Friday, 22 November 2013
Letting Memories Slide into Love
One of them, a woman whose husband left her, goes over the past again and again. She is stuck in unforgiveness. The negativity from this preoccupation with the past keeps her from being fully alive. Her negativity has been passed on to her children. I grieve at this.
Another one, a man, can list all the failure of his in-laws from forty years ago. I listen but cannot make him forgive and forget. He goes over and over the past, over hurts and over slights. He is crippled in his memory by unforgiveness. Why does he hang on to such hurts? Again, a negativity flows from his speech which affects his wife and children.
The third, another woman, whenever I meet her, begins a litany of how awful her sister has been to her throughout her entire life, which is very long. I do not know how to convince her to forgive and forget. She claims she has forgiven, but the next time I visit her, she goes over the same territory of over a half-century of disputes with her sister.
How can I convince them that forgiveness is the only way out of the past? Daily forgiveness is necessary for some people, like a friend of mine in a difficult marriage. But, forgiveness frees one.
Recently, I have learned this yet again. The hardest thing to forgive is misunderstandings when one is being judged unfairly and criticized by those who truly do not know one or who have projected their own sins on one.
A reader wrote to me that the hardest thing for him is to forgive those who unjustly judge him. I agree.
When one opens one's self up to others for love and care, sometimes this openness is rejected. He is learning this the hard way.
I do not know how to help my three old friends forgive. They are very old and have been carrying these hurts most of their lives. Forgiveness would free them. And, when I mention this, they tell me they have forgiven, but then keep talking about the hurts.
We need to grieve and cry and get over hurts. We need to face betrayal, harsh criticisms, judgements, and unkind words. We need to let go of those who have injured us and move on. We cannot change the lack of love in our lives. Christ Himself was killed by those He loved, His own people. They mocked Him. They rejected His purity. He forgave and He was innocent.
Can people not forgive fellow sinners like ourselves and move on?
Pray for my three friends today, that they may forgive and let those painful memories slide into love. Pray that I can learn how to speak to them so that they understand that they are chained to the past and chained to gross negativity.
Wow Frustration
I just spent 45 minutes answering the Survery for the Extraordinary Synod and the diocesan site drop all the information and I have to start over.
This is an important survey. If you are an orthodox Catholic, please answer the questions, otherwise this survey will be take over by the liberals.
Please, it is important, very.
UPDATE: I just finished the survey. Read the text first. Please, orthodox Catholic readers, do the survey.
This is an important survey. If you are an orthodox Catholic, please answer the questions, otherwise this survey will be take over by the liberals.
Please, it is important, very.
UPDATE: I just finished the survey. Read the text first. Please, orthodox Catholic readers, do the survey.
Societal Lies and The Spiritual Works of Mercy
 |
| Jeremiah |
As brothers and sisters in Christ, we have a duty, in the spiritual works of mercy, to point out sin. People have done this for me and I have done this for others. Sometimes, one loses a friend, if the sin is serious enough, and that friend refuses to change. One can meet and love people, but one must not pretend to accept evil lifestyles. But, to live in Catholic communities surrounded by the same people for a long time and not to discuss with these brothers and sisters in Christ is also a serious sin, of negligence.
Too many people think that love is merely overlooking sin. It is not. It is confronting sin, in ourselves and in others and repenting. There is a reason why the Hebrew People killed their prophets. They did not want to hear about their sins and repent.
We do not have the leisure to put off sin. We do not have time to carry on as we have. The entire nation of America is carrying on as if there is nothing wrong with abortion, ssm, and other sins which cry out to God for vengeance. If an entire people is blinded, than God will bring them to repentance. The great temple and Jerusalem itself were completely destroyed a generation after Christ's Death and Resurrection.
Where I lived in the last many months, I could get to regular confession. This is not true where I am now. Such a situation is where many of us will find ourselves in years to come.
The Davenport Diocese of 100,000 Catholics will only have 15 active priests in 2015-that is less than two years.
People will not be able to get to daily Mass, Adoration, confession.
The soul needs grace to live...
I am facing my own sin and need for repentance. But, the pain of seeing so many not seeing, even Church leaders, is a penance. Thank God for some good leaders, such as Bishop Paprocki. He is a light in the gathering darkness. Pray for him and other good priests. One must remember that St. Paul did not overlook sin in the early Church communities. There was not an acceptance, and then gossip. Perhaps, we should pray for our priests to be more bold in speaking the truth about sins from the pulpit. But, as brothers and sisters in Christ, we cannot shirk our own role in the lives of others, especially is they are close to us.
Recently, I had to talk to a sister in Christ about the occult in her family. She became angry with me and defensive. She did not repent. But, perhaps a seed of truth was put in her mind. A priest told me this was an act of charity to point out the dangers of the occult in movies, television, books. But, sometimes, Catholics are afraid to be charitable.
Many people have been led astray by poor catechesis. Many Catholics are actually believing heresies, which means they are outside of the life of grace. One cannot grow in holiness and hold on to heresies. Sadly, I heard some people bragging about their children who are living in sin. These Catholic parents could not see the damage in the souls of their own family or in the community. No one said anything.
Right now, in this area, it is commonly being taught in churches that there are no people in hell. Right now, in this area, it is being taught that we did not have one set of parents, but there was group creation and that Adam and Eve are myths, or symbols at best. Right now, in this area, there is disdain for marriage laws concerning valid and invalid marriages. Right now, in this area, civil marriage for same-sex couples is being accepted by some Catholics.
Are we responsible for others or not?
| Cain and Abel |
The Spiritual Works of Mercy
- Admonish the sinner
- Instruct the ignorant
- Counsel the doubtful
- Comfort the sorrowful
- Bear wrongs patiently
- Forgive all injuries
- Pray for the living and the dead
Using Everything for Holiness/Weakening Self-Will
I am learning not to pass up any seemingly small event or word in order to be cleansed of my own sins.
The instant one reacts to the sins of others, one can enter into an examination of conscience. To check a reaction which could lead to sins, such as a lack of forgiveness, or a judgement, is the beginning of the purification of the mind and imagination.
This is all part of the Dark Night. Use everything. Do not let any opportunity for growth go by without reflection.
These small moments are moments of grace.
And, one may never have these same moments of grace again.
Here is a short section from Treatise on the Love of God by St. Francis de Sales:
The wife ordinarily changes her condition into that of her husband, becoming noble if he be noble, queen if he be king, duchess if he be duke. The will also changes her condition according to the love she espouses; if this be carnal she becomes carnal, if this be spiritual she is spiritual, and all the affections of desire, joy, hope, fear, grief, as children born of the marriage between love and the will, consequently receive their qualities from love. In short, Theotimus, the will is only moved by her affections, amongst which love, as the primum mobile and first affection, gives motion to all the rest, and causes all the other motions of the soul.
But it does not follow hence that the will does not also rule over love, seeing that the will only loves while willing to love, and that of many loves which present themselves she can apply herself to which she pleases, otherwise there would be no love either forbidden or commanded.
She is then mistress over her loves as a maiden over her suitors, amongst whom she may make election of which she pleases. But as after marriage she loses her liberty and of mistress becomes subject to her husband's power, remaining taken by him whom she took, so the will which at her own pleasure made election of love, after she has chosen one remains subject to it.
And as the wife is always subject to the husband whom she has chosen as long as he lives, and if he die regains her former liberty to marry another, so while a love lives in the will it reigns there, and the will is subject to its movements, but if this love die she can afterwards take another.
And again there is a liberty in the will which the wife has not, and it is that the will can reject her love at her pleasure, by applying her understanding to motives which make it displeasing, and by taking a resolution to change the object.
For thus, to make divine love live and reign in us, we kill selflove, and if we cannot entirely annihilate it at least we weaken it in such a way that though it lives yet it does not reign in us. As, on the contrary, in forsaking divine love we may adhere to that of creatures, which is the infamous adultery with which the Divine lover so often reproaches sinners.
One can learn to let love be the prime mover, as this great saint notes. All other needs and tendencies pass away.
The Hydra of Heresies
| http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black-figure_pottery |
Well, this heresy, that of the belief that all people are saved, is a biggie in England. But, it is a biggie here in the States as well.
Being only a few days in the Midwest has been a culture-shock of meeting the modernist heresies almost daily.
Here we go--the most popular heresies in Illinois and Iowa:
Universal salvation: everyone is saved and no one goes to hell.
Denial of Original Sin: all babies are innocent and all children are as well.
Denial of grace as necessary for salvation: complete misunderstanding of sacramental grace as efficacious. Sacraments are merely symbolic.
Sola fide, sola Scriptura, sola Christus...enough said
Denial of the need for an institutional Church and the denial of the need for a hierarchy.
Misunderstanding of the nature of priesthood and that only men can be priests, and so on....
Well, not much has changed since I was here last. Iowa is a hotbed of heresy and so is the Socialist Republic of Illinois.
Note from USCCB site
USCCB Subcommittee Chairman Decries Marriage Redefinition And Misuse Of Pope Francis' Words In Illinois
November 20, 2013
Calls redefining marriage a serious injusticeDecries manipulation of Pope Francis’s words
Says every child deserves a mother and a father
WASHINGTON—“The decision by the Illinois legislature and the governor to redefine marriage in law does not alter the natural reality that marriage is and can only be the union of one man and one woman,” said Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone of San Francisco, chairman of the U.S. bishops’ Subcommittee for the Promotion and Defense of Marriage, responding to the decision by the Illinois legislature and the governor to redefine marriage. “Furthermore, marriage redefinition is a serious injustice. The law exists to safeguard the common good and protect authentic rights, especially the right of children to have a married mother and father.”
Additionally, Archbishop Cordileone said, “When referring to the family, Pope Francis said very clearly in his first papal encyclical: ‘I think first and foremost of the stable union of man and woman in marriage.’ And very recently, the Pope offered these words: ‘Let us therefore propose to all people, with respect and courage, the beauty of marriage and the family illuminated by the Gospel!’ Pope Francis has forcefully reminded us that we are to show love and respect to all people and to seek their greatest good, and he therefore continues to clearly promote and defend marriage and family, recognizing that this is in everyone’s best interest as members of a common society. In fact, when confronting an effort to redefine marriage in his home country of Argentina, he said as Archbishop of Buenos Aires: ‘The identity of the family, and its survival, are in jeopardy here: father, mother, and children.’ He even added: ‘At stake is the total rejection of God’s law engraved in our hearts.’ It is therefore disgraceful that some legislators would manipulate the words of Pope Francis to suggest that he would support marriage redefinition.”
Archbishop Cordileone added, “The courageous efforts of those, including religious leaders and legislators, who helped defend marriage in Illinois is to be commended. The defense of truth and goodness is never in vain.”
---
Keywords: Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone, San Francisco, Illinois, marriage, USCCB, U.S. bishops, U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops
A Level of Ignorance
Someone today, a Catholic, innocently asked me if Jesus was an Arab. Years ago, I met another man who denied that Jesus and Mary were Jews.
I explained gently to this good person today that He was a Jew, and that the only two religions in the world which are revealed are the Jewish one, as seen in the Old Testament Revelation, and the Catholic one, as revealed by Christ in the New Testament.
I am appalled at the lack of basic catechesis regarding Who Christ Is. This lack of knowledge on the part of this good person is not his fault, but the fault of confusion gleaned from the television, bad catechesis, and poor homilies.
The fact that the Judaic religion is the basis of Catholicism must be taught. That Jesus is the long-awaited Messiah of the Jews, the King of Kings, in the line of David, of the House of Judah, must be part of the teaching on the Incarnate One.
Black Liberation Theology denies that Jesus was a Jew and that the Jews were the Chosen People of God.
This BLT has crept into some Catholic circles, as has Liberation Theology. To make Jesus into Someone other than He Is must be called a heresy. Christ is not "Arab" or "Black". The Jews are Semites, which are of the Caucasian Race.
To make Christ into the image and likeness of an ideology is to deny Him.
We really need to go back to the basics.
Really basic...
Matthew 1
Douay-Rheims
1 The book of the generation of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham:
2 Abraham begot Isaac. And Isaac begot Jacob. And Jacob begot Judas and his brethren.
3 And Judas begot Phares and Zara of Thamar. And Phares begot Esron. And Esron begot Aram.
4 And Aram begot Aminadab. And Aminadab begot Naasson. And Naasson begot Salmon.
5 And Salmon begot Booz of Rahab. And Booz begot Obed of Ruth. And Obed begot Jesse.
6 And Jesse begot David the king. And David the king begot Solomon, of her that had been the wife of Urias.
7 And Solomon begot Roboam. And Roboam begot Abia. And Abia begot Asa.
8 And Asa begot Josaphat. And Josaphat begot Joram. And Joram begot Ozias.
9 And Ozias begot Joatham. And Joatham begot Achaz. And Achaz begot Ezechias.
10 And Ezechias begot Manasses. And Manasses begot Amon. And Amon begot Josias.
11 And Josias begot Jechonias and his brethren in the transmigration of Babylon.
12 And after the transmigration of Babylon, Jechonias begot Salathiel. And Salathiel begot Zorobabel.
13 And Zorobabel begot Abiud. And Abiud begot Eliacim. And Eliacim begot Azor.
14 And Azor begot Sadoc. And Sadoc begot Achim. And Achim begot Eliud.
15 And Eliud begot Eleazar. And Eleazar begot Mathan. And Mathan begot Jacob.
16 And Jacob begot Joseph the husband of Mary, of whom was born Jesus, who is called Christ.
17 So all the generations, from Abraham to David, are fourteen generations. And from David to the transmigration of Babylon, are fourteen generations: and from the transmigration of Babylon to Christ are fourteen generations.
18 Now the generation of Christ was in this wise. When as his mother Mary was espoused to Joseph, before they came together, she was found with child, of the Holy Ghost.
19 Whereupon Joseph her husband, being a just man, and not willing publicly to expose her, was minded to put her away privately.
20 But while he thought on these things, behold the angel of the Lord appeared to him in his sleep, saying: Joseph, son of David, fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife, for that which is conceived in her, is of the Holy Ghost.
21 And she shall bring forth a son: and thou shalt call his name JESUS. For he shall save his people from their sins.
22 Now all this was done that it might be fulfilled which the Lord spoke by the prophet, saying:
23 Behold a virgin shall be with child, and bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us.
24 And Joseph rising up from sleep, did as the angel of the Lord had commanded him, and took unto him his wife.
25 And he knew her not till she brought forth her firstborn son: and he called his name JESUS.
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