Be generous, please.
Saturday, 15 December 2012
For all our children in America....
More on hell: a superb article by Fr. Longenecker
To help with the current discussion on line on hell, Father Dwight Longenecker has this excellent article on hell. Read it and ponder. Here is a section.
http://www.patheos.com/blogs/standingonmyhead/2012/12/is-anybody-there-in-hell-that-is.html
Does that mean God would cast someone down into hell to be tortured forever? Perhaps this too, can be seen the other way around. Is God too good to send someone to hell? It could be that God is so good that he actually gives everyone exactly what he or she wants. If we have spent our whole lives pursuing love, goodness, beauty and truth, then after death we may get exactly what we always wanted and find ourselves in a land where love, goodness, beauty and truth are as natural and abundant as light. On the other hand, if our whole lives are spent in an insane flight from all that is good, beautiful and true, then perhaps God in his goodness will also give us exactly what we always wanted; and that would be existence in a madhouse with no exit where love, beauty, goodness and truth were unknown: an existence in the outer darkness with gibbering maniacs like ourselves.
Life pans out, and despite our greatest efforts, we almost always end up getting what we really want. In fact, this sort of justice is built into the system. We will get what we want just as naturally and certainly as an acorn becomes an oak tree. Giving people what they really want is natural justice. To do otherwise would be cruel. We think everyone ought to go to heaven, but can we imagine that a person who hated God, goodness, truth and beauty all his life would actually enjoy heaven? If they could visit that place of eternal beauty and laughter they would howl with serious terror and run with all their might in the other direction. We know this is true because there are people in this life who hate truth, beauty, and goodness and do everything in their power to flee from the light.
Hope for that which is still wanting.........
More from St. John of the Cross this weekend...
19. The words, “And left me to my sorrow,” tell us that the absence of the Beloved is the cause of continual sadness in him who loves; for as such a one loves none else, so, in the absence of the object beloved, nothing can console or relieve him. This is, therefore, a test to discern the true lover of God. Is he satisfied with anything less than God? Do I say satisfied? Yes, if a man possess all things, he cannot be satisfied; the greater his possessions the less will be his satisfaction, for the satisfaction of the heart is not found in possessions, but in detachment from all things and in poverty of spirit. This being so, the perfection of love in which we possess God, by a grace most intimate and special, lives in the soul in this life when it has reached it, with a certain satisfaction, which however is not full, for David, notwithstanding all his perfection, hoped for that in heaven saying, “I shall be satisfied when Your glory shall appear.”39
20. Thus, then, the peace and tranquillity and satisfaction of heart to which the soul may attain in this life are not sufficient to relieve it from its groaning, peaceful and painless though it be, while it hopes for that which is still wanting. Groaning belongs to hope, as the Apostle says of himself and others, though perfect, “Ourselves also, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption of the sons of God.”40 The soul groans when the heart is enamored, for where love wounds there is heard the groaning of the wounded one, complaining feelingly of the absence of the Beloved, especially when, after tasting of the sweet conversation of the Bridegroom, it finds itself suddenly alone, and in aridity, because He has gone away. That is why it cries,
“You have fled like the hart.”
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On the difference between doctrines, dogmas and visions for teaching truth
There is a huge confusion among even traditional Catholics concerning doctrine, dogma and private revelations.
I have seen this on recent comments concerning the question of hell.
Private visions and revelations are for the faithful. These may or may not be approved by the Church.
Those writings which are considered worthy to be read are not infallible.
The doctrine and dogmas of the Church are infallible statements and beliefs.
To build our house of faith and knowledge on private revelations is not only dangerous, but a wrong.
When the Church honours a saint on the calendar, that does not mean that the writings of that saint are infallible. Most saints, writings have been approved as without errors. However, visions from God, as excellent as these are, do not take the place of the teachings of the Catholic Church as taught from Scripture and Tradition.
To base an argument on visions is not apologetics. And the missionary activity we are all involved in as baptised Catholics demands that we know the teaching of the Church from the Creed, the Fathers of the Church and the long 2,000 year history of Catholicism.
To not study the faith has dire consequences for the adult Catholic.
It is anti-intellectualism to base arguments on visions and revelations. To be anti-intellectual is laziness and possibly sinful.
The great apparitions of Mary, Our Mother, which are approved, gave us nothing new in the way of Revelation. Mary merely emphasized what was already the teachings of the Catholic Church.
This is important.
Catholicism is based on reason and revelation, and that revelation ended with the last book of the Bible.
If, as an adult, you are using visions in order to convert, stop.
If you are arguing from a basis of visions, stop.
Learn to argue your faith from the CCC and other sources. Challenge yourself and others to think.
God made us to think. Read, learn, act, pray.
One Year Anniversary of a Death
It is a year ago that Christopher Hitchens, arch-atheist, died of brain cancer, which came from oesophageal cancer. So many of us were praying for him despite his long career of God and Church bashing. I think we liked Christopher's brother, Peter, so much that we wanted Christopher to convert. He did not. If you have not read Peter Hitchen's The Abolition of Britain, you should.
God gave mercy on the soul of Christopher Hitchens and on us all.
Palestrina, the Slovak Chorus, and John of the Cross-like eating three kinds of chocolate all at once....
If you say, you cannot find God, keep praying and keep looking. Again, from St. John and the same source.
God is, as I said before,35 inaccessible and hidden, and though it may seem that you have found Him, felt Him, and comprehended Him, yet you must ever regard Him as hidden, serve Him as hidden, in secret. Do not be like many unwise, who, with low views of God, think that when they cannot comprehend Him, or be conscious of His presence, that He is then farther away and more hidden, when the contrary is true, namely, that He is nearer to them when they are least aware of it; as the prophet David says, “He put darkness His covert,”36 Thus, when you are near to Him, the very infirmity of your vision makes the darkness palpable; you do well, therefore, at all times, in prosperity as well as in adversity, spiritual or temporal, to look upon God as hidden, and to say to Him, “Where have You hidden Yourself?
18. The soul calls Him “my Beloved,” the more to move Him to listen to its cry, for God, when loved, most readily listens to the prayer of him who loves Him. Thus He speaks Himself: “If you abide in Me . . . you shall ask whatever thing you will, and it shall be done to you.”37 The soul may then with truth call Him Beloved, when it is wholly His, when the heart has no attachments but Him, and when all the thoughts are continually directed to Him. It was the absence of this that made Delilah say to Samson, “How do you say you love me when your mind is not with me?”38 The mind comprises the thoughts and the feelings. Some there are who call the Bridegroom their Beloved, but He is not really beloved, because their heart is not wholly with Him. Their prayers are, therefore, not so effectual before God, and they shall not obtain their petitions until, persevering in prayer, they fix their minds more constantly upon God and their hearts more wholly in loving affection upon Him, for nothing can be obtained from God but by love.
Find a quiet place..
Though in this mortal life the soul will never reach to the interior secrets as it will in the next, however much it may hide itself, still, if it will hide itself with Moses, “in the hole of the rock” — which is a real imitation of the perfect life of the Bridegroom, the Son of God — protected by the right hand of God, it will merit the vision of the “back parts”;33 that is, it will reach to such perfection here, as to be united, and transformed by love, in the Son of God, its Bridegroom. So effectually will this be wrought that the soul will feel itself so united to Him, so learned and so instructed in His secrets, that, so far as the knowledge of Him in this life is concerned, it will be no longer necessary for it to say: “Where have You hidden Yourself?”
Friday, 14 December 2012
Happy thoughts
There will be no interruptions in the postings over the next full week. So keep reading. I am thinking happy thoughts. And this is on the EWTN website from two weeks ago.
"Occupy your minds with good thoughts, or the enemy will fill them with bad ones. Unoccupied, they cannot be."
St Thomas More
"My sole occupation is love"--John of the Cross
St. John reminds us that we are not guaranteed the feeling or certainty of the Presence of the Bridegroom in our lives, but that does not mean that we give up on the quest. Absolutely not.
His second point as to the place where Christ rests and where God rests, is in the Trinity. The Indwelling of the Trinity in our hearts is the most ignored truth of our sacramental preparation.
Read on and ponder.http://www.ccel.org/ccel/john_
The chief object of the soul in these words is not to ask only for that affective and sensible devotion, wherein there is no certainty or evidence of the possession of the Bridegroom in this life; but principally for that clear presence and vision of His Essence, of which it longs to be assured and satisfied in the next. This, too, was the object of the bride who, in the divine song desiring to be united to the Divinity of the Bridegroom Word, prayed to the Father, saying, “Show me where You feed, where You lie in the midday.”22 For to ask to be shown the place where He fed was to ask to be shown the Essence of the Divine Word, the Son; because the Father feeds nowhere else but in His only begotten Son, Who is the glory of the Father. In asking to be shown the place where He lies in the midday, was to ask for the same thing, because the Son is the sole delight of the Father, Who lies in no other place, and is comprehended by no other thing, but in and by His beloved Son, in Whom He reposes wholly, communicating to Him His whole Essence, in the “midday,” which is eternity, where the Father is ever begetting and the Son ever begotten...
5. This pasture, then, is the Bridegroom Word, where the Father feeds in infinite glory. He is also the bed of flowers whereupon He reposes with infinite delight of love, profoundly hidden from all mortal vision and every created thing...
6. That the thirsty soul may find the Bridegroom, and be one with Him in the union of love in this life — so far as that is possible — and quench its thirst with that drink which it is possible to drink of at His hands in this life, it will be as well — since that is what the Soul asks of Him — that we should answer for Him, and point out the special spot where He is hidden, that He may be found there in that perfection and sweetness of which this life is capable, and that the soul may not begin to loiter uselessly in the footsteps of its companions...
7. We must remember that the Word, the Son of God, together with the Father and the Holy Spirit, is hidden in essence and in presence, in the inmost being of the soul. That soul, therefore, that will find Him, must go out from all things in will and affection, and enter into the profoundest self-recollection, and all things must be to it as if they existed not...
Deny your will in all things....St. John of the Cross
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| Christ being born in a stable under a baldacchino http://opusanglicanum.wordpress.com/2011/07/10/reykjahlid-antependium-update/ |
More from St. John of the Cross: this language may embarrass some Catholics. It is the language of God. That He calls us, each one, the Bride, is a revelation from the Holy Spirit. The Church is also the Bride.
Look at St. Peter's and the baldacchino.
The Italians know what the baldacchino is. It is the traditional covering of the marriage bed. The secret place of our hearts, as well. St. Bernard of Clairvaulx and St. John of the Cross understood this mystery of love and shared this with us. Here is more John of the Cross on his feast day.
Where have You hidden Yourself,
And abandoned me to my sorrow, O my Beloved!
You have fled like the hart,
Having wounded me.
I ran after You, crying; but You were gone.
You will still urge and say, How is it, then, that I find Him not, nor feel Him, if He is within my soul? It is because He is hidden, and because you hide not yourself also that you may find Him and feel Him; for he that will seek that which is hidden must enter secretly into the secret place where it is hidden, and when he finds it, he is himself hidden like the object of his search. Seeing, then, that the Bridegroom whom you love is “the treasure hidden in the field”27 of your soul, for which the wise merchant gave all that he had, so you, if you will find Him, must forget all that is yours, withdraw from all created things, and hide yourself in the secret retreat of the spirit, shutting the door upon yourself — that is, denying your will in all things — and praying to your Father in secret.28 Then you, being hidden with Him, will be conscious of His presence in secret, and will love Him, possess Him in secret, and delight in Him in secret, in a way that no tongue or language can express.
Courage, then, O soul most beautiful, you know now that your Beloved, Whom you desire, dwells hidden within your breast; strive, therefore, to be truly hidden with Him, and then you shall embrace Him, and be conscious of His presence with loving affection. Consider also that He bids you, by the mouth of Isaiah, to come to His secret hiding-place, saying, “Go, . . . enter into your chambers, shut your doors upon you”; that is, all your faculties, so that no created thing shall enter: “be hid a little for a moment,”29 that is, for the moment of this mortal life; for if now during this life which is short, you will “with all watchfulness keep your heart,”30 as the wise man says, God will most assuredly give you, as He has promised by the prophet Isaiah, “hidden treasures and mysteries of secrets.”31 The substance of these secrets is God Himself, for He is the substance of the faith, and the object of it, and the faith is the secret and the mystery. And when that which the faith conceals shall be revealed and made manifest, that is the perfection of God, as St. Paul says, “When that which is perfect is come,”32 then shall be revealed to the soul the substance and mysteries of these secrets.
http://www.ccel.org/ccel/john_cross/canticle.vii.html
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| The world's most expensive bed at 4 million pounds sterling |
John of the Cross knew that one must give up everything for this mystery of love. Do not be afraid....
How do we make ourselves beautiful for God? For my sisters in Christ today
St. Paul said this would happen, if we pay attention to the Life of the Holy Spirit within us.
Solitude would help. Silence at some point in the day is essential.
But, how does one become beautiful for God?
I was attractive as a youth. I weighed in between 98-108 pounds until I got pregnant and had my baby at 39. Before I was married and before I had baby, I was very conscious of my exterior person. Especially in graduate school, and when I was teaching, I kept up with the latest fashions.
When, I got married, baby and hubby came first. Thankfully, my husband did not like make-up and I did not need it. But, when I was young and single, I had the best.
The interior person is the Bride of Christ. How do we make ourselves beautiful for Christ? St. John of the Cross quotes the great St. Augustine. St. Augustine says: “I found You not without, O Lord; I sought You without in vain, for You are within,”
This makes it clear that the interior person must be beautified, purified, sanctified for the Bridegroom.
Do we not want to look our best for the one we love?
If I, at any time in my life, was going to meet someone I loved, I would spend extra time and money to look great for that person.
Christ is the Bridegroom. But here is the problem. We cannot make ourselves beautiful. The Bridegroom must make each one of us beautiful with His grace.
Humility is coming to Christ in self-recollection and asking, humbly, for Him to make us beautiful. I pray daily for humility and purification. It is one prayer I shall not give up on until I am made beautiful for the One Whom I Love the most, Christ Jesus.
Only Christ can reveal to us our real beauty. Only He can create that beauty in us, the beauty willed by God for all eternity.
Only the perfect see God....to be continued.
The Advent Manger
My mother had the manger out in Advent. If we did a good deed for one of the siblings, or obeyed here quickly, or did a chore without her asking, we put a straw in the manger. The object was to make a soft bed for Baby Jesus.
If we sassed back, or were mean to a sibling, or were lax in doing our chores, we had to take the straw out.
We tried to make Baby Jesus's bed as comfortable as possible. And, if we were really good, a small blanket was placed on top of the straw bed. Jesus was put in his manger after we dressed up like Mary, Joseph and a few innkeepers. The Mary and Joseph would knock on a door and the innkeeper would say "no". Then, finally, after walking about the house, Baby Jesus was put in His manger and we would sing a carol.
Try it, Moms.
Ah the French; a dying democracy
That freedom is crumbling before our eyes in France.........
http://www.france24.com/en/20121213-france-french-irrational-mittal-montebourg-steel-florange
Minister Montebourg verbally attacked Lakshmi Mittal, head of a huge steel business which employs 20,000 people in France. Here is part of the article.
Speaking for the first time since Montebourg’s outburst, Mittal - Britain’s richest man - told French daily Le Figaro he was taken aback by the venom of the attack, which was all the more surprising given his significant investments in France.
“Of course I was shocked, by these words, even saddened. I would never have expected to hear something so irrational from a minister,” he said.
It was not just me, the whole world was surprised,” he said. “If a country like France, the fifth biggest economy in the world talks about natonalisation in this day and age, that’s a huge leap backwards.
"These kind of threats will make an investor maybe think twice before putting his money in France."
St. John of the Cross-happy feast day to all the Carmelites
“Where have You hidden Yourself?” “Show me where You feed, where You lie in the midday.”
The Perfection Series on my blog owes so much to St. John of the Cross.
Today, on his great Carmelite feast, I quote him again. One line in the beginning of the stanas strikes me.
The soul asks Christ, who is hidden in the heart--"Where are You?" This everyone must ask of God in order to find Him. For the baptized, He is within. He must be found within the heart.
Only is solitude and silence can this be done. This is hard, but not impossible for the lay person
The second question is a line from the Song of Songs, a sentence on which St. Bernard writes several sermons, to which I shall return in the new year.
This second line, after “Where have You hidden Yourself?” “Show me where You feed, where You lie in the midday,” may seem like a contradiction.
If we are asking God where He is and then say, where You feed and where you are at noon, we must have an idea where He is.
He is in a resting place, as noon is the time of the hot sun in the Middle East. At rest, but where? St. John of the Cross states, "in eternity". The noon day sun is at its peak and there are no shadows at noon. This is a sign of eternity.
All is bright. But, if God is in eternity and in our hearts, can we not say, with St. John, that when we find Christ within us, we find eternal life?
The answer is, simply, yes....to be continued.
Thursday, 13 December 2012
From The Tablet
David Cameron's faith and communities minister, Baroness Warsi, has expressed concern at the Coalition's proposed gay marriage legislation, saying it needs greater clarity and could lead to a string of "unintended consequences".
In a letter leaked to the Daily Mail, the former Conservative Party chairman asked Maria Miller, the Culture Secretary who unveiled the planned legislation earlier this week, how the proposed laws would protect religious freedom.
The Muslim peer, who attends Cabinet, also asked what legal advice the Government had received in relation to the compatibility of gay marriage legislation with "domestic and European law".
Lady Warsi, who held talks on the issue this week with Church of England leaders, asked: "What consideration has been given to the teaching of equal marriage in schools, both faith schools and non-faith schools?"
More than 100 Tory MPs are threatening to vote against the legislation in the New Year.
Multiple posting day
In the past few weeks, I have been taking advantage of the fact that I am in an Internet zone and not a dead zone. Please take time to read all the posts. I do all of this for you.
Here is a cutie as a reminder of a big posting day...
Here is a cutie as a reminder of a big posting day...
Subjectivity, relativism, Satanism and anarchy
Last year, a baby Jesus was vandalized in Pennsylvania. The statue was made to look like Satan and had satanic symbols on the back of it. The anarchist symbol is clearly visible on the front. What strikes me about this situation is the complete logic of the connections between the hatred of religion, Satanism and anarchy.
I am truly, truly concerned about the Millennials. I am truly, truly concerned that if the youth of the West do not rise up and take the lead in converting others, we shall not only lose our culture and more so, our civilization, but lose the opportunity to catechize the entire world.
The horror of subjective thinking has created an entire generation of relativists who span the earth.
This is one reason why Islam is attractive. Relativism is a philosophical position based on materialistic views of life, history, philosophy. So is Islam.
But, I digress. Relativism and subjectivity has ruined the youths' ability to believe in critical thinking.
Many of these youth no longer believe in reason. They do not believe in free will, the soul, or reason. This is a serious development, planned by the social engineers from the 19th century who do not want a thinking public.
They have now got it. It some countries, this lack of the belief in man's ability to reason is completely gone, except for a few.
So many young people will go to hell because they do not believe in reason and free will.
Are you surprised at this statement?
On my blog and especially in the perfection series, I have said over and over that in order to become a saint, one must become objective. This is essential. If one cannot stand back and see one's own sin and the state of one's own soul, a person lacks the humility and impetus to come to God.
All the saints, as I have said many times, were objective. Subjectivity is the mind of evil-why?
Non servium. The real relativist cannot serve any laws, rules, or hierarchy outside of himself. The logical consequence of subjectivism is anarchy, but sadly, the real relativist cannot reason about consequences.
I am very concerned, not for myself, but for all of those whose subjectivity will lead them to moral anarchy.
One cannot argue with most relativists as they cannot think. They deny reason. They deny rational discourse.
Pray for these youth when you meet them. Their souls, which, with free will and reason, were made in the image and likeness of God. They refuse that image and likeness. They are culpable in that they choose lifestyles which follow their subjectivity.
God never gives up on any of us. He pursues us until the last moments of our lives. He is Faithful. But, we have free will.
John the Baptist and Perfection
Today's Gospel in the NO is from Matthew 11:11-15.
| 11 | Truly, I say to you, among those born of women there has risen no one greater than John the Baptist; yet he who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he. |
| 12 | From the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven has suffered violence, and men of violence take it by force. |
| 13 | For all the prophets and the law prophesied until John; |
| 14 | and if you are willing to accept it, he is Eli'jah who is to come. |
| 15 |
He who has ears to hear, let him hear.
Those who follow this blog know that this passage is one of my favourites from the Scriptures. Last year, a Jesuit priest told me that he did not believe that John the Baptist was the greatest of men. This priest was contradicting Christ Himself. Christ is telling us who John and and what we are to become.
Why did the Jesuit demean John? Because John was counter-cultural; he called people out of their comfort zones; he prepared the way for perfection.
Repentance must come before perfection.
John knew why he was on earth. To prepare people for the coming of Christ. His words used by the Church in Advent, allow us to see the depth of his love and commitment to Christ. He is the Best Man to the Bridegroom.
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