Buy Heaven With The Mammon of Iniquity
Just recently a very wealthy Catholic lady, who appeared to be poor, died very suddenly. Since she was the only Catholic that We served in the area, We did not receive the notice of her death until a lawyer in charge of dividing up her estate contacted Us. He learned of Us and Our address though Our newsletters that were in her home.What the lawyer told Us of her immensely large estate, brought amazement and great sadness to Our heart. She died without any will, so not one cent of her estate was used for her eternal salvation. The wheels of law will put her estate, what is left after lawyer and court fees are subtracted, into the coffers of her few relatives. She had many religious books, boxes of them, piled up to the ceiling. We asked the lawyer if he would ask the relatives, who are non-Catholics, to give Us the books. To date, not one book, not even an offer to sell them to Us, was offered. Thus, her chance to do good for an eternal reward, of her own free will, escaped her, and so it shall be for all eternity. She neglected to do the natural thing, to buy heaven with the mammon of iniquity. She did not give her wealth away during her lifetime, and she neglected to do so in a will, to take place after her death. We feel more sorry for her than We do for the Church and the poor that could have been well served by her free will generosity.
About twenty years ago another very wealthy Catholic lady died while We were on a circuit serving people in the East. We were traveling by car, and We managed to be at her town for her funeral. After the rite in the cemetery, We were told that she was very wealthy. She had a will, and the will designated that all her wealth would go to three dog pounds. Those in charge of the funeral gave Us the customary stipend that goes with a burial. However, outside of that, the Church and the poor received not one cent.
During life neither of those women made any worthwhile effort to support Our world wide ministrations, just acting as poor mendicants. We never knew of their wealth, so it never occurred to Us to advise them in this all important matter.
God has handed both those ladies their just judgment. When they died they were in the banquet hall of the Church. But the question remains open--could those heartless ladies have had on the wedding garment of sanctifying grace? If, perchance, they had the wedding garment, they had to go way down to the end of the table at the heavenly banquet because of their lack of charity. God rewards and punishes with all justice.
Dear reader, We must preach to you in all earnestness, lest We be found wanting in this matter. Year in and year out We preach the observance of the corporal and spiritual works of mercy. Especially during Advent and Lent, We preach penance. Penance means, prayer, fasting and almsgiving.
It is written in the Gospel of St. Luke, 16, 9:
“As I say to you: Make unto you friends of the mammon of iniquity: that when you shall fail, they may receive you into everlasting dwellings.”God has more words to scare you. In I John 3,17 God says:
“He that hath the substance of this world and shall see his brother in need and shall shut up his bowels from him: how doth the charity of God abide in him?”God is telling you that if you neglect to help those in need, when you can do so, you do not love God. Those without the charity of God in their hearts are in mortal sin. The lady who died recently knew full well the needs of the Church, needing money and books, and yet she neglected to give (even in a will) one red cent or one Catholic book. If, perchance, she made it to heaven, she lost all the heavenly rewards that she could have received if she had supported the Church according to her great wealth. She also should have contributed towards some other works of charity, such as charity in curing lepers, alleviating suffering wherever she could see it.
Our Offering to God
There are various ways to give to God. One can put his wealth on a tray and offer it to God, or he can get on the tray and offer himself (or herself) in religious life. We did that at the age of twenty when entering the Capuchin Order. Our service of God extended to twenty-eight years as a missionary in foreign lands, later covering large parts of the world as a roving missionary, and now as Christ’s Vicar. As Christ had no place on earth on which to lay His head, We likewise have no place of Our own on which to lay Our head. God made it that all men must give either themselves or of what they possess, in order to enter the kingdom of heaven.God’s demands are not unreasonable. Many cults exist solely to bleed the entire life savings out of their followers. However, in the Catholic Church, God demands a reasonable service, enlightened by faith. In an order, above this world, we must see that all that we are and all that we have is God’s possessions, even if we earned it ourselves. Return what He asks of you or suffer the consequences. Buy heaven with the mammon of iniquity,
Youth Problem|
By (Lack of) Nature & By (Lack of) Grace
In these days of constant research many of the secrets of nature are exposed.
True science tells the truth, and with that truth, men are to guide their
lives. Science does its work best when it is united with faith. Pre-Christian
geniuses unlocked many of the secrets of nature, and upon their works the
Catholic scholastics of the Middle Ages made phenomenal strides.
We have a scientific article before Us entitled: “How teens think: an explanation.” It is from The Spokesman-Review, 999 W. Riverside Ave., Spokane, WA 9920. The writer is Mara Rose Williams (Knight Ridder) KANSAS City.
The question that is asked is this. How is it that teens make foolish judgments and reckless decisions? They experiment with sex, use dugs, and drive like mad men at great danger to life and general well being.
Generally the brain reaches 95 percent of its maturation by 5. However, “…the corpus collosum, a cable of nerves that connect the right and left halves of the brain, continues growing beyond 20, sometimes. The corpus collosum is linked to intelligence, consciousness and self-awareness.” Add to this immaturity, peer pressure, and you have teenage conduct that is “…at times, risky at best.”
“The research says that after puberty, a pruning process takes place in the prefrontal cortex. About the age of 10, the prefrontal cortex goes through a growth spurt when neurons grow new connections. But those connections die off if they are not used.”
“Bragdon explains that emotional intelligence (EQ) and spiritual intelligence (SQ) join IQ as new measures of intelligence of someone’s level of success in the world.”
“Emotional intelligence is a person’s ability to judge the situation he is in and behave appropriately.”
Bragdon said, “Spiritual intelligence allows us to take a perspective beyond the boundaries of situations: to envision unrealized potentials, to perceive meaning and unity, to create and transform new perspectives by integrating all the intelligence of the body, mind and spirit. If those skills are not exercised, then a big potential of that part of the brain is left dormant.”
Next, We turn from the natural order of things to the spiritual, or supernatural, order of things. We turn for a study of this matter to Father Edward Leen, taking from his book, “THE HOLY GHOST and His work in souls.” The book has its imprimatur dated, 1937. On page 1 he makes a prophetic observation which goes as follows:
“Few there are who can be ignorant that the world, unless there be some extraordinary intervention of Divine Providence, seems about to be submerged under the foul waters of a deluge which will cause a ruin, far more dire in nature and in extent than that caused by the Flood from which but Noah and his family escaped. In the great disaster that befell the human race in the days of the patriarchs, it was only the corporal life of men and beast that perished. Now it looks as if there were about to sweep over all the civilized peoples of the world, a philosophy (Communism) which threatens to corrupt utterly the minds, the hearts, the manners and the morals of all men.”
We shall advance to page seven: “A considerable body of Christians, untrained in the Christian philosophy of life, are allowing themselves to absorb principles which undermine the constructions of Christian thought. They do not realize how much more dangerous it is for Christianity to exist in an atmosphere of Naturalism than to be exposed to positive persecution. In the old days of the Roman Empire those who enrolled themselves under the standard of Christ saw, with logical clearness, that they had perforce to cut themselves adrift from the social life of the world in which they lived – from its tastes, practices and amusements. The line of demarcation between pagan and Christian life was sharp, clearly defined and obvious.”
Dear reader, especially you, younger generation, take the above to heart. We, as Noe of old, look out to those not in the Church as, right now, drowning in the sea of Naturalism, the sea of atheism, on the way to hell. You Catholic youth seem to be hanging over the ark’s railing, taking in the same “tastes, practices and amusement” as those now drowning. Where is your zeal to get to Mass? Do you pray when not forced to do so by your parents? Why do you pass up the spiritual books that are available to you and just read novels and similar godless materials. Will your lukewarm life give you a priestly or religious vocation? If you refuse to love God with your whole heart and your whole strength, God will vomit you up – dumping you off the ark into the outer darkness, where there is “weeping and gnashing of teeth (namely hell).”
As you grow up and earn a living you must support the Church. Right now We are in the process of moving from Spokane, WA to Springdale, WA. The family that We are living with here, because they are retiring, must move to smaller quarters. We are building a home and office at a moderate cost, by reason of the sacrifices of a Catholic man here and a Catholic carpenter coming from Florida. The 5th Commandment of the Church, namely “To contribute to the support of the Church,” urges you, one and all, to contribute according to your means. Ignoring this commandment is sinful, and keeping it brings singular blessings into your lives. Those writing checks for the first time may wonder how to address the check. Write the check to: Pope Pius XIII.
For those lacking in the faith, you must know the grave danger you are in, and you must take steps to avoid your rejection of God, and God’s rejection of you because of your withered faith.
Do not wait for a glorious and big movement into the Church. You must be in the ark (the Church) to be saved. During the Flood, those who were not on the ark of Noe were all lost.
Consider the words of Our Lord as to the end times. In Luke 18, 8 it reads:
“I say to you that he will quickly revenge them. But yet the Son of man, when he cometh, shall he find, think you, faith on earth?”The Catholic faith and Christ’s one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church will continue to the end of the world, but at the same time, the Church will be very small. God did not thwart Judas when he determined to hang himself with a halter. God will not thwart any creature who determines that he will destroy himself, for whatever reason.
We will give you an example that was related to Us as actually having taken place. One evening after school, when the school bus became stuck in the snow, the driver told the children to remain in the bus while he went into the storm by foot to get help. The poor man died in the storm, and the bus was stranded until morning. When help came, they expected that the children would all be frozen to death in the bus. However, all the children were alive and well. How could that be? Some of the boys knew that if one fell asleep in freezing cold, they die without knowing it. Hence, whenever a child decided to take a nap or go to sleep for the night, they beat him or her up without mercy. The children played and jumped over the seats all night long, and they managed to stay alive and well until help arrived. Just because you want to sleep this storm out (that is, of a small Catholic Church) while you wait for better days, it will not serve you well on the way to eternal salvation. Those now not on the ark of the Church are dying in the swill of Naturalism. Those who are on the ark will avoid being vomited over-board only by taking their faith seriously. They must be different from the rest of the world, with a clear line of demarcation, just as the early Christians differed from the pagan world of their time.
The Apostles petitioned Our Lord (Luke 11, 1)
TEACH US TO PRAY
By the providence of God, We studied philosophy (college included) for
four years and theology for four years – on the way to the priesthood.
Here is a wonderful step of mental preparation for natural and supernatural
development. We have before Us an ad for a course in scholastic philosophy,
which We have not had the chance to review. Here is the ad.
Saint Augustine Institute of Catholic Studies PresentsA course in philosophy is something like learning how to play the piano. Once one knows how to play the piano he will determine to play classical music, jazz, rock, sacred music and the like. The Catholic will use philosophy for the foundation of his course in theology. The Communist will use his course of philosophy to propagate his satanic Communism and so forth.A Complete Course of Philosophia Perennis. Traditional Catholic Scholastic Philosophy for Battling the New Age: Eight Magnificent courses for Homeschoolers, Seminarians and warriors everywhere.
The courses are: Logic, Cosmology, Phychology, Ethics, Greek Philosophy, Polemics, Epistemology and Ontology. There are a total of 110 audio tapes @ $3.90 each with a total cost of $429.00. This includes US surface postage. You can call them at (603) 239-6671 for credit card orders (Visa & Mastercard). You can order just one course if you wish to do so, Logic, for example.
The children in a large family could get together for purchasing the set of tapes, and they could share them in brotherly love.
By divine providence We just received the periodic catalog form Roman Catholic Books, Post Office Box 2286, Fort Collins, CO 80522-2286. It advertises a special book that We are buying, and We urge you to do likewise, when you can afford it. Psychology In Questions and Answers (from the ‘30s) by Fr. Hilarion Duerk, O.F.M. @ $20.75 plus p/s $2.95 (one vol.). Vincent de Paul King, M.D. wrote “…(this is) one of the…best treatises on the elements of psychology I have ever read.” The Sign magazine wrote: “The outlook of the author is Catholic and scholastic.”
Pius, pp. XIII
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