Month: October 2022

In this, our enlightened modern age, physical beauty is the lodestar of romance. Everyone aspires to be trim, botoxed and ‘beautiful’. Men are looked up to for having many romances. But it’s a fools errand – for it is only passion which sees physical beauty and that lasts but a month or two, “but then no longer. Familiarity wastes away the admiration.” For then the sad lover is back to the beginning, looking for love in physical beauty, not in the “beauty of the soul.” St. John Chrysostom speaks to the root of this folly. If you want to live a great life, a joyful life, and enjoy a true love that will last a lifetime and grow deeper with age, “seek instead for beauty of soul”.

“Praise her, but not for her beauty. Praise and hatred and love based on physical beauty belong to unchaste souls. Seek instead for beauty of soul. Imitate the Bridgegroom of the Church. Outward beauty is full of conceit and great license…But has it any pleasure? For the first or second month, perhaps, or at most for the year, but then no longer. Familiarity wastes away the admiration. Meanwhile the evils which arose from the beauty still abide, the pride, the folly, the contemptuousness. But in one who is not this way, there is nothing of this kind. Since the love began on just grounds, it remains ardent; its object is beauty of soul, and not of body.

Tell me what is better than heaven? What is better than the stars? Tell me of what body you will, yet is there none so fair. Tell me of what eyes you will, yet are there none so sparkling. When these were created, the very angels gazed with wonder, and we gaze with wonder now – yet not in the same degree as at first. Such is familiarity; things do not strike us in the same degree. How much more in the case of a wife!

Let us seek in a wife affection, modesty, gentleness; these are the characteristics of beauty. But let us not seek loveliness of person, or upbraid her upon these things, over which she has no power. Rather, let us not upbraid at all (it is rudeness), neither let us be impatient or sullen. Do you not see how many, after living with beautiful wives, have ended their lives pitiably, and how many, who have lived with those of no great beauty, have run on to extreme old age with great enjoyment. Let us wipe off the “spot” that is within, let us smooth the “wrinkles” that are within, let us do away the “blemishes” that are on the soul. Such is the beauty God requires. Let us make her fair in God’s sight, not in our own…

Show her that you set a high value on her company, and that you would rather be at home by her side than in the marketplace. And honor her before all your friends, and above the children who are born of her, and love these very children for her sake. If she does any good act, praise and admire it; if any foolish one, such as girls may chance to do, advise her and remind her…

If any poverty overtake you, cite the case of those holy men, Paul and Peter, who were more honored than any kings or rich men; and yet how they spent their lives in hunger and in thirst. Teach her that there is nothing in life that is to be feared but offending God. If any marries this way, with these views, he will be hardly inferior to monks; married, but little below the unmarried.

From Husbands, Love Your Wives, a homily by St. John Chrysostom. As copied from The Father’s of the Church by Mike Aquilina

I read this recently here, and thought it was a beautiful example for all parents to follow, especially those who have children that are making bad decisions. It is especially tragic when a loved one turns to drugs, as you can’t help but feel powerless. How are we to feel? Do we turn away from them? We must always, always, always, turn our eyes to God, His Magisterium, His saints, and Our Lady to find the answer on how to live. I thought this example from Our Lady is perfect:

When Jesus was crucified, Mary stood at the foot of the Cross and suffered with him (Jn 19:25). She never abandoned her child, even during adulthood, particularly when things were at their worst. This sort of enduring love is exemplary for Christian mothers. Children get into trouble, sometimes for the right reasons, sometimes not, as children or as adults. Mothers like Mary stand with their children throughout life, especially when things go bad, even if they are unable to alter the course of tragic events, to offer love and support in whatever way they can.

Stand by them forever, without doubt.
Get them treatment.
Pray unceasingly for them. I love this Powerful Novena to the Sacred Heart of Jesus – A favorite of St. Padre Pio:

I. O my Jesus, you have said: “Truly I say to you, ask and you will receive, seek and you will find, knock and it will be opened to you.” Behold I knock, I seek and ask for the grace of …… (Mention your request here…)

Our Father …. Hail Mary …. Glory Be to the Father …. Sacred Heart of Jesus, I place all my trust in you.

II. O my Jesus, you have said: “Truly I say to you, if you ask anything of the Father in my name, he will give it to you.” Behold, in your name, I ask the Father for the grace of ……. (Mention your request here…)

Our Father …. Hail Mary ….Glory Be to the Father …. Sacred Heart of Jesus, I place all my trust in you.

III. O my Jesus, you have said: “Truly I say to you, heaven and earth will pass away but my words will not pass away.” Encouraged by your infallible words I now ask for the grace of ….. (Mention your request here…)

Our Father …. Hail Mary …. Glory Be to the Father … Sacred Heart of Jesus, I place all my trust in you.

O Sacred Heart of Jesus, for whom it is impossible not to have compassion on the afflicted, have pity on us miserable sinners and grant us the grace which we ask of you, through the Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of Mary, your tender Mother and ours.

Hail, holy Queen, Mother of mercy, hail, our life, our sweetness and our hope. To thee do we cry, poor banished children of Eve: to thee do we send up our sighs, mourning and weeping in this vale of tears. Turn then, most gracious Advocate, thine eyes of mercy toward us, and after this our exile, show unto us the blessed fruit of thy womb, Jesus, O merciful, O loving, O sweet Virgin Mary! Amen.

Saint Joseph, pray for us. Amen!

I am so glad to have read The Fathers of the Church by Mike Aquilina. In the book, he gives a brief overview of the many early Church fathers, along with samples of their writing. It’s a buffet.

One father in particular – St. John Chrysostom – writes beautifully. I have seen his name at various times in years past, and I remember always being put off by it. I didn’t want to read about him because of his last name. How pitiful I am for that.

Turns out, Chrysostom means ‘golden-tongued’ in Latin. He was given that name because of his beautiful homilies, where he speaks of the pressing needs in the lives of the laity – loving your wife, developing children into followers of Christ, and how to think of the wealthy.

“For him, the power in Scripture was a power to transform the minute particulars of everyday work, family, and society… St John’s homilies hit home. They spoke of the marketplace, the marriage bed, the sports arena, of cooking, investments, and cosmetics. And they were practical. He not only described what he saw, he also prescribed a moral and ascetical course of action.”

From The Fathers of the Church, by Mike Aquilina

In this passage he talks about how to raise Christian children, a subject dear to any Christian parent today. The same issues regarding raising children in 400AD are the very same issues of today: obedience to parents, the abundance of bad examples in the secular world, discipline, character, and good deeds.

To Parents
Do you wish your son to be obedient? From the first, “but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord” (Eph 6:4). Never deem it unnecessary that he should listen diligently to the divine Scriptures. For there the first thing he hears will be this: “Honor your father and your mother (Ex 20:12), so you will win your reward.

Never say that the reading of Scripture is the business of monks. Am I making a monk of him? No. There is no need for him to become a monk. Why be so afraid of a thing so replete with so much advantage? Make him a Christian. For it is altogether necessary for laymen to be acquainted with the lessons derived from this source – but especially for children. For theirs is an age full of folly; and to this folly are added the bad examples derived from pagan myths, where they are made acquainted with heroes so admired, who are slaves of their passions, and cowards with regard to death – as, for example, Achilles, when he relents, when he dies for his concubine, when another gets drunk, and many other things of the sort.

He requires therefore the remedies against these things. Is it not absurd to send children out to jobs, and to school, and to do all you can for these objects, and yet, not to “bring them up in the chastening and admonition of the Lord”?

“Bring them up in the chastening and admonition of the Lord”; do not conspire to make him a politician, but train him instead to be a philosopher. In the lack of the one there will be no harm whatever; in the absence of the other, all the rhetoric in the world will be of no advantage. Discipline is needed, not talking; character, not cleverness; deeds, not words. These gain a man the kingdom. These confer what are benefits indeed. Whet not his tongue, but cleanse his soul. I do not say this to prevent your teaching him these things, but to prevent your attending to them exclusively. Do not imagine that the monk alone stands in need of these lessons from Scripture. Of all others, the children just about to enter into the world specially need them.

On the surface, it seems wrong to cheer the destruction of the American fiat money system. If you mention this idea to someone they will disagree, saying something like, “You can’t cheer the economic destruction of millions of people.” But they don’t understand that economic destruction is the key feature of a fiat money system. It has been destroying since its inception, continues today, and will continue until it ends.

Why is a fiat money system so destructive? Because at its core is fraud. As Fr. Ripperger says, “At the heart of fractional reserve lending is fraud. A bank has 10 million and loans out 100 million. That is fraud. They don’t have the money.” If the essence of the American economy is based on fraud, we know that everything it touches will be destroyed – financially and morally. Rothbard said, “Fractional-reserve banking is disastrous both for the morality and for the fundamental bases and institutions of the market economy.”

The fraudulent fiat system has already destroyed the country

• Countless lives destroyed from boom-bust cycles, and the false economy fiat systems create. We all know someone who lost a job, a home, or marriage because of the 2008 banking crisis and never recovered.
  
  
• Fiat funded forever wars – Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, Libya – which destabilized the countries, killed millions, and created millions more refugees. Many of which went to Europe, destroying that continent.
  
  
• Millions of hopeless young Americans. Why get a $12 an hour job in a world where costs increase 10-20% a year and houses cost $350,000? The system crushes opportunity and forces them to remain children – they live at home, forego starting families, turn to drugs, video games and other base pleasures. Morality falls, as Rothbard said.
  
  
• Decline of family – over 50% divorce rate, 48%+ babies born to unwed mothers. In the 1960’s a man could raise a family on one income. His wife could stay home and do one of the most important jobs in the world – form the mind of their child. That reality is gone for millions of Americans. Now both parents slave while the state forms the mind of the child. Family is the core of a healthy and prosperous society.
  
  
• 40+ million on psychiatric drugs, drug addiction and deaths from drugs at record levels, declining church attendance, rise of vulgarity, decline of modesty, life expectancy down, GDP is down – even with the fed printing trillions, record debt…the list goes on.

The fiat money system has destroyed American society by destroying morality, people, families, marriages, institutions, the hopes of millions of young people, the entire country – a crime almost too heinous to contemplate. Should one be angry? St. Thomas says you must be angry: “He who is not angry when there is just cause for anger is immoral. Why? Because anger looks to the good of justice. And if you can live amid injustice without anger, you are immoral as well as unjust”.

If the system is so destructive, why is it kept alive? Because those in power receive unlimited advantage from it. The fraud is in their favor – and to the detriment of those without power. As the system grows, their power grows…and they become absolutely corrupted. They couldn’t care less if the country is destroyed, as long as they maintain their advantage, wealth, and power. Virtually everyone is subject to being bought, and so they are bought. Laws are enshrined, payments are made, the system goes on…

The collapse of this system will be beautiful, because it will be the ending of a great fraud. It will be a cleansing, a restoration…the antipode of what St. Thomas said – anger that the system exists and destroys – joy that the fraud is ending.

Ultimately, it is cheering the application of justice to a fraudulent system. Justice is virtuous and beautiful, as the system re-balances and the right ordering of society is returned. St. Thomas quotes Tully, who “declares…(De Officiis i, 7) the luster of virtue appears above all in justice.”

The application of justice to an immoral system must happen in order to return to a civil society. “What are kingdoms without justice? They’re just gangs of bandits,” St. Augustine said. American society is based on fraud and injustice – a society of banditry – where destruction rules. It will be of great benefit to all Americans if we lived in a society which is right ordered, just, and where the “luster of virtue appears”.

So let us be joyful as the American fiat system collapses. Let us cheer.

Part 2 will look at what happens if the system continues, and why those with an interest in keeping it together will do so at all costs.

Mr. Friday Night

Mass of the Ages is a 3 part movie series which shows the beauty of the Traditional Latin Mass (TLM). Parts I and II are available now and part III will be released soon. It was recommended to me a few months ago by a friend who goes to the TLM.

Part I
Part I is about the beauty of the TLM. Watch on youtube here.
Some of the movie’s chapters:
Discover the Latin Mass
What makes the Latin Mass unique?
When priests learn the Latin Mass
How the Latin Mass teaches reverence and humility
“Tradition is another word for solid foundation”
The best setting for the mystery of the Eucharist
Why the Latin Mass?

Part II
Part II discusses how the new Mass came about and contrasts the new Mass with the TLM. Watch part II here.

If you’ve never seen the Traditional Latin Mass celebrated you are in for a treat.

5 stars, highly recommended.

Here is a short talk by Fr. Ripperger on the Promises of the Rosary. I took notes, and almost all of the words are his, but I did leave out some parts of his talk.

I want to highlight something he says in other talks and this one. He always says to pray the Rosary daily, and that the Rosary must be said faithfully. He repeats this whenever he talks about the Rosary. I suppose that is obvious, but just praying the Rosary every day is not enough, it must be said devoutly, with faith.

All words below are Fr. Ripperger’s:

There are 15 promises in relationship to the Rosary, when you’re talking about one of the greatest mysteries, that is, the power which God has set up for the Rosary to have. Here are a few:

• Whoever shall faithfully serve me by recitation of the Rosary shall receive signal graces. Signal graces are little signs here and there and God manifests them and then in your intellect He gives you a grace to see that there is some sign from our Lord or from Our Lady that this particular thing is happening. This is important, particularly for those who are trying to discern God’s will for them that if they are praying the Rosary consistently Our Lady will send these signal graces to them so they can see what God’s will is.
  
• Another one is that our Rosary shall be a powerful armor against hell, and it will destroy vice, decrease sin, and defeat heresies. It is a powerful weapon. There have been cases where battles have been won on the battlefield by it. (editor’s note: he then talks about the Battle of Lepanto and how the Rosary was used by the Christian soldiers. It is worth the listen.)
  
• It will cause virtue and good works to flourish. When we wonder why things are so bad in the Church well part of the reason is because so few people are praying the Rosary, and so good isn’t flourishing in the church.
  
• It will obtain for souls the abundant mercy of God, and it will withdraw the hearts of people from the love of the world and it’s vanities and it will lift them to the desire of eternal things. This is quite important because by the means of the meditation a person reflects on God, the mind and the heart is turned towards God through this instrument, the Rosary. And so as a result their mind is turned away from the world and to eternal things. If they do it consistently then it becomes a habit and a habit tends to affect their whole way of thinking.
  
• The soul which recommends itself to me – that is Our Lady by the recitation of the Rosary shall not perish or die an unprovided for death. They’ll never suffer a death in which there were not sufficient graces in order to save them, or, without the sacraments…it means that we will never be unprovided for at the time of our death so that we can make sure that we get into Heaven.
  
• It is a sign of predestination…praying the Rosary would bring great hope because it would be a sign of destination. The person can gain hope by saying the Rosary. They will think, “If I keep saying this then this will be a sign that God is going to save me, Our Lady is going to save me.”
  
• A person who says it regularly can become worthy of eternal life.
  
• You shall obtain all that you ask of me by the recitation of the Rosary.
  
• All those who propagate the Holy Rosary shall be aided by me in their necessities and so it’s always good to help other people to come to knowledge of the Rosary to pray it so that God will provide, that Our Lady will provide in our necessities.
  
  

Some of the blessings of the Rosary include:

• That sinners are forgiven.
  
• It purifies our souls and washes away our sins.
  
• Souls that thirst will be refreshed. As a person becomes holier there becomes a stronger craving for God and for the next life. And those that say the Rosary will have that craving somewhat sated in this life.
  
• Those who are fettered will have their bonds broken. Those who feel like they’re under some oppression – there’s something that is just burdening them, this will be lightened.
  
• Those who weep shall find happiness and those who are tempted shall find peace, the poor will find help, the religious are reformed.
  
• Those who are innerrant will be instructed and the living shall learn to overcome their pride.
  
• The dead, the holy souls in Purgatory have their pains eased by suffrage, that is by the Rosary.
  
• It gradually gives us perfect knowledge of Jesus Christ and it gives us victory over all our enemies. If someone is difficult to work with, praying the Rosary for them will help us to overcome their imperfections so that we can lead peaceful lives with them.
  
• It makes it easier for us to practice virtue. If people say the Rosary consistently they will find that the virtues, of acting virtuously, will just kind of come on its own.
  
• It sets us on fire with the love of God and enriches us with graces and merits. It supplies us with what is needed to pay all our debts to God and to our fellow men.
  
• It obtains all kinds of graces for us from Almighty God.
  
  

Since Our Lady is the Mediatrix of all graces and this is her principle sacramental and relationship to her, those who say it devoutly and say it with the love of Our Lady, she’ll shower them with graces because they use this in a loving way, which she wants us to, so she can lead us to Heaven.

Some fail to pray the Rosary every day but we must realize it is one of the principle means of growing in holiness and in saving our souls. While the sacraments are the ordinary means by which we save our souls and grow in grace, nevertheless the Rosary is a very powerful means by which we can save our soul.

To save our souls. Say the Rosary daily, say it devoutly and Our Lady will welcome you into Heaven.

It’s a Great Time to Buy a Home

Contrasting Bubbles
Inflation was low during the 2007 housing bubble. It was a simple, old-fashioned bubble where the fed gave the monopoly game players lots more money for little more cost. Thus the price of baltic ave and boardwalk soared. When the bubble deflated, home prices went down.

The current bubble is different. The fed is still injecting monopoly money into the hands of buyers at a low cost, that part is the same. But this time we have rampant inflation. As I showed in a recent article, the cost to build a home has increased 55% in 4 years. So the idea that house prices will crash could be true, but the downside crash in prices is limited because the cost to build has increased.

If it costs $175 a sq. ft. to build a house, how much further below that floor can the price of housing go?

Costs Going Up In All Directions
The consumer is growing poorer in 3 directions:
1 – the cost to build has risen 55% in 4 years.
2 – the cost of money to buy a house – mortgage rates – has increased.
3 – the economy itself is tanking, job loses are mounting, and inflation is eating away the value of the dollar.

Is it a Good Time to Buy a Home?
I think that this could be a good time to buy a home – if you can find a deal close to or below build cost. I don’t think any one of the 3 factors listed above is going to abate anytime soon. Housing prices will continue to increase:

#1 – Inflation is still soaring. The cost to build a home might continue to rise rapidly from here. If that happens, this will be looked back upon as the ‘good old days’ for buying a home…a time when a person could still afford a home. Inflation is still seen as a temporary condition – the average seller hasn’t realized that inflation is going to increase from here. They have bought into the ‘housing price crash’ to some degree. This will

#2 – The cost of financing a home is increasing. Mortgage rates are well over 6% now. They could, and should go to 10% or more to slow inflation. Whether the fed has the fortitude to do this we don’t know. We do know that if they lower rates the price of housing will soar, which puts the current home buyer in a good position. If the fed continues to raise rates the cost of financing will get more expensive. Rates are still low enough to be considered ‘cheap money’.

#3 – If he loses his job this is not good for his prospects for keeping his home, but if he loses his job he won’t be able to buy either. Inflation will ‘help’ him pay off the home faster.

Americans Growing Poorer
This ultimately is another fascinating example of americans growing poorer, which has been the sole objective of the federal reserve since its inception. To transfer money from the people of the country into the pockets of insiders and those who own the federal reserve. This transfer has been ongoing and continues unabated to this day.

At some point, americans will only be able to afford a tin shack, like many people in poor countries. The people of haiti would much prefer to live in a 3 bed 2 bath brick home on a lake. Unfortunately, they cannot afford it. Such will be the case for americans, hard as it might be to believe at this time. If the cost of a home goes up, the cost of financing a home goes up, and you have no job to even try to buy a home, you are poor and will live in a tin shack if you can cobble one together. This is where america is headed, the end destination of this long and winding road of fiat banking.

One looks around and sees strip malls and platted subdivisions – the wealth of america. The idea that this is not how it will always be is anathema to virtually every american. But the country has been hollowed out by the money masters – by those tasked with ‘protecting’ your wealth and money. They have, for their entire existence, been stealing from your grandparents, parents, you, and your children. This has been their stated objective. We shouldn’t be surprised when we “wake up homeless on the continent our fathers conquered.”

I hear many talk disparagingly about the New Mass. I don’t know if either Mass is ‘better’ than the other but I thought this gentleman Decrevi had an interesting perspective regarding thinking about both Masses. Maybe this is a good way to heal any rift between both groups.

First Part of the Video – Explaining the First Indult to Allow the Traditional Latin Mass (TLM)
The first part of the video is about the Marnau Petition – a petition written in 1971 which asked Pope Paul VI for special permission to allow the Traditional Latin Mass to be celebrated in England and Wales. The petition was signed by many people, including Agatha Christie.

Decrevi says:

“According to legend…when Paul VI saw her name – she wasn’t a Catholic – he allowed this permission for the Latin Mass to be continued to be said in England and Wales. This was the first approval. Obviously, there have been many more but there has been a fight in the Church over the last 50 years over this Mass.”

The indult was granted by Pope Paul VI.

He then reads the original petition, as well as the letter from Archbishop Bugnini to Pope Paul VI.

Second Part of the Video – Brief history of the TLM
But what I want to look at is what Decrevi says in the second part of the video:

The battle for the Traditional Latin Mass has been going on for 50 years.

This was the first indult granted that allowed the Traditional Latin Mass.

We had a second indult in the early 80’s which allowed bishops to give special permission for the Mass to be said.

After Bishops Lefeve’s ordination in 1988 we had the Ecclesia Dei permission, which gave far more liberty to the Mass.

With Pope Benedict we saw Summorum Pontificum which allowed any priest in the world to celebrate Traditional Latin Mass. They didn’t need to ask permission.

Pope Francis, in 2021, abrogated Summorum Pontificum, limiting when the TLM could be celebrated.

So the struggle for the TLM has been ongoing for 50 years.

3rd Part of the Video – Healing
Then he addresses those who love the TLM, and offers advice on how to look favorably on Vatican II and the New Mass. He says,

Don’t be worried about what’s going on. If it wasn’t for the Novus Ordo and the reform of the Mass, we wouldn’t have the reform of the Traditional Latin Rite…I don’t know if devotional Catholicism…would have survived the modern era.

Catholics before Vatican II were devoted but they couldn’t defend their faith. They didn’t know how to teach the faith. In Ireland, pre-Vatican II it was up to the clergy to teach the faith.

People today are coming to church with their Missals, they are highly involved in the Mass, in short they are stronger Catholics than many of those pre-Vatican II. The people are more devoted, understand the Mass better, participate more, and because of this and in many ways the Church is growing stronger.

What we have today is radically different TLM that what we had 50 years ago…if you go to any TLM in 2022, everybody that takes up the challenge of going to TLM knows what is being said at every moment in that Mass.

This didn’t exist 50 or 60 years ago to the same extent.

So let’s not be too hard on the Second Vatican Council and the Council Fathers and those in the 1960’s.

We should be grateful that the TLM survived, but look at this in how the Church is being purified over the last 50 years because today the TLM is a different movement than what we had before. It is a movement that is intentionally looking to preserve something that is sacred and to say it with reverence, love and respect.

It is simply not right to say that before Vatican II and before the reforms everything was rosy, it simply wasn’t. Reform was needed. And whether we like it or not the Vatican II and the reforms after Vatican II, those reforms also reformed the TLM movement…and now you have this new movement that is growing exponentially, republishing the Missals, the laity going to Mass with their Missals…following the order of the Mass with their Missals. I think the Church should be embracing what the Holy Spirit is doing. If it was up to me I’d put the Vetus Ordo and the Novus Ordo Missae, put them into the same Missale Romano and say, look, whatever the faithful are nourished by, you can use…Let the faithful, the priests and bishops offer a Mass that is working in their communities. And let’s not divide ourselves.

Father Ripperger says, “What the bishops and pope need is your prayers not your gossiping. If you’re going to use your tongue, wag it at God and not at the other people.” I think Decrevi, in this video, goes a long way towards healing, and puts forth a good way to look at the TLM and New Mass.

This was emailed to me from a good friend. He said, “This is the best explanation I have seen regarding the Catholic view of faith vs. works.”
I copied and pasted directly from here.

“So, again, good works do not save us, but by doing the good works which God has prepared for us beforehand, we can, by the grace of God, stay united to Christ and die in a state of grace and thus spend eternity in Heaven with Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.”

Question
In terms of topics to cover in future newsletters, I would suggest the faith/works debate with one important distinction. I may be completely wrong on this point on Church teaching (as I was raised in the Baptist church) but when I began to read about this topic from the Catholic side, the point I missed for quite a while is that when Protestants hear Catholics talking about works, they automatically assume the works are solely those of the person actually doing them who can then take credit for doing them. However, if I’m correct, although the person is doing them, they are doing them as to be obedient to God and His will and the works He wants us to perform. When the works are presented as being done by the person, the protestant lenses I used to read through quickly dismissed that as a works based system but when I realised the full picture, the long standing objection to the Catholic position fell away. 

The above then changed my previous understanding of salvation: if salvation is now by grace through faith in order to perform good (His) works, this would have to be an ongoing process covering our entire lives whereas my Baptist family members would all agree they were saved at a point in time and there is no ongoing process.

I may be talking absolute nonsense so I apologise for that but thank you for the newsletters. I always read them because I learn from them and I have a lot to learn about Catholicism.
Kind regards,
Andrew.  
Scotland, UK

Answer
     Andrew, thanks for the question.  My initial thought is that you are almost there in your understanding of this topic, and you might actually be all the way there, but I want to make sure of one very important point regarding works and the role they play in the salvation process.  And that is this: That works have nothing at all to do with us gaining salvation, but they could have everything to do with us losing salvation.  I’ll explain and clarify in the paragraphs below. 

     As Ephesians 2:8-9, which you were alluding to in your question, states, “For by grace you have been saved through faith; and this is not your own doing, it is the gift of God – not because of works, lest any man should boast.”  This is one of the 1st verses that Protestants will turn to in order to “prove” to a Catholic that works play no role in our being saved.  What the Protestant doesn’t understand, nor do some Catholics, is that it is a dogma of the Catholic Church that we are not saved by our works.  As the Council of Trent states: “…we are therefore said to be justified by faith, because ‘faith is the beginning of human salvation,’ the foundation and root of all justification, ‘without which it is impossible to please God’ [Heb 11:6] and to come to the fellowship of His sons; and are, therefore, said to be justified gratuitously, because none of those things which precede justification, whether faith or works, merit the grace itself of justification; for, ‘if it is a grace, it is not now by reason of works…’” (Council of Trent, Decree on Justification; Denzinger, p. 252).  Which means to accuse Catholics of a “works-based” salvation is absolutely ludicrous.

     Again, as the Council of Trent says, nothing which precedes justification – whether faith or works – merits the grace of justification.  We are not saved by our faith or by our works, we are saved by God’s grace and God’s grace alone.  Salvation is a gratuitous gift of God to any given individual.  God doesn’t owe anyone salvation no matter how much faith they have or how many works they do.  It is a free gift that we receive throughfaith, but not becauseof our faith.  The question is, though, when does God give us this free gift of salvation?  When we say a sinner’s prayer?  When we “accept Jesus into our heart as our personal Lord and Savior”?  No and no!  We receive God’s free gift of salvation when we are baptized. “Baptism, which corresponds to this [being saved through water], now saves you,” (1 Peter 3:21). “[God our Savior] saved us, not because of deeds done by us in righteousness, but in virtue of His own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal in the Holy Spirit [Baptism], which He poured out upon us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that we might be justified by His grace and become heirs in hope of eternal life,” (Titus 3:5-7).

     And nowhere is it demonstrated more clearly in Catholic theology that we believe salvation is a free gift of God that we cannot earn by our faith or our works, than it is in infant Baptism.  The infant has no faith.  The infant can do no works.  Yet, we believe, as Catholics, that the child is saved…washed clean…receives the Holy Spirit…brought into covenant with God…given the free gift of God’s salvation…through Baptism. 

    Okay, if we are saved by God’s grace, through faith, not because of works (lest any man should boast), at the moment of our Baptism, then exactly how is it works have anything to do with our salvation?  Works, as I stated above, do not save us, but if we do not do the works God calls us to do (Eph 2:10), then we could lose the salvation God has freely given us.  Or, if we do works we are not supposed to be doing (sins), that could also result in the loss of our salvation.  The former being sins of omission, the latter being sins of commission.

     Does Scripture back me up on this?  Absolutely.  First, Ephesians 2:10 says that we are “created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God has prepared beforehand, that we shouldwalk in them.”  “Should” walk in them!  Well, what happens if we refuse to walk in these good works that God has prepared for us beforehand?  Are we still saved?  Protestants have to say, “Yes,” because according to the dogma of Sola Fide, works have nothing to do with our salvation.  However, when the Word of God says that God has prepared these works for us to walk in, we need to recognize that means it is the will of God for us to do those works.  What if we decide we don’t want to do the will of God in regard to those works?  The Word of God tells us what happens if we don’t do the will of God – “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven,” (Matt 7:21).  You don’t do the will of God for your life, you don’t enter the kingdom of heaven. If you don’t do the works God has prepared for you to do, you don’t do the will of God, you don’t enter the kingdom of heaven.  So, again, our works don’t save us, but they could keep us from losing our salvation. 

     We see this also in Matthew 25 with the parable of the sheep and the goats.  The sheep fed Jesus in the hungry, gave Him drink in the thirsty, clothed Him in the naked, and visited Him in the sick and the imprisoned.  The goats did not do those things.  The sheep will go away into “eternal life” and the goats will go away into “eternal punishment”…the “eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels,” (v. 31-46).  Sins of omission can cause you to lose your salvation and land you in Hell. 

     On the other hand, sins of commission can do the same, as evidenced by what Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount.  By looking lustfully at a woman, you commit the sin of adultery.  It is very clear from Matt 5:27-29, that this sin will cause you to lose your salvation and land you in Hell.  In Romans 2:6-10, it is also exceedingly clear that by doing good you will be given eternal life (verses 7 and 10) but by doing evil you will receive eternal damnation (verses 8 and 9).  But, again, your good works do not gain you salvation, they work to help you keep the salvation you have already been given.  The evil works (sins), work to cause you to lose the salvation that has been given to you.

     One more time to Matthew 25 and the Parable of the Talents (verses 14-30) to make this crystal clear.  In the Parable of the Talents, the 3 servants do nothing to earn what their Master gives them.  2 of the servants go out and earn interest on what they have freely been given.  The 3rd servant buries what he has been given by his Master.  When the Master returns, the 2 servants who did something with what they had been given, were told, “Well done, good and faithful servant…enter into the joy of your Master.”  The servant who gave back to the Master exactly what the Master had given him, with no added interest on it whatsoever, was excoriated by his Master and had what he had been given taken away from him and he was then thrown into the outer darkness where “men will weep and gnash their teeth.”  Servants #1 and #2 represent Catholic theology.  They were given something freely by their Master…something they had not earned.  They bore good fruit with what they had been given (see also John 15:1-6).  By doing so, they got to keep what they had been given and were praised by their Master.  Servant #3 represents Sola Fide theology.  He was given something freely by his Master…something he had not earned.  Then, he did absolutely nothing with it.  Didn’t think he had to do anything with it.  He bore no fruit.  Earned no interest.  The result?  He was ripped into by his Master and had what was freely given to him taken away.  

     To sum all of this up, and to address the main point you were making in your question: Yes, the works we do – the good works we do – are done by Christ working His will in us and through us (Phil 2:13; 1 Cor 15:10).  But, the saving grace of God is not working in us and through us to do good works, to bear good fruit, until after we have already been saved through Baptism…until after we have already been united to the Body of Christ through Baptism…until after we have already received the Holy Spirit through Baptism.  So, again, good works do not save us, but by doing the good works which God has prepared for us beforehand, we can, by the grace of God, stay united to Christ and die in a state of grace and thus spend eternity in Heaven with Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

     Hope that all makes sense and answers your question…

“Canon 1: If anyone shall say that man can be justified before God by his own works which are done either by his own natural powers, or through the teaching of the Law, and without divine grace through Christ Jesus: let him be anathema.” (Council of Trent; Denzinger, p.258)

Closing Comments
I hope you have a great week, and please know that I keep all of you in my prayers! 

If you could spare a minute during the week, please pray for the Bible Christian Society and, if I might be so bold as to ask: Please pray for a special intention that I have that, if it comes about, could be a big help in growing the work of evangelization that we do.