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Wednesday, 10 July 2013

For New Readers-Stages of Persecution and Other Persecution Posts

15 Jun 2013
The silent media and Christian persecution.... Posted by Supertradmum. Christianity has an estimated 2.2 billion followers or 32% of the world population, according to a report by the Washington-based Pew Forum on ...
25 Jun 2013
A sign of the stages of persecution. Posted by Supertradmum. Last year I said we were at the end of the fourth out of five steps of persecution. Here is another indication, just in case some readers do not believe this.
17 May 2013
Persecution Watch in America. Posted by Supertradmum · http://www.newsmax.com/Headline/baptist-newspaper-irs-target/2013/05/16/id/504951?s=al&promo_code=13856-1
29 May 2013
Christian Persecution Watch Updates from the Main Media. Posted by Supertradmum · http://www.foxnews.com/world/2013/05/28/new-christian-pastor-detained-church-closed-in-iran/
29 Apr 2013
Those words were recently written by Mikey Weinstein, founder of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF), in a column he wrote for the Huffington Post. Weinstein will be a consultant to the Pentagon to develop ...
11 Apr 2013
“He said he decided to get married, and before he got through I grabbed his hand and said, 'I am sorry. I can't do your wedding because of my relationship with Jesus Christ,'" Stutzman said. She said it was the only wedding ...
06 Apr 2013
A sign of the stages of persecution. Posted by Supertradmum. Last year I said we were at the end of the fourth out of five steps of persecution. Here is another indication, just in case some readers do not believe this.
20 Feb 2013
I hope Catholics realize that we are in the same position as Catholics under the Marxists when persecuted in the Iron Curtain countries. We are in the beginnings of the final stage of persecution. People will be impoverished.

24 Mar 2013
Update on Christian Persecution · Nice reminder on grace from another blog · A vision from an approved visionary...not infallib... Pueri Hebraeorum and Tenebrae Responses for Medita... Post 102. Cyril of Jerusalem and ...
01 Feb 2013
Last Spring, I wrote about Fr. Esper's presentation on television from his book on persecution. These were the steps he outlined. Sadly, I lost some posts in an error on the blog, so the original article is gone. He was on the ...
20 Feb 2013
http://www.lifesitenews.com/news/uk-pushes-to-outlaw-reparative-therapy-ahead-of-gay-marriage-vote?utm_source=LifeSiteNews.com+Daily+Newsletter&utm_campaign=77ecdb1ef2- ...
01 Feb 2013
Long gone is stage two of persecution. Posted by Supertradmum. Stage Two is the vilification of Catholics. Again, this happened years ago in America, with the Ku klux Klan and Masons printing anti-Catholic material, as well ...
01 Feb 2013
Stages one, two and three in persecution--stage one-long gone. Posted by Supertradmum. As I am the one who has to rewrite my own ideas, I am trying to be patient with myself. Stages one, two and three in the United States ...
01 Feb 2013
I have written this post before...and it was accidentally deleted with many others. Stages four and five of persecution are clear. We are in stage four in the States and entering into it is Great Britain. Stage Four is criminalization.
08 Jan 2013
Persecution sites worth watching... Posted by Supertradmum · http://www.christianpersecution.info/ And, I subscribe to a magazine on line, which you can sign up for here from this site: http://www.persecution.org/.
06 Dec 2012
Elizabeth said... The Salvation Army does hold strong views on homosexuality, perhaps similar to ours as Catholics ~ not sure about that. One thing I didn't know until this past week is that while the U.S. Salvation Army says ...
26 Nov 2012
Pray for our brothers and sisters in Christ in these places. Pray for the media of all Western countries to stop ignoring Christian persecution and calling it "sectarian violence". Pray.
01 Feb 2013
Trying to be patient............the missing articles rewritten on persecution.-stages four and five. Posted by ... And from a great site, from talks in 1998 on the stages of persecution of the Jews. This would be the beginning of stage ...
23 Jul 2012
Christian Persecution in Europe. Posted by Supertradmum. from Enza Ferreri who is an Italian-born, London-based author and journalist. She has been a London correspondent for several Italian magazines and newspapers, ...
14 Jul 2012
Officers of the Revolutionary Guards closed the Jennat-Abad Church along with its campsite, the "Garden of Sharon," once a popular site for Christian gatherings and conferences; eye witnesses' reported a large notice posted ...
14 Mar 2012
This is out and out persecution of Christians. Thankfully, some Anglicans, including the former Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr. Carey, have come out against this. Carey said ministers and courts were "dictating" to believers, ...
06 Jul 2012
Fr Levi said... On a positive note, this type has become so blinded as to the 'rightness' of their cause that they no longer care that the further they go, the further behind they leave more and more of their initial sympathisers.
10 May 2012
The government of Wales is moving against Catholic schools that are organizing students to protest a new government plan to back gay marriage in that country. The students at the Catholic schools were recently invited by ...
19 Apr 2012
Liberal outrage in Spain: Homosexual groups seek prosecution of bishop over sermon on homosexuality Matthew Cullinan Hoffman[Image]Wed Apr 18 18:45 EST Faith April 18, 2012 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Homosexual groups ...
22 Feb 2013
The last stage of persecution witnesses laws directly aimed at the target group, making their activities unlawful and forcing them into poverty and fines if they do not cooperate. This happened here 500 years ago and the ...
21 Apr 2013
http://www.firstthings.com/blogs/firstthoughts/2013/04/22/egypts-copts-and-persecution/. UPDATE ON PERSECUTION WATCH ABOVE. We need to pray for all the sheep in Christ's flock, especially those who are being ...
21 Feb 2012
Ethiopia, and even Libya, as well as the above, the situation will escalate into the worst forms of persecution. Pray please, and when you have the chance to vote, vote for those politicians, who are not only aware of the ...
05 Dec 2012
Since last January, I have highlighted the five stages of persecution now and then. You can ... We as Catholics were in the fourth stage of persecution before the election in America, which is a turning point for the entire world.

31 Mar 2013
Gervase Crouchback said... Every Saturday and Sunday in my prayers after reading the Daily Mass I set aside to pray for our persecuted Brethren.And I end with " St Michael ,the Archangel, defend us in battle, be our ...
22 Nov 2012
(It should be noted that the Pilgrims, who came to America to escape religious persecution from the Anglicans, were themselves the perpetrators of religious persecution. When they had been in power, they had gone around ...
01 Aug 2012
But, it will take something more than a generational change, it will take another persecution to make the Church grow and be strong here. God has His ways to bring people to themselves and to salvation. We must pay ...
23 Apr 2013
Commenting on the readings of the day, the Holy Father highlighted three aspects of the Church: Its missionary activity, born of persecution; the fact that it is a Mother Church which gifts us the faith that is our identity and that ...
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For New Readers, On Thinking Posts

18 Jun 2013
To think like a Catholic is to see the reality of the world through the Eyes of God and not one's own eyes. If you have lost the gift of discernment or wisdom given to you in baptism through sin and compromise, pray for such.
04 Feb 2013
It is as if the local Church has felt the need to dumb down the real deal on marriage and sex to meet the demands of a certain group of people who DO NOT YET KNOW HOW TO THINK LIKE CATHOLICS. What do I mean?
20 Jul 2012
Many of the posts here on this blog have been on thinking like a Catholic and not like a Protestant. In the many, many responses I have read on the series on being single, I realized that some Catholics are not thinking like ...
13 Apr 2012
Too many of the courses are based on a particular professor's private interests instead of a Catholic world-view. Our priests, bishops and cardinals need to learn to think like Catholics and in too many cases, this perspective is ...
29 Apr 2012
A wonderful effect of thinking like you, that is, in a sound and secure orthodoxy, is that it promotes the source of our affection as the Church and the Triune God, with external, devotional piety flowing from that core. The life of ...
25 Jul 2012
Because Catholics do not think like Catholics. Gramsci understood that neo-Thomism was a danger to Communism. He knew that Thomism and neo-Thomism were antithetical to communism and the war against culture.
28 May 2013
One, the first and most horrible problem is thinking like a protestant. Catholics have a very long history of Tradition and the correct Revelation, using bad translations, for example, such as the Good News Bible. Thinking like a ...
08 Jan 2013
The European friends of mine cannot understand wanting to be in charge of your own space. They are think like socialists, even the Catholics. What shocks me is their blind trust in their governments, and worse, the feeling of ...

04 Dec 2012
I am truly concerned about the present youth who cannot and will not think objectively. If you have ... Now, we shall see the triumph of the Prince of Darkness, unless Catholics begin to think like Catholics-objectively.
20 Jun 2012
This movement of the Spirit of God is connected to one of my favorite themes on this blog, thinking like a Catholic. Just start in January and keep reading... Infused prudence should be manifested somehow-it must be seen, ...
05 Jan 2012
These "checks and balances" are one reason I am Catholic. We have a ... Have we lost the art of communicating the Mind of Christ, and if we are not thinking like Christ, can we communicate the Good News? In good Socratic ...

08 Jul 2012
Traditional Catholic Blog .... To put on the mind of Christ for a young man is to become Christ, to think like Christ, the High Priest and this means thinking like a priest and having his primary community that of his fellow priests. Thinking and being indicate who we are. I would ask a seminarian these questions? Does the young man love Mary as his Mother and Lady? Does He love Christ above all and want to be like Christ? Does he love the Church, the Bride of Christ?
04 Feb 2013
Just as we have lost the reverence in the Mass for the Eucharist, so we have lost reverence for marital sex. Think like Catholics. Marriage is a sacrament, not merely a vehicle for sex. We need to stop supporting ToB in our ...
24 Aug 2012
I think of T, who loves children and cooking and is one of the most beautiful women I know. She is always thinking of others. She has chosen chastity and the vision of a real Catholic family. She waits, like A, and in that they are ...
28 Apr 2013
... knew Catholic doctrine and we today don't. Besides, in times of crisis and distress, when we are not thinking clearly, it is precisely the things we have memorized that come most readily to our aid when we need them. ...The suggestions you make are wonderful, and I have spent a great deal of time with websites like Catholic Icing, Catholicmoms, and A Shower of Roses to get inspiration and mentoring on this journey. It is of great comfort to me to hear of someone ...

18 Jul 2012
One piece looks like bones, and another is in the shape of a small crustacean. I was thinking of how my dwelling is built with the ruins of another ancient time of ancient creatures which were once alive. Will there be any building of new homes after ... Note that Malta, supposedly one of the most Catholic countries in the world, (but those who read this blog know better), has 11% in the single women living alone range. No ages are given. Catholics may be a majority ...

Thoughts from 2009 Two

The superb head of the philosophy department told me I should be teaching philosophy instead of English as a Second Language. I agree with him. He said that because I want to help young people to think, that philosophy courses are the way to make people think.

I am convinced one can teach thinking in any class, unless that class merely is geared to a test. I introduce thinking skills in paragraphs, and journalling, which makes me unpopular with some lazy students, but the best like these skills to learn.

But, I do not think women should be teaching either philosophy or theology in seminaries, and I have rebelled here against being part of the chaplaincy formation team, which the head of department is. Against Rome...and not appropriate.

Thinking skills can be taught over breakfast conversations....and at my weekend movie and pizza parties. Thinking can be taught to children in chores and in cooking lessons.

Therefore, my philosophy class happens over retro parties and salon type discussions and dinners.

In times like these, thinking must happen in the family gatherings and my sems are my family...

Thoughts from 2009


I am blessed with an incredible memory. Memory is part of who I am and forms who I am to come. This year has been one of the worst and best in my life. I have spent most of it in spiritual warfare working in a seminary which accepts homosexuality, unless it is detected. The hypocrisy is accepted.

I have had two major illnesses, and two operations in one year. Cancer has changed my outward appearance forever, but not who I am. I am me.

I have three lovely cats and much to do. My son is a great joy to me. He is surrounded by excellent seminarian friends.

The me is the identity in Christ given to me at baptism. The me was formed by Catholic parents, excellent Catholic education, for which I am forever grateful and much suffering.

One cannot be a single mom in America without intense suffering-the worst of which is the judgemental attitudes of family and fellow Catholics. So it has been for many, long years, the years of activity, but cancer forces one to reflect. To think of what is truly important.

My chances for a second marriage are now drastically reduced as I have aged and no longer am attractive. This part of my identity is gone, but my Confirmation patron, St. Rose of Lima, limed her face so that no one would want her. She merely wanted to be loved by Christ himself.

This Rose and other roses like her, such as Catherine of Sienna, whose Illuminations I read while convalescing (two weeks) and Teresa of Avila, who I truly understand for the first time in my life, have led me to the realization that to be a woman of God is not to be like other women. To be a woman of God is to transcend the physical, which is why I disagree more and more with Theology of the Body.

We are body and soul and our theology is that of body and soul. When the body decays, becomes marred, changes, ages, the sexual is no longer part of one's identity. No. My identity, standing in front of the mirror in Äugust in my best gown and saying goodbye to part of my female and maternal identity, I did not merely mourn, but rejoiced in that I am more, much more than my body.

When God gives me my body back, hopefully, at the Final Judgement, I shall be like new again. I shall also meet, God willing, those Roses-including my sister, Elizabeth, who went before me to heaven. She is a Pearl of those innocents who gather around the Throne of God, unlike me, who has to take a back place to her purity.

Catherine's Dialog and Teresa's Interior Castle give me comfort, as well as the knowledge that truth prevails despite so much spiritual warfare. But, as I am wedded to Truth, my way is not as hard as those who remain in ignorance,either by choice or accident. God has given me great peace and joy, as well as insight, to continue despite cancer and other things. The joy of living continues...

Tuesday, 9 July 2013

The Good, the Bad, and the Mediocre-Thoughts from 2010

"There is a higher justice than the poetical, my dear. I don't grieve for the impossible."

Tom Pinch is an example of a really good person in Charles Dickens. In Martin Chuzzlewit, Pinch at first seems weak and basically, a deluded push-over in the household of the completely evil, deceit-filled Pecksniff.



But, Pinch becomes one of the heroes of Dickens by being consistently good, truthful, and standing up for what is just. He does not get "his girl" in the end, but is invited to live with his sister and her husband, one of Pinch's good friends.

He does not get poetic justice. Another quiet hero in Dickens is Joe Gargery in Great Expectations, possibly my favourite character in all of Dickens's characters, numbered between 989 and 1,2oo by various critics. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Dickensian_characters

Joe Gargery is another truthful, good and humble man. He know his place.

Both Tom and Joe are protectors. One can rely on their steady goodness and selfish-less decisions.

Too often in today's world, people want poetic justice, as in Joe getting a sweet wife, Biddy, or Little Dorrit and Arthur Clennam marrying. But, Tom Pinch tells his sister that a higher justice, that is, Divine Providence, rules the hearts and heads of men who are good and worthy, not poetry. Dickens may have been talking to himself.

Those of us who have faced cancer and other illnesses understand that there is a divine justice, a Providence, ordering and inspiring us in our common, daily lives.

Rebellion and pride bring unnecessary hardships. Suffering cannot always bring happiness, but it must bring redemption to the Tom Pinchs of this world.

Too often, I have wanted poetic justice in exchange for the good, moral decisions which I made, shaping my life and moving me from the bad, to the mediocre, to the good. I have wanted the quiet, peaceful, stable life which many women have. This has been denied to me. One must stop and ask Divine Justice for insights and clarity into the soul, which helps one follow Him in all circumstances, with hope. 

Recently, Divine Providence showed me that I have been selfish all my life. One must atone for such selfishness and think of others, think on Christ and His Suffering.

To move from the bad to the mediocre to the good and, finally, to the perfect, is extremely difficult.

This movement of the will is borne on grace and sustained by the Eucharist.

Like Joe and Tom Pinch, all of us men and women have to face the truth of ourselves, our surroundings, our status, our souls. Once we do this, then do we really begin the journey into the Heart of God.  I like to think that Dickens at the end, who could create such good characters, had this goodness in his heart despite a difficult and not so moral life. What is within the heart may surprise people.




Only God knows the heart, and He allows Divine Justice rather than poetic justice to reveal hearts to the weary world.


27 Jan 2012
Some people's minds, and maybe their hearts, are like the Circumlocution Office in Little Dorrit, my favorite book-read it at least four times and maybe five. Their minds are full of anxiety, useless information, fluff. They only want ...
25 Apr 2013
View from the Bridge. Posted by Supertradmum. This is the new "Iron Bridge", not the one in Little Dorrit, my favourite book. A complete replica of the old one was made for the 2008 television series. Email ThisBlogThis!
13 Jun 2012
This transportation of the imagination lies in a masterpiece, such as Dante's Divine Comedy, Dickens' Little Dorrit, or E. M. Foster's Howard's End. Few book or poems can carry us into the mind of the maker, who creates for us ...

Sunday, 7 July 2013

Because a Reader Asked


One more point today, in response to a question today.

A definition is necessary for what St. Ignatius calls "desolation", which is the time of no consolations. This is a good and it is not the same as depression. If one is depressed, one should not be going to a spiritual advisor, but a trained Catholic psychiatrist or psychologist. Make sure he or she is a Thomist.

But, desolation just means suffering, and lots of it. It is a life where suffering cannot be avoided. For some of us, this could be cancer, or the death of a loved one, or a failed marriage. For some, this suffering is not faced properly but avoided by activity and a lack of reflection.

Silence is a must in desolation. Only in silence can one sense the suffering Christ. Desolation demands attention. And, the immersion into suffering creates silence. I know this....

Reflection is absolutely necessary in desolation. So is faith. It is a time for trusting in God without consolations. Desolation is for mature souls only. Those who have gone through the basic stages of purification and are now entering the striping of the ego and the complete purification of the senses and spirit know this desolation.

St. John of the Cross calls this the Dark Night. God has removed Himself so that one can be purified for His Real Self, not as one imagines Him. He leaves but He has not really left. He is Present, but only in the Passion.

I do not think there are many young people who experience desolation in the Dark Night. If you are young and in inescapable suffering, take it as a gift. The yes to God in desolation is the yes of Christ in Gethsemane.


Almost End of Blog Day-Thoughts on Lost Identity


As I am in Ireland, the day is almost done. The sun is setting slowly, as it does up here in the northern part. The long twilights are one reason why England built some of the largest and most amazing west windows in the Medieval cathedrals. The long twilight was captured in the naves.

This is the first summer I intend to spend in Ireland, writing and praying. I have been to this island in the winter and in the autumn in the past and both times, it was cold. So far, it has been hot and sunny.

The green fields and hedges cannot conceal a sense of loss, however, as Ireland has lost her identity.

Spiritually, she is gasping for breath. On a Sunday, the Churches are half empty, but the malls and shops are full. The new religion is consumerism. And, the new abortion bill is part of the consumerist agenda. Babies cost money. Babies interfere with careers. Babies demand self-sacrifice, and love.

Love is dying here. Almost all my friends here are Polish, Scottish, Polish, Scottish...Polish, Asian, Asian, and three Irish.

Why? Because this is the TLM crowd of young people. There is no one my age that I can see at the TLM. There are older people, my parents' ages, and younger, much younger people.

The twenty to thirty somethings form the new Church, but they are so few. And, they are not Irish.

I grieve for Ireland on this Sunday. The land of the missing children-as if the Pied Piper had come down Grafton Street and stolen all the little children away.

Lost children, lost identity. There is a psychological event which some people in concentration camps or prisons, or even monasteries experience. It is Loss of Identity. This can last a few days, or years. If it is a mental or emotional illness, loss of identity can be periodic. Loss of identity comes from broken families as well as the loss of Faith. Without the continuity of faithfulness in marriage, from parents, in the Church, one cannot develop properly.

The lost generations are at least two now. And, people cannot identify with hatred, which is what has happened here. I do not think the Irish can find their identity without Catholicism. They are following the pipe of materialism and they will disappear as a nation if they do not rediscover that they are a nation, a people, persons only in Christ.

On such a sunny evening, gloomy thoughts...


Pope Francis to Sems and Enquirers Today at Mass



 A snippet and I agree with this SO much

...diocesan and parish activities are too often feel-good activities stroking the egos of those who do these

...real evangelization flows from personal holiness.

...with holiness first, the work does not belong to God, but to men and women, and, therefore, useless


.....“evangelization is done on one’s knees”, as one of you said to me the other day. Always be men and women of prayer! Without a constant relationship with God, the mission becomes a job. The risk of activism, of relying too much on structures, is an ever-present danger. If we look towards Jesus, we see that prior to any important decision or event he recollected himself in intense and prolonged prayer. Let us cultivate the contemplative dimension, even amid the whirlwind of more urgent and pressing duties. And the more the mission calls you to go out to the margins of existence, let your heart be the more closely united to Christ’s heart, full of mercy and love. Herein lies the secret of the fruitfulness of a disciple of the Lord! Jesus sends his followers out with no “purse, no bag, no sandals” (Lk 10:4). The spread of the Gospel is not guaranteed either by the number of persons, or by the prestige of the institution, or by the quantity of available resources. What counts is to be permeated by the love of Christ, to let oneself be led by the Holy Spirit and to graft one’s own life onto the tree of life, which is the Lord’s Cross