Saturday, March 7, 2015

Spiritual Food 1503


I, Father Joseph, received this email, February 23, 2015, from a neocatecumen in a community that I help out from 2005 to 2015.


Dear Father Joe,
Do you think to carry forth your pastoral mission instead of continuing to spread these inaccuracies by way of Facebook and by way of email, and to pass so much time in the digital world….. you do not share our Way… you are free to do so … remember though how you helped us for years and this instrument, in the hands of the CHURCH, helped you for years … you are such an intelligent person that you are not able to see the good that this Way produces in the people and in the ordained persons and also in the church … I wish you a good pilgrimage of life, hoping to see you again soon …
Peace, David


- - - - - - -


The reply of Father Joseph Dwight:


Dear David,


Thank you for your email. I thank you also for your concern for me and for others.


But I am sorry that you do as so many others, to not want to consider another point of view in a true dialogue, with the true motive of seeking the truth together, with trust in our Holy Mother Church. Every morning for the Office of Readings, we pray the Invitatory Psalm which invites us to trust in God and it reminds us of all the benefits of God and to “listen to his voice! Harden not your hearts as at Meribah, as on that day at Massah in the desert…”! How easy it is to do as the Israelites, with harden hearts!


A great number of people in ecclesial movements are attached to feeling important or fulfilled or to be part of an important movement in the Church, and do not want to consider any other point of view or another explanation; they want to defend at all costs their group and their movement and their experience.


Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger said on May 27 1998: “… THERE IS MANIFESTED MANY DANGERS, as well as the ways of overcoming, in the (ecclesial) Movement. THERE IS THE THREAT OF UNILATERALITY which leads to exaggerating the specific mandate which has its origin in a given period or in strength of a particular charism … is a fact THAT CAN LEAD TO ABSOLUTIZING ones own movement, which ends up identifying itself with the Church herself, to understand itself as the way for all while in fact this one way can be made known in different ways.” (http://www.rns-italia.it/vademecum/Vademecum.htm).


THERE IS A STRONG TENDENCY FOR THE PEOPLE IN THE ECCLESIAL MOVEMENTS TO “ABSOLUTIZING ONES OWN MOVEMENT” especially today when we find ourselves more than ever in a social, cultural and spiritual crisis at all levels. But we priests must seek that maturity to not run from this lack of maturity which suffocates the life which is there, but to stand with Mary at the foot of the cross, waiting with patience and with our example, their Christian maturity. One makes a journey of faith and maturity together, each respecting the role and vocation of the other. (see also: http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/john_paul_ii/apost_exhortations/documents/hf_jp-ii_exh_30121988_christifideles-laici_en.html).
(Visit also in Italian: “Il Dio Infinito Fra Noi”; http://cibo-spir.blogspot.it/2014/01/il-dio-infinito-fra-noi.html).


Do we want to help each other reciprocally to seek what God wants in this situation, or do we only want to label (“digital world”) each other in order not to listen to one another so as not to consider what one says or writes, and to defend our position at all costs?


God can reveal the truth in the dense fog by way of people that God chooses, often with instruments who are small and humble and with less intelligence. “For I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children to Abraham” (Mt 3:9).


Why did you not have the courage to enter into what I had written, some phrase that I wrote, and to explain to me that a phrase that I wrote was not in harmony with a document of the Magisterium of the Church, instead of criticizing everything in a general way? This would be a mature way, a true act of love for me and for others! If one writes: “to pass so much time in the digital world”, is this not a general judgment, diversion to lead us further away from the fundamental discourse in order not to confront that which we do not want to confront in a dialogue (also by email) based on the documents of the Church? Or to write: “to carry forth your pastoral mission instead of continuing to spread these inaccuracies by way of Facebook and by way of email”. But do you have the courage to explain “these inaccuracies” not according to relativism of your head or of others around you, but according to the documents of the Magisterium of the Church, and the writings of the popes and of the saints? You were very concerned because I put my article on Facebook, but for you is the Truth important for you? What is more important, to defend the importance, the prestige of your group, or to defend and to follow the Truth which is crucified on the cross?


You, like so many others, do not want to consider the possibility of the seriousness of the situation, today in the Church and in the world, as well as the situation of the Neocatecumenal Way. After having written quite a bit in my two previous emails, I finished the second email with the phrase:
I AM TRULY CONVINCED that if Kiko, Carmen and Father Mario might have trusted in God, in the Magisterium of the Church, instead of themselves, they would have helped many in the Neocatecumenal Way to not gently slide into apostasy (2Thess 2:3-4) in this period of the “great tribulation” (Mt 24:21)!”


In an article, to which I made reference, one finds the seriousness of the situation according to Pope Benedict:
“ROME, April 11, 2012 – With a letter written personally to Cardinal William J. Levada, Benedict XVI has ordered the congregation for the doctrine of the faith to examine whether the Neocatechumenal Masses are or are not in keeping with the liturgical teaching and practice of the Catholic Church.”
A "PROBLEM," IN THE POPE'S JUDGMENT, THAT IS "OF GREAT URGENCY" FOR THE WHOLE CHURCH.”
“Benedict XVI has been ALARMED for some time about the particular ways in which the communities of the Neocatechumenal Way celebrate their Masses, on Saturday evening, in separate locations.”
“In reality, the danger feared by Benedict XVI and by many bishops – as demonstrated by the many complaints that have been made to the Vatican – is that the particular ways in which the Neocatechumenal communities all over the world celebrate their Masses may introduce into the Latin liturgy a new de facto "rite" artificially composed by the founders of the Way, foreign to the liturgical tradition, full of doctrinal ambiguities and a source of division in the community of the faithful.”


As I had included in my last email:
Also Pope John Paul II gave the same recall to the Neocatecumens:
“Celebrate the Eucharist and, above all, Easter, with true piety, with great dignity, with love for the liturgical rites of the Church, with exact observance of the established norms by the competent authority, with the will of communion with all the brothers…” (In Italian: Osservatore Romano, 11 febbraio 1983; http://www.geocities.ws/Athens/Delphi/6919/OR110283.htm).


According to you David, these two popes, John Paul II and Benedict, they are not very enlightened or not guided by the Holy Spirit or they have even made a mistake because they both said to the neocatecumens to observe the established norms, the liturgical books, with fidelity as is required of all the other Catholics in the whole world?


How easy it is for us to put this “great urgency”, this “alarm” of Pope Benedict into the category of an exaggeration of Pope Benedict or of others like Father Joe. Are we attached to something that we want and thus we are not willing to consider another point of view, even from the Vicar of Christ! Do we believe to be above the guidance of the Catholic Church? Do we use all of our intelligence in order to justify our position without taking the risk to have a true dialogue, seeking the truth without personal attachments, putting on the table the documents of the Magisterium of the Church, and the writings of the popes and of the saints? When we are attached to something that we do not want to loose, very often we ask questions not to learn something from someone who is not in agreement with us, but rather to put in place the other person according to our thought or idea, as did the Pharisees with Jesus with the questions (the snares). This is how so many lawyers do in order to defend their client at all costs, without seeking the truth, without considering the possibility that the client is not saying the truth. I met here in Italy one of the lawyers of the famous trial case in California more than twenty years ago, of O.J. Simpson. What a spectacle on American TV everyday for several months; what a mockery of justice!


Reading your email, I do not believe you are willing, like so many others, to consider the point of view of Pope John Paul II and Pope Benedict to “follow faithfully the liturgical books” for the whole Church, and even less, to obey the Magisterium of the Church. If the founders of the movement do not obey the Magisterium of the Church, the Neocatecumenal Way is not as you wrote: “this instrument, in the hands of the CHURCH” if the founders obey only that which they are in agreement with the Magisterium of the Church! I have a very strong impression, after having helped out the neocatechumens for ten years, that what Kiko says is much more important than what the Magisterium of the Church says for the great majority of the neocatecumens, just like their leader, Kiko!


The great majority of Catholics today see religion, the parish, the pastor, ecclesial movements, as something that might be useful for themselves, rather than something that might help them to discover the will of God and to help them to do the will of God! Thus they are looking in the wrong direction, they are not interested in a point of view that does not lead them to what they want! Without a fundamental change in direction, without a fundamental change in where they put their trust (in ourselves or in God), all the books and documents of the Church will not help people to realize that they are not living the “Our Father”: “Thy will be done”, not mine!


God said to Moses: “Behold, I will rain bread from heaven for you… that I may prove them, whether they will walk in my law or not. … I have heard the murmurings of the people of Israel…” (Ex 16:4,11). The people of Israel murmured even after God gave them bread from heaven, as so many Catholics do not respect the Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity of Jesus Christ in the Eucharist. After the resurrection of Jesus, God speaks by way of the Magisterium of the Church. There has been more murmurings against the Magisterium of the Church in the last 50 years (Humanae Vita, Memoriale Domini!) than ever before in the history of the Church. It is very interesting what Saint Francis of Assisi prophesied:
“2. The power of the demons will be greater than usual, the immaculate purity of our religious community and of others, will withered to the point that very few Christians will want to obey the true Sovereign Pontiff and the Roman Church with a sincere heart and perfect charity. At the decisive moment of this crisis, a personage not canonically elected, raised to the Pontificate, will endeavor to administer shrewdly to many the mortal poison of his error.” (http://spir-food.blogspot.it/2013/11/prophecy-st-francis.html).


I repeat the urgency, and the great danger:
I AM TRULY CONVINCED that if Kiko, Carmen and Father Mario might have trusted in God, in the Magisterium of the Church, instead of themselves, they would have helped many in the Neocatecumenal Way to not gently slide into apostasy (2Thess 2:3-4) in this period of the “great tribulation” (Mt 24:21)!”


Cardinal Ivan Dias often cited the phrase of Pope John Paul II: “We are standing before today the greatest fight that humanity has ever seen. I do not believe that the Christian community has totally understood this. We are today before the FINAL CONFRONTATION between the Church and the anti-Church, between the Gospel and the anti-Gospel” (http://www.lastampa.it/2007/12/13/blogs/san-pietro-e-dintorni/lotta-finale-all-anticristo-VjY7tBXJk6gNU3YmWcyOvN/pagina.html).


Strongly surrounded by the atmosphere of relativism today, it is easy to let our hearts to become attached to so many things, not only material, but also our importance before other creatures, and thus we have learned many ways to put aside the writings of the Magisterium of the Church and of the saints and of the popes, in order to justify: “Ignorance is bliss”!
Our Lady at Akita, Japan, said (October 13, 1973):
The work of the devil will infiltrate even the Church in such a way that one will see cardinals opposing cardinals, bishops against other bishops. … The Church will be full of those who accept compromise …” (http://www.miraclerosarymission.org/akita.htm).


I understand this “great urgency”, this “alarm” of Pope Benedict! This is why I also put my article on Facebook. With every member of the Neocatecumenal Way, going door to door for two years in their formation, the Neocatecumenal Way has grown quickly, precisely within the Church, but without obedience to the Church, to the Magisterium of the Church. The way of celebrating the Holy Mass is fundamental (“Lex orandi, lex credenda”!)! If one obeys the liturgical books of the Church, one maintains and one helps to grow the cult of God; if one does not obey the liturgical books of the Church, one slowly goes, in an imperceptible way, toward the cult of man, which is the fundamental strategy of the prince of the world, Satan!


David, you wrote: “you are such an intelligent person that you are not able to see the good that this Way produces in the people and in the ordained persons and also in the church”. And so according to you, Pope Benedict and Pope John Paul II are at least a little crazy and not balanced, as you believe to be, and do not see things in the right way? According to you, Satan is no longer able to “disguise himself as an angel of light”, or perhaps Satan converted?!? The masters of spirituality have always explained to us that this “angel of light always offers us at least 90% of the truth to destroy us, like a drop of poison in a nice glass of red wine; otherwise who would fall into his traps?!? Behold the importance of obedience to the Magisterium of the Church!


According to you David, the truth is established by the majority of the people in the group or by the Catholics or by God? And if you respond by God, how can one discover the truth? By the vote of the people, or by the polls, or …??? You as a Catholic, why did Jesus found a Church? Of what use is the Magisterium of the Church, according to you, or according to the great majority of the Catholics today? “Who do men say…?”
“Now when Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, "Who do men say that the Son of man is?" And they said, "Some say John the Baptist, others say Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets." He said to them, "But who do you say that I am?" Simon Peter replied, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God." And Jesus answered him, "Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jona! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven. And I tell you, you are Peter, * and on this rock * I will build my church, and the powers of death * shall not prevail against it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven”." (Mt 16:13-19).
The “men” had an opinion, but the first pope, Peter, did not offer an opinion. Why David do you believe more the opinions of the people in the community, or the other catechists, or even the founders of the Neocatecumenal Way, more than the Magisterium of the Church???


I come from the United States where there are more than 30,000 independent protestant groups who believe in the same Jesus Christ, the same God, but interpret the same Bible in different ways, often in contradictory ways. Do you believe David that Jesus did not know about this problem? Do you believe that Jesus who said to us that the “Truth shall set you free”, who said that “I am the Truth”, that Jesus did not offer the possibility for those of good will to discover and to live the Truth who is Jesus Christ? Behold the Magisterium of the Church!


David, after 15 years in the Way, you have heard many catechesis, you gave many catechesis, but after everything, for you, of what use is the Church, what is the Church? The documents are only a collection of opinions??? The Catechism of the Catholic Church for adults is only a summary of many opinions gathered together in 2000 years?!?


If the authority of the Church, as God intended, matters very little to you, that which I wrote matters even less to you. I can make many references to the documents of the Church, but we do not realize how far we have slid into the atmosphere of relativism which totally surrounds us today. Relativism is like acid rain, which destroys everything, and we do not realize how far we have slid into relativism without a lot of sincere prayer, in true humility, with the help of our Eucharistic Lord and Mary. You have your opinion and I have mine, and the Church has her opinion, and each pope has his opinion. We are all happy and full of exuberance! But if all is relative, then also relativism is relative, an inherent contradiction! There is no longer the absolute Truth; how nice, what freedom; we are free from the absolute Truth! And thus the documents are not important. God must change according to what the world wants in each epoch. Surrounded by this atmosphere of relativism, I understand why you think something is missing in the brain of Father Joe, a little stupid, or he has lost some balance in his closure in the “digital world”, because Father Joe makes references to the documents of the Church when the whole world today is totally into relativism and thus everything changes as we wish. G.K. Chesterton wrote: “We do not need a Church that is moved by the world, but a Church that moves the world.”
On “The World Over April 9, 2010: George Weigel & Frank Cottrell Boyce” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1NUgaRrHj8k), George Weigel said: “Christianity, and specifically the Catholic Church, is the last obstacle still standing on the chess board to a sweep of the board by the forces of what Pope Benedict called the dictatorship of relativism. The marriage question is engaged here, life issues are engaged here. This is all of a piece…”


If a person does not do as the huge herd running in the world of relativism, toward the cult of man, then he is labels outside of the world, “not politically correct”. But God is outside of the world, and how can we discover the mentality of God when our criteria is based on what the majority of the people think, above all today in the most wicked generation in the history of the world? According to you David, all of the hermits are crazy because they detached themselves from the mentality of the world? How many times in history the world drifted far from God but some saint succeeded in escaping from the “wicked generation (Mt 17:17; Lk 9:41), precisely to save himself and that wicked generation?!? GOD IS NEEDED! Saint Anthony, Abbot, went into the desert; Saint Benedict went to Subiaco; Saint Francis went to Laverna! According to the mentality of the world, they are all crazy because they did not embrace the mentality of the world? After my decision to no longer celebrate a Mass not approved by the Magisterium of the Church, a few people telephoned me to ask me how I was. When I responded well, they asked me if that is the truth, with an attitude or even the hope that I was not doing ok, because how is this possible since I am detached from their special group!?! They must convince themselves that Father Joe is not well in order to justify not listening to what I want to say and their way of doing things. The cult of man! Is not my desert, my Subiaco, my Laverna, my Mount Tabor, an hour everyday before the infinite God in the Tabernacle, one hour beyond the time of the Holy Mass and of the Liturgy of the Hours? The saints passed as much time as possible before the infinite God in the Tabernacle! If God is not before the neighbor, the love that we believe to have for the neighbor is totally human love, nothing divine!


It seems to me that to have lived in two cultures, with two languages, helps a lot to open ones mental horizons, to be able to see the culture of origin from another point of view and to be able to see another culture from the point of view of the first culture. So many insecure people do not listen to another point of view but rather criticize, and even condemn, those who do not think like they do! When we have an experience of only one ecclesial movement there is the great tendency and danger of “absolutizing ones own moment” and to judge everything from one point of view! Archbishop Fulton Sheen, commenting on the Magi and the pastors at the birth of Our Lord, said that the Magi read many books and thus understood that they did not know everything; the people who have read only one book believe to know everything!


Are the saints who left the world all crazy and full of pride according to you, David, because they did not follow the mentality of the world, the herd that stampedes with the cult of man, because they entered into another type of “digital world”, and then they were criticized and condemned by the world? My aunt, Mother Agnes of Divine Love, a cloistered nun, Carmelite, was not prudent or wise according to the people of the world? The world says that these nuns do not concretely contribute something to the world, and thus they have wasted their lives, which are not worth anything! But to the contrary, the Church says that the life of prayer and penance and sacrifice, like the Carmelite nuns, is the higher vocation! But all the saints had in common humility and obedience to the Magisterium of the Church, not to themselves and neither to a group that does not obey the Magisterium of the Church!!!


Behold “What the devil dislikes”:
F) “I am very vexed by those little servants with the head covered who abandon all and everything in order to close themselves within four walls, in order to sacrifice all that is beautiful and good for that God that only I have succeeded in defeating… Day and night they mortify themselves with night prayers and reckless and insubstantial fasting, they do not sleep sufficiently, they do not eat according to the needs of the appetite and of the body which demands the necessary diet, they do not speak freely anywhere and always… taciturn… sulky looking… full of sadness, the most inhuman… they pray, they sing and all this sacrifice they do for who? For what particular motive, for what ends, for what results? Fortunately the vast majority are not very intelligent… dull witted… lacking in willpower who let themselves be dragged in by some dissatisfied priests… poor sissies who do not know the true pleasure of sex with all of its relative pleasures…! Poor little servants, who have never felt the sensations of the flesh, by way of intercourse and by the kisses of my men…! And yet how many of them I cause to fall, I reduce them to a wretched life, sterile, deprived of all fervor, throwing them into the greatest lukewarmness… Yes, I butcher them… because above all I fear the cloistered ones… I fear greatly…! They are my most terrible and well-trained enemies, they rip from my hands so many souls of every sex, of every class and condition… What terrible enemies… when they begin to pray for the conversion of a soul to snatch from me, they no longer stop, no longer… no longer… they are tenacious and obstinate! And then if it is not enough the long and exhausting prayers to their false crucified God, who they shamelessly call their SPOUSE, they then begin with the arduous penances of every type… what enemies… what storm troopers! I have tried many times to diminish the vocations to this stupid life… but unfortunately I have not yet succeeded… there are still too many stupid little and foolish women, even though many times they have college degrees… What enemies…!” (“Likes and Dislikes of the Devil”; http://spir-food.blogspot.it/2014/01/likes-and-dislikes-of-devil.html).


I realize that my two previous emails that I already sent are worth very little for the great majority of people in the Catholic Church and in the Neocatecumenal Way, and among a great number of priests and bishops today who no longer obey the Magisterium of the Church. Because by now, totally surrounded by the atmosphere of relativism, like the air we breath, the documents of the Magisterium of the Church do not count for much at all! What then is our criteria of discernment, if not the Magisterium of the Church?!? If we put aside the law of God explained in its fullness in the documents of the Church, who wins the argument or establishes the law of the land? The strongest one!?! Behold the “dictatorship of relativism”, as Pope Benedict told us!


The devil leads us to look at the exterior things only, which become a distraction, a diversion, so as not to look at the interior content, to not look at everything from the point of view of the Creator of the universe. Thus one does not consider what the person is trying to say, but one looks at how the person is not like the others, he is not normal (like all the prophets!), he must have a problem, he has made mistakes in the past, so it is not taken into consideration what the person is trying to say. But normally God chooses the most ill-fated to do His work for two reasons: 1) only God could have done this with such a miserable instrument, 2) God works only in the humble because the humble trust in God, they make room inside of themselves for God instead of for themselves, and thus they become instruments of God and not of themselves!


“Cursed is the man who trusts in man… Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord” (Jer 17:5,7)!


The devil plays the same game of distractions, of diversion regarding the Church, disseminating slander and lies; he shows us only the sinners in the Church and in the history of the Church – the scandals of some priests, the false presentation of the crusades – so that the people do not arrive at the content, that is, God has given us a guide, a Church made up of sinners, not by perfect angels from heaven, as the critics believe to be! One of the fundamental trials for each one of us is to seek out and find the pearl of great price (Mt 13:46), the “hidden treasure” (Mt 13:44) inside the Church, not withstanding all the filth around that pearl, that treasure, that diamond inside the box often covered with the excrements of the sinners and of the scandals! The protestants and the sects believe to be better, more perfect, and thus have refused the true Church and have lost the fullness of the means of sanctification, the sacraments and especially the Eucharist, and the fullness of the truth with the guidance of the Magisterium of the Church (Lumen Gentium 8) made up of fragile and weak men. One of the strongest proofs that the Catholic Church is the true Church is precisely this, that notwithstanding all the negative things outside and inside the Church, she is still here on the earth after 2000 years, with the Truth that does not change! How else could Jesus assure us that “the Truth shall set you free” (Jn 8:32), or “I am the Truth” (Jn 14:6)?!? It is very important to study the true history! Only God could do this miracle. When Napoleon said to a cardinal that he will destroy the Church, the cardinal responded: “If we bishops have not succeeded in destroying the Church in 1900 years, how do you think you can do it?” The Mass is valid even if the priest is a great sinner and in the state of mortal sin. But the people, again, look at the exterior, and many do not go to the Mass of that priest, even though in that Mass the bread and wine become the Body and the Blood of Jesus Christ, while the poor priest, not repentant, commits a personal sacrilege! When Saint Francis met a scandalous priest, he did not reprimand that priest as the people expected, but he knelt down before that poor priest, kissed his hands, and said to the people around him that from these hands I receive my Lord in the Eucharist and the pardon of my sins”! After this, that poor priest sent away the women in his house and converted with much penance.


Seventy years ago, many Catholics trusted the Church without explanation. Now we must, with great effort, rediscover that God gave us only one Church to guide us in the “dour combat” (CCC 409) of life, in this “valley of tears”, in this “cold and dense fog” in the Catholic Church, provoked by the father of lies (Jn 8:44) who sows many deceptions and lies continuously, as an “angel of light” (2Cor 11:14). The Israelites abandoned God many times, and every once in a while they surrendered to the man of God that God had given them, that is, the judges and the prophets. In the book of Judges alone, the Israelites went through this cycle of abandoning and returning to God seven times!


Our Lady revealed to Father Stefano Gobbi (02-09-1985): “Darkness, with A THICK, COLD FOG, has entered the Church, obscuring it in the splendor of its truth. For this reason, every day, my word is forming you to the spirit of wisdom, that you may always see, in the light, the truth which my Son has taught you and proclaim it with courage to all in its integrity.”


“From some crevice, the smoke of Satan has entered the temple of God” (Pope Paul VI; June 29, 1972; http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/paul_vi/homilies/1972/documents/hf_p-vi_hom_19720629_it.html).


Certainly there are the sects. But according to the world today, totally immersed into relativism, almost all of the saints had the sectarian mentality, because their gaze was totally and continuously turned to God. Look at how many saints left the world to find God! How many people, according to their personal vocation, do not have this courage because human respect is so important to them. “If any one comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple” (Lk 14:26). Jesus is very demanding, more than any other founder of a religion because Jesus is God and can offer heaven! The world believes that Jesus is truly crazy, a fundamentalist, according to the mentality today.


In a certain sense it is a miracle to get to paradise, because it is necessary to detach oneself from the mentality of the world (Jn 17:6; Rm 12:2) which means to not go along with the vast majority. There is always the temptation to judge others who do not believe as we do. But Jesus is radical! There is no doubt! According to the world all of the true Christians are in a cult because Jesus asks for everything, even to loose our friends and relatives. And even to be despised as a egotist and crazy person by the people who surround us. We are truly in the times when the true followers of Christ will be killed in the name of God. “Indeed, the hour is coming when whoever kills you will think he is offering service to God” (Jn 16:2; Mt 24:9)!


“6. Those who preserve their fervor and adhere to virtue with love and ZEAL FOR THE TRUTH, will suffer injuries and, persecutions as rebels and schismatics; for their persecutors, urged on by the evil spirits, will say they are rendering a great service to God by destroying such pestilent men from the face of the earth. But the Lord will be the refuge of the afflicted, and will save all who trust in Him. And in order to be like their Head, [Christ] these, the elect, will act with confidence, and by their death will purchase for themselves eternal life; choosing to obey God rather than man, they will fear nothing, and they will prefer to perish rather than consent to falsehood and perfidy.” (“The “Prophecy” of Saint Francis (Assisi)”; http://spir-food.blogspot.it/2013/11/prophecy-st-francis.html).


And so, if it is difficult to distinguish between people who are in the cults not of God and those who truly follow Jesus totally even to the point of despising the world and even their life, who can help us to distinguish the difference, the right path? The opinion of the majority of the people? If we throw out the guidance of the Magisterium of the Church, what do you offer me David to help me to discern, to distinguish between good and evil? Your opinion? The descision of a founder of a movement? What does 2000 years of history tell us when there were moments and situations similar to what we see today in the Church?


The devil has worked hard to undermine authority, non only that of the Church but also of parents, so that children follow the mentality of the world, not of the parents. But who is the prince of the world (Jn 12:31; 14:30)? If the devil has led us to not care about the documents of the Church nor the Catechism of the Catholic Church for adults, we will be formed by who, by which group? In the end there is only heaven or hell for all eternity! In heaven there is the Truth (Jn 14:6); in hell there is “the father of lies” (Jn 8:44)!


DAVID, HOW CAN WE DISCERN IN THIS SITUATION, THE NEOCATECUMENAL MASS? Behold the fundamental question! What are the fundamental guide posts? Have we slowly embraced the agenda of Freemasonry to throw out the absolute Truth so that the Freemasonry can form our brains, and to lead us where their head, Satan, decides? If we do not have the anchor of the Church, the guidance of the Church which explains to us the Truth of God which does not change, then where are we going, how do we decide things, how can we discern good or evil, for our true good, and for the good of our children and of the society? Without this anchor in the great storm on the sea of life, this “dour combat” (CCC 409), where is our little boat of our life going, or the boat of our community, or the boat of an ecclesial movement? Is there a better anchor than the Magisterium of the Church, David? The Church is not the Author of Truth but the handmaid of Truth!


David, are you trying to discover together what Jesus wants, or what you want, and therefore you do not want to have an open and sincere dialogue with the risk of discovering something that you do not want? I am not saying that I have all the answers in my pocket, and neither are you saying this. But I am saying “dialogue” as Pope John Paul II encouraged us many times to do. A sincere dialogue is to not ask questions to put in line the other person according to our head and without reference to the documents of the Magisterium of the Church, but rather to allow each one to offer his thoughts based on documents and on reality, not according to relativism, of which Pope Benedict said that it is "the most profound difficulty of our time”.


In his homily at the Mass preceding the conclave that quickly elected him Pope Benedict XVI, then Cardinal Ratzinger said: “Today, having a clear faith based on the Creed of the Church IS OFTEN LABELED AS FUNDAMENTALISM. Whereas relativism, that is, letting oneself be "tossed here and there, carried about by every wind of doctrine", seems the only attitude that can cope with modern times. We are building a dictatorship of relativism that does not recognize anything as definitive and whose ultimate goal consists solely of one's own ego and desires.” (http://www.vatican.va/gpII/documents/homily-pro-eligendo-pontifice_20050418_en.html; http://www.ignatiusinsight.com/features2005/colson_relativism_may05.asp).


To some parishioners who grumble because I do not preach or bless a Christianity without the cross of which they are used to, I say: “If I preach according to my head and not according to the Catechism of the Catholic Church for adults, I, Father Joe, will go to hell, and I will not go to hell for anyone!” Today, more than ever, there are a great number of priests who do not preach according to the Catechism of the Catholic Church for adults and they risk going very deeply into hell, and they lead with them many souls, all those who believed and lived their easier and more comfortable lies. This is exactly what Our Lady had Saint Michael the Archangel communicate at Garabandal, Spain, in 1965, precisely when there was a great rebellion at all levels of the Church against Humanae Vitae! The family is the fundamental cell of society and from which every human person has his origins. Behold the fundamental attack of our enemy, who wants to destroy us! If one parent encourages the children to follow Christ’s commandments with the cross, and the other parent says that this is not necessary because God loves you, who will the children follow? The easier way! If one priest in a zone of 10 priests preaches the whole Gospel, without remaining silent about the more difficult parts of the Gospel explained by the Magisterium of the Church, which priest will the people follow, and which priest will the people criticize?


A great number of people are on broad road, “covered with sand and flowers, full of joy, music and all sorts of pleasures. People walked along it, dancing and enjoying themselves. They reached the end without realizing it. And at the end of the road there was a horrible precipice; that is, the abyss of hell. The souls fell blindly into it; as they walked, so they fell. And their number was so great that it was impossible to count them. And I saw the other road, or rather, a path, for it was narrow and strewn with thorns and rocks; and the people who walked along it had tears in their eyes, and all kinds of suffering befell them. Some fell down upon the rocks, but stood up immediately and went on. At the end of the road there was a magnificent garden filled with all sorts of happiness, and all these souls entered there. At the very first instant they forgot all their sufferings” (Diary of Saint Faustina, no. 153). “Today, I was led by an Angel to the chasms of hell… But I noticed one thing: that most of THE SOULS THERE ARE THOSE WHO DISBELIEVED THAT THERE IS A HELL” (Diary, 741) (http://www.saint-faustina.com/Diary/DMIMS1.shtml).


Ignorance is bliss”! But if one does like this one does not unmask the “angel of light” (2Cor 11:14), one does not go toward true liberty, because the uncomfortable truth sets us free, not the truth according to our heads of relativism, or according to the world, that is, according to the prince of this world, Satan (Jn 12:31; 14:30)!


Take courage David, seek the uncomfortable truth by way of dialogue even with those who are not in agreement with you!


Do we want reality and the truth as we want it, or do we confront reality as the reality is, and as the truth is, as do mature adults?!? Unfortunately, the devil has ferociously attacked, in a very underhanded and sly way, the fathers of the families, the priests and the bishops, to lead them to not live their vocation from God, as men, to not be ready to offer the uncomfortable truth on the cross, to not be ready to sacrifice themselves for their wives, for their families, for their parishes, for their dioceses, for the society and for the whole world. And thus many youth and adults today did not have a father or a pastor as an evangelical model, like Jesus, in order to assimilate and to imitate this male model of God in the period of formation especially as a child up to 12 years of age, when the child is fundamentally formed. The television today presents males as misfits, wimps, and cowards, and it strongly pushes us to be “politically correct”, but not correct according to Divine Revelation, not according to a true man of God! Today there is greatly lacking personal discipline to be able to seek and to do and to proclaim the crucified Truth, and to be ready to remain alone on the cross with Jesus abandoned, or at the foot of the cross with Mary desolate, for the true good of others, for the redemption of the world!


Dear David, for your own good I write these things. How many children, today more than ever, did not have a father who loved his children enough to discipline his children? It was recounted on EWTN (TV) that a man in prison for more than 20 years said that his Dad did not love him because his Dad never gave him discipline as a true father, who loves his children (Heb 12:6; Prov 3:12). Children often rebel at discipline from Dad, but children do not respect a Dad who does not discipline his children.


The Servant of God, Archbishop Fulton Sheen used to say: “The truth is the truth even if no one believes it; error is error even if everyone believes it”! The films 60 years ago often gave us this evangelical model of a man, for example, the sheriff in the film: “High Noon” (1952)! Many fake being true males but only up to the point that they do not have to loose something to which they have let their hearts become attached to, especially, the glory before people, slowly sliding into blindness with each compromise in order to defend these attachments. The most true Man was totally humiliated on the cross 2000 years ago; this is the model of the authentic man which today the world, which surrounds us and influences us, does not at all understand, as so many Catholics today! Also how many wives have not put God, the Truth, before her husband or her mother or any other person or thing (Mt 10:37; Lk 14:26)?


The reality today is so overwhelming that without God it is impossible to confront the reality and the truth as it is! Behold the fundamental necessity of humility before the Eucharist with the help of Mary, because without humility, God does not help us, He goes away from us! Jesus said to Saint Faustina: “The greatest misery does not stop Me from uniting Myself to a soul, but where there is pride, I am not there” (Diary, no. 1563). But with God, all is possible (Mt 19:26), even to act as men of God, even if we have not received this formation from our Dad as children.


Dear David, life is tough! It is tough for everyone today because so many Catholics did not pray in the last decades and we have arrived to this point, the period of the “great tribulation” (Mt 24:21)!


But as other saints tell us for these our times, Sister Lucy of Fatima said to Father Agostino Fuentes, the postulator of the cause of beatification of Giacinta e Francesco (December 26, 1957): “Father, it is urgent that we realize this terrible reality. We do not want to fill the souls with fear, but only it is urgent a recall to reality. From when the Holy Virgin gave such a great efficaciousness to the Rosary, there does not exist any material, spiritual, national or international problem that cannot be resolved with THE HOLY ROSARY AND WITH OUR SACRIFICES. To recite it with devotion will be to consol Mary and to wipe away so many tears from her Immaculate Heart. … Our Lady expressly said: “We are approaching the end times”.”


SAINT PADRE PIO said: "It would be easier for the world to survive without the sun than to do so without the HOLY MASS." This saint also said: “The ROSARY is the weapon for these times”!


Saint Louis de Montfort, in his book “True Devotion to Mary” (no. 47), wrote:
“I said that this will happen especially towards the end of the world, and indeed soon, because Almighty God and his holy Mother are to raise up great saints who will surpass in holiness most other saints as much as the cedars of Lebanon tower above little shrubs. This has been revealed to a holy soul whose life has been written by M. de Renty.”


So David, take courage. Spend as much time as possible on your knees before the infinite God in the tabernacle with the Rosary, and “there does not exist any material, spiritual, national or international problem that cannot be resolved”!


Rest assured of my prayers and sacrifices for you.


Don Jo (Joseph) Dwight


- - - - - - -


An Experience of Life:


During my years of university I committed some crimes. For this I was tried and convicted. Now I am serving my sentence. A few Christians came to visit us in jail. I was impressed by the way they talked about the Gospel . Above all they stated that the Gospel can be " put into practice". They used this expression. "Putting it into practice"? I never thought that the Gospel could be even outside the churches. One of them quoted a sentence: "Love your neighbor as yourself." "Like myself," I repeated to myself almost like a mantra. The thought hammered into me that I – really I - could begin to love. To love? I do not know how to do that. I'm not used to showing affection, not even to my parents, to my family, to my friends . And then "who" to love?


I looked up, in front of me was my cellmate. Shortly after arrived the meal. He was hungrier than me. Had I been in his shoes, I would have liked to eat more. I shared with him my ration. Then I realized: my stomach was more empty, but my heart was much fuller than before! Perhaps this is what “to love” means?


- - - - - - -


You can find all three of the last “Spiritual Food”, regarding “THE NEOCATECUMENAL MASS” at:






No comments:

Post a Comment