Posts Tagged ‘catholic’

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.

Report from Louisiana: Thoughts on Halloween

Posted: October 31, 2022 by Pat Austin in Uncategorized
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By: Pat Austin

Photo by David Menidrey on Unsplash

SHREVEPORT – Today is Halloween, of course and who doesn’t love the fun of it all, and seeing the little children dressed up in their costumes?

We attend the Episcopal church along with two other Episcopal churches in the area, we have a group performing The Witch of Endor (1 Samuel 28), The Valley of Dry Bones (Ezekiel 37) and the War in Heaven (Revelation 12) in the cemetery this evening. There is a bit of side-eye going on amongst those who think this is purely a pagan holiday. To clarify this, I’d like to share a post from a Catholic priest friend, Fr. Clinton Sensat:

In 726, Emperor Leo the Isaurian issued a decree banning all religious images.

He had been fighting the Umayyads, and influenced by Muslim claims, regarded images as idolatrous. That seemed plausible to him. He didn’t consult learned theologians. He didn’t study the history. He didn’t hesitate to believe that countless souls had been led astray with nary a peep from heaven.

He believed a lie told by the enemies of the Church, and so in the name of the Church (but really according to his own personal judgment) he lifted his hand to destroy something the people held dear. Countless images of sacred art precious to the hearts of his people were destroyed by Leo’s zeal – a zeal that came from believing an enemy’s lie.

The same thing happens to Halloween today. Zealous Catholics, believing the lies of an enemy, raise their own hands to savage something people love.

When we hear that Easter is really a pagan celebration of the Babylonian goddess Ishtar, we rightly scoff. When we’re told Christmas is really a feast of Mithras, we roll our eyes and move on with our lives. But as soon as people are told Halloween is really a Celtic feast of the dead, we’re all wide-eyed credulity. And being credulous, people become zealous to destroy that which they don’t understand.

How can this be? The same age, the same liars, the same pseudohistory that claim Easter and Christmas are pagan claim Halloween too! But we know the first two are silliness and believe the third?!

Let’s have some facts. Halloween started in Italy, not Ireland. The date has to do with an eighth century pope consecrating a church to all the saints. The date has exactly nothing to do with Samhain.

The folk practices of Halloween came from a variety of different countries, not from secret Celts meeting for midnight covens. Moreover, they’re exactly the kinds of folk practices Catholics spontaneously associated with other major feasts.

In Catalunya they dress up as dragons and giants and fairies for Eucharistic processions. Are the people of northeast Spain secretly Irish druids?? Throughout northern Europe they burn enormous bonfires in honor of the birth of John the Baptist. Are they really worshipping Lugh of the Long Hand? I can promise you that the vast majority of Scandinavian people have never even heard the name.

Please, please stop repeating the lies our enemies invented against us as if they’re good Catholic truth. For CENTURIES anti-Catholics have claimed that Catholic practices, Catholic devotions, and Catholic folk traditions are really pagan. For CENTURIES Catholic priests and theologians have fought a bitter fight proving this is in no way, shape, or form the truth. To have Catholics themselves, even some Catholic clergy, take up the arms of our enemies against the Catholic holidays is disheartening in the extreme.

The Church loves the spooky. The Church honors the dead. The Church is not afraid of death. The Church mocks the powers of hell. All of these attitudes spontaneously gave rise to the folk practices of Halloween as we know it today. Don’t give any credence to the apostles of anxiety. Halloween has nothing to do with paganism, and everything to do with good Catholic humor.

I think highly of Fr. Sensat and think he is a wonderful priest, and he has a brilliant mind. I also think Halloween is fun for kids and adults alike.

Happy Halloween to you and have some candy! 😉

A Distinct Christian Disadvantage, at least in Temporal Matters vs the “I was only following Orders” FBI

Posted: October 7, 2022 by datechguy in Blame Biden Administration, culture, official oppression
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“You shall not act dishonestly in rendering judgment. Show neither partiality to the weak nor deference to the mighty, but judge your fellow men justly. You shall not go about spreading slander among your kinsmen; nor shall you stand by idly when your neighbor’s life is at stake. I am the LORD.

“You shall not bear hatred for your brother in your heart. Though you may have to reprove your fellow man, do not incur sin because of him. Take no revenge and cherish no grudge against your fellow countrymen. You shall love your neighbor as yourself. I am the LORD.

Leviticus 19:15-18

To the shame of the FBI and the Justice Department we’re seeing more of the targeting grandmas trying to save kids:

The only home agents raided was Gallagher’s. The ten other participants reportedly received calls from the FBI instructing them to turn themselves in. A press release from the DOJ declares that all eleven individuals will appear in U.S. District Court in Nashville at a later date on charges that they “used force and physical obstruction to injure, intimidate, and interfere with employees of the clinic and a patient who was seeking reproductive health services.”

The parallels between this case and the Houck case are stunning. Like Houck, local law enforcement addressed the actions of Gallagher and the other participants at the time. The Philadelphia municipal court dismissed a private criminal complaint against Houck in July. Likewise, on the day of the event in Tennessee, officers arrested several participants on misdemeanor trespassing charges. There were no charges of verbal or physical assault against the protestors. After they posted bail, the protestors were released.

Apparently this “Justice (and I use the word very loosely) department” has decided that it’s primary focus is going to “avenge” the repeal of Roe v Wade on every pro-lifer who has ever peacefully protested the slaughter of kids or attempted to talk a young girl out of a decision that will haunt her forever.

Now in a society where justice is supposed to be colorblind such things at best are a horrible aberration and at worst the actions of a rogue prosecutor, but when your principles are Marxist which is all about ends vs means rather than Christian which is about avoiding sin no consideration concerning justice applies.

And of course the knowledge that if power is lost they may face investigation and or prosecution

The real advantage for these folks and disadvantage for us, is that we are restrained by the concepts of justice so even when the time comes that their power is broken, what we can do and how we do it is temporized by those commandments concerning love of enemies and justice that do not cease to apply even when we are oppressed.

The irony of course is that our friends on the left have done all they can to pull people away from those values and the real danger to them comes if those who they are dealing with choose to ignore those restraints?

It won’t be fun to find out.

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