Fasting During Lent

Never mind the rules for fasting.  It is not really fasting because people can supposedly still gorge themselves with food and drinks during the permitted one full meal [1]:

Fasting means a person is permitted to eat one full meal. Two smaller meals may also be taken, but they are not to equal that of a full meal.

Since there are no guidelines as to what one full meal means, therefore how long one can engorge oneself remains uncertain.  Would it be against the rule to sit down at a buffet for hours, say from 2pm to 5pm, which combines breakfast and dinner into one full, very full, mid-day meal?  It is technically just one meal, engorged in one sitting with countless intermittent refills, so it could be considered as a one-meal fast.

That probably contradicts the spirit of fasting.  If so, then what is the spirit of fasting?  Is it just about skipping meals?  The Catholic Church says yes, but can it go further than not eating throughout the day?

What about abstention from worldly concerns?  Can the entire Catholic clergy forget about status, power, internal and world politics [2], budgets, fund raisings and collections but pray instead to "sanctify the Church" (words quoted from the first reading Joel 2:12-19, Extraordinary form Mass) [3]?  The passage also says this, quoted without references [4]:

Between the porch and the altar
let the priests weep,
let the ministers of the LORD weep and say:
“Spare your people, LORD!
do not let your heritage become a disgrace,
a byword among the nations!

When has anyone seen a priest or a minister of the LORD weep, on Ash Wednesday, Good Friday, or on any day during Mass at the altar of sacrifice?

The day all priests and ministers of the Lord weep will be the day the entire Catholic Church will be sanctified.  Perhaps some wolves in sheep's clothing may start to weep when they face an irrevocable eternity in Hell.


[1] https://www.thecatholictelegraph.com/refresher-on-the-rules-of-fast-and-abstinence-during-lent/21603
[2] An example of pope and clerics meddling in world politics - http://www.usccb.org/news/2020/020-21.cfm
[3] http://www.extraordinaryform.org/propers/LentAshWednesday.pdf
[4] http://www.usccb.org/bible/joel/2, 17.

Christ On Love

This should have been composed on Valentine's Day.  It is a couple of days late.

Christ spoke of love when asked what He deemed to be the greatest commandment.  This blog entry focuses only on the second part of His reply, quoted without references [1]:

‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ 

What is this love?  To answer the question, one needs to take into context in which the question was posed to Jesus, quoted without references below [2]:

Hearing that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, the Pharisees got together.  One of them, an expert in the law, tested him with this question:  “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?”

Jesus said "Love your neighbor as yourself" probably because He knew that many people, in particular those Pharisees who wanted to trap Him, could not love unconditionally and thus, for love to have a bit of meaning for them, He had to refer to a self-centered love, so that they, and many people throughout the world, would know what that means, and would hopefully check their own consciences to see if they are being sincere or hypocritical.  In other words, the best Jesus could hope for them to do was to reference the only love they could understand.

However, for those who are on a higher plane of existence than the rest will understand these words of Christ on love, quoted without references [3]:

“A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.  By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”

In these words, Christ was asking those who wish to follow Him, to be like Him, to love as He loved--unconditionally and self-sacrificially--not as one who conditionally, and self-preservedly, loves one's neighbor.

[1] https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+22%3A36-40&version=NIV

[2] https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+22%3A34-40&version=NIV

[3] https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=John+13:34-35

Bergoglio Sowing Confusion

Vatican News  published an article entitled Pope at Mass: Beware of ‘slippery slide’ toward worldliness  on February 13, 2020.  Quoted below is from the article [1]:

Beware of worldliness

Pope Francis then recalled Psalm 106, to underline how “mingling with the nations” and serving their idols means becoming worldly and pagan.

“For us this slippery slide in life is directed toward worldliness. This is the grave sin: ‘Everyone is doing it. Don’t worry about it; obviously it’s not ideal, but…’ We justify ourselves with these words, at the price of losing our faithfulness to the one and only God. They are modern idols. Let us consider this sin of worldliness, of losing the authenticity of the Gospel, the authenticity of the Word of God, and the love of God who gave His life for us. There is no way to maintain a good relationship with God and with the devil.”  [Italics  Original].

What exactly is the worldly "holy father" saying?  He said that "[t]his is a grave sin" and that "'[e]veryone is doing it."  How does he know that everyone is doing it?  The fact that he is doing it does not mean that every one on earth is doing it.

Then he said "'Don't worry about it'" despite what he said a moment ago, that "[t]his is a grave sin."

"'Don't worry about it'" spoken by the "holy father" sounds very much like these words "'You will not certainly die,'" spoken by the Serpent to Eve in the Garden of Eden. [2]

Does that mean Catholics no longer need to go to confession since they need not worry and feel guilty about having committed grave sins, even though "it's not ideal"?

Then Bergoglio ended this part by saying that "[t]here is no way to maintain a good relationship with God and with the devil."  If this is the case, then how does one maintain a good relationship with either one or the other?  Perhaps Bergoglio is wrong because the way to maintain a good relationship with the Devil is to confuse, obfuscate the Truth, create doubt and pretend to love God which Bergoglio had so adeptly and craftily done to the delight of his mentor in Hell.

What is the purpose of Bergoglio's existence when Bergoglio, the head of the Catholic Church, cannot identify clearly the path to eternal salvation.  Is it to lead souls to ruin?

Then Bergoglio went on to say the following in his concluding remarks [3]:

“Let us ask the Lord for the grace to understand when our heart begins to weaken and to slide, so that we can stop. His grace and love will stop that slide if we ask in prayer.” [Italics  Original].

Why bother?

"...this slippery slide in life is directed toward worldliness. This is the grave sin: ‘Everyone is doing it. Don’t worry about it;..."  Jorge Mario Bergoglio aka Pope Francis I

[1] https://www.vaticannews.va/en/pope-francis/mass-casa-santa-marta/2020-02/pope-francis-daily-mass-slippery-slope-to-worldliness.html
[2] https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Genesis+3%3A4&version=NIV
[3] https://www.vaticannews.va/en/pope-francis/mass-casa-santa-marta/2020-02/pope-francis-daily-mass-slippery-slope-to-worldliness.html
[4] Ibid.

Schism Is On The Horizon

The following comment is from an article entitled German ‘Synodal Path’ Aims to Shape Vatican Decisions, Says Plan’s Architect  published by National Catholic Register   on January 30, 2020 [1]:

Posted by Archbishop Anthony Bondi on Saturday, Feb, 1, 2020 2:00 PM (EST):

As an Orthodox Bishop I have observed what happened in the Episcopal Church when the laypeople begin with clergy to vote on moral theology and discipline. Schism follows. Do not touch the moral theology of the Church or the sacrament of orders. The closer you get to Protestantism the further you go from Orthodoxy.

A telling paragraph from the article cited above in support of a schism is quoted as follow without hyperlink [2]:

[Jesuit Father Hans Langendörfer's] comments, which echo Cardinal Reinhard Marx’s famous 2015 comments that the Church in Germany is “not just a subsidiary of Rome,” come after the Vatican made clear last year that the synodal process was not in any way binding, and that Germany’s bishops must exercise their authority in unity and obedience to the authority of the Pope.

Should Rome be afraid?  Perhaps the following paragraphs quoted from apnews.com  will shed some light on the question [3]:

BERLIN (AP) — A court in the western city of Cologne has ruled that Germany’s richest Catholic archdiocese doesn’t have to reveal what it does with the billions it receives from taxpayers each year.

The investigative journalism group Correctiv had sued for the information, arguing that the Archdiocese of Cologne should be bound by laws granting media access to government information because much of its revenue comes from an income tax paid by Catholics in Germany.

But Cologne’s administrative court ruled Thursday that the way the archdiocese invests its annual income of almost 3 billion euros ($3.4 billion) is protected by the church’s constitutionally guaranteed autonomy.

That is just one of the seven Catholic archdioceses in Germany. [4]

It is doubtful that the Vatican has income of 3 billion euros annually.  Even if it did, it probably does not have enough smart people to invest the funds to make it grow, but rather lose some by having Cardinal Angelo Becciu and likely Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Vatican Secretary of State, as well, authorize the purchase of a "luxury development project [in London involving] two recently suspended Vatican employees, and a nest of Vatican-controlled holding companies led by an architect linked to accusations of money laundering and fraud involving Vatican accounts." [5]

The Vatican is plagued with a serious financial crisis, according to "'Universal Judgement [sic],' a new book by Italian investigative journalist Gianluigi Nuzzi which scrutinized more than 3,000 confidential Vatican documents, [saying that] the Vatican is in dire financial shape." [6].

In this desperate state, the Roman Catholic Church is unable to defend itself against a well-funded, well-managed German Catholic Church that wants its own "moral theology and discipline," borrowing words from Orthodox Archbishop Anthony Bondi quoted above.

Therefore, the answer to whether Rome should be afraid is this:  Rome should not be just afraid, but very afraid.


[1] https://www.ncregister.com/blog/edward-pentin/german-synodal-path-aims-to-influence-vatican-decisions-says-plans-architec
[2] Ibid.
[3] https://apnews.com/557bc902571841788dc1c3f1f02f62bf
[4] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Catholic_dioceses_in_Germany
[5] https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/vaticans-london-luxury-development-company-with-ties-to-alleged-financial-crime-offered-to-raze-parish-rectory-95153
[6] https://www.irishcentral.com/news/vatican-financial-collapse

Happy International Palindrome Day - 02/02/2020

The passage of time is understood instinctively by most living creatures but the measurement of time is uniquely human.  Today is 02/02/2020, a palindrome!

"02/02/2020 has the unique distinction of reading the same backward and forward when written out in eight digits in multiple date systems, according to University of Portland professor Aziz Inan." [1]

Quoting further from the article cited above [2]:

For starters, it's an eight-digit palindrome: 02022020. Many palindrome dates are only symmetrical if you write the date with seven digits (1-10-2011) — or in some cases even fewer (9-10-19).

But even more rare, according to Inan, is that Sunday's date is an international palindrome: It works whether you write the date as "Month/Day/Year" or "Day/Month/Year," as many countries do.

Inan calls such dates "ubiquitous palindromes," and there won't be another one for 101 years. After that, you'll have to wait until March 3, 3030[, that's 1,010 years and 29 days from today, 02/02/2020, a very, very long wait].

According to Inan's calculations, the last such palindrome date to occur was 11/11/1111 – more than 900 years ago.

The world is united by the passage and measurement of time but those who exist in it are not due to a plethora of sins including but not limited to greed, pride and envy.  The only way to remedy this is to end this world and begin a new one.  Only God knows whether this tired, old and broken world will continue to exist when the next palindrome comes in 101 years, on 12/12/2121, and if it does, how much more broken it will be.

It can be assumed that wars will continue, that pandemics will occur with more and more frequency, such as the new and still spreading corona virus in China with a first death reported outside of China in the Philippines [3], and that climate will become less and less hospitable for humans but perfect for locusts to reproduce which is happening now in Africa [4]:

Cyclones that struck the driest parts of the Arabian Peninsula last year triggered the current crisis, creating ideal conditions for the desert locust species to multiply. Left to breed in isolated corners of Saudi Arabia and Yemen, the locust swarms crossed to the Horn of Africa where they were given further support by another cyclone.

More breeding cycles are expected. The swarms increase in size twentyfold with each successive generation and could reach India by June.

U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres took to Twitter yesterday in an effort to draw global attention to the worsening outbreak. The swarms are now threatening farms in parts of Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia but are expected to spread to neighboring countries soon.

The U.N. chief pinned blame for the crisis squarely on global warming....

With all of this occurring on top of Mideast tensions, here is a song that brings hope sung by Louis Armstrong entitled What A Wonderful World  on You Tube  with over 81 million views to date [5].  Here are the lyrics [6]:

I see trees of green
Red roses too
I see them bloom
For me and you
And I think to myself
What a wonderful world

I see skies of blue
And clouds of white
The bright blessed day
The dark sacred night
And I think to myself
What a wonderful world

The colors of the rainbow
So pretty in the sky
Are also on the faces
Of people going by
I see friends shaking hands
Saying, "How do you do?"
They're really saying
"I love you"

I hear babies cry
I watch them grow
They'll learn much more
Than I'll never know
And I think to myself
What a wonderful world

Yes, I think to myself
What a wonderful world

Oh yeah

(To celebrate international palindrome day, 02.02.2020, this will post at 0202 hours.)


[1] https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/sundays-date-is-a-rare-palindrome-that-hasnt-happened-in-over-900-years/ar-BBZyrJx?ocid=spartanntp
[2] Ibid.
[3] https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-51345855
[4] https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/unprecedented-locust-invasion-approaches-full-blown-crisis/
[5] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A3yCcXgbKrE
[6] https://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/louisarmstrong/whatawonderfulworld.html