Liberty, Equality, Fraternity

 

Liberty, Equality, Fraternity is the national motto of France.

It is based on the Declaration of human and citizen rights of 1789.

In France, up until the Lockdown, les Gilets Jaunes: the Yellow Vests, were out every weekend,

often with a high risk to their own safety. It was not just motivated by their long tradition of

demonstrations, revolts, insurrection and strikes.

The movement was made up of ordinary people of all professions,

who due to never ending punitive new taxes, suffered so much financially that there would not

be enough money to buy food. With the Lock down, the economy have taken a hard blow,

many people have lost their jobs.

There was already a high suicide rate before, but now things are worse.

The villages are almost more or less abandoned, whereas up to even 20 years ago they were full

of little enterprises, cafés, shops, little factories, that gave enough income to live on.

And there was a community spirit of cooperation.

The cooperative model, apart from being equitable, has many facets and dimensions that will help reduce the problems attached to our current model; of which crime and mental health are two.

A successful model of a cooperative community is the Kibbutzes which we find in Israel,

where I myself worked as a young person. It shows clearly that this approach is not utopia,

it is workable and creates strength in communities.

In addition, on a human level, the concept of sharing and cooperating is fundamental for human growth. During the confinement, the community spirit and genuine care that people had for each other, was heartwarming and gave a lot of hope.

In the 1960's and 70's many young people tried to live in communities based on the principles of non profit, cooperation, and human love. The communities that grew out of the hippie culture did not succeed because they were based on drugs, sex and lack of any genuine spirituality.

In Christianity we are all declared equal.

We are all going to die, we are all going to turn into dust.

Ironically, also in France, the Catholic Church has a long history of aligning herself with

the rich and powerful, la bourgeoisie.

The result of that, and also of Vatican 2, is that the catholic doctrine has in many parts disappeared

and been replaced by a protestant one, and a structure of human worldly power, instead of teaching

the truth about God.

It is a tragedy because God is not whatever we want him to be. He is what he is and he does not

change and modify himself over time, he does not follow fashion. He does not think like us.

"For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways," declares the LORD

( Isaiah 55, 8)

Accumulation of wealth, materialism and consumerism are obstacles to living in union with God.

And we know that it does not bring happiness.

It brings stress.

It becomes an obsession.

In reality there is enough of everything for everybody.

Human beings actually needs very little to live; oxygen, water, food, shelter, but in order to

expand and grow in the dignity that God wants him to live in, he also needs to develop a

relationship with the Creator.

We are like coins with it's two sides;

at the same time as being present in this world we have the possibility of also living in union with God. This is why Jesus came. And just as all relationships needs to be worked at; the relationship with our family and friends, with God it is not any different.

We do not find God in the sky, in the clouds,we find him in the here and now, in everyday life.

If we cooperate with God's light and intelligence, which He has put into each and every one of us, and to which we gain access through the true teaching of the Church, inside ourselves, by letting go of our obstinate ego and pride, this perfect cohesion will also necessarily manifest itself in society, in economy, in creating authentic Liberty, Equality and Fraternity.

The Creator and the creatures, two sides of the same coin.

Living in communities where everybody contributes to create a whole, for the common good, corresponds perfectly with the true teaching of the Catholic Church where every member forms a part  of  the whole Body Of Christ.

People would have a higher quality of life, human relationships would be better, and the current widespread underlying mentality of regarding each other as competitors would no longer need to exist. It is the result of a society where it has been instilled into us from an early age that you have to be better that the others in order to succeed. People are often taught how to (ab)use and betray each other. We forget that we are, in spite of being different, in fact equal, in value, by nature.

Covid 19 lockdown, and afterwards, revealed a lot, and since it has had such a severe effect on the world's economies, we do not know yet how it will pan out.

The Sacrement of Confession

 

 

We do not confess our sins directly to God, we confess them to a priest.

And the more we confess, the faster we progress!

So what actually happens during confession? 

The confessional is a place where there can be no pride,  pride is the deadliest 

obstacle to God. We feel humiliated admitting to the priest with actual words

what we have done that hurts Jesus. The fact that we have to use many words and 

explain  the what and the how, brings it into the light. When we speak, it "goes out" of us. 

The feelings attached to it might not go away straight away, but in reality we are 

lighter,  it is a form of exorcism that is taking place. 

And only the priest can give us absolution, forgiveness; the priest speaks the words,

but it is Jesus that is forgiving. It brings spiritual healing.

And it brings us closer to God; we become more aware of our thoughts, words, 

attitudes and actions, we grow in understanding of the faith.

 And with a bit of time the feelings heals too.  

In our society so many people have recourse to counselors and psychologists;

if they knew the value of confession, they would go there instead and the psychotherapists 

would be out of work.  

Saint Louis Marie Grignon de Montfort

 

What worried Saint Louis Marie Grignon de Montfort,

who was born in 1673 and ordained priest in 1700,

was the lack of priests and ignorance of the Catholic faith.

We can therefore see that after 300 years,

the situation has not changed!

Saint Louis Marie de Montfort is known for his writings:

"The secret of The Rosary",

"True devotion to Mary" and "The Secret of Mary".

There he developed the reasons why, to find God,

we have to go through Mary, just like Jesus did. 

 

Sanctification by Mary

"As in the order of nature a child must have a father and a mother,

likewise in the order of grace, a true child of the church must have

God for his father and Mary for his mother, and if anyone prides

himself on having God for his father and yet does not have the love

of a true child for Mary,

he is a deceiver and the only father he has is the devil "

 Saint Louis Marie de Montfort

 

The Catholic Church; Guardian of the Faith

 

 

Today I sent this email to the Primate of All Ireland Archbishop Eamon Martin 

 

"Your Excellency Archbishop Martin,

I am writing to you regarding the Church's position on moral issues, as it is becoming 

increasingly blurred, unclear and vague.

Before the referendum on gay marriage, the priest in my parish did not even make a 

mention of it in his homily, and today there are also Catholics who are pro-abortion.

The Parcours Alpha course in France which takes place in catholic churches, 

does not mention the Sacraments of the Church, neither the Virgin Mary, and nobody 

makes the sign of the Cross.

It is presented as a basic introduction to Christianity, but for the Catholic Church it is 

surely the Sacraments that forms the base? 

I know one team member who insists it is "great that now divorced people can remarry 

and receive Holy Communion in the Catholic Church", and that "we must and should now 

congregate with Muslims and pray together with them, because there is only one God".

The horror of the sex abuse scandals and it's denial and concealment does not provide

an explanation, as it was widespread in all parts of the society; in the field of sport,

in every kind of groupings where there were vulnerable children, and the largest proportion  

of abuse happened in the family unit.

It does not follow that therefore sport is bad, or that family units are bad, and that they must disappear.

Has the Church ceased insisting on her own teaching, in an effort to seek her survival under

the hat of ecumenism, like a merger?

I ask the question because Protestantism is widespread within the Catholic Church;
people do not believe in the Real Presence of the Eucharist,
they do not believe in the Resurrection of the body etc. 
Although they confess it with their lips at the start of Mass.
Very many do not believe in the celibacy for priests, because they do not understand 
why that rule is there,  as nobody seems to be able to explain it to them in a way that
satisfies the intelligence.
Many do not believe in the right to life of the unborn, they are not able to differentiate
between the woman's body and that of the baby,
and they think that no matter what one do, "it is ok, one must not judge".
That means that we have lost the capacity to differentiate between good and evil, and
the entire catholic doctrine unravels.

I understand that in wake of all the scandals, it is not easy to hold one's ground, but not
doing so is worse.
The fact that the Church has lost her position of dominance in former catholic countries,
is not a bad thing, as she was never about worldly power in the first place.
The evil has to be cleared out. But to allow the Church to slip unnoticed into Protestantism 
is a serious betrayal of Christ Himself. The Church's premier role and mission is to save souls,
not to look for her own survival."

Clarity on abortion

“Termination of pregnancy” is a diplomatic way of covering up the horror and reality of abortion.
To make matters worse, they are even now saying that it is an urgent part of "health care".
Humans have a great ability to live in denial and lie to themselves, but this never lasts forever,
in the end, sooner or later, facts and reality catches up with us.

To pretend that we are not dealing with the murder of ALIVE innocent babies, even today,
when we know that even "two weeks behind on your period" your baby's body has arms 
and legs, that fingers and toes are forming, and his heart is beating, is the same as lying.

Neither do we hear anything about the psychological consequences for women who were persuaded to abort their babies and that "it was the best option" for them. We talk a lot about the horror of abuse, but we hear nothing about the mental anguish women endure as a result of the abortions they have had.

Pellevoisin, France

In 1876, in Pellevoisin, France, Our Lady appeared 15 times to a woman called 

Estelle Faguette.

  

What happened was that Estelle got a deadly illness. 

It was not the fact that she was going to die that bothered her, it was the fact

that her parents depended on her for their survival, as they were both unable to work 

and Estelle was the one that provided for them both by working.

 

She wrote a letter to Our Lady and put it in the little grotto to Our Lady which was a 

good bit away from where she lived. 

During the 15 apparitions of Our Lady that followed, Estelle was healed progressively 

and was in the end completely free of her illness. 

I had the chance to visit Pellevoisin.

First and foremost the Mass was extremely nourishing for the soul and the spirit, 

and throughout it there was a cohesion and perfection that was tangible.

I was in awe.  

After Mass we spoke with some of the Sisters of the religious community who lives there;  

the contemplative sisters of Saint Jean

Afterwards we visited the sanctuary and the grotto.

 

What a rich and beautiful day! It is to be recommended.

Stay!

Ours is a spiritual battle.

To be fully participating at Mass we must be there with our full presence
and awareness.

Regardless of the fact that in the Church we might sometimes have the
impression that it is the adversary who rules,
we need to stay there, and not leave in discouragement, because despite
the heresies sometimes pronounced, we need to stay on the playing field
in order to fight.

Our role is to tell the truth. If we leave, we let them win.

So to all you within the "conciliatory" ranks who sticks the label of "fundamentalist"
on all Catholics who are against the fading away and blurring of catholic doctrine
but who holds tight to it,  not because they are old fashioned or are stuck
in the past, as most of them are young!, but because they understand that nothing is
more important than guarding the faith. 
They know it because of their level of awareness.
And the aim of the catholic doctrine is to raise Man's awareness about who he is
in his deepest sense.  

From it's beginning, The Church has never had an easy ride.
Besides the persecution of Christians, which is still strong today, and the persecutions
carried out by the Christians themselves, internal conflict
has also always been present. It is part of human nature, so it would be unrealistic to
"wait until everybody is on the same page", because that will never happen.
We are, and will always be, on different steps of the ladder.

So many of the characters in the Bible, both in the Old and New Testament, seems so
familiar to me.The way they think, talk and act.
It seems as if nothing has changed, in all that time.
But that is not true, since Jesus came, He changed everything.
But for us, it can only happen if we really want it to.

The unity with the other Christian churches that the conciliatory ranks talks about,
has led to so much confusion in regard to the faith itself, as a lot of people believe
that in order to be "united" one must pretend that we are the same, and not insist
on our own teaching, as we do not want to "upset" them, and show ourselves to be
"unloving".
That is in reality abandonment, and self betrayal.

If today, the congregation is small in some parishes, is it important?
Is our religion about being big, powerful, highly revered and respected, or is is
about saving souls for the Kingdom of God?
Maybe it is even good, because Mother Church needs space, peace and quiet, from all
the "doing" to come back to what she is all about.
She is about announcing the Truth.