I have heard it said that if you find a fence that you wish to remove because it seems to serve no purpose, it would be wise to learn why it is there before you commence demolition.
“If I were to meet those slave traders who kidnapped me and those who tortured me,” she said, as recounted in From Slave to Saint, “I would get down on my knees and kiss their hands, because if that had not happened, I would not be a Christian or a religious today.”
"If something is true of the parent-child relationship, it is likely to be true of the God-human relationship. It is no accident that God arranged our existence to begin, continue, and end within the context of the family. The family is the best material analogy to His own inner life, the Blessed Trinity, which is why defending marriage and family is so essential. As the Covid-19 pandemic continues into its first holiday season, let us courageously embrace the opportunities that Providence is giving us to reclaim our children and let God reclaim us."
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The Venerable Archbishop Sheen once asked, "Who is going to save our Church? Not our bishops, not our priests and religious. It is up to you, the people. You have the minds, the eyes, and the ears to save the Church. Your mission is to see that your priests act like priests, your bishops act like bishops, and your religious act like religious."
"Supporters of particular federal programs and of the current sexual expression regime — politicians, political parties, the media and interest groups — will not fail to use Joe Biden’s self-professed Catholicism to their advantage. They have already begun. Over these next four years, therefore, Catholic voices will have to be unusually involved in certain public discussions, as well as highly articulate, nuanced, intelligent, and proud, never defensive. The public square is not a particularly pleasant place to be these days. But the alternative is to allow the White House to “teach the faith.” If we don’t, the Oval Office will. "
A modern scripture scholar has spelled this out: “When he believes God, man knows revealed truth through the infallible knowledge God has of himself and consequently shares in the divine consciousness.” (Juan Alfaro, OSB) The ineffable knowledge that comes through faith is, for teaching purposes, partly reduced to propositions about salvation. But its full scope is to lead us into the mind of Almighty God himself. “Faith is a divinizing, supernatural participation in the very life of God.”
The movie, Foe Greater Glory, powerfully captures the persecution of Catholic that took place in Mexico less than 100 years ago. Watch it with the family. This video reminds us of that era.