THE CROSS VERSUS THE RESURRECTION

After many decades I finally learned one of the great truths about the Cross and the Resurrection 

When I was 12 years old I had a religious experience of sorts and ended up asking for a bible for Christmas.

Hearing the Passion being read yearly at the Anglican parish I was a part of and then reading it for myself in my new bible, I became, well, frustrated that Jesus did not show His divinity by giving in to those who were taunting him.  Why did he not display His power by coming down from the cross and showing them what a mistake they had just made?

Fast forward 4 - 5 decades and I found God revealing Himself to me in a new way.  I finally realized that He did something far more amazing than removing Himself from the cross in front of their eyes:

HE RESURRECTED HIS BODY after releasing those imprisoned in the Limbo of the Fathers.  The first human to be resurrected!  After that, as we know, he led the way for all the saved by ascending into heaven.

This, in the end, leads us to the supernatural virtue of Hope, the hope that we will soon spend all eternity "happy with God in heaven" as the old Catechism says.

Now I ponder how many times we set aside our crosses due to worldly advice.  ("Hey, you've worked hard and are tired.  Why go to Adoration?  Get some rest!")

DOMINUS VOBISCUM

NEW PAGE! THE WAY OF THE CROSS

 It's been a while since I've been able to begin to work on this blog/site.  (I crashed my computer and it took me a long time to find a replacement.  You can't use Blogger (the way I want to) when all you have is a phone.)

Important page for Lent:  THE WAY OF THE CROSS.

I've been using this version for privately years.  I love how the prayer for each station goes along with the Act of Contrition.  "Oh my God, I am heartily sorry for having offended thee.  I detest all my sins ..."

However, it is hard at times to REALLY believe what one is praying.  Station Seven, for instance, has me telling God that "I would rather die than ever offend thee again."

Have a blessed Lent everyone.

MARCH TO PROTEST LGBT INDOCTRINATION

I found this VERY uplifting.

From what I have heard it sound like our children, especially here in Ontario, are being denied the ability to see and accept reality.

Here's some folk in Montreal Quebec that were standing up for reality.

Unfortunately, it was not the Catholic Church that was spear-heading this protest.

From LifeSiteNews:

 Thu Oct 26, 2023 - 4:41 pm EDT

MONTREAL (LifeSiteNews) — Pro-family advocates at the second Million Person March in downtown Montreal against LGBT indoctrination of children in the classrooms were met by counter-protesters last week.

On October 21, marchers gathered s part of pro-family rallies across the country that day to protest against Canadian schools’ Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity (SOGI) indoctrination.

“They are not of the appropriate age for this kind of material,” one pro-family protester told Rebel News. “While children in China or Japan are studying quantum physics, we are pushing our children here in Canada to engage in a confusing subject like the ideologies of identity, sexuality, or inappropriate material for four-year-old kids.”

Another protester revealed that she attended the rally because her union “sent out a message asking for us to show up on that side (counter-protester side).” She decided that she needed to attend the pro-family rally to show her support of the cause.

“As a child, I would have been a prime target to be transitioned,” she revealed. “As a child, I was a tomboy. I had social issues. I didn’t have a lot of friends. I played sports. I would have been told if I were a child today that I was a boy. But I am a woman. I am a happily married woman with a daughter.”

 Additionally, a pro-family citizen voiced concerns over children being indoctrinated with LGBT values.

“They’re trying to force them to change their gender,” the protester said. “They’re trying to push them towards different ideologies. They don’t respect them as they are. We come from different cultures. We protect and accept everybody. So, I’m wondering why they don’t want to accept us as we are.”

The protest remained peaceful despite the large presence of counter-protesters. Police arrested one man, but the reason for the arrest remains unknown.

The second Million Person March, planned for cities across Canada, came on the heels of the success of the first Million Person March on September 20 that saw thousands of Canadians from coast to coast take to the streets to demand radical LGBT agendas be kept out of Canadian public schools.

At the September 20 march was high school student Josh Alexander, who after being canceled by his school for saying there are only two genders has continued to protest radical gender ideology moving its way into Canada’s education system.

The protest was organized by Muslim Canadians and used the slogan “Leave our kids alone,” specifically regarding gender ideology, age-inappropriate sexual content in school libraries, and LGBT propaganda.

Kamel El-Cheikh stressed that the Million Person movement is “peaceful” and at the end of the day is “unapologetic” with the message of “Hands Off Our Kids.”

“We want to parent our kids until they’re 18 and ready to make decisions by themselves,” he said.

“Whatever decision they make later, that’s a decision as an adult.”

El-Cheikh recently was interviewed by LifeSiteNews’s John-Henry Weston and said about the first march that it was in a way a “victory” for “every Canadian,” but more work is needed.

“Now you got the Stanley Cup. Everybody gets to bring it to their house, have their turkey dinner, bring their friends over, party, and you deserve to party because you got a little bit of relief,” he said.

GOD'S MOST PRIZED CREATURES

 Christmas brings to mind many things. 

At the top of our minds of course is the birth of Our Lord.  But why would God Almighty enter into time and become a mere creature?  Well, out of His infinite Love He came to right  the horrible wrong done by our first parents, Adam and Eve.

But... "WHY US?"

Are we possibly among the most prized of all God's creatures?

1.  Right in the story of creation in the innerant Word of God we are told that we are created in God's image. 

2.  God did not become a tree, nor an animal, nor an angel,  but God became Man!

What love!  What humility!

3.  He used Mary to provide the 2nd Person of the Holy Trinity with a human body.  

4.  After ascending into heaven the 3rd Person of the Holy Trinity,  Almighty God Himself, came down upon the apostles.  All baptized now are temples of the Holy Ghost!

5.  Now the very Word of God is on His throne in heaven with a human soul and a human body!!!

God is Spirit. We are in God's image and yet we are both body AND spirit.   Body AND soul.

It would seem that out of all creatures, be they material or spiritual, mankind is extra special to the King of the Universe.

Wishing God's blessings on all who are celebrating the 12 Days of Christmas. 

PRAYER TO ONE'S GUARDIAN ANGEL

 A Prayer to One's Guardian Angel 

O my good Angel, whom God, by His Divine mercy, hath appointed to be my guardian, enlighten and protect me, direct and govern me (this day). Amen.

LET'S GO BACK TO THE BUSINESS OF THE SALVATION OF SOULS!

A blessed Good Friday to all!

 I'm hoping that everyone is having a blessed Easter Triduum.

I just came back from the Good Friday service at my local parish, a parish that has celebrated the "Novus Ordo" Mass exclusively since Pope Paul VI promulgated it in late 1969 (or was that 1970?).

WHAT ABOUT THE SALVATION OF SOULS?  

Jesus suffered great agony in the Garden of Gethsemane:

He knew that He would suffer horribly and die a disgraceful death, but what must have troubled Him the most was the knowledge that so many people, who He loved with Infinite Love, would reject Him and even mock His Sacrifice.  We must take very seriously the Great Commission, "to baptize all nations in the Name of the Father, and of The Son, and of the Holy Ghost".

I was glancing at my Latin/English Missal to see if I needed to add or change anything in my mind and heart.  I was rather surprised at how close some of the many prayers were.  They even had a cantor for "let us kneel"/"let us rise" and the ensuing prayer.  Then the priest said the prayer that follows the cantor.

I almost became tearful however at how we never once prayed for the conversion of anyone back to the Catholic Faith.  We did not even pray for the poor Jews that actually told Pontius Pilate that rather than having God for their ruler, "... we have no other king than Caesar."  We did not even mention schismatics or heretics.

This Easter Triduum has already been hard for me this year.

For the first time (that I can recall) since BEFORE becoming a Catholic in 1996, I missed going to Church for Maundy Thursday.  That was (almost) all my own fault.  The way things went I was physically too tired and I lost track of the time.  However, I think all I really needed was more resolve and determination to get there.

One thing holding me back is that, due to COVID, the Bishop won't allow his priests to distribute Communion on the tongue.  Since I can only receive Spiritual Communion I find that to be another reason that tends to deter me from going to Mass unless it is a Day of Obligation here in Canada during COVID.

BUT LET US ALL REJOICE IN OUR SUFFERINGS.  Offer all up to God in union with the Passion of Our Lord.  Nothing comes our way unless it is either willed or allowed by God.

In nomine Patris et Filii et Spiritus Sancti.

Amen.

 

Pater noster, qui es in caelis,

Sanctificetur nomen tuum.

Adveniat regnum tuum.

Fiat voluntas tua, sicut in caelo et in terra.

Panem nostrum quotidianum da nobis hodie,

et dimitte nobis debita nostra

sicut et nos dimittimus debitoribus nostris.

Et ne nos inducas in tentationem, sed libera nos a malo. Amen.

Ave Maria, gratia plena, Dominus tecum.
Benedicta tu in mulieribus, et benedictus fructus ventris tui, Jesus.
Sancta Maria, Mater Dei, ora pro nobis peccatoribus,
nunc et in hora mortis nostrae.

Amen.

Glória Patri
et Fílio
et Spirítui Sancto.
Sicut erat in princípio,
et nunc et semper
et in sæ´cula sæculórum.

 Amen.

 

In nomine Patris et Filii et Spiritus Sancti.

Amen.

 

Prayer to my Guardian Angel:

Angel of God,
my guardian dear,
to whom God’s love commits me here,
ever this day be at my side,
to light and guard, to rule and guide.

Amen.

COVID-19: DON'T SUFFER IN VAIN. SUFFER WITH JESUS

This post goes against all that the world teaches and much of what we always believe.

As we enter the second or third or whatever wave of COVID-19, I'd like to share my intellectual perspective on all that we suffer through.  

I say "intellectual" because I firmly believe this, but ... does the word "hypocrite" sound familiar to anyone?

As I journey through Lent I try to daily follow the Way of the Cross in my Latin-English Missal.

The opening prayer includes this important line:

Grant that, while I trace this path of sighs and tears ... I MAY BE READY TO EMBRACE WITH JOY ALL THE SUFFERINGS AND HUMILIATIONS OF THIS LIFE AND PILGRAMAGE.

All the sufferings and humiliations:  

• Being denied access to the sacraments 
• Being denied the company of our loved ones
• Having to suffer with COVID now and maybe for a long time after
• Dying without our loved ones around us, with no familiar funeral arrangements
• Marriage celebrations, etc. being greatly curtailed
• Having to wear uncomfortable masks and having to keep our distance from one another
• Not being able to pop into a store to get any supplies we need or desire

And the list goes on and on.  Whatever a person finds difficult or is truly suffering from, those are things to embrace with joy!

Why should anyone embrace apparent "evils" with joy?

According to our Catholic Faith EVERYTHING comes from God.  There is no such thing as chance or randomness.   Even the hairs of your head have been numbered, as in God knows and creates all things.

Therefore all that happens to us is for our own good and is a part of God's plan for the universe He created.

Whenever we resist pain or suffering we are, in reality, resisting God's love!

From one of my favourite books, now available online, Trustful Surrender to Divine Providence :

1.   GOD CONTROLS ALL EVENTS, WHETHER GOOD OR BAD

Nothing happens in the universe without God willing and allowing it. This statement must he taken absolutely of everything with the exception of sin. 'Nothing occurs by chance in the whole course of our lives' is the unanimous teaching of the Fathers and Doctors of the Church, 'and God intervenes everywhere.'

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    We must have trust in Providence

When I see a Christian grief-stricken at the trials God sends him I say to myself:  Here is a man who is grieved at his own happiness. He is asking God to be delivered from something he ought to be thanking Him for. I am quite sure that nothing more advantageous could happen to him than what causes him so much grief.

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So what do we do as we suffer?

Offer each and every moment up to God and beg Him to join our pains with the Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ on the cross.