Steady as she goes

Through a series of diagrams, rough sketches and posts I want to tell people about my beautiful faith.   I love the fact that it lays down dogmatic unchangeable truths...dogmatic because there is no deviation from the original truths imparted to each and every human being through a band of simple fishermen.  Truths that have come to me in my day and age as pure as when they were first uttered by Our Lord Jesus Christ.   It is a great shame that these truths have been  distorted and interpreted with so many variations that we exist midst a Tower of Babel.    Yet the Church, in spite of the abandonment of, and betrayal by most of our Shepherds, remains as solid as a rock within the hearts of her simple folk.  So, of necessity, this is a work-in-progress (WIP) which, like an oil painting will take some time to complete...if ever...    

THE METHOD of this exercise is to start at a given point in history when I was born which simply means that I speak from the present which consists of what I have inherited from the history of my Catholic Faith and what is happening now. Questions about whether God exists, and if he does can he be knowable by man is not debated here. I speak from the viewpoint of one who acknowledges the existence of God, and that he is knowable simply because he wanted to be known, and reached down to make that possible. The Catholic Church has existed for over 2,000 years and I was received into her membership via the Sacrament of Baptism. This means I was anointed in the Name of the Father, Son and Holy Ghost. This page is a kind of commentary-reflection on the past. The main section treats of what is happening in the present. It is rather like holding a beautiful garment and unknitting it stitch by stitch at the same time painstakingly noting each one of them, then sketching a diagram showing their order of placement and colour.  When  the final stitch is found one looks up and .....well.....there you are.

 At the bottom of the page is a time-line that demonstrates the history of man from the time of     Adam and Eve in relation to the revealed history of God in the world as told in the Scriptures    translated through the eyes of the Church. Imagine the Garden of Eden and the blissful state of the world when Adam and Eve were created knowing nothing about good versus evil because    love had not been betrayed shattering it into thousands of pieces across hours fractured into      seconds. All from thenceforth would need to be painstakingly put together again. But, for some reason Adam and Eve got curious and decided they had the right to know about good and evil. Well, they sure found out ........

Adam and Eve began to experience the results of their choice...they were now confronted with the problem of good versus evil and the new experiences in their souls....fear, shame, embarrassment, suspicion, joy alternating with sadness, uncertainty, as well as the physical and external....pain, heat, cold, work, finding food, old age, death. And yes it was Eve who tempted Adam, but Adam need not have succumbed. He could have corrected his wife because it is the sin of Adam that we inherited. So their offspring were born into this world never having known any other kind.  Even two of their children personified the situation of good and evil with one brother slaying the other.

NOW  LAWS  WERE  MADE and  PUNISHMENT  WAS INTRODUCED..... to keep order in the community, laws that paved the way for the ten commandments....and yes, it seems that what we call 'incest' these days was not a problem then. The Old Testament speaks of it as normal. It became obvious to Adam they were on a downward spiral with death at the end. So he cried out to God asking forgiveness and like a good parent who disciplines his children he made laws for them and the growing community. All would be in turmoil, with wars, crimes, sickness and death. He couldn't get back what he had lost and he had been warned! God heard his cry and decided to give him a chance to redeem himself by accepting just punishment with humility and grace. He did accept it he told God...and gratefully if only he could reverse the death sentence.   That, however, would take more than anything Adam would be capable of, so God said he would send a Redeemer to pay the price for the original personal sin that Adam had committed, then the state of death would be lifted as a result. Adam would suffer the consequences of his action bearing the full weight of remorse and grief as he saw the situation his children had inherited through his choice to test God...this would be his purgatory which God would accept as atonement. Suffering and death would remain during man's earthly existence.  Thus would Adam gain a reprieve for his offspring and himself until the Redeemer came to pay the ultimate price necessary to remove the sin of Adam and the sins of a world that were now rooted in the human soul.

Unlike our forbears, Adam and Eve, we live in  the shattered pieces, and the church invites us to recognise them, gather them up and put them together again restoring the human race to its pre-original-sin condition.   In addition, because so much time has been lost, She - the Church - has the job, also, of enabling us to catch up.  Time does not stand still.   The clock  has been ticking away whilst we are picking up the pieces.   Because of the injury caused by original sin we are far from where we should be. And so we enter the state of wondering, which,  we are told, is a state of prayer for as long as one wonders about what she (the Church) is telling us.  Somehow She has to find a way of taking us backwards and forwards at the same time.   She's pretty bossy about it too, as her definition of 'prayer'  is the only one, and you are not going to find out anything about God, or our condition, unless you do as she says FULL STOP!    One thing for sure though is that I had to find out if I believed what I had been born into.....and I was more than ready to disbelieve....life would be so much easier that way...or so I thought. 

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                                                   THE  CHURCH
                         Picks  up  the  Pieces

The Church states the limit of what is knowable by man, and provides enough information to arouse the curious person to know more and so we proceed with looking at what triggered the chaos experienced  today.  

 FORTY YEARS AGO  the church completed a Council meeting of Cardinals gathered from all over the world to update things....it is known as Vatican II.   It was a 'pastoral' council the first of its kind in the history of the church.  Unlike previous councils which clarified and defined issues as they arose this one was a kind of love-in.  It had the opposite effect to that of preceding councils in that it resulted in the destruction of everything that had been built up through blood, sweat and tears since the apostolic age...even further back than that...to the beginning of time...to Adam and Eve. 


The Church has an axiom: "Lex Orandi, Lex Crendidi".
Translated it means: The Law of Prayer is the Law of Belief.   If you destroy a language you  remove the way a person thinks, communicates and expresses himself.   The external effect is merely the outcome of the dreadful interior destruction.   What has been constructed has collapsed because the building blocks have been removed.    Those perceptive enough to have foreseen the result love her very stones.  Force is then applied to them by way of punishments:  (a) isolating the recalcitrant person (put in coventry) surround him only by speakers of the new (?) language, (b) belittlement and  scorn and banishment.  Well, that is what resulted from Vatican II....the lazy were lulled into acceptance whilst the valiant were shamed, discredited and thrown out.

A great deal has been written on the build-up to this event.   I may add a selection of books
for anyone interested in exploring the subject further, but for the present suffice it to say that grass-roots Catholics such as yours truly began to see and experience a definite change in language - liturgical and from the pulpit.   Simple folk were suddenly challenged about what we believed, group meetings became the order of the day.   Looking back I now see they had terms of reference with preconceived outcomes.  Our whole focus was redirected towards a purely earthly stripping away of the supernatural elements on which the church had been built.  The way we prayed was changed so dramatically that what we had believed from generation to generation was stripped away and with it belief . 

Lex  Orandi, Lex Crendidi.   George Orwell  once warned: “If thought corrupts language, language can also corrupt thought.” And how clearly we see that right here, right now.    There was great suffering amongst the people who had no authority to question what was happening, even if they had been able to put it into words.    Double-meaning words were used in newly issued missals and sacred books and catechisms.   Those over forty years of age who showed any resistence were ostrascised and scorned.   The Sacraments were gradually phased out, and our Tabernacles were placed at the back of Churches, or hidden away.  I will be devoting separate pages to begin reflections on the titled subjects adding and subtracting from them from time to time.  This is to bring out all the truth and beauty of what our good God has done for us and continues to do for us.   Be it said that I am simply giving you a view of the effect on ordinary people in every corner of the globe when the spirit of the Vatican II council hit us.  It was like a slow-moving tsunami.

In spite of all the difficulties  prior to Vatican II the church grew and did its job.  We had good popes, bad popes, saintly popes, thousands of martyrs, people leaving and forming their own churches...all sorts of ups and downs.   The singular issue of the office of Pope kept the original  historical line of descendency intact - notwithstanding assaults made by false claimants....and so on down to the present day.

 

For explanation of this diagram go to: 

Thoughts of a Pewsitter

 The diagram will show how the church stagnated  for the 46 years following the completion of Vatican II.   The whole body of teaching built up since the time of Christ has been dismantled piece by piece until nothing is left, virtually taking us back to the time before Christ - to Adam and Eve's condition which is re-presented to us - minus sin, therefore no sin-free Paradise  preceded his creation, no redeemer, no heaven, no hell.   Indeed  the whole notion of sin has been obliterated; of good and of evil.  There is no such thing as good and evil and man can do what he likes.  It removes any mention of need of a Redeemer, of man's need of a Redeemer, salvation, or resurrection of the body.   So there we have it...the Church historically founded by Christ teaching and baptising people throughout the world  in the Name of the Father, Son  and Holy Ghost, offering sacraments to bring us to salvation has now turned on itself and its founder...it is teaching pure atheism which is a lack of belief....God is not!  


Comment:  Many people believe that a secular world is the ultimate reality...that religion is fantasy, and in particular that the Catholic faith is false.   Their philosophy is that man is what he is whether 'good or evil'....in fact that there is no such thing as good and evil....that nobody can define it so that it applies to everyone....we just get on with what we've got.   The product of such thinking is what exists today in the world.   Anybody who calls evil by its name has to be a Catholic or a person influenced by Catholicism and its definitions of good and evil.   This applies to Protestantism as well where grave sins defined by the Catholic church are not considered to be so.  Variations occur between various denominations each with its own interpretations.   A good man is known as a decent human being who has a sensitive conscience where he instinctively knows what is good and what is evil.   Such a man, caught up in some dilemma, can and does choose what goes against his conscience in order to escape an intolerable situation.   This applies to everyone in fact whether Christian or not.    The Catholic has to resort to supernatural weapons,  counsels and power to overcome the evil he is presented with...to conquer it....to not succumb.   Such a man is continually falling and getting back on his feet again through the power-generating Sacraments.

There is no basic difference between the first 'good decent' man and the ordinary practising Catholic.   But some go so far as to challenge God...saying ....'if this or that is evil, and my conscience tells me it is and I don't want to do it but I have to because of the circumstances I am in - then  you have to help me - give me something I haven't got!'    Such a prayer, from my experience, is never unanswered...and it makes sense.   It confirms the deep longing in the human heart to be good 'as God is good.'    This is the Church's stated Reason for Being.   It gives hope to us confronted time and time again with impossible situations..a hope that is not in vain for it is a 'sure hope.'   The supernatural gifts of the Holy Spirit issuing from the Father and his risen Son are given to the man who recognises that his heart has a longing that nothing on earth can satisfy.
It cannot be destroyed.   Why is it there?   Who has implanted it?
                                                        
Continuation of above dialogue:
A state if confusion therefore prevails not only within the Church but outside in the world because civil laws were based on Christian principles.  The treasured contents of Mother Church were being sucked out supplanting in their stead - untruth.   'Destruction!  Everything was taken away as if it had never existed and since the Church was the only authority to authenticate our faith, and to challenge the world keeping it accountable,  the people inside and outside were abandoned and left to the wolves.   Shepherds deserted the flock and by extension the world-at-large.


The world at large was affected by the outward destruction of a false ecumenism (more on this later) resulting in getting lost in the tower of babel where faith and belief were just a matter of personal opinion and personal interpretation.... with death as our final end.   If you really follow this to its rightful conclusion then no Christian denomination has any ground to stand on.   If Christ is non-existent, was not the promised Redeemer are ALL the biblical scriptures a lie?  All the historical prophets, kings, Jewish patriarchs, Messiah, apostles together with their on-the-spot witnesses and writings -  all non-existent?   Even if you take the biblical scriptures at face value you know these are historical documents written by people who lived and died in the times that were written about. 



                                 Varying  Reactions  to  Vatican II  Council 

MANY CATHOLICS WERE RELIEVED, GLAD TO BE FREE OF ANY COMMITMENT TO REMAIN. MANY REMAINED BECAUSE THE LANGUAGE CHANGE MEANT THEY COULD INTERPRET HER TEACHINGS ANY WAY THEY LIKED AND BE ASSURED OF 'GOING TO HEAVEN'. A SMALL NUMBER REMAINED AND CHALLENGED THE HIERARCHY VALIANTLY DEFENDING HER PERENNIAL TEACHINGS THAT HAD BEEN HANDED DOWN SINCE HER FOUNDATION BY OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST.  OTHER SOME WENT INTO A KIND OF SPIRITUAL HIBERNATION DESERTED BY THEIR SHEPHERDS AND UNCARINGLY FORGOTTEN ABOUT.

LOOKING BACK ON THOSE TIMES IT WAS AS IF WE WERE BEING SIFTED. THE SCANDAL OF CLERICAL ABUSE SURFACED EXPOSING THE DOUBLE-LIFE OF TOO MANY PRIESTS. THIS CAUSED THE LOSS OF FAITH OF LARGE NUMBERS OF PRACTISING CATHOLICS. IT IS AS IF THE DEVIL HIMSELF COULD NOT HAVE DONE A BETTER JOB. THROUGH IT ALL FAITHFUL CATHOLICS HAD TO LOOK DEEP WITHIN THEIR OWN HEARTS TO FIND IF THERE WAS AN ANCHOR TO STABILISE THE BARQUE OF PETER. SUCH ENTERED INTO THIS DESERT EXPERIENCE AND REALISED THAT WHAT HAD BEEN BELIEVED EMERGED FROM THE DEBRIS LIKE A PHOENIX RISING.

                                                        Interior  Search 

Entering into this desert (and deserted) experience many found that what had been believed as inescapable truth could not be removed.   They had often read about the commandments being written in the stone tablets of Moses;  and that man in general has a heart of stone;  and that God wishes to turn our hearts of stone into hearts of flesh;  and write on the human heart...they began to find that what they were looking for had been indelibly inscribed within their very souls.   What had been taught throughout the ages could not be destroyed by outside factors bent on destroying the Church, or by the desertion of their shepherds.   An inner freedom from dependance on cowardly deserting shepherds was wondrously and gently discovered.   They found that what God had given no man could take away.   That their High Priest in heaven had enshrined Himself within their hearts.   Having no access to the Sacraments  because countless  priests, bishops and cardinals had desecrated them and/or deserted the flock - they found they had not been left orphans.   Their love for the unchanging truths had born fruit through their suffering loyalty.  

                       
                                       SOURCE  of   PRAYER  ENGRAVED
                                                    on the Human Heart


The Liturgy is itself  a means by which God is enabled to reach  down to his subject  providing the subject wishes to know and love God  through Christ..  It enables the traveller-seeker to accompany Christ from birth and throughout his public life.   More than that, it goes back to the beginning of man and opens up his future in relation to Christ.  It allows listening to a dialogue taking place between God and each prophet in the Old Testament, then hearing the apostles making sense of it in the New Testament - at the same time seeing where it all leads through the Gospels of the four evangelists.   

The true story of the two souls on their way to Emmaus is our true story.   Wondering and talking about the events that had just taken place with regard to the man Jesus Christ they couldn't understand what had happened and the rumours they heard regarding his resurrection or non- resurrection.   They were joined by a companion who entered into the discussion.  As they later claimed - the stranger had walked with them revealing the hisitory of the Old Testament and linking it with the New.   At the breaking of the bread he disappeared and they realised it was the risen Lord.   To assist at the sacrifice of the Mass where the breaking of the bread occurs is to open up to such enlightenment....to allow this gentle stranger to travel with us explaining the very same things as were explained to the two men on their way to Emmaus.   Time vanishes and everything about God is there - laid out like a huge map where you can look at any part of it while you stand there.  Like standing in the middle of a huge circle that extends outwards with no limit, so that you can turn in any direction at will.    I think I have heard this described as existing in the NOW.   The NOW always is.


                                    KEEPING  THE  PROMISE  MADE  TO  ADAM


The liturgical cycle is repeated each year beginning with Christ's birth. It continues right through his time immediately prior to his 40 days in the desert (Lent), his Passion, Death (bearing our sins to meet the demands of justice that we could not pay) and Resurrection (Easter.) which conquers death as promised to Adam.   The death that is conquered is the two-fold death where Adam tested God putting a barrier up between himself and his creator, AND the resultant physical death which is the wages of sin.  Liturgical  prayer absorbs the soul into a state of being present in different places at the same time.   Firmly anchored in the present, the past and future open up in an organic whole.   The written history (scripture) and words from the pulpit provide reference points to a particular god revealing himself to a particular race of people through a man called Moses then continuing through a man called Jesus Christ.  These things can arouse interest but on their own they have little personal effect apart from curiosity ..... and ....wonderment.   When wonderment sets in the mind is opening up to the possibility, or even the probability that these things could have some direct bearing on us.   Holy men  prayed throughout the history of mankind for wisdom and left the world, living in deserts or caves until they penetrated the meaning of the scriptures, and whether it related to themselves.  They wrote down the understanding they received and began to live their lives according to what they had found.   They are now revered as saints in the Church...their writings enshrined within her bosom...passed on to those who similarly seek knowledge of the Divine.
                                                                   

I wished, and understanding was given me; and I called, and the spirit of wisdom came upon me;  and I preferred her before kingdoms and thrones, and esteemed riches nothing in comparison of her.   Neither did I compare unto her any precious stone, for all gold in comparison of her is as a little sand, and silver in respect to her shall be counted as clay.   I loved her above health and beauty, and chose to have her instead of light, for her light cannot be put out.....(Wisidom 7, 7-14)

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The Holy Sacrifice of the Mass is an ongoing event where Our Lord is continually interceding for us.  It is His action and does not depend on us for its continuance whether we are saint or sinner .   This is the real bulwark of our faith.

A seeker can only seek out what is there.  He has no part in creating what is there.  He cannot find something that is not there. No matter how good our intentions are, whilst we 'pray' with our natural senses we miss the boat.   We have to acquire a supernatural  gift from God in order to pray.    During  Mass you enter into a timeless state where prayer is a universal language that links you into the company of those who assisted at Masses since the church's inception, and where future generations link in to our time.   Thiis is because the celebration of the Eucharist is timeless and unchanging.   We can pray now in union with the saints, the angels because through reception of Holy Communion we are all united in, with and through Christ who has risen and exists eternally.   It is a profound Sacrament.     The best way to describe it is that  just as my natural  family is flesh of my flesh and blood of my blood, so too we become relatives of Christ and of each other in the supernatural (above-nature) dimension.  This condition cannot be entered into by believing words that the Church uses to define a dogma....one cannot contemplate words..only what the words point to can be contemplated.   It is beyond belief actually.   The words can be pondered which indeed they must be if the resultant sense of 'wonder' is to find that for which it searches.   It then becomes the gift of faith.   This means that when wondering about the teachings of Mother Church  the grace can be received to understand  the mysteries of our faith limited only by our capacity to receive.   Even the greatest saint has a limit and even then there is more...ever more....with which the longing heart can only be increasingly satisfied when the time comes to pass from this world into the next where contemplation of the Divine becomes inexhaustible. 

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There are so many dimensions to this Eucharistic diamond.   For example, we never have to ask God to do anything because He is doing it all the time.  The sacrifice of himself on my behalf is unceasing.   Infinity is spread throughout time and beyond - before and after time which can be visualised  as in the diagram as a straight line...but it gives a better idea when looking at the circle which has 360 degrees.  It  spreads out in every direction, but even that is not enough because each degree has a top and a bottom.   Infinity expands breaking through the top to an eternal beyond and casting and smashing through the bottom to free time from its prison.   Infinity absorbs time into itself.  Time comprises a multimillisecond of eternity if that.   It is as if infinity has opened up a fraction to let us in.  Time is so short and it is all but ready to end as infinity closes its doors.   This is my reason for jotting down these poor words.  So many people who do not know about it.....so many simple Catholics betrayed by those they trusted.....so many enemies succeeding in stifling the voice of Our Lord in his church calling out to us....Come to me all ye who have no money....come to me and drink....Even though a mother forget her child, I will never forget you...


Another way to describe Infinity is that what Our Lord is doing for me unceasingly he is doing for each and every person unceasingly as if he had as many lives as there are people. In addition, it means that his Sacrifice absorbed not only each  and  every  person,  but  each  and  every second  of  our  lives as  well. We have need of an infinite person to pay an  infinite price.  He proved his humanity in that a man can only die once and even then, he was killed.   Because he was also God, he established this miraculous way of remaining in our presence through the Blessed Sacrament at the centre of our faith, and in the centre of our hearts through Holy Communion.   And this is why nobody can take away or destroy the faith that has been received through the unchanging teachings of Mother Church.   It is why all the obfuscation, lies and deceits infecting the Church since Vatican II will die off.....everything natural dies off in the end.   Only that which is eternal lives on - indestructible.  

And finally, the mercy released through Christ's suffering covers every second of my existence and the existence of every man.   For the most part I am not conscious of it when getting about my daily life with its demands and distractions...yet it hovers there all the time  seeking to be received  offering to change my heart of stone into a heart of flesh.