Monday, 23 February 2015
Conspiracy Tracking as A Cop-Out
OK. to set the record straight, I totally believe that the OWG is planned and coming.
However, I want to address Catholic conspiracies which take over people's imaginations and why these are dangerous to consider.
I have seen people obsessed with the Masonic conspiracies, Fatima conspiracies, or Vatican II conspiracies.
There is nothing wrong with being aware of history, however, to be eaten up with such not only is dangerous, but may indicate a sin of sloth.
One must be reaching out daily to those who need to be evangelized, to the lost, the hungry.
If the laity only look and read newspapers and books dealing with conspiracies, and want to blame these for all the troubles in the Church, these lay people are missing the boat.
Sin causes evil and sin causes groups to form who do conspire.
But, we should be concentrating on our own sin and our daily lives of prayer and work.
To be eaten up with conspiracies creates a mindset which takes attention away from daily examination of our own consciences and looks to blame others for evil.
Until we are saints, we all contribute to evil in the world in some way, however small. This is why working on the predominate faults is so important.
Perfection, interior life, charity...
God is about ready to take care of the biggies--He has, as I have said elsewhere. unleashed the dog from the chain for a time.
Get ready and help others get ready and set aside conspiracy hunting. We know what is out there.
However, I want to address Catholic conspiracies which take over people's imaginations and why these are dangerous to consider.
I have seen people obsessed with the Masonic conspiracies, Fatima conspiracies, or Vatican II conspiracies.
There is nothing wrong with being aware of history, however, to be eaten up with such not only is dangerous, but may indicate a sin of sloth.
One must be reaching out daily to those who need to be evangelized, to the lost, the hungry.
If the laity only look and read newspapers and books dealing with conspiracies, and want to blame these for all the troubles in the Church, these lay people are missing the boat.
Sin causes evil and sin causes groups to form who do conspire.
But, we should be concentrating on our own sin and our daily lives of prayer and work.
To be eaten up with conspiracies creates a mindset which takes attention away from daily examination of our own consciences and looks to blame others for evil.
Until we are saints, we all contribute to evil in the world in some way, however small. This is why working on the predominate faults is so important.
Perfection, interior life, charity...
God is about ready to take care of the biggies--He has, as I have said elsewhere. unleashed the dog from the chain for a time.
Get ready and help others get ready and set aside conspiracy hunting. We know what is out there.
From The Hermit
Lent Reminds Is: We Are At Warby The Hermit |
“Lent reminds us, therefore, that Christian life is a never-ending combat in which the 'weapons' of prayer, fasting and penance are used. Fighting against evil, against every form of selfishness and hate, and dying to oneself to live in God is the ascetic journey that every disciple of Jesus is called to make with humility and patience, with generosity and perseverance.” ~Pope Benedict XVI
From Kathy Sinnott
http://gloria.tv/media/N5p8pV9dCwi
She wanted to interview me, but we just could not get together.
This is an interesting Celtic Connection. Thanks to Lynda. I agree with Father on the renewal of the Church coming from Eastern Europe.
http://www.catholicbishops.ie/2010/03/11/why-marriage-matters-2/
21 post day!
And this interview is "awesome", so please listen.
She wanted to interview me, but we just could not get together.
This is an interesting Celtic Connection. Thanks to Lynda. I agree with Father on the renewal of the Church coming from Eastern Europe.
http://www.catholicbishops.ie/2010/03/11/why-marriage-matters-2/
21 post day!
And this interview is "awesome", so please listen.
This is great fun.....good for discussion for home schoolers
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http://htwins.net/scale2/
Some follow ups
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gomez%27s_Hamburger
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pillars_of_Creation
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eagle_Nebula
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- Public Domain
- File:Pillars of creation 2014 HST WFC3-UVIS full-res denoised.jpg
- Uploaded by Crisco 1492
- Created: October 29, 2014
Petition Needed
https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/nyc-st.-patricks-parade-rejects-pro-life-group-as-gay-activists-prepare-to
Read this on Kulturkampf
http://www.nationaljournal.com/next-america/population-2043/the-coming-college-decline-20150114
I have nothing against community colleges and some of the best professors in America teach in these small colleges.
I also think most kids in university do not need to be there, as we need more schools teaching basics such as mechanics.
However, to undermine universities, especially those which have liberal arts as a basis for curriculum, which community colleges do not, is to follow Bismarck's deliberate undermining of the academies, for the support of gymasiums. which I have written about at length on this blog. Some are listed below.
Why is this bad? Only liberal arts create a thinking populace. Technical schools do not.
The Holocaust and Hitler were a direct result of Bismarck's education "reforms". Read my previous posts.
And wake up, America!
07 Dec 2012
Bismarck and Dewey would be pleased. American literature classics are to be replaced by insulation manuals and plant inventories in US classrooms by 2014. A new school curriculum which will affect 46 out of 50 states will ...
20 Apr 2012
The Popes of the 19th century fought against the Bismarck movement to change social and political life, partly by emphasizing Thomism in the face of the other isms which grew up after the Reformation: godless republicanism ...
07 Apr 2013
For centuries, children and adolescents learned the liberal arts in order to learn how to think. This ideal was destroyed on purpose in the 19th century by Bismarck and by Dewey, among others. If a Catholic has not had the ...
01 Feb 2013
Years and years of propaganda and hatred, plus the loss of critical thinking among the German people under Bismarck's changes in education, created a compliant people. Here are a few highlights of article for Stage Four.
01 Feb 2013
... from atheistsforum.org. Catholics who are weak-minded have allowed these types of pre-persecution ideas to simmer in the culture. So too, Bismarck and others took advantage of simmering anti-Semitism. To be continued.
07 Feb 2012
But, as you know, anti-Catholicism goes back to Bismarck, who hated the Church, so you are witnessing 100 plus years of such. As to finding all those friends, three are in England, two in America, one in Malta and so on...so ...
12 Oct 2014
Steven, all done on purpose, like Bismarck's gymnasium vs. academies. I use to give lectures on the undermining of the rational in education about 15 years ago--too late now with two generations with goo in their heads.
The Blame Game AGAIN
Catholic theologians agree that if Adam had said "no" to Eve, the human race would not have fallen into Original Sin.
Original Sin is traditionally called the "sin of Adam". Why?
Adam was the "head", the first-made. He was "over Eve" in age, (one week it seems), strength, and so on.
He could have said no and he did not. A Second Adam, Christ, had to come and undo the horrible damage chosen, yes freely chosen, by Adam. He put Eve's approval before God's.
I have written and spoken many times about the sins of men and women. Men cannot blame women, either good women or bad women, for their sins. Likewise, women cannot blame men, good men or bad men, for their sins.
We are totally responsible for our own sins. The societal sins are merely those made individually by unique persons choosing the wrong way over and over and over and over. The sins of a culture or civilization are not some types of sins which just happen, but sins done repeatedly by those persons in that culture or civilization.
The movement of radical feminism was made by individual sins.
The phenomenon of weak men has been made by individual sins. And so on. One chooses to listen to the self, the world or the devil. Freely we choose sin and corruption. There would be no communism and Marxism without the decisions of Marx, Engels, Lenin. There would be no hatred among the Islamists for Catholics without the hadith and Koran written by individual men. There would be no radical feminist movement without the writings of Simone de Beauvoir, Margaret Sanger, Shulamith Firestone, Kathie Sarachild, Ti-Grace Atkinson, Carol Hanisch, and Judith Brown, among others.
There would be no weak men without Adam, and the long line of couch potatoes, sports idolizing , game obsessed men who have given up all responsibility for their families and eschew commitment. Individuals sin and make movements.Just because the men are nameless, does not mean it is not yet another "movement" of weakness changing the culture one decision at a time.
There would be no weak men without Adam, and the long line of couch potatoes, sports idolizing , game obsessed men who have given up all responsibility for their families and eschew commitment. Individuals sin and make movements.Just because the men are nameless, does not mean it is not yet another "movement" of weakness changing the culture one decision at a time.
To blame a "movement" is to push blame onto nothing....some amorphous event in history. Of course, men and women decide to choose good or evil, thus creating the course of their own lives, that of their families and even nations.
One of the readings in the Office today is that of the striking of the firstborn of Egypt.
That punishment was chosen by the Pharaoh and the people of Egypt themselves. The nation of Egypt became evil and against God because of the sins of the people.
Those men and women who constantly blame men and women for the sins of each other need to stop pointing fingers and look into the blackness of their own souls.
My sins are my own bad choices. Your sins are your own bad choices. None of us "need" or are "destined" to sin.
Free will is sacred to God.
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Genesis 3 New Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition (NRSVCE)
The First Sin and Its Punishment
3 Now the serpent was more crafty than any other wild animal that the LordGod had made. He said to the woman, “Did God say, ‘You shall not eat from any tree in the garden’?” 2 The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden; 3 but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the middle of the garden, nor shall you touch it, or you shall die.’” 4 But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not die; 5 for God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God,[a]knowing good and evil.” 6 So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate; and she also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate. 7 Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made loincloths for themselves.
8 They heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden at the time of the evening breeze, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. 9 But the Lord God called to the man, and said to him, “Where are you?” 10 He said, “I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself.” 11 He said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?” 12 The man said, “The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit from the tree, and I ate.” 13 Then theLord God said to the woman, “What is this that you have done?” The woman said, “The serpent tricked me, and I ate.” 14 The Lord God said to the serpent,
“Because you have done this,
cursed are you among all animals
and among all wild creatures;
upon your belly you shall go,
and dust you shall eat
all the days of your life.
15 I will put enmity between you and the woman,
and between your offspring and hers;
he will strike your head,
and you will strike his heel.”
cursed are you among all animals
and among all wild creatures;
upon your belly you shall go,
and dust you shall eat
all the days of your life.
15 I will put enmity between you and the woman,
and between your offspring and hers;
he will strike your head,
and you will strike his heel.”
16 To the woman he said,
“I will greatly increase your pangs in childbearing;
in pain you shall bring forth children,
yet your desire shall be for your husband,
and he shall rule over you.”
in pain you shall bring forth children,
yet your desire shall be for your husband,
and he shall rule over you.”
17 And to the man[b] he said,
“Because you have listened to the voice of your wife,
and have eaten of the tree
about which I commanded you,
‘You shall not eat of it,’
cursed is the ground because of you;
in toil you shall eat of it all the days of your life;
18 thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you;
and you shall eat the plants of the field.
19 By the sweat of your face
you shall eat bread
until you return to the ground,
for out of it you were taken;
you are dust,
and to dust you shall return.”
and have eaten of the tree
about which I commanded you,
‘You shall not eat of it,’
cursed is the ground because of you;
in toil you shall eat of it all the days of your life;
18 thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you;
and you shall eat the plants of the field.
19 By the sweat of your face
you shall eat bread
until you return to the ground,
for out of it you were taken;
you are dust,
and to dust you shall return.”
20 The man named his wife Eve,[c] because she was the mother of all living.21 And the Lord God made garments of skins for the man[d] and for his wife, and clothed them.
22 Then the Lord God said, “See, the man has become like one of us, knowing good and evil; and now, he might reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life, and eat, and live forever”— 23 therefore the Lord God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from which he was taken. 24 He drove out the man; and at the east of the garden of Eden he placed the cherubim, and a sword flaming and turning to guard the way to the tree of life.
Today's Readings continued...
Matthew 5:20-26New Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition (NRSVCE)
20 For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.
21 “You have heard that it was said to those of ancient times, ‘You shall not murder’; and ‘whoever murders shall be liable to judgment.’ 22 But I say to you that if you are angry with a brother or sister,[a] you will be liable to judgment; and if you insult[b] a brother or sister,[c] you will be liable to the council; and if you say, ‘You fool,’ you will be liable to the hell[d] of fire. 23 So when you are offering your gift at the altar, if you remember that your brother or sister[e] has something against you, 24 leave your gift there before the altar and go; first be reconciled to your brother or sister,[f] and then come and offer your gift.25 Come to terms quickly with your accuser while you are on the way to court[g]with him, or your accuser may hand you over to the judge, and the judge to the guard, and you will be thrown into prison. 26 Truly I tell you, you will never get out until you have paid the last penny.
Our standard, "our" referring to those of us who are baptized into the Catholic Church, is much higher than the basics given in first reading, seen in the last post.
Christ's Presence on earth, in the Eucharist, and the sacraments and constant teaching of the Church, call us to a higher bar of interior, as well as exterior, holiness. He called us to a much higher set of laws, the Beatitudes, which must be connected to interior purification to even emerge in a person's life. Without purification, there is no way to free up the virtues. See my older posts on this.
Virtue after purification leads to correct practice of both the corporal and spiritual works of mercy. Virtue also leads to the correct praxis, or practice of the Mass. Sin and liturgical abuse go together.
If the praxis, the center of the ritual, as in the Mass, is true and good and according to God's laws, the religion is one of orthodoxy. The interior is expressed in the exterior.
Orthopraxy is not the same as orthodoxy, which includes interior assent to beliefs and to the following of doctrines, resulting in appropriate liturgy. Those who are orthodox Catholics, hopefully the majority of Catholics who read this blog, live by a set of strict beliefs, starting with the Creed.
Orthopraxy emphasizes practice, liturgical rituals which connect a people with their culture and their history. I pointed out the other day that the religion of the pagans in Rome, the official religion, was orthopraxy, based at first and continually, with home-based ancestor worship, evolving to worship of the Roman gods, and finally the emperor.
What the first reading in the last post, may look like is orthopraxy, but it is not, as God continually called the Hebrews to repentance, "to rend your hearts, not your garments" and so on.
The prophets called the Hebrews to orthodoxy.
As Catholics, we have a clear set of doctrines and a set of dogmas, as well as rituals which reveal orthodoxy.
One reason why liturgical abuses are SO wrong, besides insulting God directly, is that those who do these aberrations are concentrating on the practice, the exterior of ritual and not the interior.
In other words, many going to Church on Sunday or Saturday, have only external relationships to the Church and not internal.
Sad, but true....meeting the minimal requirements does not lead one to heaven.
Remember my post on the fact that the Pharisees were liberals--they only followed the law and practice and did not rend their hearts.
Today's Reading with additions
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| "The only tragedy in life is not to become a saint." |
Today's first reading particularly calls all of us to holiness, not mediocrity.
If Catholics read each line of this selection from Leviticus, they would see how far from holiness the common parish is.
Aaron and Moses led the people to holiness, and those who rebelled were destroyed by fire and earthquake, pointing to the future judgment of all.
There are still Catholics who honestly do not believe we are called to be holy-the purpose of my long, over 800 postings, perfection series.
This passage is a good start for an examination of conscience. And, remember, our standard of holiness are higher than those of the Old Testament.
19 The Lord spoke to Moses, saying:
2 Speak to all the congregation of the people of Israel and say to them: You shall be holy, for I the Lord your God am holy. 3 You shall each revere your mother and father, and you shall keep my sabbaths: I am the Lord your God.4 Do not turn to idols or make cast images for yourselves: I am the Lord your God.
5 When you offer a sacrifice of well-being to the Lord, offer it in such a way that it is acceptable in your behalf. 6 It shall be eaten on the same day you offer it, or on the next day; and anything left over until the third day shall be consumed in fire. 7 If it is eaten at all on the third day, it is an abomination; it will not be acceptable. 8 All who eat it shall be subject to punishment, because they have profaned what is holy to the Lord; and any such person shall be cut off from the people.
9 When you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not reap to the very edges of your field, or gather the gleanings of your harvest. 10 You shall not strip your vineyard bare, or gather the fallen grapes of your vineyard; you shall leave them for the poor and the alien: I am the Lord your God.
11 You shall not steal; you shall not deal falsely; and you shall not lie to one another. 12 And you shall not swear falsely by my name, profaning the name of your God: I am the Lord.
13 You shall not defraud your neighbor; you shall not steal; and you shall not keep for yourself the wages of a laborer until morning. 14 You shall not revile the deaf or put a stumbling block before the blind; you shall fear your God: I am the Lord.
15 You shall not render an unjust judgment; you shall not be partial to the poor or defer to the great: with justice you shall judge your neighbor. 16 You shall not go around as a slanderer[a] among your people, and you shall not profit by the blood[b] of your neighbor: I am the Lord.
17 You shall not hate in your heart anyone of your kin; you shall reprove your neighbor, or you will incur guilt yourself. 18 You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against any of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the Lord.
to be continued...
to be continued...
On praying for people
We pray for others because we believe that God will give them grace.
We pray for others because we believe they will be open to that grace.
We pray for others because free will is sacred, and needs grace to turn to God.
We pray for others because we trust in God's Holy Spirit.
We pray for others because we exercise faith, hope, and charity, the virtues given at baptism.
We pray for others because God and Mary have commanded us to do so.
For whom are you praying today?
We pray for others because we believe they will be open to that grace.
We pray for others because free will is sacred, and needs grace to turn to God.
We pray for others because we trust in God's Holy Spirit.
We pray for others because we exercise faith, hope, and charity, the virtues given at baptism.
We pray for others because God and Mary have commanded us to do so.
For whom are you praying today?
I love it when....
...am tired and use this link to say my daily rosary so as not to fall asleep, and find people in Europe in the middle of the night saying the rosary with me.
Consolation in desolation.
http://www.comepraytherosary.org/
Consolation in desolation.
http://www.comepraytherosary.org/
Buddy
I have owned four cats in my life. Two have gone on to the kitty land of dust, and two have been adopted, as I could no longer have cats where I lived. My cats had idiosyncrasies, but none like I have seen lately in a cat here.
This past week, in "my" neighborhood, I have met an old woman whose name is Theresa. She takes long perambulations daily for her health by walking around the block and up and down the alley near the houses here.
Behind her walks, runs, sometimes rolls on the sidewalk, Buddy, her adorable, large cat. Daily, Buddy walks behind Theresa, with the aplomb and consistency of a well-trained dog.
Buddy is an unusual cat. Sometimes, it comes into Therese' house and sits with her, but every night, it wants to go out.
With temperatures as minus 2 F at night, Buddy survives because Therese has bought it a bed which heats up when the cat lays on it, and a bowl with a heater preventing the water from freezing.
Therese and Buddy entertain me with stories and two happy faces. Buddy obviously loves Therese and Therese loves Buddy.
I would like to think that I am like Buddy, following Jesus around all day, waiting for Him to pay attention to me. He does feed me and give me drink. He makes sure I am warm and loved.
I am a strange cat, but unlike Buddy, I do not want to go out at night.
Buddy may have been abused, as Therese is not its first owner. She rescued Buddy.. It seems afraid to be inside. Sometimes, because we have been hurt and need healing, we do not want to get "to close to Jesus". He might ask us to do something very hard. Buddy will grow in trust over time. We grow in trust through purification and healing
I was rescued as well, from sin and death. Can we do less than Buddy by showing our love and gratitude to Christ, Our Savior?
Therese reminds me that love is rewarded by faithfulness and loyalty, even in freezing temperatures.
Buddy and Therese give glory to God just by existing. May we also give God glory in our lives daily, wherever we may be, either on the front sidewalk, in the alley, or on the cold, cold porch.
A Silent Epidemic
When I was in college, at Christmas time during the senior year, it was almost universally accepted that the girls would finally get engaged to be married to their best boyfriends. Girls would come back after Christmas break with the dazzling engagement rings and the perceptive day of the wedding, usually in June or August of the now new year.
Most women in my generation got married right out of college, not high school, the latter which was more true in my mother's day, although my own mother had one year of college before she got married in 1948.
I was highly unusual in the fact that not only did I not have a best boyfriend out of several, but that I had no intention of getting married right out of college. I was going to graduate school, and so on.
Since I have been back to the States, I have noticed something which I call the "silent epidemic" among Catholics who are about to graduate from university, or who already have.
The vast majority are not only not planning on getting married, but they are not even dating.
In the past six weeks, I have met, over and over, parents who have talked about their single, very single, adult children. None are dating and all are working.
About the time I graduated from college, roughly 9 out of a 1,000 Catholics got married. By 2010, the ratio was just less than 3% out of 1,000. The ratio is most likely worse now.
Just as there is a priest shortage, there seems to be a married couple shortage. I cannot believe the many parents with whom I have discussed families in the past six weeks, families of adult children ranging from 50 years of age to 20, families of adult children who are not married and who never have been married, are not examples of a larger problem.
One in five parishes in the US does not have a resident priest. The average age of priests in the US is 63. In 2010, there was 1 priest to 1,653 Catholics, and now that is worse.
Here is the cause for the silent epidemics of both less Catholic married couples and less priests--contraception.
No one talks about this as a cause for the lack of vocations, either to the priesthood or to married life.
In the old days, when Catholic parents had 12 or even more children, of course, one or two would stay single and one or two would become priests or religious.
The rest would get married. There were exceptions. I know of one Irish family with ten children and they all became priests and nuns.
I know of one family with three boys and they all became priests. But, this was and is, even now, more rare.
The priest and couple shortage caused by contraception is compounded by the reluctance of young people to commit to anything. It is easier to stay single than to be committed to something.
It is true that some young people are totally committed to their careers.
It is also true that professions demand longer time in university.
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However, people in professions use to get married. Two of my best friends had doctor daddies and one had lawyer daddy. These dads manage to have nine kids, six kids, and twenty kids, respectively.
Sadly, I have not heard a sermon about contraception for years and years and years.
Perhaps those priests who would have spoken about such never were given a chance to live.
We have another silent epidemic which will burst out soon in a horrible disease, called schism. 63% of American Catholics support ssm and 50% of Mass-going Catholics supporting ssm.
We are in for a bumpy ride....
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