Why do I choose to write about this? It is because in the world today no one likes to talk about hell and because people have been fooled to believe it does not exist; we just die and get buried and that’s it. Ignorance is bliss?! There are those in this category and there are those worldly ones in denial mode. Well if you know the story that the picture above depicts is true, then you know there is a hell. So I was exploring the internet on the subject of hell and I found Wikipedia’s “problem of Hell; which indicates “ The problem of Hell is an ethical problem in religion in which the existence of Hell for the punishment of souls is regarded as inconsistent with the notion of a just, moral, and omnibenevolent God. It derives from four key propositions: that Hell exists; that it is for the punishment of people whose lives on Earth are judged to have sinned against God; that some people go there; and there is no escape.” Vatican Council pronouncement: "The Holy, Catholic, Apostolic, Roman Church believes and confesses that there is one, true, living God, Creator and Lord of heaven and earth, omnipotent, eternal, immense, incomprehensible, infinite in intellect and will, and in every perfection; who, although He is one, singular, altogether simple and unchangeable spiritual substance, must be proclaimed distinct in reality and essence from the world; most blessed in Himself and of Himself, and ineffably most high above all things which are or can be conceived outside Himself." “regarded as inconsistent with the notion of a just, moral, and omnibenevolent God”…inconsistent?! Yes, God is all merciful but He is also just. God is usually perceived as omnipotent (all-powerful), omniscient (all- knowing), omnipresent (all-present) and omnibenevolent (all-good); but He is also divine, an infinite being and pure spirit, and obviously His kingdom as well. Nothing defiled can enter it but only the pure or purified. Just like any wrong doing committed against an earthly king, justice will be warranted and an appropriate punishment meted out for the crime committed. What more a sin committed against God almighty an infinite being and pure spirit, a divinity ? It is a far greater offence than any crime in the world, as God is almighty, infinite and pure, whereas man is a finite creature of God and defiled by original sin and cannot by himself make-up for any offence committed against God, in fact impossible. But yet there must be justice for God for any sin committed against Him. Therefore, because God so loved us that He sent His only begotten son, Jesus, to be sacrificed to make up for all the sins against God. Why? Because Jesus being also God is divine and only the divine can be offered to God the divinity to justify all the sins committed against God. The finite cannot be compared to the infinite because as creatures of God we being flesh are far more “inferior” to the almighty infinite God, divine and pure spirit. Like a meteoroid in the vast space of the universe. But what a great sacrifice, recall the Passion of Jesus and His undignified death on the Cross, a divinity suffering such an ignominious death. The severity of such a sacrifice to match the severity of the grievous sins committed against the Divinity of God. Furthermore Wikipedia says that: “…assuming the suffering of Hell is caused by free will and something God could have prevented.” Yes, God has given man free will and that is why God cannot prevent what man wills. If God prevents us it will contradict His gift of free will to us. The free will given to us is for us to merit heaven on our own accord. Our free will shapes our lives. We can use it for what it is intended, that is to direct our lives towards God (to do the good to merit heaven), or we can pervert this blessing in our lives as a license for doing whatever pleases us, even if we know those things to be wrong, (we therefore sin). The bad news is that our freedom has been damaged by original sin, therefore our nature is a tainted one and has a proclivity (inclination or predisposition toward) to sin. Original sin leaves a stain on our souls which can only be removed by Baptism and through Baptism an indelible mark replaces it as a mark of a child of God; without Baptism no soul can enter heaven. Knowing our human frailty, Jesus established the Sacraments of the Church in order for us to turn to them as means to save our souls. From our birth till our death there is a Sacrament that we can turn to for salvation, if only we are repentant and choose to do so. The punishment of hell is eternal as God is eternal as also His realm is eternal. God is indeed merciful to souls that are repentant but not to a soul that chooses to remain in its sins. One can be sure that a man’s soul in hell is there because he did not pray and was not docile to God’s graces to save itself. From the Mercy of God by St. Alphonsus Liguori.
“God is merciful. Behold the third delusion of sinners by which an immense number are lost! A learned author says, that the mercy of God sends more souls to Hell than His justice; for sinners are induced, by a rash confidence in the Divine mercy, to continue in sin, and thus are lost. God is merciful. Who denies it? But great as is His mercy, how many does He send to Hell every day? God is merciful: but He is also just; and therefore He is obliged to punish those who offend Him. He shows mercy; but to whom? To them who fear Him. He hath strengthened His mercy toward them that fear Him. As a father hath compassion for his children, so hath the Lord compassion on them that fear Him. [Ps. 102:11, 13] But He executes justice on those who despise Him, and abuse His mercy to insult Him the more. God pardons sin; but He cannot pardon the will or the determination to sin. St. Augustine says, that he who sins with the intention of afterward repenting, is not a penitent, but a mocker of God's majesty. But the Apostle tells us that God does not allow Himself to be mocked. Be not, deceived. God is not mocked. [Gal. 6:7] It would be a mockery of God to insult Him as often and as much as you please, and afterward to expect Heaven.”…….. "If you pray, you are positive of saving your soul. If you do not pray, you are just as positive of losing your soul. " St. Alphonsus Liguori “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just, to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all iniquity.” 1 John 1:9 “..and will throw them into the furnace of fire; in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth..” Matthew 13:42 It is the lost of the vision of God and their regrets that the souls in hell suffer the most. The regret that they should have prayed and abide by the commandments of God and recourse to the Sacraments. “Thus the gnashing of teeth.” The Catholic Seven Sacrements Hell mentioned in Scripture These words are so true and important that they should be engraved in your mind and in your heart so that you don’t forget them: because the decline of one’s supernatural life begins when you start neglecting prayer. You were made for prayer, and the language of the soul is prayer. “Be still and know that I am God” (Psalm 46:10). It is the best way to express your love for God, to console and be consoled by Him. When you completely abandoned prayer, you have simply returned to “the world” for your comfort and repose. Do you exchange what is temporal for what is eternal? But do we have time to “be still” and be in the presence of God, to talk to Him and to listen to Him, and to make our needs known to Him? As a flower needs water and sunshine, we need prayer. And so it is incalculably harmful to us when we consciously or unconsciously make the decision not to pray, and thus put up a barrier between ourselves and our true happiness: a personal relationship with God our Eternal Father. Oh Holy Spirit, give me a renewed and zealous attention to prayer; give me the grace to see the incalculable power of prayer; help me to see with Saint Alphonsus de Ligouri that those who pray shall be saved. Therefore, we ought to be committed to prayer. It is akin to spiritual suicide not to pray. Prayer should be the very foundation of our lives to grow closer and ever closer to God. How do we fulfill this Commandment: “Thou shalt love thy Lord, thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind" if we do not pray.. If we are in need of a certain virtue, for example, patience, or chastity, or the grace to pray better, we must relentlessly ask God for this grace in prayer. “Ask and it will be given to you”(Matt. 7:7). Why is prayer so important, other than it being the very basis of your loving relationship with God? Here are two reasons: 1. Prayer directs our attention away from the passing things of this world (that so distract us) and toward God: in Whom all our happiness consists. Prayer, then, is a profound remedy against worldliness, since it augments our union with God. 2. In God’s Providential direction of the universe He has ordained that we should pray to Him, and He continually gives us actual graces to pray when we would rather not. “And what is the primary source of grace that we always have at our disposal? It is prayer. Why? Because it is part of the divine plan, which is what providence means, is that we should obtain many of the things we need only by asking God to grant them.” Therefore it is either we pray or we do not get the divine light and strength we need.” Fr. J Hardon. " If you pray you are sure of saving your soul. If you do not pray you are just as sure to lose your soul." St. Alphonsus Liguori Prayer can be formal or informal, verbal or nonverbal, active or contemplative. Prayer is communicating with God. Just as we talk and share with our best friends what is happening in our lives, so we talk and share with God. Just as we listen to our friends, so we listen to God. As in human communication, our communication with God can be expressed in a variety of ways. We communicate with God using words and songs, in imagination and silence, and ritually or spontaneously. We can pray in church, our gardens, our cars, or while in the shower. We can also pray lying in bed, as the first thing we do when we awake, and as the last thing we do as we drift off to sleep. One of the characteristics of prayer we as Catholics believe is that with the right intention every moment of the day—all our hopes, works, joys, and sufferings—can become our prayer. Catholics pray in different ways, namely in three major expressions of prayer: vocal prayer, meditation, and contemplative prayer. The images included in this article are two prayers that I do not neglect to say and encourage you to do also. NINE WAYS OF PRAYER OF ST. DOMINIC My parents were married in an Anglican Church but did not practice the faith as far as I knew because during my childhood I don’t recall my parents ever going to Church. My brother and I were baptized when babies. Anyway, my journey to Catholicism came later when I was nearing twenty, around 1978, my paternal grandfather befriended a well known French priest in Kuala Lumpur - Rev. Fr. Peter De Crocq of Jesus Caritas Church in Kepong. My grandfather was already in his eighties at that time and did not drive nor had a car. My father volunteered to take him to church every Sunday. At that time, we lived in Subang Jaya, a suburb of Kuala Lumpur; my grandfather resided in Petaling Jaya Section 14 and the church is located in Kepong Baru, Kuala Lumpur a total of about 22 km one way. We did for a few years, which eventually saw the the baptism of my grandfather from non-Christian to Catholic in 1979, and the baptism of my family, my father’s two sisters’ family and his brother’s family in 1981, a total of 16 of us in one baptismal ceremony in Jesus Caritas Church. During our years at Jesus Caritas, my cousins and I, got involved with the church choir and were happily singing the Novus Ordo songs and strumming guitars. Ha ha. A couple of times, we even participated in charismatic sessions. Ah.. such ignorant fools :) In 1982, Diana, then my fiance got baptized and we got married in December 1984. We became regular parishioners of that Church until 1985 when in July Fr. De Crocq passed away. Eventually, without our “beloved” priest, we became lapsed Catholics. (I then realized that our attraction to the Church was due more to the charisma of Fr. De Crocq, his sermons and personality which was wrong.) So for a number of years, we only went to church when we felt like it and we went to the other churches in the district as we lived in different addresses. Then in the early 1990s, we began following the Rosa Mystica devotion (a series of 9 day Rosary novena at the homes of faithfuls who would host the statue of Our Lady of the Rosa Mystica.) It was well known in this devotion that faithful sometimes experience the fragrance of roses during the Rosary sessions. It was a neighbour of ours who was pestering my wife to join in this Rosary devotion held in their home. On that day when my wife first attended the Rosary, she returned home and the fragrance of roses accompanied her home and I smelled it. It was then we both decided to join the devotion; and the following week, we received the statue into our home for a 9 day novena. The Rosary said was not the current 5 decades but praying all the 15 decades daily for nine days. (There was no such thing as the Luminous Mysteries. It’s not Catholic tradition anyway.) Eventually we formed a regular group of devotees to the Rosa Mystica. During this time our group of friends became more and more unhappy with how the N.O. Masses were conducted in the Churches we go to, as we witness the strange ways and unedifying sermons from priests. After sometime, one of our friends, Adrian, came across information on an Order of traditional priests who only say the traditional Latin Mass. He wrote to them and eventually. In 1992, they sent us a priest: Fr. Gentili who came all the way from Wanganui, New Zealand. So we had our first experience of the Traditional Latin Mass in the home of Adrian. From then one, a priest was able to visit us once, every 3 months, staying for a few days at Adrian’s home. Sometime in early 1994, Adrian and his family migrated to Wanganui to be closer to the Mass and traditional Catholic community. Due to some circumstances, I landed up renting his home in T.T.D.I. after he migrated. Therefore, my family landed up taking Adrian’s place in hosting the priests’ visits. By this time, we already had 3 children, Nigel, Daryl and Gabriel. Nigel was about 12 years old and he learnt to serve Mass in Latin. We were still going to N.O. Mass when the traditional priest was not visiting; but after some months of Catechism from the traditonal priest, in 1993 we decided to fully embrace traditional Catholicism and stopped going to the local churches. In the same year, the traditional Order of priests set up a base in Manila, Philippines and were able to visit us bi-monthly. We also started home schooling our children thanks to the guidance given to us by Fr. Demerode who was our regular visiting priest who also covered India. We eventually had 5 children (4 boys and 1 girl) who were home schooled; the boys at 15 years were sent to a traditional Catholic boarding school and completed their studies up to the Cambridge A levels. My daughter was sent to Dominican boarding school in New Zealand for 5 years and completed her Cambridge ICGSE. In 1996, we moved to Sungai Buloh and because of the distance from most of the group following the Latin Mass, another friend in our group, Jimmy, hosted the Mass and the priest at his home in Petaling Jaya. Mass was slowly becoming more regular from once in a couple of months to monthly. Then in 2000, we were able to offer a shop lot in Bukit Rahman Putra, Sungai Buloh, to be a chapel for the Mass. The Traditional Latin Mass finally had a chapel in honour of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and Mass was held fortnightly and eventually every Sunday there was Mass at this chapel. Due to the proximity of the chapel to our home in Sungai Buloh, my family were the caretakers of the chapel. Every Saturday, my 5 children and I would clean and prepare the chapel for Sunday prayers or Mass. This carried on for 16 years. In 2016 the chapel moved to an address in Bukit Jalil under the management of the chapel association and in 2019 the chapel moved to Petaling Jaya at the present address. |
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AuthorAn artist, entrepreneur, a loving family man, 30 years a Catholic traditionalist upholding traditions for the love of God. Shop for Catholic giftsArchives
January 2024
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