Catholic Voice 25th March 2022 Issue 339

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Issue 339

The Annunciation - Bartolomé Esteban Murillo (1617 - 1618)

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2 SURRENDER NOVENA

Catholic Voice

25th March 2022

The Surrender Novena: Let Jesus Take Care Of Everything Maura Roan McKeegan

“O Jesus, I surrender myself to You, take care of everything!”

This simple refrain captured my heart from the first time I heard it.

I had never heard of the Surrender Novena — the prayer from which these words were taken — nor of Don Dolindo, its author, but I was so taken with this powerful prayer that I immediately wanted to learn more about both.

As it turns out, Servant of God Don Dolindo Ruotolo was, for a short time, the spiritual director of someone I have written about many times: Padre Pio. St. Pio said Don Dolindo was a “saint” and that “the whole of Paradise” was in his soul.

Don Dolindo called himself “Mary’s little old man.” He lived in such great poverty that his own family turned away from him. He opened his arms without fear to embrace contagious sick people, caressing and kissing them. He offered himself as a victim soul for mankind, and was afflicted with many sufferings, including complete paralysis for the last ten years of his life. But he suffered with joy, because he suffered for love.

He also had the gift of prophecy, writing to Bishop Huilica in 1965 that “a new John will rise out of Poland with heroic steps to break the chains beyond the boundaries imposed by the communist tyranny.”

This prophecy was realised in Pope St. John Paul II.

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Editor: Anthony Murphy editor@catholicvoice.ie Telephone: 059 8627268 ROI 00353 59 8627268 Outside ROI Keep up to date with news and articles via The Lumen Fidei website www.lumenfidei.ie

Don Dolindo Ruotolo Many miracles have been attributed to Don Dolindo’s intercession, both before and after his death.

Don Dolindo received from Jesus the words of Surrender Novena. It is a prayer that is especially timely now, when world events feel out of control, and we are trying to grow in trust and abandonment to God’s providence.

“You see evil growing instead of weakening?” Jesus says in this prayer. “Do not worry. Close your eyes and say to me with faith: ‘Thy will be done, You take care of it.’

I say to you that I will take care of it, and that I will intervene as does a doctor and I will accomplish miracles when they are needed.”

It’s also timely when our own personal suffering is threatening to overwhelm us and steal our peace.

“Repose in me, believing in my goodness, and I promise you by my love that if you say, ‘You take care of it,’ I will take care of it,” Jesus’ words in the prayer assure us.

Jesus abandoned Himself completely to His Father’s will.

Don Dolindo’s Surrender Novena gives us a way to follow Jesus in His total abandonment, and to let Him “take care of everything.”

The Surrender Novena Day 1 Why do you confuse yourselves by worrying? Leave the care of your affairs to me and everything will be peaceful. I say to you in truth that every act of true, blind, complete surrender to me produces the effect that you desire and resolves all difficult situations.

O Jesus, I surrender myself to you, take care of everything! (10 times) Day 2 Surrender to me does not mean to fret, to be upset, or to lose hope, nor does it mean offering to me a worried prayer asking me to follow you and change your worry into prayer. It is against this surrender, deeply against it, to worry, to be nervous and to desire to think about the consequences of anything.

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25th March 2022

SURRENDER NOVENA 3

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to see to their needs, and then try to take care of those needs for themselves so that their childlike efforts get in their mother’s way.

Surrender means to placidly close the eyes of the soul, to turn away from thoughts of tribulation and to put yourself in my care, so that only I act, saying, “You take care of it.”

O Jesus, I surrender myself to you, take care of everything! (10 times) Day 3 How many things I do when the soul, in so much spiritual and material need, turns to me, looks at me and says to me, “You take care of it,” then closes its eyes and rests.

In pain you pray for me to act, but that I act in the way you want. You do not turn to me, instead, you want me to adapt to your ideas. You are not sick people who ask the doctor to cure you, but rather sick people who tell the doctor how to.

So do not act this way, but pray as I taught you in the Our Father: “Hallowed be thy Name,” that is, be

glorified in my need. “Thy kingdom come,” that is, let all that is in us and in the world be in accord with your kingdom. “Thy will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven,” that is, in our need, decide as you see fit for our temporal and eternal life.

If you say to me truly: “Thy will be done,” which is the same as saying: “You take care of it,” I will intervene with all my omnipotence, and I will resolve the most difficult situations.

O Jesus, I surrender myself to you, take care of everything! (10 times) Day 4 You see evil growing instead of weakening? Do not worry. Close your eyes and say to me with faith: “Thy will be done, You take care of it.” I say to you that I will take care of it, and that I will intervene as does a doctor and I will accomplish miracles when they are needed.

Do you see that the sick person is getting worse? Do not be upset, but

close your eyes and say, “You take care of it.” I say to you that I will take care of it, and that there is no medicine more powerful than my loving intervention. By my love, I promise this to you.

O Jesus, I surrender myself to you, take care of everything! (10 times) Day 5 And when I must lead you on a path different from the one you see, I will prepare you; I will carry you in my arms; I will let you find yourself, like children who have fallen asleep in their mother’s arms, on the other bank of the river. What troubles you and hurts you immensely are your reason, your thoughts and worry, and your desire at all costs to deal with what afflicts you.

O Jesus, I surrender myself to you, take care of everything! (10 times) Day 6 You are sleepless; you want to judge everything, direct everything and see to everything and you surrender

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4 SURRENDER NOVENA

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to human strength, or worse—to men themselves, trusting in their intervention—this is what hinders my words and my views.

Oh, how much I wish from you this surrender, to help you; and how I suffer when I see you so agitated!

Satan tries to do exactly this: to agitate you and to remove you from my protection and to throw you into the jaws of human initiative.

So, trust only in me, rest in me, surrender to me in everything.

O Jesus, I surrender myself to you, take care of everything! (10 times) Day 7 I perform miracles in proportion to your full surrender to me and to your not thinking of yourselves. I sow treasure troves of graces when you are in the deepest poverty. No person of reason, no thinker, has ever performed miracles, not even among the saints.

He does divine works whosoever surrenders to God. So don’t think about it any more, because your mind is acute and for you it is very hard to see evil and to trust in me and to not think of yourself. Do this for all your needs, do this, all of you, and you will see great continual silent miracles. I will take care of things, I promise this to you.

O Jesus, I surrender myself to you, take care of everything! (10 times) Day 8 Close your eyes and let yourself be carried away on the flowing current of my grace; close your eyes and do not think of the present, turning your thoughts away from the future just as you would from temptation.

Repose in me, believing in my goodness, and I promise you by my love that if you say, “You take care of it,” I will take care of it all; I will console you, liberate you and guide you.

25th March 2022 O Jesus, I surrender myself to you, take care of everything! (10 times) Day 9 Pray always in readiness to surrender, and you will receive from it great peace and great rewards, even when I confer on you the grace of immolation, of repentance, and of love. Then what does suffering matter? It seems impossible to you?

Close your eyes and say with all your soul, “Jesus, you take care of it.” Do not be afraid, I will take care of things and you will bless my name by humbling yourself. A thousand prayers cannot equal one single act of surrender, remember this well. There is no novena more effective than this.

O Jesus, I surrender myself to you, take care of everything! (10 times) Mother, I am yours now and forever.

Through you and with you I always want to belong completely to Jesus.

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25th March 2022

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CATHOLIC VOICE LENTEN APPEAL 5

WE NEED YOUR HELP BECOME A “FRIEND” OF Dear Catholic Voice Reader, Once again we need to ask for your help to keep Catholic Voice in production. The Covid crisis, which led to the temporary closure of Catholic Churches in Ireland, has led to a significant reduction in our distribution.

Many of these Churches have not yet renewed their orders for Catholic Voice, and the reduction in circulation has meant that the cost per issue has increased. We are also experiencing increased postal costs.

We are hopeful that in the coming year, as things slowly return to normal many of the Catholic Churches which stocked Catholic Voice before the Covid crisis, will do so once again.

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We believe that Catholic Voice is needed now more than ever with the attacks on the Catholic faith increasing on an almost daily basis.

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The enemies of the Catholic Church in Ireland keep using past scandals to undermine and to damage the faith of ordinary Catholics. The Tuam Mother and Baby Home and the Magdalen Laundries have once again featured in the mainstream media. Much of what is reported is a form of propaganda which focuses on past traumas whilst ignoring the plight of the minimum of 6,500 unborn children murdered annually and their mothers, many of whom will come to regret the death of their children.

The promotion of the dangerous and child damaging LGBT agenda, with accompanying LGBT indoctrination programmes, even in Catholic schools, continues to grow. We are the only Catholic journal in Ireland exposing this corruption of children and calling on our bishops to act in defence of the innocence of these children.

We also carry many articles which help Catholics to both understand and to live out their Catholic faith and we provide encouragement and support for Catholics who wish to resist the growing global tyranny.

Dear Anthony & Kim,

What we are hoping to do is to assemble a group of ‘FRIENDS’ of Catholic Voice who are willing to make a regular contribution to help cover the day to day costs until our circulation increases to pre-Covid levels.

The aim is to raise €70,000 per annum or around €5,800 per month - this will ensure we are able to continue production of Catholic Voice.

We are looking to get about 100 ‘FRIENDS’ who can contribute €50.00 per month by standing order.

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6 CATHOLIC EDUCATION

Catholic Voice

25th March 2022

Back To The Future Mrs Rita Brennan – Catholic Grandmother The Rethink of Relationships and Sexuality Education (RSE} in Catholic Secondary Schools.

On May 26th, 2018, I stood traumatised while watching the TV coverage of the voting results around the 8th Amendment. I witnessed adult men and woman, among them experienced politicians, hugging and leaping with joy that the unborn child was no longer protected by the Irish Constitution. Shock waves of horror spread throughout civilised parts of the world that such inhumanity could happen in a country once known as ‘’The land of Saints and Scholars”.

This beautiful emerald isle had become a killing field for the indefensible unborn child. Press photos showed mainly young people celebrating. At the same time an advert for baby milk was being aired on TV, using the fact that a new-born baby has 10,000 taste buds and 300 bones. The blueprint for these and all other human characteristics become present at the fertilisation of the ovum resulting in a new, unique human being at the beginning of his cycle of life.

The majority of those celebrating had been through the Catholic education system which includes RSE, an aim of which is to promote the sanctity of human life. In the latter part of my teaching career, I noticed that schools

were being asked to solve the gathering social life ills of drugs, smoking, alcoholism, unwanted pregnancy, bullying and, lately, pornography and violence against women. Schools, which were once places of academia, sport, the arts, Catholic teachings and practices, were slowly morphing into places of social engineering informed and influenced by international population controllers, namely the UN, UNESCO, WHO, UNWomen, Planned Parenthood (FPA) and various homosexual organisations.

During my own school days, these organisations did not have the same influence. The curriculum then was led by the 3Rs, the demands of Exam Boards, individual subjects, reading and debate. Morals and virtues were taught through the rich teachings of the Catholic church which are superior to any secular opinion.

Unfortunately, the international secular organisations became recognised as “the professionals” and their ideologies were introduced into the school curriculum through the vehicle of RSE. Once Catholic schools became fully state funded, they appeared to capitulate to secular ideas and lost confidence in Catholic teachings, having given up service to the words of Jesus Christ.

The prophetic encyclical “Humane Vitae” published on July 29th 1968, which explained how practicing artificial contraception could negatively affect the balance of life and God’s plan for all people, caused much confusion amongst laity and clergy. The low birth rates in most western countries were causing economic problems, and the ensuing high rates of divorce and abortion were all predicted by the encyclical. Those who have followed the truths of this encyclical have no regrets.

The escalating annual abortion statistics in the UK and Ireland is the chief evidence that RSE in its present ambiguous form is a dreadful failure, wrongly influencing our young people. School discussion about artificial contraception and its free availability has empowered the idea of “safe sex”, seducing teenagers and others into an immoral way of life, glorified on social media.

25th March 2022

CATHOLIC EDUCATION 7

Catholic Voice

There were no “options” available at schools in the pre-2000s, when under 18’s were taught Catholic Truths in an unembroidered fashion.

They were presented with the ideals which influenced their adult lives; if, in post school life, they ditched the ideals for a liberal life style they couldn’t say “you didn’t tell us” or “teach us” when the consequences built up. The Northern Ireland Catholic Guidelines for RSE in post-primary schools, published in 2021, do suggest the ideal as follows; “The specific task of RSE in a Catholic school is to teach, nurture, advise, guide and enable young people in the school’s care to recognise their own sacredness and the sacredness of others within the context of Catholic faith and teaching. Jesus is the model for living an ethical life and the moral teachings of the Church enable us to follow Him who is “the Way, the Truth and the Life” (John 14:6) To fulfil these expectations Catholic catechisms e.g. YouCat and the Boston Catechism, along with the many encyclicals on human life and marriage, are the main resources for Catholic RSE. Catholic Truths can be matched to the statutory requirements of the RSE curriculum.

Whenever there is a will, there is a way! RSE is presently a “hot potato” on the BBC, at Stormont, on the Nolan Show, and in the USA where parents are protesting loudly and publicly against explicit sex education programmes.

The Northern Ireland Commissioner for Children is not happy with RSE in schools but not for the same reasons as me. Christian organisations, such as ‘’The Christian Institute” are beginning to organise in the UK against classroom RSE. In Hungary the government has banned all teaching and discussion about LGBTQ+ and gender ideology in their schools, much to the dismay of the EU. Hungarian teachers can get on with “real” education and parents decide what is best for their children regarding these modern social issues. These same principles should be in every prospectus in every Catholic school in Northern Ireland.

The Guidance Document for Post Primary Schools: Northern Ireland

(2021), published by the ‘Catholic Schools’ Trustee Service’ offers a major reason for rethinking RSE. On page 10 it states, “The dignity, privacy and modesty of each individual child must be respected” This is an impossible task in the classroom situation and can only be fulfilled in a family or other private environment. Sexuality is a very personal matter and becomes coarse and vulgar when brought into the public arena. Suggestions that every emotion, feeling or biological fact should be analysed throughout young students’ school life is an eclipse of reason, without regard for the uniqueness of each human being or the dream of romanticism.

It is very necessary for the sake of our childrens’ mental and physical health that all in education

management in Catholic Schools discern what is best. Perhaps the words of Pope Francis in “Gaudete et Exsultate” (on the call to holiness in today’s world) might better guide you ... “... Are you a parent or grandparent?

Be holy by patiently teaching the little ones how to follow Jesus. Are you in a position of authority? Be holy by working for the common good and renouncing personal gain. Let the grace of your baptism bear fruit in a path of holiness. Let everything be open to God; turn to him in every situation. Do not be dismayed, for the power of the Holy Spirit enables you to do this, and holiness, in the end, is the fruit of the Holy Spirit in your life (cf.

Gal 5:22-23) ...”

The

Dominicans Truth

...Lives On and On!

"One of the few things in life that cannot possibly do any harm in the end is the honest pursuit of Truth."

- Peter Kreeft www.irishdominicanvocations.com

8 WHAT IS IMPORTANT?

Catholic Voice

25th March 2022

The Most Important Things In Life Aren’t Things Mons. Charles Pope One of the great challenges in life is to learn what is really most important. I remember as a child being told at Christmas that Jesus was the real reason for the season and that toys were secondary.

But I was a child and although I heard what should be most important in actual fact what really was most important to me was what was under the tree. “Thanks Jesus for gettin’ born, now what did Santa leave!?”

This little childhood scenario recasts itself differently as we get older but the basic challenge is the same: learning to really accept and experience that the most important things in life aren’t things. St. Paul states well what is really most important: But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ.

What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in him… (Philippians 3:7-9) The psalms too express what is most valuable:

“Lay not up to yourselves treasures on earth: Where the rust, and moth consume, And where thieves break through and steal.” Matthew 6:19) The fear of the LORD is pure, enduring forever. The ordinances of the LORD are sure and altogether righteous. They are more precious than gold, than much pure gold; they are sweeter than honey, than honey from the comb. By them is your servant warned; in keeping them there is great reward. (Psalm 19:9-11).

The Lord also goes on to teach us that we should value the people in our lives above the things in our lives. Consider this example.

Someone in the crowd said to him, “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me.” Jesus replied, “Man, who appointed me a judge or an arbiter between you?”

Then he said to them, “Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; a man’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.” (Luke 12:13-15) Among the teachings contained here is that the brothers should be more important to each other than the wealth that divides them. But too often our desire for passing

things takes precedence over the people in our lives. Both brothers sin against each other over money, one through greed the other through injustice.

So I want to ask you (and me) a few questions and I want you to be careful how you answer them.

Often when we are asked questions of a moral nature we answer the question the way we should answer the question instead of responding with the actual truth. So as I ask these questions let’s consider supplying the truest answer rather than the “required” answer.

Do you really love God above all things and above all people?

Do you really love the people in your life more than the things in your life?

Do you really believe that your life does not consist in an abundance of possessions?

And as you and I answer these questions consider what the evidence states. The best evidence

WHAT IS IMPORTANT? 9

25th March 2022 Catholic Voice in a question like this is not merely our feelings but even more what we spend our money and time on.

Truth be told a lot of us struggle to love God most. We are told to worship God, love people and use things but too often worship things, use people and forget about God. The fact is a lot of us can still be stuck on that old childhood scene where we knew Jesus is the reason for the season but in the end we also knew he really had very little to do with the season, either in the culture or in our hearts.

for the rest of us, the first step is to honestly realise that we’re messed up and that we prefer passing things to God.

Preparing for confession looks not only to symptoms such as outer behaviours but to causes which are the deeper drives of sin.

Pray – The second step is to get on our knees and say, “Lord have mercy! I am messed up. My priorities are wrong. I love things more than people and people more than you. I’m surrounded by idols and I ascribe greater worth to the dust of this earth than to you or to my loved ones. Help me Lord!”

Cultivate Gratitude – Gratitude is a way that we discipline our mind to count our blessings and then thank the Lord for them. In particular we ought to discipline our minds to thank God for the gift that He is to us. Also the gift that others are to us.

Regular Confession and Holy Communion – Part of regular confession is to learn to focus on the The steps to making progress in this deeper issues of our life. Too often difficulty are fourfold: we only look at our behaviours but not to the deeper drives of sins that Honesty – Honestly answering lead to this bad behaviour. Some of questions like the ones the Lord the deeper drives of sin that affect asks us above has got to be the this particular matter are: greed, starting point. Perhaps some of lust, idolatry, ego-centric attitudes, you who read this are way ahead of pettiness, worldliness, sloth, and the rest and God really is first. But ingratitude.

The devotion to the Cord of St. Joseph took its rise in Belgium, in 1637, in consequence of a miraculous cure effected by the wearing of this precious girdle. During this year of Saint Joseph you may wish to wear the cord to avail of the

Granted some folks are gifts to us “in strange packages.” But even the difficult people in our lives teach us things like being patient, kind and more forgiving, These are blessings, even though in strange packages.

Only with God’s help can we begin to realise that “The Most important things in life aren’t things” is more than a slogan. Only with God’s help and a lifetime of grace can we ever hope to really appreciate this insight and absolutely true.

GRACES ATTACHED TO THE WEARING OF THE CORD. Graces precious to the piety of St. Joseph’s servants are attached to the wearing of this cord. They are: 1. St. Joseph’s special protection 2. Purity of soul; 3. The grace of chastity; The Cord 4. Final perseverance; 5. Particular assistance at the hour of death.

Of Saint Joseph

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10 SPIRITUAL COLLAPSE

Catholic Voice

25th March 2022

A MILITARY SYMBOL OF SPIRITUAL COLLAPSE Anthony Hofler At the dawn of the 21st century, Pope St. John Paul wrote that “[e]ven in countries evangelised many centuries ago, the reality of a ‘Christian society’ which, amid all the frailties which have always marked human life, measured itself explicitly on gospel values, is now gone” (“Novo Millennio Ineunte,” 2001, paragraph 40). Two years subsequently, he wrote that “European culture gives the impression of ‘silent apostasy’ on the part of people who have all that they need and who live as if God does not exist” (“Ecclesia in Europa,” 2003, paragraph 9), and referred to routine performance of religious practices which are not matched by substantive acceptance of what the faith requires (ibid., paragraphs 49 and 50). Pope Francis has made similar comments (Angelus Discourse, 8th July 2018).

The situation which they thus described constitutes the end of what used to be called ‘Christendom’ - a spiritual empire in which, even if imperfectly, culture and governance were visibly linked to Christian principles.

The disintegration of that is a large, absorbing, and sad subject, beginning before readers of this magazine were born. Within our lifetimes, it became especially noticeable mid-way through the 20th century. The contagion seemed to spread in Ireland more slowly than elsewhere, at least initially, before becoming endemic rapidly. One of the fascinating elements of the subject is how secular circumstances have recognisable parallels in ecclesiastical ones, perhaps not in the sense that circumstances in the two realms actually caused each other, but at least in the sense that a curious similarity exists. An example occurred eighty years ago, in the Far East.

In December 1941, after they had thrust the British Empire forces Southwards to the tip of the Malay Peninsula, the Japanese attacked the island of Singapore. The occupants of the island could have had no doubt about what was coming, just as in the mid-20 century there were increasingly-clear signs that established standards were being at least questioned, and even attacked; so we had warning that ( as Bob ‘Dylan’ sang famously in 1964) “The Times They Are A-Changin’.”

Nevertheless, although the military and social threat was ‘at the door,’ people seemed to be unconcerned.

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In Singapore, parties were held, and nightly dancing continued in the ballroom of a prestigious local hotel.

It was as if, despite the evidence, they believed that they occupied an impregnable fortress and therefore that there would be no attack. Singapore was not impregnable, because (according to a participant) no fortifications had been built, so the attack was easy and the beach-head area was captured.

The population’s complacency seems to have been compounded by a military misjudgement that it would be bad for the locals’ morale to see the British even contemplating a Japanese landing. The same unwillingness to trouble people has been evident for decades in Churchmen’s failure to foment practical resistance to contra-Catholic activity.

Complacency, also, has seemed tacit official policy. It reigned at the top when legalisation of abortion was proposed in England. A group of medical students from a university’s Catholic chaplaincy visited Cardinal Heenan, who (wrote one of them) said: 1. It would probably be best, as Catholics, not to make too much of a fuss, as this would be likely to increase support for the abortion Bill; and 2. Anyway, we shouldn’t worry too much, ‘the doctors won’t let it happen’.

His Eminence did, for what it was worth, record on paper his disagreement with the Bill. About twenty years afterwards, his successor, Basil Hume, seemed very reluctant to show support for litigation to prevent provision of contraception and abortion for under-16 children without their parents’ consent, and in the early years of the 21st century the Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales could not agree a collegial response to the Government’s legislation on same-sex adoption.

A common belief is that the side with the greater number of supporters will win. That often-true opinion distracts attention from the meaning of ‘supporters’.

The quality of support is crucial. Except at the moment when matters depend on the simple task of casting a vote, other factors are more important.

25th March 2022

Catholic Voice

SPIRITUAL COLLAPSE 11

The troops defending Singapore totalled 85,000. The Japanese numbered 36,000. The Japanese won. Why? The defence was blighted by mistaken assessments; the defenders were experienced-but-weary soldiers and untrained or unmotivated new recruits (some of the reinforcements could not even put a bullet into a rifle); the Japanese were battle-hardened, single-minded, and encountered less resistance than they expected.

It was a ‘rude awakening’ for the vanquished, one of whom declared his amazement that “the great British Army” had been defeated by the “unkempt,” “squat,” and “bandy-legged” people who came “shuffling and slouching” into the city on the morning after the surrender.

In summary, Singapore fell because inadequate defence helped the attackers. Christendom’s collapse can be blamed on the same defect. Britain illustrates it ‘in microcosm’. According to a (later-repentant) revolutionary in the 1960s, the paucity of resistance symbolised the arrival of a rebel army at the limits of the enemy capital and found the defensive positions abandoned. At the time, he had thought mistakenly that the victory was earned by effort, but later he realised why it was so easy.

As if to answer those of us who wonder why the defence was so inadequate or non-existent, he added that the astonishing swiftness of the change suggests that the “old morality” rested only on custom and inertia, not on any deep attachment or understanding, and so had no ability to withstand assault. Our Lord’s parable of the sower comes to mind (Matt. 13: 20-22; Mark 4: 4-7, 14-19; Luke 8: 5-7, 11-14).

Sometimes defeats change attitudes. The defeat of the presumed-to-be-firmly-in-charge British, even though the Japanese victory endured for a very few years, caused a desire for independence to grow among the inhabitants, and belief in justification of empire to weaken among the rulers. So, as historian Max Hastings commented, the British Empire was hollow, founded on an illusion; it was a ‘wedding-cake’ which collapsed when it was pushed, and the people of Asia saw that they had a different destiny, and that their imperial masters were not what they had supposed them to be.

The same seems to have been true of Christendom, at least in the later stages. Neither a political empire nor a religious one is advocated now. Democracy receives deference as if it were divine, but democracy is different from imperialism. Specifically-Christian advocacy is heard rarely from lay contributors to public discussion of national or international subjects, and in religious settings it is normally diluted into ‘inter-faith’ terms.

The greater the gap between majority opinion and objective truth, the greater the likelihood that the truth will be left unsaid. For example, according to a pressreport a few years ago, the Bishop of Portsmouth, Philip Egan, said that promoting the Magisterium’s teachings on sexual matters is as difficult as trying to reason with an alcoholic. The addiction renders the victim impervious to corrective influence, even if the

Modern Singapore truth of the influence is recognised. The collapse of Christendom has produced the reign of ‘error-dom’.

This is deeply discouraging for denominationallyminded people who believe that authentic Christianity should be given practical effect in all aspects of life.

To the holders of such a minority view, advice to ‘tone things down’ by looking for ‘common ground’ may be tempting, but sooner or later comes discovery of a conflict between what a majority will accept and what the authority of the Church has affirmed. Either that authority is accepted or it is not. Debating subjects according to what the majority will accept gives the advantage to the Church’s opponents, because it is they — as representatives of society’s non-Church majority — who have set the standard.

12 PROTECTING CHILDREN FROM HARM

Catholic Voice

25th March 2022

“And There Is No Knowledge Of God In The Land.

Cursing And Lying And Killing And Theft And Adultery Have Overflowed: And Blood Hath Touched Blood.

Therefore Shall The Land Mourn, And Everyone That Dwelleth In It Shall Languish.”

John Lacken

***NB - Parents be warned! This article contains material that is not suitable for children. - NB*** The Dogmatic Constitution on the Church teaches us the following with regard to bishops.

“Bishops, as successors of the apostles, receive from the Lord, to whom was given all power in heaven and on earth, the mission to teach all nations and to preach the Gospel to every creature, so that all men may attain to salvation by faith, baptism and the fulfilment of the commandments.”

The failure to teach and to pass on the Catholic faith, puts the very salvation of men in danger. So let us pray for our bishops, in these times of great apostasy when so many are abandoning the practice of the Catholic Faith, that they will take radical corrective action to restore the faith in Ireland, rather than simply proceeding as they have always done.

Ave Maria, gratia plena, Dominus tecum. Benedicta tu in mulieribus, et benedictus fructus ventris tui, Iesus. Sancta Maria, Mater Dei, ora pro nobis peccatoribus, nunc et in hora mortis nostrae. Amen.

I want to briefly cover three different topics in this article. The first one has to do with Ukraine, and I need to preface this by noting, that, anyone who dares to find fault with Ukraine is immediately labelled as either unsympathetic or pro-Russian. This labelling is done by the public propagandists whose constant virtue signalling whilst ignoring the global mass murder of millions of unborn children, is sickening. I condemn the invasion of Ukraine and I also condemn the provocation of Russia that lead to that invasion.

There are in the world men with vast amounts of money, who will use any and every crisis they can,

© MADE IN UKRAINE to increase their wealth. It is often argued that some of these men will actually foment a crisis for this very purpose. There are also ideologists who seek to use any crisis they can to promote their immoral thinking.

and that “International surrogacy will cost between €30,000 and over €100,000 depending on the country and agency you choose.” (https://www.growingfamilies.org/ surrogacy-in-ireland/)

In Ireland, the debate over the euphemistically termed ‘Assisted Human Reproduction’, has been going on for almost twenty years. A commission was set up to explore the issue and its report is dated March 2005. Of course, most forms of Assisted Human Reproduction are morally repugnant, such as ‘In Vitro Fertilisation’ (IVF) and Surrogacy. They are therefore met with resistance amongst the population. This is where a crisis can be used to overcome that resistance by creating an emotional acceptance of that which is immoral.

Shortly after the invasion of Ukraine, the same hypocritical Irish government ministers who voted for the killing of innocent children in their mothers’ wombs in Ireland, suddenly became very concerned about the relatively small number of unborn children who were developing in the wombs of Ukrainian women.

These Ukrainian women were being exploited by well-off Irish couples as breeding chambers.

On February 24th this year, Russia invaded Ukraine. Before this invasion, not many people realised that Ukraine is a world leader in commercial surrogacy arrangements. The organisation ‘Growing Families’, tells us on their website, that there is no surrogacy legislation in Ireland

The Irish media gave extensive coverage to the plight of these particular unborn children and of how important it was to get the children home as soon as they were born. The highly charged emotional coverage did not pay much attention to the Ukrainian women who were carrying these children for money.

Lo and behold, on the 10th March 2022, just two weeks after the invasion, and whilst the emotions

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Catholic Voice

PROTECTING CHILDREN FROM HARM 13

were still running high over the fate of the little children, Minister Donnelly introduced the ‘Health (Assisted Human Reproduction) Bill 2022’ in the Dáil. The Bill seeks to legislate for surrogacy in Ireland.

This is a classic example of exploiting a crisis in order to gain support for an immoral piece of legislation. The Taoiseach, later in the week, denounced the practice of fuel price gouging saying it was “morally reprehensible”, and yet, this same man has no problem presiding over a government that is responsible for the murder of almost 20,000 unborn children since the enactment of Ireland’s abortion legislation in 2019; a government that turns a blind eye to the exploitation of Ukrainian women as breeding chambers for well-off Irish couples.

The level of hypocrisy is staggering, but not unusual for ideologists who do not accept absolute moral norms.

These are the same hypocrites who condemn the Catholic Church for allegedly ‘selling’ babies in the past, but who themselves either ignore or promote this modern from of human trafficking which amounts to buying and selling of babies.

Another part of the problem is the modern concept of ‘rights’, which leaves out the corresponding ‘duty’ not to exploit anyone and not to behave immorally.

The second topic I want to address also has to do with an ideology. In this case it is the LGBT ideology. Once again, those of us who challenge the false tenets of this ideology, will be labelled variously as homophobic, transphobic, or we will be accused of having some other hatred despite the fact the we do not hate anyone.

In fact we are motivated by well grounded concerns.

My God, I believe, I adore, I hope and I love Thee. I beg pardon of Thee for all those that do not believe, do not adore, do not hope and do not love Thee. Amen.

Angel to the Children of Fatima 1916

Those who promote, or in any way encourage same-sex relationships are acting contrary to Catholic Church teaching. Similarly, those who promote the mutilation of the bodies of young boys or girls in an impossible effort to ‘change their gender’, are acting contrary to Catholic Church teaching.

Yet this false ideology is being promoted in Irish Catholic schools, which have Catholic bishops as patrons, and in other organisations which were set up by the Catholic Church, such as the Kerry Diocesan Youth Services and the Cloyne Diocesan Youth Services.

Even more egregious is the fact that the Mater Dei Centre for Catholic Education, which trains teachers for Catholic schools in Ireland, recently hosted Dr Seán Henry who is actively working to ‘queer’ the curriculum in religious schools.

(See poster above) The Irish Institute for Catholic Studies, which is based in Mary Immaculate College in Limerick, a Catholic college with at least three bishops on the board of directors, also hosted Dr Seán Henry for an online presentation in November 2020. During that presentation, Dr Henry mapped out his vision for queering the curriculum. He said, “I claim that disrupting the religious - LGBTQ divide can be achieved

through an approach to teaching that (a) refuses to sanitise the worst dimensions of religion. So, in disrupting the religion queer divide, my claim this afternoon is that this can only be achieved if we face the ugliness of religious heteronormativity seriously. We are not going to disrupt this divide by putting our heads in the sand”. (Dr Seán Henry – Presentation to the Irish Institute for Catholic Studies – November 5th, 2020) Dr Henry is describing the religious view, that human sexual relations should only happen between one man and one woman who are married — religious heteronormativity — as ugly!

Dr Henry also contributed a chapter to a book which the Maynooth University website tells us was titled, ‘The Queerness of Education: Rethinking Catholic Schooling Beyond Identity’ and that “in it, Seán argued for a re-imagining of Catholic schooling resistant to homophobia and transphobia by turning to the idea of education as a queer political praxis.”

The Le Cheile Schools Trust, which consists of schools from fifteen different Catholic religious congregations in Ireland, also promoted the one day conference with Dr Seán Henry in the poster above, and offered to subsidise members who wished to attend.

14 PROTECTING CHILDREN FROM HARM

Catholic Voice

25th March 2022

For whatever reason, none of our Irish bishops have publicly spoken out against the promotion of the LGBT ideology in Catholic schools, despite the fact that this ideology is obviously harmful to children, because it gives them a distorted view of human sexuality and pressures them to accept it. It is quite probable, that our bishops are sinfully culpable for their failure to protect children from these ideologists in the Catholic schools.

But my primary focus in highlighting this issue again, is not to awaken the consciences of our bishops, although I wish they would wake up to what is going on and take appropriate action to protect children from this danger.

My primary focus is to alert sincere Catholic parents to one of the grave dangers that now face their children, even in Catholic schools. Most Catholic parents in Ireland are completely unaware of the likes of Dr Seán Henry and his mission to ‘queer’ the curriculum in religious schools and of the support he is getting from so called Catholic institutes involved in education.

If you want to get an idea of just how prevalent this ideology is, simply Google the term, ‘queering the curriculum’, and you will soon realise that is a global and highly organised movement which has children as its primary target. Catholic parents be warned.

Most Catholic parents are unaware that there is a global movement whose purpose is to ‘queer’ the curriculum in schools, and in so doing, to normalise homosexual relationships in the minds of children, from a very young age, and to promote acceptance of these immoral Dr Dermot Kearney with babies relationships to children. Catholic parents also have a saved by progesterone prescriptions duty to protect the children that God entrusts to their care from these ideologists and ideologies.

The poster on the upper right is from an online conference that was hosted by Suffolk University in June of 2021. Here is an example of the type of language used to promote the queering of the curriculum in schools.

“Dr Sebastian Cordoba is a Lecturer in Psychology at the University [of Suffolk] and an organiser of the event. He said “There is a need to recognise gender and sexual diversity in our educational practices.

Many LGBTQ+ students do not feel represented in the teaching material – from pronouns, to the use of man as norm like chairman, policeman, etc., to assumptions about people’s genders and sexualities, – which can make them feel disregarded and excluded. This event aims to illustrate how – and why – the teaching curriculum should adapt to account for our students’ diverse identities and experiences, thus helping us promote a more welcoming and respectful teaching environment for all.” (https://www.uos.ac.uk/news/ queering-curriculum-seminar-series)

Dr Veronica

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The third topic is some good news, and concerns a Dr Dermot Kearney. You can read about Dr Dermot Kearny on the Christian Concern website (https:// christianconcern.com/cccases/dermot-kearney/) and there is also a wonderful video where he tells his story.

“Dr Dermot Kearney was blocked from providing emergency life-saving treatment to unborn babies for women who regret taking the abortion pill.

Supported by the Christian Legal Centre, Dr Dermot Kearney, former President of the Catholic Medical Association (UK), was challenging a ruling that prohibited him from providing life-saving treatment to unborn babies after their mothers regretted taking the first abortion pill, Mifepristone.

Several women who received help from Dermot spoke out, testifying to the care he gave them, in many instances resulting in the birth of a healthy baby.

Thankfully, just before the case was due to go to the High Court, the General Medical Council (GMC) reversed the ban against him, after concluding that there was no case to answer.

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Catholic Voice

Dr Kearney commented: “I am relieved and delighted to have been exonerated. I have been the victim of a coordinated campaign by senior figures in the abortion industry who have been determined to prevent women in urgent need from accessing abortion reversal treatment.

“The whole investigation and the untruths about abortion reversal reported in the media have taken a toll on me and my family. The truth about abortion reversal treatment must now be told and medical professionals who are able and willing to support women with the treatment should be allowed to do so without fear.

“My hope is that woman across the UK will now be told by medical regulators and abortion providers that abortion reversal treatment is safe, that it is available, and that success is possible if they regret their decision to have an abortion and choose to seek help.”

PROTECTING CHILDREN FROM HARM 15

Two Prayer Requests I have two personal prayer requests for readers of this column. The first is for a talk I am scheduled to give on Tuesday 29th March in Ballymena (details below). This is the first talk I am giving since March 2020 when Covid disrupted our Roadshow. I will be alerting parents to some of the issues covered in this current article.

The second prayer request is for us to find suitable accommodation. It is getting more and more difficult for those of us who rent our family homes to find security of tenure.

We have recently been given notice to quit the house we moved into last February. We are hoping to move towards Limerick and Sacred Heart Church. If you have or if know of suitable accommodation, then please get in touch. May God bless you - John Lacken

Tuesday, 29TH March, 2022 7PM - 9PM All Saints Parochial Centre, Ballymena, Co Antrim

This story clearly shows that we must fight for what is right despite the odds and opposition.

There’s A Place For Us

Homosexuality in the Divine Plan of Redemption There’s A Place For Us: This testimony does not shirk away from difficult Catholic teachings but shows with piercing clarity why the Church teaches as she does in the area of human sexuality. In our lives we are called to a lot more than sexual satisfaction. Rather, we are granted the privilege of living life on the highest possible plane in responding to the call of the greatness of being the Sons and Daughters of God.

There’s a Place for Us Homosexuality in the Divine Plan of Redemption Jesus said to those who would stone her: “He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her.”

John Cassidy - Bio Ex-homosexual and New Man John Cassidy has been serving the Catholic Church as a full-time Lay-Man since his conversion in 2014. John has founded the Association of Believing Catholics which is a lay initiative to promote and defend the fullness of Catholic truth.

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“Go, And Now Sin No More.”

By John Cassidy

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16 FASTING FOR CATHOLICS

Catholic Voice

25th March 2022

What Pope Paul VI Wants You To Know About Fasting Amy Welborn Paenitemini is the Apostolic Constitution in which Pope Paul VI revised Catholic regulations on fasting. There seem to be two major issues at hand: First, to help Catholics deepen the spiritual meaning of fasting and abstinence beyond a simple identity marker.

Secondly, to position sacrifice and penance at the centre, spiritually, but to make clear that the manner in which a Christian might express these realities might differ, and legitimately so.

I have three points to make.

First, the document embodies the idealism of the time, in which Catholics were told they were adults, and would be treated as adults, and that they will be trusted to follow the call of the Spirit, in freedom.

Reality: As a friend once related, when the year-long Friday abstinence was lifted, his parents and their friends in the neighbourhood celebrated with a steak cookout. Because penance!

I mean, that’s nice, but honestly.

Who among us would go to Mass half as often if we didn’t have obligation haunting our subconscious?

But less cynically, what interests me about this document is: First, the title is PAENITEMINI. It’s about penance. Which is something that contemporary Catholic talk about Lenten fasting and abstinence is mostly missing.

These days, rather it’s all about how fasting as a spiritual practice that will help you grow as a person and such. Welp, Pope St. Paul VI begs to differ: O Jesus, it is for the love of Thee, in reparation for the offenses committed against the Immaculate Heart of Mary, and for the conversion of poor sinners [that I do this]. Amen.

Our Lady of Fatima - June 13th, 1917.

“Penance therefore — already in the Old Testament — is a religious, personal act which has as its aim love and surrender to God: fasting for the sake of God, not for one’s own self.”

So let that settle. Pope Paul VI didn’t present us with a document on fasting and abstinence as a means of personal growth and a way to inner peace. He presented his reform in the context of penance. We are prideful screw-ups and from ancient days, a primary way of expressing sorrow for the screw-ups and manning up to avoid such screw-ups in the future was to fast. By which, of course, we grow as people. But the first goal is not about us but about God. Secondly, again, in contrast to the present moment, the document is rooted in tradition and the past. As complicated as this period is, and as shaky as the leading lights’ hold on balancing tradition and the needs of the present moment could be, well – at least here, the attempt was being made: “True penitence, however, cannot ever prescind from physical asceticism as well. Our whole being in fact, body and soul,

(indeed the whole of nature, even animals without reason, as Holy Scripture often points out) must participate actively in this religious act whereby the creature recognises divine holiness and majesty. The necessity of the mortification of the flesh also stands clearly revealed if we consider the fragility of our nature, in which, since Adam’s sin, flesh and spirit have contrasting desires. This exercise of bodily mortification — far removed from any form of stoicism does not imply a condemnation of the flesh which sons of God deign to assume.

On the contrary, mortification aims at the “liberation” of man, who often finds himself, because of concupiscence, almost chained by his own senses. Through “corporal fasting”man regains strength and the “wound inflicted on the dignity of our nature by intemperance is cured by the medicine of a salutary abstinence.”

Nevertheless, in the New Testament and in the history of the Church — although the duty of doing penance is motivated above all by participation in the sufferings of Christ — the necessity of an asceticism which chastises the body and brings it into subjection is

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Catholic Voice

affirmed with special insistence by the example of Christ Himself.

hard to argue with the spirit of the thing, really.

Against the real and ever recurring danger of formalism and pharisaism the Divine Master in the New Covenant openly condemned —and so have the Apostles, Fathers and supreme pontiffs — any form of penitence which is purely external. The intimate relationship which exists in penitence between the external act, inner conversion, prayer and works of charity is affirmed and widely developed in the liturgical texts and authors of every era.”

So what does Paul VI want you to know about fasting?

FASTING FOR CATHOLICS 17

“Therefore, following the Master, every Christian must renounce himself, take up his own cross and participate in the sufferings of Christ. Thus transformed into the image of Christ’s death, he is made capable of meditating on the glory of the resurrection.

In the end, the document is a salutary attempt to help Catholics be more intentional about fasting, in line with one of the fundamental programs of the period: this is not just about external actions, but about internal disposition and freely responding to the Lord.

Furthermore, following the Master, he can no longer live for himself, but must live for Him who loves him and gave Himself for him. He will also have to live for his brethren, completing “in his flesh that which is lacking in the sufferings of Christ…for in the benefit of his body, which is the church.”

The question of whether the disconnect between the external actions and interior disposition at the time was generally as severe as the reformers assumed (hoped?) is a very open question, but it’s

In addition, since the Church is closely linked to Christ, the penitence of the individual Christian also has an intimate relationship of its own with the whole ecclesial community.

In fact, not only does he receive in the bosom of the Church through baptism the fundamental gift of “metanoia,” but this gift is restored and reinvigorated in those members of the Body of Christ who have fallen into sin through the sacrament of penance. “Those who approach the sacrament of penance receive from the mercy of God forgiveness for offences committed against Him and at the same time become reconciled with the Church on which they have inflicted a wound by sinning, and the Church cooperates in their conversion with charity, example and prayer.”

And in the Church, finally, the little acts of penitence imposed each time in the sacrament become a form of participation in a special way in the infinite expiation of Christ to join to the sacramental satisfaction itself every other action he performs, his every suffering and sorrow.

Thus the task of bearing in his body and soul the death of the Lord affects the whole life of the baptised person at every instant and in every aspect.”

In other words: Be sorry. — Do it.

— Mean it.

LIBERALISM IS A SIN

Don Félix Sardà y Salvany: – was born on May 21, 1844 in Sabadell, Catalonia, Spain. He was a Catholic priest and writer who wrote against Liberalism which he considered a grave sin. He was the editor of the weekly Spanish Catholic magazine ‘La Revista Popular’ for over forty years. He died on January 2, 1916 at the age of 71. This book, Liberalism is a Sin, is particularly relevant to the times we live in today where Liberalism permeates every aspect of our society and has deeply infiltrated the thinking of many of the Catholic hierarchy.

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18 HOW TO END THE WAR

Catholic Voice

25th March 2022

To See Oursel’s As Ithers See Us Christopher Monckton of Brenchley

Robert Burns, who could write perfectly good English but preferred the Lallan’s (Lowlands) dialect of North Britain, once wrote: O wad some Power the giftie gie us To see oursels as ithers see us!

It wad frae mony a blunder free us, An’ foolish notion.

Commander Sharkey Ward, who commanded 801 Naval Air Squadron during the successful Falklands campaign that removed General Galtieri as dictator of Argentina, writes to me from time to time, and what he writes is always interesting.

He has put himself in the mind of Vlad the Invader, trying to see us as the Kremlin sees us, and has presented an interesting rationale for the invasion of Ukraine. He begins with a striking pair of maps, showing the territory of NATO in 1998 and in 2022. He presents the map as “the key to the regrettable war in Ukraine”: “In 1990, according to the actual documents published by the US National Security Archive detailing what Gorbachev was promised, Secretary of State James Baker assured Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev that NATO would not expand ‘one inch’ east of Germany.

Thirty years ago, that was Russia’s red line.’

“The 2 maps above demonstrate how NATO, led by the USA, has reneged on that promise in a massive way. Words alone cannot do justice to describing the impact that NATO’s encroachment to the east has had on the Russian leadership.

“I do not in any way condone the invasion of Ukraine by Putin’s Army or the insane brutality of the Russian offensive. But, in the same breath, I do totally condemn the lack of recognition of this broken promise by NATO and European Union Leaders.

I use the word “Leaders” advisedly because Statesmen they are not.

Good leaders can acknowledge their own mistakes, including operational misjudgements. My Sea Harrier Squadron team in the Falklands often provided me with alternative plans for waging the air war – and listening to their advice was instrumental in ensuring our eventual victory.

“In Afghanistan, [Mr Biden] ignored the good advice of his intelligence and military experts.

This led to an infamous disaster.

In a similar vein, NATO leaders and diplomats are failing to recognise these broken promises and, apparently, are unable to understand the Russian leader’s point of view: which is a pincer movement of NATO countries advancing towards Mother Russia.

“Despite the immoral carnage now being inflicted upon Ukraine and its people, it may still not be too late

to address this issue through serious and honest diplomacy.

Such diplomacy must include an unambiguous public initial Statement that NATO now understands the viewpoint of Russian leadership and wishes to forge a new and binding, peaceful way ahead for both parties. This way ahead is achievable subject only to an effective cessation of war-fighting in Ukraine.

“If one doesn’t recognise and accommodate one’s adversary’s point of view, especially when that point of view is justified by historical events, then there can be no negotiated, diplomatic solution to the contested issue.

“Through admission of our own shortcomings we may yet evade unnecessary and unimaginable disaster. A way-out beckons.

But do Biden, his dysfunctional Administration and other Western leaders have enough integrity to recognise their adversary’s point of view? That is the $64,000 question.”

I have quoted Sharkey Ward verbatim because his is an interesting argument, expressed

25th March 2022

Catholic Voice

with his customary concision and clarity.

for gas from the Siberian pipelines ever since.

At one level, one can agree with Sharkey. To understand the viewpoint of a potential or actual adversary is to begin to love him, and to love him is to make him less of an adversary.

Scotland is likely to fall within China’s sphere of influence this decade unless the Scots people wake up and get rid of the pretendNationalists who are actually more Communist than Nationalist, and who need cash from China to keep Scotland afloat after independence once the UK cash stops flowing northward.

However, there are one or two weak points in Sharkey’s analysis.

In particular, powerful though the United States is, the voice of its Secretary of State in 1990 was not, even then, the voice of NATO as a whole.

NATO has expanded eastward of Germany not because it wishes to menace Russia, for Russia knows full well that NATO is a purely defensive alliance.

The expansion of NATO has occurred because the nations that have joined NATO in the past onethird of a century have joined it because their peoples feel safer in NATO than they would in the Russian sphere of influence, and because they see themselves as part of the West, and not of the East.

The danger of yet another war in Europe between the jackbooted forces of totalitarianism and the cheerful chaos of libertarian democracy that is the West’s great legacy to the world has never been greater in my long lifetime.

We face a brutal, totalitarian aggressor – the ex-KGB operative Vlad the Invader – together with the thousands of other former KGB operatives who, in a silent coup in 2000, captured Russia from the democratically-elected Boris Yeltsin.

These grim-faced apparatchiki have been rebuilding Russia’s military forces with European nations’ cash

Ms Sturgeon has already had talks with the Chinese Communist Party, which is willing to bankroll her but in return they have their minds set on taking over the submarine base at Faslane.

We have no leader worthy of the name on either side of the Atlantic.

Gaga Biden in Washington, Bébé Trudeau in Ottawa, Playboy Boris at London’s busiest nightclub (10 Downing Street), Preening Macron in Paris, Stodgy Stoltz in Berlin.

It is their individual and collective intellectual, moral and political feebleness that has persuaded Mr

HOW TO END THE WAR 19 Putin that NATO is incapable of reaching a decision, and that now is the moment to pounce.

If you want peace, the ancient saying goes, prepare for war. But we must first pray. First, we must pray for the gallant people of the Ukraine, who before the invasion had already endured eight years of war with Russia, which stole the Crimea from them eight years ago and has been mounting violent and bloody incursions into the Russophone regions of Donbas and Lugansk ever since.

And we must pray for – and in due time elect – leaders worthy of the name.

These are very dangerous times, but the leadership in England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland is insufficiently experienced or mature to understand just how dangerous things are.

Let us pray, then, that wiser leaders can come forward soon. If we do not hang together, as Benjamin Franklin used to say, then assuredly we shall all hang separately.

20 MALE ONLY PRIESTHOOD

Catholic Voice

25th March 2022

Priesthood Is Not A Career Mary Kearns

We can get discouraged defending the Church’s position when we try to counter the arguments raised by those who readily give their opinion on all Catholic matters.

This is even more difficult when the arguments are proposed by those people learned in theology.

We often lack confidence and feel unable to uphold what we know to be right. St. Paul claimed that we could become deceived by specious arguments and this does seem to be the case when it comes to discussions regarding women being admitted to the ministerial and sacramental priesthood. A specious argument is one that is hollow and unsound and if we take the trouble to look into these arguments they can be discredited because they have no basis in truth.

The first thing to bear in mind is that a line of reasoning that supports women’s ordination is almost always founded on a secular understanding of what the role of a priest actually is. This line will usually be covered with a thin layer of theology but this can easily be discerned.

Priesthood is conferred by Jesus Christ through his Church. For this reason it is to Church teaching that we must turn and not to the views of individual theologians. There is no difficulty in finding out what the Church holds as it has been made clear in documents issued by several Popes that the ordination of women is not possible. This was recently affirmed by Pope Francis who stated that this question was settled for all time by Pope John Paul II. It is now over twenty-seven years since Pope John Paul II made it clear in the Apostolic Constitution ‘Ordinatio Sacerdotalis’ that the sacrament of Holy Orders can only be conferred on a baptised male person. This has been the infallible

Photo: Insitute of Christ the King Sovereign Priest

teaching of the Catholic faith since the time of the apostles. It had previously been taught by Pope Paul VI and is reaffirmed as infallible by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. The position is actually very simple. Men, by virtue of the sacrament, participate in the priesthood of Jesus Christ. They actually carry out this role in the liturgy, in the person of Christ, the Head of His Body, the Church (‘In persona Christi Capitis’).

Priesthood is not a function; it is a role and it is not possible for any woman to take on this role.

Of course that particular argument carries no weight with feminists or with women learned in theology who are determined to make a case in favour of female ordination. They distain the clear teaching of Pope John Paul II and have no problem disregarding the authority of the Magisterium.

Sadly there are plenty of Catholics who unfortunately have not heard or do not care to hear that the Church has pronounced for all time on the impossibility of women being ordained to the priesthood.

Consequently not knowing why the Church teaches as she does, many will say that it is absurd in this day and age, that half of the human race is prohibited from a career they feel drawn to.

The first observation to make regarding these Catholics is that they do not usually know what they are talking about. They regard being a priest as they do any profession.

If a person makes a choice of career like a doctor, teacher or solicitor, they study for a number of years, and when they pass their examinations, they can look for relevant employment. If people have the educational qualifications and suitable testimonials, most will eventually get a job. Of course being a priest entails a special sort of ceremony but then so does matrimony. Accordingly so they say, in line with other professions, priesthood should be open to both men and women.

People who hold these views do not trouble to find out that there is nothing automatic in the career of a priest, if it can be called that. It is also not often acknowledged that

25th March 2022

MALE ONLY PRIESTHOOD 21

Catholic Voice

all men do not have the right to be admitted to the priesthood just because they are men. Only some are called and it is the Lord who does the calling. Neither can a priest exist in isolation. An individual with the desire to enter Holy Orders must first be accepted by the bishop of his diocese or alternately by a religious congregation such as the Dominicans or the Franciscans.

Such a person will spend many years in formation and discernment as well as in study.

So much for those who don’t know what they are talking about.

However there exists a large body of people both inside and outside the Church who have written volumes of work on the subject of women’s ordination. Apparently these writers do know what they are talking about. They are able to scrutinise ‘Ordinatio Sacerdotalis’ and justify their own opinions, confident in the knowledge that not many of the faithful will actually have read the document in full, although it is quite brief.

If we are Catholics who are faithful to the Magisterium, we should arm ourselves with the right information and be able to say why certain of the Church’s teachings apply not just to the present but are to be held definitively for all time. This knowledge will enable us to take apart the arguments given by those who believe women have every right to be priests. However, we will probably not change the minds of hardened feminists. On the other hand we will have the correct means of combating erroneous views which could serve to convince people in the middle ground.

Take for example the claim that women deacons were permitted in the early Church. A deacon is the first stage of Holy Orders, and although deacons normally proceed to become priests that is not always the case. In recent years men have been ordained to the permanent diaconate which means they will not proceed to the priesthood.

The case usually cited is that of Phoebe, mentioned by the Apostle Paul in his Letter to the Romans.

It is worth spending a little time finding out more about Phoebe.

St. Paul gives only a few lines regarding this particular woman but we can deduce that since he is recommending her, we can reasonably draw the conclusion that this woman is being entrusted with carrying his letter to the Romans.

Paul refers to Phoebe as someone who has greatly helped him. “I ask you to receive her in the Lord in a way worthy of his people and to give her any help she may need from you, for she has been the benefactor of many people, including me.”

were certainly not admitted to Holy Orders. In fact Paul goes much further. In the first letter he wrote to the newly converted city of Corinth, he directs that women should not make any verbal contribution in church. If they do not understand something they should ask their husbands at home, as they are in submission to the Law. Strong words from the Apostle to the Gentiles!

This does not mean that Paul is antiwoman. We see elsewhere in his writings how he gives respect and honour to women such as Priscilla, Mary, Junia, Tryphena, Tryposa and Persis; although Phoebe is the only one he refers to as a deaconess.

Scholars who sincerely try to comprehend the mind of the Church in those early days, conclude that a deaconess was actually the wife of a deacon. She assisted her husband when necessary. We should remember this was a time when conversions were numerous.

Baptism was by total immersion and at Confirmation the holy oils were liberally applied to the body of the person, man or woman. A deacon’s wife would be needed to help with towels and other items necessary when a woman or girl was baptised and confirmed.

Nonetheless, Paul does not contradict himself. He would have course be aware that during the liturgy the most important duty of a deacon is to read the Gospel, which a woman could not do as she is to be silent at all times. It is obvious that those people who use this argument to bolster up the case for female ordination are not above using St. Paul when it seems to help their case and ignoring him when he disagrees with their own point of view.

A deacon is a man in Holy Orders, and in the early Church women

For catechesis and liturgical formation: marykeenankearns@gmail.com 087 7794687

Photo: Insitute of Christ the King Sovereign Priest

22 SPIRITUAL WARFARE

Catholic Voice

25th March 2022

Spiritual Warfare: Five Factors Facing Us Today Michael Cunningham “The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting. It has been found difficult; and left untried.”

G.K. Chesterton, What’s Wrong with the World This simple passage is the heart of argument in today’s Church. In essence it is the answer to Spiritual Warfare. We are in a constant battle while on Earth. We may not know it or realise it but that doesn’t make it any less true. Just like saying, “I do not believe in gravity.” Not believing in gravity will not stop its effect on you on this earth.

Five Spiritual Factors You Need To Address Here On Earth Right Here and Right Now. First, should I as a Catholic have the ability to pick and choose what I believe in or not? This theory is called the Primacy of Conscience.

The Primacy of Conscience is a blanket term for an overarching concept which basically states that a man’s conscience is the ultimate and final authority on what is to be considered morally permissible, and it is the obligation of the individual to follow their conscience even if it contradicts or acts against Church teaching. Simply put, if you leave everyone to their primacy of conscience you would have no universal truths. Everything would be relative or conditional.

Second, God created a plan for us.

If we believe in His Son and do His will join him in the hereafter. We are here on earth to do a test. We are not here to pick and choose. We can do so, but if we do, we will suffer the consequences of this choice.

G. K. Chesterton

The American hierarchy issued a pastoral letter entitled “Human Life in Our Day,” (November 15, 1968).

Here is a pertinent excerpt:

In the same way, on the outside you appear to people as righteous but on the inside you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness. (Matthew 23: 27-28)

“There exists in the Church a lawful freedom of inquiry, of thought, and general norms of licit dissent… In the final analysis, no person is to be forced to act in a manner contrary to his/her conscience, as the moral tradition of the Church attests.”

Brothers and sisters, there is no escaping this — you simply can not serve two masters and you can not say one thing and do something else forever.

If we begin to develop our own beliefs outside of the Church and then start picking and choosing what we believe or do not believe in the Church teachings, are we still Catholics? This maybe a valid question and something that everyone should ponder for themselves.

“Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of the bones of the dead and everything unclean.

Third, I go to Church each week isn’t that enough? Well, no it is not.

Look at the words of Chesterton.

Jesus Christ established His Church on earth. Church is not just a building. If it were just a building Christianity would have crumbled many years ago. The Colosseum in Rome is beautiful today, but it is just a mere shadow of its greatness.

Buildings will die, ideas can live on and on, and on now and forever.

In an essay written in 1931, entitled, “A Plea for Intolerance”, Bishop Fulton Sheen wrote ninety years ago, “America, it is said, is suffering from intolerance — it is not. It is

“In Portugal, the dogma of the faith will always be preserved” (Our Lady - Fatima July 13th 1917)

25th March 2022 suffering from tolerance. Tolerance of right and wrong, truth and error, virtue and evil, Christ, and chaos.

Our country is not nearly so overrun with the bigoted as it is overrun with the broad-minded.”

Clearly Bishop Sheen saw into the future and did not like what he saw. The truth is universal — it is not relative. Going to Church will not save us from wrong actions we may take. It will not save us from ourselves and our actions.

Paul wrote to the Ephesians about this very same type of thing in Ephesians Chapter 6.

“Not only when being watched, as currying favour, but as slaves of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart, willingly serving the Lord and not human beings” (Ephesians 6:6-7) Fourth, if we all did what we pleased to do, what would happen in this

SPIRITUAL WARFARE 23

Catholic Voice world? What would be true? Could we not say everyone was right? If this was the case and you decided while living in the United States that you wanted to drive on the left side of the road instead of the right, what would happen to you on any busy crowded Interstate Highway to you and your car?

in control here on earth, have we not forgotten about the person who really is in charge here — our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.

This is a recipe for a disaster waiting to happen. You do not have to have experience to know that no good would come out of this experience.

It would be better to look at the first church, who was born on Pentecost when the Holy Spirit descended.

Here’s what the Bible tells us how the first church was organised and lived:

“But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves.” (James 1: 22) We are not the show here on earth.

We are temporarily here and do not get too comfortable about these arrangements. They really are very temporary and we can not take them with us. When we fool ourselves into believing that we are

Fifth, what it the purpose of the Church here on earth and what is my purpose here on earth? What should the Church do?

“So then, those who had received his word were baptised; and that day there were added about three thousand souls. They were continually devoting themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. Everyone kept feeling a sense of awe; and many wonders

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24 SPIRITUAL WARFARE and signs were taking place through the apostles. And all those who had believed were together and had all things in common; and they began selling their property and possessions and were sharing them with all, as anyone might have need.

Day by day continuing with one mind in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, they were taking their meals together with gladness and sincerity of heart, praising God and having favour with all the people And the Lord was adding to their number day by day those who were being saved.”

(Acts 2:41-47) In this text we highlight the following truths about the Church: The church was made up of those who received Paul’s preaching, i.e. those who have repented and entered the New Covenant with Jesus Christ.

All church members devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching which was still in oral form at that time, but now we have the New Testament writings.

All members of the Church devoted themselves to fellowship and this is seen from how they took care of

Catholic Voice

25th March 2022

The Apostles’ Creed I believe in God, the Father Almighty, Creator of heaven and earth, And in Jesus Christ His only Son, Our Lord Who was conceived by the Holy Ghost, Born of the Virgin Mary Greater; Suffered under Pontius Pilate, Was crucified, died, and was buried He descended into hell On the third day He arose again from the dead He ascended into heaven And sitteth at the right hand of God, The Father Almighty From thence He shall come To judge the living and the dead I believe in the Holy Ghost The Holy Catholic Church, The Communion of Saints The Forgiveness of Sins The Resurrection of the Body And Life Everlasting Amen each other, so that no one lacked anything.

gathered there and on the teaching they received.

All members of the Church devoted themselves to the breaking of bread, this was left by the Lord Jesus as a sign of remembrance and judgment for those who have entered the New Covenant with Him.

The Church was in a continuous growth because the Church was sharing the Gospel and was doing mission work- they were not afraid to offend someone, they went out and converted them.

All members of the church devoted themselves to prayer.

The Apostle Peter wrote his first Epistle to those who become Christians recently and said:

The early Christians did not have a place of worship, as most local churches have today, they would gather in the courtyard of the Temple.So, the emphasis was not on the place, but on the people who

But you are A Chosen Race, A Royal Priesthood, A Holy Nation, A People For God’s Own Possession, so that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out of

25th March 2022

Catholic Voice

darkness into His marvellous light; for you once were Not A People, but now you are The People Of God; you had Not Received Mercy, but now you have Received Mercy. (1 Peter 2:9-10) We are Catholic because of our universal beliefs. We believe in the Sacraments and Holy Bible. You can not truly be impressed by the fact the Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church canonised the Holy Bible we used today. The Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church was the Church of Great Conferences, and the Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church was created by Christ here on earth and has never left since.

We are Catholics — one faith in God. We are individuals but we have one belief in God. In conclusion, I explained about the Five Points of Spiritual Warfare that many in today’s society are going through. I explained that we must hold true to

ST MARGARET CLITHEROW 25

our beliefs and stay the course. We must not, should not, and will not deviate from what is true because of the results of doing so appear in the following verses: Then the king wrote to his whole kingdom that all should be one people, and abandon their particular customs. All the Gentiles conformed to the command of the king, and many Israelites delighted in his religion; they sacrificed to idols and profaned the Sabbath.

The king sent letters by messenger to Jerusalem and to the cities of Judah, ordering them to follow customs foreign to their land; to prohibit burnt offerings, sacrifices, and libations in the sanctuary, to profane the Sabbaths and feast days, to desecrate the sanctuary and the sacred ministers, to build pagan altars and temples and shrines, to sacrifice swine and unclean animals, to leave their sons uncircumcised,

and to defile themselves with every kind of impurity and abomination; so that they might forget the law and change all its ordinances.

Whoever refused to act according to the command of the king was to be put to death. (1 Maccabees 41-50) The Jews who revolted against the Greeks, stood up to their leaders, stood up for what was right. What would have happened if they did not do this? What would have happened if they had Primacy of Conscience and decided it was too hard or too inconvenient to do this? Do you realise we would not be here as a Church today. Our faith is strong when we stick together, follow the Church Teachings and the Universal Truth. In the immortal words of GK Chesterton, “The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting. It has been found difficult; and left untried.” Amen.

Saint Margaret Clitherow

Saint Margaret Clitherow (1556 – 25 March 1586) was an English saint and martyr of the Roman Catholic Church, known as “the Pearl of York”. She was pressed to death for refusing to enter a plea to the charge of harbouring Catholic priests. She was canonised in 1970

by Pope Paul VI. Margaret Clitherow was born in 1556, one of five children of Thomas and Jane Middleton. Her father was a respected businessman, a wax-chandler and Sheriff of York in 1564, who died when Margaret was fourteen. In 1571, she married John Clitherow, a wealthy butcher and a chamberlain of the city, and bore him three children; the family lived at today’s 10–11 The Shambles.

She converted to Roman Catholicism in 1574. Although her husband, John Clitherow, belonged to the Established Church, he was supportive as his brother William was a Roman Catholic priest. He paid her fines for not attending church

services. She was first imprisoned in 1577 for failing to attend church, and two more incarcerations at York Castle followed. Her third child, William, was born in prison.

Margaret risked her life by harbouring and maintaining priests, which was made a capital offence by the ‘Jesuits, etc. Act 1584’.

She provided two chambers, one adjoining her house and, with her house under surveillance, she rented a house some distance away, where she kept priests hidden and Mass was celebrated through the thick of the persecution. Her home became one of the most important hiding places for fugitive priests in the north of England.

She sent her older son, Henry, to the English College, relocated in Reims, to train for the priesthood.

Her husband was summoned by the authorities to explain why his oldest son had gone abroad, and in March 1586 the Clitherow house was searched. A frightened boy revealed the location of the priest hole.

Margaret was then arrested and called before the York assizes for the crime of harbouring Catholic priests.

She refused to plead, thereby preventing a trial that would entail her three children being made to testify, and being subjected to torture.

She was sentenced to death.

Although pregnant with her fourth child, she was executed on Lady Day, 1586, (which also happened to be Good Friday that year) in the Toll Booth at Ouse Bridge, by being crushed to death by her own door, the standard inducement to force a plea.

Saint Margaret Clitherow was beatified in 1929 by Pope Pius XI and canonised on 25 October 1970

by Pope Paul VI among the Forty Martyrs of England and Wales.

26 MAKING A GOOD LENT

Catholic Voice

25th March 2022

How To Practice A Good Lent - Part 3 Dom Prosper Gueranger

Cont’d from Issue 338 There is one means more whereby we are to secure ourselves the great graces of Lent; it is the spirit of retirement and separation from the world. Our ordinary life, such as it is during the rest of the year, should all be made to pay tribute to the holy season of penance; otherwise, the salutary impression produced on us by the holy ceremony of Ash Wednesday will soon be effaced.

The Christian ought, therefore, to forbid himself, during Lent, all the vain amusements, entertainments, and parties, of the world he lives in.

As regards theatres and balls, which are the world in the very height of its power to do harm, no one that calls himself a disciple of Christ should ever be present at them, unless necessity, or the position he holds in society, oblige him to it: but if, from his own free choice, he throws himself amidst such dangers during the present holy season of penance and recollection, he offers an insult to his character, and must needs cease to believe that he has sins to atone for, and a God to propitiate.

The world (we mean that part of it which is Christian) has thrown off all those external indications of mourning and penance, which we read of as being so religiously observed in the ages of faith; let that pass; but there is one thing which can never change: God’s justice, and man’s obligation to appease that justice.

The world may rebel as much as it will against the sentence, but the sentence is irrevocable. ‘Unless you do penance, you shall all perish.’

(Luke 13:3) It is God’s own word.

Say, if you will, that few nowadays

“Come apart into a desert place, And rest a little.” (Mark 6:31)

give ear to it; but for that very reason many are lost.

Those, too, who hear this word, must not forget the warnings given them by our divine Saviour Himself in the Gospel read to us on Sexagesima Sunday. He told us how some of the seed is trodden down by the passers-by, or eaten by the fowls of the air; how some falls on rocky soil, and is parched; and how, again, some is choked by thorns.

Let us be wise, and spare no pains to become that good ground, which not only receives the divine seed, but brings forth a hundredfold for the Easter harvest which is at hand.

An unavoidable feeling will arise in the minds of some of our readers, as they peruse these pages, in which we have endeavoured to embody the spirit of the Church, such as it is expressed, not only in the liturgy, but also in the decrees of Councils and in the writings of the holy fathers. The feeling we allude to is one of regret at not finding,

during this period of the liturgical year, the touching and exquisite poetry, which gave such a charm to the forty days of our Christmas solemnity.

First came Septuagesima, throwing its gloomy shade over those enchanting visions of the mystery of Bethlehem; and now we have come into a desert land, with thorns at every step, and no springs of water to refresh us. Let us not complain, however; holy Church knows our true wants, and is intent on supplying them.

Neither must we be surprised at her insisting on a severer preparation for Easter, than for Christmas. At Christmas, we were to approach our Jesus as an Infant; all she put us through then were the Advent exercises, for the mysteries of our Redemption were but beginning.

And of those who went to Jesus’ crib, there were many who, like the poor shepherds of Bethlehem, might be called simple, at least in this sense, that they did not sufficiently realize

25th March 2022

MAKING A GOOD LENT 27

Catholic Voice

MORTIFICATION One of the methods which Christian asceticism employs in training the soul to virtuous and holy living.

Of the diseases it sets itself to slay, sin, the one mortal disease of the soul, holds the first place. Sin committed it destroys, by impelling to true penitence and to the use of those means of forgiveness and restoration which our Lord has confided to His Church.

Temptations to sin it overcomes by inducing the will to accept hardships, however great, rather than yield to the temptations.

To this extent, mortification is obligatory on all, but those who wish to be more thorough in the service of Christ, carry it further, and strive with its aid to subdue, so far as is possible in this life, that “rebellion” of the flesh against the spirit which is the internal incentive to sin.

What is needed to achieve this victory is that the passions and sensual concupiscences, which when freely indulged exercise so pernicious an influence on human conduct, should be trained by judicious repression to subordinate and conform their desires to the rule of reason and in faith, as discerned by the mind. But for this training to be effectual it is not sufficient to restrain these desires of the flesh only when their demands are unlawful. They represent a twist in the nature, and must be treated as one treats a twisted wire when endeavouring to straighten it, namely, by twisting it the opposite way.

St Francis - Caravaggio (1571 - 1610) either the holiness of their Incarnate God or the misery and guilt of their own conscience.

But now that this Son of the eternal God has entered the path of penance; now that we are about to see Him a victim to every humiliation, and suffering even a death upon a cross, the Church does not spare us; she rouses us from our ignorance and our self-satisfaction.

She bids us strike our breasts, have compunction in our souls, mortify our bodies, because we are sinners.

Our whole life ought to be one of penance; fervent souls are ever doing penance: could anything be more just or necessary, than that we should do some penance during these days, when our Jesus is fasting in the desert, and is to die on Calvary?

There is a sentence of our Redeemer, which He spoke to the daughters

Thus in the various departments of ascetic observance, earnest Catholics are constantly found denying themselves even in matters which in themselves are confessedly lawful.

of Jerusalem on the day of His Passion; let us apply it to ourselves: ‘If in the green wood they do these things, what shall be done in the dry? (Luke 23:31) Oh, what a revelation is here! And yet, by the mercy of Jesus who speaks it, the dry wood may become the green, and so not be burned.

The Church hopes, nay, she is labouring with her whole energy, that this may be; therefore, she bids us bear the yoke; she gives us a Lent.

Let us only courageously tread the way of penance, and the light will gradually beam upon us. If we are

now far off from our God by the sins that are upon us, this holy season will be to us what the saints call the purgative life, and will give us that purity which will enable us to see our Lord in the glory of His victory over death.

If, on the contrary, we are already living the illuminative life; if, during the three weeks of Septuagesima, we have bravely sounded the depth of our miseries, our Lent will give us a clearer view of Him who is our light; and if we acknowledged Him as our God when we saw Him as the Babe of Bethlehem, our soul’s eye will not fail to recognize Him in the divine Penitent of the desert, or in the bleeding Victim of Calvary.

“Offer up everything within your power as a sacrifice to the Lord in an act of reparation for the sins by which He is offended; and of supplication for the conversion of sinners. Thus invoke peace upon your country. I am her Guardian Angel; the Angel of Portugal. Above all, accept and bear with submission the sufferings that the Lord may send you.”

(The Angel of Portugal to Fatima children 1916)

28 FORGIVENESS & MIRACLES

Catholic Voice

25th March 2022

Forgive and Expect Miracles Steve Greco

Most people wonder why we don’t encounter miracles in our lives. But to obtain them, we must first surrender our whole selves to God. If we haven’t truly surrendered, we are praying in our will and not the will of the Father, as James clearly describes in his letter:

want to block out painful memories of those who have hurt them—even those no longer living. Yet, reconciliation with relatives—especially parents— or friends who have passed is so important for our spiritual health.

“You ask but do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions.” (James 4:3)

Don’t fall into the trap of allowing painful hurts— real and perceived—to fester in your hearts and souls.

Let the Lord heal your memories. Look at the people who have hurt you, living or dead, through the eyes of the Lord. Ask the Lord to help empty your heart of bitterness and anger so that you are ready to receive His gifts and miracles.

I have found that when we surrender our lives to God, we realise the importance of forgiveness.

“So we are ambassadors for Christ, as if God were appealing through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.” (2 Corinthians 5:20) When we forgive others and ourselves, we then truly become ambassadors for Christ. To experience miracles, we must have a forgiving heart. When we lack forgiveness, the grudges and bitterness we hold towards those who have hurt us become a poison that blocks the power of the Lord. Without forgiveness in our hearts, trying to pray feels very much like going up against a brick wall.

Because so many of us struggle mightily with mercy and reconciliation, forgiveness is a critical part of our ministry. We ask people to examine their consciences.

Whom have they not forgiven? Many people simply

HANDS OFF OUR KIDS

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A forgiving heart is critically important for our spiritual health and to secure answers to our prayers!

Another essential component to experiencing miracles is so basic a concept it could be taken for granted. We must learn to expect miracles! Believe God wants to intervene in our lives through tangible wonders and signs.

Many people believe miracles happened at the time of Jesus but not today. Or they may accept that miraculous events happen to the saintly person, but not to us struggling Christians. I see and feel the disbelief when I pray for those who doubt. Often I see it in their eyes.

They thank me for the prayers, but clearly don’t think anything will happen as a result. Those who doubt may simply and sincerely ask the Lord for increased faith and to understand how much we are loved by Him. We believe and expect that God intends to shower us with grace. A favorite Scripture verse expresses this expectation.

“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavens.” Ephesians 1:3 Wow! Every spiritual blessing. But first, we must believe, trust and expect. We don’t know why God heals in certain ways and with His timing. However, we do know how to remove the obstacles that hinder miracles: surrender, forgive, and expect! Then we truly can experience miracles.

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THE POWER OF PRAYER 29

Catholic Voice

The Unfailing Power of Prayer Barbara Padolina

In this world we live in – rife with conflict, intrigue, sorrow, loneliness, unchecked ambition, and the obnoxiously intoxicating pride of life – the currency of personal confidence is human power, possession, and prestige. It is all good if I “can do”, “can have” and “can be seen”. After all, nobody wants to be a “nobody”. Yet, faced with the reality of Life-as-it-Happens crises, challenges, and dilemmas, topped off by good old-fashioned human limitations and imperfections, many times (more than we may realise), we are left with what most would consider the last recourse: prayer. It is ironic that He Who should be first in our lives is relegated to the very darkest cobweb-infested recesses of the human experience.

Do You Pray?

Most, if not all, people make time for what is truly important to them: family, friends, work, pleasure. The busier a person gets, the easier it is to make excuses for other “not so urgent” things, such as the gym (Ahh – those wasted memberships which go unused after the first two-spirited sessions!), a new diet (a dime a dozen) and God. When the day seems too short at 24 hours for everything you think is crucial, who has time for Someone you cannot even see? Still – the Catechism of the Catholic Church (point 2558) refers to prayer as a “vital and personal relationship with the living and true God”. It is vital – not just important. It is necessary and essential. It is personal: requiring our attention and effort, our correspondence and time.

Pater Noster, Our Father Here’s the clincher and the crux of it all: the living and true God. He is very much alive and not just a footnote in some dusty history book. He is the One True God and we are called to correspond with Him in real-time, all the time, in prayer. Abba, Our Father. This is one of the greatest gifts we have been given – that God is our Father. As errant and forgetful as we – His children – have been, our Heavenly Father is always ready to forgive us if we turn to Him as the prodigal son did to his own father. Unworthy we may be, yet we are precious to Him. Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? And not one of them will fall to the ground without your Father’s will. But even the hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not, therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows (Matthew 10:29-31).

Praying with Abandon It is easier said than done – praying with trust and abandonment to Divine Providence, that is. Perhaps, it is much like that situation with the camel going through the eye of a needle. I know I have prayed many times, begging for help, yet unwilling to surrender my two overloaded pieces of check-in baggage of expectations and need for control. It is not His will, but mine be done. Recently, I attended a recollection during which I heard a priest preach a meditation about the first beatitude: “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” (Matthew 5:3)

I have often struggled to understand what it really meant to be “poor in spirit” and it was a moment of revelation for me then to realise that in prayer – in my relationship with God, my Father – I had not been spiritually poor.

In a One-sided Conversation Many times, in approaching God, I did so, anxious for my numerous human limitations and defects, burdened by fears of that which I could not fix or have the answers to. I “prayed” with many attachments, yet I did not really pray. I performed my standard anxiety-driven stand-up routine many times, unmindful of Who I was really talking to. I failed to listen. It was not a conversation; it was a monologue and talking God’s ear off. But He still listened to me. He heard me even when I could not be bothered to stop talking for two seconds and just listen to Him: Come to me, all who labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls (Matthew 11:28-29).

An Unparalleled Super Power Far from being the last course of action, prayer should be our knee-jerk reaction, our first line of defence; the impulse of our hearts. As helpless as one may feel in the face of human tragedy, social turmoil, and inexplicable suffering, it is our Father God Who invites us to stay the course with Him and let Him help us. We place our trust, not in other people or things which can disappoint, diminish, or be defeated, but in God Almighty Himself.

There are countless ways of praying, as I have already told you. We children of God don’t need a method, an artificial system, to talk with our Father. Love is inventive, full of initiative. If we truly love, we will discover our own intimate paths to lead us to a continuous conversation with Our Lord.

(Saint Josemaria Escriva, “A Life of Prayer”, Friends of God, point 255)

Fatima Prayer

Most Holy Trinity, Father, Son and Holy Ghost, I adore Thee profoundly. I offer Thee the most precious Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Jesus Christ present in all the tabernacles of the world, in reparation for the outrages, sacrileges and indifferences by which He Himself is offended, and through the infinite merits of His most Sacred Heart and the Immaculate Heart of Mary I beg of Thee the conversion of poor sinners. Amen.

“To forestall this [the second world war], I shall come to ask for the Consecration of Russia to My Immaculate Heart and the Communion of Reparation on the First Saturdays.

“If they heed My requests, Russia will be converted, and there will be peace. If not, she shall spread her errors throughout the world, promoting wars and persecutions of the Church; the good will be martyred, the Holy Father will have much to suffer, various nations will be annihilated; in the end, My Immaculate Heart shall triumph.

(Our Lady - Fatima July 13th 1917)

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25th March 2022

I greet you all as I implore God’s blessing upon you and I ask you please to pray for me.

Please pray Our Lady of Fatima’s Most Holy Rosary daily and console the Mother of Christ who earnestly seeks perpetual and universal adoration of her Divine Son in the Real Presence.

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It is universally accepted that doctors, nurses and carers are permitted, with the patient’s consent, to administer prescribed medication on the tongue and into the mouth. It now seems, however, that unlike in Venerable Archdeacon Cavanagh’s day that this practice does not extend itself to your priests or the Synodal Pathway, in Knock specifically or Ireland generally, and the Supernatural Medicine that is the Most Holy Eucharist of the Lamb of God.

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Holy Trinity, I place this cause in Your hands, the hands of the living God as mentioned in Hebrews 10 of inerrant Holy Scripture.

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