The Legion of Mary

 

The Legion of Mary is based on devotion to Mary; 

the Mother of God.

They pray the Mysteries of the Rosary with the old and 

the sick, 

it's members being totally ordinary people

whose dedication to Our Lady and to praying the Rosary 

is the motivating force; teaching others how to pray the 

Rosary too, meditation on the life of Jesus,

because we go to Jesus through His Mother. 

It is all for the glory of God and His Church.

 

The Legion of Mary is a lay apostolate of the Catholic 

Church, founded by Frank Duff in Dublin, Ireland in 1921, 

and it it spread from there to all corners of the earth.

 

At the time, the social conditions in Ireland were dire for 

large sections of society, The Legion's first occupation and 

project was homelessness and prostitution, the latter mostly 

caused by poverty. 

Duff defied the Church's archbishop who was heavily 

influenced by the Church's infiltration of Jansenism; 

the archbishop had great hostility towards these women,

but Duff, on the contrary; reached out to them like a true 

Christian, he established a safe house for them, followed by a 

hostel for homeless men.

These hostels are still up and running to this day, saving the

government a lot of money, because they get no state funding.

In The Regina Coeli hostel for homeless women and unmarried 

mothers Frank Duff wanted the mothers to keep their babies, and 

to get help and support to learn how to raise their children.  

This did not conform to the unwritten (and maybe even written) 

moral rules of civil society of this era, which stigmatized 

unmarried mothers to such an extent that their babies were taken 

away from them in order to "save them from the stigma of growing 

up with an unmarried mother".

He had a lot of opposition from the Archbishop , who tried to censor 

him due to him working at the rehabilitation of former prostitutes

but he also had some support from within the Church.

 

Most of all, Frank Duff established the fundamental principle in 

The Legion of Mary, that as Catholics, we are all called to be saints, 

that our own sanctification is fundamental, it comes before anything 

else.

 

At the time, living conditions were hard for many, education was 

only for some, and the general awareness was low, people 

were doing the best they could.

 

In total contrast to this immense work of Frank Duff's Christian 

charity, there was at this time in Ireland State owned and state 

managed institutions for unmarried mothers, they hired religious 

Sisters to do the daily running of them, and no doubt they were not  

joyous places to be, abuse and rough treatment occurred there, as it 

occurred everywhere, all kinds of abuse was rampant at the time, 

(most of all within the walls of family homes), 

in general; it was tough. 

The Sisters carried out the work of the State, a State which deemed 

the unmarried mothers to be nothing more than whores, unworthy of 

even keeping their babies, and their babies were taken from them 

and sold to wealthy families, often American ones. 

The entire society did this to the unmarried mothers; first they had 

been disowned and thrown out by their own families; their own parents; 

then the state continued to degrade them.

 

But when Irish society started to change, everything was the fault of 

the Catholic Church and nobody else.

 

The brainwashing through the media; RTE, and newspapers, has been 

going on for a long time, most Irish people do not reflect too much on it,

they believe the narrative presented to them. 

 

To the extent that the horrendous act of killing one's child in abortion 

has been normalised, our sensibilities has been severely blunted, and 

people follow the thread; Catholic Church; bad bad bad...

 

And now the State demands of The Legion of Mary, who to this very 

day still runs 2 hostels in Dublin, totally independently with no state 

funding, (saving the state of an enormous amount of money), 

26 million euro for the State's redress scheme to the victims of the mother 

and baby homes.

 

There is no coherent reason or explanation given by the government for 

this, only that they feel that since the Legion of Mary promulgates and 

practices Catholicism, it is "guilty by association", because anything 

Catholic is synonymous with evil in their opinion. 

 

When I came to Ireland in the 1980s, many Irish people kept saying 

that Ireland was  "backward",  they thought so because the majority 

went to Mass.

 

No Ireland was not "backward" then, Ireland was poor and life was hard,

but Ireland is backward now. 

 

 

 

 

 

   

   

 

 

Martha and Mary in Luke 10:38 - 42

 

It might take time to find the right balance between prayerful interiour 

life where we listen to the voice of Our Saviour Jesus Christ by reading the 

daily readings and gospel and let ourselves be impregnated by His Word 

( 1.st Joyful Mystery of the Holy Rosary) on our road to sanctification. 

 

To share in His Divine Life in us, made possible by Him becoming one 

of us.

It takes determination and focus.

 

It is so easy to get diverted by other people in the church community, 

and to unconsciously "follow" (imitate) them, instead of Jesus, making 

the unconscious assumption that the ones we imitate are correct in all that 

they say and do, because they appear more righteous and holy, and also 

that they might appear to have more knowledge.

 

Very often we are wrong in those  assumptions, it is a matter of awareness, 

if we loose awareness that we are ALL sinners; me, you and all the others, 

we become vulnerable to going astray.

 

In the church community there are people who are there because they are 

in need of an activity, being busy, and as it is the church there might be an 

assumption that the personal sanctification is implicit, that it will happen 

automatically. 

This is no more the case today than it was at the time of Jesus.

 

Jesus explained in this visit to Martha and Mary's house the importance 

of sitting still with the Lord.   

 

Saint Pope John Paul II kept reminding us that the Church is not a charity 

organization or an association for making friends, ( even though those are 

normally the result), they are not the fundamental reason for her existence. 

Today we have His Eminence Cardinal Robert Sarah,  the special envoy 

of our Pope Leo XIV to the shrine of Sainte-Anne-d'Auray in Brittany, 

France, in the recent celebration  of the 400th anniversary of Sainte Anne's 

apparitions there.

 

On this occasion, Cardinal Sarah reminded us again, that the fundamental 

objective of the Catholic Church, is our personal sanctification, not for our 

personal glory but only for the glory of God. 

He reminded us that the church, despite being the organization that has done 

more humanitarian work than any other organization in the world, is not by 

design a mere charity organizational structure, but rather, through her 

Sacraments gives us the means to become holy and partakers of Divine Life. 

 

Personal sanctification is the principal and fundamental ethos of 

The Legion of Mary; one of the pillars of the Catholic Church. 

It's members are obliged to do work, but the work at hand is spiritual; 

spreading information and helping others to pray; the glory and gain is 

for God and His Holy Catholic Church.

 

Charity, a theological virtue, is considered, together with Faith and Hope, 

to be gifts from God. 

Given that we are commanded to love everyone to the same extent that 

we love ourselves, for the love of God, and to see Our Lord in each person,

because what we do to others, we do it to the Lord, 

since He dwells at the core of every being, (whether we know it or not), 

to fully forgive those who hurts us, because He forgives 

us if we repent and ask forgiveness (confession), 

charity flows from the true practice of the religion itself, it is 

efficient when it is rooted in the spiritual practices and 

doctrine of the Church and finding it's source in the silence with the Lord 

through private prayers, not only the communal ones. 

 

It is a known fact that some people can not tolerate silence, nor being alone, 

it is something they avoid at all cost, and they make sure to fill in all the 

gaps of every day to avoid it. Even the moments when they might find 

themselves alone, they make sure to put on the radio or the television to 

have some noise, to hear people talking.

 

What is behind the urgency, or obsession, to constantly be doing, doing, 

doing, even if it is in the service of others, helping everybody, night and 

day, for no apparent personal gain?   

Could it be that the true motivation is the "benefit" of not having the 

time to deepen and develop the personal relationship and to advance in 

understanding of the Faith, meaning that it is a form of defensive mechanism, 

a system set in place, to avoid looking closer at one self and our personal 

areas that needs to be improved, to gain more true confidence in God in 

order to surrender to Him. 

 

It can sometimes be the case that what appears as selfless acts of sacrificial 

love helps the person to be busy, busy, busy, in an defensive mode of "protection".  

 

Regarding what comes through on the telly, without necessarily realizing to 

what extent people are themselves taking on board what they hear, assuming 

unconsciously that everything they hear there are objective "facts", and not 

somebody's version and narrative; it becomes their "truth", they very often 

do not even question it, because "it was said on the telly". 

 

People's minds are being programmed as to what is true, what to think in 

regard to any subject, and indeed even what to concern themselves with.

 

Anything at all has an almost unlimited possible versions and narratives, 

anything can be looked at from an almost unlimited amount of angles 

which reflects differently on the subject or object at hand. 

 

Jesus told us to not follow the world, that His Kingdom is not of this world,  

that even though we are for the time being in the world, our focus should 

always be the world beyond, above, underneath, inside, at all sides, 

which permeates every living thing that we can see; 

God made every single thing, from scratch. 

He made us, and not only that, He made us in His Image.

  

We must ignore as much as possible the subjective delusions and 

tricks of the mind, our own and those of others. 

We must develop contact with the superior divine dimension which 

made this very world we find ourselves in, and to have our bags packed, 

our boarding card and passport ready, in order to be ready to leave and 

pass to the next world, for nobody knows the day nor the hour of their 

time of death, it can come like a thief in the night. 

Only one thing is sure; it will come to each and every one of us. 

 

 

 

 

   

 

 

 

 

 

 

Invincible ignorance

 

In the Catholic Church today, the term 

"invincible ignorance" is usually passed 

off as referring to people that have never heard 

of Christ, due to isolation, e.g. pagan tribes, etc.

 

The reality, however, is that this term applies

to everybody who grow up in the western world

who has (maybe) a rudimentary school subject 

introduction to Christianity, but no morality and 

code of conduct instruction.

 

Those who grow up in post-christian, 

secular countries, the frames of reference regarding

what is desirable and fulfilling comes through the 

media and popular culture. And, in addition, those 

who do not get any guidance from parents 

regarding moral norms and correct conduct, and who 

themselves maybe are bad role models to their 

children, these people grow up in invincible ignorance, 

just as much as "the man in the jungle", and maybe even 

more so, as Christianity are constantly pulled down by 

the media.

 

When a genuine persistent search for truth leads people 

to the Authentic Catholic Faith, they might find in the 

church community a disdain and a judgment from 

those who have had the good fortune of being raised

in the true Catholic doctrine, and never strayed.

 

THIS is what Jesus was talking about when He said not

to judge. When He invited the crowd to throw the first 

stone. 

 

We can judge, and indeed we must judge, when something

untoward is going on, we must have the courage to stand 

up and tell the truth; that is NOT "judging".

 

But judging a person on his or her past, after they have 

confessed their sins, received absolution from the Church 

and amended their life, THAT is judging.

 

I had the good fortune to visit the grotto where according 

to the Tradition of the Church Mary Magdalen lived out the

rest of her life. 

Remember that Mary Magdalen was a known sinner, but 

today she is a Saint.

   

This is the whole aim of the Church; to make sinners Saints.

It is possible, it takes a firm decision and persistence, but it

is possible. 

The Catholic Church has been a veritable saint factory in the 

past, and with the Church's explosive growth in Asia and Africa, 

and hopefully her restoration in the West, she will continue to 

produce Saints.

 

As carrying crosses is a fundamental part of living out 

the faith, suffering the judgemental attitude from these scribes 

and pharisees in the Church who elevates themselves over others,

this will help them on the road to sanctification. 

 

Luke 18:10-14

"Two men went up into the temple to pray; the one a Pharisee, and 

the other a publican. The pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself;

"God, I thank thee, that I am not as other men are, extortioners, unjust, 

adulterers, or even as this publican. I fast twice in the week, I give tithes 

of all that I possess". And the publican, standing afar off, would not lift up

so much as his eyes unto heaven, but smote upon his breast, saying, 

"God, be merciful to me a sinner". I tell you, this man went down to his 

house justified rather than the other;for every one that exalts himself 

shall be abased; and he that humbles himself shall be exalted." 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

 

Our Faith is Embodied

 

The Catholic Faith is based upon the Crucifix, the Cross with Our Lord nailed to it.

We are called to pick up our crosses on a daily basis, be present 

with them, and we all have many, we should make use of them, 

and not waste any, because they are fundamental and necessary 

for our hope of salvation. 

 

I remember a married couple of extreme modernists 

(supposedly Catholics, but protestants in all but the technicalities), 

when we spoke about crosses, 

the man said, almost regrettably  that he had never really had any, 

his wife then said; yes you did, remember that time when you were 

young and your mother said/did something that hurt you....

His wife was the bullish domineering type, and he was so spiritually 

(and emotionally!) asleep, that he couldn't even see that he was 

married to a cross...

 

We are not just talking about big tragedies and illness, 

our daily life are full of crosses; anything difficult, unfair, painful, 

testing, annoying, boring, sadness, loneliness, being forgotten, 

feeling useless, monotony, mental fatigue; they are all crosses.

 

Being fully present, accepting the things the way they are, offering 

them up to God, is what we are meant to do.

Sometimes solutions emerges, but the principal thing is being present 

with it, not to revolt, resist or avoid. 

Because we are thus being purified and strengthened in those fires. 

 

Our faith is not one where there is separation between internal and 

external, between prayer life, observance of obligations, and the rest 

of our life.

The Catholic Faith, to prove that it is authentic and true, integrates 

everything in us, what we say is what we do.

 

It is not about ticking boxes, it is not even first and foremost about 

exterior acts of love, what comes first is our own sanctification, our 

focus has to be on ourselves, in order that we continually convert our 

sinful nature to the nature of God, who is ALL Holy. 

This is the object; to become holy. The external acts of love flows from

there. 

 

Self awareness: what am I thinking, what am I saying, what am 

I doing, what am I not doing that I ought to be doing...

 

Frequent Confession is necessary. it is not a pleasure,

but necessary.

 

Sometimes priests at Mass reminds the congregation just before 

Holy Communion, of the necessity of being in a state of grace in 

order to present ourselves for it, to receive worthily,

in other words, free from mortal sin. (Having confessed them)

 

Given that the 7 main mortal sins are  Pride, Envy, Anger, Greed,

Gluttony, Laziness and Lust, you would imagine that the queue for 

Confession would be the same length as the queue for Holy Communion, 

but this is sadly not the case.

 

Receiving Holy Communion unworthily is not only a waste of time, it 

contributes to, and reinforces the deception in those who receives in 

this manner, they "eat their own condemnation"; they mock God, it 

stagnates them in the spiritual journey.

 

Even if the requirements have been publicly announced by the priest, 

and respected at that particular Mass, they go ahead receiving at 

subsequent Masses if the priest does not make a clear announcement 

of it every time, which reveals a complete ignorance of not only the 

Mass, but of the faith in general. 

No, it is not about technicalities; external signs, they obtain nothing 

unless your heart, your mind and your willpower is involved and 

integrated. 

 

Some time back I made an acquaintance with a woman, a daily 

Mass goer, apparently very religious and involved in the parish. 

We went for a coffee together and she kept saying to me: 

"well there are some things that just cannot be forgiven!"

I felt that she really wanted to tell me something, so I made sure not 

to ask, but the irony of her praying the Our Father publicly at Mass 

every day, where we ask the Father to forgive us all our own sins, as 

we forgive all those who have sinned against us, because this is the way 

Our Father operates. 

If we hold grudges against anyone at all, no matter how well founded

and understandable they are, we are not free to be redeemed by Him.

And if we have as much as an ounce of hate in our hearts, we will not 

be allowed into heaven. 

 

The Catholic Faith is not just to be believed, it must be lived, integrated 

bodily and mentally, acted out in our lives, embodied. 

 

The protestants have an empty cross as their symbol, no Jesus, they claim 

that it is sufficient to just believe in order to be saved, and the communion 

at their religious service is purely symbolic.

 

Well, I ask you, who wants a symbolic God?

 

At Catholic Mass God is Really and Fully Present, Alive, 

in Holy Communion, it truly is the Body and Blood of 

Our Lord Jesus Christ. 

For anyone who truly seeks God, it shouldn't be difficult to 

choose.

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

“Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword." Matthew 10:34

 

The Church has a history of clarifying her doctrine when

heresies occurred, the heresies served a great purpose: they 

were occasions and opportunity for clearly

formulating the dogma which codifies Catholic faith.

 

The Catholic Church's purpose is to sanctify us. 

What helps us greatly in this, is the existence of  all the Saints 

that we venerate, many of whom were priests and religious, 

who all suffered one way or another, who accepted their suffering, 

they welcomed it. 

In learning about their lives, it is interesting to note that 

many of them were scorned, disregarded and 

even mistreated by their own church authorities, their superiors, 

the church, the clergy.

 

If our living our faith always feels comfortable and peaceful, 

it means that we are doing it wrong. We should be engaged in 

the spiritual battle on a constant, daily basis, and that is not cozy. 

It is uncomfortable and it demands courage, and most of all a 

complete abandonment to God. 

We should be living in an interior state of being willing and 

ready to die to defend the Truth. 

The Truth who is a Person; it is Jesus Christ. 

So why this attitude from the ones whom we might have expected 

to love, to support and be kind toward the men and women who 

later on were canonized by the very same Church, 

while they were living on earth?

 

You know the answer, think of Jesus Christ, his humble entry into 

the world, him being persecuted even as an infant, then living an 

ordinary life in a remote village, going to school, and learning a 

trade as a carpenter. 

 

When He started His mission, people were in awe, people saw for 

themselves that He performed miracles that no mere man can do, 

and at the same time priests of the Temple Authorities saw and 

recognized Him as a threat. 

 

Even though Jesus did not come to do away with the Law that they 

preached, He came to fulfill it, complete it, but they felt so threatened 

by Him that they decided to get rid of Him permanently, by killing Him.

 

In Novus Ordo parishes the Faith is not taught, we have to seek out 

churches that celebrates the Traditional Mass, to learn the true Catholic 

Faith, personal, moral and social. 

In the new Mass you will not get it; even with the "gay marriage" 

referendum the priests did not say a word about it, same with abortion, 

they felt it was too controversial, so they by en large just ignored it 

altogether. 

 

That translates as cowardice and not wanting to create a stir, they were 

thinking according to human values; they wanted people to continue 

coming to Mass, and they wanted to continue being popular.

Every one who failed to speak up, especially when it is the very definition 

of their job, takes part in the responsibility for the evil.

 

An abortion is a horrific killing of a living baby, a baby that feels pain 

is dismembered and torn apart, and those who are still alive after being 

extracted from the womb are killed outside the womb, and they call it 

abortion, not murder. 

They even call it health care, the devil is laughing. 

Satan uses words that are so obviously twisted and upside down, but he 

does that because he knows it works; people buy it. 

He lies; he says it is "to save the lives of mothers", but all the obstetricians 

and gynecologists that say that this is not an issue, are overlooked by the 

media, who is controlled by the government, so now we even have priests 

who believe this to be true, and we have Catholics who are pro abortion.

 

Which proves the absence of transmission and understanding of the 

true Catholic Faith.

 

Jesus's teaching is in opposition to the ways of the world, they are not 

conformed to the world.

 

Our human, natural nature; we know it. 

But we are called to live according to divine law, which was manifested to 

us by God's Only Son Jesus Christ, and His Kingdom is not of this world.  

 

We are called to convert: change, confess our sins, and follow Jesus. 

  

The world will always lie to you, but the Church should always tell the 

truth, courageous, unafraid, and never, ever adapt to the the ways of the 

world. 

Jesus Christ; true God and true Man, died a horrible, undeserving, agonizing 

death on the Cross. He was innocent.

Every baby that is aborted dies a horrible agonizing death, they are innocent. 

 

They must die because their presence disturbs the "peace" of their would be 

parents. 

But the truth is that the would be parents will never again have peace, because 

the reality of what they have done will come back to haunt them, sooner or later, 

there is no going away from it; they killed their own child. 

Jesus had to die because he disturbed the peace of the moral authorities of 

His day by His Presence. 

 

But by His Resurrection He changed the world forever, everyone who wants 

can have eternal life, through Him, and His coming even cut time in half; 

Before and After.

 

The Church's ambiguity and avoidance of moral teaching, even on a subject 

as serious as the mass killing of innocent defenseless babies in abortion has 

been going on for decades; out of a misguided worldly concept of not 

"upsetting" people, putting no obligations or restrictions on their conduct, 

they are to blame for people actually leaving the church, because a church 

like that has nothing to offer which they cannot find in any social club or 

organization.

It is watered down, bland, and it has lost it's meaning. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

God is Spirit

 

The Catholic Church is the guardian of the deposit of Faith, 

she has the fullness of Truth, founded by our Lord Himself. 

Due to our fall from grace we live in a low dimensional 

material world, and the point and goal of being

Catholic is to open ourselves up to God's rejuvenating graces,

to convert, be born again, start again, to become holy. 

It is on a continual basis and it takes faith, and work. 

Protestants believe that faith is sufficient, but Catholics knows

that it takes work, and that the work will never be 

"finished, done" as long as we live here.

 

At the core of Catholicism is the spiritual aspect; what is 

going on in our own minds and hearts. That is why

spiritual exercises and regular Confession are so important;

everything starts with ourselves; our thoughts, words, actions

and motivations: what is in our hearts.

 

Just like a human being has two aspects to his nature;

a physical, material, concrete manifestation with his body,

and also a part which is invisible to the human eye; the 

spirit that animates the body; our soul, 

which belongs to God.  

He is at the core of our being, He created us.

 

Similarly, the Catholic Church by her churches, parishes, 

dioceses, the hierarchy of deacons, priests, bishops, archbishops, cardinals and the pope on top,

makes up the physical, visible, concrete manifestation, 

she is IN ( situated in) the world, 

but she is not OF the world, because she comes from above.

The real power of the Church is invisible to the naked eye, it 

is the spiritual power contained in the authentic doctrine of 

the faith, practiced by faith-full Catholics.

This is the Mystical Body of Christ, who's Head is Christ.

  

"Jesus Christ, the head of the Church, precedes us into the 

Father's glorious kingdom so that we, the members of his Body, 

may live in the hope of one day being with him for ever."

Paragraph 666 Catechism of the Catholic Church.

 

"Christ is the head of the body, the Church. He is the principle of 

creation and redemption. Raised to the Father's glory, "in everything 

He is preeminent, especially in the Church, through whom he extends

His reign over all things." 

Paragraph 2, 792, 

https://Vatican.va/content/catechism/en/part_one/section_two/chapter_three/article_9/

 

To regain access to God we have to submit to Him and 

His teaching, pray every day, avail of the Sacraments of 

the Church. We need to practice charity, but being charitable 

in itself is not sufficient; (pagans and atheists can also be kind).

We need self-awareness and to be striving for perfection on 

an ongoing basis.

The dogma of the Church are codified, they are exact and 

specific, but as we know there has been a continuous watering

down and slackening of the doctrine the last few decades, so 

today the majority of Catholics are not quite sure what the 

Church teaches, and what they are supposed to believe or 

what is demanded of them. And also there are many false

beliefs, twisted and misunderstood, because they have not been 

transmitted clearly. 

 

 

 

 

The Cross

 

Human nature does not want pain, any kind of pain. 

We defend against it, run away from it, medicate 

ourselves, use drink and drugs to escape disappointments

and grief and the hard realities of life.

We even disconnect from ourselves, which is a way of 

giving up. 

Jesus said that the ones who wanted to be His disciples 

needed to pick up their cross, and follow Him. 

To follow Jesus, to become holy, implies accepting

and being fully present with everything difficult.

Because it is by the Cross that we Resurrect with Him.

When everything inside us screams : "I can't", " 

I can't do it", know that this difficulty is in fact a gift,

a treasure, and we might discover that we can open 

ourselves up to accept it. 

If we truly want to love, we must learn to suffer.

 

I was married to an alcoholic who, every time he was 

angry, and that was often, said that he was going to

turn our children against me. The children that I was

practically alone in taking care of. 

 

Imagine having as an objective in life to break the bond of 

love between the mother of your children and the children,

turn it into hate. A sick and perverted mind damaged 

by life long alcohol abuse, evil and corrupt. From my side, 

despite everything, I never had any wish to break any part 

of their relationship with their father, because I knew it 

would hurt them. 

 

The hardest cross anyone can have is the absence of love 

in one's life. 

Our heart cries out for love, and it is by giving that we

receive. It does not come by force, brutality or money. 

Love also involves suffering when it presents itself. 

This is true surrender, we become stripped of our

own minds, plans, wishes. 

 

The Power of Love will always win, the light that shines 

in the darkness is the Infinite Perfect Creative Power that made us, that made everything. 

 

The Paratrooper's Prayer

Give me, O Lord, my God, what is left Thee, that which no one asks of Thee. 

I do not ask Thee for rest or tranquility, neither of soul or body.

I do not ask Thee for wealth, nor success, nor health.

So many ask this of Thee, O my God, that there must be nothing left for Thee to give.

Give me Lord, what Thou hast left, give me what everyone else rejects.

I want insecurity and trepidation, I want struggle and torment.

Give me this definitively my God, give me the certainty that this will be my portion forever, because I will not always have the courage to ask Thee for it. 

Give me Lord, what Thou has left, give me what others do not want, but also give me courage, strenght and Faith. 

 Written by André Zirnheld

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Novus Ordo Mass

 

The spirit of the 2.nd Vatican Council was one of opening up 

and aligning the Catholic Church to the spirit of the world. 

Although the spirit of the world is opposite to the 

spirit of God, and Jesus Christ; Our Lord and Saviour, said 

repeatedly that His Kingdom was "not of this world." 

One of the documents with it's origin in the 2.nd VC; 

"Nostrae Aetate" concerns itself with dialogue with, 

and respect for, non- Christian religions, 

especially Islam. 

It's stated purpose is reconciliation with the other main 

religions of the world,

although it is not a dogmatic document.

How they hope to make two different irreconcilable religions 

reconcilable, without erasing one of them, I do not understand.

But I am sure that there will be no concessions or compromise

from Islam. So who is going to alter and modify their religion,

betray Our Lord, like Judas did? 

From this document sprung the idea of ecumenism and religious 

liberty, neither of which has strengthened the Catholic Church 

but rather has caused wide spread confusion and lack of clarity 

and guidance among Catholics, and has hugely contributed to 

people leaving the Church. 

Because such liberalism makes God Himself subjective  and 

relative; each one makes their own god. 

 

The new liturgy changed the very understanding of God, and 

our relationship to Him. 

The priest facing the people instead of God, changed everything, 

it changed the priesthood itself. 

The priest became "one of us", but he isn't, he is set apart from 

us, he is there to serve God, the Church, to save souls, to bring 

the Kingdom of God to people. 

  

They did away with kneeling while receiving Him on the tongue, 

we could from now on stand, as if we are His equal, and receive 

Him with our own unworthy hands, as if it was any other food. 

This itself caused people to loose faith in the Real Presence, it 

brought the Church down to the level of a human community, 

amongst all the others. 

And bringing lay people to distribute the Body and Blood of 

Our Lord was a terrible idea, a serious blow to the priesthood.

 

The Church's  true value; the divine and 

supernatural, was taken out.

People started to leave the Church in droves, and those who 

remained lamented the drop in numbers.

But there is a reason for everything, everything has a cause.

Ever since we hear about the lack of vocations to the priesthood, 

the low number going to Mass, etc.

But why would we bother going to Mass, if not going to Mass is 

just as good?

 

The work of ecumenism has brought a favorable attitude towards 

Islam amongst many Catholics, because many priests have almost 

been promoting it from the pulpit. This does not necessarily come 

from a good knowledge of it, it stems from the "Nostrae Aetate" 

document; it says: this is the attitude we now ought to have.

 

The muslims are praised for being devote, compared to us 

Christians.

But I see many devote Catholics, mostly at Traditional Latin Mass, 

where they did not abandon the dogma and the teaching of the true 

faith. These communities, e.g. The Institute of Christ the King 

Sovereign Priest and others, are growing, and they constitute mainly 

of young people, they have real catholic schools where the Faith is 

being taught to the children from an early age. 

 

There is much less of a spirit of devotion in the Novus Ordo, where 

still to this day, many members of the congregation do not turn off 

their mobile phone before going in to Mass, where the dress code 

is non existent, where there is chatter and even clapping, and where 

the priest is your friend and your psychotherapist.

 

It is the Mass itself which is causing the lack of devotion. 

Groups of Lectio Divina, found in many parishes; where the Gospel 

is read, reflected on, shared thoughts on, reveals the differences 

people have on the Word of God, it is like "this is how I see it, this is 

how I feel", due to lack of catechism.  

Because God's word is objective, it is not up for interpretation.

 

In France there are already parishes that have shared prayer 

meetings with muslims, they often take place in mosques. 

This is set up by bishops. 

 

Also in France, in certain parishes The Holy Communion has been 

devalued, degraded, to such an extent that it is a buffet meal; instead 

of feeding the faithful with the Body and Blood of Christ in Holy 

Communion,  congregations are told that they can come up and serve 

themselves from the Ciborium, while the priest is sitting down.  

 

Also striking is the difference in the Sacrament of Confession between the 

Novus Ordo and the TLM.

In the N.O.the concept of sin has almost been done away with, so when 

you confess your sins to the priest, he almost justifies them for you, saying 

that what you did was totally understandable, and that in fact it was you 

that was the victim of somebody's else's sin, thus taking the responsibility 

for our actions away from us, and blaming someone else. This 

does not help us to grow in holiness, which is the sole purpose of the 

existence of the Catholic Church.

 

A sin must be recognized as such, confessed by the penitent, absolved 

by the priest, penance done, end of story, as it is done in the TLM.

Because hearing that it was "only normal and human" makes one think 

that it was fine, and there will be no effort of improvement. 

We are weak humans, but our participation in the Church is not about 

a growth in human nature, it is an effort to become more like Christ: 

God Himself.

  

 

 

 

God is Merciful, and also Judge

 

It is surprising to hear some Catholic's understanding of 

the Mercy of God, and the absence of the necessity of 

atonement or acts of reparation. 

Confessing our sins in the Sacrament of Reconciliation

means that we admit what we did wrong, and that we

understand why it was wrong, because it hurt God and 

usually another person(s) too. 

We know that being literally forgiven by God in this 

Sacrament is an immense grace that only exists in the 

Catholic Church, we know it is because God wants to

draw us nearer to Him while we are still living in this

dimension, but most people also have an inbuilt sense of

justice and balance; weighing things up.

 

If someone breaks somebody else's window by his own

fault, he can confess this to the priest in Confession, but 

he will more than likely be advised by the priest to go

to the person's house, and take responsibility for the 

reparation and cost of the window. 

It is only what any normal decent person would

do, who might not even be Catholic. 

We are after all for the moment living in a material world.

 

But some seems to have an unrealistic idea of God, they 

say that no matter what you do, God forgives unconditionally, 

because of His Mercy. 

But if they don't think that there are consequences for our

sins, how do they explain the existence of Purgatory, which 

is part of our Faith?

Purgatory exists because most people are not pure enough to

enter directly into Heaven, we need to purge our sins first,

it is a logical consequence.

These people believe that everybody goes directly to 

heaven,

no matter the quality of their soul and their person.

 

They do not believe in the existence of Hell either, even 

though Jesus Christ Himself spoke about it often, in the

New Testament He mentions it 60 times,

it seems therefore a bit rich for  anyone to decide that 

we can ignore that part.

This attitude is a pure protestant one; it is a "once saved,

always saved" belief, but Catholicism teaches that we can 

lose the grace of God at any moment, because of our fallen

nature, therefore we must never take God's Mercy for granted.

 

Being Catholic requires not only Faith, but also work.

Principally work on our self, self improvement, our own 

sanctification.

 

I heard someone use the words; "we're off the hook", which 

is not the right way to look at confession of our sins.

Going to Confession is never a light-hearted affair, and

why do we say in the Act of Contrition that we detest our sins

because of God's just punishment?  

 

Modernism and relativism has brought much falseness into

many Catholics understanding of the Faith, they have made 

it into a subjective, comfortable version that suits them.

 

But real Catholics are soldiers, they engage in the spiritual

battle every day, the battle against the evil one, and this is 

far from comfortable, I would wonder about anyone who feels 

comfortable.

God's reality is objective and unchanging.

 

 

 

 

 

 

AUTHORITY

 

We know that in order to live correctly we must be obedient.

A child must obey it's parents, at school; the teacher,

at work; the boss.

We must also obey the laws of the country that we live in.

 

The Holy Family were perfectly obedient and submitted 

to the laws of the land they were living in. 

For example, Joseph, who was born in Bethlehem, had to 

go back there to comply with the census regulations. 

Another example: they also complied with their Jewish 

customs as Jesus was brought to the Temple for the Jewish 

rite of  purification.

 

For Catholics it has become extremely complicated  

to be able to distinguish between what is God's law 

and what is the law that we must obey.

 

Since the 2.nd Vatican Council the doctrine of the 

Church has been more than vague, it is almost wiped 

out, apart from those adhering to Tradition, most Catholics 

think that being kind and helpful to others suffices, and 

since kindness and gentleness is something that hits home 

with the average human being everywhere, and all religions,

the Catholic Church is now in the transition of melting with 

the other religions in order to just have one world religion as

Pope Francis's Encyclical "Fratelli Tutti", which focuses

on worldly fraternity, underlines.

 

Yes, world peace, no more wars, is what we want.

Yes, we must love and respect all people, no matter 

religion and culture. Most of us grown up in 

the West know this, it is at the base of our cultures.

There are a multitude of international structures,

organizations and programs that works with this as

goal, but the problem of man's sinful and corrupted

nature always comes back to put obstacles in the way.

 

But the Catholic Faith is not just yet another program for 

good living and decent human behaviour.

It is much much more;  it is a program for sanctification; 

divinisation, the complete Catholic Doctrinal Faith is 

supernatural in nature.

 

This is why we need dogma and clear and unambiguous 

teaching, not a modified, watered down, vague and blurred 

version which fits in with the worldly trend, deprived of all 

supernatural. 

 

Jesus said: "My kingdom is not of this world." 

John 18:36

 

We live in a state and under a government which deems it

legal and acceptable to kill living babies, because they have 

not yet passed through the birth canal. 

But in the 6th Commandment of the Decalogue, it says the 

premeditated killing of another human being is forbidden.

 

This is just one example of the contradiction between God's

Law and civil law, but there are very many more which are 

irreconcilable, incompatible.

 

We live in the world, but as Catholics we should not live 

according to the world.

 

Catholics are in the fog, everything is blurred, they do no longer 

know how to distinguish and discern between right and wrong, 

they do not know which authority is "right", because often they 

unconsciously believe that elected members and ministers 

of government are automatically right, when they might actually

be on the side of the devil, but since they are conditioned to 

obedience to civil authority, being "good girls and boys", 

since childhood, they feel that they have no choice.

And because their conscience have not been informed and hence 

formed, by the divine teaching of the Catholic Church; the guardian 

of the full deposit of faith, as it is no longer generally taught.

 

God can not be updated, we can not inform God about what things 

are like nowadays, we can not say to Him: "hey God, you must 

understand that today in 2025, things have changed, its not like it 

was before, in your time", because God is outside time;

He Was, Is, and Will Always Be. 

 

"I Am Who I Am"

Exodus 3:14

 

God is Constant, Eternal, unchangeable, He exists in Himself.

He does not operate according to our way of thinking and acting;

 "For my thoughts are not your thoughts,

neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord.

For as the heavens are higher than the earth,

so are my ways higher than your ways

and my thoughts than your thoughts"

Isaiah 55:8-9

 

We should not compromise with the world, because it 

leads to the destruction of the Church and the loss of souls. 

It is painful to see how priests are obliged to do so, due to 

their vow of obedience, they have sometimes to comply 

with changes that contradicts the fundamentals, 

the absoluteness of catholic doctrine; for example the 

indissolubility  of marriage, by introducing the possibility 

for annulments.

We only need to read the old testament, long before 

The Incarnation, to see that nothing has really changed, 

the world is as corrupt today as it was 

before, human nature is as bad today as before, the ways 

and manners have changed, but they are external and 

superficial, the human heart has not changed.  

Politics is at work inside the church, the destructive work of 

ecumenism which wastes precious time and deviates the focus.

As Catholics we are not obliged to follow this, and what is more, 

we ought not to do so, since the focus and goal is our own sanctification

and evangelisation of the world, bringing the Word of God to others. 

The very concept that the Catholic Church should approach

the churches that willingly broke away from her, and faiths

that are totally different, like Islam, by pretending that we have

the basics in common, (we believe in one God), is trickery and 

deception, making people believe that the differences between us are 

negligible, it weakens the church and drives people who are not there 

for community activity reasons, away.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Holy Mass

 

God is Holy, 

The Sacrifice of the Mass is Holy, and

our participation in it is in order to make us holy. 

 

There is a clear and concise objective in being a 

practicing catholic; it is to draw near to God;

it is to become holy. 

The Catholic Church has been a veritable Saint 

factory, and we only know a few of them. 

 

There has been plenty of testimonies of 

cloistered nuns and religious elevating

in the air during prayer, and our beloved 

Padre Pio was known to be bi-locating 

(being in two different places at the same time), 

also countless miraculous healings of all sorts 

of illnesses; these are all outward signs of God's 

presence and actions in Saints.

 

But the biggest sign of God's supernatural

presence is more subtle and internal; it is 

when we are truly willing to carry our crosses,

and truly able to forgive those who hurt us.

"Not once, not seven times, but seventy-seven times".

(unlimited times)

Matthew 18:21-35

 

We need crosses, we need to accept them, 

because they are what is needed to become holy. 

But as it is against human nature to accept

pain of any sort; we instinctively want to flee from 

it, avoid it, block it out, we rage against it, the

process is supernatural; 

it happens through and in our human nature but it 

goes further, it goes beyond it.

We have to be willing to suffer, but we get the strength

to do so, and we get peace and joy in our hearts, the 

peace that only God can give.

 

I have a feeling that the majority of 

saintly persons were, and still are, unknown. 

And that doesn't matter, because we are not 

seeking recognition in this world, we only seek 

to please God.

The priest celebrates the Sacrifice of the Mass, he 

is himself part of the Sacrifice, he can for example 

never leave in the middle of it, no matter what,

 even if his life is at risk. 

We are also asked to participate in the

sacrifice, with every part of our lives.

The setting for the opening of our hearts; saying 

yes, is a holy, solemn and reverent Mass, where 

we are fully attentive and present, and where

everything is carried out in the precise and minute

exactitude of the Holy Mass.

  

The Catholic Faith is supernatural; we live in the 

natural world and we have a natural human nature, 

but with true faith, trust, surrender, prayers and 

the Sacraments that which surpasses the natural 

(worldly) can enter. 

The supernatural (divine) is not a separate entity 

from the natural,

it rather grows out from it, it is superimposed. 

It can only be obtained through Our Lord Jesus Christ,

who is the only mediator with God The Father.