Saturday, 14 March 2015
Ashamed of the silence of the USA government...
http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/iraq-isis-blows-10th-century-assyrian-catholic-monastery-near-mosul-1491281
Prayers needed for someone else and a salutary lesson
An acquaintance of mine, a man my age,is in critical condition in the hospital with complications of an operation. It is unlikely that he will live. He is a good Protestant and we have discussed Christ and the times in which we live. He did not expect, when he went in to the hospital, to be facing death.
Please pray the Divine Mercy Chaplet for him. Just use the phrase, "STM's person in hospital" as I do not want to share names.
Now, the salutary lesson is this. This person spent a great deal of time, energy and money chasing prophecies of the end times. He went to conferences and bought books on this subject, spent time on YouTube watching videos of his favorite Protestants who preach.
He did not pursue an interior disposition of quietude or contemplation. Now, in the land of the dying, he will see what is the one thing necessary for life--the pursuit of Christ in our daily lives, in us--and, like Catholics who pursue apparitions, that such knowledge does not save us.
Knowledge of things to come can be prophecies to make our daily prayer life more intense and urgent. But, none of us become holy by knowing the latest prophecy or the latest apparitions. None of us become holy following messages from Mary from unapproved visions, or worse, from condemned visionaries.
I know too many good people, who follow the Ten Commandments, but do not go "higher up and higher in." It we are not orthodox, we have a very small chance of salvation. One starts with the basics, believing in the Trinity, the Eucharist, and so on. Maybe if he had gone into Scripture more deeply instead of pursuing end-time prophecies and puzzles, he would have become a Catholic and received Christ in the Eucharist.
John 6:53New Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition (NRSVCE)
53 So Jesus said to them, “Very truly, I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you.
God has called us all to become holy, to become perfect, in order to build the Church on earth and to be one with Him. Only the perfect see God which means most good people if they are saved, go to purgatory, a terrible place of punishment, loss, pain, regret and mortification.
Heaven is not assured to all, but to those who love God with their whole heart, soul, mind, body...There are not many ways to God, only one way.
Pray for my Protestant acquaintance.
Follow Up from The Perfection Series-ακηδία
Long ago in the perfection series, and in the posts on St. Bernard, I referred to the sin of accidie. Here is the long definition. It is not what people think it is, simple sloth. It is becoming distracted with useless things so that we are taken away from prayer, meditation and contemplation.
Discussing this with a seminarian today, I was struck with the idea that the noon-day devil is not merely low-blood sugar or high-blood sugar before or after lunch, but a demon who distracts us from times of prayer we even schedule.
St. Philip Neri preached that the afternoon in Rome was "the dangerous part of the day", when youth fell into mortal sins of fornication and even gang fighting. ακηδία sets in.
Looking at Psalm 90, one has to reckon with the pleasures of falling into sin and fight these. The noon-day devil is not poetry, but a real demon.
Here is the psalm.
Psalm 90 Douay-Rheims
90 The praise of a canticle for David. He that dwelleth in the aid of the most High, shall abide under the protection of the God of Jacob.
2 He shall say to the Lord: Thou art my protector, and my refuge: my God, in him will I trust.
3 For he hath delivered me from the snare of the hunters: and from the sharp word.
4 He will overshadow thee with his shoulders: and under his wings thou shalt trust.
5 His truth shall compass thee with a shield: thou shalt not be afraid of the terror of the night.
6 Of the arrow that flieth in the day, of the business that walketh about in the dark: of invasion, or of the noonday devil.
7 A thousand shall fall at thy side, and ten thousand at thy right hand: but it shall not come nigh thee.
8 But thou shalt consider with thy eyes: and shalt see the reward of the wicked.
9 Because thou, O Lord, art my hope: thou hast made the most High thy refuge.
10 There shall no evil come to thee: nor shall the scourge come near thy dwelling.
11 For he hath given his angels charge over thee; to keep thee in all thy ways.
12 In their hands they shall bear thee up: lest thou dash thy foot against a stone.
13 Thou shalt walk upon the asp and the basilisk: and thou shalt trample under foot the lion and the dragon.
14 Because he hoped in me I will deliver him: I will protect him because he hath known my name.
15 He shall cry to me, and I will hear him: I am with him in tribulation, I will deliver him, and I will glorify him.
16 I will fill him with length of days; and I will shew him my salvation.
Here is the definition from Ortho-Wiki.
Akedia (in Latin, accidie) is literally fatigue or exhaustion, but in technical usage refers to the spiritual and physical lethargy which can plague those pursuing the eremetic life. The reference in Psalm 90 (91 MT) to the "demon of noonday" is traditionally identified as akedia. It can take the form of listlessness, dispersion of thoughts, or being inattentively immersed in useless activity.
St.Thomas Aquinas calls it world-weariness, which causes a person to neglect both their physical and spiritual duties. This habit of thinking and feeling is a hard sinful habit to break, but one must do so.
One way to break the habit of negative and depressive thoughts it to constantly praise God all day.
The Office of the Hours is a perfect way to break this habit.
Also, the Chaplet of Divine Mercy, to be said at 3:00, is another way to break accidie.
Listlessness can also be expressed in restlessness, like someone feeling like they "just have to get out" and go shopping.
Accidie may be seen in the need to watch television as well. One breaks a habit of vice by practicing the opposite virtue.
More later...
Overcoming Sin: On Memory Again
God will allow temptation for us to undo sins in our lives and break habits of sin. A priest told me this and it is a simple and good truth.
The body adjusts itself to the operations of the soul, and chemically a body readjusts to new stimuli of turning against the sin.
We actually have to turn away from sin physically, emotionally, and spiritually. As humans, we are body and soul, so we are tempted in both for most sins. There are triggers and to break habits of giving in to triggers, God gives us temptations to make "our inner person strong". We can be addicted to certain sins, even thinking negative thoughts. God can change this is we allow Him to enter into the memory, understanding and will.
Demons affect the cogitative powers.
When we decide or judge on something, we create a habit if we keep doing something...this is what St. Thomas calls the "intellective memory" in the positive intellect. This process works on those powers in the inward man, referred to in St. Paul's epistle as being made strong in grace. The sensitive memory is in the imagination.
Thank God for priests who have studied Thomas Aquinas. They are few and far between.
Ephesians 3:16Douay-Rheims
16 That he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened by his Spirit with might unto the inward man,
For Religious in America
Pope Francis has called upon consecrated religious to "wake up the world" by living their special calling to be prophets of joy. The vocation to radical discipleship will be the focus of the 2015 IRL National Meeting.
We are pleased that Raymond Cardinal Burke has graciously accepted our invitation to give
the keynote address on Friday, April 10, 2015. His Eminence will speak on "Martyrdom for the Faith Today".
At the National Meeting's Saturday banquet dinner, Mother Agnes Mary Donovan, S.V., founding member and superior general of the Sisters of Life, is to receive the 2015 Pro Fidelitate et VirtuteAward. We wish to recognize Mother's deep commitment to the consecrated life and her bold witness to the Gospel of Life and building up the Civilization of Love.
We are also delighted to announce that Most Rev. Blase Cupich, Archbishop of Chicago, will be the principal celebrant of the closing Mass on the morning of Sunday, April 12.
Throughout the weekend, there will be excellent speakers on many facets of the consecrated life. They include
Rt. Rev. Austin G. Murphy, O.S.B., Abbot of St. Procopius Abbey in Lisle, Illinois
Mike Aquilina, award-winning author and television host, Vice President of The St. Paul Center for Biblical Theology
Sr. Therese Marie Iglesias, T.O.R., Vocation Director of the Franciscan Sisters Third Order Regular, Toronto, Ohio
Amanda Houska, director of the web movement Imagine Sisters
Dan Burke, Executive Director of EWTN's National Catholic Register and founder of Catholic Spiritual Direction
Brandon Vogt, content director for Word on Fire Catholic Ministries and founder of StrangeNotions.com
Rev. Adam McDonald, S.V.D., Vocation Director of the Society of the Divine Word Chicago Province
Mike Zak, founder and director of the Here I Am Lord national vocations conference
Dawn Eden, popular blogger, speaker and author, and convert from Judaism
Cy Laurent, founder and Executive Director of The Labouré Society
Sr. Beth Ann Dillon, D.S.M.P., Vocation Director of the Daughters of St. Mary of Providence
Mother Agnes Mary Donovan, S.V., and Rev. Norbert Wood, O.Praem., will speak at the Special Session, Friday morning, April 10, exclusively for priests, religious and other consecrated persons.
Knowledge of Divine Things Part Seventeen Fides et Ratio Part Nine
The main reason why Aquinas is so important to us even today, is that Aquinas demonstrates the reasonableness of faith. Both reason and faith are gifts. And through these gifts, all man can find freedom from sin and eternal death.
One of my favorite phrases is this one below, "..faith builds upon and perfects reason." One can say the opposite, that if that reason is not perfected, it is because one's faith is faulty, incomplete.
In an age when Christian thinkers were rediscovering the treasures of ancient philosophy, and more particularly of Aristotle, Thomas had the great merit of giving pride of place to the harmony which exists between faith and reason. Both the light of reason and the light of faith come from God, he argued; hence there can be no contradiction between them.44
More radically, Thomas recognized that nature, philosophy's proper concern, could contribute to the understanding of divine Revelation. Faith therefore has no fear of reason, but seeks it out and has trust in it. Just as grace builds on nature and brings it to fulfilment,45 so faith builds upon and perfects reason. Illumined by faith, reason is set free from the fragility and limitations deriving from the disobedience of sin and finds the strength required to rise to the knowledge of the Triune God. Although he made much of the supernatural character of faith, the Angelic Doctor did not overlook the importance of its reasonableness; indeed he was able to plumb the depths and explain the meaning of this reasonableness. Faith is in a sense an “exercise of thought”; and human reason is neither annulled nor debased in assenting to the contents of faith, which are in any case attained by way of free and informed choice.46
Aquinas "reconciled" the secularity of the world, specifically the world of philosophy and the radical Gospel.
This is why the Church has been justified in consistently proposing Saint Thomas as a master of thought and a model of the right way to do theology. In this connection, I would recall what my Predecessor, the Servant of God Paul VI, wrote on the occasion of the seventh centenary of the death of the Angelic Doctor: “Without doubt, Thomas possessed supremely the courage of the truth, a freedom of spirit in confronting new problems, the intellectual honesty of those who allow Christianity to be contaminated neither by secular philosophy nor by a prejudiced rejection of it. He passed therefore into the history of Christian thought as a pioneer of the new path of philosophy and universal culture. The key point and almost the kernel of the solution which, with all the brilliance of his prophetic intuition, he gave to the new encounter of faith and reason was a reconciliation between the secularity of the world and the radicality of the Gospel, thus avoiding the unnatural tendency to negate the world and its values while at the same time keeping faith with the supreme and inexorable demands of the supernatural order”.47
Wisdom is the gift of the Holy Spirit. This gift, which is given in to Catholics in Confirmation, opens the door to more and more knowledge, as well as piety. Prudence, temperance, justice and courage flow from the soul of wisdom. But, as noted below, wisdom is also acquired, and thus, is missing in so many prelates. This other wisdom comes from study and reflection, as well as meditation and contemplation.
Other "wisdoms" follow-philosophical wisdom coming out of Reality, and theological wisdom, coming from Revelation and earned through grace and work. So many of our leaders in the Church lack these "wisdoms".
44. Another of the great insights of Saint Thomas was his perception of the role of the Holy Spirit in the process by which knowledge matures into wisdom. From the first pages of his Summa Theologiae,48 Aquinas was keen to show the primacy of the wisdom which is the gift of the Holy Spirit and which opens the way to a knowledge of divine realities. His theology allows us to understand what is distinctive of wisdom in its close link with faith and knowledge of the divine. This wisdom comes to know by way of connaturality; it presupposes faith and eventually formulates its right judgement on the basis of the truth of faith itself: “The wisdom named among the gifts of the Holy Spirit is distinct from the wisdom found among the intellectual virtues. This second wisdom is acquired through study, but the first 'comes from on high', as Saint James puts it. This also distinguishes it from faith, since faith accepts divine truth as it is. But the gift of wisdom enables judgement according to divine truth”.49
Yet the priority accorded this wisdom does not lead the Angelic Doctor to overlook the presence of two other complementary forms of wisdom—philosophical wisdom, which is based upon the capacity of the intellect, for all its natural limitations, to explore reality, and theological wisdom, which is based upon Revelation and which explores the contents of faith, entering the very mystery of God.
To ignore the intellectual virtues is to stop the process of purgation and perfection. A Catholic adult must pursue the intellectual virtues. (See my posts on the virtues). Too many Catholics stay in the realm of the emotions, and never earn merit or grow in holiness.
to be continued...
Friday, 13 March 2015
Learning To Read
Later on in my life, when I did Montessori training, this background helped me learn the method easily, as it was second nature to me.
Two areas of problems with reading have come to my attention talking with a spectrum of adults who read and do not understand what they read.
The first is this: reading comprehension demands attention not only to the written word, but to the tone and style of the text. For example, one must determine if an article is factual, satirical, historical, and so on. If one reads the same authors daily for news, for example, one understands the tone and style immediately with practice. But those who were taught to read words in a context, understand tone and style, not missing the meaning or having to try and figure out the meaning.
Example: Pat Buchanan has a brilliant website. He has a tratiional style of writing which involves presenting facts, but with an obvious slant. One immediately understands that his work will be and always is, "conservative". If one does not want to read a really politically conservative website, one skips Mr. Buchanan's articles.
One can pick up quickly the slant of an online magazine or newspaper as well. Again, for example, the Huffington Post is liberal, and the Telegraph is more conservative and so on.
Still on this first point, the same is true of Catholic periodicals and blogs on line, as well as websites. One can list the trad blogs, the trad newspapers and the trad websites.
One can also see the liberal ones if one knows how to read.
I am building up to looking at two particular media outlets on line which people have seen as confusing and explain why.
Second point: not only do people miss the vocabulary and signals which tell them the slant or tone, but they assume things in the reading. For example, too many young people doubt scholarship or assume scholarship, not knowing how to read sources or look at sourced material.
For years and years, I taught research skills, and I forget that people do not know how to do research if they did not have a decent liberal arts education. Learning to do research takes time and effort, as well as focusing on a few things. One learns to trust certain authors who do not merely give their opinion, but indicated their sources. For example, I list my sources in the perfection and Doctors of the Church series.
Here comes the reason for this post. Recently, a well-established Catholic newspaper decided to change its format to a magazine. More photos, jazzy articles, less or even no sourcing material. I am referring to the British Catholic Herald. I shall no longer bother to follow authors on that site.
Why? Tone and style has become subjective and personalized, even satirical instead of serious. Two, sources are missing in most if not many of the articles.
Sorry, I am not interested in second-rate journalist's opinions. Opinion has no place in a major Catholic newspaper except on the editorial page. When articles consistently fall into subjective opinion reflecting a style or tone of superiority of authorship which is not there, these articles are not only not trustworthy, but merely an expression of mediocrity. Excellence cannot be earned without hard work.
Secondly, facts and ideas must be sourced. Period.
Well, there is one less site I need to read weekly.
Simplifies life...
And, women can DO things and be feminine...
 |
| Jeune femme dessinant, huile sur toile de Marie-Denise Villers (1801, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York). Précédemment attribué à Jacques-Louis David, le tableau serait un autoportrait. |
STM Rant #44
For weeks, I have seen a man in my neighborhood walking his dog. A few days ago, I discovered this man was a woman. When I came back from Europe in January, I was shocked at the fact that so many women in New York, New Jersey, and other states look like men. They dress like men and walk like men, and sit like men.
The women in Ireland looked great and very feminine, at least in Dublin. I never saw jeans in Church, and even on the street, women looked womanly.
Same in France and in Malta.
What has happened here? Now, when I am alone and cleaning the garage or something like, I wear sometimes trousers, or when I am on a ladder inside painting or washing windows inside, I may wear trousers.
I do not wear trousers outside, nor jackets that look like male jackets or unisex clothes. My spring coat from the second-hand store is bright blue plaid with a belt and very feminine.
And, I have comfy shoes which are not sneakers...what is with the ubiquitous sport shoes?
I am proud to be a woman and to be and to act feminine.
The problem in America is not physical. but spiritual. The more a woman usurps a male role, the more she will look and act like a man.
At this point, I am sure there are demonic influences involved.
From the back, watching several couples of older people in a Catholic group, I could not tell, honestly, who were the males and who were the females.
Catholic women must come to the forefront of this real spiritual battle for feminine identity.
My grandmother, a real lady, who died a long time ago in 1994, told me once that the skinny, short-haired look of the 1920s was popular because so many men were becoming homosexual and/or peter pans in Europe...she said men began to prefer child-like looking women rather than mature looking, in body, women. They did not want to be challenged with dating or marrying a "real woman". Grandma said the "boy look" was preferred by weak men. She was born in 1900 and saw the change.
She was right, as in that and so many other things. It is, actually, immodest for a woman to dress like a man. Why?
What is with the Harley-Davidson leather jackets on women? A lady from New York told me what this style is called....not repeating the name of it in nice company.
Modesty is a sub-virtue of humility. Humility is being true to one's self--being honest--as well as not attracting attention to one's self.
'Nuff said..
Some men's clothes, btw...
OK, be honest. Is the jacket below for a real woman? Compare...
Or, this? Hands down, a feminine coat.
The women in Ireland looked great and very feminine, at least in Dublin. I never saw jeans in Church, and even on the street, women looked womanly.
Same in France and in Malta.
What has happened here? Now, when I am alone and cleaning the garage or something like, I wear sometimes trousers, or when I am on a ladder inside painting or washing windows inside, I may wear trousers.
I do not wear trousers outside, nor jackets that look like male jackets or unisex clothes. My spring coat from the second-hand store is bright blue plaid with a belt and very feminine.
And, I have comfy shoes which are not sneakers...what is with the ubiquitous sport shoes?
I am proud to be a woman and to be and to act feminine.
The problem in America is not physical. but spiritual. The more a woman usurps a male role, the more she will look and act like a man.
At this point, I am sure there are demonic influences involved.
From the back, watching several couples of older people in a Catholic group, I could not tell, honestly, who were the males and who were the females.
Catholic women must come to the forefront of this real spiritual battle for feminine identity.
My grandmother, a real lady, who died a long time ago in 1994, told me once that the skinny, short-haired look of the 1920s was popular because so many men were becoming homosexual and/or peter pans in Europe...she said men began to prefer child-like looking women rather than mature looking, in body, women. They did not want to be challenged with dating or marrying a "real woman". Grandma said the "boy look" was preferred by weak men. She was born in 1900 and saw the change.
She was right, as in that and so many other things. It is, actually, immodest for a woman to dress like a man. Why?
What is with the Harley-Davidson leather jackets on women? A lady from New York told me what this style is called....not repeating the name of it in nice company.
Modesty is a sub-virtue of humility. Humility is being true to one's self--being honest--as well as not attracting attention to one's self.
'Nuff said..
Some men's clothes, btw...
OK, be honest. Is the jacket below for a real woman? Compare...
Or, this? Hands down, a feminine coat.
Homeschoolers Alert for St. Pat's Day
A bit over-dramatic and a bit loosey goosey on the Church bits, but a good film for the historical realities of the time for the kids over twelve. The Tara lighting of the fire is true, and pray for Ireland, so lost, so much in darkness now again.
Easiest Way To Spot A False Seer
Is he or she or any of her family making money off of the "visions"?
Wills
I know too many people who have not made out wills. This means, in England, that some, if not all the estate goes to the crown.
In America, it means that families fall into arguments which sometimes go on for years. One family I knew years ago argued over an aunt's will to the point of demanding that even the lamps in her house be part of a settlement and that this couple would not agree to a settlement without getting the lamps. Now, these lamps may have been interesting and worth something, but to hold up the settlement of a will because of lighting seems daft to me. And, to cause family dissension for years is simply sinful.
I know why people do not make wills, even those men and women who are very, very old. They fear death. They do not want to face that last day when they have to show God all the merits of heaven which they have gained, because, perhaps, they have not done this.
Several people I know have huge estates and no will. They cannot face death; and their health lies to them by making them think they will go on forever.
Less than a month ago, a woman young and beautiful, died of hypothermia because of an accident at her home. She did not expect to die young. What she had gained for God and His Church would be demanded of her on that day a month ago. The shock of untimely deaths should remind us all that we need spiritual wills, as well as physical ones.
Today's Gospel reminds us of our debt to God and our debt to our neighbors.
Wills in the spiritual life are your and my list of merits, gained through the mercy of God alone.
Have you made a spiritual will?
Mark 12:28-34Revised Standard Version (RSV)
28 And one of the scribes came up and heard them disputing with one another, and seeing that he answered them well, asked him, “Which commandment is the first of all?” 29 Jesus answered, “The first is, ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one; 30 and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.’ 31 The second is this, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.” 32 And the scribe said to him, “You are right, Teacher; you have truly said that he is one, and there is no other but he; 33 and to love him with all the heart, and with all the understanding, and with all the strength, and to love one’s neighbor as oneself, is much more than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices.” 34 And when Jesus saw that he answered wisely, he said to him, “You are not far from the kingdom of God.” And after that no one dared to ask him any question.
Perseverance
I watched Buddy the Cat, who follows my neighbor on walks stalk a ground-squirrel which was hiding underneath a pile of dried up oak leaves on the patio next door. Buddy waited for a long time, left, came back, waiting some more, left, came back and is now sitting outside the "my" patio, as the little ground-squirrel ran out of the leaf pile and into the drain pipe. These little creatures have learned to do this over the years and in 2005, I remember my Puddy waiting for hours outside a drain pipe, waiting for it's prey. Puddy proved to be an excellent hunter.
I do like the little ground squirrels, but Buddy is acting naturally. It has the ability to focus and be patient until it has it's prey.
Are we persistent in prayer? Do we wait on the Lord, knowing that He hears our prayers and if we pray in His Will all will be answered?
Perseverance, the mark of a saint, leads one to follow the arduous way of perfection.
Now, I have a large red squirrel at the back patio door. They beg for food here, as they did so long ago at Notre Dame on football weekends, when people were walking around with steak sandwiches.
Do we beg God for graces, for all our needs?
Animals work out of instinct and habit. We have free will, but we can learn from those creatures who do rely on God daily.
Notice in Psalm 84 that the singer refers to God giving animals what they need, but they find homes "at thy altars". David, who was full of the Holy Spirit, could rejoice in nature. God arranges the tiniest detail of our lives and those of animals. Without God's care, Buddy would not exist, nor would you or I.
All creation was renewed in the Crucifixion. We forget that Christ redeemed the world, allowing for us to rejoice in nature in a way not possible when we all were locked in Original Sin. Nature still and we still endure some of the consequences of the Fall, but some are ameliorated. God has given us the ability to rejoice in His creation in a new way, seeing the earth through the eyes of joy.
The earth is still a dangerous and sometimes deadly place. I know of someone who died of hypothermia. We are not in Eden. However, God has sanctified us to see the beauty of nature and to learn from those things around us, because of His sacrifice. The sparrows have a home and the swallows find a nest because we are renewed.
When I was in Malta, and in Italy years ago, I learned that men shoot birds, even rare song-birds just for the heck of it. This is not the work of a renewed mind. We are allowed to eat animals if we need to do so, and most people do. However, the wanton destruction of nature and creatures shows the actions of one who does not know the altars of God, the places of prayer and meekness the places of peace.
Buddy is a half-feral cat and has been abused, which is why it is afraid of most people. Some people are so scarred by sin that they cannot accept the goodness of God, cannot see His love and providence. But, Buddy teaches me perseverance.
May God bless us all with perseverance and healing this day, so that we all can trust and persevere in prayer.
I do like the little ground squirrels, but Buddy is acting naturally. It has the ability to focus and be patient until it has it's prey.
Are we persistent in prayer? Do we wait on the Lord, knowing that He hears our prayers and if we pray in His Will all will be answered?
Perseverance, the mark of a saint, leads one to follow the arduous way of perfection.
Now, I have a large red squirrel at the back patio door. They beg for food here, as they did so long ago at Notre Dame on football weekends, when people were walking around with steak sandwiches.
Do we beg God for graces, for all our needs?
Animals work out of instinct and habit. We have free will, but we can learn from those creatures who do rely on God daily.
Notice in Psalm 84 that the singer refers to God giving animals what they need, but they find homes "at thy altars". David, who was full of the Holy Spirit, could rejoice in nature. God arranges the tiniest detail of our lives and those of animals. Without God's care, Buddy would not exist, nor would you or I.
All creation was renewed in the Crucifixion. We forget that Christ redeemed the world, allowing for us to rejoice in nature in a way not possible when we all were locked in Original Sin. Nature still and we still endure some of the consequences of the Fall, but some are ameliorated. God has given us the ability to rejoice in His creation in a new way, seeing the earth through the eyes of joy.
The earth is still a dangerous and sometimes deadly place. I know of someone who died of hypothermia. We are not in Eden. However, God has sanctified us to see the beauty of nature and to learn from those things around us, because of His sacrifice. The sparrows have a home and the swallows find a nest because we are renewed.
When I was in Malta, and in Italy years ago, I learned that men shoot birds, even rare song-birds just for the heck of it. This is not the work of a renewed mind. We are allowed to eat animals if we need to do so, and most people do. However, the wanton destruction of nature and creatures shows the actions of one who does not know the altars of God, the places of prayer and meekness the places of peace.
Buddy is a half-feral cat and has been abused, which is why it is afraid of most people. Some people are so scarred by sin that they cannot accept the goodness of God, cannot see His love and providence. But, Buddy teaches me perseverance.
May God bless us all with perseverance and healing this day, so that we all can trust and persevere in prayer.
Back up and running
I read an article today which stated that Millennials have a "BS meter". The article, which is not worth reading, referred to the fact that many Millennials are looking for the real deal in religion. This is true. They are not looking for the prosperity Gospel their parents follow, or Liberation Theology.
Now, the author solution was compromise, but the real answer is the radical Gospel of Christ. Today's First Reading reveals God halting His punishment on Israel and bringing the nation into peace. But, the last verse reminds all of the necessity of following the ways of God, not men. The Ten Commandments are not to be ignored, nor the old strictures of the Church regarding any sins. As noted in the perfection series over and over, no one is on the way to perfection without first eliminating mortal and even venial sin.
Now, the author solution was compromise, but the real answer is the radical Gospel of Christ. Today's First Reading reveals God halting His punishment on Israel and bringing the nation into peace. But, the last verse reminds all of the necessity of following the ways of God, not men. The Ten Commandments are not to be ignored, nor the old strictures of the Church regarding any sins. As noted in the perfection series over and over, no one is on the way to perfection without first eliminating mortal and even venial sin.
Hosea 14:10Douay-Rheims
10 Who is wise, and he shall understand these things? prudent, and he shall know these things? for the ways of the Lord are right, and the just shall walk in them: but the transgressors shall fall in them.
Thursday, 12 March 2015
OK Update
Apparently, the person who has the account for the jetpack has to decide if she is going to continue the account. I may be off line for a while, as it is not charging and almost out of juice.
I wish America had those nice little dongles one can buy and pay as you go as in Europe. Much smaller and these do not tie one down to a contract. Some are for digital TV and some are for the Net.
I think Walmart may sell something like, but I am about 10 miles from a WalMart.
Apologies. If I disappear, you will understand that I have not access the Net again.
Pax vobiscum.
STM
I wish America had those nice little dongles one can buy and pay as you go as in Europe. Much smaller and these do not tie one down to a contract. Some are for digital TV and some are for the Net.
I think Walmart may sell something like, but I am about 10 miles from a WalMart.
Apologies. If I disappear, you will understand that I have not access the Net again.
Pax vobiscum.
STM
Readers, Do You Want Me To Do This?
I am thinking of doing a series on Fides et Ratio. Are you readers interested?
Today's Gospel Challenge
‘He who is not with me is against me; and he who does not gather with me scatters.’
Christ is clear as to who is with Him and who is not. There is no middle ground for following Christ. These words indicate that one must choose to be with Christ in order not to be against Him. If one does not choose to follow Christ, one is against Him.
Why? Because unless Christ is allowed to be Lord of our lives, other things and people become lord. It has struck me lately how many people I meet daily are not in sanctifying grace. I noted here on the blog that we cannot trust those who are not in sanctifying grace. Being in deception means that one can only think and follow lies. One has lost discernment and the four cardinal virtues. Or, at the very least, these are blocked.
Those who live under the thrall of other gods will only lead us astray if we are not strong in Christ. And, the second statement has to do with not gathering. To gather means several things, like bringing people into the Church, it means evangelizing openly and praying for converts.
It means following the teaching of Christ.
If we are not gathering we are scattering. Think how.
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