The Message of Hope

The Apostolatefor Family Consecration headquartered in Bloomindale, OH is a lay apostolate dedicated to the renewal of the Church and the world through the renewal of the family. It’s a fruit of the apparitions at Fatima and the Marian spirituality of Blessed Pope John Paul II with the goal of consecrating as many families as possible to Jesus, through Mary, in union with St. Joseph. They have an audacious Message of Hope that derives from a peace plan given by Our Lady.




Setting the Stage:
One truth accepted by most everyone is that people desire happiness, and not only happiness, but lasting happiness. Everyone knows the situation of being unhappy in the midst of outward abundance. Many ask, “Why is there so much unhappiness”, “Why am I unhappy?”, “When I feel happy, why doesn’t it last? Either we seek a solution to our unhappiness or we begin to despair. A question then becomes, are we seeking a corrective solution to our unhappiness or an interim/adaptive solution, and do we know the difference?

INTERESTING SIDE NOTE: One night, in my late teens, a friend of mine showed up at our house in a very happy mood; turns out he was a wee bit drunk. He asked me, “Why can’t I feel this way all the time?” I had no answer back then, but it was first time I ever contemplated “lasting happiness”.

The Message of Hope outlines a specific 4-point plan for lasting happiness and world peace.

Point #1:
STOP SINNING!!! God is already too much offended! The first thing to understand is what the problem is. The problem is sin. Sin is the cause of unhappiness. We are prideful and distrust God. Since we distrust God, disobedience naturally follows.

INTERESTING SIDE NOTE: Sin can be thought of as taking some guilty pleasure.
Q: What would be the precise opposite of taking guilty pleasure?
A: Giving – Innocent – Suffering
Who does that remind you of?

Point #2:
God’s Grace is the solution. Men seek power, possessions and pleasure as temporal (or temporary) solutions to unhappiness. God’s Grace is an eternal and simple solution to the problem of sin.

INTERESTING SIDE NOTE: The solution is truly simple; think of weight loss. If you burn more calories than you take in, you will lose weight; VERY simple. What could be simpler? But how difficult it is to lose weight with our natural tendency towards fatty food, our bad habits, hunger pains and the “culture of food” we live in? So it is with sin and we need God’s Grace to overcome it.

Points 1 and 2 can be expressed in some troubleshooting language we use where I work. When taking some action on a problem, we must ascertain if we are taking action on the cause or an effect of the problem.

Ø  Action on the cause is called corrective action; it eliminates the cause.

Ø  Action on the effect is called interim or adaptive action; it limits the effect.

Example:

Ø  Problem: I have a cold

Ø  Cause: Virus

Ø  Effect: Runny nose (among other things)

v  Corrective Acton: kill virus

v  Interim or Adaptive Action: blow your nose

A troubleshooting triangle for the problem of sin looks like this:

Point #3:
We are called to holiness. How can the world receive this Grace which is also our solution? It can come through everyday people in the world. We are all called to strive for holiness. This is beyond the secular moral advice of “just be nice”. It is also more than a general adherence to the 10 commandments. It is the narrow path. It is a call to be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect (Mat 5:48 & Lev 19:2). If you think I’m OK and your OK, just read what comes after the beatitudes for a terrifying examination of conscience (Mat 5:21-48). But what practical steps can an imperfect person hope to take to ever be “holy”?

Ø  Formation: Study your faith!!! Read Two Catholic Men and a Blog.

You will NOT love a God you do not know, and you will NOT serve a God you do not love.

Ø  Sacraments: Frequent confession and reception of the Eucharist. Sin blocks God’s Grace. Even small sins begin to block the pipes through which Grace flows. Confession clears the pipes for an unhindered flow of Grace. You will receive more Grace at your next communion after confession, which will in turn allow you to make a better confession next time, which makes a better communion, which makes a better confession, and on and on. It’s an upward spiral to holiness.

Ø  Works: This is reaching out to others, evangelizing, teaching & helping. Scripture is clear; faith without works is dead (James 2:26).

Ø  Prayer: Simply put, prayer is directing one’s life toward God. Our Lady asks us to pray the Rosary daily as a way to do this.

INTERESTING SIDE NOTE: This is nothing new. The early Christians were doing the four things listed above (Acts 2:42-47). Also, check out the four main sections of the Catechism of the Catholic Church and see how well they match.

Point #4
Consecration to Jesus through Mary. To be consecrated means to be “set apart” for a holy purpose, but why be consecrated through Mary? Prayerfully consider the following…

Ø  Mary is “full of Grace” (Luke 1:28). If the solution to our problem is Grace and Mary is full of Grace, we can deduce that Mary would be most helpful in solving our problem.

Ø  Mary’s soul magnifies the Lord (Luke 1:46). Think of a magnifying glass placed in the sun. What happens? The rays of the sun that go through the glass are concentrated and the heat & light is greatly magnified. How many ants discover this at the hands of mischievous little boys? Mary acts as the “magnifier” of God’s Grace and, once again, God’s grace is our solution. Magnifiers also work both ways. Mary will magnify our feeble efforts before God as well, if we go through her.

Ø  Jesus went through Mary as the way to reach Man. Man can go through Mary as the way to reach Jesus. The God of the universe entrusted himself to the care of Mary and Joseph. Why can’t we? What examples can you find where God can trust someone that we cannot?

TRUST

Ø  Mary is the new Ark of the Covenant. Maybe someday we’ll have a separate post on the many ways the ark in the Old Testament foreshadows Mary in the New Testament, but for now, we’ll look at one way which relates to a kind of battle plan for world peace.

In coming to the promise land, the ancient Israelites were told by God to conquer the walled city of Jericho. How was this done? What was the divine battle plan? They were told by God to simply march around the city in silence for seven days with the ark. On the seventh day they were to blow their trumpets, shout aloud, and the walls would fall… that’s it. This required an audacious hope in God and the walls of Jericho did indeed fall. God wanted them to use the ark; this foreshadows how God wants us to use today’s new ark (Mary) to win world peace.

“Jericho-type” events involving Mary as the new Ark of the Covenant:

Ø  In 1984 Pope JP2 consecrated the world to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. Within seven years the Berlin wall fell, the iron curtain collapsed, the Soviet Union dissolved and on Dec 25 1991, the Christian Russian flag was raised above the Kremlin. Not a single shot was fired!

Ø  On October 31 1942, Pope Pius XII entrusted the world to the Immaculate Heart of Mary during WWII. From then on, Hitler’s army’s began suffering a series of crushing defeats on liturgical feast days.

v  Victory at Stalingrad: Feb 2, 1943 – Feast of the Presentation

v  Sicily taken: August 15, 1943 – Feast of the Assumption

v  Italy to the Allied side: September 8, 1943 – Feast of Mary’s birth

v  Allies land at Toulon: August 15, 1944 – Feast of the Assumption

v  Japan’s initial surrender ending WWII: August 15, 1945 – Feast of the Assumption (formal surrender was September 2)

What’s so special about Fatima? The Miracle of the Sun:

Ø  The Miracle of the Sun on October 13, 1917 was the greatest public miracle since the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Ø  It was foretold to happen at a specific time and place.

Ø  There were 70,000 eye witnesses.

Ø  It was documented by an atheistic press. The government in Portugal in 1917 was communist and the press was sent to show the world how nothing would happen, and how stupid the people were that stood there in the pouring rain waiting for a miracle. After the events, members of the atheistic press were among the eye witnesses.

Ø  As in the Bible, miracles are meant to get our attention and always point to a greater message. Cardinal Mario Luigi Ciappi, papal theologian for five popes, concludes that The Miracle of the Sun points to a most significant message from heaven for our time.

INTERESTING SIDE NOTE:

Mary warned in 1917 that if people continued to offend God, a war would come even worse than WWI which was already raging, and it would be preceded by “a night of unknown light”. On January 25-26, 1938 a remarkable display of light, like an aurora borealis, was visible across all of Europe and the eastern part of the United Sates.

The night of unknown light was witnessed by Adolf Hitler. Part of The Message of Hope shows an interview with Hans Dieter, Hitler’s’ personal Assistant at the time. He describes Hitler’s crazed reaction to the lights and quotes him as saying, “It means blood, blood, blood and again blood! Destruction and terrible suffering! Blood and again blood! If it has to be, then let it be now!”; soon after he started WWII. (Austria annexed into the German Third Reich March 12, 1938).

Few heeded the message in 1917 and the result was “blood and again blood”, but the Message of Hope remains. If enough people follow the 4-point plan, enough Grace will flow into the world to usher in an era of peace.
It’s not too late. The efforts of a consecrated few will offset the sins of the many

The entire Message of Hope video given by Michael O’Rourke, member of the Apostolate for Family Consecration, can be viewed HERE. Scroll down to "(3) Message of Hope video".

A World Class Spiritual Vacation

What are you saying?!?!

A Catholic family planning a summer vacation may wonder where to go to Mass or what shrine they could visit while gone. What if your whole family vacation was something spiritual? What if you could vacation in a kingdom of sorts, but NOT a certain Magic Kingdom that may come to mind?

It’s been said that a main theme of all the teachings of Jesus is the proclamation of the Kingdom of Heaven. The Kingdom is where the King is. Jesus came to Earth to touch us, heal us and save us. The Church continues His work today in His kingdom on Earth, through graces and the sacramental life.

But what might the loyal subjects in the kingdom be like or act like. I suspect they would be EXACTLY like what you’d find at a Holy Family Fest at Catholic Familyland in Bloomingdale, OH, which is part of the Apostolate for Family Consecration. A family “camping” vacation with swimming, hiking, horseback riding, etc, but also inclusive with:

Ø  Mass available each morning in a huge auditorium with jumbo-tron screens no less!

Ø  Inspiring and encouraging talks by professional speakers after Mass for adults while the kids are out doing age appropriate activities.

Ø  EVERYTHING stops at 3pm for the Chaplet of Divine Mercy. Those swimming at the pool need to stop and sit on the edge. Even the St. John the Baptist water slide shuts down!

Ø Rosary every evening at 7pm.

Ø Eucharist adoration made regularly available.

Ø  Outdoor confessions available all afternoon at Holy Family Park. Several priests sit under shady umbrellas hearing confessions for hours.

The Apostolate is dedicated to the renewal of the Church and the world through the renewal of the family. It’s a fruit of the apparitions at Fatima in 1917 and the Marian spirituality of Blessed Pope John Paul II with the goal of consecrating as many families as possible to Jesus, through Mary, in union with St. Joseph.

Yay for World Peace!

They have an audacious message of hope that is a formula for what every beauty pageant contestant seems to want,…World Peace. I’ll share my notes from this “message of hope” in my next post which elaborates about a specific problem and specific solution based on the message of Fatima. For now, I wanted to let Catholics know about this holy place.

An interesting thing happened too…
Our family was there for the June Fest. As about 500 people gathered to pray the rosary in front of a large bonfire one evening, ominous rain clouds began to gather with us. The priest leading the rosary over a PA system asked the Queen of Heaven to command her angels to hold back the rain so we could offer our beautiful evening Rosary. The clouds kept coming as we began to pray. The priest paused after the first decade, and once again asked Mary to send her angels to hold back the rain. Now small drops of rain began to fall. During the second decade the rain slowly intensified.

At this point it was decided to continue the rosary under a very large pavilion not too far away. Once we were safely under roof, the rain came down much harder. The end of the rosary completed the day’s activities and we headed back to our cottage as the rain began to slow down. Ironically, the rain did eventually stop and the sky completely cleared, but only AFTER we finished the rosary and NOT BEFORE as we had requested of Our Lady.

Shortly after we arrived at the cottage, the sky began to clear and a stunning double rainbow appeared (and there was much rejoicing). The dominant one was a full rainbow and may have been the brightest I’ve ever seen. The photos below are pale in comparison to the live view. You’ll need to imagine the center of the rainbow of course; the camera could not zoom out enough.

I saw the rainbow as a reminder from Mary to always persevere in our prayer because God wins in the end. We tend to cease praising God or are deterred in prayer because we are not answered in the way we requested. The rainbow was a reminder to me not to link our prayers to our own selfishness.

Professor Ratzinger on Modern Physics

WARNING: I about fell out of my chair when I read this. Please be seated with seat belts fastened before reading.

This is the final post in a series paying tribute to Pope B16 seven years on. Below sums-up several pages of Introduction to Christianity, Part I, Chapter V, Belief in the Triune God.

Faith consists of a series of contradictions held together by grace. This expresses, in the realm of theology, a discovery that relates to the law of complementarities in physics. Here we meet the play between faith and modern thought.

The physicist is becoming increasingly aware that we cannot embrace given realities – like the structure of light or matter – in one form. From different sides we glimpse different aspects which cannot be traced back to each other. Only by circling round, by looking from different, apparently contrary angles can we allude to the truth, which is never visible to us in its totality.

E.Schrodinger promoted the structure of matter as "wave alone", thereby hitting on the idea of being that has no substance, but is purely actual, whose apparent “substantiality” is only from the pattern of movement from superimposed waves. This is an exciting allegory for God subsisting in a multitude of relations, which are not substances, but “waves” which form a perfect unity and fullness of being. This is already formulated for all intents and purposes in St. Augustine, when he develops the idea of the pure act–existence (particle–wave).

We know today that in a physical experiment, the observer enters into the experiment. Only by doing so can he arrive at a physical experience. This means that there is no pure objectivity in physics, and that even here, the result of the experiment (natures answer) depends on the question put to it.

He who tries to be a mere observer experiences nothing. Even the reality of God can only impinge on the vision of him who enters the faith experiment with God. Only by entering does one experience; only by cooperating in the experiment does one ask at all; …..and only he who asks shall receive.

“The scientist has scaled the mountains of ignorance; he is about to conquer the highest peak; as he pulls himself over the final rock, he is greeted by a band of theologians who have been sitting there for centuries.”

Robert Jastrow- Former leading NASA scientist.

It's a little slow, but science

finally seems to be catching-up to Catholicism.

Professor Ratzinger on "Hell"

WARNING: This post is “dark”, but darkness can be a kind of light if it helps you to see.

Below deals with the article of faith “He descended into hell” (Good Friday/Holy Saturday), being without God and the pain in the verse “My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?” It’s probably the best description of hell I’ve ever heard, not that I’ve heard many speak of it in detail.

Summarizing several pages from Joseph Ratzinger’s book Introduction to Christianity, in Part II, The Development of Faith in Christ in the Christological Articles of the Creed:

Loneliness is a region of fear, which is rooted in the exposure of a being that must exist, but is pushed out into a situation with which it is impossible for him to deal. In the experience of utter loneliness, a fear arises peculiar to man which is not fear of anything particular, but simply fear in itself. Man cannot overcome this kind of fear by way of reason.

Ø  Example 1:

A child walking alone in the dark woods is frightened even if convincingly shown that there is nothing to be afraid of. The child will lose this fear the moment there is a loving hand to take him and he experiences the fellowship of “Another”.

Ø  Example 2:

Someone keeping watch over a corpse will feel somehow “eerie” even when he knows perfectly well the dead body can do him no harm. In fact, there would be more possibility of danger if the person was alive, but logic is of no help. This fear will also recede like the child’s if he experiences the loving nearness of a “You”.

Man cannot stand alone; he needs closeness; he needs unity.  If man (and this is the true nature of sin) refuses to recognize his own limits and tries to “be like God”, standing alone on his own two feet, then precisely by adopting this attitude he delivers himself up to death. Scripture about the connection between sin and death is to be understood from this angle. Small wonder the devil wants us prideful. Pride naturally leads to isolation from God (and others), which will lead to a torment of anxiety. It’s the exact opposite of the life of the Trinity.

If a state of isolation were to arise that was so deep that no “You” could reach into it anymore, then we should have a total and terrifying loneliness; this is what theology calls “Hell”….. a loneliness which is as inescapable as it is dreadful!

Is it hot in here, or is it just me?

Sacraments Map II

The feast of Corpus Christi had me thinking about sacraments again. Months ago I did a post called Sacraments Map that showed how the sacramental life parallels our earthly life. I was a little “off” about Confirmation, which is rather sad since I teach a confirmation class, so I decide to correct it and re-post the whole thing after stumbling across something on The Pulpit. Msgr. Charles Pope helped me on his blog to understand the sacrament of Confirmation better in terms of “growth” as opposed to “adulthood”.

Catholics believe that the physical world is good, although flawed, and God becoming man somehow elevates it to a new level; for not only had God created it, He also dwelled in it.

Stop and think about Catholicism and the use of physical things from incense for smell, art for the eyes, music for the ears, motion for the body (kneeling, genuflecting, crossing ourselves, etc.). Sacraments take this even further with the required use of corporal things like bread, wine, water, oil, touch, garments, physical speech. Catholics understand how the physical relates to the spiritual and vise-versa, and how reality encompasses both. This is mirrored in the sacraments and can even be expressed as a kind of map that parallels our earthly life. God is Emmanuel, truly “with us”, all the year and all our life through the sanctifying grace of the sacraments.

Baptism:

Just as we are born into physical life we are born again into the spiritual life of Christ in baptism. By the way, if you are a baptized Catholic and someone were to ask you “Are you born again?” The answer is unequivocally “Yes”. Although we can sin afterwards, Catholics are “born again” at baptism. This is the reality.

Confirmation:

We experience growth in our physical life. In the United States we are given more “power” and responsibility as we grow, like the right to vote at age 18. This happens regardless of how we feel about it or how mature we may think we are. Confirmation begins a process of maturation and strengthening and is considered a completion of baptism. We experience growth to go forth and preach the good news and we have the responsibility to do so, whether we like it or not; whether we think we are mature enough or not.

Sacraments of Vocation (Marriage, Holy Orders):

As we grow and mature we discern some duty within society; some type of job/career or perhaps raising a family. In the spiritual life there are vocations and certain sacraments to help us advance the Kingdom of God.

Eucharist:

As we live, we continuously need physical sustenance (food/water) for our physical journey. Jesus gave himself as our spiritual food; our daily bread (body/blood) for our spiritual journey.

Reconciliation:

As we go through life we experience sickness and injury which require healing. Many never experience serious injury or disease, but no one gets through life without the slightest sniffle, cough, bruise or cut. With no healing it gets worse and worse to the point of death. What these things do to the body, sin does to the soul, thus the need for spiritual healing.

After all, we can injure our own flesh whenever we want, but to heal it we look for a doctor who has skill, training & medical authority. In the same way we are perfectly able to sin and injure our soul, but to heal it we seek the help of “another”, a spiritual doctor.

Anointing of the sick:

Our physical life eventually comes to an end, and so there is a sacrament for this as well. Although the anointing of the sick is not always administered just before death, it should be received at some point before we die.

This sketchy outline of the sacraments is very simple (almost pathetic). But like so much in this blog, what is here is only a beginning; we have the rest of our lives to draw out Truth from an inexhaustible well.

Click on the mini-map below for a larger PDF version of The Sacraments Map

Same-Sex Marriage – What's it to you anyway?

Questions that come up in the same-sex marriage (SSM) debate are, “What’s it to you anyway? Why not let them marry? How does it affect opposite-sex marriage (OSM)?” I think the questions themselves show a misunderstanding of the concern. Some troubleshooting logic we use at work may help us to understand better.

When taking some action on an issue, we must try to ascertain if we are taking action on the cause of a problem or an effect of a problem.

Ø Action on the cause is called corrective action; it intends to eliminate the cause
Ø Action on the effect is called interim or adaptive action; it intends to limit the effect.

 

Example 1:

Ø Problem: I have a cold

Ø Cause: a virus

Ø Effect: runny nose (among other things)

v Corrective Acton: kill virus

v Interim or Adaptive Action: blow your nose

We have a problem of sexual sin in our world. The cause of this problem is sexual confusion; by “confusion” I mean not understanding, not knowing, or ignoring the true purpose of sex. A sexual relationship is meant to be something unitive, procreative, mutually exclusive and permanent and none of these aspects can be intentionally separated. It only makes sense in the context of OSM. The Effects of sexual sin are:

Ø  Unwanted pregnancies

Ø  Abortion

Ø  Divorce

Ø  Increased poverty

Ø  Sex addiction

Ø  Child molestation

Ø  Disease (STD’s)

Ø  An unknowable amount of emotional pain

Ø  Probably others I’m forgetting.

This list affects all of us. We do not live in a vacuum. As JP2 has said, there are no private sins.

Example 2:

Ø  Problem: sexual sin

Ø  Cause: sexual confusion

Ø  Effect: STD’s (among other things)

v  Corrective Acton: educate/evangelize

v  Interim or Adaptive Action: medicine/vaccination

I suggest that legalizing SSM is just another effect of the problem, not a cause. Political action defending true marriage is good, but we should be aware that this is addressing more an effect than the cause.

So back to the questions of, “What’s it to you? Why not let them marry? How does it affect OSM?” The government is a kind of teacher with great influence. Public institutions shape our ideas and ideas have consequences. In legalizing SSM, governments are “teaching” society that marriage and procreation are not inexorably linked. This further extends the cause of the problem and thus accentuates its effects. Removing the rational basis for a norm will erode adherence to that norm.

Additionally, if SSM becomes the law-of-the-land, those that defend true marriage (like the Catholic Church) would be seen more and more as a “bigots” that make groundless distinctions. This would logically bring more persecution.

No fault divorce, artificial contraception and legalizing abortion were supposed to make things better for society, make people happier, build stronger marriages, and reduce poverty & STD’s. The data shows the exact opposite. As we s-l-o-w-l-y accept the changes, we are like frogs in water being s-l-o-w-l-y boiled to death, just a few degrees at a time. Legalizing SSM is the next temperature increment we face.

Hey Frog, what's it to ya?

Professor Ratzinger's Law of Disguise

Continuing a tribute to B16 seven years on, here is another insight inspired by Professor Ratzinger in his book Introduction to Christianity, Part II, Excursus: Christian Structures.

The law of disguise relates to the idea of Christian paradox expressed in an interesting way. The Alpha of the universe appears as the Omega; the last letter in the alphabet of creation.

Ø  First there is the Earth, a mere nothing in the cosmos, which was to be the point of divine activity.

The Earth

Ø  Then comes Israel, a cipher among the powers of the world which was to be the point of His appearance in the world.

Ancient Israel

Ø  Then Nazareth, again a cipher within Israel, which was to be the point of His definitive arrival.

Nazareth

Ø  Then the Cross on which a man was to hang whose life had been a failure. A sure sign someone was NOT the messiah was if his enemies were to hang him on a tree; it only makes sense in light of the resurrection. God has come so near to us that we can kill Him and thereby, so it seems, ceases to be God for us.

The Cross

Ø  Finally there is the Church with its questionable history and the claim to be the abiding site of His revelation. Precisely when the Church believed, in all the glory of the Renaissance princedom, that she could cast off this hiddenness and be directly the “gate of heaven”, the “house of God”, she became God’s disguise, with God scarcely to be found behind it.

The Church

Like a clever warrior, God slips behind enemy lines in disguise; a divine camouflage so good that the secular eye sees nothing special. The spiritual eye can see only if it is awake and unhindered.

God seems to keep disappearing more and more and, precisely in this way, becomes more and more manifest as Himself.

The Law of Disguise