Caritas Newsletter
October 15, 1998
by Fr. Lucian Pulvermacher, OFM Cap.
My New Residence
The grace and peace of Our Lord and God, Jesus Christ, be with all of you now and forever. It is with great joy that I am able to address all of you from my new residence in the country area west of the city of Kalispell, Montana. Much of my life and work is with a good Catholic family. My office is all set up. I have my bed here plus a kitchen where I can prepare some meals if I so desire. For the most part I shall have my meals with the family. This closeness serves a double purpose. I am physically helped by them, and they are spiritually helped my me. In my quarters we are going to set up a private chapel where the Blessed Sacrament will abide with us. I schedule Mass so that the members of the family can avail themselves of daily Mass when their working hours permit.Stability in a location has never been a part of my life, and the up coming papal election - no matter what the results may be - will likely profoundly influence my life.
Our Lord did not hesitate to tell St. Margaret Mary Alacoque that He was saddened by the treatment He received from men, and especially the coldness and indifference He experience from those who had dedicated their lives to His service in Religious life. It should be no surprise to you to suspect that I, being a close follower of Christ, have experience quite identical treatment from those near and dear to me.
You who have an Imitation of Christ by Thomas a Kempis can read with me the following quotation. It is taken from Book III, Chapter XVIII.
�Christ� - speaking in the meditation!
�Son, I came down from Heaven to save you. It took upon Me your miseries, not of necessity, but moved by charity; so that you would learn patience in bearing temporal miseries without regret.For from the hour of My Birth until My death on the cross, I was never without suffering.
I experienced a great want of temporal things; I frequently heard many complaints against Me; I meekly bore with confusions and reproaches; for My benefits I received reproaches; for My benefits I received ingratitude; for My miracles, blasphemies; and for My teachings, reproaches.�
What They Do to Me, They Will Do to You!
Our Lord told His disciples that what they did to Him they (who ever they may be) would do to them. Sure enough! Shortly after the Church started Peter was put in jail. An angel was sent by God to take him out of jail. Paul was in a city where they wanted to kill him, and he escaped in a basket from them through a hole in the wall of the city. That kind of treatment has always been in the Church, and it will continue until the end of the world. All that changes is the actors, from one generation to the next.I find great consolation in the Sacred Scriptures (Apoc. 2, 10):
�Fear none of those things which thou shalt suffer. Behold, the devil will cast some of you into prison, that you may be tried: and you shall have tribulation ten days. Be thou faithful unto death: and I will gave thee the crown of life.�
Do the Right Thing
Father Edward Leen makes it clear that Christ always did what He did because �it was the right thing to do,� regardless of the consequences to Himself or others. Father Leen also makes it clear that when one acts correctly in the face of opposition that the opposition will come from the evil that is in evil men and (strange but true) from the misguided zeal of good people. The unfortunate thing for the good people is that once they oppose the truth and goodness they are against Christ, and they become bad.In Apocalypse 13, 7-9 we read:
�And it was given unto him to make war with the saints and to overcome them. And power was given him over every tribe and people and tongue and nation. And all that dwell upon the earth adored him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb which was slain from the beginning of the world. If any man have an ear , let him hear.�Our Lord never gave way to the stupid �misguided zeal� of His followers. When the zeal of Peter went over-board Our Lord really called him a bad name - and rightly so, for every thing that Our Lord did was �the right thing to do,� whether you like it or not. As a good shepherd Christ corrected Peter and told him to learn from Him the truth. He said to Peter, �Get behind me Satan.� Peter took the correction, and he is in heaven today. By way of explanation, in the time of Christ the shepherd took the lead, and the sheep followed without making trouble.
Let us take another look at Apocalypse 13, 7. The devil at these end times has permission from God to tempt the �saints,� and that means he is permitted to tempt the Christians. The word tempt has various meanings. One is to lead another into sin. That is the most commonly accepted use of the term, tempt. However, there is another understanding of the word �tempt� which means to �test.� A test finds out if the person or persons have the courage and will to stand up under stress. Will they quit when the race is half over? The strong will continue, and the weak will abandoned the race. In other words they failed the test. In Apocalypse 13, 7 it says that the dragon will �overcome them.� All those who just quit when things seemed hard, it seems to me, are among those spoken of in Apocalypse 13, 7 as being overcome. No matter how holy one may think he is, if he involves himself in schism he has abandoned the Church - outside of which there is no salvation. The way back to the Church is by the profession of faith and absolution.
Absolution
Let me explain the term absolution. There are two absolutions. The absolution after the profession of faith merely puts one back into the Catholic Church. One is, once again, a member of the faithful, plus he can then proceed in receiving the sacraments. In other words he can then go to confession with his sins and receive absolution which takes away the sin or sins that brought on the expulsion from the Church. Without the first absolution (bringing him back into the Church) the second absolution is invalid. Why is that so? It is because the priest cannot absolve sinners who are not in the Church.The Beast
Apocalypse 13, 8 tells the sad fate of those who are �overcome.� Those who are overcome will adore the beast who is powered by the dragon. In modern language, as I judge it, the dragon from out of the sea of this world (Apocalypse 13, 1) is the United Nations Organization, and it is powered by the dragon who is the devil. The sad state of those one-time-faithful is that they will �adore� him. Why is that? It is because their �names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb.� This so true and so terrible that in (Apoc. 13, 9) they are given a special warning. It follows: �If any man have an ear, let him hear.�The warning gets even more severe in Apocalypse 14, 9-10. I quote:
�If any man shall adore the beast and his image and receive his character in his forehead or in his hand. He also shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is mingled with pure wine in the cup of his wrath; and shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the sight of the holy angels and in the sight of the Lamb.�Just in case someone feels like ignoring the above warning I shall add the next verse also (Apoc. 14, 11):
�And the smoke of their torments shall ascend up for ever and ever; neither have they rest day or night.�God has spoken. Let us take it to heart.
We have words of consolation for those who will refuse to adore the Satan powered beast. We get these words from Apocalypse 12, 6.
�And the woman (the Church) fled into the wilderness, where she had a place prepared by God, that there they should feed her, a thousand two hundred sixty days.�That amounts to three and a half years. Well, God fed the Israelites in the desert for forty years.
My practical problem is this. Just where is that place of safety? It is my opinion that we need not be concerned about where that place is. We should make sure that our names are in the book of life. It is our responsibility to have our names in the book of life. That is done by obedience to God. We must be in His holy Church. Our lives must be lived without mortal sin. Anyone �outside� the Church is in mortal sin for sure. Holy Mother Church has told us that. Even when we are �within� the Church if we do not have on the wedding garment of sanctifying grace, our names are not in the book of life of the Lamb.
The Act of Perfect Contrition
By the gift of the Holy Ghost of UNDERSTANDING we acquire an ever deeper understanding of the mysteries of our holy faith. Knowing that many of you must depend on the proper knowledge of the act of perfect contrition for your eternal salvation I try to bring you the necessary things that are involved in the making of the act of perfect contrition.I have a treatise on the act of perfect contrition that I have given out to one and all many times during the years I am in your service.
Independent of the wording and meaning of the act of perfect contrition I want to point out a fact that could escape you. The act of contrition is an internal act of the intellect and the will. It is not, for example, a juridical act as are the words used in the administration of the sacraments. If they are said correctly, knowing what one is doing, that is sufficient: even though one is somewhat distracted.
Here is a caution that I must make. One may say the act of contrition just as he says the Our Father. Distractions may be so great that when it is over you have no advertence that you even said it.
For my own assurance when I make the act of contrition I follow the formula in my mind, and I do not move my lips or tongue. That makes it that it does not slip by just like one more prayer. I must advert to the words, and I readily form my acts of the will in accordance with their meaning. With the help of God (the assistance of actual grace) I feel confident that I have met God in a perfect conversation. Do likewise, and I assure you that you will have more peace in your heart.
There is another factor that I have explained on other occasions. It has to do with ones approach to God. In the act of contrition we say, �who art all good.� Just what must be in our minds when we say the word �good?� Good can have two meanings. God is good:
- in Himself - just as He is, and
- He is also good because He is our benefactor.
I have just suggested two things for your assurance of forgiveness in your approach to God.
- Make the act of contrition without moving your lips and tongue.
- Further more when saying the words �all good� be sure to think of God as being all good in Himself (independent of the fact that, at the same time, He is our greatest benefactor).
A Clear Conscience & Sin
Recently I did some spiritual reading from the book, re-printed by TAN Books, entitled "The Incredible Catholic Mass" by a Capuchin priest who originally published it in German in 1704. The first publication in English was in 1896. The English version now available was published by TAN Books in 1997. With such a track record the book must be outstanding, and I assure it is just that.The author, Father Martin von Cochem (in Germany), O.F.M.Cap. brings out a point that is given to us by St. Paul where he say that his conscience is clear, but that did not assure him that he is justified. He tells us that above and beyond our own clear conscience there just could be something in us that could damn us forever. He calls that an �unknown� sin. We must have knowledge of sin before we get sin in our hearts. But there is a little mystery in that understanding of the theology of sin. We bump against two things. One is that we can possibly have a forgotten sin that was never repented of. Call it a pet sin, if you wish. If the act of contrition is really followed there should be no problem in this matter, for we say we are sorry for all our sins, even those we have forgotten.
The second problem is around the possibility of having an unknown sin on our soul. I say, this is a mystery that St. Paul dealt with, and the solution is that we should ask God for the help we need to make ourselves perfectly aligned with God�s holy will in our approach to Him for the total forgiveness of all mortal sins.
As to our eternal salvation it should be known that God made His {one, holy, catholic and apostolic} Church so simple that the most simple of His creatures can make it to heaven. We must have humility, and we must go to God for His assistance where He supplies it. If the Church is accessible one cannot expect God to give a personal enlightenment on a problem. However, where the assistance of the Church is not available God will supply any and all needs. Dear reader, if you are sincere in your approach to God you have nothing to fear.
Jesus, Mary, I Love Thee, Save Souls
Whether one knows it or not each one of us sets his own �mode of procedure� for his life with God. It reminds me of the humor involved in the remark of a man to my father. Being a poor man, my father used to smoke down his finger rolled cigarettes until they began to burn his fingers. An observer jokingly said to him, �Some people smoke their cigarettes as short as they can, and others smoke them as long as they can.� You have to think that one over in order to get the smile on your face.Some people put in as little effort as they think they can get away with on the road to heaven. Others put in as much effort as they have in them in order to make it to highest possible place in heaven. It is a matter of idealism.
I am going to suggest a method of approaching God that comes to us from the yet uncanonized mystic, the Capuchin Religious, Sister Consolata Betrone. Her very edifying life and message which is, quite likely from heaven, can be found in the book, "Jesus Appeals to the World" by Father Lorenzo Sales, I.M.C., available from TAN Books.
Here is the devotion that she tells us came to her from heaven. Say devoutly and very frequently the sentence:
�Jesus, Mary, I Love Thee, Save Souls.�The above mentioned book, �Jesus Appeals to the World� is most edifying and inspirational. It can change the entire courses of your spiritual life. It can be used as your statement of your supernatural motive for which you perform all your thoughts, words and actions.
(300 days indulgence).
LATIN MASS MISSALS
- ST. ANDREW DAILY MISSAL by Dom Gaspar Lefebvre, O.S.B. 1952 ed. $42.00 + p/s $4.50 = St. Bonaventure Publications, 324 Central Ave., Suite 105, Great Falls, MT 59401-3114 or (406) 452-5452 - Holy Week not updated.
- THE NEW MARIAN MISSAL by Sylvester P. Juergens, S.M. Veritas Press (P.O. Box 1704, Santa Monica, CA 90406) $29.95 + p/s $3.00.
- THE NEW ROMAN MISSAL by Father F.X. Lasance, Omni Publications, P.O. Box 900566, Palmdale, CA 93590 (805) 274-2240 @ $39.95 + p/s $3.00 - As I remember - Holy Week not changed.
- MY SUNDAY MISSAL EXPLAINED (small pocket size) by Rt. Rev. Joseph Steadman @ $11.00 +p/s ?, Catholic Research Institute, P.O. Box 756, Greenacres, WA 99016
My Life in Montana
On the 4th of September, I arrived in Montana with the kind help of a fine Catholic man who moved me with a semi truck. On the 5th already, as the truck was being unloaded, I purchased a mobile home which is 60 feet long and 12 feet wide with a wonderful extension on one side, plus a short extension on the end.The home has been moved on the property of a Catholic family in Montana, beside their house, and I am moved in, up and going. I marvel at divine providence that anticipates my needs one after the other. It just seems that I not only live in divine providence but I swim in it. (It is all around me.)
People have learned my new address, and my mission to serve all those of �good will� continues as usual. This move, planned by order of divine providence, as I read it, has been a great strain on me. Our Lord wanted me to experience first hand some of the sorrow He experienced when He hung on the Cross saying, �My God, My God why hast Thou forsaken Me?� I have no idea what my next cross will be, but I shall follow Our Lord wherever He leads me. All for the greater honor of God and the salvation of souls.
I ask all of you to rejoice with me in my good health. Today I was examined by a canisiologist, one who presses your arm to test all your reflexes of health. The good news is that he gave me a bill of perfectly good health. I have some critters in me, and he gave me some pills to send them where they belong.
I am working on getting Catholic calendars for those who want them. The postage to foreign lands is very high, so I shall see if they can get their calendars locally - if possible. I have written to some places for quotes on calendars, but I have no answers to date. We work on this together, and I am working on it by ear, so to speak.
Many of you readers have taken my all out services, just for granted, without a sincere effort to support me. Remember this. We shall not be rewarded if we do nothing for the cause of giving glory to God and saving immortal souls. The children over the past 15 or 20 years have neglected to even learn the 6 commandments of the Church, much less observe them. The 6th Commandment of the Church reads: �Thou shalt support the Church� (the home parish, the Bishop, the Pope and so forth). With a portion of the flock now in recession I truly expect that the little flock that remains will step forward with their support. Thank you in advance.
Jesus, Mary I love Thee. Save souls.
(300 days indulgence)
