Keep
your eyes open!...
November 25, 2020
HAPPY THANKSGIVING!
(Col 3:15-17) And
let the peace of Christ rejoice in your hearts, wherein also you are
called in one body: and be ye thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in
you abundantly: in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another in
psalms, hymns and spiritual canticles, singing in grace in your hearts
to God. All whatsoever you do in word or in work, do all in the name of
the Lord Jesus Christ, giving thanks to God and the Father by him.
REPORT: The Catholic Connection To Thanksgiving Day
EXCERPT BISHOP THOMAS J. TOBIN: The Holy Mass: The Perfect Thanksgiving
In this season it seems particularly appropriate to recall that one of
the main reasons to attend Holy Mass every Sunday is to give thanks and
praise to God. “The Eucharist is a sacrifice of thanksgiving to the
Father, a blessing by which the Church expresses her gratitude to God
for all his benefits, for all that he has accomplished through
creation, redemption, and sanctification. Eucharist means, first of
all, thanksgiving.” (Catechism of the Catholic Church, #1360)
So often we take our gifts for granted, don’t we? We go about our daily
lives as ungrateful louts, presuming that everything will be okay,
presuming that we have a right to everything we have. We don’t think
very often about the gifts we’ve received until they’re threatened in
some way, or until we lose them completely. Our national holiday of
Thanksgiving at least gives us the opportunity to pause, reflect upon
our blessings and give thanks.
Stop, right now and think about your gifts: your faith, your freedom,
your family and friends; your health and home, your security and
safety; your material blessings and the opportunities you’ve enjoyed —
for education, travel, entertainment and recreation. Everything is a
gift of God; you should presume nothing and treasure it all!
One of the ways that we show our awareness is by taking care of our
gifts and not wasting them, not squandering them. If something is
precious to you, take care of it! And a truly grateful person is also a
generous person. Gratitude moves us to share our gifts – our time, our
talent, and our material resources, with those who have less.
When we become aware of all the blessings we’ve received a spirit of
joy washes over us. A grateful person can’t also be a chronic crank!
Pope Francis put it this way: “Joy springs from a grateful heart.
Truly, we have received much, so many graces, so many blessings, and we
rejoice in this. Perhaps we need to ask ourselves — are we good at
counting our blessings?”
God has been so good to us, but our limited vision and impoverished
imaginations sometimes make it hard for us to recognize that and to
give thanks. How can we begin? Well, in the psalm quoted above we find
the answer: We “take up the cup of salvation and call upon the name of
the Lord.”
In other words we pray, we worship and we lift up the cup of salvation
in the Eucharist. At every Mass the priest says, “Let us give thanks to
the Lord our God.” And we respond, “It is right and just.” And indeed
it is.
So, want to have a really nice Thanksgiving this year? Start the day
with Holy Mass at your local parish or other church in the vicinity.
And attend Mass every Sunday. It will help you to be a good and
grateful person throughout the year.
GEORGE WEIGEL: Thanksgiving and the paradox of death
EXCERPT MEDITATION: Living With Less Fear
Everything inside of our Christian faith invites us to move towards God
in intimacy rather than in fear. Indeed in virtually every instance in
scripture where God appears within ordinary life, either through an
angel, a special phenomenon, or through an appearance of the
resurrected Christ, the first words are invariably: “Do not be afraid!”
The soothing of fear, not its intensification, is the normal criterion
that the voice we are hearing is coming from love.
With that in mind, I would like to offer ten principles, all rooted in
the person and revelation of Jesus, that, hopefully, can be of help in
purifying our image of God so that our faith might cast out fear rather
than enkindle it.
What are the ten principles inviting us to live in less fear?
1. God’s insight and understanding surpass our own.
2. God’s compassion and forgiveness surpass our own.
3. God respects nature, our human make-up, and our innate propensities.
4. God is a blessing parent, not a threatened one.
5. God can handle our questions and doubts and angers.
6. God reads the heart and can tell the difference between wound and malice.
7. God gives us more than one chance, opening another door every time we close one.
8. God desires our salvation and the salvation of our loved ones more than we do.
9. God is the author of all that is good.
10. God can, and does, descend into hell to help us.
“There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear
has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in
love.” 1 John 4, 18
Thoughts
and Sayings of Saint Margaret Mary: The Holy Eucharist
19. He is the Source of all blessings, and will
bestow them wherever the picture of His divine Heart is placed and honored.
November 22, 2020
(Dan 7:13-14) I beheld, therefore, in the vision of the night, and lo,
one like the Son of man came with the clouds of heaven, and he came
even to the ancient of days: and they presented him before him. And he
gave him power, and glory, and a kingdom: and all peoples, tribes, and
tongues shall serve him: his power is an everlasting power that shall
not be taken away: and his kingdom that shall not be destroyed.
BISHOP DONALD HYING:
The Solemnity of Christ the King proclaims that Jesus is Lord! This
truth relativizes every human power and authority. Our first allegiance
is to Christ, His sovereignty, the Truth He gives us and the Church He
established.
ST. JOSEMARIA ESCRIVA:
Christ is a king with a heart of flesh, like yours; he is the author of
the universe and of every creature, but he does not lord it over us.
He begs us to give him a little love, as he silently shows us his wounds.
FR. MARK GORING, CC: Quito, Akita & Fatima - Prophecies for Our Time
SIGN.ORG: The Great Reset – Satan’s Plan or Heaven’s Triumph?
FR. RUTLER'S WEEKLY COLUMN:
These days I am frequently asked if we are living in the “End Times.”
As the grace of Holy Orders does not make me a seer, I defer, as is
prudent, to the King of Universe: “Watch therefore, for you do not know
what hour your Lord is coming” (Matthew 24:42). So the answer simply is
that we do not know, but as the Coast Guard’s “Semper Paratus” motto
exhorts, we must constantly be prepared. That vigilance is contingent
on everyone’s immediate obligation to be recollect for the end of one’s
own life. For the Christian, this is a stimulus to faith rather than
neurosis. “Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by
prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God”
(Philippians 4:6).
The prophets were not like the boy who cried “Wolf!” They were inspired
by God to tell what he wants his people to know about spiritual
readiness, so that his kingly rule is that of a shepherd guiding his
flock through the variables of human experience. In the film The Lion
in Winter, Katharine Hepburn as Henry II’s queen, Eleanor of Aquitaine,
remarks with regal resignation about her dysfunctional family: “What
family doesn’t have its ups and downs?” Christ’s family the Church has
always had its ups and downs, often big time, and many times it has
been the lamentable case that the Shepherd King is tasked with herding
cats rather than sheep.
The Church began with a crucifixion when no one expected a
resurrection. That sequence of death and life is repeated time and
again. There were the persecutions under so many Caesars, heresies with
volatile schisms in consequence, sieges, desecrations, destructions,
corruptions and civilly institutionalized blasphemies. But each of
these crucifixions was followed by a resurrection. This is to be
remembered when distress in the Church is accompanied by a confluence
of unrest and fear in politics and pandemics. Through it all, the
Carthusian motto grows ever more stolid and incontestable: “Stat Crux
dum volvitur orbis”—the Cross stands steady while the world revolves.
This is most vivid when the revolving world seems to be whirling out of
control.
On November 5, the ninety-year-old Cardinal Tumi of Cameroon was
briefly kidnapped by separatists who demanded that he endorse their
propaganda. He told his captors that he must preach only what is true:
“Nobody has the right to tell me to preach the contrary because I was
called by God.” In every cultural crisis, this is the kind of witness
that transcends any attempt to speculate about the end of the world,
for it takes its strength from the assurance that Christ Crucified in
Jerusalem is also Christ the King of the Universe.
His dominion is an everlasting dominion that shall not be taken away, his kingship shall not be destroyed. (Daniel 7:14)
EXCERPT FR. JOSEPH GILL: God’s Got This
Ever since the election, I’ve had many conversations with
good Catholics who are very concerned about the state of our country
and the direction we’re heading. And for good reason — there are many
indications of a deep spiritual disease in our country, from the
average person to the heights of power. A disease of corruption and
fraud, of lies and power, a disease of division and hedonism. And
people of good will are legitimately concerned, because more and more
we are becoming a nation that is not led by God’s laws, and not led by
Godly leaders.
But I ask you — is Christ the King, or not? Has God “got this”, or not?
As Christians, this is our hope — that despite the chaos in society,
corruption in leadership, atheism and abortion and racism and lust and
revolution and all of the evils that we see on a daily basis, God
really is going to win in the end. This makes us look at the chaos
without fear, because we know that evil won’t have the final word.
We must remember that Jesus Christ is a King who reigns from the Cross.
At the Cross, evil celebrated because it appeared that it won. God was
dead, as Nietzsche would later say. The so-called Saviour appeared
defeated, the triumph of evil seemed to be assured. But we know the
rest of the story — three days later, that Crucified King destroyed sin
and death by His Resurrection. God’s got this, and He wins in the end.
Hence, it should not surprise us when it seems like evil is triumphing.
This has been the state of the world since the Garden. As Christians,
we live in a world that has been under the dominion of Satan — but our
faith tells us that Satan’s power was destroyed by the Cross, and
Christ will win the ultimate triumph.
What must we do, then? We must make sure that Christ has conquered the
victory in us. How can we expect the world to be free of evil if evil
still has a stronghold in our own soul? We let Him conquer us by
surrendering our lives to His will, repenting of our sins in the
Sacrament of Confession, and uniting our souls to His in the Eucharist
and daily prayer. Christ must first be King of our souls.
Once Christ is King in us, then we must fight to let His Kingdom come
in the world. As Christians we win the victory in and through Him. We
are called to resist evil, stand up for the truth, and fight for all
that is good — not by our own strength, but because we are in Christ
Who has won the ultimate victory. We fight with hope, knowing that
God’s got this!
Thoughts
and Sayings of Saint Margaret Mary: The Holy Eucharist
18. The devotion to His Sacred Heart contains ineffable
treasures which He wishes to bestow upon all hearts of goodwill; it is
a last effort of the love of our Lord towards sinners to draw them to repentance
and give them in abundance His efficacious and sanctifying graces.
November 21, 2020
(Luk 11:27-28)
And
it came to pass, as he spoke these things, a certain woman from the
crowd, lifting up her voice, said to him: Blessed is the womb that bore
thee and the paps that gave thee suck. But he said: Yea rather, blessed
are they who hear the word of God and keep it.
THE SHIELD OF FAITH: Jesus, Mary, I Love You! Save Souls!
CATHOLIC STAND: Saints’ Quotes Praising Mary, The Mother of God
A MOMENT WITH MARY: The heart of the Church is Mary’s unique place
BYZANTINE RITE TRADITION: The Entrance of the Virgin Mary into the Temple
The story of the entrance of the
Blessed Virgin Mary for the first time is presented to us with some
legendary details by the so called – Proevangelium of St. James,
compiled by an unknown author in the middle of the second century,
hiding under the name of the Apostle St. James the Less, the first
bishop of Jerusalem. The story is based on the popular belief that the
pious parents of the Blessed Virgin Mary, SS. Joachim and Anne, were
childless and then Anne’s sterility was remedied by a special
intervention of God, just as in the case of Sarah, who conceived Isaac
in her old age (Gen. 17:16).
God, in His blessings in the Old
Testament, always included a promise of numerous offspring . Therefore
children were considered as a proof of divine blessing (Ps. 127:3),
while childlessness was regarded as a sign of God’s rejection, exposing
married couples to public disgrace. Such was the case of SS. Joachim
and Anne, since they were not blessed with any children. According to
the story, Joachim was even publicly reproached for being rejected by
God.
After forty days of prayer and
fasting , we are told, an Angel of the Lord appeared to Anne and said :
“The Lord has heard your prayer. You shall conceive and bear a child,
and your seed will be spoken of in the entire world.” In her great joy
Anne promised: “As the Lord my God lives if I will beget a child, I
will offer it as a gift to the Lord and it shall serve Him in the holy
place for all the days of its life.” Then, on the following day both,
Joachim and Anne, hurried to the temple and offered a sacrifice of
thanksgiving, saying : ” Now we know that the Lord our God has been
gracious to us and has forgiven us all our sins.”
Tracing the early patristic tradition, handed down by such great
Fathers of the Church as St. Gregory of Nyssa (+ 394), St. Epiphanius
of Salamis (+ 403), St. Cyril of Alexandria (+ 444), and others, we
learn that the righteous parents of the Blessed Virgin Mary, SS.
Joachim and Anne, did make a solemn promise that if they would be
blessed with a child, they would offer the child to the service of God
in the temple. The Lord heard their humble and persistent prayer, and
blessed them with a little girl, named Mary.
When the child was three years old
her parents, in fulfillment of their promise, brought Mary in a
procession of maidens into the temple, offering her to the service of
God. They placed her under the tender care of priest Zechariah, the
father of St. John the Baptist, who was their relative, as described by
one of Vespers stichera, saying:
” Receive, 0 Zechariah , the one
whom the prophets of God have foretold in the Spirit, and escort her
into the holy temple, that she may be brought up in holiness and become
the divine throne of the Almighty.” We are told that Zechariah joyfully
received little Mary under his protection, saying: “Hear, 0 daughter,
and see, turn your ear to me; forget your people and your father’s
house, for the King has desired your beauty. He is your Lord, and you
must worship Him!” (Psalm 45: 11-12)
Thus the prophecy of David,
foretelling Mary’s entrance into the temple and her consecration of
God, was fulfilled (Ps. 45:15-16). From that time on the Blessed Virgin
remained in the temple serving God until the time she was betrothed to
St. Joseph.
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Thoughts
and Sayings of Saint Margaret Mary: The Holy Eucharist
17. He has assured me that the pleasure He takes
in being loved, known and honored by His creatures, is so great that, if
I am not mistaken, He has promised me that all those who are devoted and
consecrated to Him shall never perish.
November 18, 2020
(Eph 6:10-12) Finally,
brethren, be strengthened in the Lord and in the might of his power.
Put you on the armour of God, that you may be able to stand against the
deceits of the devil. For our wrestling is not against flesh and blood;
but against principalities and powers, against the rulers of the world
of this darkness, against the spirits of wickedness in the high places.
CNA: Exorcisms and the popes: Stories from inside the Vatican
MSGR. STEPHEN ROSSETTI: Exorcist Diary #111: Satan's Ploy
NEWS ARTICLE: Exorcism: More frequent in US, post-violence
FROM THE MAILBAG
VIA David J Sheehan: Video link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sd5_0i361-I
I am passing on this five part series to you. It is almost like a
parish mission. Each talk is about one hour (5 talks altogether) and it
is worth watching as a family.
Father Vincent Lampert is an exorcist but beyond talking about his
work, a great deal of his talk focuses on what is happening to the
Church and modern life as the influence of the demonic increases.
Father Lampert is not immune to what is happening to the rest of
us. The youngest of nine children, he is the only one that has
not left the Church even though they all were brought up in a good,
Catholic home.
BLOG EXCERPT: De Mattei: Our place in the battlefield
A famous line from William
Shakespeare’s play As You Like It, goes like this: “All the world’s a
stage, and all the men and women merely players” (Act II, scene VII).
There is wisdom in this sentence,
but we could say more precisely: “All the world is a battlefield and
all the men and women are immersed in this war.”
This is always true, but it is particularly true today. There is no denying it.
Is total war at the gates? And what
is our place in this battlefield? The answer is simple. Our place of
combat is where Divine Providence has allocated each one of us at the
present moment. Our lives are made up of countless instances following
one another, but we fight in the place and moment, which, day by day,
Providence assigns us. “Sufficit diei malitia sua” (Mt 6, 34):
“Sufficient for the day is the evil thereof”, as everyday demands a
painful struggle, against ourselves, the devil, and the world, with
God’s grace always assisting us.
Combating at the present moment
then, means fulfilling our duty and accepting the difficulties of each
day with virility, in the concrete historical situation God wants us
in. The temptation is to desire a different place of battle than the
one we are in and to rebel against the events, instead of seeing in
them the wise hand of God, Who orders everything towards a good end,
even the evil attacking us and our entire society.
Let us not be engulfed then by the
precipitant river of events, but anchor ourselves to the Rock of Divine
Wisdom, Who judges the things of this world in the light of eternity,
by allowing the waves breaking furiously after each other to disappear,
while God, Who is the Eternal Rock, never changes and is always there.
Dom Francesco Pollien says:
“Knowing how to accept what God does, the events that he disposes, what
happens to you every day, convinced that everything comes from His
hand, is a sweet science for the generous heart, and a closed science
for the selfish heart” (Cristianesimo vissuto, Edizioni Fiducia, Roma
2017, p. 115).
Let’s maintain our place then in
the battlefield and combat generously, with no anger or rancor,
immersing ourselves in the infinite sweetness of the Divine Promise
given at Fatima: “In the end my Immaculate Heart will triumph.”
Thoughts
and Sayings of Saint Margaret Mary: The Holy Eucharist
16. I can hardly express my joy at seeing the increase
of devotion to the Sacred Heart of my Saviour. I seem to live for that
alone. Sometimes such an ardent desire to make It reign in all hearts is
kindled within me that there is nothing I would not do and suffer to bring
this about.
November 16, 2020
(Gal 5:1) Stand fast and be not held again under the yoke of bondage.
PEW RESEARCH CENTER REVIEW: Government Restrictions on Religion Reach Highest Level Globally in More Than a Decade
NCR: Brooklyn Diocese Appeals to Supreme Court Over COVID Church Closures
NEWS REPORT: Alito raises religious liberty concerns about Covid restrictions
Justice Samuel Alito said Thursday night that he worried about the
future of religious liberty in the United States, expressing particular
concern as it applies to Covid restrictions and the Supreme Court's
decision in 2015 clearing the way for same-sex marriage nationwide.
"It pains me to say this," Alito said, "but in certain quarters, religious liberty is fast becoming a disfavored right."
His comments on religious liberty at times echoed those of President
Donald Trump who pledged from the White House Rose Garden in 2017 that
he would prevent the federal government from "bullying and even
punishing Americans for following their religious beliefs."
In addressing Covid-19, Alito pointedly noted that he was not trying to
diminish the severity of the pandemic, which he said has taken a heavy
human toll, leaving "thousands dead, many more hospitalized," nor was
he commenting on whether the restrictions represent good public policy.
"I am a judge, not a policy maker," he said.
But he said that he wanted to emphasize the impact of the restrictions
on the rule of law and individual rights as officials have moved to
combat the virus. "We have never before seen restrictions as severe, extensive and
prolonged," he said, and added that the pandemic has resulted in
"previously unimaginable restrictions on individual liberty."
Alito's discussion turned to recent religious liberty cases concerning
the Little Sisters of the Poor, an order of nuns who didn't want their
health plans to provide contraceptives to their employees, as well as
2018 case concerning a baker who refused to make a cake to celebrate a
couple's wedding out of religious objections to same sex marriage.
Alito said that "a great many Americans disagree, sometimes quite
strongly" with the religious beliefs of the Little Sisters and the cake
baker, "and of course they have a perfect right to do so." But, he
said, the cases raised another question.
"The question we face" is whether our "society will be inclusive enough
to tolerate people with unpopular beliefs." And he wondered about those
who believe they may be winning the cultural wars by taking a hard line
of "you lost, live with it."
Taking such a hard line, Alito suggested, "seemed to work reasonably
well in Germany and Japan after 1945," he said and asked rhetorically,
"is our country going to follow that course?"
Returning to last summer's cases concerning restrictions to in person
worship services in Nevada and California during the pandemic, he said
the restrictions "blatantly discriminated against houses of worship."
"In both cases the court allowed the discrimination to stand," he said
giving a justification that the court should defer to the judgment of
the governors because "they have the responsibility to safeguard the
public health."
He lambasted the governor of Nevada who, he said, had allowed fewer
restrictions to casinos than houses of worship. "If you want to worship
and you are the 51st person in line, sorry you are out of luck," he
said.
"The state's message is this: forget about worship and head for the slot machines or maybe a Cirque de Soleil show."
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Thoughts
and Sayings of Saint Margaret Mary: The Holy Eucharist
15. I feel entirely lost in this divine Heat. It
is as though I were in a fathomless abyss, in which He discloses to me
treasues of love and of grace for those who consecrate and sacrifice themselves
to give and procure for Him all the honor, love and glory in their power.
November 13, 2020
(Luk 16:8) And the lord commended the unjust steward, forasmuch as he
had done wisely: for the children of this world are wiser in their
generation than the children of light.
A PRIEST LIFE BLOG: Pray for Election Integrity in our Nation
CRISIS MAGAZINE: Maintaining Hope in a Time of Lies
EDITORIAL: Biden Would be a Disaster for the Unborn at the UN
BREAKING: FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
November 12, 2020
Readout of President-elect Biden's Call with His Holiness Pope Francis
President-elect Joe Biden spoke this morning with His Holiness Pope
Francis. The president-elect thanked His Holiness for extending
blessings and congratulations and noted his appreciation for His
Holiness' leadership in promoting peace, reconciliation, and the common
bonds of humanity around the world. The president-elect expressed his
desire to work together on the basis of a shared belief in the dignity
and equality of all humankind on issues such as caring for the
marginalized and the poor, addressing the crisis of climate change, and
welcoming and integrating immigrants and refugees into our communities.
CNA: Texas bishop calls for prayer until election result is ‘officially authenticated’
While the U.S. bishops’ conference
congratulated presumptive President-Elect Joe Biden on the election
results this weekend, the bishop of Fort Worth has called for prayer,
saying the vote tallies are not yet official.
“This is still a time for prudence
and patience as the results of the presidential election have not been
officially authenticated,” Bishop Michael Olson of Fort Worth stated on
Nov. 8. He called on Catholics to pray for peace if the results are
challenged in court.
“It appears that there will be
recourse made in the courts so it is best for us in the meantime to
pray for peace in our society and nation and that the integrity of our
republic, one nation under God, might be maintained for the common good
of all,” Bishop Olson stated.
Bishop Olson’s statement appears to be a departure from the U.S.
bishops’ conference (USCCB), which on Nov. 7 congratulated Joe Biden as
the second Catholic to become president.
A statement by the USCCB president, Archbishop Jose Gomez of Los
Angeles, noted that “we recognize that Joseph R. Biden, Jr., has
received enough votes to be elected the 46th President of the United
States.”
“We congratulate Mr. Biden and acknowledge that he joins the late
President John F. Kennedy as the second United States president to
profess the Catholic faith,” Gomez stated. “We also congratulate Sen.
Kamala D. Harris of California, who becomes the first woman ever
elected as vice president.”
As Bishop Olson asked for prayer and peace, Archbishop Gomez also called on Catholics “to promote fraternity and mutual trust.”
BREITBART: Franklin Graham: ‘Our Nation Is Under Attack from Within’
DAILY COMPASS EDITORIAL: US presidential elections confirm the end of democracy
What is happening in the U.S. presidential elections is beyond belief.
Since Trump is the quintessential villain and since every means is
legitimate to get rid of him, we have witnessed a steady rise of
"irregularities" at the polling stations. Above all, we have seen an
alliance between the mass media and the powers that be to cover them up
and legitimise them. Indeed, St. John Paul II’s prophecy, and
reiterated not so long ago by Benedict XVI, is now being fulfilled: “As
history demonstrates, a democracy without values easily turns into an
open or thinly disguised totalitarianism."
Thoughts
and Sayings of Saint Margaret Mary: The Holy Eucharist
14. I no longer wish for anything but to procure
the glory of the Sacred Heart. How happy I should be if, before I die,
I were able to do something to please Him!
November 11, 2020
(Wis 3:1-6) But the souls of the just are in the hand of God, and the
torment of death shall not touch them. In the sight of the unwise they
seemed to die: and their departure was taken for misery: And their
going away from us, for utter destruction: but they are in peace. And
though in the sight of men they suffered torments, their hope is full
of immortality. Afflicted in few things, in many they shall be well
rewarded: because God hath tried them, and found them worthy of
himself. As gold in the furnace, he hath proved them, and as a victim
of a holocaust, he hath received them, and in time there shall be
respect had to them.
FR. WILLIAM SAUNDERS: All Saints and All Souls
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FUNERAL HOMILY: "We know that this life is not the final story."
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St. Ambrose once wrote: "We have
loved him in this life; let us not abandon him in death but rather by
our prayers, let us conduct him to the bliss of eternal glory."
O Gentlest Heart of Jesus, ever
present in the Most Blessed Sacrament, ever consumed with burning love
for the poor captive souls in purgatory, have mercy upon the soul of
Thy servant.
Be not severe in Thy judgment but let some drops of Thy precious Blood
fall upon our beloved departed and do Thou O merciful Saviour send Thy
angels to conduct the soul of Thy servant to a place of refreshment,
light and peace.
May the angels lead you into paradise.
May the martyrs receive thee at your coming and Take you to the holy city.
May the choirs of angels receive you and May you have rest everlasting.
V. Eternal rest grant unto him, O Lord.
R. Let perpetual light shine upon him.
V. May he rest in peace.
R. Amen.
V. May his soul and the souls of all the faithful departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace.
R. Amen.
DIOCESE OF SACRAMENTO: In death life is changed, not ended: The Catholic funeral is a celebration of our faith
Thoughts
and Sayings of Saint Margaret Mary: The Holy Eucharist
13. The divine Heart experienced all the interior
sufferings of the cruel torment of the Cross, and for this reason God wishes
It to be honored by a special worship, in order that mankind may thereby
atone by their love and homage, for the bitterness and anguish caused by
their offences.
November 9, 2020
(Joh 14:6) Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.
THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR: The Anti-Catholic Presidency to Come by George Neumayr
REPORT: Archbishop Viganò on US Election: Reality Is Denied But Truth Will Prevail
But if we understand that the
sycophancy of world heads of state and party secretaries is simply a
part of the trite script of the global Left, we are frankly left quite
disturbed by the declarations of the United States’ Conference of
Catholic Bishops, immediately republished by Vatican News,
which with disturbing cross-eyedness credits itself with having
supported “the second Catholic President in the history of the United
States,” apparently forgetting the not-negligible detail that Biden is
avidly pro-abortion, a supporter of LGBT ideology and of anti-Catholic
globalism. The Archbishop of Los Angeles, José H. Gomez, profaning the
memory of the Cristeros martyrs of his native country, says bluntly:
“The American people have spoken.” The frauds that have been denounced
and widely proven matter little: the annoying formality of the vote of
the people, albeit adulterated in a thousand ways, must now be
considered to be concluded in favor of the standard-bearer of aligned,
mainstream thought. We have read, not without retching, the posts of
James Martin, S.J., and all those courtiers who are pawing to get on
Biden’s chariot in order to share in his ephemeral triumph. Those who
disagree, those who ask for clarity, those who have recourse to the law
to see their rights protected do not have any legitimacy and must be
silent, resign themselves, and disappear. Or rather: they must be
“united” with the exultant choir, applaud and smile. Those who do not
accept are threatening democracy and must be ostracized. As may be
seen, there are still two sides, but this time they are legitimate and
indisputable because it is they who impose them.
COMMENTARY:
What believing Catholics understand through their Faith is that human
life is a time and opportunity given by God to every human soul that He
creates, to choose between eternal bliss in Heaven by serving and
loving Him, or unending torments in Hell by spurning and refusing Him.
Hosts of angels, created before men, were given the same choice, and
perhaps a third of them fell, and were flung into Hell. These all now
bitterly envy human beings their possibility of getting to the Heaven
which they refused, and they do all they can to pull human souls down
to Hell with them. Here is where the evil on this earth originates.
But if God is all-good and all-powerful, as He is, how can He allow any
such free play of evil? Because He does not want any kind of robots in
His Heaven. He wants with Him there only angels and souls that have
been able to make an entirely free choice between Himself and the
Devil, and who have chosen Himself against all possible allurements of
the world, the flesh and the Devil. And if the Devil succeeds in
blinding souls with error and seducing them for instance with his
honey-traps, then God will often scourge those souls in this brief life
in order for them to think again, to come back to Him and to save
themselves for eternal life. “O God, punish me in this life” prayed St
Augustine, “just so long as you need not punish me in the next.” And
God often uses fallen angels and wicked men to do the scourging that He
knows is necessary for the salvation of souls. And here is where much
of the suffering of men on earth originates.
NOVENA FOR OUR NATION: https://www.churchmilitant.com/pdf/9-Day_Novena_for_Our_Nation.pdf
FR. RUTLER'S WEEKLY COLUMN:
In the late nineteenth century, a New England college dean wrote: “The
youth who loves his Alma Mater will always ask, not ‘What can she do
for me?’ but ‘What can I do for her?’” One of his students, a clergyman
named George St. John, paraphrased that as a locution to boys when he
became headmaster of the Choate School in Connecticut: “Ask not what
your school can do for you, but rather ask what you can do for your
school.” One of the boys who heard that in the 1930s, John F. Kennedy,
made the diction more resonant in his inaugural address of 1961: “Ask
not what your country can do for you – ask what you can do for your
country.” Although he had speechwriters of acumen, one will not gainsay
naïve clients of Kennedy for pillaging what was not his own. As Anatole
France said, “When a thing has been said and said well, have no
scruple. Take it and copy it.”
Today those lines could not be uttered approvingly by the political
party to which Kennedy belonged. Because of the exigencies of copy
editors, I am writing these lines before the national election, so I
refrain from predicting the various state votes. But as a client of
Saint Michael the Archangel, who is the patron of my parish, I am
confident that this election, because the issues it is engaging are of
the highest portent for our moral order, will have results that
transcend the consequences of customary politics. This election will
have exposed the corruption of the mainstream and social media, by
their acquiescence to subjective journalism and the wanton censorship
of reports of inconvenient scandals in high places.
Holy Church has been under attack, as borne witness by the need for
armed security guards in our sanctuaries. Our own church in Hell’s
Kitchen has been assigned armed security guards. This is not just a
political assault, for the brutal killing of Christians worshipping in
France shows the hatred of Christ, who said in words as thrilling as
they are ominous: “Blessed are you when they revile and persecute you,
and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for My sake” (Matthew
5:11). “…for My sake.” All that we do, in every aspect of life, and in
every moment of the day, if done for His sake, will reap an
unimaginable reward.
If we want things only for ourselves, they will fester in the soul,
confusing the intellect and weakening the will, but if we want the good
of others, that will redound to the good of Church and Nation. Abundant
are the demagogues who would promise what the government will give man,
but they offer it in return for our souls. For Christians, it is a
choice between Mother Church and Nanny State. That could be a costly
exchange.
Ladder
of Divine Ascent excerpt: "To the Shepherd"
12. Our Lord Jesus Christ desires that we should,
by sanctifying ourselves, glorify His all-loving Heart; for it was His
Heart that suffered the most in His Sacred Humanity.
November 5, 2020
(Mat 11:28-30) Come to me all you
that labor and are burdened, and I will refresh you. Take up my yoke
upon you, and learn of me, because I am meek, and humble of heart: And
you shall find rest to your souls. For my yoke is sweet and my burden
light.
FR. MARK GORING, CC: US Elections 2020 - still waiting
SIGNS & WONDERS: Election Prayer Alert!
ALETEIA: Why the peace of Christ is the remedy for political discord
MEDITATION: The Storm on the Lake
Several years ago I attended a seminar on religious experience where a woman shared this story:
A few years before this incident
occurred her life had been rather settled. She had been happily
married, her children were grown and on their own, and she and her
husband were running a successful business together. Then it all fell
apart. Her husband, a recovering alcoholic, began to drink. Within two
years, they had lost everything, including each other. Their business
went bankrupt, they lost their house, and their marriage fell apart.
She moved to a new city and took a new job, but the pain of what she
had lost lingered and she found herself constantly depressed and
joyless as she sought to sink new roots, meet new people, and begin
over again in mid-life.
Her frustration culminated one
evening when, having worked late, she was driving home and stopped for
a red light. While waiting for the light to change she was hit from
behind by a drunken driver. (The irony wasn’t lost on her.) Her car was
badly damaged and she, suffering from whiplash and a series of cuts and
bruises, was taken to hospital by ambulance. After several hours of
x-rays, examinations, and medical treatment, near midnight, she was
released, to be driven home by a policeman. As they drove up to her
townhouse she noticed that the front door was wide open. Getting out of
the car she realized that her home had been ransacked and vandalized.
It was the last straw: All that penned up frustration, anger, loss, and
grief finally burst, she lost control, began to scream hysterically,
and ran across the lawn shouting curses at God and life in general –
the policeman chasing her.
As she recalled this, she told us
that she remembered exactly what was running through her mind as she
ran across that lawn at midnight, hysterical, cursing, a policeman
giving chase. Her anger and her questions were about God: “Where is God
in all of this? Why is God letting this happen? Why is God asleep?”
Then, just as she heard her own curses as an answer, suddenly, in one
instant, everything became calm. She ceased running, stopped shouting,
because she felt inside of herself a flood of calm and a peace such as
she had never experienced in her life before. No magic lights went on,
no divine voices were heard, and she made no claims of “miracle”
afterwards, but, for one second she realized that, no matter the storm,
no matter the loss, and no matter death itself, God is still in charge
of this universe. One second of realization was all it took. Calm
returned. She sent the policeman home and began cleaning up her house.
She has essentially remained in that calm since.
The Synoptic gospels record the
story of Jesus calming the waters during a storm on the lake. As Mark
has it: With the coming of evening that same day, Jesus said to them,
“Let us cross over to the other side”. And leaving the crowd behind
they took him, just as he was, in the boat; and there were other boats
with him. Then it began to blow a gale and the waves were breaking into
the boat so that it was almost swamped. But he was in the stern, his
head on a cushion, asleep. They woke him and said to him, “Master do
you not care? We are going down!” And he woke up and rebuked the wind
and said to the sea, “Quiet now! Be calm!” And the wind dropped, and
all was calm again. Then he said to them, “Why are you so frightened?
How is it that you have no faith?” They were filled with awe and said
to one another: “Who can this be? Even the wind and sea obey him.”
(Mark 4, 35-41).
The parallel between these two
stories is clear. The deeper lessons contained within them though are
perhaps less obvious, at least during the more stormy moments in our
lives. In essence, both stories tell us that God is still in charge of
this universe, every counter-indication notwithstanding. The first
Christian creeds had only one line: Jesus is Lord! Ultimately that says
enough, says it all. God still rules, even in death and darkness. But,
as these stories also make clear, during the stormy moments of life,
when our very souls are in fear of drowning, it will seem like God is
asleep, comfortable, his head on cushion. But, and this is the real
challenge of these stories, calm is only a second of realization away.
What calms the storm in life is not that all of our problems suddenly
disappear but that, within them, we realize that, because God is still
in charge, all will be well – whiplash, bruises, ransacked houses,
alcoholic spouses, lost houses, lost jobs, loneliness, and the shadow
of death itself notwithstanding. All will be well because, even asleep
with his head on a cushion, God is still lord.
CERVANTES: Jesus tells us: Do not fear despite dire prophecies
Ladder
of Divine Ascent excerpt: "To the Shepherd"
11. He has given me to understand that His Sacred
Heart is the Holy of Holies- the Sanctuary of Love- that He wills to be
known at present as the Mediator between God and man; for He is all-powerful
to reconcile them, turning aside the chastisements that our sins have merited
and obtaining mercy for us.
November 2, 2020
(Exo 20:13) Thou shalt not kill.
ARCHBISHOP VIGANO: OPEN LETTER TO THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
Abp. Viganò warns Trump about
‘Great Reset’ plot to ‘subdue humanity,’ destroy freedom '. It is
you, dear President, who are 'the one who opposes' the deep state, the
final assault of the children of darkness,' His Excellency wrote. 'Place your trust in the Lord.'
THE CHRISTIAN POST: President Trump is the best choice for Americans of faith
EXCERPT CRISIS MAGAZINE: The Bishops Have Spoken: Abortion Trumps by Fr. Frank Pavone
The United States Conference of
Catholic Bishops (USCCB) has been very clear in its characterization of
the most important issue in this election: “The threat of abortion
remains our preeminent priority.” Other issues—immigration, racism,
poverty and the death penalty—are of great importance and require
urgent attention, but even though they are prominent issues, abortion
is preeminent among them.
The point that all the bishops make, consistently, and have been making
consistently since 1973’s Roe v. Wade decision made abortion on demand
legal in our nation, is that the right to life is not just the
preeminent issue but also the most fundamental right we possess as
human beings. We don’t need anything more than common sense to realize
how true that is. Nothing takes more life than abortion. No victims are
as defenseless as the unborn. No right is more fundamental than the
right to life.
Pope Francis agrees, as well he
should. Archbishop Joseph Naumann, chairman of the Committee on
Pro-Life Activities for the Bishops’ Conference, reported last month
that he spoke to the pope about the criticism bishops had received for
their focus on abortion:
I shared with
Pope Francis that the bishops of the United States had been criticized
by some for identifying the protection of the unborn as a preeminent
priority. The Holy Father expressed his support for our efforts
observing that if we fail to protect life, no other rights matter. Pope
Francis also said that abortion is not primarily a Catholic or even a
religious issue, it is first and foremost a human rights issue.
Abortion is the preeminent issue of
our time and thus the preeminent priority in this election. No Catholic
should be distracted or confused into thinking otherwise. Nor should
any other citizen. After all, if a politician can’t respect the life of
a little baby, how can he respect yours?
EXCERPT RON SMITH REPORT: Thou Shall Not Kill
“Abortion - God loves each human life from the instant of his or her conception and entrusts this gift to the protection of a mother and father.
Abortion ends the life of a child and offends God. It also deeply
wounds the women and men involved.” Please note that this teaching from
the U.S.C.C.B. does not include or infer
that some abortions may be permissible, such as conception from rape,
cannot afford another baby or any other reasoning. Only God alone can
decide if and when to take a baby! “Unintentional ignorance can diminish or even remove the imputability of a grave offense. But no one is deemed to be ignorant of the principles of the moral law, which are written in the conscience of every man.”
We must once again declare that the direct interruption (abortion) of
the generative process already begun, and, above all, directly willed
and procured abortion, even if for therapeutic reasons, ARE TO BE ABSOLUTELY EXCLUDED AS LICIT MEANS OF REGULATING BIRTH. Please note here that the Church and Pope Paul VI DO NOT give any exceptions to this command. In other words you cannot 'pray this away' or conclude that you discern differently. Holy Church has commanded us for Christ in finality, forever, to not ever be changed!
CFAM BREAKING NEWS: Trump to Enforce Compliance on Abortion Overseas
ORTHODOX ICON: The Horror of Abortion
PROMISES MADE, PROMISES KEPT: President Donald J. Trump Accomplishments
MORE: Biden Is Bad on Everything
The substance of Mr. Biden’s
agenda—a distinctly Democratic amalgam of the clearly dangerous and the
merely confused—reminds us that to justify a Biden vote requires more
than just forgetting the child in the womb. Yes, we would have to
figure out what magical combination of good policies might outweigh the
systematic slaughter of 60 million unborn Americans. But beyond that,
we would have to scrutinize the fine print of Mr. Biden’s proposals and
his party’s platform and actually locate that redemptive alchemical mix
somewhere in the tangle of quack economics and social destruction.
Therefore, take Cardinal Tobin’s
invitation: look beyond abortion. Peer over into the vast expanse of
Catholic Joe’s agenda. It’s a dismal sight.
ICEJ: Breaking the Mold
It took a non-politician to break us out of the old Washington
policy-think that Israel had to be kept hemmed in to achieve peace. And
the momentum is there for even greater advances in the days ahead. But
first, Trump faces the daunting task of winning re-election.
Thoughts
and Sayings of Saint Margaret Mary: The Holy Eucharist
10. It seems to me that the great desire that our
Lord has that His Sacred Heart should be honored by some particular worship
is to renew in souls the effects of His Redemption.
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