Recent Posts

Monday 11 August 2014

Tuesday's Posts will be a bit late in the European Day

Bisy backson......

From Sword of Peter Via Big Pulpit

  And check out Rorate today and yesterday--good stuff.

Repeat of A Repeat


Willie Wonka Truth

My son loves the old movie, Willie Wonka and The Chocolate Factory. I find it terrifying, but interesting. It was a last time stand for normalcy regarding the raising of children in our Western world. In that movie, children were punished for selfish bad behavior. Each "brat" represented one of the cardinal sins. Veruca represented gross selfishness-Pride, Violet represented complete narcissism in competition and bad manners -Lust, Mike represented Sloth, obviously,  and Augustus Gluttony. They suffered consequences for their sins. So did their neglectful parents....What was missing in the bad kids was the acceptance of suffering. The dramatically and exaggerated suffering of Charlie underlines the point.


 One of the most tragic occurrences of our time is the lack of the acceptance of suffering as normal.

In the past nine months, here in America, I have witnessed the sadness, irritation, and even despair of those, both young and very old, who have not learned that suffering is a necessity.

The Protestant lie that God blesses His beloved on this earth permeates the American Catholic Church. I see old people grumpy and unhappy because their bodies are failing, slowly but surely. I hear middle-aged people grumbling about how unfair life is because their expected pensions were cut, because no on understands the middle-class and so on. I see and hear young people, who were raised in what most of the world would call luxury, unhappy because they have aspired to a false American Dream, which was only, always a dream and not reality. 




Some of us have had false expectations knocked out of us through suffering. Some of us have had the myth of immortality knocked out of us by bouts of cancer or other ill health. Some of us have lived long years of poverty, even penury.

How one reacts to suffering makes or breaks the saint.

We shall suffer either here or in purgatory, or in suffering. Now, some of the saints tell us that accepting graciously and gratefully suffering here is much more merit-able than suffering in purgatory.

An hour of pain or a year of pain now, accepted in grace and peace, means much more here than in purgatory.

Those of us in the Dark Night know that suffering is part of the road we cannot escape because of our sins, our many sins, and the evil tendencies and habits which have grown up like weeds over the years.

I am thankful for the Dark Night, but I must keep focused on the why and not the how. Last week, for three days, I was convinced I was going to hell. I felt the total evil of my self and the darkness of my soul and mind. For three days, I knew nothing but abandonment. Now, I am not "feeling" consoled, but the intense pain and scariness of damnation has passed. I made acts of faith, saying "Lord, have mercy on me" and "Jesus, do not forget you died for me. I know You died for me, a sinner."

Such are some of the pains of the Dark Night, along with hatreds, abandonment of friends and family, misunderstandings of those one thought were friends because of their judgment, and so on.

If we do not suffer now, we shall elsewhere.

I fought purgation for years and years, partly because I was so busy, (as I thought), and partly because I was brainwashed by the lies of the American Dream. I "had" to have a house, a car, a certain middle-class lifestyle, and so on. I lied to myself saying it was all for my son, as I had had these things, but it was really for me. Children need the basics, and love.

Beginning (again) in 2008, I saw, slowly but surely, the only way was to accept, joyfully, suffering. Then came 2009, with Hashimoto's Disease, a meniscus tear, cancer, and tensions at work, leading to me being fired for having cancer (yes, it happens and it is legal here). After my cancer op, I only took two weeks off, but because of breathing complications owing to an allergic reaction to the anesthetic, I was on a breathing machine for two months five months later, and then fired for being sick. I was raising a young person through all of this and the wage-earner. I had to beg for food that summer and get a one-off rental allowance for two months.  Thankfully, I had a friend help me with food baskets for my son and I. She told me the place from which I was fired had fired another person for having cancer. She understood. She was, therefore, kind and not judgmental. God bless her.

Such is life and such is the purification of God in one's life.

One can stand back and cry "foul" or stupidly compare one's self with others. One can ask "why" or say "thank you".

Since 2009, I have learned that all suffering is not only allowed by God, but willed by Him, either in His permissive Will or His intended Will. From all eternity, He knew I would have to give up my house, (I sold before I could not continue the mortgage payments, and thank God it sold in three days), I sold my car, as I could no longer afford insurance or gasoline, and I began to live the life of great simplicity. The years of suffering before were "redeemed" as time for purging, which I did not understand until it all came together in 2009.

I stopped fighting suffering and accepted it, in whatever fashion God deemed necessary.

In this, I have been given the clarity of mind to see what God is doing with me and with the world. How many posts do I have on simplifying one's life?

One can choose poverty, or one can have it thrust upon one for the good of one's soul. One can be detached and still have things. God chooses the way.

God chooses the way. We only have to respond gratefully and willing, learning daily to trust in Him.

In June, I phoned the local homeless shelters, as some of you know. All were full and I did not qualify for one. This was very hard to do. I have no romantic ideas about how difficult and hard such places are. They are not "nice". Poverty is a prison, but one must learn to be free within a prison, just as the nun learns to be free in a small cell, owning nothing of her own.

I have given up counting all the jobs for which I have applied, cleaning jobs, teaching, catechetical, secretarial and so on. 

Those who judge can answer to God, as I have to do. All I know is that He leads and I follow, doing the best I can in every situation. But, I also know that we must all suffer in some way. Perhaps, because I was such a great sinner leading others astray as a young person with my stupid ideas, I must endure this. Perhaps, I suffer for others in some small way, which is wonderful, if that is the case. Suffering is mostly purification for one's predominant fault(s),

But, do not fall for the lies. If you are not suffering in some way, be wary. It may mean that God has given up on you. Even the great St. Therese suffered almost until the very moment of her death, asking the sisters to take the pain killers out of her room at night so that she would not be tempted to commit suicide. This fact was expurgated from earlier biographies as it seemed shocking. It seems not only human, but super-human to ask such a thing. We do not know how we would react under intense physical pain. She did not trust herself. She trusted only in God.

If one so innocent was not spared suffering, what of those of us who have sinned?

She never committed a mortal sin in her life, noted her confessors.




I pray today that those younger ones wake up and stop murmuring, stop complaining, that they will see and accept that they will not have what their parents had-nice pension packages, nice retirements, a lot of lovely things. Please listen and see and say, "So, what."

Maybe this younger generation are called to great holiness, and maybe, just maybe, their parents missed the call. I hope not too many Gen-Xers and Millennials were ruined by parents spoiling them, turning them into Verucas.

Suffering is not a lie. It is an evil God allows for our purification. Can we not embrace it, willingly?

Can we stop believing lies and accept suffering as a necessary situation for our good?

Shall we stand before God like spoiled children, kicking our feet, crying because we not only did not get things, but did not get our way? I hope not. Like Veruca, the kicking and screaming ones end up in the garbage pit of eternity.



Devolution Two

I have been blogging and/or commenting since about 2006. I have had weeks of dormancy commenting, but one can see my name popping up in old archives of blogs. It is interesting how the discussions and the topics, as well as the tone, of comments have changed.

Definitely, absolutely, the content and tone of comments has gone downhill.

In the early days of blogging and commenting, the discussions were simply more cerebral, more academic, written by people with some Catholic background. People were interested in learning.

Next, there was a second wave of commentators and bloggers who were converts, finding both blogging and commenting on blogs part the excitement of becoming a Catholic. Obviously, people learn on blogs about the one, true, holy, universal, and apostolic Church.

Now, there has been over the last nine months or a year, a third wave of commentators who have not learned to argue from a logical, even rational basis and merely want to vent emotions.

How sad. But, this phenomenon shows the lack of educational standards in the West. People simply do not know how to think, either logically or analogically anymore. Apparently, there was an article on the lack of the ability to think analogically. I am trying to find it.

Those of us and our children who have studied logic and the Aristotelian modes of writing approach writing in a completely different manner than the "emos" on line.

A friend of mine got me thinking about devolution, which as one can hear in the post earlier today, in the talk from Fr. Ripperger, is the real issue of genetic entropy.

I saw it happening when I taught college from September, 1979 through December 2010, with a break of some years as a stay-at-home mom and working in another job not teaching. Wow, what changes in the students! The break from September, 1987 through August, 1997, when I finally went back into teaching, witnessed a sea-change in young peoples' ability to think, work, be focused.

The cry of so many teachers who are now retired is that they could not take the change from teaching to "baby-sitting" or worse.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/02/26/950079/-I-Don-t-Want-to-be-a-Teacher-Any-More#

Of course, the entire problem with education is that it was separated from religion. The soul forms the body. How can one teach the body and not the soul? Impossible, and it is our intellects that we are "like God" and in our free wills.

Sad, but the generations have become slowly but surely "unteachable".  This has been manipulated on purpose.

I am so glad I can teach through my blog. It is too bad I do not get paid for it, as I am so poor. It is a ministry, and I am happy to be called to this, until God decides otherwise. I am trying to work in the larger atmosphere of genetic entropy.

But, most of, in fact, the great majority of my readers are sharp intellectually and teachable. I am blessed in my readership. As long as I see that people want to learn, I can continue, if God so desires.






Cardinal Nichols Statement

from http://jerichotree.com/2014/08/08/cardinals-iraq-appeal-help-and-protect-persecuted-communities-facing-a-threat-to-their-very-existence/

“I have followed with deep sadness the unfolding disaster in Mosul, in Sinjar and Qaraqosh, and in other towns and villages across northern Iraq. This is a persecution of immense proportions in which Christian, Yezidi and other communities have been targeted by ISIS and forced to flee their ancestral homes in the Nineveh Plains in search of temporary safety. All they are doing is trying to escape certain death.
“Today, I add my voice to those of the Church leaders in Iraq as well as all the Bishops of Oriental Churches who met in Beirut yesterday alongside the Apostolic Nuncio. Along with Christian and Muslim leaders in Wales and many others we appeal for help and protection for these persecuted communities facing a threat to their very existence in their biblical homelands. It is imperative that the international community ensure the physical protection of all communities in Iraq, their human rights including the right to religious freedom. I urge Her Majesty’s Government to lead the efforts in the face of such a human calamity in order to help restore these shattered communities, provide them with urgent humanitarian aid and work with others to ensure their long term security in the land of their birth.
“I encourage our own Catholic community to continue to give generously to our agencies working to support the people of Iraq. Above all I invite all people of faith to turn to God in prayer this weekend and seek for our world the change of heart and the gift of grace that alone can bring us peace.”
Cardinal Vincent Nichols
President, Catholic Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales
Archbishop of Westminster

[Source: Westminster Diocese Communications Office]

Denial and Reality:Coming Back to God

The Vatican has revealed that Antonio Gramsci, the founder of Italian Communism and an icon of the Left, reverted to Roman Catholicism on his deathbed.
Archbishop Luigi De Magistris, former head of the Apostolic Penitentiary of the Holy See, which deals with confessions, indulgences and the forgiveness of sins, said Gramsci had 'died taking the Sacraments.' He had asked the nuns attending him in hospital to let him kiss an image of the infant Jesus, the Archbishop said.
Rumours that Gramsci had converted back to his Roman Catholic faith had never until now been confirmed, and the Italian Left had also remained silent on the issue. 'But that is how it was', Archbishop De Magistris told Vatican Radio in November 2008: 'Gramsci returned to the faith of his infancy.'

 http://www.ad2000.com.au/articles/2009/mar2009p8_2987.html

I have done more research on this and it is true. The Left across the world is in denial on this point. That Gramsci converted undoes all his years of hating the Church, religion, and even the culture of the West.

I have come to the conclusion that Gramsci's conversion was real and that the Vatican has proof.

Another great deathbed conversion is Jean-Paul Sartre, and I quote myself on this from another post.

This conversion is not urban myth. When I was at Notre Dame in 1980-81, Father John S. Dunne, a noted writer and teacher, told me personally that a priest friend of his was called to Sartre’s deathbed, where the noted atheist confessed his sins and came into the Church. Father Dunne also claimed that a fiery article by Simone Beauvoir appeared condemning Sartre’s “fall into superstition” at his end. I have to find the article by Beauvoir.

There is more here on this discussion.  

http://bridgesandtangents.wordpress.com/2010/07/31/sartres-death-bed-conversion/

There are many people who converted, repented, re-verted back to Catholicism when facing death. I myself consider this grace one of the most wonderful gifts a person can be given.

Daily, in the Hail Mary, we pray for the grace of a happy death. Read my comments in the posts on Providence and Predestination by Garrigou-Lagrange. 


Genetic Entropy=Devolution

 An old poster helps us understand some things....

Coincidences are not oppression. Accidents are not oppression. Patterns are oppression.

Oppressions can be visible in health issues. Not all.

Genetic entropy is a negation of evolution. We are going down.

These are all thoughts from Father Ripperger.

I highly suggest listening to this part of a larger talk.

 http://www.sensustraditionis.org/webaudio/SW/Oppression.mp3




Souls Being Lost Part Two

Scoffers, those who are rationalists, agnostics and atheists can put themselves in danger by not believing that witches and satanists are real people involved in evil cults, rather than people play acting. Rationalists sometimes are prey because they deny the spiritual world which is real.

Those who seem highly intelligent sometimes are not. One who denies the power of the spiritual world, or who believes in neutral spiritual territory could become prey to evil, caught off guard by pride and unbelief.

The real danger of witchcraft and satanism is the underlying sin of rebellion. It is the primordial sin of pride, of not serving God, of wanting the power (supposedly) that belongs only to the Almighty.

Any adult who is always disobedient and rebellious needs to stop and think that their lifestyle is that of the evil one who refused in an instant to serve God.

When the Pope Emeritus, then Pope Benedict XVI, traveled to Angola in 2009, his remarks on witchcraft were smothered by the media frenzy concerning his remarks against condoms.

Here is one bit of his statement on the occult in Angola:

"In today's Angola, Catholics should offer the message of Christ to the many who live in the fear of spirits, of evil powers by whom they feel threatened, disoriented, even reaching the point of condemning street children and even the most elderly because - they say - they are sorcerers..."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/7956460.stm

The Pope was not denying occultic behavior, but the fears which caused people to persecute others in fear. Fear creates panic.

But, ignoring the reality of the occult and sins connected to the occult, is imprudence, willful blindness.

In a family has been oppressed or depressed in some manner, one should not automatically think witchcraft is involved, but one cannot deny it either.

Here is a homily from Fr. Ripperger on this subject.

http://www.sensustraditionis.org/webaudio/Sermons/Disk5/Witchcraft.mp3

Say a decade of the rosary after listening to this homily.

Souls Being Lost Part One

Too many young people, either those who believe in nothing and are surrounded by cynicism and atheism, or those who have sought out anti-Christian cults in rebellion, are in danger of losing their souls.

Parents are not aware enough of the dangers their own children face in satanism and witchcraft.

I want to list some of the New Testament references to witchcraft and a few of the many from the Old Testament. One remembers that King Saul lost his soul, his crown, his dynasty because of hiring the Witch of Endor to call up Saul. This scene in the television series David, is terrifying.



Acts 19:19 

And a number of those who had practiced magic arts brought their books together and burned them in the sight of all. And they counted the value of them and found it came to fifty thousand pieces of silver

Revelation 21:8 

But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable, as for murderers, the sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death.”

Galatians 5:20-21 

Idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.

2 Chronicles 33:6 

And he burned his sons as an offering in the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, and used fortune-telling and omens and sorcery, and dealt with mediums and with necromancers. He did much evil in the sight of the Lord, provoking him to anger.

Isaiah 8:19 

And when they say to you, “Inquire of the mediums and the necromancers who chirp and mutter,” should not a people inquire of their God? Should they inquire of the dead on behalf of the living?

2 Kings 21:6 

And he burned his son as an offering and used fortune-telling and omens and dealt with mediums and with necromancers. He did much evil in the sight of the Lord, provoking him to anger. 





Revelation 22:15 

Outside are the dogs and sorcerers and the sexually immoral and murderers and idolaters, and everyone who loves and practices falsehood. 

But, witchcraft is also connected to the sins of rebellion, following false religions, and disobedience. Basically, the witch doe not want to put himself under any authority of God.

Herein lies the great sin-desiring power and knowledge without being in and with the Trinitarian God. Any group which is obviously in rebellion to God most likely involves witchcraft.

Souls, especially those of the young, are being  lost daily. Too many Catholics are blase about such evils in our would.

Parents must address these horrible, damning sins of sorcery, witchcraft and satanism. To ignore these is to put your children's souls in danger.