Apologetics 101 (& etc.)

Lent

2008-02-12T12:37:00.001-08:00

Lent is both a time of shedding and adding. Sometimes we can get off focus and it becomes a time of shedding pounds instead of vice. Sometimes it becomes a time of adding weight to our spirituality not piety. This is what we mean by calling ourselves “to the observance of a holy Lent”.

Spring always seems to come during the observance of Lent and the advent of bright colors and textures after what seems to be a bland depressing landscape can often ignite feelings of cheerfulness and excitement. This is always a diversion from Lenten focus for me.

Many outside of the catholic Churches see Lent as a forced rite and therefore is of none effect. This COULD be true if it is done without the full desire of the heart. If you are forced to say a pray it is null if your heart isn’t into it. If you go to Mass with no intention of the heart then you are really wasting your time. If you are observing Lent this year because you HAVE TO, then you are again wasting your time and also are robbing yourself of one of the greatest opportunities for spiritual growth that the liturgical year has to offer.

Lent must be a desire of the heart. When we “shed”, we must be getting rid of vices and desires of the flesh. Desires of the flesh sometimes are seen as inordinate affections or evil intentions. While this is true, it also means a desire to do the things that we want to do without any thought towards God’s Will. These are very simple desires at times. Sometimes television occupies so much of our time that could be spent reading God’s Word. Conversations at the water cooler rob us of valuable prayer time. Sunday ball games take the place of the Sunday Eucharist.

We should use this time to replace our accustomed activities with holy acts. Don’t just plan to “do more reading” or “do more praying”. Set a real goal of praying a specified amount of time per week, possibly on Fridays. Set aside a particular book of the Bible or devotional aid to read during Lent and read a small portion each evening. It is better to commit to a small act done with love and faithfulness than to take on a big task that we can’t fulfill leaving us with a profound sense of guilt at the close of Holy Week.

Lent is a spiritual journey to the greatest holiday of the year for Christians – Easter! Use this time wisely. Make a holy Lent. Make definite plans and stick with them. Find something to shed or fast from like your favorite food or drink. Then prayerfully find something extra to take on like that Bible book or devotion. Stations of the Cross are popular and helpful this time of year.

I promise that if you make a holy Lent out of your own free will and with the consent and love of your heart you will truly celebrate Easter with more joy than you ever have. You will appreciate the sacrifice of our Lord given for us. Your relationship with Christ will benefit and you will become closer to him than ever!

+ Mason

New Website

2008-02-04T11:00:00.000-08:00

I have a new website for our new Diocese. Please check it out!

Click Here

+Mason

Monthly Update

2008-02-01T13:38:00.001-08:00

Christmas and New Years are both over and now Lent is around the corner. Hopefully I will have a special Lenten message to post on or near Ash Wednesday.

My wife is doing great, Brendán is doing great and I am as well. I am busy running my Dad's business for him. He had another heart attack just before Christmas and has been slower than usual. The family business has grown so much that one person can't run the whole show anymore and therefore I come in. I am also busy with my work as Chaplain at my County's Sheriff Department. This is quite a unique ministry to say the least.

Several former members of the Order have requested that I revive the Anglican Order of St. Benedict. I am seriously contemplating this. If you have any interest, please post me or email me if you have my address.

Go ahead and start thinking of things to shed for Lent. I am, and am looking forward to this time of solitude, prayer, and fasting.

+Mason

Latest Update

2007-12-11T05:37:00.000-08:00

The Holidays are approaching and things are getting very busy here in North Carolina. I just realized that we didn't announce the birth of our son on my blog. Mason Brendán Paramore was born on September 23, 2007. He is changing every day and we cherish every fleeting moment.

Back to the priesthood? The jury is still out. I wish things would be more clearer but they aren't and so we still wait on the Lord.

This Holiday Season show your love for one another, spend special time with Jesus, mend broken fences with those you love, and don't let Santa Claus get stuck in your chimney.

+ Mason

Weekly Update

2007-09-07T07:12:00.001-07:00

This week has been overwhelming. I have been out of town most of the week and Jessica has been in additional training as well. Other than that all is well. We are still studying the book “Neither Orthodoxy Nor a Formulary”. We are still considering the possibility of re-entering the Anglican ministry. Pray for us!

+Mason

Daily Morning Prayer

2007-08-31T08:51:00.000-07:00

I have added a link in the link list for Daily Morning Prayer. This goes to a Church of England website and will give you the service for the current date's Morning Prayer (Matins) Service. I hope you enjoy!

+Mason

A Great Book

2007-08-30T11:29:00.000-07:00

Lately my wife and I have been studying a great book titled "Neither Orthodoxy Nor A Formulary" written by The Rev'd Dr. Peter Toon. For me it is a re-read but it is new for my wife. It is an excellent take on the dangers of the 1979 (so-called) Book of Common Prayer of the liberal Episcopal Church USA. I would suggest all Anglicans on both sides of the fence read this! Father Toon is able to point out errors in this book that are commonly overlooked. He shows the subtle doctrinal suggestions hidden in the text of the book of 1979. This is a "must read"!

+Mason

Weekly Update

2007-08-29T10:54:00.000-07:00

Things are very slow in the family business at present. The heat tends to bring things to a halt, but we expect to pick back up over the next couple of weeks.

The question continues as to whether or not I will return to the Anglican Church soon and if so to ministry. At this time I can respond the chances of this are likely. My time away from ministry has enabled me to see things as they really are without the distortions of man. I have been on a search for the meaning of Anglicanism and its' place in Christian worship. I have contemplated much the true duty of the priest whether parish or missionary. Having said thus, should I return I doubt I would be the same priest ever again that I once was. I have a fresh vision with much clarity.

All of the family are well for now.

+Mason

Still Alive

2007-08-15T09:59:00.000-07:00

The past year has been overwhelming! Jessica and I are still doing quite well, though many changes have taken place. I will write more about these changes as I can. I am in the process of redesigning my blog. I will get this thing up and running as soon as I can! Bye for now,

+Mason

Memorial of St. Vincent de Paul

2006-09-27T10:58:00.000-07:00

Serving the Poor is to be Preferred Above all Things.

Even though the poor are often rough and unrefined, we must not judge them from external appearances nor from the mental gifts they seem to have received. On the contrary, if you consider the poor in the light of faith, then you will observe that they are taking the place of the Son of God who chose to be poor.Although in his passion he almost lost the appearance of a man and was considered a fool by the Gentiles and a stumbling block by the Jews, he showed them that his mission was to preach to the poor: He sent me to preach the good news to the poor. We also ought to have this same spirit and imitate Christ’s actions, that is, we must take care of the poor, console them, help them, support their cause.

Since Christ willed to be born poor, he chose for himself disciples who were poor. He made himself the servant of the poor and shared their poverty. He went so far as to say that he would consider every deed which either helps or harms the poor as done for or against himself. Since God surely loves the poor, he also loves those who love the poor. For when one person holds another dear, he also includes in his affection anyone who loves or serves the one he loves. That is why we hope that God will love us for the sake of the poor. So when we visit the poor and needy, we try to understand the poor and weak. We sympathise with them so fully that we can echo Paul’s words: I have become all things to all men. Therefore, we must try to be stirred by our neighbours’ worries and distress. We must beg God to pour into our hearts sentiments of pity and compassion and to fill them again and again with these dispositions.

It is our duty to prefer the service of the poor to everything else and to offer such service as quickly as possible. If a needy person requires medicine or other help during prayer time, do whatever has to be done with peace of mind. Offer the deed to God as your prayer. Do not become upset or feel guilty because you interrupted your prayer to serve the poor. God is not neglected if you leave him for such service. One of God’s works is merely interrupted so that another can be carried out. So when you leave prayer to serve some poor person, remember that this very service is performed for God. Charity is certainly greater than any rule. Moreover, all rules must lead to charity. Since she is a noble mistress, we must do whatever she commands. With renewed devotion, then, we must serve the poor, especially outcasts and beggars. They have been given to us as our masters and patrons.

A writing of St Vincent de Paul

ABSCENCE

2006-07-19T15:19:00.000-07:00

I know, I know........I have been away for too long. I will be back soon. I promise!!!

Holy Saturday

2006-04-15T22:00:00.000-07:00

+JMJ

Today is a very quiet day. Our Lord lays in the tomb. Let us stand vigil in silence with the Blessed Mother during these holy hours until we see the light of the Paschal flame.

+Mason

Good Friday

2006-04-14T09:16:00.000-07:00

Today we ponder the sufferings and death of Our Blessed Lord. Who was it that crucified him? It was you and me and our sins. Father, forgive us for we oft know not what we do. May we spend this holy day at the foot of the cross with Mary our Mother, Mary Magdalen, and John the beloved. May we hear those seven last words, and may we hear and believe the words of the centurion, "Truly this ws the Son of God!"

+Mason

Missa de Mandatuum

2006-04-13T06:16:00.000-07:00

+JMJ

Today begins the holiest of three days in the liturgical year. We call it the Sacred Triduum, or three days. Tonight is the service of the Mass of the Lord's Supper. In this Mass we truly celebrate the mysteries of the institution of the of our seven sacraments: Penance, Holy Orders, and the greatest of these, the Sacrifice of the Mass. As Jesus washed in humility the feet of the disciples, let us humble oursleves and become truly Christ-like. This may mean taking up our own crosses. Let us be quiet and share this time with our Lord in prayer and fasting today.

+Mason

Holy Wednesday

2006-04-12T07:49:00.000-07:00

+ JMJ

Dear brethren, the Lord has marked out for us the fullness of love that we ought to have for each other. He tells us: No one has greater love than the man who lays down his life for his friends. In these words, the Lord tells us what the perfect love we should have for one another involves. John, the evangelist who recorded them, draws the conclusion in one of his letters: As Christ laid down his life for us, so we too ought to lay down our lives for our brothers. We should indeed love one another as he loved us, he who laid down his life for us.

This is surely what we read in the Proverbs of Solomon: If you sit down to eat at the table of a ruler, observe carefully what is set before you; then stretch out your hand, knowing that you must provide the same kind of meal yourself. What is this ruler’s table if not the one at which we receive the body and blood of him who laid down his life for us? What does it mean to sit at this table if not to approach it with humility? What does it mean to observe carefully what is set before you if not to meditate devoutly on so great a gift? What does it mean to stretch out one’s hand, knowing that one must provide the same kind of meal oneself, if not what I have just said: as Christ laid down his life for us, so we in our turn ought to lay down our lives for our brothers? This is what the apostle Paul said: Christ suffered for us, leaving us an example, that we might follow in his footsteps.

This is what is meant by providing “the same kind of meal”. This is what the blessed martyrs did with such burning love. If we are to give true meaning to our celebration of their memorials, to our approaching the Lord’s table in the very banquet at which they were fed, we must, like them, provide “the same kind of meal”.

At this table of the Lord we do not commemorate the martyrs in the same way as we commemorate others who rest in peace. We do not pray for the martyrs as we pray for those others, rather, they pray for us, that we may follow in his footsteps. They practised the perfect love of which the Lord said there could be none greater. They provided “the same kind of meal” as they had themselves received at the Lord’s table.

This must not be understood as saying that we can be the Lord’s equals by bearing witness to him to the extent of shedding our blood. He had the power of laying down his life; we by contrast cannot choose the length of our lives, and we die even if it is against our will. He, by dying, destroyed death in himself; we are freed from death only in his death. His body did not see corruption; our body will see corruption and only then be clothed through him in incorruption at the end of the world. He needed no help from us in saving us; without him we can do nothing. He gave himself to us as the vine to the branches; apart from him we cannot have life.

Finally, even if brothers die for brothers, yet no martyr by shedding his blood brings forgiveness for the sins of his brothers, as Christ brought forgiveness to us. In this he gave us, not an example to imitate but a reason for rejoicing. Inasmuch, then, as they shed their blood for their brothers, the martyrs provided “the same kind of meal” as they had received at the Lord’s table. Let us then love one another as Christ also loved us and gave himself up for us.

- from the Liturgy of the Hours

Holy Tuesday

2006-04-09T07:06:00.001-07:00

+ JMJ

When mankind was estranged from him by disobedience, God our Saviour made a plan for raising us from our fall and restoring us to friendship with himself. According to this plan Christ came in the flesh, he showed us the gospel way of life, he suffered, died on the cross, was buried and rose from the dead. He did this so that we could be saved by imitation of him, and recover our original status as sons of God by adoption.

To attain holiness, then, we must not only pattern our lives on Christ’s by being gentle, humble and patient, we must also imitate him in his death. Taking Christ for his model, Paul said that he wanted to become like him in his death in the hope that he too would be raised from death to life.

We imitate Christ’s death by being buried with him in baptism. If we ask what this kind of burial means and what benefit we may hope to derive from it, it means first of all making a complete break with our former way of life, and our Lord himself said that this cannot be done unless a man is born again. In other words, we have to begin a new life, and we cannot do so until our previous life has been brought to an end. When runners reach the turning point on a racecourse, they have to pause briefly before they can go back in the opposite direction. So also when we wish to reverse the direction of our lives there must be a pause, or a death, to mark the end of one life and the beginning of another.

Our descent into hell takes place when we imitate the burial of Christ by our baptism. The bodies of the baptised are in a sense buried in the water as a symbol of their renunciation of the sins of their unregenerate nature. As the Apostle says: The circumcision you have undergone is not an operation performed by human hands, but the complete stripping away of your unregenerate nature. This is the circumcision that Christ gave us, and it is accomplished by our burial with him in baptism. Baptism cleanses the soul from the pollution of worldly thoughts and inclinations: You will wash me, says the psalmist, and I shall be whiter than snow. We receive this saving baptism only once because there was only one death and one resurrection for the salvation of the world, and baptism is its symbol.

- from the Liturgy of the Hours

Prayer for Palm Sunday

2006-04-09T07:06:00.000-07:00

Almighty, ever-living God, you have given the human race Jesus Christ our Saviour as a model of humility. He fulfilled your will by becoming man and giving his life on the cross. Help us to bear witness to you by following his example of suffering and make us worthy to share his resurrection. We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen

- from the Liturgy of the Hours

On the Season of Lent

2006-03-31T19:46:00.000-08:00

+JMJ

Well, Winter is over and Spring is here. We are now well into the Holy Season of Lent. During Lent we as Catholics give up something dear to us for this Holy Season. Also, we take no meat on Fridays and we fast on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday.

This is a perfect time of the year to get closer to God. Use this time for making good devotions, maybe a daily Rosary, Chaplet of Divine Mercy, the Liturgy of the Hours, and the traditional Lenten practice of the Stations of the Cross.

Make some effort this Lent no matter how small, and God will truly bless you. I am taking time off from the computer during the season, so I will be back at Easter.

+ Mason

Tea-Time

2006-02-21T08:14:00.000-08:00

One of the nicest times of day
I'm sure you will agree,
Is when you put the kettle on
At four o'clock for tea.

The little tray's arranged with care,
Especially for two,
With dainty, tasty sandwiches
And biscuits, just a few.

The bright, round teapot's waiting for
The kettle's cheerful tune,
And a friend has come to share with you
A happy afternoon.
From the recipe box of Hartson Dowd's Sligo-born grandmother.

St. Brigid Day

2006-02-01T02:05:00.001-08:00

+ JMJ

Happy St. Brigid Day!!! This beloved saint is the patroness of Ireland, and her popularity is only succeeded by St. Patrick and the Blessed Mother.

Dear Saint Brigid, my hope of spring,
Bless these little fields of mine;
Bless The pastures and the trees;
Bless the butter and the cheese;
Bless the cows with coats of silk;
Bless the brimming pails of milk;
Bless the hedgerows, and I pray;
Bless the seed beneath the clay;
Bless the hay and bless the grass;
Bless the seasons as they pass;
with your blessings, we will prevail,
Dear St, Brigid, Mary of the Gael.

- Mason

Congratulations Justice ALito

2006-02-01T02:05:00.000-08:00

Well, congratulations are in order! We have another victory in the fight for right. Judge Samuel Alito is now Justice Samuel Alito. There is no doubt in my mind he will do a great job. Let us remember to keep him, all our Justices, and all other politicians in our prayers. Let us also continue to pray for an end to abortion.

- Mason

Election Perseverance

2006-01-22T15:32:00.000-08:00

Fr. Frank Pavone
National Director, Priests for Life

As the year 2006 begins, it is time to fire up the engines for another election, and focus on electing leaders who will provide the maximum possible protection to innocent human life. In the last several major elections, voters have increased pro-life majorities both on the state and federal levels of government. More voters each year say that the abortion holocaust influenced their vote, and even many pro-abortion candidates who are not yet ready to become pro-life are realizing that being pro-abortion does not win elections.

Momentum is on our side, and there is nothing the other side can do to take the stigma out of abortion. Therefore, there is no reason for delay on our part. The time to activate is now, and the reason is the same as it always was: those who are more willing to have babies killed must not be given the power to do so.

Notice that I phrase that in the negative. Elections are often not about getting a satisfactory person in office as much as they are about keeping a worse person out of office. Elections are exercises of power, and deal in the categories of "bad, worse, good, better" rather than "bad, perfect". If we go into elections hoping to find perfect candidates, we will constantly be disappointed. But if we go into elections determined to improve things as much as possible, recognizing the limits of what that means, but also recognizing its significance, we will be energized.

Some people may wonder what the pro-life candidates they elected have done, or may feel they have not done enough. Important progress has been made, but far more is required, and we always have to keep the pressure on those we have elected. But if you prevent someone from falling off a cliff, you have already achieved something quite significant. That is the first and perhaps most important success to keep in mind. In the last two elections, if the pro-abortion forces had been able to elect the people they wanted, the cause of abortion would be in a far stronger position than it is now. Much of the success of elections is in what we prevent.

There have been positive advances, including the fact that the makeup of the Supreme Court will again change this month and move in a pro-life direction. We could have had the situation this month of having two more committed pro-abortion justices on the Supreme Court for lifetime terms. We avoided falling off that cliff.

As for what we achieve, the work always remains ours. It is not easy to find pro-life activists running for office. But what we need at the very least is people who will not stand in the way of the work that we have to do. Politics is not our salvation; we the people are responsible for ending abortion. But that responsibility includes taking power away from those who take human rights away. Let's keep abortion supporters out of office in 2006, and let's start now!

- Published By Permission

America the Beautiful?

2006-01-20T06:45:00.000-08:00

The following is a poem written by Judge Roy Moore from Alabama. Judge Moore was sued by the ACLU for displaying the Ten Commandments in his courtroom foyer. He has been stripped of his judgeship and now they are trying to strip his right to practice law in Alabama. The judge's poem sums it up quite well.

America the Beautiful,
or so you used to be.
Land of the Pilgrims' pride;
I'm glad they'll never see.

Babies piled in dumpsters,
Abortion on demand,
Oh, sweet land of liberty;
your house is on the sand.

Our children wander aimlessly
poisoned by cocaine,
Choosing to indulge their lusts,
when God has said abstain.

From sea to shining sea,
our Nation turns away
From the teaching of God's love
and a need to always pray.

We've kept God in our temples,
how callous we have grown.
When earth is but His footstool,
and Heaven is His throne.

We've voted in a government
that's rotting at the core,
Appointing Godless Judges
who throw reason out the door,

Too soft to place a killer
in a well deserved tomb,
But brave enough to kill a baby
before he leaves the womb.

You think that God's not angry,
that our land's a moral slum?
How much longer will He wait
before His judgment comes?

How are we to face our God,
from Whom we cannot hide?
What then is left for us to do,
but stem this evil tide?

If we who are His children,
will humbly turn and pray;
Seek His holy face
and mend our evil way:

Then God will hear from Heaven
and forgive us of our sins,
He'll heal our sickly land
and those who live within.

But, America the Beautiful,
if you don't - then you will see,
A sad but Holy God
withdraw His hand from Thee.

~Judge Roy Moore

Ordinary Old “Ordinary Time”

2006-01-17T17:40:00.000-08:00

In the Catholic Church the Liturgy is governed by the season of the Church year. There are two periods of Ordinary Time in the Church Year, the period between Epiphany and Ash Wednesday, and the long period after the Easter/Pentecost Season. The Church is adorned with green during these two periods, and Ordinary Time is by far the longest Liturgical Season.

Due to this long season, many people get bored with Ordinary Time. On Sunday, the Holy Father addressed the beauty of Ordinary Time in his Angelus message. Let us hear what he has to say:

Dear Brothers and Sisters!

Last Sunday, in which we celebrated the Baptism of the Lord, the Ordinary Time of the liturgical year began. The beauty of this time lies in the fact that it invites us to live our ordinary life as a way of holiness, that is, of faith and friendship with Jesus, continually discovered and rediscovered as teacher and lord, way, truth and life of man.

This is what John's Gospel suggests to us in today's liturgy, on presenting to us the first meeting between Jesus and of some of those who became his apostles. They were disciples of John the Baptist, and he in fact brought them to Jesus when, after the baptism in the Jordan, he presented him as the "Lamb of God" (John 1:36).

Two of his disciples then followed the Messiah, who asked them: "What do you seek?" The two asked him: "Rabbi, where are you staying?" And Jesus answered: "Come and see," that is, he invited them to follow him and to spend some time with him.

They were so impressed in the few hours they spent with Jesus, that immediately one of them, Andrew, went to see his brother Simon to tell him: "We have found the Messiah." We are before two particularly significant words: "seek" and "find."

We can extract these two verbs from today's evangelical passage and draw a fundamental guideline for the new year, a time in which we want to renew our spiritual journey with Jesus, with the joy of seeking and finding him incessantly. The most authentic joy, in fact, is in the relationship with him, having found, followed, known and loved him thanks to a continuous tension of the mind and heart.

To be a disciple of Christ: This is enough for the Christian. Friendship with the Master assures the soul profound peace and serenity, even in dark moments and the most difficult trials. When faith goes through dark nights, when one no longer "hears" or "sees" God's presence, friendship with Jesus guarantees that, in reality, there is nothing that can separate us from his love (cf. Romans 8:39).

To seek and find Christ, inexhaustible source of truth and life, is what the word of God invites us take up again, at the beginning of a new year, this journey of faith that never ends. "Rabbi, where do you live?" We also ask Christ and he answers: "Come and see."

For the believer, it is an incessant search and new discovery as Christ is the same yesterday, today and always, but we, the world, history, are never the same, and he comes to us to give us his communion and his fullness of life. Let us ask the Virgin Mary to help us follow Jesus, experiencing every day the joy of penetrating ever more in his mystery.

- Benedictus P.P. XVI

Abortion in the Philippines

2006-01-15T08:30:00.000-08:00

Well, another nation contemplates turning their back on God and morality. Below is an article emailed to me by a Pro-Life friend who is a doctor. Nations should forever contemplate what Pope John Paul the Great has said, "A nation that kills its own children is a nation without hope!" Lord, have mercy!

+ Mason

Filipino Congress Considers Coercive Two-Child Limit

The Filipino Congress is set to vote on Monday on a bill that critics say would discriminate against families with more than two children and would require the Catholic Church to provide sex education in schools and to pay for the sterilizations of its employees.

According to reports from the Filipino Family Fund, various Filipino legislators, arguing that the Philippines needs a much more aggressive policy of population control, introduced a bill that is strikingly similar to the One-Child policy of Communist China. The "Responsible Parenting and Population Control Act of 2005" includes a preference in education for two-child families, free access to abortifacients, mandatory sex education for children as young as 10-years-old and imprisonment penalties for health care providers who refuse to perform or provide sterilization services for a population that is 87 percent Catholic and 5 percent Muslim.

Eileen Macapanas Cosby, Executive Director of the Filipino Family Fund, told the Friday Fax that the bill "paves the way" for "the kind of human rights nightmare that is already" taking place "in China, with its coercive sterilization and contraception practices." She calls the proposed bill "China-lite."

Cosby said the bill's sponsor is reporting that he has the votes of 135 of 238 members of the Filipino House. If the bill were to pass the House it would go to the Filipino Senate where Cosby said that another piece of legislation would be attached making it even more dangerous. "It will provide for a centralized bureaucracy that would be run by three non-elected officials from NGOs," she said. This new bureaucracy, she said, would oversee the implementation of the legislation.

Cosby said that Filipino President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo is likely to veto the bill if it passes both houses of Congress. Like the American system, the bill would then return to Congress where it must receive two thirds of the vote in both chambers to override the veto.

Dr. Pia de Solenni, Director of Life and Women's Issues at the Family Research Council, told the Friday Fax that "the activists" who were "working on" drafting the "Responsible Parenting and Population Control Act of 2005" and bringing it into the Legislature were "inspired by radical feminists in the West." She also pointed out that these Filipino activists have a "myopic vision of what women's issues are." Most Filipino women, she said, worry most about opportunities to have healthy children, irrespective of how many they choose to have.

Copyright 2005 - C-FAM (Catholic Family & Human Rights Institute).
Permission granted for unlimited use. Credit required.

Senate Confirmation

2006-01-14T13:34:00.000-08:00

+JMJ

This has been a very busy week at the Paramore home, but we have survived. Amidst the many events that have taken time out of my hands, I have had time (made it) to watch some of the Senate confirmation hearings for Judge Samuel Alito.

As many of you know, Judge Alito is a good, conservative, faithful Catholic. It is time for the Pro-Life community to stand up in prayer for this man and pray that God's Will be done for our lacking Supreme Court.

In a similar vein, I found it gratifying this week when former Senator Zell Miller told Sean Hannity of Fox News, "It is time for someone to look these people right in the eye and tell them, abortion is an abomination in the sight of Almighty God, and the United States Constitution does NOT protect it!" Boy, we lost a good one we he retired!

Pax,
+ Mason

Holiday is Over !!!

2006-01-10T06:57:00.000-08:00

+ JMJ

Well, today means for me that the Christmas Holiday is over. Jessica and I must plundge back into our work and school activites. Because of our busy schedule, I will not be blogging as frequently over the next week or so, but rest assured, I will have plenty to say later.

Pax,
+ Mason

The Baptism of the Lord

2006-01-09T06:00:00.000-08:00

+ JMJ

Today is the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord. We remember today the great even of Our Lord coming to St. John Baptist in the River Jordan to be baptized of him.

There are two glorious phrases that ring out today. First of all, “Behold the Lamb of God that takes away the sins of the world.” The other is “This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased.”

Let us meditate on these phrases today, and let us remember our own baptismal promises. May the intercession of the Blessed Virgin help us to live these vows perfectly. Jesus, Mary, Joseph, pray for us!

+ Mason

Feast of the Epiphany

2006-01-06T06:00:00.000-08:00

+JMJ

Well, we made it! Christmas is officially over. Now comes down the lights, the trees, the crèches. But let us not put the spirit of Christmas away.

Christmas teaches us about love - the love of the Father to send us his Son through Mary who became the Mother of God, Mother of the Church, and our Mother. Let us love one another and share this gift of love everyday.

Today, Epiphany, reminds us of giving. The wise men came bearing gifts. Let us be giving of ourselves, our time and talents. Let us also remember that we can be holy givers at Holy Mass. These wise men came bearing the finest of gifts for the time. Let us be mindful not to come to Mass sloppy, and certainly not to perform/take part in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass sloppy either.

Remember these holy images, the Annunciation, Visitation, Nativity, Epiphany, and carry them into this new calendar year. As the old cliché goes, wise men still seek him! Be wise, continue to seek Christ.

God Bless,
+ Mason

Feast of the Most Holy Name of Jesus

2006-01-03T06:00:00.000-08:00

+ JMJ

Today is the Feast of the Most Holy Name of Jesus as restored by the late Pope John Paul the Great. At the name of Jesus every knee must bend and every tongue confess that He is Lord. Blessed be the wonderful name of Jesus!

+ Mason

Mary, Mother of God

2005-12-31T22:01:00.000-08:00

The Word took to himself the sons of Abraham, says the Apostle, and so had to be like his brothers in all things. He had then to take a body like ours. This explains the fact of Mary’s presence: she is to provide him with a body of his own, to be offered for our sake. Scripture records her giving birth, and says: She wrapped him in swaddling clothes. Her breasts, which fed him, were called blessed. Sacrifice was offered because the child was her firstborn. Gabriel used careful and prudent language when he announced his birth. He did not speak of “what will be born in you” to avoid the impression that a body would be introduced into her womb from outside; he spoke of “what will be born from you”, so that we might know by faith that her child originated within her and from her.

By taking our nature and offering it in sacrifice, the Word was to destroy it completely and then invest it with his own nature, and so prompt the Apostle to say: This corruptible body must put on incorruption; this mortal body must put on immortality.

This was not done in outward show only, as some have imagined. This is not so. Our Saviour truly became man, and from this has followed the salvation of man as a whole. Our salvation is in no way fictitious, nor does it apply only to the body. The salvation of the whole man, that is, of soul and body, has really been achieved in the Word himself.

What was born of Mary was therefore human by nature, in accordance with the inspired Scriptures, and the body of the Lord was a true body: It was a true body because it was the same as ours. Mary, you see, is our sister, for we are all born from Adam.

The words of St John, the Word was made flesh, bear the same meaning, as we may see from a similar turn of phrase in St Paul: Christ was made a curse for our sake. Man’s body has acquired something great through its communion and union with the Word. From being mortal it has been made immortal; though it was a living body it has become a spiritual one; though it was made from the earth it has passed through the gates of heaven.

Even when the Word takes a body from Mary, the Trinity remains a Trinity, with neither increase nor decrease. It is for ever perfect. In the Trinity we acknowledge one Godhead, and thus one God, the Father of the Word, is proclaimed in the Church.

- St. Athanasius

Instructions for a Blessed New Year

2005-12-31T16:52:00.000-08:00

+JMJ

Here are some suggestions for a blessed new year:

Pray your Rosary daily.
Pray at least twice a day (Breviary is best).
Go to Mass no less than once a week.
Observe all Holy Days of Obligation whether they are "lifted" or not.
Pray Jesus to send us good priests and bishops and for conversion of all the liberal ones we have now.
Pray daily for the Holy Father.
Work hard for an end of abortion.
Pray for good, holy government leaders.
Drink plenty of PG Tips tea daily!

Pax and Happy New Year,
Mason, Jessica, & Alex

Holiday is Over !!!

2005-12-31T16:40:00.003-08:00

+ JMJ

Baptism of the Lord

2005-12-31T16:40:00.002-08:00

+ JMJ

Feast of the Most Holy Name of Jesus

2005-12-31T16:40:00.001-08:00

+ JMJ

Feast of the Most Holy Name of Jesus

2005-12-31T16:40:00.000-08:00

+ JMJ

Today is the Feast of the Holy Name of Jesus as restored by the late Pope John Paul the Great. At the name of Jesus every knee must bend and every tongue confess that He is Lord! Praise the name of Jesus, name above all other names.

+ Mason

Is This a Glimpse of the Long Awaited Vatican II Reform of the Reform?

2005-12-27T16:07:00.000-08:00

VATICAN CITY, DEC. 22, 2005 (Zenit.org).- The crisis that arose in the Church after the Second Vatican Council wasn't due to the conciliar documents, but rather in their interpretation, says Benedict XVI.

The Pope made a long analysis of the legacy left by the 1962-1965 gathering of the world's bishops, when he met today with his aides in the Roman Curia to express his Christmas greetings.

The Holy Father asked rhetorically: "What has been good and what has been insufficient or mistaken?" in the implementation of the Council.

According to Benedict XVI, the reception of the Council's messages took place according to two interpretations that "confronted each other and have had disputes between them."

The first interpretation is the one the Pope called "hermeneutics of discontinuity and rupture" "between the pre-conciliar and post-conciliar Church."

According to this view, what is important about the Council is not its texts but the spirit of renewal brought to the Church, the Holy Father said. This view, he observed, "has often been able to make use of the media's liking, and also of a part of modern theology."

Of reform

The other interpretation is "the hermeneutics of reform," which was proposed by the Popes who opened and closed the Council, John XXIII and Paul VI, and which is bearing fruits "in a silent but ever more visible way," said Benedict XVI.

According to this view, the objective of the Council and of every reform in the Church is "to transmit the doctrine purely and fully, without diminutions or distortions," conscious that "our duty not only consists in guarding this precious treasure, as though we were concerned only with antiquity, but in dedicating ourselves with a firm will and without fear to the work that our age calls for," the Pope said.

"One thing is the deposit of faith, that is, the truths contained in our venerated doctrine, and another [is] the way in which they are enunciated, preserving however the same meaning and fullness," he said, echoing John XXIII.

In this way, the Council presented a "new definition of the relationship between the faith of the Church and some essential elements of modern thought," Benedict XVI pointed out. He insisted that "the Church, both before as well as after the Council, is the same one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church, journeying through time."

"Today we can look back with gratitude to the Second Vatican Council," he added. "If we read and receive it, guided by an appropriate hermeneutic, it can be and will be increasingly a great force for the always necessary renewal of the Church."

Urbi et Orbi

2005-12-25T19:21:00.000-08:00

“I bring you good news of a great joy, for to you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, who is Christ the Lord” (Lk 2:10-11).

Last night we heard once more the Angel’s message to the shepherds, and we experienced anew the atmosphere of that holy Night, Bethlehem Night, when the Son of God became man, was born in a lowly stable and dwelt among us. On this solemn day, the Angel’s proclamation rings out once again, inviting us, the men and women of the third millennium, to welcome the Saviour. May the people of today’s world not hesitate to let him enter their homes, their cities, their nations, everywhere on earth! In the millennium just past, and especially in the last centuries, immense progress was made in the areas of technology and science. Today we can dispose of vast material resources. But the men and women in our technological age risk becoming victims of their own intellectual and technical achievements, ending up in spiritual barrenness and emptiness of heart. That is why it is so important for us to open our minds and hearts to the Birth of Christ, this event of salvation which can give new hope to the life of each human being.

Wake up, O man! For your sake God became man” (Saint Augustine, Sermo, 185. Wake up, O men and women of the third millennium!

At Christmas, the Almighty becomes a child and asks for our help and protection. His way of showing that he is God challenges our way of being human. By knocking at our door, he challenges us and our freedom; he calls us to examine how we understand and live our lives. The modern age is often seen as an awakening of reason from its slumbers, humanity’s enlightenment after an age of darkness. Yet without the light of Christ, the light of reason is not sufficient to enlighten humanity and the world. For this reason, the words of the Christmas Gospel: “the true Light that enlightens every man was coming into this world” (Jn 1:9) resound now more than ever as a proclamation of salvation. “It is only in the mystery of the Word made flesh that the mystery of humanity truly becomes clear” (Gaudium et Spes, 22). The Church does not tire of repeating this message of hope reaffirmed by the Second Vatican Council, which concluded forty years ago.

Men and women of today, humanity come of age yet often still so frail in mind and will, let the Child of Bethlehem take you by the hand! Do not fear; put your trust in him! The life-giving power of his light is an incentive for building a new world order based on just ethical and economic relationships. May his love guide every people on earth and strengthen their common consciousness of being a “family” called to foster relationships of trust and mutual support. A united humanity will be able to confront the many troubling problems of the present time: from the menace of terrorism to the humiliating poverty in which millions of human beings live, from the proliferation of weapons to the pandemics and the environmental destruction which threatens the future of our planet.

May the God who became man out of love for humanity strengthen all those in Africa who work for peace, integral development and the prevention of fratricidal conflicts, for the consolidation of the present, still fragile political transitions, and the protection of the most elementary rights of those experiencing tragic humanitarian crises, such as those in Darfur and in other regions of central Africa. May he lead the peoples of Latin America to live in peace and harmony. May he grant courage to people of good will in the Holy Land, in Iraq, in Lebanon, where signs of hope, which are not lacking, need to be confirmed by actions inspired by fairness and wisdom; may he favour the process of dialogue on the Korean peninsula and elsewhere in the countries of Asia, so that, by the settlement of dangerous disputes, consistent and peaceful conclusions can be reached in a spirit of friendship, conclusions which their peoples expectantly await.

At Christmas we contemplate God made man, divine glory hidden beneath the poverty of a Child wrapped in swaddling clothes and laid in a manger; the Creator of the Universe reduced to the helplessness of an infant. Once we accept this paradox, we discover the Truth that sets us free and the Love that transforms our lives. On Bethlehem Night, the Redeemer becomes one of us, our companion along the precarious paths of history. Let us take the hand which he stretches out to us: it is a hand which seeks to take nothing from us, but only to give.

With the shepherds let us enter the stable of Bethlehem beneath the loving gaze of Mary, the silent witness of his miraculous birth. May she help us to experience the happiness of Christmas, may she teach us how to treasure in our hearts the mystery of God who for our sake became man; and may she help us to bear witness in our world to his truth, his love and his peace.

+ Benedictus PP. XVI
Christmas-tide 2005

Father Christmas

2005-12-21T15:52:00.000-08:00

Now here is a Father Christmas we can really believe in! No, he's not playing Santa Clause. What you see on his head is called a camauro and is to be worn only by the Pope. The last Holy Father to wear the fur-trimmed papal hat known as the camauro was Blessed John XXIII. For more pictures of the Ho, Ho, Holy Father, check out my website.

+ Mason

Advent IV

2005-12-17T09:04:00.000-08:00

No man has ever seen God or known him, but God has revealed himself to us through faith, by which alone it is possible to see him. God, the Lord and maker of all things, who created the world and set it in order, not only loved man but was also patient with him. So he has always been, and is, and will be: kind, good, free from anger, truthful; indeed, he and he alone is good. He devised a plan, a great and wonderful plan, and shared it only with his Son. As long as he preserved this secrecy and kept his own wise counsel he seemed to be neglecting us, to have no concern for us. But when through his beloved Son he revealed and made public what he had prepared from the very beginning, he gave us all at once gifts such as we could never have dreamt of, even sight and knowledge of himself.

When God had made all his plans in consultation with his Son, he waited until a later time, allowing us to follow our own whim, to be swept along by unruly passions, to be led astray by pleasure and desire. Not that he was pleased by our sins: he only tolerated them. Not that he approved of that time of sin: he was planning this era of holiness. When we had been shown to be undeserving of life, his goodness was to make us worthy of it. When we had made it clear that we could not enter God’s kingdom by our own power, we were to be enabled to do so by the power of God.

When our wickedness had reached its culmination, it became clear that retribution was at hand in the shape of suffering and death. The time came then for God to make known his kindness and power (how immeasurable is God’s generosity and love!). He did not show hatred for us or reject us or take vengeance; instead, he was patient with us, bore with us, and in compassion took our sins upon himself; he gave his own Son as the price of our redemption, the holy one to redeem the wicked, the sinless one to redeem sinners, the just one to redeem the unjust, the incorruptible one to redeem the corruptible, the immortal one to redeem mortals. For what else could have covered our sins but his sinlessness? Where else could we, wicked and sinful as we were, have found the means of holiness except in the Son of God alone?

How wonderful a transformation, how mysterious a design, how inconceivable a blessing! The wickedness of the many is covered up in the holy One, and the holiness of One sanctifies many sinners.

A letter to Diognetus (from the Liturgy of the Hours)

Advent III

2005-12-11T18:01:00.000-08:00

John is the voice, but the Lord is the Word who was in the beginning. John is the voice that lasts for a time; from the beginning Christ is the Word who lives for ever.

Take away the word, the meaning, and what is the voice? Where there is no understanding, there is only a meaningless sound. The voice without the word strikes the ear but does not build up the heart.

However, let us observe what happens when we first seek to build up our hearts. When I think about what I am going to say, the word or message is already in my heart. When I want to speak to you, I look for a way to share with your heart what is already in mine.

In my search for a way to let this message reach you, so that the word already in my heart may find place also in yours, I use my voice to speak to you. The sound of my voice brings the meaning of the word to you and then passes away. The word which the sound has brought to you is now in your heart, and yet it is still also in mine.

When the word has been conveyed to you, does not the sound seem to say: The word ought to grow, and I should diminish? The sound of the voice has made itself heard in the service of the word, and has gone away, as though it were saying: My joy is complete. Let us hold on to the word; we must not lose the word conceived inwardly in our hearts.

Do you need proof that the voice passes away but the divine Word remains? Where is John’s baptism today? It served its purpose, and it went away. Now it is Christ’s baptism that we celebrate. It is in Christ that we all believe; we hope for salvation in him. This is the message the voice cried out.

Because it is hard to distinguish word from voice, even John himself was thought to be the Christ. The voice was thought to be the word. But the voice acknowledged what it was, anxious not to give offence to the word. I am not the Christ, he said, nor Elijah, nor the prophet. And the question came: Who are you, then? He replied: I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness: Prepare the way for the Lord. The voice of one crying in the wilderness is the voice of one breaking the silence. Prepare the way for the Lord, he says, as though he were saying: “I speak out in order to lead him into your hearts, but he does not choose to come where I lead him unless you prepare the way for him”.

What does prepare the way mean, if not “pray well”? What does prepare the way mean, if not “be humble in your thoughts”? We should take our lesson from John the Baptist. He is thought to be the Christ; he declares he is not what they think. He does not take advantage of their mistake to further his own glory.

If he had said, “I am the Christ”, you can imagine how readily he would have been believed, since they believed he was the Christ even before he spoke. But he did not say it; he acknowledged what he was. He pointed out clearly who he was; he humbled himself. He saw where his salvation lay. He understood that he was a lamp, and his fear was that it might be blown out by the wind of pride.

A sermon by St. Augustine (from the Liturgy of the Hours)

On the Proper Keeping of Advent

2005-12-06T14:04:00.000-08:00

+JMJ

Ok, I haven't had any commentators in a while so I decided to post a "Question of the Week"! With all the hype behind the secular side of Christmas we often forget to properly observe the season of Advent.

So my question is this............"How are you keeping Advent this year in order to prepare yourself for Christmas?" And another one is how do you like the Advent wreath? I thought the Blog needed some added colour, and after all, it is Advent. Comments Away!!!

Advent II

2005-12-04T14:00:00.000-08:00

+JMJ

The voice of one crying in the wilderness: Prepare the way of the Lord, make straight the paths of our God.

The prophecy makes clear that it is to be fulfilled, not in Jerusalem but in the wilderness: it is there that the glory of the Lord is to appear, and God’s salvation is to be made known to all mankind.It was in the wilderness that God’s saving presence was proclaimed by John the Baptist, and there that God’s salvation was seen. The words of this prophecy were fulfilled when Christ and his glory were made manifest to all: after his baptism the heavens opened, and the Holy Spirit in the form of a dove rested on him, and the Father’s voice was heard, bearing witness to the Son: This is my beloved Son, listen to him.The prophecy meant that God was to come to a deserted place, inaccessible from the beginning. None of the pagans had any knowledge of God, since his holy servants and prophets were kept from approaching them. The voice commands that a way be prepared for the Word of God: the rough and trackless ground is to be made level, so that our God may find a highway when he comes. Prepare the way of the Lord: the way is the preaching of the Gospel, the new message of consolation, ready to bring to all mankind the knowledge of God’s saving power.

Climb on a high mountain, bearer of good news to Zion. Lift up your voice in strength, bearer of good news to Jerusalem. These words harmonise very well with the meaning of what has gone before. They refer opportunely to the evangelists and proclaim the coming of God to men, after speaking of the voice crying in the wilderness. Mention of the evangelists suitably follows the prophecy on John the Baptist.

What does Zion mean if not the city previously called Jerusalem? This is the mountain referred to in that passage from Scripture: Here is mount Zion, where you dwelt. The Apostle says: You have come to mount Zion. Does not this refer to the company of the apostles, chosen from the former people of the circumcision?

This is the Zion, the Jerusalem, that received God’s salvation. It stands aloft on the mountain of God, that is, it is raised high on the only-begotten Word of God. It is commanded to climb the high mountain and announce the word of salvation. Who is the bearer of the good news but the company of the evangelists? What does it mean to bear the good news but to preach to all nations, but first of all to the cities of Judah, the coming of Christ on earth?

- A commentary on Isaiah by Eusebius of Caesarea

Advent I

2005-11-27T14:04:00.000-08:00

+JMJ

We do not preach only one coming of Christ, but a second as well, much more glorious than the first.

The first coming was marked by patience; the second will bring the crown of a divine kingdom. In general, whatever relates to our Lord Jesus Christ has two aspects. There is a birth from God before the ages, and a birth from a virgin at the fullness of time.
There is a hidden coming, like that of rain on fleece, and a coming before all eyes, still in the future.

At the first coming he was wrapped in swaddling clothes in a manger. At his second coming he will be clothed in light as in a garment. In the first coming he endured the cross, despising the shame; in the second coming he will be in glory, escorted by an army of angels.

We look then beyond the first coming and await the second. At the first coming we said: Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. At the second we shall say it again; we shall go out with the angels to meet the Lord and cry out in adoration: Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. The Saviour will not come to be judged again, but to judge those by whom he was judged. At his own judgement he was silent; then he will address those who committed the outrages against him when they crucified him and will remind them: You did these things, and I was silent. His first coming was to fulfil his plan of love, to teach men by gentle persuasion. This time, whether men like it or not, they will be subjects of his kingdom by necessity.

The prophet Malachi speaks of the two comings. And the Lord whom you seek will come suddenly to his temple: that is one coming. Again he says of another coming: Look, the Lord almighty will come, and who will endure the day of his entry, or who will stand in his sight? Because he comes like a refiner’s fire, a fuller’s herb, and he will sit refining and cleansing.

These two comings are also referred to by Paul in writing to Titus: The grace of God the Saviour has appeared to all men, instructing us to put aside impiety and worldly desires and live temperately, uprightly, and religiously in this present age, waiting for the joyful hope, the appearance of the glory of our great God and Saviour, Jesus Christ. Notice how he speaks of a first coming for which he gives thanks, and a second, the one we still await. That is why the faith we profess has been handed on to you in these words: He ascended into heaven, and is seated at the right hand of the Father, and he will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead, and his kingdom will have no end.

Our Lord Jesus Christ will therefore come from heaven. He will come at the end of the world, in glory, at the last day. For there will be an end to this world, and the created world will be made new.

- from "The Two-Fold Coming of Christ" by St. Cyril of Jerusalem

Catholics and the Supreme Court (Part II)

2005-11-26T13:51:00.000-08:00

+ JMJ

Recently I wrote an article on Catholics and the Supreme Court. I have received several emails and a couple of comments on this blog concerning this article. Therefore, I felt it needed to restate my point on this matter and perhaps make it clearer.

There are diverse cultures and religions in these United States of America. However, this country was founded on fundamental Judeo-Christian ideals. Thus, we need representatives in our courts and Congress and White House to continue these morals in our country. We were founded as a nation under God – the God of the Old and New Testament of Sacred Scripture. Whether one is a Protestant, Catholic, or Jew, he or she must be faithful to the Scriptures and the founding ideals of this country and carry on this legacy that has been given to us through the ages.

One gentleman made reference to the Klan and called our founding fathers infidels. They were fundamental Christians. They were rooted in Judeo-Christian beliefs, and thus founded our nation upon such a rock. We seem to hear the word infidel quite a lot recently, mostly at the mouths of Mohammedans, who in fact, are the epitome of true infidels themselves. The Klan has nothing to do with this article and I can’t understand what was meant by this seeing the writer doesn’t seem proficient in the English language.

+ Mason

Why is it Virtually Impossible to be a Christian and an Episcopalian?

2005-11-14T15:43:00.000-08:00

+JMJ

Someone once asked me why you can't be a Christian and an Episcopalian. Here is a good article to read that may shed some light on the fact:

+ Mason

The Peculiar Peculations of PECUSA
By Thomas Lipscomb
11/14/2005

In a meeting last week in Pittsburgh, an international panel of prominent Anglicans has called for an open break between members of the Anglican Communion and what they view as the wayward Protestant Episcopal Church of the United States. The meeting was hosted by the Bishop Duncan of Pittsburgh and presided over by seven archbishops from the West Indies, South East Asia, and Africa.

The collapse of the authority and membership of mainstream churches in the United States has paralleled the collapse of the influence of other institutions from the media to academia as a yawning gap has continued to open up in the past half century between their actions and their announced goals.

The sad huddle of affluent bedwetters, thumbsuckers, treehuggers, social climbers, homophiles, quavery ladies, and chronic petition signers that makes up the current Episcopal Church is no exception. Historic hubs like lovely Grace Cathedral in San Francisco or St. Paul's in Richmond, Virginia, have been turned into bizarre nests of homosexual and "peace" activism, complete with rainbow and peace flags hanging in the nave and lesbian and homosexual priests ramming their agenda down the throats of the congregations along with the communion wafer.

Many think those activists continually demanding a more "inclusive" church might have paid a little attention to the majority of its communicants. The majority had proven itself perfectly willing to include minorities with equal rights. But the radical minority didn't want inclusiveness... it wanted to dominate. And if success is dominating empty churches by driving out their congregations, they have succeeded.

The reality of the "inclusiveness" of the radicals was brought home a year ago by an idiotic abuse of power by the Bishop of Washington, D.C. against a tiny tidewater Maryland parish and its brave priest. Now the radicals are the majority many places. And they control the lovely churches, seminaries, and the all-important church pension plan.

Those who have left the Episcopal Church, or are being included out, are, in a sense, "Neo-Puritans," just as they are accused of being by those trying to keep PECUSA together.

So were those part of the Reformation movement spread by Martin Luther and his successors and the original Puritans themselves. But they were protesting innovations and abuses by the hierarchies in the reigning churches of their day, including the Catholic practices of simony, benefices, the selling of indulgences, and, in the Puritans' case, the conversion of the Anglican church from a institution of God to an institutional extension of the Stuart Monarchy's recently asserted "divine right."

Their problem was a "trahison des clercs." Congregations weren't trying to reform the basic tenets of the church. If anything they were trying to return to them. Few of the Episcopal laity had any problem with the 39 Articles of Religion at the back of the Book of Common Prayer, but dozens of their bishops and priests did.

In fact they so objected to the Book itself that they destroyed it with a "revision" in the 1970s. The basic language of the BCP somehow had served almost 500 years of Episcopalians from Tudor times to Jimmy Carter's presidency, and suddenly it failed the clergy's "inclusive" test.

Besides, prominent bishops like Spong and Robinson disagreed with some of the most basic elements of the Nicene Creed, the heart of Anglican belief. Some they considered minor matters of definition, like the divinity of Christ. It made one wonder why, if the radicals clerics shared such contempt toward these unfashionable tenets of faith, they hadn't left their unenlightened laity to more orthodox priests and moved on?

The American Episcopal Church itself is a byproduct of the Reformation. It proudly called itself the Protestant Episcopal Church of the United States to make that point after the American Revolution. It intentionally dispersed its authority originally through a series of local parishes that owned their own property and selected their own priests under bishops of dioceses of limited power. That way the parishes could reflect whatever the local people wanted, from "Low Church" "plain altar" evangelicals of the Puritan tradition to lush "High Church" parishes with their "smells and bells."

Over the past 50 years radical priests and allied bishops have systematically gutted parishional authority and taken over their property as one diocese after another has swung into line with the new authoritarian radical clergy. In short, the protest meeting led by the courageous Bishop of Pittsburgh was a reaction to a half century of peculation -- embezzlement led by the church establishment. But on whose behalf?

Fortunately a healthy religion is able to renew itself from time to time as required. When it isn't, a black hole like the Islam of today results that becomes the enemy of reform and enlightenment itself.

What a wonderful irony that Third World members of the Anglican Communion are more vital in this renewal than the Mother Church of England itself, much less the incredible, shrinking weirdo Protestant Episcopal Church of the United States.

--Thomas Lipscomb is an Anglo-Catholic parishioner of the Mission of Mary Magdalene in New York. This story appeared in The Spectator.

On Catholics and the Supreme Court

2005-11-08T20:30:00.000-08:00

+JMJ

There is a very popular show on EWTN (Global Catholic Network) called “The World Over Live”. The show is hosted by Mr. Raymond Arroyo, whom I have had the pleasure of meeting in person along with my wife. The topic of this week’s show was concerning the recent nomination of yet another Pro-Life Catholic judge for the Supreme Court.

The usual proverbial feminist/liberal “peanut gallery” is calling foul to this appointment because they see Judge Alito as a radical anti-life foe. They assert that there are too many Catholics on the Supreme Court as is, and that other religions should be better represented like Islam or even atheism.

First of all, there can NEVER be too many Catholics standing up for the rights of our nations peoples. We don’t need a stronger Islamic representation; we don’t need a stronger atheistic representation. What this country needs is a strong Catholic representation. This country is not Islamic, it is not atheist either. At present, one out of every three people in this country are Catholic. Yes, this is a minority amongst the Protestant majority in this nation, but these "separated brethren" (the title given to Protestants by the Catechism of the Catholic Church and by the former Holy Fathers Pope John Paul II and Pope John XXIII) have dropped the ball in standing for fundamental biblical truths in our society today. There is no other religious body without/within Christendom that speaks with one voice against decaying morals in our time. While the Protestants are trying to make decisions out of their control regarding the illegal ordination of women, illegal ordination of homosexuals, versions of Scripture and liturgies that are more suitable to the ears of the feminist, gays, lesbians, liberals, anti-life activist, ant-family persons, pagans, and other reprobates, the Catholic Church stands firm and solid defending the old time religion with pride. What else could be expected of the one and only Church founded by Christ himself?

Secondly, just because four judges on the Supreme Court, and now possibly a fifth, state that they are Catholic doesn’t mean that they ARE Catholic; much in the same way that we have NEVER had a Catholic President nor even a Catholic candidate for President. To be Catholic means to live and believe in the teachings of the Church. In today’s society that is hard to do for many, and is not done by most. The same is true with Protestants. That being said, there aren’t as many fundamental Christians in control as we are led to believe, but there are many feminist and liberals hiding behind a mask painted like the Church that are in control. You can always tell a wolf in sheep’s clothing though, just take a closer look!

This nation is fundamental, it is conservative, it is Judeo-Christian, and we need men and women to reflect this on the bench, in Congress, and in the White House. Pray for a conservative take back of power, and pray for an end to abortion, which is what this battle is really all about in the first place!

All Souls' Day

2005-11-02T05:51:00.000-08:00

+JMJ

The Church has encouraged prayer for the dead from the earliest times as an act of Christian charity. "If we had no care for the dead," Augustine noted, "we would not be in the habit of praying for them." Yet pre-Christian rites for the deceased kept such a strong hold on the superstitious imagination that a liturgical commemoration was not observed until the early Middle Ages, when monastic communities began to mark an annual day of prayer for the departed members.

In the middle of the 11th century, St. Odilo, abbot of Cluny (France), decreed that all Cluniac monasteries offer special prayers and sing the Office for the Dead on November 2, the day after the feast of All Saints. The custom spread from Cluny and was finally adopted throughout the Roman Church.

The theological underpinning of the feast is the acknowledgment of human frailty. Since few people achieve perfection in this life but, rather, go to the grave still scarred with traces of sinfulness, some period of purification seems necessary before a soul comes face-to-face with God. The Council of Trent affirmed this purgatory state and insisted that the prayers of the living can speed the process of purification.

Superstition still clung to the observance. Medieval popular belief held that the souls in purgatory could appear on this day in the form of witches, toads or will-o’-the-wisps. Graveside food offerings supposedly eased the rest of the dead.

Observances of a more religious nature have survived. These include public processions or private visits to cemeteries and decorating graves with flowers and lights. This feast is observed with great fervor in Mexico.

- from "Saint of the Day"

All Saints' Day

2005-11-01T05:50:00.000-08:00

+JMJ

The earliest certain observance of a feast in honor of all the saints is an early fourth-century commemoration of "all the martyrs." In the early seventh century, after successive waves of invaders plundered the catacombs, Pope Boniface IV gathered up some 28 wagonloads of bones and reinterred them beneath the Pantheon, a Roman temple dedicated to all the gods. The pope rededicated the shrine as a Christian church. According to Venerable Bede, the pope intended "that the memory of all the saints might in the future be honored in the place which had formerly been dedicated to the worship not of gods but of demons" (On the Calculation of Time).

But the rededication of the Pantheon, like the earlier commemoration of all the martyrs, occurred in May. Many Eastern Churches still honor all the saints in the spring, either during the Easter season or immediately after Pentecost.
How the Western Church came to celebrate this feast in November is a puzzle to historians. The Anglo-Saxon theologian Alcuin observed the feast on November 1 in 800, as did his friend Arno, Bishop of Salzburg. Rome finally adopted that date in the ninth century.

- from "Saint of the Day"

Respect Life Sunday

2005-09-27T14:25:00.000-07:00

+JMJ

This weekend is Respect Life Sunday. As most of you know, my wife Jessica and I are deeply involved in the pro-life movement. I want to take this opportunity to urge each reader to remind his/her Priest, Minister, or Rabbi that this is Respect-Life Sunday, and that you expect a homily against the abortion movement.

It is imperative that we get together this weekend in “Life-Chains” and pray for the unborn, the demise of the family, and an end to legalized murder in America. In the wake of two recent natural disasters, it is hard to ask God’s help with the innocent and dead in Texas and Louisiana when we as Americans have no regard for life during normal times. We MUST bring about a concern for the life and welfare of every human being from birth to natural death. Anything less is un-christian.

+ Mason

On Marriage and the Demise of the Family

2005-08-30T09:11:00.000-07:00

+JMJ

A recent study done by Rutgers University shows that marriage is on the decline in America. The study shows that cohabitation is more and more increasingly popular. Also, this study finds that people are getting married up to 5-7 years later in life then what the norm was in the 1960’s. The divorce rate is still at a significant high. However, American statistics are in fact slightly better than European countries.

There is a direct link with marriage, the family, and the welfare of the nation. One priest has said that when the family goes, so goes the Church, when the Church goes, so goes the nation. The value and meaning of family has been both attacked and weakened over the last decades. The Church has suffered greatly, not only in America but in other countries as well. And, the state of our nation, its morals and values, are slumping tremendously. Well, it appears the saying is right, no family, no Church, no nation!

We live in a secular society now. Our courts are constantly redefining the “separation of Church and state”. Many feel religion is not necessary in the modern society. Many feel religion is just a scapegoat or a crutch for the week members of society. THIS COULD BE NO FURTHER FROM THE TRUTH!!! If we don’t bring Christ back into the center of society, then our families, Churches, and nations will continue to decline.

To restore the family we must focus on several important issues in today’s culture. First of all, families need to once again pray together as a family. The strength of the family lies in prayer. Those in their 70’s will recall how the family would share the evening meal together every evening. Families prayed the nightly Rosary or the litany of the day, or other prayers together as a family every night.

Second, we must stamp out abortion. Abortion is nothing but legalized murder. It fosters a culture of death rather than life, it gives people decisions and choices that only belong to God, and our view of all types of life begins to decay when we accept the option of murder. It amazes me how people even today are protesting a just war in Iraq to free millions of innocent people. Yet, today we are killing over 4,000 innocent children in this country alone every day legally. How could a mother murder her own child and then deny it of a decent burial even. This is not in keeping with the natural order, it is not in keeping with civilized order, and it certainly is not keeping the Law of God in perspective. Our nation will have to pay for this atrocity. May Christ have mercy on us and on the whole world!

Finally, we must put divorce back into its place. God’s Law says that marriage is between one man and one woman FOREVER!!! This rebukes homosexuality in all forms. It also means that divorce, according to our Lord himself, is only allowable in cases of fornication/adultery. Furthermore, if one is divorced, then remarriage is NOT permissible so long as both parties are still living. No one is allowed to break this bond of marriage without consulting the magisterium of the Church first. The Church must be involved in marriage both at inception and in the dire case of many, dissolution. The Church only has the right to approve the dissolution of marriage.

There are many more points to consider on marriage and religion in the modern world. We must work to restore marriage and religion to its proper place in society - that place is first!

+ Mason

My Proof of the Existence of Evolution

2005-08-27T11:54:00.000-07:00

+JMJ

When I was in the 8th grade I had a teacher that tried to cram the theory of evolution down my throat every time I looked around. I wound up failing almost every test because of my protests against it. Finally, at the end of the year, I told the teacher that I believed in evolution to which he looked puzzled. I told him that after watching him all year, I believed God created man and man made a monkey out of himself. That was proof one! Click this link for proof two! http://start.earthlink.net/article/top?guid=20050826/430e93c0_3ca6_1552620050826562814048

Morning-After Pill Temporary Downfall

2005-08-27T11:22:00.000-07:00

+JMJ

An article from Earthlink today reads in part:

The government on Friday put off its long-awaited final decision on whether to sell emergency contraception without a prescription, saying the pill was safe to sell over-the-counter to adults but grappling with how to keep it out of the hands of young teenagers.

The drug's maker, Barr Pharmaceuticals, criticized the decision, questioning how the agency could acknowledge that scientific evidence supported nonprescription sales and yet not allow those sales to begin.

"It's like being in purgatory," said Barr chief executive Bruce Downey.

He thinks he knows what purgatory feels like, wait until he sees what hell feels like if he doesn’t repent of this diabolical design invented by the Evil One!

To read the full article from AP click here: http://start.earthlink.net/article/top?guid=20050826/430e93c0_3ca6_1552620050826-1466570223

On Calvin and Other Schismatics

2005-08-27T10:56:00.000-07:00

+JMJ

A dear friend of mine recently wrote an article about Calvinism. In her blog I found two points that I thought should be expounded on because in their simplicity they were found wanting. I want to publish my comment here, not with a negative intention towards her blog, but because this is an apologetics blog and there are many who really do need to hear this today. I shall take each point separately.

Comment 1 - "Some Catholics believe that the Blessed Mother never sinned …"

Personally, I know of no such Catholics. There may be, it’s possible, but not likely. We are living in an age when many doctrines of Catholicism are up for debate. This is especially true in the Official Doctrines of Mary. To say that the Blessed Mother never sinned would be an error and it isn’t the Official teaching of the Church at all. The doctrines of both the Immaculate Conception and the Assumption (Dormition) are doctrines of ancient existence in the Church, officially recognized in the past 2 centuries, however, neither one of these state that Mary never sinned. I am uncomfortable with this statement because it could appear that a “Sinless Mary” is part of the dogma of the Church, though some don’t believe it, when this is not the case at all. We both know Catholics don’t need anymore false accusations about their beliefs then what they already have. If I was a Protestant, I would see this comment and say, “See here is another false doctrine of the papist!” If anyone would say Mary never sinned, it would be a false opinion on behalf of the believer, and the Catholic Church would proclaim that as such.

Comment 2 - "To a Catholic, conversion is the first step on the path to salvation."

Conversion is not the same as being “saved”. For a faithful Catholic, conversion is an on-going process that lasts for a life time. One could have a serious moment of conversion like St. Paul on the road to Damascus, many people have this. This is still not the same as being saved though. My understanding of the Protestant being saved is a specific moment in time, when the person A- accepts he/she is a sinner B- believes on the Lord Jesus Christ C- confesses that Jesus is Lord before man. These are good points no doubt, but it is a false sense of security to say, “On such a day at such a time I got ‘saved’!” This insinuates that we are now in and have “arrived”. As long as we have breath we are on a faith journey. We are on the way of perfection that the saints speak of always. We are constantly striving for perfection, being revealed by God of our errors, and we amend our ways to become more like Him. This means a lifetime of many, many conversions.

Eternal Security simply means we are eternally secure that God will never turn His back on us, yet we can always turn our back on Him, we could fail on our way to perfection. Free will is always free. God won’t impose grace on us, he won’t impose mercy, His greatest attribute on us, nor will He impose salvation either. We are always free to choose. At the end of our lives we shall stand before God and He will judge our lives according to this way of perfection, according to both our faith and works (contrary to the false belief of many Protestants) and if found worthy He will say, “Well done thou good and faithful servant.” I suppose many he won’t say this to, and many Protestants could remark, but Lord I was saved on/at … and He will say, “Depart from me for I never knew you!” Woe is that person, and woe is the person that convinced that person of such an easy yet false sense of salvation. Truthfully, we have BEEN saved, we are BEING saved, and we will BE saved, through the mercy of God and according to our trust in Him.

Predestination and Election are true only in the sense that God, in His Divine Foreknowledge, HE has predestinated and elected that all mankind be saved. We have the free will to participate or not. Remember, hell was made for the fallen angels and the great adversary not us. God has never condemned one single person to eternal punishment and separation from Him, man has condemned his own self.

+ Mason

Father Gary Maier, RIP

2005-08-27T09:33:00.000-07:00

+JMJ

Dear Family,

I am requesting your prayers for the repose of the soul of Father Gary Maier.

Father Gary was an ECUSA priest in his upper 60's. He was the 'undercover' representative to alcoholics in the Panellas Park Florida area and throughout the US, a very spiritual priest and recovering soul, who saved many lives. He was paid by the ECUSA to travel around the US, speaking to the religious in AA and NA and holding seminars, although he was not known by most people - he worked "under the radar" so to speak, and counseled many priests and the faithful. He died 2 days ago on his boat in the Gulf, apparently of a heart attack. May Our Blessed Lord take him to his bosom; he has been a good and faithful servant.

+ Mason

What is +JMJ ?

2005-08-26T09:07:00.000-07:00

+JMJ

Greetings!

A week or so ago I was writing in my spiritual journal and my wife was spying over my shoulder for a bit. She noticed at the top of my entry the initials +JMJ and saw that it was at the top of every entry on those noticable pages. She asked the question, "What is that?" Maybe you will too as you see it at the top of every entry here.

+JMJ stands for Jesus, Mary, Joseph. One of my all-time favourite saints is St. Maria Faustina Kawoslka of Poland. She is most noted for the devotion to the Divine Mercy. She was a Polish Nun who dies in the 1930's and had many visions of our Lord and he commissioned her as the "Apostle of Divine Mercy". She always used this +JMJ before most of her entries.

Also, being the good Irishmen that I am, I love to watch the old re-runs of the 1950's and 1960's programs hosted by Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen. If you have ever seen the programs on EWTN you have seen him use this ascription as well.

Also, I have a small statue of Jesus (Infant of Prague), Mary (Our Lady of Grace), and St. Joseph on the top of my computer screen. These remind me of their intercessions and giudance.

Jesus, Mary, Joseph - true models of family and spirituality!

Jesus, Mary, Joseph
ora pro nobis.

+ Mason

WELCOME

2005-08-26T08:14:00.000-07:00

+JMJ

Dear Friends,

Welcome to this new site. My purpose here is to defend the true faith and banish heresy. I welcome all comments and questions. May God Bless You!

+ Mason