Etheldredasplace: 02/08/14

Saturday, 8 February 2014

The Environment Agency has issued more than 500 flood warnings and alerts across the country, two of which pose “a danger to life”.

The misery caused by the wettest January on record shows no sign of abating, with warnings of a “conveyor belt of storms” on their way to the UK.

If I did not read European/Asian News

I would know nothing............Americans, you are so deprived of the real deal, you are living in gaga-land. None of the main news outlets reveal the truth. If you are not reading such online groups as I highlight on this blog, you are in planned ignorance. The good American sources are http://www.breitbart.com/ and Drudge Report.

Here is one EU view...

Snippet One

But the truth is that the U.S. and Europe are long gone.

http://www.lastampa.it/2014/02/08/cultura/opinioni/editoriali/il-potere-perduto-delleuropa-kQI4kT3yPHEbsiS6c9IdgM/pagina.html?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter

Good article not to miss on China and USA

http://thediplomat.com/2014/01/us-china-rivalry-more-dangerous-than-cold-war/

Snippet

The U.S.-China strategic rivalry lacks this singular center of gravity. Instead, Mearsheimer identified four potential hotspots over which he believes the U.S. and China might find themselves at war: the Korean Peninsula, the Taiwan Strait and the South and East China Seas. Besides featuring more hotspots than the U.S.-Soviet conflict, Mearsheimer implied that he felt that decision-makers in Beijing and Washington might be more confident that they could engage in a shooting war over one of these areas without it escalating to the nuclear threshold.

Superb articles on UN hatred of the Church

Snippet One....

Hendershott discussed what she sees as the crux of the matter regarding the relationship between the UN and the Vatican.

“Quite honestly, all of this Vatican bashing is about population control,” she said. “The UN sees population control as a panacea. Bill and Melinda Gates are part of this also – they are big population control people. The Church stands in their way of controlling population on a global scale, and so the UN has to marginalize the Church.”

http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Peace/2014/02/07/Vatican-Gives-Sharp-Response-To-UN-Committee-s-Report-Criticizing-Church-Teachings?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter

Snippet Two

In other words, the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child is now lobbying the Catholic Church for the “Right of the Child” to enjoy access to unrestricted sexual behavior. Isn’t this exactly how a small percentage of Catholic clergy got in trouble to begin with? Every investigation of the clergy abuse scandal—including the John Jay study—revealed that the clergy abuse scandal was primarily about a small number of priests having sexual relations with adolescent boys.

The United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child has no authority to enforce any of its recommendations. The Church should ignore it.

http://www.crisismagazine.com/2014/un-attacks-catholic-teaching-under-pretext-of-protecting-children?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+CrisisMagazine+%28Crisis+Magazine%29

Also Snippet Three

“Defense of religious freedom is no small matter in a world where people, including children, get murdered for simply going to church,” she continued, pointing to more than 80 Christians – including children – who were killed at a church in Pakistan in September 2013." (Sr. Walsh)

“When the U.N. committee strays into the culture wars to promote abortion, contraceptives and gay marriage, it undermines its noble cause and trades concern for children to concern for organizations with other agendas,” Sr. Walsh said.

“What a lost opportunity.”

http://vassallomalta.wordpress.com/2014/02/08/united-nations-report-on-vatican-sparks-backlash-in-us/

Sometimes, just sometimes, Tornielli is inflammatory and "over the top"

http://vaticaninsider.lastampa.it/en/the-vatican/detail/articolo/benedetto-xvi-benedict-xvi-benedicto-xvi-31902/

Feast Day of St. Josephine Bakhita

"Be good, love the Lord, pray for those who do not know Him. What a great grace it is to know God!"

~ St. Josephine Bakhita

O God, who led Saint Josephine Bakhita from abject slavery to the dignity of being your daughter and a bride of Christ, grant, we pray, that by her example we may show constant love for the Lord Jesus crucified, remaining steadfast in charity and prompt to show compassion. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

A short biography may be found here on the Vatican website.
http://www.vatican.va/news_services/liturgy/saints/ns_lit_doc_20001001_giuseppina-bakhita_en.html

Oh dear--repeat post because of this silly invisible Church idea

Thursday, 2 August 2012

On the Church and the Mystical Body of Christ-There is No Invisible Church

Posted by Supertradmum

Some commentators are still sending things anonymously. There are notes all over this blog on that policy. However, I want to address one or two as the theology in some were so faulty as to need correction.

One-we can tell who is in the Mystical Body of Christ. The Catholic Church is the Mystical Body of Christ and all baptized members in good standing, that is, not excommunicated or living in repeated states of deadly mortal sin, are members. This is an important point and goes back to all the blogs on baptism. If one removes one's self from the Catholic Church, such as in having an abortion, the removal must be corrected by both repentance and the lifting of the excommunication. Here I quote from Mystici Corporis Christi to clarify this idea. Not all sin destroys this link, but those listed do.

Nor must one imagine that the Body of the Church, just because it bears the name of Christ, is made up during the days of its earthly pilgrimage only of members conspicuous for their holiness, or that it consists only of those whom God has predestined to eternal happiness. It is owing to the Savior's infinite mercy that place is allowed in His Mystical Body here below for those whom, of old, He did not exclude from the banquet.[20] For not every sin, however grave it may be, is such as of its own nature to sever a man from the Body of the Church, as does schism or heresy or apostasy. Men may lose charity and divine grace through sin, thus becoming incapable of supernatural merit, and yet not be deprived of all life if they hold fast to faith and Christian hope, and if, illumined from above, they are spurred on by the interior promptings of the Holy Spirit to salutary fear and are moved to prayer and penance for their sins.

24. Let every one then abhor sin, which defiles the mystical members of our Redeemer; but if anyone unhappily falls and his obstinacy has not made him unworthy of communion with the faithful, let him be received with great love, and let eager charity see in him a weak member of Jesus Christ. For, as the Bishop of Hippo remarks, it is better "to be cured within the Church's community than to be cut off from its body as incurable members."[21] "As long as a member still forms part of the body there is no reason to despair of its cure; once it has been cut off, it can be neither cured nor healed." [22]

Two-the Church of Christ's inauguration IS the Catholic Church and not others. The only other true ones are listed inDominus Iesus, which is linked on the side bar and here. The Catholic Church is the one, true, holy and apostolic Church. Also, I quote Mystici Corporis Christi.

They, therefore, walk in the path of dangerous error who believe that they can accept Christ as the Head of the Church, while not adhering loyally to His Vicar on earth. They have taken away the visible head, broken the visible bonds of unity and left the Mystical Body of the Redeemer so obscured and so maimed, that those who are seeking the haven of eternal salvation can neither see it nor find it.

Three-only baptized persons are children of God. See the CCC and other posts.

Four-to state that all Christian religions are the same as the Catholic Church is the heresy of eirenism, also written about many times here. We cannot pretend there are not differences and heresies. All the Protestants are heretics, and therefore, not members of the one, true Church. We invite all to enter in, but not all take up the invitation. We cannot judge, but can objectively state the situation.

Five-many priests are preaching in error about the "invisible" Church. There is no such thing. The Church is very visible and it is the Catholic Church. Here is Pope Pius XII from the encyclical again:

But we must not think that He rules only in a hidden [59] or extraordinary manner. On the contrary, our Redeemer also governs His Mystical Body in a visible and normal way through His Vicar on earth. You know, Venerable Brethren, that after He had ruled the "little flock" [60] Himself during His mortal pilgrimage, Christ our Lord, when about to leave this world and return to the Father, entrusted to the Chief of the Apostles the visible government of the entire community He had founded. Since He was all wise He could not leave the body of the Church He had founded as a human society without a visible head. Nor against this may one argue that the primacy of jurisdiction established in the Church gives such a Mystical Body two heads. For Peter in view of his primacy is only Christ's Vicar; so that there is only one chief Head of this Body, namely Christ, who never ceases Himself to guide the Church invisibly, though at the same time He rules it visibly, through him who is His representative on earth. After His glorious Ascension into Heaven this Church rested not on Him alone, but on Peter, too, its visible foundation stone. That Christ and His Vicar constitute one only Head is the solemn teaching of Our predecessor of immortal memory Boniface VIII in the Apostolic Letter Unam Sanctam; [61] and his successors have never ceased to repeat the same.

Six-there are many false religions. Sorry, a man-made religion is false. Again, look at the above document of the Church highlighted. Here is Dominus Iesus:

The Church's constant missionary proclamation is endangered today by relativistic theories which seek to justify religious pluralism, not only de facto but also de iure (or in principle). As a consequence, it is held that certain truths have been superseded; for example, the definitive and complete character of the revelation of Jesus Christ, the nature of Christian faith as compared with that of belief in other religions, the inspired nature of the books of Sacred Scripture, the personal unity between the Eternal Word and Jesus of Nazareth, the unity of the economy of the Incarnate Word and the Holy Spirit, the unicity and salvific universality of the mystery of Jesus Christ, the universal salvific mediation of the Church, the inseparability — while recognizing the distinction — of the kingdom of God, the kingdom of Christ, and the Church, and the subsistence of the one Church of Christ in the Catholic Church.

The roots of these problems are to be found in certain presuppositions of both a philosophical and theological nature, which hinder the understanding and acceptance of the revealed truth. Some of these can be mentioned: the conviction of the elusiveness and inexpressibility of divine truth, even by Christian revelation; relativistic attitudes toward truth itself, according to which what is true for some would not be true for others; the radical opposition posited between the logical mentality of the West and the symbolic mentality of the East; the subjectivism which, by regarding reason as the only source of knowledge, becomes incapable of raising its “gaze to the heights, not daring to rise to the truth of being”;⁸ the difficulty in understanding and accepting the presence of definitive and eschatological events in history; the metaphysical emptying of the historical incarnation of the Eternal Logos, reduced to a mere appearing of God in history; the eclecticism of those who, in theological research, uncritically absorb ideas from a variety of philosophical and theological contexts without regard for consistency, systematic connection, or compatibility with Christian truth; finally, the tendency to read and to interpret Sacred Scripture outside the Tradition and Magisterium of the Church.

Seven-we can tell who is in the Mystical Body of Christ. We can pray for those who are not and we should also do penance. A person who follows Peter, that is the Pope, is in the Mystical Body of Christ. Here is Pope Pius XII again on this subject:

The Church which He founded by His Blood, He strengthened on the Day of Pentecost by a special power, given from heaven. For, having solemnly installed in his exalted office him whom He had already nominated as His Vicar, He had ascended into Heaven; and sitting now at the right hand of the Father He wished to make known and proclaim His Spouse through the visible coming of the Holy Spirit with the sound of a mighty wind and tongues of fire.[41] For just as He Himself when He began to preach was made known by His Eternal Father through the Holy Spirit descending and remaining on Him in the form of a dove, [42] so likewise, as the Apostles were about to enter upon their ministry of preaching, Christ our Lord sent the Holy Spirit down from Heaven, to touch them with tongues of fire and to point out, as by the finger of God, the supernatural mission and office of the Church.

34. That this Mystical Body which is the Church should be called Christ's is proved in the second place from the fact that He must be universally acknowledged as its actual Head. "He," as St. Paul says, "is the Head of the Body, the Church." [43] He is the Head from whom the whole body perfectly organized, "groweth and maketh increase unto the edifying of itself." [44]

There is a lot more. I suggest taking time and reading both documents.

Are your children in the Church Militant or the Church Mushy?

There is a famous story of a young girl in France, who was Jewish. On her way home from school, on July 15 or 16, 1942, she witnessed the infamous Vel d’Hiv roundup, when up to 13,000 Jews in Paris were taken to the old stadium Vélodrome d'Hiver and sent to Auschwitz.

The young girl had enough sense not to go home, but turned around and went to the closest house. She knocked on the door and an older woman answered. The woman opened the door, looked at the girl, and let her in.

Through out the entire war and occupation of Paris, this woman pretended that this girl was her own.

The child was saved by a brave woman, who would have been killed, if she was discovered hiding a Jewess.

The young girl was about twelve years old.

I am sharing some of the details as I am writing to parents a harsh but necessary lesson.

As parents, it is our duty to protect our children from harm.

It is not our duty to protect them from the truth of coming times of trials. Children in the next years will be facing a number of extremely difficult situations which will change their lives.

These changes should not come as a shock or surprise to even those in grade school.

Like this young girl, who knew what was happening, and used her common sense to survive, we need to be training children to live in the Church Militant, not the Church Mushy.

There is a wrong way that parents look at suffering. Too many want to pretend that their children will not suffer. But, we have a duty to prepare our children spiritually for suffering.

What does this mean? I have written many posts on the formation of virtue in children from a young age.

That is merely the first step. Formation in the virtues means reading books about virtues, going to Mass in the week, going to regular confession, saying the rosary, going to proper Adoration.

When my son was eight, I took him to the abortion vigil across from where a clinic was being built, and he said the rosary with the group there. The priest who led the vigils told me recently that my young son confided in him that he wanted to be a priest.

There is a connection. Another priest who influenced my son at the age of thirteen came out of the Serbian-Croatian wars as a young man. He shared stories of horrible persecution, and so did his wife. They lost family members because of their religion. They are Byzantine Catholics.

The lives of the martyrs should be shown as soon as possible, especially such great movies as A Man for All Seasons. Ten to twelve would be an appropriate age to begin with movies, but books can be read much earlier. One can share the news about the Christians being persecuted in Syria, or Bethlehem or Saudi Arabia, or Pakistan and show children the lives modern martyrs. Families can pray for these Christians.

Age 13-14

Agnes, Lucy, Tarcisius, Agatha, Odilo, Hugh of Lincoln, Peter Yu Tae-cho, the Ulma children, Ambrosio Kibuuka, Denis Ssebuggwawo, Kizito, Reparata, and José Luis Sánchez del Río are either Servants of God or Blesseds, or Saints.

They are all martyrs, and so are the seven sons of the Mother in the Book of Maccabees, which you can find here. http://supertradmum-etheldredasplace.blogspot.com/2013/08/the-mother-of-seven-brothers.html

They were aged three to eighteen when they were martyred-all of the above. The Church honors them. There are many more child or adolescent saints who were martyred.

Denis SSebuggwawo, Age 16

I was reading books about the early martyrs at age seven. So was my son.

The third step, as stories and movies is step two, would be the praying to martyrs, especially if the child is named after one. I named my son after two martyrs, knowing the days to come would bring suffering, and he would need strong patrons.

Talk about the reality of the political situation if it begins to impinge on the family. Do not hide the truth, for example, if your church is shut down because of the lack of vocations or a priest shortage, share this with the family. If there are heresies or contraception taught in the schools, talk about this. Children need to know the future of the Church as real and affecting their lives. This would be step four.

Step five would be explaining to them that to be a Catholic means making a decision for Christ and His Church even in hard times.

Our children are surrounded more and more by people who hate the Church, hate Christ, and the ways of God. Step six would include discussions on what it means to be in the world, but not of the world. And, I would hope that parents would be living a life which is teaching this truth on a daily basis.

Parents, it is our duty to raise saints, not marshmallow children.

Those in the Church Mushy may not be able to save their souls in the times to come. We are responsible for teaching our children how to become saints in a hostile world.

And, of course, if you are helping your children become closer to Jesus, they will know that they are not alone.

Say the Guardian Angel prayer daily. I do.

to be continued....

Because of a mini-discussion on twitter-

This is more what the Dead Christ looked like on the Cross.

We need to show the photos of dead, aborted babies.

We honor them by revealing the ugliness of their deaths.

Rocks

My dad is almost 91. He is a war veteran, who fought in the Battle of the Bulge. One of the stories he tells us is that when he was student at his parochial school, he had to walk through the Lutheran neighborhood. He would have been about eight or nine years old when the Lutheran boys began throwing rocks at him when he walked by their houses on their way to the public school.

My dad said he learned to run really fast. This all happened about 1931 on. The last acceptable prejudice in Iowa was anti-Catholicism. This prejudice still exists. But, there is a twist. The anti-Catholicism is within the Church, not outside the Church.

All those Catholics who are disobedient in any way, such as taking contraceptions, having abortions, supporting ssm and women priests, skipping Sunday Mass and so is really a new "anti-Catholicism". "I do not have to believe what the Pope says." "I follow the Holy Spirit and He is also outside the Church, so I can believe what the Lutheran believe." "No one is going to tell me what to do in my bedroom." "The Church needs to change."

And, so on...

Anti-Catholicism is simply disobedience. Not to think and reflect about the teachings of the Church is to neglect one's duty in being a Catholics. Anti-Catholicism is also anti-intellectualism.

Rocks are being thrown at the faithful Catholics in the Church. We are attacked by so-called Catholics, who do not want to be Catholics, except superficially, which I do not understand.

Why be a Catholic if one is not going to be faithful? What is the point?

Rocks are thrown for one reason-malevolence. Hatred for Rome and hatred for any of the beautiful, sublime teachings of the Church come from one source. The devil, who hates God and hates us, the children of God, hates the Church.

This battle, these rocks which are thrown at the good servants of God will continue until the day we die.

Ephesians 6:11-18

King James Version (KJV)

11 Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.
12 For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.
13 Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.
14 Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness;
15 And your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace;
16 Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked.
17 And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God:
18 Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints;

I owe my faith to my father and mother and I owe much of the discipline and prayers from them. I learned about the domestic church from them, and how to sustain a Catholic identity from them. For these things, I am eternally grateful. But, in the past six years, we have split over politics. They cannot understand their daughter who has chosen the very narrow way, who has chosen to be a sign of contradiction in the world, and yet, I learned this from them..I think it is because they did not think I would have so many rocks thrown at me and therefore, I live in dire poverty and on the margins of society. So, please pray for my elderly parents, especially my father, who endured rocks for the faith, to come to the end of their lived resting completely in the truth of the Catholic Faith.

To watch others suffer is hard, especially when the person you are watching has taken everything you have said seriously.

In 1965, my dad said to me that to be in the world as a Catholic was to be counter-cultural. I took him seriously. I take my Father in Heaven seriously. One of the gifts God gave me is an overwhelming love of His Church. I love the Church and would die for the Bride of Christ. But, there are some who cannot understand that to love the Church is to be hated by the world and the devil. The American dream of tolerance has ended, and those democratic ideals for which my father fought are disappearing. I cannot imagine the pain.

Rocks, and more rocks............

John 15:18

Douay-Rheims

18 If the world hate you, know ye, that it hath hated me before you.

If you missed February 24, 303 XIV

The answer is YES

http://www.hli.org/2014/02/prelude-to-a-persecution/

Shaking the dust off your feet.............

A few days ago, I shared this passage as I was trying to encourage people to go evangelize those who are open and walk away from those who are hostile and closed. It was also Thursday's Gospel.

This is a hard thing to do, but we have the clear words of Christ Himself on this subject.

If someone does not receive you, or hear you, leave.

And the dusting of the dust of one's feet means that they are left with absolutely nothing, and that the disciples are not taking any guilt away. The hard thing for many people is the leaving behind of those they love, but who are closed.

Most of us have family members who have given up the faith or are absolutely closed. We may be called to walk away and, instead, go to those who are open and thirsty for the truth.

Be open to go wherever God calls you. You may be surprised.

Mark 6:7-13

Douay-Rheims

7 And he called the twelve; and began to send them two and two, and gave them power over unclean spirits.

8 And he commanded them that they should take nothing for the way, but a staff only: no scrip, no bread, nor money in their purse,

9 But to be shod with sandals, and that they should not put on two coats.

10 And he said to them: Wheresoever you shall enter into an house, there abide till you depart from that place.

11 And whosoever shall not receive you, nor hear you; going forth from thence, shake off the dust from your feet for a testimony to them.

12 And going forth they preached that men should do penance:

13 And they cast out many devils, and anointed with oil many that were sick, and healed them.

Etheldredasplace