In preparation for the preliminary rant series on the mysteries of the rosary for priests… Imagine if the protagonists of this little 3 minute film were priests! That would be in the way cool category! Oh… that needs praying the rosary doesn’t it? And then, what if the USCCB were to take to the streets doing this?
From H20news
Filed under rosary
Come Monday, I’ll be cashing some checks some have sent to HSH in the past months, all against my repeated protestations. Sorry to keep your balances out of kilter like that! I’ve been waiting for the “Don’t worry!” phone call. That finally came the other day. Very cool. If anyone wants to donate, I mean, that’s your decision. I can’t stop you. Nor can I solicite donations according to draconian Obama administration policy, but, as I say, if you force me to take a donation, even from the Amazon wish list, I won’t insult you by not taking it. I’ll have to spruce up that list. I must admit that the account I’ve been using has gone below the $00.00 mark, and someone gave me something to put into the account before it registered. Whew! Our Lord’s providence in working all this out has been most Extraordinary. Kind of like Extraoardinary Form providence! Very cool! Thank you all. I remember you at Holy Mass and in prayers. Thank you!
Filed under Benefactors
Did you ever hear people say that they are going out to find themselves? The prodigal son did that. And he did find himself. Sigh. So what? Big deal? Who was he before he went out to find himself? A freak-boy just so ready to treat his father like he was already dead? Yep. Great to come back to a self like that, huh? Wow! I found myself! Sigh.
His planned confession to his father says it all: selfish as ever. Sure, he plans to say that he did sin (which is great) and that he doesn’t deserve to be the son of his father (and that’s great too), but then his plan continues with a plot to get some bread just like the hired servants.
Its just so great that the father of this prodigal mess shows him such love of a father to a son that the prodigal son can’t continue beyond the confession of his sin and unworthiness. He father says, in fact, just to rub it in, that he, the father, found him, the son, and brought him back to life from life worse than death.
His father found him. When we are found by our dear Lord, that is when we come to know who we are, that is, those whom our dear heavenly Father loves just so very much. Then we can say we have found ourselves, for we can say who we are in relation to God, who finds us for us. Instead of going out to find ourselves, let’s just go before Jesus. Father, I have sinned against heaven and you. I’m no longer worthy to be called your son. Let’s put different words on that:
Bless me, Father, for I have sinned. My last confession was …. Since then, I accuse myself of the following sins: …
Then, receive your penance, a word of encouragement, and join in the heavenly Banquet of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. Be a son of our Father. Be found by the overwhelming love of the Father. Be found to find yourself.
How do I know all this? Alas! The days of youth spent without salvation. Finding oneself just doesn’t work. Really. But now, thanksgiving, which is just so incredibly very wonderful. Real rejoicing.
Filed under Confession
Philumena: you can see the catacombs in the background of the picture
From an email:
The new book on St. Philomena has arrived from Italy. It does not talk about the Rome 2005 conference, but there is a small section about analysis of the substance in the vial, which was found in the Catacombs, with the bones of St. Philomena. The analysis revealed that it is human blood. Some people have cast doubt upon thefact that it was blood and claimed that it was perfume, which was used to freshen up the air in the Catacombs.
I was at that 2005 Conference in the catacombs you see in the picture. The scientific evidence was absolutely astounding. It all infuriated a certain Jesuit visitor to the conference, who could not answer the scientific evidence, though he really was quite upset, basically at the tantrum stage of emotions. Yikes! What a great little girl Philomena is, virgin and martyr ! ! !
If anyone knows how to get a copy of the actual scientific report, I would love to have a copy sent to me. Hopefully that solicitation of a donation won’t bother the draconian non-profit organization rules of the Obama Administration!
Filed under martyrdom, Persecution, saints, Vocations
This reminds me of the course I taught at the Pontifical College Josephinum last autumn, the first of it’s kind, I think, for the fullness of the syllabus, to a non-FSSP non-SSPX etc body of seminarians. Good memories. The books have not yet been eaten by rats or mice. I bought some traps the other day.
Filed under faunae
Since the Holy Father wrote this to a Lutheran pastor about the upcoming 27 October meeting, we have hopes, don’t we? Remember when the oversight of the liturgy was taken from the OFM.Conv. at Assisi and handed over to a Cardinal under Pope Benedict? I remember an OFM.Conv. being furious over this. Good sign.
“I understand quite well your concern regarding the participation at the Assisi meeting. However, this commemoration would have to have been celebrated in some way and, all things considered, it seemed to me that the best thing would be for me to personally go there being thus able to determine the direction of it all. I will nevertheless do everything in order that a syncretistic or relativistic interpretation of the event will be impossible and so that what will remain is that I will always believe and confess that which I had called to the attention of the Church with [the Declaration] ‘Dominus Iesus’.”
BTW, just because of militant buddhist monks threw a statue of buddha on the tabernacle in Assisi doesn’t mean that Pope John Paul even knew about this. It would be absurd to think that the Holy Father knows everything about everyone. Really.
Filed under interreligious dialogue
I dare you. Go ahead. Click on the picture.
Filed under saints, seminarians, Vocations
Since D.W. sent HSH Purgatory Explained by the Lives and Legends of the Saints by Father Francis Xavier Schouppe, S.J., and since this is Holy Souls Hermitage[!], I thought I might do well to put up a series on the subject. There is much more that can be said about this in Sacred Tradition and Sacred Scripture and in the Magisterial Teaching of the Church, and I hope to cover all these subjects as well.
I hope TAN Books doesn’t mind me taking some excepts, which I might comment upon, and then heavily advertising them! To get a catalog of TAN books, call in the USA 800-437-5876 or 815-226-7777, or go to http://www.tanbooks.com — eTAN Books | PO Box 410487 | Charlotte, NC 28241
* * *
CANON XXX – SESSION VI – THE COUNCIL OF TRENT – JANUARY 13, 1547
If anyone says that after the reception of the grace of justification the guilt is so remitted and the debt of eternal punishment so blotted out to every repentant sinner, that no debt of temporal punishment remains to be discharged, either in this world or in Purgatory, before the gates of Heaven can be opened, let him be anathema.
I would think that the anathema would refer also to the fact that it is just the wrong question to proffer. The mercy of the forgiveness of the guilt of the sin does not go contrary to the justice of having to undergo the consequences that were freely chosen with that sin. Because of original sin we have weakness of mind, weakness of will, feelings and emotions all over the place [what a cross!], sickness and death. Those things are to be carried as our cross in this world, or, if not carried well, we’re to face those things in purgatory as the just consequences of sin. To carry those things well, we’re to recognize fully that they exist, not run away from them, but shoulder them as the cross, not looking to them to condemn ourselves and get depressed and despair, but looking to Jesus, who, although He commanded us to carry this cross, also commands us to look to Him, to follow Him, to trust in Him, to agree in His grace that His power will shine through our weakness, that His grace will be sufficient for us. In this way, seeing all the hell that He saved us from as He drags us through hell to to Cross, to Himself, we now know fully how far He had to reach to get us, and so can have the joy in heaven to thank Him, knowing what we are saying in our thanksgiving, making that thanksgiving, in heaven, super joyful, for eternity.
If we are slack in lettting ourselves be drawn through hell to the cross, to Jesus, in this life, we’ll have to do that in Purgatory. But we won’t grow in friendship, just remain where we are at, depending on the prayers of others.
A great way to begin is to pray for the Holy Souls. If we do, when it is our turn, it is they who will welcome us into the eternal habitations, as our Lord says. Hail Mary…
Filed under Purgatory
Accompany me, Father George David Byers, S.S.L., S.T.D., as I begin life as a Catholic Priest-Hermit by choice. Holy Souls Hermitage is dedicated to the sanctification of my fellow priests, bishops, deacons & seminarians going through the purgatory of this life or the next. Prayer and sacrifice go up, of course, for both Benedict XVI and the next Successor of Saint Peter.
All told, Masses offered for Benedict XVI came to 918.
י ב ר כ ך י ה ו ה ב ה ת א ם ל ת פ י ל ת מ ר י ם ה ק ד ו ש ה
May the Lord continue to bless you
according to the intercession of Mary Most Holy
