Obscure Saint of the Day: Saint Cunera November 2, 2015
Posted by Tantumblogo in awesomeness, Basics, Domestic Church, family, fun, General Catholic, Glory, Grace, history, Saints, sanctity, Tradition, Virtue.comments closed
Possibly a new semi-regular post topic: obscure Saints? We’ll see!
So every year at the Carmel kids from the local FSSP parish get to have a really nice treat on All Saints Day – they get to play “stump the nuns” with the good Carmelites of the Infant Jesus of Prague. The nuns sit in their parlor behind their heavy duty grill, and the kids go in dressed in as various Saints and give the nuns a few clues as to their identities. Now these nuns pray all day and study quite a bit as well, so they generally guess the Saints very well. But our kids have taken a bit of pride – possibly a bit perverse – in successfully stumping the nuns. They do so even though they give quite a few good clues.
There are many, many forgotten Saints. And it is those our kids research to stump the nuns. Secular Saints seem to be particularly obscure, even to these very well formed ladies. Also, those who are not as well known in the English-speaking milieu (think German/Central European). So it was that three of my 6 kids managed to stump the nuns. The one that had them most flabbergasted and unable to guess was Saint Cunera, an Irish woman from antiquity, who was martyred along with what is reputed to be thousands of other virgins with the much more well known St. Ursula. The most detailed story on her life on the web is here, I excerpt just a bit of this copyrighted post below:
When the celebrated St. Ursula was about to sail from Britain on a pilgrimage to Rome with her eleven thousand virgins, St. Cunera—who is said to have been her kinswoman—joined this company.
The object St. Ursula had in view was to visit the shrines of St. Peter and of St. Paul, with those of other holy persons there resting. She had previously sent messengers to the Orkney city of Jorc, entreating permission that her parents might allow their daughter Cunera to leave with her.
This permission she obtained, and accordingly Cunera accompanied her to Rome. Having accomplished their pious wishes there, all were on their way home to Britain, and they sailed down the Rhine to Cologne. When the illustrious pilgrims were on their return, the whole party was massacred by the Huns, with the exception of St. Cunera.
The exact time when this martyrdom took place, and its special circumstances, have been greatly contested by historians. Some have thought it referable to the Emperor Maximin, who lived in the third century; others again state, it was in the time of the tyrant Maximus, who flourished about A.D. 385; while most writers treating about this occurrence assign it to the middle of the century succeeding, and in the time of Attila.
In the year 1156, many tombs, with inscriptions, were discovered at Cologne, which were thought to have been those of St. Ursula and her companions. Among these are said to have been found the names of many bishops and of other holy persons, supposed to have been her companions. At the time of that massacre Radbod, King of Frisia, and a great foe to Pepin of Heristal, is assumed to have been at Cologne.
This account, however, is altogether inconsistent with historic indications. Radbod was so struck by the beauty of Cunera, that he saved her from the massacre, and hid her under his mantle, as the Legend states. Thence he carried her off to Rhenen, his capital on the Rhine, and which was in the diocese of Utrecht. This city was formerly on the left bank of the old Rhine, the bed of which is now nearly dried up; but it is on the right bank of the later course of the Rhine, which in those parts is called Lecka.
The city was so called, probably because it was situated between the two Rhines. A probable conjecture has been offered, however, that St. Cunera had been a daughter to one of those chiefs who had been baptized in Frisia, by St. Willibrord; that she had deserved the reverence of a king with whom she lived; and that she had been put to death, owing to the jealousy of his wife.
Afterwards, when miraculous indications had revealed her sanctity, a church was built over her place of sepulture. In reference to her the popular traditions becoming obscure, she is thought to have been regarded as one of St. Ursula’s contemporaries and companions. However, we have only to pursue the narrative regarding her, as we find it in the Legend.
Belated prayer for souls in Purgatory and reminder on Plenary Indulgences November 2, 2015
Posted by Tantumblogo in awesomeness, Basics, Four Last Things, General Catholic, Glory, Grace, Interior Life, sanctity, Spiritual Warfare, Tradition, Virtue.comments closed
Hopefully you’ve been to Mass today. I have not, yet. I’ve been having a really tough time of late. My truck transmission, which I had been trying to save for weeks, finally imploded last night. There’s a nice unexpected $2000 bill. I am so busy at work I barely have time to breathe, let alone blog. This may continue for some time. So here’s a quick if late post containing a prayer for the souls in Purgatory as well as requirements regarding gaining a plenary indulgence for the poor souls. It’s not easy.
After each invocation say:
My Jesus, mercy
O JESUS, Thou didst suffer and die that all mankind
might be saved and brought to eternal happiness.
Through the Agony of Thine Crown of Thorns
I offer it to Thy Eternal Father that Thou wilt
hear our pleas for further mercy on the souls of:
My dear parents and grandparents,
My brothers and sisters and other near relatives,
My godparents and sponsors of Confirmation,
My spiritual and temporal benefactors,
My friends and neighbors,
All for whom love or duty bids me pray,
Those who have offended me,
Those who have suffered disadvantage of harm through me,
Those who are especially beloved by Thee,
Those whose release is near at hand,
Those who desire most to be united to Thee,
Those who endure the greatest suffering,
Those whose release is most remote,
Those who are least remembered,
Those who are most deserving on
account of their services to the Church,
The rich who are now the most destitute,
The mighty who are now powerless,
The once spiritually blind, who now see their folly,
The frivolous, who spent their time in idleness,
The poor, who did not seek the treasures of Heaven,
The tepid, who devoted little time to prayer,
The indolent, who neglected to perform good works,
Those of little faith, who neglected
the frequent reception of the Sacraments,
The habitual sinners, who owe
their salvation to a miracle of grace,
Parents who failed to watch over their children,
Superiors who were not solicitous
for the salvation of those entrusted to them,
Those who strove for worldly riches and pleasures,
The worldly minded, who failed to
use their wealth and talents in the service of God,
Those who witnessed the death of others,
but would not think of their own,
Those who blasphemed and committed
sacrilege without due reparation,
Those who violated the dignity of the human body
and mind through impurity,
Those who are Purgatory because of me,
Those who did not provide for the life hereafter,
Those whose sentence is severe because
of the great things entrusted to them,
The popes, kings and rulers,
The bishops and their counselors,
My teachers and spiritual advisors,
The deceased priests of this diocese,
The priests and religious of the Catholic Church,
The defenders of the holy Catholic Faith,
Those who died on the battlefield,
Those who fought for their country,
Those who were buried in the sea,
Those who died suddenly in accidents
and from other causes,
Those who died of sudden illness,
Those who suffered and died of lingering illnesses,
Those who died without the last rites of the Church,
Those who shall die within the next twenty-four hours,
For those who procured abortions or aborted their children,
For those who promoted or practiced contraception,
For those who gave scandal, especially to children,
My own poor soul when I shall have to
appear before Thy judgment seat.
PRAYER
Eternal rest grant unto all of these,
O Lord; and let the perpetual light of
Thine countenance shine upon them soon. Amen.
Prepare now to assist in helping the poor souls in purgatory. Many poor souls (also known as holy souls because they can no longer commit any sins) have no one to pray for them. Less than 1% of those who die go straight to heaven. We can never assume our recently deceased friends and relatives are in heaven, even if they were fortunate to receive an apostolic blessing before they died.
(1) compile your list of deceased relatives and friends
and enroll them in novena masses and prayers during the month of November
(2) Plan to go to confession on to offer indulgences for the holy souls
The month of November is dedicated to the Holy Souls. On all the days from November 1 to November 8 inclusive, a plenary indulgence, applicable only to the Poor Souls, is granted to those who visit a cemetery and pray, even if only mentally, for the departed (standard requirements for indulgences apply*).
Partial indulgences are granted to those who recite Lauds or Vespers of the Office of the Dead, and to those who recite the prayer, “Requiem aeternum, dona eis, Domini, et lux perpetua luceat eis. Requiescant in pace” (“Eternal rest grant unto them, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon them. May they rest in peace”).
*Requirements for obtaining a plenary indulgence:
Do the work while in a state of grace,
Receive Sacramental confession within 20 days of the work (several plenary indulgences may be earned per reception),
Receive Eucharistic communion (one plenary indulgence may be earned per reception),
Pray for the pope’s intentions (Our Father and Hail Mary, or other appropriate prayer, is sufficient),
Have no attachment to sin (even venial) – i.e., it is sufficient that the Christian makes an act of the will to love God and despise sin.
Requirements for a partial indulgence: The work must be done while in a state of grace and with the general intention of earning an indulgence.
Notes:
Only baptized persons in a state of grace who generally intend to do so may earn indulgences.
Indulgences cannot be applied to the living, but only to the one doing the work or to the dead.
Only one plenary indulgence per day can be earned (except for prayer at the hour of one’s own death).
Several partial indulgences can be earned during the same day.
If only part of a work with plenary indulgence attached is completed, a partial indulgence still obtains.
If the penance assigned in confession has indulgences attached, the one work can satisfy both penance and indulgence.
Confessors may commute the work or the conditions if the penitent cannot perform them due to legitimate obstacles.
In groups, indulgenced prayer must be recited by at least one member while the others at least mentally follow the prayer.
If speech/hearing impairments make recitation impossible, mental expression or reading of the prayer is sufficient.
UK academic extols the benefits of pedophilia November 2, 2015
Posted by Tantumblogo in Abortion, Basics, contraception, disaster, General Catholic, horror, paganism, scandals, secularism, self-serving, sexual depravity, silliness, Society, unadulterated evil.comments closed
Only an academic could determine that pedophiles are just ideal for roles involving continuous close contact with children:
In my studies of the Paedophile Information Exchange in the 1980s, many members admitted sexual feelings for children which they had been able to contain or turn to social good. Some gravitated toward occupations such as schoolteacher or social worker, where they could enjoy the company of children without plotting abuse. This fitted with personality profiles indicating that they were gentle, rational and not disposed to harm anybody.
It is widely known that those with pedophile inclinations gravitate towards positions that put them in close proximity with children. So the idea that this is somehow a form of “therapy” for them where they can enjoy their perversion without destroying the soul of perfectly innocent children is perfectly asinine. It is only in a truly sick and deviant post-Christian society that attempts to normalize placing people with exceedingly perverse and difficult to control impulses into situations where they are very likely to be tempted into acting on those impulses could possibly be printed in an ostensibly mainstream publication. Yes the Independent is very left wing, but it is still within the mainstream in Britain.
It’s like encouraging alcoholics to work in bars, or drug addicts to transport powerful mind altering drugs. It’s insanity.
It’s also indicative of what I have long believed to be the ultimate goal of the satanic sexular pagan agenda – unfettered sexual access to children. To remind, this was all part of the demonic religion of the Canaanites who so frequently lured the Israelites away from God and into their diabolical religions. Sexual access to children – with the concomitant child sacrifice (already legalized as abortion) – was a key “selling point” for this perverse religion. Warren Carroll, among other historians of note, have posited that this religion (the worship of “Baal/Moloch”) was the most satanically evil religion to ever afflict the face of the earth – which would of course make sense, with satan using his best efforts to lure the then chosen people away from God.
In a post-Christian society, all of satan’s old tricks, so long pushed deep underground and to the extreme fringes of society, are now clawing their way back into the mainstream. Or trying to, anyway. Pseudo-sodo-marriage, abortion, divorce on demand (most child sex abuse occurs in homes where there are non-blood related adult males), coming normalization of polygamy and incest are all simply paving the way for the ultimate objective – the legalization and normalization of child sex abuse.
The abomination of desolation, indeed. It won’t be long after they force the mainstream “Christian” religions to perform pseudo-sodo-marriage that the main push for legalized child rape will begin. They’re just testing the waters now, judging reactions. Think on it this way: sexular pagans already argue that children are somehow mature enough to decide for themselves, with no parental involvement, whether to have an abortion or not. They are also turning “consent” into such a confused and loaded term that no one will know what it means in a few years (see the campus rape epidemic false panic). Both of these can be used to argue in favor of children being able to grant “consent” to being raped by adults.
And then there’s the muslim factor, which I did not even mention.
We may be praying for the end times before long. Keep your kids as far from the state run indoctrination centers/schools as you possibly can – they will be the prime hunting grounds.
Whenever Pope Francis wants to float a radical trial balloon…….. November 2, 2015
Posted by Tantumblogo in Basics, different religion, disaster, episcopate, General Catholic, horror, Papa, Revolution, scandals, secularism, self-serving, sexual depravity, Society, SOD, the struggle for the Church.comments closed
…..he goes to his main man, the militantly atheist freemason-connected Eugenio Scalfari. The latest atrocity includes Pope Francis claim – as reported by the no-notes Scalfari – that ALL divorced and remarried who petition to receive the Blessed Sacrament will be allowed to do so:
Yes, he said it over the phone to his favorite journalist, Italian editor Eugenio Scalfari of La Repubblica (the Pope’sfavorite newspaper), in a conversation on October 28, revealed by the latter in an editorial published this Sunday.
There is no reason to doubt its general accuracy. We are way past the time of doubting the general accuracy of the Scalfari quotes. Not now, that the papal interviews to Scalfari have been published on the Vatican website, that they have been occasionally published by the Vatican publishing house (LEV) itself – for instance, as part of the book to the right.
It was a direct quote by Scalfari, as the Pope explained to his dear Atheist friend what the Synod had decided (in fact as an answer to another editorial on the Synod Scalfari had published in Repubblica). [Scalfari quote follows]
“It is true — Pope Francis answered — it is a truth and for that matter the family that is the basis of any society changes continuously, as all things change around us. We must not think that the family does not exist any longer, it will always exist, because ours is a social species, and the family is the support beam of sociability, but it cannot be avoided that the current family, open as you say, contains some positive aspects, and some negative ones. … The diverse opinion of the bishops is part of this modernity of the Church and of the diverse societies in which she operated, but the goal is the same, and for that which regards the admission of the divorced to the Sacraments, [it] confirms that this principle has been accepted by the Synod. This is bottom line result, the de facto appraisals are entrusted to the confessors, but at the end of faster or slower paths, all the divorced who ask will be admitted.” [Rorate translation, emphasis added]
I’m sorry, I do not doubt this at all. It has been the nakedly apparent end game sine the first Angelus when Pope Francis showered praise on the “serene” theology-on-the-knees of the arch-heretic Kasper.
Now of course the denials are flying from the Vatican, but Rorate is correct- previous “denials” have been followed by the “controversial” portions of certain interviews being uploaded to the Vatican website unaltered. The “denials” are simply a way to quiet the immediate furor. In fact, the whole pattern of denial, obfuscation, and eventual institutionalization of radical Franciscan comments has been broken down brilliantly in this post at 1 Peter 5.
Pope Francis very deliberately uses the atheist Scalfari to communicate to the principalities and powers of this world what the newchurch will be all about. There is deep symbolism in this. A new church of man uses a communist atheist to signal its intent to the new world order? I hate conspiracy theories, but even paranoids have enemies, and this one looks increasingly true.
The only question in my mind now is why certain people seem psychologically incapable of recognizing who and what Pope Francis is.
Sorry I cannot post but very little today I have not been so busy at work in years. I hope to get one more post out.