29 01, 2022

How To Assist Someone in Making an Act of Perfect Contrition

By |2022-01-29T20:23:43+00:00January 29th, 2022|Theology|

Under all these continued lockdowns, I believe the below video might be the most underrated thing on YouTube.  It's Fr. Philip Wolfe FSSP describing how to assist someone in making an act of perfect contrition.  Most people would find it quite a show-stopper to learn that the Catholic Church teaches that a person dying in original sin (like a Muslim or Jew) or a person in mortal sin (like a Catholic who has not been to confession in a decade) can still be saved by God with only a layman at his deathbed!   It is so important as more priests and sacraments are cancelled and as hospitals double-down on [...]

14 11, 2021

How Hard Is It To Avoid Heresy?

By |2021-11-15T12:49:52+00:00November 14th, 2021|Theology|

Consider a putatively-conservative Roman Catholic archbishop who invites his priests to pray with Lutherans in a Lutheran community building.  This really happened.  But because this bishop is "pro-life," he is considered "conservative" by most of his laity.  Thus, most mainstream Catholics will pretty quickly forgive a bishop inviting their own Catholic priests to a Lutheran prayer service.  That is, if they even think there's anything to forgive in that.  I think the attitude among most of the laity today is basically: Well, I make mistakes in my vocation, so I can't judge my superiors who make mistakes in their vocations. Fair enough.  There's some humility in that attitude. But there's [...]

28 09, 2021

How Christians Should Mock Death

By |2021-09-21T20:59:28+00:00September 28th, 2021|Theology|

“For when one sees human beings, who are weak by nature, leaping towards death, neither shrinking from its corruption nor fearing the descent to hell, but with an eager spirit challenging it and not flinching from torture, but rather for the sake of Christ preferring instead of this present life zeal for death; or if one were to watch men and women and young children rushing and leaping towards death on account of their devotion to Christ, who is so silly or who is so incredulous, or who is so maimed in mind, as to not understand and reason that it is Christ, to whom human beings are bearing witness, [...]

13 07, 2021

Teamwork in Saving One Soul

By |2021-07-13T17:12:51+00:00July 13th, 2021|Theology|

There's a couple who listens to my podcast from California, but the wife had to rapidly return to her home state of Louisiana for an emergency: Her uncle (who she described as basically her brother growing up, as they were close in age) was hit by a drunk driver. The drunk driver then ran over his head. Somehow, he surived and was life-flighted to a trauma center in another part of Louisiana. He lived for about 10 days after numerous surgeries.   I received a modification to my blog after publication from his niece about what really happened on scene: "You wrote that his head was ran over, which is technically [...]

16 03, 2021

Fear of Death Makes You Subject to Lifelong Slavery

By |2021-03-16T21:20:07+00:00March 16th, 2021|Theology|

Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, He Himself likewise partook of the same things, that through death, He might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery.—Heb 2:14-15 Wikipedia reports that the Black Death or Bubonic Plague between 1346 to 1353 left 70M-200M dead "and it is estimated to have killed 30% to 60% of Europe's population."  Thus, a real plague is one where one out of every two people you know is dead.  Imagine 50% of your neighbors dead.  Imagine 50% of your family members dead.  Imagine 50% [...]

14 01, 2021

Injecting Appeasement and Shame Into Others’ Lives For Your Own Sins Prevents Repentance

By |2022-05-10T23:08:18+00:00January 14th, 2021|Theology|

Here's a situation relatively new to the past 50 years, but especially pronounced in the past year in the USA:  Liberals justify their sins in front of conservatives by demanding either the conservative ratify the liberal's conscience (appeasement) or the liberal flips the tables and shames the conservative for implying anything shameful exists about the liberal's life-decisions. When a liberal injects appeasement or shame into the mind of any conservative who questions the left's behavior, this seems very much to hurt the right.  But from a Christian point of view, it hurts the left.  Here's why:  The left's every sin demands appeasement and shame from the other (not himself) which [...]

8 01, 2021

Heaven 2: Born into the Better Life

By |2022-05-10T22:59:00+00:00January 8th, 2021|Theology|

Many of you saw the viral video where a man chased a woman around a store here in the US for not having a mask on. The fact he was not only not afraid of catching a virus from a maskless woman but pursued her anyway to conform to his totalitarian mindlessness became proof to millions of Americans not just how lost humanity in 2020 had become, but perhaps how much insanity we must brace for in 2021.   This may depress a lot of people to read this first paragraph, but I think if the early Christians were alive today they would simply laugh at how old and ridiculous [...]

7 01, 2021

Heaven 1: The Beauty of Your Majesty

By |2022-05-10T22:56:21+00:00January 7th, 2021|Theology|

There is a modern idea that God will forgive everything on one's death bed and let everyone into heaven, but the collect in the Traditional Latin Mass for Epiphany (prayed all week, several times a week in both the Divine Office and every Mass until Sunday) teaches us something very important about getting to heaven. The collect for Epiphany week in Latin is: Deus, qui hodiérna die Unigénitum tuum géntibus stella duce revelásti: concéde propítius; ut qui iam te ex fide cognóvimus, usque ad contemplándam spéciem tuæ celsitúdinis perducámur. Per eúndem Dóminum nostrum Iesum Christum Fílium tuum, qui tecum vivit et regnat in unitáte Spíritus Sancti, Deus, per ómnia sǽcula [...]

24 12, 2020

Scapular Enrollment: The Best Gift You Can Give Your Family

By |2020-12-24T23:25:12+00:00December 24th, 2020|Theology|

The scapular is found in the featured image above.  It is a garment dedicated to Mary and worn around the neck by Catholics through the centuries.  Those who wear it are promised two major things, known as the Sabbatine Privilege:  No hell.  "The Blessed Virgin of Mt. Carmel has promised to save those who wear the scapular from the fires of hell."—Scapular insert Reduced Purgatory.  "I, the Mother of Grace, shall descend on the Saturday after their death and whomsoever I shall find in Purgatory, I shall free, so that I may lead them to the holy mountain of life everlasting."—Mary, the Mother of God. As we Catholics believe one [...]

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