Why love God?

Why love God?  Because He loved us first and even became one of us to give all and die as a mortal.

Image from http://uploads0.wikipaintings.org/images/jacopo-bellini/the-crucifixion.jpg


I must say, the longer I am a Catholic the more I am "blown away" (as said 'back in the day'...) by what our Lord has done for us, especially through the Church He established.

Not only did he create the entire universe and time itself, he chose to become one of us for our salvation.  God has never been an angel.  He has never been any of the other heavenly hosts.  But he became a human being, and after his death his human body was glorified and ascended into heaven.  The Word of God has a human body in heaven.

Can you imagine that?  God himself thinks so highly of us, who he created in his image, that the Second Person of the Holy Trinity sits on his throne with his crucified then glorified human body!

God condescended to become a humble man, born of a virgin, and mixed with us sinners.

Although sinless, he took our sins upon him and suffered and died for us. He died for us sinners.  Wow.

In 1996, at the age of 38, I came home to the Catholic Church.  I grew up as an Anglican and in university I had a lot of contact with evangelical Christians.  What I began to realize was that Jesus did not leave us a bible.  He established a Church.  He left the deposit of faith with his Church.  
This Church is a Church that teaches with Divine Authority.  There is no 'wiggle room' in the Church established by God!
His Church wrote the books of the New Testament and eventually, through the Holy Spirit, compiled the Canon of Scripture.

The early Christians had the Jewish scriptures and the oral teachings of the Apostles.   The written teachings and the oral teachings/traditions are what the Holy Spirit uses to communicate Truth to the Body of Christ.  Never scripture alone.  That idea is a somewhat 'modern' invention, largely thanks to a former disobedient priest named Martin Luther.

Since we have both the Scriptures and Tradition the Holy Spirit has taught us more.
We now know that God crowned a mere human as the Queen of heaven.  
Oh how God loves us!!! 

Image from:  https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsmM7-6ffKfgmG7h-DF_wi_F0S7q-uko_D1iSfHN-phPQbRKabw0Yeoh6jBaix7nhk5wPDFbriVz0k0Gz48eb4ff4UJOCCrMFVUGopkiwcrkN-4xr8Cuv2y1bVk-DLYzsNzEFTmOPi0Ls/s1600/CoronationMary.jpg

Through Apostolic succession, this Church, the Body of Christ, has as its earthly head the successor of Peter, the Pope.  Jesus did not leave us alone.  Through the succession of his Apostles the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass is still offered every day on all Catholic and Orthodox altars.  Jesus is still present in his Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity here on earth.

God gave the power to his Apostles and their successors to forgive sins.

When I assist at Mass I witness a genuine miracle.  A time where God intervenes with nature.  Mere bread and wine, through the power of the Holy Spirit and by the actions and words of the successors of the Apostles, become the Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity of our Lord and Saviour.  We are "re-present" and the one sacrifice that Jesus made for us at Calvary.

Image from my computer; originally from somewhere on the Internet ...

We have so much to be thankful for.  So many reasons to love God with all our hearts, souls, and with all our actions.
The saints learned to hate sin ... to prefer death to committing even one mortal sin.

Let us remember daily to direct all our thoughts, words and actions heavenward.

To start your day you can use the 'morning offering' that I've been using for years:

Most Holy and adorable Trinity, One God in three Persons, I adore You with the most profound humility.  I praise you and give you thanks for the favours you have bestowed on me.
Your goodness has brought me safely to the beginning of this day.

Behold, O Lord, I offer you my whole being, together with such crosses and contradictions as I may meet with in the course of this day.
Give them, O Lord, Your blessing.  May Your Divine Love animate them, and may they tend to the greater honour and glory of your Holy Name.   

   [One of the things I love about this prayer is the line "May Your Divine Love animate them".]

God be with you!

Dominus vobiscum, Reg. 

Ascension Thursday

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Scott P. Richert has a good overview of this great feast:

Ascension of Our Lord 

 

From Mr. Richert's post:

 The Ascension of Our Lord, which occurred 40 days after Jesus Christ rose from the dead on Easter, is the final act of our redemption that Christ began on Good Friday. On this day, the risen Christ, in the sight of His apostles, ascended bodily into Heaven (Luke 24:51; Mark 16:19; Acts 1:9-11).

 And:

History:

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 Christ's bodily Ascension foreshadows our own entrance into Heaven not simply as souls, after our death, but as glorified bodies, after the resurrection of the dead at the Final Judgment. In redeeming mankind, Christ not only offered salvation to our souls but began the restoration of the material world itself to the glory that God intended before Adam's fall.

Saint Joseph the Worker

May 1

Saint Joseph the Worker

Optional Memorial

Today is the optional memorial of Saint Joseph the Worker. Through Joseph, we honor the dignity of work and strive to see work as a key theme in the Christian life. 

“Glorious Saint Joseph,
pattern of all who are devoted to toil,
obtain for me the grace to toil in the
spirit of penance, in order thereby to
atone for my many sins; to toil
conscientiously, putting devotion to
duty before my own inclinations;

to labour with thankfulness and joy,
deeming it an honour to employ and to
develop, by my labour, the gifts that I
have received from Almighty God;

to work with order, peace, moderation,
and patience, without ever shrinking
from weariness and difficulties;…”

~Prayer to Saint Joseph

Catholic Ejaculations or Aspirations

Short Ejaculations

These short "mini-prayers," also called "aspirations" or "invocations," are to be said throughout the day to keep our minds focused on Heavenly things and to consecrate our efforts. It is good to adopt one of these as your own so that in times of stress, words that can focus your attention back to the holy come easily. These are all indulgenced prayers.

• Domine Iesu Christe, Filius Dei, miserere me peccatorem! (Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner!) Variations: "Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the living God, have mercy on me, a sinner!"; "God, have mercy on me, a sinner!"; "O God, be merciful to me a sinner!". This prayer is known as the "Jesus Prayer." It is the cry of the publican of Luke 18:13.
• Sit nomen Dómini benedíctum! (Blessed be the Name of the Lord!) This prayer is a reparation for blasphemy. If one hears someone take the Name of the Lord in vain, it is good to say this prayer. The response to this prayer is "ex hoc nunc, et usque in sæculum!" ("from this time forth for evermore!") or "per ómnia saecula saeculórum" ("unto ages of ages").
• We adore Thee, O Christ, and we bless Thee; because by Thy holy Cross Thou hast redeemed the world. (Roman Breviary)
• May the Holy Trinity be blessed. (Roman Missal)
• Christ conquers! Christ reigns! Christ commands!
• O Heart of Jesus, burning with love for us, inflame our hearts with love for Thee.
• O Heart of Jesus, I place my trust in Thee.
• O Heart of Jesus, all for Thee.
• Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, have mercy on us.
• My God and my all.
• O God, have mercy on me, a sinner. (Luke 18:13)
• Grant that I may praise thee, O sacred Virgin; give me strength against thine enemies. (Roman Breviary)
• Teach me to do Thy will, because Thou art my God. (Psalm 142:10)
• O Lord, increase our faith. (Luke 17:5)
• O Lord, may we be of one mind in truth and of one heart in charity.
• O Lord, save us, we are perishing. (Matthew 8:25)
• My Lord and my God. (John 20:28)
• Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit. (Roman Missal)
• Jesus, Mary, and Joseph.
• Jesus, Mary, Joseph, I give you my heart and my soul. Jesus, Mary, Joseph, assist me in my last agony. Jesus, Mary, Joseph, may I sleep and rest in peace with you. (Roman Ritual)
• May the Most Blessed Sacrament be praised and adored forever.
• Stay with us, O Lord. (Luke 24:29)
• Mother of Sorrows, pray for us.
• My Mother, my Hope.
• Send, O Lord, labourers into Thy harvest. (see Matthew 9:38)
• May the Virgin Mary together with her loving Child bless us. (Roman Breviary)
• Hail, O Cross, our only hope. (Roman Breviary)
• All you holy men and women of God, intercede for us. (Roman Ritual)
• Pray for us, O Holy Mother of God, that we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ. (Roman Ritual)
• Father, into Thy hands I commend my spirit. (Luke. 23:46; Psalm 30:6)
• Merciful Lord Jesus, grant them everlasting rest. (Roman Missal)
• Queen conceived without original sin, pray for us. (Roman Ritual)
• Holy Mother of God, Mary ever Virgin, intercede for us. (Roman Breviary)
• Holy Mary, pray for us. (Roman Ritual)
• Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. (Matthew 16:16)
• Blessed be God!
• All for thee, Most Sacred Heart of Jesus!
• Jesus, meek and humble of heart, make my heart like unto thine! (Roman Ritual)
• My Jesus, mercy!
• Thanks be to God! (Deo gratias!)
• O Mary, conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee!
• Hail Mary! (Ave Maria!)
• Sacred Heart of Jesus, I trust in Thee!
• Sacred Heart of Jesus, Thy kingdom come!
• Sweet Heart of Jesus, be my love!
• Holy Trinity, one God, have mercy on us!
• From all sin deliver me, O Lord!
• As the Lord wills!
• Thy will be done! (Fiat voluntas tua!)

Go To Hell

[Image found at:  https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUSWW5Or6PWpu4TAqr40GY_pUHVjTvu4vEi6bUmLGHPPnejBrvd2xBrFCx62zjqRrsXfy4j-dWEaT3Ry762pmMzwovGTZOPxLCI0vGeeswKx9h8vX61k-cNTaKHh5Nj3rc2jLFAFS3fIV9/s1600/Archangel_Michael.jpg]

The Church Militant video (no relation) is very important in understanding part of how Satin is at war with the Church and how he is attacking all of human society.

Here is the text of the video:

Hello everyone and welcome to The Vortex where lies and falsehoods are trapped and exposed. I’m Michael Voris coming to you from Wagga Wagga Australia .. or what the locals simply call Wagga.

We are in front of the Wagga Cathedral .. dedicated to St. Michael the Archangel.

It’s time to take the gloves off and come out swinging. Satan hates the Catholic Church.

Always has. His sole mission is its destruction. Again .. he HATES it.

Why? Because no other institution or organization or faith or religion has the mean of salvation. They are ALL man made and do not have the power to save.

This includes not only other religions, but governments, social help programs, social justice efforts and anything else conjured up in the mind of man.

Jesus Christ establishes the Catholic Church ALONE to be the bulwark against evil .. to be the ONE body which is commissioned to battle evil until the end of the world. Period.

That’s why Satan detests it with a burning passion that the human mind on this side of death simply cannot conceive of.

How does Satan actively go about attacking the Catholic Church? Well, just as Our Blessed Lord has disciples, so too does Satan.

We don’t think in these terms very often, and certainly not often enough to correspond to the reality, but it is most assuredly true – Satan has disciples.

Anyone in a state of mortal sin is an agent of Satan. They do not possess within themselves the Holy Trinity, they lack the indwelling of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

Such a person is in darkness and therefore can be led anywhere into anything and it is Satan doing the leading.

He keeps a person in mortal sin in darkness, clouds the intellect, and smothers them in pleasures to keep them content so they will not seek a way out of their sin. They become a tool of his, a prisoner, a slave to do his bidding.

And if they die in that state, they descend to the infernal regions from which there is never any respite from its horrors.

So the devil makes use of such people while they are on earth and his control. He does not CONTROL their free will, but he is able to suggest things to them to which they

CHOOSE to offer little or no resistance.

And what does Satan use his human minions for? His sole goal of destroying the Catholic Church. He has worked enormous wreckage and destruction in the Church in the 20th century.

 

His actions, through his human agents, have resulted in a worldwide apostasy .. a rejection of almost anything and everything sacred.

 

And it matters not at all whether those who are his here on earth agents are consciously aware of their slave masters actions or not. A soul in mortal sin is a throne room for Hell.

 

We see evidence of this diabolical reality in the push for so-called same-sex marriage ..

an absolute perverse and distorted re-ordering of nature. 

 

You can bet the farm that Satan has no specific interest in whether governments pronounce sodomy as marriage. The sin of homosexual acts are being committed anyway and the guilt of that sin already being incurred.

 

What Satan gets out of the marriage question is the creation of an atmosphere where truth is denied, thus setting the stage for even greater sin to flood in.

 

AND .. above all .. he gets the establishment of an environment where the Church and Her teachings can be officially attacked and condemned. He has craftily engineered a situation where the TRUTH ITSELF is made to appear to be an enemy of people and their so-called rights.

 

Sodomy is being trotted around the world and portrayed as a “human right”. Whether his agents are conscious of it or not, Satan is behind this same-sex marriage movement

because .. at the end of the day .. it will used against the Church as a powerful weapon .. which .. we have already seen glimpses of here and there in Canada and the United States and Europe.

 

Church leaders to take the gloves off and start talking about this in the real terms that it is .. spiritual warfare .. aimed against the Church of Christ .. His Immaculate Bride. That is where this will all end up.

 

It HAS to end of there. Satan cares about nothing but the destruction of the Catholic Church and the resultant loss of countless souls. Period. And the Church cares about nothing ultimately then salvation.

 

Every battle that occurs in the spiritual realm is nothing more than a microcosm of this truth. This is how Our Blessed Lord classified it when He Himself declared Peter the Rock on which HE would build His Church and then promised that the Gates of Hell would not prevail.

 

That is talk of war. 

 

This is the spiritual reality behind all the talk of human rights and marriage equality and all the diabolical PR.

 

The Church needs to call this out and tell Satan to go to hell.

Reporting from Wagga Wagga down under in Australia, this is Michael Voris for Church Militant. TV

 

GOD Love you.

A PRAYER FOR PURITY

In today's oversexed culture we need to rely on God, not on our own willpower.

Jesus, Lover of chastity,
Mary, Mother most pure,
and Joseph, chaste guardian of the Virgin,
to you I come at this hour,
begging you to plead with God for me.
I earnestly wish to be pure in thought,
word and deed in imitation of your own holy purity.

Obtain for me, then,
a deep sense of modesty
which will be reflected in my external conduct.
Protect my eyes, the windows of my soul,
from anything that might dim the luster of a heart
that must mirror only Christlike purity.

And when the "Bread of Angels becomes the Bread of me"
in my heart at Holy Communion,
seal it forever against the suggestions of sinful pleasures.

Heart of Jesus, Fount of all purity,
have mercy on us.

Amen.

Source:    http://misalvador777.tripod.com/catholictreasurechest/

Pope Francis: "The Word of God Precedes the Bible and Surpasses It"

That title comes from Scott P. Richert's blog and is the truth as proclaimed by our new holy father.

More is expressed at MARY, OUR MOTHER .  

 

From  the Pope's address:

 “Sacred Scripture,” he reaffirmed,“ is the written testimony of the divine Word, the canonical memory that attests to the event of Revelation. However, the Word of God precedes the Bible and surpasses it. That is why the centre of our faith isn't just a book, but a salvation history and above all a person, Jesus Christ, the Word of God made flesh. It is precisely because the Word of God embraces and extends beyond Scripture that, in order to properly understand it, the Holy Spirit's constant presence, who guides us “to all truth”, is necessary. It is necessary to place ourselves within the great Tradition that has, with the Holy Spirit's assistance and the Magisterium's guidance, recognized the canonical writings as the Word that God addresses to his people, who have never ceased meditating upon it and discovering inexhaustible riches from it.”

As Catholics we do not believe in Jesus because we believe in the bible.  We believe in the bible because we believe in Jesus, the Word of God incarnate.
Oral Tradition predates the bible by hundreds of years.  The Catholic Church did not decide what writings were canonical until almost 400AD. From TRUE CHURCH and BIBLE:

In 397 AD, the Catholic Church gave a definitive decision as to which writings and books should be admitted into the Bible and which should be rejected, and every book which is in the Protestant New Testament today, was put there by Pope Siricus and the Catholic Bishops in the year 397 AD

We cannot even begin to think that we can understand the true meaning of Scripture if it is divorced from Tradition.  Jesus established a Church to record His words that one day would become the Gospels.  If you really want to know the meaning of Scripture go to its source: the Catholic Church.  The Holy Spirit continually guides the Church. 
 For Truth we need BOTH Scripture AND Tradition.

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