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@sainttheresact inviting all visitors from @dioceseofbridgeport and beyond to our #PerpertualEucharisticAdoration chapel (at Trumbull, Connecticut)

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Family Liturgy at @sainttheresact

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@sainttheresact Vacation Bible Camp in the @dioceseofbridgeport is quickly approaching! The camp leaders and volunteers are eager to spread God’s loving message to our children through a fun, faith filled week. This year our campers will focus on the theme, Our Lady of Fatima and our mission is to share the message that Our Lady of Fatima is the one who points us always to her son, Jesus, and gives us the strength and protection through her intercession to follow Him. Our camp welcomes children entering PreK4-Grade 5. Registration forms are available on our website and due by May 26, 2017. Camp runs from June 26, 2017-June 30, 2017. http://www.sttheresatrumbull.org/vacation-bible-camp-summer-2017/ #VacationBibleCamp (at Trumbull, Connecticut)

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Easter Mass Schedule

Saturday April 15, 2017  - 8:00pm Vigil Mass

Sunday April 16, 2017 7am | 8am | 9:30am | 11am | 12:30pm

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Week of 4/9/2017

Today is Palm Sunday, Christ’s entrance into Jerusalem, as we begin the holiest week of the entire Church year. All human history has been leading up to this moment; the God man Jesus Christ, the most innocent man who ever lived, is about to undergo the worst suffering of anyone in human flesh ever. Holy Week is constructed precisely to have us walk with Christ and engender deep within our soul a powerful appreciation for the incredible sacrificial love God has instituted. Much of the world’s attitude today towards God can be summarized by “I will worship you on my terms, not Your terms.” Here we are reminded that only by following Christ’s example do we worship and love God authentically.

Palm Sunday intensifies the Lenten call to self-examination. The honest self-examination realizes there is always much work to do, as St. Paul and many other saints admit. Now that it has been over five weeks since the beginning of Lent, where do I stand? Am I a changed person? Are there new habits or dispositions that I have established? Or am I exactly the same as I was before Lent? These are not to beat oneself up, but only to challenge oneself to grow closer to the Lord, even if it means just a few extra minutes of prayer each day. When we wonder at this point in time how to yet make the most of Lent, bringing the family to these liturgies is the perfect way.

Holy Week itself has incredibly beautiful traditions that magnify for us the stunning truth of Christ’s sacrifice. This year we will have the ancient tradition of Tenebrae at 7:30pm Wednesday, which is the solemn singing of the Divine office that commemorates the death of the God man Jesus Christ. It is beautiful, reverent and sobering as the choir sings different pieces and candles are extinguished signifying the coming darkness of the day of the Crucifixion and entombment of Christ. The chanting and solemn readings remove us from the world and deeply enable focus on Our Lord’s sacrifice. Each year we have been growing in numbers of people coming!

Holy Thursday at 7:30pm we have Mass of the Lord’s Supper which commemorates not only the institution of the Eucharist but also the Catholic priesthood. At the Last Supper, the Lord even washed the feet of his twelve apostles, the first priests, as a signal of utter humility and an example for all priests to imitate. The mass concludes with adoration at the chapel of the Blessed Mother until midnight. The main tabernacle is now empty until the end of the Easter vigil, to signify Christ’s removal from us because of His passion. Good Friday commemorates the death of Our Lord. The 3:00pm service raises the mind to a solemn remembrance of the greatest act of love in history, with veneration of the cross and distribution of Holy Communion. Nowhere is Holy Mass celebrated in the Church on this day, as it commemorates THE first sacrifice on Calvary that is represented at every Mass throughout the year. Friday night, we will have our annual Mary’s Way of the Cross at 7:30pm.

Finally, Saturday night at 8pm will be the Easter Vigil, the most dramatic Mass of the year and the ultimate celebration of Christ’ resurrection. The church begins in darkness and only candlelight to signify the night of Christ’s resurrection. The beauty of the readings, the music, and the RCIA candidates being fully received into the Church enable the whole parish to experience joy in the most profound way. Come to each of these liturgies and walk the Passion with our Blessed Lord. The deepest peace our heart craves comes only from union with the Crucified and Risen Lord

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Week of 4/28/2017

As we come closer to Holy Week and the Passion of Our Lord, we come face to face with the mystery of suffering and the grace it can bring. Years ago, a wise and elderly priest mentor of mine told me about a blind man named Matthew he met in 1952 who would attend every daily mass of St. Padre Pio’s. Padre Pio asked Matthew once if he would like to be cured. The man replied no, saying that he thought a cure would endanger his soul. To our world, an outlandish response. But, considering how Padre Pio accepted that answer, we must look for the presence of a mysterious grace that underlies such a response. It remains a powerful testimony to what St. Paul called the folly of the cross. This man, undoubtedly influenced by the remarkable holiness of St. Padre Pio, saw in his infirmity a reminder of his fragility, as well as protection from the pride of the world. Personal pain is permitted by God not as punishment but as a means to remind ourselves that we need God, to overcome selfishness, and that we need to understand what God did for us on the cross. The blindness is a handicap to the world, but to the supernatural reality of Matthew, it was a reminder of Christ’s suffering, and a means for growing in holiness; it was actually liberating for him. Such a personal discovery on Matthew’s part was the result of God’s grace; only the Lord’s holiness could have such an effect. In our own world, we are confronted by so much pain. Our Lord sees the amount of pain each person suffers from and wishes deeply to strengthen us, to heal us, to reveal to us that through. His cross He will help us overcome that pain. He will even turn that pain into a source of spiritual strength if we seek Him. All of sudden the cross becomes an anchor and ladder that grounds us and lets us reach heights we could not have reached all by ourselves. Jesus embraces and kisses His cross in the movie the Passion of the Christ, to show that while the Cross seemed to be a triumph of the world and the devil over God, it really becomes the victory sign of God when it is embraced with love. As we prepare for launching perpetual adoration here at St. Theresa’s, we are reminded yet again about the worst blindness, sin and ignorance of God. Sin waters down our passion for God; ignorance of Church teaching means ignorance of the way to heaven. The wisest are not the worldly successful; the wisest are those who see God and worship Him with great love in the hidden grace of the Holy Eucharist. When we reflect on our pain and frailty, the best salve is always the intense presence of God. By worshiping God in the Holy Eucharist, we sensitize the soul to the infinite generosity, love and healing power of God. We impassioned the soul to live for virtue. We find great joy in bringing others to Christ. And, we come to realize more deeply that infirmities and difficulties actually enable deeper holiness and thus deeper peace. To those of the world, nonsense. But to St. Thomas Aquinas, St Pope John Paul II, the soon to be saints Jacinta and Francisco of Fatima, this is the Truth. Pain initiates a journey into self knowledge; the anger or bitterness that may result from it becomes a gauge for which to admit to ourselves we have much to learn and bad habits to break. But Jesus walks with us every step of the way, and His Cross supplies us with towering strength. Let us always remember to seek the Lord always, that through His presence in the sacraments and prayer. He will lead us to the greatest victory. It is only through the Cross do we find true love, freedom, and eternal peace. God love you

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Week of 3/26/2017

“By His wounds we are healed (1 Peter 2:24).” It seems a paradox to the ears; how can we be healed by someone else’s wounds? What heals us is the sacrifice of Our Lord and the incredible, infinite love He showed despite the scourging and crucifixion. The wounds inflicted on Our Lord are wounds caused by hatred, but! His response was one of infinite love. Through His Passion Our Lord teaches us many treasures.

Why was the God of Love so hated by those He loved, and even put to death? St. Augustine asked this same question 1600 years ago, and answered it by saying we come so subtly engrossed in our own pride, that God’s entrance into the world, like for King Herod, becomes a threat to the little kingdoms we set up for ourselves. In humility we must admit that we may say we accept God completely, but when called to absolute fidelity we can balk, like St. Peter or others, because of pride, because of habit, because our world view cannot be wrong. But then comes the Passion of Our Lord, which if we really meditate on it with great grace, it should melt our hearts with love and sorrow. It reminds us that every word Our Lord teaches us is a salve for the soul; it has a healing property that can work wonders if we only accept the whole word with love. God is incredibly patient and loving, and walks with us as we struggle to grow in perfection. The Ten Commandments, the Sermon on the Mount, every parable, the temptations in the desert, and of course the Passion and death, all become striking words and images meant to jar us out of worldly distractions and remind us of the things of eternity. When we contemplate that God becomes a man who has His flesh ripped from His bones, who is derided and humiliated by all of us, then crucified, we are called to recognize life must change, that the restlessness I feel each day is rooted in the desire to be healed in my soul from pride, from sin, from my own fragility that is desperate for God’s stunning, ever healing divine love. When Christ is followed, the soul has peace; when resisted, anger, resentment, grudges, and desire to strike at people grows. Healing is exactly the nature of confession. Many times someone will joke and say “hey if I confess the roof will fall in,” or “if I confess you will need five days, Father.” No!!! I never had a confession that lasted more than a few minutes; unless someone has some questions they wished to discuss. Sometimes confession can be seen as something only for those who sin badly, but not me! In history, we see saints frequent confession, John Paul II and St. Mother Teresa went once a week; while so did many others. The healing experienced in confession comes from the deep contrition one feels for sins, and the supernatural grace of God. How to go to confession? Just enter and ask the priest for help; he will be happy to help! The supernatural healing of confession is a great gift from God that gives us peace, strength, and hope. By His wounds God gave us confession; through it we have incredible mercy, love, and joyful freedom.

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St. Theresa Roman Catholic Church Trumbull CT

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We are registering Eucharistic Guardians (Adorers) as we prepare for our Perpetual Eucharistic Adoration Chapel to open. Committed adorers are needed 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Parishioners and visitors are invited to be part of this lay apostolate. http://www.sttheresatrumbull.org/perpetual-adoration-sign-up-form/ (at St.Theresa Trumbull CT St.Therese Lisieux Council 8013)

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Week of 3/12/2017

In 2010, the city of Juarez, Mexico was melting down in violence. Competing drug cartels were kicking up the murder rate to 40 persons a day or more. Over 4000 in a year. Soldiers began to give up. Then the parishioners of a small parish started perpetual adoration of Our Lord in the Most Holy Eucharist. Within a short time, it began; 24 hours a day, seven days a week. One story was quite beautiful: a woman heading through the streets at 3am was stopped by soldiers asking where she was going. She replied: “to the chapel.” She invited them to come, where they found six other women in prayer, adoring Christ in the Holy Eucharist. The woman told the soldiers: “we are praying for you!” One soldier began praying and burst into tears. He would become a regular. More began devoting time to the chapel. Soon, the city of 1.3 million inhabitants saw a significant decrease in the number of homicides: from 3,766 in 2010 to 256 in 2015.

As we observe increased incivility in public discourse, destructive protests, and the growing violence, even being livestreamed on the internet, one asks: what is going on? The most fundamental answer is a simple parallel with the Garden of Eden: we have slowly been evicting God from our midst, and increasingly wishing to establish ourselves as gods instead. How? Through less and less attention to religious instruction, through decreased worshipping God at Mass, through believing that secular definitions of morality are superior to the Ten Commandments, and finally to see other people as enemies or adversaries, rather than as images of God. Sin is the true enemy.

Without God’s powerful presence of grace, we cannot reach our greatest potential, which is not earthly achievements but rather becoming saints. We see the inverse of this by simply looking at the lives of saints: the great “empire,” so to speak, of love and compassion of St. Teresa of Calcutta spread with over 800 convents throughout the world. Simply put, where God is lovingly and faithfully worshipped, violence is pushed back and love, compassion, self denial and virtue increase.

As we prepare here at St. Theresa’s for initiating 24 hour perpetual adoration, we remind ourselves that the single greatest tragedy is not physical loss but the diminishing of God’s presence through man’s free will rejection. But, the greatest remedy to reverse this is using our free will to engender bringing God’s tremendous presence back into the world through worship of His greatest presence: the Most Holy Eucharist. Jesus left us His incredibly powerful physical and supernatural presence in the Holy Eucharist, so that He is truly with us always, until the end of the world.

One of the great deceptions today is that crime, violence and immorality are diminished by purely human means via sociological means and laws alone. Since immorality is rooted in sin, which is supernatural damage, then any human solution must be rooted in diminishing sin. This is accomplished by a greater worship of God, a humble admission of our helplessness, and true confession of our sins. Eucharistic adoration is like a veritable missile launch against evil because we will have men, women and children praying before the Eucharist 24 hours a day. This means God can, by our free will impassioned desire, enter more deeply into our hearts, and then begin greater intensity of work on those who have wandered. Many soldiers began to return to the faith in Juarez, and many people here will as well.

Please begin planning on an hour to give in our chapel. When you sacrifice an hour to adore and worship Christ in the Eucharist, you will bring weapons of mass conversion into the world; God’s powerful grace. With families, you will see strengthened bonds of love, greater mercy, and greater ability to see God in others. Please read thoroughly the insert in this week’s bulletin; it will explain a great deal. Please come to our parish mission starting March 25th, see the bulletin announcement for details. And finally, join us in this greatest of crusades, to reinvigorate worship of God through the Most Holy Eucharist. You will receive a brochure soon in the mail. It will be the most powerful time you will spend on earth.

God love you

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Week of 3/5/2017

When we look at the unrest going on in the Middle East, there are many political analyses that offer interesting points about why this is occurring.  A big question:  is there a deeper root cause for this human restlessness?  Why do human beings rebel? In the animal world animals are motivated by survival, so they battle based on the instinct to survive physically.  The human person, while an animal in the scientific sense, battles in this world for far deeper reasons than simply living; man and woman want to live freely. They desire to choose a way of life that will bring happiness and not simply survival.  This elevates man and woman from the animal kingdom to a much higher plane.We must always remember that while we are told we have similar instincts to animals, we still have very different ones as well.  Man and woman can not only think and reason, but they can also think about thinking; this is far removed from the animal world.  God has made man and woman in His image and likeness; !therefore, our deepest instinct is to be like God.  Since God is total, infinite selfgiving love, we can only find happiness in doing the same.  We can only find happiness in true freedom, which is being united to God and participating in His freedom, which always rejects sin and leads to virtue. Adam and Eve were the first human beings to rebel. The answer to the “why” question is very extensive but still clear:  they desired to be like gods.  But one can never be like God by rebelling against Him; we can only be like God by uniting ourselves to Him.  We desire to be like God at our inner core; to be happy, to be fulfilled, to completely give of ourselves to others and have that love returned to us as well.  The revolutions that happen across history, when man turns against man, come from the desire to seize control of one’s destiny and open the way to one’s personal happiness.  The human heart is utterly restless until it rests in the love of God. Unfortunately, this desire is many times, like Adam and Eve, twisted into believing selfishness, pleasure, and power are the elixirs that will satisfy the human heart. They never do.  Only God can. In the American Revolution, the documents show powerful, though not perfect, insights into human nature; its fallen and corruptible state, yet its eternal yearning for freedom, justice, and happiness based on fulfillment of the individual.  Revolution in this case sought to establish deeper freedoms and not tyranny. As we also see some unrest across our own nation this notion of rebellion elicits another angle. The first rebel was Lucifer, who rebelled against God.  Saul Alinsky, a socialist radical of the 1960’s dedicated a major book of his to Satan.  It was not tongue in cheek.  The point here being is that anyone who “rebels” will find legitimacy in their passionate desire for reform only if it is in keeping with Jesus Christ and His moral teachings. If someone rebels against the cultural mores to facilitate the culture of death; their rebellion is akin to the devil’s.  But if their “rebellion” i.e. the desire for virtue is to lovingly coax society back towards a culture of life, then it is akin to the lives of many saints and martyrs.  As the world grapples with rebellion, let us pray very fervently that new leaders and governments lead to greater love for every human life and the human desire for authentic love, justice and freedom.  That the world may come to know, love and imitate the ultimate man, Jesus Christ.  That violence is contrary to Our Lord. That all recognize the most powerful weapons of love, forgiveness, and selfgift are the only forces that satisfy the deepest instinct for happiness in God alone. God love you

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Parishioners of @sainttheresact in the Diocese of Bridgeport and visitors are all welcome every Friday during Lent for Stations of the Cross at 7:30 pm

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Week of 2/26/2017

Ash Wednesday is this week, check the bulletin for schedule of ashes distribution. Lent comes from an old English word meaning spring; it is the liturgical season where we seriously prepare for the death and resurrection of the God man Jesus Christ. It is forty days based on the fasting for forty days of Moses, Elijah, and Jesus. Lent is tailored for our fallen nature; it is meant to be a physical, mental, and supernatural journey to facilitate our intimacy with God and expiate our sins. When we sin, we cause damage to the mystical body of Christ, as well as to our personal being. By doing penance and mortification, we expiate or “makeup” for our sins. While there are many jokes about temptation, it remains a gravely serious phenomenon in our lives. The early Fathers of the Church help us to understand them better. The great bishop and father of the church St. John Chrysostom (died 407AD) preached: “God does not impede temptations, first, so that you may be convinced of your strength; secondly, that you may be humble, not proud; thirdly, that the devil, who may doubt whether you have really abandoned him, will be certain of that fact; fourthly, so that you may become as strong as iron, understanding the value of the treasures which have been granted to you.” Temptation can only be fought off with God’s grace and a will that is formed by self-denial. The many dangers of the modern world include the billions of ways we can self-indulge without it being a sin. We buy and become dependent on many different electronic gadgets and we allow them to absorb much time in simply stimulating our senses towards a pleasure or distraction. We also live in a culture that dramatically indulges the ego by affirming us in our sinfulness, making a countless jokes of all seven deadly sins, especially envy, lust (pornography), gluttony, which only harm and destroy persons and families. Society should rather exhort us like a great coach towards excellence in virtue, especially chastity and the need for confession. We thus become the devil’s easy victim through temptations that tantalize the senses and affirm our ego rather than demand our self sacrifice. As St. John writes above, temptation if rejected can serve a great purpose. That is, if we choose self-denial, even with non-sinful things, such as praying instead of video games, going to daily Mass, fasting for the love of God, we grow closer to Our Lord and with His grace we then enable ourselves greater strength in temptation. Temptation must make us humble, remind us that we are fragile; we can fall, we can lose heaven. Rejecting temptation, while sometimes causing suffering, may encourage harsher attacks from the devil, but this means growing only in greater holiness if we hold firm. In the end, through temptation the body, mind and soul grow stronger, more courageous and more perceptive regarding temptation, and thus create a great warrior for God. But serious prayer and confession are crucial. Only with Christ can we truly reject temptation, but with Christ we only grow to the heights of true happiness; that in the midst of suffering we find heaven: the joy of deeper unity with Christ on earth, and eternal glory in paradise. God love you

#Catholic #Christ #God #Moses #Jesus #Mass

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Week of 2/19/2017

The most burning question in our life should be the young man’s who approached Christ: Teacher, what good must I do to inherit eternal life? (Mt 19: 16) Another crucial question: in what life will I best serve the Lord? Crucial, because in fact God does call many people to religious life. If God does call, it means He will always provide the grace to sustain us, if we pursue it! Some say yes, some no. As with marriage, and even conversion, fundamental to God’s calling is freedom. God will never manipulate or force, He respects human free will even more than humans do!

The question of becoming a Catholic Priest is directly tied to the ultimate fulfillment of every human person. The human desire for natural and supernatural happiness is very real, but only finds satisfaction in God, who is ultimate love and happiness. Heaven and hell are very real and permanent, and assisting others in getting to heaven is the most fundamental calling of every baptized person. There is a war over souls, and thus getting to heaven is an arduous path filled with minefields of temptations and sin, as our Blessed Lord warns us. He alone supplies the indispensable provisions, grace from the sacraments, prayer, and penitential acts, which helps us fight sin, seek joy in virtue, find strength in tragedy and finally enter paradise. The Priest becomes an essential soldier in assisting others to navigate that arduous path with God’s help.

An easy analogy is the military. When a soldier takes on solemn duties, he pledges his life to serve the nation he loves and to defend its people from violent aggressors. He enters boot camp, receives important training, and then accentuates that training with a rigorous exercise regimen that maintains his capacity for service. He may or may not be called to make the ultimate sacrifice, but he is always called to make many nonfatal but serious sacrifices that enable national security.

A priest who is serious about his calling acts in a similar manner. First, he has a fervent love of God. He is inspired by the heroic saints of the past, especially martyrs. Secondly, he is well aware of the supernatural war over every soul. Sin and the devil are the enemies; never to be underestimated. He recognizes his own frailty, he is a sinner; but knows service to God maintained by a devout regimen of the sacraments, a dedicated prayer life and personal penance will deepen his holiness and keep him strong. He may be called to make the ultimate sacrifice, but here at this time the sacrifices will be more subtle and invisible.

Key to the priesthood is celibacy, an often misunderstood teaching. The secular world admonishes that it adds nothing and deprives men of having a wife and children. Such thinking ignores Our Lord’s example and teaching about the value of the supernatural in conjunction with the natural.

When a healthy young man who feels a normal desire for a wife and family receives and answers a call from God to instead become a priest, he willingly sacrifices one fruitful gift of God for another that, though less visible, engages a much bigger family and much higher stakes. If he maintains his prayer life and penitential sacrifices, his celibacy becomes a fruitful gift that powerfully invites God’s grace into the world and thus helps save souls. His celibacy is not a war against his nature; it instead becomes a supernatural offering to God that fortifies a man to become an effective soldier of God. Healthy, gracefilled celibacy arms for spiritual battle and rechannels man’s inherent paternal instinct towards the whole parish; to spiritually feed, educate and to aggressively protect every soul in his care from the evil one.

Let us pray for an increase of vocations to the priesthood, and buck the secular view that disses it by encouraging young men. If we truly admire the many religious and priestly saints of the last 2000 years, we realize their sacrifice was vital to saving many souls. Let us encourage no less in the youth today. Heroism always begins with and is defined ultimately by Christ on the Cross.

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Week of 2/12/2017

What people don’t realize is how much religion costs. They think faith is a big electric blanket, when of course it is the cross. So wrote the brilliant southern writer Flannery O’Connor, from not only her understanding of Catholic theology, but from her own personal experience of suffering from systemic lupus erythematosus. Born in Georgia in 1925, this disease would claim her life at age 39, yet the bigger story is that doctors gave her five years, and she lived that and seven more. Her writings are gritty and profound reflections on suffering and the workings of grace.

This becomes an important reflection for today. Isn’t religion suppose to be a comforting? Another direction is the prosperity gospel: should not trust in God lead to blessings in this world? Didn’t Job get so many more blessings in this world after he endured a terrible ordeal? Christ did say “Come to me all you who are burdened and I will give you rest.” So… to adopt modern flippancy: His Cross, yes; why mine?

This brings us to O’Connor’s succinct conclusion: the cross. Our Catholic faith remains a primitive and paradoxical belief to the unbelieving world, but to the saints and those who make serious effort, it is the most beautiful of gems that requires great diligence; going to Sunday Mass, making humble confessions, daily prayer and acts of charity. But… such diligence enraptures the soul in the power and beauty of God. We then can see suffering as paradoxically the road to heaven.

Last week I mentioned how we must constantly inquire into how our children are being taught to think. In order for children to grow in wisdom, strength and authentic love, in order for them to grow up to be the best of husbands, wives and parents, they must see the world from the Cross. Not in a despairing way, but in the way consonant with Our Lord. That is, Christ amidst His great sufferings from the Cross, would survey the world and see all the sin, all the vitriol thrown at Him, all the injustices inflicted on Him. And yet, what He saw more deeply were people foundering in the midst of pride, ego, anxiety and despair; their despair in desperate need of hope. Instead of seeking withdrawal or revenge, Christ pleads with the Father to forgive them.

Christ entered the world in order to absorb the most hostile, stunning attack of evil ever committed: the torture and crucifixion of God Himself in human flesh. His suffering was one of supreme love to counteract the evil of a closed heaven due to man’s free will eviction of God. Thus, the path to heaven involves not only the cross of Christ, but that each one of us carries their cross as well. But we never carry it alone. Christ, by virtue of His sacrifice, carries more than 99% of the weight of every cross we possess. Even though a cross can seem to crush, with Christ we are shaped back into deeper images of God. That, we only reverse the effects of sin, that we only become truly virtuous, by counteracting the deep effects of original sin that remain after baptism. Suffering in this world is a reminder of the worse suffering which is separation of God.

Thus, adopting what all the saints proclaim, what Our Lady of Fatima has proclaimed, is key: that to offer all suffering up to God for love of Him, for the conversion of sinners, means that our suffering becomes incredibly productive. It is no longer a road to despair, but instead a road, albeit challenging, to virtue. No saint had spiritual “electric blankets;” no saint had it easy. The people who have it easier in life are perhaps more in danger because they could think they do not need God. When Christ says “come to Me all you who are burdened,” He means: I will help you carry your cross. I will not make it disappear. But I will, if you let me, make it an opportunity, a powerful remedy against sin and fear; it becomes the antidote of hope. If we teach our children to see the world through the Holy Cross, we give them the road to spiritual hope, strength, healing, and building blocks to be holy husbands, wives and parents.

God love you

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Week of 2/5/2017

“I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen: not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else.” In a nutshell, this quote of C.S. Lewis provides us with a terse but powerful lens through which to understand how we are to understand life. We all look at the world with certain premises and judge actions and events through personal feelings and norms.  The little boy who wants a chocolate now, but is told to wait for dinner, momentarily judges his parents as cruel, because they are denying him what he wants and thinks he deserves.  While the mature person realizes it is for the good of his body and soul. This is indicative of the culture today.  Several weeks ago, we saw the pro-abortion march in Washington.  Last week, I was blessed to be with 54 other people on a bus to the March for Life on Washington.  This becomes a tale of two marches.  In one, many signs that spoke obscenities that would have gotten my mouth filled with soap!  Attacks on Catholicism and demands that the state provide birth control was the deal of the day.  The other March saw a much bigger crowd (several estimates said circa 900,000 in DC alone).  Signs that spoke of love of God; no obscenities to been seen anywhere except for a lone pro-abortion sign that meandered by.

But all this indicates a deeper concern.  Not just laws, not only freedom of religion, but even deeper, how our children are trained to think!  Parents will teach children right from wrong. But where does right and wrong come from?  For many today, it is the prevailing cultural wind that establishes right from wrong.  With the rise of desire for abortion, came the “right” to abortion. Now euthanasia and same sex marriage.  How did we get here from fifty years ago?  One key element is that we are now thinking differently than we did.  Our modern culture has capitulated to false ways of thinking about right and wrong, and about individual rights.  The idea of freedom, once meaning we use freedom for virtue, to overcome vice, now means we can do as we please.  The idea of rights means that we can create new ones. If they conflict with God-given rights such as religious freedom, then the “new rights” trump them.  Just see the Obama administration’s treatment of the Little Sisters of the Poor, to force them to do evil or pay millions in fines.

The nomination of a Supreme Court judge who believes in religious freedom and has written pointedly about the value of every human life reveals a great deal.  The opposition to this judge screams that he is out of the mainstream. Which is frightening.  Because, if mainstream America accepts the New Morality then we have now made God our adversary.  Man needs grace to fulfill his potential.  He or she needs Divine mercy in order to extend mercy to others.  And, we need Divine wisdom in order to apply true rationality to all the problems of our time.  People speak of the need for healing in our country.  But many of those people support, or say nothing, about the abortion violence that causes profound wounds to individual and collective conscience.

This is the wisdom of CS Lewis.  We can only see the world with true compassion and wisdom and love through the eyes of God.  If we declare war on God, which is what the abortion culture does as well as any pro-choice politician does, then we become blind and a society of the strong and “cool” crowd against the weak and the “uncool”. The question:  how are our children being trained to think?  Both in the homes and in the schools?  If they are trained to accept the secular culture, they will inevitably reject religion as bigoted.  But if they are trained to see the powerful flaws in modern culture, and are trained to see that truth begins with the Crucified and Risen Lord through His Church, then they will be capable of true compassion and justice.  Children must not be beguiled by the culture of pleasure and convenience, but love the culture of sacrifice for God.  Only by seeing everything as God and Holy Mother Church sees it, will wisdom prevail. God love you

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Week of 1/29/2017

This past week was the anniversary of Roe vs. Wade, the 1973 Supreme Court decision that federally mandated legalized abortion throughout the United States. A whole class of human beings suddenly lost all their human rights, in one fell swoop, on the opinion of 7 judges in Washington D.C. It was a terrible day in our nation’s history: several judges and a media culture declared themselves wiser than God.

We must remember that the legal foundations for abortion remain not only immoral but defy common sense.

How? First, we are dealing with the simple fact that whether a day after conception or 8 months, the life in the womb is human; he/she has a beating heart at 14 days after conception, brain waves by 40 days, and absorbing oxygen and nourishment from the mother all throughout. The “pro-choice” argument collapses when cornered with the question, is it human life in the womb?

If they say “no,” they defy science. If they say “yes, but it does not have full human development yet,” then this begs a simple question: if any human life can be denied human rights in the womb because of lack of “development” then what about outside the womb? What is “lack of development?” The same rationale is used for those at the end of life and in euthanasia. It begins the rapid slippery slope that all human life is subject to “developmental inspection” before the government decides who is worthy of rights and who is not.

In his 2008 presidential campaign, then candidate Obama was asked a simple but great question: when does a baby acquire human rights? He was at first flip: “that’s above my pay grade.” His subsequent answer was a non-answer but very telling: that’s for the scientists and the theologians. But, only politicians can make laws to protect human rights. Scientists and theologians write on truths about nature and life, but only politicians can make laws that derive from those truths. It is fundamental to our philosophy of government that we are to protect the rights of the weakest and voiceless; yet we do not. Now that we have an administration strongly committed to prolife issues, we must pray that government institutions, especially schools, will begin to teach the truth about human life at conception. The pro-abortion march in Washington last week indicates that many are stilled beguiled by false arguments about freedom. We must pray and lovingly witness to life unceasingly.

Since the Declaration of Independence explicitly acknowledges that all human rights come from God, it can never be the role of government or judges to deny them. As Martin Luther King Jr. said, “injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.” A perfect example of this is the enormous number of women who suffer from post abortion syndrome; because in crisis they did something the culture said would solve their problem, when it only left them with a deep scar. God passionately seeks these women to forgive and heal; if you know someone who suffers from such difficulty please encourage them to seek God’s love and hope in confession and programs like Rachel’s Vineyard to help heal these women. But, we must educate so many youths so they do not fall into that trap with all the despair and pain that accompanies it.

In the end, we must pray diligently for the continued prolife commitment of the President, the conversion of the Supreme Court, and many leaders in Congress. If they do not protect the weakest, then they inflict grave injustice. Let us pray for their conversion or being replaced by prolife leaders. Let’s even more fervently apply with great beauty and change of heart the words of Christ at the Last Judgment: “What ever you did to the least of these, you did unto Me.”