Repost Two on The Particular Judgment

Tuesday, 10 December 2013

Advent Thoughts on Death Part Seven

Posted by Supertradmum

In this mini-series, I have moved from thoughts of suffering and death, to the process of dying and now, to the particular judgment.

Many people have no just fear of God. They look on Jesus only as a friend and not as a judge. They do not understand the Scriptures that the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity will come gain to judge the living and the dead.

We will be in one or the other category.

But, before that General Judgment is our Particular Judgment, a long-standing teaching of the Catholic Church. As I have noted, some people I have talked with in Europe have told me they have already experienced their particular judgment. One person I know in America has told me she has as well.

In their experience of this particular judgment, they have seen all the sins of their past life and all the people they have hurt though sin. One may told me he sobbed for three days and repented, asking God for purification.

Ask for this grace now, rather than later, in order to be made into a saint, now.

Here is St. Alphonsus on the particular judgment.


1. It is appointed unto men once to die, and after this 
the judgment.1 It is of faith, that immediately after death 
we shall be judged according to our works in this life. 
And it is also of faith, that upon this judgment will de- 
pend our eternal salvation or perdition. Imagine your- 
self to be in your agony, and to have only a short time 
to live. Think that in a short time you would then have 
to appear before Jesus Christ to give an account of your 
whole life. Alas! how alarming would the sight of your 
sins then be to you! 
Jesus, my Redeemer! pardon me, I beseech You, be- 
fore You judge me. I know that I have many times 
1 "Statutum est hominibus semel mori; post hoc autem, judicium." 
Heb. 9. 27. 
[34] already deserved to be sentenced to eternal death. 
No, I desire not to present myself guilty before You, but 
penitent and pardoned. O my sovereign good! I am 
grievously sorry for having offended You, 


2. O God! what will be the anguish of the soul when 
it shall first behold Jesus Christ as its judge, and behold 
him terrible in his wrath? It will then see how much 
he has suffered for its sake; it will see what great 
mercies he has exercised towards it, and what powerful 
means he has bestowed upon it for the attainment of 
salvation; then will it also see the greatness of eternal 
goods, and the vileness of earthly pleasures, which have 
wrought its ruin; it will then see all these things, but to 
no purpose, because then there will be no more time to 
correct its past errors; what shall have then been done 
will be irrevocable. Before the judgment seat of God, 
no nobility, nor dignity, nor riches will be considered; 
our works alone will be weighed there. 
Grant, O Jesus! that when I first behold You I may 
see You appeased; and, for this end, grant me the grace 
to weep, during the remainder of my life, over the evil 
which I have done in turning my back upon You, to 
follow my own sinful caprices. No, I desire never more 
to offend You. I love You and desire to love You 
forever. 

3. What contentment will that Christian enjoy at the 
hour of death who has left the world to give himself to 
God; who has denied his senses all unlawful gratifica- 
tions: and who, if he has on some occasions been negligent, 
has at last been wise enough afterwards to do worthy 
penance for it! On the other hand, what anguish will 
that Christian experience who has continually relapsed 
into the same vices, and at last finds himself at the point 
of death! Then will he exclaim: "Alas! in a few moments 
I must appear before Jesus as my judge, and I have not 
as yet even begun to change my life! I have many times 
[35] promised to do so, but I have not done it; and now, in 
a short time, what will become of me?" 



Ah, my Jesus and my judge! I give You thanks for 
the patience with which You have until now waited for 
me. How many times have I myself written my own 
eternal condemnation . Since You have thus waited to 
pardon me, reject me not, now prostrate at Your feet. 
Receive me into Your favor through the merits of Your 
bitter Passion. I am sorry, my sovereign good! for hav- 
ing despised You. I love You above all things. I de- 
sire never more to forsake You. O Mary! recommend 
me to Your Son Jesus, and do not abandon me. 

To be continued....

Repost

Yes, there is a hell and, yes, some people are in hell.  Yes, there is a purgatory, and yes, some people are in purgatory.


We have all been destined by God to be saints-little saints or great saints--but saints. At our particular judgment, God shows us the life of holiness He has intended for us, and all the good works we could have done for Him and for His Church.

No one can merit anything after death. Purgatory is not merit, but punishment. All merit we have gained we have gained while alive and in sanctifying grace.

Death ends our efforts to cooperate with grace. At that moment, we are what we are and we see ourselves as we really are.

Here is the repost:

Tuesday, 8 July 2014

The Particular Judgment

Posted by Supertradmum

I am running out of time to share Garrigou-Lagrange’s Providence with you, so I want to skip some bits, not that these are not worthy, in order to concentrate on the last few chapters.

Recommending pages 251, 252, 253, 257, 264 and 292, I am skipping to the discussion on the particular judgment. Now, I have written on this before many times on this blog. One of my friends experienced his particular judgment over a year ago, for three days, seeing all the sins and failings. A strong man, he told me he sobbed during those three days, realizing his great lack of holiness and love for God.

As noted in a post quite a while ago, I had one experience of the horror of one venial sin.

Garrigou-Lagrange writes this: “Once the body has been left behind, the soul has direct vision of itself as a spiritual substance, in the same way that the pure spirit has direct vision of itself, and in that instant it is made aware of its moral condition. It receives an interior illumination rending all discussion useless. God passes sentence, which is then transmitted by conscience, the echo of God’s voice. The soul now sees plainly what is its due according to its merits and demerits, when then stand out quite distinctly before it.”

The author continues, and then refers to Newman, who I referred to a few days ago. Here is the passage from The Dream of Gerontius quoted:

“When then—if such they lot—thou seest thy Judge,

The sight of Him will kindle in thy heart

All tender, gracious, reverential thoughts.

Thou wilt be sick with joy, and yearn for Him

That one so sweet should e’er have placed Himself

At disadvantage such, as to be used

So vilely by a being so vile as thee.

There is a pleading in His pensive eyes,

Will pierce thee to the quick, and trouble thee,

And thou wilt hate and loathe thyself; for, though

Now sinless, thou wilt fell that thou hast sinned

As never thou didst feel; and wilt desire

To slink away, and hide thee from His sight;

And yet wilt have a longing eye to dwell

Within the beauty of His countenance.

And those two pains, so counter and so keen—

The longing for Him, when thou seest Him not;

The shame of self at thought of seeing Him—

Will be thy veriest, sharpest purgatory.

….

It is the face of the Incarnate God

Shall smite thee with that keen and subtle pain;

And yet the memory which it leaves will be

A sovereign febrifuge to heal the wound;

And yet withal it will the wound provoke,

And aggravate and widen it the more.”

Garrigou-Lagrange continues, “Justice will then mete out condign punishment for sins committed, to last for a time or eternity. “

And, “…the sinner clearly realizing that through his own fault he has failed forever to attain his destined end.”

The Dominican reminds us that both mercy and justice are mysteries. We cannot understand God’s mercy nor His justice. And, although we define these as separate attributes of God,  but are in reality inseparable.

To be continued…

Happy Mothering Sunday To All My Friends Who Are Moms

England started Mothing Sunday as a tribute to Our Lady Mary, celebrating for hundreds of years on the closest Sunday to the Annunciation.

On Grace Again

This morning, the priest at the Mass I attended said that "all was grace". His long sermon centered on the points that all those things which happen to us or which come into our lives should be seen as gifts from God, true graces, for us to use in our lives in order to become holy.

The problem with his sermon was that he forgot one important definition. That without grace from God, we are not pleasing to God. And, this gift is given to those gratuitously by God. We cannot earn grace nor do our good works merit grace without God taking the initiative and removing sin from our lives through baptism and confession.

The priest was attempting to help people see that the circumstances of our lives were the raw materials of graced moments. But, he fell into Semi-Pelgianism, implying that we can save ourselves by responding to circumstances. Not so.

However, one cannot merely talk about grace without understanding that grace is not circumstance or illness or even material benefits. Graces cannot be equated with material or physical gifts. We use this term in colloquial talk, but grace is much more complicated to understand that this simplistic view.

Here is only one section from Garrigou-Lagrange's work Grace in which he reviews and unpacks St. Thomas Aquinas' treatises on grace. I use blue type for commentary.

The remission of guilt is inconceivable without an infusion of grace.” This reply contains two elements: 1. the remission of guilt is in fact produced by an infusion of grace, and 2. it cannot be effected otherwise, even by the absolute power of God.

There is no justification from sin without grace from God.

The first of these is of faith; the second is opposed to Scotus, the Scotists, and Saurez.

Definition of faith by the Council of Trent (Sess. VI, can. 10 and 11; Denz., nos. 820, 821):

“If anyone should say that men are just without the justice of Christ whereby He merited our justification or by that justice itself formally, let him be anathema.” “If anyone should say that men are justified either by the sole imputation of the justice of Christ or by the remission of sins alone, excluding grace and charity which is poured forth into their hearts by the Holy Ghost and abides in them, or even that the grace whereby we are justified is only a favor from God, let him be anathema.

Grace is not merely gift or favor. It is the sharing of the love of God within us. We are not empty vessels after we are baptised.  Christ earned this on the Cross. And the Holy Trinity abides in us. 

This article of the Church’s faith is clearly based on Sacred Scripture: “Of his fullness we all have received, and grace for grace” (John 1:16); “The charity of God is poured forth in our hearts, by the Holy Ghost, who is given to us” (Rom. 5:5); “To every one of us is given grace, according to the measure of the giving of Christ” (Eph. 4:7).

From the day of our baptism and hopefully, unless we commit mortal sin, all of our lives, we live in this sanctifying grace. This grace is a "gift" but it is won by Christ and granted in baptism, not in some circumstantial manner, but in a specific manner, through the sacraments of the Church.

Theological proof. St. Thomas shows the very impossibility of the remission of sin without the infusion of grace, thus admirably founding his argument on God’s love for us.

The remission of sin is effected according as God is pacified in our regard, loving us with special benevolence. But God cannot love the sinner with a special love except by infusing grace whereby the sinner is intrinsically transformed and made pleasing to God. Therefore the remission of sin cannot be effected without an infusion of grace. 

Grace takes away sin through God's love. God does the transformation in us at baptism, as until then, we are not pleasing to Him. Original sin is taken away and God loves us with "a special love".  All the action is on the part of God, not dependent on our reactions to circumstances in our lives. If we are already in grace, these circumstances can help us gain merit.

The major is self-evident, for God cannot remit the offense of the sinner unless He makes peace with him, and God makes peace with us inasmuch as He loves us with a special love. Thus nothing else can be designated wherein our peace with God consists; in other words, God makes peace with us in the matter of our offense on account of His special benevolence toward us.

Peace comes with justification in grace. God alone produces all that is good in us. We cannot do this.

The minor is based on St. Thomas’ principle enunciated in Ia IIae, q. 110, a. I, and Ia, q. 20, a. 2, to the effect that “the love of God does not presuppose goodness in us but produces it”; “the love of God infuses and creates goodness in things,” since He is the author of all good. Nor are we here concerned with the general love whereby God loves and preserves the very nature of the sinner while he is in the state of sin, but rather with the special love whereby He remits or pardons the offense. 

Yes, God loves us while we are still in the state of sin but with a special love He pardons us. We are not pleasing to God until we are free from sin, and then He gives us grace to continue growing in love in Him.

This special love cannot but produce some effect in us, that is, it cannot help but make man pleasing; otherwise God’s created love for us would be no more effective than the love of our friends, who cannot change the interior state of our souls. 

This grace is always efficacious. God begins the good work in us and sees it to completion. Only God can change us, make us perfect. We cannot do this by sheer effort or by merely responding to the circumstances of life. 

Now habitual grace excludes mortal sin absolutely, which is precisely the privation of the life of grace, or the death of the soul. (Cf. ad I.)

Liivng in habitual grace means that one is living in sanctifying grace. If one sins mortally, one now lives outside of grace and one cannot please God.

to be continued....

Putin has emerged--with talk of war

http://apnews.myway.com/article/20150315/eu-russia-crimea-2859701388.html

Vocation Thoughts

I have been thinking of this topic for about a year, but hesistated to write about it, as it may cause some people pain. But, truth is better than hiding the truth, so here goes.

Some comments made by Cardinal Burke lately in England have encouraged me to write this post.

Vocations are down to one of the lowest tides in Church history. In the long life of the Church, there have been high tides and low tides of vocations. The unseen enemies of God have thwarted vocations and stopped men from becoming priests in times of rebellion and persecution.

However, another thing has caused the lack of vocations, a cause I have never heard anyone address, which comes from a two-pronged problem-first, the weakness of faith among Catholic families, and secondly, the dysfunction of families. The problem is the family.

Now, many saints, such as St. Damien of Molokai, were not supported in their vocations by their families. Not all families were like that of Blesseds Zelie and Louis Martin, who helped their girls in the practice of virtue, and obviously encouraged their calls to the religious life.

Years ago, ten in fact, a friend of mine and I discovered some blocks to vocations in America, and not the usual ones of family disapproval, or consumerism, Here are some of the blocks which stop the acceptance of vocations:

1. Masonry and other membership of secret societies in families, even in past generations.
2. Occultic activity in families, even in the past, such as witchcraft and satanism.
3. Dysfuntional parents who cannot take authority over the lives of their children.
4. Family idoltary, frequently connected to Masonic involvement, where the family comes first, not God, not vocations.
5. Character defects in children brought about by dysfunctional families, especially narcissim, materialism, egotism, and fears.
6. The presence of grave sins, such as sexual abuse, including incest, in families.
7. The lack of catechsis which clearly teaches that the religious life is a higher form of perfect life, ideas no longer taught by parents.
8. The fear of engaging with other people, of communicating daily with others, born from gross individualism and character defects learned in families.
9. Fear or even hatred of authority. coming from the culture and seen in families.
10. Severe learning disabilities, which prevent the necessary study of theology and philosophy, a must for priests, especially in these hard times. 
11. The lack of noblesse oblige, which means that those who have been given much no longer see that they need to give back to society or the Church. Noblesse oblige is taught by parents.
12. God not being the center of family life because of the lack of parental discipline. No daily family rosary, for example, because parents refuse to schedule this.
13. The spoiling of children by parents who think they have to do and have everything
14. Parents who believe that all Christian denominatons are the same and, therefore, do not value the priesthood.
15. Catholics not marrying Catholics and, therefore, having no Catholic identity in the home.

All of these problems have been allowed by God in the past several generations, as people have free will. God even allows learning disabilities for the salvation of parents and the person who experiences these, in order to show His greater glory. Saints with learning disablities are known to us now, and God gave some infused knowledge. But, such a cross is not one for the religious or priestly life.

Until families become orthodox, whole, with attributes of holiness and which train children from little on to live a life of the virtues, we shall not have vocations.

All the seminarians I know personally at this time found their vocations in the TLM.

God is allowing a dearth of vocations to punish us all. Tribulation purifies the Church so that people turn to God and repent. The absence of priests is a great trial.

A Reminder to Catholics

Some commentators have indicated that they are considering leaving the Catholic Church and moving over to the Orthodox Church.

I want to remind them of this Canon Law, which applies to all Catholics

1983 edition. I suggest prayer and fasting, as well as asking help from friends in the Church before leaving.

PART II.

PENALTIES FOR INDIVIDUAL DELICTS

TITLE I.

DELICTS AGAINST RELIGION AND THE UNITY OF THE CHURCH (Cann. 1364 - 1369)

Can. 1364 §1. Without prejudice to the prescript of ⇒ can. 194, §1, n. 2, an apostate from the faith, a heretic, or a schismatic incurs a latae sententiae excommunication; in addition, a cleric can be punishedwith the penalties mentioned in ⇒ can. 1336, §1, nn. 1, 2, and 3.

§2. If contumacy of long duration or the gravity of scandal demands it, other penalties can be added, including dismissal from the clerical state.

Can. 1365 A person guilty of prohibited participation in sacred rites (communicatio in sacris) is to be punished with a just penalty.

Can. 1366 Parents or those who take the place of parents who hand offer their children to be baptized or educated in a non Catholic religion are to be punished with a censure or other just penalty.

Yes, possibly

https://freedomfighterreports.com/2015/03/14/breaking-all-russian-embassy-personnel-in-london-have-left-this-is-in-preparation-for-war/

On Trolls

A highly intelligent military friend of mine told me yesterday that he did not understand "trolls". I thought about his comment and came to an astounding conclusion. Trolls reveal the same characteristics of abusers and demons.

Let me explain. Abusers, either sexual or emotional or psychological, desire to make the abused person into a victim, wanting to place negative feelings onto that victim through the abuse. Abusers create false guilt and false turmoil in their victims by making those persons "own" the abusers' sins.

Demons do the same thing. They make a person own their nasty characteristics, creating stress in an attempt to bring down the person, or, as Father Chad Ripperger states in one of his best talks on line, to grind the person down by wearing them out with lies. His talks on spiritual warfare helped me piece together these thoughts. Father points out the abuse relationship of the demons and those trying to live a life of virtue.

Demons lie and harangue one and make one distracted from one's real vices by laying guilt trips about false vices on a person.

Demons and abusers delight in making others more than uncomfortable. They want to inflict pain.

So do trolls. They all share the same vice of  "malice". Malice in normal defintion covers these ideas. I share that below. But, the vice of malice is even more serious.

Garrigou-Lagrange notes that malice is the first sin of the devil, "a sin of ill will, of the intoxication of pride." Strong words. He also notes that the sin of malice is always voluntary, not a sin of ignorance or fraility, thus making it much more serious.

Malice according to Fr. Ripperger in one of his talks on his website, is hatred of God and hatred of humans, because we are made in the image and likeness of God. Therefore, the person who is malicious not only hates God, but hates His human creations.

A serious sin on two accounts...In addition, the intellect and the will are involved in sins of malice, not the passions. Therefore, the higher faculties become polluted as well as the lower.

Garrigou-Lagrange quotes Thomas Aquinas on this point in a footnote: "Spiritual sins are of greater guilt than carnal sins. . . .Spiritual sin denotes more a turning from something. . . . Sins of intemperance are most worthy of reproach. . . because by these sins man is, so to speak, brutalized.

That Internet slang calls people of malice who make nasty comments on purpose, "trolls", indicates that those who invented the word realized the brutalization, the inhumanity of those who are trolls.

Interesting.

Trolls, therefore, commit spiritual rather than carnal sins, turning from God to attack His image and likeness by being full of ill-will and pride. 

Four of the regular trolls who have attacked this blog have attacked other blogs. One recognizes the same wording, the same type of nastiness, and the same quirks of expression. Two are male and two are female. One of the males uses two identities. One of the females uses at least four identities. That they are malicious has been noted by other bloggers who have been on the receiving end of their abuse. And, that is why they comment--in order to abuse and get some type of horrible, evil thrill out of disturbing the bloggers they attack.

Malice aforethought...

I hope these meditations help my soldier friend understand trolls better. They are, simply, abusers. Trolls who are ignored finally give up, but one should pray for trolls on religious blogs, as these people of malice are lost souls. 

I have discerned that some trolls work not only out of sadism, the mark of the abuser, but out of envy. One of my dear blogger friends has been severely hit by envious trolls and has stopped blogging.

That is a goal of a true troll..to stop the real discussion and oppress the blogger. I guess we could say that Satan was the first troll. 

mal·ice

ˈmaləs/

noun

1. the intention or desire to do evil; ill will.

   "I bear no malice toward anybody"

   synonyms:

   spite, malevolence, ill will, vindictiveness, vengefulness, revenge,malignity, evil intentions, animus, enmity, rancor; More

   • LAW

     wrongful intention, especially as increasing the guilt of certain offenses.

   
   
2. 
   
3. 
   

Americanism Part Two

This heresy reveals itself most subtlely. Most people would not recognize the characteristics of Americanism as it is so common and yet so hard to "pin down" in conversation.

A few points which exemplify an attitude of Americanism may help.

• Priests who do not read the updates from Rome or follow the suggestions of the Popes regarding liturgy determine their own actions from an attitude that Rome does not understand Americans.
• Misunderstandings among Americans that Rome is somehow "rich" and that the American Church does not need to support the Church there.
• The ideal that the Church should be based on democracy and the voice of the people rather than on the hierarchical structure of the past.
• The idea that Church and State should be completely separate, not a teaching of the Catholic Church, which holds that States should not only listen to the true teachings of Christ through the Church, but that the States should protect the Catholic Church.
• That Latin is unnecessary and divisive, as not "American".
• Interdenominational relations are most important and should be encouraged even in conferences and congresses.
• Almost hatred for passive virtues and an over-emphasis on activity.
• Most, if not all, the bishops involved in the early days of Americanism were Irish, seeking the domination of Irish Catholics over more conservative and ethnic Catholics, such as the Germans, a problem which came to a head over parishes and Catholic European vs. Catholic American identity.
• The support of Progressive political ideas instead of conservatism, leading to the overwhelming support of the Irish immigrants for the Democratic Party.
• An affiliation with the ideals of the French Revolution and the American Revolution rather than an affiliation with "Christendom".
• The great influence of Americanism in the East Coast spread to Minnesota and Iowa through the appointment of bishops holding Americanist ideas created an attitude of rebellion which surfaced in the conflict over Humanae Vitae.
• The idea that Catholic schools should adopt curriculum of the public schools rather than classical Catholic education.
• That the "local" church is more important than the universal Church, a false dichotomy. 
• More later...

Diocese and Church Updates

http://www.opusdei.org/en-us/article/24-hours-for-the-lord

If you do know if your diocese, or if your parish did this, please let me know. I know of European dioceses and churches which did this, but let me know, please for the edification of all about places in the States. I was told that one really small parish in England joined 24 hour adoration with the open confessional and many others around the world did as well. Nice....

UPDATES: Adoration and Confession reports--please share more, thanks!

Archdiocese of Chicago--24 parishes!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 24 hours of confessions were available
Praise God
and more....send in more, please.
Diocese of Calgary, Alberta, Canada
Lincoln, NE Diocese
Dioceses in the Philippines
Ireland, several parishes in County Kildare
Diocese of Sydney, Australia
Diocese of Limerick, Ireland
Several parishes in the State of Washington
Parishes in Colorado, several
Perth, Australia
Diocese of Prince Albert, Canada
Archdiocese of St. Louis, MO.
Archdiocese of Hobart, Tasmania
Archdiocese of Singapore
Diocese of Armagh, Ireland
Seminary in Homebush, Australia
Looks like all the dioceses in Ireland did this
Most parishes in Rome, with young people coming in all night
Holy Trinity Parish, Whitestone, NY
Chur, Germany
Austin, TX Marian Shrine of Our Lady of Schoenstatt
Silsden, West Yorkshire church
Diocese of Southwark, England
Diocese of Portsmouth, England
Diocese of Duluth, MI
Diocese of Montreal, Canada
Archdiocese of Los Angeles, CA
St. Walburga's Shrine, Preston, England
Diocese of Saskatoon, CA delayed until March 28-29

Sanity

http://www.france24.com/en/20150313-iceland-drops-bid-eu-membership/

Serious Coup Coming or The New Baby?

http://mw.ua/WORLD/illarionov-putin-to-be-removed-from-power-in-the-next-few-days-1437_.html

http://nypost.com/2015/03/13/putin-in-switzerland-for-birth-of-his-lovechild/

Whatever happens in Russia affects the US and the EU. I hope it is a baby and not a coup.

Twitter is going crazy...

http://www.france24.com/en/20150314-putin-disapear-rumours-baby-twitter-putinumer/

The Heresy of Americanism

Years ago, when I taught a class which involved looking at all the heresies, called the "isms" class by my students, one of the heresies we studied was that of Americanism.

This heresy was defined and condemned by Pope Leo XIII in Testem Benevolentiae Nostrae, which may be found here among other places.

Part of the heresy is accommodation to the world. Another part is that Rome does not understand America. In 2007, as a run up to the elections and the presidential election of 2008, I did a serious study on this heresy. One of the shocking things I discovered was how many bishops were actually involved, and how many dioceses, even those west of the Mississippi, were infected.

Here is a key paragraph from the encyclical.


The underlying principle of these new opinions is that, in order to more easily attract those who differ from her, the Church should shape her teachings more in accord with the spirit of the age and relax some of her ancient severity and make some concessions to new opinions. Many think that these concessions should be made not only in regard to ways of living, but even in regard to doctrines which belong to the deposit of the faith. They contend that it would be opportune, in order to gain those who differ from us, to omit certain points of her teaching which are of lesser importance, and to tone down the meaning which the Church has always attached to them. It does not need many words, beloved son, to prove the falsity of these ideas if the nature and origin of the doctrine which the Church proposes are recalled to mind. The Vatican Council says concerning this point: "For the doctrine of faith which God has revealed has not been proposed, like a philosophical invention to be perfected by human ingenuity, but has been delivered as a divine deposit to the Spouse of Christ to be faithfully kept and infallibly declared. Hence that meaning of the sacred dogmas is perpetually to be retained which our Holy Mother, the Church, has once declared, nor is that meaning ever to be departed from under the pretense or pretext of a deeper comprehension of them." -Constitutio de Fide Catholica, Chapter iv.

Clearly, the spirit of compromise is behind this heresy, which has take over many dioceses in the States. Another point in the heresy is that active participation in the Church is more important than passive. In other words, works over prayer and contemplation.

This pope reminds us in this encyclical that the call to perfection involves recognizing that there is a more perfect way--the life of the contemplative.  I have referred in the long perfection series that Garriou-Lagrange and others note that this lifestyle is more perfect. Sadly, this has not been taught consistently in the Catholic Church in America.

There have always been some bishops, some cardinals, some priests and religious, who have wanted the Church in America to be different than the one, holy, Catholic, and apostolic Church.

It is not. The glory of the Church is that it is universal, and not a national church like the Anglican one, for example. The Church of England lacks the universality, the oneness, and of course, the apostolic nature of the Catholic Church.

Americanism seeks to accommodate itself to the Protestant denominations by accepting false premises of ecumenism. How often one hears in America that all Christian churches "are the same" as they believe in Christ as God. But the sameness ends with the Trinitarian baptism.

I shall write more on this later...

New Blog Policy

Like Father Z., I am starting a new policy of having commentators have to sign in for comments. Free commenting days are over. Several bloggers have stopped commentators all together because of the growing nastiness of people commenting and trolls.

I hope this does not cause too many readers distress.

For the sake of clarity

This blogger does not post comments which are anti-Francis as to his person. No ad hominems.

Also, if I chose to criticize sound bites, I would be too busy....and not studying Thomas Aquinas or Augustine, which is more important.

God bless all commentators.