Minds working ....

http://supertradmum-etheldredasplace.blogspot.com/2014/02/shaking-dust-off-your-feet.html

http://supertradmum-etheldredasplace.blogspot.com/2014/02/dusting-dust-off-your-feet.html

http://supertradmum-etheldredasplace.blogspot.com/2014/05/a-manifesto-on-pursuit-of-virtue-and.html

http://supertradmum-etheldredasplace.blogspot.com/2014/05/on-evil-humans-and-our-decisions.html

http://supertradmum-etheldredasplace.blogspot.com/2014/05/when-do-we-walk-away-from-evil-and-when.html

Today Mr. Voris picked up on a theme I have been writing about for months....

Pay attention to where the spirit is blowing...

Information wanted

I had Marist teachers a long time ago and except for one priest, they were all liberal plus. Can any reader inform me of the orthodoxy of the Marist High School in Chicago, which on paper, has a fantastic religion set of courses, but, of course, that cannot tell me the reality of the religion there?

The Song Is in The Singers

http://guildofblessedtitus.blogspot.com/2014/05/from-office-of-readings-today-sing-to.html

Several significant posts today

Please take time and read these. Time is short. The Time of Mercy is coming to an end soon, within my lifetime and I am older than most of my readers, or at least 50%. If you are a Gen-Exer or a Millennial and you are not preparing for international persecution of yourselves and your children, simply for being Catholic, you are stuck in a false sense of security. The old organizations in the Church either must begin talking about these times, or these organizations are either useless or worse, in collusion with those who want to spread apathy and deceit.

Ask yourselves if you are discerning, and if not, why not? See this post

http://supertradmum-etheldredasplace.blogspot.com/2014/02/why-catholic-cannot-discern.html

The Holocaust took a very short time to organize. Again, I suggest watching this movie, which you can find here. If you do not believe there is anyone in hell, watch this movie.

Westering

I have just reread The Red Pony, by John Steinbeck, after many years. One of my favorite books, this little masterpiece bellows of a truth lost among the American people.

The last chapter, which is an add-on and does not even refer to the ponies in Jody's life, centers on the Grandfather, the father of Jody's mother.

He had been the leader of a wagon train. He had traveled west with the pioneers, and when he came to the ocean, he had to stop.

The sadness of the Grandfather morphs into pain as his son-in-law does not love him or his stories of  "westering".

Now, I understand "westering". It is in my blood. Some of my ancestors went on the Oregon Trail and ended up in Oregon. Some had to stay in Iowa, and some went on.

My grandmother, on my dad's side, got smallpox and was left with an aunt in Iowa. She survived, but her entire family, bar one brother, went on to Oregon.

In those days, it took months to go west and find the pass through the Rocky Mountains. She went out in the 1930s in a car with my aunt who is a nun, and still living, in her nineties. They went out to see my great-grandparents on that side before they died. I never met them, of course.

Two women in a car following the trails of their ancestors....

Westering is either in the blood, or not in the blood.

Westering is a push to find the unknown, to discover new things no one else has ever seen or done.

Westering brings out the best in people, or the worst, and the strong survive.

Grandfather states that the men have gone soft. Steinbeck published this book in 1945. He knew the men of America had gone soft.

Something had happened.

Spiritually, when men have a goal bigger than they are, they rise to the occasion.

Westering can be spiritual, like the journey into perfection of the saints. SS. Edmund Campion and Thomas More were real men.

Their westering was interior.

When I read The Red Pony, I can feel the blood of my ancestors rising and saying to me, "Keep going. Never stop. Reach your goal."

On the road to perfection, one must have the blood of those who went west, those who had that goal, and worked hard to get it.

Westering may be a gift, that gift of never being satisfied or complacent. This gift is one which never compromises or stints when facing a problem.

I thank God for my ancestors, for those who settled in northern Iowa, in St. Louis, and those who went on to Oregon and California.

I pray they found rest when they met the ocean.

I pray they are with God, the real goal of our travels.

An Anxiety Put Down

Using Newman these past few days for meditation and devotional reading, I was delighted to read his own comment that he meditated  better with a pen in his hand.

I was greatly relieved after reading this, as I meditate better when typing. Many of my blog posts are meditations on the Scriptures or, recently, a combination of study and contemplation on the Attributes of God. Writing helps me pray and prayer helps me write.

Why this is so, I do not know. Perhaps it is the way some minds work; in other words, writing out something is part of the process of meditation or active contemplation.

I have been worried about this for a long time, but as this was true for a saint, I can relax, as one who is aspiring to be a saint, I have found a model in writing. I am so glad Newman wrote this for me and others to ponder.

Twice I started theses on Newman and have not, for good reasons, not sloth, not been able to finish these. I have been studying him off and on for over 30 years, but only really read this phrase today.

Amazing how when one is ready for certain knowledge, it can just leap off the page of a book one has read before.....

The second idea I want to share from Newman is the thought of his that all sin is actually blasphemy. This point stunned me today.

Here he is on this point: "O my God, can I sin when Thou art so intimately with me? Can I forget who is with me, who is in me?" The fact that we Catholics through baptism have the Indwelling of the Trinity means that when we sin, we sin against God within us.

Think on that....

This great man needs another miracle in order to be canonized. Please pray for one and pray for me to be included in his intercessions before the Throne of God.

This was seen as coming...

http://www.catholicculture.org/news/headlines/index.cfm?storyid=21306

The Bureaucratic Mind vs. Our Lady of Walsingham

Christendom is dead, which is a huge shame. In the days when being a Christian meant something in Europe, the open borders of the Catholic countries allowed those who were suffering under tyrants to go abroad and keep the Faith.

Such were the foundations of Douay, Valladolid, the Venerabile, and St. Omer opened in order to create "Seminary Priests", who would go back to England and serve the Catholics under the horrible laws of Elizabeth I.

Among the great seminary priests was St. Edmund Campion.

Three hundred priests, according to some records, were back in England by the end of Elizabeth's reign.

Here is a map from an interesting website found here.

We have a new problem in Europe now, which is the drastic new laws driven by the bureaucrats, regarding the entry of those who want to be priests, or want to be missionaries in Great Britain. The EU will make it more difficult to re-evangelize Europe from the outside.

Such families which helped the Catholic Cause in the past have died out or are dying out.

The mind of the bureaucrat apprehends numbers and political correctness.

I weep for my adopted country. I love the great heritage of the martyred seminary priests.

Will Catholicism die out in this fair country, Mary's Dowry?

Remember that Pope Leo XIII stated that when England returns to Walsingham, Mary will return to England.

Pray to God that I can return and work in the vineyard of England for the glory of God. This is on my heart and mind daily. My dear son is there already, being trained to work for the Kingdom of God. God has put this great love of this little island on our hearts, and in our minds and souls.

A nice article may be found here, and my play is listed again below.

http://www.christendom-awake.org/pages/pbristow/dowry.html

http://supertradmum-etheldredasplace.blogspot.com/2013/06/walsingham-drama-in-three-acts.html

Note

http://www.ncregister.com/daily-news/cardinal-mueller-lcwr-stands-in-open-provocation-of-holy-see/

The Post-Christian Countries of The World

It is one thing for a nation to have never been Christianized, such as China or Japan, but it is another thing for a nation to totally lose its Christian identity, after having one for over a thousand years or more.

To have not been converted is a different state than one of apostasy.

Christ said this:

Matthew 11:21-23

Douay-Rheims 

21 Woe to thee, Corozain, woe to thee, Bethsaida: for if in Tyre and Sidon had been wrought the miracles that have been wrought in you, they had long ago done penance in sackcloth and ashes.

22 But I say unto you, it shall be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon in the day of judgment, than for you.

23 And thou Capharnaum, shalt thou be exalted up to heaven? thou shalt go down even unto hell. For if in Sodom had been wrought the miracles that have been wrought in thee, perhaps it had remained unto this day.

Now, what can be worse than the destruction of the four towns as recorded in the Old Testament? In Genesis, Sodom and Gomorrah as well as Admah and Zeboim, were destroyed because of the sin of sodomy. Christ's reference to Tyre could have been a historical note on Alexander the Great's razing of the city, but an irony on Christ's part, as this was a Gentile city with Jewish inhabitants and people responded to His mission there.

Sidon was another Gentile city with some Jews of wealth, like Tyre. This city was the home of Jezebel, the worst queen of Israel, and an idolater. 

Christ visited the areas around Sidon and Tyre as noted in Mark 3:8 and Luke 6:17.

Mark 3:8

Douay-Rheims 

8 And from Jerusalem, and from Idumea, and from beyond the Jordan. And they about Tyre and Sidon, a great multitude, hearing the things which he did, came to him.

Christ emphasized to the Jews of the cities mentioned, Capharnaum, Corozain, and Bethsaida, that He worked more miracles for them than in those other places and yet, these so-called faithful cities did not convert. 

One could substitute modern cities for these names in the "Woe" passage above. 

London, Paris, Cooperage, Brussels, Madrid, or Lisbon, wherever Christianity was strong in the past and now is no longer.

Do readers honestly think that God will ignore the sins which cry out to God for vengeance? Abortion, sodomy and denying the fair wages to the poor, as well as not caring for the widow and orphan....

A Manifesto on The Pursuit of Virtue And Presumption

1 Corinthians 9:24

Douay-Rheims 

24 Know you not that they that run in the race, all run indeed, but one receiveth the prize? So run that you may obtain.

Those who follow this blog know I like to read Suarez. The Catholic Encyclopedia online uses him to explain the sin of presumption.

Presumption is here considered as a vice opposed to the theological virtue of hope. It may also be regarded as a product of pride. It may be defined as the condition of a soul which, because of a badly regulated reliance on God's mercy and power, hopes for salvation without doing anything to deserve it, or for pardon of his sins without repenting of them. Presumption is said to offend against hope by excess, as despair by defect. It will be obvious, however, to one who ponders what is meant by hope, that this statement is not exact. There is only a certain analogy which justifies it. As a matter of fact we could not hope too much, assuming that it is really the supernatural habit which is in question.
Suarez ("De spe", disp. 2a, sect. 3, n. 2) enumerates five ways in which one may be guilty o fpresumption, as follows:

1. by hoping to obtain by one's natural powers, unaided, what is definitely supernatural, viz. eternal bliss or the recovery of God's friendship after grievous sin (this would involve a Pelagian frame of mind);
2. a person might look to have his sins forgiven without adequate penance (this, likewise, if it were based on a seriously entertained conviction, would seem to carry with it the taint of heresy);
3. a man might expect some special assistance from Almighty God for the perpetration of crime (this would be blasphemous as well as presumptuous);
4. one might aspire to certain extraordinary supernatural excellencies, but without any conformity to the determinations of God's providence. Thus one might aspire to equal in blessedness the Mother of God;
5. finally, there is the transgression of those who, whilst they continue to lead a life of sin, are as confident of a happy issue as if they had not lost their baptismal innocence.

The root-malice of presumption is that it denies the supernatural order, as in the first instance, or travesties the conception of the Divine attributes, as in the others. Theologians draw a sharp distinction between the attitude of one who goes on in a vicious career, precisely because he counts upon pardon, and one whose persistence in wrongdoing is accompanied, but not motivated, by the hopeof forgiveness. The first they impeach as presumption of a very heinous kind; the other is not such specifically. In practice it happens for the most part that the expectation of ultimate reconciliation with God is not the cause, but only the occasion, of a person's continuing in sinful indulgence. Thus the particular guilt of presumption is not contracted.

We cannot take for granted out salvation. We cannot presume to enter repeatedly into areas of serious sin without this affecting us. Are your friends and families in serious moral sin, living in darkness and not repenting even after you have tried to help them see the truth of their souls?

Do not presume.

We have become lax in our attitudes towards friends and families. I do not know why this has happened. Sometimes, families and friends become idols.

Sometimes people are in unhealthy relationships of deception.

I shall quote St. Paul from two out of several epistles which include this subject:

1 Corinthians 5:11-13

Douay-Rheims 

11 But now I have written to you, not to keep company, if any man that is named a brother, be a fornicator, or covetous, or a server of idols, or a railer, or a drunkard, or an extortioner: with such a one, not so much as to eat.

12 For what have I to do to judge them that are without? Do not you judge them that are within?

13 For them that are without, God will judge. Put away the evil one from among yourselves

Philippians 4:8

Douay-Rheims 

8 For the rest, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever modest, whatsoever just, whatsoever holy, whatsoever lovely, whatsoever of good fame, if there be any virtue, if any praise of discipline, think on these things.

And, Christ said this:

Matthew 10:35-36

Douay-Rheims 

35 For I came to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter in law against her mother in law.

36 And a man's enemies shall be they of his own household.

Jesus said this for a reason. Some families are full of practicing Catholics and some are not. Until we are healed and free enough not to be affected by the sins of the families, we may have to stay away from serious sin; we must be careful not to lose our own souls.

I have been pushing Christian and Catholic communities on this blog for a long time for many reasons. One is that one needs "friendships in the Lord" to stay strong in this world. Without support, we shall go under.

The early Catholic communities understood the necessity of daily support in the face of a pagan society.

What is the difference now?

Many Catholics do not understand that this persecution is not merely the type of pain which involves being taken to court for being a Catholic, but it could be being dragged down by the sins in families. We must not place ourselves in positions of being severely tempted until we are purified enough to stand against familial sins.

For example, some people continue in unhealthy and even, sinful relationships with parents and even siblings. Of what do some of these sins consist?  I can make a list of things which drag people down.

The first ones can be cooperation with evil regarding gluttony and drunkenness, eating too much and drinking too much. Catholics need to pay attention to these family sins. If this is the norm in a family, one might have to avoid family members who insist on gluttony and drunkenness, especially on days of certain sport events.

The second area is the toleration of adulterous and relationships based on fornication. Catholics must not ignore these sins, but address these. If you cannot see the damage this does your own soul, think of your children. Do not pretend that people that live in mortal sin act the same way as those in sanctifying grace. They cannot until they repent and come to God and His Church. 

The third area is the not attending Sunday Mass and tolerating this when visiting. Why do Catholics allow those in mortal sin to affect their children and give bad example? One grandmother I spoke with was unhappy when the grandchild said plainly, "I do not have to go to church because.....does not."  And, if the grandparents do not go to weekly church, and you keep visiting them on Sundays so that your children see this bad example, what they see could affect the children. 

Parents are responsible for the mortal sins of children who are young and not protected by such temptations or confusions.

If you are in sanctifying grace, and are not strong enough to keep your immediate families from the sins of relatives, you must choose not to put your children in danger.

The fourth area may be such things as deep deception regarding manipulation of souls in families. One must be free of the sins which others inflict on one's souls. Freedom means freedom from other people's sins and many sins, such as incest, are passed down in families.

Especially if we have children, we are obligated to protect those in our own households.

I have other quotation which may help some:

1 Corinthians 7:14

Douay-Rheims 

14 For the unbelieving husband is sanctified by the believing wife; and the unbelieving wife is sanctified by the believing husband: otherwise your children should be unclean; but now they are holy.

But, notice, St. Paul says nothing about the believing wife or husband saving an entire family. That is not her job or his job until his or her house is in order. He has this to say of bishops, but any father of a family should adhere to his advice.

1 Timothy 3:2-7 DR

2 It behoveth therefore a bishop to be blameless, the husband of one wife, sober, prudent, of good behaviour, chaste, given to hospitality, a teacher,

3 Not given to wine, no striker, but modest, not quarrelsome, not covetous, but

4 One that ruleth well his own house, having his children in subjection with all chastity.

5 But if a man know not how to rule his own house, how shall he take care of the church of God?

6 Not a neophyte: lest being puffed up with pride, he fall into the judgment of the devil.

7 Moreover he must have a good testimony of them who are without: lest he fall into reproach and the snare of the devil.


So, why do men not pursue Catholic, moral Christian friends, and instead settle for the evil either in work fellows, or the evil in families?

I think there are several reasons, but I shall highlight two.

One, too many Catholic men want to be liked by their friends and families. They lack bravery to stand up to evil and call it for what it is. Perhaps they have given in to deception. They would rather be pals then brothers in Christ. 

Two, too many Catholic men do not pursue Catholic male friends because they are afraid of "being found out". In other words, if they let guys get close to them, these men might find out that they yell at their wives, or ignore their children, or drink too much, or have truly bad relationships with parents. We need to be "found out" for our own salvation. 

Do you think children are blind to the sins of aunts, uncles, even grandparents? Are you causing scandal to your children by making them socialize with unbelievers living in mortal sin? 

What about friends or family who never give to charities and who only live for their own, even small, pleasures? These types of people will not bring you to God except through you doing prayer and penance for them. One can become cynical hanging around narcissistic and selfish people. 

If you do not speak the truth to siblings or parents, who will? If you continue to have close relationships with those who have turned their backs on Christ and His Church, is it not presumption to think you are not affected as well?

They, perhaps, the family members or friends, do not want to change. Perhaps they think they have time to change. Perhaps they cannot see the knife-edge of death and life set before them to choose, now. 

C. S. Lewis wrote this: 

You never know how much you really believe anything until its truth or falsehood becomes a matter of life and death to you. It is easy to you believe a rope to be strong and sound as long as you are merely using it to cord a box. But suppose that you had to hang by that rope over a precipice. Wouldn't you then first discover how much you really trusted it? ... Only a real risk tests the reality of a belief. 

If you are not risking your faith for your families and friends, you are not living the Gospel and you may lose your soul. The early Church understood the need for communities.  Without these friendships in the Lord, the Church would have died, succumbing to the pagan society of the time. But, the Church thrived., because the brethren came together and supported each other in virtue. 

We know nothing of the families of SS. Joseph, Paul, and all but a few of the apostles. We know nothing of the families of many of the great saints, except for a few, like the Martins, or St. Etheldreda's family, or St. Basil's. Some saints came from holy families and some did not.

Some of the saints had to come to God without their families and friends. Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati's parents were atheists, and did not convert because their son was holy. The father of St. Damien of Molokai never spoke to him after he decided to become a priest. St. Barbara's father was involved in her martyrdom. Some saints had to walk away from families and friends who were living in sin, and repeated mortal sin is called "living in sin."

Do not lie about the need for Catholic friends, first. Stop making excuses for the lack of Catholic friends. 

Your souls may be at stake, if you idolize those involved in evil. Love them, pray for them, do penance for them, but do not follow them.

Note high court ruling

http://www.wtop.com/319/3616345/High-court-ruling-favors-prayer-at-council-meeting

What part of this do people not understand? You are the primary teachers of your children.

More and more, I am understanding the fantastic Catholic education I received from 1956-1971. I keep hoping that parents in this generation realize that teachers AID parents in education and are not substitute parents. One of the evils of communism and other isms can be demonstrated in the undermining of the authority of the parents with regard to schools, such as the obsession with pre-school as a requirement or not allowing volunteer parents into the schools.

Thankfully, homeschooling parents have made great progress in the States with regard to rights, based primarily on the excellent returns and test results of the vast majority of homeschoolers. College professors have shared with me that not only can such students write well and think well, but they have better study habits than there counterparts from state schools.

When teachers and school systems take authority away from children, one should be more than concerned.

One should be alarmed.

My teachers cooperated with parents and parents were involved in the schools almost on a daily basis.

At that time, parents did not have to take the courses or keep up with the monthly questions relating to all the "safe children" programs instituted by the USCCB. Again, voluteerism is at an all-time low because of these courses, which can be intrusive and are, for the most part, window-dressing. While over 20 priests in this diocese have been accused as sexual predators since the 1940s, only two lay people have been.

Parents who hand their children over to either the Catholic school systems or the state systems without being involved may be not only cooperating with evil, but causing their children's souls to be damned.

Think about this. Padre Pio refused to hear the confession of a woman who had not repented of sins. He yelled across a room that she had not repented and because of her, her son was in hell.

Strong words for a parent, but we are responsible for raising our children to be saints and throwing them into positively evil school situations, or compromising ones cannot be an option.

See my posts on the evils of the Common Core by following the tag.

One more reason a Catholic cannot be a Dem

http://godfatherpolitics.com/15406/fl-senate-dems-vote-bill-protect-women-sharia-law/

A Short Road to Perfection by Newman

see same book as two posts ago, pp. 104-105

September 27, 1856

It is the saying of holy men that, if we wish to be perfect, we have nothing more to do than to perform the ordinary duties of the day well. A short road to perfection—short, not because easy, but because pertinent and intelligible. There are no short ways to perfection, but there are sure ones.

I think this is an instruction which may be of great practical use to persons like ourselves. It is easy to have vague ideas what perfection is, which serve well enough to talk about, when we do not intend to aim at it; but as soon as a person really desires and sets about seeking it himself, he is dissatisfied with anything but what is tangible and clear, and constitutes some sort of direction towards the practice of it.

We must bear in mind what is meant by perfection. It does not mean any extraordinary service, anything out of the way, or especially heroic—not all have the opportunity of heroic acts, of sufferings—but it means what the word perfection ordinarily means. By perfect we mean that which has no flaw in it, that which is complete, that which is consistent, that which is sound—we mean the opposite to imperfect. As we know well what imperfection in {286} religious service means, we know by the contrast what is meant by perfection.

He, then, is perfect who does the work of the day perfectly, and we need not go beyond this to seek for perfection. You need not go out of the round of the day.

I insist on this because I think it will simplify our views, and fix our exertions on a definite aim. If you ask me what you are to do in order to be perfect, I say, first—Do not lie in bed beyond the due time of rising; give your first thoughts to God; make a good visit to the Blessed Sacrament; say the Angelus devoutly; eat and drink to God’s glory; say the Rosary well; be recollected; keep out bad thoughts; make your evening meditation well; examine yourself daily; go to bed in good time, and you are already perfect.

Newman on Some of The Attributes of God

VIII. God All-Sufficient from Meditations 

http://www.newmanreader.org/Works/meditations/meditations10.html#doctrine8

Ostende nobis Patrem et sufficit nobis …
Philippe, qui videt Me, videt et Patrem.

Show us the Father, and it is enough for us …
Philip, he that seeth Me, seeth the Father also.

1. THE Son is in the Father and the Father in the Son. O adorable mystery which has been from eternity! I adore Thee, O my incomprehensible Creator, before whom I am an atom, a being of yesterday or an hour ago! Go back a few years and I simply did not exist; I was not in being, and things went on without me: but Thou art from eternity; and nothing whatever for one moment could go on without Thee. And from eternity too Thou hast possessed Thy Nature; Thou hast been—this awful glorious mystery—the Son in the Father and the Father in the Son. Whether we be in existence, or whether we be not, Thou art one and the same always, the Son sufficient for the Father, the Father for the Son—and all other things, in themselves, but vanity. All things once were not, all things might not be, but it would be enough for the Father that He had begotten His co-equal consubstantial Son, and for the Son that He was embraced {367} in the Bosom of the Eternal Father. O adorable mystery! Human reason has not conducted me to it, but I believe. I believe, because Thou hast spoken, O Lord. I joyfully accept Thy word about Thyself. Thou must know what Thou art—and who else? Not I surely, dust and ashes, except so far as Thou tellest me. I take then Thy own witness, O my Creator! and I believe firmly, I repeat after Thee, what I do not understand, because I wish to live a life of faith; and I prefer faith in Thee to trust in myself.

2. O my great God, from eternity Thou wast sufficient for Thyself! The Father was sufficient for the Son, and the Son for the Father; art Thou not then sufficient for me, a poor creature, Thou so great, I so little! I have a double all-sufficiency in the Father and the Son. I will take then St. Philip's word and say, Show us the Father, and it suffices us. It suffices us, for then are we full to overflowing, when we have Thee. O mighty God, strengthen me with Thy strength, console me with Thy everlasting peace, soothe me with the beauty of Thy countenance; enlighten me with Thy uncreated brightness; purify me with the fragrance of Thy ineffable holiness. Bathe me in Thyself, and give me to drink, as far as mortal man may ask, of the rivers of grace which flow from the Father and the Son, the grace of Thy consubstantial, co-eternal Love.

3. O my God, let me never forget this truth—that not only art Thou my Life, but my only Life! Thou art the Way, the Truth, and the Life. Thou {368} art my Life, and the Life of all who live. All men, all I know, all I meet, all I see and hear of, live not unless they live by Thee. They live in Thee, or else they live not at all. No one can be saved out of Thee. Let me never forget this in the business of the day. O give me a true love of souls, of those souls for whom Thou didst die. Teach me to pray for their conversion, to do my part towards effecting it. However able they are, however amiable, however high and distinguished, they cannot be saved unless they have Thee. O my all-sufficient Lord, Thou only sufficest! Thy blood is sufficient for the whole world. As Thou art sufficient for me, so Thou art sufficient for the entire race of Adam. O my Lord Jesus, let Thy Cross be more than sufficient for them, let it be effectual! Let it be effectual for me more than all, lest I "have all and abound," yet bring no fruit to perfection.

Evil And The Effects of Sin-Meditation by Newman

 from Meditations and Devotions, Part One: Meditations on Christian Doctrine, Paulist Press, 2010 pp. 36-37

O my God, I know full well why all these evils are. Thou hast not changed Thy nature, but man has ruined his own. We have sinned, O Lord, and therefore is this change. All these evils which I see and in which I partake are the fruit of sin. They would not have been, had we not sinned. They are but the first instalment of the punishment of sin. They are an imperfect and dim image of what sin is. Sin is infinitely worse than famine, than war, than  pestilence. Take the most hideous of diseases, under which the body wastes away and corrupts, the blood is infected; the head, the heart, the lungs, every organ disordered, the nerves unstrung and shattered; pain in every limb, thirst, restlessness, delirium—all is nothing compared with that dreadful sickness of the soul which we call sin. They all are the effects of it, they all are shadows of it, but nothing more. That cause itself is something different in kind, is of a malignity far other and greater than all these things. O my God, teach me this! Give me to understand the enormity of that evil under which I labour and know it not. Teach me what sin is.

 All these dreadful pains of body and soul are the fruits of sin, but they are nothing to its punishment in the world to come. The keenest and fiercest of bodily pains is nothing to the fire of hell; the most dire horror or anxiety is nothing to the never-dying worm of conscience; the greatest bereavement, loss of substance, desertion of friends, and forlorn desolation is nothing compared to the loss of God’s countenance. Eternal punishment is the only true measure of the guilt of sin. My God, teach me this. Open my eyes and heart, I earnestly pray Thee, and make me understand how awful a body of death I bear about me. And, not only teach me about it, but in Thy mercy and by Thy grace remove it. 

Attributes of God Part Six

This will be the last great Attribute of God I shall take a

peek at during this time. Today, I am referring to God as Eternal.

Aquinas states this, which is interesting, that God is Eternity. These ideas are found in the First Part, Question 10 of the Summa.

Eternity is nothing else but God Himself. Hence God is not called eternal, as if He were in any way measured; but the idea of measurement is there taken according to the apprehension of our mind alone.

... Words denoting different times are applied to God, because His eternity includes all times; not as if He Himself were altered through present, past and future.

Obviously, being people of time, we cannot understand easily a God Who is totally outside of time and Who Is "Permanent Being".  And, even though we have these beautiful ideas, I think that the best way to try and understand the Attributes, as much as we are able to do so, is through active contemplation. 

If God so blesses us with infused knowledge, as He has granted to those who allowed themselves to be purged of sin and egotism, then such ideas will become not only clearer, but experiential to a certain degree.

Eternity is simultaneously whole. But time has a "before" and an "after." Thereforetime and eternity are not the same thing.
I answer that, It is manifest that time and eternity are not the same. Some have founded this difference on the fact that eternity has neither beginning nor an end; whereas time has a beginning and an end. This, however, makes a merely accidental, and not an absolute difference because, granted that time always was and always will be, according to the idea of those who think the movement of the heavens goes on for ever, there would yet remain a difference between eternity and time, as Boethiussays (De Consol. v), arising from the fact that eternity is simultaneously whole; which cannot be applied to time: for eternity is the measure of a permanent being; while time is a measure of movement. Supposing, however, that the aforesaid difference be considered on the part of the things measured, and not as regards the measures, then there is some reason for it, inasmuch as that alone is measured by time which has beginning and end in time. Hence, if the movement of the heavens lasted always, time would not be of its measure as regards the whole of its duration, since the infiniteis not measurable; but it would be the measure of that part of its revolution which has beginning and end in time.
Another reason for the same can be taken from these measures in themselves, if we consider the end and the beginning as potentialities; because, granted also that time always goes on, yet it is possible to note in time both the beginning and the end, by considering its parts: thus we speak of the beginning and the end of a day or of a year; which cannot be applied to eternity. Still these differences follow upon the essential and primary differences, that eternity is simultaneously whole, but that timeis not so.

On Evil, Humans And Our Decisions

Recently, I came across the author Rabbi Eliezer Berkovits and was stunned by one phrase of his. I have been reflecting much lately on the nature of evil in the world as part of my thinking of the Goodness of God.

Berkovits noted one thing about the Holocaust which opens the door to our thoughts on evil in the world.

He wrote that we should not be asking "Where was God in the Holocaust?" but, "Where was man?"

To be truly human is to respond to the natural law which is in every human being ever created.

Natural law is the same as the Ten Commandments, that law given to us by God because we are made in His image and likeness.

That millions of people disregard natural law and become sub-human as a result of evil choices forms an anxiety for many Catholics.

Nature and nurture determine evil in a person, but in today's world of psychology and worse, pop-psychology, nurture seems to trump nature in many people's mind.

Education, good housing, and food do not make saints. In fact, many comfortable, wealthy people with loving families do not become saints and many people who are impoverished in so many ways do so.

The two most prevalent heresies are universalism, which holds that all people go to heaven, and Pelagianism, which holds that people get to heaven without grace.

Sadly, too many Catholics cannot see that the divide between those who believe and those who do not believe is growing.

Where is man? Where are the humans who respond to natural law? We need to stop making excuses for those who pass up grace and God, creating strong friendships in the Lord, so that we are not swept away by the waves of trials to come.

Prudence and wisdom dictate that Catholics join together to help each other stay strong. The early Church community was built on friendship, based on common beliefs and goals.

Without this, the Church is weak.

The Matter of Sin Again

I wrote one post on this earlier this year. But, an idea came to my mind today to help readers understand the Matter of Sin.

Our sins are forgiven in the sacrament of confession, but we have "hang-overs" from sin. If any of you saw the 2010 Narnia movie which was based on the Voyage of the Dawn Treader, you will remember the scenes when Edmund is tempted by the dead queen, the White Witch, or Jadis to sin again. This weakness of the imagination is part of the Matter of Sin. (By the way, have there been other Narnia movies since this one?)

Now, Edmund's sin of betrayal was forgiven long ago by Aslan. But, because Edmund sinned, he has a memory of sin and a memory of temptation. The Matter of Sin is that weakness which comes into the mind, the heart and the imagination, as well as the will of one who sins.

The Matter of Sin is not present in a person who has not sinned, such as Mary, Our Mother, and St. John the Baptist. However, those who sin must be purified even of the Matter of Sin, the detritus of sin.

This purification happens in the Dark Night of the Spirit, when God takes over the mind, imagination, heart and will, having already dealt with the senses.

The Matter of Sin is like Frodo's wound from Weathertop-a reminder of mortality and concupiscence given into.

Those great saints who allowed God to purify them while on earth and wrote about this process, such as SS. John of the Cross, Augustine, Teresa of Avila and others, have shared with us how to have purgatory on earth.

St. Therese, the Little Flower, also wrote about this process, which is the entire theme of my purification series.

Let God heal you and free you from the Matter of Sin, which can only happen after one truly repents and turn against sin.

Like the layers of scales of Eustace the Dragon, we must be purged of selfishness.

to be continued...