Blogposts

Take Action to stop doctor-assisted suicide in NYS

12-28-2023From the desk of Fr. Villa

Pressure is being brought again to pass an Assisted Suicide Bill in New York State. Please contact your senator and assemblyman to oppose any assisted suicide bill. This is part of the culture of death along with the wholesale taking of the lives of unborn children in our country.

The Hippocratic Oath that doctors take proclaims: “I will keep [the sick] from harm and injustice. I will neither give a deadly drug to anybody who asked for it, nor will I make a suggestion to this effect.” This is an essential precept for a flourishing civil society. No one, especially a doctor, should be permitted to kill intentionally, or assist in killing intentionally, an innocent neighbor.

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The Great Tempter

05-14-2023From the desk of Fr. Villa

In his useful book on the devil called, The Great Tempter, Cardinal Dionigi Tettamanzi, gives us ten salutary points by way of a “decalogue against temptation”:

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Ideology of Gender as “Secular-Religion”

05-07-2023From the desk of Fr. Villa

Gender-ideology is the fastest growing “religion” in this country. Like many religions, its “theology” involves a transformation: the moment in which a person transforms from one gender to another. Converts to this faith abandon their old lives and embrace a whole new one: their previous identities no longer exist. They are dead names. They believe that they themselves are a god with the power to control nature and, if you think about it, this should be cause for concern because it is a recipe for extremism. People who believe they are a god tend sometimes to react very badly when told that they are not. There is no greater mental illusion than the illusion of being a god, and this is exactly what this ideology teaches its followers: you are a god, you can change nature with your will and thinking.

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What we must do when we are wounded

04-25-2023From the desk of Fr. Villafrom Chapter 26 of The Spiritual Combat by Lorenzo Scupoli

When you feel yourself wounded, from having through your weakness, or even through willfulness it may be, fallen into some sin, do not be discouraged nor be over-anxious, but turn at once to God, and say unto Him:—"Behold, O Lord, what of myself I have done; what else could be expected of me but falls?" Then, pausing a little, humble yourself in your own eyes, bewail the offence which you have committed against your Lord, and without discouragement rouse your indignation against your vicious passions, and especially against that one which caused your fall.

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Contraception: the 'common ground' that devastates family life by Phil Lawler

04-23-2023From the desk of Fr. Villa

[In his commencement address at Notre Dame, (years ago), President Obama suggested that advocates and opponents of abortion should find common ground in a campaign to prevent unwanted pregnancies. Although he did not flesh out that suggestion, he clearly intended to suggest more aggressive promotion of contraceptives. That option should be recognized as unacceptable-- not just by Catholics, but by anyone attuned to the prescripts of natural law and indeed the realities of modern life. More than a decade has passed since I published the op-ed below; it originally appeared in several US newspapers as the world marked the 30th anniversary of the prophetic encyclical Humanae Vitae.

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Words Every Catholic Should Know and Meditate on About the Eucharist

04-06-2023From the desk of Fr. Villa

Transubstantiation: The Church makes use of this word in the Catechism to help us understand the meaning of the Holy Eucharist. A substance is what something is. Material substances have an outward appearance: color, weight, size, etc. In the Holy Eucharist bread stops being bread and wine stops being wine. At the Consecration bread becomes Jesus Christ: Body, Blood, Soul, Divinity; wine becomes Jesus Christ, Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity. The appearances (species) of bread and wine remain. Only God can do this. The changing of water into wine by the Lord at the wedding in Cana was a manifestation that Jesus is God who brings things into being through His Word but also it was preparing the disciples for the power of Christ’s word at the Last Supper changing bread and wine into Himself.

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Keep Holy the Lord’s Day, 3rd Commandment

03-08-2023From the desk of Fr. Villa

453. How does one keep Sunday holy? Christians keep Sunday and other days of obligation holy by participating in the Eucharist of the Lord and by refraining from those activities which impede the worship of God and disturb the joy proper to the day of the Lord or the necessary relaxation of mind and body. Activities are allowed on the Sabbath which are bound up with family needs or with important social service, provided that they do not lead to habits prejudicial to the holiness of Sunday, to family life and to health. (Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church)

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The Meaning of “INRI” On the Cross of Jesus

02-22-2023From the desk of Fr. Villa

In Exodus 20.2 God reveals his name to Moses: "I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt". The word translated with “the Lord” is the famous Tetragrammaton (Greek for “four-letter”) that the Jews cannot even pronounce and Christians should reverence: “YHWH“, vocalized in various ways including “Yahweh“. The four Hebrew letters that compose it are these: “יהוה “, yod-he-waw-he. Remember that Hebrew is read from right to left.

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Edgar Allen Poe’s Forgotten Hymn to Our Lady

12-07-2022From the desk of Fr. Villa

You probably know Edgar Allen Poe’s dark poetry The Raven and short stories The Tell-Tale Heart, but did you know that he wrote a hymn to the Blessed Virgin Mary?

The 12-line hymn to Our Lady was first published in 1835 within his short story Morella, sung by the title character. Ten years later it was published as a stand-alone poem with the title A Catholic Hymn.

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