Pope Benedict XVI Reminds the Faithful That Mortal Sin Leads to Damnation

Photo Source: REUTERS/Alessandro Bianchi (ITALY)

Nov. 06 (CWNews.com) - Pope Benedict XVI (bio - news) reminded the faithful that mortal sin leads to damnation, in a sobering message at his Angelus audience on November 5.

The Pope devoted most of his Sunday audience to a reflection on the Christian understanding of death. An affluent society, he observed, often avoids the topic of death, but inevitably every mortal is brought face to face with this reality, which seems "radically hostile and contrary to our natural vocation to life and to happiness."

Through his redemptive suffering, the Pope continued, "Jesus revolutionized the meaning of death," making Christians realize that death is not a final end. Since the Resurrection, he continued, "death is not the same; it has been deprived of its sting."

However, the Holy Father remarked, there is a form of death that should be more fearsome to believers: the death of the soul in sin. "Indeed," said the Pope, "those who die in un-repented mortal sin, closed off from God's love by their prideful rejection, exclude themselves from the kingdom of life."

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This Week in Catholicism (November 6 - 12, 2006)

This week in Catholicism...

• Nov. 7th: Election Day (USA). Exercise you right to vote and, as Catholics especially, we sure to vote pro-life (see endorsements)
• Nov. 10th: Memorial of St. Leo the Great
• Nov. 11th: Memorial of St. Martin of Tours
• Nov. 11th: Veterans Day (USA) - a day to remember all of those that have given their lives for freedom.  88th Anniversary of Armistice Day

**A prayer for this week.***

With November being a time to pray for the faithfully departed, let us pray for the souls in purgatory. Look at my post called Prayers and scroll down to the section on prayers for the Holy Souls.

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Bad "Catholic" Websites that Catholics Need to Avoid

I have been meaning to create this post for quite some time. I wanted to put together a list of websites that claim to be "Catholic" but should never be supported by Catholics. I am using Catholic Culture's website reviews for some of the information. Please realize that these websites are generally opposed to the truth of the Faith. If you have a link to one of these websites on your blog/website, I strongly ask you to remove it in an effort for us all to promote the complete truth not a "watering down" of the Catholic Faith.

All links below are to the Catholic Culture review of the website; you may have to register (I believe it's free) to see the review by Catholic Culture. I do not want to post an actual link to the website since that is to be avoided.

• 8th Day Center For Justice - promotes liberation theology
• Association for the Rights of Catholics In the Church - errors include saying that promoting women's ordination is not heresy
• Call to Action - Excommunicated organization seeking to completely undermine Church teaching
• Catholic Women's Ordination - promotes women's ordination
• Catholics for a Free Choice (CFFC) - promotes contraception and abortion
• Dignity USA - undermines Catholic Church's teachings on homosexuality
• Future Church - promotes women's ordination
• Georgetown Center for Liturgy - disobedient with the Vatican on the Liturgy
• Jubilee 2000 Our Lady of the Roses - promotes a condemned apparition
• Just for Catholics - created by Joe Mizzi, a fallen away Catholic and former seminarian, to lead Catholics away from the Church
• Leadership Conference of Women Religious - As Catholic Culture states: "The site is filled with antagonism toward the hierarchy and Church teachings, the emphasis on political activism in a secular humanist context, and feminist rhetoric."
• Maryknoll:  Their political activism fits in very well with their espousal of liberation theology. While it is logical that Maryknoll would care about the material needs of those in the countries that they serve, they are forgetting what they were founded for. Instead of bringing the Truth of Christ to the world, they are politicizing the poor.
• National Catholic Reporter - better named the National Catholic Distorter.
• North American Forum on the Catechumenate - Founded by Rev. James Dunning, a dissenter who does not believe the Eucharist is Jesus. The prayer book has dissenting resources.
• Pax Christi USA - Catholic Culture states: "They seem to care more about finding common ground with abortionists and the gay rights lobby than about working for true peace."
• Roses from Heaven - promotes condemned Bayside New York "apparitions"
• These Last Days Ministries - promotes condemned Bayside New York "apparitions"
• We are Church - a dissenting group following the "spirit of Vatican II"
  
• UnhealthyDevotions.com - This website seems at first to be offering information on a Novena to Saint Jude, but actually tries to sway the reader from saying novenas at all!
• ConsecrationVows.com - Website tries to claim that Saint Louis de Montefort's Total Consecration to Mary is essentially selling your soul to the devil 

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Ebay to Stop Selling Relics and Consecrated, Holy Objects

Update (2014): While Ebay has forbidden the selling of human remains, we need to continue our fight as the enemies of the faith are now selling relics (or fake relics) and calling them “pieces of human hair” since hair is allowed on Ebay.  Please join me in reporting all relics on Ebay and using the counterfeit/fake notation to notify Ebay.

Update: It appears Ebay no longer allows for the sale of consecrated hosts (the Eucharist) or other holy objects.

Catholic News Service has reported, that several Catholic's have petitioned America's online shopping mall, Ebay, to pan the selling of all relics. Why? First because it is a sin called 'simony' to sell or buy blessed objects, and relics are as Pius XII states, "blessed within themselves." So I encourage you to send an email to Ebay and stand up for what it right, for what is Catholic. The more people stand up, the better chance we have of victory. 

Write:

eBay Inc.
2145 Hamilton Avenue
San Jose, CA 95125

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St. Charles Borromeo

Memorial (1969 Calendar): November 4
Double (1955 Calendar): November 4

"If we wish to make any progress in the service of God we must begin every day of our life with new eagerness. We must keep ourselves in the presence of God as much as possible and have no other view or end in all our actions but the divine honor." -- St. Charles Borromeo

St. Charles Borromeo (1538-1584) was born in 1538 to a noble family; he was a nephew of Pope Pius IV. St. Charles was made a Cardinal at the young age of 23, and he assisted the Pope in governing the Church. Soon thereafter St. Charles was made Archbishop of Milan. He is remembered for his efforts on behalf of the 19th Ecumenical Council of Trent (1545-1564). He then proceeded to enforce its decrees in the Archdiocese of Milan. During a plague he even walked barefooted in the public streets carrying a cross with a rope around his neck, offering himself as a victim to God for the transgressions of his people. He prayed the Little Office of the Blessed Virgin daily.

He was a model bishop and is the patron saint of seminarians. St. Charles Borromeo died on November 3, 1584.  His body is incorruptible.

Editae Saepe:

As We have already mentioned,[10] We are of the opinion that the shining example of Christ's soldiers has far greater value in the winning and sanctifying of souls than the words of profound treatises. We therefore gladly take this present opportunity to teach some very useful lessons from the consideration of the life of another holy pastor whom God raised up in more recent times and in the midst of trials very similar to those We are experiencing today. We refer to Saint Charles Borromeo, Cardinal of the Holy Roman Church and Archbishop of Milan, whom Paul V, of holy memory, raised to the altar of the saints less than thirty years after his death. The words of Our Predecessor are to the point: "The Lord alone performs great wonders and in recent times He has accomplished marvelous things among Us. In His wonderful dispensation He has set a great light on the Apostolic rock when He singled Charles out of the heart of the Roman Church as the faithful priest and good servant to be a model for the pastors and their flock. He enlightened the whole Church from the light diffused by his holy works.

Encyclical of Pope Pius X promulgated on May 26, 1910.

Prayer:

Ever keep Thy Church, O Lord, we beseech Thee, under the abiding protection of St. Charles, Thy Confessor and Bishop: that as his watchful care over his flock won him glory, so his intercession may always make us fervent in Thy love. Through our Lord.

Prayer Source: 1962 Roman Catholic Daily Missal

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Pope Benedict XVI: All Saints and All Souls Day

All Saints Day Mass:


AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino

REUTERS/Giampiero Sposito
"To be holy it is not necessary to accomplish extraordinary acts nor possess exceptional gifts. It is simply necessary to serve Jesus, to listen to him and to follow him without losing courage faced with difficulties" (Benedict XVI's homily on the Solemnity of All Saints, November 1, 2006)

All Souls Day:

Pope Benedict XVI prayed before the tombs of several of his predecessors.


AP Photo/L'Osservatore Romano


AP Photo/L'Osservatore Romano


AP Photo/L'Osservatore Romano

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Words of Inspiration: November 4, 2006

Archbishop Fulton Sheen:

“Our modern world has produced a generation of rich politicians who talk love of the poor, but never prove it in action, and a brood of the poor whose hearts are filled with envy for the rich and covetousness of their money. The rich who are humble help rather than use the poor to pave their way to power.”

Blessed Mother Teresa:

"Silence gives us a new outlook on everything. We need silence to be able to touch souls. The essential thing is not what we say but what God says to us and through us. Jesus is always waiting for us in silence. In that silence, He will listen to us; there He will speak to our soul, and there we will hear His voice."

St. Padre Pio:

"In order to aim at perfection it is necessary to do everything possible to please God, to try to avoid even the smallest fault, and to do everything else with more generosity."

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UN tried to stop Nicaragua's abortion vote

UN tried to stop Nicaragua's vote, which banned abortion completely.

Washington, D.C. –– A United Nations (U.N.) committee on women’s rights sent a belligerent letter to Nicaraguan politicians prior to their historic vote last week to ban abortion. Yet these U.N. officials have been virtually silent on the well-corroborated case of a powerful Sandinista leader and former president accused of sexually molesting his stepdaughter.

“Nicaraguans held a massive rally – 200,000 strong, led and filled by women – in support of an abortion ban,” said Wendy Wright, President of Concerned Women for America (CWA). “Yet radical feminists and U.N. officials tried to bully Nicaraguan leaders into cancelling the vote. This extraordinary interference contrasts sharply with their silence and utter failure to help seek justice for Zoilamerica Navaez, the stepdaughter of one of the most famous Nicaraguan politicians and Sandinista leader. [More]

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Calling all Apologetics: Visit Lapsed Catholic Forum

I came across the Lapsed Catholic Forum a few weeks ago, and these people certainly need the Gospel proclaimed to them. They have fallen from the Faith, and I think it is our responsiblity to help those weak in faith. Please visit the forum if you can and help spread the Truth of Jesus Christ.

"True Faith cannot be found outside the Church" (Singulari Quidem and Singulari Quandem, Encyclical of Pope Pius IX)

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First Friday

Today is the First Friday of November. Because today is the first Friday of the Month, many Catholic parishes will have special Masses today for the First Friday Devotion.

Beginning on December 27, 1673, through 1675, Our Lord appeared to St. Margaret Mary Alacoque asking her to receive Him in Holy Communion on the first Friday of every month and to meditate on His passion from 11:00 PM to 12:00 midnight each Thursday. He also revealed to her twelve promises for all who are devoted to His Sacred Heart; he asked for a Feast of the Sacred Heart to be instituted in the liturgical calendar of the Church. Our Lord appeared to St. Margaret Mary Alacoque with twelve promises for those devoted to His Most Sacred Heart.

Promises for those devoted to the Sacred Heart:

1. "I will give them all the graces necessary in their state of life."
2. "I will establish peace in their homes."
3. "I will comfort them in their afflictions."
4. "I will be their secure refuge during life, and above all in death."
5. "I will bestow a large blessing upon all their undertakings."
6. "Sinners shall find in My Heart the source and the infinite ocean of mercy."
7. "Tepid souls shall grow fervent."
8. "Fervent souls shall quickly mount to high perfection."
9. "I will bless every place where a picture of My Heart shall be set up and honored."
10. "I will give to priests the gift of touching the most hardened hearts."
11. "Those who shall promote this devotion shall have their names written in My Heart, never to be blotted out."
12. "I promise thee in the excessive mercy of My Heart that My all-powerful love will grant to all those who communicate on the First Friday in nine consecutive months, the grace of final penitence; they shall not die in My disgrace nor without receiving the Sacraments; My Divine heart shall be their safe refuge in this last moment."

Pro-life Action:

MarchTogether.com has a monthly Call for Life in which pro-lifers are urged to call their elected officials and voice their support for the dignity of life. Today, being the first Friday, is this month's Call for Life.

For more information on the First Friday Devotion, please see The Miracle of the Rosary Mission. Please remember to pray for the unborn today and make an act of reparation to Our Lord. Remember, it was on Friday that Our Lord died and all Fridays in the year are days of penance (Canon 1250 - 1253)

Prayer of Reparation:
O Most Holy Trinity, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, I adore thee profoundly. I offer thee the most precious Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Jesus Christ, present in all the tabernacles of the world, in reparation for the outrages, sacrileges and indifferences by which He is offended. By the infinite merits of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, and the Immaculate Heart of Mary, I beg of thee the conversion of poor sinners. Amen.

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