Why I am not a Liberal...

Liberalism regards the love of God as immediate, and so there is nothing more to see in Jesus of Nazareth, for if the love of God we preach is natural, there is no need of Christ, he "died to no purpose." The essence of Liberalism is not only a world of humanism, i.e., Mann as the center of all that is, it is therefore not only a denial of God, but therefore a negation of the pain of God, an ideal world which neither has, nor does, nor ever will exist, an illusion, The Great politically correct Lie. Only in the Cross can we see the eternal Love of God manifested; only "taking up that [deadly] Cross" can one know Love. I am reading the best book in years, Kazoh Kitamori's "Theology of the Pain of God." Soul-blowing in Love!

Good and Evil

I think evil is always small, and that good is infinite. Evil closes itself to God and thus becomes even smaller; Good opens itself to God and thus becomes infinite. Evil cannot become so large as to fill even the universe. God became so small that He could fill Hell and then burst it asunder because it could not contain Him. Every good deed will have eternal remembrance, but even the largest deeds of the evil will be forgotten.  --from fatherstephen.wordpress.com

The Disappointment of Religion by Fr. Stephen (excerpt)

[Our] cultural reality makes it very difficult to speak of authentic Christian experience – for we speak to one another as addicts. We largely knowexperience as an alcoholic knows alcohol. That an alcoholic might prefer vodka to wine tells me nothing about vodka or wine. Religious experience tells me almost nothing about God, the Church, truth, etc. It is God, the Church, truth, etc., viewed through the fog of distorted modern perception.

taken from https://fatherstephen.wordpress.com/2012/05/08/the-disappointment-of-religion/

I do hope you will read the entire post on Fr. Stephen's Blog

The Cross of Jesus

The cross of Jesus is the radical condemnation of an unjust world (Gal 6,14). There is no escape from the cross, you have to stay with the one crucified on it or stand with the crucifiers, there is no middle way. All that God values is hated and killed by the world. What the world esteems, God abhors. Through Jesus, God offers the world equality, solidarity and mutual help, freedom, love, and happiness with God as its king and father. But domination, violence, injustice, the religious and civil power, the ruling class and the people seeking their security in institutions, hate life and give death. They prefer Caesar for king (Jn 19:15). --Juan Mateos, S.J. This quote has haunted me for decades. And as far as I can see, it is true: there is no middle way.

"Christ is Risen!

Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia! "

And all shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of thing shall be well." 


I pass on to you the Peace, and Joy and the Love known through Christ Jesus, to you all.....ALL! You are in my thanksgivings for your being a part of my life.

"ALL is Grace."

Sh....... don't tell, it's where I am, and where I joy to be...

My spirit I prepare
To serve him with her riches and her beauty.

No flocks are now my care,
No other toil I share,
And only now in loving is my duty.

So now if from this day
I am not found among the haunts of men,
Say that I went astray
Love-stricken from my way,
That I was lost, but have been found again.

for those who might like the original, it is:

Mi alma se ha empleado,
y todo mi caudal, en su servicio;
ya no guardo ganado,
ni ya tengo otro oficio,
que ya solo en amar es mi ejercicio.

Pues ya sin el ejido
de hoy más no fuere vista ni hallada,
diréis que me he perdido
que andando enamorada,
me hice perdidiza, y fui ganada.

                                      ---St. John of the Cross

Just a reminder ...

The Gadarene Swine Fallacy

The GSF is the fallacy of supposing that because a group is in the right formation, it is necessarily on the right course; and conversely, of supposing that because an individual has strayed from the group and isn't in formation, that he is off course. The individual may seem lost to the group but not off course to an ideal observer.

Background: Gadara was the ancient city of Palestine southeast of the Sea of Galilee and subsequently destroyed. The name was later adopted by a district east of Jordan and called Gadarenes, or Gergesenes. It was the site of the famous miracle of the swine, in which Jesus conjured demonic spirits into the body of swine and let them perish in the sea. The story is recounted in the Synoptic Gospels.

The fallacy is elucidated well in R.D. Laing's Politics of Experience. Here is an excerpt from that work:

"From an ideal vantage point on the ground, a formation of planes may be observed in the air. One plane may be out of formation. But the whole formation may be off course. The plane that is 'out of formation' may be abnormal, bad or 'mad,' from the point of view of the formation. But the formation itself may be bad or mad from the point of view of the ideal observer. The plane that is out of formation may also be more or less off course than the formation itself is.

"The 'out of formation' criterion is the clinical positivist criterion.

"The 'off course' criterion is the ontological. One needs to make two judgements along these different parameters. In particular, it is of fundamental importance not to confuse the person who may be 'out of formation' by telling him he is 'off course' if he is not. It is of fundamental importance not to make the positivist mistake of assuming that, because a group are 'in formation,' this means they are necessarily 'on course.' This is the Gadarene swine fallacy."

from Logical Fallacies www.philosophicalsociety.com, with my thanks