
Personal Sanctity …
all that is left in a World without God

“I
pray not for the world, but for them whom Thou hast given Me”
(St. John 17:9)
The
corruption — on every conceivable level — of the world
and in the world (and most pernicious of all, within
the Church Herself: her cardinals, her bishops, her priests, her
“modern sisters” and “nuns” … even her present papacy!)
— and especially in the West (often,
and accurately, referred to as the “Post-Christian world”) — is
nothing less than staggering. In the last 60 years (unquestionably
since the confluence of that socio-theological miasma called Vatican
II) we have encountered unprecedented levels of what can only be
called malignant decadence — spiritual, moral, and social. It takes
one’s breath away.
We have lost God
More accurately, we have abandoned
God in favor of ourselves — and as a consequence we have lost not
only ourselves, but our very identity, often painfully acquired
over the last 2000 years. We no longer recognize who we are
and what we are.
“Progress” and “the perverse” have become
synonymous.
We have become — for all the wrong reasons
— self-loathing: detesting ourselves and the patrimony of a Catholic
culture through which our very identity both as individuals and
nations had been articulated.
Many hate the Church and a significant
element within the Church hates the Church, remaining
within Her as a cancer in its host. Western Christian culture is
repudiated, ridiculed, and contemned as anachronistic, imperialistic,
homophobic, racist, and misogynistic.
Repudiating the true God as inimical
to our passions and perversions, we have made our own gods, and
they are many — in fact, as many as we are ourselves. Women are
taught — indoctrinated really — to hate men and everything they
deem “patriarchal”.
Everything
that pertains to our loins, or more accurately, the loins of others
— especially of the same gender — has supplanted, displaced, and
superseded the numinous, anything authentically divine, and most
especially, the holy. The very terms have been relegated to the
periphery of polite discourse, when not entirely expurgated from
it.
The world has fled God into the illusion
of a utopian garden that is a desiccated dessert. It is populated
by fictions and the rim of the horizon of our desires is the pretension
that there is an end called satisfaction instead of an endlessly
recursive vanishing point.
We find few paradigms of holiness in
this City of Man — sadly, not even among many of our priests, and,
more tragically still, even fewer among our bishops. To what, then,
shall we strive to attain in this increasingly lonely place we call
life without Christ? What vision are we presented, and to what end
are we called?
Mother Teresa, in an interview some years
ago, explained the obvious. Rational persuasion, logical coherence,
even the most impassioned homily will not bring a person to conversion,
to Christ, and therefore to the Church. One thing only is capable
of this monumental task: example; the example of holiness
that we encounter in others that becomes the impetus to emulation:
we want to be like them. And they are like Christ.
We are sadly lacking in example
as Catholics. How often do we feel compelled to say to ourselves,
“I want to be like her, like him!” when we observe an act, some
instance, of holiness that overwhelms us in its simplicity? What
examples, what paradigms, do we confront in our lives in Christ
that compel us to holiness? We must
not confuse the exemplary with the popular, nor must
we confuse it with carefully orchestrated events intended to inspire
us. The exemplary is unrehearsed and has no concomitant agendum
that is concealed within it. It is utterly spontaneous! And
therefore, we sense, utterly genuine.
The Leaven of the
World
What historical
figures in our lives as Catholics attain to this extraordinary state
of the exemplary that motivates men and women to imitation?
To what are we exposed that motivates us not to the common and ordinary,
but to the uncommon and exemplary? What do we see before us that
calls us beyond ourselves and beyond the gray and geometric sterility
of the world to what lies beyond it?
In
a word, where is the differentiation between the Church and
the world, the common and the extraordinary, the profane and the
sacred? Let us be truthful and acknowledge the obvious: the world
has permeated the Church to such an extent that we can no longer
coherently differentiate the two except upon the most tenuous of
distinctions. Increasingly the agenda of the Church is
the agenda of the world. This is not the leaven Christ spoke of.
It is the leaven of the world; the leaven of infinitely deep and
unimaginably hostile places that we pretend do not exist.
Personal Sanctity
First, let
us understand this with complete clarity: we cannot
attain to sanctity apart from the Church and Her Sacraments. We
cannot become holy schismatics, that is to say, apart from the Church
which is the Body of Christ. However sterile we have
found it since the spurious and self-promoting euphoria of
Vatican II … however trampled the Vineyard and however littered
with discarded and never-to-be-revised Roman Missals, Religious
habits, Chapel Veils, Priestly collars, Roman Cassocks, kneelers
… even the centrality of the Eucharistic Presence of Christ, and
an understanding of the Mass as a Sacrifice; however grotesquely
crippled and contorted the buildings we call our “Churches”
have become — more redolent of civic auditoriums than Sanctuaries,
there … there … abides the Living God, hidden in Tabernacles
we often do not see and only find with much difficulty. He
is there! However much we shunt Him aside as both an ecumenical
and chronological embarrassment, all the litter of what has been
discarded cannot conceal Him from us. He beckons us, and even under
the most humiliating circumstances, we can look upon Him Who ever
looks upon us.
Apart from the Church, the
Most Blessed Sacrament of the Altar, and the Most Holy Sacrifice
of the Mass … we can do nothing, become nothing, worthy of the
Most Precious Blood poured out for us upon that Altar. To be
holy we must be part of the Church for the Church, as
we have said, is the Body of Christ, and He Who is the Head of the
Body is God Himself. Christ Jesus. God Alone is Holy — and
it is He Who participates His holiness to us that we may be,
in the most clear way possible, what we were created to be; what
we essentially are, despite the filth of sin that
covers it, obscures it, and defaces it: the imago Dei, the
image of God Himself!
In
this wasteland barren of spires and empty of cloisters, ugly, squat,
geometric and concrete, Bauhaus pretensions emerged from the rubble
of
“clustered” demolished
churches (Churches without anyone left to worship in them
—
one of the many “successes” of Vatican
II). They are no longer
grand
structures striving to equal the soaring Faith of men and women
in heights contiguous to Heaven itself … but stooped, square, economical
structures that could as well be mortuaries
(or athletic facilities, commercial structures, municipal offices
—
“functional” things that could, in an instant,
reflexively duplicate any of the above in need.
“Faith
Communities”?
Indeed,
we no longer have “churches” as such
—
but in some paroxysm of needless novelty
we now have “Faith Communities”
—
only parenthetically “Catholic” lest
they offend broad ecumenical sensitivities, for are there not
other “Faith Communities” distinct from, if often antithetical,
even inimical, to the Catholic Faith? By a “Church” we immediately
understand something quite different from a “Mosque”, a “Synagogue”
, a “Temple”, or a “Kingdom Hall”. Understood as a “Faith Community”,
a Catholic Church is no different from any of these. In an age of
unbridled ecumenism are they any less “Faith Communities”
than our own, we implicitly, even necessarily ask, not just minimizing
but marginalizing the unique mission and commission of the Church
established by Christ upon Saint Peter? If they were established
by Muhammed, or Lao Tzu, or Martin Luther, are not such “Faith Communities”
equally acceptable to God in the sweeping logic of ecumenism?
If indeed
they are, then the crucifixion of Christ on the Cross is emptied
of all value and meaning. He died for no reason if every “Faith
Community” is the way to salvation. His death was not necessary
in the economy of salvation: hence He died needlessly ... even gratuitously.
This, of course, is a scandal to the very Gospel He Himself proclaimed.
“I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No man cometh to the
Father, but by Me.” 12
But in the malformed logic of ecumenism, even if other “Faith Communities”
despise the Triune God of Catholics and hold to other gods, are
they not equal expressions of man’s faith and legitimate
venues of salvation? In the “correct” atmosphere of post-Vatican
II theology, would we dare to assert that they are not? “All
roads lead to Rome” … that lead away from Rome —
and every paradigm of the holy, however contradictory, is deemed
legitimate and authentic, and the end of each is the same: Heaven
and salvation. Saint, heretic, infidel and atheist alike go to God.
The Catholic Church has no corner on salvation. She is now simply
one among many, and Christ erred in proclaiming Himself,
“the way, and the truth, and the life”,
and deceived us in insisting
that, “No man cometh to the Father,
but by Me.”
“Spreading
our Tent Pegs ...”?
We are so
damnably democratic … We must “spread our tent pegs”, we are
told, to be inclusive of all — even if God is not. The strange
thing, however, about “spreading our tent pegs” is that the wider,
the more inclusive, the more “horizontal”, they become,
the lower the apex of the tent.
We achieve the horizontal at the expense of the vertical. We sacrifice
the magnificent height to accommodate the factious width. Ask any
camper. Even happy ones. Eventually the fabric rips and the structure
collapses. Most often in the rain. And in great ruin. The “stitching”
did not, could not, hold this multiplicity of opposing forces however
benevolent or brainless our intentions.
Accompanying
this ecumenical impulse was, necessarily, theological ambiguity.
How, otherwise, hope to bring hoped-for consensus out of conflicting
doctrines? It is this ambiguity that afflicts pulpit and podium
alike in nominally Catholic institutions. In matters of Faith, morals,
and doctrine, it is rather like equivocating on geometric postulates
or axioms; or in mathematics holding in abeyance quantitative relationships
that are otherwise held to necessarily obtain between integers.
Much like Dostoyevsky we reach a point where we declare,
“To me that 2+2=4 is sheer insolence.
I admit that twice two makes four is an excellent thing, but if
we are to give everything its due, twice two makes five is sometimes
a very charming thing too.” (Notes from Underground)
This is largely the state of Catholic
theology, and, eo ipso, Catholic homiletics. We are no longer
—
I repeat: no longer (for once, and for
a very long time we were … prior to Vatican II)
—
certain of just what Holy Mother the Church teaches, given this
priest or that theologian and whether it was Wednesday or Thursday.
“Officially” She teaches “this”, but depending on the audience She
—
or better yet, and to be fair, Her spokesman in the person
of a priest, nun, sister, bishop, pope, or theologian
—
proposes, or at least appears to suggest the contrary
—
or openly rebels against it! For the average Catholic layman or
laywoman, they: the bishop, the priest, the Religious, are the consecrated
symbols of utter fidelity to the Church, and for that reason it
is a scandalous state of affairs.
How then do we live
our lives as Catholics — not post-Catholics in a
post-Christian world?
How do we
live our Catholic lives as they had been fervently lived for 2000
years prior to the insipid, diffident, confused and eclectic — and
at times even implicitly pantheistic — impulses and
subsequent teachings that emerged from Vatican II, an unnecessary
Council which effectively and efficiently tore down the edifice
of Catholicism as distinct, distinguishable, and unique? As a
way of life? In other words, lacking visible paradigms of sanctity,
how do we go about living lives of holiness amid the detritus of
so much we once considered sacred and that now litters the ecclesiastical
landscape of the Modern Church or the American Church
or the European Church — all of which are conflatable into
one ecclesiastical body that appears to articulate itself as
distinct from the Roman Catholic Church? In practical
terms it is an increasingly autonomous body. We see this
most strikingly today in Germany.
Shall we go more frequently
to Mass?
This is
an obvious paradigm from another and past generation. It once
was true, but if we are remorselessly candid, it is no longer so.
How often do we go to Mass and leave no more enlightened or fervid
than when we had entered? Much of what was distinctively and historically
Catholic is no longer there. “God loves you. The weather is great.
You are all going to Heaven (and your dog, too). Be nice. Shalom.
Go in peace.” If we are honest we cannot leave fast enough.
How about the Sacrament
of Penance — Confession
... now
called the Rite of Reconciliation practiced face to face
in a room with well-appointed and comfortable chairs strangely reminiscent
of a psychotherapist’s office? The bulletin indicates that it is
only available 45 minutes per week or “by appointment”
… as with a “therapist”. Frankly, this is not much of an option,
especially since the evisceration of the concept of Mortal Sin (a
term no longer in use because no longer applicable) and the paucity
of “real” sinners like you and me.
What about a Spiritual
Director?
Good luck
finding one at all, let alone one who knows and will give
you the mind of the Church — rather than currently prevailing
spiritual trends. Once again, we effectively encounter, “God
loves you. The weather is great. You are going to
Heaven (and your dog, too). Be nice. Shalom. Go in peace.”
Perhaps we Should
Go to Medjugorje to listen to the “Seers” of the “Gospa”?
The “Seers”,
beginning June 24, 1981
— youngsters then,
adults now, some 34 years later — surely have an answer somewhere
in the thousands of appearances of the “Gospa” (Mary).
1 Make expensive travel arrangements
through them to visit
Medjugorje
(including hotels, meals, and even meeting with one of the “Seers”
themselves) and watch your rosary turn into gold! You will hear
much of the pronouncements of Vatican II validated by the Mother
of God Herself, such as:
“Before God all
the faiths are identical. God governs them like a king
in his kingdom.” All sufferings are equal in hell; and Mirjana quotes
the Gospa as telling her that people begin feeling comfortable in
hell. … When the Madonna is asked about the title, “Mediatrix of
all graces,” she replies, “I do not dispose of all graces.”
2
Perhaps the “Gospa”
will reveal the way of holiness to you, although her track record
over the past three decades (and thousands of “appearances”)
has been uniformly dismal in the way of predictions and has led
to open schism with the local bishop who insists (with the Church)
that the “Gospa” and her six now-middle-age confederates
are not authentic (yes, despite the organized parish visits,
in direct disobedience to the Church, with your local
priest you can make a “pilgrimage” to a site condemned as spurious
by Rome.)
What then? What is
Left?
Personal
Sanctity.
Apart from any organized
approach to holiness though the Mass (and the incredibly bad music
that is a perpetual distraction from it), or Confession (barely
extant), or sound Spiritual Direction (almost universally absent)
there is one venue, and one alone that is open to you in these sterile,
confused, contradictory, and tepid times in which the Church appears
as clear and distinct as a Microsoft hologram: the commitment
to personal sanctity guided by the Lives of the Saints, rather
than disaffected theologians. “You
are surrounded by a Cloud of Witnesses”,
we are told
3
who have gone before you and have arrived at genuine sanctity, at
complete and indissoluble union with God in Heaven. Let them
— by their words and by their example — be
our teachers who had taught and guided the Church for two millennia.
Personal
Sanctity requires effort. You must come to know the mind of the
Church and authentic Catholic doctrine and dogma. That is
to say, you must be catechized. “But I went to CCD!” you
protest. “And what did you learn?” I will ask. “Why did God create
you?” And you will have no answer. In a word, you learned nothing
despite the expensive, glossy textbooks your parents had to pay
for, and which were far, far, more pictorial than substantial. They
were … trendy. Empty. Worthless. And even back then, you knew it.
Indeed, your CCD teacher knew as much about the Faith
as you did. Catechesis has not been an important agendum to your
local bishop; even while it should be the most preeminent
as that upon which all things subsequent depend.
Immerse
yourself in authentic Catholic doctrine — and assiduously
avoid anything , even with (or without) an Imprimatur and/or
Nihil Obstat that post-dates 1950.The Imprimatur
and/or Nihil Obstat are no longer any guarantee that
what you read is consistent with the mind and historical teachings
of the Church. Once they were legitimate stamps of approval as consistent
with the Magisterium of the Church, but they have long ceased to
be so. Open the first few pages of any ostensibly Catholic book
and look for the date of the first printing. This will tell you
much in the way of their authenticity and reliability as instruments
appropriate for the formation of a Catholic Conscience. If it has
been printed following 1950, politely put it down despite the rave
reviews of any nominally Catholic source, to say nothing of any
secular source.
In a famous
line from the movie “The Exorcist” (based on fact) by William Peter
Blatty, the elderly Father Merrin
warns the much younger Father Karras who is suffering a crisis of
Faith that, “He is a liar, the demon is a liar. He will
lie to confuse us. But he will also mix lies with the truth to attack
us. The attack is psychological, Damien. And powerful. So don't
listen, remember that, do not listen.”
By and large,
Catholic literature dealing with matters of Faith, Morals, Doctrine,
and Dogma — either as pamphlets or scholarly tomes had, prior to
1950, been carefully vetted by competent Catholic theologians, priests,
or bishops. They are credible sources and remain so, although many
have fallen out of print — not from desuetude but as inconsistent
with present and “popular” Catholic thought, often percolated through
Rogerian psychology.
The
famous library at Alexandria 4
in classical antiquity was burned by the Muslims in 642 in
an effort to destroy any book incompatible with the Quran.” Modern”
Catholic theology and literature has engaged in a similar enterprise.
Many of the greatest books in Catholic literature are now only available
on-line or through small publishing houses committed to preserving
genuine Catholic teaching.
Apart from
this treasury of 2000 years of Catholic teaching we are left with
incomplete, contradictory, and confusing doctrines, not of the Church,
but of dissident and disaffected theologians, priests, and would-be
“priestesses” who, in today's “inclusive” seminaries are the instructors
of what few candidates to the priesthood we have left following
their decimation by homosexual clerics. Richard McBrien, Daniel
Maguire, Hans Kung, Schillebeeckx, Congar, Rahner, and Teilhard
de Chardin — all voluble and nominally Catholic theologians — three
were collarless priests — are among the most eminent examples of
this theological dissidence, confusion, fiction, and heresy. In
their writings we are presented with a mixture of some truth (to
entice us) and many lies (to confuse us) reminiscent of the stratagems
of the demon in Blatty’s, The Exorcist. Where is a Catholic
to go to re-acquire an authentic Catholic identity consistent with
the Church and the Saints for 2000 years?
Grayscale
Memories
Many of
us have them. We cleave to them as to invaluable possessions, for
they introduced us to an awareness of the holy and of places
other than Earth; to a belief in things more profound than venal
democratic institutions and more enduring than perverse social issues.
They opened the vista to things eternal and resplendent in glory,
to things holy that the world could not possibly sully and debase
because of the ontological distance that separated them, a distance
as great as sanctity from sin. They are in carefully kept albums
from a time of innocence, and inscribed in the Family Bible placed
beside a statue of Mary the Mother of God. They are indelibly impressed
in our memories; our First Holy Communions, May Processions, the
Baptisms of our children, and on the memorial cards of those we
love and who now live, please God, in a place called Paradise, forever
beyond this jaded Earth.
So
How do We Get Back?
A soul at
a time, beginning with our own.
Let
us look at a few fundamental concepts with which we ought to familiarize
ourselves if we are committed to persevere to Personal Sanctity.
Once we have acquired these we have the tools through which to articulate
our own lives, whatever our vocation in life, to accord with the
mind of Christ and the mind of the Church in matters dealing with
the Faith, the Faith that has been faithfully transmitted to us
through the Deposit of Faith, for what we are striving toward is
nothing less than Exemplary Holiness which itself
is nothing more than Personal Sanctity.
-
Devotion to Jesus Christ in
the Most Blessed Sacrament of the Altar.
We recognize that He is there, really
and truly, in His Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity. This
the character of exemplary Catholicism: the recognition of God
Himself in the Second Person of the Most Holy Trinity really
and truly present to us in the Tabernacle. Without His Presence,
without Him, the building we call a Church is nothing but a
meaningless and empty edifice. He is there! And
He awaits you. Anytime of the day or night. For the most part
He is left alone and unrecognized. We do not kneel before Him,
but have the hubris to stand as before an equal! Is that how
you will approach Him in the Last Judgment? We do not have the
humility to genuflect when we pass before Him, acknowledging
Him … and yet we would not dare pass a mere man we know without
greeting him with some gesture of recognition …
-
Frequent, but Discerning
(worthy) Reception of Holy Communion:
You are familiar with the spectacle of everyone
going to Holy Communion as though there were no sinners in the
pews. This indiscriminate partaking of the Bread of
Angels with no Examination of Conscience prior to
approaching Christ in Holy Communion is itself a Mortal Sin
if one is aware of an unconfessed Mortal sinned that has not
been absolved in the Tribunal of Penance (Holy Confession).
In the state of Mortal Sin and not sufficiently cognizant of
the true and real Presence of Christ in the sacred species of
Holy Communion, it is an act of blasphemy and therefore the
death of the soul in conspectu Dei (in the sight of God),
for Saint Paul is very clear: “For
he that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh
judgment to himself, not discerning the body of the Lord.”
5 Most often, apart
from ignorance, the source of this sin is the Capital Sin of
Pride which refuses to constrain us to conspicuously
remain in the pews in recognition of our unworthiness, through
Mortal Sin, to receive Holy Communion — when everyone else is.
Even if Pope Francis in his Joy of Love (Amoris
Laetitia) deems it acceptable in second, third, or fourth
… “unions” … of those “living in God’s grace”, adultery
notwithstanding.
-
Recognition of the real Distinction
between Venial Sins and Mortal Sins:
This is not the venue of a discussion of the distinction
between Mortal and Venial Sin. Suffice it to say that a
Mortal Sin must contain all three of the following:
(1) the matter of the sin must be serious, (2) one wills
to commit the sin, and (3) one commits the Mortal Sin.
A Venial Sin is not serious in nature, is committed without
a full understanding of the detrimental nature of the sin, and/or
is not committed with the total consent of the will. Venial
sins do not preclude participation in Holy Communion. Mortal
Sins do.
-
Devotion to Mary:
One preeminent hallmark of Catholic piety is the
love of Mary, Mother of God. Devotion to Mary is the sine
qua non of the fully lived Catholic life. Her place in the
economy of salvation is absolutely singular: she alone gave
flesh (her flesh) to the Word Incarnate. Hence
“every generation shall call me blessed”
6 She is our Mother. 7
-
Recognition of the Reality of
Heaven and Hell
It is the Sin of Presumption to assume
that, as a matter of course, we will go to Heaven and stand
before the Beatific Vision of God eternally. Even Saint Paul
exhorted us to work out our salvation
“with fear and trembling.”
8 Despite the total
absence and silence at the pulpit of any mention of Hell, it
is quite real and many go there. 9
-
The Four Final Things: Death,
Judgment, Heaven or Hell
In many old graveyards you will find the following
inscribed upon many humble markers: “Sum quod eris, fui
quod sis” — essentially, “As you are I once was,
as I am you will one day be.” Understand your mortality,
recognize the inevitable, and act accordingly. Remember the
distinction between “life” and “life everlasting” … however
it will be lived … in Heaven or Hell. Have always before you
the Last Four Things that will surely come to pass instead
of the present “popular” things in vogue with a Church that
has become heavily feminized in every aspect of its “Liturgy”
and social teachings.
-
Never Pass a Church without
recognizing Christ within:
“Gloria tibi, Domine!” (Glory to You,
Lord!), or “Laus tibi, Domine” (Praise to You, Lord!).
A devout Catholic always makes some sign of recognition of Christ
in the Most Holy Sacrament of the Altar when he passes a Church.
This is accompanied by tracing the Sign of the Cross on our
forehead or over our heart. When this becomes instinctual (as
it had been prior to Vatican II) it will assist us in recognizing
Who abides there and for what reason. It is the instinctive
call to holiness.
-
Receive Holy Communion on
your Knees
Remarkably, this is no longer the norm in modern Novus
Ordo masses. Saint Francis himself, it is said, refused
Holy Orders (becoming a priest) because he did not think himself
worthy to hold the Sacred Body of Christ in his hands.
You may be reproached by the priest in your parish for
not following the “approved posture” adopted by the diocese
or the USCCB. As Saint Peter responded to those who discouraged
his preaching the Gospel, “Is it better
to obey God, or men?” 10
For 2000 years Holy Communion was received this way, and nowhere
in the documents of Vatican II does it suggest otherwise.
Would you approach Christ
in less an attitude of humility and adoration? Do not fear
being scorned for what others may ridicule as your “sanctimony”.
It is Christ Himself you kneel before! What thought of
anyone else should occupy your mind? For God’s
sake get on your knees!
-
Honor the Saints and Martyrs
They, not your “Parish Council” are your faithful
and eternal friends. If they are no longer honored in the present
Martyrology, honor them still, and invoke their aid and protection.
Remain in their company, who behold the face of God in
Heaven. It is the Company to which you are called!
Christ Himself
promised us that the very Gates of Hell will not prevail against
the Church. And yes, the Church, as we limply excuse ourselves,
is “made up of sinners.” But it is also made
up of saints. That is our universal vocation: to be
nothing less than saints, whatever our earthly vocation. But we
are not saints yet. As Saint Francis famously said, “Let us begin.
For up to now we have done nothing.” Do not be afraid of sanctity.
It is the very character of the image in which you have been created.
Whatever the Church now suffers on earth it has
suffered before — if not on so vast a scale.
And that is precisely why your call to sanctity
is so vital. You must pursue the sanctity that the Church
at present appears to have lost, or spurns as too onerous … too
“otherworldly” in this “Age of Man”. You must be the sign
of contradiction that is the Sign of the Cross, and Him Who was
crucified upon it for you. You must be in the world but not of
the world, for Saint John warns us,
“Love
not the world, nor the things which are in the world.
If any man love the world, the charity of the Father is
not in him. For all that is in the world is the concupiscence
of the flesh, and the concupiscence of the eyes, and the pride
of life, which is not of the Father, but is of the world. And
the world passes away, and the concupiscence thereof: but he
that doth the will of God, abides for ever.”
11
Spurn the
world — and the empty love and praise of the world! Keep all that
is holy before you and this day begin to dwell already in
the Mansion prepared for you by Christ before the foundation of
the world.
Editor
Boston Catholic Journal
Printable
PDF Version
_______________________________
1
See
http://www.boston-catholic-journal.com/medjugorje-private-revelation-and-the-seer-ing-truth.htm,
2 http://www.crisismagazine.com/2012/the-devil-and-medjugorje
3
Hebrews 12.1
4 “In AD 642, Alexandria was captured by the Muslim
army of Amr ibn al `Aas. Several later Arabic sources describe the
library's destruction by the order of
Caliph Omar. Bar-Hebraeus, writing
in the 13th century, quotes Omar as saying to Yaḥyā al-Naḥwī:
“If those books are in agreement with the Quran, we have no need
of them; and if these are opposed to the Quran, destroy them.”
Later scholars are skeptical of these stories, given the range
of time that had passed before they were written down and the political
motivations of the various writers.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Library_of_Alexandria
5 I Cor. 11.29
6 St. Luke 1.48
7 St. John 19.26
8 Philippians 2.12, 2 Cor. 13.15.
9 St. Mat. 7.13
10 Acts 5.29
11 1 John 2.15-17
12 St. John 14.6
Note:
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including the writings of the Church Fathers can be found
at
http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/
and
http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/
The indispensable
Baltimore Catechism — universally used by the Catholic
Church until it was discontinued following Vatican II can be found
(and downloaded as a PDF) at:
http://www.boston-catholic-journal.com/baltimore_catechism.pdf
. It presents a clear, concise, and readily understandable
presentation of our Holy Catholic Faith. We encourage you
to explore it.
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