Caritas Newsletter
August 25, 1998
by Fr. Lucian Pulvermacher, OFM Cap.
The Gift of Counsel
First of all, let me start this letter with a prayer to the Holy Ghost as it is found in the Novena to the Holy Ghost. I need the special help of the Holy Ghost in order to speak with profit to you, and you need His special help in order to listen with profit to me.The gift of Counsel endows the soul with supernatural prudence, enabling it to judge promptly and rightly what must be done, especially in difficult circumstances. Counsel applies the principles furnished by Knowledge and Understanding to the innumerable concrete cases that confront us in the course of our daily duty as parents, teachers, public servants, and Christian citizens. Counsel is supernatural common sense, a priceless treasure in the quest of salvation. “Above all these things, pray to the Most High, that He may direct thy way in truth.”
Prayer for Counsel
Come, O Spirit of Counsel, help and guide me in all my ways, that I may always do Thy holy will. Incline my heart to that which is good; turn it away from all that is evil, and direct me by the straight path of Thy commandments to that goal of eternal life for which I long. Amen.
Leading Up to an Election
In 1976, when I discovered that the Church under the “papacy” of Paul VI was not the one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church that Our Lord, Jesus Christ, founded, I pulled out of it without even saying good-by to the Novus Ordo Church and the Capuchin Order. I knew from remarks, in their publications, that if I had returned to say good-by I would have been constrained to stay as some kind of nut. My contention was correct, for there was another Capuchin like myself, a square shooter, who continued to teach Catholic doctrine, and he was put into a mental hospital. Within a year or so he was dead.God does not always lead us from point A to point Z. There are stops along the way when one seeks and follows the truth. I left Okinawa for Australia in the expectation of finding the Church without contraception and heresy in catechisms, as was the case in the whole of Japan. Finally when I learned that Australia was just as bad as Japan, I had to leave the bogus Paul VI Catholic Church. My departure was in January of 1976, 22 years ago.
When I came to the States I automatically fell into the traditional movement
where true Catechisms were used, and the Latin Mass was used. However, it
became clear to me that the traditionalists had no unity, so I saw it was not
the Catholic Church, and I had to depart from it with only one other person with
me in the faith - as I knew it. Again, there was no formal good-by.
That was in August of 1976.
From August 1976 until 3 years ago I served alone as a priest, the world over.
Then I met, at a sort of a conclave meeting, a priest who had been in a former
papal election program which failed. I just presumed that he was on a rail
beside me going to the same place, namely, the election of the true Pope.
After three years I found him wanting, and again I am alone as a priest.
When that priest quit the election process several of us in the program demanded
that we go ahead with the election. Ken Mock, who was chairman, in an
office he assumed, and one we acceded to him, stopped the procedure. 3
years of stalling was not enough. Hence, as common sense demanded we
ignored his position and went ahead with the election process. I shall not
burden you with all of the details.
As soon as a board of 3 began to see if the Catholics wanted to join in the
voting for the Pope we noticed that a diabolic opposition surfaced, something
with a severity that never even once surfaced while in the past three years,
nothing was being done. Think of it, the devil saw danger to himself and
good for the salvation of souls, and he made an all out endeavor to move the
faithful that I served for 22 years into rebellion.
I observed a conduct that I could not explain in natural terms. It just
seemed to be diabolical.
Let me run a simple scenario. People gather on an island where there is no
government. Murder, rape and the like are daily events. Finally, a
man gets a group together and promises an election of a mayor, a judge and a
cop. He sits on his hands for 3 years without an election, and then other
members on the board just go ahead with an election program with candidates on a
ticket for mayor, judge and cop. As soon as the paper work gets going,
diabolically inspired people say, “We will not vote that way. We must have
discussions, input and the like” -- ad infinitum. The attempt will either
go ahead, or it will just fail with endless discussions.
I learned from a famous architect that in a building plan (even if the architect
is building his own dream home) there has to come a time when you stop adding
and subtracting from the plan. If one does not submit to that discipline
he will never erect a building. That is the problem before us in the papal
election right now.
Self Defense
At this juncture in time there is a question as to, just who is at fault over stale-mating discussions. Locally, as I see it, the heat is turned on me. I shall teach you some wonderful things of the faith. I quote from “The Voice of a Priest” by Father Edward Leen. The author while speaking of the difficult task of a bishop, has this to say:“Error is ever active, insidious, inventive, and tireless. All the force of his (the bishop's) intellect, illuminated by faith and rendered keen and penetrating by his paternal anxiety, must be directed to watching the approaches of evil, and all his authority used to crushing its progress -- “not abandoning a just severity in mildness.” Vigilance must be combined with fearlessness, because the effort to do good invariably arouses opposition -- and opposition due to the hostility of the wicked and the mistaken zeal of the good. The pursuit of righteousness is not to be renounced on account of the clamorous enmity that is ever roused against it. Animated with zeal for the salvation of souls, for the triumph and exaltation of the Church, and for the glory of God, the servant of the Lord must step forward intrepidly in face of calumny and outrage, remembering that all who will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. (II Tim. iii: 12)”Give the above quotation your most serious consideration. Furthermore, we are admonished to pray for those who “persecute and calumniate” us. Will persecution and calumny happen? It must happen, or Our Lord would not have said so. The more one imitates Christ the more he will be treated as Christ was treated, as mentioned above, “the hostility of the wicked and the mistaken zeal of the good.”
I hear the remark: Father you alienated the people you served for 22 years. The break down of Mass attendance over the problems in the papal election also corroborates the above statement. All that is because I follow what St. Paul spoke about to St. Timothy, “that all who will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution.” This is inevitable, as Father Leen points out, “because the effort to do good invariably arouses opposition - an opposition due to the hostility of the wicked and the mistaken zeal of the good.” It is not my task to judge if the trouble comes from “an opposition due to the hostility of the wicked and the mistaken zeal of the good.” We have a problem, and there is nothing the devil wants more than that I suffer persecution and calumny. I have pursued my course of words and actions the same way as Christ pursued His words and actions. Father Leen points out in another wonderful book that everything that Christ did, He did because it was the right thing to do. He forgave penitent sinners. He corrected those in error. He pointed out those who were blind guides, and He used most sharp words against those that deserved those words. He called Herod a fox. He called the Pharisees a brood of vipers, hypocrites, whitened sepulchers and the like. Mind you, on one occasion when Peter needed the correction for saying that the “Son of man (Christ) should not be spit upon,” Christ said, he knew not the ways of God, and said, “Get behind me Satan.” Mind you Christ in correcting Peter called him, Satan. Did Peter hate the Master for that? There is no indication that he did. Now I find people hanging on the least unfavorable word I or others say as just something terrible. Father Lucian makes his own enemies. Well, if he imitates Christ in that, whatever he does is, as far as possible, the right thing to do, then you see I must suffer persecution by those who are “wicked” or on account of “the misguided zeal of the good.” By the time that the three years of His public life were up Christ had a land full of enemies from north to south. He was not welcome in the North, and in the South they crucified Him, because everything that He did was the right thing to do: no exception to that!
Even apparently good people look down on me for any little reason that they can find. Christ despised such people, and needless to say, rightly so. To those went out of their way to tempt or test Him Christ had harsh words - again because it was the right thing to do. I ask one and all, who was the most hated person in the Holy Land on Good Friday? You know it. He was Jesus Christ. If you find me hated more than the rests of men for sticking to my guns then I am in the company of my Master, Jesus Christ. A mark of the Church is persecution. A mark of a true Christian, as St. Paul pointed out to St. Timothy, is persecution. Blessed are you when you suffer persecution for justice sake. Pray for those who persecute and calumniate you. Now I have all of my persecutors and calumniators to pray for.
Even by non-Christian people it is believed that we are in the end times. Technology is so advance that they can put a number on every person on earth and keep tabs on him. In order to get that number one must worship the devil. Those who refuse to make that act of worship will be refused the number - 666. The result will be that they cannot buy or sell, and in order to live, that is most necessary.
From the Apocalypse we learn some very consoling words. In Apocalypse chapter twelve, verse 6 we read:
“And the woman (the Catholic 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 (three and a half years).”Those without the letter of the beast, if they belong to the Church, will get along just fine, for God has a place for His elect, and He will feed them, just as He fed the Israelites in the desert for forty years. What a consolation!
In chapter 13 of the Apocalypse verse 7 we read some terrible words:
“And it was given unto him to make war on the saints and to overcome them. And power was give him over every tribe and people and tongue and nation.”When I observe people around me today, almost berserk with anger at me, I suspect that the above words have come true right under my nose. The word “saints” means those sanctified by baptism, that is, Christians. The beast, it is revealed, will “overcome them.” Those who have a weak spiritual life are likely to succumb to that temptation. The only safety for us is to have a truly wonderful spiritual life, that is, a true life of prayer. First of all, that powerful life of prayer manifests itself in an almost sinless life, at least free from all mortal sin.
In verse 8 we continue:
“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.”At the end times there will be only one religion. It will be a religion with the mandated worship of Lucifer. People will worship Lucifer or die, or be in safe keeping in “a place prepared by God.” This is most important. I believe that God will give us a Pope to lead God's elect to that place of safety. Under him there will be a wonderful peace and unity. The rest of the world will be marching on to perdition.
In Verse 9 there is a warning:
“If any man have an ear, let him hear.”Know for sure, that you will be sorely tempted by the devil who has permission to do so from God. This terrible time is sure to separate the sheep from the goats. Of that separation we read of in Psalm 68, 29:
“Let them be blotted out of the Book of the living; and with the just let them not be written.”Just how can we come to thinking and willing correctly? God has given us the virtue of prudence, and He has given us the gift of the Holy Ghost of counsel. Both prudence and counsel have identically the same purpose. They are to help us make a right judgment. In the beginning of this letter I printed the page on counsel, from the booklet called, the Novena to the Holy Ghost.
From Father Edward Leen in his book, Grace and the Supernatural Life, on page 85 we read:
“It is clear from all this that the function of the gifts is to strengthen and perfect the operations of the virtues. Wisdom, Understanding and Knowledge come to the aid of Faith; Counsel takes away the hesitations of Prudence.”Hence, to repeat, Counsel has for its purpose to strengthen and perfect the virtue of Prudence. As said above: “Counsel takes away the hesitations of Prudence.” A prudent man when he makes decisions he shivers a bit in his boots. A man endowed with Counsel make his decisions without any hesitation, with the help of God. Since the decisions are correct he never has to change them.
I want to address a problem of the end times. For the most part the whole world will be faithless. In Luke 18, 8 we read:
“I say to you that he will come quickly to revenge them. But yet the Son of man when he cometh, shall he find, think you, faith on earth?”The implied answer is NO. There will be just a little flock, and we must make sure, by a holy life, to be worthy to have our names in the book of life.
From Father Edward Leen's book, The Church Before Pilate, on page 9:
“Do not think that this hatred was the attitude of the few that sought to compass His death. Who is not for Him is against Him and therefore shares the hatred. It may be greater or less in those who range themselves against Him - but it is in measure in all. That it was not the hatred of the few is evidenced by the events of the great day of His life. 'But they laid hands on Him and held Him.' Then His disciples leaving Him, all fled away.' All fled away. He stood alone, or almost alone. There stood against Him, princes and priests, believers and unbelievers, Jews and Gentiles, men and women, young and old - the world is its image and in miniature. He stood alone and the world stood opposite Him and leveled at Him their shafts of hate, barbed with fury.”Dear reader! During the past weeks I have experienced almost the same scenario in Antigo, WI. God will be our just judge, and that is all that counts with me. Leen says:
“As He was a sign that shall be contradicted so too shall She (the Church) be ever a sign which is contradicted.”
We Know Not the Future:
But We Sure Can See Trouble Coming
Over the past few months there have been serious financial melt-downs in
oriental countries. I saw an article where Indonesia could even end as a
nation. When the people go wild in their quest for some food they will resort
to wholesale murder.
In this day and age the economic life of countries is so tied together that the failure of one country will necessarily effect all the other countries. It is just a matter of time. All of us, and especially heads of families, should prepare for the time when there will be no food in the markets. By divine ordinance Joseph of Egypt was sent ahead of his brothers to prepare food for his family. All of you know that bible history story. We must trust in God, and at the same time we must use our human reason in this preparation. To neglect to make preparations at this time would be what is called tempting God, and it is sinful to do that.
I shall give you some of my thinking in regard storing food. There are food companies that have very elaborate and very expensive storage processes. They dry cauliflower, tomatoes, puddings and the like. Of course such meals might even taste very good. However, it is better to stay simple. Put aside ripe soybeans, and even a dozen different types of beans. Have a variety of seeds, such as wheat, corn, barley and the like. Have dried fruit: apples, peaches, pears, apricots and the like. There are some good dried meats. Then there are dates, figs, raisins and the like. None of these things require refrigeration, and they take up a very small space, and compared to the commercial dried foods they are low in cost. Certainly a water filter is necessary. Well, I shall close down my thinking on this matter.
Conscience & Objective Reality
We hear people say that their conscience is clear. Therefore, they feel confident that they are well with God and man. There is an obligation to form ones conscience on objective reality. I will say this at the very beginning: one may never act with a doubtful conscience. When there are conflicting laws demanding our obedience at one and the same time, we must make a practical judgment as to which law must be obeyed here and now. I give a simple example.Imagine a pre-Vatican II Sunday morning where there are 3 or 4 Churches in town. On Sunday morning one is obliged to go to Mass at his parish Church or any Church he chooses. One Sunday morning the person is a bit ill. Natural law required that one takes care of one's health. There is a conflict. Do I have to go to Mass, or do I have to stay home and take care for my health? Then and there, the person must judge which law must be obeyed and which law does not bind at all. For example, he judges his fever is so mild that it does not require that he stay at home. He then sees that the law requiring him to go to Mass is demanding his obedience. He goes to Mass, and all is well between himself and God. If the illness were serious the scenario would be reversed.
Just look at the case again. If the person made no practical judgment as to which law demands obedience he is in trouble with his conscience and with God. If he goes to Mass he violates the law requiring him to stay home. If he stays home he violates the law that requires him to go to Mass. For sure, he commits a sin, because he violates a known law. Once again, he is obliged to judge which law binds and which law does not bind. Then he is in the friendship of God and on the way of salvation.
For those who love God all things work onto good. Amen.
Fr. Lucian Pulvermacher, OFM Cap.
