Queenshship of Mary - August 22nd

 

 “The Lord God will give Him the throne of David his father, and He will rule over the house of Jacob forever, and His kingdom there will be no end.”

The angel Gabriel announced the to Mary, that Her Son would be given the throne of David. David was a king, and David’s son, Solomon was a king. The throne of David belongs to a king, and Jesus is the King of kings. David’s mother was a queen and Solomon’s mother was a queen, therefore the Mother of the King of kings, is a queen, as well. Jesus was no ordinary king. Jesus is King of heaven and King of earth. And so, His Mother the Blessed Virgin Mary is also the Queen of heaven and Queen of earth. In heaven are billions of angels & millions of saints. Mary is therefore the Queen of angels, and the Queen of saints.

When Mary was led forth by the King of kings, into heaven at the moment of Her assumption, there was a great company of exalting angels and rejoicing archangels, while heaven was ringing Her praise, and so the prophesy of David’s psalm was fulfilled, “At your right hand stands the queen, clothed in gold.”

We should pray to Mary, as our Queen. May we pray to Her everyday, and speak to Her as a child, speaks to his mother. We should talk to Mary, ask Mary questions, ask favors from Her, and just plain love Her, and treat Her as a queen.

And if we do this, as a queen, She will ask the King of heaven, to obtain all we need. She will comfort us in our sorrows; protect us from danger; and bestow upon us the gifts only a queen can give. She will keep us safe under Her care, and watch over us, Her children. As the queen of angles, She will send angels to guide and protect us. As the queen of saints, She will send saints to help us. She will encourage us in our suffering. And most importantly, She will take us by the hand, and lead us to Her Son.

Let us begin today, to pray to Mary every day, as our Queen and Mother, who loves us. And so, when we make that final journey, as we leave this world of woe, we will have a queen waiting for us, who will take us by the hand, and lead us to the throne of the King of kings, and we will forever sing Her praises, for She will have helped us obtain heaven’s goal.

21st Sunday - Narrow Gate

 

 In St. Luke’s Gospel for today, Jesus walked through towns and villages-- teaching as He went. In one village someone asked Him, “Lord will only a few people be saved?” He answered and said, “Strive to enter the narrow gate, for many I tell you, will attempt to enter but will not be strong enough.” Jesus explains more about the wide and narrow paths in the Gospel of Matthew. He said, “For wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and many there are who enter that way. How narrow the gate and close the way that leads to life. And few there are who find it.”

When those who said, “Lord, open the door for us.”, why did Jesus say, “I do not know where you are from.” And they respond saying, “We ate and drank in your company and you taught in our streets.” But Jesus said to them, “Depart from me, you evil doers. And there will be wailing and grinding of teeth.”

Here Our Lord is talking about those who will not be permitted to go to heaven. Even though they listened to what Jesus said and ate with Him, they will be excluded from the kingdom of heaven and will be sent to hell. In another words, they are calling themselves followers of Jesus, but in fact are not true disciples because they refused to follow the narrow path, that leads to the narrow gate. So what is the narrow gate Jesus is referring to?

In the Baltimore Catechism the first lesson is entitled “The Purpose of Man’s Existence”. In the catechism it shows a picture which describes the narrow way and the wide way. In the center of the picture is a post with signs pointing to either the narrow path or the wide path.

A father, mother and child are walking down the narrow path, in which the sign pointing says, “Love of God”. Other signs attached to the post point in the other direction toward the wide path that leads to hell. It reads,” Love of Riches, Love of Pleasure, Love of Fame and Love of Power”. The wide path shows a man with bag of money and a woman looking with vanity in a mirror. At the end of the path is the wide gate and people are walking into the fires of hell.

On the narrow path that leads to heaven is the word “Happiness”, while the path that leads down the wide road says, “Unhappiness.” In the picture we can see Jesus standing with arms outstretched as though trying to encourage those headed down the pathway of hell to come back to the pathway of heaven.

The Baltimore Catechism states, “In reality, most people act as if they were made for these things rather than to love God.” It states, “Listening to these false teachers and imitating their actions will only lead to unhappiness and the loss of heaven.”

The questions in the Baltimore Catechism ask, “Why were we made? and What must we do to gain the happiness of heaven?” The answer is “To gain the happiness of heaven we must know, love, and serve God in this world.”

All of us know that the false happiness we get with riches, fame, power, and pleasure are only fleeting and leaves our heart saddened. But when we strive to know God, by reading about Him in scripture, trying to imitate Him, and getting to know Him in prayer----when we strive to love God, by turning away from sin and false pleasures, and attempting to do His will our daily life--- and when we strive to serve God, by loving others, through good deeds, assisting the poor, doing things for the Church, we walk down that narrow path way to heaven.

We do God's will daily by being the best student we can at school. Doing our best in sports. Parents being good parents. Children doing what their parents ask of them. Being the best spouse, the best grandparent. To do our daily job as well as we can. And we do all of these things for love of God and our neighbor.

Our love for God is revealed in how we much we love our neighbor. The prayer of St. Francis-- shows us how to love our neighbor and how to walk down hat narrow pathway to heaven. It says, “Lord, make me an instrument of your peace. Where there is hatred, let me sow love; where there is injury, pardon; where there is despair, hope; where there is darkness, light; and where there is sadness joy; O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled, as to console; to be understood as to understand; to be loved as to love; for it is in giving that we receive; it is in pardoning that we are pardoned; and it is in dying we are born to eternal life.”

Today, let us ask the Blessed Virgin Mary, She who is the Queen of Heaven, to give us the strength and the graces we need to follow that narrow path that leads to narrow gate of heaven.

Aug. 20th - St. Bernard

 

 St. Bernard, doctor of the Church, was born in 1090 in France. He comes from a noble family of eight children. Four of them became beatified and one canonized. After the death of his mother, fearing temptations of the world, he resolved to embrace the newly established and austere institute of the Cistercian order. He entered the order in 1112 bringing thirty of his relatives with him, including five of his brothers-- his youngest brother and his widowed father followed later. After receiving a monastic formation from St. Stephen Harding, he was sent in 1115 to begin a new monastery near Aube: Clairvaux, the Valley of Light. At the age of 25, he became the abbot.

He helped to bring about the healing of the papal schism which arose in 1130 with the election of the antipope Anacletus II. At the same time he labored for peace and reconciliation between England and France. His influence mounted when his spiritual son was elected pope in 1145. At Pope Eugene III's command he preached the Second Crusade and sent vast armies on the road toward Jerusalem. Due to his preaching, St. Bernard of Clairvaux was instrumental in getting European leaders to commit to the Second Crusade. Bernard would later blame the failure of the Crusade on the sins of the Crusaders themselves.

Although he suffered from constant physical debility and had to govern a monastery that soon housed several hundred monks and was sending forth groups regularly to begin new monasteries (he personally saw to the establishment of sixty-five of the three hundred Cistercian monasteries founded during his thirty-eight years as abbot).

In his last years he rose from his sickbed and went into the Rhineland to defend the Jews against a savage persecution. He was a brilliant writer, and eloquent preacher. His sermons were so intense, one writer said, “He thinks like the Scriptures and speaks like them.” Bernard died at Clairvaux on Aug. 20^th, of 1153. He was canonized by Pope Alexander III in 1174. Pope Pius VII declared him a Doctor of the Church in 1830.

St. Bernard also had a great devotion to Our Eucharistic Lord. One day, he corrected a royal duke, who had banished two bishops from his region. During Mass, Bernard took the consecrated Host, placed it on the paten, and carried it to the back of the Church, where the duke was standing. Holding the Host above the paten before the man he said, “Now the Son of the Virgin, the Lord and Head of the Church which you persecute, comes in person to see if you will repent. Will you scorn Him as you scorned your servants?” The duke became terrified, fell on his face, and abandoned the schism.

St. Bernard greatly loved Our Lady. His sermons on the Blessed Virgin amount to a complete Mariology. He was an eloquent witness to Mary’s Assumption about 840 years before it was proclaimed a dogma. He likewise, spoke of Mary’s title, Mediatrix of All Graces. Dante called him, “Mary’s Faithful Bernard”. The prayer (the Memorare) is attributed to him.

Let us pray the Memorare written by St. Bernard.

Remember, O gracious Virgin Mary, that never was it known that anyone who fled to thy protection or implored thy help or sought thy intercession, was left unaided, inspired by this confidence, I fly to thee, O Virgin of Virgins, my Mother! To thee I come; before thee stand sinful and sorrowful, O Mother of the Word Incarnate, despise not my petitions, but in thy mercy, hear and answer them, Amen.

Assumption of Mary - Aug. 15th

 

Today, we join the angels and saints in heaven who are rejoicing as Mary’s body and soul was assumed into heaven.

On Nov. 1st, 1950, Pope Pius XII proclaimed the Assumption of Mary into heaven as a dogma of the faith-- because it has been the constant tradition of the Church from the very beginning. He said, “With the course of Her earthly life brought to completion, the Immaculate Mother of God, the ever Virgin Mary, was taken body and soul into celestial glory.”

St. Alphonsus Ligouri in one of his homilies, describes what many Catholics believed in the 1700’s. He said, “The apostles had gathered around the bed of Our Lady because She had informed them that Her earthly time had ended and that She was going to heaven. When all the apostles had arrived, She died--- and then was assumed in heaven before their eyes.”

St. Alphonsus then describes what happened. He said, “Then the host of angels came in choirs, to meet Her, as if to be ready for the great triumph with which they were to accompany Her to paradise. That great soul, that beautiful dove of the Lord, was then loosened from the bands of this life; and She entered into the glory of the blessed”.

Perhaps, we can add to the words of St. Alphonsus Ligouri by imagining--- that when Mary died, She immediately beheld Her Son, who came down from heaven, took Her by the hand to escort His Mother to Her glorious throne and then crowned Her as Queen of Heaven and earth.

When Mary was assumed body and soul into heaven, Her Son, Jesus, immediately glorified her body, like that of His own at the resurrection.

When we die, our soul is separated from our body and it goes to its judgment. Our body remains here on earth to decay. The reason why our soul and body are separated at the moment of death, is because we suffer from original sin due to Adam and Eve and because we are sinners. At the end of the world, our soul will be reunited with our body and it will be glorified---- as Mary’s body was glorified--- when Her body and soul entered heaven at the moment of Her Assumption.

Mary’s Assumption is a reminder to us, what we will receive in the future. Mary received the beautiful grace of Her Assumption for many reasons. First and foremost was because She was the Mother of Jesus, but also because Mary never suffered from original sin and never once committed any sin in Her life.

If we want to receive our glory in heaven, we need to be like Mary, we need to do our best to avoid sin and have nothing to do with sin.

On this Glorious Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, may we turn to Mary, and ask her to help us to seek the glory of the kingdom of heaven.

20th Sunday - Truth & Division

 

 Today’s readings are about those who proclaim the truth and suffer because of it and those who reject the truth thereby causing division.

In the first reading Jeremiah the prophet is thrown into a cistern because he was accused of demoralizing the soldiers. However, what Jeremiah actually did, was warn the people that if they surrendered to their enemies, their lives would be spared. He was speaking on behalf of God. God wanted to use Jeremiah to save the people. But, they would not listen to him, and instead, the King desired Jeremiah to die a slow and painful death, by being thrown into a cistern. A cistern was a water storage tank that in ancient Israel could hold tens of thousands gallons. Archaeologists have found many cisterns in the Holy Land. Cisterns would often be about 20 feet deep, carved in the bedrock limestone under Jerusalem, and coated with plaster on the inside to keep them water-tight. People would fill cisterns during the rainy season and use them for drinking water during the dry season. Yet, the cistern Jeremiah was thrown into hadn’t had water in it for a long time and was filled with muddy sludge. Jeremiah sinks into the sludge, probably at least up to his knees. There was no food or water, with no hope of escape. But he would later be rescued by the court official who pleaded on his behalf resulting in Jeremiah being taken out of the cistern.

Jeremiah is in image of Jesus. Jesus is the prophet of prophets. The Sanhedrin, declared Jesus deserving of death as a blasphemer, and hands him over to the Romans, accusing him of political revolt, a charge that puts Him in the same category as Barabbas who was accused of sedition. Yet all Jesus did was proclaim the truth of Gospel.

After Jesus was arrested, He was thrown into a dungeon and chained to the wall, until the next day, when He was taken before Pilate and Herod.

Unlike, Jeremiah, whose life was spared, Jesus goes on to be executed. Jesus surrenders to His enemies. As the second reading from the book of Hebrews states, “For the sake of the joy that lay before Him He endured the Cross, despising its shame…” Just as Jeremiah endured opposition, so did Jesus. “Consider how He endured opposition from sinners, in order that you may not grow weary and lose heart.”

In the Gospel Jesus speaks of opposition. He said, “Do you think that I have come to establish peace on earth? No, I tell you, but rather division.” Jesus endured opposition to sinners. Not everyone who heard Jesus preach or who saw His miracles accepted Him or the truth He taught.

In another words, those who do not expect division when the Gospel is proclaimed are being unrealistic. And where the fullness of Gospel isn’t preached, its actually false peace. Not based on truth.

Jesus is Truth and truth is objective. It is the same for everyone in every age and culture. Our Lord, then, becomes the cause of unity for those who accept the truth and the cause of division for those who reject the truth. Those who are progressive with regard to the Catholic faith, really are rejecting the truth. They are rejecting Jesus. While those who accept the truth live as faithful Catholics and are accepting Jesus.

`Today people are claiming believe in Jesus, or even claiming to be Catholic, but reject one or more of the basic facets of our Faith.

However, Bishop Tobin said, this in response to a politician who claimed he could separate his faith from politics.

“The politician has been widely identified as a Roman Catholic. It is also reported that he publicly supports “freedom of choice” for abortion, same-sex marriage, gay adoptions, and the ordination of women as priests. All of these positions are clearly contrary to well-established Catholic teachings”; He said, the senator has said, “My faith is central to everything I do.” But apparently, and unfortunately, his faith isn’t central to his public, political life.”

Jesus explains what will happen when the Gospel is proclaimed. He said, “Do you think I have that I have come to establish peace on earth? No, I tell you, but rather division.” “…father will be divided against his son, and son against his father, a mother against her daughter and daughter against mother…”

There are times when there is division among family members because of the truth of the Gospel. Unity is found in truth. Division is caused by rejecting truth. Jesus prayed for unity, when He said, “Father that they may be one.” What He really meant is that all may accept the truth and therefore be one in the truth.

We can see this problem in the first reading where the Prophet Jeremiah speaks the truth, the word of God, to the people. Not wanting to hear the word of God, the princes tell the king that Jeremiah should be put to death because he does not care about the people. Jeremiah spoke the truth, but it was inconvenient and unpopular. Those who did not want the truth sought to kill the messenger so that they might continue in their wayward direction. Keep in mind that all of these people professed to believe in God and in the Jewish Faith he had revealed.

So division is coming from those who reject the truth of what Jeremiah told them. With regard to the politician, the division is coming from the politician who is rejecting the truth. Just as Jeremiah suffered for the truth and Jesus suffered for the truth, so Christians who stand up for the truth of Gospel will be rejected and will suffer from their own family members, who oppose the truth.

Jesus, the Prince of Peace, desires everyone to accept the truth, because by doing so, they are accepting Him, who is the Way, the Truth and the Life. He desires unity which is found in truth, but knowing we will suffer because of it, as He knows well because He suffered and died because of the proclamation of truth of the Gospel. As the book of Hebrews states, “Brothers and sisters: Since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us rid ourselves of every burden and sin that clings to us and persevere in running the race that lies before us while keeping our eyes fixed on Jesus, the leader and perfecter of faith. In your struggle against sin you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding blood.”

19th Tuesday - Guardian Angel

 

 “See that you do not despise one of these little ones, for I say to you that their angels in heaven always look upon the face of my heavenly Father.”

When Our Lord said these words, He was speaking about guardian angel, who gazes upon the face of His Father, but also that each angel is also present with the child throughout the child’s life.

Guardian angels defend us from the assaults of the demons, endeavoring to preserve us from sin and the occasions of sin. They strive to keep us on the right path; if we fall they will help us to rise back up again. They encourage us to be more and more virtuous. They suggest good thoughts and holy desires. They offer our prayers and actions to God and above all they assist us at the hour of death. They also protect us from physical danger as well, but most importantly from moral danger.

The church teaches that each person has a Guardian Angel, who watches over us during the whole course of our life. It is also a generally accepted doctrine that communities, the Church, dioceses, and nations also have angels which watch over them. For example, the angel, who appeared to the three children of Fatima, was believed to the angel of Portugal, who identified himself as the Angel of Peace.

We know that some saints such as St. Padre Pio were able to see their angels and had conversations with them. Even though Padre Pio was assaulted by demons, he was also protected and comforted by his Guardian angel. He wrote a letter to his spiritual father in whom he speaks about his attacks from devils, but also his guardian angel.

Padre Pio said, “Saturday it seemed that the devils wanted to finish me off with their blows, and I did not know what Saint to turn to. Then I called upon my Guardian Angel, who after making me wait a while, was right there at last to help me, and with his angelic voice sang hymns to the Divine Majesty. Then, he told me, “I am always near you, dear friend. I will always walk near you…This love I have for you-- will not end, even when you die.”

Today, let us pray remember to pray to Our Guardian angel, asking his help to overcome temptations, but also to keep us safe from all harm. May we come to know how much we are loved for and cared for by our angel and may return our love back to him, who someday we will meet in heaven. Our Lady of the Angels, pray for us, who have recourse to thee!

St. Dominic - August 8th

 

 Today is the memorial of St. Dominic. Dominic Guzman was born in Spain in 1170. After he was ordained a priest, he was sent to preach against the Albigensian heresy, but became disappointed by his lack of success. The Albigensian heresy denied the incarnation of Jesus. They did not believe Jesus became flesh and believed that the body was indecent and thought that the soul was imprisoned in an evil body.

That is until the Blessed Virgin Mary appeared to him and explained the Rosary to him and that he was to preach it everywhere. She added mysteries to each of the decades and he was supposed to preach on these mysteries. During his time, the people had already been praying 150 Hail Marys, but did not have meditations applied to the Rosary until Mary appeared to him.

Due to his success, he gained many followers, who called themselves the Order of Preachers, which later became known as the Dominicans and would include saints like St. Thomas Aquinas.

The words that are repeated when we pray the Rosary come from the angel Gabriel, who said, “Hail full of grace the Lord is with thee, blessed art thou among women and blessed is the fruit of thy womb Jesus.”

With the words of the angel Gabriel, we can see how they would affect those who struggled with the heresy. Truly the fruit of Mary’s womb, which was the body of Jesus was good. When people began to pray the rosary, they would say the words of the angel Gabriel to the Blessed Virgin Mary repeated 53 times.

The mediations which were added to the Rosary, by Our Lady through St. Dominic reminded the people about the correct teachings of the life, death and resurrection of Jesus, as the mysteries were contemplated in the minds of those who prayed the rosary. The body was no longer considered indecent, but rather, truly blessed because it was Our Lord’s body, which would become the instrument of salvation on the Cross and would gloriously rise and ascend into heaven in the person of Jesus Christ.

The rosary was not only a powerful means to crush heresy, but also to crush the enemies of Christianity. Not long after St. Dominic and his friars preached the rosary, the rosary was attributed to the winning the battle of Muret in the 1200’s. Likewise, all of us are familiar with the battle of Lepanto. Pope Pius V beseeched all Catholics to pray the Rosary, to win the battle against Muslims, who attempted to invade Europe in the 1500’s. Because Christians won the battle, the pope established the feast of the Holy Rosary on Oct. 7^th, the day the battle was won.

Besides defeating heresies and winning battles, the rosary increases virtue in the interior life of the soul. Our Lady told St. Bridget, “Whenever I mediated on the beauty, modesty, and wisdom of my Son, my heart was filled with joy. Whenever I thought of His hands and feet which would be pierced with cruel nails, I wept bitterly and my heart was rent with sorrow and pain.”

St. Louis de Montfort said, through the rosary, hardened sinners are converted, great battles have been won, pestilences have ended, people find courage to flee temptations, vocations have been wrought, and faith has been re-enkindled. And through the Rosary we grow in holiness and virtue by leaps and bounds.

Our Lady told Blessed Alan de la Roche, “When you say the Rosary-- angels rejoice, the Blessed Trinity delights in it, my Son finds joy in it too, and I myself am happier than you can possibly imagine”. And Our Lady also said, “After the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, there is no nothing in the Church that I love as much as the Rosary.”

Today, let us give thanks to God for sending the Blessed Virgin Mary to St. Dominic and for giving us the Rosary. May we treasure it and pray it every day, because we want to be made worthy of the promises of Christ, by the mysteries we meditate upon in the Most Holy Rosary.

19th Sunday - Much Required of a Person Who Has Much - Truth

 

What did the parable mean in today’s Gospel? Jesus said the servants are to be ready for their master’s return and so they were to be sure their lamps were lit and be ready for when the master comes to the door and knocks, so they would be ready to let him in. What is all this referring to? The parable refers to the Day of Judgment, when Jesus, the master will come and ask us, his servants, for an account of what each of us did in our life, good or bad. If we are prepared for our judgment all will go well, if not Jesus states the servant will be beaten. In another words, if we don’t prepare every day for our judgment and live as though it were our last day, we will suffer in the next life for not living out our faith as we should. Jesus said, “Much will be required of the person entrusted with much, and still more will be demanded of the person entrusted with more.”

Catholics are entrusted with much, because we have the fullness of truth revealed by God. Therefore, more is demanded of us. The four marks of the Church help us to know we are the one true Church founded by Christ. And His one true Church was given everything mankind needs to obtain eternal salvation. Do you remember from your Catechism classes, what are the four marks of the Church? The four marks are four ways everyone can tell the Catholic Church is the one true Church founded by Christ. The Church is One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic. And no other church makes that claim. We are the only Church who claims to be founded by Christ Himself.

We are one, because we are one if faith, one is sacrifice, one in sacraments and we have one head of the Church, who is the pope. No matter what Catholic Church you go to, in Kansas, in Nebraska, in Ireland, in Brazil, in Africa, in Japan, in Russia, in France, in Pakistan, we all have the same faith and believe in the same doctrines.

We all have the same sacrifice of the Mass. In every Catholic Church, there is a liturgy of the word and liturgy of the Eucharist and everyone receives the real and true body of Christ in Holy Communion.

We are one in the sacraments. In another words, the 7 sacraments are the same everywhere around the world.

And we are one by our obedience and love for the pope and so we are all one in following the pope as head of the Church.

The Church is Holy because the founder of our Church, Jesus Christ is infinitely holy and because we are all called to holiness and are able to become holy by the 7 sacraments, which sanctify us. The teachings of the church are holy and the people who make up the church are holy.

We are Catholic, which means the Church is for every person, no matter race, color, nation or ethnic background, our Church is for everyone.

Our Church is apostolic, which means what we believe has been given to us through the apostles. We have apostolic succession, and so the bishops today are successors of the apostles, through the laying on of the hands through the sacrament of ordination.

Because we are the one true Church founded by Christ and because we have the fullness of truth revealed by God and because we have the four marks of the Church, this causes us to reflect upon the wonderful gift we have of being Catholic and our responsibility to live out our faith. As Jesus said, “Much will be required of the person entrusted with much, and still more will be demanded of the person entrusted with more.”

By having this faith, much is required of us. First, of all we are not saved by faith alone. In the book of St. James, he said, “faith without works is dead”. God requires we live out our faith by loving and caring for others, which is why we are to do good deeds. What good would be our faith, if we did nothing with it?

Besides living out our faith and constantly studying it, we must openly profess it. If fail to know our faith or to study our faith, we can eventually lose our faith, which is the pearl of great price. For if we don’t know our faith, how can we believe it and share it with others. If we know our faith, if we study our faith, we will want to profess it because we will want others to know and love what we believe.

The beautiful thing about being Catholic is that priests come and go, but the Catholic faith never changes. You as parishioners remain, the faith remains and what really matters is what we all believe as Catholics.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church gives us everything we need to believe as Catholics. The Catechism is what makes us one in our faith. What is in the catechism has come down to us from the apostles.

We can go to Mass here at Holy Trinity, or at Holy Cross, or St. Paul in Lyons, or St. Joseph in Mcpherson and no matter where we go, the faith is the same because of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, this is what makes us Catholic, the same faith.

An example of what I am saying is this, if I were to say to you, if you purposely miss Mass on Sunday or Holy Day of obligation it is sin requiring confession before you can receive Holy Communion. This comes from the Catechism of the Catholic Church, paragraph #2181 states, “….the faithful are obliged to participate in the Eucharist on days of obligation, unless excused for a serious reason (for example, illness, the care of infants) or dispensed by their own pastor. Those who deliberately fail in this obligation commit a grave sin.”

These are not my words. These are the words of the Catechism of the Catholic Church. This is what Catholics believe everywhere.

The parable Jesus gave to His apostles is a reminder, we are to always be ready for the day and the hour when Our Lord will come to knock at our door for our judgment. In order to be ready, we need to study our faith and come to know our faith, to live out our faith, to grow in our faith, to share our faith by professing our faith.

The Virgin Mary is a great woman of faith. May She give us a portion of Her faith, so we will be prepared for the day and hour we will be held accountable when Jesus, Her Son, the Master, returns.

Abortion & Rape and Incest - Fr. Kline's Two Cents

See the angel watching over the unborn baby in the sonogram.

 

There have been a number of friends in our community, who say they thought abortion would be permissible due to rape or incest. I hope you are able to use this to be helpful to them. 

These abominations who affect the innocent are very difficult for any woman or child who has been raped. Yes, children get raped too, and sometimes by their own father, brother or uncle! Most have to deal with the effects of it the rest of their life. And there is also the problem of spousal rape. 

You would be surprised at how many times in 18 years, as a priest, I helped women with this, and even before a priest, I knew of these things happening to girls, even in my own high school, especially through date rape. On occasion, after talking with a victim, when I then take it to Jesus in prayer, I cry, because I feel their pain and truly believe Jesus feels everything they have gone through, but in a much more intense way, and He too weeps. 

 

Women can suffer from false guilt (blaming oneself), the feeling of being dirty, embarrassment, fear of wanting intimacy with one’s spouse, who had nothing to do with it. Anger, unforgiveness and other emotions afflict them. The perpetrator causes immense harm.

If we use a serial killer as an example, many would think a serial killer should deserve the death penalty. Others, don’t believe in the death penalty. If proven guilty, everyone would agree there should be punishment and prevention, such as jail.

If a married man had four children and then later in his life, he becomes a rapist, and then is apprehended, everyone agrees, he should go to jail as a punishment, and to prevent it again. His children conceived in his marriage would be very embarrassed and heart broken to discover their father was like a monster, who preyed upon innocent victims.

Should an unborn child conceived in the violence of rape be killed? Since his children in his marriage were conceived in love, they should live, right? After all, they are already born. After his wife discovers her husband is a serial rapist, she divorces him. She later reveals two of her four children from her marriage were also conceived in rape, because he raped her during marriage. She was forced to have relations with him and was beaten and abused in the process.

Would anyone think a 4 yr old and 7 yr old child should be killed, since they were conceived through the abomination of rape? Of course not.

If any woman became pregnant due to a rapist, she fears she could later look at the child and see “the rapist” and to avoid that, she may want an abortion. But the woman, who had four children from her serial rapist ex-spouse, two of which were conceived that way, still she would never want to kill them.

The dynamic behind this, is that the mother does not see her unborn child and therefore its easier to do away with her child. But, if she held her child in her arms and even if later the child grew to look like the rapist, because of a mother’s love, she would still love the child. The psychological harm (seeing him in her child) done to her by the rapist, is the problem. The child is not the problem.

Do people really mean, that if an innocent person (a child) reminds someone of their wicked father, then the innocent child should be killed? What! Does anyone really think its okay to kill an innocent son or daughter, due to the father’s sin?

Rape and incest are both criminal acts, and in our system of justice we punish the criminal. We do not punish the victim, nor do we punish the criminal's children. We are told that if a pregnancy results from an act of rape or incest the compassionate response is to offer the traumatized woman an abortion. No woman should be "forced to carry that monster's child," we are told. Adoption is always an option. The trauma of sexual assault is very real. But, why compound such severe trauma with the additional trauma of abortion? Rape is an act of violence inflicted upon a woman. She is an innocent victim, and this knowledge may someday help her come to terms with the rape and rebuild her life. Abortion, on the other hand, is an act of violence that a mother inflicts on her own child.

Through abortion, the mother becomes the aggressor, and this knowledge may haunt her long after she has dealt with the rape. Women - even those who were victims of sexual assault - have reported years of physical, emotional and psychological difficulty following their abortions. Abortion did not solve their problems; it merely created additional ones.

The compassionate response to rape is to meet the real needs of the mother. Providing life-affirming medical, financial, emotional and psychological care meets these needs, and pro-life groups across the state of Kansas – more than 30 crisis pregnancy centers, and groups like Life After Assault League – and Sarah’s Hope in Wichita www.sarahshope.com 1-800-848-LOVE are doing this work. Abortion takes the life of a living human being.

The circumstances of conception may have been criminal, but the life of the newly-created human being is just as valuable as any other person's. We do not put criminal's innocent children to death in our culture; it simply isn't done.

The so-called "life of the mother" exception for abortion is unnecessary and dangerous. To begin with, there are no situations where abortion, defined as the direct and intentional killing of an unborn child, is medically necessary to save the life of the mother. Medical operations such as the removal of a cancerous uterus or the removal of an ectopic pregnancy are moral even under Catholic teaching and are not considered abortions. If a pregnant woman has a cancerous uterus that imminently threatens her life, then the uterus may be removed even though such removal results in the death of the unborn child. Similarly, when a fertilized ovum lodges in the Fallopian tube and grows there, the damaged portion of the tube containing the baby may be removed where it is clearly necessary to save the mother's life. Such operations are justified by the "principle of double effect," because the death of the child is an unintended effect of an operation independently justified to save the mother's life. They do not involve the intentional and willful destruction of an unborn child. Legally, such operations are not considered abortions. The removal of such conditions has never been prosecuted in this country, even when the mother's life was not immediately threatened. There is, therefore, no need to provide a specific exception for such cases.

In February, I heard Melissa Ohden speak in Wichita. She was conceived in rape and her mother attempted to abort her, but she survived the abortion. She was given up for adoption and then later in life met her mother. She give thanks to God everyday, for sparing her life and in response she tries to help other women, who suffer from rape, to not kill their own child. She belongs to the organization Abortion Survivors. (www.abortionsurvivors.org)

Moreover, an explicit exception for the life of the mother is dangerous. One should never attempt to codify in law the importance of one innocent human life over and above another. Physicians must make their best effort to save both patients, giving equal care to mother and child. They should never be given a license to intentionally kill either of them.

Finally, many abortionists believe that the very condition of pregnancy itself is a life threatening condition. Consequently, a "life of the mother" exception can become a massive statutory loophole through which to drive abortion on demand. Once pro-lifers say there can be a "good reason" to kill a preborn baby, the foundation of the pro-life movement crumbles. The argument is lost. Either the preborn child is a person, or the child is not a person. Since the preborn child is a person, there can be no exceptions for abortion.

"Beware that you don't look down upon a single one of these little children. For I tell you that in heaven their angels will have constant access to my Father. And I, the Messiah, came to save the lost. If a man has a hundred sheep, and one wanders away and is lost, what will he do? Won't he leave the 99 others and go out into the hills to search for the lost one? And if he finds it, he will rejoice over it more than over the 99 others safe at home! Just so, it is not my Father's will that even one of these little ones should perish." (Matthew 18:10-14)

Let us turn to Jesus and ask Him to help those traumatized by rape, incest or abortion and give all of us a deep love in our heart to help everyone in need. Let us pray for the repentance and conversion of perpetrators. Let us pray the hearts of mothers will turn to their unborn children and love them and overcome their fears and wounded hearts. And may God’s mercy and love triumph in the hearts of every person.

This is the Pastor's Column in The Monitor, local newspaper of Little River, KS for August. I'm not a pastor, but a priest in residence at Holy Trinity in Little River, but the kind editor of the paper permits me to give my two cents once a month. 

18th Sunday - Vanity (Money, Fame, Power)

 

 

The readings today are about the passing things of the world verses the riches of heaven. In the first reading today from the Book of Ecclesiastes, spoke about the things of earth as vanity. “Vanity of vanities, says, Qoheleth, vanity of vanities. All Things are vanity.”

St. Paul in the second reading said “Think of what is above, not of what is on earth.” He said, “Put to death, then, the parts of you that are earthly: immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and the greed that is idolatry. Stop lying to one another.”

The Gospel tells us to not be concerned about earthly possessions nor to seek wealth for the sake of wealth only to store more for the sake of storing it or to not waste time with the worldly things of pleasure: to eat, drink and be merry, because we do not know when our earthly life will end. God said to the rich man, “You fool, this night your life will be demanded of you; and the things you have prepared, to whom- will they belong?” Jesus then said, “Thus will it be for all who store up treasure for themselves, but are not rich in the matters of God.”

The Catechism of the Catholic Church (1723) says, “The beatitude we are promised confronts us with decisive moral choices. It invites us to purify our hearts of bad instincts and to seek the love of God above all else. It teaches us that true happiness is not found in riches or well-being, in human fame or power, or in any human achievement - however beneficial it may be - such as science, technology, and art, or indeed in any creature, but in God alone, the source of every good and of all love: All bow down before wealth. Wealth is one idol of the day and notoriety is a second. . . .

The things of the world are money, possessions, health and notoriety.

Fame, notoriety, causes some to want special treatment, rather than to want to help others in their need. Extra wealth for one’s own sake can be a stumbling block to heaven, because God wants those who have-- to help those who have not. Jesus said, “What you do to the least of my brothers, you do unto me.”

God’s matters involve love. How we treat our neighbor. How we avoid offending God or hurting others by our sins. The matters of God involve virtue, holiness, love and self-sacrifice.

St. Therese of Lissiex noticed a splinter of wood on the floor. She feared one of the sisters in the convent may get stuck in the foot with it, out love for God and for the sisters, she reached down and picked up the splinter of wood and threw it in the trash. She said the Lord spoke to her and said, this little thing you did for love of the sisters was greater than if a man, were to build a skyscraper for his own notoriety and not for the glory and honor of God or love of others. Today, let us ask the Virgin Mary to help us to seek the treasures above and not the things of the earth.

Abortion Due to Rape or Incest

 

Abortion Due to Rape or Incest?

Can there be exceptions?

Totally banning abortion makes some people uncomfortable. We've been told time and again that there are unique situations for which abortion is the best option. If a lie is repeated often enough, people begin to accept it as truth. Such is the case with the erroneous notion that abortion must be permitted in cases of rape, incest, fetal deformity, or a perceived threat to the mother's life. Let's take a look at each of these situations and explain why the exception is in error.

Rape and incest

Rape and incest are both criminal acts, and in our system of justice we punish the criminal. We do not punish the victim, nor do we punish the criminal's children. We are told that if a pregnancy results from an act of rape or incest the compassionate response is to offer the traumatized woman an abortion. No woman should be "forced to carry that monster's child," we are told. The trauma of sexual assault is very real. But why compound such severe trauma with the additional trauma of abortion?

Rape is an act of violence inflicted upon a woman. She is an innocent victim, and this knowledge may someday help her come to terms with the rape and rebuild her life. Abortion, on the other hand, is an act of violence that a mother inflicts on her own child. Through abortion, the mother becomes the aggressor, and this knowledge may haunt her long after she has dealt with the rape. Women - even those who were victims of sexual assault - have reported years of physical, emotional and psychological difficulty following their abortions. Abortion did not solve their problems; it merely created additional ones.

The compassionate response to rape is to meet the real needs of the mother. Providing life-affirming medical, financial, and emotional care meets these needs, and pro-life groups across the state of Wisconsin - more than 100 crisis pregnancy centers, and groups like Life After Assault League - are doing this work.

Abortion takes the life of a living human being. The circumstances of conception may have been criminal, but the life of the newly-created human being is just as valuable as any other person's. We do not put criminal's innocent children to death in our culture; it simply isn't done. It should not be done in this situation, either.

 

Fetal abnormality

Expectant parents can often view a diagnosis of fetal deformity or other form of birth defect almost as if it were death itself. Not as a physical death, but a death of hopes and dreams. Visions of a normal childhood - playing games, going to school, growing up and starting families of their own - vanish in a flash. Despairing parents becomes vulnerable to the suggestion of terminating the pregnancy and getting on with their lives.

The first problem is that medical opinions can be just that - opinions. There are countless cases of parents who permitted their children to live and found out at birth that the experts were wrong. Imagine the horror of parents who abort their child, only to see that they had destroyed a perfect baby. It is against the very nature of parents to harm their own children, and abortion is the ultimate child abuse.

When abortion is used to solve the problem of a disability, it is discrimination of the most severe kind. These children are not merely discriminated against for their disability; they are killed because of it. Abortions in these cases raise frightening prospects, for if it is all right to kill a disabled person in the womb, could it not someday be permissible to kill a disabled infant? A disabled adult? The answer is clearly "no" in those cases; why is there any question when the victim is a child in the womb? Preborn children diagnosed with disabilities deserve to be treated with the same respect as born people with or without a disability.

Every human life is a gift from God. Caring for and loving a child with disabilities allows us to serve someone other than ourselves. It fosters patience, understanding and gratitude for the gifts we have been given. And it allows us to experience the joy of Christ whose life and death was total self-giving, unconditional love for each one of us.

The mother's life

The so-called "life of the mother" exception for abortion is unnecessary and dangerous. To begin with, there are no situations where abortion, defined as the direct and intentional killing of an unborn child, is medically necessary to save the life of the mother. Bernard Nathanson, M.D., who himself performed over 30,000 abortions, said:

"In our first book [after he stopped doing abortions], we proposed a lengthy list of illnesses (including but not limited to heart or kidney disease) which would justify abortion. We regard that list now with...disbelief: if women with heart and liver transplants can be carried successfully through pregnancy, we can no longer conceive of any medical condition which would legitimize abortion. In short, we have slowly evolved to an unshakable posture of no exceptions...[W]orkable, morally acceptable legislation proscribing abortion can have no exceptions written into it - not even medical ones."(Bernadell Technical Bulletin, April 1991)

Medical operations such as the removal of a cancerous uterus or the removal of an ectopic pregnancy are moral even under Catholic teaching and are not considered abortions. If a pregnant woman has a cancerous uterus that imminently threatens her life, then the uterus may be removed even though such removal results in the death of the unborn child. Similarly, when a fertilized ovum lodges in the fallopian tube and grows there, the damaged portion of the tube containing the baby may be removed where it is clearly necessary to save the mother's life. Such operations are justified by the "principle of double effect," because the death of the child is an unintended effect of an operation independently justified to save the mother's life. They do not involve the intentional and willful destruction of an unborn child.

Legally, such operations are not considered abortions. The removal of such conditions has never been prosecuted in this country, even when the mother's life was not immediately threatened. There is, therefore, no need to provide a specific exception for such cases in a statute or constitutional amendment prohibiting abortion. Moreover, an explicit exception for the life of the mother is dangerous. One should never attempt to codify in law the importance of one innocent human life over and above another. Physicians must make their best effort to save both patients, giving equal care to mother and child. They should never be given a license to intentionally kill either of them.

Finally, many abortionists believe that the very condition of pregnancy itself is a life threatening condition. Consequently, a "life of the mother" exception can become a massive statutory loophole through which to drive abortion on demand.

Once pro-lifers say there can be a "good reason" to kill a preborn baby, the foundation of the pro-life movement crumbles. The argument is lost. Either the preborn child is a person, or the child is not a person. Since the preborn child is a person, there can be no exceptions for abortion.

"Beware that you don't look down upon a single one of these little children. For I tell you that in heaven their angels will have constant access to my Father. And I, the Messiah, came to save the lost. If a man has a hundred sheep, and one wanders away and is lost, what will he do? Won't he leave the 99 others and go out into the hills to search for the lost one? And if he finds it, he will rejoice over it more than over the 99 others safe at home! Just so, it is not my Father's will that even one of these little ones should perish." (Matthew 18:10-14)

Source: Pro-Life Wisconsin 

  

 Bruce Conceived in Rape, Glad His Mother Never Had an Abortion

Click Link to Read His Story: 

 https://considerlife.com/stories/testimony-a-raped-mother-a-thankful-son/

  Rape and Abortion

 

  Fr. Frank Pavone

National Director

Shouldn't the woman who is raped be able to have an abortion?" Many people, opposed to abortion in other circumstances, ask this question. There are various reasons why abortion is not the answer.

The woman who has been raped has undergone a terrible trauma and injustice. We care about her. We will help her. Such pro-life organizations as Fortress International and Life After Assault League exist to bring the rape victim healing and strength and help her get on with her life. Nobody should minimize or ignore the pain of a rape victim. We want to show her love.

Will an abortion help her? First of all, the abortion will not un-rape the woman. The tragedy has happened and nothing can change the past. Second, abortion brings a trauma of its own. To see abortion as a magic wand that brings relief but no pain is to ignore the pain of countless women who suffer for years and decades after abortion. Such groups as WEBA (Women Exploited By Abortion), American Victims of Abortion, and Victims of Choice provide ample proof that abortion hurts women. I know of women who have been raped and then had abortions, and are in counseling not for the rape but for the abortion! In rape, the trauma is "Someone hurt me." In abortion, the trauma is "I hurt and killed someone else -- my child." That brings even more grief.

Why is rape wrong? Because someone attacks the body of an innocent person. Why is abortion wrong? Because someone attacks the body of an innocent person. That is why both rape and abortion should be rejected.

We care about the woman who is raped. We care about the child who is conceived. Why can't we love them both? Why can't we protect them both?

A rape that results in pregnancy directly involves three people: the rapist, the victim, and the child. The victim should be helped, and the rapist should be punished. But to say the child should be killed is to punish the wrong person. Suppose your father committed a terrible crime and the police came to your home, arrested you, and had you sentenced to death? The unfairness of that is obvious. Yet that is the same unfairness that occurs if a child conceived by rape is aborted.

We should also know the results of some important studies. Pregnancy occurs in 0 to 2.2% of rape victims. Furthermore, most rape victims who become pregnant want to keep their babies. The pressure to abort often comes from someone else. Of all the abortions performed in America, fewer than 1% are because of rape.

For more information on these and other aspects of this question, or for counseling and encouragement, contact:

Life After Assault League (LAAL)
1336 West Lindbergh St.
Appleton, Wisconsin 54914
(920) 739-4489

Abortion is never the answer. Let's not add violence to violence. When it comes to the woman who carries a baby conceived by rape, let's choose to love them both!

 LINK: www.Abortion Survivors.org