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MOTHER ANGELICA; Thank you Lord for giving her to us in our hour of need.

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Jeff Cavins: In Memory of Mother Angelica by Jeff Cavins In a quiet apartment in Dayton, OH, I watched EWTN on a daily basis for most of 1994. Should I return to the Catholic Church, or remain a Protestant pastor? Mother Angelica helped to tip the scale toward Rome. Jeff on the set with Mother Angelica before her live show February 28, 1996 Little did I know that in two years I would be with her on her set, first as a guest, then as her co-host for six years. Those six years at EWTN changed my life and I will forever be grateful for all Mother Angelica has done. I’m often asked, “what was Mother like?” Let me tell you a little bit about her. Mother Angelica was a woman of prayer and intense devotion to Jesus. She would rather spend a day in the presence of Jesus in a quiet chapel than stand in the limelight. If you have watched Mother on her many shows, you know her, because she was the same on TV as in the halls of EWTN. She was courageous, tenacious and holy. Her insiste

EASTER MONDAY: Overcoming Evil, who am I talking about?

There is evil in the hearts of many people.   Whether it is abuse physical and mental of a child, whether it is rape and sex enslavement of women, whether it is beheading and crucifixion of Christians in Syria, whether it is murder and hate in so many parts of the world, this is not what God wanted when He created man.   Many may well put the blame on God Himself and ask why did you make human beings capable of such evil.   If you are good then  everything you created should be good and if man is not good then You are responsible.  It is not without its logic. About three thousand years ago a Jewish scholar was pondering the same question.   Guided by the evil around him and stories that had been passed down from former generations he wrote the book of Genesis.    No God had not created out first parents prone to evil but He had given them free will to serve Him.    Their souls were immaculate and they were as saints, close to God and indeed enjoying a wonderful union with Him.   The

EASTER SUNDAY: Now it all makes sense.

So we had the Passion on Good Friday.   We spoke about overcoming evil and how the death of Jesus could make that possible in our lives.  On Holy Saturday we began to think that it was all well and good but what was the point in the end if nothing really changed and evil was still attacking us. Today however we got the answer.   There was a reward, a new life, there was Heaven, and there was the love of Jesus, who, rising from the dead, assured us that we too would do the same.   As St Paul told us "If Christ be not risen then our Faith is in vain"   It was all good and well to overcome evil but what would be the point if in the end there was no reason or purpose to do so.  So Christ has risen, Alleluia. I listened to the Pope on television this morning.  It was his Urbe et Orbe (To the City and to the World) talk he makes every Easter.    He spoke of all the different sufferings in the world and named all the parts of the world where this suffering was happening.   He ca

HOLY SATURDAY: Pray for those who live in despair and need light into their lives.

After Jesus died his disciples ran into hiding.  It was the end of a great dream.  They sat around feeling sorry for themselves and making all kinds of excuses for themselves.   They were again people without Faith. The Church has experienced times of darkness throughout her history.   There were times when everything she stood for was mocked and derided by those who were more clever and more 'adult'.   And as today there were those who were persecuted and put to death for daring to believe that the future of the Church was with Jesus Christ its founder, and its apostles.    In the Church today there is a real need to believe in a Resurrection, for it is weak and its weakness is despised by a secular society. So many children today are growing up without the love of a Father, a Mother, or both.   The little girl misses the Father who would embrace her and call her his Princess.  The little boy does not have a Father to wrestle with him or to cheer him on at football.  But w

GOOD FRIDAY; The Call to be Saints.

                         O Wisest Love. That flesh and blood                          which did in Adam fail                          Should strive afresh against the foe                          Should strive and should prevail.                                                     John Henry Newman When Jesus was in the Garden before the Passion he was so afraid of what was to happen that he sweated blood.  He was in every way a human being and wanted to die peacefully.    Yet He knew that what was at stake was so high that he had to embrace the suffering.   As he said to Pilate "You would have no power over me if it was not given to you from above"   Yes he had freely given himself into the hands of evil and was ready to face every hateful sneer, every curse, every whipping, every nail forced into his hands and feet.   Everything that Satan would throw at him.  And he was ready.   That was what John Henry Newman meant when he wrote the quote above, that whereas Adam w

HOLY THURSDAY: I will be praying for the forgotten martyrs of of ISLAMIC persecution, especially todays Christians.

Yes I will be praying not just for them but for the forgiveness of those who committed such atrocities.     I do not understand nor will I try to understand the motivation of Mohammed and his followers.   I only know of their cruelty.   Yet I know too there are many good Muslims who try to interpret the Koran in a peaceful and loving way and try to raise their children in that faith according to their insight.   But I cannot understand when the history is there that they ask anyone to follow Mohammed.   If Islam became a Religion of Peace it certainly was not his doing, and those who follow him closely will never be moderate Muslims.    Mohammed took girls as young as nine to be his brides of fill his harem.   He raped and pillaged his way through Christendom beheading the men who would not convert and taking their women and girls as sex slaves.    There is the story of how he attacked with his army a Jewish tribe who refused to convert.  The men were captured and beheaded over a perio

IF QUOTING JESUS IS JUDGEMENTAL THEN I PLEAD GUILTY.

We have an exciting few days in front of us in the Catholic Church.   What will the Pope say about the Divorced and Remarried receiving Holy Communion.   Well the Synod on the Family had next to nothing to say about it in the Final Report, but that did not stop those in favour of making a great noise and claiming that it did.    Cardinal Kasper is making louder noises than usual and claiming that 1400 years of Catholic practice is about to change.   All the Liberals in the Church are almost celebrating already.    Myself, I have a 'deja vu/  sense about the whole thing. I was a young man in my twenties when Pope Paul gave us Humanae Vitae.   I remember the clamour and the voices of the experts before the event.  There was no doubt about it the Church was going to change its teaching on Contraception.   And indeed it may well have been what many many Catholics expected.  But there was one player in the drama that was ignored and is being ignored on the present issue.   That player

Pope Benedict comes out of his retirement to give an Interview.

March 16, 2016 (LifeSiteNews.com) -- On March 16, speaking publicly on a rare occasion, Pope Benedict XVI gave an  interview  to Avvenire, the daily newspaper of the Italian Bishops' Conference, in which he spoke of a “two-sided deep crisis” the Church is facing in the wake of the Second Vatican Council. The report has already hit Germany courtesy of Vaticanist Guiseppe Nardi, of the German Catholic news website Katholisches.info. Pope Benedict reminds us of the formerly indispensable Catholic conviction of the possibility of the loss of eternal salvation, or that people go to hell: The missionaries of the 16th century were convinced that the unbaptized person is lost forever. After the [Second Vatican] Council, this conviction was definitely abandoned. The result was a two-sided, deep crisis. Without this attentiveness to the salvation, the Faith loses its foundation. He also speaks of a “profound evolution of Dogma” with respect to the Dogma that there is no salvation ou

A CHURCH SEEKING FORGIVENESS.

The theme of the service is… A Church seeking forgiveness… This will be a non-sacramental service during which God will be asked for his mercy on the Church for the ways in which it has hurt, wounded and offended its members and the wider society.  The above was the message on the bulletin of two parishes in Ayrshire, Scotland.  There was a great discussion on one website about whether the Church could sin and needed forgiveness.   Can the "Body of Christ sin?"  It can only sin if it teaches falsehood and lies for it is an institution devoted to the Truth which Christ wants the Church to reveal.  But it cannot do this for it is guided by the Holy Spirit.   Certainly members of the church can sin and have committed grevious sins against others but were it  was weak in one place it was always strong in another.   It has always had the saints throughout the ages calling her to repentance.   There has always been the struggle between good and evil in the Church for as St Paul

On Destroying the Truth of St John Ogilvie. He did not die for the Church after all - he was ecumenical

Now was that not a nice ecumenical talk. When there was so much ‘Faith’ in Scotland one wonders why John Ogilvie returned at all Why did he? Well of course we cannot say in this gathering of friends that he came to restore the Catholic Faith so Fr. Preston was more interested in Communities of Love, a Christian Church. Of course, Christian Marriages are collapsing, the young find nothing in the Church that attracts them and give their lives to adultery, living together, and experiencing failed marriages, and thousands of children are living without the love of a Father or a Mother but what cares Fr Preston. When they were at St Aloysius College they were taught to be generous to the poor and that is all they need to be Christians. He obviously believes that St John Ogilvie believed the same. And anyway why bring up doctrine and spoil his beautiful friendship with Protestant Churches. “There is more that unites us as Christians than divides us” is the worn out cliche. Yes he is very uni

A Child's First Holy Communion

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This little girl is receiving her First Holy Communion.  It is a wonderful moment when for the first time Jesus will consume her with Himself and His Love.   There is no experience on earth that can equal this.   So she is kneeling in homage and humility like the disciples at the Ascension.    The moment will not be spoiled by a sticking out of the hand for she will never again experience the wonder of that first meeting with Jesus.   Let us pray for all children who have just received the Body of Christ for the first time.  Let us pray for those whose wonder was spoiled by adults with false history and so called 'customs'.

ST PETER'S SEMINARY, CARDROSS, ARGYLE, SCOTLAND

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What you see above was once a very beautiful Church that had a very short life.   It was attached to a  seminary where young men from Glasgow and Argyle and the Isles came to study to be priests.   There would probably have been as many as 50 in 1965 and yet when the Spirit of Vatican II took over Scotland you could count the seminarians in one hand and in 1975 the Church, which cost God knows how much, was abandoned.   And as you can see, I mean ABANDONED.    It was too Pre-Vatican.   The decay and vandalism almost moved step by step with the decay and vandalism of the Catholic Faith in Scotland.   I do not care whether as a Scottish Catholic your are  modernist or tradition - you should be ashamed.   Call me a fool if you like, but my gut feeling is that when this Church is restored then the Catholic Faith in Scotland will be restored. I do not know how old this picture is but if there is anyone in Scotland who cam make their way to Cardross and climb the hill to find the Churc

YOU DO NOT HAVE TO CRY - THESE CHILDREN ARE ONLY CHRISTIANS

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There is no need to cry over the above image - these children are just Christians from Iraq or Syria.   You will not find them in the refugee camps where ISIS members also are and who go about using and abusing them for their Faith.   And while the media spends its time attacking Islamaphobia, racism, and right wing politicians these children are largely forgotten.   I remember sending an e-mail to the Portsmouth Diocese asking the bishop to organise prayer for the Christians but received a reply not from the Bishop but someone else who referred me to Aid To The Church in Need.   Would anyone else in the Portsmouth Diocese who can get through to the Bishop make that request again.

BRING BACK ST THOMAS

A FATHER ROBERT MANN WROTE AN ARTICLE ON HOW THOMISTIC PHILOSOPHY HAD BEEN THROWN OUT OF THE SEMINARIES  AND HOW THE CHURCH WAS THE POORER FOR IT.   HAVING SPLENT THREE YEARS IN A SEMINARY STUDYING ST THOMAS I KNEW EXACTLY WHAT HE MEANT AND HOW ILL-EQUIPPED PRIESTS OF THE LAST FORTY YEARS WERE IN EXPLAINING THE FAITH.  LITTLE WONDER SO MANY HAVE REJECTED IT.   THIS WAS MY COMMENT                                                                             This is one of the most important writings I have come across. I was in a seminary for three years and was taught Thomistic philosophy. On leaving I cam to London and heard a priest tell some young people “We cannot be sure that what we believe is true” I was amazed and replied “Are you absolutely sure that what you are saying is true” As a Thomas I could have written a couple of pages on he falsity of his remark. But he had already been taught to relegate the idea that `Jesus had come to give witness to the Truth to the rubbish bin n

A QUESTION ON WHAT WAS CALLED 'TRIUMPHALISM' By Eric Sammons

Our parish was holding an "inquiry meeting" in which parishioners could come and ask any question about Catholicism that they might have. We had been holding these meetings for a few years, and my experience in leading these sessions told me that the questions could cover a wide range of topics. But I remember one night in particular. The meeting had gone on for some time, and a woman ("Maria") had been sitting near the back, listening but not participating. Near the end, I asked if there were any more questions. Maria hesitated, then slowly raised her hand. She softly asked, "I was wondering, do only Catholics go to heaven?" Now this was a question I had frequently been asked, and it is always a question with personal ramifications for the inquirer. Behind it was the real question, "will my husband/wife/father/relative who is not Catholic go to heaven?" Maria in particular was anxious to hear my answer. Her eyes were filled with both hope a