Saint Peter didn’t take the Keys of the Kingdom with him when he gave his life in witness to the Lord.
Saint Peter left those Keys with his successors, who provide them to bishops and to priests.
They use them especially in Sacramental Confession.
If you want the Pearly Gates of Heaven opened for you by those Keys: Go to Confession!
Meanwhile, our Confessional at Prince of Peace got an upgrade. I hope it lasts for a little while anyway.
I took off the old “megaphone” hollow closet door, bought a new door, circular-sawed it down to size (the width of blade along the side and the top), then bought and set about cutting up heavy ceiling tiles and attaching those to the door with washered-screws, adding a “bumper” in the front of the door over against smash-everything-in-sight-vacuum-cleaners, and then also an under-door sweep in the back, all of this making the Confessional rather sound-proof. Finally.
Then an appropriate San Damiano Crucifix image dear to my heart went up on the door to assist people in choosing not to lean against the soft ceiling tiles on the door should there be standing room only (very rare, that). The image is from a friend who died decades ago, who helped me with my thesis. He was great with cuneiform mud-writing of very many millennia ago.
Let’s take a look at the bottom:
Ready to go! People are better at going to Confession when they see that the priest doesn’t use the Confessional as a broom closet, but rather spruces it up in honor of the Sacred Mysteries of our Lord’s Mercy being applied therein. And in helps really, really a lot if the priest preaches up Confession and talks about how much he himself loves going to Confession.
There’s much more I’d like to do as time goes on. Right away after I came to the parish, we added an interior wall and Confessional screen. It used to be – I’m not kidding – a shower curtain hung on a window curtain rod by wires from the ceiling. We have to choose to get over the catastrophe post-Vatican II, and start getting back to the basics. We gotta make it to heaven.
So, while trying to get some sleep last night I listened to the document Dignitas infinita on my Android phone, using the always annoying text-to-speech app [settings / accessibility / select-to-speak]. What I noted is that there are constant contradictions throughout this weirdly self-cancelling document.
It’s obvious that there are a number of “voices”, mumblings in meetings, contributions by committee members which had to be included but only grudgingly, and which are not well integrated, to the point that you can name the source of this or that paragraph as coming from Cardinal “Tom”, or Father “Dick”, or Sister “Harriette”, none of them always agreeing with each other. After all, it’s a dicastery of dialoguers (appointed people), not a congregating specifically of member Cardinals, right?
I offered the painful agony of the experience of listening to this document for the souls in purgatory. I couldn’t endure physically reading it. The document is so annoying. Everything in the context of the document is wrong, including every “the” and “and”, while the contradictions pile up.*
The perverted wishful thinking in Dignitas infinita is universal salvation: everyone, without any exception, retains infinite dignity in eternity in heaven regardless of any moral defect whatsoever, even actively hating God and neighbor in eternity in heaven, forever trying to murder everyone and lie to everyone in eternity in heaven.
“But Father George! Father George! That doesn’t make sense and I gotta make it make sense or I’ll just up and die!”
Look: Error is such because you can’t make sense of it. Don’t try. If you succeed, you will be in error. Accept the fact that some people even want to share their error with you. There’s Judas, right? We’re not entitled to have no Judas among us. Are we then betrayed. Yes. Rejoice that you can stand with Jesus. If you willingly, knowingly want to be in error by rationalizing it, you risk going to hell. Don’t do that. You’ll need to go to Sacramental Confession because you will, objectively speaking, have lost your dignity altogether.
The corollary for this theoretical error is, of course, practical error, blessing sin, because, well, error and all that. God doesn’t bless sin. No priest can force God to bless sin. If a priest were to attempt to bless sin, to force God to bless sin, he will risk going straight to hell, you know, speaking objectively. He will need to go to Sacramental Confession because he will have actually lost his dignity altogether.
The summary corollary for all this error is that there is no sin, no salvation, no Savior, no religion, but only a fraternity of dark and violent arrogance cutting everyone off from God and from each other, and then calling that eternal dignity in heaven, you know, because, well, error and all that. Such people have a desperate need to repent and go to Sacramental Confession. Our Lord says that those who deny Him will be denied by Him before our Heavenly Father, they having lost their dignity at that point forever. There’s nothing infinite or heavenly about lost dignity. It’s hell.
By the way: don’t despair; don’t leave the Church; don’t abandon Jesus; don’t let the knuckleheads get you down so that you attempt to use them as an excuse for thus hating God and neighbor. Tough it out, and… and… meanwhile, rejoice, because you are being given an opportunity to be crucified with Jesus. He knows well what this is all about. Been there. Done that. Be the little child trusting in Jesus within the mantle of Immaculate Mary.
If you bother to read the document (I don’t recommend it but the link is up top), you’ll notice that it races from half-baked morality, reminiscences of natural law, all the way to the mere ethics (customs of fallen-human-nature imposed by elitists), the customs of, by definition, going along to get along with no foundation of that being a creature with free will before His Creator and all the obligations that such free will before God entails. There is, in all of this mere political correctness, no moral imperative of “Love one another AS I have loved you” with a crucified love, with God’s love, but merely a casuistic, condescending and pandering scolding for that which relatively makes these people feel uncomfortable for whatever unrepeatable nanosecond, a scolding that all can even laudably ignore because -Hey! – we all have infinite dignity forever in heaven no matter what! Again, if you think that doesn’t make sense, know that it doesn’t. Don’t try to make sense of it. All of this is pure evil.
Examples? While the rights of, say, the disabled are touted, the executioners of the disabled in the Third Reich T-4 program to eliminate all the disabled in gas-chambers and ovens are canonized with the infinite dignity thingy that continues in eternity in heaven even while they forever actively hate God and neighbor, continuing with their murdering and lying in heaven. “Infinite dignity” is a license to murder, to hate, to lie. Does that sound like dignity? Again, don’t try to make sense of it.
It comes down to power, the power to shake one’s fist at God and neighbor, the power to go to hell. That’s not power, but such people think it is. Feel the adrenaline while executing the innocent! Hey! Heaven and hatred at the same time! Yay! /// off sarcasm
“Oh! That’s really evil” the document exclaims, but then repeats that no one ever loses their dignity, not in any circumstance, not amidst the accomplishment of any evil. Again, this doesn’t make sense. Don’t try to make it make sense or you will end up in hell, because, you know… Feel the adrenaline, the power of shaking your fist at God and neighbor. But then, the nanosecond you die…
Summary: the whole document comes across as someone trying to get out of being condemned to hell forever with no dignity whatsoever, thus desperately coming up with excuses from within themselves as reasons why they shouldn’t be condemned, you know, like Narcissus seeing his reflection in the water, finding the totality of the reason for his existence in the reflection of himself. I dunno. It’s a question people can ask themselves…
Recommendation: If that’s what you’re doing, get your hide off to Sacramental Confession. Go to Jesus and have your sins forgiven. Do it now while you have the chance. And don’t sin again!
My own penance given to me in Sacramental Confession the other day: Five reps of the Lord’s Prayer. Thank you, Jesus.
Monitum: Footnote (1) of Dignitas infinita blames JPII for this heretical phrase. It’s a lie. That’s for another post. What they did in blaming JPII for this is very terrible.
– * – A few days ago I cited a couple of paragraphs about human trafficking which were entirely correct. I did that as ammunition, however cynical, however ironic, against the traffickers. Je suis un enfant terrible. See: Dignitas infinita and human trafficking.
Such an admonishment is posted in sacristies of the Missionaries of Charity all over the world.
Too bad there’s an underlying heresy. There’s an implication that the Holy Mass the priest is about to offer is NOT the first, last and only Mass they are about to offer. But it is.
For there is only one Last Supper united with Calvary, the Wedding Feast of the Lamb whose wedding vows to His Immaculate Bride, the Church – This is my Body being given for you in Sacrifice – my Blood being poured out for you in Sacrifice – constitute our once-for-all Redemption, the source of our Salvation.
Holy Mass is not some kind of re-presentation of the Last Supper. It IS the Last Supper.
Meanwhile, when a priest himself goes many times to Sacramental Confession – although each Confession is a different event, with different sins, with differing quality of contrition, he is nevertheless kneeling before the one Sacrifice of Jesus, in that One Hour to which Christ Jesus draws us from the entire breadth of time. He then commands the Father: Father! Forgive them!
Hopefully, the priest is in humble thanksgiving for having been forgiven by Jesus even as he offers that one Holy Sacrifice.
Yesterday, the penance I received for my Sacramental Confession was to recite the Hail Holy Queen.
I must say, I prepared for that Confession as if it were my first and only Confession, as if it were the last Sacramental Confession I will ever make until the Lord calls me before Him to render an account.
Now it is time to run to the Most Blessed Sacrament to beg for the grace to go and not sin again, overwhelmed before Jesus who has lays down His life for me in His Holy Sacrifice, with me begging for that grace though in my life I have surely prostituted myself at this time or that to political correctness in this way or that.
Now it is time to run to the Most Blessed Sacrament, to beg for the grace of Dominic Savio’s “Death before sin!” though I hardly have the slightest smidgeon of his tremendous courage, his being with heaven while smashing down hell.
Now is the time to run to the Most Blessed Sacrament to be one with Jesus in His concern for His dearest Immaculate Mother, desiring to offer, however ineptly, awkwardly, reparation for all the outrages, sacrileges and indifferences that so offend her Immaculate Heart.
For you and for the many for the forgiveness of sin…
That video is just three and a half minutes. This is all entirely consonant with Fatima with such an emphasis on the family by way of the Holy Family. If you are familiar with the references made, this is not flowery on the one hand nor exaggerated on the other, but is entirely consonant with Sacred Scripture. Regardless of the veracity of Father Rodrigue, the words ring true.
Note on vocabulary: There is mention of spiritual amaurosis (ἀμαύρωσις): spiritual darkening.
Of course, Rome, at present, hates apparitions, locutions, anything that has any reference to anything such as darkness and the kind of punishment for sin that is meant to bring one to repentance. That, it is said, is a sign that an apparition, locution, whatever, is false. Really? Is all of Sacred Scripture also false? Is the Holy Spirit who inspired the Sacred Scriptures also false? Is Jesus false? Too sad, that.
Just to say, Father Michel Rodrigue is incardinated into the Diocese of Amos, in Ontario. He is in good standing. Has all his priestly faculties, using them for a ministry backed by his own bishop. Another diocese, that of Hearst-Moosonee, in Quebec, does not provide approval, but provides a rather carefully worded “disavowal”, which is to say, a personal shunning of the messages. But that other bishop doesn’t condemn anything, as that would not be within his capacities, being in another diocese in another province. He does claim that Father Rodrigue’s own bishop strongly denied any support of any messages and prophesies. I note that any lack of support does not mean condemnation. I would add that Father Rodrigue seems to be entirely obedient to his bishop. He says he shares everything with his bishop. That’s a good sign. You have to know Church politics. That Father Rodrigue’s own diocese also published the note of the other bishop (most likely with the joyous laughter and humble agreement of Father Rodrigue), that publishing is just a way to stay out of trouble with the other bishop and, for that matter, Rome, which, as I say, is death on anything from anyone that would uphold the truth of Sacred Scripture (such as Daniel, Matthew 24, Apocalypse) in any way whatsoever.
Is the description “official exorcist of the Church” referring to Father Rodrigue as a seminarian getting the Traditional minor order of exorcist? Did anyone ask him that? Traditionalists? Did you?
Is that description a reference to his ever having been mandated ad hoc for this or that particular case in this or that (arch)diocese, so that he was an official exorcist of the Church for that time?
Has he been to other places where he has also been mandated as an exorcist for this or that case, and actively mandated at the time of the statement, would he be wrong to state under fierce attack that he is an officially mandated exorcist of the Church? sigh…
I myself can say that I’ve been officially mandated as an exorcist right around the world, in this (arch)diocese or that, in Europe, Eastern Europe, North America… I couldn’t begin to count all the times. But I’ve never been made an exorcist into the future ad nutum episcopi, outside of this or that case, as called for. Might that also be the case of Father Rodrigue?
People also like to point out that Father Rodrigue was “wrong” about a certain prophesy regarding Benedict XVI. But was that prophesy predicated on a condition of prayers and sacrifice, just as we find with the famous “IF” of Fatima: “If people do not pray and offer reparation…” Why do some automatically think that absolutely no one ever would pray and offer reparation? If that’s what they think, they are also calling our Lady a fool to request prayer and reparation, making those conditions, right?
So, with that cleanser of internet troll talk, let’s get back to that three and a half minute message in the video above. To me, it is… refreshing… regardless if one understands it as imagination or true. Father Rodrigue is all about not fretting, not worrying, but rather being calmly content with living in the grace of the Most Holy Trinity… sure, noticing things happening round about as Jesus Himself bids us to do, but, you know, emphasizing Padre Pio’s Pray, Hope and Don’t Worry.
What, I ask, is there in such things that people have to hyperventilate in anxiety? There are those who accuse Father of avoiding martyrdom. Look, I know nothing about any “refuges”. I’m really busy in my parish. But I don’t think that their purpose is to avoid the divine will for any member of the Lord’s Little Flock becoming a martyr, a witness to Jesus even at the cost of blood.
What I do know is that it is heresy to yell and scream and throw a tantrum forcing people to kill you more because you’re a nuisance rather than doing away with you as anyone faithful to God. Saint Thomas More put it well to Meg:
“Listen, Meg, God made the angels to show Him splendor, as He made animals for innocence and plants for their simplicity. But Man He made to serve Him wittily, in the tangle of his mind. If He suffers us to come to such a case that there is no escaping, then we may stand to our tackle as best we can, and, yes, Meg, then we can clamor like champions, if we have the spittle for it. But it’s God’s part, not our own, to bring ourselves to such a pass. Our natural business lies in escaping. If I can take the oath, I will.”
Did Jesus Himself bait the knuckleheads to kill Him? Sure. But He also escaped them, walked through their midst, leaving, until His hour should come.
Again, I rejoice in the message that Father Rodrigue has provided to us. There are very, very few in the world who are saying consistently that which is correct about doctrine, morality, instruction in the spiritual life, with reverent Liturgy. What’s this attack on him really all about?
Oh! I know what it is! There’s a reference to Sunday after Christmas and before the Octave of Christmas being the Feast of the Holy Family. That’s a reference to the Novus Ordo liturgical calendar, not that of 1962, or pre-’55, or whatever, and so…
The saints said not to criticize priests, saying this not to let them “get away with anything,” no, but if it’s a fake complaints made just to make the speaker into the guy with the moral high ground (who doesn’t offer due process), then, no, don’t criticize priests.
Why were the saints so severe about this reprimand? Because if you criticize a priest for no good reason, obviously just being merely politically correct, you will – guaranteed – stop people from going to confession who are just about to go. For myself, if I were on my way to hell, I would like to feel confident about going to Father Rodrigue for an absolution. I feel absolutely confident about Father Rodrigue.
Thanks Father Rodrigue, for putting up with your detractors and continuing as Jesus’ priest.
Here’s the image of the Holy Family I have up in my little rectory:
If you heard the first two messages, you can skip up to 4’11” in this video for this third. The full transcription is also there.
Here are three sentences that particularly struck me about the Great Sign of the Son of Man (see Mt 24:30 and Apocalypse 12:1ff. This is an illumination of conscience, a warning, for people to go to Sacramental Confession:
“The Truth that will descend radiant and beautiful into the hearts of My children once more, to illuminate their darkness, to dispel their despair, to crush all the lies that like cobwebs have enmeshed their hearts and their minds…
“My sons, I will send My Truth as the great Sign, as the great Light to enlighten the consciences of My children – that they may see how I see them – how I see each of you.
“When I act thus – in an instant, reaching from one end of the world to the other – your Priesthood will become in that instant a tremendous pillar and refuge for My children, who will come to you in multitude after multitude to receive My forgiveness and Mercy through you.”
Dear Fathers: Are your confessionals ready to take the multitudes coming your way?
Are you presently using your confessionals for brooms, vacuum cleaners and cleaning supplies?
Life will be easier for you if you train the Lord’s Little Flock to go to Sacramental Confession now.
Tell them to ask their guardian angels to enlighten their consciences now, you know, also about non-integral (therefore sacrilegious) confessions in the past, etc.
Fathers, have you been using invalid words of absolution, like, “Hey! Have a nice day!” or “May the Lord bless you and keep you!” or whatever else will ensure that the absolution is invalid? Almost to a priest, the Irish like to absolve God, saying, “I absolve you, Father, Son, Spirit,” instead of “I absolve you from your sins in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” You should start by going to confession and then start hearing confessions for real, with true absolutions. Do it now, or you will be crushed by the gravity of your betrayal of the Lord Jesus.
Seeing ourselves as God sees us, that’s pretty much a fatal experience, for that’s tantamount to seeing God in the face, and when that’s happening we can no longer be living in these mortal bodies.
On the one hand, any one in the state of sin will have a very difficult time. On the other hand, anyone in the state of grace will rejoice in being close to God, knowing what it means to be loved by God so very much, but will still have much to confess about what we haven’t previously known, such as the effects of sin on others. For priests that includes sins of omission, like not giving homilies / sermons that people need to hear because the priests are culpably not prepared to give.
There is no room for opinion when we stand before the Son of the Living God who is still bearing those wounds of Absolute Truth, Living Truth, Un-manipulatable Truth, the Divine Son of the Immaculate Conception.
Priests have to confess any denigration of doctrine, morality, instruction in the spiritual life, and lack of reverence in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. And then hear Confessions, by the zillion! Are you ready?
καὶ τότε φανήσεται τὸ σημεῖον τοῦ Υἱοῦ τοῦ ἀνθρώπου ἐν οὐρανῷ, καὶ τότε κόψονται πᾶσαι αἱ φυλαὶ τῆς γῆς.
And then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven, and then all the tribes of earth will be cut to shreds.
Now, that Sign of the Son of Man might well be the Cross, enormously, gloriously shining forth from heaven for all to witness, not able to be erased, destroyed, covered over. Alternatively:
And a great sign appeared in heaven, a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars.
Mind you, that woman, that Ark of the Covenant, is with-Child, Jesus. Is that woman the Sign of the Son of Man? She is the warrior woman of Genesis 3:15, the Mother of the Redeemer. She is the woman of Cana, whose hour of intercession for us will be on Calvary, where God marries His Bride, the Church. She is the woman under the Cross given to John, to us. She is the woman of the Apocalypse 12:1.
Either way, all the tribes of the earth will understand the intervention of God into this sinful world, and will know how offensive original sin is, how offensive our own sins are. We will be cut to shreds, κόψονται, the most intense grieving for sin.
Some will likely die of fright, though this is meant for our salvation, a great, great mercy bidding us to repent from sin, make reparation for sin, giving us time to go to confession.
But this will be, as is indicating by κόψονται, getting cut to shreds, a most overwhelming experience.
Is there a way to lessen the burden, the fright, and increase our capacity to repent and confess for the sake of our eternal salvation? Yes.
When you have some time, get a pen and paper and sincerely, humbly ask your guardian angel to assist you with an examination of conscience. Ask him to be gentle, as he will get the job done. Bring your list to Sacramental Confession of what he will bring to mind for you – like bolts of lightning – all the times even as a kid if you were incomplete in making a Confession, or ambiguous, or self-excusing.
I did this. Yes. Bolts of lightning is an apt description. I forgot to ask him to be gentle about it!
And then, while you will be cut to shreds by the Sign of the Son of Man, you will be thankful, and one with Jesus, just as the doubter, the Apostle Thomas was cut to shreds, I’m sure bursting into tears, when he had to place his fingers in the nail prints and his hand into the side, into the Heart of Jesus. “My Lord and my God.”
There is much talk these days about the warning, the illumination of conscience, from many apparition sites, whether fake or real. Regardless, this is in Sacred Scripture inspired by the Holy Spirit, from the very mouth of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Believe the Holy Spirit. Believe the Son of the Living God.
Do you still doubt even our Lord? Go ahead, ask your guardian angel to assist you with an examination of conscience. He will cut you to shreds. Better to do this now rather than later, this getting cut to shreds, so very helpfully, by your guardian angel.
Having done that, having gone to Confession, including all such things just as I was instructed by, as it were, the lightning coming my way, I am most appreciative. Thanks, guardian angel. Thanks be to God for the Sign in Heaven that is coming upon the whole world.
This is a picture of the storefront window of a religious goods store, which sent me an advertisement trying to sell angel statues.
Why are angels, biblically always depicted as blood and guts warriors, depicted today all wispy and chiffon and pastel and effeminate, or here, simply as female niceness? I’m quite sure angels, who are all about truth and justice, with extreme intelligence with their infused knowledge coupled with the wisdom resulting from seeing God in the face, God who is love, turning intelligence into wisdom, and with extreme power to provide one way or the other for us not only for our spiritual lives but in regard to the material universe, I’m quite sure that they will not appreciate being depicted with masks holding up a mockery of Saint Pio’s saying: “Pray, hope and don’t worry.” Notice that even that placard is presented as a mask with the typical ties hanging on the sides.
Sister Lucia recounted long after the events at Fatima that the visits of the angel preceding those of our Lady impressed them with a sense that their angelic visitor, however heavenly, was carrying the weight of the glory of the justice of the Most High, with that weight of the glory of God pushing them to their knees. In Hebrew, it’s interesting that the word for “glory” and the word for “weight” are the same.
Angels have much to say to us about our CONSCIENCES. Ask your guardian angel to assist you with humility. Ask your guardian angel to help you with an examination of conscience.
I remember a priest who liked to mock what he described (I’m paraphrasing) a childish saccharine prayer to one’s guardian angel:
Angel of God, my guardian dear, to whom God’s love commits me here, ever this day be at my side, to light and guard, to rule and guide.
I see nothing with that prayer (which I say all the time) other than asking one’s guardian angel to go ahead and crush oneself under the weight of the glory of God, you know, so as to die to oneself to live for Jesus. The question is, do we want to be open to how this powerful spiritual being deals with us?
Do you really want his light? If you ask him to enlighten your conscience, ask him to be gentle. He will about cut you to shreds. You want to make a good confession? Do this. Should you then see the Sign of the Son of Man in Heaven, when every one is being cut to shreds by the truth of how they stand before the Living God, you will have already been there, done that, and be able to hold your head high, as Jesus tells us to do. The translation of the Greek for Mt 24:30 refers to grieving because of seeing the Sign of the Son of Man in Heaven. The Greek has something akin to cut to shreds. Yep.
Do you really want him to guard you? He’ll do what is takes to guard you should you ask him, especially from from evil circumstances that will lead you to sin, bad friends with whom you will fall into sin… Just be sure to follow his indications. You’ll know. You gotta work together with him.
Do you really want him to rule you? He will insist. You have a conscience? He will use it. Are you good with that? Really?
Do you really want him to guide you? In our fallen human nature, we will rebel. To be led by an angel, right to heaven, we have to be the littlest of children, not thinking we know the way, but trusting in him, that angel, who already right now, Jesus says, sees the face of our Heavenly Father. Let’s see… this entails being… the littlest of children…
Given that we now have The Porn King, aka homosexualist Tucho-Boy, appointed by king-maker homosexualist Pope Francis, it’s time to make this past post on Biblical name calling all the more incisive. Hurling insults is so Jewish, so Catholic. Happy to do it. Please, though, understand that this is aimed at the conversion and salvation of Tucho-Boy and Pope Francis, for whom I pray.
Quite a number of priest-friends scattered throughout the world, at different times, in different places, appraising my blog, concluded that what I write is spot-on, all extremely exact, correct, BUT that I should watch my mouth, that I should be respectful. “Great!” thought I, thinking of Jesus and John and Ezekiel and Jeremiah and Paul… who cannot at all be said to be disrespectful of anyone.
LET’S START WITH EZEKIEL 23
That chapter is about God criticizing the political correctness of religious leaders to the ways of the world. Those in Jerusalem, male leaders all, are spoken about as being a woman lusting after handsome young soldiers (Ez 23:12), foreigners. That “woman”, aka Jerusalem, is a homosexualist, the whore of the world, whose homosexualist lust is described in this way:
“She lusted after her lovers, whose genitals were like those of donkeys and whose emission was like that of horses” (Ez 23:20).
And while Tucho-boy and Pope Francis call this love, it’s actually God telling such homosexualist, faithless religious leaders west of the Jordan river to F*** Off if that’s what they want. Yep. That’s inspired revelation regarding what God thinks about any one of us abandoning the faith so as to be politically correct with faithlessness. What’s in Ezekiel is what the Holy Spirit, God, Third Person of the Most Holy Trinity, inspired to be written there, exactly as it is.
To the homosexualist individuals in leadership positions in the Church: “F*** Off” is that’s what you want. THAT’S the Holy Spirit. THAT’S God taking us seriously. That’s God wanting to shake up the sinners to bring them back and convert them and save them and bring them to heaven… because God takes us seriously and graciously wants us in heaven.
In the midst of all this, I suggest not telling the Holy Spirit that He is inappropriate, or that He’s an old meanie and ought to be a man of consensus, just another homosexualist. Go ahead, read Ezekiel 23. Are you afraid? You’ll get to it later, much later? Lefties hate the Scriptures. Too much truth, too much of God taking us seriously, too much calling us to conversion, too much getting us on our way to heaven.
LET’S MOVE ON TO JEREMIAH 2:23-26
This is a hoot, surely also about our own days:
“How can you say, ‘I am not defiled; I have not run after the Baals’? Look at your behavior in the valley; acknowledge what you have done. You are a swift young she-camel galloping here and there, a wild donkey at home in the wilderness, sniffing the wind in the heat of her desire. Who can restrain her passion? All who seek her need not weary themselves; in mating season they will find her. You should have kept your feet from going bare and your throat from being thirsty. But you said, ‘It is hopeless! For I love foreign gods, and I must go after them.’ As the thief is ashamed when he is caught, so the house of Israel is disgraced. They, their kings, their officials, their priests, and their prophets…”
The tradition about Jeremiah’s death was that he was stoned to death by his co-religionists. Yep. The faithless church leaders of today would say that he deserved everything he got for not being a man of consensus, and then they will turn around and read from the Book of Jeremiah at Holy Mass, congratulating themselves for building shrines to the prophets.
SAINT JOHN THE BAPTIST
In the Gospel of Matthew we find the holy name-calling of the greatest of all the prophets, John the Baptist (3:7-12), he being a saint, with his name-calling geared to repentance and salvation of souls. Mind you, he does this precisely as the forerunner of Jesus:
“You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bear fruit that befits repentance, and do not presume to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father’; for I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children to Abraham. Even now the axe is laid to the root of the trees; every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. I baptize you with water for repentance, but he who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry; he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire. His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor and gather his wheat into the granary, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.”
This is the ultimate name-calling, this “Brood of Vipers” thing. What it means is that they are WILLINGLY possessed by Satan. That means they hate themselves, hate their neighbor, hate God. This name-calling is meant to convert them, right? “Bear fruit that befits repentance!” It’s all for their own good. John speaks the truth to them. John is taking them seriously. He will get his head cut off for behavior such as this. Mind you, he is the greatest of all the prophets.
JESUS
This is from Matthew 23:13-38. Again, this is the Divine Son of the Living God. Are you scandalized?
“But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! because you shut the kingdom of heaven against men; for you neither enter yourselves, nor allow those who would enter to go in.
Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for you traverse sea and land to make a single proselyte, and when he becomes a proselyte, you make him twice as much a child of hell as yourselves.
“Woe to you, blind guides, who say, If any one swears by the temple, it is nothing; but if any one swears by the gold of the temple, he is bound by his oath.’ You blind fools! For which is greater, the gold or the temple that has made the gold sacred? And you say, If any one swears by the altar, it is nothing; but if any one swears by the gift that is on the altar, he is bound by his oath.’ You blind men! For which is greater, the gift or the altar that makes the gift sacred? So he who swears by the altar, swears by it and by everything on it; and he who swears by the temple, swears by it and by him who dwells in it; and he who swears by heaven, swears by the throne of God and by him who sits upon it.
“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for you tithe mint and dill and cummin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law, justice and mercy and faith; these you ought to have done, without neglecting the others.
You blind guides, straining out a gnat and swallowing a camel!
“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for you cleanse the outside of the cup and of the plate, but inside they are full of extortion and rapacity.
You blind Pharisee! first cleanse the inside of the cup and of the plate, that the outside also may be clean.
“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for you are like whitewashed tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but within they are full of dead men’s bones and all uncleanness. So you also outwardly appear righteous to men, but within you are full of hypocrisy and iniquity.
“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for you build the tombs of the prophets and adorn the monuments of the righteous, saying, `If we had lived in the days of our fathers, we would not have taken part with them in shedding the blood of the prophets.’ Thus you witness against yourselves, that you are sons of those who murdered the prophets. Fill up, then, the measure of your fathers.
You serpents, you brood of vipers, how are you to escape being sentenced to hell?
Therefore I send you prophets and wise men and scribes, some of whom you will kill and crucify, and some you will scourge in your synagogues and persecute from town to town, that upon you may come all the righteous blood shed on earth, from the blood of innocent Abel to the blood of Zechariah the son of Barachiah, whom you murdered between the sanctuary and the altar. Truly, I say to you, all this will come upon this generation.
“O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, killing the prophets and stoning those who are sent to you! How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you would not! Behold, your house is forsaken and desolate.
Whew! Thank you, Jesus. And that thank you is to be voiced by those whom Jesus is criticizing, for it is a blessing to be reprimanded by God Most High.
Recall Herod, who clothed Jesus in a robe of royal purple to mock Jesus. Jesus had called Herod a fox. In Greek, both dog and fox, when used as an insult, refer to the female of the species, the bitch, which usage had the same connotation then as now. “Go and tell Herod, that bitch…” (see Lk 13:32). Yep. This is not Jesus being flippant for no reason. This is Jesus taking us deadly seriously. Herod would help send Jesus to His death.
SAINT PAUL
I remember a priest who told me years ago, reprimanding me:
“We are now beyond John. We are now beyond Jesus. They were then. We are now. We are better because we live today. We are a post-Ascension New Testament people. We’re men of consensus.”
Let’s see what Saint Paul says (Romans 1:18-32):
“For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and wickedness of men who by their wickedness suppress the truth. For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. Ever since the creation of the world his invisible nature, namely, his eternal power and deity, has been clearly perceived in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse; for although they knew God they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking and their senseless minds were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man or birds or animals or reptiles.
“Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed for ever! Amen.
“For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. Their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural, and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in their own persons the due penalty for their error. And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a base mind and to improper conduct.
“They were filled with all manner of wickedness, evil, covetousness, malice. Full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, malignity, they are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless.
“Though they know God’s decree that those who do such things deserve to die, they not only do them but approve those who practice them.”
Talk about name calling! Saint Paul says such things not because he is hateful, or “homophobic”, but because he loves all and is in anguish that all be saved, if possible. Recall his success in this new evangelization (1 Corinthians 6:9-11):
“Do you not know that the unjust will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; neither fornicators nor idolaters nor adulterers nor boy prostitutes nor practicing homosexuals nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor robbers will inherit the kingdom of God. That is what some of you used to be; but now you have had yourselves washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God.”
EZEKIEL
Is there a danger about the hypocrisy of a splinter in someone else’s eye while we have a beam in our own eyes? Yes, Jesus warned us about this as well. Some think that since we have all of us, you, me, all of us, put Jesus to death with our sins, that we cannot ever reprimand someone else. But this is just a bit too convenient. With full recognition of our own unworthiness, we can surely do this spiritual work of mercy. We had just better not forget how weak we ourselves are. Recall the frightening and yet hopeful words of Ezekiel 3:18-21:
“If I say to the wicked man, You shall surely die; and you do not warn him or speak out to dissuade him from his wicked conduct so that he may live: that wicked man shall die for his sin, but I will hold you responsible for his death.
If, on the other hand, you have warned the wicked man, yet he has not turned away from his evil nor from his wicked conduct, then he shall die for his sin, but you shall save your life.
If a virtuous man turns away from virtue and does wrong when I place a stumbling block before him, he shall die. He shall die for his sin, and his virtuous deeds shall not be remembered; but I will hold you responsible for his death if you did not warn him.
When, on the other hand, you have warned a virtuous man not to sin, and he has in fact not sinned, he shall surely live because of the warning, and you shall save your own life.
Having said all that, in the end, we are supposed to call ourselves names, like “sinner”, in confession.
Confession is great. It is there that we meet with a potential part of the virtue of justice, that is, mercy, as the Common Doctor says in his commentary on the sentences.
Don’t delay. I love going to confession. Because I’m such a sinner. But Jesus is very good, very kind, truthful, just, taking us deadly seriously so to get us out of hell and into heaven.
“But Father George! Father George! You’re calling people names! You’re an old meanie! You’re not accompanying people! Leave them in their sin, Father George! There is no sin anyway!”
So, to conclude in reprimand of some of the powers that be, we recall Saint Paul reprimanding Peter when Peter, manifestly notSaint Peter, instead stood condemned:
Galatians 2:11 – “When Cephas [=rock=Peter] came to Antioch, I [Paul] opposed him to his face, because he stood condemned.”
So, we have to fill in the blank for vocabulary. It’s entirely consonant that Paul would have called Peter a damnable reprobate. Remember, it is the Holy Spirit judging Peter as condemned, as a hellion. Talk about name calling!
Look, here’s how it is: reprimanding each other so that we might receive forgiveness and salvation from our Lord Jesus is so very Judeo-Catholic. This is what we do.
Holy name-calling is a spiritual work of mercy. We will be judged also on whether we have accomplished the spiritual works of mercy.
When’s the last time you called someone a name so as to shake them up and get them back to Jesus?
The following is a comment from another post that I’ve transferred here in hopes that many more will see it. It’s put together by Aussie Mum. The history of this little shepherd boy who heard the angels sing is of great inspiration to me. Thanks, Aussie Mum, for such a great Christmas gift. ///
Father Byers said, “The Rosary leads to the Most Blessed Sacrament”, and the life of Saint Francisco of Fatima attests to this. His many, many Rosaries led Francisco to make many, many Holy Hours.
In response to Our Lady’s 1st apparition (May 1917), when he was still 8 years old (born 11th June 1908), he crossed his hands over his heart and exclaimed, “Oh, my dear Our Lady! I’ll say as many rosaries as you want!”
Lucia tells us that “from then on, he made a habit of moving away from us, as though going for a walk. When we called him and asked him what he was doing, he raised his hand and showed me his rosary. If we told him to come and play, and say the rosary with us afterwards, he replied: ‘I’ll pray then as well. Don’t you remember that Our Lady said I must pray many rosaries?’” (p. 143)
Alongside those many rosaries grew-up a desire to be alone with Our Lord. For example, just a few days after Our Lady’s 1st visit, when the three children arrived at the place they would pasture their sheep that day, Francisco climbed up a steep rocky incline and called down to the the girls:
“Don’t come up here; let me stay here alone.”
“All right.” And off Lucia (aged 10) and Jacinta (aged 7) went chasing butterflies while the sheep grazed.
Later, when it was time for lunch and Francisco had not returned, they called him:
“Francisco, don’t you want to come for your lunch?”
“No, you eat.”
“And to pray the Rosary?”
“That, yes, later on. Call me again.”
When Lucia went to do so, he said:
“You come up here and pray with me.”
The girls did as he requested and climbed up to where he was. There was scarcely room for three to kneel but they managed and Lucia asked him:
“But what have you been doing all this time?”
“I am thinking about God, Who is so sad because of so many sins! If only I could give Him joy!” (p. 144)
Since Francisco desired solitude to pray and contemplate Our Lord, I tend to think he may have become a hermit if he had lived to adulthood. I think a hermitage like Father Byers had would have suited him very well.
Nine year old Francisco was speedily advancing in holiness and the devil unsuccessfully tried to put a stop to that. It was sometime after Our Lady’s 3rd visit in July. The girls were playing as the sheep grazed and as usual Francisco sought a secluded place. He found it in a hollow between some rocks and settled in. He had been there immersed in prayer and thinking about God for some time when the girls heard him shouting, and crying out to them and Our Lady.
“Where are you?” the girls called back.
“Here! Here!” Francisco answered.
Lucia describes the scene when they found him: He was “trembling with fright, still on his knees, and so upset that he was unable to rise to his feet.”
“What’s wrong? What happened to you?”
“It was one of those huge beasts that we saw in hell,” Francisco replied, “He was right here breathing out flames!” (p. 158)
All three children suffered much but only Francisco, as far as we know, was threatened by the demonic in person.
Then, in August, Our Lady’s 4th visit to the children was delayed by a few days because they were imprisoned by Portugal’s anti-Catholic government officials, and threatened with being boiled in oil if they did not deny the apparitions or tell the secret Our Lady had given them. They refused. Francisco was calm and courageous throughout. He did his best to comfort little Jacinta who wanted her parents and when she was taken away for interrogation he said to Lucia:
“If they kill us as they say, we’ll soon be in Heaven! How wonderful! Nothing else matters!” Then after a moment’s silence he added, “God grant that Jacinta won’t be afraid. I’m going to say a Hail Mary for her!” (p. 148)
All three children were finally allowed to return home. Even so, their lives and that of their parents and siblings continued being disrupted as a growing number of people – the pious as well as the curious – descended upon them.
Lucia’s father was the brother of Francisco and Jacinta’s mother, and their two families lived across the road from each other in Aljustrel, a hamlet just over a mile/2km from Fatima. Their homes were regularly invaded by people looking for the children, and crops were destroyed at the Cova da Iria (part of Lucia’s family’s farmland) as the crowds walked through the fields to see and some to pray where Our Lady had appeared. The constant intrusions negatively impacted the life and livelihood of both families. One result was that Francisco and Jacinta’s family sold their sheep.
Once the apparitions ended (October 1917) and with the three children devoid of a flock to shepherd, they were sent to school but Francisco did not always reach there due to his burning desire to be alone with Our Lord.
Lucia tells us that sometimes on their way to school, upon reaching Fatima, Francisco would say:
“Listen! You go to school, and I’ll stay here in the church, close to the Hidden Jesus. It’s not worth my while learning to read, as I’ll be going to Heaven very soon. On your way home, come here and call me.” (p. 156)
Francisco drew so close to Our Lord that his intercession gained miracles. One such miracle happened after Lucia was approached by her sister Teresa to appeal to Our Lady to save a woman’s son facing punishment for a crime he did not commit. The three children discussed the matter on their walk to school. When they arrived in Fatima, Francisco said to Lucia:
“Listen! While you go to school, I’ll stay with the Hidden Jesus, and I’ll ask Him for that grace.”
Meeting back up with Francisco after school, Lucia asked him:
“Did you pray to Our Lord to grant that grace?”
“Yes, I did. Tell your Teresa that he’ll be home in a few days’ time.”
And he was! (p. 161)
In October 1918, around the 1st anniversary of the Miracle of the Sun, Jacinta fell ill with influenza. Francisco soon followed yet continued his Holy Hours for as long as he could.
One day, when they were leaving for Fatima and school, Lucia noticed that Francisco was walking very slowly.
“What’s the matter?” she asked him. “You seem unable to walk!”
“I’ve such a bad headache, and I feel as though I’m going to fall.”
“Then don’t come. Stay at home!”
“l don’t want to. I’d rather stay in the church with the Hidden Jesus, while you go to school’.” (p.161)
Eventually, Francisco became so ill that he had to stay home but when Lucia dropped by on her way to school he would remind her:
“Look! Go to the church and give my love to the Hidden Jesus. What hurts me most is that I cannot go there myself …”
One day, Lucia walked home with a group of children from school. Stopping at Jacinta and Francisco’s home, she said goodbye to her companions and went in to to spend some time with her cousins. Having heard all the noise outside Francisco asked:
“Did you come with all that crowd?”
“Yes, I did.”
“Don’t go with them, because you might learn to commit sins. When you come out of school, go and stay for a little while near the Hidden Jesus, and afterwards come home by yourself.”
Another time Lucia asked him:
“Francisco, do you feel very sick?”
“I do, but I’m suffering to console Our Lord.”
On another occasion he said to Jacinta and Lucia when they entered his room:
“Don’t talk much today, as my head aches so badly.”
“Don’t forget to make the offering for sinners,” Jacinta reminded him.
“Yes. But first I make it to console Our Lord and Our Lady, and then, afterwards, for sinners and for the Holy Father,” he said.
When one day Lucia found him looking very happy when she arrived, she asked:
“Are you better?”
“No. I feel worse. It won’t be long now till I go to Heaven. When I’m there, I’m going to console Our Lord and Our Lady very much. Jacinta is going to pray a lot for sinners, for the Holy Father and for you. You will stay here, because Our Lady wants it that way. Listen, you must do everything that she tells you.” (p.157)
It was early morning when Francisco’s sister Teresa came urgently looking for Lucia:
“Come quickly to our house! Francisco is very bad, and says he wants to tell you something.”
When his family left his room at his request he said to Lucia:
“I am going to confession so that I can receive Holy Communion, and then die. I want you to tell me if you have seen me commit any sin, and then go and ask Jacinta if she has seen me commit any.”
“You disobeyed your mother a few times,’’ Lucia answered, “when she told you to stay at home, and you ran off to be with me or to go and hide.”
“That’s true. I remember that. Now go and ask Jacinta if she remembers anything else,” he directed her.
Jacinta thought for a while, then answered:
“Well, tell him that, before Our Lady appeared to us, he stole a coin from our father to buy a music box from José Marto of Casa Velha; and when the boys from Aljustrel threw stones at those from Boleiros he threw some too!”
When Lucia conveyed this message from his sister, Francisco replied:
“I’ve already confessed those, but I’ll do so again. Maybe, it is because of these sins that I committed that Our Lord is so sad! But even if I don’t die, I’ll never commit them again. I’m heartily sorry for them now.”
Then joining his hands, he prayed: “O my Jesus, forgive us, save us from the fire of hell, lead all souls to Heaven, especially those who are most in need.”
Then he said to Lucia: “Now listen, you must also ask Our Lord to forgive me my sins.”
“I’ll ask that, don’t worry,” Lucia replied before adding, “If Our Lord had not forgiven them already, Our Lady would not have told Jacinta the other day that she was coming soon to take you to Heaven. Now, I’m going to Mass, and there I’ll pray to the Hidden Jesus for you.”
“Then, please ask Him to let the parish priest give me Holy Communion.”
“I certainly will,” Lucia assured him.
When Lucia next visited she “found him radiant with joy. He had made his confession, and the parish priest had promised to bring him Holy Communion the next day.” (pp. 164- 165)
Francisco received Holy Communion. The end was near and Jacinta and Lucia stayed by his bedside much of that day, praying the Rosary for him as he had asked. Realising Francisco could be dead before morning, Lucia said her goodbyes to him that night before going to her own home. He survived the night and died the next day, 4th April 1919, of complications due to the influenza he caught 6 months before. He was two months short of his 11th birthday. Jacinta would follow him 10 months later, also due to complications arising from influenza.
Note: All the page numbers given can be found at the link above containing Lucia’s memoirs.
In the life and death of Francisco (and Jacinta) Marto we see Our Lady’s promises fulfilled to those who pray the Rosary devoutly and apply themselves to the consideration of its sacred mysteries.
Wishing Father and everyone reading here at his website a happy and holy Christmas, and all the best for the New Year.
/// Having put up two Christmas posts early this morning, 25 December 2023, methinks I had better continue prayers lest Francisco throw a stone at me from heaven! Happy Christmas to all. Father G
ARISE! LET US BE GOING! 