Blogposts

Septuagesima: Farewell Alleluia. A New Year of Grace

01-28-2024Weekly ReflectionFr. Leonard F. Villa

Pius Parsch once cogently argued that the Liturgical Year - the Church's Year of Grace - doesn't begin with Advent Sunday, but with Septuagesima Sunday! For at Septuagesima, the Matins Lesson begin "In the beginning...", with Genesis chapter one, verse one. The sober liturgy proceeds through the account of Man's Creation and Fall, and then through the Patriarchs and God's continual call of them back from doom to salvation - at Sexagesima, Noë and the Flood; at Quinquagesima, the call of Abraham.

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The Continuing Crisis: Particular Battles

01-21-2024Weekly ReflectionFr. Leonard F. Villa

There is and has been a continuing crisis in the Church of long duration. Bishop Fulton Sheen predicted years ago a future destructive anti-church or counter church. More on that in a future essay. The crisis involves those, who no longer believe the doctrinal and moral teachings of the Catholic Church, while claiming to be Catholic; and the effort within the Church to conform her morality and teaching to the world’s agendas especially in the area of marriage and sexuality. The crisis involves the metastasis of a false teaching called modernism condemned by St. Pius X in the early part of last century.

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What Is the Cause of Unbelief?

01-14-2024Weekly ReflectionFr. Leonard F. Villa

The Gospel reveals this to us: ….Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. 20 Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that their deeds will be exposed. John. 3:19-20 Unbelief is sinful because the world is able to believe: the Light has come into the world and has shone in the darkness, to people is given the possibility of exiting the darkness and come into the light. But only he who freely desires it arrives at the light and people often prefer darkness to the light. What is the reason for this mistaken choice?

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The Apotheosis of Sports

01-07-2024Weekly ReflectionFr. Leonard F. Villa

The god Ever Before Our Eyes (edited) …(E)verything, now restrains itself and anxiously hopes for just two things: bread and circuses Juvenal Satire 10 (Quote added)

... One recent campaign asked riders on New York City subway trains, “When you count the loves of your life, is sports first or second?” Another, seen at city bus stops, queried, “Without sports, who would we follow?” And, “Without sports, would anyone believe in miracles?” The terrorists who murdered Israeli athletes at the 1972 Olympic Games were crazed. But when they called sports “the religion of the Western world” and the Olympics its “most sacred ceremony,” they might have been onto something.

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“A Christmas Sermon for Pagans”

12-31-2023Weekly ReflectionC. S. Lewis

Strand magazine, Vol. 112, Issue 672, December 1946

Writing religion for sceptics has made C. S. Lewis a best-seller. His books on Christianity—chief among them “The Screwtape Letters”—sell better, and read more easily, than most crime stories. This sermon is a characteristic piece of writing by the Oxford don who has become the most entertaining missionary of our time. When I was asked to write a Christmas sermon for Pagans I accepted the job lightheartedly enough: but now that I sit down to tackle it I discover a difficulty. Are there any Pagans in England for me to write to? I know that people keep on telling us that this country is relapsing into Paganism. But they only mean it is ceasing to be Christian. And is that at all the same thing? Let us remember what a Pagan or Heathen (I use the words interchangeably) really was.

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The FBI: Anti-Catholic?

12-24-2023Weekly ReflectionFr. Leonard F. Villa

The reporting that the FBI was targeting traditional Catholics has led to an investigation by the House of Representatives. Also taking up this matter and commenting on the House-Investigation is the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights. Some of its commentary:

-There is a hate group inside the FBI that needs to be purged. It is targeting practicing Catholics and is relying on the Southern Poverty Law Center, Salon and The Atlantic to dig up dirt on them. The House Report on this issue is startling.

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Wisdom and Catholic Teaching from Cardinal Gerhard Müller

12-17-2023Weekly ReflectionCardinal Gerhard Müller

Cardinal Müller is a theologian and formerly was the head of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith. He recently gave an interview on various topics giving his views, but more importantly, clarifying Catholic teaching! Here are some excerpts. You can read the whole interview here: https://www.catholicworldreport.com/2022/11/20/infallibilityand-the-limits-of-papal-power-an-interview-cardinal-gerhardmuller/ What follows are excerpts from the interview:

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The Pornography Pandemic II

12-10-2023Weekly ReflectionPeter Kleponis

Interview with Peter Kleponis, a Catholic psychotherapist who specializes in marriage and family therapy, men's issues and pornography addiction recovery.

ZENIT: If a person came to you and asked, "Am I addicted to pornography?" how would you define this for him?
Kleponis: A person who uses it on a regular basis is not necessarily addicted. What I ask is: Do you find yourself drawn to it? Do you find yourself thinking a lot about it? Do you find yourself looking forward to coming home from work at night and getting online and looking at the pornography? Do you rely upon it to deal with the stress of loneliness, male insecurity or job pressures? Is it very difficult for you to go several days without looking at pornography? If you're answering yes to these questions you very well may be addicted to pornography.

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The Pornography Pandemic….

12-03-2023Weekly ReflectionPeter Kleponis

Peter Kleponis, a Catholic psychotherapist specializes in marriage and family therapy, men's issues and pornography addiction recovery. He gave this interview with ZENIT news:

ZENIT: How does this use compare between men and women? Kleponis: Currently about 83% of pornography addicts are men, and 17% are women. For women, it's the chat rooms rather than the visual pornography that they're looking at. Men and women are wired differently. Men are visually stimulated.

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Hell, Heaven, the Particular Judgment, Final Judgment, the New Heaven and Earth

11-26-2023Weekly Reflection

The Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC) offers the following explanation: We cannot be united with God unless we freely choose to love him. But we cannot love God if we sin gravely against him, against our neighbor or against ourselves . . . To die in mortal sin without repenting and accepting God’s merciful love means remaining separated from him forever by our own free choice. This state of definitive self-exclusion from communion with God and the blessed is called “hell.” (CCC 1033)

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Why I am now a Christian…

11-19-2023Weekly ReflectionAyaan Hirsi Ali

Ayaan Hirsi Ali is an UnHerd-blog columnist. She is also a research fellow at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution, Founder of the AHA Foundation, and host of The Ayaan Hirsi Ali Podcast. Her new book is Prey: Immigration, Islam, and the Erosion of Women’s Rights.

This is interesting testimony from a person who says she is now a Christian, although she does not mention Christ in her remarks. Perhaps in a future essay she will. This needs to be said, since, as the French writer Paul Claudel pointed out, Christianity is a face to face encounter with a Person, whose Name is Jesus Christ, and He lives!

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Purgatory: What’s it like?

11-12-2023Weekly Reflection

What the Church teaches about Purgatory can be found in the Catechism of the Catholic Church:

III. The Final Purification, or Purgatory

1030 All who die in God's grace and friendship, but still imperfectly purified, are indeed assured of their eternal salvation; but after death they undergo purification, so as to achieve the holiness necessary to enter the joy of heaven.

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On Wars Thought Holy: Interview with Marco Meschini

11-05-2023Weekly ReflectionMarco Meschini

Marco Meschini, a professor at the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart in Milan, explains in his book "Il Jihad e La Crociata" (The Jihad and the Crusade) published by Edizioni Ares, says that jihad and the Crusades are asymmetric. In this interview he explains why.

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