If our lives are surrendered to Jesus Christ, and if he is truly Lord of our lives, and if we are his followers, his servants, his messengers, as we ought to be, and if we are following the example of Jesus and of Paul and of the other apostles, with regard to how we ought to live, as followers of Christ, we will face opposition from the enemy like they did. We will be hated and persecuted and rejected and cast aside as though we are worthless by some, even by some pastors and elders of “church” congregations, and by others who profess faith in Jesus Christ, but who are living more worldly lives.

Especially in the day in which we live, when so many who profess faith in Jesus Christ have gone the way of the world, and have altered or have accepted an altered and diluted “gospel” message, which does not require death to sin and walks of obedience to our Lord and to his commands, if we are teaching what Jesus taught, and what his apostles taught, in context, we will be outcasts. We will be accused of being teachers of “works salvation” because we teach the necessity of dying to sin and of walks of obedience to our Lord as necessary components for salvation and eternal life with God.

And so we may cry out to God for protection from the enemy, and for relief from our oppressors who do us harm, and not good. And we may pray for the salvation of those who hate and persecute us without cause, that they will realize the error of their ways, and that they will humble themselves before God, and repent of their sins, that they might be turned from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God, so that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those sanctified by faith in Jesus Christ (see Acts 26:18). For we want to see them delivered from sin.

And then we may pray to God for our own spiritual strengthening, that we might live the lives God has marked out for us to live with all sincerity and strength and wisdom and conviction, and that we might not waver out of fear or discouragement. And we might pray that God will correct us where we are wrong and that he will continue to draw us to what is truth so that we continue to teach what is truth for the salvation of human lives. For so many today are teaching and believing the lies of Satan, and not the truth of the Scriptures taught by Jesus and his apostles, in the correct context.

For the truth is that faith in Jesus Christ, which is biblical faith, and which results in salvation from sin and eternal life with God, and which comes from God, and which is not of our own doing, will submit to Christ as Lord, die with him to sin (not just once, but daily), and follow him in walks of surrender to his will, in obedience to his commands, in holy living, for the glory and praise of God. For if we profess faith in Jesus with our lips, but then we continue in deliberate and habitual sin, and not in walks of obedience to his commands, we will not inherit eternal life with God.

[Matthew 7:13-14,21-23; Luke 9:23-26; John 1:12-13; John 6:44; John 10:27-30; Acts 26:18; Romans 2:5-10; Romans 6:1-23; Romans 8:1-14; 1 Corinthians 10:1-22; Galatians 5:16-24; Ephesians 2:8-10; Ephesians 4:17-32; Ephesians 5:3-6; Titus 2:11-14; Hebrews 3:1-19; Hebrews 4:1-13; Hebrews 12:1-2; 1 Peter 2:24; 1 John 1:1-10; 1 John 2:3-6; 1 John 3:4-10; Revelation 2:1-29; Revelation 3:1-22]

Your Servant Witness

An Original Work / March 13, 2012
Christ’s Free Servant, Sue J Love

Humbly I bow, Lord, before You,
Bringing my requests to You.
May I listen; hear You speaking.
May I follow You in truth.
Gently lead me in Your service.
Guide my steps and strengthen me.
Fill me with Your love and mercy.
May I live for Thee!

Let me be Your servant witness,
Telling others of Your grace.
May I always share the gospel
With those I meet face to face.
May I show the love of Jesus,
Caring for the needs of men;
Be Your servant witness always
For my Lord, Amen!

My desire to be like Jesus,
Living for Him ev’ry day.
May I obey all His teachings
Given me, so I’ll not stray.
Love You, Jesus, Lord, my master.
You are the King of my heart;
Follow You where’er You lead me;
Not from You depart!

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Give Me Understanding
An Original Work / August 1, 2025
Christ’s Free Servant, Sue J Love

Glory to God!

Illegal immigrant crime is lower than domestic; so what? It is high enough and increasing;

FAITH-IN-HIM said:

Ultimately, you often returns to the idea of establishing a Christian nation.

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Not my point. You support a Liberal secular political order. I mean liberal here in the sense of enlightenment values of equality, freedom and other values. You may personally lament the fate of Christians in the middle east but nothing the established political powers of our era will do will help middle Eastern Christians. Not the Chaldeans not the Armenians. On the same premise you may reject a Christian nation, would you reject a foreign policy which actually sought to support fellow Christians first above any other group? You'd have to, to be consistent with your American secular liberal values. As Christians you believe it impermissible for us to act in our own political interest.

I suppose the difference between you and I is that I don't subordinate my Christianity to the political order of our day. I don't filter my Christianity through the enlightenment or the American constitution.

FAITH-IN-HIM said:

I regrate to inform you that most Christians today, including members of the Catholic Church, do not support the establishment of a Christian nation. Instead, they believe Christianity is best practiced within the church and through evangelism.

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I would go further than simply a Christian nation and say Christians if they want to thrive need to have a radical separation from the political powers. Christians need to act as the early Christians did towards Rome. This has always been my point and since I believe this would result in success it is only natural a Christian Nation would be formed. Not because that is the goal but that is the only natural outcome of Christians living Christian lives.

FAITH-IN-HIM said:

Our hope as a Christian is not on “political security” , our hope is on Jesus Christ the Son of God!

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So then the Armenians of Ngorno Kharabach didn't deserve political security? They could have their land taken and tough cookies? There are real and lasting consequences to avoiding security for Christians, to avoiding power and interests. Some here seem to be of the position we can afford to be in a position of weakness forever and that Christians in the past by getting us out of that position were somehow at fault. Yet they are the beneficiaries of those same Christians who made Christianity secure for their descendants. This sort of high time preference view of Christianity which doesn't take into consideration anyone else except the individual here in the now, cannot stand the test of time.

jasperr said:

I think it may have been Mortimer Wheeler who suggested that when we look at the universe it is the universe which is looking at itself through our eyes.

Is this just a whimsical observation with no testable consequenses as to its veracity?

Can anything more be said around that observation or is it just a "take it or leave it" statement ?

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It's just a whimsical take it or leave it statement. I choose to leave it.

Michie said:

Interview with Dr. Kwasniewski on Music: The Good, the Bad, and the Holy​

Natalie Sonnen of Regina Magazine asked if I would answer some of her questions on music. This fall, a version of the interview will appear in the pages of that magazine, but with permission, I am sharing the text here at my Substack ahead of time.

Natalie: Isn’t the music we listen to a matter of indifference? Surely, it’s just superficial entertainment.

Dr. Kwasniewski: Such may be a common point of view in the modern democratic Western world, but it is a minority opinion in the history of human thought—and I’m not quite sure that anyone really believes it anyway.

That music has a profound effect on the formation and development of our human potentialities and moral character is the teaching of Plato, Aristotle, Augustine, Aquinas, Schopenhauer, Nietzsche, Pieper, Ratzinger, and Scruton, among other heavyweights—and surely, when thinkers who disagree about so many other things agree on this point, their agreement should give us pause.

If what these thinkers hold is true, music cannot but affect our lives as Christians and our eternal destiny. According to the two greatest philosophers of antiquity, Plato and Aristotle, whenever we listen to music, we are allowing it to come inside and make its home in our souls. We are saying: Shape me; make me like yourself. We wouldn’t sleep with just anyone, or entrust our education (or that of our offspring) to just any teacher—yet we often allow sordid characters and their cheap goods to enter the doors and windows of our body and live inside our minds and hearts! Plato in particular argues that what we really believe, what we are, is most of all revealed by that in which we take pleasure.

If our tastes in music or movies are the same as those of modern American atheistic hedonists, what does that say about the strength of our faith or the vitality of our intellectual life?

Exactly. The Logos, the Word of God, should permeate our thinking, our feeling, our loves and hates, our way of being human. This is what it means to live a life of virtue and to be a son of God. We become beacons of light, keeping alive the memory of the beautiful and attracting others to a nobler way of thinking, living, being.

That we are supposed to care very much about the reformation of our interior life, especially by turning away from corrupt passions, is impressed on us by Saint Peter:


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So far, so good. But all of the above is too general—painting with a broad brush. Can you be more specific about what’s wrong with the music you once told us you threw away in high school, and what, in contrast, is so good about the more artistically refined music?

Continued below.

Interview with Dr. Kwasniewski on Music: The Good, the Bad, and the Holy

The music we make or listen to has serious moral and spiritual implications

www.traditionsanity.com

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The conclusion to this OP is, I believe, very important - insightful - relevant - and needed in and by the modern contemporary Catholic Church. I'll add some signals of emphasis, my opinion only:

Question: Would you say, then, that listening to music bad for your soul is actually sinful?

Response: With much of the bad music out there, we are not dealing with something intrinsically evil, as if the mere listening to it would constitute a mortal sin. Rather, we are dealing with something relatively evil: something that indicates and fosters moral imperfection, which, if unresisted, may lead to mortal sin. [ ! ]

Saint Thomas Aquinas argues that venial sin is bad not only because of the offense in itself, light though it may be, but also because repeated venial sins are a slippery slope to mortal sin. By listening to rock or pop or rap, one is stunting one’s moral growth, depriving oneself of intellectual perfection, and impeding or clouding one’s spiritual life. [ ! ! ]

I would put it this way. Today’s popular music is largely unhealthy for its imbibers, in a way that is not dissimilar to the way in which eating junk food or doing drugs is bad for your body, playing videogames is bad for your psyche, or seeking sexual pleasure for its own sake or looking at pornography is bad for your soul. It can also be bad for you in the way in which reading only comic books when you could be reading great literature is bad, or dressing sloppily or immodestly when you could dress well. All these things are connected to the moral life and, ultimately, to the spiritual life. [ ! ! ! ]

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The whole article is well worth the read. Our "culture" is suffering from interior immaturity, to the point of childishness. What a waste! What total disregard, dishonoring and abuse of Christ's example for us - for those who claim to "follow Him" - in His suffering love on the Cross.

Meowzltov said:

What authors like this just don't get is that intolerance and narrow-mindedness are not features of political parties, but personality traits in individuals that you can find in all parties. (And religions. And any other sort of ideology). There are just some people who think there is only one right way to fold a towel and they are completely at peace with forcing it on you if they can.

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I get your point and agree, but perhaps the author does gets that, too. I mean, higher education, pre-graduate school at least, has traditionally been aimed at widening one's horizon, especially as regards the general course work, which is meant to give a liberal arts foundation ("liberal art" in the sense of a general understanding of science, math, literature, music, etc.). And I think part of the author's critique is that ideological biases hamper that goal of widening the student's horizon, whether they are liberal biases or conservative biases.

As a Gen Z Catholic woman, I find it funny when beliefs that secularists labeled “outdated” become increasingly popular in my generation today. One of these beliefs relates to birth control and natural family planning.

Following the release of Humanae Vitae, secularists panned the Church’s view against artificial contraception as “outdated and incomplete.” With the development of the birth control pill, women were able to more effectively space out the number of children they had or even avoid having children altogether. This newfound agency over their reproductive systems gave women a sense of empowerment: women could go to work full-time or pursue whatever opportunity they wanted without having to leave due to pregnancy or children.

One of the first advertisements for the Pilltapped into this exact sensation: “From the beginning woman has been a vassal to the temporal demands . . . of the cyclic mechanism of her reproductive system. Now to a degree heretofore unknown, she is permitted normalization . . . of cyclic function” (132). Women are depicted as slaves to their reproductive systems, so the promise of regulating reproduction gave women hope that they could be more detached from it and, frankly, more like men.

Continued below.

2025 is a Jubilee year in the Church's calendar, there are many things to pray and do and graces to apply. I wonder if any non-Catholics have taken tis Jubilee year to heart?

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Catholics see the Jubilee Year of 2025—declared by Pope Francis under the theme Pilgrims of Hope—as a sacred invitation to renewal, reconciliation, and grace. It began on Christmas Eve 2024 and will conclude on the Epiphany, 6 January 2026. This isn’t just a liturgical event; it’s a profound spiritual journey. We're called to reflect more deeply on our relationship with God, to seek forgiveness, and to participate in pilgrimages and sacraments that offer plenary indulgences—spiritual benefits that signify complete remission of temporal punishment due to sin.

The Jubilee tradition itself reaches back to Leviticus 25, where every 50th year was marked by rest for the land, freedom for slaves, and restoration of property. Jesus echoed this in Luke 4:18–19, proclaiming “a year acceptable to the Lord,” which Catholics interpret as a spiritual Jubilee fulfilled in Christ.

But this year isn’t just for Catholics. If you’re not Catholic, you’re still invited to engage with its message. Pope Francis has framed Jubilee 2025 as a time to “fan the flame of hope” and restore trust in a fractured world. The Church opens its doors—literally and figuratively—through the ritual of the Holy Door, symbolising Christ as the gateway to mercy and renewal. You don’t need to share every theological conviction to walk through that door. You only need a desire for peace, healing, and hope.

Whether you’re drawn by curiosity, cultural interest, or spiritual longing, Jubilee 2025 offers a moment to pause, reflect, and reconnect—with yourself, with others, and perhaps with the divine. It’s a year that transcends boundaries, inviting all of us to become pilgrims of hope.

I’ve seen this happen with my dad, and it’s really hard when someone you love falls back into old habits after doing better. Even if things look good on the outside, problems like anger or sadness can still be there. That stuff doesn’t just go away if it’s not dealt with. I used to blame myself and wonder why prayers didn’t help, but I learned addiction is complicated and relapses happen.

It helped me a bit to look into places that specialize in long-term recovery, especially when regular willpower or support from family alone wasn't enough. He's presently in Abbeycare, and the support programs there seem to get that real healing is deeper than just stopping drinking.

The terrorist organization Hamas cut off communications with the mediators this week, stating that negotiations would resume only after the humanitarian crisis in Gaza is resolved

In a statement, Hamas affirmed its “willingness to resume negotiations immediately once aid reaches those who deserve it, and the humanitarian crisis and hunger in Gaza come to an end.”

Meanwhile, U.S. President Trump Donald Trump again sharpened his tone toward the terror group, writing on X: “The fastest way to end the Humanitarian Crises in Gaza is for Hamas to SURRENDER AND RELEASE THE HOSTAGES!!!”

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For years I've kept a little "prayer list" close by me — sometimes it's just a slip of scrap paper with names jotted down haphazardly as the needs became known.

There is also a little book I keep, prayers for "long term" issues that I know will require ongoing intercession — a friend whose wife has been struggling with cancer and chemo for nearly eight years can be found there, along with a neurodivergent young man who has defied every dire and hopeless early pronouncement the doctors and experts pealed over him 20 years ago. I'm positive his terrific family and therapies have had much to do with that, but I believe the faithful prayers of their many friends has also contributed to his astonishing successes.

Often I will add a word beside a name, to recall the need. Lately "cancer" is showing up a lot as so many friends share news of their diagnoses or face arduous treatment.

"Job search" too, is appearing more and more. As a writer and editor my internal rolodex is populated with so many friends in media and it seems too many of them are becoming displaced or laid off thanks to the unsurprising discovery that Artificial Intelligence is fairly trustworthy at delivering basic information.

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Larniavc said:

The camera records the sun’s light reflected off the surface of the moon. I can’t believe I need to explain this to you. Do you think the moon going dark when there is an eclipse is a coincidence? Or that Luna procession is the lights turning on and off in sequence?

This is the dumbest conversation I have ever had.

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Well do not worry you will never have another one with me.

St. Augustine teaches, “If you believe what you like in the gospel and reject what you don’t like, it is not the gospel you believe, but yourself.” The problem he describes is, of course, the false prophecy opposed to the Christian era, one that’s particularly acute in modernity. Because of our ego and radical individualism, we’ve been conditioned to believe that we get to be arbiters of the truth and whatever current feelings the in-crowd is signaling have priority over the plain teaching of the Church.

False prophecy, Our Lord warns, arrives in sheep’s clothing. In other words, it’s seductive. It seems right. It seems honorable. I cannot help but notice that false prophecy is most effective when it disguises itself and weaponizes virtue. It takes our instincts, such as they are, to be kind and agreeable and turns them against. us. False prophecy does this again and again: It isn’t nice to be so prudish about the covenant of marriage and who can or cannot be married. It isn’t nice to offer Holy Communion only to Catholics. It isn’t nice to exclude women from the priesthood. And so on.

A few weeks ago in my homily, I insisted that talking about and maintaining a strong belief in the existence of hell is actually the nice thing to do. Deacon Pieper and I were talking after and he mentioned that the background to the word, “nice” is quite interesting. I did some research because I was curious (“curious” is another word that has a conflicted background), and it turns out the word “nice” comes from the Latin nescius, a compound word meaning “no knowledge.” A nice person was thought to be foolish and ignorant. It was only in the 18th century it shifted to meaning a person who is agreeable. Notice, even with this shift, that to be always agreeable isn’t necessarily a compliment, because it indicates a person who lacks knowledge, has no firm morals, and so goes along with others. It was only in the modern era that this sort of lack of opinion came to be considered commendable.

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Federal judge Indria Talwani on Monday handed down her final preliminary injunction, forcing the Trump administration to continue sending Medicaid dollars to Planned Parenthood.

With breathtaking brashness, Talwani boldly asserted Planned Parenthood is “likely to succeed in showing that Section 71113 constitutes a Bill of Attainder and denies Planned Parenthood Federation and its Members equal protection of the law.”

To put it simply, Talwani’s legal reasoning is a mess.

Talwani accepted Planned Parenthood’s argument in the case that Section 71113 of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA), signed into law by President Donald Trump on July 4, violates the abortion giant’s First Amendment right of association and is likely an unconstitutional “bill of attainder,” a legislative provision criminalizing a person or group without due process.

Section 71113 prohibits Medicaid dollars from going to any “prohibited entity” that “is primarily engaged in family planning services, reproductive health, and related medical care,” “provides for abortions” and exceeded $800,000 in Medicaid dollars in 2023. The provision applies for a period of one year.

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Lady Bug said:

Hi, this morning I was rattled by a big noise in the basement. It was a bit cold this morning and as a result I put the heater on for a few minutes. While the heat was running for a little while, I heard a big noise in the basement as if something fell. I was terrified, thinking what happened? It sounded like it was right below me. I went into the basement (I don't know how I was brave enough to do this) and looked around and there was absolutely nothing at all indicating anything out of place. While I was relieved that there was no intruder, I remain mystified and kind of terrified that I'll hear a similar noise again. I do wonder if it had something to do with the heat not being on for a long time (weeks or months). I don't want to hear that again.

ps I wish I posted more Catholic things, and I'm sorry. It's not that I don't, but oh well, I don't do it every single time.

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It’s perfectly ok to post things from your everyday life LB. No worries.

Pope Leo XIV on Thursday appointed astronomer Father Richard Anthony D’Souza, SJ, as the new director of the Vatican Observatory.

D’Souza, who has worked at the Vatican’s astronomical research and educational institution since 2016, will start his new position on Sept. 19, according to the Holy See Press Office statement.

The Indian priest succeeds Brother Guy J. Consolmagno, SJ, whose 10-year mandate ends next month, as head of the observatory. Consolmagno will remain at the scientific institution as a staff astronomer.

Born in Goa in 1978, D’Souza joined the Society of Jesus in 1996 and was ordained a priest in 2011 after completing studies at the Jnana Deepa Institute of Philosophy and Theology in India.

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A lawsuit filed in Massachusetts alleges that a Catholic student in a medical education program was dismissed from the school after she objected to having been forced to witness an abortion as part of her clinical studies.

The lawsuit, filed earlier this month in state court, alleges that Alina Thopurathu was taking part in Springfield College’s physician assistant program when, during clinical rotations, she was scheduled to see a dilation and evacuation, or D&E, a procedure commonly used for later-term abortions.

Thopurathu, identified in the filing as a practicing Catholic, wrote in evaluations that she had assumed the procedure was intended for a miscarriage and that she was “overwhelmed” at witnessing an actual abortion.

“In the future, I believe students should be asked if they are comfortable with seeing a D&E rather than being assigned the procedure without patient information,” she wrote in the evaluation.

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At the same time, many german jews are seeking to leave for Israel because they don't feel safe here, either.

I have started to read the actual Catechism

Its very easy to understand

Its beautifully laid out

Most Parishes have an extra copy laying around somewhere like a donation library of Catholic books one can use

I very highly recommend this incredible work!

“Congratulations to Brown University on the settlement made with the United States Government. There will be no more Anti-Semitism, or Anti-Christian, or Anti-Anything Else!” Trump posted on Truth Social. “Woke is officially DEAD at Brown. Thank you for your attention to this matter!” he added.

Hopefully others will be rethinking DEI and CRT and antisemitism.

Well, we should not hate anyone, but we can hate the evil they do. For we are to love even our enemies who do evil against us and who “despitefully use” us (Matthew 5:44 KJV). And we are to pray for them, and do good to them, and speak truth to them which will be beneficial to them, because we love them, and because we want to see them set free from the power of sin and of Satan over their lives, so that they will now serve the Lord Jesus with their lives in surrender to his will and to his purpose for all our lives.

And who are the double-minded? James talked about them in James 1:5-8. They are like the surf of the sea, driven and tossed by the wind. They are those who are unstable in all their ways, always going back and forth with regard to what they believe and what they put into practice, like someone riding on both ends of a see-saw, a teeter-totter, going up, then down, continually shifting positions on beliefs and on practices. And to teeter is to stagger, to waver, to sway. And to totter is to flounder, to stumble.

So, one minute they could be lifting up the biblical gospel of our salvation taught by Jesus and by his New Testament apostles, while deriding the false gospel of the flesh which requires no repentance, no death to sin, and no walks of obedience to his commands. But then the next minute they could be supporting the false gospel by applying its teachings to their own lives in order to give them an excuse or an “out” for their refusal to bow to Jesus as Lord, to put sin to death in their lives, and to obey the Lord, in practice.

Now some of these who are teeter-tottering, who are the double-minded, who will often profess one thing while they live the opposite, who are the evildoers being spoken of here, will be those who are coming against the righteous, to persecute and to falsely accuse them in hopes to discredit and to silence them. And the righteous are those who have died with Christ to sin and who are walking in obedience to the Lord’s commands, by the grace of God, in the power of God, although perhaps not with absolute perfection.

But the encouragement here for those who are following Jesus with our lives, who are being persecuted and mistreated by the double-minded evildoers, is that Jesus is our hiding place and our shield, and he will sustain us according to his word if we will continue to put our trust in him, and to walk in his ways, despite what evil people say against us or do against us. We must not lose hope or be afraid just because the enemy of our souls is on the attack. We must rest in the Lord and trust him with our lives.

But for those who live on this “teeter-totter,” whose lives are driven and tossed by the wind, whose practice it is to sin against God, and against other humans, and to stagger, to waver, to sway, to stumble, and to flounder; who have rejected the commandments of God in favor of deliberate and habitual sin; who cover up their sins with deceitfulness, with their lies – they are rejected by God. And no matter what they profess with their lips, they will not have salvation from sin nor eternal life with God, if they continue.

[Matthew 7:13-14,21-23; Luke 9:23-26; John 10:27-30; Acts 26:18; Romans 2:5-10; Romans 6:1-23; Romans 8:1-14; 1 Corinthians 10:1-22; Galatians 5:16-24; Ephesians 4:17-32; Ephesians 5:3-6; Titus 2:11-14; Hebrews 12:1-2; 1 Peter 2:24; 1 John 1:1-10; 1 John 2:3-6; 1 John 3:4-10; Revelation 2:1-29; Revelation 3:1-22]

I Take Refuge

Based off Psalm 71
An Original Work / September 1, 2018
Christ’s Free Servant, Sue J Love

O, Lord, I take refuge in You,
For You are my God.
Turn Your ear now to me.

Be my Rock and Fortress
To which I do go.
Deliver me, God. You’re my hope.

My lips now give praise to You, God.
I always have hope,
Since You saved me from sin.

My enemies speak evil
‘gainst me, O God.
Oh, help me, O Lord, rescue me.

The path of my life has been hard.
For, I have had troubles
Too many to bear.

But You will increase honor,
Restore again.
Your faithfulness, Lord, comforts me.

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My Hiding Place
An Original Work / August 1, 2025
Christ’s Free Servant, Sue J Love

I didn't realize your father passed on. So sorry to hear that and my condolences to you.

ThatRobGuy said:

For a non-paywalled version

MSN

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Thanks....I guess the WaPo "gift article link" didn't work.