Remember it's Lent: Evil is on the prowl, stick to your prayers

[Maximilian]

Seems as if when the demons can't get me, they go after my loved ones with ruthless cruelty and cunning.
Saint Benedict, pray for us.

Yes, this is very true.

Fr. Chad Ripperger was in Memphis a couple weeks ago giving a conference on this topic. The topic of the conference was "Spiritual Combat" based on his experience performing exorcisms, but considering that the audience was made up primarily of ordinary Catholics with families, it focused a lot on how to protect our family members from diabolical influence.

The feast of St. Benedict is only a couple days away, and of course his medal has special power against demons, however, today is the feast day of the "Terror of Demons." Fr. Ripperger even mentioned that there is no saint more powerful against diabolical influence than St. Joseph, except the Blessed Virgin, of course.

[drummerboy]

I always liked St. Anthony's Brief myself, esp. because he's my baptismal patron saint; and, with St. Michael being my confirmation patron saint - I'm in good hands!

http://fisheaters.com/stanthonysbrief.html

[Larry]

.

[Elizabeth]

I am grateful to be reminded of St. Benedict's upcoming Feast Day. And to be mindful of our holy Terror of Demons, St. Joseph.



I'd love to hear Fr. Ripergger's advice for increasing the spiritual protection for our lovEd ones.

[Larry]

Keating has even taken shots at the late Michael Davies.

Gerard, do you have a link to where Keating does this? He was supposed to be friends with Davies, even staying with him at his house in Britain. Nice of Karl to stab him in the back once his "friend" is no longer here to defend himself.

Hold on.  First, you ask for a link to where Karl Keating has "even taken shots at the late Michael Davies."

Then you say Keating "was supposed to be friends with Davies, even staying with him at his house in Britain"

and you conclude by saying, "Nice of Karl to stab him in the back once his "friend" is no longer here to defend himself."

This makes no sense.  I'm not a fan of Keating or Davies, though I've probably read at least one decent essay by each, but nobody should be accused of stabbing a friend in the back without reliable proof that this really happened. 

Evil is on the prowl during Lent...

I tried to edit my original post, but it won't let me. If I've been intemperate in what I said about Keating, I apologize.

[Gerard]

Here's what's on Keatings Facebook page that I saw regarding Micheal Davies. 

Keating was commenting on an article in which a twisted understanding of reality is causing the destruction of the "Extraordinary Form."

Karl Keating Cyril: You still haven't offered ANY proof regarding Bugnini. You cite Michael Davies, who refers to an unnamed priest who supposedly had access to Paul VI and who supposedly gave the pope information that convinced him that Bugnini was a Mason.

Why didn't Davies name the priest? Why didn't he share any of the "facts" that the priest supposedly shared with the pope? For all we know, Davies could have been conned by a slick-talking priest who actually had no access to the pope and who had no "facts" other than those he made up. So what you offer here, Cyril, is no proof at all.

Besides, Davies himself made it clear that he couldn't prove Bugnini to be a Mason--which meant Davies didn't know of ANY facts that could prove that--but only that he (Davies) was convinced that Paul VI thought that Bugnini was a Mason. And the proof for that inference? Only that Bugnini was made nuncio to Iran after the anonymous priest got in touch with the pope--but that, again, presupposes the veracity of that unnamed priest.

If there were facts that showed Bugnini to be a Mason, it would have been easy for the priest to share them with Davies, who then could have published at least some of them. But all we have is Davies' inference, which doesn't even pass the post hoc ergo propter hoc test.

I knew Davies slightly, having visited him at his home. He was a nice enough fellow but I don't think anyone ever thought of him as an intrepid investigative reporter or a real scholar. If he had facts that showed Bugnini was a Mason, he should have laid them out. That he didn't suggests that he didn't have any such facts.

By the way, Davies lost marks when he called Tito Casini "Italy's leading Catholic writer." Casini (1897-1987) hardly was that. He was a writer who was "rather well known" (those were Bugnini's own words about Casini), but was he the country's "leading Catholic writer"? Only if you narrow down the field to those who wrote books complaining about the liturgical changes. (Casini wrote two such books.)
March 8 at 8:23pm · Like · 1

Karl Keating: Nobody seems to know much about Casini, perhaps because he wasn't an important personage. At any rate, the point--which you essential concede above--is that Casini didn't reveal the name of any cleric who supposedly informed Paul VI that Bugnini was a Mason.

By the way, that Michael Davies wrote a dozen or so books didn't make him a scholar. There have been fine scholars who have written only one book; some scholars never wrote any books at all, just monographs for academic journals.

If the number of books written indicated scholarship, then Barbara Cartland, author of 723 romance novels, would rank at the top.
March 10 at 6:10pm · Like · 1

[Larry]

Okay, I'll say it: Keating believes he himself is a great scholar, and he wants to be looked at as someone in the mold of Frank Sheed and Ronald Knox. His book, Catholicism and Fundamentalism, is actually a really good book. But that's the extent of it. His other works are mediocre at best.

Keating seems to be trying to put Davies down because he didn't have degrees in theology. And yet, as one friend of mine who is trying to get his Phd said, "Cranmer's Godly Order is in itself worthy of a doctorate". Davies did all of his homework, and was as great and careful a scholar as someone who held advanced degrees. And he did this over and over again, with one well researched book after another. Davies erudition and careful writing blows anything written by Keating away. When I saw Davies at a conference with other speakers in the early nineties, Dr. Alice Von Hildebrand referred to Davies as "Dr. Davies", a recognition that his work was worthy of a great scholar.
On the issue of Bugnini: Paul VI dissolved Bugnini's liturgical office, merged it with other dicasteries in Rome, and banished the Archbishop to Iran. It's very clear that the evidence for Bugnini being a Freemason was very strong, strong enough to convince a Pope whose reputation was wrapped up in the liturgical revolution to sack the person who was principally responsible for it. And there are other, corrobated sources that have said the same thing.
So who do I believe on this issue? Michael Davies, who made it his life's work to understand the reasons for the destruction of the Roman Liturgy? Or Keating, who wants to turn a blind eye to the problem and doesn't seem to be bothered to do the research necessary to understand the issues involved? I'll take Davies.

[Lynne]

Clap, clap, clap.

Sent from my Droid Maxx

[Elizabeth]

   well done Larry

[Maximilian]

I'd love to hear Fr. Ripergger's advice for increasing the spiritual protection for our loved ones.

You can listen to audio tapes of his talks here:

http://www.sensustraditionis.org/multimedia.html

If you scroll down, there is a section called "Conference in Memphis," but I think that is from a different year. It looks interesting, but it's not the one on "Spiritual Combat." But if you scroll further down, there is a section with a list of presentations on "Spiritual Warfare." This is not the exact same presentation that I heard, but I'm sure that the content is very similar. I wish I had more time to sit and listen to them right now, because actually all the various conferences on different topics look very interesting.

[Landless Laborer]

[yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nGghlI9sTiw[/yt]

At least these boys got something for their birthright...fortune, fame, endless supply of women.  It's their followers who are the schmucks, worse than Esau.  Traded heaven for poverty, obscurity, and tattooed hags. 

[lauermar]

Oh gosh, I'm reminded of Holy Thursday last year. I woke up suddenly at 3 am convinced there was no God. I had absolutely no faith for about an hour. I had to go to FE blog to read some faith filled stories there, and gradually got my faith back. In the middle of the night.

[Arun]

[yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nGghlI9sTiw[/yt]

At least these boys got something for their birthright...fortune, fame, endless supply of women.  It's their followers who are the schmucks, worse than Esau.  Traded heaven for poverty, obscurity, and tattooed hags.

A) there's way more worse things out there than AC/DC man

and

B) my wife has tattoos...

[Heinrich]

I began Reign of Jesus Through Mary last Friday and the attacks were fierce.

[lauermar]

I began Reign of Jesus Through Mary last Friday and the attacks were fierce.

Is it something you can talk about?