Aequilitas in Rassismo

Amici, Americani, Compatriotae,

The title of this post "Aequilitas in Rassismo" or "Equality in Racism: may seem to be oxymoronic, but as the reader will soon see, racism is indeed the epitome of equality. White terrorist Dylan Storm Roof who murdered nine black people in the Charleston Church Shooting on June 17, 2015 is as racist as black thugs Brittany Covington, Tanishia Covington, Tesfaye Cooper and Jordan Hill who tortured a mentally disabled white person in Chicago in early January, 2017. There is no essential, substantive difference except for the fact that the victim in the later case escaped with his life and the victims in the former died. Both sets of criminal perpetrators are equal to each other. Furthermore, I don't care if Dyland Roof had a tough childhood with abusive parents, or if the thugs in Chicago had been subject to discrimination. There is never any excuse to the reprehensible acts of violence which they so willingly committed. And saying these people are not responsible for their actions by reason of mental defect or disease is not an excuse either. Indeed, it is obvious from their photographs that they are mentally defective. That's what sin and depravity do - they make you mentally defective. But you're still responsible for the sin, and God will eventually one day have mercy on those whom you victimized. Galatians 3:28 states in part:

There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female....

So if you do good, then God will treat you accordingly and without discrimination. Likewise if you do evil. Now look, dear reader, at the faces of these people in the photographs below and tell me that you don't see demonic evil. Therefore, let us all remember what Ezekiel 33:11 states lest we in our apathy become like these people:

Say to them, As I live, says the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live; turn back, turn back from your evil ways; for why will you die, O house of Israel?

Unrepentant Racist Terrorist

Unrepentant Racist Thugs

Rassismus contra Donald Trump et Populum Album

Black Racists Who Tortured
A White Mentally Retarded Person
Clockwise from Top Left:
Brittany Covington, Tanishia Covington,
Tesfaye Cooper and Jordan Hill

Amici, Americani, Compatriotae,

Throughout various new outlets has broken a story about four black young people attacking, holding captive and torturing a white mentally disabled person over an estimated 48 hour period. These young people hurled insults and expletives against President-elect Trump specifically and Caucasian people in general. They cut, battered and bruised the white captive, making him drink from a toilet bowl. More can be read at Fox News:

Facebook Live video shows disabled man tied up, beaten as captors yell 'F--- white people!'

Watch: Man 'Tied Up & Tortured' on Facebook Live in Chicago

Mentally Handicapped Man Tortured by Four Monsters

Brittany Herring Updated Her Profile Picture

Now to be fair the White House in general and supposedly President Obama specifically have condemned this attack. However, it has been the divisiveness of the President which has caused and contributed to this. He has consistently said regarding black people, "My people," instead of being President of all Americans regardless of skin color. He has demeaned and dishonored local police officers who have had to defend communities against thugs and gangsters looting and pillaging only because by accident of birth the melanin in the skin cells of those thugs and gangsters was black. He has given credence and credibility to racist movements like Black Lives Matter while ignoring the very real truth that all lives matter regardless of race. He has stoked the flames of racism and now the inevitable happens, and he feigns shock and dismay.

My fear is that sooner or later good conservative people who believe in a strong Second Amendment are going to get fed up with this and respond in kind. Then begins Civil War. Of course I agree that no one should take the law into his own hands and act with vigilante justice. In fact, no real Christian should think otherwise. But the stage is set for a conflagration such as the Nation experienced from 1860 to 1865. I hope that President elect Trump will be more of a man than President Obama has been, and act as President of all the people without regard for skin color. I also hope that decisive action will be taken against anyone regardless of skin color or religion or cultural origin or gender or whatever who perpetrates such violence. But we are at the tipping point and these gangsters, these thugs, these hooligans have not an ounce of fear of authority and nor an ounce of remorse for the evil actions that they have perpetrated. Just look at their mug shots above. Look at the defiance in their faces, especially the two young men on the right sticking their sanctimonious noses up in the air. It is that smugness, that sense of superiority which has to be slapped right off their faces. If I had ever acted like that when I was their age, my father would have beat my behind senseless and then left me with the cops to get my just deserts.

In ancient Rome, when things like this happened in the provinces, when local inhabitants starting to rebel and attack the family members of Roman legionaries stationed in the area, the result was an imperial crack down with crucifixion for all rebels. For miles crucifixes would line the roadways with dead and dying criminals and rebels alike awaiting the animals to feed on their putrid and decaying corpses. It was neither pretty nor nice smelling. And the screams of the thugs so crucified would forever remain in one's memory.

We still have time to stop this madness before proceeding off the cliff into the sea like those swine into whom the demons fled that Jesus cast out of the Gerasene demoniac. But God permits us free will. And God is merciful. He will indeed be merciful for victims tortured by such racists. Of course, that means His divine justice for these racists and that won't pleasant, but it could mean dictatorship.

Domine, miserere nobis
Christe, miserere nobis
Domine, miserere nobis

Prostitutio Liberorum in California

Democrat Gov Jerry Brown
of California

Amici, Americani, Compatriotae,

Fox News on TV reported tonight that the California legislature has passed a bill that decriminalizes prostitution for children under 18 years of age, and Governor Jerry Brown has signed this bill into law. The Washington Examiner reports in part:

SB 1322 bars law enforcement from arresting sex workers who are under the age of 18 for soliciting or engaging in prostitution, or loitering with the intent to do so. So teenage girls (and boys) in California will soon be free to have sex in exchange for money without fear of arrest or prosecution.

Frankly I am stunned. Under the guise of mercy - "these children are victims so we shouldn't treat them as criminals" - lives of children are being relegated to the hell of sexual trafficking by pimps and pedophile perverts.

But I shouldn't be stunned. The California Legislature is dominated by members of the political party which advocates infanticide of the unborn as the right to choose and the sanctification of the putrid filth of sterile sexual perversion as equal marriage rights. And the Governor - Jerry Brown - is the same man who brought California to the precipice of disaster during his first gubernatorial tenure decades ago from 1975 to 1983, and yet the Californians, having learned nothing, voted for him again.

Yes, I will be accused of being politically partisan because I am criticizing Democrats and not Republicans, and I am not citing Republican failures in the area of immigration reform, provision of health care, elimination of the death penalty, and stopping unjust war. But amici, NONE of those things compare in gravity or kind to letting pimps prostitute children and pedophiles fornicating with them. NONE of those things compare to the vivisection of an unborn baby in a mother's womb and the sale of his internal organs on the open market. NONE of those things compares to treating the filth of sodomite practice - a man putting his reproductive organ into another man's mouth or rectum - as marriage.

Now for the record I agree that:

• We can't throw millions of illegal immigrants now living in the US to the wolves; we need a common sense transition plan to sanity (but that doesn't mean failing to stem the tide of illegals running the border or continuing to import radical Islamic fanatics)
• We have to provide some kind of health care safety net nationally that catches everyone and doesn't leave anyone in the cold (but that isn't the rip off that is Obamacare)
• We have to find a way to administer life in prison humanely (but that doesn't mean allowing a gangster to continue to orchestrate crime on the outside from within prison walls)
• We have to stop fighting wars in lands of Islamic fascism for mineral slime (but that doesn't mean deserting the Orthodox Christians who live in the Middle East under the sword of Islamic dhimmitude)

But one again, NONE of those things compares in any way to:

• Murdering unborn babies
• Treating sodomite filth as publicly normal and acceptable
• Allowing children to be prostituted

And really, do you, dear readers, honestly believe that a party which is advocate of abortion and sodomy really cares about:

• Poor immigrants
• Health care for the sick
• Humane treatment of prisoners and
• Cessation of war's collateral damage on innocent civilians?

These are all pawns in the quiver of Satan's lies, because any party which murders its own children cares not one iota for social justice, the common good and peace across the land. Truly this is NOT a political matter but a matter of morality and human decency. This is why I am convinced that while the Republican Party is often the party of hypocrisy using Christian evangelicals and traditional Catholics and Orthodox as dupes and stooges, the Democratic Party is truly the party of the Devil himself. All too often what it advocates and what it supports are just what the ancient pagan Canaanites did in worshiping Ba'al, immolating their children in sacrifice to Moloch and dancing around Ash'teroth phallic poles. Mark my words, amici: if we do not repent of this wickedness and eradicate these practices from our land, rescuing our children from Satan's clutches, then God will do to us what He did to ancient Israel and ancient Judah when He let their enemies, Kings Sennacherib of Assyria and Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon, deport them into captivity. God always does the right thing in the right way at the right time because God is the same yesterday, today and forever, blessed be His Holy Name. And may God have mercy on our Republic, but let us beware for His mercy in behalf of these children may prove to be His justice on this once great nation.

Noli Initiare Violentiam

Amici, Americani, Compatiotae,

Tucker Carlson of Fox News yesterday evening interviewed Jake Bittle, an English Major at the University of Chicago. This student advocated projectile vomit to protest against incoming White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer who will be speaking at the University, and flipping cars over if President-elect Trump rejects the Paris Climate Change Accord. (ASIDE: One wonders if this student supports nuclear energy as a way to replace fossil fuel, or if he like most liberals is reflexively anti-fossil, anti-nuclear no matter what. END ASIDE) The video below speaks for itself.



Disillusioned young people like these fail to consider that ordinary American citizens in the heartland are listening to them throw their temper tantrums in public over the fact that their candidate did not win the Presidential election, and these citizens are often supporters of their Second Amendment Right to Keep and Bear Arms. Threatening their justly acquired property and by implication their families and their persons will one day be taken seriously. This is a dangerous and explosive combination.

Now for the record I believe in the principle of the non-initiation of force. I also believe in the principle that one has a right to defend his family, his justly acquired property and livelihood, and himself. Therefore, these young students need to beware lest the fires of hatred that they have stoked result in an explosion from the muzzle end of someone's firearm. God forbid that that should ever occur. But adult young people acting like spoiled rotten little brats will one reap what they have sown, and it won't be pretty.

Now also for the record - once again - I did NOT vote for Donald Trump whom I thought to be an unprincipled foul-mouthed playboy gambler bone-ignorant of the Constitution, NOR did I vote for Hillary Rodham Clinton who is a murderous pathological liar, and an unremitting advocate of the expansion of the infanticide of the unborn and the sanctification of the putrid filth of homosexual sodomy. Therefore, I voted for Darrell Castle of the Constitution Party because I thought that that party's platform was closest to Church teaching. However, Trump won and frankly I was relieved because no longer would the threat of Democrat incursion on religious liberty continue. And while Trump was NOT my choice, he WILL BE our President just as Barack Hussein Obama has been our President for the past eight years even though I vehemently opposed him for the same reasons that I opposed Hillary Clinton - abortion and homosexual marriage. Romans 13:1-7 is very clear, and St. Paul wrote this when Roman Emperors ruled the known world and were more evil than Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump combined together:

1 Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God. 2 Therefore he who resists the authorities resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment. 3 For rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad. Would you have no fear of him who is in authority? Then do what is good, and you will receive his approval, 4 for he is God’s servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword in vain; he is the servant of God to execute his wrath on the wrongdoer. 5 Therefore one must be subject, not only to avoid God’s wrath but also for the sake of conscience. 6 For the same reason you also pay taxes, for the authorities are ministers of God, attending to this very thing. 7 Pay all of them their dues, taxes to whom taxes are due, revenue to whom revenue is due, respect to whom respect is due, honor to whom honor is due.

So to all you millennial cry baby spoil brats out there, I say grow up. You lost. Too bad. We conservatives lost in 2008 and 2012, and we didn't overturn cars, nor burn buildings, nor threaten and beat on people with whom we disagreed. Move on and do something good for the Republic instead of pitching a childish fit that you didn't get your way. Help the poor. Care for the sick. Feed the hungry. Give drink to the thirsty. Do something good to take your mind off this failure. If you don't grow up and act like adults, then beware lest some foolhardy individual who takes the Second Amendment seriously shows you the discharge of the muzzle end of his rifle. I do NOT want that. I cannot imagine ANY Christian wants that. But God will let you reap what you are sowing. That's what St. Paul says - "Be not deceived, God is NOT mocked, for whatsoever a man soweth, that also shall he reap." So repent before it is too late. Give peace a chance as you liberals always say.

One last thing before I close. For those of us who are Christians, no matter who is President, Jesus Christ is King, Lord and Savior. Even if that witch Hillary Clinton had won to become our President (and yes, we would have had to respect her as such regardless of her personal evil), we still have the assurance that in the end God wins and justice will prevail. But for secular liberals, there is no God so they have to replace the God vacancy with Caesar - nanny government. And when Caesar turns out to be someone whom they don't want, then their whole world falls apart. Their god has failed them and thus their only recourse is a temper tantrum. Well, that's what happens when you have false gods. For Christians, whether Trump or Hillary is President, God is still on the Throne and His sovereign will cannot and will not be thwarted. He is love. He is Holy. He is Merciful. But the flip side of His mercy is His justice. Let us then beware lest His mercy for those whose persons and families and property are assaulted turns out to be His justice for those doing the assaulting. I have been on the receiving end of the Holy Spirit's baseball bat of "wake the heck up, get sober and act like an adult," and it doesn't feel good one bit.

Noli Sinere Civilitatem Tuam Esse Supra Fidem Tuam

Amici, Americani, Compatriotae,

Today is the Memorial of Saints Basil the Great and Gregory Nazianzen, Bishops and Doctors of the Church.

ASIDE: I highly recommend reading the the writings of these two great men (and the rest of the fathers of the early Church) at The Fathers of the Church located on the New Advent Catholic Encyclopedia. The writings are alphabetized by person's name. END ASIDE

Today's Scripture readings include the following:

• Liars, Eternal Life and God's Children in 1st John 2:22-28
• Praise the Judge of the World in Psalm 98:1-4
• John the Baptist’s Testimony to Himself in John 1:19-28

The title of today's post - Noli Sinere Civilitatem Tuam Esse Supra Fidem Tuam - means:

Do not permit your politics to be above your faith.

This title follows the homily which Father Kirby gave at Our Lady of Grace during Daily Mass. I won't bother to reproduce everything Father explained because I am unable to do his homily justice. But I do want to get a few thoughts down.

Father explained that he will be absent for the next two days because he was invited by Mick Mulvaney, a parishioner, to the inauguration of the 115th Congress of the United States on January 3rd. Mick Mulvaney was re-elected to represent South Carolina's 5th District.

Father then led into the main topic. Holiness - the fulfillment of charity (the Latin caritas or the Greek ἀγάπη) must always come first. How can we as Catholics - indeed, as Christians - support or advocate things that are contrary to the Gospel? It is unfathomable that people who claim the title Catholic would support abortion, or oppose immigration, or support the death penalty. Normally, when I hear topics like immigration, death penalty, and others lumped in with intrinsic evils like abortion, I bristle. The reason why is because Pope Benedict XVI already explained that certain matters do not rise to the same level of importance as the five nonnegotiables:

• No abortion
• No homosexual marriage
• No euthanasia
• No embryonic stem cell research
• No human cloning

But does that mean that issues like the death penalty and immigration are completely unimportant? As Father was talking I had to recall what the Catechism of the Catholic Church actually says. Regarding the death penalty, paragraph 2267 states:

Assuming that the guilty party's identity and responsibility have been fully determined, the traditional teaching of the Church does not exclude recourse to the death penalty, if this is the only possible way of effectively defending human lives against the unjust aggressor.

If, however, non-lethal means are sufficient to defend and protect people's safety from the aggressor, authority will limit itself to such means, as these are more in keeping with the concrete conditions of the common good and more in conformity to the dignity of the human person.

Today, in fact, as a consequence of the possibilities which the state has for effectively preventing crime, by rendering one who has committed an offense incapable of doing harm - without definitely taking away from him the possibility of redeeming himself - the cases in which the execution of the offender is an absolute necessity "are very rare, if not practically nonexistent."

And regarding immigration paragraph 2241 states:

The more prosperous nations are obliged, to the extent they are able, to welcome the foreigner in search of the security and the means of livelihood which he cannot find in his country of origin. Public authorities should see to it that the natural right is respected that places a guest under the protection of those who receive him.

Political authorities, for the sake of the common good for which they are responsible, may make the exercise of the right to immigrate subject to various juridical conditions, especially with regard to the immigrants' duties toward their country of adoption. Immigrants are obliged to respect with gratitude the material and spiritual heritage of the country that receives them, to obey its laws and to assist in carrying civic burdens.

So really, what's my problem? Do I place my politics ahead of my Faith? Yes, Romans 13:1-7 does provide justification for the State to have recourse to the death penalty, and the Catechism acknowledges that. But maybe the greater command is Ezekiel 18:32:

For I find no pleasure in the death of anyone who dies—oracle of the Lord GOD. Turn back and live!

I am not a theologian. My field of expertise is nuclear energy. When it comes to nuclear energy issues, I expect that those who know nothing about nuclear science to defer to those who do. So maybe in theological matters I should defer to the experts who point out that mercy should be shown to everyone since I expect mercy for myself. That includes the convicted criminal and the illegal immigrant. Let's face it: I am a sinner too and I know what I deserve. My AA sponsor early on in sobriety would tell me, "Lucius, you should be dead under a rail road bridge with a heroin needle in your veins. The only difference between you and the guy in prison is that he got caught and you didn't." His sponsor, a Franciscan priest and my priest-confessor in early sobriety, always seemed to be standing behind him when he said something like that, smiling ever so beatifically. Then we would go on an outgoing AA meeting to the Fishkill State Penitentiary in downstate NY just so that he could drill the point home. So the thought I had in my head when I left Mass today was this:

Noli Sinere Civilitatem Tuam Esse Supra Fidem Tuam

Being to the right of Attila the Hun, I needed that reminder.

Renovamen Nostri Testamenti

The Holy Prophet Samuel
Judge of Israel

Amici, Americani, Compatriotae,

Thoughts on New Year's Eve Vigil Mass may be found at Sancta Maria Dei Genetrix (Θεοτόκος). This New Year's morning my Filipina wife again wanted to attended church services at the Weddington United Methodist Church with her niece. I am glad that I accompanied her and took notes during the sermon given by Rev. Dr. Terry Moore. The following is a summary of that sermon. Any errors are of course my own.

The title of today's post is Renovamen Nostri Testamenti which means Renewal of Our Covenant. Using the Revised Standard Version, Rev. Moore read from 1st Samuel 7:3-6:

3 Then Samuel said to all the house of Israel, “If you are returning to the Lord with all your heart, then put away the foreign gods and the Ash′taroth from among you, and direct your heart to the Lord, and serve him only, and he will deliver you out of the hand of the Philistines.” 4 So Israel put away the Ba′als and the Ash′taroth, and they served the Lord only. 5 Then Samuel said, “Gather all Israel at Mizpah, and I will pray to the Lord for you.” 6 So they gathered at Mizpah, and drew water and poured it out before the Lord, and fasted on that day, and said there, “We have sinned against the Lord.” And Samuel judged the people of Israel at Mizpah.

The idea of re-commitment and renewal of vows is not new. Married couples may renew their marriage vows, particularly for reconciliation after going through a time of grave upheaval and stress, or on special anniversary occasions. Such re-commitment forges a stronger bond of love between the spouses. In the same way New Year's day can be a time to renew our relationship with God. Typical New Year's resolutions rarely go well. Promises to diet sensibly or to exercise regularly regularly all too often fall by the wayside. Instead, what is necessary is a taking of one's inventory, a repentance in the manner suggested by John Wesley. But how do we recommit our covenant with God? Eli's sons (with whom Samuel the prophet had grown up after Hannah left him as child with Eli) were violators of the covenant with God. They were not just in the world but of the world. How then shall we be in the world but not of it?

Israel had picked up worship of the ancient Canaanite fertility gods and goddesses - Ba'al, Astheroth, Molech, etc. The Israelites' identity as children of God was almost lost. As a result of their infidelity, they had been defeated by the Philistines in 1st Samuel chapter 4 and the Ark of the Old Covenant had been stolen from them. It was not until King David in 2nd Samuel chapter 6 that the Ark was finally recovered and returned to Jerusalem.  So what now was Israel to do? Samuel tells them:

If you are returning to the Lord with all your heart, then put away the foreign gods and the Ash′taroth from among you, and direct your heart to the Lord, and serve him only, and he will deliver you out of the hand of the Philistines.

The Message version paraphrases this as follows:

If you are truly serious about coming back to God, clean house. Get rid of the foreign gods and fertility goddesses, ground yourselves firmly in God, worship him and him alone, and he’ll save you from Philistine oppression.

Indeed, Deuteronomy 6:4-5 gives the most important commandment which Jesus repeats in Matthew 22:35-40 and Mark 12:28-34

“Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God is one Lord; and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might.

IDF Soldier Wearing Tefillin

The ancient Hebrews and modern observant Jews would place tiny scrolls containing this verse in small boxes which they would affix to their arms or foreheads in order to remind themselves of the greatest commandment. These are call Tefillin. How shall we then place this greatest commandment in our hands and in our minds?

What Samuel did was simple: he gathered the people together and they prayed. He poured water as a libation to the Lord (perhaps symbolizing the Baptism for the repentance of sins that was to come in the New Covenant) and the people confessed, saying, "We have sinned against the Lord."

In Exodus chapter 19, Moses leads the children of Israel out of slavery in the land of Egypt to Mount Sinai in the wilderness. In Exodus chapter 20, before continuing onward they are given the Ten Commandments. And the people promise that whatever the Lord says, they would do.

Likewise, after the wanderings in the desert and before entering the Promised Land, the Twelve Tribes of Israel renew their covenant with God in Joshua chapter 24. Verses 14 through 18 state:

14 “Now therefore fear the Lord, and serve him in sincerity and in faithfulness; put away the gods which your fathers served beyond the River, and in Egypt, and serve the Lord. 15 And if you be unwilling to serve the Lord, choose this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your fathers served in the region beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell; but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”

16 Then the people answered, “Far be it from us that we should forsake the Lord, to serve other gods; 17 for it is the Lord our God who brought us and our fathers up from the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage, and who did those great signs in our sight, and preserved us in all the way that we went, and among all the peoples through whom we passed; 18 and the Lord drove out before us all the peoples, the Amorites who lived in the land; therefore we also will serve the Lord, for he is our God.”

Here the children of Israel made their re-commitment. Likewise we are walking into the New Year as Christians. In the same manner we need to recommit. It is time to take an honest look at our lives.

ASIDE: This reminded me of the 4th and 10th Steps in Alcoholics Anonymous as well as the Sacrament of Penance and Reconciliation in the Catholic and Orthodox Churches. The 4th step says, "Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves," and the 10th step says, "Continued to take personal inventory, and when we were wrong, promptly admitted it." The Catechism of the Catholic Church goes further:

1423 It is called the sacrament of conversion because it makes sacramentally present Jesus' call to conversion, the first step in returning to the Father from whom one has strayed by sin. It is called the sacrament of Penance, since it consecrates the Christian sinner's personal and ecclesial steps of conversion, penance, and satisfaction.

1424 It is called the sacrament of confession, since the disclosure or confession of sins to a priest is an essential element of this sacrament. In a profound sense it is also a "confession" - acknowledgment and praise - of the holiness of God and of his mercy toward sinful man. It is called the sacrament of forgiveness, since by the priest's sacramental absolution God grants the penitent "pardon and peace." It is called the sacrament of Reconciliation, because it imparts to the sinner the love of God who reconciles: "Be reconciled to God."He who lives by God's merciful love is ready to respond to the Lord's call: "Go; first be reconciled to your brother."

Recommitting our covenant vows to God should not be something we do just once a year but any time we commit mortal sin - a sin leading to death as 1st John 5:16-17 describes. END ASIDE

John Wesley reworded a Puritan covenant to be renewed at the first of the year once we have taken an honest look at our lives in the previous year. This renewal is a a turning back, a repentance. Repent comes from the Latin word repaeniteo which means, "I regret again." The root word poena meaning punishment is apparent, and thus the word to repent implies a turning back, a change in direction, and that is the substance of the Covenant Prayer which John Wesley formulated. Rev Dr. Moore then had the Congregation sing the song, "In a Bleak Midwinter," calling emphasis to the last stanza:

What can I give him
Poor as I am
If I were a shepherd
I would bring a lamb
If I were a wise man
I would do my part
What can I give him
Give my heart

Finally he led the congregation into a Confession of Sins and a recitation of a prayer similar to the following used in the Book of Offices of the British Methodist Church, 1936:

I am no longer my own, but thine.
Put me to what thou wilt, rank me with whom thou wilt.
Put me to doing, put me to suffering.
Let me be employed for thee or laid aside for thee,
exalted for thee or brought low for thee.
Let me be full, let me be empty.
Let me have all things, let me have nothing.
I freely and heartily yield all things to thy pleasure and disposal.
And now, O glorious and blessed God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit,
thou art mine, and I am thine.
So be it.
And the covenant which I have made on earth,
let it be ratified in heaven.
Amen

After this there was Communion. Rev. Dr. Moore explained that this was an open communion intended for any Christian regardless of denomination. Now here comes the hard part where some well-meaning people who do truly love the Lord (at least that is what I sensed at the Weddington UMC) may get hurt feelings. It is NOT my intent to hurt feelings or to shove supremacy of one Christian denomination over another. Nevertheless, paragraph 1400 in the Catechism of the Catholic Church states the following, and I am Catholic:

Ecclesial communities derived from the Reformation and separated from the Catholic Church, "have not preserved the proper reality of the Eucharistic mystery in its fullness, especially because of the absence of the sacrament of Holy Orders." It is for this reason that, for the Catholic Church, Eucharistic intercommunion with these communities is not possible. However these ecclesial communities, "when they commemorate the Lord's death and resurrection in the Holy Supper . . . profess that it signifies life in communion with Christ and await his coming in glory."

More can be read about this in Paragraph 17 of Dominus Iesus by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (that paragraph can likewise be easily taken in the wrong way). Therefore, while the neighborliness and friendliness of these Methodists is something which Catholics would do well to emulate, and while I have great admiration and respect for Rev. Dr. Terry Moore specifically and the Weddington UMC in general, I did not receive Communion there, nor with all due respect to my very kind hosts could I. Maybe one day valid Holy Orders and a Valid Eucharist will be restored to the UMC in general so that Jesus' prayer in John 17 that we all be one will be fulfilled.

ASIDE: I wonder sometimes at certain Novus Ordo Catholic Parishes whether their Communion is valid as well - this isn't just a Methodist problem. END ASIDE

POST SCRIPT: Frankly, when the usher arrived at the pew where I was sitting and had to repeat his request for me to go up and receive, and I had to say, "No," I felt badly for him because he was just doing his job and he wouldn't have known about any of this - my apologies to him for any discomfort he may have felt.

Sancta Maria Dei Genetrix (Θεοτόκος)

St. Cyril of Alexandria

Amici, Americani, Compatriotae,

The readings for Vigil Mass of the Solemnity of the Blessed Virgin Mary Mother of God on New Year's Eve included the following:

• The Priestly Benediction in Numbers 6:22-27
• Nations Called to Praise God in Psalm 67:2-8
• Adoption as a Child of God in Galatians 4:4-7
• The Shepherds Visit and Jesus' Circumcision in Luke 2:16-21

Today used to be called the Feast of the Circumcision. Father Hunwicke at his Mutual Enrichment blog has a great explanation of how this Feast Day came to be subsumed into the Solemnity of the Blessed Virgin Mary. The declaration that She is the Dei Genetrix (or Θεοτόκος in Greek) had been definitively made at the Church Council of Chalcedon in AD 451. This declaration was based on the prior work of St. Cyril of Alexandria who wrote in his third letter to the heretic Nestorius:

Confessing the Word to be united with the flesh according to the hypostasis, we worship one Son and Lord, Jesus Christ. We do not divide him into parts and separate man and God as though they were united with each other [only] through a unity of dignity and authority... nor do we name separately Christ the Word from God, and in similar fashion, separately, another Christ from the woman, but we know only one Christ, the Word from God the Father with his own flesh... But we do not say that the Word from God dwelt as in an ordinary human born of the holy virgin... we understand that, when he became flesh, not in the same way as he is said to dwell among the saints do we distinguish the manner of the indwelling; but he was united by nature and not turned into flesh... There is, then, one Christ and Son and Lord, not with the sort of conjunction that a human being might have with God as in a unity of dignity or authority; for equality of honor does not unite natures. For Peter and John were equal to each other in honor, both of them being apostles and holy disciples, but the two were not one. Nor do we understand the manner of conjunction to be one of juxtaposition, for this is insufficient in regard to natural union.... Rather we reject the term 'conjunction' as being inadequate to express the union... [T]he holy virgin gave birth in the flesh to God united with the flesh according to hypostasis, for that reason we call her Θεοτόκος ... If anyone does not confess that Emmanuel is, in truth, God, and therefore that the holy virgin is Θεοτόκος (for she bore in a fleshly manner the Word from God become flesh), let him be anathema.

So today we remember that the Blessed Virgin Mary gave birth to True God and True Man. He is both our Divine High Priest (hence the Priestly Benediction in the reading from Numbers) and our human brother True Man (hence his circumcision according to the law in Luke). Indeed, as the Nicean Creed states:

I believe in one Lord Jesus Christ,
the Only Begotten Son of God,
born of the Father before all ages.
God from God, Light from Light,
true God from true God,
begotten, not made, consubstantial with the Father;
through him all things were made.
For us men and for our salvation
he came down from heaven,
and by the Holy Spirit was incarnate of the Virgin Mary,
and became man.