“I tell you, if these were silent, the very stones would cry out.”

In 1968, Pope Paul VI wrote his encyclical Humanae Vitae. Leading Up to this land mark encyclical people had high hopes that the Pope would change course and allow for birth control. It affirms traditional Church moral teaching on the sanctity of life and the procreative and unitive nature of conjugal relations.
The publication of the encyclical marks the first time in the twentieth century that open dissent from the laity about teachings of the Church was voiced widely and publicly. The teaching has been criticized by development organizations and others who claim that it limits the methods available to fight worldwide population growth and struggle against HIV/Aids. Within two days of the encyclical's release, a group of dissident theologians, led by Rev. ,Charles Curran then of The Catholic University of America, issued a statement stating, "spouses may responsibly decide according to their conscience that artificial contraception in some circumstances is permissible and indeed necessary to preserve and foster the value and sacredness of marriage.
The concerns expressed in Humanae Vitae have all come to fruition over the last 47 years. It will be the same at this Fall’s Synod. Sometime afterward, the Pope will likely issue an encyclical reaffirming the Church’s teaching and truth concerning Marriage and Family life. And there will be dissention and apostasy.
http://w2.vatican.va/content/paul-vi/en/encyclicals/documents/hf_p-vi_enc_25071968_humanae-vitae.html

 

W

What a loving attitude you have and courageous. I believe this is exactly what the church has always taught, compassion without compromise, often a painful road for all. We do not condemn people. My only disagreement is that I see the "transmission" of his messages as clear. They have been muddied by others particularly the media, lobbies and groups like extreme schismatic traditionalists. Catholics who reject tradition are not catholics. I hold tradition as foundational to my faith but I am not a traditionalist like SSPX. I love both the old and the new and I trust our Holy Father to uphold the best in both. Keep the faith. I will pray for you friend too. St Peregrine is the patron saint of cancer sufferers. I have to get to work will say more.

 

Full homily text from Vatican.va (If you read the full context of the paragraph in red below, I think you can see that the Pope is simply asking us to PRAY that CHRIST takes somethining SINFUL and miraculously turns this toward the GOOD, by an abundance of GRACE):

APOSTOLIC JOURNEY OF HIS HOLINESS POPE FRANCIS
TO ECUADOR, BOLIVIA AND PARAGUAY
(5-13 JULY 2015)

HOLY MASS FOR FAMILIES

HOMILY OF THE HOLY FATHER

Samanes Park, Guayaquil (Ecuador)
Monday, 6 July 2015

The Gospel passage which we have just heard is the first momentous sign in the Gospel according to John. Mary’s maternal concern is seen in her plea to Jesus: “They have no wine”, and Jesus’ reference to “his hour” will be more fully understood later, in the story of his Passion.

And this is good, because it allows us to see Jesus’ eagerness to teach, to accompany, to heal and to give joy, thanks to the words of his Mother: “They have no wine”.

The wedding at Cana is repeated in every generation, in every family, in every one of us and our efforts to let our hearts find rest in strong love, fruitful love and joyful love. Let us make room for Mary, “the Mother” as the evangelist calls her. Let us journey with her now to Cana.

Mary is attentive, she is attentive in the course of this wedding feast, she is concerned for the needs of the newlyweds. She is not closed in on herself, worried only about her little world. Her love makes her “outgoing” towards others. She does not seek her friends to say what is happening, to criticize the poor organization of the wedding feast. And since she is attentive, she discretely notices that the wine has run out. Wine is a sign of happiness, love and plenty. How many of our adolescents and young people sense that these is no longer any of that wine to be found in their homes? How many women, sad and lonely, wonder when love left, when it slipped away from their lives? How many elderly people feel left out of family celebrations, cast aside and longing each day for a little love, from their sons and daughters, their grandchildren, their great grandchildren? This lack of this “wine” can also be due to unemployment, illness and difficult situations which our families around the world may experience. Mary is not a “demanding” mother, nor a mother-in-law who revels in our lack of experience, our mistakes and the things we forget to do. Mary, quite simply, is a Mother! She is there, attentive and concerned. It is gratifying to hear this: Mary is a Mother! I invite you to repeat this with me: Mary is a Mother! Once again: Mary is a Mother! And once more: Mary is a Mother!

But Mary, at the very moment she perceives that there is no wine, approaches Jesus with confidence: this means that Mary prays. She goes to Jesus, she prays. She does not go to the steward, she immediately tells her Son of the newlyweds’ problem. The response she receives seems disheartening: “What does it have to do with you and me? My hour has not yet come” (v. 4). But she nonetheless places the problem in God’s hands. Her deep concern to meet the needs of others hastens Jesus’ hour. And Mary was a part of that hour, from the cradle to the cross. She was able “to turn a stable into a home for Jesus, with poor swaddling clothes and an abundance of love” (Evangelii Gaudium, 286). She accepted us as her sons and daughters when the sword pierced her heart. She teaches us to put our families in God’s hands; she teaches us to pray, to kindle the hope which shows us that our concerns are also God’s concerns.

Praying always lifts us out of our worries and concerns. It makes us rise above everything that hurts, upsets or disappoints us, and helps to put ourselves in the place of others, in their shoes. The family is a school where prayer also reminds us that we are not isolated individuals; we are one and we have a neighbor close at hand: he or she is living under the same roof, is a part of our life, and is in need.

And finally, Mary acts. Her words, “Do whatever he tells you” (v. 5), addressed to the attendants, are also an invitation to us to open our hearts to Jesus, who came to serve and not to be served. Service is the sign of true love. Those who love know how to serve others. We learn this especially in the family, where we become servants out of love for one another. In the heart of the family, no one is rejected; all have the same value. I remember once how my mother was asked which of her five children – we are five brothers – did she love the most. And she said: it is like the fingers on my hand, if I prick one of them, then it is as if the others are pricked also. A mother loves her children as they are. And in the family, children are loved as they are. None are rejected. “In the family we learn how to ask without demanding, to say ‘thank you’ as an expression of genuine gratitude for what we have been given, to control our aggressivity and greed, and to ask forgiveness when we have caused harm, when we quarrel, because in all families there are quarrels. The challenge is to then ask for forgiveness. These simple gestures of heartfelt courtesy help to create a culture of shared life and respect for our surroundings” (Laudato Si’, 213). The family is the nearest hospital; when a family member is ill, it is in the home that they are cared for as long as possible. The family is the first school for the young, the best home for the elderly. The family constitutes the best “social capital”. It cannot be replaced by other institutions. It needs to be helped and strengthened, lest we lose our proper sense of the services which society as a whole provides. Those services which society offers to its citizens are not a type of alms, but rather a genuine “social debt” with respect to the institution of the family, which is foundational and which contributes to the common good.

The family is also a small Church, called a “domestic Church” which, along with life, also mediates God’s tenderness and mercy. In the family, we imbibe faith with our mother’s milk. When we experience the love of our parents, we feel the closeness of God’s love.

In the family, and we are all witnesses of this, miracles are performed with what little we have, with what we are, with what is at hand… and many times, it is not ideal, it is not what we dreamt of, nor what “should have been”. There is one detail that makes us think: the new wine, that good wine mentioned by the steward at the wedding feast of Cana, came from the water jars, the jars used for ablutions, we might even say from the place where everyone had left their sins…it came from the “worst” because “where sin increased, grace abounded all the more” (Rom 5:20). In our own families and in the greater family to which we all belong, nothing is thrown away, nothing is useless. Shortly before the opening of the Jubilee Year of Mercy, the Church will celebrate the Ordinary Synod devoted to the family, deepen her spiritual discernment and consider concrete solutions and help to the many difficult and significant challenges facing families today. I ask you to pray fervently for this intention, so that Christ can take even what might seem to us impure, like the water in the jars scandalizing or threatening us, and turn it – by making it part of his “hour” – into a miracle. The family today needs this miracle.


All this began because “they had no wine”. It could all be done because a woman – the Virgin Mary – was attentive, left her concerns in God’s hands and acted sensibly and courageously. But there is a further detail, the best was to come: everyone went on to enjoy the finest of wines. And this is the good news: the finest wines are yet to be tasted; for families, the richest, deepest and most beautiful things are yet to come. The time is coming when we will taste love daily, when our children will come to appreciate the home we share, and our elderly will be present each day in the joys of life. The finest of wines is expressed by hope, this wine will come for every person who stakes everything on love. And the best wine is yet to come, in spite of all the variables and statistics which say otherwise. The best wine will come to those who today feel hopelessly lost. Say it to yourselves until you are convinced of it. Say it to yourselves, in your hearts: the best wine is yet to come. Whisper it to the hopeless and the loveless. Have patience, hope, and follow Mary’s example, pray, open your heart, because the best wine is yet to come. God always seeks out the peripheries, those who have run out of wine, those who drink only of discouragement. Jesus feels their weakness, in order to pour out the best wines for those who, for whatever reason, feel that all their jars have been broken.

As Mary bids us, let us “do what the Lord tells us”. Do what he tells you. And let us be thankful that in this, our time and our hour, the new wine, the finest wine, will make us recover the joy of families, the joy of living in a family. Let it be so.

 

OK, let the Pope talk himself (between 4 to 5, he said himself that some could have some difficulties to understand his remarks sometimes), let me remind you also that my opinion about the Holy Father represent my opinion only, thank you.




Aviso

 

How beautiful and profound. When we nit pick from the Holy Fathers homily we miss all the beauty.

 

I like how you presented the homily Jon, nice job

 

I think this is an excellent article and well expresses some of the concerns I've had with the "debates" here and on other threads about the Church, cardinals, and the Holy Father himself. It's a bit long but worth the read.

http://www.catholic.com/magazine/articles/the-church-militant-or-the-church-belligerent

 

Thank you, Aviso, for this wonderful video. This priest is truly present to us "in persona Christi." We could not wish for a better Pope. May God bless his ministry. And may God bless you.

 

I think it is important to note that the hierarchy is full of freemasons and much prophecy attests to this. Do not be surprised that these things are to be. Again, at this time I do not judge Holy Father, for he is not going to show his cards till after the synod in October. In day's past, a pope could control what took place in the Vatican, but I contend that that day stopped when Pope Paul VI stated, "the smoke of Satan has entered the Church". I for one will pray harder for him now, because he is carrying a heavy cross in knowing the unchanging truth, yet allowing the goats to speak their mind so the sickle will have no problem separating the wheat from the weeds in the Day of the Lord soon coming.

 

Thank you, Holy Father!

Mary is a Mother! She is attentive. She prays! She acts!

Amen!

Safe in the Barque of Peter!

 

Great article! Thank you for posting it.

 

Win that soul for heaven Ally. Will add rosary tonight. Our Lady said at Fatima, "Many souls go to Hell because they have no one to pray for them or make sacrifices for them. ..

 

This really is a great article which does indeed illustrate the problems occurring on Catholic blogs in general as well as MoG in particular. Unfortunately it is too long so I've extracted a paragraph to illustrate its basic thread:

In short, the risk is to cease being the Church Militant and to become instead the "Church Belligerent." This term describes not so much a specific group of people as a certain attitude, mindset, or approach. It indicates the necessary fighting spirit of the Church Militant severed from the principle of charity. And it constitutes a hazard—not for those who think that the past forty years have been a catechetical and liturgical success, not for those who see no need to evangelize, not for those waiting for the Church to be updated. Rather, it poses a threat precisely to those—to us—who take the demands of the Church Militant seriously, who see the crisis in society and within the Church, who recognize the catechetical and liturgical fallout of almost four decades, and who desire to enter into the battle for souls.

 

Are you saying catholic sources dont misquote ,mis-translate ,misrepresent?[like WAF recently did]

 

When and if the Synod advances ideas and concepts that are incompatible with Catholic moral theology and Scripture, those who resist will be marginalized according to the links recently posted on this thread (i.e., the "Church belligerent"). And those marginalizing the faithful remnant will be quite smug and sanctimonious in their implicit and explicit condemnations of those who refuse to embrace the new paradigm.

It will get even worse than that. Some of those who embrace the new paradigm will even turn over members of the faithful remnant to the authorities so they can be re-educated - and if they will not accept the new paradigm, they will simply be eliminated.

Many here who think themselves wise are deceived. They have no idea the breadth and depth of the evil afoot.

 

Nice comment Mac. I was very tired and it was freezing cold last night and I finished late and could not be bothered going across the road to visit the Blessed Sacrament last night then I thought of your comment and made a short visit to pray for the soul above and his good friends. Even said one for you and Brian K.

 

I had a lengthy reply that I had deleted yesterday cause i thought it sounded a bit too "holier than thou." I was concerned that its motivation was more to show how wise I am rather than to edify or benefit others. Now I wish in some ways I had posted it. It was actually quite good! It expressed my concern that the ones who may pose most danger to the healing and unity of the church will be those whose spiritual pride makes no allowance for change where change is needed and right. Lines from two modern hymns come to mind "ever changing from Glory to Glory, Mirrored there may our lives tell Your story." And the second hymn, "Make me like a precious stone, crystal clear and finely honed, Light of Jesus shining through, Giving glory back to you." These hymns speak of spiritual evolution and for that to happen, I suggest, we need change. The rich young man comes to mind. His riches took pride of place in his heart rather than the love of God. At the time of confrontation with that truth he found it too hard to let go and walked away from salvation. Thank God for prayer and confession that allow us to find our way back. Perhaps those who are so entrenched in the past and in their own prideful convictions will find it hardest to change after the Warning. They will be convinced that evil is at play if what they are shown countermands their own dearly held views. Perhaps they will be the greatest stumbling block for many others and be the most useful tool of Satan in the lead up to The Chastisement after mankind has forgotten, once again, what it has learned. There is nothing I can say to you Brian K to persuade you of the goodness and wisdom of our Pope. I see evil all around but not in him. I hope I am given the grace to never betray the true followers of Christ and to never deny the Truth. I hope to stay part of that remnant that will be saved. "Many are called but few are chosen." We are chosen according to our choices. In the end we make our choices and pay the price and get what we pay for: heaven or hell. We only have to respond correctly because we are told that God has already made the choice that calls us to Him. Oh that our ears and eyes are open. Oh that our hearts are not hardened as on that day at Meribah. I think I understand and appreciate the extent of evil in todays world and I understand your concerns. We all get marginalised to some extent by our convictions. There is plenty of room for the small remnant in the centre of the bed but I feel those on the edges will fall out. There will always be a good centre to the True church and for now I see Pope Francis as the beacon that guides us there. His light which is the light of Christ shines in the this rough spoken world and in the tempest tossed church where the banners of darkness are boldly unfurled. "Dark night has come down on us, Mother and we look out for Thy shining Sweet Star of the Sea." Jesus Mercy, Mary Help.

 

I think we are all very, very aware of the times and the evil that is afoot. The decision to be made is do you stay in the Barque of Peter or jump into the raging sea? I'm staying in the boat. Mark Mallett says it much better than I ever could:

http://www.markmallett.com/blog/the-parallel-deception/

 

I have been feeling exactly what Mark Mallett wrote about. It takes me back to the '60's when the mantra was "make love not war" etc. and, how can sex be bad if it is love . . .and our country went downhill from there. And women were liberated, at least that's what they were told when in fact they became enslaved to working outside the home, and trying to keep the role of absentee mother, and oh the guilt if you did not become a wage earner. I could go on and on . . .and families died, marriages ceased, and children raised themselves. I can see through the lies of today . . .our Blessed Mother has been pleading for us to pray, persevere, and worship Jesus. Some have remained faithful, but so many are caught up in the ways of the world, looking for love in all the wrong places. Jesus, I trust in You.

 

Excellent post. Yes we were all led up the garden path.