I like to think it’s all about transformation here or hereafter that is if we choose by our lives to love God. Here is a homily given on All Souls Day-2014 by Fr. Michael DePalma
“-Padre Pio had many incredible, mystical gifts. One such was the gift of being able to witness many souls in Purgatory who came to visit him during the course of a typical day. Often they would just be there, asking him to pray for their intercession. Other Franciscan priests have verified this, because on occasion they themselves were also able to see the person who had come to visit Padre Pio.
-But on one occasion Padre Pio was in the choir loft after the church was locked saying his prayers when he heard what sounded like a candlestick falling. He looked down from the loft and saw a Friar moving around the altar. So he shouted down to him asking who he was and what was he doing there. The friar said that he was visiting. Padre Pio came down the stairs and asked which monastery he was from. The friar said, “This one.” Padre Pio replied, “How could that be, I’ve been here for years and I have never seen you.” The friar said, “I was here 100 years ago. I was the sacristan.” It was then that Padre Pio noticed that the friar had been dusting the candlesticks on the altar.
-And the friar at the altar turned to Padre Pio and said that he was sent from Purgatory for he had been there 100 years and no one had ever prayed for him. He was requesting Padre’s prayers. Padre Pio asked the friar what did he do to merit Purgatory and the friar answered that when he was saying Mass, and when he was performing his duties as sacristan, he wasn’t always reverent to the Holy Eucharist. He was very sloppy, especially around the altar. The next morning Padre Pio said Mass for the intention of this friar, and he was able to mystically see this poor soul from Purgatory enter into heaven itself.
– “Blessed are the pure of heart, for they shall see God.” Only the pure get to go to heaven. That is why so many saints and theologians have said over the centuries that for those who will avoid going to hell, the majority of people will have to go through Purgatory first, before receiving the great reward of heaven.
-Though it sounds a bit cheesy, it is still true: heaven is for people who are dying to get there. And anything that gets in the way of us getting to our eternal home has to go, has to be removed—we have to die to ourselves.
-But most of us are not at that point yet. We are still too attached to our ways: to our hatred and anger, to our gossiping, to our lustfulness, to our overindulgences, to our selfish thoughts.
We need purification. We need Purgatory.
-However, belief in Purgatory has declined in modern times because the modern mind has forgotten two extremely important things: the purity of God, and the horror of sin.
-Because so many people today are used to getting away with so much that they should not be doing, we have to admit that our teachers, our bosses, our husbands or wives, our mothers or fathers would be amazed to know all of the stuff that we do behind their backs. And we just continue with that attitude, going so far as to think that even God is not aware of what we are doing, or if He is, no worries, He will just let us slide.
-Purgatory is where we are refined by the fire of God’s love. And though the souls in Purgatory know that they will eventually make it to heaven, still, the time spent there is painful because of the purifying fire removing the impurities and sinful tendencies from their lives.
-The pain of Purgatory is necessary because sin always does damage—sometimes great damage. Sin is always violent, and the damage caused by sin needs to be repaired. We are not only supposed to be purified before we go to heaven, but the repair for the damage caused by our sins has to be taken care of, either here on earth or in Purgatory.
-Sure, God is love, and God is merciful, but God is perfectly just, and so, all of the damage of sin will have to be set right.
-The Catechism of the Catholic Church tells us: “Purgatory is a state of final purification after death, where before one is able to enter the joy of heaven, there is a final cleansing of human imperfection.”
-But why does the CCC call it a state of purification?
-Well, Purgatory is not really a place, but is rather a condition of purification, so that when the last person leaves Purgatory, it will cease to exist.
-But know something and know something well: Purgatory can be avoided. But unfortunately, most non-Catholic Christians don’t even believe in Purgatory, and many Catholics see it as some sort of a loophole, or safety net.
-There is a very bad and dangerous attitude among many Catholics who think that they will just go ahead and have their fun, get away with as much as they can, somewhere along the line make a prayer of faith or have some sort of conversion and just barely make it into Purgatory by the skin of their teeth. And hey, if they have to spend a couple of hundred years there, well so what, they will still make it to heaven some day.
-What a horrible attitude to have. Don’t you dare “settle” for Purgatory. You set your aim, your goal on heaven. And if you fall short, ok, then you will go through the purifying fires. Because if you take Purgatory for granted, there is a huge tendency to not do your best and thus risk, and in some cases greatly risk falling short of Purgatory. Don’t ever forget, in the end there are only two places where a person can end up: heaven or hell.
-Now speaking of places where one goes after death, recently Pope Benedict XVI stated that the Church has decided to do away with the theory of limbo. I bet that many of you were taught that limbo was the place where those who died before being baptized, especially children were sent.
-However, limbo was always a theory, a speculation, and was never an official dogma of the Church. But many people took the Pope’s proclamation to mean that if there is no limbo, then there is no Purgatory either. Nope. Purgatory is a dogma, an official teaching of the Church that must be believed.
-This is very important because of all of our loved ones who have died. Today, the feast day of All Souls, is when we traditionally pray for those who have gone before us. But we do not only remember them, we can actually do something wonderful for them.
-So many people have done great things for us in this life who are no longer here on this earth. But we should not just remember those good times, but we should always pray for those people.
-Now true, some people have been given “signs” that a loved one is now in heaven. But those are very rare. And of course with the saints, we know they are in heaven because of miracles done through their prayers. For the vast majority of us, because we are limited in our human natures, we don’t know where the souls of faithful departed go right after death. And remember, many saints in their teachings have said that most people who died are not fully in a state of grace, and thus they will have to first go to Purgatory. But for many of us we just assume that our loved ones have already made it to heaven. And thus, we do not pray for them.
-We definitely live in an “out of sight, out of mind” culture, where thoughts of death are constantly avoided. But let us remember often the souls in Purgatory, especially those who have helped us the most in this life. Do not let your loved ones be forgotten like the friar who visited Padre Pio who had gone 100 years without someone praying for him to get out of Purgatory.
-After a person dies we can no longer do things for them as we did when they were with us here. But love does not stop at the grave. Love is eternal. And we can go past the grave to Purgatory itself through the means of our prayers. Prayer is our way of telling our loved ones who have left us that we still love them dearly and always will, especially when it comes to offering our Mass intentions for their souls in Purgatory.
-Remember one more great fact: for those of our family and friends who may still be in Purgatory, don’t ever forget that they are present with us every time we have Mass. There are here, right now with us, along with all of the saints and angels in heaven. We are definitely not alone. That should change the way we look at the Mass. They are here.
-And that should also change the way that we hear the final dismissal for the Mass. One of the options that the priest or the deacon can say is: “Go forth, the Mass is ended.” That message is for all of us, to take Christ with us as we leave. But that message can also be for a soul in Purgatory who was remembered, for what if this was the Mass that released them to see God face to face in heaven? Then what comfort and joy would it be for them to hear those words: “Go forth, go in peace, your time in Purgatory has been spent, go and enter the bliss, the unending joy that is heaven itself.”
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“Anyone who criticizes Sharia law or gay marriage could be branded an “extremist” under sweeping new powers planned by the Conservatives to combat terrorism, an alliance of leading atheists and Christians fear.
Theresa May, the Home Secretary, unveiled plans last month for so-called Extremism Disruption Orders, which would allow judges to ban people deemed extremists from broadcasting, protesting in certain places or even posting messages on Facebook or Twitter without permission.
Mrs May outlined the proposal in a speech at the Tory party conference in which she spoke about the threat from the so-called Islamic State – also known as Isis and Isil – and the Nigerian Islamist movement Boko Haram.
But George Osborne, the Chancellor, has made clear in a letter to constituents that the aim of the orders would be to “eliminate extremism in all its forms” and that they would be used to curtail the activities of those who “spread hate but do not break laws”.
He explained that that the new orders, which will be in the Conservative election manifesto, would extend to any activities that “justify hatred” against people on the grounds of religion, sexual orientation, gender or disability.”
via via Ebola in the U.S. | Nurse.com News.
Don’t feel prepared? Here’s what you do.
Nurses who do not feel prepared to treat patients with Ebola should be expressing their concerns to supervisors and infection preventionists, along with asking questions.
That’s the suggestion of Linda Greene, RN, MPS, CIC, an infection prevention manager at Highland Hospital in Rochester, N.Y., and a former board member of the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology.
According to Greene, these questions from nurses might include:
— I’m feeling uncomfortable about my ability to care for someone with Ebola. Can you guide me?
— I haven’t seen an Ebola policy. What’s our organization’s practice?
— I’ve read the policy, but I don’t see instructions on what to do if a patient needs, say, a CT scan. How do I transport the patient?
— What if the family, who has been exposed to a patient with Ebola, comes in with the patient? Do we isolate them, too?
— Hospitals also have a responsibility to solicit information from front-line providers, Greene said, on how to improve their policies and procedures.
READE MORE: via Ebola in the U.S. | Nurse.com News.
Lying in the sunshine of Your love,
Recounting humming bird days,
Flitting as flashes flung to the heavens,
I look to the horizon,
For the rising of yet another sun.
I feel I know You.
It is me I doubt,
But I don’t know why.
I have spent my life
Becoming what I think
You want me to be.
Others, though, have always
Seemed to do it better.
Here I am at eve tide,
Recounting the many waters,
That wash these shores.
Your Beauty plays for me,
Painting the setting sun;
I guess, to reassure my clay
Of The Love You are,
As I still look for me,
Reflected in Your smiling eyes.
copyright 2014 Joann Nelander
This filled by heart and broke it at the same time.
H/T Dick Roberts
Prayer for Those Who Govern
Come, Holy Spirit. Only in God will America live in the “peace that passes understanding”. We pray for those under Your Authority that they be peacemakers, that the walls of fear, hatred and suspicion may yield to justice and right, the “pillars of Your Throne”.
We humbly acknowledge You, and pray that You reign in our hearts, for might rests not in the prowess of our arms and armies, but the succor of Heaven.
You saved the “Good Thief” for one hour’s faith, save us who look for a new beginning in Your Name and under the banner of Your Love. Amen
©2014 Joann Nelander
via My Journey Through In Vitro Fertilization | Catholic Lane.
My Journey Through In Vitro Fertilization
by Jenny Vaughn on Oct 29, 2014 in Contraception & Abortion, Featured, MyChurchParish.com, Parenting, Reproductive Technology, Women –
It’s July 2008 and I’m strapped to a surgical table as a fertility doctor siphons three dozen eggs out of my ovaries through a long needle. Blood is coming from between my legs, as the needle repeatedly perforates my vaginal walls en route to my ovaries in search of viable eggs. In the next room, my husband is masturbating so fresh sperm can be used to fertilize the eggs.
Originally published at CatholicSistas.com.
When we’re done, my ovaries hyperstimulate and I pass out. My abdomen and chest begin to fill with fluid; the anesthesia doesn’t stop the severe pain that fills my body. I struggle to breathe. The doctor stabilizes me, but it still takes nearly a week to recover from the brutal procedure.
The doctor had retrieved 38 good eggs, of which 31 are fertilized. Over the next week, 16 of our embryonic children die and are discarded. Thirteen are cryogenically frozen, mostly two to a vial. Two fresh embryos are transferred to my uterus.
Yes, the cost is high for what we’re doing, both financially and physically. But it will be worth it, I tell myself. Because surely at least one of these embryos will give us our heart’s desire–a beautiful child of our own.
Justifying Our Choices
My journey into in vitro fertilization (IVF) actually began in the 1980s, when my mother used donor sperm and intrauterine insemination to conceive me and my twin sister. When we were 12, we discovered that the man we thought was our father was not. I was disturbed that we were created by my mother and a stranger, and have always felt as if only part of me was “real.”
Fast-forward to my own marriage in 2004. We wanted children right away, but a year of trying had resulted in no pregnancy. I was diagnosed with polycystic ovarian syndrome, an endocrine disorder that inhibits regular ovulation.
Doctors put me on the same ovulation-stimulating medication my mother had used to conceive me–Clomid. Four unsuccessful cycles later, we moved on to artificial insemination, though we did at least use my husband’s sperm. Still no baby.
In desperation, we graduated to the expensive and complex process of IVF, where my eggs and my husband’s sperm would be taken out of our bodies, joined in a petri dish, and the resulting embryos would be inserted into my uterus.
Even before we started down the IVF road, there was a voice inside of us whispering that it was wrong. But that voice was drowned out by louder, more persistent voices, like the doctors’ who said we had little to no chance to conceive without it. Friends and family, too, supported anything that would end the suffering of our infertility.
Then there was my own desire for a child, shouting down the doubts and assuring me that God would want me to be happy and that, as a woman, I deserved a child. And really, how could science that helps create life be a bad thing?
So we signed the contract and started the IVF process. To prepare, I took hormone injections and pills to stimulate my ovaries for egg retrieval. Though most eggs were fertilized simply by exposing them to sperm, some needed sperm forcibly injected into them with a needle.
These newly formed, microscopic human beings were then graded for quality and we were encouraged to discard “low-grade” embryos that had little chance of survival. But because we couldn’t fully stifle our doubts about the wrongness of IVF, we insisted that all our viable embryos be preserved.
Suffering and Loss
After the first transfer in July 2008, we were thrilled to discover that we were pregnant with twins, due the following April. But at 21 weeks gestation, our twins–Madi and Isaiah–were born prematurely and only lived for one hour each. During those brief, heartbreaking few hours, we held them, bathed them, dressed them, and baptized them, holding onto their tiny, fragile bodies as long as we could. Continue Reading
OK, I know that when you first saw this dazzling pic of Neil in his technicolor dreamcoat, you were tempted to go and google the etymology of “cheese” or something; anything rather than consider that Neil Diamond might have something deep to say to you today.
Maybe you thought “Twisted Mystics” was about young hipsters, youth in angst, or mainstream rockers and rollers. Well it’s time to broaden them horizons!
I was first introduced to Neil as a young lad, through the big, bulky “Jazz Singer” soundtrack my mother owned on an 8 track tape. Those tapes were awesome and could double as coasters, or a hammer if you were desperate and really needed to hang that painting.
Anyhoo, back to Neil. Let’s take the following words and set them into the mouths of lovers… of a husband and wife. This is what we do here at Twisted Mystics; we transpose. We find the theme and set it to a theological melody. We take a rambling branch and graft it to the Divine Vine from which all branches break forth.
She was morning
And I was night time
I one day woke up
To find her lying
Beside my bed
I softly said
“Come take me”
For I’ve been lonely
In need of someone
As though I’d done
Someone wrong somewhere
but I don’t know where
Come lately
You are the sun
I am the moon
You are the words
I am the tune
Play me
Ah the Cosmic Dance of masculine and feminine! “She was morning… and I was night time.” It’s common knowledge that men and women are different. Common knowledge but commonly misunderstood, or seen as some kind of obstacle (“the battle of the sexes”). Today, there also appears to be a great effort to level the playing field…. to asexualize our sexuality and invite people to “pick” which one they want, as if from scratch. But if we scratch below the surface, we discover an extremely damaging agenda here.
In the olden days (before Neil Diamond) people used to conform themselves to reality. This is a very sane thing to do. Today we are insane. We try to conform reality unto us. Rather than discover in our creation as male and female something of the mystery of God’s image and likeness, we determine that we will make ourselves after our own image and likeness. The problem with this is, aside from a cosmic arrogance, we don’t have a clue as to who we are.
“When we lose sight of the Creator, the creature vanishes,” so spoke Vatican Council II.
Our origins, revealed in Genesis, tell us so much about what masculinity is and what femininity is, if we could but sit still and listen. The mythic elements (not myths) in Genesis speak of man being formed from the earth, with Spirit (God’s ruah in Hebrew, breath) whispered into us. Is this why men seem to be more independent, detached, more comfortable being alone, distant at times? But in all our land-locked travels, we long to return to the heart.
READ MORE via Twisted Mystic Neil Diamond in ‘Play Me’ | My Catholic Tube.
Bill Donaghy
Bill Donaghy is a teacher, lay evangelist, and certified Theology of the Body speaker.
Visit his website for more: www.missionmoment.org.
via Beauty Will Save the World: From the Mouth of an Idiot to the Pen of a Pope – Crisis Magazine.
By R. Jared Staudt
A popular quote we often hear but find hard to understand is “beauty will save the world.” How will beauty save the world? The line comes from Dostoevsky’s novel, The Idiot, attributed to the main character, Prince Myskin. The prince, an epileptic Russian nobleman, serves as a Christ-like figure, who stands apart for his innocence and even naiveté. Out of the mouth of this idiot comes a clearer vision of beauty and reality than those around him, his clarity heightened even in the midst of his sickness.
The saving power of beauty in the prince’s life could not overcome his sickness, but nonetheless illumined his vision: “What matter though it be only disease, an abnormal tension of the brain, if when I recall and analyze the moment, it seems to have been one of harmony and beauty in the highest degree—an instant of deepest sensation, overflowing with unbounded joy and rapture, ecstatic devotion, and completest life?” In the midst of his suffering, he glimpsed, though in a paradoxical manner, the heart of reality.
Are the prince’s words on beauty the words of a mad idiot or of a prophet?
In Solzhenitsyn’s Noble lecture, he notes that after dismissing the quote for years, he realized that “Dostoevsky’s remark, ‘Beauty will save the world,’ was not a careless phrase but a prophecy. After all he was granted to see much, a man of fantastic illumination. And in that case art, literature might really be able to help the world today?”
If that is not enough, Pope John Paul II quoted the line in his Letter to Artists, under the heading “The Saving Power of Beauty”:
People of today and tomorrow need this enthusiasm [of wonder] if they are to meet and master the crucial challenges which stand before us. Thanks to this enthusiasm, humanity, every time it loses its way, will be able to lift itself up and set out again on the right path. In this sense it has been said with profound insight that “beauty will save the world” (§16).
Can the words of an idiot set the tone for our response to the modern world? In a mad world, maybe only the idiot is sane. It seems we can and even must trust him, now that the words of an idiot have become the words of a Pope!
Upon reading Pope Francis’s first encyclical, Lumen Fidei, I was struck most of all by its literary quality. The encyclical does not offer much theological innovation, but is remarkable for its engagement of culture: classical, medieval, and above all contemporary. It seems to follow Dostoevsky’s vision for the power of beauty. In our world that has largely rejected the ability of reason to know the truth and the moral order toward the good, is it a privileged moment for beauty? The encyclical seems to point to this reality, using literature and art to underscore its points.
Pope Benedict XVI, the primary drafter of Lumen Fidei, emphasized the absolutely essential role of beauty in human life in his “Meeting with Artists.” Guess who he turned to for support?
Dostoevsky’s words that I am about to quote are bold and paradoxical, but they invite reflection. He says this: “Man can live without science, he can live without bread, but without beauty he could no longer live, because there would no longer be anything to do to the world. The whole secret is here, the whole of history is here” (quoting from the novel, Demons).
Is it not clear that we are missing this key element of human life? And if we are, what does this mean for the life of faith?
Lumen Fidei does not explicitly draw out the significance of beauty for the light of the faith. Rather, it is demonstrated by the style of the encyclical itself. Once again, Dostoevsky makes a crucial appearance:
In Dostoevsky’s The Idiot, Prince Myskin sees a painting by Hans Holbein the Younger depicting Christ dead in the tomb and says: “Looking at that painting might cause one to lose his faith.” The painting is a gruesome portrayal of the destructive effects of death on Christ’s body. Yet it is precisely in contemplating Jesus’ death that faith grows stronger and receives a dazzling light; then it is revealed as faith in Christ’s steadfast love for us, a love capable of embracing death to bring us salvation. This love, which did not recoil before death in order to show its depth, is something I can believe in; Christ’s total self-gift overcomes every suspicion and enables me to entrust myself to him completely (§16).
This quote is significant in relation to Dostoevsky’s vision of beauty for a number of reasons. Like “beauty will save the world,” it comes from The Idiot and refers to Prince Myskin. Second, it points to a central theme of the novel, the struggle with beauty, physically and spiritually, in the midst of suffering. Third, this struggle and tension between physical and spiritual beauty becomes a central motif in the engagement of modern culture. In the midst of sickness, how can one perceive beauty clearly? Beauty should be a path to truth, and thus faith, but the modern world itself is disfigured and trapped in darkness. It has a kind of spiritual epilepsy, an internal, maddening sickness, which, unlike for Myskin, impairs the perception of true beauty.
Looking back to Benedict’s vision, we can see how beauty itself is luminous. The light of beauty is meant to illuminate the path toward the light of faith. In Benedict’s “Meeting with Artists,” we see both the darkness of the modern eclipse of beauty and true beauty’s ability to lead to sight:
Too often, though, the beauty that is thrust upon us is illusory and deceitful, superficial and blinding, leaving the onlooker dazed; instead of bringing him out of himself and opening him up to horizons of true freedom as it draws him aloft, it imprisons him within himself and further enslaves him, depriving him of hope and joy…. Authentic beauty, however, unlocks the yearning of the human heart, the profound desire to know, to love, to go towards the Other, to reach for the Beyond. If we acknowledge that beauty touches us intimately, that it wounds us, that it opens our eyes, then we rediscover the joy of seeing, of being able to grasp the profound meaning of our existence.
READ MORE: via Beauty Will Save the World: From the Mouth of an Idiot to the Pen of a Pope – Crisis Magazine.
Joann Nelander Studio 