Turning Towards The Lord

Explaining Ad Orientam to a Parish

2010-05-28T15:52:00.001-04:00

I stumbled on this the other day and thought it was a fantastic way to explain and prepare a congregation for the Mass celebrated Ad Orientem. I'm not sure which parish it came from, but it's excellent.

Blessed Sacrament Parish will celebrate its feast day on Sunday, June 6, on the Solemnity of Corpus Christi, the Body and Blood of Christ. To commemorate this great day in the life of the parish and the universal Church, we are celebrating a special Mass at noon that will include the procession of the Blessed Sacrament around the grounds of our parish, both to signify the importance of the Eucharist and to celebrate the body of Christ, the people. The procession will be followed by a catered luncheon in appreciation for the entire parish.

I have also decided, after conferring with my associate, Jesson Mata, Director of Liturgy and Music, to celebrate the noon Mass "ad orientem" in the vernacular, that is, English. The phrase "ad orientem" means "to the east." It is a way of celebrating Mass in which the priest faces the same direction as the people. At Blessed Sacrament, this would mean the priest, in effect, prays towards the crucifix in the same direction as the people. We call this form of prayer "ad orientem" because the east is where the sun rises. Christ himself is the rising sun. For early Christians, praying towards the east, towards the dawn, towards Christ himself, would have been a common liturgical posture. The practice of facing east in Catholic liturgy is not a literal directional issue, however; in fact, facing the crucifix at Blessed Sacrament Church is facing directional west. The orientation is primarily towards Christ, who is effectively symbolized by the crucifix.

Why are we doing this now?

The practice of facing the east is an age-old custom that has been kept in the treasury of Catholic worship and a practice we can use today in the Mass. I have decided to resurrect this custom because I believe it is important in the prayer life of the parish.

I have been at Blessed Sacrament Church for seven years now. Five years ago, I invited Jesson Mata to join the staff as my associate for liturgy. Throughout the course of these five years, Jesson and I have labored together to enhance the prayer life of the church through the diverse offerings of Catholic liturgy. While diversity in liturgical practice can sometimes be counterproductive to the goal of deepening our prayer lives, what we have accomplished thus far has produced remarkable effects. I have seen us pray for and support the sick, the elderly, and the poor in our community. I have seen our young people engaged in their faith. I have witnessed our people care for the sick and dying in the hospitals. We have invited and welcomed the stranger amidst us. I have even observed strong disagreements among our people that have been resolved with respect for one another. These effects can beattributed to our life of prayer. While there are many forms of prayer, there is only one God, only one Christ; and one Spirit who breathes life into our Church. It is that same Spirit that continues to guide this parish.

My intention, as your pastor, is to continue to build our Dominican community by employing the rich traditions of Catholic worship and Catholic theology. I want to build a church dedicated to the pursuit of truth. I strongly believe that Blessed Sacrament has a great potential to become a true Dominican center for faith formation and evangelization. I envision a church with many rooms, where its members engage each other in the faith; where wisdom and knowledge are shared and spoken; where authentic dialogue happens naturally, amidst the diversity of minds and backgrounds; where peace and justice meet; and where each of us may find a place to pray.

The Mass is the ultimate expression of thanksgiving and my hope is for you to join your prayers to mine in that perfect prayer to God. The prayer that I say during the Mass is not simply my own. In fact, the prayers are of and for the entire Church, both yours and mine. I wonder sometimes if people believe that the Mass belongs to the priest. We often think (because of variants that occur with each presider) that the Mass is centrally about the priest. It is not. It is not about me. The Mass is Christ's, and my function, as a priest, is to lead our prayer to God. Facing "ad orientem," that is, east, facing Christ, is a noble way of praying with the congregation. I wish for all of us to understand that this is not about exploring ways of prayer that are "better" than another form of prayer; rather, we must see this as an expression of the same prayer. Our Holy Father expressed the same sentiment about the new and the old rites, i.e., the ordinary and extraordinary forms of the Roman Rite. Both belong to the same family. Likewise, praying "ad orientem" belongs to the same family. We belong to one Church with various expressions of prayer.

Come Holy Spirit: Celebrating Ascension Thursday on Sunday?

2010-05-13T15:43:00.002-04:00

Since the transfer of what's traditionally been called "Ascension Thursday" to Sunday its been a bit confusing as to how to celebrate this solemnity.

Many of you already know that, in some areas of the United States, bishops have decided to transfer "Ascension Thursday" to the Sunday immediately following. So, for example, in the ecclesiastical Province of Michigan -- a province includes those dioceses that are attached to a Metropolitan bishop, a.k.a. the "Archbishop" -- the bishops have decided that the Solemnity of the Ascension will be transferred to Sunday. So, we no longer celebrate the Ascension this Thursday because it is transferred to Sunday.

The bishops have given various reasons for this, but the most common one is because of the low numbers of people who attended Mass on Ascension Thursday. Also, it was said that it was sometimes harder to put together adequate resources to celebrate this feast with its due solemnity in the middle of the work week -- music, food, etc. The bishops thought it would make for a better celebration if we could do it on Sunday when people could attend more easily and bring together more resources to really celebrate the day. Personally, I think it's great to really celebrate the Ascension on Sunday when more resources can be given to it. Yet, I think the reality in most parishes is that the Ascension tends to become 'one more Sunday' among the others, just with different music. Moving the Ascension to Sunday gives into the secular culture of our day that would have us keep God confined to Sunday and leave the rest of the week to the world.

That being said, the Catholic Church (i.e. the Church throughout the world) continues to celebrate this Solemnity of the Ascension on the universal calendar on the 40th day of Easter...i.e. this Thursday, during the 6th Week of Easter. For example, if you were in Rome you would be celebrating the Ascension today, Thursday. So, although we will not liturgically be celebrating today as the Ascension of the Lord, I still like to make a personal remembrance of Thursday as the Ascension BECAUSE it is the biblical way: it was on this 40th day of Easter that our Lord ascended to the Father and on the following day (i.e. Friday), that the Apostles began to wait for nine days in the upper room for the coming of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost Sunday.

This is not a fundamentalist way of reading the Scriptures, but a liturgical way of reading and living the Scriptures. That is, the Acts of the Apostles is written with this chronology of 40 days + 9 days to help us to see the fulfillment of the Lord Jesus' mission in the light of these two traditional Jewish pilgrimage feasts of Passover and Pentecost. Whereas in Passover the the Lord's saving Presence is celebrated in His death and resurrection; in Pentecost the Lord's Presence in His life-giving New Covenant Presence (the Person of the Holy Spirit) is celebrated. This nine-day novena, from the Ascension to Pentecost, is instituted by the Lord Jesus Himself and is a great way to annually celebrate and renew His New Covenant fulfillment.

Practically, that can mean that the family might begin to pray a Novena (a nine-day prayer) to God for an outpouring of the gifts of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost Sunday. This can be confusing for adults and kids, but people often celebrate a holiday (like Christmas) when family members can get together rather than only celebrating it on the specific calendar day. So, the way I like to see it is that the local church may get together on Sunday to celebrate Ascension Thursday because of practical reasons of difficulty gathering the whole family together, but we still celebrate the Ascension in our own particular family on the day it falls chronologically, i.e. Thursday.

So, whether you liturgically celebrate the Ascension on Thursday or Sunday, celebrate with the Universal Church on Thursday and count down the next nine days with prayer for a new outpouring of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost Sunday. Come Holy Spirit, Come!

Clean Bacon

2010-04-27T00:16:00.006-04:00

I remember working at a retreat during Lent a few years back and waking up to the smell of bacon on Saturday morning--my olfactory meat-detection tends to be particularly acute on (and immediately after) penitential days. I took a big whiff and commented: “Mmmmm . . . Unless a pig shall fall to the ground and die, there shall be no bacon!”

Today, the first reading that the Church gives to us in the Mass is Acts 11:1-18. In it, Peter has been consorting with Gentiles (non-Jews)--something taboo for pious Jews at the time because the ritual purity laws forbid it. He explains that a vision was given him, showing him all sorts of unclean animals and a voice from heaven telling him to kill and eat the animals. Peter replied like any faithful Jew would have, refusing to eat what was unclean. The voice replied: “What God has made clean, you are not to call profane.”

What goes unmentioned here is the fact that the animals were considered unclean for the sake of ritual purity--primarily for the sake of purely offering the sacrifices in the Temple. Some have even argued that the clean animals were the same as the animals that neighboring pagans had worshipped as gods and that the slaughter of the clean animals was the slaughter of the pagan gods as a way of keeping Israel pure from the worship of false gods. Dr. Hahn treats this well in his book A Father Who Keeps His Promises:

The Israelites had to fight a protracted war against idolatry, which they were commanded now to wage by daily animal sacrifice, among other things. Within the Father's remedial program lay a subtle strategy. On the one hand, Israel couldn't slaughter—or eat—the animals that the Egyptians sacrificed to their gods; they were declared unclean. On the other hand, Israel had to slaughter and eat the animals that the Egyptians venerated but never sacrificed; they were clean. [166]

The entire book of the Acts of the Apostles, however, takes place after Jesus’ resurrection. Jesus’ sacrifice, beginning in the upper room and consummating on the cross, had already been performed. That for which the Temple sacrifices were called has been fulfilled by the one true sacrifice. The Jewish Temple has become sacrificially useless--signified by the tearing of the veil from the top down (Matthew 25:51, Mark 15:38) commonly understood as the tear coming from God, not man and the tear representing the fact that the Temple holy of holies is no longer useful. The veil used to cover it because its holiness was only to be seen by the high priest on Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement. Full Atonement had been made by Jesus’ sacrifice. There was no more need for the Jewish Temple because its sacrificial system had been fulfilled by the new definitive sacrifice.

With the replacement of the old sacrificial system (in fact, the entire Old Law, save what is contained in the Natural Law) by Jesus’ new sacrifice, the ritual purity laws were also fulfilled and replaced. Jesus’ sacrifice established a new covenant, with a new sacrifice and a new priesthood. God has made all the animals clean and He has opened membership among those people He calls His own to the Gentiles. This is particularly relevant for me and bacon. I don’t come from Jewish descent, so only by Jesus’ opening up to the Gentiles am I able to participate as a member of the people of God during this life--and only by His fulfillment of the Old Law has He made bacon (and all previously unclean foods) clean again, so, enjoy your bacon and thank God for revealing to us (through St. Luke's recollection of our first pope's explanation) that these foods are no longer off limits. Thank God even more (those of you not from Jewish descent) that we are able to be a part of the Catholic Church and receive, from her, the graces to be drawn into an ever-deepening union with God.

Good Shepherd Sunday

2010-04-26T11:35:00.000-04:00

The Gift of the Priesthood

Why does a man choose to become a priest? Because he has fallen in love and has been called.

Pope John Paul II answered this question well:

I am often asked, especially by young people, why I became a priest. Maybe some of you would like to ask the same question. Let me try briefly to reply. I must begin by saying that it is impossible to explain entirely. For it remains a mystery, even to myself. How does one explain the ways of God? Yet, I know that, at a certain point in my life, I became convinced that Christ was saying to me what he had said to thousands before me: 'Come, follow me!' There was a clear sense that what I heard in my heart was no human voice, nor was it just an idea of my own. Christ was calling me to serve him as a priest.

This call that he felt was a call to love that many have heard: "'Simon, son of John, do you love me?' He said to him, 'Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.' He said to him, 'Tend my sheep'" (Jn. 21:16). So, the priest is not his own, but is Christ's. The priest is priest only because he has been configured to Christ, i.e. made like him, through the Sacrament of Holy Orders.

The priest is thus called to live his life as a response to Jesus' love, so that His love might continue to be tangible in the world. This is principally the case in the Sacraments where Jesus touches us and we are able to touch Him. The Sacraments are the powers that come forth from His Body and heal us (cf. Luke 5:17; CCC 1116).

The Eucharistic Sacrifice is the principle way in which Christ regularly gives Himself to us bodily and calls forth a response of love from us. Indeed, "This sacrifice is so decisive for the salvation of the human race that Jesus Christ offered it and returned to the Father only after he had left us a means of sharing in it as if we had been present there" (Ecclesia de Eucharistia 11). So it is that "unless you eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood, you have no life in you" (Jn. 6:53).

Fr. Jean-Baptiste Henri Lacordaire, O.P. described this call of God in practical terms:

To live in the midst of the world with no desire for its pleasures; to be a member of every family, yet belonging to none; to share all sufferings; to penetrate all secrets, to heal all wounds; to daily go from men to God to offer Him their homage and petitions; to return from God to men to bring them His pardon and hope; to have a heart of fire for charity and a heart of bronze for chastity; to bless and to be blest forever. O God, what a life, and it is yours, O Priest of Jesus Christ.

Let us give thanks for the gift of the priesthood and pray that God will send us more holy priests!

Easter Sunday

2010-04-02T13:45:00.001-04:00

Call: He is Risen! Response: He is Risen, Indeed!

So goes the old Greek dialogue between Christians during the Easter season.

As we sang at the Easter Vigil, "This is the night…" when Jesus conquered sin and death through his victorious resurrection from the dead!

This is our passover feast,
when Christ, the true Lamb, is slain,
whose blood consecrates the homes of all believers.

This is the night
when first you saved our fathers:
you freed the people of Israel from their slavery
and led them dry-shod through the sea.

This is the night
when the pillar of fire destroyed the darkness of sin!

This is the night
when Christians everywhere,
washed clean of sin and freed from all defilement,
are restored to grace and grow together in holiness.

This is the night
when Jesus Christ broke the chains of death
and rose triumphant from the grave.

It is we who are witnesses to this night of glory, this Easter Day, "the first day of the week" (John 20:1), when Our Lord passed from death to life, rising bodily from the dead. Ever since this Day, "the culmination of history is anticipated 'as a foretaste,' and the kingdom of God enters into our time" (CCC 1168).

The New Creation has begun in Jesus' bodily resurrection. This is why "the readings of the Easter Vigil, the celebration of the new creation in Christ, begin with the creation account" (CCC 281). Because "sin when it is full-grown brings forth death" (James 1:15), Christ's victory isn't merely over some ethereal sin out there someplace, but over sin as it manifests itself bodily, physically, concretely in our world.

So it is that when the Son of God took flesh the blind began to see, lepers were cleansed, the dead rose from their graves. Jesus is "the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep" (1 Cor. 15:20).

"Therefore Easter is not simply one feast among others, but the 'Feast of feasts,' the 'Solemnity of solemnities,' just as the Eucharist is the 'Sacrament of sacraments' (the Great Sacrament). St. Athanasius calls Easter 'the Great Sunday' and the Eastern Churches call Holy Week 'the Great Week.' The mystery of the Resurrection, in which Christ crushed death, permeates with its powerful energy our old time, until all is subjected to him" (CCC 1169).

This New Creation, this "imperishable" seed (cf. 1 Peter 1:23), has taken root in us through our baptism into Christ's death and resurrection. We might begin our joy in this Easter season by asking the Lord where His New Creation needs to grow in our lives, in our families, in our communities. A blessed Easter to you all!

Call: He is Risen!

Death on a Friday Afternoon

2010-03-31T22:55:00.001-04:00

This is a small piece from Fr. Neuhaus' book, Death on a Friday Afternoon. It's wonderful!!!

I hope that in some small way it helps you celebrate Good Friday more deeply.

Every human life, conceived from eternity and destined to eternity, here finds its story truly told. In this killing that some call senseless we are brought to our senses. here we find out who we most truly are, because here is the One who is what we are called to be. The derelict cries, "Come, follow me." Follow him there? We recoil. We close our ears. We hurry on to Easter. But we will not know what to do with Easter's light if we shun the friendship of the darkness that is wisdom's way to light.

[The prodigal son was]...determined to reach for the stars, to seize the light, to shatter the restraints of life, he went to his father and asked for all he could get...And so the prodigal son went off to what we are told was a distant country. There he wasted his money...until he had no more and was no more what he had been. Destitute..."He came to his senses"...

The beginning of wisdom is to come to our senses and know the fearful truth about ourselves, that we have wandered and wasted our days ina distant country far from home...

Stay for a while. Do not hurry by the cross on your way to Easter joy, for we know the risen Lord only through Christ and him crucified...The only joy to be trusted is the joy on the far side of a broken heart; the only life to be trusted is the life on the far side of death. Stay a while, with Christ and him crucified.

We contemplate for a time the meaning of Good Friday, and then return to what is called the real world of work and shopping and commuter trains and homes. As we come out of a movie theater adn shake our heads to clear our minds of another world where we lied for a time in suspended disbelief, as we reoriet ourselves to reality, so we leave our contemplation--we leave the church buildin, we close the book--where for a time another reality seemed possible, believable, even real. But, we tell ourselves, the real world is a world elsewhere. It is the world of deadlines to be met, of appointments to be kept, of taxes to be paid, of children to be educated. From here, from this moment at the cross, it is a distant country. "Father, forgive them, for they have forgotten the way home. They have misplaced the real world" Here, here at the cross, is the real world, here is the axis mundi.

[If the real world is that of deadlines and adgendas...] What then is that other world of worship, prayer and contemplative exploration into the mystery of Christ's presence, a presence ever elusive and disturbingly near?...It is by this world, this world at the cross, that reality is measured and judged. That other world, the world we call real, is a distant country until we with Christ bring it home to the waiting Father.

We are bringing it home, dragging it all behind us: the deadlines and the duties, the fears of failure and hopes for advancement, the loves unreturned, the plans disappointed, the children we lose, the marriage we cannot mend. And so we come loping along with reality's baggage, returning to the real--the real that we left behind when we left for what we mistook as the real world. " I will arise and go to my father, and I will say to him, 'Father I have sinned against heaven and before you; I am no longer worthy to be called your son.'" I am no longer worhty to be called your son. I am no longer worhty to be called your daughter. And Christ our elder brother takes the baggage and hoists it upon his shoulders, adding this to all that on the cross he is bearing and bringing home. "Father, forgive them, for they knew not what they were doing."

"Come to me," he had earlier said, "all you who are weary and heavy burdened, and I will give you rest." Bring me your baggage.

Lenten Growth Through Conversion

2010-02-12T12:41:00.002-05:00

What Are You "Giving Up" For Lent?

Let's go beyond the basics here and go straight to the heart: what do I need to let go of in order to grow closer to God?

Fasting

In his Lenten Message Pope Benedict writes, "Since all of us are weighed down by sin and its consequences, fasting is proposed to us as an instrument to restore friendship with God."

Indeed, fasting has been a part of human life from the very beginning when God told Adam, "You may freely eat of every tree of the garden; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall die" (Gen. 2:16-17). So it was, writes St. Basil, that "'fasting was ordained in Paradise'…'You shall not eat is a law of fasting and abstinence'" (Benedict XVI, Lenten Message).

"True fasting" is oriented toward doing "the will of the Heavenly Father, who 'sees in secret, and will reward you' (Mt. 6:18)…The true fast is thus directed to eating the 'true food,' which is to do the Father's will (cf. Jn. 4:34). If, therefore, Adam disobeyed the Lord's command 'of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat,' the believer, through fasting, intends to submit himself humbly to God, trusting in His goodness and mercy."

"That We Might No Live NO Longer for Ourselves but for Him"

"Denying material food, which nourishes our body, nurtures an interior disposition to listen to Christ and be fed by His saving word. Through fasting and praying, we allow Him to come and satisfy the deepest hunger that we experience in the depths of our being: the hunger and thirst for God."

Fasting for Others

Benedict tells us that "Voluntary fasting enables us to grown in the spirit of the Good Samaritan, who bends low and goes to the help of this suffering brother…By freely embracing an act of self-denial for the sake of another, we make a statement that our brother or sister in need is not a stranger. It is precisely to keep alive this welcoming and attentive attitude towards our brother and sisters that I encourage the parishes and every other community to intensify in Lent the custom of private and communal fasts, joined to the reading of the Word of God, prayer and almsgiving." Benedict quotes St. Peter Chrysologogus: "Fasting is the soul of prayer, mercy is the lifeblood of fasting. So if you pray, fast; if you fast, show mercy' if you want your petition to be heard, hear the petition of others. If you do not close your ear to other, you open God's ear to yourself."

Fasting: How?

How can I fast? Again we turn to the question we began with: what do I need to let go of in order to grow closer to God? If it's wasting time on television or the internet or some such amusement, then give some of that time up every day to prayer, to reading the Bible or a spiritual book, to spending time with someone who needs you. If inviting God into the sphere of my bodily health is lacking, let go of something in order to give time to God in exercise. When we give these things up we discover that we never lose anything except that which we never really needed in the first place.

Lastly, pick a day per week and cut out some of the food you usually eat. Have a plan for Lent.

Why the "ROMAN Catholic Church"? Why not just, the "Catholic Church"?

2010-02-11T15:30:00.001-05:00

I'm studying the Book of Revelation these days and am enjoying it greatly. I found some great introductory stuff for how to read the Bible from Peter Kreeft's, You can Understand the Bible: A Practical and Illuminating Guide to Each Book of the Bible, and N.T. Wright's Simply Christian.

I found this quotation from Michael Barber in his book, Coming Soon: Unlocking the Book of Revelation.

"Ever wonder why it's so important that we are not only 'Catholic,' but 'Roman Catholic'? The early Christians knew why. Saints like Peter and Paul went to Rome hoping that, by the shedding of their blood, the fourth beast would convert, so that the kingdom of God would be made manifest through it. The term 'Roman Catholic,' then, reflects not some kind of implicit political allaince between the Church and Italy, or any other earthly power, but the fulfillment of God's plan, which He announced through Daniel."

So, it was not by random chance that Sts. Peter or Paul went to Rome. St. Paul's insistence to be heard by the Emperor in Acts moves us along these lines. Also, the fact that Acts ends with St. Paul in Rome, preaching the Gospel of the kingdom.

This also moves us further into the Book of Revelation: is "Babylon the great," of which St. John speaks, Rome or Jerusalem? Interesting.

Saved in Hope: St. Josephine Bakhita, St. Peter, and the Good News

2010-02-05T13:04:00.001-05:00

Pope Benedict begins his encyclical about hope with a story of hope from the life of St. Josephine Bakhita – whose feast we celebrate on Monday, the 8^th. "We who have always lived with the Christian concept of God, and have grown accustomed to it, have almost ceased to notice that we possess the hope that ensues from a real encounter with this God." Josephine Bakhita lived without hope because she lived without God.

Born in Darfur, Sudan sometime around 1869, Josephine was kidnapped at age nine and sold into slavery. "Eventually," Benedict relates, "she found herself working as a slave for the mother and the wife of a general, and there she was flogged every day till she bled"—bearing 144 scars on her body. In 1882 she was purchased by an Italian trader who brought her back to Italy.

Benedict continues, "Here, after the terrifying 'masters' who had owned her up to that point, Bakhita came to know a totally different kind of 'master'—in Venetian dialect, which she was now learning, she used the name 'paron' for the living God, the God of Jesus Christ. Up to that time she had known only masters who despised and maltreated her, or at best considered her a useful slave. Now, however, she heard that there is a 'paron' above all masters, the Lord of all lords, and that this Lord is good, goodness in person. She came to know that this Lord even knew her, that he had created her—that he actually loved her. She too was loved, and by none other than the supreme 'Paron', before whom all other masters are themselves no more than lowly servants. She was known and loved and she was awaited. What is more, this master had himself accepted the destiny of being flogged and now he was waiting for her 'at the Father's right hand'. Now she had 'hope' —no longer simply the modest hope of finding masters who would be less cruel, but the great hope: "I am definitively loved and whatever happens to me—I am awaited by this Love. And so my life is good."

In Josephine's life we see illustrated what happens to St. Peter in today's Gospel. In the face of Jesus' goodness, love, generosity, and mercy, Peter knew the depth of his sinfulness, his unworthiness. Simultaneously, he knew the depth of God's goodness. Peter knew his life was good because he was not only awaited by this love, the Love sought him out, personally.

The pope concludes, "Through the knowledge of this hope she was 'redeemed', no longer a slave, but a free child of God. She understood what Paul meant when he reminded the Ephesians that previously they were without hope and without God in the world—without hope because without God. Hence, when she was about to be taken back to Sudan, Bakhita refused…she made several journeys round Italy in order to promote the missions: the liberation that she had received through her encounter with the God of Jesus Christ, she felt she had to extend, it had to be handed on to others, to the greatest possible number of people. The hope born in her which had 'redeemed' her she could not keep to herself; this hope had to reach many, to reach everybody."

So it was with St. Peter: "Do not be afraid, from now on you will be catching men…[and] they left everything and followed him."

--
In Christ,

Jeremy J. Priest
www.jeremypriest.blogspot.com
Pastoral Associate
St. Mary's University Parish at Central Michigan University
www.stmarycmu.org
989-773-3931

"Show me your books and I will tell you what kind of a person you are." ~ Matthew Kelly

The entirety of our prayer is "Your will be done"--not as a note of resignation but of desire beyond expression. To that end, I commend myself to your intercession, and that of all the saints and angels who accompany us each step through time toward home. -RJN

"Heavenly Father, give us the courage to strive for the highest goals, to flee every temptation to be mediocre. Enable us to aspire to greatness, as Pier Giorgio did, and to open our hearts in joy to Your call to holiness. Free us from the fear of failure. We want to be, Lord, firmly and forever united to You. Grant us the graces we ask You through Pier Giorgio's intercession, by the merits of Our Lord Jesus Christ.
Amen."

The Eucharistic Mystery

2010-02-02T22:01:00.000-05:00

I ran across this thought regarding Cardinal Henry de Lubac's theology of the Eucharist:

"For the Fathers, the locus of mystery [in the Eucharist] lay in Christ's life-giving union with his people; for the medieval scholastics, the locus of mystery lay in the transformation of bread and wine into Christ's 'true body.'"

It struck me that this understanding allowed the generation previous to us to focus on the people and our gathering union with Christ to the neglect of the "transformation of bread and wine into Christ's 'true body.'" For them, it seemed, the focus was on the community and not on the One who is the cause of the community, who brings the community about and gives us life.

I think our focus on the Eucharist and renewing devotion to Our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament has been based on the rediscovery of this transformation or transubstantiation. We never heard much about it in church and didn't get taught much about it in catechesis. Moreover, people didn't seem to treat the Eucharist as though it was a mystery.

Cardinal de Lubac's emphasis on "Christ's life-giving union with his people" in the Eucharist is a great gift for us if our rediscovery of the "transformation of the bread and wine" is to bear fruit in our relationship with God, Father-Son-and Holy Spirit.

It amazes me that de Lubac's discovery could be hijacked to bring people further from the mystery of the Eucharist.

I was trying to roll this over in my mind: how is this possible?This is my thought: I wonder if, in de Lubac's day and in centuries prior, there was not sufficient witness to a personal union and communion with Jesus in and through the Holy Eucharist.

I think the deepest part of this is on the spirituality end of things:

Was the weight of the mystery on how the Holy Eucharist brings one into life-giving union with Jesus?

Or

Was the "mystery" perceived as a very static miracle: bread and wine changed into Jesus' body and blood?

If it was on the latter, then I would speculate that people gradually perceived the Holy Eucharist as simply a miracle to behold and not so much as an encounter of life-giving love with a person.

I mean, if the Eucharist is a nuptial mystery of life-giving love with the person of Jesus, then why exchange it for the focus on community. Don't get me wrong, community is good and a great gift. But, community is a result of union with the Triune God, Father-Son-HolySpirit, through the person of Jesus in the Sacraments in His Church.

Interesting.

--
In Christ,

Jeremy J. Priest
www.jeremypriest.blogspot.com
Pastoral Associate
St. Mary's University Parish at Central Michigan University
www.stmarycmu.org
989-773-3931

"Show me your books and I will tell you what kind of a person you are." ~ Matthew Kelly

The entirety of our prayer is "Your will be done"--not as a note of resignation but of desire beyond expression. To that end, I commend myself to your intercession, and that of all the saints and angels who accompany us each step through time toward home. -RJN

"Heavenly Father, give us the courage to strive for the highest goals, to flee every temptation to be mediocre. Enable us to aspire to greatness, as Pier Giorgio did, and to open our hearts in joy to Your call to holiness. Free us from the fear of failure. We want to be, Lord, firmly and forever united to You. Grant us the graces we ask You through Pier Giorgio's intercession, by the merits of Our Lord Jesus Christ.
Amen."

Succession and Providence

2009-08-12T16:56:00.000-04:00

"Now Joshua, son of Nun, was filled with the spirit of wisdom, since Moses had laid his hands upon him; and so the children of Israel gave him their obedience, thus carrying out the LORD’s command to Moses." [Deuteronomy 34:9]

This line of today's Old Testament reading is a great example of succession. God grants the power to Moses, His appointed leader, to lay his hands on Joshua, conferring upon him not only the leadership role, but also the gifts to live out that role. Joshua, here, takes Moses' office as head of God's people. This is seen again in the New Testament. In the first chapter of Acts, the apostles recognized that Jesus had left them in charge of the Church and that Judas' position was vacant. They knew that they needed to fill this place and Matthias became the next apostle. After the Church grew in geography, more men were needed at a time than just the 12 apostles, so they laid their hands on men to ordain them as bishops. It was given to these bishops, the power to confer holy orders on men, making them priests, and on certain men, to make them bishops. This line of bishops and priests all taught and lived out a common, universal ("catholic") faith that had been handed down to them from the apostles and many of them, guided by the Holy Spirit, gave their lives in order to pass on the faith accurately. This that faith is still passed down from generation to generation by the bishops and priests of the Catholic Church--all of whom have received their holy orders from other valid bishops of the Church, who trace the lineage of their orders back to the Apostles themselves.

God's own nation, Israel, was blessed to have Moses for many years--he died at 120--but God didn't abandon them after Moses died. He had been preparing Joshua to take the helm and lead this people into the Promised Land. In the same fashion, God's own Church was established with 12 original leaders (headed up by Peter) and even after their deaths, God has kept that Catholic Church alive through an almost 2000 year-long succession of bishops, whose jobs are to lead all of us to the Promised Land of Heaven. Sure, there are the occasional Judases, but we must always remember never to leave Peter because of the sins of Judas. We can look back through history and see that the doctrines of the Catholic Church are the same as they were from the earliest of times. The Church has, by the light of the Holy Spirit, come to better understand and more clearly define many of her doctrines, but they are the same fundamental teachings that were passed don to her by Jesus Himself, so we can see that even though certain Church officials turned out more like Judas, their influence was never able to overcome the power of God to keep His Church fully faithful to Him. We can take confidence that this Church will never be conquered, for Jesus Himself said "the gates of Hell will never prevail" over the Church.

Have you thanked God recently for the Church He gave us? Please pray that the leaders of our Church will be steadfastly more like Peter and less like Judas. Please also pray that those men whom God is calling toward that priesthood and bishopric will hear His call and give themselves entirely into that work in order to lead as many souls to Heaven as possible.

Another thing we can see from this line is that Joshua was filled with the spirit of wisdom from this laying on of hands. This reminds me of the saying: "God does not call the equipped, He equips the called." It is often the case that God uses the most unlikely of people to perform the greatest of His works--the stuttering Moses to lead the people of Israel, the little boy David to slay the giant Goliath, the poor family of Joseph and Mary to raise Jesus, the poor Jesus (God incarnate) to offer the greatest act of love the world has ever seen, etc. I'm sure most of us have probably witnessed a situation in which God has given someone the grace to do some task that was unusually out of their normal abilities. God has work for all of us to do--work that is outside of all of our normal abilities, but He is ready to give us the grace to do that work. Are you ready? Are you listening for what God is calling you to do? Are you scared of what He might ask? Just look at the example he gave us in Joshua. Know that God has it all under control. There will be tough times; things won't seem like they have a chance of working out, but God has His own plans and His own means of accomplishing them. All we need to do is be docile to listen to what God wants and be active in doing those things.

A great way to know what to do is listen to the Church--pay attention to what the Church officially teaches, listen to the pope and the bishops who are united to him, read the Catechism, read the documents and statements that the Church releases and conform your life to these. In this way, your act of obedience to the Church is an act of obedience to God. As you conform to the teachings of the Church, you will find a greater respect for the Sacraments. You will find yourself more frequently availing of the Eucharist and Confession. If you are able, get ahold of a really strong priest near you and ask if he is available for spiritual direction. Through these avenues--particularly adoration of the Eucharist in and outside of Mass and Confession (especially when linked with spiritual direction) you will come to a greater understanding of what God is calling you to do. You see, we're all in this business of saving souls--not just the bishops and priests. God desires to use you and I to lead as many souls to heaven as possible and each of us has a job to do. If someone doesn't do his/her job, souls are affected and there can be no greater loss than that of a soul--especially if our prayers/influence could have moved that soul toward salvation.

Again, 1) follow the Church; 2) listen for direction; 3) act and know/trust that God will provide for what you need.

Trying to do my part,

- Casey

The Sun's Rays for You Body; The Son's Rays for your Soul

2009-07-27T14:34:00.005-04:00

Adoration returns to Boston through the impetus of the Oblates of the Virgin Mary. The Oblates, if you don't know them, are a fantastic community of priests who were founded by the Venerable Pio Bruno Lanteri during the period of the Jesuit Suppression. They continue to live the spirit of St. Ignatius, especially through preaching the Spiritual Exercises and hearing confessions.

Marriage Fidelity

2009-07-17T10:27:00.000-04:00

I'm in the middle of reading Archbishop Fulton Sheen's "Three to Get Married". Last night I came across this paragraph and thought it was something worth sharing:

"the Church asks the bride and groom: 'What guarantee will you give that you will love one another until death do you part?' If they say: 'We give the pledge of our word,' the Church will answer: 'Words and pacts can be broken, as the history of our world too well proves.' If they say: 'We give the pledge of a ring,' the Church will again answer: 'Rings can be broken and lost, and with them the memory of a promise. Only when you stake your eternal salvation as a guarantee of your fidelity to represent the union of Christ and the Church, will the Church consent to unite you as man and wife.' Their lives thus become bonded at the altar, sealed with the seal of the Cross, and signed with the Eucharist, which they both receive into their souls as a pledge of the unity in Spirit, which is the foundation of their unity in the flesh."

He was conveying the idea that the sacrament of marriage is the image that finds its completion in Jesus' union with the Church. Jesus staked His life in fidelity to His Church. Husbands and wives are called to stake everything they have in fidelity to each other.

Of Football & Evangelization

2009-07-10T14:25:00.001-04:00

Chosen

Have you ever had someone see something in you? I remember as a young boy never being very good at playing playground football at recess—when we were dividing up for teams I usually got picked last! There are few worse feelings as a young boy than not to be wanted for a team! I worked hard to become better and even started watching Sunday afternoon football to learn more. I remember the day when I started to get better because I started to get picked higher up…someone saw something in me and wanted me on their team!

Called & Chosen

He went up the mountain and summoned those whom he wanted and they came to him. He appointed twelve (whom he also named apostles) that they might be with him and he might send them forth to preach and to have authority to drive out demons: He appointed the twelve…(Mark 3:13-16).

Out of so many, Jesus chose men who seemed not to be very qualified to go out preaching and teaching, driving out unclean spirits. These guys were fishermen. Perhaps Jesus picked them because fishermen know that regardless of meager results, you have to keep putting the nets out for a catch: Come after me, and I will make you fishers of men (Mark 1:17).

Sending

Jesus continually sends the Twelve out. Even after His death and resurrection he sends them out again: Jesus said to them again, ‘Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even so I send you.’ (Jn. 20:21). Today He sent them out two by two and gave them authority over unclean spirits. He instructed them to take nothing for the journey but a walking stick (Mk. 6:7-8). He sends them out with nothing so they will have nothing to rely on but what they have seen and heard in His presence.

In the first reading we see that God has always done it this way: God sends Amos out to preach, but Amos doesn’t seem remotely qualified. Amos was a shepherd and a dresser of sycamores. The LORD took me from following the flock, and said to me, Go, prophesy to my people Israel (Amos 7:14-15). Amos tells them what God has shown him, what he has seen and heard.

Telling About God’s Choosing

We have been chosen and God sends us out. Unlike playground football, God doesn’t choose the qualified, but qualifies those He chooses – and God works through those who make themselves available to Him; those who say, ‘yes.’ Why? Because people long to see and know that they are necessary, that God created them for a purpose and that God’s heart is, in a sense, restless until our hearts rest in His. That longing continually echoes in the hearts of all men: Lord let us see your kindness and grant us your salvation (Responsorial Psalm).

But, what do we say? What do we do? Simply this: like the Apostles, speak about what we have seen and heard God doing in your life through Jesus Christ (cf. Acts 4:20). Perhaps that’s the question to pray about this week: what has God done in my life and what is he doing now? And how is this good news that I can share with someone else? It’s easy to share about good news.

Liturgical Reform

2009-07-01T22:57:00.004-04:00

There is an excellent post from Neil at Catholic Sensibility on Fr. John Baldovin SJ's recent book, Reforming the Liturgy: A Response to the Critics (Pueblo Books). As Neil advertises, Fr. Baldovin sincerely engages the arguments of those on all sides of the liturgical debates and so provides a place for folks from different perspectives to see the other arguments.

He, of course, deals with the ad orientem posture, always dear to my heart!

While Fr Baldovin argues that the General Instruction of the Roman Missal does envision celebration facing the people (versus populum) – this is a disputed question of translation of a quod clause, he concedes that in the early church the “idea of facing the people in praying was not nearly as important as the question of orientation: i.e., facing the geographical east.” Baldovin notes that the priest can “hijack” the liturgy if he is always in the gaze of others. He also writes that celebration with the priest facing the liturgical east has never been forbidden. That said, Baldovin is somewhat skeptical of celebrating ad orientem, because he wonders if the symbolism of the rising sun makes sense in a world “flooded with artificial light.” (This, to me, was the most unpersuasive paragraph in the book – I haven’t noticed a lack of “sun” references in popular music or a lack of light imagery in contemporary film.)

In any case, Baldovin is not dogmatic about celebrating versus populum, ad orientem, or (as in Ratzinger and Cardinal Christoph Schönborn’s writings) obviam Sponso, facing a cross on the altar. He concludes, “Whatever the stance of the priest, both priest and people need to be oriented toward God in prayer."

To a certain extent Fr. Baldovin is absolutely correct here: we need to be interiorly oriented toward God. Yet, as with most interior hungers, this interior orientation longs to find exterior expression.

I especially liked Neil's quotations from Fr. Max Thurian regarding the latreutic nature of the liturgy and as we experience that reality in adoration and contemplation of the Divine Mystery:

And I do think that we can see a loss of the “latreutic” in some liturgical celebrations. The late Fr Max Thurian of Taize offered some examples.

One would involve the use of a cheap, plastic portable altar that can serve the function of an altar but is barely a “sign of the sacrifice of the cross as memorial, the table of the Eucharistic meal, the symbol of the tomb left empty by the Risen One.” Likewise, Thurian speaks of the celebrant’s chair being placed immediately behind the altar “preventing the contemplative orientation of the whole community in adoration towards the symbolic place of the Lord’s presence and in eschatological expectation of his return.”

Thurian also writes about the presider modifying the words of the liturgy:

The liturgy has a contemplative character and directs the gaze and hearts of the faithful to the face of Christ. It tries to describe and to represent, more than to explain or rationalize. A priest’s personal alterations of the liturgical prayer are often didactic. Only if one thinks that a prayer or gesture is too poor in substance does one overburden it with explanatory considerations. Instead of guiding contemplation, prayer in this way proposes a reflection that turns the believer in on himself rather than opening him to transcendence, as the sober traditional prayers do so well.

And Thurian writes about church architecture.

The whole church should be arranged so as to invite adoration and contemplation even when there are no celebrations. One must long to frequent it in order to meet the Lord there. Too often today churches, designed as multipurpose halls or with the sole objective of gathering the assembly for the liturgy, become dead at the end of the celebration and do not invite the faithful to enter so as to recollect themselves in prayer.

Why might a parish have a cheap plastic altar, a presider whose chair faces the assembly, alterations of the liturgical prayers, and a church that resembles a multipurpose hall? It is possible that the parish still values edification, instruction, and a rich communal life. After all, none of these things are necessarily inhibited by cheap plastic altars. The parish, we might say, has lost awareness of the importance of contemplation and adoration.

Does this make sense?

It does, indeed!

Love for the Church

2009-05-20T22:45:00.002-04:00

This was drawn to my attention by my friend, Phil Lawson. It is from Fr. Henri Cardinal De Lubac and in it he describes what a person in love with Christ's Bride looks like:

“Such a person will have fallen in love with the beauty of the House of God; the Church will have stolen his heart. She is his spiritual native country, his ‘mother and his brethren,’ and nothing which concerns her will leave him indifferent or detached; he will root himself in her soil, form himself in her likeness and make himself one with her experience….It will be from her that he learns how to live and from her that he learns how to die.”

Mass -- Commencement

2009-05-08T14:22:00.001-04:00

Mass — Commencement

Commencement always reminds me of Mass. We leave when we graduate and we have to take what we have received and go out into the world! So it is with Mass: we leave when Mass is over and we have to take what we have received and go out to the world!

What have we received at college? A great way of remembering (lit, “bring back together”) all that you have received at college is to go back and walk through your college years: what have you created with God’s help? What have you given? What have you received?

What have we received at Mass? There are three options for ending Mass: “Go in the peace of Christ”; or “Go in peace to love and serve the Lord”; or “The Mass is ended, go in peace.” So, evidently, we receive PEACE and are supposed to go somewhere with it! Jesus is our PEACE whom we have received in the Holy Spirit through Holy Communion. Whichever way Mass is ended we are sent out with the challenge to bring the Peace we have experienced to the world.

Gift and Challenge

The YES that Jesus spoke for us and gave to us on the Cross is extended to us as a gift and a challenge—to give the same YES. God challenges you to extend the YES that you spoke during these years of college into His continued plans for you! Jesus said to them again, "Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even so I send you." - John 20:21

One ‘YES’ can make a tremendous difference! What one ‘YES’ can do!

Mary said ‘YES’ when the Holy Spirit overshadowed her. You know what happened-Jesus Christ was born! And as the Holy Spirit overshadowed us, each of us said ‘YES’ to God and in some way conceived Jesus . Now the mission is to bring him to the world. - Patti Gallagher Mansfield

God’s Plans & Our Plans

One of the difficulties of life after college is seeing the path ahead. So much of college life consists of following a track of study that has been set out in advance. Leaving college challenges us because it seems that there are no set plans ahead of us except death and taxes! Finding the deep desires that God has placed in our heart and figuring out where these desires fit with the needs of people around us helps us to see where God is calling us.

As we go forward in life the YES God asks of us may not always look like we thought it would. Perhaps this is God’s way of surprising us with joys that we never imagined for ourselves? Fr. Richard John Neuhaus, shortly before he died, penned these words: The entirety of our prayer is "Your will be done"--not as a note of resignation but of desire beyond expression. To that end, I commend myself to your intercession, and that of all the saints and angels who accompany us each step through time toward home.

Blessings on your Adventure!

"To fall in love with God is the greatest of all romances; to seek Him, the greatest adventure; to find Him, the greatest human achievement". ~ St. Augustine

Sexual Desire, the Starvation Diet, and Fast Food

2009-04-29T17:31:00.001-04:00

The usual sex talk many of us got was equivalent to, ‘just don’t do it,’ or, ‘save it for marriage.’ But what is “it”? We never talked much about sexual desire.

Few of us were taught that God gave us sexual desire as a basic impulse to love as God loves. It sounds strange to our ears, but sexual desire finds its home in God’s Triune Love. Genesis teaches that the bodily union of man and woman is an image of God’s inner life (cf. Gen. 1:26-7). God Himself is not solitary, but a familial communion of life and love between the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. If we could see God, He would look like a gigantic “love-bomb explosion.” God gave us sexual desire as a clue to this fiery furnace of love that He wants us to be part of. [The angels closest to God are called Seraphim, literally: “the burning ones.”]

Really?

Do we really experience sexual desire as a gift from God that points us and brings us to this Love, this Happiness, and this Joy found supremely in Him? Our sexual desires can bring us to ecstatic heights of rapturous pleasure and then leave us in emptiness, or pain, or heartache.

We usually do one of two things: we reason that sexual desire is dangerous and needs to be caged, confined, and repressed, if it’s to be acted on at all. This is the Starvation Diet and its repression can result in the lifeless death of our heart’s deepest desires for love. On the other hand we follow the clue that sexual desire can lead us to happiness and we indulge in it, hoping that we’ll find the love, happiness and joy that we’re searching for. This is the Fast Food Diet. So we either indulge our sexual desire or we starve it. Some people stick with one or the other, and others vacillate back and forth between the two diets, binging and purging like a bulimic at McDonald’s. As Woody Allen says, “Sex without love is a meaningless experience, but as far as meaningless experiences go, it's pretty damn good.” But, just like fast food, when we’re done we’re left feeling empty. And if we’re on the fast food diet for very long we start to feel sick (if you don’t believe me, watch the movie, Supersize Me).

We want Love, but we settle for Starvation or Fast Food. But if God gave us these desires and neither the Fast Food Diet nor the Starvation Diet really satisfies, what does? Did God give us this desire just to frustrate us? There is another option: the Banquet!

The Love Banquet that Really Satisfies

We need to feed this hunger because we know that we can’t live without love. Our deepest hungers and desires are for love and Jesus came that we might live this life of love abundantly (cf. Jn. 10:10). This is why the prostitutes and tax collectors were the first to follow Him: they were in touch with these desires, even if they were trying to satisfy them with fast food. The prostitutes and tax collectors found in Jesus someone who knew these deep desires for love and lived them out in the BANQUET table that the Father laid before Him, and that He lays before us.

The Banquet that truly satisfies is that deep and passionate love that Jesus holds out to us in the Eucharistic banquet.

Archbishop-elect Carlson's Press Conference

2009-04-21T16:38:00.000-04:00

Goodbye to Archbishop-elect Carlson

2009-04-21T16:10:00.002-04:00

For my own part, this is the second bishop under whose care I have been that I've had to send off to St. Louis! Conspiracy theorists, go wild! In my time here in Saginaw I've known him to be a man of great faithfulness to God and His Church. Though he was not perfect, he was always resolute in his task of moving us toward a more perfect love of God and our neighbor.

My favorite story about Archbishop Carlson came when he had to make a difficult decision that was unpopular. When asked to change his mind he said that he was "sometimes wrong, but never in doubt" - the decision had been made and we were going to see it through. This is not to say that he was unbending. Not at all. He always listened very well. But when the time for listening was done there was a time for action. Bishop Carlson was not a man to endlessly debate something. Rather, he was a man of action. It seemed to me that he knew the responsibility that God put on his shoulders in caring for us and he had to be resolute in carrying that out well. I admired him for it!

This is from my pastor, Fr. Will Prospero, SJ, up the announcement of the departure of the Most Rev. Robert Carlson from the Diocese of Saginaw.

Bishop Carlson will be sorely missed by me and our parish. He has a special place in his heart for young people and no doubt this has shone through his many visits here to our parish. Just in the past three months he has made three visits to our parish. The first was a lecture at CMU entitled, "Why Be Catholic," which drew more than 120 students. Several students approached the parish after that talk and wanted help to improve their Catholic life. He was also here for a communal penance service the week before Holy Week, which drew double the participants we normally get for such an event. He heard many Confessions and brought much consolation to our parish. This past Sunday he was here again for our Confirmations. He gave a rousing homily and stayed afterwards for dinner with students. There is always a buzz in the parish before and after Bishop would come here. No doubt we are losing a charismatic leader who has a keen sense of the Holy Spirit working in the hearts of young people. Our loss is St. Louis' gain.

The First Three-Minute Extraordinary Form Mass

2009-02-20T13:34:00.001-05:00

Lent: the Great Joy of Fasting

2009-02-20T13:03:00.001-05:00

What Are You “Giving Up” For Lent?

Let’s go beyond the basics here and go straight to the heart: what do I need to let go of in order to grow closer to God?

Fasting

In his Lenten Message Pope Benedict writes, “Since all of us are weighed down by sin and its consequences, fasting is proposed to us as an instrument to restore friendship with God.”

Indeed, fasting has been a part of human life from the very beginning when God told Adam, “You may freely eat of every tree of the garden; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall die” (Gen. 2:16-17). So it was, writes St. Basil, that “‘fasting was ordained in Paradise’…‘You shall not eat is a law of fasting and abstinence’” (Benedict XVI, Lenten Message).

“True fasting” is oriented toward doing “the will of the Heavenly Father, who ‘sees in secret, and will reward you’ (Mt. 6:18)…The true fast is thus directed to eating the ‘true food,’ which is to do the Father’s will (cf. Jn. 4:34). If, therefore, Adam disobeyed the Lord’s command ‘of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat,’ the believer, through fasting, intends to submit himself humbly to God, trusting in His goodness and mercy.”

“That We Might No Live NO Longer for Ourselves but for Him”

“Denying material food, which nourishes our body, nurtures an interior disposition to listen to Christ and be fed by His saving word. Through fasting and praying, we allow Him to come and satisfy the deepest hunger that we experience in the depths of our being: the hunger and thirst for God.”

Fasting for Others

Benedict tells us that “Voluntary fasting enables us to grown in the spirit of the Good Samaritan, who bends low and goes to the help of this suffering brother…By freely embracing an act of self-denial for the sake of another, we make a statement that our brother or sister in need is not a stranger. It is precisely to keep alive this welcoming and attentive attitude towards our brother and sisters that I encourage the parishes and every other community to intensify in Lent the custom of private and communal fasts, joined to the reading of the Word of God, prayer and almsgiving.” Benedict quotes St. Peter Chrysologogus: “Fasting is the soul of prayer, mercy is the lifeblood of fasting. So if you pray, fast; if you fast, show mercy’ if you want your petition to be heard, hear the petition of others. If you do not close your ear to other, you open God’s ear to yourself.”

Fasting: How?

How can I fast? Again we turn to the question we began with: what do I need to let go of in order to grow closer to God? If it’s wasting time on television or the internet or some such amusement, then give some of that time up every day to prayer, to reading the Bible, to spending time with someone who needs you. If inviting God into the sphere of my bodily health is lacking, let go of something in order to give time to God in exercise. When we give these things up we discover that we never lose anything except that which we never really needed in the first place.

Lastly, pick a day per week and cut out some of the food you usually eat. Have a plan for the day: Fast.

Reading Romans

2009-02-12T23:59:00.013-05:00

Jeremy already mentioned this, but I'll add a little more.

Last weekend, The Ave Maria University Graduate Programs in Theology and The Aquinas Center for Theological Renewal co-sponsored a conference entitled: Reading Romans with St. Thomas Aquinas: Ecumenical Explorations. Featuring 30 speakers--including many of the top names in theological circles (Catholic and non-Catholic) from around the world (see the list of names at the linked site)--the conference lasted just over two days with each speaker presenting a paper on his or her own insight of St. Thomas Aquinas' understanding of the book of Romans, capped off with a final presentation by Dr. Michael

Waldstein, who spoke about The Trinitarian, Spousal, and Ecclesial Logic of Justification.

Excellent work was done by each speaker--making me realize all the more how much work I need to do before I graduate.

I found it interesting to talk to the theologians of other denominations and to see their takes on their relationships to the Catholic Church. Particularly noteworthy were a couple of Methodists who looked at their denomination as somewhat like a renegade order. They recognized that they were not in communion with Rome, but that they were working on some sort of internal movement of the whole Methodist body toward some sort of acceptance of Rome and Rome's acceptance of them, keying it on the idea of looking at their denomination potentially reconciling as an order or rite of the Church or some sort of special commonality for them to share in their particular charisms, but also enjoy communion with Rome, the fulness of the faith and the unity of the Church. They saw this work much more fruitful than individual converts (not to understate the greatness that others have found their way home).

On a particularly kind note, Scott Hahn (who was one of the speakers) stayed an extra day to visit with the graduate students (some of whom are former pupils of his). Usually Dr. Hahn leaves conferences shortly after they're finished in order to spend time with his family, so we were all greatly appreciative of his gracious gesture to stay and talk more with us.

Unfortunately, I wasn't able to attend all 30 talks, so I was not able to get a picture of each speaker and poor Dr. Vall . . . I only have a picture of him at the table before he gave his presentation. I would have loved to have been able to hear his talk. He was my Old Testament professor last semester--the man is amazing!

The talks should go up on our podcast page in the near future:

http://www.avemaria.edu/podcasts/

It's Truelove with Hahn

2009-02-12T23:06:00.004-05:00

Turning Towards the Lord's very own Casey Truelove was graced to meet and talk with Dr. Scott Hahn, one of my former professors, at the recent conference, Reading Romans with St. Thomas Aquinas: Ecumenical Explorations.

The conference opened with a Keynote Address by Robert Louis Wilken. An ecumenical, international group of scholars made several exciting presentations addressing issues of theological exegesis and the history of exegesis. The conference aimed at investigating Aquinas's Lectures on Romans in hopes of understanding what Aquinas can teach contemporary Christians about the realities that Paul, and the Holy Spirit, sought to convey.

I've tried finding posts from the conference on the blogosphere, but to no avail. Perhaps Casey will post something here soon?

Where am I going? A Path Day-by-Day

2009-02-12T16:48:00.002-05:00

This is from Magnificat's "Meditation of the Day," for Thursday, February 12th, 2009

If you are able to be an instrument in the hands of God, if you have trust, love, and the patience to accept His plans for you, He restores to you what you have given, one hundred times over. The reign of heaven is already among us, because it is joined with the reign on earth. The good that we do is a goodness that remains forever. This is what I have experienced. A path has opened in front of me, that has become a reality, that cannot yet be grasped. It has begun to take on the dimensions of the love of God. Who would have thought that this path could have opened like this in front of me, a woman who is weak, not very intelligent, and incapable like me? Those who trust in Him will not remain imprisoned in their little plans. I have seen young people who built a cage with their own hands and then fell into desperation because of it. God gave me the strength and patience to follow what He indicated to me day by day and this path has slowly opened wide and has welcomed with open arms many young people in need of love. These arms now embrace the whole world. By now these arms are not only mine, they are the arms of many young people who, after having received the love of God, have decided, like I did, to trust in Him and to give to those in need with that love which they have freely received.

-Mother Elvira Petrozzi
She is the foundress of Comunita Cenacolo, welcoming the lost and desperate in fifty-six fraternities in fourteen countries.

Desperate for God, Desperate for Prayer

2009-02-04T17:31:00.001-05:00

Desperate for Help:
"Praise the Lord, who heals the brokenhearted" (cf. Psalm 147:3). God's goodness is sometimes hardest to see while we sit behind in schoolwork, behind in rent, desperate for help, alone.

This desperation can touch us even when we're trying to help others: “When we consider the immensity of others' needs, we can, on the one hand, be driven towards an ideology that would aim at doing what God's governance of the world apparently cannot: fully resolving every problem. Or we can be tempted to give in to inertia, since it would seem that in any event nothing can be accomplished (Benedict XVI Deus Caritas Est 36). What can we do?

Desperate for Prayer:

“At such times, a living relationship with Christ is decisive if we are to keep on the right path, without falling into an arrogant contempt for man, something not only unconstructive but actually destructive, or surrendering to a resignation which would prevent us from being guided by love in the service of others.

Prayer, as a means of drawing ever new strength from Christ, is concretely and urgently needed. People who pray are not wasting their time, even though the situation appears desperate and seems to call for action alone. Piety does not undermine the struggle against the poverty of our neighbors, however extreme. In the example of Blessed Teresa of Calcutta we have a clear illustration of the fact that time devoted to God in prayer not only does not detract from effective and loving service to our neighbor but is in fact the inexhaustible source of that service. In her letter for Lent 1996, Bl. Teresa wrote to her lay co-workers: ‘We need this deep connection with God in our daily life. How can we obtain it? By prayer’” (Benedict XVI).

Only prayer, bringing ourselves before the presence of God, breaks the silence of lonely suffering. We were made in God's image to remind us that we cannot live disconnected from God. The need for communion and connection breaks forth from every pore until, one day, after filling ourselves with everything else, trembling at our utter loneliness grips us and we cry out to God. Our lives become a prayer, a response to God’s goodness. Prayers of gratitude flow from our hearts.

Desperate for “the Lord, who heals the brokenhearted.”

Jesus is God’s answer to your cry and mine. In today’s Gospel we read how people come close to Him at sunset. Is it only when darkness falls that we ask for His help? “When it was evening, after sunset, they brought to him all who were ill or possessed by demons. The whole town was gathered at the door. He cured many who were sick with various diseases, and he drove out many demons” (Mk 1:32-34). After Jesus healed so many people He went off to pray, no doubt a prayer of thanksgiving. He did not remain in prayer because again the cries of the people overtook him: Master, “‘everyone is looking for you.’ He told them, "Let us go on to the nearby villages that I may preach there also. For this purpose have I come."

Conversion and Babel in a Tech Savvy Culture: Vatican Youtube Chanel!

2009-01-28T13:02:00.002-05:00

The Vatican now has its own Youtube channel. [Unfortunately, they have disabled the "embed" address, so there's no hosting a papal video.] Check out Benedict's: Conversion is Trusting in Christ's Forgiveness.

Conversion becomes difficult in a culture where power or the illusion of power is often at our fingertips. If conversion is trusting in the forgiveness of Christ, then hardening one's heart is trusting in oneself. I thought this quotation from Benedict (not in the Youtube video) characterized this hardening in our tech savvy culture:

It is only when men are united inwardly that they can really be united outwardly. But if they are inwardly impenetrable to one another, their outward encounters will serve only to increase their potential for aggressiveness.

The Bible portrays this graphically in the story of the tower of Babel: the most advanced union in terms of technical skill turns suddenly into a total incapacity for human communication...That is the logical outcome: where each person wants to be a god, that is, to be so adult and independent that he owes himself to no one but determines his own destiny simply and solely for himself, then every other person becomes for him an antigod, and communication between them becomes a contradiction.

-Principles of Catholic Theology, 51-52.

Jesus invites us at times to shut everything off and close the door to be with Him and Him alone:

Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light."

-Matthew 11:27-30

Babies an Economic Hindrince, Says Pelosi

2009-01-27T15:39:00.003-05:00

The Catholic philosopher, theologian, economist, grandmother and Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, characterized the culture of death in a recent interview she gave regarding contraception as a strategy for economic stimulus:

STEPHANOPOULOS: We also heard from Congressman Boehner coming out of the meeting today that again a lot of that spending doesn't even meet the same test you just talked about right now. Hundreds of millions of dollars to expand family planning services. How is that stimulus?

PELOSI: Well, the family planning services reduce cost. They reduce cost. The states are in terrible fiscal budget crises now and part of what we do for children's health, education and some of those elements are to help the states meet their financial needs. One of those - one of the initiatives you mentioned, the contraception, will reduce costs to the states and to the federal government.

The fact that the use of contraception is understood by the Church as a grave moral evil does not influence Pelosi's thinking here. The normal growth that is produced from sexual stimulus seems unwanted in her plan for economic growth.

Speaker Pelosi is unwitting pawn for the "Culture of Death" as she enunciates its tendency to equate people with problems. The "Culture of Death" sees babies as resource suckers who don't really contribute anything to the world.

For a world that needs growth and prosperity, babies are the gift and promise of tomorrow. This is not to see babies as a means. Rather, this culture of life outlook sees the new life of sacrifice and creativity that babies demand as the promise and hope that helps us see beyond ourselves and open ourselves up to new possibilities. This is real stimulus!

New life produces life. Economic growth is rarely accompanied by a decline in population. The U.S.'s current population growth is barely at replacement level [almost all European countries are in serious population decline]. In the situation of the current economy both babies and baby-boomers are seen by the culture of death as problems: "non-producing money-suckers." In reality the task of caring for new life and the elderly will move us to innovation, creativity and productivity for the sake of life.

Perhaps it would be more beneficial to the American people if Speaker Pelosi’s Catholic faith was more influential in her the way she forms public policy.

Benedict Bringing Reconciliation with Society of St. Pius X

2009-01-26T17:23:00.006-05:00

In a bold move, Pope Benedict formally lifted the excommunication of Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre and the four bishops he ordained without papal approval in 1988. This comes out of Benedict's desire to remove all obstacles impeding the Holy Spirit's unifying mission. Though this gesture does not in itself reunite the Society of St. Pius X with the Catholic Church, it does move the process of reconciliation forward.

How much forward have we moved?

That is tough to say. Deep divisions remain. Some are under the impression that the Society of St. Pius X's main disagreement is over the Latin Mass. Though that is very important, perhaps central to the division is Vatican II's decree regarding religious freedom, Dignitatis Humanae. Perhaps someone can help me out in this regard: the impass regarding religious liberty has to do with exempting the state from its traditional responsibility to promote the true faith?

However one recons that disagreement, there is much work to be done. Yet, this is an important step forward in Benedict's mission to bring reconciliation to the heart of the Church. God grant him many years!

UPDATE:
This piece from www.speroforum.com by Andrew Rabel indicates that the previous penalties against the Society of St. Pius X remain in effect:

The SSPX reverts to the penalties given by Rome prior to the episcopal consecrations, and all six bishops in the Society remain suspended a divinis. The Society remains a group of Catholics in an irregular state. No chapel of the Society of St Pius X in the world is in communion with the Universal Church, and its priests sharing in the suspension are deprived of the clerical state (a separate matter from the validity of their ordinations). They cannot offer the sacraments of matrimony and penance validly, because that requires faculties from a local bishop.

UPDATE: Bishop Fellay of the SSPX Silences Bishop Williamson:

"We view this matter with great concern, as this exorbitance has caused severe damage to our religious mission. We apologize to the Holy Father and to all people of good will for the trouble it has caused. It must remain clear that those comments do not reflect in any way the attitude of our community. That is why I have forbidden Bishop Williamson to issue any public opinion on any political or historical matter until further notice."

Listening and the Truth of Life

2009-01-21T17:23:00.000-05:00

Loved Into Existence
“We are not some casual and meaningless product of [chance]. Each of us is the result of a thought of God. Each of us is willed, each of us is loved, each of us is necessary…Human beings are not a mistake, but something willed; they are the fruit of love.” -Pope Benedict XVI

God tells us that He has created each of us out of love: “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you” (Jer. 1:5). "Can a woman forget her sucking child…? Even these may forget, yet I will not forget you” (Is. 49:15).

“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” (CCC 2271).

Listening
Have you ever thought about how blessed you are to have actually been born after 1972, when abortion was declared a constitutional right? There was a child whose future was a broken home, who was abandoned by his father, whose single mother struggled to raise him. Despite all these challenges, he grew up to be our first African American president: Barack Obama. Many children with similar situations to his have been aborted. Imagine what might have been.

How can we protect every person from being aborted? How can we give every person a chance to live life and the opportunity to choose for themselves?

Listening to each other does not mean compromising the truth at all. Rather, listening helps us to better speak the truth in love. “Dialogue does not take place simply because people are talking…Dialogue first comes into being where there is not only speech but also listening…To listen means to know and to acknowledge another and to allow him to step into the realm of one’s own ‘I.’…Thus, after the act of listening, I am another man, my own being is enriched and deepened because it is united with the being of the other…When we speak of dialogue in the proper sense, what we mean is an utterance wherein something of being itself, indeed, the person himself, becomes speech” (Ratzinger, The Nature and Mission of the Theologian, 32-33, 34).

Personal
Some of us have known the horror of abortion and the wonder of new life. Never tire of sharing the truth that every human life is precious and inviolable. This truth must be spoken from heart to heart if we are really going to be able to hear each other.
Challenge: when the opportunity presents itself, ask someone what he or she believes about abortion and listen. Be prepared to share what you think, but listen first. When heart speaks to heart the truth will become clear. Though Pope Benedict spoke these words about evolution, I think they still ring true here: “This dispute has to be approached objectively and with a willingness to listen, by both sides—something that has hitherto been undertaken only to a limited extent” (Benedict XVI, Truth and Tolerance).

Creation: Divine and Contingent Causality

2009-01-20T18:04:00.002-05:00

Darwin never studied academic biology, but studied theology academically at Christ's College, Cambridge. Darwin, Cardinal Schonborn speculates, brought a wrong understanding of creation with him and was trying to fight a false understanding of divine intervention in which God constantly intervenes as an outsider in the universe. Darwin wanted to escape the idea of many divine interventions in favor of the greater explanatory power that the "transmutation" of one species to another possessed.

From Schonborn's perspective, part of Darwin's struggle with Christianity was really a fight with the erroneous theology of creation (the relationship between God and the world / grace and nature) which he had been taught: If God's acting in the world is a series of extrinsic interventions (efficient causality), then He is more or less an intruder in the created world.

Some contemporary neo-Darwinian scholars seems to follow the same line of thought. They are it seems, like Darwin, assigning to God the sole possible role of efficient causality that should be able to be measured. Since they cannot explain things without God, God must not exist.

Kenneth R. Miller, Professor of Biology at Brown Univeristy, reflecting on Pope Benedict's contribution to this debate, notes that "The key insight, which sits at the very heart of Benedict's thoughts on the matter, is that 'neo-Darwinians who adduce random genetic variation and natural selection as evidence that the process of evolution is absolutely unguided are straying beyond what can be demonstrated by science.'"

Both science and theology must have a better sense of their areas of authority. To this end Cardinal Schonborn calls for a more sophisticated theology of creation and a clearer understanding of what divine causality looks like in order to better understand God as Creator and the world as created. The following paragraph is from a document entitled, "Creation and Stewardship: Persons Created in the Image and Likeness of God," by the International Theological Commission. The document reflects on the Catholic understanding of divine causality in the world:

69. The current scientific debate about the mechanisms at work in evolution requires theological comment insofar as it sometimes implies a misunderstanding of the nature of divine causality. Many neo-Darwinian scientists, as well as some of their critics, have concluded that, if evolution is a radically contingent materialistic process driven by natural selection and random genetic variation, then there can be no place in it for divine providential causality. A growing body of scientific critics of neo-Darwinism point to evidence of design (e.g., biological structures that exhibit specified complexity) that, in their view, cannot be explained in terms of a purely contingent process and that neo-Darwinians have ignored or misinterpreted. The nub of this currently lively disagreement involves scientific observation and generalization concerning whether the available data support inferences of design or chance, and cannot be settled by theology. But it is important to note that, according to the Catholic understanding of divine causality, true contingency in the created order is not incompatible with a purposeful divine providence. Divine causality and created causality radically differ in kind and not only in degree. Thus, even the outcome of a truly contingent natural process can nonetheless fall within God’s providential plan for creation. According to St. Thomas Aquinas: “The effect of divine providence is not only that things should happen somehow, but that they should happen either by necessity or by contingency. Therefore, whatsoever divine providence ordains to happen infallibly and of necessity happens infallibly and of necessity; and that happens from contingency, which the divine providence conceives to happen from contingency” (Summa theologiae, I, 22,4 ad 1). In the Catholic perspective, neo-Darwinians who adduce random genetic variation and natural selection as evidence that the process of evolution is absolutely unguided are straying beyond what can be demonstrated by science. Divine causality can be active in a process that is both contingent and guided. Any evolutionary mechanism that is contingent can only be contingent because God made it so. An unguided evolutionary process – one that falls outside the bounds of divine providence – simply cannot exist because “the causality of God, Who is the first agent, extends to all being, not only as to constituent principles of species, but also as to the individualizing principles....It necessarily follows that all things, inasmuch as they participate in existence, must likewise be subject to divine providence” (Summa theologiae I, 22, 2).

70. With respect to the immediate creation of the human soul, Catholic theology affirms that particular actions of God bring about effects that transcend the capacity of created causes acting according to their natures. The appeal to divine causality to account for genuinely causal as distinct from merely explanatory gaps does not insert divine agency to fill in the “gaps” in human scientific understanding (thus giving rise to the so-called "God of the gaps”). The structures of the world can be seen as open to non-disruptive divine action in directly causing events in the world. Catholic theology affirms that that the emergence of the first members of the human species (whether as individuals or in populations) represents an event that is not susceptible of a purely natural explanation and which can appropriately be attributed to divine intervention. Acting indirectly through causal chains operating from the beginning of cosmic history, God prepared the way for what Pope John Paul II has called “an ontological leap...the moment of transition to the spiritual.” While science can study these causal chains, it falls to theology to locate this account of the special creation of the human soul within the overarching plan of the triune God to share the communion of trinitarian life with human persons who are created out of nothing in the image and likeness of God, and who, in his name and according to his plan, exercise a creative stewardship and sovereignty over the physical universe.

Benedict XVI Ad Orientem!

2009-01-15T23:20:00.003-05:00

Benedict Ad Orietem...nothing more need be said.

Becoming the Catholic I Was...

2009-01-13T18:21:00.001-05:00

This is a piece by Fr. Richard John Neuhaus on his conversion to Catholicism. It's a wonderful story that recounts what most converts say, that Catholicism is the fulfillment, the fullness, of all that they had been given in their previous Christian tradition. If you've never read anything by Fr. Neuhaus, this is a good place to start...enjoy!

How I Became the Catholic I Was

By Richard John Neuhaus

This essay by Richard John Neuhaus was published in the April 2002 issue of First Things.

This is more a story than an argument. It is in some ways a very personal story, and yet not without broader implications. It is just possible that some may discern in the story suggestions of an argument, even an argument about the nature of Lutheranism, and of Protestantism more generally.

When in 1990 I was received by the late John Cardinal O’Connor into full communion with the Catholic Church—on September 8, the Nativity of Our Lady—I issued a short statement in response to the question Why. With Lutheran friends especially in mind, I said, “To those of you with whom I have traveled in the past, know that we travel together still. In the mystery of Christ and his Church nothing is lost, and the broken will be mended. If, as I am persuaded, my communion with Christ’s Church is now the fuller, then it follows that my unity with all who are in Christ is now the stronger. We travel together still.”

When Cardinal Newman was asked at a dinner party why he became a Catholic, he responded that it was not the kind of thing that can be properly explained between soup and the fish course. When asked the same question, and of course one is asked it with great frequency, I usually refer to Newman’s response. But then I add what I call the short answer, which is simply this: I became a Catholic in order to be more fully what I was and who I was as a Lutheran. The story that follows may shed some light on that short answer.

In the statement of September 8, 1990, I also said:

I cannot express adequately my gratitude for all the goodness I have known in the Lutheran communion. There I was baptized, there I learned my prayers, there I was introduced to Scripture and creed, there I was nurtured by Christ on Christ, there I came to know the utterly gratuitous love of God by which we live astonished. For my theological formation, for friendships beyond numbering, for great battles fought, for mutual consolations in defeat, for companionship in ministry—for all this I give thanks. . . . As for my thirty years as a Lutheran pastor, there is nothing in that ministry that I would repudiate, except my many sins and shortcomings. My becoming a priest in the Roman Catholic Church will be the completion and right ordering of what was begun all those years ago. Nothing that is good is rejected, all is fulfilled.

Begin at St. John’s Lutheran Church in the Ottawa Valley of Canada. To be brought up a Lutheran, at least a Missouri Synod Lutheran, at least there and at least then, was to know oneself as an ecclesial Christian. Of course I did not put it that way as a young boy, nor was it put that way to me, but I would later see what had happened. An ecclesial Christian is one who understands with mind and heart, and even feels with his fingertips, that Christ and his Church, head and body, are inseparable. For the ecclesial Christian, the act of faith in Christ and the act of faith in the Church are not two acts of faith but one. In the words of the third century St. Cyprian, martyr bishop of Carthage, “He who would have God as his Father must have the Church as his mother.” In an important sense, every Christian, even the most individualistic, is an ecclesial Christian, since no one knows the gospel except from the Church. Extra ecclesiam nulla salus—no salvation outside the Church—applies to all. For some, that truth is incidental; for the ecclesial Christian it is constitutive, it is at the very core, of faith and life.

In my Missouri Synod childhood there were seemingly little things that made a big difference. Some would call them “nontheological factors,” but I see now that they were fraught with theological significance. Across the street from the parsonage of St. John’s was an evangelical Protestant church. Also across the street lived my best friends, the Spooner brothers, who with their devoutly Catholic family attended St. Columkil’s Cathedral. I am sure it was unarticulated but self-evident to me by the time I was five years old that St. John’s and the cathedral had more in common than either had with the evangelical chapel. For one immeasurably momentous thing, our churches baptized babies. Then too, our being saved was something that God did through His Church; it was a given, a gift. It did not depend—as it did for Dougy Cahill, our evangelical friend—upon feelings or spiritual experience. It depended upon grace bestowed through things done.

Continued Here...

"This is my Beloved Son with whom I am Well Pleased"

2009-01-09T16:42:00.002-05:00

“You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.”

I read these words during a January retreat in 2004: “You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.” I had a sense of God asking me, “Do you want to be my son?” I paused a bit at the strangeness of the question: of course I want to be a child of God! I responded, “Yes, Lord, I want to be your son.” There was almost an immediate and unexpected response: “Then let me be your Father!” How can we allow God to father us?

A Father’s Heart

Everybody felt it.... a moment of eerie silence...........a low rumble and then the ground began to shake... Less than 4 minutes later over 30,000 were dead from an 8.2 earthquake that rocked and nearly flattened Armenia in 1989. In the muddled chaos a distressed father… could not stop thinking about the promise he had given his son…"No matter what happens Armand, I'll always be there." When he reached the site where his son’s school had been but saw only a pile of rubble…With nothing but his bare hands he started digging…12 hours went by...18 hours... 36 hours…and finally into the 38th hour he heard a muffled groan..."Armand!" And from the darkness came a slight, shaking voice, "Papa?"

They found 14 of the 33 students still alive. When Armand finally emerged…everybody standing there heard him as he turned to his friends and said, "See I told you my father wouldn't forget us."

This is the kind of faith we need because this is the kind of Father we have! -from Scott Hahn’s A Father Who Keeps His Promises

Being Fathered

What did it mean for Jesus to be fathered by His Heavenly Father? Oddly, a passage from the Old Testament Book of Deuteronomy may shed some light on this: “I will raise up for them a prophet like [Moses] from among their brethren; and I will put my words in his mouth, and he shall speak to them all that I command him” In each of the Gospels Jesus is portrayed variously as this “New Moses” whom the Father has sent among us. But what is it, what is Moses like that would make Israel desire another prophet like him? “And there has not arisen a prophet since in Israel like Moses, whom the LORD knew face to face” (Dt. 34:10). (18:18).

It is this knowing the Lord “face to face” that marked Moses’ relationship with God and even more radically Jesus’ relationship with His Father! For Jesus to be fathered we see that His Heavenly Father is never far from Him, giving Him words to speak and deeds to do. The Father is close to the Son in such a way that Jesus is constantly aware of His Father’s abiding presence, even in the direst of circumstances (cf. Mt. 27:46). Ultimately God’s Fatherhood marked Jesus so deeply that Jesus’ basic identity was that of beloved Son.

Our great joy on this Solemnity should be that through Jesus’ death and resurrection we now have this same Father through baptism. We are His beloved sons and daughters!

Rest in Peace, Father Richard John Neuhaus, 1936-2009

2009-01-08T15:27:00.003-05:00

For those of you who did not know Fr. Neuhaus, he was a Catholic convert from a Missouri Synod Lutheran background. It's a little known fact that when Fr. Neuhaus became a Catholic his sponsor was none other than Fr. Avery Dulles, SJ.

He was deeply involved in the debate concerning religion and public life, asserting that God is not an intruder in the public square. In 2005, this Catholic priest was named one of the "25 Most Influential Evangelicals in America" by Time Magazine.

We were indeed blessed by him in so many ways. It's funny, but it's hard to imagine Catholic life without him. I always looked forward to his monthly "Public Square" column in First Things. Fr. Neuhaus was the color man for EWTN's coverage of the 2005 Papal Conclave. During the coverage Fr. Neuhaus famously said that he would sing the Te Deum on air if Joseph Ratzinger was elected pope...he never did follow through with that promise. Perhaps he's sing the Te Deum now?

This is from Joseph Bottum, the Managing Editor of First Things:

Eternal rest grant unto him, O Lord.

Richard John Neuhaus, 1936-2009

Fr. Richard John Neuhaus slipped away today, January 8, shortly before 10 o'clock, at the age of seventy-two. He never recovered from the weakness that sent him to the hospital the day after Christmas, caused by a series of side effects from the cancer he was suffering. He lost consciousness Tuesday evening after a collapse in his heart rate, and the next day, in the company of friends, he died.

My tears are not for him—for he knew, all his life, that his Redeemer lives, and he has now been gathered by the Lord in whom he trusted.

I weep, rather for all the rest of us. As a priest, as a writer, as a public leader in so many struggles, and as a friend, no one can take his place. The fabric of life has been torn by his death, and it will not be repaired, for those of us who knew him, until that time when everything is mended and all our tears are wiped away.

Funeral arrangements are still being planned; information about the funeral will be made public shortly. Please accept our thanks for all your prayers and good wishes.

In Deepest Sorrow,

Joseph Bottum
Editor
First Things

Fr. Neuhaus on The Call to Marriage

2009-01-08T14:33:00.001-05:00

Fr. Richard John Neuhaus, 1936-2009: Light Perpetual Shine Upon Him

2009-01-08T14:07:00.002-05:00

Brief CBC piece on Fr. Neuhaus

10 rules for handling disagreement like a Christian

2009-01-05T19:52:00.002-05:00

Congratulations to the Archdiocese of Detroit on the appointment of your new Archbishop, the Most Reverend Allen H. Vigneron! This is great news both for Detroit and for the entire Michigan Province!

This is a piece that Bishop Vigneron wrote for the Diocese of Oakland newspaper. Enjoy the wisdom!

10 rules for handling disagreement like a Christian

Dear Sisters and Brothers:
When I began my term as the rector of the major seminary in Detroit a little over 10 years ago, one of the problems I had to help my students deal with was the often-sharp differences of opinion that we find within the Church.

The seminarians looked to me as the pastor of that community to help them navigate through the contentious expression of differing viewpoints. To fulfill my responsibilities as the father of that seminary family I composed what I called “Ten Rules for Handling Disagreement Like a Christian.”

Whether or not the clash of opinions within the Catholic community in the U.S. has grown stronger or weakened over the last decade I couldn’t say; however, I do know that with some frequency we still find ourselves at odds over what we think and where we want to head.
With that in mind, I thought that I, now serving as pastor of the family of the Oakland Diocese, could profitably share these “Ten Rules” with all of you. So, here they are, along with my own brief commentary on each.

1. The Rule of Charity: “Charity is primary.”
This has to be the place to start whenever we disagree with one another: with love. St. Paul said: “If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal” (1 Cor. 13:1). No matter how wise my insights or astute my plans, they count for nothing if I do not offer them with love.

Now, that charity is the first and fundamental requirement for all authentic Christian speech does not mean that such speaking can only be weak, but it does mean that whatever is said ought always to be offered respectfully and for the genuine service of others, especially my hearers. In fact, all of St. Paul’s sage advice in the “Hymn to Charity” in 1 Cor. 13 spells out eloquently this “Rule.”

2. The Rule of Publicity: “Think with the mind of the Church.”
This rule is simply a translation of the Latin axiom “Sentire cum Ecclesia.” This means that, when we disagree, the final measure for judging what’s on target and what’s off the mark is what the Church thinks, not, ultimately, what you think or what I think – not private opinion, but what the Church has said to all to know.

This is the reason I call this the “The Rule of Publicity.” The criterion for our deciding our disagreements is not one’s own private opinions, but the mind of the People of God, what the Church thinks.
In order to apply this rule effectively, we need to use a corollary: “Measure everything against the authoritative documents of the Magisterium.”

The logical question to follow any call for us to “think with the mind of the Church” is: How do I know what that is?

The answer is: “Look in the places where the Church has expressed her mind with authority.” Look in the writings of the Councils and the popes, in the Church’s laws, and in the teachings of her Fathers and Doctors. Any survey or poll, no matter how extensive or accurate, if it contradicts the Magisterium, is not the Church’s mind.

3. The Rule of Legitimate Freedom: “What the Church allows is not to be disallowed.”
This rule means that in situations where the Church says that a variety of views or opinions is legitimate, I should not impose my option as a mandate on others. For example: we can receive Holy Communion in the hand or on the tongue. Either one is acceptable.

4. The Rule of Catholic Freedom: “There’s something for everybody, but not everything is for everybody.”
This fourth rule is an extension of the one above. It applies the same sort of respect for diversity to the wider spheres of our common life. This rule is based on the recognition that “It’s a big Church.” God has given gifts of grace in an almost dizzying variety. Some folks are attracted to the Carmelite Third Order, others gather for charismatic prayer. Nobody has to live the Christian life exactly the way I do.

Remember: “Think (and act) with the mind of the Church.” We need to respect every practice or approach that has a legitimate place in the life of the Church, and we cannot make our favorite practice or approach mandatory for others if the Church has not.

5. The Rule of Modesty: “Not all of my causes are God’s causes.”
Yes, it’s true that in many cases we invest our heart’s devotion because that’s what God commands for all his people. But that’s not necessarily so in every instance. Some of my agendas are mine. It’s right to embark on projects with a zealous desire to give God glory, but I have to remember that while it may be his will for me to take this on, there are cases when it’s not his will for everyone else to join me.

6. The Rule of Integrity: “To do evil in order to accomplish good is really to do evil.”
Breaking one of God’s commandments is not the way to advance his Kingdom, ever. If, in the service of Christ, I act in an un-Christian way, I become a highly effective ally of the very forces I set out to combat. (Among those who are big “Star War” fans, this rule is sometimes referred to as the “Darth Vader Axiom.”)

7. The Rule of Realism: “Remember that Satan is eager to corrupt my efforts to build up the Kingdom, and he’s smart enough to figure out a way to do it.
This rule is strong statement about the need for each of us in our disagreements to practice that form of realism, for which the more common name is “humility.” My cause may be right or my view may be true, but I have to watch that their goodness is not corrupted by my infidelity.

8. The Rule of Mystery: “Not all the habits and attitudes which belong to a society governed by a representative democracy are appropriate in the Church.”
In every age there is a tendency – often unconscious – to shape the life of the Church after the pattern of the secular order of the day. In the Middle Ages, the governance of the Church was often configured to the feudal system of the times, sometimes with very harmful consequences. For example, bishops and abbots were identified with the barons of the nobility.

In our own day, we could make a similar sort of mistake: thinking that the responsibility and authority of the Church’s pastors are of the same sort as that of our elected officials. In such mistaken identifications, what is at work is a forgetting that while the Church is, yes, a human reality, she is also a divine reality, a mystery, unlike any other community every known in the history of the world.

The Church is neither a democracy nor a monarchy. She is the Church, the Lord’s own creation, constituted according to his will and plan.

9. The Petrine Rule: “Nobody ever built up the Church by tearing down the pope.”
This rule follows quite logically from the one immediately above. The Holy Father’s leadership is part of the Church’s constitution from Christ. Because the pope is not the sort of democratic leader we are accustomed to in civil society, there is a tendency by some observers to characterize his office as a “throwback” to times that we have surpassed, a “burden” for the Catholic people that we would well be freed from. Not so.

The pastoral care we receive from the Holy Father is a great grace, St. Peter’s own service of his fellow disciples continuing to this very day. A great pope makes us a better Church.

10. The Eschatological Rule: “The victory is assured; my job is to run out the clock with style.”
Christ is risen – truly, body and soul risen and in glory at the Father’s right. He has conquered sin and death and all the forces that threaten us. Whatever is at stake in our trials or conflicts, the certainty of Christ’s victory is not in doubt.

And he promised he would be with us always, until the end of time (cf. Mat. 28:20). He will never leave his Church, and his victory will be ours as long as we abide with him in his Mystical Body.

This rule, of course, is not an excuse for giving less than our full effort to spread the Kingdom; that would be a kind of presumption. However, this rule is a call to remember that there is one Savior, and it’s not you or me. Our mission is to serve the Lord in fidelity and hope, and be ready for him to act, for he surely will.

Benedict XVI is Magnificently Right: Ethos and Economy

2008-12-31T14:41:00.004-05:00

Who can argue with a title like that? Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger gave a paper on economics and the free market over 20 years ago and in the light of current economic woes, Ratzinger looks prophetic!

"President Roosevelt is magnificently right," John Maynard Keynes wrote of president Franklin Delano Roosevelt's decision to devalue the American dollar in 1933. If any economic policy stance deserves such praise today, it is that of Pope Benedict XVI, whose views on ethics and economics occasioned a flurry of comment last month. Italy's Finance Minister Giulio Tremonti observed, "The prediction that an undisciplined economy would collapse by its own rules can be found" in a 1985 paper (see Market Economy and Ethics, Acton Institute) by then Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, which Tremonti called "prophetic". I don't know whether it was prophetic, but the future pope was right, and magnificently so.

An unethical economy, he argued, will destroy itself, and economics cannot determine whether any activity is ethical or not. Internet stock valuations, the market delusion of a decade ago, presumed that pornography, gaming, music downloads and shopping would be the driving forces of the future economy. It is easy to ridicule this Alice-in-Wonderland accounting after the fact, just as it is easy to laugh at television advertisements that even today urge Americans to buy homes because their prices double every 10 years (for example this commercial by the National Association of Realtors posted on YouTube). But what should we say of an economy based on consuming as much as one can without troubling to bring children into the world?

Here is what then Cardinal Ratzinger said about it more than 20 years ago:

It is becoming an increasingly obvious fact of economic history that the development of economic systems which concentrate on the common good depends on a determinate ethical system, which in turn can be born and sustained only by strong religious convictions. Conversely, it has also become obvious that the decline of such discipline can actually cause the laws of the market to collapse. An economic policy that is ordered not only to the good of the group - indeed, not only to the common good of a determinate state - but to the common good of the family of man demands a maximum of ethical discipline and thus a maximum of religious strength.

What caused the laws of the market to collapse in 2008? In another location (see The monster and the sausages, Asia Times Online, May 20, 2008), I argued that the bulge of workers in the US and Europe approaching retirement age is the ultimate cause of the financial crisis. Too much capital chased too few investment opportunities, and the financial industry met the demand by selling sow's ears with the credit rating of silk purses.

Underlying the crisis is the Western world's repudiation of life, through a hedonism that puts consumption or "self-realization" ahead of child-rearing. The developed world is shifting from a demographic profile in which the very young (children four years and under) outnumbered the elderly (65 and older), to a profile with 10 times as many retirees as children aged four or younger. Economics simply never has had to confront a situation in which the next generation simply failed turn up.

The remainder of the article here...

Mahna Mahna

2008-12-31T14:32:00.001-05:00

Ring in the New Year (secular) with this!

Sola Scriptura w/o the Scriptura by Mollie Hemmingway

2008-12-31T13:17:00.002-05:00

I knew we had to take a look at Newsweek's cover story when I read the first line. It was just that bad.

It was written by senior editor Lisa Miller who oversees all of the magazine's religion coverage. Which is pretty shocking when you look at the unbelievable ignorance on display in her grossly unfair first paragraph:

Let's try for a minute to take the religious conservatives at their word and define marriage as the Bible does. Shall we look to Abraham, the great patriarch, who slept with his servant when he discovered his beloved wife Sarah was infertile? Or to Jacob, who fathered children with four different women (two sisters and their servants)? Abraham, Jacob, David, Solomon and the kings of Judah and Israel -- all these fathers and heroes were polygamists. The New Testament model of marriage is hardly better. Jesus himself was single and preached an indifference to earthly attachments -- especially family. The apostle Paul (also single) regarded marriage as an act of last resort for those unable to contain their animal lust. "It is better to marry than to burn with passion," says the apostle, in one of the most lukewarm endorsements of a treasured institution ever uttered. Would any contemporary heterosexual married couple -- who likely woke up on their wedding day harboring some optimistic and newfangled ideas about gender equality and romantic love -- turn to the Bible as a how-to script?

How many things are wrong with that opening line? (Beyond the junior high-worthy snarkiness of the "let's try" opening, I mean.) How about that "religious conservatives" don't argue that civil marriage should be defined "as the Bible does." I mean, it would be nice if Newsweek or other mainstream outlets took the time to learn what religious conservatives have to say about marriage before they attack it. Is that so much to ask?

Article Continued Here...

The Bible and Gay "Marriage"

2008-12-23T14:07:00.002-05:00

Greetings fellow Eastward lookers. This is Casey and it has been a while since I've put anything up here because I've been busy at school. Since I've been on break, I've been able to get some more of my own writing done.

Newsweek recently published an article arguing (poorly) that the Bible basically supports gay marriage. I posted a response on my blog, but it's fairly lengthy, so I thought I would just link to it rather than posting the whole thing here too. Follow the link above to read it.

I'm also involved in a continuing discussion on Facebook over this article. It all started because a friend of mine who happens to work for the Church posted this on Facebook and has been trying to support it. If you want to read the continuing discussion and/or add your own comments, the link to that one is: http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=48808468454

According to...Who? On the Authorship of the Gospels

2008-12-16T16:50:00.001-05:00

Who wrote the Gospels? Sounds like a dumb question, huh? Of course, the Gospels were written by Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, right?

In the last 200 years scholars have increasingly cast doubt regarding the authorship of the four Gospels. What does the Church have to say about their authorship?

Well, the Church has continually proclaimed in the Sacred Liturgy that they are readings "from the Holy Gospel according to...Matthew...Mark...Luke...John."

These are some quotations from the popes, the Pontifical Biblical Commission, and Vatican II which show what the Church has had to say about the authorship of the Gospels (note: the Pontifical Biblical Commission was an arm of theMagisterium until Paul VI's Sedula Cura in 1971):

* Pope Leo XIII in Providentissimus Deus (18 November 1893) wrote of how important it was to the doctrine of the Church that the Scriptures were eyewitness testimony:

Since the divine and infallible magisterium of the Church rests also on the authority of Holy Scripture, the first thing to be done is to vindicate the trustworthiness of the sacred records at least as human documents, from which can be clearly proved, as from primitive and authentic testimony, the Divinity and the mission of Christ our Lord, the institution of a hierarchical Church and the primacy of Peter and his successors. -PD 17

* On the Authorship and Historicity of the Fourth Gospel - May 29th, 1907 -- Pontifical Biblical Commission

First Question: Whether...it is proved by such solid historical argument that the Apostle John and no other must be acknowledged as the author of the Fourth Gospel, and that the reasons brought forward by the critics against it in no wise weaken this tradition.
Response: Affirmative.

* Decree Condemning Certain Errors of the Modernists - July 5th, 1907 - Sacred Congregation of the Holy Office

This is an error condemned by this document: "John claims for himself the authority of a witness of Christ, but in reality he is only a distinguished witness of the Christian life, or of the life of Christ in the Church, at the close of the first century."

* On the Authorship, Date of Composition, and Historicity of the Gospel of Matthew - June 19th, 1911 -- Pontifical Biblical Commission

First Question: Whether...it may and must be affirmed with certainty that Matthew, an apostle of Christ, is truly the author of the Gospel published under his name.
Response: Affirmative.

* On the Authorship, Time of Composition, and Historicity of the Gospels of Mark and Luke - June 26th, 1912 -- Pontifical Biblical Commission

First Question: Whether the clear witness of the tradition...compels us to affirm with certainty that Mark, the disciple and interpreter of Peter, and Luke the physician, the assistant and companion of Paul, were truly the authors of the Gospels respectively attributed to them.
Response: Affirmative.

* Dei Verbum is a little less specific in its pronouncement:

The Church has always and everywhere held and continues to hold that the four Gospels are of apostolic origin. For what the Apostles preached in fulfillment of the commission of Christ, afterwards they themselves and apostolic men, under the inspiration of the divine Spirit, handed on to us in writing: the foundation of faith, namely, the fourfold Gospel, according to Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. -DV 18

* Dei Verbum 19 does not specifically speak to authorship questions, but asserts that the Gospels are eyewitness testimony either from Apostles or from others who were witnesses:

Holy Mother Church has firmly and with absolute constancy held, and continues to hold, that the four Gospels just named, whose historical character the Church unhesitatingly asserts, faithfully hand on what Jesus Christ, while living among men, really did and taught for their eternal salvation until the day He was taken up into heaven (see Acts 1:1). Indeed, after the Ascension of the Lord the Apostles handed on to their hearers what He had said and done. This they did with that clearer understanding which they enjoyed (3) after they had been instructed by the glorious events of Christ's life and taught by the light of the Spirit of truth. (2) The sacred authors wrote the four Gospels, selecting some things from the many which had been handed on by word of mouth or in writing, reducing some of them to a synthesis, explaining some things in view of the situation of their churches and preserving the form of proclamation but always in such fashion that they told us the honest truth about Jesus.(4) For their intention in writing was that either from their own memory and recollections, or from the witness of those who "themselves from the beginning were eyewitnesses and ministers of the Word" we might know "the truth" concerning those matters about which we have been instructed (see Luke 1:2-4).

The Responsa of the Pontifical Biblical Commission that are listed above have been described as "open questions" by certain theologians because some have identified their teaching as historical and literary pronouncements, but not necessarily doctrine regarding faith and morals (though, historical judgments can also be essential teaching of faith and morals: e.g. the historical reality of Christ's bodily resurrection).

In his oral presentation of Donum Veritatis (On the Ecclesial Vocation of the Theologian), Cardinal Ratzinger said this, which appeared in L'Osservatore Romano:

The text also presents the various forms of bonds that rise from the different degrees of magisterial teaching. It affirms -- perhaps for the first time with this clarity -- that there are decisions of the Magisterium that cannot be a last word on the matter as such, but are, in a substantial fixation of the problem, above all an expression of pastoral prudence, a kind of provisional disposition. Its nucleus remains valid, but the particulars, which the circumstances of the times have influenced, may need further ramifications.

"In this regard, one may think of the declarations of Popes in the last century about religious liberty, as well as the anti-Modernist decisions at the beginning of this century, above all, the decisions of the Biblical Commission of the time. As a cry of alarm in the face of hasty and superficial adaptations, they will remain fully justified. A personage such as Johann Baptist Metz said, for example, that the Church's anti-Modernist decisions render the great service of preserving her from immersion in the liberal-bourgeois world. But in the details of the determinations they contain, they become obsolete after having fulfilled their pastoral mission at the proper moment." (L'Osservatore Romano, July 2, 1990)

So, Cardinal Ratzinger seems to indicate that these pronouncements are "provisional" dispositions toward a definitive teaching. It seems to me (reading the PBC's Responsa as non-definitive judgments) that though there has been no definitive teaching on this according ot the extraordinary magisterium, there has and continues to be ample testimony from the ordinary universal magisterium regarding the authorship of the Gospels: as we say at Mass throughout the year: A reading from the Holy Gospel, according to...Matthew...Mark...Luke ...John.

However this question works itself out it is wise to show reserve by waiting for the Church. The Church has (probably) not pronounced definitively on these issues, so then neither should we. It is a somewhat open question, but the preponderance of the evidence remains on the side of the traditional attributions.

Some recent scholarship points this way: Richard Bauckham's Jesus and the Eyewitnesses (Eerdmans 2006) argues that the Gospels present themselves as eyewitness testimony and that's the way we should read them. Many are pointing to the likelihood of Johanine authorship again these days when that question was thought to have been settled in the 1960's.

However you may measure authorship, Dei Verbum shows that the Church continues to teach "firmly and with absolute constancy" that the Gospels are EYEWITNESS TESTIMONY; and if eyewitness testimony, how much further is it to assert that they are authored by the only people to whom they have ever been attributed? If I was teaching your course I would emphasize the teaching of Dei Verbum 19 and connect it with some of the good scholarship that continues to support the traditional authorship attributions because, from a historical viewpoint, the traditional attributions are the only real testimony we have as to their authorship. Historical truth is based on witnesses and figuring out who you are going to believe.

That being said, when speaking about authorship I stick to a basic presentation of Dei Verbum 19:

Holy Mother Church has firmly and with absolute constancy held, and continues to hold, that the four Gospels just named, whose historical character the Church unhesitatingly asserts, faithfully hand on what Jesus Christ, while living among men, really did and taught for their eternal salvation until the day He was taken up into heaven (see Acts 1:1). Indeed, after the Ascension of the Lord the Apostles handed on to their hearers what He had said and done. This they did with that clearer understanding which they enjoyed (3) after they had been instructed by the glorious events of Christ's life and taught by the light of the Spirit of truth. (2) The sacred authors wrote the four Gospels, selecting some things from the many which had been handed on by word of mouth or in writing, reducing some of them to a synthesis, explaining some things in view of the situation of their churches and preserving the form of proclamation but always in such fashion that they told us the honest truth about Jesus.(4) For their intention in writing was that either from their own memory and recollections, or from the witness of those who "themselves from the beginning were eyewitnesses and ministers of the Word" we might know "the truth" concerning those matters about which we have been instructed (see Luke 1:2-4).

N.T. Wright on the Sacramental Vision of the Bible

2008-12-12T14:38:00.000-05:00

Here is a link to two lectures and two Q & A sessions that N.T. Wright gave at Calvin College in January of 2007. http://www.calvin.edu/worship/idis/theology/ntwright_sacraments.php

While there are many things to take issue with in Wright's presentation, not least the fact that he understands that there are only two Sacraments, but overall Wright gives a wonderful lecture on the Sacramental vision of Scripture. There is also a nice piece in the second lecture where he speaks of infant baptism in a favorable light. Each lecture is about an hour, but well worth the time.

1st Lecture: Space, Time, Matter, and New Creation
2nd Lecture: Sacraments and New Creation

This is how Calvin College bills the lectures:

This day-long seminar looked at the sacraments of the church, the Lord's Supper and Baptism, discussing the larger questions of space, time and matter within which our understanding of sacraments must be located. Christians assume some view of these things which then 'invisibly' colors their approach to the sacraments; we must get a biblical handle on the larger questions to appreciate the sacraments for what they are.

Bishop Restores Ad Orientem Mass

2008-12-12T01:05:00.003-05:00

To paraphrase Msgr. Francis Mannion, "The reform of the Roman liturgy will not begin in earnest until priest and people are facing the same direction!"

The renewal just got a whole lot closer!

This is exciting news! The bishop of Tulsa celebrated Mass TOWARD THE LORD! It's so good to see the renewal of the liturgy being led by bishops who see the catechetical and authentic value of the ad orietem posture! God bless you Bishop Slattery.

For those of you who pay attention, you might have seen his excellency's articles in First Things regarding immigration reform. The following is from the Diocese of Tulsa website:

Bishop Restores Ad Orientem Mass

During the Christmas cycle, Bishop Edward J. Slattery celebrated Mass at Holy Family Cathedral facing the crucifix on the altar, a liturgical style called ad orientem , which had been largely abandoned since the 1960s.

While many Cathedral parishioners welcomed the restoration and described its effect as an increased ability to understand that the Mass is our worship of the Father in and through the Sacrifice of Jesus, other parishioners might have been confused, thinking that the Bishop had turned his back on them.

Historically, Christians have turned toward the east to pray, and when they offered Mass, the priest and the people naturally faced the same direction. There was no sense that the celebrant had turned his back on the people or intended to show any hostility. Rather, everyone understood that the priest and the congregation shared a common posture. By standing to face the direction from which Christ would return, they demonstrated what it meant for the Church to stay vigilant and to “keep watch for Christ’s second coming.”

The Bishop celebrated the Mass in English but ad orientem for three reasons. First, he explained, because it better represents what the Mass is all about, showing -- quite visibly -- that the people and the priest are united in a single action, offering one sacrifice, but offering it in their proper roles, the people joined to Christ as his Body and the priest configured to Christ as the Head of the Body.

This ancient practice also avoids giving the impression that the priest and the congregation are engaged in a conversation about God, rather than the worship of God. The third reason was that it reduces the temptation to regard the celebrant as an actor on a liturgical stage. When he and the congregation together face forward to Christ, it makes it easier to visualize that the priest is offering the Mass in the person of Christ.

The Dogma is the Drama

2008-12-09T13:25:00.000-05:00

In his book, The Drama of Doctrine, Kevin J. Vanhoozer quotes Alan Wolfe's recognition of the dearth of doctrine in contemporary Protestantism: "Evangelical churches lack doctrine because they want to attract new members. Mainline churches lack doctrine because they want to hold on to those declining numbers of members they have" (xii).

The necessity of proclaiming the essential doctrine about God coincides with Ratzinger's statement to catechists, that we "must go back to being truly theo-logy, speaking about and with God." God, Ratzinger reminds us, is the unum necessarium for man: "Everything changes, whether God exists or not. Unfortunately—we Christians also often live as if God did not exist (si Deus non daretur). We live according to the slogan: God does not exist, and if he exists, he does not belong. Therefore, evangelization must, first of all, speak about God, proclaim the only true God: the Creator—the Sanctifier—the Judge."

I found the following quotation in Marva Dawn's book, Reaching Out Without Dumbing Down. In it she asserts this same unum necessarium in terms of the Church's dogma, her definitive teaching about God:

Official Christianity, of late years, has been having what is known as a bad press. We are constantly assured that the churches are empty because preachers insist too much upon doctrine - dull dogma as people call it. The fact is the precise opposite. It is the neglect of dogma that makes for dullness. The Christian faith is the most exciting drama that ever staggered the imagination of man - and the dogma is the drama...
The plot pivots upon a single character and the whole action is the answer to a single central problem: What think you of Christ?

As Chesterton put it, "There never was anything as perilous or exciting as Orthodoxy!"

Infant Baptism and Salvation: Not Solely Cognitive

2008-12-04T15:42:00.000-05:00

One of Jesus' deepest identities is as a teacher, which is the title given to him most frequently, I think. Infant baptism speaks to that communion with Jesus that goes beyond the cognitive.

Being with Jesus, being united with him is the goal through which faith, hope, charity and the Sacraments function as the means to this goal. What about those who do not have the sufficient cognitive abilities to have faith, to believe? Does baptism unite us to Jesus in ways deeper than the cognitive?

Many Christians do not practice infant baptism. Is the reason why infants are excluded from baptism because they do not possess the cognitive abilities to "believe, repent, or confess"? If so, I ask, what happens to babies/infants who die without the grace of baptism? What happens to older persons who are not cognitively able to "believe, repent, or confess"?

In the history of salvation, from the time of Abraham to Christ, God revealed to his people that he wanted their infants to be in covenant relationship with him. This was done by giving them the sign of the covenant (cf. thanks to Dr. Hahn for these ideas).

The sign of the Old Covenant was circumcision. Christ changed the sign of the covenant to baptism in the New Covenant. But neither Christ nor his Apostles or disciples announced that babies were no longer welcome to be in covenant relationship with God.

On the contrary, Jesus said, “Let the little children come to me and do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of heaven” (Mt. 19:14). Peter, calling people to embrace the New Covenant, says to them: "Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is to you and to your children" (Acts 2:38-39).

Though we do find a pattern for converts of belief, repentance, confession, and baptism in the New Testament, the larger sweep of salvation history shows God's desire to bring us into covenant relationship with Him as soon as we're able to draw breath. Looking at history just after the Apostolic age, we find explicit evidence from the second century onward that testifies to the practice of infant baptism in the Christian churches. Connecting this to the Apostolic age, we find whole households of families being baptized in the early churches (cf. Acts 16:15,33; 18:8; 1 Cor 1:16). Though there is nothing explicit saying that infants were baptized, there is also nothing that says they were not or could not be baptized. If it was the norm for infants to be brought into the old covenant, it would be a significant change to not allow infants into the new covenant.

From this long trajectory showing God's desire for babies to be in covenant communion with Him, it seems that the burden of proof would be to show that in the New Covenant they are excluded.

If they are excluded, is it because they lack sufficient cognitive abilities?

Said roughly, salvation consists in being united to Jesus Christ in his death and resurrection. Even when we believe as adults our faith is frequently very basic and rudimentary. When I look back it seems that God has treated me like a little child for years. Why is being baptized as an infant, in the context of a Christian family, so different? I think our Enlightenment influenced culture identifies the human person with his cognitive ability. Though this is always an important part of who we are, it does not encompass the person in his entirety.

In infant baptism God sends His Holy Spirit and makes of the little one a house for His name. He walks with this baby through the years until at one point the baby grows into his reason and realizes that God has been with him all along. Is our experience as adults so different?

Chesterton, B16 & the Vatican Kitty

2008-11-26T17:59:00.000-05:00

I got this from Tim McCormick over at Catholic Bibles. He got it from the American Chesterton Society Blog. Wherever it originated...enjoy!

Advent is Here!...Almost!

2008-11-26T15:59:00.002-05:00

Advent is Here!

Purple is the color of Advent because “Purple is for Preparation!” We just celebrated the feast of Christ the King and Advent prepares us for the coming of this Great King. In fact, When the Church celebrates the liturgy of Advent each year, she makes present this ancient expectancy of the Messiah, for by sharing in the long preparation for the Savior's first coming, the faithful renew their ardent desire for his second coming -CCC 524.

“WATCH!”—Waking Up our Heart’s Desire for Jesus

The coming of God's Son to earth is an event of such immensity that God willed to prepare for it over centuries...He announces him through the mouths of the prophets…in Israel…[and] awakens in the hearts of the pagans a dim expectation of this coming. –CCC 522.

Wake UP!

Have the cares of daily life caused you lose focus on what is most important, on God? Are you just wandering (cf. Isaiah 63:16-17) through life? Advent is a time to wake up: WHAT ARE YOU LIVING FOR? “Lord, make us turn to you!” (Psalm 80:4).

Refocusing on God: Living for the LORD: Consider what can wake you up this year:

1. CHANGING: I’m going to wake up and acknowledge one of those things that I need to give up sooner or later, namely bad habits. My goal here is to break a bad habit for ever and Advent is a good time to do it.

Examples: Gossiping, watching too much T.V., overeating, drinking habits, complaining, bad language, not going to bed / getting up on time, time wasted on video games / internet.

In this category I am going to do____________________________________________________________.

2. PENANCE: Penance is not “one long ‘no.’” Rather, doing penance is above all an exercise in training my will / my heart to say ‘no’ to some things so that the deep “Yeses” of my heart can be given without hindrance. My goal here is to train myself to say “no” in little things so that I can say “Yes” to those things that really matter.

Examples: Drinking soda, eating chocolates, giving up TV altogether for Advent, giving up video games.

In this category I am going to do____________________________________________________________.

3. WORKS OF CHARITY: Perform some good and holy action. My goal here is to strengthen my relationship with Jesus and His Church. Perhaps what I start here could continue in some way even after Advent is over.

Examples: Pray the Rosary daily, attend daily Mass, read the daily Mass readings from Sacred Scripture, spend _____ additional time with friends / family, read a life of a saint, increase spiritual reading in place of TV viewing, make a daily visit to the Most Blessed Sacrament.

In this category I am going to do____________________________________________________________.