Wednesday, February 26, 2014

Papa's got a brand new bag.



Pope Francis said:

"What is reconciliation? Taking one from this side, taking another one for that side and uniting them: no, that’s part of it but it's not it ... True reconciliation means that God in Christ took on our sins and He became the sinner for us. When we go to confession, for example, it isn’t that we say our sin and God forgives us. No, not that! We look for Jesus Christ and say: 'This is your sin, and I will sin again'. And Jesus likes that, because it was his mission: to become the sinner for us, to liberate us."

It isn't that we approach Sacrament of Confession with remorse for own sins to seek forgiveness.

This is preposterous, sayeth Pope Francis.

Jesus is a sinner, we take His own sins to Him and we tell Him, this is Yours and I'm going back out into the world to do it again. Jesus likes that.

This maxim must be part of the ordination rite of the Society of Jesus?

They all seem to be afflicted with gross distortions and spiritually lethal theology.

I recently saw a video of the Pope struggling to translate what he was trying to say into English. I am hoping this farcical concept is a translation error.

Compounding deep rooted sin with sacrilegious abuse of the Sacraments...all I can say about that is, if you think the diabolical disorientation is 50 shades of crazy now, we haven't seen anything yet.

Keep a vigil over your thoughts and your soul. Stay in close contact with Confession and the Eucharist. Find a way to get to daily Mass or as many times as possible during the week. This is my advice to TTC readers. A couple of loose screws on the ship. We are in for a rough ride.

n.b. Here is feedback on Kasper's talk, which was arranged by Pope Francis and is purported to have caricatured it as excellent theology.

There is a lot going on there.

Mainly, a Pope ordering disobedience to effect giving the Properties of Christ in the Eucharist to souls in a state
of mortal sin, driving that soul to its own spiritual suicide.

All I can think of is Christ's warning that they will kill us and say they are doing a service to God.


Monday, February 24, 2014

Fr. Barron states Adam and Eve were not literal living humans, the story is theological poetry



Wholly crap...this is kinda scary.


If there was no Adam and Eve, there was no original sin.

No Adam and Eve, no Cain and Abel or anyone else after them in recorded historical documents.

Fr. Barron says we have all been misreading this very naive mythological cosmology in Genesis which does not square with the subtle work of Newton Einstein and Hawking. It turns out we were not sensitive to genre. Genesis is like Moby Dick. It's a mistake to view it as history.

Stay tuned for his next video: Moses, Schmozes and the ten suggestions.

Is it me, or is his trajectory new?




Sunday, February 23, 2014

Cardinal Kasper says Pope Francis will soon instruct souls to disobey Church teaching and give sacreligious Communion, pastorally.


A few new developments on the Catholic divorce front.

First, we learn that Pope Francis hand-picked Kasper to persuade his see on substance.



But "it’s a question of how to apply [church teaching to] the concrete, difficult, complex situation."Francis tapped Kasper to open the meetings with an address that would set the stage for the talks. Kasper — a onetime sparring partner of another German cardinal, Joseph Ratzinger, who later became Benedict XVI — delivered a two-hour talk that centered on marriage and took up most of the morning’s session.

Since the Church instructs us to be obedient or lose salvation, it is reasonable to conclude Pope Francis brought in Kasper to persuade 'how to apply Church teaching' for the outcome of his instructions to disobey it.

Otherwise he would have scheduled the head of the CDF to school the see.

I have to be honest. The idea that Kasper,who placed himself above Church teaching to lead a revolt in his own see, was handpicked by the Pope to persuade the entire see of the Chair of Peter, disgusts and alarms me.

Kasper now says this is going to happen.

He best not go the route of instructing disobedience.

If he wishes to give Communion to divorced and remarried Catholics he's got to change Church law.

Instructions to disobey it would be anathema.

If you're going to do something stupid and in direct conflict with instructions from Christ and common sense, at least have the decency to change Church law so it is 'bound' and educated Catholics can accept it and move on.

Otherwise, you set up protocol that every one of us can examine our consciences and disobey Church teaching at will and receive sacrilegious Communion.

Sacrilegious Communion drives the person to their spiritual suicide. Even if the Pope and Bishops did not have the example of Judas, they have the instructions Christ gave to His Apostles that one does not give what is holy to those in a state of sin (whom He referred to as dogs).

Catholics educated in the mystical world are mystified as to how anyone could caricature these actions as 'pastoral'.


Here is a perfect example of the fruit of 'nice' for the purpose of conversion .

It puts many at risk of the loss of salvation, their income and their physical life on earth.

An exercise in foolishness.


Saturday, February 22, 2014

Cardinal Burke Tries to Mitigate Confusion



States the Pope opposes abortion and gay marriage

Cardinal Raymond Burke acknowledged that the pope has said that the church “cannot insist only on issues related to abortion, gay marriage and the use of contraceptive methods.” But in his toughly worded column in L’Osservatore Romano, the former archbishop of St. Louis blasted those “whose hearts are hardened against the truth” for trying to twist Francis’s words to their own ends.

Burke, an outspoken conservative who has headed the Vatican’s highest court since 2008, said that Francis strongly backs the church’s teaching on those topics. He said the pope is simply trying to find ways to persuade people to hear the church’s message despite the “galloping de-Christianization in the West.”

Burke added that the “false praise” from those who highlight Francis’s shift in tone and practice actually “mocks” his role as pope. Francis, the cardinal said, trusts God alone and “rejects the acceptance and praise of the world.”

I love and respect Cardinal Burke and it has been personally reassuring to me that Cardinal Burke places his confidence in Pope Francis.

Burke said he was prompted to write his column after a recent visit to the United States in which he became alarmed that so many people wanted to know whether the pope’s statements about not judging gays and his stress on mercy and welcoming everyone augured a change in church doctrine.

Most of us are not the least bit alarmed that Pope Francis is going to change Church teaching.

We are alarmed - and justifiably so - that Pope Francis's talking points 'change' (twist is a better word for it) what is taught in our parishes and schools.

This is not hyperbole.

As Tommy Gumbleton has recently declared, Pope Francis has given priests, nuns and lay people who dissent from Church teaching, the reassurance that he welcomes their misguided convictions, he will not judge them and will not discipline them and consequently, they no longer 'fear' privately and publicly recruiting others into their perversions.

This is already happening.

Much like a teacher who states while he despises porn, who is he to judge those attracted to it, the confusion has opened up floodgates.

Since this has very serious consequences to our children, relatives, friends, neighbors and the culture, the Pope's own personal convictions really don't lend any comfort to the situation.

Thursday, February 20, 2014

Wednesday, February 19, 2014

Pray for Ukraine



Surreal

Catholic Activists Want Pope Francis to Match His Actions to His Words



This article is a terrific exposition of the damage to Catechesis under Pope Francis.

Here I thought the Boston Globe's list of Catholic crackpots for talking points on theology was top notch, but Al Jezeera takes First Place Blue Ribbon.

They open up with "Sister Teresa Forcades" who says “I don’t think it is possible to have democracy and capitalism. They go against each other because the way we live capitalism is that we allow some corporations to have such power that they are able to influence government. And that’s the problem,”

A. We don't live in a 'democracy'. We live in a Republic. Check wikipedia for the distinctions, Sista.
B. Does the name George Soros ring a bell? How about any of these people?

My eye corporations are controlling government.

The quotes in the article from a number of individuals tell the story of what we're experiencing here in Boston.


But now... she believes she’s merely taking some of Pope Francis’ ideas and running with them...Forcades said...a woman’s right to self-determination should supersede the rights of an unborn infant before it is able to survive outside its mother’s womb.

Why hasn't this dangerous individual had her costume ripped off of her back and sent packing to get a job and support herself?

Here's a name that should ring a bell:

Thomas Gumbleton...former bishop whom the Vatican forced to retire as a pastor in Detroit for testifying about his experience, said some of the fear is gone.

“Certainly now people feel much more free to speak out and not wary of being cracked down on,” he said. “They’re going to be supported if they speak out. Francis is living out the teaching and encouraging other people to do the same thing. I’ve noticed the other bishops are becoming more outspoken, certainly laypeople.”

Tommy Gumbleton. Is that what he's calling himself now?! LOL.

In any event, he has hit the nail on the head.

All the priests and nuns and lay people who have been refraining from teaching Catholics their own sexually and spiritually immoral convictions are all now teaching them to children without fear as they now know Pope Francis supports them. He's told them, allegedly, that he has no intention of stopping them from demoralizing his flock.

TTC readers will remember blasphemer Monsignor Paul Garrity?

Monsignor Garrity has at least a ten year history of scandals, I wish I could say without ramification but the situation is worse. In the past, it has won him admiration, praise and special favors under the administration of Cardinal O'Malley. But he went too far with the homoeroticism of the Holy Family and was made to correct his statements.

Many Catholics were encouraged by the Bishops' response to Fr. Garrity's disgusting display of disordered theology, hoping this would discourage him.

But he is right back at it.

This week Garrity takes a citation out of the Book of Exodus to explain how the Bible isn't mean to be taken literally. There's a whole bunch of stuff that needs to be discounted. You crack the code with dogmatic constitution of the...you guessed it...the Second Vatican Council.

"We read the Bible in the context of the Church, in light of the times which we live and with the knowledge we now have of all of creation, most especially the knowledge we have of the human person."

The devil is in those details.

What person in their right mind, what soul in its right state, would send the message to these individuals that tells them they are free to speak their insidious talking points without fear of a 'crackdown'?

“Francis is saying the same things for which we got in trouble,” she said. “So we figure, if we use him as a footnote, we should be OK in the long run. I just don’t know how long the run is. Hopefully, it’s in my lifetime.”

If they show up in my parish, I'll pull them out by the hair on their chinny, chin, chin!

Tuesday, February 18, 2014

When looking for direction at a Synod, schedule an apostate as keynote speaker.





Reprehensible.



Watching the bishops’ conference in action is like viewing the film of a train wreck over and over again. With bright-colored clowns hanging out the train windows, waving and blowing kisses. One only wishes one had a tomato.





Luminary at the Holy See Exclaims: We just can't go on like this!!!



I know what you're thinking.

The Holy See reviewed the catastrophic results from the Vatican survey on the efficacy of catechesis and moral theology and they are aghast at the ineptitude of bishops and clergy.

They have dressed themselves in hairshirts, sackcloth and ashes and are crying out.. We cannot go on like this!! Penance, Penance, Penance!!

Yeah?

Well, brace yourself.

You know the uncatechized people who answered the questions all wrong?

The 'spirit' is pushing to recruit them to run the central government at the Holy See.

The Church definitely needs this. We have a Congregation for Bishops, for Religious Life and for the Clergy, but the Laity only gets a Pontifical Council even though they are a majority within the Church. We cannot go on like this.

Splendid idea gentlemen!! Just splendid.

The fix is in.

More foxes in the Hen House please!










They're they go.. off to brainstorm about the Synod!

Monday, February 17, 2014

Looking for a sign?



Another nice homily from Fr. Paul Nicholson.

Pope Francis will make Momma-ism a reason for annulment?


I try to ignore John Allen but this was too fun not to post!

Did momma tell you to do your homework, brush your teeth, wear clean and ironed clothes, say your prayers, go to Church, use Church teaching as guidance for your heart and actions?

Did she advise you not to marry the woman for x or y reasons? (Not sure I'd ever go that far but I reserve a mother's right to advise her children if they see them getting on the Titanic.)

What a domineering witch!

Annullment granted!

(Does this mean it turns out she was right?)


Did your wife ask attempt to use her influence to guide your conduct to be model for her children?

Did she expect you to provide food and shelter, fix broken stuff, not to use vulgarity, maintain sobriety, preserve your sexuality exclusively for her?

Did that hurt your widdle feewings?

You poor, poor witch-whipped shell of a man. No wonder why you found yourself another floozy.

Annullment granted!


Ok....I've had my fun.

To be honest, depending upon what Pope Francis has in mind, I'm not sure this is something to get worked up about...

A Feb. 15 conference of church lawyers in the Italian region of Liguria seemed to point in the same direction, arguing that the grounds upon which an annulment can be granted ought to be expanded.

In particular, these church lawyers proposed adding “mamma-ism” to the list, meaning a situation in which spouses are so completely under the thumb of one of their parents – usually, according to the jurists, the mom – that they don’t have free will.

Cases where a child marries to transition out of a dysfunctional house.

Cases where a mother refuses to let go of her married child and sabotages the marriage with contempt for his or her spouse.

These kinds of cases.

I am concerned about a diminution or solution that would surmount to Catholic divorce so we will have to see how this plays out.










Saturday, February 15, 2014

They're too sexy for the Latin Mass?



Another (alleged) strange caricature of the Latin Mass by Pope Francis.

When he searches more thoroughly, he finds it's about fashion and we must be patient and kind to people who are addicted to fashion. He gets why old people would like antiquated fashions, but is mystified as to why young people would want to get away from the fashions in the Novus Ordo

That sure is way out there.

Evidently, he's unaware of the median age of people still seated in the pews at La Cage aux Folles at the Novus Ordo.

The man seems to be completely unaware of the dissent, demoralization and liturgical antics that make it impossible to mystically pray the Liturgy in the Novus Ordo.

Astounding.

Life is hard.


It's harder if you're stupid.

John Wayne.

(needed a little humor!)

Friday, February 14, 2014

National Catholic Register: Sacraments Schmackraments (you don't need them)



It's getting freeky at the National Catholic Register

Is it a full moon?

p.s. A last minute acknowledgement of sin, remorse and appeal to Christ for redemption falls into the category of Baptism by desire. That's why the good thief was 'saved'.

Based upon that whopper of a blooper he's based his theological certitudes upon, could we cancel the seven part series?

Is Contraception the Hill "we" want to "die" on?




If you haven't followed this controversy, Barbara Comstock, who has been crusading with Kathleen Sebelius to offer children over-the-counter abortifacients, is running for a congressional seat in Virginia - and - she's become the new prototype for the definition of how to vote Catholic.

I don't have the stomach to regurgitate the excuses. Suffice it to say they're the same old worn out political talking points: she can win!

I guess we're supposed to give flying fig about the political victory of a woman willing to barter for a congressional seat by selling the souls of women and children to Beezabul.

Astoundingly - Austin Ruse has posted a story at CRISIS Magazine asking .whether Catholics want to die on the hill of contraception.

Scuzie me there Austin.

That's exactly where we want to die.

If you can't bring yourself to die there, you don't belong in a leadership role under a Crucifix of the Catholic Church.

Dying there is what it's all about.

Man up.

Salvation is first and foremost in everything we do and say.

We never play any cards that compromise the salvation of women and children to save a physical life.

If a strategy compromises the salvation of the masses, you are off of the reservation.

Saving babies is not a body count.

Nobody is arguing we have to 'ban' contraception.

Comstock is proactively crusading to pass out abortifacients to women and children.

She is anathema.

She should not be defended supported or voted for by any Catholic.

Period.


Thursday, February 13, 2014

Cuomo is still backtracking




The revelation of who and what he is must have really cost him.

He didn't mean to imply Catholics need to evacuate, what he really meant to say was...brace yourself...the Constitution doesn't apply to people who wish to dialogue about immorality, murder and the right to bear arms.


Wednesday, February 12, 2014

Bishop Hubbard's reign of terror has ended


One of the worst scoundrels in the history of the Catholic Church was finally replaced. The damage he did will affect generations.

On the level of the mystical, what he did is much worse than the pedophiles the Church left in place and shuffled for decades.

It is a scandal that his perverted career lasted so long.

Sunday, February 9, 2014

Pope Francis Softening...Tone?


This is actually a decent article in which Cardinal O'Malley makes several salient points.

But he cautions that those with high expectations that the shift in tone presages major changes in church teachings on contraception, abortion, homosexuality, and other flashpoint issues are likely to be disappointed.

“I don’t see the pope as changing doctrine,’’ O’Malley said in an interview with the Globe, though he said the pontiff’s focus on compassion and mercy over doctrinal purity has reverberated powerfully throughout the church.

The Roman Catholic archbishop of Boston and the closest American adviser to the popular new pontiff, O’Malley said says it would also be unrealistic to expect the church to consider allowing divorced and remarried Catholics to receive the sacraments, even though Francis himself once appeared to signal openness to the idea.

“The church needs to be faithful to the Gospel and to Christ’s teaching,” O’Malley said. “Sometimes that’s very difficult. We have to follow what Christ wants, and trust that what he asks of us is the best thing.”

Kudos to the Cardinal even set boundaries around the interview, leaving the Boston Globe without an avenue to exploit a local hoo-ha where a potential employee declined to consent to code of conduct at a Catholic school.

Readers will find it no surprise that I disagree with the below statement:

The cardinal said Francis’ early stress has been on changing the emphasis of the church, which in the past has been “too strident, maybe too repetitious.”

Given that the Cardinal himself has said Catholics never hear the teaching on contraception or the moral teachings of the Church on human sexuality, perhaps that comment was taken out of context?

This quote even was funny:

German bishops last week released their response to the Vatican, a remarkably blunt assessment asserting that most German Catholics reject the church’s views on sexual morality and view its position on homosexuality as discrimination. (The US bishops declined to release their reply.)

Asserting it was already well known know that some Catholics break with the church on these issues, O’Malley said, “I don’t think that’s a stunning revelation. You could have saved some postage if that’s the only thing you got out of it.”

Here's some substance to think about:


Outside the doctrinal realm, O’Malley seemed to signal the possibility of breakthroughs on two other fronts: women in the church, and the practice of granting annulments, meaning a church declaration that a marriage is dissolved — that, technically, the marriage never existed in the first place.

O’Malley said it is at least possible Francis might name a woman to serve as the head of a major decision-making department in the Vatican, such as a hypothetical new “Congregation for the Laity.” Some theologians believe that only clerics can exercise power in the name of the pope.

Catechesis stinks.
Lots of people are without the tools to make right judgments.

Many of us know families whose marriage is not accepted by the Church.

I personally know at least a handful of people who would love to return to Christ's Church, who for one reason or another - the unwillingness of a former spouse of their spouse to participate in the canonical process, they didn't or couldn't go through with it.

I would imagine a change in status of these marriages would involve some sort of formal process that includes catechesis and the Sacrament of Confession. One would hope - anyway.

I'm not saying I'd be happy about the lack of accountability on making judgments about marriage. But would love to see a so many alienated friends and family be united back unto Christ.

Wednesday, February 5, 2014

Excellent Post on Addiction


Our friend Kelly posted an excellent link to a post on addiction.

The idea of good times of wallowing my mind and soul into a cesspool of drugs and booze... I confess, I don't get it.

I've never been attracted to booze, drugs or anything that alters my state of conscience (even a smidge).

I like rolos, M&Ms and cupcakes a little too much and know well the struggle with sin, so I understand enjoying stuff that isn't all that good for your health, so I am surely not claiming moral superiority. It's all concupiscence.

This post really got to me.

Today, I’m going to thank Phillip Seymour Hoffman for dying.

I mean that sincerely. I am grateful to him. For the witness he provides me of the ruthless consequences of surrendering again to the smoldering hell I cradle in my mind, in my body, probably in my genes. I thank Mr. Hoffman for the prematurity of his passing. For the sundered lives he leaves behind. For the uncompleted art and all the things we knew he had to share. We all have those things. Each of us is an ember in someone else’s fire.

There is no guarantee in sobriety. I can’t know that I will never drink again. I am a man with fault like scrimshaw muraling my bones. But I rarely feel further from a drink than when I watch someone I admire return to the mouth of the bottle. To die there, squalid; stripped of dignity and lost to shame. Especially because I know, lips to marrow, I know the seduction and compulsion to which I will inevitably return without the daily maintenance of my sobriety. Because to me, to us, we alcoholics, we addicts, a dark intoxicated death is not such a horrible thing to contemplate. It often sounds better than breath and sunlight.

Thank you, Mr. Hoffman, for reminding me the end I will all too easily return to seeking. Thank you for the gift of your relapse. For dying. For an hour of gratitude for the clarity of my vision, the steadiness of my hand.


“In the inner heart of every person the voice of God and the insidious voice of the Evil One can be heard. The latter seeks to deceive the human person, seducing him with the prospect of false goods, to lead him away from the real good that consists precisely in fulfilling the divine will.” Pope John Paul II

h/t Jean

Sunday, February 2, 2014

Karl Rove



Enough said.

Zmirak on the shame of the Catholic Subculture



Excellent reading.

Pope addressed liturgical shenanigans of NeoCats



Phew!!

At least we know he has a line in the sand!

The article is a bit confusing:

Benedict was mostly concerned about alleged liturgical abuses in the movement and had instructed the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith to study whether its Masses violated church regulations, according to a 2012 report in L'Espresso magazine. Francis has reportedly called off the study ordered by Benedict, and he made no mention in his remarks Saturday about liturgical problems.

What does the AP think the Pope was talking about?

Prayer before Mass - Aquinas


One of my favorites.

Almighty and everlasting God, behold I come to the Sacrament of Thine only-begotten Son, our Lord Jesus Christ: I come as one infirm to the physician of life, as one unclean to the fountain of mercy, as one blind to the light of everlasting brightness, as one poor and needy to the Lord of heaven and earth. Therefore I implore the abundance of Thy measureless bounty that Thou wouldst vouchsafe to heal my infirmity, wash my uncleanness, enlighten my blindness, enrich my poverty and clothe my nakedness, that I may receive the Bread of Angels, the King of kings, the Lord of lords, with such reverence and humility, with such sorrow and devotion, with such purity and faith, with such purpose and intention as may be profitable to my soul’s salvation. Grant unto me, I pray, the grace of receiving not only the Sacrament of our Lord’s Body and Blood, but also the grace and power of the Sacrament. O most gracious God, grant me so to receive the Body of Thine only-begotten Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, which He took from the Virgin Mary, as to merit to be incorporated into His mystical Body, and to be numbered amongst His members. O most loving Father, give me grace to behold forever Thy beloved Son with His face at last unveiled, whom I now purpose to receive under the sacramental veil here below.
Amen.

Fr. Paul Nicholson on the nature of the demons



This priest has it going on.

Demons have the ability to identify our consent that appears in our lower faculties and bodies. If we are tempted by something, they can tell our level of consent.

They are compulsive. Repeated open doors on the part of the person are repeated opportunities.

Living in a state of grace and rich spiritual life is the most effective means to bind the demons from even coming near you.

The demonic world is not united or consistent in their campaign. They can turn obedience into chaos.

Pope Francis tells Notre Dame to "continue" on with their moral teaching which is in line with the Magisterium


Michael Voris does a great job of articulating the spin from every angle.

I beg your pardon?

Please forgive this Catholic parent for being so direct.

This guy has just got to be kidding.

I've read blogosphere commentary from the usual suspects with the full time jobs telling us what the Pope meant to convey.

Serve up some more pretending and willful ignorance, please!

That worked out well for us.

Look, I just can't bring myself to propose that the Pope did not know what every other educated and informed Catholic knows about the perversion of moral teaching at Notre Dame.

Further, it simply isn't possible that any reasonably prudent person would not do their homework before caricaturing something as faithful to the Magisterium. Not in this day and age.

The idea that the Pope wouldn't know he has to do that diligence before he asks them the public square to "continue" its faithful exercise of the Magisterium is, quite frankly, absurd.

Who would give their own children perverted resources and tell them to continue to use them as the guiding light to uphold the culture?

Priests, bishops and Cardinals of the Catholic Church. The Pope is now joining them.

What an ugly development.

Watching Cardinal Weurl standing there whispering into the Pope's ear while embracing Jenkins, and hearing the Pope's commentary that Notre Dame should continue to do what they've been doing to uphold the culture was chilling.

"Continue" on employing all the Richard McBriens to contradict Church teaching.

"Continue" on with your work selling Obamacare which will force Catholics into making choices between giving up their salvation or feeding and housing their family.

"Continue" on with your work to supply women with abortifacients.

"Continue" on with your work encouraging SSA men and women to enter into civil marriage instead of celibacy.

"Continue" to work on these things for the good of Catholics in the United States of America.

This is sick in the head and sick in the soul.

Sick in the culture of corruption that has plagued Christ's Church for decades - the good ole boys.

Just plain ole sick.

It brings us right back to the days when the hierarchy thought saying encouraging things to the pedophiles and ephebophiles they ordained would fix the problem they kept pretending didn't exist.

I don't really give a flying fig what the Pope told Jenkins in private.

That is not going to help my children or yours discern whether or not what he's been doing is what they should say and do.

What I care about is the Pope's public statement, which conveyed to the people that matter to me, that what Notre Dame has done and 'continues' to do, is the principles they need to apply in their work of evangelizing themselves, others and the culture at large.

That's what I care about and what all Catholics acting in good faith should care about. The statements the Pope "continues" to make have done damage to the discernment of the people in our homes, our families, our schools and the culture at large.

After all the years of trying to convince the people we love not to follow the examples set by Jenkins and Notre Dame, the Pope just told them it is in harmony with the Magisterium.