Checklist for Courtship by Fr. Smith

Before courting, be certain that: 

1) Both persons love God with whole heart, whole soul, whole mind, and whole strength.

2) Both persons love their neighbors as themselves and understand that one’s spouse is a very close neighbor indeed

3) Both persons love God more than they love any neighbor, including the beloved prospective spouses

4) Both persons assist at Mass EVERY Sunday AND Holy Day (and if they can not attend daily Mass, they appreciate its worth and pray that at some point they will be daily Communicants)

5) Both persons agree on obedience to the Pope, on the nature of the requirements placed on the laity by Vatican II, and on the absolute necessity to belong to the Catholic Church in order to be saved

  1. Neither person falls into hypocrisy regarding adherence to the Fatima Message; much has been lamented about the Popes’ failure to consecrate Russia to Our Lady’s Immaculate Heart as she instructed, but the Blessed Virgin Mary also expects all Catholics to:

 

A) Pray the Rosary EVERY day

B) Wear the Brown Scapular at all times

  1. Dress modestly and maintain purity of heart, mind, and body*

 

7) Both persons desire children as the primary good of their matrimonial union

8) Both persons absolutely reject contraception, whether by chemicals, by surgery, by abortion, by prophylactics, by devices, by unnatural acts, or by a disordered will

9) Both persons are wholly committed to purity of thought, word, and deed; this pertains especially to the man in regard to wandering eyes, profanity in language, and pornography; and to the woman in regard to wardrobe, make-up, and hairstyle.

10) Both persons utterly reject the possibility of divorce, understand what an annulment is, and are entirely certain that the bond they establish will be effected by them and their Priest in such a way as to make divorce, annulment, or separation unthinkable.

11) The man is ready and willing to be the head of the family by spiritual leadership, the head of the family by being the sole breadwinner, and the head of the family by commanding in keeping with the virtues of humility, meekness, and charity with the goal of perfection for himself and his family always in mind.

  1. The woman is ready and willing to be the heart of the family by obeying her husband in adhering to the fullness of the Faith, the heart of the family by making a home wherein her husband and children feel eager to serve God in one another, and the heart of the family by encouraging and supporting each member in the pursuit of sanctity above and before all other desires (see #1)

     

DO NOT ASK HER FATHER’S HAND BEFORE THIS LIST IS COMPLETE

DO NOT PROPOSE TO HER BEFORE THIS LIST IS COMPLETE

DO NOT SET A DATE BEFORE THIS LIST IS COMPLETE

DO NOT DESIGN A DRESS, RENT A RECEPTION HALL, OR ARRANGE WITNESSES BEFORE THIS LIST IS COMPLETE

DO NOT LET HIM KISS YOU BEFORE THIS LIST IS COMPLETE

 

Moderates, Compromisers, and the Lukewarm Beware!

I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot I would thou wert cold or hot But because thou art lukewarm and neither cold nor hot, I will begin to vomit thee out of my mouth. Because thou sayest: “I am wealthy and have need of nothing,” and knowest not that thou art wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked…Such as I love, I rebuke and chastise. Be zealous therefore and do penance.

The Book of the Apocalypse 3:15-17,19

 

Rat poison is deadly. The sane man absolutely refuses to eat rat poison. No one who demands rat poison is sane. The ways of the world, the flesh, and the devil are rat poison for the soul. Saints absolutely refuse the ways of the world, the flesh, and the devil for their souls more emphatically than the sane man refuses rat poison for his body. No one who accepts the ways of the world, the flesh, and the devil can be a Saint, nor can such a one be called sane — a “little” acceptance of the ways of the world, the flesh, and the devil is more damning for the soul than a “little” rat poison is deadly to the body. Adam and Eve ate rat poison with the encouragement of the devil – and died; the insane orphans of Adam and Eve still crave the rat poison of the ways of the world, the flesh, and the devil – they have a death wish.

Children of Jesus and Mary hunger for the Bread of Life He who desires the world, the flesh, and the devil is not a child of Jesus and Mary; the children of Jesus and Mary vomit out of their mouths the ways of the world, the flesh, and the devil more violently than a sane man spits out rat poison; the children of Jesus and Mary are satisfied only with the Way of Truth Who is the Bread of Life, Jesus Christ Crucified.