Sometimes, I prefer secular humanism...

We are in the Post-Star Trek Age. Now, we have fallen into the age of superstition. Many of my fellow traddie Catholics are obsessed with private revelations. Now, Holy Mother Church states that we do not have to believe in any private revelation. The problem is not that there are some approved private revelations, but that there are too many not condemned revelations. The number of condemned private revelations is small-Bayside comes to mind. But, the number of revelations which have neither been condemned nor been approved is astoundingly large. There are at least 800 private revelations in the past fifty years or less which have not received any approbation or condemnation by the Church.

Why so many of my dear friends are obsessed, or at least, distracted by private revelations may be based on four points. Number one reason: not all traddies are well catechized in the Teachings of the Catholic Church. Simply put, there is a lack of interest and passion for the beautiful teachings of the Catholic Church. Ignorance does not feed interest, knowledge does. The second reason is that some traddies think that experiential religion is more important that rational religion. This may seem odd, or even out-of-character for a traddie, but some want the TLM for the experience rather than the theology. Third, Gnosticism is alive and well in some traddie circles-that is, people who feel that have special or inside knowledge of spiritual things gravitate either to New Age groups or traditional groups. Last, superstition is the lazy evil of the age. It is easier to accept emotional causality, which is basically anti-intellectual. The anti-intellectuals are not all liberals.

God would not tell the Mayans something outside of Revelation

Narcissism is destroying Japan

Japan

Narcissism can ruin a country. In Japan, on this link, one sees one of the reasons for the plunging birthrate.  Young people are not "falling in love". Generations of selfish pursuits and the cult of childhood created a narcissistic culture where young people not only do not want to sacrifice, but do not know how to sacrifice. The greatest joys of love, real love, wanting to please the other, giving up time, energy, money, even talents to have children, dying to self in order to love freely without expectation--all of these experiences and virtues seem a fantasy to these youth, or they do not even imagine such joys can exist.

How sad. How very sad. What is needed is evangelization-Christians to share the good news of real Love, and His Name is Jesus Christ.

Two Real Men from Cabrini-Green-on victim thinking

One of the reasons, and there are many, why I left academia, was this prevalence of victim thinking. Thankfully, if the "cases" in the college classroom became particularly obstructive to the class as a whole, I had the entire backing of the administration. One of the most wonderful people on the staff was a man who had grown up, yes, in the Cabrini-Green estates. Let just say he grew up in hell. His mother had two sons and she instilled in them the love of learning and the love of God-a Benedictine ideal, but as a Baptist, this wonderful woman was following her grace and role as a mom, and being counter-cultural in her little, no big, way.

My friend, Adam, said that all the kids around him were learning how to deal drugs, kill and be killed. Out of all his friends in Cabrini-Green, all but his brother, are either dead or in prison for life. I asked him to come into my class and give a motivational talk to my 26 students, most of whom were immersed in victim thinking and/or narcissism. He did not succeed inspiring anyone but me. The ho-hum attitude was like jelly being smeared all over the classroom. Dull and icky. However, Adam was not upset, and offered to come into the class again. Later, one young man, who wants to be a sports-trainer, came back to me and said it was "cool", a word still used in the Midwest.

Well, Adam, his brother, and his mom are heroes against the Post-Modernism malaise filling our country. The fact that the Cabrini-Green estates were ever built was an example of false utopianism. Such estates just put all the baddies in one place-how convenient. Oh, and for my European friends, or those few saints who have seen The Blues Brothers at least five times, C-G was in Chicago.

Victim thinking will destroy America as it has destroyed Britain. British youth, except for a golden minority, belong to what I call the Grape Generation-step on them lightly and they give a little whine...

The last Cabrini-Green estate was demolished in the past year. At least two heroes emerged, and I hope more. But, there exists two, strong, Christian men, Adam and Joshua, with a message. A person is responsible for his own life and he can break out from victim-hood, if he wants to do so.

For Michael Voris, A Little Encouragement--Can You Imagine This Today?

Or this...

Pope on education and the family...good stuff

The Pope's message yesterday on education and on children is beautiful and worth reading. As parents are the first educators of their children, this message fits into one the themes of this blog. Here is a snippet.

"The true educator does not bind people to himself, he is not possessive," Benedict XVI said. "He wants the child, or the disciple, to learn to know the truth and establish a personal relationship with it. The educator does his duty to the end, he does not withdraw his attentive and faithful presence; but his objective is that the learner hears the voice of the truth speak to his heart and follows it on a personal journey."

Empress Zita and her children are a good example for us mums.

He also continued to explain how we are all children. What a lovely concept to keep in mind daily, that we are children of a Loving Father.


"We are children in our relationship to God also," the Pontiff continued. "God is at the origin of the existence of every creature, and he is Father of every human being in a unique way: God has with him or her a special, personal relationship. Each one of us is willed, is loved by God. And in this relationship with God as well we can, so to say, be 'reborn,' that is, become what we are. This happens through faith, through a profound and personal 'yes' to God as origin and foundation of our existence. With this 'yes' I receive life as a gift of the Father who is in heaven, a Parent whom I do not see but in whom I believe and in the depths of my heart feel to be my Father and the Father of all my brothers in humanity, an immensely good and faithful Father."

On subjectivity, relativism, narcissism and victim thinking

I have been listening to the speech of the person in the street, and in particular groupings, such as church congregations, either at coffee mornings or in the cyber cafes and so on. One of the things that has been noticeable, is that young people and older alike, are perceiving the language in a new way. This way once would have been described "defensive behavior", attributed to a few people who we all have met, who are "prickly", take every statement personally, and psychologically are on the "defensive". In the past, before, I would note, two years ago, this type of response to facts was a rare occasion. Now, the response is widespread, and I am convinced is related to three things.

The first is that the younger generations, in their 20s and 30s, have not been trained in logical discourse, also known as critical thinking, and do not think or hear objectively. For example, a friend of mine was in a grocery store in the Autumn and a mother was abusive to both of her children by literally screaming at them in the store and these children were very small. She merely said to the woman with her, "The woman is yelling at her children"; she was considering whether the extent of the problem was serious enough for her to step in. The children were afraid of the mother. The companion said, "Oh, do not judge her." My friend had not. She had made a statement of truth-noting that a mother was yelling at her children. Again, with a young man in his twenties, I noted that "Caroline is going into hospital for mental illness and we need to pray for her." The response was, again, "Do not criticize." Factual statements are being taken as judgement, which in times past, was not the case. Again, I noted the other day that more Coptic Christians were being persecuted in the continent of Africa. The response, "Well, we shouldn't judge." If one shares facts, without comment, without harsh or even unambiguously objective words, such things are taken as "criticisms" or judgement.

I label that the lack of objective thinking and the lack of separating fact from criticism. 

The second reason for this phenomenon is that the modern mind has been formed by relativism and narcissism.  Despite the fact of objectivity being a lost as a rational art, relativism has permitted a cultural attitude, now reflected in language, where one cannot say anything about differences or categories. Example, I was in a conversation with two seminarians about hell and the heresy of universal salvation, the most common heresy in the West and a serious problem in at least two seminaries in the States.

We were looking at the Scriptures relating to Judas, and the statements said by Christ, that he was the "son of perdition"-John 17:12, and that The Son of man indeed goeth, as it is written of him. But woe to that man by whom the Son of man shall be betrayed. It were better for him, if that man had not been born--Matthew 26:24.

In fact, modern Protestant Biblical Criticism does not interpret that passage as referring to Judas at all. One of the young men said we could not judge. My response is that we were looking at the passages and trying to understand what Christ meant. I said that the possibility of Judas been in hell can be discussed.

If one has cogent or necessary criticisms, the problem is worse, as one cannot even appeal to hierarchies of any kind. This is not merely a street problem but one of academia. Last year, some of my peers were afraid to discuss certain political issues in the coffee room, as others were responding "personally", taking offense at the common parlance of politics.

The third reason is the victim attitude of a many, many people, who perceive themselves and others as victims of circumstances, of financial difficulties, in relationships, etc. Victim attitudes are clear in the way one particular "false religion" relates to the Western governmental philosophies. This playing of the victim card, this blaming others for one's discomfort or perceived lack of freedoms, has been encouraged by the present governments of Britain and America. This problem of groups seeing themselves as victims of Western political ideals, democracy or religion will increase with the growing narcissism of the mind set of the young and old who cannot think objectively, do not have moral or religious frameworks with which to judge correctly, and who are so politically correct that they will lose their own freedoms to the more aggressive groups.

A Critique of JFK's View of Catholicism in American Government

If you noticed, I have Mirror of Justice on my blog list. It is a great site. One of the most important questions of our day, a theme of this blog, is the freedom of religion in the market place, including politics. From a speech given this Autumn at Notre Dame, as noted in full on the blog at right, by Prof. Michael McConnell, the entire question of the freedom of the Catholic Church to express Her True Teachings is here expressed most eloquently. The site shows the provocative end of the speech, but here is a quotation from the body also on the site:


The Bishops’ statement was a critique—not an embrace—of the
idea of strict separation. It describes Jefferson’s famous paraphrase of
the First Amendment, the “wall of separation,” as a “misleading metaphor.”
 It offers an extended—and cogent—criticism of the
Supreme Court’s decisions in  Everson v. Board of Education
 and Illinois ex rel McCollum v. Board of Education.
 It describes those decisions as “victories of secularism,” and concludes with the “hope and
pray[er] that the novel interpretation of the First Amendment
recently adopted by the Supreme Court will in due process be
revised.”
The Bishops affirmed what they called “our original American
tradition of free cooperation between government and religious bodies—cooperation involving no special privilege to any group and no
restriction on the religious liberty of any citizen.”
 Cooperation, not separation, is the term the Bishops used, and their insistence on neutrality (“no special privilege”) and the primacy of free exercise (“no
restriction on religious liberty”) were a far cry from Kennedy’s “absolute separation.”


Many good Catholics are confused about the Church's teaching on separation of Church and State and this entry on the blog from the Notre Dame Law Review is worth reading.

Plea for funds for St. Michael's Abbey

 http://www.farnboroughabbey.org/index.php

Can some readers help the monks with a new heating system? See online above. And, if you have never experienced a winter in an English monastery, I suggest you do and then send money!

Part Three: Cults and Post-Modernist Christians

As some of you know, this blog is a continuation of my previous blog of several years. At that time, 2007, 2008, 2009, I was taken up with the intrusion of Post-Modernist thinking in the politics of America. To most, that is now obvious and painful. Now, I am more aware of Post-Modernist thinking and ergo, acting, among faith-groups in America, notably, our Protestant brethren and liberal Catholics. Post-Modernism is a term which covers a multitude of ideas, but the main ones I track are narcissism, individualism, self and group delusion and manipulation. Attached to these characteristics are the hatred of the class structure, leading to a hatred of the lower and working classes, with a consciousness encircled by a false elitism (see blog below).

Post-Modernism in religion has become Post-Modernist Christianity, which, because relativistic, is anti-moral, or at best, amoral, anti-dogmatic, anti-authoritarian, anti-communal, anti-rational, and self-destructive. The Post-Modernist Christian looks like a Post-Modern atheist, with a difference. They deny the Transcendent. The Post-Modernist atheist makes himself into the Transcendent, while the Post-Modernist Christian denies the Transcendent. The Protestant denominations are imploding with the pressure of the denial of the Transcendent. The Old Covenant Law and the order of Love of the New Covenant become merely deniable transcendence, undermined by the rules of literary deconstruction, or the cynicism of the capabilities of the human mind and soul, the latter which does not exist.

As a trained Phenomenologist, who came to her senses and reverted back to Thomism, I can say that the Post-Modernist, Deconstructionist in religion and philosophy differed (no pun) on the role of the mind, reflection, memory, understanding, will, experience, and perception. (With hats off to the great St Ignatius, who taught us discernment with regard to memory, understanding and the will, one can only be grateful in being given the grace to be a Catholic).

Point: the Post-Modernist Christian is about to enter the age of power, as the Post-Modernist atheists give up and retreat back into their comfortable, usually academic positions, and leave the political arena to those who think they are idealists, but are really Post-Modernist Christians.

These men and women have taken over the imaginations of Western European politics and the movement is being sucked into the abyss which is American politics, with a few, definite exceptions.

The Post-Modernist Christian may claim Christianity as his or her faith, but in reality, this person has abandoned all ideas of the Transcendent. Just as Phenomenology falls into literary criticism, Post-Modernist Christianity falls into self-deception, which is, simply, hypocrisy.

These PMCs may or may not be pragmatists, which I think, to a point, the Post-Moderns Atheists are.

This lack of pragmatism, especially in politics, leads to "waffling", "flipping", "indecisiveness" and "superficiality", all in quotations as these have been applied to certain political and governmental figures in Europe and in America. Dare I say that the Post-Modernist is prone to cultism and irrational, contradictory religious beliefs? Can I say that the Post-Modernist Christian believes in the true absence?

The difference between the PMC and the PMA is in the subconsciousness, or in the soul. The PMA is a deceived idealist liberal who has freely chosen his stance against hierarchies, creeds, etc. with a disdain for those who believe in such. The PMC still thinks he is a Christian, but has lost all semblance acting like a PMA while thinking he is a Christian. Hypocrisy.

You see, hypocrites do not know they are hypocrites, at least on the conscious level, which is why they hated Christ so much. He was forcing them to look at themselves and their lack of faith. They were PMCs. The only difference was that they believed in their own hierarchy, their own power structures. But, unlike the PMAs. the PMCs have lost belief in the very vocabulary they use daily. They repeat words, as in the Mass, but the words are not efficacious for them. However, if such PMCs are priests, they are committing sacrilege, by saying the words of Consecration without belief. This is why there are liturgical abuses, as these men may change the form in order not to commit sacrilege. To be continued...

I wish he had not done this. Cardinal George apologizes.

Are we the Church Militant? What does that mean? Are we prophets in the public square?

I wish Cardinal George had not apologized for his comment regarding the gay movement in Chicago. It is sad that anti-Catholicism is the acceptable prejudice in Illinois and other states, especially within the more militant parts of the gay movement. The apology undermines the Cardinal's strong stand against the lewd behaviors which take place in the annual parade and the language of hatred which comes out of the gay community towards Catholics. The KKK was and is anti-Catholic. The gay movement is anti-Catholic and increasingly so. Catholics must stand up against verbal and political abuse because of the agenda which the gays have had, pushing for civil rights for a lifestyle which is "disordered". Sin has no rights, and I feel sad and let down that the Cardinal felt he had to apologize for a historically correct comparison. The hatred of anti-Catholicism may have been more obvious in the 19th century, but the prejudice is alive and well and couched in subtle, political terms which confuse people. Catholics will lose civil rights in all areas of civic life if the gay agenda is not seen for what it is-an attempt to change the entire culture concerning marriage, child-rearing, and even changing the definitions of perverse sexual behavior. The Catholic Church is the only religious institution willing to teach and protect natural law philosophy. The apology was apparently to stop a demonstration outside the Cathedral in Chicago. Lame. Why not let a demonstration occur? What is the Cardinal afraid of-confrontation? We live in the Age of Nice and no one can criticize, we cannot use metaphor or strong language to point out truth. We all have to be so nice. Being tolerant is the highest compliment a person can be given in the States and elsewhere.

Where is courage and truth in this diocese? (see blog below on black and white rhetoric)

Send these guys to stand in front of any demonstration outside a Church in Chicago. http://papastronsay.blogspot.com/2012/01/ukrainian-christmas-in-carols-and-horns.html

To be holy, be honest with yourself...and your roles as parents

Today is the Feast of the Holy Family in Ireland and in the TLM. For a family to be holy is not rocket science. I am going to rant and rave today as I have listened to two conversations in the last two days of families, married couples, young people, blaming priests for their lack of holiness and for falling away from the Faith.

I said that on the day of our death, at our particular judgement, God will not say, "Oh, enter into heaven because you could not help it that Father Google was a bad shepherd," or, imagine Jesus stating, "Poor adult Christian, you committed all those sins because you did not read, or listen, or pray."

(Photo is of Blessed Louis Martin, father of Doctor of the Church, St. Therese, the Little Flower).

Not a chance that we shall get off the hook. As adult Catholics, the acceptance or denial of our Faith is in our own hands. We live in the age of information. We have The Catechism of the Catholic Church and most of the encyclicals of the past 125 years free online. We have EWTN, books, Catholic stores, newspapers, journals, blogs, etc. all about the One, True, Holy, Apostolic Church. Families are holy if parents are holy, not if priests are holy, although that helps. My Faith was passed on to me by my parents, not the schools I attended (all private and Catholic), not the governments and their programs. Do not blame the Pope, the Cardinals, the scandals, the lack of vocations. Lay people, look at yourselves.

Part Two on Cults and Catholics...on Modernist Heresies and Why Evangelicals Voted for Santorum

This post will set the cat among the pigeons. But, as a Catholic, one must state certain truths and throw them out into the marketplace at least for discussion. My question is this: What is the Catholic Church's stand on Mormonism as a cult and do Catholics as well as Evangelicals have a duty to consider politicians who follow cults rather than religions?

Now, in a secular society, an atheist, or a practical atheist, that is one who acts like an atheist, gets voted in without any discussion. In addition, we in the States have had at least fourteen provable presidents who were Masons, the arch-enemies of the Roman Catholic Church and the advocates of the heresy of indifferentism, which states that one can get to heaven without religion or God, that all religions are the same and that morality is the only judge of salvation and which states that religion has no voice in the public square. The other heresy which the Evangelicals in Iowa were voting against when they voted for Santorum is and I quote Pope Pius XII in Humanae Generis--Another danger is perceived which is all the more serious because it is more concealed beneath the mask of virtue. There are many who, deploring disagreement among men and intellectual confusion, through an imprudent zeal for souls, are urged by a great and ardent desire to do away with the barrier that divides good and honest men; these advocate an "eirenism" according to which, by setting aside the questions which divide men, they aim not only at joining forces to repel the attacks of atheism, but also at reconciling things opposed to one another in the field of dogma.

Try and Google eirenism. It is the forgotten heresy here condemned, and interestingly enough, the reason why Evangelicals voted for Santorum rather than for Romney. Look at this, Catholic voters, please.

Nine popes have condemned indifferentism and this is the great doctrine of the Post-Modernist. At least two condemned eirensim.  Masons also hold these views, and were partly condemned by the Church  accordingly. Later, I shall outline the overlaps between Masonic beliefs and rituals and Mormonism.

Now, where does the idea of "cult" come into all of this? In August of 2001, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith clarified that Mormon baptism was not valid as the Mormons do not believe in the Trinity as Christians do; that is, that the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost are Three Divine Persons in One God. The statement, written by then Cardinal Ratzinger and then Archbishop Bertone clarified the fact that Mormons were not Christians. As an RCIA coordinator, this was an important point I had to share with converts from Mormonism. The document noted that this was not a heresy, but so different from mainline Christianity as not to be Christian.

This leaves us with one choice in the matter, that the Mormon Church, not being Christian, is a cult. This not a statement of prejudice, but one of fact. Religions, by the way, are carefully defined in Domininus Iesus, the bugbear document of the liberal Catholics. However, I digress.

We as Catholics, and the Evangelicals have four choices if Mormonism is not Christian. It is a false "religion" that is, not revealed by God, it is paganism, it is secular humanism mixed with atheism, or it is a cult. Judging by the common definition of a cult, that is, and I like wiki's definition here, The word cult in current popular usage usually refers to a group whose beliefs or practices are considered abnormal or bizarre, we do not have much choice.


Normally, a cult is begun by a charismatic leader, who can manipulate others into following him-  Charles Manson, Aum Shinrikyo, Claude Vorilhon, Joseph Di Mambro, David Koresh, Joseph Smith Jr., Pope Michael, or Brigham Young. As the Catholic Church was founded by Christ Himself, who is the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity, the RCC is not a cult.


Where does that leave us as conservative Catholics trying to make sense out of voting? Pray for discernment and follow the teachings of the Catholic Church always and everywhere. If Romney can distance himself from some of the more weird aspects of Mormonism, the better, as he seems a good man.

How many wars have been started because of oil...

http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/ffcf3450-3890-11e1-9ae1-00144feabdc0.html#axzz1iltwYsZ4

from Rorate Caeli a disturbing or at least interesting statistic

"Curiosities: the February 2012 consistory will be the first one not to include a residential Cardinal from either Africa or Latin America since the small June 1977 Consistory - the last Montini Consistory, in which only 5 Cardinals were created, including Cardinals Ratzinger (Munich) and Gantin (Justice and Peace). / There will be 107 voting Cardinals on the eve of the next consistory, 21% of whom will be Italians. With the new Consistory, there will be 125 voting Cardinals, 24% of whom will be Italians, the highest percentage since the mid-1970s." from Rorate Caeli

The Vatican pundits should chime in and tell us if the high number of Italians in the consistory is a good or bad development. Note the dates here--this is a return to the pre-Blessed John Paul II organization. I am very interested, as this present Pope has started to reform the Church, especially with regards to the Liturgy, and those of us who follow this do not want to see a departure from that renewal.

Zenit and the world getting wiser about the erosion of religious freedom

Silenced: How Apostasy and Blasphemy Codes are Choking Freedom Worldwide (Oxford University Press) is a book being reviewed on Zenit today. It is about time people realize that the so-called Arab Spring, now being labelled Arab Winter by some journalists, is leading to a dark ages of scientific, religious, and academic suppression. I am going to try and get this book. If anyone has read it, please make a comment.

Part One: On cults among Catholics...relativism and Gnosticism again

I am getting more concerned about the existence and prevalence of cults, and, importantly, the appearance of a new acceptance of cults. Cults were big news in the 1980s and 1990s, when some people rushed off to the Moonies, or when international groups waiting for comets and the alien space ships committed suicide. I do not have to go into detail, as there were several infamous situations. I lost a friend to the Moonies and I have another friend who was rescued from a cult years ago. Another friend of mine had to help the children of a woman who got so involved in Scientology that she neglected to feed her children. That group broke up her marriage. My heart has been broken by the friends of mine who have suffered manipulation at the hands of cult-leaders. I have tried to help by love, praying for the healing of the scars of abuse, in some cases.

My concern is that cults are proliferating with prophecies of the end times, with the problems in established religions, and with the popularity of New Age ideals. Cults are usually defined as religious worship or a community surrounding a charismatic leader with bizarre teachings. This covers many groups today which have not been labeled as cults. In Ireland, there seems to be more than enough self-professed seers who are not "real" visionaries, as the Church would define, and there are groups which pander to wealthy, religious families in order to sustain certain hidden, sometimes, extravagant lifestyles. One thinks of Christina Gallagher.

My concern is that Catholics are not immune to cultic thinking. I have good friends who follow private visionaries to the point of not reading the Catechism of the Catholic Church, or the encyclicals, or even the Bible in some cases. Now, these people are intelligent and good, but lacking in discernment, chasing yet the next elocutionary or visionary on the scene. I have warned friends in America about this. This is not to say that many people are not in tune with the signs of the times, and have some discernment over an above common sense. What I am concerned about is that these private revelations are becoming more important than the teachings of the Church,

I had a long discussion with an excellent priest from New York on this point last year, as I was trying to steer some friends away from certain private revelations and from being so caught up in the phenomenon. He said that something was missing in their spirituality, some type of understanding of the deep and long history of mysticism in the Church -- that their search for experiential Faith indicated a lack of catechesis. I could not agree more. The problem is that these people are frequently on their way to holiness, but get side-tracked by private revelations, some, even most of these revelations or visions, not affirmed by the Catholic Church. In fact, I think that some of these experiences tend to divert attention from the affirmed messages, such as at Fatima, and lead people into confusion.

My rule is this. If the Church approves something, I shall look into the revelations, maybe. If the Church has not approved something, I can use my time in better ways, such as studying the teachings of the Church and reading the greats such as SS. John of the Cross, or Teresa of Avila. I can wait and maybe some current visions will not be approved in my lifetime. It does not matter. My second rule is that if there is a whiff of disobedience to either bishops or priests, or even the Tradition and Revelation of the Church, the seers are wrong. Obedience and meekness mark a holy man or holy woman.

My concern centers on why intelligent people seem to need these things. My answer is that it is a form of the oldest heresy in the Church, Gnosticism. For centuries, some have wanted special, private knowledge to affirm their Faith. They have needed to identify with certain groups, or to pursue holiness in a way outside the ordinariness of the lay life. Gnosticism is a form of pride. Gnosticism is also connected to the great Modernist heresy of our age, relativism. One can just accept one's own opinion of what is real religion, or approved visions, or philosophy, whatever. Gnosticism and relativism have entered the Church again.

I can admit freely that I am an ordinary Catholic, albeit traditional, trying to work with grace and the Sacramental Life of the Church to get to heaven. Simple really; prayer, rosary, daily Mass, frequent Confession, spiritual director if I can find a trad one, and so on. If I just read, outside the encyclicals and catechisms, Aquinas and Benedict XVI for the rest of my life, that would be sufficient. Of course, the Divine Office and the Bible are essential. By the way, I highly recommend the Navarre Bible. Fantastic.

When Padre Pio was declared  St. Pio of Pietrelcina, I read more about him than I did before he was declared a saint. He provides an example of approved and obvious holiness as well as spiritual gifts and elocutions. I am concerned at the number of good Catholics straining after private revelations, as there is simply no need with the wealth of saints and the Tradition, the Teaching Magisterium of the Church given to us, not to mention the Traditional Latin Mass, the greatest gift to the Church for our growth in holiness.

My online mentor...who keeps me sane about the American political scene

Several journalists today have finally seen the true political bias of the present administration in the US as tyrannical. LOL. Sorry, but this was obvious to many of us in the run-up to the 2008 election. The best blog on my favorite topics of narcissism and ugly self-interests in money and politics is Dr. Sanity. The woman is brilliant and as she has political savvy as well as psychological insight, follow her during this campaign. You will learn about yourself and your fellow voters, as well as those who are trying to destroy the Constitution and are succeeding bit by bit. When Dr. Sanity disappears, we shall be in big trouble, as she is a really astute gal and prophet for these troubled and complex times. http://drsanity.blogspot.com/

And for those of you who are waiting to read another Supertradmum critique of Gramsci, watch this space.

Let the great John Donne speak for me today...

XX. MEDITATION.


THOUGH counsel seem rather to consist of spiritual parts than action, yet action is the spirit and the soul of counsel. Counsels are not always determined in resolutions, we cannot always say, this was concluded; actions are always determined in effects, we can say, this was done. Then have laws their reverence and their majesty, when we see the judge upon the bench executing them. Then have counsels of war their impressions and their operations, when we see the seal of an army set to them. It was an ancient way of celebrating the memory of such as deserved well of the state, to afford them that kind of statuary representation, which was then called Hermes, which was the head and shoulders of a man standing upon a cube, but those shoulders without arms and hands. Altogether it figured a constant supporter of the state, by his counsel; but in this hieroglyphic, which they made without hands, they pass their consideration no farther but that the counsellor should be without hands, so far as not to reach out his hand to foreign temptations of bribes, in matters of counsel, and that it was not necessary that the head should employ his own hand; that the same men should serve in the execution which assisted in the counsel; but that there should not belong hands to every head, action to every counsel, was never intended so much as in figure and representation. For as matrimony is scarce to be called matrimony where there is a resolution against the fruits of matrimony, against the having of children,[285] so counsels are not counsels, but illusions, where there is from the beginning no purpose to execute the determinations of those counsels. The arts and sciences are most properly referred to the head; that is their proper element and sphere; but yet the art of proving, logic, and the art of persuading, rhetoric, are deduced to the hand, and that expressed by a hand contracted into a fist, and this by a hand enlarged and expanded; and evermore the power of man, and the power of God, himself is expressed so. All things are in his hand; neither is God so often presented to us, by names that carry our consideration upon counsel, as upon execution of counsel; he oftener is called the Lord of Hosts than by all other names, that may be referred to the other signification. Hereby therefore we take into our meditation the slippery condition of man, whose happiness in any kind, the defect of any one thing conducing to that happiness, may ruin; but it must have all the pieces to make it up. Without counsel, I had not got thus far; without action and practice, I should go no farther towards health. But what is the present necessary action? Purging; a withdrawing, a violating of nature, a farther weakening. O dear price, and O strange way of addition, to do it by subtraction; of restoring nature, to violate nature; of providing strength, by increasing weakness. Was I not sick before? And is it a question of comfort to be asked now, did your physic make you sick? Was that it that my physic promised, to make me sick? This is another step upon which we may stand, and see farther into the misery of man, the time, the season of his misery; it must be done now. O over-cunning, over-watchful, over-diligent, and over-sociable misery of man, that seldom comes alone, but then when it may accompany other miseries, and so put one another into the higher exaltation, and better heart. I am ground even to an attenuation and must proceed to evacuation, all ways to exinanition and annihilation.

On the intention of the Holy Father and the Ordinariate

Out of Bishop Kevin Vanns' statement on the Ordinariate Portal seen at the right here, one comment struck me as all important for those Anglicans coming in through the English Ordinariate, or the American one. It is of the utmost important that the communities who come in together, those parishes and priests, are given the support of the dioceses to stay as one with there own local church facilities. This is not always happening in England, and I, for one, am concerned about this. Here is the paragraph from Bishop Vann:

Not many years after the establishment of the Pastoral Provision by Pope John Paul II in 1981, its lived reality proved to be a blessing and a part of the life of the local Church of Fort Worth – where life long Catholics and priests, and priests and individuals and communities who came through the Pastoral Provision have lived and worked together to proclaim the Kingdom of God and built up the Body of Christ.

This idea of staying together is being eroded in some dioceses. Let us pray together that the Vatican intention is fulfilled today under the Anglicanorum coetibus.

If this system is not successful because of shortsightedness or obstruction, (both a lack of shared vision with the last two Popes), I cannot see an easy reconciliation with the SSPX, who could easily come in as a personal ordinariate, that is, if  the offer was accepted.

Here is a paragraph from another article on the Portal today, which is important and eloquent, by William Johnstone.

It is ecumenical in a cultural sense as well. Rather than forcing Anglicans to deny their heritage – and no one who has attended choral evensong can fail to be impressed by the glories of the Anglican tradition – Pope Benedict is encouraging some of the distinctive aspects of the tradition to be retained. They are treasures that can contribute significantly to the universal Church. In a similar way, the fruits of communion with Peter will breathe new life into this heritage. This is what it meant by a “mutual exchange of gifts”.


Read the entire article.