Part of an excellent post by Father Longenecker

I have said over and over that it is Catholics who are supposedly in the Church who will ruin the Church.

These people condone the sins of their children and refuse to admit sin in their own worlds.

Father Dwight Longenecker writes on this and other points here.

http://www.patheos.com/blogs/standingonmyhead/2013/02/british-parliament-redefines-marriage.html

The idea that British lawmakers can take it upon themselves to change such a fundamental understanding of what it means to be human is simply incredible. I realize that they believe they are simply voting on an “equality issue”. This is not so. They have voted on a historic and fundamentally different definition of marriage.  They have not voted to open marriage up. They have voted to destroy marriage.

Already “marriage” in our society is practically meaningless. Easy no fault divorce and multiple marriages, weddings that take place most anywhere with people writing their own ‘vows’ with their own ‘ministers’. The whole thing is a charade–a grotesque and hideous mockery of marriage, and the result will be that marriage will be meaningless. Weddings will be nothing but a sentimental display of self indulgence and the marriage itself will be a sham.

Same sex marriage actually destroys marriage, for in re-defining what marriage is, it is no longer marriage. It is something else. Furthermore, the erosion of marriage into meaningless sentimental clap trap or some sort of politically correct statement is not only the fault of the gay militants. It is also the fault of those people who break their marriage vows, divorce and then re-marry. It is also the fault of all those who co-habitate and then turn up at church anyway for their wonderful wedding. It is also the fault of all those family members who are too nice to disapprove. It is especially the fault of those so-called Catholics who condone the cohabitation of their family members, smile kindly on the divorced and re married and run rough shod over marriage in every way imaginable.

What no one has stopped to ask is what exactly is marriage in our society now anyway? It is a lifelong commitment? Clearly not. Is it for procreation? Clearly not. Is it for better for worse, richer or poorer, to love and to cherish til death do us part? Clearly not. So what on earth is marriage anyway and why on earth do homosexual people want to be married? Only because they demand recognition and some sort of false, government mandated ‘equality.”

It is time now for the Catholic Church to withdraw completely from the civil side of marriage. A man and woman who wish to be married should go to the civil authority to sign necessary papers, then if they want to have a sacramental marriage let them come to the priest.

Most of the Protestant churches have caved on divorce and re-marriage long ago. They will also cave on homosexual marriage. Within a very short time now, the Catholic Church will be the only place to receive a truly Christian wedding.

When the time comes to stand up for marriage as God intended, what I dread is not so much the attacks from those outside the church, but the attacks from those within. Already there are numerous voices among the Catholic clergy who are quietly in favor of homosexual “marriage”–and they will turn their ruthless guns of kindness on all who stand firm.

there is more...

More on marriage, children and a great blog discussion

A great discussion on marriage is on Fr. Tim Finigan's Blog in two parts at this time.
http://the-hermeneutic-of-continuity.blogspot.co.uk/2013/02/marriages-created-and-sacramental.html
http://the-hermeneutic-of-continuity.blogspot.co.uk/2013/02/convalidation-and-sanation-and-civil-law.html

Here is one of the priest commentators notes in part. Thank God for clarity from SOME priests. And, I am glad to see I was spot on with the Church's position in all of this.

From a commentator:

A further consideration with convalidations and sanations is the question of consent. In a convalidation, it is deemed by the Church to be the beginning of the marriage. If - as is no doubt the case with many marriages these days - couples have a few children and then adopt artificial contraception, and intend to have no further children, then it invalidates the convalidation, as there is no intention to procreate present at the point at which the marriage bond comes into being. This is a real problem with convalidations when children are in their teens, for example. With sanations, this problem is overcome, but one has to presume that the consent to marriage is still there at the point at which the sanation takes place. With both convalidations and sanations, it is often the case that, where they are requested, the couple may be going through a rough patch, and either or both parties are seeking something that will cement the breaking relationship together. Indeed, this - I believe - happens a great deal with cohabiting couples, who seek to get married in order to shore up a breaking relationship. It usually does little other than to hasten the split, and leave the couple in difficulties

Prayers please--in the white areas

Pray for me for better Internet connections...I am travelling in an area where it is off and on and when on, very slow.

Thanks so much for the moral support.

Superb article in an excellent series from Crisis Magazine

http://www.crisismagazine.com/2013/the-rich-not-states-are-called-to-help-others?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+CrisisMagazine+%28Crisis+Magazine%29

Competition continues until Feb. 14th.

So far, there is only one excellent article for the Valentine's Day Contest.

My commentators can do as well or better...hey, you all have so much to say and so much LOVE. Put the comments for the contest on the link below.

Write,         and make it a real competition....http://supertradmum-etheldredasplace.blogspot.co.uk/2013/02/valentines-day-contest-begins-today.html?showComment=1360166534460#c6526875858258421344

Virginia ponders own money....

Texas and Virginia, true states... and secession is legal, folks. Utah has law on the books already, just in case...If I were to bet on the best states in which to live, I would choose Alaska, Texas, Utah and Virginia.

http://dailycaller.com/2013/02/06/virginia-moves-close-to-creating-states-own-currency/

For my friends who are young couples....

For my young friends who are married and wanting to have families or starting families:

Do not be afraid. Be open to life. God wants children in the world as He designs the world for us.

Even in the face of growing darkness, there should be no fear.

Concern and watchfulness, yes, but no fear.

Even children can be raised to be saints.

Be saints and train your children to be saints.

I give you a link here on child saints. Take time to read this.

http://catholicismpure.wordpress.com/2011/03/20/child-saints-as-role-models-for-children/

1,000 priests are doing in Ireland what the Puritans could not do-destroying the Church

Sad days...from http://www.dw.de/the-vaticans-irish-problem/a-16576276

Pray for Ireland. I have been writing about this apostasy for a year. 

Flannery's theological challenge to the Vatican represents a significant change to what it means to be Catholic. And the support he's receiving suggests the once steadfastly Catholic Irish public is also ready to consider that change.

Shift in Irish society

Father Tony Flannery became the unlikely face of the modern Irish Catholic. Unlikely, because Flannery supports allowing women and married men to become priests. He embraces the role of lesbians and gays in the Catholic Church. Flannery also questions the legitimacy of the Vatican's hierarchy, and he warns that unless power is decentralized and free thought is encouraged, church attendance in Ireland will continue to stagnate.

These views would seem to be counter to the regular average Irish churchgoer, who, according to numerous polls and surveys, is older and slightly more conservative than the general population.

(Fr.) Flannery represents a significant change in Irish religious culture. Ireland used to be a reliably Catholic country. Couples couldn't legally use birth control until 1980, and even then access to reproductive health was heavily regulated. Divorce was prohibited in Ireland until 1995. Homosexuality was illegal until 1993. Abortion is still illegal.

Yet, in the next year, limited abortion rights are expected to be legalized. Earlier this year, Irish judges laid the legal foundation for a later challenge to the state's ban on assisted suicide. Homosexuals are allowed civil partnerships, and divorce is becoming more common.

Just wonderin'

Today, right now, it is 36 Farenheit in London, 52 in Malta, and 39 in Reykjavik.

Minneapolis is 24 and Davenport is 36, interesting.

Thanks to Wiki

Where would you rather be?

Watch and listen to language

I noticed today that some popular persons in the world are using apocalyptic language with regard to America falling. Now, some of us who are Catholic and Christian see steps towards that taking away of freedoms of religion, arms, and even movement. That the Constitution is under attack, there is no doubt. All the bishops have a lawsuit against obamacare.

However, using apocalyptic language has been the agenda of other groups, such as Marxists and anarchists. When, this morning, I heard a far-left liberal referring to the fall of America because the country is prejudice and against minorities. The man speaking is a professional revolutionary. I withhold his name.

Well, prejudice is a sin, but what this man meant was not racial prejudice merely. Many radicals want to carry on the fight to make homosexuality acceptable in all cultures.

When the far-left uses language that Christ gave us in the Apocalyse, we know we are in trouble. Such propaganda makes good into evil and evil into good.

Watch and listen. Pray.

This has all happened before. And, the Church has been the butt of propaganda since Elizabeth I in a systematic way.

Note, from Wiki, these two obviously rude cartoons using propaganda against Rome.

Praise God, Sun and Moon

http://t1.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcTzktTBSXrpG872Xsfr66QPsdufTJDLBmj2Mw5R-Ik7PtHctw2gCA

http://www.space.com/12581-stunning-photos-solar-storms-flares-sun-weather.html

Pray for Libya

As you all know by now, the opposition leader was killed. The Government is dissolved and the prime minister wants to put in "technocrats", unelected officials, in the government, which will, of course, cause more demonstrations.

http://www.france24.com/en/20130207-tunisia-ennahda-belaid-jebali-elections

Freedom of the Soul and Purification

One can only achieve real freedom from sin and imperfections by allowing God to work in one's life.

This means doing what we do not want to do and going where we do not want to go. It also means giving up trying to pray in ways which "worked" before, such as meditation. Giving into grace sometimes means giving up on past tried and true methods of prayer. Freedom means not hanging onto to either the need for consolations or even the forms of meditation.

In the third place, as St. John of the Cross points out here,(3) when persons can no longer meditate discursively: "All they have to do is to keep their soul free, . . . contenting themselves simply with directing their attention lovingly and calmly toward God." To wish to return at any cost to discursive meditation, would be to wish to run counter to the current of grace instead of following it, and to give ourselves great trouble without profit. It would be like running toward the spring of living water when we have already reached its brim; continuing to run, we withdraw from it. It would be like continuing to spell when we already know how to read several words at a glance. It would be to fall back instead of allowing ourselves to be drawn, to be lifted up by God. However, if the difficulty in meditating does not increase and makes itself felt only from time to time, it is well to return to simplified, affective meditation whenever possible: for example, to the very slow meditation of the Our Father.

St. John gives a fourth rule of direction for those who, having reached this state of prolonged aridity, wish, not to return to reasoned meditation, but to feel some consolation. St. John of the Cross says on this subject: "All they have to do is to keep their soul free, . . . and all this without anxiety or effort, or immoderate desire to feel and taste His presence. For all such efforts disquiet the soul, and distract it from the peaceful quiet and sweet tranquillity of contemplation to which they are now admitted.(4) . . . If they were now to exert their interior faculties, they would simply hinder and ruin the good which, in that repose, God is working in the soul; for if a man while sitting for his portrait cannot be still, but moves about, the painter will never depict his face, and even the work already done will be spoiled. . . . The more it strives to find help in affections and knowledge, the more will it feel the deficiency which cannot now be supplied in that way." 

(5) In other words, natural activity exercising itself counter to the gifts of the Holy Ghost, through self-seeking opposes an obstacle to their most delicate inspirations. In prayer, we should not seek to feel the gift of God, but should receive it with docility and disinterestedness in the obscurity of faith. Spiritual joy will be added later on to the act of contemplation and love of God; but it is not joy that should be sought, it is God Himself, who is greatly superior to His gifts.

If the soul that has reached this period of transition is faithful to what has been said, then will be realized what St. John of the Cross affirms: "By not hindering the operation of infused contemplation, to which God is now admitting it, the soul is refreshed in peaceful abundance, and set on fire with the spirit of love, which this con­templation, dim and secret, induces and establishes within it. (6)

One knows one is in this state by the experience of love. To be continued

Passive Purification and Purgatory

Here is where most people, after active purification, and some consoling moments, go into the illuminative stage.

If we are purified on earth, we shall not have to be purified in purgatory.

Purification which is active we can all do, such as fasting and abstinence.

We must also conform our minds to Christ and accept suffering.

That is all part of active purification. Do not fight suffering. I did for years, as I was thinking like a Protestant, either that all suffering was evil and had to be overcome, instead of endured.

Once I gave in to suffering, I understood the value and could experience joy and peace in the midst of it.

Abandonment, cancer, poverty, it does not matter.

Be open to renewal, in God's time...

Here is Garrigou-Lagrange on the beginning of the illuminative stage:

We are here at the aurora of the illuminative life; it richly deserves that we show generosity in our passage through the dark night which precedes it. Here it is a question of being purified from the remains of the seven capital sins that stain the spiritual life; if one is not purified from them on earth while meriting, one must be cleansed in purgatory without meriting.

The passive purification which we are speaking of is in the normal way of sanctity, which may be defined as union with God and sufficient purity to enter heaven immediately. This degree of purity is certainly in the normal way of heaven, whether a person obtains it on earth, or only at the end of his purgatory. Purgatory, which is a penalty, presupposes sins that could have been avoided. Therefore the soul should trust in God while this painful work of purification is being accomplished.

Read that last sentence again.

How can Catholics support this man?

http://www.lifenews.com/2013/02/06/obama-tells-group-we-celebrate-roe-55-million-abortions/

Perfection series starting up again...the arid stage two

If you frightened, ask God for an insight into trusting Him. Keep seeking purity of heart

The mystical doctor points out first of all in regard to those who are in this period of transition: "If they meet with no one who understands the matter, these persons fall away and abandon the right road; or they become weak, or at least put hindrances in the way of their further advancement, because of the great efforts they make to proceed in their former way of meditation, fatiguing their natural powers beyond measure." At this time, it is advisable for them to seek counsel from an enlightened director because of the difficulties which arise in the interior life by reason of the subtraction of sensible graces, the growing difficulty in meditating, and also by reason of the concomitant temptations against chastity and patience which the devil then awakens rather frequently in order to turn the soul away from prayer.

In the second place, says St. John of the Cross: "It behooves those who find themselves in this condition to take courage and persevere in patience. Let them not afflict themselves but put their confidence in God, who never forsakes those who seek Him with a pure and upright heart. Neither will He withhold from them all that is necessary for them on this road until He brings them to the clear and pure light of love, which He will show them in that other dark night of the spirit, if they shall merit an entrance into it." Consequently, in this aridity and powerlessness one must not become discouraged or abandon prayer as if it were useless. On the contrary, it becomes much more fruitful if the soul perseveres in humility, abnegation, and trust in God. Prolonged sensible aridity and growing inability to meditate are the sign of a new, higher life. Instead of grieving over this condition, a learned and experienced director rejoices; it is the generous entrance into "the narrow way" which ascends as it broadens, and which will become increasingly wide, immense as God Himself to whom it leads. At this stage the soul is under the happy necessity of not being content with weak acts of faith, hope, and love. Imperfect acts (actus remissi) of these virtues no longer suffice here; more lofty and more meritorious acts are necessary. According to St. Thomas, it is characteristic of these acts to obtain immediately the increase of grace and charity which they merit.(2)

The spiritual man who has reached this stage is like a man who in climbing a mountain comes to a difficult spot where, to make progress, he must have a keener desire for the goal to be attained.

From last summer, but interesting none the less

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