Fatima, the Pope and a touch of eschatology.

It’s the feast day of Our Lady of Fatima today, commemorating her first appearance in the little town of Fatima in Portugal to the three children Lucia, Jacinta and Francisco on May 13th 1917.

Today,  96 years later Pope Francis will consecrate his pontificate to Our Lady of Fatima.

Blessed Pope John Paul II dedicated himself to Our Lady of Fatima too, especially as he saw her hand in saving his life on May 13th 1981 when he was shot.

The apparitions at Fatima have to be one of the most important visits Our Mother has made to us over the last 2000 years.  Her promise that the War would end was fulfilled pretty quickly and the solders returned home. But she had made a stark warning. Men needed to repent, abide by her Son’s commandments and basically get our act together or there would be another war. She made it clear, that just as Scripture tells us, wars happen as a result of sin. She also warned that Russia would spread her errors over the world and nations would be annihilated.

Even after the spectacular miracle of the sun seem by over 70,ooo people, some many miles away, there wasn’t the right response to her plea. She had told Lucia that a strange light would be seen in the sky to herald the new war.

On Jan 25th 1938 an unusal aurora borealis was seen so far south that it caused fire engines to be sent out around London to find the source of the red lights filling the sky. Scientists made note of it’s unusual stretch and discovered it was caused by a surge in sunspot activity.

Lucia wrote to the Holy Father from her convent saying this was the sign.

Two months later the Second World War began.

Lucia became very ill and it looked likely, at the time, that she might die. In obedience to her bishop she wrote down the Third Secret and it was sent to the Vatican with instructions that it should not be told to the world until after 1960.

For whatever reason, Pope John XXIII read the message and did not announce it. The secret wasn’t announced until after the shooting and amazing survival of Bl. Pope John Paul II. Unfortunately the late announcement, coupled with a somewhat over enthusiastic view from Cdl Sodano that the prophecy was completed – when the vision hardly showed the events of 1981 has resulted in a large number of disgruntled and concerned people thinking that a) there’s more the to the 3rd secret (Lucia said there wasn’t) and b) the consecration of Russia hasn’t taken place properly yet (Lucia said it had) and c) there’s more of the secret we do know to be fulfilled (this seems very likely as only Cdl Sodano seemed to think it was all done with).

It’s a sad fact that all the dire warnings Our Blessed Mother gave us at Fatima have come to pass. If only we had listened.  But the message of Fatima is just as important today so we can still respond to Christ’s call via His Mother. Pray, do Penance and try to conform our lives with His will.

The fact that, despite how much we ignore her, God keeps sending Our Blessed Mother to mother us shows the amazing love, patience and mercy He has.

Obviously we are not supposed to go chasing after private revelation without due prayer and discernment and we are supposed to hear what the Church has to say on them. We know the Church never rushes to judgement on these matters. So much investigation takes place I wonder sometimes if the message is lost in the long wait. The official recognition of some of the apparitions at Kibeho in Africa came after the prophecies had been fulfilled.  I assume enough was known about the messages to have prevented the fulfillment of the horrible prophecy of the genocide, if people had repented as Our Blessed Mother asked.

As our Holy Father dedicates his pontificate to Our Lady of Fatima we await the full triumph of her Immaculate Heart giving glory to her Son.

Jimmy Akin’s 9 things to know about Our Lady of Fatima

Third Secret and the Angel Emmett O’Regan

Third Secret and Millenium There’s quite a bit on Unveiling the Apoc, so take a look around.

 

3 Quick Takes

1

Received a beautiful bouquet of pink roses today from a rather fine gentleman I married 25 years ago today.

We’re celebrating our Silver Wedding Anniversary with a take away tonight and a night away at the weekend. Lovely.

2

First day we could actually do the learning outside in company with the guinea pigs on the lawn. Cups of tea and  learning trays at the ready.

3

Just back from the hospital where the Prof has raised the Ivabradine to 7.5mg bd. He is pleased my heart rate is coming down a bit. Hasn’t been over 130 since I’ve been on it.  He wants the Candasarten increased again to prevent another mini-stroke and/or a full stroke Still running high BP and fluctuating a lot. He wants the GP to sort that out once I’ve finished this lot of Prednisolone and possibly once I’m off the Furosemide again.

He also thought going after a dx of Lupus was a good idea as it covers a lot; almost all in fact, of what’s happening with me.

He’ll see me again in 2 months. He is very good.

My daughter’s first Kindle book. You know you want to buy it.

My oldest daughter has been slaving away in the attic writing, when she isn’t slaving away in the kitchen making cakes. And now she has launched her first book on Kindle.

It’s called Beady Cloud and your life will be miserable if you don’t buy it ;P

It’s available on Amazon.com and Amazon.ca

 

It’s not available in hard copy but you can download kindle reader to your PC for free and read it there.

Enjoy.

Me/cfs on The Lens radio

David Singer has four short but packed episodes for you to listen to on the scandal of ME/Cfs treatment from the FDA and CDC. 

If you have ME or know and love someone who has it – take a few minutes to listen.

Don’t know if he’ll add more later.

He is Risen! The apparent contradiction between Mary Magdalene and St. Thomas

Jesus is Risen in accordance with the Scriptures. The women are the first witnesses and among those women is St. Mary Magdalene, to whom Jesus says the famous words “Noli me tangere..” that is “Do not cling to me,” going on to a rather odd explanation of “for I have not yet ascended to my Father.”(John 20:17). Then not long after this He speaks to St. Thomas offering His wounds to be touched as proof of His Resurrection. While it is uncertain that Thomas actually did touch Jesus, he was certainly invited to. So why the difference?

It has been suggested that Jesus was responding to the two different approaches to His Resurrection. Mary Magdalene had seen His Passion, suffered with Him to the last and she loved Him with what many commenters put as an “earthly love” which was a real, giving love (agape) up to a point, but Jesus was more than an earthly man, He is God Incarnate and in His Resurrected Body He is Present in a more heavenly way than before. In telling Mary not to cling to Him, He is warning her that He is not staying in this form on earth now, She must begin to learn to love Him in a fuller way so that when He returns to Heaven she mustn’t lose hope, but have even greater love and hope.

Poor old Thomas, on the other hand, had felt the rug pulled from under him as Jesus was arrested and the news that He had been condemned reached him. When He is told Jesus has Risen, it’s more than his battered hope can handle. Jesus appears to him and show He is there Body and Soul, not a ghost or a walking corpse, but a truly Resurrected person.

The Resurrection was a massive shift for the apostles and disciples who all had their own personal view of who Jesus should be and what He should do. Even after all that had happened in the last eight days they still approached Him asking if now He would restore Israel.

There are so many flavours of Jesus among Christians even today. It’s very difficult not to cling to the Jesus we have made and to believe in the Jesus who presents Himself to us. But once we have met Him, we can’t help falling to our knees saying “My LORD and my GOD!” with Thomas.

Oh My People – Reproaches Micah 6:3…

Greek Byzantine reproaches sung in Latin.

The reproaches

Remember the hour of Mercy from 3pm and the Divine Mercy Novena starts today.

From Hosanna to Crucify in less than a week

Jesus wept.

He wept for Jerusalem the holy city with the Temple at it’s heart, which had turned so far from God. Jesus had just raised his friend Lazarus (a name meaning God has helped)  from the dead and now He enters Jerusalem on a donkey, through the King’s gate in a very public fulfilment of the prophecy of  Zechariah (9:9) “Rejoice greatly O daughter of Zion, Shout in triumph daughter of Jerusalem. Behold your king has come to you. He is just and carries salvation. He is lowly and riding on an ass and the colt the foal of an ass.”

So Jesus comes to Jerusalem with the prophecy fulfilled to the last detail and the poeple recognise this and come out shouting for Him, their king, the son of David. Within a week they will have forgotten their palms and songs of joy and will be shouting at the Roman Procurator to “Crucify Him!”

So it will be for our new Holy Father. He has entered the Vatican to shouts of joy even from those who have shown themselves to have no heart for God. How humble he is, they cry and see how he loves the poor.

But soon there will be shouts of  hatred as they realise that yet again the Pope is, in fact, Catholic. There’s been a few of those shouts already.

Jesus calls us to rejoice, but He also insisted we carry a cross. He had to because the people He loved so much didn’t want to receive the truth.

As Jesus entered Jerusalem that fateful day the people singing “Hosanna!” had decided what kind of Messiah they wanted. They had their own idea of a king. Like the media today they put out the sort of things they expected the King Messiah to do. He must make reforms, get rid of the Romans,  change the Law perhaps.

But Jesus had already said He wasn’t going to change the Law, He was going to fulfil it.  The people soon tired of a man who kept speaking the truth and was doing what God wanted rather than what those who considered themselves elite wanted.

Pope Francis will face the same as the palms laid out for his inaugoration wither, so will the media’s sentimentality.  He will still be the Pope for the poor, but they will hate the fact he insists the poor have a right to be born.

I have to say, however difficult it gets for Pope Francis, and even if he must bear the wounds of Christ in the most difficult way; more difficult than his namesake St. Francis even, he does have a massive advantage. He has the prayers of his brother in Christ Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI. There’s also the sense that Blessed Pope John Paul II is looking down on them with his prayers. The brother popes knelt together in the chapel to pray and there on the wall was a copy of Our Lady of  Czestochowa with the Divine Child. As the original Icon has stood the test of many evil men and been victorious, there is a sign for the future- whatever it brings.

There’s an old saying that it’s easy to break one stick, but bind three sticks together and they cann’t be broken.

Lent; Chaplet of the Seven Sorrows. (Mystery 6)

Jesus us taken from the cross and placed in the arms of His Mother.

Anyone who has lost a child will remember the pain, that deep soul wrenching pain that comes with the loss. Those of us who have watched, helpless, while a child of ours suffers terribly and the sense of them leaving us is a pain that is beyond description.

Mary had watched her Son be tortured to death. Now two brave men arrive with a signed permission from Pilate that they can receive the body of Jesus. Joseph of Arimathea was a relative of Jesus and Nicodemus was a friend of Joseph’s. Both these men had positions of status in the Temple and were (particularly as Pharisees) well aware of the Law.

In stepping into Pilate’s house that day before the Sabbath, which that year coincided with the Passover, they made themselves unclean. To make themselves so unclean they could not celebrate the Passover they went and took a bloody corpse down from a cross. They were so terribly ritually unclean now and yet that Precious Blood that they undoubtedly got over them did not make them unclean, but cleansed them.

St. Longinus, the Roman soldier pierces the side of Jesus so that blood and water flows out.

Jesus is laid in the arms of His Mother and she holds him as she had when he was a child.  The Pieta is a scene produced by many artists, the most famous I suppose is the sculpture by Michelangelo.

But I have to admit that it’s Mel Gibson’s scene in the Passion that I remember most vividly. You cannot look on that scene and not know that you are the one who brought it about – that He and she have suffered and drunk to the dregs the cup of suffering and all because of us.

Jesus is then wrapped in a shroud, traditionally a cloth belonging to St. Joseph of Arimathea, who is (again according to tradition) to be the first bringer of Christianity to Britain.

Jesus had said that even if a man should rise from the dead some people would refuse to believe. He told the Temple authorities they would only receive the sign of Jonah and He was in the belly of the earth for three days. But many people don’t ask “Why did He rise?” they ask “Why did He have to die like that?” Now, that’s a mystery, but I think part of the answer is that He wanted to show us just how utterly horrible sin really is. I think a lot of art has sanitized the Passion so much that we don’t get it any more.  

In seeing the horror and agony of the Passion, especially in seeing it from the point of view of a mother watching her son being whipped, beaten, forced to carry a heavy cross on a back already ripped and bleeding, having the nails hammered through him and then hung – and knowing that He became sin for us (1 Cor 5:21) we must see how dreadful sin is and we can never tire of  asking for forgiveness (and trying not to sin in the first place)

As Pope Francis has said, God never tires of offering forgiveness, it’s we who tire of asking for it. But we mustn’t. We must run the race to the end.

Conclave; What the next pope will not be doing.

The conclave starts today and the 115 cardinals will be shut in to pray and discern as they choose the next Holy Father. Yesterday, Cardinal Timothy Dolan wrote a blog about some media bloopers. Now the Church has been around for 2000 years and while I might have sympathy for some of those first century pagans who thought we were cannibals for eating our God or whatever else weird they misinterpreted, I can’t see how a qualified journalist with access to the internet could make some of the amazing mistakes shown here.

If a science journo suggested the Big Bang was a large balloon being popped they would never work again but it’s fine for religion journo’s to say Catholics think the pope is a god!

The other thing that is so much part of journalism (the BBC stink of this) is the bizarre idea that the Holy Father has the power to change the truth to fit what the culture (by that I mean western culture because we aren’t getting this rubbish from the east or south) thinks should be true.

Jesus never said to Peter or the apostles “Whatever you make up can be true.” He gave the power of binding and loosing in His Name not whoever is Pope’s name. While doctrine can develop and be taught in better and clearer ways, it certainly can’t be changed.

So, it doesn’t matter who is elected pope, whether he is a good man or a bad one as we’ve had a few times, he can’t suddenly decide that the priesthood can be separated from being a spiritual father, so that women can be ordained. He can’t suddenly decide that something intrinsically evil and against natural law can be allowed. He can’t decide there are too many persons in the Holy Trinity.

It was this limit to the authority of the pope that started me off back to the Church more properly (I was living it out on the edge).

I was a supporter of women being ordained and had bought into the empowerment argument hook line and sinker. I was not enlightened during the Anglican debate which went out via mainstream (mostly BBC) TV as they only ever interviewed men who came across as misogynist for the all male priesthood side. No one explained, or were given a chance to explain, the ontological nature of the priesthood from Adam onwards.

In my search for answers I bought a book called Women at the Altar and read it. I didn’t know enough history back then to spot some of the shocking bloopers. But she had put the encyclical on ordination by Blessed Pope JP II. I read that too and saw that the Holy Father said he didn’t have the authority to ordain women.

The limit of authority fascinated me and off I went in search of answers. When I got to grips with Jesus self claim to be The Bridegroom, I finally got to grips with why priests are men, but more importantly, what authority is and why a Pope can’t just proclaim whatever he likes. The Holy Spirit doesn’t interfere with free will, so all the Popes have been sinners, even the many saints among the list, (and there are far far more saints than bad sinners in the papal list) but He does ensure that when teaching on faith and morals the pope gets it right; that is infallibility and it’s much more limited that I realised.

So the BBC and others can demand contraception, abortion, divorce, killing off the sick and elderly,  and priestesses all they like – the Church can’t change her position on these matters. She doesn’t have the authority to do so.

My Kids are blogging.

I thought I would plug the blogs of two of my children.

My daughter “Gwen” had written this hilarious piece on what it’s like to take her mother shopping, when said mother uses a wheelchair retail moments. I am sure many of you who either use a wheelchair or shove a wheelchair will relate to this. Hehehe.

And my dear ol’ newly married son has a blog showing some of his art and designs, including the lovely engagement ring his wife is yet to receive as the jeweller seem to be as slow as an Ent.

Have a look and enjoy.

The Entire Word.

It was St. Luke’s Gospel this morning, wherein Jesus fasts for forty days and is tempted by Satan.  In the very first response to Satan, Jesus reveals Himself. Satan says, “If you are the Son of God, turn these stones into bread.”

“Man does not live by bread alone,” Jesus quotes Deut 8;3.  If we didn’t know the tempter was Satan would we think Jesus would do wrong in making some bread for Himself and eating it?  It doesn’t seem wrong. And yet God doesn’t create for His own sake. He needs nothing. Everything He has made He has made from His agape love. We don’t have an English equivalent to agape (Greek) although the word “passion” comes close.  Unfortunately we have reduced the word passion to meaning intense feelings; but it really means to pour out for the sake of the other. Hence Christ’s Passion is His pouring out for us.

Christ’s bread miracles are both about feeding the people, not because He is in need. But even though he feeds the 5000 with bread and fish (not bread alone) He still insists we should live by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. (Deut 8;3 Matt 4:4 Luke 4:4).

What is the Word? John tells us “In the beginning was the  Word,… and the Word was God” (John 1:1) In Greek it’s logos, a word of meaning. Greek has so much more in it’s language on this point.

The Lord Jesus Christ, the Incarnation of the Second Person of the Holy Trinity is the entire, meaningful Word that we are to live on.

Christ gave us the Church, His Bride, His Body (in which we are His body) and the Church from the apostles (he who hears you, hears Me. He who rejects you, rejects Me) gave us the entirety of public revelation through oral Tradition (1 Cor 11.2) and written Scripture (first canonised at the Council of Rome 382 AD under Pope St. Damasus I). All of this is completed, so that we can live on every word that comes from the mouth of God, in the Holy Eucharist, where we receive the Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of the Word of God; Risen, and whole.

So while we receive the Word in the form of the Liturgy and bread (and wine) we are not being fed by bread alone, but by every Word that comes from the mouth of God. And let us remember that the Word was what brought about creation. What He says, is. When He says “This is My Body,” and “This is My Blood” He means it.

Pope Benedict XVI has announced he will step down on 28th Feb.

On Thursday 28th February in the Year of Faith Pope Benedict will step down as pope.  His announcement today has come as a shock, but I trust him implicitly and he has made it clear he has been discussing the situation with The Boss, who has been keeping His Church on the straight and narrow Way even through some  awful times (and awful popes). We are blessed these days that in my lifetime at least we have had such good, wise and holy popes.

His full declaration is here h/t Creative Minority Report:

Full text of Pope’s declaration

Dear Brothers,
I have convoked you to this Consistory, not only for the three canonizations, but also to communicate to you a decision of great importance for the life of the Church. After having repeatedly examined my conscience before God, I have come to the certainty that my strengths, due to an advanced age, are no longer suited to an adequate exercise of the Petrine ministry. I am well aware that this ministry, due to its essential spiritual nature, must be carried out not only with words and deeds, but no less with prayer and suffering. However, in today’s world, subject to so many rapid changes and shaken by questions of deep relevance for the life of faith, in order to govern the bark of Saint Peter and proclaim the Gospel, both strength of mind and body are necessary, strength which in the last few months, has deteriorated in me to the extent that I have had to recognize my incapacity to adequately fulfill the ministry entrusted to me. For this reason, and well aware of the seriousness of this act, with full freedom I declare that I renounce the ministry of Bishop of Rome, Successor of Saint Peter, entrusted to me by the Cardinals on 19 April 2005, in such a way, that as from 28 February 2013, at 20:00 hours, the See of Rome, the See of Saint Peter, will be vacant and a Conclave to elect the new Supreme Pontiff will have to be convoked by those whose competence it is.
Dear Brothers, I thank you most sincerely for all the love and work with which you have supported me in my ministry and I ask pardon for all my defects. And now, let us entrust the Holy Church to the care of Our Supreme Pastor, Our Lord Jesus Christ, and implore his holy Mother Mary, so that she may assist the Cardinal Fathers with her maternal solicitude, in electing a new Supreme Pontiff. With regard to myself, I wish to also devotedly serve the Holy Church of God in the future through a life dedicated to prayer.
From the Vatican, 10 February 2013

BENEDICTUS PP XVI

He turns 86 on April 16th and with the massive workload he has had I can easily see how he has decided with the guidance of God, to step down.  He has worked hard over the last 8 years and he worked bloomin’hard before that.

He has come very close to bringing and end the schism with the East and I really hope and pray the next Holy Father will continue this vital work so that the Bride can breath with both lungs intact again.

So break out the Divine Office, rosaries and Divine Mercy chaplet – or whatever else you use and get praying.  The Conclave will meet in March (presumably after Easter).

SS Peter, Linus, ‘Cletus and Clement and all the other saintly popes ora pro nobis.

UPDATE

It has been reported that the Holy Father laid his pallium on the tomb of Pope St Celestine V. Dr Scott Hahn noted this. Pope Saint Celestine V was the last pope to step down from the office in 1294. 

I remember that Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger went to pray at the tomb of St. Benedict (I read he is a third order Benedictine himself) and prayed very hard when it looked like he might be elected pope. 

Fr. Dwight Longenecker has noted that one of the great achievements of Pope Benedict has been setting up the Ordinariate for those who have come home from the Anglican/Episcopalian end of things.

You can read more from The Anchoress.

Bob Millar has ended his hunger strike.

Thankfully Mr. Millar has ended his hunger strike.

I know people are hopeful that Ampligen will be approved in the end and I hope they are right.

Here in the UK we could do with a strong push to have the bio-tests made readily available. We can’t ever hope for any medical assistance while we can’t even access the tests to tell us whether we have a viral ME or Lymnes or Lupus or EDS of some type etc.

Classical Academic Press stuff; a home education review.

This morning as I was sitting with a cuppa awaiting the arrival of friends for a home ed day, Avila brought me a story she had written. How sweet. The story was written mostly in Latin! Is that a home educated child or what?!!

I love the fact that she has taken so well to learning languages. I don’t want to live vicariously through my children, but I do wish I had been given the opportunity to learn languages when I was her age.  It’s something that fascinates me. If I had lived a different life I might have done linguistics…anywhere I digress.

We are using the lovely stuff produced at Classical Academic Press  It seems pretty good value for money and the shipping costs don’t scare me too much. I do wish they’d produce more ebook versions and pdfs, but in fact the hard copy is good for the children so I don’t mind the shipping too much.

We started off with SongSchool Latin. You know it’s working when the children are skipping up the road singing, “Quid est tuum praenomen?” on top of their little voices.

The flash cards and the songs worked well and although we’ve finished the workbook we go back over the songs quite often as vocab reminders.

We have followed this with the Latin for Children Primer A which we are working through at the moment. The DVDs are great and as they are aimed at the children they are interesting and no beige in sight. I like the way Dr Perrin teaches and like all good DVD teachers he will repeat himself as often as you like and never get impatient.

Heleyna isn’t taking part in these lessons yet, but she does tend to be around when the other two are learning and I’ve noticed she is picking things up. I hope this will mean she finds Latin easier when her turn comes.

To help us further we have this (awful but good) Youtube song for doing the first and second declensions. We just substitute the words we are declining.

I think it’s very easy to make Latin hard grinding and boring, but the children are enjoying this. There’s some good grammar and they build their English vocab through the pages on derivatives.

We’ve been using the Montessori grammar symbols to label simple Latin sentences as well which they enjoy.

I’ve invested in the Mastery Bundle for Level B. I think I’ll probably do the same when it comes to Level C.

There’s a good lot of research showing that learning Latin helps children in all sorts of language development areas. It’s a great introduction to history and of course it’s useful if you want to read the Scriptures in Latin.

Not only do I think Classical Academic Press are pretty reasonable in their prices they also have the goodness to offer some substantial freebies.

We haven’t actually spent a lot of time on Headadventure Land because of time constraints but it is a great free resource for practising any of the languages on offer.

CAP also has it’s own freebie page including some audio resources in which Dr. Perrin quotes Chesterton. Well, that has me sold

The children like their little story videos they have for practice as well.

Finally I wanted to mention on a non Latin note that they have launched some children’s ebooks.  I bought the first Sheepford and Oxley book which Heleyna loves.

Went to see Les Miserables and met someone I think must have seen it. ;)

Last night Al and I went to see the film operetta Les Miserables.  I had obeyed Iona and kept the day very quiet so I would cope and today I am working through the household jobs very slowly, as I recover, but believe me it was worth the effort.

Al had to dig the car out of the snow, so he made quite a bit of effort!

When we got there he managed to negotiate the snow with the wheelchair which was quite a feat as well.

At the desk we ordered tickets and then….Al had forgotten his wallet. We hadn’t a penny between us. I shrugged and said we had better go home. The ticket lady said we couldn’t possibly just go home having come out through the snow. She wasn’t going to allow it and we must see the film. She was busy tapping into the machine. “You can have my tickets,” she said. I assume she had some kind of ticket system with the cinema as she worked there. So she gave us her tickets!

It was the first time I’d been to the cinema in my wheelchair so it was interesting to see if the “crip corner” was going to work out. It was fine.

The film is great. We both loved it. I was pleased how close to the book it is and it didn’t try and ditch the heart of the story for political correctness. Jean Valjean’s journey of redemption while poor Jevert is tied to his law is well told and beautifully sung.

If you haven’t read the book go and get it FREE here. There are things in the book that will help you understand parts of the film that aren’t completely fleshed out such as the hair and teeth business. (I am avoiding spoilers by being vague).

I have some vague memories of singing the following song in choir, back when I still had a voice for singing.

I don’t think there’s a dud song in the whole thing, which is quite an achievement for the composers.

Kids grow up too fast and adults are too childish.

Sometimes I wonder what kind of spam sandwich we are making of our culture. On the one hand so many people say “Oh they grow up too fast these days,” while on the other side we are told that childhood – basically gross immaturity – is lasting well into what should be adulthood. So which is it? Or is it some kind of paradoxical cognitive cultural dissonance?

While industry bosses are insisting on immigration to fill their work vacancies saying the home grown young adults are incapable of working hard, there are those who look with horror at the idea of children learning domestic duties and taking on any responsibility.

Dr Ray Guarendi has commented on this a few times. He, quite rightly, points out that historically there were never “tweens” or “teens”. There were children and then there were adults and adulthood began around age 12 when the boys went out to work and the girls learned to budget and work the home industries. In wealthier families where inheritance protection was important the young adults could be married by the time they were 13. (In the film Master and Commander a boy apparently in his early teens who had already lost his arm in battle was put in charge as an officer).

My beloved St. Bridget of Sweden was married around the age of 13 or 14 to Ulf who was 18. It is also recorded that Prince Llewellyn the Great of Wales won his first victory leading and army to battle when he was 14.

While in normal life most people didn’t marry or lead armies until they were in their early twenties, they still worked alongside their parents and other family members and were quite capable of doing so.

One of the massive advantages of home education is that children grow up learning to take part in the family organically. They take part in the housework with everyone chipping in together. They help with the shopping and learn to budget and how to shop sensibly from being around the normal life of the family. They learn to plan meals, to cook properly and to take care of themselves and each other.

Dr. Montessori put practical life skills into her curriculum. She designed objects that were child sized so that children could learn right from the beginning how to dress themselves and  take care of their personal hygiene. Now, at home we don’t need the dressing frames as the children learn to dress themselves in the everyday business of getting dressed. They had a step stool for the sink rather than a sink at their height but they learn to wash and clean their teeth just as well with a step as a low sink.

The older children learn the importance of service in love when they help younger siblings and other younger children with activities.

Montessori designed her curriculum for mixed age classes to encourage this care for one another. In just about every home education/homeschool group I have ever seen or heard of there is a great mix of ages. The older children learn to share and be patient with younger ones and the younger ones find role models and support in the older ones – while mums and dads and even the occasional grandma who are home edding can support one another.

In the home children soon learn to prepare food. They learn pouring, cutting, measuring as they go along.  I have bought the Montessori pouring jugs because the design is very good and they pour accurately and easily.

Ronan is using the big kitchen knife now. He started with a small sharp knife and has graduated to my 6″ kitchen knife. He is just beginning to learn the rocking motion for quick accurate chopping.

Ronan is nearly 10 and he often gets lunch together for himself and his younger sisters. If he decides to cook something, he is quite capable of doing so well and safely.

My older children that I home educated can both cook very well and without problems for large numbers. My daughter did most of the cooking for the Church’s Christmas party last year, so she was preparing food for nearly 50 people.

My oldest is still struggling with the cooking side of things. But he didn’t get the time to learn at home. He was in school all day and had hours of home work most nights. This eats into family time and actively prevents children and young adults learning life and practical skills. It also, it seems to me, eats into the importance of reading time. Schooled children do not have time to read – which seems to me to be a damaging problem.

Sending adults out into the world with no life skills is not good. The reason so many get into debt, can’t eat properly and can’t get a job done properly, particularly in the service industries is they’ve never had to before. So many complain that their children either can’t get work or can’t keep it when they have it. My son Alex has been working in the service industry since he was 16. He has many a tale to tell about employees (who don’t last long) who don’t know how to sweep a floor or add up well enough to give change to customers.

Trying to convince our children and adults, in the face of the massive evidence, that they don’t need to think of doing anything as menial as sweeping a floor or washing cups, is failing them. Even those who are academically inclined must find some way of funding themselves and if they can’t  turn up to work on time or work hard then what kind of academic work will they be suitable for?

“Of course I want to heal you…” A pair of kneecaps for a boy thanks to the intersession of Bl Margaret of Costello.

Jesus came down from the mountain and a leper came to him saying, “Lord, if you want to, you can heal me,” And Jesus replied, “Of course I want to; be clean,” And the leprosy left him (Matt 8: 1-3)

It’s a two-edged sword, this healing lark. You see many of us beg and beg and we are not healed. And yet leprosy was always a sign of sin, more than a physical illness and so in healing the leper, Jesus is showing an outward sign of the forgiveness of sins.

Even so, many of us must battle on day after day with sickness that He has said He will leave us with. What’s that all about then?

Blessed Margaret of Costello is a little wonder of the Church. She was seriously disabled, and abused and unloved by her parents. They abandoned her in a church in the end. From there little crooked Margaret took on the life of Christ she was called to. He never healed her. But through her love and prayers many others were healed.

I remember the story of a blind woman who begged and begged Margaret to lay hands and pray over her for her sight to be restored. Margaret was very unwilling, telling the woman that she would be better off in soul if she remained blind; but at the woman’s insistence Margaret prayed and God restored the woman’s sight.

I remembered that story when God kept saying “No” when I asked for a cure. It seems that it is better for me to be this way.

But He does still heal people she asks him too. This wonderful story of a family whose child was born with serious disabilites, including no kneecaps, is rather typical of Blessed Margaret of Costello and her special care for disabled people.

Marilyn Pinkerton’s grandson Nicholas was born with nail-patella syndrome so that his nails and kneecaps didn’t grow. It was unlikely that he would ever walk without kneecaps and he had other problems to contend with.

The local Carmelites at a shrine for Bl. Margaret suggested praying to her for his healing and help. The Pinkertons were not Catholic but they did what was suggested. The grandmother in particular took on the prayer to Bl. Margaret. Even as she did so they saw some improvement in Nicholas and continued to pray.

A year later doctors were astonished to discover that Nicholas had kneecaps! He can no walk and run and is developing like any healthy child.

The grateful family were received into the Church at Easter last year (2012).

I hope the cause for her canonisation will move forward with this.

Knowing that physical healings still happen, means we can be sure spiritual ones happen too, even if through sickness and disability. Blessed Margaret of Costello, had prayed for healing and didn’t receive it, so she accepted the disabilities that were laid on her and did so with amazing grace.

Baptism of the Lord

Today we celebrate the feast day when Jesus was baptised in the Jordan by His cousin who was to lay down his life for the sanctity of marriage. Christ the Bridegroom came to be baptised to take up His priesthood from John the priest of Levi, and to begin His public ministry. In stepping into the water, Jesus did not need to be cleansed of sin, on the contrary, His Presence in the water cleansed it as He cleanses us of sin.

Christians are called by Christ to accept marriage the way God designed it. Part of the reason marriage is so holy and sacramental is because Christ is the Bridegroom to His Church. Not to mention that God created marriage when He made Adam and Eve as flesh of his flesh.

One of the questions or issues that comes up regularly when you listen to catholic call-in shows is the matter of invincible ignorance. Jesus said of those to whome He had given His message “if they hadn’t heard Me they would be innocent, but having heard Me, their guilt remains.”

If someone genuinely could not have know the Gospel and all it’s Truth, then they can be judged on natural law alone,(natural law is not the law of nature) but anyone who has heard or read the Gospel or could have and has deliberately avoided it, will have some very very serious explaining ahead of them.

It is deeply worrying when people who call themselves Christian-followers of Christ, who have access to Scripture and all that Christ teaches, and yet choose to reject that in favour of political or zeitgeist views.  It is not just that their betrayal will undoubtedly bring more persecution down on true Christians, it is that they are risking their souls.  Eternity is a very long time.

John as the friend of the Bridegroom (John 3:29) spoke out for marriage and was imprisoned by Herod, whose marriage was invalid and immoral, and was martyred. He never once went back on his word, or said, oh well we should allow it after all.

Christ the Bridegroom re-established marriage from the mess some of the Jewish authorities had allowed it to get into with Rabbi Hillel arguing for divorce for any reason. Jesus speaks of how God designed marriage from the days of Adam and Eve, and He elevated it to a Sacrament.

New Year; Solemnity of Mary Mother of God (Theotokos) and the Circumcision and naming of the Lord Jesus

HAPPY NEW YEAR Have a blessed 2013, and rest of the Year of Faith.

It is the Eighth Day of Christmas and as children of the Eighth Day ourselves – that being the day of the Resurrection and New Creation (8th Day from the Entry of Jerusalem, first day of the week; Sunday).

On the eighth day after a son’s birth a good Jewish family ensured he was circumcised into the Law as God had commanded Abraham and received his name on that day. So the rabbi would have come to the place in Bethlehem where they were staying; hopefully a house of some sort by this time, and he would have asked what name the child was to have and Joseph would have said “His name is Jesus.” It was a common enough name in many ways, but in Jewish tradition names have meaning. Jesus means God Saves.

Mary Mother of God; Theotokos.

Mary has many titles for her title Mother of God or in Greek Theotokos  which transliterates as God-bearer is probably her most important one. It is a rebuke to all those who try to insist that Jesus has no Divine Nature or that He is only a little bit divine. So many people crawled out of the woodwork to deny Christ loudly; but the Woman received her title and stomped on the head of the dragon again. You see every time Our Blessed Mother receives a title it is to point to her Son and tell us a little more about who He is.

Jimmy Akin has far more coherent and sensible things to say about todays great feast than I have.

feast of the Holy Innocents; children beg santa for a family.

Pia de Solenni writes how the Telegraph here in the UK have reported on the most popular things children ask Santa to bring them. Up there at the top children ask for a sibling. In their loneliness and innocence they ask Father Christmas to bring the child they so long for to add to their family and be the love and company they long for.

I read this only a few minutes after hearing a mother phone Dr. Ray Gaurendi looking for a way to tell her family, especially certain members, that she was expecting her fifth child. Instead of being overjoyed at another baby they would be snarly about it, as they had already been with previous children. Even though she said they were Catholic, who undoubtedly heard how Joseph, and Mary pregnant with Jesus were turned away from the Inn, they were happy to slam the door on this family because another child was on the way.

At number 10 children were asking for a father and at 23 on the list they asked for a mother. Among the horses, cars and stuff of Christmas children were asking first for a family.

Meanwhile two people phoned up who had many siblings, one of whom, lady who was one of 12, was now dying. She had her family around her for support and in turn wanted to offer something back in letters or words of comfort.

Dr Ray mentioned that he had come across many elderly people, alone and lonely because they had chosen not to have few or no children. It’s especially sad when you consider those people who can’t have children or manage only one or two pregancies and would give anything to have more.

It’s funny that some people try and undermine the historicity of the slaughter of the innocents when Herod sent soldiers to kill the children of Bethlehem in the hope that the slaughter would include the new King of the Jews. They say they can’t find other references outside the Gospel of Matthew and so Matthew must be wrong, for someone else would be bound to notice this.

We live in a world where technology is so great I can send a message to friends in America and Australia and it gets there almost instantaneously. We have more information on the internet than we could possibly deal with. News programmes saturate the airwaves with banality and politics every minute of every day in every time zone. An yet many people seem still unaware of the Gospel. They don’t know about Jesus, or even about the children in their own neighbourhood.

We have the Gospels to tell us about Jesus and there is nothing in history or tradition that would give us reason to think Matthew lied in his report on the killing of the toddlers and babies in Bethlehem.  It is most likely that the story came from the lips of Jesus or His mother themselves.

It was recently reported that babies are routinely killed in our NHS hospitals, that a baby’s life was only saved because she was weighed with an accidental pair of scissors that tipped the scales in her favour. So many stories are out there- and how many of us know those stories or care about them? I am quite sure there are many more that I have never seen or heard of.

BAPTISM OF DESIRE

The feast of the Holy Innocents is the day mothers who have miscarried babies, had still births and those who had abortions can remember their little ones and ask for God’s love and mercy for them.

Some parents are blessed to be able to baptise their baby before they die, but most of us have lost our children before they could be baptised. This often leads parents to worry about their eternity, especially in light of St. Augustine’s thought that the innocent unbaptised entered a place of limbo, an eternal happiness but not the full blessedness the saved can hope for.

The Church teaches three baptisms. The ordinary form is the baptism of water and oil that we see so often at Church. Water is pours over the baby, child or adult and the words “I baptise you in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,” are spoken in obedience to Jesus command in Matthew 28.

The next form is called Baptism of Blood. This is the baptism that catechumens and other’s not yet in the Church receive should they die for love of Christ as marytrs.

Finally there is the baptism of desire. That is someone who would have been baptised if they could have, but died before the opportunity was offered would be saved through their desire to do God’s will and receive baptism.

I don’t know, but I wonder if many of us who have lost babies pre-term or before we could get them baptised, can hope that our desire as parents counts as a baptism of desire for if they had lived we would have taken them to be baptised.

I don’t know – but we can trust in God’s mercy and I have no doubt at all that we will all get to meet up with our children in the end. So there is more joy than sorrow in the end.

Every single child is a blessing no matter how long or short a time we have them.

Happy Christmas!

The last of the O Antiphons have been sung and we are left with ERO CRAS meaning tomorrow I come. From Emmanuel (God with us) back to Sapientia (Wisdom) the first letter of each Latin word spells the “ero crass” promise.

Have a lovely, happy Christmas.

I also want to say a special thank you to the “friend” who remains nameless who was so generous and seems to like my blog. Thank you and God bless you.

And thank you to all of you who subscribe. God bless you this Christmas.

 

Getting Universalis for 2013

A couple of years ago I posted on how to get Universalis on your Kindle. As I’ve had a further request about how to get it sorted out I thought I would repost and add some details.

Universalis offers the complete Divine Office and Daily Mass readings. They have set up an APPS and DOWNLOAD service so we can use various devices to pray. I have it on my Kindle.

To create your 2013 Office book for Kindle GO HERE on UNI

On the desktop of your computer you should have the icon. Click on the icon. FOLLOW THESE INSTRUCTIONS

Then THESE

Connect your kindle to the computer with the USB lead. open docs and drag and drop the book into Kindle Docs. Make sure you have the book actually in the Docs folder or your kindle won’t know it’s there.

This is the Icon that will appear on your desk top

click on small black arrow

Scroll down to create Kindle and slick

the choice box comes up

you can choose the file but I would choose THIS YEAR

If the wrong year comes up replace it wiith uy2013

If the wrong year comes up replace it wiith uy2013

uy2013 and tick or untick prayers as you like.

click save

Wait patiently while the book is created.

Your book should turn up in Documents

Drag and drop into Kindle Docs and there it is. Pray all year. God bless

O Adonai (Dec 18th)

Day 2 of the O Antiphons is O Adonai

God made a Covenant, first with Adam and Seth, then with Noah and Shem (Melchizedek) and then again with Abraham and Isaac. Each Covenant made with the father for the son was a Covenant of family. In changing Abram’s name from ‘Father of a nation’ to Abraham, ‘father of many nations’ God pointed us towards the next Covenant where he would change Jacob to Israel and make a national covenant with him and later Moses with a promise of an International Covenant that would come when all Israel was saved by Christ. All these covenants are about God giving Himself to the family and then the nation of Israel in which He is the Beloved husband/Bridegroom and Israel/Jerusalem is the bride. This was a prefiguring of Christ the Bridegroom who would pour Himself out for His Bride the Church.; the new Israel.

In those days woman would call their husbands adonai, beloved husband. But a concubine like Hagar or Jacob-Israel’s concubines Bilhah and Zilpah would call their “husbands” ba’al meaning master-husband.

When Israel worshipped God their beloved they could call Him Adonai. When they worshipped the gods that made them slaves they worshipped Ba’al and his consort Asherah. God called them on it and called them back to Him “And you shall be My people, and I will be your God.” He said.

God does not makes us slaves. He loves us and gives himself to us. So a Covenant is an exchange of persons, as you get in the Sacrament of marriage, whereas a contract is an exchange of things. If all we have with God is some kind of contract then we are little better than slave-concubines. We must love Him as He loves us and then we can call on Him “O Adonai!”

O Sapienta, O Wisdom

O Sapienta, quae ex ore,  Altissimi prodiisti, attingens a fine usque ad finem, fortiter suaviterque disponens omnia: veni ad docendum nos viam prudentiæ.

It’s the last eight days of Advent, when we begin to pray the O Antiphons. They are prayed from Dec 17th to Dec 23rd and then comes Christmas Eve and then Christmas Day. We pray and meditate on the titles of Jesus. 

I got the feeling reading the Gospels that Jesus’ favourite book of Scripture was Isaiah. From Isaiah 11:2 to 3 and then 28:29 we get this prayer. Wisdom comes from the mouth of God just as In the Beginning was the Word (John 1.1) and the first thing of creation was made by the Word from God. “And God said, ‘Let there be light!’ And there was light.” (Gen 1:3)

When we pray and meditate on Scripture it’s wise to take all the books as one whole book. One the most amazing and unrecognised miracles, it seems to me, is how the books of the Bible written by different people over thousands of years.  Let’s consider that the Torah (Pentateuch) was around from 1600 BC and the Book of Revelation was written around 67 AD (Yes, I choose the traditional dates). With different authors living in different cultures – Hosea was under Babylon for example – and yet the whole thing fits together and tells us the entire story of salvation from creation to the end of the world.

I love the way the Word of God in Scripture fits together as part of the Word of God in Christ.  That is wisdom and we should pray for some as we study Scripture.

 

Little Lessons for Advent freebie

If you are still wanting something extra to do with the family for Advent I made these lessons last year (I think)

PART ONE can be found HERE

PART TWO can be found HERE

Do have a good mooch around Kalei’s site. She has produced so much stuff. Consider buying the CD too.