Diocese News: Good Father Paul Weinberger Reassigned from St. William in Greenville to St. Monica in Dallas [UPDATED] September 6, 2019
Posted by Tantumblogo in Dallas Diocese, General Catholic, Holy suffering, Latin Mass, Liturgy, manhood, priests, Restoration, sanctity, Tradition, Virtue.comments closed
[UPDATE: COMMENTS CLOSED. You people know I have your e-mails and IPs, right? It’s kind of obvious when you all use the same one. This campaign of character assassination will not be permitted to continue.]
This is one of those sad/happy, good news-bad news kinda things. Good local priest Father Paul Weinberger (as to the good, you can find several instances of this by searching his name on this blog) has been reassigned from his role as pastor of St. William parish in Greenville, on the periphery of the Diocese, to St. Monica parish in north Dallas. I just spoke with Father Weinberger, and he advises that he will be priest in residence at Saint Monica, and will serve publicly there offering Mass and Confession, but only after a period of personal time in which he takes care of some long-delayed matters related to the estates of his deceased parents.
I say this is good news/bad news because it is bittersweet anytime a priest is reassigned, especially one that had been so long at one parish as Father Weinberger had. He had been at St. William about 18 years and had expressed hopes of serving there for the rest of his priestly ministry. In that time, many families had moved to the Greenville area to enjoy both a more rural manner of living and to take advantage of Father Weinberger’s very solid catechesis, reverent liturgy, and abundant Confession. Obviously many of those people are very sad to see Father Weinberger go. Father Weinberger is being replaced by one of the Diocese’s younger priests, Father Edwin Leonard.
But now, Father Weinberger is moving on to St. Monica, a centrally located and well known parish, where many more souls may take advantage of his gifts. I’m certain he will be well received. Whether Father Weinberger will be offering Latin Mass at St. Monica or publicly performing other devotions such as the nightly Rosary processions and frequent confessions is not known at this time (uh, because I forgot to ask).
Our family attended St. William for several years before eventually, and not without some sadness, moving on to Mater Dei and the full time Traditional Latin Mass. We have missed Father Weinberger over the years and look forward to being able to see him again, now that he is much closer to Irving. It was a nearly hour to drive out to Greenville, now he’ll only be about 15 minutes away.
Please pray for Father Weinberger and the parishioners of St. William. Losing a long time beloved priest can be very painful. I understand that at least some of the families will be traveling to Mater Dei on Sundays, so you Mater Dei readers be on the lookout for new faces (I know……..which ones?)! I will provide updates on Father Weinberger and his service at St. Monica as they become available.
A Great Sermon for this Time of Crisis in the Church August 3, 2018
Posted by Tantumblogo in awesomeness, Basics, catachesis, General Catholic, Glory, Grace, Holy suffering, Interior Life, persecution, priests, sanctity, Tradition, true leadership, Virtue.comments closed
Is your faith suffering under Francis? Feeling cold, more disconnected from grace and the Spirit? I must admit, I have felt this a great deal over the past 12-18 months. Francis is a sopping wet asbestos blanket for the fire of faith. He’s a nightmare of worldliness, selfishness, error and people-pleasing.
But this sermon is a good antidote to Francis’ destructive effects. I really enjoyed listening to Padre Pelegrino (who has been featured on this blog before), and I hope you will, too:
It is good to remember, that just keeping the Faith is a form of triumph. It’s certainly a personal one, and one we should hope we can share with our family and friends, as well. But I still think, with regard to the previous post, that in this time of intense crisis we need to think beyond just ourselves, our family, and even our parish, and for the millions upon millions of souls who will fall out of the Faith and very likely into an eternity in hell due to the errors being promoted by Francis and his cohort of revolutionaries.
In addition to work and just life generally, another thing that kept me from blogging for the past month or so was the process of selling my truck of almost 16 years and buying a new one. It took much longer than I hoped but I finally did sell my faithful – until the last 6-8 months – former truck and get a new one. And I switched teams in the process:
After 31 years of driving nothing but Chevy’s I got a Ford. I just can’t stand what the General has done with his trucks the last two generations (and now 3 with the 2019s coming out).
Please Pray for Greg Latz June 25, 2018
Posted by Tantumblogo in Admin, Basics, Domestic Church, family, General Catholic, Holy suffering, Interior Life, Revolution, sadness, sanctity.comments closed
A quick (if delayed) post for reader Tim, who knows a man stricken with cancer who then developed various complications he nearly died from. He is very weak and has a long road ahead of him, not least of which will involve further treatment for the cancer. The man’s name is Greg Latz and he is a father and head of a large family and, I am told, a quite devout Catholic. Please, if you would, in your charity, pray for his him and his family and loved ones.
Thank you!
I continue to be in a delicate situation with regard to el trabajando and this blog but I am going to try to put out something from time to time if I possibly can. This notice is weeks late but I pray it is better late, than never.
So do you think Kurt Schlichter is right, that the divide in this country and leftist extremism must, almost of necessity at this point, end in violence? David Harsyani also had some interesting thoughts on the growing insanity (leftists transferring their abhorrent online behavior into real life). My wife doesn’t like to hear about this stuff. She will, to a quite limited point, but overall she doesn’t want to have to think about it. How bad can it get in Irving, Texas, after all?
Worse than she hopes, I fear. We shall see. Stock up on most everything. Keep your powder dry. God bless you all. I miss conversing with you.
Dominus vobiscum!
So I Had to Break My Mom’s Heart Today…….. March 1, 2018
Posted by Tantumblogo in Admin, Bible, Domestic Church, family, General Catholic, Holy suffering, Interior Life, martyrdom, mortification, sadness, Tradition.comments closed
…….and hurt my dad, as well. I probably also permanently terminated any chance of having a relationship with my sister, which relation has already been horribly strained due largely to my traditional Catholic Faith (and other matters) over the past 7-8 years.
My family, and my wife’s family, are polar opposites. My wife’s family is Catholic, mine is protestant. My wife has 60 nieces and nephews, I have one niece. That niece is to be married in April to a fallen away Catholic from Mexico. They are being married outside the Church. I did not ask, but I was told he was fallen away. Well from then on we simply could not attend the wedding, and I dreaded having to break the news, because family is probably the most important thing in this world to my mom especially, and this would break her heart. But I spoke with every priest at the parish and they were unanimous – no, I cannot attend a religious wedding/simulation of the Sacrament of Matrimony involving a Catholic.
There is a dim hope he was not actually baptized, but it’s exceedingly unlikely.
So we cannot attend. And my family does not understand. I barely understand, but I know I just can’t do it. And because family means so much to my mom, and because, aside from my wife and I’s 7 kids, the family is so small, everything tends to get magnified to the Nth degree. But the issue from a doctrinal standpoint is totally clear – I cannot support a Catholic in committing an act of grave sin against the Faith. I certainly could not confuse and scandalize my children by involving them, and their presence is practically the whole point to my mom.
So I really hurt my parent’s feelings, which I absolutely did not want to do, and they cannot comprehend why. That’s the reason I’m sharing this here, because they’re right, 99.5% of Catholics in the US today would go ahead and go to the outdoor “wedding” ceremony. Who am I to say I am so right? How can I hold myself up as such a prideful elitist looking down on other Catholics and all other Christians? Heck Francis himself would probably castigate me as a vicious sinner for failing to go, calling me to make human hearts happy as the highest end. And yet the Truth remains………
Do not think that I came to send peace upon earth: I came not to send peace, but the sword. For I came to set a man at strife against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter in law against her mother in law.
And a man’s enemies shall be they of his own household. He that loveth father or mother more than me, is not worthy of me; and he that loveth son or daughter more than me, is not worthy of me. And he that taketh not up his cross, and followeth me, is not worthy of me. He that findeth his life, shall lose it: and he that shall lose his life for me, shall find it.
So do not let it be said that my faith in Jesus Christ, flawed and as imperfect as it is, has not cost me anything. It has cost me dear, and cost others as well, people whom I love who do not share this faith of mine and who I have to hurt because of my faith. But this is one of the moments that, to me, defines whether one really believes or not. Am I willing to stand with Christ, to choose Christ over even mother or father or sister or niece, all of whom are so very dear to me? I pray I am. I can tell you, there were several times during the unfortunate scene today when I wanted to cave in, and one time very nearly did. But in the end, I could not.
I am very sorry for that, in fact it’s been a brutal experience, but I can do no other than what I feel in conscience I must. I write this here, because I felt that if anyone would understand, you would.
May God have mercy on us all for our human failings. And may He in His infinite benevolence bring about a miracle of conversion for all my family so that we may all be united fully in Faith and charity.
On Those Weirdo Trad Parishes January 17, 2018
Posted by Tantumblogo in awesomeness, Basics, catachesis, different religion, disaster, episcopate, error, General Catholic, Holy suffering, Latin Mass, Restoration, Revolution, scandals, secularism, Society, the struggle for the Church, Tradition, Virtue.comments closed
Cliches exist because they often serve as a sort of shorthand for truth, an often glib but also uncannily accurate description of a place, an event, a tendency, etc. Now, cliches can serve to represent and advance unfair bias, and often do, and they can badly misrepresent and miss vital nuance. But having said that, the cliche of the mean ‘ol trad Catholic is probably the dominant, knee jerk reaction we trads have to contend with. And, not entirely unfairly, it must probably be said.
How has this come about? Likewise, what about the trad cliche of the silly, far from groovy, get over the 60s hippy dippy happy clappy define your own truth Novus Ordo type? How true are these descriptions, and from where might they stem?
My new sole source for blogging material, Tumblar House, has some answers below, which I found pretty insightful. In this case, I thought Charles Coulombe’s confrere made perhaps the most insightful contribution – we trads/faithful Catholics are the product of long years of avoiding and overcoming constant deadly threats, both to ourselves and to our children – you think a few years of that might make someone a little reserved in charity and prone to pounce on perceived threats with maybe a bit more relish than absolutely necessary? And how about the rank failure of the hierarchy to define and defend Truth, so that laity have, by default, often had to step into this role? Think that might also have had some less than perfect fruit?
This short segment also provides a keen insight into that strange entity, the former devout pre-conciliar Catholic who now so loved the old Mass and all the old devotions, and now, as a septuagenarian or octogenarian finds them repellent. This person may or may not be a hippy casualty leftist, they may be quite orthodox in their Novus Ordo way, but they just viscerally hate the old Mass. How could that person, on an objective level, exist, when the TLM is so manifestly superior on practically every level possible? Well, they went through the incredibly jarring experience of being told by the Church, their Mother, that all they loved and held dear was not just far from ideal, but positively harmful/dangerous, and would be replaced by something “better.” I can’t imagine how painful that must have been, nor the depth of Faith those folks had, and have, to have seen them through that experience. That’s not to say their reactions, then or now, were always the right ones or even virtuous (mass contraceptive use, anyone?), but it does help to explain how these people came about. I think it hard for someone like me, who converted on the cusp of the 21st century, to comprehend just how obedient Catholics were in the 1960s, and the entire expectation of obedience that was woven into the fabric of Catholic lives at that time. That ethos, once such a cornerstone of the Faith (to an extent that m may have been excessive and even unhealthy, as natural as it was given the external attacks the Church faced from 1789-1958, say) has been one of the biggest casualties of the collapse of hierarchical authority since the “new springtime” of Vatican Il Duce.
Basically the Church is badly broken, probably in worse shape than she’s ever been, and that has left the sheep largely fending for themselves. We should not be surprised that under such circumstances, the laity would be left confused and even divided into hostile camps. This will persist, in my surmise, until the revolution that afflicted the Church in the 60s/70s (and today) is definitively rolled back, either by overt act or by slow submersion beneath a renewed authentic Catholicism.
Ligouri on the Necessity of Humility and Suffering Humiliation As Means of Attaining Sanctity September 28, 2017
Posted by Tantumblogo in awesomeness, Basics, catachesis, General Catholic, Glory, Grace, Holy suffering, Interior Life, mortification, religious, Saints, sanctity, Tradition, true leadership, Virtue.comments closed
Some additional excerpts from The True Spouse of Jesus Christ by the great Moral Doctor St. Alphonsus Maria de Liguori on the vital role humility, especially in the form of patiently and joyfully bearing humiliations, plays in the process of sanctification/growth in the interior life.
I cut and paste various exerpts from pp. 335-341 below:
Some, says St. Francis of Assisi, imagine that sanctity consists in the recital of many prayers or in the performance of works of penance: but, not understanding the great merit of patience under insult, they cannot bear an injurious word. You will acquire more merit by meekly receiving an affront than by fasting ten days on bread and water. It will sometimes happen that a privilege that is refused to you will be conceded to others; that what you say will be treated with contempt, while the words of others are heard with respectful attention; that while the actions of others are the theme of general praise, and they are heaped with honors, you are passed by unnoticed and your whole conduct is made a subject of derision. If you accept in peace all these humiliations, and if, with a sincere affection, you recommend to God those from whom you receive the least respect, then indeed, as St. Dorotheus says, it will be manifest that you are truly humble. To them you are particularly indebted, since by their reproaches they cure your pride – the most malignant of all diseases that lead to spiritual death. Because they deem themselves worthy of all honors, the proud convert their humiliations into an occasion of pride. But because the humble consider themselves deserving only of opprobrium, their humiliations serve to increase their humility. “That man,” says St. Bernard, ” is truly humble who converts humiliation into humility.”
Voluntary humiliations, such as to serve the sick, to kiss the feet of those who imagine, even unjustly, that we have offended them, and similar acts of humility, are very profitable; but, to embrace with cheerfulness, for the love of Jesus Christ, the humiliations that come from others, such as reproofs, accusations, insults, and derisions, is still more meritorious……..As gold is tried in the fire, so a man’s perfection is proved by humiliation. St. Mary Magdalene de Pazzi used to say that “untried virtue is not virtue.” He who does not suffer contempt with a tranquil mind shall never attain the spirit of perfection…….[Working out our salvation is not easy. Contrary to American protestant claims of “one and done” conversions, which are so typical of the modern American drive-through convenience mentality, God desires of us a total conversion from our fallen human nature, our endless pride and selfishness, to a being dead to self and living only for God and through His Grace. This is terribly hard, but God has given us great guides in the Saints to show that it is possible, and, even more, how to do it. It’s simply a matter of dying to ourselves and living for God through good works done to others. Suffering humiliations tranquilly is a powerful means of dying to self.]
………St. Mary Magdalene de Pazzi used to say that crosses and ignominies are the greatest favors that God is accustomed to bestow on his beloved spouses. [Once again, contrary to protestant, especially modern American protestantism, which preaches that God just wants to shower ease and wealth and comfort on His chosen ones…….is that what He did to His son? Is His Son and Our Lady the exemplars par excellence God has given us on both how to live our lives, and what to expect from the world when we live in accord with His Will? I know even some Catholics who equate being pious with being blessed with happiness, comfort, ease, freedom from illness or financial difficulty, but this is very, very wrong.]
……….The Saints have not been made Saints by applause and honor, but by injuries and insults. St. Ignatius Martyr, a bishop, and an object of universal esteem and veneration, was sent to Rome as a criminal, and on his way experienced from the soldiers who conducted him nothing but the most barbarous insolence. In the midst of his suffering and humiliations he joyfully exclaimed: “I now begin to be a disciple of Christ.” I now begin to be a true disciple of my Jesus, who endured so m any ignominies for my sake……
….Let us then be persuaded that to be persecuted in this life confers the highest excellence on the Saints. “And,” says the Apostle, “all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution” (II Tim iii:12). The Redeemer says, “If they have persecuted Me, they will also persecute you” (Jn xv:20).
————-End Quote————-
We live in an especially difficult time to acquire the virtue of humility. More than in any past period, today we have paraded before our eyes constantly, especially if we have not yet destroyed our TVs, powerful images extolling pride and denigrating almost all virtue, but especially humility. True humility is an almost unknown quantity in our mass media culture, and tranquil acceptance of humiliations is utterly baffling, especially for Americans, who have been taught for decades that having everything the way they want it this instant is a practical constitutional right. Vast numbers of the younger generations coming of age literally have zero conception of what life is like for the vast majority of humanity today, and, even more, the sufferings and privations involved in existence even a few short decades ago in anyplace but America. Heck, my dad grew up without running water and electricity, and I was born in the 70s! That just one tiny example. Wealth, ease, and comfort are in many ways inimical to growth in virtue: and, of course, our task is made even harder still by the crisis in the Church. It’s a terrible triple whammy.
But God is infinitely greater in his rewards, than what He asks of us in sacrifice. Those who are able to cooperate with Grace in these increasingly dark times, what great Saints they will be, and what inspirations to future generations!
I pray such Saints may be found from among the readership of this blog. As for the author, it is best to do as I say, not as I do…….
Hope Amidst Horror in the Bergoglian Church September 27, 2017
Posted by Tantumblogo in Basics, catachesis, different religion, episcopate, Francis, General Catholic, Holy suffering, Our Lady, persecution, Restoration, Society, Spiritual Warfare, the struggle for the Church, Tradition, true leadership, Virtue.comments closed
A really excellent video analyzing the current state of the Church from Michael Matt. He incidentally gets in some digs at that operation in Detroit that still, apparently – I haven’t watched any of their product in years, for a number of reasons – is refusing to address the 900 bazillion ton elephant in the room, while spending enormous effort/volume of fire shooting at various mice and cockaroaches. Sure those latter must be opposed and drug into the daylight, but the house will still be destroyed so long as the elephant is free to rampage, and the damage done by the former is orders of magnitude greater than the latter.
But the main point of the video is not just to expostulate on the dire situation in the Church, a situation likely unprecedented in Her 2000 year history, but also to give hope to know that God is still in charge, that His promise to never abandon His Church and the faithful still applies, and that we must have recourse to Our Blessed Mother as our ultimate intercessor with God to have mercy on His Church and restore sanity to the Church.
Both Matt, and, I should add, Bishop Gracida note that this lay intercession is a necessary step in the path towards a formal correction issuing from a certain body of Cardinals, which, I pray, will be more than two. Bishop Gracida believes that Cardinal Burke, the obvious leader of the cardinalatial “resistance,” should do so before the end of the year. Even if the cardinals do nothing, either because they are unwilling or unable to do so (for instance, if no other cardinal will join Burke), the lay correction still has great value. Francis has been corrected. He has been called out. Future generations, once sanity has been restored to the Church, can and will make use of the historical record this correction provides – and if I were the authors of the correction, I would disseminate hard copies to every chancery and every major Catholic university in the world. The electronic pseudo-records may not be around forever.
The key role for the laity in all of this however is two fold – to keep the Faith, and to pray. We cannot allow ourselves to be drawn into extremes of thought or action because of the daily uber-scandals inflicted upon us. We cannot allow our hearts to become hard and to lose Faith in the Lord. This too shall pass. Not perhaps in our lifetimes, but eventually. And if not, perhaps our children or grandchildren will be witness to the glory of the Lord again on this earth in the Second Coming. Our Lord Himself told us in inspired and inerrant Scripture that at the end of times, the Faith would be all but dead in the hearts of men.
In the interim, we must be doing all we can – more than we presently think we can – in terms of prayer and sacrifice, and in particular prayer for the intercession of Our Lady. Perhaps this October 13 will witness another unprecedented miracle, but perhaps not. Either way, Our Lady’s intercession is our best recourse for bringing about the restoration of Holy Mother Church and, just as importantly, the conversion of so many billions of dead, hardened souls. Even in times when the Faith was infinitely more alive in the hearts of men, at least in parts of the world (the 13th century), the Lord’s hand of judgment was stayed through the enormous piety and noble acts of a handful of great Saints, especially St. Vincent Ferrer. The fewness of the number of the remnant matters not, what matters is their fervor of faith and cooperation with Grace. In this respect, some of us, and I certainly include myself in this number, have not been doing all we possibly can, preferring instead to cast aspersions at the failures of others rather than take out the beam in my own eye.
You may have already seen the video, but if you have not, I strongly recommend you watch it. It’s extremely good. As a final aside, in the interest of time, I have developed the habit of watching videos at 1.25 or 1.5x speed, which makes a 24 minute video last 16 minutes. Any faster and they either sound ridiculous or I can’t keep up.
Pray. And reserve some mercy in your hearts even for those who so despise the truths of our Faith and work so hard to endanger souls – we must, as Catholics, love all, even those who wound us so deeply and spread so much obvious destruction.
Bishop Gracida: Prepare to Live like Catholics under the English Persecution September 27, 2017
Posted by Tantumblogo in awesomeness, Basics, catachesis, different religion, episcopate, error, fightback, Francis, General Catholic, Holy suffering, Latin Mass, manhood, persecution, Revolution, Society, Spiritual Warfare, the struggle for the Church, Tradition, true leadership, Virtue.comments closed
I think this is a most insightful commentary, and one that I agree with. The persecution of Catholics in Tudor/Jacobian England in the 16th and 17th centuries gives us a very clear picture of what it is like to suffer through a Church that allows itself to be whored out to the opinions, desires, and whims of the powers that be. This is precisely what many feel has happened to our beautiful Holy Mother Church in recent decades (though they would probably have the decency and good sense not to use such an awful term, but I feel that is the one that is the most descriptive), and we can expect the faithful remnant – a term I was surprised to see Bishop Gracida, whom I had failed to read for many months, using over and over again on his blog – to be treated as badly or worse by the establishment church as were the “recusants” of Merrye Ol’ several centuries ago.
The tactics, liturgical changes, and theology are virtually identical to the most militant, leftist wing of the protestant revolutionaries of Elizabethan times, too.
But I’ll let Bishop Gracida make his points, and add a few comments. This commentary was an answer to a question asked by a 70 year old Catholic regarding that septuagenarian’s sense that the Church of today is not the one he grew up in – when the Church fails, where do we go?:
Don’t you realize that you have become part of the Remnant?
Your situation, our situation, is analogous to the situation in which Catholics found themselves in 16th Century England. All of a sudden Catholics woke up and found that the Church in which they had grown up had changed. The head of the Church in England, the Archbishop of Canterbury had come under the influence of liberals and progressives like Martin Luther and John Calvin. Worse, the King, Henry VIII, had become a serial adulterer and he felt it was ok for him to ‘re-marry’ and still receive Holy Communion while living in an adulterous relationship because the good of the Nation required it. [or the good of the groin -as Henry fell deeper and deeper into total incontinence, even the pretense he was doing all his adulterating for “the good of the nation” dropped away] And to put a proper face on it the King declared himself the Head of the Church, the Liturgy of the Mass changed with the genius [“genius”] of Archbishop Cranmer and all of a sudden Catholics in England woke up and found that they had become Anglicans.
Well, not ALL Catholics. Some, like the author of the above article still considered themselves to be Catholics, not Anglicans and because they now constituted a small number of people compared to their Anglican neighbors they became a Remnant of the Catholic Church.
That is what you are. That is what many of us are.
And as a consequence, we are going to experience persecution. Not the same kind of persecution that English Catholics experienced under Henry VIII and Elizabeth I. [Ummm……wait and see. It might get pretty close, at least so far as being treated as heretics, schismatics, outsiders, and hateful bigots] You will cherish the Traditional Latin Mass when you can find it and you will learn to avoid the absurdities liberal priests and bishops introduce into the Novus Ordo Masses.
Just as English Catholics learned to avoid Anglican Masses celebrated by priests who were ordained not to offer the sacrifice of Jesus Christ but to set the table for a community meal, you will seek out priests, bishops (yes, and even popes) who manifest their belief in the Incarnate Lord Jesus Christ who suffered and died for us and who revealed his plan for us in the 2000 year magisterium of the Church we have possessed up to the present pontificate.
More from Bishop Gracida here, on why he signed the filial correction.
Lord, what good could be done with a few more such men. Of course, he’s retired, and so it’s a lot easier for him to speak – and probably therein lies very much of the problem.
I’m not quite certain what the good bishop means about seeking out “popes who manifest their belief in the Incarnate Lord….” except that I’m certain he doesn’t meaning finding our own little Pope Michaels, et. al., to follow. I am sure he means we turn to the popes of the past, the holy fathers who safely guided the Church with a far surer hand than the present trustee of the diocese of Rome.
At any rate it seems Bishop Gracida has become much more clear in his appreciation of the crisis facing the Church and the reality of the tiny number of the faithful. But our paucity of numbers is not a reason to lose hope, as I pray the next post may elucidate unsurreptitiously.
Today I can use my big boy words!
A Happy Change of Pace from FrancisDoom: Various Quotes from St. Catherine of Siena September 20, 2017
Posted by Tantumblogo in awesomeness, Basics, catachesis, fightback, General Catholic, Glory, Grace, Holy suffering, Interior Life, mortification, religious, Saints, sanctity, Spiritual Warfare, Tradition, true leadership, Virtue.comments closed
Thinking about Francis and the Rome Plow he is taking through the Church can quickly get depressing. Plus, it’s always good to be encouraged. I find few Saints more encouraging than St. Catherine of Siena. The following quotes are rather random, but they all contain great spiritual direction and solid catechesis. I pray you enjoy!
Quote 1:
O Charity, you are the sweet, holy bond uniting the soul to its Creator; you unite God to man and man to God. you
kept the Son of God nailed to the wood of the Holy Cross. You unite those whom discord keeps apart. You enrich with virtue those who are poor, because you give life to all the virtues. You bring peace and suppress hatred and war. You give patience, strength, and perseverance in return for every good and holy work. You are never weary, you never turn aside from the love of God and neighbor, either because of weariness, pain, contempt, or insult.
O Christ, sweet Jesus, give me this holy charity, that I may persevere in doing good and never give it up; for he who possesses charity is founded on You, the living rock, and by following Your example, he learns from You how to love his neighbor. In You, O Christ, I read the rule and doctrine which are right for me, for You are the way, the truth, and the life. If I read You, I shall follow the right path and shall occupy myself solely with the honor of God and the salvation of souls.
Quote 2:
I give You thanks, O eternal Father, because You have not despised Your creature, nor turned away Your face from me, nor ignored my desires. You, who are light, did not despise my darkness; You, who are life, did not go far away from me who am death; nor did You, the physician, fail to heal my wounds.……Your wisdom, mercy, and infinite goodness have not looked with scorn at all these and the infinite number of other evils and faults that are in me. What forced You to love me and to grant me so many graces? It was not my virtues but only Your charity. May I always keep Your favors in mind, and may my will burn with the fire of Your charity.
O inestimable Love, how admirable are the things You have done in Your creature! O my wretched, blind soul, 
where is your cry of gratitude, where are the tears you should shed in the sight of your God who is unceasingly calling to you? Where are all my yearning desires in the sight of divine mercy? They are not in me because I have not yet lost myself, for if I were lost and had sought only You, my God, only the glory and the praise of Your Name, my heart would have thrilled in a hymn of gratitude.
Thanks be to You, o eternal, most high Trinity! I am she who is not and You are He who is. Glorify Yourself by enabling me to praise You. Pardon me, O Father, pardon me who am miserable, and ungrateful to You for the immense benefits I have received. I confess that Your goodness has preserved me, Your spouse, although because of my many defects I have often been unfaithful to You.
Quote 3:
O God, You have seen the weakness of our human nature; You know how weak, frail, and miserable it is; therefore, 
You, the sovereign Provider, Who in all things have provided for all the needs of Your creatures, You, the perfect repairer, who have given a remedy for all our ills, You gave us the rock and fortitude of will to strengthen the weakness of our flesh. This will is so strong that no demon or creature can conquer it if we do not will it, that is, if our free will, which is in our own hands, does not consent.
O infinite Goodness, where does such great strength in Your creature’s will come from? From You, sovereign, eternal Strength, because it shares in the strength of Your will. Hence, we can see that our will is strong to the degree in which it follows Yours, and weak to the degree in which it deviates from Yours because You created our will to the likeness of Your Will, and therefore being in Yours, it is strong.
In our will, O eternal Father, You show the fortitude of Your Will; if You have given so much fortitude to a little member, what should we think Yours to be, O Creator and Ruler of all things?
It seems to me that this free will which You have given us is fortified by the light of faith, for in this light it knows Your will, which wishes nothing but our sanctification. Then our will, fortified and nourished by our holy Faith, gives life to our actions, which explains why neither good will nor lively faith can exist without works. Faith nourishes and maintains the fire of charity, because it reveals to our soul Your love and charity to us, and thus makes it strong in loving You.
Quote 4, especially important in light of Francis and all the travails afflicting the Church and pious souls:
O eternal God, grant me the virtue of perseverance; without it, no one can please You nor be
acceptable to You. This virtue brings to the soul an abundance of charity and the fruit of every effort. Oh! how happy I should be, Lord, if You would give me this virtue, because even here on earth it will make me enjoy a pledge of eternal life. But Your light reveals to me that I cannot attain it unless I suffer much, because this life cannot be lived without suffering. he who would escape suffering woulf deprive himself of holy perseverance.
Finally, a bonus from St. Bernard:
No one is so presumptuous that he thinks his justice or holiness is enough to assure his salvation [Unless he is a protestant, or Francis but I repeat]. For this reason I hasten to You, O Jesus: Your Passion is my supreme refuge and sole remedy! It comes to help us when our wisdom fails, when our justice is weak, and the merits of our holiness are useless. When my strength grows weak, I shall not be discouraged. I know what I must do: “I shall take the chalice of salvation and call upon the name of the Lord.” Open by eyes, O God, that I may always know what is pleasing to You and then I shall be wise. Pardon the faults of my youth and ignorance, and I shall be just. Lead me, O God, on Your path, and I shall be holy. But if Your Blood does not intercede for me, I shall not be saved.
———-End Quote———
That’s it!
Urgent Exhortation to Follow and Support the Center for Medical Progress Enduring Persecution August 9, 2017
Posted by Tantumblogo in Abortion, asshatery, contraception, cultural marxism, disaster, Endless Corruption, General Catholic, Holy suffering, horror, martyrdom, persecution, Revolution, scandals, secularism, self-serving, sexual depravity, sickness, Society, unadulterated evil.comments closed
A reader who shall remain nameless sent the following e-mail a few days ago, and it’s very good:
With everything going on around us we tend to have short attention-spans. I think this works in the favor of the “change agents”.
One of the continuing sagas that remains in the front of my mind is that of David Daleiden, the young man who filmed the PP doctors openly discussing the sale of aborted baby parts.
It is really astounding to follow this case. It is particularly revealing to see just how much this episode has frightened the abortionists and just how much they are willing to put into bringing the house down on Daleiden. They and their attorneys are doing everything they can to turn the tables on Daleiden and up to this point they have been very successful. It is also revealing to see just how much the “justice” system has cooperated with the abortionists into turning a hero into the villain. Daleiden runs a real risk of doing long jail time and paying hefty extortion money.
I think this case is of particular importance and deserves our attention. If the abortionists and their lapdogs in the judiciary meet with any success they must calculate that his example will go a long way to deter the more feint-of-heart in taking on this powerful cabal.
I’ll not go into detail. It is a lengthy story and I think it deserves to be brought to the front of our consciousness. There is plenty of detail on the website of the Center for Medical Progress http://www.centerformedicalprogress.org/author/david/ and you can also do a search to read more about it.
I get regular updates from the Thomas More Society, which happens to be the only Catholic pro-life organization that gets any of my money. I’d also encourage you to consider them for donation. https://www.thomasmoresociety.org/
Not to toot my own horn, but I have written about the Center for Medical Progress and David Daleiden a number of times. However, I have not done so of late.
In order to remedy that, and to point out the extreme levels to which the leftist powers that be are going in order to crush this man who humiliated Planned Barrenhood and revealed them for the greedy butchers they are, I bring this recent release from CMP, which indicates not only how CMPs and Daleiden’s rights are being trampled, but how intertwined the ruling class is with the evil of mass child slaughter:
Today, David Daleiden and The Center for Medical Progress filed their petition for a writ of certiorari at the United States Supreme Court, appealing the unconstitutional gag order issued by San Francisco Judge William Orrick III against the publication of undercover footage of top-level Planned Parenthood leadership at the National Abortion Federation’s annual trade shows. The petition argues that no federal court has ever upheld a prior restraint like Judge Orrick’s gag order to suppress speech of overwhelming public interest:
“At issue in this appeal is a gag order, a preliminary injunction imposed specifically for the purpose of hiding information from the public, precisely because the information is of such significant public interest and concern—the procurement and sale of aborted fetal body parts.”
CMP project lead David Daleiden says, “Judge Orrick’s gag order, issued at the behest of Planned Parenthood and the National Abortion Federation, is an unprecedented attack on the First Amendment by a clearly biased federal judge. Judge Orrick even wants to press his gag order in the California Attorney General’s bogus criminal case against me—though he, NAF, and Planned Parenthood insist the gag order only applies to my defense, and not to the Attorney General’s bogus prosecution.”
As a key leader of the “Good Samaritan Family Resource Center” in San Francisco, Judge Orrick helped open and fund a Planned Parenthood Northern California clinic inside the Center’s headquarters. Planned Parenthood Northern California has membership in the National Abortion Federation and is a named plaintiff against CMP and Daleiden in Judge Orrick’s courtroom. A motion to disqualify Judge Orrick is still pending.
Just like the Perry v. Hollingsworth case, the case which overturned the California constitutional amendment declaring marriage to be between a man and a woman (remember, just a 6 or 7 year ago, when even a majority of Californians still believed that – that is how fast our culture is collapsing), the bias and corruption of a judiciary completely out of control is on full display here. In Perry, the federal court judge who heard the case was a long-time sodomite and a man who wanted to marry one of his many “partners!” Here we have a federal judge who has a deeply vested interest in protecting and defending Planned Murderhood. Anyone with a shred of decency and legal professionalism would have recused himself from the case, but we all know such traits are unknown among the left-dominated ruling class, who insist upon no rules for themselves, but an endless plethora of rules for everyone else (one can also find out just how connected and blue-blooded Orrick is, his family owns the largest and oldest legal firm on the West Coast and one that is in neck deep with the agents of cultural revolution, and have been for a very long time. Orrick himself raised nearly half a million dollars in support of various demonrat candidates, most especially Obama and Kerry).
So keep following the Daleiden case. I also agree that the Thomas More Society is an excellent group worthy of support. Please pray for the Daleiden family and all those being unconstitutionally persecuted by these seeming worshipers of child sacrifice to Moloch. Pray they keep the faith and their persecutors be undone in their efforts to keep the truth about Planned Murderhood and abortion/contraception from the public.
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