Recommended article by Buchanan, one of my heroes

http://buchanan.org/blog/the-antietam-of-the-culture-war-5074?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+PatrickBuchanan+%28Pat+Buchanan+Update%29

A Switch in Attitude

Many prophetic writers, including Christopher Dawson and Hilaire Belloc told us over 80 years ago of the now-obvious trials of Christians in the world. One of the great insights of Belloc was the rise of militant, jihadist Islam. Another prophecy from the 1920s was the spread of socialism interfering with education and the family as the unit of society. Yet another far-reaching view was Robert Hugh Benson's excellent book Lord of the World, mentioned before on this blog and written in, wow, 1907.

Pay attention, as the man or woman who will supposedly bring peace to a world in chaos by himself, on his own, without recourse to Christ and His One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church, will be the false prophet. Some will call him one of the many anti-Christs, who is anyone, from Antiochus, to Augustus, to Nero, to Stalin and Mao who have hated the Church and Her Members.

Pay attention to false promises of world order. The Prince of the World is not Christ, but he who said  "I shall not serve". We need a change of attitude.

Now, we must work very hard for political freedom, religious rights, and the freedom of the Church to be in the world as a power, the physical institution created by Christ. As I pointed out this weekend, passivity and quietism of any types are heresies. However, we need a change of attitude.

We need to see ourselves increasingly marginalized and under siege, not in order to become paranoid, but to be "intelligent" and using our brains. Catholics MUST become more techy, using the Internet, twitter, and all the social networking while we can. This is a necessity. Secondly, we must make our local communities strong and loving. This means real community, day to day living with and bearing with our brothers and sisters in Christ, not merely being Sunday Catholics. Sunday Catholics will not survive the onslaught of marginalization and persecution.

Those in America who have said it can't happen here, or Catholics in England, who have forgotten their own Recusant History, need to wake up.

The world, in my lifetime, will never be the same and will never be a haven of peace and goodwill towards religion. The only religion will be the religion which worships the State. We are entering the Age of the Martyrs. We need to be open and prepared to make choices for God and His Church.

A Rose for My Readers

As I am thinking of St. Therese and her family today, praying for their intercession, I thought I would write about my favorite rose. I love the blue rose. Some of you may have noticed this. There is only one natural, albeit, formed by man, blue rose, the Applause, seen here  which was developed in Japan, and finally on sale last November in America. It is really lavender but considered blue. Lavender is the color of romance and love, but the blue rose has many, varied meanings.

I love this rose, and also those which are made to be dark blue. However, the dark blue rose has mysterious origins, as some historians state that there was such a rose in the Medieval Period in the Far East.

I repeat an ancient love tale of a princess who could not decide whom to marry. She decided that whosoever would bring her a blue rose would be her husband. The first man to come was a king, who had a rose made out of sapphire. The young princess saw this as hard and cold, and believed it revealed his cold and hard heart, that he wanted to marry her only for her riches. She said no.

A nobleman came with a rose which has been dyed through its stem, and the young woman saw this as deceitful, like the heart of the man who gave it to her. She said no.

Another prince had a fragile, porcelain bowl made with a rose embellished on the side of it, an intricate blue rose. This was not real, and the princess saw that his love was not real, but that he only wanted power and status, not her love.

Finally, the young gardener of the palace, a young man who had been the friend and confidant of this princess all her life, brought her a white rose. He came into the palace room where the court waited and held the rose up to a blue glass window. The sun's rays made the white rose blue, and the princess discovered her true heart was his heart-simplicity and truth, nature and beauty. She and the gardener were married and lived happily ever after. As there was no blue rose, only those with the eyes of love could find one.

But, now, there is Applause, and those dark blue ones which are made by humans. The blue rose represents mystery, desiring the unattainable, spirituality, adventure, and love at first sight. May St. Therese give you a rose today of any color. St. Therese, pray for us.

For the Intercession of Blessed Louis and Zelie Martin

Some families have been traumatized lately. Some for financial reasons, and some for reasons of the heart, such as grief in deaths, illnesses, or brokenness in marriages. Today, I also think of the many post-abortive women, who have covered up their sin and grief, and pretended all their lives as if nothing has happened when they aborted their babies.

I think that Louis and Zelie Martin would be good patrons for all the families who are experiencing a terrible time. I think of all the babies they lost through illness. Zelie may be a good intercessor for post-abortive women.

Louis and Zelie are two favorite blesseds of mine, and secondary patrons of this blog along with many others, including their great daughter, St. Therese the Little Flower. On October 19th, 2008, the Martins were only the second married couple to be beatified together in the long history of the Church. (Trivia quiz: who were the first?)

Throughout hard times, this married couple not only exhibited heroic virtue, but raised saints, and grew in holiness. I pray for all men and women who want to be saints and for all families today in these hard times. Louis and Zelie Martin, pray for us. Please pray for all women who have had abortions. Pray for our nations, and especially France and England.

Prayer for the Canonisation of Louis and Zélie Martin and to obtain favours through their intercession: 

God Our Father,  thank You for having given us Blessed Louis and Zélie Martin, the parents of St. Therese. United and faithful in marriage, they have left us an example of Christain living and evangelical virtue. In raising a large family through trials, suffering and bereavement, they put their trust in You and always sought Your will.

Deign, Lord, to make known Your will in their regard and grant the favour I ask, in the hope that the father and mother of St. Therese of the Child Jesus of the Holy Face, may soon be canonised and thereby held up to the Universal  Church as  models for the families of our time. Through Christ Our Lord, Amen

(Here  mention your request)

ekathimerini.com and Europe This Morning

An exit from Greece will cause Europe to lose 400 billion Euros.  Check out this link....Watch Spain, Portugal, Ireland, and even British banks are down today. Time for prayer. Germany is talking about "re-patriozing the banks." Nice, and that could have been done last year much more cheaply for all involved....

Some Comments on Bishop Morlino, Gingrich, Wisconsin, and the USCCB

"This administration is giving us no choice." Newt Gingrich had an exclusive interview on EWTN in which he confronted the fact that if Obama is re-elected, there is a real chance of the Church being persecuted. The USCCB will meet this summer on religious freedom and the Church, and Gingrich pointed out that this meeting will be extremely important. I was watching this today and the Republican was very clear on the goodness of the Paul Ryan budget, which has passed the House, and which has been maligned by the still socialist bent of the USCCB, who do not seem to understand the difference between sensible cut backs and caring for the poor. The USCCB must move away from a socialist mind-set regarding the Bloated State. This, sadly, is the result of years of socialist influence in that bishops' group. Bishop Morlino followed and the subject of the budget came up. Now, I have followed Paul Ryan and his career for years, having lived in Wisconsin. I have heard him in person at a conference. Paul Ryan does stay in touch with Bishop Morlino and the Bishop said that he trusts Paul Ryan "as a lay leader, to make his own judgments in a sound way... and very much in accord with the Catholic Church."


Bishop Morlino stated that the Church is not looking for issues to which to respond, but that the USCCB is trying to respond to these issues. He stated that religious freedom must and most likely will get top priority.

Bishop Robert Morlino had an excellent interview on the problem with the parish in Wisconsin, which is not the subject of this posting, but I recommend that interview, which also covered the Georgetown debacle with Sibelius, and the Catholic VPs stand on civil unions. The Bishop is an excellent leader.  The reference to the misunderstandings of Vatican II was clear as Bishop Morlino backed up Pope Benedict XVI's call to go back to orthodox Catholic teachings. Bishop Morlino is one of the best spokesman for Catholic teaching. God bless him.

Also, there is another link, a separate, but interesting subject--Rev. Wright.

Greekeconomics from a Catholic Point of View

The Greek political leaders did not form a government yesterday through talks about the economy. From a Catholic point of view, several problems arise. First, a first historical points.

One, Greece has never had a large industrial base, but the people expect to live with a status of living like those countries, such as Germany, which still do. The country has relied on the service industry, like many other warm countries, and it has relied on loans.

Two, Greece is the only country to have not paid back any money after the Marshall Plan. This means that Greece has some sort of modern history in not paying back debts to other countries. So, the idea of not paying back debt is not new.

Three, Greece has not, according the an expert on the Bloomberg Report, had property taxes. This is amazing. As one who has paid property taxes for the benefit of an entire community, my city, I find this almost unbelievable.

Four, Greece is experiencing a lack of creative leadership. This is obvious.

Five, the far-left parties, some of whom broke out of Eurocommunism, still hold communist ideals and really do not care if traditional capitalist forms of economy fail

What has this to do with Catholicism? Catholic social teaching has been based on the ideas of personal responsibility and inequality. Now, both of these ideas are missing from discussions in Greece. Pensioners do not want their pensions cut. This is understandable, but pensioners have taken cuts in other countries as well, including the States. My aged parents have taken cuts. We are not rioting in the streets, except in Wisconsin.

The idea of cut-backs causes pain and pain is part of life. My life-style is not a "high" as it was before the global economic crises around the world. Some of my friends have lost much money and had to down-size. Some people are not eating as much. Many of my friends in the States do not buy new clothes, but go to second-hand shops. Some have cut out vacations. I find that many Europeans refuse to consider these options, which are obvious to me.

The entire world is facing problems and to point to one group as if they are the only ones suffering is nonsense. The Greeks are very provincial in their outlook. They do not seem to me to be "Europeans" in the sense of wanting to identify with European values. What are these values, fast disappearing?

Catholic ones. The birth-rate of Greece is one of the lowest in the world. Out of 221 countries, Greece is 205, on a 2012 chart. The youth have not been able to take over their responsibility for taking over the infrastructure as necessary and, perhaps, the real leaders never saw the light of day through contraception, abortion. This is never discussed.

Catholic values include seeing the good of suffering. This idea is missing from modern Greece. Those who want austerity are fighting those who do not. Ireland, to the credit of the government, took bail-out money, but are meeting austerity measure guidelines. A lack of country-based industry or technological jobs, plus birth-control, plus the entitlement mentality has created a group who expect to get without work. I am astounded by those who were occupying and demonstrating on the weekend. All of them were dressed better than most, had jewelry, cell phones, nice hair, etc. No one interviewed on European television looked like a street person, or people suffering. Those demonstrating have not suffered enough not to buy middle-class goods.

Catholic values have meaning beyond the economic. Most people no longer define themselves outside of economics. Marx has won the mind battle.

Catholic values create unity, a true humanism, not division in a society. Again, class war-fare is not a Catholic value, but a communist one. Rioting, destroying businesses, breaking into jewelry stores and banks is simply not helpful....

Catholic values regarding social justice are based on the fact that each individual has value and something to do for the larger community. This idea of duty, whether civic duty or duty to the state as a responsible person is missing. In fact, one does not get a sense of a state with citizens who identify with such in Greece. This accounts for all the factions, and all the political parties, which are seriously fragmented. There is no real discussion, as ideologies have dominated all attempts at compromise.

Catholic values mean that merit and hard work are rewarded. This is not socialism. The moral idea of giving opportunity to all, including the poor, is a clue to free enterprise, which must be based on Christianity, which does not create the politics of envy. Free enterprise is about cooperation, not hatred or sloth. Socialism has been condemned by the Church for the reason I have listed on this blog earlier.

And, Greece is not alone. Spain is right behind Greece in the default, leave the euro-zone game. And, my friends in finance tell me that the collapse of Greece is a ripple in the lake, but the collapse of Spain will be a tsunami. Spain has many, and bigger problems than Greece. It is only a matter of time.

Last post, six out of six, on Quietism

Here are the last few points condemned by the Church on Quietism. I hope this little review has been helpful to some who either have fallen into errors, or for those who, like me, have come up against these in the past few years. I feel with the impending global events, we shall see a return to these false ideas, as some people cannot face reality, and retreat into passivity in the face of crisis.


40. The Blessed Virgin never performed any exterior work, and nevertheless was holier than all the saints. Therefore, one can arrive at sanctity without exterior work.


Mary's Fiat allowed Redemption to enter the world. It is time for the Pope to declare her Co-Redemptrix and Mediatrix of Grace. These ideas are part of our Tradition and informed by the dogmas on her Immaculate Conception and Assumption. 


41. God permits and wishes to humiliate us and to conduct us to a true transformation, because in some perfect souls, even though not inspired, the demon inflicts violence on their bodies and makes them commit carnal acts, even in wakefulness and without the bewilderment of the mind, by physically moving their hands and other members against their wills. And the same is said as far as concerns other actions sinful in themselves, in which case they are not sins, but in them (because with these) the consent is not present.


This is a great perversion of the idea of free will. We cannot sin without consent, but God does not will our sinning. That the evil one can make us sin against our will is an odd way of denying free will and the Perfect Will of God, Who desires that all are saved. Here, Molinos gets into some type of belief that we are not in control, with grace, of our actions and that God wants to humiliate us. Not so. The Will of God is always for good and it is the will of humans which creates evil. This point shows almost a denial of reason, as some of the other points have done. Also, after repeatedly sinning, one can fall into a habit of sin, which is hard to break. By denying our part in sin, Molinos returns to dualism and a pseudo-Manichean like false thinking, the never-ending heresy.


42. A case may be given, that things of this kind contrary to the will result in carnal acts at the same time on the part of two persons, for example man and woman, and on the part of both an act follows.


We will to sin, period.

43. God in past ages has created saints through the ministry of tyrants; now in truth he produces saints through the ministry of demons, who, by causing the aforesaid things contrary to the will, bring it about that they despise themselves the more and annihilate and resign themselves to God . 


Demons bring us to perdition, not sanctity. The evil ones desire only our eternal damnation. God desires our eternal bliss. Again, a perversion of the idea of free will and the idea of a Loving Father, as caused, partly, this confusion. To compare the martyrdom of the early Christians with the so-called present "ministry of devils" is so weird. However, this idea borders on a type of satan-worship, giving more power than is due to the evil spirits, "who roam about the world seeking the ruin of souls." Saints are those among us who cooperate with grace, who love God with their entire hearts, minds, souls. Mary is our example.


I end with the introduction to the Letter against Quietism, a complicated and returning heresy.


 IN ORDER to free the world, prostrate in darkness and bound by numerous pagan errors, from the power of the devil who held it a wretched prisoner after the fall of our first parent, the heavenly shepherd, Christ our Lord, by his ineffable mercy, condescended to take flesh and, as a living victim, offer himself to God for us on the wood of the cross, nailing the guarantee of our redemption to the wood of the cross as a proof of his love for us. Then before returning to heaven he left on earth the Catholic Church his bride, as a new city, a holy Jerusalem, coming down from heaven without wrinkle or spot, one and holy, protected by his mighty weapons against the gates of hell. Its government he entrusted to the prince of the apostles, Peter, and his successors; they are to preserve whole and entire the teaching drawn from his lips, lest the sheep redeemed by his precious blood feed on poisonous ideas and fall back into age-old errors. This power sacred Scripture teaches us he entrusted especially to blessed Peter. For to which of the apostles but Peter did he say: "Feed my sheep." And again: "I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail; and when once you have turned, strengthen your brothers." Therefore, we who occupy Peter's throne and possess power equal to his, not by our own merits but because of almighty God's inscrutable wisdom, steadfastly desire that the Christian people embrace that faith proclaimed by Christ our Lord through his apostles in a continuous and uninterrupted tradition; the faith which he promised will endure to the end of the world.

Quietism continued , in a little series, five out of six

I am again looking at Quietism. Here are some more points from the Pope's Letter I have been looking at the past two days.

31. No meditative person exercises true interior virtues; these should not be recognized by the senses. It is necessary to abandon the virtues.

The virtuous life is an absolute necessity for being a saint. The virtuous life is not only essential, but antecedent to the purification and eventual unity of the soul with God. The goal of life is heaven and Beatific Vision. The virtuous life is one of the themes on my blog, and I need to get back to it at some time, as so much as been going on, I interrupted the series.

32. Neither before nor after communion is any other preparation or act of thanksgiving required for these interior souls than continuance in a customary passive resignation, because in a more perfect way it supplies all acts of virtues, which can be practices and are practiced in the ordinary way. And, if on this occasion of communion there arise emotions of humility, of petition, or of thanksgiving, they are to be repressed, as often as it is not discerned that they are from a special impulse of God; otherwise they are impulses of nature not yet dead.

Could it be that the reason why people, in my parish, talk before and after Mass, besides being lazy, is that these parishioners simply do not understand or see the value of responding to grace, the grace of thanksgiving, of love. I wonder is this poor heretic Molinos ever experienced the love of God in any intimate way? How sad, as it seems that he did not.


33. That soul acts badly which proceeds by this interior way, if it wishes on feast days by any particular effort to excite some sensible devotion in itself, since for an interior soul all days are equal, all festal. And the same is said of holy places, because to souls of this kind all places are alike.


What can I say? This is SO Quaker....


Next.

34. To give thanks to God by words and by speech is not for interior souls which ought to remain in silence, placing no obstacle before God, because he operates in them; and the more they resign themselves to God, they discover that they cannot recite the Lord's prayer, i.e., Our Father.

A sure sign of satanic influence would be the inability to say the Lord's Prayer, or any other standard prayer, such as the Hail Mary. But, of course, a heretic, with low church ideals, would eschew the need for standard prayers. Again, this is also a denial of the human need for vocal prayer and even for Gregorian Chant, for example. One can see the overlapping false thinking of Quietism and those non-denominational, pseudo-Christian churches which deny that there are sacraments and the Mass. etc.


35. It is not fitting for souls of this interior life to perform works, even virtuous ones, by their own choice and activity; otherwise they would not be dead. Neither should they elicit acts of love for the Blessed Virgin, saints, or the humanity of Christ, because since they are sensible objects, so, too, is their love toward them.

Again, the low church, heretical impulse to get rid of all sensible devotion for a false sense of the spiritual. We are not disembodied spirits and to deny love is to deny Christ and the Indwelling of the Holy Trinity. The very goal these heretics wanted is denied to them by the denial of eros, to agape, to caritas, as I outlined last week in the encylical series on Deus Caritas Est.

We should be daily grateful for our present Pope, who has elucidated Love for us so clearly in his first encyclical.

36. No creature, neither the Blessed Virgin nor the saints, ought to abide in our heart, because God alone wishes to occupy and possess it.

See last week's series on love. Love begets love, begets love.....This was supposed to be a three-part series, but it shall go into six, with the small one yesterday counting as three.  A thanks to my readers, who like these mini-series.

This is not the last little posting on Quietism, hopefully, to show how this heresy has effected some Catholics of a certain age.

37. On occasion of temptations, even violent ones, the soul ought not to elicit explicit acts of opposite virtues, but should persevere in the above mentioned love and resignation.

Where do I start? The good nuns taught me years ago that the way to combat a vice is to emphasize the opposite virtue. When one is raising children, this is also part of their training. Again, to assume that the virtues “just happen” reminds me of a student I had years ago, whose history project, “just didn't happen”. She earned an “F” for the course. I highly recomment Garrigou Lagrange on the virtues.Josef Pieper is another great writer on the virtues, and start here.

38. The voluntary cross of mortifications is a heavy weight and fruitless, and therefore to be dismissed.

Again, this is a denial of the Passion of Christ, His Incarnation and the entire tradition of redemptive suffering. St. Therese of Liseaux is an answer to this false idea, as is the long tradition of honoring Christ in His Passion and Death on the Cross, our Redemption.

39. The more holy works and penances, which the saints performed, are not enough to remove from the soul even a single tie.

Blessed John Paul II on suffering is an excellent answer to this point. If one has never read the Apostolic Letter Salvifici Doloris, the link is on the name. 

More on the Evil and Prevalence of Quietism

Continuing with the heresy of Quietism, I am looking at these points from the Letter, Coelestis Pastor, quoted earlier today.


20. To assert that in prayer it is necessary to help oneself by discourse and by reflections, when God does not speak to the soul, is ignorance. God never speaks; his way of speaking is operation, and he always operates in the soul when this soul does not impede him by its discourses, reflections, and operations.


This would be an enlightenment idea, basically denying that God can communicate directly through prayer or a mystical experience. God uses many ways, in the Catholic tradition, to speak to us, including direct, private revelations, as well as the great Revelation of Christ Himself, through the Scriptures and the Eucharist.

It is odd that Quietism, which seems so anti-intellectual, is also anti-human spirit.

21. In prayer it is necessary to remain in obscure and universal faith, with quiet and forgetfulness of any particular and distinct thought of the attributes of God and the Trinity, and thus to remain in the presence of God for adoring and loving him and serving him, but without producing acts, because God has no pleasure in these.


This section is very New Age and sounds like something from the 80s. Of course, all the great mystics and spiritual writers instruct us to start with meditation, of the Life of Christ and the attributes of God, moving from meditation to contemplation.  This type of prayer described above is not Christo-centric, but Hindu.


22. This knowledge through faith is not an act produced by a creature, but it is a knowledge given by God to the creature, which the creature neither recognizes that he has, and neither later knows that he had it; and the same is said of love.


Again, we know when we are given both infused knowledge and  knowledge gained either by experience, or study. We also have Knowledge as one of the Gifts of the Holy Spirit.To deny that we have any responsibility for gaining some levels of knowledge again makes the Christian a baby, not a rational creature capable of using free will to approach God and accept grace.

 23. The mystics with St. Bernard in the Scala Claustralium (The Ladder of the Recluses) distinguished four steps: reading, meditation, prayer, and infused contemplation. He who always remains in the first, never passes over to the second. He who always persists in the second, never arrives at the third, which is our acquired contemplation, in which one must persist throughout all life, provided that God does not draw the soul (without the soul expecting it) to infused contemplation; and if this ceases, the soul should turn back to the third step and remain in that, without returning again to the second or first.


These steps have been misunderstood by the Quietists, who again, deny the involvement of our wills intellects and hearts in the processes of meditative and contemplative prayer. These steps are clearly defined by St. John of the Cross, and St. Teresa of Avila, who explain that humans are brought back and forth into various steps of prayer and  final union with God. Partly, this last point is influenced by an over-emphasis on scruples, I think.


24. Whatever thoughts occur in prayer, even impure, or against God, the saints, faith, and the sacraments, if they are not voluntarily nourished, nor voluntarily expelled, but tolerated with indifference and resignation, do not impede the prayer of faith; indeed they make it more perfect, because the soul then remains more resigned to the divine will.


All impurities of thought and heart are to be rooted out by Confession and penances. Temptations are to be resisted. One cannot move on to perfection with any sin; and indifference is an open door for the evil one. We are not to be resigned to impurities or distractions. St. Ignatius of Loyola is good on these points, as are the above mystics. Again, the lack of responsibility for dealing with impurity and distractions seems to be taken away from the rational person. Bad.

The next set of points really show a keen departure from Catholic Truth.


25. Even if one becomes sleepy and falls asleep, nevertheless there is prayer and actual contemplation, because prayer and resignation, resignation and prayer are the same, and while resignation endures, prayer also endures.

I have heard, recently, ladies tell me that they pray while sleeping. I do not think so. Also, I hate to disappoint some charismatics, but your angels do not keep on praying your prayers while you sleep. They may pray, but to expect an angel to finish your rosary is just plain superstition. What is crazy here is again the denial of the will and intellectual involvement in prayer. We pray, with our intellects, our wills, our hearts, our souls.

26. The three ways: the purgative, illuminative, and unitive, are the greatest absurdity ever spoken about in mystical (theology), since there is only one way, namely, the interior way.

Well, how many saints must we quote to answer this tripe? Cf Garrigou-Lagrange, etc.

27. He who desires and embraces sensible devotion does not desire nor seek God, but himself; and anyone who walks by the interior way, in holy places as well as on feast days, acts badly when he desires it and tries to possess it.

Again, this an appeal to Protestantism, which denies the need for devotions, such as the rosary, pilgrimages, novenas, even Adoration of the Eucharist. Need I say more on this obviously wrong point?

28. Weariness for spiritual matters is good, if indeed by it one's own love is purified.


No matter how one defines weariness, either in a physical way, or spiritual acedia, this is a bad thing. The great mystics, including St. Bernard of Clairvaux, warn us of this evil state of apathy and even depression. Love is not purified in torpor, but in battle and vigilance.

29. As long as the interior soul disdains discourses about God, disdains the virtues, and remains cold, feeling no fervor in himself, it is a good sign.


I call this spiritual death and denial of grace, if not mortal sin. Oh dear....we are now in a denial of love.

30. Everything sensible which we experience in the spiritual life, is abominable, base, and unclean.


OK, now we see the philosophical background of Molinos, which is dualism and the denial of the physical humanity of man and woman. Out of all the points, this one causes the apathy of so many Catholics who fall into this heresy. If the physical life is bad, why learn, why pay attention to politics, why vote, why get married, why have children and so on. This type of hatred of the real and the physical also leads to a denial of the Incarnation of Christ, the logical extension of this heresy-the denial of the God-Man, Christ. In fact, the basis of this heresy is the denial of the Incarnation of Christ and the redemption of all mankind.

I see that many younger Catholics cannot make the spiritual or intellectual bridge between the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity and their own lives, which leads even to a denial of the efficacy of the sacraments, especially Baptism. Grace and study, God's mercy and work.....

Thanks to Wiki for Acedia

To be continued...in memory of a famous trilogy, I shall have two more, to make five, on this heresy. Tomorrow's postings will finish this examination.

Against Quietism

Some good advice from The Imitation of Christ against Quietism--


"The fervent and diligent man is ready for all things. It is harder labor to withstand our vices and passions than to toil at bodily labors. He that shuns not small defects, little by little, falls into great ones....Watch over yourself, stir up yourself, and whatever may become of others, neglect not yourself. In proportion as you do violence to yourself, the great progress will you make..."


To be continued....

The Passive Ones

Excommunication Scene from Becket

Continuing my examination and application of Quietism in today's Church, I am continuing with the list of errors so clearly condemned by Holy Mother Church.

Here are two more for consideration.


13. After our free will has been resigned to God, reflection and care about everything of our own must be left to that same God, and we ought to leave it to him, so that he may work his divine will in us without us.


There is nothing about the fight against temptations, the need to follow the Ten Commandments and the need to follow the Laws of the Church. This anti-intellectualism is part of the new Quietist attitude. It is, basically, a giving up of our freedoms and responsibilities, especially with regard to free will. Adults who do not want to grow up, those stuck in the Peter Pan Syndrome, fall under this false belief system and avoid real action.


14. It is not seemly that he who is resigned to the divine will, ask anything of God; because asking is an imperfection, since the act is of one's own will and election, and this is wishing that the divine will be conformed to ours, and not that ours be conformed to the divine; and this from the Gospel: "Seek and you shall find," was not said by Christ for interior souls who do not wish to have free will; nay indeed, souls of this kind reach this state, that they cannot seek anything from God.


One of the things which surprises me is that people pray for world peace, or an end to injustice, but do not pray for a specific person or even needs. I pray very specifically, as my Faith in God is such that I have specific needs for which to implore His Grace. Those who say, and I have heard this recently, "Oh, I just pray in general," are not putting their faith and hope on the line--this is not a response to grace but to fear, the fear of rejection, which is the opposite of Faith.

Another common error is this one: 16. It is not proper to seek indulgences for punishment due to one's own sins, because it is better to satisfy divine justice than to seek divine mercy, since the latter proceeds from pure love of God, and the former from an interested love of ourselves, and that is not a thing pleasing to God and meritorious, because it is a desire to shun the cross.


This week, I met an Irish Catholic man in his 40s who did not know what an indulgence was. I was amazed. After I explained it to him, as he asked me about this after Sunday Mass, he said basically that he could not believe in indulgences, as the Church could not decide on such things. OMGoodness...He also does not believe in Purgatory.

And, so many people have never been to a Mercy Sunday, Low Sunday, final blessing of the Divine Mercy Novena as it is very rare to find it, here,and in my home diocese in America. If there was ever a time to seek indulgences, it is now.

I think part of the rejection of this is simply a distrust of Rome, the Vatican and an over-simplified approach to religion. Again, this is Quietism.

Another point is a very Protestant idea from Quietism--the denial of the need for physical aids to worship. Some NO people fall into this category and deny the need for incense, bells, and even the Traditional Latin Mass.


18. He who in his prayer uses images, figures, pretension, and his own conceptions, does not adore God "in spirit and in truth."

I try and point out that even the Recusant Catholics risked their lives to have Agnus Deis and relics, holy cards or pictures, breviaries, etc. We are body and soul, created by God with needs to feed both.

And, another biggie--anti-intellectualism, which has, in my view, weakened the Church horribly here and elsewhere.


19. He who loves God in the way which reason points out or the intellect comprehends, does not love the true God.


I call this religious sloth. To be continued....

The popular heresy of no pensar nada

I have been concerned about a tendency in a certain generation, or generations of Catholics regarding the heresy of Quietism. Now, this heresy results in two effects, which basically separates those who seek the Kingdom of God, from those who merely want religious experiences. However, the most drastic effect is to create a group of Catholics who are passive.

The laity are not called to passivity.

One of my favorite sites online is the Papal Encyclical one. Here is the link the Coelestis Pastor on Quietism. I shall list the errors of Molinos here and highlight some I am meeting in particularly younger Catholics, ages 50-35. I find this trend is weakening parish life and the Church. Here is the long list from the letter from the Pope, Innocent XI, 20 November, 1687.


The Propositions:
1. It is necessary that man reduce his own powers to nothingness, and this is the interior way.
2. To wish to operate actively is to offend God, who wishes to be himself the sole agent; and therefore it is necessary to abandon oneself wholly in God and thereafter to continue in existence as an inanimate body.
3. Vows about doing something are impediments to perfection.
4. Natural activity is the enemy of grace, and impedes the operations of God and true perfection, because God wishes to operate in us without us.
5. By doing nothing the soul annihilates itself and returns to its beginning and to its origin, which is the essence of God, in which it remains transformed and divinized, and God then remains in himself, because then the two things are no more united, but are one alone, and in this manner God lives and reigns in us, and the soul annihilates itself in operative being.
6. The interior way is that in which neither light, nor love, nor resignation is recognized, and it is not necessary to understand God, and in this way one makes progress correctly.
7. A soul ought to consider neither the reward, nor punishment, nor paradise, nor hell, nor death, nor eternity.
8. He ought not to wish to know whether he is progressing according to the will of God, or whether or not with the same resigned will he stands still; nor is it necessary that he wish to know his own state or his own nothingness; but he ought to remain as an inanimate body.
9. The soul ought not to remember either itself, or God, or anything whatsoever, and in the interior life all reflection is harmful, even reflection upon its human actions and upon its own defects.
10. If one scandalizes others by one's own defects, it is not necessary to reflect, as long as the will to scandalize is not present; not to be able to reflect upon one's own defects, is a grace of God.
11. It is not necessary to reflect upon doubts as to whether one is proceeding rightly or not.
12. He who gives his own free will to God should care about nothing, neither about hell, nor about heaven; neither ought he to have a desire for his own perfection, nor for virtues, nor his own sanctity, nor his own salvation-the hope of which he ought to remove.
13. After our free will has been resigned to God, reflection and care about everything of our own must be left to that same God, and we ought to leave it to him, so that he may work his divine will in us without us.
14. It is not seemly that he who is resigned to the divine will, ask anything of God; because asking is an imperfection, since the act is of one's own will and election, and this is wishing that the divine will be conformed to ours, and not that ours be conformed to the divine; and this from the Gospel: "Seek and you shall find," was not said by Christ for interior souls who do not wish to have free will; nay indeed, souls of this kind reach this state, that they cannot seek anything from God.
15. Just as they ought not ask anything from God, so should they not give thanks to him for anything, because either is an act of their own will.
16. It is not proper to seek indulgences for punishment due to one's own sins, because it is better to satisfy divine justice than to seek divine mercy, since the latter proceeds from pure love of God, and the former from an interested love of ourselves, and that is not a thing pleasing to God and meritorious, because it is a desire to shun the cross.
17. When free will has been surrendered to God, and the care and thought of our soul left to the same God, no consideration of temptations need any longer be of concern; neither should any but a negative resistance be made to them, with the application of no energy, and if nature is aroused, one must let it be aroused, because it is nature.
18. He who in his prayer uses images, figures, pretension, and his own conceptions, does not adore God "in spirit and in truth."
19. He who loves God in the way which reason points out or the intellect comprehends, does not love the true God.
20. To assert that in prayer it is necessary to help oneself by discourse and by reflections, when God does not speak to the soul, is ignorance. God never speaks; his way of speaking is operation, and he always operates in the soul when this soul does not impede him by its discourses, reflections, and operations.
21. In prayer it is necessary to remain in obscure and universal faith, with quiet and forgetfulness of any particular and distinct thought of the attributes of God and the Trinity, and thus to remain in the presence of God for adoring and loving him and serving him, but without producing acts, because God has no pleasure in these.
22. This knowledge through faith is not an act produced by a creature, but it is a knowledge given by God to the creature, which the creature neither recognizes that he has, and neither later knows that he had it; and the same is said of love. 23. The mystics with St. Bernard in the Scala Claustralium (The Ladder of the Recluses) distinguished four steps: reading, meditation, prayer, and infused contemplation. He who always remains in the first, never passes over to the second. He who always persists in the second, never arrives at the third, which is our acquired contemplation, in which one must persist throughout all life, provided that God does not draw the soul (without the soul expecting it) to infused contemplation; and if this ceases, the soul should turn back to the third step and remain in that, without returning again to the second or first.
24. Whatever thoughts occur in prayer, even impure, or against God, the saints, faith, and the sacraments, if they are not voluntarily nourished, nor voluntarily expelled, but tolerated with indifference and resignation, do not impede the prayer of faith; indeed they make it more perfect, because the soul then remains more resigned to the divine will.
25. Even if one becomes sleepy and falls asleep, nevertheless there is prayer and actual contemplation, because prayer and resignation, resignation and prayer are the same, and while resignation endures, prayer also endures.
26. The three ways: the purgative, illuminative, and unitive, are the greatest absurdity ever spoken about in mystical (theology), since there is only one way, namely, the interior way.
27. He who desires and embraces sensible devotion does not desire nor seek God, but himself; and anyone who walks by the interior way, in holy places as well as on feast days, acts badly when he desires it and tries to possess it.
28. Weariness for spiritual matters is good, if indeed by it one's own love is purified.
29. As long as the interior soul disdains discourses about God, disdains the virtues, and remains cold, feeling no fervor in himself, it is a good sign.
30. Everything sensible which we experience in the spiritual life, is abominable, base, and unclean.
31. No meditative person exercises true interior virtues; these should not be recognized by the senses. It is necessary to abandon the virtues.
32. Neither before nor after communion is any other preparation or act of thanksgiving required for these interior souls than continuance in a customary passive resignation, because in a more perfect way it supplies all acts of virtues, which can be practiced and are practiced in the ordinary way. And, if on this occasion of communion there arise emotions of humility, of petition, or of thanksgiving, they are to be repressed, as often as it is not discerned that they are from a special impulse of God; otherwise they are impulses of nature not yet dead.
33. That soul acts badly which proceeds by this interior way, if it wishes on feast days by any particular effort to excite some sensible devotion in itself, since for an interior soul all days are equal, all festal. And the same is said of holy places, because to souls of this kind all places are alike.
34. To give thanks to God by words and by speech is not for interior souls which ought to remain in silence, placing no obstacle before God, because he operates in them; and the more they resign themselves to God, they discover that they cannot recite the Lord's prayer, i.e., Our Father.
35. It is not fitting for souls of this interior life to perform works, even virtuous ones, by their own choice and activity; otherwise they would not be dead. Neither should they elicit acts of love for the Blessed Virgin, saints, or the humanity of Christ, because since they are sensible objects, so, too, is their love toward them.
36. No creature, neither the Blessed Virgin nor the saints, ought to abide in our heart, because God alone wishes to occupy and possess it.
37. On occasion of temptations, even violent ones, the soul ought not to elicit explicit acts of opposite virtues, but should persevere in the above mentioned love and resignation.
38. The voluntary cross of mortifications is a heavy weight and fruitless, and therefore to be dismissed.
39. The more holy works and penances, which the saints performed, are not enough to remove from the soul even a single tie.
40. The Blessed Virgin never performed any exterior work, and nevertheless was holier than all the saints. Therefore, one can arrive at sanctity without exterior work.
41. God permits and wishes to humiliate us and to conduct us to a true transformation, because in some perfect souls, even though not inspired, the demon inflicts violence on their bodies and makes them commit carnal acts, even in wakefulness and without the bewilderment of the mind, by physically moving their hands and other members against their wills. And the same is said as far as concerns other actions sinful in themselves, in which case they are not sins, but in them (because with these) the consent is not present.
42. A case may be given, that things of this kind contrary to the will result in carnal acts at the same time on the part of two persons, for example man and woman, and on the part of both an act follows.
43. God in past ages has created saints through the ministry of tyrants; now in truth he produces saints through the ministry of demons, who, by causing the aforesaid things contrary to the will, bring it about that they despise themselves the more and annihilate and resign themselves to God . . .




I am going to highlight a few today and a few later.

Firstly, the danger of non-commitment, which is also connected to the more modern error of Existentialism.
3. Vows about doing something are impediments to perfection.


Secondly, the denial of the use of reason in the spiritual life-the vast majority of Catholics I meet have not read encyclicals, the CCC, or even local letters from the bishops.


6. The interior way is that in which neither light, nor love, nor resignation is recognized, and it is not necessary to understand God, and in this way one makes progress correctly.


I partly blame the Charismatic Movement for this and believe that movement, at least in some areas. has led to Quietism.

Thirdly, the most common heresy today is the belief in Universal Salvation. Quietism separates the end goal of our lives from prayer and effort.


7. A soul ought to consider neither the reward, nor punishment, nor paradise, nor hell, nor death, nor eternity.


Next, we all need a spiritual director or regular confessor in order not to fall into deceit.

8. He ought not to wish to know whether he is progressing according to the will of God, or whether or not with the same resigned will he stands still; nor is it necessary that he wish to know his own state or his own nothingness; but he ought to remain as an inanimate body.


Fifthly, the idea of scandal, which is practically gone from our societies, is ignored in Quietism. This is serious, as many Catholics scandalize others by contraception, fornication, pro-gay beliefs, etc. and think nothing of the consequences. We have seen many, many example of this in the past week.

9. The soul ought not to remember either itself, or God, or anything whatsoever, and in the interior life all reflection is harmful, even reflection upon its human actions and upon its own defects.


And, one idea I meet almost daily in conversation with Catholics, is the Protestant belief in the one-time giving of our wills to God which supposedly solidifies salvation. This idea is prominent here in England among some Catholics, who do not understand the need for the sacramental life.

12. He who gives his own free will to God should care about nothing, neither about hell, nor about heaven; neither ought he to have a desire for his own perfection, nor for virtues, nor his own sanctity, nor his own salvation-the hope of which he ought to remove.


To be continued.

Video posted on Father Z for all Catholics...

Not drama, truth....

Arundel and Brighton Diocese Plea for Coptic Christians

From the A and B newsletter. If you can, please respond.

Following this success we have a further plea for help, this time from Brighton Voices in Exile. They ask if they can be given food, toiletries, and wool for their women's group. They are currently experiencing a high demand for our services at the moment with many Copts arriving from Egypt and facing destitution situations.  Any support that cold be given would be greatly appreciated. Contact or send anything to Mary - Jane Burkett,Director, Brighton Voices In Exile, 55 Upper North Street, Brighton BN1 3FH. Tel:             01273 328598      . Email:bvie@hotmail.co.uk.

A and B Diocesan news; American photo

St. Paul shipwrecked gives us hope in Europe

In my old missal today, it is the feast of SS. Philip and James. The Gospel is from John 14:1-13. I find this particularly comforting in the midst of European chaos. St. Paul was on his way to Europe, to Rome, when his ship broke up near Malta. No one died. He met Publius, now a saint, and the Church was established on that small jewel in the Mediterranean. Even in a wreck, God brought forth new life for an entire people, who would not have heard the Good News without this tragedy, at least the loss of material goods.

Hope, pray, fast. love, have faith. Here is part of today's TLM reading: At this time: Jesus said to his disciples: 

Do not let your heart be distressed; as you have faith in God, have faith in me. There are many dwelling-places in my Father's house; otherwise, should I have said to you, I am going away to prepare a home for you? And though I do go away, to prepare you a home, I am coming back; and then I will take you to myself, so that you too may be where I am.  Read the entire section today, and be cheerful in the Lord.

And, to my friends in Malta, I can phone you, much cheaper and more often, after the new ruling in the EU on roaming charges which begins July 1st. Thank goodness for a small blessing...Here is St. Luke on the meeting of SS. Paul and Publius.

In the vicinity of that place were lands belonging to a man named Publius, the chief of the island. He welcomed us and received us cordially as his guests for three days. It so happened that the father of Publius was sick with a fever and dysentery. Paul visited him and, after praying, laid his hands on him and healed him. After this had taken place, the rest of the sick on the island came to Paul and were cured. They paid us great honor and when we eventually set sail they brought us the provisions we needed. - Acts 28:7-10

"Love in a cold climate..."

I would like to continue a little bit on the idea that love, Catholic, Christian love is the answer to all the political problems we are experiencing in an avalanche of evil in this week. The narcissist cannot love, the ideologue cannot love, the materialist cannot love. The pursuits of wealth and pleasure kill love, which is supernatural, spiritual, of God.

I recall that that our hearts are formed while we are living, and the amount of charity we have metaphorically, "in our hearts" has depended upon several movements as rational, baptized persons. This is what life is all about-moving into Love, who is a Person. Some further ideas on this process follow:

First, baptism is essential, and "thanks" to the those readers who have encouraged me in that discussion. Without sanctifying grace, we cannot be holy.

Second, only by being in conformity with the teaching of the Catholic Church, can we become saints. Heretics, even in "small things" cannot become perfect. This means a knowledge of our self, hopefully gained through community, marriage, a spiritual director, or other input from objective persons. This person could be a doctor, a counselor, even a Catholic psychologist, who understands God, prayer, the life of grace. The Church provides this objectivity. Human nature needs the interaction of both the rational, spiritual, and material aspect of the body and soul.

Third, as Allers, in the book I have been reading, The Psychology of Character, states, "a proper development of love for one's neighbor is a necessary antecedent to the love given to God, and is demanded by the nature of man...the garnered experience of man's spiritual life shows that our love for our fellow-men passes over into love for God."


In other words, spiritual perfection without love of neighbor is impossible.

Fourth, all the problems in families, marriages, parishes, etc. are linked to the lack of love for others, based on the lack of love for one's self. Absorbing the love of God in prayer and through the sacrament, opens our hearts to other people. We must love others, as we love ourselves....If we think we are holy, all we need to do, as Allers notes, is to ask the question, and I reform his statement into a plural form, "how we stand with our fellow-humans determines how we are loving God."

The never-ending story......is Love, Who is a Person, Who is God.