Recent Posts

Sunday 26 January 2014

Statistics to think about

http://www.traditionalcatholicpriest.com/2014/01/26/before-and-after-vatican-ii-statistics-do-not-lie/

More on obedience to the Church on revelations

http://www.mysticsofthechurch.com/2009/11/obedience-to-catholic-church-judging.html

A Reminder from The Catholic Encyclopedia

Degrees of heresy

Both matter and form of heresy admit of degrees which find expression in the following technical formula of theology and canon law. Pertinacious adhesion to a doctrine contradictory to a point of faith clearly defined by the Church is heresy pure and simple,heresy in the first degree. But if the doctrine in question has not been expressly "defined" or is not clearly proposed as an article of faith in the ordinary, authorized teaching of the Church, an opinion opposed to it is styled sententia haeresi proxima, that is, an opinion approaching heresy. Next, a doctrinal proposition, without directly contradicting a received dogma, may yet involvelogical consequences at variance with revealed truth. Such a proposition is not heretical, it is a propositio theologice erronea, that is, erroneous in theology. Further, the opposition to an article of faith may not be strictly demonstrable, but only reach a certain degree of probability. In that case the doctrine is termed sententia de haeresi suspecta, haeresim sapiens; that is, an opinion suspected, or savouring, of heresy (see THEOLOGICAL CENSURES).

Reminder of an excellent article

http://the-american-catholic.com/2013/11/05/balthasar-universal-salvation-and-ralph-martins-will-many-be-saved/

Excellent Sermon on The Site Noted

http://te-deum.blogspot.com/2014/01/fr-perrone-personal-holiness-heroic.html

Thanks to Diane.

I do think that saints can win the day–even now. The Church, you know, will never go down. It’s an unsinkable ship. But there’s no telling how few there may be left in the final rundown.

The Vocation of The Priest's Wife and The Three Marys


Because for many months, I was close to some Ordinariate priests and met and talked with some of the wives when I was in England, even briefly, I observed a key to the mystery of the married Ordinariate priest which I would like to share. I have also met other women in the role of  "priest wives".

The Catholic people on the whole are not accustomed to the vicar's wife. Indeed, when we lived in Petersfield years ago, it took the parish several months to accept a married ex-Anglican, now Catholic priest for a pastor. The objections were all based on ignorance and prejudice and in the end, the priest and his wife were not only happily accepted, but greatly loved.

The problem with the normal person in the pew is that these Catholics do not understand that if the husband, who is a Catholic priest has a vocation, his wife has a vocation as well. I understand this vocation of the priest's wife, which is more than being the wife of a man who happens to be a priest, and a mother to his children.

The vocation of the priest's wife consists of the greatest sacrifice a woman can give to the Church, her husband to take on another Bride, the Bride of Christ, which is the Church

The priest's wife is not the first woman in the priest's life She is the third woman in the priest's life, and yet, a great support to his ministry, a point to which I shall return.

The First Woman in the heart of the married priest is the Bride of Christ, the one, true, holy, Catholic and apostolic Church. He is her protector, her guide, her spouse as he is alter Christus.

The Second Woman in the heart of the married priest is the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Theotokos, the Mother of us all. The priest takes her guidance and love and honors her above all women.

The Third Woman is his wife. And, this wife is the servant of the servant. If she is a stay-at-home mom, she organizes the life of the priest so that he can maximize his day of service to the Church. She is not first, ever, and must be scheduled, and disciplined.

If the Third Woman has a job out of necessity, in order to help support the priest and family, as so many now must after losing their pensions, houses, and other goods by converting to the Catholic Church, even having to go back to work to make ends meet, this job is the gift she gives to not only the family, but to the Church, easing the financial burden of a diocese or the Ordinariate.

If the Third Woman is called to be active in the daily workings of the Church, especially if the children are grown and gone, her relationship with the parish will demand her time and gifts, and she will support the work of her husband as he sees fit. I know one priest's wife who does so many things that she is just as busy as he is.

A priest's wife has been called by God to give her husband to the Church, and to the world. She knows that she is called to serve, and to sacrifice the normal comforts of married life.

She will not be rich, or have the normal aspirations of a married woman in the world of the laity, because even though she is lay, she has a vocation to be in the world, and not of the world in a direct manner.

Her world is one like the women who served Christ and His apostles, so that they could live out the vocation of the apostolic call.

I greatly honor the wives of the priests of the Ordinariate and other priest's wives who have come in via different manners into the Catholic Church. May we honor them as we would honor those women at the foot of the Cross.

Like the married women, a mother of a priest sacrifices the time and attention of a son, grandchildren and all the protection and love a son would give to a mother is he were not married to the Bride of Christ. Mothers of priests should understand priest's wives from the perspective of giving up a natural relationship for a supernatural one, as these sons and these husbands do not belong to us, but to God.

 "Now there stood by the cross of Jesus His mother, and His mother’s sister, Mary [the wife] of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene." We call these women, Mary Salome, Mary wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene, the Three Marys, or the Three Maries. Mary Salome, wife of  Zebedee and mother of the "Sons of Thunder," James and John, aided Christ and His apostles and stood watching the horror of the Passion and Death of Our Lord. Like Mary the Mother of God, she is one of my models


These women ministered to Christ, set aside their own status, their own resources, their own lives for the sake of the Gospel.


So, too, do our sisters who are the wives of our Catholic priests.







Mass in the Age of the Barbarians and the Satanic Based Teen Culture: or Mass in the Age of Peter Pans and the Lost Boys

I worked both in high school, college, and university ministry. Some people may be surprised, but it does not work on the whole.

The creation of so-called age-appropriate settings for Liturgy never existed before the early 1970s. The false dichotomy and the creation of the "youth culture" meant that worldly and even sinful aspects were introduced into the Liturgy. We have seen the abuses at World Youth Day.

I saw all this happening, especially after the NO came into being.

Why does this type of pandering to youth not work?

First, a statistic.

And, of course, I cannot find the poll online after all these years.

A huge falling off of Notre Dame graduates from weekly participation in the Mass on campus, when they graduated, was discovered in a poll some years ago. This poll revealed that those Catholic students who had been active in the weekly Mass were not so after graduation.

The main reason given, in a honest appraisal at the time, was that the students could not make the transition between their "specialized" students Masses and those in the parish.

Why should they? For four years, their sensual appetites for worship centering on them were not only allowed, but encouraged. True worship and the virtue of religion were not taught. Appealing to sensuality and the manipulation of emotions has nothing to do with Sunday worship. Their Masses were "all about me".

The second problem was that these students had not learned to pray. They had active, participatory Masses without the needed learning of reflection and deep prayer. There was a disjoint in the activity of weekly worship and daily prayer-and if there were prayer meetings, again, they were geared not for teaching the six levels of prayer but for "good feelings".

When I was active in both high school, college, and university ministry to students, I learned that the best way to incorporate students into the Church was to teach them proper worship. There could be some slight changes in the non-essentials of the Liturgy, such as in the prayers of the Faithful, but not in the essentials.

One of the most amazingly successful Masses I organized in Canada as the liturgical minister working with the priest chaplain was a Remembrance Day Mass (not done in the States) with the local Catholic Natives singing the songs praising the veterans and giving glory to God for their service. To this day, I have never experienced a more fitting honor to vets than at that Mass. This was not a novelty but an expression of true worship in a culture with Natives.

But, to have something like that as a regular "treat" would not be appropriate.

The entire teen culture is an evil construct of the 20th century. Before the dissolution of our classical school systems, and the too long, dragged out years of useless preparation for adult life, young people were expected to grow up and assume adult responsibilities by 16 in some countries, and 18 in others. They were apprenticed to either their dads or others. They learned to make a living, get married and have children, learning fatherhood and husband-hood in the family.

We have created an underclass by giving in the satan's design to weaken the culture by putting off adulthood too long. I am convinced that youth culture is founded on satanic principles of indulgence, lack of discipline, and the emphasis on emotions. We make all kinds of excuses for this long adolescent which now goes until the thirties and is a false construct of modern society. Satan applauds the huge numbers of peter pans and unmarried youth who only think of themselves.

Two close friends of mine were from extremely wealthy families. But, their fathers made them work in a factory, one in a cookie factory, during the summer, to learn the work ethic. This was not the father's business. They were good Catholics and saw the need for helping their boys grow up and accept responsibility. We must do the same in real worship.

Social scientists and false psychologists want us to believe that young adults are less than capable of responsibility. They have done the same with small children and those of you who have read my Montessori posts and the virtue posts know that young children are capable of high concentration skills and even holiness.

The satanic based teen culture is denying youth the time to become saints. It might be the only time they have to become saints. To be a saint is not to indulge in the feelings and consolations of religious experience. On the contrary....

We have created this false paradise for them and then wonder why they become self-centered adults who do not know how to sacrifice, or be part of a larger community.

Teen Masses and university chaplaincies do not prepare the youth for the word of the Church Militant.

I had three very good priests who worked with me at the high school and university level when I was in ministry. Two saw the rot of the training of chaplains to never really challenge youth, but provide "youth events" which never mentioned sin, the last four things, hell. They deplored with me, and this was in Canada, the introduction of New Age religion into the high schools, and saw the acceptance of the homosexual clergy.

Of course, as I was in charge of retreats, I planned the "real deal" on repentance and salvation.

I did this, and was called into the office, and was told I had no right to talk about sin to my high school students, who attended a wealthy school. Many were on drugs and most were no longer virgins. The administration did not want to save souls, only make money, and keep up the pretense of Catholic education.

I could not be a real Catholic thing, but only "Catholic-Lite". Of course, my days were numbered.

A minister or a teacher can only help was is happening in the home at that age, and not take over the real responsibilities of the parents. The parents will answer before God for not having the domestic church. What we can do in those positions is also teach the adults to take responsibility for their own children.

The other priest I worked with in London, an eminent psychologist, and I could see the danger of  "youth Masses". He refused to do them, as he saw, as I did, the damage to the soul and mind of so-called age appropriate Liturgy. It was grow-up time in the Catholic Chaplaincy.

I learned all this the hard way. Notre Dame did as well. Whether the chaplains changed their approach or not after that survey, I do not know.

But, there is only one proper worship for God, and we sin seriously in not teaching this at an early age.

I shall go to the TLM later today, and there are at least 15-20 children under the age of 16 or so. They all behave beautifully. They are not being taught that they are the center of worship, but that God is the center of the Mass.

The last point I want to make is that the Mass is not for evangelization. What I mean is, we do not create an atmosphere of emotional manipulation at Mass in order to bring people to God. This is a Protestant mind-set. Nor is Mass entertainment, and sadly, much new Catholic music is entertainment, not true worship.

The Holy Spirit, through the Mass of the Ages, leads us all to God.

We do our youth a disservice with youth Masses. They will cling to a childish view of themselves and God and not enter into the virtue of religion. We are not preparing saints for the world, but "spiritual children" who have not learned how to stand up to the greatest time of evil ever seen since the days of the barbarians.

One more point. We missed our regular Mass one Sunday in California and had to attend the only one we could find in the evening. We had been travelling. It was a Life Teen Mass. It was horrible.

It was an abomination before the Lord. God forgive me for not knowing what it was all about-this was in 2007.

To see and hear people at the sacredness of Mass in flip-flops, halter tops, and sing Protestant songs was a shock to me. To see and hear the priest speak of feelings and emotions as if he were a summer camp director was disgusting.

God forgive us. This is just plain evil. Tell me what this has to do with the Triune God? This is all entertainment and emotional manipulation and our youth will be swept away by the times to come.

I remind people that the Pope Emeritus said no singing or instrumentals during the Consecration, and that the guitar and piano were not liturgical instruments. Think of why....

And, as clergy and laity, what right to we have to manipulate and impose our sinful natures on to the glorious Mass, the Sacrifice of Christ, the center of our prayer? Think of how we shall be judged for mocking God, for wanting to be God.....