et vita manifestáta est

Of the Novus Ordo

2011-12-27T14:19:00.001-07:00

"The careful reading of the Conciliar Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy, Sacrosanctum Concilum shows that the rash changes introduced to the Liturgy later on, were never in the minds of the Fathers of the Council." - Cardinal Ranjith (http://www.newliturgicalmovement.org/2011/12/cardinal-ranjith-time-has-come-powerful.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+TheNewLiturgicalMovement+%28The+New+Liturgical+Movement%29)

Hymn at Vespers, Common of Pastors

2011-07-13T13:12:00.002-06:00

Continuing with trying to promote the use of proper texts instead of alii canti apti [sic], here is a translation of Sacrata nobis gaudia, the hymn in the LH at vespers for the common of multiple pastors. This one is much more cleaned up than my previous offering, which as of yet needs to be worked on. This could stand for improvement, but is singable. It is in long metre, as is the Latin original. The translation is mine, guided by our Latin professor at SJV, with the assistance of some of my classmates.

Here is the Latin original:

Sacrata nobis gaudia
dies reduxit annua,
laudantur in qua debito
cultu duces ovilium.

En pro gregis custodia
nullos labores neglegunt,
tutantur illum, sanius
impertientes pabulum.

Arcent lupos e finibus,
procul latrones exigunt,
replent oves pinguitudine,
ovile numquam deserunt.

Tot nunc potiti gaudiis,
gregum duces sanctissimi,
nobis rogate gratiam
apud tribunal iudicis.

Aeterne, Christe, pontifex,
tibi sit aequa gloria
cum Patre et almo Spiritu
in sempiterna saecula. Amen.

And my translation:

Joys sacred to us do return
yearly this hallowed day in which
these leaders of the flock are praised
with honour and due revèrence.

See, in their keeping of the flock,
not one effort do they neglect,
guarding the sheep, providing
nourishing, healthy sustenance.

They keep the wolves out of the fold,
the robbers they drive far away,
they fill the sheep abundantly,
the flock they ne'er abandon.

Having achieved so many joys,
most holy leaders of the flock,
solicit grace for us before
the judgement seat of God most-high.

Eternal high priest Jesus Christ,
to thee be equal glory with
the Father and the Spirit sweet,
in time and in eternity. Amen.

Hymn at Lauds, common of Pastors

2011-01-06T17:57:00.002-07:00

Our holy mother Church has provided hymns for us to sing during the Liturgy of the Hours, hymns which are truly prayer, lifting our hearts and minds to contemplation of God. But the American Liturgy of the Hours by and large provides us with hymns such as "Morning has broken" and "Day is done, but love unfailing". Some of these are nice enough in themselves, but some are wretched. Even those nice in themselves have nothing to do with the text of the hymns which the Church has provided for us.

I've spent a few months trying to find English translations of the hymns in the Liturgia Horarum, and finally found that the Mundelein Psalter has most of them. The ones that it hasn't, I am trying to translate myself. So starting off this project, I have the hymn used at lauds on the common of pastors, when multiple pastors are celebrated.

Hi sacerdotes Domini sacrati,
consecratores Domini fideles
atque pastores populi fuere
impigro amore.

Namque susceptae benedictionis
dona servantes, studere, lumbos
fortiter cincti, manibus coruscas
ferre lucernas.

Sicque suspensi vigilesque, quando
ianuam pulsans Dominus veniret,
obviaverunt properanti alacres
pandere limen.

Gloriae summum decus atque laudis,
rex, tibi, regum, Deitas perennis,
quicquid est rerum celebret per omne
tempus et aevum. Amen.

These holy and sanctified priests of the Lord,

were consecrators of the Lord’s faithful ones,

and they were good shepherds of the Lord’s household

with unwearied love.

For they undertook to give sanctified gifts

to the members of the household, were zealous,

with strongly girded loins and with hands shining

to bear the trimm’d lamps.

And thus raised up and keeping watch, as wise ones,

when the Lord comes knocking upon the house-door,

they have met swiftly and eagerly to lay

open the threshold.

Glory, most-highest honour, and also praise,

to you, king of kings, eternally divine,

who is eminent and celebrated through all

time and forever. Amen.

Metaphysics, part five

2011-01-06T11:32:00.002-07:00

This class confirmed that reason can conceded the process of evolution all the way up to the appearance of humans. But the emergence of human beings requires an act of creation on God's part, because we have a spiritual soul which cannot arise from matter.

Each human soul is a new creation, direct and without mediation, by God. So for every human person who exists, God had to create their soul at their conception; God is directly involved in the beginning of every human life. So we know that there is no such thing as an unwanted child: God knows what he's doing, and he has to cooperate for a human to come into being.

Science has found out that most children die in the womb, even before they attach to the mother. So all of us probably have siblings we don't even know of, and I've found it can be very heartening to ask at Mass for their intercession.

The five properties that are characteristic of absolutely every being are that it 1) is one 2) acts 3) is intelligible 4) is good 5) is beautiful. Intelligibility, or truth, relates to our intellect; goodness relates to our will; and beauty relates to both our intellect and will.

Metaphysics, part four

2011-01-05T13:35:00.002-07:00

Arguments for the existence of God:

First argument:

1. Given any conditioned being, there must exist at least one self-sufficient being. (This is based on infinite regress. If you look for sufficient reason in conditioned beings, you won't find it. There has to be an unconditioned (self-sufficient, uncaused) being that can cause all other beings.)
2. No being can be self-sufficient unless it is qualitatively infinite in perfection.
3. There can only be one such being infinite in all perfections. (If there were more than one, one would have to lack something the other has, to distinguish them, and would not be infinite in all perfections.)
4. Therefore this being is the unique and ultimate source of all being; this we being we call God.

The beings we observe are all finite, and a finite being cannot be self-sufficient because it would have to pre-exist itself (to determine the essence it would have). And things just can't pre-exist themselves. A self-sufficient being has to be infinite, because it can't possess any perfection in a limited way.

Second argument:

1. When there is intrinsic similarity among beings, there must be a source of that feature; and that source must have the feature infinitely.
2. A beings have existence.
3. Therefore there is a single source for existence, which exists infinitely.

Characteristics of God we can know through reason include: self-sufficiency; infinite fulness of all perfections; unique; eternal; un-composed; immaterial; immutable.

God's motive in creation is to share with us his goodness. His motive can't be to acquire anything or become better: he's infinite; as infinitely perfect, he has no needs. God is the end (purpose) of creation: out of love for his goodness, he had a desire to share it with others, and so he created us and the angels. So, it is our duty to honour God because we can see that he didn't need to make us.

God's omnipotence:
This means that he is the ultimate source of all power (potency), not that he can do anything. He cannot microwave a burrito so hot that even he cannot touch it. Sorry folks.
He doesn't violate the principle of non-contradiction (A is A, not not-A), and can't do anything that implies limitation in his part. So, he can't be run faster than anything else, because running itself is a limitation (because only material beings can move from one location to another).

God's omniscience:
This was probably the most confusing part of the class, and I don't really get it.
But according to the text: there is a difference between saying God "foresees" our free acts and saying he "sees" them. If he foresees our acts, this supposes he sees them in time before they happen in time; if he sees our acts, this indicates he sees them in their presentiality, not before they happen, because he is outside time in an eternal Now: he simply sees them as they are actually taking place. God's omniscience takes place in eternity, not in time. He knows us so well that we knows what we'll do, and this doesn't denigrate our free will. It's just that nothing we do can surprise him. If you've ever known what your spouse or sibling was gonna do when you said something to them, that didn't affect their ability to freely choose what they did. It just means you know them well, and can predict what they'll do. Well, God knows us way way better than we even know ourselves, so he can perfectly know what we'll do. And he wills for us in response to our actions. He has a will for us that is unchanging, and yet contingent on what we choose to do. At every step of the way, even when we screw up, he has a will for us that we can co-operate with. This all is very encouraging, because even when you've turned away from him in sin, he has a will for you, and way for you to cooperate with him and still live a good life. If you make a poor decision, he will work with you, he has a will for you, so you can pick up the pieces in the best way possible. And since we can't surprise him, it makes going to confession a lot easier. He is not surprised that I fell in the same way I always do. He knew I would do it. But he absolved me for it last time, knowing I would do it again. Even the priest himself, in his humanity, I suppose isn't all that surprised when we show up with the same sin in the confessional over and over.

Metaphysics, part three

2011-01-04T16:56:00.002-07:00

There are two kinds of changes: accidental and substantial. In an accidental change, there is change in a being, and that being remains what it was from the beginning through the end of the change. A kitty growing into an adult cat, or the colour or amount of my hair changing: I'm different, but I'm still me. A substantial change is a change where the being at the end of the change is no longer the same being, but a different one; here, the essence of the being changes. Just to be provocative, an example of this kind of change is Transubstantiation. The principle of self-identity in a being is its substance, what it is; the principle of change in a being is its accidents. Substance is the being, and accidents are the things predicated of a being.

For angels, since they are pure spirit, the principle of individuation is form, rather than matter. So each angel is its own species: they aren't related to one another, as we are. Each angel is radically distinct from all the other angels. Since only matter individuates human persons, our bodies are, again, a very important part of us, and help form our identities.

The principle of causality states that every being that lacks the sufficient reason for its own existence in itself, must have an efficient cause (ie something which by its action is responsible for the existence of the first being). Other formulations of this statement include:
*Every being that begins to exist needs an efficient cause (because a being that does not exist cannot cause itself to exist). This is used as an argument for God, and is what brought me out of atheism into deism: The universe began at the Big Bang. So there wasn't the universe before the Big Bang. So God must exist, as the cause of the Big Bang/the state of existence of the universe.
*Every being composed of essence-existence or matter-form requires an efficient cause, because there has to be some outside efficient cause that unifies them in composing the being: The co-principles can't exist on their own, so they can't cause each other; the components don't include each other; so something has to bring them both into being.
*Every finite being requires an efficient cause; finite beings participate finitely in existence, and their participation refers back to the being that possesses existence infinitely.

From these formulations (and some I left out) a self-sufficient being has six characteristics: it will be uncaused, eternal, unchanging, simple, not a part of any system, and qualitatively infinite in perfection.

Cause and effect are a single event; they can't be separated from one another in time, or their actual connection to each other is broken.

St Thomas teaches that God's existence can be demonstrated, from those effects of his which are known to us.

Metaphysics, part two

2011-01-04T16:11:00.002-07:00

Continuing on with the nuggets of what we learned in metaphysics:

The act of existence is a maximum, and not a minimum; nothing can be added on to it. Anything that isn't does not exist, so existence can't be added on to. So its partner, essence, must not be something added on to existence; rather, the essence of a being limits that being's participation in the act of existence, limiting it to particular modes. For example, as a human person, my participation in the (infinite) act of existence is limited to human modes: I'm not infinite, I have a body, I can't fly, etc.

Four implications we can draw from the relationship between essence and existence are as follows:
1) Every being has a kinship with every other being, because they all share in existence, and are images of God, who is their source.
2) All beings have intrinsic value, because they exist.
3) There is both community and difference between creation and God: God isn't limited by essence, but creating things are similar to God because they participate in existence, which is from him.
4) Material beings are more restricted than spiritual beings--because they are extended in dimensions, they are never fully present to themselves at any given time (as are spiritual beings), but only across the dimensions of space and time.

Our human bond:
There has to be two distinct co-principles in the essence of every member of the human species. Why? Because if there weren't, then the essence that made Carl a human would make every human, Carl. But there are plenty of humans who aren't me, so something has to be in my essence making me both similar to other humans, and distinct from other humans (ie, myself). And the fact that all humans do have a human essence, in common, is what made possible the Incarnation. If there wasn't a common human nature, or essence, then the Second Person of the Trinity could not have assumed our nature: there would be no common human nature to assume. And what is not assumed, is not saved. (I think that's Jerome.)

So what are these two distinct co-principles in the essence of every member of a species? Form and matter. Human form (the human soul) is what makes each of us similar to all other humans: it makes us a human being, and not some other kind of being. Matter is what distinguishes each human from every other person; my body, the fact that I take up this space at this time, is what distinguishes me from all of you.

This shows us why the body is so important. To be human is to be soul and body. We're not just our souls, we are soul and body. Our bodies are important because they have a big role in our formation as person: they tie us to a particular time and place. This is why studying philosophy is so important--it keeps you from going off the deep end. I heard a whole series of sermons at a "Bible church" that were on this topic: "You are a spirit, who has a soul, and lives in a body". Based on the Bible, an elaboration on a verse (5:23) from 1 Thessalonians. But without a grounding in philosophy and the use of reason, people can come up with crazy-a ideas when they read the Bible.

An interesting objection to the form/matter composition is that if my soul is individuated only by being united to my, particular body, then after I die how can my soul be individuated from all the other souls of dead people? The author of our textbook basically said, who knows? Maybe the resurrection of the body takes place immediately after death, in some other dimension we can't correlate with. I wasn't satisfied with that. There's a resurrection of the body, and there are plenty of corpses of people whom we know to be in heaven. But St Thomas had an explanation that pleased me. He pretty much says that after a lifetime of being tied to a particular body, the soul has picked up some individuation, which it retains even after it is separated from its body. The relationship endures, and is so profound that the soul won't be totally comfortable until it is reunited with its body. This goes to show why ghosts and corpses are so weird and unnatural: they're half a person. They're meant to be united, and only united are they a human person.

Metaphysics, part one

2010-12-31T16:59:00.002-07:00

Metaphysics was one of my favourite classes this semester. I'll provide highlights of what we learned:

Metaphysics is the branch of philosophy that thinks about what is common to every being, every thing that exists; it asks what are the universal properties of being as such. It looks at the deep underlying bond of unity among all beings, despite all their distinctions: that they are.

It is based on the supposition that being is understandable (intelligible). Though this can't exactly be proven, it is a reflection of human experience. Our mind has an insatiable appetite to know and understand, so it is only natural that things are understandable. Everything we accomplish is based on the assumption that being is intelligible, so to deny the intelligibility of being is folly.

One of the basic datum of metaphysics is the principle of sufficient reason: every being must have the sufficient reason for its existence in itself or in another being. If we didn't maintain this principle, then we wouldn't be able to problem-solve--it maintains that beings must have causes (or explain themselves).

We were introduced to the distinction between existence and essence: existence is the existence of a thing, and essence is the subject which exists.

We can know the world as it really is, though not completely. We can really know the world because beings by their nature reveal themselves, what they are like--otherwise we wouldn't know them, which we do. But we can't completely know the world because no single act of a being can completely express its nature, and we have a limited capacity for comprehending all the information conveyed by an action.

We saw the shift from ancient and medieval philosophy to modern philosophy: prior to the shift, there was a focus on objects studied, to a focus on subjects, the person's interior experience of being. In modern and contemporary philosophy the concern is how minds work, whereas before, philosophers could actually get to knowledge of beings.

The participation doctrine of St Thomas Aquinas is that the bond of unity among all being is that they all participate in the act of existence, which derives from God.

Essence and existence are distinct (not the same, nor do they come from the same source in the being) but inseparable metaphysical co-principles. If they were not distinct, then every being would be the same thing. They are inseparable because they cannot exist apart from each other; one's existence depends on the other, and vice versa. Existence is the principle of similarity among beings: every being has existence. Essence is the principle of dissimilarity.

Review of Rhetoric

2010-12-31T16:39:00.002-07:00

In Rhetoric we looked at a couple speeches I found worthwhile. The first is Mama T’s (Bl Teresa of Calcutta’s) speech on accepting the Nobel Peace Prize, which you can read here. The thesis of her speech was that true peace is love; it is of the heart. She chose to highlight the threat to peace that is abortion: "These are things that break peace, but I feel the greatest destroyer of peace today is abortion, because it is a direct war, a direct killing - direct murder by the mother herself."

The second noteworthy speech was what I presented on in class: Pope Benedict's speech to Parliament at Westminster Hall, available here. The subject was the role of religion in the public sphere; his thesis regarding this is that "the role of religion in political debate is...to help purify and shed light upon the application of reason to the discovery of objective moral principles."

Early on in the speech, Benedict refers to St Thomas More. This man was sentenced to death in the very place Benedict was speaking. He was one of the few high-ranking persons to openly oppose Henry VIII and his Reformation; he is an example of subordinating duty to the state, to duty to God. Though he was a servant of the king, he ordered this service rightly in relation to his servitude to God.

Benedict later shows how religion and reason must go together, and not be separated. Religion without reason has led to the errors of sectarianism and fundamentalism, while reason without religion had led to the slave trade, Hitler and Stalin. Both of them are faulty on their own, so they need to go hand in hand.

He reminded the British of their valuing tolerance, non-discrimination, freedom of conscience, and freedom of religion, and then showed how their recent actions towards Christians have violated these values: for example, wanting to get rid of public celebration of Christmas and arguing that Christians in public roles (eg health-care professionals and legislators) should have to act against their conscience.

Homily: St Jerome

2010-09-30T20:37:00.002-06:00

Today we commemorate St Jerome, Doctor of the Church. He is known for translating the Bible into Latin, for which he had to learn Latin, Greek, and Hebrew. He grew up speaking Illyrian, whatever that is, maybe Albanian. Jerome, in Latin Hieronymus; Geronimo, happy name day.

He had a marked temperament. He was very choleric, and had strained relations even with his friends. He corresponded with numerous people, including with Augustine, who was extremely patient, and ended up estranged from his best friend, Paulinus. He is usually depicted in a Cardinal’s garb with a lion and striking his breast with a stone. He’s very dour looking up there. He lived for many years in Israel, in the desert. He was a desert father, in a sense. The most important thing about him is that he lived the vita ascetica—he lived with that stone. This vita ascetica is the one thing I want to say about Jerome. He wrote a work on virginity, On Virginity. Many women came from Rome to live around him in the desert, and people talked about him a lot because of this. But he knew, lived, and taught the value of chastity. To be chaste is to be on fire with love, with love of God. Acting on torrid passions is cold, it is icy cold. The world around us tells us all about the glories of sex, as it did in Jerome’s time. Rome in Jerome’s time was decadent with regards to sex, like some places we might know today. Even inside the Church, people talk about the wonders of sex; it’s a wonder Catholics haven’t written tantric manuals. But that is not the tradition. We speak of sex with great reverence. Augustine knew what it was to be a slave to sex. Origen, who lived slightly before the time of Augustine and Jerome, knew the dangers of sex. He was rather more zealous than Jerome, but he was a great theologian. Jerome, Augustine, and Pope Benedict all highly revere him. It is only his zealousness that has kept him from being named a saint; if you don’t know about this already, you can ask Sam later. Augustine knew the relief of chastity, after years of orgy.

To be chaste is to be most on fire with love. Virginity is a way of life, of the heart. In looking at Jerome’s On Virginity I saw where the Church fathers spoke of becoming virgin again: it is a matter of the heart. Only love can conquer lust; only love can conquer lust. Chastity and virginity are not about a physical state, but about your heart. It has to do with all 24 hours, not just the one hour when temptation comes. You can’t live, be, however you want in those 23 hours and expect to keep from falling in that one hour. Sure, a cold shower helps at that hour, we have all the natural means available to us, but we must at all time cultivate chastity in our heart. Be on fire with love. Be consumed with longing for the Lord, as in the first reading today.

I get into conversations with people about the spirituality of the diocesan priest versus the spirituality of the religious priest. I think that really, on a gross level, there is one spirituality, because there is one Spirit, the Holy Spirit. But I do believe that diocesan priests are called to be desert fathers, like St Jerome, leading people into the desert to purity of heart.

Many people translated the Bible before Jerome, and after. That is not the important thing about him. It is his asceticism. There was a medieval pope who said, “Jerome, but for that stone you would not have been canonized.”Jerome’s asceticism is all that matters about him.

Homily: St Wenceslaus

2010-09-28T17:23:00.004-06:00

St Wenceslaus was a duke, in Bohemia. One thing, there's no "slaus" in the Eastern European languages; his name really is "Wenceslav", much nicer. "Slaus" is a Anglicization, or Latinization of "slav", which means "glory". In the Russian liturgy you'll hear them repeat "slav, slav, slav". We probably use "slaus" from "laus", or praise. The Slavs came from three brothers, who got to the Carpathians and divided up: one went west, forming the Czechs, one north to form the Poles, and one east to form Russia. These were then evangelized by Saints Cyril and Methodius, who were Slavs or Greeks. The Czechs were also evangelized by missionaries from Germany. A generation or two after this evangelization was when Wenceslaus lived. His father was Christian, but his mother and brother were not. He was raised Christian by his grandmother, Ludmilla, herself a saint. He was duke of Bohemia, reigning from Prague. He was killed by his brother Boleslaus at the church doors, after feasting with him. His last words were of forgiveness to his brother. This is what the Christian life is, a life of forgiveness.

The readings are full of misery today; they are very Jewish. Job curses the day he was born, that he is male, that he nursed. The reading there clearly shows a belief that it is better to be dead than to be alive, there is so much misery in life. The Psalm is more of the same: I cry out, I clamor, a call for help, being surfeited with troubles, near death... "With all your billows you overwhelm me"...it's like being buffeted with a wave when you're body-surfing. These readings are just full of the misery and suffering of life. And that is the good news, because the faith encounters the misery of life. The Jews had a real sense of misery, that the Gentiles did not. The Gentiles did not encounter misery, they tried to gloss over it and ignore it; they had great heroes. If the story of David had been written by Gentiles, there would have been no Bathsheba.

In the Gospel today Jesus is among the Samaritans, but is going to Jerusalem. He is going to Jerusalem, even though Mount Zion is nowhere near as impressive a mountain as is the Samaritans' Mount Gerizim. Of course, in Israel, none of the mountains are really impressive. No offence to our Wisconsin brothers, but it's a little like going to Holy Hill. But he was going to Jerusalem, and because of this they would not welcome him. He was going to Jerusalem, which is the place of his passion, death, resurrection, and ascension. By uniting our misery with his passion, we too can redeem the misery and suffering in the world.

Homily: St Matthew

2010-09-21T17:16:00.002-06:00

I know we are pressed for time today with the photos, so I will limit my homily to a few thoughts.

We are about four weeks into the semester, and I've noticed that it is showing on some of your faces. There's difficulty and frustration. Living in community isn't easy. We can't get along with anyone for a long time, without the Holy Spirit. And you're subject to formation, and I know that will make you feel helpless. Institutions are imperfect. You all are trying to be good, to win approval. But we do each need to hear a different drummer. Keep one ear open to that different drummer, without ignoring the drummer that keeps you in line. We need the institutional drummer to help us keep going and get things done, so strike a balance between the two.

Our Lord today tells us, "I did not come to call the righteous but sinners", and that he desires mercy. You don't have to go seeking out sin to experience mercy. We are all far worse than we think. Be merciful, and experience God's mercy. Expect God's mercy. God's mercy is like water drops falling from the sky, or like the beautiful trees in autumn. You would sin gravely if you don't go look at, spend time with the trees. Go, and sin no more.

Lectio Divina: Lk 16:1-13

2010-09-19T15:15:00.002-06:00

And he said also to his disciples: There was a certain rich man who had a steward: and the same was accused unto him, that he had wasted his goods. And he called him, and said to him: How is it that I hear this of thee? give an account of thy stewardship: for now thou canst be steward no longer. And the steward said within himself: What shall I do, because my lord taketh away from me the stewardship? To dig I am not able; to beg I am ashamed. I know what I will do, that when I shall be removed from the stewardship, they may receive me into their houses. Therefore calling together every one of his lord's debtors, he said to the first: How much dost thou owe my lord? But he said: An hundred barrels of oil. And he said to him: Take thy bill and sit down quickly, and write fifty. Then he said to another: And how much dost thou owe? Who said: An hundred quarters of wheat. He said to him: Take thy bill, and write eighty. And the lord commended the unjust steward, forasmuch as he had done wisely: for the children of this world are wiser in their generation than the children of light. And I say to you: Make unto you friends of the mammon of iniquity; that when you shall fail, they may receive you into everlasting dwellings. He that is faithful in that which is least, is faithful also in that which is greater: and he that is unjust in that which is little, is unjust also in that which is greater. If then you have not been faithful in the unjust mammon; who will trust you with that which is the true? And if you have not been faithful in that which is another's; who will give you that which is your own? No servant can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or he will hold to the one, and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.

I went in a few different directions with this reading for today, none of them particularly in-depth.
First, I realized that the steward and his master really had different interests. A good steward would have his interests aligned to those of his master. So how am I to go about aligning my interests with Jesus'? I came up with prayer, loving him (though I don't know exactly how on that one), and asceticism.
The master commends the steward for acting wisely; in the NAB this was "prudently", which made me think of shrewd, and Jesus' words to the 12 in Mt 10 to be as cunning as serpents and innocent as doves. I don't think I have a great portion of the virtue of prudence, owing in no small part, I imagine, to my youth. The week prior to doing this lectio I was cantor at my parish house, so I got to choose hymns for lauds and vespers. At the seminary, custom is that we only use the common of saints when we absolutely must. I prefer a liberal use of the commons, and so I imposed that as cantor. There was never a good chance to warn people ahead of time, and while my goal was a good, I was concerned I may have been imprudent about my means of achieving that end. That experience was I think why the bit about prudence caught me so much in this reading. How am I to develop prudence? I came up with praying for it, sheer experience, and in particular situations asking the Holy Spirit what I ought to do. Josh offered the advice that virtues are habits, so in a given situation ask 'what would the prudent man do', and then do that; eventually by doing this I'll develop the habit of prudence.
The ending bit, about being unjust in small things then in big things, was discouraging. It's all to easy to cut corners, particularly in unimportant areas of obedience. For example, chapel casual at the seminary does not include sandals, only shoes. I typically wear sandals with socks for chapel casual. I thought that this week a good way to put this gospel into practice would be to mortify myself and wear real shoes when I'm in chapel casual, rather than my beloved Birks. It's a minor minor point, but I have grown in the past week, mortifying myself over something really stupid, but which really does annoy me to no end. I forced myself to be faithful in a small thing, so hopefully I'll get better about being faithful in the big things.

First Philosophy

2010-09-09T16:38:00.001-06:00

We've started our school year at St John Vianney, and I am at the very beginning of the academic track, first philosophy. I'm really enjoying my classes, though the reading for them has tended to keep me quite busy. My classes are: Rhetoric, Latin, Metaphysics, Intro to Liturgy, Logic, and Personalism. Personalism is a fascinating class; personalism was a Catholic movement around the 20s and 30s which focused on persons rather than things, as a response to the rise of both fascism and communism.

Homily: St Boniface

2010-09-09T16:26:00.003-06:00

Back to my interrupted series, of homilies from our 30 day retreat by my favourite priest:

The Election, vocation, and priesthood are on my mind today. I'd like to talk about priesthood. Growing up I didn't really like priests. Some of my relatives had gone into schism, and therew as a general distrust of priests. There were very good priests when I went to university, though. The first was elderly, and very humble. At the university very few faculty are humble, and this Jesuit had a high position there. He didn't really have the qualifications for it, but that's where the Jesuits sent him; that's just the way they did it in those days. When I went on the cruise, we had classes, and then when I got back the school didn't want to give me credit for that year. So this priest wrote the courses and credits on my transcript, and that was that. The second was very kindly. The guys who lived on his hall would bowl down the hall, right outside his room, loudly playing the 1812 Overture. This priest came out of his room, and all he said was, "Can't you listen to something more tasteful?" The third once told me something, I won't tell you what it was, but it was a hard truth lovingly but firmly put. These men were always there for us. I stayed for a time with a Protestant minister and his family. I saw that his family always came first before his people. But priests don't have this family to attend to. What struck me about those priests was that they were always, always, there for us, even when we didn't care, or were bowling in front of their room.

One more man I want to talk about, he wasn't a priest, he was a layman. He had come to the States as a stowaway, and lived here illegally working as a stone mason for many years. He was like a father to me. Eventually he returned with his wife to Italy, and when I was there studying we were like family. I would come over every weekend for dinner. When I was going back to the States, he was walking me to the station, a man of 92, and this is what he told me: "Don't talk much, listen a lot, and do the good that you can."

Homily: Birth of Mary

2010-09-08T21:16:00.002-06:00

Let us commemorate the illustrious birth of the glorious Virgin Mary, for the Lord has looked with favor on his lowly servant. He sent his angel to announce to her that she would conceive the Savior of the world.

Today is the feast of the Nativity of Mary, and our beloved Jesuit preached to us today at the seminary, so I am interrupting the flow of his homilies from the 30-day retreat to present this one, on the day of its delivery:

Dn Dygert did such a good job with that genealogy. We go through that whole thing, and find out that it isn’t even Jesus’ ancestry. Its that of Joseph, Mary’s husband, of whom Christ was born.
For that whole list, nothing new is really happening; its just more of the same. Abraham, Rahab, David, most people’s lives have some drama, but are largely the same. Mary is something new, and that’s what we’re celebrating today. There was the excitement of the first temple with David and Solomon, but then God’s presence left the temple and the people were dispersed everywhere.
Mary is the new thing, the only thing, we have to offer the world. Everything else is more of the same.
Everything starts today, in the birth of this woman who is the beginning of God re-creating the world; in three months we celebrate the Immaculate Conception, where God sanctified, raised up the marriage embrace and made it bear this holy fruit.
God made it very clear that to enter the kingdom of heaven we have to become like little children. Most people don’t want to enter the kingdom of heaven; even most Catholics don’t want to enter the kingdom of heaven; we’re much more comfortable here, with what we can see, paying off of mortgages; making plans for success and seeing them through. Our brains handle that easily. But we have to be oriented to the kingdom of heaven, not the kingdom of earth. We’ll pray shortly “thy will be done on earth, as it is in heaven”, not “as it is on earth”. Mary was childlike.
Mothers teach their children. Mary had such an influence on Jesus, teaching him for the 33 years of his life. Don’t mothers teach their children so much? Even to smile. Coochie-coo.
We don’t know much about Mary, except that she said yes. And that’s all we really need to know. We know of her because we are part of her family. That family formed when Jesus said to her from the cross “woman, behold your son”, and to John “behold your mother”. The family that was formed around her on Pentecost. She said yes to God. This is all we need. To say yes to God. And saying no to the devil helps, too.

Homily: St Charles Lwanga and Companions

2010-09-08T20:57:00.002-06:00

Here we are in the middle of retreat. One of my friends has noticed that once you get over the hill, you pick up speed. So, the retreat days you'll find, will go a bit faster now.

On this retreat we want to be developing a taste, a sense, for the things of God. Great breakthroughs may happen, though they don't for most. And that's ok; they can be forged by the devil. Develop a taste for the things of God. Persevere--be present to God, to nature, the good meals we're given, your 21 brothers, none of whom have stabbed anyone yet. You have this time to be with God, away from the world, from town, where people are screaming at eachother, comitting adultery, and getting divorced. Develop a taste for the things of God. Be able to return to the world with this taste in your mouth, because its often hard to tell whether something is of God or not. You want to be able to have an instinct if something is fishy. It's a matter of discernment.

I'm the only priest here without Irish blood in me, but I was formed among Irish Catholics. When I returned to Confession, my confessor asked if I was Irish. When I was 27, a Jesuit novice, I was sent to NY to work with poor hispanics, and on the subway I saw for the first time an Irish face that was not Christian. I was disconcerting to me; the Dying Gaul. I was speaking to a seminarian from Mexico; we don't have a lot in common, I'm not a bit Mexican, I don't even like Mexican food, but we were mourning the deaths of people we knew who had lived without electricity. It's different, even their eyes, having not watched a television, or played video-games; no offence to you all. We live in a world of incredible changes; there is really a dizzying pace of change. That you're all here is a miracle, it really is. The world is going in a completely opposite direction, and you've heard God calling you to this place to spend a month with him.

My favourite aunt is an atheist, though one with morals. One day she asked what I believe, and I spent a couple hours telling her. When it was all over, she said, "What a lovely imagination you have!" But she does have morals. In the 50s she was what you called a "career woman"--had a job, no kids, not married--what you now call a woman, I suppose. Well in the 50s she was living in NYC with a roommate. One night this roommate decided to entertain a man overnight. The next day she kicked her out. This same woman, by the 80s, was saying that abortion is permissible. "Things change, and you have to go along with it." In the world, morality, things, had changed. Now her husband, a scientific agnostic, has told me that "technology isn't all that they thought it would be." You're being sent out into a world where stuff is more important than people. There is constant change; there is nothing to hold on to. The only way to cope is to go with it. Things do change--we aren't all wearing cassocks, and women aren't going about in hoop skirts a la Gone with the Wind. You need to learn what legitimately changes, and what doesn't. Decide what you'll give your life for. My aunt gave up everything. You need a healthy sense of mourning.

Now to today's saint, Charles Lwanga. In Uganda in the 1880s, the king would use his attendents, and he was a sodomite. Charles and his companions refused the king's advances. So they can be called martyrs for chastity, for sexual morality.

In the world today there is so much depravity, so much misery. When I was driving a cab in Hawaii, I worked the overnight shift, and then we cabbies would go get breakfast together. Well one of these guys was a "kept boy". He asked me to take him to the airport one time, and on the way there he told me, "You're the only friend I've ever had." We went to breakfast together six times! Our was probably the only non-sexual relationship he had had for some time. So what is friendship in Christ? You must be men of love. Be a best friend to people. Be a man of liberation, of joy. You must be rooted in Jesus. Look to the loving relationship of Jesus and the apostles. They had intimacy because their relationship was non-sexual. We need the ability to be intimate. Beg the Holy Spirit to enter into your relationships. Bring the love of Jesus to your people. Bring love to people seduced by a counterfeit. The closest embrace knows no touch.

Homily: Blessed Virgin Mary on a Saturday

2010-08-24T22:20:00.002-06:00

Today is given to Our Lady in the Church's calendar. Reflect on who she is for us. For the Church. For Jesus and in the situation of womanhood today, the world we live in. The European Constitution doesn't even mention God. Our society is one of secularization; the powers that be want to create a world without God; moreover, in opposition to him. It is profoundly unnatural. This is why, I think, that gay marriage is so heavily pushed as a right; its the institutionalization of something that is unnatural. It is an effort to make reality whatever we say it is. It's not a matter of perversion but of un-, even anti-naturalness. You can see it even going to the WalMart at Atlantic, the way people dress. It's just unnatural. It started with the fall of the angels--the rebellion, and has deeply infected the human community. And yet, there is still much good in it. The Chinese character for good is a woman with a child; (and home is a house with a pig in it). Much of the world's problem today is ego. Children get in the way of egos and so there is abortion. The world wants to define personhood based on achievements, on one's CV, one's accomplishments. And women are pushing to make every achievement that men have, good or ill. We must get out of our egos. The world's view has nothing to do with God.
My imagination, my fantasy, is that God loves babies. The purpose of life is two year olds. Life is about being a two year old. Not 18, 21, 50, but two. That becomes clearer with looking in the mirror each passing year. We're called to play like a two-three-four year old. It's really all about children. We're called to be like little children.
We're called to divinization in a way that the angels are not.
Look at the women in power these days. Hilary Clinton. Is that what women are called to be like? That contrasts with the call of Christians. Turn on the tv, and you'll just see pride. Where do we see humble service?
Think on heaven. It is more real than earth. Its the source of all consolation. We seek that his will be done as it is in heaven, not as it is in the powerful board rooms of the earth.
Think about God's irony. He takes a lowly virgin to work his salvation.
We need to be healed, purified.
In your ministry you'll be serving, reaching out, to people at many different levels. But they've been raised in unnatural milieux. Priests must be in touch with the heart of God, desiring to be with people, reaching out in different ways to different people and different sexes. And remember the people you deal with are on drugs; my doctor friend in Denver said now most people are on drugs to alter their mood.
It is so important to say yes to God. Find him in the places of creation, in dreams, in memories.
Mary is the real hope of the human race. She is real today. She was assumed into heaven and is queen of the angels. She is radically different from all other women. Jesus Christ comes from her. She pre-eminently has that woman's gift of a light touch. She invites mirth into heaven. She is our solitary boast. She is our life, our sweetness, and our hope. She was the best pray-er because she was always listening for God. She is totally pure. Her fertility came through the intensity of her belief coupled with the power of the Holy Spirit. You should go to Nazareth to her home, and have a cup of tea with Our Lady.
You know converts, especially from the evangelical world, will ask me "What does one do with the rosary?" Well, you can just rattle off the Hail Marys ten at a time, you don't have to do anything. Just spend time with Our Lady.
Mary really is the embodiment of the beauty of woman. She is the beauty of woman that God had in mind. Eve is the mother of all the living, and they seek their own ego, and ambition, and power. Mary is the mother of the Church, of the humble.

Homily: Pentecost

2010-08-24T22:06:00.002-06:00

One of the greatest aims of this retreat is to come to know the Lord's peace. Unfortunately, to know this we must also know dis-peace. The world's idea of peace, so bandied about when I was a youth, is rather cowardice, laziness, "getting along". It was very easy then to have peace if you were a blond-haired surfer.
The Lord's peace has much to do with forgiveness. If we forgive, we have peace. This text, "Receive the Holy Spirit. Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them" is often used as a proof-text for the sacrament of confession. But this is a power, no, a command, to all Christians. All of us are commanded to bring forgiveness into the world.
This really is part of the good news: we all are sinners, every last one of us. All people are sinning all the time, well almost all the time. The world feels screwed up, because it is screwed up. You feel screwed up, because you are screwed up. The greatest thing about the Catholic Church is that it reminds people of their sinfulness. The Church is very concerned with reality. There's a Zen proverb, not Christian, but wise, that says, "Life is like going out on the ocean, in a boat you know is going to sink." The world tries to deceive itself, saying everything's all right. People tell themselves, "Well, my boat is bigger is bigger than your boat"...but still, it's going to sink. The world is so deluded. A few weeks ago on the front page of The Denver Post there were hundreds of people in front of the Capitol Building getting stoned off their gourds. One of my friends, a medical doctor, said most people are on mood-altering drugs for depression or mental illness. Well, that's what the Chinese did in the 19th century: "let's give everyone opium". That will bring peace. This is just another one of my hair-brained theories, but I think much mental illness is caused by a lack of forgiveness.
So part of the good news is the good news of original sin. We're all subject to it, so there's no need to hide it, pretend it doesn't exist. Admitting something's wrong seems to be a cardinal sin here in the midwest. "How's it going?" "Oh, it's fine, just fine."
This pace that Jesus gives us is realistic, it acknowledges that much may be wrong without us, but I have peace despite this because Jesus is the Lord of my life.
Confession is my favourite Sacrament; that's why I became a priest. I love being able to absolve people, bringing them forgiveness. I love hearing confessions; well, not hearing them, but giving absolution.
We are forgiven sinners, bringing forgiveness to a world of sinners.

Homily: Tuesday of the seventh week in Easter

2010-08-24T21:16:00.002-06:00

So much of life in the world is about having fun. High speed, loud, out in a blaze of glory. This is far different from the life God wants us to have. Something that happened here reminded me of it. [This homily, and the rest for a month's worth, were delivered on the 30day retreat in a little town in Iowa.] A bunch of kids around here have gotten ATVs and have torn up down around the river. I don't know why they would do that, it's so beautiful. Well anyway, one of these kids had an accident on one, and is now paralyzed for life. Like this, we so often get to see just snapshots of others' lives. That's true of advertising too. We see a snapshot of such happy people. But like Yeats asked, how often does this kind of life come to a happy end? It looks good in a snapshot, but how often does it end in divorce, or being paralyzed? Misery creeps in. Life in the world is bound for death and destruction. I tried to live that life in Hawaii when I was young. But I saw these people in their 40s and 50s who had lived their lives partying all the time, and they had scary faces.
The world does not deliver what it promises. So many people live with illusions, and it leads them to heartbreak. God has a plan for us: to give us eternal life, to know the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom he has sent. This is for all of us.
Each year at the Easter Vigil we renew our promise to oppose the glamour of Satan and declare war on the world and on sin. We do this not because we are ornery, but because we love God.
True life comes from faith in God. How do we live this way? St Paul today says, "You yourselves know how I lived among you." We have come here to live together to deepen profoundly our love and knowledge of God and his son Jesus Christ. By the Holy Spirit we enter into the events of the life of the divine person, Jesus. Here we are seeking intimacy with God and with Jesus. This is not possible in the world without a special grace. So beg God the grace. Beg the grace of gratitude, especially for getting to know God. He will form us so we can return to the world and help people from slavery to illusions, and bring them to eternal life--to know the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom he has sent. Ask God for gratitude and patience. Rome wasn't built in a day. Patience and humour are needed.

Homily: Tuesday of the fifth week in Easter

2010-08-24T21:02:00.002-06:00

This is the last time this year I will get to preach to our deacons. You have much to do as priests. The Church has its share of problems, but it is in a good state. No pant-suit nuns will be trying to con-celebrate with you at your first Mass. Your mission is to go out to proclaim to the world the good news, that "God is alive and well. I am here staking my life on it."

Homily: Ss Philip and James

2010-08-24T20:57:00.002-06:00

We need to learn to accept ourselves. Do away with idols. Deal with yourself as you are, not as you should be. You'll get absolutely nowhere doing that. Is, and not should. Should is an enemy of the spiritual life.
In the gospel today Jesus says to Philip "Have I been with you so long, and yet you do not know me?"
I hope you're appreciating the blossoms that are out and about, which I noticed on the way over here to your new chapel. Gratitude is so important in the spiritual life.

Homily: Tuesday of the fourth week in Easter

2010-08-24T20:54:00.002-06:00

Acts 11:19-26

Ps 87:1b-3, 4-5, 6-7

John 10:22-30

I want to talk today about fatherhood, since Jesus says today, "The Father and I are one." Kids, and boys especially, go through a phase where they want to be just like Dad, and do what he does. Then later they want nothing to do with him and certainly not to be like him. Still later, they wake up and realize, with resignation, that they are like him.

Homily: Mary, Queen of the Society of Jesus

2010-08-24T20:47:00.002-06:00

I want to preach today about heaven; I don't think we do that enough. Jesus calls us to heaven; to be miners for a heart of gold. But in speaking of heaven we have to talk also about sin, because sin is what keeps us from heaven. Sin is ugly, and it disfigures us. It gets us down and we see things in an ugly way. But then by God's love something of beauty breaks in, and we are moved to God.

Tuesday of the third week in Easter

2010-08-24T20:41:00.002-06:00

Acts 7:51-8:1a

Ps 31:3cd-4, 6+7b+8a, 17+21ab

John 6:30-35

It seems that so much of the Gospels, as here, and of life, are vignettes. So I have a vignette to share with you. While I was in Rome I went to say Mass at St Peter's, and I saw a Jesuit there whom I dread. He's the most arrogant man you'll meet. He has dragged men forcibly from the altar when he thinks they're not doing things right, and yells at them as well. Somehow I've managed not to be accosted by him thus. So I was just in dread while I was there; this is the man whom Jesuits talk about: "O yes, I know that one"; and I've talked about him all over. While I was there he did this, dragging another priest off the altar. Now the next day in the sacristy, he approached me and apologized for the behaviour he had shown in front of me. He really made a sincere apology. I realized that he knew of his problem, and it was a struggle for him. This is probably something he's been confessing for 60 years. And this is my point: hell is other people. Living with others is the biggest challenge in our life.

Homily: Tuesday of the second week in Easter

2010-08-24T20:30:00.002-06:00

Well I've come back from my pilgrimage to Fatima and Rome. I really have three different homilies I want to give, so I'm going to give three homilies. I hope it isn't too much of a kaleidoscope of images.
So, homily #1: This will be about my time in Rome. I was going the way of the cross with the Holy Father on Good Friday at the Coliseum. It was a typical Italian/Roman crowd. Lots of pushing and shoving to get to the front. I did not want to deal with that. So I left and went to a parish, where they were doing the way of the cross as well. Being an American I kept to myself, but close by was a man who noticed I didn't have a program. Throughout the stations he inched closer to me, until he was sharing his program with me, and we exchanged niceties and 'happy easters'.
And while I was there I went to a bakery I frequented long ago, and the old Italian lady behind the counter, who was just as old then, remembered me. She's always so nice; she is a saint. Imagine dealing all day with inane tourists, and still being kind. I asked her one day what her secret is, and she said, "I let it go." That, I think, will make us saints: let it go.
Homily #2: Poland. This Saturday the president of Poland died when his plane crashed. He was going to visit a commemoration of the massacre of Polish officers by the Soviets in World War II.
Homily #3: We are living in a great time in the Church. This weekend a priest of this archdiocese was accused of sexual abuse. The world has mounted a great attack on the Church, and we are called to be saints through this time.

Homily: The Annunciation

2010-08-24T20:09:00.002-06:00

I have a great joy being here praying with you this feast day. Now I like St Joseph, but I think the Annunciation is a greater feast so we're doing something special for it.
That's such a striking line in the Collect: "the beauty of your power". Our world is obsessed with power. You can see it on the interstate with the SUV fleets--and they do not respect my little car. We just had a huge political battle, which is seemingly going to have a huge impact on our life. Some are saying it is the biggest blow to the pro-life movement since Roe v. Wade. As I was watching all this about the health care debate, the politicians seemed incredibly ugly. They were dead to goodness and beauty. Lord Acton said power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. We have such appetites for power: of intellect, will, influence, friends. But the power of God is in greatest contrast to this: the motherhood of the barren Elizabeth, and the virgin mother Mary. The power of God is opposite our human expectations. We are told cursed is he who trusts in man; but blessed is he who trusts in the Lord. In the midst of the world's lust for power, we here are an oasis of God's work in the world today. But the Church is not free from the desire for power; the Church has made monsters. I hate to say it, but Hitler was never excommunicated. It [the Church] suffers sinfulness and weakness.
But the kingdom of God is not about earthly power. God works in ways we cannot imagine, especially in the darkest of nights. It is fortuitous that so often the Annunciation falls in Lent near to Holy Week. These two mysteries are intertwined. And what do you do when Good Friday falls on March 25? I once visited a Byzantine monastery when this happened. They celebrated both Offices in full. We were never out of the chapel. When Mary gave her fiat, she said yes not only to the Incarnation but to the crucifixion as well. She gave God a blank check.
What does it mean that Mary is virgin? Above the physical aspect, her strength was in the Spirit, and not in man.
Behold the beauty of her yes; the beauty of this yes, which has captured our hearts for two-thousand years. You men are here because of your yes. Maybe because of the food, but you gave an inital yes to God. Build your vocation on your yes. When its tough going, dig in and hold on. Call on God, he won't abandon you. The yes or no is yours; it is not for your bishop or your vocation director or your family to say yes, but you alone. You are invited to participate in the Annunciation, and bring forth Jesus Christ in the flesh.

Homily: Tuesday of the fourth week in Lent

2010-08-24T19:56:00.002-06:00

Ezek 47:1-9, 12

Ps 46:2-3, 5-6, 8-9

John 5:1-3a, 5-16

Sabbath. How do we enter into the Sabbath?
I want to read you one of my favourite poems, by Gerard Manley Hopkins.

THE WORLD is charged with the grandeur of God.
It will flame out, like shining from shook foil;
It gathers to a greatness, like the ooze of oil
Crushed. Why do men then now not reck his rod?
Generations have trod, have trod, have trod;
And all is seared with trade; bleared, smeared with toil;
And wears man’s smudge and shares man’s smell: the soil
Is bare now, nor can foot feel, being shod.

And for all this, nature is never spent;
There lives the dearest freshness deep down things;
And though the last lights off the black West went
Oh, morning, at the brown brink eastward, springs—
Because the Holy Ghost over the bent
World broods with warm breast and with ah! bright wings.

God's wilderness. Enter into God's wilderness, the wilderness he created. Such a bit part of the US is the wild west. I grew up in New York City, so for me the wild west was across the river, the Jersey shore. That's how it was, until I went to Berkeley. The wilderness is such a part of America. Europe is very different. The Native Americans have had a big impact on us. I've never met a Native American, except for Archbishop Chaput, but nevertheless, they've influenced the US. Everyone has been a Boy Scout, and has gone camping. Not so in Europe. Studying over there, I went camping with one of my friends to the Black Forest of Germany. It sounds so wild, doesn't it? The Black Forest. But when we got there it was like a KOA. The tents right next to each other and everyone had coffee together in a sort of cafe.
We're so lucky to be here. The mountains are right out there, and the sky is blue. Most people do not get to see the sky this blue. How fortunate we are.
Later after camping in Germany I went to the Arctic Circle in Scandinavia. That too was so beautiful, and nice, in autumn.
The only way you're able to sit here now, attentive, is because you spent 6-7 hours asleep, resting, a type of Sabbath. Sabbath is rest. So, this week, you have a free weekend. Go, spend it exploring God's wilderness.

Homily: Thursday of the third week in Lent

2010-08-24T19:53:00.002-06:00

Jer 7:23-28

Ps 95:1-2, 6-7, 8-9

Luke 11:14-23

"If today you hear his voice, harden not your hearts."
And a mute demon is in the gospel. The Pharisees use their logic to Jesus is working with the devil, and have hardened their hearts.
We like our logic too much. We think that if our logic is right, then we're airtight. We need to look at the fruit of our thoughts, not the logic behind them.

Homily: Friday of the second week in Lent

2010-08-24T19:36:00.002-06:00

Gen 37:3-4, 12-13a, 17b-28a

Ps 105:16-17, 18-19, 20-21

Matt 21:33-43, 45-46

I'm going to preach today on the Resurrection. The resurrection is so much more than we expect or hope for; we only expect resuscitation. Once at a wake my cousin said, "They did such a good job on her. You'd expect her to sit up at any moment." (She was from Staten Island.) She said the woman would wake up and say "Surprise!" The resurrection is far more than I can say. The women and the disciples didn't recognize Jesus. The glorified body is the same, yet different. "Ain't none of us seen one of them." We are not so alive as we'd like to think; not like the living God; we're just cadavers in the making. The resurrection is the goal and summit of the Creator. Only the Holy Spirit can show us how it looks. The resurrection demonstrates the generosity of Jesus: For Don Corleone, there's only justice; but with Jesus, there is love and forgiveness.
You've heard of Fr Drendel, the old Jesuit who was here so long, a holy man. This is one of his sayings that I really don't like, but I think it's true: "God is tricky." Just look at Matthew 25. Be prepared for all your expectations to be turned upside down--the plan God has is infinitely better. All we can do is proclaim: "Give thanks to the Lord, for his is good".
The part of us we have the biggest problem with, the most sinful area of our life, is where God wants to work with us. Remember, he came here and spent his time with the prostitutes and tax collectors (like the mafia). He didn't go to the Pharisees. They were the holy ones. And they were holy. The problem was that they knew it. It is so often that the greatest people are the worst sinners. You know, the nuns told us all to be good, but they really liked the troublemakers better. They told us about hell and how we'd go there if we were bad. I wasn't a bad kid in school; I was terrified, and I was good. They had us read Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn in school, but if I ever did that...
We must let love penetrate us. We must remember our righteousness is not our own. We have/there is no holiness apart from love. God will surprise us with the Resurrection.

Homily: Thursday of the second week in Lent

2010-08-24T17:46:00.002-06:00

Jer 17:5-10

Ps 1:1-2, 3, 4+6

Luke 16:19-31

Looking at these different religions [Catholicism and Buddhism] brings to mind, in California, two monasteries next to one another: Catholic and Theravada Buddhist. "Love one another." The Buddhist monastery was not compassionate, not Mahayana. The monks must never lie down--they sleep in the lotus position. They're terribly ascetic. If you masturbate, even once, you have to go before a group of 12 elders for pardon. If you commit a sexual impropriety, you're banished from the among the monks forever. They are hospitable, gracious, and aware--they spend all their time being aware of themselves and their thoughts--and they are proud. Humility is not a part of Buddhism. An ex-Trappist monk is staying with them, and when he leaves and needs a ride, they refuse him. "We're not Christians." It is not obvious that love is the most important thing. The world is all concerned with luv; but not with love. The love of Christ is so utterly different; so radically different. In our human love we have some idea: marriage, friendship, the love of parents. But Christ's love is a love that leads to death, and is raised up. He first loved us.
A second story: My grandmother, my grandfather's second wife, had no children of her own. So she fiercely loved her grandchildren. An adoptive parent almost always loves more than a natural parent. She was so loving, had such incredible goodness. She would come up behind you and embrace you, and with such love the tears would fall upon your head. She lived in Brooklyn, where I grew up. When I was in high school, we moved to the suburbs and she stayed there. Her husband had died and it was just her. When I was in grad school, I was with the hip intellectual types, but felt lost. I visited my family for Easter, and we went for Mass at their parish in the suburbs. It was post-Vatican II, and as uninspiring as you'd expect. The Easter Vigil was in the late afternoon. We decided to go to our old parish in Brooklyn. We went to the pre-dawn, Easter Sunday Mass. It was beautiful! It felt right. This was the ghetto. If you could get out, you did. So the only people left were the rather unattractive ones. But this old man led the Eucharistic procession with such happiness. There was something charming about it all. It is the ghetto though. It looks bombed out, looks like Detroit. We decided to visit Grandma, driving through block after block of ghetto. When we rang the doorbell she answered, and was so ecstatic at our arrival that she was jumping up and down. She had everything set up for a big fancy Easter dinner, ham, the works. And no-one had been to her home for Easter for years. But that was what she did for her family. She loved, even when that love was so rarely reciprocated. He role in the family, as a matriarch of sorts, was to make the Easter dinner. She made it, even when it was only her. I think this is what it means, "love one another". Hold people in your heart, be there for them, and do the best you can.

Homily: Tuesday of the Second Week in Lent

2010-08-24T16:48:00.002-06:00

Isa 1:10, 16-20

Ps 50:8-9, 16bc-17, 21+23

Matt 23:1-12

It's hard to preach on hell on such a beautiful day, but I'll try...
Hell is created by a hardening of heart; this often happens under the facade of softening of heart.
Sodom and Gomorrah were the most depraved places. I have two stories.
First story. I was a taxi driver in Honolulu once--that was Sodom and Gomorrah. At a hospital, I picked up an old man and a younger. The nurse told him not to go. He was cursing, blaspheming up a storm. When I pulled up to the hotel, he got out, cursing and blaspheming, and dropped dead. I drove off; I'm not a medic. The hotel manager seemed unconcerned. This man was in a homosexual, pederastic relationship that undoubtedly started off in a loving way.
Story two. Back in the day, one of my friends went to grad school in Berkeley. I went to visit him, and he was in a homosexual relationship with a professor. Then as a novice, I wrote him to tell him that I thought what he was doing was wrong. I never heard back. 30-some years went by, and in a Berkeley bookstore I saw a book of his and his friends called "The Love of Men", or something to that effect. So I looked him up, got in contact with him, and the man had nothing but hatred for me. Now he's a big shot professor in the U-Cal system. He had love for men, but certainly not for this one. Not for the Catholic priest. This man said many Hail Marys when younger, and hopefully God will get through. When I called him later in life, he was still with his partner.
The practice of vices makes us vicious. Vices, especially sexual ones, poison the soul. We all have these poison darts which have wounded us. But if we don't heal these wounds the poison will spread. It's certainly not just homosexuals with this, it's everyone. Heterosexuals who practice contraception and abortion, same thing. Vices, especially sexual vices, make us less capable of love.
This is how hardening of our heart appears under the guise of love, of a softening: this torrid passion we have, which seems so hot, so hot, is actually cold: it is like pouring ice cold water on the fire of love; taking ice water, and dumping it on the fire of love.
Who loves more passionately, who loves more, than did Christ? Let us be agents of love, of purification, most especially of hope. Bring this healing balm of Christ's love to the world's woundedness.
Chastity is not so we can be a pretty daisy in the field, but to be a red rose, full of life, with passion for all.
Isaiah is addressing the people as Sodom and Gomorrah: hedonism. "Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be white as snow; though red like crimson, they shall be like wool." This is the gospel, the good news for humanity.

Homily: Second Sunday in Lent

2010-08-24T16:38:00.002-06:00

Gen 15:5-12, 17-18 Lk 9:28-36

Trust in the Lord. I presume we're here [at the seminary] because we've had an encounter with God. Maybe it's because we like the food; and God will work with whatever motive. But probably, we had an encounter with him and we responded.
The readings are appropriate: Abram and Jesus going up high on the mountain to have an encounter with God.
I don't know about the fire stuff, I've never seen a smoking fire pot.
As dusk is here Abram goes into a trance; and the apostles fall asleep; their sleep isn't a normal one.
Abram is discomforted--deep, terrifying darkness.
Clouds are a symbol of God, and not just a symbol, but a symbol. This is true for other traditions as well--go to Boulder, and the Buddhists have clouds all over.

Homilies

2010-08-24T16:28:00.002-06:00

I'll be posting homilies from one of my favourite priests. I've been recording them as best as I can remember since Ash Wednesday this year. Any imperfections or errors should be attributed to me, and not him.

Ash Wednesday:
It's odd that we hear no sackcloth and wash your face in the readings today, and then spend the day with ashes on our head.

Thursday after Ash Wednesdsay:
I couldn't remember anything from this, except that our priest quoted the Doors, saying "break on through to the other side". It's always a treat to catch eyes with the other guys who notice when he makes references to the Doors or Neil Young.

Tuesday of the first week in Lent:
Don't bother giving up food for Lent. Go to Walmart or wherever's close, and get a five pound back of M&Ms. We need conversion of heart, and far too often giving up food doesn't do it. Knowledge without love is useless--I've known some rude, conceited professors in my time.

Wednesday of the first week in Lent:
(Jonah 3:1-10)
We need to embrace what we do not know; it's very freeing, especially for a Jesuit, to say 'I don't know'. People want to know how profound the talk in Jesuit houses is, to be a fly on the wall, but it's really bland.
How would sheep look in sackcloth--how do you get it on them?

Lectio Divina: Lk 19:28-40

2010-08-23T20:54:00.002-06:00

And having said these things, he went before, going up to Jerusalem. And it came to pass, when he was come nigh to Bethphage and Bethania, unto the mount called Olivet, he sent two of his disciples, Saying: Go into the town which is over against you, at your entering into which you shall find the colt of an ass tied, on which no man ever hath sitten: loose him, and bring him hither. And if any man shall ask you: Why do you loose him? you shall say thus unto him: Because the Lord hath need of his service. And they that were sent, went their way, and found the colt standing, as he had said unto them. And as they were loosing the colt, the owners thereof said to them: Why loose you the colt? But they said: Because the Lord hath need of him. And they brought him to Jesus. And casting their garments on the colt, they set Jesus thereon. And as he went, they spread their clothes underneath in the way. And when he was now coming near the descent of mount Olivet, the whole multitude of his disciples began with joy to praise God with a loud voice, for all the mighty works they had seen, Saying: Blessed be the king who cometh in the name of the Lord, peace in heaven, and glory on high! And some of the Pharisees, from amongst the multitude, said to him: Master, rebuke thy disciples. To whom he said: I say to you, that if these shall hold their peace, the stones will cry out.

My reflection wasn't really related to the reading, I think I must have ended up just focusing more on the tabernacle. I wrote: "think of person, not bread or body: you suffer the indignity of being stuffed in a box b/c you love me." This is a good reflection on the Eucharist. God, the infinite creator of the universe, impassable, chooses to come to us, because he loves each of us so much, looking like a piece of bread. Not only that, he lets us put him in a box. It's a nice, ornate box, but it's still a little metal/gold box. He has humility down pat. And he does it all because he loves you and me.

Lectio Divina: Jn 8:1-11

2010-08-23T14:19:00.004-06:00

And Jesus went unto mount Olivet. And early in the morning he came again into the temple, and all the people came to him, and sitting down he taught them. And the scribes and the Pharisees bring unto him a woman taken in adultery: and they set her in the midst, And said to him: Master, this woman was even now taken in adultery. Now Moses in the law commanded us to stone such a one. But what sayest thou? And this they said tempting him, that they might accuse him. But Jesus bowing himself down, wrote with his finger on the ground. When therefore they continued asking him, he lifted up himself, and said to them: He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her. And again stooping down, he wrote on the ground. But they hearing this, went out one by one, beginning at the eldest. And Jesus alone remained, and the woman standing in the midst. Then Jesus lifting up himself, said to her: Woman, where are they that accused thee? Hath no man condemned thee? Who said: No man, Lord. And Jesus said: Neither will I condemn thee. Go, and now sin no more.

The first striking thing about this is the Pharisees. They have no sense of compassion, care, or concern for her. They treat her not as a person, but as an object to get to Jesus.

The morning of this episode, the woman was probably at least conflicted about her sin. She knew it was wrong. She was a Jew, went to synagogue, listened to the law and the prophets. Maybe she wanted to quit sneaking around with her guy, but you know how hard it is to quit sexual sin. While carrying on her affair, she was terrified of being found out and stoned, and finally this day it happened. She was dragged out of bed, half-naked. She thought she would have stones thrown at her til she dies. But she encountered God, and he is Merciful. He doesn't want to condemn us--he delights in our conversion, and wants us to share in his own blessed life. This man she encounters created her personally to share in his very Life. He doesn't want to throw a rock at her head. He doesn't want blood. In fact, he wants to spill his blood for her. He wants his head enclosed in thorns for her. He wants his flesh flayed off his back for her sake. He loves her. He loves her more than her lover loves her. He loves her more than her mom loves her. He knew she was going to choose to fornicate, and still he willed to create her. She would not exist if he did not choose to love her. This man takes no pleasure in the death of the sinner...he did not want, with even an ounce of his being, to stone her.

I think of this episode as an analogy for confession. We go and tell the priest what we did, and he never condemns us. Jesus is ever waiting in the confessional to hear our faults and has zero desire to condemn us. He's in the confessional waiting for us to come to him. He is patient; he lets us repent all the way until our death.

He wants to heal her. This was assuredly a healing moment for her with nothing to hide behind, probably wearing little, and with admission of her helplessness and sinfulness, she came to the Lord as she was. This is how I must approach him: openly admitting my faults, not hiding behind anything; vulnerable to him.
He does give her one heck of a penance: go, and sin no more. But he did give her the grace to do as he commanded. She was finally free of her sin to which her passion had enslaved her, because she encountered the living God.

Lectio Divina: Lk 15:1-3, 11-32

2010-08-23T12:28:00.003-06:00

Now the publicans and sinners drew near unto him to hear him. And the Pharisees and the scribes murmured, saying: This man receiveth sinners, and eateth with them. And he spoke to them this parable, saying: A certain man had two sons: And the younger of them said to his father: Father, give me the portion of substance that falleth to me. And he divided unto them his substance. And not many days after, the younger son, gathering all together, went abroad into a far country: and there wasted his substance, living riotously. And after he had spent all, there came a mighty famine in that country; and he began to be in want. And he went and cleaved to one of the citizens of that country. And he sent him into his farm to feed swine. And he would fain have filled his belly with the husks the swine did eat; and no man gave unto him. And returning to himself, he said: How many hired servants in my father's house abound with bread, and I here perish with hunger? I will arise, and will go to my father, and say to him: Father, I have sinned against heaven, and before thee: I am not worthy to be called thy son: make me as one of thy hired servants. And rising up he came to his father. And when he was yet a great way off, his father saw him, and was moved with compassion, and running to him fell upon his neck, and kissed him. And the son said to him: Father, I have sinned against heaven, and before thee, I am not now worthy to be called thy son. And the father said to his servants: Bring forth quickly the first robe, and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet: And bring hither the fatted calf, and kill it, and let us eat and make merry: Because this my son was dead, and is come to life again: was lost, and is found. And they began to be merry. Now his elder son was in the field, and when he came and drew nigh to the house, he heard music and dancing: And he called one of the servants, and asked what these things meant. And he said to him: Thy brother is come, and thy father hath killed the fatted calf, because he hath received him safe. And he was angry, and would not go in. His father therefore coming out began to entreat him. And he answering, said to his father: Behold, for so many years do I serve thee, and I have never transgressed thy commandment, and yet thou hast never given me a kid to make merry with my friends: But as soon as this thy son is come, who hath devoured his substance with harlots, thou hast killed for him the fatted calf. But he said to him: Son, thou art always with me, and all I have is thine. But it was fit that we should make merry and be glad, for this thy brother was dead and is come to life again; he was lost, and is found.

The reaction of the Pharisees and scribes show that they don't want the sinners and tax collectors to get better; they have no compassion, and don't want sinners to come into the kingdom and be blessed. In the parable, the tax collectors and sinners are represented by the prodigal son, and the Pharisees and scribes by the elder son.
For each of us, the inheritance analogous to that of the sons' is our relationship with the Father.
That the father saw his son when he was still a ways off shows the love of God the Father--watching, waiting, seeking his sons. His being moved with compassion contrasts with the behaviour of the Pharisees preceding the telling of the parable. The father doesn't prefer the prodigal to the elder son, though. When the elder son won't come in to the festivities, the father comes out to talk with him. He always seeks out both his sons.
The prodigal's confession to his father is for me a reminder of the Confiteor.
There was already a party going on for the son's return when the elder son comes back to the house. This shows he clearly hadn't been concerned for his brother, as was their father. The father saw him when he was a long ways off, and the brother didn't know he was home even when they had already started a party for him. His response to his father is sour and very bitter. He sees himself as a servant or slave, and not as a son. In our spiritual life we must work at not being like the elder son; we need to see ourselves as sons of God, with great dignity.

Lectio Divina: Lk 9:28-36

2010-08-23T11:41:00.002-06:00

He took Peter, and James, and John, and went up into a mountain to pray. And whilst he prayed, the shape of his countenance was altered, and his raiment became white and glittering. And behold two men were talking with him. And they were Moses and Elias, Appearing in majesty. And they spoke of his decease that he should accomplish in Jerusalem. But Peter and they that were with him were heavy with sleep. And waking, they saw his glory, and the two men that stood with him. And it came to pass, that as they were departing from him, Peter saith to Jesus: Master, it is good for us to be here; and let us make three tabernacles, one for thee, and one for Moses, and one for Elias; not knowing what he said. And as he spoke these things, there came a cloud, and overshadowed them; and they were afraid, when they entered into the cloud. And a voice came out of the cloud, saying: This is my beloved Son; hear him. And whilst the voice was uttered, Jesus was found alone. And they held their peace, and told no man in those days any of these things which they had seen.

In the NAB, rather than "his decease" it reads "his exodus". I went into typology with this. What's my exodus?
The Exodus: escape from slavery in Egypt.
Jesus' exodus: death, which is salvific.
My exodus: letting Christ free me from sin; I need to trust God's promises lest I spend 40 years wandering in Purgatory. I must face, embrace suffering. This all starts in an encounter with God--parallel to the encounter with God here where they went up into a mountain to pray.

Lectio Divina: Luke 6:17, 20-26

2010-08-22T18:55:00.002-06:00

And coming down with them, he stood in a plain place, and the company of his disciples, and a very great multitude of people from all Judea and Jerusalem, and the sea coast both of Tyre and Sidon. And he, lifting up his eyes on his disciples, said: Blessed are ye poor, for yours is the kingdom of God. Blessed are ye that hunger now: for you shall be filled. Blessed are ye that weep now: for you shall laugh. Blessed shall you be when men shall hate you, and when they shall separate you, and shall reproach you, and cast out your name as evil, for the Son of man's sake. Be glad in that day and rejoice; for behold, your reward is great in heaven. For according to these things did their fathers to the prophets. But woe to you that are rich: for you have your consolation. Woe to you that are filled: for you shall hunger. Woe to you that now laugh: for you shall mourn and weep. Woe to you when men shall bless you: for according to these things did their fathers to the false prophets.

How can I be poor and find consolation in the kingdom? I came up with a couple answers. The first is Bernard's poverty of concupiscence: our poverty is our inability not to sin (without grace's aid). The second is by not seeking affirmation in improper ways.

Lectio Divina: Zephaniah 3:14-18

2010-08-22T17:43:00.002-06:00

Give praise, O daughter of Sion: shout, O Israel: be glad, and rejoice with all thy heart, O daughter of Jerusalem. The Lord hath taken away thy judgment, he hath turned away thy enemies: the king of Israel the Lord is in the midst of thee, thou shalt fear evil no more. In that day it shall be said to Jerusalem: Fear not: to Sion: Let not thy hands be weakened. The Lord thy God in the midst of thee is mighty, he will save: he will rejoice over thee with gladness, he will be silent in his love, he will be joyful over thee in praise.

I read this in a Marian light, as it was the first reading for Gaudete Sunday. Daughter of Zion is a Marian title. I composed a Marian prayer using the imagery from this reading, to be a sort of expanded-upon version of the Hail Mary:

Lord God of Israel, and of the nations, in the son of Mary you have wonderfully fulfilled that which your Spirit spoke by the prophet Zephaniah. "Hail, daughter Zion, hail, daughter Jerusalem, hail, O you who among man is singularly able to exult with the whole of your heart, to magnify the Lord with your soul. O you who are the Immaculate Conception, truly the Lord has removed judgement against you, preserving you in the state in which man was meant to be. Your loving heart cooperated wholeheartedly with this singular, plenary grace. O mother Mary, the King of Israel, the Lord, is in your midst. In a singular way you have ever heard and kept the words of the Word your Son. Blest is he in having so magnificent a mother, in whom he can rejoice and whom he can renew in his own love.
O Mary, you who's only fear is at the same time the beginning of wisdom, in whose midst the Lord God has been with unique profundity, in the midst of your joyful song to your Son, we beg you beg him to remove the judgement against us, as he has so removed it from against you. Amen.

Lectio Divina: Mark 13:24-32

2010-08-21T16:57:00.002-06:00

But in those days, after that tribulation, the sun shall be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light. And the stars of heaven shall be falling down, and the powers that are in heaven, shall be moved. And then shall they see the Son of man coming in the clouds, with great power and glory. And then shall he send his angels, and shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from the uttermost part of the earth to the uttermost part of heaven. Now of the fig tree learn ye a parable. When the branch thereof is now tender, and the leaves are come forth, you know that summer is very near. So you also when you shall see these things come to pass, know ye that it is very nigh, even at the doors. Amen I say to you, that this generation shall not pass, until all these things be done. Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my word shall not pass away. But of that day or hour no man knoweth, neither the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but the Father.

This gospel was for the penultimate Sunday of ordinary time, when we are particularly mindful of the four last things. I was looking at this on a personal level, and saw the tribulation as the daily trial of sin.
The Son of Man coming, I saw as confession; confession is God coming to seek me out. This shows the priority of grace. The Jesus who absolves me is the Jesus who is coming again.
He is at the doors of my soul--let him in by confession.
As not even the Son knows the day of his second coming, nor do I know when I'll die--live each day as my last.

Lord, I desire to be with you.
I feel desolate now, having meditated on your word.
Lord I receive this invitation to be with you.
Yet, how can I be with you?
I am in darkness, cut off from the light of Sun and Moon.
To be with you I will confess to you.
You are always there in the confessional, waiting for me to come to you.
And yet it is not I who come to you,
But you who come to me.
For is it not true that your grace has priority?
My very act of seeking you is preceded by the movement of your grace towards me.
You who will come in the clouds, with power and might,
Are he who comes to me full of mercy, wishing to heal me and grant me shrift.
Jesus, help me not to squander your mercy.
Seeing as how I know neither the day nor hour when I will come to you in death, grant that I often come to you for shrift.

Lectio Divina: Ps 24:1-6

2010-08-21T16:39:00.002-06:00

The earth is the Lord's and the fulness thereof: the world, and all they that dwell therein. For he hath founded it upon the seas; and hath prepared it upon the rivers. Who shall ascend into the mountain of the Lord: or who shall stand in his holy place? The innocent in hands, and clean of heart, who hath not taken his soul in vain, nor sworn deceitfully to his neighbour. He shall receive a blessing from the Lord, and mercy from God his Saviour. This is the generation of them that seek him, of them that seek the face of the God of Jacob.

Lord, grant me clean hands and a pure heart. Grant me constancy of spirit, and aid me with thine own Spirit. I resolve to fill my time with worthwhile things, that my desire for worthless things will diminish.

Lectio Divina: Mk 10:46-52

2010-08-20T23:54:00.005-06:00

And they came to Jericho: and as he went out of Jericho, with his disciples, and a very great multitude, Bartimeus the blind man, the son of Timeus, sat by the way side begging. Who when he had heard, that it was Jesus of Nazareth, began to cry out, and to say: Jesus son of David, have mercy on me. And many rebuked him, that he might hold his peace; but he cried a great deal the more: Son of David, have mercy on me. And Jesus, standing still, commanded him to be called. And they call the blind man, saying to him: Be of better comfort: arise, he calleth thee. Who casting off his garment leaped up, and came to him. And Jesus answering, said to him: What wilt thou that I should do to thee? And the blind man said to him: Rabboni, that I may see. And Jesus saith to him: Go thy way, thy faith hath made thee whole. And immediately he saw, and followed him in the way.

Bartimaeus' crying out to Jesus demonstrates that he had a lot of trust in him. And Jesus' asking him what does he want him to do for him shows he has a radical interest in each us, and care for us. When Jesus here says "thy faith hath made thee whole", the NAB translation we used had "your faith has saved you". This led me to the question, if we trust Jesus we'll be saved? Connecting that with Bartimaeus' trust (ie faith) in Jesus led me to: maybe boldly asking for what we want is just a manifestation of trust, which is how we are saved.

Jesus told him to go his way, and instead he just followed him. I found this endearing; he was so happy and thankful that he followed Jesus anyway; I can imagine Jesus being bemused by him.

Jesus asking Bartimaeus "what do you want me to do for you" led me to see this in light of vocational discernment. I had a lot of reflection on my vocation, and one of the things I wrote was: "vocation as means to holiness; what state do you need to save your soul". This is what vocation is about. What vocation will let you get to heaven, and help other souls along the way?

Lectio Divina: Mk 10:35-45

2010-08-20T14:04:00.004-06:00

And James and John the sons of Zebedee, come to him, saying: Master, we desire that whatsoever we shall ask, thou wouldst do it for us. But he said to them: What would you that I should do for you? And they said: Grant to us, that we may sit, one on thy right hand, and the other on thy left hand, in thy glory. And Jesus said to them: You know not what you ask. Can you drink of the chalice that I drink of: or be baptized with the baptism wherewith I am baptized? But they said to him: We can. And Jesus saith to them: You shall indeed drink of the chalice that I drink of: and with the baptism wherewith I am baptized, you shall be baptized. But to sit on my right hand, or on my left, is not mine to give to you, but to them for whom it is prepared. And the ten hearing it, began to be much displeased at James and John. But Jesus calling them, saith to them: You know that they who seem to rule over the Gentiles, lord it over them: and their princes have power over them. But it is not so among you: but whosoever will be greater, shall be your minister. And whosoever will be first among you, shall be the servant of all. For the Son of man also is not come to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a redemption for many.

James and John show us we need to purify our intentions--don't be a glory hog, or seek accolade. I need to be doing what I'm doing because Jesus wants me to be here, not anybody else.
In this episode they show that they are very impulsive, and jump into things they can't yet handle. How do I develop a constant will? a continuing desire for martyrdom, not one that ebbs and flows? By constant/continual acts of dying to self, so taht that attitude becomes internalized.

Lord Jesus Christ, grant me, your servant, a constant desire to drink deeply of your cup. May this desire in my heart be strengthened by continual, daily acts of death to self. May I serve my brothers in small ways, especially those ways distasteful to me, so that one day I will not recoil should you tell me: "You will indeed drink deeply of my cup." Please grant me humility, which I so sorely lack, that I might truly be your servant. I know I can't be magically made humble, so please provide me humiliating moments, even though I recoil from them even as I pray you for them. Lord Jesus Christ, through all these means, grant me to become like you, who so resolutely embraced the cup of service, the cup of giving your life for the many, despite your natural recoil from this cup of martyrdom.

Lectio Divina: Mark 10:2-16

2010-08-20T11:23:00.002-06:00

And the Pharisees coming to him asked him: Is it lawful for a man to put away his wife? tempting him. But he answering, saith to them: What did Moses command you? Who said: Moses permitted to write a bill of divorce, and to put her away. To whom Jesus answering, said: Because of the hardness of your heart he wrote you that precept. But from the beginning of the creation, God made them male and female. For this cause a man shall leave his father and mother; and shall cleave to his wife. And they two shall be in one flesh. Therefore now they are not two, but one flesh. What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder. And in the house again his disciples asked him concerning the same thing.And he saith to them: Whosoever shall put away his wife and marry another, committeth adultery against her. And if the wife shall put away her husband, and be married to another, she committeth adultery. And they brought to him young children, that he might touch them. And the disciples rebuked them that brought them. Whom when Jesus saw, he was much displeased, and saith to them: Suffer the little children to come unto me, and forbid them not; for of such is the kingdom of God. Amen I say to you, whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God as a little child, shall not enter into it. And embracing them, and laying his hands upon them, he blessed them.

Jesus' answer shows that he is really focused on the telos--he isn't satisfied with laws adapted to our weakness. He wanted us to be in Eden; he's saying that's the standard. His goal for us, that he never stops thinking of, is heaven. That's why he deepened the sense of the Commandments. Before his fulfilment of the law, they weren't going to get us there; we need more. Thank you, God, for always wanting to get us into heaven.

Lectio Divina: Mark 9:30-37

2010-08-20T11:17:00.002-06:00

One of the practices at SJV is that each Monday we have the gospel for the coming Sunday proclaimed to us, and we then have 30-45 minutes of lectio with it. In this series of posts I'll be including portions of my lectio.

This the text, from the Douay-Rheims translation:

And departing from thence, they passed through Galilee, and he would not that any man should know it. And he taught his disciples, and said to them: The Son of man shall be betrayed into the hands of men, and they shall kill him; and after that he is killed, he shall rise again the third day. But they understood not the word, and they were afraid to ask him. And they came to Capharnaum. And when they were in the house, he asked them: What did you treat of in the way? But they held their peace, for in the way they had disputed among themselves, which of them should be the greatest. And sitting down, he called the twelve, and saith to them: If any man desire to be first, he shall be the last of all, and the minister of all. And taking a child, he set him in the midst of them. Whom when he had embraced, he saith to them: Whosoever shall receive one such child as this in my name, receiveth me. And whosoever shall receive me, receiveth not me, but him that sent me.

What struck me about this was the line "he asked them: What did you treat of in the way?" He's God, he knew what they were talking about. So why ask? He wants us to come to him with our issues, even though he already knows them.

Bl. Elizabeth of the Trinity's Heaven in Faith

2010-08-19T17:23:00.003-06:00

Bl. Elizabeth of the Trinity was another Carmelite, a rough contemporary of St Therese. We read her "Heaven in Faith", a retreat she wrote for her sister. It is a ten-day retreat, which I would really like to make someday. It is about being a contemplative in the world, useful for the vast majority of us who will never be monks or cloistered nuns.

Bl Elizabeth impresses on the reader the mystical nature of the Mass: just as priests consecrated bread into Jesus, they ought to consecrate their people into Christ. The consecration at Mass makes the Church realize who she is; it builds up the Church, and is the power to help the Church become what she's supposed to be. The Mass participates in the inner life of the Holy Trinity: God is offered to God. Bl Elizabeth asks priests to offer her with Jesus at the altar. God lets men be priests so that grace can go out into the world from the consecration; the priestly vocation is for the sake of everyone's sanctification. The more you are identified with Christ, the more you give glory to the Father, and the more you participate in Jesus' salvific work in the world--he can save the world through you.

Bl Elizabeth teaches that you need self-knowledge so as to get more closely united to Jesus. You need to accept your limitations, the resistance in you to God, that Christ is not in parts of your heart as he should be. You need to encounter these suffering and privations. This isn't excusing your sins, but accepting that it's really part of you. Doing this will help you to realize how much Jesus loves you--he's been suffering it with you, longer than you have. He became incarnate and suffered your hurts, it isn't beneath him. Thus self-knowledge leads you to know the mercy of God. Have confidence in his mercy, so that you'll face your imperfections. Face the truth of what's in you, and know that Jesus suffers with you every time you hurt. The abyss of God's mercy is always, always deeper than the abyss of your misery.

Bl Elizabeth has a gift to build up priests and seminarians, sustaining them in their vocation: in friendship with her, she will teach you to pray; she'll teach contemplative prayer; she helps you get out of yourself so God can fill you. She shows the fruitfulness of suffering, and keeps us rooted in prayer. She reminds us that priestly vocations don't come about because the people called are better than everyone else. God chooses shipwrecks, so that at the end of the day they'll know the work was not theirs.

Heaven in Faith starts off with Scripture: "Father, I will that where I am they also whom You have given Me may be..." Her retreat starts with the movement of Jesus' heart. Jesus' prayers are always heard. The Father doesn't say no to the Son. My hope lies in Jesus' prayer for me--right now we need confidence in God's mercy. I need confidence in his mercy to me, not just other people. Remember, I live right now in the bosom of the Father. Jesus' deepest desire, that we might be where he is, begins right now; it is not a future state, not starting at death. Already in time, we can have a real being in God's presence that is not just psychological. Make a movement of faith; choose to live as if in the Father's bosom right now. How will that affect your identity, decision making, trust, confidence? Already we are in the bosom of the Father; we can't comprehend this except by faith.

The end of the first prayer of the first day of the retreat quotes St John's Gospel: "The slave does not remain with the household forever, but the son remains there forever." I need to choose which I want to be--slave or son.

The second prayer of the first day opens with "Remain in me". Be attentive to Christ, spend time with him. This remaining with him makes us able to hear his voice, speaking to us. Do try not to get distracted in Adoration, it keeps you from hearing him. In this prayer she exhorts us to her theme of confidence,trust in God's mercy.

St Therese's Story of a Soul

2010-08-19T13:50:00.004-06:00

This work is St Therese of Lisieux's autobiography; I had this translation. She was a Carmelite nun in the late 19th century who had wanted to be a missionary. She is now a Doctor of the Church.

Her "little way" is all about living by love and making sacrifices which are completely hidden. This takes incredible strength of character. Her asceticism is much more difficult than physical asceticism: it is interior. But God does put noble desires in your heart, and gives you the ability to fulfil them. When you do find yourself joyfully making a sacrifice, thank Jesus for that grace; his attributes are lifting you up to be like him.

Therese had an incredible confidence in God's love and mercy towards us. I didn't really connect with her writing much; she seemed saccharine to me. I think a bit of it was based on my own life, not knowing how to relate to someone so ridiculuously nice and perfect as Therese seems. She is very encouraging, though. She was so focused on God's love and mercy that she though of his justice in terms of his making allowances for our weaknesses, given how frail is our nature. She wrote that "charity consists in putting up with all one's neighbour's faults, never being surprised by his weakness, and being inspired by the least of his virtues."

This was my favourite paragraph in her whole book:

It is not because I have been preserved from mortal sin that I fly to God with loving confidence. I know I should still have this confidence even if my conscience were burdened with every possible crime. I should fling myself into the arms of my Saviour, heartbroken with sorrow. I know how He loved the prodigal son, I have heard His words to St. Mary Magdalene, to the woman taken in adultery, and to the woman of Samaria. No, no one could frighten me, for I know what to think about His love and His mercy. I know that a host of sins would vanish in the twinkling of an eye like a drop of water flung into a furnace.

For Therese mercy is love that suffers the misery of another so as to affirm their dignity. And penance is love that sees the suffering love of another on one's own behalf and desires to make a return. The love of Jesus isn't a mere nice feeling; it conforms us to him crucified. Jesus' mercy enables us to make such sacrifices. Jesus will transform you into himself if you let him, and your personality will actually become more full. This was echoed by Pope Benedict in the close of his homily at his inaugural Mass as Pope:

Are we not perhaps all afraid in some way? If we let Christ enter fully into our lives, if we open ourselves totally to him, are we not afraid that He might take something away from us? Are we not perhaps afraid to give up something significant, something unique, something that makes life so beautiful? Do we not then risk ending up diminished and deprived of our freedom? And once again the Pope said: No! If we let Christ into our lives, we lose nothing, nothing, absolutely nothing of what makes life free, beautiful and great. No! Only in this friendship are the doors of life opened wide. Only in this friendship is the great potential of human existence truly revealed. Only in this friendship do we experience beauty and liberation. And so, today, with great strength and great conviction, on the basis of long personal experience of life, I say to you, dear young people: Do not be afraid of Christ! He takes nothing away, and he gives you everything. When we give ourselves to him, we receive a hundredfold in return. Yes, open, open wide the doors to Christ – and you will find true life. Amen.

Only in realizing how pathetic and weak you are, can you meet Jesus and can others meet him through you. People who don't know God haven't felt his yearning love for them; the only way for them to experience his love is through you. When someone comes to the Lord through you it isn't because of your intellect, but through your weakness and brokenness.

She is a very sweet saint, and was a good friend to seminarians and priests in her earthly life. It is good to develop a friendship with her. Ask her, "Teach me your little way. Be my friend." You have to do something concrete with your life to develop your friendship with the saints. For Therese, it is the little way. Seminarians, allow her to be your novice mistress.

John of the Cross' Ascent of Mount Carmel, Book Two

2010-08-19T11:49:00.002-06:00

This book of St John's work Ascent of Mount Carmel is about the dark night of spirit, whereas the first book was about the dark night of the senses. It starts out as a commentary on the second stanza of the poem, but goes into great great detail about it.

In darkness and secure,
By the secret ladder disguised
- oh, happy chance! -
In darkness and in concealment,
My house being now at rest.

This is learning to live by faith alone. God is healing the roots of your soul. (In the dark night of the senses, he was healing involuntary movements that were controlling your life, which are the symptoms of the diseases being healed here.) This night is much more painful and filled with suffering than is the dark night of the senses.

But you gain a real knowledge of God: the knowledge of him that he has of himself; it is an interpersonal, relationship, friendship knowledge of God. He makes you to find your joy in him alone. These dark nights are essentially relational events, between you and God. Priests need to pursue this friendship with God in a particular way.

John of the Cross' Dark Night of the Soul

2010-08-18T15:28:00.004-06:00

The Dark Night of the Soul is a second commentary on the same poem from Ascent of Mount Carmel. Here is the translation we read. It is about the passive nights of the soul, whereas Ascent is about the active nights.

One dark night,
fired with love's urgent longing
--ah, the sheer grace!--
I went out unseen,
my house being now all stilled.

The dark night in the first stanza is "purgative contemplation", which passively causes the the soul to leave love of self and things for union with God.

John begins by describing the imperfections of beginners in the spiritual life, in the areas of pride, spiritual avarice, lust, spiritual anger, spiritual gluttony, spiritual envy and sloth.
Pride is seeking to be esteemed by others for your achievements; seeking gratification in how others think of you. Humility is the virtue that regulates self-esteem: regulate according to God's esteem for you. When we regulate self-esteem independently of this, we esteem ourselves wrongly. The way you see yourself sets up how you act: if you don't see yourself as a son of God, you'll act beneath your dignity. Try to laugh at your vanity: the Enemy hates humour, so laugh about it when you are humiliated. When someone purposefully, cruelly humiliates you, then you are especially Christlike. Pride can follow all of us into the confessional, where we might not clearly relate our sins. But it is so much more important to get your sin forgiven than what the old man thinks of you. St John describes some persons who are "anxious that God removes their faults and imperfections, but their motive is personal peace rather than God." We should desire peace, without being anxious. To counter what John describes, thank God for your faults, because they keep you humble. Do not be so foolish as to think that holiness is within your grasp; the only way to get it is to receive it from God. Another way to regulate pride is to learn to be in God's presence without consolation. Let God be the master of your prayer time. To heal your big fat ego, waste time with God. Keep going to daily holy hours even if they are un-consoling and boring. A big lesson in humility for seminarians is to lovingly and eagerly accept formation: "Yet these humble souls, far from desiring to be anyone's teacher, are ready to take a road different from the one they are following, if told to do so."
Spiritual avarice is when a person sees spirituality as the acquisition of teachings, religious articles, or a preoccupation with the externals of liturgy. This can cause the person to seek satisfaction in liturgy which appeals to his personal preferences, rather than in praising God. The antidote for this is spiritual poverty, produced by the Holy Spirit in contemplation.
Lust will get worse before it gets better. It can lead us to union with God, as can pride, if we have tears of compunction for our sinful instincts. When you have an instinct to lust, just pray "Lord, have mercy."
Anger is discussed as anger at yourself over not becoming holy quickly enough; St John says, "they do not have the patience to wait until God gives them what they need". The cure is spiritual meekness, learning to be patient with God.
Spiritual gluttony is a craving for consolation in prayer. St John says that when these persons receive Communion, they are more concerned with getting "feeling and satisfaction rather than humbly praising and reverencing God dwelling within them." Our first prayer after receiving Christ should always be praise and worship of the Trinity and particularly Christ.
Spiritual sloth is a reluctance or refusal to pray, when it is not consoling.
A good rule of thumb with regards to these imperfections: if there is a passage you can't relate to or identify with, it's a safe bet that that is such a huge problem for you that you don't even see it, it's so permeated into you.

St John says that God delivers beginners of these imperfections through the dark night, through "pure dryness and interior darkness".

The dryness of the dark night is given to the soul so that you will become free to rest in God alone; he won't let anything else console you while you're in the dark night. In the dark night God is not communicated by senses or thought, but by "simple contemplation", "in which there is not discursive succession of thought." The soul has to abandon itself to this process, accepting that it can't do anything, and in prayer just waste time with God.

Entering the dark night, the soul is "attracted by the love of God and enkindled in it". Pss 73 and 43 describe this longing.

In the dark night, prayer feels like a waste of time and scripture passages won't seem meaningful. At these times make an act of faith that God is present, and attend to God; stop distracting yourself with reading, emotions, or imagination.

St John of the Cross says that the benefits of the dark night are: self-knowledge, about our lowliness; knowledge of God, of his grandeur and majesty; humility; and love of neighbour.

John of the Cross' Ascent of Mount Carmel, Book One

2010-08-18T11:30:00.005-06:00

The Ascent of Mount Carmel is a poem with a treatise explaining it. It describes how to reach divine union, described as Mount Carmel, through love.

This is the first stanza:

On a dark night,
Kindled in love with yearnings
- oh, happy chance! -
I went forth without being observed,
My house being now at rest.

St John says that if we are attracted by earthly or heavenly goods, we won't get to Mt Carmel. But following John of the Cross doesn't mean forsaking all goods; just don't put them ahead of God. He wants us to take a path of nothingness to God alone. In the end, only the desire for God saves you. It is necessary to get rid of the things that dissipate or weaken your desire for God; you must be focused.

Having the virtue of chastity rooted deeply in the faith allows for you to develop deep, close, intimate friendships in your life.

St John teaches that dark nights are essential to the spiritual life, and that there are two forms of them: the dark night of the senses, which is the way to get from the purgative stage of the spiritual life to the illuminative; and the dark night of spirit, which takes you from the illuminative stage to the unitive. The dark night of the sense is both active and passive; there are things you can actively do, such as a media fast, to dispose yourself to it. The dark night of spirit, however, is passive. The dark nights are so called because in them we must live by faith; then we must persevere in trust of God. The dark nights are purifications of the soul.

The means of entering the night of sense, the things that dispose you to the night, are based on this principle: "have habitual desire to imitate Christ in all your deeds by bringing your life into conformity with his. You must then study his life..." Spend time with Jesus in the Gospels and by adoring him in the Eucharist. This principle is what keeps John from being like Buddhism, however similar as the rest of his 'nada nada' path to Carmel is to the natural religion.

Steps to carrying out this principle include: having a discipline of life ordered to the love of God, renouncing sensory satisfactions that are not purely for the glory of God. Be inclined not to the easiest, but to the most difficult; not to the most delightful, but to the most distasteful; not to the highest and most precious, but to the lowest and most despised; not to wanting something but to wanting nothing, etc. St John advises us to earnestly embrace these practices and try to overcome our will's repugnance toward them. You can train your senses to delight in difficult things for the Lord and his glory. These steps conquer your appetites; they change how you take in sensory stimulation.

Are your senses given to pursuit of self, or of God? When they are pursuing self, you are inconstant--you have moments of devotion to God, but then you fall back into sin.

What do I do in my free time? Fix this, and you'll have tranquility and more energy.

The reason so many of us, in particular Americans, are not able to love freely, is because we're addicted to comfort. Addiction to comfort retards our ability to love. Renounce comfort, the easy chair or the La-Z-Boy, to play basketball [or any other distasteful sport] with your brothers. That is how your heart will be able to love with freedom. To get rid of your addiction to comfort, incline yourself to the most difficult, as John said. This doesn't mean always do the most difficult; but free yourself so that you can choose the most difficult and aren't enslaved to comfort.

We need to choose, day by day, to be completely vulnerable to the Lord and to his will. Asceticism can't take away the deep-seated, involuntary contempt for my brother; the wounds, dark things in my heart; involuntary movements in the heart. Self-knowledge is the first step in opening yourself to what God wants to do for you. He wants to re-order your wounds so that instead of tearing you down they lead you to God. Surrender to God in prayer. Just sit there and be attentive to his love. Attend to him in darkness and silence.

Seminarians need to learn to be anonymous: the more anonymous you are, the more fruitful your ministry for God. This relates back to F.X.N. Van Thuan's idea of following God and not the works of God. We need to be the man that people want to follow to God.

John of the Cross' Living Flame of Love

2010-08-02T19:48:00.005-06:00

This poem and its commentary describe a "very intimate and elevated union and transformation of the soul in God". "The soul...is so inwardly transformed in the fire of love and elevated by it that it is not merely united to his fire but produces within it a living flame." The translation we used is actually available here.

This is the poem:

O living flame of love
that tenderly wounds my soul
in its deepest center! Since
now you are not oppressive,
now consummate! if it be your will:
tear through the veil of this sweet encounter!

O sweet cautery,
O delightful wound!
O gentle hand! O delicate touch
that tastes of eternal life
and pays every debt!
In killing you changed death to life.

O lamps of fire!
in whose splendors
the deep caverns of feeling,
once obscure and blind,
now give forth, so rarely, so exquisitely,
both warmth and light to their Beloved.

How gently and lovingly
you wake in my heart,
where in secret you dwell alone;
and in your sweet breathing,
filled with good and glory,
how tenderly you swell my heart with love.

Stanza one: The living flame is the Holy Spirit, to whom a soul at this stage is intimately united. The soul is wounded in fulfillment of the sense in which one is wounded by Cupid's arrow. The soul is dying of love, is changed forever, is living for God, and is driven by the love of God. This love transforms your very centre. The soul's deepest center is where the heart rests; and "my heart is restless until it rests in you, my God". So the more you embrace, hold on to your faith, the more yourself you become; the more your heart rests in God. In asking the living flame to consummate, the soul is asking the Spirit to let her experience the fulness of union with him, i.e. mystical contemplation.

Stanza three: St John of the Cross says the lamps of fire are God's attributes. This poem is his attempt to describe the soul's transformation in God, in which "the soul becomes God from God through participation in him and in his attributes".
In commenting on "the deep caverns of feeling",St John of the Cross says,

Likewise, when the soul has reached such purity in itself and its faculties that the will is very pure and purged of other alien satisfactions and appetites in the inferior and superior parts, and has rendered its "yes" to God concerning all of this, since now God's will and the soul's are one through their own free consent, then the soul has attained possession of God insofar as this is possible by way of the will and grace. And this means that in the "yes" of the soul, God has given the true and complete "yes" of his grace.

Reading this, I thought of it as an explanation for the Immaculate Conception. All the imagery of the soul saying "yes" to God puts in my mind Mary's fiat.
3.34 "Since God, then, as the giver communes with individuals through a simple, loving knowledge, they also, as the receivers, commune with God through a simple and loving knowledge or attention, so knowledge is thus joined with knowledge and love with love. The receiver should act according to the mode of what is received, and not otherwise, in order to receive and keep it in the way it is given." This spoke to me of docility, which was definitely a theme for me in the spirituality year.
The passivity of prayer is expressed when John of the Cross says that "contemplation lies in receiving". This most intimate form of prayer is a sort of shutting down of yourself, what you're doing, and receiving what God has to give you.

St John of the Cross' Spiritual Canticle

2010-08-01T21:09:00.005-06:00

Back to the series on the works we read in our spiritual classics class. We five weeks with St John of the Cross, (in this edition) and the Spiritual Canticle was the first work we read. We read the poem, plus the commentary on the first three stanzas, and the twelfth.

Dr Lilles recommended that we read St John's "Romances" to understand the Spiritual Canticle. They are very good in and of themselves, and I used them on the Spiritual Exercises to pray over the Incarnation and Nativity.

The Canticle is like the Song of Songs, and is a dialogue between bride (the soul) and bridegroom (Christ). In each of these stanzas, it is the bride speaking:

Where have You hidden Yourself,
And abandoned me in my groaning, O my Beloved?
You have fled like the hart,
Having wounded me.
I ran after You, crying; but You were gone.

O shepherds, you who go
Through the sheepcots up the hill,
If you shall see Him
Whom I love the most,
Tell Him I languish, suffer, and die.

In search of my Love
I will go over mountains and strands;
I will gather no flowers,
I will fear no wild beasts;
And pass by the mighty and the frontiers.

O crystal well!
Oh that on Your silvered surface
You would mirror forth at once
Those eyes desired
Which are outlined in my heart!

First stanza: The soul is waking up and realizes this world is passing, and has a sense of indebtedness to God. Most parishioners haven't really experienced God, and don't have this sense of indebtedness to him. They are at the stage of loving themselves for their own sake. The preaching of the Gospel therefore needs to be aimed at waking them up. This waking up is a holy fear, realization that I've wasted my life, and wanting to pursue God. In the Canticle the soul is on a passionate pursuit to find Christ; he woke her up.
I need to ask God when I've made a cry to him like this poem. What characterized my experience? "God, help me understand my experience with you."
O Lord My spouse, show me where you are hidden.
St John says that Christ is hidden in the innermost being of the soul. We need to seek for him in ourself with all the strength of our being. The core of your being is a trysting place for the living God. Encountering God in your inmost being points to the primacy of prayer that needs be in our life. To find the hidden God, we must also hide. To hide is to live by faith: don't calculate, don't rely on your natural gifts, your intellect. Rely rather on your faith knowledge. If you life by your intellect, you won't find the hidden God. The only way to serve God is by faith. Trust him, let him carry you, no matter what you see, no matter the things wrong you see. Don't calculate, or be anxious; look to him alone. Be faithful to what the Lord has for you to do here and now, rather than being anxious for your future. This living by faith alone is essential to self-renewal, and to the renewal of the Church.
St John of the Cross recommends an "emptying" sort of prayer, experiencing God though a via negativa. "Individuals who want to find him should leave all things through affection and will, enter within themselves in deepest recollection, and let all things be as though not." This has garnered him comparison with Buddhist meditation, and they can be rather similar. One priest I greatly respect has said that Buddhism is the best natural religion; ie the best that men have come up with, without divine revelation. The difference between John of the Cross and the Buddha is that John instructs us to make the Lord the desire of your heart, to place him first, while the Buddha teaches one to desire nothing at all. There is a lot of emptying in John of the Cross, but the desire for God must remain.

Second stanza: The shepherds are the soul's desires and affections for God; they may also be angels.

Third stanza: "In search of my love" is the soul's leaving her own will and satisfaction, so she can seek Christ. The mountains are virtues and the contemplative life, and the strands are mortifications and the active life. The flowers not gathered are the temptations of the flesh. The mighty are demons. The Lord allows demons in our life to teach us to rely on him. None of us can beat demons on our own; we have to rely on Christ. A demon who leads you to a habitual sin is allowed so that you will go to confession and realize you have to rely on Jesus. The frontiers are the natural rebellions of the flesh against the spirit.

Twelfth stanza: Seeing Jesus' face reflected in the water is mystical prayer. In this you aren't initiating anything; it's all the prompting of the Holy Spirit. This contemplation, attentiveness to the Holy Spirit, is the only thing that will make a man a good priest. Without it, he is limited to himself.

St Ignatius

2010-07-31T18:45:00.004-06:00

Today, in both forms of the Roman Rite, is the feast of St Ignatius of Loyola.

The Spirituality Year I recently completed is based upon Ignatian spirituality, and was capped off with a 30 day retreat making the Exercises.

In his honour I will post about the first day of his Spiritual Exercises (as given to the Spirituality Year).

The purpose of retreating and making the Spiritual Exercises are to be free to hear and do God's will for you; to let God draw closer to you; and to regain the heart of a child. You want to make yourself as available to God as possible, by withdrawing from the world and its distractions. You want to be able to make decisions with freedom. Live in the loving gaze of the Father.

Prayer is a patient listening to the voice of God, a making ourselves open to receive the Word of God, asking for the spirit to free us to hear His will for us and to respond generously. Prayer is the courage to "abide in God" and to let Him abide in us (Jn 15:4, 5, 10)

There is a prayer of thanksgiving, repentance, petition, adoration. It is a way of being before God, in God, an attitude which is called "contemplation".

Christian prayer is above all dialogue: God initiates the dialogue, the human creature listens for God's Word and then is invited to respond, to give a living answer to God. Prayer is talking gently to God.

On retreat, let yourself be surprised by God: watch a robin, or follow ducks. God may want to speak to you through a flower, a bird, a memory, or an event in the kitchen. Whatever your experience, ask if he's trying to talk to you through it. Get back in touch with a child's heart, and be docile to the Holy Spirit.

The encounter with God takes place in the heart. Prayer is wasting time with God. The month of the Spiritual Exercises are a good time to come to know the Psalms.

Texts to pray with:
Pss 1, 23

The grace to be asked for the first day: to make a good retreat, place yourself entirely in His care for these days, trusting Him to give you the grace you need to pray as you should; thanksgiving.

Praying with Ps 1 made me think that I need to be ever mindful of how can I serve/love God in whatever situation I'm in. Verse 3 seemed to me parallel to Jn 4:14. And verse 6 is speaking of covenant knowing; the way of the righteous is His way.

Bernard's On Conversion

2010-07-30T19:34:00.004-06:00

This is based on the treatise itself.

I.1 God's will is that we be converted, that we turn around, repent, think again. Because God has said he wants us to be converted (Ps 89:3) it can happen. We have to make the effort, but he will give us the strength.

I.2 We have to be freed from our sluggishness. Our soul isn't really happy, but is sluggish any way, because at lesat it's in control. When I'm in habitual sin, I know the pattern: I can anticipate, I'm in control. But if I follow God, I don't know what will happen; our sluggishness comes out of our fear of relinquishing control over our lives.

VI.8 Bernard speaks of an "overflowing sewer" contaminating the house of our soul. The only way to get the sewage out is to shut the door and window, where it's coming in from; and to get to the door and window, you have to wade through sewage. Conversion is a messy business. Stop sinning, live a disciplined life. You can't repent while you're still in sin. When we see the sewage, it's so nasty that we want to avoid it, but we do need to engage it to clean it up.

VI.10 He talks about how our very self resists our conversion. He describes our diseased, ill-formed will as an ulcerous, nasty old woman, who complains at our beginning conversion. We've been our whole life satisfying our will's desire for pleasure: our will feels it has something like a conjugal right to pleasure, which you're now denying it. This is why we resist our conversion so very strongly.

VI.11 Evil comes into our self through the will.

VII.12 Bernard applies the beatitude of the poor in spirit to those who are starting their conversion and finding that their will is opposing them. "Who is poorer in spirit than he who in the whole of his own spirit finds no rest, nowhere to lay his head?"

IX.23 Similarly does he talk of "blessed are they who mourn". Bernard applies this to the person whose flesh is opposing their converting spirit, and who mourns his condition and hopes for consolation from God.

And this is Dr Lilles' reflection based on Bernard's treatise.

If a man discerns out of the seminary, he shouldn't date for about a year. At that point he is as vulnurable as he's going to be; women are attractive particularly because we can in them hide from the ugliness inside us; we're vulnerable to fantasy (ie oh she goes to daily Mass. She's perfect for me) and need to live in reality. If we let ourself get distracted with a woman, we can ignore the things that are wrong with us; but we must see the ugly part of our souls; don't run from it, don't hide; embrace it; you must not run away; embrace it, and submit it to Christ. Women are particularly attractive for the seminarian because they give us an opportunity to hide from self; and if we run to that, we will live superficially, never able to help anyone (eg her, kids, neighbours).

How is it that we're able to stop sinning? What Jesus did for us counts. His blood is more powerful than sin. O blood and water, which gushed forth from the heart of Jesus, as a fount of mercy for us, I trust in you. It is God's will that we be converted: if I rely on God alone, I will commit no mortal sin; if you rely on God's will, you won't fall into mortal sin. We must have confidence..we must have confidence.
Make this your prayer: "Jesus, help me. I am a sinner."
My sin has no chance against Jesus: he created the universe by willing it. The only problem is me; my self-sufficiency get in the way.
Jesus could never sin, because he loved/trusted in God the Father so totally. Mary had this. We can acquire this by grace. But when you receive this grace don't assume that your conversion will be easy: one cannot love God except at one's own expense. You must do the work of fighting, keeping vigil, being strong, and never wavering. Ask the Lord to be with you in the fight, and you'll be victorious.
Protestants' theology can get in the way of their conversion, in its aversion to works. You have to work with God in your conversion. That is the gist of the statement that you can't love God except at your own expense. It isn't easy, you don't just accept Jesus as your lord and saviour and it's over. There's a ton of work after that. Jesus won't bring you to conversion; he invites you, and gives you the grace, but you have to actually do it yourself. Conversion is a hell of a struggle: it is a fight for life or death.
We can resist the divine voice by gluttony, curiousity, and pride. Too much food/drink makes us spiritually lazy. Watch your snacking: when you're tired and want a snack for a pick me up, go instead to pray, to the chapel, rather than the refectory/kitchen. Ask Christ for refreshment. Living such a disciplined life will give us strength. If you really like the soup today, only have one bowl. Leave half a cookie on your plate so that you can more attentively engage the brother next to you.

I live with the illusion that I'm a pretty good guy; that I'm a fixer-upper; but I'm not a fixer-upper--I am a train wreck. We need to face the ugly nasty sin in our life. Basically we're so used to the stench of our sin that we can't even smell it anymore.

Try to recognize the lack of love in yourself, and weep for it: this is compunction, the gift of tears.

We run from our inner self because it is too painful to see. St John Vianney got a glimpse of this and wanted nothing but to run to a monastery and atone. I must accept myself, and be completely honest with both God and myself. "Lord Jesus, reveal to me the truth of who I really am." "Lord, pierce me to the heart." "I do not have a sense of why you needed to die for me." "Please let me have sorrow." Let me have sorrow over my life: not to wallow, but recognize self and offer those wounds and thank God for revealing them to me. God isn't going to despise me because of my sin; but he will save me because of it. Have the courage to go in and confront your spiritual sewage.

In each of us is an abyss of misery, created by our and other's sin. But there is an abyss deeper than my misery: the abyss of his mercy. We can be healed by submerging our misery in his mercy.

Bernard's On the Steps of Humility and Pride

2010-07-30T17:04:00.006-06:00

This was probly my favourite work the whole year. I used it as part of my examination preparing for the general confession in the Spiritual Exercises.

This treatise addresses the problem of your own "big fat ego". (One of Dr. Lilles' favourite phrases.) Learning to die to self is the most important thing we learn in seminary. We create the myth that "I'm a pretty good guy", because it is too hard to deal with the truth about ourself. When we start to see ourselves as we are, that's the beginning of humility. Humility helps us see that the world revolves around God (not us). This humility regulates self-esteem, which is very important in our day and age. People get hooked on drugs, sex, porn, etc because they don't esteem themselves correctly. To have no self-esteem is not enough of it, and to esteem yourself more than God is too much of it. So you can esteem yourself wrongly, to excess or deficiency. If you do esteem yourself wrongly, you won't do what you need to do for your good. If you have too little self-esteem, you won't think it's worth it to do good things for yourself, because you aren't worthy (or capable) of doing good anyway.

Before describing the steps in detail, Bernard has a beautiful discussion on Christ's condescension. (III.6 ff) "He learned mercy...what he knew by nature from eternity he learned from experience in time." Christ had a perfect, infused knowledge of our human condition by virtue of being God, but out of love for us he wanted to experience all our miseries. This helped me develop a peri-communion prayer to him thanking him for his condescension in becoming man out of love for me, becoming passable, and suffering the Passion, though he is by nature infinite and impassable. He chose to suffer with us, that we might more readily entrust ourselves to him, since he experienced our weakness and limitations. Most encouragingly, he learned obedience, the hardest lesson we have. Bernard refers to Hebrews in saying that "we can be sure he will have compassion on us because he has suffered himself."

He treats of the parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector (V.17) "The Pharisee waved mercy away when he denied his [own] wretchedness." We must acknowledge our sinful state before we can receive mercy from our Lord.

Bernard's steps of humility and pride can be seen here.

The first choice is to be (unduly) curious or not. Studiousness is the virtue that regulates curiousity. This is a big one for seminarians, who usually need to regulate their curiousity so it doesn't get out of hand. We have curiousity, and need to exercise it on studies, or else it will be exercised on other things, either trivial or bad. The positive choice here is self-possession: being content with yourself, with what God has done in your life. The example of bad curiousity Bernard gives is Eve looking too intently at the fruit she was not allowed to eat--her curiousity about that fruit led to the Fall.

The second step is light-mindedness; looking at others, comparing yourself to them.

The third step of pride is foolish merriment; this isn't speaking against joy and mirth, but against sarcasm and cynicism, or using humour to avoid or relieve stress.

The fourth step is boasting.

The fifth is trying to be different; claiming special rights. The person at this stage is concerned with appearing good, rather than actually being good.

The sixth step is thinking that you're holier than everyone else.

The seventh step is presuming to put yourself where you don't really belong, or talking back when you're reprimanded.

The eight step is justifying your sinful actions

The ninth is public confession of sin/fault so that people will admire your "humility".

The tenth is rebellion against superiors.

The eleventh step of pride is feeling a freedom to sin.

The twelfth is habitual sin, lacking the fear of God, and instead having contempt for him.

Bernard of Clairvaux's On Loving God

2010-07-30T15:58:00.002-06:00

This is the first treatise of St Bernard that we read; this is our edition, from the wonderful Classics of Western Spirituality. Bernard says that there are four degrees of love.

The first is when man loves himself for his own sake: The first reason to embrace Christian discipline is because it's good for you--it is the best way to take care of yourself; you need to learn to take care of yourself, to love yourself. A discipline of daily prayer keeps you from being buffeted this way and that by the world, by random persons whose desires may be disordered. For Bernard, the self is not the rugged invididuality of conservative America--there is a radical solidarity among persons. For Bernard, you love others for your own sake: you intuit your connection with others, in a realization that we're all in the same boat; when we take care of eachother, we're loving ourself for our own sake. This sense of solidarity leads us to the realization that we're not self-sufficient--that we depend upon God and that he comes through for us. Self-sufficiency will block us from the second degree of love. God breaks us of this self-sufficiency by trials so that we will rely on him. This is to teach us that he is good and helps us to love him.

The second degree is when man loves God for his own good: Wanting our own good, and coming to realize that God wants our good, we have a basis for friendship with him. This is love on a natural (pre-Christian) level. It gives God joy, but he does want us to move to supernatural love.

The third degree is loving God for God's sake: This is expressed by David in Ps 62. Having tasted the sweetness of the Lord, we are lead to "love God in purity more than our need alone would prompt us to do." (IX.26) This is trusting in the Lord because he is good, not because he is good to you.

The fourth degree is loving self for God's sake. Again, this self is not isolated, but a self in communion, enveloping all persons; so this can also be called loving others for God's sake. God loves you because he sees something good in you, despite the bad that's there; and in this stage I see the good which he sees. Seeing this good, I can love as he loves.

There is a letter appended to the treatise which has a good reflection on conversion (XII.34)

There are some who praise God for his power, some who praise him for his goodness to them, and some who praise him simply because he is good. The first is a slave, fearful on his own account. The second is mercenary, and desires profit for himself. The third is a son who honors his father... Neither fear nor love of self can convert the soul. They change the appearance of one's deeds from time to time, but never one's character. A slave can sometimes do God's work, but because he does not do it of his own free will he remains in his former state of hard-heartedness. The hireling can do it, too, but because he does not do it for nothing he can be convicted of being led by his own desire.

We must pray for the grace to praise God because he is good.

Augustine's Confessions

2010-07-27T10:15:00.003-06:00

This work is just beautiful. If you haven't read it, do. It was a part of my conversion to the Church. Sadly, we got behind and didn't finish it; we only read through book 9, and parts of 10. The same thing happened in another class I took where we read Confessions. Books 10-13 are fascinating, but much neglected.

Here is the beautiful opening to the work:

“Great art thou, O Lord, and greatly to be praised; great is thy power, and infinite is thy wisdom.”And man desires to praise thee, for he is a part of thy creation; he bears his mortality about with him and carries the evidence of his sin and the proof that thou dost resist the proud. Still he desires to praise thee, this man who is only a small part of thy creation. Thou hast prompted him, that he should delight to praise thee, for thou hast made us for thyself and restless is our heart until it comes to rest in thee. Grant me, O Lord, to know and understand whether first to invoke thee or to praise thee; whether first to know thee or call upon thee. But who can invoke thee, knowing thee not? For he who knows thee not may invoke thee as another than thou art. It may be that we should invoke thee in order that we may come to know thee. But “how shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? Or how shall they believe without a preacher?” Now, “they shall praise the Lord who seek him,” for “those who seek shall find him,” and, finding him, shall praise him. I will seek thee, O Lord, and call upon thee. I call upon thee, O Lord, in my faith which thou hast given me, which thou hast inspired in me through the humanity of thy Son, and through the ministry of thy preacher.

^{The whole work opens with a beautiful chapter praising God for his greatness and glory in and of themselves, not just for what he has done for us. It shows us that the work is basically about man's search for God that he might praise him; it is Augustine's attempt to praise God, his Magnificat. Who we are is lessened, if we do not praise God. Confessions defines the fundamental relationship between God and man: that of Creator and creature.}

Who shall bring me to rest in thee? Who will send thee into my heart so to overwhelm it that my sins shall be blotted out and I may embrace thee, my only good? What art thou to me? Have mercy that I may speak. What am I to thee that thou shouldst command me to love thee, and if I do it not, art angry and threatenest vast misery? Is it, then, a trifling sorrow not to love thee? It is not so to me. Tell me, by thy mercy, O Lord, my God, what thou art to me. “Say to my soul, I am your salvation.” So speak that I may hear. Behold, the ears of my heart are before thee, O Lord; open them and “say to my soul, I am your salvation.” I will hasten after that voice, and I will lay hold upon thee. Hide not thy face from me. Even if I die, let me see thy face lest I die.
The house of my soul is too narrow for thee to come in to me; let it be enlarged by thee. It is in ruins; do thou restore it. There is much about it which must offend thy eyes; I confess and know it. But who will cleanse it? Or, to whom shall I cry but to thee? “Cleanse thou me from my secret faults,” O Lord, “and keep back thy servant from strange sins.” “I believe, and therefore do I speak.” But thou, O Lord, thou knowest. Have I not confessed my transgressions unto thee, O my God; and hast thou not put away the iniquity of my heart? I do not contend in judgment with thee, who art truth itself; and I would not deceive myself, lest my iniquity lie even to itself. I do not, therefore, contend in judgment with thee, for “if thou, Lord, shouldst mark iniquities, O Lord, who shall stand?”

Here (book 1, chapter 5) Augustine shows us that the spiritual life is mostly God searching us out, seeking to dwell in us. We're afraid to let the Lord into our heart because if he sees it, he won't love us; but the joke is on us, because he already knows. And he knowing, he already loves.

Much of the Confessions covers the time in Augustine's life when he was caught in sexual sin. This saps our confidence, makes us feel alone, enslaved; we feel that we can't master it. Sin has this effect on you, but it is totally irrational. God will always give us the grace to stay out of mortal sin. And the battle for chastity is won in prayer; we must rely on Christ--it will not be won by white-knuckling it.

Augustine's 'tolle, lege' experience in 8,12 shows how conversion happens. He examined himself and wept; then he recognized the voice of the Lord, speaking through the child, telling him to "take, and read"; and he obeyed it immediately. He had the works of St Paul near him, and read what he first opened to. On doing this, he received a great sense of relief, melting away all his anxiety. Augustine's story shows us that we need the passions to get out of our sinful state; until you experience the movement of compunction (tears for sin--Jesus weeping over you), you can't change.

His experience following his mother's death (9,12) shows us how to deal with death. Without Christian faith and hope, funerals have inconsolable grief; Catholic wakes have a real mixture of joy and sorrow. We need to pray for the deceased, but also have thankfulness to God for their life.

Cardinal Van Thuan's Testimony of Hope

2010-07-26T20:21:00.003-06:00

I wasn't crazy about this work, but it is a good one. It is very accessible and easy to read. And Cardinal Van Thuan was a most impressive person: shortly after becoming archbishop of Saigon, he was imprisoned by the Vietnamese government for 13 years, most of which were spent in solitary confinement. He endured these years with a spirituality rooted in the virtue of hope. At SJV we also believe him to have been an instrumental intercessor for our seminarian Huy while he was sick.

Some of the points I particularly liked included:

*We resist God's love because we tune him out with things to distract us, and because we don't want to hear him calling us to give up the habits we have which are bad for us.
*The discipline of charity, of real love, is always in the present moment. Each moment gives us choices, and those choices turn (convert) our heart, towards or away from God.
*You must follow God, not the works of God. It is too easy for many of us, especially men, and especially Americans, to put our effort into being successful at doing God's work. Rather, we need to set ourselves at following him for his own sake. Be ready to give up success at his works, to follow in whatever he may call you to do. Without first following the Lord, you won't know what his work is; you're idea of God's work will be something you imagined. It's too easy for us to have inordinate attachements to God's works. My love for the liturgy may be somewhere in that direction...
*Christians' apostolate is to "reveal to every person, without discrimination, that God is close to them and loves them infinitely." S**t. I don't think about this anywhere near often enough. It sounds so simple to do this, but I just don't keep it at the front of my mind. And how exactly do I do it anyway?

Guigo's Ladder of Monks

2010-07-26T11:13:00.002-06:00

This work (available here) is about lectio divina, a traditional method of prayerfully reading Scripture. This was our edition, from which I have quoted a little in the post. Guigo was a Carthusian monk of the 12th c. At the seminary each Monday we use the method he described to pray over the readings for the coming Sunday's Mass. We have the gospel proclaimed to us, and then lectio with it for 45 minutes or so, and then are able to share our reflections with each other.

The four rungs of the ladder are:
lectio (reading)
meditatio (meditation)
oratio (prayer)
contemplatio (contemplation)

Lectio is a careful study of scripture; it is the seeking of a blessed life. In lectio try to pick out the words/phrases that move you, in a good way or ill, so that you can focus on them later. See what words connect in your mind to other parts of scripture, or to the liturgy. Ask what is the good while you read: what is the good I'm supposed to be getting out of this, here and now? Repetitive reading is characteristic here.

Meditatio is the application of the mind and reason to the reading; it is the perception of a blessed life. Think about the benefit of the good about which you read, that desire for it might be built up in you. Ask, what does this reading mean for my life? For me, lectio and meditatio are very intertwined. I flow between them easily and maybe don't even distinguish them as much as I ought. But this whole process is a guideline, you can't pray to a method. In my marginal notes from class, I have "try n think of related Scripture passages" in the meditatio section, though in practice I think of that as part of lectio. Clearly this is a fluid process, and the rungs are just meant to guide you along your prayerful way.

Oratio is the heart's turning to God to obtain the good; it is asking for a blessed life. It is taking all the matter from lectio/meditatio and taking it to God in prayer; taking a desire born by the meditatio to God.

Contemplatio is "when the mind is in some sort lifted up to God and held above itself, so that it tastes the joys of everlasting sweetness"; it is the experience of a blessed life. I tend to think of this as theoretical, something I haven't had, but re-visiting its definition, I think I have. "Contemplatio" sounds very up-there in the spiritual life, having ecstasies like St Teresa of Avila. But if you think of it as a sweet fruit of prayer, then sure, I've been given that.

Guigo gives a simile for lectio from eating: lectio is like putting food in the mouth; meditatio is mastication; oratio is extracting the flavour; and contemplatio is the sweetness and savour of the food gladdening and refreshing us.

Benedict's Rule

2010-07-25T16:33:00.003-06:00

This was one of my favourite readings in the year. We actually read only bits and pieces of it, mostly the beginning. But the entire work is good. It is available here. Reading it made me think: "Wow, if I actually put this stuff into practice...I'd be a good person!" It is inspiring, and its discipline explains why the Benedictines were so formative in European civilization.

In reading the Rule, we need to be mindful that St Benedict is in heaven, loving each of us, right now. He is inviting each of us to be his spiritual child by listening to his fatherly advice.

Prologue: St Benedict tells us to listen with our heart to Jesus. We need to let Jesus' and Benedict's words of instruction enter our heart. When you hear the voice of Jesus act on it. Good intentions with respect to Jesus' voice don't do anything; they're the cobblestones forming the path to hell. Not acting on Jesus' words is like falling in love with a girl, imagining marrying her and raising a family with her, but never actually talking to her; you have many feelings in your heart, but they aren't doing any darn good for anyone. We need to act in obedience to Jesus. Much of the rule is about obedience, and Benedict calls this a labor: obedience is hard work, and he doesn't skirt around that. We do need to be aware of our hate for obedience.

Benedict is telling us that we should right now, today, change and start acting for Jesus, not as a spiritual froot loop, even though that's what we've done until now.

Benedict reminds us, and it is good to be reminded of this, that the whole point of this life of ours is to get to heaven.

Chapter 7: Humility. This is such an important and foundational virtue, and will be treated again in further detail by Bernard. Benedict has 12 not-so-easy steps of humility. The first is:

"that a man always have the fear of God before his eyes (cf Ps 35[36]:2), shunning all forgetfulness and that he be ever mindful of all that God hath commanded, that he always considereth in his mind how those who despise God will burn in hell for their sins, and that life everlasting is prepared for those who fear God. And whilst he guardeth himself evermore against sin and vices of thought, word, deed, and self-will, let him also hasten to cut off the desires of the flesh. Let a man consider that God always seeth him from Heaven, that the eye of God beholdeth his works everywhere, and that the angels report them to Him every hour."

If you don't get this one, the others don't matter. God watches us because he yearns for us to go to heaven so much; he's scared of losing us, because he knows how dangerous our world is; it is like a father watching his kids to make sure they don't hurt themselves. He also watches us because dads get a kick out of seeing their kid do something really good: when we do something right, God's heart thrills. When we see an angry God watching us, as in this text, we're carrying our own baggage into it. He isn't watching us because he's angry, but because he loves us, and thus desires what's best for us. This step is about living in intimacy with God the Father; it orients us to his continual presence.

The other steps: 2) a person loves not his own will 3) he submits to his superior in all obedience 4) when hard and distasteful things are commanded, his heart quietly embraces suffering 5) a person confesses, and does not hide, their secret sins 6) to be content with the worst of everything 7) to see yourself as the lowest and vilest of persons (cf But I am a worm and no man, the reproach of men and the outcast of the people" Ps 21[22]:7) 8) to do only what is in the Rule and what is endorsed by his superiors' example 9) to control your tongue 10) to not be easily moved to laughter 11) to speak modestly, briefly and reasonably 12) to always manifest humility in bearing and in the heart.

St Benedict tells us that the person having accomplished these will have perfect love of God, and will observe the steps easily and out of love for Jesus and delight in virtue.

The purpose of Benedict's ladder of humility is for us to hear the voice of God by climbing it. Sin makes the ears of the heart de-sensitized to God's voice--it gets harder to distinguish his from others' voice. To hear the voice of God, you must have a discipline of live; this is regardless of your vocation. Benedict's Rule is one such discipline, for those called to monastic vocations, but such a discipline is appropriate to secular priests, married folk, and single persons. The Rule is about a discipline of life which makes it possible to hear God's voice; its purpose is to hear God's voice, to discern his voice from other voices.

Saint John Vianney Seminary photos

2010-06-28T20:59:00.009-06:00

Inside the quad

Downtown as seen from the tower

The Front Range from the tower

Stained glass in the centre of the apse at Christ the King Chapel

The Mary garden

A typical room on third floor

Dominic's Nine Ways of Prayer

2010-06-28T15:54:00.002-06:00

I wasn't too excited by this reading; it talks about the different postures in prayer that St Dominic used. Yes, we should be free to assume different postures, but I'm not that excited. Maybe I'm too much of an old fogey.

I did have a few particularly interesting notes in this lecture, though:

First a reiteration: "Scriptures are the language of prayer--we need to commit them to memory, so that they can come to our mind during prayer; if we don't commit to memory, we are impeding God's normal way of reaching us/talking to us". So again: use the one week psalter! It's a good thing.

The telos of prayer is communion/relationship with God.

And a favourite point of mine: "Reading/study is not in competition with other areas of formation: because 1) study informs your pastoral work 2) study forms good human habits 3) study leads us into deep contemplation". Needless to say, I'm excited to have a class schedule again come autumn.

Spirituality Year is over

2010-06-27T18:26:00.003-06:00

I've finished Spirituality Year as St John Vianney Seminary, and my media fast is over, so I will be trying to blog about the past year in the coming months. I hope to share what I found to be particularly fruitful. Given my temperament, I'll naturally start with my handouts and notebooks from class.

My favourite class was Spiritual Classics. We spent the whole year delving into a number of the greatest works of Catholic spirituality. Our reading list was:

*Catechism of the Catholic Church (the fourth pillar thereof)
*Dominic's Nine Ways of Prayer
*Benedict's Rule
*Guigo's Ladder of Monks
*Francis Xavier Nguyen van Thuan's Testimony of Hope
*Augustine's Confessions
*Bernard of Clairvaux
*John of the Cross
*Story of a Soul, by St. Therese of Lisieux
*a retreat of Bl. Elizabeth of the Trinity

Reflections on the Catechism:

[These are disparate, and the nuggets from my notes]

Priests need to be experts in prayer for our people--they want to see someone who is deeply prayerful, who points to the Other. Every person has this desire on their heart; even if they don't want to actually turn to God, they need to see someone who is there; it becomes a matter of hope. If people can see a man who is in intimate relationship with the Other, maybe they can be in this intimate relationship with their Creator as well. I think this is why we are given the Spirituality Year, which is apparantly unique among seminaries. It's an entire year devoted to time for prayer and the spiritual life, before we're thrown into academics. The intention is that we develop a rock foundation of prayer that will sustain us throughout our life.
Prayer configures us to God the Father; it takes us into his heart.
When we pray, we come more fully what we are.

Secular priests have to be a model for everyone; we're free to borrow spirituality from all over the Church's patrimony; we must express spirituality in ways that will appeal to the lay faithful; we need to be able to relate to pretty much everyone.

One of the most important things in our life is obedience. The word comes from ob-audire: to listen. And we can't hear the Father if we don't take up our cross and follow the Son.

SY is billed as the year of the heart, because the heart is the place of encounter with God. Many of us (and me especially) are caught up in our heads and don't relate enough with our heart. SY was a great year to grow in this.
Prayer is our heart to heart relationship with God; the heart is our inner sanctuary, where God speaks to us; it is where we can talk to God.

One of the foundational virtues is humility. We each need to pray God to show me how I really am; how he sees me; to have a true vision of self. It is important to remember that God really does see each of his as his child. This is a hard lesson to learn, but important.

The spiritual life is about our thriving; God wants us to thrive, even more than we do. We thrive as we realize our identity, as sons of God; as we become more and more conformed to Christ, we become more and more who we are.

On the Holy Spirit: The Holy Spirit is the source of our spiritual life; Christ is in heaven interceding for us that we might receive him, that we will know and love him.
The Holy Spirit is the spirit of sonship; because the Spirit is in us, we are sons of the Father.
He is Jesus' Spirit, so he communicates Jesus' desires to us.
The Spirit can be deepened in us even once we have him; it's not all-or-nothing.

The reason we sin, is because be don't know God's love; we don't realize how much he loves us, and so we don't respond in love to his love.

We acquire the heart of Jesus through the Psalms. The Psalms cover the whole gamut of human emotion. The better we know them, the easier we can integrate them into our prayer life, and see them as God's words to us personally. One thing I intend to do in the coming year is to set aside one holy hour each week to memorizing psalms. I tend to waste my time in holy hours, not knowing what to do, so this will be a good way to focus myself. The importance of the Psalms is a good reason to use the Roman Breviary rather than the Liturgy of the Hours. A one week psalter can make them stick in your mind in a way that a four week psalter never will. Moreover, iyou get all the psalms, in all their parts, rather than most of the psalms, edited for content.

In my notes I have: "you begin to be able to pray continuously if you spend specific time in prayer each day". I don't exactly see this having happened in the course of the last year in my life, but I suppose I'm much better than I was last June. And the extent it hasn't happened is I'm sure some defect on my part, not having given myself well enough to the year. Pray for me.

Most Christians live their life like Michael Corleone--he always wanted to get out of the family business, but only got sucked back in each time he got close to escaping it.
We need to pay attention to the fact taht there is something in us which is repulsed by God. We must realize in our poverty taht we need God--ask God for his gift of prayer. Ask God to show us how we are (ie humility). Ask for the mercy to see how much we need him; get out from the illusion that I'm a good guy and don't kneed to be fixed; if I don't, I will inflict my wounds on my parishioners [or whoever's around me]. I can't fall into thinking I can't talk to God about my biggest problems because he'll be repulsed by them/me--he already knows, and freely chose to die an awful death so that I can be raised up from these problems and share his life. He will never refuse his mercy to we who ask for it.

And for those pursuing the married vocation: a husband's pathway to holiness is to lay down his life for his bride.

Thomas a Becket

2009-12-29T10:48:00.003-07:00

Today is the fifth day in the Octave of Christmas, with the commemoration of Thomas Becket. Becket was Archbishop of Canterbury in the 12th century, and was martyred by the English king's (his onetime friend's) thugs for his defence of the rights of the Church. King Henry's (the second of that name) men came into his own cathedral and murdered him as he prepared for Vespers. It is a good saint story, and well portrayed by Peter O'Toole in Becket; well worth watching today if you haven't before.

Liturgically, this day is a good example of why Catholics need exposure to the Extraordinary Form. I was always puzzled by what to do with this day, and others like it. During the octave of Christmas, Lenten weekdays, and 17-24 December, memorials are outranked and thus not celebrated. The table of precedence does, however, say that "Optional memorials, as described in the instructions indicated for the Mass and office, may be observed even on" those days I just mentioned. I couldn't figure out how to do this, even though I read through the GILH every Advent, and have been saying the Office for close to three years now.

Only this year, after learning how to say the EF Office, have I figured it out. I had read GILH 239 multiple times before, but never understood what it meant. It reads:

During privileged seasons, if it is desired to celebrate the office of a saint on a day assigned to his or her memorial:
a. in the office of readings, after the patristic reading (with its responsory) from the Proper of Seasons, a proper reading about the saint (with its responsory) may follow, with the concluding prayer of the saint;

b. at morning prayer and evening prayer, the ending of the concluding prayer may be omitted and the saint's antiphon (from the proper or common) and prayer may be added.

That's a commemoration. The Proper of Seasons says its a commemoration. But if you haven't been exposed to the EF, you aren't going to know what the heck a commemoration is or how to do it, even with the GILH sitting right in front of you. I read that paragraph several times, understanding the words, but not knowing what they meant. Having done commemorations in the EF, the paragraph makes perfect sense to me now. But without that exposure, it was a mystery.

Commemorations are a wonderful way for the sanctoral and temporal cycles to be reconciled. Rather than one cycle being left out in the cold, with commemorations both are fit into a given celebration. It is a classic example of the Catholic preference for both/and over either/or.

So, this is how you do the Office today:

At Matins, the two readings for the proper of seasons, followed by the reading for Thomas Becket, followed by the Te Deum, followed by the collect for Thomas Becket, followed by the Benedicamus Domino.

Lauds is concluded in this way:

Pater noster...

All-powerful and unseen God the coming of your light into the world has made the darkness vanish. Teach us to proclaim the birth of your Son Jesus Christ,

Whoever hates his life in this world keeps it safe for life everlasting.

Almighty God, you granted the martyr Thomas the grace to give his life for the cause of justice. By his prayers make us willing to renounce for Christ our life in this world so that we may find it in heaven. Per DNIC...

Dominus nos benedicat....

Vespers is concluded in this way:

Pater noster...

All-powerful and unseen God the coming of your light into the world has made the darkness vanish. Teach us to proclaim the birth of your Son Jesus Christ,

The saints find their home in the kingdom of heaven; their life is eternal peace.

Almighty God, you granted the martyr Thomas the grace to give his life for the cause of justice. By his prayers make us willing to renounce for Christ our life in this world so that we may find it in heaven. Per DNIC...

Dominus nos benedicat....

The other Hours are normal and are not affected by the commemoration.

I hope this explains how to commemorate in the OF, so that you can now do it on the 31st for Sylvester, and during the season of Lent. Moreover, I hope it inspires you to dig into the EF for yourself.

Merry Christmas!

Christmas reflections

2009-12-25T21:58:00.002-07:00

A merry and very blessed Christmas to all of you!

1. For the recessional for today's Mass of the Dawn at the Cathedral, the hymn was "Good Christian Men, Rejoice". If you've not heard it, seek it out. The tempo is charming, and there was a lyric that really struck my heart: Now ye need not fear the grave. Christmas is so beautiful! God become man, and fully revealed to the world, no longer hid in the womb of his Mother, this Incarnation is what makes possible the sacrifice of this man's life which made possible our salvation. Our salvation can indeed be found in the Nativity, as this hymn so joyfully proclaims.

2. From Pope Benedict's homily today: "To awake, then, means to develop a receptivity for God: for the silent promptings with which he chooses to guide us; for the many indications of his presence. There are people who describe themselves as "religiously tone deaf". The gift of a capacity to perceive God seems as if it is withheld from some. And indeed – our way of thinking and acting, the mentality of today’s world, the whole range of our experience is inclined to deaden our receptivity for God, to make us "tone deaf" towards him."

This selection from our Holy Father is a good explanation for the Spirituality Year in which I am at the seminary. We have a media fast this year--we're not allowed the use of cell phones, landlines, internet, tv, radio, etc. Basically all electronics. Only on the weekend may we use these. And on Sunday their use is only for communication--eg no tv on Sunday. The whole point of our media fast is to help us awaken to God's voice in our lives. The guy who is using his cell all day, with the radio or the tv on in the background all day, is not terribly likely to be listening to see if God is calling him to a priestly vocation. It is much too easy to distract ourselves with all the super-cool gadgets we have. If I have my phone with me, I can text people all the time and never have to face silence, which may have include an encounter with my conscience or with God. Our media fast is truly a good.

A Thought

2009-12-13T11:09:00.002-07:00

"Our liturgy contains incomparably more than what our hearts are ready to feel." (Abraham Joshua Heschel)

Written of the liturgy of the Old Covenant...how much more true of the New and Everlasting Covenant.

Another Huy Update

2009-12-06T16:29:00.002-07:00

Here is another update on Huy's continued recovery to the fullness of health:

A recent CAT scan showed he has scar tissue on 75% of his lungs (down from 90%) and his lung capacity (how much he can fill his lungs) is right at 30%. All aspects continue to improve, however. His strength is returning and he has been cleared to drive. He is eating well. Huy has some high blood pressure, but they hope that will diminish over time.

In all – he is on the (slow) road to recovery. He is grateful for your ongoing prayers – and grateful for Our Lady’s care and Our Lord’s healing touch.

From St Cyprian

2009-11-28T10:20:00.002-07:00

Here's the first paragraph from the second reading at Matins yesterday. It's from a sermon by St Cyprian, and it is stinging. In a way it is also consoling, to see that Christians 1700 years ago were, well, just as pathetic of Christians as I am.

Our obligation is to do God's will, and not our own. We must remember this if the prayer that our Lord commanded us to say daily is to have any meaning on our lips. How unreasonable it is to pray that God's will be done, and then not promptly obey it when he calls us from this world! Instead we struggle and resist like self-willed slaves and are brought into the Lord's presence with sorrow and lamentation, not freely consenting to our departure, but constrained by necessity. And yet we expect to be rewarded with heavenly honors by him to whom we come against our will! When then do we pray for the kingdom of heaven to come if this earthly bondage pleases us? What is the point of praying so often for its early arrival if we would rather serve the devil here than reign with Christ.

Huy is well

2009-11-22T13:02:00.003-07:00

Thank you so much to everyone who has been praying for my diocesan brother. Thanks in no small part, I'm sure, to your prayers, Huy has recovered sufficiently so as to return to his home. He was able to receive Christ in Holy Communion on 10 November, the first time for quite awhile. "He had a CAT scan on both his heart and his head and both came back showing no signs of injury during his odyssey", wrote one of our priests. He was allowed home this Wednesday, the 18th of November, to recover fully.

Thank you all so much for your prayers.

More Huy

2009-11-08T14:54:00.002-07:00

Here is the latest update on Huy (from Saturday, 7 November). He's improved a great deal this week, and is no longer in the ICU.

He is doing very well in his hospital room.

He is completely off the ventilator. Praise God. He had great color in his face, his oxygen was at 100% and he is well on his way toward a full recovery. He wrote that at some point today (Saturday) he anticipates a modification to his trachea tube which will allow him to speak. He was in very good spirits.

New Huy update

2009-11-01T11:21:00.003-07:00

On Tuesday, Huy had a tracheotomy. The procedure went well, but I understand the new situation (a trachea tube) is rather bothersome for him. He does, however, seem to be past the danger of imminent death. He is being weaned off the respirator. Please continue praying for his health.

Here is the latest update, from 31 October (written by a priest of our diocese):

In a bit of a surprise, Huy has come down with pneumonia in his left lung. The doctors feel like they caught it in time and are giving him a full dose of antibiotics. He had a fever of 104 degrees – but that has come down in the last day. Because of this set back I anointed Huy once again this afternoon.

On the positive side – yesterday Huy was off the respirator for four hours. Today he will be off the respirator and breathing on his own for two periods of four hours each. He continues to make slow progress. When off the respirator his breathing rate is high (45+ per minute). They would like to see it get below thirty – meaning he is taking deep breaths.

Huy update

2009-10-18T18:34:00.002-06:00

Thank you to all who have been praying for Huy. He has gotten a lot better but is still in serious need of prayers. Here is an update on his condition, current as of yesterday (17 October):

As in the past few days, progress is slow but steady. Huy remains on the ventilator--but now it is doing only 50% of the work--Huy is doing the other 50%. This continues to provide hope that he will soon be off the ventilator. Mr. Nguyen said that yesterday Huy woke up and made eye contact with everyone in the room - and answered questions (by squeezing a visiting seminarian's hand). His persistent agitating cough required that they re-sedate him, but the good news is that he's able to respond so well.

A Dying Seminarian

2009-10-10T15:35:00.003-06:00

So sorry I haven't posted in forever, but when you only have the daylight hours of two days in a week to use the internet, blogging isn't your highest priority. But I do want to get this out there to whoever comes across my blog: One of the seminarians of the Archdiocese of Denver, Huy Nguyen, is gravely ill. Please pray for his recovery. If you ask the intercession of a saint, please ask Servant of God Van Thuan to pray for him (his cause for canonization is open, and a verifiable miracle will help the process along, as well as obviously be good for Huy and our whole diocese). Should you feel so inclined, here is a prayer for Huy's health composed by one of our seminarians:

Servant of God Francois-Xavier Nguyen Van Thuan,
you served God as a holy priest
and offered your life as as martyr
for the Catholic faith in Vietnam.
By the merits of your intercession,
and only as it be God's will,
we pray that our brother Huy
be granted the singular grace
of a miraculous recovery.
As you now adore the Most Holy Trinity,
we earnestly beseech you to pray
for Huy and for his immediate restoration to good health.
Amen.

Prayer for souls in purgatory, fourteenth week after Pentecost

2009-08-21T15:30:00.002-06:00

September 6: For those who suffer for their idleness.
September 7: For those who suffer for having spent their time in vain and useless conversation.
September 8: For those who committed sins against human dignity.
September 9: For those who did not do good works for human dignity.
September 10: For those who did good works to be esteemed.
September 11: For those who suffer for their bad example and scandal.
September 12: For those who had little love for God in this life.

Prayer for souls in purgatory, thirteenth week after Pentecost

2009-08-21T15:15:00.003-06:00

August 30: For those who suffer for their rancor.
August 31: For those who desired the death of their neighbours.
September 1: For those who were vengeful.
September 2: For those who suffer for the vice of gluttony.
September 3: For those who suffer for the vice of drunkenness.
September 4: For those who envied the good of others.
September 5: For those who suffer for their sloth in works of piety.

Prayer for souls in purgatory, twelfth week after Pentecost

2009-08-21T15:06:00.003-06:00

August 23: For those who suffer for their indecent words.
August 24: For those who suffer for their wandering eye.
August 25: For those who suffer for their ugly, dishonest works.
August 26: For those who suffer for attending dishonest entertainment.
August 27: For those who suffer for having read evil novels and books.
August 28: For those who suffer for hearing idle conversation.
August 29: For the Souls who suffer for their impatience.

Prayer for souls in purgatory, eleventh week after Pentecost

2009-08-21T14:56:00.002-06:00

August 16: For those who suffer for their vanity in clothing.
August 17: For those who suffer for their vainglory and bragging.
August 18: For those who were left dominated by avarice.
August 19: For those who suffer for their little charity towards the poor.
August 20: For those who spent on promoting their services.
August 21: For those who did not help charities, and could have.
August 22: For those who suffer for failing to promtly rid themselves of evil thoughts.

Saint Lawrence

2009-08-10T12:17:00.003-06:00

Today is the feast of St Lawrence, a Roman deacon martyred under Valerian. He had extraordinary eucharistic piety, being strong enough to consume the Host after someone vomited very soon after their own reception. He was grilled to death, and it supposed to have been so strengthened by the Lord that he told his persecutors to turn him over, as he was done on that side.

In the EF, Matins contains no less than seven references to Lawrence as a Levite, references that have been excised from the OF of the Office. These references serve to underscore a hermeneutic of continuity between the Mosaic Covenant and the New and Everlasting Covenant: deacons are of the order of Levi, while priests are of the order of Melchizedek. Removing these references have had the effect of "suppressing the way in which the characters of ordination relate to the former dispensation, and to the Temple. These changes alone impair the way contemporary Catholics can understand their own relation to the one and eternal covenant with God, now made manifest in Christ, as the same covenant in both old and new dispensations." (Hemming, Worship as a Revelation, p. 131)

Just another reason to use the EF.

Music for Mass

2009-08-08T16:44:00.002-06:00

One more reason to use the propers for Mass, instead of hymns: When GK makes fun of Catholics on Prairie Home Companion, he uses guitar masses and crazy 70s liturgical innovations (not that guitar masses aren't a crazy 70s liturgical innovation), not reverent worship.

Prayer for souls in purgatory, tenth week after Pentecost

2009-08-08T16:01:00.004-06:00

Intentions this week for the 90-day novena:

August 9: For those in your life who exercised patience towards you.
August 10: For those souls who are in Purgatory for your sake.
August 11: For those who were your companions in guilt.
August 12: For those who hope for some alleviation.
August 13: For those souls who worked in your best interest.
August 14: For those souls to whom you are most obliged.

Prayer for the souls in purgatory

2009-08-05T13:35:00.004-06:00

By way of La Buhardilla I've come across a 40 day prayer plan leading up to All Souls. It started yesterday, and unfortunately I was more interested in reading Dn Hemming's "Worship as a Revelation" than in translating the intentions. I'm going to post the intentions for this week here, and then later on I'll do the rest of them. There are different intentions for each day. This will help to strengthen our ties with our friends who are in purgatory.

August 4: For the soul of your father, mother, siblings and spouse.
August 5: For the soul of your confessors, pastors and superiors.
August 6: For the souls of your special friends.
August 7: For your benefactors.
August 8: For those who are your enemies.

Good News

2009-07-26T22:55:00.002-06:00

Last week at Mass, the celebrant at Mass placed the Host in one of the altar servers' hands, even though she intended to receive on the tongue. Her hands were together in the standard prayerful position and he sort of just pushed Him to her hands forcing her to receive Him on her hand. The incident came up later on in class, and I mentioned how the priest may not deny her right to receive on the tongue. As a practical measure, I suggested she hold her hands behind her back if necessary, so the priest couldn't possibly put Christ on her hand. I didn't tell her to do this, just mentioned it as a possibility.

And what do you think happened today? She put her hands behind her back when preparing to receive her Lord.

I thought it was just absolutely charming. Looks odd, but if that's what you have to do to maintain your rights.

If I'm this crotchety now, I almost shudder to think of what I'll be like when I'm well over the hill.

Caritas in Veritate: Chapter Five

2009-07-19T19:14:00.001-06:00

53. One of the deepest forms of poverty a person can experience is isolation. If we look closely at other kinds of poverty, including material forms, we see that they are born from isolation, from not being loved or from difficulties in being able to love. Poverty is often produced by a rejection of God's love, by man's basic and tragic tendency to close in on himself, thinking himself to be self-sufficient or merely an insignificant and ephemeral fact, a “stranger” in a random universe. Man is alienated when he is alone, when he is detached from reality, when he stops thinking and believing in a foundation[125]. All of humanity is alienated when too much trust is placed in merely human projects, ideologies and false utopias[126]. Today humanity appears much more interactive than in the past: this shared sense of being close to one another must be transformed into true communion. The development of peoples depends, above all, on a recognition that the human race is a single family working together in true communion, not simply a group of subjects who happen to live side by side[127].

Pope Paul VI noted that “the world is in trouble because of the lack of thinking”[128]. He was making an observation, but also expressing a wish: a new trajectory of thinking is needed in order to arrive at a better understanding of the implications of our being one family; interaction among the peoples of the world calls us to embark upon this new trajectory, so that integration can signify solidarity[129] rather than marginalization. Thinking of this kind requires a deeper critical evaluation of the category of relation. This is a task that cannot be undertaken by the social sciences alone, insofar as the contribution of disciplines such as metaphysics and theology is needed if man's transcendent dignity is to be properly understood.

As a spiritual being, the human creature is defined through interpersonal relations. The more authentically he or she lives these relations, the more his or her own personal identity matures. It is not by isolation that man establishes his worth, but by placing himself in relation with others and with God. Hence these relations take on fundamental importance. The same holds true for peoples as well. A metaphysical understanding of the relations between persons is therefore of great benefit for their development. In this regard, reason finds inspiration and direction in Christian revelation, according to which the human community does not absorb the individual, annihilating his autonomy, as happens in the various forms of totalitarianism, but rather values him all the more because the relation between individual and community is a relation between one totality and another[130]. Just as a family does not submerge the identities of its individual members, just as the Church rejoices in each “new creation” (Gal 6:15; 2 Cor 5:17) incorporated by Baptism into her living Body, so too the unity of the human family does not submerge the identities of individuals, peoples and cultures, but makes them more transparent to each other and links them more closely in their legitimate diversity.

Caritas in Veritate: Chapter Four

2009-07-19T16:08:00.002-06:00

Continuing our look at the new encyclical.

43. “The reality of human solidarity, which is a benefit for us, also imposes a duty”[105]. Many people today would claim that they owe nothing to anyone, except to themselves. They are concerned only with their rights, and they often have great difficulty in taking responsibility for their own and other people's integral development. Hence it is important to call for a renewed reflection on how rights presuppose duties, if they are not to become mere licence[106]. Nowadays we are witnessing a grave inconsistency. On the one hand, appeals are made to alleged rights, arbitrary and non-essential in nature, accompanied by the demand that they be recognized and promoted by public structures, while, on the other hand, elementary and basic rights remain unacknowledged and are violated in much of the world[107]. A link has often been noted between claims to a “right to excess”, and even to transgression and vice, within affluent societies, and the lack of food, drinkable water, basic instruction and elementary health care in areas of the underdeveloped world and on the outskirts of large metropolitan centres. The link consists in this: individual rights, when detached from a framework of duties which grants them their full meaning, can run wild, leading to an escalation of demands which is effectively unlimited and indiscriminate. An overemphasis on rights leads to a disregard for duties. Duties set a limit on rights because they point to the anthropological and ethical framework of which rights are a part, in this way ensuring that they do not become licence. Duties thereby reinforce rights and call for their defence and promotion as a task to be undertaken in the service of the common good. Otherwise, if the only basis of human rights is to be found in the deliberations of an assembly of citizens, those rights can be changed at any time, and so the duty to respect and pursue them fades from the common consciousness. Governments and international bodies can then lose sight of the objectivity and “inviolability” of rights. When this happens, the authentic development of peoples is endangered...

44. The notion of rights and duties in development must also take account of the problems associated with population growth. This is a very important aspect of authentic development, since it concerns the inalienable values of life and the family... Due attention must obviously be given to responsible procreation, which among other things has a positive contribution to make to integral human development. The Church, in her concern for man's authentic development, urges him to have full respect for human values in the exercise of his sexuality. It cannot be reduced merely to pleasure or entertainment, nor can sex education be reduced to technical instruction aimed solely at protecting the interested parties from possible disease or the “risk” of procreation. This would be to impoverish and disregard the deeper meaning of sexuality, a meaning which needs to be acknowledged and responsibly appropriated not only by individuals but also by the community. It is irresponsible to view sexuality merely as a source of pleasure, and likewise to regulate it through strategies of mandatory birth control...
Morally responsible openness to life represents a rich social and economic resource. Populous nations have been able to emerge from poverty thanks not least to the size of their population and the talents of their people. On the other hand, formerly prosperous nations are presently passing through a phase of uncertainty and in some cases decline, precisely because of their falling birth rates; this has become a crucial problem for highly affluent societies... Furthermore, smaller and at times miniscule families run the risk of impoverishing social relations, [one of the biggest reasons I've always wanted a big family of my own, and to live close to my in-laws should I get married] and failing to ensure effective forms of solidarity. These situations are symptomatic of scant confidence in the future and moral weariness. It is thus becoming a social and even economic necessity once more to hold up to future generations the beauty of marriage and the family, and the fact that these institutions correspond to the deepest needs and dignity of the person. In view of this, States are called to enact policies promoting the centrality and the integrity of the family founded on marriage between a man and a woman, the primary vital cell of society[112], and to assume responsibility for its economic and fiscal needs, while respecting its essentially relational character.

45. Much in fact depends on the underlying system of morality. On this subject the Church's social doctrine can make a specific contribution, since it is based on man's creation “in the image of God” (Gen 1:27), a datum which gives rise to the inviolable dignity of the human person and the transcendent value of natural moral norms. [I couldn't explain it well, but this is part of what I wanted to say to the Mormons when they were here. they take the "made in God's image" literally, and thus say that God the Father has a body. This is a better understanding of the verse.] When business ethics prescinds from these two pillars, it inevitably risks losing its distinctive nature and it falls prey to forms of exploitation; more specifically, it risks becoming subservient to existing economic and financial systems rather than correcting their dysfunctional aspects.
51. The way humanity treats the environment influences the way it treats itself, and vice versa. This invites contemporary society to a serious review of its life-style, which, in many parts of the world, is prone to hedonism and consumerism, regardless of their harmful consequences[122]. What is needed is an effective shift in mentality which can lead to the adoption of new life-styles “in which the quest for truth, beauty, goodness and communion with others for the sake of common growth are the factors which determine consumer choices, savings and investments”[123]. Every violation of solidarity and civic friendship harms the environment, just as environmental deterioration in turn upsets relations in society...

The Church has a responsibility towards creation and she must assert this responsibility in the public sphere. In so doing, she must defend not only earth, water and air as gifts of creation that belong to everyone. She must above all protect mankind from self-destruction. There is need for what might be called a human ecology, correctly understood. The deterioration of nature is in fact closely connected to the culture that shapes human coexistence: when “human ecology”[124] is respected within society, environmental ecology also benefits. Just as human virtues are interrelated, such that the weakening of one places others at risk, so the ecological system is based on respect for a plan that affects both the health of society and its good relationship with nature.

In order to protect nature, it is not enough to intervene with economic incentives or deterrents; not even an apposite education is sufficient. These are important steps, but the decisive issue is the overall moral tenor of society. If there is a lack of respect for the right to life and to a natural death, if human conception, gestation and birth are made artificial, if human embryos are sacrificed to research, the conscience of society ends up losing the concept of human ecology and, along with it, that of environmental ecology. It is contradictory to insist that future generations respect the natural environment when our educational systems and laws do not help them to respect themselves. The book of nature is one and indivisible: it takes in not only the environment but also life, sexuality, marriage, the family, social relations: in a word, integral human development. Our duties towards the environment are linked to our duties towards the human person, considered in himself and in relation to others. It would be wrong to uphold one set of duties while trampling on the other. Herein lies a grave contradiction in our mentality and practice today: one which demeans the person, disrupts the environment and damages society.
52. Truth, and the love which it reveals, cannot be produced: they can only be received as a gift. Their ultimate source is not, and cannot be, mankind, but only God, who is himself Truth and Love. This principle is extremely important for society and for development, since neither can be a purely human product; the vocation to development on the part of individuals and peoples is not based simply on human choice, but is an intrinsic part of a plan that is prior to us and constitutes for all of us a duty to be freely accepted. That which is prior to us and constitutes us — subsistent Love and Truth — shows us what goodness is, and in what our true happiness consists. It shows us the road to true development.

Religion and the policy of the state

2009-07-16T15:33:00.003-06:00

There was a very interesting story on The World today, about ultra orthodox Jews protesting at a parking lot in Jerusalem. The 5m story is here, but there's no transcript, so you have to listen to it. I'll provide a brief summary if you don't want to listen to the whole thing.

Essentially, the ultra orthodox Jews of Jerusalem are pitting themselves against the city's secular residents. They have recurring protests at a parking lot which opens on the sabbath. These protests turn violent, throwing stones at the police. They believe that the municipal government is desecrating the sabbath by allowing the lot to remain open on the sabbath. They further believe that Jerusalem should be reserved for sabbath-observing Jews. They move into secular neighbourhoods and then insist that no-one there drive on the sabbath and that women dress modestly on the street.

I thought this was very interesting as a look at the intersection of religious belief and public policy. To what extent should the religious belief of a bloc be imposed on society at large? Christians tend to be against abortion and gay marriage, as they are sins. But nobody is trying to outlaw pre-marital sex and masturbation, so why are we insistent on some issues and not others? Clearly abortion is murder, so that is a more grave issue than the other three examples. But that kind of thing I always found odd. Why is it that some sins, Christians push to be outlawed in civil law, and others not so much. What is to be the basis for our civil laws? If it is Truth, which would rather make sense, then I think you could make the case that objective sins would be outlawed.

Pluralism throws a wrench in this though. The idea of a parking lot not opening on Saturday is just absurd in my mind. Nobody's forcing observant Jews to work there or to park there. There is no reason why Muslims and Christians shouldn't be able to use it on Saturday. Why the ultra orthodox Jews want to insist that non-Jews observe Mosaic law is beyond me. On a matter such as this (from which, perhaps relevantly, I am removed,) I say the answer is clear: the religious belief should not dictate city policy.

But what if we had a state, or a city, which was entirely of a single bloc? Should there happen to be a city which was 100% Catholic, I don't really see a problem with outlawing pre-/extra-marital sex, and meat on Fridays. But if there is even one person not Catholic in the city, those laws wouldn't really be right. Non-Catholics would be free to move into the city, but the city being entirely Catholic, they would have to move understanding that they have to abide by existing law--before Catholic-based laws are passed, the city must be 100% Catholic, or else the laws wouldn't be just. After the Catholic-based laws are passed, any non-Catholic shouldn't be able to rock the boat, as they would be choosing to immigrate to this Catholic city. I think the religious make-up of the city would not change, and there would be no problem.

I don't exactly have a point to this discussion; I haven't made up my mind about the issue: to what extent can religious belief be the basis of civil law? Civil law must have some basis. I still don't think gay marriage is so bad as a civil institution, a guarantee of equal rights, so long as ministers disagreeing with it are free to refrain from performing them. But as the Church says its wrong, I try to shut up about my position on this issue. Were I to ever have to vote on it, I think I just wouldn't vote. It would be difficult to vote with the Church, and I can't in good conscience vote in a way my bishop says is morally wrong.

Denver pride

2009-07-13T08:44:00.002-06:00

Here is a video about a study-in-Rome program which three of our seminarians, including my godfather, from St John Vianney are participating. Very cool! Found it by way of Fr Ray Blake at St Mary Mag.

Caritas in Veritate: Chapter 3

2009-07-10T12:35:00.002-06:00

Continuing our look at the new encyclical.

34. Charity in truth places man before the astonishing experience of gift. Gratuitousness is present in our lives in many different forms, which often go unrecognized because of a purely consumerist and utilitarian view of life. The human being is made for gift, which expresses and makes present his transcendent dimension. Sometimes modern man is wrongly convinced that he is the sole author of himself, his life and society. This is a presumption that follows from being selfishly closed in upon himself, and it is a consequence — to express it in faith terms — of original sin... The conviction that man is self-sufficient and can successfully eliminate the evil present in history by his own action alone has led him to confuse happiness and salvation with immanent forms of material prosperity and social action. Then, the conviction that the economy must be autonomous, that it must be shielded from “influences” of a moral character, has led man to abuse the economic process in a thoroughly destructive way. In the long term, these convictions have led to economic, social and political systems that trample upon personal and social freedom, and are therefore unable to deliver the justice that they promise. As I said in my Encyclical Letter Spe Salvi, history is thereby deprived of Christian hope[86], deprived of a powerful social resource at the service of integral human development, sought in freedom and in justice. Hope encourages reason and gives it the strength to direct the will[87]. It is already present in faith, indeed it is called forth by faith. Charity in truth feeds on hope and, at the same time, manifests it. As the absolutely gratuitous gift of God, hope bursts into our lives as something not due to us, something that transcends every law of justice. Gift by its nature goes beyond merit, its rule is that of superabundance. It takes first place in our souls as a sign of God's presence in us, a sign of what he expects from us. Truth — which is itself gift, in the same way as charity — is greater than we are, as Saint Augustine teaches[88]. Likewise the truth of ourselves, of our personal conscience, is first of all given to us. In every cognitive process, truth is not something that we produce, it is always found, or better, received. Truth, like love, “is neither planned nor willed, but somehow imposes itself upon human beings”[89].
Because it is a gift received by everyone, charity in truth is a force that builds community, it brings all people together without imposing barriers or limits. The human community that we build by ourselves can never, purely by its own strength, be a fully fraternal community, nor can it overcome every division and become a truly universal community. The unity of the human race, a fraternal communion transcending every barrier, is called into being by the word of God-who-is-Love. In addressing this key question, we must make it clear, on the one hand, that the logic of gift does not exclude justice, nor does it merely sit alongside it as a second element added from without; on the other hand, economic, social and political development, if it is to be authentically human, needs to make room for the principle of gratuitousness as an expression of fraternity.
36. Economic activity cannot solve all social problems through the simple application of commercial logic. [This is part of why I've wanted to turn from the field of economics to becoming a priest.] This needs to be directed towards the pursuit of the common good, for which the political community in particular must also take responsibility....

The great challenge before us, accentuated by the problems of development in this global era and made even more urgent by the economic and financial crisis, is to demonstrate, in thinking and behaviour, not only that traditional principles of social ethics like transparency, honesty and responsibility cannot be ignored or attenuated, but also that in commercial relationships the principle of gratuitousness and the logic of gift as an expression of fraternity can and must find their place within normal economic activity. This is a human demand at the present time, but it is also demanded by economic logic. It is a demand both of charity and of truth.

38. ...Today we can say that economic life must be understood as a multi-layered phenomenon: in every one of these layers, to varying degrees and in ways specifically suited to each, the aspect of fraternal reciprocity must be present. In the global era, economic activity cannot prescind from gratuitousness, which fosters and disseminates solidarity and responsibility for justice and the common good among the different economic players. It is clearly a specific and profound form of economic democracy. Solidarity is first and foremost a sense of responsibility on the part of everyone with regard to everyone[93], and it cannot therefore be merely delegated to the State. While in the past it was possible to argue that justice had to come first and gratuitousness could follow afterwards, as a complement, today it is clear that without gratuitousness, there can be no justice in the first place. [I'm not sure I follow on this point.] What is needed, therefore, is a market that permits the free operation, in conditions of equal opportunity, of enterprises in pursuit of different institutional ends. Alongside profit-oriented private enterprise and the various types of public enterprise, there must be room for commercial entities based on mutualist principles and pursuing social ends to take root and express themselves. It is from their reciprocal encounter in the marketplace that one may expect hybrid forms of commercial behaviour to emerge, and hence an attentiveness to ways of civilizing the economy. Charity in truth, in this case, requires that shape and structure be given to those types of economic initiative which, without rejecting profit, aim at a higher goal than the mere logic of the exchange of equivalents, of profit as an end in itself.

Caritas in Veritate: Chapter 2

2009-07-08T16:04:00.002-06:00

Continuing our look at the new encyclical.

27. Life in many poor countries is still extremely insecure as a consequence of food shortages, and the situation could become worse: hunger still reaps enormous numbers of victims among those who, like Lazarus, are not permitted to take their place at the rich man's table, contrary to the hopes expressed by Paul VI[64]... Hunger is not so much dependent on lack of material things as on shortage of social resources... The right to food, like the right to water, has an important place within the pursuit of other rights, beginning with the fundamental right to life. It is therefore necessary to cultivate a public conscience that considers food and access to water as universal rights of all human beings, without distinction or discrimination[65].

28. One of the most striking aspects of development in the present day is the important question of respect for life, which cannot in any way be detached from questions concerning the development of peoples. It is an aspect which has acquired increasing prominence in recent times, obliging us to broaden our concept of poverty[66] and underdevelopment to include questions connected with the acceptance of life, especially in cases where it is impeded in a variety of ways.
Not only does the situation of poverty still provoke high rates of infant mortality in many regions, but some parts of the world still experience practices of demographic control, on the part of governments that often promote contraception and even go so far as to impose abortion. In economically developed countries, legislation contrary to life is very widespread, and it has already shaped moral attitudes and praxis, contributing to the spread of an anti-birth mentality; frequent attempts are made to export this mentality to other States as if it were a form of cultural progress.

Some non-governmental Organizations work actively to spread abortion, at times promoting the practice of sterilization in poor countries, in some cases not even informing the women concerned. Moreover, there is reason to suspect that development aid is sometimes linked to specific health-care policies which de facto involve the imposition of strong birth control measures. Further grounds for concern are laws permitting euthanasia as well as pressure from lobby groups, nationally and internationally, in favour of its juridical recognition.

Openness to life is at the centre of true development. When a society moves towards the denial or suppression of life, it ends up no longer finding the necessary motivation and energy to strive for man's true good. If personal and social sensitivity towards the acceptance of a new life is lost, then other forms of acceptance that are valuable for society also wither away[67]. The acceptance of life strengthens moral fibre and makes people capable of mutual help. By cultivating openness to life, wealthy peoples can better understand the needs of poor ones, they can avoid employing huge economic and intellectual resources to satisfy the selfish desires of their own citizens, and instead, they can promote virtuous action within the perspective of production that is morally sound and marked by solidarity, respecting the fundamental right to life of every people and every individual.

Cardinal Levada's letter on Ecclesiae unitatem

2009-07-08T12:21:00.003-06:00

La Buhardilla has the text of Cardinal Levada's communication which comes in conjunction with Pope Benedict's today moving the PCED into the CDF. Here is my translation:

As anticipated in the Letter of the Holy Father to the Bishops of the Catholic Church about the lifting of the excommunication of the four bishops consecrated by archbishop Lefebvre (10 March 2009), today is published the Moto Proprio "Ecclesiae unitatem", with which the structure of the Pontifical Commission Ecclesia Dei, instituted by Pope John Paul II in 1988, is redesigned and updated.

The Motu Proprio Ecclesiae Unitatem explains the principal motive for the restructuring. The lifting of the excommunication of the four lefebvrist bishops was a measure in the field of canonical discipline to liberate the persons of the weight of the most grave ecclesiastical censure, even in the recognition that the doctrinal questions remain and, until they are clarified, the "Society of St Pius X" cannot enjoy canonical status in the Church and her ministers are not engaged in any legitimate mode with ministry in the Church. Because the problems are of an essentially doctrinal nature, the Holy Father has decided to rethink the structure the Pontificial Commission Ecclesia Dei, linking closely with the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

The Pontifical Commission Ecclesia Dei maintains its current configuration, with some modifications in its structure, which we summarize here:

1) The President of the Commission is the Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

2) The Commission, with in its own organic way, is composed of a Secretary and Officials.

3) It is the role of the President, with the help of the Secretary, to refer the principal cases and questions of a doctrinal nature for examination and judgement in ordinary instances to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (Consulting with Members of the Ordinary/Plenary Session), and to submit the results to the final disposition of the Supreme Pontiff.

Cardinal William Levada, Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and now elected President of the Commission Ecclesia Dei, has expressed his gratitude to the Holy Father for the confidence demonstrated with this decision, assuring the Holy Father, also in the name of the Officials of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, commitment the doctrinal dialogue with the Society of St Pius X.

The Holy Father, with signed Letter, warmly thanked Cardinal Darío Castrillón Hoyos, until now President, for his great dedication to the work of the Commission Ecclesia Dei. Equally, the Holy Father, through the Cardinal Secretary of State, thanked Mons. Camille Perl for his many years of service to the same Commission. Cardinal Levada has joined these acknowledgements, extending them to the Members and Experts of the Commission whose work will now be taken by the Members of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and also with eligible experts according to the necessities of studying particular questions.

Welcoming the appointment of Mons. Guido Pozzo to be Secretary of the Commission, Cardinal Levada noted the preparation of Mons. Pozzo and his particular interest in the questions of the competency of the Commission Ecclesia Dei. Until now, Mons. Pozzo was Assistant Study of the Doctrinal Office of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and the Adjunct Secretary of the International Theological Commission.

With the Motu Proprio published today, the Holy Father wanted to demonstrate particular and paternal solicitude for the Society of St Pius X, to the end of overcoming the difficulties which still remain to achieving full communion with the Church.

Caritas in Veritate: Introduction and Chapter One

2009-07-08T11:25:00.002-06:00

I am going to present, a la Fr Z, those parts of Pope Benedict's encyclical Caritas in Veritate which I found particularly interesting or moving. This will be a series of posts as I make my way through reading the encyclical.

1. Charity in truth, to which Jesus Christ bore witness by his earthly life and especially by his death and resurrection, is the principal driving force behind the authentic development of every person and of all humanity. Love — caritas — is an extraordinary force which leads people to opt for courageous and generous engagement in the field of justice and peace. It is a force that has its origin in God, Eternal Love and Absolute Truth. Each person finds his good by adherence to God's plan for him, [God has a particular plan for each of us] in order to realize it fully: in this plan, he finds his truth, and through adherence to this truth he becomes free (cf. Jn 8:22). To defend the truth, to articulate it with humility and conviction, and to bear witness to it in life are therefore exacting and indispensable forms of charity. Charity, in fact, “rejoices in the truth” (1 Cor 13:6). All people feel the interior impulse to love authentically: love and truth never abandon them completely, because these are the vocation planted by God in the heart and mind of every human person. The search for love and truth is purified and liberated by Jesus Christ from the impoverishment that our humanity brings to it, and he reveals to us in all its fullness the initiative of love and the plan for true life that God has prepared for us. In Christ, charity in truth becomes the Face of his Person, a vocation for us to love our brothers and sisters in the truth of his plan. Indeed, he himself is the Truth (cf. Jn 14:6).

3. Through this close link with truth, charity can be recognized as an authentic expression of humanity and as an element of fundamental importance in human relations, including those of a public nature. Only in truth does charity shine forth, only in truth can charity be authentically lived. Truth is the light that gives meaning and value to charity. That light is both the light of reason and the light of faith, through which the intellect attains to the natural and supernatural truth of charity: it grasps its meaning as gift, acceptance, and communion. Without truth, charity degenerates into sentimentality. Love becomes an empty shell, to be filled in an arbitrary way. In a culture without truth, this is the fatal risk facing love. It falls prey to contingent subjective emotions and opinions, the word “love” is abused and distorted, to the point where it comes to mean the opposite. Truth frees charity from the constraints of an emotionalism that deprives it of relational and social content, and of a fideism that deprives it of human and universal breathing-space. In the truth, charity reflects the personal yet public dimension of faith in the God of the Bible, who is both Agápe and Lógos: Charity and Truth, Love and Word.

5. Charity is love received and given. It is “grace” (cháris). Its source is the wellspring of the Father's love for the Son, in the Holy Spirit. Love comes down to us from the Son. It is creative love, through which we have our being; it is redemptive love, through which we are recreated. Love is revealed and made present by Christ (cf. Jn 13:1) and “poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit” (Rom 5:5). As the objects of God's love, men and women become subjects of charity, they are called to make themselves instruments of grace, so as to pour forth God's charity and to weave networks of charity.
This dynamic of charity received and given is what gives rise to the Church's social teaching, which is caritas in veritate in re sociali: the proclamation of the truth of Christ's love in society. This doctrine is a service to charity, but its locus is truth. Truth preserves and expresses charity's power to liberate in the ever-changing events of history...
9. ...Fidelity to man requires fidelity to the truth, which alone is the guarantee of freedom (cf. Jn 8:32) and of the possibility of integral human development. For this reason the Church searches for truth, proclaims it tirelessly and recognizes it wherever it is manifested. This mission of truth is something that the Church can never renounce. Her social doctrine is a particular dimension of this proclamation: [the Church's social teaching can only arise from Truth. To ignore Truth can lead Catholics to 'seamless garment' arguments for their cherry-picking of social doctrine.] it is a service to the truth which sets us free...
11. The publication of Populorum Progressio occurred immediately after the conclusion of the Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, and in its opening paragraphs it clearly indicates its close connection with the Council[14]. Twenty years later, in Sollicitudo Rei Socialis, John Paul II, in his turn, emphasized the earlier Encyclical's fruitful relationship with the Council, and especially with the Pastoral Constitution Gaudium et Spes[15]. I too wish to recall here the importance of the Second Vatican Council for Paul VI's Encyclical and for the whole of the subsequent social Magisterium of the Popes. The Council probed more deeply what had always belonged to the truth of the faith, namely that the Church, being at God's service, is at the service of the world in terms of love and truth. Paul VI set out from this vision in order to convey two important truths. The first is that the whole Church, in all her being and acting — when she proclaims, when she celebrates, when she performs works of charity — is engaged in promoting integral human development. She has a public role over and above her charitable and educational activities: all the energy she brings to the advancement of humanity and of universal fraternity is manifested when she is able to operate in a climate of freedom. In not a few cases, that freedom is impeded by prohibitions and persecutions, or it is limited when the Church's public presence is reduced to her charitable activities alone. [Catholics must have a place in the public sphere, including in politics.] The second truth is that authentic human development concerns the whole of the person in every single dimension[16]. Without the perspective of eternal life, human progress in this world is denied breathing-space. Enclosed within history, it runs the risk of being reduced to the mere accumulation of wealth... integral human development is primarily a vocation, and therefore it involves a free assumption of responsibility in solidarity on the part of everyone. Moreover, such development requires a transcendent vision of the person, it needs God: without him, development is either denied, or entrusted exclusively to man, who falls into the trap of thinking he can bring about his own salvation, and ends up promoting a dehumanized form of development. Only through an encounter with God are we able to see in the other something more than just another creature[17], to recognize the divine image in the other, thus truly coming to discover him or her and to mature in a love that “becomes concern and care for the other.”[18]
12. The link between Populorum Progressio and the Second Vatican Council does not mean that Paul VI's social magisterium marked a break with that of previous Popes, because the Council constitutes a deeper exploration of this magisterium within the continuity of the Church's life[19]. In this sense, clarity is not served by certain abstract subdivisions of the Church's social doctrine, which apply categories to Papal social teaching that are extraneous to it. It is not a case of two typologies of social doctrine, one pre-conciliar and one post-conciliar, differing from one another: on the contrary, there is a single teaching, consistent and at the same time ever new[20]. [the hermeneutic of continuity] It is one thing to draw attention to the particular characteristics of one Encyclical or another, of the teaching of one Pope or another, but quite another to lose sight of the coherence of the overall doctrinal corpus[21]...

15. Two further documents by Paul VI without any direct link to social doctrine — the Encyclical Humanae Vitae (25 July 1968) and the Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii Nuntiandi (8 December 1975) — are highly important for delineating the fully human meaning of the development that the Church proposes. It is therefore helpful to consider these texts too in relation to Populorum Progressio.
The Encyclical Humanae Vitae emphasizes both the unitive and the procreative meaning of sexuality, thereby locating at the foundation of society the married couple, man and woman, who accept one another mutually, in distinction and in complementarity: a couple, therefore, that is open to life[27]. This is not a question of purely individual morality: Humanae Vitae indicates the strong links between life ethics and social ethics, ushering in a new area of magisterial teaching that has gradually been articulated in a series of documents, most recently John Paul II's Encyclical Evangelium Vitae[28]. The Church forcefully maintains this link between life ethics and social ethics, fully aware that “a society lacks solid foundations when, on the one hand, it asserts values such as the dignity of the person, justice and peace, but then, on the other hand, radically acts to the contrary by allowing or tolerating a variety of ways in which human life is devalued and violated, especially where it is weak or marginalized.”[29]

17. A vocation is a call that requires a free and responsible answer. Integral human development presupposes the responsible freedom of the individual and of peoples: no structure can guarantee this development over and above human responsibility. The “types of messianism which give promises but create illusions”[38] always build their case on a denial of the transcendent dimension of development, in the conviction that it lies entirely at their disposal. This false security becomes a weakness, because it involves reducing man to subservience, to a mere means for development, while the humility of those who accept a vocation is transformed into true autonomy, because it sets them free....This too is a vocation, a call addressed by free subjects to other free subjects in favour of an assumption of shared responsibility....

18. Besides requiring freedom, integral human development as a vocation also demands respect for its truth... Amid the various competing anthropological visions put forward in today's society, even more so than in Paul VI's time, the Christian vision has the particular characteristic of asserting and justifying the unconditional value of the human person and the meaning of his growth... The truth of development consists in its completeness: if it does not involve the whole man and every man, it is not true development. This is the central message of Populorum Progressio, valid for today and for all time... The Christian vocation to this development therefore applies to both the natural plane and the supernatural plane; which is why, “when God is eclipsed, our ability to recognize the natural order, purpose and the ‘good' begins to wane”[50].

Clearly, development is a theme of this encyclical. After finishing the posts giving excerpts of the letter, I will discuss what Pope Benedict means in this document by 'development'.

I didn't include it, as it is obvious, but article six discusses how justice is a necessary though insufficient basis for charity.

Critiquing a rupturista

2009-07-05T11:15:00.003-06:00

Introduction

I've just read Fr John O'Malley's "What Happened at Vatican II", which argues for the hermeneutic of discontinuity in examining Vatican II. It is an interesting read, and is a good brief introduction to the process of the council. I did get from it a clearer sense of the working of the council than I have from other works about the council, the only one I can specifically remember having read being P. Marini's "A Challenging Reform". I think he has something to his point that the "style" of the documents are different from those of previous councils. (Though, I haven't actually read the other councils, except for Lateran IV.) I am prepared to accept that the documents (of which, again, I have read only a few) have a feel more of argument and persuasion compared to prior councils, which did more decreeing.

The Problem

But that's about as far as my agreement with the assessments of Fr O'Malley can go. One definitely gets the sense from him that this change in style is a good thing, about pwhich I am not so sure. He further argues for this style as being the "spirit" of Vatican II, which is hogwash. O'Malley's hermeneutic means that Vatican II can be used to justify anything that the proponent believes to be in the "spirit of Vatican II".

Here is the paragraph (found on pp 139-40) of the work that particularly incensed* me:

Right after the council Latin was retained in the central Eucharistic prayer, the so-called canon of the Mass, a measure in keeping with Sacrosanctum, but within a few years the Mass in its entirety was being celebrated in the vernacular worldwide. It had become increasingly obvious that the principles of intelligibility and active participation did not sit well with maintaining for such a meaningful part a language only priests understood. The decree thus contained within itself a dynamism that led to changes that were beyond some of its specific provisions but that were almost required by its most fundamental principles.

You can see in the last sentence how rupturistas look at Vatican II. Fr O'Malley appeals to the "dynamism" of the document to justify changes that contradicted the letter of the document. He does not explain just what is this "dynamism" of which he speaks. The relevant entry in the OED for dynamism is: "The mode of being of force or energy; operation of force. Now usu., energizing or dynamic action, energy, ‘drive’."

Now how does one find this in a document? What is the mode of being of force or energy of Sacrosanctum Concilium? What is the energizing or dynamic action of Sacrosanctum Concilium? What is the energy of Sacrosanctum Concilium? What is the 'drive' of Sacrosanctum Concilium?

Perhaps these are the thesis of Sacrosanctum Concilium, which we should expect to find in its opening paragraph. SC 1 says that it is "undertaking the reform and promotion of the liturgy", to the end of the council's desire to "impart an ever increasing vigor to the Christian life of the faithful; to adapt more suitably to the needs of our own times those institutions which are subject to change; to foster whatever can promote union among all who believe in Christ; to strengthen whatever can help to call the whole of mankind into the household of the Church."

My other thought, the one which occurred to me on reading the offending paragraph in O'Malley, was that this dynamism was "fully conscious, and active participation". Bugnini certainly used this to justify his sweeping changes to the Mass.

Rather than choose between these options for SC's "dynamism", let us treat the second as part of the first; they go hand-in-hand and are not contradictory, so I don't see why we can't.

So Fr O'Malley is saying that the desire for intelligibility and full, conscious, and active participation as the fundamental principle of SC justified, almost required, a change which was among those which "were beyond" (read: contradicted) the text of SC. But SC does not say to celebrate the whole Mass in the vernacular to advance active participation. To advance this aim, what it says, with direct regard to the lay faithful, is that pastors need to instruct them (SC 14) and that texts and rites should be revised to more clearly show what they signify (SC 21). What it does not say is that the whole of Mass should be said in the vernacular.

Regarding the vernacular in Mass, what it does say is:

36. 1. Particular law remaining in force, the use of the Latin language is to be preserved in the Latin rites.

2. But since the use of the mother tongue, whether in the Mass, the administration of the sacraments, or other parts of the liturgy, frequently may be of great advantage to the people, the limits of its employment may be extended. This will apply in the first place to the readings and directives, and to some of the prayers and chants, according to the regulations on this matter to be laid down separately in subsequent chapters.

3. These norms being observed, it is for the competent territorial ecclesiastical authority mentioned in Art. 22, 2, to decide whether, and to what extent, the vernacular language is to be used; their decrees are to be approved, that is, confirmed, by the Apostolic See. And, whenever it seems to be called for, this authority is to consult with bishops of neighboring regions which have the same language.
4. Translations from the Latin text into the mother tongue intended for use in the liturgy must be approved by the competent territorial ecclesiastical authority mentioned above.
54. In Masses which are celebrated with the people, a suitable place may be allotted to their mother tongue. This is to apply in the first place to the readings and "the common prayer," but also, as local conditions may warrant, to those parts which pertain to the people, according to tho norm laid down in Art. 36 of this Constitution.

Nevertheless steps should be taken so that the faithful may also be able to say or to sing together in Latin those parts of the Ordinary of the Mass which pertain to them.

And wherever a more extended use of the mother tongue within the Mass appears desirable, the regulation laid down in Art. 40 of this Constitution is to be observed.

SC 36.1 is easily satisfied. As long as a strictly positive amount of Latin is used in the liturgy, this is satisfied. Even the Anglophone portion of my parish, which uses Latin only during Lent and only for the Kyrie (well, Greek) and Agnus Dei.

SC 36.2 however, seems to preclude the situation we are in, in which the vernacular effectively is used all the time for everything. Use of the vernacular for "some of the prayers and chants" cannot mean that it is permissible to use the vernacular for everything in the liturgy.

SC 54 is much the same as 36.2. It deals specifically with the Mass, and allows the vernacular for the readings, the common prayer, and the peoples' parts. The Canon is not the peoples' part. Anything the priest says is not the peoples' part. Reading the letter of SC, we can understand that the Canon in the vernacular is not in accordance with what is written in SC.

SC 54 goes on to say that the faithful ought to be able to say in Latin their parts of the Ordinary of the Mass. If Mass is said totally in the vernacular, we never have the opportunity to learn the ordinary in Latin. Randomly choose an American parish, interview 100 of the persons there after Mass, and I defy you to find one who can do what SC says they should be able to. I think I've only ever said the Credo once in Latin. And that was definitely not at my own parish. The current situation with regards to Latin is pitiful. If we don't use Latin at Mass, we won't be able to use Latin at Mass. That is where the use of the vernacular since Vatican II has gotten us.

SC gave clear instruction on how to achieve the end of active participation. We have touched on this above, and will do so below as well. But SC did not include exclusive use of the vernacular as a way to achieve this. Any appeal to the "spirit" or "dynamism" of the document which allows for the exclusive use of the vernacular in Mass is either dishonest or ignorant. It is absolutely absurd to think that the "spirit" of a document can nullify its text. If the council fathers wanted the entire Mass in the vernacular, they would not have approved a text which said that "the use of the Latin language is to be preserved in the Latin rites." Moreover, Fr O'Malley himself acknowledges that the allowance of the vernacular into the liturgy was a very hotly contested issue. Clearly, many council fathers speaking strongly against the use of the vernacular is an indication that Mass completely in the vernacular was not the intent of the council.

One of the problems with Fr O'Malley's reasoning is that it can be used to justify anything in a Mass. If Fr Bob believes cola and crackers promote active participation, then it's ok. If Sr Jane thinks she would participate more actively by reciting the Eucharistic Prayer, then it's ok. There is no end to the foolishness that Fr O'Malley's reasoning allows.

The true meaning of active participation

The more true understanding of active participation can be found at SC 48: "The Church, therefore, earnestly desires that Christ's faithful, when present at this mystery of faith, should not be there as strangers or silent spectators; on the contrary, through a good understanding of the rites and prayers they should take part in the sacred action conscious of what they are doing, with devotion and full collaboration. They should be instructed by God's word and be nourished at the table of the Lord's body; they should give thanks to God; by offering the Immaculate Victim, not only through the hands of the priest, but also with him, they should learn also to offer themselves; through Christ the Mediator, they should be drawn day by day into ever more perfect union with God and with each other, so that finally God may be all in all."

This teaches us that to achieve the end of active participation, we need catechesis, not excluding Latin from the Mass. Active participation is about a deep awareness of the sacred realities going on under the veil of sensible signs. It is about maintaining oneself from mortal sin so that you can be nourished by the Body of Christ. For these things we need catechesis. Leaving Latin out of Mass does not promote active participation. Even if it did, it is not one of the ways SC told the Church to promote active participation. In fact, it is a repudiation of the text of SC.

Towards a solution

How will we rectify this all-vernacular error foisted on us by Bugnini?

*Pray
*Encourage priests to use Latin. If they don't do it already, suggest it. If they do, let them know it is appreciated.
*Go out of your way for Masses that use Latin. In my own diocese, there is a fantastic parish in Westminster which has a Latin-Ordinary NO Mass every First Friday at 17:30. If you're in the area, check it out next month.
*Attend Mass in foreign languages. This will raise awareness that you don't need to understand the words.
*Teach yourself the Latin Mass parts. There are plenty of resources online with which you could do this.
*Teach your children and godchildren the Latin Mass parts.
*Teach other people's children the Latin Mass parts. Become a catechist, and just throw Latin in where you can. Kids eat it up, they think it's very cool to say the Pater in Latin. The Faith and Life Series of books from Ignatius Press are good for this; the sixth-grade book has a whole section on the Mass and encourages the teacher to teach the kids the Latin parts. Even if we can't get middle-aged people on our side, we can have a tremendous influence for good on the young, and that demographic is gonna win out in the long-run.

*Incidentally, it seems "incensed" is only used as an adjective. I can't imagine that I've just coined its use as a verb though, and I trust everyone knows what I mean, so I believe I am justified.

Prayer for the Church Suffering

2009-07-05T11:12:00.002-06:00

Last time going by a cemetary with a friend in the car, she wanted me to teach me the prayer I started saying. I figured other people might be interested as well. If it takes longer than that to pass the cemetary, I'll add for the intention of the souls in purgatory a Pater, Ave, and GP as needed.

+ Lord, we pray for the repose of the souls in Purgatory. May our prayers help to purify them in your love. We ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen. +

Manasseh and us

2009-07-03T13:58:00.002-06:00

Grave thoughts from the Archbishop's column in our diocesan newspaper:

Josiah’s grandfather was King Manasseh, whose 55 years of leadership over Israel marked one of the darkest periods for the people of God. Scripture tells us that Manasseh “did what was evil in the sight of the Lord,” which not only included pagan idolatry but also child sacrifice. He offered up even his own sons in sacrifice in the valley of Hinnom, and since the word in Hebrew for valley is “Ge” it was known as the valley of Ge-henna, a name that the New Testament uses as a metaphor for hell.
It’s sobering that God’s own people could be so deeply degraded by a pagan culture that they would sacrifice their own children. But obviously we don’t need to look very far to find modern parallels.

The Most Precious Blood of Our Lord Jesus Christ

2009-07-01T14:53:00.003-06:00

Today is the feast of the Most Precious Blood. There is a lot of imagery in today's Office of our being cleansed in Jesus' blood, which I take as an exhortation to go to confession. I think in Catherine of Siena's Dialogues she talks about Confession as being the blood of the Lamb being poured out over us for the forgiveness of our sins. Someone said that, anyway. And that is what I am reminded of by lines such as this: "Everyone that washes his soul's robe in this blood, frees it of all its filth and gives it a beauty and fragrance that immediately make him like the Angels and pleasing to his King." And the same hymn (for first vespers) exhorts us to sorrow for our oft-repeated sins: "Henceforth let no one, in fickle inconstancy, leave the path of right, but keep to the course until he reach the finishing post in triumph; and God, who assists man on his way, will give him a glorious prize."

The lessons for the second nocturn today are from a sermon of St John Chrysostom, and are a good explanation of the sacraments, contra Protestants.

Do you wish to know the power of Christ's sacred Blood? Let us then review its Old Testament antecedents, let us recall what prefigured it... that His chosen nation would be spared...God devised a visible sign that would save them. A wonderful symbol, one which vividly brings home to us the power of blood! Now the divine wrath is striking the land, now the Destroyer is hurrying to every home! What does Moses do? He says, "Slay a yearling lamb and smear the doorposts with its blood." Such advice, O Moses? It sheep blood capable of delivering a human being? Yes, he says; not, of course, because it is blood, but because it foreshadows the Blood of the Lord."

This demonstrates the types of sacraments found in the OT. The smearing of lamb's blood really did effect the salvation of the firstborns; in seeing the blood, the Lord passed over that home, not striking it with this plague. (Ex 12:13) Clearly God knew the difference between Israelites and Egyptians. He didn't need a blood marker to tell the difference. And yet, this mark of blood was a necessary part of salvation from the tenth plague. For the homes which made use of this sign, the result was the sparing of their first-born.

There is nothing in Scripture to indicate that had an Israelite failed to mark his door with blood, his son would have been saved. The antiphon at the Benedictus says, ""The blood of the Lamb will be your sign," says the Lord. "Seeing the blood, I will pass over you; thus no destructive blow will come upon you."" Thus no destructive sign--this establishes the causality between seeing the blood and salvation from the destructive blow. All this is demonstrative of the efficacy and necessity of this sign. How much more efficacious, how much more necessary, are the sacraments which apply the blood of the Lamb? the Lamb of whom the lambs of the Passover were naught but types, or figures?

All that are corrupted by sin's deadly infection, come to these healing streams; for if a man bathe himself at this atoning spring, purity of soul will be his.

Roman Martyrology

2009-06-30T12:39:00.002-06:00

Apparantly, tomorrow is Aaron's dies natali:

"In monte Hor depositio sancti Aaron, primi ex ordine Levitico Sacerdotis."

On Mount Horeb, burial of holy Aaron, the first ordained Levitical Priest.

New Encyclical Soon

2009-06-28T15:31:00.003-06:00

The blogosphere had several mentions today of Pope Benedict XVI's third encyclical, Caritas in veritate, which is expected to be released this week.

I've just read Benedict's homily for first vespers of Peter and Paul at La Buhardilla, and it read to me as though this homily may be a sort of introduction to, or preparation for, the encyclical. Here is my translation of select paragraphs of the homily:

The same thought of the necessity of our renovation as a human person, Paul subsequently illustrated in two paragraphs of the Letter to the Ephesians, on which we will now briefly reflect. In the fourth chapter of the Letter, the apostle says that with Christ we have reached adulthood, a mature humanity. We cannot remain "children, tossed back and forth and carried about with every wind of doctrine" (4:14). Paul wants Christians to have a "responsible" faith, an "adult" faith. The word "adult faith" in the last decades has become a diffuse slogan. It is often in the sense of the attitude of one who does not listen to the Church and its pastors, but has autonomously chosen what they want to believe and not believe--that is to say, a faith "by oneself". This is interpreted as "valiance", expressing oneself against the Magisterium of the Church. In reality, this is not necessarily valiance, because you can always be secure in public applause. In contrast valiance is necessary to join the faith of the Church, including if this contradicts the "scheme" of the contemporary world. It is this "non-conformism" of the faith that Paul calls an "adult faith". Scores change as infants, running after the winds and the currents of the time. Thus part of the adult faith, for example, is commitment to the inviolability of human life from the first moment of conception, opposition to this radical form of the principle of violence, precisely in defence of the more vulnerable human creatures. Part of the adult faith is to recognize that marriage between one man and one woman for all their life was ordained by the Creator, and newly re-established by Christ. Adult faith is not transported one place and another by any current. It objects to the winds of fashion. It knows that these winds are not the murmur of the Holy Spirit; it knows that the Spirit of God is expressed and is manifested in communion with Jesus Christ. But Paul does not stop with negation, but leads us to a grand "yes". He describes mature faith in a positive way with the expression: "rather, speaking the truth in love" (cf Eph 4:15). The new mode of thought, that gives us the faith, is develop first to truth. The power of evil is the lie. The power of the faith, the power of God, is the truth. The truth about the world and about ourselves becomes visible when we look at God. And God is visible to us in the face of Jesus Christ. Looking to Christ we recognize one thing more: truth and charity are inseparable. In God, both are one thing: this is precisely the essence of God. For this reason, for Christians truth and charity go in unity. Charity is the test of truth. Always we have to be measured according to this criterion, that the truth is transformed into charity and we are made true.

Another important thought appears in the verse of St Paul. The apostle says to us that, acting according to the truth in charity, contributes to making all--the universe--grow toward Christ. Paul, on the basis of his faith, is not interested only in our personal rectitude or in the increase of the Church. He is interested in the universe: "ta panta". The final end of the work of Christ is the universe--the transformation of the universe, of all the human world, of the entire creation. Who together with Christ serves truth in charity, contributes to the true progress of the world. Yes, it is completely clear that Paul knew the idea of progress. Christ, his life, suffering and resurrection, has been the true giant leap of progress for humanity, for the world. Now, in change, the universe has to grow towards Him. Where the presence of Christ is augmented, here is the true progress of the world. Here man is new and thus is transformed a new world.

Let us pray to the Lord, that he will help us recognize something of the enormity of his love. Pray that his love and his truth touch our heart. Ask that Christ live in our hearts and make us new men, who act according to the truth in charity. Amen.

The Birthday of St. John the Baptist

2009-06-24T14:38:00.002-06:00

Today is John the Baptist's birthday. In the EF, yesterday was the vigil of this feast. I don't see why the OF did away with vigils. They're very nice, extend the feast, and during tempus per annum you get a bit of penance because their colour is purple.

The EF uses the psalms from the common of confessor bishops for Matins, which I find odd. We have a common of martyrs, so why not use those? I guess maybe since this isn't the feast of his martyrdom, that aspect of him isn't emphasized.

I always found it interesting that his birthday isn't tomorrow. It ought to be, to sync up perfectly with Jesus' birthday. One of my friends said an Eastern Catholic priest told her it's because since he is only human, and thus imperfect, that's why his feast is a day off.

For you music lovers, Fr Z says that today's vespers hymn, Ut queant laxis resonare fibris, is the original source for do-re-mi. Interesting, eh?

Posts on Confession

2009-06-24T14:37:00.002-06:00

Fr Ray Blake has a couple of very good posts on confession, if you haven't read them yet.

Accepted

2009-06-22T21:13:00.001-06:00

The vocations director called just a little bit ago, and told me the Seminary accepted me in. Please pray for me that I'll persevere, because I am terrified.