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So, now I have this really cool platform of integrated websites and a podcast. We have Youtube, we have Twitter and we have Facebook and we have Blogtalkradio. We have our own email and PO Box and the application to be a non-profit is paid for and sent. On top of all that, it is Easter Sunday, the Holiest day of the year. I have multiple computers, I have thousands of dollars in premium design and research software and I have lots and lots of books. It would seem like the only thing I don't have is excuses. Yet, here I sit mired in the intellectual muck, frozen in emotional quicksand. I know there are others who -right now- are where I am and it's a little bit of a unique vantage point We are not used to led into battle by those on equal footing and that's what I am in so many ways. I do not have a degree from Notre Dame or Catholic University of Franciscan University of Steubenville or even Christendom, whose shadow I lived in for nearly 5 1/2 years. Yet, here I am believing, wanting, trusting in the fact that I have something to say to all of you that may aid you in your walk. I, who have been stripped of everything I once was, would have the audacity to think I have something to say. What is so amazing about this faith we have is that I am not wrong. It is not my pedigree, as I have already stated. It is not my bloodline nor have I ever served in the military or held political office. I have the distinct honor and privilege of knowing and understanding a ruined life and the comprehension that a great measure of the damage was self-inflicted by my own stupidity and ingratitude and torpidity. To sum it all up, I had faith in word only and I have suffered the consequences for it and the price has been steep. I now know exactly where I want wrong and I want to use my testimony to help others trying to find the way. What I found was that the severest consequences for addictive sin are often meted out when you try to escape the addiction rather than when are you wallowing in it. This seemed to me to make God look kind of mean, to be honest with you. "Lord", I would say, "I'm trying my absolute hardest to serve you and find the answers but you answer me with calamities". This happened too many times in my life to count. George Bailey (Jimmy Stewart) describes this phenomena perfectly in the classic It's a wonderful life when he gives that memorable line : "I got a bust in the mouth as an answer to a prayer". One practical example. Exactly a week before Christmas 2022- not 5 months ago- I petitioned Our Blessed Lady to obtain from Our Lord a bit of a break from the misfortunes so I could have a chance of getting on my feet. The result? A plumbing fixture ruptured that day and flooded my basement. It was not the answer I was looking for. The answer did come. About 3 weeks later a dramatic and inexplicable (you may even say miraculous) chain of events began that has totally changed where I am at in life. The sudden expansion of this apostolate is a manifestation of that. I think that is the essence of what I have to offer. The testimony of one man- battered but not beaten, chastened but not abandoned. I know there is a genuine need for more empathizers rather than sympathizers and that is- I suppose- the point of the Thornton Wilder quote I reference. The Bible tells us that there are 3 Cardinal virtues not one. They are Faith, yes but also Hope and Love. Love, says the Sacred book, not Faith, is the greatest of all these 3. Why would that be? If Salvation is of Faith Alone, how can Paul say that Love is greater? How could Paul and James both say that Love covers a multitude of sins? If Salvation is of Faith, how could Jesus say of Mary Magdalen that her sins were forgiven because of her great love? Am I suggesting that one can be saved without faith? Far from it. I also affirm that genuine love is impossible without faith. Yet, just as surely, genuine faith is impossible without love and genuine love is impossible without sacrifice and that sacrifice sometimes hurts. 5 times in the Gospels, Jesus is recorded as saying that only the Disciple who will deny his own self and take up his own cross can be worthy of Him, the Savior. Luke 9:23 And He was saying to them all, “If anyone wants to come after Me, he must deny himself, take up his cross daily, and follow Me. How are people able to claim Christ and deny a verse like this one? Or even more.... this one. Matthew 3 But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to his baptism,he said to them,“You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? 8 Bear fruit in keeping with repentance.9 And do not presume to say to yourselves,‘We have Abraham as our father,’for I I tell you,God is able from these stones to raise up children for Abraham.10 Even now the axe is laid to the root of the trees. Every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Try as you might, you cannot reconcile these verses with the doctrine of "faith alone" or "once saved always saved". However, the real clincher is the words of Jesus Himself who never once taught that simple faith was enough to be saved. Matthew 25:31-46 is just about as clear as it gets on this matter. 31: "When the Son of man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne.32: Before him will be gathered all the nations, and he will separate them one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats,33: and he will place the sheep at his right hand, but the goats at the left.34: Then the King will say to those at his right hand, `Come, O blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world;35: for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me,36: I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me. '37: Then the righteous will answer him, `Lord, when did we see thee hungry and feed thee, or thirsty and give thee drink?38: And when did we see thee a stranger and welcome thee, or naked and clothe thee?39: And when did we see thee sick or in prison and visit thee?'0: And the King will answer them, `Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brethren, you did it to me.' 41: Then he will say to those at his left hand, `Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels;42: for I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me no drink,43: I was a stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not clothe me, sick and in prison and you did not visit me.'44: Then they also will answer, `Lord, when did we see thee hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not minister to thee?'45: Then he will answer them, `Truly, I say to you, as you did it not to one of the least of these, you did it not to me.'46: And they will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life." Romans Chapter 2 is just as clear: 1: Therefore you have no excuse, O man, whoever you are, when you judge another; for in passing judgment upon him you condemn yourself, because you, the judge, are doing the very same things.2: We know that the judgment of God rightly falls upon those who do such things. 3: Do you suppose, O man, that when you judge those who do such things and yet do them yourself, you will escape the judgment of God?4: Or do you presume upon the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience? Do you not know that God's kindness is meant to lead you to repentance?5: But by your hard and impenitent heart you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath when God's righteous judgment will be revealed. 6: For he will render to every man according to his works: 7: to those who by patience in well-doing seek for glory and honor and immortality, he will give eternal life; 8: but for those who are factious and do not obey the truth, but obey wickedness, there will be wrath and fury.9: There will be tribulation and distress for every human being who does evil, the Jew first and also the Greek,10: but glory and honor and peace for every one who does good, the Jew first and also the Greek. 11: For God shows no partiality.12: All who have sinned without the law will also perish without the law, and all who have sinned under the law will be judged by the law.13: For it is not the hearers of the law who are righteous before God, but the doers of the law who will be justified. This texts are starkly- even frighteningly- clear. The same is true with virtually all of the truths of our Sacred faith. So, what is next? Our mission is clear: Convert the unbeliever. Catechize the convert. Motivate the Catechized. Empower the motivated. Change the world for Jesus! To do so requires love and it requires genuineness. We must reach the crushed and broken where they are which is where we once were. In the battle of love, only wounded soldiers can serve.

It's so easy to get caught up in images of little kids in their spiffy Easter outfits, searching diligently for colored eggs and a bounty of food waiting at home. Maybe your life hasn't been going so great and you think maybe Easter isn't for you. Nonsense! Easter is especially for you. Easter isn't just about looking back to what happened 1990 years ago but for what is awaiting all of us. There is a resurrection waiting for each of us if we can dare to persevere to the end. Not without struggle, mind you. Not without pain. Certainly not without faith and God's grace. Easy? No. Possible? Absolutely. If there is anything the great saints have taught us is that God provides each of us- without exception- with all we need to be saved. We have our own specially made stew of blessings and joys, trials, tribulations and Graces. The Master Chef gives us each our own recipe of the individual and public ingredients we need. We lack nothing. Some of us will be too quick to complain about the unpleasant ingredients and too slow to be grateful for the pleasant ones, but there will be many opportunities for us to wise up and seek the aid of heaven. Those who suffer on earth have at their disposal a two-fold blessing. The first is in seeing the world as it truly is- wholly inadequate to satisfy. The second is the opportunity to pay those pennies of purgation now instead of long years in the prison. Yes, He is Risen. He is also ascended. He promised to come back to take us where He is. The hope should inspire us to keep going. What could be better than that?

I did something for the first time in at least 3 years today. I went to the gym and lifted some weights. What a dramatic turn of events from the period of 2018-19 when I was literally going 4 or 5 days a week without fail. Sometimes things go wrong and sometimes it's a lot of things. In those times, it is often important to give yourself something to feel good about. Don't laugh. It's true. There are times where you need something- anything- you can find to look back on and say "Well, I accomplished this today.... " Getting some of those cheap wins- and building on them- isn't going to suddenly reverse all your troubles but it will reverse the mentality of defeat. There is value in changing a mindset just enough to keep you moving forward so you don't get the proverbial car stuck in the proverbial snow. It's all about momentum. A wise man has taught me this. Get up and wash the dishes. Cut the grass if it is all you can find to do or do what I did- go to the gym and sweat. If it were not for this mindset, I would not have survived the last 5- 1/2 years of my life. This apostolate is the hallmark of someone trying to climb higher. You cannot get to the "climbing higher" phase without getting through the "just keep going" phase. Often, what you learn in the "just keep going" phase prepares you for the "climbing higher" phase. That has certainly been the case with me. In order to keep going, I have read books. Lots of them. These books have helped me understand the storms of my life and our Catholic faith. It's all part of that 4 persons approach again. The books feed the mind and the soul, and the exercise strengthens the body and helps the emotional well-being. Small wins, to be sure but that's a big part of the Christian walk. In fact, one of the greatest saints in the history of our church was a meek little woman who pioneered what became known as the little way. Her book- Story of a soul is one of the 2 or 3 best selling Christian books in history. This is a pretty remarkable achievement for someone who was not a stigmatic nor a worker of miracles but every day, in every way, lived a life of utter simplicity and humility until she died at the tender age of 24 years old. It was precisely her simplicity that was so grand because she showed all of the rest of us how even doing the little things- like scrubbing the floor- can save us and others. Saint Therese of Lisieux is probably smiling now. She knows (and so do I) that this broken down 58-year-old body is only going to be able to benefit so much from a gym membership. That's not the point. Every little bit I can do is a small win. Enough small wins can keep you going to the finish line.

First, the name-because people ask about it all the time. It's right there in the quote from Mark 12. The love of God must be a complete giving of the Emotional, Mental, Spiritual and Physical self. You can hold nothing back. That's what we are trying to do. The task is daunting because all of us have to fit this into our daily lives of work, family, going to the gym and all the other demands of life. It's daunting because we are trying to be more creative in so many ways and that requires so much learning and acquiring new knowledge and skills to give you a better finished product. The Great God is showing me every day and more and more and more that daunting does not constitute impossible and if we keep marching forward as prayerful warriors, we can often be astounded at what He can accomplish through us. Not what we can accomplish, mind you buy what He can accomplish through us. Without Him, I can't. Without me, He won't. ~ Saint Augustine This is the notion of synergistic Grace upon which we work out our own salvation in fear and trembling (Philippians 2:12) The growth of this apostolate will at times be frustratingly slow. Frustrating not because it is not unexpected or unreasonable but because we humans are so impatient. That is part of God's good humor because He builds perseverance in us even as we build this ministry. So, let me just catalogue the things we are doing and have done. Our platforms are going to be top level stuff. We have paid the highest premium rate for our Blogtalkradio platform (platinum level) and are putting a team together that is going to give you expertise in theology, philosophy, history, psychological well-being and hands-on apologetics and civic action. The program is on blogtalkradio.com/the4persons and the supporting website is at the4persons.com. We have also purchased top flight equipment and software to support our youtube platform, our blogs, our supplemental audio contributions and our websites. The books and software and content material and experience we bring to the table is quite impressive and growing. Our content is not being designed to be the same cookie cutter template stuff you often see but real education and spiritual direction brought to you in a fresh, innovative and engaging format. The process has begun to make this a 501c3 and eventually move to full time status. Eventually, you will be able to support us, should you so choose, with your tax deductable contributions. Right now you can support us by promoting our content and getting involved. There are a hundred big and small ways that you can help. Please email us at email@the4persons.com to learn more. Please keep us in your prayers.

Is everyone familiar with who Saint Dismas was? Saint Dismas was the "good thief" who was crucified next to Jesus. I'm not so certain of where the term "good thief" came from, because if he had been really good and being a thief, he wouldn't have been arrested and therefore would not have been crucified; but that is another story for another time. On the cross he doesn't beg Jesus to save him from his execution, he simply asks Jesus to remember him when Jesus comes into His Kingdom. Saint Dismas was not a theological scholar and was probably not well versed on Heaven, Hell or the Kingdom Jesus spoke of. But he had faith in the Words of Christ. The Brothers of Saint Dismas began in prison. We took this name in honor of the first recorded Saint (Jesus told him "this day thou shalt be with Me in paradise) because we too had been convicted for our crimes. We were, initially all convicts. A Fraternity of Catholic Convicts determined to help one another live holy lives in a world darkened by sin and suffering. In a world where most had embraced Satan in one form or the other. A world where murder, rape and every form of violence imaginable was a day to day occurrence. Within this world, we chose Christ. We chose to live the Catholic Faith, and assist one another along the way. I was member 351. I was baptized on Beto-1 TDCJ-ID Unit on November 21, 2001. I had already done 10 years and was a gang leader. I became Catholic, and while my gang knew this and respected it; others did not know, or did not care. A riot issued shortly after my baptism and I was placed in segregation for participating. Segregation is as close to hell as man can make. I watched strong men simply loose their minds in there. But this was the best thing for my faith. I read a LOT of Catholic material and began to grow in the knowledge of Christ and His Church. A year and a half later I was released and shortly thereafter I was transferred to Ramsey 2, where I learned about the Brothers of Saint Dismas and joined. Tommy Picard got our a few years before me and began bringing his vision to pass. A program called C.R.I.S.P. Catholic Reintegration Into Society Program. When Brothers got out, they were given a backpack with necessary items, and a phone. This led to the foundation of the Kolbe House. I will go into detail about the house in another blog, but it was a method house that was donated. The Brothers of Saint Dismas renovated it and turned it into a halfway house for Catholic men getting out of prison. Since this house opened, not one person who arrived has gone back prison. A free world chapter of the Brothers of Saint Dismas was formed in Houston and Deacon Denis Hayes took over the administrative aspects of both the Kolbe House and the BSD. It was decided that being in prison was not a requirement for entry into the Brothers of Saint Dismas (BSD) and many prison ministers became involved. Today, the BSD and the Kolbe House make frequent trips to downtown Houston delivering clothing and food to the homeless and the poor. A chaple was built behind the Kolbe House and a retired Priest says Mass there every Tuesday Evening. Why am I writing this story? It is to show you, that with Jesus there is no place where good can't happen. He took me, and all of us out of the darkest of environments and allowed His Light to shine through us all. A second faith based house was established and opened in Huntsville, Texas a few months ago. Please pray for us as we mover forward. Assistance can be sent to dismag.org (our sister group are the "Sisters of Mary Magdalene" Saint Dismas pray for us.

Catholics are hereby invited to contribute to The 4 Persons (T4P). We are going to be doing everything from blog articles, radio shows, video and working with a loose confederation of other great catholic sites! Do not make the mistake of thinking you don't have the time or the talent. We have a lot of small roles you can help with. If you have a passion for Catholicism, we have a role for you. Email me at sonlitknight@gmail.com for more information!

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On the website psychiatry.org, so-called medical professionals make 2 blanket statements (circled above) that are absolutely indefensible on any level- moral, intellectual or scientific. It is this broadening and expanding of the definition of mental illness that began in the 1970's and has brought us to the point where the term "mental illness" is virtually meaningless. This broadening of the issue of mental illness to include emotion and behavior contrasts sharply with the legal definition of someone's mental capacity. -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Mental Capacity The ability, capability, or fitness to do something; a legal right, power, or competency to perform some act. An ability to comprehend both the nature and consequences of one's acts. Capacity relates to soundness of mind and to an intelligent understanding and perception of one's actions. It is the power either to create or to enter into a legal relation under the same conditions or circumstances as a person of sound mind or normal intelligence would have the power to create or to enter. A person of normal intelligence and sound mind has the capacity to dispose of his or her property by will as he or she sees fit. A capacity defense is used in both criminal and civil actions to describe a lack of fundamental ability to be accountable for one's action that nullifies the element of intent when intent is essential to the action, thereby relieving a person of responsibility for it. An individual under duress lacks the capacity to contract; a child under the age of seven accused of committing a crime lacks criminal capacity. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Simply stated, the Mental person is that agent within each individual responsible for the processing of information and formulating conclusions and making decisions. It is entirely focused on the cognitive function of the brain. By incorporating cognitive function, emotion and behavior into strictly a medical phenomena- as this website clearly tries to do- it rejects those essential elements of what make a properly functioning human being and reduce us to nothing more than robots. In short, it are the concepts of good and evil that are divorced from the lexicon in an attempt to merge these into our definitions of healthy and ill. Enter Nikolas Cruz. The date of February 14th, 2018 was a rare occurrence where the Catholic Holy days of Ash Wednesday and Saint Valentines day fell on the same day. Sadly, this day will be remembered for something far worse. Nikolas Cruz entered Marjorie Stoneman Douglas high school in Parkland Florida that day, with evil in his heart. At 2:21 PM, he entered the school through a 1st floor stairwell and shot three kids in cold blood. The 3 kids- Gina Montalto (age 14), Martin Duque (14) and Luke Hoyer (15) were gunned down as they attempted to enter classroom 1215. Hoyer and Duque died at the school, Montalto was transported to an area hospital and pronounced dead that night. It seems she was possibly the very first victim hit and the last to be identified as a fatality. She was described as the kindest person ever. Cruz's sick rampage had just begun. Within 2 more minutes, Cruz struck a total of 20 more kids, one in the hallway and the rest by shooting into classrooms. Classrooms 1213, 1214 and 1216 were the additional rooms hit. Of the 20 victims, 6 died. Nicholas Dworwet 17 Helena Ramsey 17 Alex Schacter 14 Carmen Schentrup 16 Alyssa Alhadeff 14 Alaina Petty 14 This brought the death toll to 9. One of the wounded was Chris Hixon 49. Hixon was the athletic director. He ran into the building and charged the gunman and was then shot. He attempted to get back up but was too seriously injured. Helpless to escape, he was shot again-3 times- when Cruz later found the spot he was hiding in. Chris was still alive when rescue workers arrived and was transported to a hospital in serious condition. Was Cruz done? hardly. He ran into a stairwell and encountered football coach Aaron Feis 37 who was shot trying to wrestle the gun from the assailant. Feis stumbled outside and later became the 10th fatality. Sadly, Hixon also died later, at the hospital. The killer ran up the stairs and spent about 2 minutes working his way across the 2nd floor. Finding no victims, he ran, undeterred up to the 3rd floor. Cruz had now shot 24 people, 11 of those would die. Methodically, in a cold, calculated pursuit he continued. He exited the stairwell at 2:24:30 PM according to the time line. Within 10 seconds, he hit 6 more victims. Teacher Scott Beigel 35 was killed. Anthony Borges was shot 5 times barricading a door with his body to save other kids. He would go on to become the most grievously injured person to survive. To show such heroism as a high school freshman is remarkable, to say the least. Among the 4 other wounded were Meadow Pollack 18 and Cara Loughran 14 who collapsed in an alcove outside room 1249. Pollack had been hit 4 times but still had the presence of mind and courage to crawl over and cover Loughlin with her body to shield her. Joaquin Olliver 17 was also hit in the knee and collapsed outside the restroom. Within a minute, Cruz hit 4 more victims. Peter Wang 15 was killed holding the stairwell door open to save other kids. Wang was another heroic freshman. Jaime Guttenberg 14 was shot before escaping into the stairwell but was hit again and killed. Cruz found the wounded Pollack covering the terrified Loughran and, with indescribable cruelty, shot her 5 more times which killed them both. Pollack was shot a total of 9 times. He then came upon the wounded Oliver and with unimaginable cruelty, according to a witness, shot him 10 more times in the leg before finishing him off with a fatal head shot. Cruz shot at least 7 of his victims 8 or more times. Wang was hit 13 times, Oliver 12 times. Allysa Alhadef was shot 10 times. Martin Duque was shot 8 times. Savage, to say the least. In all, Cruz hit 34 people, 31 of them teenagers. 17 of those 34 people would die. 12 died in the school. 3 (Duque, Feis and Ramsey) died on the grounds of the school and 2 (Hixon and Montalto) were pronounced dead at the hospital. The killer planned the rampage and bragged about it on video, beforehand. On the fateful day, he disassembled and packed his rifle. He then took an Uber to the school and entered a stairwell where he confronted a freshman and told him he'd better get out of there because something was about to go down. He then proceed to systematically shoot almost 140 rounds hitting 34 people before escaping the building and blending in with the crowd. Experts say he moved like a professional conducting a military operation. You may be wondering why I have gone into such great detail to describe this horrific event. The reason is that there are some among us (including the defense team in this case) who deny the essential spiritual elements of what makes us human beings. In the insanity of doing this, they are reduced to describing this horror as a result of mental illness instead of what all of us see it as- evil. This is not only an absurd conclusion, it is a very dangerous one. I remind you of the quotes on the graphic at the start of this article: Mental illnesses are health conditions involving changes in emotion, thinking or behavior (or a combination of these). Mental illnesses are associated with distress and/or problems functioning in social, work or family activities. Mental illness is nothing to be ashamed of. It is a medical problem, just like heart disease or diabetes. In short, these people are actually arguing that good and evil do not exist and that these kinds of acts are a result of mental defect and nothing more. This was the defense that was used in this case and the headlines showed it. It is true that the jury didn't buy it and the families of the victims certainly didn't. Very few of the public believes this either. All of that is beside the point. The fact that this argument is even made shows that today's modern psychiatric profession are off-the-reservation. In other words, they are the most mentally ill of all. Mental illness- properly defined- is an impairment to mental cognition. It is the inability to effectively see reality. To me, there could not be a more pronounced evidence of this condition than the denial of good and evil as objective realities wholly independent of mental capacity. It is impossible - objectively speaking - to argue that the assailant's mental cognition was impaired in any way. I would even say that his attack was well planned and efficiently executed. In fact, the lack of coordination and intelligence was far more present in the police response than in the attack. Cruz fired nearly 140 rounds in about 5 minutes. Nearly half of those rounds were shot into just 7 people. His attack was precise, methodical and efficient. There is absolutely nothing to support the idea that he was not 100% composed and in full possession of his mental faculties. From a mental standpoint, it was carried out with tremendous skill. It is safe to estimate that at least 75%-80% of his shots were hits, fired at a rate of 1 shot about every 2 1/2 seconds. Mentally ill people do not have the ability to carry out this kind of an operation. That is just an objective, quantifiable fact. As you read this, you may be becoming queasy at the clinical and forensic analysis I am giving. Good. That's the effect I was going for you. It was exactly the point I am making. When you or I think of someone going into a school and committing a senseless barbaric act like this, our blood runs cold. The hair stands up on the backs of our necks as we imagine these poor defenseless kids terrified and begging for their lives. We know what the psychiatric profession refuses to face. All the therapy in the world, all the medicines the pharmaceutical companies can create are powerless in the face of evil. We know that the motivation for this kind of evil can only come from the devil. The killer knew it too and he made it known. The prosecutors and police immediately dismissed it as an act. I would encourage you to watch the 3 videos which are each pretty short. I would argue that these persons cannot have it both ways. You cannot argue that Nikolas Cruz had the presence of mind to carry out this horrendous act and also the presence of mind to create stories about demons and how much he hated Jesus and worshipped Lucifer, and then claim that he is insane. Whether Cruz actually heard demons or not, I cannot say. There are a few things I can say though. First, these kinds have stories of mass killers saying they were instructed by demons has happened many times and it is always dismissed as mental illness. Killers Charles Manson, David Berkowitz, the BTK killer and Ted Bundy are some examples. Many mass shooters have said they were hearing demons and/or admitted being involved in the occult. Here is one example. It is time to have a serious conversation about the fact that angels and demons do really exist. It is time to get our churches involved in looking into these horrific crimes. Clearly, a correlation exists between the increased secularization and decadence of our society and these kinds of crimes. It is true that correlation, in itself, does not prove causation. Yet, what argument can the other side make accept to simply blame it on the guns? I am a reasonable person and I am open to a reasonable argument as to how the denial of access of a certain kind of person to a certain kind of gun might be part of a broader solution. Ties to the occult needs to be part of the assessment of what kind of person could kill or wound more than 30 people. You can argue that the devil didn't tell him to do this but I will guarantee you Jesus didn't. Remember also the day that this happened. A number of the victims were Catholic. Chris Hixon, Gina Montalto, Carmen Schentrup and Cara Loughran. Others were Christians like Allaina Petty and Peter Wang and Aaron Feis and some were Jews like Meadow Pollack, Jaime Guttenberg and Allysa Alhadef. The likelihood of this being a hate crime certainly has to be considered especially in light of the statements of the killer and that the date chosen for the massacre was on the rare convergence of 2 Catholic holy days- Ash Wednesday and Saint Valentine's Day.

One thing that all the true defenders of the Catholic faith have in common is that they will be maligned and persecuted. How can it be otherwise? MATTHEW 10: 24 “A disciple is not above his teacher, nor a servant above his master; 25 it is enough for the disciple to be like his teacher, and the servant like his master. If they have called the master of the house Be-el′zebul, how much more will they malign those of his household. The false apparitions in Medjugorje were used by the dissident Franciscans as a weapon against the validly appointed Bishop of the Diocese- The Most Reverened Pavao Zanic. Sadly, some of the people who are the most factually ignorant of the Medjugorje situation are the most vocal. Pretext is a very vital aspect of what must be looked at in these sitiuations. The Hercegovinia Affair For centuries, the parishes in the province of Hercegovinia were run by the Franciscans when the territory was under the control of the Ottoman empire. When this territory became part of the Austro-Hungarian empire, Pope Leo XIII took steps to divide the region in dioceses run by appointed Bishops. Despite the Vatican order, the Franciscans pushed back and resisted. As late as some 60 years after the decree, the Fransiscans still controlled almost 80% of the dioceses of Vrhbosna and Mostar In 1975, the Vatican, frustrated with the lack of progress, issued a formal decree that instructed the Franciscans which parishes they were allowed to retain and which they were not. The Vatican appointed Bishop Zanic to implement the directive which he began to do in 1976. Early in 1981, Bishop Zanic requested that two Franciscans, Ivica Vego and Ivan Prusina, be transferred from the parish in Mostar, and the same parish be given at the disposal of the secular clergy, as ordered by the papal decree. The two Priests refused to leave in open defiance of the Bishop. Later that year, when 6 children claimed to see the Virgin Mary, the 2 dissident priests convinced the kids to go to the Bishop and tell him that the "gospa" said they did not have to leave and that he- the Bishop- was the one acting rashly. The Bishop asked if the Lady had a message for the priests. The Visionaries said that she did not. Then, urged on by Father Tomislav Vlasic- their spiritual advisor- the children claimed they had lied earlier and the Gospa had indeed sent a message for the 2 priests. The message was that they were guilty of nothing and that it was the Bishop (who was implementing Vatican orders) was the one in the wrong. That's when the Bishop first knew the apparitions were a hoax. The Bishop stripped the two priests of their faculties and they responded by leading a mob to kid nap him and hold him against his will. He was freed by Yugoslav law enforcement. The so-called gospa then said the Bishop was guilty and the priests were to defy him and keep hearing confessions and celebrating Masses. Vega, Prusinni and Vlasic have all 3 been lairized and excommunicated. These penalties were enforced by then Cardinal Ratzinger. The Medjugorje events were ruled false by no less than 4 formal investigations. For suppressing a revolt, exposing a hoax, implementing Papal orders and defending the truth, Bishop Zanic was slandered and vilified right up to the day of his death, 11 days into the new millennium. The man is a Saint in my book. Bishop Zanic, pray for us.

In an examination of the 4 persons involved on the worship of God (Mark 12:30), this website gets it's name and it's foundation. Today. let's take a look at the emotional person. GENESIS 4:4 and Abel brought of the firstlings of his flock and of their fat portions. And the Lord had regard for Abel and his offering, 5 but for Cain and his offering he had no regard. So Cain was very angry, and his countenance fell. 6 The Lord said to Cain, “Why are you angry, and why has your countenance fallen? 7 If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin is couching at the door; its desire is for you, but you must master it.” Who among us has not been where Cain is? Who among us has not felt crestfallen and dejected even to the point where we feel like God is playing favorites? Who among us has not been caught in the gloom of depression? I may ruffle some feathers here but God did not recommend to Cain that he see a therapist or prescribe him some Serotonin Reuptake inhibitors. God did not counsel Cain that he has a right to be happy. God simply asks a question- If you do well, will you not be accepted? and issues a warning and a directive. if you do not do well, sin is couching at the door; its desire is for you, but you must master it.” The escalation of so much of the emotional sickness in the world is that the lion's share of psychological professionals promote the false narrative that it is a basic human right to be happy. When happiness is considered and entitlement, it must be assumed that a person who is unhappy is a victim either of other persons, or an unfair system or because of a medical disorder. Everything is approached from the standpoint that pain constitutes something abnormal that must be eradicated from our midst at any cost. Divorced from the equation is the clear truth that sometimes- often in fact- the pain is a direct result of sin that we are committing and guilt that we are trying to suppress. God isn't asking Cain why he is so crestfallen, so that God may learn why. God is challenging Cain to understand that the poison of pride is the cause of Cain's melancholy. It is the sin that is the disorder. The turbulence in Cain's soul is only a symptom of the problem, not the problem itself. If a person's leg was fractured, you wouldn't call the pain a disorder. You also wouldn't simply give the person pain meds and not fix the leg! What is true of physical pain is true also of emotional pain except it can be more difficult to discern the cause. Cain seeks God's approval while being unwilling to do what he actually needs to do to gain it. God is not a masochist. It's is not as if He enjoys making us suffer. It is quite often that the suffering is self is less of a problem than the way we respond to it. In his remarkable political allegory The Wizard of Oz, Frank Baum confronts us with a pretty instructive lesson in 3 ways we deal with emotional pain. One way is to ignore the suffering of others and confront the world simply as an analytical problem to be solved- all brains but no heart. The second is the person is just the opposite. With no little or no control over his rational self, his life is in constant turmoil as he rides the waves of emotion over reaction up and down- all heart and no brains, if you will. The third person is the coward. He feels, he knows, but he fears. He is afraid of any conflict so he spends his whole life in a never ending quest to avoid it and never really gets close to anyone- brains and heart but no courage. Since it is foremost a political question, pollster John Zogby has actually adopted it in his polling. What is the worst kind of politician? Is it the politician who has brains but no heart (symbolized by the tin man)? Is it the politician that is all heart but has no brains (the scarecrow)? Is it the politician who has both heart and brains but lacks courage (the cowardly lion)? It is telling that Dorothy (the voter) is scandalized and indignant towards the coward and rightly so. That is easy to see. What is more subtle is that she is closest to, and seeks advice from, not the one with brains but the one who has a heart. Some may take this as simply as message from Baum that love is more important than intellect but I think that - though it may be seem true- it is not the point Baum is making here. Remember, the Wizard of Oz is a political satire that was actually made about a particular national election. Baum, I believe, is making the point that the voter is far more likely to connect with the politician they believe can empathize with their pain and less with the one who is more analytical in his approach. In other words, feelings often trump facts in the minds of voters. I believe that this is true most people do seem to trust their own feelings more than their own intellects. Some more analytical types may argue that it is more pragmatic to take the man with brains, though he has no heart. How do we as Christians solve this dilemma? Answer. We don't. It is a false dilemma. Just like faith vs works is a false dilemma. Rationality and compassion are inseparable. One cannot exist without the other. Both proceed from God. A person who has heart but no mind is a psychopath while a person who has mind but no heart is a sociopath. To dismiss a person's thoughts simply because that person has feelings is unreasonable. It would also be unreasonable to expect a person to make decisions that could cause harm to people and not be emotionally affected. Neither one of these people can lead you. One may know what the correct action is but cannot determine how to accomplish it, the second one may not care what the correct action is so won't take it. Whether he fails because he is incompetent or because he is cruel, you still suffer for his failure. The first doctor may fail to reset the broken leg because he doesn't know how. The second may not because the patient's suffering doesn't move him from more profitable procedures. In either case, the leg remains un-mended. When I look at heart without brains, I do not look at brains as being necessarily formal education. A good dose of common sense and wisdom will do just fine so long as the driving motivation is a controlled and disciplined heart. Without question, feelings are the most volatile part of the human person. There is nothing more beautiful in a person than compassion, empathy and devotion. There is nothing more ugly than vindictiveness, unforgiveness and wrath. There is nothing more intoxicating than joy and love, nothing more debilitating than anger and despair. Emotion can be a roller coaster and many a medication has been prescribed to help people try to maintain themselves between the 2 extremes. I think it is a very dangerous thing to consign to medicine what we need to learn to do for ourselves. When I say this to people I am immediately bombarded with derision that I am not a doctor and accusations that I do not know what it is like to de depressed. As to the former, I will contend that a doctor is useless who cannot deal with the whole person and as to the latter, nothing could be further than the truth- I struggle with severe depression every single day. The accusation that I do not how it feels or -worse yet- I do not have compassion for people who suffer it, is not true. In fact, it is the opposite of the truth. One can easily see in the cold doctor an absence of love. What is harder to see is that in the emotional- yet incompetent doctor, we may very well have an absence of perfect love. That is what I want to explain. That's what I mean by a controlled and disciplined heart. For a heart that is not in control and disciplined is a fearful heart. It is afraid to upbraid, afraid to be truthful and afraid to offend. This heart loves you because you love it. This heart loves less to actually love than to be loved. Love has a cost and it's often a steep cost. The godly heart truly loves you and so it loves what is truly best for you even if you, yourself can't see it. The godly heart is willing to be reviled if needs be in order to save the very one it is reviled by. Loving the person means giving them the advice, counsel and medicine they need even if they do not want to receive it. This is the love that loves God with it's whole heart: MATTHEW 10:34 “Do not think that I have come to bring peace on earth; I have not come to bring peace, but a sword. 35 For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; 36 and a man’s foes will be those of his own household. 37 He who loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; and he who loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me; In looking at the 4 persons, it is the Spiritual person that attempts to connect with God. It is in that person that we pray to God, Receive Communion, go to confession, go to Adoration. This is the person that attempts to connect to God and this is the person directly inspired by God. This person, who we call the Soul, leads the mind to learn and study the truth. Now, Mental person is involved. Spiritual person- by Grace and Mental person- by knowledge then seek to force Physical Person and Emotional Person to be subjected to the Will of God. That's when the war starts. GALATIANS 5:16 But I say, walk by the Spirit, and do not gratify the desires of the flesh. 17 For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh; for these are opposed to each other, to prevent you from doing what you would. 18 But if you are led by the Spirit you are not under the law. 19 Now the works of the flesh are plain: immorality, impurity, licentiousness, 20 idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, anger, selfishness, dissension, party spirit, 21 envy,[b] drunkenness, carousing, and the like. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God. 22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control; against such there is no law. 24 And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. 25 If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit. 26 Let us have no self-conceit, no provoking of one another, no envy of one another. When Paul talks about the flesh, notice he does not include only bodily sins such as impurity but also includes those sins of the will and emotion like anger and dissension. The flesh properly understood include physical person and emotional person. That is why Jesus says both strength (physical) and heart (emotional) natures must be given totally to God in the act of love. (Mark 12:30). The reverse is also true. The virtues Paul espouses are Spiritual but they are Mental as well because these virtues (like Self Control) require the discipline of the mind. This is it. This is the Battle and you are the battlefield. The soul must inform the mind. The mind must direct the heart. The heart must subject the flesh. The Mind must direct the heart, the heart must subject the flesh. The heart directs the traffic. It is the heart that chooses, make no mistake. MATTHEW 12: 33 “Either make the tree good, and its fruit good; or make the tree bad, and its fruit bad; for the tree is known by its fruit. 34 You brood of vipers! how can you speak good, when you are evil? For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. 35 The good man out of his good treasure brings forth good, and the evil man out of his evil treasure brings forth evil. It is your heart that decides. God inspires, Satan tempts, the heart decides. Having a right relationship with God requires having a right heart. I used to think of this in terms of simply the daily battle against temptation. "Well, I didn't murder anyone today so it's a win" or "I committed x sin today so I guess that means I am hopeless and irredeemable". It is said that Satan fears temps the person to commit the sin by convincing him it is of little consequence. Then, afterwards, he moves him to despair by convincing him the sin is unforgivable. In both cases, Satan is defeating you through the sin of Pride. Presuming in God's Mercy (the assumption that God will forgive without repentance) and Despairing of God's Mercy (the assumption that God will not forgive even with true repentance) are both sins of Pride. They result from us allowing our feelings to override our informed conscience. In other words rather than our mind directing our heart, we allow our heart to direct our mind. When this happens, disaster follows. When we allow our heart to direct our mind, disaster follows. Pride is secret sauce of Satan. It is behind every sinful act we commit and every evil thought we harbor. It is cleverly disguised such that we often do not even recognize it. Sure, it is easy to see the sin of pride is the boorish and in the braggart. How much harder is it for us to see sin in the despairing and the despondent? Pride is the exaggeration of our own significance before God. It is the same in presumption and in despair. Presumption assumes God's forgiveness because we are far too important to God to be condemned by His Justice. Despair assumes the impossibility of God's forgiveness because we imagine the magnitude of our sin to be beyond the capacity of God's Mercy. Don't believe they are the same? Consider this. You will get what you choose. You can choose God's Mercy or you can choose God's Justice and you will get which one you choose. Just remember that you choose with your will, not with your feelings. The dangerous thing about pride is that it tricks the heart into believing it has chosen one when it has actually chosen the other. In presumption, you are mocking God's Justice by giving yourself permission to sin on Monday knowing you can always repent on Saturday. You chose God's Justice assuming you would get a chance to repent later. In despair you are mocking God's Mercy by refusing it even as He extends His hand to offer it to you. If you are truly sorry, would you add to the insult by refusing the Grace He offers? By refusing His Mercy, you once again have chosen His Justice. The godly heart prays for the Grace not fall and, if it does fall, repents, confesses and prays for the Grace to rise once more. The godly heart also prays for the gift of satisfaction for the sin and for the help needed to uproot it's causes from in the soul. This will require suffering. The soul knows this and so does the mind. The heart and the flesh recoil at this and the heart which prayed so fervently to be able to do God's will, now cries out in despondency and the sense that it is being treated unfairly. To ask for courage, you must be exercised by opportunities of fear to overcome. To ask for the ability to control your anger, you must be given adverse people and situations to deal with. To ask to become healthy, you must undergo the painful discipline of proper diet and exercise. To achieve humility, you must suffer humiliation. You may suffer all these things and more. Some people suffer untold things on earth to the point that we cannot make sense of it. Sometimes the suffering seems beyond any proportion. We feel forsaken, abandoned and beaten. That is the essence of the heart. It has feelings. Feelings are not facts. Feelings must be put into subjection by facts, not facts by feelings. Rightly ordered feelings are beautiful if the spring from right motivations and lead to right actions. The emotional person is placed in us by God, just like the others. It has a tremendous value and purpose. Rightly ordered love, rightly ordered indignation and rightly ordered sorrow can produce the tears that sanctify souls. Sadly, the same heart that says I Love You, Lord can also say Non Servium! That's why the heart must be in service to the Soul and Mind and not free to chase whatever it wills, as the world will tell you.

The very simple and sure answer is "No". A Catholic openly promoting the events in Medjugorje is committing the very serious sin of disobedience at an absolute minimum. Though it is true that those who have truly studied Medjugorje- as I have- are acutely aware of the sordid history. We are aware of the rebellion and the disobedience, the sharp rise in occultist activity, sins of the flesh, graft, corruption, heresy and outright disobedience that are the hallmarks of these events. We are also aware of the 5 priests from the very inner circle of the visionaries that have been laicized, excommunicated and even exiled for impurity, heresy and conjuring up spirits. These penalties have been enforced by the Vatican. The case of Father Jozo Zovko is just one tragic example. We are also aware that 40+ years of these reported events have failed to produce one miracle approved by the church, one miraculous cure approved by the church or even one prediction that has proven to come true. It is well publicized that the visionaries have lied and changed their stories and have been uncooperative with the investigators in virtually every regard. This includes with the revealing of the so-called secrets and participating in medical tests during the so-called ecstasies. Experimentation and observation have proven Medjugorje to be fraudulent in every way imaginable. The famous "fake ecstasy" video of alleged seer Vicka provides particular damning proof. Her scandalous explanation is even worse. Of course, Vicka and the other 5 seers probably care not whether you believe them. They are all millionaires in mansions thanks to the money they have made from these events. They all live quite lavishly. One of them owns a $1.5 Million home on the outskirts of Boston that was paid off in under a year using Medjugorje funds. Many people are shocked and stunned to hear these facts. They are not to be blamed. Not everyone's life permits them the luxury of investigating each of these alleged events as thoroughly as I have. That no faithful and reasonable Catholic could know these things and still support this abomination goes without saying. There are a few who do. Sadly, they will answer for this grave evil if they do not repent. What about the rest of you? What about those who do not know all the sordid details of Medjugorje but have only heard of it as a place of prayer and conversion? You may have some anecdotal experience that you heard. Maybe Aunt Betty had a friend who went to Medjugorje and experienced a sense of peace. Maybe someone from your co-worker's church went there and saw a Rosary turn gold. Maybe someone was personally converted back to the Catholic faith because the Holy Spirit reached them in that place or through someone or something connected to it. Maybe all of these things have convinced you that, in some way, some day, despite everything that has occurred up to now, the Vatican will approve these events. How would I respond to your belief? I have to be honest. After everything that has transpired and been put out, belief that Medjugorje will be approved can only be the result of misinformation, delusion or some type of an agenda by which you would personally benefit such as book sales. Nevertheless, as delusional as it might be, the belief that Medjugorje will one day be vindicated- as-true is not, in itself, sinful. It is said that reading a book about Medjugorje contributed to the conversion of Father Donald Calloway (above). Since I have no firm evidence for or against this claim, I am just going to assume the rumor to be true for the purpose of moving the conversation forward. It is possible that the rumors are true and Father Calloway once believed that Our Blessed Mother has appeared in Medjugorje in the former Yugoslavia. I am even willing to stretch the point- for the sake of argument- and say that perhaps he still believes it (though I personally find this very doubtful). Would this make him a dissident priest like the 5 suspended in connection to Medjugorje? No. Here is why. Unlike the 5 Medjugorje priests that have been formally disciplined by the Vatican, Father Calloway has not committed a sin even if (and it's a BIG if) he still does believe Our Blessed Lady has appeared in Medjugorje. I'm not even referring here to the sexual indiscretions or conjuring up spirits or the kidnapping of a member of the clergy. Those are discussions for another day. What Fathers Jozo Zovko, Father Ken Roberts, Father Tomislav Vlasic and Fathers Vega and Prussini (these last two led the kidnapping mob) are first and foremost guilty of is the sin of disobedience. This is the sin that fractures the Body of Christ. In defiance of the Bishops, these priests have been promoting the condemned events in Bosnia. This is what you will not see Father Calloway do. As I have said before, I cannot confirm if Father Calloway still privately believes in Medjugorje. My guess would be that he does not. However, that guess would be only that- the guess of a fallible man. In terms of making an argument, it would be better for me if it were true that he believes because it just hammers the point home that much more succinctly. On Father's website, you can see all kinds of things. He gives his Biography- which has no mention of Medjugorje. He lists events and speaking engagements. Not a syllable of Medjugorje. Books and Gifts? Lots of stuff on Saint Joseph, Guadalupe, Divine Mercy... Medjugorje? Nothing. Vocations? Not a mention of Medjugorje. What about Pilgrimages? Surely he would mention it here. Medjugorje adherents like to boast that pilgrimages are allowed there. Does Father Calloway sponsor pilgrimages to Medjugorje? He does not. The same is true for all of the other clergy that supposedly were privately devoted to Medjugorje. Medjugorje proponents have long held that Pope John Paul II was a secret supporter of Medjugorje. This is a dubious claim at best. In 25 years in the Papacy, JP2 never once visited Medjugorje and never once publicly endorsed it. Claims that the Holy Pope was a secret Medjugorje supporter are nothing more than unsubstantiated nonsense. Renowned Catholic Apologist Patrick Madrid says the following on his own website: All the stories I have heard from Medjugorje supporters about how Pope John Paul II favored or even personally believed in its authenticity have all been apocryphal. I am not aware of the Holy Father ever publicly commenting, one way or the other, whether verbally or in writing, on Medjugorje. Sure, there are numerous instances of private comments alleged to have been made by JPII about Medjugorje, but none that I am aware of which have been verified with documentation, such as video or audio recordings. Peruse these comments, and you’ll see they are all third-hand. He said he said he said, etc. The fact is (and it is really indisputable) that every binding public pronouncement of the church on Medjugorje has been negative. EVERY SINGLE ONE. These are not the pronouncements that you may follow or should follow, these are the pronouncements that you must follow. These are the words of the 3 sitting Bishops of Mostar since 1981. Bishops Zanic, Peric and Palic have been unwavering. There has been nothing supernatural found to have occurred in Medjugorje. The Virgin Mother has never appeared in Medjugorje, not even once. These findings were ratified 4 times including the most recent officially in 1991 by the Yugoslav Bishop's council by a vote of 19-0 which was followed up in confirmation by then Bishop Peric and recently by current Bishop Palic. 5 1/2 years ago, the Ruini report recommended the ban be removed on a total of 7 apparitions (out of some 50,000+ that are alleged to have occurred. The report was not well received and the Vatican has not adopted the recommendations. To this day, Medjugorje remains an officially condemned event and no Catholic may promote it under penalty of grave sin. This is currently the statement that appears on Catholic Answers This is not what was only the Catholic Answers site 20 years ago or even 5. This is what appears there today. So, what is the answer to the original question? A Catholic who is knowingly promoting Medjugorje, with full knowledge and deliberate consent is committing deliberate mortal sin. Sorry. It really is that simple.

One of the things we Catholics are encouraged to do during the first 8 days on November is to visit a cemetery and pray in hopes of gaining a plenary indulgence for one of the faithfully departed. I did this on a couple of occasions. I was struck and deeply moved when I saw a tombstone belonging to a young man who died in 2008 about 2 week's shy of his 17th birthday. His name was Christian. We also had a son named Christian who died. Our Christian died on the day he was born. It was 10 years earlier, in 1998. The full name of this young man is something I will not disclose but I looked it up. He was well beloved. He was a player on his high school baseball team and was coach of the little league team. He was, according to the many comments, a person who was a joy to be around- a person with an infectious smile. He also was the 2nd son his parents had lost. The first was named Justin and died on the day he was born, like our Christian was. I saw numerous articles but they all seemed to be the same words. He died suddenly on November 1st, 2008. All saints Day as it happens. The comments indicate that he was a very active, happy and exuberant young man but there are no details on how he died. The profile would seem to exclude suicide because he seemed to have a lot to live for. It would also seem to exclude illness because of his activity. Car accident? I guess we will never know. What I have been able to find out is that his loss was sudden and it was devastating to his family and friends. One tombstone with a story. How many more? Judging by the ages of some, their deaths couldn't have been a shock but did they leave a hole nonetheless? How many of these people died alone and forgotten? How many more of them were forgotten after they died? I said a few prayers in Adoration for Christian so I could be sure he is not forgotten. Maybe one day, someone will look at my stone and pray for me. Maybe that day will be sooner than I expect. I suppose this is why we Catholics do this. RIP Christian. Momento Mori for the rest of us.