“We are all poor sinners and unworthy even to mention your name, and so we beg our Lord Jesus Christ, your beloved Son, in whom you are well pleased, and the Holy Spirit, to give you thanks for everything.”
–St. Francis of Assisi.
Today ends Saint Michael’s Lent, and is Michaelmas, also known as the Feast of Saints Michael, Gabriel and Raphael, the Feast of the Archangels, and the Feast of Saint Michael and All Angels. Michaelmas is a Christian festival observed in many Western Christian liturgical calendars on September 29 and on November 8 in the Eastern Christian traditions. Michaelmas has been one of the four quarter days of the English and Irish financial, judicial and academic year.
The Archangel Michael is considered as the greatest of all the angels, being particularly honoured for defeating Satan in the War in Heaven. Saint Michael also carries souls to Heaven, where he weighs souls on his perfectly balanced scales. Finally, Saint Michael is considered the Guardian of the Church.
Because it falls near the equinox, this holy day is associated in the Northern Hemisphere with the beginning of Autumn and the shortening of days. Saint Michael’s prayer is as follows:
Saint Michael the Archangel, defend us in battle. Be our defense against the wickedness and snares of the devil. May God rebuke him, we humbly pray; and do thou, O Prince of the heavenly hosts, by the power of God, thrust into hell Satan, and all the evil spirits who prowl about the world seeking the ruin of souls. Amen.
I confess that I fell short during St. Michael’s Lent. I had the best of intentions, and in some areas I excelled. In other areas, I set low bar goals, and in other areas, I was just so, so in adhering to my disciplines. I find that is the same experience I have in Lent, and in life. I want to do better, I strive, sometimes I succeed, but I always fall short.
I know not how many readers participated in St. Michael’s Lent, if any. For those who did participate, I hope you found it spiritually gratifying. For those who did not participate, there is always next year, and I can heartily recommend the experience. Are you reading this, Robert?
____________________________________________________________________
How Was the Sacrament of Marriage Established: An Overview from the Old Testament through the Council of Trent
BY: Dr. Valerie
The Old Testament presents marriage as a human relationship rooted in creation and divinely ordained (Gen 2:18-24). The spouses form a permanent bond of “one flesh” (Gen 2:18-24), which Jesus reinforces by saying that what God has joined together should not be separated (Matt 19:4-6). The New Testament develops marriage’s relational and spiritual dimensions (Eph 5:23-33), including reciprocal dignity (1 Cor 6:16-7:16). Marriage is to be honored (Heb 13:4), and fidelity is emphasized (Mal 2:13-16; Prov 5:18-19). Marriage rests on Jesus’ relationship with the Church (Eph 5:22-23), with mutual spousal love reflecting God’s love for humanity. Marriage is an irrevocable personal covenant through which the spouses give and accept each other. These biblical passages emphasize marriage’s permanence and sanctity. The spouses’ unity as one flesh (uno caro) is rooted in both Genesis and Matthew.
Early Church fathers had difficulty reconciling marriage’s goodness with sexuality. Clement of Alexandria defended marriage’s inherent goodness by arguing that God created all things and is good; therefore, marriage, as God’s creation, must be good. Origen and other early thinkers argued that spiritual integrity is based on marital relationships undertaken only for procreation.
Judith Dwyer, editor of The New Dictionary of Catholic Thought, stated that Augustine established an influential model by identifying three ascending goods of marriage—procreation, fidelity, and sacrament, with the sacramental dimension serving as a bond for the couple that points beyond itself. She also stated that Augustine emphasized procreation but was concerned with original sin and concupiscence. Later Christian thinkers refined the sacramental understanding to emphasize that marriage signifies the union of Jesus and the Church.
Medieval thought excluded romantic love from marriage, treating it as a legal transaction, until the Fourth Lateran Council in 1215 established formalized rules for marriage, including the publication of bans and the requirement of public weddings. By the mid-1200s, theologians such as Thomas Acquainus recognized marriage as a sacrament of the New Law. The Second Council of Lyon (1274) included marriage in the list of seven sacraments. The Council of Trent (1547) formalized marriage as a sacrament instituted by Jesus, requiring priestly oversight. The twentieth century witnessed a fundamental reorientation.
Although marriage was part of the Church’s life from the beginning, its sacramental status emerged from a long period of theological clarification. The first three centuries lacked a specific Christian marriage ceremony. Initially, the Church required couples to attend a special Nuptial Mass to give the marriage contract its religious character. Evidence from the first two centuries, as recorded in the writings of Ignatius of Antioch, indicates that Christians should marry only with the Bishop’s assent. Blessings at marriage became customary from the third century onward, and were accompanied by a Eucharistic celebration by the fourth century. Beginning in the fourth and fifth centuries, the Church developed marriage liturgies, and ceremonies moved from the home to the Church. The priest became involved, though the bride and groom remained the ministers of the sacrament.
Tertullian’s writings present the Church as an “agent and conciliator in marriage,” mentioning a benediction of the married couple at the Eucharist. Evidence from the fourth and fifth centuries shows that marriage was regarded as having positive value that led to salvation, although general celibacy was regarded as higher. Augustine saw marriage as both a legal bond and a religious symbol signifying Jesus’ marital union with the Church, perfected in Baptism. Weddings were secular, but rites, prayers of petition, and blessings became customary and, by the 5th century, were combined with a celebration of the Eucharist. Beginning in the fourth century, the Church also established several impediments to marriage, especially differences of religion and blood relationships.
In the Western Church during the Frankish period, weddings were placed under Church auspices, with priests under Charlemagne conducting the marriage examination for the couple and then officiating at the wedding that united them. By the tenth century, a judicial framework required that all marriages be conducted in public liturgy. The medieval period decisively supported incorporating marriage into the sacraments, a development that took place between the eleventh and twelfth centuries. A crucial consequence of the marriage of two baptized persons was that it constituted both a sacrament performed within the liturgy of marriage and a contract through the exchange of consent. It was indissoluble through the first sexual act.
By 1200, only Church marriage survived, performed at the Church door; beginning about 1300, the marriage took place in the Church. Marriage had to be consummated to be indissoluble. The Decretum Gratiani, the foundational text of Catholic canon law compiled by Gratian, stated that a marriage before a secular authority was valid. By the mid-12th century, the Church had established the classical concept of a sacrament.
Centuries of Church teaching established several foundational principles of marriage, most fundamentally that Jesus established matrimony as a sacrament. The Council of Trent defended this truth by declaring anathema on anyone claiming that matrimony is a human intervention rather than a divinely instituted sacrament that confers grace. St. Paul articulates the reality of marriage in Ephesians 5:21-33, grounded in mutuality. Ephesians 5:21-33 also shows a parallel between human marriage and the spiritual union of Jesus and the Church. Additionally, St. Paul references Genesis 2:24 in highlighting the spiritual unity of marriage.
The First Lateran Council in 1123 had forbidden clerical marriage; however, the Second Lateran Council made holy orders a “diriment impediment,” rendering such marriages invalid. The Second Lateran Council in 1139 decreed that ordination automatically invalidated marriage, marking a seminal moment in the Church’s relationship with clerical marriage. Hence, while the First Lateran Council in 1123 forbade clerical marriage, the Second Lateran Council declared such marriages invalid.
The Council of Verona in 1184 called marriage a sacrament in a doctrinal statement. The Council of Florence in 1439 decreed that matrimony constituted the seventh sacrament, with mutual consent as the cause: mutual consent creates the contract. It serves as the sacrament’s cause, with the contract and sacrament becoming inseparable. This follows Thomas Aquinas, who states that matrimony is one of the seven sacraments, with the form being the verbal expression of consent and the matter consisting in the obligation to sexual and communal life. The framework established the couple as ministers of the sacrament. The Fourth Lateran Council in 1215 affirmed that married persons could achieve salvation; thus, the sacramental status of marriage became doctrine by establishing it as one of the Church’s seven sacraments.
The Council of Trent (1547) established the Roman Catholic Church’s seven sacraments and listed marriage among them. In 1563, the council presented its doctrine on the Sacrament of Matrimony, along with twelve attached canons. The council defended the sacramentality and grace-giving power of marriage, as well as the Church’s competence to make canonical rules regulating matters related to marriage. The council also affirmed the indissoluble bond of marriage; however, it did not elevate its indissolubility to dogmatic status. The council also passed the decree Tametsi for the reform of marriage ceremonies, which required that marriage must take place before a priest or pastor and two or three witnesses to be valid. Notably, the council did not address the matter, form, and ministers of this sacrament.
In 1563, a decree was issued by the Council of Trent (1563) that was in effect from 1563 to 1907, which reformed Catholic matrimonial law by requiring a priest and two witnesses to be present for a valid marriage. This decree reformed the marriage ceremony, requiring that marriage take place before the pastor or priest with appropriate faculties and two or three witnesses. Any Catholic who did not adhere to this obligatory form could not make a valid marriage. Consent was interpreted as a contract, and from that point onward, doctrine and canon law maintained the inseparability of the contract and the sacrament.
___________________________________________________________________
We DO NOT all believe in the same God
BY: Deacon Joey
It’s ironic that those who proclaim — naively — that “we all believe in the same God” are typically interested neither in God nor religion.
More often than not, they are New-Agey, a-religious people who use this pious-sounding claim to excuse themselves from praying to ANY god, or following ANY religious tradition.
They see themselves as “good people” in a humanistic sense, and therefore feel no need for some mysterious spiritual power telling them how they should live their lives.
With few exceptions, people who think this way are young, part of a generation that has received a great deal, but given very little in return; a generation that prioritizes “personal freedom” over “archaic” rules of conduct, and the enjoyment of life over personal sacrifice. Their hope for the future hinges on new technologies and personal resourcefulness, NOT in conversion and the promise of eternal life.
To make things worse, this benign-sounding heresy is being perpetuated by many priests and bishops within the Church herself. They will not think twice about watering down the Catholic faith to avoid “offending” other religions in order to advance their misguided ecumenical efforts.
They ignore the fact that this heresy is SO antithetical to the Truth, that Our Lord came into this world to PERSONALLY dispel it once and for all. His uncompromising and unapologetic message throughout His life was:
a) No one can come to the Father except through Him, and
b) His Church is the ONLY means through which ALL people can be saved.
Throughout the centuries, these claims have set the Catholic Church in opposition to ALL other religions precisely because they understand that we DO NOT, in fact, all believe in the same God.
If we still need further proof of this, all we have to do is look at the evidence around us:
— The conflicts in the Middle East are rooted in the DIFFERENCES between Christianity, Judaism, and Islam. However you may want to spin it, it is obvious that the peoples in these areas DO NOT believe in the same God, and the differences are SO dramatic that they have fueled wars, terrorism, and violence for centuries.
— People who are Pro-life clearly DO NOT believe in the same god as those who claim that abortion, euthanasia, and the other abominations associated with the culture of death, are a form of “health care” or “acts of mercy”.
— Those who created the Epstein fiasco, as well as the rich and powerful who participated in those horrible crimes, clearly DO NOT believe in the God who identified Himself with the poor and defenseless (“Whatever you did to the least of my brothers, you did it to me.”)
— The Illuminati, Freemasons, Marxists, globalists, and others who are obsessed with the pursuit of world power without concern for the welfare of humanity, clearly DO NOT believe in the God who told us to use our positions of authority to serve, not to be served.
— The religious fanatics who, even today, continue to persecute Christians throughout the world, often resorting to murder and violence, clearly DO NOT believe in the God who came into the world as the Prince of Peace.
— The God to whom those children were praying while they were at Mass in Minnesota, is NOT the same god of the lunatic that ended their lives.
— The mainstream media and Hollywood elites who regularly accuse Catholics of “hate crimes” simply because we do not support abortion and the LGBTQ agenda, clearly DO NOT believe in the same god we do.
Maybe the time has come for ALL Catholics to finally believe this Truth ourselves, and reject this dangerous heresy once and for all:
We DO NOT all believe in the same God!
Let us pray to the One True God for the grace and courage to defend our Catholic Church from the enemies outside, and the traitors within.
For there is one God.
There is also one mediator
between God and the human race,
Christ Jesus, Himself human,
who gave Himself as ransom for all.
(1 Timothy 2:5-6)
____________________________________________________________________
The hypocrisy of progressive Christianity
Jesus is all the rage on the left this year
BY: Everett Piper, The Washington Times (September 27, 2026).
In case you have not noticed, talk of religion is no longer verboten in the ranks of the political left.
From the likes of the loud and proud homosexual and former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg to the current Democratic Senate nominee and Presbyterian seminarian James Talarico, it seems that Jesus is all the rage for Democrats in this year’s election season.
This is a world that some have dubbed “exvangelicalism,” a theological and political camp for aggrieved and disenchanted millennials and Gen Z-ers who have concluded that the biblical definition of Christianity is no longer acceptable for them.
Theirs is a religion of feelings, emotions and “personal lived experience,” not the centuries-old orthodoxy of the patriarchs and the Bible. It is a more “generous” faith than that of their parents and grandparents.
Theirs is a religion of inclusion that excludes any of the exclusive teachings of Christ, his apostles or his church.
Enter stage right: the Rev. Benjamin Cremer.
Though you have likely not heard of him yet, Mr. Cremer is a burgeoning thought leader for the postmodern and progressive “Christians” cited above. He presently serves as the Amity campus pastor at the Cathedral of the Rockies in Boise, Idaho, where he describes himself as the product of a “very fundamentalist or ultra-conservative” family that he ultimately left for his more welcoming and affirming deconstructed church home.
By way of further introduction, here is one of Mr. Cremer’s most recent posts to social media: “If our Christianity causes us to defend the President rather than the poor, the powerless, the sick, the hungry, the homeless, and the immigrant, that’s when we know we are following someone other than Jesus.”
To which one of Mr. Cremer’s fans added: “This point is simple and devastating. If a Christian’s political allegiance runs so deep that defending a President becomes more urgent than defending the vulnerable … then something fundamental has shifted. Not the theology. The object of worship.”
How should we respond? Do Mr. Cremer and his tribe of exvangelical sycophants have a point, and should we consider what they are saying?
In the simplest of terms, the answer is no. The truth is that Mr. Cremer’s point, and that of his social media friends, is not devastating at all. Frankly, it is just dumb.
Defending the poor, the vulnerable and the powerless — are you serious!?
Tell the powerless Black citizens in Springfield, Ohio — who have lost their neighborhoods, homes, parks and schools to the crime and vagrancy of illegal immigration — that supporting the enforcement of our nation’s laws and borders is akin to worshipping another Jesus.
Tell the poor Hispanic American citizens in Aurora, Colorado — who are afraid to leave their apartments because illegal gangs now control major swaths of their town — that defending U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the local police is idol worship.
Tell the vulnerable Asian American small-business owners in downtown Seattle and Portland, Oregon — who have lost their livelihoods to the rampant crime of illegal immigration — that supporting the Trump administration is wrong and unjust.
Tell the Lebanese Christian Americans in Dearborn, Michigan — who live in fear of the swelling influence and intimidation of Shariah — that voting for Republicans is the worship of another God.
Tell the Mexican American ranchers in southern Texas — who sit every evening with rifles across their laps for fear of cartels invading their homes and harming their children — that their concerns are unrighteous and wrong.
Tell the hundreds of thousands of underage boys and girls being trafficked for sex as a result of Mr. Cremer’s politics that enforcing America’s immigration policies is un-Christian and cruel.
Tell all the blue-collar, working-class Americans in city after city across the nation who have had their freedom and safety sacrificed to the politically correct gods of smug, self-righteous exvangelicals such as Benjamin Cremer that supporting the Republican Party is akin to false worship.
Mr. Cremer and his fan club need to look in the mirror rather than out the window before they start condemning others for political idolatry. Their religion of self-worship embodies the very idolatry they pretend to condemn, while they ignore the poor and underprivileged they claim to care so much about.
Hypocrisy is a very ugly thing.
GFK
