However Pope Benedict feels Protected by Pope Francis : " Your kindness, from the first moment of the election, in every moment of my life here, strikes me, is a source of real inspiration for me. More than in the Vatican Gardens, with their beauty, your goodness is the place where I dwell: I feel protected " By the way, From exactly what, or whom, does Benedict feel protected ? if anyone has a possible reply I'll be pleased to read it, thank you.
Aviso, This is only a personal supposition. I believe Benedict was expressing thanks for his privacy without the presence of an intrusive media, so that he could pray, reflect, and write at his own leisure. Unrelated to your question, I love his line, "In the end, we also want to be put inside the Lord's thanksgiving, and thus actually receive the newness of life, and help the transubstantiation of the world." I have read his Introduction to Christianity and Jesus of Nazareth, but his perchance to connect everything to the Holy Eucharist is what touches my heart! I love him and am sad to see him look frail. And thank God that Pope Francis has been generous to Benedict in terms of privacy and access to the Vatican Gardens. Safe in the Flames of the Sacred Heart!
For all you impatient and/or Cranky Old Farts .... Like me! HeartLight Daily Verse - 30 January Ephesians 4:2 Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. Thoughts on today's verse: "You mean I have to put up with that!?" There are those folks in life about whom the saying is true: "They are the grit out of which we are to fashion our pearl." But our great example in this challenge is Jesus. Think of what he had to put up with in his 12 disciples. Remember how transformational his patience and gentleness with them was. Can we dare to less? Prayer: Give me strength and patience, O God, that I may be as loving, gentle, and patient with others as you have been with me. Through Jesus my Lord and hero I pray. Amen. Visit heartlight.org for more GOD SAVE ALL HERE!!
Interesting...his face has transformed, He looks like he is at peace. Pope Benedict was never a man who enjoyed the managerial part of the papacy. But has always been a contemplative theologian. And I'm sure he has battled many demons. During the process. But I think his happiest time in life has been these years in the garden. Also, he said he was going to disappear but Francis has kept him in the limelight. Pope Francis could have easily ignored him throughout his papacy. But they seem to have a great relationship.
The climate change stuff is merely a symptom of a bigger problem for the Church. I suspect, while hoping and praying that I'm wrong, that the "Catholic Spring" is the skeleton. Others have raised it as an issue that the new US administration should investigate because they believe it to have been instigated by the US Democratic Party. I think they're wrong, and that Podesta was only part of something bigger within the Church - something stretching back at least as far if not prior to the St. Gallen Mafia. It will come to a head some time in the future and will have to be addressed by the Church. Catholics will have to sort out and it might take generations to put things right. This touches on the Magisterium of the Church - Tradition, Scripture and the Papacy. The campaign was about changing teaching to re-interpret Scripture, contradict Tradition, and pressurise the reigning Pope and hierarchy. Replacing the Pope resulted in effectively reinterpreting Scripture and contradicting Tradition. And that was the thin end of the wedge with much more to come. A Pope has contradicted a recent predecessor by not only allowing, but recommending, what the Pope before last said was impossible. Catholics denying that AL opens the door to all sorts of invalid unions rely on the Pope saying that gay marriage is wrong but the precedent has been set for a future Pope to "develop" doctrine on that an other issues. Given how this Pope has stacked the hierarchy with people of like mind with him, we could see some version of Catholic homosexual marriages in our lifetime but we may not live to see a faithful Pope being persecuted for bringing the Church back to what has always and everywhere been believed. Don't be surprised to see those who bang on about the holiness of Pope Francis and our obligation to shut up and pray, pay and obey, not only accept but embrace the further "development" of a variety of doctrines. It's no coincidence that atheists are this Pope's biggest cheerleaders. Incidentally, it seems that Mr. Erhlich is rather lazy when it comes to preparing his lectures. The video I posted of a lecture in Lausanne University, Switzerland uploaded last year. He gave the same lecture to the University of New South Wales in Australia five years ago where he was introduced as a prophet. Same lecture, same joke about same sex marriage, same answers to questions. The only difference was that when he rounded off the question and answer session with the same attack on the Catholic Church he didn't exclude the then Pope Benedict from his claims of a "very strong, malign, unethical influence from the Vatican". Mr. Ehrlich could significantly reduce his own carbon footprint by simply directing his devotees in the Vatican and Elsewhere to YouTube. His prophecies are about as accurate as Charlie Johnston's, but at least Charlie only claimed to be relaying God's message rather than pretending that man is his own God. Future Catholics looking back at this time may well wish that mere heresy had been the only problem in the Vatican. Here's the video of Mr. Ehrlich's lecture in Australia:
Sometimes even the secular press get it spot on!! http://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/p...huge-quiet-revolution-in-the-church-1.2957105
Looks to me like a Jesuit kite flyer for the Pope and Cardinal Kasper. Notice how he casts the four Cardinals and the dubia as challenging the Pope and makes sure to mention that Cardinal Muller "repudiated" the dubia. What else would you expect from the Irish Times? There's talk of a reconciliation with the SSPX. Do you know if they have a presence in Ireland? I hope so because if this agenda of turning the Catholic Church into a kind of Anglicanism with a Pope instead of a British monarch as its titular head is successful, at least there's some hope of a real Holy Sacrifice of the Mass being celebrated on Sundays in a Church that has some respect for the meaning of Mass and the Blessed Eucharist.
Fatima, Dolours was being ironic. Of course he's a nut job. The very worrying aspect is that he's been invited to speak to a Vatican-sponsored conference. The faithful Catholics who queried this have been slapped down - he's coming and that's that. I don't see any point of confluence between this appalling man and Church teaching about life issues.
It is so troubling. Just so troubling. There's an old saying "you are judged by the company you keep." A chilling context for this situation.
http://marymagdalen.blogspot.co.uk/2017/01/amoris-laetitia-brightest-and-best.html?m=1 Amoris Laetitia: Brightest and the Best would resign Encouraging news from a priest friend. He was speaking to his bishop about Amoris Laetitia and discussing whether the Bishops Conference will make a statement on the lines of two bishops who make up the Maltese Episcopal Conference. "No", said the Bishop, "not only would there be division, even war amongst the bishops, at least a strong division between the bishops but in his own diocese he knew that several of the younger clergy would resign from their parishes, and be welcomed by other sympathetic bishops. The problem he said would be with the "brightest and the best, the most hard working especially amongst the younger of the diocesan clergy". It is unfortunate that the Church has been pushed in such a direction but this is where the Church is today, in a fragile vulnerable situation.
I was out visiting my son at the Norbertines in Silverado last weekend. Since the novices live a life insulated from world and church news I studiously avoided anything to do with the Church and this pope. However my son brought up the dubia. Apparently they've been kept up to date in depth with developments with AL and the dubia because all the Norbertines wholeheartedly love and support Cardinal Burke and his positions in general and the dubia in particular.
Let's be truthful they dedicate themselves to Our Blessed Mother and the Holy See. That is the basis to their spirituality.
Being truthful, Cardinal Burke offered their annual week long retreat summer 2015, and Bishop Athanasius Schneider offered their annual week long retreat summer 2016. If the two most outspoken bishops in the world were chosen for back to back retreats, being truthful, they are far more orthodox and thus supportive of the dubia than you would like to admit. When I met Bishop Schneider in October, I told him my son was a novice with the Norbertines and that he was very positively influenced by the bishop's retreat. While he was there in June my son scheduled private time to speak with the bishop and I asked the bishop in October if he remembered him. He said he most certainly did and to send him his warm personal regards, which I was able to convey to my son in person last weekend. This bishop is a true light of the Church, a humble and incredibly warm man. The Norbertines fully support him and Cardinal Burke AND their views on the state of the Church and the men currently in Rome.
I only need to know that Cardinal Burke and Father John Hardon were best of friends to know Cardinal Burke is as good as they come. Bedrock solid in handing on the true faith.
When he spoke for us in Kansas City several years ago, I got to spend time with Cardinal Burke over the course of three days, and my two sons served Benediction for him. He too was kind and gentle but had a depth of love and compassion that was unmatched. Interestingly, I met Fr. Hardon in Manassas VA in the mid 1990's at a homeschooling conference, and he had the same air of sanctity. He gave a superb and inspiring homily in which he asserted, "Home schooling is necessary for the survival of the Catholic Faith in America!" From an article he wrote on the same subject: Why Home Education? In stating my thesis, I might have said many things, like: Home education is helpful for the family, or Home education is a valuable asset for family life, or Home education is a powerful aid for the Catholic family, or Home education is all but necessary for the Catholic family, Each of these titles would have been true, but inadequate. Let me be clear. I am not merely saying that home education is necessary in the modern world. This is not a conditional necessity. It is not just because the modern world has become so widely or deeply secularized that home education has become a necessity. No! I make bold to say that one of the main contributing factors to the secularization of a once strongly Christian culture has been the neglect of sound orthodox authentic courageous magisterial historic Catholic teaching in faith and morals by parents, in the home, from the dawn of the infancy of their children. The issue we are addressing is perennial. Either Catholic parents provide their offspring with the education the children need, or the inevitable happens. As it has happened. Our main focus here is on “Why?” Why are parents so necessary for the proper education their children, and the corresponding survival of the Catholic family? The reason is really a cluster of reasons, all derived from what we know about human nature and divine grace. We Are What We Have Received. The first reason is the mysterious laws of interdependence. We depend on others for whatever we possess. This applies first of all to our physical nature. Only human beings can reproduce other human beings. This reproduction is not only bodily but also mental and volitional. What do we know that someone else has not taught us; and what do we love except what others have helped us to choose and appreciate. Under God, of primary importance to enlighten and inspire us are our parents. Parents, in turn, are to recognize that the children brought into this world are not meant for this world. The children’s destiny is eternal. It is the parents, more than anyone in the world who are to prepare their children, in time, indeed, but for eternity. Parents Are Primary Sources of Grace. No one reaches heaven without divine grace. No one receives this grace, except through another human being who is the channel of this grace. Parents are the primary channels of this grace for their children. We are here saying much more than meets the ear. We are saying that in God’s ordinary providence the parents are the main instruments of spiritual light for the children’s minds, channels of spiritual strength for the children’s wills. In a word, parents are the principal condition by which God communicates the graces that children need to reach heaven to save their souls. This primacy as channels of grace for the children comes from the sacrament of matrimony which Catholic parents have received. Matrimony assures them of a lifetime of God’s grace to love each other in faithful charity and chastity until death. Matrimony also assures them of a lifetime of God’s grace for the upbringing of their children in loving obedience to God, as a precondition for reaching a heavenly destiny. The purpose of marriage is to raise families for heaven, nothing less, and there can be nothing more. One of the great blessings of modern home education is that it is waking up so many parents to their God-given responsibility. In the providence of God, He allows no evil or suffering without intending to draw a greater good. The widespread secularization of organized education in so many countries of the western world has served as lightening and thunder to arouse complacent parents from their complacency. They are beginning to ask themselves, “What is our duty? What should we do to join forces with other dedicated fathers and mothers who are making such great sacrifices for the home education of their children?l http://www.therealpresence.org/archives/Education/Education_021.htm
Even the best Catholic schools cannot compare with the homeschooling Catholic family. One adult with 20 children!
My wife taught our children K-12 over a 17 year period. Now she is teaching third and fourth grade in a small rural Catholic grade school. She certainly understands and attests to this now more than ever. Her heart aches for these kids and what divorce and the culture at large are doing to them.
Thank you Brian for that witness. My wife, Geralyn, and I just wrapped up 20 years of homeschooling this past June. New York State is one of the least friendly homeschooling states in the nation. We came out unscathed apart from two instances of conflict with our local school district. There are two major benefits to this approach. First is the fact that the parent controls the curriculum. In my children's junior or senior year I did teach from a global history textbook that had pro-Islam and feminist leanings so that my teenagers could perceive the distortions. For the most part, however, they were taught from a Catholic perspective, which included courses like logic! Most importantly, homeschooling allowed us to immerse our children in the sacramental and prayer life of the Church, going beyond Sunday Holy Mass. In other words, they grew up believing frequent Holy Mass, Confession, and prayer is normal. I consider the Consecration to the Two Hearts as a essential component in this formation. My children aren't perfect. Two of them are currently struggling with issues in their lives; but they remain faithful Catholics. Finally, the most difficult adjustment with homeschooling, in my opinion, is that it requires a change in lifestyle for the family as a whole. Both parents must be committed for it to work. There is less compartmentalization in family life; still, as the children grow older parents must find more socialization opportunities for the kids with peers. For us, this came through a few sport opportunities and solid Catholic youth groups. Some homeschooling parents bond with other parents in organizing co-op group classes. When we moved to a rural setting in 2000 that opportunity greatly diminished. Overall, homeschooling is a blessing because it allows you to form your children with the help of God, before the pagan culture does. Sadly, sending one's children to a parochial school today does not guarantee such protection. Safe in the Refuge of the Immaculate Heart!
