The Long Journey Into Light

Love this

2012-02-16T23:04:00.004-06:00

"Bumbling along the way of perfection"

2012-02-15T03:22:00.005-06:00

That excellent Digitalnun has a nice post today (read it here or below) about the role of liturgy in monastic life.

Sister is talking here about the liturgical life of a Benedictine monastery, but as with most things like this, we can think about it a bit more broadly such that it might apply to all of us.

Here Sister is, and I've added some paragraph breaks for easier reading:

The chapters of the Rule we are reading at present (often called the Liturgical Code of the Rule of St Benedict) might seem unpromising material on which to meditate — rather like the less digestible sections of the Book of Numbers.

They are, however, an important part of the whole. Take away Benedict’s prescriptions for the common prayer of the community, and you take away something essential for understanding what monastic life is all about. It is a quest for God, lived in community and worked out through the small detail of life.

As Benedictines, we don’t do great things for God. We are, if truth be told, bumblers along the way of perfection. The constant return to choir and the prayer of the community as a whole bears us up, helps us over the difficult places, and will eventually, please God, lead us to the ‘heights of wisdom and virtue’ of which St Benedict speaks.

Being reminded again and again how simple, straightforward and scriptural our prayer in community should be is a great encouragement. ‘Bumbling along with Benedict’ may not sound very challenging, but it certainly challenges me.

How many times it is so very true that the liturgical life of the Holy Church keeps us going on the path, "bumbling along" with the saints and each other here.

I noticed this when I started going to daily Mass while in college. Something about it had a way of putting things in perspective and reminding me of what is essential: that "quest for God, lived in community and worked out through the small detail of life."

I've also felt this often when praying the Liturgy of the Hours. Even when I do it "alone," there is that beautiful solace in knowing that I'm not actually doing this thing alone; there are hundreds of faithful people praying it every single minute of every single day, from monasteries to convents, apartments to rectories--and even beyond this world, I imagine the saints and angels are praying it along with us, interceding for us as we bumble along.

And then I love Sister's point that the journey we walk here is ultimately not a "great" big one, tempting and prideful as it might be to think of our paths like this sometimes.

Thanks be to God the liturgy is there for us always as we "bumble along" the simple yet beautiful path the Lord has put in front of us.

Pray God we never get stuck.
mk

Instruction from the Rite for the Institution of Readers

2012-02-15T03:15:00.001-06:00

My brothers in First Theology and I became instituted readers yesterday evening. Here's the instruction from the ritual. I rather like it.

Dear sons in Christ:

Through his Son, who became man for us, God the Father has revealed the mystery of salvation and brought it to fulfillment. Jesus Christ made all things known to us and then entrusted his Church with the mission of preaching the Gospel to the whole world.

As readers and bearers of God's word, you will assist in this mission, and so take on a special office within the Christian community; you will be given a responsibility in the service of the faith, which is rooted in the word of God. You will proclaim that word in the liturgical assembly, instruct children and adults in the faith and prepare them to receive the sacraments worthily. You will bring the message of salvation to those who have not yet received it. Thus with your help men and women will come to know God our Father and his Son Jesus Christ, whom he sent, and so be able to reach eternal life.

In proclaiming God's word to others, accept it yourselves in obedience to the Holy Spirit. Meditate on it constantly, so that each day you will have a deeper love of the Scriptures, and in all you say and do show forth to the world our Savior, Jesus Christ.

mk

Want to be wise? 3 things!

2012-02-14T00:55:00.002-06:00

St Bernard in the second reading of the Office of Readings yesterday says it takes three things to be wise:

Confess your sins
Give thanks and praise
Make your speech edifying

"Happy is the man who has found wisdom. Even more happy is the man who lives in wisdom, for he perceives its abundance."

mk

A statistic

2012-02-14T00:05:00.004-06:00

During JTERM, I took a class taught by Fr. Ron Knott, founder of the Priests & Presbyterates program at St. Meinrad.

He shared with us some interesting insights.

He also shared a statistic somewhat hard to swallow: in the next 8 years, 50% of our current priests are set to retire.

Let's pray and work for vocations!

mk

James 1

2012-02-13T13:54:00.002-06:00

Dcn. Drew preached today a very nice homily that started with the story of his first day in seminary at St. John Vianney in Minnesota.

They began their school year with a retreat led by the rector.

The rector, on that first day, spoke briefly about the first chapter of James.

Then, he told them all to go their separate ways and memorize chapter 1 of James. A hard assignment, but for those who did it, I'm sure it came in quite handy over their years.

Here's chapter 1, the first 11 verses of which formed the first reading at Mass today.

1James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes in the Dispersion: Greetings.

2 My brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of any kind, consider it nothing but joy, 3because you know that the testing of your faith produces endurance; 4and let endurance have its full effect, so that you may be mature and complete, lacking in nothing.

5 If any of you is lacking in wisdom, ask God, who gives to all generously and ungrudgingly, and it will be given you. 6But ask in faith, never doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, driven and tossed by the wind; 7, 8for the doubter, being double-minded and unstable in every way, must not expect to receive anything from the Lord.

9 Let the believer* who is lowly boast in being raised up, 10and the rich in being brought low, because the rich will disappear like a flower in the field. 11For the sun rises with its scorching heat and withers the field; its flower falls, and its beauty perishes. It is the same with the rich; in the midst of a busy life, they will wither away.

12 Blessed is anyone who endures temptation. Such a one has stood the test and will receive the crown of life that the Lord* has promised to those who love him. 13No one, when tempted, should say, ‘I am being tempted by God’; for God cannot be tempted by evil and he himself tempts no one. 14But one is tempted by one’s own desire, being lured and enticed by it; 15then, when that desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin, and that sin, when it is fully grown, gives birth to death. 16Do not be deceived, my beloved.

17 Every generous act of giving, with every perfect gift, is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.* 18In fulfilment of his own purpose he gave us birth by the word of truth, so that we would become a kind of first fruits of his creatures.

19 You must understand this, my beloved:* let everyone be quick to listen, slow to speak, slow to anger; 20for your anger does not produce God’s righteousness. 21Therefore rid yourselves of all sordidness and rank growth of wickedness, and welcome with meekness the implanted word that has the power to save your souls.

22 But be doers of the word, and not merely hearers who deceive themselves. 23For if any are hearers of the word and not doers, they are like those who look at themselves* in a mirror; 24for they look at themselves and, on going away, immediately forget what they were like. 25But those who look into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and persevere, being not hearers who forget but doers who act—they will be blessed in their doing.

26 If any think they are religious, and do not bridle their tongues but deceive their hearts, their religion is worthless. 27Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to care for orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by the world.

Quote of the day

2012-02-12T21:17:00.004-06:00

"Error never shows itself in its naked reality, in order not to be discovered. On the contrary, it dresses elegantly, so that the unwary may be led to believe that it is more truthful than truth itself."

St. Irenaeus of Lyons

St. Ephrem: "Be glad then that you are overwhelmed"

2012-02-12T18:28:00.005-06:00

The second reading in the Office today is worth a read. It's from a commentary on the Diatessaron by Saint Ephrem.

The Diatessaron basically means the harmony of the Gospels.

St. Ephrem talks about the word of God as something that never ends: it's like a tree that keeps producing fruit and like a rock that, struck open, offers endless drink.

The idea is, there is always more.

That can cause frustration sometimes, for there is always more to the story that we just don't get. We just don't see the whole picture.

And although we may realize conceptually that the beauty of God is that there is always more, perhaps the human side of us just wishes we could get it all in our heads, understand it all, and be done with it.

Here are the last two paragraphs of the reading:

Be glad then that you are overwhelmed, and do not be saddened because he has overcome you. A thirsty man is happy when he is drinking, and he is not depressed because he cannot exhaust the spring. So let this spring quench your thirst, and not your thirst the spring. For if you can satisfy your thirst without exhausting the spring, then when you thirst again you can drink from it once more; but if when your thirst is sated the spring is also dried up, then your victory would turn to your own harm.

Be thankful then for what you have received, and do not be saddened at all that such an abundance still remains. What you have received and attained is your present share, while what is left will be your heritage. For what you could not take at one time because of your weakness, you will be able to grasp at another if you only persevere. So do not foolishly try to drain in one draught what cannot be consumed all at once, and do not cease out of faintheartedness from what you will be able to absorb as time goes on.

Happy birthday Thomas Edison

2012-02-11T16:31:00.003-06:00

We all know about his connection with light bulbs, but what about that concrete furniture idea?

Simplicty of life

2012-02-11T13:33:00.003-06:00

Archbishop Dolan records the story of a visit he made to an old Dominican assigned in Zanesville, Ohio:

"Your room is so plain," I said. "Where do you keep the rest of your stuff?"

"This is it," he said.

"But it is so simple," I replied.

"Well, if I walk down to your room all you've got is your suitcase!"

"We, sure, but, after all, I'm just passing through."

"Aren't we all?"

Feast of Our Lady of Lourdes

2012-02-11T13:21:00.003-06:00

Fr. Bede offered a beautiful homily today about the ways in which sickness reminds us that we do not always have control over our bodies, and that ultimately healing does not come from us.

Today is the feast day of Our Lady of Lourdes and World Day of the Sick. This overlap is no coincidence.

On this day in 1858, Our Lady appeared to Bernadette and told her to drink from a spring. Looking around, Bernadette saw no such spring. She was told to scratch the surface of the ground where she stood, and at that moment a spring came up.

Since then, the bath in Lourdes is an attraction that is the source of over 5,000 cases of miraculous healing. About 75% of these cases have been verified.

Thus, Lourdes is the most common pilgrimage destination in the world.

Here is the litany for Our Lady of Lourdes:

Lord have mercy; Lord have mercy.
Christ have mercy; Christ have mercy.
Lord have mercy; Lord have mercy.
Christ hear us; Christ graciously hear us.
God the Father of Heaven; Have mercy on us.
God the Son, Redeemer of the world; Have mercy on us.
God the Holy Spirit; Have mercy on us.
Holy Trinity, one God; Have mercy on us.
Holy Mary; Pray for us.
Holy Mother of God; Pray for us.
Mother of Christ; Pray for us.
Mother of our Savior; Pray for us.
Our Lady of Lourdes, help of Christians; Pray for us.
Our Lady of Lourdes, source of love; Pray for us.
Our Lady of Lourdes, mother of the poor; Pray for us.
Our Lady of Lourdes, mother of the handicapped; Pray for us.
Our Lady of Lourdes, mother of orphans; Pray for us.
Our Lady of Lourdes, mother of all children; Pray for us.
Our Lady of Lourdes, mother of all nations; Pray for us.
Our Lady of Lourdes, mother of the Church; Pray for us.
Our Lady of Lourdes, friend of the lonely; Pray for us.
Our Lady of Lourdes, comforter of those who mourn; Pray for us.
Our Lady of Lourdes, shelter of the homeless; Pray for us.
Our Lady of Lourdes, guide of travelers; Pray for us.
Our Lady of Lourdes, strength of the weak; Pray for us.
Our Lady of Lourdes, refuge of sinners; Pray for us.
Our Lady of Lourdes, comforter of the suffering; Pray for us.
Our Lady of Lourdes, help of the dying; Pray for us.
Queen of heaven; Pray for us.
Queen of peace; Pray for us.
Lamb of God, you take away the sins of the world; Spare us O Lord.
Lamb of God, you take away the sins of the world; Graciously hear us, O Lord.
Lamb of God, you take away the sins of the world; Have mercy on us.
Christ hear us; Christ graciously hear us.
Let us pray:
Grant us, your servants, we pray you, Lord God, to enjoy perpetual health of mind and body. By the glorious intercession of Blessed Mary ever Virgin, may we be delivered from present sorrows, and enjoy everlasting happiness. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.

mk

Responses to Obama's "accommodation"

2012-02-10T18:30:00.006-06:00

The bishops are still thinking about all this news from the White House today...pray for them...and for our country.

The bishops will speak about this soon. As +Dolan said, it is a good "first step."

But...these comments below point out there's a lot lacking in Obama's so-called "accommodation."

Robert Miller at First Things:

So now we see how the Obama administration proposes to preserve the religious freedom of religiously-affiliated employers like hospitals, schools and charities while requiring all health insurance plans to include abortion-inducing drugs, sterilizations, and contraception. According to the “fact sheet” released this afternoon by the White House, “Religious organizations will not have to provide contraceptive coverage” or “subsidize the cost of contraception.” Nevertheless, the insurance companies with which religious employers contract to provide health insurance for their employees “will be required to provide contraception coverage to these women free of charge.”

This is economic nonsense. Insurance companies have no money to pay for such benefits for the affected employees except from premiums they charge the employers who purchase coverage for their employees. So, one way or another, the employers are paying for the products to which they object. For example, suppose that, under the old rule, a religious employer would have had to pay $5,000 per employee annually for coverage including contraception. Under the new rule, the employer may elect to buy a policy that says that it omits such coverage. But the insurer has to provide the coverage anyway, and it may not charge the employee for it. How will it pay for the coverage? Obviously by building that cost into the price it charges the religious employer. Hence, the new policy will cost the employer the same $5,000 per employee that the old one did.

Under the old rule, the employer had to pay for abortion-inducing drugs, sterilizations, and contraception. Under the new rule, the employer has to pay for abortion-inducing drugs, sterilizations, and contraception, but President Obama will say that it doesn’t, and we’ll believe him. That fixes everything. And to think, some people accuse President Obama of empty rhetoric.

Elizabeth Scalia hits it right on this morning, in her predictions about today's event:

I expect President Obama will come out and say something that sounds wonderful and conciliatory and that seems reasonable to people who are eager to reconcile with the president and give themselves permission to vote for him again in November. I also expect that beyond the words, what the President offers will be too little — the government miserly granting to us pieces of freedom we are utterly entitled to own outright — but it will be “enough” for some.
And with that, Obama will have done the thing he needs to do, here, which is re-divide the Catholics who have apparently surprised him with their nearly unanimous condemnation of his HHS Mandate.
[...]
But the thing to remember is this: Obama has now demonstrated that he cannot be trusted to deal in good faith with the churches. Even if he gives a “full exemption”, one needs to worry whether he can be trusted if he wins re-election, and is no longer constrained by the need to please anyone.

And RR Reno at First Thoughts, with a great question at the end:

Hum. Religious organizations will not be required to subsidize the cost of contraception—and women will get the coverage FREE OF CHARGE. Is that because contraceptives and a system for delivering them and processing insurance paperwork COST NOTHING?

This is a charade. Insurance companies will obvious raise overall premiums to provide adequate income for the “free” contraceptives. So religious organizations that pay the premiums will indeed be subsidizing the cost of contraceptives.

I find myself exasperated. Why is the Left so committed to the goal of free contraceptives for women?

And that is the question. How did free birth control become the highest good? As Cardinal Wuerl said it this morning, this Administration is bound and determined to change what we mean by the term "health care," even if it needs to break amendment rights and sneak into the pockets of the Church to do it.

That Wuerl video is well worth watching. He has a nice analogy in there about our schools: suppose the White House said we must have porn in all our classrooms. We'd be outraged, not only for its depravity but also because it infringes upon our rights. Then the White House comes out and says, "Nevermind, but you need to refer any child who wants to see porn to a building out back whose electric bills you actually pay."

Some accommodation.

mk

"A simple beggar before the Lord": A brief look into the Pope's prayer life

2012-02-10T18:22:00.001-06:00

Rest

2012-02-09T22:02:00.005-06:00

My readings today (by the way, I follow this chart and just began the top of column 3 on page 1) had me looking at the tale end of Judges, more of Ps 119, and the end of Mark 2 plus the first six verses of Mark 3.

The theme I find is the necessity of rest.

In Mark, we see Jesus saying talking about the sabbath as a gift to man.

In the Psalm we see the psalmist asking, "How long must thy servant endure?" We get the feeling we're reading the words of a very tired, and certainly fearful psalmist.

In the last two chapters of Judges, we see that a tribe's going it alone is too wearisome, and so we see all tribes rising up "as one man" to fight the injustice inflicted by the tribe of Benjamin.

All these images aside, what I turned my mind most to today was the image of the man with the withered hand in Mark 3:1-5. Most likely this term "withered" indicates that the man's hand was diseased, but that word allows for another interpretation: perhaps the man's hand was simply old and decrepit after a lifetime (or half a lifetime) of nonstop work--and how fitting that Jesus would heal it on the day of rest.

It was ironic that I sat in that chapel this morning, operating on about four hours' sleep, reflecting upon a truth I often sense: God wants us to rest and even designed us that way...and I'm tired!

Maybe it's time we take the Lord up on the invitation to accept his gift of rest on Sunday and even in doses throughout the week.

mk

8 muscle-building foods

2012-02-09T00:00:00.005-06:00

As I approach the mini-marathon in May, I keep an eye out for things like this.

Men's Health has written a nice piece 8 muscle-building foods that suggests the foods/drinks below as particularly useful for those seeking to build muscle in a general way.

Some of these things surprise me but I'm putting it here so I won't forget about it. Maybe I'll make myself expand my diet...which I am always loathe to do!

Here are the foods. The article itself nicely explains their use for building muscle and the overall benefit they have on health.

Eggs: The Perfect Protein
Almonds: Muscle Medicine
Salmon: The Growth Regulator
Yogurt: The Golden Ratio
Beef: Carvable Creatine [NO CAN DO ON THIS ONE]
Olive Oil: Liquid Energy
Water: The Muscle Bath
Coffee: The Repetition Builder

Ps 119:71: "It is good for me that I was afflicted"

2012-02-08T23:41:00.005-06:00

Today, my morning meditation led me to a few chapters from Judges, a few verses from Ps 119, and half of Mark 2.

Ps 119 has this line, chanted by the psalmist in thanksgiving: "It is good for me that I was afflicted, that I might learn thy statutes."

That's what I carried around no my piece of paper today.

To thank God for afflictions is not a common practice, but it seems to make sense given these readings and a little common sense, for most often we learn most from what doesn't quite go so well.

In the latter part of Judges, we see Israel's apostasy, not as a nation by on a case-by-case basis. These words keep popping up: "In those days there was no king in Israel; every man did what was right in his own eyes."

The thing is, these people, though "free" and doing whatever they want (like our culture today), are suffering (the woman who consecrates herself not to the Lord but to silver, the Danite tribe that attacks Michah for land, the Levite who chops up his concubine after abusing her to death); they do what they think will bring them joy and yet, what do they find but great affliction?

And so, it is good that we are afflicted. Because we learn from it to find a better way.

In Mark 2, we see Jesus healing the paralytic after "seeing their faith", saying, "Rise, take up your pallet and go home." Then, right after this, he finds Levi (Matthew) sitting in his tax office and calls him to "follow me." Then Jesus says, "Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick..."

In other words, Jesus the Physician comes to the afflicted: the sick (paralytic), the estranged or workaholic or scrooge (Matthew), and the sinner.

And so it is good for us that we are afflicted, for when we are afflicted the living God comes to us.

mk

A great piece in the Business Insider

2012-02-08T23:35:00.000-06:00

Kudos to the Business Insider that includes this piece: Time To Admit It: The Church Has Always Been Right On Birth Control.

Here's a bit of it:

Painting the Catholic Church as “out of touch” is like shooting fish in a barrel, what with the funny hats and gilded churches. And nothing makes it easier than the Church’s stance against contraception.

[. . .]

Here’s the thing, though: the Catholic Church is the world’s biggest and oldest organization. It has buried all of the greatest empires known to man, from the Romans to the Soviets. It has establishments literally all over the world, touching every area of human endeavor. It’s given us some of the world’s greatest thinkers, from Saint Augustine on down to René Girard. When it does things, it usually has a good reason. Everyone has a right to disagree, but it’s not that they’re a bunch of crazy old white dudes who are stuck in the Middle Ages.

So, what’s going on?

The Church teaches that love, marriage, sex, and procreation are all things that belong together. That’s it. But it’s pretty important. And though the Church has been teaching this for 2,000 years, it’s probably never been as salient as today.

Today’s injunctions against birth control were re-affirmed in a 1965 document by Pope Paul VI called Humane Vitae. He warned of four results if the widespread use of contraceptives was accepted:

– General lowering of moral standards
– A rise in infidelity, and illegitimacy
– The reduction of women to objects used to satisfy men.
– Government coercion in reproductive matters.

Does that sound familiar?

Because it sure sounds like what’s been happening for the past 40 years.

Thanks to the Anchoress for pointing this great piece out.

mk

Mark 1:37 - “Everyone is searching for you.”

2012-02-07T21:17:00.004-06:00

Folks, I've decided that when I have nothing else to blog about, I will blog about what strikes me in my morning scripture reading. One priest suggested that each day I write down on a piece of paper a line or two from scripture and carry that paper with me all day. It's a good practice.

So, on days when it's either interesting or I have nothing else to post, I guess I'll start sharing what's on my piece of paper.

Today, I had some of Mark on there. Mark 1:37 struck me. It reads, "When they found him, they said to him, 'Everyone is searching for you.'"

Every soul thirsts for God, whether this is acknowledged in each person or not. Why? Because we're all sick, or in some way in need.

Here's Mark 1:32-3: "That evening, at sundown, they brought to him all who were sick or possessed with demons. And the whole city was gathered around the door."

The whole city is in need of some kind of healing. And the whole city goes to the Lord's door.

Knock and it shall be opened!

mk

Clearing the tabs

2012-02-06T21:13:00.002-06:00

Francis Pott - Ubi Caritas : Maîtrise de l'Académie Vocale de Paris -- beautiful. Turn up the speakers.

Auburn recruit cites Chick-fil-A as factor saying no to Clemson -- can't say I blame him!! Porximinty to the a Chick-fil-A restaurant should be of great importance in deciding where to live

Facebook to hit a billion users this summer

Via Cafeteria or Via Media -- The Anglican Church at least at its origins saw itself as the "middle way"--not Catholic but not quite Protestant either. Fr. Dwight wonders if the new via media is the personal ordinariate that, thanks be to God, is bringing many Anglicans home.

True and False Humility - "...[T]o realise that our littleness is taken up into Christ’s greatness, that our small disappointments and failures are transformed by the sacrifice of Calvary, is to understand that humility gives us a safe place on which to stand, indeed, the only safe place: in Christ."

Snowfall and silence - Sister's beautiful words about snow make me lament our lack of it this year: "Snow changes our perception of reality, transforming common objects into strange shapes and revealing the mystery hidden within the apparently ordinary. Lying white and still, it quietens the world around us so that our inner noise is heard for what it is: 'sound and fury, signifying nothing'."

Babette's Feast - I remember watching and writing about this work in my 10th grade English class. Eucharistic overtones galore.

I'm human - The so-called "video of the year." Might be useful one day in the future for some Confirmation/youth talk....

Pope: Life and Marriage are one issue

mk

A Song for Simeon

2012-02-02T23:24:00.002-06:00

Happy Feast of the Presentation. Here's this to mark the occasion, from TS Eliot:

Lord, the Roman hyacinths are blooming in bowls and
The winter sun creeps by the snow hills;
The stubborn season has made stand.
My life is light, waiting for the death wind,
Like a feather on the back of my hand.
Dust in sunlight and memory in corners
Wait for the wind that chills towards the dead land.

Grant us thy peace.
I have walked many years in this city,
Kept faith and fast, provided for the poor,
Have taken and given honour and ease.
There went never any rejected from my door.

Who shall remember my house, where shall live my children’s children

When the time of sorrow is come ?
They will take to the goat’s path, and the fox’s home,
Fleeing from the foreign faces and the foreign swords.

Before the time of cords and scourges and lamentation
Grant us thy peace.
Before the stations of the mountain of desolation,
Before the certain hour of maternal sorrow,
Now at this birth season of decease,
Let the Infant, the still unspeaking and unspoken Word,
Grant Israel’s consolation
To one who has eighty years and no to-morrow.

According to thy word,
They shall praise Thee and suffer in every generation
With glory and derision,
Light upon light, mounting the saints’ stair.
Not for me the martyrdom, the ecstasy of thought and prayer,
Not for me the ultimate vision.
Grant me thy peace.

(And a sword shall pierce thy heart,
Thine also).

I am tired with my own life and the lives of those after me,
I am dying in my own death and the deaths of those after me.
Let thy servant depart,
Having seen thy salvation.

Keep moving on

2012-02-02T13:32:00.009-06:00

Fr. Denis preached a beautiful homily again yesterday.

His topic was "moving on."

In the first reading (2 Sm 24:2, 9-17), David had been presented with three alternatives--none of which was all that great--and found himself in a land suffering from a severe plague that had been wrought about by his own sin.

Move on.

In the Gospel (Mk 6:1-6), Jesus goes home. He is not met with understanding and embrace, but the folks there seem to resent him, to dismiss him--after all, he's just the carpenter's son--and even the best of these folks seem to be really rather indifferent to what he teaches in the synagogue.

He is rejected, scorned, ridiculed. And he is amazed at their lack of faith.

He stays there long enough to do what he can--"curing a few sick people," those who allow him in and do have faith.

But then, he moves on.

Move on.

I just love it. In the midst of life, Fr. Denis shared, disappointments come, loss is felt, we sin, people reject us, hurt is experienced deeply, doubt arises in our hearts, people leave, faith and hope flicker--and a whole lot else happens.

And in the midst of it all, we hear that prompting from God: Move on!

I expect his homily will appear on his blog soon...be on the lookout for it.

This morning in holy hour I reflected on Deborah's hymn in the book of Judges. Perhaps my favorite line in that beautiful poetry is this: "March on, my soul, with might!"

I often reflect on it and repeat it while on that dreadful treadmill.

But it's a good philosophy on life, that is, to move on, to march on--with might!

mk

Worth a watch

2012-02-01T23:27:00.001-06:00

"I would like a great lake of beer for the King of Kings"

2012-02-01T21:02:00.005-06:00

Although Evening Prayer I this evening began the feast of the Presentation of the Lord (more to follow on that), the date February 1st marks the feast of St. Brigid, an abess from the sixth century, who with St Patrick is patron of Ireland.

The Church there could sure use some help; let's implore St Brigid before the day's end.

She penned the prayer below. The pious parts of the prayer are nice and rich, but so too are the last two lines about beer!

I would like the angels of Heaven to be among us.
I would like an abundance of peace.
I would like full vessels of charity.
I would like rich treasures of mercy.
I would like cheerfulness to preside over all.
I would like Jesus to be present.
I would like the three Marys of illustrious renown to be with us.
I would like the friends of Heaven to be gathered around us from all parts.
I would like myself to be a rent payer to the Lord; that I should suffer distress, that he would bestow a good blessing upon me.
I would like a great lake of beer for the King of Kings.
I would like to be watching Heaven’s family drinking it through all eternity.

Saint Brigid: pray for us!

mk

Beautiful footage of Yosemite National Park

2012-02-01T21:00:00.000-06:00

Check this out in full screen mode:

Yosemite HD from Project Yosemite on Vimeo.

Spirituality and religion

2012-02-01T20:57:00.001-06:00

Sometime in college I wrote a paper for some seminar on the question of spirituality and religion, and the meat of it, as I recall, centered on the notion that spirituality--union with God--is the goal, and religion--communal living of some "rule"--is the way.

I'm sure it could stand to nuanced so I won't bother to look that paper up.

But I do remember being the only one in that seminar class of 20 or so who felt that religion was a necessary part of spirituality; that neither really exists authentically without the other.

Fr. Dwight Longbecker, an former Anglican who now serves as a Catholic priest and has been guest blogging over at the Anchoress lately in addition to his own blog, has hit the nail on its head with this post:

What is the relationship between spirituality and religion?

Spirituality is subjective. The Catholic Religion is objective.

Spirituality is the genius. Religion is the discipline.

Spirituality is the heart. Religion is the mind and body.

Spirituality is the vine. Religion is the trellis.

Spirituality is the music. Religion is the notes on the page and the practice.

Spirituality is the drama. Religion is the script.

Spirituality is the cuisine. Religion is the cookbook.

Spirituality is making love. Religion is the marriage.

Spirituality is the paycheck. Religion is the work.

Spirituality is the free fall. Religion is the parachute.

Spirituality is the quest. Religion is the map.

Spirituality is the climb. Religion is the ladder.

Spirituality is the grace. Religion is the law.

Spirituality is the inspiration. Religion is the perspiration.

Spirituality is the question. Religion is the answer.

Photos from the retreat

2012-01-31T00:47:00.005-06:00

Here's a little slideshow thanks to Picasa. Some photos you can't see so well--check those out here.

The wonder of a retreat

2012-01-30T01:12:00.008-06:00

Recently I returned from my silent retreat in Maple Mount--a tiny, out of the way town in the state of Kentucky, known to many locals and others as "God's country." What a fair and fitting label!

For those who offered a prayer for me or all of us on retreat, thanks. It was a beautiful time. I'll post pictures with a few words of description tomorrow.

I will not share too many personal graces here, though there were many. But, I will say in a rather general way that this retreat opened my eyes to the role of wonder in life, a wonder that I think I've allowed to play too small of a role in my own life: wonder in creation, in the Church, in each other, in myself, and in the God who makes it all possible and holds it all together.

Wonder. That's the ticket into a dynamic relationship with the living God. Remember Moses and that bush? The bush causes Moses to wonder, and he can't help but draw near to God--despite his fear--even as that same God draws near to him.

But the wonder we're called to, and into which this retreat invited us--or at least me--is a wonder that draws at the heart more than the mind. No one can think his way into a relationship with God; he is pulled there.

Thoughts, then feelings, then desires. O happy memories of IPF!

I'd also like to share something I found just awesome about this retreat: the feast days of the saints were perfect and fit in beautifully with our time at Mount Saint Joseph.

On Monday, we celebrated the feast day of Saint Francis de Sales, a man with keen insights into the human spirit. The second reading in the Office of Readings that day reminded us that there are different kinds of plants that do different things. Same with us: and so it'd be foolish for a bishop to live the life of a Carthusian, or for a married man to live as a hermit. We are, he says, to spend our lives in devotion to God--in whatever path that is for us. The heart will show us the way.

Tuesday marked the feast of the Conversion of Saint Paul--and what a conversion it was! He went from murderer to evangelist. As Chrysostom says, Paul lived an extraordinary life of ministry after having been transformed and converted in Christ, but "the most important thing of all to him was that he knew himself to be loved by Christ." Is there any wonder, then, that he "considered himself happier than anyone else?" Any retreat that helps one realize not only that Christ loves him, but that that's all that really counts in the end--I'd call it a success.

Wednesday was the feast of Sts. Timothy and Titus, whose lives always pointed to what is the goal of our earthy journey and ultimately our religion and faith: heaven. Funny, on this day, early in the morning, I sat in the chapel and looked through the clear windows. It was foggy and gray outside, cloudy, misty and cold--just as I like it. From the chapel window, it looked as though we were already in heaven, as if the room I was sitting in were somehow floating in the clouds. Who knows, perhaps a bit of heaven descended upon us that morning like the dewfall. Or perhaps we were somehow being brought up. Who knows--but what a moment it was.

Thursday was the feast of St. Angela Merici, the foundress of the Ursuline Sisters, in whose motherhouse we were staying. St. Angela founded the Ursuline order. She scattered seeds on the land we were upon, but it was long after she died that they came to fruition. She never did see them bloom, though I imagine that's not altogether true--I'm sure she smiles down now. But talk about a woman who had patience and trust in what she was doing. And that patience and trust has gone a long ways, like that mustard seed mentioned in the Gospel that day, and, pray God, like that seed of vocation in each of us.

And then on Friday we celebrated the feast of St Thomas Aquinas, whose writings we seminarians get sick of early on in our time here. Kidding, of course, but Thomas' legacy lives on in the Church and has done a great deal in helping us understand the essential mysteries by which we are saved--here and hereafter. Our chapel here is dedicated to him, and I know he watches over us here in a special way.

Photos to come.

mk

Open Wide the Doors

2012-01-29T23:41:00.001-06:00

Awesome video!!!!

Retreating away...

2012-01-23T09:07:00.002-06:00

Today I depart for Mount Saint Joseph in Maple Mount, KY. Together with the rest of my class, I will be on a silent retreat there through Sunday. No blogging until I get back. Pax.

Good bumper stickers I've seen on facebook of late

2012-01-22T02:07:00.002-06:00

Clippings converter

2012-01-21T23:13:00.003-06:00

Just discovered this site today--http://www.clippingsconverter.com/.

It allows Kindle users to export a list of their highlights and notes in all of their Kindle books. The list, offered in Excel, Word, or PDF format, separates by book highlights and comments.

It also spits out the page number of each highlight, which answers the problem of not knowing what page number one is on in the book itself.

This website is awesome!

mk

Feast of Saint Meinrad

2012-01-21T18:58:00.003-06:00

Today is also the feast day of St. Meinrad, who died on this day 1,151 years ago. He is the holy patron of the monastic community here in Southern Indiana, and the patron saint of hospitality.

This patronage is attributed to Meinrad for good reason. Meinrad welcomed to his hermitage, where he had lived faithfully for 26 years, two men he knew would kill him.

The robbers-turned-murderers, thinking that Meinrad had many possessions in his hermitage, came not long after Meinrad had a vision that two visitors would soon kill him.

They demanded all Meinrad's goods when they arrived. Meinrad told them he had nothing but they didn't believe him, thinking that Meinrad had benefactors who showered him with gifts.

Meinrad was offering Mass at the time the men came into his hermitage. He finished Mass, offered some additional prayers, kissed his relics, and opened the door.

He warmly greeted and welcomed the men he knew were about to kill him.

We can love our enemies, too, but we usually can do so only in small ways.

As it did last year, this reality makes me think of a beautiful moment in Graham Greene's The Power and the Glory. The whiskey priest, nearing his death, comes to a powerful realization that night before he was shot:

He felt only an immense disappointment because he had to go to God empty-handed, with nothing done at all. It seemed to him, at that moment, that it would have been quite easy to have been a saint. It would have only needed a little self-restraint and a little courage.

Some might call it 20/20 hindsight, but I think that it points to the reality that sainthood isn't all that hard, so long as, like Saint Meinrad, we have a little self-restraint and a little courage.

We can love our enemies in little ways, and those little ways end up going a long ways, such that perhaps we will come to discover that our "enemies" are not really enemies at all. It's easier, says the whiskey priest, than we might think. Let's take this lesson from him now, before the eve of our own passing.

St. Meinrad: Pray for us!

mk

Pope: Seminarians, study hard

2012-01-21T18:30:00.000-06:00

Our rector and vice rector often stress the same points the Holy Father spoke of today: that seminarians must study and appreciate the universality of the holy Church, as a part of their pursuit of holiness.

Here's this from Zenit:

Benedict XVI today told those preparing for the priesthood that their path to holiness also includes a commitment to their studies.

The Pope said this today in an address to the community from one of the Diocese of Rome seminaries, the Almo Collegio Capranica, which he received in audience for the feast of St. Agnes, patron of the college.

He said that priestly formation requires integrity and asceticism, as well as "heroic constancy and fidelity."

"Deep down there should be a solid spiritual life animated by an intense relationship with God on the personal and community level, with particular care shown in liturgical celebrations and the frequenting of the sacraments," the Holy Father encouraged. "The priestly life requires a growing desire for holiness, a clear sensus Ecclesiae and an openness to a fraternity without exclusions or partiality."

And he said that the priest's path to holiness also includes a decision to develop his intelligence and cultural knowledge, the "fruit of passionate and constant study."

"Faith has its own intellectual and rational dimension that is essential," the Pontiff explained. "For a seminarian and a young priest still struggling with academic study, it means assimilating the synthesis between faith and reason that is peculiar to Christianity. The Word of God became flesh, and the priest, the true priest of the Incarnate Word, must become more transparent, luminous and profound, to the eternal Word which is given to us. He who is mature also in this, his global cultural training, can be a more effective educator and promoter of that worship 'in spirit and truth' of which Jesus speaks to the Samaritan woman."

Universal

Benedict XVI also encouraged the seminarians to steep themselves in the experience of the Church's universality.

"Always have a deep sense of history and tradition of the Church," he invited them. "Being in Rome is a gift which should make you especially sensitive to the depth of the Catholic tradition. You touch it with your hands already in the history of the building that houses you. In addition, you live these years of training in a special closeness with the Successor of Peter, which enables you to perceive with particular clarity the size of the universal Church and the desire that the Gospel may reach all peoples. Here you have the opportunity to broaden your horizons with experiences of internationality; here, above all, you breathe Catholicism.

"Take advantage of what is offered, for future service to the Diocese of Rome, or your dioceses of origin! By friendship, which springs from living together, learn about the different situations of the nations and Churches around the world and learn to form in yourselves a Catholic view. Prepare yourselves to be close to every person you meet, not allowing any culture to be a barrier to the Word of life, which you proclaim also with your life."

The Pope concluded by reminding the seminarians that "the Church expects much from the young priests in the work of evangelization and new evangelization."

mk

"This decision must be fought against with all the energies the Catholic Community can muster."

2012-01-21T18:28:00.000-06:00

About the ruling yesterday that will force all employers--ALL employers, even of Catholic organizations--to provide contraceptives, including some associated with abortion, here is Cardinal Roger Mahony:

I cannot imagine a more direct and frontal attack on freedom of conscience than this ruling. This decision must be fought against with all the energies the Catholic Community can muster.

For me there is no other fundamental issue as important as this one as we enter into the Presidential and Congressional campaigns. Every candidate must be pressed to declare his/her position on all of the fundamental life issues, especially the role of government to determine what conscience decision must be followed: either the person’s own moral and conscience decision, or that dictated/enforced by the Federal government. For me the answer is clear: we stand with our moral principles and heritage over the centuries, not what a particular Federal government agency determines.

As Bishops we do not recommend candidates for any elected office. For me personally, I intend to vote on November 6, 2012, for the candidate for President of the United States and members of Congress who intend to recognize the full spectrum of rights under the many conscience clauses of morality and public policy. If any candidate refuses to acknowledge and to promote those rights, then that canddate will not receive my vote.

This is a sad moment in the life of our country where religious freedom and freedom of conscience led to the formation of this new Nation under God.

Dolan: "In effect, the president is saying we have a year to figure out how to violate our consciences"

2012-01-20T23:58:00.001-06:00

Unbelivable and sad news just in on, surprise surprise, Friday afternoon.

The Administration has come out with what is rightly called an "unconscionable" edict that would force all employers--ALL employers, even of Catholic organizations--to provide contraceptives, including some associated with abortion.

And citizens foot the bill.

In their incredible generosity, the Administration has offered a one-year grace period to faith-based organizations, if they apply for it and meet the narrow criteria.

Sickening. Deplorable. Infuriating. Tragic.

Pray. Pray. Pray.

The bishops have already written a response, copied below:

U.S. Bishops Vow to Fight HHS Edict

WASHINGTON—The Catholic bishops of the United States called “literally unconscionable” a decision by the Obama Administration to continue to demand that sterilization, abortifacients and contraception be included in virtually all health plans. Today's announcement means that this mandate and its very narrow exemption will not change at all; instead there will only be a delay in enforcement against some employers.

“In effect, the president is saying we have a year to figure out how to violate our consciences,” said Cardinal-designate Timothy M. Dolan, archbishop of New York and president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.

The cardinal-designate continued, “To force American citizens to choose between violating their consciences and forgoing their healthcare is literally unconscionable.It is as much an attack on access to health care as on religious freedom. Historically this represents a challenge and a compromise of our religious liberty."

The HHS rule requires that sterilization and contraception – including controversial abortifacients – be included among “preventive services” coverage in almost every healthcare plan available to Americans. “The government should not force Americans to act as if pregnancy is a disease to be prevented at all costs,” added Cardinal-designate Dolan.

At issue, the U.S. bishops and other religious leaders insist, is the survival of a cornerstone constitutionally protected freedom that ensures respect for the conscience of Catholics and all other Americans.

“This is nothing less than a direct attack on religion and First Amendment rights,” said Franciscan Sister Jane Marie Klein, chairperson of the board at Franciscan Alliance, Inc., a system of 13 Catholic hospitals. “I have hundreds of employees who will be upset and confused by this edict. I cannot understand it at all.”

Daughter of Charity Sister Carol Keehan, president and chief executive officer of the Catholic Health Association of the United States, voiced disappointment with the decision. Catholic hospitals serve one out of six people who seek hospital care annually.

“This was a missed opportunity to be clear on appropriate conscience protection,” Sister Keehan said.

Cardinal-designate Dolan urged that the HHS mandate be overturned.

“The Obama administration has now drawn an unprecedented line in the sand,” he said. “The Catholic bishops are committed to working with our fellow Americans to reform the law and change this unjust regulation. We will continue to study all the implications of this troubling decision.”

---

First Amendment, heath care, Archbishop Timothy Dolan, Freedom of Conscience, U.S. bishops, United States Conference of Catholic bishops, President Obama, Sister Carol Keehan

# # # # #
MEDIA CONTACT:
Sr. Mary Ann Walsh
O: 202-541-3200
M: 301-325-7935

mk

"Saul has slain his thousands, and David his ten thousands."

2012-01-19T21:23:00.005-06:00

I think it was Thomas Aquinas who said that envy is really the dumbest sin because at least with the other sins you get some kind of pleasure in doing them.

Envy is the only "unfun" sin.

Interesting to contemplate. And yet envy is so very, very common.

As Fr. Ron Knott, founder of the IPP program here at St Meinrad, commented the other day, clerical envy is sadly rampant in presbyterates everywhere.

And it divides and embitters a group of priests who ought to be on the same team!

Our first reading today reminds us of this:

When David and Saul approached
(on David's return after slaying the Philistine),
women came out from each of the cities of Israel to meet King Saul,
singing and dancing, with tambourines, joyful songs, and sistrums.
The women played and sang:

"Saul has slain his thousands,
and David his ten thousands."

Saul was very angry and resentful of the song, for he thought:
"They give David ten thousands, but only thousands to me.
All that remains for him is the kingship."

And from that day on, Saul was jealous of David.

A good reminder for us all to get rid of envy from our hearts, bit by bit, by celebrating the good things others do that we, well, can't!

mk

"Here's the thing, Al: I've always encouraged moderation"

2012-01-17T22:32:00.002-06:00

Gotta love that Paula Deen.

I fell in love with her the first time I went to her buffet just outside New Albany, Indiana.

News came out today that she was diagnosed with Type 2 Diabetes three years ago.

On the Today show, she spoke a word very much at the heart of the Benedictine philosophy--and the wider Church's teaching: moderation.

All things in moderation, as the saying goes.

Many think she is responsible for fattening a good number of people and giving them health complications such as the one she now has.

Au contraire, she says. People need to be responsible for themselves.

"It's like I told Oprah a few years back. I'm your cook, not your doctor. You've got to be responsible for yourself."

Thanks Paula. It's a lesson we'd all do well to contemplate, maybe even while having a piece of pie.

mk

Martin Luther King Day

2012-01-16T15:02:00.000-06:00

Father Hesburgh stood together with Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., while singing "We Shall Overcome" at a 1964 civil rights rally held at Chicago's Soldier Field.

Here I am Lord

2012-01-15T22:54:00.005-06:00

The Deacon's Bench alerted me today of a beautiful rendition of that tune Here I Am Lord which I've embedded it at the end of this post.

Because of the first reading's story of Samuel and Eli, the song was probably sung at the majority of Catholic parishes this weekend.

But most parishes probably weren't so fortunate to hear it done as beautifully as it is in the video below.

I remember liking this song and being attracted to something in it even as a young kid.

Perhaps I was drawn then, even subconsciously, to the idea of God having some kind of need of me--so much so that in the back of my mind I was already then saying, "Send me."

Or, perhaps it was just that it was sung so often--too often it could well be argued--that the song became common and drilled into my head. We are often drawn to the common and known. I had the words down by third grade probably and still remember it was in those days found on page 492 of that blue book.

Whatever it was that I liked then, this is the simple truth I like about the song now: it emphasizes that God calls and the Christian ought be there and respond. That, and in our faithfulness to our calling is life, light, hope, freedom, and a good deal else.

Perhaps what people like least about this tune is its contemporary and somewhat less-than-interesting musical nature. Or maybe it's that they've never heard it done as best it can be done.

Here, I think this boys choir makes it sound as good as it can:

Better than guitars, no?
mk

Make me a fork

2012-01-15T22:19:00.005-06:00

A brother seminarian has this at the end of each email he sends out:

"Father, make of me a crisis man. Bring those I contact to decision. Let me not be a milepost on a single road; make me a fork, that men must turn one way or another on facing Christ in me."

I rather like this. It's attributed to the journals of Jim Elliot, a (non--Catholic) missionary who died in bringing the Gospel to the unreached Auca tribe of Ecuador in 1956.

May it be so, that we not only serve as pointers and signs to Christ, but abide with him so much so that others see him in us and are forced to make a decision: do I allow myself to be converted a bit more, or do I walk away?

I know fork people like this and it's true: they bring me and just about everyone they meet to a decision point. Conversion or reversion?

mk

A Catholic response

2012-01-14T23:39:00.002-06:00

There has been in recent days a video floating around facebook made by Jefferson Bethke called "Why I Love Jesus But Hate Religion."

There's been a lot of attention paid it. If you've not seen it, click here.

Here is an excellent Catholic response!

To Monte Cassino, our dear Lady's shrine, we pilgrims come asking for blessings divine

2012-01-14T19:33:00.011-06:00

In the later part of 1870, when Ulysses S. Grant was president, smallpox had broken out and was spreading quickly in southern Indiana. Many in villages nearby the monastery and seminary had died over the Christmas season. Four men from St. Meinrad had also died.

The students and monks of St. Meinrad at the time, fearful of losing their lives, turned to Mary. They set out on pilgrimage to the top of a hill not far from the monastery and seminary.

Along the way, they prayed. Once they reached the top of the hill, a votive Mass was offered at the current church building.

All were spared.

Every year, we continue this tradition and process to the shrine of Our Lady of Monte Cassino in thanksgiving for her protection and care, and in petition that we might continue to receive her healing touch.

Our Lady is the Mediatrix of grace, and so we ask her to pour forth that grace upon us.

Here's the opening hymn from this morning's Mass:

To Monte Cassino, our dear Lady's shrine,
We pilgrims come, asking for blessings divine.
O Mary our Mother behold at thy feet
Thy confident children, who thee now will greet.

Thou health of the ailing, come heal all our ills,
Come, dry sorrow's tear that our eye so oft fills,
O refuge of sinners, fling over us wide
The folds of thy mantle that there we may hide.

Thus under thy guidance, thou bright morning star,
We'll journey toward heaven, till gleaming afar,
We see that bright city where all for us wait
Who reached that safe haven through thee, heaven's gate.

Pictures thanks to Doug Hunter and John Honiotes.

mk

The Feast of the...what?

2012-01-14T15:35:00.007-06:00

Evening is now drawing in, and so with it comes the Second Sunday of Ordinary Time.

But today, January 14, was once known as Festum Asinorum.

In English, it's known as the Feast of the Ass.

I'll keep the tradition of this feast alive on this blog.

Most widely observed in France, this feast, before it faded away, was to celebrate the Flight into Egypt.

As recorded in Matthew, this is the event in which Joseph, Mary, and Jesus escape to Egypt, after the Epiphany with the Magi, because Joseph had learned of Herod's plan to kill all infants and sought to protect the newborn King and Mary.

Caryll Houselander writes a bit about that moment and how difficult it must have been for Joseph: "But when he was in Bethlehem and Christ was born, one by one his troubles crowded in--the command not to return home, the hardships of the journey into Egypt and being obliged to see Mary and the Infant endure them, the struggle in the foreign country, starting again, trying to build up a trade, to learn the language..."

There is a little mural right by the monastery entrance, just outside the St. Joseph's Oratory, that reads: "The hand of the humble Joseph guides that of the Almighty."

Perhaps I will pay it a visit before the day is over, but here it is for those who are far away enough that a visit is not quite practical or possible:

Happy Feast of the Ass!

(And thanks to Southern Fried Catholicism for reminding us here of this feast, which lives on over there too!)
mk

Evelyn Waugh: "You have no idea how much nastier I would be if I was not a Catholic"

2012-01-13T15:41:00.002-06:00

I like this:

According to a literary anecdote, the author Nancy Mitford had asked Waugh how he could behave so abominably and yet still consider himself a practicing Catholic. "You have no idea," had Waugh replied, "how much nastier I would be if I was not a Catholic. Without supernatural aid I would hardly be a human being." -- The New Criterion Reader

mk

St. Hilary: "You will not so easily get out of Hell!"

2012-01-13T08:54:00.001-06:00

Today the Church celebrates a wonderful saint, St. Hilary of Poitiers, born around 315.

He became a bishop of Poitiers (where he was born) three years after becoming a Christian, and so he was most likely a layman at the time of his election.

Hilary was very much a defender of orthodoxy in the face of heretics and their movements, especially Arianism.

The distinction "the trumpet of the Latins against the Arians" was given to him by St. Jerome who of course studied Hilary's writings and life.

I prefer the nickname given him by the Arians, who evidently referred to Hilary as "the troublemaker".

Constantius II, the Arian emperor at the time, sent Hilary into exile for not condemning Athanasius, who like Hilary fought against Arianism. For this, he is the patron saint of exiles.

He preached the truth and didn't water anything down. Story goes that one Sunday while Hilary was preaching, some people began to leave the church. Why? They didn't like what he was saying, what he was challenging them to do. So they began to walk out. Hilary yelled to them: "You will not so easily get out of Hell!"

This is one of my favorite quotes.

St. Hilary: Pray for us!

mk

Imploring the helping hand of God

2012-01-13T04:41:00.001-06:00

Today, like all ordinary Fridays, the Morning Prayer of the Church includes Psalm 51.

Br. Francis' blog had not too ago a quote from Augustine on this psalm:

Psalm 51 is a psalm of someone repenting, someone wishing to retrieve the hope he had lost, lying where he had fallen, begging the Lord to give him a hand to raise him up again, like someone quite capable of injuring himself but not of healing himself. After all, we can wound our own flesh whenever we want, but to heal it we look for a doctor. In the same way the soul is perfectly able to sin all by itself, but to heal the hurt it has caused by sinning, it implores the helping hand of God. -- St Augustine

Words of wisdom indeed.

Wisdom from Fr. Christian Raab, OSB

2012-01-12T20:23:00.004-06:00

Fr. Christian Raab of St Meinrad writes here about ten things to know about discerning a vocation, from his own discernment experience.

He goes through each of the ten pieces of wisdom below:

God calls
Vocation is a two-way gift
God preserves our freedom
Know thyself
Christ is the way, the truth, and the life
Find your place in the symphony
Ask for help
Expect some “blindness”
God writes straight with crooked lines
Discernment is not your vocation

Universal signs of a vocation

2012-01-12T19:17:00.002-06:00

Whispers has a good bit here today on the signs of a vocation, timely since it is, after all, Vocation Awareness Week:

Whatever it might be, the signs are universal: it's what makes you burn, brings you joy, makes life good, gets you up in the morning (sometimes keeps you awake in the night, too) and -- even with the knowledge that it'll never be fully perfect nor without its sufferings, burdens and trials -- you really can't see yourself doing any other thing with your days and giving it everything you've got.

In a nutshell, your call is that one thing above the rest which makes you happy and gives life to you and others. You'll know it simply by finding it and knowing you can't be anywhere else -- and in some cases, even now, even if you don't think you know or have found it, somewhere down deep inside, it's already there and maybe just needs a little extra figuring out.

The Church is not against science and reason!

2012-01-11T23:57:00.002-06:00

And the man profiled by Google today is proof of that.

Today, Google's main image was this:

Clicking on it leads one to various profiles of Bishop Nicolas Steno, a geologist, biologist and paleontologist.

And Catholic bishop.

He is even on his way to sainthood, having been beatified by JPII in 1988.

He found the excretory duct of the parotid glands and discovered patterns of blood circulation in the human body.

He studies a great deal of the anatomy of the human brain, fossils, and all sorts of scientific stuff.

The Catholic Church does not stand against reason or science...and praise God for that.

George Weigel, in talking about other converts (Steno was a convert from Lutheranism) has this to say: "If there is a thread running through these diverse personalities, it may be this: that men and women of intellect, culture and accomplishment have found in Catholicism what Blessed John Paul II called the “symphony of truth.” That rich and complex symphony, and the harmonies it offers, is an attractive, compelling and persuasive alternative to the fragmentation of modern and post-modern intellectual and cultural life, where little fits together and much is cacophony."

His words (click here to read them all) seem quite appropriate for Bl. Steno.

Bl. Steno, pray for us!

mk

I'm no expert in the kitchen

2012-01-11T23:55:00.000-06:00

But I think I could throw this together...maybe.
Here's the recipe.

This is a dish we discussed this morning in class, when we went up to the kitchen to learn some basic skills that might be useful later on in rectory life.

Sure does look tasty!
mk

Wise words from St John Vianney

2012-01-10T23:22:00.001-06:00

"If you care what people think of you, then you never have become a Catholic."

The Baptism of the Lord

2012-01-09T22:58:00.003-06:00

Today is the Baptism of the Lord, the final day of Christmas. (And hence, the color of the blog has just now been adjusted to reflect Ordinary Time green.)

The first reading today from Isaiah is awesome:

Thus says the LORD:
Here is my servant whom I uphold,
my chosen one with whom I am pleased,
upon whom I have put my spirit;
he shall bring forth justice to the nations,
not crying out, not shouting,
not making his voice heard in the street.
a bruised reed he shall not break,
and a smoldering wick he shall not quench,
until he establishes justice on the earth;
the coastlands will wait for his teaching.

I, the LORD, have called you for the victory of justice,
I have grasped you by the hand;
I formed you, and set you
as a covenant of the people,
a light for the nations,
to open the eyes of the blind,
to bring out prisoners from confinement,
and from the dungeon, those who live in darkness.
mk

Record Number of pro-life laws passed in 2011

2012-01-09T22:43:00.004-06:00

LifeSiteNews.com has a bit here about a recent Washington Post article explaining that the number of laws limiting abortions have jumped greatly in recent years, especially in 2011.

Excellent news!

We must keep praying for life and that those in office continue to advance the cause of life.

Here's the chart from LSN:

mk

And they went back another way

2012-01-08T23:57:00.010-06:00

The Feast of the Epiphany, which we celebrate this day, turns our minds to the revealing power of God, who shows us who he is and comes into our lives changing everything.

This weekend the St Charles group was here. 41 high school sophomores going through Confirmation prep.

The Church is blessed to have them. And I'm blessed to know them!

Every year I love this retreat, because watching God work in the lives of these young people on this Hill is an incredible sight--one their parents would likely be surprised at if they were able to see it.

It happens in many kinds of ways, but it happens.

God comes in.

And they are changed. Or so we hope.

I concluded the retreat with the same words that conclude the Gospel today, that concluded the reading in Vespers last night, and that concluded the reading from the morning Office today: "They [The magi] departed for their country by another way."

Why a different way?

Because they had just met Christ God.

And an experience with Christ God changes everything.

Over the weekend, I pray these kids encountered the living God in a way that will shift their thoughts and hearts and lives.

So, today, they got on the bus and departed for Bloomington in another way.
mk

Journey of the Magi, T.S. Eliot

2012-01-08T23:55:00.000-06:00

Below is the text, but click here to hear Eliot read it.

A cold coming we had of it,
Just the worst time of the year
For a journey, and such a long journey:
The ways deep and the weather sharp,
The very dead of winter.
And the camels galled, sore-footed, refractory,
Lying down in the melting snow.
There were times when we regretted
The summer palaces on slopes, the terraces,
And the silken girls bringing sherbet.
Then the camel men cursing and grumbling
And running away, and wanting their liquor and women,
And the night-fires going out, and the lack of shelters,
And the cities dirty and the towns unfriendly
And the villages dirty and charging high prices:
A hard time we had of it.
At the end we preferred to travel all night,
Sleeping in snatches,
With the voices singing in our ears, saying
That this was all folly.

Then at dawn we came down to a temperate valley,
Wet, below the snow line, smelling of vegetation;
With a running stream and a water mill beating the darkness,
And three trees on the low sky,
And an old white horse galloped away in the meadow.
Then we came to a tavern with vine-leaves over the lintel,
Six hands at an open door dicing for pieces of silver,
And feet kicking the empty wineskins.
But there was no information, and so we continued
And arrived at evening, not a moment too soon
Finding the place; it was (you may say) satisfactory.

All this was a long time ago, I remember,
And I would do it again, but set down
This set down
This: were we led all that way for
Birth or Death? There was a Birth, certainly,
We had evidence and no doubt. I had seen birth and death,
But had thought they were different; this Birth was
Hard and bitter agony for us, like Death, our death.
We returned to our places, these Kingdoms,
But no longer at ease here, in the old dispensation,
With an alien people clutching their gods.
I should be glad of another death.

The sixth of January

2012-01-06T01:20:00.000-06:00

The sixth of January by David Budbill:

The cat sits on the back of the sofa looking
out the window through the softly falling snow
at the last bit of gray light.

I can't say the sun is going down.
We haven't seen the sun for two months.
Who cares?

I am sitting in the blue chair listening to this stillness.
The only sound: the occasional gurgle of tea
coming out of the pot and into the cup.

How can this be?
Such calm, such peace, such solitude
in this world of woe.

mk

Priests: be priests

2012-01-05T13:42:00.004-06:00

George Weigel has a great piece on how the New Roman Missal affords us the perfect time to "break bad liturgical habits."

In it, he explains that the correct wording of the benediction is not, "May Almighty God bless us..."

I've heard that one plenty of times.

Here's what Weigel has to say: "Catholics who embrace the truth of Catholic faith do not enjoy clericalism. But they do not find comfort, much less evangelical leadership, from priests who imagine they can avoid clericalism by unwittingly denying the truth of their own sacramental vocation and its distinctiveness."

And, while we're on the topic of priestly identity, the Portiuncula blog shared this quote from the woman who said it all, Mother Teresa: "You have not become a priest to be a social worker."

Weigel's piece here is well worth the read--and it's short.

mk

Stephen Colbert: "Pain is actually a gift"

2012-01-05T13:34:00.002-06:00

The Deacon's Bench alerts us to a NYT article on Stephen Colbert. Read it here.

I love this paragraph:

In 1974, when Colbert was 10, his father, a doctor, and his brothers Peter and Paul, the two closest to him in age, died in a plane crash while flying to a prep school in New England. "There's a common explanation that profound sadness leads to someone's becoming a comedian, but I’m not sure that's a proven equation in my case," he told me. "I'm not bitter about what happened to me as a child, and my mother was instrumental in keeping me from being so." He added, in a tone so humble and sincere that his character would never have used it: "She taught me to be grateful for my life regardless of what that entailed, and that’s directly related to the image of Christ on the cross and the example of sacrifice that he gave us. What she taught me is that the deliverance God offers you from pain is not no pain -- it's that the pain is actually a gift. What’s the option? God doesn’t really give you another choice."

Emerging from beneath our trees

2012-01-05T11:03:00.007-06:00

Today's Gospel (John 1:43-51):

43 The next day Jesus decided to go to Galilee. And he found Philip and said to him, "Follow me." 44 Now Philip was from Beth-sa'ida, the city of Andrew and Peter. 45 Philip found Nathan'a-el, and said to him, "We have found him of whom Moses in the law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph." 46 Nathan'a-el said to him, "Can anything good come out of Nazareth?" Philip said to him, "Come and see." 47 Jesus saw Nathan'a-el coming to him, and said of him, "Behold, an Israelite indeed, in whom is no guile!" 48 Nathan'a-el said to him, "How do you know me?" Jesus answered him, "Before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you." 49 Nathan'a-el answered him, "Rabbi, you are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel!" 50 Jesus answered him, "Because I said to you, I saw you under the fig tree, do you believe? You shall see greater things than these." 51 And he said to him, "Truly, truly, I say to you, you will see heaven opened, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of man."

I love the image of Nathan'a-el just sitting under his tree, mostly because we've all been there before.

I wonder if he was lonely, bored, ready to give up, just tired, frustrated, angry, confused, doubting, stubborn, or just plain lazy. We can't know, but we do know that Nathan'a-el doesn't jump up in joy--as we might expect of a saint and apostle!--when his friend delivers the news that Jesus had been found.

Nathan'a-el sits there. "I cannot come to the feast," we almost hear him say.

Good thing that Phillip knows a thing or two about evangelization. Rather than debating with Nathan'a-el about the claims of Jesus, Phillip simply says, "Come and see."

Arguments, lessons, lectures--these things are nice, but they do not always succeed in bringing someone out from under his tree. Now a true encounter with the living God--that will.

This weekend a large group of high school sophomores from St. Charles in Bloomington will arrive on this Hill. They come from under their own trees--and, like Nathan'a-el, most likely reluctantly.

But here they will "come and see" for themselves who Jesus is. If they open their eyes, as Nathan'a-el does in today's Gospel, they will quickly find a God who knows them and loves them deeply, and who will transform them right here.

May it be so.
mk

"We know that we have passed from death to life because we love..."

2012-01-05T10:56:00.000-06:00

Today's first reading from 1 John makes it clear that only those who truly love, live.

We know that we have passed from death to life
because we love our brothers.
Whoever does not love remains in death.
Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer,
and you know that no murderer has eternal life remaining in him.
The way we came to know love
was that he laid down his life for us;
so we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers.

That means the unlovable, too. Which reminds me of this quote from Chesterton: "To love means loving the unlovable. To forgive means pardoning the unpardonable. Faith means believing the unbelievable. Hope means hoping when everything seems hopeless."

mk

Feast of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton, Catholic schools, and an interesting Indiana connection

2012-01-04T23:53:00.000-06:00

Today Mother Church has been celebrating the feast day of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton, the first American born saint.

She was born into an Episcopalian family and married a wealthy man when she was 20 years old, with whom she had five children.

Together with her husband and their eldest daughter, Elizabeth moved to Italy in the hopes of finding a cure for her husband's TB. He died soon after they arrived, but Elizabeth became Catholic as a result of the kindness an Italian Catholic family offered to her during this difficult time.

This is a good lesson to us: oftentimes, we can spark conversion just by doing simple things that show we care.

She converted in 1805, much to the dismay of her family and friends who shunned her out of their lives. Three years later, she had established a school for girls in Baltimore. The next year, 1809, four other sisters joined her and together they formed the Daughters of Charity of St. Joseph.

Under Mother Seton's charge and along with her, these nuns busied themselves with teaching in schools attached to parishes. She is thus rightfully known as the founder of the Catholic parochial school system in America.

Today is a great day to pray for her intercession to guide our Catholic Schools, that they might always remain close to that mission to which Mother Seton dedicated her life: the passing on of the true faith. We might also pray for those who are charged with this hugely important task.

Interesting Indiana connection: Mother Seton's spiritual director was Fr. Simon Brute, a French priest who had just moved to America to serve Mt. St. Mary's, a seminary nearby Seton's central hub in Maryland.

Fr. Brute gave Mother Seton her last rites in 1821. Thirteen years later, Fr. Brute became Bishop Brute--the first bishop of the Diocese of Vincennes, Indiana (now known as the Arch. of Indianapolis).

Recently, Bishop Brute became Servant of God Brute since his cause for canonization is in process. Let's pray for St. Elizabeth Ann Seton's intercession on that process.

From her writings:

What was the first rule of our dear Savior’s life? You know if was to do his Father’s will. Well, then, the first purpose of our daily work is to do the will of God; secondly, to do it in the manner he wills; and thirdly, to do it because it is his will. We know certainly that our God calls us to a holy life. We know that he gives us every grace, every abundant grace; and though we are so weak of ourselves, this grace is able to carry us through every obstacle and difficulty.

St. Elizabeth Ann Seton: Pray for us!

mk

The manhood of the Apostles

2012-01-04T04:51:00.000-06:00

Our rector, Fr. Denis, has an awesome way of highlighting the follies and foibles of the Apostles. He's done so in homilies/reflections about three times when I've been there to hear. I hope he does it many more times.

His eloquent reflections on our Apostles are reminders that God chooses the weak and makes them strong. That good can come from the seemingly bad. That God works through all the muck of man. That the ordinary can become sanctified and extraordinary. That God's strength reveals itself in man's weakness.

It is the human qualities of saints that most attract us. Because we can relate. The "pie-in-the-sky" becomes quite real.

I'm now reading Christ is Passing By by St. Josemaria. He does the same kind of thing as Fr. Denis in stressing the humanness of the Apostles:

The first Apostles, for whom I have great affection and devotion, were nothing to boast about, humanly speaking. With the exception of Matthew, who probably earned a comfortable living which he left behind at the behest of Jesus, the Apostles were mere fishermen. They lived a meager existence, fishing all night to keep food on the table.

But social status is unimportant. They weren’t educated; they weren’t even very bright, if we judge from their reaction to supernatural things. Finding even the most elementary examples and comparisons beyond their reach, they would turn to the Master and ask: “Explain the parable to us” (Matt 13:36). When Jesus uses the image of the “leaven” of the Pharisees, they think that he’s reproaching them for not having purchased bread (Matt 16:6‑7).

They were poor; they were ignorant. They weren’t very simple or open. But they were even ambitious. Frequently they argued over who would be the greatest when — according to their understanding — Christ would definitively restore the kingdom of Israel. Amid the intimacy of the last supper, during that sublime moment when Jesus is about to immolate himself for all of humanity, we find them arguing heatedly (Luke 22:24‑27).

Faith? They had little. Jesus Christ himself points this out (Matt 14:31; 16:8; 17:17; 21:21). They had seen the dead raised, all kinds of sicknesses cured, bread and fish multiplied, storms calmed, devils cast out...

And did these men of little faith at least stand out in their love for Christ? Undoubtedly they loved him, at least in word... They are ordinary men, complete with defects and shortcomings, more eager to say than to do. Nevertheless, Jesus calls them to be fishers of men (Matt 4:19), co‑redeemers, dispensers of the grace of God.

Holy Apostles: pray for us.

Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of St Peter

2012-01-02T23:33:00.003-06:00

The New Year began with great news about the establishment of the Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of St Peter here in the States. Southern Fried Catholicism has a nice post here summarizing the big news:

Yesterday, Pope Benedict XVI announced the establishment of a new Church structure for Anglicans and Episcopalians in the U.S. who want to become Catholic. It is the second "personal ordinariate" founded in response to the 2009 document Anglicanorum coetibus, in which the Pope responded to the requests of disaffected Anglicans who want to enter into full communion with the Catholic Church in a way which preserves the good and unique aspects of their Anglican heritage - aspects such as beautiful hymnody and choral music and unique prayer and liturgical traditions. As described in the establishing document, the purpose of the ordinariate is "to maintain the liturgical, spiritual and pastoral traditions of the Anglican Communion within the Catholic Church, as a precious gift nourishing the faith of the members of the Ordinariate and as a treasure to be shared."

On the technical side of things, a personal ordinariate is a Church structure similar to a diocese, but one that is nation-wide and led by an "ordinary" (a priest or a bishop) who is answerable directly to the Pope. Much like a diocese, an ordinariate has parish churches, priests and faithful. Naturally, the parishes that will be part of the Anglican ordinariate will preserve Anglican forms of worship and governance while being fully "Catholic" in their faith and in their relationship to the Successor of Peter (i.e. the Pope).

The first Anglican ordinariate, named Our Lady of Walsingham, was established last January in England and Wales. Yesterday, it was announced that the U.S. version is called the Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter and it will be headquartered in Houston, Texas at Our Lady of Walsingham Church. Fr. Jeffrey Steenson, formerly the Episcopal Bishop of the Rio Grande but now a Catholic priest, will be the ordinary for the structure in the U.S.

For the vast majority of American Catholics, this development will not mean a whole lot. As you travel to different cities in the future and look for a place to fulfill your Sunday obligation to attend Mass, however, you might now have a few more choices. But from a Southern perspective, the birth of the ordinariate is interesting because many of the long-established Anglican parishes and groups who are lined up to join the Church through the ordinariate are in Southern states - especially Florida and Texas (the latter of which is the birthplace of Anglican Use Catholic parishes). You can take a look at the unofficial Google map of these communities.

A development from today comes from Whispers, which shares a few words from the new Ordinary, Fr. Jeff Steenson.

While talking about Anglicans, here are two other things I'll share to clear out the RSS feeds:

The end of Anglicanism?

The number of Anglican sects

This is really, really terrific news for the Church.

Unity.

2+2

2012-01-02T22:28:00.002-06:00

Joe Carter hits the nail on the head here: "When someone comes up with a well-reasoned argument backed by top economists that two plus two equals five, there's no brilliant way to refute it. The only response is: 'No, you’e an idiot; it's four.' But if you say that, you’ll be called anti-smart people."

Is this not what we are dealing with now?

Ours is sadly a society that does not believe in truth and devises convoluted ways of explaining why what is posited as truth cannot be.

Good thing two plus two actually equals four.

Pope Benedict: "We must bend down"

2012-01-02T22:11:00.001-06:00

From the Pope's Midnight Mass homily:

Today, anyone wishing to enter the Church of Jesus’ Nativity in Bethlehem will find that the doorway five and a half metres high, through which emperors and caliphs used to enter the building, is now largely walled up. Only a low opening of one and a half metres has remained. The intention was probably to provide the church with better protection from attack, but above all to prevent people from entering God’s house on horseback. Anyone wishing to enter the place of Jesus’ birth has to bend down. It seems to me that a deeper truth is revealed here, which should touch our hearts on this holy night: if we want to find the God who appeared as a child, then we must dismount from the high horse of our “enlightened” reason. We must set aside our false certainties, our intellectual pride, which prevents us from recognizing God’s closeness. We must follow the interior path of Saint Francis – the path leading to that ultimate outward and inward simplicity which enables the heart to see. We must bend down, spiritually we must as it were go on foot, in order to pass through the portal of faith and encounter the God who is so different from our prejudices and opinions – the God who conceals himself in the humility of a newborn baby. In this spirit let us celebrate the liturgy of the holy night, let us strip away our fixation on what is material, on what can be measured and grasped. Let us allow ourselves to be made simple by the God who reveals himself to the simple of heart. And let us also pray especially at this hour for all who have to celebrate Christmas in poverty, in suffering, as migrants, that a ray of God’s kindness may shine upon them, that they – and we – may be touched by the kindness that God chose to bring into the world through the birth of his Son in a stable. Amen.

Humility, humility, humility....

Anti-Catholic Catholics

2012-01-02T21:11:00.006-06:00

Fr. Z has some terrific comments in his usual red scattered throughout Fr. McBrien's recent piece on how evil the new translation is.

Read the piece, together with Fr. Z's comments.

My favorite comment is Fr. Z's, "When will that take place?" at the very end. hahahaha

Usually I find those who constantly--and almost hatefully--criticize the Holy Church not very pleasant, most especially when they are Catholics. I don't know why I keep reading some of these angry and bitter people. I'm thinking here of so much of what comes from that NCR (Reporter).

Such people cause others to become angry and bitter (even me!), and they cause great scandal in their anti-witness to the virtues of charity and joy and trust and peace and a good many more.

George Weigel had a good bit about the newest kind of anti-Catholicism that comes to us from "anti-Catholic Catholics":

Ecclesiastes notwithstanding, there is something new under the sun in the annals of American anti-Catholicism; and that something is the rise of the anti-Catholic Catholics, self-described Catholics who make a career (or at least part of a career) out of mounting endless attacks on the Church, its settled beliefs, its leadership, and its people. Like the Nast/rationalist anti-Catholicism of the past, today’s Catholic anti-Catholicism is a left-of-center phenomenon that, in secular guise, often reflects the critiques of the Church mounted by so-called “Catholic progressives”: The Church is hopelessly sexist; the Church is hopelessly sex-obsessed; the Church is cruel to women and gays; the Church is hypocritical. And, of course and most recently, the Church is a global criminal conspiracy of child rapists and their abettors, which “fact” validates the other charges in the standing indictment just cited.

I stick to the advice from the Pope and every holy person: "Love the Church." Life is better that way!

hahaha

2011-12-31T09:22:00.000-06:00

The Holy Innocents, then and now

2011-12-29T11:39:00.004-06:00

Yesterday was the feast of the Holy Innocents. St. Matthew shares this:

When Herod realized that he had been deceived by the magi, he became furious. He ordered the massacre of all the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity two years old and under, in accordance with the time he had ascertained from the magi. Then was fulfilled what had been said through Jeremiah the prophet: "A voice was heard in Ramah, sobbing and loud lamentation; Rachel weeping for her children, and she would not be consoled, since they were no more." Matthew 2:16-18

Fr. Stan's homily reminded us that Herod was and old and somewhat senile man when he ordered the murder of all male children three and under in the Bethlehem district. He was afraid and tormented by worries of what might happen to his own throne. Fear begets violence.

And we see that today in the pro-choice movement. Fears of what might happen should this child be born, fears of how to support him, fears of who might think what, fears...fears...fears. In our own day, fear still kills countless "holy innocents" through the atrocity of abortion.

This painting by Gustave Dore is entitled "The Slaughter of the Children of Bethlehem":

How to write good

2011-12-29T10:47:00.002-06:00

A friend sent me this list a few days ago. I love it!

Avoid Alliteration. Always.
Prepositions are not words to end sentences with.
Avoid cliches like the plague. (They’re old hat.)
Employ the vernacular.
Eschew ampersands & abbreviations, etc.
Parenthetical remarks (however relevant) are unnecessary.
It is wrong to ever split an infinitive.
Contractions aren’t necessary.
Foreign words and phrases are not apropos.
One should never generalize.
Eliminate quotations. As Ralph Waldo Emerson once said, “I hate quotations. Tell me what you know.”
Comparisons are as bad as cliches.
Don’t be redundant; don’t use more words than necessary; it’s highly superfluous.
Profanity sucks.
Be more or less specific.
Understatement is always best.
Exaggeration is a billion times worse than understatement.
One word sentences? Eliminate.
Analogies in writing are like feathers on a snake.
The passive voice is to be avoided.
Go around the barn at high noon to avoid colloquialisms.
Even if a mixed metaphor sings, it should be derailed.
Who needs rhetorical questions?

O Holy Night

2011-12-25T01:49:00.002-06:00

O Emmanuel

2011-12-23T15:03:00.003-06:00

LATIN: O Emmanuel, Rex et legifer noster, exspectatio gentium, et Salvator earum: veni ad salvandum nos Domine Deus noster.

ENGLISH: O Emmanuel, our King and lawgiver, the expectation of the nations and their Savior: come to save us, O Lord our God.

IN THE BREVIARY: O Emmanuel, king and lawgiver, desire of the nations, Savior of all people, come and set us free, Lord our God.

The antiphon is a reminder that our God is not distant and elusive, but near and real. God is our hope and desire and savior.

If we believe that, as the antiphon goes, I suppose we'd try to follow his laws--which have saving power themselves. As one line from Ps 119 in today's mid-day office puts it, "the lovers of your law have great peace." And the psalm prayer: "There is great peace, Lord, for those who love your law; they never stumble. Grant that those who love you above all else may be undisturbed by thoughts of evil."

Joy of man and the uniting cornerstone

2011-12-22T22:43:00.003-06:00

LATIN: O Rex gentium, et desideratus earum, lapisque angularis, qui facis utraque unum: veni, et salva hominem, quem de limo formasti.

ENGLISH: O King of the gentiles and their desired One, the cornerstone that makes both one: come, and deliver man, whom you formed out of the dust of the earth.

IN THE BREVIARY: O King of all the nations, the only joy of every human heart; O Keystone of the mighty arch of man, come and save the creature you fashioned from the dust.

The "only joy of every human heart" and the "cornerstone" that unites all--this is Jesus.

It's not the how of the Incarnation, but the why

2011-12-21T11:42:00.003-06:00

Looks like a good On the Square column today:

The title of Father Edward Oakes’ new book, Infinity Dwindled to Infancy, nicely captures the imaginative challenge posed at Christmas: the mystery of the infinite God become finite man. In truth, however, the challenge to our imaginations has less to do with the how of what the Divine Office calls this admirabile commercium [marvelous exchange] than with the why.
...
The real question is why such a God would want to do such a thing: to submit his divinity to the limits of our humanity, to dwindle into infancy and then to go farther—to die as a tortured criminal at the hands of his own creatures. Here is the “scandal” of Christianity. For the answer faith gives to the question of why is salvific love: a love so great that it required, not an argument, but a demonstration.

Here's the whole thing.

mk

O Radiant Dawn

2011-12-21T10:29:00.002-06:00

LATIN: O Oriens, splendor lucis aeternae, et sol iustitiae: veni, et illumina sedentes in tenebris et umbra mortis.

ENGLISH: O dawn of the east, brightness of light eternal, and sun of justice: come, and enlighten those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death.

IN THE BREVIARY: O Radiant Dawn, splendor of eternal light, sun of justice: come, shine on those who dwell in darkness and the shadow of death.

Sometimes the darkness seems overwhelming, but no matter how dark a room--or a soul--, the darkness goes away right as soon as even a glimmer of light comes.

Light always wins.

The Digitalnun as usual says it best:

This is the shortest day of the year, a day of darkness. All around there is a sense of political, economic and moral darkness, too. We read of the loss of lives in Syria, the effect of tropical storms in the Philippines, the fear that the work of scientists on swine ‘flu could be subverted to terrorist ends, the death of small children the world over because they don’t have clean water to drink. Beside all this our own the anxiety about the Eurozone and the economic structures of the west looks a little indecent, yet we know that for many it means the difference between a job and no job. It is into the heart of this darkness and uncertainty that the gospel comes as light and life. How often do we receive the gospel as Good News? How often do we welcome the coming of God as cause for celebration? Does the birth we look forward to at Christmas makes us want to sing and dance for joy at the nearness of our God? Are we prepared for what that birth demands, the risks we shall be called upon to take? Many of us, I suspect, prefer the dimness of the familiar and safe to the brilliance of the unexpected.

Tonight as we sing the Magnificat antiphon, hailing Christ as Splendour of Eternal Light and Sun of Justice, we shall be reminded that we are children of light, not creatures of darkness. As Christians we are, so to say, professional risk-takers, ready to be light-bearers in any and every situation. It requires effort, of course, just as it required effort on Mary’s part to be a Light-bearer to Elizabeth; but only so can our prayer embrace the whole human race, ‘Come and free those sitting in darkness and the shadow of death.’

Maybe this photo would have been better for the post below

2011-12-21T09:36:00.000-06:00

hahaha

mk

Animals in the manger

2011-12-20T22:22:00.002-06:00

Most nativity sets have animals in them, but as Dr James Edwards points out, they are not mentioned at the manger in any of the Gospels.

A good column that can be read here. mk

Study: Eating less keeps the brain young

2011-12-20T22:01:00.000-06:00

En interesting development from the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart in Rome that might bode well for me:

Everybody knows that diet and exercise is a great way to try to maintain the ever-more fragile facade of youth as you barrel towards a slow but inevitable decline, but did you know that diet can actually help keep your brain from aging? Neither did anyone else until researchers at the Catholic University of Sacred Heart in Rome found that the molecule CREB1, spurred into action by a strict diet, activates a whole bunch of genes that add to the longevity of that big ol’ hunk of meat.

More...

mk

O Key of David

2011-12-20T21:47:00.003-06:00

LATIN: O clavis David, et sceptrum domus Israel: qui aperis, et nemo claudit; claudis, et nemo aperit: veni, et educ vinctum de domo carceris, sedentem in tenebris.

ENGLISH: O Key of David, and scepter of the house of Israel, who opens and no man shuts, who shuts and no man opens: come, and bring forth the captive from his prison, he who sits in darkness and in the shadow of death.

IN THE BREVIARY: O Key of David, O royal Power of Israel, controlling at your will the gate of heaven: Come, break down the prison walls of death for those who dwell in darkness and the shadow of death; and lead your captive people into freedom.

Interesting! Just yesterday night I was reflecting on a theme central to this antiphon as I was reading Scripture.

Following my cool chart that is supposed to help one get through the Bible in a year, I happened upon Psalm 82 and Acts 16.

Here's this from Ps 82:5: "The 'gods' know nothing, they understand nothing. They walk about in darkness; all the foundations of the earth are shaken."

And from Acts 16:26: "Suddenly there was such a violent earthquake that the foundations of the prison were shaken. At once all the prison doors flew open, and everybody's chains came loose."

The theme in both of these passages is the power of God in unlocking dark prison doors and granting light and freedom.

Just before what I pasted from Ps 82, we see God exhorting the great assembly: "Defend the weak and the fatherless; uphold the cause of the poor and the oppressed. Rescue the weak and the needy; deliver them from the hand of the wicked."

In Acts, we see an earthquake that shakes the foundations of the prison that unjustly oppresses Paul and Silas. The verse right before 26 talks about how the two were in prison "praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening to them." They prayed, and God delivered.

God is interested in those who are imprisoned, those who are weak, fatherless, poor, oppressed, needy. (That's all ofus!)

He's especially interested in those who call out to him with prayers and hymns.

And, with the power of an earthquake, he will deliver us. He has the key to unlock prison cells and the door to eternal life. And he'll let us in if we ask.
mk

O Root of Jesse

2011-12-19T22:16:00.003-06:00

LATIN: O Radix Jesse, qui stas in signum populorum, super quem continebunt reges os suum, quem gentes deprecabuntur: veni ad liberandum nos, iam noli tardare.

ENGLISH: O Root of Jesse, that stands for an ensign of the people, before whom the kings keep silence and unto whom the Gentiles shall make supplication: come, to deliver us, and tarry not.

IN THE BREVIARY: O Flower of Jesse’s stem, you have been raised up as a sign for all peoples; kings stand silent in your presence; the nations bow down in worship before you. Come, let nothing keep you from coming to our aid.

Fr. Z explains the antiphon beautifully: "No matter what the exigencies of life present to us or how turbulent the vicissitudes of the passing world may be, when we cling to the root we are sure to be victorious in the end. Life includes patterns of destruction and rebuilding, pruning and regrowth, transplantation and rerooting. So long as we are grafted into the Root, we survive and grow."
mk

The Angelus and today's collect

2011-12-18T20:09:00.006-06:00

Did you catch it? The new (but actually older) translation had the priest reading this opening prayer (collect): "Pour forth, we beseech you, O Lord, your grace into our hearts, that we, to whom the Incarnation of Christ your Son was made known by the message of an Angel, may by his Passion and Cross be brought to the glory of his Resurrection. Who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever."

Pretty much the same as that prayer that ends that ancient prayer we call the Angelus: "Pour forth, we beseech thee, O Lord, Thy grace into our hearts, that we to whom the incarnation of Christ Thy Son was made known by the message of an angel, may by His Passion and Cross be brought to the glory of His resurrection; through the same Christ our Lord. Amen."

The Holy Church prays the Angelus at 6am, Noon, and 6pm every day. It's a fantastic practice that reminds us of our need for God and our need to be open, like Mary, to what God wants to pour into our hearts--his grace.

I heard a story of the nuns at St Charles who used to pause, no matter what they were doing, to pray the Angelus at the Noon hour. I think it was Sister Regina Marie who told me about it.

Adults and children knew the prayer those years ago because just about every Catholic institution was faithful to the practice. At noon, the bell rang. And no matter what, each offered a prayer.

Daily it amazes me that, no matter what I'm doing or where I am, at Noon a bell goes off in my mind that reminds me to pray. I'm thankful St Meinrad has planted this devotion within me.

Would that it were planted in the minds and hearts of all students in our Catholic schools as it once was!

I'm a huge fan of any prayer that becomes so habituated within people that before long it becomes a part of them, so much so that when it is missing, one feels out of it.

Here it is:

V. The angel of the Lord declared unto Mary.
R. And she conceived by the power of Holy Spirit.

Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus.
Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death. Amen.

V. Behold the handmaid of the Lord.
R. Be it done unto me according to your Word.

Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus.
Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death. Amen.

V. And the Word was made flesh.
R. And dwelt among us.
Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus.
Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death. Amen.
V. Pray for us, O Holy Mother of God.
R. That we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ.

Let us pray: Pour forth, we beseech thee, O Lord, Thy grace into our hearts, that we to whom the incarnation of Christ Thy Son was made known by the message of an angel, may by His Passion and Cross be brought to the glory of His resurrection; through the same Christ our Lord. Amen.

O Adonai

2011-12-18T19:34:00.004-06:00

LATIN: O Adonai, et Dux domus Israel, qui Moysi in igne flammae rubi apparuisti, et ei in Sina legem dedisti: veni ad redimendum nos in brachio extento.

ENGLISH: O Lord and Ruler the house of Israel, who appeared to Moses in the flame of the burning bush and gave him the law on Sinai: come, and redeem us with outstretched arms.

IN THE BREVIARY: O sacred Lord of ancient Israel, who showed yourself to Moses in the burning bush, who gave him the holy law on Sinai mountain: come, stretch out your mighty hand to set us free.

"Remember... the strong hand and the outstretched arm with which the Eternal your God brought you out [of Egypt]." (Deut. 7:18-19)

God the Father saved the Israelites with outstretched arms. God the Son saves us with outstretched arms on the Cross. Through his Church, God hands the laws to us even still today, because the faithful following of his laws is sure to save us. H

is laws do not bring oppression; they do bring deliverance.

God's arms are outstretched...are ours?

mk

The O Antiphons - O Wisdom

2011-12-17T16:40:00.001-06:00

Today is December 17, which means today--right about now, with Vespers--begins the use of the "O Antiphons" in the Liturgy of the Hours. As Fr. Z notes, this is a time to enter fully into the "final stretch" of the Advent season.

The O Antiphons are used in the Evening Prayer of the Church from December 17 through the 24th. Each day the assigned O Antiphon is used as the antiphon sung/spoken before and after the Canticle of Mary (Magnificat) .

In a monastery setting, the Digitalnun explains here how it is determined which member of the community sings a given "O Antiphon":

The antiphons are sung by different members of the community (usually the seniors), and ‘care’ is taken to ensure that certain officials receive antiphons appropriate to their office. Thus, the gardener is thought a good choice for O Radix Jesse, while the cellarer (bursar) is considered a fitting match for O Clavis David.

Very interesting! Sister also notes that traditionally, bells are rung during the assigned O Antiphon each day, in order to mark the solemn and joyful nature of these days before Advent. The bells also make us more alert, calling our attention to something. (This is why the ringing of bells during Mass is such a lauded practice, especially these days.)

The origins of these O Antiphons are ancient. The Digitalnun says they are first described in fifth century writings.

Today's O Antiphon: "O Wisdom, O holy Word of God, you govern all creation with your strong yet tender care. Come and show your people the way to salvation."

Fr Z notes that it is better translated this way: "O Wisdom, who came from the mouth of the Most High, reaching from end to end and ordering all things mightily and sweetly: come, and teach us the way of prudence."

This is the Latin: "O Sapientia, quae ex ore Altissimi prodidisti, attingens a fine usque ad finem, fortiter suaviter disponensque omnia: veni ad docendum nos viam prudentiae."

What a nice antiphon! It calls upon the help of Wisdom, the very Word of God, which speaks to all nations and all peoples. This Wisdom orders and governs all of creation, with strength but tempered with care and mercy. The antiphon asks God, through his Wisdom/Word, to teach man the way to salvation--which is, as the translation goes, the way of prudence.

Prudence helps us know what is really good and what is not. The first antiphon (not an "O Antiphon") from Vespers tonight refers to the One who comes as "the desire of all human hearts." We all act towards the good, that's nature, but sometimes what we think is good is actually not. Prudence helps us know for sure and helps us actually pursue that good.

And that is why it is the king of virtues. One we'd do well to habituate.

Either translation hits this message: we need God's Wisdom in order to gain prudence and salvation.

Br. Francis at St Meinrad has a nice bit on the O Antiphons here.
mk

Shedding light upon darkness

2011-12-17T05:32:00.005-06:00

Today's Office of Readings has some good treasures in it, in the psalms and readings.

The psalms point us int he direction of a God who ever-enduring love can't help but draw all people to himself, from east to west and in all far-off lands. He even goes to the deserts and wilderness, seeking those who have gotten lost in themselves and whose spirits faint. He goes even to those in darkness, locked in the chains of gloom and misery, and he rescues them in their distress.

The First Reading, from Isaiah, is interesting. It records the Lord's words as spoken to Cyrus: "I will give you treasures out of the darkness and riches that have been hidden away, that you may know that I am the Lord, the God of Israel,who calls you by your name."

St. John of the Cross, whose feast day we celebrated just days ago, likely appreciated these verses. John talks about the beauty of darkness, explaining that ultimately, union with God can only be reached in the darkness--the “darkness of faith”--because in that darkness we see nothing but can believe everything.

Darkness enables pure faith. This is fundamental for St John. Some in our Church, even today, have a tendency to put a bit too much stock in images, visions, symbols, etc. All of these things play a role, but we can get lost in them; we may never interpret an image the "right way" and that really nice vision we cling to from prayer may, heaven forbid, have origins that are not divine.

This is why St John appreciates the "rays of darkness" that are actually rays of authentic faith. At a certain time, we must realize that our faith is what it is; it ought not depend upon consolations and locutions and whatever else.

The "treasures of darkness", seen in the light of St John, are exactly this: those things that enable my ascent to God. St John talks about how the "dark night" characteristic of this ascent is "term from which, the mean, and the term to which" the ascent takes the soul: darkness is our starting point, our way, and our destination.

In other words, we set out to God in darkness. We draw near to God in darkness. All the while, the end goal is still in a way darkness. Think here of the Easter Vigil: we begin in darkness outside, we journey inside towards the altar in darkness, and, when all is said and done, the faithful return to the darkness of the night--but changed.

This blog's title is meant to communicate the idea that the "Journey Into Light" is one that is done through darkness. First, it's based off that O'Neill play "Long Day's Journey Into Night." But second, the very word "long" communicates not only distance but also, according to the OED, a sense in which it is always somewhere outside our reach.

God's grace makes the difference. And so we return to the psalms in the Office of Readings this morning. God alone is the pure light that will come into our lives and cast out all the bad darkness there. For now this light dazzles gradually, but one day it will be the only thing there.

Did you notice that the feast of St John was the day after the feastd of St. Lucy, whose name has origins in the Latin word "lux", light. On her day we celebrated light, and so the traditional practice, still preserved in some places, involves the "festival of lights" in which a young girl, in St. Lucy's place, heads a candlelight procession...with several candles on her head.

On St. John's day, we celebrate the darkness that it takes to get to that eternal light.

To prepare ourselves for that eternal light, St John says, we must cherish what Isaiah terms the "treasures of darkness" and extinguish whatever "false lights" we may have burning under the roofs of our souls.

The theme of darkness and light, as my former PV Fr Don once told me, is one that has lots of dimensions. But let's celebrate for now the reality that there are benefits and graces even in the darkness everyone experiences!!

mk

St Augustine on prayer and desire

2011-12-16T23:58:00.000-06:00

A nice insight:

For the desire of your heart is itself your prayer. And if the desire is constant, so is your prayer. The Apostle Paul had a purpose in saying: Pray without ceasing. Are we then ceaselessly to bend our knees, to lie prostrate, or to lift up our hands? Is this what is meant in saying: Pray without ceasing? Even if we admit that we pray in this fashion, I do not believe that we can do so all the time.

Yet there is another, interior kind of prayer without ceasing, namely, the desire of the heart. Whatever else you may be doing, if you but fix your desire on God’s Sabbath rest, your prayer will be ceaseless. therefore, if you wish to pray without ceasing, do not cease to desire.

The constancy of your desire will itself be the ceaseless voice of your prayer. And that voice of your prayer will be silent only when your love ceases. For who are silent? Those of whom it is said: Because evil has abounded, the love of many will grow cold.

The chilling of love means that the heart is silent; while burning love is the outcry of the heart. If your love is without ceasing, you are crying out always; if you always cry out, you are always desiring; and if you desire, you are calling to mind your eternal rest in the Lord.

And all my desire is before you. What if the desire of our heart is before him, but not our groaning? But how is that possible, since the groaning is the voice of our desire? And therefore it is said: My groaning is not concealed from you. It may be concealed from men, but it is not concealed from you. Sometimes God’s servant seems to be saying in his humility: My anguish is not concealed from you. At other times he seems to be laughing. Does that mean that the desire of his heart has died within him? If the desire is there, then the groaning is there as well. Even if men fail to hear it. it never ceases to sound in the hearing of God.

Christmas decorations in Advent

2011-12-14T20:56:00.006-06:00

Southern Fried Catholicism has a good post today about Christmas decorations, wherein Fr. Joe explains the frustrations he has found in those who attempt to argue against Christmas decorations before Christmas "with the dogmatic authority of stuff they heard in a workshop."

Fr. Joe kindly points out the gigantic Christmas tree and nativity set sitting next to the Pope at his general audience today.

I'm glad our pope is not a scrooge!

Like me, I imagine that a decoration or two gets him in the mood and spirit of the joyful expectation Advent is fundamentally about.

To quote Fr. Joe: "So, there."

New friary at the Farm

2011-12-14T18:42:00.008-06:00

Fr. Elias from the Mother of the Redeemer Farm invited me to come by the Farm before the newly-constructed friary will be dedicated and the doors locked up for good.

The new construction is quite impressive!!

I hope they fill the place up.

I will not post any photos from within the new Friary, but it is awesome!

Look at this awesome renovation

2011-12-13T23:59:00.000-06:00

Check this out:

"God comes to us from below, and we must stoop to find him."

2011-12-12T14:12:00.003-06:00

There's a saying about humility--both God's and ours: "God comes to us from below, and we must stoop to find him."

Today's feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe is a reminder that both God and Our Lady continually pick the least of us for great things.

Who would have thought a young peasant boy, Juan Diego, would be the one to announce Mary's message?

Then again, perhaps it's because no one else could.

And who would have thought a young girl named Mary would be the Theotokos?

Then again, perhaps it's because no one else could.

God comes to us often from low places.

And it is there we ought to look for him. It is there that we'll find him.

Awesome video

2011-12-11T22:55:00.002-06:00

‎"The spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me, because the LORD has anointed me; he has sent me to bring glad tidings to the poor, to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and release to the prisoners, to announce a year of favor from the LORD and a day of vindication by our God."

If only I liked burgers

2011-12-11T21:36:00.002-06:00

Burger King in Japan has apparently started to sell a Whopper the size of a 8.8" pizza!!

Today's Office of Readings

2011-12-11T21:20:00.004-06:00

Today's Office of Readings offers us another way to think about how to "rejoice always."

Namely, the reading from Isaiah and the reflection from St Augustine both insist that the faith can never grow so habitual that it loses its meaning.

Isaiah says, "The Lord God said:

Since this people draws near with words only

and honors me with their lips alone,

though their hearts are far from me,

And their reverence for me has become

routine observance of the precepts of men,

Therefore I will again deal with this people

in surprising and wondrous fashion:

The wisdom of its wise men shall perish

and the understanding of its prudent men be hid."

And Augustine: "John is the voice, but the Lord is the Word who was in the beginning. John is the voice that lasts for a time; from the beginning Christ is the Word who lives for ever. Take away the word, the meaning, and what is the voice? Where there is no understanding, there is only a meaningless sound. The voice without the word strikes the ear but does not build up the heart."

He goes on to talk about how preaching with his voice effectively, he must preach the Word from his heart.

Good advice.

Ultimately I think that's why St Meinrad is so famous for its work in making good preachers: it seeks to help seminarians grow first in relationship with the Lord before teaching them the practicalities of preaching a good sermon. (Of course the practicalities are quite important, too.)

But the bottom line is this: we can always rejoice with our voices if we meditate on the Word in our hearts sincerely.

And, as Isiah reminds us, that means doing one better than just "saying the prayers."

Because when we enter into the prayers, we are doing more than speaking with voices; we are rejoicing in the constant and saving Word.

Which enables us to truly rejoice always.

"Rejoice in the Lord always! I say it again: Rejoice!"

2011-12-11T20:52:00.002-06:00

Today the Church celebrates Gaudete Sunday, aka Rejoice Sunday.

Authentic Christian joy is not the absence of sorrow but rather the presence of the indwelling God.

Numbness is a sign that one is not really living the faith.

True joy does more to convert another--and oneself--than anything else.

It's more effective than indoctrinating or yelling or rigidity.

Joy is the secret ingredient in the recipe of the "new evangelization."

These were sentiments expressed in Fr. Cassian Sama's homily yesterday, who was filling in at our place.

Fits well with the readings! Here's how:

Is. 61, the first reading, begins: "The spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me, because the LORD has anointed me; he has sent me to bring glad tidings to the poor, to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and release to the prisoners, to announce a year of favor from the LORD and a day of vindication by our God." We're called, and empowered by the Spirit, to proclaim the good news of God's saving power.

The psalm (the Magnificat with a response from Is) says our souls rejoice always in God, and Paul's first letter to the Thessalonians says the same thing: "Rejoice always....Do not quench the Spirit."

John 1, the Gospel, says it's our job to prepare the way for the Lord.

Fr. Dustin Boehm, at his brother's funeral on Saturday, preached about the difficulty of rejoicing in the midst of almost-unbearable trial, incredible loss, and overall desolation.

The human tendency is not to rejoice always because we do not always feel like it.

And there is nothing wrong with that, because I have a hunch that the "rejoicing" Paul speaks of less about "happy happy joy joy" and more about an overriding faith that conquers all in looking to God.

Because, as Fr. Boehm explained, we can rejoice in the God who is "never gone" and always there.

Thank God for that reason for our hope and joy, because very often it is God alone who will bring us out of darkness into light, out of pain and into healing, etc.

And he is never gone. Our faith and the faithful practice of it reminds us of that always.

That's something to celebrate even in the middle of Advent when we recall the ways in which we still await the coming of the Lord.

No wonder, to quote a recent study reported at the Washington Post concluded that, "By and large, Catholics like being Catholic."

Perhaps this joy that goes--must go--hand-in-hand with authentic Christian faith is also why so church attendance is linked to lower rates of depression and such. Check this.

Because our Catholic faith does not, when embraced and lived, make us oppressed, embittered, numb curmudgeons, but ultimate witnesses to the wonder-working power of God.

I'll end with John Allen: "Fundamentally, I don't think the Catholic church gets enough credit for being a hell of a lot of fun. There's great warmth and laughter in most Catholic circles, a rich intellectual tradition, a vast body of lore, an incredible range of characters, a deep desire to do good, an abiding faith against all odds, an ability to go anywhere and feel instantly at home, and even a deep love of good food, good drink, and good company. All that is part of the tapestry of Catholic life, but it rarely sees the light of day in commentary and reporting that focuses exclusively on crisis, scandal, and heartache."

The dogs that die

2011-12-11T20:39:00.000-06:00

At least five times . . . with the Arian and the Albigensian, with the Humanist skeptic, after Voltaire and after Darwin, the Faith has to all appearance gone to the dogs. In each of these five cases it was the dog that died.

-- G.K. Chesterton, The Everlasting Man

That which every man's heart desires

2011-12-06T16:05:00.000-06:00

Off to adoration.

"Out of the darkness of my life, so much frustrated, I put before you the one great thing to love on earth: the Blessed Sacrament...There you will find romance, glory, honour, fidelity, and the true way of all your loves on earth, and more than that: Death: by the divine paradox, that which ends life, and demands the surrender of all, and yet by the taste (or foretaste) of which alone can what you seek in your earthly relationships (love, faithfulness, joy) be maintained, or take on that complexion of reality, of eternal endurance, which every man's heart desires." -- JRR Tolkein

Praise to the holiest

2011-12-05T05:45:00.000-06:00

Because "there is nobody to make them Christians"

2011-12-03T05:55:00.000-06:00

Today is the feast day of St. Francis Xavier, patron saint of the Archdiocese of Indianapolis.

St. Francis' live is an inspiration to those who desire the salvation of souls, for his life deals a lot with evangelization.

These are his beautiful words recounted in today's Office of Readings:

Many, many people hereabouts are not becoming Christians for one reason only: there is nobody to make them Christians. Again and again I have thought of going round the universities of Europe, especially Paris, and everywhere crying out like a madman, riveting the attention of those with more learning than charity: “What a tragedy: how many souls are being shut out of heaven and falling into hell, thanks to you!”

I wish they would work as hard at this as they do at their books, and so settle their account with God for their learning and the talents entrusted to them.

This thought would certainly stir most of them to meditate on spiritual realities, to listen actively to what God is saying to them. They would forget their own desires, their human affairs, and give themselves over entirely to God’s will and his choice. They would cry out with all their heart: Lord, I am here! What do you want me to do? Send me anywhere you like – even to India.

Indifference is one of the greatest evils. The world needs folks like St. Francis Xavier to shake people up a bit.

St. Francis Xavier went where God called him. He traveled all over, from India to Japan to China and a lot of other places. And wherever he went he carried the Gospel with him.

There were challenges, but done from love.
mk

To build one's life on God, not on sand

2011-12-01T23:53:00.001-06:00

Today's Gospel reminds me of something shared by Father Larry Richards of The Reason for Our Hope Foundation on Monday night in Jasper.

He started out by asking everyone there--way over 1,000--to make a list of the five most important things or people or whatever in our lives.

Obviously, I knew one of them needed to be God. I've seen the exercise before.

But it made me question: Did I put God on here because I know he should be, or because he actually is in the top 5 of my life?

In any event, he made us one-by-one eliminate four of the things from the list.

Then he said: if what is on your list is anything but God, you have built your life on sand.

Dang.

Fits with today's Gospel, doesn't it:

Jesus said to his disciples:
"Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,'
will enter the Kingdom of heaven,
but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven.

"Everyone who listens to these words of mine and acts on them
will be like a wise man who built his house on rock.
The rain fell, the floods came,
and the winds blew and buffeted the house.
But it did not collapse; it had been set solidly on rock.
And everyone who listens to these words of mine
but does not act on them
will be like a fool who built his house on sand.
The rain fell, the floods came,
and the winds blew and buffeted the house.
And it collapsed and was completely ruined."

What the Gospel teaches here is what Father Larry teaches here: we need to do more than call out, "Lord, Lord"--as important as that is--because that calling out can turn into just that: saying God is important when we don't live it.

To build one's life on God is tough, but it alone makes us happy.

It's tempting, Fr Larry said, to build it on people. But...one's wife might die, one's daughter may run away, one's friend may ditch him, one's role model may turn into a bad apple, etc...

People are fickle and far from perfect. They change, they die, they leave, they come, they are weak at one point and not at another, they have flaws, and the list could go on.

Only God is eternal and perfect. He alone should be the rock of one's life.

Anything else is sand.

mk

Pope's Dec Prayer Intentions

2011-11-30T23:03:00.000-06:00

VATICAN CITY, 30 NOV 2011 (VIS) – Benedict’s general prayer intention for December is: “That all peoples may grow in harmony and peace through mutual understanding and respect”.

His mission intention is: “That children and young people may be messengers of the Gospel and that they may be respected and preserved from all violence and exploitation”.

mk

St. Charles: We await the coming of the one who will "summon us to heaven"

2011-11-28T11:05:00.004-06:00

The second reading in today's Office of Readings was penned long ago by the patron of my parish, St Charles--who was a deeply spiritual man rooted in the living Tradition of the Holy Church.

My favorite of his lines are in bold.

From a pastoral letter by Saint Charles Borromeo, bishop
The season of Advent

Beloved, now is the acceptable time spoken of by the Spirit, the day of salvation, peace and reconciliation: the great season of Advent. This is the time eagerly awaited by the patriarchs and prophets, the time that holy Simeon rejoiced at last to see. This is the season that the Church has always celebrated with special solemnity. We too should always observe it with faith and love, offering praise and thanksgiving to the Father for the mercy and love he has shown us in this mystery. In his infinite love for us, though we were sinners, he sent his only Son to free us from the tyranny of Satan, to summon us to heaven, to welcome us into its innermost recesses, to show us truth itself, to train us in right conduct, to plant within us the seeds of virtue, to enrich us with the treasures of his grace, and to make us children of God and heirs of eternal life.

Each year, as the Church recalls this mystery, she urges us to renew the memory of the great love God has shown us. This holy season teaches us that Christ’s coming was not only for the benefit of his contemporaries; his power has still to be communicated to us all. We shall share his power, if, through holy faith and the sacraments, we willingly accept the grace Christ earned for us, and live by that grace and in obedience to Christ.

The Church asks us to understand that Christ, who came once in the flesh, is prepared to come again. When we remove all obstacles to his presence he will come, at any hour and moment, to dwell spiritually in our hearts, bringing with him the riches of his grace.

In her concern for our salvation, our loving mother the Church uses this holy season to teach us through hymns, canticles and other forms of expression, of voice or ritual, used by the Holy Spirit. She shows us how grateful we should be for so great a blessing, and how to gain its benefit: our hearts should be as much prepared for the coming of Christ as if he were still to come into this world. The same lesson is given us for our imitation by the words and example of the holy men of the Old Testament.
mk

Looking for God during Advent in those places where we most need him

2011-11-27T22:28:00.008-06:00

It may have been my first year here--can't remember--that Fr. Joe preached at the start of Advent about the need to invite God into certain places of our lives during this Holy season of expectation and hope.

Where, he asked, in our lives do we need God to come? He asked us at that time to reflect upon thsoe places of darkness, brokenness, fear, struggle, unease, anxiety, pain, etc.

Those are the places, he said, into which we need not only invite the Lord to come, but to look for him to come and set us free. "Seek and ye shall find."

Some of the best Advent encouragement I've ever heard.

Because when the Emmanuel comes, God is with us, and with God all will be well.

Just something to ponder in our hearts as we enter this season. May we enter it deeply.

mk