Cow-Minds

The small herd of Black Angus across the gravel road, begin eating about four in the morning. These animals, and their young, eat all day. Grass and hay form the main stuff of their diet.

Sometimes, they move to another part of the hilly farm. Sometimes these huge animals lay down around some small plum trees, or stand in the shade under some stunted maples.

One male turkey of an impressive size and one rather scrawny female turkey live in the same field. Deer use to come out of the woods to the field, which consists of a few low hills, but since the cows basically live in the fields all day and all night, the deer have moved on.

Black Angus eat and then die in the autumn. The entire purpose for their existence is to provide food for Americans. These animals have no idea of the future or their ultimate destiny.

Some Catholics are acting in a similar manner, eating, drinking, enjoying the sunshine, without any life of reflection.

Catholics are not dumb beasts which live on instincts. However, too many Catholics, both NO and trads, seem to living as if they were unaware of their destinies as well.

We are all created for a purpose. That purpose was determined in the Mind of God from all eternity. God knows us and our purpose. He watches over us, like the agents to tend this farm across the road. But, God waits for us to awake to our vocation and the pursuit of fulfillment in Him.

People with cow-minds never think, never reflect, merely react. These people may live relatively good lives, but lives without purpose.

Think, pray, reflect, act. Become a full human being.

Pray for Internet Access

I may be in a place for four days without Internet access. Please pray I can find a way to blog. Thanks.

STM

Bernardine of Siena-Two

St. Bernardine and St. John Capistrano by Alanso Cano

Two small points from St. Bernardine may make him come alive for you.

He always spoke with a great awareness of the needs of men and women in the world. His sermons refer to real problems, real stresses of married and family life. For example, he did not think that merchants should stay too long away from their wives, so as not to all into sin. He also condemned soundly sodomy as one of the worst sins. His words could not be stronger.

A second point is that St. Bernardine calls all people to holiness. No one is exempt. But, the way is simple:

Know that the devil hath taught the opposite of this 
to the malice of men, to bring them into danger and also 
those who listen to them. Have faith therefore in that which 
thou seest made so clear by reason. Who dost thou believe 
is more powerful, God or the angels? God. Who is more 
powerful, the angels or the soul ? The angels. Which has 
more power, the 'soul or the constellations ? The soul. 
Which has more power, the constellations or the human 
body? The body. Which has more power, the reason or the 
senses? The reason. Which has more, Holy Church and 
her Doctors or thine own opinion? Holy Church. Attach 
thyself then to that which Holy Church teaches and believes 
and holds, and forsake that which in thine own opinion 
thou hast held true; for free will was given to man, and 
hath never been taken from him, and never will be while 
he shall exist in mortal flesh. 

Bernardine of Siena-One

Reading a book on the sermons of St. Bernardine of Siena has been an adventure. His sermons provide a revelation of an earthly man, completely in touch with reality.

His advice on the pursuit of perfection covers many aspects, but I want to highlight one, as his feast is approaching on May 20th.

Bernardine cautions all who are seeking holiness to do so within the vocation to which each is called. He warns us that we must not compare ourselves with the greatest of saints, such as SS. Francis and Bernard of Clairvaux. Instead, each man and woman is to look at when, where and how God has called each one to become a saint.

He notes that St. Francis could fast for forty days. And, Bernardine tells his listeners in his sermon that one cannot copy this type of behavior, if God has not given the grace.

However, he challenges us to be open to as much grace as God wants to give. Whether one is a large window or a small window, the openness to grace is all that matters.

Lay to thy heart this example, which doth show 
thee how the Grace of God cometh to men. Seest thou those 
windows? One of them is wholly open, one open but a 
little way, and one less. Even by way of those which are 
shut fast there doth enter some of the Grace of God, since 
that there are certain tiny crevices therein. And by way 
of every one of those windows there doth enter something 
of the splendour of the sun, but here more and there less; 
for so much or so little brightness doth enter there within 
according as each is more or less open. So is it with those 
who wish for Grace from God, according as he doth dispose 
himself so hath he Grace: if he doth show himself very 
well disposed, God giveth him very much of it; if he doth 
show himself but little disposed, then God giveth him but 
little Grace. And to the man who doth shut himself away 
from it, even to him God would give of his Grace. 

to be continued...

BTW, St. Bernardine is patron of those with respiratory illnesses. Those of us 

with asthma can ask him for healing.

Cynicism in The Young

Can there really be people who do not believe in love?

I have met several on this blog, commentators who doubt that God is Love to the point where they insult Love.

I do not post their comments. They rage against love. They cannot believe that anyone can truly love another.

More and more, I am grieved by those who are young who have no concept of the Sacrificial Love of Christ on the Cross. These Millennials have become cynical for one reason.

They have grown up without love. 

Love is not things, like computers, one's own room, a car, cell phone or money. Love is not unlimited liberty.

Part of the problem is that too many young people are growing up in homes where they are either the only child or one of two. These young people never had to share space, or wait for the use of the shower, or wear hand-me-down clothes. They have had everything they have desired, and grown up in families where their parents did not deny themselves things, either. These young people have never had to wait or work for something, but just got it. They have an expectation, a consumerism, and the need to never be denied anything they want "right now".

Sacrificial love is learned by denying one's self, one's needs, one's comforts. Those who have never denied themselves anything cannot understand sacrificial love.

The cynic cannot trust. The cynic no longer cares about others. The cynic cannot do anything, as she is denying herself the power of love.

Where do we start evangelizing those who do not know real love, or those who are cynical?

Where do we start but in prayer?

The Sin of Malice

I never knew, deep down inside, until recently, that there were people who actually took pleasure in causing other people distress. I had assumed that those who perpetrated great evils had at least some false reasoning why they acted in despicable ways.  I understood those who killed, for example, may have done so out of anger, spite, fear, envy, power, but to kill or hurt out of sheer malice seemed impossible for human beings. A person who is a sado-masochist may do things out of malice, but one does not need to be such a monster to be soaked in malice. One can be a smaller, more pitiable human being.

Sadly, recently, I have come up against sheer malice. Malice is hatred for hatred's sake; it is the desire to inflict pain. But, it is also a desire to be a "negative god" and be in control through hatred.

What has shocked me is that malice can be a sin found in mothers and fathers. Imagine, parents hating their own children...I have only seen this recently in a friend of mine's family. Thinking on malice made me realize that the Father of Malice, Satan, has trained some people who have given him power over their wills.

Malice is not a simple passion or an act which comes from an occasion, but a movement of the disordered will.

St. Thomas Aquinas writes this in the Summa Theologica under "malice":

The will is related differently to good and to evil. Because from the very nature of the power, it is inclined to the rational good, as its proper object; wherefore every sin is said to be contrary to nature. Hence, if a will be inclined, by its choice, to some evil, this must be occasioned by something else. Sometimes, in fact, this is occasioned through some defect in the reason, as when anyone sins through ignorance; and sometimes this arises through the impulse of the sensitive appetite, as when anyone sins through passion. Yet neither of these amounts to a sin through certain malice; for then alone does anyone sin through certain malice, when his will is moved to evil of its own accord. This may happen in two ways. First, through his having a corrupt disposition inclining him to evil, so that, in respect of that disposition, some evil is, as it were, suitable and similar to him; and to this thing, by reason of its suitableness, the will tends, as to something good, because everything tends, of its own accord, to that which is suitable to it. Moreover this corrupt disposition is either a habit acquired by custom, or a sickly condition on the part of the body, as in the case of a man who is naturally inclined to certain sins, by reason of some natural corruption in himself. Secondly, the will, of its own accord, may tend to an evil, through the removal of some obstacle: for instance, if a man be prevented from sinning, not through sin being in itself displeasing to him, but through hope of eternal life, or fear of hell, if hope give place to despair, or fear to presumption, he will end in sinning through certain malice, being freed from the bridle, as it were.

A long time ago, I met a woman who worked with me who delighted in being negative about everything. She took a strange pleasure in "stirring up the pot" at work. She was one of the most unhappy persons I have ever met.

But, even her activities may not have been those from a bent will, a will bent on malice.

However, seeing a person manipulate those around her for evil has revealed to me that some just take a perverse pleasure in causing pain and suffering. Malice goes beyond fear of the Lord, as St. Thomas points out. Malice goes beyond presumption. No longer does the person care for anything accept his own will to be done. Malice has a deformed will. 

Out of malice comes a bloated narcissism, driving out all love, even self-love. I pray that my friend can free herself from her family of malice and find peace of mind. She also needs to find herself. (See my posts on identity.) She was formed in a house of malice and she is not free to be who God created her to be. 

God have mercy on all involved.

Dark Night Series Continues

One of the things about this blog which I love are the wonderful readers who share their experiences with me and encourage me in my writing.

There are many saints reading this blog and I am humbled by their comments and insights.

One of the readers has shared with me her own Dark Night experiences. She has experienced the Light, which St. Padre Pio states, is just behind the shadows, just barely visible to the one in the Dark Night.

That God hides from one until that person is pure enough to experience Him rather than experience one's own idea of Him is a mystery of the Dark Night.

How many times do people fall in love with an "idea" rather than with a real person. To love a real person is a wonderful experience and those of us who have experienced this are grateful for that love.

Christ waits for us until we are ready to experience Him as He wants to reveal Himself.

Many times, people are afraid of love and back away from real relationships. Perhaps these people have been hurt and do not trust anyone. Perhaps they are afraid of someone "finding out" what one is really like.

Of course, real love accepts a person as he is, and not as one imagines that person to be. Such is the freedom of love and such is the wonderful freedom one experiences when God allows Himself to be found.

If God is not letting one find Him, it means the person is not ready to experience the love of God. The bride in the Song of Songs goes searching for her beloved. And, when she does this, it is night.

This is an allegory of the Dark Night.

Song of Solomon 3

Douay-Rheims 

3 In my bed by night I sought him whom my soul loveth: I sought him, and found him not.

² I will rise, and will go about the city: in the streets and the broad ways I will seek him whom my soul loveth: I sought him, and I found him not.

³ The watchmen who keep the city, found me: Have you seen him, whom my soul loveth?

⁴ When I had a little passed by them, I found him whom my soul loveth: I held him: and I will not let him go, till I bring him into my mother's house, and into the chamber of her that bore me.

Join the Sock Brigade on Fr. Z

http://wdtprs.com/blog/2014/05/action-item-help-a-us-army-chaplain-and-his-troops

The Truth

John 6:52-56

Douay-Rheims 1899 American Edition (DRA)

⁵² If any man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever; and the bread that I will give, is my flesh, for the life of the world.

⁵³ The Jews therefore strove among themselves, saying: How can this man give us his flesh to eat?

⁵⁴ Then Jesus said to them: Amen, amen I say unto you: Except you eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, you shall not have life in you.

⁵⁵ He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath everlasting life: and I will raise him up in the last day.

⁵⁶ For my flesh is meat indeed: and my blood is drink indeed.

False ecumenism in Great Britain and in America has weakened the faith of many Catholics, who want to pretend that those who have heard of the teachings of the Catholic Church and yet have walked away will be saved.

Christ, Who Is the Second Person in the Blessed Trinity, Who IS Divine, gave us the above words. Without Holy Communion, there is no life in a person.

I did not make this up. The Church did not make this up. Those who have heard this and read this passage and still walk away do not have life within them.

Why is it that Catholics do not understand this passage as the hard truth?

Evangelization has nothing to do with numbers or even renewing the Church. Evangelization has to do with saving persons from hell.

Evangelize daily. Take what Christ has said seriously. Be grateful for the grace given to you as a Catholic.

Do you have family members who no longer go to Mass? Remind them of this passage. Do you have friends or fellow workers who are good Protestants, but cannot bring themselves to come over to Rome, read this passage.

Without the Mass and Holy Communion, especially for a fallen away Catholic, there is no life in the soul. The soul is dead.

Pray and act.

IMO The Best Book on Catholic Social Teaching

http://bellarmineforum.org/2011/07/06/citizens-of-the-heavenly-city-a-catechism-of-catholic-social-teaching/

Sandbox Politics in Great Britain

https://dominiccummings.wordpress.com/author/dominiccummings/

If I lived in Scotland, I would be voting for separation....small is beautiful.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_active_separatist_movements_in_Europe

Maybe because---(More on the Dark Night)

...I am an INTJ, it is easier for me, than those more emotional or extrovert, to be objective. I am wired to be objective. But, I have learned some good lessons to share with those who are struggling with being hurt all the time, being defensive, and not growing in the way of perfection.

The Dark Night of the Senses purges the physical sins. The Dark Night of the Spirit purges spiritual sins.

Here are some hints if you are having trouble in the Dark Night with the purification of the spirit.

1) Learn to forgive, quickly and always. This may take practice.

2) Never, never go over the past and hold grudges. Too many Catholics keep going back to nurse hurts. Move on.

3) Create boundaries in your spirit if you have never formed these as a child. Boundaries are a sign of healthy self-love. If you let others manipulate you, you will never become holy.

4) Pray for those who hate you.

5) Surround yourself with good, strong, "grounded" Catholics. I refuse to hang around whiners who cause sin in others by constant negativity and complaining. This fact alone is another reason why we all need strong Catholic communities. Real Catholics are realistic but positive about their end goal.

6) Cooperate with God on matters of humility. I could have grown so much faster but was not generous with God and delayed progress in the Dark Night by fighting pain and suffering. Once one gives in to God and is resigned, things happen quickly.

7) Realize that the desires of your heart are from God from all time. Providence put those desires into your heart IF they are for good and the building of the Kingdom of God. Of course, this idea does not apply to mere material desires, which should have been dealt with in the Dark Night of the Senses.

8) Say no to evil people. Do not hang around evil people. Period. You may or may not be the one called to convert them. And, if they have persisted in evil despite evangelization, walk away. Satan will even use families to tear you away from God. Say no to families who are steeped in sin....

9) Embrace the Dark Night with joy, as it means that God is calling you specifically.

10) You have a purpose in the Kingdom of God. In the Dark Night of the Spirit, this should become more obvious, as to your call.

to be continued...

Excellent Article on Falsity of Global Warming

Two snippets of the article found here...
http://www.forbes.com/sites/peterferrara/2013/11/12/the-coming-revelation-of-the-global-warming-fraud-resembles-the-obamacare-lie/

Similarly, the theory of man-caused, catastrophic, global warming is embraced not because of any “science,” (that sham is for the “useful idiots,”), but because it is a justification for a government takeover of the energy industry, with massive increases in regulation, taxes and government spending.  The United Nations loves it because it inspires fantasies of the UN growing up to be a world government, with real government powers of global taxation, spending and regulation, all “to save the planet.”  Scientists who go along with the cause are rewarded not only with praise for their worthy social conscience, but also with altogether billions in hard, cold cash (government and environmental grants), for their cooperation in helping to play the “useful idiots.”  Moreover, many academic scientists are “progressives” themselves, and so favor sharp increases in government spending, taxes and regulation, because they are certain they know how to run your life better than you do.

For example, the authors report, “The IPCC concedes for the first time that a 15 year long period of no significant warming occurred since 1998 despite a 7% rise in carbon dioxide (CO2).”  The authors explain, “The statement represents a significant revision in the IPCC thinking, because their concern about dangerous warming rests upon the assumption that temperature increases will proceed in parallel fashion with CO2 increases.”  Climate Change Reconsidered II documents that the same official temperature records used by the IPCC going back over 100 years, and proxy temperature records going back deep into the geologic time scale, show that temperatures have not changed in parallel with CO2 levels.

Central to the IPCC’s argument for anthropogenic, catastrophic global warming is its dozens of global climate models and their projections of growing global temperatures over time.  But the SPM now concedes that these models have failed to project the now admitted lack of warming over the last 15 years. 

Today in Rome, An Echo of Earlier Posts This Week

The Pope talked about Catholic identity. This is key to the survival of the Church in Europe and in America. 

The Holy Father stressed the Incarnation, that Christ came into history and created community.
Just in the past week, I wrote about the need for memory-in the face of memoricide.

http://supertradmum-etheldredasplace.blogspot.com/2014/05/liturgical-memory-vs-memoricide.html

http://supertradmum-etheldredasplace.blogspot.com/2014/05/memory-and-memoricide-continued.html

http://supertradmum-etheldredasplace.blogspot.com/2014/05/memoricide-and-memory-continued.html


Read those posts. Now, today, the Pope calls us memorioso, people of living history. 


" Jesus does not make sense without this history" because He "is the end of this story, towards which this story goes, towards which it walks... you cannot understand a Christian outside of the people of God. The Christian is not a monad", but "belongs to a people: the Church. A 
Christian without a church is something purely idealistic, it is not real".

"But you cannot understand a Christian alone, just like you cannot understand Jesus Christ alone. Jesus Christ did not fall from the sky like a superhero who comes to save us. No. Jesus Christ has a history. And we can say, and it is true, that God has a history because He wanted to walk with us. And you cannot understand Jesus Christ without His history. So a Christian without history, without a Christian nation, a Christian without the Church is incomprehensible. It is a thing of the laboratory, an artificial thing, a thing that cannot give life...walking with a promise. This dimension, it is important that we always remember this dimension of history"
..."A Christian is a  living memory of the history of his people, he is a living memory of his people’s journey, he is the living memory of his Church. Memory ... memory of all of the past ... Then, where is this people going? Towards the ultimate promise. It is a people walking towards fullness; a chosen people which has a promise for the future and walks toward this promise, towards the fulfillment of this promise. And for this, a Christian in the Church is a man, a woman with hope: hope in the promise. It is not expectation: no, no! That’s something else: It is hope. Right, on we go!... (to) that which does not disappoint".

Tweet Fatigue

I love twitter. I have made good Catholic twitter friends. I have learned tons quickly about the Catholic world.

But, in the past week, four of my male twitter friends have RTed inappropriate photos. One friend I talked to admitted he was wrong and apologized, but I have decided to block the others.

What gives? Do men not know that photos of popular singers with posters of almost naked women are not kosher for Catholics? Do men not know that photos of raunchy gay men who may be cheerleaders are not worthy topics for RTs?

Are Catholic men so desensitized to sexual imagery that they can no longer discern what is appropriate?

Sad days....sad.

Dogs Drool. Cats Rule.

http://southernorderspage.blogspot.com/2014/05/this-is-shocking-and-amazing-and-good.html

Mary and The Daughters of Eve

That Satan hates mankind is obvious. He is miserable and will be for all eternity, so he wants as many of God's human creatures to be as miserable as he is.

He also hates God Who Is All Goodness.

And, he hates Mary, the Perfect Mother of God, the Virgo Potens, who has crushed his head with her humility, purity and obedience, all things he lost in his instance of rebellion.

Because Satan hates Mary, the Daughter of God, the Bride of Christ and Mother of God, he hates all daughters, brides, and mothers. One of the reasons why there is so much contraception and abortion aimed at getting rid of girls is because Satan hates women.

Catholic women mold themselves into mini-Marys, trying to imitate the virtues of Mary as much as they possibly can, with the grace and virtues God has given them. But, Satan wants to hold back, and destroy those virtues in women, causing rebellion and the masculinizing of women across the world. Just as men have been feminized through the gay rights movements, so to have women become more masculine.

Mary is our model for complete femininity. She is our model for all feminine virtues.

Satan also shows his hatred for women in our society by destroying protectors. How many women do I know who have no protectors in this world? Many, many, many...

Satan has taken away from men that sense that women and children need protection by creating narcissists and peter pans.

I have written much on this topic.

Mary, especially as Virgo Potens, is our stronghold against the attacks of Satan on our womanhood.

Pray the rosary daily. Honor her. And, Satan will flee from your world. Mary instructs us to be women of the Church Militant as well.

Virgo Potens
Virgin Most Powerful

This illustration bears evident martial features.  Mary's picture is set against a shield, which is surrounded with a panoply of weapons, from bow and arrow to flags and cannons.  Mary holds in her hand a commander's staff; however, the motto around her head refers to Christ.  It says, "I can do everything in Him."  Right and left of Mary's image we read this inscription, "He made powerful things with his arm."

On the lower half of this illustration we find the representations of two powerful typological feminine figures of Mary in the Old Testament.  To the left we have Jael, who killed Sisera, the commander of the Canaanites, hammering and crushing his head with peg and mallet (Judges 5:26).  The woman to the right is Judith decapitating Holofernes (Judith 11:17).

"In your hand are virtue and power"  ( 1 Paral 29).

http://campus.udayton.edu/mary/prayers/virgopotens.html

Mary and Eve

Mary is sometimes called the New Eve.

But, a thought came to me today in my contemplation on sins of envy and pride.

Some theologians claim that Satan fell when he was shown the future and the fact of the Incarnation. Some say he refused to serve God in the Person of Jesus Christ, True God and True Man.

But, what if Satan saw the honor given to the most perfect of creatures made by God, the Immaculate Conception?  What if Satan refused to honor the Theotokos, or even accept his inferiority to her as the brightest angel in the heavens?

What if he was so envious of Our Lady's perfection that he plotted to tempt Eve in retaliation for the most beautiful creature on earth, who he would have to serve, the New Eve, Mary? What if Satan's hatred and temptation of Eve came from his envy and pride?

It is odd that in my short life, I have met priests who do not love Mary. One actually told me "The Church no longer emphasizes Mary." How interesting that years later I found out that these priests who hated Mary were acting homosexuals.

The grave sins of the universe, especially pride and envy, prevent a man from loving Mary.

Satan does not nor ever did love Mary.

Is is possible that he cried out "I will not serve" because he would have served The Woman?

Genesis 3:15 DR

¹⁵ I will put enmities between thee and the woman, and thy seed and her seed: she shall crush thy head, and thou shalt lie in wait for her heel.

Conversations on Conscience Three

The Awakening Conscience by Holman Hunt

Thank God, however, the eternal principles of virtue, justice, and truth, the perception of the essential difference between good and evil, right and wrong, are too deeply engraved in the human heart to be altogether erased. Even from the depths of what seems a hopelessly hardened conscience, a divine voice is heard calling out in this wilderness of sin for repentance and reform. The inextinguishable voice of true conscience cries aloud, as in St. Augustine, sunk in the mire of sin, for healing, light and guidance.


http://catholicharboroffaithandmorals.com/Conscience.html

I want to highlight the lax conscience in this last of three posts on conscience. The lax conscience is one which is ignored. Unlike the reference above, a person who ignores the voice of God through natural law in one's conscience denies the Holy Spirit working in them.

Such a person is totally responsible for ignoring that "still, small voice" which is the voice of God.

Many times a lax conscience happens when one purposefully chooses to ignore the advice of holy people, or even peers who understand the law of the Church.

When I was a teenager, I went on a weekend retreat in college. Someone had brought an Ouija board and set it up during "relaxation" time. A small group started to play with it. This was in the late sixties, and no one seemed to be familiar with this board, and some were curious. Thankfully, we have many more warnings now about the demonic connection with the Ouija board. One girl went over and touched it and immediately drew back. She almost yelled, but said this, "Stand back, this is dangerous. I am having nothing to do with this."

Some of those around here, thankfully, left the group. This is an example of how others can warn us of spiritual dangers and sin.

A mother told me her girl was hanging around wiccas. She warned her adult daughter to drop those friends. Many horrible things happened to the girl, like repeated car accidents and losing job after job, until she began to listen to her mom. Her so-called friends wished evil onto her through malice.

We are responsible for the loss of keenness in our consciences.

A couple which is living in fornication repeatedly make excuses for their living in sin. A side-effect of self-delusion is the hardening of conscience.

But, God's grace is stronger than any person's hardness of heart.

Pray for those who have allowed their consciences to become lax.

They have dulled their sense of sin. From the CCC. 

1849 — Sin is an offense against reason, truth, and right conscience; it is a failure in genuine love for God and neighbor caused by a perverse attachment to certain goods. Its wounds the nature of man and injures human solidarity. It has been defined as “an utterance, a deed, or a desire contrary to the eternal law.”

1850 — Sin is an offense against God: “Against you, you alone, have I sinned, and done that which is evil in your sight” (Ps 51:4). Sin sets itself against God's love for us and turns our hearts away from it. Like the first sin (of Adam and Eve), it is disobedience, a revolt against God through the will to become “like gods” (Gen 3:5), knowing and determining good and evil. Sin is thus “love of oneself even to contempt of God.” In this proud self-exaltation, sin is diametrically opposed to the obedience of Jesus, which achieves our salvation (cf. Phil 2:6-9).

Cool

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/crime/10830935/World-first-Twitter-reconstruction-sees-robbers-convicted.html