Source: http://supertradmum-etheldredasplace.blogspot.com/2014_10_19_archive.html
Timestamp: 2019-04-25 03:00:16+00:00

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The Pope Emeritus writes about Mary and the Presentation of Christ in his book Jesus of Nazareth: The Infancy Narratives. Simeon told Mary she would suffer-her heart would be pierced. Such are the paintings of the Sorrowful Mother we see throughout the centuries.
The Pope Emeritus notes that Mary had true "com-passion" with her Son. And, that is "quite unsentimentally assuming the suffering of other's as one's own."
This is another way to describe Reparation. Now, Mary is then the "Co-Redemptorix" as some theologians have explained through this compassion.
If one is called to Reparation, one takes on a little bit of this compassion for others and suffers with that person in order for them to reach heaven.
Those who are in difficult relationships understand this concept.
People who read this blog know I do not post anonymous comments, unless, and this is true in a few cases, I know who the anons are.
There are some nasty people who continue to send me anonymous comments, which they know I shall not post, people who want just to be horrible and rude.
Maliciousness is a serious sin. Cowardice is also a sin. The two seem to go together. Trolls do not like truth, they only want attention, like screaming two-year olds.
Trolls become like beasts, sub-humans, and they must consider their immortal souls.
One name for satan is The Antagonist. Hello!
There is nothing worse than a Catholic troll.
This blog helps me as much as it does my readers. I wrote months ago how I meditate with a pen in my hand, as did Blessed Cardinal Newman. Some of us work out insights in writing. I shall repost that next.
But, since August, I have seriously considered dropping the blog for three reasons.
First, as God shows me more and more of my hidden sins, those predominant faults, the more I realize I have no right to write about anything.
Second, the times are such that people must now make decisions and stop reading how to be perfect, and become perfect. One can only share so much and then it is time for readers to act.
Third, being in the Dark Night is exhausting. I cannot imagine how Mother Teresa kept going in fifty years of the Dark Night. Will power keeps me going...sometimes passion.
But, I cannot yet leave off the blog...not yet. I keep waiting to hear that clear voice I heard to start, stop and re-start again.
My blogging is a work of love and passion, for God and for the Church, which is all of you out there in the blogosphere.
But, knowing how much I am the wounded healer becomes more and more of a burden.
"Redemption is not 'wellness' it is not about basking in self-indulgence; on the contrary it is a liberation from imprisonment in self-absorption. This liberation comes at a price, the anguish of the Cross."
Being a writer demands some sense of self-absorption. One must be a wordsmith, working with ideas on paper, on the computer, moving pieces of type around mentally in order to communicate clearly.
But, for those of us called to write, the action is part of who we are as well as what we do.
To break through the self-absorption, one must reflect and pray much, and, listen. I must daily listen to God and listen to His People.
My liberation from sin comes at a price. Someday, God will clearly say, "Stop writing."
That day has not come, yet.
But, I wait on orders, knowing that more of me will die when I have to give up the blog.
Today, in the Carmelite Church where I went to Mass, I saw the large modern stained-glass window of Blessed Titus Brandsma. A bit of comfort, as there is a window of him in the Carmelite Church I attended regularly the summer of 2013. It was almost as if he was saying-"No, you cannot quit yet. Keep going."
The Cross is writing in the pain of knowing I have no right to write, that my readers need to out-grow me, and that so many I love the most do not read this blog. I write for the absent ones as well as you.
Here was a post on this subject.
Brandsma from its place in a small shrine, to the front of the church, in honour of his feast day tomorrow.
Already, dozens of candles have been lit for intercessions.
them to do on earth. Now, their letters are second class relics.
day he was murdered. Freedom of speech was taken for granted when he wrote his letters in the mid 1930s.
from the dates when he was writing freely in Ireland, just before his trip to the States in 1935.
and half will pass before we are fined for writing on certain subjects. I am extrapolating from recently passed laws.
When I first moved to England in 1985, and went to parties of academics, my world then, people would start a conversation not with the American phrase, "Oh, and what do you do?", but with "Ah, and who are your people?"
In those days, the English identified a person by their "people". At first, I thought this odd and even rude, as asking about one's job is more objective and less intrusive.
Then, I began to realize that we are identified by our "people".
An ancient text explains who we are as a people, as Catholics. I cannot find the source today, maybe a reader can help, but the paraphrase is this, "We are the Sabbath people, and without the Sabbath we do not exist as a people."
The Catholic Encyclopedia reminds us that Sunday quickly become the day of Catholic worship.
The practice of meeting together on the first day of the week for the celebration of the Eucharistic Sacrificeis indicated in Acts 20:7; 1 Corinthians 16:2; in Apocalypse 1:10, it is called the Lord's day. In the Didache (14)the injunction is given: "On the Lord's Day come together and break bread. And give thanks (offer the Eucharist), after confessing your sins that your sacrifice may be pure". St. Ignatius (Ep. ad Magnes. ix) speaks of Christiansas "no longer observing the Sabbath, but living in the observance of the Lord's Day, on which also Our Life rose again". In the Epistle of Barnabas (xv) we read: "Wherefore, also, we keep the eight day (i.e. the first of the week) with joyfulness, the day also on which Jesus rose again from the dead".
St. Justin is the first Christian writer to call the day Sunday (I Apol., lxvii) in the celebrated passage in which he describes the worship offered by the early Christians on that day to God. The fact that they met together andoffered public worship on Sunday necessitated a certain rest from work on that day. However, Tertullian (202) is the first writer who expressly mentions the Sunday rest: "We, however (just as tradition has taught us), on the day of the Lord's Resurrection ought to guard not only against kneeling, but every posture and office of solicitude, deferring even our businesses lest we give any place to the devil" ("De orat.", xxiii; cf. "Ad nation.", I, xiii; "Apolog.", xvi).
This day gives us an identity. We should be clear and careful not to lose our Sunday People identity.
I cannot read the entire story. When I went to get a paper on the bishop's resignation, these were sold out. Am borrowing a paper for the news coverage.
Sunday observance also reminds us of something else. Over the years, I have seen the locus of relationships change from family to work.
More and more people find that their primary relationships are with people with whom they work, instead of with family or friends.
This cultural phenomenon has happened especially in America, where people who work work more than 40 hours per week. We spend more time with our work mates than even with our immediate families.
Here is the problem with this: our families and friends, for the most part, share in our values, share our religious viewpoints, our morals. Our primary relationships in marriage and real friendship have a basis in commonly shared world views, or should.
Those with whom we work rarely share those same values or ideals. In fact, and I can attest for this fact working in academia most of my life, rarely do we find someone with whom we share the closest things in our hearts, and the center of our lives, Who is God.
Sunday observance gives us a chance to reconnect with the deepest feelings and thoughts which we hold. We stop and reconsider the week, repent and start again with renewed minds and hearts, if we keep Sunday as God intended.
Without this respite, one may easily lose focus, lose faith, hope and charity, which are missing in the world.
Sunday observance helps us to find ourselves, to recreate in the real sense of the word. We need Sunday to be fully human, body and soul renewed.
We need to spend time with those who refresh our souls and renew our minds on Sunday.
We need to spend extra time in prayer.
Keep Sunday, as God's ideas are always better than ours.
One of the changes I have seen in Malta since I first came several years ago, is the number of people working on Sunday in construction projects, deliveries, and so on.
The days of old, Sunday was truly a day of rest, with communal meals, family meals, gatherings, walks with loved ones and so on. Also, extra services marked the day, and quiet time for reflection.
My mother remembers that St. Louis shut down on Sunday when she was a child. The streets remained quiet, as people did not travel far. Families spent time together in small pursuits.
I remember when the stores first opened in Iowa in the 1970s. None of us liked this, as the malls took over from the old downtown shops, mostly family owned, which closed on Sunday.
Families.in the old days, brought out violins, sang, ate a meal together, visited grandparents and for a moment, life was joyful beautiful. Sunday reminded us of that Beauty was in our lives, and Beauty Is God.
To see so many shops open and see so many people doing heavy labor saddens me here in Malta.
Why is Sunday observance important?
To see the idolatry of money and work reminds me of the Tower of Babel incident.
God was upset with men for their pride and disregard for nature and His Plans for men. We all need a day of rest and reflection, a day when we set aside our own pursuits in order to listen to God speaking in the depths of our hearts. What does He want of us? What are His Plans for us?
Busyness and noise destroy humans, bit by bit by bit. Sunday observance is not about what one cannot do, but about what one must do-pay attention to the interior life with God. Sunday observance is also a foretaste of heaven, when all work has ended as we rejoice in the love of God together.
I pray that Malta and other countries realize that God demands this day to be holy. It is not a request.
Lest Catholics think only Protestants are supposed to obey God in keeping the Sabbath holy, I quote the entire section in the CCC here.
2192 "Sunday . . . is to be observed as the foremost holy day of obligation in the universal Church" (CIC, can. 1246 § 1). "On Sundays and other holy days of obligation the faithful are bound to participate in the Mass" (CIC, can. 1247).
2194 The institution of Sunday helps all "to be allowed sufficient rest and leisure to cultivate their amilial, cultural, social, and religious lives" (GS 67 § 3).
90 Ex 20:8-10; cf. Deut 5:12-15.
106 St. Justin, I Apol. 67:PG 6,429 and 432.
108 St. Ignatius of Antioch, Ad Magn. 9,1:SCh 10,88.
109 St. Thomas Aquinas, STh II-II,122,4.
110 CIC, can. 1246 § 1.
111 CIC, can. 1246 § 2: "The conference of bishops can abolish certain holy days of obligation or transfer them to a Sunday with prior approval of the Apostolic See."
114 Sermo de die dominica 2 et 6:PG 86/1,416C and 421C.
115 CIC, can. 515 § 1.
116 St. John Chrysostom, De incomprehensibili 3,6:PG 48,725.
118 CIC, can. 1248 § 1.
119 Cf. CIC, can. 1245.
120 CIC, can. 1248 § 2.
122 Cf. GS 67 § 3.
123 Cf. CIC, can. 120.
124 St. Augustine, De civ. Dei 19,19:PL 41,647.
This disease has not been naturally spread. Look at the video earlier this year on this blog. Many of us for years have known two things: one, that those in charge of our nations are not in charge; and two, God will allow suffering to cleanse all of us.
Great sins stalk America like dark shadows and God will not ignore the cries of the children killed by abortion. Nor, will God ignore being mocked by those who live against natural law, revealed law and the Teaching Magisterium of the Church.
The time of mercy is over and the time of trial has begun. Only those who are asleep cannot see this.
And, what many Catholics do not understand, as in the Destruction of Jerusalem which Christ prophesied, the good suffer with the bad.
To pretend we should not be vigilant is naive and lacking in common sense.
Political correctness rules the day for immigrants, not common sense. But, America harbors a death wish, as this nation is consumed with death. When a nation begins to unravel family values, disdain law, hate life, and turn away from God to false religions and even religions of the dark side, that nation dies.
Sadly, there are two generations of Catholics who lack a background in history. This type of judgment of nations has all happened before under the permission of God, who allows evil for the purging of peoples and for the flowering of saints.
Just make sure you are on the side of God and not darkness. Those in darkness sleep.
I would have beatified him just for Humanae Vitae, as he had to stand up against those who were pushing for modernization. Does that sound familiar?
Remember, despite some views of some Catholics, Humanae Vitae is an infallible document.
Blessed Paul VI, pray for our Church now, more than ever in need of your intercession.
Ants crawling on me in the bed at three in the morning, flea bites on my legs from being on the bus swelling up into welts, money transfer difficulties leaving me cashless, no consolations from God--this must be the Dark Night of the Soul.
Seriously, when things pile up negatively, one can ask God two questions. The first should be this one-Lord, show me my sins which deserve these punishments so I can repent.
The second is, Lord show me for whom to use these sufferings. Do not waste suffering.
Satan is also angry at his set-back in Rome. Notice, it is the laity who have risen and called the bishops to task. That is our job when the bishops stray. The faithful are called to prayer, work, suffering.
There are about 157 recorded species of spiders in Malta, btw, not counting pet imports.
I also found out there are Brown Recluse in Malta. Interesting-these are in Missouri, Iowa and states south as well. These cause great damage.
There are also wolf spiders here, which act similar to the ones in Iowa--ground beasties, not web-makers. Several Maltese spiders do not make webs but hunt on the ground.
At the conclusion of the Extraordinary Synod on the Family, Pope Francis addressed the assembled Fathers, thanking them for their efforts and encouraging them to continue on their journey.
And, as I have dared to tell you , [as] I told you from the beginning of the Synod, it was necessary to live through all this with tranquillity, and with interior peace, so that the Synod would take placecum Petro and sub Petro(with Peter and under Peter), and the presence of the Pope is the guarantee of it all.

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