Caritas - Papal Office

By the sin of Adam we are born into this world with the weakness of the flesh. The way to overcome that weakness is by the help of God, which He gives to those who ask it of Him in the proper way. Those who go into unnecessary occasions of sin cannot expect God to strengthen them even if they ask for His help. The minds of modern day youth are lead into sins of the flesh by the sinful world around them. We are reminded of a college girl who was raised with care by her father after her mother died. He put her into the best college he knew. On one occasion he visited his daughter on Sunday afternoon. It so happened that the daughter had to run into a building to get something. In her absence the father glanced into her open purse. There he saw birth control devices. On her return to the car the good father said to her: “Daughter, I did all I could to bring you up as a good and pure girl, and now I see birth control equipment in your purse.” The daughter replied all unconcerned, “Oh Dad, that is nothing. They all do it.”

What we see today is that nearly the whole barrel of apples is rotten. We have before Us a studied article from the local paper giving the statistics where the number of births outside of marriage is steadily on the increase. Even that used to be resented, but now it is so commonplace that the girls like being unwed mothers, and there is no shame in it anymore. What we see is the break up of the family as God ordained it to be.

Girls no longer trust the boys to be faithful, and they fear that if they marry the father of their child they will end up in a divorce with all its grief. The article ends up as follows: “They (the unwed mothers) may be looking at it from a wider standpoint. Why get involved in a marriage that could end in divorce, domestic violence or child abuse.”

Positive Side of Holiness

Holiness does not consist in merely avoiding evil. A child may have all bad literature removed from his reading materials. Still that is not holiness. He may shift into neutral by merely reading novels and cartoons. His God-less toys absorb nearly all his interests. Every child must learn to mortify himself. The first mortification is the avoiding of all sin, as far as that is possible. Holiness must be seen as something manly – even macho – if you please. Holiness consists in the amount of grace and merit one possesses, for God will reward us in exact proportion according to the amount of sanctifying grace and merit that we have at the moment of death. That knowledge should spur everyone to struggle with all might and main to be in the state of sanctifying grace at all times. If the misfortune to fall into mortal sin occurs, it must be repented of as soon as sufficient good will and grace are brought into play for conversion.

Every person must be personally responsible for his own prayer life. If one merely prays with the family, as some kind of a mantra, he will be lost. As soon as he is able to read, he must use that skill to do spiritual reading. We are in this world to know God, to love God, to serve God and thereby gain heaven. We are not here to know all the ball players and scores. We are to live with a spirit of prayer and devotion. All secular learning must have for its end the glory of God and the salvation of souls. Fiction and flowery novels, even when free from temptation, are to be avoided like the plague. They are a waste of the time that God gives to us to be used for His glory and the salvation of our soul.

Idealism is lost. Why? In our times the ugly and banal are great. The pants have to hang way over the shoes. Washed out and tattered jeans are considered “cool.” We live in a society that calls good, evil, and it calls evil, good. Simply stated: in today’s society babies in lawful marriage are considered evil, and abortions to one and all are considered good. Husband and wife units are portrayed as evil, and homosexual (also lesbian) unions are portrayed as good.

Our Catholics throughout the world are few and far between. That there be a black sheep in families is something that is hard to avoid entirely. However, there should be signs of idealism. There is the idealism for the priesthood. Our family took four boys into the priesthood, in spite of thirteen years of hard study to accomplish it.

In order to encourage men on to holiness, Our Lord came forward with the hard truth. On one occasion Our Lord invited a rich young man to sell all that he had and come, “follow Him.” The man was rich (loved the things of this world) and he refused the call to be an apostle. We know no more of him, but we never forget the apostles and their works for the glory of God and the salvation of souls.

While we are on the specifics of doing what is necessary to get a high place in heaven We shall take time out to bring to your attention just what God expects of us.

The Corporal Works of Mercy

To feed the hungry.
To give drink to the thirsty.
To clothe the naked.
To harbor the harborless.
To visit the sick.
To visit the imprisoned.
To bury the dead. (Matt. xxv. 35,36; Tobias XII, 12)

The Spiritual Works of Mercy

To convert the sinner.
To instruct the ignorant.
To counsel the doubtful.
To comfort the sorrowful.
To bear wrongs patiently.
To forgive injuries.
To pray for the living and the dead.

The Eight Beatitudes

Blessed are the poor in spirit; for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are the meek; for they shall possess the land.
Blessed are they that mourn; for they shall be comforted.
Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after justice; for they shall have their fill.
Blessed are the merciful; for they shall obtain mercy.
Blessed are the clean of heart; for they shall see God.
Blessed are the peacemakers; for they shall be called the children of God.
Blessed are they that suffer persecution for justice’ sake; for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. (Matt. V. 3 – 10)

When Our Lord told the apostles about judgment day He made a distinction that we should never forget. The good that we do to others for His name’s sake will be rewarded just as if it were done to Him. That distinction requires an explanation of merit.

Merit

Merit is a quality in ourselves that deserves a supernatural reward, and that reward can be great or small. In order to gain merit four things must be present at one and the same time. One must be in the state of sanctifying grace. By the way, those outside the Church are in violation of His command to be in her, and therefore they have no sanctifying grace. A person in sanctifying grace must have three more elements. He must do some good deed: pray, feed the hungry, counsel the doubtful, fulfill the duties of one’s state in life and so forth.

The last two elements are easily forgotten, and therefore We repeat these two elements very often. One must do his good works (spiritual and corporal works of mercy and the like) for the honor of God and/or the salvation of souls. To work just in order to make a living will give no one a reward for his actions in heaven. To honest natural motives must also be added the supernatural motives, namely, the glory of God and the salvation of souls.

The last element is this. One must do his works under the influence of actual grace, which enlightens the mind to know God’s will and the strength to follow God’s commands. Whatever we do must be done while we are still living on earth. God help me supernaturally with Thy grace. Over the years Our devotion has urged Us to coin the following aspiration, and it is in Our morning prayers every day. It is:

“God the Father, I thank Thee for creating me. God the Son, I thank Thee for redeeming me. God the Holy Ghost, I thank Thee for sanctifying me. Infuse into my thoughts, words and actions Thy grace so that they may be supernaturally pleasing to Thee and supernaturally rewarding to me forever. Oh, Blessed Trinity, abundantly assist me in becoming that what Thou intended me to become when Thou created me, for in that perfection I will give Thee the glory Thou desirest of me, and I will receive the reward that will be most pleasing to me.”

Whenever, you use a ready-made prayer, remember this. It came into this world by some kind of divine inspiration. While it exists, it is with us in order to sustain the divine life of sanctifying grace in us. You are free to make any honest aspirations to God. However, you may not publish those prayers and aspirations for others without an imprimatur from the Church.

Our degree of happiness in heaven will depend on the amount of sanctifying grace and the amount of supernatural merit that we have at the moment of death. We have no other purpose in life than to increase in sanctifying grace and supernatural merit at each moment in our lives. Only these are blissful, even in this life already, who are doing, in some way, what is the life of the Saints in heaven. The greatest act of man is the contemplation of God in Beatific Vision, and a foretaste of that blessedness can be had in some way already in this life by those who constantly live in the state of sanctifying grace.

Noe's Ark -- Three Days of Darkness

Noe was a man pleasing to God, and God determined to use his seed alone to continue the propagation of the human race. God directed him in the production of the Ark. When it was finished and a pair of all the animals that were to be saved were in the ark, the door of the ark was closed. The only people in the ark were Noe, his wife, his three sons and their wives.

While Noe was building the ark he took a good deal of flak. He suffered in his toil. His admonitions fell on deaf ears. However, once the door of the ark was closed all those outside were excluded. Then the punishment of God destroyed those evil men.

In our times it seems that a new type of “flood” (or just call it divine punishment) will kill a large part of the human race. There are many credible accounts of a coming Three Days of Darkness. During those Three Days of Darkness God will have a special care for His elect. No lights will burn except blessed candles. From one of those private revelations on the Three Days of Darkness We have the following quotation: “In the homes of the wicked, these blessed candles will not give light.” (La Fraudais Prophesy)

As We see it with the light of faith only those who are with Us in the one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church are separated from the wicked. There are many who are not formally with Us, but God knows the hearts of men, whether they are “within” the Church or “outside” the Church. Outside the Church there is no salvation. All those who have the light of faith should make their peace with God and Us.

Advent

The Catholic Church teaches history and doctrine in a very unique way. She teaches the economy of salvation by her liturgical year and her feasts. The four thousand years from the creation of the world until the coming of the Savior is represented by the four weeks of Advent. Then the mysteries of the life of Christ and the coming of the Holy Ghost are played out in a wonderful order until the last Sunday of the Pentecost season. By the way, the bogus Vatican II “church” discarded the Pentecost season, and for them salvation was no longer a reality to be desired.

We urge all of you to live the seasons of the Church year and observe the many feast of the Church to the best of your abilities. Thus, these realities will be a living reality in your memories and lives. You will keep your lives united with God during your journey on earth which is the fitting preparation and, to some extent, the beginning of your life in heaven already here on earth.

Live Advent in sobriety without celebrating as the world does. The world of old neglected a proper preparation for the Savior, and when He came they denied Him to the point of crucifying Him. Let history not repeat itself in ourselves.

Catholic Calendar

We are in the final stags of getting out a Catholic Calendar for the year 2000. In ancient times, until the invention of the printing press, very few people had a Bible, catechism or a prayer book. The faithful learned their faith and developed their faith by the lessons they learned from the liturgical year. Although we now have the luxury of the printed word, the Church does not give up the liturgical practices, for teaching and developing the faith.

In order to follow the liturgical year, every Catholic (and everyone who is thinking of becoming a Catholic) needs the help of a Catholic calendar.

We used to carry the entire burden of producing and getting out the calendar. It even went out without a price tag even though We purchased them, during recent years. We just cannot continue that added load of work without help in this office. Hence, We are having one of the faithful produce the calendar and mail it out to you. Throughout the year he will keep available calendars for new converts and anyone who wants one, as for example, when one moves away from home. Here is how to get this calendar.

Year 2000 Catholic Calendar can be obtained from:

St. Michael’s True Catholic Publications
c/o Bryan R. Clayton
3755 North Lois Court
Morris, IL 60450
USA

There are 3 ways to order:

Phone In your order:	(815) 942-8303
Fax your order:	(815) 942-1730
Email your order:	knight@intrnet.net

Calendars will be available for shopping by or before Dec. 15, 1999. Please pre-order your calendar now. The cost is $6.00, plus $2.00 postage for a total of $8.00.

Obituary

Our dear mother, Cecilia Gertrude Pulvermacher, 104 years of age, passed away on the twenty-first of November, 1999. We traveled by car sixteen hundred miles to bring her what she so dearly wanted all her life, namely, a Requiem Funeral Mass for the repose of her soul.

She had the singular and hard-earned privilege, of being the mother of nine children with four of them being Capuchin priests and Ourselves be the Pope, the Vicar of Christ. Pray for the repose of her soul. May she rest in peace.

Goffine

This is a very wonderful and a very useful book, explaining the Sunday Epistles and Gospels of the year plus much more. The cost is $27.95 each, plus $8.00 postage for one, two or three volumes. Order from:

Angelus Press
2918 Tracy Ave.
Kansas City, MO 64109
USA
1-800-966-7337

It is likely you will use it every Sunday for the rest of your lives.

Prayer of St. Francis

“Lord, make me an instrument of Thy peace;
Where there is hatred, let me sow love;
Where there is doubt faith;
Where there is despair, hope;
Where there is darkness, light;
and where there is sadness, joy.

O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled, as to console; to be understood, as to understand; to be loved as to love; for it is in giving that we receive, it is pardoning that we are pardoned, and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.”

A blessed Christmas to one and all!

Pius, pp. XIII
Nov. 25, 1999

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