Month: May 2017

From this morning’s homily:
“A shepherd must be ready to step down completely from his church, rather than leave in a partial manner” HERE
Go read the whole thing, then come back to that curious added phrase, “rather than leave in a partial manner.” Is that not the most interesting thing? 
One has to wonder whether Francis, not the sharpest knife in the drawer, understands that he just declared himself an anti-pope if indeed it is Benedict he is referring to here.
More on this later. 

At least 28 Christians, many of them children, murdered by jihadists on holiday. But this won’t even be covered by the MSM. Because religion of peace. HERE

If you care about hurting the feelings of a certain group of people more than you care about slaughtered teenage girls, you’re part of the problem.
Reblog from March 2016 HERE
Laziness, Lies, Misnomers and Jihad
You may not be interested in jihad, but jihad is interested in you. Failure to educate yourself in the era of internet, google, and Amazon is laziness. Sloth. Mortal Sin.
If you have time to read a book, it should be The Looming Tower by Lawrence Wright. It goes back to the 14th century to explain the Hanbali school of Sunni Islam, and the Wahhabi/Salafi strains of this school. You will gain tremendous insight into what’s going on in the world.
If you don’t have time for that, do you have 15 minutes to read this article? It explains things in a very basic manner. The Wahhabi/Salafi sects reject everything that came after the very earliest times of the movement as satanic blasphemy, such that they are the only “true” Muslims. That’s why you see them killing other Muslims in addition to everyone else. So as the Muslim moves “deeper” into his faith, and the linear progression towards orthodoxy accelerates, he becomes weaponized (yes, weapons are part of the actual spiritual training). The west has coined a term for this process: Radicalization.
However, “Radical Islam” is a misnomer. While it does describe the extreme nature of the movement, it wrongly implies a periphery, a newness, a break with tradition, a revolution. Wouldn’t it be more accurate to call it Orthodox Islam, or Conservative Islam, or Traditional Islam? I suppose that wouldn’t sit too well with the other schools of Islam, even if it’s the truth.
Every politician on the national stage in every western country understands these facts. Anyone who tells you Muslims have nothing whatsoever to do with terrorism is a liar, and is a part of the problem. Anyone who leans on the fact that the majority of Muslims are peaceful, family people, obscures the facts at hand and is a part of the problem.
Oh, and changing the flag on your fb profile doesn’t mean shit, ever. Educate yourself, help to educate others, and start being part of the solution.

Here is the supposed text of the Third Secret of Fatima as released by the Vatican in 2000. It’s in the form of a letter which Sister Lucia delivered to her bishop in 1944, and there is a lot of evidence that this text is incomplete, most especially because, unlike the other two secrets, it contains no words attributed directly to the BVM (if this is news to you, you need to research it):

“After the two parts which I have already explained, at the left of Our Lady and a little above, we saw an Angel with a flaming sword in his left hand; flashing, it gave out flames that looked as though they would set the world on fire; but they died out in contact with the splendour that Our Lady radiated towards him from her right hand: pointing to the earth with his right hand, the Angel cried out in a loud voice: ‘Penance, Penance, Penance!’. And we saw in an immense light that is God: ‘something similar to how people appear in a mirror when they pass in front of it’ a Bishop dressed in White ‘we had the impression that it was the Holy Father’. Other Bishops, Priests, men and women Religious going up a steep mountain, at the top of which there was a big Cross of rough-hewn trunks as of a cork-tree with the bark; before reaching there the Holy Father passed through a big city half in ruins and half trembling with halting step, afflicted with pain and sorrow, he prayed for the souls of the corpses he met on his way; having reached the top of the mountain, on his knees at the foot of the big Cross he was killed by a group of soldiers who fired bullets and arrows at him, and in the same way there died one after another the other Bishops, Priests, men and women Religious, and various lay people of different ranks and positions. Beneath the two arms of the Cross there were two Angels each with a crystal aspersorium in his hand, in which they gathered up the blood of the Martyrs and with it sprinkled the souls that were making their way to God.”

The “we had the impression” part has intrigued everyone for years. The current papal situation certainly is interesting, isn’t it?
But what about that “how people appear in a mirror when they pass in front of it” part? What does that even mean? People just appear as they appear, don’t they?
If you attended the Extraordinary Form this morning, you heard this in the Epistle:

But be doers of the word, and not merely hearers who deceive themselves. For if any are hearers of the word and not doers, they are like those who look at themselves in a mirror; for they look at themselves and, on going away, immediately forget what they were like. But those who look into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and persevere, being not hearers who forget but doers who act—they will be blessed in their doing. James 1:22-25 (NRSVCE)

“Like those who look at themselves in a mirror…and going away, immediately forget what they were like.” How are we supposed to interpret this? Let’s try a few other translations:

But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if any one is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who observes his natural face in a mirror; for he observes himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like. But he who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer that forgets but a doer that acts, he shall be blessed in his doing. (RSVCE)
But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves. For if a man be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he shall be compared to a man beholding his own countenance in a glass. For he beheld himself, and went his way, and presently forgot what manner of man he was. But he that hath looked into the perfect law of liberty, and hath continued therein, not becoming a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work; this man shall be blessed in his deed. (DRB)

Haydock renders it this way:

“The sense is, that it is not enough for a man to examine and look into his interior, and the state of his conscience in a negligent and superficial manner, no more than one that goes to a looking-glass, but does not take care to take away the dirt or spots which he might discover.”

I’m going to leave it at that. But first, do you remember last year when those articles were published by Maike Hickson in discussion with Fr. Dollinger, where Benedict confirmed that the entire Third Secret indeed was NOT published in 2000, thus contradicting his own prior testimony? HERE  And then the Vatican with lightning speed issued a statement attributed to Benedict, but in language so obviously unlike something he might say:

“Pope emeritus Benedict XVI declares “never to have spoken with Professor Dollinger about Fatima”, clearly affirming that the remarks attributed to Professor Dollinger on the matter “are pure inventions, absolutely untrue”, and he confirms decisively that “the publication of the Third Secret of Fatima is complete”.” HERE

Today is the one year anniversary of that denial.
I wonder when Francis opened and read the Third Secret, the full version, what effect it had on his “plans”.
 
 
 
 

Sound familiar?

“I am worried by the Blessed Virgin’s messages to Lucy of Fatima. This persistence of Mary about the dangers which menace the Church is a divine warning against the suicide of altering the Faith, in Her liturgy, Her theology and Her soul. … I hear all around me innovators who wish to dismantle the Sacred Chapel, destroy the universal flame of the Church, reject Her ornaments and make Her feel remorse for Her historical past.
“A day will come when the civilized world will deny its God, when the Church will doubt as Peter doubted. She will be tempted to believe that man has become God. In our churches, Christians will search in vain for the red lamp where God awaits them. Like Mary Magdalene weeping before the empty tomb, they will ask, “Where have they taken Him?”
— Msgr. Eugenio Cardinal Pacelli, the future Pope Pius XII, as Secretary of State under Pius XI

All this could have been avoided, not to mention more stuff that hasn’t yet happened, if only people would pray the Rosary. If you don’t believe that, you’re calling the Mother of God a liar. If you don’t do something about it, you’re part of the problem, not part of the solution.
Pray it every day. It will change your life like nothing else. If you are searching for that transformative element that seems to be missing, the thing to get you over the hump, so to speak, this is it. I didn’t believe it either. I was incredulous when a priest first explained it to me — in the confessional.
The trick is to find the time during an activity where it fits perfectly and you’re not distracted or tempted by something else. If you are lucky enough to get to daily Mass, arriving a little early or staying after is perfect. Or on your commute… turn off the radio and tune in the mysteries. You’ll be surprised how easy it is. Drive time is actually really good for all sorts of prayer, even really long drives.  Try it.
For me, my daily hikes on the mountain are what get it done. Leaving the iPod at home has the added benefit of no ringing of the ears and being better able to regulate my heart rate by hearing my breathing. But really it’s the awesomeness of being able to lose myself in the prayers. You’re going to be amazed how contemplating the mysteries over and over always gleans new insights from them.  You find yourself drawn in deeper and deeper. I don’t know how else to describe it.
Look.  We are at war.  Prayer is the single greatest weapon we have. Would you go into mortal combat using water balloons while having an AR strapped to your shoulder the whole time?  We have to use the best weapons available. Do you really believe what you say you believe? Do you live your life according to the real? Mary has instructed us to use the Rosary as the best means to defeat evil and make reparation for sin.  Shouldn’t you at least be trying?

Aboard the papal plane, 13 May 2017:

Elisabetta Piqué (La Nacion): (Edit: She is biographer and close confident of Francis). Thanks first of all for this brief and very intense trip. We wanted to ask you, today is the centenary of the apparitions of Our Lady of Fatima, but is is also the important anniversary of a fact of your life that took place 25 years ago, when the Nuncio (Archbishop) Calabresi told you that you would become the Auxiliary Bishop of Buenos Aires, something that meant the end of your exile in Cordoba and a great change in your life. Have you every connected this fact that changed your life with Our Lady of Fatima? And in these days that you’ve prayed before her have you thought about this and what did you think about? Can you tell us about that? Thanks.
Pope Francis: Women know everything, eh! No, I didn’t think about the coincidence, only yesterday while I was praying before Our Lady I realized that one May 13th I received the phone call from the nuncio 25 years ago. I don’t know… I said, well look at that. I spoke with Our Lady a little about this. I asked her forgiveness for all of my mistakes, also of a bit of bad taste for choosing people… but yesterday I realized this.

Right.  You “didn’t think about” the fact that you were told of your episcopal elevation on the 75th anniversary of Fatima, and you didn’t think about yesterday being the 25th anniversary of that. You didn’t think about your roaring comeback to the levers of power in 1992, after being removed from your rectorship, banished and exiled from your own professed order, forced to study a semester in Germany because you had nowhere else to go, flunking out, etc. I guess for a guy as humble as you, so totally uninterested in power,  all of this just didn’t lend itself to any kind of resentment, retaliation, revenge, etc.  You really didn’t give it much thought. It never crossed your mind.
Just like I’m sure it never crossed your mind the coincidence of your next two elevations. Remember? After being named Coadjutor successor for Buenos Aires five years later, the See became vacant on 28 Feb 1998 when your predecessor dropped dead, and BOOM. You’re the Archbishop of Buenos Aires and Primate of Argentina!
Now you probably thought this was already too much of a happy ending. Hollywood wouldn’t even buy this script; just too good to be true.
But this God is a God of surprises, and exactly 15 years later, 28 Feb 2013 Pope Benedict boards the helicopter at 20:00 hours Rome time, vacating the See of Peter.
Or at least it would so appear.

 
 

So it seems Francis just threw Saint JPII under the popemobile.  Remember it was JPII who presumptuously decided it was he himself who was the bishop in white as described in the Third Secret.  At least he had the decency to wait almost twenty years post the assassination attempt to declare himself so. Pay no mind that the prophesy ends with the immediate death of the bishop in white, not his full rehabilitation and long, full, life.
Now Francis has decided to perhaps predict his own glorious martyrdom. Because he has the humility and the ambition, you know.
From Rorate:

“Hail Mother of Mercy, Lady of the white robe! At this place where one hundred years ago you showed all the designs of our God’s mercy, I look upon your robe of light and, as bishop dressed in white [como bispo vestido de branco], I remember all those who, robed in baptismal white, want to live in God and pray the mysteries of Christ to attain peace.”

Not only does Francis know full well the fate of the bishop in white, dying on a hill. He also knows something we don’t, by virtue of his (apparent) office: The actual words of the Third Secret, which have never been publicly revealed.
Think about that.
I wonder if he has given any thought to that puzzling phrase which has mystified the faithful for 100 years, “we had the impression it was the Holy Father.”  Something in the vision must have cast doubt on whether or not it really was the actual Holy Father, right?
Could it be that things are really coming into focus now?
Stay frosty.

The leftists, the real hard cases, are always right on the edge of completely losing their minds.  I posted a few months ago about the Antifas being the real Nazis, and showed three videos as examples (original post HERE – alas, the third video has been taken down, but there is enough info in the post for you to track it down).
Now comes the case of Zach Ruff,  the vice principle of an elite academy outside Philadelphia who decided to confront two young abortion protesters on public property outside his school. He screams obscenities at them, tells them they can’t be there (a lie), tells them they don’t have a right to say what they are saying (a lie) tells them he will call police to have them removed (no, he can’t), tells them aborted children are just cells.
About that last one. Can we all agree to just start calling out these murders and promoters of murder who still use the “clump of cells” tagline? This isn’t 1973 anymore. Anyone who uses that line should lose all credibility, period. Everyone in the developed world can look down at their phone and search “15 week 3D ultrasound” and see what it is. Instead, this guy claims the scientific high ground: “They’re not children, they’re cells! … You’re at a science-based school, those are cells!” Watch him physically confront the teenagers. Watch him start to shake as he wags his finger at them, right on the edge.  “I’m as gay as the day is long”…”You and Trump can go to hell!” Excuse me, what? What does your gayness and Trump have anything to do with this? It almost looks like an SNL skit.
Ruff resigned today, after being on administrated leave since the incident a few weeks ago.  Given the state of affairs in this country broadly, and within academia especially, this might be the most shocking aspect to the story.
Full story from when it broke HERE
The video is 18 minutes but you only need to watch the first six. There’s language.

 
 

Friday was (another) Rigid Rant. At this point someone should be coming up with a soap opera for Italian TV called, “The Young and The Rigid.”

“They are rigid people living a double life: They make themselves look good, sincere, but when no one sees them, they do ugly things…When I say this, I think of the many young people in the Church today who have fallen into the temptation of rigidity. Some are sincere, they are good. We have to pray that the Lord might help them to grow along the path of meekness.” Others, he said, “use rigidity in order to cover over weakness, sin, personality problems; and they use rigidity” to build themselves up while sacrificing others. HERE

I’ve already written a bunch of times about Francis’ belief that living the gospel is impossible – that the Commandments are merely “ideals”. This position was specifically condemned at Trent. I’m not getting into that again here.  My purpose today is to expose and correct the notion that rigidity is opposed to meekness. On the contrary, rigidity is intrinsic to the nature of meekness.
Saturday, Francis had more on meekness . You might have missed it, because it was buried in the same talk under the MOAB comments.

In his response to the third question, posed by a youth named Luca who asked how the switch from violence to non-violence can be made, Francis pointed to the virtue of “meekness.” Violence is everywhere, and not just in wars, he said, noting that words can also harm… Using a phrase he has on several previous occasions, the Pope said the “terrorism of gossip” is the most dangerous in this regard, and told the youth that “if you are tempted to say something about someone, to gossip about another, bite your tongue.” This also goes for insults.

The violence of insults. Says Francis the Insult Machine.

The remedy for this, he said, is meekness, which “doesn’t mean to be stupid, it means to act in peace, with tranquility, to say things in a way that doesn’t hurt. We need to re-learn this, to find it again in our lives. Always with meekness, always with that meek attitude that is opposite of violence.” The answer also bled into another question asked by Aluizio, a teacher who asked the Pope what can be done to educate youth in becoming artisans of peace. Francis said the answer is much the same as the previous, and consists of teaching youth how to be meek and listen to others… HERE

No, meekness is not the opposite of violence. But yes, meekness does imply peace and tranquility. So where in the world can we turn for a reliable definition of meekness?
Ding ding ding. That’s right, The Second Epistle of Saint Paul to Timothy. The entire letter is a lesson in meekness.  I’m willing to bet that when you got up this morning, you had no idea you were going to read an entire book of the bible today. Well, sweet 2 Tim is only four short chapters, and you don’t even need to click a link, because I’m going to paste the whole thing right here.
The common misunderstanding of meekness as being timid, unassertive, accommodating, etc. is a construct of 1960s hippy Jesus flower power felt banner faux nuChurch. Do you really think the creator of the universe, Jesus, consubstantial with the Father, the God of the Old Testament, could in any way be described as UNASSERTIVE?
Meekness is a bearing. It’s about patience but also persistence. It’s about submission, but always in submitting your own will to the will of God, never to the will of men. It’s about wielding power in a restrained manner, but wielding it nonetheless. It’s about operating as Moses did. He said so himself:

“For Moses was a man exceeding meek above all men that dwelt upon earth” Numbers 12:3

Saint Paul neatly teaches on the dual aspect of meekness, the internal and the external. Internal meekness is the bearing of one’s own sufferings for the sake of the gospel. It’s closely related to humility, but it is active, not passive. Think about not just submitting to the suffering but actually wielding the suffering for the greater glory of God. External meekness relates to a patient but persistent bearing with others in your role as evangelist. By its very nature, meekness is rigid:

But the servant of the Lord must not wrangle: but be mild towards all men, apt to teach, patient, With modesty admonishing them that resist the truth: if peradventure God may give them repentance to know the truth, And they may recover themselves from the snares of the devil, by whom they are held captive at his will. I charge thee, before God and Jesus Christ, who shall judge the living and the dead, by his coming, and his kingdom: Preach the word: be instant in season, out of season: reprove, entreat, rebuke in all patience and doctrine.  For there shall be a time, when they will not endure sound doctrine; but, according to their own desires, they will heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears: And will indeed turn away their hearing from the truth, but will be turned unto fables. But be thou vigilant, labour in all things, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill thy ministry. Be sober. 2 Tim 2:24-26, 4:1-5

Please go on and read it all. Paul weaves back and forth between his own trials and his instructions to Timothy. Examples of meekness and directions for meekness. You can feel the personal connection he has to Timothy and the church in his care.
It’s short, you can do it.

The Second Epistle of Saint Paul to Timothy

Chapter 1. He admonishes him to stir up the grace he received by his ordination and not to be discouraged at his sufferings, but to hold firm the sound doctrine of the gospel.

[1] Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ, by the will of God, according to the promise of life, which is in Christ Jesus. [2] To Timothy my dearly beloved son, grace, mercy, and peace, from God the Father, and from Christ Jesus our Lord. [3] I give thanks to God, whom I serve from my forefathers with a pure conscience, that without ceasing, I have a remembrance of thee in my prayers, night and day. [4] Desiring to see thee, being mindful of thy tears, that I may be filled with joy, [5] Calling to mind that faith which is in thee unfeigned, which also dwelt first in thy grandmother Lois, and in thy mother Eunice, and I am certain that in thee also.
[6] For which cause I admonish thee, that thou stir up the grace of God which is in thee, by the imposition of my hands. [7] For God hath not given us the spirit of fear: but of power, and of love, and of sobriety. [8] Be not thou therefore ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me his prisoner: but labour with the gospel, according to the power of God, [9] Who hath delivered us and called us by his holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the times of the world. [10] But is now made manifest by the illumination of our Saviour Jesus Christ, who hath destroyed death, and hath brought to light life and incorruption by the gospel:

[10] “By the illumination”: That is, by the bright coming and appearing of our Saviour.

[11] Wherein I am appointed a preacher, and an apostle, and teacher of the Gentiles. [12] For which cause I also suffer these things: but I am not ashamed. For I know whom I have believed, and I am certain that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him, against that day.[13] Hold the form of sound words, which thou hast heard of me in faith, and in the love which is in Christ Jesus. [14] Keep the good thing committed to thy trust by the Holy Ghost, who dwelleth in us. [15] Thou knowest this, that all they who are in Asia, are turned away from me: of whom are Phigellus and Hermogenes.
[16] The Lord give mercy to the house of Onesiphorus: because he hath often refreshed me, and hath not been ashamed of my chain: [17] But when he was come to Rome, he carefully sought me, and found me. [18] The Lord grant unto him to find mercy of the Lord in that day: and in how many things he ministered unto me at Ephesus, thou very well knowest.

Chapter 2. He exhorts him to diligence in his office and patience in suffering. The danger of the delusions of heretics.

[1] Thou therefore, my son, be strong in the grace which is in Christ Jesus: [2] And the things which thou hast heard of me by many witnesses, the same commend to faithful men, who shall be fit to teach others also. [3] Labour as a good soldier of Christ Jesus. [4] No man, being a soldier to God, entangleth himself with secular businesses; that he may please him to whom he hath engaged himself. [5] For he also that striveth for the mastery, is not crowned, except he strive lawfully.
[6] The husbandman, that laboureth, must first partake of the fruits. [7] Understand what I say: for the Lord will give thee in all things understanding. [8] Be mindful that the Lord Jesus Christ is risen again from the dead, of the seed of David, according to my gospel. [9] Wherein I labour even unto bands, as an evildoer; but the word of God is not bound. [10] Therefore I endure all things for the sake of the elect, that they also may obtain the salvation, which is in Christ Jesus, with heavenly glory.
[11] A faithful saying: for if we be dead with him, we shall live also with him. [12] If we suffer, we shall also reign with him. If we deny him, he will also deny us. [13] If we believe not, he continueth faithful, he can not deny himself. [14] Of these things put them in mind, charging them before the Lord. Contend not in words, for it is to no profit, but to the subverting of the hearers. [15] Carefully study to present thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth.
[16] But shun profane and vain babblings: for they grow much towards ungodliness. [17] And their speech spreadeth like a canker: of whom are Hymeneus and Philetus: [18] Who have erred from the truth, saying, that the resurrection is past already, and have subverted the faith of some. [19] But the sure foundation of God standeth firm, having this seal: the Lord knoweth who are his; and let every one depart from iniquity who nameth the name of the Lord. [20] But in a great house there are not only vessels of gold and silver, but also of wood and earth: and some indeed unto honour, but some unto dishonour.
[21] If any man therefore shall cleanse himself from these, he shall be a vessel unto honour, sanctified and profitable to the Lord, prepared unto every good work. [22] But flee thou youthful desires, and pursue justice, faith, charity, and peace, with them that call on the Lord out of a pure heart. [23] And avoid foolish and unlearned questions, knowing that they beget strifes. [24] But the servant of the Lord must not wrangle: but be mild towards all men, apt to teach, patient,[25] With modesty admonishing them that resist the truth: if peradventure God may give them repentance to know the truth,
[26] And they may recover themselves from the snares of the devil, by whom they are held captive at his will.

Chapter 3. The character of heretics of latter days. He exhorts Timothy to constancy. Of the great profit of the knowledge of the scriptures.

[1] Know also this, that, in the last days, shall come dangerous times. [2] Men shall be lovers of themselves, covetous, haughty, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, wicked, [3] Without affection, without peace, slanderers, incontinent, unmerciful, without kindness, [4] Traitors, stubborn, puffed up, and lovers of pleasures more than of God: [5] Having an appearance indeed of godliness, but denying the power thereof. Now these avoid.
[6] For of these sort are they who creep into houses, and lead captive silly women laden with sins, who are led away with divers desires: [7] Ever learning, and never attaining to the knowledge of the truth. [8] Now as Jannes and Mambres resisted Moses, so these also resist the truth, men corrupted in mind, reprobate concerning the faith. [9] But they shall proceed no farther; for their folly shall be manifest to all men, as theirs also was. [10] But thou hast fully known my doctrine, manner of life, purpose, faith, longsuffering, love, patience,
[8] “Jannes and Mambres”: The magicians of king Pharao.
[11] Persecutions, afflictions: such as came upon me at Antioch, at Iconium, and at Lystra: what persecutions I endured, and out of them all the Lord delivered me. [12] And all that will live godly in Christ Jesus, shall suffer persecution. [13] But evil men and seducers shall grow worse and worse: erring, and driving into error. [14] But continue thou in those things which thou hast learned, and which have been committed to thee: knowing of whom thou hast learned them; [15] And because from thy infancy thou hast known the holy scriptures, which can instruct thee to salvation, by the faith which is in Christ Jesus.
[16] All scripture, inspired of God, is profitable to teach, to reprove, to correct, to instruct in justice, [17] That the man of God may be perfect, furnished to every good work.
[16] “All scripture,”: Every part of divine scripture is certainly profitable for all these ends. But, if we would have the whole rule of Christian faith and practice, we must not be content with those Scriptures, which Timothy knew from his infancy, that is, with the Old Testament alone: nor yet with the New Testament, without taking along with it the traditions of the apostles, and the interpretation of the church, to which the apostles delivered both the book, and the true meaning of it.

Chapter 4. His charge to Timothy. He tells him of his approaching death and desires him to come to him.

[1] I charge thee, before God and Jesus Christ, who shall judge the living and the dead, by his coming, and his kingdom: [2] Preach the word: be instant in season, out of season: reprove, entreat, rebuke in all patience and doctrine. [3] For there shall be a time, when they will not endure sound doctrine; but, according to their own desires, they will heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears: [4] And will indeed turn away their hearing from the truth, but will be turned unto fables. [5] But be thou vigilant, labour in all things, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill thy ministry. Be sober.

[5] “An evangelist”: a diligent preacher of the gospel.

[6] For I am even now ready to be sacrificed: and the time of my dissolution is at hand. [7] I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith. [8] As to the rest, there is laid up for me a crown of justice, which the Lord the just judge will render to me in that day: and not only to me, but to them also that love his coming. Make haste to come to me quickly. [9] For Demas hath left me, loving this world, and is gone to Thessalonica: [10] Crescens into Galatia, Titus into Dalmatia.
[11] Only Luke is with me. Take Mark, and bring him with thee: for he is profitable to me for the ministry. [12] But Tychicus I have sent to Ephesus. [13] The cloak that I left at Troas, with Carpus, when thou comest, bring with thee, and the books, especially the parchments. [14] Alexander the coppersmith hath done me much evil: the Lord will reward him according to his works: [15] Whom do thou also avoid, for he hath greatly withstood our words.
[16] At my first answer no man stood with me, but all forsook me: may it not be laid to their charge. [17] But the Lord stood by me, and strengthened me, that by me the preaching may be accomplished, and that all the Gentiles may hear: and I was delivered out of the mouth of the lion. [18] The Lord hath delivered me from every evil work: and will preserve me unto his heavenly kingdom, to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen. [19] Salute Prisca and Aquila, and the household of Onesiphorus. [20] Erastus remained at Corinth. And Trophimus I left sick at Miletus.
[21] Make haste to come before winter. Eubulus and Pudens, and Linus and Claudia, and all the brethren, salute thee. [22] The Lord Jesus Christ be with thy spirit. Grace be with you. Amen.

 

The spending plan agreed to by Trump, praised by Pence, and passed yesterday:
Funded Obamacare
Funded Planned Parenthood
Funded EPA at 99%
Didn’t fund the Wall
Didn’t fund ICE task force
Nothing is going to change.  The republic is dead.  Stop being surprised. Yes, you had a moral duty to vote for Trump, but only in order to stop her. Only in order for more souls to possibly have a chance to achieve heaven. This never had anything to do with #MAGA, and you can go back to my original post where I laid out the case for Trump, and I said it right in that post.   You had no right to expect anything to really change. Or should I say, there was, is, and ever will be, until the war comes, absolutely no logical reason for you to think any of this is going to change. #draintheswamp is a myth.
There is one party, the oligarch party, and you’re not part of it. Do yourself a favor and get your head around this. Also helpful is to understand the inevitability of the “healthcare” crisis (and it’s way bigger than Obamacare), and  the inevitability of the overall financial crisis, which involves national debt, the global economy, the laughably overbought stock market, ZIRP, and all the major banks being insolvent. All the information is out there, folks.
So stay confessed, rededicate yourself to growing in holiness, and do what you can with your family to ensure they are on the right path. None of the rest of this stuff matters.