JESUS FEEDS THE FIVE THOUSAND

To anyone reading this blog I have considered many times over the past several months to put on the blog some of the inspirations the Holy Spirit has given me. Unfortunately I have not done so.   Myself and my family have been living in the south for just over 2 years. We do love life in the south. There is an easiness to living in a place were most people are not afraid to express their faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. "Bless your heart honey," OR "Thank you Jesus," are very refreshing applications to daily life in the south.

Not everyone but people of all ages embrace the love of Jesus and try to pass it on.   I was concerned at first that we would be in the minority as it relates to Catholics. There are so many Baptist and Evangelical ministries. The churches actually line the streets. Most of the denominations are small but so many.   There are two Catholic churches fairly close to us and two more less that an hour away. Churches relatively new built with the future in mind. Massively huge with schools and big open areas for church projects and over flow Holy Day Masses.   At first I was a bit discouraged missing the older Gothic style churches and Cathedrals of the North.  God is obviously guiding and directing the architectural designers.

On Christmas eve we attended Mass at St. Brendan the Navigator church. Mass at 4 pm. We knew it would be crowded but when we arrived at 3:19 pm we were not prepared for the sea of automobiles already covering the parking lot. Very few spaces left and seating only in the crying room and the open space filled with chairs and two big screen TV's for the overflow which was also filled.   People of all ages children, grandchildren grand parents wheelchairs, canes and oxygen tanks. It was a marvelously joy filled occasion.

As I watched the priest, deacon and Eucharistic ministers move into the crowd to distribute The Body of Christ to the needy people I was brought back to the time when Jesus and His disciples were feeding the five thousand.  What was it like for Jesus to bring His message to thousands of people with out a microphone, cameras, TV screen for those in the way back? The thought of it all and the experience gave me such hope.   I lost my mother in her 90's almost two years ago. My best memories of her in her later years was attending Mass and going to dinner afterwards.  Well even my husband noticed that the lady next to me looked very much like my mother as she leaned on her cane, stretching to see the priest turn bread and water into the Body and Blood of Christ.

This woman got to talking to me about her daughter who takes her to Mass and wants her to live with her. 94 and taking care of herself thank you very much. Only God could plan such a happy reminder of the woman who gave birth to me.  On the other side a family who's oldest  is attending Catholic Kindergarten. She knows every word and song of the Mass. Again such hope.   And now I consider the God of Hope, how does He do such things, putting me exactly in a seat were hope is on either side of me. God is perfect and the Holy Spirit is on the move. Even the blind can see Him if they want to.   The Mass was so perfectly executed that we were out in front of the church at 5:05 PM. The priest was welcoming and to the point, very well organized.   When people say to me, "the church is finished, " or the world is coming to an end I say, "look more closely, think more deeply, who is God really? "  "So much higher are His Ways above our ways and His Thoughts above our thoughts."  ~Isaiah 55: 8-9. 

May 2020 be a year of perfect vision as we look to the God of the Universe to make crooked roads straight.  
~Margaret of Souls for Jesus, OCDS

Our Lady of America, St. Joseph and the Holy Family

                                                                            Dan Lynch December 29, 2019  

Today we celebrate the Feast of the Holy Family. The Holy Family exemplifies God’s design for marriage and the family. His design for marriage and the family is that a man and a woman, husband and wife, unite forever in a marriage that is open to new life through the procreation and education of their children. This marriage bond is faithful, lifelong, exclusive and unchangeable.


God establishes a true marriage bond and so it cannot be dissolved. Untrue marriages may be declared null.    My generation practiced the slogans of, “Don’t listen to anybody over 30” and “If it feels good do it, it’s your choice.” Many people listened to these evil slogans and made evil choices. They allowed lust to rule over chastity and practiced fornication, adultery and contraception, which led to easy no-fault divorce and the abortion and infanticide of innocent children. 
St. John Paul II called our culture a Culture of Death because it embraced and legalized the death of marriage, the death of innocent pre-born children, and the death of the sick and the dying by suicide and the withdrawal of medical care, food and water.  Why should marriage be a stable and lasting union between a man and a woman? Why did God tell Adam to cling to his wife, to form a stable and lasting union with her? Why? Because this is what is best and just for themselves, their children and our society! Although many divorced people are innocent and tried to save a marriage with an unwilling spouse, many did not. 

Children need and deserve a stable and lasting union of their father and mother and the complementary influence of the two different sexes. This is what is natural, self-evident, sensible and best, sociologically and psychologically, for the proper development of children. We should know this from simple human reason and common sense.  Marriage and family are in great crisis due to the willful and sinful habits of the vast majority of adults in our culture regarding sexuality, marriage, and family life.
The rebellion of adults against the design of God has caused endless grief and hardship.  Many children are conceived of fornication and adultery. Tragically, most of these children are outright murdered by abortion. 85% of abortions are performed on unmarried women. Abortion rates skyrocketed with the availability of contraception, which opened the doors to lust, promiscuity, fornication, and adultery. 40% of all 2012 births were out-of-wedlock, over 50% of unborn children are aborted and over 50% of marriages end in divorce. 

God’s plan is that indissoluble marriage be the foundation of the family, which is the basic unit of society. The family has its origin in that same love with which the Creator embraces the created world. Jesus entered into human history through the family. He fully discloses man to himself beginning with the family in which He chose to be born and to grow up. Jesus appeals to “the beginning,” seeing at the very origins of creation God’s plan, on which the family is based, and, through the family, the entire history of humanity.

 St. John Paul II, in a homily given in Australia 29 years ago, said, "As the family goes, so goes the nation, and so goes the whole world in which we live. With regard to the family, society urgently needs to recover an awareness of the primacy of moral values, which are the values of the human person as such thus recapturing the ultimate meaning of life and its fundamental values."  Our Lady of America and St. Joseph gave the visionary Sister Mildred several messages concerning the family. She said that it was made known to her interiorly that her mission was to converge towards the sanctification of the family.

On November 8, 1954, Our Lady spoke to her in these words: It is the wish of my Son that fathers and mothers strive to imitate me and my chaste spouse in our holy life at Nazareth. We practiced the simple virtues of family life, Jesus our Son being the center of all our love and activity. The Holy Trinity dwelt with us in a manner far surpassing anything that can ever be imagined. For ours was the earthly paradise where once again God walked among men. 

As in our little home no sin was to be found, so it is the wish of the Heart of my Son and my Immaculate Heart that sin should, as far as possible, be unheard of in the homes of our children. The Divine Trinity will dwell in your midst only if you are faithful in practicing the virtues of our life at Nazareth. Then, you also, my children, you also will become another paradise. God will then walk among you and you will have peace. On the eve of his own feast, March 19, 1958, St. Joseph made his own appearance to Sister Mildred and proclaimed the unique privilege that was bestowed on him as the Virgin-Father of Jesus.

He said that all fatherhood is blest in his fatherhood. He asked that our family life be modeled on that of the Holy Family, with Jesus at the center of all its activity. He wants us to teach our children well. He said:   Dear child, I was king in the little home of Nazareth, for I sheltered within it the Prince of Peace and the Queen of Heaven. To me they looked for protection and sustenance, and I did not fail them. I received from them the deepest love and reverence, for in me they saw Him whose place I took over them. So the head of the family must be loved, obeyed, and respected, and in return be a true father and protector to those under his care. In honoring in a special way my fatherhood, you also honor Jesus and Mary.

The Divine Trinity has placed into our keeping the peace of the world.  The imitation of the Holy Family, my child, of the virtues we practiced in our little home at Nazareth is the way for all souls to that peace which comes from God alone and which none other can give. On March 30, St. Joseph again appeared and declared himself the protector of the Church and the home. He stated that Jesus and Mary desired that his pure heart, so long hidden and unknown, be now honored in a special way.

He asked that we honor him on the First Wednesday of every month and pray the Joyful mysteries of the Rosary in memory of his life with Jesus and Mary. St. Joseph confirmed his enormous role in God’s plan of salvation, shared with his holy Spouse, the Mother of Jesus. (Diary 26-31).  One way of honoring St. Joseph’s request to model our family life on that of the Holy Family is to pray as a family. Our Lady told Sister Mildred that “making the Rosary a family prayer is very pleasing to me. I ask that all families strive to do so.” (Diary 21). She also promised her protection to the family that honors her. Sister said that “. . . Our Lady also requested a picture or statue of herself as she appeared [as Our Lady of America] . . . to be honored and venerated in every Christian home.” (Diary 26).  

The Mystery of the Church in Advent

Advent is a season for us to rediscover the mystery of the Church. She is the Bride who awaits the Bridegroom with eager anticipation. The shining glow of a secret joy glistens in her eyes. To glimpse her fierce majesty is to be drawn into her invincible dynamism.  For she awakens a longing that nothing can overcome and in the deepest center of the heart, brings to birth a new certitude.
The Bride knows, in a way that no one else can know, the truth and goodness that the Bridegroom imparts, and each new gift that he gives makes her yearn for Him all the more. Conversely, without the Church, we are deprived of the passion that the Christian faith demands. We can only strain for what lies ahead as we learn to see the goodness of the life that He has given us now. The life of the Church spans the “here and now” with an eternity of new beginnings so that as she journeys, He makes all things new.
His Bride knows more than any other with what unsearchable riches He floods the heart. If she teaches us to fast and to renounce otherwise good things, it is only so that we will be hungry and open for better things. Of all things, knowledge of Christ is best of all. It is a knowledge that suffers His obedience in the whole of one’s entire being, even into its deepest abyss. If this excelling knowledge becomes too much to hold in and one suddenly needs to surrender and let it flow out, it is because those who draw close to her mystery are overtaken by the same joy and heartache to which the Bride of Christ too has surrendered. When we allow it, what flows out can change the world.
Conversely, disobedience to God obscures our vision of the beauty of the Bride even to the point that all sight of her radiance is lost. In the face of the gross mediocrity of her shepherds or else the cold hypocrisy of her members, it is possible for the soul to fall into a kind of spiritual shock that closes the eyes of the heart. Under this blinding spell, one might still practice many different kinds of piety, but does so–at least, to some extent–extra ecclesia, outside the Great Mystery, or at least only on its outskirts. In a certain way, all of us, to the extent we are not obedient to Christ, allow ourselves to be subject to this spiritual blindness. Only through embracing the obedience of the Bride in our own lives do we see the Church the way Risen One sees her.
Not ever to see what the Lord sees can only be the greatest tragedy in this short life of ours. This vision of the Bridegroom–that loving gaze that sees possibilities that eyes still subject to death cannot see–sees the truth of His Mystical Body. What He sees delights Him to the point that nothing could ever overshadow the joy that He has in the Bride given to Him by the Father. If only we will allow Christ to show us the truth about his Bride, if only we will enter into the mystery of obedience that he lays open for humanity, that very joy that He shares with her becomes ours too.
At a time when hope is tested and the bonds of friendship are often forsaken, we need this joy–that joy that Christ and His Bride share together. This is the joy of faithful love–and all faithful love that is good and true is as an icon of this great love the Christ brings into the world. Loneliness and alienation are not the last word of our lives– an uncommon love awaits us if we give Him space in our lives to reveal it.
If someone has left the Church, ask Christ to show you His Bride anew. He does not wish to hide what He came to raise up with Him for eternity. Instead, He yearns that we might share in this sacred mystery – the flashpoint of holy humanity joined in communion with Him.  Advent declares that fullness of life awaits those who will walk with this Virgin, Bride and Mother, and learn to see with her eyes the Risen One who comes for her.
Glorious Mirror of that Dawning Splendor
Living Witness of yet to be seen Brightness
Shadowed power magnified terrible and tender
In that heart pounding gaze
Of Him who comes.
Across every distance and through each age
On the Wind of ageless processions
Into the bosom of Threefold Oneness
Those deep currents surging
Towards Him who comes.
She steps through those meaning filled silences
Of hearts given, suffering
Unfamiliar tensions, resolved
Only in what secret harmonies find,
fasting, kindliness and truth’s trials,
For His Bride. He cries:
Come Beloved, bathed in My Blood
Rise up immaculate and free,
Loving you first, I surrendered to your love
Until whosoever joins your journey Advent,
Comes to Me, and, with each new maranatha, I come.

The Veil Removed

DO NOT JUDGE, INVITE PEOPLE INTO THE MASS.

The Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe December 12, 2019

“I am the merciful Mother of all mankind.  Am I not your hope?” Our Lady of Guadalupe to St. Juan Diego Dear Friend of Our Lady of Guadalupe,  In contrast to the Culture of Death with its loss of life and hope, St. John Paul II called Our Lady of Guadalupe the Mother of Hope and the Mother and Evangelizer of America. He went on to say, “Now is the time of the New Evangelization to lead the People of God in America to cross the threshold of the third millennium with renewed hope.” Our culture is in darkness, but we know that God’s grace and light pierce the darkness of sin to bring life and hope through the intercession of Our Lady of Guadalupe. As we celebrate the end of our 28th year of Visitations of the Missionary Image of Our Lady of Guadalupe, we continue to see that Our Lady of Guadalupe brings us hope!   Missionary Image Manifests Holy Glitter!                                                                        Missionary Image Guardian Maria Egerton called it the best Christmas gift from Our Lady of Guadalupe! In 2016, Maria hosted a Visitation of the Missionary Image of Our Lady of Guadalupe in the Jensen Beach, Florida area. The Missionary Image has traveled on Visitations for the last 28 years to bring conversions and a Culture of Life and Civilization of Love, for which St. John Paul II prayed. Learn more about hosting a Visitation on our website HERE. Maria reported that on the day before the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe, December 11, in a private home, the Image oozed oil and manifested shining glitter on a spot on Our Lady’s forehead. The venerators of the Image marveled at the phenomena and made such comments as, “That is so beautiful! Mother Mary is happy. It’s like a light; it’s flashing; it reminds me of the stars; like a diamond; sparkling. Thank you Blessed Mother. Big glitter shining. She loves us. Blessed Mother is alive and she is here and blessing you and is happy.” St. John Paul II named Our Lady of Guadalupe the Mother of Hope. Hope is the confident expectation of divine blessings. Our Lady of Guadalupe told St. Juan Diego, "Am I not your hope? I am the mother of all those who have confidence in me and I will offer all my love, my compassion and my powerful help and protection for the people." As we approach the Feast of the Holy Innocents, we remember the first martyrs for Jesus Christ. They were the babies under two years of age in Bethlehem whom were killed by the raging hatred of King Herod who wanted to prevent a prophesied Bethlehem baby from becoming a rival King. We also remember the unborn victims of abortion and the many manifestations from the Missionary Image of heartbeats and kickings of an unborn child. Some of these heartbeats have been confirmed by medical personnel listening with stethoscopes. In their reverential devotion, many of the faithful touch and kiss the Missionary Image. In doing so, many have felt warmth, an electric-like current, and Our Lady’s heartbeat. God gives these signs at his pleasure to increase our faith, hope and love of him. The heartbeats are also a sign that life begins at conception and is not a “choice” for the mother because God, the Author of Life, has already chosen the child for life. Many other signs and wonders have occurred during Visitations of the Missionary Image. The Miracle of the Sun occurred many times in the presence of the Missionary Image. Roses fell from the Image and the smell of roses emanated from it. The Image cried tears of oil on several occasions and even appeared in three dimensions. You may read about these signs on our website HERE. These signs are manifested at the pleasure of God who delights to give them to help to strengthen our faith and our confidence in the intercession of Our Lady of Guadalupe. May you confidently await God's divine blessings and have a happy and holy celebration of his birth on Christmas Day.   Am I Not Your Hope? Our Lady of Guadalupe said to St. Juan Diego, “Am I not your hope?” Mary is the Mother of Hope. She is the Mother of Jesus Christ who is our hope and brings life as the conqueror of despair and death. Through her, we should have the confident expectation of divine blessings such as the closing of abortion centers, conversions, healings and the manifestations of heartbeats in the Image and Holy Glitter on it. That is hope!

Chris Tomlin - Noel (Live) ft. Lauren Daigle

December 2nd 2019 Medjugorje message

“Dear children. As I am looking at you who love my Son, my heart is being filled with tenderness. I am blessing you with a motherly blessing. With a motherly blessing, I am also blessing your shepherds – you who speak the words of my Son, who bless with His hands and who love Him so much that you are ready to make every sacrifice for Him with joy. You are following Him, who was the first shepherd, the first missionary. My children, apostles of my love, to live and work for others, for all those whom you love through my Son, is the joy and comfort of earthly life. If through prayer, love and sacrifice the Kingdom of God is in your hearts, then your life is joyful and bright. Among those who love my Son and who love each other through Him, words are not necessary. A gaze is sufficient for the unspoken words and unexpressed feelings to be heard. There where love reigns, time no longer counts. We are with you. My Son knows you and loves you. Love is that which brings you to me and through that love I will come to you and speak to you of the works of salvation. I desire for all of my children to have faith and to feel my motherly love which leads them to Jesus. Therefore, you, my children, wherever you go, illuminate with love and faith as apostles of love. Thank you.”

Immaculate Conception Novena - begins November 29th

O most pure Virgin Mary conceived without sin, from the very first instant, you were entirely immaculate. O glorious Mary full of grace, you are the mother of my God – the Queen of Angels and of men. I humbly venerate you as the chosen mother of my Savior, Jesus Christ.
The Prince of Peace and the Lord of Lords chose you for the singular grace and honor of being His beloved mother. By the power of His Cross, He preserved you from all sin. Therefore, by His power and love, I have hope and bold confidence in your prayers for my holiness and salvation.

I pray that your prayers will bring me to imitate your holiness and submission to Jesus and the Divine Will.

Hail Mary, full of Grace, the Lord is with you. Blessed are you among women and blessed is the fruit of your womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death.

Now, Queen of Heaven, I beg you to beg my Savior to grant me these requests…

(Mention your intentions)

My holy Mother, I know that you were obedient to the will of God. In making this petition, I know that God’s will is more perfect than mine. So, grant that I may receive God’s grace with humility like you.

As my final request, I ask that you pray for me to increase in faith in our risen Lord; I ask that you pray for me to increase in hope in our risen Lord; I ask that you pray for me to increase in love for the risen Jesus!

Hail Mary, full of Grace, the Lord is with you. Blessed are you among women and blessed is the fruit of your womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death.
Amen.

REDISCOVER JESUS

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SUNDAY NOVEMBER 10, 2019 - THIRTYSECOND SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME

GOSPEL - LK 20:27-38 Some Sadducees, those who deny that there is a resurrection, came forward and put this question to Jesus, saying,  "Teacher, Moses wrote for us, If someone's brother dies leaving a wife but no child,  his brother must take the wife and raise up descendants for his brother. Now there were seven brothers; the first married a woman but died childless. Then the second and the third married her, and likewise all the seven died childless. Finally the woman also died.  Now at the resurrection whose wife will that woman be? For all seven had been married to her."  Jesus said to them,  "The children of this age marry and remarry; but those who are deemed worthy to attain to the coming age and to the resurrection of the dead neither marry nor are given in marriage. They can no longer die, for they are like angels; and they are the children of God because they are the ones who will rise. That the dead will rise even Moses made known in the passage about the bush, when he called out 'Lord,' the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob; and he is not God of the dead, but of the living, for to him all are alive." The Catechism of the Catholic Church 993    The Pharisees and many of the Lord’s contemporaries hoped for the resurrection. Jesus teaches it firmly. To the Sadducees who deny it he answers, “Is not this why you are wrong, that you know neither the scriptures nor the power of God?” Faith in the resurrection rests on faith in God who “is not God of the dead, but of the living.” 996     From the beginning, Christian faith in the resurrection has met with incomprehension and opposition. “On no point does the Christian faith encounter more opposition than on the resurrection of the body.” It is very commonly accepted that the life of the human person continues in a spiritual fashion after death. But how can we believe that this body, so clearly mortal, could rise to everlasting life? 999   How? Christ is raised with his own body: “See my hands and my feet, that it is I myself”; but he did not return to an earthly life. So, in him, “all of them will rise again with their own bodies which they now bear,” but Christ “will change our lowly body to be like his glorious body,” into a “spiritual body”: 1000    This “how” exceeds our imagination and understanding; it is accessible only to faith. Yet our participation in the Eucharist already gives us a foretaste of Christ’s transfiguration of our bodies: From “Great Crusade of Salvation” Testimony of Catalina Rivas (CS-24:4) 4) All of you must delve more deeply into My Passion. You do not like to. Do you? Bad, very bad; you cannot have redemption without the cross. You like the image of the Risen Christ, but from where did My Resurrection come? Every man must die to the world in order to be raised and only by dying to the world can he have redemption... From “Great Crusade of Mercy” Testimony of Catalina Rivas (Cm-51:5,7) 5) There are so many of your resurrections that are superior to that of Lazarus and I make them reality in the deepest silence. Because of the people who were present, I shouted to Him to come out from the tomb where he had been lying for four days. My voice reaches you in the same way as it did Lazarus in order to separate you from sin and your daily miseries. Oh, yes! It is not easy to make you rise because I do not find you well-enough prepared and you do not want to hear My voice! 7) Yes, I am the Resurrection of bodies but also of souls. He, who believes in Me will live with Me forever, because Faith in Me is the beginning of Love and Love is My life and your life.

Medjugorje: November 2, 2019 Message to Mirjana…

”My children, read the book of the Gospel…The Heavenly Father gave Himself through a human face, and this face is the face of my Son.”

“Dear children, my beloved Son always prayed and glorified the Heavenly Father. He always said everything to Him and trusted in His will. This is what you, my children, should also do, because the Heavenly Father always listens to His children. One heart in one heart – love, light and life. The Heavenly Father gave Himself through a human face, and this face is the face of my Son. You, apostles of my love, you should always carry the face of my Son in your hearts and your thoughts. You should always think of His love and His sacrifice. You should pray to always feel His presence, because, apostles of my love, that is the way for you to help all those who do not know my Son, who have not come to know His love. My children, read the book of the Gospel. It is always something new, it is what binds you to my Son who was born to bring the words of life to all of my children and to sacrifice Himself for all. Apostles of my love, carried by the love for my Son, bring love and peace to all of your brothers. Judge no one. Love everyone according to the love for my Son. In this way, you will also be caring for your soul, and it [your soul] is that what is most precious, which truly belongs to you. Thank you.”

SUNDAY OCTOBER 27, 2019

 - THIRTIETH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME

Gospel - Lk 18:9-14

Jesus addressed this parable to those who were convinced of their own righteousness
 and despised everyone else.
 "Two people went up to the temple area to pray; one was a Pharisee and the other was a tax collector. The Pharisee took up his position and spoke this prayer to himself, 'O God, I thank you that I am not like the rest of humanity --greedy, dishonest, adulterous -- or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week, and I pay tithes on my whole income.’
 But the tax collector stood off at a distance and would not even raise his eyes to heaven
 but beat his breast and prayed, 'O God, be merciful to me a sinner.'
 I tell you, the latter went home justified, not the former; for whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and the one who humbles himself will be exalted."

The Catechism of the Catholic Church

2631 The first movement of the prayer of petition is asking forgiveness, like the tax collector in the parable: “God, be merciful to me a sinner!” It is a prerequisite for righteous and pure prayer. A trusting humility brings us back into the light of communion between the Father and his Son Jesus Christ and with one another, so that “we receive from him whatever we ask.” Asking forgiveness is the prerequisite for both the Eucharistic liturgy and personal prayer.

From “Door to Heaven” Testimony of Catalina Rivas (DH-11:7)

7) If you look at your own sins, you will observe your own misery instead of seeking justice or compensation. I love to teach you; you do not love unconditionally and do not understand the mystery of My love. You want to be blessed and saved without undergoing purification and self-mortification. You do not want to work, but want to

be revered. My Father does not bestow His graces upon the proud, but upon the humble! To be revered, you will be accused, and you must first achieve humility, which is what destroys evil and is the enemy of sin.

Each week we will be presenting a portion of the following Sunday’s readings, and linking it to relevant parts of the Catechism of the Catholic Church and messages from the Testimony of Catalina.  Pay special attention to the italicized sections.  This week we are taught that the prerequisite of being exalted is to be humble. We hope this is inspiring and educational. Any comments you have are certainly welcomed.

Death To The Demons Within: Part 55 Mini-Course On Prayer OCTOBER 26, 2019

Editor’s note:  David Torkington continues his series on prayer with the fourth and final section, “From Meditation to Contemplation”.  Read part 54 here, and begin with part one here. 

The Mystic Way Part IV 

 In As You like it, Shakespeare said that all the world is a stage and the men and women merely players, each playing their part. Their parts are rather stereotypical and superficial, but in his other plays like Hamlet or Macbeth you see murkier parts that his characters play. They mirror the real world in which he lived and in which we live today. Although they pose and posture to deceive others, they are influenced by deep desires and urges that come from below stage in the unconscious. Sometimes something suddenly triggers the stage trapdoor and all hell is let loose, at least for a time, as unholy desires and urges flood the minds of the unsuspecting.  

What is often called a Freudian slip happens to us all, as has happened to me, flooding my conscious mind, exposing irrational prejudices and thoughts that shamed me. I have come to realize that there must be many other pernicious prejudices lurking deep within me. Whether we like it or not they all influence us although we hardly realize it and would be humiliated to admit it. I sometimes smile to hear the politically correct holding forth, blissfully unaware of what rules them from within.  The New Man and the Old Man  There are within all of us who are not immaculately conceived, innumerable drives and urges that if allowed to rule would destroy us, like sensual and sexual desires, the yearning for power and position, and myriad other desires and urges. If these desires are gratified, they only want further satisfaction until greed and rapaciousness destroy us, or anger and jealousy eat away at us as we try to destroy others who seem to have what we want. If we are not consciously and daily engaged in the spiritual combat that calls upon us to act selflessly,  then we will be unable to admit the New Man which is Christ so that he can do to death the Old Man which is ourselves. 

Christ was conceived by the Holy Spirit and therefore did not experience evil from within. But he did experience evil in others, pitted against him throughout his life on earth which finally succeeded in his being condemned and tortured to death. When the love that raised him from the dead was unleashed on the first Pentecost, it meant that we could be drawn up into his mystical body where our weak human love can be strengthened and fortified to rise with his. Only the ever-increasing inflow of love with which he returns from the Father can transform our hearts.   We are transformed to the measure of our daily self-sacrificial living and self-giving as we persevere most particularly in the Dark Night of purification. The example of Christ should be sufficient to alert us, that in addition to the spiritual combat within, there is another conflict that we will have to face from outside.  An unprecedented upsurge of evil  Even the most conservative of commentators are warning us, and with good reason, that we are at present facing an unprecedented upsurge of evil both inside and outside the church. There may well have been such wicked and even devilish manifestations of evil before in the world, but now we have to face them from within the church and even from those to whom we should look for inspiration and guidance. It is because many other orthodox writers are revealing what I can only describe as satanic evils that are arising in the church, that I can instead  concentrate on  detailing how Christ wishes to destroy them and their perpetrators through those who would receive him. What Freud has called ‘unruly and irrational impulses’ the Desert Fathers called ‘the monsters in the deep’ or ‘the demons within,’ that can possess those who do nothing to contain them. The love that has been leaking from Catholic Spirituality for several centuries is now finding rock bottom in large groups of powerful clerics, religious, and some laity, who are demanding sacramental status for unworthy and unscriptural forms of so-called love that they practice.   A Religion within a religion    

They are almost a religion within a religion, frighteningly militant, and as the desires and urges that rule them are irrational it is impossible to confront them with rational argument. Because Scientology teaches so much irrational nonsense its adherents are told never to engage in rational debate with those who oppose them. Instead, they are told to attack viciously and personally,  looking for weaknesses to psychologically undermine them. You will find the same with the new quasi-sexual religion that is trying to insinuate its erroneous teachings and practices into the Church. They cannot argue against the truth for the teaching of the Church has been against them from the very beginning. Their main weapons are stealth, or when they are discovered, they shout down opponents and anyone who would oppose them.  

They relentlessly attack personally and do all in their power to undermine credibility. This brings me to the most heinous heresy of all that is already on the rise although it is only spoken of in whispers and behind closed doors. It is the return of Arianism. If their teachings are to prevail they will have to denigrate their main opponents, and  then Christ himself, for he is their main opponent  

The Return of Arianism?  If Christ’s teachings are no longer relevant today and must be adapted to the norms of our times then how can his teaching be divinely inspired? If, like Arius, they argue that Christ is not actually divine, although he is the greatest man to have lived who has said and done so much as the founder of our Church, then suddenly the way is open for the Church to be undermined from the inside. With reason on their side, they could argue that Jesus was ultimately only a man, and therefore his teaching for the ancient world was only human.  It may well have been right for the ancient world, but they believe that if he had been alive today he would be pursuing exactly the same agendas that they themselves are pursuing.  For they believe that they are accurately ‘reading the signs of our times’ and discerning the needs of the ‘modern world’. The truth of the matter is that they are, in fact, trying to introduce into the modern Church amongst other things, sexual agendas that cannot be reconciled either by the teaching of Our Divine Lord, the sacred scriptures and the perennial Catholic tradition.  In the vanguard of the coming storm, it should already be noticed that Christ will be mentioned less and less and Catholic Spirituality and traditional devotions hardly at all.  If you think that I am writing to shock you then you are absolutely right. The barbarians are once more ‘at the gates’ and there is no time to lose. So many of us have been sleeping; it is time for the ‘wild geese’ to awaken us or we will fail to see the steady downward slope down which a new breed of misguided clerics and prelates have been trying to lead the unwary.  

The Solution is not a body of truth but a body full of love  There is only one solution and that is not another contrary orthodox theology we already have, it is a person. The person is Jesus Christ Our Lord to whom we must totally abandon ourselves or we will be lost.  I have continually emphasized that we all have within us a profound primeval desire or yearning to love and to be loved. This yearning arises from the love of God, implanted within us from the beginning when we were made in his image and likeness. It is an infinite yearning for it can only be satisfied by God’s infinite love. Christ came to tell us of this plan, which St. Paul called the Mysterion. That this plan be realized for us all, Christ released love without measure on the first Pentecost. Those who continually try to turn and open their hearts to receive this love are called mystics because at baptism they are drawn up into Christ’s Mystical Body. But that is not all. His mystical body is not some vague, inert ethereal reality, but a living breathing supernatural person who is endlessly caught up in an otherworldly act of loving contemplation of the glory of God the Father. It is into this, his sublime, transforming mystical action,  that we are called to join him, by learning to love as he did so that our loving begins to synchronize with his loving. It is this that enables us to make the offering of our lives as he made the offering of his life, and then to receive the fruits of contemplation in return as he received them.  

The final objective of our mystical purification.  All the various ways and means of prayer that I have been writing about have been to do one thing: to raise our hearts to God in unison with the heart of Christ. In order that our prayer be ultimately successful, when it has sufficiently shown its genuine desire for God and God alone, a change takes place and we are led into purgatory on earth into the Dark Night of the Soul. This is the penultimate point in our journey into God. But by penultimate, I do not mean that the end is near because it is not. However, it is the place where our hearts are gradually purified from the influence of ‘the demons’ in our subterranean self, to be united, not just with Christ’s mystical body, but with his glorified body and his Sacred Heart as it lovingly contemplates the glory to which God has called us from the beginning. The ultimate destruction of the evil propensities that have for so long ruled our lives, is the final object of our mystical purification.    Like a radioactive laser  With Christ’s help, our hearts are able to receive love in ever greater measure. Like a radioactive laser, this love gradually purifies and refines the mind, the intellect, the understanding, the reasoning as well as the memory and the imagination, all of which have been corrupted by the evil and irrational drives and urges that ruled us before. Now, towards the end of the Night, the mind becomes clearer to see what could not be seen before, and the feelings that were dormant for so long in the darkness are once more aroused. The Spiritual Betrothals can now take place. The longer this betrothal lasts, the more the mind with all its operations and the feelings with all their sensible warmth and tenderness can once more open and operate—but this time without the demons that perverted them before. The Mystical Marriage is on the horizon; the most perfect union possible in this life that mirrors albeit darkly, the perfect and everlasting marriage with God in the next life, where God’s kingdom of love, of justice and peace reigns supreme.

St. John Paul II Remembered

                                                                                                      Dan Lynch
October 21, 2019

Let us remember St. John Paul II on October 22, his feast day. The promotion of devotion to him is a special project of the apostolate of the Missionary Image of Our Lady of Guadalupe, because he inaugurated the New Evangelization and named Our Lady of Guadalupe as the Star of the New Evangelization.

St. John Paul II practiced many forms of popular piety as a means of showing his love and devotion to Jesus, Mary and the saints. His personal devotions included adoration of the Blessed Sacrament; pilgrimages; processions; honoring the Blessed Virgin Mary through the wearing of the Brown Scapular as a sign of his total consecration to Jesus through Mary; the Rosary; the Angelus; novenas; the Stations of the Cross, the veneration of relics; the use of sacramentals and his devotions to The Divine Mercy and Our Lady of Guadalupe.

The Pope had a great devotion to Our Lady of Guadalupe. 
He made more pilgrimages to her Basilica Shrine in Mexico City than to anywhere else. In January of 1979, he made his first pilgrimage there and consecrated his papacy to her.

On her feast day, December 12, 1981, he stressed her evangelistic role at St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome on the four hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the apparitions. He talked about Our Lady leading us to Christ from the Basilica Shrine as a center “from which the light of the Gospel of Christ will shine out over the whole world by means of the miraculous image of His Mother.” This is the mission of the Missionary Image of Our Lady of Guadalupe that originated at the Basilica Shrine and has gone forth from there over the last 28 years to bring the light of the gospel of Christ, “over the whole world by means of the miraculous image of His Mother.”
 

One day, when he paused before a replica of the tilma, the Pope said, “I feel drawn to this picture of Our Lady of Guadalupe because her face is full of kindness and simplicity… it calls me.” He responded to this call and made several more pilgrimages to her Basilica Shrine.

In 1999, he made his fourth pilgrimage to her shrine and consecrated the entire Continent to Our Lady of Guadalupe. He concelebrated Mass at the Basilica with five hundred Bishops and five thousand priests. He virtually declared the end of the Culture of Death and preached, “The Church must proclaim the Gospel of Life and speak out with prophetic force against the Culture of Death. This is our cry: life with dignity for all. . . . The time has come to banish once and for all from the Continent every attack against life. . . . As a matter of urgency, we must stir up a new springtime of holiness on the Continent so that action and contemplation will go hand in hand.”

He concluded his homily with a prayer, “Oh, Sweet Lady of Tepeyac, Mother of Guadalupe! We present to you this countless multitude of faithful who pray to God in America. You who have come into their hearts visit and comfort all homes, parishes and dioceses of all the Continent.” The Missionary Image apostolate tries to answer his prayer through Visitations of the Missionary Images to “all homes, parishes and dioceses.”

In 1999, the Pope consecrated the entire American continent to Our Lady of Guadalupe as our Queen and Mother. He made his last pilgrimage to her Basilica Shrine to canonize Juan Diego as a saint on July 31, 2002. He established his feast day as December 9, the date of Our Lady of Guadalupe’s first apparition to him.

The year 2003 marked Pope John Paul II’s twenty fifth anniversary as Pope. He credited Our Lady of Guadalupe as his guide. He said, “Ever since I went on pilgrimage for the first time to the splendid Shrine of Guadalupe on January 29, 1979, she has guided my steps in these almost twenty five years of service as Bishop of Rome and universal pastor of the Church. I wish to invoke her, the sure way to encounter Christ, and who was the first evangelizer of America, as the ‘Star of Evangelization,’ entrusting to her the ecclesial work of all her sons and daughters of America.”

Dan Lynch with a statue of St. John Paul II at his Shrine in Washington D.C.

 

Pope John Paul II died on April 2, 2005, after long suffering from Parkinson’s disease. He died on the eve of a feast instituted by him, The Feast of Divine Mercy. He was 84 years old and had served as Pope for 26 years. He was declared “blessed” because of the holiness of his life and the miraculous healing of a nun who suffered from Parkinson’s disease. This was attributed to his intercession.

He was beatified by Pope Benedict XVI on May 1, 2011, The Feast of Divine Mercy and he was canonized by Pope Francis on April 21, 2014.  His feast day is October 22, the date of his liturgical inauguration as Pope.

Bill Barr Flames ‘Unremitting’ Attack on Religion, Traditional Values in Speech at Notre Dame

PBS/YouTube

By KEVIN DALEY Published on October 13, 2019 • 12 Comments

Concerted attacks on religious liberty have triggered a moral upheaval that contributes to deadly social pathologies, Attorney General William Barr said Friday at the University of Notre Dame.

“The imperative of protecting religious freedom was not just a nod in the direction of piety,” Barr said. “It reflects the framers’ belief that religion was indispensable to sustaining our free system of government.”

The attorney general said numerous measures of social decline are rising as religion recedes from public life, citing higher instances of drug addiction, mental illness, and suicide. Those outcomes are not random, but the fruit of a dedicated campaign against orthodox religious belief, Barr added.

“This is not decay,” Barr said. “This is organized destruction. Secularists and their allies have marshaled all the forces of mass communication, popular culture, the entertainment industry, and academia in an unremitting assault on religion and traditional values.”

Barr said state governments and municipal agencies have been at the vanguard of that effort, noting the board of education in Orange County, California, recently decided religious dissenters may not excuse their children from portions of the school curriculum broaching LGBT issues. Schools are the usual forum for attacks on religious liberty, Barr said.

In that connection, the attorney general noted the Department of Justice recently intervened in a dispute between a gay teacher and a Catholic high school near Notre Dame. The case arose when the Archdiocese of Indianapolis directed Cathedral High School to dismiss a teacher in a public, same-sex marriage or forfeit its Catholic affiliation. The high school did so. The teacher, Joshua Payne-Elliott, sued the school in turn.

The Justice Department filed a statement of interest in the case Sept. 27, arguing that the lawsuit suppresses the archdiocese’s First Amendment right to expressive association, and impermissibly asks the court to interfere with internal church matters.

“The First Amendment precludes this court, a state actor, from cooperating in plaintiff’s attempt to stifle the archdiocese’s First Amendment right to expressive association,” the filing reads. “The First Amendment also precludes the court from entangling itself in a quintessentially ecclesiastical question: whether the archdiocese properly interpreted and applied Catholic doctrine. The First Amendment commits that question exclusively to the ecclesiastical tribunals of the church.”

Anti-Barr demonstrators picketed near the Notre Dame campus during the attorney general’s visit, according to the South Bend Tribune. Some protesters blew whistles in reference to a whistleblower complaint from the intelligence community concerning President Donald Trump’s July 25 phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

Trump asked Zelensky to investigate Hunter Biden’s business interests in Ukraine, and suggested Barr could support that effort. Hunter, the son of former Vice President Joe Biden, served on the board of a Ukrainian energy company called Burisma Holdings.

The attending controversy prompted Notre Dame Law School Dean G. Marcus Cole to issue a statement defending academic freedom.

“Notre Dame Law School will neither endorse nor condemn invited speakers,” Cole said. “An institution of higher education must be a place where controversial ideas and points of view are expressed, heard, and discussed. This is such a place.”

Saints of the Divine Indwelling

Dan Lynch
September 25, 2019

63^rd Anniversary of Our Lady of America’s First Apparition
September 26, 2019

 
Sister Mildred, the mystic of the devotion to Our Lady of America, wrote that on the evening of August 5, 1957, “Our Lady spoke to me about the Divine Indwelling. It was her life and she lived it perfectly always conscious of His presence, never forgetting that all her greatness came from within, from Him who dwelt there, working, loving, and doing good through her. This is what Our Lady means when she speaks of reformation, renewal. It is this about which she is so concerned, namely sanctification from within. . . . She seemed anxious to impress me with some idea of the greatness of this gift of God to us, namely, His Divine Presence within our souls through sanctifying grace.”

This is the sixth and last article on the Practice of the Divine Indwelling.
          
The Divine Indwelling was recognized by Carmelite saints Teresa of Avila and John of the Cross. A thousand years before them, St. Augustine said, “I found Thee not, O Lord, without, because I erred in seeking Thee without who were within.”  St. John of the Cross recognized this and later said, “God then is hidden within the soul, and there the good contemplative must seek Him with love.”
          
St. Teresa sought Him there with love. She wrote in her Way of Perfection,

Remember how Saint Augustine tells us about his seeking God in many places and eventually finding Him within himself.  Do you suppose it is of little importance that a soul which is often distracted should come to understand this truth and to find that, in order to speak to its Eternal Father and to take its delight in Him, it has no need to go to Heaven? . . . We need no wings to go in search of Him, but have only to find a place where we can be alone and look upon Him present within us.

St. John of the Cross wrote of this mystery in the beginning of his Spiritual Canticle,

Come, then, thou soul, most beautiful of all creatures, that so greatly desirest to know the place where thy Beloved is, in order to seek Him and be united with Him; . . . thou thyself art the lodging wherein He dwells, and the chamber and hiding-place wherein He is hidden. . . .What more desirest thou, O soul, and what more seekest thou without thyself, since within thyself thou hast thy riches, thy delight, thy satisfaction, thy fullness and thy kingdom, which is thy Beloved, Whom thy soul desires and seeks?  Rejoice thou and be glad in thy inward recollection with Him, since thou hast Him so near.

St. Elizabeth of the Trinity was a modern witness of the Divine Indwelling. She contemplated the beauty of this mystery and wrote to a friend, “It seems to me that I have found my heaven on earth, for heaven is God, and God is in my soul. . . . May He make of your soul a little heaven in which He can rest happily. Remove from it all that could offend His divine gaze. Live with Him. Remain constantly with Him. Enter into the interior of your soul; you will always find Him there, longing to do great things for you.”
          
St. Elizabeth wrote to her mother, “Oh, may the Master reveal to you His divine presence, it is so pleasant and sweet, it gives so much strength to the soul; to believe that God loves us to the point of living in us, to become the Companion of our exile, our Confidant, our Friend at every moment.”
         
Shortly before her death in 1906, she wrote to a friend: “My beloved Antoinette, I leave you my faith in the presence of God, of the God who is all Love dwelling in our souls. I confide to you: it is this intimacy with Him ‘within’ that has been the beautiful sun illuminating my life, making it already an anticipated Heaven: it is what sustains me today in my suffering.”
          
St. Elizabeth is known as “the saint of the Divine Indwelling.” She lived the Divine Indwelling and composed a prayer to It:

O my God, Trinity whom I adore, help me forget myself entirely so to establish myself in you, unmovable and peaceful as if my soul were already in eternity. May nothing be able to trouble my peace or make me leave you, O my unchanging God, but may each minute bring me more deeply into your mystery! Grant my soul peace. Make it your heaven, your beloved dwelling and the place of your rest. May I never abandon you there, but may I be there, whole and entire, completely vigilant in my faith, entirely adoring, and wholly given over to your creative action.
                
This prayer is quoted verbatim in the Catechism of the Catholic Church. (CCC 260).

On November 25, 1984, Pope John Paul II beatified Elizabeth of the Trinity. In his homily at the beatification, the Pope presented her to the Church as one “who led a life ‘hidden with Christ in God’ (Col 3:3),” and as “a brilliant witness to the joy of being 'rooted and grounded in love.’ ” (Eph. 3:17).
         
Let us too be witnesses to the joy of being rooted and grounded in love by recognizing and living daily the Divine Indwelling and practicing the presence of the Most Holy Trinity. In His last prayer, Jesus recognized the Divine Indwelling and prayed that we would be one in the Holy Trinity. He prayed, “I pray not only for them, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, so that they may all be one, as you, Father, are in me and I in you, that they also may be in us, that the world may believe that you sent me.” (John 17:20-21).
         
The Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches that our ultimate unity in the Holy Trinity begins now with the Divine Indwelling. “The ultimate end of the whole divine economy is the entry of God's creatures into the perfect unity of the Blessed Trinity. But even now we are called to be a dwelling for the Most Holy Trinity: ‘If a man loves me,’ says the Lord, ‘he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him, and make our home with him.’ ” (CCC  260). Our Lady of America confirms this teaching of the ultimate unity. She said, “It is my special work as Co-Redemptrix of the human race to help souls reach the sanctity of the Father in eternal union by showing them how to put on Christ, to imbibe His Spirit, and thus become one with Him.”
          
In the temple of the living God with the Divine Indwelling, we praise, honor, adore, glorify and bless God as did the Jews in the Jerusalem temple and as a foretaste of the saints’ prayers in heaven. In the ultimate end of the whole divine economy, those living with the Divine Indwelling will join the saints in heaven and “stand before God’s throne and worship Him day and night in His temple. The one who sits on the throne will shelter them. They will not hunger or thirst anymore, nor will the sun or any heat strike them. For the Lamb who is in the center of the throne will shepherd them and lead them to springs of life-giving water and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.” (Revelation 7:15-17).

Like St. Elizabeth, you too may have your soul touched by God by reading the prior articles in this series. You may read Part 1 here, Part 2 here , Part 3 here. Part 4 here, and Part 5 here.