Message to The Stressed from Covid-19

I cannot recommend more the following letter I received from our Chaplain where I am employed. It reminds me of Pope St. JPII!

April 19, 2020 Divine Mercy Sunday
Dear Marian Sisters and Brothers,

Happy Easter! I write this letter to you from our Chapel in the Rectory and am entrusting each one of you to Jesus through the intercession of His Blessed Mother. He is Risen! Today, He brings to us the fruit of His passion, death and Resurrection … Mercy. Blood and water poured forth from the heart of Jesus as a fount of mercy for us, soak it in on this beautiful feast day.

I chose to write a letter, and not record a video because the exercise of putting thoughts to paper allows a person to really pour himself into the message. And writing a letter before Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament creates an intimate space for both you and me. As I write each sentence to you, the Lord is able to interact with me and what you read reflects my own relationship with Jesus; this relationship is the foundation for my priesthood. But the context for which the relationship gets to bear fruit is with those Jesus has allowed me to serve, you. Therefore, this letter is not stagnant. It isn’t meant to be read in a vacuum. It’s an organic expression of yours and my participation in the Mystical Body of Christ that surpasses time and space. Prayer for each other is the vehicle for service. We are connected by the Holy Spirit, the Love of Jesus. So, my brother, my sister in Christ, let me serve you now.

How are you doing? I hope you are doing well and if so praise Jesus. But if you are struggling know you are not alone. Whether it be a physical, emotional or spiritual pain, I hurt with you; offer it to Jesus. What has you anxious? What robs your hope? What thoughts of fear or anger occupy your mind? What is the source of your frustration, your restlessness, your uncertainty? What makes you feel not needed, alone, loss of purpose? These questions may not have solutions until this tragic situation is resolved. Or maybe you don’t want a “fix” but rather just to express your pain and be heard. Know that Jesus hears you! And it is in His words we find comfort:
“It is the Lord who goes before you. He will be with you; he will not leave you or forsake you. Do not fear or be dismayed.” Deuteronomy 31:8
“Cast all your anxieties on Him because He cares for you.” 1Peter 5:7
“Fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous hand.” Isaiah 41:10

There is definitely a great “desolation” on our community, state, country and world. St. Ignatius describes desolation as: feelings of anguish, loneliness and despair. There is a feeling that hope has been lost, God is far away, and it will never end. However, he goes onto say that feelings don’t always reflect reality. In desolation, God is very close to us, even if we can’t “feel” His presence. Hope is still rooted in Jesus and is attainable. And most importantly, St. Ignatius tells us that desolation always ends! So today be uplifted! Be filled with joy, because Jesus offers us His mercy. The Catholic Encyclopedia describes mercy as the virtue which allows us to have compassion for another and to alleviate their misfortune. Jesus’ mercy is more active in today’s world than ever before because we are in greater need of it. Jesus tells St. Faustina “proclaim that mercy is the greatest attribute of God. All the works of My hands are crowned with mercy…My daughter, have fear of nothing; I am always with you. You are my dwelling place and constant repose”. It is so easy to be hurt with our circumstances today, but remember that God is still in control and even more so, is with us.

Right now, our boat is being tossed about by the waves of the world’s storm. The effects of the virus and the shutdown rage against our meager vessel and it seems like Jesus is asleep. We fear drowning, just as the Apostles feared it (Matthew 8: 23-27) and we cry out to Jesus to save us. “Jesus wake up…don’t you care we are drowning?” The Good Lord looks at us mercifully. He senses our fear, He knows we are empty and at our wits end. His heart feels the anguish that overwhelms ours and He is moved with compassion. With a gentle reproach He strengthens us, “Why are you afraid? Don’t you know I am with you?” His face is all tenderness. Mercy and empathy radiate out of him and we can see ourselves reflected in His eyes as He gazes on those He loves most. But then His face changes. There is resolute purpose. The tenderness in His eyes is gone and all we can see is a fire that blazes. Before we know what to think, Jesus has turned to face the raging waters assaulting our boat. He seems to have become larger than life and with a voice that could tear the sky in two, He says to the storm, “QUIET, BE STILL!” All becomes calm, all is peaceful. God’s Spirit is on us and all is in harmony. We feel joy return and we wonder how we ever could have doubted. We look at Jesus and see Him peering at us, holding us in His gaze…He says our name, and we know He will be with us always. This is the Lord of Mercy…trust in Him.
I miss you all and am looking forward to the day we can all be together again. Until then, know of my continued prayers. Please, email me or leave a voicemail if you need prayers or support. Also, keep an eye on our live streamed masses, daily email hugs and confession opportunities for support and for reception of God’s merciful grace!

May the Lord of all Consolation bless you abundantly!

Fr. Dom

Comments

Homosexual Marriage

The urgency of the issue of gay marriage at this time and the compelling arguments raised against it here, make this paper an important resource: Answering Advocates of Gay Marriage KATHERINE YOUNG AND PAUL NATHANSON Claim 1 : Marriage is an institution designed to foster the love between two people. Gay people can love each other just as straight people can. Ergo, marriage should be open to gay people. Claim 2 : Not all straight couples have children, but no one argues that their marriages are unacceptable Claim 3 : Some gay couples do have children and therefore need marriage to provide the appropriate context. Claim 4 : Marriage and the family are always changing anyway, so why not allow this change? Claim 5 : Marriage and the family have already changed, so why not acknowledge the reality? Claim 6 : Children would be no worse off with happily married gay parents than they are with unhappily married straight ones. Claim 7 : Given global overpopulation, why w...

Dancing With Mr. D: Grooming the Little Children

A former pro-transgender activist said she regretted her previous work in pro-transgender activism, adding she felt she was "indoctrinated" on gender ideology in an interview with Fox News Digital. "I started to realize that what I had been doing at my job at the LGBT Center, it was grooming," Kay Yang, a former employee of a location in New York, said. Grooming in this context means "to get into readiness for a specific objective." Kay works as a 'deprogrammer' to help parents and children who have been 'indoctrinated' by the 'cult-like' transgender agenda. Yang herself previously went by they/them and worked as a 'trans educator' in schools for years. Listen to her testimony.

On the Contemporary U.S. Scene

M ichael Flynn made a lot of enemies inside the government during his career. When he exposed himself as vulnerable these pounced. How?? Anonymous and possibly illegal leaks of private conversations with a foreign national. Now, we aren't supposed to spy on Americans without probable cause, nor disclose the results of our spying in the pages of the Washington Post because it suits a partisan or personal agenda (overturning the results of an election). Current and former national security officials used their position, their sources, and their methods to destroy a political enemy. Why aren’t all Americans upset by this? Mr. Flynn is not the only recent occurrence of such. The New York Times reports that civil servants at the EPA lobbied Congress to reject Donald Trump's nominee to run the agency because Pruitt was critical of the way the EPA was run during the Obama years. Traditionally, civil servants follow the direction of the political ap...

Bishop Barron on Martin Luther

Bishop Robert Barron, in his June 13 article titled "Looking at Luther With Fresh Eyes," describes Martin Luther as "a mystic of grace, someone who had fallen completely in love." Fr. describes Luther as the "undisputed father of the Reformation" and as "cantankerous, pious, very funny, shockingly anti-Semitic, deeply insightful and utterly exasperating." While admiring of Luther, Fr. adds: "I disagree with lots and lots of his ideas," without clarifications. Barron summarizes: "For at the core of Luther's life and theology was an overwhelming experience of grace. After years of trying in vain to please God through heroic moral and spiritual effort, Luther realized that, despite his unworthiness, he was loved by a God who had died to save him," adding, "Luther was an ecstatic, and the religious movement he launched [Protestantism] was 'a love affair.'" Was Dr. Luther in love with God...

Be Not Lukewarm

Is it possible that Church leaders and Catholic institutions in the U.S. are assisting the furtherance of central tenets of the secularist political and cultural plot? Have you ever read of a prominent Catholic who contends that the Bible instructs us not to judge people ? How often have you heard this phrase in the social media? I think there is the phenomena of an unsuspecting acceptance in some Catholic circles of a secularist understanding of important cultural issues. If a Catholic supports the notion that men who have sex with men, or women who have sex with women “come out,” he or she assists the Gay agenda in achieving its dream of getting an imprimatur from society for grave sin. Many Catholics, woefully ignorant of Catholic moral teaching, by default seem to be accepting of secularist identity politics and the groundless idea that same-sex attraction is innate, and the defining characteristic for those aggrieved by it. Often such Catholics cite the homosexual pries...

Enlightenment thinking and "the Spirit of Vatican II"

Present in an analysis of the Enlightenment are the three themes which played an integral part in the disintegration of the liturgy: the denial of the transcendent, the resulting apostasy, and the exaltation of the community. That the movement was hostile to revealed Christianity is beyond debate. At bottom, the Enlightenment was hostile to Christian revelation for its teaching that salvation comes through Jesus Christ alone. In its stead, the Philosophes substituted a rational religion which emphasized the universal moral law shared by all men by virtue of their reason, not what they regarded as the untrustworthy historicity of the life message of Jesus. They saw this rational religion as a refining of, not a repudiation of Christian moral teaching. For example, the Mass, which celebrates the revelation that Christ’s sacrificial death reconciles us to the Father and each other, making present to the believer the same sacrifice of the Cross, was reduced to the mere celebration ...

This video of a young boy twerking at Pride has homophobes outraged | Gay Star News

DANCING WITH MR. D: This video of a young boy twerking at Pride has homophobes outraged | Gay Star News : 'via Blog this'

Oremus

Catholic World News - October 23, 2015 The Synod of Bishops spent Friday, October 23, discussing a proposed final statement, which will come up for a vote, paragraph by paragraph, on Saturday. The statement was presented to the bishops on Thursday evening, with Cardinal Peter Erdo, the relator general of the Synod, introducing the text. Because the statement was available only in Italian, some Synod participant were unable to read it, and there was an angry outcry when they were told-- by Cardinal Lorenzo Baldisseri, the secretary-general of the Synod-- that no copies of the sensitive document could be taken out of the Synod Hall. Eventually Cardinal Baldiserri relented, and allowed bishops to take the text home, but insisted that they could not show the document to outside translators. For a summary:

The Body of Christ and the City of Men

The “Statement of Principles” issued by select Democratic members of the U.S. House of Representatives on June 18, disapproving of Bishops in the United States for allegedly “politicizing the Eucharist” is an example of deceitful equivocation. Essentially, the Statement maintains that the Bishops should not “politicize” the Eucharist. On this the insight of Flannery O’Connor proves enlightening: Those whose lives are not ordered by, around, and toward the Eucharist, therefore, are those whose lives are defined by some love other than love of the Christ who is present there. Rather, their lives are ordered by the earthly city, manifest in this case, by, variously, partisan political identity or individual, radially sovereign conscience. This applies across the American political spectrum, to those who deny human dignity of the unborn, the immigrant, and the person on death row. In Catholic teaching the Eucharist creates St. Augustine’s City of God, the definit...

On the Gender Identity Phenomenon

“When will the Catholic Church come into the twenty-first century?” is a sentiment often expressed in the media these days, suggestive of a set of issues that are known to Christians : same-sex “marriage,” contraception, and divorce (to name only a few). Because the teachings of the Church on these subjects are at odds with the increasingly secular culture, non-Catholics—and even many Catholics—are left frustrated, even angry as to why the Church doesn’t finally come to the same conclusions as does the secular worldview. Historically, since the Enlightenment western secular culture has presumed (erroneously) that we are progressing slowly toward a perfected humanity. They believe that, given enough time, willpower, money, technological advancements, and scientific breakthroughs, it is believed that we will be able to dig our way out of our brutal past pockmarked by wars, poverty, disease, and social injustice to arrive at a just society. Another presumption ...

Search This Blog