Whitney Houston RIP

A star is dead. 

Our Lady of Lourdes... "so that goodness might overcome our guilt and grace supplant our sin."

Fragrant is the scent of your perfume, Immaculate Virgin. Let us follow in your footsteps.

From the Song of Songs2:10-14; 8:6-7

Mary, the beautiful one

My beloved speaks and says to me: "Arise, my love, my fair one, and come away; for lo, the winter is past, the rain is over and gone. The flowers appear on the earth, the time of singing has come, and the voice of the turtledove is heard in our land.

The fig tree puts forth its figs, and the vines are in blossom; they give forth fragrance. Arise, my love, my fair one, and come away. O my dove, in the clefts of the rock, in the covert of the cliff, let me see your face, let me hear your voice, for your voice is sweet, and your face is comely.

Set me as a seal upon your heart, as a seal upon your arm; for love is strong as death, jealousy is cruel as the grave. Its flashes are flashes of fire, a most vehement flame. Many waters cannot quench love, neither can floods drown it. If a man offered for love all the wealth of his house, it would be utterly scorned.

RESPONSORY

R. Like a thorn which has borne a rose, Eve gave birth to Mary * so that goodness might overcome our guilt and grace supplant our sin. (E.T. Alleluia)

V. The Lord willed this for our greater glory * so that goodness might overcome our guilt and grace supplant our sin. (E.T. Alleluia) - Little Office of the BVM of Mt. Carmel

Years ago when I visited Lourdes I understood what joy is.  Real, interior joy seemed to be Our Lady's gift to me.

"So that goodness might overcome our guilt and grace supplant our sin."

Obama and the HHS mandate...

I'm not a news portal - obviously - so I haven't written much if anything regarding the most recent dictatorial power grab by the Obama Administration to limit religious freedom in and through the Obamacare contraceptive mandate.  It is all over the news and I have nothing to add, except to say:

• I'm against it: The mandate and the policies of the immoral Obama Administration.
• I stand with the Bishops of the Catholic Church.
• Obama can not and should not be re-elected.

To borrow something I found at WDTPRS:

We belong to the Church militant ; and she is militant because on earth the powers of darkness are ever restless to encompass her destruction. - Pius XII

As well as good advice from a less commercial source:

 "Stand therefore, having girded your waist with truth, having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace; above all, taking the shield of faith with which you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one."

"And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God; praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, being watchful to this end with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints...." (Eph. 6:13-18)

That exhortation from St. Paul begins with the reminder of where our real strength is found, "Be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might." (Eph. 6:10]

So what orders does this soldier all dressed for battle receive? Pray. Pray at every opportunity. Pray, calling upon the Holy Spirit who took up residence in you at your baptism to guide and anoint your prayers.

And the enemy would love nothing more than to convince us that prayer and the grace poured out are of no use.

Of course, we need to continue to herald the truth of the faith at all times, in all places everywhere. The Church is not just the conscience of the world, but the true home of the whole human race. We are simply sharing messages from that home.

We also need to continue to actively lobby and work for those causes that are right and true and honoring to our Lord and His Church.

Yet we must also pray - or should I say foremost, we must pray. -  Catholic Online

This is interesting, click here.

Levitating priest...

Wait!  Don't run away!

I finished my painting, Levitating Priest.  I will have to photo it and post it - maybe this weekend.  I think it may even be suitable for framing, as they say on TV.

Art:  Sassetta (Stefano di Giovanni), The Blessed Ranieri Rasini Freeing Poor People from Prison in Florence, 1437–1444.

Consent.

Why is the concept of consent so very important to the homosexual movement?

That question came up in one of my com boxes the other day.  Apparently it is something of a doctrine for people in same sex relationships, or at least a free pas to promiscuity.  I will be looking at some of these issues over the weeks to come as they relate to the issue of same sex marriage and the promotion of the Minnesota Marriage Amendment.  (I support the amendment by the way.)

Homosexual Ideology: An Example

David Thorstad, spokesman for the North American Man/Boy Love Association, has attempted to articulate an ideology of homosexuality which reflects the needs not only of pederasts but of all homosexuals.  Thorstad's system includes the following components:

1) Sex.  In all its forms, sex is good so long it is consensual.  Specifically, homosexuality is good for those who practice it: "NAMBLA takes the view that sex is good, that homosexuality is good not only for adults, but for young people as well.  we support all consensual sexual relationships regardless of age.  as long as the relationship is mutually pleasurable, and no one's rights are violated, it should be no one else's business."

The concept of right immediately introduces legal, political, and, ultimately moral considerations. 
[...]
2) Children's liberation.  The concept of liberation is central to the homosexual ideology... For the homosexual movement, liberation entails the ability of all homosexuals and their partners to be free of all external and internal constraints in the pursuit of pleasure. - The Homosexual Network (1982) Rueda

I can't re-write the entire book, but I simply want to demonstrate how the idea of consent legitimizes all sorts of sexual depravity - even infidelity within same sex partnerships in the creation of open relationships as well as shared sexual encounters within a relationship.  Certainly such aberrations occur in opposite sex marriages, nevertheless, marital infidelity remains a societal and cultural taboo, if not grounds for divorce.  I stress this point because it demonstrates a very key distinction in the definition of same sex marriage, which in and of itself is a redefinition of traditional marriage.

To illustrate this entry, I'm also posting the trailer for the documentary, Chris and Don.  Christopher Isherwood (Cabaret, A Single Man) and Don Bachardy have become the poster couple for Hollywood's version of gay marriage.  They were not actually married, and never would have wanted to be, according to Don - who sees no need for a piece of paper to define their relationship, although he's all in favor of gay marriage for those who want it.  Going forward, I will be discussing their decades long relationship - which began when Don was still a teen and Christopher was 30 years his senior.  Talk about man/boy love, and later, their very open relationship - so inappropriate as an example of a stable marriage.  While their friendship is genuine and withstood the test of time, and is deeply moving on some level - especially at the end of Chris' life, it can never be held up as an ideal or model to aspire to for any one - consenting or not. 

Disclaimer:  Normal people do not know this stuff - which is why they think nothing is wrong with same sex marriage.

The Women of The View: Don't have a clue.

Deluded Divas.

Earlier this week I actually watched - in unbelief - the women of The View discuss the issue of a woman being required to view an ultrasound of her baby before choosing to abort the child.  Their misplaced compassion for the mother was indeed incredible, but what really struck me is their obvious denial of the good work connected with the pro-life movement.  Especially as Whoopi went on a rant describing how all those picketers tell these poor girls they shouldn't get an abortion, but none of those picketing steps up to say, "We'll take your baby."  "We'll take care of you and help you." 

Is she nuts?  She was raised Catholic, she knows the Catholic Church is in the forefront offering help to pregnant women.  Catholic organizations beg women to have their children, promising help - money, food, clothing, shelter, and and even offering to take the child, providing adoption services, and so on.  Lapsed Catholic Joy Behar is just as bad  - they all know the Church offers to help and will take the child - no questions asked...

JOY BEHAR: It’s very totalitarian in my opinion. I mean, it smacks of forcing somebody to confront something that they have already decided they don’t want to deal with.

The liberal women on The View, Wednesday, shrieked at the “totalitarian” decision by a Texas judge to uphold a law requiring women to look at an ultrasound before having an abortion. Co-host and journalist Barbara Walters found the legal ruling– and not the act of abortion itself– to be “heartbreaking.”

Regarding the ruling, left-wing comedienne Joy Behar spewed, “It’s very totalitarian in my opinion. I mean, it smacks of forcing somebody to confront something that they have already decided they don’t want to deal with.” Rather than focus on the actual abortion, Walters lectured, “Then to have to go and be forced to hear, to see the fetus, to hear the heartbeat, to put more guilt on you, I think is heartbreaking.”

Walters continued, declaring that the decision to “give up a child that is obviously unwanted… is such a tremendous decision, it’s involved with so much fear of what you’re doing and guilt.”

It was left up to token conservative Elisabeth Hasselbeck to make some obvious points, noting that if you were going to have “a cyst removed or tooth extracted…you would never go through any medical procedure without looking at an ultrasound, seeing an X-ray.”

As for Behar’s definition of “totalitarianism,” she’s apparently unaware that in many communist and actual dictatorial countries, women are forced to get abortions. - Finish reading here.

Blind guides.   

On the Sacrament of Matrimony.

Did you know...

The ministers of the sacrament of matrimony are the man and the woman - the priest is the witness authorized by the Church to present and bless the union of a man and a woman.  Therefore, a Roman Catholic priest could never witness, much less bless the so-called 'union' of a same sex couple.  Precisely because it cannot and does not exist.  It's really very simple.

1601 "The matrimonial covenant, by which a man and a woman establish between themselves a partnership of the whole of life, is by its nature ordered toward the good of the spouses and the procreation and education of offspring; this covenant between baptized persons has been raised by Christ the Lord to the dignity of a sacrament."[84]

1602 Sacred Scripture begins with the creation of man and woman in the image and likeness of God and concludes with a vision of "the wedding-feast of the Lamb."[85] Scripture speaks throughout of marriage and its "mystery," its institution and the meaning God has given it, its origin and its end, its various realizations throughout the history of salvation, the difficulties arising from sin and its renewal "in the Lord" in the New Covenant of Christ and the Church.[86]
[...]
1631 This is the reason why the Church normally requires that the faithful contract marriage according to the ecclesiastical form. Several reasons converge to explain this requirement:[132]
- Sacramental marriage is a liturgical act. It is therefore appropriate that it should be celebrated in the public liturgy of the Church;
- Marriage introduces one into an ecclesial order, and creates rights and duties in the Church between the spouses and towards their children; - Since marriage is a state of life in the Church, certainty about it is necessary (hence the obligation to have witnesses);
- The public character of the consent protects the "I do" once given and helps the spouses remain faithful to it. - Catechism of the Catholic Church

I urge readers to read and study and reflect upon what the Catechism teaches in order to understand why there cannot be such a thing as same sex marriage.  In the future, if civil law makes provisions for such a thing, it can never be permitted or recognized by the Church. 

Solomon and 'inculturation'.

Priest and prophet forage in a land they know not.

Today's first reading at Mass is about how Solomon turned to idols - goddess worship - he built a temple to Astarte.  In fact he built temples to other gods for his foreign wives to offer sacrifice and perform their rituals and devotions to honor their gods.  God was not pleased.

What is so significant about this is that Solomon was a wise and holy man - the wisest of men.  God had actually appeared to him twice.  We know Solomon was a learned, holy man, a mystic, with great power, yet he was duped and turned to idols.  If that can happen to a man as great as Solomon, how easily can we be misled by dubious mystical experience and spiritual novelties.

'They served their idols, which became a snare for them.' - Psalm 106

Delusion doesn't simply affect the pseudo nuns who have fallen for goddess worship, nor the formation directors and retreat masters who employ the Enneagram and such things to discern and train:  Even the 'holy' ones (contemplatives) amongst us can be deceived and led astray by their personal visions and voices.  Others do so with their novel interpretations of theology and efforts at 'inculturation'.  Always in need of 'financial support', they will take your money - and your soul if you let them.  As one writer puts it:  "Stop anointing Folk Heros as alternative magisteria."  Works for me.

"In the last days terrible times will come.  For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, holding the form of religion, but denying its power." - 1 Tim. 3:1-5

Art:  Solomon and His Wives.

More trouble for self- proclaimed mystic, Vassula Ryden

This just in:

Just when one kerfuffle over the automatic-writing mystic Vassula Ryden is announced, along comes another. 

Now the Orthodox Church of Cyprus issued a statement about her on January 13.  The Synodical Committee for Matters of Heresy warned:

In reality, her teachings are heretical, and her claims that she communicates directly with Christ are fantastical and outside of the spirit of the experience of the Church. - Source

I'm sure devotees and followers will not be deterred by this news however.  

Photo:  Vassula at General Audience. 

h/t Paula

Washington State Falls...

Opening the way to same sex marriage.

Washington state legislators approved same sex marriage Wednesday.  Same sex couples will not be able to tie the knot until 90 days after the Governor signs it into law - although opponents hope to get enough signatures to counter with an anti-same sex marriage bill to block legalization.  If that happens today's decision would be placed on hold - and it doesn't take much intelligence to realize the stage is set for appeals and counter appeals until who know when.

I was surprised to find out Washington state has had domestic partner legislation since 2007.  Obviously it isn't enough for gay people, who are not satisfied with equity but rather demand equality.  In other words, their goal is to redefine marriage.

Churchmen who harbor the mistaken notion that civil unions and domestic partnership allowances are the way to save marriage better wake up.  It will never stop there.


Things would never have come this far if traditional marriage had been protected and defended throughout the 20th century.    

Memorial of St. Josephine Bakhita

"Our Black Mother"

I know many conservative people dismiss the idea of Black History Month, nevertheless the commemoration exists in the U.S..  I personally think it is a good idea and is a wonderful way to commemorate the saints, one of them being St. Bakhita, a former slave from Sudan, moved to Italy.

St. Josephine Bakhita was born in Sudan in 1869. This African flower, who knew the anguish of kidnapping and slavery, bloomed marvelously in Italy, in response to God's grace, with the Daughters of Charity, where everyone still calls her "Mother Moretta" (our Black Mother").

Bakhita was not the name she received from her parents at birth. The fright and the terrible experience she went through made her forget the name her parents gave her. Bakhita, which means "fortunate", was the name given to her by her kidnappers.

Sold in the markets of El Obeid and Khartoum, she experienced the physical and moral humiliations and sufferings of slavery. In the Sudanese capital, Bakhita was bought by an Italian consul, Callisto Legnani. For the first time since the day she was kidnapped, she realized with pleasant surprise that no one used the lash when giving her orders; instead, she was treated with love and cordiality. In the consul's residence Bakhita experienced peace, warmth and moments of joy, even though veiled with nostalgia for her own family whom, perhaps, she had lost forever.

The political situation forced the consul to leave for Italy. Bakhita asked and obtained permission to go with him and a friend of his, a certain Mr. Augusto Michieli. On their arrival in Genoa, Mr. Legnani, at the request of Mr. Michieli's wife, agreed to leave Bakhita with them. She followed the new "family", which settled in Zianigo, near Mirano Veneto. - Finish reading at Catholic Online

In our day there continues to be human trafficking and slavery - may St. Bakhita pray for all the missing, enslaved, those exploited, tortured and terrorized. 

The Prop 8 Game Changer...

Another step forward for gaykind.

SAN FRANCISCO—A federal appeals court here ruled Tuesday that California's voter-mandated ban on gay marriages was unconstitutional, in a closely watched case that eventually could lead the U.S. Supreme Court to decide whether same-sex couples have a constitutional right to marry.

In a 2-1 vote, a panel of the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said California's 2008 law, popularly known as Proposition 8, had used the state's initiative power to target a minority group and take away a right the group possessed, without legitimate reason.

Doing so, wrote Judge Stephen Reinhardt in an 89-page majority opinion, violated the 14th Amendment's equal-protection clause.

"Proposition 8 serves no purpose, and has no effect, other than to lessen the status and human dignity of gays and lesbians in California, and to officially reclassify their relationships and families as inferior to those of opposite-sex couples," wrote Justice Reinhardt, who was appointed to the court by former President Jimmy Carter. - Source 

Why do I see it as a game changer?  Because what usually goes in California - so goes the nation.  The fight will go to the Supreme Court - while here in Minnesota, the battle intensifies... and no matter how it turns out, years of appeals appear to be inevitable. 

Anyway - I have some posts coming.

Trying to make sense of contemporary monasticism...

The Vocation to Seek God by Following Christ in the School of Love

... [In]this goal is the ultimate set of rationale for the life of our monasteries. Any other good, such as social recognition, usefulness to mankind or society, or material gain, must be subordinated and adjusted to this goal. They should never be put before spiritual progress, personal improvement, or growth in virtue.

41. If the monasteries should serve the vocation of the members, we must also realize that, should we ever lose this spirit of our vocation, no matter how much we might wish to be of use to the monastery, we estrange ourselves from the community and make our way of life senseless and empty. For his vocation and the response by which he accepts it make the monk. From this alone flows the only reason for our monasteries and our Order to exist. - DECLARATION OF THE GENERAL CHAPTER OF THE CISTERCIAN ORDER ON THE ESSENTIAL ELEMENTS OF CISTERCIAN LIFE TODAY

Memorial of the Martyrs of Nagasaki

On Feb. 6, the Catholic Church honors the 26 Martyrs of Nagasaki, a group of native Japanese Catholics and foreign missionaries who suffered death for their faith in the year 1597. - Read more here.

See what can happen when Government seeks to restrict religious freedom?  Or rid itself of Catholics?

Mass Chat: Reading the letters of bishops from the pulpit.

Grave and serious issues.

Much has been discussed on blogs and in the news praising those U.S. Catholic Bishops (150+) uniting in response to the unprecedented threat to religious freedom stemming from the unjust "preventative services" mandate issued by Obama's HHS, which requires all private health care plans to provide coverage for all FDA-approved prescription contraceptives, sterilization procedures, and related "patient education and counseling for all women with reproductive capacity."

This weekend the letters of Archbishop Nienstedt and the statement of Archbishop Timothy Dolan were included in the weekly bulletin, and the pastor at my parish addressed both letters and the issue from the pulpit.  Included in the bulletin BTW, was the first ever appearance of Archbishop Nienstedt's letter supporting the marriage amendment to the Minnesota State Constitution - in defense of marriage.  (Up until this weekend, nothing has been said at my parish regarding the issue.)

The sense of urgency and gravity of these notices reminded me of the letter of the Dutch bishops read at all of the Masses during the Nazi occupation of WWII, specifically the pastoral letter of the Archbishop of Utrecht in the summer of 1942, protesting the Nazi persecution of Jews.  The action resulted in an increased, more brutal persecution against Jews and Catholics.  One may also recall how the Church in Germany publicly condemned the so-called "mercy killings" of physically and mentally disabled Germans in the 1930's by the Nazis.  They stopped it - but only for a time, and only after the bishops spoke out.  As we know, the policies were resumed and led to the Holocaust.

Pray for the bishops and the defeat of these policies, but keep in mind, it might just be the beginning of worse things to come.

Photo:  1938, the burning Synagogue of Bielefeld, Germany, during the Pogrom Night. Source

I have a lot left to say...

But I probably should keep my mouth shut.

I have a few posts coming up soon however.