Adfinitas Peculiaris cum Iesu Christo

Amici, Americani, Compatriotae,

I was recently involved in a discussion on the necessity of having a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. I understand the intent: that one must surrender one's will and life over to the care of God. However, we are talking about the Lord God Almighty of the Universe here. This is NOT a relationship of equals, nor do we merit in the least His love, His forgiveness or even having a personal relationship with Him. So I usually avoid usage of that term though I do admit that after a few days of heroin withdrawal in a rehabilitation center some three plus decades ago, I did have a "come to Jesus meeting," and that meeting began my eventual entry into the Catholic Church. As my Catholic faith deepened, I learned that salvation is a whole lot more than just getting on my knees and asking Jesus to forgive me of my sins.

Typically Protestants invoke verses of Scripture like Romans 10:9-10:

If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved.

But they ignore other verses of Scripture like Mark 16:16:

Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned.

And they ignore 1st Peter 2:18-22:

For Christ also died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit; in which he went and preached to the spirits in prison, who formerly did not obey, when God’s patience waited in the days of Noah, during the building of the ark, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were saved through water. Baptism, which corresponds to this, now saves you, not as a removal of dirt from the body but as an appeal to God for a clear conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, who has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God, with angels, authorities, and powers subject to him.

Obviously baptism is required for salvation as well as believing by faith and confession with the mouth. Yes, most New Testament verses omit the "and baptism" part that St. Mark points out. However, the equation is an AND Gate - you must believe AND be baptized. Both conditions must be true for the output to be true. That most verse of Scripture omit this "and be baptized" does NOT invalidate St. Mark's identification of this criterion.

Now why must one be baptized? Because the Baptism of the New Testament replaces Circumcision of the Old Testament. In the Abrahamic covenant every child had to be circumcised. Genesis 17:9-14 explains:

And God said to Abraham, “As for you, you shall keep my covenant, you and your descendants after you throughout their generations. This is my covenant, which you shall keep, between me and you and your descendants after you: Every male among you shall be circumcised. You shall be circumcised in the flesh of your foreskins, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and you. He that is eight days old among you shall be circumcised; every male throughout your generations, whether born in your house, or bought with your money from any foreigner who is not of your offspring, both he that is born in your house and he that is bought with your money, shall be circumcised. So shall my covenant be in your flesh an everlasting covenant. Any uncircumcised male who is not circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin shall be cut off from his people; he has broken my covenant.”

St. Paul explains in Romans 6:1-4:

What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it? Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.

Indeed, Christ said in Matthew 28:18-20:

And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, to the close of the age.”

If baptism isn't necessary for entry into the New Covenant of salvation (for circumcision was necessary for entry into the Old Covenant), then why did Christ command it? Indeed, it is by baptism that we enter the Church which is the Body of Christ, the Bride of Christ. A personal relationship with Jesus does not mean that we have a separate, unique and isolated relationship with Him. Rather, it means that we submit ourselves in obedience to Him, and He is both Head and Body, which means He is both Head and Church, which means we must obey both Him the Head and His Church. 1st Corinthians 12:12 & 27 states:

For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ...Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it.

And Romans 12:4-5 echoes this:

For as in one body we have many members, and all the members do not have the same function, so we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another.

This is why I dislike the term "personal relationship with Jesus." Rather we enter Christ's Body through believing by faith, confessing with the mouth and being baptized. Therefore, the Protestant paradigm that we must submit ourselves to Jesus but NOT the Church is in error. To have a personal relationship with Christ means obeying Christ the Head and Christ the Body. In fact, John 20:21-22 states:

Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even so I send you.” And when he had said this, he breathed on them, and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.”

Thus the Disciples were given authority and this authority was passed down to the Bishops and Priests of the Church through the laying on of hands described through the Acts of the Apostles. It is this authority that Christ gave to the Bishops and Priests of the Visible Church which must be obeyed. Thus does John 14:15 state:

If you love me, you will keep my commandments.

Therein did the Protestant so-called Reformers - Martin Luther, John Calvin, Henry VIII, etc. - err. They disobeyed the Christ in rejecting His Body and setting up their own man-made religious denominations. Indeed, one cannot have God as one's Father and Jesus as one's Savior unless one has the Church as one's Mother, and that makes sense because St. Paul also describes the Church as the Bride of Christ in 2nd Corinthian 11:2:

I feel a divine jealousy for you, for I betrothed you to Christ to present you as a pure bride to her one husband.

In conclusion, there is no salvation outside the Church. Pope Benedict XVI explained this in the Declaration "Dominus Iesus" on the unicity and salvific universality of Jesus Christ and the Church by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. To reject Christ's Church is to reject the Bride of Christ, the Body of Christ, and is effectively a rejection of Christ Himself.

Felix Nativitas Anno Dominio CCVII

Amici, Americani et Compatriotae,

Today - Christmas - is one of the two holiest days in all of Christendom, the other being Easter. the word Christmas derives from two subsidiary words: Christ and Mass. This day is the celebration of the Mass of the Christ Child. Let us remember that the Child born in Bethlehem (which means House of Bread), laying in a manager (a trough of hay for livestock) some 2000 years ago became for us the Bread of Life in the Holy Eucharist. He was the One Who defeated the Caesar of the Roman Empire and He will defeat today's empire of secularism and humanism. Victoria est de Christo, non de hominibus. The first time He can wrapped in swaddling clothes, symbolizing His future death Cross. The next time His coming will be substantively different:

"Then I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse! He who sat upon it is called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he judges and makes war. His eyes are like a flame of fire, and on his head are many diadems; and he has a name inscribed which no one knows but himself. He is clad in a robe dipped in blood, and the name by which he is called is The Word of God. And the armies of heaven, arrayed in fine linen, white and pure, followed him on white horses. From his mouth issues a sharp sword with which to smite the nations, and he will rule them with a rod of iron; he will tread the wine press of the fury of the wrath of God the Almighty. On his robe and on his thigh he has a name inscribed, King of kings and Lord of lords." Revelation 19:11-16

Δόξα Σοι τῷ δείξαντι τὸ φῶς.

Δόξα ἐν ὑψίστοις Θεῷ καὶ ἐπὶ γῆς εἰρήνη ἐν ἀνθρώποις εὐδοκία.

Ὑμνοῦμέν σε, εὐλογοῦμέν σε, προσκυνοῦμέν σε, δοξολογοῦμέν σε, εὐχαριστοῦμέν σοι, διὰ τὴν μεγάλην σου δόξαν.

Κύριε Βασιλεῦ, ἐπουράνιε Θεέ, Πάτερ παντοκράτορ, Κύριε Υἱὲ μονογενές, Ἰησοῦ Χριστέ, καὶ Ἅγιον Πνεῦμα.

Κύριε ὁ Θεός, ὁ ἀμνὸς τοῦ Θεοῦ, ὁ Υἱός τοῦ Πατρός, ὁ αἴρων τὴν ἁμαρτίαν τοῦ κόσμου, ἐλέησον ἡμᾶς, ὁ αἴρων τὰς ἁμαρτίας τοῦ κόσμου.

Πρόσδεξαι τὴν δέησιν ἡμῶν, ὁ καθήμενος ἐν δεξιᾷ τοῦ Πατρός, καὶ ἐλέησον ἡμᾶς.

Ὅτι σὺ εἶ μόνος Ἅγιος, σὺ εἶ μόνος Κύριος, Ἰησοῦς Χριστός, εἰς δόξαν Θεοῦ Πατρός. Ἀμήν.

Καθ' ἑκάστην ἡμέραν εὐλογήσω σε, καὶ αἰνέσω τὸ ὄνομά σου εἰς τὸν αἰῶνα καὶ εἰς τὸν αἰῶνα τοῦ αἰῶνος.

Glória in excélsis Deo

et in terra pax homínibus bonæ voluntátis.

Laudámus te,

benedícimus te,

adorámus te,

glorificámus te,

grátias ágimus tibi propter magnam glóriam tuam,

Dómine Deus, Rex cæléstis,

Deus Pater omnípotens.

Dómine Fili unigénite, Iesu Christe,

Dómine Deus, Agnus Dei, Fílius Patris,

qui tollis peccáta mundi, miserére nobis;

qui tollis peccáta mundi, súscipe deprecatiónem nostram.

Qui sedes ad déxteram Patris, miserére nobis.Quóniam tu solus Sanctus, tu solus Dóminus, tu solus Altíssimus,

Iesu Christe, cum Sancto Spíritu: in glória Dei Patris. Amen.

Diffamation et Obtrectatio!

Amici, Americani et Compatriotae,

It is time to speak out against slander. In Latin as in English, there are different words used to express this concept. Nouns include the following:

• Blasphemia: blasphemy (against God); slander; reviling
• Calumnia: sophistry, sham; false accusation/claim/statement/pretenses/objection; quibble; charge; accusation
• Crimen: indictment/charge/accusation; blame/reproach/slander; verdict/judgment
• Denotatio: ensure; disparagement; marking, pointing out
• Detrectio: removal, withdrawal; omission (words); blood-letting; purge; slander 
• Diffamatio: defamation
• Obtrectatio: disparagement; detraction; verbal attack inspired by malice or spite
• Vilipensio: disparagement; contempt

Verbs include the following:

• Diffamo: spread news of; slander
• Lacerare: to mangle; slander, torment, harass; waste; destroy; cut
• Maledicere: to speak ill/evil of, revile, slander; abuse, curse

Slander was the FIRST sin committed in the Garden of Eden. Genesis 3:1-7 gives us the story:

Now the serpent was more subtle than any other wild creature that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree of the garden’?” And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden; but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.’” But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate; and she also gave some to her husband, and he ate. Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves aprons.

Notice how the serpent beguiles Eve with the words of slander in Genesis 3:4-5:

But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”

The serpent lied to Eve about God. In fact, the serpent called God a liar. Look at what Genesis 2:16-17 says:

And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “You may freely eat of every tree of the garden; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall die.”

Now the serpent tells Eve, “You will not die.” Then he attributes to God a nefarious intent – the intent to keep the eyes of Adam and Eve closed and like God – knowing good and evil! Yet Genesis 1:26 says that man was already created in God’s image, therefore he was already like God:

Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth.”

Slander or calumny is a violation of the Commandment which says, “You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor” (Exodus 20:16 and Deuteronomy 5:20). And St. Paul is clear about such people:

“I appeal to you, brethren, to take note of those who create dissensions and difficulties, in opposition to the doctrine which you have been taught; avoid them.” Romans 16: 17

“If any one teaches otherwise and does not agree with the sound words of our Lord Jesus Christ and the teaching which accords with godliness, he is puffed up with conceit, he knows nothing; he has a morbid craving for controversy and for disputes about words, which produce envy, dissension, slander, base suspicions, and wrangling among men who are depraved in mind and bereft of the truth, imagining that godliness is a means of gain.” 1st Timothy 6: 3-5

My experience is that those who spread vilification and calumny sooner or later suffer a backlash greater than what they have given to others, for “…whatsoever a man sows, that also shall he reap” (Galatians 6:7). Indeed, Hosea 8:7a states:

“For they sow the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind.”

Slanders are the offspring of their father the devil who is called Satan, and the name Satan in Hebrew mean Accuser. Unless they repent, such people must be ejected from the Body of Christ. They too are an infestation and infection which, if left to grow, will become a life-threatening cancerous tumor of death and destruction.

Feminae in Diaconato, Sacerdotio et Episcopato

Heretic Sarah Mullally

Amici, Americani et Compatriotae,

The Catholic Herald of the UK reports that "London’s traditionalist Anglicans have a woman bishop. What now?" The Wikipedia entry on this person reports that "Dame Sarah Elisabeth Mullally DBE (née Bowser; born 26 March 1962) is a British Anglican bishop and former nurse. From 1999 to 2004, she was Chief Nursing Officer and the NHS director of patient experience for England. Since July 2015, she has been Bishop of Crediton, a suffragan bishop in the Diocese of Exeter. In December 2017 her nomination as the next Bishop of London was announced." This person has NO theological expertise, NO parish experience, and NO Christian acumen. She is a heretic for even assuming the pretense of ordination and consecration inasmuch as Christ gave and reserved the clerical state to men only in John 20, and in 1st Timothy 2 St. Paul forbade women to have any authority over men, admonishing them to learn in silence. It is infuriating to see these feminists pervert and defy the Gospel with their godless pink pacifist imbecility. They are like a congress of baboons which scatter throughout the rain forest and savanna, destroying whatever is beautiful and life-giving. Since they will NOT repent, it is time for their eradication from the Body of Christ. Back when men had not been feminized into sterility and paralysis, Phinehas in Numbers chapter 25 and Mattathias in 1st Maccabees chapter 2 made clear what had to be done with the practices of paganism.

In his Apostolic Letter Ordination Sacerdotalis, Pope St. John Paul II explains far more masterfully than I can why women can never be either ordained to the diaconate or priesthood, or consecrated to the episcopate. The second paragraph in section 1 of this letter is clear:

"When the question of the ordination of women arose in the Anglican Communion, Pope Paul VI, out of fidelity to his office of safeguarding the Apostolic Tradition, and also with a view to removing a new obstacle placed in the way of Christian unity, reminded Anglicans of the position of the Catholic Church: 'She holds that it is not admissible to ordain women to the priesthood, for very fundamental reasons. These reasons include: the example recorded in the Sacred Scriptures of Christ choosing his Apostles only from among men; the constant practice of the Church, which has imitated Christ in choosing only men; and her living teaching authority which has consistently held that the exclusion of women from the priesthood is in accordance with God's plan for his Church.'"

A women cannot be a Father and forgive or remit sins in the Sacrament of Confession and Reconciliation any more than a man can be a Nun - a Mother or a Sister. A women cannot act in Persona Christi and confect the Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity of Christ Jesus our Lord and Savior at the Eucharist any more than a man can conceive and give birth to a child. Men and women are equal in dignity but unequal in function. A man's function is to be Father, Son, and Brother. A woman's function is to be Mother, Daughter and Sister. And the teaching of Sacred Scripture is clear: women are to be SILENT in the Church, for 1st Timothy 2:11-13 states the following:

"Let a woman learn in silence with all submissiveness. I permit no woman to teach or to have authority over men; she is to keep silent. For Adam was formed first, then Eve; and Adam was not deceived, but the woman was deceived and became a transgressor. Yet woman will be saved through bearing children, if she continues in faith and love and holiness, with modesty."

Therefore, to all you feminists - either emasculated males or androgynized females matter not -EITHER repent of this heresy before the Cross of Jesus Christ OR get out of the Christian Church because by what you do you are NOT authentically Christian. Your weak-kneed, yellow-bellied, effeminate doctrine of diversity of every perversion, inclusivity of every vice, and tolerance of every corruption are a blight, an infection, an infestation which must be exterminated.

Homilia - Triens Dies Solis Adventus

St. Jose Maria Escriva

Amici, Americani et Compatriotae,

This past Sunday - the Third Sunday in Advent - Fr. Kirby gave an excellent homily on St. Jose Maria Escriva at Our Lady of Grace. The liturgical readings may be found here:

Third Sunday of Advent Lectionary: 8

And a 12+ minute audio recording may be found here:

Homily - Our Lady of Grace - December 17, 2017

The sermon was excellent and covered the following points:

• Martyrdom and the Communion of the Saints
• The Spanish Civil War and Communism
• Holiness

Our Lady of Grace has received a First Class Relic of St. Jose Maria Escriva, hence Fr. Kirby's homily. This opened an opportunity to explain how the Church certifies and distributes relics, how great men of old were martyred for their beliefs and the importance of the Communion of the Saints. Protestantism misses much of this, ignoring to its peril Hebrews 12:1-2:

"Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us rid ourselves of every burden and sin that clings to us and persevere in running the race that lies before us while keeping our eyes fixed on Jesus, the leader and perfecter of faith. For the sake of the joy that lay before him he endured the cross, despising its shame, and has taken his seat at the right of the throne of God."

Interestingly on the previous Thursday night  I attended a Protestant Bible Study with my wife, and while the faith chapter of Hebrews 11 was duly emphasized, the phrase at the beginning of chapter 12 was ignored:  "We are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses." Strangely Protestants erroneously believe that the Saints being dead have no current function or purpose. But as Fr. Kirby pointed out, this was not the faith of the Church since the beginning. The Tradition of that great cloud of witnesses was preserved and gave us at the Councils of Carthage and Rome in the late 4th century AD our Bible. There was no true Bible before that - just the Greek Septuagint as the Old Testament and different collections of books from the Gospel writers and St. Paul. Individual churches accepted some of these, added others like the Didache and the Shepherd of Hermas, and rejected other like Hebrews, Jude and Revelation. But finally the Church Herself using the living Tradition of the great cloud of witnesses who went before us finally determined the authentic Canon of Sacred Scripture well after the Gospels and Letters in our New Testament had been written. Indeed, I got to explain this to a Baptist co-worker today who had never seen a Catholic Bible until I let her borrow one of my extra ones. She was amazed that such books as Sirach and Wisdom in the Deuterocanonicals (or Apocrypha as Protestants call them) had been rejected by the Protestants in the 16th century regardless that the undivided Church had accepted them for over a thousand years.

Fr. Kirby went on to describe St. Jose Maria Escriva's ministry which took place during the Spanish Civil War. Communists under the disguise of Republicans fought against Nationalists who were mainly Catholic. These communists murdered Catholics - clergy and laity without regard. This lasted from 1936 to 1939. While we may have objections to the style of government which arose under Francisco Franco as the Republicans were defeated, we must remember that the communists in Spain did what their Soviet brethren had done in Russia in the early part of the 20th century. Under communism more than 20 million people were murdered in the last century. Today snowflake airhead millennials cry about how communism will bring about social justice and serve the common good. But as Fr. Kirby explained, this is a lie from Lucifer himself. Communism is evil and must be eradicated from the face of the Earth. Pope Pius XI issued an encyclical against communism called Divini Redemptoris and Pope Paul XII issued a decree against it as a Papal Bull. One cannot be Catholic and be a communist, period.

The last thing that Fr. Kirby discussed was holiness - how holiness isn't just for the clergy but for all of us. As Hebrews 12:14 says:

"Strive for peace with everyone, and for that holiness without which no one will see the Lord." And 1st Peter 1:14-16 says:

"Like obedient children, do not act in compliance with the desires of your former ignorance but, as he who called you is holy, be holy yourselves in every aspect of your conduct, for it is written, 'Be holy because I [am] holy.'"

Considering that on Monday next week we celebrate the Birth of our Savior, Lord and King, it would do well for all of us to strive for holiness, for the alternative to not seeing God once we die is unacceptable.

Christianitas - Una Vera Religio

Amici, Americani et Compatriotae,

I have once again recently heard the phrase that Christianity is not a religion. That statement truly grates on me: “I am not religious; I am spiritual,” to which I sometimes sarcastically respond, “So are the Wiccans and pagan witches. That doesn’t make them holy.” Now there are two objections to this sentiment of being spiritual and not religious, the first Biblical and linguistic, and the second political.

First, the Biblical reason:  The Epistle of St. James 1:27 states, “Religion that is pure and undefiled before God and the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.” The Greek word that is used here is θρησκεία which means religious worship, especially external – that which consists of ceremonies, religious discipline, religion. The Latin Vulgate of course translates θρησκεία as religio and states:

“Religio munda et inmaculata apud Deum et Patrem haec est visitare pupillos et viduas in tribulatione eorum inmaculatum se custodire ab hoc saeculo.”

Religio means obligation, bond, reverence and derives from the verb religare which means “to bind together.” This word – θρησκεία for the Greeks and religio for the Romans – was used extensively by all the early Church Fathers who succeeded the Apostles in the first three centuries Anno Domini. The word denotes the binding together of the Assembly or Church (Εκκλησία in lingua Graeca and Ecclesia in lingua Latina) which is often advocated throughout various sermons with great eloquence. Yet there is this continued objection (regardless of denomination - the protest is almost always the same) to the word religion in spite of its Biblical, linguistic and historical basis. It is cognitive dissonance for me to count myself as spiritual yet not religious but still advocating the bonding together – religati – of the Body of Christ. Indeed, what people believe is meant by religion is really not the Christian religion. Perhaps it applies to the Muslim or Hindu or Buddhist religions, but NOT to what St. James wrote. Christianity is in fact the one true religion - the ONLY religion that is true, right and correct. It is a binding together of the faithful into the One Body of Christ, the One Bride of Christ. A personal relationship with Christ is absolutely essential, but that happens within and through the Body of Christ which is the Church, into which we are baptized as believers. It isn't "Christ and me." It's "Christ the Head and His Body the Church." We are bonded together - religati - members of that Body. It's THE religion, Amici!

Second, the political reason: the First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States says:

“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”

If one's spirituality is not a religion, then one is not entitled to any protection under the First Amendment for one's spirituality. So in this day and age of post-modern, neo-pagan liberal progressivism which seeks to shove atheism and hedonism down the throats of every authentic orthodox Christian who upholds the sanctity of marriage between one man and one woman and the sanctity of life from conception onward, we ought to be very careful in making statements that say one's spirituality is not a religion. Again, what people often think is meant by the word religion and what it really means are two different things.

Homilia Excellens - Solemnitas Nostri Domini Iesus Christi, Regis Universae - November 26, 2017

Christus Rex

Amici, Americani et Compatriotae,

A visiting priest at Our Lady of Grace Catholic Church gave an excellent homily for the Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe almost a month ago. The Scripture readings for this day may be found here:

The Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe - Lectionary: 160
A audio recording is now available. I would encourage everyone to listen to this important message:

Homily - Our Lady of Grace - 11/26/2018

Christ did NOT come into the world for social justice, the common good and peace at any price. He came into the world to save souls from the fires of hell. Yes, corporal works of mercy are important, and we do them for our own salvation to keep the focus on loving God with all our heart and our neighbor as ourselves:

1. To feed the hungry.
2. To give water to the thirsty.
3. To clothe the naked.
4. To shelter the homeless.
5. To visit the sick.
6. To visit the imprisoned, or ransom the captive.
7. To bury the dead.

But spiritual works of mercy are even more important, because try as we might to feed the belly with corporal works of mercy, one day the belly will perish and only the soul will remain:

1. To instruct the ignorant.
2. To counsel the doubtful.
3. To admonish the sinners.
4. To bear patiently those who wrong us.
5. To forgive offenses.
6. To comfort the afflicted.
7. To pray for the living and the dead.