Response to An Ex-Gay Cradle Catholic

When people react to and condemn Father James Martin, I learn a lot more about those who are reacting than I do about Father Martin.  Father Martin is a lightening rod for all of those who believe that gay people basically make the choice to be gay and that all gays could become straight, or at least leave the gay lifestyle and live celibate lives,  if someone just laid out all of the rules of the Church to them and basically said, "Straighten up and fly right" (pun intended).  I am really amazed at how often I hear this line from "ex-gays".

The latest to push this line of thinking is Robert Oscar Lopez, who published an article on stream.org entitled, "As an Ex-Gay Cradle Catholic, I Know the Devastation That Awaits Those Who Follow Fr. James Martin."  Mr. Lopez tells us that he was brought up in a liberal Catholic environment and was never informed of the dangers of sexual sin.  As a result, he became a promiscuous gay man, the blame for which he lays directly at the feet of "liberal Catholics":

I grew up in a Catholic milieu that was nothing if not gay-friendly. And I paid quite a price for that.

Our Lady of Guadalupe: The Greatest Evangelist In History

Today is the Feast Day of Our Lady of Guadalupe.  The story of Our Lady of Guadalupe is one of the greatest stories in human history.  It is also one of the greatest proofs of the existence of God and His overwhelming and incredible love for mankind.

In the 16th Century, Catholic missionaries were in Mexico trying to convert the Aztec Indians from their pagan religion to Christianity.  The Aztecs engaged in barbarous practices including human sacrifice where they would literally cut the heart out of a living person.  As one source relates:

The victim was stretched out over the sacrificial stone. In seconds, a priest with an obsidian knife broke open his chest and ripped out his still beating heart, dashing it against the sacrificial stone.

Father Ray Blake and Poor People

I recently wrote a blog post in which I showed the deceitfulness of a a blog post by Father Ray Blake which was linked to by Father John Zuhlsdorf.  Both of these priests are radical traditionalists who believe the Catholic Church is basically in apostasy with the exception of the traditionalists, who are the only real Catholics left in the world.

In my post, I referenced another blog post by Father Blake in which he talks about the poor and homeless and what a pain in the a-- they are.

Traditionalists Twist the Truth To Defame Catholic Church

I find it ironic to the extreme that those who present themselves as the only faithful Catholics left in the world openly declare their complete contempt for the Church's Magesterium over and over again.  This is no where better personified than in Father John Zuhlsdorf.  Father Z, like every good radical traditionalist, feels that the only salvation for the Church and the world is not Jesus Christ but the pre-1962 liturgy.   According to Father Zuhlsdorf, every problem in the Church and the world can be traced to the Second Vatican Council and the implementation of the "Novus Ordo" garbage, er, Mass.

This assertion was seen in all its glory in a recent post by Father Zuhlsdorf in which he linked to a post by another rad trad priest, Father Ray Blake.  I have never previously read anything by Father Blake.  However, he is considered quite controversial in his native England, especially when he blamed the poor for making a mess in his church:

A priest has launched an attack on the poor and homeless describing them as ‘lying and messy’ people sent by God to test his faith.

Outspoken Father Ray Blake even said one who regularly turned up at his church pleading for money was ‘an irritating little b******d’.

He accused the beggar of making a mess of his prayers as he passed his cap around his congregation looking for donations.

The controversial Catholic cleric said in a blog post: 'The trouble with the poor is that they are messy.

'There is a secluded area between the church and our hall, a passage, occasionally we find someone has got a few cardboard boxes together and has slept there, and if it has been raining leaves a sodden blanket, cardboard there to be cleaned up.

'Often it also smells of urine and there is often excrement there and sometimes a used needle or two.'

Why I Continue To Support Father James Martin

There seem to be two great burning issues on the Catholic blogosphere these days, and they both involve showing mercy and compassion to sinners.  One issue is how to deal with divorced and remarried couples in the Church, and the other involves the Church's outreach towards the gay community.  The Catholic blogosphere has personified these issues in two people:  Pope Francis and Father James Martin.  Those who self identify as the only true Catholics in the world today have relentlessly attacked and vilified Pope Francis and Father Martin, accusing them of heresy and basically saying they are agents of the devil.

I have recently written a couple of posts regarding Pope Francis.  Today I am focusing on Father Martin.  An article from Catholic World Report by Janet Smith encapsulates this issue very well.  She starts her article by claiming that Father Martin's approach is "full of ambiguity."  She pointed to a talk at Villanova University in which she pulled exactly one small quote from an hour long conversation Father Martin had with Brandon Ambrosino, a gay Catholic man.

The Blogosphere Shows Its Ignorance

Today is the Feast Day of St. Jerome, a great saint and doctor of the Church who gave us the Vulgate Bible. Vulgate is another word for "the speech of the common people and especially of uneducated people". St. Jerome translated the Bible so that the ordinary person could read and understand it.

Despite this great gift given to us in the Fourth Century, the Church has not always promoted study of scripture. The Council of Trent prohibited even owning a Bible, much less reading it, without special written permission from the local bishop. Traditionalists love to quote from the Council of Trent, considering it at least as infallible as Sacred Scripture. They certainly quote from it much more often than they quote the Holy Bible. The Filial Correction, which accused Pope Francis of spreading heresy, used innumerable quotes from the Council of Trent to prove their points.

Did A Priest Convicted of Sexual Perversion Sign The Filial Correction?

Maybe those who have drafted and signed the Filial Correction need to take a closer look at who is supporting them.

I was looking through the names of the signatories to the Filial Correction and came across one name, Father John Houston, which gives no description of who he is or his place of origin.  So I did a Google search.  The only item I found for a Father John Houston was an article from an Australian website called "Broken Rites Australia" which is self described as "researching the cover-up of sexual abuse in the Catholic Church."

Filial Correction: The Traditionalists Could Not Be More Wrong

There is a definite war between the conservative, traditional factions of the Catholic Church and the Church's Magesterium.  This has never been made more clear than in the Filial Correction signed by a growing number of traditionalists.  And yes, they are all hardcore traditionalists.

The signatories to this document include such hardcore radical traditionalists as:

• Dr. John Rao (history professor) who has completly denounced Vatican II and the *Novus Ordo* Mass; 
• Chris Ferrara (lawyer, secular not canon) who makes his living bashing the contemporary Church and publicly denouncing Pope Francis; 
• Bishop Bernard Fellay, the head of the SSPX, a group that refuses to recognize the validity of Vatican II and the *Novus Ordo" Mass; 
• Roberto de Mattei, an Italian journalist who has been described as "a renowned apologist for ultra-traditional Catholicism"
• Joseph Shaw, Chairman of the Latin Mass Society;
• Deacon Nick Donnelly, whose blog was shut down by the bishop of his diocese of Lancaster, England.  Deacon Donnelly now contributes to OnePeterFive, a radical traditionalist blog which is in constant conflict with the message of Pope Francis;
• Father Claude Barthe, a radical traditionalist priest and foe of the Second Vatican Council.

Father Zuhlsdorf Leads Traditionalists In The Art of Dissembling

There is a conference in Rome celebrating the tenth anniversary of Summorum Pontificum from September 14 to September 17. On February 11, 2017, the group which organized this pilgrimage, Coetus Internationalis Summorum Pontificum, described the purpose for this conference as follows:

At the press conference, it was confirmed that, on Thursday, 14 September 2017, there will be a colloquium on the tenth anniversary of the motu proprio at the Pontifical University of Angelicum, during which Archbishop [Guido] Pozzo, among others (their names will be communicated over the coming months), will take stock of these ten years of renewal of the traditional liturgy in the Church.

So they are taking "stock of these ten years of renewal of the traditional liturgy."  But was "renewal of the traditional liturgy" the reason for Summorum Pontificum?  This is certainly not the reason given in the Motu Proprio, which plainly says that, despite the Second Vatican Council's desire "that the respect and reverence due to divine worship should be renewed and adapted to the needs of our time", some in the Church were still holding on to the Traditional Latin Mass.  Pope Benedict felt that since the TLM was and always will be holy, there was no reason to withhold this Mass from them.

Who is Right: Cardinal Sarah or Father Martin?

As Christians, we have been given a very specific job to do on this earth:  proclaim the good news of the Kingdom of God and bring people to the saving grace of Jesus Christ so that they can be cleansed of their sins and given a new heart.  In the words of Our Lord (Matthew 28:19-20):

Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.

These are the three steps in the order given to us by Jesus Christ:

1. Make disciples of all nations
2. Baptize them
3. Teach them to obey everything commanded by Jesus Christ

There is a reason why this is the order specifically given to us by the Founder of Christianity. If this order is not followed, we will fail in our mission. Unfortunately, many people, including priests and bishops, have turned this order on its head. As a result, many people who could have been saved have instead been lost.

Has America Ever Been A Christian Nation?

At one Church which I attend, the priest often prays that America will repent of her sins and return to God.  Many Christians lament that America is forgetting her Christian heritage.  Certainly there can be no doubt that the majority of the founding fathers of our nation were Christian.  Our laws were most certainly based upon Judeo-Christian values found in the Bible, i.e., the ten commandments.

But has America ever been a truly Christian nation living by Christian principles?

Obedience Is Not Enough

Ask most people who will get to heaven, and they will give you a succinct answer:  "Good people".  And ask most people if they are "good", and they will answer with little hesitation that, of course, they are good.  They don't kill, steal or do other terrible things.  Oh, sure, they're not perfect, but that doesn't mean they are bad.  They basically do all the right things.  So why shouldn't they go to heaven?

Cardinal Burke Just Doesn't Get It

Cardinal Raymond Burke has once again shown that he is out of step with the message of Jesus Christ and the Catholic Church.

Cardinal Burke has aligned himself with radical traditionalists, as he did when endorsing the Roman Forum, a group of Traditionalists who reject Vatican II and the "Novus Ordo" Mass.  He gives interviews to radical traditionalists as he did with Michael Matt of The Remnant Newspaper. Cardinal Burke has been unceasing in both direct and indirect criticism of Pope Francis.  He is one of the four cardinals to publicly call out Pope Francis about the teaching on marriage, demanding answers to questions for which, as he admitted to Michael Matt, he already knows the answers, proving that his intent was clearly to trap Pope Francis, just as the Pharisees posed questions to Christ merely as entrapment.

Conservative Catholics Motto: Save the Ship, Damn the People

I recently did a post [HERE] on the article from La Civiltà Cattolica entitled, "EVANGELICAL FUNDAMENTALISM AND CATHOLIC INTEGRALISM: A SURPRISING ECUMENISM" written by Antonio Spadaro and Marcelo Figueroa.  As I wrote, this article outlines the danger arising from an ideological movement in which some Catholics and evangelical Protestants have joined together to fight our evil culture.  I discussed the main points of this article in my post and showed that the authors of this article are in complete agreement with the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

However, I am in a tiny, tiny minority of those who agree with the article. The Catholic Internet has attacked this article with no holds barred, mostly responding with invective, accusations of heresy and accusing Spadaro and Figuerora of ignorance of American Culture.

The Religious Right: Servant of the Devil?

It has taken my entire life, but I have finally come to understand that we cannot judge people by only their words or actions.  People can do all the "right" things but for all the "wrong" reasons.  In order to fully understand where people are coming from, we need to know what is motivating them.  And our Lord says there should actually be only one overriding motive in our lives:  love.  Specifically, Love of God and love of neighbor.  Any other motivation - power, prestige, money, security, etc. - is of the devil.  As St. Paul tells us, unless we love, nothing we do has any real meaning (I Corinthians 13).

This is why Our Lord warned us that people can think they doing God a service when they kill others.  And sometimes we can "kill" others without even physically harming them.

That is basically the theme of an article in La Civiltà Cattolica entitled, "EVANGELICAL FUNDAMENTALISM AND CATHOLIC INTEGRALISM: A SURPRISING ECUMENISM" written by Antonio Spadaro and Marcelo Figueroa.  This point of this article is the danger arising from an ideological movement of some Catholics and evangelical Protestants joining together to fight our evil culture, specifically against such evils as abortion and same sex marriage.  This movement sees politics as the savior of the world:  if we can just get the right people into public office and then get the right people on the Supreme Court, then our society can be saved from the evil, godless Left.

Traditionalists Attack Summorum Pontificum

Any traditionalist reading the title of this post will definitely accuse me of losing my mind. Traditionalists feel that Summorum Pontificum - which opened up the Traditional Latin Mass to the entire Church - was probably the most important and significant document in the last 50 years. They would never attack it! And yet, that is exactly what they do.

How to Be Right Yet Be So Wrong

I have written rather extensively on the controversy surrounding Father James Martin and his book, "Building a Bridge: How the Catholic Church and the LGBT Community Can Enter into a Relationship of Respect, Compassion, and Sensitivity".  I am always in favor of reaching out to people and trying to bring them to Jesus Christ, and I saw Father Martin's book as just this.  As I have written, I have no personal stake in this argument, other than wanting to spread the Gospel of Jesus Christ to as many people as possible.

Most of the blog posts and articles I have read condemn Father Martin for his approach.  People feel that Father Martin fails to state the sinfulness of homosexual acts and that completely negates anything else he has to say.  People seem to feel that reaching out to homosexuals must always be accompanied by clear and unambiguous condemnation of homosexual sex.

When No One Makes Sense, Turn to Jesus

There is no one to lean on apart from Jesus.  He alone faileth not, and it is exceeding joy to think that He can never change.

St. Therese of Lisieux

The world has never been a truly sane place since the time Adam and Eve first bit into the apple, but our present world has taken this insanity to a whole new level.  As it says at the top of my blog, I am a Catholic searching for truth in a world gone mad, and more often that not, my quest for truth among human beings has not been successful.

Everyone is convinced of his or her own hold on the truth, and anyone who doesn't agree is either stupid or evil or both, and therefore must be opposed and ultimately crushed.  The Internet has caused even more polarization in our world because people can now hide under the cover of anonymity and attack and demonize each other without even revealing who they are.  And the attacks are vicious.

The Lord Hears The Cry of the Poor

When I woke up today, the first thing I saw on the news was that we could very possibly enter into a war with North Korea, and this could very well involve nuclear weapons:

The top American general in South Korea said Wednesday that self-restraint was all that kept the United States and South Korea from going to war with North Korea, as the South’s defense minister indicated that the North’s first intercontinental ballistic missile had the potential to reach Hawaii.  

News like this does not exactly put a bounce in my step. Our world lives on the edge, and we never know when it is going to tip so far over there is no going back. But for those who trust in the Lord, who have experienced the peace that surpasses all understanding which comes from being the recipient of His great love and mercy, even news of a potential nuclear war does not disturb our inner peace.

Preaching At People Will Never Convert Anyone

I try to do a fair amount of spiritual reading (not near as much as I probably should), mostly writings of the saints, in a quest to understand how people become saints.  Pope Francis has said saints are ordinary people who followed God “with all their heart.”  In a sermon given on the Feast of All Saints, November 1, 2013, Pope Francis said:

They are like us, they are like each of us, they are people who before reaching the glory of heaven lived a normal life, with joys and griefs, struggles and hopes.

So what drove them to rise above being an ordinary person like me to become a saint?  From Pope Francis:

[T]hey recognized the love of God, they followed him with all their heart, without conditions and hypocrisies. 

Is Anything Too Marvelous For The LORD To Do?

I believe one of the greatest sins we can commit is to limit God. What does that mean? To limit God is to believe that God thinks and views reality as you do. It is to believe that you, despite being a sinful, fallen human being, have the mind of God, and therefore, your views and opinions are on a par with the Mind of God. If you believe something is wrong, then it is wrong, If you believe something is right, then it is right. If you believe something can't be done, then it can't be done. Limiting God actually breaks the First Commandment - have no other gods before me - because you are making yourself into God.

Limiting God is the exact opposite of faith. Those who limit God say this is what God thinks and this is what God does, no more and no less. Faith says God is so far beyond my comprehension that I can't begin to fathom how He thinks. Faith says I am a sinner with a twisted, distorted and microscopically small view of reality. I am like an ant crawling on the ground with an ant's view of the world and the universe. An ant believes the only way to do things is the way he does them, by crawling around on the ground. Likewise, one who limits God, i.e. a faithless person, believes his way is the only way. If something doesn't fit into his understanding, then it can't be done. End of discussion.

Saints Peter and Paul: The Greatest Sinners Become the Greatest Saints

Today is a great solemnity in the Church - the feast day of Saints Peter and Paul.  St. Peter was our first pope, and St. Paul was a Jewish convert who is arguably considered to be our greatest evangelizer.  Both of these men were very flawed in very different ways.  St. Peter was an impetuous, act-first-think-later boastful man who literally betrayed Our Lord at the time of his crucifixion.  St. Paul was a Jewish zealot who took part in the murder of many Christians.

St. Paul labeled himself as the "worst sinner": I Tim 1:15 - "Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners—of whom I am the worst." I Cor 15:9 - "For I am the least of the apostles and do not even deserve to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God."  St Peter wept bitterly for his sins, and at one point declared to Our Lord:  "Go away from me, Lord; I am a sinful man!" (Luke 5:8).

And yet these two great sinners are considered among the greatest saints in history.  How does that happen?

The stories of Saints Peter and Paul and, in fact, of all saints, is the story of God's mercy, forgiveness and grace. God picks each one of us up out of the dirt and makes us into a new creation that we could have never fathomed. This is why we can never judge one another. If you had been a fly on the wall watching the antics of St. Peter during Christ's earthly ministry and his actual betrayal of Jesus, you would have never thought for one moment that Our Lord would choose him to be the earthly foundation of the Church. If you had seen the zealot known as Saul of Tarsus and witnessed his great hatred and persecution of the early Church, it would have been inconceivable to think he would be the greatest evangelizer of the Gospel.

Today's feast day reminds me that we must try to stop limiting God. God never acts in ways that we would choose. He never chooses the people that we would choose. He never brings people to conversion in the way that we think is appropriate. As Pope Francis has said, God is a God of surprises.

As Christians, as followers of Jesus Christ, we make big mistakes if we think we know the mind of God.  And the beauty of following Jesus Christ is that He doesn't ask us to anticipate what He is going to do.  He just asks us to trust him, and then counts that as righteousness on our part.  The first reading from yesterday's Mass is a great illustration of this fact.  It was the story of God's promise to Abram that he would have more descendants than stars in the sky.  There was just one problem:  Abram did not have any children, and his wife was long past child bearing age.  But what was Abram's reaction:  "Abram put his faith in the LORD, who credited it to him as an act of righteousness."

Today's feast day of Saints Peter and Paul should be a reminder to all of us that those whom we consider the greatest sinners, the biggest reprobates who, we feel should be wiped from the earth, may just be fated to be among the greatest saints in heaven.

Taking Up *Causes* Can Be Dangerous to Your Spiritual Health

We live in a world with many wrongs that need to be righted.  That is another way of saying, we are fallen human beings living in a fallen world.  Many people will devote a large part of their lives, or even their entire lives, in working for a cause,

An amazing example of someone who gave his life for a cause was Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.  Dr. King lived in a world in which people of color were treated, at best, as second class citizens.  They were denied simple human rights, such as housing, voting, education, etc. that white people took for granted.  Dr. King knew he was going to more than likely have to die for his cause, but he was still willing to do so in order to stop the oppression and hate that he witnessed and experienced as a black man in America.

Meditation For the Day: God Draws Us With Love

There was an excellent meditation in today's Magnificat magazine which explained, in clear and simple language, God's way of salvation, gradually bringing those trapped by sin to repentance and acceptance of Divine love and mercy.  It was from a Jewish convert named Ronda Chervin, Below is a screen shot of this meditation.  

DAY BY DAY

Do Not Be Afraid

Christ gives himself to his people gradually. He knows that they have the rebellious divided spirit of adolescents—full of longing for genuine love, yet plagued with disappointment, despair, and doubt. He treats them somewhat like an older and experienced man might win the confidence of a wild young girl. Slowly Christ gathers them to himself by the magnetic attraction of his grace. He wins them by deeds of love, healing them of their miseries, curing their lepers, exorcising their demons. Only when he sees that they are ready does he begin to reveal more intimate mysteries of his love, such as his desire to become one body with his followers and the eventual unity they will achieve with him in eternity.

He knows that many of their ways are unloving, but instead of reproaching them directly, he begins by telling them parables, letting them discover for themselves how far short their own lives are from the new ideal.

Gradually his disciples begin to respond to Christ’s self-giving.

Ronda Chervin

Ronda Chervin is a convert from Judaism, professor of philosophy and theology, and author of over fifty books.

Father Z and the Catholic Blogosphere Proudly Proclaim Their Righteousness

The Catholic blogsophere, as I have previously written, does not like Father James Martin.  They write scathing posts against him because he refuses to condemn homosexuals.

Father John Zuhlsdorf has written against Father Martin for several years, and has recently ramped up his condemnation because of a statement by Father Martin that "pretty much everyone's lifestyle is sinful."  Father Martin made this statement in an interview with the New York Times, which you can read HERE.  The "offensive" statement, in context, reads:

In [Father Martin's book, “Building a Bridge: How the Catholic Church and the L.G.B.T. Community Can Enter Into a Relationship of Respect, Compassion and Sensitivity.”], he calls on church leaders to show respect by using terms like “gay” and “L.G.B.T.,” instead of phrases like “afflicted with same-sex attraction.” He also argues that to expect a sinless lifestyle from gay Catholics, but not from any other group, is a form of “unjust discrimination” and that gay people should not be fired for marrying a same-sex spouse.

“Pretty much everyone’s lifestyle is sinful,” Father Martin said. “Unless the Blessed Mother shows up in the communion line, there is no one sinless in our church.”

This was a bridge too far [pun intended] for Father Z.  In a post entitled, "More of Fr James Martin’s whining", Father Z linked to a tweet by Prof. Chad Pecknold, which Father Z feels "pretty much sums it up about this Jesuit".  Here is a screenshot of Pecknold's tweet:

Father James Martin Has It Right

Those of us who are the recipients of God's amazing love, mercy and forgiveness have been given an important mission: to spread that same love, mercy and forgiveness to others. God didn't bring His Grace into our lives so that we can keep it for ourselves and among our own little community. Whatever we have received from Our Lord must be passed on to others, especially to those "most in need", or that Divine Love which saved us from our sins will actually destroy us in the end.

St. Paul told us that unless we love, nothing we do has any worth.   St. Thérèse of Lisieux, a great saint and doctor of the Church, in searching for the purpose of her life, stated, "At last I have found my vocation. In the heart of the Church, I will be Love!" St. Teresa of Calcutta told us, "Love each other as God loves each one of you, with an intense and particular love. Be kind to each other: It is better to commit faults with gentleness than to work miracles with unkindness."  St. John of the Cross said, "In the evening of life, we will be judged on love alone."

Almost everyone who calls himself Christian will agree that we are commanded to love one another. The problem is that we don't all agree on what this actually means. Some people feel that love means standing in judgment of others, showing them their sins (as we see it), and demanding that they change and become like us.  But is this the way Jesus Christ approached people?

What The Hell Is Wrong With The Catholic Blogosphere?

As I have written in earlier posts, I have come to the point of pretty much ignoring the Catholic blogosphere. This is despite the fact that many Catholic bloggers don't identify themselves only as Catholic. They call themselves the most loyal of Catholics. In fact, many of them believe they are the only real Catholics left. All of those "other people" occupying the seats in the Church are fake and don't know the first thing about what it means to be a REAL Catholic. In the eyes of many Catholic bloggers, all of those "other people" are great sinners headed to hell.

Catholic bloggers always seem to be on the attack.  It is difficult to find positive posts from Catholic bloggers.  Every so often a positive post pops us, but there is almost always a message in there implying how on track and one with God the blogger is and how off track and headed to hell the rest of the world is.  

Without This, Nothing Else Matters

As I wrote a couple of days ago, I am re-reading the autobiography of St. Thérèse of Lisieux. It is a magnificent book by a great saint and doctor of the Church. One recurring theme in the book is St. Thérèse's complete and total reliance on God to do everything for her. She saw herself, apart from God, as a hopeless sinner, and recognized her utter helplessness to do anything good on her own. And this is coming from someone who never committed one mortal sin in her 24 years on earth.

Ascension Thursday: Jesus Takes Humanity to Heaven

I love the Holy Days. They are reminders of the salvation offered to us by our Creator, salvation which we have neither earned nor deserve. We were all hopelessly trapped in our sins, and instead of abandoning us, the Second Person of the Trinity literally took on our human mortality to become one of us and died to bring us life.

Today, we here in the Northeast United States are celebrating Ascension Thursday, the feast in which we remember the day Jesus Christ ascended to heaven in his glorified human body to sit at the right hand of His Father, where He is constantly interceding and preparing a place for us next to Him.

The Little Way Of Love

I recently started to re-read Saint Thérèse of Lisieux's autobiography, "Story of a Soul." I love this book for so many reasons. This great saint's theology is as profound as any that of any other saint in Church history, and at the same time this Doctor of the Church writes with utter simplicity and clarity. One of the main reasons I love her book is that, like her namesake, St. Teresa of Avila, she allows the reader to get completely into her mind and see life exactly as she saw it. She hides nothing. She allows us to see all of her inner struggles and fears. There were two goals in St. Thérèse's writings: to glorify God and to bring salvation to others.

Preaching the Gospel Does NOT Mean Proselytizing

Right before He ascended to heaven, Jesus Christ gave us what is now called the "Great Commission", as found in Matthew 28:19-20:

Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.

That seems pretty straightforward - we are commanded to proclaim salvation through Jesus Christ throughout all the world.  And certainly the Church has been engaged in that mission from the time of her inception in the First Century.  Many have paid the ultimate price in preaching the Gospel, starting with Our Lord.

However, Pope Francis has told us on more than one occasion that proselytizing doesn't work.  He has called it "nonsense."

Of course, Pope Francis has been roundly condemned by many on the Catholic internet for this statement. Many have interpreted the Holy Father's statement as a rejection of Christ's command to preach the Gospel. But is that what he is saying? Is the Holy Father telling us to reject the clear command of Matthew 28?

Why The Catholic Blogososphere Wishes Me Into the Cornfield

I am pretty much a pariah in the Catholic blogosphere. I just don't fit in with the rest of the "gang."  I have been condemned on more than one catholic blog.  And it all comes down to a very specific reason.

As I have posted in the past, most catholic blogs could be written by the same person because they all say the same thing. Most Catholic bloggers, it seems, have the philosophy that ever since Vatican II, the world and the Church have been pretty much headed to hell in a handbasket, and right now, Pope Francis and all of his cronies are leading the way to hell. These bloggers tell us that Pope Francis is basically a heretic with all of his "phony" preaching about "mercy".

This is in direct contrast to the Catholic Church which all of these bloggers profess to love. Pope Francis, like Blessed Pope Paul VI, Pope St. Paul II, and Pope Benedict, is merely following the lead of Pope St. John XXIII. This was beautifully expressed in his opening message to the Second Vatican Council, which signaled a major change in the way the Church would be approaching the rest of the world:

The Real Cause of the Crisis In the Church

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Why are there so many fallen away Catholics? Why have people stopped attending Mass? When I was a kid back in the 60's, we would have Sunday Mass starting at 6:00 a.m. and every hour to hour and a half until 12:00. And the Masses were packed. The later Masses were standing room only. There was five to six priests on average for each parish. There was Catholic schools packed with teaching nuns and up to 50 kids in every class.

The faith sure seemed more vibrant 50 to 60 years ago. But was it really? What was really driving these Catholics?

Giving Our All To Mary (And Receiving Her All In Return)

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Life is hard. It seems like everything is a struggle. We struggle with our families and friends, we struggle at our jobs or even finding a job, we struggle with our weight, we struggle with our finances, we struggle with our health, we struggle with our fear of impending doom in the world, etc., etc., etc., In short, we struggle with life! We have moments of pleasure here and there, but for the most part, everything is an uphill climb and just when we seem to get to the top, another huge mountain is staring back at us.

Life is even harder when you try to live as a follower of Jesus Christ.  Christians have always been out of step with the world, but in our contemporary times, Christians are more at odds with the world than ever before.  In the past, for the most part, even though non-Christians didn't share Christian belief in obeying and serving God, they still more or less accepted, at least on a superficial level, Christian morality regarding sexual ethics, respect for life, respect for other human beings, etc. 

Mary: The Surest and Safest Way to Jesus

As I have previously written, most of my life has been one bad decision after another. This rocky road started for me when I was 14 years old and decided to leave the Catholic Church. It was all downhill from there. Since that first wrong turn, so many decades ago, there have been only two decisions in my life that have withstood the test of time: marrying my husband, and returning to the Catholic Church. As I have also written, even upon returning to the Church, I still made very bad decisions which took me in very wrong directions.

I have finally come to the conclusion that I can't trust myself. The theme of my life can be summed up by Proverbs 14:12: "There is a way that seems right to a person, but its end is the way that leads to death." I have also recently come to see, more clearly than ever, just how sinful and evil I really am. My sins completely distort my view of God and His Will.

Getting good counsel, reading all the right things, going to Mass every day, receiving the Sacraments - in other words, doing all the right things, still brings me up short because, even with the great, limitless mercy of God, a lifetime of sins has left me a spiritual cripple. I can keep going as I am, but my spiritual progress is long and slow as I fight my greatest enemy: myself.

Heaven: It's Yours to Lose

Catholics and the majority of Protestants agree that the end result of salvation is eternity in the presence of the Holy Trinity.  However, our beliefs regarding the path to salvation could not be more different.

It would first help to understand why Protestants and Catholics - who both believe in Jesus Christ, His Redemptive Sacrifice and His written word, the Bible - have very different doctrines. The reason for the disagreement in doctrine comes down to authority. Catholics look to the Magesterium - the Pope and Bishops - for their teaching authority. The only authority outside of themselves that Protestants will listen to is the Bible.

But there is a big problem with the Protestant approach to the Bible because Protestants basically believe that each man is his own authority when it comes to Biblical interpretation.  Protestants would never understand the Ethiopian described in Acts 8. The Ethiopian was reading scripture when the evangelist Philip said to him "Do you understand what you are reading?" The Ethiopian replied, "How can I unless someone explains it to me?"

Why Lent?

We are about to enter into the holiest time of the Catholic year:  Lent.  But what makes it such a holy time?

Most people view Lent as basically a time to give up something that you really like, such as chocolate or alcohol.  The Internet abounds with ideas for Lent, some pretty silly, and other more serious ideas. There is even a website entitled, whattogiveupforlent.com.  It has some interesting ideas on what to give up for Lent, e.g.:

• Television (or certain shows)
• The radio (all the time, certain time of day, etc.)
• Favorite foods (pizza, ice cream, etc.)
• Eating out
• Alcohol
• Soft drinks/caffeine/coffee
• Smoking
• Clutter
• Debt (using credit cards)
• Certain books/magazines (read ones that will help you grow spiritually)
• Social Media sites (Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, etc.)
• Computer use/blogging

Is the Catholic Church in Schism?

Today, as I write this, is the Feast of the Chair of St. Peter.  At the Mass I attended today, it would seem the presiding priest did not want to celebrate this feast day.  He wore green, when he should have worn white, he did not say the Gloria, he did not say any of the prayers or the Preface assigned to this Feast Day.  His homily was about all of us proclaiming Christ as Peter did, and nothing about giving the Keys of the Kingdom to Peter.

I asked the priest about his actions after Mass, and he kind of gave me a go around with no real answer.  I wonder how many other Catholics reject this day.  It seems a sizeable number of Catholics today refuse to accept the meaning of this feast day in which we celebrate the fact that Christ chose St. Peter and his successors to sit in His place as the earthly leader of the Church, embodied in that famous pronouncement, "whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven" (Matthew 18:18).

Donald Trump Makes Me Ashamed of My Country

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Donald Trump has signed Executive Order after Executive Order in his first week as president, and has now created chaos around the globe.  His latest EO was to effectively ban all Muslim refugees into the US.  From The New York Times:

President Trump’s executive order on immigration quickly reverberated through the United States and across the globe on Saturday, slamming the border shut for an Iranian scientist headed to a lab in Boston, an Iraqi who had worked as an interpreter for the United States Army, and a Syrian refugee family headed to a new life in Ohio, among countless others.

Around the nation, security officers at major international gateways had new rules to follow. Humanitarian organizations scrambled to cancel long-planned programs, delivering the bad news to families who were about to travel. Refugees who were airborne on flights when the order was signed were detained at airports.

Reports rapidly surfaced Saturday morning of students attending American universities who were blocked from getting back into the United States from visits abroad. One student said in a Twitter post that he would be unable to study at Yale. Another who attends the Massachusetts Institute of Technology was refused permission to board a plane. Stanford University was reportedly working to help a Sudanese student return to California.

This is a complete nightmare.  The United States, a country founded by immigrants, has closed its doors to those who need us most.  Almost everyday I see the Statue of Liberty in the New York Harbor on my way to work, welcoming those who come to our shores.  Now I feel that Donald Trump has, in essence, destroyed this beautiful statue, rendering her completely meaningless.

Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free -- NOT!!

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Last weekend we saw millions of people around the world protesting the Donald Trump presidency, demanding that the voices of all people be heard.  Of course, these are the same people who feel abortion on demand is a human right.  Obviously unborn children are completely disposable in their eyes, which proves the hypocrisy and cognitive dissonance of their movement.

Daily Meditation: The Miracle of Conversion

Today is the Feast of the Conversion of St. Paul.  It is a miracle any time a sinner turns away from his sins and accepts the grace and salvation of Jesus Christ.  But one of the greatest conversion stories in history - and probably the greatest conversion story of all - is that of Saul of Tarsus a/k/a St. Paul.  It is so great that Holy Mother Church has actually made a feast day commemorating Paul's conversion.

Daily Meditation: Bringing Light to a Darkened World

Today's readings mirror, in many ways, the re-creation of the world.  In Genesis 1, we are told that the first creation of God was light:

Genesis 1:1-4:

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.

And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. God saw that the light was good, and he separated the light from the darkness.

Just as God's first act of physical creation was to bring light to a darkened world, so in bringing us to eternal redemption, the first thing Our Lord does is bring light into our darkened lives.  

Daily Meditation: Playing The Fool For Christ

We are made to be social creatures. We all want to belong, we all want to be regarded highly by other people. We all want to be "cool". When I was a child in the 1960's, it was "cool" to be counterculture, to reject the values of our parents and society in general and find our "own way", and "do our own thing", which actually boiled down to throwing off all moral constraint. But "doing your own thing" really meant following everyone around you. We tried to pretend we didn't need others, but in reality, we could not reject our own need for social acceptance.