Very scary – the coming “new world order church?” April 9, 2014
Posted by Tantumblogo in abdication of duty, Basics, disaster, episcopate, error, foolishness, General Catholic, horror, Sacraments, sadness, scandals, secularism, self-serving, sexual depravity, sickness, Society, the enemy.comments closed
That is what That The Bones You have Crushed May Thrill is calling the scandal of the spectacle surrounding the baptism of a baby – conceived using techniques that would have shocked Dr. Frankenstein – born into a lesbian couple in Argentina: the “new world order church.” Those parents also received Confirmation, in spite of manifestly persisting in an unchaste relationship (there is no doubt these women are not chaste, the art they produce is pornographic).
If you want to see the “glorious” moment, watch this:
I know there are arguments on both sides of the debate on whether baptism should have been granted to this baby. Certainly, the child has done nothing wrong. But infant baptism is supposed to be based on the idea that the child will be raised in a moral, virtuous Catholic home. The faith of the parents and godparents is called upon to instill the same faith in the child until that child comes of age to develop their own faith.
Claiming that these women can somehow provide that basis in faith is, to me, ludicrous. It is scandalous as all get out, like letting a satanist couple have their child baptized (Dear Lord, is that next?). It seems to me to make a mockery of the faith. An unchaste, porn-producing lesbian couple cannot be considered to be faithful! And their baby was produced by a method the church abhors – in vitro fertilization through the use of donated sperm!
The fact that this baptism was so heavily publicized (largely at the couple’s behest) indicates to me that this entire event was orchestrated strictly for advancing “the cause.” We know adherents to “the cause” have many friends in the – far, far too many. I also have to wonder if it is any coincidence that this baptism occurred in Argentina, certainly the first such scandalous baptisms to occur in South America, and quite possibly the world. Is a none-too-subtle message being sent?
Is this the Church’s 21st century understanding of mercy, that sin, basically, doesn’t matter, all that matters is that people – no matter how distant their hearts are from Jesus Christ and His Church – go through a few public ceremonies of the Faith and give a sort of wink and a nod to Jesus, while their real god is themselves? But I thought the pope was violently against this kind of crass formalism?
Dark days ahead. The priest at the catechism class last night was explicating how the sodom and sapphos crowd are going to be the prime instigators of the persecution, within and without the Church. Be prepared to see those who loathe, hate, denounce, and torment you the most call themselves “Catholic.”
Lord, have mercy on us.
Another great online audio resource – Alleluia Audiobooks April 9, 2014
Posted by Tantumblogo in awesomeness, Basics, catachesis, Christendom, General Catholic, Glory, Interior Life, sanctity, Virtue.comments closed
Commenter Noah apprised me today of a site he has, Alleluia Audio Books, containing numerous sermons and other written materials from great Doctors and Fathers of the Church – St. Athanasius. St. Bernard of Clairvaux, St. Augustine…..and that’s just a very paltry beginning.
All the audio is free. They are broken down by several categories – the Blessed Virgin, Our Blessed Lord, the Saints, etc. There is a good selection already, and it looks like more recordings are added regularly.
If you are one of those Catholics who laments they never hear sermons on sin, judgment, hell, Purgatory, various vices, Grace, etc……there is quite a compendium of recordings on just these topics in the sermons section.
There is quite a bit of gold here, which I am only beginning to dig through. There are some other audio sites out there, like the well known Audio Sancto and its Youtube corollary, but different strokes for different folks. Some of the materials on Alleluia Audio Books might really work well for you. Plus, since many of the recordings are straight out of writings from the Saints, you know you are getting catechesis from the most holy sources.
Stop by and check it out!
10 steps to making a good confession April 9, 2014
Posted by Tantumblogo in awesomeness, Basics, catachesis, General Catholic, Glory, Grace, Interior Life, Latin Mass, priests, sanctity, Tradition, true leadership, Virtue.comments closed
From the always good Fr. Peter Carota, ten steps to making a good traditional Catholic confession. And for those who think a good confession is a good confession (that’s what I was thinking at first), I think some of the steps below might clarify the distinction.
I know I probably have many readers who check out Fr. Carota’s blog regularly, but I also have many who don’t. If this post is repetition for you, maybe God wants you to see it again! And if not, there is much to meditate on here. 
Making a good confession is of critical importance. Many people do not know how to do so. If you follow these steps honestly and painstakingly, you can be assured of being in the State of Grace (or returning there) and being right with God.
1) Examination of Conscience. Before planning on going to confession, it is of utmost importance to find a Traditional Examination of Conscience. Then, take time and quietly and prayerfully go over the examination of Conscience. Write down all the sins you have committed. Take this with you. Here is a good examination of conscience: communityofhopeinc.org
2) Sincere Contrition. We need to work on truly being contrite for having sinned against God. That means we see that we were guilty of breaking God’s loving laws. We take full responsibility for having disobeyed God. We need to be very careful to not let any excuses cover over our sins.
3) Deep Sorrow. Once we are contrite and have taken responsibility for having sinned, we also need to work on a true and deep sorrow for having done the sin. This means meditating on the pains we caused for Jesus and the harm we have done to ourselves and to others when we sinned. The monks use to have a cry room. It was not 
for babies who cried.
4) Firm Resolution to Sin No More. So, we are contrite, we are sorry, but now we need to do something about these easily worked up feelings. It is one thing to say I am sorry to someone after I have been caught or feel guilty. But it takes much more effort to stop doing what I have done against them. This is something that has to be diligently worked on.
5) Concrete Plans to Avoid the Occasion of Sin. If the internet is causing you to sin, you need to be willing to give up using the internet. If a person is tempting you to sin, (a few examples: to have sex, use drugs, drinking or gambling), that person has to be avoided. Many so called friends or family members are really instruments of the devil to get us to sin. Jesus says it is better to pluck out an eye, cut off a hand, or a foot rather than to be thrown into hell for all eternity. What ever it is that is causing you to sin, get rid of it (or the friendship).![confessional[1]](https://veneremurcernui.files.wordpress.com/2014/04/confessional1.jpg)
6) Love for God and Fear of God’s Judgement. We should want to make a good confession because we love God. When we work on a loving friendship with God, we want to love Him, not hurt Him. So in our prayer life, working on true love of God, can really help us to please Him rather than to shun His loving life that is sustaining our souls. But if you can not stop sinning out of love, at least do it for fear of God’s judgement and damnation.
7) Do not Withhold Sins. A confession is not valid when we purposely withhold a sin because we are afraid to confess it. If, on the other hand, you forget to confess it by accident, your confession is still valid. Get every serious sin out. Start with the most embarrassing sins first.
9) Confess Sins of Omission As Well. Many times we think that a sin is breaking one of God’s laws. But there are many sins of omission. This means not doing what we should have done. [Yes, and these sins of omission can be some of the most common around. Do you educate yourself and your children in the Faith? Do you abide by all the Church’s laws regarding fasting, assisting at Mass, etc? We all fall short in charity for neighbor, but was there some egregious failure that constitutes a grave sin?]
———–End Quote———–
Go to Fr. Carota’s site to see the last three steps.
I want to expand a bit on number 7. I have read in the writings of various Saints certain miraculous revelations that demonstrated to those Saints (Liguori, certainly, I want to say Bonaventure as well) that a good number of souls, even very pious ones who assisted at Mass very frequently, received regular confession, and in general tried to practice the interior life, still fell into hell because they had some secret sin they were too ashamed of to confess.
Do not let that happen to you! The priests have heard it all. They won’t feel differently about you, or freak out and cast you out of the confessional. They most likely won’t even know who you are, or if by some chance they do, 
remember what it is you confessed. So don’t be embarrassed. If there is some sin that has been weighing on you for a long time, that you just haven’t been able to bring yourself to confess, just get it out! You will feel immensely better.
If you’re really, really embarrassed, and just can’t reveal it to your main confessor and/or priest you greatly esteem, consider going to a different parish for this confession. I don’t normally recommend this, but if there is some matter that you just have not been able to reveal to your confessor, I think it appropriate to recommend going somewhere you are not known. I have done that a couple times when discussing my very sordid past, early on after my conversion.
And make sure to note how many bad confessions you’ve made when you do finally confess this sin! If it’s been hanging there for two years and you’ve been to confession 50 times in that period, you need to tell the priest this, too. Because making a deliberately bad confession is a grave sin.
While you’re at Fr. Carota’s site, you might want to check out this post, too: God’s Laws Do Not Depend on Popular Votes of Approval or Disapproval.
Checklist for Sanctity: It is doable! April 9, 2014
Posted by Tantumblogo in awesomeness, Basics, catachesis, Dallas Diocese, General Catholic, Glory, Grace, Interior Life, Latin Mass, priests, Tradition, true leadership, Virtue.comments closed
I get some comments offline that people really like these VideoSancto videos of sermons, but I rarely get comments online one way or the other. So, I pray you are finding them helpful! Nevertheless, I enjoy them and get a lot of benefit from them, so they’ll be going up either way.
The video below starts out with a great story about St. John Vianney, and the great reliquary he kept in his parish’s cemetery (that’s something I’d love to see more of: Catholic parishes having cemeteries again!). The “reliquary” was just the graves of his parishioners, whom the great Saint had so prayed and suffered over. But he did raise up many Saints! And that is the point of it all, or used to be.
Anyway, the video is about 20 minutes but very worth your time.
The priest then goes through actual questionnaires used by the Vatican for approval of the process of beatification and canonization. If your life corresponds to these items, you are definitely doing very well. If not, you can quickly identify areas for improvement. I think the priest also charitably adds that knowing this should greatly improve our confidence levels regarding salvation.
“Christian perfection is something to which we can all aspire.” I heartily agree! If I can (try to) be a faithful Catholic, goodness, anyone can!
Great stuff, very useful, I think.
Dominus vobiscum!
You shall seek Me and shall not find Me April 9, 2014
Posted by Tantumblogo in awesomeness, Basics, Bible, catachesis, General Catholic, Interior Life, Latin Mass, Liturgical Year, Tradition, Virtue.comments closed
I have been so behind on posts, because of an overwhelming amount of great material to post of late, that I didn’t get to this one until today. The excerpt below is from Dom Prosper Gueranger’s The Liturgical Year, Vol. 6, from Monday in Passion Week. It is a stinging condemnation of indifferent approaches to Judaism, where many in the Church have of late opined that the Jews have their own “path” to salvation, or that the Old Covenant remains intact (which directly contradicts Scripture). Mind you, Gueranger was writing when the modernist heresy was in its infancy, so he is likely not writing against the error that was to become so prevalent in the 20th century – he is simply relating the constant belief of the Church.
Begin quote:
The enemies of Jesus sought to stone Him to death, as we were told in yesterday’s Gospel; today they are bent on making Him a prisoner, and send soldiers to seize Him. This time Jesus does not hide Himself; but how awful are the words He speaks: “I go to Him that sent Me: you shall seek Me, and shall not find Me!” (Jn VII:34). The sinner, then, who has long abused the Grace of God, may have his ingratitude and contempt punished in this just, but terrific way – that he shall not be able to find the Jesus he has despised: he shall seek, and shall not find. [Pope Francis recently gave an “interview” to some Belgian youth. He told them that all who “seek the truth” will eventually find Christ. This statement seems difficult to reconcile with the Scripture explored here, and great swaths of the Tradition. We are not guaranteed salvation. We cannot pursue all manner of error and then expect, miraculously, to be saved. Such salvation may not be impossible, but the Tradition would say it’s a most dangerous path and most unlikely to result in a happy end] Antiochus, when humbled under the hand of God, prayed, yet obtained not mercy! After the death and resurrection of Jesus, whilst the Church was casting her roots in the world, the Jews, who had crucified the Just One, were seeking the Messias in each of the many impostors, who were then rising up in Judea, and fomenting rebellions, which led to the destruction of Jerusalem. [Indeed, they were. And as temple Judaism rapidly decayed after the Resurrection, after the sacrifices had stopped, all manner of perversion were associated with these uprisings. During the final uprising that led to the sacking of Jerusalem by Titus in AD 70, the “Zealouts” were freakish transvestites who wore women’s makeup and clothes and loved to suddenly stab innocent bystanders. Once one rejects the One True Faith, there is no limit to the bad that is possible, and terrible decline into sin and decay generally rapidly follows] Surrounded on all sides by the Roman legions, with their temple and palaces a prey to flames, they sent up their cries to Heaven, and besought the God of their fathers to send, as He had promised, the Deliverer!
It never occurred to them that this Deliverer had shown Himself to their fathers, to many even of themselves; that they had put Him to death, and that the Apostles had already carried His Name to the ends of the earth. They went on looking for Him, even to the very day when the God-killing city fell, burying beneath its ruins them that the sword had spared. Had they been asked what it was they wre awaiting, they would ahve replied that they were expecting their Messiah! He had come, and gone. You shall seek Me, and shall not find Me! Let those, too, think of these terrible words of Jesus, who intend to neglect the graces offered to them during this Easter. Let us pray, let us make intercession for them, lest they fall into that awful threat, of a repentance that seeks mercy when it is too late to fight aught save an inexorable justice.
But what consoling thoughts are suggested by the concluding words of our Gospel! Faithful souls, and you that have repented, listen to what your Jesus says, for it is to you that He speaks: “If any man thirst, let him come to Me and drink” (Jn VII:37). Remember the prayer of the Samaritan woman: Give me, O Lord, to drink of this water! (Jn IV:15). This water is Divine Grace; come, and drink your fill at the fountains of your Savior, as the prophet Isaiah bids you (Is XII:3). This water gives purity to the souls that are defiled, strength to them that are weak, and love to them that have no fervor. Nay, our Savior assures us that he who believes in Him shall himself become as a fountain of living water, for the Holy Ghost will come upon him, and he shall pour out upon others of the fullness that he himself has received. Jesus has made Himself everything to the world He has come to save: Light to guide us, Bread to nourish us, a Vine to gladden our hearts with its fruit, and lastly, a Fountain of living water to quench our thirst.
———–End Quote———-
Two things: the first, already mentioned, the enormous difficulty of modern “ecumenical” approaches to Judaism, which pretend, for the first time in the entire history of the Church, that Judaism is somehow equivalent to faithful Catholic Christianity, or very nearly so.
Secondly, this point is not made explicitly above, but it is key: we do not know how many times God will forgive us. Two great Doctors, Aquinas and Liguori, both strongly warn the faithful that they are tempting God by repeatedly falling into mortal sin. They may have been able to repent and confess many times, but there may come a time when that Grace of repentance is no longer present, when God has reached his limit for how many times He will forgive a given soul. The more we sin, the closer we come to that time when we may no longer be able to find that repentance within us.
In addition, sin so corrupts the soul and darkens the intellect that the more we sin gravely, the more ingrained the habit becomes and the more difficult to overcome. Our soul is wounded each time by sin, and although we may be washed anew in Confession, lingering effects remain. It is so critical, therefore, to avoid sin to the utmost of our ability to cooperate with Grace, and to pray like mad that we may overcome any habits of sin we have.
Rules for avoiding bad books, films, magazines, internet, etc April 9, 2014
Posted by Tantumblogo in Basics, catachesis, Christendom, error, General Catholic, priests, reading, scandals, secularism, Society, the enemy, true leadership, Virtue.comments closed
A priest at a catechism class last night gave us a handout that summarizes the general laws which guided the former (and much missed) Index of Forbidden Books. The Index served as a guide or warning system to prevent Catholics from falling into error by reading a bad, dangerous book. St. Alphonsus Liguori observed in his immensely fruitful life that one bad book could destroy an entire monastery. For centuries, the Church, in her beneficent wisdom, kept a list of books that were dangerous to one’s Faith. Of course, we pretend we are much too mature to need such a thing anymore, and so millions of Catholics have fallen into error or even apostasy.
The guidelines below were written with books or other written publications in mind but apply to films, TV shows, and especially the internet. Anything which possesses characteristics listed below is to be avoided:
- Books which designedly defend, propagate, or persuade people to accept heresy or schism. [This could be any book on religion written by protestants, new agers, etc]
- Books which undertake to destroy the truths which are fundamental to religion, e.g., the existence of God, the spirituality of the soul, the freedom of the will, the possibility of Divine Revelation or of miracles, etc. [Darwin, Dawkins, de Chardin, many other modernist writers]
- Books which assiduously attack either natural religion, or the Catholic Faith, or good morals. This does not include books which may make some slurring remark or which may include some brief objectionable passage; rather it refers to books which set forth many arguments or which devote th equivalent of a chapter to such purposes.
- Books written by non-Catholics which professedly treat of religion, unless it is clear that they contain nothing of consequence contrary to the Catholic Faith. [Again, protestants, eastern religions, sexular pagans, etc]
- Books which attack any article of the Catholic Faith, which assiduously defend any error condemned by the Holy See; which deride Divine Worship, or which attack, repudiate, or demean the concept of the hierarchy of the clerical state or of the religious life. [the Distorter, pretty much any liberal katholyc publication, many ostensible catechetical sources like St. Anthony’s Messenger Press. websites like US Catholic……this one would have a very extensive list today]
- Books which teach or propagate superstition and similar perversions of true religion [that movie Noah could fall under this one]
- Books which defend as moral the practices of dueling, suicide, or divorce [Obviously a bit dated, you could extend this today, given how far we’ve fallen, to contraception, abortion, support for pretend marriage, etc]
- Books which present masonry and similar secret sects, not as pernicious, but as useful to the Church and civil society
- Books relating new miracles, prophesies, visions, etc., or promoting devotional novelties, when they are published in spite of canonical regulations. [cough…….Medg……..cough cough]
- Books which publicize spurious indulgences, or those proscribed or revoked by the Holy See
- Any images of our Lord, the Blessed Virgin, or the Angels and Saints which are not in keeping with the spirit and decrees of the Church.
- Editions and translations of the Sacred Scriptures which are published by non-Catholics
- Books which professedly discuss, describe, or teach impure topics [Geez….this could be a massive list today. 50 Shades of Grey, the whole romance novel genre, almost all movies, TV shows……]
With some prayer and extrapolation, I think the above list can serve as a helpful guide for navigating the very difficult task or determining what is acceptable to read, watch, listen to, etc. Some basic rules of thumb: on religious matters, it had better be written by a Catholic. Stay totally away from atheists, anti-Christian types, leftists generally, perversion, Mark Shea, satanists, astrologers, new agers……I could go on, but hopefully you get the point.
Anyway, I hope you find this useful and beneficial. I think for the most part my reading/viewing habits correspond but there is one show I got sucked into of late that I probably should have avoided (True Detective). Pretty scary stuff.
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