What Priests do. (from CourageousPriest.com)

Mr. Hoopes wrote an excellent tribute to priest.   It is so good I realized that you would have some beautiful memories.  Do you have any you want to share?  Please leave a comment below.

by TOM HOOPES:  The greatest priestly action I have ever seen was at Mass on a hot summer Sunday at St. Mary’s Parish in New Haven, Conn.

This was back before the parish had air conditioning. It was tough for the congregation, but worse for the visiting priest who said Mass in the summer. He had diabetes and some kind of degenerative nerve disorder that made his hands shake.

Catholic Priest Hearing Confession & Praying the Rosary

“It’s hot for you,” he would joke. “But I’m up here wearing a horse blanket!”

This priest’s homilies were excellent, but the moment that is burned in my memory happened during the Eucharistic prayer.

Father was slowing down through the first part of the prayer, like an old record player that needed to be cranked. When he started the consecration, it sounded like he was going to stop altogether.

But after he started the consecration, it quickly became clear that nothing could make him stop.

“Take this,” pause, “all of you,” pause, “and” … long pause … “eat it.”

He took a long gasping breath and looked like he wouldn’t recover. A parishioner ran to his side. The priest made it clear he wasn’t about to leave the altar, so the parishioner brought a chair for him to rest on.

“This … is … my … body … which will be … given up … for you.”

He lifted the host with shaky hands. We watched in rapt silence.

He slowly worked through “When the supper was ended, he took the cup …”

And then a replacement priest had been brought over from the rectory.

But Father wasn’t about to stop halfway through the consecration.

Word after agonizing word, he got to the end of the consecration.

By then, an ambulance had come. After he elevated the chalice, he was carried away on a stretcher.

Then the replacement priest stepped up to the altar. “Let us proclaim the mystery of faith,” he said.

Talk about alter christus. Watching that priest was like watching Our Lord consecrating the Eucharist — from the cross.

“Mom, why wouldn’t he stop?” the kids asked their mother in the car.

“Because he’s a priest,” said April. “That’s what priests do.”

She was right. It is vitally important that priests preach and that they do it well. But preaching isn’t the most important thing priests do. A priest doesn’t need to be talented, interesting or well-read to do the most important things priests do.

Not enough evidence

I listened to the radio today and on it was a man who says he was a preacher of some kind and has now converted to Atheism.  His claim was that there is simply not enough evidence.  This makes me ask as simple question, what kind of evidence are we talking about?  Does he mean empirical?  Then aside from the miracles around the world, which would require faith (more on that latter), then he is right.  The invisible, omniscient God is not confined to what we considered to be empirical evidence.  To be able to point to a scientific fact of some kind and say," yep there it is God has been proven by this scientific means." would mean God is not God.  That would imply that we can narrow him down, or fully understand him in some way.  It would make God a created thing, as all physical things have a creation, thus he would not be above us or beyond us.  In a word he would not be God. That said, the touch of God can be seen in every single created thing.  His Glory is revealed in creation.  If you cannot look into a mirror and see the glory of God, it is not that the evidence is lacking, but grace and when grace is absent blindness is the result.  This man's atheism began when he stooped praying, he did not play because he became arrogant. Prayer automatically leads to humility, when prayer stops pride sets in.  Before long this man began to rely on his own mind, and when his finite mind could not grasp the highest good in all its wonder, which is God, he fell into darkness while staring into the sun.  Now because of his blindness he cannot see the light that is all around him and in creation, so thus he can’t see the evidence and concludes the sun must not exist.  That is answering if he simply means empirical, but I think he must mean it in that sense because if he means with reason, then he is simply irrational.  During this radio show he said he would rather we focus on those children who are suffering.  The question is, if there is no objective standard for Right and wrong, good and bad, then why?  Who cares about anyone else?  If all I am is self absorbed, devoted to my own survivals, then I do not care about anyone, including my children.  To say “well I must be concerned because if civilization fall apart then it puts the collective in danger which I happen to be a part of" is a big stretch to say the least.  Forget that fact that no animal on earth thinks this way, or can even reason at all, but the actions of one who is concerned for survival alone would be to conquer them when they are week and use them for food or slavery.  In a world he claims that is so selfish there has been extraordinary acts of selflessness, one need only point to the Saints.                                 

I am going to move on because that is not his real argument at all, in fact it is a red herring, a distraction.  The real argument is this, how can he ever use any valuable words or thinking while denying the metaphysical realities, which are the invisible, or spiritual realities.  He clams we need justice, a word that has no way of really being proven.  No empirical data can prove "Justice" "Love" "Peace" "Right" "Wrong".  Put simply he is betting on nothing, at the very least I am betting on something, that there is a God, and something is always better than nothing. It is an act of irrationality to claim God does not exist, and thus unscientific.  Science does not make claims, only theory's.  It also does not ask the question why but how.  If God exists then words such as “suffering”, and “love”, do not have any value. Evil would only be a matter of perception, which ends in relativism.  With God the world makes little sense, because it is a mystery, without God it does not make ANY sense.   In the end Faith is needed, even more so with an Atheist.  He must take it on faith that every act of creation came into being without any creator at all, It simply just happened.  He must take it on faith that what is said by a scientist is fact, that 2+2 is 4 and not some other number, because without an objective standard it is all opinion.  Either God created the universe where math is what it is, or we simply made it up             

Selctive Abortion

This is the link to the report i found on Spirit Daily:  http://www.lifesitenews.com/news/sex-selection-abortion-ban-wins-strong-house-majority-but-fails-to-clear-2

once again we have a chance to aid in the battle against the evil, Nazi ideal we know as abortion.  Yet, we once again get lose that battle in a so called "prof-life" country thank you to our leaders.  The funny thing is we put them there and then do not kick them out.  Now this is not a political issue.  It happens to be being discussed in the political arena, but the issue is one of morality, ethics, and basic human rights.  The so called leaders who voted against this ban sound allot like allot of so called Catholics..or i should say ex Catholics, as in case you did not know any support ( and that also means if you do nothing to stop it) of abortion means automatic excommunication...see CCC 2271-2274..in fact here is a little snip
"2272 Formal co-operation in an abortion constitutes a grave offence. The Church attaches the canonical penalty of excommunication to this crime against human life. 'A person who procures a completed abortion incurs excommunication latae sententiae' 'by the very commission of the offence', and subject to the conditions provided by Canon Law. The Church does not thereby intend to restrict the scope of mercy. Rather, she makes clear the gravity of the crime committed, the irreparable harm done to the innocent who is put to death, as well as to the parents and the whole of society.
2273 The inalienable right to life of every innocent human individual is a constitutive element of a civil society and its legislation"
If anyone does not think the war is real, that it is simply an invisible war with no effect on the "Real World", then they need to re learn there Catholic faith...which is to say open there eyes to the 53million and counting babies who have been murdered. Hitler would be impressed, we not only got to do the same thing but even convinced women and the world that it is a moral good, a choice, a responsible action for ones life and body.  Hitler forced death on the Jews, and other faiths.  Not in America, we do it better, we got them to chose it for them selves.  Has anyone read " A Modest Proposal"?  The feminist movement, whom i consider to be traitors to women, must have not only read it but consider it there plan of action.  Time is running out for all of us, how l long will the blood of babies cry to God for justice and we do nothing?  We have it so made in this country, yet we still complain about everything...except the murder of babies..i mean no one wants to be bothered with what it really is.  Well not here, not in the Cohort, i will show you what ois really going on.         

This Is what we are talking about, and if you think this is horrible...you'er right my only question is how in the hell is this "My choice?"  "My body?"  Why do you not want to see the truth, deny reality, and go to mass? If anyone reading this thinks this is blood is not on all of our hands..then i pray for your soul when you stand before God and HE shows this picture and asks you through his tears, why you, and I, did NOTHING? We at times say God is not fair to allow evil in the world, well if he was "fair" what do you think he would do to all of us for this genocide?  But wait now there is more, now we can kill off girls before they are even born.  "Your going to have a girl".."what? i do not want a girl i want a boy" "well we can terminate and you can try again."  Oh, Vin, that is crazy and unheard of..Really???  ask China about that one.  it is perfectly legal  in America to kill a child because that child is a girl.  The Teaching is clear, if you abort, you are aborting you soul.  I can not say that any specific person is in hell but people, just like people who support abortion, are in hell.    

   

Gendercide-and they call US sexist

I am sending this from my phone but I had to make a quick post after reading spiritdaily's report on the gender IDE ban that was shot down. For years the Church has warned of the consaquences of birth control and abortion. The world called the Church,and still does, sexist and hateful. Yet here we are all but endorsing the extermination of women. At least we are not the first as china has done it for years, yet here we are following there ungodly example. I will go into more when I'm back home but we as Catholics need to get busy or we will be the first to meet Gods punishment.