Well I suppose it is the same as for individuals; before you have real change you must go through a crisis. I have no doubt the Church will endure to the End of time because we have Christ's promise that the Gate's of Hell will not prevail against it. Even if there were only one good Catholic in the entire world there you have Chrit's Church in all its fullness. But my sense of things is that it is like a temrite ridden house that must collapse and be rebuilt and be all the better for it. I suspect God let this Pontificate as a kind of demolition exercise so the Hand of God would be clearly seen in His rejection of the foulness going on. Someone asked a Bishop what the Bishops were thinking at the last synod with all the dubious goings on he replied, 'Some of them were thinking of their dinner, some of them were thinking of when they could go beck home, some of them were thinking how much they wished they were somewhere else'. It is not the the vast majority of the Bishops or Cardinals are evil. No the evil ones are a very small group . It is simply that they want buisness to go on as usual; as I suppose most of us want in our daily lives. They are thinking about dinner. But underlying this the reason they have no deep concerns is that they are not praying enough. If they had been praying enough they would see the wolves who clearly stand at their doors. It is so sad. But I do believe this Pontificate will be the kick that lands the whole thing over. From the outside things look fine, big Cathedrals, money in the bank, Episcopal Palaces, the splendour of the Vatican; but inside it is all filth and decay. So few Prophetic voices and nearly all the Prophets simple lay folk. But when your attention is on your next meal it is not on Prophets and Prophetic voices. No they are not bad, our leaders, for the most part. But they are very,very lukewarm. Revelation 3:15-17 15 I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other! 16 So, because you are lukewarm—neither hot nor cold—I am about to spit you out of my mouth. 17 You say, ‘I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.’ But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked.
I have started wondering about our Lady's urging for us to pray far more intently. This urging is global. Might this further mean that in those communities with less prayer, perhaps less Rosary among those of us who have truly heard the urging but don't follow through with it as we know we should, are those communities in line for greater chastisements? I have wondered how targeted these events will be. Takes me an hour to pray a sincere Rosary. I purposely looked at the clock as I started last night. Generally my prayer is more conversational. I used to pray up to 4 decades on a lunch walk. In the last few months I had probable torn connective tissue in my hip. The hiking has slowed way down. Course limping never stopped me when I had a walking boot cast. Think I need to increase my Adoration time! My other go-to is the Divine Mercy Chaplet.
I think Our Lady said at Fatima that, 'The good will be martyred along with the bad' . Certainly we saw this during the course of the Second World War. With every war that passes civilian deaths gets higher and higher. Civilians are now considering in modern wars as being part of the war resources of the state and so as legitmate targets. That there is no such thing as an 'Innocent ', civilians. So we had for instance both sides engaging in mass bombings of civilians and the use of nuclear weapons of cities. At Akita Our Lady warned that , 'Fire will fall from heaven' However the good who die pass on to Eternal Life, while the evil to Eternal Death. Sigh . Looking at events in the World I am sure there has been a huge quickening. For insaance just last week, I think it was there was an Earthquake so big that it went right round the world. The Book of Revelations speaks of such a quake that will shake the very Foundations of the World. Evil, including in the Church has reached such a terrible and unspeakable pitch that immediate Chastisement is inevitable. It has gotten so bad that we can only speak of mass apostasy in the Church. Sigh, God 's Will; God's Holy Will be done and may God have Mercy on us all.
Correct me if Im wrong. But didn't Bergoglio say the reason he wants to change the Our Father is because 'God doesn't leed us to temptation?' So he wants to say 'do not abandon us to temptation'. Using his logic, are we to believe God abandons us? I feel this is all a distraction from what else is happening.
I am not so sure after praying about it. It is not a distraction, it is incredibly relevant to our times. There are a few things I can think of that could be taken for the implication of God abandoning (or allowing) us to be sifted by temptation. Jesus tells Peter that Satan desires to sift him like wheat and that He has prayed for him. Jesus prays for Peter in Luke that his faith will not fail him and that he will once converted confirm his brethren. Obviously the Father would have to give His permission to allow Satan's request and I think it can be logically concluded that Satan must have been at the throne of the Father asking God to be granted this power over Peter like after sifting us he then accuses us before the Father. The other is when God gives one over (abandons) to their sin which comes well after the sifting of temptation but is also a time of grave danger that God allows us to continue in. Like a Father who's son has left the path but he knows he must return of his own accord. The son, after a time and seeing the error of his ways returns in humility begging his Fathers forgiveness. The Father truly rejoices and the son enters into His Grace. To abandon is to give over control in the face of certain danger such as to abandon ship. We are certainly in great danger as a Church right now and as children of God. In fact, we are in a time of more danger than I can think of ever in the Church's history although I am sure that when Napoleon took the Pope hostage many Catholics must have thought that the end of the world was at hand that were watching as Jesus instructed. Especially when he died a prisoner. Behold the Masonic revolution. The Holy Father, the Vicar of Christ would never take lightly the changing of interpretation of the words of Our Lord's prayer. In fact, if we believe that the Seat of Peter is the seat of authority with keys Jesus left to him to bind on Earth and in Heaven we should take this as a grave warning about the times we are in and the coming power of Satan. Very great signs and wonders will lead many away from the Faith according to the Church Fathers. Praying do not abandon us to temptation is similar to praying that God have Mercy on us and protect us such as in the face of a terrible sin we are trying to overcome and yet can not under our own power. We do not deserve it but we plead with all our hearts for the Father to overlook our wrongs and grant us the power to change. To change us with His power. To protect and guide us in the time of temptation that is coming.
It makes me dizzy even to think about it. I'm sticking to the old ways. But I feel so sorry for the young who will fall for this stuff.
Fr. Malachi Martin said this very thing. That the idea after Vatican II was to introduce constant ongoing change so the laity would be both confused as to what the faith is and also to get them used to the idea that the faith is constantly changing just like everything else.
The Greek says. Lead us not into temptation. That's the direct translation. Aren't there some hard words in scripture for those who alter any word at all.?
I too will be sticking to the same way its always been said. I reckon I may say 'and lead us not into temptation' just a bit louder!
I couldn't help noticing ; here we have a priest interviewing the Holy Father and yet he wears no clerical clothes and looks dressed like a tennis Pro? (if you look very,very hard you can see a tiny black cross on his lapel) Perhaps I am being a crank but somethings off here. I also suspect he would have gotten nowhere near the Pope if they were not both reading from the same hymn sheet.
This upsets me too. Our pastor wears sandal's and jeans under his garments for mass and rarely do you see him with a collar in every day life. This speaks volumes to me. I remember in the mid sixties, after VatII, being in about 4th grade, our nuns came back for a new year of teaching and something was strange. They had grey, in lieu of black, habits and the dress was up to their knees in lieu of to their ankles and their habit veil was up over their hair bangs where their forehead was previously covered. Two years later we went from 8 nuns to 2 nuns in our Catholic school another year or two is closed. I am sure others remember like details. Something holy was lost. Something I deeply respected gave me pause, even at that young age. I never dwelt on it at 10 years of age, but that lack of outward holy symbolism in dress bothers me yet today. One time in teaching high school students in Iowa City 30 years ago, we had the diocese vocations director come and give a spill on vocations. One person in his Q&A asked him, "why do priests wear a collar"? To my surprise he immediately took if off, put it in his shirt pocket and said something to the fact that he didn't need to wear it. I thought, what a door knob! Here he had an opportunity speak to the beauty of the priesthood as a vocations director and instead he mocks his vocation in shame of what the collar stands for. I have watched this evil take over the priesthood and religious life for decades and it bothers me today when I see a plain clothed priest or religious. Actually it makes me sick!
Mother Miriam of the Lamb of God, O.S.B., a Jewish convert quite agrees with you. Mother Miriam’s Heart for the Family and Church – Catholic World Report
The Passionists are I think a very good example of this. The Passionist religious habit it, I think the most beautiful in the Church. It was given to their Founder St Paul of the Cross by the sorrowful virgin herself in an apparition to the saint. But time changed for the order. In an apparition to the Italian mystic Edvidge Cabroni St Paul seems to have lamented the relaxation of his original religious rule. When I was young all Passionist, including my Spiritual Director wore the habit when in their houses (this was quite a while after Vatican 2. ) As far as I can see no one wears it now except possibly on very formal occasions. Why is this? I suspect the bottom line is a marriage of the Church to the world. That the world is not such a bad place after all ; so let's get along with it. Big , big mistake. The best line would have been to have been totally counter cultural. The same goes with the Liturgy and much else with the Church. But once you start to swim with the flow it is so difficult to swim against the current. This is another reason we get no vocations. Young folk like counter cultural; as far as accomodation with the trends go I think they shrug and say, 'Why bother? What difference does it make? I might as well stay were I am...and of course they're right. What is the point of, 'Leaving ', the world only to rejoin it again. in a kind of cloaked from. I am afaid this is exactly the same mistake our current Holy Father is currently making together with most of our current leadership; that they are walzing us all up the aisle with the World. They regard the world as not such a bad place after all. If you look at the Old Testament this is exactly the mistake the Hebrews made before they got zapped. For turning the Church, effectively into a harlot. A sell out in fact. I noticed on one trip to a Passionist House the retreats all centered on some kind of New Age 'pyshco babble'. All authentic spirituality appeared to have vanished like some long forgotten smoke. I am sorry if I seem to be harsh. I try to be charitable, but I am afraid this is the simple truth. But perhaps things are better in other countries. I hope so.
