The athiests and scientists are sad.

When the head of the Catholic Church and what remains of Christendom in this earthly city has to address the world, you know there is a problem. The fact that Christendom is not the prominent framework for the culture of the world anymore has led to the minds of the people scattered to and fro into different ideologies.

The Catholic Church does not go around shouting out its belief, which it has a right in the sense of a world right, to do so, because it would be shouting the Truth. People picket and shout out rights to things that have no basis in the natural law or even civil law for that matter. The most ill conceived notions and what is classified as "progressive" are the ideologies that provide the framework of our culture.

So, when the Holy Father tries to add a picture into the framework so the people can get a sense of what is true, good and beautiful, he shows the world what the Church is. The Church quietly observes, meditates and lets wisdom guided by the Holy Spirit articulate what the world needs to hear. And when the Holy Spirit speaks through the Church, there is no picketing or shouting. She (the Church) doesn't pick on the lesser entities, she sits back like a mother and lets her children play. But when they are shouting false beliefs, like a mother's love, she steps into proclaim the Father's glory. A good mother always has guidance from the Father. This may sound sexist to the feminists, but "on earth as it is in Heaven."

So, when atheists such as Stephen Hawking come up with the most illogical proclamations concerning our Father or God, or the mother of God, our mother, the Church, steps in to correct her child. Because there is no longer, Jew or Gentile, but one people, a Holy priesthood, the holy people of God within the inheritance of the priestly people are to offer up sacrifices of love and thanksgiving for the abundance of God's providence. They are not to depart from His family and declare and exhort others to depart from the Father, too.

But, this is what the athiest Stephen Hawking has done. He has left the family of God and makes exhortations as if they are infallible. Stephen Hawking recently has said that the universe created itself. Scientists are to declare based on empirical evidence. But, yet, today scientists seem to not be following this precept. On the other hand, the Catholic Church does not even declare a belief without years of communal discussions united with the foundation that the son of God rose from the dead. The Church has a foundation of evidence to rest on when it proclaims a truth. Where is the foundation of evidence from the atheists? They can only speculate, individually, they can never come together to proclaim something as true because they all have their doubts in some way about what they think. They can't even declare it, truly as science, because science is only science when it does not contradict the existence of God. God created nature, so real science will only reveal God, not negate it.

This is what Stephen Hawking wants to do. He negates the laws of physics rather than using the evidence of nature to proclaim his thought. The law of physics say that there everything comes from something and that there is always a first cause. He is trying to change the laws of nature. At the same time, he is declaring beneath it all, that there is a God, because since God is the highest thought that man can conceive, then he is teaching us about God. God created the world and made it changeable and corruptible, because he wanted us to have evidence that to everything there is a cause, a beginning, a season for everything under the sun. We can then see that God is changeless. He is subsequently gloried because we know then that because we change and die, honor is due to what does not change.

For Stephen Hawking to say that the universe created itself is to call the universe a g-d. Where does eternity fit into his thought? It can't because for Stephen Hawking there is a beginning and an end to everything but no cause for any of it.

Man continues to think about God, the highest thing he has ever thought about, nor will ever contemplate, because that which is unchangeable, incorruptible and eternal is a mystery that man knows exists, but he cannot grasp the amazement of the thought. So, his finite, corruptible mind puts limits on the thought that amazes him because it makes him sad that he can't reach for himself what is unchangeable, lasting and eternal.

The Church understands man's sadness is this area and being the mother that she is, she speaks tenderly through the Holy Father about what is True because she knows her children need what is good and beautiful to be happy. In her wisdom she knows shouting the truth will make her people cower under the covers, like a child in fear of the belt. When has the Church ever disciplined that way? In our modern day, she can't discipline that way because her children are no longer part of the family. When all the world was Christendom, she could spank to get their attention, but that was because the state was united to the Church as part of the same family.

There are many families, now; the Church no longer has the authority to spank the wayward child when they run away from the home of the father, because they are part of other families, now. But, like the parable of the prodigal son, the father waits for the children to come back to the family that originally nurtured them. The Holy Father will lovingly ask the world to be one with him as he awaits the evil one letting loose his grip on the children.

The Holy Father speaks to the world when he hears thoughts that are laid out in the media as truth because he wants to be an instrument to bring God's child back into its original family. He lovingly addresses the failed logic behind Mr. Hawking's declarations and speculations.

Since the Eucharist matters, the issue of science without God whom created the means for science to exist, is an important consideration for the Catholic because we want all people to share in the communal aspect of this august Sacrament, which is a sign and the most blessed and efficeous sign available to man of God's existence. Because it is through the Eucharist that man can come to know God and enter into the mystery of eternal life. The scientists don't have to be sad because they cannot grasp that which is beyond their thought to understand, because there is something better than understanding. It is better to rest. Rest in knowing that all things are made for the good of those who love Him. Rest in love. Can't they see that love had to create this world which is shown through the beauty of nature and the goodness of people?

The universe does not know goodness and beauty from an atom. It isn't a god. There had to be something that knew beauty and goodness to launch a world that is full of it. An evolved world without an artistic mind would have been a deformed world. We see that anytime something goes wrong genetically, a deformity takes place. How could the universe adjust its code to only eventually produce a body, whether it be for an insect or an animal that worked to create a creature that could live and be fruitful? Something cannot make itself know what is good when it doesn't have anything to measure what is good by. It could not know as it evolved that it was good to have a nice scent or good to have color, it had none of these itself, so it would not know to evolve with these aspects.

There is a measuring stick to what is good and beautiful. That measuring stick is God. He had a plan to create man in his image of goodness and beauty, so he created the plants and the animals to be pleasing to man. If they were not created for him, there would be no reason for them to be beautiful. If creation created itself spontaneously there would be no framework of order in which everything, as it does now, works together.

As it is, there is a framework of order in the world which illuminates its beauty. Stephen Hawking can continue to say that God did not create the world, but by doing that, he is saying that he doubts the existence of God. Like Saint Augustine said, if there is a doubt, there must be a truth that it is set against; it is just a matter of knowing what that truth is. Stephen Hawking can continue to get it wrong about that that truth is, but since the truth is written on our hearts, there will always be people that will have the grace to believe and know it and declare it. They are in the majority, but like the Shepherd who goes after the one lost sheep, the Holy Father goes after the one sheep, Mr. Hawking, by addressing the world from the see of Peter. What a gift he is to those who desire to live within the framework of Christendom. Those that want to live within the family of God and brothers and sisters in Christ, are very thankful for his voice.

It is with prayer and thanksgiving we come to the table of the Lord as one voice to pray for the lost sheep, that they will one day worship and adore the Blessed Sacrament so they can know, too, what is true, good and beautiful.

Within the loving arms of the Blessed Mother who comforts me in my afflictions by covering me with her mantle, I share these thoughts. It is recently, that I have come to know the immense help that she provides me with. A help that comes through her son, whom I love so much. It is my hope that somehow my work in evangelization will be a way to give back to the son of God who loved me so much that he died for me.

Theresa Marie

"Not 'rational'" echoes

The primary legal argument for overturning the vote of the will of the people in California of Proposition 8 is said to have argued that to deem gay marriage illegal is "not rational". The word "rational" comes from the word, act, "reason". They are just like France leading up to and after the French Revolution, divorcing reason from faith. They are using reason alone. Will we someday have the "goddess of reason" erected in our churches, again, like in 1791 when the Cathedral of Notre Dame was confiscated from the Catholic Church for the government whom did just that? They turned the cathedral into the "Temple of Reason" and to get rid of the Sabbath observance they employed a ten day week that originated with the Egyptians. America seems to be going down the same path as France.

More later.

Do they not know?

The homosexuals are living in the dark. Don't they know about the Eucharist? That is the Body and Blood of our Lord! Until they are obedient to God's natural and Divine laws, they won't know the light because the darkness can't stand the light (cf. Jn 1:5). The Eucharist is the light of our Christian lives. Everyone needs it and should desire it. We have to tell them about it. They obviously do not know.

http://www.usccb.org/comm/archives/2010/10-145.shtml

Knowing is related to belief, though, and belief comes through the gift of faith. The people of God are obligated to plant seeds in their minds, but ultimately prayer and the subsequent gift of faith that God will offer the active homosexuals is what will bring them out of darkness. If they are obedient to the grace of the gift of faith they will know the light and it will overcome their darkness.

The Dark Night of the Soul

I have noticed a lot of comments lately in articles referring to suffering by persons as they are going through a "dark night of the soul". I have heard it expressed by inmates who are depressed and suffering, too. Understanding our soul is to understand our interior life. Since, our interior life is not separate and our exterior life is dependent on the sanctification of our interior life or soul, we must be clear about what it means to refer to "the dark night of the soul".

St. Theresa of Avila wrote in "Interior Castle" that we must be educated about our soul. Martin Luther is an example of what not to believe about the soul. Martin Luther chose to align his beliefs with the philosophical presupposition of the separation of the soul and body. That what we do cannot cause merit in the body. Hence, he created on a widespread basis a sort of belief in "dualism" or expressing that the interior life and exterior life are not interdependent. This "interdependence" was expressed in Dom Chautards work, The Soul of the Apostolate.

With all sanctification of the soul, it is the action and work of God. His power to work in our soul is by His grace. We cannot do anything to bring the power of His Grace into our soul. We can only dispose ourselves to be open to the graces He wishes to give us. Which is very important, because we do not want to live a moment without the graces He wishes to give us. But, we have to know He has them for us. That is why the faithful have the Church to teach them about the work of God in their interior and exterior lives. Without the Church, there would be not authority or assurance or knowledge of what God's promises are and how He keeps them.

Prayer is how we dispose ourselves to be open to receive the power of His graces to sanctify our souls. Then we must be obedient to those graces. When can know when and how God is working in our life, again, by what His Son has revealed to mankind via the instrument of His Church. We can know, interiorly, by what is referred to as our "conscience" what is right and what is wrong when it comes to the "moral absolutes". God outlined them for us in His Decalogue, or Ten Commandments that he gave to Moses. So, even though man could know that there were false gods, that adultery and murder were wrong, He spelled it out for us so we could have more freedom to know the Truth. But, as St. Paul said, they "were written on our hearts", now that they were given to us, "sin entered the world". We became culpable or answerable to God for disobeying His Ten Commandments.

But, for the Jews, under the Old Covenant, the sanctification of the soul was not possible. It wasn't until Christ came into the world Redeemed us in body and spirit and gave us the fulfillment of Revelation, in the New Covenenat that we could know about our soul. Christ wants us to know that our soul is the closest thing to His Father, so if we love God with all our hearts, soul and mind, we must listen to the Church who explains to us through the mystics and the Saints how to be obedient to the graces God gives us, so our soul will become holier. The goal of the Christian life is to be in communion with God. It is a journey. The Sacraments help us on this journey, but there is a profound communion with God that the soul does not experience, until God gives this grace to the soul.

This grace of Communion with God is outlined in St. Theresa of Avila's, Interior Castle. In her work, communion with God is a union that happens after the soul goes through five stages of sanctification. Even at the sixth and seven stages which she writes concerning the experiences of the soul that reaches union with God, it is a grace that God gives the soul. We must desire to be in union with God, but not search it out or try to make it happen. We should only love God and desire for us whatever He wills.

Let's now be clear about what the "dark night of the soul" is. There can be a time on the soul’s journey to communion with God, that the soul will experience what is referred to as "the dark night". It has most recently been publicized the most with the advent of the book about Mother Teresa's dark night of the soul. Her "dark night" has been extensively misunderstood. The atheists say, "see that proves there is no God" and the faithful, think, "yes, that is why I am depressed". But, this dark night is not a feeling that comes from a sad subjective emotional experience. It is an experience of a "knowing" in the soul that God is not there or is absent. In the same way that we "know" for sure the Truths about God and His existence and love, "knowing" that God is absent is something that cannot be explained to other people. When God is absent, you just know it. It is not something you feel, it is something you know. The thing about this "dark night" and loss of God is that the soul is still moved to adore God because even though it feels that God has abandoned it, it still interiorly knows the promises that God gave the world are being kept by Him, but in a special way for the soul who no longer feels the presence of God. There may be a feeling of a lack of faith, but, since the soul still prays and strives to do God's will, faith is still active. Afterall, it is a virtue infused in our soul when we are created and activated at our Baptism, so if one does not pray, and is a sinner, one can feel they have lost faith. But, in all reality, it is still there, in their soul, they just need to repent, encounter Christ's love and faith will be restored.

In Mother Teresa's soul, sin was not want made her feel an abandonment of God. It was evidence of God's plan to bring her closer to Himself. On the soul’s journey to God, the "dark night" can eventually take the soul into a union so profound that with God, that the soul experiences Him more intimately than the soul ever would have, had it not gone through "the dark night."