Wednesday, April 29, 2020

WE DIE AS WE LIVE: HE WHO LIVES HATING, WILL DIE HATING; HE WHO LIVES IN SIN, WILL DIE IN SIN. THE TIME TO REFORM OURSELVES IS NOW! 


 "All saints die a holy death, because they have lived holy lives; the wicked persevere in their wickedness at the moment of their death because they have persevered in it during their lives. 

Do you want to know how you will die? Look at how you live your life”. 

 Saint Peter of Verona

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Monday, April 27, 2020

Secularists’ Least Favorite Historical Proof of the Resurrection


One among the many irrefutable proofs of the resurrection of Our Lord Jesus Christ that even serious non-Christians are forced to contend with is the testimony of Flavius Josephus, first-century Jewish historian and eyewitness to the remarkable fulfilment of Our Savior’s prophesies regarding the destruction of Jerusalem in A.D. 70. Bp. Eusebius praises Josephus for the accuracy of his reporting, which agrees admirably with Scripture. For the saints and for us, the testimony of Christian historians like St. Matthew, St. Mark, St. Luke, St. John, etc. is infinitely superior to that of any Jewish or pagan historian, ancient or modern, but we should know that modern secularists treat Josephus almost like a secular bible when it comes to the history of first-century events. So imagine just how shocked they must be to find this clear and explicit testimony to the Resurrection of Jesus in the Antiquities of Josephus!
Flavius Josephus, Antiquities XVIII, Chapter III, Para. 3:
  1. This historical testimony attests to all the most important facts in the life of Our Lord Jesus Christ: His divine Wisdom, His astonishing miracles, His lofty doctrine, His powerful preaching attracting men and women from all races and cultures; His crucifixion under Pilate and glorious resurrection in accordance with what the great prophets of Israel had written. It shows that all this was almost universally known among the Jews of the time, even those hostile or indifferent to the Gospel.
  2. The testimony is so clearly Josephan that it throws all secular critics into the greatest and insuperable difficulties; they have no choice but to desperately plead that it is a forgery to maintain their secularism. But this is an absurd and farcical pretense. The passage fits perfectly with all we know of Josephus’s style and vocabulary; it has unique expressions as “tribe of Christians” and calls Jesus “a wise man,” etc. that occur nowhere else. As the C.E. notes, moreover, “all codices or manuscripts of Josephus’s work contain the text in question; to maintain the spuriousness of the text, we must suppose that all the copies of Josephus were in the hands of Christians, and were changed in the same way.”
III. Its authenticity was universally taken for granted for centuries. From the same C.E. article, “Third, Eusebius (“Hist. Eccl”., I, xi; cf. “Dem. Ev.”, III, v) Sozomen (Church History I.1), Niceph. (Hist. Eccl., I, 39), Isidore of Pelusium (Ep. IV, 225), St. Jerome (catal.script. eccles. xiii), Ambrose, Cassiodorus, etc., appeal to the testimony of Josephus; there must have been no doubt as to its authenticity at the time of these illustrious writers.”
We can note that Josephus, like Gamaliel and others, may have been content with discreetly operating within the synagogue — among a number of other possible explanations for why he was not baptized. Regardless, this clear testimony from a historian so universally regarded as credible is convincing proof that the Jews of Jesus’s time were well acquainted with the fact of His Resurrection.
Like the holy Shroud of Turin, and the 500 eyewitnesses to the Resurrection, and the heroic lives and martyrdoms of the holy apostles sealing and confirming their testimony to Jesus and His resurrection in their blood, the Testimonium Flavium, as it is called, affords no small proof of the Resurrection! It must command the attention of every serious inquirer into Christianity.
Some of the early Christians knew that Josephus believed in Christ and so regarded this great historian with much respect. His conversion, like that of Rabbi Gamaliel, should be another clear call to non-Christians to believe in Jesus Christ and be saved. It should confirm the wavering in the Faith. And it should console the faithful that the Lord God we serve has done and is able to do astonishing things.
Josephus, the son of Matthias, priest of Jerusalem, taken prisoner by Vespasian and his son Titus, was banished. Coming to Rome he presented to the emperors, father and son, seven books On the captivity of the Jews, which were deposited in the public library and, on account of his genius, was found worthy of a statue at Rome. He wrote also twenty books of Antiquities, from the beginning of the world until the fourteenth year of Domitian Cæsar, and two of Antiquities against Appion, the grammarian of Alexandria who, under Caligula, sent as legate on the part of the Gentiles against Philo, wrote also a book containing a vituperation of the Jewish nation. Another book of his entitled, On all ruling wisdom, in which the martyr deaths of the Maccabeans are related is highly esteemed. In the eighth book of his Antiquities he most openly acknowledges that Christ was slain by the Pharisees on account of the greatness of his miracles, that John the Baptist was truly a prophet, and that Jerusalem was destroyed because of the murder of James the Apostle. He wrote also concerning the Lord after this fashion: “In this same time was Jesus, a wise man, if indeed it be lawful to call him man. For he was a worker of wonderful miracles, and a teacher of those who freely receive the truth. He had very many adherents also, both of the Jews and of the Gentiles, and was believed to be Christ, and when through the envy of our chief men Pilate had crucified him, nevertheless those who had loved him at first continued to the end, for he appeared to them the third day alive. Many things, both these and other wonderful things are in the songs of the prophets who prophesied concerning him and the sect of Christians, so named from Him, exists to the present day.
The great doctor who gave us our Latin Vulgate Bible here explains that Josephus plainly testifies to these things as incontrovertible.
The Jews themselves also bear witness to Christ, as appears by Josephus, the writer of their history, who says thus: ‘That there was at that time a wise man, if (says he) it be lawful to have him called a man, a doer of wonderful works, who appeared to his disciples after the third day from his death, alive again according to the writings of the prophets, who foretold these and innumerable other miraculous events concerning him: from whom began the congregation of Christians, yet he was no believer, because of the hardness of his heart and his prejudicial intention. However, it was no prejudice to the truth that he was not a believer, but this adds more weight to his testimony, that while he was an unbeliever and unwilling, this should be true, he has not denied it to be so.
Here, the saintly bishop of Milan points out that the principal facts in the life of Christ, including His public ministry and miracles, His life and Gospel, His death and crucifixion, His burial and resurrection were so well known as to be undeniable even to those who did not openly confess Christ. If non-Christians say Josephus was not a Christian, this only adds all the more weight to his testimony. If they claim he became a Christian, then they should do so also.
Thus, modern skeptics, who are aware of the great credibility of Josephus but find this testimony inexplicable because of their a prioriprejudice against Christianity, should come with the aid of grace to the realization that this testimony is absolutely true. Jesus Christ is really the promised Messiah, and He really died under Pontius Pilate on Nisan 14, 33 A.D. and rose from the dead on the third day.
Finally, two holy doctors explain why the fact of the Resurrection is so certain that, as the existence of God can be known from its effects in creation, so the Lord’s resurrection, which is the New Creation, can be known through its effects in history, in the lives of the apostles, and in those who converted.
For this reason therefore by the miracles [wrought by the Apostles] He renders the evidence of His Resurrection unequivocal, so that not only the men of those times — this is what would come of the ocular proof — but also all men thereafter, should be certain of the fact, that He was risen. Upon this ground also we argue with unbelievers. For if He did not rise again, but remains dead, how did the Apostles perform miracles in His name? But they did not, say you, perform miracles? How then was our religion instituted? For this certainly they will not controvert nor impugn what we see with our eyes: so that when they say that no miracles took place, they inflict a worse stab upon themselves. For this would be the greatest of miracles, that without any miracles, the whole world should have eagerly come to be taken in the nets of twelve poor and illiterate men!
St. Thomas Aquinas, in Summa Contra Gentiles, wrote:
The Divine Wisdom, that knows all things most fully, has deigned to reveal these her secrets to men, and in proof of them has displayed works beyond the competence of all natural powers, in the wonderful cure of diseases, in the raising of the dead, and what is more wonderful still, in such inspiration of human minds as that simple and ignorant persons, filled with the gift of the Holy Ghost, have gained in an instant the height of wisdom and eloquence. By force of the aforesaid proof, without violence of arms, without promise of pleasures, and, most wonderful thing of all, in the midst of the violence of persecutors, a countless multitude, not only of the uneducated but of the wisest men, flocked to the Christian Faith, wherein doctrines are preached that transcend all human understanding, pleasures of sense are restrained, and a contempt is taught of all worldly possessions. That mortal minds should assent to such teaching is the greatest of miracles, and a manifest work of divine inspiration leading men to despise the visible and desire only invisible goods. Nor did this happen suddenly nor by chance, but by a divine disposition, as is manifest from the fact that God foretold by many oracles of His Prophets that He intended to do this. The books of those prophets are still venerated amongst us, as bearing testimony to our faith. This argument is touched upon in the text: Which (salvation) having begun to be uttered by the Lord, was confirmed by them that heard him even unto us, God joining in the testimony by signs and portents and various distributions of the Holy Spirit (Heb. ii, 3, 4).
This so wonderful conversion of the world to the Christian Faith is so certain a sign of past miracles, that they need no further reiteration, since they appear evidently in their effects. It would be more wonderful than all other miracles, if without miraculous signs the world had been induced by simple and low-born men to believe truths so arduous, to do works so difficult, to hope for reward so high. And yet even in our times God ceases not through His saints to work miracles for the confirmation of the Faith.

Saturday, April 25, 2020

HOW ONE SHOULD FEEL AND SPEAK ON EVERY DESIRABLE THING – by Thomas à Kempis


My child, this is the way you must speak on every occasion: "Lord, if it be pleasing to You, so be it. If it be to Your honor, Lord, be it done in Your name. Lord, if You see that it is expedient and profitable for me, then grant that I may use it to Your honor. But if You know that it will be harmful to me, and of no good benefit to the welfare of my soul, then take this desire away from me."

Not every desire is from the Holy Ghost, even though it may seem right and good.

It is difficult to be certain whether it is a good spirit or a bad one that prompts one to this or that, and even to know whether you are being moved by your own spirit.

Many who seemed at first to be led by a good spirit have been deceived in the end.

THIS IS HOW YOU SHOULD PRAY

Whatever the mind sees as good, ask and desire in fear of God and humility of heart. Above all, commit the whole matter to Me with true resignation, and say:

Lord, if it be pleasing to You, so be it. If it be to Your honor, Lord, be it done in Your name. Lord, if You see that it is expedient and profitable for me, then grant that I may use it to Your honor. But if You know that it will be harmful to me, and of no good benefit to the welfare of my soul, then take this desire away from me.

Lord, You know what is better for me; let this be done or that be done as You please. Grant what You will, as much as You will, when You will. Do with me as You know best, as will most please You, and will be for Your greater honor.

Place me where You will and deal with me freely in all things. I am in Your hand; turn me about whichever way You will. Behold, I am Your servant, ready to obey in all things. Not for myself do I desire to live, but for You -- would that I could do this worthily and perfectly!

Grant me Your grace, O most merciful Jesus, that it may be with me, and work with me, and remain with me to the very end.

Grant that I may always desire and will that which is most acceptable and pleasing to You.

Let Your will be mine. Let my will always follow Yours and agree perfectly with it.

Let my will be one with Yours in willing and in not willing, and let me be unable to will or not will anything but what You will or do not will.

Grant that I may die to all things in this world, and for Your sake love to be despised and unknown in this life.

Give me above all desires the desire to rest in You, and in You let my heart have peace. You are true peace of heart.

You alone are its rest. Without You all things are difficult and troubled.

In this peace, the selfsame that is in You, the Most High, the everlasting Good, I will sleep and take my rest. Amen.

THE IMITATION OF CHRIST

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Wednesday, April 22, 2020

LET THE CHILDREN COME INTO THE WORLD


"Let the little children come to me," tenderly said one day Jesus Christ to the Apostles. With similar words, somewhat modified, I will close this text: Let the children that God sends come into the world.

We all know about the killing of innocent children ordered by Herod. What cries of anguish must have uttered the lips of their mothers! How desperately they would try to defend their children from Herod's assassins! What great compassion we feel for these poor mothers!

But the current world seems to have upset everything. The perversion of ideas has poisoned mothers, not only so that they do not defend their children, but so that they themselves go in search of the executioner, and pay money to kill them. Can there be greater perversion and evil?

Undoubtedly, every sin must have its punishment, even in this life. Because whoever commits the sin of abortion and does not repent and does not do penance, has two punishments already on this earth, both horrendous: either the conscience is awakened and then they feel terrible remorse for what they have done, a remorse that does not allow them to rest even while they are asleep — even having nightmares about aborted children—, or their conscience dies —along with the aborted son—, and they fall into such stupefaction that hardly any trait of tenderness and compassion remains. Neither in the first nor in the second case can one speak of having had a happy married life; there is nothing but bitterness and emptiness. Experience shows this with sad examples known to all.

Let us finish this text by begging our Lord Jesus Christ to obtain for us the grace of having happy marriages, that love children”.

Bishop Tihamér Tóth
📖 The Christian Marriage.
Taken from: The Catholic Lady.

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Sunday, April 19, 2020

MEDITATION ON THE RESURRECTION OF THE LORD by Saint Bernard


If we have died to sin, how will we live in it any longer? If we bemoan our negligences, why do we relapse into them? Will we now be found once more as meddlesome as we were before? As talktative as before, as lazy and negligent as before? Vain, suspicious, slanderous, bad-tempered, and caught up in the other vices we have deplored with such distress during these days? I have washed my feet; how will I soil them once more? I have put off my garment; how will I put it on? This is not entering another state, my brothers; not thus is Christ seen; this is not the way by which God shows us His salvation. One who looks back is not worthy of the kingdom of God. 

 SAINT BERNARD 

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Thursday, April 16, 2020

WHERE TO FIGHT YOUR BATTLES


The Eagle does not fight the snake on the ground. It picks it up into the sky and changes the battle ground, and then it releases the snake into the sky. The snake has no stamina, no power and no balance in the air. It is useless, weak and vulnerable unlike on the ground where it is powerful wise and deadly.

Don't fight your battles with human weapons. And don’t ever fall into the trap of leveling down. Rise to the heights on the wings of the Holy Ghost and let God fight your battles, because the weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish Strongholds (2 Cor. 10:4).

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Sunday, April 12, 2020

CHRIST IS RISEN!


And when the sabbath was past, Mary Magdalene and the faithful women went to the sepulcher. And looking, they saw the stone rolled back. And entering into it, they saw a young man sitting on the right side, who said to them: “You seek Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucifiedh. He is risen: he is not here.”

As Jesus rose, then we know that He overcame death and sin; we know that Jesus is God, we know that we shall rise too, we know that He has gained eternal life for us and in this way, our whole life acquires meaning.

This is the night, of which it is written: And the night shall be as clear as the day; and the night is my light in my delights. The hallowing of this night puts to flight all wickedness, cleanses sins, and restores innocence to the fallen and gladness to the sorrowful. It drives forth hatred, it produces concord, and it curbs haughtiness.

Rejoice all. Our faith is not vain. Christ is risen. Alleluia, Alleluia!

Happy and blessed Easter to all our friends-readers. Let us propose, from today on, to make a great effort, with the help of God and of Our Lady, never to fall into mortal sin again. Let us ask for Final Perseverance and be faithful, at all costs, over internal and external enemies, to Christ and His true Church.

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Friday, April 10, 2020

IN THE TINIEST PARTICLE OF THE CONSECRATED HOST CHRIST IS FULLY PRESENT



He is fully present with His Body, His Blood, His Soul and His Divinity

"And just as the sun cannot be divided, so neither can my wholeness as God and as human in this white host. Even if the host is divided, even if you could break it into thousands and thousands of tiny bits, in each one I would be there, wholly God and wholly human. It is just as when a mirror is broken, and yet the image one sees reflected in it remains unbroken. So when this host is divided, I am not divided but remain completely in each piece, wholly God, wholly human."

Saint Catherine of Siena

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Wednesday, April 8, 2020

POWERFUL MEANS


 “For myself, I know of no better way of establishing the kingdom of God, Eternal Wisdom, than to unite vocal and mental prayer by saying the holy Rosary and meditating on its fifteen mysteries.” 

 Saint Louis Grignion de Montfort 

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Monday, April 6, 2020

IN THESE DAYS OF EPIDEMIC


In these days of epidemic, let us remember that Saint Thérèse of Lisieux lived through an influenza epidemic in her convent that ended the lives of several religious. In the monastery, she was one of the youngest, and had to take care of the sick as best she could. They all lived through it with a spirit of faith. Those who died did so with peace and joy, eager to go meet the Lord. Those who survived, kept in mind the words of Saint John of the Cross: “What does it profit you to give God one thing if He asks of you another?” And they understood that God asked them to live in peace the unexpected circumstances, changing their schedules, adapting to the situation, keeping faith and hope at all times. This is how she describes it:

"The flu spread in the community, and only two other sisters and I were spared of the disease. I will never be able to express everything I saw, and what life and everything that is temporary seemed to me…

The day I turned 19, we celebrated it with a death, which was soon followed by two others.

At that time, I was alone in the sacristy, because the other religious was seriously ill. I had to prepare the burials, open the choir for mass, etc. God gave me many graces of strength in those moments. Now I wonder how I could do everything I did without feeling fear. Death reigned everywhere. The sickest were cared for by those who barely stood up. As soon as a sister breathed her last breath, she had to be left alone.

One morning, when I woke up, I had the feeling that Sister Magdalene had died. The cloister was dark and no one came out of her cell. At last, I made up my mind to enter Sister Magdalene's cell, which had the door open. And I saw her, dressed and lying on her mattress. I did not feel the slightest fear. Seeing that she did not have a candle, I went to get one, and also a wreath of roses.

The night the Mother Superior died, I was alone with the nurse. It is impossible to imagine the sad state of the community in those days. Only those who survived can get an idea.

But in the midst of that abandonment, I felt that God was watching over us. The dying passed away effortlessly into a better life, and immediately after dying, an expression of joy and peace spread over their faces, as if they were sleeping a sweet dream. And so it was in reality, for when the appearance of this world has passed, they will awaken to eternally enjoy the delights reserved for the chosen ones... "

What a different attitude with that of today's world, where many claim to "believe" in Our Lord and His promise of eternal life, but at the same time we see an insane dread at even the possibility of getting sick with coronavirus, let alone the possibility of dying.

Let us learn from the heroes of the faith, the Saints, to accept God's provident plan for our lives, certain that "all things work together for good to those who love God” (Romans 8:28).

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Saturday, April 4, 2020

PRAYER IN TIMES OF EPIDEMICS


(Extract from the Roman Ritual, Titulus IX, Caput X)

V/. Deal not with us, Lord, according to our sins.
R/. And take not vengeance on us because of our misdeeds.

V/. Remember not, O Lord, our sins of old.
R/. Hasten to us with thy compassion, for we are become exceeding poor.

V/. St. Sebastian, pray for us.
R/. That we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ.

Let us pray.

Vouchsafe to hear us, O God, our only salvation! And through the intercession of the glorious and blessed Mary, Mother of God and ever Virgin, of thy blessed martyr, Sebastian and of all the saints, deliver thy people from the terrors of thy wrath, and restore their confidence by the outpouring of thy compassion. Be moved to pity, O Lord, at our earnest entreaties, and heal the illnesses of body and soul; so that experiencing thy forgiveness we may ever rejoice in thy blessing.

We beseech thee, O Lord, grant us a hearing as we devoutly raise our petitions to thee, and graciously turn away the epidemic of plague which afflicts us; so that mortal hearts may recognize that these scourges proceed from thine indignation and cease only when thou art moved to mercy. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, Thy Son, Who liveth and reigneth with Thee in the unity of the Holy Ghost, God, world without end. Amen.

R/. Amen.

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Wednesday, April 1, 2020

GOD


What is God?

- Say, what is God, oh beautiful lights?
Order! - The stars answered me.

- Say, what is God, oh beautiful flowers?
- Beauty! - The roses answered me.

- Say, what is God, oh Blessed Mother. And, looking at the Crucifix, she said:
- Love is God. A love purer than the light of day.

Fr. Leonardo Castellani

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