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Thursday, April 10, 2014

The Fool Says in his Heart: There is no God

by Lawrence Fox
Inquiring minds like to ask, "Does God exist?"  A recurring argument made by atheists against the existence of God is the observed effects of evil in the world. “It would seem there is no God,” so goes the argument, “For if one of two mutually exclusive things were to exist unbounded, the other would be totally destroyed. But the word God implies some unbounded good. So, if God existed, no evil would ever be encountered. Evil is, however, encountered in the world. So God does not exist.”[1] 
My intention is to respond to this argument against the existence of God as a result of observed effects of evil in the world and demonstrate by way of faith and reason the following points: 1) the atheistic argument is notionally and subjectively shaped by an incomplete form of knowledge, 2) the Christian message provides an objective alternative to the atheistic argument,  3) God responds to and takes responsibility for the problem of evil, and 4) Evil is limited by the God’s providence.   
The Atheistic Response 
to the Problem of Evil
Evil is a scandal to many; especially when manifested in the form of human suffering caused by natural disasters, genetic imperfections, parasitical viruses, mistakes in human judgment, and irrational behavior perpetrated by persons who identify themselves as theists.[2] It can be safely said that if the admonitions of the prophet Isaiah were faithfully put into practice by God’s rational creatures, the problem of evil would be less scandalizing.[3]
“Wash yourselves clean, take your wrong doing out of my sight. Cease to do evil. Learn to do good, search for justice, help the oppressed, be just to the orphan and plead for the widow.” (Isa.1:16-18) Still, no quick answer to the problem of evil is sufficient.[4] In fact the systematic application of the atheistic “either-or” and “crisis of faith” response to the problem of evil epitomized by “there is no God” and “all things are random” unleashed upon the 20th century a level of devastation un-equaled in human history. Within Atheism there exists this “either-or” and “crisis of faith” tension that limits the ability to know how two truths are to be fitted together such as the presence of evil and the existence of God side by side so to speak.[5] This “either-or” and “crisis of faith” is rooted in a difficulty of perception.
 A Difficulty of Perception - 
Evil Side by Side with God
For the atheist, evil side by side with God is argued to be irrational, capricious, wasteful, unjust, simply an expression of selfish gene, with all arguments coalescing into the straw man rebuke, “It is pathological to believe in an Omnipotent Creator capable of all things good, while acting so impotently towards evil?” 
Fr. Thomas Dubay S.J. observes there does not seem to be the problem of evil until someone admits the existence of God which brings into the equation an inherently moral difficulty.[6]  Atheism as an expression of the subjective will, finds difficulties with any dependence upon God. The difficulty is one of reconciling human freedom with moral laws instituted by God in Nature and Divine Revelation. It is a “crisis of faith” in opposition to the promises made by Jesus Christ to his disciples: “If you keep my commands, you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” (John 8:31, 32) The difficulty also stems from the decision to embrace a form of knowledge that limits an Atheist’s perception of the world around them.
 Perceptions Limited by the Theory of Phenomena
Atheism embraces a system of thought which states that only the phenomena of things can be known with certainty. The phenomena would be those things capable of being observed and measured by the senses (accidentals, particulars).  
How does someone quantitatively 
measure good and evil? 
Atheism as a system of thought embraces a notion which quantifies “goodness” and “power” as the efficient removal of evil. God is notionally inefficient in the matter; notions about the existence of God are completely subjective, human reason cannot know with certainty that God exists. Since God does not notionally exist, it is up to humans (non theists) to remove evil (subjectively defined) by the use of “power.”
Prior systems of thought which attempted to answer the question, “How shall I live?” have been replaced by the form “Might makes right.” In contradistinction, a system of thought which seeks to know the noumena of things in themselves - a reasoned knowledge built upon the philosophical and metaphysical principles of non-contradiction, “cause and effect,” “actualization and potency,” “participation,” “exitus & reditus ” and “the whole being greater than the sum of the parts” - is brushed aside when approaching the problem of evil, good, and the existence of God.
Applying the Art of Limited Perception
Science is the art of quantifying things. Flaws in human genetic material -- “the parts” -- are quantifiably observed. This observation convinces the atheist to conclude that inefficiency exists in the order of created things.[7] Therefore notions of God guiding creation are not reasonable; since inefficiency would not exist if “man was God.” The atheist demonstrates that “the parts” exceed the grandeur of “the whole.” 
The highly tuned cosmos - out of which living things come forth and are sustained - is not tuned and no longer perceived to be good. Since the cosmos is not good, the life which springs forth from the cosmos is not intrinsically good. The Aristotelian perception identifying evil as a defect in either the agent (cause) or in the effect (receiver of that cause) preventing perfect participation in the good is strictly directed by the atheist to the agent (cause) God.[8]
Since God cannot exist, the atheist is compelled to conclude that randomness governs and answers the cause of genetic flaws. The atheist is then compelled to put forth multiplied assumptions, conditions, causes, and events necessary to bring forth complex forms of life in contradiction to the principle of parsimony.[9]  The simpler explanation that God acts perfectly as the primary cause, but needs nature’s activity as secondary cause, is not considered. God could, of course, produce the effects of nature without nature, but nevertheless wills them to be done through nature so that “order” be and remain preserved in all things.[10]
In essence, God wills to respect created freedom in nature and the free will of man and woman; both goods which have the potential of expressing diminished goodness (evil). Evil as such is incidental to the good which is creation. Instead, the atheistic response to the problem of evil is similar to those of the Sophists, to whom Aristotle responded, “Sophistic thought is nothing by apparent wisdom and in no wise real…”[11]  Sacred Scripture identifies such a perceptive condition as foolish. “The fool says in his heart there is no God.” (Ps.14:1) The alternative and preferred approach to the problem of evil is one which embraces a noumenal approach integrating both faith and reason.
Noumenal Approach to the Problem of Evil – Christian Faith and Reason
Knowledge of a thing requires pursuing a basis for understanding the causes of that thing.[12] A limited knowledge of something is no knowledge at all. Aristotle reasoned that the proper knowledge of something requires a systematic review of the material, formal, efficient, and final cause of that thing. This systematic pursuit is integral to the science of metaphysics. Material cause is the matter from which the thing is made. The formal cause is the image and plan upon which the material is formed. The efficient cause is that which actualizes the change in the thing. The final cause is the intended purpose of that thing.[13] As such an atheistic inquiry into problem of evil - limited to material random causes alone - is no knowledge at all.
In a remarkable way, the 1st and 2nd chapters of Sacred Scripture describe in both metaphysical and sacred terms the origins, material, formal, efficient, and final cause of the cosmos and humanity as well as the ill-mannered pursuit of “the knowledge of good and evil” and the consequences of that pursuit. Sacred Scripture - a written dialogue between God and man in inspired and inerrant form - provides a more complete knowledge of “that thing.” 
In the beginning, God creates both the visible and invisible from nothing (ex nihilo). God actualizes the created potent material and shapes the various non-living and living things (suns, stars, planets, air, water, plants, fish, birds, animals, and humans). What God shapes into “being” is identified by God as “good” since created “being(ness)” participates in His “being” and His goodness.[14] The summit of this visible creation is man and woman made in God’s image and likeness; possessing an intellect to know the truth, the power of the will to choose the good, and bodies to physically express love, to be fruitful, and experience happiness with all their perceptive and spiritual senses. 
God blesses man and woman with the command to be fruitful and multiply and have dominion over the earth. God rests from His works on the 7th day and identifies everything as “very good.” The expression “very good” identifies the philosophical principle that “the whole” is greater than “the parts.”[15]  God’s rest on the 7th day identifies a covenantal bond of love between God and His creation. Man and woman were created with the animals on the 6th day and created for eternal communion with God on the 7th day, provided the intellect and the will respond in love.
Man and woman called to live in truth, goodness, and love, put their hand to the tree of “the knowledge of good and evil.” Man and woman - who possessed the natural powers to love God freely - chose instead to love themselves more than their Creator. Man and woman judged they can “know good and evil” apart from God’s Word and Wisdom. 
The immediate fruit of their actions was a loss of integrity; the power of intellect and will began to serve their passions, a condition similarly described by Socrates and Plato identifying evil within the human condition as being the result of innate man forgetting the “forms of the good” and through this ignorance, man's intellect and spirit irrationally serves the appetite (body). 
Thus the rational order of things is lost leading to grave forms of injustice.[16]  As a result, man and woman observed they were naked and hid in fear and shame. This fallen condition was passed on to their descendants -- genetically, socially, and spiritually.  Evil in the form of sin (to miss the mark) entered into the world. “God did not make death, and he does not delight in the death of the living…But by the envy of the adversary (devil), death entered the world, and they who are allied with him experience it.” [17] (Wisd. of Sol. 2:24)
This evil does not impact man and woman alone but material creation over which they were to have dominion. Jesus said, “The servant is not above the master.” (Matt. 1:24)  In essence, “the whole of creation groans and suffers the pains of childbirth together until now… even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our body.” (Rom. 8:22) Sacred Scripture in this manner identifies sickness, corruption, and natural upheavals as creation’s  inability to perfectly participate in the goodness of God as a result of sin. “O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? I thank God—through Jesus Christ our Lord.” (Rom.7:24-25) Sacred Scripture states that God takes the initiative and deals with this problem of evil.
God’s Responsibility and Response to the Problem of Evil
God promises a remedy to this bleak condition; one which greatly exceeds sin and its temporal consequence. A redeemer is promised. God’s responsibility and response towards the problem of evil is humbly manifested with the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. St. Paul writes: “Where sin abounds, God’s grace abounds even more.” (Rom. 5:20) God promises in and through the person of Jesus Christ a solution which greatly exceeds the original sin. “For just as through the disobedience of the one man many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of one man many will be made righteous.” (Rom. 5:19) Jesus, before ascending into heaven, made this promised to his followers: “If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to myself, so that where I am, there you may be also, I will come back and take you where I am.” (John 14:3) 
God takes on the responsibility since He is the 1st cause of all things which exist. This Christian message of redemption, sanctification, and parousia (return) of Jesus Christ enabled St. Augustine to understand: “Since God is the highest good, He would not allow any evil to exist in his own works, unless His omnipotence and goodness where such as to bring good even out of evil.”[18] This reality is a demonstration of the infinite goodness of God, that he should allow evil to exist (which does not possess power in itself), and out of it produce good (which does possess power in itself). God does exist and in the pages of Sacred Scripture, and Human History evil is shown to be limited by the God’s Providence.
God’s Providence and 
Limits Placed on Evil

“I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world."(John 16:3)
There is a limit imposed upon evil because all things fall within the providence of God. The term providence means the ordered intervention by God - who is omniscient and omnipotent - within the whole of human history. Omniscience means that all things are present within the mind of God.
 There is not a linear past, present, and future sequence of events in the mind of God; all things are present to the mind of God in a timeless manner.[19] Jesus identified this omniscience by stating the following: “Your heavenly Father knows what you need even before you ask him.” (Matt. 6:8) Omnipotence means the ability to perform all things possible.[20] With infinite power God could always create something better. But with infinite wisdom and goodness, God freely willed to a create world “in a state of journeying” towards ultimate perfection.[21] As such, nothing escapes the wisdom of God as He guides all things toward their final end, including the end of evil. 
Susie Waldstein captures this observation from within Sacred Scripture, writing, “God has created all things by his wisdom. ‘O Lord, how manifest are your works! In wisdom you have made them all.’ (Ps. 104: 24). God has ordered all things by his wisdom. ‘Against wisdom evil does not prevail. She reaches mightily from one end of the world to the other, and she orders all things well.’”[22]  (Wisd. of Sol. 7:30- 8:1)
In recent human history, the evil system of Nazism with all its progressive and materialist wisdom and military might came to an end in 12 years.[23] Socialist communism -- erected upon the similar foundations of power and cruelty --ended in 50 years. In both cases, in spite of all the horror, both divine and human goodness prevailed; instigating their demise.[24] 
Human virtues of courage, truth, goodness, mercy, and justice (forms of the good) persevered. Consider the absolute irony; both systems (Nazism and Communism) sought to end the existence of Judaism and Christianity within Europe, Russia and eventually the World. Both powers occupied the Catholic country of Poland. In spite of such intent and evil, the Jewish nation of Israel, after 2000 years, was established and a Polish pope was elected to the Chair of St. Peter in Rome. This Polish pope visited his native homeland Poland and publicly supported the Solidarity Movement which contributed to the end of Communist occupation and repression in Poland and Eastern Europe. Only the blind would miss the irony of these two events.
St. Paul, a disciple of Jesus Christ who was beaten, abused, shipwrecked, imprisoned and eventually decapitated for the Christian message knew objectively (not subjectively) through experience the providence of God in the midst of such evil. “We know God causes all things to work together for good to those who love Him.” (Rom. 8:28) 
The key was to embrace with humility the revelation of God, in Jesus Christ crucified. In Christ Jesus, the redeemed participate in God’s Divine Nature (2 Pet. 1:4) and become temples of God’s Holy Spirit (1 Cor. 6:19-20) and become sons and daughter of God by adoption. (Rom.8:14)  Within God’s providence, evil comes to an end. “Now the dwelling of God will be with men, and his will live with them. They will be his people and God will be their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes and there will be not more death, or morning or crying or pain for the old order will pass away.” (Rev. 21: 3-5)  
Conclusion
My intent was  to respond to the atheistic argument against the existence of God as a result of observed effects of evil in the world, and demonstrate by way of faith and reason the following points: 1) the atheistic argument is notionally and subjectively shaped by an incomplete form of knowledge, 2) the Christian message provides an objective alternative to the atheistic argument, 3) God responds to and takes responsibility for the problem of evil, and 4) Evil is limited by God’s providence.



BIBLIOGRAPHY

Augustine. The Confessions, Translated by E.B. Pusey. New York: The Modern Library, 1998.

Bakewell, Charles, M. Source Book in Ancient Philosophy. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1907.

Catechism of the Catholic Church 2nd Edition. Washington: United States Catholic Conference, 1997.

Dubay, Fr. Thomas, S.M. Faith and Certitude. San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 1985.

John Paul II, Encyclical Letter Fides Et Ratio of the Supreme Pontiff John Paul the II to the Bishops of the Catholic Church on the Relationship between Faith and Reason. Boston: Books & Media, 1998.

John Paul II, Memory and Identity.  New York: Rizzoli International Publications Inc., 2005.

McDermott, Timothy. Thomas Aquinas, Selected Philosophical Writings. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008.

Proclus. Selection from Elements of Theology. Translation by E.R. Dodds. London: Clarendon Paperbacks, 1992.

Ratzinger, Joseph. Principle of Catholic Theology; Building Stones for a Fundamental Theology. Translated by Sister Mary Frances McCarthy, S.N.D. San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 1987.

Schonborn, Christoph Cardinal. Chance of Purpose; Creation, Evolution and A Rational Faith. Translated by Hubert Philip Weber. San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 2007.

Spitzer, Robert, S.J. “Evidence of Creation and Supernatural Intelligence in Big-Bang Cosmology.” Gregorian Article Vol1/No.3 Benedictine College Publications. (August 2011): 5.

Walter M. Abbot, S. J. General Editor. The Documents of Vatican II. New York: Herder and Herder New York Association Press, 1966.

Waldstein, Susan. The Theological Significance of Natural Hierarchy, A Thesis Submitted to the International Theological Institute. Gaming Austria: Self Published, 2005.




[1] Timothy McDermott, Thomas Aquinas, Selected Philosophical Writings. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008), 199.
[2]  Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2124.
[3] Abbot, M Walter S. J. General Editor The Documents of Vatican II. (New York: Herder and Herder New York Association Press, 1966), 207.
[4] John Paul II, Encyclical Letter Fides Et Ratio of the Supreme Pontiff John Paul the II to the Bishops of the Catholic Church on the Relationship between Faith and Reason, (Boston: Books & Media 1998), 31.
[5]  Fr. Thomas Dubay, S.M. Faith and Certitude. (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 1985), 243. Fr. Joseph Ratzinger, Principle of Catholic Theology; Building Stones for a Fundamental Theology. Translated by Sister Mary Frances McCarthy, S.N.D. (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 1987), 153, 157.
[6]  Dubay, Faith and Certitude, 243.
[7] Christoph Cardinal Schonborn, Chance of Purpose; Creation, Evolution and A Rational Faith, Translated by Hubert Philip Weber. (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 2007), 92.
[8] Timothy McDermott, Thomas Aquinas, Selected Philosophical Writings. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008), 286.
[9] Father Robert Spitzer, S.J. Evidence of Creation and Supernatural Intelligence in Big-Bang Cosmology; (Atchison Kansas: Benedictine College Publications Gregorian Article Vol1/No.3 August 2011), 5.
[10] McDermott, Thomas Aquinas, Selected Philosophical Writings. 305.
[11] Bakewell. Source Book in Ancient Philosophy. (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1907), 69.
[12] Bakewell, Source Book in Ancient Philosophy, 225-227.
[13] Bakewell, Source Book in Ancient Philosophy, 225-227.
[14] McDermott, Thomas Aquinas, Selected Philosophical Writings, 61.
[15] Augustine. The Confessions, Translated by E.B. Pusey (New York: The Modern Library, 1998), 134-135.
[16] Bakewell, Source Book in Ancient Philosophy,173.
[17] John Paul II, Encyclical Letter Evangelium Vitae, The Gospel of Life.  (Boston: Books & Media 1998), 19.
[18] McDermott, Thomas Aquinas, Selected Philosophical Writings, 202.
[19] McDermott, Thomas Aquinas, Selected Philosophical Writings, 249, 282.
[20] McDermott, Thomas Aquinas, Selected Philosophical Writings, 249, 281.
[21] Catholic Catechism of the Catholic Church, 310.
[22] Susan Waldstein, The Theological Significance of Natural Hierarchy, A Thesis Submitted to the International Theological Institute. (Gaming Austria: Self Published, 2005), 5.
[23] John Paul II, Memory and Identity.  (New York: Rizzoli International Publications Inc. 2005), 14-15
[24] John Paul II, Memory and Identity, 14-15.

Friday, April 4, 2014

Do You Fear that Souls are Slipping into Hell? ADOPT THEM!

by Susan Fox
“Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God, for God is love.” (1John 4:7)
“My brothers and sisters, saving souls through Jesus for the Glory of God and for the love of our neighbor is the most important work we can do in this world.” (Esmeralda Kiczek in The Adoption Movement: Saving Souls)
“If anyone out of pure love of God prays for another person as though he was praying for himself, his prayer shall enlighten the heavenly Jerusalem like the morning sun.” (St. Mechtilde)
Jacinta Marto's incorrupt face
15 years after her death in 1935

On the morning after her death on Feb. 20, 1920, they found 10-year-old Jacinta Marto with the tracks of bloody tears on her face.

She had wept for her dearly loved “poor sinners,” whom she feared would end up in hell, a frightening place she’d seen in a vision shared with her brother Francisco and cousin Lucia dos Santos. This was the first secret of the 1917 apparitions of the Blessed Virgin Mary at Fatima, Portugal.

My human mother wouldn’t even let me watch “Chiller Theatre” when I was young lest I have nightmares. But our heavenly mother gave three young children a vision of hell that would change their lives forever.

“That vision only lasted for a moment, thanks to our good Heavenly Mother, who at the first apparition had promised to take us to Heaven. Without that, I think that we would have died of terror and fear," Sister Lucia said after describing the vision as an adult. Jacinta, the youngest, was only seven years old when she shared the vision with Francisco and Lucia.
Cousins: Jacinta Marto, Lucia dos Santos
 & Francisco Marto

Esmeralda Kiczek in her book,The Adoption Movement: Saving Souls, describes some of penances the children undertook afterwards for the conversions of sinners. Finding children poorer than themselves, the three cousins gave them their own lunch.

Jacinta would eat bitter acorns as a sacrifice. Lucia said to her,” Jacinta, don’t eat that; it is too bitter!” Her little cousin responded, “But it is because it is bitter that I am eating it, for the conversion of sinners.” They even gave up water to the sheep for the salvation of sinners on an afternoon when the three were desperately thirsty.

“I have a fire in my chest but it doesn’t burn me,” Jacinta said concerning her love for Our Lord, Our Lady and her neighbor.   

She predicted her own death, saying she would die alone in a hospital. She did -- after suffering through a painful surgery removing two ribs without general anesthesia. But she kept her eye on the ball: she planned that this suffering would convert many sinners.

Then when she asked for the last sacraments and the Holy Eucharist, telling the hospital chaplain she was dying that night, he didn’t believe her. So he effectively left her to die without the comfort of the Church because when he returned the next day she was already dead -- a little lamb who offered everything so that souls would be able to accompany her to heaven. No one goes to heaven alone. We would not be able to count the people Jacinta will take with her before the end of time.

What a joy to have author Esmeralda Kiczek with her little book, The Adoption Movement, remind us of the fire that Jesus so greatly desired to be enkindled in the world – the fire of love in which no one suffers the pains of hell because of the charity of their brothers and sisters.  “For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but received the Spirit of adoption, through which we cry, ‘Abba, Father!’ The Spirit itself bears witness with our spirit that we are the children of God.” (Romans 8:14-16)

The author recommends that we Christians adopt a person, pray for them and make little sacrifices on their behalf so that we can satisfy the dying thirst of Our Lord Jesus Christ on the cross.  Both St. Theresa of Lisieux and Mother Teresa of Calcutta interpreted Christ’s cry for water on the cross to mean, “Bring Me souls!”
 
St. Theresa of Lisieux
“From that day, the cry of my dying Savior  -- “I thirst!” sounded incessantly in my heart, and kindled therein, a burning zeal hitherto unknown to me. My one desire was to give my Beloved to drink; I felt myself consumed with thirst for souls, and I longed at any cost to snatch sinners from the everlasting flames of hell,” wrote St. Theresa in her autobiography, The Story of a Soul.

About this time she heard of an impenitent murderer named Pranzini who was sentenced to death. Everyone feared he would be eternally lost. St. Theresa began to offer the infinite merits of Jesus Christ and the hidden treasures of Holy Church on Pranzini’s behalf, knowing that her own efforts were futile. And since this was to be her first “child,” she asked Jesus for a sign of repentance to reassure her of Pranzini’s salvation.

The day after his execution, Theresa opened the newspapers: Pranzini had mounted the scaffold without confessing his sins when all at once he turned around, seized the crucifix and kissed the wounds of Christ three times.

“I had obtained the sign I asked for, and to me it was especially sweet. Was it not when I saw the Precious Blood flowing from the Wounds of Jesus that the thirst for souls first took possession of me? I wished to give them to drink of the Blood of the Immaculate Lamb that it might wash away their stains, and the lips of ‘my first born’ had been pressed to these Divine Wounds. What a wonderful answer,” St. Theresa wrote.

Our Lord told St. Faustina, “I thirst. I thirst for the salvation of souls. Help me, my daughter, to save souls. Join your sufferings to My Passion and offer them to the heavenly Father for sinners.” (Diary of St. Faustina 1032)

Now we are in an age where atheists troll the Internet accusing Christians of worshiping a murderous god who sends people to eternal torture and punishment. I always say, “What god are you talking about? Mine suffered cruel torment and death to prevent you from going to hell!”

The atheists got it backwards. God sends no one to hell. People choose it. The Adoption Movement is about saving people from their own choices. God is a Gentleman. If you do not want Him, He lets you alone. Ergo, hell. Hell is the absence of God.

A priest friend of mine was given the opportunity by God to pull one of those poor sinners out of hell and drag him into heaven. The soul went kicking and screaming and fought viciously to return to hell. Finally, the priest gave up and let him return. Hell is a choice.


I first realized the power of this form of intercessory prayer when I went through a retreat on  The Healing of Families: How to Pray Effectively for Those Stubborn Personal and Familial Problems  taught by Fr. Yozefu-B Ssemakula.   Whole families can suffer mental and health problems or inordinate temptations because an ancestor gave the evil one permission to join the family. Fr. Joe (as we called Fr. Yozefu-B) showed us how to take satan out of our lives by simply removing his permission to be there.

But Father Joe assured us the removal of the curse only affected those who were closely related by blood. Well, this frustrated me beyond belief because I passionately wanted to help absolute strangers as well as close relatives.

So I was driving to the doctor one day, and I saw a lonely looking young man with his skateboard on the street corner. And I passionately turned to God, and asked Him how I could pray for this young man. And God said, “Isn’t he your brother?”

“Yes! That is the answer!” I immediately adopted the young man as my brother! And then when I pray the prayer Fr. Joe taught us, sending the evil one to the foot of the cross, he leaves my brother alone too!

So here was my proof. I saw another young man cleaning vegetables at Whole Foods, and he had an unhappy expression on his face. With deep passion, I adopted him silently in my heart, and begged God to give him a better job and a wife who would be faithful to him for life. (He looked like he needed one, but couldn’t afford one.)

The young man looked up and asked me if he could help me. And I modestly said, “Well, I was looking for some potted basil.” And then he was off! He went all over the store looking for potted basil in a manner I would never expect from a complete stranger working in a grocery store. There wasn’t any. But that was okay because I was able to say to him. “I’ll buy the packaged basil instead. And God bless you!” The whole encounter, while quite ordinary, made us both happy – he in an effort to serve, and me in praying for him.  

“The Adoption Movement involves the spiritual adoption of anyone who touches your heart as your brother or sister,” Mrs. Kiczek said. Founder of The End of Abortion Movement, she and her family spearheaded two successful pro-life Twitter Storms using the hashtag #PraytoEndAbortion. “All you have to do is pray the adoption prayer (see below) and solemnly promise Our Lord Jesus Christ to pray and make sacrifices for your new spiritually adopted brothers or sisters for the rest of your life.”

Don’t be deterred from this apostolate because you fear suffering. Mrs Kiczek gives several simple examples of what you can offer up, including headaches and pains -- emotional, spiritual and physical.

One can also give up dessert or just take a smaller portion. Smile when you want to frown, kneel when you want to sit, and love when you don’t feel like it.
 
St. Faustina Kowalska
I like the story of St. Faustina’s fasts. Her confessor forbade her from her usual penances because she was ill. So she was taking stiches on her embroidery and she asked Jesus to give her one soul for each stich. She reminded Him she was unable to do any more strenuous penance for the time being.

I love to offer up St. Faustina’s stiches because I didn’t even have to do the embroidery! But you could also offer up St. Anthony’s sermons, or St. Paul’s incarceration. The saints have buried treasure in the Church in the form of their sufferings and good works. Use them!
Jacinta & Francisco Marto

Don’t miss out on the benefits of Jacinta’s sacrifices. Her humiliations did not end with her death!  In 1937, Pope Pius XI would not accept causes for canonization of minors because he thought they could not fully understand heroic virtue or practice it repeatedly.  For the next four decades, no sainthood processes for children were pursued. Finally, Jacinta was declared venerable after a general assembly of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints decided, "in some supernatural way, some children could be spiritual prodigies." And in 2000, she and Francisco – sister and brother -- were declared blessed.
Jacinta's body gave off the
aroma of flowers
 even three days after her death 

Her casket was opened in 1935 and 1951 and both times Jacinta’s face was found to be incorrupt. Jacinta is the youngest non-martyred child ever to be beatified. Jacinta witnessed the reality  of hell. As a result, her path of salvation lay in adopting other people and making sacrifices for them. “Remember this: whoever brings back a sinner from the error of his way will save his (own) soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins. (James 5:20)

But the greatest spiritual adoption of all time occurred at the crucifixion of Jesus Christ, according to Mrs. Kiczek. Hanging from the cross in His last moments of life on this earth, Jesus addressed His Mother, and said, “This is your son,” referring to the Beloved Apostle John. In that moment, John stood in the place of all mankind. And to John, Jesus said, “This is your Mother.”

On Good Friday, Mary became the Mother of the Human Race. She embraced us all as her children, even the Roman Centurion who had just crucified her Son. Welcome Mary into your life as your mother, and this spiritual childhood will bear great fruit.

Blessed Jacinta attested to this. At the age of 10 just before her death, she counseled Lucia, “Soon I shall go to Heaven. You are to stay here to reveal that the Lord wants to establish throughout the world the devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. Tell everyone that Our Lord grants us all graces through the Immaculate Heart of Mary. Tell them that they should all ask for peace from the Immaculate Heart of Mary, as God has placed it in Her hands. Oh, if I could only put in the heart of everyone in the world the fire that is burning in me and makes me love so much the Heart of Jesus and the Heart of Mary.”
Francisco, Lucia and Jacinta before the
Immaculate Heart of Mary
There is so much more in the book. 
Order The Adoption Movement  here. 


ADOPTION  PRAYER
In the Name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Come Holy Ghost, Creator Blest, And in our hearts take up Thy rest; Come with Thy grace and heav'nly aid To fill the hearts which Thou hast made,To fill the hearts which Thou hast made.
O Comfort Blest to Thee we cry, Thou heav'nly Gift of God most high; Thou fount of life and fire of love,  And sweet anointing from above, And sweet anointing from above.

Saint Michael the Archangel, defend us in battle. Be our defense against the wickedness and snares of the devil. May God rebuke him, we humbly pray; and do Thou, O Prince of the Heavenly Host - by the Power of God thrust into hell, satan and all the evil spirits, who prowl about the world seeking the ruin of souls. Amen.

My sweet Jesus, my God and my Savior, I solemnly adopt (Name of Adoptee(s)) as my spiritual brother/sister and promise to pray and make sacrifices for the rest of my life and into eternity for him/her and all my adopted brothers and sisters.
O Jesus, who has said, “Ask and you shall receive, seek and you shall find, knock and it will be opened to you,” Behold I ask, I seek, and I knock for that faith that obtains all and for the healing, conversion, and salvation of all my adopted brothers and sisters.

In the name of Jesus, I cast out all evil spirits that are hindering the healing, conversion, and salvation of my adoptee(s) to go directly to the foot of the cross bound in Jesus’ hands without doing any harm to me or my family, to be sent by Him to the deepest recesses of hell. Never to come back, never to come back, never to come back.
 (Three times)

Oh! Most Holy Trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, 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 is offended. By the infinite merits of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart of Mary, I beg the conversion of poor sinners, especially my adopted brothers and sisters. Amen.
Most merciful Jesus, you revealed to Saint Faustina that whoever calls upon your mercy on behalf of a poor sinner and said this prayer with a contrite heart and faith will be given the grace of his/her conversion. Behold I now pray with confidence in your mercy for my adoptee(s) “O Blood and Water which gushed forth from the Heart of Jesus as a fountain of mercy for us I trust in You.”

Dear St. Joseph I ask you to please adopt me, my family, and my adoptee(s) as your sons and daughters forever.
Sweet Virgin Mary as you adopted the Beloved Disciple at the foot of the cross, I ask you to adopt me, my family, and my adoptee(s) as your beloved sons and daughters forever.
Divino Nino, raise your Holy Arms for us and bless us.
Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, I love you, save souls.
Jesus, my God and my All, I trust in you and I will sing your praises forever and ever. Amen.


Saturday, March 29, 2014

A FAIRY TALE OF CATEGORICAL PROPORTIONS

MARCH 29th 2014 – NEWS FLASHES from Around the World

by Ace Reporter Lawrence Fox

Waiting to Meet with the Pope

POTUS and "Mr. Francis"
U.S. President Barack Obama -- while waiting to meet with Mr. Francis, the Bishop of Rome on March 27-- mused to himself the following (This is not a selfie portrait. It is a selfie conversation):
  • That book on the Theology of the Body by Mr. John Paul II was so contorted. I mean the idea that God instituted marriage between a man and a woman as a reflection of God’s wisdom and inner divine diversity, total expression of self-giving, and complimentary fecundity is way too religious to grasp. 
  • I could not find anywhere in that book the more accessible and non-integrative appetitive concepts such as class struggle, equal pay for doing nothing, excrement(al) pleasures, or undifferentiated cells emerging from nowhere in a woman’s body. I wonder how that happens to such poor women? 
  • What is it about the Bishops of Rome talking about the recovery of Faith and Reason, and putting on the Mind of Christ? Would it not be easier to admit -- like most American Catholic and Democratic politicians -- that there is no truth, only power and envy as means of achieving political ends?
  • Did not American Catholic prelates provide a Catholic funeral for a man who fiercely supported abortion on demand? I am speaking, of course, about Most Blessed Ted Kennedy. Yes, I canonized him by Executive Order #23453.
  • What was that last book I received from Mr. Benedict XVI, Bishop of Rome? Oh yes, something to do with ethics. I know about Catholic ethics.  I was invited to speak about Catholic ethics and receive an award from Notre Dame University. I told them that faith fundamentally is doubt and that the populace in power determines ethics, while the role of religion is to pay (I mean pray) for the advancement of dead fetal colored people.  I finally closed the evening exclaiming that “IAM” from the great state of Kenya. 

Democratic Party Ponzi Scheme

Distressed Youth in the Movie "Hunger Games"
The White House needs Hollywood’s help to place subliminal messages in movie sequels to the Hunger Games. The White House would like the sequel to show youth – after enduring great pain – stopping and begging Social Leaders to let them go on-line and sign up for ObamaCare. 

The Democratic Party advocated the prevention of conception and the abortion of children for how many years? It is even enshrined in their Party Platform. And now after 40 years and 57 million dead babies, the same party needs young people to bail them out of the Obama Care Ponzi Scheme. The only way it works is to have more young people paying in than old people taking out. Of course, that is how all entitlement programs work but for more than 40 years, the DNC, Planned Parenthood and Hollywood have been pushing the unbridled decimation of the unborn. 

But today in a gesture of good will to the youth who survived the epitome of subjective self-will, the administration wants their healthy young bodies to participate in the scam of all scams.

And so the Kingpin of Lie and Doubt wants Hollywood to spin the next social disaster: a unified medical policy that is geared to the functional. The non-functional will soon enough be forced into becoming the ingredients for Soylent Green. Such is the name of a 1973 American science fiction film set in a future overpopulated world in which people survive on a food source called Soylent Green. In the end, shocked investigators find out that “Soylent Green is people!”

Leading a Nation One Hair Cut at a Time

North Korean Dictator Kim Jong-un flaunts a new haircut and decree requiring all men cut their hair exactly in the same style as Kim Jong-un. In short, he demands emulation. His newly landscaped cranium began one morning in March. His pestilent palace was heavy laden under a morning mist -- the result of several nearby missiles launched towards the country of Japan.  

All things considered, TODAY was going to be a great day in the land north of the mongrel population located in the southern portion of the Korean peninsula, the Dictator thought.  In due form, he explains the events to reporters who inspirited the story with hairy results.

Kim Jong-un proceeded to deliver the following monologue:
  •  After I get up and look in mirror…No, wait! I do not get up. I have three slaves pick me up out of bed and stand me before mirror in pink pestilent room. I look in mirror and say, “Mirror, mirror on the bamboo wall, who has best haircut of them all?”
  •  I hear mirror say, “Obama has best haircut in the world.”
  •     I get sooo mad at mirror and tell slaves to break damn ting.
  • I fall down after they let me go. No get injured, but I find out mirror made in China.
  • Very bad omen for North Korean leader to break precious Chinese mirror, especially during the Year of the Camel Cigarette.
  • Slaves carry in and hang up new mirror – a gift from Iran -- with etching showing missiles pointing straight up President Obama’s @$$.
  • Vice President Biden does not know that primitive warheads now sit on missiles sent to Iran from northern pestilent palace.
  • Slaves pick me up and I get wonderful idea to rectify situation. I cut my hair both sides with right hand like Bruce Lee … “chop, chop” and now, I have best haircut.
  • I ask mirror again, “Mirror, mirror on the bamboo wall, who has best haircut of them all?”
  • Mirror very smart, sees broken pieces of reflective cousin on floor and then answers, “You, looking in the mirror, have best haircut in the world.”
  • I am most proud of mirror and my haircut. I then notice three other reflections in the mirror with me.
  • How did slaves get into mirror with me? To remedy the situation, I eat Chavez-cooked burritos and smoke Camel Cigarette. Then I have three slaves killed.