Again, many important posts

...today and the last several days. Please take time to read.

Some Catholics As Sowers of Discord

I taught debate and argumentation. I taught in the Socratic Method. So many of those who write on line on blogs, or twitter, or other social media do not know how to argue points without falling into name calling. There are some Catholics on line who do this on a daily basis. Some are in America, some Great Britain.
But I say to you, that whosoever is angry with his brother, shall be in danger of the judgment. And whosoever shall say to his brother, Raca, shall be in danger of the council. And whosoever shall say, Thou Fool, shall be in danger of hell fire. Matthew 5:22 DR

I have distanced myself from all those who use ad hominem in their efforts to fight abortion and heresies. These types of words create strife and have nothing to do with debate or evangelization.

Do not get involved. There is a huge campaign in the States at this time and some Catholics are allowing themselves to join the group which is calling a prominent person a name.

Let me explain something. Arguing a moral point should never include a reference to the persons in the debate. This not only lowers the tone of the argument, but is the fallacy of ad hominem.

Ad hominem aims at discrediting the person in a debate by undermining their character or authority. This is one of the weakest and most inept fallacies.

For a Catholic, it is also a sin. If one wants to become an apologist or fight the good cause against abortion or ssm, one cannot, must not descend to name calling or personal attacks. One can go to hell doing this according to Our Lord, Jesus Christ. Calumny involves lies and defamation;  and scandal is the malicious spreading of either lies or truthful situations about a person or group. I would place these sins under maliciousness and treachery. It is possible that such sins fall under wrath and anger. I think these are sins of hatred.

Logic was required in private Catholic high schools in the States, at the freshman or ninth grade levels, until the late 1970s. It should be required again.

Some modern moralists disagree with this traditional fallacy and claim that it helps understand a moral position to understand the guilt by association, for example, involved in ad hominem.

As a person who has won debating contests in the past and who taught debate, I learned the fallacies in order to avoid these, and, more importantly, to win an argument.

Please do not lower yourself in using inappropriate language, and stick with facts.

The truth will win every time.


See also....

http://supertradmum-etheldredasplace.blogspot.ie/2013/08/why-are-so-many-catholics-nasty.html

http://supertradmum-etheldredasplace.blogspot.ie/2013/08/on-factions-rumours-quarrels-divisions.html

Explanation, Please

I am listening to end of Ramadan prayers. I have been wondering about something which I find puzzling. Why is there a rise in suicide and other bombings, and killings even against fellow Muslims during this time of prayer and fasting? I just want to understand the connection between Ramadan and death. Can someone tell me, please? 800 people were killed in Iraq during Ramadan, according to France24. And, that is only one country.

Join The Boycott Against Facebook

Do you need Facebook? Look at this and join the outcry against this site Virgin Mary Should've Aborted. Do not use offensive language, do not engage in debate with such hatred. Just try and help FB see that this is offensive to millions of Catholics. Can you imagine if this was a title for a site against Mohammed? Boycott. 

Kyrie eleison...

http://www.ibtimes.com/virgin-mary-shouldve-aborted-facebook-page-not-anti-christian-hate-speech-says-social-network

'Virgin Mary Should've Aborted': Facebook Page Is Not Anti-Christian Hate Speech, Says Social Network....

However, the website said then, as it maintains now, that content is not deemed in violation simply because it is offensive or controversial. “[T]here are instances of offensive content, including distasteful humor, that are not hate speech according to our definition,” the website said.

As of Monday afternoon, Virgin Mary Should’ve Aborted had more than 5,200 likes.

Feast Day of St. Donatus, Patron Against Lightning, Fires, Storms

When my ancestors from Luxembourg left Europe to live in America, some settled in Jackson County, Iowa.

The village of St. Donatus bears the name of today's saint, and I have been there many times visiting the places my pioneer fathers and mothers lived.

St. Donatus, the village, is so beautiful I can hardly describe the area. There is a fantastic church, a stations of the cross which makes a pilgrim climb up a steep hill, and a lovely chapel of the Pieta at the top.

I do not know if Catholic Iowan newly weds still go to this sweet place, but they used to do so.

Being that my relatives on the paternal side of the family resemble Rabbit's relations, I can say that I am related to at least one person, if not more, in the cemetery there. 

Fr. J. Michael Flammang, the pastor of St. Donatus Church and an immigrant from Koerich, Luxembourg, built the stations in 1861. One can look here for more information on that. 

http://www.luxamculturalsociety.org/OutdoorWayofCross.htm

Some of my paternal ancestors were named Capesius, some Scheckel, some Miller, as well as other names.

Inside the church, are fantastic wood carved pieces done in the German style. Some of my ancestors stayed in Iowa, here and elsewhere, and some went westward on the Oregon Trail.

There is a magnificent photo found here of the little, stone church and the chapel.

The Mississippi River provides a great scenic drive as well. The town was named Tetes de Morts before the settlers came, and an area near by was called Mille de Tetes,  which my ancestors told me about as a child. Thousands of skulls were found, the horror of one Native tribe wiping out another, and not burying or properly dealing with the dead.  The Luxembourgian people were all Catholic, and the tribes had moved west, although some Saux Fox remained, but not in the immediate area.

But, let me write about St. Donatus himself. Now, there are at least four saints by the name of Donatus.

Saint Donatus of Muenstereifel wears the honor of being the saint of this church and village. Wiki shares this on his life:

Saint Donatus is said to be a 2nd-century Roman soldier and martyr. His parents were named Faustus and Flaminia. When Faustus was deathly ill, his wife Flaminia sought the intercession of Saint Gervasius, who assured her that her husband would recover and beget a son. This came to pass, and Flaminia named the boy Donatus, which means "gift". She educated him in the Christian faith. At the age of 17, he enlisted in the famed 12th Legion "Fulminatrix", i.e., the "Thundering Legion". He rapidly rose through the ranks and soon became a personal bodyguard to the emperor, Marcus Aurelius.

In the year 173 the 12th Legion was engaged in the Marcomannic Wars in Moravia along the Danube frontier. According to the contemporary writer Dio Cassius, part of the legion was surrounded and nearly overwhelmed when it was miraculously saved by a divine thunderstorm. Cassius attributed the thunderstorm to the invocation of Mercurius by Aurelius' Egyptian sorcerer, Arnuphis, butTertullian and other Christian writers ascribed the miracle to the prayers of the many Christians in that Legion. Later legend credited Donatus as the leader of the Christians' prayers. After the miracle, Donatus gave thanks to God, and he was martyred by the emperor.

He was buried by his mother in the Catacombs of Saint Agnes. Over the centuries, access to the catacombs was lost. In 1646, the catacombs were re-opened, and the relics of Donatus and many other saints were re-discovered. Pope Innocent X bequeathed Donatus's relics to the Jesuit church in Muenster Eifel, and they were carried in procession from Rome to the Rhineland. On June 30, 1652 the relics were at St. Martin's church in Euskirchen as a Jesuit priest, Fr. Heerde, was saying mass in the morning. With the conclusion of benediction, lightning struck the church and lit the altar and the priest on fire. He immediately invoked the aid of Saint Donatus and was miraculously restored unharmed. This miracle spread the fame of the Roman martyr throughout the region.

If you want to read about his relics in Germany, go here for a treat.

http://empiredelamort.com/skeletonoftheweek/skeleton-of-the-week-april-8-st-donatus-of-bad-munstereifel-germany/

Reparation

Repetition on reparation. If anyone is moved to help me with the Adoration House in Walsingham, please contact me. After this week, the need should be more obvious than ever-praying and adoring in reparation for sins against the Eucharist.

Problems in Bordeaux

http://www.france24.com/en/20130806-french-state-urged-help-devastated-winemakers-bordeaux-hailstorm

Maybe those who can should stock up on French Bordeaux now, as prices will rise. A bit of the article...

The total cost to the mostly small-scale winemakers in the Entre-deux-Mers region is difficult to calculate.

And while most of them do not insure their crops, the damage to the local industry is likely to be huge.

Farges explained that 2013 was already set to be a small year – with an anticipated 4.5 million hectolitres compared to 5.4 in 2012. The weekend’s storm was “a catastrophe”, he said.

Winegrower Loic de Roquefeuil, who produces a Bordeaux Supérieur at Saint-Léon, said his entire 30 hectares had been destroyed. He was not insured.

“There’s nothing left, it’s appalling,” he told AFP. “I’ve lost the equivalent of 200,000 bottles, with a wholesale value of three euros each. That's a huge loss.”

Pandoraviruses-fascinating

http://www.france24.com/en/20130802-giant-virus-pandora-box-pandoravirus-france-aix-science

The Basic Gospel

I was discussing the Gospel with someone last night.  I said that Christ was emptied on the Cross. and in that kenosis, a word I did not use, gave Himself up to His Father in a sheer act of Will.

"Father, into Your Hands I commend My Spirit."

Now, the word kenosis, we know from Scripture, from Philippians 2 is from the Greek ekenosen, meaning emptied.  "Who being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: But emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being made in the likeness of men, and in habit found as man."

This emptying of Christ, the Second Person in the Blessed Trinity was not a pretence, but a reality.

He was emptied. He felt nothing beyond pain. He thought nothing in the darkness of death. He anticipated nothing in His senses or intellect, in the perfect assent to the loss of God for the moment of Redemption. His last cry was a perfect act of the will, His Will. 

Christ calls us to be like Him in this kenosis. If we want to be like Christ, and if we want to be loved by Christ, and if we want to love Christ, we must be emptied. 

And this kenosis of Christ began at His Conception. His entire life on earth was an emptying. He did this for love.

Why, asked my friend, do we have to die to ourselves? 

Because only in humility, in the realization of our own sin and nothingness, can we find Christ, Who humbled Himself to love us for all eternity.

Nada, writes St. John of the Cross.

When one stops trying to be somebody, and merely wants to be loved by God, and to love Him in return, then we experience kenosis.

Joy follows, just as the Resurrection followed the Crucifixion and Death of Our Lord.

Choices

The entire globe is entering into a time of change like we have not seen since WWII. This change is made up of some similar changes and some varied changes.

Some things which are new are actually very old, like aggressive Islam.

Some things which are new are new, like post-Christian paganism, and even barbarism.

Never before has the world seen Christianity wane and paganism wax in every country so quickly.

These changes will force us, even now, to make choices for the present, and for the future.

Some people cannot face the present, and many people do not want to face the future.

But, in reality, all we have is today. The choices we make today determine our futures. Easy.

People may resist cause and effect, but this movement is a reality.

Every day, we as Catholics are faced with many choices which may seem small, but are not.

For example, I stopped twittering because tweeting was an occasion of venial sin for me.

So, I now avoid the near occasion of sin. Someone may say that the good of evangelizing by tweeting is greater than the occasion of venial sin.

I think not. I made a choice.

Simple.

The nuns in Tyburn keep silent. By keeping silence, they do not lie, or gossip, or waste time talking trivia.

All sins are avoided by one, simple rule of St. Benedict. Like not tweeting, I have omitted the possibility of these sins in my life through twitter. My betters can tweet without sinning.

We can all make choices daily which help us to become saints, slowly but surely.

I shall always choose to avoid venial sin, if I can.

What choices can you make today to clear the way of sin and the tendency to sin?

The Enemies Within

If history was still being taught, the Gen-Exers and Millennials would know that those who persecuted Catholics to death in England in the 15th and 16th centuries were men and women who had been Catholics and became Anglicans or Puritans, or whose parents and grandparents had fallen away, quickly.

Wake up, readers. You will be dragged to court not merely by the secularists and the practical atheists, but by those who sit next to you in church,and those who go to prayer meetings in your neighbourhood.

Complicity with evil is compromise and that starts with daily compromises, such as contraception, supporting abortion, supporting ssm, and so on.

I can make a list of some Catholics who are so disobedient regarding private revelations and doctrines, that I can imagine them cooperating with out and out persecution of the one, holy, Catholic and apostolic Church.

Disobedience leads to errors of discernment. A compromise in a small area leads to a softening of conscience. 

New Poll !!!!!

Please be brave.

And do the poll on the side.

Persecution Watch in Canada, Coming to A Country Near You

http://www.lifesitenews.com/news/canadian-legal-professions-christians-must-embrace-gay-marriage-to-practice

No freedom for lawyers..........no conscience protection for Christians.

Many important posts and links today...

The Body of Christ in Plastic Cups: Do They Know He is God?

http://blog.messainlatino.it/2013/08/pissidi-moderne-rio-per-la-gmg-2013.html

One more reason I want to set up 24-7 Adoration in reparation for sins against Jesus in the Host. Please consider helping me. We cannot let this go on. WYD must stop.

On Obedience and The Laity-First Part

On line and on twitter in the recent past, there has been much discussion on obedience of the laity and to the laity with regard to the hierarchy.

Now, I am not going to refer to members of religious orders, who take vows of obedience, or secular priests, who are to obey their bishops as their direct pastors. I want to discuss our relationship to our bishops and other members of the hierarchcy, and their relationship with us.

To begin with, please read this excellent piece by Raymond Leo Cardinal Burke on obedience. Then, I shall post more.

http://www.mariancatechist.com/burke/obedience_responsibility.html

Part of it is here:

18. Obedience to the Magisterium is a virtue and is attained through the practice of such obedience. Living in Christ alone, doing, with Christ, the will of the Father teaches every member of the faithful the fundamental requirement of obedience for salvation. In this regard, the pastors of the faithful, and those who are students and teachers of the Word of God, provide an invaluable help to the faithful, so that they may daily turn to Christ, overcoming the rebelliousness of our fallen nature and drawing strength from the Holy Spirit Who dwells within (CCC, no. 2038).

19. When the shepherds of the flock are obedient to the Magisterium, entrusted to their exercise, then the members of the flock grow in obedience and proceed, with Christ, along the way of salvation. If the shepherd is not obedient, the flock easily gives way to confusion and errors. The shepherd must be especially attentive to the assaults of Satan who knows that, if he can strike the shepherd, the work of scattering the flock will be made easy (cf. Zechariah 13:7).

20. In his Encyclical Letter Fides et ratio, “On the Relationship between Faith and Reason,” our late and most beloved Holy Father Pope John Paul II reminded us that the Magisterium is bound strictly to Sacred Tradition and Sacred Scripture, while, at the same time, Sacred Tradition and Sacred Scripture are handed on from one generation to the next through the obedience of the Magisterium. Pope John Paul II declared:

The “supreme rule of her faith” derives from the unity which the Spirit has created between Sacred Tradition, Sacred Scripture and the Magisterium of the Church in a reciprocity which means that none of the three can survive without the others (n. 55c).

The faith is living. The faith is received through the action of the Holy Spirit dwelling within the soul, and it is expressed by the purifying and strengthening action of the Holy Spirit Who inspires man to put the faith into practice.

So, you do not think there is a gay agenda in the Church?

Making our bishops look foolish...and why I have never supported WYD and will not.

http://eponymousflower.blogspot.ie/2013/08/choreographer-of-world-youth-day-flash.html

Original articles here and here....

http://www.intereconomia.com/blog/cigueena-torre

http://www.infovaticana.com/

LifeSiteNews-The Darkness In Detroit Is A Warning to All Cities

http://www.lifenews.com/2013/08/05/as-detroit-declares-bankruptcy-its-abortion-rate-almost-twice-national-average/

If we continuously fail to address this grave social issue—the depletion of human brainpower by means of abortion—, then we will continue to set America up for her collapse and the extinguishing of all her lights. Katie McCann

Priests missing in Syria

http://www.indcatholicnews.com/news.php?viewStory=23080#.UgDdtFXvRz0.twitter

Not good news

http://rt.com/usa/washington-post-sold-jeff-bezos-080/

On the new owner of WaPo from above article:

Though Bezos is a self-described libertarian and largely considered opaque on political matters, his contributions indicate he leans towards supporting Democrats and was an instrumental donor to a successful referendum on gay marriage in Washington state last year, giving $2.5 million in support of Referendum 74. 

On the Dark Night, Part 25

The question of memory has haunted me when I have been trying to understand the Dark Night of the Soul. Memory is important to the Catholic. St. Ignatius guides one through memory, to understanding, and then to the will in his Spiritual Exercises. But, in the writings of SS. John of the Cross and Teresa of Avila, it seems that memory is to be avoided and the past completely set aside in the new life which God is demanding in the purification of both the senses and the soul.

God has given me an incredible memory. When I remember, however, I am brought into the past. What God wants is to transform memory into something transcendent. The shadows of memory are to be turned into light.

I did not know what this meant until I was discussing the movements of the Dark Night with a friend who has been through this state. He gave me an insight from his own journey which helped me unravel this mystery of memory.

My perplexing question rested on memories of having an experience of human love. To remember such love seemed to me to be taking me away from both the present, and stopping me from moving into the purification of the senses and the soul. One never forgets people one has loved.

Then, my friend said two things which put the entire dilemma of memory into perspective. The first is that memory is not to be forgotten.

Memory is not to be forgotten, but transcended and transformed into something else. This something else is pure love, without expectation and with suffering. The memory is to lead to understanding, and Mr. Richert states it perfectly: Through understanding, we see the world and our life within it in the larger context of the eternal law and the relation of our souls to God.

Suddenly, one is no longer in the past, but in the present, in a great mystery of love and suffering. Memory holds one back from this intense love unless it is changed into the love of the moment, God's Love. The suffering is both the absence of human love, but the transcendence of the Love of God.

To break out of the chain of memory, one must be willing to face truth, loss, love, suffering.

This is the transcendence, leading to the now and the much bigger picture of eternity. All things remembered fall into a great mystery wherein all one can know is that events which have happened and people which have been met and loved are part of a huge plan of God. One may not see that plan fulfilled on earth, but one is absolutely sure one will understand fully in heaven. In the meantime, one rests in the light of God's Will. 

The will in enlightened to let go of all and place all in God's Perfect Plan. Perhaps the memory is a shaft of light in one's darkness which haunts one. Suddenly, one see that light as not merely a small piece of grace, a small piece of God's Life, but an entire lightness which illumines the intellect, the heart, the soul. 

What one wills is to live in the mystery of God totally. At this stage, one does not even know God in the same manner as before, as He is revealing Himself in Darkness, in mystery. I share John of the Cross's poem again below.

All of this experience and knowledge of God happens if one is willing to suffer. The suffering is the loss of what is real in memory, but becomes real in the now, not as memory but as the present moment, and seen as part of the light of God Himself.  God lets us experience and know Him, even for a few moments. 

We are not in control of God coming to us in the Dark Night, where memory melts into light. All is grace.

I am so glad my friend explained that memory is not to be forgotten or pushed down, but transformed into a random harvest completely controlled by the Will of God.

Another phrase which could be used is absolute sacrificial love, no longer a burden but a way of being, of seeing, of acting. Memory opens the door to this light, and with understanding, one can now will to desire only God and nothing else. Memory, understanding and will lead one directly to God.

The second thing which my friend unravelled was that one cannot pretend to know what God is doing with one's memory, understanding and will. As long as the willingness is there, God will guide one, minute by minute, hour by hour, day by day. 

He said it is as if the breath of God was felt on one's neck. I could hardly believe that my friend had never read this poem, as he used almost the exact same words as St. John. I highlight those words.


On a dark night

On a dark night,
Kindled in love with yearnings
--oh, happy chance!--
I went forth without being observed,
My house being now at rest. 

In darkness and secure,
By the secret ladder, disguised
--oh, happy chance!--
In darkness and in concealment,
My house being now at rest.

In the happy night,
In secret, when none saw me,
Nor I beheld aught,
Without light or guide,
save that which burned in my heart.

This light guided me
More surely than the light of noonday
To the place where he
(well I knew who!) was awaiting me
-- A place where none appeared.

Oh, night that guided me,
Oh, night more lovely than the dawn,
Oh, night that joined
Beloved with lover,
Lover transformed in the Beloved!

Upon my flowery breast,
Kept wholly for himself alone,
There he stayed sleeping,
and I caressed him,
And the fanning of the cedars made a breeze.

The breeze blew from the turret
As I parted his locks;
With his gentle hand
He wounded my neck
And caused all my senses to be suspended.

I remained, lost in oblivion; 
My face I reclined on the Beloved.
All ceased and I abandoned myself,
Leaving my cares
forgotten among the lilies.