How to Pray
"Yet everything depends on this ability to stand still and to be present with full inner awareness."
"The basic meaning of the word 'collected' is to be gathered together, united.
A glance at our life will show how much we lack this aptitude. We should have a fixed centre which, like the hub of a wheel, governs our movements and from which all our actions go out and to which they return; a standard, also, or a code by which we distinguish the important from the unimportant, the end from the means and which puts actions and experiences into their proper order; something stable, unaffected by change and yet capable of development, which makes it clear to us who we are and how matters stand with us. We lack this; we, the men of today, lack it more than did those who lived in earlier ages.
"This becomes evident in our attempts to pray. Spiritual teachers speak of 'distraction' as that state in which man lacks poise and unity, that state in which thoughts flit from object to object, in which feelings are vague and unfocused and the will ineffective. Man in this state is not really a person who speaks or who can be spoken to, but merely an unco-ordinated bundle of thoughts, feelings and sensations.
"Collectedness means that he who prays gathers himself together, directs his attention on to what he is doing, draws in all thought—a painstaking task—so as to dedicate himself to prayer as a unified whole. This is the state in which he may, when the call comes to him, answer in the words of Moses, 'Here am I (Exod. 3:4).[page 19]
"In it awakens not only the religious consciousness but a new and higher consciousness, which we might call the spiritual heart of the child of God.
"On this holy ground the reality of God becomes manifest. It may happen that man experiences it suddenly and is overcome by its grandeur and flooded by its proximity. If this happens, he knows that he is receiving the great and intimate mystery of prayer. He must receive it with reverence and guard it well. But such an event is rare indeed and more often than not nothing happens. The God of whom the worshipper had said, 'He is here,' remains silent and hidden. Then the prayer, supported by faith alone, must go out into this silent darkness and maintain itself there.
"In collectedness the worshipper says, 'God is here and here also am I.'" [Page 23]
[Romano Guardini, Prayer in Practice, Page 18, 23]
Monday, January 19, 2009
Sunday, November 2, 2008
O'Brien: Obama "[U]shering in the Time of Great Trial for the Church"
-I also believe that he is a carrier of a deadly moral virus, indeed a kind of anti-apostle spreading concepts and agendas that are not only anti-Christ but anti-human as well. In this sense he is of the spirit of Antichrist (perhaps without knowing it), and probably is one of several key figures in the world who (knowingly or unknowingly) will be instrumental in ushering in the time of great trial for the Church under its last and worst persecution, amidst the numerous other tribulations prophesied in the books of Daniel and Revelation, and letters of St Paul, St. John, and St. Peter.
StudiObrien newsletter, The U.S. ElectionSaturday, November 1, 2008 1:20 PM
From: "studiObrien" Add sender to Contacts To: undisclosed-recipients
All Saints Day, 1 November 2008
Dear Friends,
From just north of the border, we Canadians, like other people throughout the world, are observing and praying for the coming federal election in the United States of America. I would prefer to keep private my counsel about political choices, because it is not my country. However, I am receiving letters from American subscribers and visitors to my studio website asking me some rather surprising questions about Barack Obama, related to one of my novels.
During the past year I have read a number of his pronouncements, and saw the smoke and mirrors beneath the rhetoric, but couldn't understand why everyone south of the border (the other south of the border, the 49th parallel) was getting so excited about him, both pro and con. Then a few weeks ago a German friend called me immediately after Obama's speech in Berlin, to say that the presidential candidate had mesmerized the crowds, and that a commentator on German television had said: "We have just heard the next President of the United States...and the future President of the World." My friend felt that Obama bore an uncanny resemblance to the fictional character of the President in my novel Father Elijah. I have received several other letters saying the same thing and asking what I thought about it.
From my own reading of Obama's declarations and stated positions, I knew he was an ultra-liberal, a social revolutionary with visionary pretensions. But the Antichrist? No, not possible, I thought. I felt that he was too shallow a man to be the Son of Perdition, the Man of Sin, the Beast of the Book of Revelation. And I still think so. Obama is a crowd-pleaser with just the right ethos of idealistic crusader. That the crusade and the banners under which it marches are evil does not automatically prove that he is the Antichrist.
But now that I have seen the video of the Berlin speech I think there is more here than meets the eye. He is indeed a powerful manipulator of crowds, even as he appears ever so humble and wholesomely charming. I doubt that he is the long-prophesied ruler of the world, but I also believe that he is a carrier of a deadly moral virus, indeed a kind of anti-apostle spreading concepts and agendas that are not only anti-Christ but anti-human as well. In this sense he is of the spirit of Antichrist (perhaps without knowing it), and probably is one of several key figures in the world who (knowingly or unknowingly) will be instrumental in ushering in the time of great trial for the Church under its last and worst persecution, amidst the numerous other tribulations prophesied in the books of Daniel and Revelation, and letters of St Paul, St. John, and St. Peter.
Of course the mystique that has grown up around him is endlessly reinforced by the liberal media, which presents him to us as a high-minded humanist, a kind of secular messiah (see the Catechism of the Catholic Church, n. 675). Yet when all the rhetoric is boiled down to its substance, the man is advocating unlimited state-sanctioned murder, and compounds it by indulging in habitual falsehood. He is well accustomed to playing loose with the truth whenever it is expedient for him to do so; or else he is the victim of the largest memory lapses in recorded history; or perhaps he is just not careful about how he expresses things—a blurring or selectivity regarding facts for the purpose of aggrandizing his public image. There is a controversy currently raging in the (admittedly unreliable) forum of the internet, prompted by an African-American talk show host in Los Angeles who listed 39 significant details that Barack Obama claimed were facts about himself, but on fu! rther investigation were proved to be simply untrue. There has been some wild-fire debunking of the debunking, and then more counter-debunking, but it remains obvious that forthrightness and clarity are not major concerns in the Obama camp.
What are we to make of a man who has appeared out of semi-obscurity and become, nearly overnight, so very much an idol of the popular imagination? That he intends to become the most effective advocate of murder of the unborn ever seen in America should give us pause. Murder and lies are as old as the lands east of Eden, of course, but when they are charmingly packaged, proposed as reasonable and just policies (with a smile, a resonant voice, and an appealing flash of the eyes), one begins to wonder just what is afoot in the modern age. It brings to mind a passage from the first Act of Shakespeare's Hamlet:
“That one may smile, and smile, and be a villain...”
The line is from a scene where prince Hamlet has just encountered the ghost of his father, who informs his son that he was poisoned by his own brother Claudius (the "smiling, damned villain"), who after murdering him, seized the king's crown and his queen.
Barack Obama is an image-maker, creating his own myth as he goes along. This would be a sad defect in any human being, but it takes on ominous proportions in a person who may become, after November 4th, one of the most powerful figures in the world. How is it possible that such a tragic turn of events may come about, if indeed a majority of Americans choose to believe the smile and the myth? Why is it that so many people have come to believe that a mirage is reality, even destiny? Do pro-Obama voters hanker for a world figure who would heal old divisions between races and religions, thus heralding a new age for mankind? During this time of near intolerable tensions, does he appear to be the one who can reconcile Islam and Christianity, Africa and America, occident and orient, black and white, rich and poor? Do they see his racial origins as a symbolic victory over the history of racial oppression? Do they see in him the good-hearted "under-dog", the gutsy street fi! ghter who agitates for the rights of the "little guy," whose meteoric rise to a position of maximum influence represents themselves enthroned at last in the high seat of power? Is this why they ignore his every grave fault and hungrily consume his vague idealist platitudes as if these were a kind of new gospel for the third millennium? Our hero. Our visionary. Our Great Friend and spokesman in the forum of the world?
Clearly, contemporary man needs heroes. But why not choose a genuine one, why not look a little deeper and work a little harder to find a man of courage and principle, and if it helps in the historical healing process, why not a very different kind of black man, say a person like Alan Keyes, a scholar, former ambassador, experienced in different levels of government, and (it might be added) an African-American married to a woman from India. Moreover, he is a devout Catholic who believes in moral absolutes and has amply proved that he will stand firm to defend them regardless of the cost to his own career. He knows that kings and presidents cannot usurp the natural law, the moral order of the universe, without bringing down judgment upon their nations. But it need not be Keyes. It might be any number of other men and women of clear thought and clear principle. Surely there are "Ten Just Men" still out there somewhere in America. So why Obama? And why does he ! rise and rise as his mouth smiles and smiles, exuding sincerity as he speaks lies and death?
And why, most horribly, most shamefully, are so many Christians of malformed or unformed conscience supporting him? Is it because they have never been clearly instructed in the truth, never understood the foundation upon which the moral cosmos is built? Is morality for them merely another system of abstract "values" in a crowded playing field of such systems, from which one may pick and choose? In the case of Catholics, for example, have they been blinded by a diet of theological nuances and deadly little loopholes offered to them by the committees of national episcopal conferences — committees that have absolutely no authority over Catholics, yet which are widely revered as a kind of alternative Magisterium? Have they been deadened by a habitual dismissing or dissembling of the solid teaching given to them by the universal Church under Peter? Have they grown accustomed to listening to opinion shapers who tell them that certain excellent apostolic Bishops in ! America who teach the truth without compromise are merely hidebound reactionaries, moralistic extremists, contemporary manifestations of those old boogymen who still haunt the American psyche — the Chillingworths and Dimmesdales and the judges in The Scarlet Letter? And so it goes, this over-reaction to Puritanism played out over centuries, an over-reaction that breeds tragedies a thousand times worse than Salem’s. Lies compounding on lies, and it all floats on an ocean of spilled innocent blood. And who can gaze at that ocean (or be splashed by it) without coming to a radical choice: One either turns away into a deeper state of denial, or one turns heart and mind toward the splendor of Truth, and changes one's life accordingly.
Is this why many of our Catholic people have become impulse-driven impressionists? Of course, the blindness is not due to the failure of pastors alone. The Ministry of Disinformation (by which I mean most modern media) has played a major role. There is also the erosion of truth in the education systems, combined with the gradual confusion and weakening of conscience through our addiction to the "soma" drugs supplied by the entertainment industry. Other factors may be the war in Iraq, or Republican economics, or the Bush administration, or the structure of Capitalism itself, or any number of prudential questions in the sociopolitical order, all of which are presently tangled nests of moral dilemma. But why do they not see that these questions are secondary to the fundamental issue of life itself? Why would they replace one reigning oligarchy with another kind of oligarchy — moreover, one that would kill vast numbers of its own citizens?
"I call on heaven and earth today to witness against you: I have set before you life or death, blessing or curse. Choose life, then, so that you and your descendants may live...." (Deuteronomy 30:19)
May God bless and guide you,
in Jesus our Saviour,
with prayers and fasting,
Michael O'Brien
PS: For those interested in a concise examination of the moral parameters of voting in the forthcoming election, I urge you to read an excellent article by Dr. Mark Miravalle, professor of Theology at Franciscan University, Steubenville, available at the following link:
http://www.motherofallpeoples.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1531
StudiObrien newsletter, The U.S. ElectionSaturday, November 1, 2008 1:20 PM
From: "studiObrien" Add sender to Contacts To: undisclosed-recipients
All Saints Day, 1 November 2008
Dear Friends,
From just north of the border, we Canadians, like other people throughout the world, are observing and praying for the coming federal election in the United States of America. I would prefer to keep private my counsel about political choices, because it is not my country. However, I am receiving letters from American subscribers and visitors to my studio website asking me some rather surprising questions about Barack Obama, related to one of my novels.
During the past year I have read a number of his pronouncements, and saw the smoke and mirrors beneath the rhetoric, but couldn't understand why everyone south of the border (the other south of the border, the 49th parallel) was getting so excited about him, both pro and con. Then a few weeks ago a German friend called me immediately after Obama's speech in Berlin, to say that the presidential candidate had mesmerized the crowds, and that a commentator on German television had said: "We have just heard the next President of the United States...and the future President of the World." My friend felt that Obama bore an uncanny resemblance to the fictional character of the President in my novel Father Elijah. I have received several other letters saying the same thing and asking what I thought about it.
From my own reading of Obama's declarations and stated positions, I knew he was an ultra-liberal, a social revolutionary with visionary pretensions. But the Antichrist? No, not possible, I thought. I felt that he was too shallow a man to be the Son of Perdition, the Man of Sin, the Beast of the Book of Revelation. And I still think so. Obama is a crowd-pleaser with just the right ethos of idealistic crusader. That the crusade and the banners under which it marches are evil does not automatically prove that he is the Antichrist.
But now that I have seen the video of the Berlin speech I think there is more here than meets the eye. He is indeed a powerful manipulator of crowds, even as he appears ever so humble and wholesomely charming. I doubt that he is the long-prophesied ruler of the world, but I also believe that he is a carrier of a deadly moral virus, indeed a kind of anti-apostle spreading concepts and agendas that are not only anti-Christ but anti-human as well. In this sense he is of the spirit of Antichrist (perhaps without knowing it), and probably is one of several key figures in the world who (knowingly or unknowingly) will be instrumental in ushering in the time of great trial for the Church under its last and worst persecution, amidst the numerous other tribulations prophesied in the books of Daniel and Revelation, and letters of St Paul, St. John, and St. Peter.
Of course the mystique that has grown up around him is endlessly reinforced by the liberal media, which presents him to us as a high-minded humanist, a kind of secular messiah (see the Catechism of the Catholic Church, n. 675). Yet when all the rhetoric is boiled down to its substance, the man is advocating unlimited state-sanctioned murder, and compounds it by indulging in habitual falsehood. He is well accustomed to playing loose with the truth whenever it is expedient for him to do so; or else he is the victim of the largest memory lapses in recorded history; or perhaps he is just not careful about how he expresses things—a blurring or selectivity regarding facts for the purpose of aggrandizing his public image. There is a controversy currently raging in the (admittedly unreliable) forum of the internet, prompted by an African-American talk show host in Los Angeles who listed 39 significant details that Barack Obama claimed were facts about himself, but on fu! rther investigation were proved to be simply untrue. There has been some wild-fire debunking of the debunking, and then more counter-debunking, but it remains obvious that forthrightness and clarity are not major concerns in the Obama camp.
What are we to make of a man who has appeared out of semi-obscurity and become, nearly overnight, so very much an idol of the popular imagination? That he intends to become the most effective advocate of murder of the unborn ever seen in America should give us pause. Murder and lies are as old as the lands east of Eden, of course, but when they are charmingly packaged, proposed as reasonable and just policies (with a smile, a resonant voice, and an appealing flash of the eyes), one begins to wonder just what is afoot in the modern age. It brings to mind a passage from the first Act of Shakespeare's Hamlet:
“That one may smile, and smile, and be a villain...”
The line is from a scene where prince Hamlet has just encountered the ghost of his father, who informs his son that he was poisoned by his own brother Claudius (the "smiling, damned villain"), who after murdering him, seized the king's crown and his queen.
Barack Obama is an image-maker, creating his own myth as he goes along. This would be a sad defect in any human being, but it takes on ominous proportions in a person who may become, after November 4th, one of the most powerful figures in the world. How is it possible that such a tragic turn of events may come about, if indeed a majority of Americans choose to believe the smile and the myth? Why is it that so many people have come to believe that a mirage is reality, even destiny? Do pro-Obama voters hanker for a world figure who would heal old divisions between races and religions, thus heralding a new age for mankind? During this time of near intolerable tensions, does he appear to be the one who can reconcile Islam and Christianity, Africa and America, occident and orient, black and white, rich and poor? Do they see his racial origins as a symbolic victory over the history of racial oppression? Do they see in him the good-hearted "under-dog", the gutsy street fi! ghter who agitates for the rights of the "little guy," whose meteoric rise to a position of maximum influence represents themselves enthroned at last in the high seat of power? Is this why they ignore his every grave fault and hungrily consume his vague idealist platitudes as if these were a kind of new gospel for the third millennium? Our hero. Our visionary. Our Great Friend and spokesman in the forum of the world?
Clearly, contemporary man needs heroes. But why not choose a genuine one, why not look a little deeper and work a little harder to find a man of courage and principle, and if it helps in the historical healing process, why not a very different kind of black man, say a person like Alan Keyes, a scholar, former ambassador, experienced in different levels of government, and (it might be added) an African-American married to a woman from India. Moreover, he is a devout Catholic who believes in moral absolutes and has amply proved that he will stand firm to defend them regardless of the cost to his own career. He knows that kings and presidents cannot usurp the natural law, the moral order of the universe, without bringing down judgment upon their nations. But it need not be Keyes. It might be any number of other men and women of clear thought and clear principle. Surely there are "Ten Just Men" still out there somewhere in America. So why Obama? And why does he ! rise and rise as his mouth smiles and smiles, exuding sincerity as he speaks lies and death?
And why, most horribly, most shamefully, are so many Christians of malformed or unformed conscience supporting him? Is it because they have never been clearly instructed in the truth, never understood the foundation upon which the moral cosmos is built? Is morality for them merely another system of abstract "values" in a crowded playing field of such systems, from which one may pick and choose? In the case of Catholics, for example, have they been blinded by a diet of theological nuances and deadly little loopholes offered to them by the committees of national episcopal conferences — committees that have absolutely no authority over Catholics, yet which are widely revered as a kind of alternative Magisterium? Have they been deadened by a habitual dismissing or dissembling of the solid teaching given to them by the universal Church under Peter? Have they grown accustomed to listening to opinion shapers who tell them that certain excellent apostolic Bishops in ! America who teach the truth without compromise are merely hidebound reactionaries, moralistic extremists, contemporary manifestations of those old boogymen who still haunt the American psyche — the Chillingworths and Dimmesdales and the judges in The Scarlet Letter? And so it goes, this over-reaction to Puritanism played out over centuries, an over-reaction that breeds tragedies a thousand times worse than Salem’s. Lies compounding on lies, and it all floats on an ocean of spilled innocent blood. And who can gaze at that ocean (or be splashed by it) without coming to a radical choice: One either turns away into a deeper state of denial, or one turns heart and mind toward the splendor of Truth, and changes one's life accordingly.
Is this why many of our Catholic people have become impulse-driven impressionists? Of course, the blindness is not due to the failure of pastors alone. The Ministry of Disinformation (by which I mean most modern media) has played a major role. There is also the erosion of truth in the education systems, combined with the gradual confusion and weakening of conscience through our addiction to the "soma" drugs supplied by the entertainment industry. Other factors may be the war in Iraq, or Republican economics, or the Bush administration, or the structure of Capitalism itself, or any number of prudential questions in the sociopolitical order, all of which are presently tangled nests of moral dilemma. But why do they not see that these questions are secondary to the fundamental issue of life itself? Why would they replace one reigning oligarchy with another kind of oligarchy — moreover, one that would kill vast numbers of its own citizens?
"I call on heaven and earth today to witness against you: I have set before you life or death, blessing or curse. Choose life, then, so that you and your descendants may live...." (Deuteronomy 30:19)
May God bless and guide you,
in Jesus our Saviour,
with prayers and fasting,
Michael O'Brien
PS: For those interested in a concise examination of the moral parameters of voting in the forthcoming election, I urge you to read an excellent article by Dr. Mark Miravalle, professor of Theology at Franciscan University, Steubenville, available at the following link:
http://www.motherofallpeoples.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1531
Monday, October 27, 2008
Netflix alternative
http://heliotropium.blogspot.com/2008/01/netflix-alternative.html
Netflix alternative
We have had Netflix now for quite a while, and love it for its variety of films, but it is still lacking in many things that we would like to see, and has plenty of filth that we don't ever even want to browse through. There are plenty of religion-based films, but that can still be frustrating for Catholics, since many have an atheistic agenda. I've rented more than one movie from them thinking it would be great entertainment, or a supplement to our homeschool curriculum, only to have to return it with disappointment.
Now there is an alternative, called Faith and Family Flix. They work the same way as Netflix, with your DVDs arriving in the mail with no late fees. They are still small, but they are growing. I received my first DVD, "Jesus and the Shroud of Turin," today. This is what FFF has to say on their About Us page:
Faith and Family Flix (FFF) was founded by families like you who are extremely concerned about what Hollywood and the entertainment industry are putting in front of our children. Family life is the foundational element on which our society is built. If families continue to disintegrate, so will our society. FFF has vowed to do what we can to help protect and nurture the family. Just like men and women in the military everyday put their lives at risk to protect our physical well-being, shouldn’t we put as much effort into protecting our spiritual/moral well-being? Our call to you is to be proactive. By supporting FFF and not companies like Netflix or Blockbuster, who support movie genres that are inconsistent with our Judeo-Christian beliefs, you are sending a strong message to the entertainment industry. Presently, FFF has one distribution facility, centrally located in the Chicagoland area. As business develops, we will be opening other distribution centers. We appreciate your patience and understanding. We know that you could perhaps get a better "deal" and maybe get the movies a day or two earlier by going with Netflix or Blockbuster. The real question is: as people of faith, what is the right thing to do? If you don't believe in supporting certain lifestyles or if you will never rent soft-core pornography, why support a company who offers it?
I'll be downgrading my membership with Netflix, and renting as many movies from FFF as I can.
Netflix alternative
We have had Netflix now for quite a while, and love it for its variety of films, but it is still lacking in many things that we would like to see, and has plenty of filth that we don't ever even want to browse through. There are plenty of religion-based films, but that can still be frustrating for Catholics, since many have an atheistic agenda. I've rented more than one movie from them thinking it would be great entertainment, or a supplement to our homeschool curriculum, only to have to return it with disappointment.
Now there is an alternative, called Faith and Family Flix. They work the same way as Netflix, with your DVDs arriving in the mail with no late fees. They are still small, but they are growing. I received my first DVD, "Jesus and the Shroud of Turin," today. This is what FFF has to say on their About Us page:
Faith and Family Flix (FFF) was founded by families like you who are extremely concerned about what Hollywood and the entertainment industry are putting in front of our children. Family life is the foundational element on which our society is built. If families continue to disintegrate, so will our society. FFF has vowed to do what we can to help protect and nurture the family. Just like men and women in the military everyday put their lives at risk to protect our physical well-being, shouldn’t we put as much effort into protecting our spiritual/moral well-being? Our call to you is to be proactive. By supporting FFF and not companies like Netflix or Blockbuster, who support movie genres that are inconsistent with our Judeo-Christian beliefs, you are sending a strong message to the entertainment industry. Presently, FFF has one distribution facility, centrally located in the Chicagoland area. As business develops, we will be opening other distribution centers. We appreciate your patience and understanding. We know that you could perhaps get a better "deal" and maybe get the movies a day or two earlier by going with Netflix or Blockbuster. The real question is: as people of faith, what is the right thing to do? If you don't believe in supporting certain lifestyles or if you will never rent soft-core pornography, why support a company who offers it?
I'll be downgrading my membership with Netflix, and renting as many movies from FFF as I can.
Monday, September 3, 2007
Germany Unrepentant Over Holocaust?
Germany Unrepentant Over Holocaust?
Guy Adams
Dir., ValuesUSA [.net]
I just read the story of how the German government wants to put the parents of six children in jail because they are home-schooling their kids. Juergen and Rosemarie Dudek have already paid a fine over the situation but to the prosecutor in the German state of Hesse, that’s not good enough. A recent World Net Daily article said “A family's failure to follow the mandatory school attendance laws violates not only administrative regulations, but the criminal code.”
Did you catch that? The government of modern day Germany says that it’s a crime to home-school your own kids. In other words, Germany is legislating thought-control. That is the same type of attitudes and practices that were prevalent in pre-W.W.II Germany. That is the same arrogant attitude the Nazis had. That tells me that to some extent, Germany is not repentant over the holocaust because they are marching back to the very same type of practices that led them down that path. How can they be repentant when they act as they did then?
Night of Broken Glass?
Kristallnacht, more commonly known as The Night Of Broken Glass, was when many scholars think that the persecution of Jews in Germany really began in earnest. Most Jewish stores had their windows smashed and many Jewish-owned stores were burned to the ground. That is when the state sanctioned pogrom began. In the end, at least six and a half million Jews were murdered. But before that, thought and speech control was already official state policy so that when the time came to implement the gas chambers, no one spoke out. Germany is approaching that point again.
You might say that such a thing could never happen again. Of course it can, and in 1933 Germans and even most Americans said the same thing. When a government legislates thought and speech control, tyranny is soon to follow. In the recorded history of the world it has always been that way. For example, Communist Russia, Nazi Germany, Imperial Japan, Rome, Iran under the Shah, Cuba under Castro, just to name a few. Is the new German Republic soon to be added to that list? Should Germany persist in persecuting home-schooling parents so that the government can tell the children what to think and what not to say, tyranny is soon to follow.
A person’s actions tell you what they believe. Likewise, a government’s laws tell you what the leaders believe. The WND article says “The philosophy that the government knows best how to raise children is really becoming a worldwide phenomenon," Farris said. "I think Germany represents the edge of the night that's coming.” Indeed. Germany has not learned from the lessons of its own recent history.
You can tell who and what a government opposes by the people they imprison. And Germany is jailing Christian home-schooling parents.
Guy
What can you do?
1) Tell the German Ministry of Education that that putting these parents in jail for home-schooling their children is wrong and reminds you of what was practiced in pre-war Nazi Germany. The German official in charge, who is the Minister of Education for Hesse, is Karin Wolff, and she can be reached at:
Hessisches Kultusministerium, Luisenplatz 10, 65185 Wiesbaden, 06151/17120.
2) Email your support for the Dudeks. Netzwork Bildungsfreiheit is the home-schooling advocacy group that is helping the Dudeks. A supporting email can be sent to the Dudeks via Evelyn Roth, and her email address is Bildungsvielfalt@arcor.de. Other email addresses for this group can be found at:
http://www.netzwerk-bildungsfreiheit.de/html/kontakt.html.
Reference: http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=55778
Email me at Guy@ValuesUSA.net
Guy Adams
Dir., ValuesUSA [.net]
I just read the story of how the German government wants to put the parents of six children in jail because they are home-schooling their kids. Juergen and Rosemarie Dudek have already paid a fine over the situation but to the prosecutor in the German state of Hesse, that’s not good enough. A recent World Net Daily article said “A family's failure to follow the mandatory school attendance laws violates not only administrative regulations, but the criminal code.”
Did you catch that? The government of modern day Germany says that it’s a crime to home-school your own kids. In other words, Germany is legislating thought-control. That is the same type of attitudes and practices that were prevalent in pre-W.W.II Germany. That is the same arrogant attitude the Nazis had. That tells me that to some extent, Germany is not repentant over the holocaust because they are marching back to the very same type of practices that led them down that path. How can they be repentant when they act as they did then?
Night of Broken Glass?
Kristallnacht, more commonly known as The Night Of Broken Glass, was when many scholars think that the persecution of Jews in Germany really began in earnest. Most Jewish stores had their windows smashed and many Jewish-owned stores were burned to the ground. That is when the state sanctioned pogrom began. In the end, at least six and a half million Jews were murdered. But before that, thought and speech control was already official state policy so that when the time came to implement the gas chambers, no one spoke out. Germany is approaching that point again.
You might say that such a thing could never happen again. Of course it can, and in 1933 Germans and even most Americans said the same thing. When a government legislates thought and speech control, tyranny is soon to follow. In the recorded history of the world it has always been that way. For example, Communist Russia, Nazi Germany, Imperial Japan, Rome, Iran under the Shah, Cuba under Castro, just to name a few. Is the new German Republic soon to be added to that list? Should Germany persist in persecuting home-schooling parents so that the government can tell the children what to think and what not to say, tyranny is soon to follow.
A person’s actions tell you what they believe. Likewise, a government’s laws tell you what the leaders believe. The WND article says “The philosophy that the government knows best how to raise children is really becoming a worldwide phenomenon," Farris said. "I think Germany represents the edge of the night that's coming.” Indeed. Germany has not learned from the lessons of its own recent history.
You can tell who and what a government opposes by the people they imprison. And Germany is jailing Christian home-schooling parents.
Guy
What can you do?
1) Tell the German Ministry of Education that that putting these parents in jail for home-schooling their children is wrong and reminds you of what was practiced in pre-war Nazi Germany. The German official in charge, who is the Minister of Education for Hesse, is Karin Wolff, and she can be reached at:
Hessisches Kultusministerium, Luisenplatz 10, 65185 Wiesbaden, 06151/17120.
2) Email your support for the Dudeks. Netzwork Bildungsfreiheit is the home-schooling advocacy group that is helping the Dudeks. A supporting email can be sent to the Dudeks via Evelyn Roth, and her email address is Bildungsvielfalt@arcor.de. Other email addresses for this group can be found at:
http://www.netzwerk-bildungsfreiheit.de/html/kontakt.html.
Reference: http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=55778
Email me at Guy@ValuesUSA.net
Friday, July 13, 2007
How are Fatima and the Tridentine Mass Connected?
I created this blog because the Catholic Monitor Blog for some reason couldn't or wasn't able to post this post and the three posts before this one for almost a week. The article below shows why the end of the ban on the Tridentine Mass is a sign of hope for all people of faith and/or good will.
Fred
FATIMA RECONSIDERED
A Talk by Rick Salbato
Let us pray
In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
Most Holy Trinity, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, I adore Thee profoundly. I offer Thee the most precious Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Jesus Christ, present in all the tabernacles of the world, in reparation for the outrages, sacrileges and indifference by which He is offended. But the infinite merits of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart of Mary, I beg the conversion of poor sinners.
O - My Jesus - forgive us our sins. Save us from the fires of hell. Lead all souls to heaven. .
In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
Remember those prayers?
Say them everyday?
Did I forget something?
When I was a lot younger I read a book by Emanuel Velikovsky called WORLDS IN COLLISION and another called WORLDS IN UPHEAVAL. I was very much into science and his writings were amazing. A little far out but amazing and logical.
He wrote a scientific theory called "Catastrophic Evolution.
He said that the moon was very young, that Venus and Mars have changed orbits in the very recent history. He predicted that if we ever went to the moon, we would find that the relationship of potassium to argon in the rocks would show that the moon is also very young. He said that the craters on the moon were not made from metiorites but from a molten hot planet that cooled leaving bubbling action remnants like you will find if you boil lead and then let it cool. Round circles will appear that look like craters.
He said that Venus was a hot planet, not a cold one as the scientific world believed.
He said that the cloud cover over Venus were a result of its heat. He made many predictions of what we would find if we ever sent rockets or men into outer space.
No one believed him.
He died before any space shots were ever made. I believed his scientific logic was sound.
But as time went on I forgot about him. Then I saw a book called "Velikovsky Reconsidered" published by a French Scientific Magazine much like Scientific American.
It was amazing. Velikovsky was the only scientist in the world who properly predicted everything that we would discover when we went into outer space. He and he alone, had the right scientific solutions. But even today, he is forgotten.
But this is not what I came to talk about. My talk is on Fatima. Fatima Reconsidered But there is a lot of similarities. I came into this Church because of Fatima. I went from an atheist to a Catholic because of Fatima.
But then - I forgot about it. It happened a long time ago. There are new more important things now. Our Lady --- She is everywhere --- there are messages from Her in almost every country in the world --- almost every state in America. I began to promote all these other apparitions
Then something happened. Messages from one mystic contradicted the messages from another. I began to check all the messages from heaven around the world. There were many that contradicted each other. Then I compared them to Scripture and the Church. There was definitely a problem.
I became disillusioned with all of them and began to doupt all apparitions. But God had other ideas. On the front page of the Union Paper in 1972 there appeared the Official International Pilgrim Virgin Statue of Fatima. The Paper said it was crying. I did not believe it.
Within two hours I was on a plane to New Orleans to see for myself. I met the pastor of the Church, who was also the editor of the "Clarion Herald", Father Romagosa. In his Church, the statue was crying. There were two remarkable miracles.
But there was also a seer, an exile from Poland. This seer was running around saying that the Virgin had appeared many times to her and was giving out messages of why the Virgin was crying. She had been following the statue for many months and the new custodian (only two years) allowed her to travel with the Statue.
But Father Romagosa had more discernment than the custodian did. He invited the seer with the initials AW, into his office and asked if the Virgin could give him a message. She knelt on the floor to pray with the assurance that the Virgin would always appear. Father Romagosa went across the room and sat in a chair and began to read out of a prayer book.
The woman, AW, prayed and prayed and prayed but nothing happened. Finally her face turned demonic and she began to scream at the good Father in a language that only a truck driver would use. She stormed out of the room and drove away so fast that her tires left rubber.
Father Romagosa was reading exorcism prayers from an exorcist book.
The tears were investigated and found to be real human tears. The miracle of the statue was truly from God. It was supernatural. But the woman was not.
Everywhere God performs a miracle or a work of grace, the devil is right behind to defuse, confuse, and disillusion.
I held in my hands the real tears of Our Lady in 1972. I have never been the same since. It gave to me my vocation in life, and taught me how to know the true from the false.
Not long ago I had the great fortune of spending four days with Father Messias Cohiel, Professor of Fundamental Theology, Marinology, Ecclesiology at the Major Seminary of Garda, Portugal. Father Messias is the founder and editor of the magazine "The Messages of Fatima" (The only Fatima approved magazine in the world)
Father Messias was the confidant of LUCIA OF FATIMA, and had a sister who is a nun in the same convent as Lucia of Fatima. He gave four talks to CUF in Detroit and he woke me up. He made me realize that I knew a lot less about Fatima than I though I did. Fatima is not dead. It is not old hat. It is now. Lucia was still living. She was still having visions of Our Lady. Did you know that you could have written to to her. That she would have written back to you. (Dead now)
Lets see what you know about Fatima. What you never knew. What you have forgotten. What never dawned on you when you studied Fatima.
Go back into history with me - all the way to 1884. In 1884 Pope Leo the 13th had a vision while saying Mass at St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome. He saw Satan and Christ talking.
Satan said, "I can destroy your Church. - But I need more time and more power over those who are willing to give themselves over to me."
Christ said, "How much time?"
"100 years"
Christ said, "You have it."
As many of you know this frightened St. Leo so much that he order the prayer to St. Michael said in all the Masses throughout the world. That was October 13th, 1884
Pope Leo 13th then Consecrated the whole world to the Sacred Heart of Jesus
He then created the Feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus
What happened during those 100 years after POPE LEO’s vision of Aug 15th, 1884...
Cardinal Ratzinger read the Secret of Fatima, and made this statement about it on November 11th, 1984:
"The things contained in this ‘Third Secret’ correspond to what has been announced in Scripture and has been said again and again in many other Marian apparitions."
By 1981 - 73% of the world was Communist
170 million had died since Fatima[1917]
50 million in world war II
115 million under Stalin and Mao
1 million in Afghanistan
1 million in Cambodia
1 million in Vietnam
On May 13th 1981 ( the feast of Fatima) the Pope was Shot...
And on March 25, 1984 Pope John Paul and the bishops throughout the world consecrated Russia and the world to the IHM. Even Russian Orthodox Bishops entered in. A few years later Lucia said, Our Lady has accepted the 1984 consecration and She will keep Her promise."
This was exactly 100 years after the Vision of Pope Leo XIII. When Satan was granted 100 years to try and destroy God’s Church.
What happened after the Consecration on March 25th
Well, two months later, on the Feast of Fatima, May 13, an explosion in Sever-o-mor-ski destroyed 80% of Russia’s missals making them no longer a superpower. America did not know the extent of this explosion.
Again there was another strange happening on Dec 13. An explosion in Siberia destroyed Russia’s largest ammunition base
On Dec 19 Marshal Ustinov, the Minister of Defense died or was killed
Three days later Marshal Sodolov, the 2ed Minister of Defense died
All in 9 months
In March of 1985 (one Year after consecration) President Chernenko died and Mikhial Gorbachev was made President. He was the First Baptized Christian President although still a communist. He instituted glassnoss and perestroika (freedom of the press and freedom of religion) This was the downfall of communism. 15 republics were freed from communism, and the Warsaw pact ended
In 1989 Lucia said publicly that the Consecration was completed and that "God will keep His Word". That year on Nov 9th the Berlin Wall came down and Gorbachev meet Pope at the Vatican and promised religious freedom
The following year on the Feast of Fatima, May 13th, freedom of religion was made the law of Russia. And on the feast of the miracle of Fatima, Oct 13, Gorbachev received the Nobel Peace Prize
Two months later Gorbachev meet Pope in Vatican for 2ed time. In this meeting the Pope told him that he knew it was he that ordered the hit on the Pope. Gorbachev asked his forgiveness. (It is this story that Lucia was asked to keep silent about and nothing else.)
In 1991 (March 15) diplomatic relations with the Vatican and Russia were opened and so were Latin-rite churches for the first time.
May 1, 1991 was the 100 anniversary of Rerum Novarum, the encyclical "On the Condition of Human Labor by Pope Leo XII, and the Feast of St. Joseph, the Worker, and the end of May Day as a communist holiday.
On May 13, 1991 Pope John Paul II went to Fatima to thank Our Lady for all the countries that were freed, for saving his life, and for the end of the communist threat to the world.
But on Aug 19, 1991 the communists attempted to overthrow Gorbachev. They picked the wrong day for it was the 74th anniversary of the Aug appearance at Fatima. On Aug 22 the attempt failed and the communists were defeated. This was the feast of the Queenship of Mary.
Two months later, on Oct 13 (another feast of Fatima) the first pilgrims of Russia went to Fatima. It was Televised in 150 stations in Russia and 350 Radio stations in Russia, and again on Nov 7th it was televised again.
Dec 8th was the start of the Commonwealth of republics, The end of the USSR
12 days later Yeltsin met with the Pope in Rome
And 13 days after that (on Dec 25th, 1991) the Communist Flag came down for last time over Russia
Gorbachev resigned and sent a letter to Pope John Paul II
15 republics were freed from communism.
On Dec 30th, 1991 Lucia wrote that the world will recognize that the defeat of Communism was by Mary
In 1992 another attempt was made to overthrow the government and Yelson stood against the entire communist army and no one died.
On March 14, 1992 Pravda ended
Then on Christmas day, 1992 Communism was declared illegal in Russia
By 1996, Starting with People Power and Rosary in the Philippines, 87 dictatorships fell throughout the world.
From March 25, 1884 until March 25, 1984 is exactly 100 years. In 1884 Pope Saint Leo XII saw Christ give Satan power for 100 years. In 1984 Pope John Paul II Consecrated Russia and the world to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. Communism fell, 87 other dictators fell.
FATIMA RECONSIDERED?
Lets reconsider Fatima. Go back to December 10, 1925
Lucia, the eldest of the three children and now Sister Lucia of St. Dorothy, was kneeling in prayer in the convent chapel when the Virgin Mary and Christ Child appeared to her. The Christ Child said to Lucia:
"Have pity on the heart of your Most Holy Mother, which is covered with thorns that ungrateful men drive into it every instant, while there is no one who does an act of reparation to withdraw them from Her."
Lucia saw the crown of thorns around the Immaculate Heart of Mary.
Then Our Lady spoke to her, saying:
"Look, my daughter, at my Heart encircled with thorns, with which ungrateful men wound it every moment by their blasphemies and ingratitude. Give me consolation, you, at least; and announce for me that I promise to assist at the hour of death, with the graces necessary for salvation, all who on the first Saturday of five consecutive months, go to confession, receive Holy Communion, recite five decades of the Rosary, and keep me company for fifteen minutes meditating on the mysteries of the Rosary, WITH THE INTENTION OF MAKING REPARATION TO ME."
Now I would like to ask some questions. What is the reason you made the Five First Saturdays? How can we blaspheme against the Mother of God? How can we shown Her ingratitude. Have we been ungrateful toward Her?
How might I have sinned against my Mother by putting thorns into Her Immaculate Heart?
At first, you might think that any sin is a sin against Her Son and, therefore, very painful to Her. However, this does not hold true against the two words, "Blaspheme and Ingratitude". With some pride we Catholics say we are not like Protestants who totally disregard the Mother of God and thus assume we are not guilty of sins against Her. But She cannot be speaking to or about Protestants. Her words would be useless to their deaf ears. She is speaking to Catholics, who think by honoring Her, they are incapable of sinning against Her.
After painful reflection, I believe there are many ways in which I have sinned against Mary. I was one of the ungrateful men who placed thorns into Her Immaculate Heart.
I Placed these thorns by my failure to defend Her against the attacks of those who don't understand Her place in the master plan of God.
I placed thorns into the Immaculate Heart of Mary by my failure to learn all that can be learned about Her.
I placed thorns into Her Heart by my failure to understand the relationship of the Holy Spirit to Mary as is revealed in Holy Scripture and logic.
I failed to learn that it is Our Lady that the Holy Spirit is speaking about in Chapter 12 of Apocalypse.
I had failed to understand how to read Holy Scriptures and therefore did not know the extent of the relationship of the Holy Spirit to Mary; and how that relationship mirrors the perfection of the relationship of Christ to his Church.
From the saints I learned that Chapter 21 of Apocalypse "the Heavenly Jerusalem coming down out of heaven is the bride of the Holy Spirit, Mary; and it is also the bride of Christ, the Church. It is the Holy Spirit speaking of Mary and I is Christ speaking of His Church.
From the saints I learned that Psalm 44 is the Holy Spirit speaking of his spouse, Mary; and it is Christ speaking of his spouse, the Church.
I learned that the Song of Song (Canticle of Canticles) is the Holy Spirit singing of His Bride, Mary; and it is Christ singing of his bride, the Church.
I learned that it would be Mary who would crush the head of Satan from Genesis 3:15 and that I am one of Her children if I keep the commandments of Her Son from Apocalypse 12:17.
I learned that it was Mary and the Christ child seen in a vision by the angles as a test before the world was created in Apocalypse 12 and that Satan and his followers were cast out of heaven for not accepting Her in Apocalypse 12:9 and that there has been a battle between Satan and Mary every since in Apocalypse 12:17.
I learned from St. Maximillian Kolbe that, "What God has put together let no man put asunder", and God has put together the Holy Spirit and Mary so completely as to become one body.
God has put together Christ and the Church so completely as to become one body.
The Holy Spirit dwells in Mary so fully that you cannot find Him without Her help. From Kolbe and Catherine Laboure (the Miraculous Medal) I now see how all grace, all the gifts of the Holy Spirit come through Mary and in no other way.
I knew everything about the Bible and could quote from every chapter; and yet I knew nothing.
I know now that God first thought of a perfect creation, Mary; and that all other creations put together would not equal Her perfection because She would become the first Child of the Father, the bride of the Holy Spirit and the Mother from whom God would enter the world.
Today I can defend my Mother against the attacks from liberal Catholics, Protestants, Moslems, and atheists; and to not do so is to sin against my Mother.
Even to not know how to is to sin against the Spirit of Truth, Her Spouse.
How many times have I sinned against Mary by my ingratitude.
Every grace that ever came to me - came from Her Hands, and I failed to thank Her.
Every time Satan attacked me, She defended me, and I failed to thank Her.
How many times thought out history has She appeased the wrath of God and saved mankind from chastisement and I have failed to thank her.
Even now, She converted Russia and overthrew communism in more than forty countries, and how many of us have thanked Her.
How many of us have written to Lucia of Fatima and said, "Thank our Lady of Fatima for me, for the conversion of Russia."
In 1943 Christ appeared to Lucia and said,
"I want all my children to recognize that the consecration of Russia to the Immaculate Heart of Mary is the reason for the conversion of Russia."
Have we recognized this? Or are we guilty of ingratitude.
When Mary offered the Five First Saturdays, it was a promise and a
prophesy. A promise to assist us at the hour of our death, and a prophesy that
millions of Catholics would blaspheme the Holy Mother of God.
What greater blaspheme can there be than to pray to and honor a false Mary?
What greater blaspheme can there be than to pray rosaries to Satan disguised as Mary. Someday there will be an anti-Christ pretending to be Christ. Good Catholics will pray to him.
These prayers will be from the heart and from a clear conscience, but they will receive no grace from them and their conscience will not save them from the wrath of God (Veritatis Splendor).
In the same way these rosaries to false Mary's will not produce grace and will not save them from the wrath of God, who sees the blaspheme against His Mother by people attributing to Mary the words of demons , psychotics, and frauds.
To believe that the loving sweet Mother of God could say of us, "my cohort"
(which means evil spirits of darkness or a Roman division of warriors) is
blaspheme.
To believe that Our Sweet Mother could say that Pope Paul VI, who wrote Humani Vite , Marialis Cultus, and Signum Magnum, was a false Pope is to
blaspheme Our Mother.
To believe that Our Sweet Mother could say that all religions are equal in the eyes of God or even that all religions are God's religions is to blaspheme Our Lady.
To believe that the most obedient human in history could advocate disobedience to a bishop is the greatest of all blasphemies against our Sweet Mother.
Christ said to Lucia in 1925, " Have compassion on the heart of your Most
Holy Mother, which is covered with thorns that ungrateful men drive into it every instant, ----"
Make absolutely sure it is not you who are driving thorns into the Immaculate Heart of Mary, For God cannot forgive an unrepentent sin against the bride of Truth.
If you have made the Five First Saturdays and have offered them up for sins against Mary, do them again and again and again, for eight out of ten Catholics in the world today are blaspheming against Mary by following false
Mary's.
Write to:
Convento De Santa Terresa
3000 Coimbra, Portugal
and say, "Thank My Mother for me, for the conversion of Russia and of the other countries throughout the world. Thank My Mother for me, for ending the rain of Satan. Thank My Mother for me, for all the graces the world has received through Her hands. Ask My Mother to forgive me for following and believing in false, un-approved apparitions claiming to be My Mother.
I created this blog because the Catholic Monitor Blog for some reason couldn't or wasn't able to post this post and the three posts before this one for almost a week. The article below shows why the end of the ban on the Tridentine Mass is a sign of hope for all people of faith and/or good will.
Fred
FATIMA RECONSIDERED
A Talk by Rick Salbato
Let us pray
In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
Most Holy Trinity, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, I adore Thee profoundly. I offer Thee the most precious Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Jesus Christ, present in all the tabernacles of the world, in reparation for the outrages, sacrileges and indifference by which He is offended. But the infinite merits of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart of Mary, I beg the conversion of poor sinners.
O - My Jesus - forgive us our sins. Save us from the fires of hell. Lead all souls to heaven. .
In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
Remember those prayers?
Say them everyday?
Did I forget something?
When I was a lot younger I read a book by Emanuel Velikovsky called WORLDS IN COLLISION and another called WORLDS IN UPHEAVAL. I was very much into science and his writings were amazing. A little far out but amazing and logical.
He wrote a scientific theory called "Catastrophic Evolution.
He said that the moon was very young, that Venus and Mars have changed orbits in the very recent history. He predicted that if we ever went to the moon, we would find that the relationship of potassium to argon in the rocks would show that the moon is also very young. He said that the craters on the moon were not made from metiorites but from a molten hot planet that cooled leaving bubbling action remnants like you will find if you boil lead and then let it cool. Round circles will appear that look like craters.
He said that Venus was a hot planet, not a cold one as the scientific world believed.
He said that the cloud cover over Venus were a result of its heat. He made many predictions of what we would find if we ever sent rockets or men into outer space.
No one believed him.
He died before any space shots were ever made. I believed his scientific logic was sound.
But as time went on I forgot about him. Then I saw a book called "Velikovsky Reconsidered" published by a French Scientific Magazine much like Scientific American.
It was amazing. Velikovsky was the only scientist in the world who properly predicted everything that we would discover when we went into outer space. He and he alone, had the right scientific solutions. But even today, he is forgotten.
But this is not what I came to talk about. My talk is on Fatima. Fatima Reconsidered But there is a lot of similarities. I came into this Church because of Fatima. I went from an atheist to a Catholic because of Fatima.
But then - I forgot about it. It happened a long time ago. There are new more important things now. Our Lady --- She is everywhere --- there are messages from Her in almost every country in the world --- almost every state in America. I began to promote all these other apparitions
Then something happened. Messages from one mystic contradicted the messages from another. I began to check all the messages from heaven around the world. There were many that contradicted each other. Then I compared them to Scripture and the Church. There was definitely a problem.
I became disillusioned with all of them and began to doupt all apparitions. But God had other ideas. On the front page of the Union Paper in 1972 there appeared the Official International Pilgrim Virgin Statue of Fatima. The Paper said it was crying. I did not believe it.
Within two hours I was on a plane to New Orleans to see for myself. I met the pastor of the Church, who was also the editor of the "Clarion Herald", Father Romagosa. In his Church, the statue was crying. There were two remarkable miracles.
But there was also a seer, an exile from Poland. This seer was running around saying that the Virgin had appeared many times to her and was giving out messages of why the Virgin was crying. She had been following the statue for many months and the new custodian (only two years) allowed her to travel with the Statue.
But Father Romagosa had more discernment than the custodian did. He invited the seer with the initials AW, into his office and asked if the Virgin could give him a message. She knelt on the floor to pray with the assurance that the Virgin would always appear. Father Romagosa went across the room and sat in a chair and began to read out of a prayer book.
The woman, AW, prayed and prayed and prayed but nothing happened. Finally her face turned demonic and she began to scream at the good Father in a language that only a truck driver would use. She stormed out of the room and drove away so fast that her tires left rubber.
Father Romagosa was reading exorcism prayers from an exorcist book.
The tears were investigated and found to be real human tears. The miracle of the statue was truly from God. It was supernatural. But the woman was not.
Everywhere God performs a miracle or a work of grace, the devil is right behind to defuse, confuse, and disillusion.
I held in my hands the real tears of Our Lady in 1972. I have never been the same since. It gave to me my vocation in life, and taught me how to know the true from the false.
Not long ago I had the great fortune of spending four days with Father Messias Cohiel, Professor of Fundamental Theology, Marinology, Ecclesiology at the Major Seminary of Garda, Portugal. Father Messias is the founder and editor of the magazine "The Messages of Fatima" (The only Fatima approved magazine in the world)
Father Messias was the confidant of LUCIA OF FATIMA, and had a sister who is a nun in the same convent as Lucia of Fatima. He gave four talks to CUF in Detroit and he woke me up. He made me realize that I knew a lot less about Fatima than I though I did. Fatima is not dead. It is not old hat. It is now. Lucia was still living. She was still having visions of Our Lady. Did you know that you could have written to to her. That she would have written back to you. (Dead now)
Lets see what you know about Fatima. What you never knew. What you have forgotten. What never dawned on you when you studied Fatima.
Go back into history with me - all the way to 1884. In 1884 Pope Leo the 13th had a vision while saying Mass at St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome. He saw Satan and Christ talking.
Satan said, "I can destroy your Church. - But I need more time and more power over those who are willing to give themselves over to me."
Christ said, "How much time?"
"100 years"
Christ said, "You have it."
As many of you know this frightened St. Leo so much that he order the prayer to St. Michael said in all the Masses throughout the world. That was October 13th, 1884
Pope Leo 13th then Consecrated the whole world to the Sacred Heart of Jesus
He then created the Feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus
What happened during those 100 years after POPE LEO’s vision of Aug 15th, 1884...
Cardinal Ratzinger read the Secret of Fatima, and made this statement about it on November 11th, 1984:
"The things contained in this ‘Third Secret’ correspond to what has been announced in Scripture and has been said again and again in many other Marian apparitions."
By 1981 - 73% of the world was Communist
170 million had died since Fatima[1917]
50 million in world war II
115 million under Stalin and Mao
1 million in Afghanistan
1 million in Cambodia
1 million in Vietnam
On May 13th 1981 ( the feast of Fatima) the Pope was Shot...
And on March 25, 1984 Pope John Paul and the bishops throughout the world consecrated Russia and the world to the IHM. Even Russian Orthodox Bishops entered in. A few years later Lucia said, Our Lady has accepted the 1984 consecration and She will keep Her promise."
This was exactly 100 years after the Vision of Pope Leo XIII. When Satan was granted 100 years to try and destroy God’s Church.
What happened after the Consecration on March 25th
Well, two months later, on the Feast of Fatima, May 13, an explosion in Sever-o-mor-ski destroyed 80% of Russia’s missals making them no longer a superpower. America did not know the extent of this explosion.
Again there was another strange happening on Dec 13. An explosion in Siberia destroyed Russia’s largest ammunition base
On Dec 19 Marshal Ustinov, the Minister of Defense died or was killed
Three days later Marshal Sodolov, the 2ed Minister of Defense died
All in 9 months
In March of 1985 (one Year after consecration) President Chernenko died and Mikhial Gorbachev was made President. He was the First Baptized Christian President although still a communist. He instituted glassnoss and perestroika (freedom of the press and freedom of religion) This was the downfall of communism. 15 republics were freed from communism, and the Warsaw pact ended
In 1989 Lucia said publicly that the Consecration was completed and that "God will keep His Word". That year on Nov 9th the Berlin Wall came down and Gorbachev meet Pope at the Vatican and promised religious freedom
The following year on the Feast of Fatima, May 13th, freedom of religion was made the law of Russia. And on the feast of the miracle of Fatima, Oct 13, Gorbachev received the Nobel Peace Prize
Two months later Gorbachev meet Pope in Vatican for 2ed time. In this meeting the Pope told him that he knew it was he that ordered the hit on the Pope. Gorbachev asked his forgiveness. (It is this story that Lucia was asked to keep silent about and nothing else.)
In 1991 (March 15) diplomatic relations with the Vatican and Russia were opened and so were Latin-rite churches for the first time.
May 1, 1991 was the 100 anniversary of Rerum Novarum, the encyclical "On the Condition of Human Labor by Pope Leo XII, and the Feast of St. Joseph, the Worker, and the end of May Day as a communist holiday.
On May 13, 1991 Pope John Paul II went to Fatima to thank Our Lady for all the countries that were freed, for saving his life, and for the end of the communist threat to the world.
But on Aug 19, 1991 the communists attempted to overthrow Gorbachev. They picked the wrong day for it was the 74th anniversary of the Aug appearance at Fatima. On Aug 22 the attempt failed and the communists were defeated. This was the feast of the Queenship of Mary.
Two months later, on Oct 13 (another feast of Fatima) the first pilgrims of Russia went to Fatima. It was Televised in 150 stations in Russia and 350 Radio stations in Russia, and again on Nov 7th it was televised again.
Dec 8th was the start of the Commonwealth of republics, The end of the USSR
12 days later Yeltsin met with the Pope in Rome
And 13 days after that (on Dec 25th, 1991) the Communist Flag came down for last time over Russia
Gorbachev resigned and sent a letter to Pope John Paul II
15 republics were freed from communism.
On Dec 30th, 1991 Lucia wrote that the world will recognize that the defeat of Communism was by Mary
In 1992 another attempt was made to overthrow the government and Yelson stood against the entire communist army and no one died.
On March 14, 1992 Pravda ended
Then on Christmas day, 1992 Communism was declared illegal in Russia
By 1996, Starting with People Power and Rosary in the Philippines, 87 dictatorships fell throughout the world.
From March 25, 1884 until March 25, 1984 is exactly 100 years. In 1884 Pope Saint Leo XII saw Christ give Satan power for 100 years. In 1984 Pope John Paul II Consecrated Russia and the world to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. Communism fell, 87 other dictators fell.
FATIMA RECONSIDERED?
Lets reconsider Fatima. Go back to December 10, 1925
Lucia, the eldest of the three children and now Sister Lucia of St. Dorothy, was kneeling in prayer in the convent chapel when the Virgin Mary and Christ Child appeared to her. The Christ Child said to Lucia:
"Have pity on the heart of your Most Holy Mother, which is covered with thorns that ungrateful men drive into it every instant, while there is no one who does an act of reparation to withdraw them from Her."
Lucia saw the crown of thorns around the Immaculate Heart of Mary.
Then Our Lady spoke to her, saying:
"Look, my daughter, at my Heart encircled with thorns, with which ungrateful men wound it every moment by their blasphemies and ingratitude. Give me consolation, you, at least; and announce for me that I promise to assist at the hour of death, with the graces necessary for salvation, all who on the first Saturday of five consecutive months, go to confession, receive Holy Communion, recite five decades of the Rosary, and keep me company for fifteen minutes meditating on the mysteries of the Rosary, WITH THE INTENTION OF MAKING REPARATION TO ME."
Now I would like to ask some questions. What is the reason you made the Five First Saturdays? How can we blaspheme against the Mother of God? How can we shown Her ingratitude. Have we been ungrateful toward Her?
How might I have sinned against my Mother by putting thorns into Her Immaculate Heart?
At first, you might think that any sin is a sin against Her Son and, therefore, very painful to Her. However, this does not hold true against the two words, "Blaspheme and Ingratitude". With some pride we Catholics say we are not like Protestants who totally disregard the Mother of God and thus assume we are not guilty of sins against Her. But She cannot be speaking to or about Protestants. Her words would be useless to their deaf ears. She is speaking to Catholics, who think by honoring Her, they are incapable of sinning against Her.
After painful reflection, I believe there are many ways in which I have sinned against Mary. I was one of the ungrateful men who placed thorns into Her Immaculate Heart.
I Placed these thorns by my failure to defend Her against the attacks of those who don't understand Her place in the master plan of God.
I placed thorns into the Immaculate Heart of Mary by my failure to learn all that can be learned about Her.
I placed thorns into Her Heart by my failure to understand the relationship of the Holy Spirit to Mary as is revealed in Holy Scripture and logic.
I failed to learn that it is Our Lady that the Holy Spirit is speaking about in Chapter 12 of Apocalypse.
I had failed to understand how to read Holy Scriptures and therefore did not know the extent of the relationship of the Holy Spirit to Mary; and how that relationship mirrors the perfection of the relationship of Christ to his Church.
From the saints I learned that Chapter 21 of Apocalypse "the Heavenly Jerusalem coming down out of heaven is the bride of the Holy Spirit, Mary; and it is also the bride of Christ, the Church. It is the Holy Spirit speaking of Mary and I is Christ speaking of His Church.
From the saints I learned that Psalm 44 is the Holy Spirit speaking of his spouse, Mary; and it is Christ speaking of his spouse, the Church.
I learned that the Song of Song (Canticle of Canticles) is the Holy Spirit singing of His Bride, Mary; and it is Christ singing of his bride, the Church.
I learned that it would be Mary who would crush the head of Satan from Genesis 3:15 and that I am one of Her children if I keep the commandments of Her Son from Apocalypse 12:17.
I learned that it was Mary and the Christ child seen in a vision by the angles as a test before the world was created in Apocalypse 12 and that Satan and his followers were cast out of heaven for not accepting Her in Apocalypse 12:9 and that there has been a battle between Satan and Mary every since in Apocalypse 12:17.
I learned from St. Maximillian Kolbe that, "What God has put together let no man put asunder", and God has put together the Holy Spirit and Mary so completely as to become one body.
God has put together Christ and the Church so completely as to become one body.
The Holy Spirit dwells in Mary so fully that you cannot find Him without Her help. From Kolbe and Catherine Laboure (the Miraculous Medal) I now see how all grace, all the gifts of the Holy Spirit come through Mary and in no other way.
I knew everything about the Bible and could quote from every chapter; and yet I knew nothing.
I know now that God first thought of a perfect creation, Mary; and that all other creations put together would not equal Her perfection because She would become the first Child of the Father, the bride of the Holy Spirit and the Mother from whom God would enter the world.
Today I can defend my Mother against the attacks from liberal Catholics, Protestants, Moslems, and atheists; and to not do so is to sin against my Mother.
Even to not know how to is to sin against the Spirit of Truth, Her Spouse.
How many times have I sinned against Mary by my ingratitude.
Every grace that ever came to me - came from Her Hands, and I failed to thank Her.
Every time Satan attacked me, She defended me, and I failed to thank Her.
How many times thought out history has She appeased the wrath of God and saved mankind from chastisement and I have failed to thank her.
Even now, She converted Russia and overthrew communism in more than forty countries, and how many of us have thanked Her.
How many of us have written to Lucia of Fatima and said, "Thank our Lady of Fatima for me, for the conversion of Russia."
In 1943 Christ appeared to Lucia and said,
"I want all my children to recognize that the consecration of Russia to the Immaculate Heart of Mary is the reason for the conversion of Russia."
Have we recognized this? Or are we guilty of ingratitude.
When Mary offered the Five First Saturdays, it was a promise and a
prophesy. A promise to assist us at the hour of our death, and a prophesy that
millions of Catholics would blaspheme the Holy Mother of God.
What greater blaspheme can there be than to pray to and honor a false Mary?
What greater blaspheme can there be than to pray rosaries to Satan disguised as Mary. Someday there will be an anti-Christ pretending to be Christ. Good Catholics will pray to him.
These prayers will be from the heart and from a clear conscience, but they will receive no grace from them and their conscience will not save them from the wrath of God (Veritatis Splendor).
In the same way these rosaries to false Mary's will not produce grace and will not save them from the wrath of God, who sees the blaspheme against His Mother by people attributing to Mary the words of demons , psychotics, and frauds.
To believe that the loving sweet Mother of God could say of us, "my cohort"
(which means evil spirits of darkness or a Roman division of warriors) is
blaspheme.
To believe that Our Sweet Mother could say that Pope Paul VI, who wrote Humani Vite , Marialis Cultus, and Signum Magnum, was a false Pope is to
blaspheme Our Mother.
To believe that Our Sweet Mother could say that all religions are equal in the eyes of God or even that all religions are God's religions is to blaspheme Our Lady.
To believe that the most obedient human in history could advocate disobedience to a bishop is the greatest of all blasphemies against our Sweet Mother.
Christ said to Lucia in 1925, " Have compassion on the heart of your Most
Holy Mother, which is covered with thorns that ungrateful men drive into it every instant, ----"
Make absolutely sure it is not you who are driving thorns into the Immaculate Heart of Mary, For God cannot forgive an unrepentent sin against the bride of Truth.
If you have made the Five First Saturdays and have offered them up for sins against Mary, do them again and again and again, for eight out of ten Catholics in the world today are blaspheming against Mary by following false
Mary's.
Write to:
Convento De Santa Terresa
3000 Coimbra, Portugal
and say, "Thank My Mother for me, for the conversion of Russia and of the other countries throughout the world. Thank My Mother for me, for ending the rain of Satan. Thank My Mother for me, for all the graces the world has received through Her hands. Ask My Mother to forgive me for following and believing in false, un-approved apparitions claiming to be My Mother.
Why do the Leftist Thought Police want to Ban the Catholic Tridentine Mass?
I think part of the reason is a demonic pride that comes from the father of pride. Please say the prayer below for them.
"St. Michael the Archangel, defend us in battle! Be our protection against the wickedness and snares of the devil. May God rebuke him, we humbly pray, and do thou, O Prince of the heavenly host, by the power of God, thrust into Hell Satan and all the other evil spirits who roam about the world seeking the ruin of souls."
(Pope Leo ordered this prayer said at the conclusion of Mass in 1886. (When Pope Paul VI issued the Novus Ordo of the Mass in 1968, the prayer to St. Michael and the reading of the "last gospel" at the end of the Mass were suppressed.))
[http://72.14.253.104/search?q=cache:isO_9ADuW1QJ:www.catholicherald.com/saunders/99ws/ws990916.htm+Tridentine+Mass+exorcism+pope+leo&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=3&gl=us&ie=UTF-8]
Why should the Catholic - or any other church - care about what jews and muslims think of them? Do you see muslim and jewish religious tenets being altered to suit Christrian sensibilities? No need to answer, the question is rhetorical.
[http://72.14.253.104/search?q=cache:6flWakIUu3gJ:originaldissent.com/forums/showthread.php%3Fp%3D15566+Tridentine+Mass+satan&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=7&gl=us&ie=UTF-8]
Will pope reintroduce anti-Semitic mass?
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Turmoil in Catholic Church: Pope Benedict XVI plans to publish new version of 400-year-old prayer which calls Jews 'perfidious'. Church officials fear reintroduction of prayer could harm church's relations with Jews, Muslims
Pope Benedict XVI's intention to reintroduce a controversial Latin Mass with anti-Semitic references has launched turmoil in the Catholic church, according to a report in the Independent.
The 16th-century Tridentine Mass, which refers to Jews as "perfidious", was replaced in 1969. In the words of the original, penned in 1570, Jews live in "blindness" and "darkness"; it pleads that "the Lord our God may take the veil from their hearts and that they also may acknowledge our Lord Jesus Christ".
High-ranking bishops and cardinals in the Catholic Church have expressed severe opposition to the reintroduction of the prayer, out of concern that it will harm the church's relations with Jews and Muslims.
Leader of the Roman Catholic Church in England and Wales, Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor, sent the pope a letter to voice his opposition to the changes to the mass.
However, Pope Benedict announced Thursday that he intended to publish next week an amended version of the prayer.
A spokesman for the Church in Britain said Friday, "It is standard practice to follow Rome, but we don't know yet what the (statement) will say. When we have the document, bishops and cardinals will consider it."
The mass was translated and edited in the 60s from Latin to local languages to make it more accessible to the layman. Celebration of the original Latin Mass now requires permission from the local bishop and the Roman Catholic Church in Britain. The changes were approved by the Second Vatican Council, which sat between 1962 and 1965.
The pope's move to reintroduce the controversial mass is seen by many as an attempt to reach out to the Society of St Pius X, an ultra- traditionalist group, to bring it back into the Vatican fold.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7...419167,00.html
[http://72.14.253.104/search?q=cache:6flWakIUu3gJ:originaldissent.com/forums/showthread.php%3Fp%3D15566+Tridentine+Mass+satan&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=7&gl=us&ie=UTF-8]
I think part of the reason is a demonic pride that comes from the father of pride. Please say the prayer below for them.
"St. Michael the Archangel, defend us in battle! Be our protection against the wickedness and snares of the devil. May God rebuke him, we humbly pray, and do thou, O Prince of the heavenly host, by the power of God, thrust into Hell Satan and all the other evil spirits who roam about the world seeking the ruin of souls."
(Pope Leo ordered this prayer said at the conclusion of Mass in 1886. (When Pope Paul VI issued the Novus Ordo of the Mass in 1968, the prayer to St. Michael and the reading of the "last gospel" at the end of the Mass were suppressed.))
[http://72.14.253.104/search?q=cache:isO_9ADuW1QJ:www.catholicherald.com/saunders/99ws/ws990916.htm+Tridentine+Mass+exorcism+pope+leo&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=3&gl=us&ie=UTF-8]
Why should the Catholic - or any other church - care about what jews and muslims think of them? Do you see muslim and jewish religious tenets being altered to suit Christrian sensibilities? No need to answer, the question is rhetorical.
[http://72.14.253.104/search?q=cache:6flWakIUu3gJ:originaldissent.com/forums/showthread.php%3Fp%3D15566+Tridentine+Mass+satan&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=7&gl=us&ie=UTF-8]
Will pope reintroduce anti-Semitic mass?
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Turmoil in Catholic Church: Pope Benedict XVI plans to publish new version of 400-year-old prayer which calls Jews 'perfidious'. Church officials fear reintroduction of prayer could harm church's relations with Jews, Muslims
Pope Benedict XVI's intention to reintroduce a controversial Latin Mass with anti-Semitic references has launched turmoil in the Catholic church, according to a report in the Independent.
The 16th-century Tridentine Mass, which refers to Jews as "perfidious", was replaced in 1969. In the words of the original, penned in 1570, Jews live in "blindness" and "darkness"; it pleads that "the Lord our God may take the veil from their hearts and that they also may acknowledge our Lord Jesus Christ".
High-ranking bishops and cardinals in the Catholic Church have expressed severe opposition to the reintroduction of the prayer, out of concern that it will harm the church's relations with Jews and Muslims.
Leader of the Roman Catholic Church in England and Wales, Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor, sent the pope a letter to voice his opposition to the changes to the mass.
However, Pope Benedict announced Thursday that he intended to publish next week an amended version of the prayer.
A spokesman for the Church in Britain said Friday, "It is standard practice to follow Rome, but we don't know yet what the (statement) will say. When we have the document, bishops and cardinals will consider it."
The mass was translated and edited in the 60s from Latin to local languages to make it more accessible to the layman. Celebration of the original Latin Mass now requires permission from the local bishop and the Roman Catholic Church in Britain. The changes were approved by the Second Vatican Council, which sat between 1962 and 1965.
The pope's move to reintroduce the controversial mass is seen by many as an attempt to reach out to the Society of St Pius X, an ultra- traditionalist group, to bring it back into the Vatican fold.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7...419167,00.html
[http://72.14.253.104/search?q=cache:6flWakIUu3gJ:originaldissent.com/forums/showthread.php%3Fp%3D15566+Tridentine+Mass+satan&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=7&gl=us&ie=UTF-8]
Might Liberals be Afraid of the Tridentine Mass because it includes a Exorcism?
In the Tridentine Mass since the 1200s, St. Michael was invoked in the Confiteor, along with the Blessed Virgin Mary, St. John the Baptizer and Saints Peter and Paul; the invocation of these saints inspired the faithful to remember the call to holiness and the sinlessness of the Church Triumphant in Heaven.
For the greater part of this century, the faithful recited the prayer to St. Michael at the end of the Mass. Pope Leo XIII (d. 1903) had a prophetic vision of the coming century of sorrow and war. After celebrating Mass, the Holy Father was conferring with his cardinals. Suddenly, he fell to the floor. The cardinals immediately called for a doctor. No pulse was detected, and the Holy Father was feared dead. Just as suddenly, Pope Leo awoke and said, "What a horrible picture I was permitted to see!" In this vision, God gave Satan the choice of one century in which to do his worst work against the Church. The devil chose the twentieth century. So moved was the Holy Father from this vision that he composed the prayer to St. Michael the Archangel: "St. Michael the Archangel, defend us in battle! Be our protection against the wickedness and snares of the devil. May God rebuke him, we humbly pray, and do thou, O Prince of the heavenly host, by the power of God, thrust into Hell Satan and all the other evil spirits who roam about the world seeking the ruin of souls." Pope Leo ordered this prayer said at the conclusion of Mass in 1886. (When Pope Paul VI issued the Novus Ordo of the Mass in 1968, the prayer to St. Michael and the reading of the "last gospel" at the end of the Mass were suppressed.)
[http://72.14.253.104/search?
=cache:isO_9ADuW1QJ:www.catholicherald.com/saunders/99ws/ws990916.htm+Tridentine+Mass+exorcism+pope+leo&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=3&gl=us&ie=UTF-8]
Devil Especially Hates Prayers In Latin, Says A Priest Known As 'Rome's Exorcist
This is from Spirit Daily originally appearing on May 30, 2007, and is used by permission.
_________________________________________
A secular book about exorcism says that one thing rankles demons.
"The devil doesn't like Latin," writes Tracy Wilkinson in The Vatican's Exorcists. "That is one of the first things I learned from Father Gabriele Amorth, long known as Rome's chief exorcist, even though that has never been his formal title.
"Now past the age of eighty, Father Amorth has dedicated the last decades of his life to regaining a measure of respectability for exorcism. Despite his advancing age, he continues to perform the rite several times a week at his office in Rome.
"Scores of people seek him out. He prefers to use Latin when he conducts exorcisms, he says, because it is most effective in challenging the devil."
That tidbit comes to us at a time when Benedict XVI is ready to loosen restrictions on Latin Mass. It's in the new book -- a secular and sometimes skeptical but fascinating glimpse into the world of Italian priests who see their job as casting out demons.
While the numbers dwindle in countries like the Canada, France, and the U.S., exorcists are on the rise on the Vatican's home turf -- thanks largely to priests such as Father Amorth.
In Italy the number of exorcists has grown tenfold in the past decade, according to the priest (who is himself author of two bestsellers, An Exorcist Tells His Story and An Exorcist: More Stories). Credit is also due to the legacy of John Paul II -- who made the notion of exorcism, which was founded by Jesus Himself, respectable again.
Father Amorth was born in Modena in northern Italy and has been a priest since 1954. In 1986 he began performing exorcisms under the tutelage of the vicar for Rome.
According to Wilkinson, Father Amorth accepted the task "after praying to the Virgin Mary for her steadfast guidance and protection."
"On the walls of Amorth's exorcism chamber, eight Crucifixes and pictures of the Madonna are hanging, plus a picture of Saint Michael the Archangel," says the book. "A two-foot-high statue of the Virgin Mary, the Madonna of Fatima, sits on a corner table.
"There are also pictures of the late Pope John Paul II; the popular saint Padre Pio; Amorth's mentor, Father Candido; and Father Giacomo Alberione, the founder of the Society of Saint Paul Congregation."
Father Amorth them "my protectors," adding that "the more recent addition of John Paul's has been especially effective and helpful."
"The demons become very agitated at his presence," Father Amorth says of the late Pope -- who himself performed several exorcisms during his pontificate and warned of the rise of dark forces both in 1977 and then in 2005 just days before he lapsed in his final bout with illness.
How is exorcism done? There is the Crucifix. There is the Holy Water. There are the ritual prayers. Many times, those afflicted have to come back on a regular basis -- the process a gradual one.
In Father Amorth's appointment book, women outnumber men by three to one. That is perhaps because they are more in tune with the spiritual, says the exorcist, or because they are special targets as the descendants of Eve.
The very word "hysteria" -- so often seen in the possessed -- comes from the Greek word hyster for womb. Greeks believed it was caused by abnormalities in the uterus.
"I maintain that in part, the reason is because women are the ones who do the most praying," says the priest. "Another reason is women are more inclined to approach a priest than are men, in case of need."
In some cases, say other exorcists, the devil attempts to mask possession as insanity. This sets up conflict with the far newer practice of psychology -- which looks down on exorcism as the psychiatrist's couch has replaced the confessional.
"An exorcism is the residue of a medieval practice completely devoid of any foundation in reason," the book quotes Sergio Moravia, a philosopher at the University of Florence, as saying. "I don't think it's crazy. It's worse."
Exorcists counter that psychological diagnoses such as "multiple personality" and "schizophrenia" are clinical covers for an infestation.
That opinion is shared by the many who have sought the services of Father Amorth -- finding relief when the devil was cast away after years of frustration at the hands of psychiatrists who saw their problems so differently.
Blessed salt and Holy Water are often used not just by the exorcists themselves, but by those who have been exorcised -- to stave off further disturbances.
Extraordinary strength, preternatural knowledge, speaking in foreign tongues unknown to the victim, vomiting of strange objects, and violent aversion to holy objects make pure psychological explanations suspect in strong cases.
Prayer, of course, also chases the devil and his manifestations away -- apparently, Latin in particular.
Bishop Andrea Gemma of Isernia -- who himself performs exorcisms -- ascribes the Church's move from Latin as part of a global plot to undermine Christianity.
"The devil is happy with the near-disappearance of Latin," said the bishop.
Does exorcism mask psychological illness with the supernatural, or is psychology itself a ruse, at least in certain instances, to prevent deliverance?
We have only to study the ministry of Jesus to know the answer.
In the Tridentine Mass since the 1200s, St. Michael was invoked in the Confiteor, along with the Blessed Virgin Mary, St. John the Baptizer and Saints Peter and Paul; the invocation of these saints inspired the faithful to remember the call to holiness and the sinlessness of the Church Triumphant in Heaven.
For the greater part of this century, the faithful recited the prayer to St. Michael at the end of the Mass. Pope Leo XIII (d. 1903) had a prophetic vision of the coming century of sorrow and war. After celebrating Mass, the Holy Father was conferring with his cardinals. Suddenly, he fell to the floor. The cardinals immediately called for a doctor. No pulse was detected, and the Holy Father was feared dead. Just as suddenly, Pope Leo awoke and said, "What a horrible picture I was permitted to see!" In this vision, God gave Satan the choice of one century in which to do his worst work against the Church. The devil chose the twentieth century. So moved was the Holy Father from this vision that he composed the prayer to St. Michael the Archangel: "St. Michael the Archangel, defend us in battle! Be our protection against the wickedness and snares of the devil. May God rebuke him, we humbly pray, and do thou, O Prince of the heavenly host, by the power of God, thrust into Hell Satan and all the other evil spirits who roam about the world seeking the ruin of souls." Pope Leo ordered this prayer said at the conclusion of Mass in 1886. (When Pope Paul VI issued the Novus Ordo of the Mass in 1968, the prayer to St. Michael and the reading of the "last gospel" at the end of the Mass were suppressed.)
[http://72.14.253.104/search?
=cache:isO_9ADuW1QJ:www.catholicherald.com/saunders/99ws/ws990916.htm+Tridentine+Mass+exorcism+pope+leo&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=3&gl=us&ie=UTF-8]
Devil Especially Hates Prayers In Latin, Says A Priest Known As 'Rome's Exorcist
This is from Spirit Daily originally appearing on May 30, 2007, and is used by permission.
_________________________________________
A secular book about exorcism says that one thing rankles demons.
"The devil doesn't like Latin," writes Tracy Wilkinson in The Vatican's Exorcists. "That is one of the first things I learned from Father Gabriele Amorth, long known as Rome's chief exorcist, even though that has never been his formal title.
"Now past the age of eighty, Father Amorth has dedicated the last decades of his life to regaining a measure of respectability for exorcism. Despite his advancing age, he continues to perform the rite several times a week at his office in Rome.
"Scores of people seek him out. He prefers to use Latin when he conducts exorcisms, he says, because it is most effective in challenging the devil."
That tidbit comes to us at a time when Benedict XVI is ready to loosen restrictions on Latin Mass. It's in the new book -- a secular and sometimes skeptical but fascinating glimpse into the world of Italian priests who see their job as casting out demons.
While the numbers dwindle in countries like the Canada, France, and the U.S., exorcists are on the rise on the Vatican's home turf -- thanks largely to priests such as Father Amorth.
In Italy the number of exorcists has grown tenfold in the past decade, according to the priest (who is himself author of two bestsellers, An Exorcist Tells His Story and An Exorcist: More Stories). Credit is also due to the legacy of John Paul II -- who made the notion of exorcism, which was founded by Jesus Himself, respectable again.
Father Amorth was born in Modena in northern Italy and has been a priest since 1954. In 1986 he began performing exorcisms under the tutelage of the vicar for Rome.
According to Wilkinson, Father Amorth accepted the task "after praying to the Virgin Mary for her steadfast guidance and protection."
"On the walls of Amorth's exorcism chamber, eight Crucifixes and pictures of the Madonna are hanging, plus a picture of Saint Michael the Archangel," says the book. "A two-foot-high statue of the Virgin Mary, the Madonna of Fatima, sits on a corner table.
"There are also pictures of the late Pope John Paul II; the popular saint Padre Pio; Amorth's mentor, Father Candido; and Father Giacomo Alberione, the founder of the Society of Saint Paul Congregation."
Father Amorth them "my protectors," adding that "the more recent addition of John Paul's has been especially effective and helpful."
"The demons become very agitated at his presence," Father Amorth says of the late Pope -- who himself performed several exorcisms during his pontificate and warned of the rise of dark forces both in 1977 and then in 2005 just days before he lapsed in his final bout with illness.
How is exorcism done? There is the Crucifix. There is the Holy Water. There are the ritual prayers. Many times, those afflicted have to come back on a regular basis -- the process a gradual one.
In Father Amorth's appointment book, women outnumber men by three to one. That is perhaps because they are more in tune with the spiritual, says the exorcist, or because they are special targets as the descendants of Eve.
The very word "hysteria" -- so often seen in the possessed -- comes from the Greek word hyster for womb. Greeks believed it was caused by abnormalities in the uterus.
"I maintain that in part, the reason is because women are the ones who do the most praying," says the priest. "Another reason is women are more inclined to approach a priest than are men, in case of need."
In some cases, say other exorcists, the devil attempts to mask possession as insanity. This sets up conflict with the far newer practice of psychology -- which looks down on exorcism as the psychiatrist's couch has replaced the confessional.
"An exorcism is the residue of a medieval practice completely devoid of any foundation in reason," the book quotes Sergio Moravia, a philosopher at the University of Florence, as saying. "I don't think it's crazy. It's worse."
Exorcists counter that psychological diagnoses such as "multiple personality" and "schizophrenia" are clinical covers for an infestation.
That opinion is shared by the many who have sought the services of Father Amorth -- finding relief when the devil was cast away after years of frustration at the hands of psychiatrists who saw their problems so differently.
Blessed salt and Holy Water are often used not just by the exorcists themselves, but by those who have been exorcised -- to stave off further disturbances.
Extraordinary strength, preternatural knowledge, speaking in foreign tongues unknown to the victim, vomiting of strange objects, and violent aversion to holy objects make pure psychological explanations suspect in strong cases.
Prayer, of course, also chases the devil and his manifestations away -- apparently, Latin in particular.
Bishop Andrea Gemma of Isernia -- who himself performs exorcisms -- ascribes the Church's move from Latin as part of a global plot to undermine Christianity.
"The devil is happy with the near-disappearance of Latin," said the bishop.
Does exorcism mask psychological illness with the supernatural, or is psychology itself a ruse, at least in certain instances, to prevent deliverance?
We have only to study the ministry of Jesus to know the answer.
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