Friday, June 28, 2013

The Ritual Prayer of a Local Catholic

6AM

1.       Pater  Noster.
[Yes, Latin. Maybe the devil does hate prayer in Latin, but regardless, herewith is the divine prayer given to man and prayed in the language used by nearly every saint.]

PATER NOSTER, qui es in caelis, sanctificetur nomen tuum. Adveniat regnum tuum. Fiat voluntas tua, sicut in caelo et in terra. Panem nostrum quotidianum da nobis hodie, et dimitte nobis debita nostra sicut et nos dimittimus debitoribus nostris. Et ne nos inducas in tentationem, sed libera nos a malo. Amen.

2.       Our Father

Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name; Thy kingdom come; Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread; and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us; and lead us not into temptation; but deliver us from evil. Amen.

3.       Hail Mary

Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee; blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death.  Amen.

4.       Glory Be

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit. As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.

5.       O My Jesus

O my Jesus, forgive us our sins, save us from the fires of hell and lead all souls to heaven, especially those most in need of Your mercy!

6.       General Prayer Intentions

a.       God, help and protect our Pope, Pope Francis. Grant to him eyes to see and courage to act. Give him grace to rule over and manage the Church of Christ as our Lord Jesus Christ Himself would do.

b.      God, help Bishops and Priests everywhere to live up to their high calling in Christ Jesus and to cleanse your Church of error and confusion. Teach them to be faithful to Christ and to His Church. May they prove to be good Shepherds to their flock.

c.       Lord, as you have done in days past, save sinners today, as you have saved me and grow Your Church. Help me to assist in that goal, witnessing for Christ to all those that cross my path today.

d.      God, put an end to abortion today. Guide me in all my efforts to achieve that goal and especially give me wisdom for all my local undertakings. Venerable Archbishop Fulton Sheen intercede for me and help me to obtain heavenly assistance to hold Bishops and Priests accountable, in all charity and perseverance, for their actions or lack thereof in the spiritual battle to end abortion and to defend the teachings of Mother Church. God shape all my efforts into a great spear, the tip of which will soon pierce the heart of the demons of abortion and unbelief.

e.      God, move in the hearts of rulers and kings everywhere so that each might seek out your wisdom, justice and mercy in order to bring peace and prosperity to their nation. Help them to realize that to whom much is given, much is required. May your Holy Spirit convince them of sin, righteousness and judgment, and make them favourable to receive and protect the work of missionaries. Especially convert the heart of the President of the USA, [here insert name], to Christ, for God’s greater glory throughout all nations.

f.        O Lord, raise up prophets throughout our land, especially Bishops, who, in sackcloth and ashes will warn and call back to God His people, that the judgment of God on this nation be averted.

g.       God, help, defend and rescue your people in all lands who suffer persecution because of their faith in Christ. Some suffer acutely and some perish. Put compassion into the hearts of their persecutors and move upon their countrymen to intercede on their behalf. Yet through the sufferings of Your people, grow Your Church.

h.      God, bless all good and holy priests everywhere, such as ___________________ [herein insert names of priests prayed for daily]. Expand their understanding, increase their capacities and vision, enlarge their borders that they may reach many more souls for Christ and pastor well the flock of God. Grant to each a warrior's spirit and a martyr's heart. Help them to fully live up to the light that you have given them. [Herein include any special requests for these Priests.]

7.       Prayer Intentions for Family & Friends

Blessed Virgin Mary, intercede on my behalf and on behalf of all my family today. Help us as you would your own family. Send holy men, women, angels and saints into the lives of each one mentioned to help them on the path to salvation and to guide, protect and defend from Satan.

a.       For immediate family. [Herein name each and pray for specific needs, especially spiritual concerns.] A special prayer for those affected by the torment of injustice of family breakup. May God help each one today in their struggles to overcome the pain, distress and rejection experienced by such.

b.      For family near and far, known and unknown, that they may all be brought into the family of God and that all who have strayed may be drawn back to God.

c.       For all Catholic friends and associates, that God might strengthen them in their faith and witness. And for our Latin Mass community that we might, as a community of faith, come to truly reflect the Body of Christ. Help us to contribute to the spiritual needs of one another and the building up of the Church.

d.      For all those who have requested or are known to be in need of physical healing. [Herein name each and pray for specific needs known or expressed.]

8.       Prayer for the Holy Souls in Purgatory

God, have mercy upon all Holy Souls and aid them in their progress toward the beatific vision. Help them to deal with their sins and offenses such that their lives might be cleansed and purified. Refresh and relieve them on their journey to full salvation and purity of heart. May they one day, in Heaven, pray for me likewise.

9.       God, grant me today the means and opportunity to earn a steady income that I might support my family, fulfil all my earthly obligations honorably and contribute to the work of the Kingdom. Teach me to sow the rights seeds in order to accomplish these goals.

10.   My Lord and my God, above all today, teach me to love You supremely and to discern Your will for my life so that I do not fail in my heavenly calling.

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And now begins the DivineOffice for today. 




Les Miserables: Priests Suffering At The Hands Of Their Bishops




Monday, June 24, 2013

How One Canadian Province Was Cheated Out Of Its Catholic School System

St. Thomas Aquinas, Doctor of the Church
It is time to remember.

Time to recall another epic failure in the history of Catholic leadership in our province. Why so? Let us learn from our mistakes and take charge of our future, God helping us.

"Who is going to save our Church? Not our bishops, not our priests and religious. It is up to you, the people. You have the minds, the eyes, the ears to save the Church. Your mission is to see that your priests act like priests, your bishops like bishops and your religious act like religious."

Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen


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What's Wrong With Newfoundland Catholics?

By
Frank O’Leary, native of St. John's, NL

Catholic Insight April 1998

Purgatory  Regained,  Via Sins Of Omission

How is it that Newfoundland lost its Catholic schools? We can perhaps understand what happened in Quebec after forty years of secularist propaganda, but the events in Newfoundland came as a great shock.

How do we explain that there was not one single member of the provincial legislature who opposed the Clyde Wells - Brian Tobin assault upon the educational rights of parents, who had had these rights for over 150 years? How is it that the leaders of all three parties, Liberals, Conservative, NDP, Brian Tobin, Loyola Sullivan, Jack Harris, all three Catholics, went to Ottawa and pleaded with the Prime Minister to rush through the amendment which would wipe these rights from the constitution? What is the matter with Newfoundland Catholics?

We asked Frank O'Leary of St. John's to try to give us some understanding of what's gone wrong and, if possible, to throw some light on this most difficult of questions and also one of the most important changes in recent Canadian history.

The loss of our schools was not an event but a process

Pounded on an anvil

When you've been on an anvil getting an unrelenting pounding for nearly ten years, one attribute likely pounded out of you is objectivity. That would be merely unfortunate, but it would be a tragedy if charity got pounded out too. Without it, personal relationships decay, civil society grows cold and becomes uncivil. That has been the danger, and it continues.

For sensitive souls, being a practising Catholic in Newfoundland has been a true test of faith ever since the Mount Cashel orphanage sexual abuse revelations. Without the Catholic theology of suffering, the experience would be regarded as a sheer misery rather than the extraordinary means of Grace which it can be, seen properly. But we have been treated so badly that the temptation to anger is strong. We can't understand what happened without recalling that, ultimately, we are dealing with the mystery of iniquity.

Religious racists

"You had to be there." While Catholic Insight readers had the political and legal basics of the issue explained to them, can they understand that practising Catholics in this Canadian province now know, in a very personal way, what it was like to be an outcast in society, like being a Jew in 1930s Germany?

An exaggeration? No. Canadian-style pluralism in Newfoundland means that if you don't want to be assimilated, but choose to remain apart, to be "other," you are the intolerant one. We Catholics were branded "religious bigots" for defending our constitutional rights.

Bill Rowe, for example, a lawyer, former Liberal leader and cabinet member, and host of the province's largest Open Line radio show, repeatedly stated on air that segregation of children by religion is wrong and must end. Rowe knew very well the overtones of the word segregation, its negative connotations of the American South, its image of bullheaded racists railing against the integration of black kids into white schools.  It was utterly wrong to apply this term to a minority's voluntary choice. But he did it deliberately and audiences took the implication: Catholics are religious racists.

If you want to remain apart from us, that means you think you're better than we are. Ironic, though, that the pro-'reform' parents' group chose as a slogan "One province, one people, one school system". It echoes the cry of "Bin Volk, ein Reich, ein Fiihrer" from a former day.

The experience has been positively frightening. By the end of 1997, the Liberal governments of Clyde Wells and "Catholic" Premier Brian Tobin had scapegoated and marginalized Catholics, stripped them of their natural law rights, given phony "rights" to homosexuals,  and extended full funding to the clients of Morgentaler's abortuary. The media colluded every step of the way. Indeed, it would have been impossible without the media's eager participation.

Only those ignorant of history and philosophy can deny the totalitarian analogies which, one is tempted to believe, is precisely why these two subjects are neglected by an educational establishment thoroughly formed by the philosopher John Dewey. As Dewey said, "Children who know how to think for themselves spoil the harmony of the collective society which is coming." That society is Canada. The 'harmony' is Canadian bogus tolerance.


Newfoundland Premier Brian Tobin genuflects before Prime Minister Jean Chretien after accepting the Constitutional Amendment to Newfoundland's Term 17 at a ceremony at Ottawa's Rideau Hall on January 8, 1998, as Governor General Romeo LeBlanc looks on. "He who does not bend his knee to God will inevitably bend his knee to man."

 A deceiving state

Newfoundland's Catholics have had the full power of a lying, cheating state turned against them, backed by the unanimity of the media, the academic establishment and the unions, all joined in a massive act of social engineering. Orwell and Kafka, Lenin and Goebbels nod knowingly. Most frightening of all, for those of us who see the parallels with the Nazis and the Bolsheviks, is that none of our fellow Newfoundlanders do. Instead, they believe they've been righteous.

To make sense of how and why all this came about one might use the former Soviet KGB's analytical method. In formulating and assessing tactics, the KGB was guided by the concept of kombinatsiya, or the correlation of forces; that is, the total effect of interplay between social, economic, cultural and moral factors. In society, as in nuclear physics, the chain reaction can't begin until critical mass has been reached. With respect to Newfoundland, this means that the accelerating secularization of society and the corresponding loss of faith prepared the way for our defeat, with the Mount Cashel scandal lighting the fuse.

In his article on the history of Catholics in Newfoundland (CI, Jan., 1996), Murray Nicolson wrote "In no place was the antagonism more vividly demonstrated than in Newfoundland where, unlike in Canada, the Penal Laws applied. And yet, regardless of the influence the Irish had in most of English-speaking Canada, it is in Newfoundland that the roots of Irish Catholic ethnicity run deepest." And therefore, too, Irish Catholic piety. But let us add at once: also Irish anti- clericalism. Outlining the numerous impediments to Catholic religious and civil rights, Nicolson continued, "It seems appropriate to look upon Newfoundland in this early period as a purgatory for the Irish."

The observation resonates in the 1990s. Undoubtedly the forces arrayed against the Catholic position - the kombinatsiya - were powerful, but that can't be the whole explanation. If the Turk was stopped at Lepanto by the rosary, the cause of Catholic education in Newfoundland was not hopeless. Or was it?

Catholics hardly "practising"

Twice above, I emphasized the word "practising" when referring to Newfoundland's Catholics. That is because I was asked to explain why the Catholic resistance collapsed in our second referendum. Exhaustion and depletion of resources is one answer. Shortage of troops and resources in the first place is the other.

Consider the following: the Catholic population forms 37% of the province's population, but the Archdiocese of St. John's recently acknowledged that but 30% practise their faith. Thus only 11% of the provincial population were even in Catholic churches in the first place to hear the bishops' letters (Which, by the way, is about all the bishops did "publicly" to defend and preserve our schools).

Add another (American) poll which discovered that only 30% of those who attend Mass understand and believe in the Real Presence in an orthodox way. That would leave us with a mere 3.3% of the provincial population who are Catholics with the supernatural resources to fight this battle. Indeed, these are the only Catholics who truly understand why we had to fight.

One can compute yet other factors into the struggle. This includes a lack of cooperation. Most zealous Catholics are not as well organized or cooperative as those in the world. One of the hardest things is to get orthodox Catholics to cooperate. (Fr. Virgil Blum, SJ, founder of the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights in the U.S., was more blunt: most Catholics lack the courage to defend the Church and the Faith.)

Mistaken deference

Then there is lack of formation. Here it is perhaps more a matter of suffering from the defects of our virtues. Deference to authority, fidelity to the Magisterium, loyalty to the Holy Father, religious submission of mind and will are all admirable qualities and were much a part of Newfoundland Irish Catholic piety. In practice, though, they meant that the clergy didn't need to be clerical because the laity had become thoroughly clericalized in their own thinking, to the point that they misunderstood the respective roles of "clergy" and "laity," identifying the "Church" as synonymous with the clergy.

Those attributes of deference to authority, etc., no longer fully operative in a correct way, left a residue of mere habit which hamstrings the modern laity in a battle with secular forces. They still act as though only the clergy and the hierarchy have the prerogative - and responsibility - to make decisions or speak publicly on such matters. Few lay people act in concert with one another without first asking, "What does the bishop say about this?" (Often, however, that "appeal to authority" is a lazy or cowardly excuse for inaction.)

Thus when Wells defined the terms of the debate, characterizing an undemocratic, authoritarian, institutional Church opposing the democratically elected government of the people, circumstances favoured him, and our side also played right into his hands. We ourselves thought of this as "Church rights." rather than "parents' rights."

Even at the risk of sending slightly mixed messages and utilizing different arguments, every K. of C. council, CWL chapter and Catholic school principal should have spoken out in the media across the province. Instead, we had silence. Everyone waiting to see what the bishop would say. And our opponents claiming that Catholics don't think for themselves.

The difficulty of defence

But even given the organization, the cooperation and the courage, would we have had the tools? How does one first ex- plain and then defend, to an uncomprehending skeptic, the Catholic position and philosophy of education when one doesn't know it oneself? We haven't had clear catechesis for thirty years, and for that our clergy and hierarchy must take the lion's share of the responsibility. Deficient as simple catechesis has been in the years since Vatican II, what is perhaps more relevant to our political battle, is that even at the peak of our strength years ago, there was no training in apologetics and there has never been any Catholic higher education in Newfoundland whatsoever. Most adult Catholics' formal instruction in the faith stopped at the end of grade eight or ten.

Wells's depiction, eagerly bruited by a compliant media, thus had some natural, historic resonance with a great many Catholics. But Catholics bought into it principally, I believe, because by now we were suffering from the Stockholm syndrome after the many years of intense coverage of the Mount Cashel scandal. With no voice of our own in the media, and nowhere to turn for succour, many Catholics came to identify with their 'captors,' the CBC. [Note to reader: CBC refers to the national broadcasting media Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.] They learn about their Church from the CBC, and see her through CBC eyes.

Once more, even this is not surprising. The Catholics in Newfoundland have permitted their consciences to be formed by cable TV, MTV and Oprah for years. These Catholics see "their" Church today as a human institution like any other. Identifying "Church" with clergy and bishops, they think it's largely the Church's own fault because in many ways her officers act like those of secular institutions, trying to be relevant to the modem world, being communal and horizontal, rather than having the courage to be a sign of contradiction to the world, emphasizing its divine character, its vertical and transcendent orientation.

For decades we've been living off the spiritual capital of our ancestors, and we're overdrawn at the Bank of God's Grace because we haven't been making deposits.

Catholic faith leached out

Our schools' vibrant Catholicism of earlier days has been leached out of them progressively over the years. It was heart- breaking to see our side defending the preservation of Catholic schools on the basis of their distinctiveness, and on the fact that the Catholic world-view permeates the entire curriculum and ethos of the school, when most of those making this argument knew that either it was no longer true or at best that the schools were pale shadows of their former selves. (Even so, they were still Catholic schools, remaining superior to the others!)

Newfoundland's educational system may have been called "denominational," but as it was fully publicly funded, and there was no purely public school system, it's equally accurate to say our system has for years in fact been a public system. The title “denominational” camouflaged the reality, thereby salving and soothing the consciences of the clergy, indeed the consciences of all parties, and of all denominations.

And what of parents? It is often said that either they abdicated their responsibility, or that they were too trusting - they assumed that the children were receiving sound Catholic education in our schools. But should they not have been alerted by what they experienced themselves in Church on Sundays, by which they could have put two and two together? If they hadn't heard for years from the pulpit a clear, sound, forthright and courageous sermon on any of the vital doctrines, why should they have assumed their children were getting anything better in schools?

Bait & switch

Notwithstanding all these criticisms, it is too harsh to say that Catholic resistance collapsed. For years and through two referenda, we did put up a valiant struggle. Despite everything, weak as we were, with all our shortcomings, and strong as our opponents were, it still required them to lie to win.

These lies were the Liberal governments' calculated ambiguities. In the September 1997 referendum, a great many people had been bamboozled into believing that "religious education" in a new Tobin common school system in fact meant confessional religious instruction, as presently exists in the denominationally shared 'joint service' schools. But that this was not the government's intent was clarified so late in the game—and we had no media of our own to publicize the clarification—that the damage was irreversible.

We know who the Father of Lies is. Cardinal Ratzinger noted that ambiguity is the mark of the demonic. Marshall McLuhan said in a 1972 letter that the modern media are engaged in a Luciferian conspiracy against the truth. And Larry Henderson, a former editor of the Catholic Register, and now of Challenge, once said that the most dangerous force in society today is the power of the media. The Newfoundland schools question proves those gentlemen prophets.

Well before them, though, Pope St. Pius X said: "In vain will you build churches, give missions, found schools - all your work, all your efforts will be destroyed if you are not able to wield the offensive and defensive weapon of a loyal and sincere Catholic Press, I would make any sacrifice, even to pawning my ring, pectoral cross and soutane, in order to support a Catholic paper."

That EWTN, the world's largest religious network with 1,600 affiliates broadcasting in 34 countries, can be denied entry to Canada "opposed in part by CCCB bureaucrats" can only be called demonic. Is it too much to think that had we had EWTN reaching Canadian homes, we might have preserved our schools? That EWTN might cement some of the cracks between home, church and school in Newfoundland and other provinces?

People cannot respond to Christ's Truth unless it is first preached. Concerned Catholics must make a specific apostolate out of media work, as his Vicars have called upon us to do in Miranda Prorsus (1957), Inter Mirifica (1963), and the annual Papal Messages for World Communications Day. We must promote journals such as Catholic Insight far and wide. And we must insist that the CRTC reverse its decision and grant a licence to Mother Angelica's EWTN. Otherwise we will be still further scapegoated and marginalized. And His Message along with us.

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RELATED:

On the Subject of Catholic Education
Pope Emeritus Benedict's address to Catholic educators at the Catholic University of America 

 

Thursday, June 20, 2013

Catholics And The Government: What God-Ordained Relationship?




Excerpt:

As a follower of Jesus Christ .. no Christian can admit or support the idea that the state is superior .. or even that they are equal. That’s quite a statement. The state is subordinate to the Church. Period.

This is not earth-shaking news to the faithful Catholic – but it is shattering news to the general population who has come to view the state as the guardian and protector and even the grantor of their individual liberty.

Such a view is not Catholic .. is not rooted in faith in Jesus Christ. But so many people simply travel along the road paved by the western democracies which has led to the conclusion by the general populace that liberty means doing whatever you want and that government’s role is to protect this false notion.

Government has taken on this mantle – the advancement of whatever someone wants to do as his “right” and using the powers of the state to enforce that – even over and above the questions of morality.

A sure mark of the ascendancy of the state over the Church is when immorality is given the protection of the law.

From that point .. the next step is the outlawing of what is moral.