What a hard week it has been for many if us! Of course, we await to see this August how the US government enforces the HHS mandate, then we had to defeat in Texas yesterday to protect the unborn and now today the SC rules same sex marriage is protected by our Constitution. We try so hard to teach and prepare our kids to be moral, ethical and faithful people. Yet, the world pushes back against our efforts very hard. I know in the end how it all works out (MT 16:18) but I guess today I'm just a bit tired as I look out at what will be turbulent and challenging times for those of us who still hold fast to the teachings of this magnificent and wonderful Holy Roman Catholic Church, the Mystical Body of Christ. Pray, pray, pray.
Sometimes one has to sit back and take a breath and realize that we should not be shocked by anything anymore. We on this site have been very open in saying everything we are now seeing and much much worse is coming. I am in full preperation mode, spirit, soul and body. I am tying as hard as I can to stay focused on prayers, penance, visits to the Blessed Sacrament and trying to avoid sin. If anyone thinks we have not entered the Great Tribulation they are not intuned to God or what our Blessed mother has been warning us would take place. Were in it baby and it is only the tip of the iceberg.
miker, Earlier today I felt just the way you expressed it. But then I returned to the 6/25/13 message. Consider the words of Our Lady iin Medjugorje: I am your mother and cannot leave you alone in wandering and sin. For her, it has been 32 years of visitation and the world seems immersed in more evil than in 1981! Yet, Mary came yesterday with joy because of her unique privilege of knowing thoroughly the Father's Plan! The love in her Immaculate Heart is so great that she promises never to abandon us! Let us be comforted by Mary's faithfulness and the certainty that satan cannot thwart the Plan of God! Let us take hold of her tender hand and trust in Jesus! The Two Hearts will see us through til the end. I refuse to be discouraged and long to persevere! From today's Collect at Holy Mass: May your grace, O Lord, we pray, at all times go before us and follow after and make us determined to carry out good works! Hallelujah! We are surrounded by the grace of God! Safe in the Father's Arms and filled with the joy of the Holy Spirit!
Will this be the schism-inducing issue? Elizabeth Scalia at the anchoress thinks so: Once again, the church is a “sign of contradiction’. We are in the middle of an American version of the English Reformation, where an issue of marriage and sexual license will be used to eventually dismantle and suppress one church while establishing another. We simply haven’t come across Thomas More, yet. I wonder who will be the turbulent priest who needs getting rid of? - See more at: http://www.patheos.com/blogs/theanc...ma-says-church-consciences-will-be-respected/ If you're not sick to death of this, she's got a great round-up of great thoughts on the issue: http://www.patheos.com/blogs/theanchoress/2013/06/26/first-thoughts-and-links-on-doma/
God is good. First He allowed me a restful night for awhile. But then two of my children awoke in middle of the night not feeling well and then came to my wife and I for help. They went to their Mother and Father when they were sick, scared and in need of help, care and love. Wow. Do you think that's a message. My kids are ok- maybe some sort of minor virus. But I am grateful for he reminder they gave to me- we all need to go to Our Father, Our Mother and of course The Son. And then I get up early and a bit tired and I see all these beautiful and hope filled messages! Thank you. I think again maybe a message- yes we are headed into challenging times, but as parts of Christ's Mystical Body, we will all need to encourage one and other and always point our brothers and sisters toward completing the race as St Paul exhorts us. God Bless and have a great day!
You are so right Fatima, it is tempting to let every setback knock us down a little further. We mustn't allow this to happen to us, we mustn't be shocked or discouraged when we see these things happening around us. We have to remember that we are in battle now, and we need to be in battle mode, mentally and spiritually. Our weapon is the Rosary. Our Lady told us this at Medjugorje. "Always have the Rosary in your hand as a sign to Satan that you belong to me and my Son." We need to take this seriously and start living it, if we haven't already been doing so. We must not allow ourselves to give in to despair when we see the chaos and degeneration around us. Many of us will be called to be martyrs and we need to prepare ourselves for that eventuality by meditating as often as possible on the Lord's passion. I talk like I'm doing this already, but I'm not, I need to work on this, so I'm saying this as much to myself as to everybody else!
This is the best analysis I've come across. It is by Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council: Share with Friends | | June 26, 2013 | Permalink The Defiance of Marriage Act Days from now, our country will be celebrating an America that its founders would barely recognize. Freedom, Alexis de Tocqueville once said, requires virtue. Today, the U.S. Supreme Court made it clear that the pillars of both are under attack. By a single vote, five unelected justices determined that they know better than God and struck at the heart of marriage in America. It was a powerful rebuke of a law FRC helped develop, the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) -- but not the final blow. To the disappointment of many, this was not the sweeping nationwide redefinition of marriage that homosexual activists were hoping for. Instead, the Court's majority decided that the federal law is unconstitutional in states where same-sex "marriage" is legal. There, couples will have full access to the 1,100 federal benefits, rights, and protections that naturally married spouses enjoy. While it wasn't a complete dismantling of marriage, the Court's ruling paves the way for a wave of attacks on state constitutional amendments all across America, where same-sex couples will fight for the same "rights" the justices are granting elsewhere. Writing for the majority, Justice Anthony Kennedy insisted that defining marriage as the union of a man and woman -- as nations have since the beginning of time -- is "to impose a disadvantage, a separate status, and so a stigma upon all who enter into same-sex marriages made lawful by the unquestioned authority of the States." It is one thing, Justice Antonin Scalia fired back, "for a society to elect change; it is another for a court of law to impose change by adjudging those who oppose it [are] enemies of the human race." Chief Justice John Roberts agreed, writing that the definition of marriage wasn't driven by a "sinister motive" but by its "role and function throughout the history of civilization." Nor, argued Justice Samuel Alito, did Congress or the federal government violate the Constitution by defining marriage through DOMA in 1996. "The Constitution does not guarantee the right to enter in a same-sex 'marriage.'" And certainly judges, he said in oral arguments, are "not equipped to make such an assessment." Nor are we. What God imprinted on the human heart, no judge or court can change. The Court can declare same-sex "marriage" a legal right in the eyes of government, but judges cannot make it morally right in the hearts of the people. This is an institution that carries God's own signature. Even absent any faith, the natural order proves the only successful model for civilization is natural marriage. For nine years, homosexual activists have hidden behind the black robes of the court, trying to force their will on America before people wake up to the devastation. In California, voters already understood what was at stake. In two separate referendums, they flooded the ballots for marriage, winning a constitutional amendment in 2008 in the largest state in America. For five years, the Left has battled to tear down this monument to democracy and the natural family. California Governor Jerry Brown, ignoring his people -- and the law -- took a page from President Obama's school of defiance and refused to defend the amendment in court. Left without options, the proponents of Proposition 8 took it upon themselves to protect it. Today, the Supreme Court, in a profoundly disturbing decision, ruled that these voters lacked the standing to represent a state amendment that more than 7,000,000 Californians passed. Our legal experts are analyzing the complicated next steps and implications of this decision on marriage law in California. What is clear is that it was a slap in the face of democracy, in which five justices agreed that the people of 'We The People' can be ignored when the outcome is not what a tyrannical government wants. The Supreme Court holds instead that voters' voices can be discarded in a heap of judicial arrogance. Left untouched, the Court's ruling allows the executive branch to effectively veto any duly enacted law, without any remedy for a vulnerable electorate. Even Justice Kennedy, the author of DOMA's downfall, mourned the precedent the Proposition 8 decision sets for a nation of sovereign people. "What the Court fails to grasp or accept," he writes, "is the basic premise of the initiative process. And it is this. The essence of democracy is that the right to make law rests in the people and flows to the government, not the other way around. Freedom resides first in the people without need of a grant from government. The California initiative process embodies these principles and has done so for over a century." Like us, he understands that if the court abandons the cornerstone of American government, the rest of the foundation will crumble. Fortunately, conservative leaders across our country aren't about to let that happen. In interview after interview, tweet after tweet, the message echoed from Governor's mansions to congressional floors: we are not giving up. It started with Congresswoman Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) and flooded the wires since then. "No man, not even a Supreme Court, can undo what a holy God has instituted." Rep. Tim Huelskamp (R-Kans.) vowed to lead the fight for a Federal Marriage Amendment. Governor Mike Pence (R-Ind.) said he would use today's rulings as motivation to work even harder for a state marriage amendment. "I look forward to supporting efforts by members of the Indiana General Assembly to place a constitutional amendment on the ballot for voter consideration next year." House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio), House Minority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.), and other members of GOP leadership pledged to lead a robust debate over marriage and win more American hearts and minds to marriage as the union of "one man and one woman." Fifteen other members stood in solidarity in the Capitol for a special press conference, led by Rep. Vicky Hartzler (R-Mo.), promising to "defend the rights of Americans to make marriage policy." The Left will say that we are on the wrong side of history, but that doesn't matter if we're on the rightside of truth. And the truth is not that #LoveIsLove, but that the love of a man and woman, for life, is God's design for marriage and family. Forty years ago, many people thought -- as some might today -- that the battle for life was lost. Over time, our movement and technology helped to change people's hearts and minds to a new understanding of the sanctity of the unborn child. And we will do it again. As more Americans see and feel the erosion of religious liberty, of parental rights, of children's innocence, and of conscience rights, their opinions will no longer be swayed by emotions and popular opinion -- but by the reality of the fundamental harm that same-sex "marriage" poses to society. A generation from now, we could be celebrating the same sweeping victories on marriage that we're experiencing on life. But it will take a faithful remnant. People in America's pews and pulpits who have been silent can be silent no longer. For, "There is only one Lawgiver and Judge, the one who is able to save and destroy." (James 4:12)
It is galling that our votes to establish marriage between one man and one woman were swept away. I guess the serpent wins when I am too bummed out to continue prayer and fasting, but I need a break. How rotten is it going to get? Never mind , don't answer that, I just have to quiet my heart and start out again.
The death of the Defense of Marriage Act is the death of religious liberty. All faithful Catholics and Christians, Muslims and Jews, who believe that homosexual behavior is fundamentally sinful, and that homosexual inclinations are akin to other evil temptations, are now incapacitated by law from prohibiting same-sex couples from seeking to 'bless' a 'marriage' in their churches. Here is the blood-money quote from the decision: “DOMA singles out a class of persons deemed by a State entitled to recognition and protection to enhance their own liberty.” When liberals talk about singling "out a class of persons" for enhancing "their own liberty," what they really mean is that if you disagree with them you are headed to the concentration camp. The "Patient Protection and Affordability Act" actually protects no patient, but does create more IRS agents, and "Affordability" can be defined as an average increase in premiums of about 20% per person. I only mention this in case you are one of the low-information voters, or elected representatives, who haven't been reading the laws passed by Congress in the last 5 years, and therefore haven't understood the linguistic trend to turn the English language into a hot-yoga class. But I digress. Here is a simple hypothetical situation to assist you in understanding what the impact of this 5-4 (!) vote will be at your local parish: Mary Fran is a 65 year-old grandma. Her divorce in 1974 left her free to pursue her ambition to learn liturgical dance at the local Jesuit/Sacred Heart combined university. Her daughter, Chastity, never married, but does have three children who have never known their fathers any more than Chastity did when she picked them up at the local rave nightclub. Mary Fran has been working as Liturgical Minister for her Pastor, Father Lupusinoves, at Saint Edward Parish in Snowden. She is delighted to hear from Chastity that her grandchild, Pat is engaged to Chris. She asks Fr. Lupusinoves if the young love-birds can be married at St. Edward after measuring the length of the main aisle for the proper ratio between the walk up to the front and the dress already purchased by Pat for the big day. Having appreciated Mary Fran's incredible choreography for many years, particularly the nymph-dance and bacchanalia for the last Good Friday service, Father signs the papers without a second thought. An appointment is made for Father to meet with Pat and Chris and take care of the marriage instruction, but Father can't work it in until 2 months before the wedding, so he trusts Mary Fran with passing on the paperwork and helping her grandchild and fiance with the basics of marriage prep. Reports come back to Father that everything is progressing wonderfully. The parish hall is booked. Caterers and decorators are hired. Dresses and Tuxes are purchased or rented, flowers are on special order. Every material aspect of the wedding is planned, and non-refundable deposits are paid, well before Father meets the couple. As you probably guessed. Pat and Chris are two women. Or two men. Mary Fran has followed the logical path of what she has taught during her time as Liturgical Minister. Father Lupusinoves might or might not get a reprimand from his bishop if he goes through with this. The one certainty is that he if doesn't honor the contract he signed, he will face a major lawsuit from Pat and Chris. If people of faith do not want this to happen in their parishes, civil/legal marriages will have to be separate from the sacrament of marriage. Ironically, that is at the core of what Mary Fran has believed since her divorce in the 70's. The Mary Fran's of the world have convinced themselves that the sacrament of marriage was invalid, personally and globally. She passed this belief on to Chastity who never even bothered with it. And now the third generation not only disregards the sanctity of marriage, but mocks it.
Interesting comments and observations by all here. A couple of weeks ago I had to travel to Las Vegas for a business conference. On the way into town from the airport, I spied a bill board that I had never seen or noticed before. It was very telling in its message: "Do not be deceived, God will not be mocked." It was posted by a Christian radio station, but that message really struck me as I was traveling into a modern version of S&G. We are going to reap what we sow. When the reaping really begins, expect to see a whole lot of wailing and nashing of teeth.
