One of the core concepts of Christian Dogma that many people, especially adult converts, struggle with is the Dogma of Original Sin.  People find it difficult to understand that all human beings are born “fallen”, and this stain of sin is literally hereditary, the result of the first sin of Adam.

A very concise definition comes from the Second Council of Orange, which occurred in ARSH 529:

One man has transmitted to the whole human race not only the death of the body, which is the punishment of sin, but even sin itself, which is the death of the soul. As death is the privation of the principle of life, the death of the soul is the privation of sanctifying grace which according to all theologians is the principle of supernatural life. Therefore, if original sin is “the death of the soul”, it is the privation of sanctifying grace.

Because we are fallen, human beings are born with a tendency to sin.  This is called concupiscence.  Concupiscence is not sin itself, it is simply the inclination to sin, which can and should be corrected and held in check.

I came across a perfect example of this “brokenness” in a little video clip that has gone viral.  It is of a little boy named Noel who is two years old.  Just a matter of months before this little video was filmed, Noel was a baby – a literal infant.  But here we see little Noel – cute as a bug’s ear – already manifesting the effects of Original Sin.

Noel’s mom has discovered Noel in her bedroom, standing in front of the full-length mirror. The mirror is covered in “drawing”, apparently with red lipstick.   Little Noel has succumbed to his desire to feel the sensation of drawing on the mirror with lipstick.  He knew that mirrors are not for drawing, and that lipstick is not paint, and that this was the incorrect and unnatural use of the mirror and the lipstick – but he succumbed and chose to do something that he knew was wrong.

But this is just the beginning.  Here, watch the clip, then we will continue on…

If cuteness were carbohydrate, we’d all be in a diabetic coma now.

But let’s look at Noel’s actions, which mirror the Genesis 3 narrative about the Fall of Man.  Like God in the Garden of Eden, Noel’s mother is not asking Noel questions because she lacks information. When God asks Adam, “Where are you?” it isn’t because God doesn’t know.  God is trying to gently elicit a confession.  This is exactly what Noel’s mom is doing.

“Noel, who drew on Mommy’s mirror?”

Because Noel’s mommy loves Noel, she is giving him the chance to confess and come clean.  She knows exactly what he did, but she’s giving him a chance to repent and “get right” with her, again, because she loves him.

But what does Noel do?  He lies.  He lies, and the little tyke lays it on thick.  “I don’t knooow” as he scurries away from the scene of the crime in faux-surprise.  He lies to the person that is the complete source and experience of love in his life.  Noel’s mommy hugs him and kisses him, but also feeds him, dresses him, protects him and provides for him in every way.  Noel is completely dependent upon her and he lives his entire life in the warm embrace of her love… AND HE LIES TO HER FACE.

“Was it you?”

“No.”

But wait, it gets even worse.  Noel’s Mommy asks him who it was and what does Noel do?

Noel lies again, and frames Batman.  Now, this is very interesting because Batman is Noel’s buddy, his superhero friend.  Noel loves Batman.  Batman’s his boy.  And yet, in order to cover his own tail Noel sells out and frames his boy, Batman.

It all got pretty morally intense pretty quick, didn’t it?  That’s Original Sin, folks.  We are, all of us, broken in this way.  Baptism remits the guilt of Original Sin, but it obviously does not eliminate concupiscence, or that tendency or inclination that we all have to sin.  We all need to accept God’s grace to keep ourselves on the straight and narrow, which is possible, but obviously difficult.  Look at the example of this sweet little tyke, who in a flash lied to his mother and framed Batman.  He’s two.  A young two.  What about when he is 12, or 22 or 42?

Original Sin isn’t a lie that churchmen came up with in order to control people, or whatever argument heretics, apostates and atheists make these days.  It is real, and it is clearly visible, first and foremost in ourselves, but also all around us.  But Christ gave us, through His Holy Church, the Sacrament of Baptism to remit the guilt of Original Sin, and then the Sacrament of Confession so that we can be absolved of all the times we have “framed Batman”, and the Sacrament of Love Itself, the Eucharist, so that like little Noel going to the arms of his mother (after coming clean, and cleaning up the mirror), we can go to the embrace of Our Savior.

The real mind-blower in all of this is the fact that humanity has the potential for even greater beatitude because of The Fall. Because we have to fight our wounded nature, the free choice to love God is even more radical, and God’s love for us in His Incarnation, Death and Resurrection precisely to redeem us from The Fall is infinitely more manifest and wonderful.

At the Easter Vigil Mass every year, the Exultet is proclaimed, and it contains the phrase “O Felix Culpa” – O Happy Fault. If Adam and Eve hadn’t fallen, we wouldn’t know God and His love through His Incarnation, Death, Resurrection and through His Holy Catholic Church, with His Real Presence in the Most Holy Eucharist at the center. Yes, God has poured out His Love all the more… because of The Fall.

O, felix culpa…

Ann,

I’m listening to Podcast #154, in which Nurse Claire says that she and her colleagues are resisting the jabs and won’t give in. My brother is a prominent labor lawyer in Maryland. He has been advising me and some of my colleagues who work at a world famous hospital in Maryland. We are also being pressured to get the jab by an employer mandate. He advises us not to resign or retire. He says we should make them fire us. Otherwise we give up all sorts of legal leverage. Of course, that assumes that there is/will be a functioning and just legal system, which is a whole other matter. Nevertheless, people facing termination for refusing to get the jab should make their employers and supervisors fire them. I actually view it as a matter of justice and charity to our enemies to make them face the reality of what they are doing, irrespective of whether or not it provides any actual legal protection.

Thanks for all your work!

M

Ann,

My 80+year old relative is in hospital with coo void and one kidney that was shutting down…….. this relative’s spouse has been sneaking this person “evermechton” because docdor and horsepital all forbid this drug and things were looking really bad…… kidney was shitting down, too weak for dial-suss….. but the spouse kept on slipping him drug that staff was totally oblivious too and guess what? It worked and relative is muc much recovered……

Want you to know that I share a lot of your articles on that drug and that I think made the difference for the spouse of the relative making the decision to deceive the staff and save my relative.

I write things in encrypted way but you know email is not very secure and anybody can read it

God bless and thank you.

Signed,

xxxxxxx

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Guess who’s walking on clouds tomorrow?

If you’d like a little insight into Ann-aged-seventeen, here you go.  One of the first things I bought upon moving to Manhattan, KS to begin my two-year-and-seven-month sprint to a bachelor’s degree in Animal Husbandry and Ag Econ at Kansas State was Elvis’ Gospel Anthology CD set. This would have been September of ARSH 1994.

These two songs match the moment.  Poor Elvis.  What an amazing convert he was primed to be – but the Church was in total retreat just as Elvis was falling into obesity and drugs.  Can you imagine Elvis and… Gregorian chant? Can you imagine Elvis who LOVED singing the bass part… and BYZANTINE POLYPHONIC CHANT? Elvis, until the end, despite his sinful ways, insisted that his band and backup singers sing gospel music with him every night.  This video is one of those evenings.  And yes, the skinny kid in the tan shirt is Richard Sterban of the Oak Ridge Boys – my SECOND “boyfriend” after, naturally, John “Bo Duke” Schneider, as a toddler. And yes, can we all just contemplate for a moment J.D. Sumner and Richard Sterban, the two greatest bass singers of the 20th century, singing eighteen inches away from each other, and what a moment THAT was – made possible by Elvis.

Listen to what Elvis says at the beginning of this video: “It more or less puts your mind at ease – it does mine.”

“LEAD ME, GUIDE ME”, followed by “Rock My Soul (In the Bosom of Abraham)”.

Lead me, guide me along the way
For if You lead me, I cannot stray
Or just open mine eyes, that I may see
Lead me O Lord, won’t you lead me
I am tired and I need Thy strength and power
To guide me over my darkest hour
Lord, just open mine eyes that I may see
Lead me O Lord, won’t You lead me

 

 

Well done, Dr. Mazza!!!

Ann,

My husband is a retired fire chief (53 years in the fire service) and today had lunch with a deputy fire chief from a neighboring department in the northwest suburbs of Chicago. His friend shared that his department has just been informed by their local trauma hospital (Advocate Lutheran General Hospital, Park Ridge) that any of the fire department paramedics who are unvaxxed will no longer be allowed to transport patients to the hospital effective immediately. The hospital systems run the certification programs for paramedics and therefor wield a lot of power over them. In our area, paramedics are crossed-trained to be firefighters.

My husband’s friend was scheduled to attend a meeting with his town’s HR department later to discuss firing the 4 paramedics who are unvaxxed, unless they comply. The Fire Departments in other towns only have vax rates of 20-50%. There will be a lot of firings, because most fire chiefs and towns will not stand up to these hospital bullies and these unvaxxed paramedics will not comply and will be fired.

Almost all of the suburban Chicago hospitals are owned by just two entities. That means that with their absolute control of paramedic certification and need for medicare compliance, hundreds of paramedics could very soon be fired in our area. There won’t be enough left of them to man the ambulances. People will die when ambulances aren’t available. BTW it takes about 3 years for a new person to complete paramedic training. This is probably happening all around the country.

Now who will want these jobs? Even before covid, few people were leaping at these jobs, even with the great pay and hours. These paramedics are run ragged during their 24 hr shifts. They deal with life and death. They see blood and guts. They are thrown up on, peed and pooped on, and bled on. They have drugged out people try to stab and shoot them. They all develop depression, anxiety disorders, and PTSD from the trauma they experience. They die 10 years sooner than other professions due to the constant stress. During the past year-plus they have heroically continued to serve, exposing themselves to covid infection. Now those who refuse medical tyranny will be shunned and kicked to the curb. They will lose their means of support and their pensions. And all of us around the country will suffer and see loved ones die due to lack of advanced medical care given in the ambulance.

This is the intentional destruction of our healthcare system. This is genocide.

I hope you will let your readers know what is happening to their paramedics, so they can pray for these brave men and women and brace for the days to come. Thank you for keeping us all informed and focused on our only source of hope and salvation, our Almighty Father.

Blessings,

D

THIS is why we save our bacon grease. To season a new cast iron skillet, melt and wipe hog grease over every surface, then place in a HOT oven for an hour. Turn oven off and let cool. Repeat two more times. Congratulations. You now have an indestructible non-stick pan with no Teflon.

First “recipe” in this bad boy is going to be Pan Pizza. Fried crust. I’ll post pics when it happens.

And yes, that is a Le Creuset enameled cast iron Dutch Oven on the top-right burner. If you don’t have one, get one. It is one of the most versatile pieces of kitchen equipment there is. It’s expensive, but the Dutch Oven and the Lodge are the only two pieces of equipment you need in an emergency situation. You can do EVERYTHING in those two vessels. Cast iron. 💪🏻

(The “van” down by the river smells WONDERFUL – not as good as the bacon-bookmarked koran burning, obviously, but still fantastic.)

Slowly, gradually, in the near-silent whispers of the internal dialogue of millions of Americans, scripture and prophecy are being fulfilled. The living envy the dead. It was thought unthinkable for Americans to ever be in such a state in any significant numbers just a few months ago, and even in the days after 9/11 there was no sense of suicidal despair.

Now? As the inevitable civil war looms, and a murderous kakistocracy is the only organized force that is visible, with fully half the populace ready to call for the internment and blood of their own family members, the death of a civilization is visible like the towers burning on the New York Skyline.

And I praised the dead rather than the living:

And I judged him happier than them both, that is not yet born, nor hath seen the evils that are done under the sun.

et laudavi magis mortuos quam viventes;

et feliciorem utroque judicavi qui necdum natus est, nec vidit mala quae sub sole fiunt.

Ecclesiastes 4: 2-3

The truth is that it couldn’t go on. The abortion. The sodomy. The open hatred of Jesus Christ and His Holy Church. The relentless spreading of everything bad and poisonous and EVIL throughout the entire world through its anti-culture, its media, its governmental and financial corruption and coercion. It cannot go on. The evil cannot go on. And it won’t. Like the burning Towers, it can only end now with collapse. Will it hurt? Of course. Will people die? Yes, probably millions. But anyone who is still morally sane knows that it can’t go on. That it MUST not go on.

But don’t despair. Get yourself to safety, and if you have a proverbial boat, get to Lower Manhattan and help with the evacuation. Don’t envy the dead because for them it was “quick”. Thank God every day that you get to live, to help others, to fight the good fight, and to be able to praise God on earth, even through suffering, for one more day.