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The Devil’s Tabernacle!
Fr. Jerry Pokorsky-The pious Lutheran pastor may have had a point. He said the television set was “the devil’s tabernacle.” Some would say he was prescient when he made the observation in the early 1950s. Others would say that “Howdy Doody” and “Leave It to Beaver” and “The Milton Berle Show” (not to mention the “Fulton Sheen” program) were not the stuff of the devil. But today with a series like “Sex In the City” and the adult movies (also known as “arrested-adolescent-sexuality movies”) of expanded cable, few souls could argue with the pastor’s prediction.
Perhaps the pastor did not intend his “devil’s tabernacle” epithet as a prediction. Maybe he understood something about the obsessions of fallen human nature. To be single-minded in the face of danger or opportunity may be virtuous. While any fixation that displaces Christ as the source and summit of one’s life is diabolical, many fixations risk becoming the “devil’s tabernacle”: television, the stock market, hobbies and even human relationships.
In this week’s Gospel, Christ visits two sisters, Martha and Mary. Martha has a fixation of the moment. She is “burdened with much serving” while Mary “sat beside the Lord at his feet listening to him speak.” Martha complains, “Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me by myself to do the serving? Tell her to help me.” There is irony in the request. Mary seems to be suggesting that the Lord is part of the problem, allowing Mary to relax in His presence. Martha is demanding that Jesus fix the problem He Himself allowed through presumed indulgence. Martha, like many mothers, suspected Mary and her Guest were taking her good work for granted.
Christ responds gently (notice the kindly repetition of Martha’s name) but firmly: “Martha, Martha, you are anxious and worried about many things. There is need of only one thing. Mary has chosen the better part and it will not be taken from her.” Always the master of the moment, Jesus sees Martha’s problem for what it is. It is clearly not her busy work of preparation. The problem identified by Christ is Martha’s fixation on anxiety and worry. Her obsession was so untoward that it rose to impatience and resentment and likely some jealousy. One supposes Martha wanted Mary to abandon their divine Guest (perhaps to play solitaire) and help with the work of food preparation.
Food preparation is very important. Ask any priest. But listening to the words of Christ is “the better part.” Ask any (please God) priest. This passage traditionally has become a helpful launching pad to discuss the superiority of the contemplative life over the active life. This is not to disparage the active life in any way. But the contemplative life gives direction to one’s active life (much as the logistical support of an army supports the purposes of soldiers). This distinction is found also in the Book of Genesis. God “works” for six days and “rests” on the seventh, giving man a rule of life. Our work not only is meant to sustain us, but also to direct us to rest and worship on Sunday.
In this fallen world there are many distractions and distortions. Work can become an end in itself — a diabolical object of worship — rather than a necessary and praiseworthy means leading to worship. Similarly other events and conditions of life easily become ends in themselves, or obsessions and fixations. Martha was “anxious and worried about many things.” She was obsessed with worry and made it a kind of “devil’s tabernacle” of alternative worship. Her anxieties displaced Christ, who literally stood before her as the center of her life.
Most of us have a good deal of sympathy for Martha because like her we have our own fixations. In honesty Martha’s preoccupation represents us and our inclinations more than the devotion of Mary. We are anxious about our jobs, our health, our opportunities and our relationships. We too easily forget the loving providence of the Lord while turning over our lives to obsessions and anxieties.
In connection with the devil’s tabernacle and the false worship of our anxieties, elsewhere in the Gospel, Christ is clear:
“Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you shall eat or what you shall drink, nor about your body, what you shall put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing?
“Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And which of you by being anxious can add one cubit to his span of life? And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they neither toil nor spin; yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O men of little faith? Therefore do not be anxious, saying, `What shall we eat?’ or `What shall we drink?’ or `What shall we wear?’ For the gentiles seek all these things; and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things shall be yours as well. Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Let the day’s own trouble be sufficient for the day” (Mt 6:25-34).
To Combat the Evil One!
The Catholic Church’s most famous exorcist says more should be done to fight the devil. Father Gabriele Amorth  has conducted 70,000 exorcisms for the church during his lengthy career.
In an interview with Italian daily, Corriere Della Sera, the 85-year-old priest said it would be worth extending the practice of exorcism.
“It would not be a bad idea,” he told the daily. “In Italy moral decay is evident. Families are often breaking down.
“Do you know what I would do if I was the Pope for a moment?” he asked. “I would provide every opportunity for exorcisms. Like the Orthodox Church. There you do not need the permission of a bishop.”
Amorth recounted his battles against the devil in a dozen books, translated into 28 languages. The latest, Memories of an Exorcist, recounts his experiences with a number of victims with which he worked.
He said when people are possessed by the devil they often speak in incomprehensible languages as well as Greek, Latin and Aramaic.
Priests Praying Exorcism Prayers Produces Great Fruit
NASHVILLE, TN (Catholic Online) – “And how can men preach unless they are sent? As it is written, ‘How beautiful are the feet of those who preach good news!’” (Rom 10:15).
 Priests Praying at Abortion Mill According to tradition, typical demonic responses during exorcism include foul language, references to sexual perversion, deceit, and profuse blasphemy. Similarly, prayers for exorcism outside the Northern Illinois Women’s Center abortuary in Rockford have provoked just such a reaction from pro-abortion workers and activists within.
“Not Against Flesh and Blood, But the Rulers of Darkness”
Their revulsion for anything as holy as a Catholic priest is evident in their bizarre window displays, a few of which reportedly include a nun in a coffin, a rubber chicken hanging from a noose, and a picture of Jesus flipping the bird that says, “Even Jesus Hates You.”
The beautiful thing about this ongoing battle is that the number of abortions has reportedly been cut by half at this abortuary since the spiritual power of the Jesus was first unleashed through the prayers of the priests who have prayed outside since September of 2008. At least, the abortuary seems to blame them and the special prayers of the Church.
Just this past Friday someone inside the building displayed a sign in reaction to a priest and seminarian praying outside that said “F…. Your Perverted Priests.” They have endured personal insults and vandalism of their vehicles. One priest’s car was egged, another discovered a hand-written sign that read “I Rape Children” taped to his car.
Another hand-written sign displayed prominently outside the main entrance to the clinic read “Stop the Perverted Catholic Priests from Raping Young Boys.” In convoluted pro-abortion logic, it seems that somehow child abuse is bad, but abortion is good.
The priests in Rockford quietly stand vigil in every type of inclement weather with open coats, so that the women seeking an abortion are aware that a priest is present in his flowing, seemingly flaming cassock.
Invoking the matchless power of Jesus Christ through the Church, they make sweeping Signs of the Cross and pray that the abortion mill and the whole earth will be cleansed from the evil that surrounds and drives abortion.
Beautiful Victories
The Rockford mill hates and attacks the priests outside so viciously because they, and priests and pro-life workers like them all over the country, have saved countless lives and souls.
When they first began their vigils, it was reported that the pro-life sidewalk counselors in Rockford noticed an immediate, dramatic decline in the numbers of mothers who go there for abortions, a distinct rise in the numbers of mothers who choose life outside the mill, and the correlation of these changes with the beginning of the displays of blasphemy from inside.
The response at this abortuary has been particularly virulent, but priests are praying outside them all over the country through Priests for Life, in which priests and parishes are paired with specific abortuaries.
It is to St. John Vianney that our beloved priests are entrusted, and he said it so eloquently: “Were we to fully realize what a priest is on earth, we would die: not of fright, but of love. It is he who opens the door: he is the steward of the good Lord; the administrator of his goods. Leave a parish for twenty years without a priest, and they will end by worshiping the beasts there. The priest is not a priest for himself, he is a priest for you.”
Because they are priests, they take the good news, uniquely, even into these demonic abortion trenches. As the Year for Priests draws to a close, may we bathe their dusty, tired, beautiful feet with the anointing of our prayers. Amen.
Father Roger Landry-A few weeks ago, when I began this miniseries on St. John Vianney as a confessor, I asked why so many men and women from throughout France made enormous sacrifices to get to the barely accessible hamlet of Ars to go to confession. I replied at the time with the words of one of the several hundred thousand reconciled sinners who had made such a pilgrimage: they came to Ars because there was something truly special about the confessor. They believed they were encountering “God in a man,” someone whose radiant holiness gave them a glimpse of the irresistible beauty of God’s merciful love.
That explanation is no doubt true from the subjective perspective of many of the penitents. But I don’t think it’s an exhaustive explanation. While only God knows all the reasons why St. John Vianney’s confessional was teeming while so many other confessionals in France were vacant, it seems plausible that the fundamental reason was that God himself was drawing them there. I like to think, moreover, that one of the reasons God was moving his sons and daughters to confess to this simple priest in a tiny village was because St. John Vianney “earned” and “deserved” them far more than other priests.
God, who cannot be outdone in generosity, seemed reward the constant prayers and heroic sacrifices of St. John Vianney for the conversion of others. Just as no other confessor in history has heard so many confessions for so many years as the Curé of Ars, so probably no other priest prayed and sacrificed as much for the conversion necessary to bring sinners to the confessional.
“I can’t stop praying for poor sinners who are on the road to hell,” he once said. “If they come to die in that state, they will be lost for all eternity. What a pity! We have to pray for sinners!” He said that praying for sinners was the “most beautiful and useful of prayers” because “the just are on the way to heaven, the souls of purgatory are sure to enter there, but the poor sinners” will be lost forever. He said that all devotions are good but “there is no better one” than such prayer for sinners.
“What souls we can convert by our prayers,” he said on another occasion. Paraphrasing the Lord’s words to the Prophet Ezekiel, he added, “The one who saves a soul from hell saves this soul and his own as well.”
When he talked about praying for sinners, he wasn’t describing merely a short invocation, but a serious program of persistent supplication. When a parishioner asked him how more effectively to pray for sinners, the patron saint of priests responded with a list of things that seem to have an autobiographical tone to them. “One can offer himself as a victim for 8-15 days for the conversion of sinners. One can suffer cold, heat, deprive oneself of looking at something, go visit someone who would appreciate it, make a novena, attend daily Mass for this intention in places where it is possible. Not only would one contribute to God’s glory by this holy practice [of praying for sinners], but one would obtain an abundance of grace.”
He prayed so much and so insistently precisely because he was convinced that the conversion of some from the state of mortal sin to grace was a true miracle that only God can work. “A great miracle is needed to raise a poor soul in that state,” he taught in one of his catechism lessons. “Yes, a greater miracle than what the Lord did to raise Lazarus!” To resuscitate a dead body pales, he thought, to resurrecting a soul from death.
St. John Vianney’s existence, like Christ’s before him, became one great prayer for the miracle of the conversion of sinners. “I am only content,” he said, “when I’m praying for sinners.” One of the reasons for his was that he knew, by what seems to be a divine intimation, that such prayer pleased God immensely. “The good God has made me see,” he said to one of his friends, “how much he loves that I pray for poor sinners. … I don’t know if it were really a voice I heard or a dream, but, whatever it was, it woke me up and told me that to save a soul in the state of sin is more pleasing to God than all sacrifices. For that reason, I do all my resolutions for penance.”
His heroic praying for sinners was the prehistory for so many of the miracles of conversion that took place in his confessional. His confessional had the longest continuous lines in Church history because he prayed more than anyone in history that people would get in that line of salvation.
His example is an inspiration to all priests and faithful to imitate him in this prayer. The same Lord who was pleased to answer his persevering pleas so lavishly stands ready to respond to ours.
(edited by Jeff Gares)
Being as last week was “Good Shepherd Sunday,” this week could be considered “Nice Shepherd Sunday.” Fr. John Speakman, Homilies and Reflections from Australia, has a classic parody about the Good Shepherd.
I don’t know where he found this picture, but it’s one of the most brilliant and creative ones I’ve seen.
 Wolf in Sheep's Clothing Jesus shared with his disciples,
“I am the Nice Shepherd.
I never say no to my sheep. They love me and I love them and I do anything they want. When the wolf comes I smile and say hello and welcome him into the flock because my flock is inclusive and welcoming.
Other shepherds are not nice. They are divisive and bullying. They have rules for the sheep. They do not accept the wolf and do not let the sheep play with him.
I am the Nice Shepherd. I lay down for the sheep and the wolf. They love me lots and call me by my first name. We love ourselves and we form community. We do not like those other sheep who will not play with the wolf. We do not have them in our flock. We call them names and show them they are unwelcome because they are not welcoming like us.”
 Bishop Jaime Soto HT St. John’s Valdosta blog – Bishop Jaime Soto, Coadjutor for the Diocese of Sacramento, addressed the National Association of Gay and Lesbian Ministries (at their invitation). Several members, expecting the liberal affirmation they were used to, walked out when Bishop Soto surprised them by speaking the TRUTH of the faith, including this statement:
“Sexual intercourse, outside of the marriage covenant between a man and a woman, can be alluring and intoxicating but it will not lead to that liberating journey of true self-discovery and an authentic discovery of God. For that reason, it is sinful. Sexual relations between people of the same sex can be alluring for homosexuals but it deviates from the true meaning of the act and distracts them from the true nature of love to which God has called us all. For this reason, it is sinful.”
Which is more surprising the invitation or the Bishop’s quote?
EWTN News
Indiana Rep. Brad Ellsworth (D-Ind.) was able to vote for the health care bill despite pro-life objections because Catholic groups which endorsed the bill helped confuse politicians and provided an excuse to ignore “the constant position of the bishops,” Bishop Gerald A. Gettelfinger has charged.
Writing in his diocese’s newspaper The Message, the Bishop of Evansville, Indiana noted that statements supporting the health care bill were released by the Catholic Health Association (CHA) and Network. The statement from the latter group was signed by many leaders of religious women’s communities.
 “You need to know that the public statements of Network and the Catholic Health Association in support of the Health Care Bill before the vote were not in unity with the United States Catholic of Catholic Bishops,” Bishop Gettelfinger told his readers.
While calling the two groups “legitimate organizations” within the Church in the United States, he emphasized that they do not hold the Church’s teaching authority.
“Congressman Brad Ellsworth knows that!” the bishop wrote.
Rep. Ellsworth was part of the twelve-person coalition of pro-life Democrats seeking strong statutory abortion restrictions in the bill. Coalition leaders agreed to vote for the bill after a promised executive order from President Obama.
But before the agreement, when the final vote tally was still in doubt, Rep. Ellsworth decided to vote “yes” on the bill after the two Catholic groups’ endorsements.
“It is clear that when there is apparent division within the Church by recognized and legitimate groups within the Church, those who do not fully understand may be easily confused,” Bishop Gettelfinger continued.
He said the Network and CHA statements were “divisive” and either “beclouded” skittish pro-life politicians or “gave them a cloud to hide under.”
The bishop reported that he had worked “very closely” with the Congressman in recent months but Ellsworth has not been in contact with him after his effort to encourage him to align with the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ (USCCB) opposition to the bill because of its flaws in abortion funding and other areas.
“I am personally and greatly disappointed in Congressman Ellsworth,” Bishop Gettelfinger continued, saying that in the published reports of the Congressman’s decision to support the bill he cited the positions of CHA and Network as a defense.
“In doing so, Congressman Ellsworth excused himself by sidestepping the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops who have worked exceedingly hard with him on these very critical moral matters.”
The bishop closed his column by encouraging prayers for the Congressman and all in the political arena to protect the lives of the unborn and the poor.
Chicago bishop: abortion ‘quietly’ decimating black community
By Matt C. Abbott (with permissions)
Lamenting the news early this year that “the number of abortions performed in Illinois reached a 10-year high in 2008,” Chicago Auxiliary Bishop Joseph Perry describes in a written statement/talk how the black community in general has been profoundly affected by abortion.
Bishop Perry, who is African-American, writes:
“Abortion killed at least 203,991 blacks in the 36 states and two cities (New York City and the District of Columbia) that reported abortions by race in 2005, according to the CDC. During that same year, according to the CDC, a total of 198,385 blacks nationwide died from heart disease, cancer, strokes, accidents, diabetes, homicide and chronic lower respiratory diseases combined. These were the seven leading causes of death charted for black Americans that year.”
 Bishop Perry asserts that “African Americans have a keen understanding of civil rights and are often hard-pressed to be found on the opposite side of an argument for” moral issues such as abortion and same-sex marriage.
Still, abortion “is a topic essentially kept hush-hush in the black community, defying the often quoted mantra that black families are welcoming of their children, all children, anybody’s children, legitimate and illegitimate.”
Bishop Perry also notes that the abortion industry specifically targets the black community. He writes:
“Dr. Alveda King, niece of slain Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., is a pro-life activist. In August 2007, she told a meeting of Priests for Life ‘those abortionists plant their killing centers in minority neighborhoods and prey upon women who think they have no hope…. the great irony is that abortion has done what the Klan only dreamed of.“
Catachesis and Evangalization Are The Key
Bishop Perry calls the large number of abortions procured by African-American women “alarming” and believes there is “urgency for catechesis and evangelization in our black churches and the wider community.”
Abortion “is quietly spelling the decimation of the black community in our society,” writes Bishop Perry.
“Considering the gun violence … in many of our urban areas as well as the violence of abortion and pervasive breakdown of marriage and family life, religious and community leaders are trying to get the community to stop and reflect upon the cultural and moral disintegration that is evident in our communities.
“In churches all over, prayer is constantly raised for a change of heart on part of persons considering abortion and especially on part of our lawmakers. In parishes and in dioceses all over the country, Catholics consider the subject of abortion one of the chief witnesses of our modern times for which we are pledged to continue to raise awareness about alternatives to abortion, particularly, to let women in trouble be aware that they have other options….
“The Church’s articulation offers Catholics and other sympathetic individuals a higher consciousness, one grounded in the teachings of Jesus Christ in the gospels. Notions of freedom in the secular city are simply inadequate at framing a proper moral analysis of this great evil. Human life is sacred. When we dismantle life at its source, nothing can stop one from reasoning to dismantling life at any stage of development.”
Bishop Perry concludes:
“In the final analysis, there are certain things we can never do and certain things we can never be simply because we love and admire Jesus Christ. And once we have handed over our lives to Him, the playing field suddenly shrinks and options are few. One option remains, and that is to do that which is good and to hold the good above every expediency.”
On a related note, the targeting of the black community by the abortion industry — specifically Planned Parenthood — is the subject of Maafa 21, a documentary produced by Texas-based Life Dynamics.
The documentary even has the strong endorsement of Father Frank Pavone, national director of Priests for Life, who said, “Maafa 21 must be seen by everyone who values freedom and equal rights.”
See the trailer for Maafa 21 here.
Bishop Perry’s full statement can be read on www.blackcatholicchicago.org.
Is the Loss of the
Sense of  Sin!
(CNA/EWTN News).- Participants in this week’s course on the hearing Confessions met with the Holy Father in audience on Thursday morning. To the group of priests, Pope Benedict XVI underlined the importance of guiding their flocks “not to conform itself to this world” and the necessity of opening a “dialogue of salvation” with those who seek forgiveness.
Remembering the Cure of Ars, St. Jean Vianney, as having “exercised heroically and fertilely the ministry of reconciliation,” the Holy Father said that priests can learn “not only an inexhaustible trust in the Sacrament of Penance… but also the method of the ‘dialogue of salvation’ that must be carried out in it.”
The roots of this “heroicism and fecundity,” explained the Holy Father, are found “above all, in an intense personal penitential dimension.”
“Awareness of one’s own limits and the need to turn to Divine Mercy in order to ask forgiveness, to convert the heart and to find support on the path of saintliness, are fundamentals in the life of priests. Only someone who has himself experienced greatness can convincingly announce and administer the Mercy of God,” the Holy Father explained.
Living in a society “marked by the hedonistic and relativistic mentality, that tends to erase God from the horizon of life,” does not lend to the development of “a clear framework of reference values does not help to discern good from evil and mature a just sense of sin,” the Pope observed.
 This, Benedict XVI noted, is not very different from the period in which St. Jean Vianney lived, marked as it was by “a mentality hostile to the faith, as expressed by certain forces that even sought to prevent the exercise of the priestly ministry.”
“In these circumstances, the saintly ‘Cure of Ars’ made ‘the church his home’ in order to lead men and women to God,” the Pope added, “and he appeared to his contemporaries to be an evident sign of God that he encouraged many penitents to come to his confessional”.
Thus, the Holy Father urged, “it is necessary for priests to live their own response to vocation ‘exaltedly,’ because only someone who daily becomes a living and clear presence of the Lord can arouse a sense of sin in the faithful, give them courage and stimulate their desire for forgiveness from God.”
There is a necessity for priests to return to the confessional, Benedict XVI emphasized, to ensure that the people “find mercy, counsel and comfort, feel loved and understood by God and experience the presence of the Divine Mercy, alongside the real Presence in the Eucharist.”
The Holy Father also touched on the “crisis” of participation in the Sacrament of Penance. He said that this lack of repentance is “an appeal addressed first and foremost to priests and to their great responsibility to educate the people of God in the radical demands of the Gospel. In particular, it calls on them generously to dedicate themselves to hearing sacramental confessions, and courageously to guide their flock not to conform itself to this world, but to make choices that go against the tide, avoiding deals and compromises.”
This is the task of the priest, Pope Benedict concluded, to open a “dialogue of salvation” with their penitents, as suggested by the “Cure of Ars.” A dialogue that, “arising from the certainty of being loved by God, helps man to recognise his own sin and progressively to introduce himself into a stable process of conversion of heart, which leads to the radical rejection of evil and to a life lived in accordance with God’s wishes.”
Young priests have been taking part in a conference on Confession promoted by the Apostolic Penitentiary this week in the Vatican. The course is focused on “moral and canonical themes that involve the penitential ministry” and has touched on specific and delicate circumstances such as confession for divorcees and pedophiles.
Priest Was Supported By His Bishop
REUSEL, Netherlands, February 22, 2010 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The Dutch Catholic priest who withheld Communion last week from his town’s openly homosexual Carnival “prince” was faced at Mass this Sunday with a protest from homosexual activists. Saying that he feared “sins” and “sacrilege,” the priest chose not to distribute Communion at all.
“Communion is a moment of respect and reverence, not an object of protest,” stated Fr. Luc Buyens.
Protesters, led by town council member Dick Boonman and Gay Krant editor Henk Krol, distributed pink triangles with the word “Homo,” to be worn on the chest at Mass. The protest was held at the parish after Fr. Buyens chose to deny Communion to homosexual Gijs Vermeulen, 24, on February 13th.
Vermeulen was the “prince” of the town’s annual Carnival, a traditional pre-Lenten celebration. At the customary Carnival Mass, the prince addresses the congregation and then leads them forward in receiving Communion.
But, because Vermeulen had been public about his active homosexuality leading up to the festivities, Fr. Buyens contacted him the week before the Carnival Mass to advise him that he would not be able to receive Communion. The priest offered to give him a blessing, and allowed him to address the congregation. Vermeulen attended the Mass, stating that he did not want to “spoil the party,” but did not go up for a blessing.
In response to this week’s protest, Fr. Buyens decided not to distribute Communion at the Mass after consulting his bishop in Den Bosch.
The diocese issued a statement today noting that Mass is not an appropriate venue for protest. They pointed out, further, that homosexual tendencies do not bar a person from receiving Communion, but rather it is the active practice of homosexuality that presents the problem. The diocese asked for respect of the Catholic teaching that practicing homosexuals not receive.
Radio Netherlands Worldwide reports that Fr. Buyens stated after Mass on Sunday that he would maintain his stance against distributing Communion to open homosexuals.
DutchNews.nl reports that homosexual activists are planning to protest at St. John’s Cathedral in Den Bosch next Sunday in order to challenge the bishop.
By Patrick B. Craine, journalist for LifeSiteNews
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