I received this. It may be helpful to some of you.
Frankly, quite a few seriously meaningful notes have come.
This is a fruit of The Present Crisis that the Enemy probably didn’t foresee.
I received this. It may be helpful to some of you.
Frankly, quite a few seriously meaningful notes have come.
This is a fruit of The Present Crisis that the Enemy probably didn’t foresee.
Comments are closed.
Coat of Arms by D Burkart
St. John Eudes
- Prosper of Aquitaine (+c.455), De gratia Dei et libero arbitrio contra Collatorem 22.61
Nota bene: I do not answer these numbers or this Skype address. You won't get me "live". I check for messages regularly.
WDTPRS
020 8133 4535
651-447-6265
“He [Satan] will set up a counter-Church which will be the ape of the Church because, he the devil, is the ape of God. It will have all the notes and characteristics of the Church, but in reverse and emptied of its divine content. It will be a mystical body of the anti-Christ that will in all externals resemble the mystical body of Christ. In desperate need for God, whom he nevertheless refuses to adore, modern man in his loneliness and frustration will hunger more and more for membership in a community that will give him enlargement of purpose, but at the cost of losing himself in some vague collectivity.”
“Who is going to save our Church? Not our bishops, not our priests and religious. It is up to you, the people. You have the minds, the eyes, and the ears to save the Church. Your mission is to see that your priests act like priests, your bishops act like bishops.”
- Fulton Sheen
Therefore, ACTIVATE YOUR CONFIRMATION and get to work!
- C.S. Lewis
PLEASE subscribe via PayPal if it is useful. Zelle and Wise are better, but PayPal is convenient.
A monthly subscription donation means I have steady income I can plan on. I put you my list of benefactors for whom I pray and for whom I often say Holy Mass.
In view of the rapidly changing challenges I now face, I would like to add more $10/month subscribers. Will you please help?
For a one time donation...
"But if, in any layman who is indeed imbued with literature, ignorance of the Latin language, which we can truly call the 'catholic' language, indicates a certain sluggishness in his love toward the Church, how much more fitting it is that each and every cleric should be adequately practiced and skilled in that language!" - Pius XI
"Let us realize that this remark of Cicero (Brutus 37, 140) can be in a certain way referred to [young lay people]: 'It is not so much a matter of distinction to know Latin as it is disgraceful not to know it.'" - St. John Paul II
Grant unto thy Church, we beseech Thee, O merciful God, that She, being gathered together by the Holy Ghost, may be in no wise troubled by attack from her foes. O God, who by sin art offended and by penance pacified, mercifully regard the prayers of Thy people making supplication unto Thee,and turn away the scourges of Thine anger which we deserve for our sins. Almighty and Everlasting God, in whose Hand are the power and the government of every realm: look down upon and help the Christian people that the heathen nations who trust in the fierceness of their own might may be crushed by the power of thine Arm. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, Thy Son, who liveth and reigneth with Thee in the unity of the Holy Ghost, God, world without end. R. Amen.
Visits tracked by Statcounter
since Sat., 25 Nov. 2006:
Prayer Before Using The Internet HERE
Almighty and eternal God, who created us in Thine image and bade us to seek after all that is good, true and beautiful, especially in the divine person of Thine Only-begotten Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, grant, we beseech Thee, that, through the intercession of Saint Isidore, Bishop and Doctor, during our journeys through the internet we will direct our hands and eyes only to that which is pleasing to Thee and treat with charity and patience all those souls whom we encounter. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.
Wow. Powerful words and advice. This story could be me, raised a Catholic, left the Church (but not God), led sinful life, returned to the Church, received sacrament of Confession but still feel guilty for my many, many, many sins. And the potential and real repercussions of my sins still haunt me.
Reminds me of the movie Calvary when the priest is asked which is the virtue he would most esteem, and he says “I think forgiveness has been highly underrated”. It’s the gift that keeps on giving in so many ways, sometimes not only giving it but especially receiving it.
May God forgive us all of our sins. We so long for the day to see His holy face as every moment we live here on earth makes our nostalgia for Him stronger.
Wonderful post. Thankyou Anon.
@Fallibilissimo I’ve thought about that movie, Calvary, a lot in recent weeks. Not an easy watch, because of the subject matter and the story. The movie might seem to be bashing the Church because of the abuse the protagonist has to endure, but now the quieter, more reflective scenes stand out more to me. And I guess that’s where the soul and meaning of the story lie.
To help struggling people.
Prayer to God the Father
With Brief Introduction
Written by Father Paul L. Weinberger
Inspired by St. Therese’ of Lisieux
http://semperficatholic.com/page21.html
“This is a fruit of The Present Crisis that the Enemy probably didn’t foresee.”
Where sin abounds…
I’ve been thinking a lot lately about how Christ’s glorified body retains its wounds. That can give us hope and encouragement I think that our sufferings and scars (and I have plenty myself) are of lasting value.
So very touching and powerful. Thank you Anonymous. I have found in my area, that in the wake of the scandals, most Catholics have clung closer to Jesus than ever before. I never left the Church, but I can see how my personal sins are not just confined to me. They are like ripples in a pond, and distort my relations with people both near and far from me. I can only beg forgiveness and do penance.
“I realize now that in heaven those scars can be reminders of the great battle for my soul that Christ and I won.” Wow, did I ever need to hear that. Many thanks to your correspondent.
Battle scars….I like that!
Thanks for sharing Fr. Z and Anonymous.
God’s grace is manifested in the soul who wrote this letter. They have absorbed the great truth contained in the Cross. This person has claimed the pearl of great price.
@Gab – Three generations of Catholics have been successively neglected and spiritually abused for the false show of the Zeitgeist. I too see much of my own life in there.
The world is a terrible place for a child to try to figure out everything on his own. Sometimes a whooping IS the merciful and pastoral thing.
This was very helpful to me personally; immense gratitude toward the author.
Oh, I think he did and is scared witless of it. Remember there was more than one Mary at the foot of the Cross and the one that discovered that The Tomb was empty was a person just like this woman. Our Mother may crush his head, Mary Magdalene will hold him down.
It is natural to feel lingering guilt over confessed sins which have hurt others in a grave way. Ask anyone who has endured abuse, or has had an abortion, or has suffered from the adultery of their spouse. While sin is forgiven in confession, some sins leave scars not just on the sinner, but on those who have been harmed by the sin. Reparation is owed to God and the person harmed.
Some of these scars will only finally be healed in the next life.
For myself, when I feel guilt over a transgression I have committed against someone, even if it was years prior and already confessed, I try to take that as a signal that I need to do some penance or have a Mass offered for that person. Likewise, I also carry some scars from sins committed against me that will truly only be healed in the next life. When these threaten my peace, I try to ask God to not allow the perpetrators to go to Hell on account of these sins, even though I still feel anger and disgust toward them. I can’t stomach the thought of anyone going to Hell, even if they deserve it, and I know that there are probably more days than not when I deserve Hell too.
FWIW, Today for the second day in a row I arrived early for 7AM Mass and there in the semi-darkness a priest was saying the old Mass, the Tridentine Mass, begun at 6AM. When I asked the sacristan about it, he said Father will be doing this for the foreseeable future in reparation for the sins of priests. And at the end, the Leonine prayers.
Father, I really needed to see this. Thank you. I also struggle with memories from my previous life and it’s a difficult penance.
My parents left the Church when I was nine. I got involved in sorts of sinful stuff including practicing the occult and new age stuff and did so for over 25 years. Came back to the Church and received Confirmation. I too, have had the same struggles as Anon. Great letter Anon!
Battle scars — fantastic! Thank you to the author of that letter.
I’m going to dissent a little–though not that Christ has won the victory! That is the essential thing. I think sin does result in various wounds that do not simply heal and form a scar. In fact if love is more perfectly present, the wound is all the more so a wound. If someone was validly married for instance, and wrecked it, and is estranged from their spouse, then if they are converted and have more charity they are going to experience that more clearly as a wound, not a scar but a wound. I think somehow God wills to purify and transform our woundedness, a mystery of love. Christ was wounded for our offenses, died and rose, and His glorified body bears not scars but wounds. He hasn’t moved on from being wounded by sin; He’s transformed it utterly. It is His wounds that are the result of honorable battle, it is His wounds that are clean, and it is better that we have wounds purified and transformed in the likeness of His than to have scars.
Thank you for sharing, anon and Fr. Z.