The Few, The Proud,..The Seminarians!

Be a man!!! That's the battle cry of the Optimusmastro character! Why because it is high time, we, Catholic men, retook and reclaimed our identity as men! What is a man? Much more than just biology, it encompases virtue, values, discipline and honour. However, this doesn't change the fact that as men, we like to burp, fart and lift heavy things!  Why is though that the men we meet in 'spirit of the second Vatican Council' all look like they've,..ughh,..let's just say 'had a rough high school?'  A few months back, Fr Steve Grunow asked me to begin writing down a potential workout for priests, seminarians and religious. Only since the nineteen 1960s its not just a physical workout but an entire way of life must be mapped out! Too often this is lacking and the fruits were spread out across the mainstream media as if a tidal wave of pink crippled our clergy. My opinion was that this was an intentional effort notwitstanding, remember, 'no priests=no Eucharist!' So forget the feminist nuns and their little agenda of destroying the priesthood so we could ordain women,....(Sorry Sr Joan,..the numbers are against you..) 

1970s Schedule,..sort of,.;)

800am,..rise and shine, its okay if you miss Mass, cause it's only fellowship,..

900am,..Class, since there is no truth, let's go out side and watch the leaves turn colours,..yaaayyyy!!

1000am,..Islam Class and how it is such a beautiful religion by Sister Raindance McWhalesaver, (who in addition to being a 'women religious,' has embraced her muslim understanding by acting as an Imam at the local feminist Mosque..)..

12pm,..lunch (tofu..)

2pm,...Ecumenism and why we are still in a partiarchal closed minded institutional  Church which is not up to date..

330pm,..Social Justice,..reading selected writings of Karl Marx while sipping fair trade coffee...

500pm,..Nap :)

6pm,...Supper, vegan lasagna...

7pm,..Meeting with our Pastoral moderators to see our progression viewing God as He/She...

9pm,..to whenever,....sleepy time!  yaaaayyy!

So what do we do? Do we bitch and moan about it or do we roll up our sleeves and fix it! John Paul the Great, our late Holy Father lamented a crisis in identity and masculinity within the Church, the model St Joseph, pushed aside for Mr Rogers...So now, the modern seminarian, hearing the call of Our Lord to follow Him as His priest, gives up (freely..) his life and what has happened? Fr Flaky McNobackbone offers you sensitivity classes and little retreats asking you and other men to talk about your 'feelings' and maybe colour a little banner....Are they freaking serious???!!!?? Hey boyz, you wanna know why there are no vocations?!? So I recommend this little change in the schedule...

530am,......Meditation (Morning Prayer)

630am,......Mass

745am,......Breakfast

900am,......Class

1215,.........Lunch (Mid day prayer)

1315pm,....Exercise,..(MMA, boxing, weight training, running) During this time you can weed out the socially awkward guys...(Time to see the psychologist!;))

1500pm,....Divine Mercy Chaplet

1530pm,....Pastoral work with real people ( helping the blind, visiting the shut ins,..etc..)

1730pm,....Supper

1830pm,....Fraternity time wit da boyz! This is time used to speak about your day and experiences, to fellowship and be accountable for guys' type of sins, y'know masturbation, pornography etc,..

1930pm,....Evening prayer and Rosary

2030pm,....Study and downtime

2230pm,....lights out.

So there you have it! What's missing?? Take a guess, its television!!! You wanna watch, do it on your downtime..A surefire roadmap for attracting men to serve in the priesthood.  What else is missing?,..How about no meeting with Fr Fruitcake, and Monsignor Flaky regarding watching ladybugs and how cute they are!

St Jean Vianney,........Ora pro nobis.

Apologetic for the Afterlife

Today's post will be a little different.  At times we, (mankind) can use Faith as a scapegoat to 'prove' certain things that we really can't demonstratively.  We hear it all the time, especially from our protestant evangelical friends, when they say things like, 'Of course Heaven exists, its in the Bible!!!'  Now this statement taken from a pure academic perspective as in 'outside the box' obviously falls short with regards to reason.  The Church as has been mentioned several times on this blog has always looked to the great thinkers before Christ and even before God revealed Himself to Israel in order to show that reason alone had certain wants and needs to be fulfilled when it came to 'What is Truth?' 

For those of you who are friends with me on Facebook, I usually like to start my day with a quote.  Whether it be Augustine, Aquinas, Chesterton, C.S. Lewis or any other great thinker/theologian all offering one little nugget of wisdom to meditate upon for the day.  I rarely quote Jesus, but instead use these thinkers, all of whom are Christian in order to dispel myths that somehow Christians are backward and unintelligent.  (Sorry Bill Maher..)  On Wednesday, I offered a quote from C.S. Lewis; 'Has this world been so kind to you that you leave with regret?  There are better things ahead than what we leave behind.'  Needless to say that generated some degree of good commentary, the kind that makes you sink your teeth into.  Does Heaven exist?  This is the question that arises out of Lewis statement presupposing that everything will be better when we leave our bodily existence.  However, before we can even imagine Heaven, we must attempt to justify the existence of an immortal soul.

The goal of Greek philosophy was at its heart to search for the 'Arche' or origin of things.  Divorcing itself from simplistic babylonian myths explaining away why its raining,.(the gods are crying,..) it sought to use reason and in doing so, laid much of the groundwork for what are now standard Christian beliefs.  Human beings, argued Plato, know and understand things from both the sensible world and the unintelligible world, the world of 'ideas.'  An example would be knowledge of a chair based on understanding its 'chairness' as the original 'idea.'  Should we break the chair, the idea or form of 'chairness' never goes into non existance despite the fact we might throw away one tangible expression of a chair in temperal reality.  Man, thus in knowing 'things' or understanding them shows himself a link between these two worlds.  The soul, or 'anima' must belong elsewhere though it is trapped in its bodily prison.  (Plato was a dualist.)  Since only temperal sensual things can die, (corruptibility) it can be reasonable to assume that formless 'essences' cannot die because they are not sensual or temporal in and of themselves.  The opposite would be harder to grasp,..How would understanding of a formless consciousness go into non-existance if it isn't bound a temporal constrainsts??? ie the body?  Now remember, that all of this is before God's Revelation of Himself.

Does Heaven exist?  I along with most rationalists would answer an unequivocal 'Yes!'  The simple reason belongs again to our mind being able to capacitate it.  How do we get 'there?'  Therein again lies another problem, 'going to Heaven, as opposed to 'being' in Heaven.  When mankind attempt to use words to convey Truths, we use potentials without realizing it.  If God is eternal,.then we can conclude that there is no such thing as 'time' (measure of motion) when we speak of God.  Thus we make Heaven a literal 'place' instead of the Beatific Vision, or seeing God face to face.  Can people in Heaven hear us?  Absolutely, they can also pray for us like the Saints do. (  Revelation 5:8)

Obviously this subject can have a great deal more explanation, but since this is a blog, and not a full blown book about the question, I hope to provide you, the readership with a little primer as it regards the Afterlife.  Of course as Catholics, we must not forget that in speaking about Heaven it must force us to consider Hell.

Our Lady of Fatima,.......Ora pro nobis.

 

Journey Home...

I announce to you a great joy!  One of my clients who became a friend has finally come back home to the Catholic Church!  Sometimes God is just so good, that I have to step away from my usual rants and tearing up of heterodox crap in order to bring to you some fantastic news of how God's Grace freely operates in the world, and how through no action of our own we can find ourselves looking at Truth face to face!  Of course some background will be provided,..

A year and a half ago, I met a client, (let's call her 'V').  She started training with us looking to better her physical self.  The typical reasons, health, to look and feel good and to acquire good nutritional habits.  Needless to say that she is now starting to look at working out as part and parcel of her new way of life,..just something you 'do.'  While we, (Project Infinity) were working on her, she took it upon herself, perhaps moved by the Holy Spirit to evangelize us.  I almost forgot to mention that she was also a Pentecostal Pastor!  I think God put it in her heart to speak with us, specifically me, about Jesus and our need for Salvation.  Needless to say that I had a response.

The age old expression God works in mysterious ways is often used without giving any kind of meaningful reflection as to what that means.  First off, here is a woman actually living out her faith!  She was and still is on fire for Christ!  While she might not have had any proper understanding of the Church when she was younger, (she was a fallen away Catholic..) she came into a deep personal commitment to Christ as her Lord and Saviour.  Did she try to get me to leave the Catholic Church?  Absolutely!  Was I offended?  Absolutely not!  She had enough 'balls' (she's a girl after all ;) to actually care enough for my eternal soul and its potential destination to break a politically correct taboo!!!  A series of Tim Horton's coffee talks commenced, and while engaging and presenting the Faith, little did I realize that the Holy Spirit was (and still is..) working on me!!!!!  During this time, I was still very much leading the double life, one foot in the spiritual world and one foot in the secular.  Needless to say that the gulf between my legs was getting wiiiiiiiiider!  You can have all the head knowledge you want,..but guess what, that's all it would be it it is not put into action!  Needless to say, I am not going to engage in an apologetical strategy when dealing with Fundamentalists (you can find one online and that's not what this post is about...), just a short understanding of Church history should suffice.  Instead, through her example teaching me humility,.(ongoing...) I equiped her with enough knowledge to make a beautiful realization!  'V' as a protestant you found Jesus,.you lived your Faith beautifully.  As a Catholic, you'll be even more intimate, you will substantially be in communion with Him in the Eucharist!!!  How cool is that????!!?! By the way, you also now can have the Blessed Mother in your life.  Catholic converts living out their faith lose NOTHING of what they had,..They instead gain the fullness of Truth!

Any protestant reading this post, if you are curious about the Faith, don't hesitate to email me personally.  It might take a while for me to get back to you but I will.  In the meantime, I will post a quick timeline of Christian History right up to AD 500 ,..here.  Also a quick timeline of how the Bible came to be right over here .  May Almighty God bless you in your journey!

Blessed John Paul the Great,..........Ora pro nobis!

The War is On !!!!!!!!!!

Here it is, another Vortex!  Mike Voris exposes some ridiculousness that happened earlier last year!  The primer for this one is an old post from last August,..see here.  So without further addue,..The Bishop of El Paso has annexed Fr Michael Rodriguez into the farthest corner of his diocese,..why because his stance on so-called 'gay marriage is in accord with Church teaching.  There you have it!  Now, I'm not gonna put up the Vortex video but I encourage every like minded individual to check it out at Real CatholicTv.  This way all you readers who haven't experienced this site can sign up for free to view the videos!!!  As for the story itself, this article should give you the general idea.  In war we need to weed out the enemies and traitors to our Faith!  Sorry to say it, but they are re crucifying Christ!!!  A Rosary crusade for Fr Rodriguez, who let me also say, who is showing great example like the Apostles in accepting his cross,..Another 'famous' priest should take note, BlackSheepDog, you listening?  Fr Rodriguez, may Almighty God Bless and keep you!  Bishop Ochoa, may Our Lady's mantle cover you.  Thought we don't know what's in your heart,.I hope and pray for you! 

Our Lady of Fatima,.......Ora pro nobis.

The Buck Stops Here!!!!

Before I begin with my rant for this week, I just wanted to say that it's very rare that I do a book review, but this particular one, I just can't pass up!  The book is by Sister Sara Butler entitled The Catholic Priesthood and Women.  Ouuuuuh, I can almost hear the shock of heterodox ears as they nearly choke on their vegan tofu.  Yup,.this book offers theological insights as to why women cannot be ordained as priests despite the little magic ceremonies occurring in protestant worship spaces or wiccan temples for that matter.  Not to worry, I'm not gonna give away any spoilers but I would strongly suggest keeping this nifty little book on your Parish bookself just in case a little visit from Sr Colleen occurs and the pulpit becomes a soapbox for a liberal agenda driven tirade regarding the 'evils' of the hierarchy, of course this would happen while on break from the church sponsored reiki workshop.

And now for the fun!,.(ha!  Bet you thought it was the book,..) The new Translation of Mass, which is set to make its debut this coming Advent is really starting to light fires, and cause graying heads to get even grayer!  The National Crapolic Reporter weighed in with its already prejudiced views with these kinds of stories,..see here .  All of this I find very amusing strangely enough.  These people will jump through rings of fire to show how tolerant Islam is,.but won't give a fair reading to anything even remotely Catholic.  Speaking of the religion of 'peace,' I'm sure spin doctors in every liberal circle are working overtime trying to brainwash everyone into believing that what is happening in Egypt is an isolated incident.  An Imam on a talk show remarked that the 'west' doesn't identify terrorists when they are Christian.  Yes, that's true, because our psychos don't engage in evil in the name of their religion!!  Imagine a priest or minister screaming 'Jesus is God!!!' then blowing himself up.  Don't think so, its more 'Jesus is God' and I'm about to get eaten by a lion, tortured alive, burned or shot at.  Nowadays, the ones doing the shooting?  Yup, you guessed it, the religion of 'peace.'  See here...Liberals its time to put up or shut up,..Liberal Repellent is simple,..call it Truth!  That's what scares them the most.

To conclude liberals, feminazis, pot heads, socialists, and social justice marxist crowd, the time has come to expose your revisionist history complete with its lies and falsehoods (twirls pencil...) so that truth can be told fairly.  No more slanderous attacks on Pope Pius XII (see here ), no more misinformation regarding the Crusades (see here) , the HOMOSEXUAL clergy abuse scandal,..( yup,..right here) or finally the biggest pile of crap perpetrated upon mankind, the imaginary global warming, (wait a minute the earth is cooling itself, we need another slogan,..) 'Climate change' crowd!  (see here)  You can also access different vids from that particular blog.  Now my dear liberal social justice tree hugging crowd, a true dialogue can take place, not the dictatorship of false 'findings' and junk science that you've forced everyone to believe.  Ohhhh, if Chesterton were alive today,.he'd be arrested.

Sacred Heart of Jesus,.........Have Mercy on us!

MASS Confusion? Not Anymore!! R.I.P. 1970s,...See Ya!

What's going on you ask?  Well it looks as if starting this coming Advent,..the new translation of Mass will be implemented in dioceses across Canada and the US!!!!!!! (Cue The Rock's music,...)  Finally!,..Finally!,..Finally the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass has returned to its Heart!!!!!  Did it ever leave?  Well not exactly, EWTN always had a beautiful ordinary form liturgy, but most parishes that I experienced, the Mass more often than not left me either scratching my head or contemplating the SSPX!

Crazy Cookoo 'Mass' 1970-2011....RIP.

As a primer, our late Pope, John Paul the Great desired a more faithful translation of the Mass in the vernacular to be introduced.  The original translation was done quickly in the post Vatican II wake and certain elements were not entirely lost, but muddled in ambiguous language.  So a quick translation produced a few 'inconsistancies' and of course it didn't take long for the heterodox eco-spiritual social justice crowd to lump in their 'inclusive' language and turn the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass into at times something resembling WWE Smackdown in Charismatic circles to Pee-Wee's Playhouse in other circles.  The Translation can be found here .  (The link is to the US Catholic Bishop's Conference and from there you can link other places,..) Three notable changes,.The Gloria, The Penitential Rite, and The Creed,..Will it be that drastic?  Of course not!  The texts though will be more Faithful to the Latin, which (,.put down your weed and listen up feminazis,..) always remained the official language of the Church! 

 So far the response has been mixed, my Pastor, a good and Holy priest has begun recatechizing the Parish and has said we should welcome the new Translation,..to that I say AMEN!  There are of course other priests, you know, the kind that don't wear their collars, tolerate everything except Catholicism, and who feel that this is a step backwards,..To them, I say we should smile, tell them God Bless, look deep into their eyes and tell them to 'get a freakin' life..' (uhhh,..with Charity of course ;))  May God Bless all my readers this Thanksgiving! 

St Jean Vianney,.........Ora pro Nobis

Yup,.We are Right on Track!

So England has lost its mind.  It's official, been brewing for some time now but last week's incident has to be the most absurd news story ever covered.  Actually it took me longer than a week to process it.  The leftist elitist shit disturbing media has gone so far over the edge,.that not alot of attention was being paid to it.  What am I speaking about?  Well, the Christian Cafe in England that has banned the Bible!  Yup you heard it,..a 'Christian' Cafe which banned the Bible.  Are they freaking serious?  It appears they are.  See here.  No doubt the readership of 'Confessions' will agree as to what next will come out of the homosexual social justice pro-choice environ-'mentally' conscious (retarded?) tree hugging vegan/vegetarian whatever label human school of Mother earth Gaia bullshit crowd as far as the absurd is concerned, but yet is treated as if its normal.

School of Athens,.

The problem stems once again from mankind's abandonment of 'Reason.'  If you will, 'Logos' stemming from the Greek.  Imagine a world whereby Thales, Anaximandre, Anaxogoras, Socrates, Plato, Aristotle and finally even though he's not Greek,.Aquinas (this is a Catholic blog btw,.;)) all came back to life,..what would they think?  Let's put our cards on the table, they wouldn't philosophize, but they more than likely would turn to heavily medicating themselves in order just to deal with the non-sense before them.  The Greeks, awash with wonder and awe, seeking Truth would find themselves in a world denying God,.(prime mover,..) but worshipping at the throne of Oprah Winfrey.  Denying the marital bonds,.but having to accept homosexual relations as 'normal.'  Denying birth, but having to accept abortion as part of women's health care,..and the list goes on...Instead of the School of Athens painting we'd have something totally different,..I'll give it a shot,..

School of stupid,.

 Do not fret!!  My fellow citizens,..liberalism and its nasty little socialist offspring of incoherance and stupidity is only temporary,..What's next you ask?  Well once again when you look at Europe the answer might be right in front of you.  So keep the political correctness, the 1.3 children, the contraceptive mentality, the socialist governments and remember to always tolerate EVERYTHING except objective truth, because well,..that's closed minded,...Our goal below is almost achieved!  Thank you socialists,.you guys did a bang up job! 

School of Madrasa

Our Lady of Fatima,......Ora pro nobis...