Wednesday, December 25, 2013

Fall on your knees! O hear the angel voices!

It is a little difficult to find a rendition of 'O Holy Night' where the artist is simply trying to sing praises to God and not somehow trying to impress us with his or her great voice. NTL here is one sung by Twila Paris where her unadorned delivery seems to communicate the message-over-the-medium.

Naturally, my favorite part is the chorus: 'Fall on your knees! O hear the angel voices!'

 

Friday, December 13, 2013

Holy Father has not yet condemned the November church desecration by a mob in his Homeland.







Holy Father, why do you not condemn the church desecration by a mob in your homeland of Argentina?

Your Holiness, do you have any bigger and better things to do?  I would think not!  What was done was a direct attack on our Lord!  The faithful who shielded the San Juan de Cuyo Cathedral  with their own bodies were themselves desecrated by an ugly mob which consisted not only of chattering women, but also of violent men! (video is linked at the end of this post.  do not watch it unless you have a strong stomach)

Please go there, your Holiness! Perhaps you could seek out these modern-day Gomorrists and Golgathists, and announce that even for this there can be forgiveness IF they will turn from their ways!  Certainly, can there be a better time to gamble some of your dollars of popularity to redeem a few repentant souls –if any will listen?

If you do nothing, you will only convince:

1.     the Gomorrists--that the Church will crumble when She is attacked.
2.     The Church’s traditionalist--that you will not act because you have judged the cathedral’s defenders  to be 'self-referential Pelagians’,   and perhaps even think they got what they deserved.

Do you remember Don Camillo, your Holiness?  Is this not the best way to confront evil, and rescue souls?



Wednesday, December 11, 2013

Blessings in Brelinskyville Blogger recounts her spiritual journey to kneel before Jesus

Folks! The following was published in May 2013.  It is brief and convincing.  The  authoress just recounts her story and finally gives us the best reason to kneel for Holy Communion, i.e. this outward posture works on our interior attitude towards our Lord.......Enjoy!!




Kneel For Jesus


Receiving on the hand had long been part of my routine, before it finally came to my attention that there was another, more preferable way. I suppose I just hadn't given it all that much thought, sadly. In grade school we'd been taught the proper hand positioning, but my generation missed out on the altar rails and their purpose.

Yes, intellectually, I knew that the Body and Blood of Jesus is truly made manifest in the Eucharist, but I'd adopted a "casual" reverence. Hands crossed I quietly waited my turn in the communion line, until reaching the Extraordinary Minister at which point I accepted the Blessed Sacrament in my palm. Sliding back into the pew, I'd pause for a bit of head down-turned, silent prayer. For years that moment signaled the fast approaching end of Mass with only the final blessing and closing song to follow.

I remember distinctly the very first time a priest introduced me to the "old" kind of reverence. He was visiting our parish, the kind that hosted 45 minute Masses on Sundays. Once the last communicant headed back to his seat, Father returned to the altar singing "O' Sacrament Most Holy" while with careful attention and genuine devotion, he cleaned each chalice and paten until not one miniscule speck of Jesus could have been left behind. Entranced by curiosity, I followed his every movement as he wiped and inspected, rubbed and examined. Father's obvious love for the Blessed Sacrament and want to protect Jesus from any careless indignity, captivated me and stirred an ember in my heart. Unfortunately, Father's appearance was a one time blessing, but it was enough to inspire a sincere reflection.

Time passed at that parish and then the witness of an egregious sacrilege at a First Holy Communion celebration caused me to reconsider the lessons I was now allowing my children to encounter. My son came home distressed from Sunday school one week because a little classmate had hidden Jesus in her pocket. And then there was the Faith Formation teacher who'd told my little ones that Communion was merely a symbol of their Lord. For if my own focus had been skewed by perfunctory worship, how could I ignore the long lasting affects of errors and omissions in my children's faith journey.

After much prayerful discernment, we left and God planted us temporarily in a parish dominated by seniors. What a gift that was to our growing family, being immersed in a church home where traditional reverence was the norm. No more jeans and sneakers (for us as well), no more homilies that left us thirsting and most importantly no more rushed communion lines and swiftly discarded vessels.

It never ceases to amaze me how patient and gentle God is with me. The perfect Father, He knows just how and when to reach me. Never impetuous, like me, He redirects and corrects a little here and a bit there as the gardener who sets out to straighten a bent tree.

A move led us to search out a new parish, but we did so with cautious consideration. Not that I advocate church-shopping, but history had led my husband and me to weigh the merits of attending more versus less traditional Mass celebrations and the latter now seemed unsatisfactory.

By the grace of God, we found our new parish home and instantly knew it was where He intended us to raise our family. From that very first liturgy, that ember in my heart which had been stirred into a slow burning flame was fed all the more. Like that visiting priest, Father moved slowly through the consecration, giving thoughtful consideration to each word he uttered. And upon returning to the altar he would show no less care and love for the sacred vessels. His silent motions were a visible prayer.

My understanding of and love for the Blessed Sacrament increased beyond the intellectual, but there was more to come. It was a simple statement posted on facebook by a seminarian. "Kneel for Jesus," he typed.

Kneel? I'd never considered that position, but after reading those three words I was convicted. It just seemed proper although so foreign to me. Sharing the experience with my husband, he seemed ready to adopt that humble stance without hesitation, as well did our children.

Admittedly, it took some courage those first few Masses to lower myself before Jesus. Not that I struggled with recognizing my smallness, but I worried that somehow someone might misconstrue my kneeling as a sign of "holy pride." "Look at that woman with all those kids, she's trying to appear all holy, you know." But then again I suppose perhaps there was greater merit in learning to forget the judgment of others because none of this was about me.

If Moses had to cast off his shoes in order to step on sacred ground, how is it that we came to this time in history when we've so removed ourselves from the right practice of reverence? More than Moses, we are able to partake of the very real Body and Blood of Jesus Christ, but casual worship has blinded many of us to the treasure resting in our hands. We may never even consider whether our hands are even clean enough to touch His Precious Body or that we could carelessly drop our Lord on the dirty ground.

Hard to really capture in words, the act of kneeling and receiving on the tongue has deepened my affection for Jesus and given me opportunity to pay Him homage in a way that I'd previously been neglecting. Understandably the devoted are no longer required to kneel and for some people the position may be impossible, but for me there is no longer any other way. Not because I think myself a better Catholic (I am not), but because I can no longer quiet that still, small voice that beckons me to lower myself and receive, rather than stand and take.

Remember the woman who bent down on the floor in order to anoint the feet of Jesus and how she dried them with her own hair. What an act of charity that was. Remember that Jesus Himself got down on His knees in order to wash the feet of His Apostles. What a lesson in humble service that was.

Sunday, December 1, 2013

How modern liturgies drive people out of the Church

Is it ok for liturgy to offend faithful Catholics?
In a society where we are all called to be 'accepting', it is ironic that liturgical experts never seem to ask themselves this question.

I know of a young man who recently enlisted in the U.S. Army.  He was raised Catholic and was an altar boy for 10 years.  He was raised in the Novus Ordo and only assisted in a handful of Extraordinary Rite Masses during his entire career.  His parents tell me that he recently stopped attending the Masses offered at the post chapel.  The reason?

He thinks the Army's Masses are irreverent. 'Happy-clappy' he calls them. Now, I know that 'Mass is Mass', and would surely warn him about the spiritual danger of not putting up with whatever kind of Mass is being offered, and I pray that he does not let his frustration drive him into a state of permanent disillusionment.  But....from this small anecdote I think I see a lot of why Vatican II Mass attendance is a small fraction of what it was prior to its 'implementation'.  This young man is not against guitars. I am told he has spent many an evening at a local club attending concerts, usually country, but some of which would even qualify as 'rock'.  Yet he does not like such carryings-ons at the post chapel.  It is irreverent and *unmanly*.

Perhaps this young man represents but a sliver of the Catholic population, but  I doubt it,  Judging from radical drop in Mass attendance ( I reiterate:Vatican II Mass attendance is a miniscule fraction of what it was prior to the innovations. ) I think he is more likely typical of the multiude of former Catholics who were never enthused by the vulgarization of the Mass.  They are those who concluded in their simple way that if Mass was not 'above' being celebrated with pop music, hand clapping, cheer leading, etc., then it most likely wasn't nearly as special as what they had earlier  been lead to believe.  Hence to avoid the frustration of watching performances which scandalize their sensibilities, they just drifted away.

The innovators usually congratulate themselves on their 'inclusiveness'.  Yet, I fear, it is they who have excluded and estranged countless millions of poor, simple Catholics whose parents and grandparents and great grandparents would never have missed a Mass.     Maybe the innovators have never really looked themselves in the mirror, or ever seriously considered that their bold performances might be offensive to some of the Faithful. 


How many millions souls would have been saved had the innovators stuck to beauty and adoration which offends no one!

Sunday, November 17, 2013

Hand Communion almost eradicated at Pope Francis' 15 November Episcopal Ordination Mass

The Holy Father  and MSGR Marini seem to have gotten the message out.  There were quite a number of kneeling communicants,  many, many people, including apparent seminarians receiving on the tongue and no good clear camera shots of anyone who took the Host in their hand.

Additionally, it was a very solemn Liturgy with great big Benedictine candlesticks on the altar!

I have been frustrated by some of the papal liturgies, and the flagrant defiance of the Pope's 'no-hand-Communion' instruction which has been in force, but not enforced by ministers of Holy Communion.  I hope and pray that the Pope's approach continues to promote solemnity and adoration!!

 

Friday, November 15, 2013

President of Italy thanks Pope Francis for his lack of dogma and his promotion of uncertainty


Dear Holy Father!

The world sings your praises only because they see you dismantling Catholic dogma! (and promotion of uncertainty).  Pres. Napolitano says that to your face and you say nothing but that you are in 'SOLIDARITY' with him?

:-(
 

Sunday, November 10, 2013

NY TIMES highlights the confusion Pope Francis' remarks and style have been engendering

Same sex marriage advocates citing Pope Francis as their hero.
A Pro-life Catholics tearing up her Pope Francis prayer card.

Holy Father!

I really do not see how confusing Catholic officials and embittering Catholic faithful can possibly be things for which you should be congratulated.  :-(   :-(  :-(

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/10/us/conservative-us-catholics-feel-left-out-of-the-popes-embrace.html?pagewanted=2&hp

Thursday, October 31, 2013

Pope Francis CELEBRATES ALL HALLOWS EVE MASS AD ORIENTEM

Thank you Father Alan MacDonald @ Southern Orders for tipping us off!  You always have been saying that HH had an AD ORIENTEM aspect. I admit that I had come to fear you were only 'whistling in the dark'. :-(.  I certainly did not see this one coming!



HH may surpass anyone's expectations and become the greatest pope of Christian unity!

Please, everyone, pray for Francis! (if you hate him and everything about him, pray harder!)



https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=653141971397062&set=a.653141818063744.1073741862.375882539123008&type=3&theater

Saturday, October 19, 2013

How to Proselytize (for kneeling) (ACTUAL CASE STUDY!)

(The following is a combox exchange from a well known Catholic blog which recently treated the topic of kneeling for Holy Communion and hand Communion vs Communion on the tongue.  The article concludes leaving  the  reader with the implication that neither manner has an advantage over the other. 

Bishop Athanasius Schneider fan, BASF, enters a comment attempting to balance out the article..  'hand Communion Lady enters the fray!  'hand Communion Lady' and BASF go toe-to-toe in the com-boxes.  In the end......HAND COMMUNION LADY BECOMES ANOTHER BISHOP ATHANSIUS SCHNEIDER FAN!!!REALLY!)

[Bishop Athanasius Schneider fan]

A nice balanced treatment. There are two additional points I'd like for you to consider:
1) re: history. I often hear that Hand Communion is ancient. Fact is, it might be or it might not be. The modern practice is however not the ancient practice, the only description of which we owe to to St. Cyril of Jeru., which also guarded that the Holy Fragments were treated with reverence. That is out the window with the modern Communion-any-old-way. When is the last time you saw someone lick their palms to keep the Fragments from being discarded?

2) re: history. There still exist Apostolic Churches which separated from Rome more than 1500 years ago. If Hand Communion, or the modern Communion-any-old-way were so wide spread 1500 years ago, then why do ZERO of these Churches practice Hand Communion? Unless someone argues that the Georgians or Armenians or Copts --or the Russians a little later--all banned Hand Communion to imitate Rome, it must be admitted that Hand Communion could never have been very wide-spread in the ancient Church.

Lastly I would like to point out that your phrase ' all children are made to kneel in order to receive Communion' makes it seem rather tyrannical. I think you could also say 'Children are FORCED TO come to church for an hour before they can receive Holy Communion'. That sounds pretty bad too! When you teach, you 'make' children do things and this can look tyrannical.
Does ' all children are made to kneel *before the King of Kings' sound better?
  • (hand Communion lady)                                                                    

    Just my opinion, but since the norm in our parish and in our diocese is for people to stand and receive Holy Communion in the hand, it appears to me that those who choose to kneel, and to receive on their tongues, are really just making themselves seem more pious and separate from the rest of us faithful Christians. I follow St Ambrose's advice to St. Monica myself - if was good enough for Monica, Augustine, and Jerome, it's good enough for me. So, if I'm at your parish, and everyone is kneeling and receiving lingually, so will I - ever mindful that when the apostles first received the holy body and blood of Christ, they did so at a Seder, and so passed and ate the unleavened bread while reclining around the table like all good Jews continue to do to this day.
      (Bishop Athanasius Schneider fan)
    • Hello, hand Communion Lady!
    • kneeling is hard the first time you do it, for the reason you mention i.e. not wanting to be conspicuous and especially if you fear that the priest or extraordinary minister will upbraid you! 
    • there are times, however, when you should disregard what you think other people might think about you. If they want to judge you, that is more their problem than yours.
      I would argue that instances when God's Honor, or your own conscience demands something, then it's time to disregard the gaze of your friends.
      Kneeling was a development of practice, not an artificial imitation of what someone thought they read in the Church Fathers. It emerged as the Church's appreciation of the Eucharist grew and refined itself. If you feel that Eucharistic tradition was wrong or too over the top, then-by no means-kneel! 

  • [hand Communion Lady]                        

    Hi to you, BASF.Of course, I believe most firmly that you, (and all of us) must follow our conscience but is this a matter of conscience, or of practice? Also, Pope Benedict evidently was addressing a particular issue of sacrilege taking place in Italy and in Europe and therefore instituting practices to prevent abuse. I'm trying to understand why some Catholics feel so strongly about this that they are willing to separate themselves from the rest of their community and even their pastors - but then again, I know that I'll never understand everyone, and that's okay too. Thanks for talking about it with me.
      

    [BASF]
    Hello again, Hand Communion Lady!

    you asked ... "I'm trying to understand why some Catholics feel so strongly about this"

    • Here is my explanation.
      mostly I feel strongly because I think if the Lord Jesus stood right in front of me, undisguised, I would like to believe I would fall to my knees--as did the one grateful leper, and many others. Even if He were to tell me 'it's ok to treat Me like your buddy', I would still kneel before Him. It just *seems* right to fall down before Him!

      (hand Communion Lady)
    • BASF, thank you. You're right. Absolutely. I have to think about this more, and talk to my pastor more. I appreciate the time you took to explain.
    (The end!  Did I exaggerate? We can convert  our opponents of good will if we don't respond to 'digs' (bear wrongs patiently)  and stay on topic-- that topic being Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ!!  for my fellow pelagians--praying a decade for your opponent can be very effective.  It  also helps if you are graced with an humble and honest opponent!)

    Monday, October 14, 2013

    'Busted Halo's' Father David Dwyer, CSP's 2011 Communion Reception Video Displays Bias


    I stumbled on this the other day....some thoughts........................

    1 ) (+)at least it does mention receiving on the tongue............................

    2) (-)produced in 2011, but makes no mention of Pope Benedict's humble example of kneeling for Holy Communion.  This was quite a topic of conversation back then.  Especially since the USCCB was trying to find a nice way to oppose the Pope on this!

     3) (-)makes no mention of the Holy Fragments which get on many people's hands. Father Dwyer mentions St. Cyril as a support for Hand Communion, but conveniently, Father leaves out Cyril's caution regarding Fragments.

    4) (-)makes no mention of the history of how things have been done for at least a millenium, prior to VII.

    5) of course has no altar rail visible!

    6) (-)makes no mention of how Eastern Catholics receive Holy Communion.

     This last point is very anti-ecumenical and makes it look like Catholics are more interested in looking like Protestants, than saluting our Orthodox brothers. Mention of other Apostolic Churches' Communion practice always undermines Communion-any-old-way. Some of these groups separated from Rome 1500 years ago. (according to modernist narratives this was when everyone had Hand Communion). None, Zero, Nada, Zilch, Shneid, of these groups have Hand Communion.

    Sunday, October 13, 2013

    Eye Witness Confirms Holy Father's Intention to Eradicate Hand Communion

    Father Alan McDonald, of Southern Orders was a minister of Holy Communion at Sunday's Papal Mass.  He was told, (by the Papal MC or one of his minions), explicitly, to take great care distributing Holy Communion and TO DISTRIBUTE ON THE TONGUE. 

    Dear Father Alan!
    Thanks for being our 'fly on the wall'.

    Up until now I have had to resort to process of elimination to discern that the ministers of Holy Communion are being told to only distribute on the tongue.
    http://kneelingcatholic.blogspot.com/2013/10/popes-29-sep-outdoor-mass-marred-by.html
    Now we know for certain.  The Pope, thru MSGR Marini, thru who-knows-who has the intention of eradicating hand Communion.  It is the ministers (usually priests) who take it upon themselves to please the people and distribute 'any old way'!

    Shame on them and their disobedience and their lack of fortitude and their human respect!!!

    Father McDonald responds>>>>

    The biggest problem, KC is that the MC who comes into the Blessed Sacrament Chapel to instruct us speaks to us in Italian. I understand Italian very well but I know many in the chapel distributing Holy Communion do not know Italian.

    However, once you go to your station and you have literally mobs of people reaching out to you for Holy Communion, as though they are starving children in some 3rd world country, you or at least I freaked out and gave Holy Communion as best as I could but it was awkward.

    In other words a better system for distributing Holy Communion needs to be devised. I don't know what that system would be, but the current one is broken and has been for a long time for these mega Masses.
    Anonymous  responds
    "you have literally mobs of people reaching out to you for Holy Communion, as though they are starving children in some 3rd world country"

    I don't know, Father, but I rather like this imagery.

    For aren't we all children of God starving for Jesus Christ?

    Anyway, thanks for sharing your story. It does sound incredibly awesome.

    And speaking of which, is our pope as awesome in real life as seen on Youtube? :-)



    KC responds to Anonymous................

    Hello Anonymous! 

    I don't think I should let you have  it both ways! Don't you know the original rationale for Communion-any-old-way was: 'Don't treat us like we are children!  Adults can feed themselves!!'  :-)

    And if you are serious about the child analogy, then I hope you might drop any opposition to the Holy Father instructing that Communion  is only to be distributed on the tongue. This is what his subordinates  have been  doing since his election.  I have suspected this before. Now Father McDonald has removed all doubt.

    I rather like today's Gospel's image even better than yours. The one GRATEFUL leper approached Jesus and fell at His feet!

     

    Saturday, October 12, 2013

    Sensus Fidelium! Kneeling Communion At Saint Bernadette's


    Communion 'any old way' was out for the May 2013 (in the first year of Francis)  First Holy Communion,

    at 'Spanish Community First Holy Communion held at the Church of Saint Bernadette'
    (somewhere in America?)





    Pope Benedict's reform of the reform  is not dead unless we, the laity, let it die thru our own despair and indifference.

    It is definitely up to us laity to carry it forward!! Talk to your priests, politely! Ask them things like....

    Father, have you ever considered saying the Mass Ad Orientem?
    or Father, are the Holy Fragments which are on so many hands after Communion, Jesus Christ as well?

    Don't expect the priest to 'make a beeline' for you the next time he sees you.  You probably will not be invited to his next 'mutual admiration' get together. but you can still chase him down if you need him, say in the confessional.



    Tuesday, October 1, 2013

    Pope's 29 Sep 2013 Outdoor Mass Marred by inattentive priests, but Hand Communion still discouraged!

    (pictures from Vatican's youtube)
     
     
     
    During Sunday's Mass there was camera shot after camera shot of sleepy looking priests passing out Our Lord in whatever manner the communicant mandated.   The priests almost to a man had very careless and indifferent manners.
     
     Looks like kneeling-catholic must have imagined what was earlier termed 'abrupt reminders' not to take the Sacrament in the hand!
     
    There  seemed to  be no evidence of Pope Francis' earlier 'initiative' of enforcing solemnity towards the Blessed Sacrament, and then, at around 1h 14min into the broadcast, the camera found a very focused looking priest instructing two young ladies to put their hands down and receive directly on the tongue.
     
     
     
     
     
    May Jesus Christ's name be ever praised, and may every knee bend before Him!
     
    
    I can only speculate as to what is going on.  However I still cannot imagine:
     
    a) a directive being given that each priest should make the communicants succumb to that priest's preference.  
    b)Nor can I imagine any priest going against the Pope's directive to 'give the people whatever they want!'
     
     I can only imagine the earlier proposed scenario where the priests are all being told to encourage Communion on the tongue, but most are simply doing whatever they feel like doing.
     
    
     
     

    Friday, September 27, 2013

    Dear Holy Father Francis! Please consider the confusion you are stirring up in the minds of the poor!

    The red print below is an article Rorate Caeli printed. I include it because it resonates sorrowfully along with a recent sad experience I relate underneath. Archbshp Chaput has also written about the confusion which is enveloping the Faithful in the wake of His Holiness' initiatives.

    [http://catholicphilly.com/2013/09/think-tank/weekly-message-from-archbishop-chaput/pope-francis-and-the-interview/ catholicphilly.com/2013/09/think-tank/weekly-message-from-archbishop-chaput/pope-francis-and-the-interview/
    >]







    The Nests of Yesteryear
    by Juan Manuel de Prada
    ABC [Spanish], Sep. 21, 2013
    I am unaware if I was insane before;
    but today, reading a certain interview,
    I felt that I played the fool all these years.
    Democracy, Somerset Maugham taught, is a party to which all are invited, but in which you can then enter only if you lavish the doorman with gifts. Old theology called lavishing the doorman "flattering the world". We notice that the words of Somerset Maugham are quite true, for instance, by the way in which democratic politicians profess their affiliation: a left-wing politician admits he is a left-winger so happily, and proud to be so; a right-wing politician, on the other hand, presents himself with an inferiority complex as a "centrist", or a "reformer", or any other silliness used at the time, but he will not say even if he is tortured by squeezing his nipples that he is a right-winger. When someone declares himself to be of the right, he becomes ipso facto a party-pooper of democracy; and what democracy needs are cheerleaders, not party-poopers. I suppose that, at this very moment, there is not in the world a single democrat, from the Pope downwards, who dares say he is a right-winger.
    Another way to cheer democracy consists in not mentioning those matters that democracy considers difficult and of the Catholic underclass, as, for instance, abortion. In Spain, for example, there was a time in which the party-pooper right-wing, in order to carry votes from the Catholic underclass, began to pester about these questions, filed appeals arguing the unconstitutionality of its practice, and even promised that, once it reached power, it would change the laws that support them. But, once power was attained, the right decided that it was time to cheerlead democracy; and, since then, it decided to put these difficult matters on hold. A true democrat should not speak of certain difficult matters, because they will tell him that he is obsessed (as if denouncing the thousands of growing lives that are thrown away every day in the dumpster were an "obsession"); and, if you are a democrat struggling with your beliefs, you must, in every event, see, hear, and keep quiet, under pain of being considered from the Catholic underclass.
    I was not born to see, hear, and keep quiet; therefore, for my personal health, I choose from this day forward to avoid seeing or hearing certain things, in order not to be forced to keep quiet, as I do today. On a certain occasion, a reader wrote me a letter asking me, if one day I lost my faith, not to allow this to be revealed through my articles, because it would inflict a very deep wound upon those who, like her, fed their [faith] by reading me. There are things that, even when one wants to, one cannot let go: it happened thus with Jonah and his duty of preaching in Nineveh; and it thus happens with me regarding my faith. But Saint Augustine taught us that, even though we must never refuse martyrdom, neither must we deliver ourselves to it senselessly.
    I who am the most senseless man in the world spent many years delivering myself joyfully into martyrdom, in a battle with the world that left me in shreds, with my literary career thrown in the wastebasket and turned into the laughing stock of all my colleagues; and I made this daily exercise of immolation joyfully, because I considered that my obligation was not to please the world, but to fight it until my last breath.
    Where there were nests yesteryear there are no birds this year, Don Quixote tells us, when he comes back to his senses. I am unaware if I was insane before; but today, reading a certain interview that kicked up a dust cloud, I felt that I played the fool during all these years.
    And, following the example of the distinguished interviewee, I will dedicate myself from this day forward to pleasing and flattering the world, in order to avoid its condemnation.


    And now, my experience.......

    ‘I guess I don’t need to go to Church anymore’

    I recently had a conversation with a strikingly beautiful  woman, a Mrs. X , shortly after ‘the Pope’s Interview’.


    By way of background…

    Mrs. X was born in Germany in the 1960s. Her father’s family returned there after fleeing their native Ukraine to escape the Soviet Union’s annihilation of its German Catholics during WWII. In the mid-1930s, one of her father’s cousins, a bishop in the Crimea, achieved martyrdom, being executed under direct orders from Stalin. Her family has a particular devotion this un-canonized saint.
    Mrs. X comes from the working class. Her father installed elevators. Her mother, like she, a housewife. Mrs. X's highest level of education was trade school.. Mrs. X’s family has never owned a new vehicle. Her husband drives a 80s model, she drives her ‘new car’, a 2003. This is silly to mention, but in light of His holiness’ condemnation of luxurious autos, maybe he could grant Mrs. X some credence?

     
    She has had diabetes since her childhood, yet has  herself three children. i.e. she has not been afraid to take on a heroic risk to her own health to eschew contraception and live in accordance to Humana Vitae.
     
    She kneels for Holy Communion.

     
    I ran into Mrs. X after she had just heard what NBC nightly news was reporting about the Pope’s words. She was exasperated. Her take-away from the Pope’s 12,000 word interview?


     ‘I guess I don’t need to go to Church anymore’

    What I am seeing here is that Pope Francis' style—
    is engendering bewilderment from among the Church’s most lowly and dedicated servants …like Mrs. X.

    The Pope’s words have more than hurt their feelings.
     
    His words have hurt their Faith. 
     
    Mrs. X – and I am sure many others-has had a simple trust that Jesus Christ would always grant the world a Pope who wouldn’t contradict earlier Popes. To them it would be like Jesus Christ contradicting Himself. She thinks that this is now happening. Whether or not this is actually the case can be debated. At any rate, she is not going to listen to the-likes-of-me explain things like ‘nuance’. She sees the Church's enemies rejoicing at Francis' words...



    ...and that is enough.

    I think many, like Mrs. X, perceive that their safe world---a world where a loving Father reigns who teaches clearly and does not confuse---has vanished. They honestly do not know what to believe. The thought emerges that maybe Pope Francis loves to talk to and about atheists so much because the atheists are mostly right? i.e. That the Church has no right to teach Right from Wrong? The Church’s mission is to seek ‘solidarity’-whatever-that-means?
     
    These poor people have staked everything on the belief that God Incarnate has endowed the world with a RELIABLE and IDENTIFIABLE HUMAN teaching institution known as the Church. And it is very close to atheism for them to accept that God wouldn’t want to do that for the world and that maybe He never has; that perhaps Francis is the first Pope to figure this out. Can it be that Francis is the first pope to realize the Church has been teaching wrongly for 2,000 years? And, if all others have been wrong, then what guarantee would people have that Francis has suddenly gotten it right?
     
    Dear Holy Father Francis!
    Please take heed of the confusion you are

    stirring up in the minds of the poor!











     

     
     
     

    Tuesday, September 24, 2013

    POPE FRANCIS GOES MEDIEVAL!!!!




    and performs first 21st Century Papal Excommunication!!
    What was Father Reynolds crime?
    Homosexual Marriage and Women's Ordination.
    OK, Holy Father! We don't need to 'talk' about the Church's moral teaching any more!
    Just act!
    The following is from Melbourne news "THE AGE".
     
     

    Victoria



    Church dumps rebel priest

    Victoria
    Date

    Ex priest Greg Reynolds with a letter from the Vatican which has ex communicated him.Father Greg Reynolds: Defrocked and excommunicated over his support for women priests and gays. Photo: Angela Wylie
    Dissident priest Greg Reynolds has been both defrocked and excommunicated over his support for women priests and gays - the first person ever excommunicated in Melbourne, he believes.
    The order comes direct from the Vatican, not at the request of Melbourne Archbishop Denis Hart, and apparently follows a secret denunciation in the best traditions of the inquisition, according to Father Reynolds.

    The excommunication document - written in Latin and giving no reason - was dated May 31, meaning it comes under the authority of Pope Francis who made headlines on Thursday calling for a less rule-obsessed church.
    Father Reynolds, who resigned as a parish priest in 2011 and last year founded Inclusive Catholics, said he had expected to be laicised (defrocked), but not excommunicated. But it would make no difference to his ministry.

     
    ''In times past excommunication was a huge thing, but today the hierarchy have lost such trust and respect,'' he said.
    ''I've come to this position because I've followed my conscience on women's ordination and gay marriage.''
    According to church teaching, excommunication is the strongest sanction and means one can not hold any office or receive any sacraments. Being laicised means one is no longer a priest.
    Fairfax Media understands that the only other Melbourne priests laicised against their will have been notorious paedophiles.

    Archbishop Hart was widely criticised after his appearance at the Victorian inquiry into how the churches handled child sexual abuse when he replied to a question about why it took the church 18 years to ask the Vatican to defrock paedophile Desmond Gannon: ''Better late than never.''
    As with the removal of Bishop Bill Morris from Toowoomba, the Vatican moved much more swiftly on Father Reynolds over women priests.

    Father Reynolds said he was called to meet the Dean of St Patrick's Cathedral, John Salvano, a canon lawyer, to ''discuss some issues'' on Wednesday morning.
    When he arrived, Father Salvano translated the document for him.
    ''He told me that Denis Hart did not apply for me to be laicised, but someone else unknown has gone over his head and contacted the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith [formerly the Inquisition].
    ''The Vatican never contacted me, and it gives no explanation.''

    Father Reynolds was penniless when he resigned as a Melbourne priest, and was later offered $5000 as a payout for his 32 years of service, though he says the usual figure is about $1500 per year of service - in his case, $48,000. Negotiations are continuing.
    Archbishop Hart said Father Reynolds was excommunicated because after his priestly faculties were withdrawn he continued to celebrate the Eucharist publicly and preach contrary to the teachings of the church.
    Father Reynolds is not the first Australian Catholic to be excommunicated. The best-known was Sister Mary MacKillop, who was excommunicated by her local bishop but was reinstated. In 2010 she

    Friday, September 20, 2013

    Pope Francis climbs back on the anti-abortion wagon!!

    for those of us who were certain he had fallen off.........
    [He must have.  The NY Times and Time magazine said so!]



    from his 20 SEP address to Italian gynecologists (Thank you Rorate Caeli for the alert!  from the Vatican website....courtesy of Google-Translate).......


    "The first right of the human person is his life . He has other goods and some of them are more precious , but is the fundamental good condition for all others "(Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Declaration on Procured Abortion , November 18, 1974 , 11) . Things have a price and are sold , but people have a dignity which is worth more than things and do not have money. Many times , we find ourselves in situations where we see what it costs less is life. For this attention to human life in its totality has become in recent years a real priority of the Magisterium of the Church, particularly to the most defenseless , that is, the disabled , the sick , the unborn child , the child , the elderly , who are the most defenseless lives .

    In these  fragile humans each of us is invited to recognize the face of the Lord , who in his human flesh has experienced the indifference and loneliness that often condemn the poorest, both in countries in the developing world, both in affluent societies . Every child who, instead of being born, is unjustly condemned to be aborted , has the face of Jesus Christ, the Lord's face  before He was born",


    There we have it, folks.  Francis, in his August interview, says the Church should not focus solely upon abortion, etc. but on our Lord's Mercy.  As per the above, this does not mean CHANGING the Church's doctrine with regards to Faith and Morals, nor ignoring them altogether.

    I'm not defending HH's direction and emphasis, but I think he feels many questions have been 'ASKED AND ANSWERED' and, assuming everyone has paid attention, it is time to approach the lost world from a different angle.

    Monday, September 16, 2013

    Larissa Viana gives the Holy Father gentle lesson about Ad Orientem and reverence


    Folks!!! You can use giant puppets to restore reverence! This is from WYD/JMJ and contains the 'usual suspect', Larissa Viana, giving the Holy Father a gentle and beautiful lesson.....

    Sunday, September 15, 2013

    Catholic Answers changes its position on chewing gum @ Mass!!!


    Friends!  remember this post from May 2012?  I was disappointed with Jimmy Akin for his defense of gum chewing at Mass along with a tacit disapproval of priests who expressly forbid it.

    http://kneelingcatholic.blogspot.com/2012/05/catholic-answers-jimmy-akin-gives.html

    Well!  Three days ago Miss Peggy Frye turned things around





    The No-Gum Rule

    September 12, 2013 | 5 comments
    Not long ago, I took a call from a woman who was upset over gum chewing at Mass. Hers was not the first such complaint I have heard over the years. In fact, gum chewing at Mass is one of my pet peeves. Just do a little Googling on the subject and you will be amazed at the number of online articles, blogs, and church bulletins that speak out about the problem. Some of the stories are downright disturbing. Like the time someone found a waxy glob of gum stuck on the side of the hymnal rack with what appeared to be small pieces of a host embedded into it. Or the teenager who chomps his gum all through Mass, sometimes pulling it out of his mouth, into long strands, and then slowly wrapping it around his finger. True story.
    Have you ever sat near someone in church who is chewing on a wad of gum like a cow chewing cud? I have. I once witnessed a young man at Mass make his way to the altar chomping on a wad of gum. Open-mouthed chewing mind you. When he reached the front, I saw the priest put a host in his hand. He took the host and consumed it. And he kept on chomping and chewing all the way back to his seat. One can only imagine particles of the host (Jesus!) being worked into this guy's soggy piece of gum, which would later be tossed into the trash—or, worse yet, chucked into the street. When incidents like this happen to me at Mass, it takes all my self-discipline not to glare at the offender.
    How did this gum-chewing problem get so out of control? Some will say, "Chewing gum at Mass is a problem because so many of these Catholics are victims of poor catechesis. They just do not know any better." In many cases, that is probably true. And, when true, it is tragic. But whatever happened to good old common sense? I am sure most gum-chomping Catholics would not think to chew gum in a private audience with the Queen of England. "What?" they might say, "Chewing gum in front of the Queen of England? Why, that would be undignified and disrespectful!" Okay. So it is undignified and disrespectful to chew gum in front of important dignitaries, but it is perfectly fine to do so in the presence of Jesus Christ?
    On the other hand, this is not merely a post-Vatican II problem. The Church has long dealt with the problem of congregants who forget they are in a church. St. Paul chastised people to do their eating and drinking at home:
    What! Do you not have houses to eat and drink in? Or do you despise the church of God and humiliate those who have nothing? What shall I say to you? Shall I commend you in this? No, I will not (1 Cor. 11:22).
    In seventeenth-century Mexico, a bishop feuded with the local gentry over drinking chocolate during Mass:
    Thomas Gage (1603-1656), an English Dominican friar and traveler, tried to intervene with the Bishop of Chiapas, Mexico, over the congregation drinking chocolate during services. The women were fond of chocolate and turned church services into a coffeehouse. The bishop tried to end this, and was consequently found dead. Poisoned chocolate was sent to the bishop and Thomas Gage fled Chiapas. The rumor was that the women, who so hated the bishop for this restriction, poisoned him with chocolate, hence the proverb "Beware the chocolate of Chiapa."
    Eventually, in 1662, Pope Alexander VII put a final solution to the affair when he declared "Liquidum non frangit jejunum." Translated it means "Liquids (including chocolate) do not break the [Communion] fast."
    Nota bene: Now that the danger to the health of bishops who forbid chocolate at Mass has passed, chocolate does break the Communion fast (canon 919, Code of Canon Law). Gum, being neither a food or drink but a substance intended for chewing and then discarding (like tobacco), does not break the Communion fast.
    I think we can agree that inappropriate behavior at Mass like chewing gum (not to mention inappropriate dress and unnecessary cell-phone use) is symptomatic of a bigger problem: We simply do not understand why we are at Mass—which is why we treat the liturgy as if it were a picnic or a ball game (or coffeehouse, as was the case for the Mexican ladies demanding their chocolate).
    While we are waiting for catechesis to take effect in the hearts and minds of the gum chewers at Mass, what can the average parish priest do to correct this problem? Take it away, Fr. Richard Kunst:
    If I see a single person chewing gum in the entire church, I say this right before Communion: "Would those who are chewing gum please dispose of it before coming to Communion?"
    At first, I got a few giggles, but now the gum chewing in my Masses has gone way down. I don't have to say it as often, and when I don't notice a particular gum chewer, either one of my parishioners sitting near them will say something to the person, or one of my flock will tell me about it after Mass. . . .
    Mass is not a ball game, it's where heaven and earth kiss, where time and eternity meet because the Lord of lords and the King of kings becomes present on the altar. What kind of manners are shown when people come into that setting chomping on gum as if they were at a picnic? Their parents ought to have some old-time Catholic educator slap them with a ruler for not having taught their children a basic understanding of manners or theology.


    Peggy Frye is a staff apologist at Catholic Answers.
    Mass Revision (Digital)
    Mass Revision provides an overview of the Mass from beginning to end, showing you exactly how the Church says it is to be celebrated.







     

    Wednesday, September 11, 2013

    11SEP NBC Nightly News Report Explains Pope's Popularity: " He's shaping a new Catholic Church"


    This report illustrates why Pope Francis is so wildly popular:  The secular press is convinced that the Holy Father will remake the Church and change it into something it has never been before.  Today's topic: Celibacy.

    The Pope's new Secretary of State, Pietro P, made the 'revolutionary' statement that celibacy is a discipline and not a doctrine. OK, so what? Perhaps he meant it as 'revolutionary'. We shall see.

    I hope and pray that the Holy Father sees that his flatterers only love him because they think they can use him to overturn the Church's Faith and Morals. I don't see how it is right to lead them on in this.  The day Francis steps out ex cathedra and reverses one Catholic doctrine  will be the day well lets just let the Ghostbusters explain it:  imagine all life as you know it stopping instantaneously and every molecule in your body exploding at the speed of light


     

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