This mother is also on fire

for love of her children. And what better recourse than prayer? If everyone in the mystical body of Christ was on fire like this... !

A Pastor on Fire

for souls -- You go, Father!

Sisters of Mercy speak the language of faith

One of the most amazing aspects of faith in God is the proper perspective that power is ascribed to God alone. Therefore, the language of faith emphasizes thanksgiving and trust in God, while we, his children, speak of charity and service pertaining to one another. With God, power is not grasped: it is granted to us as grace. As the Sisters of Mercy point out about the LCWR scandal, problems arise when the language indicates a political struggle instead. As this scandal unfolds, it is becoming a circus of politics by mainstream media, not at all a dialogue.

What now, SSPX?

Vatican confirms offer to SSPX for a personal prelature. On the plus side, unity is always a good inspiration. It is a characteristic of the Holy Spirit to bring peace, and it is as the Lord prayed fervently. On the minus side, this would be an inopportune time to be tempted to gloat -- may God's grace bring about nothing but his gifts of charity and hope!

Which is the first of all commandments?

What immediately struck me from this question, put to Jesus by one of the scribes in today's reading (Mk 12:28-34) is that the question itself of primary importance. Assuming that God exists as the Church teaches, then it is imperative to ask what his greatest or primary command is. Then it occurred to me as well that this question may well be taken to the wrong extreme of seeking what is fundamental in order to escape the rest. But even so, Jesus does not leave much room to wriggle out of the rest: "Listen, Israel, the Lord, our God, is the one Lord, and you must love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind and with all your strength. The second is this: You shall love your neighbor as yourself." The analogy of faith tells us that no component of it stands isolated from the rest of the faith, so we are compelled to recall the admonition from Jesus to observe all that he commanded the Apostles, and so we must keep the fullness of the Apostolic faith. But a postmodern believer might quickly complain that to speak of commandments is old-fashioned and too forbidding to consider. Here also, the analogy of faith comes to our aid, for Jesus equated this obedience to his commandments with love for him. We may well wince at the notion of receiving commands, but here we have someone who is more than worthy to give them: no earthly ruler who is, at his core, no better than we. This Lord is fully God, and has the right to issue commands, not because of his terrible power -- which is indeed terrible and to be feared -- but because of his awesome love, because he is love. Therefore, to circle back to that question, the first of all commandments is to love -- to love him who loved us first.