I missed Tuesday...

OMIGOSH!  I was off line for 24 hours.

LOL!

Some people just post stuff because they have to keep stats up - hits and ads - that was a song from  Chorus Line, right?  Which explains why they just link to other posts or post banal messages ... thank you for responding to my Donate button.

So anyway.

I was coughing so hard at one point, I passed out - I fell back on my bed, so I did not get hurt, but I saw a white light and heard things.  Then when I came to, I wasn't sure where I was or what day it was.  This is a very bad flu.

I wasn't able to post.  Then I had to clean and do laundry. 

Oh.  Then I had to get my painting area all neaterized so I can start painting again, now that the house is clean and the yard work is just about finished.

I kept working however - pretending I was in a concentration camp - because those people did not have the luxury of calling in sick.

I want to make reparation for all my sins.  Like calling in sick.

I don't think I can however.

St Therese said "I wish to make reparation for my sins by casting them into the furnace of His merciful love."

I'm going to keep doing that.

Attention 'Preppers' ...

After the typhoon in the Philippines, entire cities are gone.

After the tornadoes in the Midwest yesterday, entire neighborhoods are gone.

After Fulishima, not only entire neighborhoods and cities are gone, the region is uninhabitable.

Stockpiling didn't do these folks much good.

Just saying.

Don't shoot me.

Pope Francis speaks about apostasy.

The reading from Maccabees.

My thoughts this morning anticipated the first reading for Mass.  I have been thinking of a priest who intends to retire to a hermitage to devote the rest of his life to prayer - I forgot exactly how he said it, but he explained that he was moved to do this in response to 'the apostasy' in our times.  Not too many weeks ago, Cardinal Robert Sarah warned of a "creeping apostasy" in progress - "even among the baptized and the disciples of Christ."

The reading from Maccabees poses many similarities to the conditions of our times.  Rather than share my personal meditation, I'll share what the Holy Father had to say on the subject.

Lord, the Pope prayed, give me the discernment to recognize the subtle conspiracies of worldliness that lead us to negotiate our values and our faith.

During his homily, Pope Francis warned the faithful against what he described as a “globalized uniformity” which is the result of secular worldliness.

Often he said, the people of God prefer to distance themselves from the Lord in favour of worldly proposals. He said worldliness is the root of evil and it can lead us to abandon our traditions and negotiate our loyalty to God who is always faithful. This – the Pope admonished – is called apostasy, which he said is a form of “adultery” which takes place when we negotiate the essence of our being: loyalty to the Lord.

And he spoke of the contradiction that is inherent in the fact that we are not ready to negotiate values, but we negotiate loyalty. This attitude – he said – “is a fruit of the devil who makes his way forward with the spirit of secular worldliness”.

And referring again to the passage in the Book of Maccabees, in which all nations conformed to the king’s decree and adopted customs foreign to their culture, the Pope pointed out that this “is not the beautiful globalization, unity of all nations, each with their own customs but united, but the uniformity of hegemonic globalization, it is – he said - the single thought: the result of secular worldliness”

"With a reference to the 20^th century novel “Lord of the World” that focuses on the spirit of worldliness that leads to apostasy, Pope Francis warned against the desire to “be like everyone else” and what he called an “adolescent progressivism”. “What do you think?” – he said bitterly – “that today human sacrifices are not made? Many, many people make human sacrifices and there are laws that protect them”. - Source

Conduct of the soul in the dark night of the apostasy.

 

Acts of the apostasy can be recognized by the degree of opposition to Catholic teaching proposed, which can lead us to "to abandon our traditions" - especially as regards faith and morals.  The most obvious in our culture is the acceptance of homosexual behavior, same sex marriage, abortion, arguments against natural law, and so on.  Same sex marriage is an act of apostasy.  Legalized abortion is an act of apostasy.  We should know that however.  What we don't know is how do we conduct ourselves in this 'night'? 

 

First, I want to reinterpret something from Elizabeth Lesuer.

Banish everything that is not love...

Not to accept everything,

but try to understand everything;

not to approve of everything,

but try to forgive everything;

not to adopt everything,

but try to search for the grain of truth that is contained in everything.

Reject every temptation to accept, approve, or to adopt what is contrary to Catholic teaching and from "the spirit of secular worldliness”. 

To love others as Jesus Christ loved them, including persecution, suffering and death. 

Nothing to be afraid of.


Now I would like to share a few considerations  "On the Conduct of the Soul" in the dark night.  Perhaps it will make sense.

To reveal God as Love to souls is the central and essential point of the mission of St. Therese of the Child Jesus.  This message has as its foundation the most important and deep grace of her life, namely, a very profound experimental knowledge of God inasmuch as He is Love.
.
Divine Love does not want to limit His action to a few privileged souls, He longs to give Himself everywhere - to conquer the entire world.
.
Confidence is theological hope wholly impregnated with love; abandonment is confidence which no longer expresses itself solely through distinct acts but has created an attitude of soul:  'We can never have too much confidence in the Good God, He is so mighty, so merciful.  As we hope in Him so shall we receive.'
.
One must (accept to) be poor, miserable, and must lay open one's poverty (littleness, helplessness) to the enlarging power of Divine Love, in order to attract and satisfy Him.  Such is his Law.
.
The secret of St. Therese is no different from that of St. John of the Cross.  The Theresian love of littleness and of poverty united to blind trust in divine mercy, is that not the same as the Joannine hope that is detached from everything and that God immediately fills?
.
For St. Therese, trust and poverty are not simply virtues, like so many others, that one must practice at certain times; they are basic virtues, deep-seated dispositions, governing all the movements and attitudes of the soul.  They of themselves create and become a complete spirituality; they constitute, as the Saint proclaims, a way to go to the good God.
.
Because the way of spiritual childhood offers us a felicitous example, in concrete and living form, for the practice of the virtue of hope, its teaching is particularly precious for the period that we are now studying." - P. Marie-Eugene, O.C.D. - I Am A Daughter of the Church, Chapter IV The Conduct of the Soul
.

I may be wrong of course.  So pay no attention to this if what is said here doesn't work for you. 

"I want to see" as the blind man in today's gospel told Christ.  But remember, a blind man cannot lead a blind man because both will fall into a pit.  So it is better if you do not place much stock in what I post.

The Pope concluded his homily:

What consoles us – he concluded – is that the Lord never denies himself to the faithful. “He waits for us, He loves us, He forgives us. Let us pray that His faithfulness may save us from the worldly spirit that negotiates all. Let us pray that he may protect us and allow us to go forward, leading us by the hand, just like a father with his child. Holding the Lord’s hand we will be safe”.

Reflections on the conversion and penitence of St. Margaret of Cortona.

Returning to a most lawful position in relation to your fellow-creatures.


I had a book on the life and revelations of St. Margaret - but I gave it away.  There is one chapter online, which I've been thinking about a lot. 

Our Lord told the Saint about his presence during her sinful life.  She was never out of his sight, as it were.  I find that consoling, because no matter how far we fall - he is there already.  That is how I understand the falls on his way of the cross ... he fell to the level of our gravest fall from grace - to meet us there.

What I liked in reading what he revealed to St. Margaret is how he described her lover.  He called him 'the enemy of your salvation'.  He called her beloved that!  Margaret loved him and was distressed upon discovering her lover had been murdered.  How different our ideas of love than those of God, huh?

"My child," He said to her, "think on the manifold graces and lights with which I have endowed thy soul, in order to turn thee to Me. Think of how, on the death of the enemy of your salvation, overcome with sorrow, with downcast looks, bathed in tears, and clothed in black, you came in confusion to Laviano, to your father's house. Think of how, at the instigation of your stepmother, he altogether forgot fatherly compassion, and drove you from the house.

Deprived of human advice and aid you knew not what to do; you withdrew into the garden, and sat beneath a fig-tree, and wept. You turned towards Me, beseeching Me to be your master, your father, your spouse, your Lord; and you humbly deplored your spiritual and corporal misery.

These misfortunes were the cause of her conversion.  She understood she had been deluded, placing her hope in the approval of her lover, the status he afforded her.  Yet these things failed her upon his death.  She was lone, unmarried, with a child - even her father turned her away.  The temptation to depend upon her own wits, to return to her old life became overwhelming.  Our misfortunes are not immediately recognized for what they are - a call from God.  Subsequently, I think our fears can compromise our choices, base instinct our survival skills, while disordered self-love is easily seduced by concupiscence.

But at the same time, the old serpent, seeing you driven forth by your father, to his shame and for your destruction, seized this opportunity to make you vain of your beauty and your youth. He suggested to you that, abandoned by fortune, you had every excuse for giving yourself up to sin: that, wherever you chose to go and live, you would find rich and voluptuous masters to love you for the sake of your exterior loveliness.

But I, the Maker of your inward beauty, which you had deformed and which I wished to renew, I bore Myself towards you with a true love. By My inspirations and My light I touched your conscience. I urged you to set out immediately for Cortona, and there to submit to the obedience of My Friars-Minors.

You were filled with strength, and you set out on your journey. In obedience to My commands, you presented and offered yourself to My Friars; and with great zeal and courage you brought your soul under subjection to their rules and instructions.

Think of how, at the very outset of this career of salvation, you found balm for your heart, in the respectful, filial fear with which I filled your soul towards the religious to whose care I confided you.

This fear vanquished the invisible enemy, who had the hardihood to present himself to you in the hour of your affliction. Did you not tremble from head to foot, were not your cheeks suffused with blushes, when a friar of the Order of our ever-blessed Father appeared in the Church, in the house, or in the street? You dared not sit down or speak in their presence.

Think of how I molded your soul; how, from that moment, I inspired you with a supreme contempt of worldly ornament, and drew you, little by little, for My love's sake, to a most lawful position in relation to your fellow-creatures. - Source

"You dared not sit down or speak in their presence."

I believe my sins are so much worse that those of St. Margaret.  So how do I dare speak of the evils of others? 

The Lord drew the Saint - 'little by little' to a most 'lawful position in relation to your fellow creatures.'  See, that is what happens after a good confession - otherwise, living in sin is all disorder, placing us in an unlawful position in relation to our fellow creatures.  Think about that.  Deeply.  Think about that deeply.

It's good to be always repenting.

St.s Margaret and Angelo of Foligno sometimes performed public penance, and they sometimes wanted to do some very dramatic things to illustrate the crimes for which they did penance.  Their confessors discouraged them from such excesses, but their desires seem to illustrate what I mean by Christ meeting us where we are.  Of course his mercy is moved by our repentance, yet somehow it is his grace which initiates that movement, that desire of repentance within our souls.  His love is moved by our misery - that is what mercy means - repentance is our response to that.  Which comes first?  Mercy does - always.  That is why I like the example of Margaret's conversion and penitence so much.  He was present to her in her sin and repentance.  He went before her in her penitence.

Once St. Margaret actually walked the streets in rags, disheveled, her face marred by soot and scratches, her body wasted from fasting and vigils, with a rope about her neck, upon which were layered signs of her sins, dead fish and so on... we laugh at such displays now, as surely as the towns folk would have laughed then.  Yet Christ went before her - he goes before us - in penitence.  He walked and stumbled through the streets in bloodied clothes, a rope about his neck, carrying his cross.  See the connection? 

It's good to do penance.

What does that mean?

"Many persons, feeling that the word penance implies great austerities, and not feeling that they have the strength for great sacrifices, become discouraged and continue a life of lukewarmness and sin." Then she said Our Lord explained to her: "The sacrifice required of every person is the fulfillment of his duties in life and the observance of My law. This is the penance that I now seek and require." - Sr. Lucia of Fatima

 

This is lovely...

"The Lord is weak only in this one sense: He is weak before the prayers of His people." - Pope Francis

For he knows our frame; he remembers that we are dust. - Ps. 103

Art:  Margaret of Cortona in Ecstasy.  Her son really had to be screwed up, don't you think? 

 

Acting like busy-bodies ...

The Righteous Man Surprised by the Devil

Clive Hicks-Jenkins

Minding the business of others. - 2 Thessalonians 3

That verse is taken from tomorrow's second reading at Mass. 

In much speaking there is no escape from sin.

The ninth degree of humility
is that a monk restrain his tongue and keep silence,
not speaking until he is questioned.
For the Scripture shows
that "in much speaking there is no escape from sin" (Prov. 10:19)
and that "the talkative man is not stable on the earth" (Ps. 139[140]:12[11]). - Rule of St. Benedict

Elsewhere in Scripture the Holy Spirit says, "I will correct you by drawing your sins up before your eyes."  When I expose the sins of others, shouldn't my own be exposed as well?  How can I point out the sins of others when I have sinned so grievously myself?

Who? ... Am I? ... To judge?

Our Lord told St. Margaret of Cortona:

My daughter, I see more Pharisees among Christians than there were around Pilate.

 

Show me the money.

But those who want to be rich fall into temptation and a trap and many foolish and harmful desires, which plunge those people into ruin and destruction. - 1 Tim. 6:9


This story may help explain why I have problems with asking other people for money ...

Once upon a time, when I was in third grade, my family lived near the old Guardian Angels, and it was there where my brother and I were trained as altar boys.  There was a dear old Irish priest who took us under his wing.  Once, shortly after my dad was released from jail, he and I went to visit Fr. O'Neil.  My dad pretended to ask about instruction in the Catholic faith, since he was raised Lutheran.  As they spoke, my dad told Fr. I wanted to be a priest and how proud he was. (eyeroll)  Then he hit him up for money.  I was so embarrassed.  He used me to get money from the priest - and on the way home complained it wasn't enough.  The End.

Chinese lady say:

"Order meatless chow-mein, it Friday.

Please pay when served. Cash only."

 

 

 

 

 

 

*This post has been edited from its original subject.  Pray for priests.

Excellent advice ...

Story here.

From The Servant of God Elisabeth Leseur.

Banish everything that is not love...

Not to accept everything,

but to understand everything;

not to approve of everything,

but to forgive everything;

not to adopt everything,

but to search for the grain of truth that is contained in everything.

To reject no idea and no good intention, however awkward or feeble.

To love others as Jesus Christ loved them, including suffering and death. 

-Magnificat 

 

Sayings of the Desert Mothers

"Syncletica said, 'An open treasury is quickly spent; any virtue will be lost if it is published abroad and is known about everywhere.  If you put wax in front of a fire it melts; and if you pour vain praises on the soul it goes soft and weak in seeking goodness.'"

"She also said, 'The same thing cannot at once be seed and a full grown bush.  So men with a worldly reputation cannot bear heavenly fruit.'"

Introduction to the Devout Life ...

According to the SSPX, that is.

 

Not sure they were shouting the rosary and the "Our Father"?

Looks like shouting to me.

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) — Ultra-traditionalist Roman Catholics have openly challenged Pope Francis by disrupting one of his favorite events, an interfaith ceremony in the Metropolitan Cathedral meant to promote religious harmony on the anniversary of the beginning of the Holocaust.

 

The annual gathering of Catholics, Jews and Protestants marks Kristallnacht, the Nazi-led mob violence in 1938 when about 1,000 Jewish synagogues were burned and thousands of Jews were forced into concentration camps, launching the genocide that killed 6 million Jews. Before he assumed the papacy, Buenos Aires Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio and his good friend Rabbi Abraham Skorka led the ceremony every year.

 

A small group disrupted Tuesday night's ceremony by shouting the rosary and the "Our Father" prayer, and spreading pamphlets saying that "followers of false gods must be kept out of the sacred temple."

 

Imagine shouting the rosary.  How is that devout recitation? 

Pope Francis on ... the vice of curiosity ... as it pertains to daily messages from Our Lady ... or ... some ... apparitions - maybe?

 

The Pope of the 'little way' ...

Curiosity impels us to want to feel that the Lord is here or rather there, or leads us to say: “But I know a visionary, who receives letters from Our Lady, messages from Our Lady”. And the Pope commented: “But, look, Our Lady is the Mother of everyone! And she loves all of us. She is not a postmaster, sending messages every day.”*

 

Such responses to these situations, he affirmed, “distance us from the Gospel, from the Holy Spirit, from peace and wisdom, from the glory of God, from the beauty of God.”

 

“Jesus says that the Kingdom of God does not come in a way that attracts attention: it comes by wisdom.”

 

“ ‘The Kingdom of God is among you,’ said Jesus, and it is this action of the Holy Spirit, which gives us wisdom and peace. The Kingdom of God does not come in (a state of) confusion, just as God did not speak to the prophet Elijah in the wind, in the storm (but) he spoke in the soft breeze, the breeze of wisdom.”

 

“Saint Teresa of the Child Jesus would say that she had always to stop herself before the spirit of curiosity," he said. "When she spoke with another sister and this sister was telling a story about the family, about people, sometimes the subject would change, and she would want to know the end of the story. But she felt that this was not the spirit of God, because it was a spirit of dispersion, of curiosity.

 

“The Kingdom of God is among us: do not seek strange things, do not seek novelties with this worldly curiosity. Let us allow the Spirit to lead us forward in that wisdom, which is like a soft breeze," he said. "This is the Spirit of the Kingdom of God, of which Jesus speaks. So be it.”

 

One more thing I have to repent of - how often I act out of curiosity each day, just to read what you know who posted about those people today. 

*Another analogy might be webmaster.

 

 

 

Announcing a remake of "The Nun's Story"

Everyone's favorite movie about nuns.

My cat Gabby (Gabrielle Wander-Malls) is in rehearsals to play the part of Sr. Luke and I am her coach - since I know all the lines.  We are just at the end of rehearsals at this point.  I'm doing the role of her last superior as we rehearse:

Mother Didyma:  Sister, is there nothing we can do?

Sr. Luke:  Nothing Mother.

Mother Didyma:  Sister, do you have a place to go?

Sr. Luke:  Meow.

CUT!  We have so much work to do yet!

Hopefully I can find enough Snow-shoe felines with the right markings to play the other nuns.  The role of Dr. Fortunati will be played by a Chihuahua - not the only non-feline actor however - Poodles will be cast for the African characters; the role of Mother Emmanuel will be played by a huge Norwegian Forrest cat - the only non-Snowshoe amongst the nun-cats.  So much to do before we begin shooting.

The resemblance is extraordinary!

 

Something tells me this is the job Fr. Z wanted: Vatican Webmaster

Meet the Vatican webmaster.

Vatican Insider interviews Lucio Adrian Ruiz, Head of the Vatican Internet Service: “We’ve had to make the system ten times more powerful in the past year”

The morning after Bergoglio was elected Pope, he ran to a shop and purchased a white iPad which he immediately called “iPapapad” and was given to Francis on the morning of 16 March, at the end of the Pope’s audience with journalists. 48-year-old Mgr. Lucio Adrian Ruiz, from Santa Fe, Argentina, has been working as the head of the Vatican Internet Service since 1997. He is basically the Pope’s webmaster. He served the Congregation for the Clergy for a number of years, building the www.clerus.org website and looking after the technical side of teleconferences – a sort of theological forum which brought together theology experts from all around the world around the same table in one morning. As of 2009 Ruiz has been Head Office of the Vatican Internet Service and telecommunications department and is in charge of the Vatican’s entire web service. - Read the story here.

Just kidding about the Fr. Z job quest - after the cruise ship chaplaincy fell through, he found success blogging for dollars.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with that either.

 

St. Sofia the Righteous, a lay woman, ascetic.

Recently canonized by the Orthodox.

On October 4, 2011, our Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, with the Holy Synod of Bishops officially numbered among the saints the Eldress Sophia, Ascetic of Kleisoura, Greece.  St. Sophia was born as Sophia Saoulidi in 1883 in the village of Trebizond in present-day Turkey.  In 1907 she married Jordan Hortokoridou but in 1914 he disappeared (likely against his will) leaving her as the single mother of a new born son.  She faced another tragedy shortly after the loss of her husband when this her only child died.  Sophia became totally dependent upon God and began to spend increasing amounts of time in prayer on a nearby mountain. - Source.

Lay saints.

Though St. Sofia would not be included on the Latin calendar, I find her story edifying.  Traditionally Christian widows devoted themselves to Godly pursuits.  How different from today.  If it wasn't for widows, the Casino Bus Co. would be out of business.

In 1919 Sophia arrived in Greece, and on her arrival the Blessed Theotokos appeared to her and said “Come to my house”.  When Sophia asked where should could find her house, the Blessed Mother replied:  “I am in Kleisoura”.  Obedient to the command of the Mother of God, Sophia settled in the Monastery of the Nativity of the Theotokos in Kleisoura, about three hours from Thessalonica.  Here she remained for the rest of her long life, never formally taking the vows and tonsure as a nun.  Sophia took up residence in the monastery kitchen sleeping two hours a night and spending the rest of the night on her knees in prayer.  She dressed very poorly and had a blanket and shoes full of holes.  When she was given clothing by visitors to the monastery she would give them away to the poor.  She had no interest in food, eating only enough to survive.  When visitors would give her money, she would hide it and retrieve it only when she found someone in need.  Because of her ascetic lifestyle and shabby appearance many people without a spiritual foundation called her “Crazy Sophia” but others saw in her a lifestyle much like the saints of old. - ibid

One of her sayings makes me ashamed of myself and my blog:

When she observed scandalous behavior of priests and lay people, she never condemned anyone but said:  “Cover things, so that God will cover you”. 

St. Sofia, pray for me a sinner.

O Blessed Mother Sophia, you became wise and the adornment of the Mother of God, you lived an ascetic life in the monastery, from which has spread the praise of your struggles, striking the ranks of demons.  As you now stand as intercessor before Christ, do not neglect those who fervently honor you.

+ + + 

 

Bonus saint of the day:

The Blind Saint With Sight:
St. Matrona of Moscow 

 Chosen by the Holy Spirit from your swaddling clothes, O blessed eldress Matrona, you received bodily weakness and blindness from God for spiritual cleansing.  You were enriched with the gift of foresight and wonderworking and have been adorned with an incorruptible crown from the Lord .  Therefore we offer you crowns of praise in gratitude crying out to you:  "Rejoice O righteous mother Matrona, fervent intercessor before God for us! - Source

 

What?

I was wrong about something on the Internet ... something Christopher West said ... about St. Francis.

The prostitute and the hermit.

The Little Flowers of St. Francis

Yesterday a friend posted something Christopher West related in one of his seminars regarding an apocryphal tale from the Fioretti of St. Francis.  My friend posted about it here.

I immediately reacted, posting claims it couldn't be true - that I had never come across the story - ever - in any scholarly work.  Obviously I imagined I was an authority on the life of St. Francis - I've done that before.  I also neglected to note West used the story telling his audience it was apocryphal, albeit relevant to whatever point he was making.  Evidently his tone was suggestive, perhaps salacious, he also got some of the details wrong.  That's how apocryphal legends, oral traditions work sometimes.

Like I said, I reacted and commented - then I researched online.  That's so backwards - I've done that before too.  I found scholarship and poetic writings that substantiated the story - and then - I checked my library.  The story may be found in the Little Flowers of St. Francis.  It is included in the chapter covering St. Francis' encounter with the Sultan.  The version in the Fioretti differs somewhat from West's anecdotal version - he indeed spiced it up a bit - but essentially the same story.  Perhaps West takes poetic license with such things to help stress a point?  I don't read him or follow his work, and I've never listened to an entire talk - so I just don't know enough to comment - and therefore, I have no business involving myself in the discussion.

I surprised myself in my reaction to the West story, and completely forgot that detail from the story of the Sultan.  It really bothered me - not so much that I was presumptuous - and wrong, but because I actually forgot the story.  At my age, any sign of memory loss is scary.  Seriously.

The prostitute of Damietta

I believe the Damietta story is the one Christopher West referred to.  It can be found in The Little Flowers, Chapter 24.  Footnotes reveal a similar story is recorded of an incident at Bari - I don't know the details of that one however.  Such stories were popular amongst hagiographers of the 14th c..  Morality tales such as these 'pepper' the stories of the Desert Fathers as well.  They are used to illustrate the struggle against sin, how to combat lust, how to control the passions, and so on.

I'm not sure how Christopher West uses such stories in his presentations. 

The point in the Damietta story is the miraculous conversion of the prostitute.  West says she became a nun - the Fioretti says she was converted through the merits of St. Francis, embraced the faith and lived a holy life.  No mention of becoming a nun - more likely she became a penitent, a lay follower of Francis.  It is related Francis undressed and laid on the fire, he wasn't dancing around to celebrate his nakedness - if that's what West intended to pass along, that wasn't what Francis intended.  If he actually did that - I'm not sure.  A man's nakedness doesn't impress a prostitute - especially an ascetics body.  These stories tend to emulate the sayings of the Desert Fathers - not unlike stories of the Northern Thebaid from Orthodoxy.  They are spiritual instructions for the ascetic life. 

The prostitute and the hermit.

Contrast the Franciscan story of laying on fire to convert a prostitute, to the story of a prostitute going to a hermit to seduce him. 

"In lower Egypt there was a very famous hermit who lived alone in a cell..."

A beautiful prostitute heard of him and by Satan's wiles decided to seduce him.  She told the clients what she was going to do - if they would pay her.  They agreed, she went to the hermit's cell, claimed to be lost, he gave her shelter and she tried to seduce him.  He was tempted to do so, but said to himself, 'the ways of the enemy are darkness, but the Son of God is light'.  The hermit lit the lamp.  Burning with desire he told himself that people who do things like this go into eternal torment, and unquenchable fire.  'Test yourself - see if you can endure it.'  Putting his finger in the lamp he burnt it without feeling any pain because his passions burned within him.  One by one he burned his fingers - the prostitute watched in horror.  At dawn the men with whom she made the bargain to seduce the hermit came by and asked if a woman visited him.  The hermit said she was still there, asleep.  The men investigated and told him, 'abba - she is dead!'  The hermit showed them his hands - each finger roasted, saying 'Look what this child of the devil did to me.'  The men were astonished - in his charity, the hermit prayed and the woman was restored to life.  She repented and lived the life of a penitent.

Perhaps if West used this story - or the story of St. Francis more soberly - he would surely help people understand the dangers of concupiscence and the necessity of vigilance, prayer and mortification.

Just a thought.

NB:  I watched a video of a Minnesota priest speaking to youth, referencing TOB.  It was 'hip' - he was 'hip' and I totally get that.  Sometimes these people can make mistakes in their presentation - sometimes I think I could do it better.  Many times I'm mistaken, presumptuous, and don't know what I'm talking about.  So pay no attention to me - I'm a sounding keyboard.
 

Veterans Day

 

Thank you.

More prayers for the Philippines: After one of the strongest storms on record.

MANILA — A powerful typhoon ripped through the Philippines on Friday, killing more than 100 people in a city on Leyte Island, a Civil Aviation Authority official said on Saturday. - NYT

UPDATE: 11-10-13

TACLOBAN, Philippines (AP) -- As many as 10,000 people are believed dead in one Philippine city alone after one of the worst storms ever recorded unleashed ferocious winds and giant waves that washed away homes and schools. Corpses hung from tree branches and were scattered along sidewalks and among flattened buildings, while looters raided grocery stores and gas stations in search of food, fuel and water. - AP 

When the New York Times said ...

'God Is Dead', and the wars begun...'

When the New York Times said...

'Conservative U.S. Catholics Feel Left Out of the Pope’s Embrace'

Today's story from the NYT's reminded me of the Elton John/Bernie Taupin song, Levon, hence the reference in the post title.

Did you know the full title of the Times piece which the lyrics referenced went like this:  "The actual New York Times page 1 headline that included the phrase "God Is Dead" is dated March 24, 1968; the full headline read, "'God Is Dead' Doctrine Losing Ground to 'Theology of Hope'."

Ironic, don't you think?  Because the so-called conservative Catholics might well be saying the same thing today as back then - just fiddle with the subject a bit.  "Under Pope Francis, Catholic Doctrine gaining ground to 'Theology of Hope'."  (Incidentally - Benedict XVI started all of this, with his particular emphasis on the theology of Hope.)

Perhaps not the best analogy, but if you'll pardon the reference, it seems to me the elder sons and daughters of the Church seem to feel left out as the Pope welcomes the prodigal sons and daughters who fell away back home.  Just a thought.

The New York Times story.

Some Catholics in the church’s conservative wing in the United States say Francis has left them feeling abandoned and deeply unsettled. On the Internet and in conversations among themselves, they despair that after 35 years in which the previous popes, John Paul II and Benedict XVI, drew clear boundaries between right and wrong, Francis is muddying Catholic doctrine to appeal to the broadest possible audience. -NYT

Any Catholic with a blog or who reads Catholic blogs know the story.  Many spread the story.

This weekend in my Archdiocese protesters are picketing outside the Archbishop's residence demanding Archbishop Nienstedt resign - because cases of sexual abuse were mishandled in the archdiocese.  Many of the protesters are considered dissident Catholic because they are in favor of women's ordination and same sex marriage.

Just goes to show you can't please everybody.

Inevitably, journalists find there way to Catholic blogs to enhance their stories.  The Times article favored this one:

Steve Skojec, the vice president of a real estate firm in Virginia and a blogger who has written for several conservative Catholic websites, wrote of Francis’ statements: “Are they explicitly heretical? No. Are they dangerously close? Absolutely. What kind of a Christian tells an atheist he has no intention to convert him? That alone should disturb Catholics everywhere.”  

In an interview on Friday, Mr. Skojec said he was overwhelmed by the positive response to his blog from people who said they were thinking the same things but had not wanted to say them in public. He said he had come to suspect that Francis is a “self-styled revolutionary” who wants to change the church fundamentally. 

“There have been bad popes in the history of the church,” Mr. Skojec said. “Popes that murdered, popes that had mistresses. I’m not saying Pope Francis is terrible, but there’s no divine protection that keeps him from being the type of guy who with subtlety undermines the teachings of the church to bring about a different vision.” - NYT

What is so hard to understand?  Especially when the Holy Father affirmed:

"The teaching of the church, for that matter, is clear and I am a son of the church..."

We don't have to like the pope, we don't even have to read what he says - except if he speaks ex-cathedra.  Popes don't do it that often anyway.  We don't have to get our approval for the good works we do from the pope, the bishop or any priest.  We can't depend upon approval or support or even thanks and praise from any person or human organization - only from God. 


Bonus:

I love this comment on the Times article from Fr. Martin:

Laurie Goodstein's new piece, "Conservative US Catholics Feel Left Out of the Pope's Embrace," gives voice to a strain of Catholicism in this country that has been increasingly noticeable. A few of the quotes in this piece are patently ridiculous - like the person who accuses Pope Francis of being "dangerously close" to heresy. But the greatest irony is that some Catholics from this part of the church were the same ones who would excoriate anyone who disagreed in the slightest with any statement of Pope John Paul II or Pope Benedict XVI. Apparently, it's now okay to disagree with the Pope. - Fr. James Martin, S.J.

I wanted to say that.

In the last days ...

A lot of people will be led astray - 'even the elect, if that were possible.'

Christ said that.

I keep it in mind when I consider things such as the Medjugorje phenomena, the problem of sexual abuse amongst clergy, locutionists, Christian celebrities, road shows, self appointed-self promoting lay evangelists who fall away, visionary sisters, Catholic sexologists ... on and on. 

I've written about it before, it is a spiritual malady which is very dangerous.  It is what the Orthodox spiritual writers called 'prelest'.  It seems to me the problem could even be widespread in our day - or maybe not ...

Even a pious person is not immune to spiritual sickness if he does not have a wise guide -- either a living person or a spiritual writer. This sickness is called  prelest, or spiritual delusion, imagining oneself to be near to God and to the realm of the divine and supernatural. Even zealous ascetics in monasteries are sometimes subject to this delusion, but of course, laymen who are zealous in external struggles (podvigi) undergo it much more frequently. Surpassing their acquaintances in struggles of prayer and fasting, they imagine that they are seers of divine visions, or at least of dreams inspired by grace. In every event of their lives, they see special intentional directions from God or their guardian angel. And then they start imagining that they are God's elect, and often try to foretell the future. The Holy Fathers armed themselves against nothing so fiercely as against this sickness -- prelest. - Metropolitan Anthony Khrapovitsky

Consider this precaution in light of all the heavenly messages and inspirations pious people seem to be receiving now days.  Consider the many locus sancti locutionists in many parts of the world today.  As in Fr. Gobbi's case, some may even have a large following.  Most of these people claim Christ or Our Lady speaks to them.  Often the words they receive accord with other approved private revelations - at least in tone.  The locutionists write down what they hear and sometimes publish the 'messages' without any official approval.  An exception would be in the case of someone with a spiritual director who may authorize the person to publish their messages - yet such 'permissions' do not have the same authority as Church approval.