• Purgatory really exists and we must want to reflect on the doctrine of Purgatory, thinking about why it exists and what it is like to be there.
• Scripture tells us that “nothing defiled can enter Heaven” (Apoc. 21:27). Our Lord also tells us that “every idle word that men shall speak, they shall render an account for it in the day of judgment” (Matt. 12:36)
• These two quotations indicate to us why there is a Purgatory. First of all, nothing defiled can enter Heaven. If we pass from this life and we are in the state of grace, yet we still have habits of sin, we have a soul tainted with self-love, then we are not ready to go to Heaven. Our soul needs to be purified; it needs to be purged. And so we go to Purgatory.
• Secondly, we are going to be judged when we die. Our Lord may say to us on that day, “You have died a friend of God, with the love of God in your soul. At the same time, you have done evil things in your life that you still have to make up for. You still have to satisfy justice for the things that you have done in your life. Thus, you have to go to purgatory.”
• Purification and payment: these are the two reasons why Purgatory exists; these are the two things that take place in Purgatory.

• I don’t hate rock ‘n’ roll with my lower nature, the side of my emotions and passions. I am a human being just like everyone else. As human beings, we have an animal side and a spiritual side, a side on which we are like the animals and a side on which we are like God.
• Rock ‘n’ roll speaks to our animal side, it appeals to it, and our animal side is incapable of resisting that appeal. Anyone who is human will be attracted to rock ‘n’ roll by his lower nature.
• Thus, anyone hating rock ‘n’ roll, like myself, is not able to hate it with his lower nature; it can only be hated by our higher nature, with our mind and will, and with the grace of God working in us.
• The reason why my mind and will have an aversion for rock ‘n’ roll is simple: rock ‘n’ roll is toxic for the soul. I am not saying that listening to it is a sin in itself, though sometimes it certainly is. It is mainly that rock ‘n’ roll is permeated with a spirit of sin; it has a loving and committed relationship with the world, the flesh and the devil.

• God asked St. Joseph to take care of Him when God can take care of Himself. “He made him ruler of his household and prince over all his possessions.”
• This imposed a great burden on St. Joseph because it was a difficult role. Our Lord was hated and hunted down. Think of a life where you have to flee to a different country and keep a low profile, where you are wondering each day if you are going to be found out.
• Wasn’t all of this unnecessary? If God has no problem taking care of Himself, why did He ask St. Joseph to take on this role? Wouldn’t life have been easier and more comfortable for St. Joseph if he did not have to be the foster-father of the God man?

• The most common thing that humans do when they are in a state that is not pleasant or in a mood that they cannot control is to seek some escape. They say to themselves: I will binge on movies; I will binge on video games; I will binge on alcohol or drugs.
• These things act like a reset for the soul. We drown the state of mind that was bothering us by overwhelming our senses or overwhelming our system.
• But, just like putting lotion on a leprosy sore, the problem with the body that is causing the pain is still there.
• The same is true when we treat unwanted states of soul by seeking an escape. We make the pain of our soul go away. But the cause of the pain is still there.
• What is that cause? The cause is sin. Sin is the cause of all the troubles of our soul. By sin, I mean all of the disorders that exist in our soul, its diseases: our pride, our selfishness, our laziness, our lust, our materialism, our greed.

Advantages and disadvantages of public school, homeschooling, and traditional Catholic schooling

The persecution of Catholics in the early history of the USA required sacrifices by those Catholics to keep the faith. Those same sacrifices are demanded of traditional Catholics today, who are being persecuted for wanting to hold on to Tradition.

What is it Our Lord wanted to teach us by this miracle? Why did He do it? What truths does this miracle tell us about?

• Our Lord was always thinking about the Cross. Our Lord loved the Cross. Our Lord longed to die on the Cross.
• If we do not understand this, we cannot understand Him. If we do not understand Him, we cannot understand His teaching. If we do not understand His teaching, we cannot follow Him.
• I want to share with you some of the rules that St. Louis de Montfort gave in his “Letter to friends of the Cross”.

If you say to yourself, “I would like to get married one day. I would like to have a family”, then it is only natural for you to ask, “How do I go about this? What is the process by which I seek to find a husband or a wife?”

Fidelity is truthfulness in action. It was exemplified by St. John the Baptist in three particular tests of his life.