NEVER GO TO SLEEP IF YOU ARE IN MORTAL SIN

 

WHEN CAN SUBORDINATES RESIST THEIR SUPERIORS?

 

DOES GOD HEAR THE PRAYERS OF THOSE WHO ARE IN MORTAL SIN?

In a sinner we have to consider two things: his nature, which God loves; and his fault, which God hates. If, then, a sinner asks something of God formally as a sinner --that is, according to his sinful desires-- God, out of His mercy, does not hear him, though sometimes He does hear him in His vengeance, as when He permits a sinner to fall still farther into sin. 

But that prayer of a sinner which proceeds from the good desire of his nature God hears, not, indeed, as bound in justice to do so, for that the sinner cannot merit, but out of His pure mercy, and on condition, too, that the four above-mentioned conditions are observed -- namely, that he prays for himself, for things needful for his salvation, that he prays devoutly and perseveringly.

Summa Theologica, II-II, 83, 16, by Saint Thomas Aquinas.

TRUE LOVE

"True love grows with difficulties; false love extinguishes. From experience we know that when we endure difficult tests for someone we love, love does not collapse, but it grows. Torrential waters (that is, abundant tribulations) were not able to quench charity (Cant 8, 7). And so, the saints, who endure setbacks for God, strengthen their love with it; it is like an artist, who becomes more attached to the work that costs him the most".

Saint Thomas Aquinas

FAITH MUST BE INTEGRAL

"Now it is manifest that he who adheres to the teaching of the Church, as to an infallible rule, assents to whatever the Church teaches; otherwise, if, of the things taught by the Church, he holds what he chooses to hold, and rejects what he chooses to reject, he no longer adheres to the teaching of the Church as to an infallible rule, but to his own will. Hence it is evident that a heretic who obstinately disbelieves one article of faith, is not prepared to follow the teaching of the Church in all things; but if he is not obstinate, he is no longer in heresy but only in error. Therefore it is clear that such a heretic with regard to one article has no faith in the other articles, but only a kind of opinion in accordance with his own will". 

 Saint Thomas Aquinas

TRUE LOVE

True love grows with difficulties; the false one goes out. From experience we know that when we endure difficult trials for someone we love, love does not collapse, but grows. “Many waters (that is many tribulations) cannot quench love, neither can floods drown it” (Cant. 8:7). And so, the saints, who endure trials for God, strengthen their love with it; it is like an artist, who becomes more fond of the work that costs him the most”.

 Saint Thomas Aquinas 

"Is Fasting Good for Us?" Saint Thomas Answers this Question:

We fast mainly for three reasons:

1) To suppress the lusts of the flesh. Reason why the Apostle says: "In fasting, in chastity" (II Cor 6:5), because fasts preserve chastity. As St. Jerome says: "Without Ceres and Bacchus Venus would freeze, as much as to say that lust loses its heat through spareness of food and drink.

2) We fast so that the spirit rises with more freedom to the contemplation of sublime things. That is why it is written in Daniel that after a three-week fast, he received the revelation from God (10, 2 and later).

3) To make satisfaction for sin. This is the reason given by the prophet Joel: “Be converted to me with all your heart, in fasting and in weeping and in mourning” (Joel ii. 12). And here is what St. Augustine writes on the matter. "Fasting purifies the soul. It lifts up the mind, and it brings the body into subjection to the spirit. It makes the heart contrite and humble, scatters the clouds of desire, puts out the flames of lust and the true light of chastity."

II There is commandment laid on us to fast. For fasting helps to destroy sin, and to raise the mind to thoughts of the spiritual world. Each man is then bound, by the natural law of the matter, to fast just as much as is necessary to help him in these matters. Which is to say that fasting in general is a matter of natural law. To determine, however, when we shall fast and how, according to what suits and is of use to the Catholic body, is a matter of positive law. To state the positive law is the business of the bishops, and what is thus stated by them is called ecclesiastical fasting, in contradistinction with the natural fasting previously mentioned.

III. The times fixed for fasting by the Church are well chosen. Fasting has two objects in view:

the destruction of sin, and the lifting of the mind to higher things. The times self-indicated for fasting are then those in which men are especially bound to free themselves from sin and to raise their minds to God in devotion.

Such a time especially is that which precedes that solemnity of Easter in which baptism is administered and sin thereby destroyed, and when the burial of Our Lord is recalled, for we are buried together with Christ by baptism into death (Rom. vi. 4). Then, too, at Easter most of all, men's minds should be lifted, through devotion to the glory of that eternity which Christ in His resurrection inaugurated. Wherefore the Church has decreed that immediately before the solemnity of Easter we must fast, and, for a similar reason, that we must fast on the eves of the principal feasts, setting apart those days as opportune to prepare ourselves for the devout celebration of the feasts themselves.

Saint Thomas Aquinas, Meditations, 2nd 2ae, q. CXLVII, a. 1, 3 and 5

Faith is not a Buffet where You Can Choose Which Truths to Believe. Whosoever has True Faith Accepts Everything that God Revealed which is Guarded by His Church

• The buffet "Catholics", are neither Catholics nor have faith, but mere personal opinions.
• Faith must be integral or it is not faith.
• Whoever has faith believes all that God revealed, not just the dogmas that he likes or agrees with.
• There is no foundation more true and rational than the Truth that God left us, because God never lies since He is the Truth itself.
• He who consciously and pertinaciously denies one or more dogmas of the Catholic faith is a formal heretic.
• Such person would be in error and would not be a formal heretic if he does not deny it with pertinacity.
• The formal heretic who denies a single truth of faith, does not believe in the others with true faith but as a simple personal opinion. Therefore, the heretic does not have faith.

Luther Lost His Faith Because of His Heresies

Saint Thomas Aquinas teaches:

“A heretic who disbelieves even one article of faith does not have faith, either formed or unformed. The reason of this is that the species of every habit depends on the formal aspect of the object, without which the species of the habit cannot remain. Now the formal object of faith is the First Truth, as manifested in Sacred Scripture and the teaching of the Church. Consequently, whoever does not adhere, as to an infallible and Divine rule, to the teaching of the Church, which proceeds from the First Truth manifested in Sacred Scripture, has not the habit of faith, but holds the other articles of faith by a mode other than faith. Like someone who holds in his mind a conclusion without knowing how that conclusion is demonstrated; it is evident that he does not have scientific knowledge, but merely an opinion about it.

"So likewise, it is evident that he who adheres to the teachings of the Church, as to an infallible rule, assents to whatever the Church teaches; otherwise, if, of the things taught by the Church, he holds what he chooses to hold, and rejects what he chooses to reject, he no longer adheres to the teachings of the Church as to an infallible rule, but to his own will. Hence it is evident that a heretic who obstinately disbelieves even one article of faith, is not prepared to follow the teaching of the Church in all things (but if he is not obstinate, he is not a heretic but only erring). Therefore, it is clear that such a heretic with regard to one article has no faith in the other articles, but only a kind of opinion in accordance with his own will."

Luther Did Not Have Faith

“In a heretic who denies one Article of Faith there is no habit if faith, and this is so because every habit is specified by its formal object, and if this is removed the essence of the habit disappears. But the formal object of faith is the First Truth, inasmuch as it is manifest in Sacred Scripture and in the doctrine of the Church which proceeds from the First Truth. Whoever therefor does not accept, as an infallible and Divine rule, the doctrine of the Church which proceeds from the First Truth, and as it is manifested in Sacred Scripture, such a person has not the habit of faith, and the things which are of faith he accepts from motives other than that of faith. It is like one who assents to a conclusion without knowing or understanding the connection between it and the premises from which it is deduced. This knowledge is not scientific, but merely an opinion.

“So, likewise, it is manifest that he who adheres to the teachings of the Church, as to an infallible rule, assents to whatever the Church teaches; otherwise, if, of the things taught by the Church, he holds what he chooses to hold, and rejects what he chooses to reject, he no longer adheres to the teachings it the Church as to an infallible rule, but to his own will. Hence it is evident that a heretic who obstinately disbelieves even one article of faith, is not prepared to follow the teaching of the Church in all things (but if he is not obstinate, he is not a heretic but only erring). Therefore it is clear that such a heretic with regard to one article has no faith in the other articles, but only a kind of opinion in accordance with his own will.”

Saint Thomas Aquinas

See: Luther in Hell according to the vision of Blessed Maria Serafina. Click here:
http://www.catholicityblog.com/2016/03/false-churches-false-religions.html