Traditional Roman Catholic Thoughts

Traditional Roman Catholic Thoughts

Reintroducing Logic and Reason to the Age of Sentimentalism

Pepsi Co Stops Using Aborted Fetal Cells for Testing

I picked this up from LifeNews.com this morning.

Pepsi Co. for the last year and a half has been in a contract with Senomyx Inc., a company that used Aborted Fetal Cells in order to do taste testing in various products. In May of last year, a lot of pro life groups got out and started protesting Pepsi for this descision. There were a few other companies that had contracts as well, but almost immediately ended the contract once the protest notes started to pour in. For the last year, Pepsi has been very staunch in their support of this company. But, today marks good news, they have ended their contract with this company. Their reasoning was mostly that “Senomyx will not use HEK cells or any other tissues or cell lines derived from human embryos or fetuses for research performed on behalf of PepsiCo.” This truly is good news.

I for one am happy that Pepsi has finally recognized the dangers and has listened to the consumer’s. It was very frustrating that many people complained and protested and their initial response was a flat out ‘we don’t care, we want a superior product and will use this no matter what’. But, it looks like in the end, money talks. I for one was boycotting Pepsi and switched my allegiance over to Coca Cola. Now, both drinks are bad, but, on occasion I do enjoy a delicious pop.

This is a huge victory as well for the pro-life crowd as it shows how many people do not approve of this kind of conduct. Using aborted fetal cells for taste is down right disgusting. Many pro-choicers were also offended by Pepsi’s actions as well. In my opinion we are one step closer to consuming Soylent Green when we begin to start testing with fetal cells.

From my understanding, it sounds like Senomyx will still be doing testing in this regard with aborted fetal cells, but just will not be using this in Pepsi products. I still wish that Senomyx would not be using these cells at all in their testing, but at least Pepsi has recognized this. I would imagine that with Pepsi finally ending this, Senomyx might wake up and realize that this is not only morally wrong, but no body wants this in the food that they eat, even if it does “enhance the flavor”.

So, in honor of this prolife victory, I will probably enjoy a Mountain Dew or similar Pepsi product tonight.

Be sure to read the original article over at LifeNews.com

Jeff April 30, 2012 Leave A Comment Permalink

Prayer: How to do it!

I’ve been reading the psalms as part of my scriptural reading and have noticed a few things. The first is how we should always pray to God as if He is with us in the room. In every psalm God’s name is only mentioned a few times, and only a few times. Now, when we pray, we shouldn’t be saying God’s name every 5 words. It isn’t how we would properly communicate with…well, anyone. Frankly, if someone came up to me and said my name after every 5th word, I don’t know how I would take them, but I probably wouldn’t take them seriously.

When we pray, whether it be the Father, Son, Holy Spirit, Mary or any Saint or Angel, we should always be sure that we talk from the heart. Talk like you would with your friend. Have a conversation. Mention all the things that are on your mind. Be thankful, be gracious, but most importantly be honest. God knows what is in your heart better than you do. Don’t be afraid to say what you want.

Its also important to realize that God always answers our prayers. Just because we don’t get what we want when we ask for it doesn’t mean he ignored us, for when we ask someone else to do something we either get a “yes” or a “no”. When we ask God for something and we don’t get it, He did indeed answer our prayer, but not with a yes, but, with a no. God knows what we need and what we want. Not always do they match up though. A lot of times we are not asking for things that will help us in our lives, but will end up being crutches later on.

Another theme in the psalms is that really, each prayer is almost like a conversation. They aren’t just a bunch of words that you throw together because you think that God will like what He hears, but really its a conversation. As Archbishop Fulton Sheen said “Prayer is a dialogue”. It is very important to remember this. Now, if we can’t think of things to say, that is one thing, and it is great to use prayers that the Church or Saints have already put to paper for us. There is absolutely nothing wrong with this as they are indeed beautiful prayers. But, how awesome would it be for you to say “I communicate with God because He is my best friend above all earthly things”?

There is absolutely nothing wrong with prayers that have already been written. My favorite devotion is the Rosary, which in my opinion should be recited daily. The Rosary is a powerful tool that Satan despises. He hates it and every time we pray it, he is weakened. Not to mention, we call upon Our Blessed Mother’s intersession. Now, the other really cool thing, is that we get to meditate upon all of Jesus’ important parts of life. The Joyful (Annunciation, Visitation, Nativity, Presentation, Finding in the Temple), the Sorrowful (Agony, Scourging, Crowning of Thorns, Carrying of Cross, Crucifixion), the Glorious (Resurrection, Ascension, Descent of Holy Spirit, Assumption of Blessed Virgin Mary, Coronation of Blessed Virgin Mary) and the Luminous (Baptism, Wedding of Cana, Proclamation, Transfiguration, Institution of the Eucharist). Every single one of these events has Jesus, and as a double, we can also meditate on Mary’s life and how these events affected her as well.

Finally, it is also incredibly important, that when you pray, you don’t do all of the talking, but you listen. God speaks to us during prayer and a lot of the time, we are too busy rambling on and on about our problems, our desires and our wants, and we don’t listen to what God has to say to us. When you pray, find a quiet place to pray. Ask God what His will is for you. You may not hear a response at first, but don’t huff and go “well that didn’t work!”. It will take time. For too long you have done all the talking and none of the listening. It takes time to build up listening skills in daily interactions, so, it will take time to build up these skills with your interaction with Christ as well.

Speak Lord! Your servant Listens!

Jeff April 30, 2012 Leave A Comment Permalink

Mortal Sin Against the First Commandment Part 2

Participation with the occult (witchcraft, ouija boards, black magic, palm reading, seances, tarot cards), putting faith into horoscopes or luck charms.
The occult is a serious threat. A lot of people think its all fun and games, but sadly, it is not. The occult has always called upon black magic (not God, but Satanic) intercession. Once you get involved in this, it leaves a very bad mark upon you. It opens yourself up to demonic possession and oppression. All of these use evil spirits in order to find out information. Instead of asking God, the parties involved leave God out of the picture, and go about finding their information through evil ways. The occult is very dangerous to our spiritual lives. The occult tries very hard to ruin us and to make it appear that everything is alright and there isn’t much of a big deal with playful curiosity. I have heard stories where involvement with ouija boards, palm reading, seances and tarot cards have had negative consequences. Ouija boards get thrown away and magically reappear. Tarot cards and palm readings dig so deep into the persons soul that it is frightening. Seances do not have contact with “who you are looking for” but play with evil spirits who are up to no good. White magic is not “good” magic, do not be fooled. Magic is magic. Magic in this sense is sinful.

Putting faith into horoscopes or luck charms or even superstition goes against having faith in God. God demands that we are faithful to Him. When we put faith into other items or philosophies, we are not trusting God, and we are turning these other items into gods. Horoscopes are a load of bologna anyways. God is a very jealous God.

Receiving the Sacraments of Confirmation or Matrimony Under Mortal Sin
Similar to receiving Holy Communion in the state of mortal sin, receiving these sacraments when not in a state of grace somewhat ruins the graces that you would receive the moment that the graces are put on you. When we commit mortal sin, our connection with God is broken. When we receive sacraments, we are receiving graces. There are only a few sacraments that we can receive when in the state of mortal sin. Those would be Reconciliation, and Baptism. That is because these two sacraments remove the effects of mortal sin and reestablish our relationship with God.

Being married by a Justice of the Peace or minister from another denomination (without dispensation) (for Catholics).
As Catholics, we are called to receive our sacraments from the Catholic Church. There are times when we can get permission depending on the circumstances for the marriage, but, to leave the Church to get married without permission, or when the Church has denied permission, is the same as leaving the Church. Marriage is not a right, nor a guarantee. We are not all called to marriage and most certainly the person we think we are called to marriage may not be good for us. With a close to 50% divorce rate, there is a reason why the Church grants permission.

Willful participation in General Absolution services (non-emergency)
General Absolution services are sadly offered within some non-traditional parts of the Church. General Absolution is when you do not do an individual confession but you write your sins on a piece of paper and everyone receives absolution at the same time. In the case of an emergency (say, the plane is going to go down) this is perfectly acceptable and recommended by the Church in these circumstances. However, if you do survive, you still need to confess your mortal sins. To offer this because people may be shy or the priest doesn’t want to sit for an hour in the confessional is not valid. This is because there is a rubric for confession. The Sacrament of Reconciliation requires us to confess our sins in kind and number. Its important to note that Father can never admit to the sins that you have confessed and he generally doesn’t remember them anyways. Father won’t, and shouldn’t hold your sins against you either. Confession is there for you to admit to your wrong doings and to get back into the state of grace and back on the path of righteousness.

Now, after reading this, if you realize that you have been involved in some of these things, GET TO CONFESSION. I always say that even if you didn’t know that something was a mortal sin it would be good to confess it anyways. Just tell Father that you didn’t know it was a sin but you want to confess it.

If I wasn’t clear on something, just leave a comment and I’ll be sure to address the issue.

 

This post is one of many in a series on Mortal Sins. Click here for more posts explaining and defining mortal sins.

Jeff April 25, 2012 3 Comments Permalink

Mortal Sin Against the First Commandment Part 1

The First Commandment.

“I am the Lord your God. You shalt not have strange gods before me.”

I discussed mortal sin a couple of months ago, just before Lent. As a quick review, here are the 3 conditions that need to be present in order to commit a mortal sin:

1. Serious Matter.
2. Knowledge that the act is serious before committing the sin.
3. Full consent of the will (I know its wrong and I’m going to do it).

So, what are some examples of mortal sin against the first commandment? Here are a couple with an explanation of what it is and why its sinful.

Receiving Holy Communion in the State of Mortal Sin
As Catholics, we believe that Jesus Christ is truly present, Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity in the Eucharist. When we go up to receive the Eucharist, we must, must, MUST be in the state of grace. Now, you are still in the state of grace when you have committed venial sin, but, when you have committed a mortal sin, you have completely cut your self off from God’s grace. You need to go to confession in order to be in the state of grace again. St. Paul mentions this in 1 Corinthians 11:28-30:

“A person should examine himself, and so eat the bread and drink the cup. For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body, eats and drinks judgment on himself.”

When we receive Jesus unworthily, we bring upon ourselves judgment, which would imply mortal sin.

Presumption (Committing a Mortal Sin with the intention of going to confession)
This is the attitude of “well, I can just go to confession, so I’m going to go and commit _____”. This is a mortal sin within itself. The purpose of confession is for us to confess our sins and to fully repent. You can’t repent when you have the intention of committing sin. This is different from committing the sin and then saying “I need to get to confession”. Let’s look at an example of how this is wrong. We are hanging out. All of a sudden, I get the urge to punch you. I say to myself, “ya know, I really want to punch them, I know its wrong, but you know, they’ll forgive me if I say I’m sorry afterwards.” I punch you and then go “Oh my, I’m so sorry!”. This is exactly what it is like when we are guilty of presumption.

Desecration of the Holy Eucharist
Again, we believe that Jesus Christ is truly present in the Eucharist. We believe that the Eucharist IS GOD. Destroying God and not treating the Eucharist with the proper respect that it deserves is a mortal sin. Treat the Eucharist with respect. When you receive the Eucharist at Communion, EAT IT. Do not put it in your pocket and save it for later. EAT IT.

Involvement in New Age or Eastern philosophies, atheism, agnosticism, leaving the Church, faith in a schismatic group
I lumped these up into one group as I think they all share a common theme. Faith in something that is not given to us by God. New Age and Eastern philosophies are very non-God friendly. There are many different philosophies, but a lot of them include worship of the Earth, belief in the spirit, faith in the body, etc. Atheism, is the outright rejection of God. Obviously, rejecting God would be a mortal sin as we are severing the relationship with Him. Agnosticism has a lot of sub-groups, but basically it is the rejection of God in the form that He is unknowable, which we know that He is knowable for He has revealed Himself to us throughout the course of human history. Leaving the Church is the rejection that Jesus Christ started the Roman Catholic Church. As we read in Matthew 16:17-19:”Jesus said to him in reply, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah. For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my heavenly Father. And so I say to you, you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of the netherworld shall not prevail against it. I will give you the keys to the kingdom of heaven. Whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven; and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.”

Jesus is very clear here that Peter will be in charge of the Church when Jesus is no longer with us. Schismatic groups are groups that claim to be Catholic, but are not in union with the Catholic Church. Again, Jesus started the Roman Catholic Church, not these other churches who were started by men and have a start date far from 33 A.D.

This post is one of many in a series on Mortal Sins. Click here for more posts explaining and defining mortal sins.

Jeff April 25, 2012 3 Comments Permalink

The Wedding of Cana, Partying and Drinking

I was speaking with a close friend on the passage regarding the Wedding of Canaa. But, for those who are unfamiliar with it, I will give the account.

On the third day there was a wedding in Cana in Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there. Jesus and his disciples were also invited to the wedding. When the wine ran short, the mother of Jesus said to him, “They have no wine.” (And) Jesus said to her, “Woman, how does your concern affect me? My hour has not yet come.” His mother said to the servers, “Do whatever he tells you.” Now there were six stone water jars there for Jewish ceremonial washings, each holding twenty to thirty gallons. Jesus told them, “Fill the jars with water.” So they filled them to the brim. Then he told them, “Draw some out now and take it to the headwaiter.” So they took it. And when the headwaiter tasted the water that had become wine, without knowing where it came from (although the servers who had drawn the water knew), the headwaiter called the bridegroom and said to him, “Everyone serves good wine first, and then when people have drunk freely, an inferior one; but you have kept the good wine until now.” Jesus did this as the beginning of his signs in Cana in Galilee and so revealed his glory, and his disciples began to believe in him. After this, he and his mother, (his) brothers, and his disciples went down to Capernaum and stayed there only a few days.

What’s interesting to me is how this passage is more or less proof that Jesus does not condemn drinking. I have heard the argument many times that alcohol is a sin and will send you to Hell if you consume of it. I have to disagree with this statement whole heartily. On the other hand, I would say that drinking to the point of being drunk or smashed or blacking out, would be a mortal sin. Yes, a mortal sin.

Why would it be a mortal sin? Well, first off, when we drink, we are impairing our judgment as well as our senses. The more we have drunk, the worse off we are. Our reaction times increase (it takes longer to react) and we also allow ourselves to do things that we normally wouldn’t do (more mortal sins). What’s even more important to point out, is that if we drink too much, we can kill ourselves.

Now, let’s say you are only having one drink or you are pacing yourself out throughout the course of the day. You can if you are able to control yourself, have multiple drinks over the course of the day and be completely fine. This is perfectly acceptable, as long as you are not getting to the point where you are drunk. Now, what your tolerance and when you cross the threshold of being drunk differ from others, it is up to you to determine when too many is too much.

Going back to the original point, a lot of people have argued with me that Jesus didn’t turn the water into wine because then Jesus would be allowing people to commit sin. I would have to completely disagree with this statement. If Jesus hadn’t turned the water into wine, then Jesus is a liar, because He duped the people. Our Lord is not a manipulator in the fact that He would mislead us. That is dishonest, and our God is an honest God. Dishonesty is a fault and failure of those with sin and God does not have sin.

The other argument is that if Jesus had done this, He would be allowing others to sin. Now, when was the last time that Jesus, the Father or the Holy Spirit stepped in front of you and said “STOP DON’T DO THAT!”? Now, He does speak to us that way in our conscience, but we have the free will to continue on with either fulfilling the act or not. Had Jesus stepped in this way, He would have been violating the free will that all humans have. It is also important to note, that at Jewish weddings, they were multiple day long feasts. Weddings of today are just one night smashes where a lot of people do get drunk, sadly. However, if you are drinking over the course of few days, or even a week, it would make sense that you would run out of wine eventually.

What is even more interesting about Jesus’ first public miracle is that He turned water into wine. Wine that He would later turn into His Most Sacred Blood at the Last Supper. This is such a cool mystery that everything about Jesus’ ministries points to the Holy Eucharist. Contemplate that.

Jeff April 17, 2012 Leave A Comment Permalink