A holy Norwegian priest!

I recently discovered a Norwegian Catholic priest who lived a very saintly life and died in Belgium in 1907. He was a convert from the Lutheran heresy, and one of his prayers for the conversion of the Scandinavian peoples, were actually given an indulgence of 300 days by Pope Leo XIII. The priest's name was Karl-Halfdan Schilling, and I have a link here to read his life-story.

http://www.scribd.com/doc/35533494/A-Priest-from-Norway-Fr-Karl-M-Schilling-by-Sigrid-Undset

And this is Father Schillings' prayer for Scandinavia, with an indulgence attached to it of 300 days, decreed by Pope Leo XIII:

"Good Jesus, I humbly fall at Your feet and pray You by Your Holy Wounds and by the Precious Blood which You have shed for the whole world, to look in mercy on the Scandinavian peoples. Led astray hundreds of years ago, they are now separated from Your Church and denied the inestimable benefit of the Sacrament of Your Body and Blood, and also the many other means of grace which You have instituted for the consolation of the faithful in life and in death. Remember, O Saviour of the world, that for these souls also You have shed Your Precious Blood and have endured untold sufferings. Good Shepherd, lead these Your sheep back to the wholesome pastures of Your Church, so that they may be one flock together with us under Your Vicar here on earth - the Bishop of Rome, who in the person of the Holy Apostle Peter was commissioned by You to care both for the lambs and for the sheep. Hear, o merciful Jesus, these our petitions, which we make to You with full trust in the love of Your Sacred Heart towards us, and to Your Holy Name be glory, honor and praise for all eternity."

PRAYER:

 O merciful and eternal God, Who on calling to the True Faith Your Venerable Karl M. Schilling, have made him a model of Christian virtues and an apostle of good, we supplicate You to deign to glorify him on earth by granting us the grace... which we ardently implore, through the merits of Our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

Short on Tradition!

Protestants have a tendency to quote Colossians 2:8 as a proof that Christian Tradition really is a tradition of men. This is how the verse goes:

Col 2:8.. Beware lest any man cheat you by philosophy, and vain deceit; according to the tradition of men according to the elements of the world, and not according to Christ.

It's very typical, to pull something out of context, while completely ignoring all verses that speak about being faithful to Tradition. If I wanted to do the same thing, I could easily use the same verse, and say to protestants..well, it says here that men can cheat you by vain philosophy and deceit, and because protestantism is a vain philosophy, and the tradition of a man, either a Luther, a Melanchton or a Calvin, it is not according to Christ. Now, this statement would be a true one, but I think I would still need more proof than just this one verse. I would also need to proove that the tradition of Luther or Calvin, who claimed that the Bible alone was our guide to salvation was contrary to the teachings of Christ. But protestants may not feel the need to prove anything, after all, they think that they are infallible when they read their "bibles." No one disagrees in protestantism, so they have no need of tradition, right?

Baptism of desire

This man has a great youtube channel called "400constantine". This is one of his postings on baptism of desire.

I would also add that the errors of baptism of desire and invincible ignorance really comes down to limiting God and saying that God can not know or do all things. It is not do defend ignorant people, it is to call Almighty God ignorant! It is to say that God is not able to preach to all people, as if He was dependant on anyone else to save people. It is to say that not everyone get's a fair chance to know the Gospel. It is to say that God is not able to preserve and baptize anyone anywhere on earth. It is to say that God commands something that is not possible to do through His grace. Again, it is to call the Lord ignorant and it is blasphemy!
           I was just reading about Christopher Columbus, who came to Queen Isabella in today's Spain and claimed that God had told him to travel over the ocean. There, on the other side, he would find land and plenty of people who would become Catholics. All Isabella needed to do, was to pay for it and provide ships etc. Columbus was ridiculed by many, he was kept in waiting and rejection, first even by Isabella herself, and people called him a dreamer and a lyar. But God's will was done, and Columbus reached America in the 15th Century. And was not also 8 million indians converted to Christianity through the Lady of Guadalupe? Did not God reveal himself to Abram when he rejected his fathers idols? Or to Moses in the burning brumble? Or to Saint Paul on his way to Damascus? Or to the Ethiopian unic walking down from Jerusalem? Stop lying about God and ask Him to give you Faith in Him!

A few reasons for rejecting the SSPX

The SSPX is not a Catholic organization. The most important thing about being a Catholic, is to keep the Catholic Faith. We know that the Church is One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic.. All Catholics have one Faith and those who keep that Faith are Catholics, those who do not, are not Catholics. It is not whether or not you have a Mass to go to that makes you a Catholic. For example, in Japan, after Christian missionaries had been to the country and many became Catholic, after a while, there were no Priests in Japan for SEVERAL HUNDRED YEARS! This means no Mass and no confessions to a Priest. They only had baptism, because anyone can baptize, even a midwife. For example, the midwife or a family member will baptize babies when the newborn baby looks like it is going to die. But the Japanese also had the Sacrament of Marriage, because the Church teaches that if there is no priest, a couple can exchange their wedding vows in front of some witnesses, and they will be legally married, because this Sacrament is exchanged between the man and the woman, not BY the PRIEST. And they lived like this in Japan for hundreds of years. But they were still Catholics, because they kept the Catholic Faith. Why am I speaking to you about this example from Japan? To prove that other Christians have lived without the Mass before. It is not something unique, looking at Church history, that many are living without the possibility of attending a Mass.

I hope that you believe that the Novus Ordo (the Second Vatican Council "Church") are not Catholics. Why? Because they do not keep the Catholic Faith. For example, they believe that you can save your soul in any religion, like Islam or Protestantism. As long as you follow your own conscience, you will be saved. This is not the teachings of the Catholic Church. It has always taught that there IS NO SALVATION OUTSIDE the Catholic Church. If a Priest, or a Pope, teaches that you can be saved in other religions, they fall into HERESY and are no longer Catholics. There is a teaching of the Church called IPSO FACTO. It means that if you start accepting a heresy, like the false teaching that you can be saved outside the Catholic Church, or any other heresy, you automatically stop being Catholic. The normal procedure is that someone above you in the Church excommunicates heretics (they kick you out of the Church), but if the heresy is manifested (i.e. public) then you are kicked out of the Church automatically or IPSO FACTO. How? Because Gods' Divine Law kicks you out. This is what has happened to the "Pope" -and I like to call him the anti-pope. He does not believe in Catholic Teachings, and more importantly, he does not TEACH Catholic teachings publicly. And so everyone who knows Catholic teaching can see that he is not a Catholic. You do not become the Pope just because you get to wear the Papal hat.

Sedevacantists, like myself, say; okay, the Novus Ordo teaches that you can be saved in other religions (and many other heresies), therefore they are not keeping the Catholic Faith and they are not the Catholic Church/Catholic Religion. Therefore, I would have nothing more to do with them, than I would with Muslims or Protestants or Hindus. I will not listen to them about their religious believes (unless I am trying to convert them), pray together with them, celebrate Mass with them or believe that they can be saved in their religion. There is no pope at the moment, but the Church still exists as long as there are people who believe the teachings of the Catholic Church. I do not know how God will give us a new pope or when or if, but, just like the Catholics in Japan, I am just waiting and living my Catholic life. I accept that God has punished us for our sins by taking away the Pope and most of the priests for a while, and He will also fix the problem when the time is right. Maybe in my lifetime, maybe after I die. God can still save me by giving me perfect sorrow (contrition) for my sins when I confess them to him in my bedroom every night. Because God can do anything.

The SSPX has a different view. They say that having to live under the conditions that the Japanese did for such a long time is not possible, that there has to be priests available. They also think that there has to be a pope, we need the Mass, we have to have priests. It does not matter that the "pope" believes people can be saved in other religions and other heresies. Maybe he is just a bad pope.. So they actually believe that you can teach that there is salvation in other religions and still be a Catholic. And not only be a Catholic, but even Christ’s vicar on earth, the one person on earth who is supposed to protect and guide the Catholic believers, can teach whatever he wants and still be the pope… They don't believe that the "pope" can be kicked out of the Church automatically (ipso facto), even though it is a church teaching that it is possible.

And then there is another problem. If Ratzinger is the pope, then we also need to obey him. You know, do what he says and teaches. But the SSPX does not. They ordain their own bishops and priests, even though Ratzinger said NO! They celebrate their own Masses in stead of going to the New Mass or the Latin one that the Novus Ordo arranges from time to time. Some SSPX priests, maybe all, will pray "una cum" for Ratzinger during Mass. This means that they pray for and together with him as if he was the head of the Church. But at the same time they will not celebrate Mass with him or believe what he believes or teach what he teaches. Do you see a problem here? This is called SCHISM. You say that someone is Catholic but you will not be together with them in Church. And you will not obey their authority. In this way the SSPX has one leg in the Novus Ordo, and the other leg in tradition. But this is not Catholic teaching. You are not a little bit saved and a little bit not saved. A little bit Catholic and a little bit not Catholic. You are EITHER CATHOLIC or NOT CATHOLIC. And you have to choose sides, not join the Novus Ordo "just a little bit." If they are the Catholic Church, you go with them. If they are not, you stay away. There is only ONE FAITH in the Catholic Church. Anything else is no more than Protestantism, where you can pick and choose what to accept. The SSPX are therefore heretics, their priests are not obeying their "pope" (anti-pope), they are in schism with other people they believe to be Catholic, and they think that the Latin Mass is more important than keeping the Catholic Faith. Do you see the problem here?

If you ask a SSPX “priest” about his believes he will probably answer that "there is no salvation outside the Church". BUT, he will either define Church as both Catholics and those who are ignorant of the Catholic Faith, or he will say that there are also invisible members of the Church, but this is a novus ordo modern invention. In Tradition you do not have a visible and an invisible church. The Church has always been visible.

My hope is that people will have the strength and courage to look into this, so that they will not loose their souls. It is a very important topic. I also have some Church documents published on this blog, just look for the Latin titles.

The best time to be alive!

Of course all generations face challenges, and to be Catholic in a time when many, most of the time, don't even have a Mass to go to, is certainly a great punishment for our sins. A generation who has not been found worthy to celebrate the great Sacrifice, to go to Confession on a regular basis, to have the last Sacrament in time of death.. I keep reminding myself that God put me on earth during this time, at this place on earth because it is the very best time for me to live, serve and be saved from the fires of hell. Why this is the best time for me, I do not know, but it is the same for every soul. You have been given times and borders for a reason. God knows why, and that is all that is important. And so I need to remind myself that this is my God-given time. Thank you God! Help me to use it well, to be the best that I can be through Your Grace and to never give up, compromise or despair. Remember, when God called Joshua He commanded him to "be strong and of good courage, to not be afraid nor dismayed!" I decided that the following words deserved a blogpost on their own: From the publishers introduction to the book "The Catholic Controversy", by St. Francis de Sales..

Salesian tradition tells us that when St. Francis de Sales as a young priest arrived at Chablais, France in 1594, only 27 persons out of 72 000 were still Catholic (The rest were Calvinist), but after 4 years of his efforts, the figure was exactly reversed, there remaining only 27 Calvinists: 72 000 souls had returned to the True Faith. It is one of the most remarkable conversion stories in all Catholic history. People were afraid to listen to him preach, and so he dedicated himself to writing pamphlets to slide under the doors. He kept in mind a warning of Vincent of Lerins:

"Teach, however, what thou hast learnt; that whilst thou sayest things in a new way thou say not new things."

St. Francis begins his argument with an examination of mission from God, showing that the Catholic Church possesses this mission and the Protestant sects do not. He also delineates eight Rules of Faith- Holy Scripture, the Apostolic Traditions, the authority of the Church, the authority of Councils, the authority of the ancient Fathers of the Church, the authority of the Pope, miracles, and the harmony between faith and reason- showing how all point to the Catholic Faith as the divinely given religion. He states: "Ultimately, however, the sole and true Rule of right-believing is the Word of God preached by the Church of God." But why, he asks, should anyone bow to the supposed authority of a Luther or a Calvin?
         Our admiration of St. Francis´ technique must not blind us to the fact that his weapons were first of all spiritual. He had planned to take Geneva by love- "Love will shake the walls of Geneva." "Ardent prayer must break down the walls of Geneva and brotherly love charge them.." "But the way to this is the propitiation of Almighty God by our penances." A huge mural in the Visitation Monastery of Thonon in the Chablais gives us another clue to the Saint's success: It pictures him and his cousin Louis invoking the Guardian Angel of the diocese as they approached the region for the first time. And it will be recalled that in his youth St. Francis had promised Our Lady to pray the Rosary daily.
         There were also miracles. A baby, the child of a Protestant mother, had died without baptism. St. Francis had gone to speak to the mother about Catholic doctrine, and prayed that the child would be restored to life long enough to receive Baptism. His prayer was granted and the whole family became Catholic.

Hail Mary, full of Grace, the Lord is with Thee.

Blessed art Thou among women

and Blessed is the Fruit of thy womb Jesus.

Holy Mary, Mother of God,

pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death.

Amen