Search Page

It is a tragedy when a massive natural disaster strikes, and people on earth are suddenly orphaned, bereaved, or injured or lost; but it is an even greater disaster that so many of those who have died have gone to God whilst unprepared, or living in mortal sin. How fortunate are all who have led holy lives.

It is tragic that so many people are trapped underground in natural disasters such as earthquakes and hurricanes; yet the worst disaster is to become trapped in the deep caverns of Hell, for Eternity, as are all who do not reach out to help the young and needy but rather prey on them: by child abuse, abortion, sex trafficking, pornographers, people who enjoy sadistic pornography, and others - if these sinners do not repent before they die.

A person who goes his own way, ignoring God's laws, and not caring about committing mortal sin, is like a person in a lift which is hurtling towards destruction because the cable has snapped. Unless he accepts that he is in danger, and calls for help in time, he will perish.

We must not allow shame and embarrassment to keep us from experiencing the joy of being forgiven, after Confession. It can be embarrassing to realise how engrossed we once were in our sins, just as children are engrossed in their ecstasy at the funfair, unable to pay attention to ordinary concerns. The time has come to make a careful assessment of how we spend our time, no longer engrossed in selfish pleasures.

We do not always feel wonderful after a good Confession, because we are like a man who has climbed out of a deep mine shaft - mortal sin - and who now sits exhausted on the ground. But within the soul the peace of Christ increases, as Christ present within the soul gives grace and spiritual nourishment.

It is not the duty of the priest, at a Requiem Mass, to announce that the deceased person is certainly in Heaven. His duty is to lead the Church in prayer, and to offer the Holy Sacrifice for the remission of the sins of the living and the departed. Only God knows who has been saved - though we should live in hope - and who has gone straight to Heaven: God and His Church, who canonises the Saints.

They do not see our sins; yet the saints in Heaven are in Communion with us. They see our joys, and comfort us by their prayers when we are in pain or dispirited. There is no death, for those who live in Christ: only 'life in Christ'

Though we might recognise how weak and sinful we are, we are acting with wisdom if we come to Mass with contrite hearts, so that we are present as Christ prays to the Father on our behalf. Christ knows all our needs.

God invites us to love Him, to follow the hard road of obedience until we die, and share His love, with the Saints, eternally. People who refuse to love God and who deliberately take the broad road, refusing to repent of their sins, find that at death, by their own choice, they remain on the same path, on which there is no light from Heaven, nor any Heavenly peace, joy, beauty or companionship. To be without God is to exist in Hell.

In a story, a kind king told His children that He would give them every advantage, and make them very happy, but they must learn to take responsibility for their behaviour. He said: When you are grown-up, and if you deliberately do grave wrong, you will go to prison. They all agreed that the king's words are wise and just. And so it is, with the warnings given to us by Jesus Christ our God and King, about persistant grave sin, and Hell.

A person who has successfully struggled against sin or temptation might expect to feel joyful, not tearful and half-dead. Yet he is like a man who is just leaving a battlefield, who only then sees his ragged uniform, and his wounds. It takes time to recover, and to regain equilibrium.

It has always been true; and it is true today: that a person who turns to God in sorrow for her sins, repenting, is forgiven. This is true even of grave sins such as abortion. People who receive forgiveness in the sacrament of Penance can be certain that their sins have been wiped away, and their souls made beautiful in God's sight.

We cannot save ourselves; but if we hold on to Christ and His Church, as if to a life-line from a pit, we can allow Him to draw us up to Heaven - so long as we are not so distracted, or tempted to clutch at sin, that we let go, and fall into the depths, through our own fault.

The sanctuary of a Catholic church is a holy place, just as was the holy of holies in the Temple at Jerusalem. A man who enters the sanctuary as a priest to offer Christ in sacrifice, in the Mass, should be pure and holy in body, mind and soul. If he is not, he should repent, and confess his sins when he can.

God sends down His gifts from Heaven, including the gift of life, in newly-conceived babies, each of whom has an immortal soul. Yet Satan has engineered the whole abortion business, and many women who are dismayed to be pregnant ignore God's laws and seek a doctor who will kill and expel the child: a barbaric act.

Christ sends down new life from Heaven: the living souls of babies, which are sometimes then rejected by their own mothers, and killed in the womb by Doctors who agree with this practice. Satan boasts, as he points towards parliament, that many of it's members are as guilty as those who do abortions, since legislators voted for it to be made legal.

We can talk, and help people outside the Church. Someone who is convinced that the Catholic Church is wrong about the sinfulness of abortion or any other major topic has built a great wall which obscures from view the Church and its entire, coherent body of teachings about faith and morals handed on since Christ and the Apostles.

Each human being receives life from God, Who plans that each can progress from infancy to adulthood, and - by God's grace - from spiritual infancy to maturity, and then to a life of bliss in Heaven. What a tragedy it is, when a tiny person is aborted, and denied life's development, or when an older person loses God through sin.

Satan can appear in any form, in the imagination, in order to terrify, weaken, assault or discourage a follower of Christ. The fulfilment of Christ's plans is something he cannot bear to see, and he has all sorts of deceit and trickery which he uses to draw people away from the hard road to Heaven.

Christ is overjoyed by those who love and obey Him. One of the worst experiences of Christ's Passion, as He hung on the Cross, was the sight He saw - by His Divine insight - of those who would take no notice of His words, or of His desire to save them. His heartache was indescribable, as He saw souls walking away, towards damnation, through their own choices.