Archive for the ‘catholic devotions’ Category

The Great Christian Paradox

Posted: December 14, 2022 by datechguy in catholic, catholic devotions
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Every normal man must be tempted at times to spit upon his hands, hoist the black flag, and begin slitting throats

H.L. Mencken via Ace of Spades’ Masthead

Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you

Jesus Christ Matthew 5:44

Lately I have been writing & tweeting a lot about people I really dislike.

You have people doing evil things, people condoning or approving evil things and people doing their best to pretend that evil is in fact good and sin is in fact virtue.

These days there seems to be an awful lot of that about and having been born in America’s golden age and having parents who were of the World War Two generation and grandparents from the 1800’s who understood the realities of life and did their best to teach us, it’s the type of thing that make a person understand the saying at the head of Ace’s blog.

For a Christian this is a very bad thing and that’s when I strive to remember one of the great paradoxes and non-optional doctrines of the Catholic Church.

We have the sense and we are constantly taught that Jesus died for our sins, this is reinforced by the words of Abolition said by the priest at the end of confessions:

God the Father of mercies, through the death and resurrection of his Son has reconciled the world to himself and sent the Holy Spirit among us for the forgiveness of sins; through the ministry of the Church may God give you pardon and peace, and I absolve you from your sins in the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Note what the priest says here, “reconciled the world to himself “. Not just “you”, not just your friends and those you like, but “the world” and that includes every person that if you might put up against a wall if you had the power.

Sometimes the sense of one’s sin make it hard to think that God can have mercy on your, but I suspect it’s very easy for most people to think that their enemies are beyond God’s mercy and fit only for God’s justice.

This is the great danger, remember the words of the Our Father (the Lord’s Prayer) Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us and the warning Christ give us directly after this prayer:

If you forgive others their transgressions, your heavenly Father will forgive you. But if you do not forgive others, neither will your Father forgive your transgressions.

Matt 6:14-15

Let’s be clear about this, as Christians we are not required to passively go along with what is being done, to pretend that it’s good and right and to ignore these sins and outrages, in fact one of the spiritual works of mercy is to admonish the sinner.

But we ARE required to love our enemies and pray for them, not that they may wreak the vengeance that Mencken suggests, for by your baptism you are no longer a “normal” man, but for their good and that they may find the mercy of God.

When you can look at the person you disgusts you the most and can realize that said person is so loved by God that he sent his only son to die to pay for that person’s sins then you’re doing Christianity right.

I’m not saying it’s easy, I find it very hard, particularly when dealing with someone who has wronged you directly, but it’s the heart and soul of Christianity, doing this is how you become Christlike.

Because the reality is that the quickest way to become the type of person who should to be put in front of a wall is to be the person who takes the people he thinks should be put in front of a wall and puts them there.

The December Indulgence Calendar is out

Posted: December 1, 2022 by datechguy in catholic, catholic devotions
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You can download it here

indulgence-calendar-dec-2022Download

This is an excellent devotion for any Catholic looking to do something for the souls in purgatory.

Novena to St. Matthew for the FBI Agents involved in the Mark Houck Arrest: Day 9 Don Surber on Substack for the Finale

Posted: October 4, 2022 by datechguy in Blame Biden Administration, blogs, catholic, catholic devotions, internet/free speech, official oppression
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In a post earlier today I talked about how corruption has a lot to do with the failures of Russia in their War vs Ukraine and also how the media protecting them helped preserve this corruption.

Don Surber is a retired newspaperman who writes a very good blog at donsurber.blogspot.com and has for a lot of years. A few days back he wrote a good, but not all that provocative post about the corruption at the FBI. A couple of days ago in his daily update of the news closed with this:

FINALLY, I received this email from Blogger.com:

“Your post titled ‘How to end the FBI’ has been deleted.” No reason. No rhyme. No appeal. Just deleted. The email cited community standards but the community has no say in what those standards are, so they are by definition not community standards.

Readers can still read it here, and decide for themselves if it meets our community standards.

Meanwhile, I started a substack — donsurber.substack.com Guess what the first post is…. 

This tells me that none of this is happening in a vacuum and that it will either end it a collapse of this corruption or a collapse of our freedoms.

If anything confirms the need for this novena, confirms the choice of St. Matthew as the best patron for it.

So let’s go out on a high note of prayer.

St. Matthew Novena - Day 9
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. 

Amen.

Dear Lord, we thank You for giving us St. Matthew as an example of holiness. Help us to imitate the devotion to You he showed in his years of service to Your Church.

St. Matthew, you were called by Jesus to leave behind your old life as a tax collector and follow Him. After this, you devoted the rest of your life to following and serving Him.

Please bring my petitions before Christ Whom you served so faithfully!

You wrote of Jesus’ life and ministry in your Gospel so that others could come to know Him. You devoted the rest of your life to preaching the Good News and helping to establish the Church.

Pray for me, that I may be as faithful a servant of God and His Church as you were. Pray that I may always be eager to put my gifts to use serving God. 

Please also pray for the FBI agents involved in the arrest of Mark Houck.

St. Matthew, pray for us!

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. 

Amen.

Read more at: https://www.praymorenovenas.com/st-matthew-novena

Novena to St. Matthew for the FBI Agents involved in the Mark Houck Arrest: Day 7 More Whistleblowing More Disgrace

Posted: October 2, 2022 by datechguy in Blame Biden Administration, catholic, catholic devotions, official oppression
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If you think the stories about the FBI are worse than you think,..you’re probably right.

Friend, based out of Florida since June 2021, said in a declaration made public on Sept. 26 that he was told that child sexual abuse material investigations were “no longer an FBI priority” and should be referred to local officials. He says he was also told that he would be focusing on domestic terrorism investigations.

Friend says he observed that FBI policies on case assignments were being violated because the Washington Field Office was enabling field offices around the country to lead investigations on crimes that allegedly took place in Washington on or around Jan. 6, but officials in Washington are actually directing the probes.

The situation resulted in active criminal investigations in which Friend is listed as the case agent, but has done no investigative work, according to the declaration.

I suspect you will see all kind of things done to prevent the truth from coming out that will make what we’ve already seen look like nothing. Yup these folks need St. Matthew. Time for day 7 prayers:

St. Matthew Novena - Day 7
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. 

Amen.

Dear Lord, we thank You for giving us St. Matthew as an example of holiness. Help us to imitate the love of You he showed in continuing to preach the Gospel throughout difficulties and persecutions.

St. Matthew, we do not know for certain where you preached and ministered after Jesus ascended into Heaven. But we know that you were instrumental in the spread of Christianity throughout the world.

Please bring my petitions before God Whom you served so diligently!

You faithfully recorded the events of Christ’s life and ministry in your Gospel. Then, you preached as a missionary despite hostilities and persecutions for the rest of your life.

Pray for me, that I may never allow difficulties to deter me from practicing my Faith. Pray that I may be steadfast in serving God, no matter the cost.

Please also pray for the FBI agents involved in the Mark Houck arrest.

St. Matthew, pray for us!

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. 

Amen.

Read more at: https://www.praymorenovenas.com/st-matthew-novena
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