Worth Revisiting - The Silence Must End: Souls Are Being Lost

Thank you, Allison Gingras at Reconciled To You  and Elizabeth Riordan at Theology Is A Verb  for hosting Worth Revisiting each week. It is a privilege to share our work with you and your followers.

Here is my contribution:

The Silence Must End: Souls Are Being Lost

(Originally posted on June 14, 2011) 

(Image Source: Wikimedia Commons)

[Tragically, very few of our Bishops have overcome their silence and apparent fear to speak the Truth since I published this post more than 8 years ago. Public Catholic figures continue to dissent from Church teaching and no public correction is made. Thousands have left the Church as it continues to rock from scandal and sin. The attack on the gift of human life expands. The moral foundation of our nation is under relentless attack. Yet, the deafening and cowardly silence of our shepherds continues as more souls are forever lost.] 

Enough is enough!

I picked up the local paper recently and saw (not for the first time unfortunately) another headline broadcasting Governor Andrew Cuomo’s on-going aggressive support to legalize gay marriage in New York State. As an individual, he is free to support and believe anything he wishes. As one who purports to be Catholic, however, he can not support legislation which is contrary to God’s law without jeopardizing his eternal soul and potentially the souls of many others. While one can only pray that his Bishop has privately shared this truth with him, it appears that the Governor has ignored that advice.  

Sadly, recent polls show that a majority of those professing to be Catholic in New York State concur with the Governor and see no reason to oppose gay marriage. Many do so out of a false and confused understanding of compassion, justice  and tolerance. How can this be? This issue has been around for years. The reasons why Catholics must enter the public arena and strenuously oppose this legislation are set forth here and here. Why are so many Catholics still woefully ignorant about the Church's teaching on this subject?  Why has the Church failed to properly catechize its flock at the parish level on such a vital issue?

It would be a very simple and relatively inexpensive process (not to mention a spiritual necessity) to include such information in the weekly bulletins of every Catholic Church in this state.  How many of our Bishops have directed their priests to do so? If not, why not?  Archbishop Thomas Dolan has written in defense of marriage and against gay marriage but how many parishes have distributed his comments to their members? Why not?

We have an obligation to lovingly share the truth to those who may not know it. If we intentionally fail to do so, we not only jeopardize the salvation of the person who needed to hear that truth but our own as well. As difficult as it may be, we Catholics, lay, religious and ordained, must heed and follow the advice of St. Therese of Lisieux: “Dislike me for it, if you want, but I will tell you the truth right up until my death.”

Despite the Governor’s assertions to the contrary, this is no longer a private issue, but a public scandal to faithful Catholics. This Catholic politician's frequent public support of legislation contrary to Church teaching and inimical to the best interest of our society requires a public response from our Bishops. The Church's silence on this and other pressing moral issues must end!

Where is its zeal for the salvation of souls? 

Eucharistic Reflection - Come Down Into My Soul!

(Image Source: Wikimedia Commons)

"Ah, Eternal Wisdom, come down so powerfully this day into my soul, that all my enemies may be driven out of her, all my crimes be melted away, and all my sins be forgiven Enlighten my understanding with the light of true faith. Inflame my will with Thy sweet love. Cheer up my mind with Thy glad Presence, and give virtue and perfection to all my powers. Watch over me at my death, that I may enjoy Thy beatific vision in eternal bliss. Amen."

(Blessed Henry Suso, O.P. from A Little Book of  Eternal Wisdom)

Monday Musings - Our Obligation To Evangelize

In a recent interview by Aleteia, Cardinal Robert Sarah was asked a number of questions, including the following: Can evangelism be intensified in France, which is confronting a robust Islam?

(Image Source: Wikimedia Commons)

We would be wise to take note of this well-respected prelate’s response which is descriptive of the tragic reality in, or aspirations of, many other nations today, including our own:

“France has in any case renounced its Christian roots; the Gospel is no longer its reference. God no longer has a place in its society. The only place where it is tolerated is the private domain, and even then, it is confined to house arrest. Man has taken the place of God. It enacts laws in total opposition to the laws of God and those of nature. You believe that men, or women, can marry between themselves…While everyone is fighting for the abolition of the death penalty, the murder of unborn children is legal, as is divorce. While we are fighting genital mutilation everywhere, we are legalizing the mutilation of people who want to change their sex. What a diabolical contradiction.

The evangelization of the West will be more and more difficult. But it must be undertaken with burning zeal, without fear or shame. Evangelization is not a confrontation. Rather, it is God who comes to offer His Love to every man and woman, whatever his race, religion or continent. God has an immense respect for our freedom because He is Love, and Love is powerless and incapable of forcing the conscience and the heart. But all men have a right to the Gospel.”

Remember the good Cardinal has told the Truth:  all men have a right to the Gospel. So, each of us professing to be Christian, must remember  that by the way we live our lives, we "may be the only Gospel many will ever hear". 

Will our words and actions draw them to the eternal Truth and salvation?

Pondering Tidbits of Truth - June 20, 2019

 

Tidbits of Truth is my simple and inadequate way of providing nuggets of spiritual wisdom for you to chew on from time to time.

 St. Paul of the Cross

“Do not live any longer in yourself, but let Jesus Christ live in you in such a way that the virtue of this Divine Savior may be resplendent in all your actions, in order that all may see in you a true portrait of the Crucified and sense the sweetest fragrance of the holy virtues of the Lord, in interior and exterior modesty, in patience, in gentleness, suffering, charity, humility, and in all others that follow.”

(From Flowers of the Passion-Thoughts of St. Paul of the Cross)

Worth Revisiting - Some Random Thoughts

Thank you once again, Allison Gingras at Reconciled To You  and Elizabeth Riordan at Theology Is A Verb  for hosting Worth Revisiting each week. It is a privilege to share our work with you and your followers.

I would like to share this:

Some Random Thoughts

(Originally posted on June 26, 2011)

God will test us during the course of life with a variety of challenges, all of which are intended to strengthen our belief in and resolve to follow Him. We need to embrace these challenges if we are to grow spiritually and closer to Him.  These challenges and the gift of the Eucharist should be a constant reminder of His love for us and of our obligation to love and trust Him in return.

It is not bread and wine we eat and drink but the Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Our Lord Jesus Christ!  Read the suggestions Rev. Cassian Folsom, OSB makes as to how we should approach and respond to Him with a mindset and in a fashion deserving of such great a gift.

It is understandable why so many were repulsed and walked away from Our Lord after He told them that they had to eat His Body and drink His Blood if they wished to have eternal life. It made no sense. Cannibalism was not a concept easily embraced by anyone. Jews weren’t even permitted to drink the blood of slaughtered animals. Even if one was inclined to do as Jesus commanded, how does one go about eating the flesh and drinking the blood of a living human being? The Apostles had no greater understanding at the time of what Jesus said than those who left Him. But they (save Judas) stayed. When asked if they also would leave Him, Peter replied, "Lord, to whom shall we go? You have words of eternal life.” As St. Thomas Aquinas advises, we are to accept what Jesus says in faith even when we can not understand it, praying that at some time He will give us the understanding we lack. In the meanwhile, we are to live by faith, trusting Him with our eternal well-being.

The Eucharist is such a great gift! How tragic it is that so many to whom it has been given, no longer participate in it, don’t believe it is the Body and Blood of their Lord and Savior, or receive Him unworthily.

We and our world would be totally different if we but believed!

Eucharistic Reflection - O Sweet Tasting Bread of Heaven!

(Image Source: Wikimedia Commons)

"Ah, Thou sweet-tasting bread of heaven, which contains all sweet tastes according to the desire of everyone's heart, make the hungry mouth of my soul to rejoice in Thee this day; give me to eat and to drink; strengthen, adorn and unite me interiorly to Thee."

 (Blessed Henry Suso, O.P. A Little Book of Eternal Wisdom)

Monday Musings - What Does True Surrender to God's Will Look Like?

Worth Revisiting - Just Saying You Are Catholic Does Not Make You Catholic!

Thank you, Allison Gingras at Reconciled To You  and Elizabeth Riordan at Theology Is A Verb  for hosting Worth Revisiting each week. It is a privilege to share our work with you and your followers.

Here is my contribution:

Just Saying You Are Catholic Does Not Make You Catholic!

(Originally posted on August 5, 2013)

(Image Source: Wikimedia Commons)

[Not much has changed since I wrote this post nearly six years ago save for adding the names of other prominent politicians claiming to be Catholic but who reject Church teaching like Andrew Cuomo, Kirsten Gillibrand, Tim Kaine, Patrick Leahy, Richard Durbin, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Bob Casey, Susan Collins, Bob Menendez, Lisa Murkowski, and Patty Murray to name just a few.

The list of Catholic Bishops who have publicly barred legislators within their Diocese from receiving Communion after they passed radical pro-abortion legislation currently contains just one name: Bishop Thomas J. Paprocki of the Springfield Diocese in Illinois. He is the same Bishop who previously barred U.S. Senator Dick Durbin from receiving Communion because of his long-standing support of legislation that conflicts with Catholic teaching.Why have his fellow Bishops remained silent and refrained from taking similar action?]


It is so easy to say you are a Catholic. Just read the newspapers and watch television and you will see countless examples of those in public life claiming to be Catholic at the same time they support policies contrary to the teachings of the Catholic Church.


This has been going on for years. The silence of so many of our Bishops and priests allow this scandal to continue. How many souls have been misled from such silence? How many souls have been lost?

Far too many of our Bishops and priests utter not a single public word of instruction, correction or admonition. Yet these same men rarely miss an opportunity to immediately comment on  any "social justice" issue that is near and dear to their hearts.

Other examples abound - Nancy Pelosi, Joseph Biden, John Kerry et al. The head of the Catholic Health Association (CHA) thinks she can speak for the Catholic Church. Nothing publicly is said to correct her bogus and erroneous claim of authority.

Catholic governors and legislators zealously promote gay marriage, abortion, contraception and other intrinsic evils. Rarely are they publicly corrected.

A priest organizes a public protest against his Bishop outside the cathedral as the Bishop celebrates the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. No public chastisement.

 A "Catholic" college publicly announces that it has no problem providing its employees and students with contraception coverage. Silence.

There is much more that should be written on this topic.   Emily Stimpson has met that challenge. Her article, entitled What Catholics Need Now: A Letter to our Bishops and Priests, first appeared on CatholicVote. org. You can read it here. Please do so.

She has written out of necessity and has done so clearly, courageously and lovingly.

May our shepherds have ears to hear.

And so we must pray!