Wednesday, December 31, 2014

Happy Θεοτόκος


Today, the Octave day of Christmas, we celebrate the Solemnity of the divine maternity. January 1st is the day of Mary, the Mother of God (previously October 11). So that New Year's Day is Mother's Day! This is Mother's Day for the Church.

It was the year 431 that the Church at the Council of Ephesus (present day Turkey) gave the Virgin Mary the title of “Mother of God.” The logic of the council fathers was that since Christ is truly the God the Son in Person, Mary, being His Mother, is the Mother of God, really. He was not born through Mary but from Mary (natus ex Maria Virgine—Nicea 325).

Thus, Mary is the physical source of Christmas having given flesh to the Word made flesh. The Word was made flesh of the flesh of Mary alone. The Word made flesh was made flesh of her flesh and in her flesh. Therefore, without the Virgin Mother there is no Christmas and no New Year 2015 Anno Domini.

Mary is the Mother of God: She conceives God when she receives God the Son by the overshadowing and power of the Holy Spirit, she bears (carries) God, she nourishes God for nine months gestation in her virginal womb, she gives birth to God (delivers Him), she hugs God, kisses God, breast feeds God, keeps God clean and warm. She sings to God. She, with Saint Joseph provides for God and protect Him. She loves God—Christ our Lord.

There is an ancient hymn about the Most Blessed and Ever Virgin Mother of God's inseparable biological relationship and connection with the Incarnate Word.

Mary the dawn, Christ the Perfect Day;

Mary the gate, Christ the Heavenly Way!

Mary the root, Christ the Mystic Vine;

Mary the grape, Christ the Sacred Wine!

Mary the wheat, Christ the Living Bread!

Mary the stem, Christ the Rose blood-red!

Mary the beacon, Christ the Haven's Rest;

Mary the mirror, Christ the Vision Blest!

Mary the mother, Christ the Mother's Son

By all things blest while endless ages run. Amen.

May we love her, the most blessed of all women who is so connected to the Incarnate God and remains inseparably united with Him in eternity. She is the Mother par excellence: the divine Mother—Mother of all motherhood, the Mother of our only Love, Mother of our Thrill, Mother of every beauty and all true love and peace, happiness and joy; Mother of the God Child—Mother of our Christmas and of our New Year. Mother of our days and years is Holy Mary, Mother of God. Mother of the Church therefore and Mother of all humanity; she is your Mother and my Mother this great Mother of God.

“We love you Blessed Mother: Most Ever Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of God. We love you so much in our union with your magnanimous and constant love for your Son, Christ our Lord, the Son of God.”

THE SYSTEMATIC DESTRUCTION OF AMERICAN EDUCATION


Below is an informative article on the history of the present day National Education Association (NEA) and the movement to keep the poor servile and ignorant by mandating national standards which eliminate solid training in the Latin and Greek classics, previously the very basis of primary grammar school education. Solution: dissolve the US Department of Education and the NEA and outlaw all federal standards of education or otherwise meddling in States' standards of education.

Rev. Frederick T. Gates

“In our dream we have limitless resources, and the people yield themselves with perfect docility to our molding hand. The present educational conventions fade from our minds; and, unhampered by tradition, we work our own good will upon a grateful and responsive rural folk. We shall not try to make these people or any of their children into philosophers or men of learning or of science. We are not to raise up among them authors, orators, poets, or men of letters. We shall not search for embryo great artists, painters, musicians. Nor will we cherish even the humbler ambition to raise up from among them lawyers, doctors, preachers, statesmen, of whom we now have ample supply."

- Rev. Frederick T. Gates, Business Advisor to John D. Rockefeller Sr., 1913 [1]

The current American school system took root around the turn of the century. In 1903, John D. Rockefeller founded the General Education Board, which provided major funding for schools across the country and was especially active in promoting the State-controlled public school movement.

Rockefeller Education Board 1915
The General Education Board was not interested in encouraging critical thinking. Rather, its focus was on organizing children and creating reliable, predictable, obedient citizens. As award-winning former teacher John Gatto puts it, “school was looked upon from the first part of the 20th Century as a branch of industry and a tool of governance.” The Rockefellers, along with other financial elite and their philanthropic organizations (such as the Gates, Carnegies, and Vanderbilts) have been able to mold society by funding and pushing compulsory state schooling for the masses.

Here’s a timeline to show the radical shift in education and the influence of the financial elite.

Pre 1840: Literacy Rates High, Schools Predominantly Private and Locally Controlled

Up until the 1840’s, the American school system was mainly private, decentralized, and home schooling was common. Americans were well educated and literacy rates were high.

1852: Massachusetts Passes First Mandatory Attendance Law

1902: John D. Rockefeller Creates the General Education Board

At the ultimate cost of $129 million, the General Education Board provided major funding for schools across the nation and was very influential in shaping the current school system.

Rockefeller and clergyman Frederick T. Gates found the General Education Board in early 1902 and begin throwing vast sums of money to anyone whose theories coincided with their goals. Men like Stanley Hall, John Dewey, and Edward Thorndike become overnight sensations thanks to Rockefeller’s and his board’s financial backing.

1905: Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching is Founded

1906: NEA Becomes a Federally Chartered Association

1913: Frederick T. Gates, Director of Charity for the Rockefeller Foundation, Writes “In our dream…the people yield themselves with perfect docility to our molding hand”
Frederick T. Gates wrote in The Country School of Tomorrow, Occasional Papers Number 1:

“In our dream we have limitless resources, and the people yield themselves with perfect docility to our molding hand. The present educational conventions fade from our minds; and, unhampered by tradition, we work our own good will upon a grateful and responsive rural folk. We shall not try to make these people or any of their children into philosophers or men of learning or of science. We are not to raise up among them authors, orators, poets, or men of letters. We shall not search for embryo great artists, painters, musicians. Nor will we cherish even the humbler ambition to raise up from among them lawyers, doctors, preachers, statesmen, of whom we now have ample supply."

1914: National Education Association (NEA) Alarmed by the Activity of the Carnegie and Rockefeller Foundations
At an annual meeting in St. Paul Minnesota, a resolution was passed by the Normal School Section of the NEA. An excerpt stated:

“We view with alarm the activity of the Carnegie and Rockefeller Foundations—agencies not in any way responsible to the people—in their efforts to control the policies of our State educational institutions, to fashion after their conception and to standardize our courses of study, and to surround the institutions with conditions which menace true academic freedom and defeat the primary purpose of democracy as heretofore preserved inviolate in our common schools, normal schools, and universities.”

1917: NEA Reorganizes and Moves to Washington DC

The NEA is the largest labor union in the U.S., representing public school teachers and other school faculty and staff. It generally opposes merit pay, school vouchers, accountability reforms, and more.

1918: Every State Requires Students to Complete Elementary School

1932: “Eight Year Study” – Largely funded by Carnegie Corporation of New York and the General Education Board
This laid the groundwork for education reform and the schooling system we have today.

1946: Rockefeller Foundation grants the General Education Board $7.5 billion

1953: Reece Committee of the US House of Representatives Reveals Agenda of Carnegie Endowment and Rockefeller Foundation on Education
“It seems incredible that the trustees of typically American fortune-created foundations should have permitted them to be used to finance ideas and practices incompatible with the fundamental concepts of our Constitution. Yet there seems evidence that this may have occurred.”

-Norman Dodd, Director of Research, Special Committee to Investigate Tax-Exempt Foundations, 1954 [2]

1968: Edith Roosevelt’s Article “The Foundation Machine” Indicts Carnegie Funded Textbooks

Carnegie funded “Programmed Textbooks” were distributed to “culturally deprived areas.” Edith Roosevelt stated that “these young children are being indoctrinated with a pattern of anti-social ideas that will completely and violently alienate them from the mainstream of American middle-class values.”

1979: US Department of Education Created

1986: Carnegie Teaching Panel Charts New Teacher Framework & Provides $900,000 in Grants for Reforms
2003: 14% of American Adults are Illiterate

The National Assessment of Adult Literacy (NAAL) administered tests which revealed 14% of US residents would have extreme difficulty with reading and written comprehension. In 2003, some 30 million American adults had Below Basic prose literacy, 27 million had Below Basic document literacy, and 46 million had Below Basic quantitative literacy.

Related Links:

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

http://www.wealthbuildingcourse.com/devastating-effect-education-system-wealth.html

http://www.schoolandstate.org/Case/case1.htm

http://www.deliberatedumbingdown.com/


[1] Frederick T. Gates, "The Country School of Tomorrow," Occasional Papers, no.1 (New York: General Education Board, 1913), p. 6.

[2] http://www.scribd.com/doc/3768227/Dodd-Report-to-the-Reece-Committee-on-Foundations-1954

Tuesday, December 30, 2014

Spiro Agnew (Nixon's Vice President) Resigned Because of Death Threat!


This video is worth recording as rare testimony, at the highest level, to the corruption in Washington during the Nixon years. Make your own recording of this video and pass it on. It is a gem which even gives incidental testimony on how easy it would be to eliminate Castro!





On Blogger Boredom


If you get bored blogging, you are a boring blogger.

+Pray.
+Socialize.
+Volunteer.
+Give alms.
+Fast.
+Read a book.
+Learn a new language.

AND keep on blogging!

De Auctoritate and Why I Love Blogs


Why is it that men depend so much upon "experts" (e.g. Fox, MSNBC) in their investigation of the simplest human affairs, while for knowledge of the highest supernatural questions they rely simply upon their own wit?

Contempt for bloggers is unreasonable if you think that any Tom, Dick and Harry can infallibly interpret the Word of God.

Sola scriptura and sola fide really mean you are the only and the highest expert. That is an untenable position. You will never know the Truth by yourself. It must be corroborated! You need the Church to assure you that you have Christ!

If you can depend on your own lights to judge the things of God, it should be nothing for you to judge the affairs of men without any further experts.

As for myself. I will primarily depend upon the Magisterium of the Catholic Church and the God-guided Pope for the things of God, and with that sure Light from God I will fearlessly seek the truth of men considering the soundness of the arguments and the proofs, regardless of the source, always checking it against the truth revealed by God. As much as possible, in the affairs of men, avoid authorities! Search for the truth everywhere! In matters of opinion I want to hear all the opinions insofar as it is reasonably possible.

I want to know the truth, even if it's anonymous. Because, ultimately, the Truth is a Person: Jesus Christ. The truth is always a work of the Holy Spirit! Insofar as you have the Truth you have God.

And the ultimate Truth is Him with you: God is love. He gives Himself to you when you know Him. And then you become an authority because He is with you, you being with Him. That is what Catholics mean by the Communion of Saints. Those who are closest to God share in His attributes. You can tell a man by his friends. If God is with you than you become like God.

Why the Lord Was Conceived of an Espoused Virgin Rather Than of One Who was Simply a Virgin: Saint Jerome


Four Reasons

1. That the lineage of Mary might be traced through the genealogy of Joseph;

2. Lest she be stoned by the Jews as an adulteress;

3. That she might have a protector in the flight into Egypt...

4. That the birth might take place unknown to the devil who would suppose that this child was born of a wife, not of a virgin (St. Ignatius)


Below is the full unedited text of the commentary from the Traditional Breviary (1960) Matins of the Vigil of Christmas.

Homily of Saint Jerome, Priest
Book of Commentaries, on Matth. i.
Why was the Lord conceived of an espoused virgin rather than of a free? First, for the sake of the genealogy of Mary, which we have obtained by that of Joseph. Secondly, because she was thus saved from being stoned by the Jews as an adulteress. Thirdly, that Himself and His mother might have a guardian on their journey into Egypt. To these, Ignatius, the martyr of Antioch, has added a fourth reason namely, that the birth might take place unknown to the devil, who would naturally suppose that Mary had conceived by Joseph.

Reading 2
Before they came together, she was found with child of the Holy Ghost. She was found, that is, by Joseph, but by no one else. He had already almost an husband's privilege to know all that concerned her. Before they came together. This doth not imply that they ever did come together the Scripture merely showeth the absolute fact that up to this time they had not done so.

Reading 3
Then Joseph her husband, being a just man, and not willing to make her a public example, was minded to put her away privily. If any man be joined to a fornicatress they become one body; and according to the law they that are privy to a crime are thereby guilty. How then can it be that Joseph is described as a just man, at the very time he was compounding the criminality of his espoused? It must have been that he knew her to be pure, and yet understood not the mystery of her pregnancy, but, while he wondered at that which had happened, was willing to hold his peace.

Monday, December 29, 2014

Ali Agca's Confession of Faith


Last Saturday (the thirty first anniversary of the pardoning prison encounter of 27 December 1983) Pope Saint John Paul II's attempted assassin Ali Agca went spontaneously to deposit two bouquets of white roses at the tomb of his would be victim, confessing his faith in Jesus Christ and in the miracle of Fatima of which he admits to have been a major player.

"I have returned to the place of the miracle. This is where the third secret of Fatima was fulfilled. With the attempted murder of the Pope I did that miracle...I have returned thirty four years later to Rome to proclaim that we are in the end times. The Virgin of Fatima announced the end of the world. I am very happy to be in Saint Peter's Square, the place of the miracle and of Christianity. Praised be Jesus Christ, the only Redeemer of humanity."

Amazing!

Lumen Fidei Argentina.

Original Article by Adn Kronos.

Holy Magnanimity


There may be others but here are some of the better known saint 'greats.' 


St. Albert the Great 
St. Anthony the Great 
St. Basil the Great 
St. Gertrude the Great 
St. Gregory the Great 
St. Leo the Great
St. Nicholas the Great

There is also St. Athanasius who was given the title of 'the Great' by the Orthodox Church but does not usually have that title in the Catholic Church.

Go here regarding the three pontiff "greats".

Wikipedia "List of People Known as The Great".

Sunday, December 28, 2014

Life = Sharing


A simple and far reaching thought for today's Feast of the Holy Family on this forth day of Christmas.

Friday, December 26, 2014

Bring Your Brain (and Your Heart) With You


If people just did this one thing for parties and family gatherings it would make for much more meaningful and deep merry making.

It would probably mean leaving all the gadget crutches in the car and objecting to things that are objectionable and suggesting activities that are truly social and up-building rather than doing what "everyone" does.

Wednesday, December 24, 2014

Bosses' Examination of Conscience: Pope Francis Style


Pope Francis on Monday, 22 December 2014, in the annual Advent Papal address to the Roman Curia takes a page from the Desert Fathers with an 15-point examination of conscience against the dangers--the occupational hazards--of those in charge of others (i.e. bosses, clerics, ecclesiastics).

Advent is a penitential season preparing to receive the Lord Jesus with an honest examination of conscience and a worthy Confession of sins.

Vatican City, 22 December 2014 (VIS) – This morning in the Clementine Hall the Holy Father held his annual meeting with the Roman Curia (CTV video on-demand) to exchange Christmas greetings with the members of its component dicasteries, councils, offices, tribunals and commissions. 

“Tu sei sopra i cherubini, tu che hai cambiato la miserabile condizione del mondo quando ti sei fatto come noi” (Sant'Atanasio)

“It is good to think of the Roman Curia as a small model of the Church, that is, a body that seeks, seriously and on a daily basis, to be more alive, healthier, more harmonious and more united in itself and with Christ”.
“The Curia is always required to better itself and to grow in communion, sanctity and wisdom to fully accomplish its mission. However, like any body, it is exposed to sickness, malfunction and infirmity. … I would like to mention some of these illnesses that we encounter most frequently in our life in the Curia. They are illnesses and temptations that weaken our service to the Lord”, continued the Pontiff, who after inviting all those present to an examination of conscience to prepare themselves for Christmas, listed the most common Curial ailments:
1. The first is “the sickness of considering oneself 'immortal', 'immune' or 'indispensable', neglecting the necessary and habitual controls. A Curia that is not self-critical, that does not stay up-to-date, that does not seek to better itself, is an ailing body. … It is the sickness of the rich fool who thinks he will live for all eternity, and of those who transform themselves into masters and believe themselves superior to others, rather than at their service”.
2. The second is “'Martha-ism', or excessive industriousness; the sickness of those who immerse themselves in work, inevitably neglecting 'the better part' of sitting at Jesus' feet. Therefore, Jesus required his disciples to rest a little, as neglecting the necessary rest leads to stress and agitation. Rest, once one who has brought his or her mission to a close, is a necessary duty and must be taken seriously: in spending a little time with relatives and respecting the holidays as a time for spiritual and physical replenishment, it is necessary to learn the teaching of Ecclesiastes, that 'there is a time for everything'”.
3. Then there is “the sickness of mental and spiritual petrification: that of those who, along the way, lose their inner serenity, vivacity and boldness and conceal themselves behind paper, becoming working machines rather than men of God. … It is dangerous to lose the human sensibility necessary to be able to weep with those who weep and to rejoice with those who rejoice! It is the sickness of those who lose those sentiments that were present in Jesus Christ”.
4. “The ailment of excessive planning and functionalism: this is when the apostle plans everything in detail and believes that, by perfect planning things effectively progress, thus becoming a sort of accountant. … One falls prey to this sickness because it is easier and more convenient to settle into static and unchanging positions. Indeed, the Church shows herself to be faithful to the Holy Spirit to the extent that she does not seek to regulate or domesticate it. The Spirit is freshness, imagination and innovation”.
5. The “sickness of poor coordination develops when the communion between members is lost, and the body loses its harmonious functionality and its temperance, becoming an orchestra of cacophony because the members do not collaborate and do not work with a spirit of communion or as a team”.
6. “Spiritual Alzheimer's disease, or rather forgetfulness of the history of Salvation, of the personal history with the Lord, of the 'first love': this is a progressive decline of spiritual faculties, that over a period of time causes serious handicaps, making one incapable of carrying out certain activities autonomously, living in a state of absolute dependence on one's own often imaginary views. We see this is those who have lost their recollection of their encounter with the Lord … in those who build walls around themselves and who increasingly transform into slaves to the idols they have sculpted with their own hands”.
7. “The ailment of rivalry and vainglory: when appearances, the colour of one's robes, insignia and honours become the most important aim in life. … It is the disorder that leads us to become false men and women, living a false 'mysticism' and a false 'quietism'”.
8. Then there is “existential schizophrenia: the sickness of those who live a double life, fruit of the hypocrisy typical of the mediocre and the progressive spiritual emptiness that cannot be filled by degrees or academic honours. This ailment particularly afflicts those who, abandoning pastoral service, limit themselves to bureaucratic matters, thus losing contact with reality and with real people. They create a parallel world of their own, where they set aside everything they teach with severity to others and live a hidden, often dissolute life”.
9. The sickness of “chatter, grumbling and gossip: this is a serious illness that begins simply, often just in the form of having a chat, and takes people over, turning them into sowers of discord, like Satan, and in many cases cold-blooded murderers of the reputations of their colleagues and brethren. It is the sickness of the cowardly who, not having the courage to speak directly to the people involved, instead speak behind their backs”.
10. “The sickness of deifying leaders is typical of those who court their superiors, with the hope of receiving their benevolence. They are victims of careerism and opportunism, honouring people rather than God. They are people who experience service thinking only of what they might obtain and not of what they should give. They are mean, unhappy and inspired only by their fatal selfishness”.
11. “The disease of indifference towards others arises when each person thinks only of himself, and loses the sincerity and warmth of personal relationships. When the most expert does not put his knowledge to the service of less expert colleagues; when out of jealousy … one experiences joy in seeing another person instead of lifting him up or encouraging him”.
12. “The illness of the funereal face: or rather, that of the gruff and the grim, those who believe that in order to be serious it is necessary to paint their faces with melancholy and severity, and to treat others – especially those they consider inferior – with rigidity, hardness and arrogance. In reality, theatrical severity and sterile pessimism are often symptoms of fear and insecurity”.
13. “The disease of accumulation: when the apostle seeks to fill an existential emptiness of the heart by accumulating material goods, not out of necessity but simply to feel secure. … Accumulation only burdens and inexorably slows down our progress”.
14. “The ailment of closed circles: when belonging to a group becomes stronger than belonging to the Body and, in some situations, to Christ Himself. This sickness too may start from good intentions but, as time passes, enslaves members and becomes a 'cancer' that threatens the harmony of the Body and causes a great deal of harm – scandals – especially to our littlest brothers”.
15. Then, there is the “disease of worldly profit and exhibitionism: when the apostle transforms his service into power, and his power into goods to obtain worldly profits or more power. This is the disease of those who seek insatiably to multiply their power and are therefore capable of slandering, defaming and discrediting others, even in newspapers and magazines, naturally in order to brag and to show they are more capable than others”.
After listing these ailments, Pope Francis continued, “We are therefore required, at this Christmas time and in all the time of our service and our existence – to live 'speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love'”.
“I once read that priests are like airplanes: they only make the news when they crash, but there are many that fly. Many criticize them and few pray for them”, he concluded. “It is a very nice phrase, but also very true, as it expresses the importance and the delicacy of our priestly service, and how much harm just one priest who falls may cause to the whole body of the Church”.

Sunday, December 21, 2014

The Oldest Christmas Carol of Germany (c. 990)


Sei uns willkommen Herre Christ,
der Du unser aller Herre bist,
sei uns willkommen, lieber Herre,
Hier im Erdreiche recht in Ehrern, Kyrieleys. 

Be welcome to us Lord Christ, 
for you are Lord of us all, 
Be welcome to us, beloved Lord, 
Rule here in earth's kingdom with honor. Kyrie Eleison.

Saturday, December 20, 2014

Aspergillum (Holy Water Sprinkler/Bottle) Con't.

If you are a priest working with young families of immigrants you know that they love holy water and lots of it.

Ever trying to perfect the art of sprinkling so that they all get doused, and I economize my movement, and the aspergillum does not run dry, and that it should travel easily without spillage, with the most worthy materials possible, at the most reasonable price; I have come up with some household glass alternatives to the more expensive metallic oriental versions (of which I have a very nice small silver one from Tiffany & Co.), not to mention the ubiquitous "pen" versions (also vintage sterling silver).

I have used by my bedside for years this dignified (now old) perfume bottle (approx. 5 oz.).

What I am now beginning to use for the Latino prayer group and the Haitian prayer group, is the bottle from Louisiana Hot Sauce which I shall also bless for that purpose. I'm using the 12 oz. bottle. It comes in larger and smaller sizes. This is the largest one that fits comfortably in my hand (a bit larger than the oriental varieties). The price is right and it looks nice and you get some nice hot sauce as a primer to the durable bottle.


Friday, December 19, 2014

Cuba--USA Relations

Agnew, then Nixon, Were Eliminated Because Anti-Castro!

A Jesuit mediates between two communists.

That's my one line assessment of Obama's announcement regarding Cuba.

Cf. The New York Times (that communist, homosexualist, anti-Catholic monopoly on popular opinion).

Hard to process!  Here we go.

What was impossible for the liberators of the Soviet Union (prominent among whom were Pope Saint John Paul II and President Reagan) and for Papa Ratzinger (who in his Cardinal years all but solved the near schism of the ubiquitous Liberation Theologians of Latin America) now is flippantly set aside as a myth which does not need a solution. This is a problem on several levels.

The United States of America has always tolerated and now openly approves the criminal Castro regime, while it topples such lesser violators of international human rights laws as with the Grenada War, and the invasion of Panama with the arrest and imprisonment of its president Manuel Noriega (who at 80 is still rotting in prison); not to mention the Kuwait war and both Iraq wars.

The United States should have long ago done in Cuba (e.g. the Bay of Pigs betrayal) what it did in Grenada under President Reagan. It would take less than 24 hours to liberate Havana, which is indefensible (e.g. no mountains). Why this is not done has only one explanation, the real power in the USA (masonic and anti-Catholic) has always supported and loved communism and the Castro regime (with the notable exceptions of Kennedy, Nixon, Agnew and Reagan--most of whom were eliminated). New York has always treated the Castros like princes. They should have been arrested long ago, as was Pinochet! and now they are being legitimized! It's a scandal, a pro-communist scandal.

My father, a Cuban refugee, who came to the US in 1961, flew from New York to Miami for the Bay of Pigs invasion but retracted when he learned from a very influential friend that the CIA members organizing the operation were not to be trusted: they were, according to the report, "communists, homosexuals and gangsters!" The CIA designed that "invasion" to be sure to fail, and nobody cared!

To legitimize the Cuban government is to legalize plunder and torture. The Jews are still being compensated for the injustices committed against them in Germany while the dispossessed Cubans are expected to grin and bear this insult added to injury without any thought of justice, never mind mercy, for them.

But, this is all old history. At least since the Protestant Revolution it has been in vogue to violently and illegally dispossess, torture and kill--exterminate--Christian aristocracy in every land (Catholic or Orthodox) and the whole world applauds and supports the effort. But those crimes and the countless atrocities of the Leftist Communists are whitewashed, ignored or even praised. This is one more chapter in that book of the history written by the victors of a war lost long ago by the Church (beginning on Calvary!).

Our consolation is that Christ is the Lord and his mercy, not violence, rules the world (cf. Nine Days that Changed the World). We will complain against our enemies and demand retribution all the while knowing that the justice of this world needs the mercy of Christ.

If Chile's Pinochet Is A Torturer Then What Of Cuba's Castro?

...Cuba's Fidel Castro [is a brutalizer]. But the only criminal being pursued is one Augusto Pinochet, the 82-year-old general who ran Chile with an iron fist for 17 years.
Pinochet lies in a London clinic, recovering from back surgery and fighting an extradition request from Spain on charges of genocide, torture and terrorism. Castro, meanwhile, roams around freely.
Attending the Ibero-American summit in Portugal during the weekend, Castro basked in the red, Marxist glow of his 40th year as comandante, leader of one of the world's most repressive regimes.
On Tuesday, a Wall Street Journal editorial read my mind. It asked, ``Why not arrest Castro, too?''
If only.
Castro, you see, is the darling of the European left. He can do no wrong, no matter how many Cubans he has ordered killed, no matter how many political prisoners he holds in pens not fit for pigs and, certainly, no matter that in 40 long years he has never sought the people's vote in an island-wide election. Castro's record is atrociously worse than Pinochet's.
No matter. A Spanish magistrate has charged Pinochet under European anti-terrorism laws in the deaths of 94 people, including Spaniards and British nationals who lived in Chile when Pinochet ousted then-President Salvador Allende in 1973. More than 3,000 Chileans were killed, and others disappeared under Pinochet's right-wing dictatorship.
I'm no fan of Pinochet - or of Allende, who was democratically elected (with only 33 percent of the vote) but nonetheless followed Fidel's modus operandi. He confiscated private property, quashed free speech and created his own thought-control police to spy on neighbors and co-workers.
If Pinochet is to pay for the bloodspilled 25 years ago, what of the blood still spilling in Cuba?
What of the Marxist revolts that Castro tried to engineer in the 1970s in Portugal and Angola and his attempts to disrupt Latin America in guerrilla wars?
``I'm not afraid to go anywhere,'' Castro boasted Tuesday while in Merida, Spain.
As to Pinochet's predicament, Castro said, ``From a moral point of view, it's just. From a judicial stance, it's questionable, and from a political point of view, it will create a complicated situation in Chile.''
Not to mention a bad precedent for other dictators - si, comandante Castro?
If Chile - as painful as it must be for many of its citizens - is willing to leave Pinochet to his own demons, why is Spain intervening, particularly when Spain's democratic government never pursued those who committed atrocities under Gen. Francisco Franco?

Wednesday, December 17, 2014

Tuesday, December 16, 2014

Science Par Excellence Comes From Above


"...Philosophy is not a foundation or preparation for theology, nor does it clarify the language that theology uses; rather, it is employed for pedagogical purposes in order to make its subject matter more accessible...to the entire human race, which suffers from a defectum intellectus nostri (a defect of our mind), like the man born blind and like those who walk in tenebrae."

The subject matter of the other sciences is not more certain that that of theology but rather more apparent to us. Thus "Nothing prevents that which is more certain according to nature to be less certain for us, due to the weakness of our mind...Hence the doubt that comes to some with regard to the articles of the faith is not due to any lack of certitude in the articles but is due to the weakness of the human intellect."

"Through revelation, human beings are allowed to participate in a luminosity that would otherwise surpass them--the intense vision of the saints--and this participation amounts not so much to an abstract knowledge as to a 'science' by way of shared experience. How redolent of [Aquinas'] John commentary, of course, is this language of light and participation. Theology draws out in a disciplined and logically focused way the implications of this experience."

Barron, The Priority of Christ, pp. 151, 150.

Cf. The Commentary of Saint Thomas Aquinas to the Prologue of the Gospel of Saint John (Chapter 1:1-14).

A New Prelate for Argentina


Yeah,...we get it!

Studied shabbiness and apparent carelessness, all in the name of the poor!

Notice, though, the crown of thorns!


The Episcopal Ordination of
His Excellency Martin Fassi
Titular Bishop of Dionisiana
Auxiliary Bishop of San Isidro (Argentina)

Thursday, December 11, 2014
San Isidro
Cathedral of San Isidro the Worker

Monday, December 15, 2014

Relativism's Fundamental Error: Presumption of "Objectivity"

Why?

It's the same old "We're right!" syndrome.

The atheist suffers from the same delusion.

Q. 1. What exactly do you mean by "right" as opposed to "wrong?"

Q. 2. Once you have established the criteria of "right" you have made yourself God. Not even the Pope presumes to determine what is right. He simply claims to be guided by God in unerringly pointing out the right in matters of faith and morals, as promised Saint Peter and the Church, by Christ, the Word of God Himself.

"Enlightenment" men are most presumptuous: Descartes, Locke, Kant, Hegel, Nietzsche...They search for a sure foundation which they claim is not given. But their very conviction and enthusiasm in the search betrays them. They all presume that they stand above and beyond the realm of knowing as they begin their quest for knowledge. But whence their intuition about the search and what to search for and how to search for it, and acceptable and unacceptable means thereof? They are all complicated testimonies to the truth of the prologue of Saint John.

"In the beginning was the Word." And the Word is a Person: Relationship! The Word is God and God is Love: Three in One!

Their very speech betrays them!

Even the skeptic is biased and is always riddled with epistemological presumptions!

"Descartes implicitly encourages his disciple to be epistemologically wary of the historical, the physical, the particular. And by embarking upon a systematic undoing of the received cultural and intellectual heritage, he encourages an iconoclastic antitraditionalism in the one who seeks wisdom. Now all of these Cartesian stances may be helpful in certain circumstances, but it is by no means obvious that they are the attitudes of the unprejudiced knower, simply seeking the truth. In fact, they come up out of Descartes own desires, life history, frustrations, and cultural setting--and they should be assessed as such. They should certainly not be compared favorably to the prejudices and assumptions of the Christian knower."
                                                                                                     Barron, The Priority of Christ, p. 151.

The difference between the atheist and the Christian is that the Christian knows believes and professes that he believes. The Christian knows what he is about.

The atheist is a believer and does not know it! He is a believer in denial: the haughtiest of believers and the most hypocritical (hypo-critical) of men for he pretends to stand above it all while being the greatest absolutist. He is an intellectual terrorist! Tears down and never builds while presuming to be "right."

It's the age old "non serviam!" of Satan. And Saint Michael expels him and all the demons and banishes them to Hell with his most appropriate and intellectually satisfying "Who is Like God" = "Micheal."

Knowledge of reality demands a response to relativism, it must be answered and corrected!

If everything is relative how can you talk of "everything?" Surely your evaluation is skewed. What you really mean is that only your perspective is the valid one and every opposing position is biased. You are the only one who is unbiased. But that is precisely what the Popes have always claimed as their unique privilege, with all believers! Welcome to the club of absolutism!

The Truth does indeed exist, His name is Jesus Christ and He has entrusted Himself exclusively to the care of the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church in this world, and, in eternity, to the will of the Father and the binding embrace of the Holy Spirit.

A Discourse on the True Nature of the Family for the Feast of the Holy Family

ADDRESS OF HIS HOLINESS BENEDICT XVI
TO THE PARTICIPANTS
IN THE ECCLESIAL DIOCESAN CONVENTION OF ROME

Basilica of St John Lateran
Monday, 6 June 2005


[T]he theme of our Convention is "Family and Christian community: formation of the person and transmission of the faith".
The assumption from which it is necessary to set out, if we are to understand the family mission in the Christian community and its tasks of forming the person and transmitting the faith, is always that of the meaning of marriage and the family in the plan of God, Creator and Saviour. This will therefore be the focus of my Reflection this evening and I will refer to the teaching of the Apostolic Exhortation Familiaris Consortio (Part II, nn. 12-16).
Marriage and the family are not in fact a chance sociological construction, the product of particular historical and financial situations. On the other hand, the question of the right relationship between the man and the woman is rooted in the essential core of the human being and it is only by starting from here that its response can be found.
In other words, it cannot be separated from the ancient but ever new human question: Who am I? What is a human being? And this question, in turn, cannot be separated from the question about God: Does God exist? Who is God? What is his face truly like?
The Bible gives one consequential answer to these two queries: the human being is created in the image of God, and God himself is love. It is therefore the vocation to love that makes the human person an authentic image of God: man and woman come to resemble God to the extent that they become loving people.
This fundamental connection between God and the person gives rise to another: the indissoluble connection between spirit and body: in fact, the human being is a soul that finds expression in a body and a body that is enlivened by an immortal spirit.
The body, therefore, both male and female, also has, as it were, a theological character: it is not merely a body; and what is biological in the human being is not merely biological but is the expression and the fulfilment of our humanity.
Likewise, human sexuality is not juxtaposed to our being as person but part of it. Only when sexuality is integrated within the person does it successfully acquire meaning.
Thus, these two links, between the human being with God and in the human being, of the body with the spirit, give rise to a third: the connection between the person and the institution.
Indeed, the totality of the person includes the dimension of time, and the person's "yes" is a step beyond the present moment: in its wholeness, the "yes" means "always", it creates the space for faithfulness. Only in this space can faith develop, which provides a future and enables children, the fruit of love, to believe in human beings and in their future in difficult times.
The freedom of the "yes", therefore, reveals itself to be freedom capable of assuming what is definitive: the greatest expression of freedom is not the search for pleasure without ever coming to a real decision; this apparent, permanent openness seems to be the realization of freedom, but it is not true. The true expression of freedom is the capacity to choose a definitive gift in which freedom, in being given, is fully rediscovered.
In practice, the personal and reciprocal "yes" of the man and the woman makes room for the future, for the authentic humanity of each of them. At the same time, it is an assent to the gift of a new life.
Therefore, this personal "yes" must also be a publicly responsible "yes", with which the spouses take on the public responsibility of fidelity, also guaranteeing the future of the community. None of us, in fact, belongs exclusively to himself or herself: one and all are therefore called to take on in their inmost depths their own public responsibility.
Marriage as an institution is thus not an undue interference of society or of authority. The external imposition of form on the most private reality of life is instead an intrinsic requirement of the covenant of conjugal love and of the depths of the human person.
Today, the various forms of the erosion of marriage, such as free unions and "trial marriage", and even pseudo-marriages between people of the same sex, are instead an expression of anarchic freedom that are wrongly made to pass as true human liberation. This pseudo-freedom is based on a trivialization of the body, which inevitably entails the trivialization of the person. Its premise is that the human being can do to himself or herself whatever he or she likes: thus, the body becomes a secondary thing that can be manipulated, from the human point of view, and used as one likes. Licentiousness, which passes for the discovery of the body and its value, is actually a dualism that makes the body despicable, placing it, so to speak, outside the person's authentic being and dignity.
The truth about marriage and the family, deeply rooted in the truth about the human being, has been actuated in the history of salvation, at whose heart lie the words: "God loves his people". The biblical revelation, in fact, is first and foremost the expression of a history of love, the history of God's Covenant with humankind.
Consequently, God could take the history of love and of the union of a man and a woman in the covenant of marriage as a symbol of salvation history. The inexpressible fact, the mystery of God's love for men and women, receives its linguistic form from the vocabulary of marriage and the family, both positive and negative: indeed, God's drawing close to his people is presented in the language of spousal love, whereas Israel's infidelity, its idolatry, is designated as adultery and prostitution.
In the New Testament God radicalizes his love to the point that he himself becomes, in his Son, flesh of our flesh, a true man. In this way, God's union with humankind acquired its supreme, irreversible form.
Thus, the blue-print of human love is also definitely set out, that reciprocal "yes" which cannot be revoked: it does not alienate men and women but sets them free from the different forms of alienation in history in order to restore them to the truth of creation.
The sacramental quality that marriage assumes in Christ, therefore, means that the gift of creation has been raised to the grace of redemption. Christ's grace is not an external addition to human nature, it does not do violence to men and women but sets them free and restores them, precisely by raising them above their own limitations. And just as the Incarnation of the Son of God reveals its true meaning in the Cross, so genuine human love is self-giving and cannot exist if it seeks to detach itself from the Cross.
Dear brothers and sisters, this profound link between God and the human being, between God's love and human love, is also confirmed in certain tendencies and negative developments that have weighed heavily on us all. In fact, the debasement of human love, the suppression of the authentic capacity for loving, is turning out in our time to be the most suitable and effective weapon to drive God away from men and women, to distance God from the human gaze and heart.
Similarly, the desire to "liberate" nature from God leads to losing sight of the reality of nature itself, including the nature of the human being, reducing it to a conglomeration of functions so as to have them available at will to build what is presumed to be a better world and presumed to be a happier humanity. Instead, the Creator's design is destroyed, and so is the truth of our nature.
Even in the begetting of children marriage reflects its divine model, God's love for man. In man and woman, fatherhood and motherhood, like the body and like love, cannot be limited to the biological: life is entirely given only when, by birth, love and meaning are also given, which make it possible to say yes to this life.
From this point it becomes clear how contrary to human love, to the profound vocation of the man and the woman, are the systematic closure of a union to the gift of life and even more, the suppression or manipulation of newborn life.
No man and no woman, however, alone and single-handed, can adequately transmit to children love and the meaning of life. Indeed, to be able to say to someone "your life is good, even though I may not know your future", requires an authority and credibility superior to what individuals can assume on their own.
Christians know that this authority is conferred upon that larger family which God, through his Son Jesus Christ and the gift of the Holy Spirit, created in the story of humanity, that is, upon the Church. Here they recognize the work of that eternal, indestructible love which guarantees permanent meaning to the life of each one of us, even if the future remains unknown.
For this reason, the edification of each individual Christian family fits into the context of the larger family of the Church, which supports it and carries it with her and guarantees that it has, and will also have in the future, the meaningful "yes" of the Creator. And the Church is reciprocally built up by the family, a "small domestic church", as the Second Vatican Council called it (Lumen Gentiumn. 11; Apostolicam Actuositatemn. 11), rediscovering an ancient Patristic expression (cf. St John Chrysostom, In Genesim Serm. VI, 2; VII, 1).
In the same sense, Familiaris Consortio affirms that "Christian marriage... constitutes the natural setting in which the human person is introduced into the great family of the Church" (n. 15).
There is an obvious consequence to all this: the family and the Church - in practice, parishes and other forms of Ecclesial Community - are called to collaborate more closely in the fundamental task that consists, inseparably, in the formation of the person and the transmission of the faith.
We know well that for an authentic educational endeavour, communicating a correct theory or doctrine does not suffice. Something far greater and more human is needed: the daily experienced closeness that is proper to love, whose most propitious place is above all the family community, but also in a parish, movement or ecclesial association, in which there are people who care for their brothers and sisters because they love them in Christ, particularly children and young people, but also adults, the elderly, the sick and families themselves. The great Patron of educators, St John Bosco, reminded his spiritual sons that "education is something of the heart and that God alone is its master" (Epistolario, 4, 209).
The central figure in the work of educating, and especially in education in the faith, which is the summit of the person's formation and is his or her most appropriate horizon, is specifically the form of witness. This witness becomes a proper reference point to the extent that the person can account for the hope that nourishes his life (cf. I Pt 3: 15) and is personally involved in the truth that he proposes.
On the other hand, the witness never refers to himself but to something, or rather, to Someone greater than he, whom he has encountered and whose dependable goodness he has sampled. Thus, every educator and witness finds an unequalled model in Jesus Christ, the Father's great witness, who said nothing about himself but spoke as the Father had taught him (cf. Jn 8: 28).
This is the reason why prayer, which is personal friendship with Christ and contemplation in him of the face of the Father, is indispensably at the root of the formation of the Christian and of the transmission of the faith. The same is, of course, also true for all our missionary commitment, and particularly for the pastoral care of families: therefore, may the Family of Nazareth be for our families and our communities the object of constant and confident prayer as well as their life model.
Dear brothers and sisters, and especially you, dear priests, I am aware of the generosity and dedication with which you serve the Lord and the Church. Your daily work forming the new generations in the faith, in close connection with the sacraments of Christian initiation, as well as marriage preparation and offering guidance to families in their often difficult progress, particularly in the important task of raising children, is the fundamental way to regenerating the Church ever anew, and also to reviving the social fabric of our beloved city of Rome.
Continue, therefore, without letting yourselves be discouraged by the difficulties you encounter. The educational relationship is delicate by nature: in fact, it calls into question the freedom of the other who, however gently, is always led to make a decision. Neither parents nor priests nor catechists, nor any other educators can substitute for the freedom of the child, adolescent or young person whom they are addressing. The proposal of Christianity in particular challenges the very essence of freedom and calls it to faith and conversion.
Today, a particularly insidious obstacle to the task of educating is the massive presence in our society and culture of that relativism which, recognizing nothing as definitive, leaves as the ultimate criterion only the self with its desires. And under the semblance of freedom it becomes a prison for each one, for it separates people from one another, locking each person into his or her own "ego".
With such a relativistic horizon, therefore, real education is not possible without the light of the truth; sooner or later, every person is in fact condemned to doubting in the goodness of his or her own life and the relationships of which it consists, the validity of his or her commitment to build with others something in common.
Consequently, it is clear that not only must we seek to get the better of relativism in our work of forming people, but we are also called to counter its destructive predominance in society and culture. Hence, as well as the words of the Church, the witness and public commitment of Christian families is very important, especially in order to reassert the inviolability of human life from conception until its natural end, the unique and irreplaceable value of the family founded on marriage and the need for legislative and administrative measures that support families in the task of bringing children into the world and raising them, an essential duty for our common future. I also offer you my heartfelt thanks for this commitment.
I would like to entrust to you a last message concerning the care of vocations to the priesthood and to the consecrated life: we all know the Church's great need of them!
First of all, prayer is crucial in order that these vocations be born and reach maturity, and that those called will always continue to be worthy of their vocation; prayer should never be lacking in any family or Christian community.
However, the life witness of priests and men and women religious and their joy in having been called by the Lord is also fundamental.
Equally so is the essential example that children receive in their own family and the conviction of families themselves that for them too, the vocation of a child of theirs is a great gift from the Lord. Indeed, the choice of virginity for the love of God and the brethren, which is required for priesthood and for consecrated life, goes hand in hand with the estimation of Christian marriage: both, in two different and complementary ways, make visible in a certain way the mystery of God's Covenant with his people.
Dear brothers and sisters, I consign these thoughts to you as a contribution to your work in the evening sessions of the Convention, and later, during the coming pastoral year. I ask the Lord to give you courage and enthusiasm, so that our Church of Rome, each parish, religious community, association or movement, may participate more intensely in the joy and labours of the mission; thus, each family and the entire Christian community will rediscover in the Lord's love the key that opens the door of hearts and makes possible a true education in the faith and people's formation.
My affection and my Blessing go with you today and in the future.

© Copyright 2005 - Libreria Editrice Vaticana

    

The Middle Advent: In Spirit and in Power, mostly Invisible, in the Heart, Rest and Consolation


Here is a quote of Saint Bernard's Fifth Advent Sermon on the Three Advents.

"We know that the coming of the Lord is threefold: the third coming is between the other two and it is not visible in the way they are. At his first coming the Lord was seen on earth and lived among men, who saw him and hated him. 

"At his last coming All flesh shall see the salvation of our God, and They shall look on him whom they have pierced. In the middle, the hidden coming, only the chosen see him, and they see him within themselves; and so their souls are saved. The first coming was in flesh and weakness, the middle coming is in spirit and power, and the final coming will be in glory and majesty. 

"This middle coming is like a road that leads from the first coming to the last. At the first, Christ was our redemption; at the last, he will become manifest as our life; but in this middle way he is our rest and our consolation. 

"If you think that I am inventing what I am saying about the middle coming, listen to the Lord himself: If anyone loves me, he will keep my words, and the Father will love him, and we shall come to him. Elsewhere I have read: Whoever fears the Lord does good things. - but I think that what was said about whoever loves him was more important: that whoever loves him will keep his words. 

"Where are these words to be kept? In the heart certainly, as the Prophet says I have hidden your sayings in my heart so that I do not sin against you. Keep the word of God in that way: Blessed are those who keep it. 

"Let it penetrate deep into the core of your soul and then flow out again in your feelings and the way you behave; because if you feed your soul well it will grow and rejoice. Do not forget to eat your bread, or your heart will dry up. Remember, and your soul will grow fat and sleek. 

"If you keep God's word like this, there is no doubt that it will keep you, for the Son will come to you with the Father: the great Prophet will come, who will renew Jerusalem, and he is the one who makes all things new. For this is what this coming will do: just as we have been shaped in the earthly image, so will we be shaped in the heavenly image. 

"Just as the old Adam was poured into the whole man and took possession of him, so in turn will our whole humanity be taken over by Christ, who created all things, has redeemed all things, and will glorify all things"
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