Not doctrine, not dogma, but a private revelation to ponder in Autumn-Six

Saint Faustinas Diary entry 741:

Today, I was led by an angel to the chasm of hell. It is a place of great torture; how awesomely large and extensive it is! The kinds of tortures that I saw; the first torture that constitutes hell is the loss of God; the second is perpetual remorse of conscience; the third is that one's condition will never change; the fourth is the fire that will penetrate the soul without destroying it — a terrible suffering, since it is a purely spiritual fire, lit by God's anger; the fifth torture is continual darkness, and a terrible, suffocating smell, and despite the darkness, the devil and the souls of the damned see each other and all the evil, both of others and of their own; the sixth torture is the constant company of Satan; the seventh torture is horrible despair, hatred of God, vile words, curses and blasphemies. These are the tortures suffered by all the damned together, but that is not the end of their sufferings. There are special tortures destined for particular souls. These are the torments of the senses. Each soul undergoes terrible and indescribable sufferings, related to the manner in which it has sinned. There are caverns and pits of torture where one form of agony differs from another. I would have died at the very sight of these tortures if the omnipotence of God had not supported me. Let the sinner know that he will be tortured throughout all eternity, in those senses which he made use of to sin. I am writing this at the command of God, so that no soul may find an excuse by saying there is no hell, or that nobody has ever been there, and so no one can say what it is like.

Recommended by Readers

http://www.amazon.com/Will-Many-Saved-Implications-Evangelization/dp/0802868878/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1348533275&sr=1-1&keywords=will+many+be+saved

http://www.amazon.com/Enthusiasm-A-Chapter-History-Religion/dp/0268009325

If a kind reader would like to order these for me, I would appreciate it. My entire Knox library was stolen several years ago, including rare books. However, it would be nice to have Enthusiasm again.

Rule of Thumb-If the Vatican has not approved a seer, do not follow an apparition

Poem of the Man-God

---

In 1959 when the "Poem" was put on the Index of Forbidden Books, it was described as "a badly fictionalized life of Christ" (L'Osservatore Romano, quoted by Cardinal Ratzinger in a letter to Cardinal Siri, 31 January 1985). Catholics were warned that it was not to be considered as revealed by God, and in fact, under the rules of the Index, no one, not even a priest, could read the volumes without a serious reason (e.g. to refute its errors) and the permission of the bishop or religious superior. Despite Roman judgements against the work its promoters have continued on their merry way, publishing and promoting it without interruption.
In 1966 when the Index was abolished many thought this meant the works listed on it could be read. Cardinal Ratzinger addressed this issue with respect to the "Poem of the Man-God," in the aforementioned Letter saying,

"After the dissolution of the Index, when some people thought the printing and distribution of the work was permitted, people were reminded again in 'LOsservatore Romano' (June 15, 1966) that, as was published in the 'Acta Apostolicae Sedis' (1966), the Index retains its moral force despite its dissolution. A decision against distributing and recommending a work, which has not been condemned lightly, may be reversed, but only after profound changes that neutralize the harm which such a publication could bring forth among the ordinary faithful."

In 1993 Bishop Boland of Birmingham, AL wrote the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith about "Poem" on behalf of an inquirer. Cardinal Ratzinger responded by letter, which the bishop then quoted in his response to the person, who shared it with us. The response noted that because of continuing interest in the books the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith had requested the Italian Bishops Conference to ask the publisher (who as I noted never in the past has complied with Roman decisions) to have a disclaimer printed in the volumes that "clearly indicated from the very first page that the 'visions' and 'dictations' referred to in it are simply the literary forms used by the author to narrate in her own way the life of Jesus. They cannot be considered supernatural in origin." Whether this has been done I don't know.
So, quite apart from any supposed value that these writings have for helping the faith of Catholics is the promotion of the tendency to self-judgement in areas already judged by the hierarchical authority of the Church. Since the duty of submission to the Magisterium is part of the divine constitution of the Church and necessary for salvation, whereas, private revelations (even authentic ones, which this is not) cannot oblige in faith, it should be an easy call what the loyal Catholic should do. Is it forbidden? In the strict canonical sense (legal prohibition and sanctions for violating), no.

Is it grossly imprudent to read things which the Church has discouraged in the strongest terms? Yes. Is it a bad use of time when there are writings of the Magisterium, of the saints and the Catechism that are not being read? Absolutely.
But people claim that never have they understood Scripture as when they have read "Poem." Understood in a certain way, as explained by Maria Valtorta! But this way the Church has said is not according to its mind. Catholics do well to follow the Holy See in this. footnote 24 and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maria_Valtorta#cite_note-ewtn-21


Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, in his letter 144/58 of 31 January 1985, entrusted to Cardinal Giuseppe Siri, Archbishop of Genoa, the decision whether to inform a priest of his archdiocese that the Valtorta work had indeed been placed on the Index, which keeps its moral force, and that "a decision against distributing and recommending a work, which has not been condemned lightly, may be reversed, but only after profound changes that neutralize the harm which such a publication could bring forth among the ordinary faithful".^[21][22] Cardinal Siri not only informed the priest, but also published (with the name of the priest removed) the text of Cardinal Ratzinger's letter.

Again in 1983, Cardinal Ratzinger wrote to Bishop Raymond James Boland of Birmingham, Alabama, in response to a letter a member of Bishop Boland's diocese had sent to him. He recalled the notes that the Congregation had already issued for the guidance of the faithful and that had been published on various numbers of L'Osservatore Romano, and he stated that his Congregation had requested the Italian episcopal conference to ask the publisher to have a disclaimer printed in the volumes that "clearly indicated from the very first page that the 'visions' and 'dictations' referred to in it are simply the literary forms used by the author to narrate in her own way the life of Jesus. They cannot be considered supernatural in origin."^[21]

By then, the Italian Bishops Conference had already carried out the Congregation's request: in letter 324/92 of 6 January 1992, it recalled the notes about the matter that had appeared onL'Osservatore Romano of 6 January 1960 and 15 June 1966 and it requested that "in any future reprint of the volumes, each should, right from its first page, clearly state that the 'visions' and 'dictations' referred to in it cannot be held to be of supernatural origin but must be considered simply as literary forms used by the author to narrate in her own way the life of Jesus".^[23]

Links to these are here: footnotes 21-24

1. ^ Jump up to:^a b Colin B. Donovan, "Poem of the Man-God"
2. ^ Jump up to:^a b Original Italian text
3. Jump up^ Lettera dell'arcivescovo Tettamanzi del 6 gennaio 1992
4. Jump up^ EWTN.com

What is good is seen as evil and what is evil is seen as good

http://www.lifesitenews.com/news/84-year-old-pro-life-activist-fined-10000-euro-for-visiting-abortion-clinic

Heart and Head Knowledge Series

Start at bottom and move up...

http://supertradmum-etheldredasplace.blogspot.ie/2013/09/heart-knowledge-postscript.html

http://supertradmum-etheldredasplace.blogspot.ie/2013/09/heart-and-head-knowledge-heart-speaks.html

http://supertradmum-etheldredasplace.blogspot.ie/2013/09/third-part-heart-and-head-knowledge.html

http://supertradmum-etheldredasplace.blogspot.ie/2013/09/heart-and-head-debate-continuedwhat.html

http://supertradmum-etheldredasplace.blogspot.ie/2013/09/on-false-dichotomy-of-head-knowledge.html

Pay Attention, Catholics and Learn Your Faith

http://www.ncregister.com/blog/pat-archbold/a-long-way-to-go

http://www.patheos.com/blogs/standingonmyhead/2013/08/is-hell-highly-populated.html

Doctors of the Church on Hell

'Since their eternal happiness, consisting in the vision of God, exceeds the common state of nature, and especially in so far as this is deprived of grace through the corruption of original sin, those who are saved are in the minority. In this especially, however, appears the mercy of God, that He has chosen some for that salvation, from which very many in accordance with the common course and tendency of nature fall short.' 

St. Thomas Aquinas, Doctor of the Church

'Live with the few if you want to reign with the few.' 

St. John Climacus, Father of the Church

'If you wish to imitate the multitude, then you shall not be among the few who shall enter in by the narrow gate.' 

St. Augustine, Doctor and Father of the Church

'Do you not perceive how many qualities a priest must have that he may be strong in his teaching, patient, and hold fast to the faithful word which is according to doctrine? What care and pains does this require! Moreover, he is answerable for the sins of others. To pass over everything else: If but one soul dies without Baptism, does it not entirely endanger his own salvation? For the loss of one soul is so great an evil that it is impossible to express it in words. For if the salvation of that soul was of such value that the Son of God became man and suffered so much, think of how great a punishment must the losing of it bring.' 

St. John Chrysostom, Doctor and Father of the Church

'We were so fortunate to be born in the bosom of the Roman Church, in Christian and Catholic kingdoms, a grace that has not been granted to the greater part of men, who are born among idolaters, Mohammedans, or heretics. . . How thankful we ought to be, then, to Jesus Christ for the gift of faith! What would have become of us if we had been born in Asia, in Africa, in America, or in the midst of heretics and schismatic? He who does not believe is lost. He who does not believe shall be condemned. And thus, probably, we also would have been lost.' 

St. Alphonsus Maria de Liguori, Doctor of the Church

In the Great Deluge in the days of Noah, nearly all mankind perished, eight persons alone being saved in the Ark. In our days a deluge, not of water but of sins, continually inundates the earth, and out of this deluge very few escape. Scarcely anyone is saved.' 

St. Alphonsus Maria de Liguori, Doctor of the Church

'How few the Elect are may be understood from the multitude being cast out.' 

St. Hilary of Poitiers, Doctor and Father of the Church

'There are many who arrive at the faith, but few who are led into the heavenly kingdom. Behold how many are gathered here for today's Feast-Day: we fill the church from wall to wall. Yet who knows how few they are who shall be numbered in that chosen company of the Elect?' 

Pope St. Gregory the Great, Doctor and Father of the Church

'The greater part of men will set no value on the blood of Christ, and will go on offending Him.' 

St. Isidore of Seville, Doctor and Father of the Church

'They who are to be saved as Saints, and wish to be saved as imperfect souls, shall not be saved.' 

Pope St. Gregory the Great, Doctor and Father of the Church

'. . . let us bear in mind that unless we are humble we shall not only do no good, but we shall not be saved. "Unless you . . . become as little children, you shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven." In order, then, to enter into the kingdom of heaven, we must become children, not in age, but in humility. St. Gregory says that as pride is a sign of reprobation, so humility is a mark of predestination.' 

St. Alphonsus Maria de Liguori, Doctor of the Church

'It is certain that few are saved.' 

St. Augustine, Doctor and Father of the Church

'Many begin well, but there are few who persevere.' 

St. Jerome, Doctor and Father of the Church

'What is the number of those who love Thee, O God? How few they are! The Elect are much fewer than the damned! Alas! The greater portion of mankind lives in sin unto the devil, and not unto Jesus Christ. O Saviour of the world, I thank Thee for having called and permitted us to live in the true faith which the Holy Roman Catholic Church teaches. . . But alas, O my Jesus! How small is the number of those who live in this holy faith! Oh, God! The greater number of men he buried in the darkness of infidelity and heresy. Thou hast humbled Thyself to death, to the death of the cross, for the salvation of men, and these ungrateful men are unwilling even to know Thee. Ah, I pray Thee, O omnipotent God, O sovereign and infinite Good, make all men know and love Thee!' 

St. Alphonsus Maria de Liguori, Doctor of the Church

'Out of one hundred thousand sinners who continue in sin until death, scarcely one will be saved.' 

St. Jerome, Doctor and Father of the Church

'It is certainly a great happiness for some sinners who after a bad life are converted at their death, and are saved; but these cases are very rare: ordinarily he that leads a bad life dies a bad death.' 

St. Alphonsus Maria de Liguori, Doctor of the Church

'So that you will better appreciate the meaning of Our Lord's words, and perceive more clearly how few the Elect are, note that Christ did not say that those who walked in the path to Heaven are few in number, but that there were few who found that narrow way. It is as though the Saviour intended to say: The path leading to Heaven is so narrow and so rough, so overgrown, so dark and difficult to discern, that there are many who never find it their whole life long. And those who do find it are constantly exposed to the danger of deviating from it, of mistaking their way, and unwittingly wandering away from it, because it is so irregular and overgrown.' 

St. Jerome, Doctor and Father of the Church

'I do not speak rashly, but as I feel and think. I do not think that many bishops are saved, but that those who perish are far more numerous.' 

St. John Chrysostom, Doctor and Father of the Church

'The Apostle commands us to rejoice, but in the Lord, not in the world. For, you see, as Scripture says, whoever wishes to be a friend of this world will be counted as God's enemy. Just as a man cannot serve two masters, so too no-one can rejoice both in the world and in the Lord.' 

St. Augustine, Doctor and Father of the Church

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More Thoughts on An Autumn Day

"Nothing afflicts the heart of Jesus so much as to see all His sufferings of no avail to so many." 

St. Jean Marie Baptiste Vianney, the Cure of Ars


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Thoughts on A Somber Day

'Alas, my friend. We cannot be together in Heaven unless we have begun to live so in this world. Death makes no change in that. As the tree falls, so shall it lie. . . Jesus Christ said . . . "He that does not hear the Church, let him be to thee as a heathen and a publican." And he also said, "There shall be one fold and one shepherd," and He made St. Peter the chief shepherd of His flock. My dear friend, there are not two ways of serving Jesus Christ. There is only one good way, and that is to serve Him as He Himself desires to be served.' 

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St. Jean Marie Baptiste Vianney, the Cure of Ars

Thoughts on An Autumn Day

"Shall we all be saved? Shall we go to Heaven? Alas, my children, we do not know at all! But I tremble when I see so many souls lost these days. See, they fall into Hell as leaves fall from the trees at the approach of winter." 

St. Jean Marie Baptiste Vianney, the Cure of Ars
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Humility is Self-Knowledge

I taught for many, many years. I taught the creme de la creme at Notre Dame and Bristol as well as at risk students. I loved my students and enjoyed teaching to the very last day, late in December, 2010.
I was teaching three classes that last semester at two different campuses. In one of the classes, I had at risk students. These were students who were coming from families in which no one has been to college before, and there were special needs. Sometimes these students had a history of failures, and this was their last chance to pass core courses. Sometimes they were coming out of drug addictions, or abusive families.

In that class, there was a young woman who was struggling from day one. Despite tutoring and time management help, she could not keep up with the work. Her work was consistently substandard. She just could not manage the level and demands of the course.

One day, I called her aside. She was very upset at yet another failed paper. She was beside herself, as nothing, not extra attention or tutoring had helped. She was an unhappy person. I said to her, "This course is too hard for you. Why are you in nursing, which demands this course? How are you doing in your other courses?"  She told me all the courses required for nursing were too hard for her. She was failing three classes. She told me that her college counselor and her family wanted her to be a nurse.

"What do you want to do?" I asked her. She looked at me surprised. "I want to work in a pre-school and be a teacher's assistant. That is what I really want to do, work with little children."

I told her that she should do what she wanted to do, what was on her heart. She told me that people wanted her to make more money, get a better, higher degree.

"You cannot do that, " I told her, knowing that she had neither the talents nor will for a more rigorous set of courses. "You are a wonderful person and you do not have to prove yourself to anyone. You can be and do what is in your heart," I said.

The young woman began to cry, "No one has ever talked to me like this before," she said. "No one has asked me what I wanted to do and what I could do. I felt inferior and that I had to do these hard things. No one has told me I was worth anything."

I told her to go down to the academic counselor's office and change majors. Her whole face lit up. It was as if a heavy burden had left her.

"You will be a good and happy person no matter what you do, but you must be who you are."  I said.

She was so thankful, I could hardly keep from tears myself.

She was trying to be something she was not made to be. She was trying to please others and meet others expectations. She was not allowed to be honest with herself.

She needed permission to be herself.

Once it dawned on her that being a teacher's assistant was not only acceptable, but a good course for her to follow, she changed from a sad person into one with hope in her face. She knew what she was capable of doing, and I did as well.

I am sure she is happy being the person God created her to be.

Pretending to be something else than what one is created to be may be pride. It may be that no one has allowed one to be second best instead of the best. It could be that no one has touched the inner dreams, but only made someone else into another's own image and likeness. Parents do this. Some spouses do this.

Humility is self-knowledge. It is also freedom. This young woman was happy to be herself, and she was happy to be allowed to be herself. How many young people are forced into the image and likeness of their parents, instead of the parent really seeing who the child is and what talents God has given that person?

Affirmation cannot be imposed, but comes from humility-the humility of a student, a parent, even a teacher.

When we are honest about who we are, the talents given to us, the small things God has asked us to do, we shall not only be happier, but spread that happiness to others.

I have seen many young people ruined by their parents' expectations. I have heard the pain in their voices when they told me that their parents would pay for medical school, but not for something less, and they did not want to be doctors.

The tyranny of a parent's expectations can kill real talents. I know a man who is a very gifted artist. But, his family insisted that he would go into the family line of engineering. This man has never been happy with himself, or his role in society. He did not have the courage to buck the trend, to say, "This is who I am, a painter, not an engineer."

It is the duty of parents to pray and ask God to reveal the gifts of their children and then to cooperate with God in developing those gifts. Sometimes, there is too much family pride to admit that a daughter really wants to be a lowly (as her parents thought) teacher's assistant, and is made by God to work with pre-schoolers. Does it matter?

Being a parent is hard. One must be alert. One must be humble.

See also, http://supertradmum-etheldredasplace.blogspot.ie/2013/06/the-soul-in-dark.html

When To Speak/When To Suffer in Silence

Many of us who have worked in the Church for years either in paid or volunteer positions, had to make decisions to follow our consciences rather than compromise with seriously unorthodox, even evil situations.

When one is faced with real evil, especially inside the Church, either in chancery offices, schools, committees, universities, one has to decide how to deal with the evil.

Sometimes, one can speak about the evil and have redress to justice. Sometimes not.

When does one speak and when does one remain silent?

As we all know, silence is consent, so if a situation is truly serious, one may not have a choice to speak or not.

Ask this question? Is the remedy to this situation part of my responsibility?

Am I responsible for what is happening here as well as those above me?

Am I in this role because God allowed me to see these things and directly to deal with them?

Why do I see these things clearly and others not? Is that a gift for bringing light into darkness?

Let me give you three examples.

Someone I highly respect married into a family where the men had become 33rd degree Masons for generations. The man she married broke the chain and did not follow his ancestors into Masonry. Why? Because his wife, my friend, asked him not to do so, and explained the Church's teaching on Masonry. He listened, and did not walk in the footsteps of his dad, grandfather, uncles, and brothers.

The woman told me years later that she knew that God had called her into that family for the purpose of stopping the generational sins. She and her husband have an excellent marriage, one of the best. They have six children, all practicing Catholics as adults. God blessed them.

That was a time to speak.

Another friend of mine was working for a religious order. He found out about something very wrong-a lavender mafia. Although he did not say anything except to his immediate manager, afterwards he was fired suddenly without warning. He had a contract and his friends told him to sue the order for breach of contract.
He did not. He decided to remain silent about the injustice done to him and move on. He and his family suffered for quiet awhile from unemployment. But, this man could not sue a religious order, even one which fired him so unjustly.

That was a time to be silent.

The third situation involved a sweet, quiet woman I knew. She was a traditional Catholic and brought her children to the Latin Mass. However, her husband had refused to become a Catholic after many years of marriage. This was a great cause of pain for her. Yet, she did not argue with him or berate him. He never, never went to Mass with the family, but he did let her take the children. He was not kind to her about her faith.

On a Tuesday night in the winter, this good woman suffered a brain hemorrhage. She was rushed to the hospital, but died on the way in the ambulance early Wednesday morning, about two. She was about 52 years old. She was mourned by all her friends. On Thursday, her husband went to the priest and asked to be accepted into the Church. He made his First Confession. On the Friday morning, the day of her TLM Requiem, her husband made his First Holy Communion, kneeling at the altar rail next to his wife's casket. All knew this was a miracle of grace. Her silence, example of meekness and kindness had been rewarded.

Time to speak, time to be silent.

I agree with these different decisions. I think God can give us wisdom in some situations, but in others, we cannot honestly predict how people will react to honesty, or light being shown on a sinful situation. In all these type of situations, we endure pain

Life is unjust, even in Church circles, even in marriage, and each one of us must decide how to deal with pain, betrayal, injustice, sin.

There is no easy answer, only heroic virtue.

City of God-One

The Fall of Rome is the huge paradigm for decadence leading to a fall of a civilization, which was the basis for Western culture, law, architecture for centuries. The Catholic Church created European civilization and the weakening of the Church will end it.

There are several types of people who being about the downfall of civilizations. Rome was full of these types.

Those who were morally decadent and only cared about pleasure. This group included the rich and the poor, those in power and those who were given the bread and circuses.

The next group would have been the apathetic, those who disengaged themselves from the civilization.

Another group would be the opportunists, seeking power from another source rather than the status quo.

Of course, we have the barbarians at the gate, who took advantage of a weakening civilization.

But, everyone wanted to blame the Christians, which is why St. Augustine wrote the City of God. If you have not read this classic,De Civitate Dei contra Paganos, do it now. 

All Catholics should read this book and I had the joy of teaching it a long time ago at a Catholic college. 

Augustine wrote it for two reasons: one, to prove to the pagans that the Christians were not responsible for the Fall of Rome; and two, to help the Christians understand their own place in salvation history.

Imagine the shock of the most sophisticated, prosperous, organized people in the world to date facing cities in flames, a complete collapse of the infrastructure, and financial ruin.

Imagine the shock of a people who were proud to be Romans. To be a Roman citizen was "it". 

Even St. Paul was not only proud to be a Roman citizen by birth, and not by bribery or sale, but also he knew his rights and privileges as such. 

Perhaps those people my parents' age who remember the fall of Europe to the Nazis and.or the Soviets are the only ones in modern times who can identify with the great shock of the destruction of a nation, more than a nation, and entire world.

I do not rejoice in the fall of the West. The West has its basis in Christianity and Rome. When Europe and America fail, the last vestiges of the civilization from Rome will finally be swept from the earth.

A tragedy, indeed.....and this is a little mini-series on City of God.

to be continued....one can read about St. Augustine, Doctor of the Church, in my perfection series....

Heresy Watch Two from this past 24 hours

Heresies abound. This is the idea that we can choose God at death, as if our choices on earth were antithetical to the one made at our particular judgment. In other words, I have just bumped into some people how think purgatory is a second chance

No, purgatory is not a second chance but the final purgation of sins, tendencies to sin and imperfections whic could have been accomplished on earth.

Purgatory is not like this."Oh, is that what you meant all this time God, now I see it and will gladly go to purgatory."

This undermines the choices we make in life daily. And, it undermines free will as the faculty we use while alive in order to make proper judgements, with the help of grace.

Some people are actually saying that we cannot know truth now. Wow! This is a slap in the face to God and to the thousands of missionaries in the world since Christ's Ascension. It also denies the reality of the canonized saints. those who have gone before us as witnesses and have achieved holiness while on earth.

Some people actually think they cannot make choices now which will determine heaven, hell. or purgatory.

These same people are not turning to the Church for instruction, but to either Protestant works, New Age books and talks, or exercises from false religions.

Here is a reminder from Blessed John Paul II from Veritatis Splendor. 

30. In addressing this Encyclical to you, my Brother Bishops, it is my intention to state the principles necessary for discerning what is contrary to "sound doctrine", drawing attention to those elements of the Church's moral teaching which today appear particularly exposed to error, ambiguity or neglect. Yet these are the very elements on which there depends "the answer to the obscure riddles of the human condition which today also, as in the past, profoundly disturb the human heart. What is man? What is the meaning and purpose of our life? What is good and what is sin? What origin and purpose do sufferings have? What is the way to attaining true happiness? What are death, judgment and retribution after death? Lastly, what is that final, unutterable mystery which embraces our lives and from which we take our origin and towards which we tend?".⁵⁰ These and other questions, such as: what is freedom and what is its relationship to the truth contained in God's law? what is the role of conscience in man's moral development? how do we determine, in accordance with the truth about the good, the specific rights and duties of the human person? — can all be summed up in the fundamental question which the young man in the Gospel put to Jesus: "Teacher, what good must I do to have eternal life?" Because the Church has been sent by Jesus to preach the Gospel and to "make disciples of all nations..., teaching them to observe all" that he has commanded (cf. Mt 28:19-20), she today once more puts forward the Master's reply, a reply that possesses a light and a power capable of answering even the most controversial and complex questions. This light and power also impel the Church constantly to carry out not only her dogmatic but also her moral reflection within an interdisciplinary context, which is especially necessary in facing new issues.⁵¹

It is in the same light and power that the Church's Magisterium continues to carry out its task of discernment, accepting and living out the admonition addressed by the Apostle Paul to Timothy: "I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom: preach the word, be urgent in season and out of season, convince, rebuke, and exhort, be unfailing in patience and in teaching. For the time will come when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own likings, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander into myths. As for you, always be steady, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, fulfil your ministry" (2 Tim 4:1-5; cf. Tit1:10, 13-14).

List of heresies spotted on the weekend in a heresy watch

http://gryphonrampant.blogspot.ie/2012/07/saint-anthony-of-padua-hammer-of.html to buy this

1) A misunderstanding on the meaning of the Incarnation-Christ did come to redeem us from sin and death.

2) The denial of Original Sin, which is connected to the misunderstanding of the Salvific act of Christ on the Cross.

3) The denial of the uniqueness of the one, holy, Catholic and apostolic Church, confusing the Church with other man-made institutions.

4) False ecumenism, which involves stating that all religions have some fullness of truth (no) and that the Catholic Church has much in common with Buddhist and Hindu idea of transcendence (no).

5) Lack of knowledge of the meaning of the Immaculate Conception and that Mary is the new Eve-a woman of perfection, without sin, without Original Sin and with a unique, intimate relationship with the Trinity.

6) The belief in universal salvation, that everyone is saved and that there is no Hell. Sorry, but God is Just as well as Merciful. This belief states that only demons are in hell.

7) The idea that Allah is the same as God the Father, as revealed both in the Old and the New Testament. No-Allah is not a father, he is not the father of the Son of God, nor is he in relationship with the Holy Spirit as in the Trinity.

8) The idea that the Church is invisible and not an institution created by Christ.

9) The belief that we can have a reasonable hope that no one is in Hell-no, sorry, connected to 6.

10) The idea that holiness is separate from the sacraments, grace, and the merits of the Catholic Church and can, therefore, be attained by man's own efforts without the above.

11) The idea that all religions are revealed by God-no there are only two revealed religions: Judaism and Catholicism

12)  That there are errors of doctrine or dogma in the Old Testament-no; in fact, even historical facts, such as the Fall of Jericho, have been demonstrated by archaeology. There are many mysteries yet to be discovered in Old Testament history.

13) That is one is a heretic in one small way, one is not a heretic. No, a person who is a heresiarch is usually off in more than one area.

14) And a misconception, rather than a heresy, that community is more important than the abuses in the Mass and therefore, one chooses knowingly to attend a Mass where there are liturgical abuses just for the community. 

15) The other big heresy met is the denial of the unique creation of man and woman, an Adam and Eve, which we must believe-the unique creation of two-perfect humans; and the unique creation of the soul. 

Check this out. Humani Generis.

37. When, however, there is question of another conjectural opinion, namely polygenism, the children of the Church by no means enjoy such liberty. For the faithful cannot embrace that opinion which maintains that either after Adam there existed on this earth true men who did not take their origin through natural generation from him as from the first parent of all, or that Adam represents a certain number of first parents. Now it is in no way apparent how such an opinion can be reconciled with that which the sources of revealed truth and the documents of the Teaching Authority of the Church propose with regard to original sin, which proceeds from a sin actually committed by an individual Adam and which, through generation, is passed on to all and is in everyone as his own.[12]

38. Just as in the biological and anthropological sciences, so also in the historical sciences there are those who boldly transgress the limits and safeguards established by the Church. In a particular way must be deplored a certain too free interpretation of the historical books of the Old Testament. Those who favor this system, in order to defend their cause, wrongly refer to the Letter which was sent not long ago to the Archbishop of Paris by the Pontifical Commission on Biblical Studies.[13] This letter, in fact, clearly points out that the first eleven chapters of Genesis, although properly speaking not conforming to the historical method used by the best Greek and Latin writers or by competent authors of our time, do nevertheless pertain to history in a true sense, which however must be further studied and determined by exegetes; the same chapters, (the Letter points out), in simple and metaphorical language adapted to the mentality of a people but little cultured, both state the principal truths which are fundamental for our salvation, and also give a popular description of the origin of the human race and the chosen people. If, however, the ancient sacred writers have taken anything from popular narrations (and this may be conceded), it must never be forgotten that they did so with the help of divine inspiration, through which they were rendered immune from any error in selecting and evaluating those documents.

39. Therefore, whatever of the popular narrations have been inserted into the Sacred Scriptures must in no way be considered on a par with myths or other such things, which are more the product of an extravagant imagination than of that striving for truth and simplicity which in the Sacred Books, also of the Old Testament, is so apparent that our ancient sacred writers must be admitted to be clearly superior to the ancient profane writers.

To be continued...

Heart Knowledge Postscript

When one falls in love with a person, does one not want to find out all about that person? Does not love demand knowledge, not merely feeling?

I suggest that those who have trouble with heart and head knowledge discussions watch, or better yet, read Jane Austens's Sense and Sensibility.

A brief note on YouCat

Someone asked me this morning if I would use the YouCat. I said no. I do not need to go into all the reasons, and I think there are problems with translations. One can read a good review here. If anyone has information on updates which correct the problems, please comment.

http://catholicinformation.aquinasandmore.com/2011/08/12/theological-problems-with-the-youcat-have-forced-us-to-discontinue-selling-it/

I personally would start with the Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, and as a teacher who uses "original" sources, I would be using encyclicals and basic texts rather than the YouCat.

By the way, the recommendation of use for the YouCat is that it is for ages 14-17. I disagree. A teen can use the Compendium and the CCC. Why do we dumb-down truth?

Heart and Head Knowledge Heart Speaks to Heart

Ok, I decided to write more on this. I had such superb Old and New Testament professors, that I want to share some of their insights. We actually discussed the heart in Jewish tradition and the heart in the Christian tradition in order to understand love and the other virtues, as well as the gifts of the Holy Spirit.

The heart has been the symbol of love for centuries. Literary historians and art historians have traced the use of the heart as a sign of love back to Christian Europe in the 13th century. However, the term goes back much further than that. 

However, St. David wrote in the beautiful Psalm 50, Create a clean heart in me, O God: and renew a right spirit within my bowels. DR

Now, we no longer see the spirit in the bowels, nor do we necessarily use the heart as a symbol of anything but the passions, or perhaps, love. For Catholics, love at its highest expression, is in the will. 

But, the idea of the heart as being the center of wisdom, will and desire is from our Jewish roots. This is clear in David's psalms, but also in other parts of the Old Testament. This article reminds me of some of the writing of St. Alphonsus Ligouri on the heart. 

From the Jewish Encyclopedia on line.-http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/7436-heart

The heart as the seat of thought is referred to in "maḥshebot libbo" (thoughts of his heart; Ps. xxxiii. 11) and in "morashe lebabi" (possessions or thoughts of my heart; Job xvii. 11). So "amar beleb" (Obad. i. 3), "amar el leb" (Gen. viii. 21), "dibber 'im leb" (Eccl. i. 16) (= "to speak to the heart" or "to oneself"), mean "to think." The heart knows and perceives (Deut. xxix. 3 [A. V. 4]); it remembers and forgets (I Sam. xxi. 13 [A. V. 12]; Deut. iv. 9). "A dead man out of heart" (A. V. "mind"; Ps. xxxi. 13 [A. V. 12]) means a dead man forgotten. The man of understanding is called "ish [plur. "anshe"] lebab" = "the man of heart" (Job xxxiv. 10, 34), and the man without understanding "ḥasar leb" (Prov. x. 13) or "en leb" (Jer. v. 21), "the man void of heart" or "without heart."

That the heart is the seat of emotion is the generally accepted opinion of all investigators into the psychology of the Bible, though Carl Grüneisen ("Der Ahnenkultus und die Urreligion Israels," p. 39) denies it. All modes of feeling, from the lowest physical forms, as hunger and thirst, to the highest spiritual forms, as reverence and remorse, are attributed by the Hebrews to the heart (comp. Gen. xviii. 5; Judges xix. 5; Ps. cii. 5 [A. V. 4]); so joy and gladness, sorrow and grief, fear and reverence (Zeph. iii. 14; Isa. lxvi. 14; Ps. xiii. 3 [A. V. 2]; Deut. xx. 3, 7, 8; Jer. xxxii. 40). Still the term "nefesh" (soul) is more frequently used with reference to the appetites.

Is the Seat of Volition.

The heart is also the seat of volition. It is self-directing and self-determining. All conscious resolvesemanate from that source (comp. "mela'olibbo" [Esth. vii. 5]; "nadab libbo oto" [Ex. xxxv. 29]; "nesa'o libbo" [Ex. xxxv. 21]; and "natan libbo" [Eccl. i. 13]). When the words "heart" and "soul" are used in connection with each other (Deut. vi. 5), they are not used merely as synonymous terms in order to add force to the expression, for the phrase "with all your heart" denotes the love of conscious resolve, in which the whole being consents, and which must at once become a natural inclination (see Cremer, "Biblico-Theological Lexicon," s.v. καρδία, transl. by William Urwick, p. 347).

It is in the heart that the heart becomes conscious of itself and of its own operations. It recognizes its own suffering. It is the seat of self-consciousness: "the heart knoweth its [A. V. "his"] own bitterness" (Prov. xiv. 10). As the whole physical and psychical life is centralized in the heart, so the whole moral life springs from and issues out of it. This is clear from such expressions as "shalem" and "tam" (perfect), "ṭahor" (pure), "ṭob" (good), and "yashar" (upright), used in connection with the heart. The Biblical writers speak of the false heart, the stubborn and obstreperous heart, and the heart distant from God (Ps. ci. 4; Jer. v. 23; Isa. xxix. 13). The hypocrite is the man with a double or divided heart: where one would say "two-faced," the Psalmist says "two-hearted" ("beleb waleb"; Ps. xii. 3 [A. V. 2]). Lazarus ("The Ethics of Judaism," Engl. transl., ii. 60, note) observes that "the Talmudic 'libbo' rarely reaches the inclusive meaning of the Hebrew 'leb,' which comprises the whole psychic phenomena. As a rule, the Talmudic expression approaches the modern 'heart,' primarily indicating inner conviction as contrasted with external deed" (see Sanh. 106b; Ber. 20a, Munich MS.). There is an interesting discussion between Rabbi Eliezer and Rabbi Joshua as to whether the heart or the head should be regarded as the seat of wisdom (Yalḳ., Prov. 929).

Maimonides, in discussing the term "leb," says that it is a word used homonymously, primarily signifying the organ of life and then coming to mean "center," "thought," "resolution," "will," "intellect" ("Moreh Nebukim," i. 39). SeePsychology of the Bible.

"Leb" is used figuratively for the center or innermost part of objects other than the human body, in expressions such as "the heart of the sea" (Ex. xv. 8; Jonah ii. 3); "the heart of heaven" (Deut. iv. 11; A. V. "midst"); "the heart [A. V. "midst"] of an oak-tree" (II Sam. xviii. 14). In this use "heart" has gone over into the English language as a Hebraism when mention is made of the "heart" or "core" (Latin "cor") of a subject or object, meaning its central or innermost part, its central idea or essence. "She'er" (flesh) and "leb" (heart) are used conjointly to designate the whole inner and outer life of man (Ps. lxxiii. 26).

We have many saints who use the term heart in their writings-Blessed John Cardinal Henry Newman is one of the most famous, as is the Great St. Augustine. I shall return to them in another post.

But, the heart in their writings is one either already turned over to God, or one seeking God. The heart is the symbolic place of love, and it is love which is being sought by those who want to love God and be open to His Love.

But, love for those who are moving into the higher levels of holiness has nothing to do with feelings and everything to do with decisions.

As good spouses know, love is in the will once romance and desire have left a marriage, for what ever reason, and the will can re-kindle desire and feelings. But, the locus of love is not the emotions.

The problem of modern usage of the term is when

knowledge and love are only seen as in the heart at the expense of the will, soul, intellect.

Over-simplistic use of language leads to theological and philosophical misunderstandings.

The Greeks gave us, in God's plan, the ability to see the virtues as part of the intellect and will.

Therefore, when we speak of wisdom or knowledge, the locus of such are not necessarily in the heart, but in the mind. One sees this movement of learning about one's self, self-knowledge, as a key element of wisdom.

Wisdom directs the will to love and controls the passions of the heart.

Again, to use the term "heart knowledge" is to simplify wisdom as the virtue and the gift of the Holy Spirit with regard to the use of the intellect. 

To be continued....

Third Part-Heart and Head Knowledge Debate-Protestant and Post-Modern Anti-Intellectualism

Giotto Allegory of Charity

Now, this is a horribly short review on heart and head knowledge, but I want to shake the bushes a bit and get some people thinking on this false dichotomy.  When the Protestant Revolt occurred, the great damage done to Christianity fell into three categories of heresy. These are sola fide, sola scriptura and solo Christo.

Now, these are well-known to you all as faith alone, without good works; Scripture alone, without Tradition; and Christ alone, without the Catholic priesthood, the sacraments, The Blessed Virgin or the Pope.

All of these elements of Protestant heresies, in the various manners is which these are manifested, created an over-emphasis on the working of the Holy Spirit on the heart alone-and here, the word heart is ambiguous. When Protestants refer to the heart, are they referring to the passions, or Charity, that is love? This ambiguity has led directly to the post-modern denial of the objective, traditional modes of knowing something.

Gone are the Aristotelian guidelines on how humans obtain knowledge, both practical and spiritual. This breakdown provides moderns with an easy denial of reality, a denial of any personal responsibility to get to know something, someone or God. Most post-moderns, and that would include many Catholics, deny reality, both physical and spiritual

If all knowledge is merely based on shared experiences of language, or on relativistic, subjective interpretations of reality, then head knowledge becomes a transitory, ephemeral mode of thinking and speaking. The Deconstructionists, in my view, are a direct result of the Protestant insistence on sola everything.

Here is Derrida:

On the one hand, we must traverse a phase of overturning. To do justice to this necessity is to recognize that in a classical philosophical opposition we are not dealing with the peaceful coexistence of a vis-a-vis, but rather with a violent hierarchy. One of the two terms governs the other (axiologically, logically, etc.), or has the upper hand. To deconstruct the opposition, first of all, is to overturn the hierarchy at a given moment. To overlook this phase of overturning is to forget the conflictual and subordinating structure of opposition.

Derrida's phrase, il n'y a pas de hors-texte, there is nothing outside the text, seems a direct result of the relationship of the Protestant reader of the Scriptures who denies 2,000 years of Tradition, that is, outside context, comment, critique, understanding. 

I take great interest in questions of language and rhetoric, and I think they deserve enormous consideration; but there is a point where the authority of final jurisdiction is neither rhetorical nor linguistic, nor even discursive. The notion of trace or of text is introduced to mark the limits of the linguistic turn. This is one more reason why I prefer to speak of 'mark' rather than of language. In the first place the mark is not anthropological; it is prelinguistic; it is the possibility of language, and it is every where there is a relation to another thing or relation to an other. For such relations, the mark has no need of language.

As with his definitions of difference and deferral, the idea of non-presence, or the showing of the problems of doctrinal statements or philosophical ideas in writing which have to be destroyed to come to real understanding of the meaning of a text, or even speech, Derrida puts off real meaning. He does not want to be nihilistic, but, on the other hand, he wants to undo the constructs of historical modes of coming to meaning.

This anti-intellectualism underlying Derrida, who is looking for meaning in the absent of old paradigms of thinking, believing and writing is the same impetus behind Protestantism-a negation of tradition and Tradition, a negation of word and Word. One's understanding can only really be in the present. 

So, too, is the search for heart knowledge, which, as separated from the intellect, or head knowledge, leads either to complete subjectivity, or complete meaninglessness. Heart knowledge cannot be sustained as a platform for living-the limits of one's experience without reflection and the use of reason soon ends in ennui. 

Relativism in religion mirrors the modern man's desire to throw off the fetters of the past systems of thinking and rely merely on the meaning of the present spoken word. As authors fail to communicate though the text for Derrida, so too, the text of Tradition fails the Protestant seeking only immediate knowledge for the heart-whatever that is. If one cannot find meaning in the text immediately, there is no other meaning. 

This type of approach has nothing to do with the striping of the imagination as taught by Ignatius Loyola or John of the Cross, as the difference there is that is meaning resides beyond the purification of the soul and the senses and that reality, that meaning, is God.

Sadly, for so many Protestants, as well as Catholics, the meaning of life is really not God, but their own selves, and in that sense, they cannot find identity or meaning outside the context of seeking knowledge-either in the form of studying Revelation, which is what Tradition is, and interpreting Scripture, as well as the infused knowledge which comes both from reflection and grace.

To deny the intellectual search for meaning outside of any context is to have a desire to do exactly the opposite of Derrida, and that is to find meaning in the written word in order to understand one's self. Of course, the only real way to do this is by using rationality within the Tradition of the Church and the Scriptures as organized and explained by the Church.

People will say, but, oh, the sacraments are not intellectual. These are efficacious despite one's understanding. 

That does not mean that there is not an intellectual understanding, but merely that there is mystery as well. And, of course, the Post-Modernist denies the value or even reality of history, denigrating the meaning of history in much the same way as the Protestant denies Tradition. 

Both groups see human constructs merely, as power structures, instead of the workings of the Incarnate God. 

Most Catholics who reflect on the denial of the spiritual and the emphasis on the self, believe the movement started with Descartes. I think is started with Luther.

Heart and Head Debate Continued..."What does Athens have in common with Jerusalem?"

What most people mean by heart knowledge is feeling. This type of false definition leads good Catholics into running after the latest experiences in religion, new age spiritualities, private revelations, and other feel-good Gnosticisms.

Sadly, none of those things have anything to do with the pursuit of holiness or the real love of God.

I remind people all the time that love is in the will.

The problem is that many Catholics have been affected both by post-modernism's denial of the traditional means of knowing something, and the older, fideistic emphasis on the antagonism of faith and reason.

Here is what Blessed John Paul II has to say about this.

It is no accident that, when the sacred author comes to describe the wise man, he portrays him as one who loves and seeks the truth: “Happy the man who meditates on wisdom and reasons intelligently, who reflects in his heart on her ways and ponders her secrets. He pursues her like a hunter and lies in wait on her paths. He peers through her windows and listens at her doors. He camps near her house and fastens his tent-peg to her walls; he pitches his tent near her and so finds an excellent resting-place; he places his children under her protection and lodges under her boughs; by her he is sheltered from the heat and he dwells in the shade of her glory” (Sir 14:20-27).

For the inspired writer, as we see, the desire for knowledge is characteristic of all people. Intelligence enables everyone, believer and non-believer, to reach “the deep waters” of knowledge (cf. Prov 20:5). It is true that ancient Israel did not come to knowledge of the world and its phenomena by way of abstraction, as did the Greek philosopher or the Egyptian sage. Still less did the good Israelite understand knowledge in the way of the modern world which tends more to distinguish different kinds of knowing. Nonetheless, the biblical world has made its own distinctive contribution to the theory of knowledge.

What is distinctive in the biblical text is the conviction that there is a profound and indissoluble unity between the knowledge of reason and the knowledge of faith. The world and all that happens within it, including history and the fate of peoples, are realities to be observed, analysed and assessed with all the resources of reason, but without faith ever being foreign to the process. Faith intervenes not to abolish reason's autonomy nor to reduce its scope for action, but solely to bring the human being to understand that in these events it is the God of Israel who acts. Thus the world and the events of history cannot be understood in depth without professing faith in the God who is at work in them. Faith sharpens the inner eye, opening the mind to discover in the flux of events the workings of Providence. Here the words of the Book of Proverbs are pertinent: “The human mind plans the way, but the Lord directs the steps” (16:9). This is to say that with the light of reason human beings can know which path to take, but they can follow that path to its end, quickly and unhindered, only if with a rightly tuned spirit they search for it within the horizon of faith. Therefore, reason and faith cannot be separated without diminishing the capacity of men and women to know themselves, the world and God in an appropriate way.

...

41. The ways in which the Fathers of East and West engaged the philosophical schools were, therefore, quite different. This does not mean that they identified the content of their message with the systems to which they referred. Consider Tertullian's question: “What does Athens have in common with Jerusalem? The Academy with the Church?”.(40) This clearly indicates the critical consciousness with which Christian thinkers from the first confronted the problem of the relationship between faith and philosophy, viewing it comprehensively with both its positive aspects and its limitations. They were not naive thinkers. Precisely because they were intense in living faith's content they were able to reach the deepest forms of speculation. It is therefore minimalizing and mistaken to restrict their work simply to the transposition of the truths of faith into philosophical categories. They did much more. In fact they succeeded in disclosing completely all that remained implicit and preliminary in the thinking of the great philosophers of antiquity.(41) As I have noted, theirs was the task of showing how reason, freed from external constraints, could find its way out of the blind alley of myth and open itself to the transcendent in a more appropriate way. Purified and rightly tuned, therefore, reason could rise to the higher planes of thought, providing a solid foundation for the perception of being, of the transcendent and of the absolute.
It is here that we see the originality of what the Fathers accomplished. They fully welcomed reason which was open to the absolute, and they infused it with the richness drawn from Revelation. This was more than a meeting of cultures, with one culture perhaps succumbing to the fascination of the other. It happened rather in the depths of human souls, and it was a meeting of creature and Creator. 

To be continued....