Why do we stay in our comfort zone? Because our comfort zone is the stress-free zone we are used to. It’s what is familiar. It’s also the place where we are the most dissatisfied with our life.
When we stay in our comfort zone, we are forcing ourselves to stay stagnant. We’re afraid to change for fear of what could happen. Our brains are trained to keep us safe so we stay in our comfort zone instead of facing the unknown.
Staying in our comfort zone though can cause problems as well. Here are 8 reasons it’s wrong to stay in your comfort zone.
1. Fail to Reach Your Goals
If you stay in your comfort zone, you are less likely to follow through on reaching your goals. Your fear, procrastination, or any other excuse keeps you from taking action toward your goal.
2. Lack of Growth
Staying in your comfort zone will probably keep you from growing into more than you are right now. You’ll always be stuck, never going forward and never growing and changing. You might end up not achieving your goals because you’re stuck on doing things the same way you’ve always done them, even when you’re not seeing any results. You don’t step out of your comfort zone to explore what you’re capable of doing or what you can accomplish.
3. Losing Your Passion
Staying in your comfort zone makes it harder for you to discover your passion. Your passion can only be found outside your comfort zone.
4. Feeling Left Behind
When you stay in your comfort zone you will feel like you are being left behind by your colleagues and others you relate to. They might have been behind you in terms of your life or career but because they stepped out of their comfort zone, they have passed you by.
5. Settling for Less
By continuing to live in your comfort zone, you push yourself to settle for less than you desire. You put your passion or things you love aside.
6. Your Confidence Goes
When you don’t move out of your comfort zone, you aren’t building the confidence you need to grow and take on new challenges.
7. Your Health Suffers
Sometimes when you are not getting out of your comfort zone you aren’t taking care of your health either. It can be from fear of going to the doctor, not wanting to change your routines, or avoiding going to the gym for some reason such as being looked at or trying something different.
8. Being Unprepared for Changes
You are inflexible and set in your ways when you stick to your comfort zone. Life can be difficult, throwing all kinds of things at you. Things can happen that will pull you out of your comfort zone even if you don’t want to. Staying in your comfort zone keeps you from being open to new possibilities.
The reasons we stay in our comfort zone are the same ones that we should be using to step out of our comfort zone. Staying in your zone may feel comfortable but it’s wrong to limit yourself to settling for mediocrity.
A person with a lack of discipline is practically guaranteed to fail in life. This is particularly true for dreams and life goals that aren’t ordinary.
Discipline is the ability to make a decision and follow them through regardless of how hard it gets, without changing your mind. Discipline is an important component necessary for achieving dreams.
In an interview of the top 10 athletes in the world, when asked why they were great, all had the same answer. Discipline. We can conclude that discipline is the first step to achieving greatness. However, what happens when one lacks discipline? Here are the ways a lack of discipline can affect your life
It Keeps You From Achieving Your Goals
A lack of discipline will keep you from staying focused on your dreams. Without discipline, you wouldn’t be able to stay in control of yourself and react appropriately to life’s situations. With discipline, you’re able to stay in control and focused no matter the situation.
Additionally, a lack of discipline is an indicator of poor inner strength. You’re likely to give up once an activity becomes difficult even when said activity is necessary to achieve your goal.
According to Psychologists, people without discipline are more comfortable with mediocre performances rather than reaching for more and engaging in any strenuous activities that will help them grow. Growth requires work and effort. This makes laziness appealing to people who lack discipline.
It Keeps You From Making Wise Decisions
Sometimes, the right choices necessary to achieve our dream or live a healthy life aren’t always easy. From maintaining a healthy diet to exercising regularly, to working even when we do not feel like it.
A person who lacks discipline is not able to make the right choices especially when it will inconvenience them. For example, while the benefits of regular exercise are enormous, it requires discipline to stick to it. A person who lacks discipline is more likely to skip exercising altogether simply because it’s just too hard.
Lack Of Lack Inner Strength
Dr. Steve Peters in his bestseller The Chimp Paradox, remarks that we are already who we want to be. It’s just our minds and the choices we make that are stopping us from behaving in the way we would love to behave.
For example, you might desire to be a kind person but easily lose your temper. In such a situation, you do not need to try to be a kind person as you already are kind. What you need to work on is the discipline to keep your temper in check. When you are not disciplined, everyone will see you as a hateful person because of your lack of control over your temper.
It Reduces Your Chance Of Succeeding In Life
Sadly, most goals and dreams are not easily achieved. To achieve a goal, you need motivation, hard work and considerable effort. These things cannot be done easily and require discipline to accomplish.
When you lack discipline, you are less likely to put in the effort required to achieve your dreams. A person who lacks discipline will always shy away from tough challenges.
When you do not meet the needed requirements, you’ll remain stagnant and the quality of your life will not improve.
Nothing worthwhile is achieved easily. You will have to face challenges and overcome various obstacles. The difference between success and failure is our ability to persist and persevere when faced with difficult situations.
You Will Have Poor Relationships
When you lack discipline, it is difficult to build strong relationships. The characteristics highly regarded in a relationship such as honesty, integrity, dependability, and loyalty require a strong mental character. A strong mental character is only developed through discipline. The chances of you exhibiting these characteristics when you lack discipline are low.
Final Thoughts
Self-discipline is supposed to be taught to us and instilled in childhood by our caregivers. Unfortunately, this is not always the case, but that does not mean we are doomed forever.
You can teach yourself self-discipline as an adult. This is a major element of personal development and personal growth since, when we develop our self-discipline, it has a very positive effect on all areas of ourselves and our lives.
Roe v. Wade is officially overturned today after decades of abortion on demand that killed 64 million babies. Although the Supreme Court handed down its monumental decision to overturn Roe v. Wade on June 24, the decision doesn’t become official until the nation’s highest court officially enters its judgement. Today, that became official as the […]
Expert warns that there is credible evidence that the COVID shots may cross-react with syncytin and reproductive genes in sperm, ova and placenta in ways that might impair reproductive outcomes. ‘We could potentially be sterilizing an entire generation.’
The first COVID shots rolled out in December 2020, and it didn’t take long before doctors and scientists started warning of possible reproductive effects.
Among them were Janci Chunn Lindsay, Ph.D., director of toxicology and molecular biology for Toxicology Support Services LLC, who in April 2021 submitted a public comment1 to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP), highlighting the high potential for adverse effects on fertility.
I previously interviewed Lindsay in 2021. That article is not updated with the new information, but the interview (above) is a good primer for the information she shares below. In many ways, she predicted what we are now observing.
She stressed there’s credible evidence that the COVID shots may cross-react with syncytin and reproductive genes in sperm, ova and placenta in ways that might impair reproductive outcomes. “We could potentially be sterilizing an entire generation,” she warned.
Lindsay also pointed out that reports of significant menstrual irregularities and vaginal hemorrhaging in women who received the injections by then already numbered in the thousands, and that this too was a safety signal that should not be ignored.
4 in 10 COVID-Jabbed Women Report Menstrual Irregularities
As it turns out, early reports of menstrual irregularities were not a fluke. More recent investigations have confirmed that, indeed, many women experience menstrual irregularities after the shots. As reported by NBC News in mid-July 2022:2
“An analysis3 published Friday in the journal Science Advances found that 42% of people with regular menstrual cycles said they bled more heavily than usual after vaccination. Meanwhile, 44% reported no change and around 14% reported a lighter period.
Among nonmenstruating people — those post-menopause or who use certain long-term contraceptives, for example — the study suggests many experienced breakthrough or unexpected bleeding after their COVID shots.”
Other categories of people reporting abnormal breakthrough bleeding included 39% of those on gender-affirming hormone treatments, 71% of women on long-acting contraceptives and 66% of postmenopausal women.4
Older women, those who used hormonal contraception, had been pregnant previously, or had diagnoses of endometriosis, fibroids or polycystic ovarian syndrome were more likely to experience heavier bleeding than normal after their shots.
Are Menstrual Irregularities Inconsequential?
It’s worth noting that the COVID trials did not ask female participants about their menses, and didn’t collect any data on reproductive impacts. Yet, despite this clear lack of data collection, the official narrative is that everything is fine — the shots are safe and won’t impact fertility.
Just how do they know? They don’t, and that’s what makes such claims so egregious. Making matters worse, media reporting these findings continue to insist that post-jab menstrual irregularities are “normal” and not a sign that reproductive capacity is being impacted. For example, Science writes:5
“Clarifying the issue is vital. ‘It’s important to know about,’ says Victoria Male, a reproductive immunologist at Imperial College London. ‘Let’s say you got the vaccine and the next day you felt really dreadful the way some people do.’
If you hadn’t been informed of the chance of fever, muscle aches, and other effects that quickly dissipate, ‘you would be really worried,’ she said. Illuminating the chance of menstrual irregularities and confirming they aren’t a health risk also helps combat widespread misinformation that COVID-19 vaccines impair fertility, Male and others say.”
Again, no one knows whether the shots affect fertility or not for the simple fact that it hasn’t been studied. No study means no data, which means no knowledge. It’s that simple. Any claims to the contrary are based on pure guesswork, and guessing is not science.
And, while a woman’s menstrual cycle can fluctuate, abrupt changes have historically not been brushed off as inconsequential. On the contrary, suddenly abnormal menses has been listed as a potential sign of things like:6,7,8
Uterine and/or cervical cancer
Bleeding disorders
Thyroid dysfunction and/or pituitary disorders affecting your hormonal balance
Infection and/or disease
Perimenopause
Menstrual Cycle Length Is Also Affected
Research9 published April 1, 2022, in the journal Obstetrics and Gynecology, also found an association between the COVID jab and changes in menstrual cycle length. The change was small — about one day shorter than pre-injection after the second dose — and was not deemed to be of any great concern. Still, in my mind, the change indicates that something is happening. The question is what?
Infection Can Suppress Ovarian Function
Some investigators have suggested the menstrual irregularities seen in female COVID patients and the COVID-jabbed alike may be attributed to an immune response to the spike protein.
Back in January 2021, a Chinese study10 published in Reproductive BioMedicine Online found that 28% of unvaccinated women of reproductive age diagnosed with COVID-19 had a change in the length of their cycle, 19% had prolonged cycles and 25% had a change in menstrual blood volume.
The researchers hypothesized that “the menstruation changes of these patients might be the consequence of transient sex hormone changes” caused by a temporary suppression of ovarian function during infection.
Dr. Natalie Crawford, a fertility specialist, has suggested that the menstrual irregularities seen in female COVID-19 patients may be linked to a cellular immunity response, and since the COVID shot instructs your body to make the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein, which your immune system then responds to, the effects of the jab may be similar to the natural infection.11 In a 2021 BMJ editorial, Male, quoted by Science above, presented a similar view:12
“Menstrual changes have been reported after both mRNA and adenovirus vectored COVID-19 vaccines, suggesting that, if there is a connection, it is likely to be a result of the immune response to vaccination rather than a specific vaccine component. Vaccination against human papillomavirus (HPV) has also been associated with menstrual changes.
… Biologically plausible mechanisms linking immune stimulation with menstrual changes include immunological influences on the hormones driving the menstrual cycle or effects mediated by immune cells in the lining of the uterus, which are involved in the cyclical build-up and breakdown of this tissue. Research exploring a possible association between COVID-19 vaccines and menstrual changes may also help understand the mechanism.”
That doesn’t mean menstrual irregularities are of no consequence, though. After all, it appears we’re dealing with a manmade virus, and the mRNA in the shot that programs for spike protein production is genetically engineered on top of that.
Perhaps this is why a greater percentage of women report menstrual irregularities following the COVID jab, compared to the percentage of women who experience irregularities following natural infection?
It may also be worth looking into the parallels between the blood clotting disorders reported — both in some COVID-19 cases and post-COVID-19 jab — and Von Willebrand disease,13 a chronic condition that prevents normal blood clotting, thus resulting in excessively heavy periods.
Miscarriages, Fetal Deaths and Stillbirths Have Skyrocketed
Menstrual irregularities aren’t the only safety signal. Miscarriages, fetal deaths and stillbirths have also risen after the rollout of the COVID shots. In November 2021, Lions Gate Hospital in North Vancouver, British Columbia (BC), delivered an astonishing 13 stillborn babies in a 24-hour period, and all of the mothers had received the COVID jab.14
In a typical month, there may be one stillborn baby at the hospital, making 13 stillbirths in 24 hours highly unusual. Scotland has also experienced an unusual rise in infant death rates. During September 2021, at least 21 babies under 4 weeks old died — a rate of 4.9 per 1,000 births. Historically, the average death rate among newborns in Scotland is about 2 per 1,000 births.15
Yet, despite stillbirths going up after the introduction of the COVID jabs — as opposed to rising beforehand — studies linking stillbirths to SARS-CoV-2 infection have been used to encourage pregnant women to get the shot.16
So, basically, it’s been discovered that the infection itself can cause stillbirth (and we know the spike protein of the virus is the part that causes most of the problems), yet they want you to believe that the spike protein produced by the shot will somehow have a protective impact on pregnancy.
This line of reasoning falls apart even further when you consider that scientists are now saying post-jab menstrual irregularities are likely due to immune responses that arise in response to both the virus and the jab. If that’s true, then why would the COVID shot not also be able to cause stillbirths to the same or greater degree than the virus?
There Are No Data to Support COVID Jab for Pregnant Women
Health officials are adamant that pregnant women get a COVID-19 injection, but the data don’t support its safety. The CDC-sponsored study17 published in The New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) that was widely used to support the U.S. recommendation for pregnant women to get injected was corrected in October 2021, with the correction stating:18
“In the table footnotes, the following content should have been appended to the double dagger footnote:
‘No denominator was available to calculate a risk estimate for spontaneous abortions, because at the time of this report, follow-up through 20 weeks was not yet available for 905 of the 1224 participants vaccinated within 30 days before the first day of the last menstrual period or in the first trimester. Furthermore, any risk estimate would need to account for gestational week-specific risk of spontaneous abortion.’”
COVID Jab Affects Male Fertility Too
Other recent research19,20 has found the Pfizer COVID jab also “temporarily impairs semen concentration and motile count” in men. As noted by the authors:21
“The development of COVID-19 vaccinations represents a notable scientific achievement. Nevertheless, concerns have been raised regarding their possible detrimental impact on male fertility …
Thirty-seven SD [semen donors] from three sperm banks that provided 216 samples were included in that retrospective longitudinal multicenter cohort study. BNT162b2 vaccination included two doses, and vaccination completion was scheduled 7 days after the second dose.
The study included four phases: T0 — pre-vaccination baseline control, which encompassed 1–2 initial samples per SD; T1, T2 and T3 — short, intermediate, and long terms evaluations, respectively. Each included 1-3 semen samples per donor provided 15-45, 75-125 and over 145 days after vaccination completion, respectively …
Repetitive measurements revealed −15.4% sperm concentration decrease on T2 (CI −25.5%-3.9%, p = 0.01) leading to total motile count 22.1% reduction (CI −35% – −6.6%, p = 0.007) compared to T0.
Similarly, analysis of first semen sample only and samples’ mean per donor resulted in concentration and total motile count (TMC) reductions on T2 compared to T0 — median decline of 12 million/ml and 31.2 million motile spermatozoa, respectively … on first sample evaluation and median decline of 9.5 × 106 and 27.3 million motile spermatozoa … on samples’ mean examination. T3 evaluation demonstrated overall recovery without …
This longitudinal study focused on SD demonstrates selective temporary sperm concentration and TMC deterioration 3 months after vaccination followed by later recovery verified by diverse statistical analyses.”
As with women’s menstrual problems, the authors blame these adverse effects in men on a “systemic immune response” to the COVID shot. However, while they claim men’s’ reproductive capacity will recover in about three months, this could still be a tremendous problem.
Remember, the mRNA shots are recommended at three-month intervals for the original series, and boosters are now being recommended at varying intervals thereafter. If you destroy a man’s sperm for three months every time he gets a COVID shot, you’re significantly reducing the probability of him fathering a child for a good part of any given year.
Massive Depopulation Underway
Whether accidental or intentional, the fact of the matter is that we’re now seeing an abrupt drop in live births along with an equally sudden rise in excess deaths among adults. The end result will be a reduction in the global population.
That seems inevitable at this point, and the timing of these trends correspond with the release of these experimental COVID gene transfer injections. For example, Germany recently released data showing a 10% decline in birth rate during the first quarter of 2022.22
The live birth rate graph for Sweden looks much the same:23,24
Other countries are also seeing unexpected birth rate reductions, nine months after the start of the mass vaccination campaign against COVID. Between January and April 2022, Switzerland’s birth rate was 15% lower than expected, the U.K.’s was down by 10% and Taiwan’s was down 23%.25,26,27
In a July 5, 2022, Counter Signal article, Mike Campbell reported concerns expressed by Hungarian MP Dúró Dóra during a Parliamentary speech:28
“In January this year, something happened that has not happened for decades. The birth rate fell by 20% compared to the same period last year. And what is even more worrying is that the fertility has also fallen — something not seen since 2011 …
[A] researcher at the KRTK Institute of Economics points out that this drastic decline came just nine months after the COVID mass vaccinations began in Hungary.”
After looking into further, Campbell discovered that in the five countries with the highest COVID jab uptake, fertility has dropped by an average of 15.2%, whereas the five countries with the lowest COVID jab uptake have seen an average reduction of just 4.66%.
The U.S. is also showing signs of a drop in live births. Provisional data from North Dakota shows a 10% decline in February 2022, 13% reduction in March and an 11% reduction in April, compared to the corresponding months in 2021.29 Below is a chart from Birth Gauge30 on Twitter comparing live birth data for 2021 and 2022 in a large number of countries.
Take Responsibility for Your Health
At this time, women are not being warned about the risks for miscarriage, menstrual irregularities and the potential for fertility problems and stillbirths, even though all of these safety signals are glaringly obvious. As obstetrician-gynecologist specialist, Dr. James Thorp, told The Epoch Times in April 2022:31
“I’ve seen many, many, many complications in pregnant women, in moms and in fetuses, in children, offspring, fetal death, miscarriage, death of the fetus inside the mom… What I’ve seen in the last two years is unprecedented.”
Tragically, doctors are under a worldwide gag order. They steer patients away from the COVID shot at the risk of losing their medical license. This puts patients in an incredibly risky situation, as most rely on their doctors to tell them the truth. Few expect doctors to lie or hide life saving information from them simply to protect their own career. So, we’re in unprecedented times in more ways than one.
What this means is that you have no choice, really, but to do your own research and gauge the risks as best you can. There are tons of data out there — data that the mainstream media won’t touch, and if they do, they still insist adverse events aren’t a sign of danger. In such situations, you simply have to put on your thinking cap and think it through for yourself.
As of July 15, 2022, the U.S. Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) had logged 1,350,947 adverse event reports following the COVID jab, including 29,635 deaths,32 and there’s evidence that reports are being deleted from the system by the thousands. You can learn more about that in “Thousands of Deaths and Adverse Reactions Deleted From VAERS.”
The Solemnity of the Assumption celebrates the Blessed Mother’s entrance into heavenly glory. The Catechism explains that Mary “was taken up body and soul into the glory of heaven, where she already shares in the glory of her Son’s Resurrection, anticipating the resurrection of all members of his Body” (CCC, 974).
Mary’s Assumption into heaven reminds us that life on earth is a pilgrimage to our ultimate destination. We prepare in hope for our own passage into eternal life by the choices we make today. When we choose to love and follow God in our daily lives, we strengthen our relationship with Him, and this relationship is the true meaning of heaven: “To live in heaven is ‘to be with Christ’” (CCC, 1025 citing St. Ambrose, In Luc.,10,121:PL 15 1834A.).
We can see how, throughout her life, the Blessed Mother continually chose to go deeper into her relationship with God. She modeled how to value and respect His precious gift of human life, from the moment of conception to its natural end. In the Annunciation, through her “yes,” Mary witnessed to the undeniable humanity of unborn children as she conceived and carried the Christ child in her womb. After the Annunciation, having learned that her cousin Elizabeth was with child, she went in haste to her aid.
Our Blessed Mother shows us how the way we live today can prepare us, in hope, to also enter into heavenly glory at the end of our lives. Are we open to God’s precious gift of new life? How do we support expectant mothers and parents of young children? Do we prioritize showing our love and care for loved ones who are ill or aging?
Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death. Amen.
With the overthrow of Roe v Wade, the battle for the unborn has taken a new turn. Despite its political and cultural dominance, the pro-abortion lobby in the UK and other western countries is determined to double down on the legality of pre-born infanticide. In the USA itself, there is now a state-by-state battle to eliminate or to maintain abortion. For all the euphoria that accompanied the Dobbs decision, the reality is that SCOTUS nominations and appointments are behind the sociological curve and the pro-life majority of the Supreme Court reflects the strength of Christian allegiance in the USA a generation ago and not today. The battle has now moved to the ballot box — a plane on which the pro-life movement may, paradoxically, be weaker today.
Far from being able to rest on our laurels, the struggle is now more pivotal and more desperate than it was before 24 June 2022. One of the most troubling developments in recent years has been the weakening of the Catholic Church’s witness to the dignity of the unborn. Key institutional planks of the pro-life edifice erected by John Paul II have been dislodged. Senior clerical friends of this world can now get away with phrases such as “the sanctity of all human life at every stage of development from birth until natural death”.
Elements of sanctification and of truth are found outside of the visible structure of the Church, not because the evil one wants more people to be saved, but because he needs to lend plausibility to the siren voices luring souls onto the rocks. As one American bishop once said of the truth and goodness present in false religions, “all the best rat poison is ninety percent wholesome food”. As the false shepherds within the true Church recede from the truth, the pastors of the various conventicles which impersonate her feel less and less the need to approximate her teaching.
All this to say that, if the Catholics do not step up their warfare at this of all moments, then the battle will be lost.
Leo XIII is the father of modern Catholic social teaching. He took the social and political doctrine of scripture, the fathers and the scholastics and he synthesised it in nine titanic social encyclicals which constitute an unparalleled resource for the restoration of Christendom. But he did not think that knowledge alone could win the war. Side by side with his social magisterium stand his thirteen encyclicals on the Rosary.
It is said that, in his old age, St Pio of Pietrelcina, needing assistance in rising, was helped to dress by another friar. The last items he would attach to his habit were his rosary beads. He would say to his confrère “pass me my weapon!”. In her dramatic apparitions of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries the Blessed Virgin has placed particular emphasis on the Rosary.
According to tradition, the Rosary was first communicated to the faithful by St Dominic in the midst of the existential struggle to prevent the overthrow of Christ’s social kingship, known as the Albigensian Crusade. St Dominic’s last known disciple, Brother Romeo, died counting his Aves on a knotted cord while meditating on the mysteries of the Child Jesus and the Lady Mary, His Mother. The Rosary, however, is not intended primarily for clergy or religious but for the laity. That is why it is composed of one hundred and fifty Hail Marys. It is intended to parallel the Psalter which is prayed each week by clerics and religious in the Divine Office but which laypersons have not always had the time, opportunity or literacy to observe. According to the biographer of St Catherine of Sienna, Bl Raymond of Capua, the Third Order of St Dominic was originally a military lay order fighting against the heretics in Southern France called the Militia of Jesus Christ, which precisely substituted the canonical hours with the recitation of Paters and Aves.
When we are about to hear the Holy Gospel at Mass we make the sign of the cross over our head, our lips and our heart. These are the three loci to which the Holy Rosary also attends. We pronounce the Paters, Aves and Gloria Patris with our lips while meditating upon the mysteries of the Lord’s life, death and resurrection with our minds, allowing the mysteries of salvation to sink into and permeate our hearts. The Rosary is a form of perpetual catechesis that accompanies the believer throughout the spiritual life.
In his 1893 encyclical, Laetitiae sanctae, Leo teaches that: “The Rosary, if devoutly used, is bound to benefit not only the individual but society at large.” Specifically, Leo teaches that the Rosary is a powerful remedy against three plagues which are eating away at Western society and weakening the Church’s foothold within it: “first, the distaste for a simple and laborious life; secondly, repugnance to suffering of any kind; thirdly, the forgetfulness of the future life.”
In the ancient world the life of the philosopher statesman was the acme of what a human being might aspire to in this world. To be born into landed wealth (there was no other kind), to be immersed in the culture of Attic Greece and late Republican Rome, to adorn one’s native city with amenities and games and temples, serving upon its councils and then leaving in one’s wake tasteful literary monuments of one’s own — this was to have lived well. Virtue was the key to happiness but a decent portion of blessing from the gods would be necessary to enable, sustain and complete the happy life.
Our Lord was not a philosopher statesman. He was a carpenter. He lived in obscurity, in a despised corner of the Roman Empire; and in a despised corner of a despised corner at that. And yet, He is the King of Kings and the Uncreated Wisdom of the Eternal Father. His City is alone worthy of the name, and alone abides unto eternity. The goods of the earthly city are true goods but they fall infinitely short of the goods of His city; the city to which we give our temporal allegiance on this earth is a city indeed, but it falls infinitely short of the true civitas humana, “the Holy Catholic Church, which is the Mystical Body of Christ” as Vatican II teaches (Orientalium Ecclesiarum §2).
This is what the Joyful Mysteries train our souls to recognise, according to Leo XIII in Laetitiae sanctae: “the House of Nazareth … [the] all-perfect model of domestic society! Here we behold simplicity and purity of conduct, perfect agreement and unbroken harmony, mutual respect and love — not of the false and fleeting kind but that which finds both its life and its charm in devotedness of service”. To do little things with great love is to do the work of God: λειτουργία (leitourgía, meaning “public service”, whence the word “liturgy”) of the Jerusalem above.
Christ came that we may have life and have it abundantly. He came to bring us heavenly happiness and He came bestow it upon us not only hereafter but also here below. The violation of the natural law is its own punishment. Happiness is “the activity of the soul in accordance with virtue” as Aristotle insists and therefore vice not only yields but is itself misery. Nevertheless, virtue, while natural to us, must be attained through struggle, and that struggle is all the more arduous because we have set it aside, both in Adam and in our ourselves, and because the happiness that is our goal is not merely the natural perfection of the philosopher statesman but the vision of God as He is in Himself. The agony through which we must go to attain our destiny is not merely the training and military service of a good Roman or Athenian citizen, but the crucifixion, humiliation, rejection and shameful death that our Divine King endured in order to share His eternal Sonship with us.
Our godless contemporaries, Leo XIII writes in the same encyclical, “dream of a chimeric civilisation in which all that is unpleasant shall be removed, and all that is pleasant shall be supplied. By this passionate and unbridled desire of living a life of pleasure, the minds of men are weakened, and if they do not entirely succumb, they become demoralised and miserably cower and sink under the hardships of the battle of life.” This is no life for the Christian who is “born for combat” and who should turn with revulsion from the paradise of modern hedonists.
“Be it then that the ‘earth is accursed’ and brings forth ‘thistles and thorns’; be it that the soul is saddened with grief and the body with sickness — even so, there will be no evil which the envy of man or the rage of devils can invent, nor calamity which can fall upon the individual or the community, over which we shall not triumph by the patience of suffering. For this reason it has been truly said that ‘it belongs to the Christian to do and to endure great things,’ for he who deserves to be called a Christian must not shrink from following in the footsteps of Christ. But by this patience we do not mean that empty stoicism in the endurance of pain which was the ideal of some of the philosophers of old, but rather do We mean that patience which is learned from the example of Him, who ‘having joy set before Him, endured the cross, despising the shame’ (Hebrews 16: 2). It is the patience which is obtained by the help of His grace; which shirks not a trial because it is painful, but which accepts it and esteems it as a gain, however hard it may be to undergo.”
The readiness for this greatest of struggles, for this supreme spiritual combat, is daily inculcated by the recitation of the Sorrowful Mysteries of the Most Holy Rosary.
When Our Lord and Saviour bade farewell to His disciples on the night before His Passion, He promised that He went to prepare a place for them. He won those many mansions upon the Cross, but it is not the Cross alone which we must remember when we set His joy before us, but the crown and the glory also. “We may doubt if God could inflict upon man a more terrible punishment than to allow him to waste his whole life in the pursuit of earthly pleasures, and in forgetfulness of the happiness which alone lasts for ever.” The Glorious Mysteries remind us that we are God’s children now and that it has not yet appeared what we shall be, but we know that we shall be like Him because we shall see Him as He Is.
The Holy Rosary therefore is not merely a pious devotion for those who lack the inclination, time or duty to pray the Divine Office; it is a sovereign remedy against the noon-day devil — against the acedia which is the destroyer of souls. It fixes our attention on the end and goal of the Mass and the Office, and is — as Padre Pio perceived — the greatest weapon in the spiritual combat, whose objective is the subjection of the Kingdom of this world and of the world to come to Christ Our Saviour.
COMMENTARY: Seeking to lift the apology debate out of the ‘how-much-is-enough’ and’ when-will-this-be-over’ dynamic, the Holy Father proposed a reconciling ecclesial vision of a Church both holy and sinful.
Pope Francis visits the church dedicated to Our Lady of the Seven Sorrows July 25, where he blessed a banner with the names of children from residential schools. Then he prayed privately in Maskwacis Cemetery. (photo: National Catholic Register / Vatican Media)
Pope Francis made his apology in Canada an explicitly ecclesial act, namely an act of the Church which is called to be an instrument of reconciliation.
After 30 years of apologies from the Catholic religious orders involved in Indigenous residential schools — and notably from Pope Benedict XVI in 2009 at the Vatican — the framework of apologies, from both churches and the state, evolved into a rather bureaucratic policy framework. Apologies were negotiated as part of settlement agreements or demanded by commissions of inquiry, with certain conditions to be met.
Thus apologies became legal and political instruments, which have their uses. But the Holy Father had something more in mind.
Speaking Monday morning at Maskwacis, he began by inserting his apology to Indigenous Canadians into the history of Canada, the history of the Church and the history of salvation — making his personal statement something of a communal act.
Pope Francis said that “in the face of this deplorable evil, the Church kneels before God and implores his forgiveness for the sins of her children,” with a citation to St. John Paul II’s 1998 papal bull for the Jubilee 2000.
The cited section of Incarnationis Mysterium begins with the simple statement, “The history of the Church is a history of holiness.” That is highly contested by some Indigenous leaders, who were upset that the apology of Pope Francis — though well received by those present to hear it in person — did not say that Catholic Church itself was at fault.
The distinction between the Church and its members, if understood purely in a political or legal light, seems to some a sort of dodge or evasion. The Holy Father, though, insisted upon the ecclesiological point: that not all members were guilty, and that the Church itself, which is the body of Christ, remains holy.
He developed that theme at some length at his visit to the Sacred Heart Church of the First Peoples, an Indigenous parish in Edmonton. There he attempted to shift the framework from a legal and political relationship between the Church and Indigenous communities to an ecclesial communion in which all are members together of the same body. Reconciliation thus is not something accomplished by two communities in growing concord, but rather by members of the same community who participate in an authentic communion.
The finer theological points may have been lost on many, but Pope Francis on Monday wanted to lift the 30-year old apology debate out of the “how-much-is-enough” and “when-will-this-be-over” dynamic.
“The Church is this living body of reconciliation,” Pope Francis said. “One cannot proclaim God in a way contrary to God himself. And yet, how many times has this happened in history! While God presents himself simply and quietly, we always have the temptation to impose him, and to impose ourselves in his name. It is the worldly temptation to make him come down from the cross and show himself with power. Yet Jesus reconciles us on the cross, not by coming down from the cross.”
Pope Francis thus proposed a cruciform model of both evangelization and reconciliation. Evangelical energy falls into the excess of abuse when it seeks to impose itself by power, to “come down from the cross.” Reconciliation proceeds when the crucified One unites all to himself, including both the abused and the abusers. The goal is no longer to simply acknowledge offenses, but to restore both the violated and the violators to peace through the blood of the cross.
Whether the reconciling ecclesial vision of a Church both holy and sinful, the body of Jesus who is both anointed and cursed on the cross, will shift the residential schools debate in Canada remains to be seen. But Pope Francis offered that vision, for the Church both to acknowledge her failings and her holiness precisely as a Church.
There is a risk in that approach. A secular framework will always find it unsatisfactory, even obdurate. Yet if the goal is not just peaceable relations with Indigenous Canadians outside of the household of faith, but rather healing in the heart of the Church herself, then that risk must be taken. The Church has to offer not only an apology from the Pope, but the proclamation of Christ crucified and risen from his vicar.
The FBI analyst accused of scuttling the investigation of Hunter Biden’s global influence-peddling operation was at the center of several major developments that advanced the bureau’s fraudulent Trump-Russia collusion probe.
Brian Auten was named in a letter Monday by Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, to Attorney General Merrick Garland and FBI Director Christopher Wray, informing them that bureau whistleblowers charge the analyst was part of a “scheme” to “undermine derogatory information connected to Hunter Biden by falsely suggesting it was disinformation.”
Auten, reported the Washington Examiner, was a key figure in Crossfire Hurricane, the FBI’s counterintelligence investigation alleging the Trump campaign colluded with Russia to win the 2016 election.
Based on findings by the Justice Department inspector general, Auten “failed to advise” his colleagues of the unreliability of the Steele dossier, the compilation of salacious claims against Trump later debunked by special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe, which could not find evidence of Trump-Russia collusion. Auten had been told by Igor Danchenko, Steele’s primary source, that the claims against Trump amounted to “rumor” and could not be verified.
Auten, nevertheless, pressed for the surveillance warrants against Page, according to the inspector general, presenting the dossier to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court as the primary evidence.
Further, as investigative reporter Paul Sperry reported in July 2020, Auten was involved in the January 2017 investigation of then-Trump National Security Adviser Michael Flynn, according to internal emails sent by then-FBI counterintelligence official Peter Strzok.
Unsealed evidence shows the FBI was prepared to drop the Flynn case for lack of evidence. But Strzok pressed ahead and set up the infamous “ambush” interview at the White House. A memo shows FBI agents plotted before the interview to get Flynn to lie so he could be fired.
In addition, Auten helped draft part of the prominent January 2017 Intelligence Community Assessment on Russian interference, describing the Steele dossier as “reliable.”
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Sperry noted that Auten has served as an adjunct professor at a Christian college in the Washington, D.C., area, Patrick Henry College, where he taught a class on the ethics of spying. That included during the 11-month period in 2016 and 2017 when he and a counterintelligence team were monitoring Page.
‘Falsely labeled as disinformation’
In his letter Monday to Garland and Wray, Grassley wrote that whistleblowers allege that in August 2020, Auten opened an assessment that was used by an FBI headquarters team “to improperly discredit negative Hunter Biden information as disinformation and caused investigative activity to cease.”
“Based on allegations, verified and verifiable derogatory information on Hunter Biden was falsely labeled as disinformation,” the senator said.
The laptop was turned over to the FBI in 2019 by John Paul Mac, the owner of the Delaware computer repair shop where Hunter Biden had abandoned the machine.
In March, FBI cyber division assistant director, Bryan Vorndran, said in a House hearing that he didn’t know the whereabouts of the laptop, which astonished Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla. The FBI official ultimately promised he would take to FBI officials Gaetz’s request that the bureau provide someone who can come to a House briefing regarding “where the laptop is, whether or not it’s a point of vulnerability, whether or not the American people should wonder whether or not the first family is compromised.”
Shortly before the November 2020 presidential election, 51 former national security officials signed a letter stating, without evidence, the contents of the Hunter Biden laptop had the hallmarks of a “Russian influence” operation. In March 2022, the New York Times belatedly acknowledged the reported contents of the laptop are authentic.
Meet Aseneth, Joseph’s Egyptian wife who inspired the story of Joseph and Aseneth
Megan Sauter July 27, 2022
Aseneth and Joseph. Who Is Joseph’s Wife in the Bible? Aseneth, daughter of the Egyptian priest Potiphera, becomes the wife of Joseph and mother of Ephraim and Manasseh. This 13th-century mosaic from the Basilica di San Marco in Venice, Italy, shows Aseneth after having given birth to Ephraim. A midwife presents the baby to Joseph, while Aseneth and Manasseh look on. Photo: Public domain.
Daughter of the Egyptian priest Potiphera, Aseneth becomes the wife of Joseph and mother of Ephraim and Manasseh. She is an intriguing biblical figure. Although Aseneth appears only three times in the Bible, she left a lasting impression on later Jewish authors. During the Hellenistic or early Roman period, Jewish writers expanded on the Genesis narrative and wrote the story of Joseph and Aseneth, which explores the titular characters’ courtship and marriage. In the Summer 2022 issue of Biblical Archaeology Review, Patricia Ahearne-Kroll of the University of Minnesota analyzes this text in her column, “Aseneth of Egypt.” She delves into the development of Aseneth’s character from Egyptian daughter to Jewish matriarch.
Aseneth appears in three verses in the Bible: Genesis 41:45, 41:50, and 46:20. Genesis 41:45 reads, “Pharaoh gave Joseph the name Zaphenath-paneah; and he gave him Asenath daughter of Potiphera, priest of On, as his wife. Thus Joseph gained authority over the land of Egypt.”
Genesis 41:50 says, “Before the years of famine came, Joseph had two sons, whom Asenath daughter of Potiphera, priest of On, bore to him.”
Genesis 46:20 reads, “To Joseph in the land of Egypt were born Manasseh and Ephraim, whom Asenath daughter of Potiphera, priest of On, bore to him.” As the mother of Ephraim and Manasseh, Aseneth becomes a matriarch for two tribes of Israel.
From these references, we learn that Aseneth was the daughter of an Egyptian priest, who served foreign gods. This affiliation appears in all three references. A later Jewish audience may have questioned Aseneth’s character. Did someone of foreign faith truly belong in the bloodline of not one, but two, Israelite tribes? The story of Joseph and Aseneth, which adamantly defends Aseneth’s character and demonstrates her devotion to the Jewish faith, would have put such questions to rest.
According to the story of Joseph and Aseneth, Aseneth was a paradigm of virtue and grace. The following details from the story might have assured a Jewish audience of Aseneth’s good character.
5 Details About Aseneth in the Story of Joseph and Aseneth
1. Aseneth disdains marriage—until Joseph appears on the scene. No other suitor, not even Pharaoh’s son, catches her eye.
2. Aseneth converts to Joseph’s faith. Before meeting Joseph, Aseneth was devoted to the worship of her gods. Although her love of Joseph is what initially prompts her conversion, the text makes clear that Aseneth’s conversion was genuine. She disowns her former religion and repents—mourning in ashes for a full week.
3. Aseneth’s conversion is confirmed by an angelic visit. In the story of Joseph and Aseneth, an angel visits Aseneth on the eighth day of her mourning, says that God has heard her prayers, and gives her a new name. He also confirms that she will marry Joseph and lets her eat of heavenly honeycomb, which imparts heavenly knowledge to her.
4. Aseneth prays to God for deliverance. Later in the story, Pharaoh’s son devises a plot to kill Joseph and kidnap Aseneth. As his plan unfolds, Aseneth finds herself surrounded by enemies. She responds by praying to God, who miraculously intervenes. The swords of her enemies turn to ashes.
5. Aseneth protects Dan, Gad, Naphtali, and Asher—four of Joseph’s brothers—even after they conspire with Pharaoh’s son to kill Joseph and kidnap her. She shows mercy and forgiveness.
At the end of the story of Joseph and Aseneth, the Egyptian throne passes to Joseph, and he rules for 48 years. From devout wife to noble queen, Aseneth serves as an example of virtue.
The story of Aseneth continued to develop and expand in various circles over the millennia. Many were interested in this Egyptian daughter who became a Jewish monarch. Learn more about Aseneth in Patricia Ahearne-Kroll’s column “Aseneth of Egypt,” published in the Summer 2022 issue of Biblical Archaeology Review, and her book Aseneth of Egypt: The Composition of a Jewish Narrative (2020).
“It’s very troubling for parents, it’s troubling for schools, even private schools that use federal dollars in some way.”
[CBN News] Any student must be allowed into any space they identify with or schools will risk the loss of federal funding. That’s what both public and private schools are now facing under the Biden administration’s new interpretation of Title IX. (Image: Unsplash-CDC)
Some states are pushing back on the new proposed rules for schools regarding students who identify as transgender. Yesterday, more than 20 attorneys general sued the administration over a policy that could affect school meal programs.
The Biden administration wants all schools that receive federal help to provide open access to bathrooms, locker rooms, and sports, based on students’ self-perceived gender identity. But that desire is hitting some legal roadblocks.
Attorney Mary Rice Hasson with the Ethics & Public Policy Center told CBN News, “There’s really no compromise. Sex is either male or female or, as the Biden administration puts forward, the idea of sex can be overridden by gender identity and gender identity is simply your self-perception.”
Hasson has followed the administration’s new interpretation of Title IX, a decision that flips the traditional understanding of sex-segregated spaces. That change forces both public and private schools that rely on federal funding to comply.
Hasson says, “It’s a confusing time for educators, anyone who receives federal money.”
The financial pipeline is worth millions, even billions to some states. Tennessee for example, receives $1.5 billion a year for K-12 schools, and its universities receive $88 million.
It’s why the state’s attorney general has led 19 other states to fight the Education Department over its 2021 re-interpretation of Title IX.
They argue the Biden administration wrongly expanded the 2020 Supreme Court Bostock decision. That ruling stated that under federal employment law, sex discrimination includes gender identity and sexual orientation. Later, the Biden administration expanded Bostock’s reach to include Title IX, and education.
In early July, Tennessee and the 19 other states got a reprieve when a federal judge put a temporary hold on the Biden administration’s re-interpretation.
Attorney Christiana Kiefer with Alliance Defending Freedom says, “The federal court made really clear that the Biden administration had taken Bostock too far.”
Kiefer has defended female track athletes in Connecticut who were forced to compete against boys. In September, the Second Circuit Court of Appeals will hear arguments in that case.
For now, the states that sued the Biden administration can protect women’s locker rooms, bathrooms, and sports teams. The other 30 states must allow any student in any space or risk the loss of federal funds.
“It’s not a good place to be,” Hasson says. “It’s very troubling for parents, it’s troubling for schools, even private schools that use federal dollars in some way.”
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