Reverenced Reading

iTunes U

2012-01-30T09:22:00.001-06:00

There are so many opportunities now to gain directed education with little or no money. Most people turn to Wikipedia, which is in many cases a good start but is far from comprehensive and sometimes misinformed.

Oddly enough, Apple has provided a much better form of cheap or free education through the app iTunes U. It provides so many opportunities to grow in knowledge of everything from biology to leadership courses.

The first course I have endeavored upon is from Open University on creative writing (imagine a blogger learning about creative writing). My desire is to eventually to fulfill the lifelong desire to write mysteries. I have yet the skills and knowledge to create well that which would be considered a decent story.

Friday Thoughts - Human Culture Reveals God

2012-01-27T10:19:00.001-06:00

Human culture is a form of the imitatio dei. - Raymond van Leeuwen

As you know, I like to delve into our culture and pull out that which God has retained in it that reveals Him. As I was reading for my class on Wisdom Literature, I came across this quote.

Wisdom literature, in much modern scholarship, is seen as extra-pious or beyond piety. It speaks of morals and other such ways of living. It rarely mentions the divine name, LORD. It is the most pagan, they say, part of the Bible. It takes most of its stuff from outside of the Hebrew culture.

van Leeuwen's point is that human culture, in general, reveals God. By its being human it reveals God. It can never not reveal God no matter how distorted and perverted it becomes. We can look at the Western Culture, the American culture in particular, and think we're doomed. We are going to down the road of Rome. We will sputter out into a void of disintegration.

I have mentioned before Belloc's Europe and the Faith. One of his main arguments was that Roman civilization didn't die. It rose to new life within the Church. As our civilization declines, the same opportunity can occur. In part, this happened in Russia after 1989. Much was turned back to Orthodox Church. The faith there flourished. Our steadfastness in faith will the witness to secular man. Where civilization seems to fall the Church rises from the rubble to show that we stand on the rock of Christ. Persevere dear Christian. Do not loose faith in God. Do not loose faith in humanity. The weeds have grown up with the wheat, and as history reveals, at certain times a purging fire passes through. Clearing that which cannot live on its own.

Look for and amplify that which is of God in our culture. Set aside that which is false and magnify the truth.

"I came to cast fire upon the earth; and would that it were already kindled!" Luke 12:49

Friday Thoughts - Christian Unity Requires Holiness

2012-01-20T16:21:00.000-06:00

We have brothers and sister who are separate not by their creed, but by their theology, by their practice. Due to the brokenness of the Reformers they find themselves inheritors of the brokenness.

There are many different ideas and motives for achieving unity between us and our other Christian brethren. Some of them have great theoligical grounding based on the great insights to ecumenism provided by the documents of Vatican II and some are led by an irenisism that seeks to compromise.

For Christian unity to be achieved there requires one thing above all things, unity with Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. If those who are working toward Christian are not holy in the purest sense of that word unity will only be eon the surface. True unity only occurs in and through Jesus Christ and holiness is confonformity with Christ.

When we pray, then, for Christian unity, part of that prayer must be for us and those who are working for it, grow in holiness.

O Great God Give Us Rest!

2012-01-16T21:09:00.007-06:00

In order to understand what follows, it would be best to watch the video at the link below:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=50DStEt4uwk

Ecumenism. In case you haven't been on iTunes in the last week, you might be surprised to hear that the David Crowder* Band has released their final album, a Requiem Mass (co-authored by our boy Matt Maher). That album jumped to the top of the charts (not the Christian charts, THE charts) the day it came out. It has remained in the top 5 ever since. David Crowder is a southern baptist, a representative of Baylor University and a well versed theologian, outside of being an evagelical worship leader. Two decades ago (not to mention two centuries ago), a man from the Calvinist tradition who wrote a Mass "centered on the beauty of the Eucharist" would be kicked out of his denomination, much as the Eucharist itself was physically kicked to the curb by the first protesting iconoclasts. Now, just as it is most decidedly NOT my intention to speculate on whether or not Mr. Crowder is moving toward Rome, I also have no intention of opening up old wounds. The atorocities of the 30 year's war, the scandal of Henry VIII and the happenings of the Huguenots belong to another age, when the West was all Christian and the differences between Catholics and Protestants resulted in some of the gravest sins in history. As both protestants and Pope have admited, there was guilt on both sides. However, when I read the history of that hideous period, what disturbs me the most is the sacrelige commited by fellow Christians against the Body of Christ. We burned each other, members of that Body, at the stake and poured the Scared Host and Precious Wine out upon the pavement. The horror of our actions should silence any finger pointing, especially now that we are centuries out from the scandal.

Now, look where we are. Maybe it is the openess of our society. Maybe the providence of time has helped heal all wounds. Maybe it is the fact that we Christians have been forced to cooperate in a strange new era, no longer having the luxury to carry out our family fued across Christendom. What was Christendom, what was our family home, has become a secularist, consumeristic, materialistic, hedonistic parody of all we hold dear. Now, more than ever, Christians must turn to truth where ever it is found. David Crowder, definitely son of these times, has discovered that Truth can be found in the Eucharist. And he has not refrained from giving glory where glory is due. At the behest of Bl John Paul II, many Catholics have found ways to praise the Lord through song styles that our fathers would call too worldly or worthless. And we have not refrained from using them to give God the glory. Now, five centuries out from our great split, Catholics and Protestants are once more praising the Sacred Host together.

This fact does not represent the end of anything, except perhaps the end of the beginning, (to borrow a phrase from Churchill). Can we dare to look forward to a future where we will no longer debate about the Blessed Sacrament, but can commit ourselves to adoring it together? I certainly hope so. But I am ambitious and hope for more than that. I hope that we have come to a point where sacred silence before that Saving Victim can truly begin to heal our divisions. Singing is a great place to begin ecumenism, but the sacraments are the only place that it can end. I am barely a theologian. I am nothing close to a minister. However, I am a child of the Church, and I must say that, though I cannot pretend to know where all this is going, I am content to kneel at the altar with Mr. Crowder. Or Mr. Tony Blair. Or whatever other leaders decided to come around to the Eucharist. Our sad division began at the foot of the altar: let us hope that it's ending may begin there as well.

Friday Thoughts - O My God, Help Me to Remember

2012-01-13T13:07:00.001-06:00

I apologize for not having a Friday Thought this week. This week caught up with me too fast. Instead, I simply you offer you this:

A prayer by St. Alphonsus Ligouri

O my God, help me to remember -
That time is short, eternity is long.
What good is all the greatness of this world at the hour of death?
To love You, my God, and save my soul is the one thing necessary.
Without You, there is no peace, no joy.
My God, I need fear nothing but sin.
For to lose You, my God, is to lose all.
0 my God, help me to remember -
That to gain all I must leave all,
That in loving You I have all good things: the infinite riches of Christ and His
Church, the motherly protection of Mary,
peace beyond understanding, joy unspeakable!

Eternal Father, your Son has promised that whatever we ask in His Name will be given to us. In His Name I pray: give me a burning faith, a joyful hope, a holy love for Jesus Christ. Give me the grace of perseverance in doing Your will in all things. Do with me what You will. I repent of having offended You. Grant, O Lord, that I may love You always and never let me be separated from You.
O my God and my All, make me a saint!

What to Read After a Powerful Retreat

2012-01-12T08:00:00.000-06:00

I worked a retreat last weekend. I will be working another retreat this weekend. It came to mind to ask some of my friends along with probing my own mind, a question:

What books would you suggest to someone come off a powerful retreat?

From Sarah Reinhard: Introduction to the Devout Life by St. Francis de Sales

From Andrew Jones: He Leadeth Me by Fr. Walter Cizsek, S.J.

From Brandon Vogt: Anything by St. Josemaría Escrivá, Fr. Robert Barron, and Fr. Thomas Dubay

I searched through their works and picked out five:

Catholicism: A Journey to the Heart of Faith by Fr. Robert Barron
Fire Within by Fr. Thomas Dubay
Prayer Primer: Igniting a Fire Within by Fr. Thomas Dubay
The Way by St. Josemaría Escrivá
Christ is Passy By by St. Josemaría Escrivá

My own recommendations would be:

Listening for Truth by Deacon James Keating
Discernment of Spirits: The Ignatian Guide to Everyday Living by Fr. Timothy Gallagher
Poverty of Spirit by Johaness Baptist Metz
Practice of the Presence of God by Br. Lawrence of the Resurrection

Do you have any suggestions?

Boredom and Bag End

2012-01-10T20:46:00.003-06:00

I have been bored over the past couple of days and, like most contemporary young adults, have attempted to relieve my boredom with, among the whole host of possible distractions, videos on Youtube. That is to say, I have watched the Hobbit trailer several times over. I can't wait for Peter Jackson to take us back to Middle Earth. However, while watching the video recently, I had one of those silly, humbling moments so necessary in life: I realized that all my complaining must fall back on my own head. As I watched Bilbo and Frodo waved to each other in the opening shot of the trailer, followed by the shots of Bilbo writing "There and Back Again" at his desk and smoking a pipe in front of Gandalf, I cried (whether out load or to myself, it makes no difference [for I can't really tell which]) “I want to go there!” And not just to be with a wizard, but to be with a friend. I want to smell the Gaffer’s roses and eat Hobbiton cheese, not just the cross swords and see magick. I want songs around my hearth and an unexpected party, and not just elves and dwarves. Fantasy is fine, but reality is so much finer. The trail is makes the adventure, whether that trail leads through the Pearl's marshes or over the Misty Mountains.

And then I realized what a greedy fool I was. My living room is made up just like Bag End (minus, of course, the rounded doors, windows and hallways)! The trim is bare wood with light beige walls. Our hearth is always warm this time of year, and all sorts of singing and dancing goes on. I hike almost everyday in the woods behind my house, ride to parks and shops, can see roses just outside my bedroom window while I writing tales of mine own. This summer I hiked, hunted, fell from waterfalls and fought my demons. This school year I’ve had many an unexpected party and late night adventure. This weekend I'll join many an old friend on a wonderful retreat. So why am I bored?

"You have to be happy in those quiet moments when you remember that you are alive; not in those noisy moments when you forget." This quote of Chesterton's entered my mind, and then I realized just what it was I was missing. I didn't need an adventure that would have me forget reality. I wanted an adventure that would remind me I am a living reality. We grow too used to escapades that are escapes, rather than adventures that are returns. I sat there fuming about the grass being on the other side because I didn't want to risk having to cut my own grass. Which is another way of saying I didn't want to risk my own ,Assk you I will: why is the contemporary person so unsatisfied with their over entertained, over indulged, first world, last place kinda life style. Why does our boredom destroy us instead of rejuvenating us? Why do the few blessed hours granted us for recreation soon lapse into desperation for entertainment?

Simple: we've forgetton the pure joy of being. Of being what? Of BEING.

You might respond (and probably should respond), "Oh, thank you Daniel. Your metaphysics just solves all my problems. Meanwhile, you JERK, maybe you haven't noticed, but I've got all sorts of things to worry about: a car, a house, a job, school, friends, lovers, haters, etc. I've got a life. So what if I want to escape to the land of the elves, or the wizards, or the vampire spouses, of Beyonce, Anime or the LSU tigers. Do not judge my hobbies!"

I don't judge. I really don't. They are all fine and good quality things, your hobbies are (except maybe the Tigers’ coaching). It is myself that I'm judging, that I'm making a public spectacle of. What need I of Rivendell when I've been to Kahdelea, Bag End when I live on Stratford Drive or the Dead Marshes when I have the home of Swamp People in my proverbial backyard? And yet I am bored with it! Why am I bored? Is there something wrong with me?

I always risk being far too intimate in these reflections, but I only do it because I sincerely believe that we all can relate. And what I would like to relate is this lesson (though I live it rather imperfectly myself): boredom is not a curse, but an invitation. Disappointment and disillusionment with our amusements must not be the final word. Rather than taking my word for it, though, here are some more of Chesterton's, echoing from 80 years ago;

"What we have to teach the young man of the future, is how to enjoy himself. Until he can enjoy himself, he will grow more and more tired of enjoying everything else. What we have to teach him is to amuse himself. At this moment he is more and more dependent upon anything which he thinks will amuse him. And, to judge by the expression of his face, it does not amuse him very much. When we consider what he receives, it is indeed a most magnificent wonder and wealth and concentration of amusement. He can travel in a racing-car almost as quick as a cannon-ball; and still have his car fitted up with wireless from all the ends of the earth. He can get Vienna and Moscow; he can hear Cairo and Warsaw; and if he cannot see England, through which he happens to be travelling, that is after all a small matter. In a century, no doubt, his car will travel like a comet, and his wireless will hear the noises in the moon. But all this does not help him when the car stops; and he has to stand stamping about in a line, with nothing to think about. All this does not help him even when the wireless stops and he has to sit still in a silent car with nothing to talk about. If you consider what are the things poured into him, what are the things he receives, then indeed they are colossal cataracts of things, cosmic Niagaras that have never before poured into any human being are pouring into him. But if you consider what comes out of him, as a result of all this absorption, the result we have to record is rather serious. In the vast majority of cases, nothing. Not even conversation, as it used to be. He does not conduct long arguments, as young men did when I was young. The first and startling effect of all this noise is silence."

Into that silence, let us pour our prayer, so that our silence yields not despair. Oh Great God, do your best. Oh Great God, give us rest.

Happy Priests!

2012-01-10T10:22:00.000-06:00

A few weeks back, my bishop sent me and my brother priests in the diocese a copy of Msgr. Stephen Rossetti's book entitled Why Priests are Happy. Having benefited from reading two of his previous works, I was happy to have this newly-released book that looks at the state of my brothers in ministry.

I found the book to be enjoyable, despite the fact that it was really a summary of a two large-scale studies of priestly life and ministry, which arrived at conclusions via charts and numerical analysis. I found it particularly interesting to see his findings on the connections between priestly happiness, time in prayer, various spiritual practices, understandings of obedience and celibacy, as well as other elements with regards to different generations of priests.

All of these various factors come together to paint a beautiful picture of priesthood, one that show that we priests are ... actually happy! The correlations (not causations, as he clearly notes) between happiness and various beliefs and spiritual practices was also good food for reflection in my own vocation, as it would be for anyone. In the end, he simply notes that as a whole, priests are generally happy, and that the reason is... well, I'll leave that for you to find out.

Friday Thoughts - Why Barnes and Noble Makes Me Sad

2012-01-06T08:00:00.000-06:00

Unfortunately, there is much poor representation of the Catholic Church on shelves of people who like myself grew up with poor Catechesis. One such book might be The Pope's War by Matthew Fox. To boot, Barnes and Noble is selling the nook book version for $4. A cheap 'Catholic' book!

I know should expect this from such a corporation. I know I should expect this from secular media controllers. I know I should expect this from men who are angry at the Church and have an axe to grind. I still need to come out of the naïve mindset that if I treat someone with Christian love and desire to receive that back in turn, I will not necessarily receive it. Nope. That's not what's happening in this world.

I desire for people to know Truth and Matthew Fox comes 'revealing the truth' about the corruption of the papacy for
the last 25 years. To say there hasn't been corruption among successors of the apostles, among priests, deacons, religious, would be to lie. He doesn't target those who rightfully should be targeted for their sad representation of men and women called by God to serve the Church. No, he targets righteous men! Righteous men!

I feel in need of a psalm of lamentation.

GKC and the Largeness of the Faith

2012-01-04T14:28:00.004-06:00

Yet another GKC read!

This could be considered his commentary on John 6: 68; "To whom, Lord, shall we go." Specifically, he is defending to freedom of the faithful, that when they come to Christ, He enlarges their freedom rather than dismantling it.


Nothing is more amusing to the convert, when his conversion has been complete for some time, than to hear the speculations about when or whether he will repent of the conversion; when he will be sick of it, how long he will stand it, at what stage of his external exasperation he will start up and say he can bear it no more. For all this is founded on that optical illusion about the outside and the inside which I have tried to sketch in this chapter. The outsiders, stand by and see, or think they see, the convert entering with bowed head a sort of small temple which they are convinced is fitted up inside like a prison, if not a torture-chamber. But all they really know about it is that he has passed through a door. They do not know that he has not gone into the inner darkness, but out into the broad daylight.  It is he who is, in the beautiful and beatific sense of the word, an outsider. He does not want to go into a larger room, because he does not know of any larger room to go into.  He knows of a large number of much smaller rooms, each of which is labelled as being very large; but he is quite sure he would be cramped in any of them. Each of them professes to be a complete cosmos or scheme of all things; but then so does the cosmos of the Clapham Sect or the Clapton Agapemone.  Each of them is supposed to be domed with the sky or painted inside with all the stars. But each of these cosmic systems or machines seems to him much smaller and even much simpler than the broad and balanced universe in which he lives.  One of them is labelled Agnostic; but he knows by experience that it has not really even the freedom of ignorance. It is a wheel that must always go round without a single jolt of miraculous interruption--a circle that must not be squared by any higher mathematics of mysticism; a machine that must be scoured as clean of all spirits as if it were the avowed machine of materialism. In living in a world with two orders, the supernatural and the natural, the convert feels he is living in a larger world and does not feel any temptation to crawl back into a smaller one. One of them is labelled Theosophical or Buddhistic; but he knows by experience that it is only the same sort of wearisome wheel used for spiritual things instead of material things.  Living in a world where he is free to do anything, even to go to the devil, he does not see why he should tie himself to the wheel of a mere destiny. One of them is labelled Humanitarian; but he knows that such humanitarians have really far less experience of humanity. He knows that they are thinking almost entirely of men as they are at this moment in modern cities, and have nothing like the huge human interest of what began by being preached to legionaries in Palestine and is still being preached to peasants in China.  So clear is this perception that I have sometimes put it to myself, as something between a melancholy meditation and a joke.  "Where should I go now, if I did leave the Catholic Church?"  I certainly would not go to any of those little social sects which only express one idea at a time, because that idea happens to be fashionable at the moment. The best I could hope for would be to wander away into the woods and become, not a Pantheist (for that is also a limitation and a bore) but rather a pagan, in the mood to cry out that some particular mountain peak or flowering fruit tree was sacred and a thing to be worshipped.  That at least would be beginning all over again; but it would bring me back to the same problem in the end. If it was reasonable to have a sacred tree it was not unreasonable to have a sacred crucifix; and if the god was to be found on one peak he may as reasonably be found under one spire. To find a new religion is sooner or later to have found one; and why should I have been discontented with the one I had found? Especially, as I said in the first words of this essay, when it is the one old religion which seems capable of remaining new.  I know very well that if I went upon that journey I should either despair or return; and that none of the trees would ever be a substitute for the real sacred tree. Paganism is better than pantheism, for paganism is free to imagine divinities, while pantheism is forced to pretend, in a priggish way, that all things are equally divine. But I should not imagine any divinity that was sufficiently divine. I seem to know that weary return through the woodlands; for I think in some symbolic fashion I have walked that road before. For as I have tried to confess here without excessive egotism, I think I am the sort of man who came to Christ from Pan and Dionysus and not from Luther or Laud; that the conversion I understand is that of the pagan and not the Puritan; and upon that antique conversion is founded the whole world that we know. It is a transformation far more vast and tremendous than anything that has been meant for many years past, at least in England and America, by a sectarian controversy or a doctrinal division.  On the height of that ancient empire and that international experience, humanity had a vision. It has not had another; but only quarrels about that one. Paganism was the largest thing in the world and Christianity was larger; and everything else has been comparatively small.

The Hazards of Incense or How Not to be a Sick Christian

2012-01-03T09:08:00.001-06:00

I love incense. It's one of the greatest parts of the Roman liturgy. The symbol of the cloud and smoke as the presence of God is tangible. It gives the liturgy mystery. It clouds the holy of holies like the type of heaven, the Temple, letting the whole congregation know God is present.

It is also a symbol of prayers rising to God. "Let our prayers rise like incense," a psalm says, "like an evening oblation." Such beauty, such majesty dwells in the scented smoke pregnant with such symbols.

Unfortunately, on Christmas Eve, my ideals of smoke where sent crashing to the ground. During the gospel, I was so surrounded by incense, sight became difficult. Tears streamed from my eyes. Nausea set it. I used every bit of control I had of my body to not interrupt the liturgy. All turned out okay from a liturgical standpoint. I however was rendered sick.


This is the thurible in the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela. I felt like the guy in red.

You see, dear reader, I'm allergic to every tree and grass pollen in the US, dust mites, mold spores, and, yes, smoke, even the kind with great symbolism. The heavenly cloud brought me close to earth. Over the last week my schedule didn't let up and neither did my sinuses. The build-up of sickness and weariness came to a head Friday. Saturday morning I woke up incapacitated. Three days I have been laid up finally "resting", for the first time, since ... well, I can't remember.

Instead of taking advantage of the infinite possibilities of redemptive suffering, I wasted my weekend away in half-rest. Never fully resting in the sense Pieper speaks of, I distracted myself from the pain and suffering through various media, film, football, video games. Not spending time in thought, prayer, preparation for blogs, or even for the two retreats I'm working the next two weekends.

Part of resting is contemplation and meditation. Escape is not rest because all you're doing is running away. Encountering Him who is rest, contemplating His mysteries eases the soul. When the animating principle of the body is at ease, the body itself is set at ease. We've all been witness to the sick person or dying person who contemplates. They seem to rest easy; they share their inner life with greater clarity.

So, dear reader, next time you're sick, contemplate, meditate, on the divine Passion, on the Sacred Heart, on the Immaculate Heart of Mary, don't escape to media, books, whatever, to keep your mind off the sickness. (I'm not saying don't read, but rather, don't read to the neglect of the great opportunity of meditation you have at that moment) Instead, turn and face Christ in the clouded mystery of your heart, because it is there that He dwells. It is there that we will meet Him. It is there the healing will commence.

Friday Thoughts - Not Standing Still

2011-12-30T08:00:00.000-06:00

Now is the time, beloved readers. Now is the time. Why is now the time as opposed to other times? Because on this day, the Lord has glorified the nature of man. We still celebrate Christmas, when God became incarnate. When no longer did we merely sob in the vale of tears, but now we cry in hope, hope of the resurrection, hope of new life within our sinful flesh, without the baggage of our previous sins. We stand tall as redeemed men and women who await the final coming wherein all will be revealed and truth will be seen as it is. The veil that veils our sinful eyes will be lifted and before us we will see the glory of God. All this, is beheld in a newborn child, born in stable, with the company of farm animals and shepherds as visitors. Do not stand still. Stand tall but be moved by such a happening. Do not let Christmas pass by with you unaware. Be transformed by the renewal of mind! Open wide the doors to Christ, let Him enter, the king of glory!

O Come, Let Us...Adore Him?

2011-12-15T15:31:00.002-06:00

A few weeks ago, an event called Adore took place at Notre Dame Seminary in New Orleans. It was an 'evangelical' event, in the popular interpretation of such things, a ‘revival’. There were some rousing 'come-to-Jesus' moments which, though exciting in the moment, are pretty much standard at such proceedings. The musician who played is up for a Grammy this year, and played very well, but his appearance is no rarity in southeast Louisiana. Archbishop Aymond too was there, but he seems to be everywhere these days, so I hardly find it possible to judge an event's significance on that account. The decorations were flamboyant. Now, there was something unique about that! The auditorium where the event was being held was your basic, monolithic structure with white walls, a cheap curtain, a four-foot high stage and out-of-date lighting. Most high schools boast about the same. But it had been decorated with cheap Chinese lanterns (the paper kind that come in bright colors and look like oversized bubbles). In contrast, creating a fire hazard of immense proportions, the stage had been covered with candles of all shapes and sizes flickering just inches away from already-hot sound equipment and wooden instruments. A large screen had been placed stage right and caught the projection of hymns and bible verses as they flashed up on the monitor. In the back, there were a series of booths selling 'Jesus glamour gear' (as one theology major so shrewdly put it). All in all, it was a comical display of the type of devotion that our pluralistic and consumerist society tries to offer.

And into the middle of this strange and brave new temple, the Archbishop brought in the Blessed Sacrament for adoration. The seminarians who coordinated this section of the evening had chosen to take a pre-Vatican II approach by dressing his Excellency in gold vestments and flanking the monstrance with two censures. As he walked up the aisle, the congregation sang ancient hymns put to modern music. Then, after much awkward fumbling, the Lord of the Universe was precariously placed on what appeared to be a tall wooden stool. Here was Jesus, true God and true man, surrounded by paper lanterns, a dangerous amount of candles, a rock band in blue jeans, a projection screen the size of an Cadillac, a gilded epicopus chanting prayers and diakoniae swinging incense to and fro, wafting sweet-smelling smoke through out the room as God stood on a womblely wooden stand. We Catholics claim that the small host in the center of it all is God. And this is the welcome prepared! What absolute nonsense, right? Right!?

I do not know. How scandalous is this coming in comparison to the welcome He received at that first Christmas? At least there was room in the inn this time, even if the inn looked more like a Chinese restaurant than a Church. My purpose here is not to reflect on aesthetics or ecclesiology. I care not a hoot whether you're against the progressives or the traditionalists, whether you believe in evangelical youth ministry or in quiet personal promulgation of the faith. What I would like you to do is just think for a moment: if what the Church teaches about transubstantiation it true, then God was there. In His omniscience, He chose to be there. What was He doing? Were I Him (oh dear Lord, how close I come to blasphemy!), I would have been laughing my most Holy Face off. But that's not what He did. Just as He cried like a babe in the manger, I believe there was more compassion to His coming into that room than irony or indignation. Which brings me to the point of all this: what kind of God are we dealing with? What kind of King so enters the womb and allows Himself to be so welcomed into the room? You see, I can no longer realistically hope to find God. Life has taught me that I can't journey to heaven. So my only hope is that heaven would travel to me. And if He did come down to love us, it would have to be a two way street. He would half to meet us half way. And to save us poor, that means entering a stable, halfway house of sorts, once He was locked out of the 'free house' (or Inn). Our culture has tried covering this mystery of Christmas with cellophane and sale ads, but it just won't do! Frosty's death and rebirth is nothing compared to His! Jingle Bells and Deck the Halls and Santa Baby are just plain boring in comparison to a God who is carried in a gold monstrance and sits on wooden stool on a stage covered in fire, all to let us imitate the hosts of heaven. What need I of more Christmas specials? What could be more special education than a God who sits among Chinese lanterns, all so that He can be with me? Or lie naked and shivering in a stable (or on a cross for that matter...) just so that my nakedness and shivering may cease. I'm sorry: I just don't understand all this and, until I do, there will be much more reflecting, much more writing, much more singing and much much more silence on this subject.

Friday Thoughts - Mary Didn't Walk Alone

2011-12-09T10:02:00.000-06:00

Last Advent I had a series on Learning from Mary how to do about Advent. I wish to continue with that theme this Advent.

When Mary hurried in haste to visit Elizabeth, she traveled a great distance. A teenage woman would nothave traveled alone across 60 miles of Israeli terrain. Although the gospel does not speak ofit, she was probably accompanied.

Aswe walk this road, we cannot walk it alone. This Christian life is live in the Body of Christ. For those of you searching, plug-in find your faith family in your parish. We also haveour brothers and sister who dwell with God I heave. They are our help and strength: St. Andrew, St. Francis, St.Anthony, St. Therese, St. Jude, St. Rita, St. Philomena. Plug-in; pray for their powerfulintercession.

At the mass we all unite with allthe saints and angels in heaven as well as every other person that has everbeen to mass. We all walk togetheron our journey. The Church is likethis unmentioned person who accompanied Mary. We don't know but of few of the millions of members of theChurch, both living and dead, nonetheless, we walk together to serve our fellowman.

Friday Thoughts - Can The Muppet's Save Television From Itself?

2011-12-02T06:46:00.001-06:00

Last weekend, as reward for completing a paper I went with my sister for a bit of nostalgia, The Muppet Movie. It was one of those times when your glad the characters you love are back on stage. It held every bit of the cheesiness of the TV show and previous movies ... and it was awesome. The plot revolved around the Muppet's fighting for retention of their studio, which is going to be purchased by an evil oil tycoon (who can't laugh). They had to put on one last show to raise 10 million dollars to save the studio.

SPOILER ALERT: Plot developments from the film will be revealed (and are necessary for me to make my point)

They pitched their idea to every major TV network and were rejected by all of them in typical Muppet outsider fashion. Kermit and company are told they are irrelevant. Their type of genuine homegrown slapstick comedy without violence, cursing, or much to any sex appeal. The show is picked up when a small TV network has to drop its show Punch Teacher because it is being sued.

The Muppet's are a different sort of brand for Disney. They seem to transcend, in a certain sense, today's media. They appeal via nostalgia to parents and naturally to kids. They break the mode or rather retain the mode that has been broken. Said mode is that non-human characters; i.e. animation, puppets, claymation, etc. do not dabble greatly in the sins of man (murder, excessive violence, sex). That is part of the Muppet's brand.

And, frankly, give the world more. America needs actually wholesome television. Spongebob Squarepants is far from wholesome. Thanks to the 'pioneer' writers and animators of Ren and Stimpy and Beavis and Butthead cartoons have become more and more adult. The Muppet's can bring back good childlike entertainment. Bring the brand to a major television network. It can survive. I'm putting all my entrainment eggs in one basket but that's because I look at the store and its the only one I trust with my fragile entertainment eggs.

P.S. Mahna, mahna

Musings, Dreaming and 'Communio'

2011-12-01T10:51:00.004-06:00

All that follows, the geeking out and philosophizing, will act as an apology for attempting the impossible. I am going to try, in the next few lines, to describe the experience of what may best be called a symposium. I've written before about the difficulties of capturing reality within the confines of the written word. And the more I see of reality, the more readily I believe the challenge to be an almost overpowering one. And though no writer is exempt from wrestling with the muses, it was Chesterton (surprise surprise) who put it most eloquently and complained about it most often. He believed there to be a whole library full of the best stories never written, a bibliography of dreams that eluded the pens of their writers. Recently, I was highly amused to discover that the cult-classic Sandman comic book series turned this idea into a running gag; the house of Dream contains miles of shelves full of such imaginary books (Chesterton's contribution is an intriguing tome by the name "The Man Who Was October.")
So the symposium. Unlike Plato, I have not the memory or patience to write it out as a dialogue. I can, however, provide you with the dramatis personae. The participants included a group of friends each representing different sides of my life: a seminarian, a theology major, a friend from Slidell and a Dominican grad (For the past 5 years, Providence has delightfully deigned that I be acquainted with a new Dominican grad once every two months.) The content of our conversation ranged from chapel veils to jockstraps, from voodoo to theological anthropology. There is admittedly nothing unique about such plurality of topics. Wider spectrums are common among college discussion in these United States. What was impressive from my perspective was the spiritual dimension that was just bordering on the edge of my sensation. Understand: I know these people. Not only do I know their ideas, their feelings and their beliefs. I know them, they themselves, their hypostases, their personhood. And, as I looked on, I watched as they tried to give of themselves, form and matter, body and soul, to everyone in the room. Admittedly, the arguments, though unique, weren’t the quintessence of profundity. Yet, the sincerity of their souls registered to my senses. I could feel the impact of their attempts at self gift, and that is something that left me speechless. At a break in the conversation, I turned to my friend from Slidell (she was only one besides me who had known all the people in the room before that evening) and said "I would not interrupt this for the world!"
That evening was not the first time friends from my different spheres had come together. Nor, praise God, will it be the last. What was unique, though, was that I could perceive the journey our conversation took as we tried so hard to give ourselves to each other. And the best part; we succeeded! Our words had an impact. Our striving reached a goal. There was the titillation of travel and the relief of destination. The experience of it was something more than closure: it was a consummation of sorts. We did not solely dream: we awoke from our intellectual musings to find a dream come true. And that is the difference between a library of stories never written and even just one book that was able to make it out of the authors head and onto paper. The journey is shiny and pretty and perplexing, and that is all wonderful, but I would say (and Chesterton, being a Thomist, would agree) that all the thrill of the potential must be realized by a movement to the actual. Or, in laymen's terms, words in my head must be put down on paper before we can truly experience their impact. My book cannot remain in the realm of dream: it must take on pen and paper the way God took on flesh. A conversation with friends, an evening of self gift, must give way to a newer reality. Then, the lines between dreaming and waking cease to exist. In the comic book I spoke of above, the character Dream laments that all dreams will die when humanity breaths its last. But this is preposterous! The dreaming will not fail because the darkness has not overcome the light of the human race. A day will come when self gift and communio personarum will be fulfilled and on that day all the stories never written will become lived realities. All the dialogues ever had in goodness and in truth will no longer be acted out like plays but will be sung as hymns. And what is now nothing more than delicate visions in the night will become for us one with the world everlasting. For have you not heard: God too dreamt human dreams when he took on the flesh of a babe, swaddled in Mary's arms. He argued and mused, debated and dreamed, and though He did all this with human words, they are words that shall not pass away.

Abby Johnson, Catholic Convert

2011-11-29T20:08:00.001-06:00

I try to write outside of space and time, i.e. I don't normally cover news stories. I let other much more qualified people cover such, but I just read something I must share you.

If you remember at the beginning of the year I posted two reviews of Abby Johnson's book Unplanned. You can find them here and here.

I saw on Facebook today that on December 4, 2011, the Second Week of Advent, the second week of the implementation of the 3rd Edition of the Roman Missal, Abby Johnson, Planned Parenthood director turned Pro-Life Advocate, will be accepted into full communion with the Roman Catholic Church. She will be confirmed and receive her first communion.

Praise be Jesus Christ!

I was so moved by Abby's human conversion, her trial with her faith as a pro-choice woman, how she encountered Christ in the tender love of the sidewalk counselors at her Planned Parenthood facility. Here she is preparing this Sunday to experience the full sacramental life of the Church. I cannot but give glory to God.

There is a painful caveat. Her friend and Catholic spiritual mentor, Fr. Frank Pavone, will not be able to give her her first communion. This indeed must be difficult for her. No matter your stance on his situation prayers should go up for her. I'm sure it feels like her father is not there. Let her know that you are praying for her and rejoicing with her this Sunday December 4th.

Friday Thoughts - A Sorrowful Thanksgiving Can Be Full of Hope

2011-11-25T08:00:00.000-06:00

Psalm 42

Like the deer that yearns for running streams,

so my soul is yearning for you, my God.

My soul is thirsting for God, the God of my life;

when can I enter and see the face of God?

My tears have become my bread, by night, by day,

as I hear it said all the day long: "Where is your God?"

These things will I remember as I pour out my soul:

how I would lead the rejoicing crowd into the house of God,

amid cries of gladness and thanksgiving, the throng wild with joy.

Why are you cast down, my soul, why groan within me?

Hope in God; I will praise him still, my savior and my God.

My soul is cast down within me as I think of you,

from the country of Jordan and Mount Hermon,

from the Hill of Mizar.

Deep is calling on deep, in the roar of waters;

your torrents and all your waves swept over me.

By day the Lord will send his loving kindness;

by night I will sing to him, praise the God of my life.

I will say to God, my rock:

"Why have your forgotten me? Why do I go mourning oppressed by the foe?"

With cries that pierce me to the heart, my enemies revile me,

saying to me all day long: "Where is your God?"

Why are you cast down, my soul, why groan within me?

Hope in God; I will praise him still,

my savior and my God.

Thanksgiving is normally a time of joy and celebration. We, as a nation, give thanks for what we have, tangible and intangible, material and immaterial, property and family. As Catholics, we remember that every gift comes from the Lord. Thanksgiving for many is a time of sorrow. It comes with the thought, 'is there anything I really have to give thanks for this year?' Unemployment has continued. The divorce rate is still unnecessarily high. Many, who in previous years where able to provide a Thanksgiving meal, will have to rely on the generosity of others.

Psalm 42 provides great comfort. It shows to us, joyful and not, that no matter our situation we can sing with "cries of gladness and thanksgiving." Our soul can be downcast even depressed and the Lord can seem so far away and we can still sing to Him at night. Our desire for him is like that of deer for water. Without him we will die. All around us advertisements, TV shows, novels, et al, cry out "Where is your God!?" They taunt us day and night reviling our faith as infantile. "Hope in God; I will praise him still, my savior and my God." That reviling is no matter. It is the crying our of faithless souls desiring for the same that we desire, the font of living water.

During this time of thanksgiving, let us be thankful for our faith and hope.

Thanksgiving and The Vietnamese Martyrs

2011-11-24T08:08:00.001-06:00

I had the opportunity to give a vocation witness to the Vietnamese personal parish (it serves all the Vietnamese in the Archdiocese of New Orleans), Mary, Queen of Vietnam. It was an awesome experience. I went to four mass in three languages: Vietnamese, English, and Spanish (go figure!). I miscalculated the time for the vigil mass showing up an hour and half early as opposed to an hour early. As I waited I found a small chapel in the church dedicated to the Vietnamese Martyrs, who we celebrate today. In the chapel, were three reliquaries holding a total of 37 relics of the Vietnamese martyrs. What a witness! Tertullians phrase can to mind, "The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church."

I look at the faith and vigor of the Vietnamese community as a direct result of the witness of these martyrs over two centuries of persecution in Vietnam, a persecution that still exist under the current Communist government. Like the English Catholics of early colonial times and the Irish Catholics of the mid 19th Century, the Vietnamese fled to the US seeking not only personal freedom but freedom to practice the faith. What a great time to celebrate the Thanksgiving of the witness of the immigrants who still live not only their robust faith but their cultural heritage. The Vietnamese men and women have much to be thankful for in coming the US. In the Archdiocese we have much to be thankful for, in their witness of the Catholic faith awakening us centuries old French Catholics into a deeper more sincere faith.

I will leave you with a letter from one of the Vietnamese martyrs (this letter is used in the office of readings for today's feast day: courtesy of universalis.com)

A Letter of Saint Paul Le-Bao-Tinh

I am not alone: Christ is with Me

I, Paul, in chains for the name of Christ, wish to relate to you the trial besetting me daily, in order that you may be inflamed with loved for God and join with me in his praises. The prison here is a true image of everlasting hell: to cruel tortures of every kind - shackles, iron chains, manacles - are added hatred, vengeance, calumnies, obscene speech, quarrels, evil acts, swearing, curses, as well as anguish and grief. But the God who once freed the three children from the fiery furnace is with me always; he has delivered me from these tribulations and made them sweet, for his mercy is forever.

In the midst of these torments, which usually terrify others, I am, by the grace of God, full of joy and gladness, because I am not alone - Christ is with me.

Our Master bears the whole weight of the cross leaving me only the tiniest, last bit. He is not a mere onlooker in my struggle, but a contestant and the victor and champion in the whole battle. Therefore upon his head is placed the crown of victory, and his members also share in his glory.

How am I to bear with the spectacle, as each day I see emperors, mandarins, and their retinue blaspheming your holy name, O Lord, who are enthroned above the cherubim and seraphim? Behold, the pagans have trodden your cross underfoot! Where is your glory? As I see all this, I would, in the ardent love I have for you prefer to be torn limb from limb and to die as a witness to your love.

O Lord, show your power, save me, sustain me, that in my infirmity your power may be shown and may be glorified before the nations; grant that I may not grow weak along the way, and so allow your enemies to hold their heads up in pride.

Beloved brothers, as you hear all these things may you give endless thanks in joy to God, form whom every good proceeds; bless the Lord, with me, for his mercy is forever. My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord, my spirit rejoices in God my savior, for he has looked with favor on his lowly servant and from this day all generations will call me blessed, for his mercy is forever.

O praise the Lord, all you nations, acclaim him, all you peoples, for God chose what is weak in the world to confound the strong, God chose what is low and despised to confound the noble. Through my mouth he has confused the philosophers who are disciples of the wise of this world, for his mercy is for ever.

I write these things to you in order that your faith and mine may be united. In the midst of this storm I cast my anchor toward the throne of God, the anchor that is the lively hope in my heart.

Beloved brothers, for your part so run that you may attain the crown, put on the breastplate of faith and take up the weapons of Christ for the right hand and for the left, as my patron Saint Paul has taught us. It is better for you to enter life with one eye or crippled than, with all your members intact, to be cast away.
Come to my aid with your prayers, that I may have the strength to fight according to the law, and indeed to fight the good fight and to fight until the end and so finish the race. We may not again see each other in this life, but we will have the happiness of seeing each other again in the world to come, when, standing at the throne of the spotless Lamb, we will together join in signing his praises and exult forever in the joy of our triumph. Amen.

Arsene Lupin, the Gentleman Thief

2011-11-23T08:00:00.000-06:00

Do not believe, my readers (all two of them), that life cannot be worth living, books worth reading, mysteries to solve. Ahh, mysteries to solve. There are always new mysteries to solve created by the brilliant minds of writers, my favorites being Doyle, Christie, and Chesterton, English all of them. Through a small amount of research on the vast wide internet, I attempted to widen my perspective on mystery writers in the early 20th Century (the jury is still out on more contemporary fare). It is in this search that I find a Frenchman, a Frenchman! A Frenchman can write mysteries. Of course, they can. Right? Mysteries deal with the sin of man, most notably theft and murder. Frenchman, indeed, are very familiar with personal sin. This Frenchman was Maurice LeBlanc.

Being a true Frenchman, a man who despises things English, including its language, people and cultural descendants, or so I hear, he crafts his protagonist as an antagonist, indeed a French twist. His detective is a thief. His thief is a gentleman. A kindly, suave Frenchman of keen intellect with a vast number of connections named Arsene Lupin is the antagonizing protagonist of LeBlanc. Lupin is a curious character. He is a sort of intellectual vigilante, using his mind and panache to help those who are in need. Batman seems to be an intellectual descendant of Lupin. Lupin doesn't have the physicality of Bruce Wayne, but certainly the detective prowess and brains. Anyway, I digress.

The name of this work I read is The Blonde Lady, which is a series of short stories about Lupin's exploits with the French police and Holmlock Shears chasing along the unifying clue of the mysterious Blonde Lady accomplice. I must digress again. Why Holmlock Shears and not Sherlock Holmes? This apparently is LeBlanc's second work with Lupin and Sherlock Holmes was his adversary. Being that Doyle was still alive and being Doyle, he forbid LeBlanc by force of law from using his intellectual property, especially when Lupin outwits Holmes.

LeBlanc does a great job creating meaningful and enjoyable characters. The plots move along quite well and the matching of wits between Lupin and Holmes/Shears makes for a great read. Watson/Wilson because the comedic relief of the stories constantly falling into mistreatment by his weak wits.

It all brings up a philosophical and moral question inside of me. Can a thief be a gentleman? A gentleman is an image of moral uprightness and for all his panache moral uprightness is not how Lupin goes about his business. I think a character like him belies of the change happening in the culture due to the last 200 years of philosophical theory and cultural distancing from Christian ideals. A gentleman can be a thief is a contradiction in terms and know doubt LeBlanc plays on that, but despite his clever title Lupin is nothing more than a man who does not respect law, even if faulty in it execution. He takes the law into his own hands and cleverly enacts his own sense of justice. He is the arbiter. God, the divine judge, and from whom all laws derive, has no say on the matter. Lupin is a true humanist in this sense. "Man is the measure of all things."

I listened to the audiobook from the great service of Libirvox. Support them. It is such a great resource for audio version for books no longer under copyright. Check them out.

Friday Thoughts - Manhood, Football, Fatherhood, and Fire

2011-11-18T15:30:00.000-06:00

Photo by Br. Simon Stubbs, O.S.B.

Each year St. Joseph Seminary College and Notre Dame Seminary square off in an epic game of flag football. The former practice the whole of the fall semester while the later takes the idea of practice to the field participating in the Loyola New Orleans University intramural flag football league. Collegiate seminary vs. theologate. Philosophy vs. theology. Kant vs. Ratzinger (or Aquinas vs. Aquinas). This event does not only include a football game but a giant bonfire built log cabin notch style (we are well aware of the dangers of celebratory bonfires from other universities, God rest their souls). I have the distinct privilege of preaching at the mass before the event hits into manly mode with football and pyrotechnics. I thought I would share this for the sake of posterity but also as a ancillary reflection on manhood, fatherhood, and priesthood. There are some inside seminary jokes, but bare with them.

Stubbs

There’s something thoroughlycathartic in building something only to watch it burn down. There is somethingthoroughly uncathartic about preparing mentally and physically for a footballgame by building up a habitus offootball skills only to be found unsatisfactory on the field through thevictory of the opposing team. And, yet, in both of these, building and losing,we learn what it is to be a Christian man and a good father.

Stubbs

Thebonfire itself is a symbol of manhood. It is the culmination of hard work andsheer desire to outdo the height of the previous year. It requires the blood,sweat, and chainsaws of men willing to build an edifice for the sake of itsslow destruction by the unpredictable force of fire. This is a seemingly futileundertaking, and yet it is an analogy for us as Christian men called to be alight in the darkness of this world. We have before us, in the bonfire, thepursuit of secular man. He builds a large house full of strong timber and atthe pinnacle of the structure of his life all that it is worthy of is itscollapse due to arson. It seemed to be a stable structure but under the weightof heat and flame it buckles.

St.Paul, who we hear about in the first reading, built his house on thePharisaical interpretation of the Torah. With one question, Christ knocks itdown. Paul rebuilds on the foundation of the cross, which seems weak and unableto support the full missionary effort that he undertook. Yet, he arrives to theplace of his “destruction” stronger and more stable than the Coliseum. We buildour houses not on our own or by sheer will and the work of our hands. No, webuild, with Christ, His church. Our future bride is symbolized in the twochurches whose dedication we celebrate today, St. Peter’s Basilica and St. PaulOutside the Walls. Peter and Paul built the church on the stone rejected by thebuilders that became the cornerstone. A father builds a house for his family. Apriest builds up the Church one soul at a time knowing the structure andfoundation are not designed by him or sustained by him, but rather by Christ,who his our rock.

Stubbs

Now,as for losing, this, in the eyes of the world, is the epitome of theworthlessness. It is unmanly to lose, especially for us Americans, to lose afootball game. The loser feels totally emasculated. With regards to losing, Ispeak from experience. When it comes to flag football, I’m a loser. I haveplayed in seven bonfire games. I won my last, indeed my only game, in 2003. Sixyears of losses can be disheartening, but apparently the Lord thought I hadn’tlearned the lesson I share with you today. He put me in a parish this fall thathad no coach for the middle school flag football team. The eighth graderscoerced me to coach. Never did I think that the Bonfire game would actually prepareme for ministry. I coached a team from ages 9 to 13, with varying degrees ofknowledge, skill, and natural athleticism, while myself having little knowledgeabout how to run a practice or design a playbook, or how to deal with aquarterback who is sobbing on the sideline at halftime. We played five games, and we won none.I had to figure out how I was going to console these kids who worked hard inpractice and even showed up to play a game on day with no school.

Thosefive games as a whole and the multitude of practices will make them better men.They will realize that despite the hardest we can work; we will not alwayssucceed. As men, we wish to put up the mirage that we stand on firm ground andare perpetual winners, but Christ, inviting Peter to come, shows us, that to bea man you must walk on choppy seas. Our power, our balance, is not solely ours.The true man and the good father is empowered and sustained by the Son who wassent by the Father to become man. Loosing reveals to us competition fails. WhatI have is nothing. I am merely a breath that passes like a fading shadow, likegrass, which springs up in the morning, and by evening withers and fades. Ourfatherhood, our manhood is contingent on the fatherhood and manhood of JesusChrist.

BonfireDay, with its game and with its fire, teaches us that we are but mere men. Itis by Christ that we gain our strength as we walk on the choppy seas ofseminary formation and prepare to be fathers who build the Church through theministry of the priesthood of Jesus Christ.

Friday Thoughts - Liturgy, the Nucleus of the Parish

2011-11-11T08:00:00.000-06:00

Yes, I like adjectival clauses in my titles. Anyway, down to business. This is a short reflection on the 'ideal parish.'

The nucleus of the parishshould and need be the liturgy. TheSecond Vatican Council calls it the "source and summit" of ourfaith. It is from which we gainstrength as Christians, and it directs us towards our final goal, heaven. For most of the parish, this will bethe main communal interaction of the parishioners, every Sunday. It, then, becomes not only the sourceand summit but also the main tool of the New Evangelization to a peopleinundated with the secular, devoid of God, devoid of morality, devoid of asense of truth, goodness, oneness, and beauty. The liturgy provides an experience of these fourtranscendentals. Hence, it shouldnot mitigate them for "pastoral" reasons but rather let them shineforth. The liturgy shines forththe truth of salvation history in the Liturgy of the Word, showing to all wholisten that God has worked to interact with and meet man and show that he wasnot only created in love, but is keep in being by Love. The homily because a central aspect inrevealing this truth. The liturgyof the Eucharist allows the drama of the salvific sacrifice of Christ to showthe truth that we are offered salvation and it is through this very sacrificethat we enter into it. Truth is sorelativized in our society that stability of the same ritual every Sundayallows the truth the Church carries with Her to manifest itself. God is unchanging and the universalityof the liturgy allows man to see this in the acts of His Church. Entering intoCalvary and receiving the fruit of the tree of life, allows us to see what isgood and what is evil. Ourconsciences are formed by the unchanging truth manifested in the liturgy, whichincreases our desire to pursue what is truly good, the Almighty. Nothing brings a community togetherbetter than taking part in communion with the One God, Father, Son, and HolySpirit, through the reception of the body, blood, soul, and divinity, of JesusChrist. Communally being directedtoward the worship of God in music, interior prayer, and sacrifice manifeststhe Body of Christ, which unites all of the members of the Church. The flow ofthe liturgy, its setting, its music, its vestments give witness to symmetry,which witnesses to what is beautiful. Beauty, I am convicted, is a great evangelizer. It arrests the heart and allows themind to temporarily separate itself from the lies it has attached itself to andexperience something truly heavenly. The architecture of the church should have direct thepeople in their worship. Over thetwo millennia of the Church the cruciform, cathedral design seems to bestdirect the mind and the heart. Filled with stained glass, art that is both realistic in portrayal butpious in its direction, and an altar fitting for the sacrifice that occurs onits pillars. The sound system toshould be unobtrusive and well mixed using the proper techniques in acousticsto not prevent dead spots or unnatural decay in the sound.

Sentimentalism, a Chestertonian Insight into Social Bias

2011-11-08T10:34:00.000-06:00

We hear of the stark sentimentalist, who talks as if there were no problem at all: as if physical kindness would cure everything: as if one need only pat Nero and stroke Ivan the Terrible. This mere belief in bodily humanitarianism is not sentimental; it is simply snobbish. For if comfort gives men virtue, the comfortable classes ought to be virtuous—which is absurd. Then, again, we do hear of the yet weaker and more watery type of sentimentalists: I mean the sentimentalist who says, with a sort of splutter, "Flog the brutes!" or who tells you with innocent obscenity "what he would do" with a certain man—always supposing the man's hands were tied. - G.K. Chesterton, Tremendous Trifles

'Tis interesting this beautiful thought of Gilbert. In one in the same statement, he says violent men and passive sentimentalists come from the same tree, namely ignorance of the human person. Man is not merely the sentiment connected with human physical contact, not to deny its power, only to mitigate the popular belief in its power. Nor does man need to be degraded as an ignominious idiot worth nothing more than torture.

Man is worthy of being contemplated not for his own sake but to see that he is not the root of his existence or the power by which he lives. He is immediately and brokenly contingent. He requires both discipline and loving sentiment to become virtuous, insodoing it moves towards being fully human.

Friday Thoughts - Canon Law and New Media

2011-11-04T07:30:00.000-05:00

Now I'm sure Ed Peters has probably covered this in some sort of way or another, but something struck me in reading some of the canons in Church Administration class yesterday.

Canon 761

The various means available are to be used to proclaim Christian doctrine: first of all preaching and catechetical instruction, which always hold the principal place, but also the presentation of doctrine in schools, academies, conferences, and meeting of every type and its diffusion through public declarations in the press or in other instruments of social communication by legitimate authority on the occasion of certain events. (Italics added by me)

This is under the section entitled The Ministry of the Divine Wordas part of the teaching function of the Church. Many of the previous canons are directed toward the ecclesial authority of the Roman Pontiff, the college of bishops, individual bishops, priests, and deacons. Canon 759 references the ministry of the Divine Word entrusted to the laity. The last two canons of this preface of the section, Canons 760-761, direct all the members of the Church, ordained and lay combined.

This canon then is for all of us, bloggerss included. It seems almost prophetic that Canon Law, codified in 1983, speaks of "other instruments of social communication" opening up wide for the possibility of proclaiming the Word of God through the social communication of weblogs, podcasts, vidcasts, and tweets. We are called to use said means to proclaim the word of God, evangelize, and teach.

"By legitimate authority" seems to focus on clergy, and indeed Pope Benedict XVI has directed priests especially to use these new means of social communication to evangelize.

Now this certainly isn't a definitive license or even explicit message for the use of New Media in Evangelization, but the fact the "other instruments of social communication" is mentioned in the Code of Canon Law is a juridical step in the right direction for us here on the digital continent.

Europe and the Faith

2011-10-31T13:17:00.001-05:00

I heard about Hillaire Belloc about 5 years ago from a classmate. I had yet to delve into any of his works, until this past month. Europe and the Faith was a great work introduction to his work. His life work was to reconnect Britain with the Church. He recognized modern man and his slow and sometimes violent turning away from Church established by Christ and maintained by his spirit.

One of the modus operandi of Belloc's vision of history is that history is not merely material. The effects of history are not merely human. The thrusts and forces that move history toward or away from God and His Church are "not of this world." There are things in history, like the Reformation, especially in England, that cannot merely be explained by human forces. Cultural things collided. Greed was rampant. All would have fell had it been in on the shoulders of German princes and few radical minds. It, however, gained force and permanency through the ascendancy to its minor positions by a single monarch, Henry VIII. The schism exists because of one misguided man who made a decision many monarchs had previous, but at the most inopportune of times.

Belloc makes the statement at the beginning and end of the book, "Europe is the faith, and the faith is Europe." Europe, as he knew it, in the early 20th Century was shaped by the faith of Jesus Christ handed down from the Apostles in the Roman Catholic Church. The Church pushed forward the positive organization of the dying Roman empire and subsumed indeed in an almost perfect way, inculturated it.

It is at the turn of the Reformation that Europe began to self destruct. Fiefdom by fiefdom, kingdom by kingdom, nation by nation, Europe has slowly degraded the farther it has moved away from its foundation, that is, the Church.

If Belloc was alive today, he could see almost the logical conclusion of his arguments. France is in utter ruin being repopulated by Arabs, a peaceful version of what the Iberian peninsula experienced 1200 years ago. Germany is still trying to recover from Fascist and Communist oppressions. England welcomes riots and a general apathy even disgust, i.e. Dawkins, et al, of religion, Catholic or otherwise. Italy even has its problems. Finally, the last bastion of the Roman Catholic nation, Ireland is in total shambles, due in part to the clergy abuse scandal, but also to a lack of anything to root for. No longer do they have to fight for their faith which had been so dear to them for the past four centuries. To them it doesn't seem worth fighting for pedophiles and liars.

There is hope. Hope only in one thing, that is the Church. She, as the bride of Christ, can reform and transform the European culture. In its current state, the New Evangelization is ripe for the picking.

Notes:
The book takes a rather sweeping look at history. He goes through each period selecting certain things to help make his point. He desires for brevity as opposed to unnecessary depth. As for a history book, it would work well in a Western Civ course, especially for those in a home school situation. If I were a parent, I would give this to my child as supplementary reading because it corrects so much erroneous thoughts and assumptions regarding European history.

Highly Recommend.

Friday Thoughts - Secularism

2011-10-28T09:06:00.000-05:00

I have started the mini-mester here at the seminary. Our professor for the Sacraments of Healing has us reading Bl. John Paul II's Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation Reconciliatio et Paenitentia. I am thoroughly enjoying it. It is backing up with theology what I have intuited. Many things have struck me so far but JP II's definition of secularism is spot on, so I want to share it with you. (For you long time readers, i.e. me, this goes back to the beginning of the blog, sharing quotes)

"Secularism" is by nature and definition a movement of ideas and behavior which advocates a humanism totally without God, completely centered upon the cult of action and production and caught up in the heady enthusiasm of consumerism and pleasure seeking, unconcerned with the danger of "losing one's soul."

Guest Post: How to Understand Scandals and Other Things - Insights from Archbishop Fulton Sheen

2011-10-27T08:00:00.000-05:00

Now for the final installment on Archbishop Fulton Sheen from Luke from Quiet, Dignity, and Grace.

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Insight #3: "If you do not live as you believe, you willbegin to believe as you live."

This gem comes from what is nowcalled the Sheen Catechism. TheArchbishop's skills as an orator are alive and well in this collection of 50talks which are now available on mp3. They were originally recorded in his private study and are trulybeautiful.

In a discussion on the morallife, he lays out the idea that if we don't live as we at least claim tobelieve, eventually, our beliefs will change. Why is this so? Well, we human beings, as good as we may be at fooling others, are justnot capable of fooling ourselves. When there is a tension or a hypocrisy in our life, we want itgone. If we Say we are Catholics,for instance, but begin gradually not living the way we ought to, then theeventual consequence is that we will very likely give up the belief. We will choose a belief that betterfits the way we live our lives.

Pithy though the quote may be,this quote has serious power from a spiritual, rational, practical, and evenpsychological point of view. Sheennot only studied philosophy and theology, he also read heavily in modernpsychology, trying to find the best of its efforts, even if it meant sifting througha lot of less useful ideas. Thisquote has the power to transform your life if you understand it at an earlyenough age. If you believe yourreligion is important, you had better live like it. This doesn't mean you have to be perfect, of course. Nobody is. But you better do your best and you better make it apriority to live up to that standard. If not, eventually, the battle gets more difficult. And Sheen was expounding this in thegolden age of American Catholicism. What has happened since his era? Mass attendance has fallen by almost 50%. People have created a whole new brand of Catholicism inwhich they consider themselves Catholic but disagree and disobey major Churchteachings as well as almost completely abandon sacramental practices. Unfortunately for many people, theystopped living in a way that lined up with their belief. And in due time, their beliefs changed.

Insight #4: How to Understand Scandals

First, a fact: There Are scandals.

This shows usthat Christ chose the people of His Church in their human condition, he chose them as they are, not as they should be. After all, Christ was a cause of many scandals; why shouldhis Church, his Mystical Body, be exempt from scandal? For instance, Christ's disciples knewthat He was God made flesh. Butthey witnessed his humiliations and, ultimately, his death on the Cross. What greater scandal could there bethan a dead God?

Christexperienced wants of hunger and thirst and even died at the hands ofsinners. So his Church experiencestragedy, scandal, and sin. ButChrist being in pain didn't mean that He was not God. Christ's own death couldn't even triumph over the fact thatHe still was, is, and always will be God. Similarly, Christ guarantees that his Church teaches the truth, but hedoesn't guarantee that his teachers will always be perfect.

It is true thatthere are bad Catholics. But remember this. While "our faith increases responsibility, it does notforce obedience. It increasesblame, but it does not prevent sin. If some Catholics are bad, it is not because they are members ofChrist's Mystical Body, but it is because they aren't living up to itsdemands."

An Interesting Point

Think of the concept of ascandal. Someone has to dosomething that disappoints someone else. In other words, if a Catholic priest commits a sin and it becomes publicknowledge, the only reason it would be a scandal is if you would expect aCatholic priest to be good. Sowhen people throw their arms up in disgust at the Church, they are reallydisplaying that they look for something good in the Church. Namely, they expect holiness. That's a very important psychologicalpoint! The media can only draw thescandal out and make great headlines because everybody Expects the Church to beHoly.

You never hear someonecomplain that a sun-worshiper or atheist has fallen in his or her duties. No news headline would ever grabattention if it read "sun-worshiper steals money from church" or "humaniststeals money from school." Nobody expects anything from a sun-worshiper, humanist, etc. But insert the word priest and we havea scandal. It's easy to be acommunist or an atheist, and it's very morally lax. But it is demanding and morally difficult to be a Catholic.

Furthermore, if the Church,which some people criticize for its human failings, was actually a perfectinstitution....would anybody want to be a part of that? If the Church was actually perfect,then most of us would be ineligible to join. In fact, aside from Christ, Mary, and a few saints, we'dnearly all be cast out with the plants that grew on bad soil. Christ told us some of the harvestwould be thrown out at the end. Ifbeing Catholic really kept us perfect, then Christ's words would be either alie or they'd be impossible. Becauseif we were all perfect, there would be none cast aside at the end.

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I apologize for this but blogger was acting up so I had to highlight in a weird color for you to see the most important text of the blog. Go check out Luke's blog Quiet, Dignity, and Grace.

Guest Post: Insights in the Writings of Archbishop Fulton Sheen

2011-10-25T08:00:00.000-05:00

Now for the second edition of Luke's piece on Archbishop Fulton Sheen. Don't forget to check out Luke's blog, Quiet, Dignity, and Grace.

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Insights Gained

I am young in my knowledge ofFulton Sheen. I have read 10 ofhis books and listened to hours of his audio catechism (the same one which JohnPaul II used to learn English). Itis not possible to succinctly state everything I have learned from this veryamateur study. However, I will tryto explain what I consider to be the four most powerful things I have learnedfrom this Servant of God.

Insight #1: The Importance ofthe Eucharist and the Holy Hour

Reading Sheen, one constantlyruns across Eucharistic metaphors. He frequently employs analogies of wheat being sifted, ground, chewed,etc. to our world today. We in asense are that grain and our lives, if we unite them to Christ's, will followthe pattern He set. The world willchew us up; we will suffer. On theother hand, Christ, by becoming the bread of life for us, enables us to receivethe merits he won on the cross through the Eucharist.

So the suffering we encounter isa sign that we're living the way Jesus did. The world reacts against us because it knows that if ourlove is real and our faith is true, it is doomed. What could possibly keep a Christian on the path in the faceof so much resistance? Only thevery gift of Christ, who both gives us the true bread from heaven and IS thetrue bread from heaven, containing in itself all delight.

Fulton Sheen makes the Eucharistthe source and summit of his thought precisely because it was the center of hisspiritual life. This was one oftwo promises he made on his ordination to the priesthood: he would make a holyhour in the presence of the Eucharist every single day. It is one he never failed to keep, nomatter how busy he might have been or how ill his health may have been. In the later part of his life, Sheenspent years doing retreats for priest. He noted that he felt people needed some concrete advice after coming outof a retreat if it's going to make any real difference in their life. His advice was always the same: make aDaily holy hour. It was simpleadvice to give, but challenging advice to follow. But precisely its simplicity is what also made it attainable.

This practical goal he set wasn'talways practical for him. Hewrites in his autobiography of having to do some extra convincing sometimes toget into churches for his Holy Hour. When did he find time in his schedule? In the morning. Sometimes, Very early in the morning. He writes in his autobiography of once having to climb outof a window because the church he was visiting had been locked up by animpatient pastor.

And don't forget: this wasn't aman with lots of free time on his hands. He wrote and studied constantly. His work as a professor at Catholic University kept him in the books andhe even destroyed his course notes every year at the end of the year. Any teachers out there know how muchextra work that would entail. Archbishop Sheen had early morning flights, plenty of train rides aroundthe country and Europe doing extra catechetical and evangelical work for noextra money. He was the head ofthe Propagation of the Faith apostolate in the United States, and the privatetheologian to a handful of celebrities. How many times did he fail to keep his daily holy hour? Zero. This is his first recommendation in building a spirituallife and anyone who has ever tried this, even temporarily, knows how powerfulit is. Sheen was built up by thisgrace for decades!!

Insight #2: The Beauty of TrueHumility and Piety

Modern day readers who look backon Fulton Sheen's works may find his piety a bit pervasive. We're not used to it these days. We expect people to keep their religionto themselves and not to let it out of the box too often. Certainly we don't expect religiousfervor to permeate every conversation we have or sentence we write. But, when you read Sheen, you readpiety.

For instance, whenever the latearchbishop wants to refer to Jesus, he has a handful of options available tohim. He could use the following:Jesus, Jesus Christ, Christ, the Son of God, the Son of Man, the Lord, theMessiah, etc. There are countlessways to refer to the second person of the Trinity. And if you were typing on a typewriter or heaven forbidusing an actual pen and paper, some of them would save more space thanothers. Sheen constantly used thetitle "Our Blessed Lord." Now, this may seem like a small thing. But when you read book after book and listen to talk aftertalk you start to see just how much extra time it would take to say "OurBlessed Lord" rather than Jesus. Add to this that whenever Jesus was referred to as "he" or "him,"those words are capitalized, you start to see how much reverence Sheen had forOur Blessed Lord. ArchbishopSheen's respect for God's name was no doubt due in large part to his devotionto the Holy Hour.

Aside from his piety and thebeautiful way in which he utilizes poetic imagery in his theology, Fulton Sheenalso displayed a deep-rooted humility. He famously said at a retreat given for inmates that there was only onething which separated him from the men imprisoned: they got caught! His autobiography is filled with deeplooks into his own self and almost uncomfortable descriptions of his ownfailures. He feared, at the end ofhis life, that he had been too flashy, accepted too many of the world'scomforts, and had too much pride. He also has a painful recollection of a moment in which he, ever sobriefly, hesitated when greeting a leper. He had meant to place a crucifix in the hand of an African leper when hehesitated and dropped it. Afterthat, he picked up the crucifix, and proceeded to kiss the hands of everysingle leper in the village as he greeted them. That moment and the description of it shows how penetratingSheen's self-knowledge was.

And what is the great mark of asaint? Seeing himself in God'seyes. Holding himself accountablethe way God would. Surely FultonSheen knew what great good he was called to. The slightest imperfections were things he saw clearly abouthimself. That humility is probablywhat further spurred his great piety and devotion. You see, when we, like Sheen, realize how lowly we reallyare, suddenly genuflecting, praying before meals, using reverence when speakingthe divine name, a morning offering, nightly examination of conscience, and allthe other common practices of piety which Sheen constantly recommended become anatural reaction to the simple truth that we are not God. The Archbishop knew this truthintimately.

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Check in soon for the final installment.

Friday Thoughts - George Harrison and True Freedom

2011-10-21T08:54:00.000-05:00

I watched a Martin Scorsese directed documentary on the quiet Beatle, George Harrison. As a musician, I have profound respect for him. He was a terrific songwriter because he was able to communicate in song what people were feeling. He was able to direct emotion outwards from his Rickenbacker, or Strat, or Martin. "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" remains one of my favorite songs of all time.

This documentary went through not just his musical life but his personal life. I found out he was raised Catholic. Baptismal graces laid latent with him, even when he pursued Indian mysticism. I have no doubt he pursued the God whom he encountered as a child. He said he was turned off by the rules and lack of encounter, no doubt in line with the thinking of his contemporaries. He found "what was lacking in Catholicism" in Indian mysticism. Where rules bound him as a child, a freedom in meditation allowed him to roam unchartered territory.

What I found interesting was the general distrust or desire to be free from his body both expressed by him and by his widow about him. For a man who was so sensual in his style and demeanor, he desired nothing more than to be free from the senses.

What he saw in his sensuality was incomplete and so he made the false assumption that it is in spirituality devoid of sense that one is free and at peace.

We are made as body and soul and are meant to be such, to be perfected as such, despite our own degradation of the body we have been given. Original sin doesn't get enough credit here.

I believe he desired freedom, but was led not towards true freedom in the cross of Christ, but, rather ironically enough, only a material freedom. Spiritual freedom cannot occur by our own work, even through meditation. We only become free through the salvation of the Paschal Mystery.

Guest Post: Archbishop Fulton Sheen

2011-10-20T08:00:00.000-05:00

We are lucky and honored to have our very first guest post. I've wanted to do this for a while, but have not pursued it enough to see it to fruition.

Welcome to the thoughts of Luke Arredondo, the author of a fellow Blogspot blog Quiet, Dignity, and Grace (which was nominated for best new blog over at the Crescat's Annual Cannonball Awards). I have know Luke for nigh on six years. We were in the seminary together. We played music together (he is an accomplished trumpeter). We prayed together and we've laughed together (a unique experience for the who have had the pleasure).

Luke, now a DRE at a local parish, is married with a beautiful baby girl. I've known for a long time that he is an avid reader and no author is more close to his heart than Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen. When I asked to write a post, it seemed most appropriate for him to write on Sheen. Due to the breadth of his writing, it will be spread out over three posts.

Without further ado ...

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An Ambassador of Faith

Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen, to older Catholics, is a household name. Unfortunately for the younger generations, his name is not yet awell-known one. However, it seems the tide may be turning in the other direction, even if slowly. Seminarians are reading his works,YouTube users are seeing some of his great tv spots, and in parishes around the world, prayers are being offered for his case for canonization.

I first discovered the writing sof Fulton Sheen while a seminarian. I'll forever be in debt spiritually to Neil Pettit, whose pile of books sitting on his desk attracted my attention on a number of occasions. On a whim, while heading out the door to my week of vacation in Destin, I asked if I could borrow his seminal volume on priesthood entitled The Priest Is Not His Own. Never will I look at the world with the same eyes.

These posts are born of a deepdesire to do two things:

First, to impart some of the most powerful insights I have gained from reading Sheen's works.

Secondly, to hopefully encourage those who read this post to go directly to the source and read some of the Archbishop's beautiful meditations and deepen your own faith in Christ.

If all goes well, reading these posts will lead you to read Fulton Sheen's own works and will in turn lead one deeper into the mystery of faith and particularly to a devotion to the Eucharist.

Short Biography

Fulton Sheen was born in El Paso, IL. His name was actually Peter John Sheen, but he became known by the name Fulton as a child and it stuck withhim. Although Sheen grew up in arural, farming community, his intellectual gifts would take him to some of themost prestigious places of study in the world. And he would succeed in everysingle challenge placed before him, even earning the highest possible honors in postgraduate work at the prestigious theology school in Luvein, Belgium.

After earning his doctorate, here turned to the US where he became a professor of philosophy at Catholic University of America and went on to host an Emmy-winning television program, Your Life Is Worth Living, which attracted viewers of all faiths and walks of life. His charisma came through the tv screen as well as his humor. At his acceptance speech for his Emmy award, he thanked his four writers Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.

All throughout his life, Sheen was busy studying and writing. He is theauthor of over 30 books. His most well-known works are his Last Seven Words and his magnum opus Life of Christ. Shortly before his death, he met Pope John Paul II in New York, and the Holy Father told him that he had written well and spoken well of the Church. He died in his private chapel during a holy hour in 1979.

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Stay tuned next week for the second post by Luke!

Rediscover Catholicism!

2011-10-17T15:17:00.001-05:00

A few months back I was listening to one of the Lighthouse Catholic Media cd's by Matthew Kelly. I thought it was a pretty good CD and that he had some good reflections. At the end of the disc they spoke about his website, dynamiccatholic.com, and the ministry he runs that enables him to sell his book Rediscover Catholicism: A Spiritual Guide to Living with Passion and Purpose at a really low cost in hopes that large numbers will read it and hopefully be inspired in their faith or return to the faith if they've been away. Interested in the program, I bought a copy of the book to read through it first.

In reading it, I found it to be very readable and rather straightforward. He talks about his experience of the faith, but more importantly, he looks at the situation of the world around us, the Church, and the reality that we are all called to holiness. While this is not my usual book type to pick up, the simple text is certainly something to consider with reference to the average Catholic and fallen-away Catholics because it makes the faith accessible and understandable via practical examples from things most people experience or can at least relate to. While a great little motivational book that repeatedly encourages us to become the 'best-version-of-ourselves' (I always read 'holy'), it does come in at a hair over 300 pages, which might seem a bit daunting for someone at first glance. The program he runs also has a few other books that are worth looking at and possibly bringing into the parish in large quantities. Check his website for more information on the book and program.

Friday Thoughts - Point out the Light

2011-10-14T08:39:00.001-05:00

In our culture today, self is the modus-operandi. It is from oneself that one acts. From oneself moral absolutes come. From oneself judgement is enacted. From oneself (insert problem).

Yet, we are made for charity. We are made to give ourselves away. No matter the depth of our sin and how far we have pushed away from our own true nature, gift of self can still manifest.

This my brothers and sisters is a key to evangelization. Use what is given you. Each person, no matter the depravity, has done something good for someone else (even if for spurious or nefarious motives). This is the glory of God shining through the darkness of sin. Point out the light!

Friday Thoughts - Episode 1

2011-10-07T16:18:00.001-05:00

I desire to write more about reading, but reading requires time and soapboxing/reflecting/postulating/pontificating takes much less time. So welcome to the beginning of an inconsequential series I will not follow up on, Friday Thoughts.

It has been over a month since the last post. My life has been a whirlwind and I still can't manage my time well enough to write. So here I am, broken, weak, and distracted.

These last few weeks for me have been great. I single-handedly planned a youth lock-in, micro-managing Steve Jobs (R.I.P.) style. We had our parish fair last weekend which was a blast. I coached a loosing flag football season (0-5, upwards from here!). The archbishop emeritus and New Orleans icon, Archbishop Philip Hannan was laid to rest yesterday.

Needless to say, sitting down to write has not been on my mind (football plays have taken up way to much space!).

What is important: Prayer.

Rest, Labor Day, and Bl. Teresa of Calcutta

2011-09-05T06:00:00.000-05:00

In our national calendar, yesterday was set aside to give rest to those who labor. In our liturgical calendar, it was the memorial of Bl. Teresa of Calcutta. This holiday and this holy woman find common ground in today's readings.

In the Psalm it says, "Only in God be at rest my soul, for from Him comes my hope." Nowhere else can we find rest except in God. The Pharisees sought rest in the observance of the law of Moses. Jesus, by healing the man with the withered hand on the sabbath, is telling them, "In me alone do you find rest."

We seek rest when we are uncomfortable. we hope to rest in what comforts us. In what or in whom do we seek comfort? Idle conversation? The presence of another person? Television? Novels? Other than idle conversation none of these are bad, but they provide little rest compared to the rest we find at the bosom of the Father. When we rest in God, we don't seek those things for comfort, but rather, as they are, good company, or entertainment, nothing more.

This is what made Mother Teresa such a great and holy woman. She worked with the poorest of the poor, the sick, and the dying. She founded a religious order to continue that mission. Those are only the fruits of her greatness. She was a saint because she rested in God. He was here sole possession.

Today, as we give thanks for all those who have worked to provide us with food, clothing, air conditioning, iPads, and countless other things, let us reflect on where we rest, and at the same time, look and see where instead we can rest in God.
Blessed Teresa of Calcutta, pray for us.

Wherein Deacon Kyle Puts His Money Where His Mouth Is

2011-08-24T14:08:00.000-05:00

I have a lot of ideas, thoughts, you know those things in your head that you respond to by saying, "Hey, I like that. I should tell somebody." I have those thoughts often. This place is a forum for some of them. One, in particular, has come to the fore as of late. This one.

I'm in a new parish. This parish school has a much smaller library, but still has the accelerated reading program the previous school had. The Percy Jackson and Harry Potter books are well worn and have gone through many hands, no doubt. Again, this irks me. These school children are being formed by teenage warlocks who use poor means to achieve good ends and modern teenage Greek demi-gods. (I personally was formed, other than the Redwall series, by comic book super-heroes, who have their own issues. That's another post.)

The Lord put it on my heart to do something. So I put my money where my mouth was. I started searching on this wonderful consumer interweb for the full collection of the Redwall series. I found it on ebay and won it. Seventeen books of good teen fiction are getting ready to enter the 20 shelf library below. Boy am I excited.

I share this with you not to brag or puff myself up (or at least so I say to myself). I mean share this with you because I am putting my money where my mouth is and where the Lord is leading me.

Now let formative literature spring forth from the loins of the library!

P.S. If it so moves you to donate for other good read materials such as lives of the saints feel free to contact me.

The Eucharist in the Apostolic Fathers Part Four: The Didache

2011-08-22T12:31:00.002-05:00

This is the final installment of this little followed series. Today we look at the Didache (Ignatius press' catechetical series might come to mind, it follows in the footsteps of the early Church catechetical document). The Didache is an interesting document that was rediscovered on one and half centuries ago. Previously there were only excerpts in the writings of the Church Fathers. It is was highly reverenced and considered as great source of early Christian life There are three Eucharistic chapters, nine, ten, and fourteen.

Chapter 9 can be seen as the offertory rite of the early church. If one were to compare chapter nine with the offertory rite in the Ordo Missae there are definite similarities. The Ordo Missae says “Blessed are you, Lord God of all creation, for through your goodness we have received the wine we offer you: fruit of the vine and work of human hands it will become our spiritual drink. Blessed be God forever.”[ii] The Didache says, “First concerning the Cup, ‘We give thanks to thee, our Father, for the Holy Vine of David thy child, which thou didst make know to us through Jesus thy child; to thee be glory forever.’”[iii] There occurs a thanksgiving for the gift of the wine given from the Father to be returned to him in offering. Then there is the acclamation, blessed be God forever and to thee be glory forever. There continues here the typological aspect of the Eucharist, which began in the gospel of John and in the Pauline letters. The Eucharist fulfills the wine that sits next to the showbread outside of the Holy Holies. Chapter nine continues with the Johannine typology of the manna. “As this broken bread was scattered upon the mountains, but was brought together and became one, so let thy Church be gathered together from the end of the earth into they kingdom, for thine is the glory and the power through Jesus Christ forever.”[iv] The final aspect of chapter nine and probably its defining Eucharistic aspect is the excluding of unbaptized from the meal. “But let none eat or drink of your Eucharist except those who have been baptized in the Lord’s name.”[v] The only reason to exclude unbaptized from a meal would be a sacramental meal wherein only those who were called into the flock can partake. This hints at a sacramental structure based on the primacy of baptism in the sacraments of initiation.

Chapter ten is said to a prototype preface. The same elements occur, thanksgiving for the gifts received and praise by way of the Sanctus, “Hosannah to the God of David. If any man be holy, let him come!”[vi] and “Holy, Holy, Holy Lord God of hosts. Heaven and earth are full of your glory. Hosanna in the highest. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Hosanna in the highest.”[vii] These are remarkably similar. Rordorf says that the Sanctus originates from the Jewish meal blessing. Also, within chapter ten there is the manifestation of the eschatological nature of the Eucharistic sacrifice in the words Maran atha. “The expression of the expectation of the parousia which St. Paul has preserved for us, confirms what he himself has allowed us to see of the eschatological orientation of the first Christian Eucharists, where they ‘proclaimed’ the death of the Lord, ‘until he comes.’”[ix] Finally, chapter 10 demands the presider, or prophet as he is called, to chose the place and time for the celebration. The presider is said to be the bishop, who proclaims the word of God and officiates at the celebration.

Chapter fourteen deals with the Sabbath. It proscribes that the Eucharist should be celebrated “on the Lord’s Day.”[x] One should come clean from sin. This is the first discussion of fruitful reception of the Eucharist. “After confessing your transgression that your offering may be pure; but let none who has a quarrel with his fellow join in your meeting until they be reconciled, that your sacrifice be not defiled.”[xi] If one has the stain of sin his offering of himself at the Eucharistic sacrifice will not be pure. Furthermore, if you are distracted be a quarrel this quarrel will prevent you from receiving the sacrament, which is an offering of self to Christ, as best as possible. Herein also lie the sacrificial nature of the Eucharist. If one stained by sin or not properly recollected, one cannot sacrifice a proper spiritual sacrifice in union with the unbloody sacrifice on the altar. “For this is that which was spoken by the Lord, ‘In every place and time offer me a pure sacrifice, for I am a great king,’ saith the Lord, ‘and my name is wonderful among the heathen.’”[xii]

So, then, what did the Holy Spirit preserve for the modern Church by way of extant writings of the sub-Apostolic age in view of the Eucharist? Found in some shape or form in all four sources is the notion of the Eucharist as a sacrifice. Being so close to Jewish Christians and experiencing or hearing about daily pagan sacrifices, the Eucharist is the sacrifice to end all sacrifices. There are certain offices that officiate at the liturgy of the Eucharist, the primary one being the bishop. The Eucharist is a source of communion with one other, the universal church, Christ Jesus, and through Him God the Father. The Eucharist is Jesus' flesh. They affirmed the Real of Presence of Jesus in the sacrament. In fact, Christology is intertwined from then on with Eucharistic theology by way of defense against the Donatists. The Eucharist engendered Christian living and imitation of Christ. It was through the Eucharist that the sub-Apostolic Church encountered Christ. Their faith and charity became Eucharistic in nature even unto death. The Eucharistic liturgy was still closely connected, though very different to, the Jewish meal blessing. The Eucharist is the fulfillment of the types of both the sacrifices and bread occurrences of the Old Testament. Finally, even so early in the Church, there was the notion of proper disposition when encountering the altar of the Lord. For a more fruitful reception one must confess their sins and forgive their brother. The Apostolic Fathers and their contemporaries were Eucharistic. They had known some of the Apostles but had not known Christ. They were the second generation. They encountered Him through the Blessed Sacrament. Vatican II affirmed their faith and practice in calling the Eucharist the “source and summit” of our faith. They embodied this.

[i] Willy Rordorf, “The Didache,” in The Eucharist of the Early Christians, trans. Matthew J. O’Connell (NY: Pueblo Publishing Company, 1978), 10-11; Andre Garakas, The Origin and Development of the Holy Eucharist: East and West (NY: St. Paul’s, 2006), 69; O’Connor, 6; and Bouyer, 117-118.

[ii] PDF of New Translation into English, 2008 from

[iii] Didache in The Apostolic Fathers, vol. 1 of the Loeb Classical Library (Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 1998), 323

[iv] Ibid.

[v] Ibid.

[vi] Ibid.

[vii] PDF of New Translation into English, 2008 from

[viii] Rordorf, 14.

[ix] Bouyer, 118-119.

[x] Didache, 331.

[xi] Ibid.

[xii] Ibid.

St. Augustine on the Lie of the 'Golden Age'

2011-08-17T09:48:00.000-05:00

I was very much struck by the Office of Readings today. St. Augustine hits it right on the mark, even for us post-moderns. I'll let him speak for himself.

Whenever we suffer some distress or tribulation, there we find warning and correction for ourselves. Our holy scriptures themselves do not promise us peace, security and repose, but tribulations and distress; the gospel is not silent about scandals; but he who perseveres to the end will be saved. What good has this life of ours ever been, from the time of the first man, from when he deserved death and received the curse, that curse from which Christ our Lord delivered us?
  So we must not complain, brothers, as some of them complained, as the apostle says, and perished from the serpents.What fresh sort of suffering, brothers, does the human race now endure that our fathers did not undergo? Or when do we endure the kind of sufferings which we know they endured? Yet you find men complaining about the times they live in, saying that the times of our parents were good. What if they could be taken back to the times of their parents, and should then complain? The past times that you think were good, are good because they are not yours here and now.
  If you have now been delivered from the curse, if you have now believed in the Son of God; if you are now well versed or trained in sacred scripture, I am surprised that you should reckon Adam to have had good times. Your parents carried the burden of Adam as well. Indeed it was Adam who heard the words: In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, and you shall work the ground from which you were taken; thorns and thistles it shall bring forth to you. He deserved this, he received this, he was given this as the result of God’s just judgement. Why then do you think past times were better than yours? From that Adam to the Adam of today, toil and sweat, thorns and thistles. Have we forgotten the flood? Have we forgotten those burdensome times of famine and wars? They were written about to prevent us complaining of the present time against God.
  What times those were! Do not we all shudder to hear or read of them? So we have rather cause for congratulating ourselves than grounds for complaining about our own times.

Times were better when I was younger, or when our parents were our age is a lie. Times were different but because sinful man was involved they were never better. Grass is green on both sides just as some of it has died as turned to dust on both sides. St. Augustine is inviting us to look at reality instead of fantasizing about the past. Don't believe the lie of the 'Golden Age,' rather look to the truth that we live redeemed in Christ and live in Him not in fantasy.

The Eucharist in the Apostolic Fathers Part Three: St. Polycarp of Smyrna

2011-08-16T13:10:00.003-05:00

St. Polycarp, an apostle of St. John the Evangelist, was the bishop of Smyrna and a contemporary of St. Ignatius. He wrote a letter to the Philippians not soon after the martyrdom of Ignatius. Polycarp warned the Philippians against the heresies of the day, namely Docetism. He does not mention anything Eucharistic is this short letter; its focus is rather narrow in scope. There is also an account of his martyrdom, which is the first recorded account of martyrdom outside Scripture. He gives a speech before he is burned at the stake wherein the beauty and eloquence of an old bishop is surely displayed. In that speech there is not direct reference to Scripture, but Louis Bouyer mentions an interesting point about his martyrdom. “The account of his martyrdom shows us this bishop handing himself over to the fire exactly as if he were going to celebrate the Eucharist for the last time. And in this supreme celebration where he identifies himself with the victim, which is Christ, we can think that the prayer derives from the Eucharist, which he was accustomed to offer.”[i] Polycarp is augmenting a primitive Eucharistic prayer for the offering of himself instead of the unbloody sacrifice on the altar. “Thou has granted me this day and hour, in the cup of the Christ, for the Resurrection to everlasting life … may I, today, be received among them before Thee, as a rich and acceptable sacrifice as Thou … hast prepared beforehand, and shown forth, and fulfilled … I glorify Thee through the everlasting and heavenly high priest, Jesus Christ, thy beloved Child.”[ii] We see again the Eucharistic Christianity that was so captivating about Ignatius of Antioch. Polycarp, who did not know Jesus in the flesh, knew Him best through the Blessed Sacrament. It felt most natural to pray his final prayer in Eucharistic fashion.

[i] Louis Bouyer, Eucharist: Theology and Spirituality of the Eucharistic Prayer, translated by Charles Quinn (Notre Dame, Indiana: University of Notre Dame Press, 1968), 114-115.

[ii] Martyrdom of Polycarp, in The Apostolic Fathers, vol. 2 of the Loeb Classical Library (Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 1998), 331-332.

The Eucharistic the Apostolic Fathers Part Two: St. Ignatius of Antioch

2011-08-10T09:22:00.000-05:00

Two weeks ago we discussed the beginnings of a Eucharistic theology in the writing of St. Clement of Rome. This week we delve into a deeper and more plentiful corpus from which to draw a beautiful theology of the Eucharist.

A few years after Clement's letter to the Corinthians, St. Ignatius of Antioch wrote seven letters, six to Christian communities and one to St. Polycarp, bishop of Smyrna, on his way to martyrdom in Rome. There are five major Eucharistic themes in these letters: sacrifice, the offices of the Eucharist, sacrament of unity, Eucharistic Christology, and Eucharistic Christianity. The notion of sacrifice was the major theme running through all of the Apostolic Fathers. The Eucharistic sacrifice takes on a special tone in Ignatius. “Be careful therefore to use one Eucharist for there is one flesh of our Lord Jesus Christ, and one cup of union with his blood, one altar, as there is one bishop with the presbytery and the deacons my fellow servants, in order that whatever you do you may do it according unto God.”[i] The altar is the place of sacrifice. It is where the bishop with the presbytery offers the body and blood. The Greek word used, ousiasterien, can also be translated as sanctuary, the place of sacrifice. “It seems that the conception of the Eucharist as the sacrifice of the Church suggested this designation.”[ii]

In this quote from his letter to the Philadelphians Ignatius also points towards certain offices that officiate at the Eucharistic sacrifice. There he mentions bishops, presbyters, and deacons. The bishop though is the presider at the Eucharist. “Let that be considered a valid Eucharist which is celebrated by the bishop, or by one whom he appoints.”[iii] The bishop is seen as the representative of Christ, who unifies the church. The presbyters assist the bishop in his role. They are seen as a different office something that was not distinguished in Clement of Rome. The deacon serves at the sacrifice. John Zizioulias says that the orders “have survived in history as constitutive for the Eucharist.”[iv] Ignatius places them within the Eucharistic sacrifice by the will of God. It is at the Eucharistic sacrifice that the office gain their sustenance and are united more closely to Him whom that represent, in persona Christi.

Furthermore, through the bishop presiding as representative of Christ the Church becomes one body. “Hasten all to come together as to one temple of God, as to one altar, to one Jesus Christ, who came forth from the one Father, and is with one, and departed to one.”[v] The Eucharist united the local church under its celebrant, the bishop. They come together at one temple. The Eucharist brings themto not only the local church but the entire Church extended through time and space at the one altar of sacrifice. “Zizioulas interprets Ignatius’ words to the Smyrnaeans as teaching that, in which Eucharistic event, the historical, earthly gathering around the bishop is ‘exactly the same as … the whole Church united in Christ.’”[vi] It not only unites the whole Church but it unites the Church with the Father. “The Eucharistic assembly generates unity unity with the bishop, unity with the entire Church, and unity with Christ who is inseparably one with the Father.”[vii] Ignatius’ shining reason for the unifying nature of the Eucharist has to do with his treatment of the Docetists. They, not recognizing the humanity of Christ, saw the Eucharist as an abomination and did not partake of it. “Let no man be deceived: unless a man be within the sanctuary he lacks the bread of God, for if the prayer of one or two has such might, how much more has that of the bishop and of the whole church? So then he who does not join in the common assembly, is already haughty, and has separated himself.”[viii] By not partaking of the bread of God, a Johannine name for the Eucharist, which unites the Church as one, the Docetists separate themselves from the Church and from Christ. This is the strongest and most vivid description of the unifying nature of the Eucharist in early Christian literature. It indeed gives full life to the term, communion.

The Docetists had a faulty Christology that led to a faulty Eucharistic theology. This shows the intimate relationship between the two. “In Ignatius’ thinking, belief in the reality of Christ’s life-giving flesh has immediate consequences for Eucharistic theology.”[ix] The Docetists failed to see that the Eucharist was the flesh of Christ. “I desire the ‘bread of God,’ which is the flesh of Jesus Christ, who was ‘of the seed of David,’ and for drink I desire his blood, which is incorruptible love.”[x] The Son of God became flesh, sarx. He suffered and died only to be risen on the third day. The Eucharist, then, is the bread of God, which is the flesh of Jesus Christ. This is the closest any of the Apostolic Fathers comes to transubstantiation language. To confirm this, Ignatius says of the Docetists, “They abstain from Eucharist and prayer, because they do not confess the Eucharist is the flesh of our Savior Jesus Christ who suffered for our sins, which the Father raised up by his goodness.”[xi] The flesh of Christ, natural and Eucharistic, are both the object of the same faith of Christians. “At every point there is the same flesh, the one sarx, of Christ. The reality of Christ’s human flesh in his incarnation and the reality of his Eucharistic flesh are the objects of the one and the same faith.”[xii] They are, in a sense, inseparable, one from the other, for those who never met Christ in the flesh. Being post-Apostolic, Ignatius never met Christ in the flesh. His experience of the flesh of Christ was in the body and blood of the Eucharistic sacrifice.

These notions of sacrifice, presiding at the sacrifice, sacrament of communion, and flesh of Christ were taken on by Ignatius himself. He saw his impending martyrdom as a sacrifice to the Father in union with the sacrifice of Christ. He was offering himself, being both priest and victim, though in an analogous way, with Christ.

Suffer me to be eaten by the beasts, through whom I can attain to God. I am God’s wheat, and I am ground by the teeth of wild beasts that I may be found pure bread of Christ. Rather entice the wild beasts that they may become my tomb … then shall I be truly a disciple of Jesus Christ … Beseech Christ on my behalf, that I may be found a sacrifice through these instruments.[xiii]

Ignatius had imbibed a Eucharistic Christianity. He even compared himself to the Eucharistic species. He wished to sacrifice himself to the Father in the way that he has experienced Christ sacrifice himself.

The entire thinking of Ignatius in this mater is a dynamic prolongation of the Eucharist. Like the Eucharist, and on the basis of it, martyrdom derives its value from the passion of Christ and leads to resurrection. Through identification with Christ and through the complete gift of self that martyrdom entails, Ignatius will fulfill in himself the radical meaning of the Eucharistic sacrifice; as far as possible, he will make real in himself the Eucharistic mystery that is celebrated in the sacrifice of the altar.[xiv]

Ignatius by his very life and death lived, for the Christian faithful, the Eucharistic mystery. He, in this time of Docetist heresy, lived a life in the flesh and for the flesh and with the flesh of Christ in the Most Holy Eucharist. One can only imagine the great reverence he had in presiding over a Eucharistic celebration, especially in the time awaiting his execution by beast. He embodied the sacrificial nature of the Eucharist. By his martyrdom, he brought together the Christian community, in praise and thanksgiving to Lord, that such an imitator of Himself witnessed to them by his life and death. By dying for the sake of the Lord, he died professing the fleshy existence of Jesus wishing to enter into glory with Him.

[i] Ignatius of Antioch, “Letter to the Philadelphians,” in The Apostolic Fathers, vol. 1 of the Loeb Classical Library (Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 1998), 243.

[ii] Johannes Quasten, Patrology, Volume 1 The Beginnings of Patristic Literature (Westminster Maryland: Newman Press, 1962), 66.

[iii] Ignatius of Antioch, “Letter to the Smyrnaeans,” in The Apostolic Fathers, vol. 1 of the Loeb Classical Library (Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 1998), 261.

[iv] John Zizioulias, “The Ecclesiological Presupposition of the Holy Eucharist,” Nicolas 10 (1982), 343-344, quoted in Paul McPartlan, The Eucharist Makes the Church: Henri de Lubac and John Zizioulas in Dialogue (Edinburgh: T&T Clark, 1993), 195.

[v] Ignatius of Antioch, “Letter to the Magnesians,” in The Apostolic Fathers, vol. 1 of the Loeb Classical Library (Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 1998), 203.

[vi] McPartlan, 169.

[vii] Raymond Johanny, “Ignatius of Antioch,” in The Eucharist of the Early Christians, trans. Matthew J. O’Connell (NY: Pueblo Publishing Company, 1978), 60.

[viii] Ignatius of Antioch, “Letter to the Ephesians,” in The Apostolic Fathers, vol. 1 of the Loeb Classical Library (Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 1998), 179.

[ix] Johanny, 57.

[x] Ignatius of Antioch, “Letter to the Romans,” in The Apostolic Fathers, vol. 1 of the Loeb Classical Library (Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 1998), 235.

[xii] Johanny, 53.

[xiii] “Letter to the Romans,” 231.

[xiv] Johanny, 65.

The Eucharist in the Apostolic Fathers Part One: St. Clement of Rome

2011-07-25T21:55:00.002-05:00

The Eucharist is the source and summit of the Catholic faith. Being the pinnacle of the faith, it has been the source of much theological investigation. Throughout the two thousand year history of the Church, theologians have never ceased discussing and elaborating on the mysterium fidei. It is good to return sometimes to those roots of our theology to see where the Holy Spirit has guided the Church. Much is written on the Eucharistic theology of the New Testament, far less however is written on the Eucharistic theology of the next generation, known as the apostolic fathers. They were building the church on the heels of those who lived, walked, and shared meals with Christ, our Lord and Savior. Some have said that their Eucharistic theology is rather primitive and undefined, but this seems to be a reduction and an underestimation of Sts. Clement of Rome, Ignatius of Antioch, and Polycarp, as well as the Didache. They had, rather, an implicitly developed theology of the Eucharist. I will spend the next few posts fleshing out this going from one Apostolic Father to the next.

St. Clement of Rome’s can be said to be the earliest. His letter to the Corinthians can be definitely dated before the turn of the century. He has the least defined theology. He does not outright mention the Eucharist or even variations of the Greek eucharistia. “Even if Clement does not use the terms that later became technical designation for the Eucharist, the reality is present in the letter as far as the sacrificial aspect of the Eucharist is concerned.”[i] Clement many times mentions the sacrifices of the Old Testament in relation to the new and final sacrifice of Christ Jesus on the cross. “And the Lord delivered him up for our sins, and he opened not his mouth because of his affliction. As a sheep he was brought to the slaughter, as a lamb dumb before its shearer, so he opened not his mouth.”[ii] The sacrificial language permeates his letter. Christ’s sacrifice on the cross is one of the major themes of his letter. Christ’s offering as an expiation for our sins. The offering is continued by the bishops, “When he comes to speak of the ministry proper to the presbyter-bishops, he refers to it as the ‘offering of the gifts’: ‘Our sin will not be a light one if we expel those who worthily and blamelessly have offered the gifts of [proper to?] the episcopacy.’”[iii] The expiatory gift offered by the bishop could be the Eucharist. This is the closest Clement comes to speaking of the Eucharist. His letter deals rather with specific pastoral matters in Corinth that do not deal specifically with the Eucharist. The sacrificial aspect of the letter though is enough evidence for a Eucharistic mindset especially in reference to other Fathers, which we will see later.

[i] Georges Blond, “Clement of Rome,” in The Eucharist of the Early Christians, trans. Matthew J. O’Connell (NY: Pueblo Publishing Company, 1978), 25.

[ii] Clement of Rome, “First Epistle to the Corinthians” in The Apostolic Fathers, vol. 1 of the Loeb Classical Library (Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 1998), 35.

[iii] James T. O’Connor, The Hidden Manna: A Theology of the Eucharist, 2^nd edition (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 2005), 10. {quote is from Clement of Rome 1 Cor 40.5}

Minister of Divine Mercy

2011-07-22T15:32:00.000-05:00

The Congregation for the Clergy recently released a document entitled 'The Priest, Minister of Divine Mercy: An Aid for Confessors and Spiritual Directors,' the full text of which can be found HERE. I immediately printed it and have been reading through it over the past couple of weeks and find it to be well-written and encouraging. While it is primarily a document for the clergy and addresses some things that help us in the ministry of counsel, it can bear good fruit for the laity who would read it as well. The first chapter, a discussion on the Sacrament of Reconciliation/Confession, gives a wonderful overview of the place of the sacrament in the life of all Catholics and helps us to understand more clearly the nature and necessity of that great outpouring of Love and Mercy. The PDF is relatively short and even just taking 30-45 minutes to read through the first section would prove to be a blessing indeed. Do enjoy!

I am Attracted to Virgins

2011-07-14T12:09:00.001-05:00

I am attracted to virgins.

Coming from a priest-to-be, a now deacon who has promised celibacy this statement sounds rather alarming, and it indeed should be. However, this attraction isn't that of the lustful jock or Don Juan sexual conqueror.

I am attracted to virgins, like Mary the Mother of God, St. Cecilia, St. Maria Goretti, St. Therése of Liseuix, and most recently (as of today that is) Bl. Kateri Tekakwitha, whose memorial we celebrate today. As I was reading her short biography as I prepared for Office of Readings this morning I could not help but be attracted to this woman. Three years a Christian and she achieved extraordinary sanctity, suffering rejection from her family, she left home and lived her last three years in a foreign land, only to die at the age of 24. She loved Christ so much, she consecrated herself as a virgin.

Why am I attracted to virgins? (I have great friends in the St. Cecilia and St. Therese) As I said before, it is certainly not for the impure desire to strip them of that great gift which attracts me, but rather, their lives gift me life. Their living as spouse of Christ is an extraordinary witness to me. They do not have a husband to be intimate with or children to birth, feed, and care for, at least physically. Instead, they are brides of Christ and are fully and wholly intimate with Him, giving all that is theirs to Him. In their lifetime and after earthly life, they have all born spiritual children, fed them with the food of their Spouse, and cared for them beyond the potency of physical cares by showing them the fullness of Christ, their Spouse.

Satan takes this beautiful gift of the witness of virgins and our attraction to such women and perverts it into that unique form of lust I mentioned earlier. He does not want their witness to shine forth, so he influences those good desires for evil, by trying to rob the virgin of her beauty, de-flowering her. This is why the witness of St. Maria Goretti is so strong. Even unto death, should would not let this perversion persist. She loved her attacker to much to let him fulfill that perverted desire.

You can see, in young especially, they are attracted to virgins, religious women. They are mystifying to them. They want to be around them, get to know them. This is really an attraction to what they represent by their virginity, an attraction to heaven, total union with God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Virgins become a lens into heaven by the life they lead.

I am attracted to virgins. Who are you attracted to?

The Friendship of St. Thomas More and Desiderius Erasmus: History and Pedagogy

2011-07-11T21:59:00.002-05:00

"Behold how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity," (Ps. 132:1). To have a friend is simultaneously a desire of man and a source of great enjoyment for him. Indeed friendship has entered on hard times here in the sunrise of the twenty-first century. It is replaced by business acquaintances, sexual liaisons, and support groups. None of which begin to fulfill the desire for true friendship. They, rather, lead to workaholics, promiscuity, and reduction of anthropology to mere emotionalism. “True love is a friendship where persons share a common good that is the good of both persons as persons and unites them in a community of life.”[i] It is here that the friendship of St. Thomas More and Desiderius Eramsus Roterodamus can be of great value. “Their friendship was one of the jewels of the Renaissance.”[ii] The friendship was sustained over thirty-five years, the last thirteen of which were without physical contact. Erasmus was once quoted as saying, “Life without a friend I think no life, but rather death.”[iii] This friendship can provide much enlightenment, then, for our current globalized world. Consequently, this essay has two aims: the first historical, to examine in a brief glace the friendship between these two men; and the second pedagogical, in order to draw from this friendship certain principles that can be applied to our present situation indeed any situation where friendship has fallen prey to radical individualism or radical socialism.[iv]

St. Thomas More

As a course of introduction to this friendship it seems appropriate to first enter into their roots, where they came from and what brought them together. Because of his enduring popularity even to this day, it would seem fitting to begin with St. Thomas More. He was born of John More, a lawyer of good standing in London, and Agnes Graunger, the daughter of a London alderman, on or near February 7, 1478.[v] As his son ascended in years John More ascended in rank within the London government. Thomas took grammar school (at that time that term meant what it said) at St. Anthony’s, where he learned Latin grammar.[vi] He learned not only to read Latin but to speak, argue, and dispute in Latin. It can be said even at a young he was being prepared to take up the practice of law as was his father’s desire. The education in Latin was crucial for More’s learning. “The adult More … would have conversed in Latin as often as he even spoke in English; the majority of his extant letters are also composed in the older language. His most important prose works are written in Latin, as well, but its use has a more private aspect; he and Erasmus were for a while intimate friends but they could communicate only that language.”[vii] At the age of twelve, More moved from St. Anthony’s, in London, to the house of Archbishop John Morton, archbishop of Canterbury and Lord Chancellor to Henry VII, where he served at table for the prelate and his retinue. There he continued study through a tutor for all those serving, but his real school was listening to the conversation at this important Englander’s table.[viii] Morton noticed More’s intellectual brilliance and sent him to Oxford, where he studied for two years. There hr was taught in the scholastic style of disputatio, and he also performed in short comic sketches at the college that he resided.[ix] However, following those two years he pursued his father’s desire for him to be a lawyer by entering the New Inn and a few years later transferring to Lincoln’s Inn. He spent eight years in total in study law. It was towards the end of his studies at Lincoln’s Inn that he met Erasmus.

Desiderius Erasmus

Erasmus was illegitimately born in Rotterdam in Holland on October 27, 1466. His father, Gerhard, was a cleric (is not known if he was before or after Erasmus’ conception) of not much support to his son. His mother Margaret, daughter of a physician, was left to care for the children, because their father traveled to Italy to become a copyist.[x] His mother sent him and his older brother to the Cathedral school in Deventer. There he studied under the Brothers of the Common Life. He learned the devotio moderna forwarded by Thomas á Kempis as well as the scholastic methods.[xi] It was here that “his book became his companions; they did not change, or decay, or die.”[xii] His mother and father died nine years later leaving him and his brother to the greedy and unforgiving hands of their father’s brothers. Here Erasmus said that he was forced into religious life and priesthood.[xiii] Neither for which, did he have a vocation. In search of greater learning, he entered into the service of the Bishop of Cambrai hoping to study in Italy. He instead was sent to Paris. There he studied the ancient languages that More studied as a child. There he tutored the children of the Lord Mountjoy, who in turn invited Erasmus to join him for a while in England. It is here that these to men began a lasting friendship.

The encounter was described by Eramus in 1523. It occurred in 1499 at the Greenwich house of Sir William Say, to whose daughter Mountjoy was betrothed and who was a family friend of the Mores. “Thomas More, who, while I was staying in the country house of Mountjoy, had paid me a visit, took me out for a walk for relaxation of mind to a neighboring village.”[xiv] The neighboring village was Eltham were there was a royal residence. Prince Henry (to be Henry VIII), then eight or nine years of age, was currently residing there. More, a school friend, Edward Arnold, and Erasmus paid a visit to the prince the former two offering verses for the younger son of the king.[xv] It can be deduced that two students of law and budding scholar would have had an intellectual discussion on their way to such a fare. Erasmus always enjoyed intellectual conversation, and More always sought advice from his scholar friends, St. John Fisher, Fr. John Colet, Thomas Linacre, Bishop Cuthbert Tunstall, and William Lily. Their conversation, as mentioned before, was in Latin, for although Erasmus traveled all throughout Europe for most of his life he failed to learn any of the vernacular languages except for use in general affairs, something Reynolds continually points out. Nonetheless, this spurred a familial relationship between the two. Erasmus was said to always have a room at More’s house in London and the same would have been the case when he moved to Chelsea had Erasmus ever returned to England in the last ten years of More’s life. In the first of their correspondence, a letter from Erasmus to More, one can begin to understand their intimate relationship for Erasmus calls More “sweetest Thomas” and “dear More.”[xvi]

From this first meeting comes the first principle of friendship: a personal physical encounter. More and Erasmus met face to face. They even went on a small journey together. They walked and talked and shared mutual likes and dislikes (although probably more of an intellectual nature, than say food). This takes into account the hylomorphic nature of the human person. In meeting a true friend, one encounters them both body and soul. In that first letter, Erasmus wrote that he ‘grew sick’ for want of both More and his handwriting, i.e. his physical presence and the inner thoughts of his soul. In our present circumstances, many people meet online. Here they imagine true friendships have come about. Although they may have seen pictures of their friend, nothing, I mean nothing can take the place of a physical encounter with a person. Here there is a natural epistemology of the dignity of this person. Their existence although conceptual before, becomes actual in the intellect. Many friendships fail because they lack this initial physical encounter.

Erasmus left England after that most joyous sojourn only to return five years later. He would travel Europe, a vagabond scholar, moving from place to place never staying anywhere long enough to settle. It was only when his age and his health at the end of his life forced him to stay at Louvain or in Basel for extended periods of time. He was constantly writing letters. Moving from place to place, he kept correspondence with all those he met. They, including More, will respond. These seemed to be a normal affair because there is a great body of extant letters from both More and Erasmus. One of the general themes, when either mentions the other or writes to the other is mutual respect. This can be seen from Eramus in a letter he wrote while living and working with More on Latin translations of Lucian.

For I do not think, unless the vehemence of my love leads me astray, that Nature ever formed a mind more present, ready, sharpsighted and subtle, or in a word more absolutely furnished with every kind of faculty than his. Add to this a power of expression equal to his intellect, a singular cheerfulness of character and an abundance of wit, but only of the candid sort; and you miss nothing that should be found in a perfect advocate.[xvii]

It can also be seen in a letter from More to Martin Dorp. Dorp was a theologian at Louvain who took to arguing and slandering Erasmus for his writing of Praise of Folly (which is dedicated to More and in part inspired by him). More wrote to Dorp defending his friend.

I am definitely very much disturbed because, in your work, you give the impression of attacking Erasmus in a manner not all becoming to you or him. You treat him sometimes as if you despise him, sometimes as if you looked down upon him in derision, sometimes not as one giving him an admonition, but scolding him like a stern reprover or a harsh censor; and lastly, by twisting the meaning of his words, as if you were stirring up all the theologians and even the universities against him.[xviii]

Although to postmodern ears this sounds tame, it is both scathing criticism toward Dorp and a bold a defense for one of Erasmus’ most controversial works during his lifetime. They had each other in mutual respect. Both discussed the good in each other setting aside the bad for what was but rejoiced in the gift that God had given them. This is a lesson for contemporary friendships that seem to be based more on mutual use and than mutual respect. Although More was connected in England and Erasmus throughout Europe,[xix] neither used the other simply for personal advantage. One was always looking out for the mutual good of the other. When More entered the service of the king, Erasmus said something to the effect of, “I rejoice for the king that he has received so great a man, but I feel sorry for More for having to work for the king.” He truly cared for the well being of More. This job indeed would cost More his life.

Indeed, the crowning character of their friendship and probably the glue which kept such physically distant men so close together centered on their relationship with Jesus Christ, whom they met in Scripture and in Eucharist. One can, especially in More writing while in the tower of London, that he had a deep understanding of the Christian life and the Christian relationship with Jesus Christ. This is a prayer taken from his A Treatise on the Passion, “O my sweet savior Christ, who in your undeserved love towards mankind so kindly would suffer the painful death of the cross, suffer not me to be cold or lukewarm in love again towards you.”[xx] Erasmus because of the fame, sanctity, and martyrdom of his friend tends to be overshadowed in this area, especially since he was denounced by so many in the church. He detested the abuses and pure physicality of the popular piety of the veneration of relics. He wished to direct people towards the heavenly realities and the lives of the saints whose bones they venerate. He says this in his Enchiridion Militis Christiani, “Rise as by rungs until you scale the ladder of Jacob. As you draw nigh to the Lord, He will draw to unto you. If with all your might you strive to rise above the cloud and clamor of the senses He will descend from light inaccessible and that silence which passes understanding in which not only the tumult of the senses is still, but the images of all intelligible things keep silence.”[xxi] This indeed sounds like the advice of some of the Carmelite mystics that follow him and More later in the sixteenth century. Indeed, the light of Christ shined on this relationship. It strengthened it and sustained it. Beyond all intellectual and political pursuit that either were involved in, they were first men of God.

This seems to be the most lacking in contemporary friendships. As said before, they are centered not on mutual respect but on mutual use. They, following our current society, separate God from their relationships. He becomes the arbiter and blind watchmaker and the not the saving and all-loving ineffable one with whom all men desire the most true friendship. This is indeed the least talked about part of the friendship between Erasmus and More. This strengthens my claim of the problem for all of my secondary sources were written in the twentieth century. They cannot even see the true source and sustenance of their relationship. Reynolds see the basis as elusive be posits that their friendship was a harmony of spirit.[xxii] I would further that and say it is rather a harmony in and through the Holy Spirit. He both enlightens us and shows us the love of God.

Three principles of friendship, then, can be deduced from the relationship between Desiderius Erasmus and St. Thomas More. The first and most basic principle is a personal physical encounter. One must encounter the other person in their body face to face, if you will, just they did on that day as they walked to met Prince Henry. The second principle is mutual respect, without which the human qualities of the relationship will fail. One finds in the extant letters of More and Erasmus a constant building up of the other, each one always looking for the good of the other. The final and highest principle is a mutual relationship with and in Jesus Christ. A friendship with God begets true friendships with man.

[i] Ralph McInerny, “Lecture 7A -- Lesson Thirteen: Love: The Unity of Christian Life,” Notes from his course Introduction to St. Thomas Aquinas offered by the International Catholic University. www.icu.org

[ii] Richard Shoeck, “Telling More from Erasmus : An Essai in Renaissance Humanism,” Moreana. XXlII. 91-92 (Nov. 1986). 11-19.

[iii] Peter Ackroyd, The Life of Thomas More (NY: Anchor Books, 1998), 82.

[iv] Although it would be of great joy for me to follow their relationship from start to finish, and analyze each letter and work of theirs, such a work would be vastly outside the scope of such an essay. Consequently, I will focus specifically on those parts of their relationship wherein the principles of friendship can be drawn out.

[v] Ackroyd, 6. E.E. Reynolds, Thomas More and Erasmus (NY: Fordham University Press, 1965),16.

[vi] Ackroyd, 20.

[vii] Ibid, 25.

[viii] Ibid, 29-37.

[ix] Ibid, 38-52.

[x] Reynolds, 3. It is interesting that in a sense both More and Erasmus took up their father’s trades. More indeed became a lawyer of the highest order as Lord Chancellor of England. Erasmus became one of the foremost scholars of ancient languages who reprinted Church Fathers, the New Testament, and many adages of the Greek and Roman philosophers and orators. He, in a sense, became a master at the use of the printing press to disseminate his work. They both followed in the father’s footstep but only to surpassing them.

[xi] Roland Bainton, Eramus of Christendom (NY: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1969.), 8-11.

[xii] Ackroyd, 81.

[xiii] Erasmus, ed. Richard DeMolen (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1973), 34.

[xiv] Reynolds, 22. (He quoted it without footnote or endnote, and I could not track down its source.)

[xv] It was the custom for scholars to offer verses on such occasions. Ackroyd, 83. Reyonolds, 22.

[xvi] Desiderius Erasmus, The Epistles of Erasmus: From His Earliest Letters to His Fifty-First Year, Volume 1, translated by Francis Morgan Nichols (NY: Russell & Russell, 1962), 212.

[xvii] Letters, vol. 1, 406.

[xviii] St. Thomas More, Selected Letters, edited by Elizabeth Frances Rogers (New Haven: Yal University Press, 1961), 12.

[xix] He corresponded with popes and bishops throughout his lifetime. He was also a counselor to Charles V of Hapsburg notoriety.

[xx] A Thomas More Source Book, edited by Gerard B. Wegemer and Stephen W. Smith (Washington D.C: CUA Press, 2004), 266.

[xxi] Quoted in Bainton, 71.

[xxii] Reynolds, 242.

This is Your Brain on Music

2011-07-10T14:03:00.002-05:00

I picked up this book as research for a talk I was giving to a group of Catholic college students on Music, the Emotions, and the Liturgy. I wanted to get as well rounded view on the effect of music and the emotions, and this book provided a scientific look at how the brain is effected and affected by music.

I had never read a science book before, not really my desired area of interest. For being a book by a scientist about his work it was very readable even for the 'scientific layman' like myself.

Because it was written by a scientist of the early 21st Century it is thoroughly materialistic in its content. There is no concept for him of the soul or its connection with the body (and being that Francis Crick is his scientific idol that is not surprising). That being the case his epistemology has the flavor of Cartesian idealism without the soul. He must be a metaphysically confused individual.

With all this being said, his conclusions need to mediated and taken with much reflection to see how they can integrated into a metaphysical realism and proper anthropology. Over a few more posts I hope to tackle some of his thoughts and ideas and hopefully allow his scientific insights bring about a clear anthropology.

I would not suggest this to a person without a good grasp of the human person because he or she could easily be led astray by the blatant but cogent materialism that Levitin proposes.

Cooking for Seminarians

2011-07-07T19:19:00.002-05:00

I love to cook. Unfortunately I don't get to do it very often. Time does not permit or more often fatigue is great. Fortunately, I had the gift to cook for 100 Seminarians and a couple of families over the Fourth of July Weekend. It was great to expend energy and fulfill a part of my diaconal ministry, feeding the hungry (something Seminarians always are). We made hamburger patties (diced onion, ground meat, Tony Chachere's, garlic power, onion powder, salt, pepper, and Worcestershire Sauce). We also grilled beef franks and brats. As for sides we had potato salad (boiled potatoes, celery, Jack Daniels mustard, Grey Poupon, Tony's, salt and pepper, and mayo) as well cole slaw.
Here are a few prep pictures and some pictures of the event. Enjoy.

Reflection on Love and the Eucharist on the Occasion of the Feast of Corpus Christi

2011-06-25T01:11:00.002-05:00

Jesus gave this act of oblation an enduring presence through his institution of the Eucharist at the Last Supper. He anticipated his death and resurrection by giving his disciples, in the bread and wine, his very self, his body and blood as the new manna (cf. Jn 6:31-33). The ancient world had dimly perceived that man's real food—what truly nourishes him as man—is ultimately the Logos, eternal wisdom: this same Logos now truly becomes food for us—as love. The Eucharist draws us into Jesus' act of self-oblation. More than just statically receiving the incarnate Logos, we enter into the very dynamic of his self-giving. The imagery of marriage between God and Israel is now realized in a way previously inconceivable: it had meant standing in God's presence, but now it becomes union with God through sharing in Jesus' self-gift, sharing in his body and blood. The sacramental “mysticism”, grounded in God's condescension towards us, operates at a radically different level and lifts us to far greater heights than anything that any human mystical elevation could ever accomplish. Deus Caritas Est 13

God so loved the world. I don't think we fully understand the gravity of that statement by St John. To Aristolte, the First Cause was drawing all things to himself, drawn by eros like a divine magnet. Aristotle never spoke of a reciprocity on God's part. He only received the love of every material thing. In the Enlightenment, there arose in thought a concept of God known as the Divine Watchmaker, who set everything into order, wound it up, and stepped back. No love there. Some even have the concept of God who is judge alone who is taking notes on each sin in order to damn us to eternal fire.

The Holy Spirit rectifies these views with the words of the Apostle John, 'God so loved the world' and 'God is love'. What is love but self-gift? God gives Himself to us, His children, unreservedly. He gave Himself to Israel,redeeming them from slavery, forgiving them for idolatry, but most of all, by becoming human flesh through the womb of the Blessed Virgin Mary. It was in love that the Incarnation occurred. By so many, God's love is unrequited. In Jesus Christ love became flesh and blodd that we can love back.

As we saw in the Ascension, His flesh and blood had returned to the right hand of the Father. No longer could we see or touch or hear love Incarnate. But, 'God so loved the world that He gave His only Son'. In what way did He give His only Son? In the immolation and sacrifice on the cross at Calvary. Knowing that this was how He was going to be gift, Christ left us with a memorial of His offering, in which He, through His priests, re-presents Himself as gift, in love to us. 'The Eucharist draws us into Jesus' act of self-oblation. More than just statically receiving the incarnate Logos, we enter into the dynamic of his self-giving'. In the Eucharist we receive love. The love we receive touches the very core of our being, as creation, but more importantly, as Children of God. God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, reveals the fullness of love through the Eucharist. You are loved. I am loved. We are all loved in the mystery of the Eucharistic species. The most inconsequential media, unleavened bread and cheap wine, become the means by which we experience the infinite depths of God's love for us. Let us open our mouths and our hearts to receive Love.

Apostle of England

2011-05-27T07:53:00.002-05:00

Today is the memorial of St. Augustine of Canterbury. I have had a certain attraction to him since I first heard about six years ago. In my head I constantly get him confused with Anselm of Canterbury, the turn of the millennium French Benedictine who later took took the see Augustine founded. Augustine, a lat sixth century Benedictine, was sent to England from Rome by Pope St. Gregory the Great. Augustine initialized what would later become missionary monasticism, wherein the missions of the Church, which we usually connect with the mendicant orders and the Jesuits, were led by monks. St. Columban was an Irish monk who led the missionary monasticism from the north of the island. Augustine led from the south. Together they recoverted Scotland, England, and Whales, which was lost to paganism after the fall of Rome in 414. Augustine is known as the apostle of England, and indeed, he very much aided in bring Christianity back to the country. His see became the premier see in England, despite the largeness of London. It was held by such notable saints as Anselm and Thomas â Becket.

England is now experiencing what it experienced nearly 1500 years ago, a return to the Catholic faith. The pope no longer sent a missionary to till the soil, water the crops, and reap. He was the missionary. I have a great love for that island my ancestry leads there. It is on the brink of overcoming the hubris of Henry VIII and Elizabeth I, a nearly 500 year project.

St. Augustine of Cantuerbury, pray for your beloved England, that whole and entire she may return to the fold.

Ordination: Not of this World

2011-05-20T10:38:00.000-05:00

I have been waiting, preparing, myself for years now. Studying. Practicing. Praying. Failing. Winning.

I come now to the precipice of Ordination (only a day away). What a mysterious word, "ordination." It holds people in awe. It captures minds, but is somewhat unimaginable. What can be put together from previous experiences to imagine, "ordination?" It is experienced, at most, three times a year, here in New Orleans. That allows for only a limited amount of people to witness such a mysterious event.

It is unique. Men prostrate themselves. The bishop lays hands on each head as if he is washing the men's hair. Long prayers are said. Levi is mentioned, and all think ... denim ... and not the priestly tribe. Things like "pray for us" are sung over and over and over again like a broken record playing simultaneously with a working record. A man dresses another man in front of a whole bunch of people. Then, there's a line of men greeting, hugging, the men who have just gone through the awkward obstacle course of movements.

Ordinations seem so foreign to worldly sentiments and sense because they, indeed, transcend sentiment and sense. The supernatural is active. The prostration shows these men are dying to themselves and to the world, during which time the heavens are stormed with prayers for these men, beseeching those nearest the heavenly throne, to intercede on these men's behalf. At the laying on of heands, the man's soul is marked as a priest of Jesus Christ, for me a servant, diakona, as Jesus Christ (think washing of the feet). His being takes on a new dimension. He is clothed with new garments showing that He is being clothed with Christ, as Christ. He is now in a singular group who welcome him into this gift of a community.

Am I prepared? Because of my finiteness and my inheritance of the tendency towards sin, never totally. Am I ready? Yes.

Please pray for all the men throughout the world who will be ordained deacons and priests in the coming months.

Confession and the New Evangelization, or How to Follow the Lives of the Saints

2011-05-16T09:57:00.002-05:00

To say we get a great number of hits on this humble blog would be to flat out lie. A small is fine with us because the joy of writing and writing about reading is consolation enough. I must say, though, there is a post that stands above and beyond all other posts in our stats. The next closest post is 842 views behind. This post isn't even of our writing per se (don't worry, no plagiarists here) which is very humbling. It is a copy of the novena to St. Jean-Marie Vianney, patron saint of priest. I had posted it specifically for the Year of the Priest promulgated by Pope Benedict XVI nearly three years ago. The constant stream of views of this novena is no small testament to the great devotion there is to this simple saint. Of our writership, one is a priest, one soon will be, I will soon be a transitional deacon, and the three others are former seminarians/religious. We all hold a devotion to this great Christian and singular priest.

This devotion, for me, has grown over the last year and a half as I have been reading the Curé d'Ars' standard biography, The Curé d'Ars: St. Jean-Marie Baptiste Vianney by Abbé François Trochu. While in minor seminary, I saw guys carrying around this large volume, 627 pages (when the life of a saint rivals the size of entire volume of Butler's, it is large). It was in nearly even room except my own. It was recommended to me by many of my confreres, but, due to my obstinence and God's use of that for His providence, I had not yet taken up this tome for the first seven and a half years of my seminary career. It entered my shelves at the behest of Bl. John Paul II from his book remembering his 50 years of priesthood, Gift and Mystery. On All Saints Day 2009, upon the recommendation of the spiritual director of the seminary, I began a regular reading of the life of a saint. I began with the life of the Florentine St. Philip Neri, who is the patron of the parish of my childhood. After him it only seemed appropriate, being still in the year of the priest, to begin the life of the patron saint of priest. Abbé Trochu had the great gift of having the process for Vianney's canonization as his primary research material. Through it he wished to give an accurate and still thoroughly pious representation of the life of this beloved French priest.

I could dwell on his extreme asceticism, or his miracles, or his holy gifts of reading souls of the living and conversing with the souls of the dead. No. There were four things that struck me about this man, and of which, I wish to imitate during my future life as a priest of Jesus Christ:

his devotion to the Eucharist
his devotion to the Blessed Mother
his humility
his tireless work in the confessional

This final virtue also struck me when I read the life of St. Philip Neri. The "new evangelization" in Rome after the ridiculous frivolity of the late Middle Ages was done by Philip Neri in the confessional. After the French Revolution, the religion of reason, and the Napoleonic Wars that led France to a committed atheism, it was the work of St. Jean Vianney in the confessional that brought the French back to their knees in prayer to God most high. I am firmly convinced that in our current age of secularism and practical hedonism what is needed to bring Christians back to their faith is the confessional. Rae Jericho had written a post about this topic a week or two ago. Rae, this is my response.

The Undead and the Resurrection

2011-05-13T18:19:00.000-05:00

Tonight I say amongst the dead. Daylight was moving to some other part of the world. Accompanied by headstones and bones, I prayed. Up above, in place of the sun, was crescent moon surrounded by a slowly fading dark blue reminiscent of a Marian apparition yet to have occurred. Around me flickered fireflies, light up the dusk left by the departing sun. I say on a bench beneath a tree to spend some time in prayer with the dead.

Suddenly, an image flickered in my imagination, a memory, certainly brought on by the graves before me. Corpses were rising from their places of rest to grab at the feet of the protagonists of a zombie film I had watched some weeks earlier. These particular corpses desire the consumption of human flesh, indeed a rather morbid desire, but, then again, they are dead. Still in prayer, for better or for worse, I began to reflect on the recent fascination with zombies, not only in film, but in novels like Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, and in normal conversation (as normal as conversation about the zombie apocalypse can be).

Why such a fascination? Of course, there are different genre of dead alive compared to vampires, and vampires, especially their love lives, are big right now. Still, why zombies? I would venture to guess it is because there is a cultural fear of death that the, through the use of human imagination, is personified by those who are already dead but are no longer resting in peace. Does this personification help us cope with the inevitability of death? Does it ease our minds by playing with the prospect that one day our soulless bodies might be feasting on human flesh? I think it puts the fear of death before us and, in a sense, mocks it, while still recognizing it can only mock and never allay that fear.

Death has no reason to be feared though. It has been destroyed by the Way, the Truth, and the Life. Death, and therefore, zombies, have no power over us, who have been given the gift of entering through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Zombies, although maybe not intentionally, mock Christ's Resurrection, which in mocks our promised resurrection. Zombies 'rise' decrepit, corrupted, and lustfully desiring flesh. When we rise from our graves, we will have glorified bodies with the beauty of God shining through our flesh, desiring nothing but the glory of God.

Zombies have the place in popular fiction. As Christians, Zombies can provide for us a reflection on our fear of death and on our future Resurrection.

Pride of the Pocket Protector

2011-05-11T11:11:00.003-05:00

Are we ever really prepared for every situation? I know the Boy Scouts wish to purport this fallacy of being perpetually prepared. I am not prepared to battle a bear or speak to an angry Italian woman about her poor cooking. That isn't to say I can't, at this moment, begin battling a bear or speaking to said Italian woman. I am just have never prepared for said situations. Preparation, in some instances, flows from the pride of the individual instead of the end the of the preparation. In other words, they convince themselves that through proper preparation they have power over the situation.

Take, for instance, a man who always has a pen on his person. He is prepared to take down a quick note on a napkin or sign a check or lend the pen to some damsel in distress who, in the largeness of her purse, has indeed not packed a pen. He is now labelled as the prepared man with the pen, always handy, always ready with the writing utensil. He takes pride in this position of preparedness and can easily be enslaved under the assumption that his preparedness is the end of his actions. He begins to be more prepared, say with a pencil as well, just in case he or the borrower makes a calligraphic mistake and needs to erase. He then begins to carry ink pens that vary in color so as to suit the needs at the time, red for correction, blue to break the monotony of black, green to break the monotony of blue and black which reminds him of bruises, ad nauseam. Before long, his breast pocket needs a protector in case ink leaks out of one of the baker's dozen writing instruments housed therein. He is surely prepared, but, in the process, he not only looses fashion savvy but a sense of simplicity and humility, as well.

Preparedness requires humility, without it one begins to wear a pocket protector.

The Visitation: The Revelation of Humanity at Conception

2011-05-05T08:43:00.000-05:00

"In those days Mary arose and went with haste, into the hill country to a city of Judah, and she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth. And when Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary, the babe leaped in her womb; and Elizabeth was filed with the Holy Spirit and she exclaimed with a loud cry, 'Blessed are you among women and blessed is the fruit of your womb! And why is this granted me, that the Mother of my Lord should come to me?' For behold, when the voice of your greeting came to my ears, the babe in my womb leaped for joy. And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her from the Lord." - Luke 1:39-45

This might seem a bit out of place in the liturgical calendar, being that we are in Easter and not in Advent, but bear with me. I have been reading Dr. Edward Sri's book Dawn of the Messiah which goes through the infancy narratives of Luke and Matthew. As we got to the above passage, Sri writes

Filled with the Holy Spirit, Elizabeth has prophetic insight into the uniqueness of Mary's motherhood. Not only does she realize that Mary is pregnant, but she understands hat Mary has become the mother of Israel's Messiah. In awe over the mystery taking place in Mary's womb, Elizabeth, in extraordinary fashion, honors her younger kinswoman and acknowledges her as the 'mother of my Lord' and 'blessed ... among women.' (emphasis added)

As I was reading, some struck me like an anvil on my foot. Elizabeth recognized the baby in Mary's womb. Of course, most would be, like, duh, Kyle, of course. Think about it though. Mary was told that she would conceive and bear a son; this would occur when the Holy Spirit would overshadow her. We understand this as occurring at the Annunciation. Then it says, "In those days Mary arose and went with haste." Another way to translate the Greek would "at that time" or even "on that day." In any way, she left Nazareth soon after conception. Being that Elizabeth lived in a town of Judah, Mary lived about 60 miles from her older cousin. That would account for a few days travel. At most, then, Mary was a few weeks pregnant when she arrived at the house Elizabeth. She probably wasn't even showing, at least not enough for anyone to notice that she was pregnant, and yet, Elizabeth cries out in full faith, "Blessed is the fruit of your womb! Who am I that the mother of my Lord." Notice she doesn't say the one to be the mother of my Lord. She speaks in the present tense.

Fetus at Four Weeks

What does this have to do with anything? Well, Jesus was just a few weeks old. No more than about the size the fetus to the right. And yet, both the child in Elizabeth's womb, who is not even cogent and reasoning yet, and Elizabeth herself recognize that the human nature and the divine person are present in their midst. There is no questioning whether this is a human life or not. There is no question whether the mass of tissue is worth anything. It is worth everything. This verse implicitly supports human life from conception on. There would be no reason to give praise over a bunch of cells. No, this was a divine person united to a human nature manifesting himself as Son of God and Son of Mary before there was little to no brain tissue.

Bl. John Paul II and Future Priests

2011-04-30T15:24:00.001-05:00

I've been following the Twitter feeds of the likes of Anna Arco, writer for the Catholic Herald, and Rocco Palmo, the writer of the blog, Whispers in the Loggia as they tweet about the vigil before John Paul II's beatification. I am supremely excited. For many of my generation, John Paul II was the pope, just like for many in New Orleans, Archbishop Philip Hannan, is the Archbishop. His writing has had great effect on my life from the Theology of the Body, to Fides et Ratio, to Pastores Dabo Vobis, to Veritatis Splendor, to Love and Responsibility, to Redemptoris Missio. All of these have been of that earth-shattering, weltenschauung changing variety, providing insights into the human person, the Christian life, and the priesthood that helped shape who I am today. I look up to him first as a holy man and a holy priest. He certainly influenced my discernment as he has many others and some might call me in the future, a JP II priest.

I stand now hoping that through his intercession many more men follow the call that has been placed on their hearts. He was a preeminent priest, whose Christocentrism shined forth. I speak this on the brink of a whole new life for me, being only three weeks from ordination to the transitional diaconate. John Paul II looks out to me as a shining example as I reach the homestretch of my formation.

In his early priesthood, he devoted much time to the youth, guiding them, directing them, giving them the concepts by which to live a Christian life. He went out with them, wasting time with them. He continued to foster his tremendous intellect all during a time a persecution from the secular athiests of the Communist regime that led his country. He went on to be a compassionate pastor and lover of the poor, who devoted his life to his flock. He never tired of going out though, and brought the papacy in an evangelistic direction it hadn't seen in a long time. He certainly turned to Peter and Paul for guidance on that. He loved the Blessed Virgin Mary, his mother since an early age. His priesthood was dedicated to her Son through her.

That is what kind of priest I wish to be: passionate about the catechesis and evangelization of the youth, while willing to continue expanding my intellect to the great mysteries of the faith and of nature. We are also under a more subtle persecution in this country from the practical athiests, who persecute Christian to justify their own apathy. I wish to be a compassionate pastor and lover of the poor who is tireless in working for both truth and justice, going out to proclaim the good news to the ends of the earth, or to wherever the Lord calls me, all done under the banner of Virgine Maria, our Mother and Protector.

Blessed John Paul II, we pray that through your intercession many more men enter into the priesthood of Jesus Christ.

John Updike's The Resurrection

2011-04-25T12:44:00.003-05:00

This poem was what opened the section on Easter Season in my devotional book. I always dig it when a popular contemporary writer speaks up for the Resurrected Lord.

Make no mistake: if He rose at all
it was as His body;
if the cells' dissolution did not reverse, the molecules
reknit, the amino acids rekindle,
the Church will fall.

It was not as the flowers,
each soft Spring recurrent;
it was not as His Spirit in the mouths and fuddled
eyes of the eleven apostles;
it was as His Flesh: ours.

The same hinged thumbs and toes,
the same valved heart
that — pierced — died, withered, paused, and then
regathered out of enduring Might
new strength to enclose.

Let us not mock God with metaphor,
analogy, sidestepping transcendence;
making of the event a parable, a sign painted in the
faded credulity of earlier ages:
let us walk through the door.

The stone is rolled back, not papier-mache,
not a stone in a story,
but the vast rock of materiality that in the slow
grinding of time will eclipse for each of us
the wide light of day.

And if we will have an angel at the tomb,
make it a real angel,
weighty with Max Planck's quanta, vivid with hair,
opaque in the dawn light, robed in real linen
spun on a definite loom.

Let us not seek to make it less monstrous,
for our own convenience, our own sense of beauty,
lest, awakened in one unthinkable hour, we are
embarrassed by the miracle,
and crushed by remonstrance.

From Updike, John. "Telephone Poles and Other Poems" (New York: Alfred A. Knopf,1961).

Closed Captioned: Male Voice

2011-04-21T12:51:00.007-05:00

Sitting in a busy loud coffee shop does not lead to being able to hear the tvs displayed, hence the need for {closed caption}. I happened to glance up to the television in a fit of attention deficit to notice a commercial beginning. The caption said {male voice} and then went on with the script of the commercial. At that moment it hit me, a person born deaf would have no concept of a {male voice}. They would not put together that it is probably a lower frequency and pitch than a female voice. They would have no concept of pitch and frequency in general, much relation between higher and lower. That caption would have only visual comparisons, say the person speaking might have facial hair and a possibly large muscular structure. It might be a stronger voice than that of a petite woman. The commercial might give context to the type of man that is speaking, but then again I am speaking with a plethora of past commercial watching and listening experience. I would like to turn this insight into a Chestertonian insight into the infinite, but as of yet nothing has occured to me. What I do realize is that a person born deaf perceives the world differently that I do.

Book Discernment

2011-04-19T20:47:00.000-05:00

A fellow blogger and bibliophile, Sarah Reinhard, asked the question on her blog, Snoring Scholar, (a fellow alliteration blogsite), How do you pick what to read next? I thought I would answer on her comments line, but I figured it was pertinent to the blog so here we go.

To have so many books one has not read the choices are vast. I tend to "collect" books. More books just seem to appear on the shelves, or when all the shelves are taken on the floor. Which one do I choose to read next? Should I read Dostoyevsky's The Brother's Karamozov or St. Catherine of Siena's Dialogue or Karol Wojtyla's The Acting Person or Pope Paul VI's encyclical Evangelii Nutiandi or Pope Benedict's Jesus of Nazareth: Part One and Part Two or G.K. Chesterton's The Man Who Was Thursday. All good. All worth reading. None will disappoint. All with be fruitful. Some will be more difficult than others. Over the years, I have developed a system for myself to help guide me choice of reading.

First of all, anyone who sees my Goodreads current reading list will find upwards of six books. I don't multitask well going from one to the other. Rather, each book is for a certain "area" if you will.

Life of a Saint

First, there is the life of a saint, which saints say is good thing to read. The more lives of saints I read the more they tell me to read more lives of the saints. That is my bedtime reading to give me peace as I prepare to sleep. It's usually read in bed. Fifteen or twenty minutes a night is a good preparation for rest. My current book is The Curé d' Ars by Abbé Trochu.

The Library

Since I was a child, when my father said he was going to the library, he had in his hand the daily newspaper and was heading towards the bathroom. Since then, I have connected reading and taking care of business. Sitting near the toilet is some small book that can be read in short intervals without being burdensome. I tried reading Theology of the Body, and it just didn't work to dense for the time period. This current book is Dawn of the Messiah by Dr. Edward Sri.

Spiritual Reading

The seminary has tried to foster spiritual reading in our lives. I have taken to read 15-20 minutes each day from a certain work on the spiritual life. Sometimes it is recommended to me by my spiritual director, which makes choices easy. This book at the moment is Discernment of Spirits by Fr. Timothy Gallagher, OMV.

Regular Reading

This is the book that suits my fancy at the time. Usually, it some theology or philosophy book, but on occasion to cut the density I'll read a novel or collection of short stories. I have my "library" of books sectioned off and I have tried to go through, Scripture, then Theology, then Philosophy, then Literature, then History, then Psychology, then Church Documents, trying to go in some sort of pattern to get a well rounded reading experience. On the whole, this has been wholly unfollowed. I'm too ADD to be that organized, but at least, it provides some sort of parameters for choosing, if nothing suits my fancy at the time. This is usually the book I will spend the most time with in a given sitting. The current book in this category is This is Your Brain on Music by Daniel Levitin.

ADD Ebook

This section is for those time when I don't have anything to do, but have no available book in front of me. I unlock my iPhone and start reading from iBooks or from a PDF saved on GoodReader or a word document on iFiles. This has two books right now that I swap between both by Chesterton, Tremendous Trifles and The Innocence of Father Brown.

Seasonal

This will usually pertain to a certain time in the liturgical year or some other important event. They have short runs and usually end up unfinished only to wait to be taken up by one of the aforementioned categories. I have been reading for Lent Abandonment to Divine Providence by Jean-Pierre Caussade.

Hope this is helpful Sarah.

And Then There Were None: An Examination of Mystery Stories

2011-04-16T18:37:00.001-05:00

Over the past year I have begun to engross myself in detective fiction. I began reading the Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, analyzing his keen analytics from the perspective of Dr. Watson. Arthur Conan Doyle had a structure to each story. For the unpatient reader, the massive amount of dialogue could have become tiresome, but for me, it excited me. Who was the perpetrator? How was Holmes going to solve the case? What was Doyle going to think of next? These I enjoyed, short bursts of mystery and detection, that like any finite reality left me wanting more.

I had in my possession during that time on my iPod, then iPhone, a free ebook I had obtained from the vast collection of beyond copyright materials in the library of the iBook store. For a set of mysteries stories, it has a curious name, The Innocence of Father Brown. I had long heard of Chesterton's brilliance with these stories about a detective priest, and finally, gave into reading short stories on the small iPhone screen, a novel experience I tell you.

I must tell you this curious desire to read mystery novels is not just a fancy of bored seminarian, for bored I am rarely not. It is rather for two reasons, enjoyment, for mystery fiction keeps one riveted and is always seeking justice, and secondly, research, because one day I, a simple blogger and seminarian, wish to write detective fiction. More on this desire later, and back to Father Brown.

Chesterton took a decidedly different turn with his Father Brown stories. They were written by way of different narrators unlike the retelling done by Watson alone. Father Brown was a completely different character than Holmes. He was unassuming, humble, religious, and sometime in the background of the story. He pops out when it is time for said mystery to be solved and has all figured out like a contemplative monk who speaks only when necessary during grand silence.

Finally, I get to Agatha Christie. I must say first her introduction to me was by way of a stageplay of her famous Mousetrap performed by my highschool's drama club. I loved it. I was riveted by the characters and the story so much so that I took it as form in my one and only screenplay, if it can be called that, written for a film project for a high school speech class. Since, that time I was always interested in her work but had slothfully never read it. A few years ago in browsing through the Blockbuster stacks, pre-Netflix, of course, looking for an enjoyable to pass the time a friend and I came across a film named Murder on the Orient Express, with a cast of actors of the likes of Sean Connery and Ingrid Burgman. It was a film version of one her Poirot detective novels. I thoroughly enjoyed the mystery and detection. It was solved by a competent and brilliant detective.

During my aforementioned research I came across a club, that connected the two previous authors. They imaginatively called themselves The Detection Club. Chesterton was their first president. They wished to provide good detective fiction among all the dross and such coming out in those days of the early 20th Century. I found on the American Chesterton Society's website some essays, under his title Murderer, he had written on detective stories. Amongst those essays he outlined some do's and don't of writing detective stories. One of the main ones is this: the culprit should always be known to reader, the culprit should not be introduced as a new character at the end of the story/novel. I found this true of both the Fr. Brown and Holmes stories as well as Murder on the Orient Express. He also stated that those who die are people that we should actually care about in some way. They should not just be straw people. Their deaths then have no great meaning and impetus to solve the mystery is lessened much.

This now brings me to my current place of reflection, Agatha Christie's brilliantly written And Then There Were None.

WARNING: There are SPOILERS if you continue regarding the work mentioned above. If you have not read said work, I suggest that you read a different blogpost, or purchase said novel at your local bookstore, ebook store, or audio book store (I suggest audible.com for the third commercial enterprise).

Now I must say I did not read it. I listened to it, via audiobook. It was a very compelling listen. It came to life. Christie introduces all the characters as they are traveling to a mysterious island. All invited as house guests. Not all by the same person. She immediately creates mystery. Having never read the story I nonetheless knew its premise and its basic conclusion, not only from the title of the novel, but from hearing it from other places. All were going to die. When the ten little indian poem was introduced, I then understood how each person was going to die. I wondered who is going to be last? Who is the culprit? Christie strayed though from the formula. There was no official "detective" like Holmes, or Fr. Brown, or Poirot. There were just amateurs, some more experienced than others, but all amateurs, nonetheless. Furthermore, with ten characters it became rife with red herrings, only relieving doubt when they were murdered.

At the end of the story, all ten were dead and the mysterious Mr. Owen was not revealed. There appeared then an epilogue beginning at the Scotland Yard. I figured, finally, there would be real detective work and all would be figured out. Unfortunately, all Christie gave us were nearly competent policemen, who couldn't figure it out. All this time I was thinking: she broke the golden rule. She's going to bring the culprit up from thin air. After the "detective" work there was no answer and I thought, "You bastard. You're not going to solve it! You're going to leave it up in the air! You can't do that! It negates the whole story, turns it into a waste of time. You can't end totally unresolved with no clues for the reader figure out." Was it one of the ten? Can we trust that it was? Was it one of the final three? Was there actually someone else on the island, who hid too well? It couldn't be a ghost. That would break another cardinal sin of mystery fiction. Then, there was the final letter from Judge Justice Wargrave explaining everything. I should've know from his name. I had thoughts because he was leading the whole "investigation." He was guiding. By being in front of everyone, he was eluding suspicion. I suspected him most of all, until he was killed. Then when the other four died. I was left wondering. Was there another person? The letter was cruel and inviting. I did not like waiting to the very end to find out. To see how the mystery unraveled. It wasn't unraveled by a brilliant detective, but by the culprit himself. It took the sting out of justice. Justice. Justice Wargrave. How ironic.

I learned a few things about mystery fiction from this. Create characters you can feel for. I connected with Vera and Lombard. I didn't want them to die. I wanted them to live. Apparently in the film versions, they do. But it was perfect to kill them, even because we felt for them, because of the nature and power of the plot. It was so well put together. It was nearly impossible to decipher without the letter. I also felt by the end that I despised the cold, tortise-like demeanor of Wargrove. For ample reason did Christie move the reader in that way giving slight clues as to who the perpetrator was. She did that with great effect for Emily Brent. Few would have sided with her quiet self-righteousness. She was perhaps the best red herring. Even better than the kind, rattled doctor.

Second, Christie provided the best example of having the culprit right in front of the reader. All knew Wargrave. He was the very first character that was introduced. Christie broke a rule that is in no rule book per se. She rather played with the expectations of the reader. The first character usually introduced is the protagonist. She flips it around and introduces the killer with the first lines of the book. Ingenious. He''s right in front of everything, and yet ultimately unreproachable until his letter confession.

The God of the Atheists

2011-04-07T11:16:00.003-05:00

I came upon this GKC passage in my Lenten Devotional. It's not the first time I've read it, but it will be the last time I keep it to myself.

THAT A GOOD MAN may have his back to the wall is no more than we knew already; but that God could have his back to the wall is a boast for all insurgents for ever. Christianity is the only religion on earth that has felt that omnipotence made God incomplete. Christianity alone has felt that God, to be wholly God, must have been a rebel as well as a king. Alone of all creeds, Christianity has added courage to the virtues of the Creator, For the only courage worth calling courage must necessarily mean that the soul passes a breaking point — and does not break.

In this indeed I approach a matter more dark and awful than it is easy to discuss; and I apologize in advance if any of my phrases fall wrong or seem irreverent touching a matter which the greatest saints and thinkers have justly feared to approach. But in that terrific tale of the Passion there is a distinct emotional suggestion that the author of all things (in some unthinkable way) went not only through agony, but through doubt. It is written, “Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God.” No; but the Lord thy God may tempt himself; and it seems as if this was what happened in Gethsemane.

In a garden Satan tempted man: and in a garden God tempted God. He passed in some superhuman manner through our human horror of pessimism. When the world shook and the sun was wiped out of heaven, it was not at the crucifixion, but at the cry from the cross: the cry which confessed that God was forsaken of God.

And now let the revolutionists of this age choose a creed from all the creeds and a god from all the gods of the world, carefully weighing all the gods of inevitable recurrence and of unalterable power. They will not find another god who has himself been in revolt. Nay (the matter grows too difficult for human speech), but let the atheists themselves choose a god. They will find only one divinity who ever uttered their isolation; only one religion in which God seemed for an instant to be an atheist.

The Loving Response of Obedience

2011-03-25T10:30:00.002-05:00

"[The breaking of the first covenant] is a situation that comes after the failure of the test connected with the tree of the knowlege of good and evil, which was at the same time the first test of 'obedience,' that is, of hearing the Word in all its truth and of accepting Love according to the fullness of the demands of the creative Will." TOB 11:4

I was struck first of all by the capitalization of Love. Now that sounds very English teachery of me, but it has a great significance. We only capitalize very specific things, the beginnings of sentences, proper names, and places. Love is capitalized because it refers directly to God. Deus Caritas Est.

JP II sees obedience as hearing and accepting Love. Obedience, then, is our response to love. Within that loving response, I spoke last time is also the obedience of God's Will. Obedience and love, then, are intimately connected and intertwined. This connection frees the concept of obedience from oppresiveness, anger, and fear. It connects it rather to a loving response to God's call.

This seems appropriate to today's feast, the Annunciation. No person in history, other than her Son, showed a loving response of obedience to God's call than Mary. Mary's obedience became the opposite of Eve's disobedience. She hears the Word of truth from the proclamation of Gabriel and accepts Love not only in her heart but in her womb. She literally embodies and houses Love due to her fiat. Let her be the exemplar for us as we look for freedom in obedience.

Erotic and Godly?

2011-03-23T11:20:00.001-05:00

"There is a certain relationship between love and the divine: love promises infinity, eternity--a reality far greater and totally other than our everyday existence." Deus Caritas Est 5

This quote is within the context of the Holy Father's explication of eros. He refers back to the Greek understanding of an intoxication transcending into the divine so as to experience supreme happiness. He goes on to say this was enacted through various fertility cults, where men would go to a shrine and unleash their passionate desire upon a woman whose sole purpose was to be mediators of divine intoxication as objects of sexual pleasure. They were treated not as human beings, not as persons, but as objects for those men, objects for the sole purpose of pleasure.

This should sound familiar to us today. Pornography is not much different. Neither is prostitution. Pornography, though, seems to be exponentially more dangerous, if not for the sole reason of being much more accessible, but also from Matthew 5 where Jesus tells us that anyone who lusts after a woman already commits adultery in his heart. Pornography degrades, perverts, and deconstructs the idea and truth of eros. It divinizes eros instead of letting eros be a means to the divine. Furthermore, it destroys the God given dignity of the human person, who is himself an end (c.f. Love and Responsibility Karol Wojtyla).

Pope Benedict goes on to mention the Old Testament's rejection of this cult because it is, as shown earlier, "a perversion of religiosity." However, eros was not rejected, rather, its idea and enaction needed to be purified and tempered.

This desire, ultimately, for God is within us. Eros desires to transcend finite reality to be in union with the infinite, namely God. Aristotle had this concept in his cosmology. The umoved mover, whom he referred to as god, moved all things to itself. Everything moved in its own path back toward the unmoved mover. This can easily be translated into Christian terms. God moves "all creation together in Himself." "Father, I pray that they may be one as You and I are one." In the greatest sense, eros can be seen in this light.

However, "eros needs to be disciplined and purified if it is to provide not just fleeting pleasure, but also a certain foretaste of the pinnacle of our existence, of that beatitude for which our whole being yearns," (Deus Caritas Est 4). The tendency in our culture today is to direct this desire for the infinite, for beatitude, (happiness), toward finite things. These things, or persons, offer fleeting pleasure. Through a temperate direction of eros, we can experience a "foretaste" of eternal life in love. It is like tasting a crumb of the greatest cake ever to be made, and this crumb springs your yearning on ever greater for the whole cake. This foretaste, directed and mediated through temperance, incites full throttle the desire to be in union with our Triune God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

The Honest Young Woman (or, Sincerity and Dialogue)

2011-03-21T16:47:00.001-05:00

“An error is more menacing than a crime, for an error begets crimes. An Imperialist is worse than a pirate. For an Imperialist keeps a school for pirates; he teaches piracy disinterestedly and without an adequate salary. A Free Lover is worse than a profligate. For a profligate is serious and reckless even in his shortest love; while a Free Lover is cautious and irresponsible even in his longest devotion.” –GK Chesterton.

It is amazing the kind of friends one meets in this post-modern world of ours. One such friend, who is thoroughly Pro-life has, within the past three weeks, invited me to a couple of meetings with abortionists. The first time round, the abortionist was also a convert, so the meeting made sense. But the second one was unapologetically pro-choice and, what was worst, it was very much political. I make this somewhat flippant statement, but I mean it wholeheartedly. I believe that a sin is not nearly as bad as an erroneous belief, that politically advocating abortions is worse than having an abortion yourself. “For it is out of the heart that good and evil come.” See the preliminary quote if you think this idea needs to be fleshed-out anymore.

That is why, from among the many wonderful and strange things I heard that evening, there are two in particular that I want to highlight. The first came from the mouth of one of the Planned Parenthood doctors who had, from among the many noble elements in her liberal ideology, chosen to retract liberal socialism in favor of fiscal conservativism. Namely, she argued that healthcare reform demands efficiency, that abortions are cheaper and more efficient than paying to carry a baby to term and, therefore, the government should pay for abortions. What a strange logic! It would be like saying that public school meals should be low grade and cheap because that’s what’s best for taxpayers. The health of the person in question in never brought into the question. But is saving tax-payers money really the goal of healthcare reform? Is it not to provide better health care to the poor and marginalized, regardless of price? You cannot in one breath support an admittedly expensive overhaul of the healthcare system and then, in the next breath, say that you want the cheapest alternative. If you want good healthcare, you must be willing to pay for it. Regardless of whether or not socialized medicine is the best approach to solving the problem, it seems quite obvious to me that cheap ‘fiscally conservative’ healthcare is the worst. It’s like the inverse of cash for clunkers, where Uncle Sam forces on his constituents a poor product and in return asks them to pay for it.

I will not dwell on this argument however, for something more fantastic happened that evening. Towards the end of the discussion, when all sides had made their points and spoke their peace, the small, nervous woman who had been running the Powerpoint stood up and spake thus; “I know that there are some conservatives in this room and I applaud them for their ability to remain chaste, but I want to have sex!” The room went quite for a split second before the Planned Parenthood officials interjected, politely asking the poor girl to calm down and reserve such comments for other times. Had I not been one of three men in the room of fifty people, I might have stood up and defended the young woman. I dare say, it is likely that she was the most sincere person in the room that night! If we are to dialogue about sexuality and healthcare, we must begin by discussing the reality of a couple alone in a room wanting to have sex. It seemed to me that the most appropriate time to discuss sexuality’s longings and desires is at a meeting devoted to “healthy sex.” The doctors and lawyers in the room seemed to think otherwise.

Which brings me back to where I began, with Chesterton talking about error being worse than sin. A young woman who stands up in the middle of a crowd and admits to not having the strength to live a chaste life deserves some sort of accolade. She may be a sinner, but it is Lent! Judge her not. Speaking personally, I think that she was honest and should have been commended for it. Yet, notice the strange reality that followed. Rather than being welcomed and applauded by her feminist friends, she is quieted down and asked to keep to herself. They were embarrassed of her (for her, about her, etc?)! I offer no solution to the conundrum here. I simply want to point out how erroneous beliefs lead to paradoxical behavior in reality. I, the close-minded Christian, was more than willing to let people stand up and say “I want to have sex!” It was the progressives that invoked censorship. Indeed, I hope that God rewards the courage of that young woman, the only one of us willing to speak about woman’s sexual desires at a meeting devoted to the topic of woman’s sexual health. More importantly, I pray for those who support abortion on demand but place strange limits on when women can talk about wanting to have sex.

Dominus Est!

2011-03-20T15:00:00.000-05:00

I love short books. Sure, it can be a hindrance to really delving into a subject deeply, but I still love them. Why? Because they're short - and that means I can read them quickly and feel productive, which in turn encourages me to read even more!

I got one such small book (maxing out at 51 pages!) in the mail this week. Dominus Est - It is the Lord! by Bishop Athanasius Schneider over in Kazakhstan (Central Asia) is a short work on the adoration and reception of Holy Communion. Interestingly, before getting into the theological arguments or scriptural references, Bishop Schneider first notes the example of three 'Eucharistic women' who demonstrated to him the blessed gift of the Eucharist and the manner in which to receive it worthily. I thought this was rather brilliant because in my own experience people tend to connect and understand more deeply the lived reality of someone else rather than a mere concept or theological point. The three examples of intense faith and longing for the Eucharistic Lord can speak to our hearts in a way that opens us to be more understanding and accepting of the theological points that Bishop Schneider puts forward. I would definitely encourage everyone to read this because it is a great 'primer' on reverence toward the Most Blessed Sacrament and gives us much to contemplate all in about an hour's worth of reading.

Reciprocal Love

2011-03-18T08:22:00.002-05:00

"Since God has first loved us (cf. 1 John 4:10), love is now no longer a mere 'command,' it is the response to the gift of love which God draws near to us." Deus Caritas Est 1

Christianity is a contiuation of the Shemah. Pope Benedict shares this insight. The Shemah is the prayer of Israel. They have it on their foreheads and on their door posts. "Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God is one Lord, and you shall love the Lord your God with all your hear, and with all your soul, and with all your might," (Deuteronomy 6:4-5). This was the command given to Israel from the Father at Sinai.

The devout Jew utters this prayer throughout the day reminding himself to follow the law. Jesus "came not to abolish the law, but fulfill it," (Matthew 5:17). So what does this mean for us as Christians, this Shemah of Israel?

Well, with Jesus it takes on a new light. "In this is love, not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be expiation for our sins," (1 John 4:10). This is the verse to which the Holy Father alluded. Not that we first loved God (we are not the initiators of this relationship between human and divine), but He first loved us. Therefore, our love for Him is no longer a command, as in the Shemah, but a response.

Our love for God is a response to His love for us. We first experience this love as children in the faith. We experience it most powerfully in our first conversion experience. We experience it at the proclamation of the Gospel during the Liturgy of the Word. We experience it even more so at the Liturgy of the Eucharist where that event is re-presented, becomes present for us. We experience it when we receive the sacrament of penance.

Then, what is our response but to love back. We give back to God what He has given us, by giving ourselves fully to Him just as He gave Himself for us. There is no holding back. It must be our all.

It's been a while....

2011-03-16T11:11:00.000-05:00

So, it has been a LONG time since I posted anything here on RR. This is due in part to the fact that I have been trying to keep up my own blog that I began last year and also because of the return to classes and the rush to prepare things for ordination. In that time I have been reading a variety of books off and on, but haven't made the time to post anything about them. So I'll start doing so now.

Last fall, as I was finally getting used to the reality that I'm a deacon, I was given a few suggestions on books to read - three on Blessed Teresa of Calcutta and one on St. Therese. Being that I already had a relationship with Therese, I picked that one up first. It was written by Fr. Marc Foley, OCD and is entitled "The Context of Holiness". Essentially the point of the book was to integrate psychology and spirituality rather than keep them separate as we can often try to do (and rightly at points). He spoke of the psychological issues that Therese had to deal with in her own life and brought the spiritual level to them, which was a really interesting aspect for me to see. I had read The Story of a Soul and other writings on the life of Therese, but hadn't really seen it in this light before. The whole basis of the book is that our daily lives are not something to be endured but are actually the context of our own holiness - the decisions we make are the things that can allow us to grow in our union with God. Coming in around 100 pages or so, the book was quite readable and spiritual uplifting for me in dealing with my own trials and struggles in the midst of daily life.

Catholic Media Promotion Day

2011-03-15T10:42:00.000-05:00

Today is Catholic Media Promotion Day. Being that, in some small way, this blog is Catholic media. We are participating. I speak for myself and not my colleagues with regard to the following picks:

Three Favorite Catholic Blogs:

The Sacred Page, which is co-author by Dr.'s Michael Barber, John Bergsma, and my own Scripture professor Brant Pitre, has been the blog that I have followed the longest. As a man studying for the priesthood, their Scriptural insights help in reflection and will help in preparation for preaching.

Matthew Warner's Blog hosted by National Catholic Register provides me with constant reflections on Catholic media and how to be Catholic in the digital age. Matthew always has great insights and garners many comments, which provide for great conversation.

Quiet, Dignity, and Grace is probably not a well know Catholic blog having just got off the ground 4 months ago, but I love its content. It's written by a friend of mine, Luke Arredondo, who's a Catholic high school religion teacher and masters of theology student. Luke gives great insights on theological topics.

Three Favorite Podcasts:

All of which can be downloaded for free from iTunes

The Catholic Underground is the Catholic Media anything that I have followed the longest. I had the pleasure of being on a show back in 2007. Fr. Chris Decker, Fr. Ryan Humphries, Joshua LeBlanc, and Daniel Kedinger talk tech and talk all things Catholic. They always have interesting conversations, and lately they have streamed them live to allow for chatroom interaction from the listeners.

The SaintCast has been inspirational, helpful, and a downright enjoyable listen. Dr. Paul Camarata, a medical doctor and surgeon, talks saints. He introduces the English speaking world to the world of the saints. I have learned many great things from his podcast.

The Catholic Foodie brings together the two best things about New Orleans, food and the Catholic faith. Jeff Young brings much more to the table than merely recipes and reviews. The show highlights how food - good food - can be a sign to us of God’s love and care for each of us and our families. The tagline, "where food meets faith," speaks volumes about the importance of family, which is so often developed around the kitchen table.

Three Random Catholic Media:

I would be remiss if in a discussion of Catholic media I didn't mention the first national Catholic media presence, EWTN. This television station pioneered Catholic media in the United States. Mother Angelica's tiring efforts paved the way for many others to attempt authentically Catholic media. EWTN has now branched out onto the internet with a great database of Catholic writings, Catholic news, and Catholic film.

In this, I feel the need to mention my favorite Catholic book publisher, Ignatius Press. This San Francisco company is not only the pope's American publisher, but has republished classic Catholic works from the early twentieth century. They always have great books, fiction, non-fiction, theology, and philosophy. They also have built up a small but solid group of films about saints. Along with all of this, their blog Insight Scoop provides excerpts from the books it publishes as well as very as sundry things from the mind of Carl Olsen.

Three Catholic Apps:

iBreviary Pro Terra Sancta is by far one of best apps on the market for Catholics. I provides daily updates of the Liturgy of the Hours, the prayers and readings for each daily liturgy, it has all of the rites used by a priest, as well as some of the blessings from the book of blessings. It is one the most used apps on my iPhone.

iPieta , though, tops even iBreviary. Not only does it have the full Douay-Rhiems translation of scripture, but all the daily readings (in the D-R translation, not NAB). It also has the full host of prayers you would find in the Pieta prayer book. It has most prayers that you would ever need, including the Total Consecration to Jesus through Mary. These things alone would make it a great app, but its developers didn't stop there. It also contains a library of the great works of Catholic spirituality from St. John of the Cross, St. Theresa of Avila, St. John Vianney, St. Therese of Liseux, St. Louis de Monfort, and many others. And that would enough for app, but why stop there. It also contains the full texts of St. Thomas Aquinas' Summa Theologiae, his collection of commentaries on the gospels by the fathers named the Catena Aurae, the 21 Ecumenical Councils, the Haydock Bible Commentary Series from Genesis to Revelation, Encyclicals from Gregory XVI (1835) to Benedict XVI, and writings from many of the Church Fathers.

Here I have to support the work my diocese has done in Catholic media. They have created an app, iFaith, that allows anyone in the area to access info about mass times and confession times. It uses the GPS of the phone to locate where the person is and recommends the closest churches. It also provides news, an events section for the Archdiocese of New Orleans, a connection to Archbishop Gregory Aymond's v-logs, and a connection to the Archdiocese's Twitter feed.

MacJournal

2011-03-11T10:57:00.005-06:00

I decided to go a different direction for my blog creations. I want to spend less time on the internet in general. Writing in web browser on the blogspot site means I could easily click to another tab to be distracted or such. It inhibited writing and growth in virtue.

I shopped around for a blog creation program for Mac. I looked through many things, but I was most impressed by a program I already had, but didn’t realize it’s full capability. I had downloaded a trial version of MacJournal, not soon after I got my Macbook in 2007, from the beautiful site, MacFreeware. MacJournal allowed for journaling and the funneling of ideas into one space. Over the past four years, it came into disuse because, well, I like writing with a pen as opposed to typing. As I was searching for blog writers, I came across an updated version of this wonderful piece of software that offered so much more than the small trial version that I had. So I bought it. It works with many different blog sites. I am so excited with all the possibilities it holds.

Check out the program and others here.

Do you use something different?

Lenten Reading

2011-03-04T07:56:00.000-06:00

We're a less than a week away from Lent. This liturgical season provides so much possibility for growing in virtue, especially the virtues of faith, hope, and love. I'm sure many of you have things planned. You will give up this or take up that devotion.

I would like to let you in on something. A group of friends from the bibliophile social networking site, Goodreads, have gotten together to do a Lenten reading. We've chosen Jean-Pierre de Caussade's famous work Abandonment to Divine Providence. If you would like to join in the discussion or join in the reading, be our guest.

You can find discussions and reading schedules somewhere around here.

In Praise of My First Parking Ticket

2011-03-01T17:41:00.001-06:00

O joy and rapture, my first parking ticket! Months after discerning out, of fearing that my blank record would reveal me to be the abnormal former-friar that I am, I can regain anonymity under the guise of illegality. The solemn pink slip of paper. The unsettling surprise of finding it on the windshield before pulling off. The slight sigh of relief when you realize that it will only cost you $30. $30! That’s barely half a tank of gas. What a bargain! And apparently I can pay it online. With the great advances of the digital age, I’m spared the hassle of digging up an envelop, writing a check, packing postage or going down to the station to see that my bill is clear.

The back story, though, is more epic still. I was on the way to adoration at Tulane Catholic Center and could not find a parking spot. (A pox upon ‘The Boot’ and its Monday night reveling!) I was first tempted to park in an empty teacher parking lot, but my conscience grabbed me and I chose to pull out. Then, I almost pulled in behind a small Civic that had left just enough room for one more vehicle. But, alas, my conscience gripped me again. The bumper-stickers and ornaments indicated that the owner was a female and the thought of blocking a woman in on a Mid-City night while I ran off to be with Jesus was too terrible to bear. Therefore, rather than stop, I rounded the block, returned to the Catholic Center and saw the fated spot. It was behind the old Newman Girls College. A car was already occupying part of the space. There was a ‘no parking’ sign, but it was frightfully askew and hung next to an adjacent dumpster. I assumed that it indicated ‘do not block this dumpster’ which, due to my pathological fear of being crushed by a garbage truck, is the very thing I always try to avoid. I considered my situation, that I was burning gas and missing out on time with the Lord, and decided that the signage was ambiguous enough to warrant the risk. I pulled in all the way, as far from the dumpster as possible, and ran inside to adore Christ. The chapel being located directly above the spot, I comforted myself by thinking that the Lord and I could look out together and discern the results of my actions. The Just Judge would be there with me when I discovered whether or not I had committed a crime.

Admittedly, the situation was full of moral ambiguity. As much as I might be tempted to compare my thirty dollars to St. Paul’s lashings thirty nine lashes, I know that the gravity and intentions of the situations separate our sufferings. Yet, I must say that it is some consolation to know that I was in the upper room in prayer when first the arm of the law was raised against me. God be praised! After leaving formation, I return to the world, not as one of its members, but as one of those commissioned by their baptism to convert it. Fasts and solitude are wonderful: but the thrill of risking a parking ticket to be with the Lord is a new one and, I say, a quite refreshing one. So take heart, my friends. We may not have persevered to the point of shedding blood, but our witness to a world is heroic none-the-less. O, if only I could talk to the one who gave me the ticket, to make that one understand that I would do it all again (my ignorance of the law remaining) just to be alone with the Lord!

All You Need is Love

2011-02-22T22:23:00.002-06:00

"Love only is always good. Love is the only norm. Love and justice are the same." - Joseph Fletcher, from his book Situation Ethics, Westminster Press, 1966.

Pope Benedict said in his encyclical Deus Caritas Est, "Today, the term 'love' has become one of the most frequently used and misused of words." We constantly hear the term love. It is splattered across the airwaves. It is on t-shirts and on the seats of girl's pajama pants. Every time I come into the Miami Airport, I run into the art display of "LOVE" in the concourse. It is the cultural categorical norm by which this society operates. Do you love him? Then, it's okay to engage is premarital or extra-marital affairs. Love of a football team is more important, to some, than love of children or wife. If it is done in love, then it must be okay. The opening quote sums it up. Hazel Barnes, from whom I got this quote, went on to speak of Fletcher's concept as such, "He points out that every end, too, is relative and can be justified as such only if it serves the cause of love."* For love of country, we can rid ourselves of all that taint the country. That was part of what drove Hitler. Or love is so free that anything goes.

To a Christian, the opening quote seems perfectly satisfactory. The caveat given Barnes colors the quote in a totally new manner. Why is there a difference? For Fletcher, love is arbitrary, relative to the arbitrary arbiter. It has a foundation in everything and therefore a foundation in nothing. It has no stability. It becomes pure multiplicity. It ultimately will fall apart like a poorly made deck of cards. For the Christian, love is based on a person, on three persons, in fact, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Deus caritas est. God is love. Love, for the Christian, has foundation in Truth, in Goodness, in Oneness. The foundation is rock solid.

These two concepts butt heads often within out lives in the world but not of the world. We might not be aware of the harmful consequences of the former understanding of love because it seems so pleasing and enjoyable. It lacks responsibility, which due to our first parents, we never really want to take (just think, "It was the woman" & "The snake told me to"). Furthermore, it exalts our weak egos lifting them to arbiter of our morality. We can make ourselves. These are what make the former understanding of love so popular.

The Christian understanding demands sacrifice. It calls someone to go out of themselves and be for someone else. It challenges to lay down ourselves in the law given to us by the creator. It moves us to responsibility for our actions, those times when we rejected love or failed to act in love toward someone.

I would agree with the Beatles that "All We Need is Love." However, not love based on my arbitrary will but rather Love, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, who has offered me redemption and eternal life, a lasting beatitude.

* Hazel Barnes, The University as The New Church, C.A. Watts & Co., 1970.

Reverenced Reading

iTunes U

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Friday Thoughts - Christian Unity Requires Holiness

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Friday Thoughts - Why Barnes and Noble Makes Me Sad

Top Ten Books Read in 2011, #1

Top Ten Books Read in 2011, #2

GKC and the Largeness of the Faith

The Hazards of Incense or How Not to be a Sick Christian

Top Ten Books Read in 2011, #3

Friday Thoughts - Not Standing Still

Top Ten Books Read in 2011, #4

Top Ten Books Read in 2011, #5

Top Ten Books I Read This Year, #6

Top Ten Books I Read in 2011, #7

Top Ten Books I Read in 2011, #8

Top Ten Books I Read in 2011, #9

Top Ten Books Read in 2011, #10

O Come, Let Us...Adore Him?

Friday Thoughts - Mary Didn't Walk Alone

Friday Thoughts - Can The Muppet's Save Television From Itself?

Musings, Dreaming and 'Communio'

Abby Johnson, Catholic Convert

Friday Thoughts - A Sorrowful Thanksgiving Can Be Full of Hope

Thanksgiving and The Vietnamese Martyrs

Arsene Lupin, the Gentleman Thief

Friday Thoughts - Manhood, Football, Fatherhood, and Fire

Friday Thoughts - Liturgy, the Nucleus of the Parish

Sentimentalism, a Chestertonian Insight into Social Bias

Friday Thoughts - Canon Law and New Media

Europe and the Faith

Friday Thoughts - Secularism

Guest Post: How to Understand Scandals and Other Things - Insights from Archbishop Fulton Sheen

Guest Post: Insights in the Writings of Archbishop Fulton Sheen

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Guest Post: Archbishop Fulton Sheen

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Friday Thoughts - Point out the Light

Friday Thoughts - Episode 1

Rest, Labor Day, and Bl. Teresa of Calcutta

Wherein Deacon Kyle Puts His Money Where His Mouth Is

The Eucharist in the Apostolic Fathers Part Four: The Didache

St. Augustine on the Lie of the 'Golden Age'

The Eucharist in the Apostolic Fathers Part Three: St. Polycarp of Smyrna

The Eucharistic the Apostolic Fathers Part Two: St. Ignatius of Antioch

The Eucharist in the Apostolic Fathers Part One: St. Clement of Rome

Minister of Divine Mercy

I am Attracted to Virgins

The Friendship of St. Thomas More and Desiderius Erasmus: History and Pedagogy

This is Your Brain on Music

Cooking for Seminarians

Reflection on Love and the Eucharist on the Occasion of the Feast of Corpus Christi

Apostle of England

Ordination: Not of this World

Confession and the New Evangelization, or How to Follow the Lives of the Saints

The Undead and the Resurrection

Pride of the Pocket Protector

The Visitation: The Revelation of Humanity at Conception

Bl. John Paul II and Future Priests

John Updike's The Resurrection

Closed Captioned: Male Voice

Book Discernment

And Then There Were None: An Examination of Mystery Stories

The God of the Atheists

The Loving Response of Obedience

Erotic and Godly?

The Honest Young Woman (or, Sincerity and Dialogue)

Dominus Est!

Reciprocal Love

It's been a while....

Catholic Media Promotion Day

MacJournal

Lenten Reading

In Praise of My First Parking Ticket

All You Need is Love