Navigating through the Dry Desert


Spiritual aridity is as different from spiritual apathy as Rome is from Tokyo. There can be many causes for spiritual aridity, but explaining each cause would turn this into a book of Christian spirituality and psychology, Let’s settle for the existential experience of spiritual aridity.

Existentially, spiritual aridity can best be described as thirst in a sandy desert. Once looks for a connection with God in prayer, the Sacraments, the Church, even the Gospel. At the end, not finding that spring that we once experienced in the spiritual life, we become despondent. We argue that there is no spiritual gain in prayer, the Mass, the Church, or even those around us.

The biggest problem is that we fault all religious activity as falling short and not meeting our spiritual needs. We fail to look into our soul. We are afraid of the darkness we might find there. Our reasoning ability becomes weak.

But God is not found through human reasoning, As complete and perfect, God is far superior to the collective of human wisdom.

God is that body that illuminates the night. The darker the night, the more visible are the stars of space. The stars that shine in the night are the sunlight that light up our day. Do we give up on prayer, the Sacraments, and the Church because of the human weakness that we find there, or the catastrophic mess that we are?

We need to remember that through the centuries, many have seen the weakness that we see…however, some of those people cry out to God to brighten the darkness that they see around them. Some of our most admirable saints have spent years calling out to God, the light of the night and the water in an oasis.

The more the cry out to God, “come be my light,” the stronger we become without realizing it. Grace is not a human feeling. It’s a seed planted in the soul where the Divine Gardener will water it and protect it from death as long as we persevere, “Come be my light”.

We carry on with whatever good the Church, Sacraments, and the Sacred Scriptures will offer. But each time we come into contact with the cold desert night, we call out to Him who can be the light we seek. The search for the light of God, however, requires that we never give up on calling, “Come, be my light”. God has never abandoned one who called out to Him. Those who give up calling out to God will be burned by the light of the Son whom they have given up. Man gives up hoping for the light. The Light for each man will always allow Itself to be seen; but only when God knows that it will do some good for us and through us.

We can never forget that we are the sheep that can’t find the Good Shepherd. But He is always closer to us when the desert looks the darkest or feels the coldest.

May the Immaculata always guide us through the dark desert.

“Our Lady of Solitude“, Madrid School, 17th Century
Published in: on January 22, 2023 at 7:06 PM  Leave a Comment  

The Immaculate Conception


The Immaculate Conception is an event that happened only once in history. The Immaculate Conception is God’s power to create a person free of original sin. That person is Mary, the mother of Jesus who is the Son of God.

When the Holy Spirit overcame Mary, Jesus’ humanity and divinity were placed in her womb for protection and the necessary space for the divine seed which had been planted – with a human nature alongside the divinity. In her womb, the God-man grew and, at the right time, he was born like any other child, except this child had two natures: human and divine, without blending.

To plant such a divine seed, who was His Son, God first created a woman who never experienced sin, because she had been conceived Immaculate, so that the Messiah that had been promised to Israel would acquire His human nature in a womb that did not know sin.

Mary has the protection of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit was so powerful in Mary that we first became aware of the Third Person of the Most Holy Trinity when Gabriel said the Holy Spirit would act in her, without any human intervention.

It’s through the Virgin conceived without sin that man is first introduced to the most powerful and glorious being: the Triune God.

Published in: on December 7, 2022 at 10:58 PM  Leave a Comment  

Rebuild My House


“Saint Francis Praying before the Crucifix at San Damiano,” Giotto, c. 1295, fresco

 
Francis was asked by Jesus to rebuild His house. Francis thought it referred to the chapel of San Damiano.
 
As time passed, after Francis had rebuilt San Damiano, his emptiness and his desire for truth continued to burn in his heart. It was only when his father dragged him to be judged by the Bishop that Francis realized that the house he was meant to renew was within him.
 
Francis stripped himself of his past when he returned to his father his money and everything he was wearing. Only when we strip ourselves of the past and the present do we realize how small and insignificant we are. When we strip ourselves of attachments, prejudices, opinions, material possessions, and past dreams and desires, we become like a vacant lot of land ready for a new building, a new house, a house where God is the master.
 
To realize that God is the master, we must realize our sinfulness. Sins that only God can blot away. No matter if we have been absolved in Confession, our attachment to sin has become part of the soil where God is to build His house. The previous house has been demolished and the surface of the field is clear, but beneath the top soil are the roots of sin, which, if not acknowledged, cannot be dug out like the weeds they are. Being absolved cleanses us of the eternal punishment we deserve, but the attached roots that remain must be acknowledged and God’s help must be begged to weed them out.
 
“Without me you can do nothing. If anyone does not remain in me and I in him, he is like a branch that is thrown away”.
– Jn 15:5
 
This is the most difficult truth that Francis had to face, if he was going to be raised as a living stone in Christ’s Church. It’s the lesson that Francis leaves for his followers. Live aware of the roots of sin in you, also remain aware of Christ’s presence through whom all things are possible.
 

“With men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.” – Mt 19:26

“The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone.” – Ps 118:22

 

“Nothing is impossible for God” (Lk 1:37). He is more powerful and closer to us than the roots of sin. When we 

see our nakedness, where the only thing left are the roots of sin, God is closer than those roots. Unlike the roots of sin, God is alive.

May the Immaculate always light our empty lot so that we may see our attachments to sin and her living Son always willing to clear the ground and help us build his house.

 

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Published in: on November 27, 2022 at 10:39 PM  Leave a Comment  

From Scientists and Politicians God Preserve Us


When scientists began to explore the world around them, they discovered that the Creator had given rules to the natural world: biology, physics, chemistry, earth science…it is contrary to the nature of the Creator to endow us with access to these rules so we may use them to destroy each other.

The question remains: “Why did the Creator intend humanity to explore the laws of nature and use their properties?” The God that called and keeps all things into existence, also ordered them throughout space and time to be observable and accessible to human beings, each at its proper time and place. God did not simply create nuclear physics as he created agriculture: how would nuclear physics enhance the lives of primitive human beings?

It stands to reason that the Creator, who lives outside of time and space, would have every branch of science “alive” in His mind for all eternity. God does not simply wake up one morning, yawn, trapse out of bed, and drag Himself to a kitchen for a cup of coffee before He can begin creating. Since God is alive beyond our space and time, He is continuously creating and informing nature of the laws and properties by which it is governed. He has given humanity the will to explore beyond our bubble, the intellect to comprehend what we find, and the virtues to govern how we use this knowledge.

We can identify an insurmountable amount of knowledge that man has discovered, wherein he abused his freedom, ignored virtue, and used what God has ingrained into nature to feed his obsession with power and wealth. Thus, we find ourselves engaged in wars and conflicts in Europe, Asia, Africa, the Middle East, the Americas, and the Pacific Ocean. Thanks to the irresponsible actions of scientists and politicians, almost everything that we have discovered is analyzed to determine if it can be weaponized for power and wealth. Not so often do scientists apply their discoveries for the good of humanity and world peace.

Take a count of the number of Russians and Ukrainians who have died, lost their families and homes, and financial resources, because two political opponents engage in a deadly military confrontation “for the nation’s good”. Ukrainians and Russians are using war machines that rely on the laws of physics and chemistry!

We should pray for the North Korean and American armed forces who engage daily in “tests” and military tease demonstrations meant to intimidate rather than invite each other to the table of honest fraternal dialogue that seeks the good – especially of those who would be passive victims of political and military conflict that runs the risk of destroying human beings who have no voice in science or politics.

Like our holy father Saint Francis, the Franciscans of Life subscribe to the same practice of virtue: “Most High, all-powerful, all-good Lord, all praise is Yours, all glory, all honor, and all blessings“. Everything has been created by the same God who created humanity. All the laws of the universe are created by the Lawgiver, the triune God – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. As did our holy father Saint Francis of Assisi, we do not think, we know that every human being is our brother or sister, because we all came into existence by the Will of the Father, were redeemed by the Son, and are guided by the voice of the Holy Spirit (if we care to listen). “And God looked upon all that He had made and, indeed, it was very good” (Genesis 1:31)

We believe that every scientific discovery has existed in the mind of God throughout eternity, and is discovered by us at a time, place, and by people who can use their discovery to enhance and protect humanity and the world.

Whether or not we evolved from a lower lifeform, came into existence because of the “Big Bang”, or were created in six days, should not be the questions on the table right now. The question on the table is: what are the means that God has given us to cooperate with the Divine Will: “I came that all may have life, and have it in abundance”?   

 

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Published in: on October 10, 2022 at 8:12 PM  Comments (1)  

In justice You condemned us, but in mercy You redeemed us


 
As time passes from the Dobbs decision that struck down the unconstitutional Roe v. Wade decision, we give thanks for the many states (and countries) who are passing pro-life laws to protect the right to life of the pre-born person.
 
 
We also grieve and pray over states who have legalized or enshrined abortion in their legislature or constitutions, as well as over the ongoing, extensive acts of violence perpetrated not only against the property of pro-life communities, but against the persons of pro-lifers (who have increasingly been subject to threats, Federal agency raid and harassment, physical assault, and some have even been shot at).
 

At the same time, we have recently become aware of some “pro-life groups” rising to the spotlight not for their sacrificial, redemptive suffering, but for their controversial, divisive efforts to bash pro-life laws and to demand legal prosecution of mothers who have had an abortion. Examples include “End Abortion Now International”, “Not A Victim” (who were kind enough to address a response to us here), and “Free The States”.

One has to wonder whether any such supposedly Christian group is merely a “bona fide” extremist fringe of the Pro-Life Movement, or if some are actual “fifth columns” of the opposition, started with the intent to bring disrepute to the Movement and cause disgregation from within…

Such an attitude is reminiscent of those who, at the foot of the Cross, believed themselves righteous in the eyes of both God and men in crucifying the Lord of glory.

The Gospel of life is life-saving and life-changing. Holy Mother Church has never endorsed such zealotry.

We are called to approach the Crucified Christ with compassion and empathy – like Our Lady and St. John – not with insidious intents, like those who scorned Him, or pierced the Sacred Heart with a spear.

The Pro-Life Movement has always focused on providing men and women in crisis pregnancies with the support they need to choose life, as well as post-abortion healing.

That is not a denial of basic truths. The Church has firmly declared that abortion is intrinsically evil, a position that “has not changed and remains unchangeable“. Those who procure an abortion not only commit a mortal sin, but incur automatic excommunication (can. 1397).

That being said: excommunication is not “shunning”, but a “medicinal penalty”…a call to repentance and conversion, so that the healing process may begin, and the person may be successfully reintegrated within the heart of the Church, the mystical body of Christ.
 
Furthermore, the Church – imitating Her Spouse in great mercy and compassion – has highlighted several factors that may prevent automatic excommunication (can. 1321-1325). For example:
“No one is punished unless the external violation of a law or precept, committed by the person, is gravely imputable by reason of malice or negligence.”
 
Also: “a person who acted due to physical force [or] coerced by grave fear” or “a person who has not yet completed the sixteenth year of age” do not incur this penalty.
 
 
As far as sin goes: there is a significant difference between objectivity and subjectivity.
 
 
We agree that a person is a person from the very instant of conception – this is not a religious dogma, but merely a common scientific fact – therefore the taking of an unborn person’s life is, objectively, murder.
 
 
For subjective guilt, however, the person must have full knowledge of the sin and deliberately consent to it – factors these that are often lacking when the mother is very young and/or subject to grave pressure (even abuse) from family or partner, or psychological pressure and fear due to abandonment, isolation, and poverty.
 
 
This is why “front-line” efforts such as sidewalk advocacy and prayer are so vital – along with the free services of pro-life pregnancy help centers –  including programs such as “Earn While You Learn” and “Project Joseph“, and post-abortion healing programs such as “Project Rachel“.
 
 
We do not wish to deny justice, but we do wish to affirm mercy and compassion.
 
 
Meditate on how Christ kept the crowd from passing the sentence of law on the adulteress who stood guilty, and personally forgave her, commanding her to “go and sin no more”.
 
 
We also strongly recommend this insightful letter from the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops: https://www.usccb.org/issues-and-action/human-life-and-dignity/abortion/post-abortion-healing/a-special-word-to-women-who-have-had-an-abortion
 
 
We are frankly much more concerned with those who profit from the death of the unborn, and in particular those who enable or commit such murder, failing to uphold the fundamental ethical standards of the medical field (doctors and nurses involved in the practice), and those who – as hard to write as it is to read – sell the aborted unborn’s body parts, or (mis)use them for unethical scientific research.
 
 
We constantly pray for, and invite them to practice medicine and scientific research in a life-affirming way. We also support organizations (such as And Then There Were None – Prolife Outreach) that specifically help abortion workers quit and find a different job that does not involve the killing of unborn children.
 
 
May the Lord of life strengthen us, protect us, and unite us, through the intercession of the Ever-Virgin Mary, our Immaculate Mother!

<<How good and pleasant it is when brethren live together in unity!>> – Psalm 132

 

 

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Published in: on September 29, 2022 at 9:58 AM  Leave a Comment  

Shh 🤫 It’s a Surprise..!


On Tuesday, September 6, our founder and Superior Bro. Jay turns 70! 🥳

Unbeknownst to him, we are trying to celebrate the occasion, and even organized an event page with details: https://www.facebook.com/events/1699853410374261/

Those of you who know him personally, are aware of the many health struggles he has faced during the past few years, and how much we owe to the Lord and to the Immaculate to be able to celebrate this day.

Happy Birthday messages can be emailed to:  superior@franciscansoflife.org
Bro. Jay will receive them directly!

If you want to give a little gift, you can do so safely at:  https://www.franciscansoflife.org/donate/

This will be a small community+family gathering, between 11 am and 5 pm approximately. If you do wish to briefly stop by, due to health reasons etc. please RSVP first, by calling/texting 786-495-3426 and we will coordinate a time and provide you with the location of the get-together.

More than anything, we humbly ask you for a prayer – not only for the physical and spiritual health of Bro. Jay, but for the respect for life in the whole world.

Thank you kindly!

 

*** For any questions, please email: brothers@franciscansoflife.org ***

Published in: on August 31, 2022 at 6:36 PM  Leave a Comment  

A Rose is Not Without Thorns


St. Maximilian Kolbe once wrote:
“Love lives through sacrifice and is nourished by giving. Without sacrifice, there is no love.”

Today we celebrate someone whose short life was an embodiment of these words: St. Rose of Lima.

Born Isabel Flores in 1586 in Lima (Peru), she felt called by God from a very young age, consecrating herself to Him at the age of 10 and practicing great austerities which she offered as redemptive suffering. She wore a thick circlet of silver on her head which, unbeknownst to others, was studded on the inside like a crown of thorns.

Forensic reconstruction of the face of St. Rose (2015). Click for details.

She received Confirmation by St. Turibius with the name “Rose of St. Mary”, thus consecrating the nickname she bore from childhood. She bravely opposed her parents’ wishes in order to give herself entirely to Christ. With the eccentricity typical of many saints, she rejected the admiration of her beauty by cutting her hair and rubbing her face with pepper to produce disfiguring blotches.

Forbidden by her parents to become a nun, she imitated her model (St. Catherine of Siena) and joined the Third Order of St. Dominic. She then built and lived in a hermitage in the garden of the family home. A great penitent and mystic, she only left her hermitage to attend Church or to serve the needy – particularly the indios who suffered great discrimination. In time, she set up a room in the family house where she cared for homeless children, the elderly, and the sick. She would say:

<<When we serve the poor and the sick we serve Jesus. We must not fail to help our neighbors, because in them we serve Jesus.>>

St. Rosa in her hermitage, source of engraving unknown. (Click for more)

On top of her penances and illnesses, she was often tormented by the devil, but she received reassurance by another Third Order Dominican from Lima: St. Martin de Porres. When someone brought her to the attention of Inquisition interrogators, they quickly affirmed that she was under the influence of divine grace. She had many visions of divine origin, including one in which the Lord called her “Rose of my heart“. She deeply and sincerely loved Christ, and once wrote:
<<Without the burden of afflictions it is impossible to reach the height of grace. The gift of grace increases as the struggle increases. Apart from the Cross, there is no other ladder by which we may get to Heaven.>>
In 1614, severely ill, she was forced by her family to relocate to the house of a devout family who tended to her care (currently, her Monastery stands in this place). There she died 3 years later, aged 31. Her holiness was so well-known, that such crowds gathered as to cause her funeral to be delayed by several days. She was privately buried in the cloister of the Church of St. Dominic at her own request.

St. Rose of Lima and St. Martin de Porres – author unknown

She was beatified in 1668 and canonized only 3 years later. She was proclaimed the Primary Patron of the New World, and was celebrated as the first canonized saint of the Americas.

 

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Published in: on August 23, 2022 at 2:05 PM  Leave a Comment  

The Joy of Heaven has entered Paradise!


Today we celebrate the glorious Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of God! Our Eastern brethren refer to this historical event as the Dormition of the Theotokos.

What a solemn moment in the history of humanity and in the economy of salvation! “The Immaculate Mother of God, the ever Virgin Mary, having completed the course of her earthly life, was assumed body and soul into heavenly glory“! (“Munificentissimus Deus“)

Humanity joins angelic choirs in singing with you:

<<O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?>>

1Cor 15:55

This was fitting, for Our Lady alone, “in the first instance of her conception, by a singular privilege and grace granted by Almighty God, in view of the merits of Jesus Christ, the Savior of the human race, was preserved free from all stain of original sin“. (“Ineffabilis Deus”, IT EN)

Of both historical events Our Lady herself gives witness when, appearing to little Bernadette (St. Marie-Bernard), identifies Herself with the words:

<<Que soy era Immaculada Concepciou!>>

[an official source here]

These words, this identity, becomes so near and dear to the heart of that great lover of God and knight of the Immaculate, Saint Maximilian Maria Kolbe, that he would write:

“It is a question of drawing nearer to [the Immaculata] through the will, of letting our wills become one with hers, just as her will is united in a most perfect way with the will of God. Beyond this nothing else is necessary. Let us intensify continuously, every day, every instant, our love for the Immaculata, and let us do our best so that others may love her as we do and even more than we do.”

KW 1212-1213

Indeed, Lord Jesus Christ, we praise and glorify you with the words of St. Ephraem:

“Certainly you alone and your Mother are from every aspect completely beautiful, for there is no blemish in you, my Lord, and no stain in your Mother”.

Hymn. B. Maria 13:5-6 (quoted by Rev. Matthew Mauriello in the Fairfield County Catholic on January 1996, in turn quoted here).

Truly St. Germanus wrote well when he wrote about the Immaculate:

“You are she who, as it is written, appears in beauty, and your virginal body is all holy, all chaste, entirely the dwelling place of God, so that it is henceforth completely exempt from dissolution into dust. Though still human, it is changed into the heavenly life of incorruptibility, truly living and glorious, undamaged and sharing in perfect life”

 In Sanctae Dei Genetricis Dormitionem, Sermo I (quoted in Munificentissimus Deus)

“It was fitting” – writes St. John Damascene – that

“she, who had kept her virginity intact in childbirth, should keep her own body free from all corruption even after death. It was fitting that she, who had carried the Creator as a child at her breast, should dwell in the divine tabernacles. It was fitting that the spouse, whom the Father had taken to himself, should live in the divine mansions. It was fitting that she, who had seen her Son upon the cross and who had thereby received into her heart the sword of sorrow, should look upon him as he sits with the Father. It was fitting that God’s Mother should possess what belongs to her Son, and that she should be honored by every creature as the Mother and as the handmaid of God.”

Encomium in Dormitionem Dei Genetricis Semperque Virginis Mariae, Hom. II, n. 14 (quoted in Munificentissimus Deus)

Holy Mother Church has traditionally ascribed the chant of Psalm 44:11-12,14 to the Holy Mass for the Assumption:

<<Hear, O daughter, and see;
turn your ear; for the King shall desire your beauty.
All glorious is the King’s daughter as she enters;
her raiment is threaded with spun gold. Alleluia, alleluia!>>
“Mary is taken up into Heaven:
the choirs of the angels rejoice! Alleluia!”

“Audi, filia, et vide” (courtesy of Corpus Christi Watershed)

There also exists a solemn Preface to the Blessed Virgin Mary that was traditionally chanted on this Solemnity, and is still occasionally used (known as “Preface I of the Blessed Virgin Mary” in the current editio typica of the Roman Missal):

It is truly right and just,
our duty and our salvation,
always and everywhere to give you thanks,
Lord, holy Father,
almighty and eternal God,
and to praise, bless, and glorify your name
on [the Assumption] of the Blessed ever-Virgin Mary

For by the overshadowing of the Holy Spirit
she conceived your Only Begotten Son,
and without losing the glory of virginity,
brought forth into the world the eternal Light,
Jesus Christ our Lord.

Through him the Angels praise your majesty,
Dominions adore and Powers tremble before you.
Heaven and the Virtues of heaven
and the blessed Seraphim
worship together with exultation.
May our voices, we pray,
join with theirs in humble praise, as we acclaim:

[Holy, Holy, Holy Lord God of hosts…]

Preface of the Blessed Virgin Mary (chanted in Latin by H.E. Archbishop Alexander Sample at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in 2018 )

Our Eastern brothers have some beautiful prayers and chants “remembering our most holy, pure, blessed, and glorious Lady, the Theotokos and ever virgin Mary” that testify, if not directly at least indirectly, to this “day of joy” on which “mors stupebit et natura” in observing a human being rise in body and soul to the glory of Heaven… For lack of time and space, we shall only quote a couple:

<<It is truly proper to glorify you,
O Theotokos!
The ever blessed, Immaculate,
and the Mother of our God!

More honorable than the Cherubim,
and beyond compare more glorious than the Seraphim!
Who, a virgin, gave birth to God the Word!
You, truly the Theotokos,
we magnify!>>

Axion Estin (performed at St. Basil the Great Catholic Church)

<<Beneath your compassion we take refuge
o Virgin Theotokos!
Despise not our prayers in our need
but deliver us from danger,
for you alone are pure….
for you alone are pure…
for you alone are pure and blessed!>>

“Beneath your compassion” (performed at St. Basil the Great Catholic Church)

Let us rejoice and fully entrust Holy Mother Church, our souls, and the entirety of creation to the maternal care of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of God and, as St. Maximilian Kolbe reminds, us, “a loving mother [to whom God] entrusted the whole economy of mercy….. He made her so good that she is unable to abandon even the worst of sinners who has recourse to God’s Infinite Heart“ (KW 1248).

<<Arise, O Lord, into your resting place:

you and the ark, which you have sanctified>>

– Psalm 132

<<My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord,

my spirit rejoices in God my Savior

for he has looked with favor on his lowly servant!

[A]ll generations will call me blessed:

the Almighty has done great things for me,

and holy is his Name!>>

– the Magnificat

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Published in: on August 15, 2022 at 3:38 PM  Leave a Comment  

Prudence and Emotional Responses


Disclaimer: the information on this site is not intended or implied to be a substitute for professional medical or spiritual advice, diagnosis, or treatment. For physical / psychological issues, please discuss the matter with your P.C.P. and/or seek anger management or mental health counseling. There is absolutely nothing wrong with doing so, nor are you “crazy”, if you take proactive steps for the sake of your health and of your mind. For spiritual issues, please amend your life, increase your life of prayer (particularly Confession and Mass attendance, as well as reading the Gospels and praying the Rosary) and discuss matters with your pastor. 

Hot-button issues bear one characteristic aspect: they incite emotional responses from the reader. Such responses can easily escalate into violence, either overtly or covertly, as we have been witnessing recently across the Nation.

We have to be very careful to monitor our emotions and regulate them so as not to lose control of ourselves and do things that will hurt ourselves – as well as others – and fuel our rage as time passes and our control over our passions becomes weaker.

Rage has a way of leading one to self-destruction in the search for peace. Sometimes it can lead to “self-medicating” with drugs or alcohol, or other addictive substances and behaviors. Their relief is short. The person then moves on to bigger and more “efficient” ways of expressing the anger. That is when anger can become physical: the destruction of property, for example.

If one is not stopped, such action only feeds the fire of Hell within, which keeps the anger burning with a flame that never runs out of fuel.

When destruction of property fails to suffocate the interior rage, the person then turns on living beings – animals first, then human beings – trying in every possible way to control them, provoke them, or bully them.

By that point, Satan is satisfied: he has been allowed to lead the person into serious evil. At this level, the person starts to make excuses instead of working on recovering interior peace. “See what you made me do?” or “If you had done it my way, we wouldn’t be having this problem“.

The demons sit back and laugh: the more one deflects the less they resolve their problem. The rage that has grown in the interior life distorts reality. If a real problem is distorted, any attempt to solve it is severely crippled.

To avoid all of the above, we must begin with ourselves. We must sit back and try to understand what is it that is truly provoking our rage. We usually see that what we are seeing is really the outer shell of a rotten egg… that rot can be something that has nothing to do with the target of one’s fury. It is only when we identify what really makes us angry that we can determine whether it has anything to do with us, or even if we are rightfully angry at all.

If we are justifiably angry, we have regained control over our emotions. Those feelings may not go away, but at least we can exert our free will and authority over our mind and emotions.

Any action that blinds our intelligence can lead us to the behaviors and damage that we described above.

Here are some additional online resources related to this topic.

Physical / psychological:

Spiritual:

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Published in: on June 28, 2022 at 8:22 PM  Leave a Comment  

SCOTUS: “Held: The Constitution does not confer a right to abortion”


On this Solemnity of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, the Supreme Court of the United States has formally held that the United States Constitution does not confer a right to abortion.

Furthermore, SCOTUS overruled both “Roe v. Wade” and “Planned Parenthood v. Casey” and stated that, in the United States, “the authority to regulate abortion is returned to the people and their elected representatives“.

The complete 213-page Statement by SCOTUS can be downloaded at https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/21pdf/19-1392_6j37.pdf

We wish to quote some salient points from the Statement:

  • the Constitution makes no express reference to a right to obtain an abortion
  • procuring an abortion is not a fundamental constitutional right
  • the right to abortion is not deeply rooted in the Nation’s history and tradition
  • the Fourteenth Amendment clearly does not protect the right to an abortion
  • Roe and Casey have led to the distortion of many important but unrelated legal doctrines…that effect provides further support for overruling those decisions
  • The Court emphasizes that this decision concerns the constitutional right to abortion and no other right.

A few more points worth quoting from the SCOTUS Statement:

  • until a few years before Roe, no federal or state court had recognized such a right. Nor had any scholarly treatise. Indeed, abortion had long been a crime in every single State.
  • by the time the Fourteenth Amendment was adopted, three-quarters of the States had made abortion a crime at any stage of pregnancy
  • Finally, the Court considers whether a right to obtain an abortion is part of a broader entrenched right that is supported by other precedents. The Court concludes the right to obtain an abortion cannot be justified as a component of such a right.
  • The nature of the Court’s error. Like the infamous decision in Plessy v. Ferguson, Roe was also egregiously wrong and on a collision course with the Constitution from the day it was decided. Casey perpetuated its errors
  • An even more glaring deficiency was Roe’s failure to justify the critical distinction it drew between pre- and post-viability abortions. The arbitrary viability line, which Casey termed Roe’s central rule, has not found much support among philosophers and ethicists […] viability has changed over time and is heavily dependent on factors—such as medical advances and the availability of quality medical care—that have nothing to do with the characteristics of a fetus.
  • Mississippi’s Gestational Age Act is supported by the Mississippi Legislature’s specific findings, which include the State’s asserted interest in “protecting the life of the unborn.” These legitimate interests provide a rational basis for the Gestational Age Act, and it follows that respondents’ constitutional challenge must fail.

We also encourage you to read the statements by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB): https://www.usccb.org/news/2022/usccb-statement-us-supreme-court-ruling-dobbs-v-jackson

as well as the Florida Conference of Catholic Bishops: https://www.flaccb.org/news/statement-on-us-supreme-court-ruling-in-dobbs-v-jackson-womens-health-organization

In a special way, we wish to highlight the statement of our Benevolent Ordinary, H.E. Archbishop Thomas Wenski: https://www.miamiarch.org/CatholicDiocese.php?op=Article_archdiocese-of-miami-wenski-statement-supreme-court-dobbs-decision

    Today’s decision of the US Supreme Court overturning the fateful Roe v. Wade is certainly welcomed by all those who recognize that human life begins at conception and that this is a scientific and biological fact and not merely a religious belief or ideological theory. As such the unborn child should be welcomed in life and protected by law. […]

    We hope that dismantling Roe will allow legislation protecting the unborn to move forward in our state legislatures and to survive constitutional challenges in the future.

    Abortion too often is seen as the solution to an unforeseen problem, a fall back position if contraception failed or was not used. But abortion is no solution — and it is no right. It is a wrong, a grievous wrong that has prematurely ended the lives of more than 60 million souls in this country alone since 1973.

A number of sources, among which we quote this one (without by this intending to endorse in any way the source) have summarized the current situation as far as individual States banning abortion:

Would ban most or all abortions.
Bbortion bans within one month
Abortion bans within weeks or months
Abortion bans uncertain
Abortion likely to remain for a while

(Click on map to enhance)

We encourage you to continue praying – in private, with your community, even with us – and to find out locally (as well as through the major Catholic institutions and associations) how you can continue supporting this aspect of the pro-life ministry at this crucial moment in the history of the United States.

The date chosen by Divine Providence is very fitting indeed. Today we celebrate Our Lord’s Most Sacred Heart, and tomorrow we celebrate the Immaculate Heart of Mary, ever-virgin, the most pure Theotokos who, when in her kindness she appeared at Fatima, promised triumph!

(C) SCTJM – https://www.piercedhearts.org/sctjm/congress2022/congress2022_mainpage.html

We continue united in prayer and action, against all violence and evil, proclaiming the sanctity of human life and reaching out – as much if not more than before – to women and men facing a crisis pregnancy.

To quote a recent article by the Director of Respect Life Ministry Archdiocese of Miami: “Our post-Roe plan is missing one thing: You!”

There is much work to be done – locally – and the Lord calls us to step forward boldly, here and now! Vita ad Vitam Vocat – Life calls out to life!

 

In the beginning was the Word

In Him was life, and that life was the light of humanity.

The Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

 “I am come that they may have life, and may have it more abundantly!“

– Gospel of St. John, 1:1,4,10:10

Franciscans of Life
      Vita ad Vitam Vocat

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Published in: on June 24, 2022 at 2:40 PM  Comments (1)  
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