CATHOLIC BELLATOR

Take This 10-Point Gossip Test and Never Gossip Again By: PATTI ARMSTRONG No one wants to be known as a gossip, yet who among us has never gossiped?  It's tempting.  It is so tempting in fact, that we can convince ourselves that we were not really gossiping. Take the gossip test below to determine if you qualify as a gossip.  If you answer yes to any of the 10 statements below, you have gossiped.  Then read on for powerful reasons never to do it again. As long as it's true, it's okay to repeat. I needed to vent. I told only one person. I told people just to ask for prayers for his sorry soul. I accidentally slipped so I was not intentionally gossiping. I went a whole week without telling anyone, then had to tell just one person. I told someone in confidence and made them promise never to repeat it. I needed advice on how I should handle it. If she is going to act that way, then she deserves it. I'm praying for him now, so it's all good. Unle...

The Future Of The Church Is The Traditional Latin Mass Source:  GloriaTV The Old Latin Mass attracts young people because it challenges them, said  Bertalan Kiss , the Hungarian president of the youth movement Foederatio Internationalis Juventutem who presently is in Rome as a delegate at the pre-synodal meeting gathering. Talking to ncregister.com (March 21), Kiss explains that  young people prefer the Old Rite because it is about using all of the Church’s treasures and patrimony to save souls. Kiss praised Pope Francis for having mentioned the word  “roots”  during a pre-synodal meeting. According to Kiss this means that Francis is putting an  “ emphasis on Tradition ”.  He believes that he can change the perspective of bishops and cardinal by personal encounters and by “depoliticizing” the issue of the liturgy. However, people may have tried this venue before him. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++...

THOUGHTS ON DEATH (The Imitation of Christ) VERY soon your life here will end; consider, then, what may be in store for you elsewhere. Today we live; tomorrow we die and are quickly forgotten. Oh, the dullness and hardness of a heart which looks only to the present instead of preparing for that which is to come! Therefore, in every deed and every thought, act as though you were to die this very day. If you had a good conscience you would not fear death very much. It is better to avoid sin than to fear death. If you are not prepared today, how will you be prepared tomorrow? Tomorrow is an uncertain day; how do you know you will have a tomorrow? What good is it to live a long life when we amend that life so little? Indeed, a long life does not always benefit us, but on the contrary, frequently adds to our guilt. Would that in this world we had lived well throughout one single day. Many count up the years they have spent in religion but find their lives made little holier. ...

Author Of ‘The Dictator Pope’ Revealed (EXCLUSIVE VIDEO) Source: GloriaTV The author of the brilliant book Dictator Pope has been revealed as the historian Henry Sire , reports Catholic Herald (March 19). Sire published his book in December under the pen name Marcantonio Colonna . He was born in 1949 in Barcelona and is currently living in Rome where he works as a historian. He has a degree in Modern History from Oxford. Sire is a guest at the annual summer meeting of the Catholic Roman Forum in Gardone, Italy.

Saint Expelled 15,000 Devils from Heretic From the Secret of the Rosary, pp. 76-79 by St. Louis De Montfort When Saint Dominic was preaching the Rosary near Carassone, in Southern France, an Albigensian was brought to him who was possessed by devils. Saint Dominic exorcised him in the presence of a great crowd of people. His fame was spreading, and it appears that over twelve thousand people had come to hear him preach. The devils in possession of this wretched man were forced to answer Saint Dominic’s question, in spite of themselves. They said that: There were 15,000 of them in the body of this poor man, because he had attacked all of the fifteen mysteries of the most Holy Rosary. They went on to testify that by preaching the Rosary, St. Dominic had put fear and horror into the very depths of hell, and that he was the man they hated most throughout the whole world, because of the souls which he snatched from them through devotion to the Holy Rosary. They then revealed...

INDULGENCES: HOW DOES GOD COUNT? Saint Patrick's Purgatory Source: Spirit Daily How many things that you see, hear, or read, that you think, say, and do, will benefit your standing in eternity? No bigger question, this. And nothing brings that into focus more than the hereafter -- and the notion of purgatory. Here on earth, there is " Saint Patrick's Purgatory ." Saint Patrick's Purgatory is an ancient pilgrimage site on Station Island in Lough Derg, County Donegal, Ireland. According to legend, the site dates from the fifth century, when Christ showed Saint Patrick a cave, sometimes referred to as a pit or a well, on this austere island that was an entrance to that middle point, that way station, that gray area in the afterlife. The island's importance in medieval times is clear from the fact that it is mentioned in texts from as early as 1185. Here, there is strict penance, as in our own lives penance lessen eternal purgation. "Legen...

THE LOVE OF SOLITUDE AND SILENCE SEEK a suitable time for leisure and meditate often on the favors of God. Leave curiosities alone.  Read such matters as bring sorrow to the heart rather than occupation to the mind. If you withdraw yourself from unnecessary talking and idle running about, from listening to gossip and rumors, you will find enough time that is suitable for holy meditation. Very many great saints avoided the company of men wherever possible and chose to serve God in retirement. "As often as I have been among men," said one writer, "I have returned less a man." We often find this to be true when we take part in long conversations. It is easier to be silent altogether than not to speak too much. To stay at home is easier than to be sufficiently on guard while away. Anyone, then, who aims to live the inner and spiritual life must go apart, with Jesus, from the crowd. No man appears in safety before the public eye unless he first relishes obscur...