Advice to Young Courting Catholics, Part II
N.B This blog post is from a lay guest writer. NOTES FROM A BATTLEFIELD OBSERVER I write this from the perspective of a fifty-something Catholic father with three grown children. Watching my children become young adults has given me a ringside seat from which to view many of the follies and customs of today’s young people, around dating, courtship, and views on marriage. What follows is practical advice. It seems obvious to me that “love” is almost wholly misunderstood, and because it’s misunderstood, it’s highly overrated. That tingle you feel – it’s most likely just a touch of eros. This is not enough on which to base a permanent relationship. [...]
Pro-Life Martyr Jim Pouillon
Even the Wikipedia page for Jim Pouillon reads that "the murder of Jim Pouillon occurred on September 11, 2009... Pouillon was killed while protesting against abortion in front of Owosso High School in Owosso, Michigan." The man who killed Pouillon is named Harlan James Drake. That same day, he shot a businessman named Michael Fuoss at a different location. Fuoss was also killed. May God rest his soul. Because the two events were unrelated, and because the second shooting had nothing to do with the abortion debate, one might argue that Pouillon just happened to be at "the wrong place at the wrong time," namely, in front of an abortion center. Furthermore, I [...]
Why Murder of an Unborn Child May Be Worse than Murder of An Adult
Here's four ways abortion is possibly worse than the murder of an adult: 1. The level of innocence. I am not saying any babies are conceived without original sin. I'm simply saying they have no actual sin on their hands at the moment of their slaughter, unlike adult victims of homicide. 2. Abortion is a bloody sacrifice to demons as a mockery of the Mass. The Mass is an unbloody sacrifice to God. 3. Every abortion drags a dozen people to hell, regardless of where that baby goes (heaven, or much more likely—limbo.) 4. By the sheer number of these murders, chaos is introduced into a society and demons' power [...]
Balancing Self-Confidence with Humility
One of the things I find fascinating about Special Forces guys in the US Military is that they are usually soft-spoken. One of the things I find fascinating about fully-certifiable narcissists is that they are always the opposite: Whereas narcissists frequently speak about themselves in a self-centered manner, they secretly have extremely low self-confidence. So, what is the relationship between self-confidence and humility? The pious answer goes like this: "One should have confidence in God, not oneself." While this is true, it does not take into consideration the difficult balance that St. Thomas Aquinas makes between magnanimity and humility. In the Second Part of the Second Part of his Summa Theologiae, St. [...]
Advice to Young Courting Catholics, Part I
If you want to marry someone, you need to have more than just the "checklists" covered of orthodoxy and wanting-lots-of-kids. You actually need to be in love (at least somewhat!) with someone of the opposite sex. And they should be (somewhat!) in love with you. You only got one shot at this, and you really don't want an annulment. Go slowly and deliberately in courting. Marry someone you love, but don't look for someone who is perfect, for perfect people don't exist. Yes, the checklist should exist as far as being a traditional Catholic, but there has to be some "chemistry" with the other person. So, don't "settle" for a [...]
Season After Pentecost or “Ordinary Time”?
p/c Star of the Sea, San Francisco. The 1950 Carmelite devotional Divine Intimacy reads: “The Father and the Word, mutually beholding Their infinite goodness and beauty, love each other from all eternity, and the expression of this unitive love is a third Person, the Holy Spirit. As the Word is generated by the Father by way of knowledge, so the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son by way of love. The Holy Spirit is, therefore, the terminus, and the effusion of the reciprocal love of the Father and the Son, an effusion so substantial and perfect that it is a Person, the third Person of the Most [...]
Was the Church Formed on Good Friday or on Pentecost?
The Church Fathers say that the Catholic Church was formed on Good Friday. Indeed, this is when the water flowing from the pierced Sacred Heart of Jesus was more than symbolic for the water that would one day wash us clean of sin in baptism. Was not the Roman soldier, St. Longinus, washed clean by that very water as he pierced the Sacred Heart of Jesus with his own spear and believed in Him? Furthermore, the Church Fathers teach that the Most Precious Blood that flowed from Christ's pierced heart on the day of His crucifixion is literally the same as the blood that fills the priest's chalice after the [...]
What Happens Spiritually in an Abortion
Gloria Polo, a middle-aged Columbian woman, had a near death experience in May of 1995 when she was struck by lightning in Bogotá. After cardiac arrest (but before God gave her another chance on earth) she saw the effects of all of her life's actions on earth from a spiritual perspective. Her initial sentence (before resuscitation) was hell. I cleaned up a translation from the Spanish and put it on my blog here a few years ago. The entire thing is worth reading. But the section regarding what happens spiritually in an abortion will change you forever. I extricate two parts from her above linked account and quote them verbatim [...]
Mass of the Ages Part II
Although I think Pope Paul VI got off too easy in Mass of the Ages Part II, they made an excellent video with high production-value. I was honored to be in it again. (Take a look at the comments on YouTube. There's much righteous anger at what was stolen from Catholics' liturgical patrimony.) https://youtu.be/1XctfSR7SS4
Did Jesus Die “For All” or “For Many”?
Jesus died for all: My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the Righteous. He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world (pro totius mundi.)—1 John 2:1-2. Jesus died for many: And He took a cup, and when He had given thanks, He gave it to them, saying, “Drink of it, all of you, for this is My Blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many (pro multis) for the forgiveness of sins."—Mt [...]