Św. Filipie, apostole i męczenniku, któryś dla Chrystusa krew swoją ochotnie przelał, wstaw się u Boga za wszystkimi, którzy nauki Chrystusa nie znają, aby porzuciwszy błędy i niegodziwości pogańskie przyłączyli się do kościoła katolickiego. Amen.
Św. Katarzyno Seneńska, która świecisz nam wzorem dziewictwa i cierpliwości, uproś nam u Boga tę łaskę, abyśmy potrafili zwyciężyć wszelakie pokusy, jakiemi trapi nas czart, ciało i świat, podobnie jak ty je zwyciężyłaś, a tak będąc naśladowcami twych cnót, abyśmy stali się współuczestnikami także twej chwały. Amen.
While they were still speaking about this,
he stood in their midst and said to them,
—Peace be with you.—
But they were startled and terrified
and thought that they were seeing a ghost.
Do you have the ghost of Jesus in your life? Do you possess a sort of ephemeral, see-through, not really there Jesus?
The disciples who were gathered together on this day had that kind of Jesus, at least until he appeared to them. They had a Jesus of memory. They remembered His face, maybe a few of His words, and probably were pondering a few of His promises. They had ghost Jesus.
Is that the sort of Jesus you have? You might remember a few of His words now and then. You might think of His promises at times of tragedy. You might even recall some representation of Jesus, a cross, a picture, some distant memory from your days studying the catechism.
I prefer the real Jesus. The Jesus of the cross, tomb, and resurrection. I prefer the ‘fish fry’ Jesus. I love to picture myself sitting down with the Lord for some Dunkirk smoked whitefish. I think we’d have a great time.
Sure, it sounds funny, but that’s the reality. Jesus is real. He is not only real in the historical sense, but in the past, present, and future sense.
No, it is no ghost.
So, if He is not just a passing puff of smoke, but the real living God-man, what are we going to do about it? How are we going to react?
The only reaction that makes sense is to live our lives with His reality. To live our lives in a way that reflects the fact that He is standing right next to you and me. More than standing next to us, He lives within us. He has joined Himself to us through the everlasting gift of Himself in the Holy Eucharist. He joins with us to change us, convert us, and renew us.
It is a difficult burden. You would think that people would run from the Church knowing that they have to live with the reality of someone who places so many expectations on them. You would think that the reality of it all would be too much to bear, especially in light of our sinfulness.
St. John tells us:
But if anyone does sin, we have an Advocate with the Father,
Jesus Christ the righteous one.
He is expiation for our sins,
and not for our sins only but for those of the whole world.
Peter put it even more plainly:
Now I know, brothers,
that you acted out of ignorance, just as your leaders did;
but God has thus brought to fulfillment
what he had announced beforehand
through the mouth of all the prophets,
that his Christ would suffer.
Repent, therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be wiped away.—
Yes, we continue to act out of ignorance. It is a self imposed ignorance. It is the way we cover over the uncomfortable fact that God would die on the cross for us. That He would sacrifice His only Son so that we could be with Him one day in heaven.
Remember that He told us that He came not to condemn us but to bring us salvation.
Therefore, we need to set aside the discomfort of living with the real Jesus, and we need to act. We need to repent of our ignorance. We need to throw open the shades, break out the fish fry, and live with the real Jesus.
Once we have done that we will truly be His disciples, ready to follow His command:
And he said to them,
—Thus it is written that the Christ would suffer
and rise from the dead on the third day
and that repentance, for the forgiveness of sins,
would be preached in his name
to all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem.
You are witnesses of these things.
You are witnesses of these things —“ proclaim your witness. Our sins are forgiven. Jesus is alive and real. Life in union with Him is ultimate and everlasting joy. We are changed by His body and blood – and we need to act on that reality.
[dels]blogs4god/sermons[/dels]
The BBC, reporting on a clash between the All Poland Youth Group and a group of homosexual marchers in the Polish city of Krakow, gets it wrong yet again.
Background: A —gay tolerance— march on Krakow, Poland was attacked by some members of the youth group who threw rocks and eggs at the marchers.
Now, in the first place, that sort of violence, regardless of the reason, is absolutely wrong. Some youth group members (a very small part of the group) who took part in such violence should be arrested and prosecuted.
However, the BBC goes on to claim: —Homophobia is not uncommon in this staunchly Catholic country.—
Ummm, no!
The BBC’s report is not at all descriptive of what is going on, nor is it a fair or just statement. It’s painting an entire country as gripped by fear and aversion. It’s like saying all members of any group are something. I think that’s called stereotyping or racism. Can we say, racism is not uncommon among BBC reporters? Hmmmm…
No, the Poles are not homophobic. Homophobia is exactly that —“ a term used to describe a phobia. As we read in the phobia wiki:
A phobia (from the Greek φόβος “fear”), is a strong, persistent fear of situations, objects, activities, or persons.
No, the Catholic youth in Poland, who marched peacefully, were only standing in the forefront of a battle that is raging. They stood up for their faith and for the truth. For that, everyone in the entire country has been labeled by the BBC.
The Christian faithful, who adhere to the teachings of the Church on homosexuality, euthanasia, abortion, capitol punishment, war, and any number of other issues, are receiving what we will soon experience more and more: negative stereotypes and eventually outright persecution.
The teachings of the Roman Church, the PNCC, Orthodoxy, and any other orthodox Christian group are almost completely at odds with secular culture; a culture that believes that everyone has a right.
The real point is that no one has a right. There are no rights other than those given by God as interpreted through His Church.
The ‘gay’ culture is not a right. It is disordered and defective. Euthanasia is not a right nor is abortion. It is disordered, defective, and murder.
Certainly, homosexuality is a burden that some must bear. It is a heavy burden indeed. The Church is to love all people and support them in facing the burdens —“ the crosses they have been asked to bear. No one is to be —put out—. However, no one has a right to do as he or she pleases.
All that is required is that people come forward in truth and pledge to live the life Christ calls us to live. It is rarely the life we would like to live, yet its rewards are eternal.
See the entire BBC article: Clashes erupt at Poland gay march
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Shortly after he became Prime Minister, Kazimierz Marcinkiewicz said in an interview that homosexuality is unnatural.
According to surveys, nine out of 10 Poles agree with him.
As posted at Echo Faith a 9Rules member site.
Christianity For Sale
God does not want salesmen. Salesmen don’t care about the people they’re selling to. They don’t want to know their life-stories, the struggles they’ve dealt with, the passions they’ve pursued, the dreams they’ve had.
So many times in life I’ve felt like I’d been hired to be God’s salesman. It was my job, in all situations and conversations, to find that angle or loophole to slip God into the conversation and convert, convert, convert!
The problem with this mentality is when you’re busy looking for a loophole, you miss the conversation. It’s like a quarrelsome couple in a fight. When one talks, the other spends all their energy trying to think of a comeback and how to defend their position instead of actually listening to what the other side has to say.
We need to lose the briefcase and suit and just be real people. There’s no need to ‘sell your point’ as long as you live it. Don’t go out of the way to hide your christianity from conversation but don’t shout it out either. Being christian should be as much a part of us as being a graphic designer or being a husband, a sister, an artist, a construction worker, a skater, a girlfriend, or whatever combination of things makes you who you are.
Dobrotliwy Boże, któryś przez Chrystusa Syna Swego środki konieczne nam do zbawienia w Kościele swoim przygotował, nie chcąc aby ktokolwiek z nas zginął i był potępionym, – wejrzyj miłościwie na dusze zdradliwie od kościoła oderwane, i w odszczepieństwie zostające, i za przyczyną św. Piotra z Werony spraw, aby złość i błędy heretyckie porzuciwszy, do jedności kościoła katolickiego powróciły. Amen.
Najświętsza Panno Marjo, któraś zawsze wspierała czcicielkę Twą i służebnicę, błg. Konstancję, racz i nam uprosić u Boga łaskę prawdziwego żalu za grzechy, i śmierć szczęśliwą. Orędowniczko nasza, obróć na nas Twe miłosierne oczy, i błogosławiony owoc żywota Twego, po tem wygnaniu racz nam okazać. Amen.
Bishop Lynch —“ the defender of the poor and voiceless (NOT!!!!) gets a big comeuppance at several blogs over his recent statements regarding immigrants and death row inmates.
You will recall it was the self same bishop who went on vacation while Terri Schiavo was being killed.
Pro Ecclesia*Pro Familia*Pro Civitate opines in Bishop Lynch FINALLY Speaks Out …
Also, check out Another Bishop With Credibility Issues at Jumping Without A Chute
The even more striking thing is that he has no concept of why Jesus had to die. He figures Jesus was just another poor, persecuted alien without a good lawyer.
Speaking of aliens, maybe the Scientologists’ could take him?
A very interesting reprint From Ad Orientem of the essay: The Significance of Apostolic Succession in Heterodoxy* which was written by Metropolitan, later Patriarch, Sergii (Stragorodsky) and first published in the Journal of the Moscow Patriarchate in 1935 (No. 23-24) and republished in the October 1961 edition of the JMP.
The editors note that the importance of the subject, the authority of the author and the unavailability of this essay to the wide circle of their readers convinced them to reprint Metropolitan Sergii’s essay.
Here are a few interesting excerpts.
…
For example the Old Catholic and the Belakrinitza hierarchies both base their origin on individual ordinations. The Orthodox Church unconditionally rejects the latter hierarchy and declares all of its acts as invalid, and those who enter the Church are received through chrismation. Our Church likewise does not recognize Old Catholic hierarchy. At this time no one knows how they are treated in the Greek East. However the relations of ruling Church circles towards the Old Catholics (at least in the past) has been most sympathetic both from our part and in the East. Particularly, individual consecration was not an unconditional impediment for the recognition of the Old Catholic hierarchy. In justification, reference was made to the acceptance by Western practice of individual consecration (one bishop and two specially empowered abbots). Perhaps this departure became established because the bishop’s office, in view of the development of Papal authority, does not differ much from that of the presbyter. Be that as it may, but if the Old Catholics truly adopted for themselves the teaching of the ancient undivided Church, and would not resort to dogmatism, analysis and arguments about details of teaching and ritual, and if the leaders would be less imitative of Protestants, it is very possible that Old Catholics would have by now received in communion with the recognition of their hierarchy.
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In order to establish itself in communion, the heterodox “Church” must at least recognize its dogmatical and canonical defects and correct them, which it can do on its own initiative and then by that fact of correction it becomes a full member of the union of local Orthodox Churches, joined together by mutual communion in the Eucharist and prayer. In such a case there is no need of an official reception or a union with one of the existing Orthodox Churches. The Westerners, knowing only about unions with Rome which requires the suppression of any local customs or independence, are afraid that an invitation to unite with the Eastern Orthodox Church would result in the same attempt to subject them to the East with a loss of their own originality. This fear of course, chills any already lukewarm thoughts about Church union. In point of fact, if the Eucharistic communion with the Orthodox Church is merely a desirable embellishment of Church life and not life itself, then is it not reasonable from the point of an abstract idea, perhaps one which is fascinating and edifying, but practically not very beneficial, to risk some very precious realities? This leads to an exchange of many sweet words, much erudition, many arguments over secondary matters, much persistence in vindicating principles, but there is not that thirst which forces one “…to come to the waters” (Is. 55:1), there is no spiritual effort with which one can “accomplish great things” (G. Canon).
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* Heterodoxy = anything not Orthodox i.e., R.C., Old Catholic, PNCC, Anglican, Protestant, etc.
Also note, since this was 1935, the term ‘Old Catholics’ includes the PNCC. Many of the Old Catholic churches have fallen so far from orthodoxy (women ‘priests’, homosexual union blessings) that I would venture to guess that they would no longer be viewed as they were in 1935.
You just have to check out Satan’s blog (as highlighted by the Curt Jester). His post on the Liturgy in California is right on. It’s 12:44am and I almost woke everyone up laughing.