trinity! Fire, abyss
of love ...Was it necessary that you should give even the Holy Trinity
as food for souls? You gave us not only your Word through the
Redemption and in the Eucharist, but you also gave yourself in the
fullness of love for your creature."
- St. Thomas Aquinas: “The Father loves not only the Son, but also Himself and us, by the Holy Ghost.”
- St. Ambrose: “Rise, you who were lying fast asleep….Rise and
hurry to the Church: here is the Father, here is the Son, here is the
Holy Spirit.”
- St. Pope John Paul II: “A great mystery, a mystery of love, an
ineffable mystery, before which words must give way to the silence of
wonder and worship. A divine mystery that challenges and involves us,
because a share in the Trinitarian life was given to us through grace,
through the redemptive Incarnation of the Word and the gift of the Holy
Spirit.”
- St. Faustina: “When One of the Three Persons communicates with a
soul, by the power of that one will, it finds itself united with the
Three Persons and is inundated in the happiness flowing from the Most
Holy Trinity, the same happiness that nourishes the saints. This same
happiness that streams from the Most Holy Trinity makes all creation
happy; from it springs that life which vivifies and bestows all life
which takes its beginning from Him.”
- St. Francis de Sales (from a consecration prayer to the Trinity):
“I vow and consecrate to God all that is in me: My memory and my
actions to God the Father; My understanding and my words to God the
Son; My will and my thoughts to God the Holy Spirit.”
Thoughts
and Sayings of Saint Margaret Mary: Love of the Cross, Contempt and
Suffering
3. Crosses, contempt, sorrows and afflictions are
the real treasures of the lovers of Jesus Christ crucified.
June 10, 2022
(1Co 6:18-20) Fly fornication. Every sin that a man doth is without the
body: but he that committeth fornication sinneth against his own body.
Or know you not that your members are the temple of the Holy Ghost, who
is in you, whom you have from God: and you are not your own? For you
are bought with a great price. Glorify and bear God in your body.
SAINT EPHREM:
"Most holy Lady, Mother of God, the only one who is very pure in soul
and body, the only one who is beyond all purity, chastity and
virginity, the only one who dwells in the grace of the Holy Spirit, who
surpasses even the spiritual powers in purity and holiness of soul and
body, look upon me, guilty, impure, and stained in my soul and body
with the defects of my passionate and voluptuous life.
Purify my spirit from its passions;
sanctify and straighten my wandering and blind thoughts; regulate and
direct my senses; deliver me from the detestable and infamous tyranny
of impure inclinations and passions; abolish in me the empire of sin;
give wisdom and discernment to my stubborn, wretched mind, for the
correction of my faults and falls, so that, delivered from the darkness
of sin, I may be found worthy to glorify you, to sing freely to you,
the only true mother of the true light- Christ our God."
CATHOLIC CULTURE: Chastity: Cornerstone of holiness and happiness
NCR: Cultivating Chastity’s Positive Side With Reason
In a lengthy
article entitled, “The Virtue of Chastity,” author Mark Hendrickson
defines chastity as “refraining from intimate sexual relationships
outside of the marriage covenant.” The problem, however, with defining
something negatively — referring to what it is not or what it does not
do — is that it leaves in question what it is or what it does do.
Defining peace as the absence of war omits what peace is. Chastity is
not simply one long “No.”
The negative consequences of unchastity are considerable. Putting aside
the spiritual damage of such actions can cause, let’s consider their
physical toll: sexually transmitted diseases are of epidemic
proportions.
In 2018, 26 million new infections of the Human Papilloma Virus (HPV)
occurred, almost half among youth aged 15-24, prompting some doctors to
recommend anti-HPV vaccines for all boys and girls aged 11-12. Some
strains of this sexually transmitted disease can lead to a multitude of
health problems including infertility, HIV and cancer.
In addition, sexual activity prior to marriage significantly increases
the chance of divorce, unwanted pregnancy, and abortion. Shakespeare
alluded to the dire consequences of unchastity in Sonnet 129: “Th’
expense of spirit in a waste of shame /Is lust in action; and till
action, lust /Is perjured, murd’rous, bloody, full of blame.”
Unchastity is perfidious. In a state of arousal, a person might say
anything: “When the blood burns, how prodigal the soul lends the tongue
vows” (Hamlet Act I, sc. 3).Removing weeds from the garden is not
enough to cultivate roses. Likewise, the virtue of chastity will not
bloom simply by avoiding its dire consequences. Chastity is not merely
a state of inactivity. We should want this virtue in all of its
positivity. Briefly, chastity is the virtue that brings the sexual
appetite into harmony with reason. It is, as expressed by the Russian
word tselomudrie (“the wisdom of wholeness”).
Reason is a light that illuminates what we are doing. It is at the
helm, so to speak, and serves as a guiding light that leads us in the
right direction and, concomitantly, to avoid catastrophes. By
subordinating the sexual appetite to reason a person is not a slave to
its demands.
Moreover, the chaste person is able to look at things realistically and
act accordingly. Josef Pieper, in his book, The Cardinal Virtues,
describes what a person loses when he is under the spell of unchastity:
“Unchaste abandon and the self-surrender of the soul to the world of
sensuality paralyzes the primordial powers of the moral person: the
ability to perceive in silence the call of reality and to make, in the
retreat of this silence, the decision appropriate to the concrete
situation of concrete action” (page 160).
Being unchaste is like flying a
plane without a pilot, driving a car without a steering wheel. We
underestimate the primary importance of reason in the moral life. It is
reason, of course, that allows us to behave reasonably. Vices, such as
unchastity, drunkenness, cowardice, and envy, to name but a few, are
despotic. That is to say, they can overthrow the function of reason and
place the person in peril. Reason is the ruler; the vices are the
barbarians who wanted to overthrow the government.
According to St. Thomas Aquinas,
“When the lower powers are strongly moved toward their objects, the
result is that the higher powers are hindered and disordered in their
acts.” He, therefore, lists eight daughters of unchastity: blindness of
mind, rashness, thoughtlessness, inconstancy, inordinate self-love,
hatred of God, excessive love of this world, and abhorrence or despair
of a future world (Summa Theologiae II-II, Q. 153, article, 5). Thus,
the higher powers, reason and the will, are most grievously disordered
by unchastity (synonymous with lust).
The Angelic Doctor’s list is
strikingly similar to a contemporary one compiled by sociologists Mark
Regnerus and Jeremy Uecker. Their “daughters of unchastity” include
guilt, regret, temporary self-loathing, diminished self-esteem, a sense
of having used someone else or having been used, discomfort about
having to lie or conceal sex from family, anxiety, and concern over the
place or role of sex in the relationship (Premarital Sex in America:
How Young Americans Meet, Mate and Think About Marrying).
It is commonplace these days for
people to think that sex outside of marriage is simply love and
therefore irreproachable. It is all too easy, however, for a person to
identify his actions as loving. In Love and Responsibility, Karol
Wojtyla (Pope John Paul II) writes about having a “transparent attitude
to a person of the other sex.” The virtue of chastity is slow to
develop when the other is not seen in all of his or her dignity as a
person. It is the person, not the pleasure that is paramount. This
affirmation of the value of the person, according to Wojtyla, requires
“a special interior, spiritual effort.” But, at the same time, “this
effort is above all positive and creative.”
Chastity, therefore, frees a person from using another person and
clears room for “loving kindness.” Chastity allows love to take place
between in the light of two whole persons. “Thus,” Wojtyla concludes,
“only the chaste man and the chaste woman are capable of true love.”
This may be received as a hard saying, but true love is not easily
cultivated.
The positive quality of chastity can hardly be more eloquently and
forcefully expressed than it is in the words of G.K. Chesterton, from a
Sept. 27, 1919, essay in the Illustrated London News:
“Mankind declares with one deafening voice: that sex may be ecstatic so
long as it is also restricted. That is the beginning of all purity; and
purity is the beginning of all passion.”.
MORE: Advice for Young Catholics Living in a Sex-Obsessed Culture
Thoughts
and Sayings of Saint Margaret Mary: Self-effacement--Detachment
29. Let us beg this lovable Heart to establish
this devotion firmly and to fill with the unction of Its grace and of Its
ardent charity all whom It will send us. I would willingly die that He
might reign!
June 8, 2022
(Rom 8:16-18) For
the Spirit himself giveth testimony to our spirit that we are the sons
of God. And if sons, heirs also; heirs indeed of God and joint heirs
with Christ: yet so, if we suffer with him, that we may be also
glorified with him. For I reckon that the sufferings of this time are
not worthy to be compared with the glory to come that shall be revealed
in us.
ST. ALPHONSUS LIGUORI: My most
beloved Jesus, I embrace all the sufferings You have destined for me
until death. I beg You, by all You suffered in carrying Your cross, to
help me carry mine with Your perfect peace and resignation. I love You,
Jesus, my love; I repent of ever having offended You. Never let me
separate myself from You again. Grant that I may love You always; and
then do with me as You will.
PETER KREEFT: Making Sense out of Suffering
VATICAN NEWS: Nigeria Church attack: When suffering is overlooked
CNS: Bishops lament that Nigerians are not safe anywhere after church attack
ACN: Pentecost massacre at St. Francis Xavier Church in Owo, Nigeria
AID TO THE CHURCH IN NEED (ACN) IS DEEPLY SHOCKED BY THE HORRIFIC
ATTACK WHICH TOOK PLACE AT THE ST. FRANCIS XAVIER CATHOLIC CHURCH, in
Owo, Ondo State, southwest Nigeria, during Pentecost Sunday
celebrations, June 5th, and which caused the death of many people,
including children.
The thoughts and prayers of ACN are with the victims, with the injured,
their families and the entire Catholic community in Ondo. “It is
Pentecost Sunday, a time every Catholic is expected to be in Church to
commemorate the Solemnity. It is so sad to say that while the Holy Mass
was going on, men of unknown origin, wielding guns, attacked St.
Francis Xavier Catholic Church,” said Father Augustine Ikwu, director
of communications for the Diocese of Ondo, in a statement sent to ACN.
“Many are feared dead, many others injured, and the Church violated,” he said.
“The identity of the perpetrators remains unknow while the situation has left the community devastated,” the priest added.
“Meanwhile, all the priests in the parish are safe and none was
kidnapped, said the priest, dispelling rumors to that effect which
circulated on social media. “The bishop appeals that we remain calm, be
law abiding and pray for peace and normalcy to return to our community,
state and country,” the statement ended.
ACN denounces this outburst of violence, yet another terrorist act in
Nigeria, one more on the long list of crimes against Christians. The
country in general has been rocked by episodes of terrorist violence,
banditry, and kidnappings that, although affecting all ethnic and
religious groups in the nation, have led to a long list of major
attacks on the Christian community over the last few decades.
Just last week Aid to the Church in Need organized a press conference
with Archbishop Matthew Man-Oso Ndagoso, Arbishop of Kaduna, who spoke
about the insecurity and the violence in Nigeria. Although the problems
come from a variety of directions, Archbishop Matthew stated clearly:
“The government has failed us completely; it is the absence of good
government that is causing this. Bandits, Boko Haram, kidnappings,
these are all symptoms of injustice, of the corruption that is in the
system. Unless we can get to the root of the issue, we will be fighting
a losing battle.”
The massacre took place in the southwest of Nigeria, a place that
hasn’t been affected until now by the insecurity and violence which
generally affect the north and the Middle Belt. While the problem may
be mostly internal, the West, said the archbishop, is also to blame.
“It takes two to tango. Our leaders steel our money and take it to the
West, to Switzerland, Paris, London, Frankfurt. If the West didn’t
accept their money, they would leave it at home. The Western
governments collaborate with our leaders.”
Aid to the Church in Need calls on all political and religious leaders
in the world to firmly and explicitly condemn this terrorist attack at
St. Francis Xavier Catholic Church, Owo, Ondo State, in southwest
Nigeria, during Pentecost Sunday celebrations.
Thoughts
and Sayings of Saint Margaret Mary: Self-effacement--Detachment
28. Our Lord continues to give me many graces,
unworthy though I be; that which I prize the most is conformity to His
life of suffering and humiliation. He keeps me in such a state of entire
submission to His good pleasure, that I am indifferent to all else.
June 5, 2022
(Rom 8:14-17) For
whosoever are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. For
you have not received the spirit of bondage again in fear: but you have
received the spirit of adoption of sons, whereby we cry: Abba (Father).
For the Spirit himself giveth testimony to our spirit that we are the
sons of God. And if sons, heirs also; heirs indeed of God and joint
heirs with Christ: yet so, if we suffer with him, that we may be also
glorified with him.
REGINAPROPHETARUM.ORG: Unraveling the Graces of Pentecost with Saint Norbert
CATHOLIC WORLD REPORT: Pentecost Sunday: Three essential truths about the Holy Spirit
ONEPETERFIVE: Forgotten Customs of the Octave of Pentecost
CATHOLIC STAR HERALD: Pentecost is a time for real change
It has been said, tongue-in-cheek,
that the only things certain in life are death and taxes. To that pair,
the element of change can indisputably be added.
Experience tells us that change is
indeed an inevitable fact of life. Change can be welcome or unwelcome,
easy or difficult, minor or major, for better or for worse. Saint John
Henry Newman, the great 19th-century scholar and convert from
Anglicanism, said, “To live is to change, and to be perfect is to have
changed often.” In a word, the Solemnity of Pentecost, as well as the
long season of Ordinary Time that flows from it, is about change.
Major changes took place at
Pentecost both in the Apostles and those who heard them preach. Before
Pentecost, the Apostles were confused about many things: the teachings
of Jesus, the meaning of his Passion, Death, and Resurrection and their
future mission. After Pentecost, infused with the gifts of the Holy
Spirit, they were clear about their life’s work and mission to spread
the Gospel of Jesus among the nations. Before Pentecost, the Apostles
were fearful even for their lives. After Pentecost, they were fearless
and unstoppable, preaching the Word of God to the crowds with all
boldness. And what happened to the many people who witnessed the zeal
of the Apostles for Christ and heard their powerful preaching? They
were converted on the spot! Thus, after Peter’s Pentecost sermon, 3,000
people immediately embraced the faith and were baptized.
Today, the Holy Spirit continues to
work in the world in more subtle but no less spectacular ways. The Holy
Spirit makes the words of Sacred Scripture living and effective in our
lives. So, when the Word of God is proclaimed at Mass, it is Christ
himself who speaks to us. When the words of institution are spoken by
the priest over ordinary elements of bread and wine, they are
substantially changed into the Body and Blood of Christ. When penitents
confess their sins to a priest, they are absolved. All those deeds are
accomplished by the action of the Holy Spirit. In fact, all of
sacraments are “mini-Pentecosts,” which make Christ present to us
through the power of the Holy Spirit. Consider, too, the
life-transforming change wrought over the centuries by the Holy Spirit
in the vast number of canonized saints.
Saint Hilary of Poitiers, a 4th
century bishop and doctor of the Church, said, “The gift of the Holy
Spirit is offered in its fullness to everyone, but it is given to each
one in proportion to his readiness to receive it. Its presence is the
fuller the greater one’s desire to receive it.” May the gift not lie
dormant in us, the gift we first received at Baptism and then, in its
fullness, at Confirmation. Let us repent of our sins to make ourselves
ready to receive it again, as if for the first time, as we ardently
desire to awaken it in our lives.
Thoughts
and Sayings of Saint Margaret Mary: Self-effacement--Detachment
27. Now I shall die happy, since the Sacred Heart
of my Saviour is beginning to be known; for it seems to me that, through
His mercy, I am almost wholly stripped and divested of esteem and reputation
in the minds of others, which consoles me more than I can say.
June 2, 2022
(1Pe 3:8-9) Finally, all of you, have unity of mind, sympathy, brotherly love, a
tender heart, and a humble mind. 9 Do not repay evil for evil or
reviling for reviling, but on the contrary, bless, for to this you were
called, that you may obtain a blessing.
CHURCH MILITANT: ‘Systemic Racism' From a Catholic Perspective
CATHOLIC WORLD REPORT: A Catholic response to racism
ELEISON COMMENTS: Racism, So-Called
“Black lives matter” – of course, but Heaven alone
Will satisfy what makes them now so groan.
Let us suppose, with the two previous issues of these “Comments” (April
23 and 30), that “racism” today has taken on such an importance as to
violate all common sense, because Marxism is a substitute religion, and
the fight against “racism” is merely a re-run of Marxism. But that
“mere re-run” behaves on the streets like a veritable crusade, e.g.
“Black Lives Matter.” Why do warmed up Communists always behave like
crusaders? It is in fact a religious question deserving, for their
sakes, of our attention. (In fact, only souls with some sense of the
true God can properly understand our godless modern world.)
Man is a spiritual creature. The two ranks of beings above him,
Almighty God and the angels, are purely spiritual; the three ranks of
beings below him, animal, vegetable and mineral, are purely material;
man alone is both spiritual by his soul and material by his body. Being
spiritual by his soul, he alone among all material animals has
intelligence and reason, and by his reason, free-will. Had he not his
intelligence, he could not dominate all the other animals, as he was
told by God to do (Genesis, I 26), and as he obviously can do,
otherwise the variety of animals fiercer and stronger than man would
have eaten him up long ago.
But the very basis of Marxism and Communism is atheistic materialism,
i.e. the denial that there is any such thing as God, or spirit above
matter, or free-will. See the very first error of our materialistic
age, as nailed in 1864 by Pius IX in his condemnation of 80 modern
errors in his “Syllabus of Errors.”
Since “It is God that has made us, and not we ourselves” (Psalm 99, 3),
then we ARE spiritual creatures, whether we like it or not, coming from
God and meant by Him to go to God, with our spiritual and immortal
souls, alone capable, by the right use of our spiritual free-will while
joined to our material bodies here on earth below, of enjoying His
spiritual Heaven for ever and ever above. Hence the real dignity of man
is not so much in his mere possession of free-will, as in his right use
of it. But the pride of man makes him refuse his spiritual destiny in
Heaven where he will have to be beneath God, and that is why he
pretends that he is a purely material being, not having to obey any of
God’s Ten Commandments.
However, no man that ever lived designed his own human nature (Psalm
99,3), and that is why even when he pretends to be purely material, he
remains spiritual, with a God-given instinct of how life in Heaven will
be, without marriage (Mk XII, 25) or race (Gal.III, 28) or any other
kind of hurtful inequality, but “Christ will be all in all” (Col. III,
11), with all hurtful inequalities of life on earth left far behind the
glory of God’s infinite variety of blessed human beings living in His
perfect harmony, and theirs.
But here arises an insoluble problem for godless men, like we are
today. We turn our backs on God, but we cannot help longing for that
liberty, equality, fraternity and immortality of His that is inscribed
in the spiritual nature of our souls. Hence we must cram into our brief
mortal lives the satisfaction of our immortal longings which can only
be fulfilled in His everlasting life. But that is like cramming a quart
of liquid into a pint-pot. It simply will not go. Hence all over modern
life are examples of men pursuing satisfaction by means that cannot
possibly satisfy them. ““Thou hast made us for thyself, O Lord, and our
heart is restless until it finds its rest in thee” (St. Augustine).
There was a time when employers used to advertise that “Jews, blacks
and women need not apply for the job.” Jews can resent that whites have
lead the world. Blacks can resent that many people look down on them.
Women can resent that the man is head of the family. And who is to
blame? Mainly the whites, who were gifted by God to teach to Jews the
New Testament; to blacks their dignity before God; to women their true
role in the family. But by instead abandoning God, whites are judaising
themselves, are seeing blacks tear up their godless conurbations, and
are unmanning themselves. The true solution to these problems and
countless others is clear – the whites themselves must turn back to God.
Thoughts
and Sayings of Saint Margaret Mary: Self-effacement--Detachment
23. Love to be looked upon as a mere nothing in
the house of God.
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