The CatholiCity Message
Volume XIV, Number 2 – March 30, 2010
Dear CatholiCity Citizen,
Holy Week greetings! As always, we welcome our newest subscribers. We have for you, as the saying goes, something old, something new, something borrowed, and something blue. Maybe we will just do something old, then tumble and wallow and amble through the rest without being held hostage to a corny saying (but we shall not, as our long-time readers will attest, completely reject corniness in any philosophical sense). We have Catholic Quotes, too, and a group prayer, Rosary ala Oprah, a Fallen Giant Who Crossed Our Path, but we begin with something to change your life...
2. SOMETHING OLD: CONFESSION
Allow us to be direct: if you are a Catholic who is serious about pleasing God, growing in holiness, and serving the people who depend on your virtue, then you should be going to the Sacrament of Reconciliation frequently. "Frequent Confession," to use the old phrase, translates into going at least once or twice a month, if not every week. This is normal.
This advice is not given lightly. Digest this: you simply cannot be holy without going to Confession frequently. The saints went frequently. Certain popes have been known to go nearly every day. The graces available in Confession, and the unique psychological dynamic of the sacrament itself (as Jesus no doubt designed it), are absolutely necessary for making "course corrections" in your spiritual life between Confessions. That is, this sacrament allows you to discern the "internal" reasons why you fall into sin as you prepare for your next Confession, and these insights often come in very sophisticated and nuanced ways. This is both practical (frequent "evaluation" along with knowledge of a future "evaluation" encourages greater insight) and supernatural (the Holy Spirit will ~show you~ where you need to improve and how to make adjustments).
Unfortunately, in recent decades, the scandalous liberal zeitgeist has made finding a priest and a place to go to Confession more difficult. Do not fret, however, because most dioceses have Confessions every day at their cathedrals or at Poor Clare and other monasteries. Those of us who are old hats at frequent Confession eventually figure out where the good priests and opportunities are found. You can always schedule Confession with a trustworthy priest. And if you have an Opus Dei center in your area, their priests are well known for craving being available. Turn off the car radio and take a longer drive to get there--with the bonus of having more time to prepare.
Virtually every person who has been going frequently for decades understands these things, and how necessary the sacrament is for growth in virtue, if not holiness, especially when combined with the only known "cures" for habitual sinfulness such as fasting, reparation, and contemplative prayer. Your life will surely change substantially, if not gradually, as you pile up twenty-five to fifty Confessions every year, decade after decade.
In short, if you are not praying (talking to Jesus) and receiving Communion as often as practical (consuming Jesus), and going to Confession (repenting with Jesus), then you are not really making a good faith attempt to be holy. If so, you are floating through life, and your orthodox beliefs will not change this.
We have often referred to Confession as an intimate "whispering" into the ear of Christ through the priest--a direct encounter with Jesus unlike anything else. Let us imagine that you are, ahem, pretty old--let us say you are fifty years old--and that you shall live for another twenty-five years, and further, that you will go to Confession every week. That adds up to over 1300 life-altering meetings with Jesus. Compare that to the person who goes only once or twice a year.
Saint John Vianney, Patron of Parish Priests, transformed his parish by hearing Confessions every day, all day long, while fasting around 300 days a year for those who went to him in this sublime sacrament.
We have only scratched the surface on Confession. It has enormous value as a healing sacrament, as well, along with many other benefits.
In this regard, our parent organization, the Mary Foundation, has two free excellent talks on this subject: "Confession" by Fr. Larry Richards, and "Healing and Holiness" by Vinny Flynn. If you have not heard them, or have not heard them recently, order copies today, for yourself, for those you love, and for the people at your parish who otherwise will continue to neglect or remain ignorant of this Sacrament (and risk eternal damnation) unless you take action:
https://secure.catholicity.com/order.html
2. THOSE NUNS ON OPRAH
Many of you heard about the Dominican nuns who recently appeared on the Oprah Winfrey Show. We heard that after the show, one of the nuns gave Oprah a set of rosary beads. Ms. Winfrey was delighted and indicated she had long desired to learn how to pray the Rosary. Winfrey is not a Catholic, and is well known for her liberal viewpoints. This incident is a great reminder to all of us: for those outside the Catholic faith, there is a real openness to the Rosary. Other than the Pope, no single thing is associated with Catholicism in the popular mind to a greater degree than the Rosary. As Oprah showed, the Rosary is not generally held in contempt by non-Catholics and even those with an anti-Catholic secularist mindset. We can easily forget, because we are so familiar with it ourselves, that the Rosary is considered by outsiders to be mysterious and mystical, very complicated, ancient, and in an odd way, really cool. With this in mind, do not be shy about handing out Rosary CDs to anyone, Catholic or non-Catholic. Although they do not know it directly, most people will certainly sense that you are handing them spiritual gold, and they will be grateful. The Mary Foundation, of course, offers free Rosary CDs, too:
https://secure.catholicity.com/order.html
Also, we found out about a new, wonderful, virtually-free Scriptural Rosary CD set you can give away to others here:
http://www.giftfoundation.org/listen-rosary.cfm
THREE GIANTS
Father Neuhaus. Professor McInerny. And now, Father Paul Marx, retired founder of Human Life International (HLI), perhaps the most far-reaching and effective pro-life organization ever, passed away last week (www.HLI.org). The Mary Foundation gave away its very first of millions of free recordings at an HLI Conference twenty years ago. Rest in peace, apostle of life.
BUILDING BUBBLE?
We do not claim to be financial experts, but we do follow trends as required by prudence, and we note numerous commentaries on the financial and political landscape cautioning how the United States and many other countries around the world are borrowing staggering amounts of money to prop up increasingly socialized economies, which, due to low birth rate demographics (predicted decades ago by the likes of Fr. Marx), are unsustainable because increasingly fewer workers are pressed to subsidize ever growing numbers of dependents. The result may be more "surprise" burstings of macroeconomic bubbles (as seen in late 2008), hyperinflation as experienced so often in history under similar circumstances, severe loss of employment opportunities, and loss of personal liberties (if despotism fills the vacuums created, on the pretense of responding to economic emergencies). If you discern this is our possible or likely future, we leave it up to you to take whatever practical preparation needed. Many of us have already keenly experienced privations during the current Great Recession. There is no guarantee that our nations' economics will automatically improve. Spiritually, we advise that you prepare your souls for poverty.
QUOTATIONS
"We do the good works, but God works in us the doing of the works."
Saint Augustine
"Give me again my hollow tree, a crust of bread, and liberty."
Alexander Pope
"A sacrament is a remembrance of the past (Christ's Passion), a proof of the present (Grace), and a promise of the future (Eternal Life)."
Saint Thomas Aquinas
"Every truth without exception, and whoever may utter it, is from the Holy Spirit."
Saint Thomas Aquinas
"Divine truth must always be extreme. It must, so to speak, always overlap at both ends, just because it is divine, and therefore much too big for this world."
Fr. Robert H. Benson
"Yesterday and today, never has anyone or anything forced me to commit any act, much less any sin. I am free to nod my head or hit the snooze button. Therefore, my sins, too, are my own. I know that they are sins before I commit them, as I choose to commit them, and after I commit them. So I go to the old priest. This morning, my own bishop heard my Confession. Sometimes my eyes well up with tears when, and through the veil, I see his wrinkled hand rise to effect my absolution. I walk out, do the penance, and am at utter peace until that first temptation. And sometimes I wonder if every person who rejects Catholicism, and thereby their obvious freedom of will, and their concomitant merit for good or ill choices, is insane."
Linus Columbekil
"We hushed within the dead of night, the shutter'd dark, the secrecy. And all alone, alone, alone He rose again behind the stone."
Alice Maynell
"The Cross cannot be defeated because it is defeat."
G.K Chesterton
"The world is full of mysteries; the soul is full of mysteries; heaven is all mystery to us earthly creatures. But whoever embraces the cross with open heart will find therein the explanation of a thousand mysteries."
Archbishop Ullathorne
TENS OF THOUSANDS PRAYING FOR EACH OTHER
We all have a special intention--a miracle we need. A prayer of our hearts. Let us call our individual intentions to mind, and take solace that tens of thousands of CatholiCity Citizens will pray for our intentions together, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit...
"God the Father, two thousand years ago, on a dark afternoon, on a rocky hill, you beheld your only Son on the Cross, with Saint John and Mary. On this day, today, look down upon us, as we join our suffering to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, pierced by a lance, and hear our cry for you. Answer the intentions of all who pray with us today. Raise us from the dead. Amen."
Until next time, may you have a grace-filled Holy Week and a wonderful Easter.
With Immaculate Mary,
Your Friends at CatholiCity
