God, let me do and think only what gives You glory...

The Rule of St. Benedict, which I attempt to do in the world, and which is the work of a spiritual genius, guards against two of the greatest temptations to perfection. The first is the primal sin of pride, which makes one choose one's will over and over and over, despite guidance, hints from the Holy Spirit, inspirations and other calm means of direction. Benedict created an atmosphere of order to facilitate holiness. We need to do this in our lay homes. We absolutely must.

Sin is simply, disorder, disorder in the passions, the appetites, the will. We cannot see God when disordered. We cannot make excuses for disorder. We cannot keep putting off personal conversion and interior purification. Our days and our times have limitations.

Pride accounts for the attitude among so many Catholics that they can pick and choose what to believe among the teachings of the Catholic Church. Oddly, this attitude of pride is not merely found among the liberal leftists, but also among those who claim to be orthodox or traditional. Disobedience is not taught at all from the pulpit and even among priests who are more orthodox, there is a heat-resistant to speak the truth. A friend of mine in Malta has told me that in all of his adult life, he has never heard a sermon against contraception. And, yet, the birth-rate is high because of Islamic and African immigrants, not because of the Maltese population.

Pride leads to disobedience at all levels. "No bishop is going to dictate what I believe". Or, "The archbishop is liberal and therefore I do not have to follow his guidance." This is dangerous thinking. Of course, the fact that altar boys are instructed NOT to take Communion by the hand at the Archbishop's Masses, and the fact that no one kneels except me, when I can get up, is part of the problem. The laity do not trust the hierarchy so when a really substantive directive occurs, the clergy are ignored.

Pride leads to excuses for sin. Sin is sin. Families deny sin in their offspring or accept worldly lifestyles rather than face the real problem of disobedience. The second sin which is ruining the Catholic mind-set or Catholic way of objectively following the wisdom of the Church is selfishness. I, me, we, are all prone to putting our needs and desires first. The nuns at Tyburn in Ireland grow some of their food, but they are reliant on donations of food. They eat worse than Americans on food-stamps by far. Most of us would not choose to live in poverty, but the days of generosity from the laity is disappearing fast. Convents and monasteries are criticized by the laity for charging a smaller fee for three meals and a night than all the bed and breakfasts, but the charge would not cover hot water, electricity, food, and so on. The selfishness of the laity create a false image in the mind of retreatants that a retreat should be like going to a four-star hotel. And, the money coming in is sparse. A good man in Malta told me that he and his family gives food to the enclosed nuns. One family cannot take care of the lifestyle. Yet, daily, as I need to blog in public, I see massive amounts of jewellery on the new barbarians, the most expensive of clothes and hair-dos which cost four times that of American beauticians.

 Selfishness creates one of the causes of the lack of vocations. The fantastic people who are my hosts have a son in the seminary. But, such Catholic families are more and more rare. The family business and the family name is more important than a parent encouraging the call from God. Pray for parents to be less selfish and more generous with their children. Again, at Tyburn, the new novices are from Nigeria, not Ireland and not England. Here, the convents of good nuns still in habit and obedient to Rome have few, very few, vocations.

Pride and selfishness. God will not ignore our sins. For our own good, He chastises us. The rain will rain on the just and the unjust, but the deluge is coming.  There is one reason why St. John the Baptist was beheaded. He spoke the hard truth and Herod and his wife did not want to hear it.

Do not close yourselves to truth, even in your families. Do not make excuses for sin.

The Second Coming  and our particular judgement are encounters of the Judge, not the Divine Mercy. That time of mercy is now.

Some people have written to me that such luxury items as jewellery, vacations, or unnecessary things. Ask yourselves this question before buying: "Will this thing give glory to God?" Do and think only what gives God glory.


I am reminded of the scene from The Road, where the Dad and the Boy walk over precious jewels, no longer meaningful in the fact of complete ruin of a civilization. They need the basics. An old can of Coke is more important than pearls and diamonds.

Do not lie to yourself. One of the worst lies I ever heard was from a woman I knew who spent thousands on her house interior decorations because it gave God glory. How?  Why?

God knows our hearts. We cannot fool Him. He will not be mocked.

Decide to let everything you do be for the glory of God alone. Do not glorify yourself, God will take care of that.