Monthly Archives: February 2009

Speaking from the Fourth Century

by

Hate for you to miss this.   The writer says that we are  led invisibly in our hearts by grace.  That’s comforting to me because when I feel now one way and then soon the other, I feel tossed about and ungrounded as though I’ve lost my spiritual moorings.

From a homily by a spiritual writer of the fourth century:

At times they are like men who mourn and lament over their fellow men, and pouring forth prayers for the whole human race, they plunge into tears and lamentation, on fire with spiritual love for mankind.

At other times they are enkindled by the Spirit with such love and exultation that, were it possible, they would clasp in their embrace all mankind, without discrimination, good and bad alike.

Sometimes they are cast down below all mankind in lowliness of spirit, so that they reckon theirs to be the lowest and most abject of conditions.

And sometimes they are held by the Spirit in ineffable joy.

At one time they are like a brave man who puts on the king’s full armor and goes down into battle. He fights bravely against the enemy and defeats them. In like manner, the spiritual man takes up the heavenly arms of the Spirit and marches against the enemy and engaging in battle tramples the foe beneath his feet.

At another time the soul is at rest in deepest silence, tranquility and peace, existing in sheer spiritual pleasure and in ineffable repose and a perfect state.  Again, the soul is instructed by grace in a certain understanding in the ineffable wisdom and the inscrutable knowledge of the Spirit on matters which neither tongue nor lips can utter.

Then again, the soul becomes like any ordinary man.

In such varied ways does grace work within them and many are the means by which it leads the soul, renewing it according to God’s will and training it in different ways so that it may be set before the heavenly Father pure and whole and blameless.

We, too, therefore must make our prayer to God and entreat in love and in great hope that he may bestow upon us the heavenly grace of the gift of the Spirit.

Remembering

by

Paul Miki and Companions, Martyrs

You shall be my witnesses
The crosses were set in place. Father Pasio and Father Rodriguez took turns encouraging the victims. Their steadfast behavior was wonderful to see. The Father Bursar stood motionless, his eyes turned heavenward. Brother Martin gave thanks to God’s goodness by singing psalms. Again and again he repeated: “Into your hands, Lord, I entrust my life.” Brother Francis Branco also thanked God in a loud voice. Brother Gonsalvo in a very loud voice kept saying the Our Father and Hail Mary.
Our brother, Paul Miki, saw himself standing now in the noblest pulpit he had ever filled. To his “congregation” he began by proclaiming himself a Japanese and a Jesuit. He was dying for the Gospel he preached. He gave thanks to God for this wonderful blessing and he ended his “sermon” with these words: “As I come to this supreme moment of my life, I am sure none of you would suppose I want to deceive you. And so I tell you plainly: there is no way to be saved except the Christian way. My religion teaches me to pardon my enemies and all who have offended me. I do gladly pardon the Emperor and all who have sought my death. I beg them to seek baptism and be Christians themselves.”
Then he looked at his comrades and began to encourage them in their final struggle. Joy glowed in all their faces, and in Louis’ most of all. When a Christian in the crowd cried out to him that he would soon be in heaven, his hands, his whole body strained upward with such joy that every eye was fixed on him.
Anthony, hanging at Louis’ side, looked toward heaven and called upon the holy names – “Jesus, Mary!” He began to sing a psalm: “Praise the Lord, you children!” (He learned it in catechism class in Nagasaki. They take care there to teach the children some psalms to help them learn their catechism).
Others kept repeating “Jesus, Mary!” Their faces were serene. Some of them even took to urging the people standing by to live worthy Christian lives. In these and other ways they showed their readiness to die.
Then, according to Japanese custom, the four executioners began to unsheathe their spears. At this dreadful sight, all the Christians cried out, “Jesus, Mary!” And the storm of anguished weeping then rose to batter the very skies. The executioners killed them one by one. One thrust of the spear, then a second blow. It was over in a very short time.

Congressional Switchboard: 202-224-3121

by


A number to keep at hand since it does make a difference!

Congressional switchboard: 202-224-3121

A recent Gallup Poll showed that the Mexico City Policy repealed by executive fiat by President Obama is unpopular with approximately 65% of American taxpayers who will be footing the bill for abortions in the third world and made accomplices in the killing of unborn infants worldwide.

You have a choice and the freedom to speak up on behalf of the defenseless whom government is meant to protect.

Tell your senators and congressmen:

  • You want them to codify the Mexico City policy.
  • You want them to deny taxpayer funds to international organizations and agencies that promote or perform abortions overseas so that it will not have to be reconsidered each year during the appropriations process.
  • You do not want to be forced into complicity with abortions through your tax dollars!
  • Our country doesn’t have the right to kill the innocent, here or abroad.

    • William Shakespeare, a Secret Catholic in an Anti-Catholic Age?

    by

    Joseph Pearce in his The Quest for Shakespeare argues convincingly for the Catholicism of  William Shakespeare.  Pearce builds his position with scholarship and logic like a gothic arch;  one pillar rising on biographical evidence and the other from the text of Shakespeare’s  works.

    From The Merchant of Venice, when Portia speaks to Shylock,  Act IV, Scene I:

    The quality of mercy is not strained.
    It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven
    Upon the place beneath.  It is twice blest:
    It blesseth him that gives and him that takes.
    Tis mightiest in the mightiest; it becomes
    The throned monarch better than his crown.
    His scepter shows the force of temporal power,
    The attribute to awe and majesty,
    Wherein doth sit the dread and fear of kings.
    But mercy is above this sceptered sway;
    It is enthroned in the hearts of kings;
    It is an attribute of God himself;
    And earthly power doth then show like God’s
    When mercy seasons justice.

    William Shakespeare
    1600

    Obama Got It Wrong!

    by

    USA Today published the latest Gallup Poll that showed Obama got it wrong.  This man of the people doesn’t yet know the People.  However, to be fair, I think when he signed the executive order to restore U.S. funding to organizations that perform and promote abortion in developing nations by repealing the Mexico City Policy he knew this act was out of step with the American will.  Obama, while he did some things with great fanfare, this sneak-signing was something he chose to do behind closed doors, out of the limelight and at such a time that it was thought in media circles that people wouldn’t notice. Well, he got that wrong too and people are noticing his propensity for rule by fiat and getting it wrong.

    The Gallup Poll showed that only 35% of the polled 1027 people agreed with President Obama’s action.  Hadly, a popular action of necessity!  US taxpayer dollars will promote  and procure abortions in the name of America.  Thank you President Obama!

    From the Office of Readings

    by

    From the treatise On Spiritual Perfection by Diadochus of Photice

    “Therefore, we must maintain great stillness of mind when in the midst of our struggles.  We shall then be able to distinguish between the different types of thoughts that come to us: those that are good, those sent by God, we will treasure in our memory; those that are evil and inspires by the devil we will reject.  A comparison with the sea may help us.  A tranquil sea allows the fisherman to gaze right to its depths.  No fish can hide there and escape his sight.  The stormy sea, however, becomes murky when it is agitated by the winds.  The very depths that it revealed in its placidness, the sea now hides.  The skills of the fisherman are useless.”