Catholic=Christian

 

Evangelicals and other protestants often say:

«I am not Catholic, I am Christian».....

 

Let us recap.

 

Christianity comes from Jesus Christ: True God and True Man,

it stems from His Life, Death and Resurrection.

Soon after Jesus left, His Apostles spread His Word: the Gospel, 

to different parts of the world, and most of them were martyred 

for doing so (crucified, stoned to death, beheaded).

Christianity = Catholicism 

Catholics (Christians) were persecuted from the very beginning 

and risked their lives by attending Mass and for refusing to renounce 

their faith.

This happened all over the word, at different periods, also in Ireland, 

under the tyrannical British rule during the Great famine, when those 

who refused to renounce the faith were left to die of hunger. 

The persecution of Christians has never stopped, there has always 

been some parts of the world where this is taking place, and 

it is still happening today, in 2025, in many African countries, 

notably Nigeria.

Christ established One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church.

The Church is One (unified), Catholic (universal and inclusive of all

people) and Apostolic (connected through an unbroken line of succession

to Christ's own Apostles)

Christ is the Holy One who sanctifies His Church,

the Church's Holiness comes from Christ.

Christ established His Church based on 7 Sacrements:

Baptism, Eucharist, Confirmation, Marriage, Confession,

Anointing of the Sick, The Priesthood.

Those are visible signs of God's grace and they are means for 

our personal sanctification, which is the aim of Christian life.

The Catholic Church has produced thousands of Saints, 

(Canonized; officially declared Saints by the Church), the most 

recent is Carlo Acutis (canonized today 7/9/2025) who died at 

15 years of age in 2006, and who used the Internet to spread 

information of Eucharistic Miracles and Marian apparitions 

through his website. 

But it was his holy and lively faith in the Eucharist that rendered

him saintly in his private daily life.

Then, in the 16th Century, Martin Luther: a Catholic priest, 

rebelled, protested, and was excommunicated from the Church.

He made up his own theology, his own Church.

Also during the 1530s; Henry the 8th, a great defender of the 

Catholic Faith until then, for his own very personal reasons,  

protested and broke away from the Church,

and established the protestant Church of England.

Protestantisme is based on: I will not comply.

There were also Calvin and others, of the same era, 16^th Century, 

who founded their own individual Church. 

And ever since then, 

protestant and evangelical churches have continued

dividing themselves, creating more and more denominations.

Estimated number of protestant denominations today: over 47.000.

 

While despite everything that has happened within the 

Catholic Church; the scandals and the betrayals from the hierarchy, 

and against the Catholic Church; the constant persecution,

she is still One.

 

Contrary to what many protestants assume about us, 

Catholics do not claim to be better than anybody else, 

but we do claim to have the Church that Christ Himself founded, 

not founded by somebody else.

It is Christ we follow.

 

The Catholic Church is made up of sinners, even though we strive 

for holiness, we know and acknowledge our human sinful nature. 

This awareness is important. We strive

for life in God, while still living in this low dimension ruled by Satan.

The Catholic Church do not have individual pastors for individual 

christian communities.

We have a world wide organized hierarchical structure of deacons, 

priests, bishops, in clearly defined areas of dioceses and parishes, 

and we have archbishops, cardinals and one Pope in Rome, 

who we call Holy Father.

This defines the power and responsibilities in each parish.

 

Every day the same Mass is celebrated in Catholic Churches 

all over the world.

The same words, the same Readings from the Bible, 

the same Gospel reading for each particular day. 

Every day has different readings and a different Gospel 

from the Bible.

Catholics who attend Mass regularly are therefore well 

versed in the Bible.

And nearly every day is the feast day of a Catholic Saint, 

so there is also some teaching on the Saint in question.

There also seem to be a belief amongst protestants and evangelicals 

that Catholics believe in the priest or the bishop or even the Pope; 

this is false, and it is called clericalism.

We do not, because we know that they are sinners too.

We believe in the Triune God; 

The Father, The Son and The Holy Spirit; 

3 Persons in the One same Substance.

Ireland's new Lectionary

 

The Bishops of Ireland, New Zealand and Australia have

made a new updated version of the Lectionary, 

the Lectionary is the book that 

contains the scripture readings for Mass.

 

They claim that it was necessary to make it more "inclusive"

and "gender-sensitive", but they insist it is not "woke".

 

Nevertheless, those 2 words ( inclusive and gender-sensitive)

tells us that it is indeed woke, a politically correct ideological 

effort to "update" the Word of God, although they claim that 

their motive for this is to try and draw people deeper into God's 

Word.

 

Ever since Vatican II, bishops and parishes have been trying 

various "new ways" "to attract people back into the Church", 

and this is yet another effort.

"What can we do to get people to come back?" they have been 

lamenting, ever since they witnessed the faithful leaving in droves 

as  the Novus Ordo; the New Mass, was imposed on the Catholic 

faithful in the latter half of the 1960s.

 

They left because of the new Mass, the new liturgy carried with it 

a new doctrine, in fact the doctrine was taught less and less, and 

today it has, but for the Traditional Parishes, become extinct, or 

largely unknown in any case. 

Many Catholics think that the religion consists of, and is limited 

to, "being nice and helpful".

 

Fr. O'Donoghue, a member of the editorial group behind the 

new Lectionary, says in The Irish Catholic newspaper on 

August 14, in regard to the Jerusalem Bible, which has been 

used in the current Lectionary for the last 50 years, 

"that it was something that was done very well", mentioning 

J.R.R. Tolkien's ( a high fantasy writer)

involvement as a factor which contributed to this 

"being done very well". 

 

But then he seems to contradict himself as he goes on to say 

that the same Bible, (The Jerusalem) was 

"a hurriedly prepared Bible" following Vatican II. 

He points out the very serious problem of the fact that

compared to the Hebrew and Greek texts, "it (the English) 

doesn't always quite say what they say", in other words; it 

is a different text with a different meaning.

He says it was a "rushed job" and it "doesn't have the nuances".

But in spite of not knowing Hebrew, he says that the text in the 

Revised New Jerusalem Bible seems to be a more faithful rendering 

of the original languages.

 

Which is strange, because the bishops said that their approval was 

based on it's "inclusive language and gender-sensitivity".

Instead of man or men, it is now men and women or  

women and sisters or people.

This kind of language did not exist in the original text, that is why

they changed it, how can they say it is more true to the original? 

 

At the same time as Vatican II  changed the liturgy of 

the Catholic Church and wiped out, bit by bit, it's doctrine, 

the women's liberation was happening in all western countries.

Women wanted "equal rights", this ideology wanted women

to be so equal to men that they would become as much men

as possible, thus denying and wiping out the perfect 

complimentary role of men and women that God made.

We are not the same, it ought to be obvious! but we do 

have equal worth.  

But this nuance has always been lost on the militant feminist 

movement, and it certainly made it's way into the church 

too.

Hence demands for women to become priests, and now with 

this new Lectionary they are succumbing to it in 

an effort to appease "the women" ;it is not only woke, it is

embarrassing and stupid.

 

The Old and New Testament are set in a completely patriarchal 

world; but we today are intelligent and educated enough to understand 

that and to take that into account when we read or listen to the Word 

of God. We do not "feel excluded", we understand.

 

But the relentless women's liberation brainwashing that has been 

ongoing for 50 years, makes some women believe that they 

should feel indignated and "excluded".

 

What about the text that says that women should submit to 

their husbands, (Ephesians 5:22-24), are they going to delete 

that too, saying that it is not in line with today's world?

  

We know that Palestine of 2025 years ago can not be juxtaposed 

on the Western world of 2025, but the deep spiritual wisdom of a 

married woman submitting to her husband, where the husband 

loves and treats his wife well, has not changed.

 

A Catholic Priest can only be a man, he gives his life ("his seed") 

through his ministry to The Church; feminine.

In a marriage the man has authority in the same way as the priest 

in the Church, the wife is the "church", through her comes more 

faithful believers into the world.    

Feminism is spiritual blindness. 

 

All human efforts, including this one, of modernising 

the Church, the liturgy, "coming up with new ideas", 

"making it more inclusive" are attempts to 

compete with God, to get the "numbers up".

It is doomed to fail, it has always failed, and worse still; it

destroys the Church from within. 

 

The parishes that flourish now, and that attracts vocations 

to the priesthood, are the Traditional parishes. 

They do not "try" to please people, by coming up with 

modernizing ideas or schemes, their only objective is to 

please God, by a Holy and Reverend Mass with beautiful 

Liturgy, and by passing on, unequivocally and without fear, 

the clear doctrine of the Holy Catholic Church. 

Because it is God who attracts.

 

In addition to the difficulties in regard to nuances in translating 

a language, even today, 

(which can make the whole difference in the globality of the 

understanding), there is also Pope Francis' Magnum Principium 

where he gave authority to the Bishops' Conferences of each 

individual country to make their own vernacular translation.

This also has it's roots in Vatican II.

 

Their stated aim with this change is for spiritual formation

and renewal of the faith. 

I doubt very much if that will happen as a result of 

this, but I think it will happen, and I think it is already happening.

The young generation are searching authenticity, what is real,

what is true, the "modernity" and the time for "updating" are 

things of the past.  

Regarding inclusivity, that has always been a basic principle of the Church; 

She is for everyone. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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.