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Tuesday 9 September 2014

From SPUC

9 September 2014: The Society for the Protection of Unborn Children (SPUC) www.spuc.org.uk has been banned on spurious grounds by Dundee University Students' Association (DUSA) from its Freshers' Fayre.
DUSA claims that SPUC's campaigns are contrary to DUSA's Constitution, and that SPUC has engaged in extreme behaviour at past Freshers' Fayres. DUSA has, however, failed to provide any evidence to back up their claims.
Rachel Kidd of SPUC Scotland http://spucscotland.org/ said: "DUSA has quoted several sections of its Constitution against SPUC, but none of those sections contains anything opposed by SPUC. Also, DUSA has been asked to back up with evidence its claim of extreme behaviour by SPUC at Freshers' Fayres, but has failed to provide any evidence.
"From 2005 onwards, SPUC held a stall at Freshers’ Fayre for eight consecutive years without any problems. The stall simply offered factual information on the development of the unborn child and real help to women who may find themselves in a crisis pregnancy situation.
Miss Kidd concluded: "DUSA makes a great deal of noise about being fair and unprejudiced towards groups with differing views. SPUC's effectiveness in communicating the pro-life message on campus seems to have provoked DUSA to treat SPUC in an unfair and biased way."
SPUC Scotland can be contacted on:
The communications department at SPUC's UK headquarters can be contacted on:
To receive this news regularly, visit http://www.spuc.org.uk/em-signup.

A quiet down day and early mornings....





I need a quiet down day which will consist of reading more of Fr. Chad Ripperger's great book and trying to get some needed rest.


But, before I leave off blogging for the day, I want to mention that several friends of mine have been awakened, since 2011, early in the morning to pray. I mean early, like four or four-thirty.  These good people have been asked to pray more. I now know six or more people who get up at fourish and pray for others, saying extra rosaries, and some of these people are still working, not retired.

This has happened to me since November of 2011. When I am well, and not fighting asthma all night, I get up and pray early. God is moving some of us to do this. Pay attention. If you are waking up and do not know why, it could be that God is calling you to extra prayer.

We need extra prayer for reparation for the sins of ourselves and others, for the Church, which is assaulted on various fronts. We need to pray for those who may be facing great trials in the middle of the night, such as despair or loneliness.

As Catholics, we have the great Theotokos, Mary, the Mother of God, as our greatest intercessor.

Pray, and do not stint in prayer.

See you all tomorrow, a bit later in the day.

Are You A Believer?

http://www.churchmilitant.tv/daily/?today=2014-09-09

Wiki Is Sometimes Surprisingly Interesting

Do you all know about this? Do any readers have more reliable info on this group? I have not studied this group and came across it quite by accident.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Club_of_Rome

http://www.clubofrome.org/

The book which set this group into play is Limits to Growth. One can see the influences which are contrary to Catholic teaching in this article.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Limits_to_Growth

Just look at the list of books on the last entry.

I admire Pope Paul VI more and more, as his encyclical Humanae Vitae was written in the ambience of these types of groups. 

Thankfully, I missed the rise of these ideas, converted in 1971 from stupidity and ideologies which could have led to this type of thinking. But, God protected me and renewed my excellent Catholic Classical education in my soul, heart and mind.

I am sure those university students right behind me read some of this stuff. Of course, we studied Malthus, the evil genius of abortion and contraception as necessaries, an Anglican buried in Bath Abbey. The fact that Maltus visited Germany and Switzerland, which have connections to the Club of Rome seems more than coincidental.

His bio is linked to Limits to Growth on wiki.



Again, A Warning to Catholic Parents

Do not let or encourage your sons and daughters to have any college debt. It would be better for them to go to the local community college, (some of which have superb teachers), than get into debt.

This is a repeat of something I put on the blog a long time ago, a long time ago. Those debts will be the direct cause of enforced labor or military work for the government when the economy collapses.

I have heard people say that they do not care if they get into debt as there will be a collapse anyway. This is a deceitful and non-Christian view of good stewardship.

One should live within one's means. I learned this the hard way and God corrected me years ago. I had to sell my beloved house rather than not pay the mortgage when I lost a job. I had to throw away and not use credit cards. This is a good discipline. I left the madness of debt. Simple living is possible and one can do it with God's help.

But, for the youth, this situation of debt may be used as a sword over their heads. Do this....or pay up...

Debtor's prisons may not be seen again, but governments have other ways of making people pay debt. Although, people could go to jail for contempt of court for not paying loans, credit cards and so on.

America had debtor's prison, which although federally abolished in 1832, lasted in some states until 1849.



Debt is slavery.

I distinctly remember a speech by Obama when he was running for president the first time in which he said he supported a draft. It was in September of 2008 when he gave a speech referring to this.

I wish I had kept the transcript. What if any president said that a youth's college debt would be forgiven for so many years of military service?

Wake up, Catholic parents, please.

And, I thank those readers who helped a poor seminarian get out of a small debt. He is debt free.






A Good Pastor

Interview with Bishop Philip Egan found here.

http://spuc-director.blogspot.co.uk/2014/09/interview-with-bishop-philip-egan-on.html

God bless good leaders, good pastors

St, Mary of Egypt

In my youth, especially my twenties, I was addicted to the music of Mahler. In his Eighth Symphony, in that monumental work, he refers to St. Mary of Egypt. Mahler was taken by the story of this famous saint of the Jordan area.

Apparently, as early as the age of twelve, she was driven by lust, until she had a conversion in Jerusalem.





Deciding to repent and become a hermit, and being under the care and direction of Mary, Mother of God, St. Mary of Egypt left all with only three loaves of bread, after receiving forgiveness in Confession. St. Zosimas met her and gave her Communion on the day she died, after she spent fifty years or so in the desert making reparation for her early life of serious sin. A lion helped St. Zosimas bury her body. She is a saint who overcame her predominant faults in the isolation of prayer and fasting.


Her life was written down by St. Sophronius, Patriarch of Jersusalem. For those struggling with inordinate passions, St. Mary is an excellent patron.


Her dates are disputed, but her death in 522 seems reasonable to most scholars.

Here are the prayers from her feast day, April 3.


Troparion (Tone 8) [1]
The image of God was truly preserved in you, O mother,
For you took up the Cross and followed Christ.
By so doing, you taught us to disregard the flesh, for it passes away;
But to care instead for the soul, since it is immortal.
Therefore your spirit, O holy Mother Mary, rejoices with the Angels.
Kontakion (Tone 3)
Having been a sinful woman,
You became through repentance a Bride of Christ.
Having attained angelic life,
You defeated demons with the weapon of the Cross;
Therefore, O most glorious Mary you are a Bride of the Kingdom

St. Paul on Perfection

The Apostle of the Gentiles calls the leaders of the Church to perfect the flock. If the leaders of the Church are not doing so, we must follow Christ and move towards holiness anyway.

Time to form community is fast flying away. Do so today. Support each other, closely. Move, if you must, to pod and surround yourselves with holy people
 
EPHESIANS 
CHAPTER 4.

Therefore, a prisoner in the Lord, beseech you that you walk worthy of the vocation in which you are called, 2 With all humility and mildness, with patience, supporting one another in charity. 3 Careful to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. 4 One body and one Spirit; as you are called in one hope of your calling. 5 One Lord, one faith, one baptism. 6 One God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in us all. 7 But to every one of us is given grace, according to the measure of the giving of Christ. 8 Wherefore he saith: Ascending on high, he led captivity captive; he gave gifts to men. 9 Now that he ascended, what is it, but because he also descended first into the lower parts of the earth? 10 He that descended is the same also that ascended above all the heavens, that he might fill all things. 11 And he gave some apostles, and some prophets, and other some evangelists, and other some pastors and doctors, 12 For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ: 13Until we all meet into the unity of faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the age of the fulness of Christ; 13 Until we all meet into the unity of faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the age of the fulness of Christ; 14 That henceforth we be no more children tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine by the wickedness of men, by cunning craftiness, by which they lie in wait to deceive 15 But doing the truth in charity, we may in all things grow up in him who is the head, even Christ: 16 From whom the whole body, being compacted and fitly joined together, by what every joint supplieth, according to the operation in the measure of every part, maketh increase of the body, unto the edifying of itself in charity. 17 This then I say and testify in the Lord: That henceforward you walk not as also the Gentiles walk in the vanity of their mind, 18 Having their understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their hearts. 19 Who despairing, have given themselves up to lasciviousness, unto the working of all uncleanness, unto the working of all uncleanness, unto covetousness. 20 But you have not so learned Christ; 21 If so be that you have heard him, and have been taught in him, as the truth is in Jesus: 22 To put off, according to former conversation, the old man, who is corrupted according to the desire of error. 23 And be renewed in the spirit of your mind: 24 And put on the new man, who according to God is created in justice and holiness of truth. 25 Wherefore putting away lying, speak; ye the truth every man with his neighbour; for we are members one of another. 26 Be angry, and sin not. Let not the sun go down upon your anger. 27 Give not place to the devil. 28 He that stole, let him now steal no more; but rather let him labour, working with his hands the thing which is good, that he may have something to give to him that suffereth need. 29 Let no evil speech proceed from your mouth; but that which is good, to the edification of faith, that it may administer grace to the hearers. 30 And grieve not the holy Spirit of God: whereby you are sealed unto the day of redemption. 31 Let all bitterness, and anger, and indignation, and clamour, and blasphemy, be put away from you, with all malice. 32 And be ye kind one to another; merciful, forgiving one another, even as God hath forgiven you in Christ.

Like A Thief in The Night

1 Thessalonians 5
1 But of the times and moments, brethren, you need not, that we should write to you; 2 For yourselves know perfectly, that the day of the Lord shall so come, as a thief in the night. 3 For when they shall say, peace and security; then shall sudden destruction come upon them, as the pains upon her that is with child, and they shall not escape. 4 But you, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief. 5 For all you are the children of light, and children of the day: we are not of the night, nor of darkness. 6 Therefore, let us not sleep, as others do; but let us watch, and be sober. 7 For they that sleep, sleep in the night; and they that are drunk, are drunk in the night. 8 But let us, who are of the day, be sober, having on the breastplate of faith and charity, and for a helmet the hope of salvation. 9 For God hath not appointed us unto wrath, but unto the purchasing of salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ, 10 Who died for us; that, whether we watch or sleep, we may live together with him. 11 For which cause comfort one another; and edify one another, as you also do.  
Holy Mother Church in her wisdom has warned Catholics not to look to the signs of the times as signs of the Second Coming. We can see signs which show us we are heading for great persecution, but that is not the same as jumping to a conclusion that then Christ will come.

As usual, St. Thomas Aquinas has some wisdom for us on this subject. Here are a few quotations: ST, Supplement, q 73.


I answer that, When Christ shall come to judge He will appear in the form of glory, on account of the authority becoming a judge. Now it pertains to the dignity of judicial power to have certain signs that induce people to reverence and subjection: and consequently many signs will precede the advent of Christ when He shall come to judgment, in order that the hearts of men be brought to subjection to the coming judge, and be prepared for the judgment, being forewarned by those signs. But it is not easy to know what these signs may be: for the signs of which we read in the gospels, as Augustine says, writing to Hesychius about the end of the world (Ep. lxxx), refer not only to Christ's coming to judgment, but also to the time of the sack of Jerusalem, and to the coming of Christ in ceaselessly visiting His Church So that, perhaps, if we consider them carefully, we shall find that none of them refers to the coming advent, as he remarks: because these signs that are mentioned in the gospels, such as wars, fears, and so forth, have been from the beginning of the human race: unless perhaps we say that at that time they will be more prevalent: although it is uncertain in what degree this increase will foretell the imminence of the advent. The signs mentioned by Jerome are not asserted by him; he merely says that he found them written in the annals of the Hebrews: and, indeed, they contain very little likelihood.
Reply to Objection 1. According to Augustine (Ad Hesych., Ep. lxxx) towards the end of the world there will be a general persecution of the good by the wicked: so that at the same time some will fear, namely the good, and some will be secure, namely the wicked. The words: "When they shall say: Peace and security," refer to the wicked, who will pay little heed to the signs of the coming judgment: while the words of Luke 21:26, "men withering away," etc., should be referred to the good.
We may also reply that all these signs that will happen about the time of the judgment are reckoned to occur within the time occupied by the judgment, so that the judgment day contains them all. Wherefore although men be terrified by the signs appearing about the judgment day, yet before those signs begin to appear the wicked will think themselves to be in peace and security, after the death of Antichrist and before the coming of Christ, seeing that the world is not at once destroyed, as they thought hitherto.
Reply to Objection 2. The day of the Lord is said to come as a thief, because the exact time is not known, since it will not be possible to know it from those signs: although, as we have already said, all these most manifest sings which will precede the judgment immediately may be comprised under the judgment day.
Reply to Objection 3. At His first advent Christ came secretly, although the appointed time was known beforehand by the prophets. Hence there was no need for such signs to appear at His first coming, as will appear at His second advent, when He will come openly, although the appointed time is hidden.

I think most of us should be more concerned about our particular judgment than the final one. Too much theorizing about the End Times can be a distraction, taking us away from considering our own souls and our state of sinfulness or holiness at the time of our deaths. 

Life Site News-Great Articles This Week


http://www.lifesitenews.com/news/criticism-mounts-against-notre-dames-decision-to-cover-students-abortifacie

More on Indulgences for the Holy Souls

      .  




Do not forget to make prayers for all the dead in your families. I go to cemeteries and pray for the dead when I can. Recently, a friend of mine reminded me that many veterans have no one to pray for them. You may do that.

I also remind people to pray for children over the age of reason, as children can and do sin as well.



One can get into the habit of daily praying for souls in purgatory. For example, unless I am praying a rosary novena for someone or something, I use the fifth decade on my daily rosary for the holy souls in purgatory.

On Proper Love for The Dead


The cremation rosary so creeped me out that I need to write about proper honor and love for the dead ones in our families.

Holy Mother Church has been clear on the correct manner of praying for the dead and not to the dead, unless these dead are saints.

A little preposition makes a huge difference...

Here is a quotation from St. Augustine's Confessions to begin the conversation:

from "Book VI":
When, therefore, my mother had at one time— as was her custom in Africa— brought to the oratories built in the memory of the saints certain cakes, and bread, and wine, and was forbidden by the door-keeper, so soon as she learned that it was the bishop who had forbidden it, she so piously and obediently acceded to it, that I myself marvelled how readily she could bring herself to accuse her own custom, rather than question his prohibition. … because these, so to say, festivals in honour of the dead were very like the superstition of the Gentiles, she most willingly abstained from it. And in lieu of a basket filled with fruits of the earth, she had learned to bring to the oratories of the martyrs a heart full of more purified petitions, and to give all that she could to the poor; that so the communion of the Lord’s body might be rightly celebrated there, where, after the example of His passion, the martyrs had been sacrificed and crowned. 



Some modern. secular customs do not follow older Catholic ones.

A reminder:

Waking, which is a European custom, is approved and frequently done in connection with Catholic funeral parlors.

Three days are usually set aside, although in some cultures, it is a week, to pray the rosary daily for the soul in purgatory. Sometimes, if a priest can make the evening rosaries, he might join the family and friends
.
A funeral Requiem Mass with the remains present is the time not for celebrating the person's life, or for eulogies, but for sincere prayers for the dead. Most people who were practicing Catholics would need such prayers to be released from the pains of purgatory.

Later, one can have Memorial Masses for the dead. In earlier years, these were sung and black vestments were used. I remember, as I sang in the choir for these types of liturgies for years.
One can have Masses said, and one can do plenary indulgences for the dead and the rules for obtaining those are at the bottom of this post.


One should visit the grave out of respect, but not over-indulging in grief. Our family would go once a year, using on Memorial Day, or November 2nd, weather permitting. Remember, purgatory is purgation for not dealing with even venial sins and imperfections, for not facing and being purged of one's predominant fault.

Remember, only the Church through apostolic succession can forgive sins in Confession, and only the Church through the Pope can grant plenary and partial indulgences for the dead (in this post, I am not referring to one's ability to gain an indulgence for one's self). Here is the Canon Law on this point. Only practicing Catholics, in other words, those in sanctifying grace, can gain indulgences as well. (I am not, also, referring to the great indulgence of Divine Mercy Sunday). Here, also, is a clarifying statement from St. John Paul II. http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/john_paul_ii/audiences/1999/documents/hf_jp-ii_aud_29091999_en.html

Canon Law--CHAPTER IV.

INDULGENCES

Can.  992 An indulgence is the remission before God of temporal punishment for sins whose guilt is already forgiven, which a properly disposed member of the Christian faithful gains under certain and defined conditions by the assistance of the Church which as minister of redemption dispenses and applies authoritatively the treasury of the satisfactions of Christ and the saints.

Can.  993 An indulgence is partial or plenary insofar as it partially or totally frees from the temporal punishment due to sins.

Can.  994 Any member of the faithful can gain partial or plenary indulgences for oneself or apply them to the dead by way of suffrage.

Can.  995 §1. In addition to the supreme authority of the Church, only those to whom this power is acknowledged in the law or granted by the Roman Pontiff can bestow indulgences.

§2. No authority below the Roman Pontiff can entrust the power of granting indulgences to others unless the Apostolic See has given this expressly to the person.

Can.  996 §1. To be capable of gaining indulgences, a person must be baptized, not excommunicated, and in the state of grace at least at the end of the prescribed works.

§2. To gain indulgences, however, a capable subject must have at least the general intention of acquiring them and must fulfill the enjoined works in the established time and the proper method, according to the tenor of the grant.

Can.  997 As regards the granting and use of indulgences, the other prescripts contained in the special laws of the Church must also be observed.
\


First, here is the CCC on indulgences in general:
 
X. INDULGENCES
1471 The doctrine and practice of indulgences in the Church are closely linked to the effects of the sacrament of Penance.
What is an indulgence?
"An indulgence is a remission before God of the temporal punishment due to sins whose guilt has already been forgiven, which the faithful Christian who is duly disposed gains under certain prescribed conditions through the action of the Church which, as the minister of redemption, dispenses and applies with authority the treasury of the satisfactions of Christ and the saints."81
"An indulgence is partial or plenary according as it removes either part or all of the temporal punishment due to sin."82 The faithful can gain indulgences for themselves or apply them to the dead.83
The punishments of sin
1472 To understand this doctrine and practice of the Church, it is necessary to understand that sin has a double consequence. Grave sin deprives us of communion with God and therefore makes us incapable of eternal life, the privation of which is called the "eternal punishment" of sin. On the other hand every sin, even venial, entails an unhealthy attachment to creatures, which must be purified either here on earth, or after death in the state called Purgatory. This purification frees one from what is called the "temporal punishment" of sin. These two punishments must not be conceived of as a kind of vengeance inflicted by God from without, but as following from the very nature of sin. A conversion which proceeds from a fervent charity can attain the complete purification of the sinner in such a way that no punishment would remain.84
1473 The forgiveness of sin and restoration of communion with God entail the remission of the eternal punishment of sin, but temporal punishment of sin remains. While patiently bearing sufferings and trials of all kinds and, when the day comes, serenely facing death, the Christian must strive to accept this temporal punishment of sin as a grace. He should strive by works of mercy and charity, as well as by prayer and the various practices of penance, to put off completely the "old man" and to put on the "new man."85
In the Communion of Saints
1474 The Christian who seeks to purify himself of his sin and to become holy with the help of God's grace is not alone. "The life of each of God's children is joined in Christ and through Christ in a wonderful way to the life of all the other Christian brethren in the supernatural unity of the Mystical Body of Christ, as in a single mystical person."86
1475 In the communion of saints, "a perennial link of charity exists between the faithful who have already reached their heavenly home, those who are expiating their sins in purgatory and those who are still pilgrims on earth. Between them there is, too, an abundant exchange of all good things."87 In this wonderful exchange, the holiness of one profits others, well beyond the harm that the sin of one could cause others. Thus recourse to the communion of saints lets the contrite sinner be more promptly and efficaciously purified of the punishments for sin.
1476 We also call these spiritual goods of the communion of saints the Church's treasury, which is "not the sum total of the material goods which have accumulated during the course of the centuries. On the contrary the 'treasury of the Church' is the infinite value, which can never be exhausted, which Christ's merits have before God. They were offered so that the whole of mankind could be set free from sin and attain communion with the Father. In Christ, the Redeemer himself, the satisfactions and merits of his Redemption exist and find their efficacy."88
1477 "This treasury includes as well the prayers and good works of the Blessed Virgin Mary. They are truly immense, unfathomable, and even pristine in their value before God. In the treasury, too, are the prayers and good works of all the saints, all those who have followed in the footsteps of Christ the Lord and by his grace have made their lives holy and carried out the mission the Father entrusted to them. In this way they attained their own salvation and at the same time cooperated in saving their brothers in the unity of the Mystical Body."89
Obtaining indulgence from God through the Church
1478 An indulgence is obtained through the Church who, by virtue of the power of binding and loosing granted her by Christ Jesus, intervenes in favor of individual Christians and opens for them the treasury of the merits of Christ and the saints to obtain from the Father of mercies the remission of the temporal punishments due for their sins. Thus the Church does not want simply to come to the aid of these Christians, but also to spur them to works of devotion, penance, and charity.90
1479 Since the faithful departed now being purified are also members of the same communion of saints, one way we can help them is to obtain indulgences for them, so that the temporal punishments due for their sins may be remitted.
1498 Through indulgences the faithful can obtain the remission of temporal punishment resulting from sin for themselves and also for the souls in Purgatory. 




Rules current for obtaining a plenary indulgence for someone in purgatory (or one's self).

 A plenary indulgence can be gained only once a day. In order to obtain it, the faithful Catholic must, in addition to being in the state of sanctifying grace:

 —have the interior disposition of complete detachment from sin, even venial sin;

have sacramentally confessed sins within three weeks (20 days);

receive the Holy Eucharist on the same day as praying for the soul.

pray for the intentions of the Supreme Pontiff.

 One Our Father, one Hail Mary, and one Glory Be are sufficient, although many Catholics do three.