"For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God sent the Son into the world, not to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him. He who believes in him is not condemned; he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God."
– John 3:16-18
Fra Angelico's vision of the Last Judgement (click to enlarge)
Wherefore, if a man fall into this sin, he does not repent, and does not truly grieve for his offense against Me as he should, grieving indeed for his own loss, but not for the offense done to Me, and therefore he receives eternal damnation. See, therefore, that this sin alone leads him to hell, where he is punished for this and all the other sins which he has committed; whereas had he grieved and repented for the offense done to Me, and hoped in My mercy, he would have found mercy, for, as I have said to you, My mercy is greater without any comparison than all the sins which any creature can commit; wherefore it greatly displeases Me that they should consider their sins to be greater.
Marino Restrepo was born in the Andes Mountains of Colombia in a small coffee-growers town.
Marino's life took a drastic turn during his visit to his hometown in Colombia at midnight on Christmas Eve in 1997. While he was driving into the ranch of one of his uncles where he was to spend the night, he was kidnapped by the Colombian rebels of the FARC (Revolutionary Arm Forces of Colombia) and taken to the jungle as a hostage for six months. During the first fifteen days of his kidnapping, he was kept in a cave with bats and different kinds of bugs while the captors were waiting for the rebels to pick him up. In that very cave, and after finding out that he was sentenced to death by his captors, he went through a mystical experience with God that changed his life forever. Five and a half months later, Marino was miraculously released from captivity after a miracle of God, and after his release he went back to his catholic faith. Eighteen months later he became a full time missionary for the Catholic Church leaving all of his past, and his worldly possessions behind. constantly on the road of the mission around the world.
Here are some videos I found of him speaking. I only give one part but you can easily follow the whole series on YouTube. You will be amazed at how much his story will speak to your personal life. I view him as a modern day St. Catherine of Sienna.
Nada te turbe
Nada te espante
Todo se pasa
Dios no se muda
May nothing disturb you
May nothing astonish you
Everything passes
God does not go away
La paciencia
Todo lo alcanza
Quien a Dios tiene
Nada le falta
Patience
Can attain anything
He who has God within
Does not lack anything
God is everything
Solo Dios basta
God is everything
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Here is the original poem in Spanish which is unchanged except where I made a mistake while singing and at one point said "no le falta" instead of "nada le falta".
Nada te turbe;
nada te espante;
todo se pasa;
Dios no se muda,
la paciencia
todo lo alcanza.
Quien a Dios tiene,
nada le falta.
Solo Dios basta.
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Here is the translation as done by Jorge W. Suazo, which is the one I used. It is not as literal as some other translations I have seen. I actually wasn't aware of that at the time. It was only after I had put the song together and had recorded it, that I went back and looked at the translation in detail and realized that it has some inconsistencies with the original Spanish. I suppose it is a little more poetic than some other more literal translations. Anyway, I decided to leave it as is because it works well in the song and I didn't see any harm in the slight changes made in the translation.
May nothing disturb you.
May nothing astonish you.
Everything passes.
God does not go away.
Patience
can attain anything.
He who has God within,
does not lack anything.
God is everything!
Jorge himself admits on his webpage that the last line "God is everything" is more literally translated "God is enough". The confusion comes because the Spanish text loses a little of its meaning in an exact literal translation which would be something like "Alone [or 'only'] God suffices". I have to say that Jorge's translation is somewhat liberal. It presupposes what St. Teresa was thinking when she wrote this. Jorge draws the conclusion that when Teresa says that God is sufficient and that one does not need anything else, that she is therefore saying that God is everything that one needs in life. At least that is the way I understand his interpretation. I don't think he is taking a panentheistic point of view, but rather saying that God is all we need in our lives. If that is true, then I'm sure that Santa Teresa would agree!
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I actually had already written the music for this song about a week before I came across St. Teresa's poem. I first came up with the rhythm guitar part which I really loved and I kept trying to come up with a melody and lyrics to go with it. I finally came up with a melody, but I couldn't come up with any lyrics.
Then I came across the poem and I thought it would never work with St. Teresa's words. But I gave it a try anyway. I started off with just the English words as lyrics, but then tried to fit the same melody to the original Spanish words and I was quite surprised when everything seemed to fit together so perfectly.
The thing I liked about the rhythm guitar part was that it had a haunting spiritual sound to it. This fits well with St. Teresa's writings because she often wrote about the ineffable quality of the inner revelations that she received. Since music has a way of communicating the ineffable, it seemed almost like it was meant to be from the beginning.
Let nothing disturb you,
Let nothing frighten you,
All things pass away:
God never changes.
Patience obtains all things.
He who has God
Finds he lacks nothing;
God alone suffices.
======
This could easily segue into a discussion of the new NAB (New American Bible) translation of the Bible. I don't really want to get into that subject in this post. I will just say that I am very displeased with the fact that the American bishops are supporting and promoting this work. First it was the "gender neutral" language which was introduced by NAB and now we have some more liberties taken in this latest translation. What most disturbs me about this is that it leaves the door wide open for an even more liberal translation that appeases people that insist that the Church change its stance on issues like homosexuality or women priests.
On a positive note, I applaud Pope Benedict XVI and the Vatican for taking a strong stance in these matters. We can see this in the new English translation of the Mass as well as in the Vatican's past refusal to allow some NAB translations to be used in the Mass readings. Words do matter and we should not expect that the word of God was written only for our generation. The words of the Bible have very profound meanings and there is a danger that a new translation can become instead a new and false interpretation of God's word.
We should not expect the Bible to accommodate our personal beliefs, rather it is we who have to change ourselves in order to be fully in accord with God's word. The message of the Bible is eternal and any translation has to be careful that it does not go to extremes in order to force it to fit a particular cultural context.
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Related article:
O Trinity that I adore - This is a song I wrote based on Blessed Elizabeth's prayer of the Trinity. Elizabeth was a nun in the Carmelite order established by St. Teresa.
Stand therefore, having girded your loins with truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness.
– Ephesians 6:14
I realize that anything I write now at this time of tragedy in Japan could be seen as not showing the proper respect for the victims. But I had this strangest feeling as I was watching a video about the design of a nuclear reactor and I feel the need to share it.
The video was talking about the "containment system" inside one of the Fukushima nuclear power reactors. It was described as being similar to russian dolls – steel container, covered by a concrete container, covered by the actual building.
I suddenly had an image of Christianity as a similar type of containment system. At the core – or at least somewhere very close to the core – is marriage. And all the safety systems and containment that surrounded that core have been breached by the corrosive forces of secular humanism.
It occurred to me that when the Church of England first approved contraception (in 1930) in the case of married couples, it burst through the first layer of this religious and ethical containment system. This small crack became larger and larger, until finally an explosion occurred with the introduction of the contraceptive birth control pill in the early 1960s. This was followed by another eruption which was the legalization of abortion in 1973. And now the worst case meltdown scenario is occurring with the legalization of same-sex "marriage".
These facts are nothing new, but I think the imagery of Christianity as a system designed to protect the family is striking. It reveals the strategy used by the secular humanists in attacking Christianity, as well as revealing their ultimate goal. It also reveals the consequences if we stop fighting this battle. And it reveals how something that may seem like an insignificant crack in our Christian beliefs can ultimately have devastating consequences.
At the very core of Christianity is our belief in God. If marriage is obliterated, then nothing will stop the secular humanists from declaring that belief in God is itself a crime.
"For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink."
– Matthew 25:35
As the human impact of the earthquake and tsunami in Japan slowly sinks in, and the images shift from the impersonal to the personal, we are reminded of what is important in life. It is not houses or cars, it is people.
As Christians we are called to value human life above all other things on earth. We are called to love our neighbor as ourself.
Houses can be rebuilt, but each individual is a unique creation of God and can never be replaced. Christians don't refer to human life in some abstract sense, but in a very personal sense. We understand that each individual is a child of God.
Jesus tells us that God knows each of us personally. And He tells us not to fear the physical death of the body.
"And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul; rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell. Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? And not one of them will fall to the ground without your Father's will. But even the hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not, therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows."
– Matthew 10:28-31
We pray for the souls of all the victims of the earthquake in Japan. It does not matter if they are Christians or non-Christians. We know that God is merciful and we trust in His judgement.
In a time of great sorrow and grieving, we pray for those who have suffered and lost loved ones. We pray that they will find comfort in the Holy Trinity – Father, Son and Holy Spirit. We pray for those who are assigned duties in the rescue efforts. We pray for miracles of survival against all odds.
We pray for faith, hope and love. Faith in God. Hope in the future. And love of our neighbor.
"If I give away all I have, and if I deliver my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing....
Love does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrong, but rejoices in the right. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends....
Now I know in part; then I shall understand fully, even as I have been fully understood. So faith, hope, love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love."
– Excerpts from 1 Corinthians 13
And immediately something like scales fell from his eyes and he regained his sight. Then he rose and was baptized... And in the synagogues immediately he proclaimed Jesus, saying, "He is the Son of God."
– Acts 9:18,20 (The conversion of St. Paul the Apostle)
I was reflecting on the sudden conversion of Abby Johnson to pro-Life and it seems to me that Abby had an encounter with Jesus when she witnessed the death of an unborn child. The ultrasound gave her the "eyes to see" which she had lost. In one interview she says she actually dropped the ultrasound probe which reminds me of Paul being thrown from his horse on the road to Damascus when he encountered Jesus:
Now as he journeyed he approached Damascus, and suddenly a light from heaven flashed about him. And he fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him, "Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?" And he said, "Who are you, Lord?" And he said, "I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting; but rise and enter the city, and you will be told what you are to do."
– Acts 9:3-6
Abby must have had a similar experience.
Afterwards Abby had to gradually do what Jesus asks of all of us, "If your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away." (Matthew 5:30) She had to cast out her old self; her old way of seeing and doing and thinking. You can see the difference in the two interviews which I provided videos for in my last article. In the first one with Mike Huckabee she is still partially thinking like her old self, but in the more recent EWTN interview it is apparent that she has been transformed from the inside by the Grace of Christ.
She says that after she saw the child dying in front of her eyes in the mother's womb that her heart changed. It was as if her old hardened heart was instantly melted by the warmth of the flames emanating from the Sacred Heart of Jesus.
Sacred Heart of Jesus
It was not enough that she saw something in the ultrasound. She should have been well prepared for that. It should just have added one more calloused layer over her hardened heart. The fact that it had the opposite effect she herself attributes to the prayers of those who stood in prayerful vigil outside the clinic. Now it is her turn to pray for those who are still caught in the tangled web of lies that Planned Parenthood uses to deceive them.
Please participate in 40 Days for Life from March 9 to April 17. Even if you can't go to pray outside a clinic, you can still participate by praying in the quiet of your home. In fact Jesus tells us:
"When you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you."
– Matthew 6:6
The prophecies of Isaiah
Recently I have been reading from the Book of Isaiah. Here are a few verses from Isaiah 49 that may help you in your prayers for the unborn children. They were written for a time when the people of Israel were held captive in Babylon. And yet they seem to speak directly to us as we struggle to uphold our Christian beliefs in a culture that has rejected Jesus Christ, the anointed Son of God.
Listen to me, O coastlands, and hearken, you peoples from afar.
The LORD called me from the womb,
from the body of my mother he named my name.
And he said to me, "You are my servant,
Israel, in whom I will be glorified."
And now the LORD says,
who formed me from the womb to be his servant,
to bring Jacob back to him,
and that Israel might be gathered to him.
"I will give you as a light to the nations,
that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth."
"They shall not hunger or thirst,
neither scorching wind nor sun shall smite them,
for he who has pity on them will lead them,
and by springs of water will guide them."
But Zion said, "The LORD has forsaken me,
my Lord has forgotten me."
"Can a woman forget her sucking child,
that she should have no compassion on the son of her womb?
Even these may forget,
yet I will not forget you."
"The children born in the time of your bereavement
will yet say in your ears:
`The place is too narrow for me;
make room for me to dwell in.' "
"I will contend with those who contend with you,
and I will save your children."
Behold, now is the acceptable time; behold, now is the day of salvation.
– 2 Corinthians 6:2
Today is Ash Wednesday. It is the beginning of Lent. It is also the beginning of a new "40 Days for Life" campaign.
The pro-Life movement has been gathering support and momentum over the past few months. Now comes a new opportunity to show our support for the unborn. 40 Days for Life is a campaign of 40 days of constant, peaceful vigil outside abortion centers and Planned Parenthood offices. The current campaign begins March 9 and runs through April 17, coinciding with the Christian season of Lent.
For more information please visit the 40 Days for Life website at: www.40daysforlife.com
Planned Parenthood exposed
Planned Parenthood has been exposed for what it is – a radical population control group that was founded on the principles of racism and eugenics. Take a look at this statement from PP's 2008 tax filing:
THE PURPOSE OF THE FEDERATION IS:
(A) TO PROVIDE LEADERSHIP:
- IN MAKING EFFECTIVE MEANS OF VOLUNTARY FERTILITY REGULATION, INCLUDING CONTRACEPTION, ABORTION, STERILIZATION, AND INFERTILITY SERVICES, AVAILABLE AND FULLY ACCESSIBLE TO ALL AS A CENTRAL ELEMENT TO REPRODUCTIVE HEALTHCARE:
- IN ACHIEVING, THROUGH INFORMED INDIVIDUAL CHOICE, A U.S. POPULATION OF STABLE SIZE IN AN OPTIMUM ENVIRONMENT
- IN STIMULATING AND SPONSORING RELEVANT BIOMEDICAL, SOCIO-ECONOMIC, AND DEMOGRAPHIC RESEARCH;
- IN DEVELOPING APPROPRIATE INFORMATION, EDUCATION, AND TRAINING PROGRAMS.
(B) TO SUPPORT AND ASSIST EFFORTS TO ACHIEVE SIMILAR GOALS IN THE UNITED STATES AND THROUGHOUT THE WORLD.
Their stated purpose is:
"Voluntary fertility regulation" through "contraception, abortion, sterilization, and infertility services".
Achieving a "stable" and "optimum" U.S. population through individual "choice".
And to propagate this same goal "throughout the world".
There is nothing in this description about providing general health services for women. And there is certainly nothing about helping children. Given their stated goal of achieving zero population growth, every child born above an unpublished quota is viewed by them as a failure to accomplish their mission.
This is very similar to the mission statement of an organization who's goal it is to control the population of stray cats through neutering and spaying. The only difference is that PP knows that it cannot force people in the U.S. to undergo sterilization like they do in China, so they have to rely on "individual choice" to accomplish their goal. And there is that word "choice" that abortion supporters like to use so much. The choices that PP offers are "contraception, abortion and sterilization". The goal of Planned Parenthood is to induce women to "choose" to use drugs and medical procedures to alter their bodies so that they cannot conceive a child.
This is a free country and anyone can express their views. If Planned Parenthood and its supporters believe strongly in a zero population growth strategy, then they are certainly entitled to that opinion and to engage in legal activities in support of that goal. However, they should be open about their goals and not hide their true purpose behind public relations campaigns that attempt to portray the purpose of their organization as helping poor and minority women. The exact opposite is true. They specifically target poor and minority women with their abortion clinics.
Planned Parenthood is deliberately duplicitous about its purpose. The only "help" that they offer to poor women is to render them infertile so that they cannot have children. And when that fails, then they offer to legally kill their unborn children while they are still in the mother's womb. PP performs over 300,000 abortions in the U.S. every year. Any other services that PP offers are just there to entice women to come into their centers so that they can gain their confidence and compel them to not have children through "contraception, abortion and sterilization" and other "infertility services".
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Here is Abby Johnson describing her conversion to pro-Life. She is the former director of the Planned Parenthood clinic in College Station, Texas – where 40 Days for Life first began.
The following are excerpts from the 40 Days for Life blog. It is an article that was written November 3rd, 2009 – just after Abby's decision to leave Planned Parenthood became public. It's titled "MIRACLE: Planned Parenthood director converts!"
Abby Johnson worked at Planned Parenthood in Bryan, Texas for eight years. She was there when the first-ever 40 Days for Life campaign was conducted outside of her workplace in the Bryan/College Station community in 2004.
She was there for the next 40 Days for Life effort as well — the one that helped to launch the first nationally coordinated 40 Days for Life campaign in the fall of 2007.
And she was there for the one after that, and the one after that, and the one after that — and the one after that!
In fact, Abby was able to look out the window of Planned Parenthood and see 40 Days for Life campaigns on six different occasions — as well as the regular year-round prayer presence organized by the local Coalition for Life, under the leadership of our own 40 Days for Life campaign director Shawn Carney.
For all those years, people outside the clinic prayed for Abby.
And with all those prayers, Abby finally had a change of heart. She said, “Over the past few months I had seen a change in motivation regarding the financial impact of abortions,” she said, “and I reached my breaking point after witnessing a particular kind of abortion on an ultrasound.”
Abby finally saw the truth. The truth which Planned Parenthood often tries to hide — even from its very own management staff.
Abby’s amazing conversion demonstrates the importance of a constant, persistent, peaceful prayer presence in front of abortion facilities.
From that first campaign in 2004, we’ve prayed for Abby — and for all abortion workers — that they would come to see what abortion really is, and that they would leave the deadly business. In this case, those prayers have been answered.
We are so proud of Abby’s courage to leave the abortion industry and publicly announce her reasons for leaving.
And now a familiar face has been seen praying outside Planned Parenthood in Bryan/College Station during the final days of this fall’s 40 Days for Life — yes, Abby Johnson.
God can and will do amazing things — if only we ask!
We must continue to pray and fast for more conversions just like Abby’s.
At the time that Abby left Planned Parenthood she was still an advocate of artificial contraception. She belonged to a liberal Episcopalian church. Abby says that her family was "booted out" of her pro-choice Church after she left Planned Parenthood. Eventually she and her husband decided to become Catholic. Here is an extensive interview with Abby on EWTN's World Over Live that was broadcast on February 24, 2011. In the interview Abby discusses her experience as a Planned Parenthood director. She has recently published a book about her personal journey from pro-abortion to pro-life titled "unPlanned".
8:00 - Interview with Abby Johnson begins
8:30 - Abby describes ultrasound abortion that caused her to leave PP
12:00 - Abby discusses Planned Parenthood's "quota" for abortions
16:00 - Abby rebuts PP's assertions that abortion is not their main business
17:30 - Abby says PP does not provide mammograms
19:00 - Abby disputes the idea that contraception reduces abortions
21:00 - Abby discusses LiveAction exposé of Planned Parenthood
25:30 - Abby describes reaction to her book
27:00 - Abby discusses her prior impression of the pro-Life movement
31:00 - Abby describes how PP justifies abortion
32:30 - Abby discusses spiritual and moral aspects of abortion
34:00 - Abby discusses impact of federal funding for PP
36:30 - Abby describes her "exciting journey" to the Catholic Church
38:00 - Abby says she now works with "40 Days for Life" and LiveAction
39:00 - Abby describes importance of ultrasound legislation
40:00 - End of interview
Here is more information on Abby's conversion to Catholicism and her embrace of the Catholic teachings on contraception. She and her husband will enter the Church at Easter. Another pro-Life advocate that recently joined the Catholic Church is Lila Rose of LiveAction.
Johnson and her husband have grown in their faith during the past year, and are now preparing to enter the Catholic Church in the near future. She said that one of the final obstacles, in the course of her Catholic conversion, had been the Church's teaching on the immorality of all artificial methods of birth control.
Planned Parenthood's mentality toward contraception, as she explained, stuck with her for a period of time even after she rejected abortion. Even as she became interested in the Catholic Church, she clung to the notion that artificial birth control was an advance for women and society. But she kept an open mind, studying Pope John Paul II's “Theology of the Body” and other sources of Church teaching.
Abby Johnson's final decision to reject contraception, like her change of mind on abortion, occurred suddenly, and because of something she saw.
This time, however, the sight that changed her mind was not a child's death within the clinic walls, but quite the opposite. An experience in a Catholic church, she said, finally made her understand the fullness of the Church's teaching on sexuality.
This time, the vision of a child was not shocking, but profoundly life-affirming.
“One day, we were sitting in Mass … I was sitting behind this woman, who I don't know, and this little infant.” Gazing at that child, she finally understood the Church's insistence on marriages remaining open to new life.
“It was just clear to me, like a switch had gone off, that we had to stop contracepting.”
"Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God."
– Matthew 5:8
I introduced my readers to Brandee just a few weeks ago. Against all odds she has persevered in her call to become a Carmelite nun. And now she has some exciting news for us. She is going to enter Carmel.
It seems to me that I already see a great change in her. We can hear the excitement in her voice and she still has that great enthusiasm that we love about her, but there is also a new calm and serenity that was not there before.
She tells us of her great desire to enter Carmel and some of the obstacles that stood in her way. We see in her a great will and determination to follow in the footsteps of St. Teresa of the Andes. And then finally the good news that the sisters of the Carmelite Monastery of Cristo Rey in San Francisco have heard her call, and they have offered her an invitation to come visit them.
We see at the beginning of the video that she is holding the book of Divine Mercy which is the diary of St. Faustina. Yes, that is the book I recommended to her in my previous article! I'm sure she will find that St. Faustina is like a big sister to her – even though she was not a Carmelite nun :)
And now I have another recommendation for Brandee. I don't think she needs to go out and buy the book, but I want her to be aware of another nun with a simple heart and a great devotion to Jesus and who was also blessed with divine revelations. I'm speaking of Sister Josefa Menéndez. I just discovered her myself. (As far as I know her revelations have never been condemned by the Church. In fact, they received the blessing of Pope Pius XII.)
Sister Josefa lived around the same time as St. Faustina and her revelations seem to be intertwined with those of St. Faustina. The book about her that includes her diaries is called "The Way of Divine Love".
On Saturday, the 20th of November, He came to her, as a beggar, destitute and asking for love. He appeared with all His wounds..."Many little wounds were lacerating His Heart," she wrote.
'Tell Me, would you not attempt the impossible to comfort Me, Josefa? . . . Share with Me for a moment the bitterness of My Heart.'
'Listen,' He said, 'I want you to give Me souls. Only love in all you do is required. Suffer because you love, work because you love, and above all abandon yourself to love. When I let you feel anguish of spirit and great loneliness, suffer in love. I want to make use of you as a tired man uses a stick to lean upon. . . . I want to possess you, to consume you entirely, but all in great sweetness, so that enduring a martyrdom of love, you thirst to suffer more.'
'I come to rest in you, for I am so little loved,' He said. 'I am in search of love and meet only with thankless neglect. Rare are the souls that truly love Me.'
Here is a video I want to share with Brandee. It's from MarysLittleFlower YouTube channel. This is where I first learned about Sister Josefa Menéndez. (See the quotes near the end of the video.)
When you get to Carmel, please pray for us Sister Brandee.
