The following comes from a 13-minute homily on Sunday, March 3 from Father Joseph Illo, pastor of Star of the Sea parish in San Francisco.
We’ve entered the season of lengthier readings.
The readinrgs point us to the question, is God with us or not?
We cannot live without love. Mother Teresa had the Latin word for I thirst (sitio) painted above every station of the cross in her convent.
I thirst for God because He first thirsts for me.
I had a conversation with a friend who works in a psychiatric clinic and who talks to delusional young people about God. She admitted four young people the other day who were delusional; two of them were suicidal.
One girl hates her body so much she cannot take showers, she takes baths in the dark. They were all atheists; God had been taken away from them, so she spoke to them about God. She has been reprimanded for doing this. But they don’t fire her, because it works. She gently brings the idea of God back to them.
15-second excerpt:
“We cannot live without love, a relationship that gives meaning and purpose to our lives, which we call love. A relationship with another person. Not even God Almighty can live without love.”
They aren’t thirsting for God at Archbishop Mitty High School. They are thirsting for sports, Monarch Madness, sex, and alcohol.
Those in charge of the school– and many post-Conciliar Catholic clerical leaders– are aignorant and delusional about a life dedicated to Christ and His teachings, for which the school was originally founded. Christ thirsts for all of them. But currently, it looks like the Devil has infiltrated, and nearly destroyed this school, and many others. St. Mother Teresa had a hard time too, with many faithless post-Conciliar Catholic clerics. Some of them heavily criticized her and her nuns, and their wonderful work for God. Best for Catholic parents to avoid this school– and many others, including Jesuit-run Santa Clara Univ. Look what happened to the Church at Vatican II, with poor decisions to open up the Church to the world– and to false, delusional “freedoms,” for clergy and laity– instead of recognition of adult responsibilities to Christ, as Catholics, and continual pledges and vows to follow Him. There is absolutely no human dignity nor true, authentic freedom,”in a life ruthlessly turned over to no responsibility, worldliness, no faithfulness to Christ, lawlessness, ignorance, stupidity, sin, and eventual loss of soul to Satan– bringing down many other souls, tragically, to Satan’s gutters and to Hell. Where was the requirement, of the Council Fathers, for all Catholic clergy and laity, for a steadfast commitment to Christ, and to His holy Faith? I thought that the Council Fathers should only have examined and fixed real problems and abuses. Christ never taught ridiculous concepts of so-called freedoms in the false name of personal liberty destroy yourself– so that He and His Church could be popular, make money, and pacify followers. He told the rich young man– and all others– the Truth, and let them decide on it, as adults. He taught the errant, dark, sinful world the Truth, and stood steadfastly by it, to life’s end, when He was wrongfully killed for saying the Truth. That is the authentic example that we are all to follow, to “enter by the Narrow Gate…” All else is false, delusional.
You might be surprised if you visited Mitty and SCU.
You should read the Vatican II documents. I think you will be pleasantly surprised.
Only surprised by how unCatholic those schools are.
No, sadly, you need to see the truth of all that happenned. To this day, many top, irresponsible Catholic clerical leaders will not stand for anything but so-called “individual human freedoms.” I do not agree with that. I do believe in a free decision to serve Christ, yet one must commit to responsibly serving Him with a true commitment– and be held to that commitment, by the Church. No baloney. If you are ordained a Jesuit priest, for example, you must be held to faithfully, responsibly fulfill your vows to Jesus Christ. All Jesuits take four vows– poverty, chastity, obedience, and a fourth vow of obedience to the pope, in regard to world missions. The Jesuits– like Jesuit Fr. James Martin, and many of their college presidents, professors, and those in Journalism, writing, lecturing, and other fields, etc.— have all greatly sinned, and must return to God.
I used to go to Mitty. They tried to force all the students to accept gay marriage. I wouldn’t be surprised if now they’re trying to force all the students to accept transgenderism.
What do you mean by “accept gay marriage”?
At the time, it was that gay marriage should be legal, there’s nothing wrong with it, it’s equal to man/woman marriage, and the Catholic Church should change its teaching to include gay marriage as sacramental and in accord with God’s will. There were gay married/civil union teachers at Mitty. They didn’t hide it. Students could bring same-sex dates to school dances and prom. Posters were displayed in the foyer that said “love is love” and showed male couples and female couples holding hands.
Yep, that is wrong.
Ask the Copts
https://www.ncregister.com/blog/coptic-orthodox-suspend-theological-dialogue-change-of-position
Today, I received a wonderful email, containing news of a very successful Rosary Club that was started at a Texas public high school– Kingwood High School– in the Houston area. A couple of years ago, several Catholic boys who were students there, prayed together, and brainstormed ideas, to try to save classmates from the evils of sex, drugs, LGBT material, etc., infiltrating their high school. Thinking that maybe Our Lady could help them, they decided to start a Rosary Club. All they needed to do, was to find a teacher who would sponsor them and give them a meeting room, and draw up a constitution, outlining their new club’s mission and purpose. The club started with six students– but within two years, quickly grew to 50 regular student members! It’s quite a phenomenon! Many students also became interested in the Catholic Faith. Here is a link to the article: https://tfpstudentaction.org/blog/rosary-club-converts-souls-in-public-school
“Delusional” is really an interesting concept. Perhaps the whole human race is delusional in many small ways, not just the mentally ill. Perhaps those who commit all types of grave sins are in a delusional state– along with hardened hearts, no moral conscience, and no respect for God and one’s fellowman. Perhaps those who killed Christ were delusional. Perhaps that is why He said, “Father forgive them, for they know not what they do.” Some young women who are on the verge of committing abortion, have a “wake-up” call– and realize they were totally delusional, and save their dear children from Death. Also, a conversion to Christ is a sudden, grace-filled moment of recognition of Truth, beholding His magnificent, awe-inspiring, sublime Light and Love– discarding all blindness, falsehood, and delusions. “Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me…” (etc.) — words to a hymn written in 1772, by John Newton, a former slave trader.
Delusional means that you cannot separate reality from your own imagination.
People in mortal sin are not delusional. They are sinful.
People who have abortions are not delusional. They just don’t like the reality of the situation they are in and do something horrific to change it.
I have been treated as delusional by family members who do not believe in prayer and/or in God.
Yes, to commit mortal sin requires full knowledge and consent to do so. Still, the soul that commits mortal sin is rebellious, ignorant, delusional– it does not know God. He has gone astray, his.mind is dark and blackened, and has made a stupid, ignorant, horrible decision. He has rejected God and God’s Light, Love, Goodness, Wisdom and Virtue. He is deluded. Just like St. Paul, formerly the brutal Roman government- employed hunter, persecutor and executioner of the Christians– until the fateful day when Christ knocked St. Paul off his horse, in a powerful vision. He then became a powerful Christian leader– and a Christian saint. We all are deluded in one way or another, to a greater or lesser degree– our souls are darkened, rebellious, ignorant, sick, crippled, defaced, defiled, living apart from the Divine Presence of God. Living a lie, unaware of God’s tremendous Love, Light, Goodness Wisdom, and Virtue, and that we are made in His Divine Image, and meant to exist in an exquisutely beautiful, pure, loving union with Him in Heaven, eternally. Like Lucifer, once the great light-learer and leader of the angels in Heaven, we boldly, rebelliously, scornfully, ignorantly declare, “Non serviam – I will not serve (God).” “I am the greatest.” What a laugh. A terrible delusion.
Being deluded is different than being delusional.
The Devil is known from Biblcal days, to be a trickster. He is very clever. He maliciously tricked Adam and Eve. He is a master of illusions, deceptions, tricks– and delusions. He looks very beautiful, intelligent, irresistibly attractive, strong, powerful, and important, and even can appear loving, kind and virtuous- yet he is very ugly, cruel, evil, weak, and deceptive. His intelligence is misused for extremely evil purposes. He is a scammer! He will promise you great things– but will then cheat you, mistreat you, and mislead you into terrible sin, misery, death and destruction. Mankind mistakenly views sin as attractive, like irresistible pieces of candy. He jumps for the bait– which is poisoned– and finds out that he has jumped sadly to his death. He is delusional a great deal of the time. Weak, dumb, easily scammed, impressed by sin, easily flattered by tricksters falsely puffing up his ego, easily misled astray, into the brambles, straight to the precipice of a cliff– where he cries out to God, poisoned and frightened, to save his poor life! Man has been easily tricked and deluded into evil, ever since his downfall, cunningly done by the serpent, in the Garden of Eden. Put another way, according to today’s world — — man often makes bad choices– ignorantly– tending to fall for sin! Man imagines he is smart, strong, and powerful– but he is actually pitifully dumb, weak and sinful, desperately in need of God. May God save man from himself, and from his own delusions.
I think all this might be a matter of semantics. People in sin may imagine they are not in sin, and that is their delusion.
Thank you for sharing with me the Catholic readings.
A very thoughtful comment, Delusional. If we saw God as He is we would all respond as Isaiah did: “Woe to me!” I cried. “I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty”–so the infinite holiness of God contrasting our fallen nature elicits this cry.(Isaiah 6:5). That’s the reality; our delusion is in arrogating to ourselves pride and concupiscence in defiance of the Divine Will. Your citing John Newton is spot on. Some time ago I noticed the words to Amazing Grace were changed in some Catholic hymnals: “Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound, that saved a soul like me…” in an effort to inculcate positive self-esteem. But Isaiah and Newton saw the true picture of the wonder of Grace upon the undeserving. Again, a very fine post, and thank you.
Glad you enjoyed my comment. I, too, do not care for the modern psycho-babble ruining traditional texts of well-written hymns. Of course, the worst thing is when the crazy feminists try to wreck the concept of the Fatherhood of God.
Sadly, I think many people today, like radical feminists and others– have bought into a victimhood kind of philosophy, that they are underdogs and outcasts, misfits with human rights trampled upon– because of all the 1960s leftist brainwashing garbage– retaliating against society, with nutty Cancel Culture delusions. Cancelling whatever does not suit their crazy beliefs, even words to hymns written by others– or prayers addressing God as our “Heavenly Father.” A full-grown man or woman, who has suffered due to life’s hard times, and who has battled sins sinful addictions like alcohol, drugs, etc., and who suddenly is blessed to find God in a stunning religious conversion– will typically fall to their knees with tears, and exclaim something like the words to “Amazing Grace!” Loved your quote from the prophet Isaiah. All the Jewish prophets of old always told God’s Truth to the Jewish people. They were not delusional. That’s the reality; our delusion is in arrogating to ourselves pride and concupiscence in defiance of the Divine Will. Very true.
A Cal Catholic editor insists on changing all of my posts, to make them look like I fail to use proper English. Most exclamation points are removed, along with quotation marks. Few of my comments are left intact. Misspellings, oddly, are never corrected– very sad! For example, words like “Cancel Culture,” “victimhood,” “underdogs,” “outcasts,” “misfits,” etc. in my comment of March 10th at 1:26 am, had the quotation marks removed. The words “Heavenly Father” were left alone, thank goodness. I think that the editors should refrain from doing such things, whenever they print readers’ comments. Very disrespectful– will discourage readership of sincere, faithful Catholics of California.
The Social Justice radical garbage of the 1960s is not really based on lhe Civil Rights Movement of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.– nor on legitimate “oppression.” It was initiated by angry, sick, leftist intellectual misfits, some who were gays– fueled by paid, leftist, subversive political agitators, who infiltrated America– picking it all to pieces, trying to destroy pride, faith, and love of our wonderful country, that we are so blessed with, by God. Here is a nice, young married woman, let’s call her “Kathy.” She is young, in her 20s, and has three nice kids. Her husband teaches at the university. She is invited to attend a Woman’s Movement meeting, at the university. It is maybe about the year 1972. What do they tell her, at the meeting? You can guess. A bunch of pre-prepared, rigid, subversive, Marxist-Socialist baloney. 1.Men are no good– men oppress women, and view them as dumb sex objects 2.Marriage is no good– the men cruelly “subjugate:” their wives and abuse them 3. Motherhood is no good– it enslaves you 4. Fatherhood is no good– all fathers are monsters 5.You, a woman, need freedom and vast economic opportunity, to have a huge career, as a man does, and be the Top Dog in it 6.We are going to be very subversive, and psychologically manipulate you, to achieve our simplistic Marxist-Socialist goals. Pretty soon, you will divorce your “oppressive” husband, leave your oppressive, male-dominated church or synagogue, and go out and get a job, and be the Big Boss. You will make a fortune, be at the top, economically, all by yourself. No more cruel male oppression of women. Go have lovers, not marriage. Use birth control. Abort any pregnancies. Be free, make money, be “Top Dog” “Me Numero Uno,” do as I please. The Devil has tragically tricked these women. A young woman like Kathy, invited to the woman’s movement meeting, really was a nice girl– and happily married, and a happy mother, too. And a good neighbor, and a happy church member, too! Nice and normal. She never felt oppressed at all. She really deserved support, for Marriage and Motherhood– and appreciation for her normal, lovely womanhood. Where are her grand-children, today — happily attending a normal school, happily playing tetherball at recess?
Without mentioning names, not all the “saintly” men were saintly behind the scenes, and some bitter women might have had affairs with some “saintly” men, in spite of the fact they knew they were married with children. They chose to “stab” the wives in the back. Delusional? yes. “If he cheats with you on his wife, he will cheat on you with someone else” holds true. Many have had abortions to save their reputations and those of “saintly” men. Women whose husbands have cheated, often become cheats themselves. Sad but true. Other men and women choose not to destroy families. That is the truly Godly choice.
Regarding my last reply, a better word for “saintly” men, would have been “heroes”, meaning politicians, explorers, pastors and so forth who go out of their way to help others while their own families suffer from their mistreatment or lack of attention.
The world has always had– and will always have– sinful men and sinful women. But there have been many normal, good men and good women, all through the ages, who have quietly led good lives, upheld Christian Morality and Marriage, and have raised good children, with good Christian Morals, who have all quietly grown up and contributed a great deal to the world– and to their various churches. When I was growing up, my parents and relatives, and all families in our social circles– all were aware of people who had no moral principles, and who greatly sinned– even regular church-goers, with wealth and prestige, who gave much to their churches, and to the community– yet were phony hypocrites. There are many everyday heroes, everywhere, with great integrity, who quietly stand for Christ and His teachings, no matter what, in even the toughest of circumstances. I greatly admire saintly heroes like Cardinal Zen and Jimmy Lai, and countless others in Hong Kong, who have stood firmly for Christ and His teachings, and for principles of democracy, fairness, and religious liberty, for their persecuted Catholics, Christians, and for all in Hong Kong, China, and elsewhere.
Oakland, in the Bay Area, has such high crime that Taco Bell is closing all of their Oakland restaurants to dining in. Only drive thru now, and all cashless.
The Bay Area is a dumpster fire.