Perfection Series VI:VII Reparation

Too many people tell me they are too busy to pray, much less do penance.

As Fulton J. Sheen once said, if you are too busy to pray, you are too busy.

One must come to the realization that certain other activities and interests must be sacrificed in order to make time for reparation. Here is Pope Pius XI on this point.

19. And for this reason also there have been established many religious families of men and women whose purpose it is by earnest service, both by day and by night, in some manner to fulfill the office of the Angel consoling Jesus in the garden; hence come certain associations of pious men, approved by the Apostolic See and enriched with indulgences, who take upon themselves this same duty of making expiation, a duty which is to be fulfilled by fitting exercises of devotion and of the virtues; hence lastly, to omit other things, come the devotions and solemn demonstrations for the purpose of making reparation to the offended Divine honor, which are inaugurated everywhere, not only by pious members of the faithful, but by parishes, dioceses and cities.

Do Catholics understand the real reason for the celebration of the Feast of the Sacred Heart? Do you want the current crisis in the Church to abate? Honor the Sacred Heart. Do you want changes in your governments? Honor the Sacred Heart. Do you want conversions among the lapsed Catholics in your own families? Honor the Sacred Heart.

20. These things being so, Venerable Brethren, just as the rite of consecration, starting from humble beginnings, and afterwards more widely propagated, was at length crowned with success by Our confirmation; so in like manner, we earnestly desire that this custom of expiation or pious reparation, long since devoutly introduced and devoutly propagated, may also be more firmly sanctioned by Our Apostolic authority and more solemnly celebrated by the whole Catholic name. Wherefore, we decree and command that every year on the Feast of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, - which feast indeed on this occasion we have ordered to be raised to the degree of a double of the first class with an octave - in all churches throughout the whole world, the same expiatory prayer or protestation as it is called, to Our most loving Savior, set forth in the same words according to the copy subjoined to this letter shall be solemnly recited, so that all our faults may be washed away with tears, and reparation may be made for the violated rights of Christ the supreme King and Our most loving Lord.

One of the problems is that people, even Catholics, do not understand just how transcendent God is. We have, as a society, as Western cultures, "dumbed-down God". One of the messages of Fatima, especially seen in the life of Blessed Jacinta, is the need for suffering in order for souls to be saved.

This young holy girl puts us to shame with her courage and determination to follow Mary's call for reparation.

21. There is surely no reason for doubting, Venerable Brethren, that from this devotion piously established and commanded to the whole Church, many excellent benefits will flow forth not only to individual men but also to society, sacred, civil, and domestic, seeing that our Redeemer Himself promised to Margaret Mary that "all those who rendered this honor to His Heart would be endowed with an abundance of heavenly graces." Sinners indeed, looking on Him whom they pierced (John xix, 37), moved by the sighs and tears of the whole Church, by grieving for the injuries offered to the supreme King, will return to the heart (Isaias xlvi, 8), lest perchance being hardened in their faults, when they see Him whom they pierced "coming in the clouds of heaven" (Matth. xxvi, 64), too late and in vain they shall bewail themselves because of Him 
(Cf. Apoc. i, 7). 

Absolutely, now is the time for reparation to the Sacred Heart. The time for wasting opportunities must be seen as over. The Pope here sensed an urgency. Are not these times more urgent?

to be continued...

Perfection Series VI: VI Reparation

In the encyclical we have been following in this mini-series on reparation, the Pope calls on all to remember the devotion to the Sacred Heart, started through the revelations given to St. Margaret Mary.

The two things Christ called for as activities for reparation are Communion of Reparation and attending Holy Hour.

Sadly, Holy Hour devotions slipped into oblivion, although many parishes now have hours of Adoration. There are still too few parishes or chapels with Adoration.

The Communion of Reparation is something each person can adopt. Offering one's merits in Communion either for an individual person or the Church in general, especially in these perilous times, seems appropriate, and necessary.

I suggest praying as to whether you are called to make reparation for someone's sins other than your own.

An entire nation may need people to be involved in making reparation for such crimes as abortion and ssm.

Consider this encyclical. Consider the call to reparation.

Perfection Series VI: V Reparation

Till We Have Faces: A Myth Retold by C.S.Lewis is a book I taught for years at several colleges and universities, as well as in home schooling situations.

I have been obsessed with this story and love it, considering it Lewis' masterpiece.

I am not going into all the details of the plot, but will refer merely to two of the main characters, Psyche and Orual. By the way, I have written on this book before on this blog way back before 2009 and some of my older readers may remember my comments.

For me, the most important two elements of the novel are these: first, that Pysche must do penance for disobedience, for not trusting in Cupid, and for giving in to manipulation and lies.

Second, Psyche's reparation made it possible for Orual to have an excellent life, but as she is so full of pride, denial and ingratitude, she must be brought to see her sins and that fact that Pysche did all the work of reparation so that Orual could be successful and loved.

Such is reparation in Christian terms applied to the ancient myth. Perhaps my constant returning to this book both in my private reading and in teaching (my students loved this book on the whole, btw) is connected to my now realized call to do reparation for whomever or whatever God calls me.

Orual thought her love for Pysche was pure, but it was not. However, Psyche's love for Orual was pure. She got nothing in return for her labors until the very end of the journey.

That is the point. Reparative love must be purified, completely unselfish love.

That Psyche loved Orual purely allowed her to complete the tasks, to do the reparation necessary to save Orual.

In the end, Orual realizes that she, although ugly from birth physically, is truly beautiful to the gods, as Psyche is beautiful.

Of course, allegorically, we know that Psyche is the soul of Orual.

Love and reparation create something new in a soul. This newness may be a portal, and opening wherein grace can flow, heal, deliver.

Obviously, Christ has done the work, but He calls us in that mysterious manner to share in His sufferings for a particular person or group or situation.

When one becomes joined to Christ in suffering, only love transcends the pain, and it does, bringing a peace, and, as St. Therese the Little Flower writes, "unfelt joy".

to be continued...

Perfection Series VI:lV Reparation

Thanks to wikicommons

This encyclical could have been written today, as I mentioned before. Does this section not sound like a commentary of what is happening in both Rome and across the West?

What I have commented on daily is summarized in this section. Is there not reason for us to do reparation now, at this time, more than ever?


16. But it is yet more to be lamented, Venerable Brethren, that among the faithful themselves, washed in Baptism with the blood of the immaculate Lamb, and enriched with grace, there are found so many men of every class, who laboring under an incredible ignorance of Divine things and infected with false doctrines, far from their Father's home, lead a life involved in vices, a life which is not brightened by the light of true faith, nor gladdened by the hope of future beatitude, nor refreshed and cherished by the fire of charity; so that they truly seem to sit in darkness and in the shadow of death. Moreover, among the faithful there is a greatly increasing carelessness of ecclesiastical discipline, and of those ancient institutions on which all Christian life rests, by which domestic society is governed, and the sanctity of marriage is safeguarded; the education of children is altogether neglected, or else it is depraved by too indulgent blandishments, and the Church is even robbed of the power of giving the young a Christian education; there is a sad forgetfulness of Christian modesty especially in the life and the dress of women; there is an unbridled cupidity of transitory things, a want of moderation in civic affairs, an unbounded ambition of popular favor, a depreciation of legitimate authority, and lastly a contempt for the word of God, whereby faith itself is injured, or is brought into proximate peril.

17. But all these evils as it were culminate in the cowardice and the sloth of those who, after the manner of the sleeping and fleeing disciples, wavering in their faith, miserably forsake Christ when He is oppressed by anguish or surrounded by the satellites of Satan, and in the perfidy of those others who following the example of the traitor Judas, either partake of the holy table rashly and sacrilegiously, or go over to the camp of the enemy. And thus, even against our will, the thought rises in the mind that now those days draw near of which Our Lord prophesied: "And because iniquity hath abounded, the charity of many shall grow cold" (Matth. xxiv, 12).

Today I was treated rudely by more than one person in the "service industry". Charity has grown cold.

More than ever, we each must consider doing penance, mortification, more prayer.

18. Now, whosoever of the faithful have piously pondered on all these things must need be inflamed with the charity of Christ in His agony and make a more vehement endeavor to expiate their own faults and those of others, to repair the honor of Christ, and to promote the eternal salvation of souls. And indeed that saying of the Apostle: "Where sin abounded, grace did more abound" (Romans v, 20) may be used in a manner to describe this present age; for while the wickedness of men has been greatly increased, at the same time, by the inspiration of the Holy Ghost, a marvelous increase has been made in the number of the faithful of both sexes who with eager mind endeavor to make satisfaction for the many injuries offered to the Divine Heart, nay more they do not hesitate to offer themselves to Christ as victims. 

Joining groups like the Auxilium Christianorum or the Society of the Most Sorrowful Mother seems timely.

For indeed if any one will lovingly dwell on those things of which we have been speaking, and will have them deeply fixed in his mind, it cannot be but he will shrink with horror from all sin as from the greatest evil, and more than this he will yield himself wholly to the will of God, and will strive to repair the injured honor of the Divine Majesty, as well by constantly praying, as by voluntary mortifications, by patiently bearing the afflictions that befall him, and lastly by spending his whole life in this exercise of expiation.

Are there generous souls out there willing to take on the challenge of this encyclical?

to be continued...

Perfection Series VI

I am not finished yet with the encyclical or the series. More later tomorrow.

Perfection Series VI:II.5 Reparation

Continuing with the theme of how does one know for whom or what to make reparation, I have one clear answer. This is a follow-up of II.

Those for whom God has placed on own hearts and in our minds great love, who are in need of having someone do reparation for them, are those to whom God wants you to focus your prayers and energies.

Mortification, penance, prayers, either for one person, a few people, the clergy in general, the Church, become focused as God pours sacrificial love into hearts in order for this reparation to occur.

Reparation takes tremendous energy and will-power. Those for whom one prays may never know until heaven that one made reparation for them.

So be it.

Like Christ seeing all the elements, stages, tortures of His Passion and Death, and seeing the ingratitude and horror of sin from all mankind, one may see sin, corruption, ingratitude and remain silent.

One may not see such things if one is praying for a friend or family member, but if one is praying for the clergy, the bishops, the cardinals who are insulting Truth both in the Person of Christ and in His 
Church, one may see such painful realities.

But, the real pain is the sacrificial love which is not acknowledged and cannot be.

Suffering in silence, alone, like Christ in the Garden, may be part of one's call to the ministry of reparation.

At that point, one experiences tremendous peace and even joy in pain. The reason for this is that one is joining Christ in the Garden of Gethsemane, as He has called one to join Him there.

Such is the calling of those who make reparation for others.

to be continued....

Perfection Series VI:III Reparation

I shall come back to the devotion to the Sacred Heart, but as Pope Pius XI places it in this context, I leave it here. But, I want to go on the section 13, the lines I highlighted.

12. And truly the spirit of expiation or reparation has always had the first and foremost place in the worship given to the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, and nothing is more in keeping with the origin, the character, the power, and the distinctive practices of this form of devotion, as appears from the record of history and custom, as well as from the sacred liturgy and the acts of the Sovereign Pontiffs. For when Christ manifested Himself to Margaret Mary, and declared to her the infinitude of His love, at the same time, in the manner of a mourner, He complained that so many and such great injuries were done to Him by ungrateful men - and we would that these words in which He made this complaint were fixed in the minds of the faithful, and were never blotted out by oblivion: "Behold this Heart" - He said - "which has loved men so much and has loaded them with all benefits, and for this boundless love has had no return but neglect, and contumely, and this often from those who were bound by a debt and duty of a more special love." In order that these faults might be washed away, He then recommended several things to be done, and in particular the following as most pleasing to Himself, namely that men should approach the Altar with this purpose of expiating sin, making what is called a Communion of Reparation, - and that they should likewise make expiatory supplications and prayers, prolonged for a whole hour, - which is rightly called the "Holy Hour." These pious exercises have been approved by the Church and have also been enriched with copious indulgences.

13. But how can these rites of expiation bring solace now, when Christ is already reigning in the beatitude of Heaven? To this we may answer in some words of St. Augustine which are very apposite here, - "Give me one who loves, and he will understand what I say" (In Johannis evangelium, tract. XXVI, 4).

I shall come back to this theme of Christ in the Garden of Gethsemane, the Agony in the Garden, in a long post later, but here I want to emphasize that Christ already suffered for our sins, but that He, in the Garden, received some consolation from the Angel sent to Him, which the Pope states here, was the consolation WE created through reparation for our own sins and those of others.

Imagine, the Angel of the Agony bringing our mortifications, penances, sufferings to Christ in that hour? What a tremendous insight from this Pope.

For any one who has great love of God, if he will look back through the tract of past time may dwell in meditation on Christ, and see Him laboring for man, sorrowing, suffering the greatest hardships, "for us men and for our salvation," well-nigh worn out with sadness, with anguish, nay "bruised for our sins" (Isaias liii, 5), and healing us by His bruises. And the minds of the pious meditate on all these things the more truly, because the sins of men and their crimes committed in every age were the cause why Christ was delivered up to death, and now also they would of themselves bring death to Christ, joined with the same griefs and sorrows, since each several sin in its own way is held to renew the passion of Our Lord: "Crucifying again to themselves the Son of God, and making him a mockery" (Hebrews vi, 6). Now if, because of our sins also which were as yet in the future, but were foreseen, the soul of Christ became sorrowful unto death, it cannot be doubted that then, too, already He derived somewhat of solace from our reparation, which was likewise foreseen, when "there appeared to Him an angel from heaven" (Luke xxii, 43), in order that His Heart, oppressed with weariness and anguish, might find consolation. And so even now, in a wondrous yet true manner, we can and ought to console that Most Sacred Heart which is continually wounded by the sins of thankless men, since - as we also read in the sacred liturgy - Christ Himself, by the mouth of the Psalmist complains that He is forsaken by His friends: "My Heart hath expected reproach and misery, and I looked for one that would grieve together with me, but there was none: and for one that would comfort me, and I found none" (Psalm lxviii, 21).

The forsaking of friends and family creates a horrible void, a pain in Christ, which one cannot imagine, as He is all Pure, all Good, all Innocent. Those who have been forsaken in their lives have experienced a smidgen of this great pain of Our Lord's.

But, this is not all the Pope tells us.

14. To this it may be added that the expiatory passion of Christ is renewed and in a manner continued and fulfilled in His mystical body, which is the Church. For, to use once more the words of St. Augustine, "Christ suffered whatever it behoved Him to suffer; now nothing is wanting of the measure of the sufferings. Therefore the sufferings were fulfilled, but in the head; there were yet remaining the sufferings of Christ in His body" (In Psalm lxxxvi). This, indeed, Our Lord Jesus Himself vouchsafed to explain when, speaking to Saul, "as yet breathing out threatenings and slaughter" (Acts ix, 1), He said, "I am Jesus whom thou persecutest" (Acts ix, 5), clearly signifying that when persecutions are stirred up against the Church, the Divine Head of the Church is Himself attacked and troubled. Rightly, therefore, does Christ, still suffering in His mystical body, desire to have us partakers of His expiation, and this is also demanded by our intimate union with Him, for since we are "the body of Christ and members of member" (1 Corinthians xii, 27), whatever the head suffers, all the members must suffer with it (Cf. 1 Corinthians xii, 26).

As it is obvious that we are now living in the Age of Martyrs, we can see how those who are tortured and killed join not only with Christ, but with us, as all members both suffer and rejoice in martyrdom. So, too, Christ suffered in Gethsemane and throughout His Passion and Death the pain of those who die for Him and the pain of those who torture and kill. Christ took all that suffering unto Himself.

So, where does this leave us and for whom are we doing reparation? This next section could have been written this morning..................

15. Now, how great is the necessity of this expiation or reparation, more especially in this our age, will be manifest to every one who, as we said at the outset, will examine the world, "seated in wickedness" (1 John v, 19), with his eyes and with his mind. For from all sides the cry of the peoples who are mourning comes up to us, and their princes or rulers have indeed stood up and met together in one against the Lord and against His Church (Cf. Psalm ii, 2). Throughout those regions indeed, we see that all rights both human and Divine are confounded. Churches are thrown down and overturned, religious men and sacred virgins are torn from their homes and are afflicted with abuse, with barbarities, with hunger and imprisonment; bands of boys and girls are snatched from the bosom of their mother the Church, and are induced to renounce Christ, to blaspheme and to attempt the worst crimes of lust; the whole Christian people, sadly disheartened and disrupted, are continually in danger of falling away from the faith, or of suffering the most cruel death. These things in truth are so sad that you might say that such events foreshadow and portend the "beginning of sorrows," that is to say of those that shall be brought by the man of sin, "who is lifted up above all that is called God or is worshipped" (2 Thessalonians ii, 4).

And, here is the mystery...God chooses for whom we do acts and prayers of reparation.

God chooses. 

This reparation could be for individual blasphemers, haters, apostates, heretics, false leaders, false friends, betrayers of all types, or even person for whom God gives us a particular love in order to pray for them. 

Some may be stranger, some may be friends, some may be our blood brothers and sisters, some may be our spouses.

Some may be our enemies.

God can also call someone to make reparation in general: for dead babies of abortion; for heresy and apostasy in the Church; for a group which is schismatic. for bad priests in general, for bad bishops in general, and so on.

God decides for whom or even for what, such as these times, one may be called to reparation.

to be continued..............

Perfection Series VI:II Reparation

Continuing with the same encyclical for a bit, one reads this.

11. Wherefore, even as consecration proclaims and confirms this union with Christ, so does expiation begin that same union by washing away faults, and perfect it by participating in the sufferings of Christ, and consummate it by offering victims for the brethren. And this indeed was the purpose of the merciful Jesus, when He showed His Heart to us bearing about it the symbols of the passion and displaying the flames of love, that from the one we might know the infinite malice of sin, and in the other we might admire the infinite charity of Our Redeemer, and so might have a more vehement hatred of sin, and make a more ardent return of love for His love.

Several points here, which I hope to clear up for your benefit and mine.

One, the first step is the purification of sin, and faults, like those predominant faults. That must happen in order to be able to pray for others freely, without egotism and desires.

One must be completely detached from all ideas, expectations, dreams, people, places, things. Of course, as you all know from reading the Dark Night series and the other perfection series. this purification must include suffering in order that one is freed from egoism.

How can one join in the love of Christ on the Cross with flaws, with faults?

God wants to make us pure so that we can love purely.

Two, the malice of sin, so obvious in our day, wounds the Human and Divine Heart of Christ. Reparation must be made.

But, one cannot take one, little, teeny-weeny pride in this endeavor. That is one reason this purity of love follows the purification of the spirit. Now, the line between "offering up" sacrifices for others and self-interest and pride is a thin line until one is purified.

And, that is the reason I have come to think one can only really, truly love in a sacrificial manner when one gets to the Illumination State. As long as any faults, flaws, not even counting venial sins, stand between us and pure sacrificial love, our offerings may not only be incomplete, but useless.

This fact alone demands that we cooperate with God in the stripping which occurs in the Dark Night.

What follows that purity of sight and mind are both clarity as to the horror of sin, and a great love for Christ Who died for us to free us and others from sin and death.

God truly desires that we are purified before death, for several reasons, but one would be the efficacious sacrificial reparation done for others.

Now, for what or whom is one doing such reparation? That answer will be part of the next posting.

to be continued...

New MINI-Series on Miserentissimus Redemptor-Perfection Series VI:I

Thinking, praying, experiencing a new call to make reparation daily in my life for.....what God is calling me to do, I have decided to share with you some thoughts from Pope Pius XI from his encyclical Miserentissimus Redemptor.

I shall not dwell at this point on the obvious devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, the central devotion concerning reparation. However, I shall return to that.

Let me start with this quotation from the encyclical:

 ...we must ever remember that the whole virtue of the expiation depends on the one bloody sacrifice of Christ, which without intermission of time is renewed on our altars in an unbloody manner, "For the victim is one and the same, the same now offering by the ministry of priests, who then offered Himself on the cross, the manner alone of offering being different" (Council of Trent, Session XXIII, Chapter 2). Wherefore with this most august Eucharistic Sacrifice there ought to be joined an oblation both of the ministers and of all the faithful, so that they also may "present themselves living sacrifices, holy, pleasing unto God" (Romans xii, 1). Nay more, St. Cyprian does not hesitate to affirm that "the Lord's sacrifice is not celebrated with legitimate sanctification, unless our oblation and sacrifice correspond to His passion" (Ephesians 63). For this reason, the Apostle admonishes us that "bearing about in our body the mortification of Jesus" (2Corinthians iv, 10), and buried together with Christ, and planted together in the likeness of His death (Cf. Romans vi, 4-5), we must not only crucify our flesh with the vices and concupiscences (Cf. Galatians v, 24), "flying the corruption of that concupiscence which is in the world" (2 Peter i, 4), but "that the life also of Jesus may be made manifest in our bodies" (2 Corinthians iv, 10) and being made partakers of His eternal priesthood we are to offer up "gifts and sacrifices for sins" (Hebrews v, 1). Nor do those only enjoy a participation in this mystic priesthood and in the office of satisfying and sacrificing, whom our Pontiff Christ Jesus uses as His ministers to offer up the clean oblation to God's Name in every place from the rising of the sun to the going down (Malachias i, 11), but the whole Christian people rightly called by the Prince of the Apostles "a chosen generation, a kingly priesthood" (1 Peter ii, 9), ought to offer for sins both for itself and for all mankind (Cf. Hebrews v, 3), in much the same manner as every priest and pontiff "taken from among men, is ordained for men in the things that appertain to God" (Hebrews v, 1).

The highlighted part has been a tradition ignored in preaching and teaching since the 1970s. All are called to mortification, to crucifying the flesh in some way, to accepting the purification of the senses in the Dark Night. No one can skip these calls to penance and expect to be made perfect.

Of course, the unbloody sacrifice of the Mass forms the center of worship and focus for reparation.

But, as Cyprian points out in the section above, we must bring to the Mass our own mortification and penances in order to not only join ourselves with Christ in the sacrifice of the Mass, but to be made more perfect in the union with Christ when we received Holy Communion.

Here is another section.

10. But the more perfectly that our oblation and sacrifice corresponds to the sacrifice of Our Lord, that is to say, the more perfectly we have immolated our love and our desires and have crucified our flesh by that mystic crucifixion of which the Apostle speaks, the more abundant fruits of that propitiation and expiation shall we receive for ourselves and for others. For there is a wondrous and close union of all the faithful with Christ, such as that which prevails between the head and the other members; moreover by that mystic Communion of Saints which we profess in the Catholic creed, both individual men and peoples are joined together not only with one another but also with him, "who is the head, Christ; from whom the whole body, being compacted and fitly joined together, by what every joint supplieth, according to the operation in the measure of every part, maketh increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in charity" (Ephesians iv, 15-16). It was this indeed that the Mediator of God and men, Christ Jesus, when He was near to death, asked of His Father: "I in them, and thou in me: that they may be made perfect in one" (John xvii, 23)

Notice that Pius XI emphasizes the union with Christ through suffering, as well as the reparation necessary made when we engage in penance.

Love grows out of these mortifications. 

And, note, we are only made perfect through this type of denial of the self, both in the physical (purification of the senses) and in the spiritual  (purification of the spirit). Giving up things must be part of these penances, and the patient acceptance of suffering which God has ordained, forms another part.

More to come...

Hello to Readers in America

Hello to Friends in Sweden

Hello to Readers in Spain

Hello to Friends in Ireland

Hope you can watch this...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MVZef_cA0F4&feature=em-subs_digest

Father Z Getting Very Brave

http://wdtprs.com/blog/2014/10/jihadist-magazine-shows-black-flag-flying-from-st-peters-obelisk/

Just watch Michael Voris

Clarity from Rome from The Vortex...just follow him for news. He is there and I am in Malta.
He is in Rome now and for two weeks so just sign up for his daily reports.

Well worth watching, He is a true journalist and an excellent Catholic. No messing about.

Do not bother to read the Catholic Herald which is rubbish right now.

All this chaos comes from the fact that we have a multitude of cardinals and bishops who have never studied Thomism.

Fr. Z is good,,...as well.

http://wdtprs.com/blog/2014/10/synods-are-messy-the-media-quarantine-isnt-helping/

Not Again! Danger for A Priest.

Please pray for an Ordinariate priest in England who is involved in a false seer's following. The CDF specifically warned us against the prayer meetings of True Life in God. And Ms Ryden has been disciplined by her own church.

Catholic bishops in the States are more obedient and refuse to have her speak in diocesan venues. Her words are merely private meditations and not from God, but her own interpretations. She is flat out wrong on ecumenism even the stand in her own church.

Pray for the priest who is passing out information at pro-life venues. Dangerous stuff.

Check out this unusually good article.

Snippet from that article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vassula_Ryden

In 1995, the Catholic Church's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) published a Notification (a message from the Holy See) on the writings of Rydén, saying her communications should not be considered supernatural, and calling all Catholic bishops to prevent Rydén's ideas from being spread in their dioceses.^[4] In 2007, Cardinal William Levada confirmed that the 1995 Notification was still in effect; he recommended that Catholics should not join prayer groups organized by Rydén. In 2011, the Greek Orthodox Church officially disapproved of Rydén's teachings, instructing their faithful to disassociate from Rydén. In 2012, the Church of Cyprus said that Rydén's teachings were heretical.

Apologies to those who are sick of seeing these types of posts.

Again, On The Synod, Briefly

Watch Burke. I still think he will be Pope someday. We are in unusual times. Watch Burke and do not panic. The Church was assailed by Arians, and now Modernists. But, the Church will always exist as Christ founded, even though very small.

Just get holy and learn to discern what is good and true. You must.

Blogging Later-

I am in the midst of discerning something in my life....will post later today.

Timely Repost

Thursday, 30 January 2014

How small is the remnant? Perfection II:viii

Posted by Supertradmum

The Babylonian Captivity

The question of community and remnant go together in people's conversation.

The idea of community connects with the idea that a remnant would need support in order to survive.

This is true. But, for a moment, let me write about what a remnant really is.

And, how big is a remnant?

First of all, two New Testament passages refer to the remnant. In the second passage, the "seed" is the remnant.

Second, the remnant is saved by grace, by election, that is chosen by God, and are those who have kept the Ten Commandments and have the testimony of Jesus Christ, which is baptism.

Third, the remnant is those who persevere. And, are purified. Remember, that purification begins with orthodoxy.

Fourth, the remnant is the Church Militant, not the Church Mushy.

Fifth, the remnant has always really been small, contrary to romantic history of the Church.

Sixth, the one, true Faith is the faith of the remnant.

Seventh, the remnant may or may not have the sacraments or priests, therefore, the habit of prayer and holiness must be part of the members' daily lives.

Eighth, the remnant will be separated and not in great groups. Think about this. The remnant will be surrounded by pagans.

Ninth, the remnant will be and is now, responsible for passing down the Faith to the next generation.

Tenth, the remnant will be mostly hidden.

Romans 11:5

Douay-Rheims 

5 Even so then at this present time also, there is a remnant saved according to the election of grace.

Revelation 12:17

Douay-Rheims 

17 And the dragon was angry against the woman: and went to make war with the rest of her seed, who keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.

Some people have been thinking out loud that few as 5,000 people in the future in Europe could be practicing, faithful Catholics. Does this shock you? This is not prophesy, but an idea which is extrapolated from numbers, events, observations. Be Catholic, be part of the remnant.