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  • Part VIII – How to Contact GOD

    Part VIII – How To Contact GOD

    The Darkness

    In the previous segment I spoke about how much more difficult it seems to be (for no good reason) to get a sense of the presence of God with our eyes open in the daylight.   Our visual cortex which takes up as much as 70% of our brain activity seems to cancel that awareness we were trying to foster in the darkness.  Even more trivial is that usually the visual field is filled with such trivia that it hardly merits looking at in the first place….Unless you are driving a car….

    I just want to add a word about the Darkness.  

    Children seem instinctually afraid of the dark.  Adults usually attribute that to a rational uncertainty about what might BE in the dark….monsters.   Freudian psychology virtually equates the dark with the subconscious, and characterizes the subconscious as harboring the “monsters” we do not wish to occupy our waking minds with. Hence, our dreams are able, according the Freudian crowd, to access this “dark” region of the mind.  

    Children however may be on to something…. There might actually be monsters in the dark.  Pre-historic cave artists painted figures that they imagined they saw in the night sky.  Some of these carried over into mythical creatures, some friendly, some not so friendly.  The bright stars in the cave paintings were the eyes of the creatures the artists imagined in the sky.  Did you ever sense that you were being looked at?  Every child I have ever asked that question to has responded in the affirmative….

    Perhaps there is a monster in the darkness of our inner room.  ”Lucifer” means “light bearer,” but since his rebellion, the Satanic being has been the Light Blocker.   “God is light” is a direct Biblical description of GOD, meaning primarily COGNITION, and referentially, visible photons, i.e. visible light.

    So, what I am saying is that the darkness we enter when we enter our inner beings is the darkness of EVIL. The darkness of our own mortality.  The Darkness of Death.  The darkness of Sin.  These are the characteristics of our inner being, of our condition as fallen creatures.  The darkness is there because the Light of GOD is being blocked by death, by sin, by Satan.

    Yet, GOD is there in the darkness, radiating light.   And GOD is succeeding in shining through the darkness. You are aware of His Presence, and are communicating with His BEING cognitively and affectively….GOD is getting into our minds and hearts, our loins and limbs letting us know that we are His, and He is ours.

    So, when we have a fear of the Darkness inside us, it is not for nothing.  It has to be dealt with, and overcome by being brave and believing that the Darkness will lead you to GOD. 

    Next up…The Call you hear in the silence of the darkness.  

  • Sicko Sweden !

    Sweden is so wacked…and not only that…Sweden is proposing legislation that is contrary to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

    The issue is HOMESCHOOLING.  Sweden’s liberal left socialist state believe IT OWNS THE CHILDREN!  That’s what happens when 1) your concept of the State derives from the power of the Monarchy, and 2) your political apparatus is managed by oligarchical elites…

    here’s the link to the ATROCITY Sweden is about to perpetrate against human rights, families, and the children themselves….all in the name of the Almighty State.

    http://www.christiannewswire.com/news/4539818692.html

    read it and WEEP.  Then, voice your protest…link included in the article…ty.

    morty

  • PART VII – How to Contact GOD

    Part VII  How to Contact GOD

     

    Undoubtedly, in the previous section I poo-poohed the whole dynamic of placing FAITH in GOD. 

    I don’t really want to get hung up in that right now…. If a person was baptized as a child,

    which is totally admissible and a heritage of the Church (that would be understood as The Catholic Church, all 16 Rites united to the Pope – or however many there are….), then Faith as a theological virtue is latent in that person.   So, by skipping over it so quickly I am really relying on the fact that FAITH is a ready possibility – not always a remote choice.  

    For an unbaptized adult from a monotheistic tradition, such as a Jew or Muslim, Faith in GOD is generally already alive and operable.  FAITH in Jesus Christ, and His Catholic Church , however, for such a person is a long process fraught will all sorts of difficulties that involves much more than cognitive consent. 

    For a simple atheist, or agnostic, who has never been baptized, FAITH is still a possibility…a possibility that must be guided carefully, and continually, through dialogue and exposure to information regarding the spiritual process of CONVERSION.  This process is what I skipped over in section VI about placing FAITH in the invisible GOD present in the dark room of the soul.

     

    *  *  *  *  *  *  *

     

    Once the person realizes that their personal reality includes the presence of a Divine Being present to them within his/her soul, and accessible as such, then things can really start to happen.  Again, it is not trivial, or delusional, to reach such a conclusion. 

    GOD, of course, is equally present with one’s eyes open.  It is an oddity that we don’t seem to notice our own souls with equal clarity with our eyes open….our attention tends to focus OUTWARD toward the image(s) present in our optical cortex. 

    The peculiar thing about that is that these images are generally located within twenty feet, or a few hundred feet at most, (unless you are an astronomer) of our physical being…the room we are in, the visual field being generally quite narrow and enclosed compared to the entire field of KNOWLEDGE and EXPERIENCE we retain access to through use of other sections of our cerebral cortex.   In other words, the NEAREST TWENTY FEET, or thereabouts, ( metrics are not nearly so ergonomic…) in front of our physical being tend to block out the awareness of GOD that we have been cultivating in our meditation exercises. 

    That is very nearly bizarre.  Over-preoccupation with the visual field (unless shopping for shoes?) could even be said to be delusional. 

    It is to be noted that if the visual field in front of our eyes includes another human being –

    who also has the Divine Spirit inside their physical being – then things get EVEN MORE interesting and involving…. 

    It is my opinion that although it is possible to encounter GOD in the outer world, it is not more easily done.  Once GOD is encountered inside one’s being, then it is easier to “see” GOD in the light of day.

     

  • Part VI How to Contact GOD

    Part VI   How to Contact GOD

     

    So we have got something going on here!  We are presenting our beings to GOD and He is presenting His BEING to us. 

    It is all taking place in the invisible place inside our souls where we cannot see Him, but He can see us.  

    Let this meditation occur several times.  You have your easy chair, or other place where you can sit unobserved, comfortably, without distractions…. CHURCH is supposed to be like that, a place of prayer, but folks nowadays chatter away like it’s a Starbucks or something….

     Ok, we have established the first environment.  Do not trivialize it.  Remember, it is GOD we are dealing with, or WHOM we are conducting this effort to communicate with.  Rule One applies.  At all times, He is GOD.  So, be respectful, regardless of how you feel about the exercise….silly, stupid, or delusional feelings will flit around as thoughts which must pass by like bubbles in an aquarium because your brain is functioning, even though you are involved in presenting ALL your being, not just your brain, to the Presence in the Darkness.  The brain works, like the heart, and lungs, all on its own.  Instead of pumping blood through your veins, like the heart, or air in and out of your chest cavity, the brain is tossing up thoughts and images to your conscious mind.  Let these pass like bubbles in a fish tank, you can’t shut your brain off!  Try to find that place where you are more entire, your whole being.

     Don’t worry if you feel that this is a hopeless exercise.  It can take forever to be fully present to GOD, or within your self.  Feel free to consult with Eastern meditation techniques which seek to accomplish the same thing.  We want, however, to go beyond this natural exercise.  This natural meditation technique is common to many philosophical and religious traditions.  We want to go into a further realm, a realm of grace, a supernatural realm of contact with the Living GOD.

     And there is only one way to get there: Faith. 

    Faith is not delusional – if it is faith in a reality. 

    A Turkish proverb says: “A man with TWO watches, never knows what time it is.” 

    I like that proverb.  Even though his lone watch may be wrong, he is CERTAIN of what time it is because he BELIEVES his watch is telling him the correct time.   If two watches tell different times, which one is correct?   He has faith in his watch, so he feels certain he knows the correct time. 

    We have faith in all sorts of things….oncoming drivers for instance.  We have faith, or trust, in almost everything about daily life…that the electricity will work, that the store will have food, that the doctor knows what’s causing my temperature to rise. Etc etc. etc.

     None of those things are considered delusional.  Convention, proven by time and multiple successes, makes those acts of faith virtually routine.   In fact, life wouldn’t function without these acts of faith in other people doing their jobs, in nature doing what it is supposed to do, and the laws of physics coming through as planned. 

    Eventually, like the Turk with the watch, you are going to have to make an act of faith about this THING in the Darkness.  Oh yes, a definite act of will is required.  A decision.  A basic decision that this THING is OTHER than me, that IT’s there, that IT’s a BEING.

    That IT IS GOD. 

    You have to establish that your reality is that you are trying to make contact with this BEING.  An Act of  Faith is the only way you can be certain that you are being honest with yourself.  “This is my reality.”   “I believe YOU are there.”   Otherwise you won’t be able to be whole and entire in your dealings with the BEING in your soul.  You will never be sure. 

    So, get comfortable with this meditation.  When you feel safe in the Darkness, when you feel loved there, nod, and believe!

  • Part V – How To Contact GOD

    Part V How To Contact GOD

     

    PART V – How To Contact GOD 

    Or: Why The Search for GOD is NOT Delusional. 

    This is a VERY IMPORTANT objection to the search for GOD, and must be dealt with as clearly as possible.  

    The tricky thing about this objection is that people who suffer from delusions cannot realize that they are deluded.   That is a psychological dictum. 

    So, if the search for GOD IS DELUSIONAL, how would we know? 

    Or, stated another way, if the search for GOD is IN FACT delusional, WE WOULDN’T KNOW!   We wouldn’t even be ABLE to know – because delusional people are not able to realize that they are delusional, as stated above. 

    Fortunately, the search for GOD is NOT DELUSIONAL, and therefore we will be able to see that it is not delusional.  Seeing that we are not being delusional is a verification of the validity of the search for God. 

    IS that clear?   We are going to be able to see that what we are doing is not delusional.

    That is very reassuring, but it requires some extra work, work that is mandatory to insure ourselves that we are not being deluded. 

    The story from the Hebrew Scriptures of Gideon and the fleece deals EXPLICITLY with this problem of non-delusional CONTACT WITH GOD. (Gideon and the Fleece Judges 6:11-17, 36-40)

    It’s a great story, one worth re-telling.  God wanted Gideon to attack a besieging army of a million soldiers, – with an army of 300 Hebrews!!  Gideon as a military general needed to guard against delusion regarding this word from GOD.  So, Gideon asked GOD for a sign…that a lamb’s skin would have dew on it in the midday sun.  So, he checked the lambskin and it did have dew on it.  So, it appeared to Gideon that GOD DID IN FACT want him to attack the besieging army.  But since this was a life and death issue, Gideon wanted to be extra sure there was no delusion.  So, Gideon asked GOD AGAIN! for the same sign to again appear.  Sure enough, the lambskin again had dew on it at midday.  Wow.  It now appears to Gideon that GOD definitely does want the Hebrews to attack and with just 300 soldiers.  Because the word of GOD was so radical, so wildly out of this world, Gideon took the liberty of asking GOD one last time to do the sign of the lambskin, and GOD very graciously did, because GOD knew that Gideon was trying to defeat any sense of delusion regarding contact with GOD. 

    Now, I am not suggestion we tempt GOD to act miraculously before we accept His existence.  

    What I am calling your attention to is the EXTREME need to eliminate all delusional elements from the human-GOD relationship.  GOD must be a reality to you – or (at least!) on a par with any of your other realities – like sex or chocolate cake – or else you cannot relate realistically with Him. 

    In PART ONE of “How to Contact GOD”, you admitted the permanence of RULE ONE – that GOD cannot be coerced, or manipulated, that GOD will always be FREE from human constraint.  This does much to eliminate delusion.  GOD is WHO HE IS, and is not in any way conformable to our delusions.  

    This simple step, which we took at the very outset of our effort to contact GOD, also destroys a philosophical argument proposed by F. Nietzsche that GOD as a concept is a creation of human thought.  If GOD is not in any way conditioned by human thought, I fail to see how it can be possibly be claimed that He is a product of human thought. 

    Historically, we are trying to contact the GOD of the Hebrews who only became known by an act of revelation.  Humans were not able to ascend to God (First Principle: God is not to be manipulated).  God had to manifest Himself first. 

    In the darkness of your inner being GOD is there MANIFESTING Himself – but you can’t see it!

    He is presenting His BEING to you, first.  That you have responded in kind is of EXTREME interest to Him, and you can EXPECT that further interaction will be occurring imminently!

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  • Part IV – How to Contact GOD

    Part IV – How to Contact GOD 

    Let’s move on, anyhow.  I don’t want you to get stuck debating with yourself over how seriously committed you are to finding GOD.   People tend to get MORE COMMITTED as they progress.

     I just wanted to make it as clear as possible that it DOES involve more than a casual commitment.  Why is that?  Simple: GOD wants to be loved, too.  Unless the suitor shows some real interest what’s the point of even flirting?

     Let’s go to the SECOND OBJECTION to pursuing CONTACT WITH GOD….

     It’s stupid.  You can’t contact GOD.  GOD doesn’t even exist!  GOD is a concept and nothing more, a concept that numbs your brain into accepting the worst circumstances on earth in hopes of something absurd in heaven – after you are dead!  Besides, don’t you realize that GOD is being sold by organized religion as a con to get rich.  It is really stupid to waste time and effort looking for God, get on with your life already~!

     That, in a nutshell, is what constitutes the second objection to CONTACT WITH GOD, that it is stupid to even try.   Now, let’s kill that objection – dead.

     GOD – both as a concept AND as a BEING – fully engages the human mind through the application of REASON in all the existential circumstances of life.  The problem with Evangelical Christians is that they do not realize that GOD addresses REASON.  As Fundamentalists, Evangelical Christians abandon the use of REASON in favor of an uninformed LITERALIST belief in Scripture.  They do GOD a disservice.

     You, however, are embarking on a FULLY RATIONAL search for GOD – that will end in success.  Based as it is on firm philosophical footing, never abandoning the rational, your search will proceed to the SUPERNATURAL and the SUPRA-rational.  (And, we have already taken at least two steps toward our goal already!!)

     GOD, as Creator of Nature, enlivens the mind and makes a person take a catholic interest in all things.  Notice the small “c” in catholic, meaning universal – a universal interest !

    Indeed, the person who has encountered the living GOD takes a personal interest in all things, a personal responsibility, and personal action of the most powerful kind.

     So, it is not stupid at all.  As for GOD being pushed by organized religion…we need not concern ourselves with this objection at this time.  ONCE we have encountered GOD, then we can deal with the shysters that have nothing better to do than to vet frauds in the name of the Most High. 

    The last objection – that seeking GOD is delusional seems to require a separate entry.

     

    END OF PART IV – How to Contact GOD

  • How to Contact GOD -Part III

    Part III   How to Contact GOD 

    You keep waiting for GOD to respond to your (incredibly lovely) being which you are presenting to Him in the darkness of your mind. 

    But there is a problem.  (Problems are always going to be your fault.  It reminds me of what a nun said on the Oprah Winfrey show: “It’s like being married to a spouse that’s always right.”) 

    The problem is that you really are not sure that GOD is there and/or that you are REALLY in contact with GOD.  In the back of your mind somewhere there arises the thought that this could be really silly and stupid, or even worse, delusional. 

    And all those ideas are right on target!  You are going to need to deal with those thoughts or you won’t be able to go any farther with this GOD experiment.   It’s like a lover who you are not going to marry …it is impossible to take it really seriously.  It’s never going to really GO ANYWHERE. 

    So, let’s look at the three objections we have raised.  #1) it’s silly to be trying to contact GOD.  After all, nobody really succeeds.  It’s not going to make any difference in the  price of scotch., or Yankee tickets, etc.  It’s a waste of time when you could be doing so many other important things, like blogging, or jogging.  If anyone ever finds out that I am doing this I would be made fun of, at the least.   I even feel silly sitting in a chair with my eyes closed, half-expecting something to happen…. 

    Ok. That is more or less the extent of the “silly” argument, now let’s kill it dead.   IF – and it is a big IF – IF GOD exists, it’s not silly.  In fact, IF GOD exists, contacting GOD would seem to be the MOST IMPORTANT, and SERIOUS business anyone could ever attempt to achieve. 

    There is lots of evidence that others have succeeded in doing so.  (Maybe it’s not hard empirical scientific evidence, but I think science needs to expand its methodologies when looking for GOD.  How can you find something that by definition is beyond empirical verification?  Maybe you would like to read my xanga blog on this very topic! search my site for the blog “Open Letter to Scientists”.)  Mystics have been floating around for centuries.  There’s lots of evidence to support a CLAIM for the existence of GOD, most of it is personal experience. 

    So, it is not silly to be doing what you are doing.  Decidedly, it is NOT silly.  It is a serious attempt you are making to CONTACT GOD.  

    At this point it is good to ask: JUST HOW SERIOUS IS IT?   Aah, that is a VERY good question, perhaps the deal breaker/maker question.   Just how serious are you about this?

    Are you dipping your toe in the water to see if it is not too cold, or too warm, to plunge in?   Or, are you RATIONALLY CONVINCED that the question of the existence of GOD is of PARAMOUNT IMPORTANCE to you as an individual, and to the human community as a whole? 

    If someone gave you a ticket stub that would admit you into a private audience with GOD the Creator of the Universe, would you use that ticket stub if it required you to go to an island of the outer Hebrides?   Or give up cigarettes?  Or break off an adulterous relationship?  Just how serious are you about this? 

    Oh, you may say that you used to go to Church every Sunday, and never found GOD.  You used to pray like crazy and never got an decent answer that would indicate that GOD even heard your prayer…etc.  Ok, that’s fine; I hear you.  But you are here right now.  And you have been trying this new approach.  I think this calls for a re-evaluation.  

    People die, and regret not having worked on this issue to their own satisfaction.

    Are you entering this exercise just to drop out without a result?  another God-loser….

    I think we should stop right here for now, until this issue is resolved.  Is the very first objection going to prevent you from further efforts to CONTACT GOD?   Think about it for a couple days.  Make up your mind.  Evaluate how committed you are to going forward.  Sit in your chair, with your eyes closed, and ponder:

    Do you want to go ahead, into the unfamiliar darkness, or are you going back out into the light to flit around like a moth near a candle for the rest of your life?  Get back to me on this as soon as you have made up your mind to go on. 

    End Part III – How To Contact GOD.

     

     

     

     

     

  • How to Contact GOD – PART II

    Please search this site for Part I of “How to Contact GOD.”

     

    OK, just to recapitulate…. You close your eyes and are immediately in a dark inner space: your mind.

    You are not in there alone… GOD is in there with you.  GOD occupies space, and exists outside of space and time.  GOD is present in different ways.  Just like we are.  To some people we are spouses, children, parents, cousins, neighbors, etc. etc., yet, we are present to ourselves in the most especial way.  So, in a metaphorically similar way, GOD is present in rocks (because they exist) in a very remote or extended way, but present in the living soul of a person in a more direct way.  Of this presence Scripture says, “God made man, male and female He made them, in His image and Likeness.” – paraphrase of Genesis.

    So there you are…in a comfortable, but somewhat formal, position, like in your easy chair, or other place where you can sit for a period of time.

    Your eyes are closed, but you are WIDE AWAKE, and looking into the darkness, as calmly as you can, as patiently as you can, curiously, uncertainly, perhaps expectantly (you are going to be disappointed on that point), at any rate, with all your intelligence, experience, education, – the whole package of YOU is present in the dark room that is present when you shut off the TV of your visual cortex.

    I cannot help but think at this point of the cave paintings in Lascaux, France.  Painted 18,000 years ago by prehistoric artists, animals were located in the position of the constellations of stars visible from Earth.  The eyes of the animals were the bright stars: Deneb, Aldebaran, Altair, Vega, and others have all been clearly identified.  In other words, these people who drew these pictures conceived of the stars as EYES in the darkness watching THEM!!  

    Was that a paranormal psychic contact with alien civilizations living on planets around stars in the Milky Way?

    Or was it a paranormal contact with God?  or both?  ….. or neither?

    In any case, there you are in the chair with your eyes closed.

    In Part I of “How to Contact God” you may recall that at some point in time, alone in this dark room, you decided to grant to yourself the possibility that GOD exists and is present to you, and with you, in that room.

    This is not an act of Faith.  It is nothing more than a Skeptic, or an Agnostic might be induced to posit: the POSSIBILITY that GOD exists.  And so, granting that possibility, you nod in the direction of His Being present there in the darkness.  Nothing more, a nod….unless you feel like bowing.

    That is where, more or less, I left off at the end of Part I.   You are not “IMAGINING” there is a GOD.  You are merely granting to yourself a recognition that you accept that GOD, the Being, not the philosophical concept, just might exist.  Momentarily granting that possibility for a period of time, and standing in that possibility (or sitting as the case may be….) you nod to Him.

    So, voila! you have made contact with GOD.   End of the recapitulation of Part I.

    PART II begins.

    You get up and make some tea.  Have a nice day.  You flit around through the world of photons, and other people, knowing that you did something very unusual that day:  you purported to have made contact with GOD.  hahahah  how positively lunatic !  But yet, you must admit, that that is exactly what you were ATTEMPTING to do during those few minutes in your easy chair with your eyes closed.

    Revisit that experience as soon as is convenient.

    So there you are AGAIN.  Stay as calm as possible.  Look into the darkness.  At this point you want to go beyond the experience you had before, which rightly so, can hardly be called an experience of GOD at all.

    Let it be known that I am not recommending anything like Transcendental Meditation. TM is hooey as far as I am concerned, and in any case, has nothing to do with contacting GOD.  Remember clearly, GOD is the Creator of the Universe… the GOD who freed the Hebrews from slavery in Egypt under the leadership of Moses. GOD, whom Jesus called “FATHER.”  This is not an abstraction.  GOD is Omnipotent, Omnipresent, Omniscient, …The Supreme Being, the Creator of Nature.

    What I am promoting in this blog derives from the philosophy of Blessed John Duns Scotus, and is acceptable for Catholics.

    In order to go further I want you to focus your attention on the realm of BEING.  your being….  and the other BEING that might be in the room with you.

    Since you can’t see anything with your eyes closed, and there is nothing really to see anyhow since God is invisible, i.e. immaterial, it is supposed to be easier to do this with your eyes closed.  Does this give the blind an advantage?  I believe it does.  I recall at this point the Greek myth of the god who stole into the room of a woman to make love to her in the total darkness, so that she would not see who he was and identify him.  Eventually she was so consumed by a desire to see her lover, that she felt compelled to turn the light on.  St. Paul has said that the myths were cleverly concocted, and that the new dispensation of his preaching was a fulfillment of the myths.  I certainly agree. 

    Present your being to the BEING (we are talking GOD here!) that you have already admitted to yourself MIGHT BE in the dark with you.  

    Since you nodded once before toward that BEING, that BEING (who not only MIGHT be in the room with you, but is in fact there whether or not you deign to accept it) took note of your prior nod directed to Him.

    Now, you are taking a further step.  You are presenting your being to Him.  This is not imaginary (although brain scans may be similar to activity detectable during imagining).   You have RATIONALLY admitted to yourself that this BEING – GOD THE CREATOR – may be in the darkness, present to you, although you cannot detect His presence…if He is there…as GOD….HE CAN DETECT YOU !  (He can see in the dark! )

    Now he sees you presenting your being to HIM.  whoah.  this is sexy.  

    Yes, it is sexy.  GOD, the Bible says, “probes the heart and the loins.”  He can do what He wants, and, after all,  He made them – and they work better following His instructions.  (NO ARTIFICIAL BIRTH CONTROL! cf. www.woomb.org)

    I can’t help but recall Bernini’s statue of St. Theresa of Avila in ecstasy.  I will add that to my photo page.

    NOW we are getting somewhere.  Being to BEING in the dark !  He can see you, but you can’t see Him.

    Hold that.  It is an art.  Open your heart.  Allow your mind to retain the possibility that GOD is there watching you.  In fact, GOD does more than watch.  He responds.  GOD’s response is impossible to describe very well at all.  His simplest thought takes thousands of years to understand, and even then I am not sure we could appreciate it fully….I recall how the Buddha twirled a flower in his fingers when asked to explain enlightenment….and how Jesus claimed that the flowers of the field are adorned with greater beauty than Solomon in all his glory.

    Go make some tea.  Have a nice day.  You have opened your being to a GOD who might be there.  What is going to happen next?

    End of Part II.

     

     

     

     

     

  • Dutch Catholic sex abuse

    The scope and depth of this problem is jaw dropping, a real scandal.  The Dutch Prime Minister has called for the reform of the Catholic Church.  I would have to second that call, if I knew exactly what he meant by “reform” the Catholic Church….  It could mean many things…. The Second Vatican Council was inaugurated to reform the Church, and it did.  But I think, in the present context, “reform” means dismantle….and I am almost up to that point…that’s how bad this makes me feel.

    Maybe the Church should be dismantled.  And be allowed to regrow again from the ground up.  It would be sad if all the church buildings were torn down.  But I think the Church should ABSOLUTELY be made to pay for such nasty and pervasive crimes against children.  BANKRUPT THE BUGGERS!

    I hate to say that because I love the Church.  But I do not ONLY love the Church, I also suffer at its hands because of its poor performance in communicating the Gospel of Jesus.  Not that it has failed completely.  It still exists.  But I think it is a big disappointment.

    But I am a big disappointment to myself too.  I could have done better.  I screwed up….made bad decisions….  I have sinned.

    I find modern civilization IMMENSELY disappointing…so much so that I suspect God is about ready to dismantle it Himself, just like He did in the days of Noah (this time by fire).

    So what do we have here?  

    I think governments should require the reformation of the Church, but the Church must, and will, retain its structure (Pope, bishop, priest)… cardinals will still elect a Pope, and the Pope to make bishops, and bishops to consecrate priests.   Religious orders should also still be allowed to exist.

    But their ministry must be confined to the strictly spiritual.  Hospitals and Schools, and other social service agencies that aspire to be Catholic should not be owned by the visible Church – without strictly religious identity…i.e., NO FEDERAL MONEY.  In fact, I think the Laity should run Catholic schools, hospital and social service agencies as private institutions that seek to promote Catholic principles, but without explicitly “Catholic” identification.

    Cash flow, taxes on land, should be looked at as part of the reform of the Church overseen by the government.  I have to think more about this…. In fact, I may not have enough expertise to speak cogently about this subject in depth.

    But ALL RIGHTS DUE to religious status should be respected….we are not changing the government stance vis-a-vis the Church; we want to reform the church. 

    (How this applies to the St. Malachy prophecy remains unclear at present….)

    BUST THEM DOWN!   But don’t try to drive them out of existence.  The Vatican is not the cause of the problem; the Dutch are; the Irish, the Austailians, the Americans, etc, etc.

    None of what I have said above speaks to the CAUSE of the problem.  It must be considered to be a seminary/formation problem.  A lack of sexual identity.  Would married clergy help?

    Yes, I think there is ROOM in the Roman Catholic Church for married clergy…in fact there already are married clergy.  The Anglican Ordinate has married clergy.  Some rites in union with the Roman Rite have married clergy.  I think the Roman Catholic Church should invite more married men to become clergy – as part of its reformation in response to the sex crises.

     

  • ALL NATIONS…some obliterated

    The Bible says all nations shall accept the Lord…or something like that.

    bow before Him.  accept Him.  

    but prophecy also says some nations will be obliterated…wiped off the face of the Earth.

    “nations” does not mean “sovereign national states” because those were not in existence at the time of the Bible writing…but it can mean that…it means something more like “peoples”, but since “peoples” have incorporated nation states, it can mean nation states.

    Iran is very near being obliterated off the face of the Earth.  Israel has hinted as much.  In fact, it has just about stated it clearly: “Iran must choose between acquiring a nuclear bomb, and annihilation.”

    So, I kinda expect something, soon.

    Portugal has been prophesied to remain a nation state until the end of time – Our Lady of Fatima, 1917.

    It’s dry.  No radioactive rain.  Ireland will be horrible.  They will feel no bombs.  But only heavily radiated rain coming from toasted North America.  No fun in Canada either…  USA…well, that will be mostly totally blown out. Some pockets of life, temporarily.  Worse than pictured in the film “Day After Tomorrow” starring Jason Robards and Steve Guttenburg and Jon Lithgow.  China will be a total nightmare, and the Pacific will get all the drift of the fallout… most of the ocean will die.  So, it seems, about 1/2 the Earth would be destroyed within a year.

    Jesus said: “Pray it doesn’t come in winter.”

    Of course, there’s only supposed to be ONE MORE Pope.  cf. Prophecy of St. Malachy, 1000 A.D.

    So, I thought I would bring children into the world so they could see the shit hit the fan.  Talk about fun!

    Too bad though, because the whole Universe is there for the taking….space travel = New World.  Wudda been fun.  Screwed that up with hate, with Satanic homoerotic fascination with the world – jerked it off right to the point of non-existence!

    Antichrist.  I am REALLY surprised that no one claims to see his wings, or his horns.