tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5636389828900724226.post2459641736265467532..comments2024-03-28T19:16:02.689-04:00Comments on Catholic in Brooklyn: Despair Is A Tool Of The DevilCatholic in Brooklynhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02714284710110785019noreply@blogger.comBlogger23125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5636389828900724226.post-83780962132654393522014-05-28T21:45:00.627-04:002014-05-28T21:45:00.627-04:00Maria Regina Mater Dei!
Miriam HaKodessa pray for...Maria Regina Mater Dei!<br /><br />Miriam HaKodessa pray for us!<br /><br />Thanks bro.Son of Ya'Kovhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05645132954231868592noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5636389828900724226.post-62203475597741408272014-05-28T19:01:34.414-04:002014-05-28T19:01:34.414-04:00I can't even begin to reply to this. You have...I can't even begin to reply to this. You have know great suffering up close and personal, and all I can say is that I will pray that our Lord comforts and protects you and your family. I hope this doesn't sound trite, but please ask our Blessed Mother, whose suffering was only surpassed by Her Son, to take you into her loving arms and pour her love on you and your family.<br /><br />God bless you.Catholic in Brooklynhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02714284710110785019noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5636389828900724226.post-77440131966471312792014-05-28T02:41:39.667-04:002014-05-28T02:41:39.667-04:00I have three autistic kids. A wife who looks at l...I have three autistic kids. A wife who looks at least 15 years older then she actually is slowly being destroyed by the pressure & tragedy of our situation. Then there are the spiritual attacks and the financial attacks.<br /><br />Despair and I are old drinking buddies (mind you I drink Root Beer). Forget about not trusting the Pope ya bloody amateurs. What do you do when you are tempted to believe God isn’t there to give a crap about you? What do you do when you fear death and fear going into the night like you never feared it before?<br /><br />This is what I live with every day of my life. It sucks to be me. But most likely is sucks to be anyone else only in different ways.<br /><br />Still it’s not all bad. I can refute logically any "argument from evil” against the existence of God by pulling out my copy of Brian Davies and going to town on any Atheist creep who thinks Stephen Law has a brilliant argument. Philosophy & Thomism have been a great comfort to me in subtle ways. Intellectually I have hope & in my will I want to choose to have hope and if I don’t feel hopeful at any given moment well. Who gives a flying fart about mere feelings?<br /><br />I don’t feel the great religious fervor or comfort I used to feel in my youth. Life has gotten too dark for that. But I want to believe maybe that isn’t so bad? St Gregory of Nyssa said Moses first saw God in the light of the burning bush but over time Moses saw God in the Darkness. <br /><br />I think I feel good about that.<br /><br />Cheers.<br /><br />It sucks but don’t give up.Son of Ya'Kovhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05645132954231868592noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5636389828900724226.post-38236454602894760072014-05-28T02:24:08.225-04:002014-05-28T02:24:08.225-04:00Voris is against attacking the Pope & can arti...Voris is against attacking the Pope & can articulate rationally & coherently why it is so very wrong. Say what you will about his other failings but that is his great virtue. Which is ironic because what would he think of a blog which is largely Pope Francis bashing central?<br /><br />Now I am not going to name names but I think we all know who I am talking about....*cough* Elliot *cough".:-)<br /><br />I am so going to Purgatory.;-)Son of Ya'Kovhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05645132954231868592noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5636389828900724226.post-24418415991280505162014-05-24T05:51:26.238-04:002014-05-24T05:51:26.238-04:00Thank you for this. I believe that St. Padre Pio s...Thank you for this. I believe that St. Padre Pio summed it up very well: "Pray, hope and don't worry."Catholic in Brooklynhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02714284710110785019noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5636389828900724226.post-79670241881744942832014-05-23T10:13:30.584-04:002014-05-23T10:13:30.584-04:00I believe there is a lot of semantics going on wit...I believe there is a lot of semantics going on with the word hope and the word optimism. None of which really seems to serve to any benefit for this discussion. <br /> I believe Catholic in Brooklyn's point is that if we have faith in the Lord and are strong in His promise, then we at the same time should recognizes that nothing can bad can happen to us. Even if the worse possible happenstance were to occur, it is not bad, because Christ is King of our lives and we trust in Him. In many real ways, despair voices a lack of that trust in God's plan.<br /> Is our Church what it should be? Of course not. If we examine Church history we can see an ebb and flow in this. Overall, I believe it is most likely the Church has never been what it should be, because the Body of Christ has always been made up of imperfect human beings.<br /> The question that seems to be most important to me is this: Can we be faithful to Christ through the Church that he founded with His own hand, even though it is imperfect? I believe what make this question so important is the fact that Christ is in fact faithful to each one of us individually, even though we individually are imperfect.<br />Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16438975605937602658noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5636389828900724226.post-3071130114712517252014-05-07T21:00:19.276-04:002014-05-07T21:00:19.276-04:00In regard to Archbold's post, look at my direc...In regard to Archbold's post, look at my direct response to him in the comments above. As I pointed out, he wondered if he should "pack it in". He took the arrogant position that it is too late for others to see what he can so plainly see, and that of course is the "false optimism" that church leaders talk about, including our newly canonized saints and your personal favorite, Pope Francis. Archbold deftly avoids naming names, but it doesn't take a genius to know what he is talking about. There is a whole lot of "there" there. Archbold has recently written another post declaring he will not leave the church no matter what. Where does that kind of thinking come from? It comes directly from his faulty thinking and taking his eyes off of Jesus Christ. It comes from arrogantly thinking that he knows what is best for the Church over and above Church leadership, a huge problem that I see on far too many Catholic blogs and websites. <br /><br />Elliot, you say my exegesis is correct, and yet you attack what I have written. You are most obviously in agreement with Archbold that the "smoke of Satan" has entered the Church. Yes, that is what Blessed Pope Paul VI said, but like most others in your camp, you point at the leadership of the Church, and again, most specifically at Pope Francis as being responsible. However, this is not what Pope Paul VI was talking about. In fact, he was actually speaking about the mindset of people like Pat Archbold. <br /><br />There is no transcript of the actual sermon by Pope Paul VI. Jimmy Akin provided a translation of what has been preserved in the Vatican archives. Akin's article is at http://jimmyakin.typepad.com/defensor_fidei/2006/11/the_smoke_of_sa.html<br /><br />"Referring to the situation of the Church today, the Holy Father affirms that he has a sense that “from some fissure the smoke of Satan has entered the temple of God.” There is doubt, incertitude, problematic, disquiet, dissatisfaction, confrontation. There is no longer trust of the Church; they trust the first profane prophet who speaks in some journal or some social movement, and they run after him and ask him if he has the formula of true life. And we are not alert to the fact that we are already the owners and masters of the formula of true life. Doubt has entered our consciences, and it entered by windows that should have been open to the light."<br /><br />That is my whole point. Too many have taken their eyes off of Our Lord and they are drowning in their own despair. Archbold's post reeked of despair. I quoted directly from his post. How can that be a straw man argument?<br /><br />My point is that when we are in the midst of a storm or even just feel like we are, that is the time to look at Jesus Christ and realize that He is always there. But we cannot see Jesus Christ if we give into despair. You show me one clear statement from Archbold's post that comes even close to saying that. I have already answered the "if" and "when" argument, and there really is no other statement in his post that comes even close to being positive. <br /><br />As far as your ad hominem attacks, it isn't so much what you say but how you say it. One statement you wrote, "I can only assume that you take this pope's condemnation of saccharine triumphalism with a grain of salt" is a prime example. It is condescending and adds absolutely nothing to the argument.<br /><br />Our real argument, Elliot, is profound disagreement as to the leadership of the Church. You will attack me or anyone else who supports the current leadership of the Church. It doesn't matter what arguments we make, even quoting scripture and the saints. I strongly suggest you meditate and pray on John 13:20 and Luke 10:16.<br />Catholic in Brooklynhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02714284710110785019noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5636389828900724226.post-57679262271787661442014-05-06T22:55:22.318-04:002014-05-06T22:55:22.318-04:00I know that you're being sincere. Which is why...I know that you're being sincere. Which is why I find it so irritating that you assume that I am not. As I have tried to explain, I have no problems with the "content" of your post, but simply with the pretext for it. Ergo, I'm not interested in hashing out the ideas; they are rather uncontroversial in and of themselves. My beef is that they simply do not pertain the substance of Archbold's post. IOW, there's no "there" <i>there</i>. <br /><br />Lastly, I find most people's invocation of the "ad hominem" objection pretty hazy. Could you cite specific examples I committed? And are you aware that there is a legitimate rhetorical usage of "ad hominem"? As I've explained before, I grieve that I come across as a jerk at times, but also know that my writing voice is what it is, and that I prefer lucid brevity to obfuscatory verbosity (<-- see what I did there?). ;)Codgitator (Cadgertator)https://www.blogger.com/profile/00872093788960965392noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5636389828900724226.post-29359495019039076072014-05-06T16:21:57.914-04:002014-05-06T16:21:57.914-04:00Elliot I mean this in all seriousness. I apprecia...Elliot I mean this in all seriousness. I appreciate that you keep coming back and challenging me. You and I are actually on the same side - that of the Catholic Church. We are coming at it from different points of view. Unfortunately, you seem intent on attacking me instead of actually hashing out ideas. It keeps me humble, and I can always use that. But please try to realize that ad hominem attacks really don't accomplish much. <br /><br />Believe it or not, I really do mean the things that I write. They are coming straight from my heart. I hope you can understand that. I am not trying to one-up anyone or attack anyone just for the sake of doing so. When I challenge the things I hear or read from other Catholics, I am basically sharing my thought process with anyone else who may be interested. And it actually helps to have someone like you come along and challenge me. <br /><br />I also wish you could look at what I write in a more objective manner and see what I am trying to say. My belief is that Jesus Christ is in charge no matter what physical circumstances might say, and the Catholic Church is His Mystical Body sent into the world to save souls. The Church is the lifeboat to the world, and we need to do everything we can to support her. <br /><br />I believe we are at a very critical time both in Church history and world history. I truly don't believe there has ever been more evil in the world than there is in this 21st Century, and I don't think there has ever been a more critical need for the salvation that Our Lord gives to the world through His Church. The devil wants to do whatever he can to derail the Church, and he knows just how to play the game. We need to listen first and foremost to Holy Mother Church. Unfortunately, far too many Catholics feel they know better than those who have been put in charge of our souls, and instead of working with our bishops and priests (and Holy Father), we are fighting them. That is what I am speaking against, or at least trying to.<br /><br />I keep listening to Voris and challenging what he says because I know so many people who hang on his every word, and I believe it is damaging them spiritually. Voris is extremely dangerous. He can sound so Catholic, but in reality he is at war with the Catholic Church. How else to explain his constant call for the resignation of priests and bishops, his constant condemnation of Church hierarchy, the way in which he twists and distorts. <br /><br />I'll let it go at that. If you really believe that I am off the rails and completely at odds with the teaching of the Church, I would ask that you pray for me. Also, just for the sake of discussion and clarity, try to keep the ad hominem attacks at a minimum if possible.<br /><br />BTW, I really didn't think you were being paid by Archbold. It was my (apparently lame) attempt at humor. Catholic in Brooklynhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02714284710110785019noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5636389828900724226.post-22547721064233493822014-05-06T15:19:41.292-04:002014-05-06T15:19:41.292-04:00It says more about you than you may ever realize t...It says more about you than you may ever realize that you assume that defending a fellow Catholic from a strawman attack entails that I'm being paid to do so. <br /><br />But, to answer your "question," no, I am not on the staff of any well known Catholic apologetics organization. (chuckle) <br /><br />It's just as unseemly that you try to derail this discussion with the emotive tar brush that I'm "ranting". (Sorry to disappoint, but I don't raise my pinky when I drink tea, either.) Poisoning the well is easy. Watch: <br /><br />Who's paying you to rant about Voris? If you hate him so much, why do you keep following him? <br /><br />Oh, wait: having a vested interest in the life of fellow Catholics is not a crime--though, to hear you tell it, daring to express such an interest is. Your post was simply off the mark and now you're just trying to defend your ever shrinking logical crawlspace. Codgitator (Cadgertator)https://www.blogger.com/profile/00872093788960965392noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5636389828900724226.post-20286803624572188432014-05-06T05:45:10.103-04:002014-05-06T05:45:10.103-04:00I did not attempt to "read your mind." ...I did not attempt to "read your mind." I quoted from your post. One thing I did not bring up but will point out now is how you dismissed the words of one of our newly canonized saints, St. Pope John XXII. You wrote, "I also wondered why so many people, at that time, failed to see it for what it was. They smiled and called it the new springtime even as everything died around them. They called it opening the doors and letting fresh air into the Church, as everybody inside choked on the smoke of Satan. How did they not see what was happening?"<br /><br />That was an indirect swipe at St. John XXIII who famously said, "Throw open the windows of the Church and let the fresh air of the Spirit blow through."<br /><br />And may I say that it was also a "cheap shot" on your part to take a swipe at a saint without even quoting him. <br /><br />Your post is just one long opinion piece. It gives only your point of view, which is that basically the Church is lost. How else do you explain this statement:<br /><br />"When will others see it and will it be too late?"<br /><br />Then you write this:<br /><br />"As a blogger, I pray and ask for guidance. Lord, should I just pack it in and just focus on getting my family through this time. Or, should I be shouting the obvious from the rooftops, even though I know I will continue to be ignored and vilified. I don't know, I guess I will keep praying."<br /><br />I give you credit for saying you will keep praying. But to actually ask aloud if you should "pack it in"? You are the apostles hiding away in the upper room afraid to face the world. That statement says you are basically giving up on Jesus Christ, that you don't feel He can take care of His own church which He promised never to abandon. You are Mary Magdalene in the the garden with Christ right beside her saying "Where have they taken my Lord?" And please notice that the examples I used were not enemies of the Church. They were people who believed in our Lord but had taken their eyes off of Him and because of that had lost hope. <br /><br />Your post expresses hopelessness. Your statement, "The only thing I wonder now is when God will choose to act and rescue us, His Church, from us, His Church" is hardly positive. That statement says that God is allowing the Church to self destruct. Yes, you say "when" not "if"' but it still says that God is NOT acting now and you don't know when He will. How is that statement helpful to anyone? How does that give anyone hope in the promises of Christ?<br /><br />That is why I tried to counter with my post. Unlike you, I quoted scripture and the saints. I did not rely on my own reasoning and vision. We are in very difficult times. The world is enveloped in evil and many, many in the Church have been infected with this evil. But I believe as St. John wrote in I John 4:4 "He that is in you is stronger than He who is in the world." <br /><br />I don't wonder WHEN Christ will act. He has never stopped acting. He has never stopped being the Head of the Mystical Body. I don't let the circumstances around me dictate what I feel. I don't let the dead body of Lazarus make me say, "But he would not have died if you had been here." As St. John Paul II said, "“Do not abandon yourselves to despair. We are the Easter people and hallelujah is our song.”Catholic in Brooklynhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02714284710110785019noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5636389828900724226.post-59196119817274701552014-05-05T23:08:52.955-04:002014-05-05T23:08:52.955-04:00Brooklyn
Your premise and all your subsequent argu...Brooklyn<br />Your premise and all your subsequent arguments which depend upon it are faulty. Eliot does a good job pointing out why. I think your attempts at reading my mind are silly.Patrick Archboldhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13230114519933936165noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5636389828900724226.post-24138921657139193662014-05-05T21:28:12.832-04:002014-05-05T21:28:12.832-04:00Is Archbold paying you? It not, he should be. E...Is Archbold paying you? It not, he should be. Elliot, if you really hate me and what I write, why do you keep coming back? <br /><br />You're ranting, Elliot, and it does not become you. Catholic in Brooklynhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02714284710110785019noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5636389828900724226.post-76625712393324231352014-05-05T21:19:03.220-04:002014-05-05T21:19:03.220-04:00As I granted in my first comment, nothing is wrong...As I granted in my first comment, nothing is wrong with your exegesis; it's your aim that is off. Just admit it: the only thing you'll allow yourself to admit is "wrong with the Church" is folks like myself. ;)Codgitator (Cadgertator)https://www.blogger.com/profile/00872093788960965392noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5636389828900724226.post-44587377841667287902014-05-05T19:56:12.722-04:002014-05-05T19:56:12.722-04:00"Your post made it seem [to whom?] like Our L..."Your post made it <b>seem</b> [to whom?] like Our Lord has completely abandoned us <i>[<-- False. You're relying on the same cheap, faulty reading as I noted above.]</i>, that the devil is now in charge <i>[<-- wow, how does it feel to jump the shark?]</i>, and that <b>the only response</b> is to clean house, to save the Church from itself <i>[or, uhhh, rather, to save it from human shepherds who scatter and do not feed... or is that aspect of Scripture now verboten?]</i>. ...<br /><br />"My point in this is that we should not look only at the physical circumstances around us, that we need to realize that Our Lord is always in charge. <i>[Good, because that's exactly Archbold's point: we mustn't take the current idiocy and theological philistinism as an absolute norm, but must wait on the Lord to see when He shall restore His own House.]</i> ...<br /><br />"When Mary Magdalene and the other apostles were convinced that <b>all</b> was lost <i>[again, not at all Archbold's assertion]</i>, that was actually the time when Christ had won the victory. <i>[Yes, but it is madness to deny that Lazarus--if we accept your metaphor of him as the visible Church--is in fact dead. Jesus wept because he was faced with *the reality* of human death. Would you actually claim that, despite numerous accounts from saints and ecstatics, that He does not similarly weep for the death we see around us in the human dimension of the Church? Weeping over the obvious signs of the Church's human morbidity does not, by any means, denigrate the Lord's victory. If anything, your saccharine handwaving and ultramontane whitewashing is akin to Lazarus's siblings blocking the Lord from acting until the corpse was even more odious. #hurtingByHelping]</i> ...<br /><br />"Your post takes people's eyes off of Jesus and puts it on our physical surroundings. <i>[False. If anything, his post was another handy pretext for you to compose more maternalistic handwaving.]</i> ... If you want to save souls, as we all do, then point people to our Savior <i>[as he did in the quotation I cited above!]</i> and not to those who are fighting against Him and His Church. <i>[Stop the presses! Did you just admit that there are actually hostile elements within the visible Church which are wreaking havoc? Careful: you almost sound like a trad again!]</i>" Codgitator (Cadgertator)https://www.blogger.com/profile/00872093788960965392noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5636389828900724226.post-1495369515667466512014-05-05T19:43:51.157-04:002014-05-05T19:43:51.157-04:00Just how is trying to point people to Christ equiv...Just how is trying to point people to Christ equivalent to not caring about their souls? I guess you would have to say St. Paul and St Pope John Paul II didn't care about souls either. <br /><br />When St. Peter was walking on water, he was doing fine as long as he concentrated on Jesus Christ. The moment he took his eyes off of Christ and looked at the water, he began to sink. Patrick Archbold is looking at the water and encouraging others to do the same. That is not going to save any souls. Catholic in Brooklynhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02714284710110785019noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5636389828900724226.post-90217064592218514392014-05-05T19:39:14.337-04:002014-05-05T19:39:14.337-04:00If you are going to argue against me, I think that...If you are going to argue against me, I think that the least you can do is make specific points. Otherwise you are the one taking the cheap shots. Just saying "You're wrong" does not accomplish anything. <br /><br />I backed up everything i wrote with scripture and quotes from the saints. Nothing cheap in that. Catholic in Brooklynhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02714284710110785019noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5636389828900724226.post-43358141270729775902014-05-05T19:35:46.580-04:002014-05-05T19:35:46.580-04:00Do you think that giving into despair is the answe...Do you think that giving into despair is the answer? Your post made it seem like Our Lord has completely abandoned us, that the devil is now in charge, and that the only response is to clean house, to save the Church from itself. Can you dispute any of the specific points that I have made? My point in this is that we should not look only at the physical circumstances around us, that we need to realize that Our Lord is always in charge. When Mary Magdalene and the other apostles were convinced that all was lost, that was actually the time when Christ had won the victory. But because they concentrated on the physical instead of believing what Christ had said, they did not even recognize Our Lord when he was actually standing right in front of of them. <br /><br />Your post takes people's eyes off of Jesus and puts it on our physical surroundings. That is a sure receipe for disaster. If you want to save souls, as we all do, then point people to our Savior and not to those who are fighting against Him and His Church. Tell people the glorious truth of the Gospel. Take a lesson from our newly canonized saints. <br /><br />Concentrating on the negative as you have done only drives people away from the Church and Jesus Christ. Catholic in Brooklynhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02714284710110785019noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5636389828900724226.post-76333638887971397842014-05-05T15:28:36.093-04:002014-05-05T15:28:36.093-04:00I'm not fighting. I'm calling out what I t...I'm not fighting. I'm calling out what I think is a cheap shot. Archbold made a legitimate point, in a balanced way, but you chose to put him under the microscope as, for all intents and purposes, an accomplice to the work of the devil. Straw man, much?Codgitator (Cadgertator)https://www.blogger.com/profile/00872093788960965392noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5636389828900724226.post-5093233949072344362014-05-05T15:03:36.834-04:002014-05-05T15:03:36.834-04:00Oh yes, my expectation that God WILL rescue the Ch...Oh yes, my expectation that God WILL rescue the Church from this current crisis is despair? How silly. Unless you are fatalistic and completely indifferent to the souls lost during times like these, concern is the Christian response. That the Church will prevail is undoubted, but should we not care about all the souls lost along the way?Patrick Archboldhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13230114519933936165noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5636389828900724226.post-89520367979197908212014-05-05T14:52:16.136-04:002014-05-05T14:52:16.136-04:00Catholic in Brooklyn, you have characterized other...Catholic in Brooklyn, you have characterized others as being in "despair": I don't agree with your assessment of those that you cite.<br /><br />Concern does not equal despair or distrust. "Optimism" is not a Christian virtue: hope is. <br /><br />As God is truth, at some point we are going to have to acknowledge the truth: all indicators of Catholic life have been dropping like a stone in recent decades. It is time to admit that we have been making some mistakes.Stephen Spencerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13301884569989243932noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5636389828900724226.post-1586029254000306562014-05-05T09:21:09.912-04:002014-05-05T09:21:09.912-04:00Elliot, you even fight me when I say we need to tr...Elliot, you even fight me when I say we need to trust the statements of Jesus Christ. You seem to want to be negative. Like the examples I gave of those who gave into their despair, you are missing the glory of Jesus Christ. Catholic in Brooklynhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02714284710110785019noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5636389828900724226.post-50388088484192856302014-05-05T09:06:42.616-04:002014-05-05T09:06:42.616-04:00This is a key statement from Archbold: "The o...This is a key statement from Archbold: "The only thing I wonder now is <b>when</b> [not if] God will choose to act and rescue us, His Church, from us, His Church." <br /><br />If waiting on the Lord and praying for His glory, and for the salvation of souls from error and sin, is despair, then sign me up! <br /><br />As usual, the problem is not your exegesis, but your zealous onesidedness. I can only assume that you take this pope's condemnation of saccharine triumphalism with a grain of salt. Codgitator (Cadgertator)https://www.blogger.com/profile/00872093788960965392noreply@blogger.com