Tuesday, January 14, 2014

Precedence for Pope's Reticence?


There may be some precedence of sorts for the subdued approach of Pope Francis to the hot-button issues of abortion, homosexuality and contraception.

 

Missing from the hundreds of public messages from Medjugorje over the last thirty years, is any overt condemnation of these and other grievous sins and evils of our era.

 
It has been said that Medjugorje is the Marian Apparition of the Vatican II Church. The rationale behind the approach of the Conciliar Church right up to the papacy of Pope Francis has been to pour forth the balm of mercy rather than issue condemnations.   In his opening speech for the Council, on Oct. 11, 1962, Pope John XXIII said "Nowadays however, the Spouse of Christ prefers to make use of the medicine of mercy rather than that of severity. She considers that she meets the needs of the present day by demonstrating the validity of her teaching rather than by condemnations."
   
In order to determine exactly what “Our Lady of Medjugorje” said about the abortion issue, I went to the website of a major Medjugorje organization called the Medjugorje Web. This site, www.medjugorje.org, has a convenient concordance containing all words from the public messages given by the apparition from 1984 to the present. From March of 1984 until January of 1987, the public messages were given weekly, intended mainly for the parish. From January 25, 1987 to the present the public messages have been occurring monthly, for the whole world. This makes well over 400 public messages.

In the Medjugorje Web, one must click on the ‘Concordance’ button, since using the search box will bring up other references in addition to the messages. Using the concordance on the Medjugorje Web for the word ‘abortion’ in these public messages, brings back a result of ZERO times that the word was even mentioned, from 1984 to 2014! What makes this quite amazing is that the visionaries are supposed to receive a total of ten secrets, some of which concern great chastisements about to befall humanity because of so much sinfulness in the world. One would reasonably expect then that the “Gospa” would have constantly pointed out, over the years, the many sinful behaviours, such as abortion, that have to be remedied in order to lessen these chastisements.

Since the word ‘abortion’ brought no results, I next looked to see how many times ‘contraception’ was mentioned in all of these hundreds of messages. Same result – ZERO. Well, how about ‘pornography’ – nope, a ZERO again. What about ‘homosexuality’ or ‘sodomy’ – ZERO. What about ‘adultery’, ‘divorce’, ’fornication’, ‘drugs’ . . . all ZERO. How about ‘murder’ or ‘lust’ - ZEROES again. Surely the apparition has said something about ‘stealing’, ‘theft’, ‘idolatry’, ‘wrath’, ‘despair’ or ‘greed’ – every one of them a ZERO. Wait, there is one exception – ‘pride’ resulted in one occurrence. But upon reading it, the ‘pride’ referred to Satan, not to a sin of mankind.

And yet these apparitions are supposed to be ongoing communications and warnings from the Blessed Virgin Mary urging us to turn back from our sins or else face great chastisements. The holocaust of legalized abortion is the defining crime and offense of our era against God, with millions upon millions of innocent victims. For this cause alone, God surely has in store for us a great chastisement. Yet in the public messages delivered over the course of the past thirty years, we do not hear one peep about abortion from the “Madonna of Medjugorje.”

But who am I to judge?

 



 

Wednesday, January 1, 2014

Eight New Year's Resolutions from Padre Pio

Eight New Year's "Resolutions" from Padre Pio


Greetings to all.   These "resolutions' are taken from the booklet "Buona Giornata," (Have a Good Day), which is a compilation of daily meditations and observations from St. Pio's writings and comments, published by his Friary in San Giovanni Rotondo.  


Here are his thoughts - exhortations - admonitions for Dec. 31 thru Jan 7.

1.  The palm of glory is reserved only for those who fight valiantly to the end.  Therefore, let us begin our holy battle this year.  God will help us and crown us with eternal triumph. 

2.  We are by Divine Grace at the dawn of a new year.  Since only God knows whether we will finish this year, we should spend it in reparation for the past, and in preparation for the future.  Good works go hand in hand with good intentions.  

3.  Let us say to ourselves, with the full conviction of telling the truth, "My soul: begin today to do the good works which to date you have not done."  Let us be moved by the presence of God.  "God sees me," let us often say to ourselves, "and by my actions will He judge me."  Let us be sure the He will always see only goodness in us.

4.  If you have time, do not wait for time.  Let us not put off until tomorrow what we can do today.  The graves are full of good intentions that never came to pass.  Besides, what assurance do we have that we will be alive tomorrow?  Let us listen to the voice of our conscience, as said the royal prophet: "Today, if you hear the voice of the Lord, do not turn a deaf ear."  Let us come forth and treasure the fleeting moment which alone is ours.  Let us not waste time, from one moment to another, because the latter is not yet ours.

5.  When you waste time, you disdain God's gift - the present - which He, in His infinite goodness, relinquishes to your love and to your generosity. 

6.  "Let us begin today, my brothers, to do good because until now we have done nothing."  These words, which the Seraphic Father, St. Francis, In his humility, applied to himself, should be made ours at the beginning of the new year.   We have lived thoughtlessly, as if the Eternal Judge were not going to call us to Him one day and ask us to account for our works, for how we have spent our time.

7.  Love does not brook being delayed, and the Magi, immediately upon arrival, did everything in their power to make known Him, Who had conquered their hearts through an influx of grace.  He filled them with the kind of charity which must overflow, because it cannot be contained in the small structure of the heart, and must therefore be communicated.  

8.  In your actions, seek neither the most nor the least merit,  but rather the greatest honor and glory for God. 

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