One last note before shutting down for the night..

Hope you all saw the Voris interview, especially the single readers...

Sad for This Star Watcher

I think I am going to miss the Perseids this year. The past two nights, the Super Moon was so bright I could see nothing, even up at two a.m. And, tonight it is bucketing down with rain.

Thanks to NASA

Two more nights to go...

Why The Church Is Weak

http://jacheparra.files.wordpress.com/2012/09/sobieski021.jpg

In the past several years, in the perfection series, I have addressed the problem of Catholics not pursuing the highest levels of perfection as not answering the baptismal call to love and service.

I have noted again and again, that egotism and sin stop the process of purification and cause a person to possibly stagnate in the spiritual life, or go backwards, which will happen after some time of stagnation.

Also, in these posts, I have referred to the fact that those who refuse to be purified are not doing good works in the Lord, but only in and for the self.

The one and greatest weakness of the Catholic Church is the multitude of people doing ministries without first being holy.

Without holiness, one is not doing God's work, but merely building up one's own kingdom. Why?

We work out of our predominant faults until we let God in to wrench those out of us. Only in complete detachment from sin and detachment from self can we honestly state we are working in the Will of God. When one's will is finally joined with God's after the purification of the Dark Night, one can work in the Kingdom freely, with and in God, doing what He wants to do.

This problem is obvious in heretical sects, where some people are convinced they are doing God's work, while the entire focus of their ministries is a lie.

If one is truly doing God's work, one would be allowing God to purify one's mind, soul, and body, leading to a conversion to the Catholic Church.

This was the way of Blessed Cardinal Newman and Henry Cardinal Manning. This was the way of St. Augustine, St. Francis and St. Ignatius, all converted once, and then converted in the second conversion to follow the path of purification and allow God to live in them.

St. Paul writes this, showing us he understood and lived the life of perfection:

Galatians 2:19-21 DR

¹⁹ For I, through the law, am dead to the law, that I may live to God: with Christ I am nailed to the cross.

²⁰ And I live, now not I; but Christ liveth in me. And that I live now in the flesh: I live in the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and delivered himself for me.

²¹ I cast not away the grace of God. For if justice be by the law, then Christ died in vain.

The Church is weak because people stop allowing God to purify the soul, the mind, the imagination.

This accounts for the number of weak priests, weak teachers, and weak parents.

I was thinking earlier today of three departments within a chancery office with which I was familiar in times past. In that department, some of the women were contracepting, believed in women priests, and divorce and remarriage without annulments. Some believed in same sex marriage.

They were not only living in mortal sin, but heretics. Now, that so many people in one chancery office were not "practicing" their faith weakened the Church from within. Bad decisions were being made, poor policies, and people were being taught fallacies.

If that diocese hired people who were committed to being saints, the diocese would have been in a stronger position.

The Church is not only weakened from within by bad or lax priests who are not pursuing holiness, but by thousands of lay Catholics who are content with their lives of compromise and errors.

Holy Mother Church suffers because of disobedience. The same scenario happens in convents, monasteries, retreat houses across the world, where the inhabitants live in serious sin, and do not even see the danger of habitual venial sin. I think of retreat houses wherein New Age heresies are taught.

Until Catholics realize that personal holiness is the only way the Church can be strong and effective in the world, we shall witness the weakness of the Church Militant.

Interesting Article Again

http://ethikapolitika.org/2014/08/11/christianity-philosophy-public-education/?utm_source=Christianity%2C%20Philosophy%2C%20and%20Public%20Education&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Flocknote

The Devil Believes in The Real Presence

In his very first homily at the Missa Pro Ecclesia in the Sistine Chapel, Pope Francis quoted the famous words of Leon Bloy, stating “Whoever does not pray to God, prays to the devil.” Nature abhors a vacuum. Our experience of the material world tells us that things tend to occupy vacancies; substances naturally move into areas of lower pressure, with less competition for space and survival

more here....http://www.crisismagazine.com/2014/worshipping-devil-default

Continuation of Book Plea

Father Z has a book plea for sems on his blog. Be generous, but if you could send the same books to a sem in England who is very poor, with a very poor mum and no family help, STM would appreciate. And, he needs socks as well...lol.

Please consider sending the same list as Fr. Z, has listed. Those men in the Madison Diocese are so blessed by their bishop! There are many good bishops and do not forget to pray for your own bishops.

Sober Thoughts Today

"Cocaine is God’s way of telling you you are making too much money.” Robin Williams, 1951-2014

Catholics do not talk enough about drugs and alcohol addictions. Where I come from, it is a hush-hush subject. Families refuse to face the fact that a member is a drug addict or an alcoholic. Catholics rarely, if ever, hear from the pulpit, the dangers of such lifestyles.

Remember, satan does not care how you get to hell, just that you do.

I am glad I am too poor to be tempted to buy either drugs or alcohol. I have given up all alcoholic drinks for intercessory prayer and fasting for two members of my family. I suggest you consider this. I do not, thank God, have an addictive personality. My sins lie in other areas.

Apparently, according to statistics, 60% of Americans exhibit "addictive personalities."

But, we must address addiction as sinful behavior. Addictions lead to death of the body and death of the soul.

It is time for the priests in the pulpit to address these destructive temptations.

Suicide leaves us with a feeling of loss and lack of peace, a great sorrow.

I pray that those who are addicted find peace and freedom in Christ.

Say a prayer for Robin Williams and his family today. May God have mercy on him.

Pray also for all those who may be in despair today and tempted to suicide. Kyrie eleison.

Worth repeating

If there was a shred of doubt the world is totally insane, this will remove it.

This says it all.......
Pythagoras' Theorem: ...............................24 words.
Lord's Prayer: .................................................. 66 words.
Archimedes' Principle: ..................................67 words.
Ten Commandments: ............................................179 words.
Gettysburg Address: .....................................................286 words.
US Declaration of Independence : .................................1,300 words.
US Constitution with all 27 Amendments: ..............................7,818 words.
EU Regulations on the Sale of CABBAGES: ...................26,911 words

Personal Interview with Mr. Michael Voris!

Michael Voris graciously gave me an interview on August 4th, at 18:00 hours EDT. He is a humble and peaceful man, as well as a gentleman. I want to thank him again for his time and interest. I decided the topics, especially for my young readers. My questions and comments are in italics.

Enjoy!

August 4th, 2014. Feasts of St. Dominic, Old Calendar and St. John Vianney, New Calendar:


First of all, thank you Michael for this interview and for all the work you do for the Church Militant. May I mention that you and I were at Notre Dame at the same time, but you were an undergraduate and I a graduate student.

Question One: I want to concentrate on a subject perhaps not discussed too much and that is the role of single people in the Church. I hope you do not mind sharing a few aspects of this tonight.

I guess two things pop to my mind. Look at this as a positive and a negative, at the sacraments which are the traditional vocations of the Church, which include graces needed to sustain those roles. (These are marriage and the priesthood.) The single life poses its own unique challenges, but is sustainable by a different application of graces of by Our Lord. Many of us are single, some of us forever.
Nuns and sisters live underneath a sacrament. However, I do believe there is an opportunity to grow in grace in a non-sacramental grace. There is a type of intimacy which can develop between a soul and our Lord, not in the traditional vocations, a non-distracted companionship. You can grow very deeply.  You cannot talk about a single vocation. I do not think it is proper to talk about a vocation to the single life. A single person may be living a consecrated life, but that is not the same.

A person may not be the marrying kind. There are probably some people, lide those with same-sex attraction who would have to come to this place--how to incorporate living according to the Church's teaching in their daily spiritual lives.

Most people do not stay there (single)

Question Two:  Do you see a role for single men and women in the Church?

If there is a place that you can carve out a life of intimacy with God that is not available elsewhere, yes. Well, if it were no, if it did not, I would look pretty stupid. We are talking about the life of the Church and people being available for the church on the spiritual plane.We shall take this first. You can be a single accountant, for example, and live a life according to the teaching of the Church. ....(one can) make sacrifices in this state. In the temporal plane, if you are unmarried you can make yourself available for the life of the Church--back to the St. Paul thing, the one who  is not married has undivided intentions for God.

We are all doing the spiritual work of the Church in whatever state we are in. In the temporal level, it is incredibly rewarding for me, getting up every day working for the Church.
 
We have a broad mix of people in the apostolate here (at ChurchMilitant). We have young men come here for a while. They like swords. Every time a little tour comes though with little boys, they look at the electronics and when they see the swords, they get excited. When these  young guys who come here go back home, they feel more at home at the group at ChurchMilitant.  It is a whole different way of being. If anyone thinks that being single, like consecrating yourself, if anyone thinks that working in the Church will be lonely or disconnected, they are wrong. Our Lord will not diss his friends. God takes care of that.  He puts you in a situation where you can thrive. The relationships here involve a great tightness and comradeship.

Question Three:  How did you come to consecrate yourself to God? I assume you have made a vow to a bishop. Can you explain the road to this and the process for the readers?  

It is not with a bishop, but a personal vow.  It would have probably been in the fall, 2004 that I did this. I didn't know exactly what to do. I was 42 at the time and I was pretty convinced when I made it. I did not know how to do this, but I was so grateful for being back in the Church, I did not know what to do but I had to do something. It was clear to me I needed to be available for the church. I read thousands of things on the Church. It was a time in my life, a conversio.

What kicked it off was that my mother before she died told me "You need to pray a prayer to the Holy Spirit, 'Holy Spirit command me to do your will.'" I was in the local parish one day, after my mom died, a pause in my life as the old life had gone away, the new life had begun, but the form was not there yet. What should I do, I thought? I knelt down and prayed that prayer at the main altar. And, then, I went to the side altar and said "Blessed Mother I pledge my chastity to you."

Question Four: When do you think a Catholic should discern a vocation? 

I would not root it in age as much as an awareness of things. When you look around the world and say WOW, is it the understanding of the amount of evil or the lack of good; and do you want to combat the evil directly; or populate the world with children? It is the manner in which you do it.
The moment is when you begin to realize the condition of the world. It is the vocation that God is calling you to...I think as you grow in a vocational awareness you need to meet people who will foster this. One can pray, "God, you put this tremendous love for your Church in me, how do I live this?"

Question Five: Do you believe in "lost vocations"? I have some men friends who wanted to be priests and left the seminarians under duress. What would you say to them?

God desires for someone to be a priest or not.  He knows whether it will come and He knows what will happen... God has given us the free will to mess things up. I do not have a problem with that in principle. He may have given you a non-ministerial role in this fallen world. Does God need a specific man to be a priest in His passive will? But there are many things in His passive will that never happen.

For that man's salvation, that in the first order that is his path for salvation, is the question. That is: "Which vocation?  Is this what will get me to heaven?"

A lot of Catholics view the whole vocation as "What does God want me to do from seven to seven?" The first question is that he wants me to be with him in heaven-that you make it to eternal life with him. People ask "What is my vocation? " I say, "Are you in a state of grace?" Yes? Then you are doing God's will. Now in God's will, what do you discern God wants you to do. Agonizing it over for years borders on the sin of pride.

There is a tendency in people who are looking for something perfect, mulling it over in their lives...

Question Six: Again, some older Catholic women, not that old, in their forties, want to dedicate their lives to God but cannot find an more orthodox or traditional order to accept them. Do you have any advice for them?

I think there are two things here.  I think something that might be of an assistance is that if any have an inkling about this is to start there own community. You form community. You get together You begin some type of apostolic work together. We have people (at ChurchMilitant) who are married with children; we have people married without children; we have single moms and single people.

As the Irish say, "Stop yapping about it and do it".

You are never be able to create the perfect scenario and then step into  it.

There are 28 people here and 5 have been here almost continually. Find people who have a like mind with a particular work and spirituality and do it. 

Question Seven: Do you think your type of work and communications can spread to other countries? For example, could there be a base in Europe for Church Militant dealing with European Catholicism, or even in Latin America? 

I absolutely think so, and I have been in touch with people in other countries in the Philippines, in France and in Australia to do so. It is very time consuming and it is very expensive to do TV. It is very painstaking to do something look easy. There is certainly a great desire to do this, but there has to be the right person behind it.

Question Eight: You had a lot of experience in television before setting up ChurchMilitant. Would you encourage this route for young people interested in Catholic media, or to plunge into it independently of the msm?

Years ago I would have said you have to go to the main stream media, because you are going to learn how to do this. Now I would say, come to people like us. I would say you need to do something before hand, and bring some level of experience and a great willingness to learn as you come to this.

Question Nine: Where do you think the New Evangelization should concentrate outside of America? In Europe, in Australia, the Philippines? 

I think the entire internet world, whether social media is the place. How did the Faith use to be spread. It was in the  home, from the pulpit, and in the schools. All three of those have fallen apart. So, the Internet pops up and provides a sense of family in the Faith there. The pulpit aspect is there. The schooling is there.

"Any port in a storm" Somewhere, the Faith has to be preserved.

Question Ten: Some good, young Catholics have fallen into cynicism. What advice can you give them to stay away from this sin, especially at university?

I think the answer to cynicism is action. Anyone can sit around and gripe. You do not get a right to complain if you have not tried to fix the problem. Take a soul to heaven....the problem with cynicism is that it thinks big--What can we do to change the Church? Take that friend who is living with her boyfriend and bring her to God.

In one sense it is incumbent on those who do know the Faith to go out save a soul. Somebody in your sphere... Enjoy the grace to be called

Thank you, Michael for your time. God bless you.

(Note from STM: apologies for spacing irregularities-Net is off and on here for hours tonight, and I have not been able to save corrections.)

Tuesday's Posts will be a bit late in the European Day

Bisy backson......

From Sword of Peter Via Big Pulpit

  And check out Rorate today and yesterday--good stuff.

Repeat of A Repeat

Willie Wonka Truth

My son loves the old movie, Willie Wonka and The Chocolate Factory. I find it terrifying, but interesting. It was a last time stand for normalcy regarding the raising of children in our Western world. In that movie, children were punished for selfish bad behavior. Each "brat" represented one of the cardinal sins. Veruca represented gross selfishness-Pride, Violet represented complete narcissism in competition and bad manners -Lust, Mike represented Sloth, obviously,  and Augustus Gluttony. They suffered consequences for their sins. So did their neglectful parents....What was missing in the bad kids was the acceptance of suffering. The dramatically and exaggerated suffering of Charlie underlines the point.

 One of the most tragic occurrences of our time is the lack of the acceptance of suffering as normal.

In the past nine months, here in America, I have witnessed the sadness, irritation, and even despair of those, both young and very old, who have not learned that suffering is a necessity.

The Protestant lie that God blesses His beloved on this earth permeates the American Catholic Church. I see old people grumpy and unhappy because their bodies are failing, slowly but surely. I hear middle-aged people grumbling about how unfair life is because their expected pensions were cut, because no on understands the middle-class and so on. I see and hear young people, who were raised in what most of the world would call luxury, unhappy because they have aspired to a false American Dream, which was only, always a dream and not reality. 

Some of us have had false expectations knocked out of us through suffering. Some of us have had the myth of immortality knocked out of us by bouts of cancer or other ill health. Some of us have lived long years of poverty, even penury.

How one reacts to suffering makes or breaks the saint.

We shall suffer either here or in purgatory, or in suffering. Now, some of the saints tell us that accepting graciously and gratefully suffering here is much more merit-able than suffering in purgatory.

An hour of pain or a year of pain now, accepted in grace and peace, means much more here than in purgatory.

Those of us in the Dark Night know that suffering is part of the road we cannot escape because of our sins, our many sins, and the evil tendencies and habits which have grown up like weeds over the years.

I am thankful for the Dark Night, but I must keep focused on the why and not the how. Last week, for three days, I was convinced I was going to hell. I felt the total evil of my self and the darkness of my soul and mind. For three days, I knew nothing but abandonment. Now, I am not "feeling" consoled, but the intense pain and scariness of damnation has passed. I made acts of faith, saying "Lord, have mercy on me" and "Jesus, do not forget you died for me. I know You died for me, a sinner."

Such are some of the pains of the Dark Night, along with hatreds, abandonment of friends and family, misunderstandings of those one thought were friends because of their judgment, and so on.

If we do not suffer now, we shall elsewhere.

I fought purgation for years and years, partly because I was so busy, (as I thought), and partly because I was brainwashed by the lies of the American Dream. I "had" to have a house, a car, a certain middle-class lifestyle, and so on. I lied to myself saying it was all for my son, as I had had these things, but it was really for me. Children need the basics, and love.

Beginning (again) in 2008, I saw, slowly but surely, the only way was to accept, joyfully, suffering. Then came 2009, with Hashimoto's Disease, a meniscus tear, cancer, and tensions at work, leading to me being fired for having cancer (yes, it happens and it is legal here). After my cancer op, I only took two weeks off, but because of breathing complications owing to an allergic reaction to the anesthetic, I was on a breathing machine for two months five months later, and then fired for being sick. I was raising a young person through all of this and the wage-earner. I had to beg for food that summer and get a one-off rental allowance for two months.  Thankfully, I had a friend help me with food baskets for my son and I. She told me the place from which I was fired had fired another person for having cancer. She understood. She was, therefore, kind and not judgmental. God bless her.

Such is life and such is the purification of God in one's life.

One can stand back and cry "foul" or stupidly compare one's self with others. One can ask "why" or say "thank you".

Since 2009, I have learned that all suffering is not only allowed by God, but willed by Him, either in His permissive Will or His intended Will. From all eternity, He knew I would have to give up my house, (I sold before I could not continue the mortgage payments, and thank God it sold in three days), I sold my car, as I could no longer afford insurance or gasoline, and I began to live the life of great simplicity. The years of suffering before were "redeemed" as time for purging, which I did not understand until it all came together in 2009.

I stopped fighting suffering and accepted it, in whatever fashion God deemed necessary.

In this, I have been given the clarity of mind to see what God is doing with me and with the world. How many posts do I have on simplifying one's life?

One can choose poverty, or one can have it thrust upon one for the good of one's soul. One can be detached and still have things. God chooses the way.

God chooses the way. We only have to respond gratefully and willing, learning daily to trust in Him.

In June, I phoned the local homeless shelters, as some of you know. All were full and I did not qualify for one. This was very hard to do. I have no romantic ideas about how difficult and hard such places are. They are not "nice". Poverty is a prison, but one must learn to be free within a prison, just as the nun learns to be free in a small cell, owning nothing of her own.

I have given up counting all the jobs for which I have applied, cleaning jobs, teaching, catechetical, secretarial and so on. 

Those who judge can answer to God, as I have to do. All I know is that He leads and I follow, doing the best I can in every situation. But, I also know that we must all suffer in some way. Perhaps, because I was such a great sinner leading others astray as a young person with my stupid ideas, I must endure this. Perhaps, I suffer for others in some small way, which is wonderful, if that is the case. Suffering is mostly purification for one's predominant fault(s),

But, do not fall for the lies. If you are not suffering in some way, be wary. It may mean that God has given up on you. Even the great St. Therese suffered almost until the very moment of her death, asking the sisters to take the pain killers out of her room at night so that she would not be tempted to commit suicide. This fact was expurgated from earlier biographies as it seemed shocking. It seems not only human, but super-human to ask such a thing. We do not know how we would react under intense physical pain. She did not trust herself. She trusted only in God.

If one so innocent was not spared suffering, what of those of us who have sinned?

She never committed a mortal sin in her life, noted her confessors.

I pray today that those younger ones wake up and stop murmuring, stop complaining, that they will see and accept that they will not have what their parents had-nice pension packages, nice retirements, a lot of lovely things. Please listen and see and say, "So, what."

Maybe this younger generation are called to great holiness, and maybe, just maybe, their parents missed the call. I hope not too many Gen-Xers and Millennials were ruined by parents spoiling them, turning them into Verucas.

Suffering is not a lie. It is an evil God allows for our purification. Can we not embrace it, willingly?

Can we stop believing lies and accept suffering as a necessary situation for our good?

Shall we stand before God like spoiled children, kicking our feet, crying because we not only did not get things, but did not get our way? I hope not. Like Veruca, the kicking and screaming ones end up in the garbage pit of eternity.

Devolution Two

I have been blogging and/or commenting since about 2006. I have had weeks of dormancy commenting, but one can see my name popping up in old archives of blogs. It is interesting how the discussions and the topics, as well as the tone, of comments have changed.

Definitely, absolutely, the content and tone of comments has gone downhill.

In the early days of blogging and commenting, the discussions were simply more cerebral, more academic, written by people with some Catholic background. People were interested in learning.

Next, there was a second wave of commentators and bloggers who were converts, finding both blogging and commenting on blogs part the excitement of becoming a Catholic. Obviously, people learn on blogs about the one, true, holy, universal, and apostolic Church.

Now, there has been over the last nine months or a year, a third wave of commentators who have not learned to argue from a logical, even rational basis and merely want to vent emotions.

How sad. But, this phenomenon shows the lack of educational standards in the West. People simply do not know how to think, either logically or analogically anymore. Apparently, there was an article on the lack of the ability to think analogically. I am trying to find it.

Those of us and our children who have studied logic and the Aristotelian modes of writing approach writing in a completely different manner than the "emos" on line.

A friend of mine got me thinking about devolution, which as one can hear in the post earlier today, in the talk from Fr. Ripperger, is the real issue of genetic entropy.

I saw it happening when I taught college from September, 1979 through December 2010, with a break of some years as a stay-at-home mom and working in another job not teaching. Wow, what changes in the students! The break from September, 1987 through August, 1997, when I finally went back into teaching, witnessed a sea-change in young peoples' ability to think, work, be focused.

The cry of so many teachers who are now retired is that they could not take the change from teaching to "baby-sitting" or worse.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/02/26/950079/-I-Don-t-Want-to-be-a-Teacher-Any-More#

Of course, the entire problem with education is that it was separated from religion. The soul forms the body. How can one teach the body and not the soul? Impossible, and it is our intellects that we are "like God" and in our free wills.

Sad, but the generations have become slowly but surely "unteachable".  This has been manipulated on purpose.

I am so glad I can teach through my blog. It is too bad I do not get paid for it, as I am so poor. It is a ministry, and I am happy to be called to this, until God decides otherwise. I am trying to work in the larger atmosphere of genetic entropy.

But, most of, in fact, the great majority of my readers are sharp intellectually and teachable. I am blessed in my readership. As long as I see that people want to learn, I can continue, if God so desires.

Cardinal Nichols Statement

from http://jerichotree.com/2014/08/08/cardinals-iraq-appeal-help-and-protect-persecuted-communities-facing-a-threat-to-their-very-existence/

“I have followed with deep sadness the unfolding disaster in Mosul, in Sinjar and Qaraqosh, and in other towns and villages across northern Iraq. This is a persecution of immense proportions in which Christian, Yezidi and other communities have been targeted by ISIS and forced to flee their ancestral homes in the Nineveh Plains in search of temporary safety. All they are doing is trying to escape certain death.
“Today, I add my voice to those of the Church leaders in Iraq as well as all the Bishops of Oriental Churches who met in Beirut yesterday alongside the Apostolic Nuncio. Along with Christian and Muslim leaders in Wales and many others we appeal for help and protection for these persecuted communities facing a threat to their very existence in their biblical homelands. It is imperative that the international community ensure the physical protection of all communities in Iraq, their human rights including the right to religious freedom. I urge Her Majesty’s Government to lead the efforts in the face of such a human calamity in order to help restore these shattered communities, provide them with urgent humanitarian aid and work with others to ensure their long term security in the land of their birth.
“I encourage our own Catholic community to continue to give generously to our agencies working to support the people of Iraq. Above all I invite all people of faith to turn to God in prayer this weekend and seek for our world the change of heart and the gift of grace that alone can bring us peace.”
Cardinal Vincent Nichols
President, Catholic Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales
Archbishop of Westminster
[Source: Westminster Diocese Communications Office]

Denial and Reality:Coming Back to God

The Vatican has revealed that Antonio Gramsci, the founder of Italian Communism and an icon of the Left, reverted to Roman Catholicism on his deathbed.
Archbishop Luigi De Magistris, former head of the Apostolic Penitentiary of the Holy See, which deals with confessions, indulgences and the forgiveness of sins, said Gramsci had 'died taking the Sacraments.' He had asked the nuns attending him in hospital to let him kiss an image of the infant Jesus, the Archbishop said.
Rumours that Gramsci had converted back to his Roman Catholic faith had never until now been confirmed, and the Italian Left had also remained silent on the issue. 'But that is how it was', Archbishop De Magistris told Vatican Radio in November 2008: 'Gramsci returned to the faith of his infancy.'

 http://www.ad2000.com.au/articles/2009/mar2009p8_2987.html

I have done more research on this and it is true. The Left across the world is in denial on this point. That Gramsci converted undoes all his years of hating the Church, religion, and even the culture of the West.

I have come to the conclusion that Gramsci's conversion was real and that the Vatican has proof.

Another great deathbed conversion is Jean-Paul Sartre, and I quote myself on this from another post.

This conversion is not urban myth. When I was at Notre Dame in 1980-81, Father John S. Dunne, a noted writer and teacher, told me personally that a priest friend of his was called to Sartre’s deathbed, where the noted atheist confessed his sins and came into the Church. Father Dunne also claimed that a fiery article by Simone Beauvoir appeared condemning Sartre’s “fall into superstition” at his end. I have to find the article by Beauvoir.

There is more here on this discussion.  

http://bridgesandtangents.wordpress.com/2010/07/31/sartres-death-bed-conversion/

There are many people who converted, repented, re-verted back to Catholicism when facing death. I myself consider this grace one of the most wonderful gifts a person can be given.

Daily, in the Hail Mary, we pray for the grace of a happy death. Read my comments in the posts on Providence and Predestination by Garrigou-Lagrange. 

Genetic Entropy=Devolution

 An old poster helps us understand some things....

Coincidences are not oppression. Accidents are not oppression. Patterns are oppression.

Oppressions can be visible in health issues. Not all.

Genetic entropy is a negation of evolution. We are going down.

These are all thoughts from Father Ripperger.

I highly suggest listening to this part of a larger talk.

 http://www.sensustraditionis.org/webaudio/SW/Oppression.mp3

Souls Being Lost Part Two

Scoffers, those who are rationalists, agnostics and atheists can put themselves in danger by not believing that witches and satanists are real people involved in evil cults, rather than people play acting. Rationalists sometimes are prey because they deny the spiritual world which is real.

Those who seem highly intelligent sometimes are not. One who denies the power of the spiritual world, or who believes in neutral spiritual territory could become prey to evil, caught off guard by pride and unbelief.

The real danger of witchcraft and satanism is the underlying sin of rebellion. It is the primordial sin of pride, of not serving God, of wanting the power (supposedly) that belongs only to the Almighty.

Any adult who is always disobedient and rebellious needs to stop and think that their lifestyle is that of the evil one who refused in an instant to serve God.

When the Pope Emeritus, then Pope Benedict XVI, traveled to Angola in 2009, his remarks on witchcraft were smothered by the media frenzy concerning his remarks against condoms.

Here is one bit of his statement on the occult in Angola:

"In today's Angola, Catholics should offer the message of Christ to the many who live in the fear of spirits, of evil powers by whom they feel threatened, disoriented, even reaching the point of condemning street children and even the most elderly because - they say - they are sorcerers..."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/7956460.stm

The Pope was not denying occultic behavior, but the fears which caused people to persecute others in fear. Fear creates panic.

But, ignoring the reality of the occult and sins connected to the occult, is imprudence, willful blindness.

In a family has been oppressed or depressed in some manner, one should not automatically think witchcraft is involved, but one cannot deny it either.

Here is a homily from Fr. Ripperger on this subject.

http://www.sensustraditionis.org/webaudio/Sermons/Disk5/Witchcraft.mp3

Say a decade of the rosary after listening to this homily.

Souls Being Lost Part One

Too many young people, either those who believe in nothing and are surrounded by cynicism and atheism, or those who have sought out anti-Christian cults in rebellion, are in danger of losing their souls.

Parents are not aware enough of the dangers their own children face in satanism and witchcraft.

I want to list some of the New Testament references to witchcraft and a few of the many from the Old Testament. One remembers that King Saul lost his soul, his crown, his dynasty because of hiring the Witch of Endor to call up Saul. This scene in the television series David, is terrifying.

Acts 19:19 

And a number of those who had practiced magic arts brought their books together and burned them in the sight of all. And they counted the value of them and found it came to fifty thousand pieces of silver

Revelation 21:8 

But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable, as for murderers, the sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death.”

Galatians 5:20-21 

Idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.

2 Chronicles 33:6 

And he burned his sons as an offering in the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, and used fortune-telling and omens and sorcery, and dealt with mediums and with necromancers. He did much evil in the sight of the Lord, provoking him to anger.

Isaiah 8:19 

And when they say to you, “Inquire of the mediums and the necromancers who chirp and mutter,” should not a people inquire of their God? Should they inquire of the dead on behalf of the living?

2 Kings 21:6 

And he burned his son as an offering and used fortune-telling and omens and dealt with mediums and with necromancers. He did much evil in the sight of the Lord, provoking him to anger. 

Revelation 22:15 

Outside are the dogs and sorcerers and the sexually immoral and murderers and idolaters, and everyone who loves and practices falsehood. 

But, witchcraft is also connected to the sins of rebellion, following false religions, and disobedience. Basically, the witch doe not want to put himself under any authority of God.

Herein lies the great sin-desiring power and knowledge without being in and with the Trinitarian God. Any group which is obviously in rebellion to God most likely involves witchcraft.

Souls, especially those of the young, are being  lost daily. Too many Catholics are blase about such evils in our would.

Parents must address these horrible, damning sins of sorcery, witchcraft and satanism. To ignore these is to put your children's souls in danger.

Interesting Article

http://www.patheos.com/blogs/standingonmyhead/2014/08/the-silence-of-peaceful-muslims.html