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The way of Life and the Way of Death
Therefore, Choose Life.
 The Benedictine makes a vow to conversion of life. Conversion means ’transformation’, so this is not just what we think of as a once and done conversion experience. Instead, conversion of Life means conversion of one’s whole life. That means not one whiff of sulfur, not one sordid thought, not one mean action or sweet private lust will be allowed to remain. All of it must be purged. All the wood, hay and stubble will be burnt away. And, if it is my whole life which must be converted, then I also long and pray for the whole of LIFE to be converted–in other words not just my world, but the whole world. St Paul says the whole world groans for redemption as a woman in childbirth.
What we fail to realize is that the conversion of the whole of LIFE depends on the conversion of my life. A saint participates not only in their own salvation, but the salvation of the whole world. If we could only have eyes to see the eternal effects of that one action of self sacrifice, that one decision to obey, that one gracious act in the lives of others. If we could only see the final outcome we would be astounded at how the conversion of our one solitary life reverberates down the ages and for all time.
 If we are pursuing true conversion of life we are entering an eternally upward spiral in which we participate in a life that is greater and more graced and abundant than we could ever imagine. If we do not seek constant and complete conversion then we are on a downward spiral into the dark nothingness and the eternal sorrow of our solitary selves. We must be on one path or the other. Although our lives often seem gray and ambiguous we must decide today at this very moment which path we will follow. If it is for life and for the conversion of life, then let us run on the path, our hearts overflowing with the inexpressible delight of love.
Father Dwight Longenecker
A Culture of Death
“Can Only Produce Violence and Death
and in the End Destroy Itself!”
Archbishop Raymond Burke stands firm and attacks the evils of abortion, homosexual unions, embryonic stem cell, euthanasia…
Read this edited homily proclaimed by our beloved Archbishop Burke given at the annual Red Mass, Diocese of Phoenix in St. Mary’s Basilica. Full homily here.
 Archbishop Burke Portrait More and more, we witness the violation of the most fundamental norms of divine natural law in the policies and laws of our nation, and in the judgments given by her courts. Justice founded on obedience to the prompting of the Holy Spirit, first of all, must safeguard and defend the inviolability of innocent human life from the moment of conception to the moment of natural death, and the integrity of the faithful and indissoluble union of man and woman in marriage through which spouses, in cooperation with God, create and nurture new human life. At the same time, the law more and more dares to force those with the sacred trust of caring for the health of their brothers and sisters to violate the most sacred tenets of their consciences, and to force individuals and institutions to cooperate in egregious violations of the natural moral law. The reality of the situation is cloaked in a false garment of justice, for example, the direct taking of human life at its very earliest stages of development and the direct abortion of infants in their mother’s wombs is justified as the research necessary to find cures for dread diseases or as necessary for “reproductive health,” and the violation of the integrity of the marital union is justified as the practice of tolerance.
The Evils We Face
The present situation of our nation is the source of our deepest concern as we pray for the ministers of justice. In our nation, the lives of millions of our unborn brothers and sisters have been and continue to be legally destroyed through embryonic stem-cell research and procured abortion; the lives of those who have the first title to our respect and care – the seriously ill, those with special needs and the advanced in years – are increasingly viewed as a burden to be eliminated from society; our laws presume to redefine marriage and the family, the first cell of the life of our society, in defiance of the law of nature; and the freedom of conscience is denied to individuals, even taxpayers in general, and to institutions by policies and laws which force cooperation in acts which are always and everywhere evil.
Evil Fruits Are Evidence
We see before our eyes the evil fruits of life in a society which pretends to take the place of God in making its laws and in giving its judgments, in a society in which those in power decide what is right and just, according to their desires and convenience, even at the cost of perpetrating the gravest harm upon their neighbor. We see before our eyes the evil fruits of life in a society in which a right conscience no longer guides those who make laws and give judgments, in which those in power no longer have “God alone before their eyes.” In such a society, the administration of justice is no longer a participation in the justice of God, an obedient response to the prompting of the Holy Spirit, but a façade cloaking our own selfishness and refusal to give our lives for the sake of the good of all our brothers and sisters. It is the kind of society which we, as Americans, have rightly deplored and against which we have so often fought at the greatest human and material cost to our nation. It is a society which is abandoning its Judaeo-Christian foundations, the fundamental obedience to God’s law which safeguards the common good, and is embracing a totalitarianism which masks itself as the “hope,” the “future,” of our nation. Reason and faith teaches us that such a society can only produce violence and death and in the end destroy itself.
Don’t Lose Hope
The situation of our nation, profoundly disturbing as it is, cannot be for us a cause of discouragement, let alone abandonment of the ministry of the justice which comes from  God and, therefore, serves the good of all without boundary or condition. Uniting ourselves to Christ in His Eucharistic Sacrifice, we accept not only our portion of His suffering for the sake of justice but are also filled with confidence in His victory over sin and the forces of evil. Praying for the outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon the ministers of justice in our society from the glorious pierced Heart of Jesus, His Eucharistic Heart, we must be completely realistic about what the prompting of the Holy Spirit will demand of them in our time. At the same time, we must be confident that the Holy Spirit will give them the wisdom and courage to declare what is just and right on behalf of their brothers and sisters. If we are tempted by doubts of faith, we should contemplate again the work of the Holy Spirit in the life of our brother in the Communion of Saints, Saint Thomas More. Even as the Holy Spirit inspired and strengthened Saint Thomas More to be true to his conscience, not only for the sake of the salvation of his own soul but for the good of the people he had been called to serve, even so the Holy Spirit will produce the same holiness of life in our ministers of justice, so that they will be able to declare at all times: “I am the king’s good servant, and God’s first.”
My brothers and sisters who are the ministers of justice, all of us depend upon you to speak what is just and right on our behalf and on behalf of all our brothers and sisters, especially those whose lives are in any way threatened. Conscious of the heavy burden which you carry, especially in the present situation of our nation, we beg God, today, to pour forth upon you in abundance the gift of the Holy Spirit, so that you, in Christ, will judge “[n]ot by appearance … nor by hearsay” but with the justice which has its foundation in obedience to the law of God. We thank God for your presence with us today, as we offer the Sacrifice of the Mass, giving thanks to God for your service on behalf of us all and petitioning an abundance of God’s grace for the fulfillment of your most fundamental and noble service of us all. In a special way, we pray that you may never give way to discouragement or to the abandonment of the demands of your conscience, but may enjoy always the comfort and strength of the Holy Spirit dwelling within your souls.
O Sacred Heart of Jesus, abode of justice and love, have mercy on us.
O Blessed Virgin Mary, Mirror of Justice, pray for us.
Saint Thomas More, pray for us.
The Simple Truth,
If You Do Not Believe In Satan,
Then You Will Not Believe In God!
Read this edited version revealed by Archbishop Charles Chaput to the Fifth Symposium Rome: Priests and Laity on Mission. Full Version Here
 Satan Tempting Jesus It is very odd that in the wake of the bloodiest century in history – a century when tens of millions of human beings were shot, starved, gassed and incinerated with superhuman ingenuity – even many religious leaders are embarrassed to talk about the devil. In fact, it is more than odd. It is revealing. Mass murder and exquisitely organized cruelty are not just really big “mental health” problems. They are sins that cry out to heaven for justice, and they carry the fingerprints of an Intelligence who is personal, gifted, calculating and powerful.
The devil is only unbelievable if we imagine him as the black monster of medieval paintings, or think The Inferno is intended as a literal road map to hell. Satan was very real for Jesus. He was very real for Paul and the other great saints throughout history. And he is profoundly formidable. If we want a sense of the grandeur of the Fallen Angel before he fell, the violated genius of who Satan really is, we can take a hint from the Rilke poem The Angels:
. . . when they spread their wings
they waken a great wind through the land:
as though with his broad sculptor-hands
God was turning
the leaves of the dark book of the Beginning.
This is the kind of Being – once glorious, but then consumed by his own pride — who is now the Enemy of humanity. This is the Pure Spirit who betrayed his own greatness. This is the Intellect who hates the Incarnation because through it, God invites creatures of clay like you and me to take part in God’s own divinity. There is nothing sympathetic about Satan; only tragedy and loss and enduring, brilliant anger.
In 1929 the philosopher Raissa Maritain wrote.
“Lucifer has cast the strong though invisible net of illusion upon us. He makes one love the passing moment above eternity, uncertainty above truth. He persuades us that we can only love creatures by making Gods of them. He lulls us to sleep (and he interprets our dreams); he makes us work. Then does the spirit of man brood over stagnant waters. Not the least of the devil’s victories is to have convinced artists and poets that he is their necessary, inevitable collaborator and the guardian of their greatness. Grant him that, and soon you will grant him that Christianity is unpracticable. Thus does he reign in this world.”
If we do not believe in the devil, sooner or later we will not believe in God. We cannot cut Lucifer out of the ecology of salvation. Satan is not God’s equal. He is a created being subject to God and already, by the measure of eternity, defeated. Nonetheless, he is the first author of pride and rebellion, and the great seducer of man. Without him the Incarnation and Redemption do not make sense, and the cross is meaningless. Satan is real. There is no way around this simple truth.
We live in an age that imagines itself as post-modern and post-Christian. It is a time defined by noise, urgency, action, utility and a hunger for practical results. But there is nothing really new about any of this. I think St. Paul would find our age rather familiar. For all of the rhetoric about “hope and change” in our politics, our urgencies hide a deep unease about the future; a kind of well-manicured selfishness and despair.
The Emptiness Hurts
The world around us has a hole in its heart, and the emptiness hurts. Only God can fill it. In our baptism, God called each of us here today to be his agents in that work. Like St. Paul, we need to be “doers of the word, and not hearers only” (Jas 1:22). We prove what we really believe by our willingness, or our refusal, to act on what we claim to believe.
You Are Being Called
We have an obligation as Catholics to study and understand the world around us. We have a duty not just to penetrate and engage it, but to convert it to Jesus Christ. That work belongs to all of us equally: clergy, laity and religious. We are missionaries. That is our primary vocation; it is hardwired into our identity as Christians. God calls each of us to different forms of service in his Church. But we are all equal in baptism. And we all share the same mission of bringing the Gospel to the world, and bringing the world to the Gospel.
The Real Issue is a Crisis of Faith
Our real issue is a crisis of faith. Do we believe in God or not? Are we on fire with a love for Jesus Christ, or not? Because if we are not, nothing else matters. If we are, then everything we need in order to do God’s work will follow, because he never abandons his people.
God calls us to leave here today and make disciples of all nations. But he calls us first to love him. If we do that, and do it zealously, with all our hearts – the rest will follow.
Archbishop Charles Chaput
St. Thomas Aquinas pray for us and our Priest.
And Lead Your People
We are in the middle of the Year for Priests in which it is hoped we will all see a strong re-affirmation of Christ-like models of priesthood. Thanks to Pope Benedict we may just exit that age of sell-out clerics like Fr. John Jenkins of Notre Dame and come back to some sanity in priestly leadership. As an indication of how bad clerical hypocrisy gets, Fr. Jenkins presided over the arrest of Catholic pro-life protesters on campus and has consistently refused to ask the authorities to drop the charges. Some may spend a year in jail due to his “leadership” on this issue. Jenkins followed this by an announcement that he will attend the March  for Life in Washington this year – a shameless two-faced gesture not lost on any of us who know what it means to be pro-life. We expect more from priests. In the new era of the priesthood, we need to get away from the flimsy, politically-motivated, “empty sutanes” (i.e., cassocks) and look to those who are providing the kind of priestly leadership that really brings souls to Christ.
Thankfully examples of good priests are becoming more readily available these days. One of these guys is Fr. James Farfaglia who is a new member of HLI’s Board of Directors and pastor of St. Helen’s Parish in Corpus Christi, TX. Father has written a book that is second to none in calling men to holiness and accountability for their marriages and their faith. The book is called Man to Man: A Real Priest Speaks to Real Men About Marriage, Sexuality and Family Life. Father James is a very strong priest, and his writing reflects that. His no-nonsense explanations of our fundamental commitments to God and others are a refreshing re-statement of how we are supposed to live – and thrive – in a world hostile to our basic values. Father has spent his priestly life ministering to people in real-life situations, so his pastoral judgment is tried and true.
Please continue to pray for your priests, and commend us to Our Lady; more than anything, pray for a total renewal of the priesthood and hierarchy so that we may be able to stand strong against the evils of the day and meet the severe challenges of the days to come.
Sincerely,
Rev. Thomas J. Euteneuer,
President, Human Life International
My Dear People,
 Preaching to the choir is often a difficult task. Jesus understood human nature completely. While in the synagogue one day, he opened the scriptures and began to teach and preach. This was not an uncommon task for Jewish men of his background. What was unusual, was the manner in which He concluded His teaching that day. Jesus declares, “Today Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.” He began with a passage from the prophet Isaiah. The reference in the passage was about the Messiah. The nature of His Messianic Mission was complex. The “anointed One” would appear on the scene and announce His presence. The Messiah would also be known for his teaching, preaching, and miraculous healings. And so it was, from that point forward, in obedience to the Will of His Heavenly Father, Jesus completed these tasks. Until the Second Coming, Jesus continues to teach, preach and heal through the seven sacraments.
Our most intense healing comes through our frequent Confession and reception of the Holy Eucharist while in a state of grace. Have you had your healing today? When is the last time you were healed by Jesus in the Sacrament of Confession. There is no better way to pray, than through these two powerful sacraments. Come meet Jesus in the Confessional. Prepare well to receive the Eucharist. Pray, Pray, and Pray.
Entrusting you to the care of Our Lady,
Fr. Mark Bozada
May we always pray for good and holy marriages.
  
No Turning Back
From runaway teen to Marian Priest — Fr. Donald Calloway, MIC, has inspired thousands of people around the world to trust in our Lord’s mercy. His radical conversion story is now shared in his latest book, No Turning Back: A Witness to Mercy. You can order Father’s books by visiting his website at www.fathercalloway.com.
“This is an amazing, captivating story, because The Divine Mercy is an amazing and captivating reality. The power of Jesus and Mary move through this story like the power of a ten foot Pacific wave. Read this book and watch the same wave lift Donald Calloway that lifted Paul and Augustine, Francis and Ignatius, from “incorrigible” and “impossible” to “radically converted.” It’s the old, old story and it’s irresistibly new every time. Here, it’s told with winsome candor and simplicity by an ex-druggie, ex-criminal surfer-priest.”
Peter Kreeft, Ph D.
I too have just finished reading Father Donald’s new book, “No Turning Back: A Witness to Mercy.” It is an amazing story of how God can do anything for a soul, if the soul repents, and trusts in God’s infinite mercy. This book should be read by all young Catholics, and for that matter young non-Catholics. Jeff Gares
 In The End My Immaculate Heart Will Triumph My Immaculate Heart will Triumph.
This is the hope that Our Lady gave to us at Fatima. The hope is that no matter how bad things get, we have the promise that her Immaculate Heart will triumph. As the battle for life, unity, truth, goodness, and beauty heats up and becomes a raging fire, the Mother of the Lord in battle array leads the forces of Her Son against the forces of darkness. Her Immaculate Heart, where She conceived Jesus before conceiving Him in Her womb, is the safe refuge for those that fight the good fight. In the end, Jesus will share the victory with His Mother, she who was with Him from beginning to end. Her Immaculate Heart, beating one with the Sacred Heart of Jesus, will triumph over the tidal wave of sin, darkness, and evil that is even now sweeping over all the earth. God Bless,
Father John Corapi
Archbishop Issues Stern Warning
Using the example of St. Thomas More, Archbishop Raymond Burke exhorted legal professionals present at Tuesday’s Red Mass in St. Mary’s Cathedral to keep God before their eyes as they strive to administer justice amidst a “society which is abandoning its Judeo-Christian foundations.” 
“As a Catholic lawyer, it is an incredible honor to be graced with the presence of Archbishop Burke at the Red Mass,” John Kelly, general counsel for the Diocese of Phoenix, told The Catholic Sun. “This is also a man who has publicly and unabashedly defended the teachings of the Church on the sanctity of life. An opportunity to celebrate Mass with someone like this does not come along very often.”
Archbishop Burke presented the story of St. Thomas More, a lawyer who was martyred for choosing to serve God instead of the king. The patron saint of lawyers, the archbishop reminded, is known for exclaiming, “I die the king’s good servant, and God’s first.” “Saint Thomas More understood that there could be no contradiction between his service of his nation and his service of God, and that, in fact, he could only serve his nation truly and faithfully by his true and faithful service of God,” Archbishop Burke declared. As he reflected on the calling of those in the legal profession, the archbishop called to mind the traditional formulation of a definitive sentence, “the judge, in giving the final disposition of the sentence, always first declared: ‘Having God only before my eyes.’”
In our culture, “the law more and more dares to force those with the sacred trust of caring for the health of their brothers and sisters to violate the most sacred tenets of their consciences, and to force individuals and institutions to cooperate in egregious violations of the natural moral law,” he said. “In such a society, the administration of justice is no longer a participation in the justice of God, an obedient response to the prompting of the Holy Spirit, but a façade cloaking our own selfishness and refusal to give our lives for the sake of the good of all our brothers and sisters.” “It is a society which is abandoning its Judeo-Christian foundations, the fundamental obedience to God’s law which safeguards the common good, and is embracing a totalitarianism which masks itself as the hope, as the future, of our nation. Reason and faith teaches us that such a society can only produce violence and death and in the end destroy itself,” Archbishop Burke warned.
Addressing the lawyers and politicians present, he stated, “All of us depend upon you to speak what is just and right on our behalf and on behalf of all our brothers and sisters, especially those whose lives are in any way threatened.”
May we lift up our politicians and judges to the Eucharistic Heart of Our Lord and the Immaculate Heart of his mother, and pray for each of their conversions.
Archbishop Raymond Burke
Edited by Jeffrey David: Read entire article at Catholic News Agency.
My Dear People,
 Baptism of Jesus Did Jesus need to get baptized? The answer would be…no. Jesus Christ chose to be baptized in obedience to His Father’s Divine Will. Luke tells us that at the time of John the Baptist, that the people were filled with expectation anticipating the Messiah. Unlike His Cousin, St. John the Baptist says that he is baptizing with water. Jesus, the Messiah, will baptize with fire and the Holy Spirit. As Our Lord was going down into the waters of the Jordan River for His baptism, He arose to see the Holy Spirit descending upon Him. “You are my beloved son, in whom I am well pleased.” This confirmation from the Father, sets the stage for Jesus’ ministry announcing the Kingdom of God.
We hear this same confirmation again at the time of the Transfiguration; the conclusion of His ministry. Again, we hear the Father saying, “This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased.” Jesus then begins His journey to Calvary. It concludes with the Resurrection of Our Lord from the tomb. Our true freedom comes from our Baptism, like Jesus, we too must discover and remain obedient to the Divine Will of the Father. Ask Jesus for the grace to know and be faithful to the call He has place on your life.
Entrusting you to the care of Our Lady,
Fr. Mark Bozada
May we fulfill our own Baptismal call by giving ourselves entirely to God.
The Passionists Need You To Help With Haiti Earthquake
Fr. Rick Frechette, CP American physician and Passionist priest, has been serving in Haiti for the last 22 years. Most recently he has been overseeing the 120 bed children’s hospital, St. Damien’s, located in Port-Au-Prince. The hospital provides long-term care to critically ill children and provides outpatient service to over 30,000 children and adults each year.
According to Fr. Rick, the hospital has been severely damaged by Tuesday’s earthquake. Parts of the hospital and the chapel have collapsed entirely, in addition to much of the wall surrounding the property.
Fr. Rick was in the U.S. attending to his dying mother at the time of the earthquake but is already on his way back to Haiti. Even prior to the earthquake, Fr. Rick has stated that he has never seen any place as devastated as Haiti with its heartbreaking poverty and desperate living conditions. This latest event compounds what is already a severely distressed city and country, with children being the most vulnerable to the effects of this cataclysmic occurrence.
Please send a donation today to help Fr. Rick in his vital ministry to Haiti’s children.
 Fr. Rick Frechette with Pope John Paul Having lived in Haiti for many years, Fr. Rick will be able to assess where the need is greatest and use your contribution to its maximum potential. With ongoing waves of injured and orphaned children needing immediate attention, 100% of your donation will go to Fr. Rick and his ministry to the neediest of children.
Surely we are witnessing the Passion of Christ unfolding in Haiti. As a Passionist, I hope that together we can help to shoulder this cross.
Please click here to make your online donation. Select “Haitian Relief” from the drop-down menu.
Most importantly, please keep Fr. Rick, his colleagues and staff, and most of all the children of Haiti in your thoughts and prayers. Any amount contributed to this relief effort, I am confident, will bless you a hundredfold in return.
Yours in Christ Crucified,
Father James, CP
P.S. Find our Passionist fan page on Facebook and follow Fr. Rick’s story.
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