The human being, 'a pilgrim of the Absolute' - Pope John Paul II

The human being, 'a pilgrim of the Absolute'


Human life on earth is a pilgrimage. We are all aware of being in transit in this world. Our lives begin and end, they start at birth and go on till the moment of death. We are transitory beings. And on life's pilgrimage religion helps us to live in such a way as to reach our true destination. We are constantly kept aware of the transitory nature of this life, which we know to be extremely important as the preparation for life eternal. Our pilgrim faith directs us towards God and guides us in discharging those choices which will help us to win eternal life. So, every moment of our earthly pilgrimage is important - important as to its challenges, as to the choices we make.

In the Revelation of the Old and New Covenants,we who live in the visible world amid temporal things are also deeply aware of God's presence penetrating every aspect of our lives. This living God is in fact our last and absolute bulwark amid all the trials and sufferings of earthly existence. We yearn to possess this God once and for all, the moment we experience his presence. We strive to attain the vision of his face. In the words of the psalmist 'As the heart longs for flowing streams, so my soul longs for you O God.'

While we strive to know God, to see his face and experience his presence, God turns to us to reveal his own life to us. The Second Vatican Council dwelt at length on the importance of God's activities in the world, explaining that 'with the divine revelation God wished to manifest and communicate himself and his will's eternal decrees with regard to the salvation of mankind.'
This notwithstanding, this merciful and loving God who communicates himself through Revelation still remains an inscrutable mystery to us. And we, pilgrims of the Absolute, keep seeking the face of God throughout our lives. But, at the end of the pilgrimage of faith, we reach 'the Father's house', and being in this house' means seeing God face to face' (1 Corinthians 13:12)."

From the very beginning the human race has been called by God 'to subdue the earth and master it' (Genesis 1:28). We have received this earth from the Lord as a gift and as a responsibility. Made in his image and likeness, we have a special dignity. We are master and lord of the good things placed by the Creator in what he has made. We are collaborators with our Creator.

This being so, we for our part must never forget that all the good things that fill the created world are the Creator's gift. For so Holy Scripture advises us: 'Beware of thinking for yourself, "My own strength and the might of my own hand have given me the power to act like this." Remember the Lord your God; he was the one who gave you the strength to acquire riches, so as to keep, as he does today, the covenant which he swore to your ancestors' (Deuteronomy 8:17-18).

How apposite this advice has been in the course of human history! How especially apposite it is at the present day, with our progress in science and technology! For as we contemplate our brilliant achievements, the works of our mind and of our hands, we seem to grow more and more forgetful of him who is the author of all these works and of all the good things which the earth and the created world contain. The more we subdue the earth and master it, the more we seem to forget the Lord who has given us the earth and all the good things it contains.

love of truth is love of Christ - Pope John Paul II

Love of truth is love of Christ

There is a pollution of ideas and manners that can lead to human destruction. The pollution is sin, which generates falsehood.

Truth and falsehood. We must realize that falsehood very often presents itself to us under the garb of truth. Our discernment has to be the sharper, therefore, so that we can recognize the truth, the word that comes from God, and shun the temptations that come from the Father of Lies. I have in mind that sin which consists in denying God, in rejecting the light. As it says in St. John's Gospel, ' the true light' was in the world: the Word 'by whom the world was made but whom the world did not acknowledge (cf John 1:9 - 10).

' The truth contained in the Father's word. ' Yes, that is what we ought to say when we recognize Jesus Christ as the Truth. 'What is Truth?' Pilate asked Him. Pilate's tragedy was that he had the Truth in front of him in the person of Jesus Christ and couldn't recognize it.

This tragedy must not be repeated in our own lives. Christ is the centre of the Christian faith which the Church proclaims today as she has always done, to every man and woman. God was made man. 'The Word became flesh and dwelt among us' (John 1:14). In Jesus Christ the eye of faith beholds the human being as it can be and as God wishes it to be. At the same time Jesus reveals the Father's love for us. But the Truth is Jesus Christ. Love the Truth! live in the Truth! Carry the Truth to the world! Be witnessed to the Truth. Jesus is the Truth that saves; he is the whole Truth to which the Spirit of Truth will leads us (cf. John 16:13).

Dear young people, let us seek the truth about Christ and about his Church! but we must be consistent: let us love the Truth, live in the Truth, proclaim the Truth! O Christ, show us the Truth. Be the only Truth for us!'

Christian Faith and courage in life - Pope John Paul II

Christian Faith and courage in life

We have to make a conscious decision that we mean to be professing Christians, and we must have the courage to be different, if need be, from other members of our social group. Our decision to bear Christian witness presupposes that we perceive and understand the faith as a precious opportunity in life, transcending the views and manners of our environment. We must take every opportunity to experience how the Faith can enrich our existence, make us genuinely steadfast in the struggle for life, strengthen our hope against attacks of every kind of pessimism and despair, and prompt us to avoid all extremism and to commit ourselves thoughtfully to furthering justice and peace in the world; lastly, the Faith can console and cheer us in sorrow. And so it is our task and opportunity in this diaspora situation to experience more consciously how the Faith can helps us to live more fully and more deeply.

The first thing i want to offer you is an invitation to optimism, hope and trust. Certainly, the human race is going through a difficult patch, and we often have a painful impression that the forces of evil, in many manifestations of social life, have got the upper hand. All too often honesty, justice and respect for human dignity have to mark time or seem to be on their last legs. And yet, we are called to overcome the world by our faith (cf John 5:4), since we belong to him who by his death and resurrection obtained for every one of us the victory over sin and death, and so has made us able to affirm humbly, serenely but certainly, that good will triumph over evil.

We belong to Christ and it is he who conquers in us. We must believe this deeply; we must live this certainty. If we do not, through the problems which are constantly arising those insidious beasts called discouragement at, tolerance of , and supine adaptation to the arrogance of evil will worm their way into our souls.

The subtlest temptation afflicting Christians today, and especially young people, is precisely that of giving up hope in Christ's affirmation of victory. The author of all guile, the Evil One, has long been fiercely committed to dowsing the light of this hope in each individual heart. It is no easy path - that of the Christian soldier. But we must follow it, knowing that we possess an inner strength for transformation, communicated to us with the divine life that we have been given in Christ the Lord. BY your witness, you will make others understand that the highest of human values are taken up in a Christianity lived consistently, and that the Gospel faith not only offers a new vision of humanity and the world, but more important still, makes it possible to bring this renewal about.

Encounter with God in Jesus Christ in the Church - Pope John Paul II

Encounter with God in Jesus Christ in the Church

Opinions, private points of view and speculations no longer suffice for anyone weighing up their effect on the course of human life, and whose respect for humanity is awake. They certainly do not satisfy anyone who is conscious of being able to arrive by means of theological responses at the first cause of truth. God has manifested his word to us. We cannot find it and grasp it unaided by the power of our intellect alone, however much may be conceded to our diligence in illuminating the credibility of this word and how it corresponds to our questions and to out various forms of human knowledge. It is in the inner logic of Revelation that the defence and interpretation of this word require the special gift of the Spirit. It follows, then, that the study of Catholic theology must always be subject to a willingness to listen to the binding testimony of the Church and to accept the decisions of those who, in their capacity as pastors of the Church, are responsible before God for protecting the deposit of faith.

Without the church, the word of God would not have been handed down and preserved; one cannot want God's word without the Church. Intellectual comprehension of the faith must of course be integrated with another aspect: the faith, besides being known, must be lived. In the New Testament itself a faith based uniquely on knowing would be rejected as a perversion. For example, according to the Letter of St James, the demonic forces know the One God but, since they do not accept this knowledge with their inner nature, all that remains for them is to tremble before this God. For them punishment not salvation is in store (Cf James 2:19)
When God addresses his word to us, he does not tell us some fact about things or other people; he does not communicate something - he communicates himself. Thus God's word demands a response, which ought to be given with our entire person. The reality of God eludes those who confine themselves to thinking of his word and of his truth only as objects of impartial research. On the contrary, the way to draw near to God as God is by worship alone. One of the great mystics, Meister Eckhart, used to urge his listeners ' to get rid of the imaged God'. If God remains purely and simply 'he', we remain alone and empty. god gives himself to us as 'you'. We only find him when we too say 'you'. It follows, as Eckhart used to say, that we ought to have God present 'in our heart, in our search and in our love'.

Learn to know Christ and make yourselves known to him! he knows each one of you individually. this is no knowledge giving rise to opposition and rebellion, a knowledge from which one needs to flee in order to safeguard one's own personal mystery. This is no knowledge composed of hypotheses which reduce human being to socio-utilitarin dimensions. His is a knowledge full of simple truth about human nature and, above all, full of love. Submit to being known by the Good Shepherd, his knowledge is simple and full of love. Be sure, he knows each of you better than you know yourselves. He knows because he has given his life for you (John 15:13) Allow him to find you. At times people, young people, lose their bearing in the world surrounding them, in the vast network of human affairs enveloping them. Allow Christ to find you. Let him know all about you, let him guide you. True, in order to follow someone, you must at the same time make demands on yourself; such is the law of friendship. If we wish to travel together, we shall have to give thought to the road we are taking. if it leads up into the mountains, we shall have to follow the signposts. If we have to climb a mountain, we must not leave the rope behind. And besides, we must keep in contact with our divine Friend whose name is Jesus Christ. We have to co-operate with him.

Worshippers at Malad church attacked (India)

Worshippers at Malad church attacked, 2 detained
TNN, Aug 2, 2010, 01.44am IST

MUMBAI: Eight persons allegedly ransacked St Emmanuel in Orlem, Malad (W) on Sunday evening. Joseph Dias, secretary, Catholic Secular Forum, said that the men, who were drunk, barged into the church when a prayer meeting was on.

The accused allegedly started molesting the women in the congregation. When the women objected, the accused beat up the worshippers.

Ponkumar Nadar, who sustained serious injuries, was taken to Bhagwati Hospital. The others were undergoing treatment at a private hospital.

The Malwani police has detained two persons. Abraham Mathai, vice-chairman, state minorities commission, said the police should carry out an impartial probe.

The crisis in Catholic Christian faith - Pope John Paul II

The crisis in Catholic Christian faith

Even among many Catholics who still identify themselves as such, there is a remarkable weakening of faith in God as a person, and consequently of faith in Christ as Son of God. They also fail to see the Church as a sacrament, an objective, not-to-be- manipulated gift from him. This is why, all too often, interior life or spirituality is equated with philanthropy and socio-political action in the cause of peace, justice, ecology and so forth, and why some people regard prayer, meditation and lectio divina as lacking particular importance.

Some lay people too, engaged in parochial, diocesan and national church structures, exhibit this secularized forma mentis, as also do some males and female religious who get more and more involved in social mission, which they often identify with their actual work as missionaries.

The publication of the new Cathecism of the Catholic Church cannot fail to reassure and strengthen those of the faithful who have lost their bearings in the theological fragment of these latter years, and to bring back to the genuine sources of the faith those who have gone astray after false prophets.

In point of fact, studying theology, being a believer and feeling onself to be an active member of the Church are three components which students sometimes find hard to integrate into their lives. We must not over dramatize this: to go through crisis can even be salutary and positive, inasmuch as it can make one's faith more mature and foster responsible Church membership. For this to happen, however, there must be careful pastoral support.

Rejecting the truth - Pope John Paul II

Rejecting the truth

The mystery of iniquity, the forsaking of God, has, according to the words of St. Paul's letter, a well- defined inner structure and dynamic sequence: ' the wicked one will appear, who raises himself above every so called God or object of worship to enthrone himself in God's sanctuary and flaunts the claim that he is God' (2 Thessalonians 2:3-4)
Here we find an inner structure of negation, of the uprooting of God from people's hearts and the forsaking of God by human society: and all this with the aim, as is commonly said, of a full 'humanization' of the human being - that is to say, of making the human person human in the full sense and , in a certain way, putting the human being in the place of God, thus 'deifying' humanity. this structure, of course, is very ancient; it has been known since the beginning of the world, from the first chapter of Genesis; I mean the temptation to confer the Creator's 'divinity' on human beings (made in God's image and likeness), to take God's place, with the 'divinization' of humanity against God or without God, as is clear from the atheistic statements of many of today's systems.
Those who reject the fundamental truth of things, who set themselves up as a yardstick for everything, and thus put themselves in God's place; who more or less consciously think they can do without God, the Creator of the world or without Christ, the Redeemer of the human race; who instead of seeking God run back to idols, will always turn their backs on the one supreme and fundamental truth.

Pope John Paul II - Faith and Reason

Faith and Reason

Between a reason which, in conformity with its own nature that comes to it from God, is directed to the truth and is accustomed to know what is true, and a faith which reinforces itself at the selfsame divine source of every truth, no basic conflict can arise. for rather, faith confirms the rights which are proper to natural reason. it presupposes them. For its acceptance presupposes that freedom which is proper only to a rational being. that said, it is nonetheless true that faith and science belong to two different orders of knowledge, which cannot be superimposed the one on the other. And here, furthermore, it becomes plain that reason cannot do everything of itself; it is finite. It has to be embodied in a multiplicity of partial types of knowledge and is expressed in a plurality of individual sciences. It can grasp the unity binding the world and truth to their origins only within partial modes of knowledge. In so far as they are sciences, even philosophy and theology are limited attempts that can only grasp the complex unity of truth in its diversity - that is, within a latticework of open and complementary kinds of knowledge.

The 'learned' and the 'clever' have worked out their own view of God and the world, and they are disinclined to change it. They believe that they know all there is to know about God , that they have the final answer, that they have nothing more to learn. And This is why they reject 'the good news', for its strikes them as quite alien and conflicting with the main tenets of their Weltanschauung. The Gospel message proposes certain paradoxical reversals which their 'common sense' cannot accept.

As it was in the day of Jesus, so it is today, and yet today in perhaps a very particular way. We live in a culture which subjects everything to critical analysis, and which does this while often regarding partial criteria as absolute. By their very nature these criteria are unsuitable for perceiving the world of realities and values which eludes verification by the senses.

Christ didn't ask us to give up our reason. How indeed could he, since it as he who gave it to us? What He does ask is that we should not give in to the Tempter's old suggestion that we can be 'like God' (cf Genesis 3:5)

Only those who accept their intellectual and moral limitations and recognize their need for salvation can make themselves once more open to faith and in faith encounter, in Christ, their redeemer.

The Galileo case: science and faith - Pope John Paul II

The Galileo case: science and faith

From the century of the Enlightenment down to our own today, the Galileo case has been a kind of myth in which the account of what happened has been very remote from the facts. Seen like this, the Galileo case was a symbol of the alleged rejection of scientific progress by the Church, or of 'dogmatic' obscurantism opposed to the free quest for truth. Culturally speaking, this myth has played a considerable role; it has helped to wed many scientist, acting in good faith, to the idea that the scientific spirit and its research ethic are incompatible with the Christian religion. A tragic mutual incomprehension has been construed as reflecting a constitutive opposition between science and faith. Clarifications afforded by recent historical studies allow us to state that this unhappy misunderstanding is now a thing of the past.

Galileo, who virtually invented the experimental method, had understood, through his brilliant physicist's intuition and by relying on various lines of reasoning, why only the sun could act as the centre of the world as it was then known, or as we should say, of the planetary system. The error of the theologians of the day in upholding the centrality of the earth was that of the thinking that our knowledge of the structure of the physical world is in some way imposed by the literal sense of Holy Scripture. But we should remember the famous quip attributed to Baronius: ' Spiritui Sancto mentem fuisse nos docere quomodo ad coelum eatur, non quomodo coelum gradiatur.' For the fact is, Scpriture is not concerned with the details of the physical world, knowledge of which is entrusted to human experience and reasoning. There are two fields of knowledge: that which has its source in Revelation, and that which reason can discover by its own efforts. To this last belong the experimental sciences and philosophy. The distinction between the two fields of knowledge must not be understood as opposition. The two sectors are not at all aligned to one another, but have points in contact. The methodologies proper to each allow different aspect of reality to be brought to light.

I am Happy to take as the starting point for my reflection one of the bronze inscriptions unveiled here today: " Science and faith are both gifts of God". This synthesizing statement not only precludes science and faith from regarding each other with mutual suspicion, but points out the deeper reason summoning them to establish a constructive and cordial relationship: God, the common foundation of both... In God therefore, despite their different paths, science and faith find their unifying principle.

If human life incurs enormous dangers today, this is not because of the truth discovered by scientific research; rather, it is due to the deadly application of technology. ' As in the time of spears and swords, so in the age of missiles,' the Holy Father said, quoting another inscription in the Centro Majorana: 'First to perish by these weapons if the human heart."

The tragedy of atheism - Pope John Paul II

Today, in the world, and especially in our Western world, we realize the need 'to rebuild', in its essential components, a civilization truly worthy of human beings. Economic inequalities which still subsist and which will gradually get worse, are symptomatic of deeper needs impinging on the spiritual sphere.

Materialistic ideologies on the one hand and moral permissiveness on the other have led many people to believe that it is possible to build a new and better society while excluding God and eliminating and reference to transcendental values. However, experience shows us all to clearly that, without God, society is dehumanized and the human person is deprived of his or her greatest riches. The closer human beings are to the Creator and Redeemer, the more truly human the future of the world will be.

Christianity does not deaden human nature but exalts its noblest potentialities, placing them at the service of the authentic progress of the individual and the community. 'In Christ, true man as well as true God, we can discover the full truth about ourselves and the purpose of our existence' (Redemptor hominis 11)

I urge you to preserve intact your faith in Jesus the Saviour, who died and rose again for us. Listen carefully to his Gospel, which the Church continues preaching to you with unchanging fidelity to what has been taught from the beginning. Bring up your children to obey the commandments, teaching them to ask God for the courage they will need to defy the dominant opinion, when this is in opposition to the Gospel. Do not be afraid to swim against the tide.

Today as never before the world has need of the newness of the Gospel, so as not to drown in the overwhelming conformism of mass civilization.

Some people claim to be seekers; others think of themselves as non-believers, or perhaps they are unable to believe or they are indifferent to religion. Others again reject a God whose face has been misrepresented to them. Others yet again, who are blinded by the outbursts of the 'philosophies of suspicion' which present religion as illusion or alienation, are sometimes tempted to construct a humanism without God.

I beg all of these people, in all fairness, at least to leave their windows open to God. Otherwise they are in danger of walking past the man in the street who is Christ, of cutting themselves off by the attitudes of revolt and violence, and of being satisfied with sighs, impotence and resignation. Sooner or later, a world without God is built against the human being.

Faith - by Pope John Paul II

The Difficulty of believing today

As we are well aware, contemporary civilization is permeated with different currents - not only Christian ones but alto anti-Christian, non-Christian, non religious and anti-religious ones. And sometimes these latter currents seem to dominate the thinking of contemporary society. This situation needs commitment if it is to be overcome: the commitment of all Christians who are aware of what it means to be a Christian. Christ says that his Father too has a 'culture', a culture in the deepest sense of the word: that culture which is the true perfection of the human spirit, its completeness in the natural, human sense and in the supernatural sense too.

It isn't easy to be authentic Christians in the context of modern society, with the strands of renascent paganism running through it. But it wasn't easy yesterday either, when circumstances were different. It is harder still to create a wider social environment inspired by the great Gospel Values. But we must strive to do this, putting our trust in the creative power that flows from the grace of the Risen Christ.

There are no types of society that can claim to be free of negative elements. Even roses have thorns.

Act of Consecration to the Most Precious Blood

Blood of Jesus, inebriate me! O Jesus, my Beloved Savior, ever present in the Tabernacle, to be the strength, the joy and the food of souls, I come to consecrate myself to Thy Precious Blood, and to pledge Thee my sincere love and fidelity. Pierced with sorrow at the remembrance of Thy sufferings, the contemplation of the Cross, and the thought of the outrages and contempt lavished by ungrateful souls upon Thy dear Blood, I long, O my Jesus, to bring joy to Thy Heart, and to make Thee forget my sins, and those of the whole world, by consecrating my body and soul to Thy service. I desire, my Jesus, to live henceforth, only by Thy Blood and for Thy Blood. I now choose It as my greatest treasure and the dearest object of my love.

O merciful Redeemer, deign to regard me as a perpetual adorer of Thy Most Precious Blood, and be pleased to accept my prayers, my deeds and my sacrifices, as so many acts of reparation and love.

Heavenly Wine, giver of purity and strength, pour down upon my soul. Make of my heart a living chalice from which grace shall constantly flow on those that love Thee, and especially on poor sinners that offend Thee. Teach me to honor Thee and to make Thee honored by others. Give me power to draw to Thee cold and hardened hearts, that they may feel how infinitely Thy consolations surpass those of the world.

O Blood of my Crucified Savior, detach me from the world, and the spirit of the world. Make me love suffering and sacrifice, after the example of St. Catherine of Sienna, who loved Thee so much [and whom I choose again today as my special patroness].

O Precious Blood, be my strength amid the trials and struggles of exile. Grant that at the hour of death I may be able to bless Thee for having been the comfort and the sanctification of my soul, before becoming, in Heaven, the everlasting object of my love and praise.

Saints of God, who owe thy happiness to the Blood of Jesus; Angelic spirits, who sing Its glory and power, august Virgin, who to It owest the privileges of thine Immaculate Conception and Divine Maternity, help me to pay to the Precious Blood of my Redeemer a perpetual homage of adoration, reparation and thanksgiving. Amen.

Gregorian - Pange lingua

Keeping with our theme on the Precious Blood of Our Lord Jesus Chirst, let us listen to this meditation in musical form.

Sing, my tongue, the Saviour's glory,
Of His Flesh the mystery sing;
Of the Blood, all price exceeding,
Shed by our immortal King,
Destined, for the world's redemption,
From a noble womb to spring.

Of a pure and spotless Virgin
Born for us on earth below,
He, as Man with man conversing,
Stay'd, the seeds of truth to sow;
Then He closed in solemn order
Wondrously His life of woe.

On the night of that Last Supper,
Seated with His chosen band,
He the Paschal victim eating,
First fulfils the Law's command;
Then, as Food to His Apostles
Gives Himself with His own hand.

Word made Flesh, the bread of nature
By His word to Flesh He turns;
Wine into His Blood He changes:-
What though sense no change discerns?
Only be the heart in earnest,
Faith her lesson quickly learns.

Therefore, we, before It bending,
This great Sacrament adore;
Types and shadows have their ending
In the new rite evermore:
Faith, our outward sense amending,
Maketh good defects before.

Honor, laud, and praise addressing
To the Father and the Son,
Might ascribe we, virtue, blessing,
And eternal benison:
Holy Ghost, from both progressing,
Equal laud to Thee be done. Amen.

The Two Companies

The following is an exceprt from the book 'Letter to the Friends of the Cross" by St. Louis De Montfort.

My dear brothers and sisters, there are two companies that appear before you each day: the followers of Christ and the followers of the world.

Our dear Saviour's company is on the right, climbing up a narrow road, made all the narrower by the world's immorality. Our Master leads the way, barefooted, crowned with thorns, covered with blood, and laden with a heavy cross. Those who follow him, though most valiant, are only a handful, either because his quiet voice is not heard amid the tumult of the world, or because people lack the courage to follow him in his poverty, sufferings, humiliations and other crosses which his servants must carry all the days of their life.

On the left hand is the company of the world or of the devil. This is far more numerous, more imposing and more illustrious, at least in appearance. Most of the fashionable people run to join it, all crowded together, although the road is wide and is continually being made wider than ever by the crowds that pour along it like a torrent. It is strewn with flowers, bordered with all kinds of amusements and attractions, and paved with gold and silver.

On the right, the little groups which follow Jesus speak about sorrow and penance, prayer and indifference to worldly things. They continually encourage one another saying, "Now is the time to suffer and to mourn, to pray and do penance, to live in retirement and poverty, to humble and mortify ourselves; for those who do not possess the spirit of Christ, which is the spirit of the cross, do not belong to him. Those who belong to Christ have crucified all self-indulgent passions and desires. We must be true images of Christ or be eternally lost."

"Have confidence," they say to each other. If God is on our side, within us and before us, who can be against us? He who is within us is stronger than the one who is in the world. The servant is not greater than his master. This slight and temporary distress we suffer will bring us a tremendous and everlasting glory. The number of those who will be saved is not as great as some people imagine. It is only the brave and the daring who take heaven by storm, where only those are crowned who strive to live according to the law of the Gospel and not according to the maxims of the world. Let us fight with all our strength, let us run with all speed, that we may attain our goal and win the crown.

Such are some of the heavenly counsels with which the Friends of the Cross inspire each other.

Those who follow the world, on the contrary, urge each other to continue in their evil ways without scruple, calling to one another day after day, "Let us eat and drink, sing and dance, and enjoy ourselves. God id good; he has not made us to damn us. He does not forbid us to amuse ourselves. We shall not be damned for so little. We are not to be scrupulous. 'No, you will not die'."

Dear brothers and sisters, remember that our loving Saviour has his eyes on you at this moment, and he says to each one of you individually, "See how almost everyone deserts me on the royal road of the Cross. Pagans in their blindness ridicule my Cross as foolishness; obstinate Jews are repelled by it as by an object of horror; heretics pull it down and break it to pieces as something contemptible.

"Even my own people - and I say this with tears in my eyes and grief in my heart - my own children whom I have brought up and instructed in my ways, my members whom I have quickened with my own Spirit, have turned their backs on me and forsaken me by becoming enemies of my Cross. 'Will you also go away?' Will you also desert me by running away from my Cross like the worldlings, who thus become so many antichrists? Will you also follow the world; despise the poverty of my Cross in order to seek after wealth; shun the sufferings of my Cross to look for enjoyment; avoid the humiliations of my Cross in order to chase after the honours of the world? 'There are many who pretend they are friends of mine and protest that they love me, but in their hearts they hate me. I have many friends of my table, but very few of my Cross.' (Imit. II, 11, 1)."

At this loving appeal of Jesus, let us rise above our human nature; let us not be seduced by our senses, as Eve was; but keep our eyes fixed on Jesus crucified, who leads us in our faith and brings it to perfection (Heb 12.2). Let us keep ourselves apart from the evil practices of the world; let us show our love for Jesus in the best way, that is, through all kinds of crosses. Reflect well on these remarkable words of our Saviour, "If anyone wants to be a follower of mine, let him renounce himself, and take up his cross and follow me" (Mt 16.24; Lk 9.23).

The Lanciano Miracle

In keeping with the theme of the month which is the Precious Blood of Christ, let us recall the miracle of Lanciano.

A Basilian monk, wise in the ways of the world, but not in the ways of faith, was having a trying time with his belief in the real presence of Our Lord Jesus in the Eucharist. He prayed constantly for relief from his doubts, and from the fear that he was losing his vocation. He suffered through the routine of his priesthood day after day, with these doubts gnawing at him.

The situation in the world did not help strengthen his faith. There were many heresies cropping up all the time, which kept chipping away at his faith. They were not all from outside the church either. Brother priests and bishops were victims of these heresies, and they were being spread throughout the church. This priest couldn't seem to help being more and more convinced by the logic of these heresies, especially the one concerning his particular problem, the physical presence of Jesus in the Eucharist.

One morning, while he was having a strong attack of doubt, he began the Consecration of the Mass for the people of the town. He used the same size host which is used in the Latin Rite masses today. What he beheld as he consecrated the bread and wine caused his hands to shake, indeed his whole body. He stood for a long time with his back to the people, and then slowly turned around to them.

He said; "O fortunate witnesses to whom the Blessed God, to confound my disbelief, has wished to reveal Himself in this Most Blessed Sacrament and to render Himself visible to our eyes.

Come, brethren, and marvel at our God so close to us. Behold the Flesh and Blood of our most beloved Christ." The host had turned into Flesh. The wine had turned into Blood.

The people, having witnessed the miracle for themselves, began to wail, asking for forgiveness, crying for mercy. Others began beating their breasts, confessing their sins, declaring themselves unworthy to witness such a miracle. Still others went down on their knees in respect, and thanksgiving for the gift the Lord had bestowed on them. All spread the story throughout the town and surrounding villages.

Modern Anaylysis

At the initiative of Archbishop Pacifico Perantoni of Lanciano, and of the provincial minister of the Franciscan Conventuals of Abruzzo, and with authorization from Rome, in November 1970 the Franciscans of Lanciano decided to have the relics examined scientifically.

Dr. Edoardo Linoli says he held real cardiac tissue in his hands, when some years ago he analyzed the relics of the Eucharistic miracle of Lanciano, Italy

Linoli was entrusted with the study. He was assisted by Dr. Ruggero Bertelli, retired professor of human anatomy at the University of Siena.

Linoli extracted parts of the relics with great care and then analyzed the remains of "miraculous flesh and blood." He presented his findings on March 4, 1971.

His study confirmed that the flesh and blood were of human origin. The flesh was unequivocally cardiac tissue, and the blood was of type AB.

In regard to the blood, the scientist emphasized that "the blood group is the same as that of the man of the holy Shroud of Turin, and it is particular because it has the characteristics of a man who was born and lived in the Middle East regions."

"The AB blood group of the inhabitants of the area in fact has a percentage that extends from 0.5% to 1%, while in Palestine and the regions of the Middle East it is 14-15%," Linoli said.

Linoli's analysis revealed no traces of preservatives in the elements, meaning that the blood could not have been extracted from a corpse, because it would have been rapidly altered.

For more about this Miracle refer here

Litany of the Most Precious Blood of Jesus

Litany of the Most Precious Blood of Jesus

Lord, have mercy.
Christ, have mercy.
Lord, have mercy.
Christ, hear us.
Christ, graciously hear us.

God, the Father of Heaven, have mercy on us.
God the Son, Redeemer of the world, have mercy on us.
God, the Holy Spirit, have mercy on us.
Holy Trinity, One God, have mercy on us.

Blood of Christ, only-begotten Son of the Eternal Father, save us.
Blood of Christ, Incarnate Word of God, save us.
Blood of Christ, of the New and Eternal Testament, save us.
Blood of Christ, falling upon the earth in the Agony, save us.
Blood of Christ, shed profusely in the Scourging, save us.
Blood of Christ, flowing forth in the Crowning with Thorns, save us.
Blood of Christ, poured out on the Cross, save us.
Blood of Christ, price of our salvation, save us.
Blood of Christ, without which there is no forgiveness, save us.
Blood of Christ, Eucharistic drink and refreshment of souls, save us.
Blood of Christ, stream of mercy, save us.
Blood of Christ, victor over demons, save us.
Blood of Christ, courage of Martyrs, save us.
Blood of Christ, strength of Confessors, save us.
Blood of Christ, bringing forth Virgins, save us.
Blood of Christ, help of those in peril, save us.
Blood of Christ, relief of the burdened, save us.
Blood of Christ, solace in sorrow, save us.
Blood of Christ, hope of the penitent, save us.
Blood of Christ, consolation of the dying, save us.
Blood of Christ, peace and tenderness of hearts, save us.
Blood of Christ, pledge of eternal life, save us.
Blood of Christ, freeing souls from purgatory, save us.
Blood of Christ, most worthy of all glory and honour, save us.
Lamb of God, who take away the sins of the world, spare us, O Lord!.
Lamb of God, who take away the sins of the world, graciously hear us, O Lord!.
Lamb of God, who take away the sins of the world, have mercy on us. .

V. You have redeemed us, O Lord, in your Blood.
R. And made us, for our God, a kingdom.

Let us pray. Almighty and eternal God, you have appointed your
only-begotten Son the Redeemer of the world, and willed to be appeased by his Blood. Grant we beg of you, that we may worthily adore this price of our salvation, and through its power be safeguarded from the evils of the present life, so that we may rejoice in its fruits forever in heaven.
Through the same Christ our Lord. R. Amen.

St. Anthony Mary Zaccaria - 5th July 2010

(Relic of St. Anthony Mary Zaccaria)

Anthony Mary Zaccaria was born in 1502, in Cremona, a city of Lombardy, fifty miles southeast of Milan. His father, Lazzaro, died when Anthony Mary was two years old. His mother, Antonia Pescaroli, a widow at eighteen, devoted herself completely to the education of her son.

Little is known of Anthony Mary’s childhood. His biographers have handed down a significant episode. One day, on his way home from school the boy gave his cape to a destitute man. It is not clear whether he studied the humanities in Cremona or in Pavia. What is certain is that in 1520 (incidentally, the year of Exsurge Domine, the papal bull that condemned Luther), he went to Padua to study philosophy and medicine. Before leaving for Padua, he irrevocably bequeathed his whole inheritance to his mother.

After graduation he returned to Cremona, but never practiced medicine. A historically shadowy Dominican friar, Fra Marcello, became his spiritual director. The twenty-two-year old university graduate deliberately opted for an uncompromising and active Christian lifestyle. Contiguous to the Zaccaria residence, there was a small church, St. Vitalis. Here, Anthony Mary, still a layman, began to gather on Sundays, first, children to teach them catechism; then, adults for Scripture reading and meditation. Later on, his spiritual director steered him toward the priesthood. Under Dominican guidance, Anthony Mary’s theological studies were thoroughly based on the Bible and Church Fathers and Doctors, particularly St. Thomas Aquinas. In January 1529 he was ordained to the priesthood. Surrounded by a few close relatives and friends and without the customary solemnity, he celebrated his first Mass in the church of St. Vitalis. According to a charming tradition, angels were seen around the altar.

His priesthood enabled him to refine and enhance his previous work in St. Vitalis. His audience evolved into a structured Oratory, possibly styled "Amicizia." To this group Anthony Mary preached his Sermons. One of his spiritual disciples was Valeria degli Alieri, a distant relative and a member of Anthony Mary’s Oratory. Under his guidance she gathered a group of young women in her house and Anthony Mary became their spiritual director. After his death, they obtained the authorization to become a convent of Angelic Sisters.

In addition to his work of spiritual direction and formation, Anthony Mary engaged in active apostolate among the poor and the sick, particularly during the plague of 1528. This exertion earned him the name "father of the city" from his townsmen.

Meanwhile, Anthony Mary chose a new spiritual director from the Dominican monastery of Santa Maria delle Grazie in Milan, Fra Battista Carioni da Crema (1460-1534), a disciple of Sebastiano Maggi and a confrere of Gerolamo Savonarola.

A few years earlier, Fra Battista persuaded Cajetan Thiene to leave Vicenza and go to Rome to engage in the work of reform. At this time the Dominican friar was the confessor of Ludovica Torelli (1500-1569), Countess of Guastalla. Quite probably, it was at his urging that Ludovica chose Anthony Mary as her chaplain. Accordingly, at the direction of Fra Battista, Anthony Mary took up residence in Ludovica’s castle.

In 1531 Ludovica, Anthony Mary, and Fra Battista went to Milan where they joined the Oratory of Eternal Wisdom. Here Anthony Mary met two Milanese noblemen, Giacomo Antonio Morigia (1497-1546) and Bartolomeo Ferrari (1499-1544). Toward the end of 1532, he brought to maturity their common project of transforming that waning oratory into a new and original religious community, consisting of three families: priests, sisters, and laypeople. The priests’ family, Sons of St. Paul, was quickly approved by Clement VII on February 18, 1533 with the brief Vota per quae. It was highly unusual to have a new religious family approved before it started functioning. On July 24, 1535, with the bull Dudum felicis recordationis, Paul III accorded them a second approval and their new religious name of Clerics Regular. After they took over the church of St. Barnabas in Milan in 1545, they were given the popular name of Barnabites.

In Milan, Countess Torelli began gathering in her house young women inclined to the spiritual life. Anthony Mary became their confessor and spiritual director. In this role he steered them toward becoming the female family of his foundation. On January 15, 1535 Paul III with a bull, Debitum pastoralis, authorized them to organize as a religious congregation under the Rule of St. Augustine. The new religious were briefly guided by some Dominican Sisters and adopted their habit. They chose the name Angelics to which Anthony Mary added "of St. Paul." In October 1535 they settled in their first convent named after St. Paul, located in Milan. The formal name of Angelics of St. Paul was approved by Paul III on August 6, 1545. At this time, the Angelics were not cloistered because they shared in the apostolate of the Barnabites.

The third family of Anthony Mary’s foundation consisted of lay people and was styled Marrieds of Saint Paul. They shared the same spirituality of Barnabites and Angelics.

These three families soon became known throughout Milan because of their lifestyle, their penitential practices, their way of dressing and their preaching which was at times provocative. Some of their initiatives later became customary in Milan, such as the ringing of bells at 3 p.m. on Fridays to commemorate the death of the Lord on the cross. They also actively promoted the solemn exposition of the Most Blessed Sacrament by turn in various city churches (the so-called Forty Hours).

Not everyone in Milan was pleased with the zeal of this new spiritual family. Its members were threatened. They were accused of Pelagianism and of being followers of controversial Fra Battista (d. January 1, 1534). They were also suspected of embracing the heresies of the Beguines and the Poor Men of Lyons. Milanese civil and Church authorities intervened. Two trials ensued. The first one, against the Sons of St. Paul, was held on October 5, 1534. It shelved the whole matter and issued no verdict. The second one, against the Sons of St. Paul and the Angelics of St. Paul, began in June 1536 and was concluded on August 21, 1537 with full acquittal.

It was a bracing experience for the Sons of St. Paul. On the eve of the first trial, October 4, 1534, in what could be termed his finest hour, Anthony Mary addressed a crucial talk to his religious. "Here we are," he impassionedly intoned, "fools for the sake of Christ, who can boast about our sufferings, because those whom the world thinks common and contemptible are the ones God has chosen to show up those who are everything. Let us not lose sight of Jesus, who endured the cross, disregarding its shamefulness and we shall prove that we are servants of God by great fortitude in times of suffering, prepared for honor or disgrace, taken for impostors while we are genuine."

It was after this bruising experience that the Sons of St. Paul, who had begun common life in the summer of 1534 but without the rule of poverty, now embraced it without hesitation. Similarly, in 1537, in the course of the second trial, Anthony Mary promptly accepted a request from the bishop of Vicenza, Cardinal Nicola Ridolfi and sent a group of his priests, sisters, and married couples to reform the monasteries of that city.

In May 1539 Anthony Mary was back in Guastalla. The reason for his return is controverted. In any event, he was already in poor health and his exertions in Guastalla and the hot and humid climate of the lower Po valley aggravated his condition. The last week of June he felt so ill that he requested to be taken home to his mother in Cremona.

Surrounded by his family and closest friends, he spoke his last words and, comforted by the Church’s sacraments, died, as he had predicted, on the octave of the feast of Saints Peter and Paul, July 5, 1539. A pious tradition holds that, before expiring, Anthony Mary was granted a vision of St. Paul.

After a Cremona funeral, his body was taken to Milan and buried in St. Paul’s Convent of the Angelics. His saintliness was instantly recognized, and he was venerated as a Blessed until 1634, five years short of a century, which would have automatically given him the title of Saint. Instead, when Urban VIII issued new canonization rules in 1634, Anthony Mary lost the popular title of Blessed. In 1802 his cause was reintroduced. By 1888 three miracles were about to be approved for his official beatification. An alert Barnabite cardinal, Giuseppe Granniello, close to Pope Leo XIII, obtained that Anthony Mary be beatified as a result of the previous 95 years of popular devotion (1539-1634). The three miracles approved on February 14, 1897 finally led to his canonization on May 27,1897.

Month of the Precious Blood

The month of July is dedicated to the Most Precious Blood of the Redeemer. Supreme homage is given to the Sacred Blood. As we adore the Sacred Heart, because it is the Heart of Jesus, who is God, so we adore the Most Precious Blood.

The Blood of Jesus is the fountain of salvation. Each drop that flowed from the wounds of the Saviour is a pledge of man’s eternal salvation. All races of the earth have been ransomed, and all individuals, who will allow the saving power of the Sacred Blood to be applied to their soul, are heirs of heaven. St. John Chrysostom calls the Precious Blood “the saviour of souls”; St. Thomas Aquinas, “the key to heaven’s treasures”; St. Ambrose, “pure gold of ineffable worth”; St. Mary Magdalene de Pazzi, “a magnet of souls and pledge of eternal life”. The sins of mankind, in their number, in their offense to the Supreme Being, in the effects on transgressors, are immense; yet, the Precious Blood of Jesus is not frightened by numbers, it has in Itself the power to appease an angered God and to heal wounded creatures.

The Precious Blood is a cleansing bath. Unlike all other blood, which stains, the Blood of Jesus washes clean and white. According to the words of St. John, in the Apocalypse, the Angels wonder, and the question is asked: “These that are clothed in white robes, who are they?” The Lord answers: “These are they that have washed their robes, and have made them white in the Blood of the Lamb.” For no other reason did the Precious Blood flow but to regain for the souls of men the beautiful dress of innocence, and , once regained, to preserve it throughout life and into eternity.

The Blood of the Saviour is a well of consolation for troubled hearts. Can anyone, confidingly, look at the Sacred Blood trickling down from the Cross without taking courage to carry on, in spite of the difficulties which are the common lot of all? One glance at the Cross must be able to drive away fear. And, another, must be able to instill trust in Him who did not rest until the last drop, mingled with water, flowed out of an opened Heart. He, who was willing to do so much for men, must be willing to overlook and forget the frailties which they deeply regret; He must be willing to come to their assistance when harassed, to defend them when tempted, to comfort them when afflicted. The Blood of Jesus must be for Christians what the north-star is to sailors.

Would that men on earth honored the Precious Blood in the manner in which they who are in heaven give honor and praise and thanksgiving! They proclaim that It purchased the glory which they enjoy. Without It, they would have remained slaves of Satan and outcasts from the eternal mansions of God. Let us profess that we owe to the Sacred Blood of Jesus all that we have in this life, and that to It we shall owe all that we shall enjoy in a better and eternal life!

(Courtesy Magnificat)

Truth Brings With It Great Responsibilities

I do apologize for not updating for such a long time. I have been busy with a few personal events. IN the time that has passed, I have got consecrated to Our Lady using the method of St. Louis de Montfort.

What follows is a little text by Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen.


The open mind is commendable when it is like a road that leads to a city, but the open mind is condemnable when it is like an abyss.

Those who boast of their open-mindedness are invariably those who love to search for truth but not to find it; they love the chase but not the capture; they admire the footprints of truth, but not catching up with it. They go through life talking about “widening the horizons of truth” without ever seeing the sun.

Truth brings with it grave responsibilities; that is why somany keep their hands open to welcome it but never close them to grasp it.

The real thinker who is willing to embrace a truth at all costs generally has a double price to pay—first, isolation from popular opinion. For example, anyone who arrives at the moral conclusion that divorce prepares the way for civilization’s breakdown must be prepared to be ostracized by the Herods and Salomes of this world.
Nonconformity with popular opinion can be expected to bring down opposition and ridicule upon the offender’s head.

Second, those who discover a truth must stand naked before the uplifted stroke of its duties or else take up the cross that it imposes. Those two effects of embracing truth make many people fearful. In their cowardice, they keep their minds “open” so they will never have to close on anything that would entail responsibility, duty, moral correction or altered behavior. The “open mind” does not want truth for truth implies obligation, which predicates responsibility, and responsibility is the only thing the “open mind” is most eager to avoid. Avoiding responsibility only results in the abdication of one’s free will to another, whether it be to an ideology or to a director. The only real solution is for those with “open minds” to grasp truth, even though it does involve a change in behavior, for ultimately it is only truth that can make them free.

St. Louis De Montfort's Prayer to Mary

I really love the following prayer below. Read it slowly let the words touch your heart. Dont worry if you dont finish it, it something touches you meditate on it.

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Hail Mary, beloved Daughter of the Eternal Father! Hail Mary, admirable Mother of the Son! Hail Mary, faithful spouse of the Holy Ghost! Hail Mary, my dear Mother, my loving Mistress, my powerful sovereign! Hail my joy, my glory, my heart and my soul! Thou art all mine by mercy, and I am all thine by justice. But I am not yet sufficiently thine. I now give myself wholly to thee without keeping anything back for myself or others. If thou still seest in me anything which does not belong to thee, I beseech thee to take it and to make thyself the absolute Mistress of all that is mine. Destroy in me all that may be displeasing to God, root it up and bring it to nought; place and cultivate in me everything that is pleasing to thee.

May the light of thy faith dispel the darkness of my mind; may thy profound humility take the place of my pride; may thy sublime contemplation check the distractions of my wandering imagination; may thy continuous sight of God fill my memory with His presence; may the burning love of thy heart inflame the lukewarmness of mine; may thy virtues take the place of my sins; may thy merits be my only adornment in the sight of God and make up for all that is wanting in me. Finally, dearly beloved Mother, grant, if it be possible, that I may have no other spirit but thine to know Jesus and His divine will; that I may have no other soul but thine to praise and glorify the Lord; that I may have no other heart but thine to love God with a love as pure and ardent as thine I do not ask thee for visions, revelations, sensible devotion or spiritual pleasures. It is thy privilege to see God clearly; it is thy privilege to enjoy heavenly bliss; it is thy privilege to triumph gloriously in Heaven at the right hand of thy Son and to hold absolute sway over angels, men and demons; it is thy privilege to dispose of all the gifts of God, just as thou willest.

Such is, O heavenly Mary, the "best part," which the Lord has given thee and which shall never be taken away from thee-and this thought fills my heart with joy. As for my part here below, I wish for no other than that which was thine: to believe sincerely without spiritual pleasures; to suffer joyfully without human consolation; to die continually to myself without respite; and to work zealously and unselfishly for thee until death as the humblest of thy servants. The only grace I beg thee to obtain for me is that every day and every moment of my life I may say: Amen, so be it's all that thou didst do while on earth; Amen, so be it's all that thou art now doing in Heaven; Amen, so be it-to all that thou art doing in my soul, so that thou alone mayest fully glorify Jesus in me for time and eternity. Amen.

Considerations of love in marriage - Dietrich von Hildebrand

Love's task in imperfect marriages

If, however, the combination of the two characters of man and wife does not offer the possibility for this conjugal love, if such ultimate inner unity cannot be achieved, the task for both partners becomes a different one. When such is the case, this quality of glowing conjugal love is not demanded of them - for the consorts cannot give this love to one another if it is not performed by God in the combination of their two characters. Their task here is to attain the highest communion within the limits of the possibilities of their individual case. They, too, must live for one another and avoid everything that could alienate or in any way separate them from one another. They must try to see each other in the highest light.

Love's task in troubled marriages

This holds all the more true for an unhappy marriage. If love is completely lacking on one side, or if one partner suffers from the other in every way - let us remember the marriage of St. Monica - the obligation to live up to the objective tie which the conclusion of marriage has created persists, in spite of the fact that the combination of the two partners does not make possible the realization of ideal conjugal love. The one Spouse can only love the other in a particular form of neighborly love - love him because it was with him that the tie of marriage was knit. The task in this special case consists primarily in sacrifice and renunciation and in care for the salvation of the other.

The Great Benefits of Misfortunes - Saint Claude De La Colombiere

When I see a Christian grief stricken at the trials God sends himI say tomyself,
“Here is a man who is grieved at his own happiness. He is asking God to be delivered from something he ought to be thanking Him for.”

I am quite sure that nothing more advantageous could happen to him than what causes
him so much grief. I have a hundred unanswerable reasons for saying so. But if I could read into the future and see the happy outcome of his present misfortune, how greatly strengthened I would be in my judgment! If we could discover the designs of Providence it is certain we would ardently long for the “evils” we are now so unwilling to suffer.We would rush forward to accept themwith the utmost gratitude if we had a little faith and realized how much God loves us and has our interests at heart.

What profit can come to me from this illness that ties me down and obliges me to give up all the good I was doing, you may ask. What advantage can I expect fromthis ruin ofmy life that leaves me desperate and hopeless? It is true that sudden great misfortune may appear to overwhelm you and not allow you the opportunity of profiting by it. But wait a while and you will see that by it God is preparing you to receive the greatest marks of His favor. But for this accident you would not have perhaps become any less good than you are, but you would not have become holy. Isn’t it true that, since you have been trying to lead a good Christian life, there has been something you have been unwilling to surrender to God? Some worldly ambition, some pride in your attainments, some indulgence of the body, some blameworthy habit, some company that is the occasion of sin for you? It was only this final step that prevented you from attaining the perfect freedom of the love of God. It wasn’t really very much, but you could not bring yourself tomake this last sacrifice. It wasn’t verymuch, but there is nothing harder for a Christian than to break the last tie that binds him to the world or to his own self. He knows he ought to do it, and until he does it there is something wrong with his life. But the very thought of the remedy terrifies him, for themalady has taken such a hold on himthat it cannot be cured without the help of a serious and painful operation. So it was necessary to take you unawares, to cut deep into the flesh with a skillful hand when you were least expecting it and remove the ulcer concealed within, or otherwise you would never be well. The misfortune that has befallen you will soon do what all your exercises of piety would never have been able to do.

Is There a Solution When Society Is Corrupt? - By Dr. Plinio Correa De Olivera

Is There a Solution When Society Is Corrupt?

a while back, the Italian parliament voted to overturn prison sentences for politicians convicted of receiving illegal campaign contributions. The legislation established that illegal contributions to political campaigns were no longer crimes but simply “civil offenses,” whereby those convicted would only be fined.

All the nation’s parties, communists and pro-autonomy members of the Northern League alike, joined members of corruption-tainted parties to get the law approved. Political contributions are no longer illegal as long as they are used exclusively to finance election campaigns. The new law was retroactive and benefited defendants. The Italian law is an example showing how campaign finance is a very real problem plaguing so many modern nations. Given the possibility of corruption, it is often asked if it is licit to finance candidates. In principle, a rich man or corporate businessman who pays a large sum of money to finance the political campaign of a politician with ideas similar to his own should not be censured for it. Indeed, a man who can financially help elect a candidate with a platform capable of saving his country would show great stinginess if he failed to do so. In fact, a rich man donating to get a poorer one elected is not dishonest. It can
even be considered an act of virtue.

Spurious Agreement

This changes, however, when a businessman supports a presidential candidate for reasons other than ideological affinity.
If he finances the politician’s campaign so he can receive kick-backs and business contracts later, then their agreement is spurious. The matter becomes worse when the kickbacks involve companies that are not costefficient.
An agreement of this kind transforms an act of idealism into a corrupt deal, and is therefore illicit. Furthermore, the businessman can exact from the State a much higher price than would a competitor who did not help elect the candidate. Thus, by charging a disproportional price for services rendered, the deal takes on an irrefutably dishonest nature.
Corruption and System of Government In theory, this kind of fraud in political campaigns does not always happen. It depends on the people involved.
Honest people will work for the State and the common good. Thus, one cannot draw from this an argument against a particular form of government or against the capitalist system. One can only infer that fraud can take place in a democracy, a claim that can also be made against other forms of government as well.

Do ut Des; Facio ut Facias

The above considerations are variations on a central thought described by the maxim of Roman law: Do ut des; facio ut facias (I give you that you may give me; I do for you that you may do for me). This arrangement can be honest or dishonest, depending on the understanding of the parties involved. Dishonesty can occur in any form of government. It can also occur in any economic system. However, it is well to recall that Communism is intrinsically evil, and communist regimes turned their party members, particularly their leadership, into a nomenklatura, or a privileged caste in former Soviet society. This became all the more obvious after the fall of the Berlin Wall.

Degree of Public Morality

Thus, the crux of this matter is not found in a particular form of government or economic system. It lies in the degree of public morality and particularly the behavior of public officials. The fact is that such fraudulent deals do not take place where people take God’s existence seriously and really abide by His Law. However, in countries whose people do not seriously believe in the existence of God or fulfill His Law, a certain number may steal and benefit from goods that are not their own. This is not just an economic question, though it has an economic side. It is not just a political matter, though it has a political side. Rather, this whole topic is fundamentally a religious and moral one. In a country without religion or morals, things necessarily move toward the complete crumbling of all economic, political and social order.

What About Repression Against Theft?

Obviously, every kind of illegality and immorality should be categorically repressed. However, just punishing thieves will never eliminate theft. This is because the number of thieves tends to grow exponentially in a country whose population does not obey the Ten Commandments. If five thieves are arrested, the total thief population is not down by five. Actually, five vacancies have been opened, and fifty new candidates will pop up to fill them. The problem is fundamentally a moral one, and as such it also involves religious considerations.

State Interference

In the semi-communist legislation of many so-called non-communist modern nations, growing restrictions on private property are leading to a situation where the full exercise of the right of property depends on the State's authorization. Thus, for instance, there are countries where mineral rights, which legitimately belong to the landowner, can only be developed with the State’s permission. To obtain this permit, an honest person is often forced to jump through legislative hoops and resort to bribes to avoid indefinite procrastination. In this case, he is asked to give money to exercise a right that is legitimately his own. It is the State that steals when it unjustly limits the right of property. Irregularities of this nature later extend to political bribes of all kinds. This behavior spreads throughout the whole population. Hence, those who pay bribes are seen as “smart” while those who do not are regarded as “fools.” The “smart” ones make money. Those who do not bribe hold property they cannot use. This is the inexorable consequence of excessive State intervention in the economy.

Thievery Made Official

If honest people are asked to pay bribes, what can be said of the dishonest? Bribery spreads like an oil stain on a cloth, penetrating the entire fabric of society. At a given moment, the number of thieves becomes so high that it is practically impossible to repress crime without placing the whole nation in jail. The Italian formula mentioned above is then adopted: Bribery is no longer declared a crime but merely a infraction subject to fines. There are actually two fines: the bribe for the public official and the penalty for the State. The person is free to do what he wants. Thievery is made official.
Thus, an ordinary thief who steals a car can be punished with imprisonment, whereas a politician who trafficks in influence for his election campaign is not imprisoned. He just pays a fine. Since he is receiving illicit funds, everyone comes out ahead. Everyone steals, and stealing becomes an official custom.

The End of Private Property

When theft is thus made official, private property is doomed to extinction. When stealing becomes generalized, illicit advantages become the standard not only in doing State business but in all business as well. In such a context, honest work loses prestige and influence, and is replaced by the practice of making money dishonestly. Thievery becomes king of society. The economic system falls prey to bribery. The country becomes a kleptocracy.

Chaos Is the Goal

This disintegration of society leads to a distorted debate between Communism and Capitalism. Communists claim that thievery is widespread in capitalist regimes. However, the situation in Eastern European countries emerging from Communism shows that in a communist regime, thievery and bribery was generally, if not officially, established. Thus, the public is confused by these mutual accusations of thievery and concludes that the world is doomed to anarchy and chaos.

In a regime where thievery is officially condoned, there is no reason to dispute between Capitalism and Communism. Everything becomes fuzzy because Communism becomes equivalent to Capitalism and vice versa. Everyone becomes a thief, except for the few who still believe in God. Laws like that approved in Italy are the first steps toward generalizing a legal system similar to the one described above. Sooner of later, this system will affect all nations of the world. The end result will be the complete loss of public morality, political composure and social order.

What Remedy Is There?

What today’s society really lacks is those moral elites par excellence where families still retain a memory of their forefathers, still value their reputation for honesty and still desire to serve as models for society. So much has been done that has concretely ruined the prestige of true elites. If no work is done to restore them, nothing can be done.
In the name of favoring the more modest classes, society has become increasingly egalitarian. This led to the progressive crushing of authentic elites and the gradual disappearance of those structures and values that provided the element for the genesis of authentic culture and leadership. Thus deprived of authentic leadership, society is gradually disoriented and
increasingly tends toward chaos.

The Only Real Solution

One could argue that many, who rightly see the lack of religion as evil, could begin to practice religion and thus slowly eliminate corruption. However, many of these same people will not take a leading role in spreading religion because they see that insisting on an atmosphere of austerity and moral severity would oblige them to change their own way of life. These people are comparable to certain gamblers. They will agree that gambling is harmful to the moral welfare of
the country. However, they still gamble because they do not wish to change their ways.

Divine Grace

Putting an end to the situation described above calls for an essentially religious apostolate that attracts Divine Grace. This apostolate, with the help of grace, must really touch people’s minds and souls, and achieve real conversion. Such
conversions would be the starting point whereby something could be done. However, these conversions are obviously extremely difficult in times of general immorality when people are attached to the advantages vice brings them and have, therefore,
little propensity to abandon their bad life.

Genuine Apostles

To delve into the most obscure nooks and crannies of the problem, a complete solution lies in finding apostles like those described by Abbot Jean-Batiste Chautard in The Soul of the Apostolate. They must be endowed with real interior life, desirous above all to see the accomplishment of God’s will and designs on earth as it is in Heaven. They must be apostles who draw others with their example, move people with their word, and strive to make the laws of the state in accordance to those of God, thus changing people’s behavior. In short, the action of these authentic apostles can really touch souls. If these correspond to grace, they will convert. And to convert, contemporary man must be docile to the recommendation of Our Lady to mankind at Fatima in 1917: they must pray and do penance.

Thoughts about the poor by St. Vincent de Paul

“The street will be long and unfriendly, the stairs and the poor often ungrateful. You will soon find charity a heavy burden, heavier than the jug of soup or the full basket. But you will still be pleasant and smile. Distributing soup and bread is not everything. The rich can do that. The poor are your masters and you will find them terribly exacting masters. So the more unattractive and dirty they are, the more rude and unfair they are, the more you must lavish your love upon them. It is only by feeling your love that the poor will forgive you your gifts of bread. “

St. Vincent de Paul

Miracles of the Rosary

While St. Dominic was preaching the Rosary in Carcassone, a heretic made fun of his miracles and the fifteen mysteries of the Rosary, and this prevented other heretics from being converted. As a punishment God allowed fifteen thousand devils to enter the man's body.

His parents took him to Father Dominic to be delivered from the evil spirits. He started to pray and he begged everyone who was there to say the Rosary out loud with him, and at each Hail Mary our Lady drove a hundred devils out of the man, and they came out in the form of red-hot coals.

After he had been delivered, he abjured his former errors, was converted and joined the Rosary Confraternity. Several of his associates did the same, having been greatly moved by his punishment and by the power of the Rosary.

The learned Franciscan, Carthagena, as well as several other authors, says that an extraordinary event took place in 1482. The venerable Fr. James Sprenger and the religious of his order were zealously working to re-establish devotion to the Rosary and its Confraternity in the city of Cologne. Unfortunately, two priests who were famous for their preaching ability were jealous of the great influence they were exerting through preaching the Rosary.

These two Fathers spoke against this devotion whenever they had a chance, and as they were very eloquent and had a great reputation, they persuaded many people not to join the Confraternity. One of them, the better to achieve his wicked end, wrote a special sermon against the Rosary and planned to give it the following Sunday. But when the time came for the sermon he did not appear and, after a certain amount of waiting, someone went to fetch him. He was found to be dead, and he had evidently died without anyone to help him.

After persuading himself that this death was due to natural causes, the other priest decided to carry out his friend's plan and give a similar sermon on another day, hoping to put an end to the Confraternity of the Rosary. However, when the day came for him to preach and it was time to give the sermon, God punished him by striking him down with paralysis which deprived him of the use of his limbs and of his power of speech.

At last he admitted his fault and that of his friend and in his heart he silently besought our Lady to help him. He promised that if only she would cure him, he would preach the Rosary with as much zeal as that with which he had formerly fought against it. For this end he implored her to restore his health and his speech, which she did, and finding himself instantaneously cured he rose up like another Saul, a persecutor turned defender of the holy Rosary. He publicly acknowledged his former error and ever afterwards preached the wonders of the Rosary with great zeal and eloquence.

I am quite sure that freethinkers and ultra-critical people of today will question the truth of the stories in this little book, as they question most things, but all I have done has been to copy them from very good contemporary authors and, in part, from a book written a short time ago, The Mystical Rose-tree, by Fr. Antonin Thomas, O.P.

Everyone knows that there are three different kinds of faith by which we believe different kinds of stories. To stories from Holy Scripture we owe divine faith; to stories on non-religious subjects which are not against common sense and are written by trustworthy authors, we pay the tribute of human faith; and to stories about holy subjects which are told by good authors and are not in any way contrary to reason, to faith or to morals (even though they may sometimes deal with happenings which are above the ordinary), we pay the tribute of a pious faith.

I agree that we must be neither too credulous nor too critical, and that we should keep a happy medium in all things in order to find just where truth and virtue lie. But on the other hand, I know equally well that charity easily leads us to believe all that is not contrary to faith or morals: "Charity believes all things" (1 Cor. 13:7), in the same way as pride induces us to doubt even well authenticated stories on the plea that they are not to be found in Holy Scripture.

This is one of the devil's traps; heretics of the past who denied tradition have fallen into it, and over-critical people of today are falling into it too, without even realizing it. People of this kind refuse to believe what they do not understand or what is not to their liking, simply because of their own spirit of pride and independence.

The above is from the book

The Secret of the Rosary, by St. Louis de Montfort

Act of Consecration to Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal

O Virgin Mother of God,
Mary Immaculate,
we dedicate and consecrate ourselves to you
under the title of Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal.
May this Medal be for each one of us
a sure sign of your affection for us
and a constant reminder of our duties towards you.
Ever while wearing it,
may we be blessed by your loving protection
and preserved in the grace of your Son.
O most powerful Virgin,
Mother of our Saviour,
keep us close to you every moment of our lives.
Obtain for us,
your children,
the grace of a happy death;
so that, in union with you,
we may enjoy the bliss of heaven forever.

Amen.

O Mary, conceived without sin,
pray for us who have recourse to you.

O Mary, conceived without sin,
pray for us who have recourse to you.

O Mary, conceived without sin,
pray for us who have recourse to you.

Ave Maria Stella

Hail, thou Star of ocean,
Portal of the sky !
Ever Virgin Mother
Of the Lord most high !

Oh ! by Gabriel's Ave,
Uttered long ago,
Eva's name reversing,
Stablish peace below.

Break the captive's fetters ;
Light on blindness pour ;
All our ills expelling,
Every bliss implore.

Show thyself a Mother ;
Offer Him our sighs,
Who for us Incarnate
Did not thee despise.

Virgin of all virgins !
To thy shelter take us :
Gentlest of the gentle !
Chaste and gentle make us.

Still, as on we journey,
Help our weak endeavor ;
Till with thee and Jesus
We rejoice forever.

Through the highest heaven,
To the Almighty Three,
Father, Son, and Spirit,
One same glory be. &nbspAmen.

The descent of the Holy Spirit on Mary and the Apostles - Mons João Clá Dias

This is a meditation By Mons João Clá Dias on Pentecost. The original is in Portugese and I have used Google transalte to convert it to Enlgish. I have tried to the best of my ability to correct some of the transalation issues. I hope that you will enjoy this meditation.

The descent of the Holy Spirit on Mary and the Apostles

"The Spirit of the Lord filled the entire universe, he holds together all things and knows all Alleluia! - (Sb 1, 7)

Introduction:

For three years our Lord had prepared the apostles and disciples, for the great mission to spread the gospel throughout the world. Imagine the largest and most renowned teachers, the wisest and most capable that history has known, does not compare with Jesus Christ, who besides being the Master Teacher, God, the Second Person of the Holy Trinity, the incarnate Word of God, the God-man, he is the very Wisdom Incarnate.

The Divine Master had given them the doctrine, the power to forgive sins, the power to perform miracles; therefore they had all the elements to fulfill the great mission, however, they felt insecure, because it is not proportionate to that thought. So waiting for the special assistance that had been promised by our Lord: "you will receive power of the Holy Spirit has come in you and are witnesses to the ends of the earth: (Acts 1:8). We then gathered before our eyes, gathered in prayer in the Cenacle, the Virgin Mary, Holy Mother of God, the 12 Apostles, over 120 students waiting for the Counselor for excellence and dispenser of heavenly gifts.


Prayer Starter:

Come Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of your faithful and kindle in them the fire of your love! O Holy Spirit descended into the upper room on the apostles and their disciples, operating on them the most wonderful transformation, come on us with the abundance of your gifts and fruits ... Purify our hearts from everything that separates us from Thee.

Oh! Blessed Mother, Queen of Apostles, Virgin and Spouse of the Holy Spirit we will begin this meditation to make reparation to your Immaculate Heart, in the certainty of its complete triumph. We beg you, Madam, give us a spark of your love to meditate on this mystery of Pentecost.

Amen.

I - The origin of the feast of Pentecost.

It is originally a Jewish feast that was celebrated fifty days after Easter.

This feast was established by Moses, to remember the liberation of the Jewish people from bondage in Egypt. On this occasion, God told the Hebrews to sacrifice a lamb, from Egypt toward the promise land... It was a pre-figure of the Lamb of God - Jesus Christ - commemorated in the New Law, which would free men from the bondage of sin. On the fiftieth day after Easter, the party offering the first fruits of harvest - Pentecost - gave up the descent of the Holy Spirit.

Andon the day of Pentecost, they were all together in one place and suddenly there came from heaven a noise like a rushing wind blowing, and filled the whole house where they were.

Some appeared to them divided tongues of fire like which rested on each one. They were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak several languages as the Spirit gave them utterance. (Acts 2, 1-4)

This coming of the Holy Spirit, brought to the church an extraordinary event. It has lent strength to the Church of Christ to overcome the obstacles by which they had to pass: The Apostles had to face death, would face lack of human respect, would have to bear witness to Jesus Christ in the midst of the greatest persecution, the greatest repulsions, suffer horrors of all kinds and therefore needed strength.

The Church as a tender baby ... The Church was born, it was forming, it was still like a baby, it had not yet reached adulthood. It correlates with what is happening at the Sacrament of Confirmation. When we receive the baptism, we begin to participate in the divine life we receive graces and gifts that are infused into our souls. However we do not have sufficient fortitude, temperance and so many other gifts and virtues to face adversity. And so that is how it was the early Church, gathered around the Cenacle of Our Lady, the Apostles were extremely fearful.

We must remember that when Jesus was resurrected and appeared in the Upper Room, He found the doors and windows locked because of the fear that something bad might happen to them (the apostles). Our Risen Lord said three times: Peace be with you! This peace that only reaches its fullness coma descent of the Holy Spirit.



II-The signs of the descent of the Holy Spirit

The effects of the descent of the Holy Spirit are impressive: It is heard as a strange noise, coming from the
sky, like that of a rushing mighty wind, while on the head of each apostle rested a tongue of fire.

The noise that comes from heaven, a mighty wind, signifies the fullness of the gifts that He would bring, such fullness, making the apostles suitable for the works of God. They receive the impetus of love and at the same time is manifest the greatness of God.

The Holy Spirit descends with his gifts filling the apostles with comfort, excitement, they feel transformed. It was what, centuries later, St. Therese of Child Jesus said: "To love nothing is impossible!"

They were full of God's Love, they who were once fearful of the high mission which they had been given, are now full of eagerness, enthusiasm, or filled with God.

St. Cyril of Alexandria, says of the transformation that took place: "Easily the Spirit makes the move from love of earthly things to the hope of heavenly realities, and the fear and indecision to the strength of strong and generous soul. This was the case with the disciples, animated and strengthened by the spirit, never to be intimidated by Her pursuers, remaining inseparably united and faithful to the love of Christ.



1 - Mary, Queen of Apostles, Mother of the Church.

When the Angel Gabriel appeared to Mary and announced to her a dignity more sublime than all the grandeur created: to be the Mother of God, on this occasion the Blessed Virgin received the fullness of grace and unspeakable that demanded perfection. Mary received both the noble and difficult mission to contribute to the redemption of mankind, that guaranteed Him lights, gifts, privileges offered to this important vocation. Now, at the time that the Church was to be revealed to the world,
spreading the Gospel, etc.. It was essential that She also received a new fullness of the Holy Spirit to be the Mother of the Mystical Body of Christ.

2 - The tongues of fire!

The most characteristic is that it is appropriate to register the tongues of fire. They had to preach and it symbolizes that the facility would have to express, to explain the doctrine of Our Lord, the ability to proclaim, to illustrate, to point, to teach the way of salvation. We know the first preaching of St. Peter, a beautiful sermon, whose results were 3,000 people converted. The Church is born with three thousand baptized on this day of Pentecost.

3 - How was this fire!

In daily life, we know the fire produced by cooking gas, for firewood in the oven, etc.. And we feel that this is the fire that exists in hell fire and took this as a bad thing harmful, like a fire that scorches. It happens that the fire of hell has no fuel material, it is sustained by God Himself. The same happens with the fire of Purgatory. But the fire of the earth can be useful, because what would we be if we did not have the fire in our lives, how would we make our meals? For these reasons some believe that in heaven there is no fire.

According to some theologians, the heavenly paradise there is fire and that fire from heaven is all beautiful, beneficent, is rejuvenating a fire, a fire is extraordinarily charitable benefit to us, the fire in the sky is fragrant!
The fire, made of light and heat, was the best element to symbolize the burning itself to restoring and exciting action of the Holy Spirit. By hovering over the heads of Mary and the others present, the flames were presented in the form of tongues of fire. In them we see the flames symbolized that the preaching of those men would pose. Thus, these tongues of fire that descended upon the Apostles is fire from heaven, carrying highly charitable, they symbolize the gift of eloquence, charm, enthusiasm, fervor that they should have to convert all peoples.

4 - strong wind,

The "strong wind" can be seen as the arrival of the flood of grace which were being poured, flooding to flush the fire room of the Cenacle. Where effective and mystical graces overabundant that "invaded" the room, pointing to the fullness of faith and love which suited the heralds of the Word of God. In addition to auditory phenomenon, and perhaps sensitive, there have been some perfume? The idea seems plausible.

III-Send forth your Spirit Creator!

The modern world is in a stunning decline. Men seem to be deaf to the voice of the Holy Spirit and if ever fall deeper into sin and forgetfulness of God, we see so much evil, violence and horrors of all kinds making progress scary. Enough that we beseige Our Lord, the prayers of Mary, send the Spirit of Truth and Love on Earth to be reversed this situation and the complete defeat the powers of hell.

Therefore, the Church in the person of his faithful, pray for twenty centuries the prayer of the Psalmist:

"Send forth your Spirit and renew the face creator of the earth"

What wonders what could still come after this event? If in the first coming there were so many beauties of culture and civilization, and especially so many miracles of grace - witness the long cohort of martyrs, confessors, virgins and doctors who already enjoy in eternity - what would happen if there was a new lease of the Paraclete on earth?

That is why we beg, insist that the Holy Spirit to restore order and renew the face of the earth, to close this meditation in reparation to the Immaculate Heart of Mary

Closing Prayer

Oh! Queen of Apostles, Queen of Peace, our heavenly Mother full of the love of God, we contemplate in this meditation the key role of this mystery of Pentecost, as Mediatrix of God which has been the coming of the Third Person of the Trinity so magnificent that transformed all the Apostles, the disciples and began the Holy Catholic Church. However, Madam, today we are in a worse situation than those times, all that Thou ask Thou received, now also ask, ask the Bride of the Holy Spirit and that He will come to convert sinful humanity so we can sing and proclaim rejoicing the song of your victory: your Immaculate Heart triumphed!

Amen!