Posts Tagged ‘catholic doctrine’

The Difference between a “Good Christian” and a “Great Saint”…

Posted: February 11, 2024 by datechguy in catholic
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Boimler: When I first arrived, I brought expectations of each of you from the future. And not only was that dangerous, it denied the reality of who you are right now. So, I’d like to apologize to you all with a limerick.

Star Trek Strange New Worlds Those old Scientists 2023

A little theology theory today.

There are two things that I have been all my life.

One is a Catholic. At various times I’ve been a better Catholic than at other times but I’ve been consistently Catholic all my life and my study of history, the various Protestant sects and my own lived experience has convinced me of the truth of the faith beyond any doubt.

The second is completely fascinated with human beings. I find ordinary people incredibly interesting. Even the most seemingly dull person has lived a life full of twists and turns that has shaped them for good or ill and simply observing people in their daily lives can give you a real appreciation of what a gift life is. That’s what makes history so interesting to me.

And it’s what we do with that life that makes all the difference.

Applying these observations to Christianity, particularly in the study of history I’ve developed a theory concerning the difference between a good Christian and the great saints. The clue to this is from one of the most standard representatives of Christ and of a Bishop is that of a Shephard who protects his sheep. As Christ himself says:

I am the good shepherd. A good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. A hired man, who is not a shepherd and whose sheep are not his own, sees a wolf coming and leaves the sheep and runs away, and the wolf catches and scatters them. This is because he works for pay and has no concern for the sheep. I am the good shepherd, and I know mine and mine know me, just as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I will lay down my life for the sheep.

John 10:11-15

Most good Christians are content to be the sheep. They do their best to follow Christ and take correction when they start to go astray. They enjoy the protection of God. This varies from the avoidance of some of the things that the world throws at them to the ability to cope with what can’t be avoided. (old age, death etc) It is often those things that get us over the hump to where we need to be. 

Some Christians however aspire to be more, they aspire to be Sheepdogs, who help the shepherd protect the rest of the flock. They are the ones who eschew the protection that God offers to the sheep and instead take up the sufferings and crosses to help keep the sheep safe. This is what is known as “redemptive suffering”. To use a less ancient example they are the people who ride shotgun and thus risk and endure the bullets and arrows of the world to keep their passengers safe. They also see their own faults more clearly which is why the holiest of people tend to confess more because they see themselves in the light of God’s truth.

Most are not cut out to be sheepdogs, as James says in his letter: 

Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers, for you realize that we will be judged more strictly,

James 3:1

Some rise to this occasion and some do not. Those who don’t flee when the world applies pressure. Those are the hired help, that Christ tells of. Those who take position for the sake of position rather than to serve the people of God. James again:

Who among you is wise and understanding? Let him show his works by a good life in the humility that comes from wisdom. But if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast and be false to the truth.

Wisdom of this kind does not come down from above but is earthly, unspiritual, demonic. For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there is disorder and every foul practice.

But the wisdom from above is first of all pure, then peaceable, gentle, compliant, full of mercy and good fruits, without inconstancy or insincerity. And the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace for those who cultivate peace.

James 3:13-18

There is nothing wrong with being content to be shepherded by Christ and those in the church who has been designated for this work. If you aspire to more, that’s fine but be ready to leave the security of the flock and face the fangs of the wolves out to devour it. You will have to endure the world as it is and if you do so at the call of Christ you will achieve greatness. If you do so at the call of power and position you will not. I’ll give Jesus the last word on it:

Which of you wishing to construct a tower does not first sit down and calculate the cost to see if there is enough for its completion? Otherwise, after laying the foundation and finding himself unable to finish the work the onlookers should laugh at him and say, ‘This one began to build but did not have the resources to finish.’

Or what king marching into battle would not first sit down and decide whether with ten thousand troops he can successfully oppose another king advancing upon him with twenty thousand troops? But if not, while he is still far away, he will send a delegation to ask for peace terms.

Pushback Under the Fedora: Weak Horses, Weak Parishes Strong Bishop, Strong Home Owners, Strong Investments, Weak Harvard

Posted: January 2, 2024 by datechguy in catholic, crime, culture, education, entertainment, Israel, Israel vs Hamas, under the fedora
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Yarneck: You are the survivors. The others have run off. It would seem that evil retreats when forcibly confronted

Star Trek The Savage Curtain 1969

Elder of Ziyon is one of the must goes for news of Israel’s war with Hamas. A few days ago they had a post of an interview with a man named Dr. Harold Rhode who holds a doctorate in Islamic history, lived in Muslim lands for a very long time and has been an advisor on the middle east for more than a quarter of a century. His perspective on what’s going on is the type of info people need if they want to understand Hamas et/al:

And the peace we are looking for is that you will stop fighting, and we will stop fighting, and everyone will live together in peace. But the Muslims do not have a concept like that. They won’t stop until the whole world will be Muslim. They follow what their prophet Muhammad did. He signed a 10-year ceasefire with Quraysh. After 2 years, Muhammad realized Quraysh had weakened — so he attacked them, and won. There is a classic Latin phrase “Bellum omnium contra omnes, pace inter omnes interpellatur,” that war is the natural state of man, interrupted by periods of peace.

We do not look at life like that, but historically most people do. From a Muslim point of view, they can agree to have relations with their enemies — whether they be Muslims, Jews, or anybody else. They can make temporary agreements just like their prophet did. Those agreements can be renewed, renewed, and renewed. But to think that the Saudis see peace the way we Jews see it is a pipe dream. 

In 1949, after Israel’s War of Independence, there was a peace conference in Rhodes. The Arabs insisted the borders be called “ceasefire lines” and not borders. The situation was not set in stone. Arabs do not have the concept that when the fighting is over, we can be friends

To them the war never ends which is why you must never show weakness. That’s also why the “protestors are shoving western cities around. As long as their response if weak they will assert themselves, once you respond with strength and it cost them something, then it will change.

The left is the same way, as long as you don’t stand up to them they will constantly assert themselves, but when you stand up to them like the Archbishop of Milwaukee did when two liberal parishes in Keoshia decided to ally with a radical leftist group CUSH. The Keoshia county eye reports: Milwaukee Archbishop Denounces Extremist Kenosha Group CUSH – Instructs Rogue Priests, Deacons To Sever Ties

For theses reasons none of our parishes, clergy, parish leadership, and staff as official, public representatives of the Catholic Church, can support, or publically [sic] be affiliated with CUSH.”

Father Reesman said the following to KCE Monday evening:

” [The letter] was shared first with the pastors of Saint Mark and Saint Mary’s Parishes before it was made public, and after I had first discussed the issue with them. If there are any ongoing questions from the parishes or their leadership about the contents of this letter, we will handle them on a case by case basis.”

It seems when you push back against gay porn in schools and drag queen story hours, good things happen which is what happened when the folks at Mass Resistance got involved.

Speaking of Push back some armed home invaders got some pushback last week that left one dead, two arrested and the family safe. A sheriff evaluated what they family did and gave it a thumbs up

I like the way Dave and Susie handled this attack. It appears that they must have discussed home invasions and developed a plan. Not responding verbally to the home invaders kept the crooks wondering where their victims might actually be located. And blocking the door with the couch caused their attacker to focus on that chore instead of keeping his full attention focused on looking for victims. Susie gets points for maintaining an open line of communications with the 9-1-1 dispatcher. And Dave was also very smart to put his gun down and meet the police officer with empty hands. Latest reports are that police investigators see no legal problems for Dave & Susie and, in addition, a series of other home invasions may be cleared by this shooting and the subsequent arrests.

It’s a great: ”How to” piece on self defense.

The pushback on Disney continues as well:

Loftis announced that South Carolina will divest $105 million worth of Disney debt securities due to concerns over the company’s leadership and its embrace of ESG (Environmental, Social and Governance) principles.

Loftis said Disney has abandoned its fiduciary duty to shareholders in favor of ESG, which he defined as a “speech and behavior code that was … created by the left and delivered to everybody else.”

“The sane, sober, talented, mature people are gone, and now you have the gender studies crowd running Disney,” Loftis said, “That’s why their movies are flops and their market cap, I think, is about half what it used to be. It’s a tremendous loss to America — we all grew up on Disney,” he added.

Note the argument made, not because Disney is woke but because “woke” costs them cash. That’s the type of pushback shareholder listen to.

Finally the Harvard Crimson published a dissenting opinion calling for President Gay to go.

While going over the “higher standard” bit the real meat of the argument is here:

We are tired of reading about Harvard’s failures every time we check the news. We are sick of reporters hassling us for interviews in the Yard. We don’t want to return home for break and get pestered by friends and family, asking what is happening on campus or how we’re holding up in this awful environment. Our classes and our studying should not be interrupted by noisemakers and megaphones. Signing an affirmation that we will follow the Harvard College Honor Code before we take our final exams should not feel like a farce.

Students are not the only ones frustrated. Faculty are concerned with her academic misconduct too, though many refuse to go on the record, perhaps for fear of the consequences (a fact the Board’s opinion notes but seems not to take to heart).

Donors are tripping over each other to sever ties with the University. A senator has written in the Wall Street Journal that he was accosted in Widener Library. Congress has launched — and now expanded — an investigation into Harvard. Early application numbers have dropped sharply compared with peer institutions, perhaps in response to the turmoil.

It’s that pushback that is the real driver here and is the only thing that drives leftists away.

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My Suggestion to St. Mary’s Fire the Board, Fire the President

Posted: December 22, 2023 by datechguy in catholic, catholic devotions
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It is a good thing that St. Mary’s Catholic College for Women in Indiana has reversed their decision to admit men who identify as women to their college after huge pressure from alumni and their Bishop who noted that both Pope Benedict XVI:

No doubt Saint Mary’s College desires to promote love, inclusion, and acceptance within the community. But it does not do so authentically when it separates love from truth. In his encyclical Caritas in Veritate (Charity in Truth), Pope Benedict XVI wrote: “Only in truth does charity shine forth, only in truth can charity be authentically lived. Truth is the light that gives meaning and value to charity… Without truth, charity degenerates into sentimentality. Love becomes an empty shell, to be filled in an arbitrary way. In a culture without truth, this is the fatal risk facing love. It falls prey to contingent subjective emotions and opinions, the word ‘love’ is abused and distorted, to the point where it comes to mean the opposite” (#3).

And Pope Francis

Pope Francis also teaches about the intimate connection between truth and love in his first encyclical, Lumen Fidei (The Light of Faith). He writes: “Love requires truth. Only to the extent that love is grounded in truth can it endure over time, can it transcend the passing moment and be sufficiently solid to sustain a shared journey. If love is not tied to truth, it falls prey to fickle emotions and cannot stand the test of time. True love, on the other hand, unifies all the elements of our person and becomes a new light pointing the way to a great and fulfilled life” (#27).

note that you can’t separate “love” and “Truth”.

Despite this reversal I recommend asking for the resignation of both the President of the college and the current board of trusties and if they don’t resign, their dismissal.

Why, well despite the Bishops charitable description of their initial decision’s motives let’s look at the initial announcement of their now reversed policy.

Conboy said in the email that the Board “fully supports” the new policy.

“This confidence from our Board underscores their commitment that as an employer, Saint Mary’s must stand firm in its position as an inclusive community leader, and that as educators, we should continue to create an environment where all women belong and thrive,” Conboy wrote.

By definition the president of a Catholic college and such a college’s board should be both defenders of the faith and examples of how the faith should be practiced and imparted to young people who are to be educated at their school.

Yet not only did the president of said college celebrate this change but noted that the board “fully supported” it. No sign of dissenters, no sign of objections, no members of the board threatening to resign or making a public declaration that this is contrary to the faith. None of those things moved them.

But the backlash sure did:

As this last month unfolded, we lost people’s trust and unintentionally created division where we had hoped for unity. For this, we are deeply sorry.

Forgive me for saying this but I submit and suggest this is a lie, I think the truth is more like what this member of the Alumni said about the reversal:

“When this admissions decision became public hundreds of alumni banded together to stand for the Church and her teachings,” said Clare Ath, who graduated from the college in 2018. “While I would hope the reversal is because administrators realized we must teach the truth with love, my guess is the reversal is because alumni banded together, pulled their donations, notified their diocese and media, and said we will not let Our Lady’s college be corrupted by secular gender ideology.”

Put simply they’re not sorry they did it, they’re sorry that they received pushback and faced the loss of donation and support.

This suggests that if some time in the future a less vigilant Bishop is in place they will try something like this again. My thought is “why take a chance?” There are no shortage of faithful Catholics who actually believe what the Church teaches who are qualified for both the board and the presidency.

So I humbly suggest for the good of the future of the college that the president and the board resign en masse to make room for people who will be dedicated to keeping this particular Catholic college Catholic.

Closing thought: This post gave me Anna Maria College Visit flashbacks. I suspect his decision to not go there is a contributing factor for him remaining a devout #catholic into his 30’s.

Eight Days of Indulgences and the November Indulgence Calendar as Well

Posted: November 1, 2023 by datechguy in catholic, catholic devotions, Church doctrine
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It’s the first of the month so it’s time for the Indulgence Calendar at DaTechGuy Blog for any and all who wish to pray for and help out the souls in purgatory.

It’s also All Saints Day a holy day of obligation for Catholics as we honor the saints in heaven, the Church Triumphant who have fought and won the good fight that we the church militant are still fighting on earth.

Because it’s All Saints Day it also means that there is a special series of indulgences that we have earn every single day through November 8th either for ourselves or for the Church Suffering (the souls in purgatory).

Beginning today, continuing tomorrow on All Souls Day ( where the church remembers the souls in purgatory) and throughout the octave of this Holy Day of Obligation a Plenary indulgence is available each day for anyone who visits a graveyard and prays for the dead.

These indulgences are available under the normal rules: which are:

  1. Communion the day of the indulgence (covers all indulgences that day)
  2. Prayers for the intentions of the Pope (covers all indulgences that day)
  3. Confession within 20 days before or after the day of the indulgence (covers all indulgences during that period of time)
  4. MUST be in a state of grace at the time of the indulgence (no unconfessed mortal sins)

Also be aware that unless your death is imminent you can only gain one Plenary Indulgence a day so if you earned for say:

  • Visiting the Blessed Sacrament for a half hour or more
  • Reading scripture for a half hour or more
  • Praying a group Rosary

then the indulgence you earn will be only partial.

Finally a plenary indulgence automatically becomes partial if you have any attachment to sin (that’s why they are so hard to get).

So if you’re a Catholic take advantage of these next 8 days, your soul and the souls in purgatory will thank you.

Anyways here is this month’s indulgence Calendars to download if you want.

indulgence-calendar-nov-2023Download

That the full calendar the blank one is next

indulgence-calendar-blank-nov-2023Download
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