Keep
your eyes open!...
May 28, 2021
(1Th 5:19-21) Extinguish not the spirit. Despise not prophecies. But prove all things: hold fast that which is good.
FULL MOVIE LINK: Garabandal Only God Knows
BLOG: After 60 years, can we finally have 20/20 vision on Garabandal?
CATHOLIC STAND: Garabandal: Believe the Miracles
Summary
- The events at Garabandal were surely of
supernatural origin because the miracles that happened there cannot be
explained by any other means.
- They were surely of heavenly and not
demonic origin because of the clear respect for the Eucharist, the
Rosary, proper authority in the Church, and the lives of Christian
witness of the visionaries.
- The fact that Garabandal has more
miracles than all other apparition sites is an indication that we
should take its message very seriously and respond to it with urgency.
- The message of Garabandal is basically that of the Gospel: repent and believe, be devoted to the Eucharist and to prayer.
- Any other interpretations of Garabandal
(the end of the papacy, the illegitimacy of Pope Francis, etc.) are not
in line with Church teaching regarding the perpetuity of the Petrine
ministry in the Church. This is not the opinion of a Catholic Stand
columnist but the mind of the Church united around the successors of
the apostles under Peter.
MORE: Garabandal Miracles: Responding to Comments
SUNSTAR.COM: Cervantes: Why believe Garabandal?
AMAZON LINK: A Walk to Garabandal: A Journey of Happiness and Hope by Ed Kelly
Kelly’s "Walk" starts when the high school Spanish teacher travels to
Spain seeking adventure. A man sipping wine in a bar greets him,
"Americano, you're late. A few years ago the foreigners poured through
here to watch the strange reactions of four little girls who claimed
visits from an angel and the Virgin Mary."
Kelly samples the food and wine and moves on to Pamplona where avoiding
being gored by the bulls chases away all thoughts of little levitated
mountain girls. Back home he learns that the Vatican takes seriously
the predictions of a future horrifying warning for everyone in the
world, followed in the village by the greatest miracle in history at
which the sick will be cured. Conchita confirms to a BBC interviewer,
“that if the conditional punishment follows, it would be better that
her children had never been born.”
The author returns the next summer and fourteen more times to live more
than four years total in the area. He listens to eyewitness relive what
they had seen and heard and felt during the apparitions and gets to
know the visionaries. He shows how the attractive twenty-two year old
Conchita is even more fascinating living incognito as “Maria” in
Barcelona.
In February 2018, the first movie on the happenings opened and has people all over Spain talking about Garabandal. The movie is projected to open in the U.S. before the end of the year. We are living in the end times.
Thoughts
and Sayings of Saint Margaret Mary: Patience & Generosity
2. You know that virtue is not practiced without
effort, but for one moment of suffering there follows an eternity of reward.
May 26, 2021
(Mat 10:34-36) Do
not think that I came to send peace upon earth: I came not to send
peace, but the sword. For I came to set a man at variance against his
father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter in law
against her mother in law. And a man's enemies shall be they of his own
household.
RESPECT LIFE RADIO: Fighting the good fight for religious liberty
“Traditional
Catholic beliefs about life and about marriage and human sexuality —
whereas they were at least uncontroversial decades ago, if not widely
held — are now increasingly viewed as a threat to modern culture.”
SANDRO MAGISTER BLOG: Family Feud. On the Blessing of Homosexual Couples the Vatican Has an Enemy in the House
NEWS REPORT: Germany's quiet Catholic rebellion on gay blessings and women preachers
Over the space of a week the priests conducted services in Catholic churches all over Germany with individual blessings for anyone who wanted them, including couples in relationships the Vatican regards as sinful, such as divorced people or same-sex couples.
When I asked Fr Korditschke how he justified going against the Vatican's ruling, he answered with tears in his eyes. There
was someone in his congregation who had put a rose on the seat beside
him for his partner who died a few months before; he had spoken of the
pain he was in and had asked for a blessing for his deceased partner,
to help him bear the loss.
Blessings for same-sex couples are just part of a growing movement in Germany of liberal Catholics who want change.
Grassroots organisations, such as
Maria 2.0, also call for equal rights for women in the Church. A
day after Fr Korditschke's service in Berlin, women preached from the pulpits of 12 different Catholic churches across Germany -something the Vatican also frowns on.
The German Church hierarchy is
divided: liberal German bishops support some calls for reform, while
conservative Church leaders back the Vatican's tough line.
However, surveys indicate that individual German Catholics themselves tend to be more liberal than the Catholic establishment.
One survey, carried out by
universities in Berlin and Münster, suggests that 70% of German
Catholics support blessings for same-sex couples, 80% have no problem
with couples living together outside of marriage and 85% believe
priests should be able to marry.
After the same-sex blessings in
Berlin, around 100 people gather outside the church, to drink a
celebratory glass of sparkling wine in the sun. But at the church
gates, about 10 protesters hold up a sign reading "God does not bless
sin".
RELATED: Indonesian priest sparks same-sex marriage storm
LIFESITENEWS.COM: More US bishops publicly out themselves as pro-LGBT
CATHOLIC SPIRITUAL WARFARE
Persecuted Priest: Bishops preying on priests who tell the truth
Controversial La Crosse priest says he will challenge bishop’s request to resign
Bishops press Gomez to halt Communion debate
VIDEO: Fr. Altman - ***NEW SERMON*** You Are Fired!!! Could This Be His Last Sermon? Pentecost Sunday May23
Thoughts
and Sayings of Saint Margaret Mary: The Practice of Virtue
31. If you find within yourself an abyss of pride
and vain esteem, bury these passions in the abyss of the humility of the
Sacred Heart, wherein you must lose all that stirs you interiorly, so as
to be arrayed in His sacred annihilations.
May 24, 2021
(Luk 2:19) But Mary kept all these words, pondering them in her heart.
ASCENSION ARCHIVES: A New Feast: Mary, Mother of the Church
EWTN REVIEW: Why do we celebrate Mary, as Mother of the Church?
FLORIDA CATHOLIC: Mary in the Upper Room by Bishop Barbarito
CATHOLIC REVIEW: Mary’s discipleship and ours by Archbishop William E. Lori
In life’s difficult moments, we often turn to the Blessed Virgin Mary
for help. It is right that we do so, for she is our Mother who loves us
dearly. She is always attentive to our specific needs but her love for
us does not stop there. More than that, our Blessed Mother seeks, above
all, to instill in us essential characteristics of the Christian life,
characteristics that she embodies and exemplifies, namely, 1) openness
to God’s love; 2) faithfulness in discipleship; 3) spiritual
fruitfulness. Let me illustrate each of these.
When the Angel Gabriel announced to the Virgin Mary that God had chosen
her to be the Mother of his Son, the Messiah, her “yes” to God was
total and ongoing. Her response to the Angel stands forever as the
model for our response to God’s initiatives in our lives: “Be it done
to me according to your word!” Because of Mary’s single-hearted
openness to God’s plan, she conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit
and brought forth the world’s Savior, Jesus the Christ.
In the rough and tumble of daily life, we can easily compromise our
“yes” to God. In the face of setbacks, anger and disappointment can get
the better of us. Instead of opening our hearts to God’s will, we can
dwell on ourselves. Even then, Mary is never far away from us, only a
prayer away, really. She urges us to surrender all bitterness and
self-absorption, and instead entrust ourselves to God’s providential
love. Mary did not understand all that the Incarnation would demand of
her any more than we understand all that God is asking of us. Yet, when
we say “yes” to whatever God wills for our lives, we discover a
newfound peace.
A second essential characteristic of the Christian life is fidelity.
Many episodes in Mary’s life illustrate this quality. As she entered
the house of Elizabeth, her cousin cried out, “Blessed is she who
believed that God’s promises would be fulfilled!” Mary’s faith never
wavered as she witnessed astonishing events in the life of her divine
Son. Instead, she lovingly stored these mysteries in her heart.
As Jesus began his public mission, Mary became his first and best
disciple. In her goodness, she epitomized the Beatitudes. When Jesus
said, “Blessed are they who hear the word of God and keep it,” he was
surely thinking first of his Mother. Mary’s fidelity, at length,
brought her to the foot of the Cross, to Calvary, where she shared
intimately in her Son’s Passion and Death.
It is all too easy for us to leave the path of discipleship. Think of
how many Catholics have abandoned the practice of the faith. Some claim
they left because of scandal, others because they no longer feel it
meets their needs, and still others because of social pressure. Mary
urges us to cling to our faith for the long haul. Let us not be
“fair-weather disciples!” A third essential characteristic of the
Christian life is spiritual fruitfulness. Mary exemplifies such
fruitfulness by the virgin birth of her Son and our Savior, Jesus
Christ. Yet, God the Father had in mind for her another form of
motherhood: she was to be the Mother of the Church and the spiritual
Mother of each of the Lord’s followers. As he hung upon the Cross,
Jesus said to the beloved disciple, John, “Behold, your Mother.” Even
as Mary’s heart was rent with sorrow, the full extent of her motherhood
was revealed. She who gave birth to the Savior became the “New Eve” who
gave birth in the Church to countless disciples of the Lord, including
you and me.
How are we to be spiritually fruitful? Each of us is called to
reproduce ourselves many times over by attracting new followers to the
Lord and active members of the Church. We are called to reinforce and
deepen one another’s faith, and to manifest in our lives the abundant
gifts of the Holy Spirit. And we are called to transform the world
around us.
During this month of May, let us turn to Mary with renewed devotion,
asking her to lead us to her divine Son, our Lord and Savior Jesus
Christ. Vivat Jesus!
UNIVERSALIS: From an allocution by Pope Paul VI at the Second Vatican Council The Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of the Church
Meditating on the close relationships between Mary and the Church, for
the glory of the Virgin Mary and for our own consolation, we proclaim
the Most Blessed Mary Mother of the Church, that is to say of all the
people of God, of the faithful as well as of the pastors, who call her
the most loving Mother. And we wish that the Mother of God should be
still more honoured and invoked by the entire Christian people by this
most sweet title.
This is a title, venerable brothers, not new to Christian piety; it is
precisely by this title, in preference to all others, that the faithful
and the Church address Mary. It truly is part of the genuine substance
of devotion to Mary, finding its justification in the very dignity of
the Mother of the word Incarnate.
Just as, in fact, the divine maternity is the basis for her special
relationship with Christ, and for her presence in the economy of
salvation brought about by Jesus Christ, thus it also constitutes the
principal basis for the relations between Mary and the Church, since
she is the mother of him who, right from the time of his Incarnation in
her virginal bosom, joined to himself as head his Mystical Body which
is the Church. Mary, then, as mother of Christ, is mother also of all
the faithful and of all the pastors.
It is therefore with a soul full of trust and filial love that we raise
our glance to her, despite our unworthiness and weakness. She, who has
given us in Jesus the fountainhead of grace, will not fail to succour
the Church, now flourishing through the abundance of the gifts of the
Holy Ghost and setting herself with new zeal to the fulfilment of its
mission of salvation.
And our trust is even more lively and fully corroborated if we consider
the very close links between this heavenly Mother of ours and mankind.
Although adorned by God with the riches of admirable prerogatives, to
make her a worthy Mother of the Word Incarnate, she is nevertheless
very close to us. Daughter of Adam, like ourselves, and therefore our
sister through ties of nature, she is, however, the creature who was
preserved from original sin in view of the merits of the Saviour, and
who possesses besides the privileges obtained the personal virtue of a
total and exemplary faith, thus deserving the evangelical praise, beata
quae credidisti (blessed art thou who believed). In her earthly life,
she realised the perfect image of the disciple of Christ, reflected
every virtue, and incarnated the evangelical beatitudes proclaimed by
Christ. Therefore in her, the entire Church, in its incomparable
variety of life and of work, attains the most authentic form of the
perfect imitation of Christ.
Thoughts
and Sayings of Saint Margaret Mary: The Practice of Virtue
29. When our Lord inspires us with some good deed,
He also gives the strength to do it.
May 20, 2021
(Psa 122:6) Pray ye for the things that are for the peace of Jerusalem: and abundance for them that love thee.
CATHOLICPHILLY.COM: Pope appeals for peace in Holy Land, says death of children ‘unacceptable’
CNA: Israel-Gaza conflict: Patriarch Pizzaballa asks Catholics to pray for peace and justice
CATHOLIC SENTINEL: Gaza's only Catholic priest calls Israel-Gaza violence 'extremely serious'
The sole Catholic priest in the Gaza Strip has warned of the
severity of the recent violence between Israel and Palestinian
militants.
More than 200 people have died in Gaza, 59 of whom are children, the
BBC reports. In Israel, 10 have died, of whom two are children.
Israel is conducting air strikes on Gaza, while militants from Hamas,
the Islamist movement which has ruled the territory since 2007, are
firing rockets at Israel.
Tens of thousands of Gaza residents have been displaced by the
violence, and both hospitals and schools have been destroyed in the
territory.
Father Gabriel Romanelli is the pastor of Holy Family parish, the only
Catholic parish in the Gaza Strip. The priest told ACI Prensa, CNA’s
Spanish language news partner, “the situation in the Gaza Strip is very
bad. Day and night we’re bombarded. The bombing usually only takes
place at night and during the day life is more or less normal. But
these days, both day and night, there is bombing, rockets from the
strip and the Israeli response, with planes and tanks."
“Currently there is constant bombing. Even when it stops, the silence
is strange and makes you feel like you’re in the eye of the hurricane,”
he said.
The priest noted that since November 2019 there has been no "talk of
war" in the area and even "material progress, there were more
businesses and the housing was better." However, after the start of the
attacks, the situation is “very uncertain.” “There is no neighborhood
or city that hasn’t been hit, some very hard. And the Israeli
authorities state that as long as the aggression continues they will
continue to bomb and the Palestinians also say that as long as the
(Israeli) advance doesn’t let up, they will continue to respond,” the
priest explained.
“Our parish is a very small but beautiful and strong community. The
Greek Orthodox also come. There are 133 of us Catholics, including 13
religious from the Incarnate Word community. We fan out to make contact
with the families, so both Catholics and Orthodox, as well as poor
Muslim families, feel the spiritual and material closeness of the
parish to them,” Father Romanelli told ACI Prensa.
The Incarnate Word priest said the difficulties faced by the people in
the Gaza Strip for decades should not be forgotten, because they “have
suffered from an embargo of all kinds of things for years, which is why
it’s called the largest open-air prison in the world."
Faced with the serious difficulties being experienced in the Gaza
Strip, Father Romanelli encouraged people to pray and offer sacrifices
for peace so “the governing authorities and those who have the ability
to conclude a truce in this situation are enlightened to do so.” The
priest stressed the importance of sending material aid "through
official channels such as the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem, or
Catholic charitable associations, which are very effective."
The latest round of violence began after clashes last month between
Israelis and Palestinians at al-Aqsa Mosque, which is built on the
Temple Mount. Hamas urged Israel to withdraw soldiers from the site,
fired rockets May 10 when this did not happen, and Israel returned air
strikes.
Israel has said more than 3,000 rockets have been fired at it in the
past week. About 90 percent of the rockets have been intercepted by its
Iron Dome defense system.
In May 2019, a similar bout of rockets from Gaza and air strikes by Israel killed about 30 Gazans and four Israelis.
The Gaza Strip is home to about 2 million people. There are about 1,000
Christians in the territory; most of these are Eastern Orthodox, and
about 100 are Catholics.
RELATED COMMENTARY
Bassem Eid: An Open Letter to My Palestinian Brethren
Opinion: You should be concerned about Hamas’ attacks on Israel
Jesuit’s Holy Land Superior on Latest Violence in Israel: ‘The Core of the Conflict Is Not Being Dealt With’
Thoughts
and Sayings of Saint Margaret Mary: The Practice of Virtue
28. Be faithful in the practice of virtue, never
willfully neglecting any occasion thereof.
May 18, 2021
(Exo 20:13) Thou shalt not kill.
ARCHBISHOP SALVATORE CORDILEONE:
We must never lose sight of this fact: in the last 50 years, in the
United States alone, 66,000,000 babies have been murdered in their
mothers’ wombs.
IN THE NEWS
FIRST THINGS EDITORIAL: Abortion and the Eucharist
THE CATHOLIC THING: President Biden and Public Scandal
CATHOLIC WORLD REPORT: Pelosi and the bishops: Cutting through the fog of controversy
REVIEW: Catholic bishops fight politicians' abortion stances
Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone leads the Archdiocese of San
Francisco, a symbolic city in debates about modern American culture.
But what matters the most, as
tensions rise among Catholic leaders, is that Cordileone is House
Speaker Nancy Pelosi's hometown bishop. Thus, it's hard for politicos
to avoid blunt passages in his new pastoral letter, "Before I Formed
You in the Womb I Knew You."
Citing centuries of church
doctrine, the archbishop argued that Catholics who "reject the teaching
of the Church on the sanctity of human life and those who do not seek
to live in accordance with that teaching should not receive the
Eucharist. It is fundamentally a question of integrity: to receive the
Blessed Sacrament in the Catholic liturgy is to espouse publicly the
faith and moral teachings of the Catholic Church, and to desire to live
accordingly."
There is, he added, "a great
difference between struggling to live according to the teachings of the
Church and rejecting those teachings. ... In the case of public figures
who profess to be Catholic and promote abortion, we are not dealing
with a sin committed in human weakness or a moral lapse: This is a
matter of persistent, obdurate and public rejection of Catholic
teaching. This adds an even greater responsibility to the role of the
Church's pastors in caring for the salvation of souls."
Citing a famous example, Cordileone
recalled when former New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani received Holy
Communion during a 2008 Mass led by Pope Benedict XVI. This caused
scandal and, according to the late Cardinal Edward Egan, violated an
agreement that Giuliani would not receive the Sacrament because of his
public support for abortion rights and other clashes with doctrine.
The big issue, as U.S. bishops
prepare for June discussions of "Eucharistic coherence," is not how to
handle a former New York City mayor. The question is whether bishops
can address their own divisions about the status of pro-abortion-rights
Catholics such as Pelosi and President Joe Biden. While vice president,
Biden also performed two same-sex marriage rites.
San Diego Bishop Robert McElroy,
firing back at Cordileone in America magazine, stressed that the
"Eucharist must never be instrumentalized for a political end. ... But
that is precisely what is being done in the effort to exclude Catholic
political leaders who oppose the church's teaching on abortion and
civil law. The Eucharist is being weaponized and deployed as a tool in
political warfare. This must not happen."
Meanwhile, the prefect of the
Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith warned the leader
of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops that these issues could
become a "source of discord rather than unity within the episcopate"
and among all American Catholics.
Writing to Los Angeles Archbishop
Jose Gomez, Cardinal Luis F. Ladaria said it's important to focus on
the "broad context of worthiness for the reception of holy Communion on
the part of all the faithful," not just politicians. The Jesuit's
leaked letter has been discussed in America magazine, The Pillar,
National Catholic Register and elsewhere.
The bottom line, said Ladaria, is
that any effective "policy in this area requires that dialogue occurs
in two stages: first among the bishops themselves, and then between
bishops and Catholic pro-choice politicians within their jurisdictions."
Thus, a key figure in this drama
will be the new leader of Biden's home diocese in Delaware. In his
introductory news conference, Bishop-elect William Koenig told
reporters he prays for Biden "every day" and would "certainly be open
to having a conversation in the future. ... As a bishop, I'm called to
teach the fullness and the beauty of the Catholic faith."
As for Cordileone, he stressed that
many Catholics fail to grasp how defending unborn life -- "a moral
absolute" -- is linked to discussions of immigration, economic justice,
the environment and other examples of what Pope Francis calls
"throw-away culture."
Rejecting these life-and-death truths, said Cordileone, will have eternal consequences.
"When public figures identify
themselves as Catholics and yet actively oppose one of the most
fundamental doctrines of the Church ... we pastors have a
responsibility both to them and to the rest of our people. Our
responsibility to them is to call them to conversion and to warn them
that if they do not amend their lives, they must answer before the
tribunal of God."
Thoughts
and Sayings of Saint Margaret Mary: The Practice of Virtue
27. Try to draw profit from and make good use of
the holy affections that you receive from the Sovereign Goodness, endeavoring
to benefit by them. Be ever attentive to good inspirations, for the Holy
Spirit breathes where He wills. Grace is offered, but if refused, never
returns. Therefore let us profit by it.
May 16, 2021
(Act 1:8-11) But
you shall receive the power of the Holy Ghost coming upon you, and you
shall be witnesses unto me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and Samaria,
and even to the uttermost part of the earth. And when he had said these
things, while they looked on, he was raised up: and a cloud received
him out of their sight. And while they were beholding him going up to
heaven, behold two men stood by them in white garments. Who also said:
Ye men of Galilee, why stand you looking up to heaven? This Jesus who
is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come as you have seen him
going into heaven.
REGINA PROPHETARUM: The Way is UP into the Heaven of Heavens
ALETIA: What happened between the resurrection and ascension of Jesus?
MEDITATION: The End is the Beginning
The Ascension completes the mission of the Son of God, and today we
honor that one definitive moment when God the Son, in His transformed
and resurrected Human nature, ascends by His own power to the Father,
bringing with Himself our humanity so that all humanity may ascend with
Him.
UNIVERSALIS: From a sermon of Saint Leo the Great, pope Our faith is increased by the Lord's ascension
At Easter, beloved brethren, it was the Lord’s resurrection which was
the cause of our joy; our present rejoicing is on account of his
ascension into heaven. With all due solemnity we are commemorating that
day on which our poor human nature was carried up, in Christ, above all
the hosts of heaven, above all the ranks of angels, beyond the highest
heavenly powers to the very throne of God the Father. It is upon this
ordered structure of divine acts that we have been firmly established,
so that the grace of God may show itself still more marvellous when, in
spite of the withdrawal from men’s sight of everything that is rightly
felt to command their reverence, faith does not fail, hope is not
shaken, charity does not grow cold.
For such is the power of great minds, such is the light of truly
believing souls, that they put unhesitating faith in what is not seen
with the bodily eye; they fix their desires on what is beyond sight.
Such fidelity could never be born in our hearts, nor could anyone be
justified by faith, if our salvation lay only in what was visible.
And so our Redeemer’s visible presence has passed into the sacraments.
Our faith is nobler and stronger because sight has been replaced by a
doctrine whose authority is accepted by believing hearts, enlightened
from on high. This faith was increased by the Lord’s ascension and
strengthened by the gift of the Spirit; it would remain unshaken by
fetters and imprisonment, exile and hunger, fire and ravening beasts,
and the most refined tortures ever devised by brutal persecutors.
Throughout the world women no less than men, tender girls as well as
boys, have given their life’s blood in the struggle for this faith. It
is a faith that has driven out devils, healed the sick and raised the
dead.
Even the blessed apostles, though they had been strengthened by so many
miracles and instructed by so much teaching, took fright at the cruel
suffering of the Lord’s passion and could not accept his resurrection
without hesitation. Yet they made such progress through his ascension
that they now found joy in what had terrified them before. They were
able to fix their minds on Christ’s divinity as he sat at the right
hand of his Father, since what was presented to their bodily eyes no
longer hindered them from turning all their attention to the
realisation that he had not left his Father when he came down to earth,
nor had he abandoned his disciples when he ascended into heaven.
The truth is that the Son of Man was revealed as Son of God in a more
perfect and transcendent way once he had entered into his Father’s
glory; he now began to be indescribably more present in his divinity to
those from whom he was further removed in his humanity. A more mature
faith enabled their minds to stretch upward to the Son in his equality
with the Father; it no longer needed contact with Christ’s tangible
body, in which as man he is inferior to the Father. For while his
glorified body retained the same nature, the faith of those who
believed in him was now summoned to heights where, as the Father’s
equal, the only-begotten Son is reached not by physical handling but by
spiritual discernment.
Thoughts
and Sayings of Saint Margaret Mary: The Practice of Virtue
26. Forget your own interests and leave the care
of yourself to your heavenly Father. The further you withdraw from self,
the closer you draw to God.
May 12, 2021
THE TRIB TIMES WILL
RETURN NEXT WEEK, GOD WILLING (James 4:15).
(1Pe 5:8-9) Be
sober and watch: because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion,
goeth about seeking whom he may devour. Whom resist ye, strong in
faith: knowing that the same affliction befalls, your brethren who are
in the world.
CATHOLIC STAND: Angels and Demons
PETER KREEFT: Angels- The Twelve Most Important Things to Know About Them
FATHER ED BROOM, OMV: Ten Lies of the Devil- The Father of Lies
AUDIO HOMILY: No Sympathy for Satan Allowed
There is a theme today that is running through much of our entire
culture and life. It has been summarized as sympathy for Satan. We are
made to feel sorrow by many today for whom we ought not feel sorrow… we
pity whom we ought not pity. We sympathize in the wrong way. It opens
the door to looking into and using what is not healthy for the
Christian soul… be on your guard. Let’s be sure to avoid supporting and
giving our energy to anything that does not have a solid Catholic
Foundation or will not help remove obstacles a good and holy end.
EXCERPT BISHOP THOMAS J. OLMSTED: Surrounded by Angels, including fallen ones
Demons are fallen angels that
rebelled against God. Refusing to serve their Creator, they hate all
His creation, especially human beings like you and me. So, they are
constantly intent on deceiving us, leading us away from God and making
us their slaves through their temptations and our own sinfulness.
Some mistakenly think that Satan
and the fallen angels don’t exist at all; that they are mythical
figures created by fearful, non-enlightened minds; but that is not the
case. The Catechism of the Catholic Church states (391): “Behind the
disobedient choice of our first parents lurks a seductive voice,
opposed to God, which makes them fall into death out of envy. Scripture
and the Church’s Tradition see in this being a fallen angel, called
‘Satan’ or the ‘devil.’ The Church teaches that Satan was at first a
good angel, made by God: ‘The devil and the other demons were indeed
created naturally good by God, but they became evil by their own
doing.’”
The Catechism goes on to say: “Scripture witnesses to the disastrous
influence of the one Jesus calls ‘a murderer from the beginning,’ who
would even try to divert Jesus from the mission received from His
Father. ‘The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of
the devil.’ In its consequences the gravest of these works was the
mendacious seduction that led man to disobey God” (394).
You and I are engaged in a
spiritual battle, which will continue as long as we live on earth. But
we need not be fearful of these demons nor tempted to despair, for the
victory over Satan and all evil spirits has already been won on the
Cross. In the Crucified and Risen Christ, we have available to us the
decisive triumph over the kingdom of darkness. By God’s providential
design, however, the Lord respects our human dignity and thus gives us
the freedom to make a choice to reject evil and choose what is good.
And He assists us through His Body, the Church, and her ministry of
exorcism and deliverance.
EXCERPT MSGR. STEPHEN ROSSETTI: Exorcist Diary #137: No Love in Hell
The demons were screaming again and again, "Get him out of here!" They
were not speaking about the exorcist, but about the possessed girl's
father. In the midst of her torment, while torrents of evil were
spewing from her mouth, the father told his girl how much he loved her.
His loving words tormented the demons as much as the Rite, perhaps more
so.
There is no love in hell. They
can't stand it. I remember finishing up a particularly brutal exorcism
some years ago. At the end, the possessed young woman was surrounded by
her loving parents and very close friends. All loved her dearly and
supported her throughout many painful and ugly months. At the end, the
mother said, "You know why the demons finally left? They couldn't take
her being surrounded by so much love."
Our team members sacrifice, fast
and pray. Over the years we have become a tight-knit and well-trained
exorcism team. But I am always grateful when someone who loves the
afflicted person is also present. "More is wrought by love than by
sacrifice."
There is no love in hell. That is all there is in heaven.
Thoughts
and Sayings of Saint Margaret Mary: The Practice of Virtue
25. I beg of Him with all my heart to make you
ever faithful to what He asks of you, ready to sacrifice to Him all that
costs you the most, according as He makes His will known to you; for there
is no middle course; He will have all or nothing.
May 10, 2021
Genesis 3:4 But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die.
CATHOLIC STAND: The Artificial Mysticism of the Great Reset
EXCERPT ARCHBISHOP VIGANO: TRUTH OVER FEAR: COVID-19, THE VACCINE AND THE GREAT RESET
If we make a comparison between how we lived in January
2020 and how we have been reduced to living today, we cannot fail to
recognize the success of this infernal plan, accepted by the majority
of people as unavoidable. There are those who, unable to accept the
intrinsic irrationality of the provisions adopted by their rulers,
suspend all judgment and hand themselves over to their executioners.
Others, trying to find a supernatural meaning in collective madness,
pray to God for the end of a non-existent plague or adapt to the new
pagan liturgies of Covid. Still others, more combative, are unable to
resign themselves to the monstrosity of what is happening and hope for
a divine intervention.
If only we had the good sense to think autonomously, to use the
rationality with which we have been endowed by the Eternal Father, we
would immediately understand that this horror is nothing but the “world
turned upside down” that is desired by the eternal Enemy of the human
race, the hell on earth longed for by the servants of Satan, the New
Infernal Order that is the prelude to the advent of the Antichrist and
the end times. Only in this way will we be able to understand the
apostasy of the highest levels of the Church, all taken to give proof
of obedience to the globalist ideology, to the point of denying Christ
on the Cross and preferring the heavy chains of Lucifer to the gentle
yoke of Christ.
If there is a “Great Reset” that humanity really needs, this can only
come in the return to God, in a true conversion of individuals and of
society to Christ the King, which for too long we have allowed to be
dethroned in the name of a perverse freedom that permits and
legitimizes everything except the Good. That “Great Reset” was
accomplished on Golgotha, in the moment in which Satan believed that he
was putting the Son of God to death and preventing the Redemption,
while in reality he was signing his own definitive defeat. What we are
witnessing today is only a painful after-effect of the battle between
Christ and Satan, between the offspring of the Woman clothed in light
of whom the Book of Revelation speaks and the accursed offspring of the
ancient Serpent.
Thus, as we approach the persecution of the End Times, we have the
supernatural certainty that even this grotesque pandemic, a miserable
pretext for the establishment of an antihuman and antichristic
synarchy, is doomed to defeat, because Christ has already conquered the
eternally Defeated One with a crushing and inexorable victory.
Strengthened by the certainty of this epochal victory, whose triumph we
will see perhaps very soon, we must fight under the banner of Christ
the King and the protection of the Queen of Victories, whom the Lord
has given the power to crush the head of the Evil One.
If we return to Christ, beginning with ourselves and our families, we
will succeed not only in opening our eyes to understand the absurdity
of what is happening around us, but we will also know how to
effectively fight with the invincible weapons of Faith. “Omne, quod est
ex Deo, vincit mundum: et haec est victoria, quae vincit mundum, fides
nostra. – For whoever is begotten by God conquers the world: and this
is the victory that conquers the world, our faith” (1 Jn 5:4). Then the
new tower of Babel, the house of cards of Covid, the farce of the
vaccines, and the fraud of the Great Reset will inexorably collapse,
manifesting in its diabolical nature the murderous plan of the
Adversary and his servants.
Let us look to the New Jerusalem that descends from heaven, the Holy
Church, which in the vision of Saint John appears “like a bride adorned
for her husband” (Rev 21:2). Let us listen to the loud voice that
announces: “And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and
there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying, nor pain, because
the former things have passed away” (Rev 21:4). Our “Great Reset” is
accomplished in Our Lord: “Behold, I make all things new” (Rev 21:5);
“I am the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end” (Rev 21:6). May
the entire Heavenly Court assist and protect us in this epochal battle,
in which it is our glory to serve under the insignia of Christ the King
and Mary our Queen.
IN THE NEWS
Calgary street preacher Artur Pawlowski arrested and charged after defying public health orders
Chinese Underground Catholic Fined for Providing a Place for Mass
Mass banned, what happened to "Catholic" Ireland?
Thoughts
and Sayings of Saint Margaret Mary: The Practice of Virtue
21. You must be indifferent to all created things
and especially to the impulses prompted by your self-love and your own
will. This self-will He wishes you to sacrifice as often as He gives
you the opportunity thereof, by breaking and thwarting it, until it is
wholly destroyed and extinct, in order that the Will of His divine Heart,
alone, may reign in you.
May 6, 2021
(Gen 1:27) And God created man to his own image: to the image of God he created him: male and female he created them.
PASTORAL LETTER: On the Human Dignity of the Unborn, Holy Communion, and Catholics in Public Life By the Most Reverend Salvatore Joseph Cordileone, Archbishop of San Franciscoc
COMMENTARY VIA CRISIS MAGAZINE: From the Lion’s Heart
THE PILLAR: San Francisco
Archbishop Sal Cordileone on
Saturday published a pastoral letter on abortion, which weighed in on
the ongoing discussion of the U.S. bishops regarding the reception of
the Eucharist by pro-abortion politicians.
The question has been a live,
controversial, and much discussed issue for Catholic bishops since the
inauguration of Joe Biden as the second Catholic U.S. president in
January. But for Cordileone, whose archdiocese is the home of House
Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a Catholic, the question has been in play for
much longer. Pelosi, a very public Catholic, has long helped set a
legislative agenda that includes federal funding for abortion and
expanded legal protection for abortion.
Cordileone’s letter also comes
ahead of an expected vote at the June USCCB meeting, on whether the
U.S. bishops should proceed to draft a statement on “Eucharistic
coherence,” the euphemistic term they’ve chosen to describe the fact
that those who set themselves in opposition to Catholic doctrine — a
foundation of ecclesial communion — should not be receiving Holy
Communion — the sign and symbol of that very communion.
The letter will be hailed by some
as a cornerstone text, and criticized roundly by others. It is direct
on abortion, clear about the incongruence of abortion advocacy with
living the Catholic faith, and exhortative that advocates for legal
protection for abortion should change their tune.
The exhortation is straightforward:
To my fellow
Catholics who openly advocate for the legitimacy of abortion, I beg you
to heed the perennial call to conversion God Himself addresses to His
people down through the ages…A compassionate, inclusive society must
make room at the table for the most defenseless, and it should help a
woman to keep her unborn child, not kill her or him.
If you find that you are unwilling or unable to abandon your advocacy
for abortion, you should not come forward to receive Holy Communion. To
publicly affirm the Catholic faith while at the same time publicly
rejecting one of its most fundamental teachings is simply dishonest.
Heeding this perennial call to conversion is the only way to live the
Catholic faith with integrity.
The letter also address the possibility of sacramental discipline — the
prohibition of Holy Communion, which Cordileone called a “bitter
medicine” sometimes warranted by “the gravity of the evil of abortion.”
NCR ARCHIVES: Catholic Social Teaching and Human Dignity
RELATED NEWS ITEMS
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ST. IGNATIUS OF LOYOLA: 'If one fears men much he will never do anything great for God: all that one does for God arouses persecution.'
Thoughts
and Sayings of Saint Margaret Mary: The Practice of Virtue
20. Let us not waste time reflecting
so much upon
our troubles, either past or present. We must think about them as
little as possible, for they have less power to harm us when we
disregard
and ignore them.
May 4, 2021
(Heb 12:1-2) Therefore, since we are
surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside
every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with
endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder
and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him
endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand
of the throne of God.
FROM THE MAILBAG
VIA AUTHOR RICK HARRISON: My Catholic theological novel, Jacob Shall Be a Fire,
has been published to Kindle. It can be acquired from the Amazon Kindle
store for free on a 5-day promotion starting midnight Monday and
running for 5 days.
VATICAN NEWS: Pope: Blessed Devasahayam Pillai, six others to be named saints
THE TABLET: Venezuela's 'doctor of the poor' beatified
A Venezuelan doctor who treated
patients during the Spanish flu pandemic and was one of the first to
introduce microscopes to his nation's hospitals was beatified yesterday
in an austere ceremony held in Caracas, the city where he spent much of
his life tending to the sick.
Blessed José Gregorio Hernández led
a pious life marked by science, faith and public service. He was a
founding member of Venezuela’s academy of medicine and tried
unsuccessfully to become a priest. Along with his colleagues, Blessed
Hernández resisted a dictator’s plans to shut down a university in
Venezuela at the turn of the 20th century, while introducing the study
of pathological anatomy.
But Blessed Hernández was known
most of all for being a kind doctor who refused to charge his poorest
patients for his services and served people from all walks of life. He
died in 1919 after being hit by a car while on his way to taking free
medicine to an elderly patient.
“In his person you can find a great
doctor, a scientist, a professor. And at the same time, humility, the
rejection of arrogance and dedication to the poor,” said Archbishop
Aldo Giordano, Vatican ambassador to Venezuela, during his homily at
the beatification Mass.
“This is the logic of the Gospel.
And Venezuela's future depends on people who are capable of living with
that same kind of logic,” the archbishop said.
Venezuelan Cardinal Baltazar Porras
pointed out that when Blessed Hernández died in 1919, 30,000 people –
about 1 per cent of Venezuela’s entire population at that time –
attended his funeral procession in Caracas.
“The people who cried over him at
his funeral soon discovered he was not really gone,” the cardinal said
at the Mass, where a large mosaic of Blessed Hernández's face was
unveiled by one of his descendants. “He will keep on living to relieve
us of our pains and cure our illnesses.” The doctor's reputation as a
healer has endured after his death, and for decades Venezuelans have
prayed to him for good health.
Many Venezuelans credit Blessed Hernández with saving them from near-death situations.
In 2017, a commission led by the
Venezuelan bishops conference examined the case of a girl in a rural
area. She recovered inexplicably from a bullet wound in her head, after
her mother sought Blessed Hernández’s intervention. After a
commission of doctors and members of the church determined that there
was no scientific explanation for the girl’s recovery, her cure was
approved as a miracle, and the beatification of Blessed Hernández was
approved.
The honour comes as Venezuela struggles to overcome the pandemic. Data
about case numbers and deaths is unclear in the country, where
hospitals have been decimated by years of economic mismanagement
followed by US sanctions. More than five million people have left the
country since 2014.
VATICAN NEWS: Pope Francis: Dr. José Gregorio, a man of universal service
VIDEO (SPANISH): José Gregorio Hernández Piedad y su Milagro
Thoughts
and Sayings of Saint Margaret Mary: The Practice of Virtue
19. By wishing to do much, we often
spoil everything,
constraining our Lord to leave us to act alone and withdraw from us in
sorrow.
May 2, 2021
(Luk 9:54-56) And
when his disciples, James and John, had seen this, they said: Lord,
wilt thou that we command fire to come down from heaven and consume
them? And turning, he rebuked them, saying: you know not of what spirit
you are. The Son of man came not to destroy souls, but to save.
ORTHODOX EASTER MESSAGE: Ecumenical Patriarch: Christ is our Pascha, the resurrection of all
REPORT: Holy Fire Has Descended in Church of Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem
The Holy Fire has descended in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in
Jerusalem. The Holy Light descended at about 1:55 PM (6:55 AM Eastern
Standard time).
It appeared in the edicule (the small chapel built over the burial
place of Christ) after the Orthodox Patriarch of Jerusalem, Theophilos
III, entered there at 1:50 PM (6:50 AM) to patiently pray and wait.
After the Fire’s descent, the Patriarch passed the holy gift to the
faithful who lit from it their bundles of 33 candles, per the age of
Christ at the time of His Crucifixion and Resurrection.
The descent of the Light was preceded by a complex ceremony: The doors
of the Sepulchre were sealed with a large wax seal as a sign that its
inspection had finished, and in it was found nothing that would allow
the Patriarch of Jerusalem to light the Fire by any ordinary means.
Shortly before the arrival of Patriarch Theophilos, the seal was
removed from the door of the edicule, and a large lampada and 33
candles were carried into the Tomb. Then the Patriarch entered and
began to wait. Those present continually prayed for the granting of the
Fire until the time of its appearing.
This year, about 2,500 faithful were allowed into the church due to continuing COVID restrictions.
VIDEO LINK: https://www.facebook.com/watch/live/?v=141777484521660&ref=watch_permalink&t=17742 (FF to 4:55:00 point)
ORTHODOX WIKI: Holy Fire
The Holy Fire (Greek literally "Holy Light") is a miracle that occurs
every year at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem on Holy
Saturday, the day preceding Pascha. It is considered by many to be the
longest-attested annual miracle in the Christian world, though the
event has only been documented consecutively since 1106. In many
Orthodox countries around the world the event is televised live.
The ceremony begins at noon when the Patriarch of Jerusalem or another
Orthodox Archbishop recites a specific prayer. The faithful gathered
will then chant "Lord, have mercy" (Kyrie eleison in Greek) until the
Holy Fire descends on a lamp of olive oil held by the patriarch while
he is alone in the tomb chamber of Jesus Christ. The patriarch will
then emerge from the tomb chamber, recite some prayers, and light
either 33 or 12 candles to distribute to the faithful.
The fire is also said to spontaneously light other lamps and candles
around the church. Pilgrims say the Holy Fire will not burn hair,
faces, etc., in the first 33 minutes after it is ignited. Before
entering the Lord's Tomb, the patriarch or presiding archbishop is
inspected by Israeli authorities to prove that he does not carry the
technical means to light the fire. This investigation used to be
carried out by Turkish soldiers.
The Holy Fire is first mentioned in the documents dating from the 4th
century. A detailed description of the miracle is contained in the
travelogue of the Russian igumen Daniel, who was present at the
ceremony in 1106. Daniel mentions a blue incandescence descending from
the dome to the edicula where the patriarch awaits the Holy Fire. Some
claim to have witnessed this incandescence in modern times.
During the many centuries of the miracle's history, the Holy Fire is
said to have descended on certain other occasions, usually when
heterodox clergymen attempted to obtain it. According to the tradition,
in 1099, for example, the failure of Crusaders to obtain the fire led
to street riots in Jerusalem. It is also claimed that in 1579, the
Armenian patriarch prayed day and night in order to obtain the Holy
Fire, but the Fire miraculously struck a column near the entrance and
lit a candle held by the Orthodox patriarch standing nearby. Upon
entering the temple, many Orthodox Christians venerate this column,
which bears marks and a large crack attributed to the bolt of lightning
from the Holy Fire.
COMMENTARY:
Other miracles exist which regularly occur in the Orthodox world and
are accessible for anyone wishing to be convinced of their genuineness.
Let us take for our example the miracle with the snakes on the Greek
island of Cephalonia in the village Markopulo. Earlier here was a
women’s monastery which was attacked by pirates. The nuns prayed for
rescue in front of the “Longobard” icon of the Mother of God. And a
miracle occurred: When the pirates broke down the monastery gates,
instead of nuns they saw snakes and fled in terror.
Now every year, precisely on the Feast of the Dormition [Assumption] of
the Mother of God, during the liturgy, snakes from all over the island
crawl into the church located on the monastery grounds. For the
duration of the whole service, they are among the people. People touch
the snakes, pick them up, even drape them around their necks; but the
snakes do not harm anyone. After the service, they crawl out of the
church and do not return until the following year. All this has been
caught on video. And anyone who wishes to see for themselves can go to Cephalonia on 15 August.
Thoughts
and Sayings of Saint Margaret Mary: The Practice of Virtue
18. Go courageously to God, along the
way He has
traced out for you, steadfastly embracing the means He offers you.
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