"THIS GENERATION TAKES THE LAW OF GOD AND TRANSGRESSES IT, FORMING LAWS TO ITS CONVENIENCE, GRAVELY OFFENDING MY SON." But, who am I to judge?
Pope Francis passes a statue of Martin Luther as he arrives for an Oct. 13, 2016 audience with a pilgrimage of Catholics and Lutherans from Germany in the Paul VI hall at the Vatican. (CNS photo/Giorgio Onorati, EPA) http://www.catholicworldreport.com/Blog/5123/pope_francis_and_martin_luther.aspx
Besides what Our Blessed Mother has repeatedly taught us abut prayer, fasting, penance, and reception of the Holy Eucharist, we all feel like we have to do something. But maybe, like Padraig says, it is up to God now and what we can accomplish as individuals in our own families and communities. There is the great question of " who is God calling me to be"? I'm a slow learner so it took me almost five years to figure that one out but others can come up with an answer much more quickly. And in these times, I think God has an accelerated learners course. I feel fairly confident that God let me catch Him to discover what my plan of life is. It expands with time, of course, but I no longer worry about what I'm supposed to be doing to live out my Catholicism. A simple suggestion is to go before Our Lord in Adoration and compile your own rosary. What are the Joyful mysteries of your life? What are the Glorious Mysteries that stand out in your life and everyone has their own Sorrowful Mysteries, also. You will find patterns that begin to emerge. You will also find yourself being accompanied by the Holy Family on your own journey. What virtues was God trying to instill in you with your trials and what vices was God trying to extract from you? Some determine that they are called to be prayer servants; some are called to be merciful activists; some are warriors and others are Marthas. It's not everyone's cup of tea but it answered my questions. What is Disciples of Jesus and Mary (DJM)? The Disciples of Jesus and Mary are called to live in holiness and truth. The program offers how to discover your plan of life: the plan of life, found in the Heart of the Father, who He created you to be. In our relationship with the Lord we come to know Him intimately. We learn how to listen to Him, to the way He speaks to each of us. Through the experiences in our life we see God's hand forming us. He's always with us; therefore the lessons are given through all the experiences of our life. The plan of life process helps us to recognize the way the Lord has been forming us throughout our entire life. We each have different gifts and special graces to help us to fulfill the plan of life given to us by the Lord. He knows what we need. We learn how to apply the Five Principles to our life each and every moment. The Five Principles are: Nothing happens accidentally, everything is gifted providentially. Since everything is in the plan of God for you, everything has a purpose. God created man and woman in His own image and likeness. To the one who is given much, much will be expected. God created us as unique individuals. As we reflect on these Five Principles, we begin to recognize how God works. Nothing happens accidentally. God either willed it or allowed it for a purpose. It is important to know how the Lord teaches us in our experiences so we learn how to accept the path He gives us. Next, we enter into the mystery of prayer - according to who we are called to be. We enter into a life of living our plan of life. We develop our spirituality - the living of our plan of life - in all things. In prayer we seek to listen to the Lord. There are methods of prayer that can help you. These methods are aids. For example, the Empty Chair method is a way for you to sit with the Lord and talk to Him. He is your friend. He is there waiting for you. Talk to Him and then listen to what He has to say. Powerful. The Jesus Prayer – saying the Name of Jesus over and over again. You can practice this and eventually let it become the prayer that is expressed with every beat of your heart. Going deeper into prayer, you discover how to examine your conscience, how to confess those sins that are often overlooked. You learn to deal with the gray areas. You learn to expose those areas that seem to influence you. The light of grace begins to reveal hidden manifestations of the evil within. You live in the light of grace who you are called to be. There are the Nine Phases of Prayer. These are the phases of acceptance, surrender, adoration, thanksgiving, forgiveness, and so on. They are phases found in the Lord's Prayer. Tremendous healing comes during this period of formation. Once you've discovered your plan of life and begin to develop your spirituality, how to examine your conscience and confess your sins in the light of truth, you begin to enter deep into prayer – contemplation, meditation and adoration. The next phase is called Discernment in Your Life – how to discern the will of God according to your vocation and to your plan of life. Is this good for me now or is it just something that is good in itself? How to know? There are tools to help you. There are ways to recognize the different spirits in our midst. Is the spirit of the world, the flesh or the spirit of evil present? Is the Good Spirit present? What are the signs of the evil spirit versus the signs of the Good Spirit? The Framework for Discernment helps us to approach the decision properly. Is there an increase in virtue? Am I obedient to my spiritual director, confessor, spouse? What is obedience? Obedience is the key to discernment. It is how Disciples of Jesus and Mary are known: our unquestionable obedience to the Magisterium of the Church and to our pastors. We serve them in humility and encourage them in their priesthood. We respect and honor the sacredness of our Catholic faith. We strive to follow the path of holiness in our homes and families, and in our workplace. We seek to serve rather than be served. We disciple Jesus and Mary. In Discipleship we follow the path of Jesus and Mary. We live the Gospel and help others to also by our example. We serve the poor, the widows, the orphans, the elderly – all God's children – especially the little ones. We minister to those in need according to the capacity given to us by God to serve. Through prayer and discernment we learn how to disciple Jesus and Mary under obedience to the Church. Finally, we continue to help others discover their plan of life. We train servant leaders so they can share this gift of Prayer in Your Life with others. We live who we are called to be. We learn how to love one another as the Father loves us through His Son as His Spirit leads us in truth under the mantle of Our Lady. Our Lady of the Most Holy Trinity, pray for us!
Thank you DJM This is the part of your post that worries me most: To the one who is given much, much will be expected. Since I came back to the faith I have been shown so clearly the state of the Church. I know I don't see everything perfectly but I have a good general sense of what is going on. Many don't and are blind to it. When I first was given faith I was very proud of the fact God had helped me so much and had shown me so much. Now I realize though that He probably had to do that for me because I am such a faulted person and needed extra help just to be saved, not because I am special. And that is not false humility. I am really a very poor excuse for a Catholic. Since I see the Church collapsing though, I feel I need to do something besides just pray, which I don't do enough of anyway. My greatest fear is that when I am judged God will show me all the knowledge and grace He has given me and ask "Why did you do so little with it?"
You could very well be called to outspoken leadership, or be a vigorous combatant. It is interesting that that one sentence leapt out to you. We were continually reminded that what God chose for us was not what we would choose for ourselves, but that it was what He carefully sculpted for us in all the events of our lives and the people that we encountered. It is only in living out that plan of life that it all begins to make sense, no matter how reluctantly we give our "fiat".
To question a position taken by Pope Francis for the sake of clarification is not disrespectful or heretical, but I agree 100% with you that to use the term, "Bergoglianism" is an insult to the Pope and the Holy Office of the Papacy. Safe in the Barque of Peter!
Well that is definitely not what I would choose for myself I would be happy to sit on the sidelines and pray, but I think I would be judged harshly for doing that. On the other hand I do not feel comfortable judging the hierarchy of the Church. That is why I was hoping some Cardinals and Bishops might come forward and tell us how to resist when it is necessary. But all I hear is crickets...
I am thinking of converting to Lutheran. Maybe then the pope will have some nice things to say about me.
I guess, we always think God wants us to do something. I'm not sure God wants or needs. What he does do is give us the gift of holiness at whatever we are currently doing. Our example is the ice breaker to converting others. All saints seem to agree...example is more important then words. Even many saintly writings were usually asked to be destroyed by Saints. Pope Benidect wants his diaries destroyed as well as Saint John Paul 2. Maybe we are still too enamored by the extraordinary lives of saints. Maybe the very ordinary is what lead them to holiness. Just a thought May Gods Will be Done
Maybe St. Catherine of Sienna would be willing to prepare you and walk by your side. She counseled many important clergymen and members of royalty and I'm sure she wasn't always fearless. But in this letter she sent to Pope Gregory to prompt his return to Rome, she wrote, "I beg of you, on behalf of Christ crucified, that you be not a timorous child but manly. Open your mouth and swallow down the bitter for the sweet.” Also, "I have prayed, and shall pray, sweet and good Jesus that He free you from all servile fear, and that holy fear alone remain. May ardor of charity be in you, in such wise as shall prevent you from hearing the voice of incarnate demons, and heeding the counsel of perverse counselors, settled in self-love, who, as I understand, want to alarm you, so as to prevent your return, saying, "You will die." Up, father, like a man! For I tell you that you have no need to fear." Not bad for an illiterate young woman who was honored with the title Doctor of the Church.
After a lot of thought, I have decided that I will be very careful to support no pastors who preach heresy from the pulpit. Our parish has been ok in that respect. The priests would never preach fire and brimstone or mention something as offensive or marginalising as sin but neither are they proclaiming adultery, fornication or sodomy to be good. Should orders come from on high telling them to preach heresy and should they comply, I will simply find another church where the Deposit of Faith isn't being dismantled and will support that parish/church/religious order instead. We contribute to the support of our pastors to enable them preach the word of God without fear of having their livelihood taken away by secular or sectarian powers. That's what Catholics have done since the Church was founded by Jesus. I will defend the Faith but I won't subsidise its dilution. Pope Francis wouldn't have any Church buildings left to display his statues of Martin Luther or any other heretic if we pew sitters, rigorists, pharisees or whatever is the current derogatory label hadn't kept them open. I will support priests who preach the Gospel of Jesus. Soros and the German taxpayers can support the rest.
Thank you again A lot to think about here and I appreciate your thoughts. St. Catherine is the saint I think of when I think about these types of issues. I guess this is the difficult thing about living in our age. How to handle these difficult problems while still remaining a good Catholic.
I think that is an important place to start Dolours. Personally I like to attend the Latin Mass where I have never found bad preaching to be a problem. I guess the priests there know that the congregation wants to hear the true teachings of the Church and not some watered down drivel. Recently there were two times when I attended the Novus Ordo Mass and found the preaching even more liberal than it had been in the past. I live in the liberal northeast part of the U.S. though so there has always been a strong "progressive" streak.
I assume you too are a native Spanish (Castellano) speaker, David? If so, how would you translate the first sentence of the essay? He clearly used the verb enfadado. Enfadado from the transitive verb enfadar, which translates to anger, annoyed. From: http://es.thefreedictionary.com/enfadar Here is what Father Fortea wrote in the first paragraph of his Blog entry on October 14th. I will translate in blue. Nota bene, I am not a professional translator. Today you will discover a bit of my heart and mind respecting a papal subject: when I read and reflect Amoris Laetitia I have the tendency to be angry. The anger also comes from some pontifical actions. The pontifical actions he refers in this sentence he later specifies as the recent pontifical appointments. He later adds this: What I'm saying is that maybe God is trying to tell us something, to teach us something new without denying anything of the old. Perhaps he is teaching us to be progressive within the Tradition. Does that mean that the Pope is perfect? No. But we, as children, we must see him as a father. We must attend his words to see what we discover again. Not seeking to read what is objectionable: then we will not learn anything. I actually loved this blog entry, because despite Father Fortea's obvious frustration with the same issues we are discussing here at MOG, his advice to us is to be charitable and respectful with the things Pope Francis says and does. May God bless our Holy Father and Padre Fortea.
I watched the , 'Rome Report' video and was touched by the answer the Holy Father gave to a Lutheran young person who asked the question' Who were the Great Church Reformers', to which Pope Francis replied, 'The saints'. I thought that was a very striking and wise answer. Another question was 'What do you most like and dislike about Lutherns?' To which he replied ' Lukewarm Lutherans like lukewarm Catholics, our hearts must be on fire with the love of Christ!' Again a wonderful answer. I think to be opposed to Ecumenism as such is not to be in line with the mind of the Church . For the last several Popes the Church has encouraged Ecumenism and the last Chapter of the Gospel of St John appears to be on fire with an Ecumaenical call, 'May they all be one...' Of course like anything else there can be the good and there can be the distorted. But I think any Ecumenical Movement or action can involve very real risk. Perhaps we have to make allowances. It also occurs to me a good litmus test of our present Holy Fathers actions is to set it in the context of previous Popes actions and words. It is noticeable for instance that some criticisms of what the Holy Father has said or done is criticising him for what previous Popes have said and done and no one ever raised a murmur about. An example of this is that the presnt Pope charges admitance for private audiences. I saw someone outraged about this and more nor less accusing the Holy Father morre nor less of simony. In fact I know this was the historic practise in the Vatican. For instance the then General of the Cistercfians told me he was charged I think it was around 5 or 6 thousand dollars for an interview with Pope St John Paul. This sounds bad but is simply an administrative convenience . It is a way of defraying costs and sharing things fairly. It works of you like. I think it is a good idea if we see the Pope saying or doing something to first ask if it is line with previous Popes before criticising. I am no expert but my own sense of things for example was that Pope St John Paul and St John 23rd were very Ecumenical? But these are difficult times full of confusion. I fall into traps very often myself of rushing to judgement. I must be more careful. Mea culpa. Mea culpa, mea maxima culpa. Sigh , every day I enter deeeper into that dark, bright, sad and joyful tunnel that reminds me how greatly I am in need of God's mercy. One good thing about getting older is that the more I know the less I realise I know and the more relaxed I am with having far, far more questions than answers; whereas when I was younger I had the answer to just about everything and everyone that you could imagine.
In a way what is happening in the CHurch at the moment is a bit like being in a little war. In war time , naturally enough you tend to get a little trigger happy and fire at things and people you should not be firing shots at. I think we need to clam down a little and think things through a lot more, to rpay and reflect a lot more and not rpess the trigger finger to often. I am wagging my finger at myself before anyone else here, for I am more guilty than most in this. But these are really , really difficult times I hope the Good Lord makes allowances. ..and yes, I would say there is a real war going on at the moment inside the Church, a war for its very soul...but that does not excuse us from being unfair or uncharitable or of being too quick on the trigger.
