St. Joseph's Workshop

Fr. Paul Scalia On "The Seven Deadly Sins"

2010-09-02T22:10:00.000-07:00

Here is an audio series that every Catholic simply MUST listen to. This is doubly true if your Catholic education in the vices and the virtues stopped after CCD or Catholic school. The speaker is Fr. Paul Scalia (son of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia). In this series (starting with a session on the Natural Law), Fr. Scalia-- using Sacred Scripture, the writings of the Saints (especially St. Thomas Aquinas), Dante's Divine Comedy, and a good measure of laugh-out-loud humor--explains the Deadly Sins, their origin and cause, and how to combat them. Download and listen to these exceptional talks for yourselves and pass them on to your teen and adult children, other loved ones and friends, and basically all those who need a clear refresher of these important truths of the Faith:

The Natural Law

The Seven Deadly Sins

Source: Institute of Catholic Culture

Quick Question About "The Da Vinci Code"

2010-05-29T08:40:00.000-07:00

I suscribe to a service called "Quick Questions" that sends out a daily e-mail answering questions about the Catholic Faith. Todays question addresses the topic of The Da Vinci Code, the highly controversial-- and still, widely read-- novel by Dan Brown. I thought the staff apologist that answered this question did a good job in addressing the main issues of why Catholics (and anyone interested in truth) have problems with Browns book-- and, by extension, any work or literary or cinematic fiction that distort or play loose with serious historical facts and religious truths:

Q: “I have just read Catholic Answers' report on the novel The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown. I have to say that the Church seems very flustered about the book. Surely the Church has nothing to fear from a work of fiction, no matter what the view of the author.”

A: Actually, the Church as an institution has had no comment, one way or the other, on The Da Vinci Code. The book has not been placed by the Vatican on any "forbidden books" list nor have any "official" sanctions been placed on it. Those who are concerned are faithful Catholics, clerical and lay, who have seen the book confuse Catholics and other Christians about the character of people in the early Church, the relationship of Jesus Christ and Mary Magdalene, and orthodox Christian doctrine.

Although many have claimed that Christians shouldn’t be concerned about the novel because it is fiction, Brown himself has touted the book as the fruit of factual research. He opens the novel with a "Fact Page" that purports to be unvarnished truth. In other words, he wants people to believe that his conclusions in the novel are true.

Even had Brown not advertised his book to reveal hidden "truths" about Christianity, the device of fiction does not grant authors the right to disseminate historical untruths. Analogously, a novel that purported to reveal that the Holocaust never happened and that Adolf Hitler was really a great guy would be (quite properly) discounted by people of good will everywhere as anti-Semitic agitprop. Indeed, in this day and age, such a book would likely never see publication, at least by mainstream publishers. If such a book as that could not be defended with the disclaimer "It’s only a novel!" then other books that spread historical untruths also cannot be defended as "only fiction."

You can subscribe the "Quick Questions" by going to the Catholic Answers website and clicking on the banner that says "Quick Questions E-Letter FREE."

SB 1070: What Do I Think About It?

2010-05-16T09:40:00.000-07:00

This has got to be the hot button topic of the day. Virtually everybody has an opinion on it, some informed and some not so informed. And there are some who are completely misinformed and are running on pure emotion or political posturing. I'm asked about this law a lot, so I am going to try and explain my views here.

As you may or may not know, I am a "third generation" American of Mexican extraction. I put that in quotes because my family was settled in California before it was the United States. I love my heritage and am proud to be what I am. My wife is Filipino and, like most of those who come here from foreign shores, her family worked hard and sacrificed to play by all the rules to come to this country. I was born and raised in California, but have lived happily in Arizona for the last fifteen years. I was in the military, so I've seen some of the world, and I'm now a fire code enforcement official, so I see a fairly wide spectrum of the community--the good, bad and the ugly.

Having said that, let me say this: Those who are against this law and do not live in Arizona need to step back and look at reality.

First of all, this law is NOT about racial profiling-- in fact, language within the law prohibits it. It simply is an enforcement of existing law. If I thought it was going to profile people with brown skin (including me) I would be against it.

Secondly, this law does not-- repeat does NOT-- give police the legal right to stop people whenever they feel like it just to ask their legal status. It does give them the right to ask about their legal status if the person is being lawfully detained for the commission of a crime AND does not possess common ID, like a drivers license. So if you don't commit crimes or get arrested and you have ID, no problem.

So let's stop with the mischaracterizing the law. Instead, lets look at some facts.

Fact: Illegal immigration (note the word 'illegal') is draining Arizona. The emergency room system here is collapsing, the state social welfare system that are meant for American citizens in need are over-burdened and are on the verge of being cut. The public school system is hemorrhaging red ink. Cops and regular citizens along the border are being threatened and killed by violent gangs. The law enforcement system is going broke because of both non-violent and violent crime committed by non-citizens.

Answer me this: Who's going to deal with this and pay for all this? People on the liberal coasts? Who is now paying the price in treasure and blood while the rest of the country wrings their hands and the POTUS makes jokes? What would you have Arizona do--allow itself to be drained of resources? Other than open the borders or grant blanket amnesty, what would you do? I have asked this question many times in many venues and have never received an answer-- only silence.

What about all the American kids in Arizona who can't get jobs because the entry-level jobs that traditionally go to young folks are going to cheap illegal immigrants? Who is dealing with this? Arizona and Arizonans, that's who! We are the Gondor of the US taking the brunt while everyone else sits safely in their ivory towers. If the Feds or no one else will help us, we will do it ourselves. If you have a better plan that you're willing to help pay for, let's hear it.

Finally, let's be clear on this: those self-anointed Latino 'leaders,' activists and celebrities that are now screaming "RACISM" over this law do NOT speak for me. They only speak for themselves and for those who are similarly misinformed, paranoid and politically motivated. I can speak for myself.

The Ant and The Grasshopper: An Aesop's Fable Retold for Modern America

2010-04-01T12:15:00.000-07:00

THE ANT & THE GRASSHOPPER (TRADITIONAL VERSION)

The ant works hard in the withering heat all summer long, building his house and laying up supplies for the winter. The grasshopper thinks the ant is a fool and laughs and dances and plays the summer away.

Come winter, the ant is warm and well fed. The grasshopper has no food or shelter, so he dies out in the cold.

The End.

[MORAL OF THE STORY: Be responsible for yourself.]

* * * * *

THE ANT & THE GRASSHOPPER (MODERN VERSION)

The ant works hard in the withering heat and the rain all summer long, building his house and laying up supplies for the winter.The grasshopper thinks the ant is a fool and laughs and dances and plays the summer away.

When winter comes, the shivering grasshopper calls a press conference and demands to know why the ant should be allowed to be warm and well fed while he is cold and starving.

CBS, NBC , PBS, CNN, and ABC show up to provide pictures of the shivering grasshopper next to a video of the ant in his comfortable home with a table filled with food.

America is stunned by the sharp contrast. How can this be, that in a country of such wealth, this poor grasshopper is allowed to suffer so? Kermit the Frog appears on Oprah with the grasshopper and everybody cries when they sing, “It's Not Easy Being Green . . .”

ACORN stages a demonstration in front of the ant's house where the news stations film the group singing, “We shall overcome.” Then the Rev. Al Sharpton has the group kneel down to pray to God for the grasshopper's sake.

Dear Leader condemns the ant and blames President Bush, President Reagan, Christopher Columbus, and the Pope for the grasshopper's plight.

Nancy Pelosi & Harry Reid exclaim in an interview with Larry King that the ant has gotten rich off the back of the grasshopper, and both call for an immediate tax hike on the ant to make him pay his fair share.

Finally, the EEOC drafts the Economic Equity & Anti-Grasshopper Act retroactive to the beginning of the summer.

The ant is fined for failing to hire a proportionate number of green bugs and, having nothing left to pay his retroactive taxes, his home is confiscated by the Government Green Czar and given to the grasshopper. The story ends as we see the grasshopper and his free-loading friends finishing up the last bits of the ant’s food while the government house he is in, which, as you recall, just happens to be the ant's old house, crumbles around them because the grasshopper doesn't maintain it.

The ant has disappeared in the snow, never to be seen again.

The grasshopper is found dead in a drug related incident, and the house, now abandoned, is taken over by a gang of spiders who terrorize the ramshackle, once prosperous and once peaceful, neighborhood.

As this scenario is repeated over and over in community after community, he entire Nation collapses, dragging the rest of the free world with it.

The End.

[MORAL OF THE STORY: Be careful how you vote in 2010 and 2012.]

Author unknown.

(HT to Patrick Madrid)

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

2010-03-17T15:25:00.000-07:00

In addition to being the birthday of my sweet, smart, beautiful wife Carol, today is the Feastday of St. Patrick. Most people aren't caught by surprise by this fact, since it's impossible to be unaware of the increased number of green retail decorations and Guiness advertisements this time of year, and many, many people are happy to call themselves Irish for a day, if for nothing else, as an excuse to eat corned beef and cabbage and slightly more beer than usual.

Many lose sight of the fact (if they ever knew in the first place) that St. Patrick was a real saint, and quite a famous and colorful one at that.

Patrick was born around 385 in Scotland, probably Kilpatrick. His parents were Calpurnius and Conchessa, who were Romans living in Britian in charge of the colonies. As a boy of fourteen or so, he was captured during a raiding party and taken to Ireland as a slave to herd and tend sheep. Ireland at this time was a land of Druids and pagans. He learned the language and practices of the people who held him. During his captivity, he turned to God in prayer. He wrote

"The love of God and his fear grew in me more and more, as did the faith, and my soul was rosed, so that, in a single day, I have said as many as a hundred and in the night, nearly the same."

Patrick's captivity lasted until he was twenty, when he escaped after having a dream from God in which he was told to leave Ireland by going to the coast. There he found some sailors who took him back to Britian, where he reunited with his family. He had another dream in which the people of Ireland were calling out to him "We beg you, holy youth, to come and walk among us once more." He began his studies for the priesthood. He was ordained by St. Germanus, the Bishop of Auxerre, whom he had studied under for years.

Later, Patrick was ordained a bishop, and was sent to take the Gospel to Ireland. He arrived in Ireland March 25, 433, at Slane. One legend says that he met a chieftain of one of the tribes, who tried to kill Patrick. Patrick converted Dichu (the chieftain) after he was unable to move his arm until he became friendly to Patrick.

Patrick began preaching the Gospel throughout Ireland, converting many. He and his disciples preached and converted thousands and began building churches all over the country. Kings, their families, and entire kingdoms converted to Christianity when hearing Patrick's message.
Patrick by now had many disciples, among them Beningnus, Auxilius, Iserninus, and Fiaac, (all later canonized as well).

Patrick preached and converted all of Ireland for 40 years. He worked many miracles and wrote of his love for God in Confessions. After years of living in poverty, traveling and enduring much suffering he died March 17, 461. He died at Saul, where he had built the first church.

One of the most famous and beloved prayers in the world is called The Breastplate of St. Patrick. Here it is in it's entirety:

I bind unto myself today

the strong name of the Trinity,

by invocation of the same,

the Three in One and One in Three.

I bind this day to me for ever,

by power of faith, Christ's Incarnation;

His baptism in the Jordan River;

his death on cross for my salvation;

his bursting from the spiced tomb;

his riding up the heavenly way;

his coming at the day of doom;

I bind unto myself today.

I bind unto myself the power

of the great love of the Cherubim;

the sweet 'Well done' in judgment hour;

the service of the Seraphim,

confessors' faith, Apostles' word,

the Patriarchs' prayers, the Prophets' scrolls,

all good deeds done unto the Lord,

and purity of virgin souls.

I bind unto myself today

the virtues of the starlit heaven,

the glorious sun's life-giving ray,

the whiteness of the moon at even,

the flashing of the lightning free,

the whirling wind's tempestuous shocks,

the stable earth, the deep salt sea,

around the old eternal rocks.

I bind unto myself today

the power of God to hold and lead,

his eye to watch, his might to stay,

his ear to hearken to my need.

The wisdom of my God to teach,

his hand to guide, his shield to ward,

the word of God to give me speech,

his heavenly host to be my guard.

Against the demon snares of sin,

the vice that gives temptation force,

the natural lusts that war within,

the hostile men that mar my course;

or few or many, far or nigh,

in every place and in all hours

against their fierce hostility,

I bind to me these holy powers.

Against all Satan's spells and wiles,

against false words of heresy,

against the knowledge that defiles,

against the heart's idolatry,

against the wizard's evil craft,

against the death-wound and the burning

the choking wave and the poisoned shaft,

protect me, Christ, till thy returning.

Christ be with me, Christ within me,

Christ behind me, Christ before me,

Christ beside me, Christ to win me,

Christ to comfort and restore me,

Christ beneath me, Christ above me,

Christ in quiet, Christ in danger,

Christ in hearts of all that love me,

Christ in mouth of friend and stranger.

I bind unto myself the name,

the strong name of the Trinity;

by invocation of the same.

The Three in One, and One in Three,

of whom all nature hath creation,

Eternal Father, Spirit, Word:

Praise to the Lord of my salvation,

salvation is of Christ the Lord.
Amen.

Have a blessed St. Paddy's Day. As the Irish say, God love you.

Anti-Catholic Tract Stirs Controversy

2010-03-05T14:56:00.000-08:00

Think rank anti-Catholicism has gone the way of the 19th century Know-Nothings? Think again, as a Baptist minister in Tennesee has gotten himself in hot water for distributing the infamously anti-Catholic tract, "The Death Cookie," penned and distributed by the notoriously anti-Catholic (and anti-A Lot of Other Things), Jack Chick. From the report by Fox News:

A Baptist pastor in Tennessee says he now regrets that his church distributed an anti-Catholic leaflet that a local Catholic priest decried as “hate material."

Pastor Jonathan Hatcher, who leads Conner Heights Baptist Church in Pigeon Forge, Tenn., has removed the inflammatory leaflet, “The Death Cookie,” from his congregation. He says he will no longer distribute it.

“Looking back, I don’t think it was the right tract to give out,” Hatcher told FoxNews.com. “I have some others that wouldn’t have been as offensive. But I will continue to spread the gospel — that’s what I’m called by Christ to do. I’m still going to hand out tracts, but not ‘The Death Cookie.’”

The illustrated leaflet, distributed since 1988 by California-based Chick Publications, features an ominous character with a snake around his neck who advises a man that he can control the world by establishing a false religion based upon worshipping a cookie. Upon taking the control of the cookie, the man becomes the "papa" — a reference to the pope.

Jack Chick had a huge presence in California when I was growing up there, and after my adult conversion to the Faith, I ran into his little booklets (including this particular one) in just about every Protestant book store I went into. I wrote one shop to request they stop carrying them, but they never answered back. I complained to another large store, which featured an entire aisle dedicated to the tracts, and they replied "Many of our customers find the tracts helpful so we feel obliged to carry them." I visited the store a few years ago and noted (to my satisfaction) that they no longer seemed to carry them. (On the other hand, I was chatting with a young Baptist minister in his office last month, and when he opened his desk drawer to get something, I saw a neat little stack of Chick tracts in the corner. Sigh.)

These days you normally find them strategically placed (just like Jehovah's Witness materials) in locations --- campus, bar room and truck stop bathrooms; public laundry facilities; telephone booths, etc. --- where they can be picked up by the most vunerable audience, i.e. bored folks looking for something to read, and those largely uneducated in religion and most likely to be swayed by simplistic and emotional arguments.

As noted in the news report, Jack Chick has a long and colorful career as an anti-Catholic. The apologetics organization, Catholic Answers has done a comprehensive special report on this gentleman's "ministry" called "The Nightmare World of Jack T. Chick." You can find it here.

Finally, I would like to give kudos to the priest, Father Jay Flaherty, for opposing this bigotry and well-worn hate literature and for standing up for truth and for the members of his flock. This is just what a good shepherd is supposed to do.

A Church's Parting Thought "Judas Left Early Too."

2010-01-30T09:17:00.000-08:00

Parting thought--or parting shot?

A church's parting thought:
Pastor's sign is for those who leave Mass early

MOUNT CLEMENS [MI] – Some people still take off right after Communion at St. Peter Church, but not as many now that they have to walk under signs that read "Judas left early too."
Fr. Cooney says putting the signs up at each of the three exits was "a bit of Irish diplomacy" aimed at addressing a long-standing source of frustration for many Catholic priests: people who leave Mass early, rather than staying for the dismissal.

(Read entire story here.)

Dr. M.L. King’s neice: “The Dream Includes Us All, Born and Unborn”

2010-01-18T15:57:00.000-08:00

The AmericanPapist notes:

Despite the attempts of abortion advocates like Planned Parenthood president Cecile Richards to claim that Dr. King was an abortion activist, those who bear his name and continue his cause have something very different to say:

Dr. Alveda King, Pastoral Associate of Priests for Life and niece of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., released the following comments today on the celebration of her Uncle’s life.

“Martin Luther King, Jr. spoke of a Beloved Community where all are treated with respect and dignity,” said Dr. King. ”He fought against society’s exclusion of people who were treated as less than human because of their appearance. Today, we are compelled to continue Uncle Martin’s fight by standing up for those who are treated as less than human because of their helplessness and inconvenience.

“The unborn are as much a part of the Beloved Community as are newborns, infants, teenagers, adults, and the elderly. Too many of us speak of tolerance and inclusion, yet refuse to tolerate or include the weakest and most innocent among us in the human family. As we celebrate the life of Uncle Martin, let us renew our hearts and commit our lives to treating each other, whatever our race, status, or stage of life, as we would want to be treated. Let us let each other live.”

Abortion remains a scourge of African Americans, who suffer a far-higher abortion rate. Planned Parenthood should strive to promote a culture where all human beings have an equal chance to live. That’s my dream, and Dr. King’s.

I wrote previously about this last point in my blog here. To me, it is THE Great Civil Rights Issue of our time, comparable to the abolition of slavery about 150 years ago. Arizona Congressman Trent Franks also has something to say about this, as well as some proposed legislation. See the story here.

I like to remind people that it was one of my heroes, President Ronald Reagan, who signed into law the holiday honoring Dr. King. Here are his concluding words on that day:

Now our nation has decided to honor Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., by setting aside a day each year to remember him and the just cause he stood for. We've made historic strides since Rosa Parks refused to go to the back of the bus. As a democratic people, we can take pride in the knowledge that we Americans recognized a grave injustice and took action to correct it. And we should remember that in far too many countries, people like Dr. King never have the opportunity to speak out at all.

But traces of bigotry still mar America. So, each year on Martin Luther King Day, let us not only recall Dr. King, but rededicate ourselves to the Commandments he believed in and sought to live every day: Thou shall love thy God with all thy heart, and thou shall love thy neighbor as thyself. And I just have to believe that all of us—if all of us, young and old, Republicans and Democrats, do all we can to live up to those Commandments, then we will see the day when Dr. King's dream comes true, and in his words, “All of God's children will be able to sing with new meaning, ‘... land where my fathers died, land of the pilgrim's pride, from every mountainside, let freedom ring.’”

Thank you, God bless you, and I will sign it.

St. Augustine on the Meaning of Christmas

2009-12-24T09:07:00.000-08:00

On this Christmas Eve, I just wanted to share these thoughts, from a sermon by Saint Augustine found in the Office of Readings for today's Divine Office. It concerns the taking on of human flesh by Jesus, the Second Person of the Most Holy Trinity---which, of course is the REAL point of this whole Christmas thing anyway.

Truth has arisen from the earth and justice has looked down from heaven

Awake, mankind! For your sake God has become man. Awake, you who sleep, rise up from the dead, and Christ will enlighten you. I tell you again: for your sake, God became man.

You would have suffered eternal death, had he not been born in time. Never would you have been freed from sinful flesh, had he not taken on himself the likeness of sinful flesh. You would have suffered everlasting unhappiness, had it not been for this mercy. You would never have returned to life, had he not shared your death. You would have been lost if he had not hastened ‘to your aid. You would have perished, had he not come.

Let us then joyfully celebrate the coming of our salvation and redemption. Let us celebrate the festive day on which he who is the great and eternal day came from the great and endless day of eternity into our own short day of time.

He has become our justice, our sanctification, our redemption, so that, as it is written: Let him who glories glory in the Lord.

Truth, then, has arisen from the earth: Christ who said, I am the Truth, was born of the Virgin. And justice looked down from heaven: because believing in this new-born child, man is justified not by himself but by God.

Truth has arisen from the earth: because the Word was made flesh. And justice looked down from heaven: because every good gift and every perfect gift is from above.

Truth has arisen from the earth: flesh from Mary. And justice looked down from heaven: for man can receive nothing unless it has been given him from heaven.

Justified by faith, let us be at peace with God: for justice and peace have embraced one another. Through our Lord Jesus Christ: for Truth has arisen from the earth. Through whom we have access to that grace in which we stand, and our boast is in our hope of God’s glory. He does not say: “of our glory,” but of God’s glory: for justice has not come out of us but has looked down from heaven. Therefore he who glories, let him glory, not in himself, but in the Lord.

For this reason, when our Lord was born of the Virgin, the message of the angelic voices was: Glory to God in the highest, and peace to men of good will.

For how could there be peace on earth unless Truth has arisen from the earth, that is, unless Christ were born of our flesh? And he is our peace who made the two into one: that we might be men of good will, sweetly linked by the bond of unity.

Let us then rejoice in this grace, so that our glorying may bear witness to our good conscience by which we glory, not in ourselves, but in the Lord. That is why Scripture says: He is my glory, the one who lifts up my head. For what greater grace could God have made to dawn on us than to make his only Son become the son of man, so that a son of man might in his turn become son of God?

Ask if this were merited; ask for its reason, for its justification, and see whether you will find any other answer but sheer grace.

Concluding Prayer
Hurry, Lord Jesus, do not delay.
We put our trust in your loving kindness:
may your coming bring us consolation and support.
You live and reign with God the Father in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
God for ever and ever.
Amen.

Find more reflections here.

How Can I bring My Fallen Away Catholic Family and Friends Back to the Church?

2009-12-21T11:21:00.000-08:00

I have some friends who were born Catholic but who have left for evangelical churches. What are some ways I can nudge these friends to research Catholicism again? They seem to be happy where they are.

While it's primarily the work of the Holy Spirit and God's grace acting with a person's free will that ultimately brings them to conversion, there are still a lot of things you can do to be God's instrument in this.

If they belong to evangelical churches, they may or they may not be happy where they are. In order to make them take fresh look at the Church from an objective standpoint, you have to clearly show them two things:

[1] That there is something that the Catholic Church posseses that they can't get anywhere else, even in a local church community to which they may have some emotional attachment. There are a number of things that fall under this category: The Eucharist and the other Sacraments as means of grace; the Church's historical origin in Christ as well as her historical continuity; an authoritative, Christ given authority to interpret the Scriptures in contrast to the multitude of personal, often conflicting biblical interpretations; the profundity of the liturgy; a unified and clear teaching voice on moral issues; and so on.

To this end, you should be ready to answer any questions they might have about the Catholic Faith (just because they were raised Catholic, you should not assume they know the rudiments of the Faith--in fact, the opposite is probably true since many Catholics drift away precisely because they do not know the Faith, or possess a very young child's understanding of it.). This doesn't mean you need to be an expert in theology, Scripture, Church law and apologetics, but you should at least be able to answer their basic questions. If you don't know something they ask about, don't be afraid to say "I don't know, but I'll look it up and get back with you," then do it.

[2] That they would gain all the things they have at their non-Catholic church but at the same time they would not be losing anything essential if they left there and returned to the Catholic Church. This might be a little tricky if they consider some un-essentials to Christianity itself --such as warm fellowship, good musicians, childcare during services, easy availability of Bible studies, dynamic preaching, etc -- to be absolutely essential. In that case, you'd have to show them how -- nice and helpful as these things are -- they do not comprise the essence of being a Christian -- that is, the grace found in the Sacraments, being in full communion with the Church body established by Christ, the holy example and solicitude of the Saints, and the fullness of truth found in Sacred Scripture and Sacred Tradition-- which can only be found in the Catholic Church. Having said that, it's also true that you often can find many of those nice non-essentials in many (though, admittedly, not all) Catholic parishes.

The above, and your own example of a holy, Christian life (with lots of prayer, their own honesty and openess to the truth, and God's grace) will bring them home. Hope that helps. :)

Pope Benedict on "Faith in Progress"

2009-12-18T17:28:00.000-08:00

First, a confession: I've had a copy of Pope Benedict's second encyclical, Spe Salvi (Latin for "Saved In Hope"), on my nightstand largely unread since I bought it shortly after it's release in November of 2007. It wasn't due to lack of interest, of course. My nightstand, at any given time, is normally groaning under the weight of several stacks of new books, books I want to reread, magazines and printouts of articles I've downloaded and printed out from the Internet. It's only since I've self-imposed a moratorium on buying myself new books that the top of the nightstand has begun the see the light of day.

Anyway, I've finally been able to begin seriously reading this (when I first got it I did do a perfunctionary scan). It's not an especially arduous or voluminous work (my copy is 105 pages), but like most worthwhile reads, it is one that takes a while to read if you want to do it justice by pondering and praying over it, and mining the text for nuggets of insight. As one might surmise from the title, the topic is about the Christian virtue of Hope (which is distinct from our common use of the word hope, as in "I hope my team wins the game"). The Pope's first encyclical, Caritas in Veritate, you may recall, was about the Christian virtue of love (or, "charity").

I'm around page 51 of Spes Salvi now, and Pope Benedict is in the midst of a discussion about the virtue of Hope, and it's relation to the virtue of Faith ("Transformation of Christian Faith-Hope"). This discussion revolves around the contemporary meaning of the word "progress" and how it relates to authentic Christian Hope. Here is a passage, from section 22 of the encyclical, which I found striking:

First we must ask ourselves: what does “progress” really mean; what does it promise and what does it not promise? In the nineteenth century, faith in progress was already subject to critique. In the twentieth century, Theodor W. Adorno formulated the problem of faith in progress quite drastically: he said that progress, seen accurately, is progress from the sling to the atom bomb. Now this is certainly an aspect of progress that must not be concealed. To put it another way: the ambiguity of progress becomes evident. Without doubt, it offers new possibilities for good, but it also opens up appalling possibilities for evil—possibilities that formerly did not exist. We have all witnessed the way in which progress, in the wrong hands, can become and has indeed become a terrifying progress in evil. If technical progress is not matched by corresponding progress in man's ethical formation, in man's inner growth (cf. Eph 3:16; 2 Cor 4:16), then it is not progress at all, but a threat for man and for the world. (Emphasis added)

The idea of the incompatibility of man's technical progress with his ethical progress is not original to the Holy Father, of course. Many people in the last century (including, most famously perhaps, Albert Einstien speaking specifically about atomic weapons) have lamented that we have have put the tools of mental giants in the hands of moral midgets. What struck me (albeit not for the first time) was the characterization of "progress" as something a person might tend to put their faith in, i.e. as a type of religion.

On his final studio album, Double Fantasy, the late John Lennon had a very nice song about his young son Shaun called Beautiful Boy. One of the lines in the song goes something like this:

Before you go to sleep, say a little prayer:
"Every day, in every way, it's getting better and better."

This lyric is not merely a reflection of hopeful sentiment; it reflects a worldview popular in the 1970's that you can will positive thoughts into a situation and it will actually make those positive things happen (this is also a premise of the recent New Age book, The Secret, promoted by Oprah Winfrey). In the 19th century among some Christian groups there was a popular doctrine called post-millenialism. Very simply put: looking around at a relatively peaceful time with a great flowering of literary and technological marvels (this was the so called "Gilded Age" of the Industrial Revolution) Christian post-millenialists believed that man would progress and society would improve in a fairly linear manner eventually reaching the point that mankind would reach such a perfected level, it would precipitate (and presumably flow into) the Second Coming of Jesus. After the horrors of two World Wars, the sheen on this particular view dulled quickly, and hardly any mainstream Christians believe it today.

While today you won't find many post-millenialists around, and pop-spiritual fads like The Secret are only taken seriously by the spiritually immature and the flakey, there is an underlying (and I believe pervasive) belief in our culture in the "spirituality of progress." How I would describe it would be as the assumption that most people seem to hold that, since man has progressed in his technological achievements (and they seem to us to be most impressive), the fact that he has devised these things by rational means is de facto license to apply them at will without adherance to objective moral norms.

There are a number of examples I could mention but let me give just one: stem cell research. There is no denying that the technology behind this procedure is truly amazing and that the potential benefits for saving and improving lives is probably immeasurable at this point. However there are numerous ethical problems when the issue of embryonic stem cells is thrown into the mix. These cells, as you may know, are created by fertilizing an egg in a laboratory so that a human embryo is created. The stem cells are then extracted and the embryo is discarded---a clinical euphemism for: a human baby is created, it's useful parts harvested, and then he or she is killed and thrown away.

Apart from the fact that embryonic stem cells are as yet unproven in curing or treating anything (in contrast to adult stem cell and even placental cells which have displayed remarkable promise), what is the moral dilemna here? Is this the killing of an innocent human life, or is it not? If it is, can it be justified in appealing to a "higher good"? And more to the point of the present argument: Just because we are able to do something, does that make it moral to do so?

I would say, generally speaking and apart from any one issue, that every situation having arguable moral implications is worthy serious examination in the light of objective moral norms (what constitutes "objective moral norms" is concurrently under attack in our culture and itself may have to be clarified before one makes a decision. Unbelievably, many people if pressed, cannot articulate a defined set of objective norms). The most basic norm, of course, is the protection of human life -- especially innocent human life. When man arrives at an acheivement that touches upon this most basic of human rights, the default position should always be to do what is objectively moral; to not do evil in the name of good, and at all times to choose life. Then, perhaps we can reach the point that "everyday, in every way, things are getting better and better..."

December 12: Our Lady of Guadalupe

2009-12-12T07:27:00.000-08:00

Today is the feastday of Our Lady of Guadalupe which celebrates the occurence of a series of apparitions of the Blessed Virgin Mary to the poor Indian peasant, Juan Diego, in the year 1531 just outside Mexico City. On the last visit, she left a miraculous image of herself on the humble cloak--or tilma--of Juan Diego, an image that is still visible today. Here is a link to a website that tells the whole story, as well as amazing scientific facts about the image on the tilma of Juan Diego.

This Feastday is extremely important to Catholics of Latin American heritage. Devotion to OLG is also strong in other places such the Philippines. Just this morning, I arrived at our local parish for my usual Saturday morning men's group meeting, and the parking lot was packed with cars at 6:30 A.M.--it was a Mass for the Spanish speaking community for today's feastday. We had our meeting in a small side chapel, but we could hear the celebration going on next door in the main church--joyful singing, clapping and lots of cool mariachi music.

Many years ago, I was extremely blessed to be able to visit the basilica of Guadalupe in Mexico City and see the image close up, although I didn't appreciate it at the time. This was before my religious conversion and I was visiting the city as a tourist solely to have a good time and to see the many sights, the visit to the basilica (at the time) being just a side trip. I distinctly remember, however, reprobate heathen though I was at the time, being deeply impressed and affected. I can't help thinking now that God used this visit to eventually bring me close to him. There are other episodes in my earlier life that, in retrospect, also seem to have blessed me and prepared me (such when I first saw Pope John Paul II on Guam--but that's another story).

One thing that often annoys me is to see Our Lady's beautiful image in places that don't seem to give her honor. If you see it on a gang-banger's car or t-shirt or tatooed on his back or arm, you can't help but wonder how much of the religious significance of the image is impressed on the wearer. It's a fact that the image is in the minds of many of my fellow Mexican-Americans is as much (or more) a cultural icon as it it is religious.

I say it annoys me rather than angers me because I also know that there is a lot religious ignorance and at the same time good intention involved here. If these particular folks (most of them young men and women) weren't brought up with a good religious education, whose fault is that? Shouldn't those of us who know and love the Faith be doing more to bring the fullness of the truths of that Faith to those who desperately need to hear it?

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UPTATE: The blog Whispers in the Logia has uploaded videos of several Guadalupe celebrations going on around the country. You can view the site here.

America's Royal Family Continues It's Downward Slide

2009-12-09T11:07:00.000-08:00

Another Kennedy Blasts Bishops over Abortion

Former Maryland Lieutenant Governor Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, the eldest child of Robert F. Kennedy, has blasted the nation’s bishops for opposing the use of federal funds to pay for abortions. Mrs. Townsend is the first cousin of Rep. Patrick Kennedy (D-RI), whom Bishop Thomas Tobin has publicly called to repentance and conversion for supporting abortion.

“There are millions of pro-abortion rights Catholics who understand that women faced with unintended pregnancies or complications in wanted pregnancies have to make difficult, complex decisions for themselves and their families,” Mrs. Townsend writes. “They do not make the decision to have an abortion lightly and without weighing all of their options. They must retain the ability to make this decision and the ability to access the care they need, whatever their choice may be. That means they must have access to health insurance that covers abortion care-- just as millions of Americans must have access to affordable health insurance and health care.”

Straining credulity, Mrs. Townsend’s concluding paragraph leads readers to believe that the Vatican would support health care legislation that would fund abortions. “I want Catholic bishops to heed the Vatican’s call for charity and justice for all, not just for the wealthy and well connected,” she writes.

Straining credulity, indeed. Does Mrs. Townsend honestly believe that when the Vatican talks about "truth and justice" they are using secret code for "we support governments paying for poor womens (or anyone elses) abortions"? This in spite of the fact of crystal clear, unambiguous Vatican teaching that abortion is an intrinsically evil in any and all circumstances?

From the Catechism of the Catholic Church (to quote only one source):

2271 Since the first century the Church has affirmed the moral evil of every procured abortion. This teaching has not changed and remains unchangeable. Direct abortion, that is to say, abortion willed either as an end or a means, is gravely contrary to the moral law:

You shall not kill the embryo by abortion and shall not cause the newborn to perish. ( Didache 2,2:SCh 248,148; cf. Ep. Barnabae 19,5:PG 2 777; Ad Diognetum 5,6:PG 2,1173; Tertullian, Apol. 9:PL 1,319-320.)

God, the Lord of life, has entrusted to men the noble mission of safeguarding life, and men must carry it out in a manner worthy of themselves. Life must be protected with the utmost care from the moment of conception: abortion and infanticide are abominable crimes. ( GS 51 § 3.)

2272 Formal cooperation in an abortion constitutes a grave offense. The Church attaches the canonical penalty of excommunication to this crime against human life. "A person who procures a completed abortion incurs excommunication latae sententiae," by the very commission of the offense," and subject to the conditions provided by Canon Law. The Church does not thereby intend to restrict the scope of mercy. Rather, she makes clear the gravity of the crime committed, the irreparable harm done to the innocent who is put to death, as well as to the parents and the whole of society.

Maybe -- just maybe -- Mrs. Townsend is broadly interpreting the very general term "truth and justice" as what she wants it to mean, i.e., in a manner that is politically expedient to her wrapped in the mantle of compassion. I mean, who could argue with anything in the name of these two great virtues? If Mrs. Townsend were a properly catechicized Catholic with a well formed conscience (i.e., a conscience that is fully formed and guided by the teachings of the Church), she would argue against herself. In that case, it is hoped the better formed and better informed version of her would prevail. A lot of innocent lives could potentially be saved in the process.

Celebrating, Understanding and Defending the Immaculate Conception

2009-12-07T20:04:00.000-08:00

Tuesday, December 8th, is the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, a Holy Day of obligation for Catholics (so if you're Catholic, get thee to your local parish), but at the same time one of the most misunderstood beliefs that are held by Catholics.

This article and this article will help you appreciate and understand the background of this singular privilige granted to Mary, the mother of Jesus (and, since Jesus is God, the Mother of God) --a privilige granted to her not because of Mary's own merits or glory, but because if it's fittingness in relation to her role as Mother of Our Redeemer (like all of the teachings of the Church about Mary, the doctrine says more about the uniqueness and holiness of Jesus than it does about Mary).

If, however, you find yourself in the position of having to explain this wonderful Christian truth, here is a helpful article from Catholic Answers. It answers the questions:

1. Why does the Church teach that Mary was immaculately conceived? Her conception is never even mentioned in Scripture.

2. If Mary is sinless, doesn’t that make her equal to God?

3. How could Mary be sinless if in the words of the Magnificat she said that her soul rejoices in God her savior?

4. How can you reconcile Mary’s sinlessness with Paul’s statement that all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God?

5. Didn’t the Church just invent the doctrine 150 years ago?

This article may also be helpful.

To misunderstand a concept is to fear and hate it, but to know the truth often leads one to love it. Be ready when your questioning friends and families are looking for answers and help lead them from fear and hate, to truth and love.

"Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence": What Does It Mean?

2009-12-05T17:41:00.000-08:00

One of the favorite hymns we like to sing in our parish men’s group is "Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence," taken from the 5th century Liturgy of St. James. It is set to the harmony of the French carol, “Picardy” and is a universal favorite during Advent and Christmas. More than once, primarily because of the obscurity of some of the words in the song, the question has been asked “What is the song about and what does it mean?” This is my attempt to explain some of the more arcane features of the song:

In main, the song is primarily a song about the Incarnation (coming in human flesh) of Jesus Christ. From all eternity he was the Second Person of the Most Holy Trinity, the pre-existent Logos (Word of God) as it speaks about in John 1:1-14. Jesus steps out of eternity to become a human being while remaining fully God.

Let all mortal flesh keep silence,

And with fear and trembling stand;

Ponder nothing earthly minded,

For with blessing in His hand,

Christ our God to earth descendeth,

Our full homage to demand.

All mortal flesh (we humans) should stand in awe of the fact that God has come to earth to become man. While thinking and meditating about this, all other (by comparison) unimportant matters should be pushed aside. Our God descended to earth to become one of us, while remaining God, to whom we owe worship!

King of kings, yet born of Mary,

As of old on earth He stood.

Lord of lords in human vesture,

In the body and the blood,

He will give to all the faithful

His own self for heavenly food.

Even though Christ is King of kings, Lord of lords and Creator of the universe, he came in human flesh as a baby, born to Mary. It is this same human flesh, now glorified, that he now gives us to consume in the Eucharist—The Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Christ.

Rank on rank the host of heaven

Spreads its vanguard on the way,

As the Light of light descendeth

From the realms of endless day,

That the pow'rs of hell may vanish

As the darkness clears away.

Rank on rank…hosts of heaven—the angels (the host of heaven) are pictured as forming a vanguard (a double line of soldiers lining the path of a person of high rank, like a king or a great conqueror) for Jesus as he descends to earth.
Light of light—Jesus is, as we say in the Creed ‘light from light’; that is, of the same substance of God.
Descendeth…from the realms of endless day—Jesus came down from heaven, where there is no night or no day (Revelation 21:22-25).
The reason Jesus came was to defeat the power of hell (of death) over us, so that we will not have to live in the darkness of sin any more.

At His feet the six-winged seraph,

Cherubim, with sleepless eye,

Veil their faces to the Presence,

As with ceaseless voice they cry,

Alleluia! Alleluia!Alleluia! Lord Most High.

The seraphim are a rank of angel. The name means ‘burning ones’ as they are thought to be the angels that stand closest to God in heaven, and so are burning with the intensity of God’s love and holiness. They are mentioned in the Bible, most notably in Isaiah, chapter 6. They are pictured there as having six wings—two of which are used to cover their eyes in the presence of God, who is too holy for even them to gaze fully upon.
The cherubim are another rank of angel. It was a cherubim that guarded the entrance to Paradise after Adam and Eve were cast out (Genesis 3:24). As a sentries, they never slept.
Alleluia is a combination of two Hebrew words, hallel, which means ‘praise,’ and a contracted form of the divine name Yah-weh, which the Jews avoided pronouncing. Together, it means ‘praise God.”

You can hear a midi version of this song here:

Encouragement For Christians During Tough Times

2009-12-05T08:24:00.000-08:00

From St. Paul of the Cross:

"Now that the enemies of your soul have gathered about you, the time has come when God wants you to fight, trusting not in yourself but entrusting everything to him. Observe the spirits of the world, the flesh and the devil but never lose heart. Have courage and be of stout heart knowing that with Jesus Christ you shall have no need to fear. You have no need to tremble before anybody.

The cross is the way to paradise, but only when it is borne willingly. For now, rest sweetly in the company of your beloved spouse, Jesus. Never worry about hell. Never worry about anything in this world. Never worry about your own flesh but have no doubt that the Lord will allow you to be tempted. He will never abandon you , even though interiorly, in the inferior part of your soul, it may seem you are abandoned . . . "

(HT to Patrick Madrid)

Christmas is Coming: But Don't Neglect The Advent Season!

2009-11-30T11:36:00.000-08:00

In case you missed it, yesterday (Sunday) was the First Sunday of Advent. I kind of had these grandiose ideas of putting up a profound and inspiring post for the beginning of the liturgical season of Advent but, what with all the Thanksgiving traveling and all, I'm reduced to giving kind of a reminder/slash/roundup of all the resources that are available for the spiritually conscientious Christian to fruitfully prepare for the pinnacle of this season of preparation, Christmas Day (Advent isn't only a Catholic practice, by the way. Lutherans, Anglicans and many other Christians also observe some form of it).

I suspect that most of us aren't really clear on the significance of this special time in the Church's worship calender. Most of us are already stressing out about a single day at the end of December, the day of Christmas (now less than a month away). Oh sure, those of us who are regular or semi-regular communicants or church-goers are aware of something called Advent -- we see the purple and rose vestments and candles, the change in the emphasis of the prayers, readings and hymns -- but most of us might see it as just so much background clutter to distract us from the real work of preparing ourselves and our families for Christmas -- i.e., the shopping, cooking, eating, socializing and traveling business that leaves us worn out and broke (and, all to often, spiritually empty).

But, in fact, the Advent season is a time of (potentially) great spiritual growth and graces. It is something akin to the liturgical season of Lent (though not as penitential in tone) with it's Great Theme being the work of preparing our hearts for the coming of Christ. This is done on three levels: (1) Where we look with God's chosen people in the Old Testament toward the first coming of the Messiah, a coming that was fulfilled in Jesus Christ; (2) As we look forward to Christ's continuous coming into our lives every day as Lord and Savior; and (3) As we look forward in joyful hope to Jesus' Second Coming either at the end of time, or at the end of each of our earthly lives (whichever comes first). Advent is all about being a season of anticipation and fulfilment. Religiously speaking, in a very real sense, Christmas has very little meaning without Advent, any more than a trip to Disneyland is arguably less meaningful without the giddy air of expectation leading up to it.

Over at the blog of First Things, Joseph Bottum writes the essay that I would have liked to have written, The End of Advent. It is absolutely worth the read.

Having said all that, it's not to late to get into the spirit of things and start celebrating Advent now. As in today.

For more information about the origins of Advent, I'd recommend viewing this very informative post over at the Canterbury Tales blog, Top 10 Things to Know About Advent.

For information about Advent traditions you can celebrate with your family to make the season more spiritually fruitful (and fun), please see the article Catholic Traditions for Advent and Christmas.

A number of excellent resources for Advent can be found at Don Schwager's web page, Readings and Prayers for Advent.

A good way to prepare during Advent is to meditate on the daily Scripture readings from the Mass. You can find those at the website of the U.S. bishops. If you want to listen to some wonderful daily reflections on these readings, they can also be found at the bishop's site, or by downloading or subscribing to the daily Food For the Journey podcast by Sr. Ann Shields at Renewal Ministries.

I'll be posting more resources (and perhaps reflections) all through Advent. In the meantime, find a way to make this the most blessed, peaceful and spiritually fruitful Advent ever for you and yours, and be prepared to meet Our Lord with authentic joy on Christmas Day.

"Viva Cristo Rey!" -- The Martyrdom of Blessed Miguel Agustin Pro

2009-11-22T20:48:00.000-08:00

Today, November 23, is the Feast Day (on the liturgical calendar of the Catholic Church) of Blessed Miguel Pro.

The life of Father Miguel Agustin Pro, a Catholic priest, had been as heroic as would be his martyrdom because of his love and faith in Jesus Christ. In losing his life for the sake of Christ, he exchanged his earthly life in hopes of attaining eternal life with God.

I. Blessed Miguel Pro's Life And Work

Born in Mexico, January 13, 1891, Miguel Pro grew up in a large family with six brothers and sisters. Inspired by two of his sisters who entered the religious life, Miguel at the age of twenty, prayed to God in order to learn what God's will was for his own life. Because of his great love for God, and his desire to follow His will, Miguel entered the Jesuit order at the Hacienda El Llano so that he might devote his life to the service of God.

Under the terror of the Mexican regime of the time of Calles' and Obergon's rule, came years of political and religious persecution. During this period, the Pro family suffered great great financial and personal hardship. Meanwhile, Miguel and the other novices of the Jesuit order were also under severe threat of persecution, as Catholic priests and religious were among the targets of the Mexican government reign of terror. After a raid of the religious' house, their superiors ordered Miguel and the other novices to escape from Mexico. Miguel's travels took him to diverse countries such as the U.S., Grenada, and eventually Belgium where he was ordained a priest on August 21, 1925. Even though his family could not be physically present at his ordination ceremony, Father Pro was spiritually present with them; blessing their individual photographs one by one.

Even though he sought to make his internal and physical turmoil hidden from those around him, Father Pro suffered great emotional pain over the constant worry he felt over his family and the physical pain which was caused by stomach troubles. Those around him even noted that at the times he felt the most pain; physical or emotional, that he would seem the most cheerful. Father Pro's physical health weakened despite several operations. In hopes of helping Father Pro to regain his health, his superiors granted his wish to return home to Mexico to be nearer to his family. Little did his superiors realise the extent of the trouble that the Church in Mexico faced.

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In 1926, Father Pro returned to Mexico during the height of political terror; at a time in which the Catholic Church faced great opposition as a result of constitutional amendments and legislation which severely restricted public worship. Any Catholic priest who would dare to continue to serve the sacraments such as communion, baptism, confession, confirmation and marriage risked persecution, torture, arrest and even execution!

And so began Father Pro's adventure for God, evading police in any way possible in order that he might minister to the physical and spiritual needs of all people which included the poor, the rich, workers, laborers, business and even Socialists and Communists (who were often openly hostile to Catholic priests and the Church).Traveling via bicycle, and donning disguises such as that of a mechanic, a servant and even that of a cultured man of the world, he was able to carry out his duties for his people such as administering the sacraments and attending to the needs of people. In the spirit of Paul, the apostle, he literally became all things to all people for the sake of Christ. He won souls for Christ through prayer, humor and also through physical and spiritual aid.

While the solders and the police had their guns and rifles, Father Pro had the greatest of all weapons as he had once stated in reference to the crucifix: "Here is my weapon. With it along, I have no fear of anyone."

II. Father Pro's Martyrdom

"I am ready to give my life for souls, but I want nothing for myself. All that I want is to lead them to God. If I kept anything for myself, I should be a thief, infamous; I should no longer be a priest."

In November 1927, Father Pro, along with his brother Humberto, became the scapegoat for an assassination attempt on the corrupt future president. The government authorities linked the Pro brothers to the crime through an old used car that had belonged to one of the brothers. Even though the authorities were well aware of the fact that the brothers were innocent, they were both guilty for being Catholic priests. Because priests were considered to be enemies of the regime, the government had an ulterior motive for convicting Miguel and his brother. Without due process or trial, the brothers were condemned to die. Innocent of any crime, they were only guilty of being Catholic priests.

On the morning of November 23, 1927, Father Pro was led from his cell to the location of his execution. It did not matter to the police and soldiers that beyond the wall, within earshot, a man was shouting that he had in his hands a stay of execution that would free the brothers. The shouts were ignored and Father Pro was lead to his death. As they did so, one of the policemen responsible for his capture asked for his forgiveness which Father Pro freely gave. Just minutes before he was to be executed, Father Pro asked to be able to pray as a last request. During this short amount of time, he kneeled upon the hard, uncomfortable ground, near the bullet riddled wall where he would soon be executed. In submission to God's will, he accepted his fate, stood up, stretched his arms out wide in the shape of the cross in preparation for his death. After forgiving his executors, and as the squad raised its weapons, Father Pro shouted in a clear and loud voice : "Viva Cristo Rey!" (Which means "Long live Christ the King" in Spanish.) With humility and bravery, Father Pro met his martyrdom.

On September 25, 1988, Father Pro was beatified by Pope John Paul II. His feastday is November 23.

Source.

A Kennedy [Finally] Gets Put In His Place

2009-11-22T12:07:00.000-08:00

EAST PROVIDENCE, R.I. – The Roman Catholic bishop of Rhode Island said Sunday that he asked Rep. Patrick Kennedy in a 2007 letter to stop receiving Communion, the central sacrament of the church, because of the congressman's public stance on moral issues.

Bishop Thomas Tobin divulged details of his confidential exchange with Kennedy after the Democratic lawmaker told The Providence Journal in a story published Sunday that Tobin had instructed him not to receive Communion. The two men have clashed repeatedly in the past few weeks over abortion.

See article here.

Hooray for Bishop Tobin! Rich, powerful fat-cats like the Kennedys have for too long relied on their demigod status among the liberal and the mis-informed to collectively and individually (excepting, perhaps, the late Eunice, may she rest in peace) thumb their noses at the teaching of the Church they profess to follow. Their behavior has been the source of scandal for ordinary Catholics and a scoundrels refuge for other Catholic politicians since Teddy (may he rest in peace) turned pro-abortion at the birth of Roe v. Wade. You may remember a similar post of mine on this topic, found here.

Now if only the bishops of Nancy Pelosi, John Kerry, Kathleen Sibelius, etc, etc, would quickly follow suit, what a wonderful world this would be.

American Thinker Blog: San Francisco booksellers would rather lose money than go 'Rogue'

2009-11-20T07:50:00.000-08:00

LOL. What hypocrites. Add Sarah Palin's book to the list of "Banned Books." Might be too late, however, as it sold out of its first printing and had sales of 300,000 its first day.

Despite San Francisco Bay Area bookseller claims that Sarah Palin's new book "Going Rogue" is "not for thinking people", the Amazon numbers say otherwise.

On a mission to show that Palin's book is selling much worse than, say, the idea of reading Osama Bin Laden his Miranda rights, the San Francisco Chronicle interviewed several local booksellers to find out how well sales of "Going Rogue" were not going:

"Our customers are thinking people," said Nathan Embretson, a bookseller at Pendragon Books in Oakland. "They're not into reading drivel."

"Anything like that we wouldn't carry," said clerk Emily Stackhouse at Cover to Cover Books in San Francisco. "We're a small store and it would probably gross us all out. Some things you carry because of freedom of speech, but a book like that is just gross."

Just gross? Have you ever seen some of the inane, hateful and downright disgusting titles they typically carry at independent bookstores? I always feel I need to take a shower after I wander into one of those places. It is also highly ironic that the website of the bookstore where Ms. Stackhouse works, Cover To Cover Booksellers, is currently highlighting this quote by writer Max Lerner "The crime of book purging is that it involves a rejection of the word. For the word is never absolute truth, but only man's frail and human effort to approach the truth. To reject the word is to reject the human search."

Besides, “thinking people” prefer making their own decision to read, or not read, the book. Real “thinking people” would be perfectly capable of reading the book for themselves and forming an opinion of it, not having it decided for them by wanna-be cultural elites.

I'm confident these highly knowledgable and open-minded booksellers read Palin's book before making such an impartial decision to not carry such an obviously popular and arguably politically relevant book.

"Apparently the job of a "bookseller" in and around San Francisco is not so much to sell product, but rather to give comfort to like-minded ...individuals and convert the remaining unwashed masses to lockstep ideology."

The entire blog can be viewed here.

Modesty: Leave Something to the Imagination, Girls

2009-11-16T11:49:00.000-08:00

Doris Roberts to Young Women: Provocative Dressing Leads to Trouble, Invites Violence Against Women

The "Everybody Loves Raymond" star has a message she wants to give to young women

Nicole Kidman recently hit headlines when she came out with her opinion that Hollywood probably contributes to violence by portraying women as sex objects, and “Everybody Loves Raymond” star Doris Roberts couldn't agree more. According to Doris, ladies need to leave a little more to the imagination.

“You've got to start with the dolls that are out. We are more than breasts and rear ends, and if you're a child and that's what we're trying to emanate you think that's all we are,” Roberts told Tarts at the recent “Peace Over Violence” event in Los Angeles which was aimed at building support for female victims of domestic and sexual abuse.

Roberts even went on to say that young girls who flash a little too much flesh are perhaps sending an open invitation to danger.

“I'm not a prude. I really am not. But if you're going to dress provocatively, you're going to get into trouble,” she added. “Kids, right now, 12 year olds, 11 year olds, they're dressing and trying to emanate what they see on television or in movies. When you do that, you're judged, and even if you're not selling that, it appears like you are. That is not very good.”

Meanwhile fellow film starlet Rene Russo believes there are many more outlets to blame asides from Tinseltown for the abuse so many women suffer.

“I don't know if I would go as far to say that it's just Hollywood, it's advertising, it's everywhere, it's everything. It's sort of in the fabric, unfortunately, of our society,” Russo said. “I think about it a lot and I'm not really sure what the answers are. Little by little we all need to try to make a difference and get out and support organizations like this because it is a problem. I don't think it's just Hollywood.” (Source)

Surprising talk, especially coming out of Hollywood. Ms. Russo is right on: the influences and forces converging on the innocence of girls in our day are simply oppressive: everything from advertisements, movies, television, pop novels and manga, music -- even the schools and the ever-present peer pressure. Now you have everything from toddler glamour shows to little girls with "Pink" flashed across their rears. Which of course means parents are complicit in this over-sexualization of their little girls, when they should instead be perserving their innocence as long as possible. Are we talking about going Amish or wearing burkas? Of course not, and that quick and cheap comment that always comes up in discussions of this sort is the knee-jerk refuge of the unthinking and those with a guilty conscience.

Let's raise our girls to be wise and to make good choices, certainly, but what's the hurry to expose them to the coarseness of our fallen culture?

Mayhem spreads throughout Chicago overnight after meetings to end violence

2009-11-15T11:16:00.000-08:00

You can't make this stuff up, folks:

After community activists pleaded Saturday for a day without killing, violence erupted throughout the city after the stroke of midnight on Sunday, leaving at least two people dead and several injured.

At about 12:06 a.m., Frederick Evans, 20, of the 6800 block of South Ada Street was found shot to death in an alley in the 500 block of West 58th Street. He was shot in his back and chest.

Witnesses told police Evans was involved in a dice game shortly before midnight, according to Chicago Police News Affairs Officer JoAnn Taylor. Evans was seen being chased by a unknown person who opened fire, Taylor said. He ran to an alley to take cover before collapsing.

A handgun was recovered from the scene, Taylor said.

Minutes later, a 32-year-old man was shot at about 12:13 a.m. on Chicago's West Side in the Lawndale neighborhood. Police said he was shot after he watched a fight in the 3900 block of West Ogden Avenue. He suffered wounds to his leg and thigh, police said.

At about 2 a.m., Howard Hodges, of Park Forest, was shot and struck by a car near a lounge in the Chatham neighborhood. Hodges, 34, was pronounced dead on the scene.

Another man also was shot in front of the lounge located in the 8300 block of South Vincennes Avenue, but he was taken to St. Bernard Hospital with non-life-threatening injuries. Police said he suffered a wound to his shoulder.

Later, two other people were stabbed in the Englewood neighborhood at about 3:15 a.m. in the 6600 block of South Carpenter Street, and three people were shot in the Brighton Park neighborhood at about 5 a.m. near 47th Street and Homan Avenue, police said.

Several community activists and teens met throughout the city Saturday to discuss ways to end the violence in Chicago neighborhoods.

Source

Wait a minute--I thought President Obama community activist-ed the heck out of this place before he moved into the White House? And isn't this the place where an honor student was recently beaten to death with railroad ties by a gang of young thugs while others cheered them on? Oh yeah, here's the story right here. Maybe it's the 11% unemployment in Chicago (compared to 6.9% last year). Maybe it's the city ban on handguns. How's that Change workin' for ya?

No slam on the doubtless many decent and law-abiding people who live there, but I can't imagine why, despite Mr. Obama's best efforts, this town FAIL!ed to get the bid for the Olympics.

hmmm...Somehow, some way, this must be George Bush's fault.

7th Annual West Coast Biblical Conference, January 22-24

2009-11-15T08:32:00.000-08:00

The folks over at St. Joseph's Communications and The St. Paul Paul Center for Biblical Theology are again offering their premier Bible conference for those who are interested in gaining in their knowledge and love of God's Word. The three speakers are top-notch, and these events are always fun and spiritually fruitful, with lots of great Bible study material available for your buying pleasure.

This years conference is focused on the Gospel of John. Concurrently, The St. Paul Center is offering a free online mp3 on that Gospel. Check it out here (on the right hand side of the page).

Here are the details of the Conference.

The basics:

7th Annual West Coast Biblical Conference

John ~ The Sacramental Gospel

Riverside Convention Center - Riverside, CA

January 22-24, 2010

Speakers:Dr. Scott Hahn, Dr. Brant Pitre and Prof. Michael Barber

Registration is Open!

"We Will Never Remove Our Crosses!"

2009-11-14T10:56:00.000-08:00

As Europe as a whole continues to descend into a post-Christian, secular morass, two countries --first Italy and now Poland --are at least trying to kick against the goad:

Poland Defends Right to Keep Crucifixes in Schools

WARSAW, Poland — Heavily Catholic Poland has joined the Vatican in criticizing a European court ruling against the display of crucifixes in Italian schools.

Polish President Lech Kaczynski said his country will never agree to remove crosses from its schools.

The Nov. 3 ruling by the European Court of Human Rights does not require that Poland remove the crosses that hang in most public schools. It could, however, eventually force a review of the use of religious symbols in government-run school across Europe.

The decision touched a nerve in Poland, where religious symbols were banned from public buildings under communist rule but embraced with the return to democracy 20 years ago as an expression of national sovereignty.

During Independence Day celebrations on Wednesday in Warsaw, Kaczynski said that "nobody in Poland will accept the message that you can't hang crosses in schools."

"One shouldn't count on that. Perhaps elsewhere, but never in Poland," said Kaczynski.

Lech Walesa, the pro-democracy dissident and former president — himself a believer who often wears a pin of St. Mary on his lapel — also defended his country's right to display a symbol central to the nation's Christian heritage.

I love Walesa's line here, a common sense blow to political correctness gone amok:

"Minorities must know their place," Walesa said on Thursday during an interview with a TVN24 television station. "We must respect minorities but also protect the rights of the majority."

******************************************

November 16 UPDATE on this story can be found here.

Report Details Harassment and Anti-religious Bigotry Since Prop. 8

2009-11-06T20:56:00.000-08:00

Sacramento, Calif., Nov 3, 2009 (CNA).- A think tank has compiled and analyzed reports of the harassment, intimidation, and “gross expressions of anti-religious bigotry” shown in reaction to the successful passage of Proposition 8. If partisans of marriage redefinition continue to increase in power, the analysis warns, those who seek the preservation of marriage as a union of man and wife may risk paying a price legally, socially and economically. The Heritage Foundation’s Oct. 22 report “The Price of Prop 8,” authored by researcher Thomas M. Messner, said that many individuals and institutions who defend the nature of marriage as a union between a man and a woman have paid a “heavy price.”

Militant opponents of Prop. 8 targeted supporters with a range of hostility, including “harassment, intimidation, vandalism, racial scapegoating, blacklisting, loss of employment, economic hardships, angry protests, violence, at least one death threat, and gross expressions of anti-religious bigotry,” the report stated.

Vandalism included a brick thrown through the window of an elderly couple who put a “Yes on 8” sign in their lawn. Another senior citizen with a pro-Prop. 8 bumper sticker had her car’s rear window smashed.

A statue of the Virgin Mary outside one church was vandalized with orange paint. Swastikas and other graffiti were scrawled on the walls of Most Holy Redeemer Catholic Church in San Francisco. At Our Lady of Perpetual Help Catholic Church in Riverside, signs were twisted into the shape of a swastika.

A heavy object wrapped with a “Yes on 8” sign was used to smash the window of a pastor’s office at Messiah Lutheran Church in Downey.

Sign theft targeting Prop. 8 supporters was significant, with one source estimating about one-third of the 25,000 signs distributed were stolen or vandalized before the end of the campaign.
Phone calls, e-mails and mailings also targeted supporters of Prop. 8. The messages made accusation of bigotry and used vulgar language. One e-mail threatened to contact the parents of students at a school where a particular Prop. 8 supporter worked.

One individual supporter was the subject of a flier distributed in his town. The flier included his photo and name and the amount of his donation to the pro-Prop. 8 campaign. It labeled him as a “bigot” and reported his association with a particular Catholic church.

Increased support for Prop. 8 among African Americans and members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, known as Mormons, also resulted in their communities being targeted.

Racial epithets were used at anti-Prop. 8 protests, while Joe Solmonese, head of the Human Rights Campaign, targeted the Mormons.

On the Dr. Phil show, responding to a Mormon questioner, he replied: “We are going to go after your church every day for the next two years unless and until Prop 8 is overturned.”

An anti-Prop. 8 advertisement depicted two Mormon missionaries invading the home of a lesbian couple, ransacking their belongings and tearing up their marriage license.

“Anti-Mormon malice reached a new level when someone mailed packages containing suspicious white powder to Mormon temples in California and Utah,” Messner said.

Jose Nunez, a new U.S. citizen, was waiting to distribute signs outside his Catholic church when a man grabbed several signs and fled. He pursued the thief, who reportedly yelled “What do you have against gays?” and punched him in the face.

Nunez suffered a bloody eye and wounds to his face and required 16 stitches under his eye.

Employees of businesses were targeted by some protesters. Some employees resigned, while others took leaves of absence. Some business owners lost business because they had donated to support Prop. 8.

While deeming boycotts a “time-honored form of activism,” the Heritage Foundation’s report commented: “No individual should be compelled to choose between making a living and participating in democratic processes affecting fundamental matters of public concern, such as marriage.”

California law requiring the disclosure of personal information of individuals who donate $100 or more to a ballot measure campaign have made such displays of hostility easier, the report said.

Several websites were designed to use the information to identify and target Prop. 8 supporters.

While acknowledging that many Prop. 8 opponents have rejected such abuses, Messner argues that the ideology underlying the outrage is a cause of hostility.

“Arguments for same-sex marriage, although often couched in terms of tolerance and inclusion, are based fundamentally on the idea that limiting marriage to the union of husband and wife is a form of bigotry, irrational prejudice, and even hatred against homosexual persons who want the state to license their relationships. As this ideology seeps into the culture, belief in marriage as the union of husband and wife will likely come to be viewed as an unacceptable form of discrimination that should be purged from society through legal, cultural, and economic pressure.”

“Individuals or institutions that publicly defend marriage as the union of husband and wife risk harassment, reprisal, and intimidation—at least some of it targeted and coordinated,” Messner continued.

Source.

The Saints and the Beatitudes

2009-10-31T20:29:00.000-07:00

This Sunday, November 1st, is celebrated as the Solemnity of All Saints in the Catholic liturgical calendar. It's one of my favorite feast days because it always calls to mind the great diversity of spirituality that is present in the Church. There's literally a Saint for every person's taste. If you are the intellectual type, we have great Saint-geniuses like Thomas Aquinas and Sr. Theresa Benedicta of the Cross (St. Edith Stein). If you prefer deeply mystical Saints, there is St. John of the Cross and Teresa of Avila. If the Saints that had more active apostolates are your thing, you can draw inspiration from Mother Teresa or St. Vincent de Paul.

Fr. Robert Barron, in his homily for All Saints Day, brings up the interesting idea that we should not only foster a devotion to those Saints to whom we feel an affinity, but we should try to get closer to others who we aren't particularly attracted to--or even feel an aversion to. For example, if you think that St. Therese of Liseuix was a little too sweet and girlish, perhaps you need to get to know her better. And if you can't get into St. Padre Pio because you think he is a little strange, all the more reason you should learn about him and even ask his intercession. The idea is that, since all of the canonized Saints have some kind of valid spirituality, perhaps these saints possess that facet of spiritualty that may be lacking in our own lives. In our daily lives, aren't we called to love those that we are not naturally attracted to (Matthew 5:43-48)? Perhaps this is a way of growing in that virtue.

At any rate, in honor of all of the Saints, those holy friends of God who have finished the good fight before us and are now cheering us to heavenly victory (Hebrews 12:1-2), here is the Litany of the Saints.

Also, the Gospel reading for this Sunday is Matthew 5:1-12, which features the Beatitudes. You can go to my weekly Bible Study discussing this and the other Sunday readings here. Also linked below is the best series of articles I know of on the Beatitudes. It is from the Rosary Light and Life page which maintains an on-line newsletter chock-full of high quality articles on just about every Catholic theological or spiritual subject you can think of. I highly recommend it!

The Beatitudes, Part one

The Beatitudes, Part two

The Beatitudes, Part three

The Beatitudes, Part four

The Beatitudes, Part five

The Beatitudes, Part six

The Beatitudes, Part seven

Does An Old Bloggers Heart Good

2009-10-31T10:29:00.000-07:00

Vatican City, Oct 29, 2009 / 11:30 am (CNA).- Addressing the full Pontifical Council for Social Communications today, Benedict XVI urged its members to help communicate the teachings of the Church on the “digital continent” of the ever-changing technological landscape.

Reflecting on the role of social networking and increasingly real-time electronic communication, Pope Benedict XVI said on Thursday that "modern culture is established, even before its content, in the very fact of the existence of new forms of communication that use new languages; they use new technologies and create new psychological attitudes.”

See entire article here.

Sounds to me like a clarion call for evangelists and ordinary faithful Christians (hopefully one and the same) to get with the program and start reaching out to the Facebook and Twitter crowd. This also includes websites, texting and bloggers and whatever else new "social networking" or "real-time electronic communication" gizmo comes sailing down the pike. Of course, there are already a lot of on fire folks putting out some good efforts (see my sidebar for some of my favorites), but theres still lots of elbow room in cyberspace.

Our gadgets can certainly be real time wasters, but why not follow the Holy Father's call and channel some of that downtime to someone who needs to hear it about The Good News? If an old dog like me can get into it, anyone can.

Anti-Catholicism Is the Nation's Other Pastime

2009-10-30T15:34:00.000-07:00

By Archbishop Timothy M. Dolan, Archbishop of New York
.
October is the month we relish the high-point of our national pastime, especially when one of our own New York teams is in the World Series!

Sadly, America has another national pastime, this one not pleasant at all: anti-Catholicism.

It is not hyperbole to call prejudice against the Catholic Church a national pastime. Scholars such as Arthur Schlesinger Sr. referred to it as "the deepest bias in the history of the American people," while John Higham described it as "the most luxuriant, tenacious tradition of paranoiac agitation in American history." "The anti-Semitism of the left," is how Paul Viereck reads it, and Professor Philip Jenkins sub-titles his book on the topic "the last acceptable prejudice."

(Read more here.)

Throw Yourself Into the Fray!

2009-10-27T06:23:00.000-07:00

One of the daily Mass readings for today is from chapter 8 of Paul's letter to the Romans. Here is the text:

[18] I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us. [19] For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God;[20] for the creation was subjected to futility, not of its own will but by the will of him who subjected it in hope; [21] because the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay and obtain the glorious liberty of the children of God. [22] We know that the whole creation has been groaning in travail together until now;[23] and not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. [24] For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? [25] But if we hope for what we do not see,we wait for it in patience.

The Navarre Bible Commentary's note on verse 18 (highlighted above) is an awesome quote by St. Cyprian, which I thought I would share:

18. “Who is there then”, St Cyprian comments, “who will not strive to attain so great a glory, by making himself God’s friend, to rejoice immediately with Christ, to receive the divine rewards after the pains and sufferings of this life? If it is glorious for soldiers of this world to return to their fatherland victorious after defeatingthe enemy, how much greater and more pleasing glory will there not be, once thedevil is overcome, to return victorious to heaven [...]; to bear with one the trophies of victory [...]; to sit at God’s side when he comes to judge, to be a co-heir with Christ, to be made equal to the angels and to enjoy with the Patriarchs, with the Apostles and with the Prophets the possession of the Kingdom of heaven [...]. A spirit secure in these supernatural thoughts stays strong and firm, and is unmoved by the attacks of demons and the threats of this world, a spirit strengthened by a solid and confident faith in the future [...]. It leaves here with dignityand confidence, rejoicing in one moment to close its eyes which looked on men and the world, and to see God and Christ! [...]. These are the thoughts the mind should have, this is how it ought to reflect, night and day. If persecution finds God’s soldier prepared in this manner, there will be no power capable of overcoming a spirit so equipped for the struggle” (”Epist. ad Fortunatum”, 13).

Why Boys Are Turning Into Girls

2009-10-26T11:40:00.000-07:00

This helps to 'splain a lot.

Here's something rather rotten from the State of Denmark. Its government yesterday unveiled official research showing that two-year-old children are at risk from a bewildering array of gender-bending chemicals in such everyday items as waterproof clothes, rubber boots, bed linen, food, nappies, sunscreen lotion and moisturising cream.

The 326-page report, published by the environment protection agency, is the latest piece in an increasingly alarming jigsaw. A picture is emerging of ubiquitous chemical contamination driving down sperm counts and feminising male children all over the developed world. And anti-pollution measures and regulations are falling far short of getting to grips with it.

See entire article here.

Of course, there's more than this going on (presuming the science used in the above report is legit). There are lot more factors that contribute to the current plague of effeminate and sissified boys.

Dadless Homes.

The overall feminization of schools and ubiquitous daycare. I work in a job where I occassionally have to visit these places. The kids seem so shocked and fascinated to see an adult male, you'd think they'd never seen one. The little boys, especially, flock around me and want to show me their "swords" and "guns" made out of legos. "Look, mister fireman! Look, look..."

Namby-pamby children' programming (All programs for really small kids all necessarily gentle--I'm talking severe cases, ala "Tele-Tubbies.")

Lowering of physical education standards and elimination in schools of any activity that involves the inherent aggressiveness and competitiveness of boys (do you know some schools have even outlawed playing tag?). Many educators, I'm convinced, do not understand boys.

Effeminate media role models. Why do all the male leads in movies these days look like they should be applying for college? Is it really believable when you see the main character of a TV show or movie--who looks like he started shaving last month --identified as someone who has a Phd, served a tour in the Army Special Forces, worked for the CIA, vagabonded around the world, and knows how to operate any vehicle, aircraft or program any advanced computer?

Discouragement of real competition among school-kids (no tryouts for the school play, no incentive to excel in classrooms through special honors for achievement. Everyone's included, everyone wins.

I could go on ad infinitum. How many young guys do you know (late teens, early twenties) that actually talk and walk in a manly manner? (and to be fair, this goes for a lot of older guys --perhaps thinking imitating this style makes them appear younger rather than, well, pathetic. That's another topic.) Have you ever listened to a radio call-in show and found yourself surprised that the caller was a male, and not a teenage girl?

And what do girls think about all this? I guess the upside is that boys like this are easier for them to identify with--more girls to talk to I guess. But don't they ever ask themselves: Where are the men?

Abortion Kills More Black Americans Than the Seven Leading Causes of Death Combined, Says CDC Data

2009-10-25T10:12:00.000-07:00

Abortion Kills More Black Americans Than the Seven Leading Causes of Death Combined, Says CDC Data

(CNSNews.com) – Abortion kills more black Americans than the seven leading causes of death combined, according to data collected by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for 2005, the latest year for which the abortion numbers are available. Abortion killed at least 203,991 blacks in the 36 states and two cities (New York City and the District of Columbia) that reported abortions by race in 2005, according to the CDC. During that same year, according to the CDC, a total of 198,385 blacks nationwide died from heart disease, cancer, strokes, accidents, diabetes, homicide, and chronic lower respiratory diseases combined. These were the seven leading causes of death for black Americans that year...

This is really depressing. Correct me if I am wrong on this, but don't most Blacks vote Democrat--and isn't "abortion rights" (i.e., the unlimited legal right to kill a child in what should be the safest place in the world, the mothers womb) an important agenda item for the Democratic Party? What is wrong with this picture? What can this be termed: self-genocide? Mass hypnosis? Brainwashing? What would make an entire segment of the population become a willing party to the slaughter of the innocents and it's own self-anihilation? Add this to the fact that, proportionally, abortion kills more females than males, and the voting pattern becomes completely incomprehensible. It's like the flies voting for more fly-swatters.

It is worth noting that Planned Parenthood, the country's leading abortion provider was founded by Margaret Sanger a personal hero of Hillary Clinton and infamous eugenicist (i.e., one who believes that "inferior" peoples -- like Catholics, gypsys and those with dark skin and handicaps-- should be killed off so that the "superior" race can breed more purely). Planned Parenthood clinics are built in dispropotionate numbers in poor, especially Black, communities. Sanger was also an early influence of Adolf Hitler, who racial views are quite well know. Click here for more info.

Some interesting numbers:

Deaths in America per year

1,400,000 people die from abortion

650,000 people die of heart disease

560,000 people die of cancer143,000 people die of stroke

75,000 people die of diabetes

Another perspective:

18,000 - Deaths by death penalty in American history (all the way back to the 1600s).

1,315,000 - Deaths in all American wars combined.

50,000,000 - Deaths by abortion since Roe v Wade

Question Box: Lost in a Labyrinth

2009-10-18T20:20:00.000-07:00

I would be interested to find out the Catholic position on labyrinths. I had no trouble finding the Catholic position on other things like Jung, enneagram, centering prayer to name a few. But I couldn't find anything definitive on this topic. What does the Church teach?

Like a lot of subjects, the Catholic Church does not have an official position on labyrinths. For topics like this we have to use the witness of Tradition, fidelity to the teachings of the Church on similar subjects, and common sense.

Labyrinths appear in many very old Catholic churches in Europe, but their original use gets debated back and forth a quite a bit. One thing we can be sure of is that their original intent was not for some New Age or occultic purpose.

I don't know of any full length treatments of this on-line, but Catholic Answers has a short and to the point answer to the question in one of their "Quick Questions" columns from "This Rock" magazine. It works for me: hope it works for you too. God bless!

Q: Should Christians build prayer labyrinths? My child’s Catholic high school is considering building one.

A: In Christian spirituality, labyrinths originally symbolized the winding streets of Jerusalem, and walking in a labyrinth while praying Christian prayers was a form of virtual pilgrimage for medieval Christians who could not afford the expense and risk of an actual pilgrimage to Jerusalem. If the prayers said in a labyrinth are representative of authentic Christian spirituality and the purpose of the labyrinth is explained to those who will be using it, then the proposed labyrinth would not pose a problem. If, on the other hand, the prayers are representative of a non-Christian or an otherwise questionable spirituality, Catholics should not pray them and a Catholic high school should not promote it to its students.

New Sunday Scripture Study Blog!

2009-10-17T09:32:00.000-07:00

I've been wanting to do this for a while, but last night I got an unexpected burst of energy and decided to create a discussion blog for my website, Sunday Scripture Study for Catholics. I had a discussion page there at one time and, even though it was fairly well visited, it got to be too hard to moderate, what with my limited (O.K., non-existent) web management skills and constant spam attacks. The new blog is located here, and linked on the sidebar on this blog, and on the website. (BTW, Carol has been slaving away on a complete re-design of the website. I've gotten a peek at it under the curtain, and I'm pleased as to how it is turning out. I hope you are too!)

Anyway, give it a visit and let me know what you think. It's pretty spartan right now, being brand new and all, but my plan at this point is to post the weekly Sunday Scripture study there rather than on this blog and open it up there for discussion. Eventually, I'd like to post other Catholic Scripture related posts, links, and resources there -- but one step at a time. If you have any comments or suggestions, please let me know!

What Must We Do To be Saved?

2009-10-15T13:59:00.000-07:00

Readers of this blog who are not Catholic may not know that Catholic Christians not only have Mass on Sunday's, but also have daily Mass, in some places every day of the week. Just like on Sunday, the proclamation of God's Word is made every day during Mass, including two readings from Sacred Scripture, usually one from the Old Testament or New Testament letters, and one from the four Gospels. The first reading from Mass today was from St. Paul's letter to the Romans, Chapter 2, verse 21 through 30. This is such an important reading on so many levels.

On one level, it was the Reformers misunderstanding of this passage (especially verse 28) and similar passages that fueled the Reformation and undergirds much of what Protestant Christians believe today. The main mistaken premise here is that Paul's reference to "works" or "works of the Law" refer to good works in the sense of moral actions, when in fact it has been shown by scholars (Catholic, Jewish and Protestant) that by this term Paul and his contemporaries instead used this term exclusively to refer to the ritual and purity prescriptions of the Torah (the first five books of the Jewish Scriptures). This colors a Christian's entire understanding of Paul's writings and, by extension, what one believes about how one is saved. The Catholic understanding dovetails perfectly with the rest of Scripture, especially James chapter 2 where we are told that "we are not saved by faith alone" and "faith without works is dead."

Anyway, the Navarre Bible commentary on this passage has an excellent summation of official Catholic teaching on salvation as it relates to Romans. Many Protestants will be surprised that they will find much to agree with here, and even that they may be misinformed as to what the Catholic Church believes about salvation and answer the question: "What must I do to be saved?"

What follows is the passage from Romans and then the Navarre Commentary:

From: Romans 3:21-30

Righteousness, a Free Gift through Faith in Christ

--------------------------------------------------

[21] But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from law, although the law and the prophets bear witness to it, [22] the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction [23] since all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, [24] they are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus, [25] whom God put forward as an expiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God's righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins; [26] it was to prove at the present time that he himself is righteous and that he justifies him who has faith in Jesus.

[27] Then what becomes of our boasting? It is excluded. On what principle? On the principle of works? No, but on the principle of faith. [28] For we hold that a man is justified by faith apart from works of law. [29] 0r is God the God of Jews only? Is he not the God of Gentiles also? Yes, of Gentiles also, [30] since God is one; and he will justify the circumcised on the ground of their faith and the uncircumcised through their faith.

*******************************

Commentary:

21-22. The doctrinal richness of this text and of the whole passage (vv. 21-26) is here condensed in a way very typical of St Paul's style. He explains how justification operates: God the Father, the source of all good, by his redemptive decree is the "efficient cause" of our salvation; Jesus Christ, by shedding his blood on the Cross, merits this salvation for us; faith is the instrument by which the Redemption becomes effective in the individual person.

The righteousness of God is the action by which God makes people righteous, or just (cf. St Augustine, "De Spiritu Et Littera", IX, 15). This righteousness was originally proclaimed in the books of the Old Testament--the Law and the Prophets--but it has now been made manifest in Christ and in the Gospel. Salvation does not depend on fulfillment of the Mosaic Law, for that Law is not sufficient to justify anyone: only faith in Jesus Christ can work salvation.

"If anyone says that, without divine grace through Jesus Christ, man can be justified before God by his own works, whether they were done by his natural powers or by the light of the teaching of the Law: let him be anathema" (Council of Trent, "De Iustificatione", can. 1).

It is not the law, then, which saves, but "faith in Jesus Christ". This expression should be interpreted in line with the unanimous and constant teaching of the Church, which is that "faith is the beginning of human salvation", and a person's will must cooperate with faith to prepare the ground for the grace of justification (cf. ibid., chap. 8 and can. 9).

23-26. The Apostle first describes the elements that go to make up themystery of faith (vv. 23-25): all men need to be liberated from sin; God the Father has a redemptive plan, which is carried out by the atoning and bloody sacrifice of Christ's death; faith is a necessary condition for sharing in the Redemption wrought by Christ; the sacrifice of the Cross is part and parcel of the History of Salvation: before the Incarnation of the Word, God patiently put up with men's sins; in the fullness of time he chose--through Christ's sacrifice--to require full satisfaction for those sins so that men might be enabled to become truly righteous in God's eyes and God's perfections become more manifest.

"The Cross of Christ, on which the Son, consubstantial with the Father,renders full justice to God, is also a radical revelation of mercy, that is, of the love that goes against what constitutes the very root of evil in the history of man--against sin and death" (John Paul II, "Dives In Misericordia", 8).

23. "Fall short of the glory of God": this shows the position man is in when he is in a state of sin. Because he has not the life of grace in him, he is not properly orientated towards his supernatural end, is deprived of the right to heaven that sanctifying grace confers, and consequently does not have these divine perfections which supernatural life gives him.

24. All have been justified, that is, all have been made "righteous" (cf. 1 :17). This justification is the result of a gratuitous gift of God which St Paul describes in a way which reinforces his point ("grace", "as a gift"): this identifies the source of the gift as God's loving-kindness and it also shows the new state in which justification places a person so important is this statement--that grace is a gift which God gives without merit on our part--that the Council of Trent, when using this text from St Paul, made a point of explaining what it meant: that is, that nothing which precedes justification (whether it be faith, or morals) merits the grace by which man is justified (cf. Rom 11:16; Council of Trent, "De Iustificatione", chap. 8).

This new kind of life, whose motor is grace, requires free and active cooperation on man's part; by that cooperation a person in the state of grace obtains merit through his actions: "For such is God's goodness to men that he wills that his gifts be our merits, and that he will grant us an eternal reward for what he has given us" ("Indiculus", chap. 9). The fact that grace is a gratuitous gift of God does not mean that man does not have an obligation to respond to it: we are not justified by keeping the Law or by a decision of our free will; however, justification does not happen without our cooperation; grace strengthens our will and helps it freely to keep the Law (cf. St Augustine, "De Spiritu Et Littera", IX, 15).

Justification by grace is attained "through the redemption which is in Jesus Christ". The Council of Trent teaches that when a sinner is justified there is "a passing from the state in which man is born a son of the first Adam, to the state of grace and adoption as sons of God through the second Adam, Jesus Christ our Savior" ("De Iustificatione", chap. 4). This has been made possible because our Lord saved us by giving himself up as our ransom. The Greek word translated as "redemption" refers to the ransom money paid to free a person from slavery. Christ has freed us from the slavery of sin, paying the necessary ransom (cf. Rom 6:23). By sacrificing himself for us, Christ has become our master or owner, who mediates between the Father and the whole human race: "Let us all take refuge in Christ; let us have recourse to God to free us from sin: let us put ourselves up for sale in order to be redeemed by his blood. For the Lord says, 'You were sold for nothing, and you shall be redeemed without money' (Is 52:3); without spending a penny of your inheritance, for I have paid on your behalf. This is what the Lord says: He paid the price, not with silver but with his blood" (St Augustine, "In Ioann. Evang.", 41, 4).

Our very creation means that we belong totally to God the Father andtherefore also to Christ, insofar as he is God, but "as man, he is also for many reasons appropriately called 'Lord'. First, because he is our Redeemer, who delivered us from sin, he deservedly acquired the power by which he truly is and is called our Lord" ("St Pius V Catechism", I, 3, 11).

And so, through the Incarnation, whose climax was Christ's redemptive sacrifice, "God gave human life the dimension that he intended man to have from his first beginning; he has granted that dimension definitively [...] and he has granted it also with the bounty that enables us, in considering the original sin and the whole history of the sins of humanity, and in considering the errors of the human intellect, will and heart, to repeat with amazement the words of the sacred Liturgy: 'O happy fault...which gained us so great a Redeemer!'"(John Paul II, "Redemptor Hominis", 1).

25. The "expiation" was the cover or mercy seat of the Ark, which stood in the center of the Holy of Holies in the Temple (cf. Exod 25:17-22). It was made of beaten gold and had a cherub at either end, each facing the other. It had two functions: one was to act as God's throne (cf. Ps 80:2; 99:1), from which he spoke to Moses during the time of the exodus from Egypt (cf. Num 7:89; Exod 37:6); the other was to entreat God to pardon sin through a rite of expiatory sacrifice on the feast of the Day of Atonement (cf. Lev 16): on that day the High Priest sprinkled the mercy seat with the blood of animals sacrificed as victims, to obtain forgiveness of sins for priest and people.

St Paul asserts that God has established Jesus as the true expiation, of which the mercy seat in the Old Testament was merely a figure.

No angel or man could ever atone for the immense evil that sin is--an offense to the infinite majesty of God. The Blessed Trinity decided "that the Son of God, whose power is infinite, clothed in the weakness of our flesh, should remove the infinite weight of sin and reconcile us to God in his Blood" ("St Pius V Catechism", I, 3, 3).

This expiatory sacrifice, prefigured in the bloody sacrificial rites of the Old Testament (cf. Lev 16:1 ff), was announced by John the Baptist when he pointed to Jesus as the Lamb of God (cf. Jn 1:29 and note); and Jesus himself referred to the sacrifice of the Cross when he said that the Son of man had come "to give his life as a ransom for many" (Mt 20:28).

This sacrifice is renewed daily in the Holy Mass, one of the purposes of which is atonement, as the Liturgy itself states: "Lord, may this sacrifice once offered on the cross to take away the sins of the world now free us from our sins" ("Roman Missal", Feast of the Triumph of the Cross, prayer over the gifts).

26. In the time prior to Christ's coming the sins of mankind remained unatoned for: neither the rites designed by man to placate God's anger, nor those established by God himself in the Old Law, were in any way equal to atoning for the offense offered to God by sin. Therefore, the just of the Old Testament were really justified by virtue of their faith in the future Messiah, a faith which expressed itself in observance of the rites established by God.

During all this period the Lord kept deferring punishment ("passing over former sins"). This time of "God's forbearance" lasted until the messianic era "the present time", that is, the period between the first and second comings of Christ. On the righteousness of God and God as the Justifier of man, see note on Rom 1:17.

27-31. These words are addressed to the same imaginary interlocutor as appeared at the beginning of the chapter. Although he is Lord of all nations, God showed special preference for the people of Israel. Relying on this, the Jews wrongly thought that only they could attain blessedness because only they enjoyed God's favor. This led them to look down on other peoples. After the coming of Christ, they no longer have any basis for this pride: St John Chrysostom explains that it had simply become outdated, superseded (cf. "Hom. On Rom", 7), for God had set up a single way of salvation for all men--the "principle of faith" which the Apostle refers to. This new way means that Jews must forget their ancient pride and become humble, for God has opened the gates of salvation to all mankind.

Consequently, no one--not even the Jew--is justified by works of the Law. What justifies a person is faith: not faith alone, as Luther wrongly argued, but the faith which works through charity (cf. Gal 5:6); faith which is not presumptuous self-confidence in one's own merits, but a firm and ready acceptance of all that God has revealed, faith which moves one to place one's hope in Christ's merits and to repent of one's sins. Therefore it will be "by faith"--not by circumcision--that the Jews will be justified, and it will be "through their faith" that the uncircumcised will attain salvation. From this it might appear as though the Law had been revoked; but that is not the case: faith ratifies the Law gives it its true meaning and raises it to perfection. For, through being a preparation for the Gospel, the Mosaic Law receives from Christ the fullness it was lacking: the precept of charity reveals the meaning which God gave the law but which lay hidden until Christ made it manifest, for "love is the fulfilling of the law" (Rom 13:10). St Paul in a way summarizes all this teaching in v. 28, which is the key statement in the passage.

For more information, see my previous post, How Are We saved?

Reflections on this Sunday's Mass Readings - October 18,2009

2009-10-15T12:14:00.000-07:00

Here are the readings for this coming Sunday's Scripture readings from the U.S. Catholic bishops website.

You can find my own study (along with Don Schwager's meditation) on my website.

Here also the weekly audio/print meditation on the readings by Dr. Scott Hahn.

And finally, the weekly video by Professor Michael Barber on the Sunday readings.

Discussion and charitible comments are always welcome. Have a blessed and holy Lord's day!

Mom Arrested for Washing Kid's Mouth With Soap

2009-10-15T11:44:00.000-07:00

I'm afraid, in these politically correct and insanely permissive days, my Mom would be Public Enemy #1:

A Florida couple is behind bars for some old school discipline

A Palm Bay woman and her boyfriend were arrested Monday for child abuse after the couple went old school to punish their 8-year-old daughter for swearing.

They washed her mouth out with soap.

We don't know about you, but we would petition President Obama and Congress to make it mandatory for every parent to carry a bar of Irish Spring in their back pockets with all the profanity kids use today.

Police claim Adriyanna Herdener and Wilfredo Rivera went too far by placing a bar of soap in the girl's mouth and letting it stay for 10 minutes. Herdener did not intervene in the discipline.

The girl eventually vomited and Rivera took her to the local hospital, where hospital staff called police.

No one wants a child to be hurt or inhumanely punished, but parents' discipline choices in this country have come down to calling Dr. Phil or hiding the joysticks to the Wii.

Next time your kid has a potty mouth, just give them some gum.

That is, if you don't want to be turned in and arrested for child abuse. Seems to me the "boyfriend" (who's identified as the father though not married to the mother) had the right idea, but had bad technique. There's a right way and a wrong way to wash away vulgar language. Just ask my Mom.

"Rectum? Dang near killed him!"

2009-10-15T11:20:00.000-07:00

This week's Darwin Award goes to the German journalism student who, in attempting to put a moon on The Man, gets taken for a ride, escaping only by the seat of his pants:

Mooning German gets trousers caught in moving train

A German man mooning at railway staff in a departing train got his trousers caught in a carriage door and ended up being dragged half naked along the platform, out of the station and onto the tracks.

The 22-year-old journalism student shoved his backside against the window of a low-slung double-decker train when staff forced him off in Lauenbrueck for travelling without a ticket, a spokesman for police in the northern city of Bremen said."It's a miracle he wasn't badly hurt," the spokesman said on Monday. "This sort of thing can end up killing you."Instead, dangling by his trousers, the man got pulled along for about 200 metres, all the while managing to keep his legs away from the wheels of the train.

The ordeal ended when a passenger pulled the emergency brake. Rescue services were called in, causing rail services between Bremen and Hamburg to be suspended for over an hour, delaying 23 trains.The man – unharmed except for cuts and bruises – now faces charges of dangerous interference in rail transport, insulting the train staff, and may face sizeable a compensation claim for the delays he caused, police said.

"He was full of remorse when I talked to him," the spokesman said. "And he advised others not to try the same thing."

This last, quite the understatement, I would say.

Why We All Aren't Speaking Arabic: The Battle of Lepanto

2009-10-15T07:43:00.000-07:00

This October was the 438th anniversary of an almost forgotten yet crucial battle in the defense of western civilization called the battle of Lepanto.

In 1571, The Turkish Ottoman empire was the superpower of the day. On land, the armies of the Turks, powered by slave soldiers known as Janisaries and with advanced weaponry and artillery carved its way through the Slovaks and eventually would reach the gates of Vienna. On the sea, Turkish galleys, powered by captured Christian slaves devastated mercantile commerce and raided coastal cities throughout the Mediterranean. Europe meanwhile remained divided and at war over territory and religion. Spain, the leading European power had recently overcome the Moors in the Reconquista and was expanding into the Americas. Venice was the commercial capital of Europe and held a monopoly over Mediterranean trade. From the papal states, Pope Pius V ruled as spiritual head over the Catholic nations of Europe, but it was threatened by the Protestant Reformation. In France, conflicts were breaking out, Britain was still a poor backward country that had become the cradle of Protestantism and waged piratical war against the Spanish and Portuguese trade in the new World.

What the Pope dreaded more was the spread of Islam by the sword over Europe. Over thirty years ago, Turkey laid siege to Malta and was narrowly driven back by an army of Crusader Knights and peasants. The stories of atrocities committed by the Turks ran shock waves throughout Europe. In 1570, the island of Cyprus was under siege by the Turks and would eventually fall 10 months later. Its commander, the Venetian Marcantonio Bragadino made a truce with the Turks for safe conduct of his army away from Cyprus when defeat was imminent. Marcantonio Bragadino however was unaware of the Islamic doctrine of Al-Taqyat, or lying for Allah. The Muslims violated the truce as soon as the gates opened, and the army of Greek and Venetian defenders were captured.

Michael Novak, esteemed historian and theologian documented what had happened afterwards. Bragadino was tied to a pole stripped naked and his nose and ears were cut off and he was humiliated in various other ways. In the end he was skinned alive. His skin was then stuffed with hay and kept in the sultan's quarters as a trophy. The Turks then slaughtered many of the inhabitants, forcing the rest to convert to Islam. The men were taken to be slaves on galleys, the women and children taken away to be slaves in the harem. The old and weak were killed.

Emboldened, the Ottomans repeated this in Greece and elsewhere. Pope Pius V had attempted to unite Europe against the Turks by forming a Holy League. Time and time again he failed but with the fall of Cyprus and increased attacks the League began to come about. In addition to this, spies had uncovered a ghastly plot by the Turkish Armada lead by Ali-Pasha to invade Italy. With the help of Don Juan of Austria, the son of the Holy Roman Emperor who would be destined to lead the attack, the League came together. The Holy League consisted of Spain, Venice, Savoy, Sicily, Malta and Genoa with the Vatican as head of the alliance. Admiral Marcantonio Colona was commissioned by the Pope to command the fleet. Colona had been a veteran of the war in Cyprus and was one of the few to escape. He was ordered by the Pope to set up an armada in the name of the Cross. This was to be a holy war; war to save Europe from the clutches of Islamic imperialism.

Don Juan and many of his men spent much of the night before battle in prayer. The fate of their civilization, they knew, depended on their good fortune on the morrow. The uncertainties of the changing winds and choppy seas, and the speed of the two onrushing lines of ships rapidly closing on each other, would erupt in unpredictable havoc. The odds against the Christians in ships were something like 350 ships to 250. But the Christians had a secret weapon.

In Venice and elsewhere, new innovations in naval warfare were being constructed. Among these was the Gallease, a new galley warship that was large with mounted swivel cannons. Its height made it resistant to boarding and its new cannons made it devastating. The Turks, though outnumbering the Holy League 3 to 1 could not keep up with the European mode of invention.

In the end, Don Juan and Colona organized 206 galleys and 6 galleases. This fleet of the Christian alliance was manned by 12,920 sailors. In addition, it carried almost 28,000 fighting troops: 10,000 Spanish regular infantry of excellent quality, 7,000 German and 6,000 Italian mercenaries, and 5,000 Venetian soldiers. Also, Venetian oarsmen were mainly free citizens and were able to bear arms adding to the fighting power of their ship, whereas slaves and convicts were used to row many of the galleys in other Holy League squadrons. Don Juan had also promised the galley rowers who were criminals their freedom if they succeeded.

The Ottomans armada consisted of 222 war galleys, 56 galleys, and some smaller vessels. The Turks had skilled and experienced crews of sailors, but were somewhat deficient in the number of their elite corps of Janissaries. They made up for it with 13,000 sailors and 34,000 soldiers. The slaves below were mainly Christian prisoners of war, some from the recent conquest of Cyprus. An important and arguably decisive advantage for the Christians was their numerical superiority in guns and cannons aboard their ships. It is estimated the Christians had 1,815 guns, while the Turks had only 750 with insufficient ammunition. They instead trusted on bowmen.

Note: Few historians mention that just before the departure, Philip II (King of Spain) presented Don Juan with a picture of Our Lady of Guadalupe which she had caused to be miraculously imprinted on the cloak of the Indian peasant Juan Diego in Mexico 40 years before. Don Juan placed the picture in the chapel of the admiral-vessel, asking for Mary's protection of his expedition.

The Holy fleet departed from the Greek Island of Corfu and made its way to the Gulf of Lepanto. Ali Pasha was very confident of victory and brought with him his entire fortune including his Harem. The two forces met on October 7th 1571. Don Juan began by sailing his Gallease at full speed towards the heart of the Ottoman armada, breaking it in half. The other gallease' were placed in the front and used to attack the enemy galleys, sinking two initially. The vast majority of fighting however involved boarding other ships. Witnesses stated that the sea was blood red from the fighting. there were also dead bodies and turbans floating in the water. One of the biggest advantages to the outnumbered Christians was the christian slaves aboards the Turkish galleys. Sensing their chance for freedom, most of them joined the fighting, using their chains as weapons.

During the course of the battle, the Ottoman commander's ship was boarded and the Spanish tercios from 3 galleys and the Turkish janissaries from seven galleys fought on the deck of the Sultana. Twice the Spanish were repelled with great loss, but at the third attempt, with reinforcements, they prevailed. Ali Pasha was killed and beheaded, against the wishes of Don Juan. However, when his head was displayed on a pike from the Spanish flagship, it contributed greatly to the destruction of Turkish morale. Even after the battle had clearly turned against the Turks, groups of Janissaries still kept fighting with all they had. It is said that at some point the Janissaries ran out of weapons and started throwing oranges and lemons at their Christian adversaries, leading to awkward scenes of laughter among the general misery of battle.

The battle concluded around 4 pm. The Turkish fleet suffered the loss of about 210 ships of which 117 galleys, 10 galliots and three fustas were captured and in good enough condition for the Christians to keep. On the Christian side 20 galleys were destroyed and 30 were damaged so seriously that they had to be scuttled. One Venetian galley was the only prize kept by the Turks; all others were abandoned by them and recaptured. The Holy League had suffered around 7,500 soldiers, sailors and rowers dead, but freed about as many Christian prisoners. Turkish casualties were around 25,000, and at least 3,500 were captured.

The engagement was a crushing defeat for the Ottomans, who had not lost a major naval battle since the fifteenth century. To half of Christendom, this event encouraged hope for the downfall of Islam which they regarded as the "Enemy of the Christian." Indeed, the Empire lost all but 30 of its ships and as many as 30,000 men, and some Western historians have held it to be the most decisive naval battle anywhere on the globe since the Battle of Actium of 31BC.

The Ottomans ships were easily replaced, yet it proved much harder to man them, since so many experienced sailors, oarsmen and soldiers had been lost. Especially critical was the loss of most of the Empire's composite bowmen and jannisaries which, far beyond ship rams and early firearms were the Ottoman's main embarked weapon. Historian John Keegan notes that the losses in this highly specialised class of warrior were irreplaceable in a generation, and in fact represented the death of a living tradition for the Ottomans. Convicts also replaced Christians in the galleys.

In Europe, news of the victory was met with great jubilation. Throughout Europe, church bells tolled and there were great celebrations. The victory had been greater than any had hoped for.

Following the battle there were plans by the Vatican to invade Turkey herself, unfortunately, the nations of the Holy League once again began to fight amongst each other and plans were abandoned. After Lepanto the Holy League and other nations and alliances fought further wars and conflicts against Islamic Turkey. Some were victories, some defeats.

Efforts by archeologists to uncover the remains of the battle of Lepanto have unfortunately met with disappointment. The area where much of the battle was fought has receeded. The coast has moved outward. Much of the battleground is now farm land. Other coastal sites have been disturbed over the centuries by Greek fishing trollers, athough some wrecks were found by German and Spanish Archeologists.

Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, the man who would later write Don Quixote participated in the battle of Lepanto. He lost an arm in the battle and was captured by Algerian corsairs years later where he spent 5 years as a slave before being ransomed. The events of Don Quixote such as the freeing of galley slaves were inspired by Lepanto.

As news of the great victory of October 7 reached shore, church bells rang all over the cities and countryside of Europe. For months, Pius V [who was canonized a saint in 1712] had urged Catholics to say the daily rosary on behalf of the morale and good fortune of the Christian forces, and above all, a successful outcome to the highly risky preemptive strike against the Turkish fleets. Thereafter, he declared that October 7 would be celebrated as the feast of "Mary, Queen of Victory." A later pope added the title "Queen of the Holy Rosary" in honor of the laity's favorite form of prayer. All over the Italian peninsula, great paintings were commissioned--whole galleries were dedicated--to honoring the classic scenes of that epic battle. The air of Europe that October tasted of liberties preserved. The record of the celebrations lives on in glorious paintings by Titian, Tintoretto, and many others.

[Slightly edited for spelling and grammar; Source: Free Republic, Catholic Caucus, Daily Mass Readings, October 15, 2009]

To see historian Michael Novak's much more comprehensive (and fascinating) article on this, click here. Novak notes that the Muslims went on to suffer a decisive (at the time) defeat in Europe at Vienna on September 11, 1683. He ends his article with these words:

Still, it should surprise no one that the date chosen to bring the new resurgence of modern Muslim ambition to the whole world's attention was also September 11, 318 years after 1683. The announcement came in the vivid orange bursts of blossoming flame and dark black smoke from two of the tallest towers of the West's financial capital. Muslim memory runs very deep, and so does the Muslim imperative to conquer the world for Allah, not just by force of arms but by conversion to Islam. The West has always refused to give this long and deeply rooted Muslim threat against the West's own soul the sustained attention it requires.

Nonetheless, four centuries after Lepanto, three centuries after Vienna, today in most of the capitals of once-Christian Europe, there are more Muslims attending services in mosques on Fridays, than Christians at worship on Sundays. In some ways, the pluralism of the West is a blessing, even an advantage to the West--and yet its profoundest historical weakness lies in its own divided spirit. The ultimate issue between Islam and the West is not military force. It is the depth of intellect and engagement. In matters of the spirit, we seem always to become tongue-tied, as if lacking in spirited confidence. We do not insist on presenting better arguments in recognition of the inalienable rights to human liberty that our totalitarian opponents deny. Mere secular force will not do, when the fundamental battle is spiritual. Thus, the same movie seems to be played over and over.

That is the historical record, it seems, at least in regard to October 7, 1571, and September 11-12, 1683, after Lepanto, and after Vienna.

Reflections On the Mass Readings for This Sunday - October 11

2009-10-10T17:00:00.000-07:00

Here are the readings for this coming Sunday's Scripture readings from the U.S. Catholic bishops website.

And my own study (with Don Schwager's meditations). We're having a little technical trouble updating this week's study, so if you need it before it gets posted, please e-mail me directly at fidelis927@cox.net and I will send it directly to you. BTW, thank you Jackie and others for all the positive comments about the study; it is very encouraging to me!

Here also the weekly audio/print meditation on the readings by Dr. Scott Hahn.

And finally, the weekly video by Professor Michael Barber on the Sunday readings.

Discussion and charitible comments are always welcome. Have a blessed and holy Lord's day!

Is There A Doctor In The (White) House?

2009-10-06T12:21:00.000-07:00

This would be funny, if it wasn't such a sad commentary on both how some shameless politicos believe dishonest means justify the means, and on how far people will let themselves be led around by the nose by their idols:

WASHINGTON -- President Obama yesterday rolled out the red carpet -- and handed out doctors' white coats as well, just so nobody missed his hard-sell health-care message. In a heavy-handed attempt at reviving support for health-care reform, the White House orchestrated a massive photo op to buttress its claim that front-line physicians support Obama.

A sea of 150 white-coated doctors, all enthusiastically supportive of the president and representing all 50 states, looked as if they were at a costume party as they posed in the Rose Garden before hearing Obama's pitch for the Democratic overhaul bills moving through Congress.

The physicians, all invited guests, were told to bring their white lab coats to make sure that TV cameras captured the image. But some docs apparently forgot, failing to meet the White House dress code by showing up in business suits or dresses. So the White House rustled up white coats for them and handed them to the suited physicians who had taken seats in the sun-splashed lawn area. All this to provide a visual counter to complaints from other doctors that pending legislation is bad news for the medical profession.

(Source: New York Post)

I'm sorry, but who is so clueless or purposely blind as to not see the phoniness and blatant manipulation going on here? Surely the doctors present must have chuckled to each other or at least rolled their eyes. But maybe not, as they were all hand-picked supporters of the President and must have been clinically giddy just to be in his presence. Certainly the American people at large aren't that naive? It reminds me of the amateurish propaganda Saddam Hussien would put out during the Gulf War.

"Nobody has more credibility with the American people on this issue than you do," Obama told his guests.

Well, these particular M.D.'s just lost a lot of their credibility by playing along with this charade. Mr. Obama? Between his obsession with the failing healthcare bill, his failed and expensive junket to Europe in support of bringing the Olympics to Chicago, and his limp-wristed indecisiveness about the war in Afganistan while more of our brave men and women die everyday, I'm not sure he has much left at this point in the old credibility resevoir.

Reflections On This Sunday's Mass Readings: October 4, 2009

2009-10-04T12:16:00.000-07:00

Here are the readings for this coming Sunday's Scripture readings from the U.S. Catholic bishops website.

And my own study (with Don Schwager's meditations).

Also the weekly audio/print meditation on the readings by Dr. Scott Hahn.

And finally, the weekly video by Professor Michael Barber on the Sunday readings.

Charitible comments and discussion are always welcome. Have a blessed and holy Lord's day!

Why The Original "The Wizard of Oz" Would Never Be Released Today

2009-10-04T09:08:00.001-07:00

The family all sat down last night to watch the newly re-mastered version of the 1939 classic MGM movie "The Wizard of Oz." When I was a kid, the film came on television once a year around Christmas time and was always a big deal. This was in the days before YouTube, satellite, cable, Blu-Ray, DVD or even VCR and if you missed it that once a year, you had to wait until the next time they showed it. Out of luck, kid; see you next year.

Anyway we all thoroughly enjoyed it as we always do. The picture and sound quality were, of course, much improved, but we mostly just delighted in the usual things that make it worth watching again and again - the wonderful music, the slightly over-the-top performances, the comic timing, and the heart-touching overall message: there's no place like home.

It's common to hear (mostly older) people say "They sure don't make movies like they used to," and that's inarguably true. But why is that? Has society or our tastes --even in so-called "family films" --become more 'sophisticated' (i.e. 'cynical')? Have our tastes become more 'adult' (i.e. crude and vulgar, with the mocking of innocence and idealism)? Do we prefer more 'realism' in our media (i.e. explicit sex and gratuitous violence)?

Perhaps so; but must it be so for us as individuals? Just because the prevailing culture has evolved (or devolved) in this way, do we just lower ourselves and conform our characters to it by lowering them as well? Or, maybe we are living uneasily within our culture, but we still just throw up our hands in defeat, roll over, and go with the flow. Any dead fish can float downstream, but it takes a live fish to swim against the current.

Anyway, here are the top ten reasons why the original 'The Wizard of Oz" would not be produced and released in theaters today:

1. No profanity or cruel insults between characters.

2. No nudity (not even skin tight clothes or exposed cleavage!).

3. No sexual situations, even implied.

4. No bathroom humor.

5. No political correctness (there were 'people of color' but they were green).

6. The characters evidently embraced tradtional family values; at any rate they did not mock them.

7. No gratuitous violence.

8. Adult Males were not portrayed as hopeless idiots in contrast to women and children who always know better.

9. Religion was not bashed. In fact Auntie Em proclaimed herself a 'Christian woman' (GASP!)

10. No huge financial killing was evidently envisioned in the form of merchandising and endless sequels and spin-offs.

Despite all these shortcomings, this film has been a beloved classic for 70 years. Will people 70 years from now be able to say the same thing about the last movie you saw in a theater?

(For more thoughts on "The Wizard of Oz," see Deal Hudson's blog, found here.)

Fr. Robert Barron On "The YouTube Heresies"

2009-10-04T08:06:00.000-07:00

Here is a two part presentation by Fr. Robert Barron, priest of the Archdiocese of Detroit and founder of The Catholicism Project. In these videos he explains modern impediments to embracing Christianity in general and Catholicism in particular. Part 1 covers 'scientism' (the belief that science explains everything) and 'angelism' (the belief that if the Church were authentic everyone inside the Church would be perfect). Part 2 discusses fundamentalist versus Catholic methods of interpretation of Sacred Scripture and how, in the popular mind, they are conflated.

More videos by Fr. Barron can be found at his website, found here.

(photo above is an icon of St. Irenaeus)

Reflections on This Sunday's Mass Readings - September 27th

2009-09-26T15:25:00.000-07:00

Here are the readings for this coming Sunday's Scripture readings from the U.S. Catholic bishops website.

And my own study (with Don Schwager's meditations).

Also the weekly audio/print meditation on the readings by Dr. Scott Hahn.

And finally, the weekly video by Professor Michael Barber on the Sunday readings.

Charitible comments and discussion are always welcome. Have a blessed and holy Lord's day!

So Much To Blog, So Little Time

2009-09-13T08:02:00.000-07:00

Sorry about the paucity of new blogs this week. I'm working on a brand new presentation for this week's Beginning Apologetics series I'm teaching, and it's taking all my time. Hopefully next week-end things'll be less crazy.

The classes themselves are going well. We started out with about 40 folks ten weeks ago, and are now down to about 20 faithful souls. There is usually some attrition in every religious exercise of this sort (think the parable of the sower, Luke 8:4-15), but this class has stayed strong. There are a LOT of great folks attending with good hearts and sharp minds, and I really enjoy their questions and participation. I'll be glad to be taking a breather after the last class (in two weeks), but I know I'll be looking to get started on something else.

Reflections on This Sunday's Mass Readings - September 13th

2009-09-13T07:51:00.000-07:00

Here are the readings for this coming Sunday's Scripture readings from the U.S. Catholic bishops website.

And my own study (with Don Schwager's meditations).

Also the weekly audio/print meditation on the readings by Dr. Scott Hahn.

And finally, the weekly video by Professor Michael Barber on the Sunday readings.

Charitible comments and discussion are always welcome. Have a blessed and holy Lord's day!

Just The Facts, Ma'am!

2009-09-06T07:46:00.000-07:00

Sgt. Joe Friday of "Dragnet" fame schools President Obama in this video.

Persecution of Catholics in Viet Nam Continues Unabated

2009-09-05T19:43:00.000-07:00

Vietnamese Blogger Arrested after Challenging Media Distortions of Pope's Speech

Hanoi, Vietnam, Sep 1, 2009 (CNA).- A blogger who was defending the Church against the state media’s distortions of Pope Benedict XVI’s June speech to Vietnamese bishops was arrested on Thursday in what some fear is the first of many arrests. Bui Tanh Hieu is a catechumen who writes under the pen name Nguoi Buon Gio, which means “Wind Trader.” Reuters reported that he was arrested by police in Hanoi on August 27 and has not been heard from since.

Redemptorist Father Peter Nguyen Van Khai of Hanoi monastery confirmed to Asia News that the blogger was detained on Thursday. The priest described him as a catechumen of the Archdiocese of Hanoi who is studying the catechism in preparation for baptism.

Sr. Emily Nguyen from the Diocese of Vinh warned that his arrest “certainly is not the last one.”

See entire news article here.

Today is the Feast Day of Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta

2009-09-05T10:57:00.000-07:00

HT to my friend Leslie for the reminder.

Mother Teresa of Calcutta, the tiny woman recognized throughout the world for her work among the poorest of the poor, was beatified October 19, 2003. Among those present were hundreds of Missionaries of Charity, the Order she founded in 1950 as a diocesan religious community. Today the congregation also includes contemplative sisters and brothers and an order of priests.

Speaking in a strained, weary voice at the beatification Mass, Pope John Paul II declared her blessed, prompting waves of applause before the 300,000 pilgrims in St. Peter's Square. In his homily, read by an aide for the aging pope, the Holy Father called Mother Teresa “one of the most relevant personalities of our age” and “an icon of the Good Samaritan.” Her life, he said, was “a bold proclamation of the gospel.”

Mother Teresa's beatification, just over six years after her death, was part of an expedited process put into effect by Pope John Paul II. Like so many others around the world, he found her love for the Eucharist, for prayer and for the poor a model for all to emulate.
Born to Albanian parents in what is now Skopje, Macedonia (then part of the Ottoman Empire), Gonxha (Agnes) Bojaxhiu was the youngest of the three children who survived. For a time, the family lived comfortably, and her father's construction business thrived. But life changed overnight following his unexpected death.

During her years in public school Agnes participated in a Catholic sodality and showed a strong interest in the foreign missions. At age 18 she entered the Loreto Sisters of Dublin. It was 1928 when she said goodbye to her mother for the final time and made her way to a new land and a new life. The following year she was sent to the Loreto novitiate in Darjeeling, India. There she chose the name Teresa and prepared for a life of service. She was assigned to a high school for girls in Calcutta, where she taught history and geography to the daughters of the wealthy. But she could not escape the realities around her—the poverty, the suffering, the overwhelming numbers of destitute people.

In 1946, while riding a train to Darjeeling to make a retreat, Sister Teresa heard what she later explained as “a call within a call. The message was clear. I was to leave the convent and help the poor while living among them.” She also heard a call to give up her life with the Sisters of Loreto and, instead, to “follow Christ into the slums to serve him among the poorest of the poor.”
After receiving permission to leave Loreto, establish a new religious community and undertake her new work, she took a nursing course for several months. She returned to Calcutta, where she lived in the slums and opened a school for poor children. Dressed in a white sari and sandals (the ordinary dress of an Indian woman) she soon began getting to know her neighbors—especially the poor and sick—and getting to know their needs through visits.

The work was exhausting, but she was not alone for long. Volunteers who came to join her in the work, some of them former students, became the core of the Missionaries of Charity. Other helped by donating food, clothing, supplies, the use of buildings. In 1952 the city of Calcutta gave Mother Teresa a former hostel, which became a home for the dying and the destitute. As the Order expanded, services were also offered to orphans, abandoned children, alcoholics, the aging and street people.

For the next four decades Mother Teresa worked tirelessly on behalf of the poor. Her love knew no bounds. Nor did her energy, as she crisscrossed the globe pleading for support and inviting others to see the face of Jesus in the poorest of the poor. In 1979 she was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. On September 5, 1997, God called her home.

Source: AmericanCatholic.org

There are so many to choose from, but here are some of my favorite quotes from Mother Teresa:

Even the rich are hungry for love, for being cared for, for being wanted, for having someone to call their own.

Being unwanted, unloved, uncared for, forgotten by everybody, I think that is a much greater hunger, a much greater poverty than the person who has nothing to eat.

Love begins at home, and it is not how much we do... but how much love we put in that action.

Jesus said love one another. He didn't say love the whole world.

In this life we cannot do great things. We can only do small things with great love.

If you can't feed a hundred people, then feed just one.

It is a poverty to decide that a child must die so that you may live as you wish.

I know God will not give me anything I can't handle. I just wish that He didn't trust me so much.

The Legacy of Ted Kennedy

2009-09-05T09:09:00.000-07:00

Fr. Robert Barron has an insightful commentary on the passing of Senator Edward Kennedy--his legacy in particular and that of the Kennedy clan in general.

You can find the brief video here, and here is the text of his commentary, entitled "Sen. Kennedy, Abortion, and the Party of the Little Guy.

Fr. Barron's experience growing up as a Catholic and what the Kennedys meant to Catholic Americans are highly reflective of my own formative years (I believe Father is slightly younger than me). Even though the home I was raised in was Catholic only in the most extremely nominal sense, it was a Mexican American home. As such, there was the obligatory picture of President John F. Kennedy displayed in an honored place--right there next to the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart of Mary. JFK was matter-of-factly acknowledged as a martyr -- as a martyr to what, it wasn't exactly clear to us; to civil rights or some other such thing. All we knew was that Kennedy (and by extension all the Kennedys and the whole Democratic Party) were for the little guy (ourselves included) and their opponents the Republicans were, by default, evil incarnate. If pressed for a rational defense for this position, we would have been at a loss. That's what everyone we knew believed so that was good enough for us, thank you.

I was too young to remember the JFK assassination, but I remember very clearly when Bobby Kennedy was shot. Life (school, work, everything) was put on hold to mourn this young man who's legacy, especially in retrospect, was not one of actual accomplishment, but rather one of unrealized promise and of further building the Kennedy legend.

The first time I voted for President, I was 18 years old and I voted for Jimmy Carter. I voted for him because he seemed like a nice guy and he was Democrat, both of which meant he wasn't a Republican. That was my whole line of reasoning, as I imagine it is for many people who voted then and now vote, not on the issues, but out of ignorance of the issues and on pure emotion and social conditioning.
Four years later, after being exposed to the realities of life, serving a stint in the military, and watching President Carter drag this country down into quivering mass of economic, political and miltary jelly, I voted for Ronald Reagan, and have voted Republican ever since then. Not that the GOP is perfect (far from it), but I can at least say now that when I vote (whether I am right or wrong) I attempt to vote based on an informed decision, rather than the emotionalism of my uninformed youth. Socrates taught that "The unexamined life is not worth living." One could also say, "The unexamined vote is not worth casting."

Which brings me back to Senator Kennedy. There is a telling passage from Fr. Barron's commentary:

I think it is safe to say that, over the past thirty years, there has been no stronger and more consistent advocate of abortion rights than this late “lion of the Senate.” But it was not always so. In 1971, just two years before Roe v. Wade, Sen Kennedy responded to a man named Tom Dennelly of Great Neck, N.Y. who had written to the senator expressing his views on the matter of abortion. Here is how Kennedy responded: “While the deep concern of a woman bearing an unwanted child merits consideration and sympathy, it is my personal feeling that the legalization of abortion on demand is not in accordance with the value which our civilization places on human life. Wanted or unwanted, I believe that human life, even at its earliest stages, has certain rights which must be recognized — the right to be born, the right to love, the right to grow old.” And he went on: “when history looks back at this era it should recognize this generation as the one which cared for human beings enough to halt the practice of war, to provide a decent living for every family, and to fulfill its responsibility to its children from the very moment of conception.”
For my money, that’s one of the best and most theoretically consistent defenses of the pro-life position ever articulated. And it came quite appropriately from the leader of the party of the little guy. In 1971 anyway, opposition to abortion was a naturally Democratic position, whereas today a pro-life Democrat is practically an oxymoron, and almost every major Democratic politician, locally or nationally, feels obligated to parrot pro-choice ideology if he wants his party’s nomination.

Ted Kennedy, for all the good he may have done in social issues and "protecting the little" guy, out of political expediency changed moral course and, as a result, came up short on the issue of protecting the weakest humans of all. When he stood before God, what could he have said to Him about the millions killed by abortion out of political expediency? As Robert Kennedy famously said:

There are those who look at things the way they are, and ask why... I dream of things that never were, and ask why not?

To me, the tragedy of Senator Kennedy's life is the tragedy of all the Kennedy brothers: what could have been. May God have mercy on his soul.

Reflections on This Sunday's Mass Readings - September 6th

2009-09-05T08:57:00.000-07:00

Here are the readings for this coming Sunday's Scripture readings from the U.S. Catholic bishops website.

And my own study (with Don Schwager's meditations).

Also the weekly audio/print meditation on the readings by Dr. Scott Hahn.

And finally, the weekly video by Professor Michael Barber on the Sunday readings.

Charitible comments and discussion are always welcome. Have a blessed and holy Lord's day!

What's the Difference Between the Honor We Give to Saints, and the Worship Given to God Alone?

2009-08-31T09:10:00.000-07:00

This is a question that pops up from time to time in my discourses with Protestants (and even fellow Catholics). Since we just celebrated the feastday of St. Augustine, I will let him answer this since he does oh so better than I could. This reading is an excerpt from his treatise against Faustus and is used in the Roman Catholic Office of Readings:

We, the Christian community, assemble to celebrate the memory of the martyrs with ritual solemnity because we want to be inspired to follow their example, share in their merits, and be helped by their prayers. Yet we erect no altars to any of the martyrs, even in the martyrs’ burial chapels themselves. No bishop, when celebrating at an altar where these holy bodies rest, has ever said, “Peter, we make this offering to you”, or “Paul, to you”, or “Cyprian, to you”. No, what is offered is offered always to God, who crowned the martyrs. We offer in the chapels where the bodies of those he crowned rest, so the memories that cling to those places will stir our emotions and encourage us to greater love both for the martyrs whom we can imitate and for God whose grace enables us to do so. So we venerate the martyrs with the same veneration of love and fellowship that we give to the holy men of God still with us. We sense that the hearts of these latter are just as ready to suffer death for the sake of the Gospel, and yet we feel more devotion toward those who have already emerged victorious from the struggle. We honour those who are fighting on the battlefield of this life here below, but we honour more confidently those who have already achieved the victor’s crown and live in heaven. But the veneration strictly called “worship”, or latria, that is, the special homage belonging only to the divinity, is something we give and teach others to give to God alone. The offering of a sacrifice belongs to worship in this sense (that is why those who sacrifice to idols are called idol-worshippers), and we neither make nor tell others to make any such offering to any martyr, any holy soul, or any angel. If anyone among us falls into this error, he is corrected with words of sound doctrine and must then either mend his ways or else be shunned. The saints themselves forbid anyone to offer them the worship they know is reserved for God, as is clear from the case of Paul and Barnabas. When the Lycaonians were so amazed by their miracles that they wanted to sacrifice to them as gods, the apostles tore their garments, declared that they were not gods, urged the people to believe them, and forbade them to worship them. Yet the truths we teach are one thing, the abuses thrust upon us are another. There are commandments that we are bound to give; there are breaches of them that we are commanded to correct, but until we correct them we must of necessity put up with them.

St. Augustine here clearly disguishes between devotion to and veration of the martyrs and saints, and the worship (Latreia) due to God alone. This distinction was clear to the early Christians, but abuses and misunderstandings certainly existed, as noted by this bishop of the late fourth century. Clearly, liturgical or ritual celebration of the memory of the saints through a eucharist celebrated at their tomb on the anniversary of their death, was already a long standing tradition by the time of St. Augustine (ca 400 AD).

Source: The Crossroads Initiative.

Reflections on This Sunday's Mass Readings - August 30th

2009-08-29T09:56:00.000-07:00

Here are the readings for this coming Sunday's Scripture readings from the U.S. Catholic bishops website.

And my own study (with Don Schwager's meditations).

Also the weekly audio/print meditation on the readings by Dr. Scott Hahn.

And finally, the weekly video by Professor Michael Barber on the Sunday readings.

Charitible comments and discussion are always welcome. Have a blessed and holy Lord's day!

Question Box: What Does it Mean to Grow in Holiness?

2009-08-28T08:31:00.000-07:00

Here is a question that I received from a friend after I sent out the following quote:

To sanctify yourself it is necessary for you to employ the means, — such as, to avoid evil occasions, to remain detached from earthly goods, to live a life recollected in God; and to maintain this, it is necessary to receive the sacraments frequently, to make your meditation, your spiritual reading, and to perform other devout exercises, everyday, otherwise it is impossible to preserve the spirit of fervour. St Alphonsus Ligouri

What does it mean for a Christian to "sanctify oneself"?

That’s a good question. To “sanctify one’s self” is just another way of saying “growing in holiness.” To grow in holiness, one can’t just live a life that only consists of random opportunities to live a godly life pleasing to the Lord, though that is something we should do. God expects us to strive for holiness:

You, therefore, must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect. Mt 5:48

I am speaking in human terms, because of your natural limitations. For just as you once yielded your members to impurity and to greater and greater iniquity, so now yield your members to righteousness for sanctification. When you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. But then what return did you get from the things of which you are now ashamed? The end of those things is death. But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the return you get is sanctification and its end, eternal life. Romans 6:19:22

Finally, brethren, we beseech and exhort you in the Lord Jesus, that as you learned from us how you ought to live and to please God, just as you are doing, you do so more and more. For you know what instructions we gave you through the Lord Jesus. For this is the will of God, your sanctification…For God has not called us for uncleanness, but in holiness. Therefore whoever disregards this, disregards not man but God, who gives his Holy Spirit to you. 1 Thes 4:1-8

Since we have these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from every defilement of body and spirit, and make holiness perfect in the fear of God 2 Cor 7:1

For God has not called us for uncleanness, but in holiness. 1Th 4:7

Yet woman will be saved through bearing children, if she continues in faith and love and holiness, with modesty. 1Ti 2:15

Strive for peace with all men, and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord. Heb 12:14

Since all these things are thus to be dissolved, what sort of persons ought you to be in lives of holiness and godliness. 2Pe 3:11

To positively grow in holiness, one must undertake a plan for holiness. This has nothing to do with piling up works and prayers, or going through the motions. It does, however, involve taking on the exercise of the moral virtues, those attributes that help a mature Christian exercise grow in holiness. Virtues are nothing more than good Christian habits—classically there are seven: Faith, Hope, Charity, Fortitude, Justice, Prudence and Temperance. Just as a Christian can grow in bad habits—called vices—he can also grow in these good spiritual habits, making it more difficult for him to sin and easier for him to do the right.

To grow in holiness, one also needs to develop a detachment from the world. This means not being attached to the fads, opinions, noise and hyperactivity of the prevailing culture. We should question seriously anything in our lives that leads us away from God. For example: do I neglect to pray because I can’t miss my favorite show, however innocent and even spiritually edifying it might be? Then my favorite show is drawing me away from God. If I can watch my show and pray, then that’s OK. Laypersons like ourselves can never grow completely detached from the world because we live in it everyday, but to the extent that we can, we should.

Speaking of prayer, we won’t grow in holiness without regular prayer. I know you know this, so I won’t belabor it, but we both know it isn’t an option for Christians.

We must leave ourselves open to and take advantage of opportunities for grace. Just being a Christian means, assuming we are in a state of sanctifying grace (i.e. not having any unrepented/unconfessed mortal sins) we have the Holy Spirit in us always, but there are special moments of actual grace that God showers on us. As a Catholic, of course, for me the Sacraments (especially the Eucharist and Confession) are means of grace since they are an encounter with Christ. For married persons, there are also the graces given in the Sacrament of Matrimony.

Finally, one shouldn’t neglect spiritual reading like devotionals, lives of the saints, meditations, and especially the Scriptures. Just like our bodies are trained by the virtues and our hearts are softened by prayer, our minds must be fed with the wisdom of the saints, and the pure word of God.

Hope that helps. I found a good article by Mother Angelica of EWTN who talks about this very subject. Maybe this can be your spiritual reading for today!

You might also find the article "Grace: What It is and What it Does," from Catholic Answers, helpful as well.

Blessings,Vince

Take My Duh Vinci Code -- Please!

2009-08-21T13:42:00.000-07:00

Da Vinci Code author 'most donated'

His new novel is tipped to set new global sales records - but Da Vinci Code author Dan Brown's works have been revealed as the books most likely to be offloaded to secondhand shops.
Brown has been named the "most donated" author in a survey of the nation's Oxfam shops as people discard his bestsellers.

But there is some comfort for both the charity and the author, whose much-anticipated book The Lost Symbol is released next month. He is also the second most sought-after writer at Oxfam shops.

Topping the best-seller list at the 700 branches is Ian Rankin, known for his hugely popular Inspector Rebus series.

Rankin is also the third most donated author. He said: "It's always good for an author to know that their books are popular. With Oxfam, it's also heartening to realise that each book donated and bought is helping such a worthwhile organisation."

The publishing world is currently gearing up for a sales frenzy with the release of Brown's fifth novel on September 15. An e-book version will be released simultaneously and the book has an initial English language print run of 6.5 million copies globally.

The Da Vinci Code has the distinction of being the biggest selling paperback of all time in the UK, and Brown has sold more than 11.7 million copies of his books since he was first published in 2003.

I've noticed this myself, how in used bookstores there is a preponderance of these books that people have offloaded. Gee, if it was such a great book, wouldn't you think people would want to hang on to it?

I didn't have this problem, of course, since, not wanting to put money into Dan Brown's pocket, I simply borrowed it from the library. As it was, the book was so eye-rollingly badly written I was still tempted to ask for my money back.

Study on This Sunday's Mass Readings - August 23rd

2009-08-21T11:22:00.000-07:00

Here are the readings for this coming Sunday's Scripture readings from the U.S. Catholic bishops website.

And my own study (with Don Schwager's meditations) from my web page.

Also the weekly audio/print meditation on the readings by Dr. Scott Hahn:

And finally, the weekly video by Professor Michael Barber on the Sunday readings.

Charitible comments and discussion are always welcome. Have a blessed and holy Lord's day!

Brad Pitt: Spokesman for Hollywood Intolerance

2009-08-21T10:08:00.000-07:00

As one of the posters to the linked blog says, "My list of people I will never again give my money via movie tickets is getting quite long indeed."

To start with, Brad Pitt said that he was thinking of running for mayor of New Orleans, on an “Anti-religion, pro-legalization of marijuana and pro-gay marriage” platform. I know, I know… What a risky position to take in Tinseltown, right?

After Brads continued “anti-religion” commentary, Bill Maher decided to step up the game with his uniquely hateful brand of bigotry that’s made him oh so popular with 13-year-old atheists everywhere. In a display of “compassion,” Pitt went on to say, “Well I don’t think any Christians watch this show anyway.”

See what happened there…? Without even realizing it, Brad Pitt’s showed us that his use of the word “religion” is really inter-changeable with “Christianity,” as is the case with most of Hollywood. The entertainment industry is never anti-Religion; it’s simply anti-Christian. This goes both hand-in-hand with Hollywood’s obsession with immorality, as well as their compulsion to take shots at society’s whipping boy while praising themselves for their “risky performances.”

That goes for Megan "No Talent" Fox, as well:

Much like the time Megan Fox tipped Tinseltown’s hand when she said that if given the chance, she’d urge Megatron to only murder the “white trash, hillbilly, anti-gay, super bible-beating people in Middle America...”
Nice people. Not.

Husband jumps in river to escape nagging

2009-08-15T21:57:00.000-07:00

Poor sap. At least the story seems to have had a happy ending.

A Chinese lorry driver jumped into a fast-flowing river because he couldn't take his wife's nagging anymore.

Zhou and his wife were on a ferry on the Yangtze River when it all became too much for him, reports the Chongqing Evening Post.

Members of the ship's crew saw the man suddenly run out of his cabin with his hands covering his ears, and shouting: "I can't stand it any longer."

They initially thought he was suffering from an ear injury and went to help him but found he was unhurt.

"While we were still puzzling over the this, his wife ran up and continued nagging him," said one crewmate.

"The husband covered his ears again and said: 'I need a break' before jumping over the side into the rushing river.

"We immediately found lamps to light up the water but found nobody. The possibility of survival can be zero."

However, later that night, police found the man who had managed to swim more than a mile across across the broad river.

"I felt I was dying, but even that's better than my wife's nagging," he reportedly told the police.
The couple were reunited the following morning at the local police station where Zhou's wife promised to give up her habit of nagging him.

http://www.sthelenschat.co.uk/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=33627&get=last

Study on This Sunday's Mass Readings - August 16th

2009-08-15T12:46:00.000-07:00

Here are the readings for this Sunday's Scripture readings from the U.S. Catholic bishops website:
http://www.usccb.org/nab/readings/081609.shtml

And my own study (with Don Schwager's meditations) from my web page: http://members.cox.net/fidelis927/this_week.htm

Also the weekly audio/print meditation on the readings by Dr. Scott Hahn: http://www.salvationhistory.com/homily_helps

And Michael Barber's video refelections found here.

Charitible comments and discussion are always welcome. Have a blessed and holy Lord's day!

Requiem in Pacem, Fallen Firefighter

2009-08-08T17:13:00.000-07:00

The Phoenix-area fire service family laid to rest another member yesterday. Capt. Eric Tinkham of Queen Creek Fire Department. The story can be found here.

The local news put together a nice tribute video, found here.

Eternal rest grant unto him, O Lord, and may perpetual light shine upon him. May the souls of the faithfully departed through the mercy of God rest in peace. Amen.

Tattoo Me?

2009-08-08T08:51:00.000-07:00

What is the Catholic perspective on "gettin' a 'tat"?

Catholic apologist Patrick Madrid, over on his blog site has resurrected an old Envoy Magazine article on the topic of body art called Tattoo You?

My personal take is that this is an area that is one that is mostly a matter of taste rather than morality (unless, of course, the tattoos have immoral subject matter or the piercings are tied in to perverted sexual activity. The less said about that the better.) While not passing judgement on any one who has tattoos or piercings, I would never get one myself. In my opinion, unless one belongs to some traditional native culture or even a modern cultural sub-group (like bikers, Marines, sailors or circus tattoed ladies) which have always used tattoos as a rite of passage or a symbol of group identity, the practice strikes me (again, personally) as vain and a little juvenile. And when it comes to my fellow males, especially, body art and piercings just seems --well, effeminate. Somewhat akin to the 18th century fad of wearing a powdered wig, except without the lice. This might be news to those guys who think (even subconsciously) that getting a tatto makes them tough but, honestly, how tough could it be if you have a bunch of pre-teen girls getting them left and right?

I Wonder If That Includes Catholic Blogs?

2009-08-07T17:41:00.000-07:00

Viet Government Blocking Catholic Web Sites

Aug. 6, 2009 (CWNews.com) - Catholic internet sites that have given prominent coverage to a Vietnamese government campaign against the Catholic Church-- including CWN-- are being blocked by government censors.

VietCatholic News, a service staffed by Vietnamese journalists, has long been blocked to users inside the country. Now Catholic World News, AsiaNews, Catholic News Agency, and Independent Catholic News have all been added to the list of blocked sites.

Vietnam strictly regulates Internet access for its citizens, using both legal and technical means. The collaborative project OpenNet Initiative classifies Vietnam's level of online political censorship to be "pervasive" while Reporters without Borders considers Vietnam one of 15 "internet enemies."

The government of Vietnam claims to safeguard the country against obscene or sexually explicit content to justify its blocking efforts, but in reality most of the filtered sites contain politically or religiously sensitive materials that are seen to undermine the Communist Party's hold on power; porn sites can be accessed readily.

Amnesty International has reported many instances of internet activists being arrested for their online activities in Vietnam. OpenNet research found that blocking is concentrated on web sites with contents about overseas political opposition, overseas and independent media, human rights, and religious topics.

At first most of the site blocked to users in Vietnam were written in Vietnamese and covered events in that country. Recently, however, popular Catholic sites written in English which draw a high numbers of readers in Vietnam have been added to the list, along with human-rights organizations such as Human Rights Watch, Writers Without Borders, and Amnesty International.

The latest crackdown on Catholic sites came after reports of a violent police assault on Catholic activists in the Vinh diocese, in which two priests were hospitalized in critical condition after being brutally beaten.

Click here to share this EWTN news story with a friend.

Study on This Sunday's Mass Readings - August 9th

2009-08-07T10:59:00.000-07:00

Here are the readings for this Sunday's Scripture readings from the U.S. Catholic bishops website:

http://www.usccb.org/nab/readings/080909.shtml

And my own study (with Don Schwager's meditations) from my web page: http://members.cox.net/fidelis927/this_week.htm

Also the weekly audio/print meditation on the readings by Dr. Scott Hahn: http://www.salvationhistory.com/homily_helps

And finally, the (now weekly) video by Professor Michael Barber on the Sunday readings:
http://singinginthereign.blogspot.com/2009/08/video-for-this-sundays-readings.html

Charitible comments and discussion are always welcome. Have a blessed and holy Lord's day!

Just One More Reason To Homeschool: NEA Goes All-Out for Same-Sex Marriage

2009-08-07T09:37:00.000-07:00

From the EagleForum, http://www.eagleforum.org/column/2009/aug09/09-08-07.html

The National Education Association (NEA), which usually passes a dozen or more pro-homosexual resolutions every year at its annual national convention, this year in San Diego went all-out in support of same-sex marriage. This emphasis on advocacy for homosexuals was spelled out in a five-point New Business Item E.

Point #1 tells its union affiliates to support state legislation that registers same-sex couples in a way that mimics marriage. This registration would cover taxes, inheritance, adoptions, medical decisions, and even immigration.

Point #2 says that states can call this same-sex registration marriage or civil union or domestic partnership so long as same-sex relationships are treated like marriage.

In Point #3, the NEA promises to "support its affiliates" in opposing state constitutional amendments and laws that "could have the effect" of differentiating between homosexual and heterosexual couples. The NEA's California affiliate spent $1.25 million of teachers' dues money on the campaign to defeat Proposition 8 last year.

In Point #4, the NEA supports repeal of federal laws and regulations such as the very popular 1996 Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), which defines marriage as the union of one man and one woman. According to the Government Accountability Office's (GAO) list of laws that use DOMA's definition of marriage, repeal of this law would create new Social Security and joint income tax benefits for homosexual partners.

I think it's safe to say that "hidden" agendas are a thing of the past. What place does any of this have in educating children, you may ask (including children of parents who have strong moral reservations about this issue)? It's a quite simple strategy that abortion advocates have used to good effect over the years. If you want to promote an agenda, the best place to start is the schools, where there are lots and lots of little minnows ready to innocently swallow whatever bait you offer to them. Indoctrinate them early and often in a captive environment and -- viola! --you get a lot of non-thinking automatons ready to follow the Real Smart People in our culture (like rock stars, actors, TV talk show hosts, and the like) who are ready to play on their emotions and lack of critical thinking skills. The problem is those pesky parents who often (but not often enough) push back when they see what they perceive as moral poison being given to their children (stupid, ignorant, intolerant parents! Who knows how to raise your kids better, you or the State?).

So what's a Progressive Movement to do? Why, you must do all you can to help make the thing legal since we are know that if something is legal (like abortion, f'rinstance) it must be, ipso facto, moral and respectable as well. That way, when one of those butt-inski parents object to their 5-year old being taught that Heather has two mommies, not only can you play the "you're so mean" card, but you can piously point to the legality of the thing as evidence of it's cultural normalcy and endorsement.

The parting words of NEA's retiring general counsel, Bob Chanin, are especially telling of the sense of moral superiority these people and their ilk possess:

"Why are these conservative and right-wing bastards picking on NEA and its affiliates?"
Chanin answered, "NEA and its affiliates are effective advocates because we have power, and we have power because there are more than 3.2 million people who are willing to pay us hundreds of millions of dollars in dues each year."

Farewell To An Unsung Hero

2009-07-29T19:00:00.000-07:00

This week the firefighting community of the greater Phoenix area said farewell to one of our own. Salt River Battalion Chief and Fire Marshal Frank Molina was a 20 year fire service veteran who was a major figure here in the Valley of the Sun, especially in the Fire Prevention profession. Not only did he work diligently (even through his illness) to make the community a safer place for all, he was simply one of the nicest, most knowledgable and most helpful guys most of us ever had the honor to work with.

A blogger in the local paper had a very nice write-up on him:

The funeral procession brought our office to a standstill.
Fire truck after fire truck passed. There were ambulances, waves of flashing lights. Virtually every Valley fire department was represented.
The procession took about 10 minutes to pass.
As the audience multiplied at my second-story window, so did the questions. Who died? Was it someone killed in the line of duty? Someone we'd all recognize? What did we miss?
After checking the obits and making some calls, we learned the procession was in honor of Frank Molina, a long-time battalion chief and fire marshal for the Salt River-Pima Maricopa Indian Community. He died last Monday of cancer at the all-too-young age of 41.
I didn't know Molina, but apparently, a lot of folks did. He was a 20-year fire veteran who spent more than half of his career at Salt River. He was well respected around the Valley for his emergency management and fire prevention efforts, and about 1,000 people were expected to attend his funeral today at St. Timothy's Catholic Church in Mesa.
Despite an attention-getting procession down Baseline Road, it's possible that Molina won't make the 5 o'clock news. Heroes pass away every day, but sadly, we only seem to cover the ones who die in burning buildings or during high-stakes pursuits.
But I know of at least a dozen folks who were mesmerized, at least for a few minutes, by who could possibly be in that hearse. Must have been a great man, I heard one say.
Yep. And he's not alone.
There are countless Frank Molinas out there, great men and women who spend their lives helping others. Not because they expect any big procession out of it, but because they feel it's the right thing to do.

http://www.azcentral.com/members/Blog/JoannaAllhands/58871

God speed, Frank. We'll miss you big guy.

Pray for the Catholics of Viet Nam

2009-07-27T14:57:00.000-07:00

Half a million Vietnamese Catholics march through the streets against police violence

An Dang - Peaceful marches in the provinces of Nghe An, Ha Tinh and Quang Binh. The demonstrators protest against arrests and police violence against Catholics last week, who were attacked by security forces at the ruins of Tam Toa church

http://www.asianews.it/index.php?l=en&art=15894&size=A

It seems like atheistic Communist oppression is alive and well in Viet Nam. See my previous blog about coercive birth control measures and the war on baby girls, Hanoi style:

http://stjoesworkshop.blogspot.com/2009/07/slow-genocide-in-vietnam.html

Viet Nam has the fourth largest Catholic population in Asia, after thePhillipines, India, and China. It has a long history of martyrdom: In Eastern Cochin China (the southernmost part of Viet Nam) the martyrs included 15 priests (7 native), 60 catechists, 270 nuns, 24,000 Christians (out of 41, 234); all the charitable institutions and ecclesiastical buildings of the mission—including the episcopal curia, churches, presbyteries, 2 seminaries, a printing establishment, 17 orphanages, 10 convents, and 225 chapels — were destroyed. In Southern Cochin China 10 native priests and 8585 Christians were massacred in the Quang Tri Province alone—the two remaining provinces supplied hundreds of martyrs; two-thirds of the churches, presbyteries, etc. of the mission were pillaged and burned. In the Mission of Southern Tong-king, 163 churches were burned; 4799 Catholics were executed, while 1181 died of hunger and misery. These figures apply only to the year 1885. In 1883-1884 eight French missionaries, one native priest, 63 catechists and 400 Christians were massacred in Western Tong-king, while 10,000 Catholics only saved themselves by flight. The carnage extended even to the remote forests of Laos, where seven missionaries, several native priests, and thousands of Catholics were killed.

All Vietnamese Catholics who had died for their faith from 1533 to the present day were canonized in 1988 by John Paul II as, collectively, the Vietnamese Martyrs.

http://www.catholic.org/saints/saint.php?saint_id=4951

-----UPDATE:

Vietnamese Police Maul 2 Priests, 500,000 Protest Anti-Catholic Violence

http://www.ewtn.com/vnews/getstory.asp?number=96833

Characters of the Reformation

2009-07-23T11:23:00.000-07:00

Now that I'm on vacation, I finally got a chance to crack open a book that's been sitting on my nightstand for about a year (and I do mean literally crack open, since this book came wrapped tightly in plastic shrink-wrap so that it was impossible to peek inside and get a preview without damaging the "newness" of it.). Anyway, when I finally did open it this week, I was disappointed to see that it covered, not the ususal Continental Reformation figures like Luther, Calvin and Zwingli, but exclusively characters of the English Reformation -- Henry VIII, Elizabeth I, Mary Tudor, Thomas Cromwell, etc, etc. My disappointment quickly waned, however, once I started reading the book, and I have scarcely been able to put it down since. Hilaire Belloc has long been one of my favorite writers and the accounts he gives of these historical figures is just fascinating. Here is the Product Description from the publisher:

Perhaps the most fascinating book ever written by this great Catholic historian. Here in bold, living colors Belloc sketches the destructive results of the greed, lust, weakness, tenacity, blindness, fear and indecision of 23 famous men and women of the Protestant Reformation period, analyzing their strengths, mistakes, motives and deeds which changed the course of history. Belloc cites Anne Boleyn, not the weak-willed Henry VIII as the "pivot figure" of the English Reformation, for it was her iron will to be Queen which started the movement. He describes Cromwell, the monastery looter and destroyer, as "the true creator of the English Reformation." He shows how the crafty William Cecil accomplished the task of "digging up the Catholic Faith by the roots" and "crushing out the Mass from English soil." Belloc also highlights the fatal error of Cardinal Richelieu in putting France before Catholicism and thus torpedoing Europe's last great chance of keeping Christendom united. Belloc warns that this breakup of Christendom may still destroy our Christian civilization. Even those who think they do not like history will be unable to put this book down. Brings history vividly to life!

Belloc's main thesis in this book is that, if the English Reformation had failed -- and it had every opportunity to do so -- Protestantism as a movement would have quickly died out. Once England went Protestant and placed it's newly found naval and trading power behind it, it could not help but quickly aid in the spread of Protestant influence.

Of course Belloc writes as a Catholic, so not all will agree with his analysis of history, but it is a refreshing counterbalance to other versions of this history we are used to hearing, first in school, and as foisted upon us by the popular media, especially in such laughable movies as "Elizabeth."

Slow Genocide in Viet Nam

2009-07-23T10:56:00.000-07:00

The communist government of Viet Nam is punishing couples with more than two children, a local Catholic news agency reports. Catholic villagers in Thua Thien-Hue province told the Union of Catholic Asian News they are being fined for having more than two children under a revived government two-child policy.

Same old story: Communism and Socialism are so inefficient at running a country that they have to coerce families into contraception and abortion.

Despite the fact that Viet Nam now has a below-replacement rate of fertility - 1.83 children born per woman - the communist government in the early 1960s imposed a 2-child limit for couples. The UN’s leading population control group, the UNFPA, has been active in contraception and abortion campaigns in the country since 1997.

It seems this is the only thing the UN is good at.

In 2000, the BBC lauded the policy for having reduced the overall fertility rate from 3.8 children per woman to 2.3, but admitted that a “degree of coercion” was used to ensure compliance. This included fines, expulsion from the communist party and confiscation of land. The original policy was scrapped in 2003 but revived in 2008 after a 10 percent spike in the birth rate alarmed officials who never stopped “encouraging” couples to have only small families.

"A degree of coercion," BBC? Probably some of that good old British tendency for understatement.

But even the UNFPA was reportedly “puzzled” by the revival. “In Vietnam now life expectancy is rising, the fertility rate is decreasing and in the next 20 years many people will be in the senior group,” said Tran Thi Van, of UNFPA. “If there’s not a sufficient labor force as the population is ageing, the country will face a lot of problems.”

Well, DUH; what did they think would happen? Shouldn't the UNFPA have sort of foreseen this would be the result of the forced population control they aided and abetted?

Viet Nam is following China and India on the path of demographic imbalance. The combination of ultrasound tests to determine the sex of the child plus abortion to favor boys, has forced the male to female ratio of the population to climb to 112-100 in 2007.

Source: http://catholicexchange.com/2009/07/20/120503/

Facing the Canon

2009-07-23T10:49:00.000-07:00

As you may know I am currently teaching a series of classes on Catholic apologetics at my parish. One class topic we explored was on the canon of Scripture, that is, on why the Catholic Bible contains seven more Old Testament books than Protestant Bibles (or, alternately phrased: why are Protestant Bibles smaller?)

The word “canon” comes from a Greek word (that may be derived from a Hebrew word) originally meaning “reed”— it means a standard, or rule. Christians apply the term to the list of inspired books that appear in the Bible. After being defined by the Church in her early centuries, the canon went virtually unchallenged for about 1100 years, that is, until the Reformation.

Someone who attends my class asked me "All this is great information, but when do you ever have an opportunity to use it?" I told her that the opportunities will come when you least expect it, and the knowledge is never wasted.

The following is from an amiable conversation I had earlier this week in a online discussion forum regarding the canon of Scripture. I am in blue and my interlocutor is in red:

First, you don't even know your own history concerning your Church and the Apocrypha or you chose pick out the certain parts and leave out others; they were used by some for devotional purposes and not by others within your own Church, some considered them inspired and others did not within your own Church; but when the reformation came and and challenged the issues of praying to and for the dead, the perpetual virginity and immaculate conception and other challenges were made to the Church; this is when they decided to hastily Canonize 11 of the 14 Apocrypha books. This way anyone who denied the books as inspired and the issues contained within; then the Church pronounced anathema on them.

I'm afraid it is you, my friend, who are ignorant of history. The Council of Trent merely reaffirmed, in the face of heresy, the 73 book canon that had been authoritively affirmed several times before that. To wit:

·Council of Rome, 382 AD, included all protocanonical AND deuterocanonical books (this is the first record we have, incidently, of all 27 New Testament books being affirmed as canonical. Protestants acknowledge this, but deny that same ccouncils authority to affirm the 73 OT books. Go figure.)

·73 book canon ratified by the Councils of Hippo (393 AD) and Carthage (397 AD).

·73 book canon infallibly declared at the Council of Florence (1441)

·73 book canon dogmatically defined by the Council of Trent in 1546.

Furthermore, from the Jewish perspectives the Hebrew canon was closed around 300 BC and did not include any of the extra books.

By then the Church had long been using the Septuagint version of Scripture that included all 73 books. Besides, in what way does 4th century Judaism have the right to definitively define the Christian canon?

The earliest Septuagint did not include the Apocrypha and overtime it was added.

It is true that there were several Septuagint versions with varying canons. What is crucial is that the early Church clearly used the version of the Septuagint containing the canon that contained 46 books, as a careful reading of the New Testament and the Apostolic and other Early Church Fathers will affirm.

At this point, the other party started ignoring my posts and basically kept repeating the same information. But hopefully a seed was planted; if not in this particular person, but in others who may have been viewing the conversation. If nothing else, it was good practice for me. :)

The Hunt For Gollum

2009-07-17T13:59:00.000-07:00

If you can get beyond the fact that no original actors are featured, this is an impressive independently made 'prequel' that will go a long way toward satisfying your "Lord of the Rings" withdrawl pains. Running time, about 40 minutes:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9H09xnhlCQU

Without a Doubt

2009-07-12T16:15:00.000-07:00

Hoo boy! Carl Olsen over at the Ignatius Insight blog has a scathing and brilliant review of the recent sensationalistic Newsweek op-ed piece about the recent meeting between President Obama and the Holy Father, "Without a Doubt: Why Barack Obama represents American Catholics better than the pope does" (Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, July 9, 2009). He highlights the passage that got my goat as well:

In truth, though, Obama's pragmatic approach to divisive policy (his notion that we should acknowledge the good faith underlying opposing viewpoints) and his social-justice agenda reflect the views of American Catholic laity much more closely than those vocal bishops and pro-life activists. When Obama meets the pope tomorrow, they'll politely disagree about reproductive freedoms and homosexuality, but Catholics back home won't care, because they know Obama's on their side. In fact, Obama's agenda is closer to their views than even the pope's.

My gripe was that this statement does not make a distinction between Catholics who live their lives of faith in a consciously faithful manner, and those usually called "Catholics In Name Only" who are indistinguishable from the rest of society, only holding views in common with the Church by accident.

Anyway, Olsen has a lot more to say about this piece, and says it much better than I could. You can find his blog entry here:

http://insightscoop.typepad.com/2004/2009/07/the-dull-dissenting-americanism-of-kathleen-kennedy-townsend.html

Who Were The Earliest Christians and What Did they Believe?

2009-07-12T06:42:00.000-07:00

The Apostolic, or Early Church Fathers (ECF), were the first Christians that picked up where the New Testament-era Christians left off. The ECF period is roughly considered to span the years from around 100 A.D. to about 700 A.D (the term Apostolic Father is usually given to those who knew or who are thought to have known and been taught by the Apostles themselves. St. Polycarp, for example). The study of their writings is called patristics. As Joe Gallegos on his Corunum Apologetics website explains:

Who are these guys(and gals) called The Church Fathers?The Church Fathers is a titled bestowed on men (and some women such as Egeria of Spain fl AD 448) in the ancient Church that are united by four trademarks: (1) a rigid orthodoxy in doctrine, (2) an exemplary holy life, (3) approval in the Church, and (4) antiquity. Today, some ecclesiastical writers are bestowed this title who have partially fulfilled these marks( e.g. Tertullian, Origen and Eusebius of Caesarea). These writers are included due to their invaluable service to the Church. The majority of the Church Fathers were bishops, a few held a lower clerical rank such as St. Jerome, and fewer yet, were laymen such as Clement of Alexandria and perhaps Tertullian of Carthage. In the Catholic Church the period of antiquity ends with St. John Damascene (d AD 749) in the East and with St. Gregory the Great(d AD 604) or St. Isidore of Seville (d AD 636) in the West, hence the patristic age spans 7 centuries.

Why are the ECF's important to later Christians, including those of today? Because from their writings (and there are lots of them in existence) we can see how they interpreted the Scriptures, how they addressed problems and heresies that arose in the Church, and how they practiced the Faith. Some of the ECF's had the words of the Apostles still ringing in their ears and all were zealous to have the Faith handed down just as they had recieved it from the Apostles. Also, as Gallegos points out:

Protestant Evangelical Christians often gain a keener understanding of Holy Writ either by a private reading of Scripture or by listening to or reading various interpretations of Scripture through various ministrations of the church such as a Bible study or a Sunday sermon. Many of the interpretations are harmonious with the historic tenants of the Holy Catholic Apostolic Church and some contradictory. Nevertheless, this is the primary vehicle through which many Evangelicals learn Christian doctrines and morals. Therefore, why not take advantage of a Bible study or a sermon by listening to the written words of a disciple of an Apostle or their immediate descendants rather than from someone who is 20 centuries removed from the Apostles? This is the case when one delves in the writings and faith of the early Church Fathers.

One of my favorite ECF quotes is from the 5th century apologist St. Vincent of Lerins:

Here, possibly, some one may ask, Do heretics also appeal to Scripture? They do indeed, and with a vengeance; for you may see them scamper through every single book of Holy Scripture—through the books of Moses, the books of Kings, the Psalms, the Epistles, the Gospels, the Prophets. Whether among their own people, or among strangers, in private or in public, in speaking or in writing, at convivial meetings, or in the streets, hardly ever do they bring forward anything of their own which they do not endeavour to shelter under words of Scripture. Read the works…of those pests, and you will see an infinite heap of instances, hardly a single page, which does not bristle with plausible quotations from the New Testament or the Old…

And if one should ask one of the heretics who gives this advice, How do you prove? What ground have you, for saying, that I ought to cast away the universal and ancient faith of the Catholic Church? He has the answer ready, “For it is written;” and forthwith he produces a thousand testimonies, a thousand examples, a thousand authorities from the Law, from the Psalms, from the apostles, from the Prophets, by means of which, interpreted on a new and wrong principle, the unhappy soul may be precipitated from the height of Catholic truth to the lowest abyss of heresy…

But the more secretly they conceal themselves under shelter of the Divine Law, so much the more are they to be feared and guarded against.
(St. Vincent of Lerins, Commonitory, c. 450 A.D.)

There are ton of websites that one could go to to read the writings of the ECF's -- probably to the point that [a] one would not know where to start and [b] quickly be overwhelmed. A good place to get an introduction and a generous and representative sample is Gallego' site, found here: http://www.cin.org/users/jgallegos/contents.htm

Catholic Answers has a nice topical selection of writings, called "Fathers Know Best," found here: http://www.catholic.com/library/fathers_know_best.asp

Dave Armstrong has an extensive site of ECF selections:

http://socrates58.blogspot.com/2007/03/fathers-of-church-index-page.html

If you want to read the patristic writings in their entirety, you can go here:

http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/

Mike Aquilina, who regularly appears on EWTN and has written several books and given numerous talks on this subject, has probably the best blog out there dedicated to patristics, called "The Way of the Fathers." You can find it here: http://www.fathersofthechurch.com/

Finally, you can find several downloadable talks by Mike on the subject of the ECF's here:

http://catholicmentoday.org/categories/Saints.aspx

To close, here are the words of that great Early Church Father, St. Irenaeus:

"As I said before, the Church, having received this preaching and this faith, although she is disseminated throughout the whole world, yet guarded it, as if she occupied but one house. She likewise believes these things just as if she had but one soul and one and the same heart; and harmoniously she proclaims them and teaches them and hands them down, as if she possessed but one mouth. For, while the languages of the world are diverse, nevertheless, the authority of the tradition is one and the same" (Against Heresies 1:10:2 [A.D. 189]).

"That is why it is surely necessary to avoid them [heretics], while cherishing with the utmost diligence the things pertaining to the Church, and to lay hold of the tradition of truth. . . . What if the apostles had not in fact left writings to us? Would it not be necessary to follow the order of tradition, which was handed down to those to whom they entrusted the churches?" (ibid., 3:4:1).

... "It is possible, then, for everyone in every church, who may wish to know the truth, to contemplate the tradition of the apostles which has been made known throughout the whole world. And we are in a position to enumerate those who were instituted bishops by the apostles and their successors to our own times—men who neither knew nor taught anything like these heretics rave about. "But since it would be too long to enumerate in such a volume as this the successions of all the churches, we shall confound all those who, in whatever manner, whether through self-satisfaction or vainglory, or through blindness and wicked opinion, assemble other than where it is proper, by pointing out here the successions of the bishops of the greatest and most ancient church known to all, founded and organized at Rome by the two most glorious apostles, Peter and Paul, that church which has the tradition and the faith which comes down to us after having been announced to men by the apostles. "With this church, because of its superior origin, all churches must agree—that is, all the faithful in the whole world—and it is in her that the faithful everywhere have maintained the apostolic tradition" (ibid., 3:3:1–2).

Study on This Sunday's Mass Readings - July 12th

2009-07-11T16:12:00.000-07:00

Here are the readings for this Sunday's Scripture readings from the U.S. Catholic bishops website:
http://www.usccb.org/nab/readings/071209.shtml

And my own study (and Don Schwager's meditations) from my web page:

http://members.cox.net/fidelis927/this_week.htm

Also a couple of new (for this blog) additions: a weekly audio/print meditation on the readings by one of my favorite Bible teachers and theologians, Dr. Scott Hahn:

http://www.salvationhistory.com/homily_helps

And a video by another up and coming theologian, Professor Michael Barber:

http://singinginthereign.blogspot.com/2009/07/reflections-on-this-sundays-readings.html

Charitible comments and discussion are always welcome. Have a blessed and holy Lord's day!

In Charity and Truth

2009-07-07T18:59:00.000-07:00

The Vatican has just (today) released the newest encyclical by the Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI, which is entitled in Latin Caritas in Veritate ("On Integral Human Development in Charity and Truth"). This is the third encyclical by the present Holy Father, the two previous being, respectively, on the topics of love and hope. This newest encyclycal is, in the words of the B16 himself, "on the vast theme of economics and labor." You can view the encyclical here, on the official Vatican website
http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/encyclicals/documents/hf_ben-xvi_enc_20090629_caritas-in-veritate_en.html

Printed, it comes out to about 40 pages, so I haven't had time to read it just yet. When I do, I hope to post my thoughts (humble and elementary though they may be).

Homeschooler Humor

2009-07-05T09:46:00.000-07:00

Good article over at Catholic Exchange talking about the oft-asked question to homeschooling parents: What about socialization? Aren't you afraid that your kids are going to become misfits or wierdos if they don't attend public school?:

I will tell the curious many that on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, I will make sure that our children stand in line for the bathroom for 15-20 minutes, so that they can learn to stand in line and have an opportunity to pull hair and kick people in the backs of the legs. On Tuesdays and Thursdays, I will make sure never to mention God or the Church, so that they can begin to question their real and practical existence in their lives. Everyday, I will make sure to ignore or approve of immoral or unacceptable behavior of all, so that they can have open minds and learn to be tolerant and diverse. Also, each day I will factor in several 15-minute recesses, so that I can drag the school day into as many frustrating hours as possible causing them to never be able to accept invitations to play. Once a year or so, I will have my children dye their hair into a shocking shades of black or hot pink, pierce unspeakable body parts, and allow them to buy $75 jeans that are nearly torn into shreds brand new. This ought to take care of it, don’t you think?

http://woman.catholicexchange.com/2009/07/04/1639/

This reminds me of something that appeared in the Kolbe Little Home Journal, Fall 2005:

When my wife and I mention we are strongly considering homeschooling our children, we are without fail asked, 'But what about socialization?' Fortunately, we found a way our kids can receive the same socialization that government schools provide.

On Mondays and Wednesdays, I will personally corner my son in the bathroom, give him a wedgie and take his lunch money.

On Tuesdays and Thursdays, my wife will make sure to tease our children for not being in the 'in' crowd, taking special care to poke fun at any physical abnormalities.

Fridays will be 'Fad and Peer Pressure Day.' We will all compete to see who has the coolest toys, the most expensive clothes, and the loudest, fastest, and most dangerous car.

Every day, my wife and I will adhere to a routine of cursing and swearing in the hall and mentioning our weekend exploits with alcohol and immorality.

...And we have asked (our kids) to report us to the authorities in the event we mention faith, religion, or try to bring up morals and values

Finally,

Two women meet at a playground, where their children are swinging and playing ball. The women are sitting on a bench watching. Eventually, they begin to talk.

W1: Hi. My name is Maggie. My kids are the three in red shirts --helps me keep track of them.
W2: (Smiles) I'm Patty. Mine are in the pink and yellow shirts. Do you come here a lot?
W1: Usually two or three times a week, after we go to the library.
W2: Wow! Where do you find the time?
W1: We homeschool, so we do it during the day most of the time.
W2: Some of my neighbors homeschool, but I send my kids to public school.
W1: How do you do it?
W2: It's not easy. I go to all the PTO meetings and work with the kids every day after school and stay real involved.
W1: But what about socialization? Aren't you worried about them being cooped up all day with kids their own ages, never getting the opportunity for natural relationships?
W2: Well, yes. But I work hard to balance that. They have some friends who're homeschooled, and we visit their grandparents almost every month.
W1: Sounds like you're a very dedicated mom. But don't you worry about all the opportunities they're missing out on? I mean they're so isolated from real life -- how will they know what the world is like --what people do to make a living -- how to get along with all different kinds of people?
W2: Oh, we discussed that at PTO, and we started a fund to bring real people into the classrooms. Last month, we had a policeman and a doctor come in to talk to every class. And next month, we're having a woman from Japan and a man from Kenya come to speak.
W1: Oh, we met a man from Japan in the grocery store the other week, and he got to talking about his childhood in Tokyo. My kids were absolutely fascinated. We invited him to dinner and got to meet his wife and their three children.
W2: That's nice. Hmm. Maybe we should plan some Japanese food for the lunchroom on Multicultural Day.
W1: Maybe your Japanese guest could eat with the children.
W2: Oh, no. She's on a very tight schedule. She has two other schools to visit that day. It's a systemwide thing we're doing.
W1: Oh, I'm sorry. Well, maybe you'll meet someone interesting in the grocery store sometime and you'll end up having them over for dinner.
W2: I don't think so. I never talk to people in the store --certainly not people who might not even speak my language. What if that Japanese man hadn't spoken English?
W1: To tell you the truth, I never had time to think about it. Before I even saw him, my six-year-old had asked him what he was going to do with all the oranges he was buying.
W2: Your child talks to strangers?
W1: I was right there with him. He knows that as long as he's with me, he can talk to anyone he wishes.
W2: But you're developing dangerous habits in him. My children never talk to strangers.
W1: Not even when they're with you?
W2: They're never with me, except at home after school. So you see why it's so important for them to understand that talking to strangers is a big no-no.
W1: Yes, I do. But if they were with you, they could get to meet interesting people and still be safe. They'd get a taste of the real world, in real settings. They'd also get a real feel for how to tell when a situation is dangerous or suspicious.
W2: They'll get that in the third and fifth grades in their health courses.
W1: Well, I can tell you're a very caring mom. Let me give you my number--if you ever want to talk, give me call. It was good to meet you.

More homeschooling humor:

http://homeschooling.gomilpitas.com/humor/Homeschooling.htm

How Are We Saved?

2009-07-04T23:21:00.000-07:00

A Protestant correspondent of mine wants to know: What do Catholics believe about salvation?

Believe it or not, "how we are saved" isn’t a subject that is emphasized as much among Catholics as it is in Protestant churches—it’s pretty much taken for granted by Catholics that the average layman doesn’t need to know the subject that much in depth. As a person who is involved in apologetics and teaches Adult RE, I can see the fruits of this mistaken attitude in that many Catholics cannot articulate the Church’s teaching on salvation. Many, in fact, end up leaving the Church convinced that the Church teaches a form of crass works-righteousness or a semi-Pelagianism. This isn’t helped by the fact that some of the churches they end up in have an equally distorted view of what Catholics believe and their erroneous misconceptions are reinforced. I was listening to a local Christian radio show recently in which a man was giving his testimony, saying he used to be a Catholic “but was now a Christian” and was happy he now didn’t have to worry about being “good enough” and “didn’t have to work his way to heaven.” He mentioned a lot of other things he said the Church taught that clearly pointed to the fact he was, if nothing else, a victim of poor catechesis.

On another level, I think it is possible to show that Catholics and Protestants don’t differ on this topic as much as people think they do. In the centuries since the Reformation, however, the terminology and teaching emphasis of each group has become so particular to each group, that, essentially, we are talking about the same thing but in different words! This is bound to be confusing in any conversation between Catholics and Protestants on this (or any other) subject, but in recent years there have been attempts by various groups to try to iron out the language difference, without smoothing over or ignoring real differences. I have two real good book recommendations: The first is by a Catholic, Jimmy Akin, and it is called The Salvation Controversy. The other is by an Evangelical Protestant named Mark Noll and is called Is The Reformation Over? Both of these books make the same point: that Catholics and Protestants have more in common than they think they do.

I think it’s also possible to make the argument that the original Reformers were not so much reacting against Church teaching on salvation, as they were against the poor catechesis and abuses of that particular time and place. If you look at what the Church really taught at that time (and not just the abuses) it essentially what the Church has always taught before then, and what it teaches now. From the Catechism of the Catholic Church:

161 Believing in Jesus Christ and in the One who sent him for our salvation is necessary for obtaining that salvation. (John 16:16; Jn 3:36; 6:40 et al). "Since "without faith it is impossible to please [God]" and to attain to the fellowship of his sons, therefore without faith no one has ever attained justification, nor will anyone obtain eternal life 'But he who endures to the end.'" (Dei Filius 3:DS 3012; cf. Mt 10:22; 24:13 and Heb 11:6; Council of Trent: DS 1532.)

Basically, the Church’s teaching is this: We are saved by grace alone, through faith. The Catholic understanding of faith includes both placing our trust in Christ AND obeying him—what St. Paul calls the “obedience of faith” (Romans 1 and 16). The Church teaches that everything having to do with our salvation is God’s grace. Even our original conversion is God’s initiative and an entirely unmerited gift of his grace—we cannot even take the first step without him. It is indeed 100% God’s work, but, respecting our free will, he allows us to cooperate in our own salvation through faith and charity.

Where works come in is as a response to God’s grace (obedience) and as a means to grow in sanctification. God sends us the grace (and the opportunity) to perform a good work. By being responsive to God’s grace, we please him because of our obedience, and grow in holiness. The holier we become, the less likely we are to fall into sin. Failure to respond to God’s grace is a failure to grow in holiness. If we continually refuse to respond to God’s graces, we run the risk of falling into serious sin. And, as you know, the Church teaches that if one dies in serious, unrepented sin, he cannot be admitted to heaven. It is important to remember that good works that are not done in faith and by God’s grace—on human power— do not avail anything. You do not get into heaven just by “being good.”

This is basically the place that works has in salvation: obedience and sanctification. The Church does not teach that salvation is attained by being “good enough” to get into heaven; it isn’t a “scale” that if you do more good works than bad you get in; we cannot put God in our debt by what we do. Here’s just one excerpt from the Catechism:

2010 Since the initiative belongs to God in the order of grace, no one can merit the initial grace of forgiveness and justification, at the beginning of conversion. Moved by the Holy Spirit and by charity, we can then merit for ourselves and for others the graces needed for our sanctification, for the increase of grace and charity, and for the attainment of eternal life. Even temporal goods like health and friendship can be merited in accordance with God's wisdom. These graces and goods are the object of Christian prayer. Prayer attends to the grace we need for meritorious actions.

For a more in depth treatment of this, I’d highly recommend seeing the sections in the Catechism that addresses this subject (Sections 142—165; 1987—2029). Here is an article from Catholic Answers that may also be helpful:

Grace: What It Is and What It Does

http://www.catholic.com/library/Grace_What_It_Is.asp

Study on This Sunday's Mass Readings - July 5th

2009-07-04T12:25:00.000-07:00

Here are the readings for this Sunday's Scripture readings from the U.S. Catholic bishops website:

http://www.usccb.org/nab/readings/070509.shtml

And my own study (and Don Schwager's meditations) from my web page:
http://members.cox.net/fidelis927/this_week.htm

Charitible comments and discussion are always welcome. Have a blessed and holy Lord's day!

Is Friday Penance Required?

2009-07-04T11:20:00.000-07:00

Recently the question has come up in my personal circle as to whether we are obliged, as Catholics, to either abstain from eating meat on Fridays that do not fall during the liturgical season of Lent or, lacking that, substitute some other form of penance (i.e., act of sacrifice or self denial).

As it turns out, according to the U.S. bishops, Catholics in this country are no longer strictly required to perfom any type of penance at all on ordinary Fridays, although we are strongly exhorted to to so in that Friday remains "a time when those who seek perfection will be mindful of their personal sins and the sins of mankind, which they are called upon to help expiate in union with Christ crucified." (On Penance and Abstinence, U.S. Catholic Bishops, dated November 18, 1966). Here is a brief article about the subject from Catholic Answers, as well as a link to On Penance and Abstinence:

Is Friday Penance Required?
http://www.catholic.com/thisrock/2005/0501bt.asp

On Penance and Abstinence
http://www.usccb.org/lent/2008/Penance_and_Abstinence.pdf

So should we abstain from meat on Fridays outside of Lent? Interestingly, the U.S. bishops came out with a more recent exhortation on this issue (in the context of what we as Catholics can do to promote peace in the world) that seems to signal a move back to meatless Fridays as something approaching a norm. Perhaps they were finding that if there are no clearly defined norms in this area, people often end up doing nothing at all:

Since 1966, the American bishops have repeated the call to observe Friday as a day of penance. In a 1983 pastoral letter, they wrote: "As a tangible sign of our need and desire to do penance we, for the cause of peace, commit ourselves to fast and abstinence on each Friday of the year. We call upon our people voluntarily to do penance on Friday by eating less food and by abstaining from meat. [my emphasis] This return to a traditional practice of penance, once well observed in the U.S. Church, should be accompanied by works of charity and service toward our neighbors. Every Friday should be a day significantly devoted to prayer, penance, and almsgiving for peace." (National Conference of Catholic Bishops, The Challenge of Peace: God’s Promise and Our Response, no. 298. Source: Daily Penance, Days of Penance, Catholics United for the Faith, http://www.cuf.org/FaithFacts/details_view.asp?ffID=277)

What's my opinion? I think that as Catholics, we have fallen over ourselves trying to fit in with the predominant culture. Sometimes this is approriate, if it doesn't lead to compromise or being complicit in sin. But isn't the essence of Christianity to be in the world but not of it? Aside from the no-brainer of the example of everyday personal holiness, shouldn't we stand out as different as a body of believers? Isn't it lazy, black and white thinking that says just because something is a law it necessarily becomes legalistic?

I think that when we lost the requirement for Friday abstinence we lost something that was something distinctive to us as Catholics. Even as a child growing up in public school (but being raised in a non-practicing family) in the 1960's, I remember the school cafeteria always offered fish sticks on Fridays as an option for Catholics. Everyone had an idea of who was probably Catholic --which was even more incentive for Catholics to provide a good Christian witness.

Historian Eamon Duffy has an interesting observation on this in his book, Faith of Our Fathers:

Catholics shared that rhythm with most of the world's great religious traditions, a fact which ought to have suggested that there was something essential about fasting not only for our specific identities as Catholic Christians, but as religious beings and human beings. But since 1967 what was once a truly corporate observance, reminding us of the passion of Christ, of our own spiritual poverty and, even more concretely, of the material poverty of most of the human race, reminding us what it was like to be hungry, has become another individual consumer choice, like going on a diet. Though we pay liturgical lip-service to the old dialectic, and still nominally observe Lent, in practice all our time now has become "ordinary time," and there is nothing in this respect to distinguish Catholics from anyone else.

Yet religious communities depend on the differentiation provided by such shared observances to sustain their identities. The long and noble pilgrimage of Israel through a multitude of cultures and times, without a temple, without a priesthood, has been possible, at least in part, because of the unifying and sustaining effect of their dietary laws. The Jews knew who they were because of what they did and did not eat. Christian fasting and abstinence did not, of course, spring from a ritual distinction between clean and unclean meats, but it was just as deeply embedded in theological conviction as the older dispensation. Its abandonment was not therefore a simple change in devotional habit, but the signal of a radical discontinuity in the tradition and a decisive shift in theological perception.

The theological and practical shift represented by this abandonment of an ancient part of the tradition was not merely a matter of theological emphasis, and more, too, than a question of whether ascetical exercises like fasting are good for the character. What was also at stake was the Church's prophetic integrity: its claim to solidarity with the poor. Considered from this perspective, compulsory fasting and abstinence, practiced regularly, routinely, and in common, was a recognition by the Church that identification with the poor and hungry, with those who know themselves to be needy before God because they were needy among men, is not an option for Catholics, but a necessary and definitive sign of their redemption, as essential in its way as attendance at Mass. The Church has always linked personal asceticism and the search for holiness with this demand for mercy and justice to the poor; the Lenten trilogy of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving is both fundamental and structural. By making fasting and abstinence optional, the Church forfeited one of its most eloquent prophetic signs. There is a world of difference between a private devotional gesture, the action of the specially pious, and the prophetic witness of the whole community--the matter-of-fact witness, repeated week by week, that to be Christian is to stand among the needy.

What was striking about the instructions issued by the English bishops in abolishing compulsory Friday abstinence in 1967 was the total absence of any attempt to explain the power and meaning of the traditional observances. The American bishops did much better: while also making the matter optional, they offered a powerful and sympathetic discussion of the religious reasons for the old observance and urged American Catholics to continue the practice as a gesture of solidarity with, and gratitude for, the passion of Christ, as an act of fidelity to the Christian past, and to help "preserve a saving and necessary difference from the spirit of the world." In total contrast, the English bishops recited the problems and inconveniences surrounding abstinence. Many people, they pointed out, have their main meal at work, in a canteen; social events are often arranged for Fridays; abstinence therefore put Catholics in an awkward position. As the bishops wrote: "While an alternative dish is often available, it is questioned whether it is advisable in our mixed society for a Catholic to appear singular in this matter. Non-Catholics know and accept that we do not eat meat on Fridays, but often they do not understand why we do not, and in consequence regard us as odd."

This misses the point. The whole rationale of symbolic gestures requires that they disrupt and disturb the secular order. Their power to witness--not only to others but to ourselves--comes precisely from their awkwardness. The abolition of such observances strikes at the heart of tradition, the distinctive language of belief. Catholic value cannot be sustained without its proper symbolic expression. Spiritual needs are expressed in physical needs. People can know the fundamental neediness which is the foundation of faith only if they feel our involvement with those who fast because they have nothing to eat.

The Early Church: How Christians Elevated Culture

2009-07-03T17:14:00.000-07:00

To be a devout, practicing Christian in our day and age (especially a devout, practicing Catholic) is to be truly counter-cultural. It is to run against the rough grain of popular opinion and what passes for modern culture and values. It is to defy "conventional wisdom" and to resist succumbing to the vulgarity, juvenileness, tinny clamor for "fame" and the overall cheapness of the day. As Gilbert K. Chesterton once quipped, "The vulgar man is always the most distinguished, for the very desire to be distinguished is vulgar."

That's why I find the "Politically Incorrect Guides to..." series of books so humorously refreshing and factually spot-on. Here are several examples: http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_ss_gw_0_12?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=politically+incorrect+guide&sprefix=politically+

A recent offering is "The Politically Incorrect Guide to Western Civilization," by Anthony Esolen. He has an extended excerpt (entitled "The Early Church: How Christians Elevated Culture") over on The Catholic Educators Resource website. Here is an excerpt from the excerpt:

They raised the status of women.

It's dogma in our public schools today that women in ancient times were oppressed, because women had no voting rights, women had not the same opportunities as men, and so forth. You will be mocked if you deny that this spells oppression. If you're a college professor and you deny it, get ready for the stake.
But the charges are anachronistic and chauvinist. People who make them never imagine what it was like for people of another culture to put food on the table, a roof over their heads, and clothes on their backs, never mind bearing enough children to keep the population stable. The Romans in general treated their wives with esteem. The matron of the house had better be consulted along with the important males if the paterfamilias was going to make a decision. Still, the Christians preached that there was no separate baptism for men and women. All were one in Christ. If Christ was Himself the Holy of Holies, then that inner sanctum was thrown open for all. Jesus had been seen on Easter first by women, then by his apostles. The Gnostic heretics, who disdained the body, have Jesus saying that one could not be blessed unless one were made male; Christians condemned that nonsense. They did not expose baby girls (or boys, either). They did not divorce their wives. They shunned sexual practices that put them and their spouses at risk. They honored women who defied emperors, centurions and soldiers to witness to the faith. In his Confessions, Saint Augustine wrote the first tribute in history to an ordinary woman, his mother Monica, without whose love and faithful prayer he would never have known the love of God. (9.8–13)
Even so, early Christians were 'sexist' because they, like everybody else who has walked the earth until now, did not treat women as indistinguishable from men. That indifference is our politically correct ideal, though it's hard to name a time and place wherein women would not have decried such treatment as insulting.

Other excerpts are:

--They palliated pagan cruelties.

--They thrust a dagger into the heart of the State-worship.

--They took up the burden of civic responsibility.

--They ennobled manual labor.

--They "baptized" the paterfamilias.

--They elevated the "barbarian" cultures from which they came.

--The truth about heretics

--The Good News brings charity

See the entire article here:

http://www.catholiceducation.org/articles/history/world/wh0144.htm

http://www.americanvision.com/images/products/detail/BKP0892Front.jpg

For Your Listening Pleasure...

2009-07-03T12:57:00.000-07:00

I've been meaning to do this for some time (and I hope to do more of it in the future) but I thought I'd post a link every now and them to some free, downloadable audio talk (i.e. mp3) resources that I hope will inform and inspire those wanting to know more about, and practice more faithfully, the Christian (and specifically Catholic) Faith.

If you know me at all, you know that I'm a voracious reader of theology, history (Church and otherwise), devotional material, and the Scriptures (occasionally I'll slip some fiction in there, but it's really hard to find a good yarn that's not peurile or offensive to my morals or intelligence. It usually works out that I read the fiction books my kids are interested in reading so I can kind of screen it or at least be able to discuss it with them. I also occasionally force myself to read moronic but popular literature like "The Duh Vinci Code" or "Angels and Demons" so I can discuss those intelligently as well, but from an apologetics stand point. It's an odious task, but such is the life of an apologist.)

Anyway, there are certain limitations to when and where one can read a book, tract or magazine --say, like when driving, doing the dishes, cutting the grass, or working. For the times that life interferes in this manner, I have my ipod (Well, actually, the ipod that I reverse-inherited from one of my sons when he upgraded to a newer, more powerful, more enviable model). I have discovered, to my great joy, that there is literally no limit as to the number of quality, informative, entertaining and spiritually edifying talks out there that one can download for free to an ipod and listen to the heart's content (I used to put talks like these on CDs, but that seems so primitive and, like, 90's now.)

Today's recommendation is the bringto you/Evangelical Catholic Apologetics site, found here: http://www.bringyou.to/apologetics/audio.htm

Here is the self-description from the website that says it better than I probably could:

Some audio talks, conversion stories, debates, and MP3 files I have found very interesting and helpful in understanding the Catholic faith. All Real Media files have been converted to MP3 audio...The first set are converted MP3 audio from the popular EWTN (Eternal Word Television Network) show The Journey Home hosted by Marcus Grodi (began Sept 1997). This program is dedicated to converts (or reverts) to the Catholic faith, many from Evangelical or Fundamentalist Protestant backgrounds, and during the hour long program the converts give their personal conversion stories and reasons for becoming Catholic. I have selected the programs I believe to be most impressive and interesting -- from the guest or show content or caller questions (or a combination of all three). I especially enjoyed and have included the ones that contain some useful and well-articulated Catholic "apologetics" content in my view.

The second set of MP3 audio files are some of my favorite archives from Catholic Answers Live. This is the radio program of the largest Catholic apologetics apostolate in North America.

The third set of audio are miscellaneous MP3 found on this web site. Topics include talks and commentary on the C.S. Lewis classic Mere Christianity; debates on atheism and other subjects with the evangelical Christian apologist and philosopher William Lane Craig, theologian Alister McGrath, and conservative author Dinesh D'Souza; critics of the Dan Brown novel The Da Vinci Code; some creation-evolution-intelligent design discussions and debates; rare Scott Hahn, Fr. Mitch Pacwa, and Karl Keating; rare Bob Lassiter airchecks (Tampa bay talk radio); debates on 9/11 conspiracies, and Scientology.

There's something here for everyone, even if you profess to be an agnostic or atheist. So tune in, turn on and get ready to be informed and inspired!

Oldest Known Icon of St. Paul Uncovered

2009-06-28T15:21:00.000-07:00

From Michael Barber's blog "Singing In the Reign" comes this story from the Vatican newspaper L’Osservatore Romano reporting that an icon of St. Paul has been uncovered in excavations being undertaken in the catacombs of St. Thecla, underneath the streets of Rome. See the story and photos here:

http://singinginthereign.blogspot.com/2009/06/oldest-icon-of-st-paul-discovered.html

The thing that strikes me is how icons and other traditional images of St. Paul (and other New Testament figures, like St. Peter and even Christ) are uncannily consistent compared with other ancient representations of the same person. Icons in the Eastern Orthodox tradition (based in turn on even more ancient traditions) have very strict guidelines how specific persons and stories are represented.

The image of St. Paul above, for example, is how he is always presented in traditional iconograpy. Compare that with the newly uncovered figure and with ancient written descriptions:

We know from Eusebius (Church History VII.18) that even in his time there existed paintings representing Christ and the Apostles Peter and Paul. Paul's features have been preserved in three ancient monuments:
1. A diptych which dates from not later than the fourth century (Lewin, "The Life and Epistles of St. Paul", 1874, frontispiece of Vol. I and Vol. II, 210).
2. A large medallion found in the cemetery of Domitilla, representing the Apostles Peter and Paul (Op. cit., II, 411).
3. A glass dish in the British Museum, depicting the same Apostles (Farrara, "Life and Work of St. Paul", 1891, 896).

We have also the concordant descriptions of the "Acta Pauli et Theclae", of Pseudo-Lucian in Philopatris, of Malalas (Chronogr., x), and of Nicephorus (Hist. eccl., III, 37).

Paul was short of stature; the Pseudo-Chrysostom calls him "the man of three cubits" (anthropos tripechys); he was broad-shouldered, somewhat bald, with slightly aquiline nose, closely-knit eyebrows, thick, greyish beard, fair complexion, and a pleasing and affable manner. He was afflicted with a malady which is difficult to diagnose (cf. Menzies, "St. Paul's Infirmity" in the "Expository Times", July and Sept., 1904), but despite this painful and humiliating infirmity (2 Corinthians 12:7-9; Galatians 4:13-14) and although his bearing was not impressive (2 Corinthians 10:10), Paul must undoubtedly have been possessed of great physical strength to have sustained so long such superhuman labours (2 Corinthians 11:23-29). Pseudo-Chrysostom, "In princip. apostol. Petrum et Paulum" (in P.G., LIX, 494-95), considers that he died at the age of sixty-eight after having served the Lord for thirty-five years.

Source: New Advent Catholic Super-site
http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/11567b.htm

"Oh Yeah? Well, What About the Inquisition?"

2009-06-27T22:51:00.000-07:00

The Inquisition -- and a couple of other topics like the Crusades and the Galileo affair -- tends to function as a convenient conversation stopper for those who have an animus against religion in general and the Catholic Church in particular. The sad thing is that most people who invoke the specter of these topics have no idea of the historical facts behind them except the stereotypes and caricatures they picked up from ignorant or bigoted college instructors or from the popular media. Basically it is a handy stick to beat Catholics with when one is getting the bad end of a discussion about religion. All one needs to say is, “Oh yeah? Well what about the Inquisition?”

Well, what about it? This is actually one of my favorite topics, because once you learn the facts and the historical context surrounding these times you find that, despite its excesses, the Inquisition actually made a lot of sense for the people that had to live in those times (even if it might not to later generations who tend to judge people in the past by standards of which prior generations had no knowledege). In fact, I’m one of those who believe that the Spanish Queen, Isabella the Catholic (as she was called), who along with her husband King Ferdinand, requested the Inquisition as a means to root out political traitors after centuries of Moslem occupation and oppression, should be proposed for sainthood (there’s a great book about her available from TAN Books, found here: https://www.tanbooks.com/index.php/page/shop:flypage/product_id/284/keywords/isabella/

Serious writing on the roughly 300 year period in which the Inquisition was active has improved drastically as scholars, utilizing the exensive records kept by the Inquisition tribunals themselves, have revealed a far different (and less salacious) reality behind the bigoted "Black Legend" myths which originated in the polemics following the Reformation and that have been uncritically accepted as fact by even well-educated people ever since.

The only cure for ignorance is a balanced education. Here are some links to some of the best articles out there that I know of on the true history of the Inquisition, some of which I have used as handouts when I taught classes about this topic:

http://www.catholiceducation.org/links/search.cgi
http://www.catholic.com/library/Inquisition.asp

HT to my friend, Amy, who got me started on this by asking for some info! :)

Scripture Study on the Sunday Mass Readings - June 28

2009-06-27T21:07:00.000-07:00

Here are the readings for this Sunday's Scripture readings from the U.S. Catholic bishops website:

http://www.usccb.org/nab/readings/062809.shtml

And my own study (and Don Schwager's meditations) from my web page:

http://members.cox.net/fidelis927/this_week.htm

Charitible comments and discussion are always welcome. Have a blessed and holy Lord's day!

Happy Father's Day, Dad

2009-06-21T08:04:00.000-07:00

One of the nice things about having a blog is that you have a platform for paying a small public tribute to those who have made a difference in your life. On this Father's Day I'd just like to stop and remember my own Dad, Vince Sr., who has gone on to be with the Lord.

Everyone who knew my Dad remembers him for his big heart and his sense of humor, especially his ability to laugh at himself and his own foibles. Just like the rest of us, my Dad wasn't perfect, but he was a good Dad and I never doubted his love for me, my brother and my sister.

My Dad was also something of a sage in his own way. One adult memory I have of him is sitting together in a bar in Mexico City sharing a bottle of tequila. He said, "All I want after I am gone is for people to remember me, say a prayer for me, and sometimes put a flower on my grave."

I'm too far away to put a posey on his final resting place in San Diego, but I'm remembering him today and sending out the following prayer. Please pray for him as well -- and for your own father if he has also gone to his eternal reward :

V. Eternal rest grant unto him, O Lord.

R. And may perpetual light shine upon him.

V. May the souls of the faithfully departed through the mercy of God rest in peace.

R. Amen.

If your dad is still around, make sure you call him, or if possible see him to give him a hug and say "Thanks Dad."

As for me, I say, "Thanks Dad. I miss you."

This Sunday's Mass Readings -- and Miracles

2009-06-21T07:23:00.000-07:00

Once again, here are some resources for getting a deeper understanding of the readings we'll hear at this Sunday's Mass.

The readings, from the website of the U.S Catholic Bishops (USCCB):
http://www.usccb.org/nab/readings/061409.shtml

And a study/meditation from my own website:
http://members.cox.net/fidelis927/this_week.htm.

This Sunday's Gospel reading, of course, relates the well known miracle of Jesus calming the stormy sea. But what about miracles? Specifically, how are we to understand the miracles of the New Testament -- as real events, as pious fiction, as helpful parables, or as just "nice stories" about Jesus?

To shed some light on the Church's teaching on this matter, here is an article by philosophy Professor Peter Kreeft on "Miracles":

http://catholiceducation.org/articles/religion/re0021.html

Charitible comments and discussion are always welcome! Have a blessed Sunday.

Happy Father's Day, Atheists

2009-06-19T09:22:00.000-07:00

Last night at my parish church, I had the pleasure of presenting the first of a series of 12 classes on apologetics - the defense of the Catholic Faith using Sacred Scripture, reason and historical fact. We had a good turnout (about 40 folks) and there was plenty of enthusiasm to go around. For a variety of reasons, attendance typically goes down after the first couple of nights on these courses, but I'm looking forward to a good series which I pray will result in fruitful blessings for those involved.

Anyway, the main topic for the class last night was "The Existence of God." We covered a wide range of proofs and arguments, but one of the questions that came up was how atheists become atheists. I recalled a book I read not long ago called "Faith of the Fatherless: The Psychology of Atheism." Here is the Amazon.com link and their product description:

http://www.amazon.com/Faith-Fatherless-Psychology-Paul-Vitz/dp/1890626252

Starting with Freud's "projection theory" of religion-that belief in God is merely a product of man's desire for security-Professor Vitz argues that psychoanalysis actually provides a more satisfying explanation for atheism. Disappointment in one's earthly father, whether through death, absence, or mistreatment, frequently leads to a rejection of God. A biographical survey of influential atheists of the past four centuries shows that this "defective father hypothesis" provides a consistent explanation of the "intense atheism" of these thinkers. A survey of the leading intellectual defenders of Christianity over the same period confirms the hypothesis, finding few defective fathers. Professor Vitz concludes with an intriguing comparison of male and female atheists and a consideration of other psychological factors that can contribute to atheism.

Professor Vitz does not argue that atheism is psychologically determined. Each man, whatever his experiences, ultimately chooses to accept God or reject him. Yet the cavalier attribution of religious faith to irrational, psychological needs is so prevalent that an exposition of the psychological factors predisposing one to atheism is necessary.

There is also a free downloadable mp3 talk by Professor Vitz on this topic found here:

http://www.veritas.org/media/talks/344

Professor Vitz examines the lives of several notorious atheists --Voltaire, Friedrich Nietzsche, Betrand Russell, etc -- as well as what he calls "political atheists" ---like Hitler, Marx, and Stalin --and points to the common denominator of a dysfunctional or deficient image of fatherhood in particular and manhood in general in their formative years. Especially interesting was the account of atheist Madalyn Murray O'Hair (the one who successfully sued to take prayer out of public schools) who once publicly tried to kill her own father with a butcher knife and screamed at him "I'll live to dance on your grave!"

As a corrollary to this, I think there is good evidence that, even among believers, one's image of God as a fatherly image is greatly affected by how one percieves (or perceived) their earthly father. If one had an abusive or distant father, it is hard to relate to God as caring and loving. If one's father was there but not involved, it makes it that much harder to grow closer to God, our Father in heaven. This can be overcome, of course, by prayer and by growing in knowledge and trust of God over time, but it is still something a lot of folks have to overcome.

Bottom line: If you are a father or serve as a fatherly role model in some capacity, do not under-value or under-estimate your presence and example in your child's or other young person's developing image of God. Happy Father's Day!

Scripture Study For This Sunday, Corpus Christi

2009-06-14T07:22:00.000-07:00

Once again, here are some resources for getting a deeper understanding of the readings we'll hear at this Sunday's Mass. This Sunday is the Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ, commonly referred to as 'Corpus Christi."

The readings, from the website of the U.S Catholic Bishops (USCCB):

http://www.usccb.org/nab/readings/061409.shtml

And a study/meditation from my own website:

http://members.cox.net/fidelis927/this_week.htm
.
And here are two very informative articles from The Rosary Light and Life page:
http://www.rosary-center.org/ll42n3.htm

http://www.rosary-center.org/ll42n4.htm

Charitible comments and discussion are always welcome! Have a blessed Sunday.

Firefighters forced to participate in ‘gay pride’ parade win lawsuit

2009-06-12T16:26:00.000-07:00

I must have missed this news item when it just came out [no pun intended]. Good for my brother firemen. No one should have to be subject to the kind of official treatment and public abuse that they were.

Source

[Warning: Graphic content]:

http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/new.php?n=15151