Why Go to Mass this Divine Mercy Sunday April 11

...and make Confession and receive the Eucharist. We cannot imagine the personal and individual impact that He said it shall have:

According to the notebooks of Saint Faustina, Jesus made the following statements about this day:

"On that day the very depths of My tender mercy are open. I pour out a whole ocean of graces upon those souls who approach the fount of My mercy. The soul that will go to Confession and receive Holy Communion shall obtain complete forgiveness of sins and punishment. On that day all the divine floodgates through which grace flow are opened. Let no soul fear to draw near to Me, even though its sins be as scarlet. My mercy is so great that no mind, be it of man or of angel, will be able to fathom it throughout all eternity." (Diary of Saint Faustina, 699)

Have you ever tried Confession and doubted your ability to make any headway against sin? I know I have for many years in the past. My podcasts narrate that reality. St. Faustina was a dedicated vehicle to bring us deeper motivation to keep seeking His Mercy. Here is a suggested path to Celebrate this Sunday:

Observing the Feast of Mercy Sunday:

1. Celebrate the Feast on the Sunday after Easter.
2. Sincerely repent of all sins
3. Place complete trust in Jesus
4. Go to Confession, preferably before that Sunday due to big crowds
5. Receive Holy Communion on the day of the Feast if possible
6. Venerate the image of The Divine Mercy
7. Be merciful to others through actions, words, and prayers

Everything to gain and nothing to lose in this Sunday April 11, 2010.....do it with me.

The Altar Call fails

If all Christians, Protestant, Catholic or Orthodox believe that Salvation is purely due to Gods Grace alone, isnt the human act of "accepting Jesus as my Lord and Savior" a work in itself...contradicting this core biblical understanding?

Book Review - The Shack

You will find this novel in the Fiction category, which is an ironic indication of how backwards we all have organised "our" world. The Shack succeeds in presenting truth; biblical, relational and theological, wrapped in a fictional delivery that bypasses our "religion" filters and presents a tale that is stunning and deep. Without a spoiler, here is a truth excerpt conveyed during a dialogue, by someone not of this world:

"People are tenacious when it comes to the treasure of their imaginary Independence. They hoard and hold their sickness with a firm grip. They find their identity and worth in their brokenness and guard it with every ounce of strength they have. No wonder grace has such little attraction. In that sense [people] have tried to lock the door of [their] hearts from the inside."

I couldn't agree more.

The story succeeds in compressing a wide spectrum of potentially human manufactured Christian misunderstanding of Scripture, through a lens of no religious predisposition. Instead, Paul Young places the reader in a purely human experience using Mack's personal and family relationships, including tragedy and dynamics as the truth communicating vehicle. If I go beyond that, it would be a spoiler.

*Spoiler Alert*

My exposure to it began with Paul Youngs collaborators and his interview with Sr. Ann Shields on Ave Maria Radio. To see into what we may assume are heretic, anti-institutionalism motives in the author(s), before I got the book, I listened to the God Journey podcast and many interviews with Paul Young.

Fearing its "churchless" undertone and exegeting this book like scripture is pointless. It is an attempt at exposing the centrality of Jesus' new covenant, and exploring how our our feeble human fears, secrets, lies and obstacles can be overcome by relational theology.

There are many highly visible Protestants (Chuck Colson, John MacArthur, Driscoll, etc,) denouncing this book for the obvious motives, it appears to take their well tithing members out of keeping them in the black.

Just like taking a single Bible quote from Romans out of context may lead to Calvinism, my advice is listen and read about the Author and collaborators, their personal religious backstories and one to one, in a human and personal way, read this book in the context of its sources. There is Catholic Truth in it, while it is fictional. One example: Numerous references by Papa to working in and not violating our free-will reinforce the Catholic belief of a "both-and" salvation relationship with The Father, while Protestants reel at this shot at double predestination theory.

Highly recommended.

Fr. Fride Interview a must

I caught the first half of an interview with Father Ed Fride on Al Kresta's show yesterday. Fr. Fride's journey from Congregational to Nuclear Physics to Catholicism to Priesthood is stunning, hilarious and profound. Click on the link in the title here and go to 4/28 3rd hour on the left sidebar for his audio/podcast. It will make your commute feel like melted butter.

Commandments Framework II

(Continued from here)

The Commandments, while initially easy to read and intellectualize, can be a deal breaker for some of us in the behavior department.

The accumulated emotional baggage of Life, in this World, attribute to our success or struggle with making conscious effort to habitualize putting others first...let alone loving our enemies. Thousands of mental health professionals make a substantial living on just making us aware of our inside-out reality. We are by culture, forced in a cycle of self absorbed maintenance routines and unless we have a natural, inherent motivation to place others first, the "love our neighbors as ourselves" Commandment requires external propulsion.

I gained my first real sense of Gratitude, and giving my time to others voluntarily by counseling Prison Inmates for some years in the 1980's. A team of 4 of us held weekly meetings in a State Prison where I learned how easily I could have been one of the "boys" in there. The taste of "getting out of myself and giving to others" was tangible, but it was overpowered by my weak ego and the feeling of freedom being able to walk out of there every week, while the inmates could not.

That's a good portion of the reason I became a Catechist. While I have done a couple decades of (secular) voluntary counseling, and it clearly benefited others, my motives weren't entirely pure. Since then, after sincerely practicing a Faith for some years, I have enjoyed a gift of valuing others in a deeper sense and what better way to love my neighbor than to hand them what I found to be the highest truth. It becomes effortless, unconditional and therefore infinitely valuable to me. Still it is only a micron of what depth of sacrifice is contained in Christs example of living in harmony, community and unity.

The path is clear, the Church is ready, the people are thirsty and we have the tools to begin obeyance. The price is zero yet the yield is unmeasurable.

Sacramental Confession...Why let Someone else judge You?

"It was our Lord's idea, Catholics didnt make it up. Our Lord said to his Apostles, 'whos sins you shall forgive they are forgiven , whos sins you shall retain they are retained'".

Our Lord gave this authority to bind and to loose, to Peter and the Apostles. Through the Succession, through Ordination using the imposition of hands (Accipe Spiritum Sanctum), He gave this power to our Priests. The granting of the power to absolve sin is put with unmistakable clearness in St. John's Gospel: "He breathed upon them and said, "Receive ye the Holy Ghost. Whose sins ye shall forgive they are forgiven them; and whose sins ye shall retain, they are retained" (20:22-23).

One has to take this power of our Priests seriously. One should recognise that Priests are different from other People because God wants them to be. They are given powers that they could never hope to have on their own. The power they have is not for themselves but for the benefit of the Faithful. A Priest will spend hours in the Confessional litening to peoples sins and giving forgiveness for them (absolution), in a way that is very clear and emphatic...its a one on one ministry.

Its the way our Lord ministered to people.

He wanted His Church to minister to people in a personal and sacramental way. So when a Priest offers this, he is not offiering his forgiveness, it is Christs forgiveness being given."

Source = Fr. Vincent Serpa, C.A.L. 11/19/08: 27:00 to 30:30

Carnival #206

Catholic Carnival #206 can be found here. Enjoy the read.

Intellectual Participation I

If I had a dime for every time I tried to solve the Kennedy assassination between my 2 ears, I could buy a Hummer as a spare ride. No matter what angle I pondered with comprehensive documentation,(I have a library on the event, been to the scene, studied evidence, etc.) I could find no 100% cause fully supported to the exclusion of any other marginally close second. It remains a mystery wrapped in a reality result.

There was, for me for many years, a challenge to be quenched intellectually in the study and commitment to ultimately reach a solid conclusion. Not just a perps name, an engineered motive and identifying players in that as well. The problem is there is just to much evidence with a figure like Kennedy. Too much outside motive, too much public exposure and too many strategic possibilities. When I finally admitted this will remain an enigma, that resignation contradicted my own innate intellectual comfort level. What I was left with having was a faith or a hope in a theory that was supported by the largest amount of evidence. That faith or hope became a belief that Oswald was tasked by underworld leaders to commit the act. I had no knowledge that this was the path of Kennedy's death, all I had was evidence. I cannot ever know for certain, in the absence of pulling the trigger myself, but I can believe based on it.

The belief or faith that this theory held the truth is then mine to hold. I possess it and in spite of my wavering intellectual comfort level, the faith is enough to get me onto the next mental challenge. But it did not. What I discovered in this final thought and in faith was that we humans feel we must reach tangible conclusions or be doomed to exist in a partial vacuum of spiritual fulfillment. My spirit wanted to find those deathbed documents and cancelled checks signed by Jack Ruby that the underworld funded the whole shebang, but its just not there. I have faith, based on research and evidence that this was the case.

This self-discovery of a faith based belief is close to that which I hold for Catholic Doctrine. Patristic research reveals Christs Church. The Bible reveals Christs Church, all 73 books. Secular History validates Christs Church. The Patriarch of Constantinople acknowledges Christs Church is Catholic.

I have no knowledge of this. I was not a witness to the incarnation of God, yet I have a measure of spiritual fulfillment as a result of intellectual participation.
... (Continued in this Post)

Catholic Carnival #185

Is here, with a wide variety of great reading and resources of which I am proud to mingle.

Progressive Grace

Theres a epiphany point for all Christians in their journey. Changes of the Heart come for some quickly and some agonizingly slow. We can all attest to that hindsight 20/20 clarity to reveal a change of heart. (fish oil helps us over the hump types).

Years ago, when I made a distinct conscious decision to follow the Lord, seek his presence, actively pursue the answers to questions all Christians have in their heart...

"am I worthy?...how can He love me?...where will this lead me?...etc"

and if there is a consistent effort, intentional thought and specific prayer in the seeker, changes of the heart actualize. I have felt this progressive grace in my heart over these years since my decision to follow, and know its Him. The selfishness and pride(ego) was the first internally recognizeable change of heart. Within some matter of weeks after the decision, I noticed a lack of my typical frustrations and anger upon the normal triggers. Traffic...seriously...Dude cuts me off and I would seethe to a degree...but not after the decision. I was somewhat amused actually when I got victimized at 65 mph, then the epiphany set in...."thats Him?"...I thought. Sure enough for me it is. I had no conscious effort to restrain internal anger at that...just a lack of weight or need to. There are changes of my heart now, progressively more obvious, more meaningful. My values have changed (I didnt even pray for that), the way I "see" other people in my presence was transformed. I see fragile humanity more clearly today. Changes of the heart are coming and I cannot claim their domain, only recognize their origin, be grateful in the peace of their fruit and thank God he is finding me worthy.