- 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.
Saturday, October 26, 2019
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.
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.
Monday, October 21, 2019
St. John Paul II Remembered
Dan Lynch
October 21, 2019
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.
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.
Tuesday, October 15, 2019
Bill Barr Flames ‘Unremitting’ Attack on Religion, Traditional Values in Speech at Notre Dame
PBS/YouTube
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.”
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