Pride vs the Humility of Pope Francis

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IT MAKES SENSE TO ME

By Larry Peterson

This is from the Gospel of Luke; Chapter 9: vs 46-50
An argument arose among the disciples about which of them was the greatest.
Jesus realized the intention of their hearts and took a child and placed it by his side and said to them, “Whoever receives this child in my name receives me, and whoever receives me receives the one who sent me. 
For the one who who is least among all of you is the one who is greatest.”
This gospel reading is all about the greatest of all the ‘deadly’ sins, Pride. It is also about the greatest of all ‘heavenly’ virtues, Humility. This is a “clash of the titans” of evil vs Good. And Pope Francis, without trying and by just being who God made him to be, wears the mantle of humility without fanfare, showmanship, pretentiousness or anything that might be self-serving in any manner. Yes, he wears that mantle and it is fastened to his shoulders with the clasp of Love. In so doing he continually  shows  the whole world what it means to think of yourself the least among all others.  (Was that a Fiat Hatchback or a Ford Taurus?)
Jorge Mario Bergoglio never asked to be a bishop or a cardinal. He never “lobbied” for these positions or  sought them out in any way. He did not have “super-pacs” at his beckoned call when the vacancy for Pope opened. He simply loved being a priest, working with the poor and homeless and doing his best to follow God’s call so he would make his life pleasing to Him. Make no mistake, God called him to the Papacy. The secular world may mock that concept but that is why they do not understand.  That is why they cannot experience the joy so many millions of faithful are experiencing with his Papacy. If they could only swallow their damn pride a bit and open their hearts to some  humility they may find the elusive peace that evades them.
Pope Francis is filled with the Holy Spirit. That Spirit leads him to stop his motorcade and wade into a crowd of children and hug them and kiss their foreheads. It compels him to embrace the crippled, the disfigured, the mentally challenged, the homeless as well as the “uppity-ups”. He has no qualms about walking into a prison and embracing hard-core murderers, rapists, thieves, and drug dealers. Pope Francis sees the Face of Christ in EVERYONE.
Last September, during his stop in Washington, D.C.,  he visited with  President Obama and then offered  Mass in the National Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception. When he finished he made a point of going to the offices of the Little Sisters of the Poor. He had to send a message to the entire world about the solidarity that exists within the Church when it comes to respect for life, ALL life. That message required no words—just action. The Pope gave that message by meeting with the Sisters who take care of the elderly poor, free of charge,  and have been doing so since St. Jeanne Jugan founded the order back in 1841.
Pope Francis  left our country a more contented and inspired nation. He reached out to everyone and many  responded. He represents the Goodness and Love that Jesus Christ brought to us and, despite the horrors of jihad and the emptiness of secularism pervading our lives,  his presence and example make our world  a better place. He is HIS ambassador on earth and  he represents HIM well.   We have all been blessed.
                                      ©Larry Peterson 2016   All Rights Reserved

The Latest Craze–Calling on Satan to "Come Out & Play"

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IT MAKES SENSE TO ME


By Larry Peterson

Satan is the Great Impostor, the King of Lies, the Master of all Hate. He was God’s greatest angel and decided that he was even better than God. So, the “created” tried to overwhelm the Creator. Having made this choice he and his followers were  cast out of God’s world for all eternity. We mortal beings cannot even imagine the hate that fills these fallen spirits. Their hate is so great and pervasive because there can never be redemption for them. Consequently, they prowl around the world seeking new recruits to join them in their misery. They may have hit the “motherload” via the Internet.

The latest Internet game filling the cyber environment is called the “Charlie Charlie Challenge”. A game that is being promoted as innocent has, as its objective, the goal of summoning the devil. Here is what I cannot fathom. In a world gone secular and trying to eliminate God from our existence why are thousands upon thousands of people, especially young people, trying to conjure up a confrontation with Satan himself? Many want to reject God and His Goodness and Love…yet are willing to call on Satan to have a “good time”.

How bizarre is this? Satan (aka the Devil) is the opposite of GOOD. He is HATE . All that is UNgood comes from Satan.  There could never be a Satan without a God who created him in the first place. Yet people want to summon him up and talk to him, while at the same time claiming there is no God or that God is irrelevant in their lives. It DOES Not Make sense To Me.

The “Charlie Charlie Challenge” apparently came from the game being played in the Dominican Republic and then uploaded to YouTube.  April 29 is when it began and it spread to Twitter. Today it has gone viral. The two pencil game involves drawing a grid on a piece of paper with two sections labeled “yes” and two sections labeled “no”. One pencil is balanced on top of the other pencil and then questions are asked; such as, “Charlie, are you here?” If he is “there” the pencil will move to the “yes” section. The main question then asked is “Can we play?” The fact that the slightest environmental change can cause the pencil on top to move is completely ignored.
The Charlie Charlie Challenge is a phenomena that is readily explainable.


There are two kinds of pride: negative and positive. Positive pride has to do with such things as being proud of your family or being proud of an accomplishment worked for and earned through personal hard work and sacrifice. Negative pride is all about self. If a person places their wants and perceived needs above all else and will attempt anything to satisfy those needs, that is when Pride becomes the greatest sin.

This “Charlie Charlie Challenge” is simply a reflection of how ridiculously self-serving so many have become in this meistic secularized society. It is Pride gone rogue. First,reject God and bash religion. The follow that and embrace God’s first creations, who are Satan, and his fallen angels. Play games with them, have fun with them, and see where it gets you. There is an old adage that says, “The devil you get might be worse than the one that you have”.

So PLEASE–be careful what you ask for. Where the “Charlie Charlie Challenge” takes you can prove damning. But it is never too late. Unlike the demons you have been hanging with, you are still eligible for God’s mercy and forgiveness. It is only too late after you die. It is time to kick the “Charlie Charlie Challenge” back into the Hell it came from lest you get dragged in with it.

                                   ©Larry Peterson 2015 All Rights Reserved

The Perversion of "Love & Kindness"; Belgium OKs Euthanasia for Children;

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by Larry Peterson

Three months ago  the civilized, highly sophisticated nation of Belgium looked on as  the collective wisdom of the upscale Belgium Social Justice Committee coagulated into making a recommendation to Parliament that they should approve a bill which would legalize euthanasia for children.  Well now, what do you know?   Belgium’s lawmakers heeded the advice and OVERWHELMINGLY voted to extend the country’s euthanasia law to children under 18 (they have had the law in place for adults since 2002) .  They passed this bill on February 13th. The nation awoke on the morning of Valentine’s Day ready and willing to enjoy the holiday sharing love with each other. But this Valentine’s Day came with a new twist.  They found out that once King Phillippe signed the bill just passed kids can willingly, surrounded by a LOVING support group which will include parents, doctor and shrink, “happily and mercifully” kill themselves.

How loving, how compassionate, how civilized so many people have become.  There is wide public support from the Belgian people (unbelievably predominantly catholic) for this bill  which passed  by a 2 to 1 majority. Socialist, Hans Bonte, said, “all Belgians, including MINORS, deserved the right to bid farewell to life in humane circumstances without  having to fear they were breaking the law”.  Heaven forbid, can you imagine a seriously ill child dealing with the added burden of fearing they might also break a  law?  Are you kidding me?  One independent House member, Laurent Louis, stood up and said that the majority of his colleagues were violating the natural order.  “A child is to be nurtured and protected, all the way to the end, whatever happens. You do not kill it.”  He was mocked.

The Catholic Church and the Belgian clergy are vehemently opposed and have been right along. But they  are  those “old, out of touch, church leaders telling people what they should and should not do.  Well , God bless them.  Those “old fools” are standing tall in the face of an evil that has embraced a once beautiful country which has now turned ugly wrapped in a shroud of secularism.   Belgian law now allows for the killing of sick children .  How have so many  been able to advance into the meistic, secular world of the 21st century where deciding who should live and die  is the preferred  virtue of goodness. When did the folks who are “stuck”  in the conscience driven world  of God first, followed by family and country and who defend ALL life, get relegated to the ranks of the “ungood”?

The Catholic Church is not in a popularity contest with the secular world.  It is also not in a popularity contest with those who proclaim to be Catholic yet defy the church’s teachings.  The Church is the way to the Truth and it is defending and protecting the faith it was created to defend.  It defends the right to life of all,  from the unborn to the sick, disabled, deformed, mentally challenged, elderly and those simply unwanted. It is standing tall in Belgium and saying, “NO!” to this abomination.  At what point in time did secular mankind decide that it could “kill” as an act of love?  Is it because “love” is all about kindness and virtue and they were the ones who embraced it? How sanitized yet preposterous is that? No, the “love” of the secular world is about self-love before all else. People know best and those in power are omniscient.

How sad this all is that  folks who respect the very dignity,  beauty and miraculous creation of each life have suddenly been “flipped” into the category of “heartless and cruel” by a secular world that defiles all those who might dare disagree with it?  Tear down the crosses, ban the name of God, ridicule the churches and their priests and nuns. This hypocrisy is not “love” but rather, “anti-love”.  Don’t these people understand the dark underbelly of this entire concept?  Apparently, they do not.  But they have chosen to take the road of personal gratification deifying their own selves. And that is what happens when God is removed from the equation of life…you come to believe you have the right to kill children. How did we ever become so civilized?

On Valentine's Day a War on LOVE is Raging

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IT MAKES SENSE TO ME

by Larry Peterson

 Valentine’s Day is here.  It is supposed to be all about Love. Yet beyond the heart covered Valentine cards, the flower bouquets and candy and all of that, we must, as unpleasant as it may be, recognize what we truly have going on this Valentine’s Day of 2014.  Yes, make no mistake, Love is under attack this Valentine’s Day and the war is brutal and bloody.

The Catholic News Agency (CNA/EWTN News) reported today that Christians are the most persecuted people on earth.  Why is that?  Why is there such hatred by so many toward something that is all about goodness and love?  The word “CHRISTIAN” comes from the name of Christ, Jesus Christ.  Okay, is that a BAD thing? I don’t think so.

All Christians  (including 1.2 billion Catholics and 800 million Protestants  of varied denominations) follow Jesus Christ. That is 2 billion people or two thousand million people who follow His teachings and His promise of Eternal Life. What is the crux of His teachings? Well now, the bottom line is this, LOVE your NEIGHBOR & FORGIVENESS. Yeah, yeah, I know that many who proclaim to follow Jesus  do not even make an attempt to Love their Neighbor or Forgive anyone for anything. They let that old, deadly sin of pride rule their roost. Oh well, it is part of God’s gift of free-will allowing each and every one of us to make choices. However, the vast majority of Catholic/Christians do their feeble best  to follow His message.  For those that do it is a life-long work in progress and this was true even for the saints.

So, why the hatred? Why the persecution?  Why were more than 100,000 followers of Christ murdered in the past year alone?   The problem is the aforementioned  deadly sin of pride.  Why?  Because pride has filled the hearts of many and these are the people who now HATE. What they hate most is one word which is made up of  only two letters. That  word is NO. They want no-one dare telling them what to do or how to behave. They have embraced secularism (defined as: a system of political or social philosophy that rejects all forms of religious faith and worship). Christianity establishes boundaries.  Christianity tells us what God wants us to do and what NOT to do…why, the NERVE of Him!  So, many Secularists (not all) take it to another level in their personal, selfish requests to abolish the influence of institutions that have the temerity to say NO to certain behaviors. They even reject “natural law” for their own personal agendas.

They rant against Christmas which is all about “giving”. They rail on about using the name of God in schools and at sports events. They want Crosses at cemeteries taken down from the graves of fallen soldiers. In many cases those who hate Christians kill them. Men, women and children die every day in different parts of the world simply because they are followers of Jesus. How can  Love & Forgiveness be things to hate?

Well, nothing has changed since Jesus walked the earth two thousand years ago.  He preached Love & Forgiveness so they beat  Him, tortured Him and killed Him.  The loving crowds who screamed “Hosanna” on Palm Sunday turned fickle and screamed “Crucify Him” the following Friday.  The list of  people murdered for following Jesus over the centuries (including his own apostles) is countless. Being a Catholic and Christian was never supposed to be easy.  Jesus Christ did nothing but Love us, each and every one of us. Look what happened to Him.

So, on this Valentine’s Day, the question to be considered might be this. What is Love? The answer can be found in the Bible in the First Letter of John; Ch 4: 16-17.  “We have come to know and believe in the love God has for us. God IS Love, and whoever remains in Love remains in God and God in Him. 
Sadly today, February 14, 2014, the war on Love increases in intensity.

The War by the "Worldly" is Secular Abuse Against the Very Heart of Christianity

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by Larry Peterson

It was a brutally cold winter night in 1839 when Jeanne Jugan brought  the sick, blind, homeless woman into her home.  All she wanted to do was help the poor woman.  She had no agenda.  She wanted nothing.  She simply wanted to do what God’s graces had asked her to do, “Love her neighbor”.   Jeanne never planned to have people begin to follow her example.  She never dreamed that she would become the founder of an organization  called the Little Sisters of the Poor.  Jeanne Jugan could not in her wildest dreams foresee the order she had founded serving the elderly poor in 31 countries around the world.  She must have had tears of joy streaming down her saintly face when Pope Benedict XVI canonized her in 2009.
Today she,  and many others with her in the heavenly realm, must be so ashamed and saddened by the members of the secular world who, disguised in a mask of counterfeit virtue, are determined to lay waste to  Christianity.  Make no mistake, we Catholic/Christians are at war;  and the Worldly, including many who claim to be with us, are waging this war against us.  Their primary weapon is the Affordable Care Act aka “Obamacare”.  Where does this weapon of mass secularity have its sights trained?  Where else but on  St. Jeanne Jugan’s order, The Little Sisters of the Poor.  Are you kidding me?  The government of the United States of America, under the control of the Worldly, is after  The Little Sisters.  The order must be considered an easy target because, after granting exemptions to other groups, the Worldly refused to grant an exemption to The Little Sisters of the Poor.  Supreme Court Justice  Sonia Sotomayor, an appointee of the Worldly in power, granted the Little Sisters a temporary injunction against the mandate.  Undeterred in their mission of spreading their all-knowing  secularity, the Worldy immediately responded and asked the court to drop the appeal.  Now we wait.  We wait to see if the First Amendment of the Constitution is to be upheld.
 As a  writer and a Catholic I have unexpectedly found myself blogging more and more about subjects that pertain to things “Catholic”.  I never began writing with that in mind. My novel, “The Priest and the Peaches”,  deals with a Catholic family and a priest but it is not considered religious.  Rather, it is classified as ‘historical fiction’.  My children’s book  is not religious either.  I had  been working on the sequel to TP & TP but I have had that on hold for almost six months as I blog about things and people that pertain to my faith.  I do this because my faith is under attack.  I never thought I would live to see the day when the power of  our government would be used by those we have empowered to demand we violate our religious principles?   Our faith does not just take place INSIDE a church.  It takes place within our very hearts and minds. We are supposed to LIVE our faith and, though many of us often fail, it is our CHOICE to fail.  It is no one’s business.  The government of the United States of America does not have the right to enter into our “hearts and minds” and tell us what to believe the same as it does not belong inside our churches.
We, as a church, a faith community, and as individuals who are part of it and believe in it are being abused and are under attack. The Little Sisters of the Poor and communities like them need our voices to ring out.  So do the almost 10 million folks who are able to turn to almost 1400  charitable organizations run by the Catholic church every year. So do the people, mostly volunteers, who staff  the 600,000 plus soup kitchens feeding folks everyday and distribute food from the two million food banks and pantries. If you factor in all the other religious and charitable organizations in the United States there is a veritable population of “goodness and kindness and giving” spread across this entire nation. Most are folks  who ask nothing in return  for sharing their time,  their hearts and their love with those less fortunate. It seems to me that the Worldly need to start minding their own damn business. 

                                              copyright © 2014  Larry Peterson

Evangelii Guadiam is about Dignity for ALL Men & Women; It Cares NOT for Politics

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by Larry Peterson

When Pope Francis released his apostolic exhortation, Evangelii Gaudium, he also  inadvertently released  a swarm of pseudo experts on Catholicism and the Papacy. Why even Rush Limbaugh, who acknowledged his own non-catholicity, has decided that the Pope  is nothing but a “pure Marxist”. Those on the left have assumed that the Catholic Church’s teachings on abortion,  contraception, women priests, and homosexual behavior and other issues are about to be changed. These folks, left & right,  are living in their own personal world of ‘relatavism’. Caught up in the secular world of ‘meism’ they cannot grasp for one tiny moment that the primary purpose of the Catholic Church is the salvation of souls. First and foremost, the Church is here to guide ALL of us to an eternal life with God, our Creator. Jesus Christ, the Son of God,  founded the Church and appointed its first leader, the apostle Peter who was the first Pope. Pope Francis is #266. Their mission, which they graciously accepted, has always been the same, to lead the flock to Salvation. Nothing has changed.

Okay now, listen up all you clever pundits who have allowed yourselves to become  unknowing prisoners of the secular Age of Relatavism. Pope Francis has done no different than Pope Leo XIII who gave the world Rerum Novarum in 1891 and Pope Pius XI who gave us Quadragesimo Anno in 1931. These documents were papal encyclicals and they dealt with capitalism, socialism, labor, fair wages, working conditions etc. (Please feel free to see for yourself. Just ‘google’). We need to remember that Catholic social doctrine deals with the DIGNITY of man/woman because they are made in the image and likeness of God.  Poor and rich alike have responsibility to each other because they are all part of the human equation. There is nothing evil in being rich. There is nothing wrong with workers wanting a better wage and improved conditions. Evil enters when the deadly sin of greed is embraced by people when  they begin thinking of themselves first instead of God. Consequently they want more for themselves at the expense of others. Employers and employees have a responsibility to each other to be fair and just at all times. As Leo XIII addressed the social order so did Pius XI wherein he wrote about the dangers of “unrestrained capitalism” and “totalitarian communism”. John Paul II addressed the dignity of man in Centesimus Annus in1991 and  Benedict XVI followed with  Caritas in Veritate in 2009. Pope Francis has connected the dots with the Popes over the last 112 years. The dignity of all people from the lowest to the most exalted is considered. The Pope(s) wants all people to understand that justice must come from all of us not just from some of us.

The Catholic Church is primarily a ship navigating the turbulent and often times violent waters of pride and envy and greed. As the church forges through these deadly waters the ship’s captain, (Pope), his officers, (bishops) and  crew (priests and religious)  are supposed to work together to  keep the ship safe and on a true course to Salvation . They are responsible for the millions of souls that are their passengers. They are supposed to be teaching them how to remain safe and secure as they travel along and how to be ready to confront any and all emergencies. Many times an experienced crew member ignore’s his/her training. Often times untrained passengers do not listen. Sadly, they are lost. Pride, greed, envy, lust, anger, gluttony and even sloth combine to stretch their tentacles over the ship’s railings and grab the indifferent pulling them over the side and down into the blackness. And to think, all they had to do was listen. In the meantime the ship’s captain MUST stay the course even though at times he must adapt to changes in the weather. There is one thing he will not do, change the primary mission. No matter what, he will always move forward and never retreat from the goal of reaching the shores of Salvation.

I think we must remember that the Catholic Church is here to guide us to a reward greater than we can ever imagine. It is not here to make everyone feel good about indulging in their own “feel good” world. Just as a parent must say ‘no” to their children the Church must say “NO” to ideas, behaviors and personal whims that violate the commandments. In today’s world many people do not like being told NO. There seems to be an idea that if  “I’m not bothering you I can do what I want.” Well, “NO”–none of us have that luxury. Pope Francis has embraced the people, the common people. It is a beautiful thing and God has done all of us a great favor in giving this man to the world. But make no mistake, he is the captain of the great ship and he is trying his best to guide it to “Salvation”. That will always be his primary goal and the ship’s ultimate destination.