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Bob Stanley’s “The Catholic Treasure Chest” (PDF)
Down To Earth Answers To Virtually All Your Heavenly Questions.
English – On the Web
Spanish – On the Web

How the Holy Bible defines and explains
The Blessed Virgin Mary’s powerful role as the Mother of God

How To Pray the holy Rosary (PDF)

Which Mysteries to pray on what day – “Handy Cheat Sheet” (PDF)

The Rosary and the Scapular are inseparable

Complete Information On The Brown Scapular
Including The Procedure for Priestly Blessing and Investiture – Latin and English

Overcoming the World, the Flesh and the Devil,
In and Through Our Lord Jesus Christ (PDF)
A beautifully illustrated “advanced course” on Christianity that provides
critical insights into what Christians believe, how they practice, and why.
Special emphasis on The Mystery of Our Redemption and The Church.

The “Peculiar” Theology of Our Redemption in Jesus Christ (PDF)
Complete course. How the death of Christ at the hands of man
served to destroy Satan’s power and reconcile sinful mankind with God.
Fully illustrated.

Bishop Poprocki explains what should have already been widely understood about Catholics living in various irregular (objectively sinful) ways

…Critics have been urging me to rescind my “Decree Regarding Same-sex ‘Marriage’ and Related Pastoral Issues.”

However, this decree is a rather straightforward application of existing Catholic doctrine and canon law to the new situation of legal marital status being granted in civil law to same-sex couples, which is contrary to the teaching of the Catholic Church.

All clergy, before they are ordained, take an Oath of Fidelity which includes the statement, “In fulfilling the charge entrusted to me in the name of the Church, I shall hold fast to the deposit of faith in its entirety; I shall faithfully hand it on and explain it, and I shall avoid any teachings contrary to it. I shall follow and foster the common discipline of the entire Church and I shall maintain the observance of all ecclesiastical laws, especially those contained in the Code of Canon Law.”

Pastors and bishops repeat this oath upon assuming their office to be exercised in the name of the Church. Thus, deacons, priests and bishops cannot contradict Church teachings or refuse to observe ecclesiastical laws without violating their oath, which is a promise made to God.

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Read the collected works of St. Teresa of Avila, St. John of the Cross and St. Therese of Lisieux (for free)

Interior Castle is the work of 16th century Carmelite nun and Christian mystic St. Teresa of Avila. She wrote Interior Castle as a spiritual guide to union with God. Her inspiration for the work came from a vision she received from God. In it, there was a crystal globe with seven mansions, with God in the innermost mansion. St. Teresa interpreted this vision as an allegory for the soul’s relationship with God; each mansion represents one place on a path towards the “spiritual marriage”–i.e. union–with God in the seventh mansion.

Read it at CCEL

A sequel and continuation of Ascent of Mount Carmel, the Dark Night of the Soul is a spiritually moving and mystical book. In it, St. John of the Cross continues his description of the soul’s journey–the “dark night”–to the “divine union of the love of God.”

Read Ascent of Mount Carmel at CCEL

Read Dark Night of the Soul at CCEL

St. Therese of Lisieux was born at Alencon, Normandy. In 1886 she underwent a religious conversion and thereafter dedicated herself to monastic life. Entering the Carmelite convent at Lisieux at fifteen, she was appointed assistant novice mistress in 1893. One year before her death (1897) from tuberculosis, she volunteered to join the Carmelite missionaries in China.

Her devotional book, The Little Way, was widely acclaimed, as was her autobiography The Story of a Soul. Miracles of healing and prophecy soon were attributed to her name, and an account of these was appended in 1907 to the autobiography.

Read The Story of A Soul At CCEL

Read The Poems of St. Therese at CCEL

 

Romanian Doctor Addresses Synod on the Family. Nails It!

…We, as Catholic doctors, defending life and family, can see this is, first of all, a spiritual battle.

Material poverty and consumerism are not the primary cause of the family crisis.

The primary cause of the sexual and cultural revolution is ideological.

Our Lady of Fatima has said that Russia’s errors would spread all over the world.

It was first done under a violent form, classical Marxism, by killing tens of millions.

Now it’s being done mostly by cultural Marxism. There is continuity from Lenin’s sex revolution, through Gramsci and the Frankfurt school, to the current-day gay-rights and gender ideology.

Classical Marxism pretended to redesign society, through violent take-over of property.

Now the revolution goes deeper; it pretends to redefine family, sex identity and human nature.

This ideology calls itself progressive. But it is nothing else than the ancient serpent’s offer, for man to take control, to replace God, to arrange salvation here, in this world.

It’s an error of religious nature, it’s Gnosticism.

It’s the task of the shepherds to recognize it, and warn the flock against this danger.

“Seek ye therefore first the Kingdom of God, and His justice, and all these things shall be added unto you.”

The Church’s mission is to save souls. Evil, in this world, comes from sin. Not from income disparity or “climate change”.

The solution is: Evangelization. Conversion.

Not an ever increasing government control. Not a world government.

These are nowadays the main agents imposing cultural Marxism to our nations, under the form of population control, reproductive health, gay rights, gender education, and so on.

What the world needs nowadays is not limitation of freedom, but real freedom, liberation from sin.

Salvation.

Read the entire text

The Clear and Present Danger of “Cafeteria Catholicism”

By Doug Lawrence

The term “Cafeteria Catholic” typically refers to those Catholics who prefer to pick and choose which truths of the faith they wish to accept.

That kind of thinking is a huge mistake, which can lead people into all kinds of misunderstandings and miseries.

People haven’t changed much over the last 5000 years. They still tend to make the same stupid mistakes and still get caught up in the same, hard to control, emotional situations. Often both.

When it comes to critical matters of faith and morals, the Catholic Church has been around for a very long time and has “seen it all”.

Through its’ Magisterial teachings, Sacred and Apostolic Tradition and the Holy Bible, the Church, which is charged by God with the care of souls, wisely and charitably cautions the faithful about the clear and present, spiritual and temporal dangers of things.

When people fail, the Church is there to freely absolve them of their sins, but the temporal, physical injuries and damages – the unfortunate results of those sins – typically remain – to the detriment of all.

The modern world provides a very accurate picture of all these accumulated evils and corruptions.

Individual free will and conscience is rightly a part of all this, but conscience can only be relied upon once it has been fully informed and illuminated by all the applicable teachings and practical graces of the Church.

Unfortunately, that rarely occurs, these days.

HINT: It’s always much smarter and easier to faithfully rely on the authentic teachings and accumulated wisdom of the Catholic Church, with the help of God’s grace, in order to successfully avoid some/many/most of the trials and tribulations caused by our own bad choices!

“Cafeteria Catholics” who pick and choose which authentic truths and teachings of the Catholic Church they wish to believe, needlessly and pridefully reject thousands of years of practical church experience and wisdom in favor of personally reliving the original “Adam and Eve experience”.

It was a “fool’s bargain” then and it’s a “fool’s bargain” today!

Proverbs 16:16-24

Get wisdom, because it is better than gold: and purchase prudence, for it is more precious than silver. 

The path of the just departs from evils: he that keeps his soul keeps his way.

Pride goes before destruction: and the spirit is lifted up before a fall.

It is better to be humbled with the meek, than to divide spoils with the proud.

The learned in word shall find good things: and he that trusts in the Lord is blessed.

The wise in heart shall be called prudent: and he that is sweet in words, shall attain to greater things.

Knowledge is a fountain of life to him that possesses it: the instruction of fools is foolishness.

The heart of the wise shall instruct his mouth: and shall add grace to his lips.

Well ordered words are as a honeycomb: sweet to the soul, and health to the bones.

A kind of non-denominational chaplaincy to the New World Order

In the first papal address ever given to the United States Congress by a Pope, the Vicar of Christ never mentioned Christ, but rather only Moses as the one who “leads us directly to God and thus to the transcendent dignity of the human being.”

Given an historic opportunity to preach Catholic truth to secular power, Francis held up as models for imitation not Christ, nor any of the saints of the Catholic Church, but rather Abraham Lincoln, Martin Luther King and the controversial convert, Dorothy Day…

In the aftermath of the Pope’s address, even the Jewish radio talk show host Michael Savage could see what is happening. 

He described it (during his show on September 25) as “a seamless integration of Church and State.” By this he means the de facto absorption of the Church into the modern state system and the reduction of the role of the papacy to that of a kind of non-denominational chaplaincy to the New World Order.

Truly we are seeing fulfilled before our very eyes the process Bishop Rudolf Graber described in the 1970s: that of synarchy, the very fulfillment of Masonic designs according to which “Catholicism, like all religions, would consequently be absorbed into a universal syncretism.

Today’s “Gem” from Bob Stanley’s “The Catholic Treasure Chest”: The Search for Authentic, Universal Christianity

Although the Bible tells us that Jesus established a Church (Matt. 16:18) and reminds us of our Savior’s desire for Christian unity (John 17:20-21, Eph. 4:16, 4:12-13), we’ve seen a recent explosion of new churches.

They claim to be “Bible-based” churches; often they have broken off from some larger church or denomination.

With as many as 28,000 different Christian churches today, or more, the mystery to many is <which one is Jesus’ true Church?>

Read more

 

Go To Bob Stanley’s “The Catholic Treasure Chest”

Precious insights into the family life of the Blessed Virgin Mary – and our families, as well

Saint Joachim, the father of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Mother of God and the Mediatrix of All Graces, knew the contempt that would be visited upon His Divine Grandson, Our Blessed Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

Joachim sent himself into voluntary exile after he was denounced by a priest of the Old Dispensation for not producing a child after twenty years of marriage to his wife, our good Saint Anne.

There, he was visited by an angel, who reminded him of the fact that Abraham’s wife, Sarah, did not conceive a child until she was ninety years old, telling him that his wife, Saint Anne, would conceive a daughter named Mary, who would be the Mother of God.

Saint Joachim and Saint Anne brought their daughter to the Temple when she was three years old, giving their long-awaited child back to the good God Who had given them to her, so that she could be the Mother of their own Savior, Our Blessed Lord, Jesus Christ.

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Knowing God Well Enough To Recognize Him

Manifestations of the Holy Spirit Throughout Human History
By Larry Douglas

Our understanding of the Holy Spirit is limited by our finite human minds and by the revelation of God, but our faith teaches clearly that the Holy Spirit is God, the third person of the Holy Trinity, that He proceeds from the Father and the Son, and that He accomplishes His (God’s) will anywhere and at any time, with power and authority that is so awesome, no one and no thing can withstand it.

The early Hebrews understood that God “spoke” all things into existence, as if the Holy Spirit proceeded from the “mouth” of God, accomplishing whatever His supernatural intellect would conceive.

So it should be no surprise that our first earthly biblical encounter with the Spirit’s power speaks of a mighty wind, “The Breath of God” which formed the young Earth and, among other things, gave life to Adam’s human form.

In the Old Testament Book of Exodus we are treated to a magnificent display of God’s power in the form of a “Pillar of Cloud” by day and a “Pillar of Fire” by night, which was said to “never fail” leading the Israelites out of Egypt, protecting and nurturing the Holy Nation all the way to the Promised Land.

While this “Glory Cloud” figures most prominently and is most clearly and explicitly described during the forty-year period the Israelites spent “Moseying around” (my characterization) in the desert, it is by no means the only time God made use of this extraordinary, supernatural phenomenon to manifest His power and glory in our temporal existence.

Read more (PDF)

Satan is entrapped in a lower existence, imprisoned in currents of deadly, unredeemable chaos, as are those who choose to follow him.

Satan’s “NO” to God
Non serviam – Latin for “I will not serve”

Saint Hildegard sees how the Ancient Adversary is at work to lure and coerce into this same pit all those whose lives he invades and touches.

Obedience begins with the realization that one cannot bring into completion the work God has begun.

The ambiguity surrounding this life is beyond human capacity to understand or master, and left to ourselves, we are always at risk of being mastered by it.

Following our own whims is not enough because even the whims of the heart are subject to this confusion.

Our dignity, our integrity, our existence require firm ground on which to stand, or they all fall.  This understanding, this saving truth is found somewhere beyond our natural capacities, from Someone above us, who comes down to us, who calls to us and who waits for us to welcome Him.

Rather than allowing oneself to be consumed with the confusion of doing what one wishes, we only begin to redeem the ambiguity of life by searching out the most appropriate way of serving the Lord who reveals Himself to us.

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Pope Francis: Show me the money!

Pope Francis will not close the Institute for the Works of Religion (IOR), commonly known as the Vatican bank, and has reaffirmed “the importance of the IOR’s mission for the good of the Catholic Church, the Holy See and the Vatican City State,” according to a statement from the Holy See Press Office.

Link

Editors note: Has anyone ever noticed the strange names given to many of the Vatican dicasteries? You might expect that type of thing from the likes of Fidel Castro, or Joseph Stalin, or the U.S. Congress – but from the Vatican?

The Perils of Progressivism

 

This timeline, along with these recent statistics, demonstrates that the eroding of family life in the United States is not something sudden, but rather the result of a gradual process of social change.

The events listed are not a random collection, but show a determined and coordinated decline of our culture, rooted in our changing understanding of sexuality, marriage and family, and even life itself (which is now a commodity, which can be engineered).

The link between contraception, abortion, and homosexuality itself can be demonstrated simply by examining the Supreme Court decisions concerning these issues, which in their opinions directly build one upon the other.

See the timeline

Saint Anselm – Father of Scholasticism, Doctor of the Church, Faithful Catholic in all things

Read the article

The modernist blasphemy “dogmatic evolutionism” or “reinterpretation of dogma to fit the times”

According to Msgr. Víctor Manuel Fernández, Rector of the Pontifical Catholic University of Argentina:

“Some have even claimed that all Church teachings depend and are based on non-negotiable principles. This certainly is heresy! To claim that Jesus Christ, his resurrection, fraternal love and all that the Gospel teaches us depends on ethical principles is a distortion of Christianity.”

Link

Editor’s note: These are the same type of errors Joe Biden and the Democratic Party are shamelessly promoting in the United States – and the poorly educated, easily misled public is happily, gobbling them right up!

But it’s one thing for cheap, tin-horn politicians to promote falsehoods – and quite another for the priests and hierarchy of the Catholic Church – who are supposed to know better.

Perhaps Msgr. Fernandez no longer believes in Divine Revelation, Sacred and Apostolic Tradition, and the Sacred Deposit of Faith – which are precisely the things on which Catholic ethical principles have always been fashioned?

Or perhaps, these days, to Msgr. Fernandez, there is nothing sacred?

Let’s pray for all those attending the Pontifical Catholic University of Argentina.

So what is a “mystery”? It is something that can be experienced even if it cannot be explained.

This is one of the first steps of faith–to trace in your life and in the ways of the world the mysterious way God works.

He does not work according to our plans and our sensible ways of organizing everything. He is always busy under the radar and behind the scenes doing his work.

Faith is being able to see what is going on and how he works in his strange and mysterious way.

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True Funeral Confessions: One-upping Pope Francis.

by Doug Lawrence

Pope Francis’ recent confession about stealing a cross from the dead body of a fellow priest reminded me of a funeral I attended a long, long time ago – and something that I had never before confessed.

It was a pleasant summer morning at the cemetery. The grave had been freshly dug and the customary Astro-turf had been put down all around the perimeter, with the casket-lowering apparatus set upon it. A nearby oak provided a modicum of shade for all those assembled.

My employer’s elderly mother had passed away, and I was attending the graveside internment ceremony. Since one of my fellow employees and I appeared to be strong, vital, young men, we were assigned as escorts for several of the elderly ladies in attendance.

Nobody told us precisely what we were supposed to watch out for or what we were to do. The idea was simply to stay close and offer whatever assistance might be necessary.

The internment rite competed, everyone prepared to pay final respects to the deceased, processing past the suspended casket and placing a flower on top.

My fellow escort took up a position in line, some three persons ahead of me. Then there were three elderly ladies – and me.

So far, so good!

The procession continued without a hitch, until the lady right in front of me began placing her flower on the casket. Somehow, in the proverbial “blink of an eye” – she disappeared!

Her scream was not very loud, but it was still blood-curdling. O-o-o-h! O-o-o-o-h!  O-o-o-o-o-o-h! as she slipped into the grave – already in up to her shoulders and still going down! Mouth wide-open. Pleading.  Eyes as big as saucers! 

Hell was about to swallow her up!

Such a thing would have seemed impossible, since there appeared to be only a few inches of clearances between the casket and the edge of the grave. But since the casket was merely suspended on a couple of nylon belts, there was nothing to stop a little old lady from pushing it aside and going right in. I’ll never forget the image, which has been permanently burned into my brain.

I managed to reach down and in one fluid motion, grab her right wrist and hand, pulling her up, out, and  instantly setting her right back on her feet.

She was OK. In fact, things couldn’t have gone better if we had practiced! I brushed her off a bit and we continued.

The incident was over – or so I thought.

Looking up to see how my escort “buddy” had fared during all of this, I was met with a smirk – which quickly escalated to a chortle – which quickly escalated into a full blown, out of control, “laugh-in-church” type of scenario.

The emergency successfully past and safely overcome, there was no denying the levity of the situation.

We had just experienced a rare and unusual happening and desperately needed to express our feelings. But we just couldn’t, right now!

So, red-faced and choking back tears, we respectfully made our way back to the car, rolled up the windows, and for the next ten minutes or so, laughed our respective butts off.

I’m sure the car was shaking, the whole time!

We like to think that our hysterical laughter might have been mistaken for grief.

Such is the nature of True Funeral Confessions. Feel free to send us your own stories.

Navy veteran: I would strongly discourage any good man from joining the military.

In the Navy, particularly, it is extremely difficult to remain faithful to Christ’s teachings.

You live day in and day out in the company of immoral people.

Drunkenness is extremely common, as is theft, pornography, fornication, and adultery.

Brothels in foreign ports make their wages for the year when American ships arrive.

The Navy is also extremely damaging to family life.

6-month deployments as well as numerous other underway periods steal a man’s time from his loved ones.Even while in port, 12 hour work days are the norm.

I missed about 9 months of my first born daughter’s first year because I was out to sea. The stress and strain that puts on a spouse is, in my opinion, irresponsible of a husband. 

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Submitted by Mark H.

Did the Protestant Bible Exist Before the Reformation?

A frank discussion of various positions,
based on the latest available research.

Spoiler: Catholics 9 – Protestants 0 

The true story behind Brazil’s famous Cristo Redentor “Christ the Redeemer” Statue

The original idea for a monument to Christ came from a group of Brazilians who, in the wake of World War One, feared an advancing tide of godlessness. Church and state had been separated when Brazil became a republic at the end of the previous century, and they saw the statue as a way of reclaiming Rio – then Brazil’s capital city – for Christianity.

Text and photos

Male maturity and the need to overcome the fear of rejection

For a boy to become a man, he needs to get over his fear of being rejected. And he needs to recognize that part of being a man is experiencing rejection and growing from it and through it.

Heck, even Jesus was rejected, so should we expect anything less for ourselves?

Article from 2014 explains what’s really happening in Ukraine, today.

Understanding what Vladimir Putin is doing doesn’t require converting a media Beelzebub into a media St. Francis. It does, however, demand that we spit out the simple-minded gruel peddled by the MSM and the well-coiffed spokesbeings for the Washington-Brussels Axis of Putty.

Link to story