It is 66 degrees F in Malta and it will get down to 55 tonight.
Sigh.....
Wednesday, 4 March 2015
How did those pioneers live here?
It is 15 degrees F here and will get down to 4 F tonight again.
It is 66 degrees F in Malta and it will get down to 55 tonight.
Sigh.....
It is 66 degrees F in Malta and it will get down to 55 tonight.
Sigh.....
A civilized nation?
http://news.sky.com/story/1437596/sex-gangs-may-have-abused-hundreds-of-girls
This MUST stop.
Like similar cases in Rotherham, Rochdale and Derby, the report states the victims were white girls and the perpetrators mainly men of Asian heritage and Muslim culture, but says "no one was aware of evidence of any holding back due to ethnicity".
This MUST stop.
Like similar cases in Rotherham, Rochdale and Derby, the report states the victims were white girls and the perpetrators mainly men of Asian heritage and Muslim culture, but says "no one was aware of evidence of any holding back due to ethnicity".
Good article
http://catholicexchange.com/lessons-monastery-silence
Excellent article and echoes many of my posts in the past.
Get rid of the television, first of all.
Excellent article and echoes many of my posts in the past.
Get rid of the television, first of all.
Repost
Monday, 8 December 2014
The Virtue of Studiosity
Father Chad Ripperger has been one of the most influential priests in my life via his amazing set of talks and some personal input. He is the reason I am in the third order which he started. His intellect and spiritual insights are gifts from God.
One of the things he has pointed out is something I have written on this blog-the sin of curiosity.
This sin causes people to run after approved and unapproved apparitions. We do not need to concern ourselves with visions, but we do need to study our faith.
Recently, Father noted that curiosity is a vice, even when it is connected to wanting to know the latest about certain apparitions, even approved ones.
The virtue which is the opposite of this vice is studiosity, the virtue connected to temperance, which is a search for the truth which is disciplined and ordered.
We are responsible for knowing the Faith, and we are also responsible for dulling our own intellects.
Raissa, as I noted, cried out in her diary for people to know their religion, the Catholic religion.
Without knowledge of the Faith, one easily falls into many other vices, and we are responsible for that type of falling away.
Studiosity is a virtue. If one is an adult and never studies the Faith in the Catechism or the encyclicals, or other excellent books, one is committing two sins at least. One is sloth and the other is neglect of conscience.
Ask yourselves honestly in your examination of conscience whether you are studying. If one merely chooses one author, such as St. Alphonsus, or the Pope Emeritus, or St. Augustine, or St. Therese of Lisieux, one is doing one's duty.
But the virtue demands that we study not only spirituality and prayer, but doctrine and dogma.
Studiosity is connected to the great virtue of temperance, the virtue which strengthens our reason. Temperance prepares us to combat temptation. Studiosity allows us to know the Faith so that we can avoid temptations and prepare for holiness.
Are you studying anything solid with regard to the Faith?
For those caught up with seers and visions, even approved ones, I challenge you to set those books aside and begin to study your Faith.
We are required to do this, and the fact that there is a virtue which helps us do so should be comforting.
Thomas Aquinas makes this distinction between curiosity, which actually is connected to lust and greed, and studying. Curiosity connects us with the senses, not the intellect. Whereas studying increases our knowledge in order to help us know God and ourselves.
To be constantly distracted by trivia may be an indication that one has fallen into the vice of curiosity.
to be continued...
One of the things he has pointed out is something I have written on this blog-the sin of curiosity.
This sin causes people to run after approved and unapproved apparitions. We do not need to concern ourselves with visions, but we do need to study our faith.
Recently, Father noted that curiosity is a vice, even when it is connected to wanting to know the latest about certain apparitions, even approved ones.
The virtue which is the opposite of this vice is studiosity, the virtue connected to temperance, which is a search for the truth which is disciplined and ordered.
We are responsible for knowing the Faith, and we are also responsible for dulling our own intellects.
Raissa, as I noted, cried out in her diary for people to know their religion, the Catholic religion.
Without knowledge of the Faith, one easily falls into many other vices, and we are responsible for that type of falling away.
Studiosity is a virtue. If one is an adult and never studies the Faith in the Catechism or the encyclicals, or other excellent books, one is committing two sins at least. One is sloth and the other is neglect of conscience.
Ask yourselves honestly in your examination of conscience whether you are studying. If one merely chooses one author, such as St. Alphonsus, or the Pope Emeritus, or St. Augustine, or St. Therese of Lisieux, one is doing one's duty.
But the virtue demands that we study not only spirituality and prayer, but doctrine and dogma.
Studiosity is connected to the great virtue of temperance, the virtue which strengthens our reason. Temperance prepares us to combat temptation. Studiosity allows us to know the Faith so that we can avoid temptations and prepare for holiness.
Are you studying anything solid with regard to the Faith?
For those caught up with seers and visions, even approved ones, I challenge you to set those books aside and begin to study your Faith.
We are required to do this, and the fact that there is a virtue which helps us do so should be comforting.
Thomas Aquinas makes this distinction between curiosity, which actually is connected to lust and greed, and studying. Curiosity connects us with the senses, not the intellect. Whereas studying increases our knowledge in order to help us know God and ourselves.
To be constantly distracted by trivia may be an indication that one has fallen into the vice of curiosity.
to be continued...
A Vocation To Fail
The Lamentations of Jeremiah
wiki
Latin text
(from the Clementine Vulgate)
Chapter 1
1:1 ALEPH. Quomodo sedet sola civitas plena populo! Facta est quasi vidua domina gentium; princeps provinciarum facta est sub tributo.
1:2 BETH. Plorans ploravit in nocte, et lacrimæ ejus in maxillis ejus: non est qui consoletur eam, ex omnibus caris ejus; omnes amici ejus spreverunt eam, et facti sunt ei inimici.
1:3 GHIMEL. Migravit Judas propter afflictionem, et multitudinem servitutis; habitavit inter gentes, nec invenit requiem: omnes persecutores ejus apprehenderunt eam inter angustias.
1:4 DALETH. Viæ Sion lugent, eo quod non sint qui veniant ad solemnitatem: omnes portæ ejus destructæ, sacerdotes ejus gementes; virgines ejus squalidæ, et ipsa oppressa amaritudine.
1:5 HE. Facti sunt hostes ejus in capite; inimici ejus locupletati sunt: quia Dominus locutus est super eam propter multitudinem iniquitatum ejus. Parvuli ejus ducti sunt in captivitatem ante faciem tribulantis.
1:6 VAU. Et egressus est a filia Sion omnis decor ejus; facti sunt principes ejus velut arietes non invenientes pascua, et abierunt absque fortitudine ante faciem subsequentis.
1:7 ZAIN. Recordata est Jerusalem dierum afflictionis suæ, et prævaricationis, omnium desiderabilium suorum, quæ habuerat a diebus antiquis, cum caderet populus ejus in manu hostili, et non esset auxiliator: viderunt eam hostes, et deriserunt sabbata ejus.
1:8 HETH. Peccatum peccavit Hierusalem, propterea instabilis facta est: omnes qui glorificabant eam spreverunt illam: quia viderunt ignominiam eius: ipsa autem gemens et conversa retrorsum.
1:9 TETH. Sordes eius in pedibus eius: nec recordata est finis sui. Deposita est vehementer: non habens consolatorem. Vide Domine afflictionem meam: quoniam erectus est inimicus.
1:10 IOD. Manum suam misit hostis ad omnia desiderabilia ejus, quia vidit gentes ingressas sanctuarium suum, de quibus præceperas ne intrarent in ecclesiam tuam.
1:11 CAPH. Omnis populus ejus gemens, et quærens panem; dederunt pretiosa quæque pro cibo ad refocillandam animam. Vide, Domine, et considera quoniam facta sum vilis!
1:12 LAMED. O vos omnes qui transitis per viam, attendite, et videte si est dolor sicut dolor meus! quoniam vindemiavit me, ut locutus est Dominus, in die iræ furoris sui.
1:13 MEM. De excelso misit ignem in ossibus meis et erudivit me: expandit rete pedibus meis: convertit me retrorsum: posuit me desolatam tota die maerore confectam.
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English translation
(from the Revised Standard Version)
Chapter 1
1:1 ALEPH. How lonely sits the city that was full of people! How like a widow has she become, she that was great among the nations! She that was a princess among the cities has become a vassal.
1:2 BETH. She weeps bitterly in the night, tears on her cheeks; among all her lovers she has none to comfort her; all her friends have dealt treacherously with her, they have become her enemies.
1:3 GHIMEL. Judah has gone into exile because of affliction and hard servitude; she dwells now among the nations, but finds no resting place; her pursuers have all overtaken her in the midst of her distress.
1:4 DALETH. The roads to Zion mourn, for none come to the appointed feasts; all her gates are desolate, her priests groan; her maidens have been dragged away, and she herself suffers bitterly.
1:5 HE. Her foes have become the head, her enemies prosper, because the Lord has made her suffer for the multitude of her transgressions; her children have gone away, captives before the foe.
1:6 VAU. From the daughter of Zion has departed all her majesty. Her princes have become like harts that find no pasture; they fled without strength before the pursuer.
1:7 ZAIN. Jerusalem remembers in the days of her affliction and bitterness all the precious things that were hers from days of old. When her people fell into the hand of the foe, and there was none to help her, the foe gloated over her, mocking at her downfall.
1:8 HETH. Jerusalem sinned grievously, therefore she became filthy; all who honored her despise her, for they have seen her nakedness; yea, she herself groans, and turns her face away.
1:9 Her uncleanness was in her skirts; she took no thought of her doom; therefore her fall is terrible, she has no comforter. "O Lord, behold my affliction, for the enemy has triumphed!"
1:10 IOD. The enemy has stretched out his hands over all her precious things; yea, she has seen the nations invade her sanctuary, those whom thou didst forbid to enter thy congregation.
1:11 CAPH. All her people groan as they search for bread; they trade their treasures for food to revive their strength. "Look, O Lord, and behold, for I am despised."
1:12 LAMED. "Is it nothing to you, all you who pass by? Look and see if there is any sorrow like my sorrow which was brought upon me, which the Lord inflicted on the day of his fierce anger."
1:13 MEM. "From on high he sent fire; into my bones he made it descend; he spread a net for my feet; he turned me back; he has left me stunned, faint all the day long.
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Chapter 2
2:8 HETH. Cogitavit Dominus dissipare murum filiæ Sion; tetendit funiculum suum, et non avertit manum suam a perditione: luxitque antemurale, et murus pariter dissipatus est.
2:9 TETH. Defixæ sunt in terra portæ ejus, perdidit et contrivit vectes ejus; regem ejus et principes ejus in gentibus: non est lex, et prophetæ ejus non invenerunt visionem a Domino.
2:10 IOD. Sederunt in terra, conticuerunt senes filiæ Sion; consperserunt cinere capita sua, accincti sunt ciliciis: abjecerunt in terram capita sua virgines Jerusalem.
2:11 CAPH. Defecerunt præ lacrimis oculi mei, conturbata sunt viscera mea; effusum est in terra jecur meum super contritione filiæ populi mei, cum deficeret parvulus et lactens in plateis oppidi.
2:12 LAMED. Matribus suis dixerunt: Ubi est triticum et vinum? cum deficerent quasi vulnerati in plateis civitatis, cum exhalarent animas suas in sinu matrum suarum.
2:13 MEM. Cui comparabo te, vel cui assimilabo te, filia Jerusalem? cui exæquabo te, et consolabor te, virgo, filia Sion? magna est enim velut mare contritio tua: quis medebitur tui?
2:14 NUN. Prophetæ tui viderunt tibi falsa et stulta; nec aperiebant iniquitatem tuam, ut te ad pœnitentiam provocarent; viderunt autem tibi assumptiones falsas, et ejectiones.
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Chapter 2
2:8 HETH. The Lord determined to lay in ruins the wall of the daughter of Zion; he marked it off by the line; he restrained not his hand from destroying; he caused rampart and wall to lament, they languish together.
2:9 TETH. Her gates have sunk into the ground; he has ruined and broken her bars; her king and princes are among the nations; the law is no more, and her prophets obtain no vision from the Lord.
2:10 IOD. The elders of the daughter of Zion sit on the ground in silence; they have cast dust on their heads and put on sackcloth; the maidens of Jerusalem have bowed their heads to the ground.
2:11 CAPH. My eyes are spent with weeping; my soul is in tumult; my heart is poured out in grief because of the destruction of the daughter of my people, because infants and babes faint in the streets of the city.
2:12 LAMED. They cry to their mothers, "Where is bread and wine?" as they faint like wounded men in the streets of the city, as their life is poured out on their mothers' bosom.
2:13 MEM. What can I say for you, to what compare you, O daughter of Jerusalem? What can I liken to you, that I may comfort you, O virgin daughter of Zion? For vast as the sea is your ruin; who can restore you?
2:14 NUN. Your prophets have seen for you false and deceptive visions; they have not exposed your iniquity to restore your fortunes, but have seen for you oracles false and misleading.
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Chapter 3
3:1 ALEPH. Ego vir videns paupertatem meam in virga indignationis ejus.
3:2 ALEPH. Me minavit, et adduxit in tenebras, et non in lucem.
3:3 ALEPH. Tantum in me vertit et convertit manum suam tota die.
3:4 BETH. Vetustam fecit pellem meam et carnem meam; contrivit ossa mea.
3:22 HETH. Misericordiæ Domini, quia non sumus consumpti; quia non defecerunt miserationes ejus.
3:23 HETH. Novi diluculo, multa est fides tua.
3:24 HETH. Pars mea Dominus, dixit anima mea; propterea exspectabo eum.
3:25 TETH. Bonus est Dominus sperantibus in eum, animæ quærenti illum.
3:26 TETH. Bonum est præstolari cum silentio salutare Dei.
3:27 TETH. Bonum est viro cum portaverit jugum ab adolescentia sua.
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Chapter 3
3:1 ALEPH. I am the man who has seen affliction under the rod of his wrath;
3:2 ALEPH. he has driven and brought me into darkness without any light;
3:3 ALEPH. surely against me he turns his hand again and again the whole day long.
3:4 BETH. He has made my flesh and my skin waste away, and broken my bones;
3:22 HETH. The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases, his mercies never come to an end;
3:23 HETH. they are new every morning; great is thy faithfulness.
3:24 HETH. "The Lord is my portion," says my soul, "therefore I will hope in him."
3:25 TETH. The Lord is good to those who wait for him, to the soul that seeks him.
3:26 TETH. It is good that one should wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord.
3:27 TETH. It is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth.
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Chapter 4
4:1 ALEPH. Quomodo obscuratum est aurum, mutatus est color optimus! dispersi sunt lapides sanctuarii in capite omnium platearum!
4:2 BETH. Filii Sion inclyti, et amicti auro primo: quomodo reputati sunt in vasa testea, opus manuum figuli!
4:3 GHIMEL. Sed et lamiæ nudaverunt mammam, lactaverunt catulos suos: filia populi mei crudelis quasi struthio in deserto.
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Chapter 4
4:1 ALEPH. How the gold has grown dim, how the pure gold is changed! The holy stones lie scattered at the head of every street.
4:2 BETH. The precious sons of Zion, worth their weight in fine gold, how they are reckoned as earthen pots, the work of a potter's hands!
4:3 GHIMEL. Even the jackals give the breast and suckle their young, but the daughter of my people has become cruel, like the ostriches in the wilderness.
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Chapter 5
5:1 Recordare, Domine, quid acciderit nobis; intuere et respice opprobrium nostrum.
5:2 Hæreditas nostra versa est ad alienos, domus nostræ ad extraneos.
5:3 Pupilli facti sumus absque patre, matres nostræ quasi viduæ.
5:4 Aquam nostram pecunia bibimus; ligna nostra pretio comparavimus.
5:5 Cervicibus nostris minabamur, lassis non dabatur requies.
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Chapter 5
5:1 Remember, O Lord, what has befallen us; behold, and see our disgrace!
5:2 Our inheritance has been turned over to strangers, our homes to aliens.
5:3 We have become orphans, fatherless; our mothers are like widows.
5:4 We must pay for the water we drink, the wood we get must be bought.
5:5 With a yoke on our necks we are hard driven; we are weary, we are given no rest.
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Yesterday, I came across several groups of people who are acting as if the world was the same as in 1970. These people refuse to acknowledge the changing situation in Europe and are making plans for elaborate vacations in areas which are not safe.
Thankfully, one of my best friends, who for reasons of work, has gone to Europe yearly since 1965, decided not to go this year because of the dangerous and volatile situations in France, England, Belgium and the Netherlands.
Serious problems happened in Sweden recently as well.
Those who think that Europe is not now experiencing the true beginnings of jihad are purposefully being stupid.
I cannot explain to Americans enough that the NWO is underway and the unleashing of terrorism in Europe is part of the plan.
Is it arrogance which makes American refuse to look at the truth and seriousness of the changes abroad? What causes willful stupidity?
A few days ago I wrote that God has let the devil off the lead for a while. This is to punish us for the sins of the nations.
There are four sins which cry out to God for vengeance. If the fourth one is made legal in America in May or June through the Supreme Court, God will not ignore the evil of the other three: willful murder, the sin of Sodom, oppression of the poor, and defrauding laborers of their wages, CCC 1867.
I have written of these on this blog for years and years.
Willful murder is abortion; oppression of the poor is gross consumerism and socialism, which take away the dignity of the poor; derfrauding laborers of their wages is paying maids and nannies seven dollars an hour, and not taking care of those who are the working poor because one does not want to be identified with the poor. Widows and orphans are ignored even by Catholics. These sins are committed daily in the United States.
Sodomy will be enshrined in law after May or June.
Do Americans honestly think that God will not respond in justice, He Who is Justice?
Do Americans not see the pattern of violence in the world as a just punishment on Christians who have compromised the Gospel?
Willful stupidity cannot be excused. God created us as rational beings. We are responsible to know the signs of the times, to repent, to help others repent.
On a bright sunny day in May of 1972, God called me "Jeremiah". I did not want to be a Jeremiah. He brought to my mind the passage from the book by this prophet of his call. To be a prophet is not to tell the future, but to bring people to repentance. I was very young and complained to God. He told me age had nothing to do with the vocation of the prophet.
Prophets desire to bring souls to God.
I have tried to do this in the perfection series.
I have tried to do this with the call to podding and community.
I have tried to do this by revealing real news.
I have tried to do this by referring to the daily readings and the Divine Office, which always speak to the times.
I wrote novellas laced with visions and poetry laced with the love of the Bridegroom.
God made me unafraid, free to go and say what He told me to say, and allowed me to endure suffering.
All these are graces. These are calls for the Church in America more than in any other country of the world as the States are so wealthy. I am losing patience with willful stupidity.
One feels the words of God in one's body when one is a prophet. It is hard to explain. One feels the agony of Christ in Gethsemane, looking at the sins of the people who refuse to accept God's love.
I was a prophet in the classroom, as my students recognized. From 2003 on, I introduced my students to the fact that they would make up the age of martyrs. Some listened. Some did not.
The one thing about being a prophet is that one knows one is going to fail. Being a failure is part of the vocation of the prophet.
Someone phoned me yesterday and said that on some talk show, they heard a man say all what I had been saying for a long time about the passing of ssm in America-no clergyman, no churchs in some areas, schism.
People will look for priests and churches and there will be none.
From the beginning of my blog in January of 2007, until the inauguration speech in 2009 of the president's first term, I warned people of the evil of this choice. I failed miserably pointing out the anti-life record, the Chicago Alinksy connections, and the connection to violent Black Liberation Theology, with its hatred of the Jews.
I failed.
I have failed again and again in moving people to become saints, as the only changes which will come politically must come from changes of hearts. Without repentance, politics mean nothing.
Today, I lament at this failure and look at my own sin and faults as contributing to this failure.
Lament, Americans, do penance. My words are coming to an end. Lamentations I and II by Thomas Tallis, which I last heard in person in England so long ago. I am already in exile.
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