“Mortal” Only If Done With Full-Knowledge?
Probably daily across this country a few conversation go like this between young Catholics: -Catholic 1: Did you know pre-marital sex is a mortal sin? -Catholic 2: Well, did you know for a sin to be mortal you have to have full-knowledge and full-consent? -Catholic 1: I guess so, but does that mean it's not a mortal sin to have pre-marital sex? -Catholic 2: Not if you didn't know it. Catholic 2 is a smarty-pants who takes St. Thomas out of context, but is still morally wrong. Here's why: Even the new Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC) admits that you don't get a "pass" from God (so to speak) on ignorance of the moral law unless there's absolutely no way you could have known the truth: A human being must always obey the certain judgment of his conscience. If [...]
VLX 141: Mt 24:1-14. “The Love of Many Will Grow Cold.”
VLX stands for "Video Lectio Divina" which is a Patristic Bible Study and Ignatian Prayer Series online. Today we look at St. Matthew 24:1-14. The Temple-Mount is not where the world thinks it is: https://youtu.be/6tzom66XhZ8 The Secret Still Silenced: https://youtu.be/vIJHTQYQ6_k?si=-ZFGOyPidQ2vfZ1R
Immaculate Conception: The Temporal and Eternal One
Here's a text I got from a friend yesterday: "Okay, also, how is the Holy Spirit the uncreated Immaculate Conception, as Maximilian Kolbe says? Any good ideas on explaining it?" My reply: "Yes it's because the Holy Spirit proceeds in eternity (not time) from the Father and the Son that one can even use the term 'ETERNAL Immaculate Conception' but one has to be very careful to extricate any sense of sex or time from it, since it's spiritual, there's no genders involved and the spiration of the Holy Spirit is in eternity ('Spiration' is the old school way to describe how the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son.) Now get this: Mary is the TEMPORAL Immaculate Conception. That's why she didn't say at Lourdes to St. Bernadette "I am immaculately conceived" but why she said [...]
RCT 30: The Results of the Ascension.
The Roman Catechism of Trent (RCT) p. 80-82 The Creed, Article VI, Section B.
Levate Capita Vestra Ad Redemptio Vestra
What did it mean to pray for the Jews to pray for the First Coming of the Messiah? What does it mean for Christians to pray for the Second Coming of the Messiah? Notice that for the former, it was not a matter of despair, but rather of hope, to pray for the first coming of the Christ. This is revealed in the life of St. Anne as seen in a vision by Ven. Mary of Agreda in the Mystical City of God: The most fortunate Anne had a house in Bethlehem and was a most chaste, humble and beautiful maiden. From her childhood she led a most virtuous, holy and retired life, enjoying great and continual enlightenment in exalted contemplation. Withal she was most diligent and industrious, thus attaining perfection in both the active and the contemplative life. She [...]
A “Springtime” of Vocations
I found a website called Christendom Restoration that graphed vocations before and after the Council, as seen above. It used very advanced calculus on the growth of American seminarians versus years, such as S(t)=47247.8e -0.0846t and S(year) = 47247.8e -0.0846(year-1965) in order to reveal only significant statistics. The above chart shows the Pre-Conciliar and Post-Conciliar Growth functions of seminarians in the United States. As you can see, it uses "Springtime" in a sarcastic sense for what has happened since 1965. Earlier this year. Fr. Z posted the above graph. Notice again that American priests were on the rise until Vatican II. After that, it tanked... ...not so for tradition in the United States... The above was posted by Liturgy Guy and it shows the growth of Latin Masses in the United States. Of course, none of this is sustainable if [...]
“Three Generations of Imbeciles Are Enough.”
One of the unknown connections between so-called "transgender" surgeries and forced sterilizations in early 20th century American history is the targeting of children with mental-health problems. Many people are now familiar with Miss Chloe Cole (top right.) She is a young woman born in 2004 who went on puberty blockers at age 13. She had a double mastectomy at age 15. She is now suing Kaiser Permanente of California. The beginning of the lawsuit filed reads thus: "This case is about a team of doctors (i.e., the Defendants) who decided to perform a mutilating, mimicry sex change experiment on Chloe, then a thirteen-year-old vulnerable girl struggling with complex mental health co-morbidities, who needed love, care, attention, and regular weekly psychotherapy, not cross-sex hormones, and mutilating surgery." Notice again that a young woman with "complex mental health" found a surgeon in [...]
VLX 140: Mt 23:37-39. “Lament Over Jerusalem.”
- My article, "Who is the Man of Lawlessness?" at: https://www.padreperegrino.org/2023/10/who-is-the-man-of-lawlessness/ - My article, "On Eternal Rome" at: https://www.padreperegrino.org/2016/06/saints-peter-and-paul/ - Catholic Arena on Hallow App's new-hire at: https://www.catholicarena.com/latest/tuamliamneesonhallow211123
Should You Recall Past Sins?
Should you recall past sins? The basic answer to this is one that most of you already know: Do not beat yourself up about sins you have confessed because those sins have been washed away by the blood of Jesus. (Or, if you are an adult convert, your sins were washed away in baptism.) Keep in mind in St. Luke chapter 15, we have the Prodigal Son parable: After a significant stint of sin, he returns to the Father and he is planning on saying, "Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Treat me as one of your hired servants." But the Father doesn't even let him get that far, for the prodigal son only gets out of his mouth the first two of the above three sentences. [...]
The Life and Death of St. Cecilia As Told By St. Alphonsus
St. Cecilia, virgin and martyr, has always been most celebrated in the Church of God; even from the fourth century a Church has been dedicated to her honor in Rome; and honorable mention is made of her, not only in all the martyrologies, but even in the Canon of the Mass. In the eighth century there was a report that Astulphus, King of the Longobards, had carried off the body of our saint from Rome; but she appeared, in a vision, to Pope Paschal I, assured him that the report was false, and encouraged him to seek her relics. The holy pontiff found them, in the cemetery of Prætextatus, Prætextatus, on the Appian road; and, having rebuilt her church, placed them there in the year 821. After a lapse of nearly eight centuries, when the place in which the saint’s [...]