STM on Education

I have gone on record for supporting only NAPCIS schools and home-schooling.

Here is the NAPCIS site. http://napcis.org/

You can look at my many, many posts on home schooling.

I saw the rot in the 1980s. The lack of Faith in most Catholic schools was seen by many of us then.

Contraception must be taken into account as well as Mass attendance.

No surprises in 2015.

The nuns started the lack of faith...sorry, this has to be addressed.

I had faithful nuns in grade school and high school, but not in college.

The nuns had left the Faith.

Let us be honest about this.

We can never go back to those happy days.

Go home schoolers!!!!!

As soon as a school takes government money, it is compromising.

I home schooled and STS went to TAC.

I have a Master's Teacher's Certification from NAPCIS.

The Catholic Church started education in Europe after the fall of the Roman Empire.

The Benedictines passed on the great classical education. St. Anselm re-introduced classical ed into the seminaries. I used to give talks on these facts.

Persecution Watch Two Today

https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/hundreds-march-to-protest-san-francisco-archbishops-plan-to-uphold-catholic

“I can be a Catholic and a follower of Jesus without accepting what the hierarchy says, but accepting what I think Jesus would have said,” one female Catholic parishioner who entered into a homosexual “marriage” this month told the Chronicle.

Well, that person thinks and acts like a Protestant, which is the problem with so many in the Church.

“In the end,” Archbishop Cordileone said, “our Catholic schools exist to help young people attain holiness in their lives, that is, to become saints.”

Statistics of 2015 US Ordinations-Go Moms!

Ordination Class Of 2015 Shows Increase In Number Ordained, Reflects Positive Impact Of Support From Families, Catholic Schools, Parish Priests

April 7, 2015

WASHINGTON—The 2015 class of men ordained to the priesthood report that they were, on average, about 17 when they first considered a vocation to the priesthood and encouraged to consider a vocation by an average of four people. Seven in 10 (71 percent) say they were encouraged by a parish priest, as well as friends (46 percent), parishioners (45 percent), and mothers (40 percent)...

The total number of potential ordinands for the class of 2015, 595, is up from from 477 in 2014 and 497 in 2013.
...

The full report can be found online: www.usccb.org/beliefs-and-teachings/vocations/ordination-class/index.cfm

Most come from Catholic families....with both parents being Catholic. 

Most ordinands have been Catholic since infancy, although 7 percent became Catholic later in life. Eighty-four percent report that both of their parents are Catholic and more than a third (37 percent) have a relative who is a priest or a religious.

About seven in 10 report regularly praying the rosary (70 percent) and participating in Eucharistic adoration (70 percent) before entering the seminary.

Persecution Watch USA

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2015/apr/8/gordon-college-backlash-sparks-discrimination-accu/

Re-posts for the times..by the sword divided

Satan divides. Most of the families with whom I am familiar, including my own, are divided on issues of religion, morality, political ethics. Some of us are the only practicing Catholics among our siblings. Some have parents who have fallen away into heresy and compromise. Many parents have children and grandchildren who have left the Church, or who have refused baptism and confirmation. The names of these people would fill several pages of intercession, just for my prayer time.This state of division in families is not new. I repeat an older post. It is not comforting, but it is the truth of what we all are experiencing today, April 9, 2015.The sword of truth divides.Prayer, fasting, becoming perfect, mortification---the answers. But, all men and women have free will. Remember that you may not be the person to bring your family members back to Christ and His Church. Pray for someone to enter their lives to do this. Be humble, but firm. Friday, 23 August 2013

Musings on treachery

I have been, in the past few weeks, pursuing a personal study on the Civil War in England, as well as the times immediately leading up to the killing of a rightful king.

Now, what has always intrigued and concerned me were the families divided by religion and politics. I have written about this briefly here, http://guildofblessedtitus.blogspot.ie/2013/08/by-press-divided.html, but want to share some thoughts which will apply to us Catholics today, August 23, 2013.

That religion, Catholic, Anglican, and Calvinist loyalties led to warfare, demonstrates the deeply held beliefs of those involved.

That families were ripped apart by religion is also a fact. To this day, there are Catholic and Protestant branches of the same family existing in England, Scotland, Ireland and America. I have met people of Catholic branches in England, who have long-lost cousins of the same name in certain states in America, and these American families came over as Protestants.

The hatred and persecution by the Anglicans and Calvinists of the Catholics form the stuff of history, the stories of the Tyburn Martyrs, the heroic tales of St. Thomas More, St. John Fisher, St. Oliver Plunkett, and so on. The age of the martyrs turned into the age of civil war.

The fact that some people changed sides reveals the sad stories of betrayal and treachery.

But, there was and still is, a third category of people, who were the new men and women of the 16th and 17th centuries. These were the people who left religion entirely, became cynics, and merely worked for their own status, careers, comfort. These men and women were the moderns, those self-centred ones whose only principle was me, me, me.

These opportunists spawned further generations of non-believers, who outwardly conformed, but whose souls were impervious to the interior spiritual life.

In the days to come of persecution and testing, we shall see Catholics betraying Catholics, Catholics becoming cynics, and seizing opportunities for advancement, building their little kingdoms on the backs of those whom they betray.

We cannot kid ourselves, dear Catholic readers, Christ has prepared us for this.

And a man’s enemies shall be they of his own household. Matthew 10:36 DR

In the coming days, which side will you be on--the real Catholics, the schismatic Catholics, or the cynics? Will you be Cavaliers, Roundheads, or opportunists?

Jesus and the Fish

Fish stories come to my mind today, because in the Gospel for the Thursday After Easter, one sees Christ helping the apostles come to terms with His Risen Body by eating "grilled fish". 

By this small act, Christ reveals His Risen Body, as not merely that of a spirit, but of flesh renewed. The multiplication of the loaves and fishes will not be discussed in this post.





from Luke 24:

33 And rising up, the same hour, they went back to Jerusalem: and they found the eleven gathered together, and those that were staying with them,

34 Saying: The Lord is risen indeed, and hath appeared to Simon.

35 And they told what things were done in the way; and how they knew him in the breaking of the bread.

36 Now whilst they were speaking these things, Jesus stood in the midst of them, and saith to them: Peace be to you; it is I, fear not.

37 But they being troubled and frightened, supposed that they saw a spirit.

38 And he said to them: Why are you troubled, and why do thoughts arise in your hearts?

39 See my hands and feet, that it is I myself; handle, and see: for a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as you see me to have.

40 And when he had said this, he shewed them his hands and feet.

41 But while they yet believed not, and wondered for joy, he said: Have you any thing to eat?

42 And they offered him a piece of a broiled fish, and a honeycomb.

43 And when he had eaten before them, taking the remains, he gave to them.

Christ shows the apostles, and us, that the risen body of those in glory at the end of time will be a real body and not merely an image of the person in a "ghostly form".

Something new is being revealed which only Christ could reveal. In the Old Testament, and in the New, we see people being raised from the dead, such as Lazarus of Bethany, the Daughter of Jairus, and the Son of the Widow of Nain. In the Old Testament, Elijah raised the son of the widow of Zarephath, which was an old town very near Nain. In fact, Jesus's raising of the son of the widow would have brought to mind Elijah's miracle to the faithful Jews, who knew their Scripture.

But, the bodies of these people were not "glorified". Christ is the First Person on earth to be resurrected in the form in which all at the Second Coming who go to heaven will experience. Those who will go to hell have their bodies, but not in "glory", of course.

Another fish story comes to my mind, but in this Old Testament story, highlighted many times on this blog, that of Tobit and Raphael,  wherein a fish is caught and used to repel a demon.

Raphael eats in front of Tobit and others, but when he reveals himself, not as a second-cousin once removed, but as the great Archangel of Healing, he states this:

from Tobit 12:

5 So the father and the son, calling him, took him aside: and began to desire him that he would vouchsafe to accept of half of all things that they had brought.

6 Then he said to them secretly: Bless ye the God of heaven, give glory to him in the sight of all that live, because he hath shewn his mercy to you.

7 For it is good to hide the secret of a king: but honourable to reveal and confess the works of God.

8 Prayer is good with fasting and alms more than to lay up treasures of gold:

9 For alms delivereth from death, and the same is that which purgeth away sins, and maketh to find mercy and life everlasting.

10 But they that commit sin and iniquity, are enemies to their own soul.

11 I discover then the truth unto you, and I will not hide the secret from you.

12 When thou didst pray with tears, and didst bury the dead, and didst leave thy dinner, and hide the dead by day in thy house, and bury them by night, I offered thy prayer to the Lord.

13 And because thou wast acceptable to God, it was necessary that temptation should prove thee.

14 And now the Lord hath sent me to heal thee, and to deliver Sara thy son's wife from the devil.

15 For I am the angel Raphael, one of the seven, who stand before the Lord.

16 And when they had heard these things, they were troubled, and being seized with fear they fell upon the ground on their face.

17 And the angel said to them: Peace be to you, fear not.

18 For when I was with you, I was there by the will of God: bless ye him, and sing praises to him.

19 I seemed indeed to eat and to drink with you: but I use an invisible meat and drink, which cannot be seen by men.

20 It is time therefore that I return to him that sent me: but bless ye God, and publish all his wonderful works.

21 And when he had said these things, he was taken from their sight, and they could see him no more.

22 Then they lying prostrate for three hours upon their face, blessed God: and rising up, they told all his wonderful works.

Raphael, as a spirit, an angel, cannot really eat. But, God allowed him to work with humans in a form which they would accept and understand. Christ's Risen and Glorified Body is not that of an angel, but a man.

Another fish story comes to mind from the Gospel of John 21: 

1 After this, Jesus shewed himself again to the disciples at the sea of Tiberias. And he shewed himself after this manner.

2 There were together Simon Peter, and Thomas, who is called Didymus, and Nathanael, who was of Cana of Galilee, and the sons of Zebedee, and two others of his disciples.

3 Simon Peter saith to them: I go a fishing. They say to him: We also come with thee. And they went forth, and entered into the ship: and that night they caught nothing.

4 But when the morning was come, Jesus stood on the shore: yet the disciples knew not that it was Jesus.

5 Jesus therefore said to them: Children, have you any meat? They answered him: No.

6 He saith to them: Cast the net on the right side of the ship, and you shall find. They cast therefore; and now they were not able to draw it, for the multitude of fishes.

7 That disciple therefore whom Jesus loved, said to Peter: It is the Lord. Simon Peter, when he heard that it was the Lord, girt his coat about him, (for he was naked,) and cast himself into the sea.

8 But the other disciples came in the ship, (for they were not far from the land, but as it were two hundred cubits,) dragging the net with fishes.

9 As soon then as they came to land, they saw hot coals lying, and a fish laid thereon, and bread.

10 Jesus saith to them: Bring hither of the fishes which you have now caught.

11 Simon Peter went up, and drew the net to land, full of great fishes, one hundred and fifty-three. And although there were so many, the net was not broken.

12 Jesus saith to them: Come, and dine. And none of them who were at meat, durst ask him: Who art thou? knowing that it was the Lord.

13 And Jesus cometh and taketh bread, and giveth them, and fish in like manner.
14 This is now the third time that Jesus was manifested to his disciples, after he was risen from the dead.

Yesterday, we heard the Gospel on the disciples meeting Christ on the way to Emmaus and eating with Him.

All these passages may be seen in reference to Christ's Body being Present in the Eucharist, which the Doctors of the Church point out to us. But, Christ is also revealing to us that humans have a body and a soul, and being totally Human, Christ in His Resurrected Body eats. 

We cannot understand the new bodies which those who are faithful will receive on the Day of the Lord, the day of the Final Judgment, but Christ is trying to show us the reality of the resurrection from the dead for all who believe and are saved.

Perhaps today would be a good day to re-read the Baptismal Rite of the Church, in order to understand more the fact that we are, body and soul, destined for heaven, if we conform our wills to Christ's Will.

One may find the Sancta Missa, old version, here. http://www.sanctamissa.org/en/resources/books-1962/rituale-romanum/09-baptism-of-children.html

apologies for the spacing today--there is a gremlin in the google works..

Two Series This Week

If you missed these, go back and read the posts on the Indwelling, and on Time and Eternity. Busy bakson day, but will get to Spe Salvi later.

On heaven, an aside

 "After the universal judgment, the righteous will reign forever with Christ, glorified in body and soul"  CCC (No. 1042).

Protestant Errors on Purgatory and the Last Judgment-an aside

The Protestant Error http://www.catholictreasury.info/books/everlasting_life/ev21.php

The doctrine of purgatory was denied by the Albigenses, the Hussites, and the Protestants. [339] Luther began, in 1517, by denying the value of indulgences, saying that they had no value before God for the remission of the punishment due to our sins. [340] Then he went on 
to maintain that purgatory cannot be proved by Holy Scripture; that the souls in purgatory are not sure of their salvation; that we cannot prove the impossibility of merit in purgatory; that the souls in purgatory may sin by attempting to escape the sufferings they are undergoing.

Later on, Luther reached the doctrinal root of all his negations, namely, justification by faith alone. Then he affirmed the uselessness of good works and hence the uselessness of purgatory. Supported by popular favor, he became more and more audacious. In 1524 he published his book on the abrogation of Mass. In this work he says that the denial of purgatory is not an error.

Finally, in 1530, he denied absolutely any necessity of satisfaction for our sins. To uphold this, he said, would be an injury to Christ, who has satisfied superabundantly for all sin. For the same reason he denied that the Mass is a true sacrifice, particularly a propitiatory sacrifice. We have here the radical denial of a life of reparation, as if the sufferings of the saints for the expiation of sin would be an injury to the Redeemer.

Now the first and universal cause does not exclude second causes, but grants them the dignity of causality, somewhat like a sculptor who should make statues which live. Thus the satisfactory merits of Christ do not exclude our own, but rather create them. Christ causes us to work with Him and in Him. St. Paul said: "Bear ye one another's burdens, and so you shall fulfill the law of Christ." [341] Again: "I now rejoice in my sufferings for you and fill up those things that are wanting of the sufferings of Christ, in my flesh, for His body, which is the Church." Certainly nothing was lacking to the sufferings of Christ in themselves, but they lacked fulfillment in our own flesh.

Calvin [342] and Zwingli [343] followed Luther in denying indulgences, in denying the sacrifice of the Mass, and purgatory.

Protestants of the present day have separated from their masters on this subject. Many of them admit an intermediate state between hell and heaven. They will not call it purgatory, but do say that the souls there can still merit and satisfy. Some hold that the sufferings of hell are not eternal. Now this temporary hell does not at all resemble the purgatory taught by the Catholic Church, according to which all souls in purgatory are in the state of grace and can no longer sin.

This is but one more example of the variations and contradictions to be found among Protestant Churches.

The chief Catholic theologians who wrote against this Protestant error are Cajetan, Sylvester Ferrariensis, St. John Fisher, John Eck, and St. Robert Bellarmine. St. John Fisher speaks thus to the Lutherans: "In suppressing the sacrifice of the Mass you have excluded the sun which illumines and warms each day of our life, and makes its influence felt even in purgatory."

The Church condemned this Protestant error. The Council of Trent declares: "If anyone says that the man who has repented and received the grace of justification is forgiven and released from obligation to eternal punishment, in such fashion that he no longer has any obligation to temporal punishment, whether in this world or in purgatory, before he can be given entrance into heaven: let him be anathema." [344] 

In the fourteenth chapter, which corresponds to this cannon, the Council affirms the necessity of satisfaction for sins committed after baptism: satisfaction in the form of fasting, of almsgiving, of prayer, and of other exercises of the spiritual life. These satisfactions are not meant for the eternal punishment, which was remitted by the sacrament of penance or by the desire of the sacrament, but for the remission of temporal punishment, which is not always remitted entirely, as it is in baptism. [345] The Council quotes these words of Scripture: "Be mindful therefore from whence thou art fallen, and do penance and do the first works." [346] "For the sorrow that is according to God worketh penance." [347] "Do penance." [348] "Bring forth therefore fruit worthy of penance." [349] And if this reparation, this satisfaction, has not been paid in this world, the soul will have to undergo the satisfactorial punishment of purgatory.

And I add this on choosing to take one's purgatory on earth, rather than after the particular judgment.

Blessed are those who take their purgatory on earth, by generous acceptance of daily trials. The multiple sacrifices of daily life purify and perfect their love, and by this love they will be judged.

Love itself has many degrees. St. Peter seemed to make an act of perfect love when he protested to Jesus his readiness to die. But mingled with his act was presumption. To purify him from this presumption, Providence permitted the threefold denial, whence he came forth more humble, less trustful in himself, more trustful in God, until pure love led him to martyrdom and answered his prayer to be crucified head downward.

How do we attain pure love? Saudreau answers: "Love is not an effect of headwork, not a pushing forward of will to give to it greater force. It is the result of accepting generously all sacrifices, in accepting with a loving heart all trials." [130] 
The Lord augments the infused virtue of charity, the accepting soul prepares itself for the particular judgment, where it will find in Jesus rather a friend than a judge.

While the particular judgment, then, settles for each soul its place in eternity, the general judgment still remains necessary. Man is not a mere individual person, but also a member of human society, on which he has had an influence, good or bad, of longer or shorter duration. 

And although most Protestants believe in the Last Judgment, some have a wrong idea about it because some of their heroes are actually great evil men.

Here is G-L again:

The Fathers, both Latin and Greek, not only teach this dogma explicitly, but most vividly describe the last judgment. Let it suffice to cite St. Augustine: "No one denies, or puts in doubt, that Jesus Christ, as the Scriptures have announced, will pronounce the last judgment." [157] 

...

Reasons for the Last Judgment

St. Thomas [167] explains these reasons. First, dead men live in the memory of men on earth and are often judged contrary to truth. Spirits, strong and false, like Spinoza, Kant, and Hegel, are judged as if they were great philosophers. False prophets and heresiarchs, such as Luther and Calvin, are considered by many to be masters of religious thought, whereas great saints and doctors are profoundly ignored.

Judgment Day will show how much value is to be assigned to certain histories of philosophies, to many studies on the origins of Christianity, written in a spirit absolutely rationalistic. It will show how their perpetual variations and contradictions come from their fundamental error, the negation of the supernatural. It will manifest all lying propaganda. It will unmask hypocrites who enslaved religion instead of serving religion. Universal history will no longer be seen as a mere horizontal line of time, passing from the past to the future, but as a vertical line which attaches each event to the unique moment of an immovable eternity. The secrets of the hearts will be revealed. [168] The Pharisees, Caiphas, Pilate, will be judged definitively. Truth will conquer all these lies. It is clear that, if God exists, truth must be the absolutely last word.

Further, the dead have had imitators, in good or in evil. Evil is easier to imitate. Truth and justice must be vindicated. "Blessed are they who hunger and thirst after justice, for they shall have their fill."

Lastly, the effects of men's actions last long after their death. Arius and other heresiarchs troubled souls for some centuries, whereas, on the contrary, the teaching of the apostles will exercise its influence to the end of the world. Only a final and infallible judgment of God is here sufficient, and this cannot take place until the end of time.

And against Calvin and the other prosperity Gospel preachers...

Blessed those who, like Bernadette of Lourdes, hear this word: "I promise you happiness, not in this life, but in the next." This was a special revelation. She was predestined, but she would have great crosses on earth. All genuine Christian lives are marked with the cross. Crosses well borne are a sign of predestination, says St. Thomas. A rain of afflictions is better than a rain of diamonds. This truth we shall see clearly after death. [173] Providence will then appear absolutely irreproachable in all its way

Not Cultural Wars, War Against Christ

Let us stop using this lame phrase of culture war and call the war which is raging against the Church for what it is-an out-and-out assault of the Catholic Faith and the Catholic Church.

Period.

Satan and his minions want to destroy us and Christ's Church.

This is the real war, not a culture war.

What we are seeing is the War Against Christ.

Revelation 13 

13 1 And I saw a beast rising out of the sea, having ten horns and seven heads; and on its horns were ten diadems, and on its heads were blasphemous names. 2 And the beast that I saw was like a leopard, its feet were like a bear’s, and its mouth was like a lion’s mouth. And the dragon gave it his power and his throne and great authority. 3 One of its heads seemed to have received a death-blow, but its mortal wound[a] had been healed. In amazement the whole earth followed the beast. 4 They worshiped the dragon, for he had given his authority to the beast, and they worshiped the beast, saying, “Who is like the beast, and who can fight against it?”

5 The beast was given a mouth uttering haughty and blasphemous words, and it was allowed to exercise authority for forty-two months. 6 It opened its mouth to utter blasphemies against God, blaspheming his name and his dwelling, that is, those who dwell in heaven. 7 Also it was allowed to make war on the saints and to conquer them.[b] It was given authority over every tribe and people and language and nation, 8 and all the inhabitants of the earth will worship it, everyone whose name has not been written from the foundation of the world in the book of life of the Lamb that was slaughtered.[c]

9 Let anyone who has an ear listen:

10 If you are to be taken captive,
    into captivity you go;
if you kill with the sword,
    with the sword you must be killed.

Here is a call for the endurance and faith of the saints.

Preaching on Hell--an aside

 Is it proper in our own age to preach on hell? We answer thus: first, it is certainly better to go to God by the way of love than that of fear. The redemptive Incarnation invites us continually to the way of love. But fear is today a necessary element of salvation, just as surely as it was when the Fathers preached the gospel. We conclude, with the author of the article on hell in the Dictionnaire de theologique "Preachers must indeed omit all purely imaginary descriptions. The simple truth is sufficient. But to keep systematic silence on any portion of Christian teaching, particularly on forethought for our last end, is to ignore radically the spirit of Christianity. This life is a road, which ends inevitably either in hell or in heaven." [313] 

Further, our Lord deigns frequently to give privileged souls a higher knowledge of hell, by contemplation, or by vision, imaginary or intellectual, in order to carry them on to greater hatred of sin, to growth in charity, to more burning zeal for the salvation of souls. It is sufficient here to recall the visions. Like St. Theresa, many saints were thus illumined by contrast, on the infinite greatness of God and the value of eternal life.

St. Theresa speaks thus: "I often ask myself how it came that pictures of hell did not lead me to fear these pains as they deserve. Now I feel a killing pain at sight of the multitudes who are lost. This vision was one of the greatest graces the Lord has given me. From it arise also these vehement desires to be useful to souls. Yes, I say it with all truth: to deliver one soul from these terrible torments, I would gladly, it seems to me, endure death a thousand times." [314] Everlasting Life

For the three kinds of fear, see the text. Here just a bit:

St. Catherine of Siena says that, with progress in charity, filial fear grows until mundane fear disappears completely. The apostles, after Pentecost, began to glory in their tribulations. They rejoiced in being judged worthy to suffer for our Lord. Before the Ascension, feeling acutely their own impotency, they feared the persecutions our Lord had foretold. On Pentecost they were clarified, fortified, confirmed in grace.

Filial fear in heaven is called reverential fear. "The fear of the Lord is holy, enduring forever and ever." [328] Thus the psalm. It will no longer be fear of sin, fear of being separated from God, but deep reverence. Seeing the infinite grandeur of the Most High, the soul sees its own nothingness and fragility. God is reality itself. "Ego sum qui sum." In this sense, as we sing in the preface, even the Powers tremble. This gift of reverential fear exists even in the holy soul of our Savior, just as do the other gifts of the Holy Spirit.

Reverential fear appears in the saints even in the present life. When St. Peter, after the first miraculous catch of fishes, came to Jesus, he said: "Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord." [329] It is then that Jesus said to him: "Fear not, from henceforth thou shall catch men." And Peter, James, and John left everything to follow Him.

God's Glory in Flowers

..from a friend...

Undermining local control...

http://observer.com/2015/04/al-sharpton-calls-for-fedeal-police-laws-after-south-carolina-killing/

Oh no, BB police?