Friday 31 March 2017

Great Sadness and a Tragedy.


A Sad and tragic scene.

 

In a recent article on one of my daily newsfeeds a story was shown of abortion activists in Argentina carrying out a mock abortion outside the Catholic Cathedral of Tucuman.

This protest on what is now known as International Women’s Day, was meant to highlight the fact that Argentina still has laws which are prolife.

It had, accompanying this protest, one of the most grotesque image I’ve ever seen in relation to abortion.

This protest depicted the Blessed Virgin Mary aborting baby Jesus.  The young female was dressed in what we know is clothing which the Mother of Jesus wears in our images of her and what appears to be a Rosary round her neck.

The simulation of the abortion (together with mock blood everywhere and inference of violence) and the laughter and mockery of those surrounding her left me with a feeling of hopelessness and helplessness.

he supposed “woman” sat with legs spread and a couple of “abortionists” pulling out and dismembering an imitation baby from her private parts. Foetal parts and blood were plainly visible all over ground.
Whilst this horror was happening there appeared laughter and photos or videotaping being taken, this of the baby Jesus being dismembered.

If you have computer here is the link but I must warn you that it is graphic and really awful and painful.


The reason I bring this to your attention is because we have some seriously sick young people in our midst and I grieve for the future of humanity if these are the kind of people leading humanity into the future.  Even as I write this my whole body shakes.  I dread the idea of post abortive girl/woman seeing this, usually after their abortion, and their reaction to what their abortion really means.

As I have said in the past on many occasions, for most people the word abortion is a word there is no image in mind. It’s only after the fact when regret and pain manifest that they go looking on the internet and come across many images which exacerbate their feelings of grief and pain.

And I continue to ask what has happened to remove the feminine from these young women?  What happened to so grotesquely change their design?  How are these women to “mother” in the future? Can they be trusted to mother?

 

I’m left in deep sorrow.

 

Sunday 19 March 2017

Into her hands He entrusted the Future

Anne Lastman (2017)


I would like to write about something which I think is really important. In fact I got into a “serious and at times angry” discussion with this topic during the Christmas break.

I was talking to a really good friend (really prolife) and we came to an impasse over “the law” regarding abortion. Whilst I absolutely, completely, totally believe that we have some of the worst abortion laws in the world, and whilst we must try and reverse that 2008 law we have here in Victoria, Australia, and try to stop further of these laws throughout Australia. This law which in fact permits abortion to birth, even just prior to birth, so something definitely needs to be done about this. I couldn’t agree with my friend entirely about abortion and the Law.

Why? Because the Law will not protect the child for most of the time.  Occasionally perhaps, but Law can be manipulated.  What our laws says is not that the baby isn’t a human being or that it is too small to be seen as a human being but it says more than this. It says that a child has no protection at all because it is thought that if a child cannot breathe or take care of itself then it isn’t a human child and therefore doesn’t deserve the protection of the law, as even the worst of criminals are given.
This of course says further, that those disabled who need help to breathe to take care of themselves are also not human. A new infant is unable to take care of itself so therefore not human.  Where on earth have we descended to!

These types of laws say that an in utero baby is at the mercy of the bigger one involved (mother/father/ others) resulting in the child having absolutely no voice, rights, meaning as a human being. This reasoning is very flawed so the argument is fallacious and should be utterly destroyed. This is what that 2008 law says. I am reminded of the “dog in the manager attitude” I cannot have you so nobody else can. This 2008 (Victoria, Australia) law gives permission and enshrines permission for this to happen. Not implies but legally states this that a child can be legally killed. Because even if a woman cannot keep the child then it is possible (without the need to kill it) to give birth to it and adopt the baby out to someone who has desperately wanted a baby and can’t have one, rather than demand its cruel death. This is the death of another human being. If this baby was killed out of the womb the murderer would be charged with infanticide but in the womb it’s called “choice of the woman.” So perhaps this is an area where “law” can be of particular use and benefit, for the possible protection for the baby.

However, and I guess I am always interested in the “however” I don’t believe that “the law” will change anything. If we are lucky (as pro-lifers) we might be able to rescue a baby destined for death using “the law” as reason for not aborting. However, again, it is not with the law with which we can make an all‐out attack against abortion. The law is another prong to the attack but I don’t see it as a huge help in stopping or even reducing abortions.

Remember, until recently, we have had abortion laws which at the time said that abortion was a crime. It was against the law, it really should not have occurred but we all know that “the law” was never adhered to or applied. “The police should be made to enforce the law” (said my friend) ensure the law is exercised and not ignored. As it was in the past never enforced. None of us know of any doctor, nurse or woman who was jailed because of carrying out an abortion. (Perhaps that American abortionist (Kermit Gosnells serving life sentence, who butchered both women and babies is an exception) whilst the law was set in statutes it was never respected or anyone had recourse to it here in Australia.  Ways around it were found. Police turning a blind eye to the reality of what was going on in certain buildings, in certain hospitals, even in private places.

A letter written by a mental health professional which said that this abortion was required for the mental well‐being of the patient, even though he or she was not seen by the mental health professional before or after, etc. “The law” was there but it was never used to bring into question the purveyors of such dastardly thing called abortion.

So the way I see things is that while a law needs to be in place even as a backup it is NOT the law which will change the abortion culture. It’s an addendum, yes, but of itself in won’t change a culture of death. What will change this death culture? The way I see it, it is that we need to change the way we see and understand and protect women because society and women themselves have forgotten why she has been designed in a particular way. But before this, we need to understand that there is probably not a family in our human relationships which has not in some way been touched by abortion.

We need to start from this thought of earth’s population of approximately 7.5. Billion (7,500.000, 000.000, I think it’s the right number of noughts) every family somehow has been touched by or knows of the violent death of an in utero child intentionally carried out.
So what? You might say. Well I would answer that the abortion carried out on the woman and the demand by the father for the child has contributed to the change in the culture we all live in and are part of. Why life has become cheap. Why demands for other changes of the “norm” are being made. Why children are confused about who they are.

Between the wars experienced in 20th century and visually brought into living rooms, the meteoric rise of really violent movies and games, the disrespect for woman and man and sexuality via the medium of pornography, contraception and its developed mentality and the need/want/desire of women to work outside of the home, has led to babies and children becoming an optional extra, dispensable, without consideration for the emotional after effects of this developed death culture and society.

Every woman (millions of them) and man who has had an abortion is changed forever. Irrespective of the voices which say otherwise. Every woman who has undergone an abortion has had her design corrupted.

Every woman who has undergone an abortion, whether willingly or unwillingly, has registered in her inner being the reality of the violent death of her child. The violent death of part of her own being. Of having gone against her very design. Her raison d’etre.
Woman was never designed to carry cartloads, build houses, ships, aeroplanes, skyscrapers, Cathedrals or even lead a herd of cattle, even though she is capable of doing all of those things. These are external to herself. After all she is his (man’s) “helper” Yes she can do all the functional work he can.

However, her best work is something which he cannot do. Something for which her body was specifically designed. For which her emotional makeup was designed (a new mother’s breast will start leaking milk just before her baby awakes, there is an anticipation, a knowing her child will soon wake and want her to feed).   She is very much attuned to her baby. She has an intuition which is reserved for her child alone from conception and for the child’s whole of life.
A mother has a connection to her child for her entire life. She knows when all is not right with her child because her body feels it. She can’t explain it but she knows. A mother always knows when she is needed and once a mother, her own self and beliefs intrinsically change.

She can no longer think as a woman does before pregnancy and childbirth. This because a mother’s work of creation is united with God’s work. She is a branch of the vine in His vineyard “every branch that does bear fruit he prunes to make it bear even more” (Jn. 15:1). She is the branch which continues to bear more fruit.

And He is constantly intuitive towards His child His “helper” and helps her also be intuitive towards her child because they work together to bring forth a new creation.
She has a knowledge that she has been attached to a greater vine of grandeur, and the abortion is like a vandal or thief who has slyly snuck in and broken her little twig. The little shoot which she tenderly fed from her own self. Her own body.

Her design is such that her body is able to understand the moment of conception. Her body responds to the changes, and I’m sorry to say this but the male/spouse/partner cannot ever feel the changes because his body is designed different. He is designed to be “external,” to be out there to be the protector of her and their little “shoot.” He is there for strong things.

Her body is designed for “internal” things for inner knowing and understanding and nurturing and feeding and hearing, whilst his is designed to spark the new “twig” and then protect it. This is why it is always understood that men and women are very equal but very different. Alone neither can create, together they make a future. They are designed for particular understandings and labours. One the outer and one the inner. One without the other cannot exist. Each depends on the other for life. She draws life invisibly from him and returns it in a more visible and beautiful way, a baby made from their very essences.

Why have I laboured so much on this explanation? Because unless somehow we begin to slowly bring “woman” to understand her design and to love her design and take back her design then abortion will always be a normal as we have in the last 30‐50 years made it a
normal. Abortion will be “the answer” (in difficulties) because the woman has not understood
her value, her design, her partnership in the ongoing work in creation.

She has lost the vision and unless somehow we resurrect this vision no amount of laws will do anything to change the idea that abortion (death of a baby, a twig,  a shoot, a future) is only a small thing and then a return back to normal and to building castles.

I have heard these words thousands of times and thousands of times I have needed to explain that once there is a conception there cannot ever be a return to being a being a “maiden” there cannot ever be a return to being pre pregnant or feeling like a pre pregnant woman.

Once there is a conception even if the conception is for short time her design has been permanently changed and the thoughts about “baby of my womb” will never leave her. Even into old age when the memory of the loss actually becomes stronger. 

My precious friend who led to this discussion, next question to me was “what about those women, girls who don’t feel anything about the baby in her womb? And women who after birth can’t bond with their baby, or even women who kill their babies after birth. What about them?” what about their design? And these are good questions because all of these things actually do happen. We read about them daily in our newsfeeds, and my answer to her and here is that wherever there are these things occurring then there has been a disconnection with her own feminine self. A distancing has occurred which has left her flailing and lost to her own self.

Something has occurred which changed negatively her design. Some deep wound from which her feminine being escaped to avoid the pain and she has not ever found her way back. This is when help is deeply needed. To feel nothing for the child she is taking to be killed says to me that there has been a total disengagement so that she can proceed with what she believes she needs/has to do. This is her self‐protection against her own emotional meltdown (which of course happens later). The answer to the question of why there is at times is no bonding with one’s own child, the answer is similar. Her feminine has withdrawn so as not to become attached and be hurt. In her being there is a hint of a memory of pain as child. Of deeply un understood loss. Of loving someone so much (Mum/ Dad/other) and love not returned or perceived as not returned or gone.  Perhaps her own loss or perhaps another.

But for this mum there is a memory of pain of a child and possibly abandonment. And for the question why do some mothers murder their own children, this again has memory of pain linked to it. A memory of fear, dread, distortedness. disassociation, woundedness. A disconnection.  An abandonment and even a long endured rage. Perhaps even a jealousy. A pain so deep that her own feminine essence has gone into recess not responding or recognising her feminine being.
Perhaps even a revenge against lost love of lost feminine. This, I say, because woman’s design is such that it is to be drawn towards her infant, and indeed other infants, So when there is such an aberration then the feminine has been deeply wounded, deeply buried, even absent through never having learned, identified or known about herself as feminine. Cold detached parenting ensures cold, absent, detached feminine and thus distance from her own feminine.

Not the physical or intellectual or even perhaps some aspect of the emotional but her feminine has been deeply wounded. So wounded that she does not know how to be the feminine of her design.  She does not recognise her design. She is aghast at what she has created (her child). It’s outside of her own feminine understanding. It is alien to her. It frightens her and she wants to run from it and destroy it. This is why we at time read some horror stories about mothers killing their own children, and we are saddened and even horrified by them.

God doesn’t make mistakes in his designs, however human beings can corrupt the design. Children are designed to learn incrementally, that is, little by little, age correct, and by age correct I mean when something cannot be understood because cognitively the child is too immature for such information.   It cannot be learned at this time, so when there is a negative interruption of the natural learning sequence   an imprint of this negatively disastrous event/events are the consequences.
I started this discussion with “the law” and abortion and my understanding of abortion and why “the law” won’t really do much though it’s imperative to ensure that laws are in place to safeguard where and if possible. Indeed as part of a many pronged effort.

As I said earlier, I believe we (prolifers and people of goodwill) need to re‐educate, re tell the story of woman, to re‐educate, re tell the story of woman and help her believe that her own personal story is so magnificent as a woman. Not as a mechanical woman. Not as a woman called to do all the male tasks but as a woman who understands her design and the importance of that design. She has been entrusted with the enfleshing of love.

God has entrusted the future into her hands, into her care and for that to have happened he must have designed her with the capability of doing this work. Which is to love like He has loved and from that love to flow out another and continuous love. He trusted her. Every woman has a womb (no male has this). Every woman has built in her body the way to feed her child with nourishment she has made herself and which cannot ever be bought (no male can do this except through a bottle). This should bring woman to her knees in great awe. Not as a manager of a building site but that she can make the nourishment for her child from her very body.   Awesome.

In her book The Eternal Woman Gertrude Von Le Fort writes about motherhood “to be a mother, to feel maternally, means to turn especially to the helpless, to incline lovingly and helpfully to every small and weak thing upon the earth.” (p78). Finally, those of us who work in this prolife vineyard we need to work together to help “woman” relearn who she is. The media, the feminist movement, the funded people, the hugely funded abortion industry have done a big work of confusing “her.” Of having blinded her to who she really is.
Von Le Fort has further to say “those who devote their loving attention to these victims of our decadent society know that the wound created in their souls is so deep that only God’s grace can heal it” p 78).

We who work in this vineyard (pro‐lifers in whatever way) know that the soul of woman is deeply wounded post abortion and some work to save the baby and save the mother, and some work to heal the soul of the woman after the fact. (People like me) knowing and understanding this fact of different wound and pain.

We each in our own charisms have many on our newsletter lists we need to begin with these contacts and help them to then speak words of encouragement to those we know need to know and understand who they really are. Help those who are feeling sick unto death (Jn11:4). Our priests, pastors, bishops, even Pope, Rabbis, need to speak to women and help them understand their magnificence.

Not the necessity to be employed to make up quotas of males and female staff members, but to help in the understanding of “male” and “female” in their original design. Abortion, is the last and cruellest attack against the woman and society. Society goes the way the woman goes. Woman deeply confused and lost and wounded, society confused, lost and wounded.
The way of the family which is nursed and cherished and nurtured by woman is a visible image of society and the Church. Woman wounded, family wounded, church wounded.

Woman confused, children confused and a hatred of parents, authority, love. Again into her hands He entrusted the future. A future which can either be healthy and beautiful or slowly self‐destroying.
It won’t be easy and it is not an “instant coffee” project. It may take several generations but someone said something about journey starting with first step. We need to set out on this first step. Together we set out to heal woman, and with that humanity will also be healed because the heart of humanity (woman) is again whole. It’s not divided in grief looking and weeping like Rachael for lost children and the lost generations. (Jer. 32:15, Mt 2:18).

The focus of our awareness becomes the reality of our world said Niels Bohr (Nobel Prize winner) in 1927, and Niels Werner Heisenberg (Physicists) in The Copenhagen Experiment.
Our awareness now is limited and disjointed and unsure and unclear, and we, as pro‐lifers, will not be able to tackle and defeat this aberration called abortion unless we focus on changing this awareness to a culture of life and love and generosity. This we must do because those who demand abortion are focused, prepared, clear, funded and secure in their beliefs, so they ensure that their beliefs become the reality. We must also work with the same clear determined focus of healing, restoring woman to her beautiful design and in the meantime trying to save her and saving babies. Indeed saving babies and their mothers who will grieve after the event or if not grieve run and hide from grief through the medium of the loss of her feminine self and self-destructive behaviours.

Why run from grief? Because there is pain,  guilt, shame, regret  and the knowledge that at the core of her being that her malaise and grief continues in order  to hold the life story of the other (baby) in existence and in life. Grief can be a redeeming emotion. The knowledge that her baby was created to belong to the human family and has a place in life. So grieving maintains the life story of the child not here in existence but here in memory. Even those who profess not to feel anything about their abortion, in fact do feel and remember because even years after the event they still remember, date, time, place, gestation.

They still may be able to say “it hasn’t affected me” but indeed it has, because they still
remember and in this way maintain a connection with their baby. This is the reason why woman grieves because the life story of the other, her baby, has been destroyed and with her participation.
The new awakening and re telling of the story cannot be spoken and heard unless this story speaks of life, and we need to remember that no new story telling can be heard easily by the generations which have been nourished by the spirit of death. So the new narrators must speak first to the heart of woman who is the heart of humanity and speak in the language of the heart. The language that the woman was meant to speak and the language embedded in her being. Embedded in the mystery which is part of the team called male and female.

Saturday 18 March 2017

Divorce Remarriage and the Eucharist


 

 
The New Testament describes how things happened and how the Spirit led the Church and reflected on the events which occurred (Dei Verbum 12).  We believe that the writings of the New Testament are inspired and a true witness to the life, teachings, death and Resurrection of Jesus the Christ, born in Nazareth just over 2000 years ago.
The governance of the Church He founded is ensured  by Jesus who promised at His departure that the Spirit would be sent and He would teach and confirm all that He (Jesus) had said,  and the Spirit would protect the Church from error so that the “gates of Hell would not prevail against it.”
(Mt: 16-19).

 Jesus indeed prepared his group of disheartened and even traumatised disciples by sharing a final meal with them. A meal in which He announced a  “New Covenant’ (Jn 13:34) and they were to continue this memorial meal till the end of time, that is, His return. “After giving thanks, he broke the bread and said: ‘This means my body which is given in your behalf. Keep doing this in remembrance of me." (1 Cor:11:24)  A means of remembrance.  An anamnesis. An anamnesis which means a past event, made present, real and continuous. It’s “Type” being the Passover of the Hebrew people, the longest continuous celebration in history. 

The Eucharistic celebration for the believers in Jesus was/is to be the event celebrated through time which brings the “meal” in its authenticity to each person and at each celebration in each time, society and century.   So that every time this Eucharistic or thanksgiving meal is celebrated He is again present in their midst, his word “this is by Body this is my Blood, do this in memorial to me” crosses space and time and makes Jesus present to the person receiving it in any age, or being part of this Eucharistic celebration just as present if he/she was present at that final meal with Him and his apostles. He is still breaking bread throughout time with us.

Why did Jesus tie breaking of bread and eating for salvation? because it was in the eating “but of the tree of knowledge of good evil you are not to eat; for, on the day you eat, you will die)” (Gn2:17) that sin of disobedience and “eating which was forbidden in that moment” entered into the human being, and Jesus in His incarnation came to reverse all that which had and has followed.  Now Jesus the God/Man reverses this curse using the same medium as that which caused the sin, that is, eating, a universal necessity. “unless you eat of my flesh and drink of my blood you have no life in you” or “whoever eats of my flesh and drinks of my blood has eternal life and I will raise him up on the last day” (Jn 6:54) Jesus leaves for all time the mandate to eat of His Flesh and drink of His blood in order to have eternal Life with Him where before eternal life had been lost.  Further, he reverses the curse of Genesis 9 “But you shall not eat flesh with its life its blood" (Gen9:4) "For the life of the flesh is in the blood...for it is the blood that makes atonement. The sacrifice of shedding his blood made reparation for the sin of death by having “life in you” Seen even in the story of the death of Abel (whose blood cried out to God) for reparation. (Gen4:11-12)

For the life of the flesh is in the blood, (Gn 9:4-7) and I have given it for you on the altar to make atonement for your souls, for it is the blood which makes atonement by the life. Jesus left behind both flesh and blood as atonement for all sins of generations. Flesh and blood died thus leading to death of body and spirit, now flesh and blood lead to life.  And through flesh and blood he left behind for atonement a renewed friendship with God. The sin was so great that only God (Gen.chapter 15) could repair the damage done. Through His son this was done.
Yet it would appear that Jesus was asking the disciples to do something that they were forbidden by their Jewish faith to do.  “Eat flesh with blood”. Here he is telling them to do the thing they believed they were not to do and on that day many of his followers walked sadly away (Jn 6:30, Jn 6:66, Jn 6:59-71).It was one of those sayings that could not be understood. A dark saying.

The answer to the eating of flesh and drinking of His blood was the way to reverse the sin of the first man and woman who did eat unto themselves and all the future generations, death, even after having been warned that this would happen.   In the eating of his flesh and drinking of his blood Jesus begins a new creation. (The first born Col. 1:15)  Not destroying the first creation but finding a way to renew them in a universal manner (eating) and the restoration of the relationship between man and his creator.
Why eat and drink? Because Jesus is able through the Spirit to transform a universal action, eating, into life giving and saving nourishment.  Different nourishment than daily food for bodily sustenance, but a nourishment for the soul which had been wounded and disfigured by the eating of what should not have been eaten. (Gn2:17). Eucharist or soul nourishment is as life-giving as was the ruach after the creation of man (breath) and now a renewal nourishment leading to reconciliation and eternity.

It’s a loving act/gift and promise he has given and left behind in time to nourish those who would walk through all ages until his return.  His presence always and every moment amongst the human being created in His own image and likeness (Gen 1:27) until his return. Again walking, talking and sitting in fellowship with him.
St Paul and the authors of the early testaments wrote and discerned that this is the food for the journey, for those starving, for those who cannot heal because of the lack of nourishment. 
The Eucharist is the food of the very “presence” of the Lord amongst the brethren. His way of being in their mist. The visible face of the Father.  Those broken, those marginalised, those outside of the “righteous ones’ who appear to have no need of this food for they already consider themselves holy (Lord I’m better than this poor man, Lk 18:9-14). But for those who are and have been starved, and have need for the food He offers.  They are already fed (by the word) but those who have been starved have a need of this particular nourishment for recovery of soul health.
  .
Jesus’ table fellowship with outcasts and sinners is well documented and it is also documented that some of his friends and enemies were outraged and horrified that he would associate with, and share table with, such known sinners (tax collectors, prostitutes, sinners, adulterers) and this by a  supposed teacher and supposed Holy man (Mk2:16-17) Matt:11:19, Lk 15:1-2, 19:18). Jesus sat at table both with the righteous ones and sinners alike.  His presence was for all.

Why this preamble?

Because I am greatly disturbed and saddened by the behaviours of certain Catholics who have in recent times almost caused a schism in the Church, and their total humiliating disrespect for the Holy Father, Pope Francis, and total disrespect for the “Chair of Peter.”  Disrespect for the “holder of the keys of the Kingdom” (Mt 16:19).Disrespect for the office of the Papacy.  There has been an all-out vendetta against the Pope forgetting that “where Peter is there is the Church”   ostensibly because of the so-called “Chapter 8” and one footnote (351) in Amoris Laetitia a document 355 pages long, in which he is accused of changing church doctrine. He even says in the beginning of this exhortation (p 12) that it should not be read “in a rushed reading of the text” and suggests that each chapter be read “patiently and carefully” This beautiful exhortation has been changed into a “chapter 8” furore instead of a very beautiful document on love and family, and indeed his Holiness says that chapter 8 should make readers feel challenged.  
Chapter 8 speaks of looking at a huge vineyard (divorced and remarried) where these couples are encouraged to understand why and how the sacrament of marriage can enrich their new marriage or new vows of love and, that they can be, much more sustained by the grace of Christ in their marriage by the possibility of “participating fully in the life of the church” (AL p 240.).  His attempt to streamline the annulment process is not an attempt to change church doctrine but to encourage those who would wish to reconcile with the Church to seek the necessary helps to achieve this. 

Further, he states ‘those who think that this is equivalent to a catholic divorce are mistaken. Marriage is indissoluble when it is a sacrament. And this the Church cannot change.  It is doctrine. “It is an indissoluble sacrament” (AL p 68). Further, “a lukewarm attitude, and kind of relativism or undue reticence in proposing the ideal (my italics) would be a lack of fidelity to the Gospel. To show understanding in the face of exceptional situations never implies dimming the light of the fuller ideal, or proposing less than what Jesus offers to human beings” (P 240.) The ideal is always to be understood, announced and preached.

This Pope invites Pastors to become involved with these abandoned individuals and lost to the church because of a difficult situation, and indeed who are not “living the ideal” and to help them to slowly understand and desire to come to the ideal. “Jesus wants a church attentive to the goodness which the Holy Spirit sows in the midst of human weakness, a Mother who, while clearly expressing her objective teaching always does what good she can even if in the process her shoes get soiled.” (Chap. 8 AL)   He is saying to Pastors get involved, see how you can help this wounded vineyard. Help them reach the understanding of the full ideal (Sacrament of marriage) always bearing in mind that pain exists and to be mindful of the pain. Be merciful as God is merciful. 
It’s important to remember that no one divorces because they have nothing better to do.  There are always painful reasons including, serious domestic violence, emotional and physical abuse, and other painful experiences which lead to divorce.  And Mother Church is hurting for these wounded ones.  And these critics not caring or thinking about the emotional disenfranchisement they are committing against these wounded ones.  And so these “experts” and their collection of followers continue to divide the Church and wound more deeply those already wounded.
Jesus sat at table with prostitutes. Jesus allowed himself to be touched by prostitutes. A woman freed of seven devils was on her way to touch him and anoint him in death. Jesus also sat with those righteous who would not wash his feet, (but a great sinner washed them with her tears and wiped them with her hair. (Lk 7:44)

This Holy Father, Pope Francis, has gone after a massive vineyard abandoned and lost to the Church, by laws, and the righteous, and he is being hounded and humiliated by dissenters fuelled by some so called “true catholic” with a Facebook page read by millions and a Cardinal (Judas who was concerned over waste of money Jn 12:4) and some theologians who haven’t heard the sound of their voices for a long time.  These are damaging the church and flock almost beyond repair, and “Peter” is publically rebuked. Indeed so much so that his Council of 9 and head of CDF His eminence Cardinal Müller   had to come out publically to say that they support the Pope and  that the his post synodal exhortation Amoris Letitia does not contravene or change church doctrine.  
I want to suggest something else to these  “defenders of the faith” including the Facebook instigator  and his followers who daily trolls the net to find negative stories about Pope Francis  “what happens to those priests, nuns, religious who have left the Catholic Church, were laicized  and married and brought up families? Are they banned from the Eucharist also? Remembering that their first covenant, their first love was with the church and with the Lord as spouse.

We are told that Bishops and priests should love the church like Christ loves the Church, as a husband loves his wife. For the priest his covenant of Holy Orders  leaves an indelible sacramental mark on the soul (like Baptism) but even so he may not exercise his priestly ministry after laicisation except  in extreme circumstances e.g. dying person, he is still “married” to  his church though daily he may not exercise his priestly duties.

How does the priest love his Church? Just like Christ loves his bride and is willing to die for her. St Paul who is mentioned and used as precedent also says the same of marriage: the husband is to love his wife as Christ loves the church and be ready to sacrifice himself for her. So a priest or religious who is no longer a “sacramental bride/groom” may also not remarry another or it is also adultery. 

This is the mystery of love that it is meant to be a union for life for husband and wife and priest and his own spiritual bride.  For the man and woman it is a physical union for the priest/religious it is a spiritual eternal union. Both the human and the priestly vocation is a ministry of love and both are covenants of marriage. When a marriage fails it’s sad, when a religious ministry fails (priest, nuns, brothers, celibate ministries) it’s sad, but why is it that a former priest, religious can remarry in the physical union and receive Eucharist but when a human being finds happiness after usually much suffering and ill treatment, emotional torment and sometimes torture and violence, they are banned from the table of the of Lord?
God is a communion of three who live in harmony and love, and ideally this is what both human and spiritual marriage is meant to be.  One flesh. One union, harmonious. This is the ideal.   However this is not always the situation.   The priest when he becomes a priest, at consecration, also becomes one flesh with the Lord (at consecration, this is my body) and “marries” the Church, His bride. But at times this union also fails.  Just as when human marriages are entered into with good intentions but at times impediments make them eventually unworkable.

St Paul who is quoted ad nauseam by those who are determined to harm “Peter”  says that the great mystery is reflected in Christian spouses: the relationship established by Christ with the Church who is His bride.(Eph 5:21-33) This is their relationship.  Bride and groom. United in marriage. Never to separate and if this does happen, our learned commentators say that these cannot be part of the body of Christ or sit at His table? He who sat mostly with sinners and outcasts and the anawim and chose to be with them.  He the Lord of the Eucharist is told that those who are broken cannot sit with him. No attempt made to be brought into the fold?
To those who would destroy the church,( LifeSiteNews Mar 18 Canon Lawyers and theologians to hold conference on deposing the Pope) spend time reflecting upon this other “broken marriage” (laicised priests and religious) and the ramifications of the priest returning the cross to Jesus because it became too heavy, surely they should be excluded too?  If not why not?

And above all please stop trying to destroy the Church the body of Christ and Peter who is guided by the Holy Spirit and this is the promise made to “Peter” by Jesus Himself.

“Therefore we said, “Let us now build an altar, not for burnt offering, nor for sacrifice, but to be a witness between us and you, and between the generations after us, that we do perform the service of the lord in His presence with our burnt offerings and sacrifices and offerings of wellbeing: so that your children may never say to our children in time to come, “you have no portion in the Lord.”  (Jos. 22:26-28).