5 keys to better discernment

Five general principles of discernment of God’s will that apply to all questions about it, and therefore to our question too, are the following:

1. Always begin with data, with what we know for sure. Judge the unknown by the known, the uncertain by the certain. Adam and Eve neglected that principle in Eden and ignored God’s clear command and warning for the devil’s promised pig in a poke.
2. Let your heart educate your mind. Let your love of God educate your reason in discerning his will. Jesus teaches this principle in John 7:17 to the Pharisees. (Would that certain Scripture scholars today would heed it!) They were asking how they could interpret his words, and he gave them the first principle of hermeneutics (the science of interpretation): “If your will were to do the will of my Father, you would understand my teaching.” The saints understand the Bible better than the theologians, because they understand its primary author, God, by loving him with their whole heart and their whole mind.
3. Have a soft heart but a hard head. We should be “wise as serpents and harmless as doves,” sharp as a fox in thought but loyal as a dog in will and deed. Soft-heartedness does not excuse soft-headedness, and hard-headedness does not excuse hard-heartedness. In our hearts we should be “bleeding-heart liberals” and in our heads “stuck-in-the-mud conservatives.”
4. All God’s signs should line up, by a kind of trigonometry. There are at least seven such signs: (1) Scripture, (2) church teaching, (3) human reason (which God created), (4) the appropriate situation, or circumstances (which he controls by his providence), (5) conscience, our innate sense of right and wrong, (6) our individual personal bent or desire or instincts, and (7) prayer. Test your choice by holding it up before God’s face. If one of these seven voices says no, don’t do it. If none say no, do it.
5. Look for the fruits of the spirit, especially the first three: love, joy, and peace. If we are angry and anxious and worried, loveless and joyless and peaceless, we have no right to say we are sure of being securely in God’s will. Discernment itself should not be a stiff, brittle, anxious thing, but—since it too is part of God’s will for our lives—loving and joyful and peace-filled, more like a game than a war, more like writing love letters than taking final exams.

Read more from Peter Kreeft

The reason for our joy: Christmas is proof that God always keeps his promises

by Doug Lawrence

The first thing God did after Adam fell from grace was call a meeting. (That probably explains why meetings have always seemed like a form of punishment, to many of us.)

The Old Testament Bible Book of Genesis, Chapter 3, verse 15, duly records the promise God made to Adam at that meeting … the promise of a redeemer … who would one day come to repair the damage that had been done … something that Adam could never hope to accomplish on his own.

Genesis 3:15 I will put enmities between thee and the woman, and thy seed and her seed: she shall crush thy head, and thou shalt lie in wait for her heel.

Until that day, all of mankind would remain enslaved to Satan, sin, and death … except for the Virgin Mary, who was, by special privilege of God, conceived without sin, in order to make it possible for her to become the mother of our holy Savior, Jesus Christ. (That’s also why the above Bible verse has both a decidedly masculine as well as feminine “sense” to it.)

When Almighty God sets out to fulfill a promise, there’s nothing in the universe that can stop him … hence the joyous and absolutely confident proclamation of the angels, on that first Christmas:

Luke 2:10-14 And the angel said to them: Fear not; for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy that shall be to all the people: For, this day is born to you a Savior, who is Christ the Lord, in the city of David. And this shall be a sign unto you. You shall find the infant wrapped in swaddling clothes and laid in a manger. And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly army, praising God and saying: Glory to God in the highest: and on earth peace to men of good will.

As we all know, within the space of some thirty-three short years, that mild babe in the manger went on to perfectly fulfill all the prophecies and promises that God had ever made, concerning him … destroying Satan’s evil dominion, reconciling sinful mankind, opening the gates of Heaven, and permanently establishing the Kingdom of God, on the Earth.

Thanks to Christ, the state of war that had existed between Satan dominated, sinful mankind and God, was over. From that day forward, God’s grace would trump sin and death, while Satan, the former slave master and undisputed “Prince of this World” would remain a tragic, desperate, fugitive on earth, waiting for his sentence to be ultimately carried out, much like the late Iraqi dictator Sadaam Hussein, who spent his last days cowering in an underground “spider hole”, until justice finally caught up with him.

Now (and forever) Jesus reigns
as King of Kings and Lord of Lords!

Merry Christmas!

 

President Obama’s Christmas message – with a few very important Catholic corrections

by Doug Lawrence

The President had this to say at the lighting of the National Christmas Tree: 

“Each Christmas, we celebrate the birth of a child who came into the world with only a stable’s roof to shelter Him,” he said. “But through a life of humility and the ultimate sacrifice, a life guided by faith and kindness towards others, Christ assumed a mighty voice, teaching us lessons of compassion and charity that have lasted more than two millennia. He ministered to the poor. He embraced the outcast. He healed the sick. And in Him we see a living example of scripture that we ought to love others not only through our words, but also through our deeds.” “It’s a message both timeless and universal — no matter what God you pray to, or if you pray to none at all — we all have a responsibility to ourselves and to each other to make a difference that is real and lasting,” he continued. “We are our brother’s keeper. We are our sister’s keeper.”

Link

Now for a few very essential Catholic criticisms and revisions to the above:

Jesus Christ, the 2nd Person of the Holy Trinity, came into the world and assumed human flesh, along with a human soul, according to the divine plan and power of God, his Father, in order to redeem mankind from sin.

Taking on human flesh and becoming like us in all things, except for sin, Jesus is true man. Yet Jesus never ceased to be God. 

During his earthly existence, Jesus led a totally sinless life of humility and sacrifice, compassion, mercy and healing – because God is love – Jesus Christ is God and Messiah – and anything to the contrary is simply not a part of his awesome divinity – nor part of his sinless, perfect, totally incorrupt humanity.

By merely being himself, Jesus Christ fulfilled everything that was written about him in the the prophetic biblical volumes of the Law, the Psalms and the Prophets. Only God could do that! Research this for yourself, if you don’t believe me. Just make sure you actually do the work!

Jesus – complete with his glorified and resurrected human body and soul, which is now eternally united with his Divine Spirit – is enthroned in Heaven, at the right hand of God the Father, as King if Kings and Lord of Lords.

Jesus has absolute power over all things in Heaven, on Earth and under the Earth – and he promises to come again, at the end of time, to judge the living and the dead.

The same Jesus is also the head of the Catholic (Universal) Church and it is only by Jesus’ name – according to God’s grace, in faith – that any man might hope to be saved from eternal death and Hell.

So be nice, if it makes you feel better – but remember that corrupt, tin-horn politicians like Barack Obama – who want to “keep” you – actually intend to oppress you – while God’s loving plan is one of unbridled, genuine peace and true, personal freedom.

So reject all of Barack Obama’s “slick” worldly nonsense, “reasonable” advice and other vain deceits and put all your trust in Jesus Christ and the only Church he ever founded, authorized, empowered and eternally guaranteed, for the purpose of our eternal salvation – the Catholic Church!

The only sure and certain hope of making a difference that is real and lasting (for your eternal soul and the souls of your loved ones) is membership in the Catholic Church – which typically begins with the Sacrament of Baptism – followed by a lifetime of fervent prayer and religious studies, along with full, faithful and regular participation in all of the Church’s other authentic work, worship, sacraments and devotions.

Nothing less is likely to get the job done,
but miracles do occasionally happen,
if you think God might be willing to make an exception,
just for you! 

The main thing Jesus came to do was set people free from the eternal oppression of Satan, sin and death – so that we humans might – one day – be able to once again enjoy eternity in Heaven, with God – without having to put up with lies, obfuscations and other inane chatter from shameless demagogues, like Barack Obama.

Jesus succeeded.

Such is the reason for our joy.

 M E R R Y  C H R I S T M A S !

Related link: Christmas – the prequel

National tree photo: Wikipedia.org

5 keys to better discernment

Five general principles of discernment of God’s will that apply to all questions about it, and therefore to our question too, are the following:

1. Always begin with data, with what we know for sure. Judge the unknown by the known, the uncertain by the certain. Adam and Eve neglected that principle in Eden and ignored God’s clear command and warning for the devil’s promised pig in a poke.
2. Let your heart educate your mind. Let your love of God educate your reason in discerning his will. Jesus teaches this principle in John 7:17 to the Pharisees. (Would that certain Scripture scholars today would heed it!) They were asking how they could interpret his words, and he gave them the first principle of hermeneutics (the science of interpretation): “If your will were to do the will of my Father, you would understand my teaching.” The saints understand the Bible better than the theologians, because they understand its primary author, God, by loving him with their whole heart and their whole mind.
3. Have a soft heart but a hard head. We should be “wise as serpents and harmless as doves,” sharp as a fox in thought but loyal as a dog in will and deed. Soft-heartedness does not excuse soft-headedness, and hard-headedness does not excuse hard-heartedness. In our hearts we should be “bleeding-heart liberals” and in our heads “stuck-in-the-mud conservatives.”
4. All God’s signs should line up, by a kind of trigonometry. There are at least seven such signs: (1) Scripture, (2) church teaching, (3) human reason (which God created), (4) the appropriate situation, or circumstances (which he controls by his providence), (5) conscience, our innate sense of right and wrong, (6) our individual personal bent or desire or instincts, and (7) prayer. Test your choice by holding it up before God’s face. If one of these seven voices says no, don’t do it. If none say no, do it.
5. Look for the fruits of the spirit, especially the first three: love, joy, and peace. If we are angry and anxious and worried, loveless and joyless and peaceless, we have no right to say we are sure of being securely in God’s will. Discernment itself should not be a stiff, brittle, anxious thing, but—since it too is part of God’s will for our lives—loving and joyful and peace-filled, more like a game than a war, more like writing love letters than taking final exams.

Read more from Peter Kreeft

Garvan Byrne died at the age of 11 after a long illness, but he left behind an amazing and inspiring video for people of faith.

Click here … and have the Kleenex ready

I don’t know if Garvan Byrnes is worthy of sainthood.  But it seems to me that the Church should consider investigating his life and death to see if he is worthy of  being named a “Servant of God.”  From there, God will decide how high this young man should rise on that scale of sanctity.   It may all come down to whether God permits miracles to be permitted when people petition Garvan in the name of Jesus.

Thanks to Te Deum laudamus!

Michael Voris “brags” about the “Coolness” of Catholicism

Truth is .. Catholicism always has been cool.

We built western civilization .. the only thing that relativists, socialists and atheists ever built was guillotines and death camps.

Our problem of late it just that many of us have been asleep for a while .. not really minding or paying attention to the candy store.

And while many of us were sleeping .. losers sneaked past and somehow claimed the mantle of cool.

Well .. if you think broken homes, shattered childhoods, self-esteem rooted in lies, cheating spouses, objectification of women, the death of masculinity, the ascendancy of lesbian-centered feminism, the glorification of mothers murdering their children, the nightmare of addictions .. and every other such social evil is cool .. then you need to hit the road Jack.

What’s so cool about a mounting toll of human physical, emotional and psychological carnage,?

So why is Catholic so cool? Because it makes you a man .. it makes you able to stand on your own two feet. While all these social losers tear you down .. they are actually jealous of you and what you have.

Watch the short video

JPII and “Be Not Afraid” – A personal story of conversion

I’m among the numerous souls brought to Catholicism largely by the witness of the man who will be beatified this coming Sunday.

During high school I gave up on the Christian faith I’d been raised in. I didn’t so much reject Christ or his teaching as become completely disheartened by the fact that all around me were professing Christians who seemed not to take much interest in striving to live the Gospel.

If love is patient, kind, and not quick to take offense, why were we Christians quick-tempered, gossipy and touchy like everyone else? To cope, I adopted the time-honored adolescent defense mechanism: cynicism.

Onto the world stage strode John Paul II, beaming his merry grin, encouraging us to “Be Not Afraid,” and seeming to embody in his person the antidote to 1970’s “malaise.”

He offered the cure to cynicism: Christian joy. His spirit and teaching gave courage to young hearts afraid to give themselves fully to Christ. And he backed up his smile with the physical and moral courage that brought down the Soviet empire, restored the missionary face of the Church, and faced down the slow wasting death by Parkinson’s.

Three memories of him I cherish.

He is not here. For he is risen, as he said… (Matthew 28:6)

Matthew 28:1-7  And in the end of the sabbath, when it began to dawn towards the first day of the week, came Mary Magdalen and the other Mary, to see the sepulchre.

And behold there was a great earthquake. For an angel of the Lord descended from heaven and coming rolled back the stone and sat upon it. And his countenance was as lightning and his raiment as snow. And for fear of him, the guards were struck with terror and became as dead men.

And the angel answering, said to the women: Fear not you: for I know that you seek Jesus who was crucified. He is not here. For he is risen, as he said.

Come, and see the place where the Lord was laid. And going quickly, tell ye his disciples that he is risen. And behold he will go before you into Galilee. There you shall see him.

Lo, I have foretold it to you.

More…

The Pope has routed his enemies and brought joy to the faithful

How does one sum up the papal visit in a few words?

A survey of the four days, event by event – four days which began (so far as I am concerned) in anxiety which quickly turned to relief and ended finally in euphoria – simply can’t be done in less than the length of a short book, and I have only 400 or 500 words for this post, though in the print edition of the paper which appears later this week I shall be given more than double the space for an extended version of it, in which I shall look also at the very interesting coverage of the visit by the secular media.

That aspect of the visit will have to be briefly summarised here by the words of Dr. George Carey in the News of the World: “he came, he saw, he conquered”.

Read more

Sr. Kusamam, Defeating the Culture of Death by Accepting Unwanted Babies

Sister Kusamam is 48 years old and entered the Missionaries of Charity in 1985. For most of her 25 years as a consecrated religious, she has helped abandoned or unwanted children through adoption. She spent two and a half years with Mother Teresa and from her learned to serve Jesus through the poor. In September 2004, along with six other sisters, she was beaten by 40 men, while distributing food to the poor inhabitants of a shantytown on the outskirts of Calicut, Kerala. Sister Kusamam still bears the marks of her beating, along with an “inexplicable” joy.

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Heaven!

“Heaven is God’s ideal, the repose of His intellect.  Let us add: it is the repose of His heart.  The heart goes further than the mind.  It has aspirations and impulses, unknown to genius, which go beyond all the bounds of inspiration and thought…  The transports that the divine vision will arouse in the elect will make their hearts superabound in the most unutterable joys; it will be a flood of delights and raptures, life in its inexhaustible richness and the very source of all good and all life.  It will be, as St Augustine goes on to say, like a gift from God of His own Heart, so that we may love and rejoice with all the energy of the love and joys of God Himself… The contemplation of God will not mean immobility but, above all, activity, an ever-ascending progression, where movement and repose will be bound together in ineffable harmony… They will go from glory to glory, from joy to joy…

Read more

Piercing the Darkness – Good Friday

Even a casual observer of American society can tell that there is a certain sinister chaos spreading throughout every aspect of public life these days. Naturally, as it filters through society it finds its way into our homes, families and personal lives as well. The reports of monumental breakups and takeovers, meltdowns, dysfunctions, cutbacks, disasters, protests, catastrophic events, scandals, and just plain moral chaos are, shall we say, legion, and it does not look like there will be any let up in the dismantling of our formerly decent society any time soon. Public officials and the movers-and-shakers of social communications long ago divorced American culture from authentic Christian values, and the result is that modern America has found itself first wandering then running down a very slippery slope to moral and social anarchy. The darkness has settled upon us.

This idea came home to me this week when I attended the 5th Anniversary Mass of Terri Schindler Schiavo at Ave Maria University in FL. How well I remember the horrible killing scene in Pinellas Park, FL in 2005 when the combined efforts of pro-lifers and some political allies were not able to stop the forward motion of such raw evil. From the Florida circuit courts all the way up to the US Supreme Court, the corrupt judiciaries refused to intervene and even ordered her killing, with impunity. The US Congress was almost laughably powerless to help. The utter uselessness of the bishop and clergy in the diocese where Terri was murdered was a microcosm of the Church Impotent rather than the Church Militant. The thousands of calls that the Terri Schindler Schiavo Foundation now gets in their attempt to stop other similar killings are an indication that this same darkness is now penetrating our society at an alarming level.

Every aspect of American society is touched by this chaos: the pervasive and unstoppable corruption in government, the major media, Hollywood, academia, healthcare, and even within our own churches! All of this corruption is multiplying the shadows over our society and penetrating into every aspect of personal and family life as we speak.

What I find most alarming, as an exorcist, is the spread of truly occult phenomena in our youth culture. It used to be that vampires had to go back into their coffins with the first streaks of dawn. Now handsome young vampires are sullying the covers of every gossip magazine and tantalizing prime time audiences with their evil – and teenage girls are just swooning for them…. Don’t be fooled: the vampire culture is the spawn of the Harry Potter culture that has washed over our youth for a decade and still seduces parents into thinking it is all just “harmless entertainment.” Kids dressing up as sorcerers, blogging about vampires, dabbling in Wicca – it’s just plain seductive and evil. Our Baptismal Promises demand that we “reject Satan and all his works and all his empty promises,” and that includes demons, witches and vampires!

If I were anything other than a Christian, I would probably despair of the status of the culture all around us. Yes, there are movements fighting to take the culture and politics back, but most of these are just about political power and, if they have an effect at all, they will just install another version of corruption in place of the political devils they cast out.

The reason I don’t despair in the face of all this darkness, though, is because I remember that once-upon-a-time Evil had its Hour. I am not talking about sixty-minutes of willowy darkness. I am talking about the worst crime ever committed in history, the blackest deed ever known to man: the killing of the Son of God on Calvary. The corrupt politicians, clergy and laity of the day were all implicated in the crime. Worst of all, the devil was sitting back gloating at his masterpiece of evil.

But much to the devil’s surprise, evil did not win the Day…because at that very moment of deepest darkness, the Son of God did something utterly unforeseen and caught the whole wicked world unaware: He shattered the darkness and rose from the dead! Who would have imagined!

Ever after, those who persevere through Good Friday looking toward the joy of Easter Sunday find themselves immersed in the same eternal mystery of Light. Christ has pierced the darkness and given us Hope! We can sing the great “Te Deum” hymn with the greatest fervor now in every dark hour of our lives: “In you Lord is our hope – and we shall never hope in vain!”

Sincerely,

Fr. Thomas Euteneuer

Human Life International

The reason for our joy: Christmas is proof that God always keeps his promises

by Doug Lawrence

The first thing God did after Adam fell from grace was call a meeting. (That probably explains why meetings have always seemed like a form of punishment, to many of us.)

The Old Testament Bible Book of Genesis, Chapter 3, verse 15, duly records the promise God made to Adam at that meeting … the promise of a redeemer … who would one day come to repair the damage that had been done … something that Adam could never hope to accomplish on his own.

Genesis 3:15 I will put enmities between thee and the woman, and thy seed and her seed: she shall crush thy head, and thou shalt lie in wait for her heel.

Until that day, all of mankind would remain enslaved to Satan, sin, and death … except for the Virgin Mary, who was, by special privilege of God, conceived without sin, in order to make it possible for her to become the mother of our holy Savior, Jesus Christ. (That’s also why the above Bible verse has both a decidedly masculine as well as feminine “sense” to it.)

When Almighty God sets out to fulfill a promise, there’s nothing in the universe that can stop him … hence the joyous and absolutely confident proclamation of the angels, on that first Christmas.

Luke 2:10-14 And the angel said to them: Fear not; for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy that shall be to all the people: For, this day is born to you a Savior, who is Christ the Lord, in the city of David. And this shall be a sign unto you. You shall find the infant wrapped in swaddling clothes and laid in a manger. And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly army, praising God and saying: Glory to God in the highest: and on earth peace to men of good will.

As we all know, within the space of some thirty-three short years, that mild babe in the manger went on to perfectly fulfill all the prophecies and promises that God had ever made, concerning him … destroying Satan’s evil dominion, reconciling sinful mankind, opening the gates of Heaven, and permanently establishing the Kingdom of God, on the Earth.

Thanks to Christ, the state of war that had existed between Satan dominated sinful mankind and God was over. From that day forward, God’s grace would trump sin and death, while Satan, the former slave master and undisputed “Prince of this World” would remain a tragic, desperate fugitive on earth, (much like the late Iraqi dictator Sadaam Hussein, who spent his last days cowering in an underground “spider hole” until justice finally caught up with him.)

Now (and forever) Jesus reigns
as King of Kings and Lord of Lords!

Merry Christmas!

 

Christ the King brings peace and defeats the ‘dominion of death,’ Pope Benedict says

Vatican City, Nov 22, 2009 / 11:05 am (CNA).- In his message on the Feast of Christ the King to the tens of thousands of people gathered on St Peter’s Square, Pope Benedict XVI explained that the “power” of Christ is different from that of “the great of this world.” Choosing Christ the King, he said, does not guarantee success, but peace and joy.

“Choosing Christ does not guarantee success according to the criteria of today’s world, but ensures that peace and joy that only He can give,” Pope Benedict added. “This is shown, in every age, by the experience of many men and women who, in Christ’s name, in the name of truth and justice, have been able to resist the lure of earthly powers, with their different forms, until their fidelity was sealed with martyrdom.”

The Feast of Christ the King, he continued, is “a celebration of relatively recent introduction, but it has deep biblical and theological roots.”

“It begins with the expression ‘King of the Jews’ arriving then to that of ‘universal King,’ Lord of the cosmos and of history, so far beyond the expectation of the same Jewish people.”

Read the article

Email from a friend

Submitted by Ken. K.