He testified with many other arguments, and was exhorting them,
“Save yourselves from this corrupt generation.”

[As] I learned from The Exorcist, the devil isn't found in wars, plagues, and big, dumb gestures by bored college kids. The devil is found in the quotidian humiliations of life: the degradation of someone's sexuality, the dehumanizing put down in an argument, the sarcastic dismissal of someone in pain. The devil doesn't need a black mass when Bill Maher, a celebrated public figure, calls Sarah Palin the c-word. He doesn't need to pilfer a consecrated host when Miley Cyrus is touching her toes in front of millions of people. He doesn't need to travel to Harvard when he can express himself in bars and on living room televisions all over the world.

   This reality is revealed at the penultimate moment of The Exorcist, which is based on a true story of demonic possession that happened to a boy in Maryland. The climax of the novel was left out of the film, causing a major rift between the book's author, William Peter Blatty, and the film's director, William Friedkin. But for a lot of people, including this Catholic, it is the very heart of the story.

   The scene occurs near the end of the book. Fr. Lankaster Merrin, an old priest, is explaining evil to the younger priest, Fr. Karras. The demon's target, he says, is not Regan, the innocent girl he takes over. Rather, the target is "us" -- the observers of the girl. Fr. Merrin: "I think the point is to make us despair, to reject our own humanity, Damien, to see ourselves as ultimately bestial; as ultimately vile and putrescent; without dignity; unworthy."

Most people today, even Christians, set out from the presupposition that God is not fundamentally interested in our sins and virtues. He knows that we are all mere flesh. And insofar as people believe in an afterlife and a divine judgment at all, nearly everyone presumes for all practical purposes that God is bound to be magnanimous and that ultimately he mercifully overlooks our small failings. The question no longer troubles us.

   But are they really so small, our failings? Is not the world laid waste through the corruption of the great, but also of the small, who think only of their own advantage? Is it not laid waste through the power of drugs, which thrives on the one hand on greed and avarice, and on the other hand on the craving for pleasure of those who become addicted? Is the world not threatened by the growing readiness to use violence, frequently masking itself with claims to religious motivation?

   Could hunger and poverty so devastate parts of the world if love for God and godly love of neighbor – of his creatures, of men and women – were more alive in us? I could go on.

   No, evil is no small matter. Were we truly to place God at the centre of our lives, it could not be so powerful.

   Pope Benedict XVI

I've recently starting going to mass again after a long time away from the church. I cannot express how much I appreciate these posts.

This has got to be one of my favorite Groups of readings.
Thanks op.

Quoted:
Brother, paris-dakar--thanks for the brilliant posts!

Excellent stuff. You're a treasure!

Especially the Devil at Harvard article. Those black mass people are depraved. I emailed Harvard's Extension Service complaining about it and denigrating Holy Mass.  I immediately got some instant phony reply back. More the fools they....

Your comments on evil are "X" ring, Brother! Evil is no small thing.

How are we going to save America? Simple, as Al Kresta at Ave Maria Radio constantly says: "By building up Holy Mother Church!" And each of us is THE CHURCH!

Let our light shine by being good, decent, and God-fearing men. To be what God has planned for us. Nothing could be greater.

The darkness enshrouding God and obscuring values is the real threat to our existence and to the world in general.  If God and moral values, the difference between good and evil, remain in darkness, then all other 'lights,' that put such incredible technical feats within our reach, are not only progress but also dangers that put us and the world at risk...  Evil is not some nameless, impersonal and deterministic force at work in the world. Evil, the devil, works in and through human freedom, through the use of our freedom. It seeks an ally in man. Evil needs man in order to act. Having broken the first commandment, love of God, it then goes on to distort the second, love of neighbor. Love of neighbor disappears, yielding to falsehood, envy, hatred and death.

Pope Benedict XVI

Quoted:
This has got to be one of my favorite Groups of readings.
Thanks op.

You are never invisible. unloved, not safe, alone. in Christ. He is the Good Shepherd. It is the single greatest source of comfort of all the scriptures.

What has been, that will be; what has been done, that will be done. Nothing is new under the sun!

Even the thing of which we say, “See, this is new!” has already existed in the ages that preceded us.

The satanic Black Mass is a ritual inversion (and mockery) of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass performed by Satanists. Now, there are two types of Satanists: “LaVey Satanists,” and “theological Satanists.” The Satanic Temple folks behind tonight's Black Mass are LaVey Satanists. In other words, they're atheists who don't believe in Satan, and use “Satanism” as a tool to harass and provoke Christians (unlike“theological Satanists,” who believe in Satan and worship him). This whole thing, like the satanic monument in Oklahoma, is a deliberate provocation and an attention-seeking measure. But whether the practitioners are playing at the occult, or serious, there's no question that they're tapping into some seriously dark spiritual forces. Satan is at work here.

And it worth pointing out that when Satanists (of both kind) want to mock a religious ritual, you can bet that it's going to by the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass that they target. How often do you hear about Muslim or Hindu or Jewish (or even Protestant) services being subjected to such intense Satanic mockery?  Even if the  only thing you knew about Catholicism was that its central form of worship, the Mass, was the target of Satanic ire, you would already have good reason to believe that Catholicism was the true religion. But taken with all of the other evidence for the truth that the Eucharist is Jesus, that the Mass is a Sacrifice instituted by God, and that the Catholic Church is the Church founded by Christ, Satan is just one more (unwitting) witness for the truth of Jesus Christ and His Church.

Christians can, in their own way, commit a similar offence, the same in kind if not in degree, by casting “pearls” before unrepentant “swine.” Don’t condemn me, this is Scripture. In fact, Christ put it even more pointedly: When a gentile woman sought His help, He insisted that it’s “not right to take the children's bread and toss it to the dogs.” He only granted her request after she proved her repentance, conceding His point and comparing herself to a cowering, starving, and, more importantly, bad dog, in need of mercy.  If we don’t guard against the sinfulness and falsehoods of the World, then our “sincerity,” and even our “Christianity,” is reduced to nothing more than perfume added to our bull. It becomes a cover rather than a light. In fact, Christianity has been one of the most popular fragrances on the market of evil for centuries, and has been used to intoxicate rather than sanctify all too many times.

The prayers at Harvard were beautiful, and I’m glad the World was able to see our faith displayed in solemn procession. The Mystery of our faith was held high, and no doubt some were duly impressed with its awesomeness. But in the aftermath, we need to guard against the temptation to use this dark episode as a PR campaign, to sell the Awesome Mysteries of Christ for thirty minutes of airtime. If people aren’t interested in our Liturgy, a ritual largely made up of self-abasement, cries for mercy, and the praise of a just and fiercely loving God, then let them remain outside until they truly hunger and thirst for justice.  Yes, the Satanists retreated from the Harvard campus. That doesn’t mean Christians should hand out the Gospels like cheap party favors and invite the mostly apathetic masses join us in the Holy of Holies for a meet and greet with the Crucified Lord. The intention may be to spread the Gospel. The plan of action is unconscionable.