Mahalo Dear Son

Lenten Improvement - Humility Cont.

The following is taken from Improve:Now is the Acceptable Time! distributed by the Archconfraternity of Christian Mothers.

Note: Fr. Lester has kindly permitted me to use these excerpts daily. Please click HERE to learn more about the Archconfraternity of Christian Mothers and to consider joining them as a member.

"Humility prompts us to admit our gifts but not to forget the source of them,
God Himself. So, if one is more talented, if one is wealthier, if one is a better cook, singer or typist, it is virtuous to admit such abilities provided their source, God, is recognized. God requires that we acknowledge this dependence on His goodness. It certainly would not be humility for a beautiful girl to deny that she is good-looking, but must quietly admit to herself that her beauty is a gift from God."

Lenten Daily Meditation - Tuesday

The following is from Mark E. Thibodeaux, S.J.'s How Shall I Fast?

Tuesday: Isaiah 1:10, 16-20

It is not enough that you simply cease doing sin. You must replace sin with virtue. You must “redress the wronged, hear the orphan’s plea, defend the widow.” Today, find out the particulars of how to volunteer for some organization that serves the poor.

Corporal Acts of Mercy - Visiting the Sick

Picture courtesy of Christianity for Children

Visiting the Sick

The other day our priest told us he was sick in bed all day. In the evening he got a call from a parishioner from a neighboring parish looking for a priest for a dying man. Father actually got out of his sick bed to attend to the dying man. That got me to thinking of the many people who don't ask for a priest and who may die without the final absolution. If you know someone who is very sick or elderly, please suggest to them that they have the anointing of the sick.

This Lent, we should all try to visit the sick in the hospital or the housebound.

The following are prayers for the sick:

Prayer for Help in Time of Sickness

Lord Jesus Christ,
Incarnate Son of God,
for our salvation
You willed to be born in a stable,
to endure poverty, suffering, and sorrow
throughout your life,
and finally to experience the bitter death of the cross.

I beg You to say to Your Father on my behalf;
"Father, forgive him/her."
At my death, say to me:
"This day you shall be with me in paradise."
And let me throw myself on Your mercy:
"into Your hands I commend my spirit."

Prayer for the Restoration of Health

O Sacred Heart of Jesus
I come to ask you for the gift of restored health
that I may serve You more faithfully
and love You more sincerely than in the past.
I want to be well and strong
if it is Your will
and redounds to Your glory.

If on the other hand it is Your will
that my sickness continue,
I want to bear it with patience.
If in Your divine wisdom
I am to be restored to health and strength,
I will strive to show my gratitude
by a constant and faithful service rendered to You.

Lenten Improvement - Humility (cont.)

The following is taken from Improve:Now is the Acceptable Time! distributed by the Archconfraternity of Christian Mothers.

Note: Fr. Lester has kindly permitted me to use these excerpts daily. Please click HERE to learn more about the Archconfraternity of Christian Mothers and to consider joining them as a member.

"Humility gives us a sense of values. It keeps a man in his rightful place as a creature, not a creator. Pride shouts, "Show off. Act big!' Humility whispers, 'Be hones with yourself! Know your place.' Humility jolts the proud daydreamer, the castle-builder, the bubble blower-jolts him back into the land of facts and of reality."

Lenten Daily Meditation - Monday

The following is from Mark E. Thibodeaux, S.J.'s How Shall I Fast?


Monday: Luke 6:36-38

"Perhaps more than any other sin, Jesus abhors the sin of being judgmental of others. Do you judge a person by race, age, sexual orientation, ethnicity, ideology or religion? Today, or sometime this week, on the Internet or in the
library, research and try better to understand the group you’re most easily tempted to judge. "

Regent Restates Vatican's Anti-Masonry Position

What is Freemasonry? Click to read.

Says Its Philosophies Are Incompatible With Church

ROME, MARCH 2, 2007 (Zenit.org).- The Church has not changed its ruling on Catholic membership in the Masons, said the regent of the Apostolic Penitentiary.

Bishop Gianfranco Girotti made this statement Thursday at a conference on the topic of Freemasonry held at the St. Bonaventure Pontifical Theological Faculty.

The bishop presided over the congress held in cooperation with the Socio-Religious Research and Information Group of Italy. Officials of Masonic associations and grand masters also took part in the meeting.

Bishop Girotti reminded his listeners that the Church has always criticized the concepts and philosophy of Freemasonry, considering them incompatible with the Catholic faith.

He mentioned the last official reference document, "Declaration on Masonic Associations," which was signed by the then prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, on Nov. 26, 1983.

The text states that since the principles of Masonic associations "have always been considered irreconcilable with the doctrine of the Church," membership in them, therefore, "remains forbidden."

"The faithful who enroll in Masonic associations are in a state of grave sin and may not receive holy Communion," adds the declaration signed by Cardinal Ratzinger, who is now Benedict XVI.

Father Zbigniew Suchecki, an expert in the subject, quoted number 1374 of the Code of Canon Law, which reads: "Whoever is inscribed in an association that plots against the Church must be punished with a just penalty; whoever promotes or directs that association, must be banned."

"Masonry's attempts to express divine truths are based on relativism and do not agree with the principles of the Christian faith," said the Conventual Franciscan.

Bishop Girotti made reference to the statements of some priests who have declared publicly their membership in Masonry and called for the intervention of "their direct superiors," not excluding the possibility that "measures of a canonical character might come from the Holy See."
ZE07030204

Prepping for the "Titanic" Fraud

The following is from the Catholic League's E-Letter:

Catholic League president Bill Donohue addressed James Cameron’s documentary on Jesus’ tomb that will be shown on the Discovery Channel this Sunday:

“Before watching ‘The Lost Tomb of Jesus,’ we urge viewers to learn how
Christianity has been treated by members of the cultural elite during the Lenten
season in recent times. By clicking here, it is possible to access a short
review of books, articles and television programs that have appeared since 1990
on this subject. Keep in mind that no other religion is subjected to such
intense scrutiny as Christianity. Moreover, it is not a matter of coincidence
that the chosen time for such questioning is almost always during Lent, right in
time for Easter.

“Prior to 1990, there is no evidence that Christianity was microexamined the way it is today. To be sure, the Jesus Seminar was founded in 1985, and its contributors are partly responsible for the current practice of sowing seeds of doubt about Christianity during Lent. Three years later, Martin Scorcese gave us ‘The Last Temptation of Christ,’ but it wasn’t until the 90s that Christianity was routinely put on the firing line.

“Just as every Christmas season Christians have to fight attempts to neuter the meaning of Christmas, every Lenten season Christians have to endure another round of wild-eyed speculation about their religion. None of this is by accident—it’s all by design. The time has come for Catholics and Protestants to respond to the assaults that take place during Lent with the same vigor they have shown in recent years fighting the cultural fascists at Christmastime. They should keep in mind, however, that the ones responsible for this onslaught tend to come from inside their own ranks. There aren’t enough non-Christians to pull this off by themselves.

“If the professional religious skeptics don’t have an animus against Christianity, they can prove me wrong by subjecting Islam to the same kind of relentless and
intrusive questioning during Ramadan. One piece of advice: know how to dial
911.”

Our Lord's Plea for Eucharistic Reparation

Picture of Alexandrina Maria da Costa (1904-1955) courtesy of The Vatican

One of the books I am currently reading this Lent is Alexandrina: The Agony and The Glory by Francis Johnson and published by Tan Books.

For those of you not familiar with Alexandrina , she was a young girl living in Portugal. At the age of 14, while attempting to escape from a rapist, she jumped from a window and was paralyzed for life. She suffered the Passion of Christ on Fridays in expiation of sins. She had conversations with our Lord and was viciously attacked by the devil for approximately 10 years. During the last 13 years of her life she ate or drank nothing but Holy Communion. Her constant message was that of Our Lady of Fatima, "Do penance, sin no more, pray the Rosary, receive the Eucharist".

The following is what our Lord told Alexandrina:

"Keep Me company in the Blessed Sacrament. I remain in the tabernacle night and day, waiting to give My love and grace to all who would visit Me. But so few come. I am so abandoned, so lonely, so offended...Pray for the unhappy sinners who, slaves of their passions, do not remember that they have a soul to save and that an eternity awaits them in a short while...Many men do not believe in My existence; they do not believe that I live in the tabernacle. They curse Me. Others believe, but do not love Me and do not visit Me; they live as if I were not there. I have chosen you to keep me company in those little refuges. Many of them are so wretched, but what riches inside!...Like Mary Magdalene, you have chosen the better part. You have chosen to love Me in the tabernacles where you can contemplate Me, not with the eyes of the body, but with those of the soul. I am truly present there as in Heaven - Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity. You have chosen that which is most sublime."

2nd Sunday of Lent - Living Lent with Cardinal Rigali

H/T to Zenit