We Do Not Fall Into Sin

"For a just man shall fall seven times and shall rise again: but the wicked shall fall down into evil." (Proverbs 24:16) We have a bad habit of saying that we fall into sin, when many times we rush towards it merrily. So let us not dismiss sin lightly, because sin is a serious matter.

One reason sin flourishes is that it is treated like a cream puff instead of a rattlesnake. Let us take this to heart and analyze sin. There are three kinds of sin. Some may say, there are only two, but in reality there actually are three when we think about it. There is mortal sin, deliberate venial sin and in-deliberate venial sin.

Let us begin with in-deliberate venial sin first. This is the small sin that we actually fall into, such as when we stub our toe and an indecent word flies out. This is the type of sin that the just man falls into seven times a day.

Next let us consider deliberate sin. This is a sin that we think out and commit willingly and knowingly. We include everything here from gluttony and lust to lying and murder. When we go to an all-you-can eat buffet, are we possibly thinking about eating all we can instead of what we need to maintain our strength and health? Are we letting our food be our medicine as we should or are we digging our graves with our teeth. When we drive to the buffet, we do not fall into sin, we walk willingly to it, if that is our intention.

The only difference between deliberate venial sin and mortal sin is the seriousness of the matter. In mortal sin the matter is serious and we have reflected on it sufficiently as well as consenting fully. Deliberate venial sin is a lighter matter, which we reflect on and consent to fully. "To him therefore who knoweth to do good, and doth it not, to him it is sin." (James 4:17) We know what we should do, but we set that aside in some areas of our lives and indulge ourselves. "For many walk, of whom I have told you often (and now tell you weeping), that they are enemies of the cross of Christ; whose end is destruction; whose God is their belly; and whose glory is in their shame; who mind earthly things." (Philippians 3:18-19) How many of us are: "lovers of pleasures more than of God:" (II Timothy 3:4) And these are some reasons we walk willingly towards sin and adopt the attitude that this is only a venial sin.

Let us take time to consider our actions and our lax attitude towards sin. Are we treating sin like a cream puff or a bowl of ice cream. Consider that there are deadly poisons, such as antifreeze, that are sweet to the taste, but will kill us. In fact antifreeze is ten percent of aspertame, the balance being natural pain killers. Sin is just such a poison that has a fleeting pleasure followed by eternal ruin. If we are honest, there is one or more area of our life, where we have a lax conscience. We minimize sins in this area and commit them willingly.

"For the wages of sin is death. But the grace of God, life everlasting, in Christ Jesus our Lord." (Romans 6:23) Let us keep this in our heart, when we are tempted to sin. The problem is we dismiss some sins as only a venial sin, as if that somehow makes it good. Sin, all sin is evil. Jesus said to two different people: "Sin no more." (John 5:14; 8:11) Jesus did not tell anyone to go and sin no less.

We need to consider that all sin, no matter how trivial it may appear to be destroys our soul. Venial sin is a slow poison. "And he that contemneth small things, shall fall by little and little." (Ecclesiasticus 19:1) A lax attitude towards venial sin leads us to mortal sin. And when we commit a mortal sin, we may justify our self by saying something like: "I fell into adultery." My friend, you were already on the way to adultery in your heart long before the actual act. Let us be brutally honest with ourselves about our sins.

Let us consider the causes of a lax conscience. One of the main causes is a neglect of prayer. We begin minimizing our prayer time, when we should be increasing it. Prayer is the life blood of our spiritual life. The Saints advise us a half an hour to an hour of prayer in the heart. One says, pray a half of an hour, unless you are busy, then pray for an hour. When we get busy about many things, (Luke 10:40f) it is easy to neglect the best part, that is sincere prayer.

Let us ask ourselves some questions:

First, how much time are we spending in the Word of God, Sacred Scripture?

Next, what spiritual book are we currently reading? If we aren't reading one, we are in danger.

How are we spending our free time? It is good to take a typical week and track what we do with our time.

How are we spending our money? It is good to take a month and track how we spend our money.

Do we have a spiritual journal? Why not?

Let us take some time to prevent our selves from leaping (not falling) into sin. We need to take positive steps in order to return to the right track and the beginning of the year is one good time to start. Actually any time is a good time to start, so let us restart our spiritual life anew, while analyzing where we have slacked off.

 

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Florist Reaches Settlement After Eight-Year Legal Battle

Barronelle Stutzman’s defense of her religious liberty is over. The florist and owner of Arlene’s Flowers reached a settlement with the men who sued her because she would not design floral arrangements for their wedding in 2013.

Stutzman agreed to pay Rob Ingersoll and Curt Freed $5,000, according to a release from Alliance Defending Freedom. “At age 77, it’s time to retire and give my business to someone else,” Stutzman wrote in a letter. “I’ve never had to compromise my conscience, or go against my faith.”

Rather than violate her religious beliefs, Stutzman recommended other area florists to Ingersoll when he, a longtime customer of Stutzman’s, asked her to create an arrangement for his wedding to Freed in March 2013.

Initially, the state attorney general sued Stutzman. Ingersoll and Freed eventually joined the suit when the ACLU became involved. The case has been argued and appealed for more than eight years and had
recently been appealed to the Supreme Court. The settlement also includes Stutzman’s dropping of her appeal to the nation’s highest court.

 

Philadelphia to Pay Two-Million-Dollar Settlement to Catholic Foster Care Agency

Philadelphia’s four-year legal battle with a Catholic foster care agency over its refusal to work with same-sex parents officially ended this fall with the city agreeing to pay $2 million in legal fees and to renew the agency’s contract.

In June, the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously rejected Philadelphia’s decision to terminate a contract with Catholic Social Services over its refusal to consider same-sex married couples as potential foster
parents....

City officials told the Inquirer that by settling they avoided opening up a narrow ruling to more sweeping restrictions....

As part of the settlement agreement, the city wrote into CSS’s contract that it would be exempt from the citywide nondiscrimination ordinance, which prohibits city contractors from discriminating based
on race, gender or sexual orientation.

 

Some Asylum Seekers Getting Christian Tattoos to Bolster Conversion Claims, Stay in United Kingdom

Some Asylum seekers in the United Kingdom are getting tattoos of crucifixes and Jesus to falsely claim they are converts to Christianity and bolster their case to attain British citizenship. People smugglers have used social media advertisements for their services claiming conversion to Christianity will get asylum seekers British citizenship more quickly....

The Telegraph reports it has found that some asylum seekers are getting tattoos of crucifixes and Jesus to “prove” their conversion and argue that they cannot be sent back to the Middle East or their home
country where Christians are persecuted.

 

Ugandan Pastor Slain by Some Radical Muslims in Anti-Christian Attack

Islamic extremists in an eastern Uganda district accused a 58-year-old Christian pastor of being an “infidel, who had harmed the religion of Allah” for refusing to remove his church building. Wielding long knives and blunt objects, the men attacked the pastor in front of his daughter, who fled the scene to report the crime to police, according to reports.

Three men dressed in Islamic attire killed Pastor Stephen Lugwire while he was in his animals’ grazing fields with his 23-year-old daughter...on the morning of October 27, Morning Star news reported.

The men...yelled that Pastor Lugwire was a “kafir,” or infidel, who had harmed the religion of Allah, his daughter was quoted as saying.

One of the men yelled at her father, saying, “We have told you to remove the church which is near our mosque, but you have not heeded our message. Today you will face the wrath from Allah.”...

Following the murder, the suspects sought refuge at the home of a wealthy Muslim woman...who was subsequently arrested.

...The Muslim woman told the police, “The servants of Allah entered my house in order to remove the clothes which they were wearing, because they were soaked in blood, and said that they had killed an infidel, hence Allah will reward them as they were following the footsteps of their prophet.

Furthermore, the pastor didn’t honor Allah by refusing to demolish the church which was close to the mosque, along with his activities of winning their members to Christianity.”

The three men remained at large at press time....

 

State Department Decides To Drop Nigeria as a “country of particular concern.”

When Pastor Silas Yakubu Ali didn’t show up to preach on Sunday morning, there was one overriding feeling: dread....As the hour grew later, people in the congregation left to search—each one praying that his disappearance wasn’t what they all feared. In Nigeria, they knew, being a Christian or going to church could be a death sentence—one that had been carried out thousands of times this year already.

A third of a mile from his house, Pastor Silas was found—his lifeless body next to the motorcycle that had run out of gas....He had been macheted to death.

In 2021, the massacres happen almost nightly....The day after Pastor Silas’s murder, gunmen went after his congregation, slaughtering young boys in the fields and 11 more. One pregnant woman was “hacked to death,” the baby cut out of her womb...one of countless grisly scenes.

These last several months, the gangs of Fulani, Boko Haram and other armed militants have become even more brazen, torching entire villages and farms, ambushing and killing innocent people in gory, unspeakable ways....

The numbers, deep into 2021, are almost unfathomable. Mass killings, the kind that used to be sporadic, are a national emergency now. One report estimated that as many as 8,000 Christians had been murdered in cold blood—just between January and September....

...[In mid-November] United States State Department decided to drop Nigeria as a “country of particular concern.” Nigeria, where more Christians are killed than anywhere else on the face of the planet, American leaders have suddenly decided to turn their backs [on] and walk away.

 

Nigerian Priest Shot Dead on Christmas Eve

Fr. Luke Mewhenu Adeleke, a priest of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Abeokuta, was shot dead Friday while returning home after celebrating Mass.

He was shot in his car by unknown gunmen Dec. 24 in the Obafemi Owode Local Government Area, after saying Mass in Ogunmakin, about 50 miles east of Abeokuta, in Nigeria’s Ogun State.

Fr. Adeleke, who was in his late 30s, had been ordained a priest in 2017.

His body will be buried Dec. 31 after a Mass at Ss. Peter and Paul Cathedral in Abeokuta.

The murder and kidnapping of Christians in Nigeria have multiplied in recent years, a situation that has prompted Church leaders to express serious concern about the security of their members and to call on the government to prioritize the security of its citizens.

Fulani herders, most of whom are Muslim, have had increasing conflict with largely Christian farmers over limited natural resources in the country’s Middle Belt in recent years, and the radical Islamist group Boko Haram continues to threaten safety in Nigeria's north. There has generally been less violence in the south of the country, including Ogun State.

Another priest of the Abeokuta diocese was kidnapped briefly in November 2018.

 

Top Three Christian Persecutors of 2021

The religious freedom advocacy group International Christian Concern has named the Taliban, Kim Jong un and Nigeria as the top persecutors of Christians at its first Persecutor of the Year Awards event....

...ICC ranked Nigeria as the worst country for religious freedom in 2021....

[Speaking to the Christian Post, ICC President Jeff King] explained that the African nation has been engaged in a “20-year war against Christians,” which he labeled genocide.

“There’s a one-sided war against Christians....Nigeria is one of the deadliest places on Earth for Christians, as 50,000 to 70,000 have been killed since 2000. Nigeria is home to the infamous Islamic terrorist group Boko Haram, which has displaced millions of people and killed tens of thousands of others.”

“Fulani militants killed more Christians in the past several years than Boko Haram....In addition, conservative Islamic communities have allowed the forceful conversion and marriage of young Christian women and discriminated against Christians seeking employment.”

“There are millions, literally millions, three-plus million Christians displaced,” King asserted, adding: “Their homes have been stolen, their lands have been stolen, their farms have been stolen.”...

...The report cited the Taliban “going door-to-door to find out who is and isn’t going to the mosque,” searching the homes of Christians and making phone calls to Christians warning them that “We’re
coming for you.”...

King discussed the situation in Afghanistan further, suggesting that the United States’ pullout of Afghanistan that enabled the Taliban to take control of the country influenced ICC’s decision to make the Taliban a Persecutor of the Year. “There are probably about 10,000 Christians...they’re all converts from Islam. And so when you’re operating in a culture of radical, fundamentalist Islam, that means you
have a bullseye on your back.”...

King referred to Kim Jong un as “the top player” in the persecution of Christians in North Korea, following in the footsteps of the previous North Korean dictators Kim Jong-II and Kim II-Sung: “The Kim dynasties have tortured and killed millions of Christians over the decades. And I think we are familiar that it’s very common for the Kims or...the regime [to] put away three generations of one family when they’re identified as serious Christians.” 

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The Funny Pharmacy

The Pope Speaks: January 2022

Are Priests Obliged to Take the Jab?

 

Before we proceed let us lay down some things that have already been determined. First of all the jab is NOT a vaccine in the traditional sense of the word. The word vaccine has been redefined to include the various jabs available for COVID. Therefore we will not use the word vaccine, but the word jab.

The evidence available indicates that the jabs were developed using tissue from two abortions in the 1970's. As such, they are remote cooperation in the sin of another, which is permitted to obtain some good. Jab mandates are immoral, but are being imposed. As such, it may be imprudent to disobey such an immoral mandate. We can recognize its immorality, but it is not our duty to fight every immorality around us, and there are many. In fact, discussion of one such immorality has been delayed, because of this important matter.

There is little real world data on the jabs and their effectiveness. Also there is little data on the possible side effects, short or long term, related to the jab. And so all that can be given is guidance in regard to receiving the jab or rejecting it.

For instance, if a man must take the jab in order to feed his family, he is certainly morally justified in doing so. One may ask, if he is obliged to take the jab in order to see to the needs of his family. An argument can be made in favor of this conclusion. Supporting one's family is extremely important.

However, the subject here is in relation to a question in regards to Traditional minded priests. Instead of presenting arguments about the legitimacy of their ministry, we will consider their duties based upon their own arguments for the legitimacy of their ministry. For more information, please refer to Our book, Will the Real Catholic Church Please Stand Up? 

First of all, the principles are clear. Pastors and others having the care of souls have a duty in some cases to risk their lives for their flock. Other priests may also have such a duty, if the pastor is unavailable. The moralists are in agreement on this.

In 2003, Anthony Cekada wrote an article, Traditional Priests, Legitimate Sacraments. "Some authors say their obligation is based in the virtue of charity: 'When priests who have the cura animarum are lacking, other priests are bound out of charity to administer the sacraments.… in serious need for a community, [such priests] are bound to administer the sacraments, even at the risk of their lives, as long as there is reasonable hope of assisting and there is no one else who will help.' This obligation binds under pain of mortal sin. (Merkelbach 3:87)"

Let us analyze this. Traditional minded priests hold that priests, who have the cura animarum (care of souls, such as Pastors have) are lacking. They then hold that this authorizes them to administer the Sacraments in their place and that they have an obligation to do so. To be consistent, if the jab is required in order to administer the last rights in a hospital for instance, they have the duty to receive the jab, even if there is some risk to themselves. To argue that on personal grounds they may refuse it is to reject the whole basis they accepted ordination on, the necessity in this crisis to administer the Sacraments. If they refuse the jab, when required to fulfill the duty they claim to have, then they demonstrate by their actions that they may not exercise Holy Orders in any manner whatsoever.

Cekada observes: "The priesthood is not just a privilege that stintingly permits something; it is a munus or officium (duty) to do something: to offer sacrifice and to dispense sacraments. So for a priest the real question is always: 'What sacraments am I now obliged to confer?'" We can expand this to include the risk a priest must go to for the salvation of souls.

As a duty, the priest is no longer his own, but God's. All of us are God issue, in that we are not our own. We learned this in the May 2021 Olive Tree in the article, We Are Not Our Own. Priests are even more God issue in that we are not our own, but hold our position for the greater honor and glory of God and the salvation of souls.

Traditional minded priests are required to be consistent in their belief system. Otherwise, by their actions, they admit they may not function as priests. There is much inconsistency, and this is only one small area, but one that may speak loudly.

In making our decision in regard to the COVID-19 jab and whether or not to take it, let us keep in mind our obligations to God and our fellow man, disregarding the controversy surrounding the jab itself.

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181. If we no longer fulfill the desires of the flesh, then with the Lord's help the evils within us will easily be eliminated.
182. Images already established in our intellect are more pernicious and stubborn than those which arise while we are thinking. The latter precede the former and are their cause.
183. One kind of evil dwells in the heart through long-continued prepossession; another kind attacks our thoughts through the medium of everyday things.
184. God assesses our action according to our intention; for it is said that the Lord will 'reward you according to your heart’ (Ps. 20:4).
185. He who does not persevere in examining his conscience will not endure bodily suffering for God's sake.
186. The conscience is nature's book. He who applies what he reads there experiences God's help.
187. He who does not choose to suffer for the sake of truth will be chastened more painfully by suffering he has not chosen.
188. He who knows God's will, and performs it according to his power, escapes more severe suffering by suffering a little.
189. If a man tries to overcome temptations without prayer and patient endurance, he will become more entangled in them instead of driving them away.
190. The Lord is hidden in His own commandments, and He is to be found there in the measure that He is sought.

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Saints from East and West

10 January - Saint Gregory of Nyssa.

Sainted Gregory, Bishop of Nyssa, was a younger brother of Saint Basil the Great. His birth and time of upbringing coincided with the very heights of the Arian disputes. Having received an excellent education, he was at one time a teacher of rhetorical eloquence. In the year 372 he was ordained by Saint Basil the Great as bishop of the city of Nyssa in Cappadocia.

Saint Gregory was an ardent advocate for Orthodoxy, and together with his brother Saint Basil the great he fought against the Arian heresy. He suffered persecution by the Arians, by whom he was falsely accused in the year 376 of improper useage of church property, and thereby deprived of his cathedra and sent off to Ancyra. In the following year Saint Gregory was again in absentia deposed by a church-council of Arian bishops, but he continued to encourage his flock in Orthodoxy, wandering about from place to place. After the death of the emperor Valens (378), Saint Gregory was restored to his cathedra and joyously received by his flock.

In the year 379 his brother Saint Basil the Great died. Only with difficulty did Saint Gregory survive the loss of his brother and guide. He crafted a funeral oration to him and completed compilation of Saint Basil's study of the Six Days of Creation, the so-called "Hexaemeron." This same year Saint Gregory participated in the Council of Antioch, against heretics that disdained to honour the immaculate virginity of the Mother of God, and others at the opposite extreme that worshipped the Mother of God as Herself being God. He was chosen by the Council for an examination of churches in Arabia and Palestine to assert the Orthodox teaching about the Most Holy Mother of God. On his return journey Saint Gregory visited Jerusalem and the Holy Places.

In the year 381 Saint Gregory was one of the chief figures of the Second Ecumenical Council, convened at Constantinople against the heresy of Macedonias, who incorrectly taught concerning the Holy Spirit. At this Council, on the initiative of Saint Gregory, was completed the Nicean Symbol of Faith (i.e. the Creed).

Together with the other bishops Saint Gregory affirmed Sainted Gregory the Theologian in the dignity of Archpastor of Constantinople.

In the year 383 Saint Gregory of Nyssa was a participant in a Council at Constantinople, where he spoke a sermon about the Divinity of the Son and the Holy Spirit. In the year 386 he was again at Constantinople, and to him was entrusted to speak the funeral oration in memory of the empress Placilla. And again in 394 Saint Gregory was present in Constantinople at a Local Council, convened for resolving church matters in Arabia.

Sainted Gregory of Nyssa was a fiery defender of Orthodox dogmata and a zealous teacher to his flock, a kind and compassionate father to his spiritual children, and their intercessor before the courts. He was distinguished by his magnanimity, patience and love for peace.

Having reached old age, Saint Gregory of Nyssa died peacefully, soon after the Constantinople Council. Together with his great contemporaries - Saints Basil the Great and Gregory the Theologian - Saint Gregory of Nyssa had a significant influence on the Church life of his time. His sister, Saint Macrina, wrote to him: "Thou art reknowned both in the cities, and gatherings of people, and throughout entire districts; Churches do send off and summon thee for help."

Saint Gregory has come down in history as one of the most obvious and active Christian thinkers of the fourth century. Endowed with a profound philosophical talent, he perceived philosophy but as a means for a deeper penetration into the authentic meaning of Divine revelation.

Saint Gregory left behind him many works of dogmatic character, as well as sermons and discourses.

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14 January - Blessed Odo of Novara.

Blessed Odo, a Carthusian monk of the twelfth century, stands out from among some of his saintly contemporaries by the fact that we have good first-hand evidence concerning his manner of life. Pope Gregory IX ordered an inquiry to be made with a view to his canonization, and the depositions of the witnesses are still preserved. One or two extracts will serve to sketch his portrait better than a narrative.

"Master Richard, Bishop of Trivento, having been adjured in the name of the Holy Ghost, the holy Gospels lying open before him, affirmed that he had seen the blessed Odo and knew him to be a God-fearing man, modest and chaste, given up night and day to watching and prayer, clad only in rough garments of wool, living in a tiny cell, which he hardly ever quitted except to pray in the church, obeying always the sound of the bell when it called him to office. Without ceasing, he poured forth his soul in sighs and tears; there was no one he came across to whom he did not give new courage in the service of God; he constantly read the divine Scriptures, and in spite of his advanced age, as long as he stayed in his cell, he laboured with his hands as best he could that he might not fall a prey to idleness." The bishop then goes on to give a brief sketch of Odo's life, noting that after he became a Carthusian he had been appointed prior in the recently founded monastery of Geyrach in Slavonia, but had there been so cruelly persecuted by the bishop of the diocese, Dietrich, that, being forced to leave his community, he had travelled to Rome to obtain the pope's permission to resign his office. He had then been given hospitality by the aged abbess of a nunnery at Tagliacozzo, who, struck by his holiness, got leave to retain him as chaplain to the community. Numerous other witnesses, who had been the spectators of Odo's edifying life, spoke of his austerities, his charity and his humble self-effacement.

One of these, the Archpriest Oderisius, deposes that he was present when Odo breathed his last, and that "as he lay upon the ground in his hair-shirt in the aforesaid little cell, he began to say, when at the point of death, 'Wait for me, Lord, wait for me, I am coming to Thee'; and when they asked him to whom he was speaking, he answered, 'It is my King, Whom now I see, I am standing in His presence.' And when the blessed Odo spoke these words, just as if someone were offering him his hand, he stood straight up from the ground, and so, with his hands stretched out heavenwards, he passed away to our Lord." This happened on January 14 in the year 1200, when Odo was believed to be nearly a hundred years old. He worked many miracles both during life and after death, but it horrified him to think that people should attribute to him any supernatural power. "Brother," he said to one who asked his aid, "why dost thou make game of me, a wretched sinner, a bag of putrid flesh? Leave me in peace; it is for Christ, the Son of the living God, to heal thee;" and as he said this he burst into tears. But the man went away permanently cured of an infirmity which, as the witness who recounts this attests from personal knowledge, had tortured him for many years. The cultus of Blessed Odo was confirmed in 1859.

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Advice You Can Bank On

A Catholic Perspective On Finances 

Tracking Our spending Habits

As we are moving forward in getting our finances under control, we time to put together our budget and see where our money is going. Let us follow last month's plan with a slight variation. Instead of 50, 30, 20. we are going to do 10, 50, 20, 20. We are also going to rearrange in light of principles set forth here.

This month we are going to prepare a budget and next month we are going to track where every penny goes. As the saying goes: "Watch the pennies and the dollars will take care of themselves." We read in Scripture in Luke (14:28-30): "For which of you having a mind to build a tower, doth not first sit down, and reckon the charges that are necessary, whether he have wherewithal to finish it: Lest, after he hath laid the foundation, and is not able to finish it, all that see it begin to mock him, Saying: This man began to build, and was not able to finish."

 

10% For God

 

"And that we would bring the first fruits of our land, and the firstfruits of all fruit of every tree, from year to year, in the house of our Lord." (2 Esdras 10:35) We need to put God first in our life not just financially but in all aspects. Our principle should be, God first. The Pope discussed the requirements for a living wage last year. https://www.vaticaninexile.com/july_2021_living_wages.php

 

50% For Necessities

 

As we saw last month, half of our income should go for necessities, food, clothing and shelter. "The needs category consists of housing, groceries, utilities, transportation, insurance, minimum loan payments, and child-care." Here is the main part of the budget.

 

20% for Savings

 

This starts with getting clear out of debt, beginning with those pesky credit cards. We have almost a half of a trillion in credit card debt in this country. That is $3,600 per household.

 

20% for Wants

 

"The wants category includes items such as eating out, gifts, travel, and entertainment." What do you spend in the various places here?

  

What Gives?

 

Now many will get done and find they are spending all of their income or even more, which is why we have credit card debt. Last month we discussed cutting the wants category first. As Saint Paul tells us: "For she that liveth in pleasures, is dead while she is living." (1 Timothy 5:6) So let us cut this as far as to five percent of our income before we look elsewhere.

The first place people go is cutting their giving to the work of the Church. The Commandment of the Church is clear on giving, but does not specify an amount. At the Traditional Catechism website there is a lesson on this. https://www.traditionalcatechism.com/giving_to_god_and_giving_to_the_poor.php God should not be cut first, but the amount we give Him may be reduced. The first reason is employers are not paying a living wage. God expects something from us, but He also understands the times we live in.

The next place we go is savings, but let us be careful here. Let us make sure we are spending less than we are bringing in. This is not negotiable.

In the final are, necessities cuts can be made as well. We may like T-bone steak, but can only afford ground beef.

 

A Living Wage

 

Let us consider this Scripture as we prepare our budget: "Remove far from me vanity, and lying words. Give me neither beggary, nor riches: give me only the necessaries of life: [9] Lest perhaps being filled, I should be tempted to deny, and say: Who is the Lord? or being compelled by poverty, I should steal, and forswear the name of my God." (Proverbs 30:8-9)

Pope Leo XIII defines a living wage as: "If a workman's wages be sufficient to enable him comfortably to support himself, his wife, and his children, he will find it easy, if he be a sensible man, to practice thrift, and he will not fail, by cutting down expenses, to put by some little savings and thus secure a modest source of income. Nature itself would urge him to this. We have seen that this great labor question cannot be solved save by assuming as a principle that private ownership must be held sacred and inviolable. The law, therefore, should favor ownership, and its policy should be to induce as many as possible of the people to become owners." (Rerum Novarum)

 

Our Plan

 

Over the next three months we will do three things.

In January we will prepare a budget, based on what we think we are spending.

In February we will track how we spend every penny, dividing it up under the four categories we have considered, God, necessities, savings and wants.

In March we will analyze what we learned in February and adjust our budget accordingly. Lent is a good time to discipline ourselves in all ways. And watching how we spend our money is quite important.

"And he said also to his disciples: There was a certain rich man who had a steward: and the same was accused unto him, that he had wasted his goods."(Luke 16:1) Have we wasted God's goods? "And said: Naked came I out of my mother's womb, and naked shall I return thither: the Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away: as it hath pleased the Lord so is it done: blessed be the name of the Lord." (Job 1:21) God has given these goods into our care for His work. He can just as easily take them away.

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