"We will win with love, not with guns. Evil devours itself -so it will disappear. But if love does not win, the Nazis will just come back under a different name." 
                                                       -(Our beloved Pope John Paul II during WWII).

(Miguel Pro did it too...)

The goal is to keep the pure seed of Divine Love in the deepest recess of your heart in the midst of the nuclear fallout of sin that so often surrounds us in the world. Remember that the deepest part of your soul and heart cannot be touched by anyone but God Himself and therefore it cannot be ruined without a conscious, willful sin... when in doubt, 'Love. Love. Love.'

When I was really unjustly stuck in a very evil place once Jesus fed me His Love incredibly through this... I had to hand write it all, but the lessons remain important (Click to enlarge and see better):

Unfortunately, sometimes we have to wait for years and years and years and years... but the degree of the persecution and evil is the degree of the victory. +

Beautiful Reflection on Divine Providence...

 

This is how I always lived... not really working right now, but God has His times of stretching our hearts before He restores what others ruin. Hopefully these next few jobs I've almost gotten will work out. I posted this before and it is erased... so here it is again. So much beauty we can learn from our Orthodox brothers and sisters. The spacing is odd but I can't get it fixed. Fiat. Fiat. Fiat.

On Divine Providence: God’s Solicitude for our Needs

by St. John of Tobolsk
God is the most solicitous caretaker. In His hands He holds all of life’s great and wealthy resources, and only from Him should we ask for them in fervent prayer. The desert-dweller Mark used to say: Whoever has no hope of receiving temporary necessities from God, would have even less hope of receiving from Him that which leads into eternal life. But if God has given us a body, will He not clothe it? Is not life (the soul) superior to victuals and the body to clothes? Just as He granted us life (without any merit on our part, when we did not even yet exist), so undoubtedly will He give us all that is needful for preserving life and nourishing the body. Even more so will He not deny us this, since He Himself, in His supreme goodness, has wished to grant us existence and life.

And if He freely and willingly gave us what is most important for us, then He can give, and wishes to give, and always sends us the less important things too. But He will send them on condition that we do not remain idle: for He has created us and placed us on earth for us to cultivate it and maintain it in order, and not for idleness, and for us to place our hope in Him alone, the All-powerful and All-generous One, and not in ourselves.

Christ Himself teaches us, saying:
“Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your Heavenly Father feedeth them” (Matt. 6:26).

The same Heavenly Teacher goes on to say:
“Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing? And not one of them shall fall on the ground without your Father’s will. For the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear ye not therefore, ye are of more value than many sparrows” (Matt. 10:29).
This first argument against our lack of faith is presented to us in the form of living creatures who feed themselves without any care, – so that at least from their example we would learn to recognize the omnipotence of God’s Providence – our sole source of tranquility and inner peace.

The second argument comes in the form of wild flowers. Having pointed out God’s Providence in regard to sparrows, the Lord Christ then says:
“Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin, and yet I say unto you, that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these” (Matt. 6:28-29).

And from this Christ draws the following conclusion:
“Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is cast into the oven, shall He not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith?” (6:30).

To this our Saviour adds a third point on the futility of our self-concern, saying:“Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature?” (6:27).
Every self-concern of ours that is not joined with hope in God is futile and vain, of which the Lord goes on to say:
“If ye then be not able to do that thing which is least, why take ye thought for the rest?” (Luke 12:26).

If God does not bless it, our entire effort is in vain, idle, useless. In your every affair and activity place all your hopes in God, and He (without any effort on your part) will arrange everything for the best by His ineffable mercy.

Thus, if the Lord God concerns Himself with satisfying the basic needs of all creatures in general, for He created both the great and the small and takes care of all equally, why are there so many beggars and deprived people everywhere? Brethren, God’s Providence in regard to poor people is truly wondrous. St. John Chrysostom has rightly said of this, that not only the poor have need of the rich, but the rich have even greater need of the poor. Everything that was and is good and God-pleasing in the world has been created through the effort and activity of poor but hard-working and God-fearing people. Being deprived of comfort and money, they worked diligently and did not forget God, but prayed to their Creator and Caretaker, Who was a benefactor to them even in the midst of their need. Many of God’s saints, living in extreme poverty, loved it much more than wealth and were always the recipients of God’s greatest Providence.

In truth, God is so solicitous of people who have entrusted themselves to Him wholeheartedly, that when they are deprived of human help, He sends them His divine help. Although we often receive the same grace from God in our needs and deprivations, there is still much lack of faith among many of us, who fear to lose sufficient and requisite necessities for maintaining our life here. O, how faint-hearted we are! Our Heavenly Father knows of all our needs: do we think that God’s mercy has now dwindled in comparison with former times?

For 60 years St. Paul, the first desert-dweller, was brought half-a-loaf of bread each day by a raven; however, when the saint was visited by St. Anthony the Great, the raven brought a whole loaf. St. John the desert-dweller did not see any people for 14 years, and all this while he subsisted on a doe’s milk. Many hermits had food and clothes from fig trees. In 603 A.D. Judoc, son of the Breton king, renounced his throne, became a monastic, and later became a hermit. On an island surrounded by water he built a church and founded a monastery. He was so generous to the poor that the monastery once remained with only a single loaf of bread for the working brothers, and even that loaf he ordered to be cut into four parts and the first part given to a beggar. This beggar, changing his clothes, came up four times on the same day to ask for charity and thus received all four pieces of the bread, so that there was nothing left for feeding the brothers. Consequently one of them began to grumble and berate his abbot for latter’s extreme generosity. Judoc then comforted him and told him to wait for help from above. A few hours later, four ships sailed up to the monastery, laden with foodstuffs which abundantly fed the starving brothers. The blessed Augustine rightly said:“Do you think that the one who feeds Christ (i.e. the poor) will not himself be fed by Christ?”
The abbot of a certain monastery sent two brothers out on business affairs. When evening came, the two travelers, exhausted by their labors, being hungry and depressed, began to bemoan the fact that they would soon arrive at a poor town, and not knowing anyone there, they would find no respite or sustenance. A certain stranger met them on the way and asked them about their depressed state, and when the monks revealed their sorrow to him, he said:“You have left everything for the sake of God, placing your entire hope in Him, and now you sorrow as though left without any hope! God feeds the cattle – do you think He will let His sons perish from hunger?”

Saying thus, the stranger became invisible. When the monks entered the town and prayed in the church, the mayor himself invited them over for supper, they went to his house, and he fed them abundantly. However, such examples do not eradicate our lack of faith; despite everything that God sends us, we fear privation, and if we do not have everything in overabundance, we are greatly saddened.

Here is an example of our lack of belief: it is said about a certain beggar, that having looked into his basket and seeing it full of loaves of bread gathered from many benefactors, he then declared: now I feel myself well provided for. We ourselves are very like this beggar: only then do we feel assured in our hope in God, when our storerooms are full of all kinds of goods that will last us for many years.

St. John, Patriarch of Alexandria, was not like that at all. Having suffered enormous losses after a tempest destroyed thirteen church ships loaded with grain, each ship carrying ten thousand measures of grain, he placed all his hope in God and in Him alone found his greatest comfort. At that time practically half of Alexandria’s citizens suffered similar losses and, moreover, all the seamen and the passengers who were saved from the storm gathered in Alexandria as in a safe haven. To all of them St. John immediately sent a letter of consolation, in which he wrote words of comfort to all:“The Lord gave, and the Lord took away; as the Lord wished, so it came about; blessed be the name of the Lord! Be patient, children, and do not fear anything!”
The next day many of the most prominent citizens gathered at St. John’s residence to comfort him in his losses. But he, however, took all the blame upon himself, saying:“God preserved me from a great sin: if this had not happened, I would have prided myself on handing out so much charity to the poor, and I would have had a high opinion of my own generosity; and for this reason the loving Father justly punished the vain son to prevent his growing pride. God mercifully instructs us by allowing us to suffer some traumas, in order for us to come to our senses and quickly turn to Him. But He is the very same God Who existed in Job’s time, just as omnipotent and just as merciful, and He will not abandon us.”

With these words the patriarch comforted those who had come to comfort him. And, in truth, very soon the Lord God replenished St. John’s losses a hundredfold, while the latter continued to give out the most abundant charity to the poor. To entertain doubt or disbelief in such cases is the same as to assert that God is either miserly or forgetful; but such opinions belong to the iniquitous and the godless; they should be totally rejected by us.

St. Amateus the desert-dweller was in his own time like a mirror for all those who understand God’s Providence incorrectly, reject it, or blaspheme against it. After having labored in a monastery for thirty years, Amateus went off into the desert, where he lived on a chosen rock in great abstinence. Every three days one of the monastic brothers brought him a loaf of bread and a cup of water – this was his only sustenance. Such abstinence was not pleasing to the devil: and so a raven flew up, overturned the cup of water with his feet, snatched up the loaf of bread in his beak and flew away. Thus the monastic was deprived of 3 days’ worth of sustenance. How did the righteous man take this occurrence? Perhaps he swore at the raven, or uttered blasphemous words at God’s Providence, or began to curse the demon’s wiles? Not at all! It is we who act thusly in such cases, while he, lifting his hands and his mind to heaven, declared:
“I thank Thee, my Lord God, that by Thy holy will Thou wast pleased to retain me in a more prolonged period of fasting. I know that this will be of greater advantage to me in the future, for nothing in the world happens without Thy Providence, and not even a single leaf will fall from the tree without it.”
Yet we, sinners, think that the destruction of homes by fire, the drowning of ships, the loss of property, and all personal affronts take place while God’s Providence sleeps or does not keep watch, – in other words, we do not believe in God’s Providence. Even the pagans knew better than we do, for the intelligent ones among them reasoned that everything in the world occurs not by the will of man, nor by blind chance. In fact, everything comes from God, according to His just Providence: so why are we full of indignation and often even protest against it?
Countless examples and images bring us to a realization of the omnipotence of God’s Providence. Nevertheless, we have so little hope in this Providence! If our vessels, caskets, chests, and granaries are not overflowing with all kinds of goods, then our spirit fails; but when our bags are full, when our pockets are bulging with money, then we have hope. O, how blind we are! True hope in God is when we, finding ourselves in great penury, deprivation, and poverty, do not fall into despair, but patiently overcome all our tribulations, for the more suffering we endure, the greater glory and crowns are prepared for us. The ancients had a memorable saying: “If only we did what we should, then God would do for us what we want.” Blessed Jerome, explaining this principle, said:“May man be what he is destined to be, and immediately the One Who created everything will send him everything.”
Blessed Augustine rightly exclaims:“O, my God! You have so much concern for a single person, as though You had to take care of only him alone: as much for all, as for each one.”

And St. Gregory says:“God takes care of each person individually as much as of everyone together, and concerns Himself over everyone as though over a single person.”
Thus God’s Providence takes care of thee, brother, just as though He had no other concerns. The great number of people in God’s care neither awes, nor burdens God’s Providence; for Him the care of a single person is the same as the care of countless millions of people. Just as before God took care of Noah and his family, or of the single Adam in paradise, so now God’s Providence takes equal care of all.

I've had huge identity theft and I'm not getting most emails, phone calls or regular mail. Someone is in this blog and I cannot figure out how to get them out -so please be patient while I fight this battle. I have sent normal mail to many people to get either donors or a job to refound my life appropriately -as Jesus asked of me. Even the post office keeps getting 'no mailing address' for me and either my letters are intercepted or returned. If you are in my family and receive my mail, please get it to me ASAP. There is no way that all of the people I have hand-written have not responded. If you have a heart like Jesus and are trying to contact me, please know that I'm not ignoring you -someone is blocking all communication and what Jesus wants for me to be faithful to my life with Him (which someday will allow me to finally help all of you by sharing it with you).

All of my email accounts are also hacked (and doubled -its weird) and I have found many other women (girls) using the same name. Please disregard any e-mails you receive from me as legit unless you know me well and my language is exactly as I would speak. I have not received personal correspondence in months. Those of you who have known me for years know that my emails have been hacked for years... I am still in Indiana stuck at Pleasant Place and still trying to get out and refound my life elsewhere. There are many accounts (including facebook) that have been created with my email address. People think it is funny that 'doubles' have been made of me, but Jesus knows authentic hearts and in the end God will win. 

I pray Jesus comes quickly to fix this. Please -pray for the souls of those involved in any way. Such things are crimes, but more than that they are mortal sins. Lying, stealing, cheating and wiccan are not from God. Sometimes such sin on earth goes unpunished... but Jesus knows hearts. When St. Anthony's books and correspondences were stolen, eventually Jesus exposed the thief and restored it miraculously. I need that. 

in Fiat,

Mary +

From Holy Thursday 2011

Bishop Martin welcomed me into Minna Nigeria many years ago. He was one of the people who truly understood part of what God asked of my life. He drove me around to pray for his people, who were under great duress and suffering. He offered for me to stay and found a religious order, but at that time I was unprepared to do so in Nigeria. Here is a beautiful reflection that brings together the Chaplet of Mercy and the Rosary and Cana and Eden... incredible how the Holy Spirit unites people in His Own mysterious way. Truly beautiful...

I guess no one loves like Him. Have a blessed Holy Week. +

The importance of one's identity before God.

Someone has gotten into this blog and locked some access. Identity theft is a painful thing, especially when people use it to violate the inmost identity of one's conscience and meeting place with God. This all makes me reflect on God's creation of the human body, mind, heart and soul and the innate gift of interior freedom that should never be violated. At some point I'll write a whole thesis on it... but my thoughts start here:
The human heart needs to be respected.

2563 The heart is the dwelling-place where I am, where I live; according to the Semitic or Biblical expression, the heart is the place "to which I withdraw." The heart is our hidden center, beyond the grasp of our reason and of others; only the Spirit of God can fathom the human heart and know it fully. The heart is the place of decision, deeper than our psychic drives. It is the place of truth, where we choose life or death. It is the place of encounter, because as image of God we live in relation: it is the place of covenant.

Who creates people? GOD. Just as there are boundaries for humans in relation to the creation of a human body and soul, there are boundaries for interior freedom and actions in our lives that continue to recreate us in union with God. Every human action (both interior and exterior) recreates us into the image that God (GOD -not man, GOD) had for a human life at the moment of his or her creation. We have come to a time in the world where not only is human life being violated exteriorly through people playing God, but also is the interior life being violated by people using spiritual weapons against us. There are certain innate areas of the human soul that are never to be violated... human actions that when violated destroy the very essence of what it means for us to be children of God and alive. Edith Stein's writings as well as Pope John Paul II's go into detail about the importance of us being careful and respecting each other's interior freedom to choose the good that God presents to the human soul within the sanctuary of the human heart that no human should ever violate. Human relationships are also something that should be respected

A person's ontological being is something that should remain solely in the hands of God.

CHAPTER ONE
THE DIGNITY OF THE HUMAN PERSON

1700 The dignity of the human person is rooted in his creation in the image and likeness of God (article 1); it is fulfilled in his vocation to divine beatitude (article 2). It is essential to a human being freely to direct himself to this fulfillment (article 3). By his deliberate actions (article 4), the human person does, or does not, conform to the good promised by God and attested by moral conscience (article 5). Human beings make their own contribution to their interior growth; they make their whole sentient and spiritual lives into means of this growth (article 6). With the help of grace they grow in virtue (article 7), avoid sin, and if they sin they entrust themselves as did the prodigal son¹ to the mercy of our Father in heaven (article 8). In this way they attain to the perfection of charity.

CHAPTER ONE
THE DIGNITY OF THE HUMAN PERSON

ARTICLE 1
MAN: THE IMAGE OF GOD

1701 "Christ, . . . in the very revelation of the mystery of the Father and of his love, makes man fully manifest to himself and brings to light his exalted vocation."² It is in Christ, "the image of the invisible God,"³ that man has been created "in the image and likeness" of the Creator. It is in Christ, Redeemer and Savior, that the divine image, disfigured in man by the first sin, has been restored to its original beauty and ennobled by the grace of God.⁴

1702 The divine image is present in every man. It shines forth in the communion of persons, in the likeness of the unity of the divine persons among themselves (cf. chapter two).

1703 Endowed with "a spiritual and immortal" soul,⁵ the human person is "the only creature on earth that God has willed for its own sake."⁶ From his conception, he is destined for eternal beatitude.

1704 The human person participates in the light and power of the divine Spirit. By his reason, he is capable of understanding the order of things established by the Creator. By free will, he is capable of directing himself toward his true good. He finds his perfection "in seeking and loving what is true and good."⁷

1705 By virtue of his soul and his spiritual powers of intellect and will, man is endowed with freedom, an "outstanding manifestation of the divine image."⁸

1706 By his reason, man recognizes the voice of God which urges him "to do what is good and avoid what is evil."⁹ Everyone is obliged to follow this law, which makes itself heard in conscience and is fulfilled in the love of God and of neighbor. Living a moral life bears witness to the dignity of the person.

1707 "Man, enticed by the Evil One, abused his freedom at the very beginning of history."¹⁰ He succumbed to temptation and did what was evil. He still desires the good, but his nature bears the wound of original sin. He is now inclined to evil and subject to error:

Man is divided in himself. As a result, the whole life of men, both individual and social, shows itself to be a struggle, and a dramatic one, between good and evil, between light and darkness.¹¹

1708 By his Passion, Christ delivered us from Satan and from sin. He merited for us the new life in the Holy Spirit. His grace restores what sin had damaged in us.

1709 He who believes in Christ becomes a son of God. This filial adoption transforms him by giving him the ability to follow the example of Christ. It makes him capable of acting rightly and doing good. In union with his Savior, the disciple attains the perfection of charity which is holiness. Having matured in grace, the moral life blossoms into eternal life in the glory of heaven.

IN BRIEF

1710 "Christ . . . makes man fully manifest to man himself and brings to light his exalted vocation" (GS 22 § 1).

1711 Endowed with a spiritual soul, with intellect and with free will, the human person is from his very conception ordered to God and destined for eternal beatitude. He pursues his perfection in "seeking and loving what is true and good" (GS 15 § 2).

1712 In man, true freedom is an "outstanding manifestation of the divine image" (GS 17).

1713 Man is obliged to follow the moral law, which urges him "to do what is good and avoid what is evil" (cf. GS 16). This law makes itself heard in his conscience.

1714 Man, having been wounded in his nature by original sin, is subject to error and inclined to evil in exercising his freedom.

1715 He who believes in Christ has new life in the Holy Spirit. The moral life, increased and brought to maturity in grace, is to reach its fulfillment in the glory of heaven.

SECTION ONE
MAN'S VOCATION LIFE IN THE SPIRIT

CHAPTER ONE
THE DIGNITY OF THE HUMAN PERSON

ARTICLE 3
MAN'S FREEDOM

1730 God created man a rational being, conferring on him the dignity of a person who can initiate and control his own actions. "God willed that man should be 'left in the hand of his own counsel,' so that he might of his own accord seek his Creator and freely attain his full and blessed perfection by cleaving to him."²⁶

Man is rational and therefore like God; he is created with free will and is master over his acts.²⁷

I. FREEDOM AND RESPONSIBILITY

1731 Freedom is the power, rooted in reason and will, to act or not to act, to do this or that, and so to perform deliberate actions on one's own responsibility. By free will one shapes one's own life. Human freedom is a force for growth and maturity in truth and goodness; it attains its perfection when directed toward God, our beatitude.

1732 As long as freedom has not bound itself definitively to its ultimate good which is God, there is the possibility of choosing between good and evil, and thus of growing in perfection or of failing and sinning. This freedom characterizes properly human acts. It is the basis of praise or blame, merit or reproach.

1733 The more one does what is good, the freer one becomes. There is no true freedom except in the service of what is good and just. The choice to disobey and do evil is an abuse of freedom and leads to "the slavery of sin."²⁸

1734 Freedom makes man responsible for his acts to the extent that they are voluntary. Progress in virtue, knowledge of the good, and ascesis enhance the mastery of the will over its acts.

1735 Imputability and responsibility for an action can be diminished or even nullified by ignorance, inadvertence, duress, fear, habit, inordinate attachments, and other psychological or social factors.

1736 Every act directly willed is imputable to its author:

Thus the Lord asked Eve after the sin in the garden: "What is this that you have done?"²⁹ He asked Cain the same question.³⁰ The prophet Nathan questioned David in the same way after he committed adultery with the wife of Uriah and had him murdered.³¹

An action can be indirectly voluntary when it results from negligence regarding something one should have known or done: for example, an accident arising from ignorance of traffic laws.

1737 An effect can be tolerated without being willed by its agent; for instance, a mother's exhaustion from tending her sick child. A bad effect is not imputable if it was not willed either as an end or as a means of an action, e.g., a death a person incurs in aiding someone in danger. For a bad effect to be imputable it must be foreseeable and the agent must have the possibility of avoiding it, as in the case of manslaughter caused by a drunken driver.

1738 Freedom is exercised in relationships between human beings. Every human person, created in the image of God, has the natural right to be recognized as a free and responsible being. All owe to each other this duty of respect. The right to the exercise of freedom, especially in moral and religious matters, is an inalienable requirement of the dignity of the human person. This right must be recognized and protected by civil authority within the limits of the common good and public order.³²

II. HUMAN FREEDOM IN THE ECONOMY OF SALVATION

1739 Freedom and sin. Man's freedom is limited and fallible. In fact, man failed. He freely sinned. By refusing God's plan of love, he deceived himself and became a slave to sin. This first alienation engendered a multitude of others. From its outset, human history attests the wretchedness and oppression born of the human heart in consequence of the abuse of freedom.

1740 Threats to freedom. The exercise of freedom does not imply a right to say or do everything. It is false to maintain that man, "the subject of this freedom," is "an individual who is fully self-sufficient and whose finality is the satisfaction of his own interests in the enjoyment of earthly goods."³³ Moreover, the economic, social, political, and cultural conditions that are needed for a just exercise of freedom are too often disregarded or violated. Such situations of blindness and injustice injure the moral life and involve the strong as well as the weak in the temptation to sin against charity. By deviating from the moral law man violates his own freedom, becomes imprisoned within himself, disrupts neighborly fellowship, and rebels against divine truth.

1741 Liberation and salvation. By his glorious Cross Christ has won salvation for all men. He redeemed them from the sin that held them in bondage. "For freedom Christ has set us free."³⁴ In him we have communion with the "truth that makes us free."³⁵ The Holy Spirit has been given to us and, as the Apostle teaches, "Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom."³⁶ Already we glory in the "liberty of the children of God."³⁷

1742 Freedom and grace. The grace of Christ is not in the slightest way a rival of our freedom when this freedom accords with the sense of the true and the good that God has put in the human heart. On the contrary, as Christian experience attests especially in prayer, the more docile we are to the promptings of grace, the more we grow in inner freedom and confidence during trials, such as those we face in the pressures and constraints of the outer world. By the working of grace the Holy Spirit educates us in spiritual freedom in order to make us free collaborators in his work in the Church and in the world:

Almighty and merciful God,
in your goodness take away from us all that is harmful,
so that, made ready both in mind and body,
we may freely accomplish your will.³⁸

IN BRIEF

1743 "God willed that man should be left in the hand of his own counsel (cf. Sir 15:14), so that he might of his own accord seek his creator and freely attain his full and blessed perfection by cleaving to him" (GS 17 § 1).

1744 Freedom is the power to act or not to act, and so to perform deliberate acts of one's own. Freedom attains perfection in its acts when directed toward God, the sovereign Good.

1745 Freedom characterizes properly human acts. It makes the human being responsible for acts of which he is the voluntary agent. His deliberate acts properly belong to him.

1746 The imputability or responsibility for an action can be diminished or nullified by ignorance, duress, fear, and other psychological or social factors.

1747 The right to the exercise of freedom, especially in religious and moral matters, is an inalienable requirement of the dignity of man. But the exercise of freedom does not entail the putative right to say or do anything.

1748 "For freedom Christ has set us free" (Gal 5:1).

SECTION ONE
MAN'S VOCATION LIFE IN THE SPIRIT

CHAPTER ONE
THE DIGNITY OF THE HUMAN PERSON

ARTICLE 6
MORAL CONSCIENCE

1776 "Deep within his conscience man discovers a law which he has not laid upon himself but which he must obey. Its voice, ever calling him to love and to do what is good and to avoid evil, sounds in his heart at the right moment. . . . For man has in his heart a law inscribed by God. . . . His conscience is man's most secret core and his sanctuary. There he is alone with God whose voice echoes in his depths."⁴⁷

I. THE JUDGMENT OF CONSCIENCE

1777 Moral conscience,⁴⁸ present at the heart of the person, enjoins him at the appropriate moment to do good and to avoid evil. It also judges particular choices, approving those that are good and denouncing those that are evil.⁴⁹ It bears witness to the authority of truth in reference to the supreme Good to which the human person is drawn, and it welcomes the commandments. When he listens to his conscience, the prudent man can hear God speaking.

1778 Conscience is a judgment of reason whereby the human person recognizes the moral quality of a concrete act that he is going to perform, is in the process of performing, or has already completed. In all he says and does, man is obliged to follow faithfully what he knows to be just and right. It is by the judgment of his conscience that man perceives and recognizes the prescriptions of the divine law:

Conscience is a law of the mind; yet [Christians] would not grant that it is nothing more; I mean that it was not a dictate, nor conveyed the notion of responsibility, of duty, of a threat and a promise. . . . [Conscience] is a messenger of him, who, both in nature and in grace, speaks to us behind a veil, and teaches and rules us by his representatives. Conscience is the aboriginal Vicar of Christ.⁵⁰

1779 It is important for every person to be sufficiently present to himself in order to hear and follow the voice of his conscience. This requirement of interiority is all the more necessary as life often distracts us from any reflection, self-examination or introspection:

Return to your conscience, question it. . . . Turn inward, brethren, and in everything you do, see God as your witness.⁵¹

1780 The dignity of the human person implies and requires uprightness of moral conscience. Conscience includes the perception of the principles of morality (synderesis); their application in the given circumstances by practical discernment of reasons and goods; and finally judgment about concrete acts yet to be performed or already performed. The truth about the moral good, stated in the law of reason, is recognized practically and concretely by the prudent judgment of conscience. We call that man prudent who chooses in conformity with this judgment.

1781 Conscience enables one to assume responsibility for the acts performed. If man commits evil, the just judgment of conscience can remain within him as the witness to the universal truth of the good, at the same time as the evil of his particular choice. The verdict of the judgment of conscience remains a pledge of hope and mercy. In attesting to the fault committed, it calls to mind the forgiveness that must be asked, the good that must still be practiced, and the virtue that must be constantly cultivated with the grace of God:

We shall . . . reassure our hearts before him whenever our hearts condemn us; for God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything.⁵²

1782 Man has the right to act in conscience and in freedom so as personally to make moral decisions. "He must not be forced to act contrary to his conscience. Nor must he be prevented from acting according to his conscience, especially in religious matters."⁵³

II. THE FORMATION OF CONSCIENCE

1783 Conscience must be informed and moral judgment enlightened. A well-formed conscience is upright and truthful. It formulates its judgments according to reason, in conformity with the true good willed by the wisdom of the Creator. The education of conscience is indispensable for human beings who are subjected to negative influences and tempted by sin to prefer their own judgment and to reject authoritative teachings.

1784 The education of the conscience is a lifelong task. From the earliest years, it awakens the child to the knowledge and practice of the interior law recognized by conscience. Prudent education teaches virtue; it prevents or cures fear, selfishness and pride, resentment arising from guilt, and feelings of complacency, born of human weakness and faults. The education of the conscience guarantees freedom and engenders peace of heart.

1785 In the formation of conscience the Word of God is the light for our path,⁵⁴ we must assimilate it in faith and prayer and put it into practice. We must also examine our conscience before the Lord's Cross. We are assisted by the gifts of the Holy Spirit, aided by the witness or advice of others and guided by the authoritative teaching of the Church.⁵⁵

III. TO CHOOSE IN ACCORD WITH CONSCIENCE

1786 Faced with a moral choice, conscience can make either a right judgment in accordance with reason and the divine law or, on the contrary, an erroneous judgment that departs from them.

1787 Man is sometimes confronted by situations that make moral judgments less assured and decision difficult. But he must always seriously seek what is right and good and discern the will of God expressed in divine law.

1788 To this purpose, man strives to interpret the data of experience and the signs of the times assisted by the virtue of prudence, by the advice of competent people, and by the help of the Holy Spirit and his gifts.

1789 Some rules apply in every case:

- One may never do evil so that good may result from it;

- the Golden Rule: "Whatever you wish that men would do to you, do so to them."⁵⁶

- charity always proceeds by way of respect for one's neighbor and his conscience: "Thus sinning against your brethren and wounding their conscience . . . you sin against Christ."⁵⁷ Therefore "it is right not to . . . do anything that makes your brother stumble."⁵⁸

IN BRIEF

1795 "Conscience is man's most secret core, and his sanctuary. There he is alone with God whose voice echoes in his depths" (GS 16).

1796 Conscience is a judgment of reason by which the human person recognizes the moral quality of a concrete act.

1797 For the man who has committed evil, the verdict of his conscience remains a pledge of conversion and of hope.

1798 A well-formed conscience is upright and truthful. It formulates its judgments according to reason, in conformity with the true good willed by the wisdom of the Creator. Everyone must avail himself of the means to form his conscience.

1799 Faced with a moral choice, conscience can make either a right judgment in accordance with reason and the divine law or, on the contrary, an erroneous judgment that departs from them.

1800 A human being must always obey the certain judgment of his conscience.

1801 Conscience can remain in ignorance or make erroneous judgments. Such ignorance and errors are not always free of guilt.

1802 The Word of God is a light for our path. We must assimilate it in faith and prayer and put it into practice. This is how moral conscience is formed.

I. RESPECT FOR THE HUMAN PERSON

1929 Social justice can be obtained only in respecting the transcendent dignity of man. The person represents the ultimate end of society, which is ordered to him:

What is at stake is the dignity of the human person, whose defense and promotion have been entrusted to us by the Creator, and to whom the men and women at every moment of history are strictly and responsibly in debt.³⁵

1930 Respect for the human person entails respect for the rights that flow from his dignity as a creature. 

OSP...

The first hermitage when I was little... my brother and I made 'Our Special Place' in the basement under the stairs where we read the Bible, and one outside where we would pray and fish:

Hasn't changed in 30+ years.

My Sweet Jesus

Last year a woman visited me during a time of great abandonment and persecution and she said to me, "Mary, the price of a soul of a priest is very expensive... and you have more than one."

She is correct.
(So is the price of anyone's soul).
And we pay in suffering and prayer. +

Jesus said that if people don't cry, the rocks will cry out. Jesus, help us to love you this Lent.

Angels in the Hermitage

I thought that the angels abandoned me a long time ago, but looking at these pictures, someone is still hovering over the hermitage. My guardian angel always had blue light, so its funny that he is there. And the one of the Holy Family has purple over Joseph.

 

Miracle of the Sun:

 

Padre Pio and St. Joseph used to send random donations and make them multiply, but lately its being boxed (blocked). Hence, I really need a nice job with children... : 

 Beauty:

 Fiacre was almost covered...

Squirrels

The squirrels regularly come to my window, knock and then venerate Jesus' wounds on this crucifix -no kidding -three kisses for each hand and the feet and then run off. I guess if I have to depend on squirrels to pray with me... St. Columbian had squirrel friends too.

John Paul II says, "Mary does not win with a sword in Her hand, but with a sword in Her Heart."

I've always had a devotion to the Infant weeping Heart of Jesus. Yesterday I read in St. Alphonsis Liguori (a saint I rarely read) a beautiful meditation on the Infant Jesus' suffering. He wrote:

"The tears of the Infant Jesus were very different than the tears of other new-born babes. These weep through pain, but Baby Jesus wept through compassion and love."

And I am sure that His Mother's Heart wept along with Him. How many times did His Father, St. Joseph, kiss those Baby tears in Eucharistic adoration and love? May we be like Mary and Joseph in our love for Baby Jesus.

May the suffering Infant Christ be our salvation.

Out of the mouths of children...

My nephew was coloring a picture of Jesus on the cross and he said, "I wish those soldiers were Republican..."

"What do you mean?" I asked.

He said, "Well, it was the Democrats who killed Jesus-if they had been Republican than they wouldn't have done that."

He, by the way, doesn't really know about politics- he just overheard conversations somewhere and drew his own conclusions. But I thought it was funny.