Today Is Also

..the feast day of Blessed Junipera Serra and one of my favorite saints, St. Oliver Plunket.

See previous posts on the latter.

Happy Feast

Today is the Feast of the Most Precious Blood.

Read and meditate.

Apostolic Letter of Pope John XXIII ON PROMOTING DEVOTION TO THE MOST PRECIOUS BLOOD OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST To his Venerable Brother Patriarchs, Primates, Archbishops, Bishops and other Local Ordinaries in Peace and Communion with the Apostolic See Venerable brethren: greetings and apostolic blessings. From the very outset of our pontificate, in speaking of daily devotions we have repeatedly urged the faithful (often in eager tones that frankly hinted our future design) to cherish warmly that marvellous manifestation of divine mercy toward individuals and Holy Church and the whole world redeemed and saved by Jesus Christ: we mean devotion to his Most Precious Blood. From infancy this devotion was instilled in us within our own household. Fondly we still recall how our parents used to recite the Litany of the Most Precious Blood every day during July. The Apostle's wholesome advice comes to mind: "Keep watch, then, over yourselves, and over God's Church, in which the Holy Spirit has made you bishops; you are to be the shepherds of that flock which he won for himself at the price of his own blood."[1] Now among the cares of our pastoral office, venerable brethren, we are convinced that, second only to vigilance over sound doctrine, preference belongs to the proper surveillance and development of piety, in both its liturgical and private expressions. With that in mind, we judge it most timely to call our beloved children's attention to the unbreakable bond which must exist between the devotions to the Most Holy Name and Most Sacred Heart of Jesus -- already so widespread among Christians -- and devotion to the incarnate Word's Most Precious Blood, "shed for many, to the remission of sins."[2] It is supremely important that the Church's liturgy fully conform to Catholic belief ("the law for prayer is the law for faith"[3]), and that only those devotional forms be sanctioned which well up from the unsullied springs of true faith. But the same logic calls for complete accord among different devotions. Those deemed more basic and more conducive to holiness must not be at odds with or cut off from one another. And the more individualistic and secondary ones must give way in popularity and practice to those devotions which more effectively actuate the fullness of salvation wrought by the "one mediator between God and men, Jesus Christ, who is a man, like them, and gave himself as a ransom for them all." [4] Through living in an atmosphere thus charged with true faith and solid piety the faithful can be confident that they are "thinking with the Church" and holding fast in the loving fellowship of prayer to Christ Jesus, the high priest of that sublime religion which he founded and which owes to him its name, its strength, its dignity. The Church's wonderful advances in liturgical piety match the progress of faith itself in penetrating divine truth. Within this development it is most heart-warming to observe how often in recent centuries this Holy See has openly ap proved and furthered the three devotions just mentioned. From the Middle Ages, it is true, many pious persons prac ticed these devotions, which then spread to various dioceses and religious orders and congregations. Nevertheless it remained for the Chair of Peter to pronounce them orthodox and approve them for the Church as a whole. Suffice it to recall the spiritual favours that our predecessors from the sixteenth century on have attached to prac ticing devotion to the Most Holy Name of Jesus, which in the previous century St. Bernardine of Siena untiringly spread throughout Italy. Approval was given first to the Office and Mass of the Most Holy Name and later to the Litany.[5] No less striking are the benefits the popes have attached to practising devotion to the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, whose rise and spread owe so much to the revelations of the Sacred Heart to St. Margaret Mary Alacoque.[6] So highly have all the popes regarded this devotion that again and again in their official acts they have expounded its nature, defended its validity, promoted its practice. Their crowning achievement on this devotion are three splendid encyclicals.[7] Likewise the devotion to the Most Precious Blood, which owes its marvellous diffusion to the 19th-century Ro man priest, St. Gaspar del Bufalo, has rightly merited the approval and backing of this Apostolic See. We may recall that by order of Benedict XIV the Mass and Office in honour of the divine Saviour's adorable Blood were composed. And to fulfill a vow made at Gaeta Pius IX extended the feast to the whole Church.[8] Finally, as a commemoration of the nineteenth centenary of our redemption, Pius XI of happy memory raised this feast to the rank of first-class double, so that the greater liturgical splendour would highlight the devotion and bring to men more abundant fruits of the re deeming Blood. Following our predecessors' example we have taken further steps to promote the devotion to the Precious Blood of the unblemished Lamb, Jesus Christ. We have approved the Litany of the Precious Blood drawn up by the Sacred Congregation of Rites and through special indulgences have encouraged its public and private recitation throughout the Catholic world. Amid today's most serious and pressing spiritual needs, may this latest exercise of that "care for all the churches"[9] proper to our sovereign office awaken in Christian hearts a firm conviction about the supreme abiding effectiveness of these three devotions. As we now approach the feast and month devoted to honouring Christ's Blood ---- the price of our redemption, the pledge of salvation and life eternal -- may Christians meditate on it more fervently, may they savour its fruits more frequently in sacramental communion. Let their meditations on the boundless power of the Blood be bathed in the light of sound biblical teaching and the doctrine of the Fathers and Doctors of the Church. How truly precious is this Blood is voiced in the song which the Church sings with the Angelic Doctor (sentiments wisely seconded by our predecessor Clement VI [10] ) : Blood that but one drop of has the world to win All the world forgiveness of its world of sin. [11] Unlimited is the effectiveness of the God-Man's Blood -- just as unlimited as the love that impelled him to pour it out for us, first at his circumcision eight days after birth, and more profusely later on in his agony in the garden,[12] in his scourging and crowning with thorns, in his climb to Calvary and crucifixion, and finally from out that great wide wound in his side which symbolizes the divine Blood cascading down into all the Church's sacraments. Such sur passing love suggests, nay demands, that everyone reborn in the torrents of that Blood adore it with grateful love. The Blood of the new and eternal covenant especially deserves this worship of latria when it is elevated during the sacrifice of the Mass. But such worship achieves its normal fulfilment in sacramental communion with the same Blood, indissolubly united with Christ's eucharistic Body. In intimate association with the celebrant the faithful can then truly make his sentiments at communion their own: "I will take the chalice of salvation and call upon the name of the Lord. . . The Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ preserve my soul for everlasting life. Amen." Thus as often as they come worthily to this holy table they will receive more abundant fruits of the redemption and resurrection and eternal life won for all men by the Blood Christ shed "through the Holy Spirit."[13] Nourished by his Body and Blood, sharing the divine strength that has sustained count less martyrs, they will stand up to the slings and arrows of each day's fortunes -- even if need be to martyrdom itself for the sake of Christian virtue and the kingdom of God. Theirs will be the experience of that burning love which made St. John Chrysostom cry out: Let us, then, come back from that table like lions breathing out fire, thus becoming terrifying to the Devil, and remaining mindful of our Head and of the love he has shown for us. . . This Blood, when worthily received, drives away demons and puts them at a distance from us, and even summons to us angels and the Lord of angels. . . This Blood, poured out in abundance, has washed the whole world clean. . . This is the price of the world; by it Christ purchased the Church... This thought will check in us unruly passions. How long, in truth, shall we be attached to present things? How long shall we remain asleep? How long shall we not take thought for our own salvation? Let us remember what privileges God has bestowed on us, let us give thanks, let us glorify him, not only by faith, but also by our very works. [14] If only Christians would reflect more frequently on the fatherly warning of the first pope: "Look anxiously, then, to the ordering of your lives while your stay on earth lasts. You know well enough that your ransom was not paid in earthly currency, silver or gold; it was paid in the precious blood of Christ; no lamb was ever so pure, so spotless a victim."[15] If only they would lend a more eager ear to the apostle of the Gentiles: "A great price was paid to ransom you; glorify God by making your bodies the shrines of his presence."[16] Their upright lives would then be the shining ex ample they ought to be; Christ's Church would far more effectively fulfill its mission to men. God wants all men to be saved,[17] for he has willed that they should all be ransomed by the Blood of his only-begotten Son; he calls them all to be members of the one Mystical Body whose head is Christ. If only men would be more responsive to these promptings of his grace, how much the bonds of brotherly love among individuals and peoples and nations would be strengthened. Life in society would be so much more peaceable, so much worthier of God and the human nature created in his image and likeness.[18] This is the sublime vocation that St. Paul urged Jewish converts to fix their minds on when tempted to nostalgia for what was only a weak figure and prelude of the new covenant: "The scene of your approach now is mount Sion, is the heavenly Jerusalem, city of the living God; here are gathered thousands upon thousands of angels, here is the assembly of those first-born sons whose names are written in heaven, here is God sitting in judgment on all men, here are the spirits of just men, now made perfect; here is Jesus, the spokesman of the new covenant, and the sprinkling of his blood, which has better things to say than Abel's had." [19] We have full confidence, venerable brethren, that these fatherly exhortations of ours, once brought to the attention of your priests and people in whatever way you deem best, will be put into practice not just willingly but enthusiastically. As a sign of heavenly graces and our affection we im part our most heartfelt apostolic blessing to each of you and to all your flocks, and particularly to those who respond with devout generosity to the promptings of this letter. Given at St. Peter's in Rome, the eve of the feast of Our Lord Jesus Christ's Most Precious Blood, June 30, 1960, the second year of our pontificate. 1. Acts 20:28. 2. Matthew 26 :2& 3. Encyclical "On the Sacred Liturgy," America Press edition (New York: 1954), No. 46. 4. I Timothy 2:5-6. 5. Acta Sanctae Sedis 18 (1886) :509. 6. Cf. Office for the feast of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, 2nd nocturn, lesson 5. 7. "On the Consecration of mankind to the Sacred Heart of Jesus," The Great Encyclical Letters of Pope Leo XIII (New York: 1903), 454-- 461; "The Reparation Due to the Sacred Heart," The Catholic Mind 26 (1928): 221-235; "On Devotion to the Sacred Heart," The Pope Speaks 3 (1956): 115-149. 8. Decree "Redempti Sumus," Aug. 10, 1849, Decreta Authentica S.RC. (Rome: 1898), II, No. 2978. 9. II Corinthians 11:28. 10. Bull "The Only Begotten Son of God," Jan. 25, 1343, The Sources of Catholic Dogma (St. Louis: 1957), No. 550. 1. Hymn "Adoro te devote." Translation from Poems of Gerard Manley Hopkins (Oxford: 1930), No. 89. 12. Luke 22:43. 13. Hebrews 9:14. 14. "Homily 46," Commentary on Saint John the Apostle and Evangelist (Fathers of the Church, New York: 1957), 469, 471-472. 15. 1 Peter 1:17-19. 16. I Corinthians 6:20. 17. Cf. I Timothy 2:4. 18. Cf. Genesis 1:26. 19. Hebrews 12:22-24.

Today's Decision

http://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/13pdf/13-354_olp1.pdf

Well, today in America, not GMT.

Celebrate-Good SCOTUS Decision

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/hobby-lobby-wins-contraceptive-ruling-supreme-court/story?id=24364311

Very Bad Weather Means No Posts

Sorry about no posts today-severe storms and under, still, a tornado watch. There has been 24 hours of terrrible weather, including flash floods, high winds, even up to 70 mile per hour gusts and yet, another line of storms is on the way. Will hopefully post tomorrow. GMT times and CDT are a six hour difference. So, I am writing on one day which you may be surprised to get posts.

Crazy.

The crops will be impacted, folks. There are many big trees down and some farm building damage.

Anyone Clergy Out There Need A Housekeeper?

from http://whispersintheloggia.blogspot.com/2014/06/on-peters-day-francis-to-bishops-are-we.html

Our Pope said this lovely thing....

Saying that "Women are the most beautiful thing God has made," the Pope reiterated his call in Evangelii Gaudium that the "feminine question" in ecclesial life "must be deepened, otherwise you can't understand the church herself." 

While Giansoldati explicitly set aside the question of female clergy, she asked Francis whether a woman would be named as head of a Curial dicastery, a prospect which the pontiff left the door wide open to by replying with a chuckle that "Well [orig: 'Beh'], many times priests [already] end up under the authority of their housekeepers."

Nonnberg Abbey

St. Rupert made Nonnberg for St. Erentrude.  Tomorrow is her feast.

Cool...Maria von Trapp was in the novitiate here.

http://www.catholic.org/saints/saint.php?saint_id=5820

and, they are just getting around to this?

http://www.ansa.it/english/news/2014/06/25/crucifix-mandatory-says-padua-mayor_ffca316d-fd33-4902-945e-0ff4b9032eec.html

Tomorrow Is Big SC Day On Mandate

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_SUPREME_COURT_FINAL_DECISIONS?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2014-06-28-03-32-55

Happy Feast of Peter and Paul

News from SPUC

3 Whitacre Mews, Stannary Street London, SE11 4AB, United Kingdom Telephone: (020) 7091 7091 Email: information@spuc.org.uk http://www.spuc.org.uk
Join the Rally for Life, Belfast, Sat 5 July
JOHN SMEATON, SPUC DIRECTOR Sunday, 29 June 2014 Join the Rally for Life, Belfast, Sat 5 July Liam Gibson of SPUC Northern Ireland writes: "In a little under a week people from all over Ireland will converge on Belfast for the 8th annual Rally for Life. The rally will set-off from Custom House Square at 2pm, 5th July. As always it promises to be an enjoyable event for all the family. Last July the rally brought the centre of Dublin to a standstill as an estimated 60,000 people turned out to protest against the Irish governments plans to legalise abortion. Despite this unprecedented level of public opposition the Irish abortion law, the Protection of Life During Pregnancy Act (sic), came into effect on 1st January this year. Experience shows that when abortion is legalised it quickly becomes acceptable to the general public. But there is never an acceptable level of abortion, either it is stopped or the killing spreads. Already there is mounting pressure on both sides of the Border to permit the abortion of children with disabilities. The victory of the abortion lobby in Ireland was a defeat for the pro-life movement globally. The politicians and abortion advocates are now watching how we react. They're looking for signs that we will simply give-up and go away so they can get on with legalising abortion on demand. If the people who came on to the streets last year don't want to see a further expansion of abortion in Ireland they cannot afford to stay at home Saturday 5th July." Here are videos of the 2012 and 2013 rallies: Comments on this blog? Email them to johnsmeaton@spuc.org.uk

Thought for The Day

Lumen Gentium Chapter 5.  

May all those who are weighed down with poverty, infirmity and sickness, as well as those who must bear various hardships or who suffer persecution for justice sake-may they all know they are united with the suffering Christ in a special way for the salvation of the world. The Lord called them blessed in His Gospel and they are those whom "the God of all graces, who has called us unto His eternal glory in Christ Jesus, will Himself, after we have suffered a little while, perfect, strengthen and establish".(226)

Death of A Civilization

It must be hard for a person who has grown up with either strong feelings or ideologies in a family to find out, as a thinking, intellectual adult, that many things which were held sacred are absolutely, positively wrong.

When I taught history, the history of ideas, or humanities, I taught de Tocqueville. His insights have proved to be correct about the failures of democracy.

But, I am surrounded by people who refuse to look seriously at the failures of democracy, instead covering up lies and serious problems with slogans, usually using words like “true liberalism”, “patriotism” or “equality” when what is meant is always the lowest common denominator.

I was raised as an elitist, as all Catholics of a certain age were. We were taught to be leaders, to be intellectuals, to study the liberal arts, the classics, to learn how to think and not merely how to feel or have knee-jerk reactions.

In my own family, half were GOP and half Democrats. The Luxemburg half were the GOPs and the Czech half the Dems. No surprises there…For years, parents cancelled out the votes of each partner.

But, over all the political differences, until the generation before mine, stood the loyalty to the Church, to Catholicism. As I noted in a post earlier on Saturday, I was raised to be a Catholic first and an American second.

When did this view, so good, so true, change among American Catholics? One can blame the Kennedys, or go back further to the heresy of Americanism.

The photos of leading clergymen with the president and other leading Dems discouraged many Catholics in America. But, have they considered the root of the evil of compromise?

One reason I prefer Europe is that Europeans are sick of democracy. Now, this sickness could lead either to life, or to death, as do all illnesses. Europeans no longer believe in one man, one vote. But, they have committed themselves to be against monarchies, as real possible governments.

What is left is the fatal decision between anarchy and tyranny.

In America, the vast majority of Americans still believe in a government by the people for the people.

Without being “under God”, this ideal is merely romantic junkfood.

I cannot believe the fact that the American Catholic Church is so anti-intellectual, like the Protestants, who, from the beginning of the Revolt, were anti-intellectual (is there anything more anti-rational than sola fide, sola Scritpura).

What the nuns inculcated in us as leadership skills and the idea that as Catholics, who had been given beauty, Truth and talents, and that everyone was not equal, either in gifts or in roles.

The Catholic sense of superiority of culture and civilization is gone, gone, gone in America. Catholics seem to only want to conform, not challenge (see my post yesterday).

We have lost the cutting edge. Maybe, just maybe, there can be a revival of rationality, of the sense that the Catholic Church must be a leader in the public square, in the market place.

But, I know, deep down inside, the corner has been turned, and we shall be persecuted by the barbarians and by the emotional, by the leftists who only want power over the sheeple, and by the tyrants.

We shall be persecuted because Catholicism is superior, it is the only way to civilization.

And those who do not want God or the Truth hate us, as they hated Christ Himself

Without God as the acknowledge Ruler of America, there is no America, but a shadow, a false dream. Without the recognition that Truth is only found in the Catholic Church in its glorious fullness, America will limp into tyranny, seeking security over honesty, and comfort over rationality.

May Our Lady have mercy on this nation and intercede for this sad place.

Prose Poem Part One

A poet I knew long ago became a tee-shirt millionaire.

Some of us broke our hearts at the loss of talent and hidden art.

This old news haunts me, as if I had found a brown letter in the attic, lamenting lost love.

I wonder where he is now, wondering whether his head is still full of sublime verse.

Or, his other gifts of mathematics, new formulas, never seen before except in the Mind of God.

His people send silk-screened shirts across the world from a nation in the Southern Hemisphere; people whose ancestors drew drew dogs and symbols on sandstone and ironstone.

Now, these descendents talk of mussels and wine sauce, or salmon and dill for lunch.

Busy talk-talk, but no poetry comes out of the factory, and the wife sits with her ladies, now all wearing the animal prints, from the up-market part of the company, in red and yellows, which some think look good with Capris and stilettos.

She delights in theses lunches and dances through her dreams in her new line of muumuus, which look like ‘60s leftovers. Her old Phantom-Watts rusts in the garage, while she skips across the land in a Spider. “Our years shall be considered as the spider.” But, mom and dad have forgotten that.

Mom, too, forgets her only daughter and pretends she does not have a thirty-something child. And, dad is too busy selling tee-shirts to notice that his baby does not have a cell phone. She threw hers in the ocean.

The old tribe sighs at the loss of this star, the blood watching the end of an era. No grandchildren, not lasting heritage, no poetry.

All is dried-up like the red river bed; all perishes of success and all is blown away in a tropical wind of the material.

The young woman walks the hot trails in boots and shorts, with few resources, except for pen and notebook, moleskin, her one passion. She sits in the shade and writes poetry which will be seen by no living person.

She thinks of the veil of the spider’s web as her own interior life, a delicate thing, reminiscent of the words of a psalm—where did she hear that or read that one about man’s transitoriness, lives like grass, like a dream, like things that bloom and wither, dry up and blow away?

In the hot shade, she begins to write, and the black words flow like water in the desert, cleansing her soul, her mind, her heart. The heritage springs back to life, like a small rivulet pouring out of the hills, practically unnoticed.

The heritage is for her salvation, her eternal life, and she chooses the hard way not sought by her parents, who will never understand her. The tribe sighs again, whispering across sandy red hills, “We have found the wordsmith, but she is alone, and she is the last.”

Blogging on Sunday

My posts may be "on" later tomorrow. See you later on Sunday.

Unfinished Business

I have looked at the theme of perfection for three years, as if I were examining a many-faceted prism, or jewel. One reads the great mystics and theologians, as well as the Doctors of the Church, noticing the multi-colored spectrums of the words of the saints.

I have shared charts and graphs, photos and paintings, words which seem to purify the imagination as one writes them.

I have quoted the great ones on memory, understanding, the will, the imagination, detachment, objectivity, reflection, meditation, contemplation and the various stages of beginners and proficients.

I have written about Love and shared many poems about love, as well as giving hints as to how to supernaturalizing the natural and naturalizing the supernatural.

As I leave Iowa, the place of my birth and my home until I was a young adult, a place to which I have returned several times, I now realize that I may never return here again. This awareness of time and memory, birth and death, growth and decay bring me to a place where I sit in the sun, near twilight, and wonder at the movements of God in my life.

Unlike most people’s lives, my life has been one of change, excitement, living in many strange and wonderful places, my soul and mind being formed by interesting and good people, with whom I have been blessed to meet.

My closest friends are scattered across America and Europe. They are not gathered in one place, nor sit and look at the sun from the same angle as I do this evening.

Some, at this moment, are swimming in the land of the Middle Sea. They may be on their way to Mass and the rosary.  Some are having tea or early dinner in the green valleys or near the white cliffs of England, or in the deep countryside of mist and flowers in Ireland. Some are rushing to Vespers in London and in Cobh.

Some are in the busy cities of London, or Dublin, or Sliema, busy running, swimming, working, praying. Some are in sleepy little villages along the southern coast of England, overlooking the Channel, to where some work and play in the Vendee.

Over all these people is the mantle of grace, the grace of commitment to being part of the remnant and the Church Militant. Over all these people is the mantle of Mary, Our Mother, who loves each one of us as her own. I have met so many members of the remnant and consider myself blessed, very blessed.

But, as I begin to pack and move, I am saddened at leaving behind unfinished business, Business which is the evangelization of some of who nearest and dearest to me and unfinished as I have to leave them yet again without seeing the conversions for which I pray daily.

So many of us have members in our families who have either left the Church or never have been Christian. Many readers ask me to pray for family members. I do, and for my own.

Did St. Paul have relatives? We hear nothing of his brothers, his sisters, his parents….

When he went out to the cities of the Empire, did he know people there first, or did he land as a stranger and have to make friends as he began communities?

I have a missionary heart, as I have shared on this blog before. My heart is with the people in Europe, who face a darkness which will cover the earth very soon.

They will feel the brunt of this first, but, perhaps, not the worst. America as a younger and more zealous nation will be harsher, more violent, more organized in persecution, playing with the darkness of evil power like an adolescent with a new, fast car, but without the skills to drive it.

My twilight days are coming upon me, but I desire to work in the dusk. The dim light does not hinder my zealous nature. My angels go before me preparing a way to new friends, new places.

Continue to pray for me, please, as I move out of this area of giant farms, stout-hearted, but too proud people, and too much ostentatious wealth as well as deep poverty. May God continue to bless the people of the Midwest, but may He give them new graces to open their eyes to what is around them, but what they are not seeing--the coming night of Western Civilization.

Being a Catholic

Being a Catholic is not like being anyone. It is a gift beyond compare. It is an gift of being offered life in the midst of death, clarity in confusion, and peace in strife.

I have been reading the Fifth Chapter of Isaiah. In this book, a list of the sins of the nation of Judah are listed in some detail. These sins are “selfish greed”, “ self-indulgence”, “cynical materialism”, “perversion of the standards of morality”, “intellectual pride and self-sufficiency”, “intemperance” and the “loss of integrity”.

Now, the Israelites did not have the great outpouring of sanctifying grace which came with the Atonement and Redemption of Christ’s Death on the Cross. They did, however, have the Law and the Prophets. God kept His part of the covenant agreement, but the Israelites in Judah did not.

How modern this book seems, when God calls down judgment on the people for leaving the Law and for despising the “word of the Holy One of Israel”. These threats of punishment were not mere warnings, but prophesies of things to come.

In Book Six, Isaiah sees the Glory of God. He is cleansed of his sin after making a confession, repenting of his own sins. The prophet is then sent out to share this purification with others. But, God warns him that the people will not listen. Yet, what follows in Book Seven is the beautiful promise of the Savior.

“Behold, a young woman shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.” Immanuel, of course, means “God with us.”  The deliverance of men and women from sin will be this Savior’s victory.

When one sits down and reads these three books, one is struck with the great mercy and love of God for His people. He not only calls then to repentance and show then one, the prophet Isaiah, who has been cleansed and is full of the Spirit of God, but promises complete and final freedom from sin.

Sin, repentance, confession, grace, purification, eternal life all shine forth in these books.

The Catholic Church teaches the efficacy of the sacraments, and these passages are echoes of promises which only find a voice, fulfillment, in the Catholic Church.

Who are you? Who Is Christ?

We need to be reminded of Who Christ really is. Too often, the words of Advent and Christmas come and go too quickly, in the midst of business, and we lose an opportunity for reflection. The passage in Isaiah Chapter Nine resounds again in our minds when we meditate on the beauty of this prophecy.

“For to us a son is born, to us a son is given; and the government will be upon his shoulder, and his name will be called ‘Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.’ Of the increase of his government and of peace there will be no end, upon the throne of David, and over his kingdom, to establish and uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time forth and for evermore. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this.”

This is not merely a passage for the glories of Heaven, but for the Kingdom of God on earth. Many people who have fallen into unbelief and cynicism say “Where is this Kingdom?”

It is here, it is near us. It is in us. It is only our own fears and our own sins which keep the beauty of these words from resonating across the earth.

Do you believe in Christ, the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity? Do you believe in the Son of God, Jesus Christ, True God and True Man?

If so, meditate on His Kingdom and ask yourselves how this can come about, now, here, in these times?

The Cost of Discipleship

Wealth is the problem. I have lived in the Midwest since November 11^th or so and I have wondered how so many Americans can be asleep, blind, as to the signs of the times. I have wondered at the pursuit of nonsense, trivia, worthless things and worthless entertainment.

I have wondered at the too-busy lives which cause people to not reflect or pray. Noise and distractions keep people running about, going here and there, not stopping to look, to listen to what God is trying to say.

He is saying, “Stop, repent, become perfect.” Few care and fewer listen.

The problem is wealth. After living in Europe for three years, 2011, 2012, and 2013, I was shocked when I returned to see the mad pursuit of things which have no lasting value.

What is necessary is not longer even seen by the vast majority of Catholics.

I have referred to the movie, Lawrence of Arabia on this blog before and the poignant cry of the British soldier, yelling at Lawrence and asking, “Who are you? Who are you?”

Who are you? Are you an animal seeking pleasure of the senses only? Are you a materialist, forgetting that you have an immortal soul which will live forever either in happiness or in grief?

The signs of the times seem obvious to me. Most of my close friends have adult children living with them either because they are unemployed, underemployed, or paying back huge university debts.

Most of my son’s generation are not choosing marriage or children.

Older people spend their days seeking small pleasures not realizing that these supposedly innocent “perqs” strip the soul of purity and reduce the body to a mere machine.

The seeking of small pleasures is just as deadly as the seeking of big ones. Too many people think they have a right to daily deserts, daily entertainment, daily “down time” without praying, without meditating, without reading Scripture.

Do not pass up opportunities to become holy. Do not fall into habits of selfishness. Do not forget to fast, do penance, pray.

Without mortifications, no one can be holy.

Without seeing the signs of the times, one is heading for perdition and not for glory.

Simply put, most people here have too many things and too much food; they have too much wealth.

To be a Catholic means doing things on purpose which hurt. Wealth ruins that view with the darkness of deceit.

Do not miss the signs of the times or the chances to be who God created you to be.

A Sign of Contradiction or Conformity?

The West in Medieval times was open as never before or after. Christendom allowed for free travel, as the national boundaries, which came to demand passports or travel documents did not yet exist.

This community of cultures and proto-nations, of kingdoms, whose kings and queens acknowledged a King above them, flowed back and forth in confidence and in relationships.

All this changed after the Protestant Revolt, when national identity became stronger and caused new rules between nations, making borders more difficult to transverse and making the Catholic Church just one more “national interest” among many. The many revolutions undermined the supremacy of Christendom, and the Church became not only marginalized, but persecuted, in Germany, England, France, Italy, and other places.

For a brief moment of glory, the Church was given some freedoms under Napoleon, who thought he could control the hierarchy by restoring them, but again, nationhood trumped Christendom. But, Napoleon himself began the counting and ordering of peoples, with the census and the insistence on surnames. He demanded a “global order” in what he saw as disorder. Bismarck followed with similar ideas, and the purposeful stealing of power and influence of the Church continued.

The imprisonment of Pius IX and the taking away of the Vatican Papal States in the supposed reunification of Italy pushed the Church more and more into the sidelines, no longer the universal Church, but one of many, in the false ideals of both nationalism and relativism.

By the 20^th Century, the Church no longer had power in the public square in international affairs, being again sabotaged by the League of Nations and, finally, the United Nations.

By the 21^st Century, the Church had lost all power in many European nations and has been confined to the status of immigrant groupings, not being seen as a world power, despite the media attention of the popes.

The Church will be more and more marginalized concerning international affairs, and is already no longer a power in the EU, having many of Her rights and privileges taken away.

The reason that the Church is now marginalized and facing persecution in most countries, including the United States, is that those who are the shepherds, for the most part, cannot see the rot of Church power in the world, nor do they care. They have no vision of a Church which is not “national”, such as in America, where so many bishops and priests still hold on to the heresy of “Americanism” and hate so-called Vatican control.

There are too many Catholics, including bishops, who do not understand that for the Church to be free, She must have respect as an institution and be above the increasingly immoral and tyrannical laws of the lands. She must be totally independent.

I could give specifics as to how the Church has lost power in the past thirty years. I know some of these from experience and from serious discussions with priests who are willing to discuss how governments are tying the hands of movements of seminarians or priests, or even families of both.The world has changed that quickly, in just over a generation, so that the type of respect given the moral position of the Church has vanished.

No longer do national leaders have to consider the Church. No longer do nations feel they need to provide Ambassadors to the Vatican. No longer do leaders listen to the statements of the popes.

No longer can a bishop exert influence in the secular society in his diocese.

We shall all suffer because of this huge change, but some will suffer more than others.

Cardinals, bishops, priests, seminarians, seminaries, schools which have not capitulated already to state curricula, monasteries of monks, convents of nuns.will be the first to feel the brunt of this marginalization and persecution.

Then, the faithful remnant will feel the pressure and persecution.

I give it less than two years for major changes to the freedom of movement of Catholics in the West, especially the ordained. I give it less than two years for the laity to be impacted by a schism, which will separate the Church instituted by Christ and those national churches, no longer loyal to Rome but pseudo-Catholic like the Anglicans in Great Britain.

The freedom to come and go which the early missionaries enjoyed to convert Europe and then the New World will not be seen again, vanishing in the near future.

In the past, a civilized world did not need passports, or visas, or rules for immigration. These rules are all about control, controlling those who go out, and controlling those who come in. And, which organization sends the most people here and there? Big businesses? No, the Catholic Church.

Ironically, those who want more stringent rules cannot see that they are preparing the way for a world government, which will totally control the movement of free peoples. Nations are keeping out the poor, but also those who are “different”, who seem to be “nonconformists”.

Someone who was trying to hurt me with words today and told me I never fit in, I was also a nonconformist and pushed the boundaries of what was acceptable. This conversation arose because someone in my hometown remembered that I dated a black man in 1969, a Jew in 1979, and (horrors) married an Englishman.

“You were always different”, this person noted, but I was just being myself.

By many standards, I never fit into the mold of what it means to be “American”, but that is because early on, I thought (and still do think), like a Catholic, belonging to the universal Church, not a national Church. Even as a very young person, when asked who I was, I would not answer first, “an American”, but “a Catholic”.

Some of us think and act like “citizens of the world”. We have this perspective because we are Benedictine, Carmelite, Franciscan, the Church Militant. Such a citizen is free from the prejudices and false security of being just a citizen of a nation which may or may not be “under God”.

There is only one institution which is truly “under God” and that is the one, holy, Catholic, and apostolic Church.  First and foremost, I am a Catholic.

I am moving out of Iowa next week, a word which means, “the beautiful land”. A friend of mine wondered how it got so liberal, so leftist. She also wondered how Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, parts of the Dakotas (remember, the first and only complete Marxist city council was in a Dakota town), became so leftist. 

The answer is simple. These areas were primarily settled by Protestants, who believed in the American Dream first and foremost. There religion because “Americanism” and conformity. Sola fide, sola Scriptura means one can believe anything, even heresy. This type of attitude of provincial religious and political liberalism rubbed off on the Catholics, so that, by the time I was growing up, most the Catholics voted left in this area, and most practiced birth control, and supported “women’s rights”. I know Catholics who will vote for Hillary. They have no idea of her connections to the international, global groups who want to destroy Catholicism or, at least emaciate the Church. They do not seem to care. Globalism is more important than Christendom.

But, that blindness is only one example of the problem. The real problem is the lack of witness to the Gospel of Christ as preserved in the Catholic Church.

If the laity were signs of contradiction in the world a hundred years ago, they are no longer so.

They are signs of conformity.

The remnant is small, indeed.