Truth

What is truth?


This is the question Pilate asked Jesus while the answer was staring him in the face.  Truth is objective not relative, that is reality is grounded in God, not us.  The quicker we accept this, the better we can handle suffering.


The great tragedy of today is that truth has been replaced by preferences, goodness by whim and beauty by “fun.” In my 37 years of teaching, the overwhelming majority of students I encountered were of the belief that truth, goodness and beauty were relative: They were whatever you wanted to make of them. My conception of them may differ from yours, and this was to be celebrated, not lamented.


The reality is far different. We are in a severe moral crisis in which the eternal truths have been exchanged for temporary fads. We have been blinded into valuing quick fixes more than a permanent transformation.


If only we would open ourselves up to God through prayer and penance, we would be given the grace to see things as they truly are and the power to love as God wants us to. On our own, we are pitiably weak creatures, but with sanctifying grace, we can live the very life of God. This is extraordinarily beautiful.


Read rest

Tips for Confession

Some tips on going to confession from a priest who cares:
1. Prayerfully prepare! If you don't prepare, it's like practicing your Spanish at the ATM with a bunch of people waiting in line.
2. Prepare with an examination of conscience. Many different kinds are available — based on the Ten Commandments, the Virtues, your particular vocation, for adults, for children, etc. Prepare. Don't be that sinner who has to confess not being prepared to confess.
3. Think about what you've made friends with that is keeping you from a true friendship with God. Greed? Pride? Too much bacon? Selfishness? Lukewarmness? Seriously — think about you're sins with respect to whom or what you have favored more than God.
4. Be ready to repent! "I'm done with this, that and the other thing. I want to change and I trust in the Lord to help me!" That should be our disposition to the sacrament. Our faith and repentance unleash the mighty power of God's grace in the confession!
5. GO. TO. CONFESSION. DO IT! God promises mercy. He doesn't promise tomorrow.


Read Rest

Celibacy

In order to fulfill this mission of the Gospel it is necessary to free oneself from any earthly and human attachment. And seeing that this separation signifies the loss of what is taken for granted, Jesus promises a "recompense" that is more than appropriate.

Now, seeing that the Gospels were written between 40 and 70 A.D., their redactors would have been brought into a bad light if they had attributed to Jesus words that did not correspond to their conduct of life. Jesus, in fact, demands that those who have been made participants in his mission must also adopt his way of life.

But what does Paul mean, when in the first letter to the Corinthians (9:1, 4-6) he writes: "Am I not free? Am I not an apostle? . . . Do we not have the right to our food and drink? Do we not have the right to be accompanied by a wife, as the other apostles and the brethren of the Lord and Cephas? Or is it only Barnabas and I who have no right to refrain from working for a living?" Do not these questions and statements take it for granted that the apostles were accompanied by their wives?

One must proceed with caution here. The apostle's rhetorical questions referred to the right of the one who proclaims the Gospel to live at the expense of the community, and this also applies to the one who accompanies him.

And this obviously brings up the question of who this companion may be. The Greek expression "adelphén gynaìka" requires an explanation. "Adelphe" means sister. And here sister in the faith means a Christian, while "gyne" indicates - more generically - a woman, whether virgin or wife. In short, a female person. This makes it impossible to demonstrate that the apostles were accompanied by wives. Because if this were a case one would be unable to understand why an "adelphe" is distinctly spoken of as a sister, and therefore a Christian. As for the wife, it must be understood that the apostle left her at the time when he became part of the circle of disciples.


Link

The Devil's Tactics

In any relationship, the best two ways to combat temptation to get annoyed with someone is to have patience and to talk about it. Both are easier said than done.


Patience is a virtue not easily acquired, but it is one of the most fundamental virtues to living a life of peace and holiness. Without patience, we would daily fight about the littlest things and the relationship would fall apart soon after the honeymoon.


Yet, patience by itself is never enough in a healthy relationship. “Patience” could easily turn someone into a doormat whereby the other person walks on them on a daily basis. That is why communication is a most necessary key to living a happy and joy-filled marriage (or any type of relationship for that matter). If you do not talk about the things that are annoying you, then it is impossible for the other person to possibly change or to recognize their behavior.
To continue the example of not picking up your clothes, at first you can have a little patience, allowing the other person some leeway room, but if it is something that is perpetually bothering you, it must be talked about. It is a habit the can be changed.


It will be up to the couple to discuss and communicate what habits can be changed and what things will require a perpetual practice of patience.Some habits are easier to deal with than others. However, once the topic is out in the open, it can’t fester beneath the surface and become a greater problem down the road. Open communication is the key.


Link

Power of Silence

Silence is the beginning of prayer. It is the beginning of thought. It is the beginning of love. God is largely: silent. (Yet is anyone or thing remotely as powerful?)

In silence, Daniel knew God's Voice. God's Spirit leads men to silence and repentance. God's message to Nebuchadnezzar was conveyed through dreams -- in quiet. Silence leads to inspiration; it leads to understanding. It is rational. Yet, it is imaginative. Usually, it is calm. "Silence is often referred to in terms of space: the immensity inside, the cave of the heart, the oasis of quiet, the inner sanctuary, the interior castle, the sacred center where God dwells," notes one spiritual source.

There was the silence of the Manger. Silent night. It is a golden rule. Hold your tongue and you will hold your peace. Silencio. You don't usually regret what you have not said.

It is God's first language.

"Silence of the heart is necessary so you can hear God everywhere, in the closing of the door, in the person who needs you, in the birds that sing, in the animals," said Mother Teresa.

Link

Suffer in Mass

Going to Mass and worshipping God is not intended to be easy.  We are to suffer with Him as His loving action is represented on Calvary. 


The traditional Latin Mass is so obviously focused on God, directed to the adoration of Him, that one who is mentally present to what is happening is ineluctably drawn into the sacred mysteries, even if only at the simplest and most fundamental level of acknowledging the reality of God and adoring our Blessed Lord in the most Holy Sacrament. I am afraid to say that it is not clear at all that most Catholics attending most vernacular OF liturgies are ever confronted unequivocally and irresistibly with the reality of God and the demand for adoration. Or, to put it differently, the old liturgy forms these attitudes in the soul, whereas the new liturgy presupposes them. If you don’t have the right understanding and frame of mind, the Novus Ordo will do very little to give it to you, whereas the EF is either going to give it to you or drive you away. When you attend the EF, you are either subtly attracted by something in it, or you are put off by the demands it makes. Either way, lukewarmness is not an option.


Link

Blessings

People want their things blessed, and they are looking for that sign of the cross, that holy water, those words somewhere in the rite that actually ask God to bless the thing. The old Roman Ritual does this, and does it well. It also has good prayers that go beyond the mere act of blessing and seek to put the object in God’s wider plan of sanctity for us.

In the old ritual, there is a remarkable prayer for a telegraph—yes, a telegraph. It quite elaborately laid out psalms and antiphons, but I will only present here the prayer of gratitude at the end, just before blessing it with Holy Water.

To my mind, it is also perfect as a prayer, expression of gratitude, and blessing when using a computer or for the extended “cloud” of our computers, otherwise known as the Internet. The prayer is both thrilling and fitting. It is a minor masterpiece if you ask me. Though written sometime prior to 1945, and likely after 1830, its basic structure fits well what we do now with the Internet. There is probably one word that needs changing, and perhaps you can help by suggesting another word.

But without further drumrolls, here is the prayer, first in its Latin original, and then translated by Rev. Phillip Weller:

Deus qui ámbulas super pennas ventórum, et facis mirabília solus: concéde, ut per vim huic metállo índitam fulmíneo ictu celérius huc abséntia, et hinc álio praeséntia transmíttis; ita nos invéntis novis edócti, tua grátia opitulánte, prómptius et facílius ad te veníre valeámus. Per Christum Dóminum nostrum. Amen.

O God, who walkest upon the wings of the wind, and thou alone workest wonders! By the power inherent in this metal, thou dost bring hither distant things quicker than lightning, and transferest present things to distant places. Therefore grant that, instructed by new inventions, we may merit, by thy bounteous grace, to come with greater certainty and facility to thee. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.

Sign of the Cross + and sprinkling with Holy Water.

Magnificent. It almost paints a picture in the mind as the words go forth. Yes, such beauty and a picture of the swiftness of information going hither and yon, like lightning, or as on the wings of the wind! And may indeed this wondrous tool serve to draw us closer to God and not be corrupted by sinful curiosity, hostility, defamation, profanation, or pornographic and prurient temptations.

Link

God Who Suffers With Us

Typhoon Haiyan struck the Philippines in early November 2013. It was one of the strongest typhoons (cyclones) ever recorded. Tacloban was one of the hardest hit areas. In this video, you hear from Br. James Romero Santos a first hand account of the devastating destruction caused by this storm. The trial this massive typhoon brought to the people of the Philippines is still being dealt with today. For those who lost loved ones, it is the God who suffers with them that brings hope for a better future.
Link

Coversion

The pope is shaking things up.  He is not attempting to change doctrine. On all the core Catholic teachings, he is a absolutely straight-down-the-line orthodox Catholic. But he is also an evangelizer and a missionary.


What's missing from the picture, he says, is the merciful face of Christ. The church that heals the wounds, that raises people up, that nurtures them, that forgives them. And so what he's trying to do is to say, "Actually, that's the face of the church that needs to be presented."


Now, this isn't a PR exercise. What he's actually saying is people need to experience that before they are ready to accept the rest of it.


So what is conversion? Conversion is when somebody first experiences the love and mercy and forgiveness of God, and then, having assimilated that, then, as it were, chooses the Christian life, chooses the moral life, and so on. But you can't go to the second without the first.


Link

Becomming Men

The reemergence of true masculinity is the salvation of society, just as Christ is the true male role model. 

If there is one effect of the Crisis in the Church that gets very little play, it is the utter

destruction of boys and young men.

The Church – in being a loving Mother to them – should want them to grow up and be

good MEN.

Instead – in the constant pandering to the culture of the sissified male – many leaders in

the Church have thrown this and the previous generation of Catholic males under the bus.

Video