Morality is always dreadfully complicated to a man who has lost all his principles

The title quote is widely attributed to Chesterton, although I’ve never found the source. Regardless, it certainly sounds like him.  The phrase cuts to the bone like a battle axe of Truth – light, sharp, swift, unsparing.  Brilliant simplicity is a lost art.
There is no such thing as lukewarm moral relativism.  There is only Truth and error.  If you possess 99% of the Truth, you are in error, by which means you intentionally  separate yourself from God, who is Truth.  Ask Pilate.
The following three links are the ones you need to read about Zikagate.  Keep in mind that not only did the pope say what he said, but when +Lombardi had the chance to walk it back, he instead confirmed YESSS THAT’S EXACTLY WHAT THE POPE MEANT.
You absolutely must read these three links:
1Peter5
Mundabor
Ann Barnhardt
There is nothing to add.
 
 

Year of (False) Mercy, Hell, and you

Fr. Z has a great post on Conscience, Communion, and so-called “mercy”.  I’m calling it the Year of False Mercy (actually I stole that), because the mercy offered is done so seemingly without any need for contrition.  No worries, you are just fine remaining in your sin, stay right where you are, the Church will come out to the “margins” and meet you there.  Then, we will accompany you back and feed you the Lamb of God, because you’ll be hungry from the journey.
That’s not mercy.  That’s a diabolical inversion of Luke 15:21. It’s as if the father saw the prodigal son in the distance, copulating with a harlot, and killed the fatted calf anyway.
This is what happens when you have vast numbers of clergy, many with red hats (or white), who don’t actually believe in the Real Presence. If they did, there is no way we get to this point. In fact some would say there are vast numbers who don’t believe ANY OF IT, and they say it pretty convincingly — Ann Barnhardt has a great piece here.
Not only do they not believe the harder truths, they are EMBARRASSED by all of it.  So out of touch, you know. How in the world do you expect us to move about in polite society with all this talk of Body, Blood, Soul, Divinity, SIN, contrition, penance, mortification, firm purpose of amendment, CONVERSION? Are you out of your mind? Here, wrap all that nonsense up in this nice felt banner of Mercy, you’ll feel better.
Here’s the thing. At the end of the day, having the faith means believing ALL OF IT. Until your conscience is formed, molded, fired and cured around this concept, you are lost. Most of us have been on the other side at some point, so we understand how they think, and why they believe what they believe (or don’t). Our culture is so drenched in the errors of modernism, it all should be so obvious to anyone with a brain. But they can’t see what we see, because they refuse the graces being offered to them. They refuse to be converted, choosing narcissism instead. It’s like being on the wrong side of a two-way mirror.
What about the heathen masses drowning in abortion, contraception, porn, Caitlyn, Miley and Khloe? How do the masses even stand a chance, with bishops like this? We can’t possibly expect these poor souls to actually consider turning away from sin; that would mean somehow getting them to understand SIN EXISTS.  Is it possible that Invincible Ignorance plays a greater role in the salvation of souls than does the Catholic Church?
Don’t dwell too long on that question, it’s rhetorical.  The answer is NO.  In an age where the sum total of all human knowledge is available from the phone in your hand, Invincible Ignorance most certainly does NOT apply to you, unless you are part of an undiscovered tribe in the Amazon.  So if you were planning to drape yourself in that mantle at your Particular Judgement, well, let’s just say you’ll be naked as said tribesman, and it’s about to get very warm.
So do yourself a favor.  Give a wide berth to the current captain of the Barque.  Ignore the diabolical inversion of John 18:38 where instead of Pilate speaking, it’s the Church, going out to all those boldly sinning, proclaiming “What is Truth?  I find no guilt in them.”
Back to the question of sacrilegious Communion.  With the world growing stranger by the day, I find myself distracted in prayer, with thoughts of tactical measures and wondering how it all ends. I mean, I know it all ends in total victory, which is great sustenance. But I’m talking about the actual “how”. If we wind up with the vast majority of Masses ending in sacrilege, not only with the communicants in mortal sin but also the priests themselves intentionally committing sacrilege, then I’m pretty sure that will be the Abomination of Desolation we’ve all been wondering about. And no faithful Catholic can be a part of that.
The question then becomes: Where do the faithful go to find an undefiled Mass? I’ve got a place I’m pretty sure will be safe, but does everyone? How many more will question “the gates of Hell will not prevail” and flee the Church of Rome?
 
I don’t have all the answers.
Stay confessed.

ZEAL: It’s what’s for dinner

Confession, Sunday Mass, ongoing conversion.  These are the things that sustain us and make everything in the world and our daily lives tolerable.  It is truly amazing how easy it is to deal with strife all day when your soul rests in the trust of God.  You realize that nothing else matters in the world, and that  “the world” itself is the problem.  Meaning society, culture, etc.  We have to survive in a world of shit, and there’s only one way to do it:  By understanding that this life is mercifully short, and if we try to live it properly we will spend eternity in paradise.
By accepting your RESPONSIBILITY to honor God, you begin a great journey.  Yes, it is only the beginning:  Breakfast.  You’ll still be very messy and really attached to many of your sins, as a result of habit and being out in the real world every day.  It takes time to, first, come to accept the objective reality of your sins, and over much more time, actually be able to overcome these sins THROUGH LOVE OF GOD.  This is Lunch, the ongoing conversion.  God made everything, including the rules.  And He did it all for our own good.  It doesn’t start with a denouncement of sin, it starts with confession, Mass, and prayer, so the Holy Ghost and the angels can start working inside you.  Without them, the demons get all the facetime.
Now we get to dinner.  The real mission, which is of course “mission,” or ZEAL.  This means that even after you are a committed Catholic, your job is far from over.  Then your duty becomes TO PROCLAIM THE TRUTH.  It’s not “our” truth, it is the eternal truth of the entire universe.  Justice and Mercy demand we proclaim it.  Everyone deserves to hear it, but there is too much noise out in the world for most people.

A plea to all fallen-away Catholics

To all fallen-away Catholics:
Please prayerfully consider returning to a firm practice of the faith.  Maybe you’ve never really practiced it, or maybe you don’t truly know what it is. Well, it is your duty to learn it.  And never in history has there been more knowledge resources available in an instant with zero effort.  Go do the work.

People think this journey starts with a personal desire to “go and sin no more”; that you have to be ready to live like a saint before you take the first step in accepting Christ.  That never happens.  Rather, it starts like this:  “There is this thing called Catholicism that my parents spent a lot of time teaching me. So I probably should do some research about it.”  Or maybe you have joined some protestant community and you are starting to figure out they don’t have the truth over there.    Whatever your situation, the journey starts with the search for Truth.  That’s it.  All you need is a serious desire to learn what is true.
You probably know most of the doctrines.  Some you may disagree with.  Others you agree with, but find hard to live your daily life in accord with them.  If you are to have any hope of someday striving to live a holy life, it starts with understanding why the doctrines are what they are.  The Church doesn’t just throw shit out there for the sake of being strict.  Everything is tied together and it all makes sense but you have to do the research.  Turn off Words With Friends for one hour and do some research.
Pick two pieces of doctrine you don’t agree with.  Thoroughly research how the doctrine is grounded in Scripture and Tradition down through the ages. Formulate your counterargument.  How’s that working out for you?
Once you start to discover the truth, it sets you free.   If you allow it to.  You see, upon learning the truth, you have two choices.  Remember the Matrix?  Remember the blue pill and the red pill?  You either take the red pill and accept reality, or take the blue pill and prefer to live in fantasyland.  Oh except in the movie of life, your choice determines where you spend eternity.  Shit just got heavy.
However there is one major problem:  The Church is really f****d up right now.  Not as bad as it has been in a few other other centuries, but certainly this is one of the worst times in history.  But how can this be, when She was founded by Christ and is guided by the Holy Spirit?

While Christ promised that the gates of hell would never prevail against His Church, he never promised the Church would not have bad leadership.  Everything good in the Church, like purity of doctrine, comes from the Holy Spirit.  Everything bad in the Church comes from human weakness, and we’ve had plenty of bad bishops and priests in the past 50 years.  So much so that the majority of parishes in the United States no longer are truly Catholic, meaning they don’t really believe what the Church teaches.  You must learn to distinguish the Church itself, which is indefectible, from it’s members, (clergy or laity) whom are frequently bastards.
For these reasons, choosing a solid parish is essential to learning and living the faith.  In many diocese this is very difficult.  To be assured of orthodoxy, look for parishes that offer the Extraordinary Form – the old Latin Mass.  I highly recommend getting to know the Extraordinary Form, it is the Mass the Church used for 1500 years, until 1970.  A big reason for the problems in the Church in the past 40 years is the decline of liturgy.  it really does matter.  It helps to have a beautiful Church as well.
The first few times you attend the Latin Mass, don’t even try to follow along in the book.  Just sit back and watch it all.  Then gradually start to learn it.
But FIRSTLY, GO TO CONFESSION.  It doesn’t matter how long you’ve been away or what you’ve done.  The priest has heard it all before, trust me you have zero shock value.
You can’t receive the necessary graces to progress on this journey if you are in a state of mortal sin.  You also must have a firm purpose of amendment.  That means you can’t just confess and then go on committing your habitual sins.  It doesn’t mean you’re never going to sin again; we all continue sinning but hopefully they become less serious sins.  But it does mean having the desire to radically live your life in a manner that our broken culture thinks is crazy.
Don’t wait.  Do the research.  The joy and freedom you will experience has no earthly equal.