Modernism vs Catholicism

 

 Have you noticed a trend lately that Catholic Tradition, and little "t" traditions are slowly fading each year? (click on links)

• German Priest raps homily  

Or this:

• The "Chicken Dance" at Holy Communion 

...and this compilation:

• Clown mass, Halloween costume mass, pagan ritual mass, priest blessing people with a guitar, rock mass, dinner table mass with food and sodas on the table -- and more. 

 This is what happens when modernism infiltrates any organization. Modernism is not a trend to simply "update" the Church to reflect modern time (as some would say) but to supplant the Church's teachings with relativism.

Relativism is poison, not only for the Church but for society as a whole. Relativism holds that there are no absolutes, no objective truths and one person's reality is just as valid as another person's view on the world and religion. Of course this is a straw argument. Why? Because you will find out very quickly that when you confront a relativist on this argument -- they will vehemently defend it as an absolute truth. If you don't agree with them, all of a sudden, your stance, your world view is invalid and only THEY are right.

This is what is happening in the Church today. The term "synodality" is based in relativism. The phrase "lived experience" is being touted as one of the cornerstones in forming Church policy instead Sacred Scripture, Sacred Tradition and Dogmas of the Faith (which contain objective Truth). Bishops celebrate the opening of mosques and Pope Leo celebrated the ordination of a woman, Anglican bishop. Pope Francis declared that, "All religions are paths to God". Well, if other religions are all "paths to God", why be Catholic? And why would the SSPX matter so much to Pope Leo? Because the SSPX is the elephant in the room against relativism and the outcome is as stated in the previous paragraph.

 Fr. James Martin, a pro LGBT priest (and is working feverishly for same sex marriage) stated that "St. Paul got it wrong" regarding same sex relationships. The Catholic Church teaches that the Bible is inerrant. Fr. Martin states that the Word of God is capable of errors given the times in which we live. Relativism.

In addition, Cardinal Fernandez, the author of Heal Me with Your Mouth -- the Art of Kissing and Mystical Passion: Spirituality and Sensuality (with some rather graphic descriptions) is now head of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith. In 1995 he wrote a 46 page essay declaring all will be saved:

“I believe that everything we have reflected on allows us to say the following: ‘I firmly trust that everyone will be saved; a trust that is not based on a mere wish, nor on my compassion for humanity, but on what I know of God and His specific plans thanks to His Revelation,'” Fernández wrote. “It is, then, a ‘most firm confidence’ that is grounded in reality, in the divine way of dealing with humanity in this specific plan of salvation.” 

Relativisim -- socialism of the soul. 

And most Catholics are unaware that only 39% of Catholics believe that the Eucharist is the true Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Christ. You see, if you reduce the Eucharist to an ephemeral symbol,  relativistic ideas about the Eucharist can be had. This can't be done with an absolute, empirical object, namely, the actual Body of Christ.

So, you see, this is how the Holy Mass has become such a travesty in some parishes and Dioceses and yet, they remain in full communion with the "synodal church". The Mass has been stripped of anything absolute, anything objectively True. That is, unless you challenge them with Truth and then you will see that what they hold to be "true" will come spilling out and they will give you every argument as to why THEY have the truth. They are objectifying relativism -- an oxymoron, indeed.

Remember, by definition, objective Truth is still true regardless of "lived experience" culture, place or time or semantics -- Truth remains unaltered. Let us pray for Pope Leo, fast and offer sacrifices to our Lord during these tumultuous times. 

Ave Maria. 

Mysterious Man, Mysterious Staircase

 

 

The year is 1852. The road is dusty and the journey was as rough as the dirt road they traveled on. A group of seven nuns of the Order of The Little Society of the Friends of Mary Under the Cross of Jesus traveled from Kentucky to Santa Fe, New Mexico. Their Mission? To start a school for children in a remote area where the educational needs of children were not being met.

Now that the stage is set – Hello and welcome to All Things Odd and Strange! I’m Lu, your host of All Things Odd and Strange where we explore the odd in a slightly strange way.

Now that we’ve arrived in New Mexico, let our story begin. Bishop Jean Baptiste Lamy was the first appointed Bishop of Santa Fe, New Mexico. He realized that a school would be necessary to service the educational needs of the children in the area. He was busy, at the time, building the Cathedral of Santa Fe. Since he had an architect and builders at his disposal, he thought of using them to build the chapel at the Loretto Convent.

In 1878, an unfortunate event took place. The architect died, leaving the chapel unfinished. Well, most of it was complete but there was no way to get from the main floor to the choir loft, and he left no instructions on how to build a stairway in this very tight and narrow area. You see, if they built the stairs like as is custom, they would lose about 1/3 of there pew space in an already small chapel. The sisters contacted several workmen on their situation, however, all of them said it would be impossible to construct a staircase without losing the precious space.

This situation went on for a few years. It is now 1880. By this time the sisters were out of options and began a novena to St. Joseph. A novena is a prayer said for nine days asking for the Saint (very holy person) to pray with them to Jesus. It’s like asking a friend or prayer group to pray for and with you during some difficulty. As the Jesus said Himself, “Where two or three are gathered in prayer, there I am in their midst.”

At the end of the novena, the sisters were going about their daily duties when they heard a knock on the door. One of the sisters opened it only to see standing there an older man, a donkey and a bag of woodworking tools. The man had an affable countenance and a calm demeanor. He was there to help. The sisters were overjoyed. The man had but one request, that he work undisturbed and no one should enter the chapel while he was working. The sisters agreed.

So, the work began. Day after day the man showed up like clockwork and left as quietly as he arrived. The workspace was always left tidy. The sisters didn’t speak with him other than Mother offering him some water before he went into the chapel. The sisters were not ones for small talk. Matter of fact, they didn’t even know his name and he never mentioned it. This went on for 6 months until one day, the man left without anyone noticing. The stairs were complete. The sisters inquired as to his whereabouts, even going to the lumber yard to pay for the lumber he used. The manager at the lumber yard said they had no record of purchase from such a gentleman and their inventory remained undisturbed. The carpenter and his donkey simply vanished. Even to this very day, you can ask the sisters at the Loretto Convent who was that carpenter who showed up when they needed help, and they will answer with moral certitude – St. Joseph.

 

If that were then of the story, you wouldn’t be hearing it from me. In my opinion, this is where the story starts getting interesting. You see, this was no ordinary staircase – noooo. Come to find out, the construction of this staircase leaves all carpenters and builders scratching their heads. The construction of this staircase in the form of a double helix without any center support. There are no nails or screws used, just wooden pegs and has two 360 degree turns within a rise of only 20 feet. The number of steps? Thirty-three. Same as the reported age of Jesus’ lifespan. Oh! And that’s not all. The wood it was made out of doesn’t exist. It is of the spruce family, but the species of spruce, get this,-- is unknown.

Well, my friends, I leave this story with you to further research for yourself. All I know is I find this account a bit odd and strange. How about you? Until next time, I’ll see you – on the flip side!

 

 

 

Spiritual Warfare and Feelings

  

 Everyone is familiar with the image of the pesky little demon who sits on our left shoulder and the ever vigilant angel who is forever on our right. This image is supposed to be symbolic of our constant battle between that which beckons us to choose the good and that which tempts us toward the bad. If only it were that simple.

 Sometimes, that little demon is not interested in influencing us toward the "bad" but instead inflicts on us a much more cunning move of making us feel a certain way. Not that all our less than honorable feelings are inspired by the minions of the father of lies but more often than not, it is those feelings that seem to come out of nowhere. One minute, we are peacefully going about our business, and the next moment feelings of irritation, fear, and/or anxiety come over us like a wave. In addition, the evil little minion is more than happy to suggest why we feel the way we do. Now, negative entities can't read our minds but they are much more intelligent than we are. After all, they are fallen angels. They are able to observe our actions and reactions and make highly educated guesses as to what we might be thinking. Moreover, they do have the capability of meddling with our emotions along with our imagination and memories. 

The evil minions often use our emotions, imagination and memories against us in the most subtle of ways and the most effective way, apparently, is they use these faculties to convince us that God does not care about us. And here is the clencher -- God doesn't care about us because He is indifferent, no -- the soul comes to the conclusion that God doesn't care about us because we are not worth caring about. We come to this false conclusion because that is the way we feel. We spend massive amounts of time trying to convince ourselves that God loves us and cares about us -- about YOU in particular.

These feelings, if not dealt with appropriately with fasting, prayer, the Sacraments and spiritual guidance cause despair, anxiety, depression and asking if life is even worth it. This truly is a time of testing and trial. For the devout soul, it's a time of walking through that valley of death and God is nowhere to be found. For the less devout there's not much of a struggle. They just give up and move on to anything that will make them feel better. But, of course, both you and I know it's a ruse.

So, it would be well to remember that we should never let ourselves be led around by our feelings. Granted, our Good Lord will, at times, allow us sweet spiritual consolations but we are counseled by saints and mystics that we are to love, with all our heart the God of our consolations and not the consolations of our God.

God Bless 

The Science Behind the Shroud of Turin

 

 

The Shroud of Turin is the purported burial cloth of Jesus. The burial cloth itself is about 11 feet long where, according to Jewish burial customs, the body is laid at one end and the cloth is then brought over the top of the head, then covering the front of the body. Kinda like a big “U”.

So, where did the Shroud’s story begin? The first documented historical mention of the Shroud was from 1354 -1355. Geoffrey DeCharny  had it housed in a church in Lirey, France. Who he obtained the Shroud from is unclear. Some speculate he obtained it from the Knights Templar, but it is not certain. When Geoffrey DeCharny passed, the Shroud was given to his granddaughter, Margaret. In turn, Margaret removed it from the church and hid it to protect it during the 100 yrs war and sought out a permanent place for its safekeeping. Margaret was not married, was in a state of financial insecurity, and had no heir to give it to for protection. So, she decided to give the Shroud to the Savoy family in exchange for the Shroud’s protection and personal financial security. It has remained in the possession of the Savoy’s and came under control of the Holy See in 1985.

Here is where it gets interesting. The year is 1898 and the Shroud was now displayed in the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist in Turin Italy. In honor of the 100th anniversary of the Savoy Dynasty, the latest technology (a camera) was going to take a picture of the Shroud. The first picture of the Shroud was taken by Secondo Pia, an Italian lawyer. Mr. Pia was in no way prepared for what he was about to experience. As the film was developing, the image of a crucified man began to clearly emerge! It was as though the negative was a positive and that the Shroud as seen by the human eye was the negative. Everyone was astounded at what they witnessed! Years later, the buzz continued and caught the attention of another photographer, Giuseppe Enrie. He also took a photo of the Shroud in 1931. Photographic technology had improved somewhat since 1898. The developing process produced the same results, however with even greater detail.

The Shroud of Turin fell under great scrutiny and scientists became very interested in the Shroud, not so much as a religious relic but as a scientific artifact. The Shroud of Turin Research Project was founded in 1978. It was a team of 33 scientists from all over the world. However, things went quickly awry. In1988, Michael Tite ( a self-proclaimed atheist) and crew labeled it a “medieval hoax” after a shoddy carbon dating test was done on a repaired scrap of fiber from the Shroud. In addition, there was supposed to be 7 labs unknowingly carbon dating this contaminated sample, however, only 3 actually did. The Shroud was in a fire in 1532 and parts of it were repaired by the nuns who tended to it. This bad press lingered for several years. I actually remember when all this carbon dating kerfuffle took place. My first reaction was – Didn’t they say it was in a fire in the Middle Ages? Won’t that throw off a carbon dating test? I didn’t buy into this apparent definitive result and, thank goodness, neither did many other scientists.

The Shroud was also examined by scientists at JPL, Los Alamos, Sandia Labs and the Air Force Academy. None of them could explain how the image was produced in the Shroud. It wasn’t paint or a stain and it superficially laid on top of the linen. Each Lab concluded the image was not man-made. Two Air Force Academy physicists Prof. Eric Jumper and Prof. John Jackson used a VP8 image analyzer on the Shroud. A VP8 analyzer is used by NASA to study the surfaces of planets to as to get an image of their topography. When applied to the face of the image on the Shroud of Turin, the face became 3D! This imager did not produce the same results on any other picture – just the Shroud.

The dating issue was solved as time progressed and technology became more advanced. Pollen samples show that the Shroud was in Jerusalem and the way the linen has degraded, they can date it around 2000 years. There are also coins over the eyes (another Jewish burial custom of the time) turned out to be a coin that was only in circulation for a few years during the time of Jesus. Two years ago, the Institute of Crystalography used wide angle X-ray scattering to date the Shroud. The date came in at a narrow margin of 2000 years.

 Okay… so it was a crucified man – but was it Jesus? The brutal way this crucified man was tortured is not typical of Roman crucifixion. The number of lashes he received, the crown of thorns, the severe beating and the lance wound to the heart – all reported in the Gospels, are present. Each one of these horrendous acts is historically atypical and having them present on one man is statistically impossible. Scientists were able to determine the blood type as well. It is AB. AB is rare and mostly found in Middle Eastern men. It’s interesting to note that this blood type is also found in documented Eucharistic miracles.

Because of today’s technology, there is now a preponderance of evidence that the Shroud of Turin is the burial cloth of Jesus. Another conclusion is that the image was most likely made by perfectly parallel particle beams of light consisting of 34 thousand trillion watt of energy in a 40^th of a billion of a second. There have been over 500,000 hours of scientific research (so far) spent on studying the Shroud of Turin. Also,102 academic disciplines have submitted articles in peer reviewed journals. The trend of calling the Shroud of Turin a “Medieval Hoax” is quickly approaching the dust bin of history, and it is science that is placing it there.

Personally, I find it no surprise that it took today’s technology to start decoding Shroud. And, they are still finding more on how the image was transferred using laser technology. It’s as if the Shroud was left to us knowing in the future, at the right time, when we have the right technology, humanity will need this discovery most.  Or… is the timing just a coincidence?

As St. Thomas Aquinas once said, “For those who have faith no explanation is necessary. For those without faith, no explanation is possible.”

If you are interested in delving deeper into this subject, I suggest you read Body of Proof, By Jeremiah Johnston. He documents much of the interesting scientific evidence in full detail.

 

 

SSPX and Pope Leo XIV -- How is This Going To End?

 

 

St. Michael, Pray For Us

As you have heard, Fr. Pagliarani, Superior General of The Society Of St. Pius X, is planning to ordain Bishops in June of this year, putting the ball in Pope Leo's court. However, Fr. Pagliarani provides a written document as to why he feels it is necessary and his explanation is not unreasonable. Let us pray that Pope Leo XIV truly listens to Fr. Pagliarani and notes both the validity and factual evidence that he brings to the table. We need to stop watering down our faith just because others may not understand our doctrines. This is a failure on behalf of our clergy to teach the doctrines of the Faith and is in no way a fault of the Faith itself. -- Listen carefully to the following video:

Watch Video Here