St Joseph and the Holy Family

Each year Jesus' parents went to Jerusalem for the feast of Passover,
and when he was twelve years old,
they went up according to festival custom.
After they had completed its days, as they were returning,
the boy Jesus remained behind in Jerusalem,
but his parents did not know it.
Thinking that he was in the caravan,
they journeyed for a day
and looked for him among their relatives and acquaintances,
but not finding him,
they returned to Jerusalem to look for him.
After three days they found him in the temple,
sitting in the midst of the teachers,
listening to them and asking them questions,
and all who heard him were astounded
at his understanding and his answers.
When his parents saw him,
they were astonished,
and his mother said to him,
"Son, why have you done this to us?
Your father and I have been looking for you with great anxiety."
And he said to them,
"Why were you looking for me?
Did you not know that I must be in my Father's house?"
But they did not understand what he said to them.
He went down with them and came to Nazareth,
and was obedient to them.

Today is the feast day of St. Joseph.  What we know about Joseph is not a whole lot.  In the Bible he never speaks, we know that he is considered a just man and that he was a carpenter by trade.  I believe that being a carpenter would have made Joseph an intelligent man able to wrestle with the mathematics of his trade.  He was a man with a kind heart and I believe he loved Mary very much.  He was very much hurt when she left for three months and came back home three months pregnant.  He could have denounced her to the temple and she would have been stoned as an adulterer.  He chose instead to pay for her to leave the town, to have her baby elsewhere, and to never come back.  At least that is what he planned.  Mary was visited in person by an angel.  Joseph did not get an angel, he received a dream.  The dream told him, the circumstances of Mary's pregnancy and he took her into the home he had been preparing for her and they were wed.  Both he and Mary were related to the noble family of David, the greatest King Israel ever had and so their child would be of the house of David. 

The baby was born in Bethlehem, the town of David, and the king of the area, a man called Herod, was paranoid and suspected everyone of being after his throne.  The Romans said of Herod that it was safer to be Herod's pig than to be Herod's son.  When the wise men told the king that a child had been born that was to be king of Israel, well, Herod feigned interest and asked them to bring word of where he could find the child so that he could worship too.  Well, Joseph received another dream that told him to take his wife and child to Egypt because Herod had designs on the life of the boy.  So without further ado, he loaded up his wife and son and all their possessions and they went off to Egypt where they lived until an angel told them that it was safe to return. Meanwhile, back in Bethlehem, soldiers dispatched by Herod came and killed all boy babies two years of age and younger in order to protect his throne. 

It is Joseph that would have taught his young son his trade and he would have introduced him to the religion and the worship of Yahweh.  Remember that although both human and divine, Jesus would have to experience what it was like to be a human being.  He would learn a trade and His religion from His father.  Jesus, for His part, after the incident where he stayed behind in the temple, became obedient to His parents. 

Joseph believed in the mission that he was given.  He understood that the boy he was raising was to be the Messiah that Israel had been waiting for.  He also understood that his wife was both mother and a virgin.  He believed that the Holy Spirit was the true father of the child and Joseph remained chaste and celibate and did not have sexual relations with her. 

Joseph did not live to see what end was in store for Jesus.  It is believed that he died before Jesus began his public ministry which is why as the only son Jesus gave the care of Mary, his mother, over to John the Apostle.  Although the voice of Joseph is silent in the Bible, the way he lived his life and the way he tended his family speaks volumes about how we should be when it comes to our family.

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He is the patron of the Universal Church, a happy death, families, fathers, expectant mothers, travelers, immigrants, craftsmen, engineers, and workers. He’s also the patron of the Americas, Canada, China, Croatia, Mexico, Korea, Austria, Belgium, Peru, the Philippines, and Vietnam.

In your devotional life, don’t forget about St. Joseph!

He has one of the most important roles in salvation history: husband of the Blessed Virgin Mary, foster-father of Jesus himself, guardian of the Holy Family. But because Scripture doesn’t tell us very much about him – he isn’t even quoted once – it’s easy to forget about him.

But don’t! He’s a powerful intercessor.

Here are Some little-known prayers to St. Joseph every Catholic should know:

Memorare to St. Joseph

Remember, O most chaste Spouse of the Virgin Mary, that never was it known that anyone who implored your help and sought your intercession was left unassisted. Full of confidence in your power, I fly unto you and beg your protection.

Despise not, O foster-father of the Redeemer, my humble supplication, but in your bounty, hear and answer me. Amen.

The 7 Sorrows and Joys of St. Joseph

Sorrows:

1) The Doubts of St. Joseph
2) The Poverty of Jesus’ Birth
3) The Circumcision
4) The Prophecy of Simeon
5) The Flight into Egypt
6) The Return to Nazareth
7) The Loss of the Child Jesus

Joys:

1) Told of the Incarnation
2) Angels Adore the Infant Jesus
3) Holy Name of Jesus
4) Effects of the Redemption
5) The overthrow of the Idols in Egypt
6) Life with Jesus & Mary
7) Jesus Found in the Temple

For a holy death

O, Blessed Joseph, you gave your last breath in the loving embrace of Jesus and Mary. When the seal of death shall close my life, come with Jesus and Mary to aid me. Obtain for me this solace for that hour, to die with their holy arms around me.

Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, I commend my soul, living and dying, into your sacred arms. Amen.

A prayer for workers

Blessed St. Joseph, patron of all working people, obtain for me the grace to labor in a spirit of penance for the atonement of my many sins. Help me to be conscientious in my work so that I may give as full a measure as I have received.

May I labor in a spirit of thankfulness and joy, ever mindful of all the gifts I have received from God that enable me to perform these tasks. Permit me to work in peace, patience, and moderation, keeping in mind the account I must one day give of time lost, talents unused, good omitted, and vanity of success, so fatal to the work of God. Glorious St. Joseph, may my labors be all for Jesus, all through Mary, and all after your holy example in life and in death. Amen.

A prayer for protection

St. Joseph, whose protection is so great, so strong, so prompt before the throne of God, I place in you all my interests and desires.

St. Joseph, do assist me by your powerful intercession and obtain for me from your divine Son all spiritual blessings through Jesus Christ, our Lord; so that having engaged here below your heavenly power, I may offer my thanksgiving and homage to the most loving of Fathers.

St. Joseph, I never weary contemplating you and Jesus asleep in your arms. I dare not approach while he reposes near your heart. Press Him in my name and kiss his fine head for me, and ask him to return the kiss when I draw my dying breath. St. Joseph, patron of departing souls, pray for us. Amen.

A prayer for parents

O glorious St. Joseph, to you God committed the care of His only begotten Son amid the many dangers of this world. We come to you and ask you to take under your special protection the children God has given us. Through holy baptism, they became children of God and members of His holy Church. We consecrate them to you today, that through this consecration they may become your foster children. Guard them, guide their steps in life, form their hearts after the hearts of Jesus and Mary.

St. Joseph, who felt the tribulation and worry of a parent when the child Jesus was lost, protect our dear children for time and eternity. May you be their father and counselor. Let them, like Jesus, grow in age as well as in wisdom and grace before God and men. Preserve them from the corruption of his world, and give us the grace one day to be united with them in Heaven forever. Amen.

THE POOR SOULS IN PURGATORY NEED YOUR PRAYERS.  PURGATORY IS A REAL PLACE AND MILLIONS OF SOULS LIVE THERE WAITING WHILE THEY ARE PURGED OF ATTACHMENT TO SIN AND BECOME PURIFIED SO THAT THEY CAN ENTER HEAVEN.  YOUR PRAYERS HELP THEM AND LESSEN THE TIME THAT THEY SPEND.  ALTHOUGH THEY ARE IN PAIN, THEY DESIRE TO SEE GOD BUT CANNOT, THEY ARE IN A STATE OF COMPLETE JOY BECAUSE THEY KNOW THEY WILL SOMEDAY SEE HIM.  PLEASE PRAY FOR THEM, THEY WILL BE GRATEFUL TO YOU FOREVER AND REMEMBER PLEASE,  

WHERE THEY ARE TODAY, YOU MIGHT BE TOMORROW! 

Time Grows Short & A Lesson In Glory

"The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified.
Amen, amen, I say to you, 
unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies, 
it remains just a grain of wheat; 
but if it dies, it produces much fruit.
Whoever loves his life loses it,
and whoever hates his life in this world
will preserve it for eternal life.
Whoever serves me must follow me, 
and where I am, there also will my servant be.
The Father will honor whoever serves me.

"I am troubled now. Yet what should I say?
'Father, save me from this hour'?
But it was for this purpose that I came to this hour.
Father, glorify your name."
Then a voice came from heaven, 
"I have glorified it and will glorify it again."
The crowd there heard it and said it was thunder; 
but others said, "An angel has spoken to him."
Jesus answered and said, 
"This voice did not come for my sake but for yours.
Now is the time of judgment on this world; 
now the ruler of this world will be driven out.
And when I am lifted up from the earth, 
I will draw everyone to myself."
He said this indicating the kind of death he would die.

The wind swirls the sand as we walk along the desert path. The silence of the desert is oppressive as is the loneliness. But the end of our journey is in sight.  For our Savior too, the road has been long and arduous.  He stands this day in the shadow of the cross and He knows it.  But we are confused by the words our Lord speaks. He speaks of death and dying.  The words "lifted up" had a very special meaning in the vernacular.  It meant a person would be placed on a crucifix to die.  Even at this point, Jesus was not shying away from the cross. In fact, he embraces it. He tells us all of the good that will come from his death.  The devil will be driven out and all will be drawn to Him because of the Cross.  

Jesus was fully human. He had the free will to either accept the Father's demand or to refuse it.  For Him, the choice was one of love and He accepted the Cross for us.  In His obedience, Christ received the Glory due to Him and through His obedience, he canceled out our disobedience. 

On our Lenten journey through the desert, we have seen many things. We have seen ourselves as we are and not as we think we are and the reality has sobered us and has made us look for ways to better ourselves, ways to make our inside self, align more perfectly with the person we know we can be.  When we become holy as our Heavenly Father is holy, it is then that we glorify Him with our lives and participate fully in the Cross of Christ. 

Please remember to pray for the poor souls in Purgatory. They are desperate for our prayer and our care.   

Sunday Edition #3 Astrology - What Sign Are You

SUNDAY EDITION #3

Astrology – What Sign Are You?

Almost every newspaper has it and you can find whole magazines dedicated to Astrology on your newsstand.  When you meet someone new these days they may start the conversation questioning you about your sign.  We all know what they mean, they want to know which constellation was prominent in the sky on the day you were born.  For me, being born in early November, it was the constellation Scorpio. But, then again, if I had been born in let’s say Australia, another constellation would have been looking over me as I was born.  I don’t know which constellation that is, but I know it would not be Scorpio.  That brings me to my first objection to the belief system espoused by the believers in astrology, the constellations that are said to be controlling factors in our life can only be seen north of the equator.  Fully half of the earth is not covered by the constellations said to control our fate.  Secondly, the astrological charts are divided up into twelve equal portions, one portion for each month. This makes for a pretty display but it is not true to reality.  Not all constellations are made equal.  Some are larger and some are smaller.  So someone said to be born under the control of one constellation may, in fact, have been born when another was actually overhead.  It is not a scientific system.

Some people, even some Christians, place real faith in horoscopes.  For non-believers the practice fills a need for a belief in something other than self and can be used to explain the successes and failures of life, “the stars were or were not aligned.” 

Believers in astrology will tell how they have all of the characteristics of their “star sign.”  In many cases this is due to self-fulfilling prophecy, they align their actions to what they believe is expected of them.  Some of the so-called characteristics are just the normal variants of human nature and the fact that they line up with the star sign is just coincidence.

The Church minces no words over her thoughts on the pseudo-science of astrology.  In her Catechism she says “All forms of divination are to be rejected; recourse to Satan or demons, conjuring up the dead or other practices falsely supposed to ‘unveil’ the future. Consulting horoscopes, astrology, palm reading, interpretation of omens and lots, the phenomena of clairvoyance, and recourse to mediums all conceal a desire for power over time, history, and, in the last analysis, other human beings, as well as a wish to conciliate hidden powers. They contradict the honor, respect, and loving fear that we owe to God alone.” (CCC 22116)

In short, the belief in horoscopes is an offense against the first commandment.  The ancient world believed that the stars were gods and goddesses.

The New Age movement has reinvigorated many pagan beliefs and has ascribed them to the beginning of a new age, the Age of Aquarius where humanity takes control of the earth and its destiny with humanity becoming conscious of truth and some people who experience this will be recognized as leaders. Also, religion will be considered offensive, that it will be a new Dark Age.

But, I hear you saying, there is no harm in reading the silly horoscopes that we find in the newspaper is there?  Unfortunately, many people feel that way.  Let me ask you a question.  It would not be too dangerous to just crack a door open where a hungry bear is waiting on the other side to get in and eat you, I mean just a crack.  Open the door once and bear might not notice.  Do it again and still, he might see but be surprised and not be ready for you. The third time, you crack the door open and the bear comes tearing in and you are invited to lunch with him.  Why open the door to the devil by reading these little bits of nonsense.  The effect of reading these “harmless” predictions of your future will make you insensitive to the other novel New Age thinking that is invading your spiritual life.  Heaven help us on the day you read your horoscope that predicts you will be coming into some money and low and behold at lunchtime you find a twenty dollar bill on the floor! This coincidence places a wedge in the wall of your spiritual defenses. Taken to its end, on that day the crack in the door of your soul becomes terminally wide and you do not have the strength to resist and the enemy overcomes your defenses and bursts into your soul and you are his.  I am NOT exaggerating.

I will leave you with what the  Church Fathers say about this subject For this section I thank Catholic Answers (I have added the emphasis):

 Athanasius

"They [astrologers] have fabricated books which they call books of [astrological] tables, in which they show stars, to which they have given the names of saints. And therein of a truth they have inflicted on themselves a double reproach, those who have written such books, because they have perfected themselves in a lying and contemptible science [astrology], and as to the ignorant and simple, they have led them astray by evil thoughts concerning the right faith established in truth and upright in the presence of God" (Easter Letter 39:1 [A.D. 367]). 

John Chrysostom

"Let us show forth by our actions all excellencies of conduct, and kindle abundantly the fire of virtue. For ‘you are lights,’ he [Paul] says, ‘shining in the midst of the world’ [Phil. 2:15]. . . . And in fact a deep night oppresses the whole world. This is what we have to dispel and dissolve. It is night not among heretics and among Greeks only, but also in the multitude on our side, in respect of doctrines and of life. For many [Catholics] entirely disbelieve the resurrection; many fortify themselves with the horoscope; many adhere to superstitious observances, and to omens, and auguries, and presages" (Homilies on First Corinthians 4:11 [A.D. 392]). 

Hippolytus

"How impotent [the astrologers’] system is for comparing the forms and dispositions of men with names of stars! For we know that those originally conversant with such investigations have called the stars by names given reference to propriety of signification and facility for future recognition. But what similarity is there of these [constellations] with the likeness of animals, or what community of nature are regards conduct and energy, that one should allege that a person born in Leo should be irascible [like a lion] and that one born in Virgo moderate [like a virgin] or one born in Cancer wicked [like a crab]?" (Refutation of All Heresies 4:37 [A.D. 228]). 

"It has been easily made evident to all that the heresy of the Peratae is altered in name only from the [art] of the astrologers. And the rest of the books of these contain the same method, if it were agreeable to anyone to wade through them all" (ibid. 5:10). 

Lactantius

“Demons are the enemies and harassers of men, and on this account [the sorcerer Hermes] Trismegistus calls them wicked angels; so far was he from being ignorant that from heavenly beings they were corrupted, and began to be earthly. These were the inventors of astrology, and of soothsaying, and divination, and those productions which are called oracles, and necromancy, and the art of magic, and whatever other evil practices these men exercise, either openly or in secret" (Divine Institutes 2:16–17 [A.D. 307]). 

St.Augustine

"Now I had also repudiated the lying divination and impious absurdities of the astrologers . . . [and] I turned my thoughts to those that are born twins, who generally come out of the womb so near one to another that the small distance of time between them (however much force [astrologers] may contend that it has in the nature of things) cannot be noted by human observation or be expressed in those [planetary] figures which the astrologer is to examine that he may pronounce the truth. Nor can they be true; for looking into the same figures he must have foretold the same of Esau and Jacob, whereas the same did not happen to them. He must therefore speak falsely, or if truly, then, looking into the same figures he must not speak the same things. Not then by art but by chance would he speak truly" (Confessions 7:6:8–10 [A.D. 400]). 

"To whom then must we make an answer first—to the heretics or to the astrologers? For both come from the serpent, and desire to corrupt the Church’s virginity of heart, which she holds in undefiled faith" (Homilies on John 8:10 [A.D. 416]). 

“Every man twists for himself a rope by his sins. . . . Who makes a long rope? He who adds sin to sin. . . . One has committed a theft. So that he may not be found out to have committed it, he seeks the astrologer [to prove his innocence]. It was enough to have committed the theft. Why will you add sin to sin? Behold! Two sins [are] committed! When you are forbidden to go to the astrologer, you revile the bishop. Behold! Three sins! When you hear it said of you, ‘Cast him forth from the Church,’ you say, ‘I will go to the party of Donatus [the Donatist schism].’ Behold! You add a fourth sin. The rope is growing. Be afraid of the rope. It is good for you to be corrected here, when you are scourged with it, that it may not be said of you at the last, ‘Bind his hands and feet, and cast him forth into outer darkness’ [Matt. 22:13]. For ‘with the cords of his own sins everyone is bound’ [Prov. 5:22]" (ibid., 10:5). 

Can Any Good Come From Galilee?

Some in the crowd who heard these words of Jesus said,
"This is truly the Prophet."
Others said, "This is the Christ."
But others said, "The Christ will not come from Galilee, will he?
Does not Scripture say that the Christ will be of David's family
and come from Bethlehem, the village where David lived?"
So a division occurred in the crowd because of him.
Some of them even wanted to arrest him,
but no one laid hands on him.
So the guards went to the chief priests and Pharisees,
who asked them, "Why did you not bring him?"
The guards answered, "Never before has anyone spoken like this man."
So the Pharisees answered them, "Have you also been deceived?
Have any of the authorities or the Pharisees believed in him?
But this crowd, which does not know the law, is accursed."
Nicodemus, one of their members who had come to him earlier, said to them, 
"Does our law condemn a man before it first hears him and finds out what he is doing?"
They answered and said to him, "You are not from Galilee also, are you?
Look and see that no prophet arises from Galilee." Then each went to his own house.

It seems that everyone has an opinion about Jesus.  They have heard what He has to say, they have seen Him command the weather, they have heard how He fed five-thousand, and yet it does not appear that they have the whole story about Him.  Some of the people declared Him to be the Messiah while others said that He could not be the Messiah because he came from Galilee.  The temple crew had sent out guards to arrest Him because they certainly did not need a Messiah from the fishmongering town of Galilee.  But the guards that they sent came back without Him and they told their masters that they had never heard a man speak as this man did.  This must have pleased the high priest and his cronies to no end.  They pointed out where Jesus came from and reminded them that the Messiah would come from the town of David, Bethlehem.  Our friend Nicodemus reminds the assembled that the law required them to have a trial before they condemned a person. 

What can we gather from this reading?  Well, we can see that Jesus has made a name for Himself.  In a time when messiahs were a dime a dozen, He seems to have risen to the top of the list.  Yet, those that were plotting against Him did not have the complete story as they were unaware of his birth city of Bethlehem.  But the game was in play and the stage was being set for the dramatic and absolutely necessary end game.  We humans would be taught that God’s plans would not be thwarted by the bad intentions of the temple management,  God would prove that love is proven by being humble and by a willingness to give all, including life itself, for our brothers and sisters.  God would show us how to reign in glory from an instrument of torture, death, and shame, the Cross.

We, humans, know that we are smart. God made us this way.  We are able to reason and to understand the world around us in a way that beasts of the field cannot. But there are times when we overthink our situation and do not allow faith to enter into our view of the world.  Sometimes we just have to accept things on faith and the ultimate triumph of good over evil is one of those things.  God reigns in great glory surrounded by the angels and the songs of the heavenly host but He also came to earth and stooped low to greet a child.  He performed great miracles on this earth and perhaps the greatest of these was that he penetrated the hearts of many who learned from His humility and shared the love He brought.

I wonder if while on the cross Jesus, just for a moment, wondered to Himself if we were worth this much trouble.  Thank God he decided that we were and still are. 

A small request...please pray, devoutly and reverently, thinking about the words as you pray them, the Prayer of St Gertrude the Great for the Poor Souls in Purgatory.  It is a short but powerful prayer that releases a thousand souls from Purgatory when it is said.  Please say this prayer for the Poor Souls.  Remember, that as they are today, someday you might be. 

“Eternal Father,
I offer You the most precious blood
of thy Divine Son, Jesus,
in union with the Masses said
throughout the world today,
for all the Holy Souls in Purgatory,
for sinners everywhere,
for sinners in the universal Church,
for those in my own home,
and in my family. Amen.”

They're After Jesus

The wicked said among themselves, 
thinking not aright:
"Let us beset the just one because he is obnoxious to us;
he sets himself against our doings,
Reproaches us for transgressions of the law
and charges us with violations of our training.
He professes to have knowledge of God
and styles himself a child of the LORD.
To us he is the censure of our thoughts; 
merely to see him is a hardship for us,
Because his life is not like that of others,
and different are his ways.
He judges us debased;
he holds aloof from our paths as from things impure.
He calls blest the destiny of the just
and boasts that God is his Father.
Let us see whether his words be true;
let us find out what will happen to him.
For if the just one be the son of God, he will defend him
and deliver him from the hand of his foes.
With revilement and torture let us put him to the test
that we may have proof of his gentleness
and try his patience.
Let us condemn him to a shameful death;
for according to his own words, God will take care of him."
These were their thoughts, but they erred;
for their wickedness blinded them,
and they knew not the hidden counsels of God;
neither did they count on a recompense of holiness
nor discern the innocent souls' reward.
WIS 2:1A, 12-22


Jesus moved about within Galilee;
he did not wish to travel in Judea,
because the Jews were trying to kill him.
But the Jewish feast of Tabernacles was near.

But when his brothers had gone up to the feast,
he himself also went up, not openly but as it were in secret.

Some of the inhabitants of Jerusalem said,
"Is he not the one they are trying to kill?
And look, he is speaking openly and they say nothing to him.
Could the authorities have realized that he is the Christ?
But we know where he is from.
When the Christ comes, no one will know where he is from."
So Jesus cried out in the temple area as he was teaching and said,
"You know me and also know where I am from.
Yet I did not come on my own,
but the one who sent me, whom you do not know, is true.
I know him because I am from him, and he sent me."
So they tried to arrest him,
but no one laid a hand upon him,
because his hour had not yet come
JN 7:1-2, 10, 25-30

W

ell, today for a change, you can readily grasp the meaning of the Gospel reading by reading the selection the Church gives us from the Book of Wisdom so you don’t need any long-winded explanations from a hack like me!  Jesus was in trouble because He was unable to keep silent about the abuses He was observing and the management of the temple took umbrage at His criticisms of them and the lack-luster way that they ran the temple, His father’s house on earth. 

What did He find wrong with it?  Well, I believe He saw that the temple was being run as a money-making enterprise that was set to enrich the management team, namely, the High Priest and his friends and cronies. He also pointed out how the leaders gave the appearance of being holy but were, in fact, wolves in sheep's clothing.  We have seen Jesus express His righteous indignation when He cast the sellers of animals and the money changers out of the temple.

What Jesus wanted then, and is demanding from us now, is that our love for Him and for His Father be genuine.  He asks us not for expressions of faith that inflate our ego at the cost of our souls. No, He is asking for us to be humble, gentle, and docile to the promptings of the Holy Spirit.  He also expects us to take a stand against things that defy the law of God and to be ready to endure as he did the daily persecution from the people in power who will not take kindly to His pointing out the ways that they were failing to live up to what God hoped that they could be.

In our time, like in the time of Christ, evil and darkness holds sway in the halls of our lawmakers.  Today, we have an administration in power that is pro-life in their attitude which is good, but unfortunately, they are lousy at the business of government and all of the things that they rolled out will be rolled back when the other party comes back into power.  The days of injustice that the Christian world suffered under the reign of Obama, will return when the radicalized democratic party, infested with those who hate religion and the free practice thereof and who will do whatever they can to bring devastation to Jesus, His teachings, and His Church.

We must pray for our future and for all those who espouse the ways of immorality that they become convicted of the errors of their ways and return to walk in freedom on the road of the just alongside Jesus.  We, ourselves, must pray and sacrifice for the time that is coming will be worse than it was under Obama.  We will need to work on our prayer lives and be ready to accept the persecutions that will come.  We need to remember that through it all the victory of Jesus is already in place, He will come and take back His world and all will know Him as the Merciful Lord or as the Just Judge as their conduct determines. 

Please remember our departed loved ones who may be in Purgatory.  You loved them while they lived, do not let that love grow cold and cease at the edge of the grave.  Prayers for the dead are a spiritual act of mercy and please God very much.  Pray for your relatives and friends by name and pray for the millions of Protestants who have no one at all to pray for them because their tradition does not admit the possibility of Purgatory. 

Steven Hawking - A Puzzlement

Jesus answered the Jews: "My Father is at work until now, so I am at work."  this reason, they tried all the  re to kill him, because he not only broke the sabbath but he also called God his own father, making himself equal to God. Jesus answered and said to them, "Amen, amen, I say to you, the Son cannot do anything on his own, but only what he sees the Father doing; for what he does, the Son will do also. For the Father loves the Son and shows him everything that he himself does, and he will show him greater works than these,

so that you may be amazed. For just as the Father raises the dead and gives life, so also does the Son give life to whomever he wishes. Nor does the Father judge anyone, but he has given all judgment to the Son, so that all may honor the Son just as they honor the Father. Whoever does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent him. Amen, amen, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes in the one who sent me has eternal life and will not come to condemnation, but has passed from death to life. Amen, amen, I say to you, the hour is coming and is now here when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live. For just as the Father has life in himself, so also he gave to the Son the possession of life in himself. And he gave him power to exercise judgment, because he is the Son of Man. Do not be amazed at this, because the hour is coming in which all who are in the tombs will hear his voice and will come out, those who have done good deeds to the resurrection of life, but those who have done wicked deeds to the resurrection of condemnation.  "I cannot do anything on my own; I judge as I hear, and my judgment is just, because I do not seek my own will but the will of the one who sent me."

JN 5:17-30

 Well, it was bound to happen one day, Steven Hawking has left this world and this universe, a universe he spent his remarkable life trying to explain without using God to get things started.  I think he is an example of a brilliant man who convinced himself that if there was a god, it was him because he could explain the "why's" and "Wherefore's" of everything, the existence of black holes and wormholes in space but he never did explain Steven Hawkings, where he came from and why he occupied space on the planet we call home. 

Steven and I would not have gotten along together. First of all, because he would have to spend an inordinate amount of time explaining to me what he meant by what he said since his IQ leaves mine in the dust.  Second. he was an atheist and out of all the belief systems in the world, I find atheism the hardest to understand.  Given the opportunities and intelligence that Hawkings had and if they had been gifted to me,  I would have been forced to conclude that there was a God that started all of this star stuff (thank you Carl Sagan) in motion.  Steven was slowly coming around when it came to the design of the universe even admitting that it had an intelligent design to it.  He was never able to move beyond this and proudly held to his atheism until he took his final breath on this earth. 

I fear for Steven's fate but make no judgment about it. Jesus in our reading today is clear that whoever believes in Him has eternal life and those that do not believe, well, their fate is not so rosy. I believe that God is a merciful God. I believe that we are all judged on what is in our hearts. I do not believe that Professor Hawkins was an evil man, just a man that was unable to see. 

I muse on what it must have been like for Steven to stand before Christ, the God he spent his life denying.  I could imagine that there would have been tears and despair as Steven realized what a waste his life had been because he went through it all without knowing one day of the joy that knowing Jesus Christ as your savior brings into life. At that moment, did Jesus help Steven to his feet and embrace him as the long-lost son?  There is no one as lost as one that will not allow himself to be found. 

Purgatory - Purgatory - Purgatory 

Please pray for the poor souls.