Proclaim the Gospel to Every Creature...

now, why would Jesus command this if creatures of every kind were not part of the plan of salvation - and in a way known to God alone play an ongoing role in the New Heaven and the New Earth. I ran across a wonderful website dealing with pet loss, and it clearly pointed out that the Bible is primarily about the redemption and salvation of people - as we move towards this new heaven and new earth. But there is at least that one direct command by Jesus himself to preach to the animals (et. al.) as well. All creation has the task of giving glory to God! The animals do it - just by being themselves! We, human, on the otherhand, because we have free-will must choose to do it, or not do it! In the end, however, when there is a new heavens and a new earth, I truly believe that the animals, and the birds, and the fish, and the horses, and the pigs, and the cows and every other kind of creature will be transformed into the fullness of their beings and be there with us - even our pets! It's not so much that they need "immortal souls" as that God can do whatever he wants - whenever he wants - with any of his creation! This I firmly believe! And it's all based on love: God gives us our pets to teach us about himself: his love, his devotion, his care, his attention, his friendship - can that go unrewarded by God? and can God deprive us of seeing our pets again one day in heaven - that is, if we make the right choices and end up where they are!

ps - something else just came to me: Jesus also said that the Father knows all about the sparrows and not one of them falls to the earth (dies) without him knowing about it - I can certainly take this to mean that he does very much care for all of his creatures. Why would he make them, and domesticate some, just to throw them away when they died - I don't think he would do that!

Deep in the Heart of God...

The "common ground" that everyone is so frantically and desparately looking for, for the myriad of problems that face humanity these days, in varying degrees of immediacy and moral urgency: is the Heart of God: with its DIVINE LIGHT, ITS SOOTHING GRACE, ITS REJEUVENATING STRENGTH. There is no way at all that unaided human intelligence can ever even come close to solving the world's problems as we face the now. But it was never meant to - all on its own. The Divine Gifts of the Spirit of Widsom, Understanding, Counsel, Knowledge, Piety, Fortitude and Fear of the Lord are for everyone! And unless they are invoked and used NO REAL, DEEP AND LASTING PROGRESS CAN EVER BE MADE!

And so, my prayer is that everyone, but most especially all those serving in public office BE OPEN TO THE ACTION OF GRACE, THE ACTION OF THE SPIRIT, THE ACTION OF GOD'S LOVE in their Hearts - which, if done this way - transports us directly to the Heart of God : where all is clear, and light and bright and peaceful: and solutions abound for what perplexes us these days!

3 Things that my cat White Socks is teaching me...

1) to err is human, and to forgive is divine;
2) that pets are "sacramental" - they are a true and certain sign of the reality of God and of his never-failing, unconditional love;
3) they manifest the reality of God as Divine Friend - who would do anything at all for us - even die for us.

The Newest Compassion...on the other hand...

is exactly the same as the oldest! It is the compassion, love, mercy and forgiveness that emanates from the very heart of God the Father, manifest in the Sacred Heart of Jesus whom he sent into our world precisely for the purpose of telling us about his Heart and demonstrating the depths of its love his instruction to Jesus to die for our sins. This was the only way that sin could be forgiven, life restored, hope dawned and eternal life possible. Jesus embraced the opportunity to love us this much! And he asked us to imitate him in this, being as compassionate and loving and merciful and kind and non-judgmental as He! All he could do is love us; what we do with that love is up to us! All we can do for others, all others, even those who oppose us and our beliefs, is to love them and pray that the healing power of our love (God's love shining through us) will bring about a fundamental change in them - so that they can enjoy the blessedness of life in the family of God: a life of deep joy, immovable hope and unmeasurable peace!

You and Me together...

In this Year of the Priest it is recommended that the Faithful pray for their priests to be holy and dedicated to their calling: which is to let the Peaceful Light of Truth, the Peaceful Light of Christ, the Peaceful Light of Charity shine from Christ, through them into the Church and into the world. It would behoove the Faithful to pray for themselves to bring the same Truth, Christ and Charity to the waiting world - as they are commissioned by their baptism! Perhaps this can be a great year of renewal for both clergy and laity!

The New "Compassion" is not really compassion at all..

The new wave of tolerance and inclusiveness is breeding a new valuation of "compassion" - which completely abnegates the sacred word compassion!

To sum it up: if what everyone thinks and feels is to be welcomed, hailed and venerated as a holy right and privilege, then nothing has any value at all. Complete subjectivism cancels out reality with its objective standards, norms and commandments set in place by God the Creator for our own good. Human beings are tainted with original sin - whether one "believes" it or not. Subjectivism is the remant of this sin to the maximum degree.

Compassion means "to suffer with" - which means that in taking reality as it is (objectively) there is a lot that involves suffering and pain; the only way through the pain and suffering is to walk through it: the "new compassion" wants to by-pass the pain and suffering, to eliminate it if possible and to make everything agreeable, right and good - with no objective standard even to base its premise on.

God the Father was compassionate on his people - and still is - when he "suffers with them" by sending his Son. Jesus was sent not only to suffer with us, but also to die for us; the Church still suffers with its members who form the Body of Christ, and tries to teach the willing how to unite their sufferings with that of Jesus, and how redemptive and even joyful it can be to do so. He is compassionate because he does not just look the other way; he is compassionate because he still tells us all that SIN is SIN - objectively, is and will be until the end. We will be judge on how we measure up to the standard, not on how we connived to eliminate the standard altogether.

Abortion will always be the murder of a human being; using embryonic stem cells which involves the creation and/or destruction of human persons in their tiniest form will always be murder, gay marriage will always be a non-sequitur (something that just cannot exist) in the eyes of the Church and the wilful desire to annihilate civilization as God made it, the glorification of disordered appetites of any kind will always be considered selfishness in its most radical form .

No, none of this things are compassionate in the least; and they are the direct cause of a spirit of death that pervades our society and indeed the whole world.

May the Spirit of Life grant us a time of repentance, forgiveness and renewal; may a Culture of Life be accepted and integrated into the world before it is too late; God is very patient and merciful but he is also very Just!

Holocaust upon Holocaust....

"I will not forget what I've seen here today," Obama said after touring the camp with German Chancellor Angela Merkel; Holocaust survivor and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Elie Wiesel, and survivor Bertrand Herz.

"These sites have not lose their horror with the passage of time," Obama said. "This place teaches us that we must be ever vigilant about the spread of evil in our times. ... We have to guard against cruelty in ourselves ...."

But it is quite obvious that Mr. Obama counts himself out of the equation here. Six million Jews is already an ever incerasingly insignificant number of holocaust victims of abortion in our own country since 1973 (49M and counting) - the responsibility for all of them has fallen into his lap and he wants not only to open the abortion gates as wides as they will go - with no accountability needed, even by himmself - but also to convince the American people that this a good, right, just and morally acceptable thing to do!

This man does not have a clue!