Sunday, June 28, 2015

Why Did God Destroy Sodom and Gomorrah?

Why Did God Destroy Sodom and Gomorrah?

 One of those interesting details has surfaced which reminds you that everything is connected.
It is now predicted that the Supreme Court will give its ruling on same sex marriage on June 30.
The Mass readings for that day are Genesis 19.15-29 – the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah.
We should be clear. The destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah was not simply because the city was full of homosexuality.
The violent homosexual rapists were a symptom of a deeper ugliness in Sodom and Gomorrah.
We know from earlier in Genesis that the cities of the plain were lush, rich and luxuriant. The kings of Sodom and Gomorrah were also warlike and violent.
The violent homosexual rapists of Sodom and Gomorrah were an example of the decadence, lust, luxury, greed and violence of the whole civilization.
The sin of Sodom and Gomorrah was, therefore far deeper than a sexual problem. The sexual problem was the symptom of a deep, fetid and stubborn rebellion against God and everything that was natural and simple, innocent, free and good.
St Paul outlines this sick depravity in the first chapter of his epistle to the Romans:
The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of people, who suppress the truth by their wickedness,  since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them.  For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.
 For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened.  Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like a mortal human being and birds and animals and reptiles.
 Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. They exchanged the truth about God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised. Amen.
Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural sexual relations for unnatural ones.  In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed shameful acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their error.
 Furthermore, just as they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, so God gave them over to a depraved mind, so that they do what ought not to be done. They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips,  slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents;  they have no understanding, no fidelity, no love, no mercy. Although they know God’s righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them.
Why did God destroy Sodom and Gomorrah?
Because there was nothing else he could do. His “doing a deal” with Abraham indicates that he had extended his mercy time and again. He waited for them to turn from their destructive ways. He waited for their stubbornness to subside and for them to turn from their culture of death.
They would not.
Did he punish them out of some sort of petty and arbitrary desire for vengeance or the need to punish evil?
I don’t think so. I think God’s judgement on Sodom and Gomorrah were linked in with the path they were already on. They were so wallowing in the culture of death, so immersed in hell that they got what they asked for. They went on the path to hell and destruction and would not turn from that path so they were given hell and destruction.
I think there comes a time when God simply can’t do anything more with humanity because we continue to go our own way and continue to reject every offer of goodness, forgiveness, life and all that is natural and beautiful and innocent and free.
We choose hell and destruction.
God will eventually give us what we have asked for.
The only thing that remains for me to wonder is how far along the road to Sodom is our present society and world?
And how much more patience will God have?
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‘Gay Marriage’ Ruling: Evil with a Silver Lining

‘Gay Marriage’ Ruling: Evil with a Silver Lining

Matt Barber | Jun 28, 2015
Well, that was predictable. On Friday, with its majority opinion in Obergefell v. Hodges, five judicial imperialists perched high atop the U.S. Supreme Court bench called the Supreme Being a liar. They presumed to invent, out of thin air and through judicial fiat, a “constitutional right” to sin-based “gay marriage.” (Father God, as you exact Your perfect justice on America, please have mercy upon Your faithful.)
The horrific nature of this illegitimate decision cannot be overstated. It makes a mockery of the institution of marriage, something of which God alone has the authority to design and define. It represents a level of judicial activism unmatched since Dred Scott, Buck v. Bell or Roe v. Wade.
Man-woman marriage, as He designed it, is the metaphor God uses for the relationship between Christ and His Church. In addition to mocking marriage, this decision mocks God.
Which is by spiritual design.
Satan is laughing himself silly right now. His demonic minions, both above and below, are popping the bubbly and clinking the champagne flutes.
Evil has triumphed.
For now at least.
But not in the end.
Because God will not be mocked.
And victory is His.
Still, on top of being an arrogant affront to Almighty God, this opinion of five unelected and unaccountable justices is also a constitutional disaster. “The Court’s decision fundamentally rewrites the 14th Amendment to the United States Constitution to radically redefine the cornerstone institution of marriage, which is older than the Court itself,” said Mat Staver, founder and chairman of Liberty Counsel.
The decision also drew sharp criticism from the Court’s four dissenting justices. Chief Justice John Roberts, for example, rightly observed that the activist majority opinion hijacks the democratic process and is not based on the rule of law: “[D]o not celebrate the Constitution. It had nothing to do with it,” wrote Roberts.
Justice Scalia similarly called the ruling a “threat to American democracy.” The “pretentious” and “egotistic” decision, he railed, “robs the People of the most important liberty they asserted in the Declaration of Independence and won in the Revolution of 1776: the freedom to govern themselves.”
But I promised a silver lining, and there is one. One that is sure to infuriate the anti-Christian left. The majority opinion emphasized that this newfangled “right” to “gay marriage” should not be construed to trump religious liberty:
“Finally, it must be emphasized that religions, and those who adhere to religious doctrines, may continue to advocate with utmost, sincere conviction that, by divine precepts, same-sex marriage should not be condoned. The First Amendment ensures that religious organizations and persons are given proper protection as they seek to teach the principles that are so fulfilling and so central to their lives and faiths, and to their own deep aspirations to continue the family structure they have long revered. The same is true of those who oppose same-sex marriage for other reasons.”
I’m not naïve. We’ll have to see what this actually means in coming years, but when filtered through any honest reading of the First Amendment’s “free exercise” clause, what it means is that Christians cannot be forced to violate their conscience through compulsory participation in, or recognition of, counterfeit “gay weddings” or “marriages.”
Ever.
Of course there’s nothing honest about the five liberals on this court, and Chief Justice Roberts makes that point in his dissent. He expresses skepticism as to the majority’s sincerity: “The majority graciously suggests that religious believers may continue to ‘advocate’ and ‘teach’ their views of marriage,” he writes. “The First Amendment guarantees, however, the freedom to ‘exercise‘ religion. Ominously, that is not a word the majority uses.”
“Hard questions arise when people of faith exercise religion in ways that may be seen to conflict with the new right to same-sex marriage,” he continues. “[W]hen, for example, a religious college provides married student housing only to opposite-sex married couples, or a religious adoption agency declines to place children with same-sex married couples. Indeed, the Solicitor General candidly acknowledged that the tax exemptions of some religious institutions would be in question if they opposed same-sex marriage. There is little doubt that these and similar questions will soon be before this Court.”
Little doubt indeed.
As many of us have long warned, all this “gay marriage” nonsense was never about “marriage equality.” It was, and remains, a spiritual battle camouflaged in the formal attire of judicial and public policy wrangling. It was always about forcing Christ’s faithful followers, under penalty of law, to abandon biblical truth and embrace sexual sin. The goal of “LGBT” activists and secular progressives has long been to pit the government directly against the free exercise of religion – Christianity in particular – and to silence all dissent.
Let me be clear. You will never silence us, and we Christians don’t need liberty crumbs tossed down from some temporal bench on high. Christians, faithful Christians (as opposed to the apostate variety), will not, indeed cannot, have anything whatsoever to do with the wickedness that is “gay marriage,” and we will disobey any man-made law or ruling that presumes to make us do otherwise.
That said, it does provide some consolation to have, in the spirit of Hobby Lobby, this court at least pay lip service, inelegant though it may be, to every American’s God-given constitutional right to freedom of conscience. The one positive thing that came from this ruling is the reaffirmation of First Amendment protections guaranteeing, for instance, that the Christian baker, florist, photographer, et al., cannot be penalized by the government for refusing to participate in sin – for declining to provide goods or services for “gay weddings,” or for otherwise refusing to recognize “gay marriage” for anything other than the evil it represents.
Even so, let us not don our rose-colored glasses. Friday’s ruling comes straight from the pit of Hell. Even with its religious liberty “silver lining,” it has not ended the debate; it has only just launched it. It has opened the floodgates to anti-Christian persecution. Leftist lawsuit abuse against Christian individuals and organizations will now flow hot like the River Styx.
But don’t despair, my brothers and sisters in Christ. For we who are God’s children have already overcome.
Because greater is He Who is in us, than he who is in the world.
And greater is He who created marriage, than he who perverts it.
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Bishops Responding to Legalizing Same-Sex Marriage

Bishops Responding to Legalizing Same-Sex Marriage

by Catherine Harmon, Catholic World Report
Archbishop Joseph Kurtz, president of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, released the following statement about the Supreme Court’s 5-4 ruling legalizing same-sex marriage:
Regardless of what a narrow majority of the Supreme Court may declare at this moment in history, the nature of the human person and marriage remains unchanged and unchangeable. Just as Roe v. Wade did not settle the question of abortion over forty years ago, Obergefell v. Hodges does not settle the question of marriage today. Neither decision is rooted in the truth, and as a result, both will eventually fail. Today the Court is wrong again. It is profoundly immoral and unjust for the government to declare that two people of the same sex can constitute a marriage.
The unique meaning of marriage as the union of one man and one woman is inscribed in our bodies as male and female. The protection of this meaning is a critical dimension of the “integral ecology” that Pope Francis has called us to promote. Mandating marriage redefinition across the country is a tragic error that harms the common good and most vulnerable among us, especially children. The law has a duty to support every child’s basic right to be raised, where possible, by his or her married mother and father in a stable home.
Jesus Christ, with great love, taught unambiguously that from the beginning marriage is the lifelong union of one man and one woman. As Catholic bishops, we follow our Lord and will continue to teach and to act according to this truth.
I encourage Catholics to move forward with faith, hope, and love: faith in the unchanging truth about marriage, rooted in the immutable nature of the human person and confirmed by divine revelation; hope that these truths will once again prevail in our society, not only by their logic, but by their great beauty and manifest service to the common good; and love for all our neighbors, even those who hate us or would punish us for our faith and moral convictions.
Lastly, I call upon all people of good will to join us in proclaiming the goodness, truth, and beauty of marriage as rightly understood for millennia, and I ask all in positions of power and authority to respect the God-given freedom to seek, live by, and bear witness to the truth.
Across the US, Catholic bishops have released statements on the historic ruling. Below are links to statements of individual bishops as well as several statewide bishops’ conferences (did we miss your bishop’s statement? Leave a link in the comments and we’ll include it in this post). [Updated]
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Catherine Harmon is managing editor of Catholic World Report.
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Friday, June 19, 2015

Norcia Monks Rebuild the Foundations of Christian Culture - Crisis Magazine

Norcia Monks Rebuild the Foundations of Christian Culture - Crisis Magazine
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Five Ways to Seek Grace in our Life

Five Ways to Seek Grace in our Life

shutterstock_251491534On one occasion the great mystic, prayer-warrior, penitent, as well as a Doctor of the Church, Saint Catherine of Siena was granted a vision into the state of one soul imbued with sanctifying grace. Upon contemplating the beauty of this one soul in God’s grace she fell to her knees.  Enthralled and totally captivated by its beauty she thought it was God Himself! Of all of the gifts that we can receive on earth, as pilgrims travelling towards our eternal home which is heaven, the grace of God is by far the greatest treasure.  It is the pearl of infinite price!
Whereas the worldly and sensual pursue money, fame, power, and pleasure as their ultimate source of happiness (which really is a lie and illusion), God’s true friends pursue ardently and constantly to grow in grace. Another rather simple way to understand the life of grace is simply this: friendship with God.  God desires ardently to be our Friend, the best of Friends; however, He respects our time and freedom to accept Him as our best Friend!
The life of grace all starts in the moment that we receive the Sacrament of Baptism.  The graces that flow from Baptism are extraordinary, almost mind-boggling—how good God really is.  Once the water is poured on the head and the words: “I baptize you, In the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit”, invisible but real miracles occur: an intimate relationship with the Blessed Trinity, the infusion of the theological virtues, moral virtues, and gifts of the Holy Spirit.  Still of paramount importance is the reality of Grace that permeates and imbues the soul in the moment of Baptism!
With the waters of Baptism we enter into a deep and intimate friendship with the Triune God and we become partakers of His divine nature—we  become sons of God and have as inheritance—if we persevere in grace—heaven forever!  For that reason the saints teach us: grace is the seed of eternal life.
Given that grace in our souls is the greatest gift and presence, we should do all in our power to preserve grace, grow in grace, so as to die in the state of grace. Saint Alphonsus Liguori, Doctor of the Church and author of the classic  Glories of Mary, states that the grace of all graces is to die in the state of grace.  This should be our prayer every day for our souls, that of our loved one as well as for the whole world. Indeed Jesus came as universal Savior—to save the whole world through His Paschal mystery—His passion, death and Resurrection from the dead!
Then there are the two worse things in the universe are the following: 1) Committing a mortal sin (this indeed is terrible); 2) Worse still is dying in the state of mortal sin; this, of course results in an eternal separation from God for all eternity! May God save us from the reality of mortal sin.  Nonetheless, if we do have the misfortune of falling into mortal sin, we should never give into despair. On the contrary, we should have a limitless confidence in God’s infinite mercy and have recourse to the wonderful Sacrament of God’s mercy that we call Confession!  The Psalmist reminds us with these encouraging words: “God is slow to anger and rich in kindness.” Saint Paul reiterates the same theme:  “Where sin abounds, the grace of God abounds all the more.”

Ways to Grow in the Grace of God

We should do all in our power to preserve God’s grace in our souls, but also to grow daily in God’s grace.  God’s grace and His intimate Friendship in our soul are worth more than the whole created universe.   The natural realm in which we live can never be compared to the supernatural realm in which we find the concept and reality of grace. As a fish swims in water, as a bird flies in the sky so should we be swimming and flying in the atmosphere of grace! This should be the most ardent desire of our hearts, mind and souls!
1. Prayer.  Every time we pray with humility of heart, purity of intention and a desire to please God we immediately grow in grace.   For that reason we should treasure prayer, our prayer life and the prayer life of others as the highest and greatest of all realities.  Parents who teach their children to pray are the best of parents; parents who are slothful and negligent in the education of their children in the arena of prayer will have to give an account on the day of their judgment! Because of the numerous distractions of daily life, how easy it is for parents—who must be the first educators of their children—to be negligent and sloppy in teaching their children to pray! May God have mercy on us!
2. Charity.  The Word of God teaches us this consoling truth: “Love covers a multitude of sins.” If we can find ways and opportunities that God offers us on a daily basis to practice charity and service or even alms-giving towards others then we have another means to augment grace in our souls. In the movie Little Boy, the little boy was given what the priest called the “Magic list” to accomplish so that his father would return home safe and sound from the World War. The magic list is nothing more than less than the corporal works of mercy listed in (Mt. 25:31-46) “ I was hungry and you gave me to eat; thirsty and you gave me to drink; a foreigner and you welcomed me; sick and in prison and you came to visit me; dead and you provided burial…” Beg the Holy Spirit in prayer which of these He is calling you to carry out in practice in your life so as to increase grace in your soul!
3. Penance.  Jesus stated that some devils can be cast out only through prayer and fasting.  The Lord also reminds us: “Anyone who wants to be my follower must renounce himself, take up his cross and follow me.”  Every time we say “no” to our selfish desires and “yes” to a sacrifice that the Holy Spirit has inspired in our hearts then once again the grace of God rises in our hearts! An added blessing from God when we undertake a life of sacrifice is conquering our bad habits and interior peace of mind, heart and soul!  Let us be generous with a God who loves us so much!
4. Sacraments: The Eucharist. Of course the greatest action in the whole universe is that of receiving the greatest of all Sacraments—The Eucharist!  The Holy Eucharist, Holy Communion, is truly and substantially the Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ! Receiving Our Lord with the best of dispositions, in grace, with faith, love, humility and desire for a deeper conversion to His love is an infinite source of grace because this Sacrament is God Himself! For this reason there is no greater action we can do as pilgrims and wayfarers on earth than to receive Jesus with lively faith, frequency and burning love! If you like a simple image, upon receiving Jesus with burning love the gas gauge in your spiritual tank (your soul) shoots up way beyond the full. Beg for the grace to have a daily hunger for the Bread of life so as to constantly skyrocket in grace—to penetrate the high heavens even while on earth! In the Our Father we pray, “Give us this day our daily bread…” Perhaps Jesus is challenging you to aim at daily Mass and daily Holy Communion so as to surmount the highest mountains in the realm of grace.
5. Our Lady: Hail Mary. On one occasion the German mystic and saint, Saint Gertrude, saw Jesus in heaven.  He was resplendent in glory, but He was doing an intriguing gesture: placing a golden coin on top of a huge mound of other gold coins. The saint was just finishing praying to our Lady the Hail Mary. Jesus responded in this manner. “Gertrude, every time you pray to my mother the Hail Mary with faith and devotion, I am depositing a Golden coin in heaven that will be yours for all eternity.”  If we want to be multi-billionaires in heaven let us love Mary and the prayer that Mary loves so much—Hail Mary.  In the Hail Mary we greet the Queen of Heaven and earth with these beautiful words: “Hail Mary, Full of Grace.” Therefore, let us get into the habit of praying the daily Rosary, with the beautiful prayer Hail Mary.  If done, Our Lady, through her powerful intercession will be storing up for you infinite treasures and an eternal home in heaven! May we love grace, treasure grace, strive to grow in grace and finally die in grace through the intercession of Mary, the “Full of grace.”
Father Ed Broom is an Oblate of the Virgin Mary. He blogs regularly at Fr. Broom's Blog.
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Saturday, June 6, 2015

Body and Soul


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Juicing Delivers the Nutrients!

Juicing Delivers the Nutrients Our Body Needs That Even the Best Raw Diet Can’t Fully Provide


The key to optimal health is to maximize our intake of nutrients from raw foods without putting an excessive burden on our body’s ability to digest those foods while also enabling the body to eliminate toxins.
But how do we do this? First, let’s look at the challenges we face and the potential consequences of a nutrient-starved diet.
Our food isn’t what it used to be.
In biblical times, the food supply provided by God consisted of raw foods rich in nutrients that were grown in organic soil free of chemicals and environmental toxins. People back then didn’t have to think twice about what they put in their bodies. They could nourish themselves and enjoy optimal health.
Throughout the centuries, and especially in recent times, even raw produce has diminished dramatically in nutrient density and quality. For example:
  • In 1997, broccoli contained 53% of the calcium it contained in 1979 and 35% of the thiamin (USDA Nutrient Handbooks).
  • Donald R. Davis states that “Recent studies of historical nutrient content data for fruits and vegetables spanning 50 to 70 years show apparent median declines of 5% to 40% or more in minerals, vitamins, and protein in groups of foods, especially in vegetables.” (“Declining Fruit and Vegetable Nutrient Composition: What is the Evidence?” HortScience 44:1 February 2009)
Why are our foods continually becoming less nutritious? Today’s commercial farming practices, erosion of topsoil and not allowing the land to rest sufficiently between plantings are the principal culprits.
There is still another challenge.
We need raw foods to supply the vitamins, minerals, enzymes and phyto nutrients that are found in nutrient-rich fruits and vegetables that our body needs. However, to compensate for the ever-diminishing quality of nutrients in our produce and to provide enough nutrients to achieve and sustain optimal health, we would need to consume an ever-increasing amount of those raw foods.
The problem is that we’re not cows. They can graze all day because their stomachs can easily digest what they consume. Our digestive system simply can’t handle that much fiber. Moreover, the nutrients are locked into the fiber and most of us do not masticate our raw foods sufficiently to release a high percentage of nutrients. As Dr. H. E. Kirschner, M.D., says in his book, Live Food Juices, “…The power to break down the cellular structure of raw vegetables, and assimilate the precious elements they contain, even in the healthiest individual is only fractional, not more than 35%, and in the less healthy, down to 1%. In the form of juice, these same individuals assimilate up to 92% of these elements.”
So what do we do?
To ward off chronic diseases, illnesses and other conditions, we need to nourish our bodies at the cellular level. Our cells are living organisms that require living food to regenerate at a stable or improved state. Living food contains living enzymes, a marker of our life force. Enzymes help us to digest our food and deliver more nutrients to our cells.
The dense, living nutrients found in raw foods and their juices satisfy our cells’ nutritional needs. The benefits are:
  • Abundant energy
  • Cells working better
  • Organs have the nutrients needed to function optimally
However, as noted above, we can’t get sufficient nutrition from even the best organic fruits and vegetables alone.
The solution is more than 100 years old and better than ever: juicing
In the early 1900s, a few intrepid pioneers who discovered the importance of living foods strived to figure out how to maximize nutrient intake from raw foods. Perhaps most noteworthy was Dr. N. W. Walker who regained his health in about two months instead of the nine months predicted by his doctor. Dr. Walker gave himself an innovative prescription: he grated carrots and drank the juice that he pressed out of the pulp.
Many others discovered the power of juicing including Reverend George Malkmus, founder of Hallelujah Acres (now Hallelujah Diet), who abandoned his unhealthy diet and began eating raw fruits and vegetables and one to two quarts of raw vegetable juices daily. His baseball-sized tumor and colon cancer disappeared, along with other physical problems, and he continues to enjoy robust health and activities at age 81.
Why is juicing so advantageous? With juicing, we ingest only the part of the vegetable that contains the nutrients—the liquid. The nutrients reach cellular level in mere minutes, which increases dramatically the percentage of nutrients reaching our cells.
Here is another way to see how juicing enables us to nourish our bodies with far more nutrients than we could get from eating raw foods:
  • It takes a pound of raw vegetables to make eight ounces of vegetable juice, so you get the nutrients from a pound of vegetables and most reach cellular level.
  • You wouldn’t want to eat two pounds of carrots every day, but you could drink two eight-ounce glasses of carrot juice. Reverend George Malkmus reports that “At the Gerson Hospital in Mexico they are healing terminal cancers using 8 eight-ounce glasses of carrot juice per day, 4 eight-ounce glasses of green juices from organically grown vegetables, along with a vegetarian diet.”
Which juicers are best?
Hallelujah Diet Research Director Michael Donaldson, PhD, evaluated various juicers. He tested quality of juice based on:
  • enzyme activity
  • degradation of juice from exposure to air and heat generated during processing
  • volume of juice produced
Dr. Donaldson concluded that the highest quality juice was produced using the two-step triturator and press combination. Close second was the twin gear juicer such as Green Star, followed by the mastication Champion Juicer. The two-step process can be accomplished most efficiently and economically with the Champion triturator and manually operated Welles Press. However, most people prefer a less labor-intensive one-step process with the twin-gear Green Star or masticating Champion, especially inasmuch as the quality and volume are only slightly below that of the two-step.
The juice powder alternative
With advances in technology and knowledge, we can now dehydrate fresh living juices or organically grown grasses, vegetables and fruits at a low enough temperature that heat-sensitive nutrients are not destroyed. You can mix these powders with purified water or organic apple juice to gain many of the benefits of juicing, an especially good alternative if you’re somewhere where juicing isn’t possible.

BarleyMax is a juice powder that delivers almost instant energy and is an excellent source of a well-balanced, natural and broad spectrum of vitamins, minerals and enzymes.

Final thought
While we strongly recommend adding fresh raw vegetable juices to one’s diet, this doesn’t mean that you should stop eating raw vegetables. After all, fiber in raw vegetables contributes to colon health, promotion of regular bowel movements, avoidance of constipation and elimination of toxins. That’s why the Hallelujah Diet calls for a balance of whole raw foods and freshly extracted raw vegetable juices.
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