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Monday 24 November 2014

See comment on Rorate

http://www.newliturgicalmovement.org/#3056761542454766291

http://rorate-caeli.blogspot.com/2014/11/new-prefect-of-cdw-cardinal-sarah.html

Just a Clarification

This is "The River"...



No Comment


Well over a month ago, I stopped being "on twitter". Not only was it too time consuming, but some of the tweeters were getting so rude I did not need the agro.

Same with commentators now. I have decided to stop commenting on any blogs except, maybe, Fr. Z's, where the commentators are less rabid and usually do not resort to ad hominems. Many blogs do not have keen moderators or any at all.

When one gets older, one realizes that one does not have to be insulted. Sadly, there are now two generations who think it is ok to attack the messenger rather than the message, and who do not actually READ was is in a comment, but see what they want to see.

Enough is enough, already.

I have commented as I am a teacher at heart. However, when I was in the classroom, respect was accepted as the norm.

Social communication seems not to have any normatives for polite behavior.

So be it. I do not need to comment.

But, tempted to make a comment here.

http://tinyhouseblog.com/tiny-house-concept/living-life-vagabond/

Just tempted....




EF and Benedictine Calendar-St. John of the Cross

I have more posts than this on this great saint, but here are a few to celebrate the day.


15 Nov 2013
One more note on thoughts from St. John of the Cross. Posted by Supertradmum. Lost a post somewhere between this McDonald's and another one. C'est la vie. Let me just say that it was a goodbye to discussing the stages of ...
10 Aug 2013
John of the Cross Ideas for Today. Posted by Supertradmum. Wisdom enters through love, silence, and mortification. It is great wisdom to know how to be silent and to look at neither the remarks, nor the deeds, nor the lives of ...
14 Dec 2012
The Perfection Series on my blog owes so much to St. John of the Cross. Today, on his great Carmelite feast, I quote him again. One line in the beginning of the stanas strikes me. The soul asks Christ, who is hidden in the ...
10 Apr 2012
Poem of St. John of Cross--The Soul that Suffers with Longing to See God I live, but not in myself, and I have such hope that I die because I do not die. 1. I no longer live within myself and I cannot live without God, for having ...

14 Dec 2012
It is the traditional covering of the marriage bed. The secret place of our hearts, as well. St. Bernard of Clairvaulx and St. John of the Cross understood this mystery of love and shared this with us. Here is more John of the Cross ...
04 Aug 2013
Garrigou-Lagrange has at interesting comparison concerning the experience of the passive purification of the Illuminative State leading up to Unitive State and St. Therese, St. Teresa, and St. John of the Cross. I do not think I ...
15 Dec 2012
If you say, you cannot find God, keep praying and keep looking. Again, from St. John and the same source. God is, as I said before, inaccessible and hidden, and though it may seem that you have found Him, felt Him, and ...
10 Jun 2013
from John of the Cross three. Posted by Supertradmum. Worldly people are in the habit of censuring those who give themselves up in earnest to God, regarding them as extravagant, in their withdrawal from the world, and in ...

27 Jun 2013
Bridegroom The small white dove has returned to the ark with an olive branch; and now the turtledove has found its longed-for mate by the green river banks. She lived in solitude, and now in solitude has built her nest; and in ...
10 Jun 2013
On hell again....and mediocrity · In case you missed this, Pope Emeritus' Health Not... Breaking News from France 24--Interesting · More Q and A from Sunday night · from John of the Cross three · from John of the Cross two ...
15 Apr 2013
As I come to the (almost) end of this long series, started in January of 2012, I emphasize, perhaps, the most loved of all those saints and Doctors who write on perfection, St. John of the Cross. More than all the rest, he is widely ...
10 Jun 2013
From John of the Cross. Posted by Supertradmum. My soul is occupied,. And all my substance in His service;. Now I guard no flock,. Nor have I any other employment: My sole occupation is love. Email ThisBlogThis!Share to ...

17 Apr 2013
Part 127: Doctors of the Church and Perfection: John of the Cross. Posted by Supertradmum ... St. John has written so much more, and like the other Doctors of the Church, has much to share with us. However, this will have to ...
08 Feb 2013
The writings of St. John of the Cross are amongst my favorite spiritual reading, bravo for posting this short letter. I love that you put us the scanned pages rather than the regular copy and paste quote. To me it gives a much ...
29 Oct 2014
The Cross Speaks Loudest. Posted by Supertradmum. The Crucifixion of Christ speaks to us today in a new way. Christ on the Cross, the Word of God rejected by men, is still rejected, even in the Church. St. John wrote this: ...
02 Aug 2013
As mentioned before in the perfection series, St. David himself is an example of one who knew this movement of the Holy Spirit. John of the Cross makes here the distinction between the dark night of the senses-the ...

28 Jan 2013
The entrance into the illuminative way, which is the second conversion described by St. Catherine of Siena, Blessed Henry Suso, Tauler, and Father Lallemant, is called by St. John of the Cross the passive purification of the ...
18 Apr 2013
In accordance with our plan for the division of this work,(1) we shall follow the teaching of St. John of the Cross, who is the faithful echo of the tradition of the great spiritual writers, and treat of the night of the spirit at the ...
05 Nov 2013
A Short Note. Posted by Supertradmum. The Ascent of Mount Carmel by John of the Cross is about the active stages of prayer. The Dark Night is mostly about the passive. If you have not read St. John, read the Ascent first and ...
22 Oct 2013
The list I made yesterday, distilling some of the characteristics of the Dark Night from John of the Cross' writings shows that one can endure this purgation here and now. Why wait until purgatory? Why put off what can be done ...

Some British Bloggers Would Have Trouble With This

http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/supreme-court-case-tests-the-limits-of-free-speech-on-facebook-and-other-social-media/2014/11/23/9e54dbd8-6f67-11e4-ad12-3734c461eab6_story.html

choose the civilized person over the unciviized

http://news.yahoo.com/suicide-blast-afghan-volleyball-game-kills-around-50-154801930.html

All Americans Must Read This

http://www.dcclothesline.com/2014/11/22/rand-paul-trying-warn-us-coming-internment-camps/#more-40419

and this

http://www.dcclothesline.com/2013/02/06/rex-84-fema-camps-and-the-threat-of-martial-law-didnt-start-with-obama/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rex_84

Attack Mode

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sun_Tzu#mediaviewer/File:Enchoen27n3200.jpg

I have written on the importance of community and podding. Here is why.

Many of my friends and readers who are excellent, orthodox Catholics are "under spiritual attack".

It is part of the life of a Christian.

But, if one surrounds one's self with good, strong, straight-down-the-wicket Catholics, one has the prayer support of many others.

Enemy tactics are always to pick off the vulnerable and lone soldiers first.

Do not kid yourselves, this is war time. Lone wolf attacks mark the demonic.

Devils excel at guerrilla warfare.

Today's Gospel Reading

Do not give out of your abundance, but out of your need. Someone asked me yesterday if I was upset that my only son, my only child, was going to be a priest. I have been asked this question so many times, I am no longer surprised by the lack of understanding of the honor of having a son in the seminary.

I replied no, of course, and that I have known for 21 years that this son would be a priest.


I have tithed the fruit of my body-the best goes to God first. We do not tithe after we have budgeted or decided on spending, we tithe the first and the best to God.

Cain killed Abel not merely because God favored Abel, but because Abel was righteous in giving his best to God. Those who lack generosity cannot understand the virtue of religion, and actually hate those who put God first.

This attitude of piety convicts those who want to put themselves first, which causes the aversion to that holy person.

Today's reading reveals Christ love for those who put Him first, and His Bride first, the Church.

I am poor, but what I have I give to Thee, O Lord, for You are my God and I love You.




Maltese Uncertainty


Discussing the future of Malta with several people last week, I learned that that the Maltese are worried about the future of this country. One man said he is afraid of the closing of churches.

The problems would be easy to solve, but, as usual, the solution staring most people in the face is simple.

This country has been blessed with prosperity and peace because of one huge asset-Catholicism.

The Catholic population once was made up of practicing Catholics. A lady told me on Saturday that her grandparents had eight children, her mother two, and she has one.

This is a contracepting culture.

The fact that the gorgeous, ancient, venerable churches are full of old and middle-aged people tells the story of a people making themselves extinct.

Materialism and consumerism plus the popularity of socialist parties show a real problem of Catholics not thinking like Catholics. They are thinking like secularists. Money comes first, comfort comes first. A woman said to me on Saturday that the non-Maltese do not mind living in crowded houses, with many in a small space, but the Maltese no longer want to do this. They put comfort and status before children.

Seeking status is a huge impetus, which trumps normal family life. People think they have to have cars, lots of things, a certain standard of living, which their grandparents were happy not to have.

I see babies daily when I am out and about. Few are Maltese babies, very few.

Demographics are changing the culture, and this is so obvious in a small space that many are talking about this.

But, what is needed is not talk but repentance, conversion, back to the simple teachings of the Church on the family.

Wealth has ruined Malta. Business seems more important than religion.

Without God, without Catholicism, nothing is important, and all becomes deadly.

The death of this culture would be a tragedy felt across the entire Mediterranean. The Maltese at one time kept the enemies of Catholicism from entering the continent of Europe.

We shall not see this strength again unless people return in their hearts, minds, and pocketbooks back to Jesus and Mary.

The lie of contraception is an open sore which is causing this lovely nation to bleed to death.

And Companions

On this day in 1980, I heard a sermon from a Jesuit friend of mine, (not the same one mentioned in yesterday's post), who said he dreaded being martyred with a lot of other martyrs, as then his name would not be on the calendar, except as "and companions."

Hmmm, only a Jesuit would think of that! Today is the feast Day of the 117 martyrs of Viet Nam,--St. Andrew Dung Lac AND COMPANIONS.