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Is the Virus a Chastisement From God? “La Civiltà Cattolica” Says No ”Prophets of doom.” This is how “La Civiltà Cattolica” - the magazine of the Rome Jesuits that goes to press after having been seen and approved by the pope - defines and dismisses those among the Catholics who are claiming that the coronavirus pandemic is “a punishment from God, enraged against a sinful world.”It has done so in its latest issue, under the byline of a  Jesuit of the first rank, David M. Neuhaus, professor at the Pontifical Biblical Institute of Jerusalem, born Jewish, a citizen of Israel...

Tragedy, Prophecy and Divine Providence - I Written by Jeremias Wells    June 06, 2011 Share Tweet A famous daily newspaper has a popular Sunday supplement called, “News of the Week in Review.” Tragic natural disasters have been multiplying at such a horrible rate that the newspaper could easily publish another Sunday section called “Disasters of the Week in Review.” Violent earthquakes, deadly tornados, tsunamis and extraordinary flooding have been dominating the news for months. So great and numerous have these tragedies been that we must ask ourselves are they just a result of blind natural forces (Mother Nature...

sermon: Whom the Lord Loves He Chastens (Part 1) Why God Disciplines His Children Martin G. Collins Given 30-Aug-08; Tape #898; 72 minutes Series The Whom the Lord Loves He Chastens series: Whom the Lord Loves He Chastens (Part 1)Whom the Lord Loves He Chastens (Part 2) You have noticed, as I have, the way that this society handles problems. Whatever it is, if it is child behavior problems they say, "Here is a drug." If a person is discouraged, they say, "Here is a drug." If a person is depressed they say, "Take this drug." Amazingly there are...

Everyone knows the world is in an economic crisis. What everyone doesn’t know, however, is the real reason for the crisis. There are many theories that the crisis is caused by too much spending, trade deficits, fiat currency, national debt, natural disasters, and many other suggested causes. Certainly all these play their part in fomenting the crisis, but they don’t tell us the ultimate reason they are all coming together. The real reason why economies fail is that they are ordained by God for the sins of man. God knows we need a stable economy to provide for our basic...

III THE PRACTICE OF CONFORMITYTO THE WILL OF GOD To the question, "In what things should we practice conformity to the will of God?" there can be only one answer:  "In everything." The first thing that God asks of us is that we should faithfully keep his commandments and those of the Church, humbly obey those who have authority over us, and carefully fulfill the duties of our state. Thereafter we should desire what God does and accept with filial submission all that is decided by His Providence. Let us now see some of the circumstances which may arise....

II THE GREAT ADVANTAGES TO BE GAINEDFROM ENTIRE CONFORMITY TO THE DIVINE WILL Our sanctification is God's aim in all His dealings with us. What would He not do for His own honor and our good if we would only let Him!  The heavens make no resistance to the spirits that guide them and their motion is magnificent, orderly and useful; they declare aloud the glory of God and preserve order in the universe by their influence and the invariable succession of day and night. If they resisted this guidance and instead of following the motion set for them...

PART I by Father Jean Baptiste Saint-Jure GOD DOES EVERYTHING WITH SUPREME WISDOM All wisdom comes from the Lord God we find in the Book of Ecclesiasticus, and with him it remains forever, and is before all time . . . and he has poured her forth upon all his works.1  How manifold are your works, O Lord! exclaims the Psalmist, In wisdom thou hast wrought them all2  It could not be otherwise, for God, being infinite wisdom and acting by Himself, cannot act except in an infinitely wise manner. For this reason many of the Doctors of the...

PART I by Father Jean Baptiste Saint-Jure I THE WILL OF GODMADE AND GOVERNS ALL THINGS Treating of the Will of God St. Thomas, following St. Augustine, teaches that it is the cause of all that exists.1  The Psalmist tells us that "all that the Lord wills he does in heaven and on earth, in the seas and in all the deeps."2  Again in the Book of the Apocalypse it is written:  "Worthy art thou, O Lord our God, to receive glory and honor and power; for thou hast created all things, and because of thy will they existed...

Providence of God and Problem of Evil 13. What becomes of God when you think of the misery and starvation in the world? We have already seen that there is a God. Inability to comprehend every detail in the universe does not prove that there is no God, but merely the limited capacity of the finite human mind. However, the human mind can propose certain principles which go a long way towards the removal of difficulties. Firstly, evil is really the negation or privation of good, and if there is evil in the world, there is also much good which...

Supreme Control Over All Things and the Problem of Suffering and Evil 12. You insist on the existence of God. Do you believe that He is a benevolent God, and that His providence extends to all things? Yes, though I admit that you now introduce a problem which has baffled the keenest intelligences of all the centuries, and one the solution of which goes beyond the limits attainable by limited human reason. However, if reason cannot attain to a full and comprehensive explanation of this problem, it can go a certain distance towards a solution, and it can certainly refute...

SIXTH DISCOURSE: God Chastises Us in This Life for Our Good, Not for our Destruction "Non enim delectaris in perditionibus nostris." "For thou art not delighted in our being lost." -----Job 3:22. Let us feel persuaded, my brethren, that there is no one who loves us more than God. St. Teresa says that God loves us more than we love ourselves. He has loved us from eternity. Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love. -----Jer. 31:3. It is the love He has borne us which has drawn us from nothing, and given us being. Therefore have I...

SIX DISCOURSES ONNatural Calamities, Divine Threats, AND THEFour Gates of HellBy ST. ALPHONSUS LIGUORI SIXTH DISCOURSE: God Chastises Us in This Life for Our Good, Not for our Destruction "Non enim delectaris in perditionibus nostris." "For thou art not delighted in our being lost." -----Job 3:22. Let us feel persuaded, my brethren, that there is no one who loves us more than God. St. Teresa says that God loves us more than we love ourselves. He has loved us from eternity. Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love. -----Jer. 31:3. It is the love He has borne us...

 __________________________________________________ GREAT CHASTISEMENT DURING MIDDLE AGES WAS FEROCIOUS SPREAD OF 'BLACK DEATH' [Adapted from The Last Secret by Michael H. Brown] Are our times like the Middle Ages? And if so, might we one day face plague? Let's take a look, today, and in a second installment next week, at the "black death," which occurred in the 14th century. That great disaster -- one of the greatest on record -- took place at a time of immorality, irreligion (the Mass was celebrated in some places like a circus), and materialism. It followed on the heels of a climate swerve...