Ex-nuns Marrying Each Other

Quoted in part below is from an article entitled Former nuns to get civil union in northern Italy  published by The Local it  on September 30, 2016: [1] 

Isabel and Federica are among the many Italians finally able to make their love official, thanks to the civil union bill this year which legalized same sex unions in Italy. 

But their story is a little bit different: the 44-year-olds are both former nuns. 

Federica is Italian and Isabel South American, and both women used to belong to the Franciscan order, named after the current pope's namesake Francis of Assisi. 

They fell in love during a mission and have been together for three years, according to northern Italian daily La Stampa, which shared the ex-nuns' story on Wednesday.

After the civil ceremony, the lesbian nuns received "a religious blessing from ex-priest Franco Barbero, who himself was suspended from the Church in 2003 due to his support of gay marriage and criticism of Catholic doctrine." [2]  "'They got to know each other slowly, and discovered they had deep feelings,' Barbero told La Stampa. 'They are two marvellous people, with very deep faith. They reflected for a long time and took the decision courageously, knowing it wouldn't be accepted.'" [3]

What did Franco Barbero mean when he said that the nuns "got to know each other slowly"?  Could the word "slowly" be replaced with "intimately" and Franco Barbero would still be saying the truth?  Only God, the two nuns themselves and perhaps their confessor would know for certain if their relationship was platonic before they severed ties officially with their order and the Vatican.  If their relationship was a sexual one during the three years they were together as nuns, then they would have broken their respective vow of celibacy.  If that happened, it was not the first time in the history of the Catholic church, and certainly not limited to just homosexuals and to just nuns.

This blogger thinks that the nuns did the right thing, to quit being nuns rather than carrying on a sexual relationship wearing their Franciscan habits, living a hypocritical double-life.  This blogger wishes them a happy marriage and hopes that they would continue to live their lives together with at least the same degree of humility and love for God as when they entered their convents separately.


[1] https://www.thelocal.it/20160928/former-nuns-to-tie-the-knot-in-civil-union
[2] Ibid.
[3] Ibid.

Who Is Blaine Alain Gibson?

An article in the guardian  dated September 26, 2016, entitled The man on a solo mission to find ​the wreckage o​f​ flight MH370, [1] introduces Blaine Alain Gibson.  According to the article, he is a single man in his late 50's, has an apartment in Seattle, Washington but no car and no house.  "He passed his bar exams in 1993, but has rarely practised [law] (his father, Phil S Gibson, served as chief justice of the California supreme court from 1940 to 1964)." [2]

Blaine Gibson's life is unconventional, and his idea of success is not based on monetary gains, the accumulation of capital and the ownership of property, real, tangible and intellectual.  "It’s been decades, in fact, since his life has conformed to a standard nine-to-five." [3]  He has apparently been blessed with enough resources to not have a regular job and still travel the world.  "He can speak six languages, and has said it is his dream to go to every country in the world. Mozambique, where he was technically on holiday, was number 177 on the list. 'I’ve stopped at that because I’m trying to find the [missing MH 370] plane,' he says. 'There are other places I want to go, but the plane isn’t there.'"

Can Blaine Gibson pass for a self-sufficient and self-funding secular but spiritual monk of some kind who does not wear a robe with a hood and a rope belt and who goes around helping others without proselytizing?  In the past, he had helped friends in Laos set up a karaoke bar; now, he is helping families of those who had lost relatives on MH 370 to find closure. [4]  The article does not say whether Blaine Gibson believes in God but that is typical of the secular media, only finding God relevant when God's existence is being questioned and when God has been turned into a political pawn by evil forces.

While Blaine Gibson may not be particularly religious in the open or at all, he could be deeply spiritual.  When he travels the world, he is perhaps trying to connect with events that had touched upon humanity through time, and with the locals, speaking an eighth language, the language of the heart, without bringing different religions into focus, just as Christ said to "love thy neighbor" [5] without qualifying what neighbor to love.

This blogger does not know Blaine Gibson but thinks that he could be an ambassador of the angels, doing some of the people's work for God, in the way he sees best with the resources he has been blessed with, often in combination with finding the truth he so intently seeks, and wishes that he finds it and the Truth of God that awaits him.

[1] https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/sep/26/the-man-on-a-solo-mission-to-find-the-wreckage-of-flight-mh370

[2] Ibid.

[3] Ibid.

[4] Ibid.

[5] https://www.biblegateway.com/quicksearch/?qs_version=KJV&quicksearch=love+thy+neighbour

Stephen Hawking's Drivel

Stephen Hawking is a renowned theorist in cosmology. [1] He said: "I believe that life on Earth is at an ever-increasing risk of being wiped out by a disaster, such as a sudden nuclear war, a genetically engineered virus, or other dangers. I think the human race has no future if it doesn’t go to space." [2]

It is difficult to believe that such a brilliant thinker as Stephen Hawking can arrive at this presumptuous conclusion even if his premise is correct.  Why does he presume that humans would be perfected simply by space travel?  Would they not continue to manufacture physical and biological weapons of mass destruction to eliminate their enemies simply because they are no longer on planet earth?  What elements in outer space would change the basic nature of man's desire to eliminate those who do not agree with him?

Needless to say, Stephen Hawking has no faith in man being able to come to his senses on planet earth to prevent his own self-destruction, and in God's determination to win man back from the clutches of Satan and its plethora of virtually incurable sins.

God's only Son was incarnated once to guide man back to God; He will come again to prove to man that God is real and does exist.  Even then, there will be disbelievers.  This blogger hopes that Stephen Hawking will not be one of them for the salvation of his soul.

[1] http://www.hawking.org.uk/

[2] https://www.theguardian.com/science/2016/sep/26/i-think-the-human-race-has-no-future-if-it-doesnt-go-to-space

Pope's Rx For "Spiritual Desolation"

The article below dated September 27, 2016, quoted in part, is from Vatican Radio:

“Spiritual desolation is something that happens to all of us: it can be stronger or weaker … but that feeling of spiritual darkness, of hopelessness, mistrust, lacking the desire to live, without seeing the end of the tunnel, with so much agitation in one’s heart and in one’s ideas…  Spiritual desolation makes us feel as though our souls are crushed, we can’t succeed, we can’t succeed and we also don’t want to live: ‘Death is better!’ This was Job’s outburst. It was better to die than live like this. We need to understand that when our soul is in this state of generalized sadness we can barely breathe: This happens to all of us… whether strong or not ….. to all of us. (We need to) understand what goes on in our hearts.” 

Pope Francis went on to pose the question: “What should we do when we experience these dark moments, be it for a family tragedy, an illness, something that weighs us down?.” Noting that some people would think of taking a pill to sleep and remove them from their problems or drinking one, two, three or four glasses” he warned that these methods “do not help.” Instead, today’s liturgy shows us how to cope with this spiritual desolation, “when we are lukewarm, depressed and without hope.”

The Pope said the way out from this situation is to pray, to pray loudly, just as Job did, day and night until God listens.

“It is a prayer to knock at the door but with strength! ‘Lord, my soul is surfeited with troubles. My life draws near to Hell. I am numbered among those who go down into the pit; I am a man without strength.’ How many times have we felt like this, without strength? And here is the prayer. Our Lord himself taught us how to pray in these dreadful moments. ‘Lord, you have plunged me into the bottom of the pit. Upon me, your wrath lies heavy. Let my prayer come before you, Lord.’ This is the prayer and this is how we should pray in our darkest, most dreadful, bleakest and most crushed moments that are really crushing us. This is genuine prayer. And it’s also giving vent just like Job did with his sons. Like a son.”

Silence, closeness and prayer is how to help those who are suffering[.]

The importance of silence, being close and using prayer was stressed by Pope Francis who said that was the correct way for friends to behave when faced with those who are undergoing dark moments, warning words and speeches in these situations can do harm.

“First of all, we must recognize in ourselves these moments of spiritual desolation, when we are in the dark, without hope and asking ourselves why. Secondly, we must pray to the Lord like today’s reading from Psalm 87 teaches us to pray during our dark moments. ‘Let my prayer come before you, Lord.’ Thirdly, when I draw close to a person who is suffering, whether from illness, or whatever other type of suffering and who is experiencing a sense of desolation, we must be silent: but a silence with much love, closeness and caresses.  And we must not make speeches that don’t help in the end and even can do harm.”

The Pope concluded his homily by asking the Lord to grant us these three graces: [“]the grace to recognize spiritual desolation, the grace to pray when we are afflicted by this feeling of spiritual desolation and also the grace to know how to be close to people who are suffering terrible moments of sadness and spiritual desolation.”

On Cloud 9

Cloud 9 is defined as "a feeling of extreme happiness or euphoria, feeling like you're floating on air." [1]  This blogger can only reach Cloud 9 in his dream state.  For him, it is only in the clouds where romance is alive and well, and where love is never subject to accounting, where giving of oneself is reciprocated a hundred fold which in turn, inspires even more self-sacrifice and giving, until the giving and the receiving complete a circle that never ends.

Although life can be difficult, imperfect, painful and lonely, it is unparalleled in its richness which can only be understood fully by the observer who has never experienced it.  Despite life's spectrum of pains, life always has its moments of sweetness, whether it is with someone or in prayer alone.  It is the sum of these sweet moments that gives life its meaning.  It is the yearning of a never-ending sweetness that the heart craves for, that is not available in this world but in another, on Cloud 9, that can only be reached by means of a life lovingly lived, however impossible it may be at times.

Cloud 9 is a dreamscape that is both ordinary and unique.  It is not quite Heaven because Cloud 9 is based on a collection of memorable vignettes that is within the boundaries of the human experience and imagination.  Heaven has dimensions that extend beyond the limits of the human mind and are incomprehensible, but like Heaven, Cloud 9 is where youth, beauty and wisdom coincide, at least in the mind, and where the realities of the world are an insignificant and a forgotten past.

It is in the present that the forgettable past is recalled, in which realities speak more clearly than dreams to an imperfect and aging self in an imperfect and changing world, where romance is a dance that ends when the music ends, where love for another is conditional and obligingly reciprocated, where dreams can come alive only in the passing distant clouds.


[1] http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=cloud%209

New Rules For Sainthood

This pope has often been the subject of criticism in this blog. Whether or not those criticisms were valid is subject to debate.  Why criticize the pope when he is only human, trying to the best he could, especially when this blogger does not know how to do his job and where to start?  The papacy is not for those who have chosen to live life as observers and not participants.  This pope is definitely not an observer and expects all priests to be "'shepherds living with the smell of the sheep,' [and not] 'become in a sense collectors of antiquities or novelties.'" [1]  This blogger is, in a sense a collector, not of "antiquities or novelties" but of ideals that stand in stark contrast to the realities of life.  His criticisms of this world's realities are based on a comparison to a dream that exists only in his mind.  In this sense, his frequent dissatisfaction with this pope is not only unrealistic, but perhaps also unfair.

If this blogger is not always thrilled with this pope, that is his problem, not the pope's.  There have been times when this blogger is on the pope's side and this is one of them: tightening the approval process for sainthood.  The entire article on the new rules is quoted below [2] [Emphasis added]:

New rules presented by the Vatican are designed to tighten the process for approving miracles as part of sainthood causes, and to also make sure there’s a clear paper trail behind who’s picking up the tab and how much they’re spending.

The text was approved by Italian Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Vatican’s Secretary of State, in the name of Pope Francis in August and released on Friday.

Italian Archbishop Marcello Bartolucci, the number two official at the Vatican’s Congregation for the Causes of Saints, presented the highlights of the new measures in a note released by the Vatican’s Press Office.

The new rules include:

To approve a miracle, at least 5 out of the 7 members of the body of medical experts within the congregation must approve, or 4 out of 6, depending on the size of the group, as opposed to a simple majority.

In case a miracle report is rejected on the first go-around, it may only be reexamined a total of three times.

In order to reexamine a miracle claim, new members must be named to the consulting body. 

The president of the consulting body may only be confirmed to one additional five-year term after the original mandate expires.

While in the past payments to experts could be made in person by cash or check, now the experts must be paid exclusively through a bank transfer.

In general, the going rate in sainthood causes is roughly $560 for each of the two medical personnel asked to perform a preliminary review, and about $4200 in total for the seven members of the medical consulting committee.

The new rules are not retroactive, and hence they do not invalidate any beatifications or canonizations performed under earlier procedures.

Bartolucci said work on the new rules began one year ago, around the same time that leaks of confidential Vatican financial documents raised questions about financial practices in the Congregation for the Causes of Saints.

In his book “Merchants in the Temple,” Italian journalist Gianluigi Nuzzi charged the congregation was among the most reluctant Vatican offices to cooperate with new transparency measures imposed as part of Francis’s project of Vatican reform, and asserted that the average cost of a sainthood cause was about $550,000.

U.S. Catholic officials traditionally have used $250,000 as a benchmark for the cost of a cause from the initial investigation on a diocesan level, to a canonization Mass in St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican, though that cost can increase depending in part of how many people take part in the canonization ceremony and the logistics of organizing the event. 

In March, Pope Francis had already approved a new set of financial procedures for the congregation, outlining procedures for handling contributions and specifying which authorities are charged with overseeing the flow of money.

Under those measures, while the postulator, or promoter, of a sainthood cause can continue to administer the funds for each cause, the bishop of the diocese or the superior general of the religious order that initiates the cause or another church authority must review financial statements and approve the budgets for each cause.

The rules approved in March also confirm a “Solidarity Fund” created by St. Pope John Paul II in 1983 to help cover the costs of causes where resources are lacking, giving the congregation discretion to transfer unused money from one case into the fund to cover the expenses of another.

This blogger has long suspected that the process of sainthood had been corrupted under JP2 who became a saint under his own rules. [3]  He "canonized more saints in his 26 years as pope than all popes of the previous 1,000 years combined (482, according to the Vatican website)." [4]  This blogger has not heard of any of the 482 saints JP2 canonized other than Pio whose saintliness this blogger doubts. [5]

Another who is less than saintly is Teresa of Kolkata (formerly Calcutta).  She had done a certain amount of good work but was she beyond reproach?  This blogger thinks not. If she had been beyond reproach, articles that question her, one of which is quoted in part below, would not have been written [6]:

Mother Teresa seemed to favor the darkly wealthy while offering nothing but prayer to the poor. The study points out how she accepted honors and grants from Haitian dictator Jean-Claude Duvalier, a man known for the severe mistreatment of his own people while living in a bubble of luxury. When asked to return donated money from the corrupt banker Charles Keating, she remained silent and she also accepted money from Robert Maxwell, later discovered as stolen money. She had millions of dollars transferred to secret accounts to which Larivée asked once again, “Given the parsimonious management of Mother Teresa's works, one may ask where the millions of dollars for the poorest of the poor have gone?” When floods and chemical disaster hit her home of India, there were no financial relief efforts to be found.

On one occasion, when she herself was ill, she flew from India to the United States to be admitted to a renowned hospital institution in La Jolla, the Mayo Clinic, near San Diego, but the poorest of the poor whom she served in Kolkata could not even imagine having international medical attention. [7]

Regardless of how financially corrupt and morally questionable were some of the paths to sainthood, saints cannot be decanonized.  The new rules of sainthood therefore "do not apply retroactively; those miracles that have already been certified by review boards will not be re-examined." [8]

If sainthood could be reopened for scrutiny under the new rules, would Pio, JP2 and Teresa be saints today?  This blogger wonders what this pope thinks.  The fact that he found the existing rules to be too loose, requiring tightening, is perhaps a clue indicating that he may not be fully convinced that some of the saints deserve to be saints. Perhaps, he too, sometimes wonder how some of the saints can be mentioned in the same breath as San Francesco d'Assisi, his namesake, and the apostle Saint Peter? Whether one who is a saint today deserves to be a saint, this worldly pope who is well aware of the smell of corruption ought to know.


[1] http://www.thecatholictelegraph.com/pope-francis-priests-should-be-shepherds-living-with-the-smell-of-the-sheep/13439
[2] https://cruxnow.com/vatican/2016/09/23/vatican-tightens-rules-miracles-money-sainthood-cases/
[3] http://www.vatileaks.com/vati-leaks/how-pope-john-paul-ii-organized-his-own-sainthood
[4] https://cruxnow.com/church/2015/04/02/10-ways-st-john-paul-ii-left-his-mark/
[5] http://www.csicop.org/si/show/padre_pio_wonderworker_or_charlatan
[6] https://mic.com/articles/28746/mother-teresa-not-a-saint-new-study-suggests-she-was-a-fraud#.9wePulT9J
[7] http://articles.latimes.com/1991-12-31/news/mn-1142_1_mother-teresa
[8] http://www.catholicculture.org/news/headlines/index.cfm?storyid=29434

The Pope's Call To Stop Violence

"In a Sept. 17 speech to his ambassadors, Pope Francis urged the nuncios to always be aware of the threats that attack their flocks, even seeking to 'disperse and even destroy it.' 

"He pointed specifically to the many conflicts raging throughout the Middle East, noting that 'the violent siege seems to aim, with the complicit silence of many, toward their eradication.' 

"He highlighted the importance of going to the root of the underlying problem, and to then discern 'the possible paths to counter their causes and tackle their pitfalls.'" [1]

To the root of the problem the nuncios did go.  They "issued 'a pressing appeal' to the international community and to those with governing responsibilities to 'strive ever more effectively to stop violence.'" [2]  The appeal is laudable but ineffective since it is those with "governing responsibilities" who started the conflicts in the Mideast in the first place, in Iraq, in Syria, then in Libya.  To ask them to stop the violence is like asking Satan helpers to do the work of God.  That is not going to happen for these governing creatures are more concerned with their pride and legacies (written in blood spilt by victims of regime change) than those who might not have had easy lives under certain dictators but nonetheless had lives and homes. [3], [4], [5], [6]

Addressing the plight of Christians in the Mideast in 2016 has come too late, but addressing it any earlier would have made no difference.  For the pope to then ask his nuncios to find solutions to end the violence is to ask them to end the reign of those who have been Satanized in the world.  That can be done over Satan's dead body, as if Satan had a body that can die.

If the pope is Catholic, why has he not heeded the repeated advice of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Her many apparitions to pray the rosary, for example, in Fatima, Portugal [7], in Kibeho, Rwanda [8], and in San Nicolás de los Arroyos, Argentina [9], rather than asking his nuncios to fashion secular political solutions to problems that are inherently evil?  Quoted below, in part, is the Blessed Virgin Mary's message in San Nicolás de los Arroyos, Argentina [10] [Emphasis added]:

The battle with Satan 

Today the world is confused, very confused. Evil appears to be the only solution. Mankind is being lead by Satan to the deepest of the abysses, to the total condemnation of the soul. Fortunate those that want to see clear in their hearts. Fortunate those that stop to meditate. Fortunate those that are lead by the Mother. Glory be to the Eternal one. In these times of great confusions and so little light in the souls, my purest light will be the one that guides you in the middle of so much darkness. I will help you to overcome all uncertainty. This Mother will make your encounter with the Son possible. For this it is necessary to become small and to give in to my Heart. 

The demon acts ferociously, do not be astonished. He attacks without compassion surrounding everything what he can touch. Pray my children, prayer fortifies. You are called by Jesus Christ to pray. The prince of evil spills today his poison with all the forces, because he sees that he is concluding his sad reign. He has little left, his end is near. 

In these times in which the poison of the evil one seems to contaminate everything, the Lord becomes evident for the salvation of souls. 

The enemy is defying me very ruthlessly, is openly tempting my children. It is a fight between the light and the darkness. It is a constant persecution to my dear Church.

The Holy Rosary is the most feared weapon of the enemy. Santo Rosario is the weapon to which the enemy fears to him. It is also the refuge for those seeking relief, and is also the door to enter my Heart. 

It is in fact this time, a precious time that does not have to be wasted but to be taken advantage of. The Redeemer is offering to the world the way to face the death that is Satan; is offering as He did from the Cross, His Mother, mediator of all grace.

[1] http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/papal-ambassadors-issue-global-appeal-to-step-up-peace-efforts-22288/

[2] Ibid.

[3] Christians under Saddam Hussein: http://www.christianpost.com/news/christian-iraqi-population-shrinking-with-persecution-worse-than-under-saddam-hussein-166022/

[4] Christians under Bashar al-Assad: http://www.breitbart.com/national-security/2015/03/25/syrian-christians-look-to-assad-regime-for-protection-from-jihadis/
[5] Christians under Muammar Gaddafi: http://www.barenakedislam.com/2013/03/16/libya-christian-copts-were-fine-under-gaddafi-now-theyre-being-tortured-under-obamas-boys/
[6] Muammar Gaddafi's warning: http://theantimedia.org/after-me-the-jihad-gaddafi-tried-to-warn-the-west-but-nobody-listened/
[7] Fatima apparation: https://www.catholiccompany.com/getfed/five-prayers-taught-at-fatima-by-mary-the-angels/
[8] Kibeho apparation: http://kibeho-sanctuary.com/index.php/en/liturgy/holy-rosary
[9] San Nicolás de los Arroyos apparation: https://churchpop.com/2016/05/23/secret-messages-lady-san-nicolas-newly-approved-vision/
[10] Ibid.

Modern Idolatry

This blog has no intention of endorsing any manufacturer nor will a mention of one will have any impact on its business because of the blog's scant readership. [1]  Of interest are those scenes around the world showing throngs of idolators lining up for the next i-phone. [2]  The crowds for the latest i-phone 7 were far smaller in comparison. [3]  Were the ones who were not in line to buy the newest i-phone lining up for the next Mass at the nearest church?  That probably did not happen.

Why is God not as popular as the i-phone or any android phone for the tech idolators?  Are God's miracles are not instantaneous enough and gratifying enough?  Maybe they are not being noticed enough.  Where do these idolators think their lives and the lives of their Facebook friends and Twitter followers, many never-met, come from?  Do they meditate on their own lives and life's purposes in general or do they simply exist for one new gadget after another, so that when they become decrepit they can reminisce with pride the many gadgets they had gone through and the many Facebook friends and Twitter followers they once had?

Has cheap technology become vital to the lives of secular idolators?  Does the possession of the latest gadgets define who they are?  Are their lives subject to the same obsolescence as their easily replaceable objects?  Do the idolators, like vampires that need fresh blood, have to sink their teeth into the next hottest invention and drain the freshness from it in order to "live"?

What if there is an unexpected magnetic storm in the Solar System of which earth is a part that causes all space satellites to malfunction so that no app would work and all cell phones would be junk?  Are tech idolators trained to navigate their lives independent of their satellite-enabled compasses?  If not, would the world then be full of smart phone-deprived zombies roaming around without a destination and a purpose in life?  Would that not be like Hell on earth?  On the contrary, perhaps that could potentially be a remaking of Heaven on earth.



[1] For the sake of full disclosure, this blogger is not affiliated in any way with the company Apple and is not a shareholder of Apple.  He does, however, have a smart phone that is not an i-phone.
[2] A collection of photographs on Google images showing idolators lining up for the i-phone over the years can be seen here.
[3] Lines for the newest i-phone 7 can be seen here.

A Serpentine Visual At Lourdes

Below is a photograph of a statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary at the University of Notre Dame [1]:



Does anyone ever wonder why some statues of the Blessed Virgin Mary show her standing over the Serpent?  Of the many explanations online, the one posted by The Catholic Voyager on August 10, 2010, happens to stand out among the rest. [2]

This entry is not dependent on an explanation of the image and does not question it, but accepts it unconditionally because the Blessed Virgin Mary was the only human (the third one God created without Original Sin after Adam and Eve) Who had triumphed over Satan and therefore, to illustrate Her purity, the Serpent will forever be underneath Her feet.

In contrast to the undefilable and incorruptible Blessed Virgin Mary, Eve was defiled and corrupted, as are her descendants who, unlike the Blessed Virgin Mary and Her offspring, are not the Serpent's enemies but allies, even though the alliance has always been an uneasy one because within the human heart there is a constant, albeit imperfect struggle [3] between good and evil.  No human, however pious, can escape the internal wickednesses because of Sin unless God has granted special graces to those chosen to do God's work, like San Francesco d'Assisi and Sainte Bernadette de Lourdes.

Whether knowingly or unknowingly, hundreds of Eve's descendants as pious pilgrims participated in a serpentine candlelight procession at Lourdes, as shown on a You Tube video [4] from approximately 6:46 to approximately 7:44. This imagery is most apt since all humans whose minds and hearts had been defiled and corrupted by the Serpent are collectively the Serpent.  Accordingly, it was appropriate for the candlelight procession, however well-meaning, to snake under the feet of the Blessed Virgin Mary.  Below is a photograph of the statue of Our Lady of Lourdes high above the pilgrims at the Grotto [5]:





[1] Photo Of Blessed Virgin Mary at the University of Notre Dame on Google images.
[2] http://www.catholicvoyager.com/2010/08/how-can-mary-crush-serpents-head-look.html
[3] The internal struggle between good and evil is imperfect because the good which is tied to God's Truth is almost always obfuscated by Original Sin (rooted in deceit) to which Eve's descendants are bound.
[4] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xiOc2dpRmmc
[5] Photo of Pilgrims at the Grotto under Our Lady of Lourdes  on Google images.

Ave Maria By Michał Lorenc

How time joins talents on earth together to create something heavenly is a mystery.  One such convergence is Michał Lorenc's composition of Ave Maria  and Olga Szyrowa's voice.   Michał Lorenc was born in Warsaw and is a Polish composer of music for movies. [1]  His version of Ave Maria, "performed by the Russian opera singer Olga Szyrowa [is available on You Tube [2]].  The soundtrack comes from the Polish movie Prowokator (1995).  Composer of all songs for the movie is Michał Lorenc." [3]  Prowokator  is on You Tube [4].  The song Ave Maria  can be heard faintly in the background at the beginning of the movie at approximately 1:16 and at the very end at approximately 1:24:41 when the closing credits begin to roll.  How the song Ave Maria  fits in the movie this blogger has no idea.  It would have been fitting had the song been a part of Franco Zeffirelli's Jesus of Nazareth (1977) [4] and Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ (2004). [5]

[1] https://pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Micha%C5%82_Lorenc (in Polish).  The page offers a translation into English.

[2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Ug5vJiIzBI

[3] https://gloria.tv/video/GEpruvuw8kamU4CPFpzDNfnsx

[4] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=66zUY8UZn4M

[5] https://gloria.tv/video/GEpruvuw8kamU4CPFpzDNfnsx

For The Atheist In China: A Ladder To God

The subject of this entry had laid dormant in this blogger's mind for a long time.  A chance encounter with an on-line article by Rick Noack entitled Map: These are the world’s least religious countries  in the Washington Post, dated April 14, 2015, [1] while doing research for a recent post has revitalized it.

If the poll in Rick Noack's article is reliable, 90% of the population in China is either "not religious or atheist" [2]. With approximately 1.383 billion inhabitants as of September 4, 2016 [3], the number of people in China who do not believe in God is about 1.245 billion (90% of 1.383 billion).  If any one of the 1.245 billion, and growing, non-believers in God who reads this post and can be convinced that God is waiting at the start of eternity to quench with undiluted love souls that have been thirsted by the incessant chasing of temporal enjoyment and worldly possessions [4] that have in the end neither worth nor meaning, then taking on the difficult task of writing this entry would have been worthwhile.

If there is such a reader from China, this blogger wishes to thank in advance the reader's patience with the assumptions made here.

To begin, the "ladder" in the title is a three-step imaginary ladder.  Each step is more difficult to reach than the previous. With no expectation that a reader would want to go up immediately and embrace God at the top, this blogger would like the reader to consider that place as a thought at least, to hold on to at the time of death, in the way a helpless infant holds on to a parent for life.  This single and final  thought, aside from everything else that will be said and heard, is equivalent to a voice inside the mind that gives an absolute assurance that everything will be alright, and that there is no need to fear.

This inner voice right before death is not a hallucination [5] of a diseased mind but a past thought clearly recalled.  If what follows the recollection is plenary inner peace rather than a troubled heart, then it is certain that God has looked upon this person with compassion and Love by considering this last act in life, a reassuring thought voluntarily recalled, an expression of faith in the  One Who could destroy eternal death (a consequent of envy, pride and greed culminating in the rejection of all that is innocent, pure and good) and lift man up from a place of unbearable agony where no light can enter or escape to a place of eternal luminosity and joy where man's soul can have everlasting life, even if it has to be purified beforehand in Purgatory.

This ineffable Love that only God has and can give is forever present at the top of this conceptual ladder.  Below it are two other steps.  The first step represents Law, encompassing the laws of the world, common and statutory, enforced by governments to foster an orderly society within a political ideology.  The second step is Lǐ, a pinyin [6] of the Chinese character, 礼 (in simplified Chinese), or 禮 (in traditional Chinese), pronounced "lǐ" [7], [8], representing, for purposes of this ladder, a combination of "courtesy," "manners" and "etiquette" [9], "a code of behavior that delineates expectations for social behavior according to contemporary conventional norms within a [civilized] society." [10]  Those who fail to adhere to such norms would be met with reprobation.

On the ground level where the ladder stands is barbarism. The first barbaric act was the killing of a brother by his brother, according to the Christian bible. [11]  Nowadays, it is man killing man, although not necessarily from the same family but according to creationism, every person is a distant relative and as such, one ought to extend to another a common courtesy, embodied in the concept of lǐ, so that any potential conflict could be avoided without having to kill or take legal action.

An existence based on lǐ, founded on mutual respect is, in this blogger's opinion, ranked higher than an existence based on laws.  Unlike lǐ that originates from man's conscience which is God-given, which is as close to being perfect as perfect can be without God being present, laws that govern society are as imperfect as those who pass, enforce and interpret them.  As imperfect as laws are, they are required because selfish people of every pedigree who have no conscience, no self-respect and no respect for others need to be motivated by punishment under the law to do what is right.  According to this blogger, conscionable people who live and die by lǐ are superior to those who are unconscionable, including those whose God-given conscience has been deceived by self-serving rationalization, who live and die by laws.  Therefore, a society founded on laws is inferior to a society based on lǐ.

Today's society has to be based on laws because people have lost their collective conscience to profit, power, secularism, relativism and wickedness.  Despite having laws and regulations, people do what benefits them, even if it is injurious to the environment, to others (living and yet to be born) and to society as a whole.  In certain countries, if existing laws and customs do not comport with what certain people think ought to be the mores of the time, or rather what they want, then they demand change by means of political terrorism when they are in the majority and judicial terrorism when they are in the minority, tactics that are different from what ISIL prefers which is barbaric terrorism because ISIL members are few in number.

The supposedly lawful society the majority is living in is in this blogger's opinion not all that far from barbarism, evidenced by wars, counterproductive regime changes, millions of refugees, human trafficking, genetic modifications and unbridled exploitations of land and natural resources.  Laws that are supposed to stop and prevent crimes against humanity and Nature are not working; instead, they are aiding and abetting those committing them.  An examination of how laws are formed and changed belongs to an anthropological study of law [12] which is beyond the scope of this blog.  This blogger nonetheless concludes that the best of the world's laws are only ideals that can never be fully realized.  Accordingly, the first step of this ladder which is Law is only a very small step from barbarism.

The next step which is "lǐ" is far higher and more difficult for man to reach than the first because it requires a concerted effort by everybody to exercise their God-given conscience individually, to do what is just and right, to respect one another and to avoid conflict.

Why not be content with having reached the second step of this three-step ladder, assuming that man is able to get there?  Mutual respect that promotes and sustains uninterrupted peace can go a long way in the advancement of civilization.  However, if one could measure the temperature of cool cordiality, it would read zero degree Celsius.  Man can survive a lifetime of chill even though his heart beats at 37 degree Celsius, but that is neither his preference nor his nature which tends toward warmth and love.  For this reason, man will never be happy in an atmosphere of dispassionate engagement with neither warmth nor love.

Whether an atheist or a true believer in Christ, man is happiest when he is loved.  Man can have maximum happiness and fulfillment for an eternity on the highest platform of the ladder where the love of God is in abundance, but this third step in the most difficult of the three to land on because it requires faith in God and the Son of God.

Those who never get to the top of the ladder or attempt to get there, but keep teeter-tottering on the precipice of barbarism, who have no last thought that is remotely tangential to the salvation of the soul, who think that death, like birth, is an inevitable part of a series of biological occurrences and that the perfectly synchronized universe is a random event, are among those who are in most need of God's mercy.

This ladder of Law, Lǐ and Love has not been built to withstand the test of time.  It is transitory as life is transitory.  It would be difficult to imagine anyone who has experienced the very top, even for a moment, would not want to return to it, although turning away from God is always an option for the living.  For the atheist, it is a difficult ladder to climb, but it is not impossible.  When all else fails, try to supplicate earnestly before God.


[1] https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2015/04/14/map-these-are-the-worlds-least-religious-countries
[2] Ibid.
[3] http://www.worldometers.info/world-population/china-population/
[4] Worldly possessions include things that are tangible (from trinkets to luxury yachts), conceptual (like money, stocks, bonds and options) and intangible (such as fame and power).  This blogger thinks that ownership is not in and of itself evil.  Evil enters when such things begin to own the owner, interfere with relationships and discount the value of life, forgetting that life is worth more than all the things money can buy.
[5] http://www.alzheimers.net/2014-05-06/hallucinations-and-delusions/
[6] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pinyin
[7] https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/li3 (female voice)
[8] https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/l%C7%90 (male voice)
[9] http://www.chinesetools.eu/chinese-dictionary/index.php?q=%26%2331036%3B
[10] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Etiquette
[11] https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Genesis+4%3A+1-8&version=NIV
[12] http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1525/aa.1965.67.6.02a00920/pdf