Facebook knows all about you

LINK

actually I avoid facebook: Full of my liberal and conservative friends with two minute hates, and all my pious Pinoy relatives posting I love Jesus stuff.

I mainly go there to check photos.

and google plus? Full of advertisements and places suggesting  you join them.

Holiness in Liturgy? Yes, I'm old enough to remember that

InsightScoop discusses the loss of holiness in the liturgy.

He points towards a breakdown of sense in liturgy. He shows how this breakdown ominously points to senselessness likewise in life and belief. It is tempting to imagine his subtitle ending with a question mark: ‘Liturgy, Ritual, and Expression of the Sacred?’ Does the Church’s liturgy enable, now, the expression and communication of sacred realities? Is the ‘sacred’ still a meaningful category? 

nah, liturgy is about celbrating ME ME ME.

And don't get me started on the US church emphasis on the "kiss of peace" part or that we now meet after church for coffee.

For years I attended church in agony, because I was alone, and this faux togetherness was nauseating to me.

And don't get me started on the kiss of peace: Finally, a time in church when it was quiet and I could pray (i.e. no bad music to put up with) and suddenly this is interrrupted to show you really really care about your neighbor: Hi there. Yes, I don't know you and I don't really care about you outside of church even though you live down the street from me, but let's pretend.

boy saved by Mother Teresa writes a song about her

from The Hindu (Newspaper in India)

a victim of polio, he was abandoned on the street and taken in by Mother Teresa's sisters, and later adopted by a British family.

Thirty-six years later, as Rome prepares to canonise Mother Teresa on September 4, the boy Gautam Lewis, now a 39-year-old pilot, musician, photographer and filmmaker, has returned to the city with a documentary film, a photography exhibition, and a song that will be released in over 200 countries on September 4 — all tributes celebrating Mother Teresa.

The song, titled ‘Mora Ganng’...The lyrics of Tagore’s “Ebar tor mora gaange baan esheche/ Joy maa bole bhasa tori” (Now the dead stream returns high tide/ Set your raft sailing chanting mother’s name) beautifully come together in hip hop as “Oh mother, hold me up, let me fly”. 

Dismantle the family

In my previous post, I noted that letting non Catholics and people who are living with another person but not in a catholic marriage is about making people feel good, but diminishes the holiness of the sacrament.

But it is part of the modern idea to get rid of all those stupid rules about sex.
 in other words, not only diminish the idea of the Eucharist/mass being holy, but diminish the idea that Christians are made holy in their daily lives of following Christ.

From LesFemmes:

Kasperite Bishop Appointed Head of Pontifical Academy for Life 

Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia is the man and there's plenty to pray about with this appointment.

Facts from the article: 

• Paglia heads the Pontifical Council for the Family, (responsible for releasing the shameful sex ed program at World Youth Day). 
• He supports giving Communion to the divorced and invalidly remarried.
• He invited homosexual couples to last year's World Meeting of Families and promotes homosexuality.

This paragraph pretty much sums things up:

Thus it becomes considerably more obvious that Pope Francis intends to make changes within the curial dicasteries that will promote his liberalizing idea of mercy in questions of marriage and the family. Magister says, with regard to these newly announced changes: They intend “to change – along with the persons – the orientation of the institute [Pontifical John Paul II Institute for Studies on Marriage and Family] and to adapt it to the new Bergoglio course.” And he continues: “As to the Papal Academy for Life – which the pope also now entrusts into the hands of Paglia – there are to be expected several earthquakes.” Magister expects, for example, that Pope Francis will remove the Austrian philosopher, Professor Josef Seifert, from the Papal Academy for Life. Seifert just recently has published a well-reasoned, charitable but forceful critique of the papal document Amoris Laetitia in which he explicitly requests Pope Francis to rescind several of its objectively heretical statements.

The US Bishops say the hell with the Real Presence

Dogma can be discarded if it hurts someones feelings. check pp 112-113.





The PC group of bishops at the very liberal catholic bishop's conference, aka "Catholics" and easy going Lutherans have made nice.

At the heart of the document are 32 “Statements of Agreement” that state where Lutherans and Roman Catholics do not have church-dividing differences on topics about church, ministry and the Eucharist. More tentatively, the document also explores differences that remain.

This is another blatent attack on the holiness of the Eucharist, but it is not getting much publicity.

If I remember my theology classes, the catholics believe in the real presence, that the Eucharist is really Jesus, and the Lutherans see the Eucharist as Jesus if you believe he is there and only for the service, and after the service is done, he ain't there anymore.

This is lie saying the light bulb will go be on if you believe it will. No, it is reality, bub. I wonder if the bishops ever read Pius X's letter on modernism, where the symbolism is emphasized and the reality is ignored or laughed at by modernists.

In essence, the US bishop's committee are pretending to make dogma to make nice (it released this paper even though the entire bishop's group hasn't approved of it... and this is not the first time such things have happened)

Catholics see the reality, but also see several layers of symbolism without a problem. (not just a holy meal, but the union of man and God, sacrifice of Jesus on the cross, receiving the bread into your body means you are receiving God into your soul, God is feeding us as he gave manna in the wilderness, the passover meal that keeps us safe)


And I won't even get into the problem that the liberal Lutheran group is going the way of the liberal Episcopalians, who want reform and the hell with the bible: Uh,  priestesses and gay rights?

I blame this on Francis, who made an off the cuff comment wondering why a Lutheran lady couldn't receive the sacrament.

Yes, its not about doctrinal agreement: It is about hurting someone's feelings. So this document says well, we'll let the person receive it out of "hospitality".

This pope talks nice, but is sowing confusion in the church, and this statement is merely one more way he is sowing confusion to prepare the church for "renewal", probably when his hand picked bishops and Cardinals vote in a real reform pope.

Like the "let divorced and remarried people receive communion"

The result will be a schism.

What holds the church together is the Eucharist and Mary: the PC discarded Mary after Vatican II (and was very very pissed when Medjugoje resulted in a resurgence of Marian devotion). But now the present pope is busy undermining the second:

Allowing divorced and remarried people to receive the sacrament so that their feelings not be hurt, and now allowing Lutherans who think it is a symbol or only Jesus temporarily inside the bread (not real) to receive the sacrament, so as not to hurt their feelings.

Mercy? Bull shit.

It is saying the Eucharist is just a symbol. It's all about ME ME ME

I am reminded of Flannery O'Connor's comment to this type of nicey nice discussion:

If it's just a symbol, the hell with it.


The entire quote:

“Well, toward morning the conversation turned on the Eucharist, which I, being the Catholic, was obviously supposed to defend. [Mary McCarthy] said when she was a child and received the Host, she thought of it as the Holy Ghost, He being the ‘most portable’ person of the Trinity; now she thought of it as a symbol and implied that it was a pretty good one. I then said, in a very shaky voice, ‘Well, if it’s a symbol, to hell with it.’ That was all the defense I was capable of but I realize now that this is all I will ever be able to say about it, outside of a story, except that it is the center of existence for me; all the rest of life is expendable.” – from The Habit Of Being

 This is a direct attack on the holiness and reality of Christ in the Eucharist.

But the nicey nice church of ME ME ME probably doesn't recognize this.
-------------------

This division has lamentable effects in the lives of individuals,

including the pain suffered in Lutheran-Catholic marriages,

when one spouse cannot receive Communion in the other’s

congregation. Our churches have grave need of development in

our pastoral practice to justify occasional Eucharistic hospitality.

Based on the present Ecumenical Directory and looking toward

the general good, especially for those in Lutheran-Catholic

marriages, Catholic communities might increase the opportunities

for Catholics and Lutherans to receive Communion together.

Already local Catholic bishops, given the principles stated in §§

129–31 of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity’s

113

Directory for the Application of the Principles and Norms for

Ecumenism

, can develop their considerations of “grave and

pressing need” (§ 130) to receive the Eucharist. This should be

done in light of (a) the full possibilities of the principles stated in

the

Directory

and (b) the spiritual good of Lutherans well-disposed

to receive the Eucharist, especially for those in Catholic-Lutheran

marriages who attend church regularly, those who make retreats

in Catholic retreat houses and similar venues, those gathered for

ecumenical meetings, and so forth.

religion as belly button gazing

Mark Mallet defends the Pope.

my comment is that if you want mushy feel good religion, Youtube is full of self hypnosis/meditation stuff.

Why should these people decide they want to actually obey God when belly button gazing will give you all the warm fuzzy feelings of religion without the hard work of living an ethical life.

Reminds me of the ancient world, where religion has little to do with ethics: If you wished to live an ethical life, you studied philosophy.

Which is why traditional people who work with people in meditation are careful to check if these people are into egotism.

Heh. Even the Pope notices this:

Although it sounds obvious, spiritual accompaniment must lead others ever closer to God, in whom we attain true freedom. Some people think they are free if they can avoid God; they fail to see that they remain existentially orphaned, helpless, homeless. They cease being pilgrims and become drifters, flitting around themselves and never getting anywhere. To accompany them would be counterproductive if it became a sort of therapy supporting their self-absorption and ceased to be a pilgrimage with Christ to the Father. —POPE FRANCIS, Evangelii Gaudium, n. 170

noope it is not obvious: Especially when the "reformers" misquote you and the press distorts the message...

HELLLO!

evolving to a higher power? Whoopie

I thought Teilhard de Chardin was censored because of his ideas that men were evolving to a higher power, i.e. that the ultimate aim of God making mankind was to evolve to a superman.

And no, he was not censored for investigating evolution, which has been accepted as a possible mechanism for God to make the world since the days of St Augustine. (Darwin's tweak, that the evolution was "blind" and based only on laws of chance not divine plan, is rejected by the church).

But apparently his original censorship was that he denied original sin according to this Wikipedia link

One should expect a man who was in World War I as a stretcher bearer and excavated in China would see there is indeed a flaw in mankind, which the church calls "original sin", that is a weakness that allows men to choose to do evil, even sometimes over his "will" (i.e. from emotions or because of weakness to stand up to outside pressure, which was Eve's problem).

But never mind.

this is his real idea that was rejected by the church, but has wormed it's way into the "trendier than thou" theologians and has made the new agers love him: again from Wikipedia.

From 1930–1931, Teilhard stayed in France and in the United States. During a conference in Paris, Teilhard stated: "For the observers of the Future, the greatest event will be the sudden appearance of a collective humane conscience and a human work to make."

if this sounds familiar, it is because the polyester suited new age nuns who defy the pope arranged for their leadership meeting to have Ms Marx who is pushing the same idea address their meeting.

She calls it "Conscious evolution", where if you send her money she would help you to evolve to a higher power when the world enters the next phase of evolution, which occurred two years ago but never mind. This has resulted in the nuns pursuing organic farms and creation spirituality, which sees no original sin either, and the Tablet defends the nuns, ignoring the fact that one result of these leaders pughing newfangled ideas is that there are few Catholic schools or hospitals any more, that few Catholics under the age of 40 know or understand the teachings of basic Christianity, and that the average Catholic objects to their hard earned money funding the nuns running around to conferences pushing heresy and pretending they are farmers by running eco farms. (our family runs an organic farm, but unlike them, we have to make a profit).

This trendy idea means the point of God making man is not because he loves ordinary people who are dirty and have kids, but because these superficial folks are beside the point: His aim is to have men evolve to a superman, and all those ordinary folks are just cannon fodder who are the garbage to be discarded by those who have evolved.

And where does Jesus come into all of this? Anyone?


The new agers love him. After all, if the aim of God's creation is to evolve to be a superman, you don't have to worry about all those primitive rules. (This idea is a variation of gnosticism by the way: That posits the person with secret knowledge, or the most intelligent, equates to greatness. Holiness is not an issue, since mystical experience is equated to holiness. Uh, no, that's not true in Christianity or even in Hinduism,, but never mind.)

This was all the fad in the 1960s when I went to college, but tell you the truth I could not make head nor tail of the book. I'm not much into mysticism, who belly button gaze while people are suffering nearby. Heh, just give them an aspirin, will you?

well, anyway, Instapundit links to an article that claims that Charles Dawson was the guy behind the fake hominoid find the Piltdown man.

Piltdown Man, if it weren’t a hoax, would indeed have been a big find. Dawson knew, as De Groote and colleagues note, that “the British scientific community was anticipating in a missing link between apes and humans: a large brain, an ape-like face and jaws, and heavily fossilized materials that indicated great antiquity.” Dawson quite simply gave scientists the evidence that they wanted.

honesty in science is a big thing, but scientists are alas human too.

But anyway, one of the lesser known facts is that guess who was part of that discovery? Yes, our friend Pierre. again from Wikipedia:

 In June 1912 he formed part of the original digging team, with Arthur Smith Woodward andCharles Dawson at the Piltdown site, after the discovery of the first fragments of the (fraudulent) "Piltdown Man", with some even suggesting he participated in the hoax.^[1][2] 

he later went on to help with other digs, including that of the Peking man, a fossil that has also disappeard, albeit unlike Piltdown man, is consistent with other finds of homo erect
So what can one conclude?

Francis: Causing confusion is my business

my quote not his.

Yes, a commission to "study" women deacons, complete with at least one nun who is a heretic and supports wimenpriests.

What could go wrong?

Already Reuters has joined the cheerleaders of "equality".

adding for good measure a photo of the Pope with sisters in a habit, from Sister Faustina's group.

Yes, propaganda showing sisters who are traditional, not the polyester pantssuited ones who are busy evolving to a higher power and worshiping mother gaia.

The whole thing is not about "equality" but about biology. The main heresy in the modern world is denying the biological reality of sexuality, with it's implications for child rearing, family, and of course the Jungian ideas of gender themes.

Women here will not become women who take their feminine traits into the workplace, but pseudomen.

What do I mean? Well, there are quite a few studies showing women in medicine actually have a different practice style. In science, it says a lot that it was Madam Curie who promoted use of radium for cancer or established the x ray stations at the front in WWII: the feminist side meant she cared for others in a motherly way.

Get rid of biology and how traditional laws engender how to control sexuality by channeling it into family and marriage, and voila, you have complete freedom to be promiscuous, to be gay (even if you are bisexual you are gay or encouraged to join the promiscuous gay lifestyle complete with STD and other hazards no one wants to discuss). Delink sex from children while promoting abortion to free women from children, who are now seen as a burden, and voila, there goes the population explosion.

encourage IVF and voila, perfect babies, and of course professional women can have these at age 50 instead of interrupting their "Career", not to mention that at age 50 their value to the work force is lower, so it's okay to take off and raise the kids.


in Cathoicism, the priest is not a minister/preacher, and the idea of a man as priest/soldier/father and leader is innate in human biology/psychology. Modern feminists want this idea to be seen as wrong, yet you know, when the law does not reflect reality, society is distorted.

Socialism denied selfishness and the wish to own things that is linked to work, in favor of the wonderful idea of brother hood and sharing. Yet that utopian idea led to the deaths of 100 million people.

Gender theories are already destroying the man hood of the millenial generation (along with an ecomonic policy that puts profits over people, so sends work to cheaper labor sources).

What could go wrong? uh, depopulation maybe?

Rome probably started to destroy themselves due to small families in the day of the Republic, but the depopulation from disease and abortion was one reason that they couldn't defend themselves from the barbarians.

so the "deacon" discussion has a lot more implications than making a lot of "reformist" catholics happy.

And what worries me is that this pope spreads confusion.

Confusion could be spread because he is dumb, but it is also a mark of Satan.

Yes, officially the pope says a lot of wonderful things: but when he sows confusion  he is working for the other side.

Pope mentions Jesus

Most of the headlines from WYD have been about the pope telling kids to become SJW.

But his final sermon was about getting closer to Jesus.

I"m glad he remembered what the WYD was supposed to be about.