Offensive Greek Etymology...

Out of fairness I start with a general warning. Due to vast varieties of reasons the following Catholic sermon will be found offensive by many.

The sermon itself speaks of the theological mystical significance of particular ceremonies in the Church... sacredness beyond the observed material world. When we see a holy image, the Church wants us to move from the visible image before our eyes to considering the invisible spiritual realities that those images represent.

It is truly right and just, O God our father, that every day and in all places we should praise and thank Thee for all Thy mercies bestowed upon us through Jesus Christ our Lord. We invite all the Angels to help us to thank Thee worthily, and we join with them to sing thy praises.

Sanctus, Sanctus, Sanctus.

Please listen to the Catholic seromon: "What time is it?". If you choose to listen to this short (16 min) sermon, I encourage you to follow it to the very last word.

Scan our bar code...

If you have a smart phone, this bar code (really a "QR Code") should work with those fancy "apps" that scan bar codes and re-direct you to a website. We encourage you to print off this bar code image and post it up some place that it might get used. Link to the image from a facebook post, or in a forum. You might consider creating your own bar codes with direct links to websites of your choice.

Ironic Statistics of the Canine Variety

Interesting information of the day... a source knowledgeable to the traffic statistics at Audio Sancto has noted a large spike in traffic lately. The interesting part is that it is coming from the infamous black sheep dog website that has been so widely talked about in recent weeks. It seems commentors on that website have even posted recommendations to the "author" on sermons about the religious life.

Dominate through meekness...

Dominate through meekness...

Meekness is an antidote to anger, pride and self love. Please listen to the Catholic sermon posted at Audio Sancto: "How to Extinguish the Fire of Anger"

Also note Msgr. Charles Pope's article on Anger: "Is Anger Always a Sin?"

Examine yourself...

"The unexamined life is not worth living for a human being." ("ho de anexetastos bios ou biôtos anthrôpôi" — "ὁ δὲ ἀνεξέταστος βίος οὐ βιωτὸς ἀνθρώπῳ") -Socrates (Apology, 38a)

A public coward...

Quinn defends state ending foster care, adoption pacts [emphasis mine]:

Gov. Pat Quinn defended his administration’s decision to butt heads with his own religion [Catholicism] Monday in a dispute over the Catholic church’s refusal to place any of the nearly 2,000 state wards it cares for with same-sex [read: disordered homosexual] couples.

On Friday and Monday, the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services notified Catholic Charities in the Joliet Diocese and three others that DCFS would terminate their foster care and adoption contracts because of the church’s unwillingness to abide by Illinois’ new civil unions law.

"They made a choice," Quinn said of the dioceses. "They have a law in Illinois. It's the civil unions law. I signed it into law. We're not going back."

I hope and pray that Quinn finds the courage to "butt heads" with the pro-gay union crowd... or at least the courage to find his lost Faith. The choice "they" (the Catholic Dioceses) made was not actually a choice. The value of a marriage between man and woman existed for secular and religious reasons long before Quinn's lame attempt at "law". Civil union laws attempt to apply that value where it cannot belong. Being forced to place a parentless child in the arms of a mock family is not a valid choice.

If I were Dictator of the US...

It won't happen, but if I were the U.S. Dictator this would be my secular agenda (separate from consecrating the country to the Sacred Heart of Jesus and Immaculate Heart of Mary and establishing the Social Kingship of Christ):

1. Emergency measures to protect the financial system:
     a. Immediately outlaw credit-default swaps
     b. Federalize all intersate banks and financial institutions with a market share greater than 5%
        i. Re-privatize once the financial system is stabilized
     c. Replace all Federal Reserve notes with US Treasury notes
2. Cut spending:
     a. Recall all overseas troops and naval assets
     b. Close all foreign military bases and draw down troop levels
     c. Cease all foreign aid
3. Simplify and lower taxes:
     a. Eliminate all deductions
     b. Eliminate income taxes, replace with Fair Tax
4. Increase manufacturing:
     a. Phased in import tarrifs
     b. Direct-investment in manufacturing capability and capacity
5. Reduce government:
     a. Deregulate, deregulate, deregulate!
     b. Apply the subsidiary principle as broadly as possible
     c. Narrowly interpret the Constitution's enumerated powers
     d. Eliminate federal funding for state and local programs
     e. Reestablish State's rights as being higher than federal gov't (except for enumerated powers)

Of course, this would only be a starting point, but until I'm in a position to implement the above and more, I'll leave it at this point for now.

Don't You Judge Me

We have all heard that injunction before, in various different forms. Many times, we hear Luke 6:37 quoted, but without any direction on HOW or what this means. It has gotten to the point in recent times that this phrase, from overuse and rampant misuse, gives really no meaning whatsoever anymore. What does "judgement" mean? How is a faithful Catholic, seeking the practice of virtue, to respond when a statement in defense of Truth is met with: "How dare you say that! You judgmental, hateful person"? That faithful Catholic, who really is desiring to follow Truth, and to do so with the love of Christ, becomes torn, and maybe begins to wonder, "Is it more charitable to keep my mouth shut? But then, how am I to follow Christ's command to spread the Truth?"

In Story of a Soul, St. Therese of Lisieux offers wise and helpful words on this subject, that may perhaps help clear up some of the muddy waters we encounter in dealing with the details of everyday life.

Yes, I feel it, when I am charitable, it is Jesus alone who is acting in me, and the more united I am to Him, the more also do I love my Sisters. When I wish to increase this love in me, and when especially the devil tries to place before the eyes of my soul the faults of such and such a Sister who is less attractive to me, I hasten to search out her virtues, her good intentions; I tell myself that even if I did see her fall once, she could easily have won a great number of victories which she is hiding through humility, and that even what appears to me as a fault can very easily be an act of virtue because of her intentions. I have no trouble in convincing myself of this truth because of a little experience I had which showed me we must never judge.

During recreation the portress rang twice; the large workman's gate had to be opened to bring in some trees for the crib. Recreation was not too gay because you were no there, dear Mother (Therese is writing to her own blood sister, who is also her superior in Carmel), and I thought that if they sent me to serve as third party (the religious who accompanied the Procuratrix when laborers had to work in the monastery) I would be happy; at exactly that moment Mother Subprioress told me to go and serve in this capacity, or else the Sister who was at my side. Immediately I began to untie our apron but slowly in order that my companion untie hers before me, for I thought of giving her the pleasure of serving as third party. The Sister who was replace the Procuratrix was looking at us, and seeing me get up last, she said: "Ah! I thought as much that you were not going to gain this pearl for your crown, you were going too slowly."

Certainly, the whole community believed I had acted through selfishness, and I cannot say how much good such a small thing did to my soul, making me indulgent toward the weaknesses of others. This incident prevents me from being vain when I am judged favorably because I say to myself: Since one can take my little acts of virtue for imperfections, once can also be mistaken in taking for virtue what is nothing but imperfection. Then I say with St. Paul: 'To me if is a very small thing to be judged by you, of my any human tribunal, by neither do I judge myself. He who judges me is THE LORD.'

In order that this judgement be favorable or rather I be not judged at all, I want to be charitable in my thoughts towards others at all times, for Jesus has said: 'Judge not and you shall not be judged.'

St. Therese had ample opportunities to practice this form of humility, as indeed we all do. She saw these opportunities as gifts of God, and rarely if ever wasted them. Thus, when she was placed in a position of authority over the novices in the last years of her life, which required her to study them, seek out their imperfections, and help them improve, she was able to clearly see the imperfections without being blinded by any regard for herself or any attachment to her own ideas. Because of the time she faithfully dedicated to prayer and the practice of virtue, she saw everything through the lens of God.

Our judgement then, should rather be called a search for Truth, where we neither attempt to see into the heart of a person, nor allow ourselves to be shaken in our search.

Oh so close... but not really what a bishop should do.

From LifeSiteNews.com:

Brooklyn Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio has called on Catholic schools and parishes not to invite state legislators to speak at or attend any events, and to refuse any honors bestowed on them by the governor or any legislator responsible for the bill’s passage.

The sanctions, however, do not include refusing Governor Cuomo or other Catholic politicians who supported the passage of same-sex ‘marriage’ Holy Communion.

What exactly is the message from the bishop here? You're welcome to consume the Body and Blood of Christ (to your own damnation!) but you had better not speak at Catholic schools and parishes? I'm not sure which is worse: Bishop DiMarzio making such a statement or Rome doing absolutely nothing about it.

You can read the rest of the article here.

Wheat from the Chaff...

Chaff:
–noun

1. the husks of grains and grasses that are separated during threshing.
2. straw cut up for fodder.
3. worthless matter; refuse.

Growing wheat on a small scale is a labor intensive process that can make one appreciative of the inexpensive five pound sacks of delicious silky flour that can purchased in a grocery store. Putting aside the topics of planting seasons, weeds, soil conditions, and the birds / rodents that consume the seed in mass quantities before it has a chance to germinate... harvesting by hand is an endeavor that stands above them all.

Each wheat stalk produces a spike with rows of wheat seeds / berries. The wheat berries are covered with a thin husk and are firmly attached to the stalk. One method of separating the wheat berries from the spike and stalk is to literally beat and thresh them off. Various tools, sticks, and containers can be used... but each involves pummeling the wheat so that the chaff is detached. The process is vigorous and requires some effort to accomplish.

What remains is the desired edible wheat seed intermingled with the fragmented husks and straw. The chaff is easily separated by even a light breeze as the wheat is poured from one vessel to another. The heavy dense wheat is collected and refined while the undesirable chaff is blown away.

This post is somewhat of a follow up to Monday's post on being prepared. If you are not prepared to accept persecution, or prepared to move with the Will of God, your soul is at risk for being blown away like the chaff. We are all given the same directives; there is no protection if none is sought. One only has to look around to see the chaff being separated... sometimes in scandalizing ways.

Pray for the Church, our Holy Father, the bishops, and priests. Pray for your fellow man. Prayers and fasting. The Kingdom of Heaven is at hand.

Forgive me for not being "charitable" but...

The dysfunction of the liberal brain fascinates me in the same way that seeing someone drown in two inches of water would fascinate me. I don't root for this to happen but cannot comprehend how people can be so oblivious to simple realities. Case in point: the former Perjurer-in-Chief recently made the statement that laws requiring voters to show a State-issued photo ID is discriminatory against the young, the elderly, and minorities (who tend to vote for democrats). Considering that States which pass these laws also offer to provide a free photo ID to anyone who signs an affidavit affirming that they cannot afford the fee to get an ID (which is a whopping $11 dollars in my home State) I don't see where the alleged disenfranchisement is.

Just my $0.02 here, but if someone is so under-motivated, helpless, or incapable that they cannot get a photo ID -- even when it's free -- then I think our Republic is better served that these people not be allowed to vote.

On the topic of Scandal...

...we recommend the following sermon from Audio Sancto titled: "Corpus Christi: Sacrilege, Scandal, and Souls." The sermon is relevant to the constant and penetrating news that has been vomited around the Catholic media sources lately.

Only 235 years...

On today's 235th Independence Day remember patriotism.

Prepare for Persecution to Avoid Apostasy

Would you offer a pinch of incense to an idol to save your life and the life of your family? Would you approach the altar of the false idol with fear and confusion as to what you might do? Would run to embrace the false altar ready to denounce your faith? What is the greater tragedy... the mass death of those martyrs who kept the faith, or the mass apostasy of the cowards who left it to save their materialistic lives?

Is your faith solid and built on rock, or is it simply a veneer? If your faith is simply an act for those around you, or a faith that changes with the winds of difficulty... you are at great risk to losing your soul when persecution is placed on your shoulders. Laxity will certainly lead you to a faith that is only skin deep. Standing up for the faith will certainly lead to persecution.

Please listen to the Audio Sancto sermon titled "Prepare for Persecution Lest You Become an Apostate"