My thoughts exactly - Mark Mallett

Ugh...

 

ONE MORE REASON TO SHUT THE TV OFF AND PRAY

 

Who Are You to Judge?
Posted on June 30, 2017 by Mark



OPT. MEMORIAL OF
THE FIRST MARTYRS OF THE HOLY ROMAN CHURCH



“WHO are you to judge?”

Sounds virtuous, doesn’t it? But when these words are used to deflect from taking a moral stand, to wash one’s hands of responsibility for others, to remain uncommitted in the face of injustice… then it is cowardice. Moral relativism is cowardice. And today, we are awash in cowards—and the consequences are no small thing. Pope Benedict calls it…

…the most terrifying sign of the times… there is no such thing as evil in itself or good in itself. There is only a “better than” and a “worse than”. Nothing is good or bad in itself. Everything depends on the circumstances and on the end in view. —POPE BENEDICT XVI, Address to the Roman Curia, December 20th, 2010

It is terrifying because, in such a climate, it is the stronger part of society who then become the ones to determine what is good, what is wrong, who is valuable, and who is not—based on their own shifting criterion. They no longer adhere to moral absolutes or the natural law. Rather, they determine what is “good” according to arbitrary standards and assign it as a “right,” and then impose it on the weaker part. And thus begins…

…a dictatorship of relativism that recognizes nothing as definite, and which leaves as the ultimate measure only one’s ego and desires. Having a clear faith, according to the credo of the Church, is often labeled as fundamentalism. Yet, relativism, that is, letting oneself be tossed and ‘swept along by every wind of teaching’, appears the sole attitude acceptable to today’s standards. —Cardinal Ratzinger (POPE BENEDICT XVI) pre-conclave Homily, April 18th, 2005

As such, while rejecting religious and parental authority under the claim that we should not “judge” anyone and be “tolerant” of all, they go on to create their own moral system that is hardly just or tolerant. And thus…

…an abstract, negative religion is being made into a tyrannical standard that everyone must follow… In the name of tolerance, tolerance is being abolished. —POPE BENEDICT XVI, Light of the World, A Conversation with Peter Seewald, p. 52-53

As I wrote in Courage… to the End, in the face of this new tyranny, we can be tempted to withdraw and hide… to become lukewarm and cowardly. So, we must provide an answer to this question “Who are you to judge?”



JESUS ON JUDGING

When Jesus says, “Stop judging and you will not be judged. Stop condemning and you will not be condemned,” what does He mean?[1] We can only understand these words in the full context of His life and teaching as opposed to isolating a single sentence. For He also said, “Why do you not judge for yourselves what is right?” [2] And again, “Stop judging by appearances, but judge justly.” [3] How are we to judge justly? The answer lies in the commission that He gave the Church:

Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations… teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. (Matthew 28:19-20)

Clearly, Jesus is telling us not to judge the heart (appearance) of others, but at the same time, He is giving the Church the divine authority to call mankind into God’s Will, expressed in the moral commandments and the natural law.

I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who will judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingly power: proclaim the word; be persistent whether it is convenient or inconvenient; convince, reprimand, encourage through all patience and teaching. (2 Tim 4:1-2)

It is schizophrenic, then, to hear Christians who have fallen into the trap of moral relativism say, “Who am I to judge?” when Jesus has explicitly commanded us to call all to repentance and to live by His Word.

Love, in fact, impels the followers of Christ to proclaim to all men the truth which saves. But we must distinguish between the error (which must always be rejected) and the person in error, who never loses his dignity as a person even though he flounders amid false or inadequate religious ideas. God alone is the judge and the searcher of hearts; he forbids us to pass judgment on the inner guilt of others. —Vatican II, Gaudium et spes, 28



RIGHT JUDGMENT

When a police officer pulls someone over for speeding, he is not making a judgment of the person in the car. He is making an objective judgment of the person’s actions: they were speeding. It’s not until he goes to the driver’s window that he discovers that the woman behind the wheel is pregnant and in labour and in a hurry… or that she’s drunk, or simply being careless. Only then does he write up a ticket—or not.

So too, as citizens and Christians, we have the right and duty to say that this or that action is objectively good or evil so that civil order and justice prevail in the society of the family or town square. Just as the policeman points his radar at a vehicle and concludes that it is objectively breaking the law, so too, we can and must look at certain actions and say that they are objectively immoral, when that is the case, for the common good. But it is only when one peers into the “window of the heart” that a certain judgment of one’s culpability can be made… something, really, only God can do—or that person can reveal.

Although we can judge that an act is in itself a grave offense, we must entrust judgment of persons to the justice and mercy of God. —Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1033

But the Church’s objective role is no less diminished.

To the Church belongs the right always and everywhere to announce moral principles, including those pertaining to the social order, and to make judgments on any human affairs to the extent that they are required by the fundamental rights of the human person or the salvation of souls. —Catechism of the Catholic Church, n. 2246

The idea of “separation of Church and State” meaning that the Church has no say in the public square, is a tragic falsehood. No, the Church’s role is not to build roads, run the military, or legislate, but to guide and enlighten political bodies and individuals with the Divine Revelation and authority entrusted to her, and to do so in imitation of her Lord.

Indeed, if police stopped enforcing traffic laws so as not to hurt anyone’s feelings, the streets would become dangerous. Likewise, if the Church does not raise her voice with the truth, then the souls of many will be in peril. But she must also speak in imitation of her Lord, approaching each soul with the same reverence and delicacy that Our Lord showed, particularly to grave sinners. He loved them because He recognized that, anyone who sinned, was a slave to sin [4]; that they were lost to some degree,[5] and in need of healing.[6] Is this not all of us?

But this never lessened the truth nor erased one letter of the law.

[The offense] remains no less an evil, a privation, a disorder. One must therefore work to correct the errors of moral conscience. —Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1793



DO NOT BE SILENCED!

Who are you to judge? As a Christian and as a citizen, you have ever right and duty to judge objective good or evil.

Stop judging by appearances, but judge justly. (John 7:24)

But in this growing dictatorship of relativism, you will meet hardship. You will be persecuted. But here is where you have to remind yourself that this world is not your home. That we are strangers and sojourners on our way to the Homeland. That we are called to be prophets wherever we are, speaking the “now word” to a generation that needs to hear the Gospel again—whether they know it or not. Never before has the need for true prophets ever been so crucial…

Those who challenge this new paganism are faced with a difficult option. Either they conform to this philosophy or they are faced with the prospect of martyrdom. —Servant of God Fr. John Hardon (1914-2000), How to Be a Loyal Catholic Today? By Being Loyal to the Bishop of Rome; http://www.therealpresence.org/eucharst/intro/loyalty.htm

Blessed are you when they insult you and persecute you and utter every kind of evil against you falsely because of me. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward will be great in heaven. Thus they persecuted the prophets who were before you. (Matt 5:11-12)

But as for cowards, the unfaithful, the depraved, murderers, the unchaste, sorcerers, idol-worshipers, and deceivers of every sort, their lot is in the burning pool of fire and sulfur, which is the second death. (Revelation 21:8)

 

Excellent article! Thanks Fatima!

 

The Scandal
Posted on July 17, 2017 by Mark






First published March 25th, 2010.

FOR decades now, as I noted in When the State Sanctions Child Abuse, Catholics have had to endure a never-ending stream of news headlines announcing scandal after scandal in the priesthood. “Priest Accused of…”, “Cover Up”, “Abuser Moved From Parish to Parish…” and on and on. It is heartbreaking, not only to the lay faithful, but to fellow-priests. It is such a profound abuse of power from the man in persona Christi—in the person of Christ—that one is often left in stunned silence, trying to comprehend how this is not just a rare case here and there, but of a much greater frequency than first imagined.

As a result, the faith as such becomes unbelievable, and the Church can no longer present herself credibly as the herald of the Lord. —POPE BENEDICT XVI, Light of the World, A Conversation with Peter Seewald, p. 25

FOUNDATIONS LOST

The reasons, I suppose, are many. Fundamentally, it is a breakdown in not only the seminarian admittance process, but in the content of teaching there. The Church has been more busy forming theologians than saints; men who can intellectualize more than pray; leaders who are administrators more than apostles. This is not a judgment, but an objective fact. Several priests have told me that in their seminary formation, there was next to no emphasis on spirituality. But the very foundation of the Christian life is conversion and the process of transformation! While knowledge is necessary to “put on the mind of the Christ” (Phil 2:5), it alone is not enough.

For the kingdom of God is not a matter of talk but of power. (1 Cor 4:20)

The power to set us free from sin; the power to transform our lowly nature; the power to cast out demons; the power to work miracles; the power to change bread and wine into the Body and Blood of Christ; the power to speak His Word and bring about the conversion of those who hear it. But in many seminaries, priests were taught that the mention of sin is outdated; that transformation is not in personal conversion but theological and liturgical experimentation; that Satan is not an angelic person, but a symbolic concept; that miracles ceased in the New Testament (and maybe weren’t miracles after all); that the Mass is about the people, not the Holy Sacrifice; that homilies should be pleasant treatises rather than calls to conversion… and on and on.

And somewhere in it all, the refusal to adhere to Humanae Vitae, the profound teaching on the role of human sexuality in the modern world, seemed to accompany a floodgate of homosexuality into the priesthood. How? If Catholics were being encouraged to “follow their conscience” on the matter of birth control (see O Canada… Where Are You?), why couldn’t clergy also follow their own conscience regarding their own bodies? Moral relativism has eaten into the very core of the Church… the smoke of Satan billowing into seminaries, parishes, and even the Vatican, so said Paul VI.

AN EXCUSE

And so, anti-clericalism is reaching a fevered pitch in our world. Ignoring the fact that sexual abuse is not a Catholic problem, but prevalent throughout the world, many use the relatively small percentage of abusing priests as an excuse to reject the entire Church. Catholics have used the scandals as an excuse to stop attending Mass or to minimize or absolve themselves of Church teachings. Others have used the scandals as a means to paint Catholicism as evil and even attack the Holy Father himself (as if the Pope is responsible for everyone’s personal sins.)

But these are excuses. When each of us stands before the Creator when we have passed from this life, God isn’t going to ask, “So, did you know any pedophile priests?” Rather, He will reveal how you responded to the moments of grace and opportunities for salvation that He provided in the midst of all the tears and joys, trials and triumphs in your lifetime. The sin of another is never an excuse for our own sin, for the actions determined through our own free will.

The fact is that the Church remains as Christ’s mystical body, the visible sacrament of salvation for the world… wounded or not.

SCANDAL OF THE CROSS

When Jesus was seized in the garden; when He was stripped and scourged; when He was handed a cross which He carried and then hung upon… He was a scandal to those who followed Him. This is our Messiah? Impossible! Even the Apostle’s faith were rattled. They scattered in the garden, and only one returned to gaze upon the “crucified hope.”

So it is today: the body of Christ, His Church, is covered in the scandal of many wounds—of the sins of her individual members. The head is once again covered in the shame of a crown of thorns… a tangled weave of sinful barbs that pierces deeply into the very heart of the priesthood, the very foundations of the “mind of Christ”: her teaching authority and credibility. The feet are also pierced through—that is, her holy orders, once beautiful and strong with missionaries, nuns, and priests who were consumed with carrying the Gospel to the nations… have been disabled and dislocated through modernism and apostasy. And the arms and hands—those lay men and women who boldly made Jesus present in their families and in the marketplace… have become drooped and lifeless through materialism and apathy.

The body of Christ as a whole appears as a scandal before a world in desperate need of salvation.

WILL YOU?

And so… will you run too? Will you flee the Garden of Sorrow? Will you abandon the Way of Paradox? Will you reject the Calvary of Contradiction as you gaze upon the body of Christ once again riddled with scandalizing wounds?

…Or will you walk by faith instead of sight? Will you see instead the reality that, beneath this battered body lies a heart: One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic. A heart that continues to beat to the rhythm of love and truth; a heart that continues to pump pure Mercy into its members through the Holy Sacraments; a heart that, though small in appearance, is united to an infinite God?

Will you run, or will you join the hand of your Mother in this hour of sorrow and repeat the fiat of your baptism?

Will you remain among the jeers, protestations and mockery heaped upon this body?

Will you stay when they persecute you for your faithfulness to the Cross, which is “folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved, the power of God”? (1 Cor 1:18).

Will you stay?

Will you?
…live out of a deep conviction that the Lord does not abandon his Church, even when the boat has taken on so much water as to be on the verge of capsizing. —EMERITUS POPE BENEDICT XVI, on the occasion of the funeral Mass of Cardinal Joachim Meisner, July 15th, 2017; rorate-caeli.blogspot.com

 

Mark speaks on Canada's spiral downward..... https://www.markmallett.com/blog/2017/07/27/not-my-canada-mr-trudeau/

 

Not my Canada

 

he New Gideon
Posted on August 22, 2017 by Mark




MEMORIAL OF THE QUEENSHIP OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY


Mark is coming to Philadelphia in September, 2017. Details at the end of this writing… In today’s first Mass reading on this memorial of the Queenship of Mary, we read about the call of Gideon. Our Lady is the New Gideon of our times…

DAWN expels the night. Spring follows the Winter. Resurrection proceeds from the tomb. These are allegories for the Storm that has come to the Church and the world. For all will appear as though lost; the Church will seem utterly defeated; evil will exhaust itself in the darkness of sin. But it is precisely in this night that Our Lady, as the “Star of the New Evangelization”, is presently leading us toward the dawn when the Sun of Justice will rise upon a new Era. She is preparing us for the Flame of Love, the coming light of her Son…


Ah, my daughter, the creature always races more into evil. How many machinations of ruin they are preparing! They will go so far as to exhaust themselves in evil. But while they occupy themselves in going their way, I will occupy Myself with the completion and fulfillment of My Fiat Voluntas Tua (“Thy will be done”) so that My Will reign on earth—but in an all-new manner. Ah yes, I want to confound man in Love! Therefore, be attentive. I want you with Me to prepare this Era of Celestial and Divine Love… —the Lord to Servant of God, Luisa Piccarreta, Manuscripts, Feb 8th, 1921; excerpt from The Splendor of Creation, Rev. Joseph Iannuzzi, p.80; printed with permission of the Archbishop of Trani

ONLY A REMNANT

The story of Gideon is a parable of what is unfolding.

Gideon is called by God at a time when the Israelites had fallen into apostasy. Surrounded by the vast armies of Midian, God calls the humble Gideon to lead his people out of their bondage. But the Lord has him only take 300 of the 32,000 men at his disposal, in part, because two thirds of them were unwilling to fight. [1]

Coincidentally, as I was preparing this writing, I received an email with the monthly message allegedly from Our Lady of Medjugorje. She says in part:

Small is the number of those who understand and follow me… —message to Mirjana, May 2nd, 2014

Indeed, a mere remnant is left today of Catholics who are unafraid to be authentically Catholic; who are courageously living out and upholding the moral teachings of the faith; who are living the messages of Our Lady, beginning with Fatima. For many would rather remain silent than enter the battle for souls; complacent than being pro-active; withdrawn than being witnesses.

In a speech at the National Catholic Prayer Breakfast, Princeton Professor Robert P. George acknowledged what several have been warning for years: persecution is now here. But he adds, not for every Catholic.

Of course, one can still safely identify oneself as a ‘Catholic,’ and even be seen going to Mass. That is because the guardians of those norms of cultural orthodoxy that we have come to call ‘political correctness’ do not assume that identifying as ‘Catholic’ or going to Mass necessarily means that one actually believes what the Church teaches on issues such as marriage and sexual morality and the sanctity of human life. —May 15th, 2014, LifeSiteNews.com

One can be a Catholic, just as long as one isn’t actually a Catholic.

But this writing, this moment, is an invitation to you to join Christ’s battalion, led by His Mother. To be faithful, a faithful Catholic. From the Church-approved messages to Elizabeth Kindelmann:

All are invited to join my special fighting force. The coming of my Kingdom must be your only purpose in life… Do not be cowards. Do not wait. Confront the Storm to save souls. —Jesus to Elizabeth Kindelmann, The Flame of Love, pg. 34, published by Children of the Father Foundation; imprimatur Archbishop Charles Chaput

And so, Gideon takes those troops who gave their fiat into a divine battle plan. “Watch and follow my lead,” he tells them. [2]


PREPARING THE REMNANT ARMY

It must have seemed crazy to Gideon’s men—300 of them against tens of thousands of the Midianite armies. So too today, Our Lord is inviting us to totally abandon ourselves to Him. To trust completely in His plan as the world of pagans begins to vastly outnumber the little remnant. More than that, He is asking us to cancel out our will in order to live in the Divine Will. This is the great plan He has entrusted to Our Lady—to bring us to the point of our own personal fiat such that it draws down the Holy Spirit and Jesus within us, which is really the reign of His Kingdom on earth in us.

…take a look at where Jesus calls you and wants you: under the wine press of My Divine Will, so that your will receives a continuous death, as did My human will. Otherwise you would not be able to inaugurate the new Era and make My Will reign on earth. What is needed in order for My Will to come and reign on earth is the continuous act, the pains, the deaths in order to be able to draw down from Heaven the Fiat Voluntuas Tua. —the Lord to Servant of God, Luisa Piccarreta, Manuscripts, December 26th, 1923;; excerpt from The Splendor of Creation, Rev. Joseph Iannuzzi, p.133; printed with permission of the Archbishop of Trani

In a word, Gethsemane. St. John Paul II delivered this very message to the youth before World Youth Day in Toronto:

…only by following God’s will can we be the light of the world and the salt of the earth! This sublime and demanding reality can only be grasped and lived in a spirit of constant prayer. This is the secret, if we are to enter into and dwell in God’s will. —ST. JOHN PAUL II, To the Youth of Rome Preparing for World Youth Day, March 21, 2002; vatican.va

And so, Gideon demands something of his men that seems impossible: to lay aside their swords and take up God’s weapons. He places in each of their hands a horn and a torch to be put inside an empty jar.

Not by an army, nor by might, but by my spirit, says the LORD of hosts… for the weapons of our battle are not of flesh but are enormously powerful, capable of destroying fortresses. (Zech 4:6; 2 Cor 10:4)

It must likewise seem crazy to some that the Rosary has been given by Our Lady as the choice “weapon.”

At times when Christianity itself seemed under threat, its deliverance was attributed to the power of this prayer, and Our Lady of the Rosary was acclaimed as the one whose intercession brought salvation. —ST. JOHN PAUL II, Rosarium Virginis Mariae, 40

But the Rosary, more so, prayer itself, is like the empty jar that is raised up, waiting to be filled. With what? The torch. And what is the torch? It is the Flame of Love. And now, here is the key to understanding what is coming into the hearts of the remnant, into the world…

…my Flame of Love… is Jesus Himself. —Our Lady to Elizabeth Kindelmann, August 31, 1962

It is the coming of Jesus in the Spirit to reign “on earth as it is in heaven.” [3]

more....

 

continued....

WHEN IT IS DARKEST

That night the Lord said to Gideon: Go, descend on the camp, for I have delivered it into your power… So Gideon and the hundred men who were with him came to the edge of the camp at the beginning of the middle watch…

It is at the darkest part of night—the “middle watch, or after midnight—that the Lord sets Gideon in motion.

I am reminded of a powerful interior vision I had several years ago of a smoldering candle. [4] While the flame of truth was going out in the world, it was growing in a remnant of souls. While the world began to follow a false light, the light of truth was burning in the faithful—an utter gift for those who disposed themselves to it.

There is an urgent need, then, to see once again that faith is a light, for once the flame of faith dies out, all other lights begin to dim… A light this powerful cannot come from ourselves but from a more primordial source: in a word, it must come from God. —POPE FRANCIS, Lumen Fidei, Encyclical, n. 4 (co-written with Benedict XVI); vatican.va

Gideon commands his army to light the torches and hold them in the jars. Only at the specified moment are they to blow their horns (symbolic of the message of Mercy) and break the jars, crying out: “A sword for the Lord and for Gideon” (or we might say today, “For the Two Hearts!”). When the 300 horns were blown and the jars broken, suddenly the Midianite camp was thrown into utter confusion. They were surrounded by blinding light such that they panicked, turned on one another, and scattered.

This will be precisely the effect of the Flame of Love:

It will be the Great Miracle of light blinding Satan… The torrential flood of blessings about to jolt the world must begin with the small number of the most humble souls. —Our Lady to Elizabeth, www.theflameoflove.org

And once again, Our Lady’s recent alleged messages from Medjugorje continue to coincide with this theme, as on May 2nd, 2014, she spoke of a light coming from “the simplicity of an open heart” that “shatters darkness.” [5] I am reminded of St. John Bosco’s famous dream where he sees the Barque of St. Peter moored to the two pillars of Mary and the Holy Eucharist.

With that, the enemy ships are thrown into confusion, colliding with another and sinking as they attempt to disperse. —St. John Bosco, cf. Da Vinci Code… Fulfilling a Prophecy?



EVIL FLEES—NOT THE REMNANT

The effect of grace of the Flame of Love will begin to drive out darkness from millions of souls, just as Gideon’s army began to pursue the armies of Midian and their leaders and drive them out of the land. [6] It will set the stage for the final confrontation of this era between the children of Light and the children of Darkness.

Then war broke out in heaven; Michael and his angels battled against the dragon… The huge dragon, the ancient serpent, who is called the Devil and Satan, who deceived the whole world, was thrown down to earth, and its angels were thrown down with it… Then the dragon became angry with the woman and went off to wage war against the rest of her offspring, those who keep God’s commandments and bear witness to Jesus. It took its position on the sand of the sea. Then I saw a beast come out of the sea… (Rev 12:7,9; 13:1)

But by then, the Flame of Love, the Kingdom of God, will be established in the hearts of the remnant—which is why after the exorcism of the dragon, St. John the Apostle hears in his vision:

Now have salvation and power come, and the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Anointed. For the accuser of our brothers is cast out… But woe to you, earth and sea, for the Devil has come down to you in great fury, for he knows he has but a short time. (Rev 12:10)

Giving his authority and power to the beast, the dragon will pursue the People of God through the lawless one. But whether they live or whether they die, they will reign with Christ in the new Era. [7]



A WORD OF ENCOURAGEMENT

At this moment, many of you may be feeling afraid, confused, and even terrified as the world rapidly enters into one of the darkest parts of the Storm. But there is a grace coming, and already available, that will conquer and repel evil such that the world has never seen before. At Fatima, Our Lady promised that her Immaculate Heart would be our refuge. Of the Flame of Love, Jesus said to Elizabeth: My mother’s Flame of Love is for you what Noah’s Ark was for Noah!

Once Jesus gave His fiat in Gethsemane, an angel was sent to strengthen Him. This is the hour of the Church’s Gethsemane. We have to go through this stripping, this testing where we may feel alone, isolated, afraid to suffer, to be persecuted—we have to follow in Jesus’ footsteps. But like Him, we too will be strengthened. Our Lady is like that angel and she is coming with the grace of the Flame of her Immaculate Heart, with Jesus Himself through the power of the Holy Spirit.

This past week, I went through a terrible darkness. I felt tremendous doubts, surges of fear, despair, terror, and abandonment. But then a few mornings ago… she came. Our Lady’s presence was so beautiful, so powerful, so gentle, so in control, so reassuring, so consoling…. how does one find words? I guess in a word I could say, she was and is a soul consumed with Jesus. She reassured me and left me filled with new strength, courage, and trust in the Lord.

I share this personal experience with you to encourage you that she is coming to be with every one of us. She is your Mother! Be patient; remain in Gethsemane; give your total “yes” to God; prepare your “jar” through prayer, [8] and wait for her to come and place a horn and a Torch in your hands and heart.

The New Gideon is coming to lead us to Triumph.

From this moment forward, add the following verse to
each “Hail Mary” you will be reciting:
“Spread the effect of grace of thy Flame of Love over all of humanity.”
—Our Lady to Elizabeth Kindelmann

 

I'm crying with you Sparrow, for our beloved Country