Free Republic

Posted on July 14, 2020 Unless Your Faith Is Strong You Shall Not Be Strong The first reading at Tuesday’s daily Mass presents a complex picture, but its fundamental message is clear. Isaiah announces that there will be a period of political stability among the nations and enemies surrounding Israel. It is a time of favor during which Israel can repent of its injustice and infidelity. If they do not, however, Israel will be destroyed within sixty-five years. Here is an excerpt from the reading:Then the LORD said to Isaiah: Go out to meet Ahaz [King of Judah] …...

July 15 2020 Memorial of Saint Bonaventure, Bishop and Doctor of the Church Reading 1 Is 10:5-7, 13b-16 Thus says the LORD: Woe to Assyria! My rod in anger, my staff in wrath. Against an impious nation I send him, and against a people under my wrath I order him To seize plunder, carry off loot, and tread them down like the mud of the streets. But this is not what he intends, nor does he have this in mind; Rather, it is in his heart to destroy, to make an end of nations not a few.For he says:...

Just one day after the Supreme Court said the government can’t force the Little Sisters of the Poor to fund abortions, the CEO of the Planned Parenthood abortion business said it would “fight back” against the decision and not give up on forcing the Catholic nuns, and all Americans, to fund abortions. As LifeNews reported, the Supreme Court issued a ruling upholding a pro-life order from President Donald Trump that protected the Little Sisters of the Poor from being force to pay for abortion-causing drugs under their health insurance plan. Abortion advocates have spent years trying to force the Catholic...

At least four Catholic churches in four states were vandalized over the weekend in a string of attacks that have authorities wondering whether religious icons and statues are next to be targeted by anti-racism and “anti-fascist” protesters. Fox News reports that churches in California, New York, Massachusetts, and Florida were all targeted by vandals, and several historic churches suffered major damage in arson attacks. In Los Angeles, the historic San Gabriel Church, which was about to turn 250 years old, was targeted in an arson attack. In Boston, a statue of the Virgin Mary — a monument to veterans of...

July 14 2020 Memorial of Saint Kateri Tekakwitha, Virgin Reading 1 Is 7:1-9 In the days of Ahaz, king of Judah, son of Jotham, son of Uzziah, Rezin, king of Aram, and Pekah, king of Israel, son of Remaliah, went up to attack Jerusalem, but they were not able to conquer it. When word came to the house of David that Aram was encamped in Ephraim, the heart of the king and the heart of the people trembled, as the trees of the forest tremble in the wind.Then the LORD said to Isaiah: Go out to meet Ahaz, you...

Posted on July 12, 2020 by Msgr. Charles Pope Not Peace but the Sword In words that are nothing less than shocking, the Lord says in today’s Gospel: Do you think that I have come to establish peace on the earth? No, I tell you, but rather division. From now on a household of five will be divided, three against two and two against three; a father will be divided against his son and a son against his father, a mother against her daughter and a daughter against her mother, a mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law and a daughter-in-law against...

July 13 2020 Monday of the Fifteenth Week in Ordinary Time Reading 1 Is 1:10-17 Hear the word of the LORD, princes of Sodom! Listen to the instruction of our God, people of Gomorrah! What care I for the number of your sacrifices? says the LORD. I have had enough of whole-burnt rams and fat of fatlings; In the blood of calves, lambs and goats I find no pleasure.When you come in to visit me, who asks these things of you? Trample my courts no more! Bring no more worthless offerings; your incense is loathsome to me. New moon...

July 12 2020 Fifteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time Reading 1 Is 55:10-11 Thus says the LORD: Just as from the heavens the rain and snow come down and do not return there till they have watered the earth, making it fertile and fruitful, giving seed to the one who sows and bread to the one who eats, so shall my word be that goes forth from my mouth; my word shall not return to me void, but shall do my will, achieving the end for which I sent it. Responsorial Psalm Ps 65:10, 11, 12-13, 14 R. (Lk 8:8)...

[Catholic Caucus] Lone Priest Administers Last Rites to Driver After Deadly Car Crash Father John Killackey came to the aid of several stranded on the road after a tragic six-car pileup in Lebanon, Pennsylvania. Father John Killackey walking down Interstate 81 southbound on July 8, 2020. Father John Killackey came to the aid of several stranded on the road after a tragic six-car pileup in Lebanon, Pennsylvania. A picture of a lone priest walking along Highway 81 piqued the interest of thousands of Catholics this week. Drenched with so much rain, the image appears as a Norman Rockwell work of...

Reports of Trump’s SCOTUS picks failing to produce wins while Chief Justice John Roberts leads us straight to perdition by the chicken littles of the right apparently have been greatly exaggerated judging by the Supreme Court’s 7-2 supermajority decision upholding President Donald J. Trump’s executive order finally and totally freeing that group of charitable nuns known as the Little Sisters of the Poor from the atheistic deep state abortion and contraceptive mandate that came with ObamaCare. Not only is Trump’s conservative and originalist makeover of the federal judiciary proceeding apace, even at the highest level, but also it appears to...

July 11 2020 Memorial of Saint Benedict, Abbot Reading 1 Is 6:1-8 In the year King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord seated on a high and lofty throne, with the train of his garment filling the temple. Seraphim were stationed above; each of them had six wings: with two they veiled their faces, with two they veiled their feet, and with two they hovered aloft.They cried one to the other, “Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts! All the earth is filled with his glory!” At the sound of that cry, the frame of the door shook...

Posted on July 5, 2020July 5, 2020 by Msgr. Charles Pope An Insight on Hope from St. Augustine The word “hope” in modern English has lost much of the vigor assigned to what we call the theological virtue of Hope. In English hope often means merely a vague wish, as in, “I hope it doesn’t rain.” But the theological virtue of Hope (which I capitalize to distinguish it from worldly hope) is more vigorously defined as the confident expectation of God’s help in attaining eternal salvation. Notice therefore it is no mere wish, it is a confident expectation based...

July 10 2020 Friday of the Fourteenth Week in Ordinary Time Reading 1 Hos 14:2-10 Thus says the LORD: Return, O Israel, to the LORD, your God; you have collapsed through your guilt. Take with you words, and return to the LORD; Say to him, “Forgive all iniquity, and receive what is good, that we may render as offerings the bullocks from our stalls. Assyria will not save us, nor shall we have horses to mount; We shall say no more, ‘Our god,’ to the work of our hands; for in you the orphan finds compassion.” I will heal...

Posted on July 7, 2020 by Msgr. Charles Pope Sobering Spiritual Truths According to St. John of the Cross In today’s post I would like to ponder some hard and sobering spiritual truths, but ones that will set us free.In calling them “hard truths”, I mean that they are not the usual cozy bromides that many seek. They speak bluntly about the more irksome and difficult realities we face. If we come to accept them, though, they have a strange way of bringing serenity by getting us to focus us on the right things rather than spending our time...

July 9 2020 Thursday of the Fourteenth Week in Ordinary Time Reading 1 Hos 11:1-4, 8e-9 Thus says the LORD: When Israel was a child I loved him, out of Egypt I called my son. The more I called them, the farther they went from me, Sacrificing to the Baals and burning incense to idols. Yet it was I who taught Ephraim to walk, who took them in my arms; I drew them with human cords, with bands of love; I fostered them like one who raises an infant to his cheeks; Yet, though I stooped to feed my...

The Jesuits were once renowned for their intellectual rigor. Any person who graduated from a Jesuit-run institution was presumptively well educated, morally centered, and capable of reasoning. Marquette University, a Jesuit institution, has slipped from that standard, for it attacked an incoming freshman for supporting Trump. However, the bracing honesty coming from New Saint Andrews College signals that there's still hope for a rigorous Christian education in America. In 1881, the Jesuits founded Marquette University, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. To Marquette's credit, although established as a single-sex men's college, in 1909, it became the first coeducational Catholic university in the world....

July 8 2020 Wednesday of the Fourteenth Week in Ordinary Time Reading 1 Hos 10:1-3, 7-8, 12 Israel is a luxuriant vine whose fruit matches its growth. The more abundant his fruit, the more altars he built; The more productive his land, the more sacred pillars he set up. Their heart is false, now they pay for their guilt; God shall break down their altars and destroy their sacred pillars. If they would say, “We have no king”— Since they do not fear the LORD, what can the king do for them?The king of Samaria shall disappear, like foam...

sday, the Jesuit periodical America sounded a dark note: “Are Nigeria’s Christians the target of a genocide? That is the conclusion of a number of religious freedom analysts and Nigerian clergy.” Yet the venerable Leftist Catholic magazine’s warning was veritably dripping with irony, for the same publication has for quite some time been vilifying and smearing people who did speak out against the persecution of Christians in Nigeria and elsewhere...America magazine is not actually being as inconsistent as it may seem at first glance. Even though America’s Kevin Clarke identifies Boko Haram as made up of “Islamic militants,” it is...

Posts Posted on July 6, 2020July 6, 2020 What Does It Mean to Trust in God? We are often told to trust in God, and many of us have counseled others who are anxious or downcast to do so. But what does that mean?In some cases, when people give this counsel they mean this: Don’t worry, God will eventually give you what want. God will come around to your way of thinking at some point. Hang in there and wait for God to answer (your way). He’ll take care of things (in a way that pleases you).This is not...

July 7 2020 Tuesday of the Fourteenth Week in Ordinary Time Reading 1 Hos 8:4-7, 11-13 Thus says the LORD: They made kings in Israel, but not by my authority; they established princes, but without my approval. With their silver and gold they made idols for themselves, to their own destruction. Cast away your calf, O Samaria! my wrath is kindled against them; How long will they be unable to attain innocence in Israel? The work of an artisan, no god at all, Destined for the flames— such is the calf of Samaria!When they sow the wind, they shall...