SPEAK TO THE DIVINE

 

Our Lady of Sorrows

AVOID IMITATING THE HATE BEING DEMONSTRATED BY THE TRUMP CULT

In response to the vulgar, hostile and coarse language, in addition to hateful assertions expressed by my fellow Catholics and others on the internet, I feel I have to point out that calling people names and resorting to repellent rhetoric has never convinced anyone of the wisdom of the point of view of the person maligning them.

It is my belief that we must always address the Divine Spark of the Lord that exists within all of us when speaking to a person.

We cannot allow ourselves to become so immersed in our righteous anger that we lose all awareness of our opponent's basic nature, which is that every human is made in the likeness and image of God.

It becomes easier to keep one's attention fixed on the Divinely inspired inner nature of each human if the observer can separate the person from the acts that person performs. It can be similar to threading a needle and sewing through some stiff fabric.

I myself often have to edit and rewrite my social media posts twice after the first draft. It is a skill I am still perfecting, but I have seen so much repulsive language from people I typically like and admire, that I have come to the conclusion that we all need a little help and kindly encouragement in helping us elevate our language in a way that is worthy of our status as Catholics and which will not cause more problems than it solves. 

Typically, a reminder of the facts is all that is required. Aligning our writing with our faith is a rather straightforward procedure unless one is really struggling with the concept of recognizing that even one's enemies are made in the image and likeness of our Lord.

I highly recommend lectio divina and contemplation on a helpful scripture versus in order to remain established in Catholic belief about the nature of human beings, in general.

"So God created mankind in His own image,

in the image of God He created them; male

and female He created them."

~Genesis 1:27

None of this obviates the necessity for being truthful. Sometimes the behavior of other humans is so distasteful and heinous in nature that it can inflame our feelings. This does not mean that it is wrong to mention these behaviors or that we are not recognizing the Lord's hand in our making when we mention them.  As long as we are criticizing the behavior and not the person, we should be alright.

It makes me very upset when I read about or see yet another bald-faced lie uttered by our current president. I try not to call him a "bald-faced liar" because that is a slur, even if true at this moment. I still fail in this regard because I am so unhappy when I see him tormenting other humans. 

The older I become, the longer I have been occupying my time with prayer, the more empathy toward the vulnerable is gifted me by Our Lord. It is rather more difficult to feel the same empathy for the tormentor, except that I remind myself what a hell it must be to live a life in concert with the Hell of Satan and to know that if the tormentor of the weak and needy does not repent, he will be forever damned. I know the grim future that awaits the unrepentant bully, so when I manage to remind myself of it, writing about and to them becomes less fraught with fury. 

Doing so also reminds me of my own defects of character and sends me straight into fervent prayers of contrition. 

We do not want to call a person a name because it sticks that person in time, without the opportunity for repentance, confession, forgiveness, etc. Calling someone a name is like putting a straight pin through a bug and skewering it to poster board.

DRAGONFLY - WILLIAM MORRIS PRINT

Instead, we should point out the nature of the lie and label the lie and not the person. If we are to love our enemies, we must want the highest good for them, and that would be for them to reach perfect contrition for their sins, and that they would confess, repent, and turn their lives around, and be forgiven.

It is never too late for anyone to "come to the party," until they have died, that is. Until then, the possibility for the forgiveness of the Lord is always possible, and we should not forget it or resent it, no matter when it happens in the life of another person.

Remember the parable about the workers in the vineyard (Matthew 20:1-16) in which the farmer hires workers at all hours of the day but pays them all the same wage at the end of the day.

We should be happy when anyone experiences a heart-felt conversion and is saved from their sins because, if we feel resentment that they were able to "enjoy" sinning for a longer time, it only means that we are not really enjoying our time with Jesus, which is a terrible thing to contemplate. It means we find more joy in sin than in a blessed life in Christ.

Since I must remind myself of these facts every time I put words to page, especially with regard to our fractious political times, I am assuming that most of us are in need of reminders. 

If you need any encouragement in this process, send me a message on Facebook or a comment on this post, and we can brainstorm or I will offer suggestions. Whatever you feel you need.

In the meantime, I pray for you and hope you pray for me.

God bless us all!

Silver Rose

 

MANY AMERICANS ARE DESCENDED FROM OLGA OF KIEV, AND UKRAINIANS ARE FAMILY

SAINT OLGA OF KIEV "EQUAL TO THE APOSTLES"

c. 888 - 11 July 969

My 34th Great Grandmother

In 1978, I began researching my genealogy, but it would be about 40 years before I had a breakthrough that led me to the discovery that my ancestry included many notable nobles and saints, including Saint Olga of Kiev, who ruled in what was called "Kievan Rus'."  

People of modern day Ukraine, Belarus and Russia occupy various territories of the ancient Kievan Rus', but Kiev (spelled variously, such as "Kyiv) is located in Ukraine and, since discovering my link with that land and those people, I have had a tender place in my heart for all the concerns of those people.

Thanks to my DNA results from Ancestry, which conclusively confirm my personal genealogy research, my relationship to the world at large is a lot more complex and comprehensive than I could ever have imagined, prior to 1978, when I first began this journey.

Knowing the width and depth of my relations, going back many centuries, has increased my Catholic love for all peoples of the world. We cannot behave meanly toward anyone, not only because we must love our neighbors (and even our enemies) but the person on the receiving end of our displeasure and our punishment may very well be related to us, and therefore family!

Broadly speaking, my direct ancestry is:

42% - England and Northwestern Europe

28% - Wales

25% - Ireland

3%  - France

2% - Spain

Spain also includes individuals from Portugal. Northwestern Europe includes individuals from Ukraine and Nordic countries. There was more movement across larger swaths of land than one would think possible in those early years. Also, I discovered that, while some women originated in Portugal, they ended up married to kings in Spain, etc. That kind of thing went on quite a bit. Kings would often import  noble wives from the nobility of other lands.

With regard to the reason why many Americans are descended from or otherwise related to European royalty, we have to remember the type of people who originally came to this country and settled it. those of us whose roots go back to very early Virginia, for instance, are descended from people like Lieutenant Colonel Walter Aston, who was my 11th great grandfather, and it is through him (among several others) that I gain my ancestry from Saint Margaret of Scotland and Saint Olga of Kiev!

Distinctly separate from all the above, in 2003, when I began to live as a religious hermit, I had decided to dedicate, in general, my spiritual practices to the benefit of the renewal of the Unified Christian Church that existed prior to the Great Schism of 1054, during which Mother Church split in two, with the Western Church being called the "Roman Catholic Church," and in the East, the "Eastern Orthodox Church." 

I have not been a Christian my entire life, but as soon as I became converted, and I learned about the Great Schism, it broke my heart in two, just as Mother Church had been broken in two. I am sure that Jesus would not want this separation of his people, and I pray that all my pains and sufferings that are offered up on behalf of the reunification of our church may reach heaven and that all my sainted ancestors, including Saint Olga, my 34th great grandmother, will intercede for this special purpose.

All of these separate occurrence have helped to greatly increase my sensitivities toward the Ukrainian people, especially after I began to follow the news of its numerous invasions by Russia since 2014. 

The idea that a giant bear of a nation could simply roll its tanks and armies over the borders of a sovereign country and mow down its people, taking and occupying land against the wishes of and over the dead bodies of Ukrainian citizens who love their country dearly, infuriates me and makes me cry at the same time.

What is even more shocking is that our current president, who has long been suspected of being an asset of Russia, has behaved despicably toward the beleaguered president of Ukraine, Velodymir Zelensky. Ignoring the treaties that Russia has already signed with Ukraine, and which Russia has violated over and over again for more than a decade, President Trump has thrown Ukraine under the bus and is refusing to help them any more.

It is unconscionable that Trump had already pushed aside Zelensky and inserted himself into this matter, arrogantly purporting to have the authority to negotiate with Putin on Ukraine's behalf, entirely without the input of Ukraine, and then to also demand that Ukraine PAY US BACK by giving us half of the valuable rare minerals that are located in the land that Russia has brutally occupied.

With Trump's affection for Putin and Russia, I could easily see him GIVING to Putin those rare earth minerals immediately upon signing the agreement with Zelensky, who is wise to pause before agreeing to this devil's bargain, as far as I am concerned.

We all watched in horror as, against all prior expectations of the decorum expected of a president, Trump savaged poor President Zelensky, who remained remarkably calm and centered during the onslaught of vulgar words and demands thrown at him.  

He and our Vice President even criticized the fact that the man was not wearing a SUIT, as if this man's country was not in ruins, as if life just went on, unabated for him, while his compatriots fought and died for their land.  How could Zelensky dress up, like an elite effete snob in an expensive suit, unaffected by the carnage that is being wrought in his country, thanks to villainous Putin? He could not do that.

When President Zelensky gently but persistently tried to educate Trump and inform him that Russia had broken every agreement they had signed, to date, and that therefore Ukraine needed some kind of security to make sure that Russia would keep THIS particular agreement, Trump became enraged. His face became bright scarlet, and I felt sure that I could see a cold sweat of fury dripping from him. Trump is a man who cannot be taught anything. He is impervious to information that does not comport with what he thinks he already knows, all of which must always serve his ego and self-image in one way or another.

Trump and his smarmy sidekick ended up telling President Zelensky to leave. They want him to apologize and to sign the agreement without any changes. Imagine - after dragging him over there and subjecting him to a dressing down in front of the cameras, which included RUSSIAN outlets (which we never used to allow before), Trump expects that poor man to apologize. It is the worst kind of gaslighting I have ever seen in my life.

Within the next day or two, the entire EU embraced Zelensky and promised him a few million dollars in aid, which is not enough to stop this terrible war and beat the Russians back behind the gate. But I hope that Zelensky does NOT do as Trump wishes, because once he capitulates, all will be lost anyway.

I find it most shocking that Trump supporters are defending all of this. They don't care that he is driving America into the arms of the Russians, our enemies, who hate us, who have always hated us, and who want our destruction. Imagine how happy Putin must be at this moment, now that Trump has not only kicked our allies in the face, but he has also thrown Ukraine to the wolves.

"America first" has become "America only" and, worst of all, "America alone." Trump's supporters are clueless about how dangerous this is for us. They are buying into Trump's childish claims that NATO and the other alliances we have formed over decades were only calculated to take our money. His cynical and completely ignorant claim is being repeated from the rooftops by members of his cult who believe this garbage. And it IS garbage. It is not true. That is not how America would ever have characterized itself.

Worst of all, Trump's evil mischaracterization of the motives of others causes even more division than already exists. It is as if he is trying to pry the U.S.A. entirely out of the world community, leaving it alone and vulnerable.

Please join me in praying for a miracle for Ukraine. Pray that they do not have to sign that evil agreement with Trump but that somehow, some way, they are able to be victorious over the Russian hordes that have invaded their land.

Please join me in appealing to our Saint Olga, "Equal to the Apostles" that she intercede on the behalf of the Ukrainian people and also those in America who know the risks that are being taken by Trump's isolationism. Join me in praying that, instead of isolating ourselves, that people of good will join together, unimpeded, so that the message of Jesus, to love our neighbors as we love ourselves, can most easily be accomplished.

Also, please pray that the people who have been brainwashed with the awful, hateful, and divisive lies and dystopian vision of Trump, may have their eyes opened to the truth so that they may join us on the world stage and embrace Zelensky, as the European Union has done.

And I would love very much if some of you could find it in your hearts to also join me in the prayer for the unification of Holy Mother Church so that she may breathe through both lungs, East and West, once more.

Today, we are ALL Ukrainians.

God bless you all.

Silver Rose

PRAY FOR THE LIARS

Wanted:

"The one whose walk is blameless,

who does what is righteous,

who speaks the truth

from their heart;

whose tongue utters no slander,

who does no wrong to a neighbor,

and casts no slur on others.

Psalm 15:2-3

It disturbs me to see what seems to be an increase in the willingness of people to lie in order to further their own ends. We see this happening in Washington with that governmental circus of professional prevaricators who have honed blatant dishonesty to the level of high art and use bald faced lies to cement control and wield power, but, to be fair, I find deception to be heavily represented throughout society in day-to-day life, even among people whose professions lead one to expect much different and better.

My original draft of this blog post had three paragraphs of stories about several different liars in my orbit and how they lied to, about, or near me over the years and this week, but I realized that this problem is so common that I needn't provide those stories. I am quite sure that you all have enough of your own tales of the mendacious.

I have watched all sorts of people lie over the years and I find myself having a spine-chilling visceral reaction to it. I can almost feel Satan brushing up against me. It is an ominous and unnerving sensation.

Most "modern" people do not believe in Satan, but I usually tell them not to worry about it because Satan believes in them.  HE will keep the relationship going. I say this to them in a joking way. No one wants to be such a downer as to bring up hellfire and damnation in polite conversation!

But even I don't necessarily believe in the personification of evil that is the personality of a being named Satan. For me, "Satan" is shorthand for primal evil and its movement in our lives. And, while it is common for people to opine about whether or not God will assign them to Hell when we die, it is my understanding that it is with our own behavior that we demonstrate that resting place in which we are most comfortable and most familiar.

We walk around in our own personal acre of heaven or hell and carry it around with us as we move through life. If we establish our mind in the Heavenly place, Heaven is most real for us. The Kingdom of Heaven is among us!

The condition of our mind is determined by where we place our attention. It is as simple as that. Concentrate on Heaven, and Heaven is most real for us  But please don't assume that, because I KNOW this, that I have a "lock" on the process. No. Not at all. I struggle like everyone else....and perhaps MORE than everyone else, due to the PTSD that assaults me daily. It takes work to continually redirect the mind to the feet of the Lord when it has become distracted.

Our prayers and meditations have a dual purpose: first, to establish ourselves in the Divine, and second to intercede for others who have wandered away into lies and other obstructions that stand in the way of their vision of God.

"Self realization" isn't enough. We need to include all beings in a unitary vision.

Jesus admonishes us to pray for our enemies. Satan is the biggest enemy of all, and all lies originate with him. He is the father of all lies, and we need to fight him by fighting dishonesty because dishonesty is his calling card, and when it appears, HE is lurking nearby.

This is exactly why a good percentage of us are somewhat exercised by current affairs. The presence of Satan upsets people who are possessed of refined sensibilities. We are like the canaries in the coal mine. When you see a bunch of us flapping our wings and chirping dispiritedly, then falling over in a dead faint, it is a cue to get out of the mine. Get out of whatever societal situation in which we are mired and seek out the fresh air and sunshine. Meditation and prayer are the fresh air and sunshine for the soul.

Our current situation has encouraged me to double down on my meditation and prayers and I encourage you to do the same. Think of this: all the blog posts on Facebook, the newspapers, the magazine, the videos that bring each falsehood to light are fine vehicles of information, but are unable, by themselves, to stem the tide of the very real damage that is caused by malicious disinformation.

As people of faith, we have to do this. The fetid material being belched into the environment from the professional liars has to be counteracted on the spiritual plane, as well as the material, and we must hold fast to our compassionate prayer for those who are seduced by the continual stream of disparagement, calumny and toxic fabrication in which we are awash.

But, even if you are on the other side of things, and you believe every word from the current rulers, you surely must also follow my advice since the Lord will only cooperate with good and would not do evil just because a bunch of people ASKED him to! You know He couldn't do that.

Our mutual faith in Him draws us together. Across the divide, we may hold hands in the common belief that God brings all things to the good and that the words of Jesus, to love our enemies and pray for them, can only bring good. To unite with one another and place ourselves at the feet of the Lord who is Truth personified, and to beg for Truth to prevail, can only result in Truth!
                                                                                                                                                                                                   

Please join me in my prayers for Truth and Justice. Whatever is True and Just will be strengthened thereby. Whoever is True and Just will be strengthened. We do not need to name them or decide who they are, in advance (although we all probably believe that we know the "who" of things!)

I send love to you all and ask you to join me under the common sheltering roof of the absolute.

Silver Parnell
Sannyasini Kaliprana

P.S. I also remind you that my Paypal button still works, just in case you'd like to help me purchase some eyeglasses or dental work, neither one of which are paid for by Medicare!

THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS A CONSERVATIVE CATHOLIC

Lying has always been considered horribly sinful, in Old Testament and in New. We are not supposed to give false witness against our neighbor, but fellow Catholics do this all the time, while defending this vehemently. They're very confused.

It is very disturbing that the man elected to the highest office in the land is an inveterate, continual and bald-faced liar and many  Catholics defend his lies, without even bothering to try and ascertain the Truth. I find it shocking, especially since most Catholics that I know who voted for him only did so because there is a chance he will reverse Roe v. Wade with his choices for Supreme Court Justices. I doubt that will happen, but I certainly understand why some would take a chance on him, hoping that he WOULD follow through.

My problem is that I am a convert and I learned my religion at the knee of the desert fathers and mothers, the mystics and saints of the church. I read myself into the church, while the flesh-and-blood church bears little resemblance to the early church, or even to the present-day convents. The mother superior of a Carmelite convent warned me that I would have a hard time adjusting to parish life, having spent a lot of time in a Hindu convent and being accustomed to the mystical contemplative life.

Oh, how I wish I could hide in some out-of-the-way skete, but I'm physically not able. I NEED the world and its medicines, wheelchairs and scooters, but coming into contact with the sickness of our church has made me want to cry for IT much more than I would ever cry for myself.

WHERE is the Catholic faith I read about in the Hindu convent? Where is the faith for which I left my monastic life behind?

Another thing I see, almost daily, is that many Catholics are confused about politics. They imagine that there is such a thing as a "liberal" Catholic or a "conservative" Catholic when, in fact, there is no such thing. "Liberal" and "Conservative" are POLITICAL terms that have nothing whatsoever to do with Catholicism, which is not a political party. Why don't people know this? It is confusing to me.

Someone actually wrote me today and told me (on Facebook) that being a liberal is sinful! The fact of the matter is that there are aspects of each political orientation that are sinful and neither one is better than the other. It shocked me, though, that someone actually thinks such a confused thought, conflating religion with politics.

If politics was the solution to the world's ills, Jesus would have come as an earthly king, instead of a poor dirty kid, born in a stable and held in the animal's feeding trough. His whole life, he worked with his adopted father, Joseph, in hands-on physical labor.

The liberal ideology wants to allow mothers to kill their babies with abortion. Conservative ideology kills the poor, the sick and the old by removing government programs that help them. Liberals kill them fast and young. Conservatives kill them old and slow. Each is bad.  In fact, the liberals don't FORCE anyone to have an abortion, whereas the conservatives DO force economic policies that kill vulnerable populations, so perhaps it is the conservatives that are the sinful ones. What about THAT? 

Conservative economic policies benefit the rich and squash the poor, creating the perfect environment for lots of abortions because babies are expensive. Conservatives don't like to pay for other people's babies. They don't want to pay to abort them, and they don't want to pay to raise them. Conservatives do not like babies unless their parents are wealthy and never need help. This is why the conservatives don't follow through with promises to make abortion illegal again. They don't want to pay for other people's babies.

Catholics who identify primarily as Republicans and/or conservative dislike paying for other people's babies so much that they sometimes forget the church's longstanding proscription against contraception and end up "disagreeing with the church" about it. They want the poor people to have access to contraception so they don't have to pay for the babies of the poor. Artificial contraception is not pro-life and cannot be condoned in a faithful Catholic life. It is "inherently evil," according to Holy Mother Church.

According to the Catechism, a man having a vasectomy is as sinful as a woman having an abortion. Having a vasectomy is "intrinsically evil" and must never be done, "no matter how good the reason." How many people KNOW this?  How many Catholics are using vasectomies and other forms of artificial contraception, on the one hand, and loudly decrying abortion on the other?  A man cannot serve two masters. You are either pro-life or you are not. You can't cut it in half and say it is alright to frustrate God's generative power on the one hand, but not on the other. Are you open to life or not?

Every single time a program comes on the air, whether the television of the radio, and it's about "pro life," the only thing discussed is abortion. What a sad state of affairs. It seems that only the unborn are alive, in the minds of some people.

Republicans, in fact, do not want the government to help ANYONE who is vulnerable: the sick, the disabled, the poor. They do not want any social programs. They talk about "free markets" and "choices," but the poor, disabled and elderly do not HAVE any choices. They don't have enough money to have choices, especially if Social Security and Medicare are turned into voucher programs that we have to use to purchase needed services from for-profit businesses instead of not-for-profit Medicare? How is that going to work, exactly?

So - back to the man who called me sinful because he imagined that I am one of them damn lubruls. The arrogance of certain conservatives who impugn the character of people whose economic policies run more toward the liberal side, is a terrible sin in itself. Arrogance is pride, and pride goeth before a fall.

In matter of fact, I am neither liberal nor conservative. I am CATHOLIC. I am pro-life. I am against abortion. I am in favor of social programs. You cannot pin me down to any political orientation because I am not a political animal. I am CATHOLIC. Neither Democrat nor Republican will satisfy my yearning for a world in which life is honored, celebrated, supported and held up to God with a grateful HUZZAH!

I pray that all my Catholic brothers and sisters will actually study their faith and stop reading the twisted opinions of priests and others who've become obsessed with abortion and Republican trickle-down economics that has NEVER worked. There is more than one way to kill a person, and abortion is just one. It's a terrible thing. I wish it was illegal, but being pro-life requires more of me than simply being against abortion. LIFE is an enormous topic.

Being PRO-LIFE means being PRO-PLANET and environmentally savvy and caring. It means taking care of animals properly. It means caring about my neighbor to the extent that I want him to live as well as I do. Being PRO-LIFE means being PRO-CREATION, and using the creative gifts that God has showered upon me, especially in a spirit of worship of Him. PRO-LIFE is making chaplets for my friends who pray in front of the abortion clinics. PRO-LIFE is making hats for the homeless who refuse to shelter under a roof, even during the coldest nigiht. PRO-LIFE is feeding a hungry guy - even one who reeks of alcohol. PRO-LIFE is guarding our food supply from dangerous chemicals and crazy DNA experiments (like putting fish genes into tomatoes so they don't freeze). Being PRO-LIFE means protecting the water supply for all peoples and demonstrating against the fracking pipeline that risks the safety of the water of the indigenous peoples. Being PRO-LIFE means being AGAINST CAPITAL PUNISHMENT unless there is absolutely no other way to protect society against a violent predator. Being PRO-LIFE means treating domestic and wild animals with kindness AND RESPECT . 

I'd also like to see the wages increased so that families can afford to have as many children as they want, and mothers can afford to stay home and raise them. THIS is pro-life also. Wages have been kept artificially low for more than 40 years now. When I was working, I saw my income go DOWN over the years, while my responsibilities and my bills increased. Now, wage reform, in addition to being a LIBERAL economic idea is ALSO a PRO-LIFE idea. Am I sinful for being in favor of this liberal idea that I believe will result in fewer abortions and more big families? Nope. HUGE topic.  HUGE.

Poor medical care kills the poor, who die at least 10 years sooner than wealthy people. Why is no one up in arms about that?  I will answer that. Because some Catholics have conflated Catholicism with Republicanism. Republicans hate social programs and, especially these days, want to privatize everything so that everyone has to fight for every ounce of life. Survival of the fittest, is what it boils down to.

In an economic system in which only the strongest survive, the old, the sick and the disabled are naturally the losers and die off. Jesus would never approve of this.

Every time we get into a dialog about social programs, the know-nothings pipe up and equate social programs with socialism and claim that the liberals, and therefore the Democrats, are socialists. It's another LIE. Social programs have the SAME relation to socialism as Social programs has to ice cream socials. Socialism is characterized by the OWNERSHIP OF ALL BUSINESS BY THE GOVERNMENT.  Social programs are common to MANY different types of government that have nothing to do with socialism. (If you didn't learn this in High School, folks, Google is your friend. Hell...break out the dictionary,, for cryin' out loud.)

The real problem we have is that our social programs come nowhere near supplying the needs of the poor, 97% of which are not able bodied and cannot work. All of Donald Trumps blabber about jobs is not going to help the 47 million people in our country who are poverty stricken and living on entitlement programs. Notice...they are STILL poor, even though they've put money into the program their whole lives.

The reason why the social programs do not supply all our needs is that the rich do not pay their fair share. The normal wage earner pays up to 17% of their salaries into the Social Security fund, whereas the rich people pay less than a fraction of 1% because of the CAP on contributions into the fund. Social Security contributions stops for every cent a person earns over $116,000.00 a year! This robs the fund of MILLIONS of dollars of income and is THE reason why we are running a little shy of funds...in addition to the fact that both Democrats and Republicans have stolen money from the fund every year.

If the social programs were run in the same way as they are run in other countries, there would be no problem. America is the only civilized country that doesn't take care of its poor. Now isn't that revolting? The reason why is that the Republicans put up a fuss every time the democrats try to take care of the poor, every time they try to raise the minimum wage, every time they try to pass a bill that helps the sick, the disabled and the elderly.

Isn't it more Christian to take care of the population of a country, to clothe the naked, feed the hungry and visit the prisoner? How can Catholics ally themselves with a party or an ideology that doesn't believe in doing what Jesus asked of us.

It is a cop-out to claim that "Jesus never said you had to force someone to help the poor."  Well, He also didn't say we should force people to pay taxes.  Oh, wait...never mind. He DID say to pay to Cesar what is Cesar's.

The Republican party is the enemy of the poor, the sick, the elderly and the disabled, but that Catholic man called me "sinful" because I have liberal economic ideas? Isn't that backwards and upside down?

The happiest countries in the world, self reported, are places like Denmark, where the taxes are high, and the social programs are adequate to care for the population. It would seem that we do not care about our people at all, in comparison to these countries. CLEARLY, having social programs WORKS for these countries, whereas trickle-down theories have never worked in any ANY countries. The money doesn't trickle down. It stays on the top, with the fat cats. Trickle-down theory is what dictators use.

So, our social programs do not work very well, due to the selfishness of the wealthy and those people who identify as conservatives, above and beyond whatever devotion they claim for Christianity, but there are some conservatives who are sincerely Catholic who recognize the defects in our current system and who step forward to fill in the gaps to the best of their abillities.

I know several of these saintly people, and it is because of them that I am alive.  They identify as conservatives, including the economic orientations, for the most part, but they step in and help the poor who have fallen through the cracks...like me.

They buy me organic food because I'm allergic to pesticides and pesticides give me asthma attacks. They've bought me computers, such as the laptop I am currently using, and even my service dog owes his life to one such earth-bound angel. These are Catholics who walk the talk and who come forward with kindness and generosity in the face of social programs that do not provide life-supporting funds. Not everyone is as lucky as I have been. 

These are the only conditions under which Republican economic ideas can begin to work, and that is if every Republican were to take on one person such as myself who has fallen through the cracks. There are 47 million of us. Can we depend upon the Republicans to come forward and take care of all of us? 97% of us are elderly, disabled, children, or the working poor.

In my mind, allowing for social programs is far more reliable when dealing with the number of poor people we currently have in this country, Trickle down economics has never worked. It is a theory that HAS FAILED but to which many are devoted. 

Does this mean I am "sinful" because I do not believe in this conservative theory? Obvious not.

I would like to ask my Christian brothers and sister to STOP identifying as liberals or conservatives, democrats or republicans, and begin to really identify as CATHOLIC people...because you cannot identify as both. You cannot serve two masters. Either you are Catholic, and you support all Catholic theology, or you are a liberal or a conservative and you only support SOME of the Catholic faith.

Secondly, you need to stop identifying OTHER people as either liberals or conservatives because it's a lie for many of us.

Silver Rose