jump to navigation

Fr. Larry Adamcyzk nails it March 11, 2011

Posted by Tantumblogo in awesomeness, Basics, Dallas Diocese, General Catholic, North Deanery.
comments closed
Fr. Larry Adamcyzk just about perfectly represents my thoughts on the Holy SACRIFICE of the Mass and many issues affecting the Church, especially the lack of priestly vocations and lack of respect for the priestly office:
  
.

 

The Second Vatican Council, in its document on the Sacred Liturgy, Sacrosanctum Concilium, refers to the SACRIFICE of the Mass, no less than 8 times.
For example, we read, “7. To accomplish so great a work, Christ is always present in His Church, especially in her liturgical celebrations. He is present in the sacrifice of the Mass, not only in the person of His minister, “the same now offering, through the ministry of priests, who formerly offered himself on the cross,” but especially under the Eucharistic species.”
So WHY? WHY have we been referring to the Holy Sacrifice of Mass as a meal? Is it any wonder that we don’t have priestly vocations, when we have turned the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass into a Happy Meal and the pastor into a mid-level manager of a branch office of multi-national conglomerate?  The Holy Sacrifice of the Mass is not simply a centuries old boring ritual that has to be made palatable to people in the pews so that the Church can get onto the really important things like saving the environment.  NO!  As Pope Benedict said in his recent interview book, Light of the World, The Liturgy “is not about our doing, about our demonstrating our creativity, in other word, about displaying everything we can do.  Liturgy is precisely not a show, a piece of theater, a spectacle.  Rather it gets its life from the Other.  This has to become evident, too.” page 156.
St. John Vianney wrote, When people want to destroy religion, they start by attacking priests, because where there are no priests, there is no sacrifice; and where there is no sacrifice, there is no religion.
If we could return to what St. Alphonsus Liguori has to say, I’ll bet we would have many more priestly vocations.  When I was first ordained, I was castigated by a parishioner for talking enthusiastically about the priesthood in my homilies.  When the priest does not know or like who he is, how can he pass on the fire to the next generation?  When the parishioners don’t want to hear how the priest is different (not necessarily holier and certainly not better) from the laity, how can men be called to the exalted dignity of the priesthood?  When only 45% of Catholics believe in the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist, no wonder the needs for priests seems unimportant.  When parishioners don’t want to hear of the exalted power that the priest, by virtue of his ordination, has to make Jesus Christ present, no wonder we have a vocation crisis.
In THE DIGNITY AND DUTIES OF THE PRIEST, St. Alphonsus Liguori wrote, “The entire Church cannot give to God as much honor, nor obtain so many graces, as a single priest by celebrating a single Mass……

 

Sorry for the botched format – blogspot often does not play nice with wordpress.  When parishioners don’t want to hear of the exalted power that the priest, by virtue of his ordination, has to make Jesus Christ present, no wonder we have a vocation crisis.
I agree with all the above, save for the fact that priests are not more holy than lay people.  I’m not sure about that – the ability to confect the greatest miracle in the history of the universe is such an incredible gift, I think it puts priests, perhaps, on a different level.  I’m not saying every priest is holier than every lay person that’s ever lived, not at all.  But I do think priests in general should be called to a higher holiness than lay people by virtue of the incredible gifts they are given in their role in the Sacraments.  That’s why I find priests who seem to take these abilities for granted, or who have perhaps not much honor and respect for their faculties, as bewildering and disappointing.  I always try to hold all priests in very high esteem, even those who do things that I think are damaging to the Faith.  But a good and holy priest – such a gift!  Such an inspiration!  I pray that all priests will follow their calling in the mode of St. John Vianney and St. Alphonse Liguori!
I’d also quibble that data shows that less than 1/3 of Catholics either understand or accept the Doctrine on the Real Presence – one of the most core doctrines there is. 
I’m going to say many extra prayers for priests at Adoration tonight

Some thoughts on ‘undercover exposes’ and their morality March 11, 2011

Posted by Tantumblogo in Basics, Dallas Diocese, foolishness, General Catholic, religious, silliness.
comments closed

I posted this as a comment at Fr. Phillip Neri Powell’s site, after he stated Live Action and others are committing sins by misrepresenting themselves and recording undercover videos:

I was reading the story of Fr. Walter Ciszek, SJ last night.  He was an American Jesuit who spent 15 years in the ‘Gulag Archipelago.’  He was in Poland in 1939, ministering to Polish Catholics.  When the Russians invaded, he realized he could finally achieve his dream of ministering to Russians.  The Russians, of course, had been very thoroughly doing everything in their power to kill or imprison every Orthodox or Catholic priest they could identify, destroying churches, etc, and essentially driving the Faith totally  underground – where it could persist at all.  So, Fr. Ciszek had a fake identity created so he could enter Russia as a Polish laborer to work in the factories in the Urals and minister to the Poles and Russians there.  He did this with the approval of his religious superiors and the Cardinal Archbishop of Lvov.  They all knew fake papers had to be obtained in order to enter Russia.  If he and his White Russian priest partner tried to enter Russia openly as priests they would likely be shot on the spot.

When presenting himself to the Russian work agency looking for laborers for these Ural Mountain factories in Poland, he misrepresented himself, of course, saying he was a Polish widower.  His compatriot did this, as well.  His religious superior and the Cardinal Archbishop approved of this.  The entire basis of what was to be a 1 year period of service to Russians (but wound up being 23 years in and out of prison) was based on a forged identity – just like Lila Rose and O’Keefe.  He had to lie repeatedly in the furtherance of this mission, and all his superiors including the Cardinal knew this.  Fr. Ciszek, whose cause for canonization is underway, does not express any ‘regrets’ over this sin he committed, nor does he report that his superiors or the Cardinal Archbishop had any moral qualms about his repeated acts of lying.

But now, we are told exactly these same types of actions are sinful and cannot be endorsed by Catholics.  I wonder how the many Russians Fr. Ciszek was able to minister to during his time in and out of the gulags would feel about that?

How could Fr. Ciszek have performed his mission without lying? 

I know the arguments of the moralists.  Their arguments are very solid, but just seem so disconnected from reality.  They seem very fine for ivory tower discussions, but seemt to fall flat in the real world. If millions of babies can be saved from a grisly death, they say, that still does not justify telling even a small lie, or misrepresenting oneself to the murderers.  That kind of moral absolutism seems very cold and distant – who would not tell a lie to save their family from a murderer?   I really think this is an area of Catholic moral theology that needs much more study and development – something about it just doesn’t…….ring true.

Here’s a nice link with some thoughts from Servant of God Fr. Ciszek on the Blessed Sacrament and what a neglected treasure we have in Adoration.  And, of course, the glory of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass.

My God – don’t let your kids see this March 11, 2011

Posted by Tantumblogo in asshatery, Basics, disaster, foolishness, General Catholic, horror, sickness, Society.
comments closed

I don’t want my kids seeing it.  The UK, which is showing increasing signs of cultural insanity and evidencing, more and more, that it is the “epicenter of the culture of death” as an official with the Diocese of Westminster said last year, has determined that children as young as 5 need to be inculcated in that sex crazed death cult.  Now, this is from the Daily Mail, so Fr. Jordan may scoff, but the materials appear genuine, and show that children will be exposed to near-pornographic images and extremely adult terms at ridiculously tender ages.  The example below is apparently from a book intended for elementary school students:

OK, my kids don’t need this garbage, at 5 or 7 or whatever age the schools decide, at whtaever age some faceless bureaucrat decides.  My wife and I will decide when our kids need to know about this topic, based on their development and when we think they’re ready.  This is insanity. From my experience with kids, not only my own, they don’t have much in the way of ‘natural’ desires to learn about this stuff.   They are innocent.  They don’t need to know about this until they get much older than the ages planned in the UK.  I can’t see any reason to do this except to pursue the left’s family breaking agenda and to insure each successive generation is less moral, more perverse and promiscuous, and more likely to use provide future sacrifices to Moloch.  I don’t think that last bit is a conscious thought on the part of the purveyors of this kind of ‘educational material,’ but I think its proponents are so imbued with the contraceptive and abortive mentality, and have such severe sexual issues themselves, that they cannot help but to try to ‘normalize’ their own behavior by encouraging future generations to follow their path.  If you read about Kinsey, that was certainly his intent – he wanted to ‘normalize’ the perversions (homosexuality, group sex, infidelity, sado-masochism) that he himself practiced.  He is the very god-father of the left-liberal view on sexuality, and I think his perversions have permeated down through the Planned Parenthoods and other NGOs that argue for this kind of forced child sexualization.  I can’t imagine any parent wanting their 5 or 7 year old exposed to this kind of topic. 

Just a couple sanity check questions – why do children need to know this?  Where is the demand coming from to teach this, since it is not coming from the parents and the children themselves?  What agenda does it serve?  Who benefits from this (I don’t believe you can rationally argue that 5 year olds have a pressing need to know what an orgasm, or a prostitute, is). 

We live in a profoundly schizophrenic society.  We keep insisting that older and older kids simply MUST ride in a car seat, that all children playing outside on a scooter or skateboard must be covered head to foot in protective gear, and we hand out trophies for just showing up at athletic or other contests.   This culture simultaneously seeks to infantilize children while turning their sexual behaviors into that of a 40 year old deviant.   It makes me want to throw up.