A Good Witch Story

As long as it is Halloween, I thought I'd give you a good witch story:

Trick or Treat?

Bad News....

More than half of all U.S. couples live together before marriage.

There are 2.4 million marriages a year in the US and 1.2 million divorces a year. 

The US has the third highest divorce rate in the world.

70% of Christian men look at pornography.

Pornography is the number one export of America.

Americans spend $13. 1 BILLION on pornography each year, the same amount that we give in foreign aid.

More than 260 million Internet pages are pornographic, an increase in 1, 800% in the last five years.

One large study ten years ago showed that 56 percent of divorce cases involved one party having an obsessive interest in

pornographic websites. Another more recent and extensive research showed that in 2/3rds of all divorces pornography played a significant role. That equates to well over 600,000 divorces each year in the US.

More than 1/3 of married Christian men commit adultery. 

But it gets worse:

35% of teen boys say they have viewed pornographic videos “more times than they can count.”

15% of boys and 9% of girls have seen child pornography.

32% of boys and 18% of girls have seen bestiality online.

39% of boys and 23% of girls have seen sexual bondage online.

83% of boys and 57% of girls have seen group sex online.

Many teenagers involved in a relationship are being pressed to engage in anal sex.

Okay enough! 

And the worse news is that is just the beginning.

So what do we do? Do we just watch tv and eat popcorn and allow the Lord to take care of it? Do we have a momentary sigh and wish there was something we could do? 

There is. You be holy. You be a saint. That is the very best thing we can do. We have the power of all heaven at our disposal if we get on our knees. Time to get serious. Time to watch. Time to listen. Time to fast and pray.

He's our only hope.

______________________

Sources:

http://www.charismanews.com

Some of these statistics were testified by Dr. Jill Manning (reported by Psychology Today Magazine) at a 2004 United States Senate Committee meeting as well as from the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers.

http://www.divorcesource.com/ds/main/u-s-divorce-rates-and-statistics-1037.shtml

As well as other sources

Faithful Shepherds?

  I, [the Lord Almighty] will judge your leaders for ruining my vineyard and plundering the house of the poor. The bishops and priests and pastors who have been crushing God's people and grinding their faces. O my people, your guides lead you astray; they turn you from the path.

Isaiah 3:1-12 updated for our times.

 As Christians, where did we get this idea that our bishops, priests and pastors were going to do the right thing, were going to be faithful to Christ? Certainly not from scripture:

His watchmen are blind, All of them know nothing. Allof them are mute dogs unable to bark, Dreamers lying down, who love to slumber; And the dogsare greedy , they are not satisfied. And they are shepherds who have no understanding; They have all turned to their own way, Each one to his unjust gain, to the last one. "Come," they say, "let us get wine, and let us drink heavily of strong drink; And tomorrow will be like today, only more so." Isaiah 56:10-12 

For the shepherds have become stupid And have not sought the Lord; Therefore they have not prospered, And all their flock is scattered. Jeremiah 10: 12

Many shepherds have ruined My vineyard, They have trampled down My field; They have made My pleasant field A desolate wilderness. Jeremiah 12: 10. 

"Woe to the shepherds who are destroying and scattering the sheep of My pasture!" declares the Lord. Therefore thus says the Lord God of Israel concerning the shepherds who are tendingMy people: "You have scattered My flock and driven them away, and have not attended to them; behold, I am about to attend to you for the evil of your deeds," declares the Lord. Jer. 23: 1-2 

Weep and wail, you shepherds; roll in the dust, you leaders of the flock. For your time to be slaughtered has come; you will fall and be shattered like fine pottery. The shepherds will have nowhere to flee, the leaders of the flock no place to escape. Hear the cry of the shepherds, the wailing of the leaders of the flock, for the Lord is destroying their pasture. Jer. 25: 34

My people have been lost sheep; their shepherds have led them astray and caused them to roam on the mountains. They wandered over mountain and hill and forgot their own resting place. Jer. 50: 6 

Woe to the shepherds of Israel who only take care of themselves! Should not shepherds take care of the flock? You eat the curds, clothe yourselves with the wool and slaughter the choice animals, but you do not take care of the flock. You have not strengthened the weak or healed the sick or bound up the injured. You have not brought back the strays or searched for the lost. You have ruled them harshly and brutally. So they were scattered because there was no shepherd, and when they were scattered they became food for all the wild animals....This is what the Sovereign Lord says: I am against the shepherds and will hold them accountable for my flock. Ez. 24:2-5, 10. 

My anger burns against the shepherds, and I will punish the leaders.... Zech. 10: 3

Jesus called Israel's leaders vipers and white-washed tombs. But His own disciples acted little different when in Gethsemane they all scattered at the first sign of trouble. Judas, the man who sold Christ for 30 pieces of silver was among His hand-picked! Peter, the betrayer, was the prince and leader of the leaders! Therefore we know that those who are called are often very weak men and the position as leader often calls them to courageously fight to become strong men of God. And some of them can and do fail in that struggle.

It's not just Israel's problem. After Christ ascended to heaven their were problems with the shepherds. (Jude 1: 12) 

The Bible doesn't tell us the shepherds anointed by God and set over the people are going to be faithful. Quite the opposite. The leaders are no better at following God then we are at following our leaders!

So where did this idea of looking to our Christian leaders to be faithful originate? In Christian history? No.

Christian History

Many popes and bishops failed the Bride. When King Henry VIII threatened England's bishops if they didn't support him as the head of the church,

St. John Fisher, Martyred by King Henry 8th

all but one or two of the bishops crumbled and cut themselves off from the pope. 

Throughout history God's sheep have been dazed by greedy, selfish, cowardly shepherds. Expect that it will be that way today. Somehow, miraculously the church is still here after two thousand years. Christ has kept His promise to never leave her. 

In Catholicism Today

The Church seems to be having its own Gethsemane moment where are bishops are falling asleep or sneaking behind a few bushes in order to avoid persecution. Hold on... just like the Apostles during Friday and Saturday, its going to get worse before it gets better, but know that the Body of Christ, His Bride, will remain even thought the great

Apostolic stars seem to fall. Remain steadfast within the Body. Sunday is coming. 

Where have I heard that?

Raymond Arroyo's Interview with Cardinal Burke about Synod of the Family

Catholic Synod of Bishops on the Family

The Catholic question du jour is: Should Catholics who have been married, divorced and remarried be allowed to receive the Eucharist? 

In a couple of days, the Vatican will host a small but worldwide assembly of bishops will be discussing this at at an Extraordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops on topics related to the family and evangelization. There will be no dogmatic pronouncement, the USCCB reports that this synod is to "assist the Holy Father by providing counsel on important questions 

facing the Church in a manner that preserves the Church's teaching and strengthens her internal discipline." Don't expect any new "ex-cathedra" statements. However, there is still a lot of angst among some theologians that the bishops will influence the pastoral approach to Catholics. 

Here's my two pennies and that isn't worth much. First, what Christ wrote about the indissolubility of marriage: 

"Whoever divorces his wife and marries another woman commits adultery against her; and if she herself divorces her husband and marries another man, she is committing adultery." Mark 10:10-12

That's pretty straight forward. Yet Matthew records an exception to that rule. 

Sola Apostasion

The whole doctrine of divorce stands or falls with one word of Jesus stated on the Sermon on the Mount. Here's the whole passage that deals with marriage:    

"It was said, 'Whoever sends his wife away, let him give her a certificate of divorce' but I say to you that everyone who divorces his wife, except for the reason of unchastity, makes her commit adultery; and whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery. Matt. 5: 31, 32

Since "unchastity" is the sole and only reason a person can be divorced, so we better know what that word meant to Jesus' listeners. The original word in Greek is porneia, which can be broadly defined from anything from general immorality to an illicit marriage, specifically marrying a close relative or a civil union or a concubinage. 

So the liberal bishops are saying that the church should read this passage as broadly as possible so that annulments are more easily obtained. The conservatives want to keep in defined more specifically and historically to mean illicit marriages. 

Personally, my heart wishes mercy for those remarried and a broader interpretation of porneia. My head, however, worries about the consequences of broadening the definition. 

However the Synod goes, I will support the church for it was given the power to bind and loose. So if bishops keeps this bound, I will pray for those people whose expectations will be wounded by the ruling. If the synod liberalizes it, I will weep for joy for those who can now participate and pray that the overall tone will not be one of, "now that we have this one, let's go for the definition of marriage and the usage of contraception."

One more Biblical passage that will back up the bishops' authority to make a ruling on this. Look at  Jesus' words in the gospel of Mark 10: 

[The Pharisees asked Jesus,] "Why then did Moses command to give her a certificate of divorce and send her away?" Jesus

responded, "Because of your hardness of heart Moses permitted you to divorce your wives; but from the beginning it has not been this way." 

Moses had such powerful God-given authority that  he saw the hardness of Israel's heart and was able to loose the original intent of marriage and bring in divorce. Does the New Covenant Church not have as much power to bind and loose as Moses? 

Therefore, do not lose heart no matter what the church does or does not do. God will give you the grace to have a supernatural faithfulness to His Church even when we at times feel like despairing. Christianity is about carrying the Cross God has given us even when we are confused. Have faith that God will not abandon you nor His Church.