2012 in review

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2012 annual report for this blog.

Here’s an excerpt:

4,329 films were submitted to the 2012 Cannes Film Festival. This blog had 24,000 views in 2012. If each view were a film, this blog would power 6 Film Festivals

Click here to see the complete report.

2010 in review

The stats helper monkeys at WordPress.com mulled over how this blog did in 2010, and here’s a high level summary of its overall blog health:

Healthy blog!

The Blog-Health-o-Meter™ reads Wow.

Crunchy numbers

Featured image

About 3 million people visit the Taj Mahal every year. This blog was viewed about 32,000 times in 2010. If it were the Taj Mahal, it would take about 4 days for that many people to see it.

In 2010, there were 49 new posts, growing the total archive of this blog to 166 posts. There were 109 pictures uploaded, taking up a total of 5mb. That’s about 2 pictures per week.

The busiest day of the year was May 19th with 217 views. The most popular post that day was Catholic Tradition.

Where did they come from?

The top referring sites in 2010 were blogger.com, wdtprs.com, britcat.blogspot.com, oknotizie.virgilio.it, and search.conduit.com.

Some visitors came searching, mostly for don bosco, gabriella’s blog, euthanasia, tu es sacerdos in aeternum, and maggio mese della madonna.

Attractions in 2010

These are the posts and pages that got the most views in 2010.

1

Catholic Tradition May 2010
15 comments

2

The worship of … nothing September 2009
43 comments

3

The best of FULTON J. SHEEN May 2009
10 comments

4

Their song fills the universe September 2009
23 comments

5

Tutto si paga! October 2009
61 comments

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A risentirci

Blog temporaneamente chiuso

Blog temporarily suspended

*****

 

Mio Dio, Trinità che adoro,

aiutatemi a dimenticarmi interamente,

per fissarmi in voi, immobile e quieta

come se la mia anima fosse già nell’eternità;

che nulla possa turbare la mia pace o farmi uscire da voi, mio immutabile Bene,

ma che ogni istante mi porti più addentro

nella profondità del vostro mistero …

 

(le prime righe dell’Elevazione alla Santissima Trinità della Beata Elisabetta della Trinità)

Our Moral Compass

Each of us has the power to make decisions, and the cumulative effect of those choices results in the goodness or badness of our society. Every action we take has an impact not just on us but on the world. All we need to do is look around us, pick up a daily paper, or watch the evening news to verify that there is much that is not right. A great deal of what is wrong is the result of the attitude and moral climate of our times. There are some who insist that this age has lost its ‘moral compass’.

As soon as we begin to speak of morality, there are those who object on the grounds that each person’s opinion is his or her own and equal to that of anyone else. For some, there can be no objective and commonly agreed-upon moral norm. For such persons, morality is an illusion. How many times have we heard that morality is a completely personal and subjective choice? This position is probably the most widespread and pernicious challenge to morality that our society has ever faced. The issue today in much of our public discourse – and certainly on talk shows – is: ‘Do values have any value?’

As Catholics, we recognize that there is more to life and human action than fleeting personal preference. Human existence is not a meaningless show of smoke and mirrors. Each one of us knows deep down at the very core of our being that there is such a thing as right and wrong – that, while the wrong choice may be alluring at the moment, it is a choice with lasting consequences. While individually we may not know the answer to every moral question, we are aware that there are answers – answers that oblige all of us.

There is right and wrong, human freedom, and the choice that each of us makes. At the core of human freedom is knowing and doing what we ‘ought’ to do rather than what we ‘can’ do. It is the voice of conscience that keeps reminding us what we ought to do even though there are enticing reasons to do otherwise.

Catholic morality is not only for Catholics. It is for everyone, because all are called to follow God’s law manifest in the natural moral order, revealed in the Ten Commandments, and made complete in Christ. Catholic morality is the authentic, central, and integral form of morality. It is the fullness of teaching on the human condition before God. Apart from faith in Christ, the great questions about the reality of feedom, the rationality of conscience, and the value of pursuing human good unselfishly cannot be fully answered. It is for this reason that we look to Jesus and listen to his Church.

Where do we go to know right from wrong in all of the myriad forms that moral issues appear today? Jesus has not left us orphans. The pledge of the Holy Spirit in the fourteenth chapter of John’s gospel is verified today as it has been for twenty centuries in the teaching office of the Church. In the many issues before us today, when decisions are presented with a range of good attached to each of the multiple choices, we need to listen to the sure and Spirit-led voice of the teaching office. It guides us in issues as complex and emotional as artificial insemination, physician assisted suicide, the massacre of the powerless, and the range of social justice, bioethical, and medical-moral dilemmas that manifest the complexity of the human condition.

It is true that morality is rooted in the natural moral order, because that order follows from God’s creation. But it is equally true that God chose to reveal the moral order in the old covenant, through the Decalogue, and in the new covenant through Christ. When the Church calls the faithful to specific moral teaching, it does so with the full weight and authority of Christ, who has empowered his Church to speak for him. At the same time, the Church presents cogent and compelling reasons for her teaching based on an appeal to human nature and the natural moral order that we all share.

Life is complex. Moral decisions are difficult. But we need not fear, because we have a sure moral guide. Christ reveals to us the way. He sends the Holy Spirit to guide us and he enlightens his Church in a way that we can with confidence and trust follow its teaching in matters of faith and morals.

Dalla Lettera di San Paolo a noi …

San Paolo ha indubbiamente scritto numerose Lettere nel corso della sua attività missionaria, ma soltanto tredici sono conservate nel canone degli scritti del Nuovo Testamento.

Abbiamo la tendenza oggi di immaginare che quella di Corinto fosse una comunità piuttosto turbolenta che procurava grossi grattacapi all’apostolo. Che gli abitanti della regione della Galazia fossero tipi che non si accontentavano di un solo Vangelo, subissero il fascino di tutti i predicatori di passaggio, e che avessero una spiccata tendenza a camminare all’indietro. Che Paolo avesse scelto Roma quale luogo privilegiato per istituirvi una specie di università personale che gli permettesse di esibire il meglio della sua teologia decisamente impervia … ma si verifica così un fenomeno di ‘estraneità’ anche a causa di parecchi preti i quali, nelle omelie, assorbiti quasi totalmente dal commento del brano evangelico, se la cavano – nel migliore dei casi – con cenni frettolosi a quei testi ‘che richiederebbero spiegazioni approfondite, ma non è questa la sede adatta’ (senza specificare quale sarebbe questa sede e cosa sono intenzionati a fare per allestirla).

Insomma, il piatto è già stracolmo, e non c’è spazio per il cibo, sia pure sostanzioso, approntato da San Paolo, che però richiederebbe una masticazione lenta, non alla portata dei dentini da latte di certi cristiani frettolosi della pratica domenicale.

Altri si giustificano affermando che non bisogna mettere troppa carne al fuoco e quella messa a disposizione da San Paolo è una carne che richiede una lunga fase di cottura per essere ammorbidita e non risultare indigesta per un pubblico di non elevata cultura teologica.

E ci sono pure quelli che trovano un facile alibi facendo osservare che certi brani andrebbero ‘contestualizzati’, il che dovrebbe essere fatto nel corso di una serie di conferenze e non negli spazi già di per sé angusti di un’omelia festiva.

E così San Paolo rimane largamente inutilizzato. Le sue Lettere sfruttate solo parzialmente. Una rapida scorsa, e via a parlare d’altro. Basterebbe invece soffermarsi su una sola frase per irrobustire la nostra fede.

Personalmente non accetto l’attuale stato di cose e questo relegare il messaggio di Paolo in un angolo della predicazione e, di conseguenza, anche della riflessione personale.

Quelle Lettere, al di là dei destinatari immediati, sono indirizzate a noi. Contengono notizie, provocazioni salutari, incoraggiamenti, osservazioni e reprimende che ci riguardano da vicino. Corinto, Tessalonica, Filippi, Roma, Efeso, sono le nostre comunità. I contenuti di quelle missive risultano di scottante attualità e non sono per nulla datati. Gli esperti si accaniscono a stabilire la data esatta di composizione delle singole Lettere, e non sempre si trovano d’accordo (anzi, quasi mai). Lasciamo tranquillamente che discutano tra loro. Per conto nostro dovremmo già aver risolto il problema: quella Lettera particolare è stata scritta oggi, reca la data precisa in cui io la prendo in mano.

Catholic Tradition

Many protestants and Christian sects reject Catholic Tradition but with time some of them have admitted some of the traditions – such as Lutherans, Episcopalians and Evangelicals. They are all governed by a certain supreme authority – The Queen of England is the head of the Anglican Church, the King of Prussia was at the head of the Reformed Lutherans, and there is scarcely a non-Catholic denomination in which some sort of ‘board of directors’ is not vested with a supreme authority in its administration. Many denominations reject all Catholic Traditions on the grounds that they are subject to corruption. When any doctrine, they claim, is carried on for generations – from father to son – necessarily so many legends and myths arise that little truth is left.

This is an affirmation on their part that the Church is not infallible. What, according to them, happened to the Holy Spirit, the Paraclete? Had they believed that the Church is infallible, they would not have forgotten so soon the assistance promised to the Church by Christ.

They forgot that, strictly speaking, all Revelation, whether contained in the Scriptures or in other documents, on monuments, on the walls of the catacombs, in usages, and so on, were all written down and transmitted to posterity. The Apostles wrote that part of Revelation which is contained in the Scriptures, while their disciples wrote what the Apostles preached, taught or instituted in the Church, but which had not been written by the Apostles.

It is a mistake to speak only of an oral tradition carried on from generation to generation through the help of word of mouth. For Tradition, in the first place, is not ‘oral’ in the sense that it is maintained and propagated ‘only’ through man’s lips. It is oral in the sense that in the beginning it was received by the Faithful from the Apostles themselves, not in writing, but through their preaching, teaching or institutions, established in the Church by the same Apostles. What the apostles did not write, but preached, taught or instituted, was afterwards written by their immediate disciples, and sometimes by the disciples of these immediate Apostolic disciples (the Church Fathers). Therefore Tradition is ‘oral’ not in the sense that it was never written, but in the sense that ‘what in the beginning was not written’ by the inspired authors was written ‘afterwards’ by their disciples. What the disciples heard or were taught by the Apostles and not committed to the Scriptures, they afterwards laid down in writing. Tradition is ‘oral’ as distinguished from that part of Revelation which was written by the Apostles – namely, Scripture. For what the Apostolic disciples afterwards wrote, as heard, learned or as instituted by the Apostles, is what we call, properly speaking, Tradition.

The Apostles, who were the ‘ancients’ and legislators of the Church, instituted certain days of the week or certain seasons of the year as time of penance, of joy or of rest, to be observed by all. Abstinence from meat on Friday, fasting in Lent, the Sunday observance instead of Saturday, Easter Joys, the ceremonies of Holy Mass, etc., were instituted by the Apostles as a help to the Christian to save his soul and as an ornament to divine worship. All these things were a part of the routine of the Church. All accepted them as a matter of course and as a part of the daily life of the Church. Hence, there was no necessity on their part to write them down – they preached and taught the Faithful what they must do as members of the Church of Jesus Christ. It was therefore natural that what the Apostles did not write, their disciples, in order to refresh their memories, as well as to transmit it to other generations, did write,  according to the warning of St. Paul, ‘to teach others also’ (2 Tim 2:2). ‘Hold the traditions, which you have learned, whether by word, or by our epistle’ (2 Thess 2:14).

Traditions, therefore, according to St. Paul, are of two kinds, written and unwritten. The written are the Scriptures, because tradition means anything that is delivered or transmitted to others. In this case, the Scriptures are traditions, although improperly so called. The unwritten are all those other Traditions which are not contained in the Scriptures, but which, as the Apostle says, his disciples received through his preaching. They are properly called ‘Traditions’.

As both kinds of Traditions – received, as the Apostle says, ‘through my preaching’ (properly called Traditions) ‘and through my Epistle’ (The Scriptures, improperly called Traditions) – come to us from the Apostles, both are to be accepted, both are to be believed, both must be lived up to because, according to the command of the Apostle, we must hold both.

The written Traditions, or the Scriptures, contain the greater part of Revelation. But it is not less true that what the Apostles preached, taught or instituted in the Church, but did not write, are a very important part of the Deposit of Faith. They were written by their disciples.

Therefore, the objection collapses, that Traditions, being oral, become corrupted in the course of time. Tradition, strictly speaking, is not oral. It was only such in its first proclamation. All Traditions have been written, if not by the Apostles, certainly by the  Church. As pastors and doctors, or as writers of the Church, the first Christians wrote what they heard or learned from the Apostles, or what was practiced in the Church. They wrote not as inspired writers, but simply as common teachers or believers who had nothing else in view but to defend and protect the Deposit of Faith. God, in His Providence, induced those men to write, to be witnesses of that Faith which is always old and always new, feeble and still strong. Although written in the documents of old, Tradition is still better written in the hearts of the Faithful and deeply engraved in the religious practices and belief of the Church.

What a presumption it was on the part of the Protestant Reformers (and still is on the part of many Christian denominations and sects) to claim that they knew better than the Fathers what the government and doctrine of the Church had been during the first three centuries! The Fathers were men of great learning and piety. They enlightened the Church and glorified the Faith with their great works. They were the great men of their times, writing first-hand about their contemporaries. And they testify that, besides the Scriptures, which they saved from oblivion and total loss, there is also in the Church another ‘Rule of Faith’ and that is the Church herself, to which Christ and the Apostles delivered the Deposit of Faith.

Documenti vivi

Desidero condividere con voi poche righe di un bellissimo articolo di Paolo Risso, tratto dalla Rivista Settimanale dei Francescani dell’Immacolata e intitolato ‘Sii tu Suo documento’ (n. 18, 9 maggio 2010). Un consiglio che viene dal cuore: abbonatevi! (e io, di solito, non faccio mai pubblicità).

‘… Il miracolo più grande, però, è quello che riguarda la libera volontà dell’uomo (che può opporsi, benché, suo malgrado, anche al suo Signore e Dio). Eppure anche questo miracolo avviene.

E’ forse facile vivere casto e vergine, ognuno secondo il proprio stato di vita, secondo la Legge di Dio, per tutta la vita? Non c’è forse in noi, come una forza di gravità che trascina, a tutte le età, verso il basso come su una china sdrucciolevole e melmosa? Con piena sincerità lo riconoscevano il poeta pagano Ovidio (‘vedo il bene e l’approvo e tuttavia faccio il male’), l’ardente apostolo San Paolo, il convertito Sant’Agostino e mille altri, con umiltà e verità.

Eppure, nella Chiesa di ieri e di oggi, ci sono i Santi, uomini e donne di carne come noi, i Santi che sono vissuti vergini e casti, secondo la loro condizione di vita, lasciando brillare in loro lo stupefacente fascino del Cielo calato sulla terra delle loro esistenze, della limpida acqua di sorgente che scorre piena di luce anche nella ‘pianura’ della quotidianità e dei detriti di ogni genere.

Possibile a forze soltanto umane? No, possibile a Gesù vivo, il Vergine per eccellenza che opera in loro, in noi, se lo lasciamo operare, e ci fa dono della sua bellezza divina. Pensa, ai vergini e ai puri di cuore dell’antico impero putrescente di Roma e nel corrotto e corruttore di oggi.

Ma c’è di più ancora tra i Santi. Forse che è facile donare il proprio denaro, togliersi il pane dai denti per darlo agli altri che ne hanno bisogno? Forse che si può fare, come bere un bicchier d’acqua, il dono della propria esistenza, rinunciando a tutto – famiglia, posizione economica, carriera, affetti personali, comodità – per dedicarsi completamente alla preghiera e a Dio solo in un monastero o sacrificarsi per il prossimo, vicino e lontano, fino a rischiare la propria vita e a immolarla, magari sotto i colpi incoscienti o malvagi di chi si è beneficato? E tutto questo per amore a Gesù solo?

Eppure, nella Chiesa, dai primi dodici Apostoli, fino a San Damiano de Veuster, a San Massimiliano Kolbe, a San Pio, per citare i vertici più illustri, senza dimenticare le umili suore, i veri missionari rotti a tutte le fatiche per Gesù, questo miracolo incomparabile di vite donate in continua oblazione di carità, esiste a milioni.

Un giovane di 20 anni, scosso dentro, mi faceva notare: ‘Gli illuministi, i laicisti, gli atei che combattono la Chiesa e predicano la filantropia (l’amore all’uomo, i diritti dell’uomo, senza Dio), fuggono quando c’è il colera, mentre a morire in servizio agli ‘appestati’ di ogni genere vanno le suore, i sacerdoti e i vescovi della Chiesa’ e, dico io, con loro i cristiani migliori!

Forse che questo è possibile a forze soltanto umane? Chi ha convinto quella bella ragazza di Trofarello (Torino), Modesta Ravazzo, a partire missionaria tra i lebbrosi della Colombia e poi a chiedere a Dio che la rendesse lebbrosa per condividere in tutto la vita delle bambine colpite dal medesimo terribile morbo e lasciate sole? Chi può fare di un uomo geniale e affascinante come Re Baldovino del Belgio (1830-1993), un grande statista e insieme un monaco sul trono, con una forza di donazione a Gesù che incantava persino i dirigenti atei dell’Est Europeo? Chi gli ha dato la luce e la forza di abdicare al trono ‘disposto ad andare e mendicare, io e la regina Fabiola, piuttosto che firmare la legge che permette l’aborto’?

E’ solo Gesù vivo che compie dei miracoli vivi così. E’ solo Lui, il Crocifisso per amore di Dio e dei fratelli, il Risorto che opera nelle anime, a poter continuare a vivere la sua medesima avventura di dedizione nella Chiesa e nei suoi Santi, proprio secondo la sua promessa: ‘Chi crede in me, compirà le mie opere, anzi ne farà di maggiori’ (Gv 14:12)

Sono soltanto alcuni esempi. La Chiesa, soltanto la Chiesa Cattolica, ne possiede a migliaia, a milioni anche oggi. Chi scrive si è addentrato un po’ (bagnandosi appena la punta delle mani!) tra questa folla immensa che nessuno può contare, di ogni razza, popolo e lingua che sono i Santi, e ogni volta che ne incontra uno tocca che sono essi i miracoli più grandi di Dio, i ‘documenti vivi’, più veri e più significativi di Gesù Cristo Crocifisso e Risorto.  …’

An injury done to Christ

We have a special duty to everyone even in our thoughts. Rash judgments and suspicion, envy and ill-will against one’s neighbour, have no place in the deliberate thoughts of the true Catholic. Nearly all avoidance of evil and all practice of virtue must begin in our thoughts. If we deliberately allow ourselves to think evil, we shall soon find ourselves speaking evil and doing evil. Even in our thoughts and imagination we must apply the principles and ideals which we wish to be dominant in our daily life.

The faults of the tongue are innumerable, and it is noteworthy that even in people who are otherwise quite virtuous one often finds an uncharitable tongue. There is a wide field here for the practice of virtue and quest of holiness. So much so that the Holy Spirit tells us by pen of St. James: ‘If any man offend not in word, the same is a perfect man’ (James 3:2). Let us remember that every word we utter or every insinuation we make to the detriment of our neighbour is an injury done to Christ. There are occasions when one must speak unpleasant truths about one’s neighbour – for example, in a law court, or to avoid greater evil – but, normally, we are not allowed to speak evil of him, even when what we say is true.

A Catholic does his best to hide the faults of others, and will not listen to detraction. If detraction is wrong, calumny is still worse. And even quite good people do not seem to realize the responsibility they have for every single word they say about anyone else. Our neighbour’s honour and good name, his professional reputation and his personal character, should be as safe in our mouth as in our Lord’s. And it must be remembered that this is true even though we know that his private behaviour does not justify his public reputation. There are, however, circumstances in which we may have to give someone a charitable warning. But all tale-bearing and mischief-making, all imprudent revelations of another’s secret, all sowing of discord or exciting of suspicion are quite wrong, and are altogether incompatible with a true life in Christ. Not only do we separate ourselves from Him in the doing of these injuries, but we widen the breach inasmuch as these injuries are done to Him. We make public the very sins of which He has taken the shame upon Himself.

The really spiritual man is known by the kindness of his speech and still more by the kindness of his silence. He is always ready to find pity and sympathy for everyone. ‘To understand all is to forgive all’, and no man who knows his own weakness and his complete dependence upon God’s grace in the avoiding of sin, can ever be harsh with the faults of his neighbour. Even as human beings we should have a ‘fellow-feeling’ for one another, but as Catholics and members of  His Church, our mutual  sympathy should be much deeper.

Ascensione del Signore

La festa di oggi ci invita a guardare il cielo come la nostra stabile dimora – ma anche a testimoniare con sacrificio la gioia di essere uniti a Gesù.  Una ‘struggente nostalgia’ deve invadere il nostro cuore, come leggiamo nelle vite dei santi:  il pensiero del cielo deve affascinare la nostra esistenza. Là siano fissi i nostri cuori dov’è la vera gioia.  Dove là?  Nel cielo ossia in Dio che è nel nostro cuore e che un giorno ci comunicherà la sua stessa gioia, che è il paradiso.  Gesù ostia è qui con noi.  Lui è il paradiso.

Dovremmo ripetere continuamente come i santi:  ‘Paradiso, paradiso, sei il mio grande sospiro, molto più delle nozze, della laurea, di ogni promozione, di ogni ricchezza, grandezza, onorificenza …’

La felicità del paradiso è partecipare allo stesso amore di Dio che ama (Padre), che è amato (Figlio) e che è Amore (Spirito Santo).

Santa Teresa d’Avila  racconta nelle sue opere:  ‘Mentre partecipavo a Messa vidi il corpo glorioso di Gesù.  Era di una bellezza e di una maestà incomparabili.  Se in cielo ci fosse solo il godimento della bellezza dei corpi gloriosi, se ne avrebbe una beatitudine immensa.  Gesù si mostrò a me adattandosi alle mie misere condizioni terrene.  Che cosa sarà in cielo dove si gode il corpo glorioso in tutto il suo splendore?  Io parlo solo del corpo di Gesù, ma che cosa sarà l’anima e che cosa la sua divinità?’ Continua santa Teresa:  ‘Ho visto meraviglie che non so descrivere.  Erano e sono inimmaginabili: la più piccola di esse mi colmava di gioia e mi faceva vedere la vanità e la ridicolezza di tutte le cose terrene.  Un immenso gaudio mi inondava anima e corpo.  Il Signore mi disse:  Vedi, figlia mia, che cosa perde chi si fa mio nemico? Dillo a tutti perché nessuno abbia a ripetere che nessuno mai ha visto il paradiso. Avrei voluto stare sempre lassù.  Le cose della terra mi sembravano spazzatura …  Mi scomparve quella paura strana e istintiva del pensiero della morte.  E’ felicissimo di morire chi serve e ama Dio: in un attimo, e neanche un attimo, si esce da un carcere per andare alla gioia, alla vita, alla soavità, all’amore senza fine.  Là si trova la nostra casa paterna.  In terra siamo in esilio.

(The Church has always celebrated Ascension Day on the 40th day after Easter Sunday and it always falls on a Thursday. It marks the end of Rogationtide.
Ten days after Ascension Day is Pentecost which marks the coming of the Holy Spirit to the disciples in prayer with Our Lady).


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FALANGI, TRUPPE, DIVISIONI CORAZZATE. ECCO CHE AVANZA IL NUOVO CATTOLICO: INNAMORATO DI GESU', INTRANSIGENTE, MOVIMENTISTA, IL CROCIATO DEI VALORI, IL SOLDATO DI CRISTO, UN CUORE TRADIZIONALISTA, AMANTE DELLA MESSA DI TUTTI I TEMPI ...



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INDIFFERENTISM is a mortal sin; a condemned heresy. That's the Catholic view of the matter. INDIFFERENTISM paves the way to MORAL RELATIVISM. I have been accused of the opposite of ‘Indifferentism’, which is defined as ‘Rigorism’, and the charge is not without some merit. I believe in a rigorous following of Church doctrine and in strict accuracy in proper Catholic catechesis, and I openly attack watered-down Catholic doctrine and catechesis whenever and wherever I encounter it. Many friends scold me saying that for me it’s either my way or the highway. But here’s the thing … it’s not my way; I didn’t make up all (or any of) the rules of Catholicism. I’ve been told “you’re too rigid in your doctrine,” as if it were my doctrine. When it comes to Catholic catechesis, there is only one Church teaching, and it is represented in the Catechism of the Catholic Church. I’m prepared to defend any item in it, against any opponent. I draw the line at ‘indifferentism’ and ‘moral relativism’. All belief systems are not the same. The ones who push it the most are the ones who seek to replace it with something less. Again, indifferentism paves the way to moral decay. Don’t let it seep into your thinking. May you please God, and may you live forever.

“Oremus pro beatissimo Papa nostro Benedicto XVI: Dominus conservet eum, et vivificet eum, et beatum faciat eum in terra, et non tradat eum in animam inimicorum eius.”



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MODERN CATHOLICS SEE THE CHURCH AS AN ‘OLD-FASHIONED’ DISCRIMINATORY INSTITUTION OF WHICH THEY ARE ASHAMED – A TRADITIONAL CATHOLIC WILL DIE TO DEFEND IT.

MODERN CATHOLICS WOULD JUST AS SOON LEAVE THE CHURCH FOR A TRENDY ALTERNATIVE IF THEY DON’T GET THEIR WAY – A TRADITIONAL CATHOLIC WILL REMAIN UNTIL THE END OF TIME.


THE CHURCH MILITANT NOW, MORE THAN EVER, NEEDS STRONG WARRIORS.




The Catholic Church doesn’t need progressives, Nor does it need Reactionary Conservatives - It badly needs Catholic Traditionalists that practice faith, hope and charity. So don’t be shy! Come forward.

“When Christ at a symbolic moment was establishing His great society, He chose for its corner-stone neither the brilliant Paul nor the mystic John, but a shuffler, a snob, a coward - in a word, a man. And upon this rock He has built His Church, and the gates of Hell have not prevailed and will not prevail against it. All the empires and the kingdoms have failed because of this inherent and continual weakness, that they were founded by strong men and upon strong men. But this one thing - the historic Catholic Church - was founded upon a weak man, and for that reason it is indestructible. For no chain is stronger than its weakest link.”
(G.K. Chesterton)



Anno Sacerdotale

Pope Benedict XVI has declared a “Year for Priests” beginning with the Solemnity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus on June 19, 2009. The year will conclude in Rome with an international gathering of priests with the Holy Father on June 19, 2010.
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Quest'anno sia anche un'occasione per un periodo di intenso approfondimento dell'identità sacerdotale, della teologia del sacerdozio cattolico e del senso straordinario della vocazione e della missione dei sacerdoti nella Chiesa e nella società.
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Let your light so shine before men that, seeing your good works, they may glorify your Father in Heaven. (Matthew 5:16)
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In Domino laudabitur anima mea.





"That sense of the sacred dogmas is to be faithfully kept which Holy Mother Church has once declared, and is not to be departed from under the specious pretext of a more profound understanding."- Pope Leo XIII, Testem Benevolentiae

Nessuno di noi entrerà in Paradiso senza portare con sé un fratello o una sorella. Ciascuno di noi deve uscire dalla folla e reggersi sulle proprie gambe, fiero di essere un Cattolico e capace di testimoniare la sua Fede.
Ci stiamo comportando come se la Fede Cattolica fosse un affare privato. Questo non è affatto vero. Penso che potremo andare molto, molto lontano, se riusciremo a convincere tutti i Cattolici a farsi carico della salvezza del mondo intero.
Il mondo ha bisogno di essere salvato e deve essere ciascuno di noi a farlo.




Cantate …


Cantate Domino canticum novum. Cantate Domino omnis terra. Cantate Domino et benedicite nomini Ejus. Annuntiate de die in diem salutare Ejus.

Causa nostrae laetitiae




“We can believe what we choose. We are answerable for what we choose to believe”.
(John Henry Newman)



Pueris manus imponit

Iesus vero ait eis - Sinite parvulos, et nolite eos prohibere ad me venire - talium est enim regnum caelorum.




“There is another essential aspect of Christianity: the interior, the silent, the contemplative, in which hidden wisdom is more important than practical organizational science, and in which love replaces the will to get visible results”.
(Thomas Merton)



Lo Spirito Santo


Uno dei Suoi nomi è "Consolatore"!




Confession

Confession heals, confession justifies, confession grants pardon of sin. All hope consists in confession. In confession there is a chance for mercy. Believe it firmly. Do not doubt, do not hesitate, never despair of the mercy of God. Hope and have confidence in confession.




“Almeno sei volte durante gli ultimi anni mi sono trovato nella situazione di convertirmi senza esitazione al cattolicesimo, se non mi avesse trattenuto dal compiere il gesto azzardato l'averlo già fatto”.
(G.K. Chesterton)



"Whatsoever I have or hold, You have given me; I give it all back to You and surrender it wholly to be governed by your will. Give me only your love and your grace, and I am rich enough and ask for nothing more."

(St. Ignatius of Loyola - Spiritual Exercises, #234)



"Mia madre è stata veramente una martire; non a tutti Gesù concede di percorrere una strada così facile, per arrivare ai suoi grandi doni, come ha concesso a mio fratello e a me, dandoci una madre che si uccise con la fatica e le preoccupazioni per assicurarsi che noi crescessimo nella fede".
J.R.R. Tolkien scrisse queste parole nove anni dopo la morte di sua madre.






Be on your guard; stand firm in the faith; be men of courage; be strong. (1 Corinthians 16:13)




“Beati sarete voi quando vi oltraggeranno e perseguiteranno, e falsamente diranno di voi ogni male per cagion mia. Rallegratevi ed esultate perché grande è la vostra ricompensa nei cieli”.