Signal Graces: What Are They?

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St. Augustine de Hippo, by Phillippe de Champaigne

What are "signal graces"?  

First of all, let's talk about what they are not.   Signal graces are not a "sign" in the sense of when a prayer is answered, well, not necessarily.  Strictly speaking, that is not what they are and especially they are not something created, but actually grace.  Grace is the indwelling of God moving the soul. We know about actual graces and sanctifying grace, for example.  They are not in the natural order, so simply an answered prayer is usually not a signal grace.

Signal graces are extraordinary graces that move the soul by the intellect and will in such a way that the reception of the grace --- to a certain degree --- can even be detected by others -- or less commonly, even in ourselves.

So I guess they can be a "sign" of God's mercy, but we should know that all grace is God's mercy whether or not it is detectable.  Most grace, afterall, is not able to be detected.

A lot of times, God grants signal graces when He desires not just the conversion of a soul, but a conversion that will take the soul to a whole different level of faithfulness, preparing them for the person's new phase in life.  The best examples of these are in "conversions" that are very noticeable and abruptly life changing. The conversions of saints like St. Augustine of Hippo and St. Mary Magdalene are great examples of persons who have received signal graces.  They received extraordinary graces that changed their hearts and minds to such a degree that they changed their lives entirely to live only for Jesus Christ.   Other times, God is preparing the soul for death, but really, in call cases, that is always one of "4 Last Things".  

St. Mary Magdalene, by Carlo Dolci

One personal account of signal graces was of a situation with a little girl that I knew.  This little girl was blind, and never really dealt well with her situation.  She was "high-maintenance" and often complained about many things.  This made her a challenge to help socialize with other children.   After several months, of working with her, abruptly, she stopped complaining, except for one thing she finally admitted to having recently been bearing:  she had just started suffering from a stomach ailment.  Meanwhile, she was having no problem putting every other child ahead of her needs and wants, and looked to encourage others around her as if she forgot herself completely.   There was only one person she started mentioning quite frequently:  the Blessed Virgin Mother.  This young girl of 15 years began asking all sorts of questions regarding devotions to this Blessed Mother and especially questions regarding the Brown Scapular.   It was arranged by a woman who had been volunteering to assist this young girl along with other blind children, that this child be invested in the Brown Scapular.   The child began to wear the Scapular with great devotion.  Soon after, there was a woman who witnessed that this child had a literal glow to her and a peace of heart that was not of this world.  There was one concern:  she kept her forearm over her belly, as if to be in some pain.  While she had been preparing for a trip with her friends, one of the volunteers asked the girl if she was ok, and the girl only gently then mentioned that she had a stomach ache.  

The volunteer was a practicing Catholic, and had been noticing that all these changes that happened with this girl were sudden and very much "signal graces" --- where they were given in an extraordinary degree all at once.  So the question was, "What big phase was the child about to undergo?"   The mysterious stomach ache suddenly took on an extra, spiritual dimension.   It was obvious then to that woman that this child was being prepared for a holy death.  Perhaps this understanding was also a signal grace within the woman who noted these graces in such abundance, but it was said that the stomach problem was not deadly.  However, only a few months later, the child succumbed to a cancer that had not been disclosed to anyone outside of the family.  

Just before this little girl of only 15 years' had passed, there was an interesting battle among certain family members over the wearing of the Brown Scapular.  Those closest to her in her family were against her wearing the scapular.  The young girl insisted she wear it in the hospital, until her final rest.  +

The battle had been won, by the grace of God.

May He be praised in all things.

+A.M.D.G.+



For more information, please also read about "The Four Last Things" and "The 7 Gifts of the Holy Ghost".

Simply Prayer of St. Mary Euphrasia

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This is dedicated to my friend, Armin, who has given me a good example of this prayer. +

Wives, Submit Yourselves to Your Husbands

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Epistle Of Saint Paul To The Ephesians

[1] Be ye therefore followers of God, as most dear children; [2] And walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us, and hath delivered himself for us, an oblation and a sacrifice to God for an odour of sweetness. [3] But fornication, and all uncleanness, or covetousness, let it not so much as be named among you, as becometh saints: [4] Or obscenity, or foolish talking, or scurrility, which is to no purpose; but rather giving of thanks. [5] For know you this and understand, that no fornicator, or unclean, or covetous person (which is a serving of idols), hath inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God. [6] Let no man deceive you with vain words. For because of these things cometh the anger of God upon the children of unbelief. [7] Be ye not therefore partakers with them. [8] For you were heretofore darkness, but now light in the Lord. Walk then as children of the light. [9] For the fruit of the light is in all goodness, and justice, and truth; [10] Proving what is well pleasing to God: [11] And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them. [12]For the things that are done by them in secret, it is a shame even to speak of. [13] But all things that are reproved, are made manifest by the light; for all that is made manifest is light. [14]Wherefore he saith: Rise thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead: and Christ shall enlighten thee. [15] See therefore, brethren, how you walk circumspectly: not as unwise, [16] But as wise: redeeming the time, because the days are evil. [17] Wherefore become not unwise, but understanding what is the will of God. [18] And be not drunk with wine, wherein is luxury; but be ye filled with the holy Spirit, [19] Speaking to yourselves in psalms, and hymns, and spiritual canticles, singing and making melody in your hearts to the Lord; [20] Giving thanks always for all things, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, to God and the Father: [21] Being subject one to another, in the fear of Christ. [22] Let women be subject to their husbands, as to the Lord: [23] Because the husband is the head of the wife, as Christ is the head of the church. He is the saviour of his body. [24] Therefore as the church is subject to Christ, so also let the wives be to their husbands in all things. [25] Husbands, love your wives, as Christ also loved the church, and delivered himself up for it: [26] That he might sanctify it, cleansing it by the laver of water in the word of life: [27] That he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy, and without blemish. [28] So also ought men to love their wives as their own bodies. He that loveth his wife, loveth himself. [29] For no man ever hated his own flesh; but nourisheth and cherisheth it, as also Christ doth the church: [30] Because we are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones. [31] For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife, and they shall be two in one flesh. [32] This is a great sacrament; but I speak in Christ and in the church.[33] Nevertheless let every one of you in particular love his wife as himself: and let the wife fear her husband. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ I am going to make some points about this.  Please feel free to comment if you disagree.  The correct translation here is "subject" in "let women be subject to their husbands".  This does not mean that a woman should "fear" her husband as in unholy fear.  As the Church has holy fear of God, the Church wishes to fulfil the desires of Christ in her actions, and not just for herself in his name.  Don't believe me?   What does St. Paul say in this context?   St. Paul continues, "He is the savior of his body."  And he continues, "...So also ought men to love their wives as their own bodies."  This is the true meaning of how a married couple becomes "one flesh" --- it's not distilled down to the marital act, but rather, the marital act is just a very small  part to be in context of the whole.  This "one flesh" is a command from God to man to treat his wife as his own self.  The body has needs, and so as his own body has needs, he should look to the needs of his wife.  The body has not only physical needs but spiritual and emotional as well.  This is a HUGE command from God to men who wish to marry or who already married. If a man says to himself, "I want to do xyz, but it means I must forgo food and sleep."   Well, if we want something, we may make a sacrifice of some sleep and even fast, but at some point, our bodies cannot keep to our duties according to our state.  So, we look to what we first must do in holy prudence, and look humbly at how that is to be accomplished, while keeping to one's duties.   The man must do the same for the woman, regarding her as his own body --- not just her body as his own body --- but her whole being as his own flesh.  This is what it means for a man to be "the head", for the woman is to be regarded as his own flesh.  And this, then, lays the foundation for a woman to subject herself to the man in a way the enables ats nd exhorher to more readily do the holy will of God.

When Conservatives Are Confused By Liberals - Part II

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The ability to obtain or pass along information instantly and through multiple, public channels has helped sinful mankind to also more quickly assimilate into a near, homogenized immorality.    The bar on morality has been lowered across even to remote cultures, even without much of the culture being self-aware of the situation.  And while many of us practicing Catholics would like to believe we are sort of an exception to the norm as far as succumbing to the drift towards license and confusion over true freedom.  This slow, melting pot indoctrination occurs even to those who subscribe to an unchanging truth in principle, revealed by a God who is unchanging, begin to forget that since truth is objective, so must then be the standards by which one upholds the truth in their actions.  As one acts, one believes, or at least, eventually.  This also even applies to the liturgy, for where there is less reverence in the most sacred things (i.e. the Sacraments), there is more certainly to be less reverence for God's creatures of the lesser order.  And so the smaller infractions lead to the larger ones.   Lex orandi.  Lex Credendi.  Lex Vivendi ... indeed, but also you can flip those around in their order, for one always gives way to where one's heart is already most largely given.

This fairly rapid incultration of the Spirit of the World into mankind increasing its rate due to, at least on the natural level, the availability of information --- much of it garbage from media which has, in its least concerns, the higher spiritual and temporal goods of men, has led to the inevitable promotion of gradualism within the Church's hierarchy.   The scoundrels of men who would make a false god and call him "Christ" would rather the Church change to the times, rather than the reverse.  Afterall, they will propose, God is merciful.  However, they blaspheme when they accuse God of not being merciful unless HE acquieses to us, rather than mankind conform to HIM.   We are the ones who are fickle, but not God who is always faithful.  They blaspheme God the Holy Ghost by suggesting that this gradualism must occur, or they devise a revolt with her hierarchy against dogma, first by the application of "guidelines" that regard dogma as not being from the Holy Ghost, and rather, suddenly, the Holy Ghost is now also redefined as the Spirit of the World.    They take Christ off the Cross, finding the Cross to be an abboration to their intentions.  How demon-driven do they show themselves to be in doing so, for it is the demons that are most offended by the Crucifix, which mocks their choice to give their not fiat!   When their first attempt of an revolt is thwarted, they get, never-the-less, their bifercated tails in the door by causing division under the pretense of worldly unity.

Never before in the Church's history was there a need for an increase of daily prayer and penances of the faithful.  In the time of great martyrdoms, it was merely the secular authority which the faithful had to resist. Today, it is even in its spiritual leaders who are disavowing their vocations to Christ as Truth Incarnate Himself, by perpetuating this gradualism either directly or by their cowardice.

However, God gives us the priests, bishops, cardinals and popes we deserve, so, the question is:  how did we get here?   Besides the first fact that their is a tremendous lack of due worship, both in the liturgical sense and privately among most Catholics, the "Lex Vivendi" has been contributing to this blind leading the blind.  Some of the more significant areas I mean to point out below, as a continuation from the previous post.

• The promotion of vice (i.e.: avarice, perversion, immodesty)  Well, I;'m not about to list all the vices here, but just for the fact that most Catholics canot even name the  7 Deadly Sins, one could say its frighteningly obvious that there is a resounding lack of consideration for God's rights in most practicing Catholics today.  Without this knowledge, how can their be any objective standards within our cutlure?   A type of ennui towards prudence in general becomes presented by Modernists as "fundamentalism" because there are so few people who see the connection to even their own faults as contributions to the  promotion of vice in the world at large.
• Contraception.
  This causes people to become utilitarianists.  No longer is the marital act something that is a participation of two for what is in principle a life-giving act, but rather, it is something that primarily self-oriented, and not self-giving.   It erodes a sense of responsibility, actually keeping individuals from habitually growing in the ability to give sacrificial love within the context of marriage, and, like other sexual sins (self-abuse, pornography, etc.)  its self-orientation stunts the maturity of those who participate in its use.  This also indoctrinates a type of utilitarianistic philosophy which weakens the potential to express love and sacrifice in all other areas of one's life.
• Lack of acknowledging the value of life from natural conception to natural death.
  This also stems from the utilitarianist's outlook on life, as it looks to value another person by his or her viability and/or usefulness.  One might, for example, extend this attitude towards not respecting a spouse because, perhaps, they cannot make a certain amount of money to "pull their weight" within a marriage.  This attitude breaks down humanity within a person's character.  God commands us to "love our neighbor as ourself", but how can we say this of someone who does not value life at all and any stage?  
• The lack of reverence to the solemn and sacred, recognizing the Transcendent nature of the Divine and divine truths.
  We are commanded to love our neighbor as ourselves, but firstly, to love God, as this love of neighbor springs from this love of God, all of which comes from Him.  When we do not put reverence to the solemn and the sacred as necessary both from the interior and the exterior, then we are saying that the material goods of this life have no purpose.  In fact, this is a heresy, because the goods of this life are intended for us to use to give Him glory, each according to our state.   As the old saying goes, "Lex orandi.  Lex Credendi.  Lex Vivendi."
• Lack of personal accountability.
  ...and regarding that "Lex Vivendi"...
  Have you noticed how there is a fast-growing lack of accountability being replaced by entitlement?  This prevailing attitude within our society is partly to do the humanism, materialism, and a whole lot of other 'isms', along with significant increases in utilitarianism, agnosticism.   People are becoming more and more 'law onto themselves', lacking a holy fear in God, or the desire to grow in gratitude and holy fear (the Bible says that holy fear is the beginning of love of God).
  The one, true God is the god of Truth and of Justice.   By the way, there is no dichotomy between His justice and mercy --- there is a paradox, but NOT a dichotomy.  To suggest that there is a dichotomy in God is to say that He contradicts Himself --- which is the basic error of the Modernist, since everything he proposes is based on comparing, what he wrongly perceives, as "dichotomies", and like Hegel, proposes, then, a dialectic to further his gnostic comprehension.  Then he attributes his findings to modern science, which is not only an insult to our holy religion, but also to science itself.
  But I digress, the lack of accountability is due to a lack of humility.  We need to make ourselves accountable to our own faults if we wish to please God.
  
  

When Conservatives Are Confused By Liberals - Part I

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There is asaying that liberals win arguments by first redefininig the terms.  Libs do this by redefining terms in order that the conservatives debate with a handicap; already they are forming the argument by these redefined terms which distort reality with an obtuse, left-leaning pardigm.

A Left-Leaning, Obtuse Triangle...lol

So many people, Catholics not excluded, want to idealize economic systems.   Catholics even idealize a system to the point of suggesting it is "Catholic".  No economic system is perfect, in its employment.  Yet, so many of us have bought into the issue being of the "haves and have nots", the "99% vs. the 1%".   We already know that man may not commit evil that good may come of it.  If one subscribes to the truth of the existence of Divine Providence, and the natural moral law that man has a right to private property, we cannot steal from the rich to give to the poor.  Stealing is part of injustice.  Charity, however, is the love of God firstly, and the love of neighbor out of love of God.  It is the right of the individual to have the FREEDOM to chose the good of giving to others who are in need, out of charity --- not justice.  The New Age/Masonic leaders within the visible Church have coined the liberal term, "social justice" to, in effect, promote socialist ideas.  However, it is this type of stealing --- being presented and promoted as "justice" --- which has at it's core the malice of keeping covered the true injustices which are at the very cause of the lack of charity, and the suffering of the poor, both naturally and supernaturally speaking.

Now, if a person has an inheritance, it is their right by Providence, just as any natural good as a property.   The muslim religion teaches that if a man is caught teaching, his hand is to be cut off.  The true God, however, teaches that a man could cut his own hand off if he steals --- not someone else's if he steals.  The point is to do mortification and penance as a violence to the self-will --- as means of GREATER GLORY TO GOD by submission, which is at the heart of the evil, not the hand itself.  But, we as Christians often times suggest that if someone has "too much", the government should demand that they give to others. This, then, in turn, suggests that the government has the ultimate right to property, rather than the individual, which in turn, removes, to an extent, true freedom --- the right of man to choose the good.  It's this freedom of choice to do the good that honors God through use of resources, in the employment of CHARITY.

So where is the injustice?   There is another saying, "the art of deception lies in the ability to create a plausible diversion."   The liberal media and tail wagging the dog has been in defining the argument in order to create that plausible diversion.   It is true that there is a tremendous imbalance of resources, but the evil is not there, but in how these resources are more often than not accumulated.
This most clever deception is probably history's most successful employment of black propaganda, since it is the premise of both the liberals and many conservatives today, who ironically, all fail to ask, "How did we get here?"

And that is PRECISELY what the governments, along with the devil, DO NOT want you to ask.

We got to this imbalance of resources by true evils.  Just to name a few:

• Usury
• Fraud
• Utilitarianism/Exploitation of Labor
• Patronising of Communist nations
• The promotion of vice (i.e.: avarice, perversion, immodesty)
• Contraception 
• Lack of acknowledging the value of life from natural conception to natural death
• The lack of reverence to the solemn and sacred, recognizing the Transcendent nature of the Divine and divine truths.
• Lack of personal accountability

So there are a lot of things to rant about here, but I will only touch upon each very briefly.

Usuary:   To many people are committing usury in order to live higher than their state.  Keeping up with the Jones is not a cardinal virtue.  It is not a virtue at all.  If one must borrow on interest, let it be out of necessity according to his state, that he can pay it off in a timely fashion.  Outside of that, it is cooperating with an evil and thus gravely sinful.  By the way, the "1%" becomes rich out of the greed of the lower and middle classes who allow themselves to be charged for things needlessly.

Fraud:   Hedge funds, I don't care how the nitwits on Wall Street, or in the gigantic financial firms across the globe, or the university professors of modern finance spin them, are nothing but a legal form of high profile FRAUD.  Maybe the argument that they are, in fact, fraudulent obviously lessens when it comes to the first degree, the investors, however, there is a lot of shell game tactics involved even in their presentation to the point where it is fraud through and through.  Not only that, but it promotes greed and avarice, not to mention that on the natural level, it causes for economic stability long-term.

Utilitarianism/Exploitation of Labor:  This is a BIG one.  The Catholic Church teaches that if any company requires, in order to be competitive within its market, that its lowest paid workers receive less than a living wage* (*generally determined by a wage that permits a man to support a wife and children by full-time hours, usually 40 hours per week on average), then that company has no business being in business.   Please refer to Rerum Novarum and Quadragesimo Anno.

Which brings me to...

The Patronising of Communist nations:   Oh, hey, here's a suggestion ---- Rather than taxing the rich disproportionately for being rich, why not PENALIZE THEM for sending American jobs overseas to countries who commit moral slave, labor attrocities?   And, while your at it, tax goods that are made by countries who exploit their labor by not providing a living wage and/or who employ children?  Hmmm??? Oh no, some of you would rather take away the wealthy all together of those who were able to make in the first place.  Well, honestly, if we are so more worthy then let us do justice to God according to our state, and be examples of integrity.  Force the hand of the wealthy to use their ingenuity to create wealth for this country, by penalizing not those with wealth non-discerningly --- which should not by the government's role but GOD's, but by penalizing the patronizing of Communistic fueled economies.  Also, having less availability of cheaper goods would create a demand for more American goods, and in turn, give us back our options of goods with value, along with job creation.

I think I'm going to make a Part II for these next issues...