You can't go to communion if ...
The toxic atmosphere.
I always accuse myself of being afflicted by a skeptical spirit, pretty much because I'm always dismissing locutionists and seers and their prophecies of doom and gloom as nothing more than fantasy based upon their personal meditations and the influence of earlier mystics and their prophecies of catastrophic events. Which they seem to recycle and repeat.
Today the very, very, very devout Catholics online have, through their own critical spirit and fault finding, created a toxic atmosphere in the Church. Talk about the smoke of Satan entering through some fissure ... the negative critical skepticism which pervades our culture and political system has been set up in the sanctuary. Under the cover of being concerned for the salvation of souls, the very devout condemn just about everyone they disagree with or suspect of harboring a liberal thought or progressive idea.
Yesterday I went to a different church for Mass again. I was disturbed by temptation throughout the Mass, making it hard to pray. Wondering about the priest, the music, and so on. Is he a good priest? Is he all about promoting himself? Is the music too loud, too secular - not conducive to recollection and prayer? Is the priest ambitious for promotion? Does he institute programs in the parish to impress the archbishop? I was able to pray, because thoughts like these - which indeed are temptations, come and go like leaves in the wind. Yet at bedtime they all returned and I wasn't able to sleep well.
No longer just whispers in the loggia.
Thoughts, temptations like these seem to arise from the chatter and gossip in the Church - no longer 'court gossip' and intrigue, the gossip is now spread online by social media, prompting dubia and corrections of bishops, priests, religious, and even the pope. 'They' claim to be working for the salvation of souls, but they are fueling skepticism and the critical spirit, making matters worse. (I fault myself for reading their stuff, and going to their sites.) Of course they will object and say that is not the case, once again claiming to be working for the salvation of souls - by sowing doubt and deeper suspicions that the Church is filled with heresy and demons. They are blind guides.
Yes, I hear the whisperings of many: "Terror on every side! Denounce! let us denounce him!" All those who were my friends are on the watch for any misstep of mine. "Perhaps he will be trapped; then we can prevail, and take our vengeance on him." - Jeremiah 20:10Their rancor seems to indicate a deeper spiritual malaise, perhaps acedia? In 'community' it can be infectious and contagious. It leads to malice, rancor, pusillanimity, discouragement, sluggishness, and dissipation of spirit - as Garrigou-Lagrange explains it. Almost certainly by those preoccupied with the spiritual and moral life of others - even in matters of conscience - especially when they offer public corrections, and in some cases, unauthorized 'canonical' judgments. I'm no expert of course, but if indeed that be the case, in the mix is a great spiritual pride which causes a certain type of blindness, or tunnel vision. Then a man abandons meekness and humility, boasts of his perfection, judges others severely, sets himself up as a master, to ask questions to entrap another, and to condemn by offering fraternal corrections - which show how learned and holy and righteous the judge is, making himself the highest authority, in drawing souls to oneself or to the group to which one belongs instead of leading them to our Lord.
When confronted by a rebuke or counter criticism their rancor and critical spirit feigns humility, insisting their harsh rebukes are charity - the truth in charity, and their purpose is for the salvation of souls. Again, I'm tempted to skepticism.
I see my experience, or these temptations, as a call to deeper repentance, of detachment, and to remain in the solitude of recollection, putting no trust in princes or men, but in God alone. I'm not discouraged, but understand better what distress doubters feel and how these things distract from the one thing necessary.
Christ walked in peace through the midst of them.
Pretty much for my own edification, I'll reprint some pious thoughts which help me return to recollection and prayer - not at all an escape into some false security of the 'Benedict option' - which is another delusion many seem to opt for these days.
"Realize that your soul is the temple of God - it is St. Paul who teaches this. At every moment of the day and night the three Divine Persons are living within you." - Elizabeth of the Trinity
Therefore, if the mountains fall into the sea, the earth quakes and every structure collapses - nothing can separate us from the love of God that comes to us in Christ. It is Christ who begs us, "Remain in me": "It is the Word of God who gives this order, expresses this wish. Remain in me, not for a few moments, a few hours which must pass away, but 'remain' - permanently, habitually. Remain in me, pray in me, adore in me, love in me, suffer in me, work and act in me." - Elizabeth of the Trinity
So. It is not by careful watching, judging the orthodoxy of others, questioning every report and searching every word to see if it indicates this or that, is true or false, or may open the door to error, and so on. None of that is necessary for simple souls ... not even for ordinary people.
"I wish I could tell all souls what sources of strength, of peace, and of happiness they would find if they would only consent to live in this intimacy." (Prayer of recollection) - Elizabeth of the Trinity
One mystic I was always inclined to trust was Sr. Mary of the Holy Trinity, a Poor Clare of Jerusalem. I like this:
“I passed through the world doing good-I brought peace, order, kindness, an easy kindness. I healed the sick; I forgave sins; I gave joy, true joy, tranquil joy. I brought the Beatitudes. I revealed God. It is because men do not know Him that they do not love God. You must reveal God. That is charity.” - Our Lord to Sr. Mary of the Holy Trinity, Poor Clare of JerusalemEvery good thing I read echoes the Holy Father, and I am once again encouraged - because he too follows Christ and reveals God to the poor.
Let nothing disturb your peace. It is heaven on earth. Nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Well said, Terry. Thank you. Let's keep praying for our Holy Father and for all who profess the faith.
ReplyDeleteThanks - just saw this at Vatican Insider on the 'Correction' - which I totally agree with and kind of ties in with what I was trying to say in my post:
Delete"several prominent theologians and scholars said the accusations are marked by hypocrisy and represent a marginal fringe view among academics. They noted that the 62 signatories of the letter are mainly obscure figures, with some even listed with relatively minor descriptions such as “diocesan priest” or “religious.”
“The first reaction I had after reading the document concerned the signatories,” Richard Gaillardetz, a noted theologian at Boston College, told NCR. “The prominence given to the number of signatories ... masks the fact that these are really marginal figures.”
Gaillardetz, a former president of the Catholic Theological Association of America, said that while the signatories have the right to put their views forward, “they need to be acknowledged as the extreme and self-marginalized voices that they are.”
Amen. When I first read the story over the weekend, it read fishy and unreliable especially after I saw SM's name attached to it. I remember sending you a few excerpts of his critique of our Holy Father reeking of one-sided bias and lacking in charity.
DeleteBased on Edward Pentin's breathless reporting, one would think these folks were of great importance and influential in Church matters of faith and morals. Sure, they can ask and hope for a reply but do so with prayer and charity without some hidden agenda attached to it otherwise, your so-called request loses all credibility as being truly sincere.
This is all so sad, divisive and tedious ... I will continue to support and pray for and trust Papa Francis despite these reports because like you have already said Terry,
"Every good thing I read echoes the Holy Father, and I am once again encouraged - because he too follows Christ and reveals God to the poor."
P.S.
DeleteMy dislike and tone for these folks is obvious and I am sorry but it comes up whenever stuff like this is reported. If you find it lacks charity please feel free to delete it.
Allow me to share this wisdom given to Fr Svetozar Kraljevic OFM...
ReplyDeleteWHEN HEARTS ARE CRUSHED...
I am going to share something with you. I am the Rector of Mother’s Village and 83 people are employed there. Today there are 350 there for lunch. You get into a situation of human relationships when someone is in charge of a portion of the work there and takes it very seriously. I am sharing my frustrations with you.
This person in charge, he suddenly sees that someone is doing something wrong. Wrong, period! The mistake that people make is that with the justice of God and their righteousness, they go charging in and in a rage crush the heart of another person. If someone then reprimands them for the tension that is suddenly in the workplace, they will say, “Don’t you know I’m right?” So with vengeance and justice they walk around ‘right’. They are able to crush their fellow co-workers and make tension in the whole place and create situations that are not desirable.
This happens because we are not willing to suffer. We are so often so willing to condemn, judge and be righteous. The most damage we do to ourselves and others is by being righteous, by being right. That is why Christ goes to be crushed on the Cross. He didn’t say a word to the person who was crucifying him. He allowed that person to learn himself, in his own time. At that moment he didn’t know what he was doing. He allowed him to learn, to grow, to find out in his own way.
That is the way we will be brothers and sisters and pilgrims: allowing the person next to you to be stupid, to be wrong, and you remain silent again and again and again, and be calm and then the situation will be resolved by itself.
Pray to the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit of God will teach you, but only after you have suffered and prayed. Then you become a redeemer yourself, a co-redeemer with Jesus Christ for your family, for your children for your friend, for your neighbour, in such a way that we stand not as judges but as brothers and sisters who will bring blessings to others, not condemnation. This person might be or is wrong, but the damage that is coming to this person in this harsh way is far greater damage than the initial wrong that this person was doing. Then we inflict greater sufferings with greater consequences that this initial damage that was there, that we thought we needed to address.
Thanks much BG! A good lesson.
DeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeletePlease read this from a very wise pastor and theologian, (married to a woman and a guy with a family)who is not pope but from who the present pope may just learn something very basic; something which had always been the strength of the Catholic Church. Something which contributed to the conversion of thousands of non-Catholics to Catholicism in the past few decades, but now seems to have vanished into thin air under Pope Francis: BALANCE between orthodoxy and orthopraxis in the Church of Christ.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.patheos.com/blogs/standingonmyhead/2017/09/doesnt-pope-answer-critics.html
Terry,
ReplyDeleteI just saw this and read it. I had not known this had taken place when St. JPII was pope. He was accused of 101 unorthodoxies? Wow!
"The document against the Pope's “heresies”: it happened to Wojtyla too"
http://www.lastampa.it/2017/09/27/vaticaninsider/eng/the-vatican/the-document-against-the-popes-heresies-it-happened-to-wojtyla-too-ofKgXvzfcbcYaCmXZ4XkwK/pagina.html
But then I read this article:
http://www.lastampa.it/2017/09/26/vaticaninsider/eng/documents/doesamoris-laetitia-really-undermine-catholic-moral-teaching-yom5rmEIfGPzsMDlS7o6eP/pagina.html
Dawn Eden Goldstein, STD is co-author of the article. She has a doctorate in Sacred Theology so I trust her plus I've read her before and she is solid.
Anyway, I am going to focus more of my time on more prayer for our Papa. God bless!
Thanks Yaya - I saw that - yep, Dawn Eden is very good. Thanks!
DeleteI too have been focusing all of my prayer for the Pope.
DeleteThank you Yaha for the link to Dawn Eden's exegesis of the Latin version of Amoris Laetitia. We are all trying hard to keep the crown on the head of the Holy Father.
ReplyDeleteIf this is only a question of "lost in translation", the first question should perhaps be: In which language did Pope Francis himself write his lengthy exortation? Did he really write it in LATIN? Is he known as a very competent Latinist? Not that I know of. Or did he write it in his unique Argentinian kind of Spanish? Is this his mother tongue? It seems so. Or did he write it in Italian, or the Pidgeon-Italian which he apparently speaks, according to Italians from Italy?
This question interests me: I don't think this pope wrote Amoris Laetitia in Latin. The last pope who could not only write Latin but speak it fluently was the German one: Benedict XVI. And even he did not write his great documents in Latin but in his mother tongue, German.
It is fascinating to ponder on the job of translators in the Vatican.
Did all of them start translating immediately from Francis' Buenos-Aires Spanish dialect? Even into Latin? Or what?
Did he himself check the Latin version? And, with all due respect, how competent would he be to judge the accuracy of the Latin version, which is always supposed to be the official version of papal documents? And why did the English and other versions differ so much? Did he check those version of his original words? But, he himself acknowledges that his English is very bad. Pope Francis is no linguist.
He did not even complete his doctoral studies in Germany, he really did not spend much time there to put it generouslys, so even the German version he would not be able to fully judge as being in tandem with what he wanted to express.
For me the answer of course lies within the Pope's authentic first manuscript - and the language he used for his thoughts.
Since there is confusion, perhaps he can just in very simple language give the world his authentic formulations, with 10 translators next to him who can check and double check one another and give him continuous feedback to make sure they are still on the right track.
But, for some reason, he does not want to clarify anything.
I find that truly fascinating, but I am an old woman who have seen and experienced much, and with an open mind. I am very far away from the culture wars etc. of the "Catholic right" in the USA, just watching from afar the chaos.
This Pope has a problem, dear friends. He can bring peace again to "his" Church. Just by being absolutely honest and clear o whatever he really believes. That would be the "merciful" thing to do.
He is not doing it, and he won't. Not really "nice" of him.
So
Dawn Eden concludes with an innoculous example ( couple agreeing to abstinence) that shows that she hasn't read the Argentine Diocese guidelines which Francis affirmed....that the more religious cohabitor can agree to a demand with negative consequence threats for sex and remain innocent so as to receive Communion because acting under duress with imperfection of will is not mortal. The Pope and the Argentines might be seeing this as analogous to one licit spouse agreeing to contraception under threat of divorce in a first marriage to keep the family together. The question is...how can you have an analogy from a first real marriage to an illicit marriage wherein no type of sex should be happening per se....and at all.
DeleteA note from CNA's Executive Director on the 'filial correction'
ReplyDeleteDenver, Colo., Sep 27, 2017 / 12:10 pm (CNA).- A statement from Alejandro Bermudez, executive director of Catholic News Agency and ACI Prensa:
"I was surprised to see that my name has been added to the list of signatories on the so-called Correctio Filialis De Haeresibus Propagatis.
I never signed this letter, nor do I intend to ever sign it. As a journalist, I was surprised at how easily the name of a person could be added to the list without any verification."
Update 2:44 p.m.: Bermudez' name was removed from the list of signatories at his request.
So much for credibility ...