Renewing Our Faith

Renewing our faith is not about converting others it is about learning the theology and dogma that underpin our Catholic beliefs.  

Tuesday, May 18

Our History in Chinese




天主教
中國聖沙勿略協會

本網站的目的是向中外華人灌輸真正的羅馬天主教教義

Short History of the Crisis in the Catholic Church, 
"The Infiltration of Modernism in the Catholic Church"

Please pray for our Missionary Priests 
In September, police in China arrested Bishop Tommaso Zeng 
Jingmu of the underground Catholic Church - who has spent 32 of his 
80 years in prison - along with his auxiliary, Bishop Deng Hui, and a priest.
 On 26 August, another Chinese bishop faithful to the Pope, Bishop 
Jiang Ming Yuan, was also arrested. It was all part of the Chinese 
Government's on-going campaign to eliminate the underground Church.
China Still Martyrs Christians
Chinese Martyr 34 yr Old Jiang Zongxiu
Killed by Public Security Bureau - Report 7/28/05

Missed Latin Mass?


If you have missed your usual Sunday Tradentine Latin Mass then go to 'pages' - 'Sunday Sermons'  and read us on the one you have missed.
The above photograph is one I took at the SSPX Mass in Lourdes.

Sunday, May 16

One Million Rosarys



How many recognise the picture below.  We who attend the SSPX Latin Mass in Cork will know this is the statue at the back of the Church of Our Lady of The Rosary, in Shanikiel, Cork City.  I had this picture made into a postcard with the words:  "Queen of All Nations, who is the Mother of God, Mary most Holy."  And "When wicked men blaspheme thee, I'll love and bless thy name."  It is in reparation for the insults to Our Lady by the term - "lady of all nations who once was mary"  
If anyone would like copies for free just let me know - but you must promise to leave them in churches especially where the picture of "barbie"  is on show.



As you all know we have been praying "many, many Rosaries" to support the popes consecration of Russia to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.  This of course is in order to claim the triumph of the Immaculate Heart.  


Three questions we want an answer to:
First - how many Rosaries did we collect?
Second - when will the pope carry out Our Lady's intention?
Third - when will we see the triumph of the Immaculate Heart of Mary?


The answer to the first is easy enough:
At present, there is only a provisional count, as all the results have not yet been tallied. However, DICI is delighted to announce that the goal of 12 million rosaries, which were to form a crown of 12 stars for Mary, Queen of Heaven, has been surpassed by far, since more than 18 million Rosaries have already been reported. Among the districts that sent in their results, we should note the generosity of the United States (5,351,500), Africa (2,815,350), Asia (2,538,200), and France (2,529,670). Next come Canada (717,000), Germany (680,000), South America (536,480), Switzerland (411,000), Australia (402,000), Mexico (332,800), Italy (215,000), Ireland (136,190)….


The Answer to the second is very much according to the will of God.  Remember Pharaoh and how God hardened his heart? 
For the answer to the third - read the post for Father Paul's sermon on the Sunday within the octave of the Ascension. 

Saturday, May 15

Protestants and Our Lady

A Protestant convert Scot Montgomery, as a guest columnist for The Remnant, has written a hard hitting article on the unlikelihood of Protestants accepting Our Lady.
I was particularly interested in this article as I had occasion to remonstrate with a Catholic friend who had been 'protestantised' to the extent that she would not longer pray to Our Lady.   Ending my argument with this friend I recall saying; "I only know that Satan hates Her"  I could see it had a profound effect on her and she later acquired a statue of Our Lady and began praying the Rosary.
Scott Montgomery explains: "If the time ever comes when the Protestant cleric begins to seriously consider that he is wrong, he is not going to seek the truth by engaging in endless public dialogue.  Rather, like Cardinal Newman, he is going to lock himself away in his study and very privately and prayerfully begin to work out his salvation.  This will allow the Holy Ghost to bring about a sincere change of heart and set the stage for a complete return to the Catholic Faith."
Scott  completes his article with a couple of passages from Saint Louis Marie Grignion De Montfort's book, "The Necessity of the Blessed Virgin"
Scott Montgomery must have had a very powerful conversion - obviously a prayerful one.  A little piece from the heart of De Montfort:
"Inasmuch as grace perfects nature, and glory perfects grace, it is certain that our Lord is still, in Heaven, as much the Son of Mary as He was on earth; and that, consequently, He has retained the obedience and submission of the most perfect Child toward the best of all mothers.  But we must take great pains not to conceive this dependance as any abasement or imperfection in Jesus Christ.  For Mary is infinitely below her Son, who is God, and therefore she does not command Him as a mother here below would command her child who is below her....she asks nothing, wishes nothing, does nothing contrary to the eternal and immutable will of God...."
http://www.remnantnewspaper.com/
 

Monday, May 10

See How Its Done! How To Separate Church and State.

By MALTA HUMANIST ASSOCIATION - PRESS RELEASE
Added: Tuesday, 20 April 2010 at 11:00 PM

The Malta Humanist Association (MHA), a new organisation aimed at representing Maltese secular humanists and promoting the principles of secular humanism, was launched on 7 April 2010 at Europe House in Valletta.

Apart from the broader aims listed above, MHA will work towards a number of short-, medium- and long-term goals. These include: 

1.   Abrogating (repeal or do away with) Article 2 of the Constitution of Malta, which states that "€˜The religion of Malta is the Roman Catholic and Apostolic Religion"€. 

2.  Working towards a complete and real separation between Church and State.

3.   To combat any discrimination against non-believers, conscious or unconscious, as the need arises.

4.   To help promote a system of values based upon humanist, scientific and rationalist principles. 

My Comment:

Humanism is a  system of thought that rejects religious beliefs and centers on humans and their values, capacities, and worth. 

This may sound good to those who are not keen on religion.  But what these people don’t realise is that when you centre on the worth of human beings - who decides their worth?  Remember Hitler judged the worth of Jews and his whole nation followed him. And then they proceeded to murder them.  Who decides the worth of the tiny unborn child in its mother’s womb?  What if it isn’t worth anything to anyone - does it then get butchered by the abortionist?  I think you’ll find it does.  And what of the epidemic proportions of those dying by their own hand.  Why?  Because they decide, for whatever reason that life wasn’t worth living.  Humanists, as parents, anguish how their children can be bullied in school to the point of their suicide.  Well you see their class mates deemed them worthless.  The words of Jesus Christ, "Do onto others as you would have them do onto you." are never taught now in religion classes in school.   

What are you worth to these Humanists?  They have no God, no spirituality, noting but the material, and how much is that worth?  The answer is easy - watch the hair dye ads on television and they will tell you “Your worth it!”  What! that's all I'm worth the price of a box of hair dye!

What if the humanist decides that the capacity of the disabled person renders his life worthless?  Answer: Euthanasia of course.  



Sunday, May 9

Father Paul Biére Teaches The Catholic Faith


Father pointed out that while Jesus told us to ask God for all our needs in prayer, modern man thought he could do without God.  Explaining that God thinks of us always, Father warned us that we must think of God every moment of our lives. That we must give Him honor, glory and praise. Everything else in our lives is secondary to this.  Everyday we must work on our relationship with God,  When we begin the day with our “Morning Offering” we offer all our works, joys, and sufferings to God.  It was terrifying to think, he said, of the millions of people who are living without God.
        Father explained that man’s intelligence made him aware of the presence of a soul within every human being.  Aristotle the great philosopher, who did not know God, but with his own thinking intelligence realised that each man had an immortal soul.  Father went on to lament that the greatest evil today is Religious Ignorance.  Father warned that we must study our Catechism, this he said, was not a choice, but a duty, an obligation.  We must learn about the four cardinal virtues, the three theological virtues, the six precepts of the Church, the commandments.  
    It was a bit scary when Father warned us that we needed to feed our souls,  that while the body will go to corruption our soul will live on for ever.    
    Explaining that the Mass was the greatest prayer of all he described it as vocal prayer where we prayed with both the body and the soul as apposed to meditation which was interior prayer.  Father reminded us that we must be very attentive at Mass.  We need to follow the priest who is ‘altar Christus’ (another Christ) in all he is doing on the altar.
        Father went on to give a nice little description of prayer being the philosopher’s stone, which turned the baseness of our lives in the gold of God’s love and grace.
    All this sound teaching Father Biérer delivered with love and care for his flock.

Can we ever thank God enough for the sound teaching we get at an SSPX sermon.  

    

Father Paul Biére reminds us of Our Lady’s love for Jesus


Last Sunday, during his sermon Father Biérer mentioned Our Lady and something he said made such a lot of sense.   Father said that we should try to be as much like Our Lady as possible.  Then he described her relationship with Jesus.  Father said that Our Lady was totally interested in Her son.  Everything she did, thought or said was directed towards Him and for Him.  And this is how we should be. 

     Suddenly I realised that as a mother I am totally ‘locked in’ to my children.  When I am involved with them, I see nothing else, hear nothing else, nothing else interests me.  Our Lady must have felt that way about Her son Jesus.  But what a son!  Imagine being ‘locked in’ to God.  Imagine loving Him like that.  Listening to His every word.  Caring so much about what He thought.  Caring for His needs.  Can you imagine what it was like to wash Jesus clothes.  I wonder how often She hugged and kissed them.  

    We are encouraged to love Jesus like a brother, a friend, our God.  But what if we loved Him as our child?  As a grown up child.  How would we feel then  when we meditated on His crucifixion?  Perhaps we would feel that sword through our own heart.