The Cohort Of Mary (C.O.M): Recent Episodes
Vinndex
The objective of this blog and Podcast is to focus primarily on issues having to do with the Roman Catholic Faith, but also to have fun. I enjoy a Cigar or Pipe, maybe even a drink while the conversation takes place. so sit back and enjoy!
Well, today the highest court in America decided to endorse gay marriage by providing such unions with the same benefits as an actual married couple. That story can be read here- http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_SUPREME_COURT_GAY_MARRIAGE?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2013-06-26-10-20-13There are many issues here to consider, and the giving of certain benefits is not really the largest of them, nor is it the more important. The issue of benefits is simply a matter of definition. In order to receive benefits, one must meet certain standards which award the benefit. For example, I recently signed up for Chesterton magazine. The site said that I can get 20% off anything I buy in the store on the website. In other words if a person is a member, you get this benefit. All of this hangs in the definition of what a member of their web site is. The answer is that I sign the form, pay my fine, then I am a member. Such definitions are created by the owner of the site, organization, or institute. The members do not get to change the definition of what a member is, the members would cease to be members and would then become equal to the owner. Now, in the case of such a thing as a news paper or magazine, the change of definitions are acceptable, in the moral and ethical sense because it is based on the mind of another human being. Yet, in the case of nature no human or human institution has the license to simply change the definition. How we perceive the world around us may change, but our perception does not affect the thing in itself, that is, its nature or its essence. The human person is not defined by governments. Governments can either endorse or oppose what a human person is, but no matter what attempts they make to be the supreme authority; though they may call themselves a supreme court, the power does not lie in their hands. This is because the definition of "human" "rights" and "marriage" are all given to us by the one who owns or creates those things. It is funny, how we are so set on claiming ownership of things. The liberal ceases to be one when it comes to his own property. "I am the owner, I am its master!" is the cry that comes to mind when their property is threatened. There claim is not wrong, but no sooner do they claim to have a right to owner ship that they deny the right of ownership to God. A right is not something some man named Jefferson made up. A right cannot be proven empirically. It is a metaphysical reality, which is to say it is above the mere physical. It is more than that, it is a spiritual reality that is given and defined by God. The only way rights can be protected from the mob is that it is objective, and not in our hands to change. Take God out of the equation, that is to say divorce religion and God from everything else, and not only are we no longer protected from the tyranny of subjectivity, but also lose the ability to be rational. God gives us an intelligent soul. Our ability to take in knowledge, to understand, and to be rational is a faculty of the soul. Refuse God, and the mind is darkened. Thus rights are not given or taken by government, only suppressed or endorsed; it is God who gives and defines such a thing as a right. Marriage is one of those rights; and those who partake in homosexual acts, which by the way homosexuality is not a state of beingbut rather an action and those who are committing the act are labeled homosexual, are not and have never been denied the right of marriage. They are just as free as anyone else to marry. The government has not denied them the God defined, and God given, act of marriage. What the court has endorsed today, and proponents have rallied for, is not marriage. God defines marriage as between man and woman by the very act of creating man and woman. If God did not define it this way he very well would have left woman out of creation. If we are to look at man and woman from a merely Darwin eye certain questions arise. How can a species survive the concerns of ancient man, such as predators, when they must stop to give births? How can man avoid predators while bleeding spontaneously every month? My point is this, homosexuals by their very action and philosophy deems the opposite sex as not needed, and in the way; especially women. Today marriage was not redefined; it was ignored, or even attacked in order to establish something else. A person partaking in homosexual acts can marry anyone of the opposite sex they want. Should they choose to live a life that looks much like marriage with someone of the same sex, call it what you want, a civil union, but it is not a marriage. Not because I say so, but because God created us so and thus defined it so. Now, in ancient times and even now, governments endorsed actual marriage because it was socially and politically a good. Such unions begot stability as marriage brought with it children. With children, the parents would work to provide for them thus they worked harder, both for money and in their life. In other words they strove harder in virtue, though there idea of virtue may be different than our own; which in turn led to stronger communities and more people to tax and build the empire. Homosexual acts do not build up society because it rejoices in being barren. The same is true for any marriage that uses contraception as well. The statement the president made “discrimination enshrined in law." And "It treated loving, committed gay and lesbian couples as a separate and lesser class of people," is completely false, as I have just said nothing is being denied the homosexual. They have not been treated is lower, but as equal. A gay man is looked at as a man, who is equal, for that man to want a same sex union is to want something that is outside of nature; In other words he does not seek equal treatment, but special treatment. To say "you can now have a union with your same sex partner” does not lift them up but rather says they are different. Endorsement of unnatural acts among people only suppresses people. In place of rising them up, we say "no, stay down there"; by the very act of calling this union "Gay Marriage”, we are saying it is not marriage, we are saying it is different, and it is gay. It is a strange paradox that the more such things are endorsed the more the people are suppressed, and stagnated. My last line about the term “gay marriage” is not completely accurate, as it is not gay at all. Gay means happy, and the homosexual is not happy, or at least no more than a slave is happy. Yes, the chains are familiar, and it’s not so bad really once you get used to the chains. In fact these chains have a certain taste of security. The slave can depend on the chains to always be there. It is as if these chains are who the slave is, it is a part of there being. As G. K Chesterton saidinSt. Francis of Assisi, “the minute sex ceases to be a servant, it becomes a tyrant.” In the end, the homosexual is a slave and it is the Christian still fighting for his freedom. It is the Church that says “No, you are more than some disordered act. You are not your sin. You are a child of God, created in his image.” The mission of the Church and God fearing men and women is to uplift the one struggling with homosexual attraction. The war the Church is fighting is for the homosexual, not itself. The Church cannot be destroyed, nor can the family for as Chesterton also said, “We will not be able to destroy the family. We will merely destroy ourselves by disregarding the family.” So, to finish I am not sad because I feel the righteous has lost some great victory, rather because the homosexual and others like them, are the ones who have lost today, and God will only allow us so much time before the judgment.
In an article I read today on rawstory.com, Bill Donohue reacted to the resent statement of the Holy Father about a “Gay Lobby” in the Vatican. The statement by the Holy Father does not come as a surprise, really, to many Catholics. Mr. Donohue said as much, “Look, it’s no secret. You've got a nest of priests. You have them in the United States, you have them in seminaries, you have them in parishes-more so in the past certainly today.” I, as a seminarian in an undisclosed location, know firsthand of what I have refer to as the “Gay underground.” It is underground in the sense that is only spoken about in whispers, and only among friends. In seminary there were those whom we all but knew were of the “Gay lobby”, but it was something of which we could do nothing. If we speak out we run the risk of being punished in some form, up to and including being removed from seminary. This punishment did not mean they were protecting the “gay lobby”, at least not in every case, but rather homosexuality was something to be unspoken off. While I did not experience a direct endorsement of the behavior from faculty, it was at least not dealt with firmly enough by some. So, it was a life of picking and choosing battle. Seminary life has this feeling of a C.I.A drama, always cautious of what you say, where you say it..And is my room bugged? (Thanks allot Verizon).
I agree with Mr. Donohue calling this “lobby’ a “nest”. In my experience it really does work like a nest. What I mean is this, a lobby brings to mind an organized set of individuals, all working and acting together. I imagine weekly or monthly meetings to discuss the future plans and how the finances look. There is a call to order, with each member having to be recognized. “The chair acknowledges Mr. Smith.” “Thank you speaker, I would like to call for a vote on amendment 141, of the ‘how to act in seminary in order to not be caught” bill.” And so on… Rather it is more like nest, like that of some aggressive creature. Yes, these creatures do hunt in pacts, and are protected by their own, but it seems only at their local territory. There is no annual meeting and introducing and passing bills and amendments. Rather it is like minded men (and women), that simply unify. This is not to say the homosexual-the one committing the act- is an animal, but rather acts like one in the sense that they allow their passion to dominate them. To further clarify the point, any man or woman that allows any passion to rule is in fact acting as an animal. When tyrannical passion spreads and those infected unify, then no longer is it an oddity, but a tumor. If left unchecked it becomes cancer, and must be removed by the knife, and that is painful. It should also be stated that these passion controlled people do have a leader. This leader does indeed have many meetings, and does propose new actions to take. He guides them to each other, darkens there mind, closes their hearts to as much grace as possible in order ti fill them with his own “dark Grace”. The unseen leader who unofficially unifies all these people is Satan, and he is manipulating God’s beloved children. They are still created in the image of God, created by him, and in that sense all are his, though some still need adoption by baptism in order to be made fully his children. Yet, that is the point, the enemy wants to deny them that grace. The enemy is intelligent, and takes this more serious than we ever do. So, like a good tactician, he goes after the leadership. The Father, both spiritually and actually, is the head of the family. So the enemy, as he did in genesis, goes after the one every man yields to, the woman. In an actual family the good husband, though strong, tough, fearless, and uncompromising bends at the slightest glace of his wife. She means so much to him that he seeks her glance in all things, for what wars can he win without his lady to fight for? If she does not lay out his armor, shield, and sword for him, how will he hope to conquer? So thus the enemy tempts eve. This is seen in artificial birth control, Abortion, modern feminism, and so forth. This is also true in the Church by the degradation of the religious orders. The spirit of the world comes rushing in, and things like the habit are too traditional. In place of a strong religious presence, showing the world what a real woman and man is, we have compromise, and oh, what’s wrong with that? Thus now we have cancer in the Church, men being led into compromise, and into not being men. Women are now literally being pillaged (have you seen an abortion?), there womanhood mocked by modern feminism with its philosophy of wanting a woman to be a man. A woman must be a man by not having children, having the same job as a man, wearing the same clothes as a man, acting in the same way as a man, speaking the same way, and in the lesbian relationship declaring men completely unnecessary while trying to be that very thing they cannot be, a man. How can children learn to be a man or woman, when their parents are only one sex? The growing tide of evil in the world can be traced directly back to the lack of holiness in the Church. So no, it is not surprise, or secret that there is a “Gay lobby” in the Church, simply looks at the world around us. Whatever sin is occupying, that is to say has conquered, the world, the Church has not done enough to stop it. Yet, there is always hope, G. K Chesterton once said, and I am paraphrasing, “Hope is hoping when all is hopeless, otherwise it would not be a virtue”, and “Hope means hoping when everything seems hopeless.” I would say these last decades have been that of surgery. The many scandals, and open unceasing war against all things holy, has all been God and the scalpel. Now, we come to the cancer itself, the corruption of the leadership. Once the Church has recovered form her cancer, she will shine all the brighter, and her enemies better gut their fill, the culling is near.
Mr. Hoopes wrote an excellent tribute to priest. It is so good I realized that you would have some beautiful memories. Do you have any you want to share? Please leave a comment below.by TOM HOOPES: The greatest priestly action I have ever seen was at Mass on a hot summer Sunday at St. Mary’s Parish in New Haven, Conn.This was back before the parish had air conditioning. It was tough for the congregation, but worse for the visiting priest who said Mass in the summer. He had diabetes and some kind of degenerative nerve disorder that made his hands shake.Catholic Priest Hearing Confession & Praying the Rosary“It’s hot for you,” he would joke. “But I’m up here wearing a horse blanket!”This priest’s homilies were excellent, but the moment that is burned in my memory happened during the Eucharistic prayer.Father was slowing down through the first part of the prayer, like an old record player that needed to be cranked. When he started the consecration, it sounded like he was going to stop altogether.But after he started the consecration, it quickly became clear that nothing could make him stop.“Take this,” pause, “all of you,” pause, “and” … long pause … “eat it.”He took a long gasping breath and looked like he wouldn’t recover. A parishioner ran to his side. The priest made it clear he wasn’t about to leave the altar, so the parishioner brought a chair for him to rest on.“This … is … my … body … which will be … given up … for you.”He lifted the host with shaky hands. We watched in rapt silence.He slowly worked through “When the supper was ended, he took the cup …”And then a replacement priest had been brought over from the rectory.But Father wasn’t about to stop halfway through the consecration.Word after agonizing word, he got to the end of the consecration.By then, an ambulance had come. After he elevated the chalice, he was carried away on a stretcher.Then the replacement priest stepped up to the altar. “Let us proclaim the mystery of faith,” he said.Talk about alter christus. Watching that priest was like watching Our Lord consecrating the Eucharist — from the cross.“Mom, why wouldn’t he stop?” the kids asked their mother in the car.“Because he’s a priest,” said April. “That’s what priests do.”She was right. It is vitally important that priests preach and that they do it well. But preaching isn’t the most important thing priests do. A priest doesn’t need to be talented, interesting or well-read to do the most important things priests do.
I listened to the radio today and on it was a man who says he was a preacher of some kind and has now converted to Atheism. His claim was that there is simply not enough evidence. This makes me ask as simple question, what kind of evidence are we talking about? Does he mean empirical? Then aside from the miracles around the world, which would require faith (more on that latter), then he is right. The invisible, omniscient God is not confined to what we considered to be empirical evidence. To be able to point to a scientific fact of some kind and say," yep there it is God has been proven by this scientific means." would mean God is not God. That would imply that we can narrow him down, or fully understand him in some way. It would make God a created thing, as all physical things have a creation, thus he would not be above us or beyond us. In a word he would not be God. That said, the touch of God can be seen in every single created thing. His Glory is revealed in creation. If you cannot look into a mirror and see the glory of God, it is not that the evidence is lacking, but grace and when grace is absent blindness is the result. This man's atheism began when he stooped praying, he did not play because he became arrogant. Prayer automatically leads to humility, when prayer stops pride sets in. Before long this man began to rely on his own mind, and when his finite mind could not grasp the highest good in all its wonder, which is God, he fell into darkness while staring into the sun. Now because of his blindness he cannot see the light that is all around him and in creation, so thus he can’t see the evidence and concludes the sun must not exist. That is answering if he simply means empirical, but I think he must mean it in that sense because if he means with reason, then he is simply irrational. During this radio show he said he would rather we focus on those children who are suffering. The question is, if there is no objective standard for Right and wrong, good and bad, then why? Who cares about anyone else? If all I am is self absorbed, devoted to my own survivals, then I do not care about anyone, including my children. To say “well I must be concerned because if civilization fall apart then it puts the collective in danger which I happen to be a part of" is a big stretch to say the least. Forget that fact that no animal on earth thinks this way, or can even reason at all, but the actions of one who is concerned for survival alone would be to conquer them when they are week and use them for food or slavery. In a world he claims that is so selfish there has been extraordinary acts of selflessness, one need only point to the Saints. I am going to move on because that is not his real argument at all, in fact it is a red herring, a distraction. The real argument is this, how can he ever use any valuable words or thinking while denying the metaphysical realities, which are the invisible, or spiritual realities. He clams we need justice, a word that has no way of really being proven. No empirical data can prove "Justice" "Love" "Peace" "Right" "Wrong". Put simply he is betting on nothing, at the very least I am betting on something, that there is a God, and something is always better than nothing. It is an act of irrationality to claim God does not exist, and thus unscientific. Science does not make claims, only theory's. It also does not ask the question why but how. If God exists then words such as “suffering”, and “love”, do not have any value. Evil would only be a matter of perception, which ends in relativism. With God the world makes little sense, because it is a mystery, without God it does not make ANY sense. In the end Faith is needed, even more so with an Atheist. He must take it on faith that every act of creation came into being without any creator at all, It simply just happened. He must take it on faith that what is said by a scientist is fact, that 2+2 is 4 and not some other number, because without an objective standard it is all opinion. Either God created the universe where math is what it is, or we simply made it up
This is the link to the report i found on Spirit Daily: http://www.lifesitenews.com/news/sex-selection-abortion-ban-wins-strong-house-majority-but-fails-to-clear-2
once again we have a chance to aid in the battle against the evil, Nazi ideal we know as abortion. Yet, we once again get lose that battle in a so called "prof-life" country thank you to our leaders. The funny thing is we put them there and then do not kick them out. Now this is not a political issue. It happens to be being discussed in the political arena, but the issue is one of morality, ethics, and basic human rights. The so called leaders who voted against this ban sound allot like allot of so called Catholics..or i should say ex Catholics, as in case you did not know any support ( and that also means if you do nothing to stop it) of abortion means automatic excommunication...see CCC 2271-2274..in fact here is a little snip
"2272 Formal co-operation in an abortion constitutes a grave offence. The Church attaches the canonical penalty of excommunication to this crime against human life. 'A person who procures a completed abortion incurs excommunication latae sententiae' 'by the very commission of the offence', and subject to the conditions provided by Canon Law. The Church does not thereby intend to restrict the scope of mercy. Rather, she makes clear the gravity of the crime committed, the irreparable harm done to the innocent who is put to death, as well as to the parents and the whole of society.
2273 The inalienable right to life of every innocent human individual is a constitutive element of a civil society and its legislation"
If anyone does not think the war is real, that it is simply an invisible war with no effect on the "Real World", then they need to re learn there Catholic faith...which is to say open there eyes to the 53million and counting babies who have been murdered. Hitler would be impressed, we not only got to do the same thing but even convinced women and the world that it is a moral good, a choice, a responsible action for ones life and body. Hitler forced death on the Jews, and other faiths. Not in America, we do it better, we got them to chose it for them selves. Has anyone read " A Modest Proposal"? The feminist movement, whom i consider to be traitors to women, must have not only read it but consider it there plan of action. Time is running out for all of us, how l long will the blood of babies cry to God for justice and we do nothing? We have it so made in this country, yet we still complain about everything...except the murder of babies..i mean no one wants to be bothered with what it really is. Well not here, not in the Cohort, i will show you what ois really going on.
This Is what we are talking about, and if you think this is horrible...you'er right my only question is how in the hell is this "My choice?" "My body?" Why do you not want to see the truth, deny reality, and go to mass? If anyone reading this thinks this is blood is not on all of our hands..then i pray for your soul when you stand before God and HE shows this picture and asks you through his tears, why you, and I, did NOTHING? We at times say God is not fair to allow evil in the world, well if he was "fair" what do you think he would do to all of us for this genocide? But wait now there is more, now we can kill off girls before they are even born. "Your going to have a girl".."what? i do not want a girl i want a boy" "well we can terminate and you can try again." Oh, Vin, that is crazy and unheard of..Really??? ask China about that one. it is perfectly legal in America to kill a child because that child is a girl. The Teaching is clear, if you abort, you are aborting you soul. I can not say that any specific person is in hell but people, just like people who support abortion, are in hell.
I am sending this from my phone but I had to make a quick post after reading spiritdaily's report on the gender IDE ban that was shot down. For years the Church has warned of the consaquences of birth control and abortion. The world called the Church,and still does, sexist and hateful. Yet here we are all but endorsing the extermination of women. At least we are not the first as china has done it for years, yet here we are following there ungodly example. I will go into more when I'm back home but we as Catholics need to get busy or we will be the first to meet Gods punishment.
As I sit here tonight looking at the cross i have on my wall, (called the agonizing cross which can be found here: http://www.preciousbloodinternational.com/store/products.php?cat=8 ) i say a prayer to God posed in the form of a question, "Why do I not love you as I want?" If I were married or even just dating and in love with someone, I know how I would act and what I would do. I would make time for that person, even when I would rather watch TV or play some video game, or have a Cigar or whatever. My mind would be unable to go any real amount of time without thinking of her. I would dress a certain way, act a certain way, live a certain way all because of this person. When I am asked about way I act in this way or that I would simply and happily say, "I am in Love". Actually, I would not have to say anything...people do not ask such things when we are in Love with another. Why then do we not do any of these things with Jesus? Why when asked about our differences in action and dress saying that we are in Love is not good enough, we must explain ourselves so as not to seem ridiculous or simple minded. Why do I speed through my prayers and time with Jesus so I can go and do really nothing at all? When I really think about it, TV is not reality, not my Xbox, or much else this world has to offer...or at least it is of a lesser reality...and yet I cannot wait for Mass or the Liturgy of the Hours to be over so i can resume my "medication" of entertainment. I can fell deep inside this great desire to seek only Jesus, to be filled only by him and not seek the world, yet I still run to my endless distraction of ...nothingness. Then I wonder why I feel so down or confused or under attack. Yes, my education and my reason tell me all about original sin, concupiscence, the World, the Flesh, and the Devil. Yet, why does it seem like so many others, such as the saints, find relaying on God and trusting in him so easy? How is it that loving him comes to natural to them? I know it is not just because i do not see him physically...I do not see my family half the time i still love them. Sometimes it feels as though no matter how much i offer up, no matter how much I pray, or do I can never get to where I trust and love Jesus. Then again...maybe that is the point? Maybe I am the problem? Maybe I am not the one who needs to do anything at all? What I am getting at is I get in my own way, in place of letting Jesus love me, I keep trying to get him to Love me, to accomplish something and then get a reward...in other words..I struggle to get past conditional Love. If I do, or say, of achieve certain goals or objectives then i gain his love, and in turn am a saint. Yet, it does not work that way, and it is easy to forget. It is easy to not forgive one’s self or others, when one is stuck in this thinking. It is easy to feel shame as well because it is truly never enough, when there was nothing I had to do the be enough anyway, God already and me enough. This is not to say we do not have to act on our faith...being Catholics means faith and works. Just that even in our works it is our Abba moving in us and though he asks us to act, there is nothing we can do to "earn" Love, or holiness. Holiness is not based upon our actions, it is how deeply we fall in Love with Jesus, and then from that, action flows forth...not the other way around. So, in our daily lives, in the seemingly mundane, in the washing of dishes, clothes, and taking care of others, in the prayers we sometimes rush through there is the path to holiness. Not because we do these things in order to gain some reward, but because we desire to grow closer to God. Action without the desire for God is empty and is wasted. Sometimes the greatest prayer we can say is that one that comes straight from the heart which does not say anything more than "why do I not love you more, teach me to Love in all that i do and say."
The name says it all...and this is my first time doing this.
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I teach 5th grade religion class at a local Church and sometimes I must jump In for the other grades as needed. Tonight I was asked to step into the 9th grade class as the teacher would not be coming. I had no Idea what to teach them as I did not know where they had stopped and what they were told up to this point. So I asked them, I asked them If they remembered anything from the last 9yrs they have been In religion class....blank stares, and looks of confusion was all I got. This was the start of yet another experience I would have with higher grade religion class that would bring me into further depression and great concern for the future generations. I asked simple questions such as "Is baptism necessarily for salvation?" "What does Baptism give us, and what does it remove?" "What Is Christian Initiation?" "What is confirmation?" "Is John in the old or new testament?" "What are the first four books of the new testament called?" All of which they did not have an answer. This night has made me ask questions I am not sure for the answer. In this age we are more educated than any other. We have had the awesome grace of God to have such things as the Mass explained In great detail. We have an entire Catechism at our finger tips ready to explain in great detail any question about the faith we may have. One can go to any store and see dozens of Bible study guides, prayer books, and explanations for the faith ranging from the advanced to the most simplistic. This is to say nothing of the Internet, a gateway to unlimited sources of Information. None of this was available to those before who often tell me they did not understand the mass due to the Latin. Yet for not understanding It they sure were faithful and can tell me more about the faith then these teenagers I met tonight. For all the complaints about the Church In the old days they somehow were taught the faith. I do not know if the youth felt the same and did not want to be there but were forced. The ones tonight did not seem to care much at all. I am told things were somewhat different but even then there were those who did not want to go, yet somehow they have at least a basic grasp of the faith. I know this is not true across the board, but It seems to be In most cases. As I was In that class tonight all I could think about was Jesus weeping over his people, though I laughed somewhat out of shock at some of their answers, my heart ached. All my education was no help to me In my search to find a way to reach them. There is a a part of me that wonders If maybe we, as a Church, are trying to hard to explain everything? Have we sucked out all the mystery in this age of enlightenment? In my education In seminary, the Intellectual seems to get all the focus or at least treated with a sort of paranoia. What I mean Is, It seems those who are leaders in the church and teachers seem to be paranoid that the world is sitting back and accusing the Church of being unreasonable or not intellectual. We are so paranoid that we over compensate and make simple faith a side note. I have learned that when we try and compete with the spirit of the world on an Intellectual level, we lose every time, not because what we teach is not an Intellectual endeavor or that we do not use our minds. No, It Is that the spirit of the world is that of the enemy, and his is the Intellect of an angle, we cannot compete in that manner. We cannot try and "explain" every little aspect of Catholic Teaching and then wonder why our youth do not have any faith at all. I am not saying Ignore the Intellect, that would not be true catholicity, but rather that In this age of the Intellect we forgot his spouse...faith...Or better expressed we tend to forget It Is not us who does the work of conversion but Jesus. We, and I do It myself, forget It Is about a love affair with Jesus, not jamming enough Information Into a persons mind that they will have no choice but to see the pure logic, and rationality of our argument and thus convert...that Is the way the world wins over people...That Is prideful and It takes the power away from Jesus and makes conversion something we, the educators and formatters,bring about. I understand the theory behind It though....we, like Jesus, long so very deeply to bring them to Christ. In our strong desire to be a good servant and in our zeal to win converts we forget to get out of the way sometimes. Our work must be in showing them our own love affair with Jesus, our beloved, and then relay on God for the rest.
“The Devil fears the Virgin Mary more, not only than men and angels but, in a certain sense, than God himself. It is not that the wrath, the power and the hatred of God are not infinitely greater than those of the Blessed Virgin, since Mary’s perfections are limited: it is because, in the first place, Satan, being proud, suffers infinitely more from being overcome and punished by the little, humble servant of God, her humility humiliating him more than the divine power; and secondly, because God has given Mary such great power over devils that, as they have often been obliged to admit, in spite of themselves, through the mouths of possessed persons, they are more afraid of one of her sighs of grief over some poor soul, than of the prayers of the saints, and more daunted by a single threat from her than by all their other torments”(Resource – Evidence of Satan in the Modern World by Monsignor Leon Cristiani, Roman Catholic Priest Spiritual Warfare; perhaps one of the most least understood aspect of our Catholic faith yet it is experienced by everyone...engaged by few. What i mean is everyone is harassed by Satan on some level, yet not everyone actually engages, or sees the attack for what it is and then responds as one should. I have done it myself because it is easy to get caught up in the perpetual rationalizing of thinking "this is just a bad day". It is easy to simply call someone stubborn or ignorant for not understanding of accepting the faith and we never consider the work of evil. It seems the only time people think something just might be evil is in a full blow possession, and even then they are only thinking of some movie they saw making Satan look more powerful then God and his Priest. The truth is much different, and even has a kind of rational to it all, unlike what most people may assume. For example, Spiritual warfare does have a certain order, such as how i mentioned harassment. Harassment the first of three stages of spiritual attack. Such things as those seemingly small events that frustrate our lives and somehow lead us to not thinking of God but about self. The loss of keys that simply seems to anger us and even lead to a entire day of feeling disordered; or maybe those lost keys lead to being late for something else and then blowing up at someone. There could be the way in which someone says something to us that we take as some kind of attack ( maybe touching an inner wound in our hearts) from them, when in reality those moments are arrows shot from the bow of the evil one. Then there is oppression, often compared to a foot hold on a beachhead. This could take the form of depression, though not always. Generally it is a spiritual heaviness, or even spiritual blindness. There is allot of oppression in the world now a-days due to the climate of the culture today and its rejection of God. Then there is Possession, the one Hollywood seems to be obsessed with falsely portraying.....by the way obsession is another way of saying oppression... the words are interchangeable on this list. I could go on, and maybe i will at a later date. The point is, know your faith and what it teaching about this thing called Warfare because we all experience it, and the only way to not become a POW is to know how to respond to it. Know thy enemy...which simply means know his tactics, and actively engage in the combat..but not alone...as in all things we must maintain our relationship with Jesus. After all destroying our relationship with Jesus is the whole point of Satan's attacks. Stay strong, ask the Saints for back up, and remember, We are the resistance, Usque Ad Mortem (Even unto Death)
We, as Catholics, have just ended our walk with Christ to the cross and have now begun Easter, which is the joy of the Resurrection. What an Awesome time for the Church! We walk in the realized hope of the resurrection. It is hard in these dark times to hold onto hope, especially in the face of such great evil. The chance that Obama may be reelected thus ensuring the continued murder of millions of babies and attacks on Holy mother Church, can seem overwhelming. At times it feels as though all seems lost. The Bishops, though they are starting to speak up now, have done nothing to prevent this, or the HHS mandate, from happening and in some cases have supported it. Where has our leadership been? It is easy to see only the denial of so many Peters. Yet there is hope. How dark it must have been for Peter and the Apostles. They had no leader. The man they followed and thought to be God was now dead. So they hid themselves, ran away, denied knowing Jesus. It is easy to get lost in fear and hopelessness...Yes, how dark it must have been for Peter and the Apostles... until they saw an empty tomb. We must hold onto Hope, the hope of the resurrection. God is still God, no matter how much the culture turns away form him. No matter how many deny the truth, Jesus still reigns. He is Alive! We do not serve some dead God, like Budah, or some unloving slave master like Allah, no our God is a living, loving God. He has not and will not abandon us. We must hold on to him. Yes, we want the world to be converted, but we must be converted ourselves. "Rend not your garments, but your hearts." The answer is not some new social policy, or some political party, it is our relationship with Jesus. How intensely do we Love Jesus? Do we give up that which is not needed for the glory of the Kingdom of God? If that answer is no, and all of us can say we do not in some part of our lives, then do not be confused by the evil of others. We must show them by our words and our actions. The war we are engaged in must be seen for what it is...WAR! it is not a war being fought with Guns and unjustified violence, but "against powers and principalities". our weapons are sacrifice, mortification, prayer, and our strength is the Joy of the Lord. If you are in darkness, hold on to hope, i promise.....no wait, that's not right....... someone greater than I promises you.....the one who calls you beloved promises you......Jesus, who is God, Promises you...soon the flames of the Holy Spirit will descend upon you setting your very soul on fire with the Joy and zeal to fight this war. the Spirit will empower you to keep going forward in Christ, to take hold of your heritage as a Son or Daughter of God Almighty, to face the darkness and not be afraid because Jesus, who went into that darkness and destroyed it, is ALIVE...ALIVE INDEED!