Archive for the ‘catholic’ Category

I’m going to reserve judgement on the Vatican’s Move on Fr Pavone for now…

Posted: December 18, 2022 by datechguy in catholic, catholic devotions
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…but I’m going to note that for quite a while St. Faustina’s diary and devotions she advanced were actively suppressed by the Vatican. It was not till decades later than these restrictions were removed and Faustina was eventually canonized.

I find myself suddenly reminded of this passage from the Acts of the Apostles:

We gave you strict orders (did we not?) to stop teaching in that name. Yet you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching and want to bring this man’s blood upon us.” But Peter and the apostles said in reply, “We must obey God rather than men. The God of our ancestors raised Jesus, though you had him killed by hanging him on a tree. God exalted him at his right hand 5 as leader and savior to grant Israel repentance and forgiveness of sins. We are witnesses of these things, as is the holy Spirit that God has given to those who obey him.”

When they heard this, they became infuriated and wanted to put them to death. But a Pharisee in the Sanhedrin named Gamaliel, a teacher of the law, respected by all the people, stood up, ordered the men to be put outside for a short time, and said to them,

“Fellow Israelites, be careful what you are about to do to these men. Some time ago, Theudas appeared, claiming to be someone important, and about four hundred men joined him, but he was killed, and all those who were loyal to him were disbanded and came to nothing. After him came Judas the Galilean at the time of the census. He also drew people after him, but he too perished and all who were loyal to him were scattered. So now I tell you, have nothing to do with these men, and let them go. For if this endeavor or this activity is of human origin, it will destroy itself. But if it comes from God, you will not be able to destroy them; you may even find yourselves fighting against God.”

They were persuaded by him. After recalling the apostles, they had them flogged, ordered them to stop speaking in the name of Jesus, and dismissed them. So they left the presence of the Sanhedrin, rejoicing that they had been found worthy to suffer dishonor for the sake of the name.

Acts 5:28-43

I don’t pretend to know the details or the justifications behind this decision, but I do know that under the rules of Holy Obedience Fr. Pavone would be subject to his local bishop and the Vatican and be obliged to obey any such directive even this one. If this is the work of God then there is no point in opposing or resisting it, it must be accepted with humility, and if it turns out it’s the work of man it will fall apart just as the sanctions against St. Faustina did.

I’m sure this is a tremendous blow to him but the best advice I can give is for him to trust in God. He’s knows what he’s doing even if he hasn’t let us in on that knowledge.

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.

Under the Fedora: Day One of Peak, Black Friday Online, An Amazing coincidence with consequences, Some “mis-gendering” is more equal than others and The Clock is Ticking

Posted: November 26, 2022 by datechguy in catholic, Uncomfortable Truths, under the fedora
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Yesterday was Black Friday and day one of our “peak” season at work and the beginning of eight straight days of work for me.

As you might guess we were pretty busy, but based on the numbers I’ve seen overall volume was a whole lot less than normal. That won’t affect today, tomorrow or even Monday but the real question for me is: “Will we be behind to the point where next Saturday is voluntary?” In a normal year that’s how it works and by the time you get to Christmas you have managers who have worked 25-30 straight days since “optional” isn’t “optional” for them and some employees averaging 15 hours of overtime a week.

My gut and the numbers tell me that won’t be the case. I suspect we will only have one optional Saturday, next Saturday but that the volume will be at a point where we aren’t days behind rushing to keep up. Part of that may be to good planning on our part but the best planning can’t overcome incredible volume and based on day one, we just don’t have that.

Speaking of Black Friday shopping, most of mine took place on Thanksgiving evening and yesterday morning before going into the breach. A look at Amazon convinces tell me that while there are more and more pages of black friday “deals” (822 to be exact) there are less and less things on them that I need.

I also notice there are a lot of brands of “tablets” and “robot vacuums” that I’ve never heard of before as if there is an attempt to dump a lo of cheap electronics this year.

Of course with that many pages you’re bound to find something useful that your spouse might like or need (I just spotted something on page 29 that I never thought of which might work for her in the garden, but it’s all a question of how much time you want to spend (Indicently the cyber monday deals look surprisingly like the black friday deals

Good Luck.

By an odd coincidence as Elon Musk as cracked down on child porn on twitter apparently a lot of Antifa accounts have ended up dead while doing so.

They have not taken this well and there have been attacks on Tesla dealerships in the Northwest.

This is rather foolish for three reasons

  1. These will simply lead to insurance claims which puts money in the pocket
  2. Musk being one of the richest men in the world is in a position to put the type of security in place that won’t be as accommodating to the leftist thugs that don’t come enmasse.
  3. Finally he has access to the type of lawyers in a position to crush these folks on a national and international level

But if they want to poke the bear be my guest.

The loss of a cherished narrative is a terrible thing and CNN is doing it’s best to reverse it, But the Irony overload here is incredible:

And just like that you can look at someone, say they’re a dude and not be considered a bigot for it, at least if it serves the narrative.

That society has given in to this collection of mentally ill idiots is not an indictment of them, it’s an indictment of us for being suckers.

Finally there was some shock over a Christian commentator noting that those who were killed in Colorado didn’t accept Christ that they were likely in hell.

We are called upon not to judge the state of any particular soul but this type of thing is Christianity 101 or at worst 104. St. Faustina in her diary notes that Christ extends a hand at the time of death even to the most obstinate of sinners it’s just a question of grasping it.

People forget that the Good News of the Gospel is that there is a way into heaven and eternal life and avoiding eternal death and sufferings. For some people this is a hard message to take because it involves acknowledging sin, for others it’s a hard message to deliver because they want to go along and get along.

Christ was not one afraid to rock the boat nor afraid to risk offending people even inside their own homes. How many times was he invited to dinner which a Pharisee and then criticize them while there.

There is an excellent clip from The Chosen from the final episode of season 2 where Matthew is critiquing the Sermon on the Mount that illustrates this

The key line from Jesus:

“Did you think I was going to come here and say: ‘hey everyone keep on doing what you’ve been doing for the last thousand years since it’s been going so great?'”

If you actually love your neighbor you will tell them a truth they don’t want to hear to save their lives rather than shut up.

The good news is that you have your whole life to figure this out and come to Christ, but not a moment more.

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