Degaulle said, Those who blindly and indiscriminately defend every decision of the supreme Pontiff are the very ones who do most to undermine the authority of the Holy See—they destroy instead of strengthening its foundations." What? and then How? Degaulle said, After all, if we just accept all the words and deeds of the pope in office, will we even be impelled to pray about any of these? How are we to know if anything requires prayer if we are not even to discuss it? Those that love the Pope pray always for Him! I pray about much that does not require or get discussion! and I pray about the private issues that Our Holy Father faces even though I do not know them and I hope the Lord hears my little prayer.
I kindly ask you to stop attributing words to me that are not mine. If they were my own, you would be perfectly right to dismiss them, but I quoted a theologian from the Council of Trent, I didn't say these words. I assume you merely misread my post. I agree, we should offer prayers for the pope, particularly one who has asked for them.
Actions have ocnsequences, Julia, sadly none of can hide away from them. Robert spelt out one such, 'A few days ago, a priest from the Congo expressed to me his perplexity in light of this new papal document and the lack of clear precedents. According to the respective passages from Amoris laetitia, not only remarried divorcés but also everyone living in some certain “irregular situation” could, by further nondescript “mitigating circumstances”, be allowed to confess other sins and receive Communion even without trying to abandon their sexual conduct - that means without confession and conversion. Each priest who adheres to the until-now valid discipline of the sacraments, could be mobbed by the faithful and be put under pressure from his bishop. ' If had lived during the Reign of King Henry v111 , when his own marriage, 'Problems' arose we would probably have thought the exact same thing. That this was only the affiars of the Hogh and Mighty and Rome and we could muddle along on our own in our own way. But with a few years we would find ourselves robbed of the mass, the Eucharist, Devotion to Mary and all the richness of our Catholic Fatih, with priests na dlay people dyingin their bloodt thousands. It is as they say Julia the thin end of wedge. The thin part comes first then they puch through the rest. A bit like ink on blotting parer it spreads. Either we say a big resounding , 'No', ...like St John FIsher or St Thomas Moore ..orw'ere never going to say, 'No', at all. St John Fisher was the only Bishop in England and Wales who stood up and said , 'No'. Looks like we are doing a rerun on a world scale. We must remember that many thousands of cahtolics died defending this very principle. So, not Julia ,you won't avoid the roring lions who will soon beging to prowl. They'll just see you behind your wondow and jump in and gobble you up.
I believe Julia expressed a ligitimate argument for personal' sacrifice and prayer for the Holy Father in his hour of need. As you brought up the words of the theologian from the Council of Trent, in regards to Julias post, I believed you must believe them or have a reason for them and be able to explain them in regards to Julias post?! If however you don't agree with the sentiment you expressed, Why did you express these sentiments? Either way, I would ask what? and why? to these statements! whether they are presented because one believes in compliance to them or because they are placed as some kind of shield against Julia's post. I believed Julia should have an explaination to the obvious opposition!
The Last Warning to the Pope's Electors 2013 The cardinal charged with the meditation was the Maltese Prosper Grech, an Augustinian, 87 years old and therefore without the right to vote. After his meditation, in fact, he left the Sistine Chapel. "The action you are about to carry out within this Sistine Chapel..." […] I have no intention of making the identikit of the new pope, and much less of presenting a plan of action for the future pontiff. This very delicate task belongs to the Holy Spirit, who in recent decades has gifted us with a series of excellent holy pontiffs. My intention is that of drawing from Scripture some reflections to help us understand what Christ wants from his Church. […] GOSPEL WITHOUT COMPROMISE After his resurrection Jesus sent the apostles into the whole world to make disciples of all peoples and baptize them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit (Mt 29:19). The Church does this by presenting the Gospel without compromise, without diluting the word. […] When one descends to compromises with the Gospel one empties it of its “dynamis,” as if one were to remove the explosive from a hand grenade. Nor must one give in to temptation thinking that, since Vatican Council II is believed to have leveled out salvation for those who are outside of the Church as well, the need for baptism has been relativized. Today is added the abuse of many indifferent Catholics who neglect or refuse to baptize their children. THE SCANDAL OF THE CROSS The proclamation of the Gospel of the Kingdom of God is made concrete in the proclamation of “Jesus Christ, and him crucified” (1 Cor 2:2). […] It is precisely this scandal of the cross that humbles the “hybris" of the human mind and elevates it to accept a wisdom that comes from above. In this case as well, to relativize the person of Christ by placing him alongside other “saviours” means emptying Christianity itself of its substance. It is precisely the preaching of the absurdity of the cross that in less than three hundred years reduced to the minimum the religions of the Roman empire and opened the minds of men to a new view of hope and resurrection. It is for the same hope that the modern world is thirsting, suffering from an existential depression. CHURCH OF MARTYRS Christ crucified is intimately connected to the Church crucified. It is the Church of the martyrs, from those of the first centuries to the many faithful who, in certain countries, are exposing themselves to death simply by going to Sunday Mass. […] Jesus predicts: “if they have persecuted me, they will persecute you" (Jn 15:20). Therefore, persecution is a "quid constitutivum" of the Church, […] it is a cross that it must embrace. But persecution is not always physical, there is also the persecution of falsehood: “Blessed are you when they insult you and persecute you, and say all manner of evil against you falsely for my sake" (Mt 5:11). You have recently experienced this through some media outlets that do not love the Church. When the accusations are false one must not pay attention to them, even if they cause immense pain. WHEN THE ACCUSATIONS TELL THE TRUTH It is another thing when what is said about us is the truth, as has happened in many of the accusations of pedophilia. Then we must humble ourselves before God and men, and seek to uproot the evil at all costs, as did, to his great regret, Benedict XVI. And only in this way can we regain credibility before the world and give an example of sincerity. Today many people do not arrive at believing in Christ because his face is obscured or hidden behind an institution that lacks transparency. But if recently we have wept over many unpleasant events that have befallen clergy and laity, even in the pontifical household, we must consider that these evils, as great as they may be, if compared with certain evils in the history of the Church are nothing but a cold. And just as these have been overcome with God's help, so also the present crisis will be overcome. Even a cold needs to be taken care of well to keep it from turning into pneumonia. SMOKE OF SATAN IN THE CHURCH The evil spirit of the world, the “mysterium iniquitatis" (2 Thes 2:7), constantly strives to infiltrate the Church. Moreover, let us not forget the warning of the prophets of ancient Israel not to seek alliances with Babylon or with Egypt, but to follow a pure policy "ex fide" trusting solely in God (cf. Is 30:1; 31:1-3; Hos 12:2) and in his covenant. Courage! Christ relieves our minds when he exclaims: "Have trust, I have overcome the world" (Jn 16:33). […] LURKING SCHISMS No less easy for the future pontiff will be the task of keeping unity in the Catholic Church itself. Between ultratraditionalist extremists and ultraprogressive extremists, between priests who rebel against obedience and those who do not recognize the signs of the times, there will always be the danger of minor schisms that not only damage the Church but also go against the will of God: unity at all costs. But unity does not mean uniformity. It is evident that this does not close the doors to the intra-ecclesial discussion present in the whole history of the Church. All are free to express their thoughts on the task of the Church, but they should be proposals in line with that "depositum fidei" which the pontiff together with all of the bishops has the task of guarding. […] SEXUAL FREEDOM AND PROGRESS Unfortunately today theology suffers from the feeble thought that dominates the philosophical environment, and we need a good philosophical foundation in order to be able to develop dogma with a valid hermeneutic that speaks a language intelligible to the contemporary world. It often happens, however, that the proposals of many faithful for the progress of the Church are based on the level of freedom that is granted in the area of sexuality. Certainly laws and traditions that are purely ecclesiastical can be changed, but not every change means progress, it must be discerned whether such changes act to increase the holiness of the Church or to obscure it. […] THAT LITTLE REMNANT WHICH DOES NOT BEND THE KNEE TO BAAL In the West, at least in Europe, Christianity itself is in crisis. […] There reigns an ignorance and disregard not only of Catholic doctrine, but even of the ABC's of Christianity. The urgency is thus felt of a new evangelization that begins from pure kerygma and plain proclamation to nonbelievers, followed by a continual catechesis nourished by prayer. But the Lord is never defeated by human negligence and it seems that, while they are closing the doors to him in Europe, he is opening them elsewhere, especially in Asia. And even in the West God will not fail to keep for himself a remnant of Israel that does not bend the knee before Baal, a remnant that we find mainly in the many lay movements endowed with different charisms that are making a strong contribution to the new evangelization. […] Care must be taken, however, that particular movements should not believe that the Church is exhausted in them. In short, God cannot be defeated by our indifference. The Church is his, the gates of hell can wound its heel but can never suffocate it. […] THE FAITH OF THE SIMPLE There is another factor of hope in the Church that we must not overlook, the “sensus fidelium.” Augustine calls it "the inner teacher" in each believer. […] This creates in the depths of the heart that criterion of discernment of true and false, it makes us distinguish instinctively that which is "secundum Deum" from that which comes from the world and from the evil one (1 Jn 4:1-6). […] The coals of devout faith are kept alive by millions of simple faithful who are far from being called theologians but who in the intimacy of their prayers, reflections, and devotions can give profound advice to their pastors. It is these who "will destroy the wisdom of the wise and nullify the intelligence of the intelligent" (1 Cor 1:19). This means that when the world, with all of its knowledge and intelligence, abandons the logos of human reason, the Logos of God shines in simple hearts, which form the marrow from which the backbone of the Church is nourished. […] UNDER THE HAND OF CHRIST THE JUDGE While professing that the Holy Spirit is the soul of the Church, we do not always take him into consideration in our plans for the Church. He transcends all sociological analysis and historical prediction. He surpasses the scandals, the internal politics, the ambition, and the social problems, which in their complexity obscure the face of Christ that must shine even through dense clouds. Let's listen to Augustine: "The apostles saw Christ and believed in the Church that they did not see; we see the Church and must believe in Christ whom we do not see. By holding fast to what we see, we will arrive at seeing the one whom now we do not see" (Sermo 328, 3). […] In 1961 John XXIII received in audience in this Sistine Chapel the diplomatic corps accredited to the Holy See. He indicated the dominant figure of Christ the judge in the fresco of Michelangelo, and told them that Christ will also judge the actions of the individual nations in history. You find yourselves in this same Chapel, beneath the figure of that Christ with his hand raised not to crush but to illuminate your voting, that it may be "secundum Spiritum," not "secundum carnem." […] It is in this way that the elected will be not yours, but essentially His. […]
I think you are reading into my statements things I didn't say. [I had written a longer, more detailed response, but thought better of it. God bless Pope Francis, God bless you and God bless all here. This whole affair is becoming too distressful. The last thing I want is to fall out with people I admire and whose world-view so corresponds to mine, so I'm going to take a breather].
I do respect and understand your concerns Padraig. What scares me is how we can share information within the bounds of charity. I don't know how many people you bump into who are living in what we understand to be sinful relationships yet go up and receive Holy Communion. I have been told privately about different couples doing just that already. I don't know if they bother going to confession, most people don't these days. When I lived in another part of the UK. I was told of an ex Priest who married an ex Nun, and they had half a dozen children. They used to parade up the Church and fill the first bench. The parish Priest thought they were a great example of a real Catholic family. The dad (ex Priest) even used to do some of the readings at Mass. When I was told who they were, I privately told my parish Priest; but would not identify them, because they just relocated if they got banned. I suppose I need to confess that. I let someone else be the one to tell. Every time they were discovered, they just found another parish where they were not known, and carried on. Another instance. There was a convent next door to a Catholic Church near us at that time, and the nuns there by degrees in their wisdom decided that since God is everywhere, they did not need to go to Church. I believe a couple of them got into a relationship if you know what I mean. But Holy Mass and the Sacraments were no longer practised. I was told all this in private. Should I have demanded an explanation from those nuns. Should I go around shouting at people who I have heard are practising sinful lives, and receiving Communion. There has been appalling abuses going on for donkeys years, and everyone pretending all was ok. These things have been going on for years and years. And no Cromwell or Henry VIII to blame for it. I have come to believe if we want things to improve, the only way is to start knocking on doors, or set up a box in the park to stand on and start proclaiming the Gospel all over again. The Pope has said we need field hospitals, the war has been going on for years and the casualty rate is high. Some are long since dead and decaying and they don't even know it yet. That is how I feel. Peace.
In a way, I think Julia, heresy is a bit like a lion that is let out of its cage to see who it may devour. If left on its own to roam, if it is not battled it will grown in a dragon and many dragons. It is several centuries since, I supect heresy is being inleashed on the Church and from such a high level. So we are in effect like soldiers who have never needed to fight . We never expected that we would ever have to do. I certainly never did. But we are each of us soldiers in the army of the Lord in this great battle and each of us must go the place in the battle where the Lord places us, doing and fighting as the Holy Spirit directs. But Fight we must. This is not going to go away, it is only going to get worse. But we win the very first stage of the battle that such a battle is underway. Ephesians 6:10-18 The Armor of God 10 Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. 11 Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. 12 For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. 13 Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. 14 Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, 15 and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. 16 In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. 17 Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.
Julia I totally understand your reluctance to say anything negative about AE and yes you are completely correct in that we must pray and sacrifice for our Pope. I hope this is his major blunder that Charlie Johnston predicted and that he will get the grace to row back. Like you I try to live by the teachings passed on to me by the pre vat 2 church, when the sacredness of the Eucharist was really emphasised. Today I see a younger generation who have been poorly cathesised . They need the church to proclaim the truth, the essentials of faith. Very few now get married without having lived together, and they see no wrong in it. Does this make it right? Like you I don't see my mission to preach to them. I pray for all their conversion. Unfortunately the AR will feed into the slide of disrespect for the sacraments give to the church by the Lord. As individual Catholics we should speak the truth in charity. It's a tough call but silence won't cut it.
No, these are very,very unusual times. I would prefer to keep silent about all this myself and just concentrate on strictly mysical/ spiritual matters. But a fire burns in my heart and won't be silenced. Jeremiah 20:9 Jeremiah's Complaint …8For each time I speak, I cry aloud; I proclaim violence and destruction, Because for me the word of the LORD has resulted In reproach and derision all day long. 9But if I say, "I will not remember Him Or speak anymore in His name," Then in my heart it becomes like a burning fire Shut up in my bones; And I am weary of holding it in, And I cannot endure it. 10For I have heard the whispering of many, "Terror on every side! Denounce him; yes, let us denounce him!" All my trusted friends, Watching for my fall, say: "Perhaps he will be deceived, so that we may prevail against him And take our revenge on him."…
Yes the Pope has said we need field hospitals. Then he opens the door to treating the Blessed Sacrament as a sticky plaster. There has always been disobedience. Saintly though they were, Pope Francis' predecessors weren't strong enough in addressing the disobedience and so it flourished and the disobedient have gained power in the Church. If the next Pope doesn't fix this, there will be schism when eventually the Holy Spirit sends us a strong, orthodox Pope because the practice of open Communion will be so widespread that there will be schism when there is an attempt to drag us back to our roots. It's all very well saying that nobody will be forced to give communion to people in irregular situations. You and I won't but priests will be ordered to give Communion against their conscience. In Cardinal Schonborn's diocese, a man in a homosexual union was removed from the parish council. The Cardinal reversed that decision and reinstated the man. The Cardinal blessed homosexual couples in his Cathedral on St. Valentine's day. Cardinal Schonborn is the go-to person for interpretations of the Exhortation. When Cardinal Schonborn orders priests in his diocese (and it's only a matter of time) to give Communion to people in "irregular" situations, should priests obey the Cardinal or Jesus?
Here is a list of very prominent Catholic Clergy who have come out, publically, in favour of sexual perversion with nodisciplary action taken against them. It is a list provided by a homosexual propagandist site. No action whatsoever has been taken against them. We have to ask the simple question, why? https://newwaysministryblog.wordpress.com/church-leaders-supporting-same-gender-couples/
Josephite, I don't worry about how individuals express themselves too much, as long as they don't resort to blatant lies. If you read between the lines, you will get a pattern, and the real debate I see unfolding is who is for the Pope, and who is against Him. All I can do is stand by my faith. I have done this all my life. Only in the past it was protestants that tried to get under my skin, without success. I don' know if Catholics in the end times will succeed. Time will tell.
Padraig, I didn't open the link, because it might make me sick to see a list of names. I did read somewhere that the Arch Bishop in London had a Mass for the gays at some point. I don't know if it is still being done on a regular basis. This scared the heeby jeebies out of me. He was the same important Bishop I asked if he could Consecrate England to Immaculate Heart of Mary when I met him in person. And his reply to me was. What? just like that. I said yes, and he laughed. On the same day in the afternoon when I opened the internet; there was a message from Pope Francis asking all the Bishops in the world to make Consecration to Immaculate Heart of Mary...Just like that. I understand all the Bishops in USA have made the Consecration. Our own Bishop has consecrated our diocese. But what about the rest of the UK Bishops? What about the Irish Bishop. Any family falling apart needs a mammy. And Immaculate Heart of Mary is the very mammy we need now.
We are living out the 3rd secret of Fatima - the secret was in two parts but we have only been given one part in the release of 2000 (about 62 lines of text concerning the vision of about the Holy Father) The 2nd portion of the Secret (about 20 to 25 lines in length) was not released in 2000: Archbishop Bertone in the official release conveniently referred to this second portion or second letter as 'some annotations' - These are not annotations but a second text dictated to Lucia by our Lady. They are our Lady's words --- Bertone writes: For the account of the first two parts of the “secret”, which have already been published and are therefore known, we have chosen the text written by Sister Lucia in the Third Memoir of 31 August 1941; some annotations were added in the Fourth Memoir of 8 December 1941. In the “Fourth Memoir” Sister Lucia adds: “In Portugal, the dogma of the faith will always be preserved, etc. ...”. The latter is footnote 7 in the official release of 2000 - where is the rest of it? Therefore we are missing a vital part of the 3rd secret that for some reason has been suppressed. It contains vital warnings one about apostasy in the Church and about a chastisement for humanity. I will deal with the Chastisement first and then look at the other aspect - the apostasy. A description of the chastisement from the Third Secret of Fatima (from the as yet unreleased second text dictated to Lucia by our Lady) We now know a lot about since both Pope John Paul II and Sister Lucia describe it in detail (John Paul at Fulda and Sister Lucia in her diary). Pope John Paul II Pope John Paul II’s startling statements to a group of German Catholics at Fulda, Germany in November 1980 also connect this new information to the second (hidden) text. When asked why the Third Secret was not yet released, he replied: “it should be sufficient for all Christians to know this: if there is a message in which it is written that the oceans will flood whole areas of the Earth, and that from one moment to the next millions of people will perish, truly the publication of such a message is no longer something to be so much desired.” Thus, John Paul II says the Third Secret reveals floods that will wipe out vast areas on Earth, which is precisely what Lucia describes in this newly published account, and which is not revealed in the vision released by the Vatican in June 2000. Sister Lucia diary entry: “I felt my spirit inundated by a mystery of light that is God and in Him I saw and heard: the point of a lance like a flame that is detached, touches the axis of the earth, and it trembles: mountains, cities, towns and villages with their inhabitants are buried. The sea, the rivers, the clouds, exceed their boundaries, inundating and dragging with them, in a vortex, houses and people in a number that cannot be counted. It is the purification of the world from the sin in which it is immersed. Hatred, ambition, provoke the destructive war. After I felt my racing heart, in my spirit a soft voice said: ‘In time, one faith, one baptism, one Church, Holy, Catholic, Apostolic. In eternity, Heaven!’ This word ‘Heaven’ filled my heart with peace and happiness in such a way that, almost without being aware of it, I kept repeating to myself for a long time: Heaven, Heaven.” The latter portion of the description of the world after the chastisement is in itself a vital clue as to what is contained in the second text concerning apostasy in the Church. We know the second texts beginnings: “In Portugal, the dogma of the faith will always be preserved, etc. ...”. However - we have been deprived of this text concerning an apostasy ---- But at Akita, on the anniversary of the miracle of the sun at Fatima (13 Oct 1973) our Lady revealed and warned of a demonic infiltration & apostasy within the Church (smoke of satan) a warning of the crisis and apostasy within: The work of the devil will infiltrate even into the Church in such a way that one will see cardinals opposing cardinals, and bishops against other bishops. The priests who venerate me will be scorned and opposed by their Confreres. The Church and altars will be vandalized. The Church will be full of those who accept compromises and the demon will press many priests and consecrated souls to leave the service of the Lord. "The demon will rage especially against souls consecrated to God. The thought of the loss of so many souls is the cause of my sadness. If sins increase in number and gravity, there will no longer be pardon for them." Garabandal 1965 also refers to the apostasy within: Since my message of October 18, 1961 has not been complied with and has not been made much known to the world, I will tell you that this is the last one. Before the chalice was filling now it is overflowing. Many Cardinals, many Bishops, and many Priests are on the path of perdition and they take many souls with them. To the Eucharist, there is given less and less importance. We should avoid the wrath of God on us by our good efforts. As Padraig, posted the battle is well under way -- Note: Archbishop Capovilla, Secretary to Pope John 23rd has confirmed on record that there are 2 distinct texts. Sometimes the second letter is referred to as an attachment (or as Bertone calls it officially annotations). http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/c...on_cfaith_doc_20000626_message-fatima_en.html
I was in Knock a year or so ago when the Bishops consecrated Ireland to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. We can only hope that it will have some effect down the road but I have a feeling that we won't see the effects in my lifetime. At mass a couple of weeks ago, the priest gave a homily telling us that we can stop worrying because we're all going to heaven - that Jesus promised us and God doesn't break His promises and what we do on earth has nothing to do with it. Julia, it isn't a matter of who is with or against the Pope. This is about whether the Blessed Sacrament is the source and summit of our faith or just a mere carrot on a stick. The closest any of us will get to the Pope is being a face in the crowd in St. Peter's Square. If I could talk to the Pope I would express my reservations to his face. I would even tell him over the phone if he called me, but that won't happen. Does that mean I'm obliged to be silent about what I see as grave error?
The Pope needs to hear the concerns of Catholics who live their faith within a pagan culture. How on earth is 'reaching out' to a pagan culture going to cure the problem? Pagans need to be converted. The crisis is reaching a tipping point - instead of preaching conversion we talk about 'accompaniment' as if the Church was a social club helping people on the path to being mature human beings! (In AL the word mature and its variations appear 40 times in the document). Within AL lie the seeds of auto-destruction. The Church has lost its saltiness and is imbued with the 'spirit of the age' and is no different than any other church or organisation. It preaches 'Christianity light' as if the demands of the Gospel are too great for modern man. The greatest loss is the loss of the sense of sin. We see this clearly in society. But now we also see this in the Church with the emphasis on situational ethics and pastoral flexibility. Nowhere, do we see concern for the eternal soul. We are now crossing into the 'Threshold of Confusion'.
Sadly, Garabandal, I think your post sums up the current state of Christ's Church, especially in Western cultures. I'm afraid that it won't be confined to the West. A lot of money from the rich West goes to the poor South and East. Before long, the Church will follow the example of the UN where the rich countries attach conditions to the aid they give to poorer countries. The Church in Germany is super rich and it doesn't take a prophet to see what's down the line. People interpret prophesies about priests leaving the service of God to mean that they will leave the priesthood. You can remain a priest and not serve God.
Pope Francis' "Love Letter to the Church" In these past few days we’ve all had our share of articles and comments and social media posts and tweets that have documented people’s “first reactions” to Amoris Laetitia: The Joy of Love. Now that that’s over with, we can give the document a more sustained look with the "eye of the heart." What is the document really going to give us for the long haul…I mean us, you and me, families, pastors, seminary rectors, neighbors, Pre-Cana programs and retreat houses that serve families….. Of course, everyone wanted to know right away the answers to the questions that had been framed by the media as “the” issues on the family. And none of these were ignored in the document, but were re-framed through the eyes of a pastor unafraid to focus on how to accompany families on the blessed and yet challenging journey of married life. But, as was said in a homily at the Mass in which I participated last Sunday, Amoris Laetitia is about much more, it is Pope Francis’ “love letter to the church.” I love that phrase. After reading two-thirds of the document I would also say that is everyone’s handbook on the family. As I was reading it, I could almost see Pope Francis walking among the families he has met, looking people in the eye and listening to their stories and their hearts, offering guidance and support and prayer. It’s as if the whole church is shown in these pages how to surround families with a missionary care and walk with them, so that they can become stronger. And how our society needs this! So, realizing that the Post-Synodal Exhortation addresses many important issues, today I’ll just offer you some wise advice for all of us excerpted from Chapter Six: Some Pastoral Perspectives. There's so much more, as you know, what today we'll just start here. Sr. Kathryn J. Hermes, FSP Excerpted from Amoris Laetitia: The Joy of Love by Pope Francis: Here let me say a word to fiancés. Have the courage to be different. Don’t let yourselves get swallowed up by a society of consumption and empty appearances. What is important is the love you share, strengthened and sanctified by grace. You are capable of opting for a more modest and simple celebration [of your wedding] in which loves takes precedence over everything else. (212) [For your wedding] make the liturgical celebration a profound personal experience. (213) Nor would it be good for [the couple getting married] to arrive at the wedding without ever having prayed together, one for the other, to seek God’s help in remaining faithful and generous, to ask the Lord together what he wants of them…. (216) [After the wedding] in joining their lives, the spouses assume an active and creative role in a lifelong project. Their gaze now has to be directed to the future that, with the help of God’s grace, they are daily called to build. (218) Each must set aside all illusions and accept the other as he or she actually is: an unfinished product, needing to grow, a work in progress. (218) Young love needs to keep dancing towards the future with great hope. (219) The parish is a place where…experienced couples can help younger couples, with the eventual cooperation of associations, ecclesial movements and new communities. (223) Love needs time and space; everything else is secondary. Time is needed to talk things over, to embrace leisurely, to share plans, to listen to one another and gaze in each other’s eyes, to appreciate one another and to build a stronger relationship (224) …[C]ouples should be encouraged to develop a routine that gives a healthy sense of closeness and stability through shared daily rituals. These could include a morning kiss, an evening blessing, waiting at the door to welcome each other home, taking trips together and sharing household chores. (227) We pastors…when visiting our people’s houses, we should gather all the members of the family and briefly pray for one another, placing the family in the Lord’s hands. It is also helpful to encourage each of the spouses to find time for prayer alone with God, since each has his or her secret crosses to bear. (228) Nowadays, pastoral care for families has to be fundamentally missionary, going out to where people are. (230) The love present from the beginning becomes more conscious, settled and mature as the couple discover each other anew day after day, year after year. Saint John of the Cross tells us that “old lovers are tried and true.” (231) The life of every family is marked by all kinds of crises, yet these are also part of its dramatic beauty…. Each crisis has a lesson to teach us; we need to learn how to listen for it with the ear of the heart. (232) Communication is an art learned in moments of peace in order to be practiced in moments of difficulty (234) http://store.pauline.org/free-resou...e-francis-love-letter-to-the-church#gsc.tab=0
The Merciful Grace of the Truth Share Published in George Weigel's weekly column The Catholic Difference on April 13, 2016 BY GEORGE WEIGEL At the Easter Vigil a few weeks ago, tens of thousands of men and women, mature adults, were baptized or entered into full communion with the Catholic Church. Each of them walked a unique itinerary of conversion; each of these “newborn babes” (1 Peter 2.2) is a singular work of the Holy Spirit. Some of them came to Catholicism from an empty space, a spiritual desert; others found in the Catholic Church a more complete expression of the one Church of Christ into which they had been baptized, albeit in a different Christian community. So there are no grand generalizations to be made about those who became Catholics at Easter. But it’s probably fair to say that few of them embraced Catholicism because they found it ambiguous. Or were uncertain about the Creed it professes. Or were confused about its understanding of how Christians ought to live the truth of their baptism. In fact, it’s almost certainly the case that, for many of those who came into full communion with the Catholic Church from other Christian communities, it was the doctrinal and moral confusions in the community of their baptism that led them to seek a Church that knew what it believed, why (and Who) it worshipped, and how it proposed that we should live. If these new Catholics were properly catechized before their baptism or reception, they were also prepared for the Christian reality of failure, which the Church calls “sin:” they would have come to understand that every one of us lives by the divine mercy alone; that we are all “worthless servants” (Luke 17.10); and that we are, finally, saved by the merits of Jesus Christ alone. Yet these new Catholics would also have learned that failure is an old story in the Church, and that the Father of mercies is eager to welcome back those who stray, if only they acknowledge that they have fallen off the path marked out by God’s Son and commit themselves to a different future. I thought of these new Catholics, and their motivations for entering the Church, when reading Pope Francis’s apostolic exhortation, Amoris Laetitia, “The Joy of Love,” and particularly this sentence in paragraph 307: “To show understanding in the face of exceptional situations never implies dimming the light of the fuller ideal, or proposing less than what Jesus offers to human beings. Today, more important than the pastoral care of failures is the pastoral effort to strengthen marriages and thus to prevent their breakdown.” The Holy Father set in motion these past two years of contention and, one hopes, constructive dialogue in the Church because he knows that marriage and the family are in deep trouble throughout the world, just as he knows that marriage, rightly understood, and the family, rightly understood, are the basic building blocks of a humane society: the family is the first school of freedom, because it is there that we first learn that freedom is not mere willfulness; marriage, for its part, is the lifelong school in which we learn the full, challenging meaning of the law of self-giving built into the human heart. Why are marriage and the family in trouble? Amoris Laetitia reviews a lot of the reasons, some of which go back to Adam and Eve, and some of which are contemporary expressions of that original sin of pride. The Holy Father also speaks with understanding and compassion of the difficulty that many young people have today in forming lifelong commitments. And he calls the Church to take the ministry of marriage preparation with ever greater seriousness, seeing it as an essential instrument of evangelization, especially for those who have trouble understanding that commitment is liberating. In reading his apostolic exhortation, I came back to a conversation I had with Pope Francis some months after his election. I said that I wanted to present his vision of the Church accurately. So was I right in saying that he stressed God’s mercy so that, through an experience of that mercy, people would come to know God’s truth? He assured me I was. It is within that dyad of mercy and truth, which can never be separated, that I suggest the Church read and absorb Amoris Laetitia. George Weigel is Distinguished Senior Fellow of Washington, D.C.’s Ethics and Public Policy Center, where he holds the William E. Simon Chair in Catholic Studies.
