Friday 31 December 2010

Twelve Resolutions for the New Year

It's from Robert Kumpel and, as he says, it's for Recovering Dissident Catholics. I thought, at first, he was talking about the E & W Bishops but then he did use the word 'Recovering'

A Great New Year Resolution
The 12 Steps
for Recovering Modernist Catholics


STEP 1. We admitted that we were powerless over our addiction—that our lives had become unmanageable.

Maybe it began with your first folk Mass. You couldn’t get enough. It felt great, like you were telling all those nuns who insisted you be quiet at Mass to shut up! Or maybe it was like telling all the priests who warned you in the confessional that they couldn’t tell you what was a sin anymore! It’s YOUR decision! Then they let you hold the Host! Now you think you can vote however you want and believe whatever you like. You've decided you can even skip Mass whenever you feel like it!

The last time you went to Confession, two years ago, did you confess that you were "too hard on myself"? Is that when you decided you didn’t need Confession either. Do you now worship "wherever the spirit leads me"? Is that when you decided that you would simply receive Holy Communion anytime you felt like it, without bothering to even examine your conscience?

Or maybe your parents told you how awful the "old Church" was. That the priest turned his back on the people! Was that when you decided that YOU were the arbiter of your eternal destiny?

Or was it when Father Whomever began making wisecracks about those "little old ladies" murmuring over their rosary beads? When you saw that he no longer took the teachings of the Church seriously, did that give you your excuse to disregard all religious discipline?

Step 2 - Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.

You mean the Catholic Church actually has REAL authority?
And it’s called the Magisterium?
It's not just my "personal choice"?

Step 3 - Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood God.

“For who hath known the mind of the Lord, that we may instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ. -1 Corinthians 2:16

Do not presume to know about Who and What God is on your own.
That is why Jesus Christ founded the Catholic Church.

Step 4 - Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.

• Have I turned away from teachings that I found difficult to accept?

• Have I deliberately listened to priests who taught against the Catholic faith because they told me what I wanted to hear?

• Have I ignored the Catholic training of my youth?

• Have I failed to witness my faith to Protestants and unbelievers because I feared offending them?

• Have I modeled Indifferentism to my children by permitting them to attend a Protestant church?

• Have I created my own religion in my mind instead of working harder to learn what the Church teaches?

• Have I enabled the murder of unborn children while flattering myself that my vote was for social justice?

• Have I ignored Humanae Vitae?

• Have I flouted or mocked the teachings and traditions of the Catholic Church?

Step 5 - Admitted to God, to ourselves and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.

Go to Confession. Frequently.

Step 6 - Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character

“But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh in its concupiscences.” -Roman 13:14

Step 7 - Humbly asked God to remove our shortcomings.

O Jesus! Meek and humble of heart, hear me.
From the desire of being esteemed, deliver me Jesus
From the desire of being loved, deliver me Jesus
From the desire of being extolled, deliver me Jesus
From the desire of being honored, deliver me Jesus
From the desire of being praised, deliver me Jesus
From the desire of being preferred, deliver me Jesus
From the desire of being consulted, deliver me Jesus
From the desire of being approved, deliver me Jesus.
From the fear of being humiliated, deliver me Jesus
From the fear of being despised, deliver me Jesus
From the fear of suffering rebukes, deliver me Jesus
From the fear of being calumniated, deliver me Jesus
From the fear of being forgotten, deliver me Jesus
From the fear of being ridiculed, deliver me Jesus
From the fear of being wronged, deliver me Jesus
From the fear of being suspected, deliver me Jesus
That others may be loved more than I,
Jesus, grant me the grace to desire it.
That others may be esteemed more than I,
Jesus, grant me the grace to desire it
That in the opinion of the world, others may increase and I may decrease,
Jesus, grant me the grace to desire it.
That others may be chosen and I set aside,
Jesus, grant me the grace to desire it.
That others may be praised and I unnoticed,
Jesus, grant me the grace to desire it.
That others may be preferred to me in everything,
Jesus, grant me the grace to desire it.
That others become holier than I, provided that I may become as holy as I should,
Jesus, grant me the grace to desire it.


Step 8 - Made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all.

• Have I ended friendships with people who were “too Catholic” for me?

• Have I treated traditional Catholics as pariahs?

• Have I defended people doing evil things because they were my friends?

• Have I looked the other way at evil and wrongdoing, reassuring myself that I was “not being judgmental”?

• Have I refused to stick up for people who have defended the faith because it might offend my friends?

Step 9 - Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.

You'll know what to do.

Step 10 - Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly admitted it.

Keep returning to Confession.

Step 11 - Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understood God, praying only for knowledge of God's will for us and the power to carry that out.

Is prayer my first priority?

Have I read and studied Pascendi Dominici Gregis?

Step 12 - Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to other addicts, and to practice these principles in all our affairs.

Go forth and share your transformation with the other cult members who drank the Kool-Aid of the “Spirit of Vatican II”.

1 comment:

  1. As a person who has attended 12 step meetings I find this post offensive..

    ReplyDelete