Von Hildebrand: The antithesis of conscience is unscrupulousness

The following excerpt was taken from Dietrich von Hildebrand's book:

Love Marriage and the Catholic Conscience: Understanding the Church’s Teachings on Birth Control

“The antithesis of conscience is unscrupulousness. The man who is indifferent to the question of whether something is good or bad, sinful or licit, is unscrupulous. The man who is blind to the ultimate gravity of the moral order, to the offense against God constituted by sin, is unscrupulous. He also is unscrupulous who deliberately silenced the voice of his conscience and frivolously, without bothering about whether something is good or bad, abandons himself to his impulses. Also, he who is not conscious of man’s capacity for self-deception and the possibility of being value-blind is unscrupulous and acts irresponsibly.”

 

- Dietrich von Hildebrand -

Two stories of the saints (St. Anselm and St. Anthony)

The following excerpts are taken from the magnificent work of St. Francis De Sales "The Devout Life":

St. Francis

"We are told that S. Anselm of Canterbury… [observed that] a hunted hare took refuge from imminent death beneath the Bishop’s horse, the hounds clamoring round, but not daring to drag it from its asylum, whereat his attendants began to laugh; but the great Anselm wept, saying, “You may laugh forsooth, but to the poor hunted beast it is no laughing matter; even so the soul which has been led astray in all manner of sin finds a host of enemies waiting at its last hour to devour it, and terrified, knows not where to seek a refuge, and if it can find none, its enemies laugh and rejoice.” And so he went on his way, sighing.

Constantine the Great wrote with great respect to S. Anthony, at which his religious expressed their surprise. “Do you marvel,” he said, “that a king should write to an ordinary man? Marvel rather that God should have written His Law for men, and yet more that He should have spoken with them Face to face through His Son.” When S. Francis saw a solitary sheep amid a flock of goats; “See,” said he to his companion, “how gentle the poor sheep is among the goats, even as was Our Lord among the Pharisees;” and seeing a boar devour a little lamb, “Poor little one,” he exclaimed, weeping, “how vividly is my Savior’s Death set forth in thee!”

Take the time to meditate upon these stories St. Francis relates.

+JMJ+

The interior life is needed when we fall time and time again - Fr. Chautard

Fr. Jean-Baptiste Chautard, O.C.S.O

Taken from the book: "The Soul of the Apostolate"

"If the interior life did nothing more than procure for us the advantage of realizing our incessant danger, it would already be contributing very much to our protection against surprises along our way; for to foresee a danger is half the battle in avoiding it. And yet the inner life has an even greater utility than merely this. It becomes, the man engaged in the ministry, a complete set of armor (Eph 6: 11-17). It is a divine armor which permits him not only to resist the temptations and avoid the snares set before him by the devil, but also to sanctify his every act (“and stand in all things perfect)…

[In those still in pursuit of sanctity], even fervent souls, the supernatural life seems to suffer loss after more or less time spent in exterior occupations. Their less perfect hearts, too preoccupied with the good to be done to their neighbor, to absorbed with a compassion (for the woes to be alleviated) that is not nearly Supernatural enough, seem to send up to God flames less pure, darkened with the smoke of numerous imperfections.

God does not punish this weakness by a decrease of His grace, and does not demand a strict account for these failings, provided there is a serious attempt at vigilance and prayer in the midst of action, and that the soul is ready, when its work is done, to return to Him and rest and regain its strength. This habit of constantly beginning over again, which is necessitated by the combination of the active with the interior life, gives joy to His paternal Heart.

Besides in those who really put up a fight, these imperfections become less and less serious and frequent in proportion as the soul learns to return, tirelessly to Christ, whom we will always find ready to say to us: “Come back to Me, poor panting heart, athirst with the length of the course. Woe and find in these living waters the secret of new energy for other journeys. Withdraw thyself a little from the crowd that is unable to offer thee the nourishment required by they exhausted strength. Come apart and rest a little. In the peace and quiet thou shalt enjoy being with me, not only wilt thou soon recapture thy first vigor, but also wilt though learn how to do more work with less expense of strength. Elias, disheartened, discouraged, found his strength renewed in an instant by a certain mysterious bread. Even so, My apostle, in this enviable task of co-redeemer that it has pleased Me to impose upon thee, I offer the the chance, both by My word, which is all life, and by My grace, that is by My Blood, to direct thy spirit once again towards the horizons of eternity and to renew the pact of friendship between thy heart and Mine. Come I will console thee for the sorrows and decptions of the journey. And thou shalt temper once again the steel of thy resolutions in the furnace of My love. 

Come to me all you that labor and are heavily burdened and I will refresh you (Matt 9:28)."

He knocks, but only you can answer!

+Pray for Peter+

On the Trial...and who is really at fault for the decline of the culture

It should not be a surprise that the verdict on Saturday came out as not guilty.  It seemed to most of us that there was no real evidence showing that Mr. Zimmerman had done anything illegal in a temporal or moral sense.  Yet for two nights now we get stuck with riots and general terror by people greatly upset with the juries verdict.  I found the following pictures online at the Daily Mail website showing conditions in New York, LA and so forth.  Being blunt this is pathetic, but its all part of the plan.

A while back I remember seeing a talk by former, then ousted, Green Czar Van Jones where he made a comment that a revolution was coming, that it would be Bottom up, Top Down and Inside out.  Now to most of us this seems like mere rhetoric and is generally poo-pooed as such.  Yet a couple people, generally associated with blogs or conservative outlets picked up on this immediately.   People like Glenn Beck (who I have posted the video below for) did his best to bring to the public knowledge of this plan, and to some extent I think we might have been helped. 

Its not that this is the sign that we are in trouble.  Its only one thing in a laundry list of signs.  The Fabian Socialists were just on the tip of the era.  They wished to set the world a blaze so as to make it closer to their hearts.  Part of their plan included eugenics which was directly associated with the racist attitudes that most of them held.  Creating Race wars is just another way to promote division and confusion among people, and I don’t need to tell you the million news stories that are so prevalent just in the US alone.  It seems like there is so much to keep in mind that we are seriously in dire straits. 

This Zimmerman case is just another show case to cause confusion and division and it is fueled by a media complicit in acting against life and the will of God made known in his Holy Catholic Church.  Mr. Zimmerman made a statement to the officer before even knowing Trayvon was dead that his Catholic faith made it clear the killing of another is always wrong (speaking of murder of course).

The complicit are abundant. 

1.       The Media

2.       The Government

3.       The wealthy Progressives and Conservatives

4.       The ignorant masses

But in the end who is at fault?

Catholics.

That’s right Catholics.  Many Popes and Holy people like St. Bernadette of Lourdes noted that all the evil of the world is the fault of bad Catholics.  I confess that all to often I fall into this category.  My pride, my lustful desires, my thirst for worldliness too often clouds my sight and I fall. 

I was thinking it is now time to really take my call to holiness seriously, not that I haven’t at times, but he calls us to be perfect and this scares us.  Dr. Peter Kreeft says that we are all called to be great saints but we hold ourselves back from this with worldly concerns.  For me its always wanting credit for my actions.  Too often I think my knowledge is grander then others and I want to set them straight regardless of how I do so.  Often times I am uncharitable and fall.  Lord grant me the grace of humility to live out a just life and be completely commited to your call of the Golden rule.  Help me to be mercy to the ignorant so as to enlighten them and bring them to you.  Let it no longer be me who lives, but you who lives in me.

Let us pray for Mr. Zimmerman and Trayvon Martin.  Let us particularaly pray for those Holy Souls in Purgatory for they are nearly home and our love for them as part of the Body of Christ is just like the loaves and fishes Christ was given.

Humility, Mercy, Trust. 

Thank you for all the suffereings both of the mind and body O’ Lord, Your grace is sufficient.

For, Whatever be the will of the Lord, I trust in the’ oh God

+JMJ+