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?

 

 

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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What would Mary say?

 

‘Lies! I was deceived!’


Would the Blessed Virgin, seeing her Son Jesus on the Cross, ever have even the slightest desire to say to God: ‘Lies! I was deceived!’ because He apparently was not given the throne of David to reign forever?
 

You decide.

 Pope Francis, on the silence of Mary at the foot of the Cross:

"She was silent, but in her heart, how many things [she] told the Lord! ‘You, that day . . .  had told me that he would be great, you had told me that you would have given him the throne of David, his forefather, that he would have reigned forever and now I see him there!’ Our Lady was human! And perhaps she even had the desire to say: ‘Lies! I was deceived!’ John Paul II would say this, speaking about Our Lady in that moment. But she, with her silence, hid the mystery that she did not understand and with this silence allowed for this mystery to grow and blossom in hope.”

Vatican Radio, Dec. 20, 2013. From his homily at Mass at the Casa Santa Marta.
http://en.radiovaticana.va/m_articolo.asp?c=757349


On the contrary, she fully understood the mystery. The Blessed Virgin Mary to the mystic Luisa Piccarreta:

          "So, the life of my Son is about to end, and He is about to take flight to His Celestial Fatherland. Ah! dear child, the Divine Fiat gave Him to Me, and in the Divine Fiat I received Him; and now, in the same Fiat, I give Him back. My Heart is torn; immense seas of sorrows inundate Me; I feel life leaving Me because of the atrocious spasm. But nothing could I deny to the Divine Fiat; on the contrary, I felt disposed to sacrifice Him with my own hands, had It wanted it so. The strength of the Divine Will is omnipotent, and I felt such strength by virtue of It, that I would have contented Myself with dying rather than deny anything to the Divine Will.

Now, my child, listen to Me: my maternal Heart is drowned with pains; just thinking that my Son, my God, my Life, must die, is more than death for your Mama. Yet, I know I must live. What torment, what deep gashes form in my Heart, piercing It all the way through with sharp swords. Yet, dear child, I grieve in saying this, but I must say this to you: in these pains and deep gashes, and in the pains of my beloved Son, there was your soul - your human will. Since it would not let itself be dominated by the Will of God, We covered it with pains, We embalmed it, We fortified it with our pains, so that it would dispose itself to receive the life of the Divine Will.

Ah! if the Divine Fiat had not sustained Me and continued Its course with infinite seas of light, of joy, of happiness, along side the seas of my bitter sorrows, I would have died as many times for as many pains as my dear Son suffered. Oh! how tortured I felt, when He made Himself seen for the last time - pale, with a sadness of death on His face, and with trembling voice, as though wanting to burst into sobs, He told me: “Good-bye Mama. Bless your Son, and give Me the obedience to die. My Divine Fiat and Yours made Me be conceived, and my Divine Fiat and Yours must make Me die. Hurry, Oh dear Mama, pronounce your Fiat, and tell Me: ‘I bless You and I give You the obedience to die crucified. So does the Eternal Will want, and so I too want’.”

My child, what a blow to my pierced Heart. Yet, I had to say it, because there were no forced pains in Us, but all voluntary. So We blessed each other, and exchanging that gaze which is not able to detach any more from the beloved, my dear Son, my sweet Life, departed; and I, your sorrowful Mama, stayed. But the eye of my soul never lost sight of Him. I followed Him into the Garden, in His terrible agony, and – oh! how my Heart bled in seeing Him abandoned by all, even by His most faithful and dear Apostles.

The Virgin Mary in the Kingdom of the Divine Will , Day 27.

http://catholicdivinewill.blogspot.com/2008/06/virgin-mary-in-kingdom-of-divine-will.html

Thanks to the Christ or Chaos website for calling this to my attention.  The article on that site quotes from the revelations to Ven. Mary of Agreda, in her opus The City of God, which further describe Mary's true thoughts and feelings at the Crucifixion of her Son.

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Yogi Berra time

 

This is definitely on the lighter side...

Finding Yogi!
Mr. Lawrence Peter "Yogi" Berra is widely quoted on the Internet these days, and not just in sports stories.  Below are ten famous Yogisms, followed by 10 recent online articles that quoted one of them, not shown in the quote.  And your task is to find Yogi!
 
If you get all ten, then “congratulations, I knew the record would stand until it was broken.”

If you score less than 5, “you've made too many wrong mistakes.”

1. "It's deja vu all over again."
2. "It gets late early out there."
3. "When you come to a fork in the road, take it."
4. “If you don’t know where you are going, you might wind up someplace else.”
5. "Nobody goes there anymore. It's too crowded."
6. “It ain’t over ’til it’s over.”
7. "The future ain't what it used to be."
8. "Baseball is 90 percent mental; the other half is physical."
9. "It's tough to make predictions, especially about the future."
10. "You can observe a lot just by watching."

A.   Recently I predicted that although Kent Hovind might keep losing in court, he would never give up his tax fight.  As Yogi Berra said – [insert Yogism].  Nonetheless, I was pretty confident based on among other things the extensive file of appeals and other documents that are on Hovind’s website.  Developments in the last 24 hours indicate that he may have given up.  First, I’ll give you some background.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/peterjreilly/2013/09/28/has-kent-hovind-given-up-fight-against-irs/

B.  Yogi Berra once said, [insert Yogism]. This Yogi-ism is the perfect description of the problems facing Brinker International and its Chili's business. The Chili's concept is well known, respected, and it's so popular that people seem to be forgetting to go there.

http://www.dailyfinance.com/2013/11/09/3-issues-that-threaten-chilis/

C.  Yogi Berra was right when he so ineloquently professed that [insert Yogism], but let me tell you, the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Championship is indeed done, over, finished.
http://www.strathmorestandard.com/2013/11/10/jimmie-johnson-all-but-wraps-up-chase-for-the-championship-title

D.  American Economist Paul Samuelson told Newsweek in 1966, “Wall Street indices predicted nine out of the last five recessions.” A teacher once said to Albert Einstein’s father, “It doesn’t matter what [Albert] does, he will never amount to anything.” Maybe attempts to predict the future are irrelevant — anything can happen. Perhaps the only certainty is what the wise Yogi Berra once said, [insert yogism].

http://www.shreveporttimes.com/article/20131103/NEWS05/311020007/

E.   As the beloved piquant paradoxical pin-striper, Yogi Berra, used to pipe – [insert Yogism], it’s precisely that, just two decades or so later, with the same old cast of characters and a few new faces added. One of the unhappy consequences of survival to an ancient age, with one’s mind intact is the remembrance of things one would prefer to have forgotten.
http://wamc.org/post/paul-elisha-reluctant-remembrances

F.  Yes, it's only Week 2. Each NFL team still has 14 regular-season games ahead of them. It's early. But that doesn't mean the stakes aren't already high, especially for teams who opened the 2013 season with a loss. History suggests -- and Yogi Berra would likely agree – [insert Yogism] for Super Bowl hopefuls starting 0-2.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/09/15/0-2-teams-falcons-packers-ravens_n_3922563.html

G.  Maybe it is the fall season and the race to the World Series that makes me think of Yogi Berra, or maybe it is the actions of my Congressman, Leonard Lance, that reminds me of one of Mr. Berra's great insights, [insert Yogism].  Over his time in Congress I have been watching and observing the Congressman's statements and actions and I guess I should not have been surprised about his most recent vote to shut down the government.  But I was.

http://thealternativepress.com/articles/lance-throws-a-change-up

H.  Remember the classic Yogi Berra line: [insert Yogism].

There is a liberal corollary, no less fatuous: When you come to a dilemma, take the path of least resistance.
http://www.lompocrecord.com/news/opinion/mailbag/the-sad-path-to-destruction/article_af82704a-272f-11e3-b8e8-0019bb2963f4.html

I.  One of my favorite quotes is from Yogi Berra: [insert Yogism].

I often wonder why most people will spend hours upon hours planning a vacation, deciding where to go, how to get there, how much to spend and how do to get the most bang for their buck. Very few people, however, will sit down with their family members and a financial coach.

http://www.argusleader.com/article/20131104/BJUPDATES/311040001/INSIGHT-Follow-six-steps-create-plan-financial-security?nclick_check=1

J.  Dwight Howard is living proof that Yogi Berra's quote, [insert Yogism] is true in basketball as well. Howard, in his first year as center of the Houston Rockets, was video recorded shooting free throws before the Rockets' Nov. 16 home game against the Denver Nuggets.

Howard, a career 57.6 percent free-throw shooter, showed that he can hit foul shots when it doesn't count.
The video, sent in to TheStarters.NBA.com, shows the mercurial all-star making 18 of his 20 attempts, for an impressive 90 percent.
http://www.sportsworldnews.com/articles/6923/20131123/dwight-howard-free-throws-houston-rockets-center-hits-90-percent-of-foul-shots-in-practice-video.htm


Answers below:

A=9
B=5
C=6
D=7
E=1
F=2
G=10
H=3
I=4
J=8

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Do we pray "to" the Pope?

What's wrong with this picture?

As of this date (11/2/13) Pope Francis is still alive on earth, and we don't pray TO him, do we? We pray to God and to the saints. This prayer card is from the Companions of St. Anthony, Ellicott City, MD.  The little medal at the top right says "Pope Francis Pray for Us."


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Animals of Heaven - update

Will we see our favorite pets in heaven?

Of course!  Otherwise, it wouldn't be heaven, would it?

In a way known only to God, we will in some manner encounter our beloved animal friends, in that place of perfect happiness.

How can anyone say animals are not in heaven, when in fact they are a a little bit of heaven sent to the earth [added 01/10/2014].

If animals are not destined for heaven, why did saints preach to them?  St. Francis preached to birds, St. Anthony to fishes. [added 03/02/1918.]
 

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The White Indians

The White Indians

A brilliant and thoroughly researched book by Scott Zesch, called The Captured, reveals the true story of nine white children who were captured by Native American raiding parties in the post-Civil War years. The two girls and seven boys were raised and taught to live as Indians by the Comanches, Apaches and other tribes of the Southern Plains. The author weaves the tales of these captives into a coherent narrative, using hundreds of carefully examined original source materials.

As the forces of the U.S. Cavalry and Texas Rangers began to prevail in the great Indian wars, one by one these children were eventually recovered and brought home. But astonishingly, with few exceptions, they were unwilling to return to white civilization, since they had learned to prefer the free-spirited Native American way of life.

For the boy captives especially, their repetitive days of drudgery and poverty on the family homestead were soon forgotten. Instead, given over to an Indian family that warmly received them, they quickly adapted to a new way of life – hunting, fishing, horse riding, and training to be a warrior. No more boring and laborious farm and ranch work, and certainly no confinement to a school room.

Soon their Indianized identity became so powerful that they learned to hate the pale-face as much or more than did their Native American captors. The white man was perceived as their most dangerous enemy, driving them further and further from their hunting grounds, attacking their villages, and killing off their primary source for food and clothing – the buffalo.

The story of the capture and return of these nine coincides with the last age of the Plains Indian and their forced relocation to reservations. The author narrates in general chronological order the sad fate of the tribes during the years of the captivity of the white Indians. Then he follows the post-captivity lives of the nine – some re-adjusted more or less to the white ways, but others went back to live with their Indian families on reservations, and one even ended up a hermit in a cave.

By 1878 the last of the captured white Indians were returned, and by 1881, the way of life of the free-roaming Plains Indians came to an end, coinciding with the destruction of the last buffalo herds. It was General William T. Sherman, of Civil War infamy, who was primarily responsible for the decision to decimate the buffalo, since he realized that this was the fastest way to “obliterate” the Indians. He had become commanding General of the U.S. Army. When a small number of enlightened Texans petitioned for a law to protect the remaining buffalo and save them from extinction, Sherman personally testified in the Texas legislature against the bill, “arguing that the extermination of the buffalo was necessary to drive the Indians out of Texas and stop their depredations.”

The Captured, by Scott Zesch, St. Martin's Press, N.Y., 2004. 

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