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Friday 31 October 2014

Some of the Reparation Posts



There are fourteen posts minimum in this series. Why the search bar does not bring all of them up, I do not know. Start with October 14th and move up to today.
18 Oct 2014
We can make reparation for our friends in order to enter into more perfect friendships. If one sees an imperfection in a friend, one may pray and do penance so that person becomes a saint. Leading others to perfection through ...
19 Oct 2014
If one is called to Reparation, one takes on a little bit of this compassion for others and suffers with that person in order for them to reach heaven. Those who are in difficult relationships understand this concept.
18 Oct 2014
And so on...do not waste any opportunity to pray, to do reparation. Again, I think that most reparation is for our own sins and predominant faults until we are in the Illuminative State, but I am willing to be corrected on that matter.
14 Oct 2014
Labels: abortion and confession, perfection, perfection again, perfection series IV, perfection series II, perfection series III, Perfection Series V: Mary, perfection series VI, reparation ...

14 Oct 2014
Those for whom God has placed on own hearts and in our minds great love, who are in need of having someone do reparation for them, are those to whom God wants you to focus your prayers and energies. Mortification ...
15 Oct 2014
Chose that priest, bishop or cardinal who seems farthest away from the truth of the sanctity of marriage and do reparation for him starting today. Here is the prayer given to us by Pope Pius XI. Ask, no beg, the Reparatress to ...

16 Oct 2014
St. Margaret Mary did make reparation while on earth, suffering not only from her companions in the convent, but from the revelations from Christ, Who showed her His loving Heart, wounded by ungrateful humanity. Today is ...

15 Oct 2014
Chose that priest, bishop or cardinal who seems farthest away from the truth of the sanctity of marriage and do reparation for him starting today. Here is the prayer given to us by Pope Pius XI. Ask, no beg, the Reparatress to ...

14 Oct 2014
Labels: abortion and confession, perfection, perfection again, perfection series IV, perfection series II, perfection series III, Perfection Series V: Mary, perfection series

16 Oct 2014
Feast Day of St. Margaret Mary-Perfection Series VI:IX Reparation. Posted by Supertradmum. One forgets how young St. Margaret Mary Alacoque was when she died-43-and what sufferings she endured at home before she ...
15 Oct 2014
Perfection Series VI: VIII Reparation--The Reparatress and The Synod. Posted by Supertradmum. One totally generous person shows us the way to practice reparation and that is Mary, Our Mother. Pope Pius XI labels her the ...
14 Oct 2014
Labels: abortion and confession, perfection, perfection again, perfection series IV, perfection series II, perfection series III, perfection series IV, Perfection Series V: Mary, perfection series VI, reparation ...
14 Oct 2014
Perfection Series VI. Posted by Supertradmum. I am not finished yet with the encyclical or the series. More later tomorrow. Email ThisBlogThis!Share to TwitterShare to FacebookShare to Pinterest ...

18 Oct 2014
Perfection VI: XI Reparation. Posted by Supertradmum. Many types of suffering may be used in reparation. For example, illness or aches and pains make perfect offerings for one's own sins and the failings of others. I have chronic pain in some parts of my body as I cannot get surgery as ... Beatification Mass Time · Great Blog with Great News on Synod · Perfection Series VI: XII Reparation and Religious... On Fasting · A Reminder · Later Reporting · Perfection VI: XI ...

16 Oct 2014
Feast Day of St. Margaret Mary-Perfection Series VI:IX Reparation. Posted by Supertradmum. One forgets how young St. Margaret Mary Alacoque was when she died-43-and what sufferings she endured at home before she ...

14 Oct 2014
Labels: abortion and confession, perfection, perfection again, perfection series IV, perfection series II, perfection series III, Perfection Series V: Mary, perfection series VI, reparation ...


Sigh....why the search bar does not bring up all the series, I do not know, but begin with October 14th and move up to today for the full series on reparation. There are a minimum of fourteen postings in this mini-series.

Time for a reposting of a link to one of my most popular articles

http://supertradmum-etheldredasplace.blogspot.com/2012/01/unusual-controversial-catholic-subject.html

On Reparation, Final Posting in Mini-Series Perfection Series VI: XIV

The excellent priest I asked about making reparation before one is in the Illuminative State answered me with a wise and simple answer.

Two parts: one, yes one can make reparation while not through the purification process, such as when one is in the Dark Night, but it depends for what the reparation is being made...and I add that most likely, reparation before purification is mostly for our own sins rather than for other people or situations. One could not, for example, make reparation for serious situations beyond the merit one has gained through the early stages of one's own purification.

Two: the reparation made before the Illuminative State is less efficacious, and the example the priest gave me is the comparison between imperfect and perfect contrition.

If one is sorry for sins because one does not want to go to hell, or purgatory, that motivation does constitute contrition but imperfectly done. Perfect contrition is the sorrow for sin because one has offended God and because one loves God and is sorry out of love, not fear. Likewise, reparation done in the Dark Night is imperfect, as one is still imperfect.

Therefore, for one to make the most efficacious reparation for the sins of others or in intercessory prayer, one must be in the Illuminative or Unitive State.

These facts add to the impetus to allow God to purify one.

Homeschooling Alert

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isabella_I_of_Castile
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reconquista

Mums and Dads,

Make sure you cover this period in your home schooling curriculum. I recommend this book.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Isabel-Spain-The-Catholic-Queen/dp/0931888433

And, here is an article to get you going...

Isabel of Spain, The Catholic Queen
Warren H. Carroll, Ph.D.
Why has this queen, out of the many hundreds who have reigned during the long course of Christian history, always been called in her homeland "the Catholic Queen" - as though there were no others? Because Queen Isabel was a Catholic first, a Catholic above all, a Catholic who served God as few others have ever served Him, a Catholic whose service and rule her land and her age needed as our own land and our own age need her prayers in Heaven. It was in Isabel's name, under Isabel's banners, by Isabel's authority that the Catholic faith was brought to America by Christopher Columbus, the man she chose, and his companions. Today, as a result, a larger percentage of the people of the Americas are Catholic than on any other continent, even Europe itself.
The land of Castile, in Spain, into which Isabel was born in the year 1451, was sickened by long misrule, distracted by bitter passions, and ravaged by the uncontrolled greed of the nobility, where bishops regularly went to war, and the Church seemed helpless. Castile had been in this sad condition for a century and more. Isabel's royal father died when she was three years old; her mother became insane. Her brother was younger than she. Growing up as a princess alone and unprotected, fair game for ambitious plotters, she put all her trust in God. She attended Mass every day, illuminating her own missal; she prayed the entire Divine Office daily, and spent hours at her devotions.
Despite the hostility of her half-brother King Henry IV, when only seventeen years of age she refused the advice of all her counsellors by rejecting all thought of lending her name to a revolt against him, after her young brother had died. She married Prince Ferdinand of Aragon - who is known, with her and largely because of her, as the Catholic King. As rulers they were equals. As Ferdinand's wife , Isabel was always submissive to her husband, whom she loved devotedly and unceasingly. She knitted his shirts herself. A chronicler of her time says: "Even if necessity parted them, love held their wills in unison...Many persons tried to divide them, but they were resolved not to disagree."
Devoted to Establishing Peace
Almost as soon as Isabel was crowned Queen, Castile was attacked. Archbishop Carrillo of Toledo, primate of Spain and once Isabel's friend, joined her foes. Coming from an interview in which he coldly and contemptuously rejected her, Isabel said only: "My Lord Jesus Christ, in your hands I place all my affairs, and I implore your protection and aid."
Going among her people to seek their support in this crisis, she would end each appeal with this prayer: "Lord, in whose hands lies the sway of kingdoms, I humbly beseech Thee to hear the prayer of thy servant, and show forth the truth, and manifest Thy will with Thy marvellous works: so that if my cause is not just, I may not be allowed to sin through ignorance, and if its just, Thou give me wisdom and courage to sustain it with the aid of Thine arm, that through Thy grace we may have peace in these kingdoms."
Her people rallied to Isabel, so that her cause prevailed. She gave thanks to God in a barefoot procession across the harsh cobblestones of Tordesillas.
Isabel brought justice to Castile, which had hardly known it in the lifetime of any man then living. She was incorruptible, so devoted to establishing peace and respect for law that evildoers fled from a city when it was heard that she was coming there to hold court, knowing they could never bend her to their will. But Isabel always remained humble before God. When she found a priest, Hernando de Talavera, who for the first time in her experience required that even she as Queen kneel before him in confession, she at once selected him for her personal confessor.
Isabel led her army to the liberation of Granada, the last part of Spain still held by the alien Moorish conquerors. Her effect on her soldiers was like that of Saint Joan of Arc. Their customary profane swearing ceased; they knelt in the field for Mass, and received spiritual counsel from the friars. Isabel visited the sick and wounded, sometimes dressing their wounds with her own hands. When the tents of the great Spanish camp before Granada caught fire and were almost burned, Isabel rebuilt the camp in stone, and named it Holy Faith (Santa Fe).
The Greatest Voyage in History
With the splendid victory of Granada won, Isabel was ready to send Columbus on the greatest voyage in history, the voyage that opened up a New World which had never before known Christ, with millions of souls to save. Before leaving Spain, Columbus and his men confessed their sins, attended Mass, received Holy Communion, invoked the Most Holy Trinity, and sang the "Salve Regina" - as Queen Isabel herself would have done, if she had been there with them. Her spiritual example and leadership were making their mark.
She applied her example and leadership more directly on one occasion in a convent of lax nuns, by taking her spinning wheel to the convent and working at it all day to remind them of the humble diligence to which they were called, and which the Queen did not disdain. When the primate of Spain, Cardinal Mendoza, died, Isabel urged the Pope to confirm as his successor a holy, ascetic Franciscan monk, Jimene de Cisneros, who had fled all worldly and church honors. Cisneros, accepting the appointment only under obedience with the greatest reluctance, who always wore a hair shirt under his archbishop's robes, reformed the Church in Spain so thoroughly that the widespread abuses of the time which afflicted the Church elsewhere were almost completely rooted out.
When an assassin nearly killed Ferdinand, Isabel wrote to her former confessor, Talavera, humbly grateful to God for sparing her husband's life, but bewailing her own sins: "I don't know how we shall thank God for so great a grace - many virtues would not suffice to do it. And what shall I do, who have none? Please god, henceforth I shall serve Him as I ought. Your prayers and your counsels will aid me in this, as they have always helped me."
After Columbus had returned from his first voyage with the glorious news of the greatest discovery of all time, and Spain began opening up America, Isabel was confronted with the question of what to do about the natives of the New World. When the first shiploads of Indians arrived in Spain in 1495, Isabel at once ordered that the "sale of slaves must be absolutely suspended." She strictly forbade enslavement of the Indians. When Columbus, after his third voyage, nevertheless gave each of his men an Indian as a personal servant, Isabel's response was: "Who authorized my admiral to dispose of my subjects in this manner?" - and she sent them all back home to America.
Her Last Years
In her last years Isabel had heavy crosses to bear. Her only son, Crown Prince John, died tragically on his honeymoon. Her oldest daughter died in childbirth, and her baby son then born, died just two years later. Isabel's second daughter lost her mind. Her youngest daughter, Catherine, married Crown Prince Arthur of England, who also died a few months after their marriage, leaving Catherine later to marry his brother, Henry VIII - who, long afterward, was to break from the Catholic Church in order to put her away. Isabel bore everything in union with the suffering Christ. During her last illness she begged for her sorrowing people not to pray for a restoration of health to her body, but for the salvation of her soul. She asked to be buried beside her husband when he died, so "that the union we have enjoyed in this world, and through the mercy of God may hope again for our souls in heaven, may be represented by our bodies in the earth."
In a reign of thirty years Isabel had lifted her people from the mire to the stars. She had made Spain the leading nation of the world - not just in wealth and power, but above all in justice, good government, a vibrant faith, and a strong and healthy Church. From Isabel's Spain went forth not only conquistadors, but missionaries and saints, crossing mighty oceans, into many lands never before known to Christians, converting millions who have remained Catholic ever since. She bore the enormous responsibilities of supreme public authority and her many heavy personal crosses without discouragement or complaint, above all without any change in her faith, her morality, or her charity - except to strengthen them all. For all her victories she gave God the glory, claiming only her sins - of which she remained ever conscious - as her own. Yet no scandal ever stained her person. Well might Washington Irving call her "one of the purest and most beautiful characters in the pages of history."
Is it not fitting that her Church at last extend the highest honor - that of being raised to the altars she loved - to one who honored the Church so greatly and constantly all during her life? Is it not time that we showed Isabel that her fellow Catholics - especially in America - love her as she loved her people, Spanish and American alike, for and in the glory of God?

A Vision of The Future Church

There are 55,000 Catholics in Norway and 5 seminarians; 2 are Swedish, the rest are Polish.

There are 100,000 Catholics in the Diocese of Arundel and Brighton, and there are 7 seminarians total.

Actually, A and B is better off than some other dioceses in England.

But, one sees the problem.

Over two years ago, it came to me that in the future, the Church will resemble Northern Africa in the Fourth Century, when in Carthage and the immediate area around Carthage alone, there were seventeen bishops.

Each church was a cathedral. Each cathedral needed autonomy.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/85/Citadella%2C_Victoria_%28Gozo%29.png

I believe every priest will be a bishop in certain countries, because of the breakdown of communication and the need to have local authority.

Centralized authority will be almost impossible, even though the Church is universal.

I think that in many, if not most European countries, each priest will have to be a bishop.

I know this sounds impossible or even improbable, but with the interruption of civilization, local organization of the Church will be necessary.

Some dioceses we see now will disappear completely, like the earliest churches in the Levant.

But, imagine the Church divided by schism and persecution. Imagine most churches closed and those existing separated by great distances.

At one time, there were three-hundred bishops in Northern Africa who were Donatists. Imagine...

4.2 million Catholic in England and Wales have about, (rough estimate), 150 seminarians at this time.

Right now, England and Wales has the best Catholic priest to laity ratios in Europe. 25% of the Catholic population go to church regularly according to some statistics, which are only taken now at the diocesan level and not by the bishops' conference, as in the States.

Now, my vision of the future Church is that the local bishops will have to have local control as the priests disappear. A diocese could have one bishop, two priests and a monk.

In the face of schismatics and persecution, local bishops would be important.

Local councils, such as those in the early Church, would have to make decisions. Communication with Rome may be completely out of the question.

I may not see this development, but I think my son will, and those of his generation.


















Articles from SPUC

 
Population control won't save the planet, admit experts
Top stories:
Population control won't save the planet, admit experts
Population control will not cure the so-called ‘crisis’ of a perceived shortage of resources for future generations, according to a study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Professor Corey Bradshaw from the University of Adelaide said: "Even if we had a third world war in the middle of this century, you would barely make a dent in the trajectory over the next 100 years" [BBC, 27 October] Scientists such as the late Julian Simon argued that a growing population would adapt to the growing number of humans on the planet.
Safe at School condemns government plans on alleged homophobic bullying
SPUC's Safe at School campaign has condemned plans to sink £2 million into dealing with alleged homophobic bullying in schools. The move was announced by Nicky Morgan, the education secretary, in an interview with a homosexual news service. Antonia Tully of Safe at School said: "Tax-paying parents will soon become aware that their money is actually being spent on the promotion of homosexuality. [SPUC, 29 October]
Mother speaks after legal battle to kill daughter
The mother has spoken of her relief after winning a legal battle to allow her disabled daughter to be dehydrated to death. Charlotte Fitzmaurice said: "Although I will live with the guilt forever, I know I have done everything I can for her and she is at peace." Nancy, her daughter, was not terminally-ill and was able to breathe unaided. Dr Andrew Ferguson, chairman of Care Not Killing, said: "It is never ethical to speed up the process of dying by any intervention which has the primary intention to end life".  [Express, 27 October]

Legal bid launched against sex-selective abortions
The Christian Legal Centre is backing a legal bid by a young pro-life activist against the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS). Aisling Hupert instructed solicitors to bring action after it was announced that the CPS would not press charges against two medics who were filmed by undercover journalists, agreeing to abort babies because they were girls. Andrew Minichello Williams, director of the Christian Legal Centre said: "The Director of Public Prosecutions has refused to enforce the law and this sends the wrong message to the medical world. This case shines a spotlight on this grave injustice against women." [Telegraph, 24 October]

Because I have young readers.....

http://existentialcomics.com/comic/51

When is someone culpable for sin?

In the past few days, some people have asked me when a person is responsible for sin.

We are always culpable to some extent for sin.

Always.

Now, when a person plans a murder, it is a more serious sin than if a person murders out of anger. However, anger is a sin to begin with and one is culpable for harboring anger and not dealing with a violent nature.

The Catholic Church teaches that God gives grace to all persons for salvation.

We may have circumstances which ameliorate certain levels of responsibility, but we are always responsible to some extent.

One of the greatest heresies now is the denial of free will.

We cannot psychoanalyze away sin, Sin is against reason. That is the problem with so many people who want to rationalize away sin. They cannot do so.

When we die, God is not going to ask us how remiss our parents were in teaching us the Catholic Faith. That omission will be part of the parents' particular judgment.

We see our sins and basically judge ourselves in the light of truth.

See the other posts on general and particular judgment.

And, from the CCC.

II. THE DEFINITION OF SIN

1849 Sin is an offense against reason, truth, and right conscience; it is failure in genuine love for God and neighbor caused by a perverse attachment to certain goods. It wounds the nature of man and injures human solidarity. It has been defined as "an utterance, a deed, or a desire contrary to the eternal law."121
1850 Sin is an offense against God: "Against you, you alone, have I sinned, and done that which is evil in your sight."122 Sin sets itself against God's love for us and turns our hearts away from it. Like the first sin, it is disobedience, a revolt against God through the will to become "like gods,"123 knowing and determining good and evil. Sin is thus "love of oneself even to contempt of God."124 In this proud self- exaltation, sin is diametrically opposed to the obedience of Jesus, which achieves our salvation.125
1851 It is precisely in the Passion, when the mercy of Christ is about to vanquish it, that sin most clearly manifests its violence and its many forms: unbelief, murderous hatred, shunning and mockery by the leaders and the people, Pilate's cowardice and the cruelty of the soldiers, Judas' betrayal - so bitter to Jesus, Peter's denial and the disciples' flight. However, at the very hour of darkness, the hour of the prince of this world,126 the sacrifice of Christ secretly becomes the source from which the forgiveness of our sins will pour forth inexhaustibly.

Recommended Book by A Friend of Mine

http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Language-Dissent-Answering-Catholic



Prayer for A and B, Gibraltar, and Malta

“Grant us, O Lord, a Shepherd according to your heart, who incessantly works for your
glory and the good of the Church in a spirit of wisdom and knowledge, in a spirit of strength
and gentleness, in a spirit of humility and patience. Lord hear us.” from the Church in Malta.

Father Z's Reminder on Indulgence This Sunday

http://wdtprs.com/blog/2014/10/action-item-all-souls-day-indulgences/

and Fr. Z. refers us to Fr. Tim Finegan on detachment from venial sin...

http://the-hermeneutic-of-continuity.blogspot.com/2006/05/plenary-indulgences-not-impossible.html

Pay attention...

http://www.moneynews.com/MKTNewsIntl/stock-market-crash-warren-buffett-indicator/2014/10/03/id/598461/?dkt_nbr=ufos34vz&utm_source=taboola&utm_medium=referral

Raissa, continued

I am begging for a huge favor. I gave away my copy of Raissa's diary in 2003, but would love to have a copy now.

Is there a reader who has a copy or would like to get one for me?

It was called, in English, Raissa's Journal. My copy was in a red cover.

Recueillement

Recueillement is a French word which was hijacked by poets such as Baudelaire. But, the word originally did not mean a poet device, but a spiritual state of meditation, of reflection, of one going into one's interior world and thinking in the presence of God.

Today, I was reminded of recueillement by a priest-friend of mine. I first read the French meaning of the term over 30 years ago when I was meditating on the diary of Raissa Maritain, who practiced recueillement.

Now, we Anglo-Saxon trained minds think that meditation is something to be attacked in an active manner, and to a certain extent, one must learn meditation based on Scripture.

But, the French seem to understand that the passivity involved in recueillement involves a surrendering to God at the moment of reflection.

Raissa practiced recueillement in the Presence of Christ in the Eucharist, as she was allowed the Real Presence in her home, in her little chapel. She wrote of this grace as needed as she found the separation of her husband's mission to the world a suffering only to be met in the suffering of Christ.

The priest and I were discussing the necessity of silence after the reception of Holy Communion, a perfect time for recueillement. Too many parishes, despite the advice of the Pope Emeritus, stuff hymns into that space in the Mass, which demands silence.

Recueillement is retiring into the cell of your soul and mind. It is a discipline as well as a grace.

One throws off distractions and allows time for God to speak, or not to speak to one.

Recueillement leads to contemplation. Is it not ironic that the French poets took this beautiful idea and twisted it into something profane?

Raissa wrote in her diary that she went into the state of recueillement after Communion.

Here is Raissa on this point. My highlights...in bold.


Poetic meditation
We believe that some intelligibility as some remain in darkness all true poetry. Intelligibility, darkness, marking the origin of the work developed in the depths of the soul where intelligence and desire, intuition and sensitivity, imagination and love have their common source ... As soon as it begins to emerge from this background generator and foster the work appealed, each time in a different way, these powers of the soul, each with their own way to achieve real and say.The source of all poetry and creative intuition is some experience might be called "knowledge" dark and delicious, with a flavor all spiritual, because at these depths all is spirit and life, every poet knows that it enters through a recollection of all his senses, no matter how fleeting, the first condition of poetic conception. We here in the passive sense of contemplation quiet and not voluntary and active concentration.
This meditation is the first gift given to the poet, and it is also a natural disposition that must be cultivated. It is because of this, it is in this sense, I suppose, that Rimbaud wrote: "the first study of the man who wants to be a poet is his own knowledge, whole. He seeks his soul, he inspects it, he tries, he learns. " ( Letter from the light .)
This meditation is a common psychological phenomenon analogy to the poetic state and mystical contemplation. Similarly, the dark and delicious knowledge that accompanies it. It is the similarity of these statements which tell John Royère: "Poetry ... is religious. San essential darkness just what it is the story of a soul and she wants to watch the mystery; but the darkness is light ... "(Curious recall and nox illuminatio mea deliciis meis in Psalm 138.) Robert Desnos does not believe in God, but he in turn wrote: "... no one has the most religious spirit that me ... "But it's also what's Henry Bremond that " poetic activity is a natural draft full of mystical and secular activity ... blank confused, clumsy, holes or white, till at last the poet would be a mystic or a fleeting mystical failed "(1). There is in all this, it seems to me, more confusion. And first it is necessary to protest in the name of poetry: it is not because of some missed; say it is the mystical missed is doing it too and not enough honor. It is not mystical; it is a particular species, a being that has its own nature, its origins and its ontological laws. Secondly we must consider that the sort of obscure knowledge or emotional experience which is that poetry does not affect in the same way that the dark knowledge of mystical experience to the common source of all that exists. All the sources are in You ... Here, in the mystical experience, the affected object is the uncreated abyss, the life-giving God and savior, known darkly as present and united to the soul of the beholder; while the obscure knowledge is that of the poet, and key, as known object, things, and the real world rather than God himself, the result of a union of another order, more or less intense in God the creator and organizer of nature.
Every great vocation gives one called the ability of a certain union with God, by a special relationship with him whose essence is transcendent to the multiplicity of its attributes; and very marked vocations differ from each other by their relatedness to a particular divine attributes which divides the eyes of intelligence created the Supreme Simplicity.
Poets and other artists, all great inventors and saints, all derive from the same divine source, but with different provisions, and as essentially distinct types of relationship to that source. They are each other imitators of God, but some are called especially to increase the human treasure of beauty and science, they are imitators of God the Creator; others are especially called to enter into the mystery of the Godhead itself and to communicate in this world, some image and some resemblance, the holiness of God, in imitation of Jesus Christ, by the abnegation of self and all that is of this world. Nature and grace have skilled workers, and who mutually mysterious relief for the ascent and the spiritualization of humanity. It is therefore quite rightly that some are called "creators" and other "saints".
The following these various calls, these distinct experiences in essence, despite their proximity in the same divine source results are also quite different for the poet and contemplative. Whenever there is natural or supernatural contemplation, it is itself the fruit and rest, and in the mystic contemplation itself the dark and delicious knowledge tends to superabound in immanent acts. While the poetic state in the dark experience, if it reaches a high degree of intensity, tends to grow into an object. The poet out of his contemplation will write a poem - but the mystic moved, moved by his God, his theological life intensify (or rather it has been intensified in him), and the acts of the virtues and gifts that God join He better love God and men. But if the mystic is also a poet he will act according to his many gifts, and generously share with us his experience divine abundance.
Generally, in order of mystical contemplation it is above all to know and love - love to know. In the case of poetry it is indeed some knowledge of the creation and countless mysterious reports and between human beings, but all this knowledge is knowledge of connaturality does not tend to self-love, it tends to create beautiful works in the case of the poet to do a book of words; these words and take them so they act as the flute under the breath as an instrument of poetic state. So the poem is a vehicle of poetic inspiration as the flute music is a vehicle; and brush the vehicle of vision.
Poetry is the result of a contact of the mind with reality itself ineffable and its source we believe to be God himself in the movement of love which leads him to create images of beauty . Which reads in the mysterious recesses of being expressed with some tasty illogical, that is not nonsense but overabundance of sense.
Singing, poetry in all its forms, seek to liberate substantial experience. (And perhaps because of this, the life of a saint is she signed ...) The reflection that provides such an experience is like a bath of refreshment, rejuvenation and purification of the mind.Is this the secret principle of catharsis Aristotle? We can not overestimate the depth of repose then have all our faculties. It is a concentration of all the energies of the soul, but concentration peaceful, tranquil, which assumes no tension; the soul enters into his rest, in this place of refreshment and peace than any sense (2). She died "Death Angels," but it is to relive in the excitement and enthusiasm in this state that is wrongly called inspiration, because inspiration was already the rest himself Similarly, where it has gone unnoticed. Now mind refreshed and invigorated into a happy business, everything seems so easy to be given the time and as outside.Actually everything was there, in the shadows, hidden in the mind and in the blood, all that will be implemented was there, but we do not know. We knew neither discover nor do we use it before we have retrempés in the tranquil depths.
Raissa Maritain,
in "Illuminations and droughts"
Carmelite Studies , 22 th year
vol. II, in October 1937.





Happened in Malta!

A Catholic priest was verbally attacked by a Libyan who was insulted and upset because the priest was wearing a cross.

The priest knows Arabic well and managed to calm the situation, but to have this happen in Malta is astounding, and in public.

I wear a cross daily and proudly. What is a Libyan man or any other Muslim claimed my cross offended him?




Quiet Day Today

I need an especially quiet day today reviewing my mini-Solzhenitsyn experience, which happened exactly one year ago today.

Pray for me, please.  Mary, Mother Most Sorrowful, pray for us.

And pray for priests.

I shall post some things later today.

Thursday 30 October 2014

A Note to Disgruntled Reader

Catholicism is the only true religion (The Orthodox included according to Dominus Iesus). There are only two revealed religions, Catholicism and Judaism.

All Protestants denominations are in error, departing from the Truth as given to us by Christ.

The list of heresies in the Protestant denominations include these (not an exhaustive list):
  1. Denial of Christ's salvific action on the Cross of completely taking away the sins of the world.
  2. Denial of the sacraments, specifically the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist and Confession.
  3. Denial of the Teaching Magisterium of the Church and the tradition handed down through the working of the Holy Spirit in the one, true, holy and apostolic Church.
  4. Denial of the priesthood as established by Christ (see 2) and denial of the papacy as instituted by Christ through Peter.
  5. Denial of the Immaculate Conception, Mary as Ever-Virgin, and the title, Theotokos, Mother of God. Denial of the Assumption and of Mary's role as Mediator.
  6. Denial of the types of grace, types of sin, and the acceptance of divorce and remarriage, homosexual relations, contraception and even abortion in some denominations.
  7. Denial of the particular judgment, and purgatory
  8. Denial of Christ's Hypostatic Union in some denominations.
  9. Denial of hell in some denominations, and the acceptance of universalism-all people going to heaven
  10. Denial of free will, with a false idea of predestination is some denominations
  11. Denial of the priesthood belonging only to men and the acceptance of false female priests.
  12. Denial of the Judaic tradition by de-emphasizing the Old Testament because of false Bible criticism a la the historical method
  13. Denial that the Jesus of History is the same as the Christ of Faith (see 12)
  14. Denial of the teachings concerning merit and personal holiness as an ongoing process of steps and believing, instead, holding the idea, "once saved, always saved".
  15. Denial of the honoring of the Church Triumphant in the persons of the saints in heaven.
  16. Denial of the Holy Mass as the center of true worship.
  17. Denial that the Church is the only source of sanctifying grace, given through the sacraments. 
  18. Denial in some denominations of the Nicene Creed.
  19. Denial of the apostolic succession of the bishops from the apostles down to the present day.
  20. Denial that the Church has the power to impose both indulgences and, also, punishment in the form of excommunication or interdict.
  21. Denial that the Church created the Canon of the Scriptures and has the only right to determine what is Holy Scripture.
  22. Denial of the authority of the Pope regarding infallibility.
  23. Denial that one mortal sin destroys the life of grace in the soul given at baptism, which would mean that many Protestants are no longer in the Holy Spirit, which they receive at baptism.

Not an inclusive list....

There is no room for Protestant thought in the Catholic Church because, by definition, Protestants are "protesting" some truth held by the Catholic Church, and therefore, denying some truth given to us by Christ Himself while He walked on this earth. To think that the Catholics and Protestants merely disagree on points of doctrine indicates a denial of objective truth given to us by Christ through Revelation and Tradition. These points above are not "disagreements" but falsehoods.

Christ's words on one subject:


So Jesus said to them, “Very truly, I tell youunless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his Blood, you have no life in you.

400 plus posts

in October...I hope you take time to read them. I am throwing these out like messages in a bottle.

This dates me...I was in grad school at ND in 1979, but I think Sting's voice improved with age.


This is FANTASTIC-Watch, Please

Thanks to R and M...

Check This Out, Europeans

http://www.europeanlifenetwork.org/index.php/about-us

English Translation of Synod Doc from Voice of The Family

http://press.vatican.va/content/salastampa/en/bollettino/pubblico/2014/10/18/0770/03044.html

http://voiceofthefamily.info/wordpress/?p=503

If you have money, send some to these excellent people!

Good article imho

http://www.crisismagazine.com/2014/will-popes-defense-faith-synod-ease-anxious-minds

A BIG Reminder Today at Mass

Gospel lk 13:31-35

Some Pharisees came to Jesus and said,
“Go away, leave this area because Herod wants to kill you.”
He replied, “Go and tell that fox,
‘Behold, I cast out demons and I perform healings today and tomorrow,
and on the third day I accomplish my purpose.
Yet I must continue on my way today, tomorrow, and the following day,
for it is impossible that a prophet should die
outside of Jerusalem.’

“Jerusalem, Jerusalem,
you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you,
how many times I yearned to gather your children together
as a hen gathers her brood under her wings,
but you were unwilling!
Behold, your house will be abandoned.
But I tell you, you will not see me until the time comes when you say,
Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.”

Christ abandoned the Jews because they rejected Him.

But, He will not abandon His Church.

Get that?

McDonald's Earnings Down-No Wonder!

Horrid Place! Thanks to wikicommons for photo
Well, I can say for sure that the McDonald's in St. Julian's is great, but the one in Valletta is horrible.

I had the absolute worst chicken "big and tasty" I have ever had, eating at Macs in 26 states and two other countries (Dublin Macs are fantastic). The coffee was horrible as well, and the two girls waiting on customers were surly and downright rude.

Will not go there again. Also, I am learning where not to shop, and the nicest people seem to work in chemists (that is drug stores for Yankees). I shall just go back to the places where the customer service is tops.

I find it amusing that if one asks for a bag, as I usually forget my shopping bag, being in a hurry to get to Mass, catching the bus on time and so on, that I get a lecture from the shop-keepers.

Twice now I have been told how fortunate I am that they just happen to have plastic bags and to keep those as I shall not find them any place else. Hmmm. 

I use the plastic bags for garbage, of course, and I have to buy special bags for recycling. I must remember to bring my big Malta shopper's bag, however, when I get supplies.


And, if you come to Malta, one cannot drink the tap water in most places. Buying water is a necessity. I am used to that after four visits.

One very sad thing is that young men and young women do not give up their seats in the buses for very old people. I do. 

I am ashamed that this Millennial generation has no regard for the elderly. 

Obviously, these young people have not been raised to be Catholics with hearts.

And, I see women standing all the time while men sit. Very odd.

A sad day for manners and good will. But, I was given two plastic bags by my very nice storekeeper, Sandra in Valletta, who is so accommodating that I go out of my way to shop at her little establishment, Genail. I have shopped there now since 2011. Her shop is just across from the Church of the Circumcision side door. The Church is one of my favs for popping in and praying when I am in Valletta.

Excellent Place!


BTW,,. although I wish I could eat there daily, Il-Gabanna in Sliema has the best full English breakfast for 5.95 Euros. Two huge sausages, two fried eggs. two pieces of toast, two large pieces of bacon, mushrooms fried in garlic, one entire large fried tomato and a small bowl of baked beans for that amazing price. If I had more money, I would eat there more often.

And the young waiting staff are great! They are friendly and watch out for one's needs.

Love the place. I have not tried Il-Gabanna's for dinner, as that is at this moment outside my budget, and I usually do not go out after dark. It is dark by seven.

I imagine the food is great.

And Il-Gabanna knows how to make real Americano coffee.








The Changing of the Seasons in The Church

The season is changing from summer to winter here now. In fact, the locals tell me it is colder than last year and I know this for a fact, as I was here last year until November 7th. It is much colder, with many more storms and rain.

But, I have also been thinking of my meditation on the Epistle of Jude on the 28th, which I hope you all did not miss. Mortification must now be part of our daily lives, Real penances, not false ones, must be accepted or chosen, or both.

Looking at the Mariners' Forecast reminded me that real penances are not the same as false penances.

First, a look...a one day coming up and some thoughts following:

Weather: cloudy with thundery showers which may be with gusts and hail.
Visibility: good except in precipitation

Wind: North to Northeast Gale Force 4-5 locally Force 5-6
           locally East Northeast at first and overnight

Sea: moderate to rough becoming locally rough.

Swell: Negligible becoming low to moderate overnight

Now, suppose you are a shrimp fisherman and you have to look this forecast up daily. This week would be the changing of the season for sure, which started a few days ago. I have seen a shrimp boat out at sea. Those men must be ready for bad weather now, especially on Saturday. And, most shrimp fishing takes place at night. Gale Force 6 creates difficulties for fishermen. But, one must work. Those men cannot grumble, complain, or choose to do something else if this is their job, their livelihoodNot grumbling is a real penance. Working in the rough seas is part of life. For us Catholics, there are real penances and false penances. We must choose the real ones. And, we must choose mortification. Real penances may be these, a short list:


  1. loosing status and friends because one stands up for the truth;
  2. being misunderstood for being obedient to the Church;
  3. not complaining when those around you either stop being your friends or ignore you because you are a loyal Catholic; 
  4. doing extra hard things, like being silent in a conversation when you want to speak;
  5. giving money out of your need, not merely your excess;
  6. praying more than the normative one hour a day, especially for others;
  7. leaving all you love in order to be with Catholics who will strengthen your faith.
  8. These are real penances. I give up some foods to add to intercessory prayer, but my real penance is when I do not have enough money for more than one full meal a day.
God sometimes, as in my case, chooses the penances for us. Like the shrimp fisherman, I can either grumble or thank God for this complication in my daily life. The season of the Church is changing  and we must change with the Church, accepting more and more suffering. That is the call of the real Catholic.