Reflections in the Snow

I've spent the past two days digging out from the big snow. Happily, the heavens dumped only about six inches unlike the massive snows of 2009 and 2010 when we were engulfed with about twenty inches of the white stuff. 

I remember well the 2010 storm and blogged about it at the time. My husband and I were out on the John Deere, snowplow in place, every 2-3 hours trying to keep our long driveway passable. At every round the driveway got narrower. Fortunately, the snow stopped before the width shrank to a path. Our long driveway made the clearing a Herculean task to free the car, but we succeeded. Definitely an accomplishment that we could not repeat today, fifteen years later!

Mind you, I'm not complaining. I enjoy snow (in moderation) and have many memories of rollicking with happy kids on unscheduled snow days when school was cancelled and all was right with the world.

Sometimes the Best Spiritual Director is Charlie Brown

This meme came up on my Facebook page this morning. I had to laugh because it's the same message I've been reading in the surrender novena and in one of my favorite books, Trustful Surrender to Divine Providence. Charlie Brown must have been reading it!

What are all these signs in the heavens trying to tell us?

Aurora Borealis of 2024

I'm repeating a post from a few weeks ago. It seems to me to be especially Providential that God has given us two "signs in the heavens" between Easter and Pentecost. Is he trying to wake us up? 

I recently read a chapter in the book Cleansing Fire: Welcome to the New Springtime about the message Mary gave the children of Fatima on July 13, 1917. The book is a novel, but much of its content is true. Chapter 33 pertains to Fatima and the Great Sign the Blessed Mother said she would send to warn people about a coming chastisement: 

“If what I say to you is done, many souls will be saved and there will be peace. The war is going to end; but if people do not cease offending God, a worse one will break out during the reign of Pius XI. When you see a night illumined by an unknown light, know that this is the great sign given you by God that He is about to punish the world for its sins, by means of war, famine, and persecutions against the Church and of the Holy Father.

Thought for the Day from Ann Barnhardt: Shame is Medicinal!

I love this article by Ann Barnhardt! She is so insightful!

The Key Character in Brideshead Revisited Is Mrs. Beryl Muspratt

Brideshead Revisited is one of my favorite novels. Sad, but in many ways glorious. What a story of sin, repentance, and redemption! The movie with Jeremy Irons is also wonderful. (Caveat: There is one graphic bedroom scene.) 

To be confronted with our sin is, indeed, a blessed gift of God. Those who don't believe in the existence of hell, but live according to its standards, are in for a rude awakening on Judgement Day. Better to have a rude awakening now! And it is a charity to love others, but call them gently to repentance even if they hate you for it. The death of Lord Marchmain displays the power of grace through the ministry of the Church. He has lived a sinful life with a hatred for the church but dies reconciled. Note the recitation of the Confiteor in Latin. 

Fr. Tom's Reflection on the Coming Feast of Pentecost and the Need for Penance

Anthony Van Dyck 1599 – 1641 The Descent of the Holy Spirit

As we prepare for the celebration of the Solemnity of Pentecost this year, I am disturbed by the fact that this celebration, if lacking a serious commitment to integration into Christ, will be merely emotional, and not transformative.

Spy Wednesday: A Reflection from the Past

I'm trying to spend more time in prayer and meditation this week rather than hours on the computer. So I'm linking to a post I did two years ago on Spy Wednesday instead of composing something new.

Spy Wednesday: Did Jesus Love Judas?

 Besides there is "nothing new under the sun" and every minute is "now" with the Lord. This Spy Wednesday takes us on a time machine to all the Spy Wednesdays of the past when we reflect on all our personal betrayals. Let us pray many Acts of Contrition today. I pray that you are having a blessed Holy Week. It's not too late to fertilize the final days of Lent with prayer, sacrifice and meditation for a spiritual growth spurt. My Jesus, I trust in You. Mary, Mother of the Savior, pray for us.

Guest Post from Fr. Tom Collins: REPENTANCE -- The Royal Road to Spiritual Regeneration

Return of the Prodigal Son, Rembrandt

by Fr. Tom Collins

When St. John Paul II introduced the new Luminous Mysteries of the Rosary, he included, as the Third Mystery, The Proclamation of the Kingdom with the Call to Repentance. Unfortunately, in a society that tends to view repentance in a negative light, this mystery is frequently subject to being abbreviated as merely, The Proclamation of the Kingdom. Yet, as the example and teaching of so many saints have so clearly pointed out, ongoing repentance is the key to authentic spiritual regeneration. It is important to stress the fact that authentic repentance must be ongoing. 

Guest Post: Repentance - the Royal Road to Spiritual Regeneration

by Father Tom Collins

When St. John Paul II introduced the new Luminous Mysteries of the Rosary, he included, as the Third Mystery, The Proclamation of the Kingdom with the Call to Repentance. Unfortunately, in a society that tends to view repentance in a negative light, this mystery is frequently subject to being abbreviated as merely The Proclamation of the Kingdom. Yet, as the example and teaching of so many saints have so clearly pointed out, ongoing repentance is the key to authentic spiritual regeneration. 

More on Garabandal: Mother Angelica's interview with Maria Saraco in June 1994

This brought back so many memories. I used to love to tune in to Mother Angelica Live every week. What a loss to the airwaves when she had her stroke. But even that loss was a gain since suffering brings so much grace. Let us resolve to offer all our sufferings in union with the Passion of Christ for our own personal conversion and the conversion of the world.

Mother Angelica, pray for us!

Nabi Sayeth: Gaudete Sunday is Upon Us. Will We Listen to John's Prescription for Salvation?

If we listen and heed St. John the Baptist, we truly will be able to rejoice despite
the desert our bishops have made of the Church in the United States!

Nabi Sayeth: The third Sunday of Advent in our beloved Catholic Church is known traditionally as “Gaudete Sunday”, the Sunday of rejoicing. The mood of the holy mass shifts from one of open-ended hope to a sense of joyful expectation. The prayers and readings at the holy mass invite us to become excited about the nearness of Our Savior’s birth.

Nabi Sayeth: Why Is So Little Being Said about SIN?

Remember man that thou art dust,
and unto dust thou must return.

Nabi Sayeth: So much has been reported and written about the crimes of the sexual abuse scandal and cover-up by the hierarchy and clergy of the Catholic Church. But precious little has been said by anyone about the sinfulness of it all. Think about this for a moment, please…..Why is this so? Nabi questions:

Have the clergy succumbed to a new form of antinomianism? (In Christianity, an antinomian is one who takes the principle of salvation by faith and divine grace to the point of asserting that the saved are not bound to follow the moral law contained in the Ten Commandments, especially the First, Sixth and Eighth?)

Nabi Sayeth: But What If He Doesn't Repent?

The mosaic of Jesus Christ
as Judge looms over Bishop
Michael Bransfield at the
Basilica Shrine of the Immaculate
Conception in Washington, D.C.

Nabi Sayeth: One of the Most hope-filled Scriptures found in our Holy Bible is found in John 6:39….

39  “And this is the will of the one who sent me, that I should not lose anything of what he gave me, but that I should raise it [on] the last day.”

Our Lord Jesus came to save the world. But because He respects our freedom of will, He loves us first and then gives up the freedom to respond to His love.
Throughout the Lenten season, we Catholics hear the words of John the Baptist and our Lord Himself say to us over and over: “Repent”. 

The Devastating Nightmare of Abortion

On Longings and Lies

They'll never tell you in an abortion mill the sense of devastating loss most women feel after abortion and the nagging nightmare it becomes in their lives. Notice that the women who talk about how much they love their abortions are generally angry feminists who spend their time justifying the evil of killing their own children. Think of Gloria Steinham and Sarah Weddington. Do they come across to you as happy women? Weddington, a career liar, used Norma Jane McCorvey to get abortion on demand. 

The perfect icon for abortion is Goya's painting of Saturn eating his children. The reality leaves women who still have a conscience with grief and suffering. Pray for post aborted women, especially those who wear the mask of being fine with it. That's exactly what it is -- a mask. No mother can kill her child without killing a piece of herself. Only God can restore it, when, like Mary Magdalene, she falls to her knees at the feet of Jesus. 

Guest Post: When an Abortionist becomes a Proselytizer of Catholics

From the looks of it, this woman may be meeting
her Maker soon. Please join me in praying for her
conversion and the conversion of Church leaders
who give her a platform to scandalize the faithful.

Editor's note: 

Talk about turning the faith on its head! We live in times when the orthodox (like the dubia cardinals) are sent into the desert and the Herods, Pilates, and pharisees become the honored teachers of the faithful. 

Jesus predicted it when he said a time would come when good was called evil and evil good, when people would prefer to have their ears tickled than to hear the truth.  I'm not sure we realized the reality that the people he meant occupied the highest level of the Church. Lord, have mercy on us. Christ, hear us!

Guest Post: In Response to "This Disastrous Papacy"

Take the key of repentance and
unlock the treasury of mercy

Editor's Note: I thought the insights and comments in this article were interesting enough to deserve a separate post. I hope my readers agree. Repentance is the key that unlocks the treasury of mercy. When was the last time you went to Confession?

by Catherine Donner

This article is in response to your post from Friday, May 5, 2017 entitled ‘This Disastrous Papacy and the Big Question!’ However, my comments will not address your Big Question.

My first comment is on your quotation from EWTN: ‘This religious submission of mind and will must be shown in a special way to the authentic Magisterium of the Roman Pontiff, even when he is not speaking ex cathedra…’ Surely the important word here is authentic. The current pope frequently makes statements contradicting the perennial teaching of the church. How can these be regarded as authentic?

Fr. Tom Laments the Pope's Penchant for Apology

I apologize for all that rigid doctrine you learned in seminary.

It is sad that Pope Francis seems to be apologizing to all sorts of heretics and perverts for the Church’s past “sins" of warning them of the dangers of sin and calling them to repentance. But sadly, it seems that no similar apology is to be given to the Eucharistic Christ for the many unrepented sins of sacrilege, blasphemy and indifference, which are compounded so often by those who insist that they have a “right” to receive Him in Holy Communion in a state of objectively grave sin.

I wonder whether the apologies will be expanded to those who “sincerely” and prophetically” wanted to help initiate children into the joys of sexual intimacy.

On Mercy and What it Requires!

Pope Francis talks a lot about mercy and, in fact, we will soon begin the year of Mercy. So what exactly is the Mercy of God? And what does it require of us?

Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote about "cheap grace," the grace we bestow on ourselves, grace without the cross and without Jesus Christ. I think we might also talk about "cheap mercy."

In the wee hours at adoration this morning I was reading the first essay in Eleven Cardinals Speak on Marriage and the Family. (You know, the book hijacked by Fr. Lombardi and co.) Cardinal Carlo Caffarra addressed Mercy and Conversion. The cardinal began by saying, "These reflections focus on the act in which God's mercy shines forth in its preeminent form: the forgiveness of a sinner."

THE TRUE PRIMACY OF ST. PETER

by Fr. Tom Collins  

There is a rather interesting interplay between the events recorded in John 1:40-51 and Matthew 16:13-23, regarding the role given to Simon Peter (Cephas) in the life and ministry of the Church.
In the events recorded in John's Gospel, Simon is told during his first encounter with Jesus, "You will be called Cephas" (which is translated Peter). This declaration is made in the future tense indicating that Simon's change of name and position will be definitively established at a later date in Christ's ministry. It is worth noting, however, that this section of John's Gospel also points out how Jesus, upon meeting Nathaniel, declared, "Here is a true Israelite. There is no duplicity in him." Then, after mentioning to Nathaniel an event that occurred earlier under a fig tree, Jesus is told by Nathaniel, "Rabbi, You are the Son of God; You are the King of Israel!"

Two things are intriguing in this passage. Firstly, Nathaniel is declared by Jesus to be a true Israelite, who is free of guile. He is truly pure of heart, and thus the one who seems to be most capable of being eventually appointed as the righteous leader of Christ's disciples. Secondly, he makes a profession of faith in Jesus similar to the that would be made by Simon Peter as recorded in Matt 16:16. He declares Jesus to be the Son of God and the King of Israel. Yet his integrity of character
and clarity of both perception and proclamation do not lead him to being given the highest place of leadership among Christ's disciples. For a very profound and mysterious reason, that position has already been reserved by Our Lord for Simon Peter.

Christ giving keys to St. Peter, Pietro Perugino, 1482,, Sistine Chapel fresco 

Pray for George Tiller Today

Thanks to my friend Art who sent this along:

If we pray each day for one of the Post Conceived Humans that George Tiller killed and then pray one day for "Killer" Tiller; we will have to pray for...

164 and ¼ years

before we pray ONCE for Tiller.

60,000 abortions/365 days in the year = 164.38 years!

But also remember: As long as we live, we have the opportunity to come to God. Once we are dead, it is too late.

THANKS, ART!

Gives one pause, eh? Please don't wait 164 years to pray for George Tiller, but pray today that he had time to repent before he died. And resolve to live each day as if it's your last, loving God and your neighbor. For all you know it very well may be. None of us knows the day or the hour.

Lent's More than half over -- have you been to Confession yet? He's waiting for you.

Turn on any talk show: Oprah, Jerry Springer, Dr. Phil, Larry King (Is he still on?), etc. and you'll be regaled by folks shariing the most intimate details (and scandals) of their lives on national TV. No one mentions the verboten word, "sin." People are sick, or misunderstood, or have this or that syndrome, or their parents tramautized them by making them do chores. Whatever is wrong with them is someone else's fault. It couldn't possibly be theirs -- which probably explains the short lines outside the confessional. No sin - no need for confession. One problem -- it ain't healthy. When Catholics used confession, they weren't lying on the psychiatrist's couch.

Real Catholics know that love is always having to say you're sorry (Erich Segal's silly novel notwithstanding) -- to the other person we've injured and especially to God who is offended every time we hurt ourselves or our neighbor. Sin is real and its effects are damaging. We can only repair the damage by humbling ourselves, confessing our failures, and making reparation.

Confession isn't a doctrine made up at the Vatican. Jesus established it when he said to the apostles, "Whose sins you shall forgive, they are forgiven them; whose sins you shall hold bound, they are held bound." (John 20:22) God made us with five senses. We often misuse them to sin: to look at pornography, listen to and share gossip, touch others with lust or take what doesn't belong to us. When we confess to a priest we use those same senses to repent and hear the words of absolution. Confession to God in the privacy of our room is all well and good, but we need our forgiveness with skin on. Every time I hear the priest say, "I absolve you from your sins..." my heart leaps up and I know, with a firm resolution, that I am forgiven. Jesus said so and He doesn't lie.

So make a good confession this Lent. If you've been away for a long time don't be afraid to come back. The priest has heard it all; you can't shock him and reconciling a repentant sinner with the Lord is one of the greatest joys of his ministry.

If you've forgotten how to make a good confession visit this website.