Converts Teach Us What’s Wrong With the Church
Working through the night to put the next edition together always brings us a surprise as to what God is doing and where He is directing us.
We never know who or how we are touching anyone.
We only know that truly there is a Great Spiritual Battle, one that is not pretty, and one that the Church is deeply involved in (and losing with each passing day)!
As we again struggle to maintain our balance as Catholics while the hierarchy throws another curve at the faithful — this one involving the simple age-old practice of returning to kneel on one’s knees after receiving the Most Precious Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity of our Savior in the Eucharist — we put forth the simple, beautiful, timeless, and relevant story of St. Anthony and the donkey.
A donkey that seems to have more sense than those who would propagate such nonsense as “raising” our hands in prayer rather than getting on our knees and, even more ridiculous, remain “standing” until all have received. For the donkey did not wait for anyone to get on his knees once St. Anthony showed the animal the Host that contained his Lord, our Savior, his Creator, and God of all present in the Consecrated Bread of Life!
As we stated, if anyone doubts the miraculous nature of this story, they then have to explain why the Lord has allowed the larynx, jaw and tongue of St. Anthony to remain incorruptible for almost eight centuries!
Since St. Anthony was famous worldwide for his preaching on the Presence of Christ in the Eucharist, only a fool could not comprehend what the Lord is trying to tell us through these miraculous relics — relics which we saw with our own eyes on display in the Basilica dedicated to the great Saint in Padua, Italy.
But fools there are, especially if they happen to be part of the current Catholic hierarchy.
And fools our bishops be who have relegated our Savior to the corner or another room, removing Him from the center of the Sanctuary so that the ecumenical creature may be made more comfortable.
Woe to those who have made this decision, for there will be an accounting — not by us, but by Him!
If we needed any confirmation that we are not blind, but those who dare take such actions against our Lord are, it has come from one who was once an outsider and is now an insider!
In response to our article, “Does a Donkey Have More Sense: To Kneel or Not to Kneel,” we received this incredible, beautiful and truly Holy Spirit-filled observations. True observations only the blind could not see — and we have plenty of those today in our Church!
But they are observations anyone who has a TRUE LOVE for Jesus will easily comprehend. They are a lesson for all of us and we will let the e-mail quoted in its entirety speak for itself:
“Greetings,
Like many converts to the faith, I am drawn to the ancient and Orthodox rites, such as the Tridentine Latin Mass.
I was baptized three years ago into a pseudo-charismatic community but never felt that the Masses celebrated there were sacred. I guess the liturgical dancing or the Britney Spears wannabe playing the Virgin Mary in spandex bell bottoms, belly shirt, and platform shoes at a Midnight Mass just got to me after a while.
I have also experienced at other parishes Christmas Day homilies equating homosexuality and marriage; a priest who acts more like a game show host or standup comedian than an Apostle of Christ; a confessor who told me that what I am doing in my marriage ‘just isn’t working anymore’ rather than just offering absolution, and countless incidences of pant-suited nuns (read: ‘priestesses’) and other pierced, clipped-haired ‘Eucharistic ministers’ standing on the Altar during Consecration, yet the faithful are considered disobedient if we kneel?
I currently drive nearly an hour to attend a Tridentine Mass in XXX. It’s not perfect (sometimes the priest doesn’t arrive in time to hear Confessions prior to Mass because he is traveling from out of the area) but it’s much better than the Church so ironically called ‘St. Lawrence,’ which has the movie screen in place where the Tabernacle should be. I guess that’s what St. Lawrence meant by the ‘Treasure of the Church’? Is that what he and the other martyrs died for???
How come I had to go through RCIA and get baptized to become a Christian and leave my pagan life behind only to find the pagan world deeply imbedded in the Church itself?
Come Lord Jesus!!!”
The Truth before our eyes: the “pagan world” has become “deeply imbedded in the Church itself,” or as Mary has been warning since La Salette, it is the “apostasy of the Church!” Or as Pope Paul VI put it, it is the “smoke of satan.”
We are so grateful to God for the many voices we hear from like this, for we could have not expressed this reality better ourselves!
For it is the battle!
And it is not over the Temple in Jerusalem, but over the Lord JESUS CHRIST in the EUCHARIST and HIS SUFFERINGS, SORROWS, TEARS, SADNESS, SCOURGING, and ABANDONMENT BY HIS OWN CHURCH and SO-CALLED “FAITHFUL”!
And what is the solution this reader so eloquently points out?
Another pope?
Better bishops?
The seminaries to be filled?
NO!
“Come, Lord Jesus!!!”
That is the ultimate answer!
We so often speak that what appear to be “coincidences” are, in reality, not at all.
This, we believe, is the case as the Church changes the liturgy to again downgrade the Presence of Christ in the Eucharist (and, yes, we know, this was supposed to “strengthen” the rite, but it has, as in the past, been hijacked by heretics in the hierarchy)!
Is it a “coincidence” that we, as believers, are struggling with this issue during the Feast of Pope St. Gregory the Great? The second pontiff not only to be called “the Great,” but the very one who solidified the sacredness of the liturgy!
What would Pope St. Gregory think of today’s Mass?
The Lord once told His Apostles that they would judge the Twelve Tribes of Israel with Him.
We will bet our bottom spiritual dollar that St. Gregory the Great will be judging those who have destroyed the sacred liturgy of the Mass today!
And he will be handing them over after the “guilty” verdict for sentencing by the Just Judge!
As we continue our battle, remember there is no one — as the Vatican itself has decreed — that can tell you that you must stand in the pew after you have received our Lord and Savior.
The Lord is looking and watching now as to who will listen to men or their hearts.
It is fascinating to us that the ones who have the common sense from being on the outside looking in — as evident from the e-mail we quoted — know better than the ones inside.
They can see clearly that the Church is moving into the very “pagan” territory they once sought refuge from. (Is this the preparation to merge our Church into that despicable entity known as the “one-world religion”?)
For many on the inside are listening to men in deep heresy — many men whom St. Gregory the Great would not even recognize as Catholics, let alone as bishops or priests! Many men who have proven their heresy by allowing the scandal to fester and sore while children were harmed with their knowledge!
Are the only ones who comprehend this converts to the true faith?!
Or are we, as Catholics, willing to stand up against heresy and kneel down before our Lord?!
We will never forget when we heard various testimonies from converts as to why they were becoming Catholic; so many of them were lame: “I’m getting married and my girlfriend is Catholic.” “I enjoy the fellowship and community.”
The only REAL reason to be a Catholic came from a woman who was converting from islam. She said it so eloquently, we couldn’t believe anyone would give any other reason after she spoke as to why she was converting. This young lady from a Third World nation said simply she was becoming a Catholic because “IT IS THE ONLY PLACE ONE CAN RECEIVE THE BODY AND BLOOD OF CHRIST!”
Have we become so complacent in what is offered in every Mass that we can no longer see what someone who was denied the Presence of Christ can?
What’s wrong with the Church?
We have dishonored our God in the Mass and in the Host!
And by standing after receiving we are about to dishonor Him again!
The easiest way to separate ourselves from those who care not about the Sacred Heart of Jesus is to just do what no one can stop us from doing:
proving we care about our God, His Love and SACRIFICE for us by kneeling down quietly, reverently and prayerfully in our pews after receiving the Most Sacred Body and Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ in the Most Holy Sacrament of the Altar.
For as St. Anthony proved so long ago, even a jackass has enough sense to do so.
© 2003 Agnus Dei Presents!
the rewards of everlasting bliss, mercifully grant that we,
who are oppressed by the weight of our sins,
may be relieved by his intercession with Thee.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, Thy Son,
who liveth and reigneth with Thee,
in the unity of the Holy Ghost,
one God, world without end.
Amen.
