Quo vadis?

After the disastrous but salt unsurprising results from the Irish referendum on protecting the unborn (the answer was apparently "No."), my mind keeps turning to the question of where we go from here. Wiser heads than mine have answers, if not matching orders, e.g., evangelize like hobbits would. Or by domestic church. The practical reality though cannot exclude other means: in schools and in parishes.

Cultural Catholicism?

He's got a point.

The 7 gifts

.. in an infographic.

Why does God permit evil?

An answer came to me in prayer, the Sorrowful Mysteries of the Rosary, and in the sorrows of my own life: God permits evil so that we may reject it and choose good.

From a Marian devotee

I thought this beautifully written excerpt would be thought-provoking reading for Christians who wonder at Catholics who pray to Mary. This was written by Saint Louis-Marie Grignion de Montfort, who was a true Marian devotee and advocate of the same. It was the gospel commentary from dailygospel.org from today's Mass. The Gospel reading is from John 15:1-8.

[Jesus] is our only master, who must teach us; our only Lord, on whom we must depend; our only head, to whom alone we should belong; our only model, whom we should imitate; our only physician, who must heal us; our only shepherd, who must feed us; our only Way, who must lead us; our only Truth, whom we must believe; our only Life, who must be our life; and our sole sufficiency in all things, that in him we may have all in All. Except the Name of Jesus, there is no other name given under Heaven whereby we must be saved; and apart from Jesus Christ, God has given us no other foundation of our salvation, our perfection and our glory: "for other foundation no man can lay, but that which is laid; which is Christ Jesus" (1Cor 3:11). Every house which is not built upon this firm rock, is founded on the shifting sands, and will inevitably fall sooner or later. Every soul who is not united with Christ as a branch to the stem of the vine, will fall off, wither and become fit only for the fire. If we are in Jesus Christ and Jesus Christ in us, we need not fear damnation; neither angels in heaven nor men on earth, neither demons in hell nor any other creature can harm us because they cannot separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus (cf. Rm 8:38-39).

Saint Louis-Marie Grignion de Montfort (1673-1716), preacher, founder of religious communities 
Treatise on the true devotion to the Blessed Virgin, (Article one; First Truth) 

The prayer of a pastor

"My sheep listen to my voice; I know them and they follow me"

O Jesus, Good Shepherd, a shepherd who is truly good, shepherd full of lovingkindness and gentleness, the cry of a poor and wretched shepherd rises up to you: a weak and clumsy shepherd, an unprofitable shepherd (cf. Lk 17:10) and yet, in spite of all, a shepherd of your flock. Yes, Good Shepherd, the cry of this shepherd who is far from being good rises up to you. He cries to you, uneasy for himself, uneasy for your flock… You know my heart, Lord, you know my wish is to spend entirely for those you have entrusted to me all you have given to your servant …, and more than anything, to spend myself for them without counting the cost (2Cor 12:15)… Even you yourself did not disdain to spend yourself for them. Therefore teach me, Lord, even me your servant, teach me through your Holy Spirit how to expend myself for them… By your inexpressible grace grant me, Lord, to bear their weaknesses with patience, to sympathize with kindness, to help them with discretion. May your Spirit’s instruction teach me to console the afflicted, strengthen the fearful, raise up those who fall, to be weak with the weak, to share the shame of those who stumble, to make myself all things to all to gain them all (2Cor 11:29; 1Cor 9:19.22). Put true words on my lips, words that are upright and just so that they may grow in faith, hope and love, in chastity and humility, in patience and obedience, fervor of spirit and purity of heart. Since it is you who have given them this blind guide (Mt 15:14), this ignorant teacher, this incapable leader, teach him whom you have installed as their professor, guide the one you have commanded to guide others.

- Saint Aelred of Rielvaux (1110-1167), Cistercian monk

From DailyGospel.org

Preach it, (Msgr) Pope!

http://blog.adw.org/2018/04/ancient-biblical-sermons-break-modern-rules-maybe-rules-reexamined/

Risen, just as he said

Christ is Risen! Alleluia!

While I love the Mass in general, there's nothing like the celebration of the Easter vigil. The darkness, the Paschal candle and then people lighting their candles from it and then from their neighbors, and the growing sea of tiny flames as they keep going until every person's candle is lit. And then the readings, starting from the creation account in Genesis, then the Exodus rescue, then from Isaiah and Ezekiel, until we reach the New Testament readings where it culminates in Jesus Christ, the Paschal Lamb, sacrificed, and then the Resurrection. Then we have baptisms and confirmations, the creed and then the Eucharist. It is beautiful! And powerful!

Yes, my wife and daughter are away on holiday, and yes, my sons were blowing out my candle when I wasn't looking. And yes, one of them decided to break up his remaining candle into tiny pieces and pull out the wick. And he dribbled a bit of wax on his pants and maybe the floor. And yes, he's too old to be fooling around with it like that (at 16), and yes he and his younger brother were sniggering at the size of the feet of the guy in front of us, for everyone to see his shoulders shaking uncontrollably. And yes, they also saw me trying to keep them quiet a number of times during the Mass.

But all my sons were with me and were fine. They weren't miserably begging off the Mass, nor miserably begging to go after an hour. They weren't grumpy at having to stand and kneel and sit and on and on. Mind you, I wish they'd been more prayerful throughout, as they should, but they were with me through more than two hours, and sang and chanted and prayed through some if not most of that. Grace doesn't come from us. As Lito would say, it's 'extra nos', outside of us, coming from God, unmerited. Our receptiveness depends on our disposition, of course, but not Grace. My sons are young. If they don't resist too much, they will mature, and I will pray for that all my life and after. God is patient, rich in kindness and mercy, slow to anger and abounding in love.

It's Easter. Christus Resurrexit! Alleluia!

Beware the paradigm shift

.. for you might just get it. The pastoral angle is attractive, just as emotional, romantic highs are, but what does it profit us if we wander away from truth?

Show me, Lord, your way,
So that I may walk in your truth.
Guide my heart to fear your name.
  -- Psalm 85 (86)

Promises of paradigm shifts, like hasty science, buzz words and sound bites, tend to leave a lot of details out. The whole point of the journey is perfection, so of course there is struggle. Devaluating the struggle for the sake of expedience  - wouldn't that risk making any struggle optional, perhaps arbitrary, to commit to (or not) as with the demands of discipleship in general?

Aim higher

Because we can. As a great saint wrote, "Why fly like a barnyard hen when you can soar like an eagle?"

Good will

.. Start here.

Love

From St Augustine's tractates on St John,
The twin commandments of love:

".. As far as teaching is concerned, the love of God comes first; but as far as doing is concerned, the love of our neighbour comes first. Whoever sets out to teach you these two commandments of love must not commend your neighbour to you first, and then God, but God first and then your neighbour. You, on the other hand, do not yet see God, but loving your neighbour will bring you that sight. By loving your neighbour you purify your eyes so that they are ready to see God, as John clearly says: If you do not love your brother, whom you see, how can you love God, whom you do not see?
    You are told “Love God”. If you say to me “Show me whom I should love”, what can I say except what John says? No man has ever seen God. But you must not think yourself wholly unsuited to seeing God: God is love, says John, and whoever dwells in love dwells in God. So love whoever is nearest to you and look inside you to see where that love is coming from: thus, as far as you are capable, you will see God. .."

From Universalis.com (Office of Readings 3 January, 2017)

False prophets

I am going to stretch my hand over the prophets who have empty visions and give lying predictions; they will not be admitted to the council of my people, their names will not be entered in the Book of the House of Israel, they will not set foot on the soil of Israel; and you will learn that I am the Lord, since they have misled my people by saying: Peace! when there is no peace.

Instead of my people rebuilding the wall, these men come and slap on plaster. Tell these plasterers: It will rain hard, it will hail, it will blow a gale, and down will come the wall. Will not people ask: Where is the plaster you slapped on it? Well then, the Lord says this: I am going to unleash a stormy wind in my anger, torrential rain in my wrath, hailstones in my destructive fury. I mean to shatter the wall you slapped with plaster, to throw it down and lay its foundations bare. It will fall and you will perish under it; and so you will learn that I am the Lord.

-- Ezekiel 13:1-16

"The truth will set you free." Do people still know this saying? How can they when they do not believe in objective truth? They prefer putty. It had become a matter of what one can get away with claiming. People in authority treat and invent theories and claims as mere commodity to buy and to profit by, labeling them "truth." It will all be for nothing, but in the meantime, our children are collateral damage, victims of lies and deception.

How long, O Lord? How long?

The Kingdom of Heaven begins for us here below

The reign of God I will show you clearly that you must receive the whole Kingdom of Heaven here below if you also want to enter into it after your death. Listen to God speaking to you in parables: “To what shall I compare the reign of God? Listen well. It is like mustard seed which a man took and planted in his garden. It grew and in truth, it became a large tree.” That seed is the Kingdom of Heaven, it is the grace of the divine Spirit, and the garden is the heart of each human being, where the one who has received the seed conceals the Spirit in the depths of his being, in his most inward parts, so that no one might see it. And he watches over it with all his care so that it might grow, so that it might become a tree that rises up towards heaven. So if you say, “It is not here below that all who have fervently desired the Kingdom will receive it, but after death,” you are overthrowing the words of our Savior God. And if you don’t take the seed, that mustard seed, as he said, if you don’t sow it in your garden, you will remain completely sterile. At what other moment will you receive the seed if not now? The Master says: “Here below, receive the deposit; here below, receive the seal. Light your lamp already here below. If you are sensible, I will become the pearl for you here below (Mt 13:45); here below, I am your wheat and like a mustard seed. Here below, I become leaven for you and I make your dough rise. Here below, I am for you like water and I become a soothing fire. Here below, I become your garment and your food and all your drink, if you desire this.” That is what the Master says. “Thus, if already here below, you acknowledge me as such, you will possess me there as well in an ineffable way, and I will become everything for you.”

-- Symeon the New Theologian (c.949-1022), Greek monk, saint of the Orthodox churches

From DailyGospel.Org for today's gospel commentary

Contemplation

"These two stages sum up the whole of the spiritual life: when we contemplate ourselves we are troubled, and our sadness saves us and brings us to contemplate God; that contemplation in turn gives us the consolation of the joy of the Holy Spirit. Contemplating ourselves brings fear and humility; contemplating God brings us hope and love."

- From a sermon by St Bernard of Clairvaux, on the stages of contemplation

Assuming that we see truthfully, we cannot help but note our imperfections, particularly in past decisions and actions we've taken. But we go further if we have faith, that God saves, and in Jesus Christ we have the grace to improve, and what disappoints us in ourselves will be overcome with patience, effort and contemplation. Jesus is the image of the Father but he is also our image, in our rebirth as children of God, so in him the two images meet. And so we can go from disappointment at what we have been to amazement at what we are becoming, particularly in the ways of Love: forgiveness, patience, kindness, courage, selflessness, humility, joy, perseverance. All these become ours as we become Christ through daily practice and contemplative prayer.

God is Not Nice

Interesting title and theme for this book. Up there with "Reality Bites" (the expression), I think. Must get my hands on it. God is not nice perhaps but he is perfectly good.

when anyone preaches to you without mentioning Jesus Christ

do not let the congregation of God be blasphemed because of the behaviour of a few foolish persons. For Woe to him who makes anyone blaspheme my name without a cause.   Be deaf therefore when anyone preaches to you without mentioning Jesus Christ, who was of the family of David, who was truly born of Mary, who truly ate and drank, was truly persecuted under Pontius Pilate, was truly crucified and died in the sight of those in heaven and on earth and under the earth; who was also truly raised from the dead, when his Father raised him up — just as his Father will raise us up, believers in Christ Jesus without whom we have no true life.

-- From St Ignatius of Antioch's letter to the Trallians

If God is no longer important...

.. the criteria for establishing what is important is displaced.

"In the consciousness of the people of today, the things of God and thus of the liturgy do not appear at all urgent. There is an urgency about every possible thing. But the matter of God does not seem to be urgent."

Perhaps it is a matter of perspective. God is the only foundational perspective, as he is the only firm foundation. What can happen to a building or some framework without a firm foundation?

Anything, of course.

Please pass the grace

Just in time for the great marriage debate in Australia today, Bishop Robert Barron writes up, in good news fashion, comparing Grace with Karma. Read it twice. Better yet, listen to his podcast of it (Word on Fire). He did not have our current issues in mind, but I think this is a challenge for Christians in Australia: how are we doing in the debate about same sex marriage today? If all we are about is condemnation, fire, brimstone and no, no, and no, then we're not preaching good news. We'd be talking at the other side, not dialogue at all. Instead, I think we should pass the grace on and say:

Here is the Christian institution of Marriage. These are the gifts flowing from it. This is the grace of God in action through families built on this version of Marriage. It is indissoluble, built as a total, exclusive self-giving as exemplified by Christ for his bride, the Church (us). It is fruitful if we die to ourselves and live for each other. We don't always get it right, and it's not easy, but when we get it right, it's pretty good, and it makes us better people. We build families this way, where our children learn about love, patience, kindness, delighting in one another, creatively rich in our diversity - yes, a man and a woman, united as one body. We all learn resilience and support for one another amidst challenges. We learn and practice forgiveness over and over again because we are not perfect, and marriage, and our kids, teach us that about ourselves. They also give is every opportunity to get it right (eventually). Day by day, at each episode, with each drama we find ourselves in, this develops our character. The civilization we enjoy today was built on this institution. It has tamed our barbarous ways. We've been making a hash of things because we've trashed marriage and family in the last half-century. We can get things right again if we go back to how it was instituted in the beginning. This is the grace of Christian marriage. It is built on firm foundation, unassailably beautiful in physical form, philosophy and theology.

We are not screaming "no" at you (on the other side). We are inviting you to consider our "yes" to all the above.

Matthew 22:34-40:

Jesus said, ‘You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and the first commandment. The second resembles it: You must love your neighbour as yourself. 

Why is the command to love God the first command? It isn't because he needs anything from us. Why should adults secure their own oxygen masks in an airplane emergency before helping others? Because if we're not alright, we're no good to others. To love God above anything with everything we've got is to get our ideals right, to set a real foundation for what our life will be about. First off, what is truth? Next, what does it truly mean to love? Knowing God will teach us that because God is Truth and God is Love. Truth is reasonable, so it is not whimsical, and can be grasped with or reason. Truth can be objectively known, and is not subject to contradictory opinion. Truth can be tested, and is a necessary foundation for everything else that follows. And Love.. Love is a verb. It does not rely on arbitrarily changing moods and emotions. It is to will the good of someone else, and act accordingly. It is not self-seeking, for if everyone loves like that, then we are reduced to beasts.

Let's get back to basics. If we don't build our lives on God, anything we build will come to absolutely nothing.