Fr. Dwight Longenecker began the best ever Marian Eucharistic conference with the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass on the Feast of St. Charles Borromeo. This year marked the 500th anniversary of the reformation begun by Martin Luther. Alas, it shattered the unity of the Church. Of course, the church needed reform--there was widespread corruption and widespread ignorance of the faith--but instead of reforming from the inside, he broke away and the result has been terrible: a deformation of the faith outside the Church. Enter Charles Borromeo, who had a true reformer's heart and brought the Church back to its true mission, which is to bring our Lord Jesus Christ to all people so that they might be saved through Him.
Look around. We have the same problems as 500 years ago. Lots of sins, bad priests, lax Catholics, etc. The poor we'll always have with us, but now it's more than material poverty. We see people who are spiritually poor or dead. We see lack of virtue. Do not despair. Take heart. We need to follow the example of St. Charles Borromeo, who did what he could, where he was, with what he had, and God blessed it enormously.
Father Longenecker also gave a lecture on praying the rosary for spiritual warfare. He begins with the basics. What is prayer? The childish notion can be that of a vending machine. But our Lord Jesus Himself taught us how to pray. The core and heart of every prayer is: Thy will be done. C. S. Lewis said there are two types of people. Those who say, "Thy will be done," and those to whom God says, "thy will be done." They reject God and God will never force Himself upon anybody. We don't become God's mindless little robots when we pray: Thy will be done. Our will is very important. We have been created in God's image. Look at the attributes of God and ask how those same attributes are reflected in us. Our free will is a smidge of His omnipotence. We can do what we want within the limitations of our life. We can choose God or choose to sin. We can choose to repent, etc. Prayer is the way we hitch our will to God's.
What is evil? It is the distortion or destruction of the good, beautiful, and true. The devil cannot create anything. He can only destroy. He only breaks, twists, tears things. He presents what he's doing as good. Dresses up the rat poison. Just like darkness is the absence of light, cold the absence of heat, so evil is the absence of good, true, and beautiful.
People say Catholics are obsessed with sex. Why are we against pornography, adultery, fornication, etc.? Those things are evil because they break marriage. Marriage is a lifelong commitment between one man and one woman to nurture love that has the capacity to create a new life for all eternity. Satan hates this.
All this to say that the rosary is us praying with Mary. She tramples down evil and when we pray the rosary we fight with her. All the saints recommend this because it is a way to enter more deeply into prayer. One way to counter evil is to pray for all the good. It follows the saying: Better to light a candle than curse the dark.
He has another book: The Mystery of the Magi that sounds fascinating.
Father Wade Menezes has a new book out on the Four Last Things: Death, Judgment, Heaven, and Hell. But his lecture was on the 1917 message of Our Lady of Fatima to the three shepherd children. He calls it CPR: a call to conversion, prayer, penance, reparation, repentance. The message still reverberates and is as relevant as before. 2016 was the Jubilee Year of Mercy. We need mercy because of sin. Baptism wipes away original sin but its effects remain.
God is more interested in the person you can become than the person you were. No matter what your sins are, they can be forgiven. But you have to admit your fault before God, then you receive mercy. Sin wounds you; mercy heals you. Jesus wants to give us His peace; He doesn't want you to fall to pieces. So repent and confess your sins. Jesus showed us His wounds so that we will not be afraid to show Him ours, both physical and moral. The root of all problems is sin. So we must pray and make sacrifices. Personal conversion and amendment of life leads to social change. Yes, we change the world by changing ourselves.
Fatima is the most prophetic modern-day Marian apparition and it is approved by the Holy See. It showed the frightening reality of hell, and if prayers and penance not offered, an even greater evil. Communism will spread. Cities will be annihilated (could this refer to nuclear war?). Now we have a widespread culture of death, not only on a global level with genocide, terrorism, suicide attacks, chemical, biological weapons, etc. but also at the personal level. The five non-negotiables are: abortion, euthanasia, contraception, cloning, unnatural marriage (adultery, fornication, divorce & remarriage, cohabitation, homosexual acts). When sin becomes the law of the land, you have to wonder how--it's rooted in personal sin.
An interesting tidbit. Our Lady warned of evil fashions. This was 1917. Clearly it was referring to the future. If only flapper dresses and coquettish hats were fashionable now.
Fr. Wade also talked about the recently deceased Cardinal Caffara's communication with Sister Lucia. He had asked for prayers for the John Paul II Institute of Marriage and Family and she wrote him back: "the final battle between the Lord and the reign of Satan will be about marriage and the family. Don’t be afraid, she added, because anyone who works for the sanctity of marriage and the family will always be fought and opposed in every way, because this is the decisive issue. And then she concluded: however, Our Lady has already crushed its head."
https://rorate-caeli.blogspot.com/2015/06/cardinal-what-sister-lucia-told-me.html
We had supper on Friday night at Swad -- best dosa I've had since our days in WA. This was the sunrise from our hotel and best of all, zero headaches. Like I said, best Marian Eucharistic Conference ever.
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