Volume V/Issue 10/January 2021

Preparation For Death

We have all heard the saying: "My life flashed before my eyes." What is going to flash before our eyes at the hour of death? One of Saint Alphonsus' eternal spiritual maxims is: "It is necessary to do what at the hour of death we would wish to have done." At the hour of death, what will we wish that we had done differently. When we look back on our lives, what does it look like.

The whole life of Christian should be a preparation for death. We should always be looking at what we are doing and measuring in regard to eternity. Is that fleeting pleasure really worth it? Oh, we are going it for a few minutes, but is it bringing us closer to God or further away from Him?

We need to remember that we are only exiles here, that this is not our true home. "Tell me" says St. John Chysostom, "if you were elected king but were obliged to spend the night preceding your entrance into your capital city where you were to be crowned, if you were compelled to pass that night in much discomfort in a stable, would you not joyfully endure it in the expectation of your kingdom? And why should not we, in this valley of tears, willingly live through adversities, in expectation of one day obtaining the kingdom of heaven?" Notice Chrysostom compares our time here on earth to a night and our time in heaven to the rest of our life. This is a night, and we sleep through a large part of it, even if not so well in a stable. When we arrive in the kingdom of heaven we will find true peace, serenity and rest.

Let us consider we are traveling to our new home a thousand miles away. We plan a stop half way to spend the night and reserve a room there. When we arrive about five in the evening and get into the room, the room is painted the ugliest color we can imagine. We run out and buy some paint and a paint brush and grab a burger and fries on the way back to the room. We quickly eat then repaint the room, staying up until midnight. We go to sleep exhausted, knowing the room will not be an ugly color, when we need to wake up in a few hours to finish our trip. Anyone who did this would be considered crazy, and yet that is what we are doing here on earth. We are more concerned about our stop over here, than about our new home in heaven.

"Lay not up to yourselves treasures on earth: where the rust, and moth consume, and where thieves break through and steal. But lay up to yourselves treasures in heaven: where neither the rust nor moth doth consume, and where thieves do not break through, nor steal." (Matthew 6:19-20)

Are we laying up treasures in heaven or are we piling up earthly treasures, which can be taken away from us? Are we really doing what we will wish we had done, when the hour of death comes upon us?

Preparation for Death

 The Funny Pharmacy

The Pope Speaks: January 2021

Fatima Is a Distraction

To some this may sound like blasphemy? Wasn't the Miracle of the Sun one of the greatest events of modern history? Wasn't your own father converted by Fatima? All of this is true and the message of Fatima is important.

We have been following Fatima and Marian apparitions for decades. Today's discussion of Fatima is nothing like it was a half of a century ago. Today Mary's message has gotten buried and is little discussed. Instead there is much conversation about the Third Secret of Fatima and what is coming upon the world.

We have read about many approved Marian apparitions and there is a common theme throughout, repentance and prayer.

Let us go back to La Salette about which there is much fruitless discussion. How many know the real message of La Salette? In the public apparition Mary decried three sins. First she decried the violation of the Lord's Day: "Six days have I given you to labor, I have reserved the seventh to myself; yet you will not give it to me. It is this that makes my Son’s hand so heavy." Then she decried the sin of blasphemy, which is all too common today. "Wagoners cannot swear without introducing the name of my Son. These two things are what makes the hand of my Son so heavy." This sin is so common, we often share on Facebook a video We made: 'Three Letter Ticket to Hell'

Finally Mary said: "In summer, only a few old women go to Mass on Sunday. The others work. In winter, they have nothing else to do, the boys go to Mass just to mock at religion. The world takes no notice of Lent. People go to the butchers like dogs." This apparition occurred on Ember Saturday in September, a Fast Day. How many traditional minded Catholics observe the pre-Vatican II fast? Instead most go to the butcher's like dogs.

Then there is the Secret of La Salette, which is much discussed, although it is on the Index of Prohibited Books. We know for certain it is false, because when Melanie wrote it out originally she asked about two things, infallibility and Antichrist. Infallibility does not occur in the versions of the secret in circulation. Pope Pius IX was asked about the secret, which he had read. His answer was to quote Scripture. "No, I say to you: but unless you shall do penance, you shall all likewise perish." (Luke 13:3) Then he said that is all we need to know. John the Baptist said: "Do penance: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." (Matthew 3:2) A footnote in the Bible says: "Penance: Which word, according to the use of the scriptures and the holy fathers, does not only signify repentance and amendment of life, but also punishing past sins by fasting, and such like penitential exercises." So Pope Pius IX said that Mary indicated we need to repent.

Repentance is a common theme of Marian apparitions. She has come often to decry some sin that is rampant, especially violation of the Lord's Day. The theme of Fatima is repentance and prayer. If people had repented World War II could have been avoided. We didn't. Instead we became worse and are continuing to do so.

Over a decade ago We were sent a book, False Friends of Fatima. It stated that Sister Lucy wanted to speak to the world about Fatima in 1959, but the Vatican silenced her in the middle of the year. Had the Third Secret already become clearer? We will never know. We do know that the apostasy spoken of by Saint Paul in II Thessalonians 2 was beginning. The rest of the book convinced Us that the authors are also false friends of Fatima.

There is a little known miracle in 1953 in Syracuse, Italy. A cheap plastic statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary began to cry. A priest wrote a book about this, and his conclusion is that Mary has come many times asking for conversion and repentance. In 1953 like a Mother with a recalcitrant juvenile delinquent for a child, all she can do is cry.

Unless you are repenting and removing sin from your life and becoming a Saint, Fatima is a distraction as you have missed Mary's main message throughout history. Remember Mary leads us to Jesus.

As for secrets, several visionaries received secrets, which were never revealed. Maybe if people had repented, the third secret would have been revealed. It really doesn't matter. Sacred Scripture points the road to heaven and now two Popes have pointed out that road: "Unless you repent (do penance) you shall all likewise perish." (Luke 13:3, 5)

61. Scripture says: 'Hell and perdition are manifest to the Lord' (Prov. 15:11. LXX). This refers to ignorance of heart and forgetfulness.

62. Hell is ignorance, for both are dark; and perdition is forgetfulness, for both involve extinction.

63. Concern yourself with your own sins and not with those of your neighbor; then the workplace of your intellect will not be robbed.

64. Failure to do the good that is within your power is hard to forgive. But mercy and prayer reclaim the negligent.

65. To accept an affliction for God's sake is a genuine act of holiness; for true love is tested by adversities.

66. Do not claim to have acquired virtue unless you have suffered affliction, for without affliction virtue has not been tested.

67. Consider the outcome of every involuntary affliction, and you will find it has been the destruction of sin.

68. Neighbors are very free with advice, but our own judgment is best.

69. If you want spiritual health, listen to your conscience, do all it tells you, and you will benefit.

70. God and our conscience know our secrets. Let them correct us.

Saints from East and West

January 30 - Blessed Sebastian Valfrè.

Sebastian Valfrè was born at Verduno in Piedmont in 1629. His parents were poor and had a large family to support. From his childhood he determined to become a priest, and all through his years of study he maintained himself by copying books, costing his father nothing. We are told that all his parents were ever able to give him was a cartload of wine when he first left home.

He was accepted by the Fathers of the Oratory at Turin, and joined the congregation on Saint Philip's day, 1651. He received the priesthood a year later, and for his parents' consolation offered his first Mass at Verduno. He gave himself up at once and unreservedly to his priestly duties, and it was noted that from the time of his joining it, the Turin Oratory, which had previously had much to contend with, began to make many friends and to prosper exceedingly. Sebastian's first office was that of prefect of the Little Oratory, a confraternity of laymen who meet together for devotional exercises. This charge he retained for many years with abundant fruit, and his wonderful gift for inspiring enthusiasm in the young seems to have led a little later to his being appointed master of novices. In 1661, almost immediately after he had reached the required age of forty years, he was elected superior in spite of his own earnest remonstrances. We are told that his government was a perfect copy of that of Saint Philip, enforcing exact observance in every detail, but showing great tenderness to the sick, for whom nothing was thought too good.

During all this time Blessed Sebastian's fame as a director of souls was constantly growing. He spent long hours in the confessional, being scrupulous in the regularity of his attendance, a matter upon which he laid much stress in his exhortations to his own community. All classes came to him, and he was prepared to bestow endless care on those whom he saw in need of help or earnest to make progress. On the other hand, aided probably by a supernatural insight, he was ruthless in exposing insincerity and affectation. Amongst his penitents was the Duke Victor Amadeus II, afterwards king of Sardinia, who endeavoured in 1690, with Pope Alexander VIII's ready consent, to induce Father Sebastian to accept the archbishopric of Turin, but all to no purpose. He preached sometimes as many as three sermons in one day. He also went on long missionary expeditions in the surrounding country, penetrating occasionally into Switzerland, and wonderful were the conversions which followed. Besides this, much time was devoted to instructing the young and the ignorant. He gathered together the beggars who came to the Oratory for alms, and provided food for their souls as well as for their bodies. He was indefatigable in visiting hospitals and prisons, displaying, moreover, a special affection for soldiers, whose peculiar temptations he understood and compassionated.

Like Saint Philip, Blessed Sebastian was always cheerful, so that men judged him to be light-hearted and free from care. This was the more wonderful because we read a terrible story of his own spiritual desolation and interior trials. He was haunted by temptations to think that he was forsaken of God, that he had lost his faith, and that nothing but Hell awaited him; yet all the while, even when he was close upon eighty, he never relaxed his apostolic work for souls, preaching out of doors in the bitter cold of January to any company of waifs and outcasts whom he could gather round him. We find him at times fearless in visiting even haunts of vice when he felt that God called him to interfere. Strange to say, his intervention on these rare occasions seems to have been wonderfully blessed, and the most brutal ruffians felt the power of his holiness, remaining abashed and dumbfounded when he denounced them in no measured terms. His life was, in fact, the model of that which ought to be led by a zealous pastor in a city where misery and evil abound, and it is in no way wonderful that he was regarded by all his contemporaries as a saint. Instances of his supernatural insight and of the fulfilment of his predictions were many. Amongst other such cases which are on record, it seems clear that he knew, some months beforehand, the time of his own death. This occurred on January 30, 1710, when he was close upon eighty-one years of age. He was beatified in 1834.

25 January - Saint Gregory the Theologian.

Sainted Gregory (Nazianzus) the Theologian, Archbishop of Constantinople, an ecumenical father and teacher of the Church, was born into a Christian family of eminent lineage in the year 329, at Arianzos (not far from the city of Cappadocian Nazianzus). His father, likewise a Sainted Gregory, was Bishop of Nazianzus; but of these two father and son, the son is the Saint Gregory Nazianzus encountered in Patristic theology.

His mother, Saint Nonna, prayed God for a son, having given a vow to dedicate him to the Lord. As was revealed to her in a dream, she accordingly named her first-born Gregory. When the son learned to read, his mother presented him with the Holy Scripture. Saint Gregory received a quite complete and extensive education: after working at home with his uncle Saint Amphylochius, an experienced teacher of rhetoric, he then studied in the schools of Nazianzus, Caesarea Cappadocia and Alexandria. Then for the finishing touches to his education, the saint set off to Athens.

On the way from Alexandria to Greece, during the time of a terrible storm of many days, he was apprehensive only that "the murderous waters would deprive him of the waters of cleansing." "For twenty days and nights,” relates Saint Gregory, “I lay at the ship's stern, beseeching the merciful God for salvation, and at this perilous time I gave a vow to dedicate myself to God, being saved through this vow."

The saint spent six years at Athens, and there studied rhetorics, poetics, geometry, and astronomy. His teachers were the renowned pagan rhetoricians Gymorias and Proeresias. Together with Saint Gregory, there also studied there Saint Basil, the future Archbishop of Caesarea Cappadocia. Their friendship, formed while still back in school in Caesarea, flourished in a deep spiritual closeness. But their acquaintance with Julian, the future emperor (361-363) - and apostate from the Christian faith - soon turned into implacable enmity.

Upon completing his education, Saint Gregory remained for a certain while at Athens and taught the rhetoric eloquence of speech. He knew well the pre-Christian pagan philosophy and literature.

In the year 358 Saint Gregory quietly quit Athens and returned to his parents at Nazianzus. And here he at almost 30 years of age received Baptism from his father. Since now it was for him "become more significant to be a follower of God, than foremost with the emperor," he vacillated only on which way was to be "the preference: contemplative or practical."

At the suggestion of Saint Basil he withdrew into the wilderness, so as to asceticise alongside him.

But at the demand of his father, Saint Gregory returned to Nazianzus in 361 and received the dignity of presbyter. Sensing however, that solitude and silent prayer were immeasurably closer to his liking than pastoral activity, Saint Gregory again hastened into the wilderness to Saint Basil. There in the wilderness he strengthened in spirit, found the wherewithal to return to his flock and properly do his duty. And there soon befell Saint Gregory the hard task of reconciling the bishop with his flock, which condemned their pastor for signing an ambiguous interpretation of the dogmas of the faith. Saint Gregory gave the flock time for expression of feelings first, and then he convinced his father to openly acknowledge his mistake. After this, and uttering a sermon on the need for reconciliation, Saint Gregory accomplished his intent. Sainted Basil the Great made Saint Gregory bishop of the city of Sasima, but in order to assist his dying father, Saint Gregory remained at Nazianzus, and for a certain while after the death of his father he guided the flock of this city.

Upon the death of the Constantinople patriarch Valentus in the year 378, the Antioch Council invited Saint Gregory to help the Constantinople Church, which at this time moreso than at others was ravaged by heretics. Having received the consent of Saint Basil the Great, Saint Gregory came to Constantinople upon the Patriarchal throne. In the year 379 he began to serve and preach in a not-large house church of his kinsmen. He named this church "Anastasis" ("Voskresenie" or "Resurrection"), believing that in this small church he would begin to resurrect Orthodoxy. Heretics ruled everywhere - whether they be Arians or Appolinarians. And the more loudly resounded his preaching, the more fully increased the gathering in church, and by this more bitterly grew the opposition of the heretics. On the night of Pascha, 21 April 379, when Saint Gregory was making Baptism of the newly-illumined, a mob of armed heretics burst into the church and showered an hail of rocks upon the Orthodox, killing one bishop and wounding Saint Gregory. But the fortitude and mildness of the saint were his best armour, and his words regathered the Orthodox.

The compiled works of Saint Gregory - discourses, letters, verses - all show that he strove to be a worthy preacher of the truth of Christ. A gift of words was bestowed to him, and the saint sought to offer it in gift to God the Word: "This gift offer I up to my God, this gift I do dedicate to Him: this alone, is what I have remaining as my riches; I gave up all else at the command of the Spirit; everything that I had, I gave in exchange for the pearl of great price. Only in words do I master it, as a servant of the Word; never intentionally would I wish to disdain this wealth, I esteem it, I set value by it, I am comforted by it more, than others are comforted by all the treasures of the world. It is the companion of all my life, a good counselor and converser; a guide on the way to Heaven and a fervent co-ascetic." In order to worthily preach the Word of God, the saint assiduously prepared and revised his works.

In five Sermons - "Discourses on Theology" - dealing with those inclined towards the verbose reasonings of Eunomius, Saint Gregory first of all gives a precise definition, who it is from whom and when that they can theologise. Only those who are experienced can properly reason about God, those successful at contemplation and, foremost of all, pure in soul and body, or in utmost measure cleansed of self. To reason about God properly is possible only for one who enters into it with fervour and reverence. Explaining that God has concealed His Essence from mankind, Saint Gregory demonstrates that "by means of flesh it is impossible to view mental objects without admixture of the corporeal." To theologise talking about God in a positive sense is possible only when we become free from the external impressions of things and from their affects, when our guide - the mind - does not adhere to impure transitory images.

The fame of the Orthodox preacher spread through East and West. But the saint lived in the very capital just as though he lived still in the wilderness. "His food was food of the wilderness; his clothing - whatever necessary; his making of rounds was without pretense, and being in proximity of the court - he sought nothing from the court." During a time of sickness the saint was given a shock. One whom he reckoned as his friend, the philosopher Maximus, was consecrated in place of Saint Gregory at Constantinople. Struck by the ingratitude of Maximus, the saint decided to resign the cathedra, but his faithful flock restrained him from it. The people threw the usurper out of the city. On 24 November 380 the holy emperor Theodosius arrived in the capital and, in enforcing his decree against the heretics, the chief church was returned to the Orthodox, with Saint Gregory solemnly making entrance. Soon an attempt on the life of Saint Gregory was in the offing, but the one who was to be the assassin instead appeared before the saint with tears of repentance.

In the year 381 at the Second Ecumenical Council, Saint Gregory was confirmed in the dignity of Constantinople Patriarch. Upon the death of the Antioch Patriarch Meletius, Saint Gregory presided at the Council. Hoping to reconcile the West with the East, he offered to recognise Paulinus as Antioch Patriarch. But with the arrival of those who earlier had acted against Saint Gregory on the side of Maximus - particularly Egyptian and Macedonian bishops - they did not want to acknowledge the saint as Patriarch of Constantinople. Saint Gregory decided to sacrifice himself for the peace of the Church: "Let me be as the Prophet Jonas! I was guilty for the storm, but I would sacrifice myself for the salvation of the ship. Grab hold and throw me... I was not happy when I ascended the throne, and gladly would I descend it." Having explained to the emperor about his wish to quit the capital, Saint Gregory appeared again at the Council, in a farewell address asking it to let him depart in peace.

Upon his return to his native region, Saint Gregory concerned himself about the incursion of Appolinarian heretics into the Nazianzus flock, and he established there as bishop the pious Eulalius, while he himself withdrew into the solitude of Arianzus so dear to his heart. Not forsaking the wilderness, the saint with zeal for the truth of Christ continued to affirm Orthodoxy through his letters and verses. In the year 389 he died, on 25 January, being honoured by the Church with the title "Theologian" bestown also on that beloved disciple of Christ - the holy Evangelist and Apostle John.

The body of Saint Gregory was buried at Nazianzus. In the year 950 the holy relics were transferred to Constantinople into the church of the Holy Apostles. Later on part of the relics were transferred to Rome. Tradition has preserved the features of the saint as: "a face humble, pale, eyebrows standing up thick, a meek glance, beard not long, but thick and broad." His contemporaries already called the archpastor a saint.

Books to feed your faith!

Overnight Eggs Benedict Casserole

Prep: 20 mins
Cook: 50 mins
Additional: 8 hrs
Total: 9 hrs 10 mins

Yield: 1 9x13-inch casserole

Ingredients
8 large eggs
2 cups milk
3 green onions, chopped
1 teaspoon onion powder
1 teaspoon salt
¾ pound Canadian bacon, cut into 1/2-inch dice
6 English muffins, cut into 1/2-inch dice
½ teaspoon paprika
1 (.9 ounce) package hollandaise sauce mix
1 cup milk
¼ cup margarine

Directions

1 Spray 9x13-inch baking dish with cooking spray.

2 Whisk eggs, 2 cups milk, green onions, onion powder, and salt together in a large bowl until well mixed.

3 Layer half the Canadian bacon in the prepared baking dish. Spread English muffins over meat and top with remaining Canadian bacon. Pour egg mixture over casserole. Cover baking dish with plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight.

4 Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C).

5 Sprinkle casserole with paprika; cover with aluminum foil.

6 Bake in preheated oven until eggs are nearly set, about 30 minutes; remove foil. Continue baking until eggs are completely set, about 15 more minutes.

7 Whisk hollandaise sauce mix with 1 cup milk in a saucepan. Add margarine and bring to a boil, stirring frequently. Reduce heat to medium-low, simmer, and stir until thickened, about 1 minute. Drizzle sauce over casserole to serve.

Video sermons and instructions: Timeless timely truths for living the Faith

The Seventh Commandment: Lesson 14

What Is The Root Cause Of A Spirit Of Anger?