St. Alphonsus Liguori on the proofs of Christ’s fulfillment of Old Testament prophecies regarding the Messiah August 19, 2015
Posted by Tantumblogo in awesomeness, Basics, Bible, catachesis, episcopate, General Catholic, Glory, Grace, Interior Life, reading, Tradition, true leadership, Victory, Virtue.comments closed
From the great Moral Doctor Saint Alphonsus Maria de Liguori’s book The Passion and Death of Our Lord Jesus Christ, numerous OT prophecies that point to the proof of Jesus Christ being the Messiah. He then segues to a most beautiful reflection on the great love we should have for our Blessed Lord in meditating on His Sacrifice on our behalf:
We must here notice taht in the Book of Wisdom, the shameful death of Jesus Christ is clearly foretold. Although the words of the passage referred to may apply to the death of every just man, yet, say Tertullian, St. Cyprian, St. Jerome, and many other holy Fathers, that they principally refer to the death of Christ. It is said: If He is the true Son of God, He will accept Him, and deliver Him (Wis ii:18). These words exactly correspond with what the Jews said when Jesus was upon the cross: He trusted in God; let Him deliver Him, if He will have Him; for He said, ‘I am the Son of God’ (Mt xxvii:43). The wise man goes on to say, Let us try Him with insults and torments; let us condemn Him to the most shameful death (Wis ii:19). The Jews chose the death of the cross for Jesus Christ, because it is shameful, in order that His Name might be forever infamous, and no more held in remembrance, according to….Jeremias: Let us cast wood into His bread, and wipe Him out from the land of the living, and His name shall be remembered no more (Jer xi:19). How, then, can the Jews of the present day say that it is false that Christ was the promised Messiah, when the prophets themselves foretold that He should die with a most dishonorable death?
And Jesus accepted such a death. He died to pay the price of our sins; and therefore, as a sinner, he desired to be circumcised; to be redeemed with the price when he was presented in the temple; to receive the baptism of repentance form the Baptist’ and lastly, in His Passion, to be nailed upon the cross to atone for our guilty wanderings; to atone for our avarice, by being stripped of his garments; for our pride, by the insults He endured; for our desires of power, by submitting himself to the executioner; for our evil thoughts, by His crown of thorns; for our intemperance, by the gall He tasted; and by the pangs of His body, for our sensual delights. Therefore, we ought continually, with tears of tenderness, to thank the Eternal Father for having given His innocent Son to death, to deliver us from eternal death; He spared not His only Son, but delivered Him up for us all; and how shall He not also with Him give us all things (Rom viii:32)? Thus said St. Paul; and thus Jesus Himself said, in the Gospel of St. John: God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son (Jn iii:16). ON this account, the Holy Church exclaims on Holy Saturday, “Oh wonderful is it which Thy love has done for us!” O infinite mercy, O infinite love of our God! O holy faith! How can he who believes and confesses this, live without burning with holy love for a God Who is so loving, and so worthy of love?
O eternal God, look not upon me thus overwhelmed with sins;’ look upon Thy innocent Son hanging upon a cross, who offers Thee the many pangs and insults which He has suffered, that Thou mayst have mercy upon me. O God, most worthy of love, and my true lover, for the love of this Thy Son, so beloved by Thee, have mercy upon me. The mercy I ask is, that Thou shouldst give me Thy holy love. Oh, draw me wholly to Thyself, from the mire of my corruption. Burn up, O Thou consuming fire, all that Thou seest impure in my soul, and that hinders me from being wholly Thine.
Let us give thanks to the Father, and let us give equal thanks to the Son, that He has been willing to take upon Him our flesh, and, together with it, our sins, to offer to Go, by His Passion, a worthy satisfaction. It is on this account that the Apostle says that Jesus Christ has become our mediator; that is, that He has bound Himself to pay our debts. As the mediator between God and man, He has established a covenant with God, by which He has bound Himself to satisfy the Divine Justice for us; and, on the other hand, has promised to us eternal life on the part of God. Therefore, in anticipation of this, the Preacher warns us not to forget the Grace of this divine surety, who, to obtain salvation for us, has been willing to sacrifice His life. Forget not the Grace of the Surety, for He hath given His soul for thee (Eccl xxix:20). It is to give us the better assurance of pardon, says St. Paul, that Jesus Christ, with His blood has blotted out the decree of our condemnation, in which the decree of our eternal death stands written against us, and has nailed it to the cross on which He died to satisfy the divine justice for us (Col ii:14).
O my Jesus! By that love which caused Thee to give Thy blood and Thy life upon Calvary for me, make me die to all the affections of this world; make me forget everything, that I may not think of anything but to love Thee and give Thee pleasure! O my God, worthy of infinite love, Thou hast loved me without reserve, I desire to love Thee also without reserve. I love Thee, my greatest good; I love Thee O my love, my all!
———-End Quote———
Oh wait, how did that get there?!? I meant this:
Grave moral dangers of the public school system August 19, 2015
Posted by Tantumblogo in awesomeness, Basics, catachesis, Domestic Church, episcopate, error, family, foolishness, General Catholic, manhood, paganism, persecution, sadness, scandals, secularism, Tradition, Virtue.comments closed
A good video on the influences that kids get exposed to in public schools in particular, but many of these same dangers exist in private schools, including Catholic schools. The video is not long, I especially recommend you listen to the last 15 minutes, the first part does deal with a topic that has now long passed.
If we are not guided by the Holy Spirit, we are either guided by fallen human spirit or by the evil ones. What kind of spirits guide children in schools where God is deliberately excluded and even prayer is banned? It’s not the Holy Spirit. What kind of immoral things do children learn in school? I’ve always felt one of the greatest dangers in school is not necessarily from the teachers or formal educational program – though with Obergefell and the imposition of pseudo-sodo-marriage this gets worse every day – but from the other students! One has no control over who one’s child is exposed to at school, and to some degree, your child can be influenced by the least well-raised child there.
The Catholic schools as a system in these United States of America is a disaster. Anecdotes follow. As to the anecdote regarding First Communion, I know this priest, and he is not unreasonably rigorous when it comes to this subject. For younger kids, he’s pretty much satisfied if they understand what the Real Presence means. I think we can take away from this anecdote the sure knowledge that these particular Catholic HIGH school students did not comprehend or believe in the Real Presence, at least.
Great quotes by Pius XI and Leo XIII.
It is understood that for various reasons, not all people can homeschool. I fully understand this. Not all people who perhaps have the monetary ability to homeschool have the virtues required to do so. That is not necessarily a knock on them. But Father brings up a great point, if you do place your kids in public or private schools, what are you doing to insure they are protected – inoculated, if you will – against the dangers that will be present there? This may sound incredible, but I know Father would agree, Catholic schools are often even more dangerous than public ones for young souls! Decades ago Ven. Bishop Fulton Sheen was warning parents not to send their kids to Catholic schools, as the majority even then fell away! The situation has grown much worse in the intervening years. If you do send your kids to Catholic schools, never assume they are learning the Faith there. Believe me on this. In fact, what is typically taught is a form of progressive indifferentism with a patina of Catholicism that often proves an irresistible formula for falling away from the Church and never returning. There are very few exceptions to this rule, and I honestly believe there are ZERO exceptions in this Diocese. It is possible for kids in Catholic schools to remain Catholic, but it will require constant vigilance and serious effort on the part of the parents to insure they do so.
And now I am getting reports from a number of parents that the Diocese of Dallas is moving to restrict what resources homeschooling parents use in the formation of their children, and seem to be encouraging pastors to set up much more formal, monitored programs that are required to use “approved” books and manuals. The Baltimore Catechism, This Is The Faith, My Catholic Faith, The Catechism Explained, etc., are not on the list, but problematic USCCB-approved works are. There may be more on this later.
A final note: I know I personally learned some really bad things at far too young an age, and was left cursed by an “oversexualization” that caused me many, many problems later in life. I won’t go into detail but I had a friend in elementary school who (I know not how) knew WAAAAY too much and shared all that with me. So basically by age 9 or 10 I knew all the ins and outs of the marital act, sodomy, etc., and had gone a pretty far way towards actualizing this knowledge. If it weren’t for reticence on the part of various young girls, I would certainly have actualized all that I possibly could have. And that, my friends, was over 30 years ago, in an affluent Dallas suburb, behavior ongoing among the honor students. 5 or 6 years later, those same honor students were getting blotto drunk on weekends and random hookups were a regular occurrence. Stomachs were pumped, pregnancies were concealed, but most managed to muddle through. 10 years later, in the early 90s, doctors were shocked to find rates of serious STDs skyrocket among 12-15 year old girls in a different affluent suburb, this one outside Atlanta. Some investigation found that literally scores of girls had, under the influence of satellite porn that several of their parents had subscribed to, already had hundreds of partners. Think about that.
New book coming from prelates opposed to Kasperite gambit at Synod August 19, 2015
Posted by Tantumblogo in Basics, episcopate, error, General Catholic, manhood, Sacraments, secularism, self-serving, sexual depravity, sickness, Society, SOD, the return, the struggle for the Church.comments closed
Last year, prior to the Extraordinary Synod on the Family, five cardinals – Burke, Brandmuller, Muller, Caffarra, and De Paolis – published a book plainly in opposition to the attempts to redefine Church Dogma – “pastorally” – by the modernist/progressive faction at the Synod. There was much scandal surrounding this publication, both from the exasperated Kasperites who felt it an attack on their false thesis and even the Holy Father, but also in how hundreds of copies of the book were blocked from distribution to Synod fathers during its deliberations by Archbishop Baldisseri, Pope Francis’ hand-picked synod-director. An archbishop also contributed to the book.
News has been trickling out regarding another book published by a further 11 prelates, only one of whom contributed to last year’s book, which will also oppose any attempts to change doctrine through ostensibly “pastoral” applications (which have the deliberate purpose of undermining and changing doctrine in practice). These prelates include:
Carlo Caffarra, Archbishop of Bologna; Baselios Cleemis, Archbishop of the Syro-Malankara Catholic Church and President of the Episcopal Conference of India; Paul Josef Cordes, Presidente emeritius of the Pontifical Council «Cor Unum»; Dominik Duka, O.P., Archbishop of Prague, Primate of Bohemia; Willem Jacobus Eijk, Archbishop of Utrecht; Joachim Meisner, Archbishop emeritus of Cologne; John Olorunfemi Onaiyekan, Archbishop of Abuja (Nigeria); Antonio Maria Rouco Varela, Archbishop emeritus of Madrid; Camillo Ruini, Vicar General emeritus of His Holiness for the Dioceses of Rome; Robert Sarah, Prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments; Jorge Liberato Urosa Savino, Archbishop of Caracas, Venezuela.
Unlike the prelates who contributed to last year’s book, most of those involved in this latest effort are not widely known for strong adherence to orthodox/traditional beliefs. Well, more the former than the latter, anyway. And many of them, as you can tell by their titles above, have been entrusted with lead positions in many key institutional offices, meaning they are consummate insiders. One wonders whether the same retribution which afflicted last year’s authors, especially Cardinal Burke, who was seen as the effort’s spokesman and leader, will be meted out to these prelates?
More from Rorate:
Will all of them be accused again of obstructing the debate and even worse, of opposing the Pope? Someone might try to, attempting to incite a game of [opposing] sides that tends to create alliances and supporters, but the eleven cardinals on the field don’t seem at all disposed to being crushed on their half of the field. Neither do they seem inclined to play a tight defensive game, which is what they would like to accuse them of, making them appear banal “crystallizers” of doctrine.
As far as we know, the questions the 11 cardinals want to respond to are absolutely pastoral and touch (actually, they bend to) the lives of all of us. How can we accompany best those who have been abandoned by their spouses and remain faithful to a marriage they have been released from in such a manner? In which way can marriage preparation better face the situation of young couples who are barely catechized and are profoundly influenced by a secularized culture?
For the answers to these and other similar questions, we will have to wait for the publication of the book at the end of September. All the evidence indicates that the publisher is once again Cantagalli. We will be just a few days away from the Synod, and from among the possible pastoral answers on the themes of marriage and the family we will also have to reckon with these ones as well.
In conclusion, the latest news. Along with the book by the 11 cardinals, another text of great interest should be coming out. In this case there will also be 11, between bishops and cardinals, but they are all African; to tell us about Africa, in fact, to let the voice of Africa be heard on the Synod themes – and not only. It will be wise to pay attention and listen as rumour has it that the title is “Nova Patria Christi Africa”.
7th Planned Butchery video claims baby’s brains harvested while heart still beating August 19, 2015
Posted by Tantumblogo in abdication of duty, Abortion, contraception, disaster, General Catholic, horror, It's all about the $$$, paganism, sadness, scandals, secularism, self-serving, sexual depravity, shocking, sickness, Society, unadulterated evil.comments closed
You know eventually the Senate will be forced to vote again. If what I hear is coming actually does, even the most crazed pro-aborts are going to be forced to turn on this organization, at least as a political expedient if not out of true conviction. We’re still tipping icebergs here.
A new video produces evidence that Banned Parenthood and its partner companies in the baby murder and organ harvesting business routinely eviscerate fully alive babies outside the womb. This is the kind of thing that sent Kermit Gosnell to prison for life:
The video features Holly O’Donnell, a licensed phlebotomist who unsuspectingly took a job as a “procurement technician” at the fetal tissue company and biotech start-up StemExpress in late 2012. That’s the company that acts as a middleman and purchases the body parts of aborted babies from Planned Parenthood to sell to research universities and other places. StemExpress was partnered with Planned Parenthood up until last week, when it quietly announced it ended its relationship with the abortion corporation.
The new video includes O’Donnell’s eyewitness narrative of the daily practice of fetal body parts harvesting in Planned Parenthood abortion clinics. She tells the harrowing story of harvesting an intact brain from a late-term male unborn baby whose heart was still beating after the abortion.
O’Donnell describes the harvesting, or “procurement,” of organs from a nearly intact late-term baby aborted at Planned Parenthood Mar Monte’s Alameda clinic in San Jose, California.
“‘I want to see something kind of cool,’” O’Donnell says her supervisor asked her. “And she just taps the heart, and it starts beating. And I’m sitting here and I’m looking at this fetus, and its heart is beating, and I don’t know what to think.”
The San Jose Planned Parenthood does abortions up to 20 weeks of pregnancy. Referring to the beating heart of the aborted fetus, O’Donnell remarks, “I don’t know if that constitutes it’s technically dead, or it’s alive.”…….. [I pray most fervently for the conversion of your reprobate heart]
……..The group also indicates StemExpress has been cited in published scientific literature as a source of fetal hearts used for Langendorff perfusion, which keeps a heart beating after it is excised from the body. [Would that not be evidence admissible in court? Why has no one filed charges against StemExpress and PP?]
O’Donnell also tells how her StemExpress supervisor instructed her to cut through the face of the fetus in order to get the brain. [With the baby still alive. There is no depth to the horrors to which men will sink when they reject God]
“I can’t even describe what that feels like,” she says.
The video also features recordings of Dr. Ben Van Handel, the Executive Director of Novogenix Laboratories, LLC, and also of Perrin Larton, Procurement Manager of Advanced Bioscience Resources, Inc. (ABR)…….
…..Van Handel admits, “There are times when after the procedure is done that the heart actually is still beating,” and Larton describes abortions she has seen where “the fetus was already in the vaginal canal whenever we put her in the stirrups, it just fell out.” [Well they can’t let all that valuable tissue go to waste just because the baby is alive and breathing! Quick, bring the saw!]
………This newest expose’ video further confirms what Dr. Theresa Deisher, a world-renowned scientist in the field of stem cell research who holds patents after discovering adult stem cells in human hearts, said in a recent interview. Deisher helped the pro-life activists who spent three years recording undercover videos and capturing documents and information showing the Planned Parenthood abortion business selling aborted babies and their body parts.
She says she has reviewed the information the activists collected and she is making a shocking claim that Planned Parenthood may be keeping some babies alive after the abortion procedure in order to better collect their organs for harvesting — such as their hearts.
“Biomedical companies prefer gestational ages of greater than 20 weeks for heart muscle,” she adds. “This is from reading their publications; so, I have always suspected that the babies in some of these cases were alive until their hearts were cut out.” [Just a thought – you see Bill Maher and other deranged atheists proclaim how much “evil” religion has foisted on the world. Give me a break, this latest PP scandal is exactly the kind of evil that godlessness provokes! Only people totally cut off from Grace could descend to this level of macabre evil. You want to see hell on earth, Bill Maher, keep pushing your satanic atheism.]
……The full, unedited videos have confirmed that revelations that some aborted baby remains sold by Planned Parenthood go to biotech companies for the purpose of creating “humanized” mice. Meanwhile, Planned Parenthood has been exposed as having sold body parts from aborted babies for as much as 15 years.
The federal law that technically prohibits the sale of aborted babies and their body parts was written by a pro-abortion Congressman decades ago and essentially spells out a process by which sellers of aborted baby body parts can meet certain criteria that allows the sales to be legal. That’s why a Colorado congressman has introduced legislation to totally ban the sales of aborted baby body parts.
One would hope, at the end of all this scandal and stomach-wrenching heartbreak, that’s the very least that would result. But who knows, it seems only 30% of the American public – almost solely conservatives – have heard of this scandal, so total has been the media embargo on this subject. So it’s very likely nothing will happen to Planned Barrenhood. If so, what a damning indictment of this nation and the depths to which it has sunk, and what a frightening portent for the future.
God will not be mocked forever. At some point, there will be a horrific reckoning for this nation’s descent into the most despicable evil.
Meanwhile, Texas Catholic Conference is most concerned about payday loan businesses and Catholic Erf day.
This video is pretty rough. Discretion advised.
Catechesis against using the Lord’s Name vainly and cussing August 19, 2015
Posted by Tantumblogo in Admin, Art and Architecture.comments closed
I grew up hearing a lot of bad language. It’s a bad habit I’ve always had a problem with. Generally I’m OK, but when I get excited the old ways tend to come back. In the internal forum there is much more cussing than there is in the external one. Fortunately, I have managed to almost totally eschew taking the Lord’s Name in a blasphemous or even vain way.
One time I had a blow up at work. I was really exasperated, and the queen mother of all cuss words flew out of my mouth. It wound up being funny, because my co-workers were all like “Oh no! Something really terrible must have happened, Larry never talks like that.” Unfortunately, they’re not quite right, I just tend to stay on my best behavior in public.
Yes, that’s me, Mr. Dudley Do-Right, a lonely beacon of restraint in a world full of car-crazies (if you can name the reference w/o looking it up, you win a free year’s subscription to this blog).
Now for the formal catechesis, from the Spirago-Clarke Catechism Explained. What some may not consider, is that even relatively innocent expressions like “Good Lord” can suffer abuse through overuse:
God prohibits everything which is a violation of the reverence due to His divine majesty; and in particular, taking the name of God in vain.
Many people have the habit of thoughtlessly exclaiming at every trifle that surprises them: “Good Lord! My God!” and the like. It is a bad habit; correct yourselves of it, and endeavor to correct others also, as it shows a want of due reverence for the name of God. Those who truly love God cannot stand by unmoved and hear His Holy Name profaned. This careless, flippant use of the Name of God or of any other sacred name is at least a venial sin. “Let not the naming of God be usual in thy mouth, for thou shalt not escape free from sin” (Eccl xxiii:10). “The Lord will not hold him guiltless that shall take the name of the Lord his God in vain” (Ex xx:7). “We take good care,” says St. John Chrysostom, “not to wear out our best clothes by putting them on every day; so we must beware lest we thoughtlessly utter the name of God, which is worthy of our profoundest reverence.”…….
Swearing. By this is meant the use of holy names in a moment of anger as an imprecation against certain persons or things.
Should the same mouth wherewith we pray, wherewith we receive the sacred Body of the Lord, be employed to curse our neighbor and offend against God?
A man who indulges in the bad habit of swearing commits many sins, and is in danger of eternal perdition.
The Fathers used to consider swearing as a sign of perdition. Those who curse shall perish (Ps xxxvi:22); they shall not possesss the Kingdom of God (1 Cor vi:10). Ordinary swearing is a venial sin, provided no serious evil is worked to one’s neighbor……..
Blasphemy. Of this sin those are guilty who revile God, His Saints, or speak contemptuously of objects connected with His worship.
Ungodly persons are often heard to utter bitter revilings against God, especially in time of suffering and affliction, as if they did not deserve the trials He sends them. It is blasphemy to speak scornfully of God, or of His actions; or to attribute to a creature what is the prerogative of the Creator……..God says by the mouth of the prophet: “My name is continually blasphemed all the day long” (Is lii:5). [What a terrible thought, but it is unfortunately all too true!] To speak contemptuously of holy places and things is a kind of blasphemy, as a reflection upon God, Whom we are told to praise in His holy places (Ps cl:1).
Sacrilege is another kind of blasphemy. This consists in putting to an improper and degrading use what pertains to the service of God.
The mutilation of statues or defacing of crucifixes is a sacrilege……..Again, those who receive the sacraments unworthily, who appropriate to themselves Church property, or who commit a theft in church, come under the same condemnations. It is said that Jews and freemasons have sometimes obtained consecrated Hosts, which they subjected to horrible profanations,. Such conduct is simply satanic. [Think of the iconoclastic wreckovation of so many parishes over the past several decades. How offensive to God the deliberate and wanton destruction of so many beautiful works of art and aspects of Church architecture all this was!]
Another bit on the masons: In the present day freemasons bind themselves by oath not to express any desire to receive the last sacraments on their death bed. Such oaths are sinful, and highly displeasing to God.
A Blog for Dallas Area Catholics 