A Treasure To Be Shared

The period of Ordinary Time from Pentecost until Advent in the calendar that is followed by the majority of Latin Rite Catholics, i.e., those who follow the calendar for the Novus Ordo Mass of Pope Saint Paul VI, is referred to as Trinitytide in the Personal Ordinariates . It is the longest season of the Church year. Anglo-Saxon churches and parts of northern Europe celebrated a feast of the Trinity as early as the 9th century. Saint Thomas Becket (1119 or 1120–1170), who was made bishop on the Sunday following Pentecost, is known to have celebrated the feast of the Holy Trinity at Canterbury. In 1334, Pope John XXII instituted the Feast of the Holy Trinity for the entire Church on the first Sunday after Pentecost. Trinitytide begins on the Sunday following Whitsuntide (the Octave of Pentecost). Trinitytide is a time of hope-filled Christian discipleship that arises from living in communion with the Holy Trinity. The Holy Trinity is central to authentic Christian mission. When Jesus se...

[ 7 minute read ] We are faced with a profound decision, one that could make for ultimate joy or everlasting sorrow. Jesus through His Church provides us with the power to hope as we confront the truth of existence and eternity. Many, of course, do not believe in an afterlife, or they wax poetic in ignorance or hold to some kind of universalist fantasy that all people, regardless of religion or creed or lack thereof, will be welcomed into a blissful post-death experience. Others are resigned to the possibility of oblivion. Others simply do not care about the subject and carry on with their material pursuits that afford them fleeting confidence in this life. In the last category, there are those who consider themselves atheists. We can choose life, or we can choose death. Some say that life is a mix of things and protest in defence of (their) greyness. Only a simpleton would deny that life has its ups and downs, but those ups and downs should not prevent us from choosing the good and av...

Dante lost in the dark forest enters hell. Dante Alighieri's Inferno Canto 1 illustrated by Gustave Doré in 1861. Joseph Robinette Biden Jr. has lived a contentious life. He has used his position in government to berate people of goodwill and to pound his opponents into submission. Despite his lauding of bipartisanship, he has often been anything but a cooperative and civil man. To say that his political actions reveal fleeting convictions and self-interest is an understatement. His support for anti-life policies has rendered practically meaningless his claims that he is a devout Catholic. His confused witness is a scandal for Catholics who strive to keep the Faith in a society made hostile by the shameful behaviour of the Bidens, Pelosis, Kerrys and others. In a word, Joseph Biden is a charlatan. Where is the honesty, humility and contrition of a Christian? Psalm 11:4-7 | The Lord is in his holy temple, the Lord’s throne is in heaven; his eyes behold, his eyelids test, the childr...

[ 3 minute read ] Every single human life is precious, loved, and planned by God from the moment of conception until natural death. Sadly, though, this profound understanding is lost on many people. In this increasingly narcissistic, self-fulfilling society, the concept of dying to self, having sacrificial love, and following God’s design has become a foreign concept. - Kathy Athearn Heaven is right beside and all around the demonic spirits, and yet they cannot enter into it. They have displaced themselves as the result of an irrevocable choice, the choice to adore and serve themselves and not God. They yearn for and hate what they can never again have - the eternal freedom of everlasting love. They have corrupted love into self worship. They cannot and will not serve anything nor anyone other than themselves. Theirs is a cautionary tale. They have communion only with their hatred toward man and their enmity toward God Whom they reject because of His love for man. The love of God is on...

Anthony Esolen What is that being in the womb? Not disorganized, like a wart; not inert, like an acorn on the sidewalk; not inanimate, like a crystal growth; not dead or merely alive in potential; not canine or feline or anything else but human, with all the powers of man latent yet unfolding with remarkable intricacy, exactitude, and speed; a child, our brother. Gavin Ashenden The Church is often behind the times. The tragedy at this juncture is that so much of the Church has bought into the flimsy therapeutic truisms which only mask and do not heal disorder. In doing so it is abandoning its own theological justification for existing – acting as an agent of the salvation of peoples’ souls. It has yet to notice that no one actually needs or wants it as a third-rate incompetent therapist-cloning agency of secularised spirituality. It has yet to notice that behind the appealing frontage of the pseudo-niceness of diversity, inclusion and diversity, lies a ruthless determination to cancel ...

The Catholic Way Catholics in public life, these days those who drift left, routinely risk having their convictions challenged because they habitually want their cake (power) and eat it (enjoy it, exploit it, be corrupted by it,...) too. Pat Cross' cartoon exposes the cognitive dissonance entertained by such misguided souls. It's one thing to be a Catholic who repents of his or her sins (and confesses those sins in the confessional) and resolves to avoid near occasions of sin. It is quite another to obstinately refuse to acknowledge and repent of those very public sins as such - e.g., support for the destruction of innocent pre-born human lives - and pretend that, at the end of the day, one's conscience is free of culpability after either standing idly by or by enacting laws and policies that permit a most heinous act against innocent pre-born human life. A straight forward review of the terms to which Catholics are bound - if they truly love the Lord - reveal the standard,...

http://nweparchy.ca/help-the-people-of-ukraine-to-survive-the-war-donate-here/ Please donate to the “AID FOR UKRAINE”. All donations will be directed to regional organizations in Ukraine, who support all people in need including refugees fleeing their homes to other parts of Ukraine. The funds will be forwarded to Caritas Ukraine, a charitable organization with over 20 offices in Ukraine. https://www.caritas.org/where-caritas-work/europe/ukraine/ They supply aid by accessing and delivering food, shelter, medical supplies and providing spiritual and psychological support for those in need. A generous family has pledged to match all donations in support of humanitarian aid in Ukraine up to $500,000. Help us meet this goal. Make cheques payable to ‘Eparchy of New Westminster’ with memo ‘Aid for Ukraine’ mailed to 502-5th Avenue, New Westminster, BC V3L 1S2. Tax receipts will be issued. Another way to donate to Caritas Ukraine is through CNEWA Canada. https://cnewa.org/campaigns/ukraine/ P...

Illustration by Cleon Peterson | The New Yorker | Screenshot Making Prayer a Political Problem Once Again Dr. Christopher Shannon, September 23, 2021 | CWR The conventional, modern Catholic gloss on this problem has been to assert that Catholic values guide the use of technology. Thus, in our own time, it is not unusual for parish priests to devote a few homilies a year to the dangers of the internet, warning the faithful to stay away from “bad” sites, usually a euphemism for pornography. Daniélou’s great reversal, his emphasis on the social and cultural conditions of faith, would flip the emphasis from content to form. Were Daniélou alive today, I suspect that he would argue that the problem with the internet (not to mention “smart” phones) is less the way we use it than how it uses us: a restructuring of our life, not just our work life but our leisure and social life as well, to conform to the demands of the technology. Thus, disembodied “social” media increasingly becomes the norm ...

Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die. Believest thou this? - St. John 11:25-26 O tu bone omnipotens, qui sic curas unumquemque nostrum tamquam solum cures, et sic omnes tamquam singulos. O thou Omnipotent Good, thou carest for every one of us as if thou didst care for him only, and so for all as if they were but one!  - St. Augustine, Confessions, 3.11.19 (Tr. Albert C. Outler) We do not pretend that life is all beauty. We are aware of darkness and sin, of poverty and pain. But we know Jesus has conquered sin and passed through his own pain to the glory of the Resurrection. And we live in the light of his Paschal Mystery – the mystery of his Death and Resurrection. “We are an Easter People and Alleluia is our song!” We are not looking for a shallow joy but rather a joy that comes from faith, that grows through unselfish love, that respects ...

Today, Holy Saturday, we remain in isolation. We recall Jesus laid to rest in the Tomb. The Holy Sepulchre is closed today, as it was when a great stone was rolled across its entrance to seal the Tomb. passus sub Pontio Pilato, crucifixus, mortuus, et sepultus, descendit ad inferos Suffered under Pontius Pilate, Was crucified, dead, and buried: He descended into hell; A dawn of gold brightly beaming. Clouds rapidly slid their way in; a grey canvas framed the sky. Threads of blue tempt one to hope. The sun returns; it never left. Clouds merely obscured it. Patience. The prison cannot contain the Son. The Virus has enabled a solemn and uneasy quiet for this day, as it did yesterday, Good Friday. Mind you, grocery stores were relatively busy; queues were slow. Conversations - at the required two metres - were quite enjoyable; not trite. Today is Holy Saturday. 624 "By the grace of God" Jesus tasted death "for every one". In his plan of salvation, God ord...

Kreeft : bc.edu Why are children important? Because we don’t matter as much as we think we do, but children matter more than we think they do. In fact, if children don’t matter then none of us matter, because none of us came into the world except as children. Dr. Peter Kreeft

Senate committee meetings have begun to assess Judge Kavanaugh's fitness to serve as a justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. Senate Democrats, and a host of irate attendees lobbing violent verbal attacks, revealed their inability to conduct themselves in a respectable manner. The New York Times captured the first meeting of the Senate Judiciary Committee. NYT https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/04/us/politics/kavanaugh-confirmation-supreme-court.html?action=click&module=Top%20Stories&pgtype=Homepage (T)he hearings were dominated by Democratic theatrics and crackling protests. For more than an hour at the outset, irate Democrats and a frustrated Mr. Grassley parried back and forth. Senator Richard Blumenthal, Democrat of Connecticut, denounced the hearing as “a charade and a mockery” and repeatedly moved to adjourn, while Mr. Grassley ruled him out of order over and over again. At one point, Senator John Cornyn, Republican of Texas, accused Democ...

Malebolge Inferno xviii When courts get decisions wrong, time can be a hideous companion. The time it takes, that is, until an unjust decision is reversed or nullified. The suffering visited upon a nation and its people by a court can be a sobering reminder that, without the grace of God to elevate minds to the Truth, evil of a magnitude hardly imaginable can spread like wildfire to practically consume a nation. An unjust decision by a court can poison the minds of an entire nation and render that nation insensitive to the Truth, and because the Truth cannot then be seen nor followed, people are dehumanized and destroyed on an unimaginable scale. One only has to look at the former Soviet Union at its height, that is, at the depth of its depravity to find an example of man's capacity for extreme violence. Socialism, communism and fascism are idolatrous systems which crush the human spirit and consume millions of lives to fuel their power to prop up themselves. The ...