The Lord is Faithful

This is a rebellious people, they are lying sons, sons who will not listen to the Lord’s orders. To the seers they say, ‘See no visions’; to the prophets, ‘Do not prophesy the truth to us, ‘tell us flattering things; have illusory visions; turn aside from the way, leave the path, take the Holy One out of our sight.’
.. thus says the Lord, the Holy One of Israel: Your salvation lay in conversion and tranquillity, your strength, in complete trust; and you would have none of it. ..
But the Lord is waiting to be gracious to you, to rise and take pity on you, for the Lord is a just God; happy are all who hope in him.

Isaiah 30:1-18

The new eMANgelization

Catholic Report says Catholic men are keen for priests to lead and challenge them.

Definitely resonates with this man.

Who will proclaim the Good News to the rich?

Jesus said to his disciples, ‘I tell you solemnly, it will be hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. Yes, I tell you again, it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven.’ When the disciples heard this they were astonished. ‘Who can be saved, then?’ they said. Jesus gazed at them. ‘For men’ he told them ‘this is impossible; for God everything is possible.’ (Matthew 19:23-30 )

For rich men, without the grace of God, the kingdom of heaven is unattainable, apparently. Why? Having everything they need and more, what need have they of God? What make them think about the hereafter? Unfortunately, their riches will not give them eternal life, not even a supernatural life now, where the treasures are charity and sacrifice. In a rich, materialistic life, there is no call for charity, the heroic sort that hurts, and has little to do with warm and fuzzy feelings. In a luxurious life of toys and leisure, there is no need for virtue. One is in control, so who has need for faith, or God?

So who will introduce charity and virtue to the rich of this world, whose attention us so riveted on the material world and it's pleasures? Will they tear their senses from material possessions long enough to pay any attention? Only by the grace of God.

Love and Marriage

So they defiled themselves by their deeds and broke their marriage bond with the Lord till his anger blazed against his people; he was filled with horror at his chosen ones.

Part of today's Psalms at Mass (Ps 105), is a common theme in the writings of the prophets as well, associating the relationship between Man and God with marriage, and so infidelity is the abomination of worshipping other gods. One of the questions that come to mind when many bishops suggest that divorced and remarried Christians can be worthy of Holy Communion while remaining in the same state of adultery, is this: is there still such a thing as fidelity? Where, too, is justice, given the price of redemption and given the aggrieved other half of the abandoned marriage? If fidelity is impossible for some people, is it claimed that the grace of God is insufficient?

Communion for persons who have divorced and remarried civilly

about the “challenge” of “Christians who are in a marital situation theologically called ‘irregular’… ”: “We must help them, certainly, but not in a reductive way. It’s important to get close to them, to create contact and maintain it because they are members of the Church as everyone else, they are not expelled and even less so excommunicated. They are supported, but there are problems in regard to the sacramental life…. The question of access to the sacramental life must be addressed sincerely on the basis of Catholic teaching …. twenty years ago, after a long and laborious negotiation, John Paul II didn’t accept that remarried Christians could accede to the Eucharist. Now, we can’t ignore his teaching and change things.”

- Archbishop Georg Gänswein

What are the priorities of Amnesty International these days?

"Christians are being beheaded in Syria, and here is AI campaigning in Ireland and El Salvador to bring in abortion on demand while claiming to protect women," she added. "They've already spent more than a million dollars on a media campaign. They've bought advertising and gathered signatures and are outspending everyone else."

There's the rub, identified by life campaigners in Ireland protesting AI lobbying aggressively with so much money that should go to promoting freedom and saving innocent lives in many parts of the world, but instead go into campaigning for abortions in countries that don't want them. Priorities?

Ekkles-illogical musings

Stumbled into this questionable bit of scholarship about the alleged mistranslation of the Greek ekkelsias that is claimed to cause the supposedly mistaken notion of a universal church. I have to question the investigation when there is no mention of the translations centuries prior to the English language even being recognized as such. What did St. Jerome translate it into in Latin, which was the prevailing international language at that time? What did the local churches teach at that time about a universal church? What were the thoughts from Greek communities prior to the English translation? What about the Chaldean and other translations on the region? What did the writers of the first few centuries write about ecclesiology, and what of the bishops and other leaders whose writings still exist today?

From the news today.. Oh wait..

Why this tumult among nations, among peoples this useless murmuring? They arise, the kings of the earth, princes plot against the Lord and his Anointed. ‘Come, let us break their fetters, come, let us cast off their yoke.’

Rather, this us from the Office of Readings today, from Psalm 2.

The Eucharist, food for the journey

One often thinks of a journey as one from here to there. Regarding the Eucharist, perhaps it is more appropriate to think of the journey as going from who one is now to who one can become, from dead to living, from seed to fruit, from infant to adult, from homeless to one come home, from me to Christ. In other words, it is not a journey of going, but of becoming, and so the food, the Bread of Life, is not simply of sustenance but of transformation.

Bad news could be good advice

To Amos, Amaziah said, ‘Go away, seer;’ get back to the land of Judah; earn your bread there, do your prophesying there. We want no more prophesying in Bethel; this is the royal sanctuary, the national temple.’

Amaziah and Jeroboam the king disliked the prophecies of Amos, but that changes nothing. No one likes hearing bad news but what if such news could be lifesaving? It is the height of folly to ignore the truth. Close behind is the folly of neglecting to carefully consider and investigate proposed truths out of laziness or fear of inconvenience.

May the Lord raise up more Dominics

A pattern in the Old Testament that certainly emerges over generations is the forward-backward step of the people of God, faithful and then unfaithful in turns. Today we need the prophets, the Dominics, to be raised up among us again and again. I have four children, each one baptized and therefore anointed as prophets - worthy of constant prayer!