Morality | Franciscans of Life

Handcuffing God and Gagging Mom? Good luck!

The more that I think about it, the more convinced I become that my mother and God were very close to each other. Of course, she’s been deceased for over a decade. How close they are is no longer a question. She was a very good woman, though we did not always think so when she put her foot down. In any case, let’s get back to what Mom and God had in common. One can’t handcuff either of them and they both insist on having the last word.

A few years ago, I met a young man on Catholic Answers Forum (CAF). He was a revert to the faith. Like many reverts and converts his zeal was sometimes very harsh and gave little or no credit to the rest of us foolish mortals who remained with the Catholic Church from before Vatican II to the present moment.

Somewhere along the line, I let it drop that I am a Franciscan o FRANCIS AND LEPER 2 f Life, wear a grey habit and work within and for the Archdiocese of Miami. What I didn’t know was that my friend worthy also lived in the Miami area and was carefully weighing everything I ever wrote. Even if I had known, it didn’t matter to me. Unless he’s in a crisis pregnancy, terminally ill, immigrant poor, or a person living with a disability he’s not in the target population whom we serve. There are many good laymen, priests, brothers and sisters in the Archdiocese who serve other populations.

In 2013, the Archdiocese of Miami held a synod. I had the honor of being asked to serve on the one of the teams. It was a wonderful experience for me. When the first task of the synod was done, that phase was closed out with a special assembly and liturgy. Some people from campus ministry invited my young friend to the closing ceremonies of the synod.

Somehow, in a crowd of over 1,000 people, he spotted Brother Christopher Thomas, put two and two together and figured out that Chris is a Franciscan Brother of Life. He followed us

Br. Christopher Thomas, FFV

out of the hotel into the parking garage and shouted out, “Which one of you is JReducation?” I think he was a little surprised when I raised my hand. I don’t remember if he actually introduced himself other than say that he knew me from CAF. To be honest, I only got a glimpse of him as he ran back into the building.

However, since God and my Mom won’t be handcuffed and they must have the last word, I would soon be speaking to this young man again, and again, and again. I began to see the seeds of a vocation to the Franciscans of Life. I kept inviting him to return and return he did; but hedragged his feet. For a while I considered buying him a horse similar to that of St. Paul. Everyone saw the Franciscan in him, except him. fall-off-horse

Finally, after several months of looking at us, hehas applied to and been accepted to begin postulancy with the Franciscans of Life as a consecrated celibate brother. Let’s not all get up and cheer at the same time. The road ahead is long. It takes six years to become a perpetually professed Franciscan of Life. You see, God does not operate on our schedule, won’t speak when we say so, and certainly is not under our control.

In my mind, it’s easy to understand God when I think about my mom. When something needed to happen, she would make it happen. You couldn’t handcuff the lady. And when you needed to get a message, she’d make sure you heard it. There was no gagging her. What you did with the gift was entirely up to you and so it is with God. He will not be gagged or handcuffed.

However, you will never be forced to follow. You will be invited. The response is in your heart.

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on October 29, 2014 at 1:01 AM Leave a Comment

Listen attentively, not aggressively

The subject of the family is central to any discussion of the Gospel and society. God has always chosen to reveal Himself through the family. He created Adam and Eve as parents to the human family. He called Abram and Sarai to become mother and father of many nations. He brought Moses out of his biological family, grafting him to a royal Egyptian family so as to bring His Israelite family out of slavery. He raised the royal family of David from which he would take human nature in the Holy Family at Bethlehem. His told Mary “Do not be afraid. Go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee,” (Mt. 28:10). Throughout salvation history, God has spoken to the world through family life and from within the family.

The Franciscans of Life, though we are a very small and young family, are not less or more Catholic than our other Catholic brothers and sisters. Christ calls us to live the Gospel in the manner that St. Francis of Assisi lived it. Building on the experience of St. Francis, we believe that Christ also calls us to remind the world that the Gospel is a gospel of life.

To proclaim the Gospel of Life, one must proclaim the Gospel of the Family. It is in the family where Life calls out to life (Vita ad vitam vocat). If we follow the Gospel, we must accept that human life begins within the context of family. Every human being has a dignity that protects his right to be conceived, nurtured and born into a family. He has a right to protection, formation, and to receive care from a family. At the end of life, he has the right to die naturally in the arms of his family.

From within the natural family, God calls men and women to form new and younger families, as well as families of brothers and sisters who consecrate their lives to live according to the Gospel. Such a consecration can take different expressions, from monastic, religious order, society of apostolic life, secular institute, diocesan hermits to consecrated virgins. To the degree that these associations reproduce the relationship between Christ and his apostles, whom he calls “my brothers”, these are real families. They foreshadow family life in the Kingdom of God beginning with the Trinitarian family.

These thoughts help us who are trying to follow the extraordinary synod on the family with great interest. Our Catholic identity comes from feeling with the Church. We’re not talking about feeling emotional. We’re talking about loving God and man with the Church. To do so, we must know what the Church is thinking.

Here is where we must draw an important line. We, brothers, remind ourselves that a synod is a listening session for the Holy Father and from that session will come ideas that the Holy Father will consider for the ordinary synod in October 2015. The Holy Father will exercise his authority once he has all of the information on hand.

Because the synod has no authority, it all rests with the pope. The brothers are not alarmed by some of the statements that the media alleges that some bishops have made, nor are we alarmed by those that we know some bishops have made. The Church cannot change revealed truth.

As stated above, to proclaim the Gospel of Life one must proclaim the Gospel of the Family. However, it is not we who decide what the Gospel says or does not say. It’s the teaching magisterium of the pope that teaches us what the Gospel says. It’s important to listen carefully to what the bishops are telling the pope about family; because when all of this discussion is over and done with, the pope will probably issue a post synod exhortation that will carry the weight of the Church’s teaching authority. Listening carefully requires that we withhold reacting to what is being said until the pope speaks.

We don’t have to agree with every idea that the bishops put on the table. The pope invited them to be honest and candid. When you have that kind of openness, you’re going to have to put up with a degree of chaos and nonsense as well. We cannot have open dialogue without crisis. There is no such thing. An open dialogue invites all parties to re-examine what we believe and give respectful thought to what we have never thought about before. This includes those of us who are not in Vatican City right now. Not only should synod participants be listening attentively, every Catholic must listen attentively and resist the temptation to judge, condemn, and bash anyone who says something that sounds wrong to us.

There are always some challenges. These are what lead to crisis or struggle. The speaker may be wrong. The person may be quoted incorrectly. The statement may be sloppy so that it does not accurately reflect what the person is really thinking. The idea may need to be expressed using tighter language so that it avoids ambiguity.

The Franciscans of Life are listening, assessing what makes sense and what sounds outrageous. Regarding that which sounds outrageous, we are not pointing fingers at any bishop or cardinal. We are not labeling anyone a Modernist, conservative, liberal or traditionalist. We are not sounding the alarm of apostasy among the bishops. On the contrary, if it sounds outrageous to our ears, we try to understand why it sounds outrageous to us. The statement may truly be outrageous or we may be hearing it incorrectly.

In the meantime, the Franciscans of Life continue to pray for the pope, the synod fathers, the family and the world. We continue to hold on to what the Church has traditionally taught us about the family; but we are open to the fact that there are always new experiences that help us better understand what God is saying to us about Himself and our salvation. These experiences should not be ignored. Very often, new experiences contribute to our understanding of doctrine. They don’t change the doctrine, but they can enhance our comprehension.

We invite other Catholics to listen attentively. Be faithful to what the Church has always taught and be honest and humble enough to admit when we realize that we can still be taught more. No one ever reaches a ceiling of understanding of God and his divine plan for the human family. Let us avoid characterizations, name calling, judging people, and self-righteousness. Let us embrace the truth that the Church has taught using whatever experience can help us better understand the truth.

At the end of the day, we’re looking for the truth that God has revealed to us about the family. We want to understand whatever there is out there to be understood, not just pieces here and there. If we ignore those whom we consider to be on the Jesus and boy opposite side of the house, how would we know that we truly understand what God is revealing to us? To understand we must listen, ask questions, separate the reasonable from the unreasonable, truth from falsehood, and Gospel from fashion. Only then will we be on the right path toward achieving our ultimate goal, to know God, serve God and love Him with all of our heart, mind, body and soul, here and in eternity.

Let us listen attentively, not aggressively.

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on October 18, 2014 at 1:32 AM Comments (3)

DON’T MESS WITH MY FAMILY

This afternoon I received an important challenge from one of our brothers. October is an important month, because it’s Respect Life Month. There are also other important events happening this month.

Today, the Extraordinary Synod on the Family began in the Eternal City of Rome. On October 19^th, Venerable Paul VI will be become Blessed Paul VI. I don’t think that any of this is a coincidence.

Some people have narrowed down and boxed in pro-life ministry to fight against abortion. There is probably no greater fight than the fight for human life, but we must not limit ourselves to life in the womb. We must extend our concern to all people from conception to natural death. We must protect life at all stages of development and in all conditions: healthy, sick, poor, rich, male, female, old and young, with special attention to the voiceless.

But where does life flourish? Where should life find its first home if not in the family? Today’s family is under attack, maybe no more than families in the past, but certainly by different kinds of demons. The enemy is resourceful, if nothing else. He can find different ways of tearing apart the fabric of the family by war, poverty, disease, bigotry, politics, infidelity, heterodoxy, apostasy, atheism and secularism. The key is not how creative the enemy can get. The key is how smart we are.

Human life, outside of the context of family life, is very difficult to defend, much more difficult to protect. To defend means to defend the dignity of human life. Man has a dignity that is inherent to his roots, which are found in the hand of the Creator. This dignity must be defended from those who would reduce man to an unexplained accident in the cosmos, making him expendable because he has no justification for his existence; therefore, no inherent value.

Any footb DON'T MESS WITH ME all player will tell you that the best defense is a good offense. Translated into Gospel terms, human life must be protected from the culture of indifference which is a culture of death. The best way to protect man and preserve him for the Kingdom is to push back against the economy of sin. Sin can no longer be allowed to be the currency that rules our lives as individuals, families or nations. When sin governs our lives, man despairs and the message of Christ is smothered by the cries of angst . . . . Man looking for gods, rather than God.

Pope Paul VI foresaw this coming and tried to warn us in his now famous encyclical Humanae Vitae, on the transmission of human life between husbands and wives in the intimacy of marriage and the shelter of the family. It is probably the Holy Spirit who has inspired Pope Francis to beatify Pope Paul VI at the end of the Extraordinary Synod on the Family. Immediately following, on October 22^nd is the first feast day of St. John Paul II, the author of Gospel of Life.

We be signs lieve that this is a good month to do something together that is open to other members of the Catholic and pro-life community. The Franciscans of Life encourage everyone who reads our blog to organize an activity for this special month on life and the family. It can be something as simple as an evening rosary between several families, a night of praise and worship, a penitential service in atonement for those who destroy instead of build the human family. You may want to organize a meal with several couples to celebrate traditional marriage and family. The demon that afflicts human life and weakens the fabric of the family will only be evicted from our lives with prayer and fasting. A family or community day of fasting and abstinence is always St. Max good option.

Please post your ideas in the comments below so that others who read this can take some ideas back to their families and their parishes. Remember the words of Sacred Scripture. “Do not be afraid.” Through the prayers of the Immaculate Christ is slowly, but surely conquering the kingdom of darkness. He will not leave us orphans.

http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/us-bishops-invite-faithful-to-pray-for-family-synod-35304/ (more…)

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on October 6, 2014 at 12:09 AM Leave a Comment
Tags: Children

Sermon for the Transitus of St. Francis

04 October 2014

Almost 800 years ago, Francesco Bernadone, also known as Francis, died in his hometown of Assisi, Italy. On the evening of October 3, 1226. He was canonized July 16, 1228 and declared to be saint of the Church. The faithful were commanded to observe his memorial and venerate him every year on the 4^th of October by Pope Gregory IX

Tonight, about one million Franciscan men and women around the world and their families, on every continent, are hosting this ritual called “The Transitus of St. Francis”or the “Passing of St. Francis”

There is an important question here that demands a response.Why are we still commemorating the death of this man 800 years later? Other people die everyday and life goes on. But on the anniversary of the death of St. Francis the Church has created a space in her calendar to begin the commemoration after sunset on Oct 3^rd and conclude with sunset on Oct 4^th

The answer to why we’re still commemorating this death lies in the answer to another question of greater importance. What if this was the night of my death, would it be remembered?

By whom?
How?
What have I given to God and to the world that deserves to be remembered?
Have I given anything to God and to the world that deserves to be remembered?

We call this a “transitus” from the word “transition” or better said, “the point of no return”

Once we reach the moment of death, there is no return. You will not come back to finish what you should have done. There will be no coming back to go to confession. If your death is unexpected, such as a tragedy, there will be no time for confession or Anointing of the Sick. You transition from here to there as you are.

In addition, the death of St. Francis reminds us that nothing comes to a complete stop at death. The fact that we’re remembering St. Francis’ death 800 years later is the best proof of that. Another good proof that nothing comes to a complete stop at death is the fact that whatever you planted will continue to grow after you die.

If you planted love, forgiveness, compassion, honesty, humility, kindness, fairness, love of God and love of man, those are good seeds and they will continue to grow into sturdy plants, maybe trees.

If you planted prejudice, laziness, gossip, miscommunication, lies, arrogance, resentment, vindictiveness, impurity, vulgarity, indifference toward good things, or irresponsibility, those are the bad sees and they too will continue to grow . . . into weeds and maybe poisonous plants that will continue to kill in your honor long after you’re gone.

Francis’ died leaving behind good seeds, a family of brothers and sisters committed to living according to the Gospel without glossing over it, without trying to find loopholes by interpreting it this way and that way. He left behind seeds of obedience to the Church.

We don’t always understand the Church and we don’t always agree with her. How many of us always understand our mothers or always agree with them? Do we stop loving, respecting and obeying them, even when our hair turns grey or at age 50, we run out the door because Mom called that she needs something or she needs me to run an errand? “Oh God she couldn’t have picked a worse time.” But we go. That should be our relationship with Holy Mother Church

Francis planted seeds of forgiveness and peace. He did not live in a perfect world. War, crime, political conflicts, poverty, disease, social conflicts, religious wars, battles for power, turf and pleasure were part of their daily bread in the 13th century. He tried to convert the Muslims and failed, or so it may seem. To this day, the sons of St. Francis have a presence in Jordan, Egypt, Palestine and Israel. To this day, the Franciscans are the custodians of the Holy Land appointed by the Holy See. Jews, Muslims and Christians don’t seem to care about their presence. Probably one of the few points on which they agree.

Francis did not convert the Muslims, but he did not push their back to the corner either with hate language or resentment. He did not retaliate for their crimes against Christians. He told the Sultan that he was a Christian and he spoke to the Sultan about Christ. The Sultan asked him many questions about himself and quickly realized that Francis was an honest man. He truly lived according to what he said he believed. He was credible, which made him respected. Francis died, leaving the Muslim world with a sense of respect for his memory. Will we leave the world with gift?

Throughout his life, Francis warned his brothers and sisters about the danger of dying in a state of mortal sin. Some people say that because we don’t mention mortal sin, it has ceased to exist. Not true.

He was very aware that all of us are going to face judgment. He writes for his brothers and sisters a short rule with guidelines on how to avoid sin and do penance for their sins and for those who don’t do penance. This is the rule that the Franciscans of Life follow, the Rule of the Brothers of Penance.

Penance has several important effects on our souls. It’s a way of atonement for the wrong things that we have done and for the good things that we didn’t do. It’s a way of suffering on earth, rather than suffering in purgatory or worse, in hell. It’s an act of justice toward God and neighbor. Asking for forgiveness is not the same as giving back the money you stole. Asking God for forgiveness only gets us out of hell and into Purgatory.

Doing penance is asking for forgiveness, atoning for our sins, and showing God that we love him and that we love mankind, whom God loves very much. It means restoring things to their proper place. This is what got Francis into heaven. It was not that he never sinned. It was that his entire life was spent trying to change, to love God more, to love mankind more, to make up for his sins, and to do the right thing rather than avoid it or postpone it.

He was a man who spent his life in a constant state of conversion and the Gospel was his guide. Christ was his role model. There was a wedding between the soul of Francis and the mind of God and children were born to this spiritual nuptial. His brothers are the product of his love for God.

We are here, because Francis of Assisi loved God and man so much that his love cannot be forgotten. It lives on in his Franciscan family. We are here because we want to learn to die as saints should die, in the arms of God.

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on October 4, 2014 at 1:24 AM Leave a Comment

God’s policies and Church teaching

I just saw the article linked at the bottom and thought I would comment on it. Once again, journalists are speaking out of their field of expertise and the general public is following along like sheep. A journalist is not a theologian. His or her role in society is to report news, not to rewrite Revelation and much less to distort it.

Reproductive rights and reproductive healthcare for men and women only includes artificial contraception and abortion in the mind of those who want to resolve a health issue the easy way out, without understanding what’s at stake here.

The Church has no authority to change revealed truth. The Old Testament condemns the spilling of the male seed in order to avoid

Pope Paul explained God’s policy on birth control. He did not invent it.

conception. The Church Fathers sustained this as Divine Revelation, therefore part of the Deposit of Faith.

The Church’s teaching on artificial birth control is not a matter of policy that the Church has the authority to change. This policy is God’s policy, not the Church’s policy. The Church can only teach God’s policy and remind us of it every few years, in case we forget. No man has the authority to overrule God.

The same is true on abortion. Natural law teaches us that the killing of an innocent human being, even an innocent animal, who is not a direct threat to our safety, is immoral. Why do we have campaigns to save the whales, save the dolphins or save some other endangered species? We have them because these are life forms that are not a threat to human safety and they are not a necessary food source. Therefore, there is no reason to attack them and take their lives. The preborn child is not a threat to human safety either, nor is he a source of nourishment. One has to use one’s imagination and stretch it exponentially in order to say that a preborn child is a threat to his mother.

A pregnancy may trigger some complex and even dangerous health issues, but this is not the same as a conscious attack coming from an adversary. The preborn child is not an adversary. This danger stems from nature following laws that God built into it when he created the natural world. To insist that one terminate the life of the preborn child is an unjust act and an unethical interference with the laws of nature, which man did not create. God did. It’s unethical because there are natural laws that allow us to avoid high risk pregnancies. They require some sacrifice on the part of the parties involved.

If we defend the natural right to life of non-human animals, why do we challenge the right to live of the human animal? Just as there are natural ways of avoiding the risk of being eaten by an alligator, there are natural ways to avoid pregnancy. In both scenarios, the living organism is not attacked and destroyed, nor is any human being who follows the the natural means to avoid a potentially dangerous situation threatened by an innocent life form.

These are laws that God built into nature. The Church can only teach them. She has no authority to change them. They are not the Church’s policies. They are God’s policies. It is God’s policy that innocent life, human or other, cannot be destroyed. Man has a moral duty to protect all life forms, especially human life, from conception to natural death. Man has no right to extrapolate a specific group, in this case women who are of childbearing age, and create exceptions to the natural law to protect women’s lives by killing preborn women. Natural law, as God created it, demands that the lives of all women be protected and natural law does not place the woman of childbearing age at the top of the female hierarchy, granting her a greater right to life than the woman in her mother’s womb.

Therefore, the Church cannot say anything different about abortion until such time as God changes the laws that he implanted in nature. The mission of the Church is not to make policies for God. The mission of the Church is to teach us God’s policies and to explain them as clearly as possible for each generation. If we have a problem with God’s policies, then we need to take the matter up with Him, not with the pope. From the time of God’s first self-disclosure to the Jews, Christians and Muslims, He made it perfectly clear, “Though shall not kill.” In context, this means that one may never take a life unless that specific person threatens our safety and we have no other option to kill or be killed. As long as their is another way to protect our lives, we are bound by the law. “Thou shall not kill.”

The Catholic Church does not make policies for God, she only explains them.

http://www.theguardian.com/global-development/poverty-matters/2014/aug/27/pope-francis-womens-lives-catholic-church?commentpage=1

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on September 3, 2014 at 10:58 AM Leave a Comment

Rosary Crusade for Life

Please say special prayers for Muslims and Christians in Iraq. This situation is definitely one that should attract the attention of a fraternity like our own, one that is committed to the Gospel of Life. The situation in Iraq has deteriorated into a complete disregard for the dignity of the person and the sanctity of human life, not just the life of the unborn, but also the lives of those between birth and natural death.

While we’re speaking of prayer to increase respect for the sanctity of life, let us not forget the Israeli-Palestinian situation. This has escalated to a point where boarders, differences in faith, or economic resources don’t seem to be important. The situation is starting to appear more like simple hatred.

Let’s just think about Muslims and Christians. We know that there are Israeli Muslims and Christians. We also know that there are Palestinian Christians, most are Orthodox and a small minority are Eastern Catholics and Latin Catholics. Despite this, we have a situation where brother is killing brother as if wanting to exterminate each other.

There is no room for indifference in the Christian life. The sanctity of life is disregarded. Human dignity is violated. Those whom God holds most dear to his heart, the voiceless, are killed, driven from their homes and terrorized.

The Franciscans of Life invite all of our friends and readers to remember the voiceless, even those who are thousands of miles away. Just because we don’t see them does not mean that they don’t exist, don’t suffer and don’t need our prayers.

(August 15).I’m inviting everyone whom we know to engage in a Rosary Crusade from the moment that you read this to the Solemnity of the Assumption Let us call upon the Mother of Life itself to intervene and open new windows so that hearts and minds can see and try new approaches to peace and compassion.

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on August 1, 2014 at 12:59 AM Comments (1)

Which is my strength?

If we had to take a quiz, which virtue would we have to cultivate and which weakness would we have to work to overcome?

St. Francis wrote an admonition that addresses this. I thought I’d share it, because so many people, especially Catholics on all sides of the spectrum are walking around with worries, anger, frustration, and other feelings that take away their interior peace and create noise where there should be interior silence.

Which of virtue do you have to work on?

Read St. Francis’ admonition and examine yourself.

Of the Virtues putting Vices to flight

Where there is charity and wisdom there is neither fear nor ignorance. Where there is patience and humility there is neither anger nor worry. 1 Where there is poverty and joy there is neither cupidity nor avarice. Where there is quiet and meditation there is neither solicitude nor dissipation. Where there is the fear of the Lord to guard the house the enemy cannot find a way to enter. Where there is mercy and discretion there is neither superfluity nor hard-heartedness

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on July 12, 2014 at 7:57 PM Leave a Comment

How does morality define discrimination?

If this is true, our country is spiraling out of moral control. Refusing to pay for contraception, abortifacients and anything that violates moral law is not discrimination against women. Discrimination is denying someone what the person has a natural right to have.

Medicare pays a fraction for hearing aids. Many older people have hearing problems. It refuses to pay for prescription glasses without a copay. Most older people need glasses and live on fixed incomes. Medicare clients paid their share of. FICA for years. The current HHS mandate requires no copayment or premium on the part of the employee. Which of the two groups is a victim of discrimination? Discrimination is a grave sin.

When a society discriminates against the elderly, few people notice; because most seniors are part of the voiceless. The Culture of Death has found a voice in the public square.

The Franciscans of Life need everyone’s help to turn the Culture of Death into a Culture of Life. This is our moral obligation as human beings. Let us pray that people will look at these issues and see them as God sees them.

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on July 9, 2014 at 5:49 PM Leave a Comment

Does “Thinking of You” Equal a Hospital Visit?

I recently saw this in a forum and thought the argument was completely illogical, not to mention morally wrong. For some very valid reasons, the person can’t always make it to the Extraordinary Form of the Mass. So far so good . . . this happens. But what follows is not so far so good.

The person admitted that there are several parishes that offer the Ordinary Form of the Mass at times and places where he or she can attend. However, he “was told that he could do a holy hour and a rosary” and that would suffice, because he “won’t go to a Novus Ordo Mass.” Whoever told him this was wrong, even if it was a priest.

Let’s break this down into little pieces. First of all, everyone has a moral obligation to worship God on the Sabbath, which for Catholics and most Christians, that’s Sunday. This is not negotiable. The Commandments do not say that you can replace worship with private devotions. Worship, as it’s understood in the Decalogue means to offer sacrifice in union with the people of God.

Here comes the second problem. The Rosary is not The Sacrifice of Christ on the Cross. The Rosary is a meditation and a private one at that. It can never replace the sacrifice, especially the Sacrifice at Calvary, which is celebrated at every mass around the world, as long as the mass is valid. Whoever said that this was a good replacement for a mass does not understand the mass.

Next problem, a Holy Hour is not The Sacrifice either. It is a private act of adoration of Christ in the Eucharist. At the mass, Christ makes himself present in the Eucharist and the people of God do adore him, but we adore him as a people, as Church, and as individuals. If we listen to the prayers very carefully, in English, Spanish, Latin or Swahili, the pronoun is always “WE”, not I. All prayers of adoration said at mass are in the plural. The only time that the first person pronoun is used is in professing one’s sinfulness and professing one’s faith.

Now that we have busted the myth that a Holy Hour and a Rosary can replace the Holy Mass, let’s get back to our moral obligation. Unless there is a real impediment that keeps us from attending mass, it is a mortal sin not to do so. The Ordinary Form Mass (Novus Ordo) is as valid as the Extraordinary Form (TLM). It is also as efficacious and it is the normative mass for the Latin Catholic Church. One cannot morally justify writing it off.

Choosing not to attend a mass, because it’s an Ordinary Form Mass and one has issues with the form, is a willful act, not an impediment. An impediment would be something that is outside of your control, something that physically keeps you from attending mass.

One’s personal feelings about the mass are not physical impediments. Unless the feeling can be proven to be psychologically crippling, there is no good reason to miss mass, because of how one feels about either form of the mass. This also applies to someone who willfully misses mass, because the only mass left is the Extraordinary Form and “I don’t like the Latin mass.” Too bad. It’s not there for your pleasure. The Sabbath is to please God, not you.

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on June 26, 2014 at 10:30 PM Leave a Comment

Franciscans of Life

Vita ad vitam vocat

Handcuffing God and Gagging Mom? Good luck!

Listen attentively, not aggressively

DON’T MESS WITH MY FAMILY

Sermon for the Transitus of St. Francis

God’s policies and Church teaching

Rosary Crusade for Life

Which is my strength?

How does morality define discrimination?

Does “Thinking of You” Equal a Hospital Visit?

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