On This Independence Day

Let us consider the condition of the United States of America through the eyes of God.  Once a God-fearing nation, at least on the lips if not hearts of most people, the US has largely degraded into a hedonistic cabal of intellectually and spiritually stunted people.  Yet a few embers of decency remain, as evidenced by the last presidential election.

Our Lord's promise, as stated in 2 Chronicles 7:14, state And my people, upon whom my name is called, being converted, shall make supplication to me, and seek out my face, and do penance for their most wicked ways: then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sins and will heal their land.  

That promise is clear and unambiguous.  So what do we do?  Firstly, go to Mass today, even if that means skipping the fireworks.  What better place to pray for our beleaguered nation?  Besides, today is First Friday.  Honor our Lord and His Sacred Heart, wounded for us, as individuals and nations.

For Your July 4th Considerations

Today we celebrate the day when the United States declared its independence from England in 1776.  Much has happened between then and now, and much of that has been troubling.  We have lost our spiritual moorings, Catholics as much as anyone else.

We celebrate freedom as though it's a license to satisfy every whim and fancy that we might concoct.  However, Catholics need look no further than the Liturgy of the Hours that priests and religious are obliged to pray daily.  Many laity do so as well.  During Morning Prayer, or Lauds, we pray the prophesy that St Zachary uttered after he bestowed the name "John" on his son, St. John the Baptist.  It is called the Benedictus.  Read it.  I'll bring over the pertinent passage below:

This was the oath he swore to our father Abraham: to set us free from the hands of our enemies, free to worship him without fear, holy and righteous in his sight all the days of our life.

God gave us our freedom so that we would worship Him and be holy and righteous in His sight.  All the other benefits are secondary.  However, we have forgotten our obligation to give Him due worship and obedience, squandering our patrimony on our own silly and often wanton cravings.  Our nation is ejecting Him from its life.  Unless we as a nation turn and repent, we will experience the awful consequences of our rebellion. When we reject Him, we also reject His protection and blessings.

I've written on these themes durinng previous Independence Days.  I've quoted 2 Chronicles 7:14.  Pursuant to that, I went to Mass this morning and was heartened to see the church almost full.  The homily was another matter.  The homilist spoke of Thomas Jeffferson and his deist beliefs.  He relayed that towards the end of his life, Jefferson received a plea from a Christian man urging his conversion.  Jefferson replied that he hoped we'd all get to heaven in our own ways.  The homilist approved that attitude of Jefferson's.  Ladies and gentlemen, that is indifferentism - not to be lauded from the pulpit.  One of the ways that we are to obey God is to preach the Gospel and seek conversions.  Jefferson's friend was apparently striving to be obedient to that command and was politely rebuffed by Jefferson.  While we can hope that Jefferson repented, we cannot indulge in indifferentism ourselves.  Indifferentism is one of the sins that is killing the Church and nation, and it's particularly egregious when committed by Catholic clergy, who are especially tasked with saving souls.

Meanwhile, with the time that each of us still has, let us continue to pray, receive the Sacraments and obey Our Lord.

Priorities Before The Festivities Of The Fourth

Before we celebrate our once-great nation, we need to take an honest assessment of it.  If you've read this blog and others like it - and have been paying attention to current events - you'll realize that the United States of America is undergoing serious decay on all fronts.  The deterioration has been primarily spiritual and moral as we've forgotten and even disdained our Christian roots and the Lord Jesus Christ.  The decay naturally spread into economic and military aspects of our nation.

Our responsibility as Christians is to pray and work for repentance of all.  Only then dare we entertain any hope of abating this rapid deterioration of our country - and western civilization, for that matter.

As well as being Independence Day, today is First Friday.  Have you gone to Mass yet?  If not, I'd suggest looking on the internet for a First Friday Mass that you can attend.  Our Lord gave to St. Margaret Mary Alacoque very specific promises to those who receive Holy Communion on nine consecutive First Fridays; can we not agree that in this day and age that these graces are desperately needed?

Also, tomorrow is First Saturday.  Our Lady of Fatima made additional promises to those who make reparation for sins and blasphemies of others.  Please read this brief account.  Again, do we not see that our poor world needs all the graces that our poor actions can procure for it?  Those of you away on a nice holiday weekend - please go to Mass tomorrow as well.  Everything else can wait.

I'll end this by quoting 2 Chronicles 7:14 (from the Douay-Rheims version): "And my people, upon whom my name is called, being converted, shall make supplication to me, and seek out my face, and do penance for their most wicked ways: then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sins and will heal their land."

Who are "my people"?  That's us, folks!  The responsibility is laid squarely on our shoulders.  Let's move.

On This Independence Day..

As we celebrate our nation's birthday, not too many people will give enough thought as to just what we're celebrating.  As we chomp on burgers and hot dogs and perhaps watch some fireworks, few will ponder anything outside of the ability to enjoy a fair amount of creature comforts and recreation; therein lies the peril to the continuance of the United States of America as we know it.

Catholic Investigative Agency - Part 2

A few months ago, I published a link to a special series done by Real Catholic TV, called "Catholic Investigative Agency".  A new installment is now available.  Since it's too long for youtube, it needs to be viewd on their site at this link.  It is approximately 90 minutes long, but well worth the time investment.

In this segment, Michael Voris explores the deliberate attempts of the progressive types to further infiltrate the Catholic Church for the express purpose of compromising and watering down her teachings on morals.  Note carefully a few things:

• Voris points out that Catholic moral teaching, as found in all Papal documents from Leo XIII onward, makes clear that the focus is on the individual and not some "collective".  I'll elaborate more on that later - but let's note the fact that we're now in the Independence Day weekend.  The two are related.
• He delves a bit into the backgrounds of the founders of Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good (CACG).  I've blogged a bit on this problematic outfit.  Despite their claims of "non-partisanship", they are very "partisan", as in the "Party of Death" (Archbishop Burke's very accurate term for the Democrats).
• He delves into the writings of CACG's chairman, Alfred M. Rotondaro.  I went to the newsmeat website and found his campaign contributions.  See for yourself here.  Recipients include Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, Patrick Leahy, Bob Casey Jr., Mary Landrieu, John Edwards - the usual cabal.  Here is a link pertaining to the article about which Voris spoke, and here's the link to the orginal Huffington Post article.
• A founder of CACG is Tom Periello, a pro-abort congressperson from Virginia (oh, I forgot!  Rotondaro contributed to him, too).  Guess how he voted on the Obama Hell Bill?
• Another board member is Tom Chabolla.  Does that name sound familiar?  Reminder - he's high up in the SEIU.  That's the union that supplied many of the thugs that trampled all over the private property of the Bank of America official, terrorizing the minor child.  I guess that's their version of "the common good".
• A major funder is (surprise!) George Soros.  He funded a lot of the legal push, if you recall, to further the legalized murder of Terri Schiavo.  He wrote a book called The Age of Fallibility, in which he said, "the main obstacle to a stable and just world order is the United States".  I suppose we could get the book, but really - he shouldn't get any more royalties from that crap.
• As I said in the first bullet, we celebrate this weekend the signing of the Declaration of Independence.  This document, along with the US Constitution and the Bill of Rights, focus on the rights of the individual person as being bestowed upon him/her by God.  We see in this current administration, headed by the Messiah Most Miserable, a push towards subsuming the individual into a "collective".  I'd recommend a book that delves much into that, along with the psychologicial anomalies that warp common sense into a "progressive" mentality.  The book is: The Liberal Mind: The Psychological Causes of Political Madness by Lyle H Rossiter, Jr, M.D.  I got mine from Worldnet Daily, but I'm sure it can be acquired elsewhere.