Cannot pass this up....

and I am living in dire poverty, as are so many others in the States. I know widows and other elderly people who have not eaten like this in years-living on ramen noodles and canned milk. The food banks cannot keep up with the demand for good, stressed families, and the enemies of freedom eat like princes, laughing at the dhimmis.

"Boston Bomber 'Tortured' With Catered Islamic Meals," from Investor's Business Daily, November 18:

War On Terror: The ACLU claims jailers are "torturing" Boston bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev by keeping him in solitary confinement. Please. The man charged with terror bombing gets catered Islamic meals.

Just when we think we've reached the limits of tolerance for Muslim terrorists, we learn that one of the jihadist punks who confessed to killing and maiming hundreds of marathoners, then terrorizing and shutting down an entire major U.S. city, all in the name of Allah, has been getting meals prepared for him in accordance with Islamic dietary requirements.

His special halal menu includes such dishes as baked lasagna, salad and garlic bread. Tsarnaev also gets copies of the Quran and other Islamic texts to brush up on his hatred for infidels, fellow Americans most especially included.

Yet the American Civil Liberties Union has the gall to petition a federal judge for his release from isolation at the federal lockup at Fort Devens, Mass. The liberal group, which seems now to be run by a stable of Muslim lawyers who are alarmingly sympathetic even to confessed and convicted terrorists, has likened his jail restrictions there to "torture." They complain the terrorist suspect has been denied TV and radio and can't pray with other Muslim inmates. His outside communications are also limited and monitored by the feds.

And there's good reason for that. Tsarnaev made it clear in his confession note that he wanted to inspire other Muslims to commit acts of terrorism against Americans.

Here's what he penned to fellow Muslims: The "U.S. government is killing our innocent civilians, but most of you already know that. As a Muslim I can't stand to see such evil go unpunished. We Muslims are one body, you hurt one you hurt us all. The ummah (the global brotherhood of Muslims) is beginning to rise."

Tsarnaev added, in a warning to U.S. military and law enforcement: "Know you are fighting men who look into the barrel of your gun and see heaven. Now how can you compete with that? We are promised victory and we will surely get it."

Authorities wisely are cutting off any channels this Islamic fanatic might use to recruit jihadists or propagandize their cause. They don't want him inciting violence.

Unfortunately, the judge hearing his case is lending his lawyer a sympathetic ear. Though he barred the ACLU from making its outrageous "torture" statement at Thursday's hearing, U.S. District Judge George O'Toole questioned the "fairness" of the restrictions. "I agree enough with the defendant," he said.

Yes, let him out of solitary to preach at the fort chapel.

This reminds us of the Fort Hood case. Military brass bowed to the religious "needs" of Army Maj. Nidal Hasan, who praised Allah as he shot 14 soldiers, including a pregnant woman as she begged for her baby's life.

They actually agreed to let Hasan wear a full Islamic beard to trial, in violation of military regulations. Only now is the convicted mass murderer being forcibly shaved, as he awaits the needle on death row at Fort Leavenworth, Kan.

But he and his lawyers are suing the military, arguing it's a breach of his religious freedom. You'd think the jihadist would be grateful for the free grooming before he meets his 72 virgins.

Meanwhile, down at Gitmo we helpfully point prostrate al-Qaida and Taliban terrorists to Mecca, fete them with Harry Potter movie nights, and even reorder fitness equipment made in Muslim countries after they complain about the infidels who made the first batch.

Enough! Stop running Islamic daycares for terrorists.

The problem with Catholics reading and listening to......

Hey, do we need more information on yet more scandals in the Church and in the great problems of the lack of people in the pews? Do we need more statistics as to how many Catholics practice birth control and support abortion? Do we need to look towards the bishops' conferences to do our work for us? Do we need to complain about the lack of leadership in the Church?

Should one be obsessed with the local media and national media?

No.

We need to work on personal holiness. Again and again, as I wrote last week, too many Catholics are looking towards politics for answers instead of God.

Only God has the answers to our problems. Only conformity with the teachings of the Catholic Church, including the Scriptures and Tradition will solve the evils of humankind.

The perfection series on this blog is over 400 postings, including works related to the Doctors of the Church. The Dark Night series is also very long.

Use the tags.

Creepy Uncle Sam Ads And The Under Thirties

http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2013/11/what-the-brosurance-and-creepy-uncle-sam-ads-dont-get-about-millennials/281667/

Hey, not everyone is immoral in the Millennial Generation. Slaps in the face and being "edgy" are condescending to some.

Amazingly stupid ads....

The Necessity for Perfection in Tribulation: Or, How Would You Respond in A Shipwreck?

I see around me, including in myself, how people respond to terrible things in their lives.

Here are some reactions and then, the Catholic answer to how we must learn to respond to hard times.

One, people shut down. This can mean that they totally stop communicating and withdraw into themselves, or that they go into tight family circles which are inward looking and do not reach out to anyone else.

Two, people panic and turn into emotional whirlwinds, trying this and that, not being focused, causing chaos in themselves and in their families. Sometimes this chaotic response causes odd behavior, like projection.

Three, some fall into a depression and gloom, and make very bad decisions, such as leaving families, quitting jobs, or even turning to drink and drugs.

Four, some become impatient, angry and aggressive. This seems to be the most common response among men, but women can also resort to such.

Five, gross negativity and just plain meanness are other types of reactions. These types of reaction spreads like a cancer and results in murmuring, the great sin of the Israelites in the desert. Complaining creates a miasma of unfaithfulness and turns people to evil by doubting God's Divine Providence.

What should be the real Catholic response?

One, the cooperation with God and grace to go through the stages of purification so that the virtues and gifts of the spirit can be released.

Two, the release of the virtues begins in the Dark Night but becomes full in the Illuminative State. Do not procrastinate.

Three, the virtues, as I have written many times here, are given at baptism and the gifts at confirmation, but are blocked by sin and the tendency to sin. Therefore, those virtues, which one can read about from the tags, must be nurtured through suffering, purification, prayer.

Four, now is the time to develop these virtues, gifts, which lead to the fruits: faith, hope, charity, prudence, justice, charity, temperance, wisdom, understanding, counsel, knowledge, fortitude, piety, and fear of the Lord.

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. Galatians 5:22-23

St. Paul was shipwrecked, scourged, imprisoned and so on. Do you think he was anxious, crabby, rude, impatient, angry? No.

Are you letting God purify you so that those virtues and gifts can flow? 

If you are not working on being virtuous in your daily life, how will you respond in very hard times?

More below on this theme....

Etheldredasplace: The Purification of A Generation of Children

19 Jul 2013

Two, she could not understand why the army of St. Joshua had to kill Canaanites. (Also connected to this, would be the slaughter of the Philistines by St. David.) Good questions. Yes, God did punish many of those who built ...

http://supertradmum-etheldredasplace.blogspot.com/

Etheldredasplace: Wilderness Generation Two; Hope for The Future

26 Jul 2013

Caleb and Joshua are two of my favourite Old Testament heroes. But, I tend to like the John Wayne men, such as David and the Maccabees. It is interesting that some of the most numinous and direct revelations of God and ...

http://supertradmum-etheldredasplace.blogspot.com/

Etheldredasplace: Why Was God So Hard On Moses?

27 Jul 2013

Joshua and Caleb had pure hearts, as did those who were the children of the slaves of Egypt. A new standard was necessary to enter, and conquer the Promised Land. That standard was purity of heart. Even though Moses is ...

http://supertradmum-etheldredasplace.blogspot.com/

Etheldredasplace: The Lord of the Prism

26 Jul 2013

But, the GPS kicks in at one time and there is a narrow escape which needs angelic intervention-angels on horses may not work....studying Joshua and Maccabees for backup and see some very handsome, well-armoured ...

http://supertradmum-etheldredasplace.blogspot.com/

Etheldredasplace: Do you want to be perfect?

08 Dec 2012

Moses, Joshua, David, Daniel, and many others asked God for great things, including the revelation of the Glory of God. We do not ask because we are afraid to lose our own judgement. When we ask for God to do great things ...

http://supertradmum-etheldredasplace.blogspot.com/

Etheldredasplace: Presumption Part Two: Reason

09 Sep 2013

We call these men and women saints-Judith, Esther, Ruth, Joshua, Jacob, Abraham, Isaac, Moses, David, the prophets, the Maccabees, etc. They believed in the promise without the fullness of revelation. These were the ...

http://supertradmum-etheldredasplace.blogspot.com/

What is happening?

America is one of the richest countries in the world. Americans on the whole enjoy lifestyles beyond the expectations of most people in the world.

And, yet, in the ten days I have been in the States, I have met with more rudeness and ugly behavior than I have in years elsewhere.

People in a McDonald's in Oak Park began arguing, cursing and spitting at one another.

A young person on a phone hung up on me when I made a polite inquiry about someone who lives, as far as I know, at that address.

A conference in a hotel involved people up all night talking in the hallways, shouting, and singing loudly. The hotel room I had was 137 USD for one night, as it was outside the main airport.

Several people let doors slam on others and myself, instead of holding them open for the next person.

Men on trains and buses who are healthy and youngish did not get up and give older women seats. I give older women seats.

I am amazed. The bad behavior of adults seems to be not only out of control, but accepted.

I am reminded of a mother I knew years ago who was sending her two year old to baby aggressiveness training classes. I am not making this up.

She told me her husband wanted the son to grow up strong and with the ability to say no. I was stunned. I questioned a pre-school, baby class in aggression. She said the world was horrible and one had to train children to be hard.

I am sure those parents created a monster, unless he rebelled and became a sweetie-pie. I think I have met some monsters this past week.

It seems as though anger is also acceptable. Those who are angry feel they have a right to express anger in anyway and at any time. There is an aggressiveness about all this rude behavior.

Without Christianity, there can be no civilized behavior. Without God, people revert to acting like barbarians.

I am ashamed of some of my fellow Americans today.

Noblesse Oblige or Not

One of the distinctions of the upper classes in ages where there was a semblance of a shared morality was the ideal of noblesse oblige. This phrase indicated that those who were wealthy and in power had a responsibility to the lower classes in raising the standards of living and in also taking leadership positions, which entailed sacrifice.

This ideal goes back to classical times, when the sons of nobility were expected to fight in the military exploits of Greece or Rome. Indeed, Ulysses was a king, as were most of the characters who took part in the Trojan Wars.  In fact, it was the duty of the lords to fight with their colleagues. Even though this ideal changed over the centuries to include a more voluntary giving of services, the ideal remained until recently.

What has changed in the upper classes, who filled the rosters of the civil services and upper echelons of the military of many countries, is the lack of training in the Ten Commandments and the idea of natural law philosophy.

If law is merely what a government decides and not an ideal which shapes the lives of all men for all time, and if law is no longer based on the morals placed in men and women by God, Who made them in His image and likeness, then those in power do not feel the need to support a common morality. One only needs to work for one's self, and not for the common good.

The ideal of the common good must be based on a common natural law philosophy, otherwise, there is no "common".  Without a shared vision of who men and women are and Who God is, there can be no obligation of nobility. Obligation means a duty which is perceived by a person who has a vision for both the City of God and the City of Man.

Without a transcendent vision, based on the Judeo-Christian Tradition, people fall into man-made ideologies. An ideology does not demand nobility only conformity.

What we are witnessing is a huge split in the basic approach to morality and civic duty. Those who share a common vision based on the Gospel of Christ will come more and more into conflict with those who work from completely subjective criteria.

Noblesse oblige, which was the sharing of resources of those who had with those who had not, has disappeared with the Christian culture.

Second Letter to Parents

Dear Parents,

Many readers are in denial about teaching their children that they, as well as you, are part of the Church Militant. Too many parents are still in a mode of denying that their children will not face great tribulation as Catholics. Too many parents are letting their children live in a false security, the City of Man, and not addressing the real reality of the building of the City of God.

Children must become saints early, as early as possible. To wait to discuss the long history of the persecution of the Church, and to wait to discuss the lives of the martyrs both betray a false protective attitude which is not of God.

It is our duty, Parents, to pass on the Faith to our children. It is our duty to form our children in the virtues from baptism. It is our duty to form saints, nor merely "ordinary" children.

If we are not preparing our children for persecution by teaching them all the truths of the Catholic Church, by not teaching them to pray daily, by not leading them to a personal relationship with Christ, God will judge us severely at our particular judgement.

Many of you know my personal witness concerning raising my child in the Faith. I add that story found in the first letter at the end of this second one.

I am shocked in my return to the States at how many Catholic parents are not teaching their children about the reality of what it means to be a Catholic. To be a Catholic is to be counter-cultural, and children must learn this as soon as possible. They must learn that they will have to make decisions contrary to those of their peers, to those of adults, to those of the government.

If you are over-protecting your children by not explaining the times, you are not allowing them to grow in grace. If you are compromising about the truth in your life and allowing your children to compromise, both you and your children will not be able to withstand the winds of hatred which will come against all of us as Catholics.

God will hold you responsible for the souls of your children.

Proverbs 22:6

New Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition 

Train children in the right way,
    and when old, they will not stray.

Supertradmum

Thursday, 17 October 2013

A Letter to Parents

Posted by Supertradmum

Dear Catholic Parents,

The time has come when you must take over the entire religious education of your children. This education includes faith and virtue formation. One cannot allow the schools, colleges, and universities now mostly run by Modernist Heretics to form your children. You have no choice but to find orthodox, Catholic schools, or to home school.

The souls of your children are your responsibility until they are adults and on their own. Your children owe you obedience while they are under your roof, including attending Church and living the Catholic lifestyles. If you allow them to live outside the Church while they are under your roof, you have abdicated your role as a father or mother.

Catholic Parents, if you do not take the responsibility of passing on the Faith to your children, the Church may die in your area. Catholic leadership has never been more necessary. And, most importantly, your children must, like you, become perfect, even as Our Heavenly Father is perfect.

The personal salvation of each one of us is in our own hands. Think like a Catholic, pray like a Catholic, and live daily life in the counter-culture which is true Catholicism.

God gave us His Son, Who established the Church on earth to help us in our salvation. Do not waste this great grace.

God bless you, fellow parents. Be clear and be strong. If you allow your children to conform to the world, God will judge you accordingly at the end of your life. To be a parent is a huge responsibility, not only in providing physical needs, but spiritual needs.

As I heard from God so clearly when my son was only 9 hours old, "When you die, I shall ask you one question. Did you pass your Faith on to your son?"


Supertradmum

On Dying to Self

John 12:24

New Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition (NRSVCE)

24 Very truly, I tell you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.

Many Catholics do not get this.

Dying to self means DEATH to the ego.

Dying to self means not getting one's way.

Dying to self means giving up dreams and plans.

Dying to self means not using one's talents and gifts.

Dying to self means not carrying what other people think.

Dying to self means giving up memory, understanding and will.

Dying to self means completely trusting in God and His Divine Providence.

Dying to self means conforming one's mind to the mind of the Church, which is the Mind of Christ.

Insane That The American Government Hates Research

SRC Funding Update

The NSF withdrew funding for the University of Wisconsin Synchrotron Radiation Center in 2011. This decision was made in spite of a history of outstanding evaluations. Unusually, the SRC community of scientists was not given the opportunity to openly discuss the closure of the facility with a peer review committee. In fact, there has never been a peer review committee recommendation to end NSF support, and the only peer review committee statement on closure (December 2008, as an aside in a report on a separate R&D proposal) was that "closing the University of Wisconsin accelerator complexes would be a terrible mistake."

With the NSF ending its stewardship of the SRC, the University of Wisconsin has stepped in with funding through the end of 2013. In January of 2012, user fees were put into place to supplement the University contributions. The superconducting RF electron gun, as a vital component of a next generation light source based on free electron lasers, is moving forward vigorously with first beam tests, and a renewal proposal for this program has been submitted to the Department of Energy. The idea of a user consortium and/or participating research teams to fund continued operations of Aladdin is being actively pursued. Interested parties should contact SRC User Gary Findley, findley@ulm.edu, or User Advisory Committee chair Tomasz Durakiewicz,tomasz@lanl.gov.

God Answers Prayers And Suffering

Two women I know have experienced the same answer to prayer and they have shared this with me. I share these events with you.
.
The first woman, who has a brother who is an alcoholic, promised God that she would never drink alcohol again, either wine or beer or spirits, if God gave a special grace to her brother to give up excessive drinking.

The brother has just given up drinking.

The second woman prayed and felt that God was asking for a penance for her to do for her brother who is an alcoholic. She gave up beer for the rest of her life. An month after her promise, her alcoholic brother gave up drinking, cold turkey.

God honors prayer and suffering.

Jesus Always Knew He Was God

Past Posts on The Cardinal Virtues

Etheldredasplace: Understanding the Four Cardinal Virtues in the ...

27 Sep 2013

Many good Catholics do not understand the cardinal virtues in daily life. Many can see how these operate in extreme circumstances, such as in martyrdom or the life of holiness. To understand how these virtues operate in the ...

http://supertradmum-etheldredasplace.blogspot.com/

Last Post on The Dark Night-Post 50: The Cardinal Virtues

02 Sep 2013

... trusting Him and living in the Love Who is God. Notice how that movement involves faith, hope and love, the cardinal virtues used and liberated in the Dark Night of the Soul, a movement seen in this famous psalm of David.

http://supertradmum-etheldredasplace.blogspot.com/

Etheldredasplace: The Dark Night of The Soul and The Virtues Part 20

02 Aug 2013

John of the Cross writes here that the Four Cardinal virtues come into play at this time of the Dark Night. Again, St. David is his example. We receive all the virtues in Baptism and these are strengthened in Confirmation.

http://supertradmum-etheldredasplace.blogspot.com/

Etheldredasplace: The Virtues which Defeat the Vices with the Help ...

23 Jun 2013

In my examination of Aquinas on the cardinal or deadly sins and the cardinal virtues, I shall use other sources as well. Today, I am using an allegory, one of the earliest in existence in the Christian literary tradition.

http://supertradmum-etheldredasplace.blogspot.com/

Etheldredasplace: Perfection series warning two--Concupiscence

23 Jul 2012

The life of the virtues bring us to eternal life and help the Church to grow through evangelization. If we are ... Do not despair. as we have the life of the sacraments, which gives us and feed the theological and cardinal virtues.

http://supertradmum-etheldredasplace.blogspot.com/

Etheldredasplace: On Mortifications

28 Jan 2013

What causes one to mortify one's self are the moral virtues, which are thereby enhanced. The moral virtues are the Four Cardinal Virtues of Prudence, Temperance, Justice and Fortitude. Here is the CCC on these virtues:.

http://supertradmum-etheldredasplace.blogspot.com/

Etheldredasplace: A Serious Note on BBB vs. The Church

15 Nov 2013

I was invited to give a series of talks on the virtue formation of children in the family in an EU country by a diocesan priest in charge of marriage and family spirituality, and I had to say no. I would have to apply for a religious ...

http://supertradmum-etheldredasplace.blogspot.com/

Etheldredasplace: Protectors, predators, and peter pans--a five post ...

17 May 2012

He embraces his role in the world as a protector, being full of the gifts of the Holy Spirit, such as counsel, knowledge, wisdom,piety and the four cardinal or moral virtues, fortitude, temperance, prudence and justice.

http://supertradmum-etheldredasplace.blogspot.com/

Manners...the Lost Christian Legacy... and a Sign of Virtue in a Man

03 Dec 2012

That said, in explaining manners to my boys, I've had a somewhat different take than you, and even, it seems, Bl Cardinal Newman, although at heart we're saying the same thing. It occurred to me long ago, that good manners ...

http://supertradmum-etheldredasplace.blogspot.com/

Etheldredasplace: Part 71: DoC: St. Ambrose and Justice--"the ...

07 Mar 2013

I cannot do justice, to make a pun, on Ambrose' excellent work on the four cardinal virtues. A tiny bit on his discussion of justice will wrap up his part in this perfection series. The next person to be considered will be St. Jerome.

http://supertradmum-etheldredasplace.blogspot.com/

Etheldredasplace: Going back to the modesty issue

16 Nov 2013

Please realize that modesty is a minor virtue connected to humility. As one modest, good woman told me a few days ago, part of modesty is not to attract attention to one's self. That seeking of attraction is connected to the sins ...

http://supertradmum-etheldredasplace.blogspot.com/

Etheldredasplace: Heart and Head Knowledge Heart Speaks to Heart

16 Sep 2013

We actually discussed the heart in Jewish tradition and the heart in the Christian tradition in order to understand love and the other virtues, as well as the gifts of the Holy Spirit. The heart has been the symbol of love for centuries. Literary .... We have many saints who use the term heart in their writings-Blessed John Cardinal Henry Newman is one of the most famous, as is the Great St. Augustine. I shall return to them in another post. But, the heart in their writings is one ...

http://supertradmum-etheldredasplace.blogspot.com/

Consumerism, Materialism, Pride and the Theological Virtues

20 Aug 2013

Catholics receive the theological virtues directly from God. We all have human virtues, but the theological virtues pave the way to heaven, allowing one to live in and with the Holy Trinity. The theological virtues, as most know, ...

http://supertradmum-etheldredasplace.blogspot.com/

Home Schooling Series Part 19-Character And The Virtues I

30 Aug 2013

I do not have my book which I wrote on character building and the formation of the life of virtues in the child, but I shall do my best from memory. I have not looked at those notes since 2008, when I organized a little home ...

http://supertradmum-etheldredasplace.blogspot.com/

Etheldredasplace: Again, on The Dark Night

11 Nov 2013

I am astounded how many Catholics do not understand that there is no life of the virtues without purgation. The habit of the virtues, painstakingly worked on for years, now becomes a great flowering of gifts. St. John writes, “Let ...

http://supertradmum-etheldredasplace.blogspot.com/

Etheldredasplace: Newman and Perfection Continued

11 Aug 2012

Blessed John Henry Cardinal Newman gives us a clear view of the mind of modern man. He not only knew his history, and the history of ideas, but also how thinking changes a person's view of virtue. Here is a quotation from ...

http://supertradmum-etheldredasplace.blogspot.com/

Etheldredasplace: Part 71: DoC: St. Ambrose and Justice--"the ...

07 Mar 2013

I cannot do justice, to make a pun, on Ambrose' excellent work on the four cardinal virtues. A tiny bit on his discussion of justice will wrap up his part in this perfection series. The next person to be considered will be St. Jerome.

http://supertradmum-etheldredasplace.blogspot.com/

Etheldredasplace: Heart and Head Knowledge Heart Speaks to Heart

16 Sep 2013

We actually discussed the heart in Jewish tradition and the heart in the Christian tradition in order to understand love and the other virtues, as well as the gifts of the Holy Spirit. The heart has been the symbol of love for centuries. Literary .... We have many saints who use the term heart in their writings-Blessed John Cardinal Henry Newman is one of the most famous, as is the Great St. Augustine. I shall return to them in another post. But, the heart in their writings is one ...

http://supertradmum-etheldredasplace.blogspot.com/

Consumerism, Materialism, Pride and the Theological Virtues

20 Aug 2013

Catholics receive the theological virtues directly from God. We all have human virtues, but the theological virtues pave the way to heaven, allowing one to live in and with the Holy Trinity. The theological virtues, as most know, ...

http://supertradmum-etheldredasplace.blogspot.com/

Home Schooling Series Part 19-Character And The Virtues I

30 Aug 2013

I do not have my book which I wrote on character building and the formation of the life of virtues in the child, but I shall do my best from memory. I have not looked at those notes since 2008, when I organized a little home ...

http://supertradmum-etheldredasplace.blogspot.com/

Etheldredasplace: Part 114: Perfection and Doctors of the Church ...

13 Apr 2013

No purgation, no purification, no road to perfection. Repentance and orthodoxy first. Then the life of virtues can kick in. Canisius looks carefully at the Cardinal Virtues as great helps in maintaining the journey to perfection.

http://supertradmum-etheldredasplace.blogspot.com/

Etheldredasplace: Dark Night Part 46-The Freeing of the Fruits

31 Aug 2013

One can and must still practice the moral and cardinal virtues at this time, but these, also, are not perfectly experienced in the soul until the Illumination State, when all these virtues, gifts and fruits come into being in real power.

http://supertradmum-etheldredasplace.blogspot.com/

Etheldredasplace: Revisiting Newman's Grammar of Assent

22 Apr 2012

Thankfully, we Christians have the virtues of Prudence, Temperance, Justice and Fortitude, the Four Cardinal Virtues, to help us out in making decisions.I thank the wiki writer for this quotation from St. Augustine found here.

http://supertradmum-etheldredasplace.blogspot.com/

Etheldredasplace: Heart and Head Knowledge Heart Speaks to Heart

16 Sep 2013

We actually discussed the heart in Jewish tradition and the heart in the Christian tradition in order to understand love and the other virtues, as well as the gifts of the Holy Spirit. The heart has been the symbol of love for centuries. Literary .... We have many saints who use the term heart in their writings-Blessed John Cardinal Henry Newman is one of the most famous, as is the Great St. Augustine. I shall return to them in another post. But, the heart in their writings is one ...

http://supertradmum-etheldredasplace.blogspot.com/

Repeat Post-Timely

Friday, 23 August 2013

Musings on treachery

Posted by Supertradmum

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.

Do not kid yourselves, 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?

Sharing in the Passion of Christ

I may start a mini-series on suffering, but just flip through the Dark Night posts for now.

However, I shall say this today. If Catholics are not wearing the stripes of Christ in His Passion on their own bodies, they are not following His Gospel.

Remember when I wrote, several times, that one of the results of the Dark Night is to strip one of the ego?
The ego keeps one from true holiness by projecting a false image of one's self onto the world. This false image may include the pursuit of success and status. It may also include false missions, false ministries, not of God but of one's own self.

If a Catholic is truly following Christ today, in 2013, he should be experiencing the blows of the Passion. Many years ago, a good nun who suffered a great injustice for speaking the truth about someone evil in a school situation, but ended up being asked to leave herself, told me that she wore the stripes of Christ, her Bridegroom on her soul.

I shall never forget this statement. As a nun who was a bride of Christ, she knew she was being invited to suffer in His Passion.

She was wearing His stripes of injustice, false accusation, betrayal by those closest to her, loss of income, status, and the living a life of gross marginalization.

Such is the role of the real Catholic. Ask yourself this question today. How am I joining in the suffering of Our Lord Jesus Christ? If the answer is either, I am not or I do not know, please go back to prayer.

Prayers Needed

Two priests told me to pray to Bishop Portillo. Also, I saw a card for his ordination in a friend of mine's breviary. I ask that you join me in private prayer for my intentions and for God's perfect will in my life and yours, through the intercession of Bishop Alvaro del Portillo. 

If my prayers are answered, you all will be some of the first to know, of course.

http://www.opusdei.us/art.php?p=7547

Prayer for Bishop Alvaro del Portillo's intercession

Prayer for private devotion.

O God, merciful Father, you granted your servant Álvaro, Bishop, the grace of being an exemplary pastor in the service of the Church, and a most faithful son and successor of Saint Josemaría, the founder of Opus Dei. Grant that I too may respond faithfully to the demands of the Christian vocation, turning all the circumstances and events of my life into opportunities to love you and serve the kingdom of Jesus Christ. Deign to glorify your servant Álvaro, and through his intercession grant me the favor I request ... (here make your petition). Amen.

Our Father. Hail Mary. Glory be to the Father.

In conformity with the decrees of Pope Urban VIII, we declare that there is no intention of anticipating in any way the judgment of the Church, and that this prayer is not intended for public use.