August 2009 Archives
What did Fr. Alvaro know? (life-after-RC.com)
For further reading, go to Ex LC Blog.
Aug. 13: 6 children?
(From True Devotion to Mary by St. Louis Marie de Monfort)
Be persuaded, then, that the more you look at Mary in your prayers, contemplations, actions and sufferings, if not with a distinct and definite view, at least with a general and imperceptible one, the more perfectly will you find Jesus Christ, who is always, with Mary, great, powerful, active and incomprehensible—more than in Heaven or in any other creature. Thus, so far from the divine Mary, all absorbed in God, being an obstacle to the perfect in attaining union with God, there has never been up to this time, and there never will be, any creature who will aid us more efficaciously in this great work; either by the graces she will communicate to us for this purpose—for as a saint has said, “No one can be filled with the thought of God except by her”—or by the protection she will afford us against the illusions and trickeries of the evil spirit.
Where Mary is, there the evil spirit is not. One of the most infallible marks we can have of our being conducted by the good spirit is our being very devout to Mary, thinking often of her and speaking often of her. This last is the thought of a saint, who adds that as respiration is a certain sign the body is not dead, the frequent thought and loving invocation of Mary is a certain sign the soul is not dead by sin.
I used to choke when GW Bush trumpeted "grace" in his speeches. But Obama is beyond the pale:
"We are God's partners in matters of life and death."
"There are some folks that are, frankly, bearing false witness."
Alinsky would be proud. Pray for the president, for a happy end.
(Any doubts that Obama is a committed socialist? Read here.)
Below is the full text of an AP article published by Haaretz under the above title. I've highlighted three items worth discussing, and provided the answer to one of them at the end.
You might think that our bishops said something right to get these Jews all upset. We shall see whether the bishops cave in to this, or rather, affirm Chrst as necessary for Jew and Gentile alike.
Major Jewish groups and rabbis from the three largest branches of American Judaism said Thursday that their relationship with Roman Catholic leaders is at risk because of a recent U.S. bishops' statement on salvation.
Jewish groups said they interpret the new document to mean that the bishops view interfaith dialogue as a chance to invite Jews to become Catholic. The Jewish leaders said they "pose no objection" to Christians sharing their faith, but said dialogue with Jews becomes "untenable" if the goal is to persuade Jews to accept Christ as their savior.
Here are several interesting items concerning the Traditional Mass, the new Mass and Vatican II, that seemed worth capturing in a post.
The first is from an interview with Mons. Domenico Bartolucci, Maestro Perpetuo of the Sistine Chapel under five Popes, posted on Rorate Caeli blog. There is still a lot of life in this 82-year-old priest:
To tell the truth, I have always and without interruption celebrated [the Traditional Latin Mass] since my ordination … on the contrary, I sometimes found it difficult to celebrate according to the modern rite, even if I never said so.
I beg your pardon, but the reform [of the Mass] was done by arid people, arid, arid, I repeat it. And I knew them. As for the doctrine, Cardinal Ferdinando Antonelli himself, once said, I remember it well: “How come that we make liturgists who know nothing about theology?”
... Look here, to defend the old rite is not the same as being a worshipper of ancient times; it is to be “eternal”. You see, when one gives the traditional mass names like “Mass of Saint Pius V” or “Tridentine” one is wrong, it makes it seem as if it is a mass belonging to a certain epoch. It is our Mass, the Roman universal Mass, valid everywhere and in all times, a single language spoken from the Oceania to the Arctic’s.
The second item is from another lively octogenarian priest in Rome who has recently written a book about Vatican II. The whole article by Brother André Marie can be found at Catholicism.org:
With the death of Ted Kennedy (God have mercy) comes the death of comments until we upgrade our spam mitigation tools. We'll try to keep it open for you to chime in anonymously because we know most folks don't like to "sign in."
Pray the Rosary every day.
Here is a news release from our friend, C. J. Doyle, of the Catholic Action League of Massachusetts, dated August 29, 2009.
The Catholic Action League of Massachusetts today decried the scandal which occurred this morning at Boston's most historic Catholic shrine --- the Minor Basilica of Our Lady of Perpetual Help, known as Mission Church --- where a Mass of Christian Burial was used to “celebrate the life” of one of America's most notorious opponents of Catholic morality, the late Senator Edward M. Kennedy. Senator Kennedy fought for more than three decades to keep the killing of pre-born children legal and unrestricted in the United States.
Surgical abortion has claimed more than fifty-one million human lives since 1973. The Catholic religion defines abortion as an “abominable crime”.
President Barack Obama delivered the eulogy, in which he alluded to Kennedy's support for gay rights. One of the Prayers of the Faithful was a petition to end divisions “between gays and straights”.
