being ready always to satisfy every one that asketh you a reason of that hope which is in you. But with modesty and fear, having a good conscience:[1 Pt 3:15-16]
Nolite iudicare [Luke 6:37], Nolite iudicare secundum faciem, sed iustum iudicium iudicate [John 7:24]
Thursday, March 01, 2007
Sophia update!
Good morning everyone. There hasn’t been much of a change in Sophia’s condition but I didn’t want to let another day go by without giving you a little update. Yesterday morning they did a follow up CAT scan that showed that the blood clot was still there, but it wasn’t bigger and there were not hemorrhages. With the drain tube back, her swelling has gone down and that seems to make her more comfortable and a little more alert. They are continuing with the blood thinning medication to keep the blood flow in her brain and hopefully open up enough blood vessels to help until the blood clots dissolve. The next step would be to do TPA treatment, which is a clot busting drug that would dissolve the clot but put her at a higher risk of bleeding. Dr. Cherny explained that “there’s no formula” to make the decision. They don’t want to take risks of bleeding unless absolutely necessary but at the same time, because of the large size of the blood clot in the main artery, she could risk a stroke. So they are evaluating one day at a time (or a few hours at a time!) the pros and cons of keeping her with blood thinning or doing the TPA treatment. This has been the big bump on the road this week, and with our continuous prayers, I’m confident that Sophia will overcome this one also, and continue the recovery as she had last week. Last night Veronica scared me to death, calling at 10:30 PM … but it was actually with good news that she was calling! The ophthalmologist had checked Sophia’s eye nerves again and had determined that they looked better and they were less inflamed. Thank you Lord for listening to our prayers and taking care of Sophia’s vision ! Scott read a book to her yesterday, and she saw the pictures and answered Scott’s questions appropriately J ! The nurse said that she also did a little bit of coloring, and at one point held a spoon to her mouth. Let’s pray that she continues to show these signs of improvement. This will indicate that her brain is working its way around the blood clot and it will permit to continue waiting for the clot to dissolve without a stronger and more risky approach. I saved my favorite highlight for last, I think this is such a beautiful and powerful one J. On Monday, Sophia had remained pretty much asleep and not as responsive yet. In the middle of the night, the nurse walked in and she had a big smile on her face and she was moving her hand as in giving high five. She did that movement about 3 times. The nurse asked her “Sophia, who are you giving high fives to?” and she answered “GOD”. We knew He was holding her up, now we know He’s also making her smile J ! Please continue praying for our sweet Sophia. Please pray for Scott and Veronica, as they got into the third week of a constant state of weariness and worry. Please pray for Matias, as his own daily life has also changed dramatically. Please continue praying for all the doctors and nurses that are making decisions and taking care of Sophia. Our Lord has worked through them and the tumor is gone, I know He’ll embrace Sophia with His loving hands and hive her the strength and determination to do her part, and fight her way back to health. We all know by now that Sophia has a special purpose in life, and we have already witnessed part of it, All we have to do is look around and see how she has united hundreds of people all over the US and the world, and to see the love, strength and peace that all this people (YOU!) as one, have brought together, and there’s no doubt in my mind that this is only the beginning of Sophia’s special purpose in life. God bless each and every one of you, Daniela
Bl. Margaret of Castello, patroness of the unwanted and unborn
Ora Pro Nobis
Next meeting:
The next meeting will be held at Saint Mark Catholic Church, 7960 Northview, Boise, Idaho, on Saturday, October 19 at 8:00AM.
8:00am - Holy Mass
9:00am - Professions
Potluck to follow
Fr. James Moore, O.P. (St. Albert's Priory, Oakland, California)
In the Spirit of Vatican II...
We are a diverse community, united in the tradition of St. Dominic, joyfully obedient to the Word of God spoken in His Catholic Church. We accept willingly in faith the defined teachings of the Church's ordinary and universal magisterium. We acknowledge also our duty to adhere with religious assent to those teachings which are authoritatively, even if not infallibly, proposed by the Church [Lumen Gentium, 25]
Next Retreat
There may be a retreat at St Benedict Lodge in Oregon during 2019. Further notice as plans are made.
St Benedict Lodge is a retreat facility in the Cascades that is owned and operated by the Dominican Friars of the Western Province.
Hear our prayer and take it to our Father in heaven. We ask for your protection for the Order of Preachers and most especially the chapter of Blessed Margaret of Castello; that we be right minded with Holy Mother the Church and that we have the courage to live and preach your word. Amen.
It makes no sense that we grant the use of unrestricted lethal force to a citizen with no judicial oversight, and simultaneously claim that the state has no right to the use of restricted lethal force with full judicial oversight.
"Our constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It's wholly inadequate to the government of any other." - John Adams, 2nd US president, Oct 11, 1798
The child, who does not think about so serious a thing as health, dreams of meals that are made up of desserts. Men and women, who do not think about so serious a thing as living, dream of a life that consists only of sweetness, soft music and rest to the echo of applause and gently sympathetic understanding. But meals are never like that; neither is life. In the same vein, our modern men and women dream of God as a being of whom no one could ever be afraid, a gentle, stupid god who would allow men and women to ruin themselves and then admire them for the work they had done in destroying his masterpiece. You see they never really think about God, for God is not like that.
Walter Farrell, O.P.,
A Companion to the Summa, Volume III
CHAPTER I -- FREEDOM FOR THE MIND (Q. 1-9)
Why make the people of God suffer so much? Haven't we enough problems already? Only Sunday, one hour, they come to adore God. And you bring a dance! Are you so poor you have nothing else to bring us? Shame on you! That's how I feel about it.
If people want to dance, they know where to go.
A Modern Lexicon
Liturgeist - What you get when the poltergeist of Vatican II possesses a "Liturgist"
Regurgical Dancing - A spectacle that makes you want to spew.
Ad Oscillating - When a Priest in fan-shaped church turns like a lawn sprinkler to make eye contact with everyone.
Stolecism - The practice, always and everwhere to be reprehended, of wearing a stold over a chasuble, instead of the other way around.
Hyperstolecism- The practice of not only wearing the stole over the chasuble, but wearing the wrong-colored stole in an attempt to be cute (e.g., a green stole over a purple chasuble for St. Patrick's Day).
Crusurpation- When a lay extraordinary minister of Holy Communion attempts to bestow a priestly blessing upon a child or a non-Catholic during Communion.
Shambulation- The priestly practice of strutting around the sanctuary during the homily, instead of delivering the homily from the pulpit.
New Cosmetology- Usually abreviated "New Cosmology," an alternate reality where the universe of make-up and hair styling destroys habits and obedience.
Ad-liburgy- The priestly practice of making up rubrics on the fly.
Gagnificent- bad contemporary art used wherever sacred art should be (think of the Los Angeles Cathedral).
This list will grow if you send me your recommendations
Thomas explains
I answer that, Neither living nor lifeless faith remains in a heretic who disbelieves one article of faith.
The reason of this is that the species of every habit depends on the formal aspect of the object, without which the species of the habit cannot remain. Now the formal object of faith is the First Truth, as manifested in Holy Writ and the teaching of the Church, which proceeds from the First Truth. Consequently whoever does not adhere, as to an infallible and Divine rule, to the teaching of the Church, which proceeds from the First Truth manifested in Holy Writ, has not the habit of faith, but holds that which is of faith otherwise than by faith. Even so, it is evident that a man whose mind holds a conclusion without knowing how it is proved, has not scientific knowledge, but merely an opinion about it. Now it is manifest that he who adheres to the teaching of the Church, as to an infallible rule, assents to whatever the Church teaches; otherwise, if, of the things taught by the Church, he holds what he chooses to hold, and rejects what he chooses to reject, he no longer adheres to the teaching of the Church as to an infallible rule, but to his own will. Hence it is evident that a heretic who obstinately disbelieves one article of faith, is not prepared to follow the teaching of the Church in all things; but if he is not obstinate, he is no longer in heresy but only in error. Therefore it is clear that such a heretic with regard to one article has no faith in the other articles, but only a kind of opinion in accordance with his own will. (Summa, IIa IIae Q5 a3)
Hillaire Belloc in his commentary on Modernism as a heresy states: "[t]here is no such thing as a religion called "Christianity" - there never has been such a religion".
"There is and always has been the Church, and various heresies proceeding from a rejection of some of the Church's doctrines by men who still desire to retain the rest of her teaching and morals. But there never has been and never can be or will be a general Christian religion professed by men who all accept some central important doctrines, while agreeing to differ about others. There has always been from the beginning and will always be the Church, and sundry heresies either doomed to decay, or, like Mohammedanism, to grow into a separate religion. Of a common Christianity there never has been and never can be a definition, for it has never existed."
Belloc goes on to state, "[t]here is no essential doctrine such that if we can agree upon it we can agree to differ about the rest: as for instance to accept immorality but deny the Trinity. A man will call himself a Christian though he denies the unity of the Christian Church; he will call himself a Christian though he denies the presence of Jesus Christ in the Blessed Sacrament; he will cheerfully call himself a Christian though he denies the Incarnation."
As Belloc states, the battle to retain our liberty is ultimately a battle which will be won or lost based upon our adherence to the truth which rests in the Church and not in some esoteric version of christianity. "No: the quarrel is between the Church and the anti-Church-the Church of God and the anti-God--the Church of Christ and the anti-Christ" Belloc.
"The truth is becoming every day so much more obvious that within a few years it will be universally admitted. I do not entitle the modern attack "anti-Christ" though in my heart I believe that to be the true term for it: No, I do not give it that name because it would seem for the moment exaggerated. But the name doesn't matter. Whether we call it "The Modern Attack" or "anti-Christ" it is all one; there is a clear issue now joined between the retention of Catholic morals, tradition, and authority on the one side, and the active effort to destroy them on the other. The modern attack will not tolerate us. It will attempt to destroy us. Nor can we tolerate it. We must attempt to destroy it as being the fully equipped and ardent enemy of the Truth by which men live. The duel is to the death."
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