Fr. Isaac Mary Relyea

Biography

	His mother, Ann, consecrated him to Mary as a priest while he was in the womb. Padre Pio confirmed the consecration.
	Thirteen years in business. Union man.
1992	Converted at a charismatic prayer meeting.
1993	Joined Holy Apostles seminary a year after his conversion. His mother suffered for six years. His father converted a year and half before his death.
9 January 1999	Ordained a deacon with the Franciscan Friars of the Immaculate (FFI). Religious name: Friar Isaac Alphonsus Mary of the Holy Martyrs. Devoted to St. Isaac Jogues. His mother died after his ordination to the diaconate. He preached at her funeral as a deacon.
~2000	First Lenten series--was on CDs.
March 2007?	Preached on the Four Last Things (Audio Sancto) at an FSSP Church in Kansas City, Kansas. [The talk on Heaven, however, refers to an "interregnum," which almost certainly must be shortly after the death of John Paul II (2 April 2005) and the election of Benedict XVI seventeen days later (19 April 2005). The Audio Sancto tapes must be dated wrongly.]
2009	At Blessed Sacrament in Kansas City, Kansas.
2010?	Moved to Madison, Wisconsin, with the permission of his superiors and Bishop Morlino, to start the Franciscan Friars of Our Lady of Good Success.
2012	Guidestar.org Franciscan Friars of Our Lady of Good Success, Inc. Physical Address: Albany, WI 53502 EIN: 45-2741438 NTEE Category: X Religion, Spiritual Development X22 (Roman Catholic) Ruling Year: 2012
Fall, 2013	Last update to Fr. Isaac's home page. The page still shows a registration form for a men's retreat, November 8-10, 2013.

Four Last Things

The four last things are Death, Judgment, Hell, and Heaven.

Positive features of the mission talks

• We should be mindful that we are going to die and face judgment.
• We do not know the day nor the hour when our lives will be required of us.
• We should consecrate ourselves each day to doing God's will in our lives.
• We should earnestly pray for our own conversion and for the conversion of other sinners.
• We should strive to fight the good fight and finish the race (2 Tim 4:7).
• We should pray regularly.
• We should examine our consciences and go to Confession regularly.
• We should repent of our sins and develop the virtues that allow us to do the good habitually.

Negative aspects of the mission talks

I understand how easy it is while preaching to misrepresent my own thought or that of the Church. Fr. Relyea is not using a script, but speaking very passionately and persuasively from the heart. Nevertheless, there were a number of points he made that I think need to be corrected. That is the purpose of the comments below.

Death

This is a good meditation on the shortness and fragility of life.

None of us knows when GOD will call us to Himself.

We have no power to lengthen our time on earth--not even by a single breath.

We should think of death every day.

Fr. Relyea recommends praying three Hail Marys each day, asking for the grace of receiving the sacraments at the end of our lives.

"Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death."

Judgment

Three strikes and you're out?

It is not a teaching of the Church that the faithful cannot confess the same kind of sin more than three times.

On the contrary, confessors are to presume good faith and good will on the part of penitents, unless there is very clear evidence to the contrary of the sin of presumption.

Catholic Answers, "Can absolution be denied a habitual sinner?"

I have no idea on what Church document he would base such statements. The confessor should always presume, unless there is evidence to the contrary, the repentance of the sinner who is confessing. The Pontifical Council for the Family's Vademcum for Confessors deals with issues of contraception and chastity, but its general principles are applicable:

2. The minister of Reconciliation should always keep in mind that the sacrament has been instituted for men and women who are sinners. Therefore, barring manifest proof to the contrary, he will receive the penitents who approach the confessional taking for granted their good will to be reconciled with the merciful God, a good will that is born, although in different degrees, of a contrite and humbled heart (Psalm 50:19).37

The same document, which deals with the issue of contraception, specifically states that repeated falling into sin is not grounds for denying absolution (emphasis added):

5. The confessor is bound to admonish penitents regarding objectively grave transgressions of God's law and to ensure that they truly desire absolution and God's pardon with the resolution to re-examine and correct their behaviour. Frequent relapse into sins of contraception does not in itself constitute a motive for denying absolution; absolution cannot be imparted, however, in the absence of sufficient repentance or of the resolution not to fall again into sin.

And further on in the document it restates this:

11. Sacramental absolution is not to be denied to those who, repentant after having gravely sinned against conjugal chastity, demonstrate the desire to strive to abstain from sinning again, notwithstanding relapses. In accordance with the approved doctrine and practice followed by the holy Doctors and confessors with regard to habitual penitents, the confessor is to avoid demonstrating lack of trust either in the grace of God or in the dispositions of the penitent, by exacting humanly impossible absolute guarantees of an irreproachable future conduct.

Are all Catholics obliged to do morning and night prayers on pain of mortal sin?

No. This is wise and good advice, but it is not law binding under pain of sin.

It is a nice rhythm to pray on waking, before and after each meal, and before going to bed at night. This suggestion falls under the virtues of piety and fear of the Lord.

Anger at God?

It is not a mortal sin to feel angry at God and to express disappointment that He allows us to suffer. Sin, like love, is a decision, not a passion. In the book of Job, the man who blames God for his suffering is praised while those who tell him to "shut up and suffer" are condemned. When we are hurting, we may tell God that we feel hurt, just as Jesus did in His agony in the garden and in His suffering on the cross.

Is it a mortal sin to read your horoscope?

No. Superstition is "grave matter," so believing that the basic features of our lives were fixed by the position of the stars at the moment of our birth is contrary to the First Commandment. Simply looking at the predictions in the newspaper does not indicate that one has broken faith with the living God.

Is Harry Potter from Hell?

Some aspects of Harry Potter are contrary to faith and morals; other aspects are entirely consistent with Catholic teaching. Parents should engage their children in discussion of the issues raised by the novels and films.

"No salvation outside the Church"?

Fr. Relyea made some remarks that sounded somewhat misleading.

The truth is that there is no salvation outside of Jesus. He alone is "the way and the truth and the life," and no human being can come to the Father except through Him (Jn 14:6).

The Church is the Body of Christ. Whoever is joined to Jesus is joined to the Church.

It is contrary to the teaching of the Church to say that all who are not explicitly and positively members of the Catholic Church automatically go to Hell. If this is what Fr. Relyea thought and meant to express, then he is guilty of the heresy of Feeneyism.

Fr. Relyea does not directly say "All Protestants are going to Hell." He does say:

• Protestant worship is not pleasing to God.
• Protestants cannot have divine faith because they do not believe all that the Church teaches.
• We cannot pray with Protestants.
• "You cannot go to Heaven unless you accept the Catholic Church" (from talk on Hell).

This is directly contrary to the teaching of Vatican II:

Moreover, some and even very many of the significant elements and endowments which together go to build up and give life to the Church itself, can exist outside the visible boundaries of the Catholic Church: the written word of God; the life of grace; faith, hope and charity, with the other interior gifts of the Holy Spirit, and visible elements too. All of these, which come from Christ and lead back to Christ, belong by right to the one Church of Christ.

The brethren divided from us also use many liturgical actions of the Christian religion. These most certainly can truly engender a life of grace in ways that vary according to the condition of each Church or Community. These liturgical actions must be regarded as capable of giving access to the community of salvation.

It follows that the separated Churches and Communities as such, though we believe them to be deficient in some respects, have been by no means deprived of significance and importance in the mystery of salvation. For the Spirit of Christ has not refrained from using them as means of salvation which derive their efficacy from the very fullness of grace and truth entrusted to the Church.

Can the Church recognize religious freedom?

Fr. Relyea seems to reject the teaching authority of Vatican II when he speaks as if the Church has abandoned her commitment to the truth in accepting the separation of church and state as a useful accommodation for Catholics and members of all religions. In the very first paragraph of Dignitatis Humanae, the Council fathers make it clear that they are in no way asserting that people have the right to be wrong when the affirm that the state should not interfere with human rights:

Religious freedom, in turn, which men demand as necessary to fulfill their duty to worship God, has to do with immunity from coercion in civil society. Therefore it leaves untouched traditional Catholic doctrine on the moral duty of men and societies toward the true religion and toward the one Church of Christ.

Do Masons worship Satan?

No. This is a demonstrably false allegation from the 19th century. There are other excellent reasons why the Church prohibits her members from participating in Freemasonry: "Therefore the Church's negative judgment in regard to Masonic association remains unchanged since their principles have always been considered irreconcilable with the doctrine of the Church and therefore membership in them remains forbidden. The faithful who enroll in Masonic associations are in a state of grave sin and may not receive Holy Communion."

Sunday obligation to rest?

• No more than two hours of servile work.
• No shopping, except for food or medicine.

Mortal sin to delay Baptism?

• "Must not delay more than a month."
• "Children in Limbo are deprived of the Beatific Vision."

Never correct your children in anger.

This is good advice.

Is dating a mortal sin?

• Never two alone.
• Never for more than a year.

Never argue in front of your children.

This is excellent advice!

Problems in marriage

• "The silent treatment."
• Withholding oneself from the spouse.

"Most women today are on the way to Hell."

• Immodest dress.
• Wearing dungarees is a mortal sin.
• Wearing pants emasculates men.

Girls should avoid athletics?

• Immodest uniforms.
• Threat to fertility from physical activity.

Is the woman the queen of the household?

Yes, she is.

Is Vatican II negligible?

"Vatican II taught nothing new, so we should turn to the twenty preceding councils which did."

Hell

What does "judge not lest ye be judged" mean?

"No rash judgments."

Is Hell a "place"?

• For Fr. Relyea, saying "hell is not a place" is the same thing as denying that there is a Hell or that anyone can or will go to Hell.
• He believes Hell is in the center of the earth and that Russian drillers heard the sounds of the damned in agony.

"Well to Hell Hoax."

• A man who listened to his talk went to Hell that very night and returned to confirm what Fr. Relyea had said.

Did Teresa of Avila drink from a skull?

Not that I can see.

Santa Francesca Romana is said to have done so.

Heaven

Do only dummies believe that the Pope consecrated Russia to Mary?

Fr. Relyea says that:

• No pope has claimed to have made the consecration.
• Only dummies say that the Pope has done so.

Among the dummies are Sr. Lucia, one of the three visionaries, and Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger. I side with the dummies and Pope St. John Paul the Great.

Should gun owners refuse to give up their guns?

There is no official teaching from the Church on gun ownership. We have a general responsibility to obey civil authorities and to adhere to the laws of the land. Fr. Relyea was expressing his own opinion, not a teaching of the Church, when he said, "Never give up your weapons."

Will there be a trial by fire?

There is a private revelation that the world will be tested and purified by "fire from the sky." The bishop of Akita has declared that the apparition is of divine origin, but neither he nor Rome can impose belief in the sayings of Our Lady on all Catholics. Those who wish to give credence to the prophecy may do so.

Apparition of Mary in Akita, Japan, 1975.

As I told you, if men do not repent and better themselves, the Father will inflict a terrible punishment on all humanity. It will be a punishment greater than the deluge, such as one will never seen before. Fire will fall from the sky and will wipe out a great part of humanity, the good as well as the bad, sparing neither priests nor faithful. The survivors will find themselves so desolate that they will envy the dead. The only arms which will remain for you will be the Rosary and the Sign left by My Son. Each day recite the prayers of the Rosary. With the Rosary, pray for the Pope, the bishops and priests.

Links

• Fr. Isaac's home page. Last update in 2013? Women's retreat canceled; form for men's retreat is dated November 8-10, 2013.
• Facebook fan page. "This is purely a Fan Page. Fr. Relyea is not involved in this and does not man it. Please see his website to schedule a retreat or send donations which are needed for his new order. Thank you and God bless you! +JMJ+"
• Extra Jesum nulla salus.
• Fish Eaters, "The Sacrament of Penance." A very thorough guide to examination of conscience and making a good confession.
• Liguori, "Scrupulous Anonymous." For those who are tormented by irrational feelings of guilt and despair.