Ubi Petrus, Ibi Ecclesia

Are You Willing To Die For. . . ?

2012-02-16T06:30:00.001-05:00

St. Charles Lawanga, martyr

The U.S. Government is waging war on the First Amendment to the Constitution and the right of religious liberty. This is nothing new. Throughout the history of the Catholic Church, government has always tried to destroy our faith. This video is about the men and women who were killed for their faith in Jesus Christ and His Holy Roman Catholic Church.

Splendor of the Church: Scott Hahn on the Letter to the Romans

2012-02-14T06:30:00.000-05:00

In the continuing series, "The Splendor of the Church," this is presentation on the the Letter to the Romans (chapters 1-8) as explained by Scott Hahn. Click here for audio session.

The Latest Government Attack on Religious Liberty

2012-02-13T06:30:00.001-05:00

Since the devil is the father of lies, what does that make the present administration? The latest so-called "compromise" from the government is even worse than the the first attack. At first, the HHS said that churches would be able to offer insurance plans that did not violate their consciences. Now, in this new "compromise," even they will have to offer insurance plans that cover abortion, contraception, and sterilization, but they "just won't have to pay for them." WHO is the government think there fooling? DO NOT BE FOOLED by the government's latest tactic in this WAR on religious liberty. The article from the National Catholic Register is so very good I am just going copy it in total. If the link at the bottom does not work please got to National Catholic Register and click on the link which will take you to the website for the United States' Conference of Catholic Bishops which then links to a petition to send a letter to your Congressional representative. (you don't even have to know who they are, it send an e-mail automatically)

Attention, Catholics, Protestants, and everyone who cares about the causes of life, religious freedom, and freedom of conscience!

Do not be suckered by the “accommodation” announced today by President Obama and spokeswoman Kathleen Sebelius!

Under the guise of making room for religious conscience, the President has actually made the policy worse—far worse.

Here’s how . . .

The new policy mandates that insurance companies offer free sterilization, contraception, and abortion-causing drugs as part of their policies. According to President Obama himself:

Under the rule, women will still have access to free preventive care that includes contraceptive services — no matter where they work. So that core principle remains. But if a woman’s employer is a charity or a hospital that has a religious objection to providing contraceptive services as part of their health plan, the insurance company — not the hospital, not the charity — will be required to reach out and offer the woman contraceptive care free of charge, without co-pays and without

hassles.

Got that?

That’s worse than before.

Under the previous evil policy if you worked for an exempt organization—say, a church—then your employer could offer you an insurance plan that did not include sterilization, contraception, and abortion drugs.

Now there will be no such plans.

Remember that “If you like your healthcare plan, you can keep it” promise? It was a lie then, but it’s even more of a lie now. Whether you like it or not, your healthcare plan must be modified to include sterilization, contraception, and abortion drugs.

So the policy is actually worse than before. It’s expanding evil services under the guise of accommodating religious freedom.

That’s why abortion groups are cheering it.

It’s also deceptive, and here’s why . . .

The idea that it will be insurance companies that pay for such services is just a shell game. Where are insurance companies going to get the money to pay for these services? They aren’t the Federal Reserve. They aren’t empowered to create money out of nothing the way the Federal Reserve is.

If they’re going to pay doctors, nurses, and pharmacists to provide these things then they are going to pay for them with money they got from someone else.

Who else?

Why! The very same churches, church-related organizations, and individuals who are otherwise paying.

That’s right. That means that now the churches are being asked to pay for the very same services that they were not paying for under the previous policy, because previously they could offer their employees insurance plans that did not include these services. Now the plans will include these services, and the churches are paying for the policies with the legal fiction that the insurance company rather than they are paying for the evil services—unless the insurance company offers the organization a lower rate on the policy, in which case the burden of paying for the abortion drugs and other services is just sloshed around through different parts of their internal spreadsheets but is ultimately still borne by those paying for the policies.

It’s just a shell game.

And this is why this should be of concern not just to Catholics but to our Protestant brethren and our non-Christian friends who share a concern about the cause of life.

What this means is that we all will be forced to pay for these services, but with the payment trail hidden.

In effect President Obama is insisting that the entire American people must pay for abortion drugs, sterilizations, and contraception, only he is having the insurance companies “launder” the money so that we don’t feel like we’re being forced to pay for them.

So, even if you’re not a Catholic, even if you don’t oppose contraception, but if you do care about not funding abortion—or even if you just care about religious liberty and freedom of conscience—then you need to oppose this plan.

Do not be a sucker.

Don’t fall for this.

And don’t let it die over the weekend (notice it was part of the Friday news dump, so come Monday the Obama administration can try to dismiss it as “old news”).

TAKE ACTION HERE!

So what do you think? Will Obama be able to sucker enough people on this one?

Why Does God Allow Suffering?: part 5

2012-02-11T06:30:00.000-05:00

You can have the resurrection without the cross. The nature of paradox. to suffer means to be open the the working of God. The Church as the Mystical Body of Christ will not be complete until the end of time, so Christ must allow His definitive and complete suffering to be open-ended. The Sacrifice of the Mass. Click here for audio session.

This is what a REAL MAN looks like.

2012-02-10T06:30:00.000-05:00

from Creative Minority Report

Why don't we have more vocations to the Priesthood?

2012-02-08T06:30:00.001-05:00

A Boy Scout Is Reverent

2012-02-06T06:30:00.001-05:00

I was invited to speak at a Boy Scout meeting on the topic of reverence. The major thrust of the talk was the need to recapture a sense of awe and wonder. Click here for audio.

ANOTHER U.S. Government Attack on Religious Liberty

2012-02-05T06:30:00.000-05:00

IT IS TIME TO DEFEND THE FAITH! As if it was not enough that the the Department of Health and Human Services is violating the religious liberty of the Catholic Church, they are now joined by the the U.S. ARMY!

This report from The Blaze:

Last Sunday, Catholic priests across the country read an open letter to their parishioners. The letter condemned the Department of Health and Human Services’ decision to force religious employers to cover the cost of contraception and abortion-inducing drugs in its employees’ health-care coverage. The letter argued that the faithful could not and must not in good conscience comply with the HHS’ “unjust law.”

However, Catholic chaplains in the U.S. military were “forbidden” from reading this letter. . . Despite these instructions, some chaplains read the letter anyway. Business Insider reports:

Why Does God Allow Suffering, part 4

2012-02-04T06:30:00.002-05:00

A discussion of paragraphs 16-20 of Bl. Pope John Paul II's encyclical Salvifici Doloris(Redemptive Suffering). Topics include: the relationship of love to suffering, The sacrifice of Christ as substitute or reunion, the voluntary and innocent nature of the sacrifice, the dual nature of Christ, that which is not assumed is not saved, how we share in Christ suffering. Click here for audio session.

The Blessing of Throats

2012-02-03T21:42:00.000-05:00

Today is the Memorial of St. Blaise, Bishop and Martyr. It is the day on which Catholics have their throats blessed with candles that where blessed yesterday at the Feast of the Presentation/Purification (also known as Candlemas Day). Holding a pair of crossed candles across the person's neck, the priest or deacon says the following blessing:

Through the intercession of St. Blaise, bishop and martyr, may God deliver you from every disease of the throat and every other illness, In the Name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.

A Very Important thing to remember about this blessing is
-- make sure the candle you use are not LIT!

Washington on Religion & Government

2012-02-02T06:30:00.001-05:00

Apparently, the current administration's war on religion seems to know better than George Washington:

"And let us with caution indulge the supposition that morality can be maintained without religion. Whatever may be conceded to the influence of refined education on minds of peculiar structure, reason and experience both forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principle." George Washington's Farewell Address to Congress, 1796

What are you willing to die for?

2012-01-31T06:30:00.001-05:00

Recently, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services announced that they would give the Catholic Church one year to comply with their mandate that all health care cover the cost of sterilization, abortion-inducing drugs, and contraception in violation of the Catholic Church’s clear teaching about the evils of these so-called “services.” The United States Bishops have issued a rousing letter decrying the federal government’s attack on our first amendment rights to freedom of religion.

The USCCB’s Director of Media Relations, Sr. Mary Ann Walsh, has said, ““The government allows other religions to live out their beliefs. The Amish and Christian Scientists have a conscientious objection to health insurance, and so the law exempts them from buying it. The government acknowledges the right of these religious groups to live out their religious convictions in US society. Why are beliefs of Catholics and others dismissed?”

Michael Voris of RealCatholicTV has produced an interesting commentary on this subject that asks the question, “After forty years of dissent from the vast majority of Catholics will the Bishops be able to rally enough troops to fight this battle."

This issue makes me think of Pope Benedict’s view of a smaller but more faithful Catholic Church filled with people who are really committed to the faith. It also makes me think of the great St. Crispans Day speech in William Shakespeare’s play Henry V: “We few, we happy few.”

Archbishop Charles Chaput supposedly said, “I expect to die in my bed. I expect my successor bishop to die in jail. And I expect his successor to die a martyr.” When asked about the attribution of this quote, Archbishop Chaput responded that the aforementioned quote was not his but that he heard from others that Cardinal Francis George may have said it. Either way, the statement holds ominous but potentially good news for the Church. Martyrdom is a sure ticket to heaven. I have said that what this country needs is a good persecution. There is the story, if memory serves, told by Archbishop Fulton Sheen, may he soon be beatified, that went something like this. There were some Christians in the Ukraine who were secretly meeting during the Communist rule in that country. One time during a meeting, soldiers broke into the meeting with guns telling the occupants that the meeting was illegal and that if they did not disperse they would be handed over to the government for punishment. Several people left and when the soldiers were left with the remaining people they asked, “So are you willing to die for your faith in Jesus?” When they people responded, “Yes,” the soldiers said that they too wanted to be Christians but had to make sure that there were no government spies in the group.

What are you willing to die for? St. Thomas More was willing defy the government of Henry VIII in order to defend the authority of the papacy and the indissolubility of marriage. He was martyred in 1535. St. Margaret Clitherow was willing to defy the government of Elizabeth I and hid priests in her home and attend Mass which as illegal. She was martyred in 1586. St John Nepomucene was willing to defy the King of Bohemia to defend the seal of the confessional. He was martyred in 1393. What are you willing to die for? Are you willing to be martyred for defending the Church’s teaching on the sanctity of marriage and its teaching against contraception and homosexual activity? We few, We happy few!

Are You Saved?

2012-01-29T06:30:00.000-05:00

Here is a great Biblical answer to the question often asked by Fundamentalists that I found over at The Bread of Life.

HAVE YOU BEEN SAVED?

How should a Catholic reply to the question, "Have you been saved?"

Answer:

This question is answered in our tract Assurance of Salvation? which suggests the following reply:

As the Bible says, I am already saved (Rom. 8:24, Eph. 2:5-8), but I’m also being saved (1 Cor. 1:8, 2 Cor. 2:15, Phil. 2:12), and I have the hope that I will be saved (Rom. 5:9-10, 1 Cor. 3:12-15). Like the apostle Paul, I am working out my salvation in fear and trembling (Phil. 2:12), with hopeful confidence in the promises of Christ (Rom. 5:2, 2 Tim. 2:11-13).

Why Does God Allow Suffering?: part 3

2012-01-28T06:30:00.000-05:00

The continuing Catholic Book Study of Bl Pope John Paul II"s encyclical, "Salvifici Doloris" nos. 11-15. The connection between love and suffering. Salvation is the liberation from evil. Jesus is the one who conquers sin and death. Death as the ultimate suffering. The Resurrection and the new creation. Click here for audio session.

What has the Catholic Church done for you?

2012-01-27T06:30:00.001-05:00

Don't say I did not warn you: Hitler and the Enabling Act of 1933

2012-01-26T06:30:00.000-05:00

After reading a story over at The Blaze, my training as an historian kicked in and I got an ominous rumbling in my head. The article at The Blaze was about the President's State of the Union address. While I did not listen to the speech, the article commented on something the President said at 50 minutes 36 seconds. According to The Blaze:

Here’s what Obama said (according to prepared remarks):

The executive branch also needs to change. Too often, it’s inefficient, outdated and remote. That’s why I’ve asked this Congress to grant me the authority to consolidate the federal bureaucracy so that our Government is leaner, quicker, and more responsive to the needs of the American people.

You can watch it ... starting at 50:36:

In 1933, the German Weimar Republic was facing serious economic and government instability. Adolf Hitler, a charismatic nobody was elected Chancellor and offered a solution to the economic crisis and government gridlock. Hitler's solution was the Enabling Act of 1933 in which he asked the German Parliament to give him power without having to go through the legislative branch.

Wikipedia states:

The Enabling Act (German: Ermächtigungsgesetz) was passed by Germany's Reichstag and signed by President Paul von Hindenburg on 23 March 1933. It was the second major step, after the Reichstag Fire Decree, through which Chancellor Adolf Hitler legally obtained plenary powers and established his dictatorship. It received its name from its legal status as an enabling act granting the Cabinet the authority to enact laws without the participation of the Reichstag. The act stated that it was to last for four years unless renewed by the Reichstag, which occurred twice.

The formal name of the Enabling Act was Gesetz zur Behebung der Not von Volk und Reich (English: "Law to Remedy the Distress of People and Reich"). . . .The passage of the Enabling Act reduced the Reichstag to a mere stage for Hitler's speeches. It only met sporadically until the end of World War II, held no debates and enacted only a few laws. Within three months after the passage of the Enabling Act, all parties except the Nazi Party were banned or pressured into dissolving themselves, followed on July 14 by a law that formally made the Nazi Party the only legally permitted party in the country. With this, Hitler had fulfilled what he had promised in earlier campaign speeches: "I set for myself one aim ... to sweep these thirty parties out of Germany!"

Due to the great care that Hitler took to give his dictatorship an appearance of legality, the Enabling Act was renewed twice, in 1937 and 1941. However, its renewal was practically assured because the Nazis changed the electoral law so that voters were presented with a single list of Nazis and Nazi-approved "guest" candidates under far-from secret conditions. In 1942, the Reichstag passed a law giving Hitler power of life and death over every citizen, effectively extending the provisions of the Enabling Act for the duration of the war.^[8]

It reminds me also of the terrifying line from the Star Wars saga when the evil chancellor asks the Senate to give him power in order to deal with the political decay in the Republic. After this vote, Senator Amidala bemoans, "This is how democracy dies to thunderous applause."

DON'T SAY I DID NOT WARN YOU!

WOW!!!!! YOU HAVE GOT TO WATCH THIS VIDEO!!

2012-01-25T06:30:00.002-05:00

WOW!! and WOW!! This is just an amazing video of God's amazing creation. I always used to say that there were more stars in Montana than back East.

Yosemite HD from Project Yosemite on Vimeo.

More on the Catholic Renewal of Marriage Vows

2012-01-23T06:30:00.002-05:00

Someone asked a very good question on the post regarding the Catholic Renewal of Marriage Vows which I decided to bring out to the main body of the site.

Anonymous said...
If there is no need/purpose/usefulness for married couples to renew their vows without it seeming as though they are denying their commitment on the day of their marriage why are priests asked each year to renew their dedication to priestly ministry?

Fr. Larry said...
A very good question. The answer lies in the true understanding of both sacraments. I would suggest that you look at my explanation of sacramental theology to understand better what I am about to say regarding matter and form. The Sacrament of Marriage is conferred upon the couple by the couple themselves in their exchange of vows, which is the matter and form of the Sacrament of Matrimony. See my presentation on the Sacrament of Marriage. The Sacrament of Holy Orders is conferred upon a man by the bishop's prayers and the laying on of hands. See my presentation on the Holy Orders. Therefore, the renewal of marriage vows is a second instance of the sacramental matter and form. Whereas, the renewal of priestly promises is not a second instance of the sacramental matter and form but only a restatement of the promise of obedience to the bishop which is not an integral part of the sacrament of Holy Orders.

Why Does God Allow Suffering, part 2

2012-01-21T06:30:00.001-05:00

#5-10 of Bl. Pope John Paul II's encyclical on Redemptive Suffering (Salvifici Doloris). Topics covered include the difference between pain and suffering, the nature of evil, the non-existence of evil, God did not create evil, the purpose of things, and more. Click here for audio recording of session.

A Right To Choose?

2012-01-19T06:30:00.000-05:00

Found this over at Creative Minority Report: In Texas, a 14 year old girl wants to keep her baby, yet her parents want her to have an abortion. This young woman is exercising her right to choose, yet the pro-abortion supporters are up in arms that she did not "choose" death. One of them said, "But if she wants to continue the pregnancy, all she has to do is ask an anti-abortion activist to help out, and suddenly they are all about her right to choose." Should not someone who supports the "the right to choose" be happy that a young woman is exercising that right. OR maybe it is not really about choice at all?

The Tail Wagging the Dog?

2012-01-17T06:30:00.000-05:00

Having been trained as an historian, I take great consolation and strength from the teaching of the saints. St. Margaret Clitherow, for example, is an English martyr who died in 1586. She was killed for attending Mass and hiding priests, when it was illegal to do so. St. John of the Cross was a Spanish Carmelite who was persecuted by his brother Carmelites for trying to reform the Carmelite order. The Carmelites has become very worldly and St. John embarked upon a program of reform. His brother Carmelites offered to make him prior of the monastery if he would just give up his reform program when he refused he was locked in a cell fed on bread and water and was not allowed to celebrate Mass. I was once called a “submarine” by one of my fellow priests. What he meant was that I had hidden my traditional Catholic views until after I was ordained and then I let surface what I really believed. St. Catherine of Sienna could not stand idly by while the Pope lived in Avignon, France in the 1377. While only a third order Dominican woman, she convinced the Pope to move back to Rome, since he was, fact, the Bishop of Rome. In this tradition, I wish to call attention to the writing of St. Pope Pius X, particularly his description of the Modernist view of the Church which is so prevalent today. As St. Pope Pius X warned, “We allude, Venerable Brethren, to many who belong to the Catholic laity, and, what is much more sad, to the ranks of the priesthood itself, who, animated by a false zeal for the Church, lacking the solid safeguards of philosophy and theology, nay more, thoroughly imbued with the poisonous doctrines taught by the enemies of the Church, and lost to all sense of modesty, put themselves forward as reformers of the Church; and, forming more boldly into line of attack, assail all that is most sacred in the work of Christ, not sparing even the Person of the Divine Redeemer, whom, with sacrilegious audacity, they degrade to the condition of a simple and ordinary man.” (Pascendi Dominici Gregis, #2) [For my running commentary on Pascendi Dominici Gregis, click here] I, myself, was faced with several seminary professors who taught Modernist doctrines, yet through the grace of God, was ordained to the priesthood of Jesus Christ to fight for the Truth safeguarded for centuries by Holy Mother Church.

The problem addressed here is the phenomenon of “the tail wagging the dog,” i.e., that many in the Church have fallen into the Modernist heresy of looking at the Church as “an instrument of social cohesion.” (PDG, #23). This heresy maintains that as an institution established by humans for the cohesion of human society, when this structure no longer meets the needs of the people who constructed it, it is the right and duty of the people to alter it and to institute new governance. In actuality, the purpose of the Church, established by Jesus Christ, Son of God, is to be the means of salvation for the human race. The Church is not some man-made institution made for “social cohesion” but a Divine institution whose purpose is to get us to heaven. The Church is “not of the world” but it is “in the world.” But because it is “is in the world” its purpose is not worldly but supernatural. The purpose of the Church is not to make a utopia on this earth through making everybody a member of the middle class; the purpose of the Church is to preach the Good News to the poor. But the poor will only be able to hear the Good News if their bodily needs are met. (James 2:14ff). When we become so concerned with “not offending people” and “maintaining the facilities” we fall into the heresy of the Church as an “instrument of social cohesion” and forget that the purpose of the Church is the salvation of souls. This tendency was present at the very beginning of the Church. We read in the Act of the Apostles (6:1-2 ) that “At that time, as the number of disciples continued to grow, the Hellenists complained against the Hebrews because their widows were being neglected in the daily distribution. So the Twelve called together the community of the disciples and said, "It is not right for us to neglect the word of God to serve at table.” And yet today, many priests have become the mid-level manager of a multi-national corporation running their own little fiefdom. Once one has a position, one wants to maintain that position. Many parish priests today have forgotten the exhortation of the Apostles in response to that dilemma. “Brothers, select from among you seven reputable men, filled with the Spirit and wisdom, whom we shall appoint to this task, whereas we shall devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word." (Acts 6:3-4). Many priests have forgotten that they have been ordained to pray and the ministry of the WORD and have relegated their ordination to the priesthood behind their ordination to the diaconate. Priests have forgotten St. Paul’s exhortation to St. Timothy (2Timothy 4:1-5), “I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom: preach the word, be urgent in season and out of season, convince, rebuke, and exhort, be unfailing in patience and in teaching. For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own likings, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander into myths. As for you, always be steady, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.”

Until priests are willing to sacrifice everything for the sake of the kingdom, then there will not be an increase in Mass attendance or vocations to the priesthood. As a career, the priesthood does not have much to recommend it. You can’t live where you want, or with whom you want, you can’t get married, you don’t get paid much, and people are always complaining. If, however, we could recapture the priesthood as the fight against the evil one, if we could recapture the theology of the Mass as the sacrifice of Calvary made present at the altar, if we could recapture the idea the we are all going to die and face judgment, then we could return to the Church as the vibrant force in the world. We have lost the understanding of what it means to be a man. Men need a challenge, men need to conquer, men need to sacrifice themselves for a greater cause. We have, of late, denuded the Church of sacrifice, conquering evil, and the ultimate end of life.

In the last forty years or so, we have, by the failure to preach and teach it, relegated the devil to the concept of myth and sin into something that really does not exist, and if it does then it is something other people do. The devil does exist and have forgotten the words of 1 Peter 8-9 “Your opponent the devil is prowling around like a roaring lion looking for (someone) to devour. Resist him, steadfast in faith, knowing that your fellow believers throughout the world undergo the same sufferings”. We no longer preach sin, because we don’t want to offend people; we no longer preach hell because the heresy of universalism says that nobody goes there; we no longer preach purgatory, because we preach at funerals that your loved ones are in heaven. Who died and made you pope with the power to canonize anyone you choose?

In the last sixty years or so we have replaced sacrifice with a “feel good, no fault, you’re OK I’m OK” mush that does not succeed in any other field of life and yet we expect it to work in the Church. St. Paul says, (1Corinthians 9:27) “Every athlete exercises discipline in every way. They do it to win a perishable crown, but we an imperishable one. Thus I do not run aimlessly; I do not fight as if I were shadowboxing. No, I drive my body and train it, for fear that, after having preached to others, I myself should be disqualified.” Today, we would say, “non pain, no gain.” It does not work in the military. What would happen if the boot camp instructor went easy on the recruits before they were sent off to war? If they were not prepared for the hardships of war, how long would they stay alive in the field of battle? In the same vein, we are in a battle with the devil, he will use every trick in the book to get us to loose our souls. It is the job of the priest to be our boot camp instructor and prepare us for the fight with the devil. The reason why we can’t attract men to the priesthood is because those who would enter seminary, see nothing manly in it. The sexual abuse crisis proves this point. The reason why most of the sexual abuse committed by priests was against post-pubescent boys, I would argue, is because those priest abusers never learned to be men in the first place and they were trying to fill that need from their own adolescence by abusing adolescents.

Catholic Tebowing

2012-01-15T06:30:00.001-05:00

This comes from Southern Fried Catholicism
CATHOLICS HAVE BEEN TEBOWING FOR CENTURIES.

Why does God allow suffering? part 1

2012-01-14T06:30:00.000-05:00

The inaugural session of the Catholic Book Club. We begin with Bl. Pope John Paul's encyclical, Salvifici Doloris, (Redemptive Suffering). Covering the first four paragraphs, we looked at Protestant heresies that preclude a theology of suffering including "limited atonement," "predestination," and "sola fides." We also examine the Genesis story of creation and the nature of man and the Trinity. Click here for audio presentation

To See Jesus, You Have to Leave the World Behind

2012-01-13T06:30:00.001-05:00

Let us also follow the Magi. Let us separate ourselves from our barbarian customs, and put them far behind us, so that we may see Christ -since they, too, would have missed seeing him if they had not been far from their own country. Let us depart from the things of earth. For the wise men saw only the star while they were in Persia, but after they had left Persia they saw the Sun of righteousness. And they would not have even seen the star if they had not been so ready to get up and go. Let us also rise up. Though everyone else is troubled, let us run to the house of the young Child. Though kings and nations and tyrants stand in the way, let our desire not fade. In that way we shall repel all the dangers that we face. The Magi, too, would not have escaped their danger from the king if they had not seen the young Child. Before they saw the Child, fears and dangers and troubles pressed on them from every side. But after the adoration, all was calm and safe, and no longer a star but an angel received them.

----St. John Chrysostom, Homily 7 on Matthew, 6

Splendor of the Church: The Church as Bride

2012-01-11T06:30:00.001-05:00

Re-presentation of a lecture by John Bergsma on the "The Church as Bride" looking at the theme of brides and marriage in the Old Testament and in the Gospel of John. Click here for audio presentation

The Star of Bethlehem

2012-01-09T06:30:00.001-05:00

The most interesting research I have seen on the Star of Bethlehem can be found over at
Bethlehemstar.net.
In part, he starts with an interesting historical fact, that the historical dating of Jesus' birth was miscalculated because of transcription error in copying the ancient manuscript of Josephus.

"But modern scholarship has deepened our understanding of Josephus' manuscripts. A recent study was made of the earliest manuscripts of Josephus' writings held by the British Library in London, and the American Library of Congress. It revealed a surprise that allows us to target our mathematical telescopes better than could Kepler (10). It turns out that a copying error was a primary cause of the confusion about the date of Herod's death. A printer typesetting the manuscript of Josephus'Antiquities messed up in the year 1544. Every single Josephus manuscript in these libraries dating from before 1544 supports the inference that Herod passed in 1 BC. Strong recent scholarship confirms that date (11). Knowing this, and since Herod died shortly after Christ's birth, our investigation turns to the skies of 3 and 2 BC."

Using a software program that tracks star movements, the author makes a very interesting argument for the appearance of the star of Bethlehem. He also sent the star program forward to find some interesting astrological events, events at the time of Jesus' death. He also shows how through an understanding of different calendar and calculations that the Book of Daniel prophecies the death of Jesus in 33 A.D.

The Bible records that during such a time of passion, Daniel had a vision. The angel Gabriel appeared to him and spoke. The Book of Daniel, Chapter 9:

"21 while I was still in prayer, Gabriel, the man I had seen in the earlier vision, came to me in swift flight about the time of the evening sacrifice. 22 He instructed me and said to me, "Daniel, I have now come to give you insight and understanding. 23 As soon as you began to pray, an answer was given, which I have come to tell you, for you are highly esteemed...
...
25 "Know and understand this: From the issuing of the decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until the Anointed One, the ruler, comes, there will be seven `sevens', and sixty-two `sevens'... 26 After the sixty-two `sevens', the Anointed One will be cut off..."

The word "Christ" means "anointed one." For this and other reasons, most commentators conclude that Daniel received a prediction of Messiah's coming. More than that, Daniel was told the date of Messiah's death, the date he would be "cut off." That's the date we seek for our astronomical investigation. So, can the numeric symbolism of Daniel's "sevens" be deciphered? Perhaps it is not terribly complicated.
Taking a direct approach, let us assume that the "sevens" are seven years. Gabriel told Daniel that after the decree to rebuild, there would be "seven sevens" (which is 49), plus "sixty-two sevens" (which is 434). After these 483 years, the Anointed One would be cut off. If the prophecy is true, this would be the year of the crucifixion.
Remember that in ancient times, our modern calendar system was not in use. In other prophetic passages a year of 360 days is used (23). To convert to our modern system which uses the longer solar year, we must divide by the time it takes for Earth to orbit the Sun, which is 365.24 days. This yields 476 years on our calendar (24).

The math is straightforward:
7 x 7 = 49
7 x 62 = 434
49 + 434 = 483
483 years x the 360-day lunar year = 173,880 days
173,880 days / the 365.24 day solar year = 476 years in our calendar system

The Problem with "Praise and Worship"

2012-01-07T06:30:00.000-05:00

I really like a lot of Contemporary Christian Music: Michael W. Smith; Clay Crosse; Philipps, Craig, and Dean, et al. [Well, okay maybe these guys aren't TOO contemporary but you know what I mean]. Yet, I remember seeing a young girl on television talking about how she got these wonderful feelings when she went to Eucharistic Adoration with Praise and Worship music. Then one day, she did not have the FEELING. She was astute enough t ask the question "Was I worshiping God or the feeling?" I recently read a post over at St. Joseph's Vanguard about the problems with Praise and Worship music. Any body that quotes "the Spirit of the Liturgy" by Cardinal Ratzinger can get my attention. Here are a few excerpts:

"I noticed something, and it was disturbing. Very disturbing. You or I may get something out of a “praise and worship” service but what about those who do not? What I mean is that in these experientially oriented services, there are the “silent sufferers” who are afraid they are either spiritually inept or out-right atheists. Why? Because they feel nothing. Too bad. We like our music."

" You did not get “more Jesus” if you got “more chill-bumps” nor were you left out if you just showed up. “The Body of Christ” is the source and summit of our life as Catholics–and must always be the centre of our worship. "

Question #1: Does

+

=

??????

Disconnect maybe?

Sex and Marriage: Unitive and Procreative, part 2

2012-01-05T06:30:00.001-05:00

"The test of Love is not emotion but self-sacrifice." Archbishop Fulton Sheen

There has developed an interesting discussion in the combox of one of my posts, Sex and Marriage: Unitive and Procreative. The questions revolve around the issue of chastity within marriage. Simply because you are married (and by that I mean in a sacramental union blessed by the Roman Catholic Church) that doesn’t mean that anything goes regarding sexual activity. I thought it was time to bring the discussion out of the combox and into the light because apparently there is some interest in the topic. In response to the post linked above....

Anonymous said...
But Father - what about foreplay? You liken oral sex to mutual masturbation but certainly mutual masturbation is okay during foreplay.

29 October, 2011 15:01

Fr. Larrysaid... Mutual masturbation is not OK. Simply because one is married (and I should add here the necessity of being married with the blessing of the Church), simply because one is married does not mean that anything goes. Married love must also follow the precepts of chastity. Pope Paul VI's prophetic but disregarded encyclical, "Humanae Vitae", states in paragraph 11, "The Church, nevertheless, in urging men to the observance of the precepts of the natural law, which it interprets by its constant doctrine, teaches that EACH AND EVERY MARITAL ACT must of necessity retain its intrinsic relationship to the PROCREATION of human life." Therefore, if oral stimulation or mutual masturbation leads to climax or the "spilling of seed" then that act is not open to the procreation of life and is immoral. The same can be said of withdrawl before ejaculation. The Biblical principle here can be found in Genesis 38:9 and used to be called the sin of onanism.

30 October, 2011 11:00

Anonymous said...
Perhaps we should distinguish between "oral sex to completion" and "oral stimulation leading to intercourse". Oral sex to completion would be disordered (at least for the husband to orgasm, but it is okay for the wife to orgasm this way), while oral stimulation that leads to intercourse is ordered towards procreation and unity. At least, this is what we learned in Christopher West's book. What are your thoughts on him?

02 January, 2012 22:08

Fr. Larry said...

While I am familiar with the work of Christopher West, I have not read his book. You pose an interesting question on which, unfortunately, it would not be prudent to do Internet research. While I am not intimately acquainted with the biology of female orgasm as differentiated from its male counterpart, something deep inside of me says that female climax that does not occur in "the procreative ACT" is somehow selfish. If we are lusting after pleasure and we accept female orgasm as acceptable because there is no "spilling of seed," I think this is a dangerous route for many reasons. I think we have to look at the close connection between action and intent. Something that may not be morally wrong (and I am not convinced that female climax by oral stimulation is not morally wrong) can be made so by a bad intention. CCC 1753 & 2484. Are we being legalistic, and arguing that since female climax does not violate the procreative norm of "spilling seed" that it is moral to seek it, if done by a sacramental husband? Are we lusting after pleasure or are we truly giving ourselves totally over to the procreation of life. Let's look at it this way, your mom made some wonderful cookies. You have one in your hand and one in your mouth. You say. "Mom, these are great cookies." Your mom says, "I only put a teaspoon of rat poison in them." Would you eat the other cookie? Why not? They taste really good, and I don't think a teaspoon of poison would kill me-- or would it? If we are trying to push the envelope in search of pleasure-- how far can we go without falling off the cliff-- they we really don't LOVE God, we are just trying to placate Him so we won't go to hell.
03 January, 2012 13:00

Fr. Larry said...
After speaking to a seminarian friend of mine regarding this issue, he suggested that I consult Germain Grisez’s work on moral theology. This excellent work on moral theology can be found online, by clicking here. This is what Dr. Grisez has to say:

c) Marital chastity subordinates sexual pleasure to communion. The pleasurable sensations of sexual activity culminating in orgasm are in themselves a private and incommunicable experience. Hence, to focus attention on this experience and strive to intensify it as much as possible tends to make the other person into a means, a “sex object.” So, the Church teaches that spouses should pursue sexual gratification only in subordination to marital love.168 Marital chastity, by making the marital good itself central, makes it possible for the experience of loving cooperation in one-flesh communion to predominate and enjoyable sensations to take their proper, subordinate place in marital intercourse. Thus subordinated, erotic pleasure no matter how intense, is morally good (see S.t., 2–2, q. 153, a. 2, ad 2).

****

h) Marital sexual acts short of intercourse can be chaste. Ejaculation by the male in the female’s vagina is necessary for sexual intercourse insofar as it is a reproductive function, and so such ejaculation is necessary for a complete act of marital intercourse. However, within marriage various sexual acts short of complete intercourse can be chaste. Of course, like intercourse itself, such acts are chaste only insofar as spouses seek in them, not pleasure alone, but the wider good of marital communion in which pleasure is a subordinate element. Therefore, what is said here about acts short of intercourse should be understood, not as advising the married how they can maximize sexual gratification without committing mortal sins, but as clarifying some of the requirements of marital chastity. . . . The wife’s complete sexual satisfaction (orgasm) is not necessary for sexual intercourse insofar as it is a reproductive function, but it does contribute to complete marital intercourse as a mutually satisfying experience of one-flesh communion. Hence, acts by the husband or the wife intended to intensify to orgasm her sexual arousal in continuity with any complete act of marital intercourse belong to that intercourse, and so they are marital, even if done during foreplay or after the husband’s ejaculation and withdrawal. However, any act intended to bring about her orgasm through arousal in no way continuous with that involved in marital intercourse would be a nonmarital act, and therefore wrong.
*****

e) Spouses should not engage in complete, nonmarital sexual acts. True marital acts must be (i) a loving cooperation (ii) open to new life.

i) If a couple have sexual intercourse while one or both deliberately wish it were with a different partner, or if a couple are forced to engage in intercourse, it is not loving cooperation. If one spouse forces the other to submit to intercourse, the act cannot express and foster love, but rather damages marital communion. That is so even if the spouse using force is provoked by a wrongful denial of marital intimacy, since the violent act cannot realize marital communion, which requires loving cooperation.182

ii) As explained previously (in 1.a), the marital intercourse of a sterile couple can be open to new life. Sexual intercourse is open to new life when the couple do not intend to impede conception and their performance is such that conception would result if the physiological conditions were conducive to it. However, if either or both spouses seek complete satisfaction (orgasm) by cooperating in any sort of act which is not open to new life, that act is not marital.183 That is so even if there is no intent to impede new life, for example, if a husband uses a condom to prevent the transmission of disease, a couple engages in mutual masturbation for variety’s sake, or a wife intentionally stimulates her husband to orgasm when the couple for some reason are incapable of intercourse.

Inasmuch as a sexual act involving complete satisfaction is not marital intercourse, it is wrong. It violates the sixth mode of responsibility (see CMP, 8.F) because, by diverting the couple’s sexual behavior and experience from the good of marriage in its integrity, it damages that good and substitutes a merely apparent good: some of the psychological satisfactions or sentient pleasures pertaining to marital sex isolated from its wholeness. If such an act is chosen with the intent to impede new life, it also is contraceptive, and so is wrong because it violates the seventh or eighth mode of responsibility (see 8.E.3).

New Catholic-Anglican Ordinariate for the U.S.

2012-01-03T06:30:00.000-05:00

In case you have not heard, Pope Benedict XVI has established a Catholic Anglican-use Ordinariate in the U.S. Check out their website here.
"On January 1, 2012, Pope Benedict XVI established the Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter for those groups of Anglicans in the United States who seek to enter into full communion with the Catholic Church. This is the second Ordinariate created in light of the apostolic constitution Anglicanorum coetibus, the first having been created for England and Wales on Jan. 15, 2011. The Pope’s gracious response represents an important and exciting new step along the difficult path toward Christian unity."

The Holy Sacrifice of the Mass

2012-01-01T06:30:00.000-05:00

In answer to a question about a homily I gave a while ago, I responded:

Glory be to Jesus Christ! I am glad someone is paying attention at Mass. The answer to you question is "Yes" on all three counts.

What exactly are we sacrificing?

Are we somehow trying to share in Christ's sacrifice on the cross through communion?

Yes, the Church has taught that Mass is the sacrifice of Calvary made present. There is some kind of "time warp" or eternity breaking into time that allows us to be present at Calvary every time we celebrate Mass. The Catechism of the Catholic Church, # 1366 states "The Eucharist is thus a sacrifice because it re-presents (makes present) the sacrifice of the cross, because it is its memorial and because it applies its fruit:

See also the Catechism #1367, 1368, 1369, 1382

See also Pope John Paul II's encyclical, Ecclessia de Eucharistia, #12,

The Mass makes present the sacrifice of the Cross; it does not add to that sacrifice nor does it multiply it.16 What is repeated is its memorial celebration, its “commemorative representation” (memorialis demonstratio), which makes Christ's one, definitive redemptive sacrifice always present in time. The sacrificial nature of the Eucharistic mystery cannot therefore be understood as something separate, independent of the Cross or only indirectly referring to the sacrifice of Calvary.

read more of the Pope's wonderful encyclical

Or is this referring to the collection?

Yes, and not only the collection but also the bread and the wine that is brought forward in the procession of the gifts. All three represent the fruit of our labor that we offer to God. And like the little boy in the story of the loaves and fishes, who gave the Lord 3 loaves and two fish. When the Lord blessed it, it fed thousands. In the same way we give our feeble little offerings of bread and wine, which are really God's any way because He created the wheat and the grapes. And just like Jesus did with the loaves and fishes, Jesus takes our offering and makes of them something miraculous. In the case of the bread and wine, Jesus, acting through the priest, by the power of the Holy Spirit turns bread and wine into His Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity. Isn't that amazing!!

Or something else?

But it is also something else. When we present the gifts of bread and wine, we are to place our whole lives, our whole being, all our problems, all our sins, all our pride, all our accomplishments onto that paten (the little plate which holds the host). In that way, when the priest offers the bread and wine, he is also offering our life, our pain, our sickness, to the Lord. When we sacrifice those things to the Lord, the Lord can heal them, and change them so that our whole life becomes and offering to the Father.

Isn't it amazing how much power and how much grace is in that simple little ritual of the presentation of the gifts? Our God is an Awesome GOD!!!!

The Real Presence Through the Centuries

2011-12-30T06:00:00.000-05:00

Check out my latest video creation:
The Real Presence Through the Centuries.
It is a documentary and historical look at the Roman Catholic Church belief in the Real Presence of Jesus in the Eucharist.
It runs about 29 minutes.

Archbishop Dolan on priestly ordination

2011-12-28T06:30:00.000-05:00

The Stanford Nutting Holiday Special

2011-12-27T06:30:00.000-05:00

I thought I would repost this as the video at the bottom is very funny.

The Stanford Nutting Holiday Special is a satire of various beliefs and characterizations.

Satire has an educational value. So while this post may offend some. The stereotypes of the characters can in some ways bring us closer to the Truth. In the wake of the Danish anti-Muslim cartoons a few years ago, ZENIT published an interesting commentary on the nature of satire which I excerpt here as a preface to the Stanford Nutting Holiday Special.
WHEN SATIRICAL CARTOONS PUSH THE LIMIT "Licit to Wound Others' Religious Sentiment?" Asks L'Osservatore

VATICAN CITY, FEB. 7, 2006 (Zenit.org).- The Vatican's semiofficial newspaper proposed an examination of conscience on the question of freedom of speech, in the wake of violence linked to the publication of cartoons about Mohammed.
L'Osservatore Romano stated that such an examination should include the media and all countries, explicitly a Spanish case, where a theatrical performance ridicules the Pope, threatens Catholics and incites to apostasy, and a television program that explained "how to cook a crucifix."
"Is it licit, in the name of freedom of thought, to wound the religious sentiments of those who belong to a given confession?" asks journalist Francesco Valiente, in the newspaper's Feb. 6-7 Italian edition.
"Where does the right of expression begin and where does offense to the inner convictions of others begin?" he continues. "What is the borderline between satire and derision, between wit and outrage, between irony and blasphemy?......The article defines the pedagogic and moral function of satire with the ancient Latin adage "castigat ridendo mores" (castigate customs laughing).
The text praises satire, for example, "when it has lashed out at evil customs and denounced the injustices of every age, unmasking the idolatry of the 'powerful,' depriving it of that sacred and artful halo which often concealed vices and corruption."
But this, the author adds, has nothing to do with "low, 'sacrilegious' whims. When its target is the values and symbols of religion, of the sacred in the absolute and indefectible sense, it inevitably loses its nature and function," Valiente adds.
"Being deprived of any critical and educational objective, it becomes mere rage. It is transformed into gratuitous vulgarity," he notes.

And in the case of the Mohammed cartoons or blasphemies against the crucifix in Spain, "the artistic and cultural or simply 'satirical' value is not clear," asserts the Vatican newspaper.

For another Stanford Nutting video, click here.

A New Female Doctor of the Church?

2011-12-26T06:30:00.000-05:00

The Last Supper and the Dead Sea Scrolls

2011-12-24T06:30:00.000-05:00

I recently listened to an interesting presentation by Dr. John Bergsma on the Dead Sea Scrolls. The last part of the presentation was very interesting in that he finally explained the interesting Scriptural anomaly that the Synoptic Gospels have Jesus celebrating the Last Supper on Thursday but the Gospel of John has Jesus being crucified at the hour of the slaughter of the paschal lambs. How can the Gospel of John be historically accurate if John has Jesus celebrating the Passover before the slaughter of the lambs? The Dead Sea Scrolls shed light upon this subject. The Essenes were a branch of Judaism that was waiting for the imminent return of the Messiah. Therefore, they practiced desert asceticism and were concerned with the proper celebration of the Passover. However, since in their understanding the Temple had been defiled, there was no way to celebrate the Passover according to the ritual given by Moses. Therefore, they had to celebrate the ritual as best they could. Therefore, the celebration was done only with bread and wine. Notice, if the Last Supper were truly a Mosaic Passover, why is there no mention of the lamb, its slaughtering, or its eating in the Gospel narrative? We can derive that Jesus celebrated the Passover according to the ritual of the Essenes, because the apostles were supposed to follow a man carrying a water jar (Luke 22:10). Carrying water was "women's work" but if they were eating with an Essene community who were celibate men, there would be no women to carry the water. Therefore, following a man carrying a jar of water would lead you to the Essene community. The Essene community followed a ritual calendar in which the holydays were always on the same day of the week. Since they celebrated "lamb-less" Passover on Tuesday, this would give the Sanhedrin and the Romans plenty of time for Jesus' trial rather having to cram it all into one evening. If Jesus celebrated an Essene Passover on Tuesday, Jesus could have been crucified at the same time as the lambs being slaughtered in the temple. In Matthew 27:45, we read that Jesus' crucifixion began at noon. Matthew's Jewish audience would have know that the lambs for the Passover were slaughtered beginning at noon. The lambs had to be slaughtered in the evening, yet there were so many lambs to be slaughtered that day, the teachers of the law reasoned the after noon the sun was going down, so that evening began after noon. Another interesting thing that Dr. Bergsma recounts is that in the writings of the Church Fathers there are a few instances were they refer to the Last Supper taking place on Tuesday, thus corroborating this Essene interpretation. The fascinating Bible Study can be found Catholic Lighthouse Media.

Divine Diapers

2011-12-22T06:30:00.000-05:00

As we enter into the celebration of Christmas, it is good to reflect upon the profound gift of the Incarnation, which may be thought of as a greater humiliation than the Cross.

"Look closely how profound this dispensation is: the Word tolerates being born in human fashion, although in His Divine Nature, He has no beginning and is not subject to time. He who is God is all perfect, submits to bodily growth: the Incorporeal has limbs that advance to the ripeness of manhood. He is filled with wisdom who is Himself all Wisdom."
St. Cyril of Alexandria, Commentary on Luke, Sermon 5

Even more humbling is that the All-powerful, All-knowing God, became a little baby who had to have His diaper changed.

Two American Women To Be Canonized

2011-12-20T06:30:00.001-05:00

Taken from Catholic Culture

The Vatican has cleared the way for the canonization of 7 new saints, including Blessed Kateri Tekakwitha and Blessed Marianne Cope.

On December 19, Pope Benedict XVI approved a series of decrees by the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, advancing a number of candidates toward canonization or beatification.

In 7 cases, involving candidates who have already been beatified, the decrees testified to the authenticity of a miracle attributed to the candidate’s intercession. This fulfills the requirements for canonization in these cases. They include two American women.

Blessed Kateri Tekakwitha (1656-1680), the “Lilly of the Mohawks,” was born in upstate New York and lived both there and in Canada. Baptized by Jesuit missionaries on Easter Sunday in 1676, she died in Quebec 4 years later. Her reputation for sanctity spread quickly, and in 1980 she was beatified by Pope John Paul II. She was the first Native American to be beatified, and will be the first canonized.

Blessed Marianne Cope (1838-1918) was born in Germany—her name was originally Barbara Koob--but her family moved to the US shortly after her birth. Entering the Franciscan order, she was a teacher and hospital administrator, and eventually a religious superior. In 1883 she and her community moved to Hawaii to care for victims of leprosy, and she continued the St. Damien among the lepers of Molokai. She was beatified in 2005.

FOR THE REST of those who will be canonized, beatified, or made servants of God, click the link at the top.

For the story of the miracle of a boy cured of flesh-eating bacteria that has been accepted for soon-to-be-St. Kateri, click here,

Muslims in USA want to be paid for PRAYING on the job

2011-12-18T06:30:00.000-05:00

Can you say SHARIA?

Hertz made the decision to let the Somali Muslim drivers go after they refused to clock out when they took time for their regular Islamic prayers. The workers, who were drivers at the Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, claimed that the company was not being accommodating to the fact that observant Muslims pray five times per day.

For more on this story, click here.

I think CATHOLICS should be paid for NOT Working on SUNDAY as long as they go to MASS.

"Full of Grace" or "Highly Favored": The Immaculate Conception

2011-12-16T22:19:00.001-05:00

I received an inquiry regarding my homily on the Immaculate Conception. Here is my reply.

The angelic salutation in Luke 1:28 in the original Greek uses the word [transliterated from Greek letters as] “charitoo.” The same phrase in the Vulgate uses the Latin words, “gratia plena.” The Douay-Rheims Catholic Bible translates this word as “full of grace.” The Protestant King James Version translates the word as “highly favoured.” Yet, the word from which “charitoo” is taken-- “charis”-- is translated by the King James version in St. Paul’s Letters as “grace.” Why translate similar words with different English words unless you want to deny that Mary was “full of grace” and, therefore, negate the Scriptural basis for the Immaculate Conception. For some reason the North American Bible (NAB) which we use in the liturgy uses the phrase “highly favored.” Yet, the Bishops when approving the lectionary for the Mass changed the NAB form “highly favored” to “full of grace” to conform closer to the historic text and to prevent the spreading of heresy.

Planned Parenthood's 1969 plan surprisingly successful

2011-12-16T06:30:00.000-05:00

Check out this 1969 memo from Planned Parenthood on how to decrease U.S. population. It is surprising how successful they have been. It includes:
Encourage women to work
Encourage homosexuality
Abortion and contraception on demand
etc., etc.
Click here to see memo. Read more here.

Cursing but not Prayer: A movie review

2011-12-14T06:30:00.000-05:00

I watched a movie with my sister that was supposed to be a family comedy movie. The movie was called "Ed" and was about a baseball playing monkey. The movie was NOT really very funny, but it was not awful, despite some of the pre-pubescent humor. There was, however, one scene that got me rather upset. A few times during the movie, the characters used the the name of the Lord in vain. Nothing out of the ordinary, yet still offensive. Yet, when the little girl was saying a prayer that the monkey would be healed, she NEVER mentioned the Lord's name. Why is it okay to use the Lord's name for a curse but you can't use it in a prayer? May God have mercy on our country!

Splendor of the Church 4: The Church as Kingdom

2011-12-12T06:30:00.000-05:00

What did Jesus mean when He said the Kingdom of God is at hand? The answer is in the Book of Daniel. Click here for audio presentation

Taquiyya, Islamic Deceit, and hatred for the West

2011-12-11T06:30:00.002-05:00

One of the major principles of Islam in dealing with non-Muslims is Taqiyya. The command of the qu'ran to deceive non-muslims on order to bring about the dominance of Islam. I urge to to watch this video, Undercover Mosques, from a British television station. One of their reporters videos, undercover, the speeches which imans give to the congregation calling for the need to overthrow democracy; kill Jews, Christians, and homosexuals; beat women and children; marry girls before puberty, etc. Yet, when asked to comment on these accusations, the Muslims claim that they have no knowledge of these things or that they were quoted out of context. If you think that Islam is a religion of peace, you are wrong. The peace that Islam wants is for the entire world to be Muslim. Watch UNDERCOVER MOSQUES, here. The video is about 40 minutes long. It may take a few minutes to load and after loading you may have to click on the timeline bar to start.
Here is another shorter introduction to Taqiyya.

Martin Luther believed in Mary's Immaculate Conception

2011-12-10T06:30:00.000-05:00

Possible Miracle for Archbishop Fulton Sheen

2011-12-09T17:00:00.000-05:00

December 9th, 2011 marks the 32nd anniversary of the death of Archbishop Fulton Sheen. May he soon be beatified.

PRAYER for his CANONIZATION

Heavenly Father, source of all holiness, You raise up within the Church in every age men and women who serve with heroic love and dedication. You have blessed Your Church through the life and ministry of Your faithful servant, Archbishop Fulton J Sheen. He has written and spoken well of Your Divine Son, Jesus Christ, and was a true instrument of the Holy Spirit in touching the hearts of countless people.

If it be according to Your Will, for the honor and glory of the Most Holy Trinity and for the salvation of souls, we ask You to move the Church to proclaim him a saint. We ask this prayer through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.

A Possible Miracle

Born lifeless and without a pulse for 61 minutes, following prayers to the Servant of God, little James Fulton had a pulse. The case is being investigated as part of Archbishop Sheen's beatification cause.

Read more: http://www.ncregister.com/daily-news/illinois-family-says-archbishop-fulton-sheens-intercession-saved-their-baby/#ixzz1YveMpfw9

Byzantine Religious Profession

2011-12-09T06:30:00.000-05:00

This is the first of four videos recording the religious profession of a woman becoming Catholic Byzantine Nun. The second video has the bishop ask the sister for the scissors and then he puts them back on the tray and asks her for them again. He puts them back and asks her a third time for the scissors, to make sure that this is what she wants to do. The bishop then proceeds to cut the sisters hair and give her the habit. Throughout the videos, he asks her if she really knows and is sure what she is doing. Then the people keep praying "Lord, have mercy" for her. To watch all four videos, go to St. Nicholas Byzantine Catholic Church.

“Um, you’re KEEPING the baby? We don’t do that here.”

2011-12-07T11:46:00.000-05:00

We were just joking around when Fr. Austin Murphy of Jesus Goes to Disneyland said 'what if somebody went into Planned Parenthood and asked for help planning their parenthood.' From that conversation came the little video below. But now I read these stories of women to whom that actually happened.

Charity went to the Escondido, CA Planned Parenthood last year for help. She says:
I just wanted a free pregnancy test to apply for state insurance, and they told me its only free if I didn’t know I was willing to keep “it” or not. So I said of course I want to keep my baby. The woman said, “don’t say baby in here. It’s $35 for you to take a pregnancy test without counsel on ‘rescheduling your pregnancy.’” I said a few things about LIFE. My son said “you can’t kill my baby sister!” That’s when we decided on our daughter’s name - Zoe, Life God’s way. I’m now holding my sweet 6 month old; she is a marvelous tiny person!

Another woman, 30 years ago has this to say:

They said, “Um, you’re KEEPING the baby? We don’t do that here.” I was shocked. I asked for a referral, because we had not lived there long. They didn’t refer to OBs either! WOW! I was so young, and they were so beside themselves that I would be keeping the baby! (and probably upset that I had wasted their pregnancy test).I learned they aren’t really PLANNING for PARENTHOOD.

For more stories on the same theme from other women, click here.

From Conception to Birth: Amazing Images

2011-12-05T06:30:00.000-05:00

A mathematician after working on the complexity of human development concludes it must be divinely orchestrated.

Curses on Cursive

2011-12-03T06:30:00.002-05:00

This post does not
really have to do with Catholicism, but it really steamed me since I was a teacher trained as an historian. The article appeared in the the Baltimore SUN paper on Sunday, November 27th, 2011-- "Should cursive be a write off in schools?" the article stated:

"Darius may be in the last generation of students to be taught cursive as states begin dropping the subject in favor of spending time on mastering math, science and other skills."

Cursive is not included in the so-called common core standards, which will govern teaching and lesson plans in 46 states including Maryland beginning next year, leaving states free to shift away from a subject taught for centuries. "

Darius said "I would rather do it in print because it is faster." But anything that is new is going to take some time to learn. We should not abandon something simply because "it's too hard!"

The other argument is that with rapidly changing technology children will no longer need to sign their name because we will soon have retinal and fingerprint scanners. Children are already texting and creating new languages bcse its $$ 4 me to send u a text. The Maryland State Archivist gave his opinion: "Cursive writing is a matter of discipline and training in our culture. Is it necessary to the future of sustaining our culture and our understanding of our past? I believe it is," said Maryland State Archivist Edward C. Papenfuse. He believes children should learn it "not only as a means of sustaining communication with the past, but also an exercise in maintaining small motor control."

Having been trained as an historian, it is very important to be able to read the historical documents that were written decades, if not centuries ago. Not having studied paleography (the art of ancient manuscript) I could not read document from the Middle Ages. Even up to the early Twentieth Century, German had their own special handwriting and printing alphabet called Fraktur. Even though I studied 19th century European history, I could not read the handwritten Fraktur. I could read print Franktur with a little difficulty, but not the written the Script. How soon will it be before reading manuscripts will become a thing only for the highly educated?

I remember watching a show on the television about a futuristic society that no longer needed to read because at about age 5 every child was given a little microchip in their brain that gave them immediate access to the Internet and all the information they needed. There was one young boy who because of a car accident could not have the chip implanted. The child grew up to be very intelligent but he had to learn everything by reading the old-fashioned way. Therefore, people thought he was "dumb." Then there was a virus that infected the Internet and began killing off all the scientists. As the scientist began to work on this problem and communicated with each other they spread the virus. The only way the stop the virus was to shut down the computer, but Big Brother was watching and so the only who could find the original printed code was the "handicapped" young man. He was finally able to shut down the computer but society ground to a halt and he became the person who then had to teach the society how to read all over again.

Reactions to the New Translation of the Roman Missal.

2011-12-01T06:30:00.002-05:00

I lifted this from Creative Minority Report. It is just too funny!

"A bunch of old fogey whiners in love with the liturgy of the past want to return all of us kicking and screaming back to the Dark Ages or something. They're angry that the liturgy has changed.

Hey man, Catholicism has progressed.

Critics of the new language are saying that this liturgy is faulted.

Soon they'll say things like it's illicit and they'll form their own society that says the Mass must be the way it was when they were kids. And I'm all like just because something was once that way doesn't mean it has to exist that way forever. It's like these people want to stop the Church from progressing or something.

They're saying the liturgy has been "hijacked" by "deception."

These people! Why are they trying to drag the Church backwards?! We are a 21st century Church. That old liturgy is soooo 20th century. The Mass is a living breathing thing man. You wanna' take us back the Mass of the height of the sex abuse scandal. Is that what you want?

Oh the lamentations of, "I remember when I was a kid the liturgy...blah blah blah..." and the whining about why did everything have to change because everything was so (insert blahs here.)

All these Nuevo Trad Catholics want to force us all into the way way back machine. I mean, why not just have the Mass the same as it was in the 70's or something."

Pascendi Dominici Gregis #25: The Evolution of Doctrine

2011-11-29T15:46:00.000-05:00

The Evolution of Doctrine

26. To finish with this whole question of faith and its shoots, it remains to be seen, Venerable Brethren, what the Modernists have to say about their development. [Since in Modernist philosophy all things change, then Modernism itself must evolve and change.] First of all they lay down the general principle that in a living religion everything is subject to change, and must change, and in this way they pass to what may be said to be, among the chief of their doctrines, that of Evolution. [Cardinal Ratzinger, in the homily before the conclave that elected him Pope stated, “To have a clear faith, according to the creed of the Church, is often labeled as fundamentalism. While relativism, that is, allowing oneself to be carried about with every wind of "doctrine," seems to be the only attitude that is fashionable. A dictatorship of relativism is being constituted that recognizes nothing as absolute and which only leaves the "I" and its whims as the ultimate measure.”] To the laws of evolution everything is subject - dogma, Church, worship, the Books we revere as sacred, even faith itself, and the penalty of disobedience is death. [Because “I” know better than two thousand years of Tradition and the Holy Spirit who preserves that Tradition. Truth is Truth. The Law of Gravity does not evolve and neither does Divine Truth. Doctrine may develop along organic lines, according to St.Vincent Lerrin, but it can never morph into something that it never was. For instance, The Apostles never had to deal with cloning. So using the understanding of the respect for human life and the understanding that life begins at conception the Church can teach that cloning is wrong, but it can never say that we should disrespect human life or that God did not create each and every human being.] The enunciation of this principle will not astonish anybody who bears in mind what the Modernists have had to say about each of these subjects. Having laid down this law of evolution, the Modernists themselves teach us how it works out. [Because Modernists claim to be smarter than anyone else.] And first with regard to faith. The primitive form of faith, they tell us, was rudimentary and common to all men alike, for it had its origin in human nature and human life. [Therefore, since all religion began from a rudimentary human understanding, then all religion is equal, according to Modernists. Notice also how the Modernist claims that religion had its origin in human nature rather than revealed by God. Therefore, according to the Modernist, since humans grow in their knowledge, then religion must change with increases in human knowledge. However, since religion actually has its origin in the eternal and unchangeable God, then the revelation of God to humanity cannot change because it source is unchanging.] Vital evolution brought with it progress, not by the accretion of new and purely adventitious forms from without, [Divine Revelation] but by an increasing penetration of the religious sentiment in the conscience. [Humanity grew in knowledge of himself and the world, and as humanity encountered unexplained phenomenon they called it “god.”] This progress was of two kinds: negative, by the elimination of all foreign elements, such, for example, as the sentiment of family or nationality; [Nobody is going to tell me what to do because “I” know best. There are ‘no strings on me” to quote the old Pinocchio song] and positive by the intellectual and moral refining of man [

“I” am becoming so much smarter than those who preceded me. “I” have a greter understanding of the world. Mark Twain once wrote that when he was 14 he could not believe how stupid his father was and by the time he had reached 21, he could not believe how much his father had learned in 7 years.] , by means of which the idea was enlarged and enlightened while the religious sentiment became more elevated and more intense. [As “I” became more intelligent, I no longer needed “god” to explain lightening, now “I” could see how ‘god’ was a movement of my conscience and intellect.] For the progress of faith no other causes are to be assigned than those which are adduced to explain its origin. But to them must be added those religious geniuses whom we call prophets, and of whom Christ was the greatest; [According to Modernist, Christ was not God become man because God does not reveal Himself to the world in that way. Modernist doctrine says that Christ was merely a prophet who had a highly developed understanding and was, therefore, a great prophet because He taught us more about God. I am reminded ata this point of C.S. Lewis’ great argument on the absurdity of this Modernist position. In Mere Christianity, Lewis wrote, “A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic - on the level with a man who says he is a poached egg - or he would be the devil of hell. You must take your choice. Either this was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse. You can shut Him up for a fool or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us."] both because in their lives and their words there was something mysterious which faith attributed to the divinity, [again, for Modernists divinity is something which cannot be understood, not something that is True. If we could understand it, it would not be God, according to the Modernists] and because it fell to their lot to have new and original experiences fully in harmony with the needs of their time. [Prophets speak not word that are divine messages of Truth but relativistic platitudes for a particular era that may not hold the some relativity to another era.] The progress of dogma is due chiefly to the obstacles which faith has to surmount, [Where does lightening come from?] to the enemies it has to vanquish, [heretics] to the contradictions it has to repel. [For the Modernists, there can be no such thing as a contradiction. Given the fact that they believe in relativism and the lack of any objective truth, it is unclear why they think that contradictions can even exist. For there to be a contradiction, there must be one statement that is right and one statement that is wrong, but Modernists do not believe in absolute truth.] Add to this a perpetual striving to penetrate ever more profoundly its own mysteries. Thus, to omit other examples, has it happened in the case of Christ: in Him that divine something which faith admitted in Him expanded in such a way that He was at last held to be God. [Notice the Modernist does not admit that Jesus was the Son of God who was revealed by the Father in the Incarnation; but rather Jesus had reached such a level of intellectual understanding that people began to call Him “God.” There is no reality to the Divine Nature of Jesus, according to the Modernists; nor was their any self-understanding in Jesus that considered Himself to be “God”; rather it was people, who in trying to understand Jesus’ ministry, decided to call Him “God.” This Modernist creed is idolatry. Only God is worthy of worship. When we start calling someone other God divine, we have fallen into the sin of idolatry. But of course the Modernist did that long ago when they claimed that God was creation of human conscience.] The chief stimulus of evolution in the domain of worship consists in the need of adapting itself to the uses and customs of peoples, [Again, notice that worship is not revealed by God or directed to God, worship, for the Modernist, is meant to make “ME” feel good. Therefore, if I don’t enjoy the worship of God, then it is the worship that has to change not me.] as well as the need of availing itself of the value which certain acts have acquired by long usage. [Worship according to the Modernist then is nothing but a long habit, that if no longer “relevant” needs to be changed.] Finally, evolution in the Church itself is fed by the need of accommodating itself to historical conditions and of harmonising itself with existing forms of society. [I met a Trappist monk who said that the problem with today’s society is that the Scriptures tell us that the Church should be the leaven in society but toady society has become the leaven in the Church.] Such is religious evolution in detail. And here, before proceeding further, we would have you note well this whole theory of necessities and needs, for it is at the root of the entire system of the Modernists, and it is upon it that they will erect that famous method of theirs called the historical. [Modernists base their philosophy on “necessities and needs” of the human condition rather than on the divine revelation of God. Therefore, if humans “need” something than the religion or dogma must change because everything must be subjected to the all-powerful “I want.” What the Modernist fails to realize is that “I” is in the middle of “sin.” Religion is not about what I want but what God has revealed.]

The First Commandment and Black Friday

2011-11-27T06:30:00.001-05:00

The First Commandment is "Thou Shall Not Have Strange Gods Before Me" ---but an XBox? The Creative Minority Report comments on this story from the LA Times. Leave it to the Californians!

Twenty people, including children, were injured when a woman at a San Fernando Valley Walmart store used mace against other customers in what authorities referred to as a "competitive shopping" incident.
The Los Angeles Times reports that a scuffle broke out shortly before 10 p.m. Thursday night, just before shopping was to begin, among customers waiting to buy Xbox gaming consoles and Wii video games.
Alejandra Seminario, told the Times she was waiting in line to buy toys about 9:55 p.m. when there was a commotion in the next aisle when shoppers began tearing off plastic encasing gaming consoles.
"People started screaming, pulling and pushing each other, and then the whole area filled up with pepper spray," she said.

For more craziness, watch these videos.

Happy Birthday! English Roman Missal, 3rd ed.

2011-11-26T16:30:00.000-05:00

The day has finally arrived! After a gestation period of about 10 years, the English translation of the 3rd Edition of the Roman Missal will be born in the United States. If you want to learn to chant the parts of the Mass there is an excellent website that has little audio clips or the music in the Roman Missal. With the new translation, we will not only stop telling God what to do, but we will start to humbly pray and beseech God. We will also have an accurate translation of "vita aeternae," as "eternal life" rather than "everlasting life." We do not need to ask God for everlasting life, we already have that because of our immortal soul. We are called to eternal life within the life of the Trinity; a life outside of time; a life that shares in the Divine Nature, as the 2nd Letter of Peter tells us. Happy Birthday, Roman Missal.

ABC News & 20 Errors about Islam

2011-11-25T06:30:00.000-05:00

Acting Like Children: St. Francis De Sales

2011-11-23T06:30:00.000-05:00

Francis de Sales:

Soon we shall be in eternity and then we shall see how insignificant
our worldly preoccupations were and how little it mattered whether
some things got done or not; however, right now we rush about as if
they were all-important. When we were little children how eagerly we
used to gather pieces of broken tile, little sticks, and mud with
which to build houses and other tiny buildings, and if someone knocked
them over, how heartbroken we were and how we cried! But now we
understand that these things really didn't amount to much. One day it
will be like this for us in heaven when we shall see that some of the
things we clung to on earth were only childish attachments.

I'm not suggesting that we shouldn't care about these little games and
trifling details of life, for God wants us to practice on them in this
world; but I would like to see us not so strained and frantic in our
concern about them. Let's play our childish games since we are
children; but at the same time, let's not take them too seriously. And
if someone wrecks our little houses or projects, let's not get too
upset, because when night falls and we have to go indoors -- I'm
speaking of our death -- all those little houses will be useless; we
shall have to go into our Father's house. Do faithfully all the things
you have to do, but be aware that what matters most is your salvation
and the fulfillment of that salvation through true devotion.

Moral evils are the only true evils

2011-11-21T06:30:00.000-05:00

"For evil men think that the only evil things are the ones that don't make them evil. Nor are they embarrassed to praise good things and yet remain evil among the good things they praise. It grieves them more to have a bad house than a bad life---as if it were man's greatest good to have everything good but himself."
---St. Augustine, City of God, 1.14

The Spirit of Vatican II and the Mass

2011-11-19T06:30:00.001-05:00

New Anglican Ordinariate for the U.S.

2011-11-17T06:30:00.001-05:00

From Catholic Culture:

Cardinal Donald Wuerl has announced that Pope Benedict XVI will establish an ordinariate for American Anglicans who wish to enter into full communion with the Catholic Church. Two Anglican communities--one in Texas, the other in Maryland--have entered into full communion in recent months and are expected to become part of the ordinariate....

The US ordinariate will be established on January 1, and “at that time, I assume that an Ordinary will be named,” Cardinal Wuerl said at the fall meeting of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. “If the Ordinary of the new Ordinariate is married, then he can be ordained a priest, but not a bishop.”

RCIA: The Trinity

2011-11-16T06:30:00.000-05:00

A presentationon the ontological and economic Trinity and the Incarnation. The batteries on my recorder died after about 64 minutes into the session and the recording abruptly ends, but you can listen to the first 64 minutes of the presentation. Click here for audio.

Contraceptive causes Memory Loss

2011-11-15T06:30:00.000-05:00

The latest in the continuing list of side effects of contraception has been prove by a study at Arizona State University. The study shows a link between the contraceptive Depo Provera and memory loss in animals. Perhaps the best line form the article reads: "
“It’s rare to have a contraceptive that only has one hormone in it,” she said. “It made it that much more shocking. Depo Provera is a big fad. It’s easy to take.”
But for a birth-control shot that offers a convenient alternative for women who don’t want to remember to take a daily pill, the irony is that it may impair memory.""
Click here to read the whole article.

Check the sidebar for more side effects of contraception.

Splendor of the Church 3: The First Letter to the Corinthians

2011-11-14T06:30:00.000-05:00

The Splendor of the Church, part 3: A presentation on Dr. Scott Hahn's lecture on the Church and the First Letter to the Corinthians focussing on the Church as the Mystical Body of Christ. Click here for audio presentation.

A Majority of Teenagers (15-19) Are Virgins?

2011-11-13T21:38:00.000-05:00

This comes from The Sacred Page:
The results of a major recent study carried out by the Center for Disease Control (CDC), which shatter such portrayals, are being quietly passed over.

What does it show? David Lapp sums up the most interesting data from the massive report:

From 1988 to 2006-2010, the percentage of never-married males aged 15-19 who have ever had sexual intercourse dropped from 60 percent to 42 percent.

For never-married females aged 15-19, it dropped from 51 percent to 43 percent.

From 2006-2010, of teenagers whose mother has some college or higher, 37 percent of males and 40 percent of females have ever had sexual intercourse.

Of teenagers who live with both biological or adoptive parents, 35 percent of males and 35 percent of females have ever had sexual intercourse.

The latest CDC data remind me of a 2010 study from the National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy. It found that 87 percent of teenagers agree that “it is important for teens to be given a strong message that they should not have sex until they are at least out of high school.” Yes, you read that right: that’s teens who are saying that their cultural elders need to give them a strong message about waiting to have sex.

Inadvertent sin

2011-11-11T06:30:00.000-05:00

We had Wed. morning Bible study and something came up that we wished we could skype you about. I couldn't come up with it in the Catechism but I had just read about inadvertent sin in The Fulfillment of All Desire by Ralph Martin and he was quoting St. Bernard. We had a hard time understanding inadvertent sin since we thought TO sin you had to choose to sin. Can you shed any light on that? Thanks.

The ancient Hebrew meaning of the word, “sin” means to “miss the mark,” i.e. to not be or do what we should do. Granted, in order to commit mortal sin you need grave matter, full knowledge, and full consent of the will. You cannot inadvertently commit mortal sin. However, if you are missing one of those three features than you do not have mortal sin, but rather, you have venial sin. Missing Mass on Sunday is grave matter whether or not you have full knowledge and full consent of the will. Therefore, if you miss Mass without full knowledge the sin is not mortal but it is still venial. Therefore, you committed the sin inadvertently, you did not mean to sin but it was still grave matter and therefore still sinful, just venially rather than mortally. Just because you are not guilty of the offense does not mean that the offense is not offensive. The gravity of the act remains sinful, but you committed it without full knowledge or full consent of the will or both. Your friend, who, unknown to you, is gravely allergic to nuts, receives from your hand a cookie with nuts in it and has a seizure and dies. You were the instrumental cause of his death but you are not guilty of murder because it was an accident. Yet, your friend is still dead. Is his death not evil? Should you have given him the cookie? While his death is a tragedy, it is not murder. It was an inadvertent evil (sin).

Pro-abortion woman attacks pro-life demonstrator

2011-11-09T06:30:00.000-05:00

WARNING: CRUDE LANGUAGE

St. John's RCIA: The Bible

2011-11-08T06:30:00.000-05:00

An RCIA presentation on Revelation, Scripture, and Tradition, the nature, origin and structure of the Bible. Click here for presentation.

The Reality of Hell

2011-11-07T06:30:00.001-05:00

Do you have to be Adolph Hitler to go Hell? That's what you might think after attending many 'Catholic' funerals these days.

Why we need the New Translation of the Roman Missal

2011-11-06T06:30:00.000-05:00

Why do we need the New Translation of the Roman Missal?: So that we can prayer in accordance with the teachings of the Holy Catholic Church. Here is the prayer over the gifts for the Solemnity of All Saints’ Day. See if you can spot the theological error:

“Lord, receive our gifts in honor of the holy men and women who live with you in glory. May we always be aware of their concern to help and save us. We ask this in the name of Jesus the Lord."

Did you spot the theological error? ---The saints can’t SAVE us!!! Only Jesus is the Savior of the world. My sister, who is an accountant, with no advanced degrees in theology, was able to catch the error, why could theologians and liturgists with advice degrees not see the error of their translation, 26 years ago when the current translation was published? Here is what the new translation of the Latin says:

“May these offerings we bring in honor of all the Saint be pleasing to [Y]ou, O Lord, and grant that, just as we believe the Saints to be already assured of immortality, so we may experience their concern for our salvation. Through Christ our Lord.”

The other thing to notice about the new translation is that we are no longer telling God what to do. “Lord, receive this…” “Lord give us that…” “Lord, do this other thing…” In the new translation, we “beseech” the Lord, we “humbly ask,” we “pray” that that the Lord would do these things. God may be Our Father but He is not a sugar daddy or a vending machine.

Islam, the religion of peace ---NOT!

2011-11-05T06:30:00.002-04:00

Another shining example of how Islam is not the religion of peace (at least a far as the Judeo-Christians understand it). A Paris magazine has been ransacked for mocking Islam.
The article reads,
"The front-page of the latest issue, subtitled "Sharia Hebdo," a reference to Islamic law, showed a cartoon-like man with a turban, white robe and beard smiling and saying in an accompanying bubble, "100 lashes if you don't die laughing." The magazine also "invited" the Prophet Muhammad to be its guest editor for the week. The offices of the magazine were firebombed with Molotov cocktails early on Nov. 2. Computer hackers also posted pictures of a mosque on Charlie Hebdo's website with the words: “There is no god besides Allah.”
To read more, click here.

Martyred In Iraq: Anniversary of a Massacre

2011-11-03T06:30:00.001-04:00

Truth is the new Hate Speech

2011-11-01T06:30:00.002-04:00

Found this video over at Divine Ripples.
"Pamela Geller speaks to the Sugar Land Tea Party in Sugar Land, Texas. This event was originally to be held at the HyattPlace in Sugar Land but was canceled with less than 30 hours notice after the hotel received one email threatening to protest her appearance. The event was relocated to the Sugar Land Community Center."
She speaks on the Islamization of Western Civilization; the collusion of the media; and what can be done about it. Riveting.

The Cursillo Movement Explained

2011-10-30T21:27:00.000-04:00

DECOLORES is Spanish for 'of colors'
and is the theme song of the Cursillo
because God's love comes in many different colors.

Dear Father Larry, I am a new Catholic and I was wondering what the Cursillo Movement is? I'm confused onto what the Ultreya, School of Leaders and the Palanca is? I was trying to navigate the website but am still confused because it uses these terms but I have no background knowledge to comprehend. Also, how does the Cursillo movement compare to Opus Dei? Thank you so much! Sincerely yours in Christ!

Dear New Catholic:

Glory be to Jesus Christ! The Cursillo Movement, or to use its full name—Cursillo de Christiandad—is a Church renewal movement that as its Spanish name implies is a “Short Course in Christianity.” It was founded in Spain in the 1940’s and eventually became world-wide, coming into this country in Texas in the early 1960’s.

The Cursillo, or “short course”, consists of a live-in weekend experience beginning Thursday night and ending Sunday evening. There is a women’s weekend and a men’s weekend which we usually hold once a year or whenever we get enough of applications. The Weekend consists of a serious of presentations by lay and religious member of the movement various topics regarding the Christian life, in addition to small group discussions, Mass and prayers, and meals.

The purpose of the weekend is to give you a lived experience of Christianity in action and to provide a review of what is fundamental to being a Christian, and then giving you an on-going method that you share with your friends and those with whom you live and work.

But the 3-day weekend is only the beginning. After the weekend, you begin your “4^th Day” which is the rest of your life. The charism and the tools that you experience/learn on the weekend are structured so that the powerful gifts of the Holy Spirit which you receive on the weekend are not lost.

The first of these tools is the group reunion. This is a group of usually 3-5 friends who meet about once a week. The structure of the meeting is based on the Cursillo tripod of piety, study and action. Piety is my prayer relationship with God; study is what I have learned about the God, the Church, or the environments in which I live; action is have I spread the kingdom of God in my environments.

The second of these tools is the Ultreya, a Spanish word meaning “forward.” It was used by the first Cursillistas (people who have mad a Cursillo) to encourage their companions to continue the journey. The Ultreya is a meeting of the different friendship groups that gather together to share their piety, study, and action with Cursillistas with whom they do not normally group. There is also usually a “witness speaker” who shares how they have been living some aspect of the Cursillo tripod of piety, study, and action.

The third tool for living the Cursillo method is the Leader’s School, for those who want a deeper understanding of the theology and methodology of the Cursillo weekend and the movement in general. It meets regularly to discuss some aspect of the Cursillo movement.

“Palanca” is the Spanish word for lever. Scripture tells us that we can do nothing without the grace of God and that we are to pray always. Palanca is various forms of prayer (rosaries, Masses, holy hours, acts of self-denial, etc.) offered by the Cursillista for the success of the movement and the further conversion of those whom are making the weekend.

On a personal note, I made my Cursillo Weekend in April of 1989, and while I had been a life-long long Catholic, it was the Cursillo Movement that taught me how much God really loves me. I also attribute my priestly vocation to the Cursillo Movement because I grew up being very afraid of God but eventually learned that God loved me more than I could understand, so I decided to give my life back to Him in return.

Since I am not a member of Opus Dei, I cannot really speak to the differences. Opus Dei is a much more structured and officially a “personal prelature” in the Church; that means that they have their own set of rules, are much more like a religious order than the Cursillo. The Cursillista does not make any religious vows. Opus Dei is responsible directly to the Pope; the Cursillo exists in whichever diocese it happens to find itself, though there are national organizations that oversee the Movement in various countries. Opus Dei is much more structured and members have various obligations, the Cursillo Movement is just a bunch of lay people trying live what is fundamental to being a Christian. I hope this was helpful. Here are a two links which may be helpful:

The Cursillo Movement of Baltimore

The National Cursillo Movement

The Focus of Prayer: "Ad Orientem"

2011-10-30T06:30:00.000-04:00

We need more bishops like this! Bishop Sample of Marquette, Michigan has obviously read The Spirit of the Liturgy by then Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger.

For more on ad orientem and the direction of prayer, click here.
To read about the Bishop of Tulsa praying the Ordinary Form of the Roman Rite, ad orientem, click here.

The Sacrament of Confirmation

2011-10-28T06:30:00.000-04:00

Mom sacrifices life for unborn baby

2011-10-26T06:30:00.000-04:00

Eternal Rest grant unto her, O Lord and let perpetual light shine upon her. May her soul and the souls of all the faithful departed through the mercy of God rest in peace. Amen.
St. Gianna Molla, pray for her and her baby
St. Maximilian Kolbe, pray for her and her baby
Bl. Pope John Paul the Great, pray for her and her baby.
"Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends." John 15:13

Margaret Sanger: Extermination of Negroes

2011-10-24T06:30:00.000-04:00

"We should hire three or four colored ministers, preferably with social-service backgrounds, and with engaging personalities. The most successful educational approach to the Negro is through a religious appeal. We don't want the word to go out that we want to exterminate the Negro population, and the minister is the man who can straighten out that idea if it ever occurs to any of their more rebellious members."

----Margaret Sanger's December 19, 1939 letter to Dr. Clarence Gamble, 255 Adams Street, Milton, Massachusetts. Original source: Sophia Smith Collection, Smith College, North Hampton, Massachusetts. Also described in Linda Gordon'sWoman's Body, Woman's Right: A Social History of Birth Control in America. New York: Grossman Publishers, 1976.

To read more click here

Margaret Sanger founded Planned Parenthood. Is it any wonder that most Planned Parenthood clinics are in minority neighborhoods. And that video's like this happen:

First Feast Day of Blessed Pope John Paul II

2011-10-22T11:20:00.000-04:00

October 22, 2011 marks the first celebration of the memorial of Blessed Pope John Paul the Great. While the liturgical celebrations are limited to those regions for which it is approved Vatican Radio celebrated with two retrospectives on the Holy Pontiff's life. For more information, click the ZENIT article, here. Blessed Pope John Paul the Great, pray for us. May he soon be canonized a saint.

Can Protestants be saved?

2011-10-21T16:45:00.001-04:00

Dear Father Larry,

The Catholic Church offers the forgiving sacrament of Confession. It is a rich and beautiful gift from God. A Catholic who dies in mortal sin will not enter Heaven; however if a priest hears his confession before he dies, he can then enter Heaven. Is there a different standard/set of rules for a Protestant Christian? In other words, what happens to a Protestant Christian who commits mortal sin? Reconciliation is not offered in his church. I know that our Catechism teaches that God's grace can be sufficient to allow people of other faiths into Heaven. Is that the answer? Thank you.

Yes, you have the basic idea. Everyone has natural law written upon their hearts. Therefore, deep down they know that certain things are wrong. Every society has a taboo against murder, stealing, etc. If people are invincibly ignorant of the necessity of the Catholic Church for salvation, they can still be saved through the Catholic Church without being an explicit member. Salvation comes from the Life, Death, and Resurrection of Jesus Christ and can be applied to all humanity. The Catholic Church is charged by Our Lord to make that grace available, and so, is necessary for salvation. Yet, some ignorance is not invincible. Such feigned ignorance does not absolve but condemns.

CCC 1859 Mortal sin requires full knowledge and complete consent. It presupposes knowledge of the sinful character of the act, of its opposition to God's law. It also implies a consent sufficiently deliberate to be a personal choice. Feigned ignorance and hardness of heart¹³³ do not diminish, but rather increase, the voluntary character of a sin.

CCC 1791 This ignorance can often be imputed to personal responsibility. This is the case when a man "takes little trouble to find out what is true and good, or when conscience is by degrees almost blinded through the habit of committing sin."⁵⁹ In such cases, the person is culpable for the evil he commits.

CCC 1792 Ignorance of Christ and his Gospel, bad example given by others, enslavement to one's passions, assertion of a mistaken notion of autonomy of conscience, rejection of the Church's authority and her teaching, lack of conversion and of charity: these can be at the source of errors of judgment in moral conduct.

CCC 1793 If - on the contrary - the ignorance is invincible, or the moral subject is not responsible for his erroneous judgment, the evil committed by the person cannot be imputed to him. It remains no less an evil, a privation, a disorder. One must therefore work to correct the errors of moral conscience.

For more on this issue, please read the extended explanation of “Outside the Church, there is no salvation.”

The Difference Between Protestants and Mormons

2011-10-21T13:00:00.000-04:00

An amazing insightful video about Mormonism, Protestantism and Catholicism.

For another amazing video on who founded your church watch this:

Sex and Marriage: Unitive and Procreative

2011-10-19T12:00:00.000-04:00

Hi Fr. Larry. This came up recently, and I'm wondering if you could answer it. What is the church teaching on oral sex between married couples? How would/should a priest counsel married Catholic (practicing) spouses on this? Thank you. God Bless You.

Sexuality is a magnificent gift from God. If, however, we misuse that great gift and do not use it according to its purpose, it would be like trying to pound a nail into a board with a cellphone. It may work but not very well and it will destroy the phone in the process. Since our sexuality mirrors God's life-giving and created love, it can only be used when we have promised an exclusive love to our spouse, as God had promised an exclusive love for the people of Israel. Therefore, any sexual activity, of whatever kind, outside of the Holy Sacrament of Matrimony, is immoral and and a grave evil. Once a couple has promised themselves to each other in the Sacrament of Matrimony recognized by the Church, they may then engage in moral sexual activity. What is the purpose of our sexuality? The purpose of sexual activity is two fold. Every sexual action between the husband and the wife must be BOTH unitive and procreative. In other words, every sexual action must physically bring the husband and the wife into sexual union. Therefore, 'in-vitro fertilization', masturbation, cloning, anything that uses our sexuality but does not unite the man an the woman in a physical union is not fulfilling the purpose of the sexual act as God has given it to us. Secondly, and concomitantly, every sexual action must be open to the transmission of life. Every sexual action does not have to lead to life but must be OPEN to the transmission of life. Therefore, any form of contraception is wrong (by the way, many forms are not contraceptive but abortifacient). Also, excluded is any kind of homosexuality, bestiality, or mutual masturbation. Therefore, oral sex between a husband and his wife might be possibly argued as unitive (though not in the strict sense) but there is no way that it can be called open to life. Therefore, oral stimulation of the sexual organs, which is nothing more than mutual masturbation, is not only wrong because it is not open to life but it is also wrong because I am USING you for my sexual pleasure and Bl. Pope John Paul II said that the opposite of love is not hate but USE.

The New Translation of the Roman Missal: PRO MULTIS

2011-10-17T06:30:00.000-04:00

Dr. Brant Pitre, one of my favorite Biblical Theologians, has put together a new CD-set explaining the changes in the new translation of the Roman Missal. In this excerpt, he gives not only a biblical but also a dogmatic explanation for why the new translation of the words of consecration is switching from "for all" to "for many." To listen to Dr. Pitre's explanation, click here. To order the entire CD set, click here.

Whose fault is it?

2011-10-15T06:30:00.000-04:00

"If evil is neither uncreated nor created by God, where does it come from? Certainly no one who lives in the world will deny that evil exists. Then what shall we say? Evil is not a living animated being: it is the condition of the soul opposed to virtue, developed in the careless because they fell away from good.

Do not go beyond yourself to look for evil, and imagine that there is some original nature of wickedness. Let's admit it: each of us is the first author of his own vice."

--St. Basil, Hexameron, 2.5

Genesis 39:-12 The First example of passing the buck. And the Lord God called Adam, and said to him: Where art thou? 10 And he said: I heard thy voice in paradise; and I was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid myself. 11 And he said to him: And who hath told thee that thou wast naked, but that thou hast eaten of the tree whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldst not eat? 12 And Adam said: The woman, whom thou gavest me to be my companion, gave me of the tree, and I did eat.
What was Adam's response to God's questions? The WOMAN, YOU put here, made me do it. Not only was it NOT Adam's fault, it was the WOMAN's fault and GOD's fault because God put her in the garden.

True Priestly Discernment on Campus

2011-10-13T22:20:00.000-04:00

Save the Altar Girls: NOT!

2011-10-11T21:29:00.000-04:00

In a recent article in America, the Jesuit published periodical shows the real reason for wanting girls to serve at the altar. The magazine clearly states that allowing girls to serve at the altar is not merely a question of equality of the genders but that “In a culture where parents want their daughters to have the same opportunities as their sons—in co-ed Catholic colleges, in the armed services, in athletics, in employment—the church can look irrelevant, even foolish, in shunting them aside. The more the priesthood is presented as an exclusive club, the smaller and more remote it will become.”

The liberal push for altar girls is merely a maneuver to set the stage for women’s ordination to the priesthood. This is the heresy of Modernism which St. Pope Pius X wrote about in his encyclical, Pascendi Dominici Gregis, #3. St. Pius X wrote, “For as We have said, they put their designs for her ruin into operation not from without but from within; hence, the danger is present almost in the very veins and heart of the Church, whose injury is the more certain, the more intimate is their knowledge of her.” When I was in seminary, I wrote a paper on St. Pius X’s encyclical. In that paper I wrote, “Modernism is the greatest threat to the Church.” The professor crossed out “is” and wrote “was.” Yet, as we can see, the heresy of Modernism is attacking Holy Mother Church from within. Bl. Pope John Paul II declared infallibly that “Wherefore, in order that all doubt may be removed regarding a matter of great importance, a matter which pertains to the Church's divine constitution itself, in virtue of my ministry of confirming the brethren (cf. Lk 22:32) I declare that the Church has no authority whatsoever to confer priestly ordination on women and that this judgment is to be definitively held by all the Church's faithful. ORDINATIO SACERDOTALIS, #4.

TO READ MORE OF MY RUNNING COMMENTARY ON ST. POPE PIUS X’S ENCYCLICAL, CLICK HERE
And if it is not bad enough that unfaithful Catholics are attacking the Church, now looms the Supreme Court sticking its nose into the question of whether the Catholic Church can decide to limit the priesthood to men. Click here for story.

Bible Study #2: The Church as Temple

2011-10-09T22:57:00.000-04:00

A monthly Bible study. The Church as temple looks at Eden as the Primordial Temple, the Temple in Jerusalem as the microcosm of the universe, and the Body of Jesus as the new Temple. Click here for presentation.

Is a child in the womb a VIRUS?

2011-10-07T12:02:00.000-04:00

Planned Parenthood advocates refuse to accept science. They compare the child in the womb to a virus attacking a host.