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Wednesday 24 June 2015

From Drudge--How to Make Friends into Enemies


From A Dear Reader and Friend


Excellent Post on Gradualism

http://guildofblessedtitus.blogspot.com/2015/06/gradualism-instrumentum-laboris-and.html

better than my posts earlier this year and last year...although I covered the points on grace.

And previous post leading up to this one...from same author:

Wednesday, 1 April 2015

What's at Stake at the Synod? Everything!

By PAUL PRIEST.

We are not equal - God isn't a democrat - in just the same way as there is a hierarchy of ranks among the 
angels there is a hierarchy of human souls and their perfectibility - it's known as Predilection. God loves us 
all infinitely and calls us to fulfill our created perfectibility - but some are created to be more - to do more
 [remember the parable of the sower? 30, 60, a hundredfold?]

God loves them more because they are created to be more lovable because they have a vocation to be more
... I know it doesn't sound fair but He's God: We're not - we have our place in His divine plan as either tiny cogs or
 hard-working pistons or massive power-wheels - whatever that position we were made for it - and can achieve 
perfection within it and be fulfilled with absolute joy and happiness in being everything we were called to be. 
God made us so we ultimately wouldn't ever wish to be anything but ourselves in our perfection in our part of 
His Divine plan [this is why envy - wanting to be another - is the greatest sin against oneself]

Finally on this point it must be noted that in regard to Predilection how we repent from and amend for our sins 
will also be variant - for some it will be easy and lengthy - for others it will be more grueling and intermittent.

Now, secondly we have to understand what the Holy Spirit is about - for most of us the Holy Spirit keeps us in 
existence, He inspires our intellects with truth, beauty and the notion of the good - which motivates our will to 
carry out this inspiration freely towards the good - this is what Love is. The Holy Spirit provides us with Sufficient 
Grace to never sin - He provides our intellects and consciences to be aware of the Good, the True and Beautiful - 
and we can conform to this and be truly free. Remember the only thing we are ever free to do is to do good - 
sin is always a denial of our freedom and actually traps us and makes us less free.


Alternatively, we can hoodwink ourselves into thinking happiness may be achieved through another route - 
a short-cut - an easy way - and hence we lie to ourselves and our God and our created reality and the rest of 
creation and we commit sin - and in the process we as temples of the Holy Spirit in whom we live, move and 
have our being - abuse and defy the Lord, the Giver of Life with our lies and sin. These are the only two things 
we can say we possess - every other thing comes from God, is worked by God and returns to God - every other 
thing is Grace of which we are unworthy but in which we we happy receivers can and should boast.

Normatively, the Holy Spirit works through Sufficient Grace, but there are times where through an extraordinary 
act of predelictive Love, the Holy Spirit acts upon us with what's known as efficient Grace - unstoppable, 
unpreventable grace which compels us towards an act.

There's an old Fulton Sheen story of a wayward alcoholic actress who accepts his invite to see the Church on the 
proviso he would not ask her to go to Confession - he kept the promise in his own way for as they were touring 
the 
Church he opened the confessional door and threw her inside.

Divine Providence decrees that God does this to some of us in extraordinary circumstances. God does not work 
against our wills - but instead He takes over with Efficient grace to ensure something happens. Think the Conversion 
of St Paul and other profound conversion stories. Think Miracles. Think the imposition of the knowledge of God 
upon the Prophets or all who lived and believed during the Incarnation or the appearance of the Sacred Heart or 
Our Lady. Think of the Promises of Christ regarding Papal Infallibility and the inability of the Gates of the 
Underworld to prevail against the Church. All this is Efficient Grace - unpreventable, unthwartable - 
it has nothing to do with the arbitrary, discretionary choices within human free will. God just does it!

Sometimes God uses efficient Grace upon us to actuate His will. Otherwise, it is sufficient grace where we are at 
the helm of our wills - the Holy Spirit inspires our intellects and carries out our wills - but we choose - we decide. 
The Holy Spirit does not treat us like puppets or cosmic chess pieces - He limits himself to inspiration of the 
intellect to motivate the will - we choose whether to conform to that will or not. Hence in matters of the Church 
the Holy Spirit may inspire - but the Pope and his Brother Bishops and clerics and religious act according to their 
own either conformed or refusenik wills. The Holy Spirit does not choose a Pope - Cardinals choose a Pope. 
The Holy Spirit does not appoint 
Bishops - The Pope does. The Holy Spirit does not gerrymander or rig Synod or Oecumenical council votes - 
The Pope and Bishops vote.

Now, there is only one real argument against the existence of God - all the others fall apart when rationally 
confronted with reality but one remains - one so confrontational that it compelled Ivan Karamazov to refuse to 
participate and return his invitation to belong to God's creation: The problem of Evil and there is only one rational 
response:

"How else can evil be allowed to exist, save for a greater good?"

God permits evil - He permits sin. Yes - nothing happens but what God wills - but there is a profound difference 
between what God wished [His Antecedent will] and what God permits [through which He will actuate a greater 
good] - i.e. His Consequent Will. God's antecedent will was for none to fall, for all to share Heaven in their created 
perfection with Him for eternity - for all to be saved. God's consequent will - because angels fell, because we fell, 
because we continue to sin and because ultimately some of us will not wish eternity with Him if the price means 
dying to our selfish vices - is axiomatically very different from God's original antecedent will.

Therefore when anything happens - we are absolutely forbidden from the presumption that what God's 
consequent will has permitted remotely conforms to that which His antecedent will desired.
Just because something happens - be it some remarkably fortuitous or ostensibly miraculous event or a revolution 
or a restoration or discovery or victory over an evil aggressor in war, or alternatively the horror of war and famine 
and personal tragedies or holocausts upon Jews, Chinese, Russians, the Unborn, our euthanised sick and unwanted,
 or the ravages of Spanish flu or AIDS or ebola we cannot attribute to God's antecedent will. In fact, we are 
absolutely prohibited from ever presuming it is part of God's antecedent will [eg Divine vindication/reward or
Divine retribution]. It is merely the case that what happens is what God permits. Nor can we surmise His will from 
the ostensible benefits or the blatantly obvious ravages of what God permits. We are guaranteed that God's 
resolution of it all is assuredly a greater Good.

Now comes the big crunch question: What in the name of all sanity has any of this to do with the impending 
Synod on Marriage and the Family? It's about the proposed reception of Holy Communion for civilly divorced 
and remarried Catholics and active homosexuals, isn't it? That the ongoing mortal sin of adultery and fornication 
should not be a barrier from being one in communion with one's neighbours? By appealing to mercy and tolerance 
and the notion of integration and unity and even [ironically] appealing to the notion of solidarity that no-one is i
isolated or alienated 
or ostracised? That we all be one?

What has any of this to do with God's sufficient grace or the Holy Spirit not treating us like puppets or God's 
antecedent and consequent will? Well the answer is quite simple: It has EVERYTHING to do with it! Primarily 
you have to understand how the world has been contaminated in two ways over the past two centuries - 
and how this ideological contamination has infected the mind-frame of those within the modern Church.

The first is easily recognised and understood contamination is Evolutionism. This is not meant in the limited 
biological sense regarding certain developments within certain species, but universal development of everything - 
absolute ever-fulfilling progressivism summed up by "things can only get better" or rather the promise that 
"things only do get better"  This is a serious error. For further reading look at the writings of Teilhard de Chardin, 
Emile Mersch and Karl Rahner and a host of moderns to understand this notion of everything evolving to some i
neffable ethereal omega point where we all become so like God we collectively usurp His role in some Buddhist 
nirvana of everything and nothing.

Secondly we have to get a bit philosophical - and although I'll skip the background of the whole metaphysical
 potency/act problem in presocratics through stoical pantheism and enlightenment naturalism and pantheism - 
[which Aristotle and Aquinas perfectly refuted and dealt with], we end up with the nightmare philosophy of 
Hegel which like a virus has infected every socio-cultural and political ideology of any wing and flavour - 
be it nazism or Stalinism, capitalism or revolutionary Marxism, libertarianism or totalitarianism.

Now I suppose yet again you're asking - what has Hegel to do with the Synod? Please bear with me for a few 
more minutes before I tell you. Hegel's philosophy is grounded in two main principles:

The Dialectic - This rests upon the premise that there is no actual truth or understanding of reality, that there 
cannot be as there is division and dissension and alienation. Therefore all is merely a movement towards a more 
truthful understanding through a position of compromise and unity between the extremes and tensions of all 
aspects of reality. In this paradigm, one takes two seemingly opposing positions and seeks the underlying truth 
within both to synthesise this thesis and antithesis into a higher thesis - which in turn is still imperfect and has 
opposition through an antithesis and must again be synthesised into a higher thesis into infinity as the process 
continues.



Now how can we be certain this process works and we won't be misguided or misdirected throughout this? 
Ah, but that's impossible because there is a 'universal spirit' within reality that seeks this unfolding, flourishing, 
unifying. coalescing synthesis of the dialectic. The principle at work here is that a spirit is leading ever onward and 
upward in all spheres of reality towards a universal holism - this spirit is known as The Geist. The Geist ensures the 
validity and integrity of the ideological system itself and its ultimate destiny in perfection. This, resting not on 
objective truth but something very tenuous can easily morph into something similar to all our 'utopianisms' of 
reichs, or a communist world-state, or universal randian liberty, or the integrationist wonderland of the 
multiculturalist or the feminist or the eco-warrior? We are enslaved to the machinations and functions of the 
Geist - we are part of a system which 
is inseparable from this unstoppable force leading humanity towards its inevitable destiny.

Now are you beginning to see where I'm coming from? The development of Doctrine? It being the will of the 
Holy Spirit ? In this world view, we are mere pawns and puppets of this Divine Will - this movement of this 
religious geist - the Holy Spirit - towards this evolving ever-re-flourishing progressive end.

In such a spiral,  or vortex, we are to seek an end to division and synthesise into uniformity and unity via a 
compromise dialectic which will placate and satisfy - where tolerance and 'mercy and charity' dwell - via 
acceptance of all and the elimination of alienation and ostracism. For we are all equal in the sight of God and 
none are loved more or less - and equality indicates sameness and uniformity and homogeneity where 
dissociating divisive factors like difference or independence or non-conformity are anathematised.


The Synod's proposed 'theology of mercy', the Kasperite position, is going to be grounded upon what I call 
"three great heresies and a lie". The first two heresies are going to be promoted at every opportunity in order
 to introduce a third with which the Church has been contaminated for centuries and which has manifested itself 
in three forms of a heresy against God's sufficient grace {Neo-Pelagianism/Molinism- then Jansenism- then 
Gradualism}. Rebel Bishops sought to impose at the Synod on the Family 35 years ago, but were halted in their 
tracks by Pope St John Paul II in Familiaris Consortio.

The first heresy is quite obvious:

That everything that happens within the Church conforms to the antecedent will of God - that God wished this 
for the Church from before creation - and that all movements of the Holy Spirit are manifestations of this Church 
progression - forward ever forward - we cannot go back - all is development and what God planned.

Of course, we have absolutely no idea whether it does or not. By such time, we will have dispensed with the holy 
doctrines and the integrity of the Church's discipline, which has been guided by the Holy Spirit. In truth, we are not 
open to the innermost mysteries of the Divine plan - but it would be the gravest presumption to not believe that 
the mass exodus out of the Church - that its secularisation and desacralisation - and its loss of the apologetic, 
its cultural identity and the falling away of so many are not merely what God permits in His consequent will - 
and were never part of His antecedent. But this naive ludicrous Hegelian optimism that it's all happened 
because it's what God always wished is a heresy.

The second heresy is simple. It is the idea that we are but pawns and puppets of the Holy Spirit in our wills - 
our Bishops and clerics and bodies of our reformist laity by their very existence and every thought, word and 
deed is all subsumed into the system by which the Holy Spirit moves them all towards the desired end. Of course 
this is a heresy - the Holy Spirit inspires our intellect - and we accept or reject and act accordingly - free will - 
defy and choose to sin.

Thus these two heresies will be promoted at every opportunity to lay the groundwork for the third. This is the 
heresy that you can guarantee through the major soundbites and buzzwords from the lips of all those who seek 
to change Catholic teaching via a perversion of its pastoral implementation by simply desiring it. This will be one of 
Lebensraum:

"We must allow the Holy Spirit space to reform the Church"

The third heresy is quite confusing, which is probably why during the last Extraordinary Synod there was almost 
universal ignorance of what the heresy entailed among Catholic journalists, commentators and media 
representatives who all spoke at great length while claiming great understanding about it, but every last one of 
them got it wrong.

In Familiaris Consortio Pope St John Paul II refers to the law of gradualism - an easily recognisable phenomenon - 
our gradual progression through the consequences of our sin after our repentance and absolution we are still weak ,
 weary and scarred and that it will take us a while to gradually heal.

BUT Pope St John Paul II rejects absolutely the heresy known as the Principle of Gradualism.
 I could go into this heresy at great length and explain its intricacies and consequences and the way it destroys 
the very fabric of the notion of grace and God's love for us and the integrity of the human person, but all you 
really need to know about it is that quite simply it denies God's sufficient grace to immediately repent of all sin or 
sinfulness - and the sufficient grace to not sin again.



In other words, using this 'principle' God does not provide sinners with the grace which will prevent them from 
being able to stop sinning or to not start sinning again. The underlying great lie in it all is 'God doesn't love us 
enough to get us out of our mess" Therefore, in this heretical viewpoint, all sinners cannot be expected to stop 
sinning immediately - they must be treated with compassion and understanding to be weaned off from their 
sinfulness - go on a sin-controlled diet - enter into a sin-reduction spiritual fitness plan, like methadone as 
replacement for heroin. It cannot be expected for severe or long-term sinners to immediately stop their sins - 
it is simply 'not possible' for them.

In other words the underlying message of this heresy is that when it comes to repentance and turning away from 
sin - GOD COMMANDS THE IMPOSSIBLE. This is a diabolical lie. The lie is that God has not provided the sufficient 
grace - therefore they cannot do it.

Now you see this is where the heresy comes undone and, incidentally, many Church fathers, St Augustine & the 
Council of Trent absolutely repudiate and refute Gradualism.

The heresy is not going to be very palatable to the collective faithful when it comes to the conclusion that God 
commands the impossible from sinners. This heresy has its ultimate conclusion that:

We sin and can't stop: and it's God's fault.

Hence the Gradualists - of which Kasper and his cronies are mere successors - have to now insert a lie into the 
equation. It's irrational - yes it's mendacious - yes it is the actions of anti-intellectual scoundrels, but this is what 
the Gradualists do if a heresy gives you the principle you want but not the conclusion you desire. You simply 
change the conclusion.


In order to retain this "Principle of Gradualism" they have to twist the argument on its head. It is not that God 
commands the impossible. How could He? He's a merciful, tolerant, forgiving, ever-loving and always charitable 
and inclusive God? 
It's not God that's demanding the impossible from these poor sinners trapped in their sinful ways needing slow, 
pastoral assistance and reassurance to slowly reduce their sinfulness. It's not God who is lacking in Love and Mercy.

NO - IT'S THE CHURCH!

It is the Church which is cruel and uncharitable and merciless and intolerant with its hyper-proscriptive 
alienating legalism and Donatism - its judgmentalism upon the sinner [actually it's judging the sin but they're
 on a roll here]. It is the Church's heartless, calcified, rigorist legalism which is to blame and this is NOT WHAT 
GOD WANTS!

We are therefore not walking in God's ways. We are not living according to His Gospel and the values of His 
kingdom. We are standing in the way of His message of welcoming love which calls all sinners to Himself. 
Remember the ludicrous tag-line to the 
film "Love Story"? "Love means never having to say you're sorry". Well gradualism considers God's love means 
'we have nothing to ever say sorry about'

In other words when Our Lord said, "If you love Me you will keep My commands" He never really meant we had to 
do it! That's Donatism - that's heartless legalism. Haven't both Donatism and legalism been recently condemned 
by our Bishops Conference and Pope Francis?


Do you see what's at stake now? Have a little think about the ramifications of a single gradualist principle 
being inserted in any moral adjudication on pastoral practice and praxis within Holy Mother Church - even 
to something as seemingly remote as using it to justify the slow reception of people still in mortal sin to 
reception of the sacraments. A single gradualist principle sets a moral precedent which may subsequently be 
applied to any and every aspect of Catholic moral teaching and its pastoral applications.

In other words the entirety of moral and pastoral theology - contaminated with the lethal virus that sin is 
something with which we have to deal with, to negotiate with, compromise with, excuse and slowly wean people 
off from and lead people away from, becomes a hellish nightmare of counter-productive self-contradicting
heterodoxy, lie, fallacy and heresy-in-itself.

Catholic morality in one fell swoop would collapse and fall dead in the water - not merely ineffectual but directly 
counterproductive - but lethally destructive and toxic! Now, if you wish any further clarifications or explanations 
please ask in the combox - but I've already spent way too long writing and taken up far too much of your time.
Gradualism underfoot. For if the Gradualists were to succeed? The price would be too high for us all....

John and Andrew


Today, I was meditating on the two disciples who followed John the Baptist and, then, when John pointed out Christ as the Messiah, moved from the prophet to the King.

Andrew is mentioned in Scripture as being a follower of John, and John writes intimately on things which most likely came from the words of John the Baptist.

In the Tradition of the Catholic Church, Andrew and John are accepted as the two apostles who originally followed and, were then mostly likely, baptized by John.

John's baptism was one of repentance, and as the ancient Father, Hippolytus states, repentance opens the gate of heaven for grace.

Therefore, these two men, the first martyr for the Faith, and the last Apostle to live on this earth, came to God through repentance, like the rest of us.

John the Baptist represents for us metanoia, and the humility of conversion. John points out that Christ will baptize with the Holy Spirit and with fire. The Precursor opens the gates for the Trinity to come into the lives of men and women who are open to humility and repentance.

Mary is the model of humility, but John comes in second on the humility scale. He was so aware of sin, he who was born without sin, that he noted that he was not worthy to tie the laces of Christ's sandals.

John the Baptist influenced two of the great Apostles. If we follow their example, of humility and repentance, we shall be led to the Bridegroom, as Hippolytus notes.

I think we can safely call John the Baptist the Groomsman of Christ, the Bridegroom, leading others to the great Wedding Banquet which is not only in heaven, but begins with the establishment of the Kingdom of God on earth, in our hearts, in our minds, in our souls.

Happy Feast Day to the Knights of the Order of Malta.

Added to this meditation of mine today, is that the Church must declare Mary the Mediatrix of all grace as John was freed from Original Sin in the womb and born in the perfection of grace through the presence of Mary.

BTW, here is Origen on one aspect of St. John the Baptist and his relationship to Christ.

It may be said that John's earlier testimony to Christ is to be found in the words, He who comes after me exists before me, for He was before me, and that the words, For of His fullness we all received, and grace for grace, are in the mouth of John the disciple. Now, we must show this exposition to be a forced one, and one which does violence to the context; it is rather a strong proceeding to suppose the speech of the Baptist to be so suddenly and, as it were, inopportunely interrupted by that of the disciple, and it is quite apparent to any one who can judge, in whatever small degree, of a context, that the speech goes on continuously after the words, This is He of whom I spoke, He that comes after me exists before me, for He was before me. The Baptist brings a proof that Jesus existed before him because He was before him, since He is the first-born of all creation; he says, For of His fullness all we received. That is thereason why he says, He exists before me, for He was before me. That is how I know that He is first and in higher honour with the Father, since of His fullness both I and the prophets before me received the more divine prophetic grace instead of the grace we received at His hands before in respect of our election. That is why I say, He exists before me, for He was before me, because we know what we have received from His fullness; namely, that the law was given through Moses, not by Moses, while grace and truth not only were given but came into existence through Jesus Christ. For His God and Father both gave the law through Moses, and made grace andtruth through Jesus Christ, that grace and truth which came to man. If we give a reasonable interpretation to the words, Grace and truth came through Jesus Christ, we shall not be alarmed at the possible discrepancy with them of that other saying, I am the way and the truth and the life. If it is Jesus who says, I am the truth,then how does the truth come through Jesus Christ, since no one comes into existence through himself? We must recognize that this very truth, the essential truth, which is prototypal, so to speak, of that truth which exists in souls endowed with reason, that truth from which, as it were, images are impressed on those who care for truth, was not made through Jesus Christ, nor indeed through any one, but by God—just as the Word was not made through any one which was in the beginning with the Father;— and as wisdom which God created the beginning of His ways was not made through any one, so the truth also was not made through any one. That truth, however, which is with men came through Jesus Christ, as the truth in Paul and the Apostles came through Jesus Christ. And it is no wonder, since truth is one, that many truths should flow from that one. 

The Virtue of Compassion

Compassion must be the most misunderstood virtue in today's world.  It is increasingly obvious that few people in America have true compassion. The train wreck out East a few months ago created chaos, and witnesses noted that some passengers were walking over those who were injured. A lack of compassion....Lately, we saw a minority woman pleading with violent demonstrators not to wreck her business, as she was a single mom who had worked for years creating a decent lifestyle for her children...the business was torched anyway...a lack of compassion.


Narcissism stops the growth of personal virtue. Narcissistic societies reward narcissist and not the compassionate. One of my great-grandmothers, who came from Bohemia, lived in St. Louis. During the depression, my mother, who is 87, but was then a little girl, remembers her grandmother feeding tramps on the back porch, tea and sandwiches, without being able to speak with them as they only spoke English and she only spoke Czech---compassion.

Justice and mercy must grow out of compassion. We call Mary the "Mirror of Justice" as she gave us the Saviour, and as her humility reflects the clarity of justice and mercy of God. She is, as we say in the litany, prudent, faithful, merciful, just, wise....She, as the Model of Humility, reflects compassion.

But, over the past three generations of the passing on in families of gross individualism, the lack of virtue training in children, the ideal of getting rich, staying single, and having fun, the lack of teaching the needed moral framework of sacrifice and the Ten Commandments, has led to an increase in narcissism to the point where it is no longer considered either a psychological or an illness.


Even the word sacrifice is considered offensive and nasty.  A good friend of mine once said that he never considered sacrificing or doing penance, or mortification, as he saw that as unnecessary for humans. We talked about it for awhile and then I realized that he had chosen his single lifestyle in order not to engage with anyone or their problems. He had created a little bubble of narcissistic comfort and no one would pop this bubble, if he could help it...not even God. lad


Actually, the virtue of compassion comes after one has been stripped of one's own sins in the Dark Night, when one has come to the patience of humility, when one sees that one is part of the stream of the love of God flowing out into the world. Pride stops compassion. Arrogance nails it to the Cross. Gross selfishness mocks it.

Compassion makes one vulnerable, open, at the disposal of others, be it one's husband, baby, children or the larger community. Without compassion, there can be no community, no real family life, no holy marriages.

Purgation first, then one finds out the truth of one's self, that one is a sinner just like everyone else--this is the first step.

Then, the acquiring of humility through this purgation, which allows one to love God, because one is grateful for salvation and for the constant love of God.

Then, compassion for others, the result of loving them in God and with God.

We do not have the ability to be freely compassionate without the love of God flowing through us into the world.

But, compassion is not gooey love, but tough love. Real compassion cares not only for
bodies but for souls. I remind readers of my many posts on the  corporal and spiritual works of mercy. There was a man who spoke with compassion and with tough love. This man was Fulton J. Sheen. He captured the imagination of a generation with his unfailing honesty,  and his ability to speak the truth to millions in an attractive, intellectual, yet compassionate manner.

He was not liked by many of his fellow bishops, who wanted a comfortable life, and who chose faux-compassion by supporting abortion and birth-control, as well as the cozy false American dream.

Many people will go to hell because they refuse to pop their bubble of complacency and comfort. They chose a false heaven on earth and forfeit the real deal of everlasting joy with those to whom they could have shown compassion.

More later....

and here is a repost on narcissim, which kills or prevents the growth of compassion


In psychology, there is a part of the underdeveloped person who falls into the category of being narcissistic labelled "narcissistic awe".  Narcissistic awe may be described as the judgment of the narcissist who sees the parent or adult as either completely good and wonderful or completely bad. The person is incapable of seeing someone as a good person with faults and flaws.

This type of view is found among those with a narcissitic personality disorder. That person cannot see adults in authority as anything but in black and white terms.

A healthy child grows up realizing that his parents are good people but imperfect. He will not either demonize nor idolize the adult.

Now, I have been watching many people in the traditional camp of Catholicism turn against this present pope. They have demonized him to the point of denying any good in this man. Some of their judgment is based on faulty media reports, but some is based on the problem of  "narcissistic awe".

Those who blame this pope for the evils of other priests and for the evils of the Church are exhibiting the downside of the "cult of personality", which, imo, grows out of  "narcissistic awe." In other words, these people adore one pope unrealistically and hate another one unrealistically.

Popes, and, indeed, the Church of the past are idealized, into persons and institution which never really existed. I have written on the false romanticizing of the past concerning the Church before, but now I am writing about the root cause-narcissistic awe.

Very often, people who seem religious fall into this cult of personality growing out the inability to look at the adults in their lives realistically. One young person I know was abused as a child, but instead of demonizing the parent, she has fallen into deceitful idolization of that parent. She could not face her own pain, and her adult life reflected deceit in other relationships.

This may seem both impossible and amazing, but her own narcissism will not allow her to see the emotional truth of the situation.

So, too, with the pope blasters, who cannot see him as an imperfect man, chosen by the College of Cardinals, to be the pope. That he deserves the respect of office seems obvious.

Because of the decay of the healthy family, there seems to be more narcissists about than in the past. And, many of those in the Church are into papal blasting on a daily basis.

Time to look at narcissistic awe as the root of this cult of personality gone wild and on the negative side at this time in history.

to be continued....and see these posts

http://supertradmum-etheldredasplace.blogspot.com/2014/03/the-forgotten-past-has-been-romanticized.html

http://supertradmum-etheldredasplace.blogspot.com/2014/05/memoricide-and-memory-continued.html

Simple Words

The soul cannot truly serve God while it is involved in the distractions and pleasures of the world. Etheldreda knew this, and chose rather to be a servant of Christ her Lord than the mistress of an earthly court. Resolve, in whatever state you are, to live absolutely detached from the world, and to separate yourself as much as possible from it.

http://jesus-passion.com/saint_etheldreda1.htm

Many Thanks

...to the readers who are responding to my many needs. I am sure God will bless you a hundred-fold.

Keep praying about the chapel and house, please.


Confusion Concerning The Sacrament of Marriage

A few bullets on the Catholic teaching concerning marriage seem appropriate today.
  • The Catholic Church recognizes marriage between two Catholics married in the Catholic Church. 
  • The Church recognizes Christian marriages witnessed by a Protestant pastor, between two Protestants.
  • The Church does not recognize civil marriage between anyone as valid. Only sacramental marriages, or Christian marriages are recognized. 
  • The Church can convalidate an irregular marriage if both persons involve repent and want to be married in the Catholic Church and live as Catholics. However, if one or the other was married before, no convalidation can occur until the party who was married is given an annulment.
  • If no annulment is given, and until that time, the two must live as brother and sister. 
  • Convalidations are more and more common as people return to the Church later in life.
  • To go to an irregular or civil marriage is to be a witness to something which is not real. So do not do this.
  • Homosexuals and lesbians cannot get married sacramentally, and all those marriages are also invalid, not real.
  • If a Catholic leaves the Church and marries outside the Church in a Protestant ceremony, that marriage is also irregular and invalid. 
  • If a Catholic marries someone who is known to be not baptized, that marriage is not sacramental either.
  • Catholics must be confirmed before getting married.

Can.  1071 §1. Except in a case of necessity, a person is not to assist without the permission of the local ordinary at:
1/ a marriage of transients;
2/ a marriage which cannot be recognized or celebrated according to the norm of civil law;
3/ a marriage of a person who is bound by natural obligations toward another party or children arising from a previous union;
4/ a marriage of a person who has notoriously rejected the Catholic faith;
5/ a marriage of a person who is under a censure;
6/ a marriage of a minor child when the parents are unaware or reasonably opposed;
7/ a marriage to be entered into through a proxy as mentioned in  can. 1105.
§2. The local ordinary is not to grant permission to assist at the marriage of a person who has notoriously rejected the Catholic faith unless the norms mentioned in  can. 1125 have been observed with necessary adaptation.

SPECIFIC DIRIMENT IMPEDIMENTS

Can.  1083 §1. A man before he has completed his sixteenth year of age and a woman before she has completed her fourteenth year of age cannot enter into a valid marriage.
§2. The conference of bishops is free to establish a higher age for the licit celebration of marriage.
Can.  1084 §1. Antecedent and perpetual impotence to have intercourse, whether on the part of the man or the woman, whether absolute or relative, nullifies marriage by its very nature.
§2. If the impediment of impotence is doubtful, whether by a doubt about the law or a doubt about a fact, a marriage must not be impeded nor, while the doubt remains, declared null.
§3. Sterility neither prohibits nor nullifies marriage, without prejudice to the prescript of  can. 1098.
Can.  1085 §1. A person bound by the bond of a prior marriage, even if it was not consummated, invalidly attempts marriage.
§2. Even if the prior marriage is invalid or dissolved for any reason, it is not on that account permitted to contract another before the nullity or dissolution of the prior marriage is established legitimately and certainly.
Can.  1086 §1. A marriage between two persons, one of whom has been baptized in the Catholic Church or received into it and has not defected from it by a formal act and the other of whom is not baptized, is invalid.
§2. A person is not to be dispensed from this impediment unless the conditions mentioned in cann.  1125 and  1126 have been fulfilled.
§3. If at the time the marriage was contracted one party was commonly held to have been baptized or the baptism was doubtful, the validity of the marriage must be presumed according to the norm of  can. 1060 until it is proven with certainty that one party was baptized but the other was not.
Can.  1087 Those in sacred orders invalidly attempt marriage.
Can.  1088 Those bound by a public perpetual vow of chastity in a religious institute invalidly attempt marriage.
Can.  1089 No marriage can exist between a man and a woman who has been abducted or at least detained with a view of contracting marriage with her unless the woman chooses marriage of her own accord after she has been separated from the captor and established in a safe and free place.
Can.  1090 §1. Anyone who with a view to entering marriage with a certain person has brought about the death of that person’s spouse or of one’s own spouse invalidly attempts this marriage.
§2. Those who have brought about the death of a spouse by mutual physical or moral cooperation also invalidly attempt a marriage together.
Can.  1091 §1. In the direct line of consanguinity marriage is invalid between all ancestors and descendants, both legitimate and natural.
§2. In the collateral line marriage is invalid up to and including the fourth degree.
§3. The impediment of consanguinity is not multiplied.
§4. A marriage is never permitted if doubt exists whether the partners are related by consanguinity in any degree of the direct line or in the second degree of the collateral line.
Can.  1092 Affinity in the direct line in any degree invalidates a marriage.
Can.  1093 The impediment of public propriety arises from an invalid marriage after the establishment of common life or from notorious or public concubinage. It nullifies marriage in the first degree of the direct line between the man and the blood relatives of the woman, and vice versa.
Can.  1094 Those who are related in the direct line or in the second degree of the collateral line by a legal relationship arising from adoption cannot contract marriage together validly.



MATRIMONIAL CONSENT
Can.  1095 The following are incapable of contracting marriage:
1/ those who lack the sufficient use of reason;
2/ those who suffer from a grave defect of discretion of judgment concerning the essential matrimonial rights and duties mutually to be handed over and accepted;
3/ those who are not able to assume the essential obligations of marriage for causes of a psychic nature.
Can.  1096 §1. For matrimonial consent to exist, the contracting parties must be at least not ignorant that marriage is a permanent partnership between a man and a woman ordered to the procreation of offspring by means of some sexual cooperation.
§2. This ignorance is not presumed after puberty.
Can.  1097 §1. Error concerning the person renders a marriage invalid.
§2. Error concerning a quality of the person does not render a marriage invalid even if it is the cause for the contract, unless this quality is directly and principally intended.
Can.  1098 A person contracts invalidly who enters into a marriage deceived by malice, perpetrated to obtain consent, concerning some quality of the other partner which by its very nature can gravely disturb the partnership of conjugal life.
Can.  1099 Error concerning the unity or indissolubility or sacramental dignity of marriage does not vitiate matrimonial consent provided that it does not determine the will.
Can.  1100 The knowledge or opinion of the nullity of a marriage does not necessarily exclude matrimonial consent.
Can.  1101 §1. The internal consent of the mind is presumed to conform to the words and signs used in celebrating the marriage.
§2. If, however, either or both of the parties by a positive act of the will exclude marriage itself, some essential element of marriage, or some essential property of marriage, the party contracts invalidly.
Can.  1102 §1. A marriage subject to a condition about the future cannot be contracted validly.
§2. A marriage entered into subject to a condition about the past or the present is valid or not insofar as that which is subject to the condition exists or not.
§3. The condition mentioned in §2, however, cannot be placed licitly without the written permission of the local ordinary.
Can.  1103 A marriage is invalid if entered into because of force or grave fear from without, even if unintentionally inflicted, so that a person is compelled to choose marriage in order to be free from it.
Can.  1104 §1. To contract a marriage validly the contracting parties must be present together, either in person or by proxy.
§2. Those being married are to express matrimonial consent in words or, if they cannot speak, through equivalent signs.
Can.  1105 §1. To enter into a marriage validly by proxy it is required that:
1/ there is a special mandate to contract with a specific person;
2/ the proxy is designated by the one mandating and fulfills this function personally.
§2. To be valid the mandate must be signed by the one mandating and by the pastor or ordinary of the place where the mandate is given, or by a priest delegated by either of them, or at least by two witnesses, or it must be made by means of a document which is authentic according to the norm of civil law.
§3. If the one mandating cannot write, this is to be noted in the mandate itself and another witness is to be added who also signs the document; otherwise, the mandate is invalid.
§4. If the one mandating revokes the mandate or develops amentia before the proxy contracts in his or her name, the marriage is invalid even if the proxy or the other contracting party does not know this.
Can.  1106 A marriage can be contracted through an interpreter; the pastor is not to assist at it, however, unless he is certain of the trustworthiness of the interpreter.
Can.  1107 Even if a marriage was entered into invalidly by reason of an impediment or a defect of form, the consent given is presumed to persist until its revocation is established.

Obviously, bishops and canon lawyers deal with these issues, as well as parish priests at the initial level.


Solemnity of The Nativity of St. John the Baptist



Jesus, Mary and John the Baptist get Solemnities in the Catholic liturgical calendar. Christ Himself indicated the great graces given to St. John the Baptist.

Matthew 11:11Douay-Rheims 

11 Amen I say to you, there hath not risen among them that are born of women a greater than John the Baptist: yet he that is the lesser in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.
Christ, being the Incarnate Son of God, came to us in perfection. Mary was conceived without Original Sin, and John the Baptist was cleansed of sin in his mother's womb.
Solemnities cannot be "skipped" like optional memorials by priests saying Mass.  Even the Apostles, except for SS. Peter and the Apostle to the Gentiles, who get a Solemnity, just get "Feasts", not "Solemnities". In our modern times, John the Baptist has been overlooked or underestimated. But, he is the Precursor, the man who prepared the way for the Messiah.
John, born free of sin, came into the world full of sanctifying grace according to Divine Providence's plan.


There are a few "Memorials" attached to Christ or Mary, such as the Holy Name of Mary, and the Holy Name of Jesus. The Transfiguration and the Exaltation of the Cross are "Feasts".  Liturgists have great time explaining the transferring of various feasts (small "f"), to the closest Monday, when there are higher liturgical days which take precedence. 
From the earliest days of the Church, St. John the Baptist's day was considered special. In fact, in Eastern Rites of the Church, and in the Eastern Orthodox churches, today is a holy day of obligation.
Nice.
Let us call upon holy St. John the Baptist to help us on our way today. The great cathedral in Valletta, Malta holds his dedication. This feast, as well as the Beheading, creates an important holy day for that country.


And, we sing the Te Deum today...wonderful.