Christ, God and man, Lord of David and Son of David, fulfillment of all prophecies,
- we pray that Israel may recognize you as its Messiah.
But ssshhh! Don’t tell any one! Let this prayer from the standard English version of the post-Vatican II Liturgy of the Hours be our little secret.
by Dave Armstrong
1. Best One-Sentence Summary: I am convinced that the Catholic Church conforms much more closely to all of the biblical data, offers the only coherent view of the history of Christianity (i.e., Christian, apostolic Tradition), and possesses the most profound and sublime Christian morality, spirituality, social ethic, and philosophy.
2. Alternate: I am a Catholic because I sincerely believe, by virtue of much cumulative evidence, that Catholicism is true, and that the Catholic Church is the visible Church divinely-established by our Lord Jesus, against which the gates of hell cannot and will not prevail (Mt 16:18), thereby possessing an authority to which I feel bound in Christian duty to submit.
3. 2nd Alternate: I left Protestantism because it was seriously deficient in its interpretation of the Bible (e.g., "faith alone" and many other "Catholic" doctrines - see evidences below), inconsistently selective in its espousal of various Catholic Traditions (e.g., the Canon of the Bible), inadequate in its ecclesiology, lacking a sensible view of Christian history (e.g., "Scripture alone"), compromised morally (e.g., contraception, divorce), and unbiblically schismatic, anarchical, and relativistic. I don't therefore believe that Protestantism is all bad (not by a long shot), but these are some of the major deficiencies I eventually saw as fatal to the "theory" of Protestantism, over against Catholicism. All Catholics must regard baptized, Nicene, Chalcedonian Protestants as Christians.
4. Catholicism isn't formally divided and sectarian (Jn 17:20-23; Rom 16:17; 1 Cor 1:10-13).
5. Catholic unity makes Christianity and Jesus more believable to the world (Jn 17:23).
6. Catholicism, because of its unified, complete, fully supernatural Christian vision, mitigates against secularization and humanism.
7. Catholicism avoids an unbiblical individualism which undermines Christian community (e.g., 1 Cor 12:25-26).
8. Catholicism avoids theological relativism, by means of dogmatic certainty and the centrality of the papacy.
9. Catholicism avoids ecclesiological anarchism - one cannot merely jump to another denomination when some disciplinary measure or censure is called for.
10. Catholicism formally (although, sadly, not always in practice) prevents the theological relativism which leads to the uncertainties within the Protestant system among laypeople.
These are my reasons too! Please continue reading here.
Thus saith the LORD; A voice was heard in Ramah, lamentation, and bitter weeping; Rachel weeping for her children refused to be comforted for her children, because they were not. Thus saith the LORD; Refrain thy voice from weeping, and thine eyes from tears: for thy work shall be rewarded, saith the LORD; and they shall come again from the land of the enemy. And there is hope in thine end, saith the LORD, that thy children shall come again to their own border.The Troparion of the Feast is very succint; it highlights the apparent contradiction of the tragedy:
As acceptable victims and freshly plucked flowers, as divine firstfruits and newborn lambs, you were offered to Christ who was born as a Child, O most pure children. You mocked Herod's wickedness: now we beseech you, unceasingly pray for our souls. (Source)Bishop St. Quodvultdeus, in today's Office of Readings, provides another insight into the event:
A tiny child is born, who is a great king. Wise men are led to him from afar. They come to adore one who lies in a manger and yet reigns in heaven and on earth. When they tell of one who is born a king, Herod is disturbed. To save his kingdom he resolves to kill him, though if he would have faith in the child, he himself would reign in peace in this life and for ever in the life to come.Finally, the antiphon to the Benedictus in today's Morning Prayer is most eloquent:
Why are you afraid, Herod, when you hear of the birth of a king? He does not come to drive you out, but to conquer the devil. But because you do not understand this you are disturbed and in a rage, and to destroy one child whom you seek, you show your cruelty in the death of so many children.
You are not restrained by the love of weeping mothers or fathers mourning the deaths of their sons, nor by the cries and sobs of the children. You destroy those who are tiny in body because fear is destroying your heart. You imagine that if you accomplish your desire you can prolong your own life, though you are seeking to kill Life himself.
Yet your throne is threatened by the source of grace, so small, yet so great, who is lying in the manger. He is using you, all unaware of it, to work out his own purposes freeing souls from captivity to the devil. He has taken up the sons of the enemy into the ranks of God’s adopted children.
The children die for Christ, though they do not know it. The parents mourn for the death of martyrs. The child makes of those as yet unable to speak fit witnesses to himself. See the kind of kingdom that is his, coming as he did in order to be this kind of king. See how the deliverer is already working deliverance, the saviour already working salvation.
But you, Herod, do not know this and are disturbed and furious. While you vent your fury against the child, you are already paying him homage, and do not know it.
How great a gift of grace is here! To what merits of their own do the children owe this kind of victory? They cannot speak, yet they bear witness to Christ. They cannot use their limbs to engage in battle, yet already they bear off the palm of victory. (Source)
At the king's command these innocent babies and little children were put to death; they died for Christ, and now in the glory of heaven as they follow him, the sinless Lamb, they sing for ever: Glory to you, O Lord.It is most appropriate that we also remember today the little babies killed in today's abortion mills. Let us ask their intercession for us, their mothers, and those who defend their deaths as the free exercise of an inalienable "right." May we repent, do penance, and turn to God for forgiveness as doers and enablers of this grievous sin.
Folks, Merry Christmas to all. These are today’s Mass readings for your prayerful reflection:
Folks, I’ve really taken a long time to write this conclusion to the posts Can a Catholic Christian Pray Like a Jew parts I and II. The delay was due to various reasons, but the most important were that I wanted to reflect longer on the meaning of each post, as well as the review of an ever increasing stack of material that I’ve either discovered or that some of my correspondents have kindly referred me to. Therefore, please know that mine is not the last word on this subject. Nevertheless, what I’ve found fascinates me.
There seems to be a mysterious convergence of people of faith, Catholic and non-Catholic, drawn to the rediscovery of Christianity’s Jewish roots and a renewed attempt to reconcile ourselves with our brothers and sisters of postbiblical Judaism after 1,600 years of openly hostile enmity. This effort includes a scholarly attempt to resituate Jesus firmly within his First Century Jewish milieu, as well as a “recalibration” of Christian dogmatics that takes full advantage of this resetting. A respectful apologetics of Christianity – and Catholicism – has also been taking shape, one that is respectful of the Jewish post-Christian experience and mindful of the responsibility that our ancestors bear in the promotion of hostile, destructive, and persecutory actions aimed against Judaism as a religion and Jews, both as a people and as believers. While acknowledging this tragic past, the apologetic and evangelistic presentation of Jesus as both Messiah and Savior of the Jewish people – and principally for the Jewish people – continues relentlessly, albeit with delicacy and a full consciousness of how much Anti-Semitism has damaged the visible reunion between the historical Israel and the New Israel founded by the Blood of the Lamb.
Tragically, the Jewish-Catholic dialogue and rapprochement has also resulted in a resistance which as vocal as it is vile and vitriolic in its anti-Jewish hate. We can see examples of these regrettable attitudes here and here. It is a shame that people who consider themselves “Catholic” are still able to fall so short from the standard of Love the Lord left to us. But I will address the causes of Anti-Semitism and Anti-Judaism – the devil, the flesh, and the world – in a future post. For now, let me briefly review with you Can a Catholic Christian Pray Like a Jew parts I and II:
On part I we briefly discussed the Jewish characters of a number of hymns and prayers found in the Gospels that point to a definite convergence between Christianity and First Century Judaism. In fact, for these prayers and hymns to be fully intelligible, they must be read against the context of Judaism or not at all. We also talked about the Psalms and how these were Jesus’ own prayer book, and how Jesus went by himself many times to commune with the Father. I concluded with the observation that a Christian in general, and a Catholic in particular, can pray like a Jew, albeit a first century Jew, inasmuch as we pray like and in Jesus. Yet Jesus’ presence in the praying Catholic Christian is not a mere memory of someone who existed once in the past but who is only available to us through holy writings, but a living, breathing presence indwelling in us, who both prays in us and moulds us to pray like Him. In this sense, a Catholic prays like a Jew “all the time”. The reality of “praying like a Jew” is present in each one of us through Jesus Christ Our Lord.
On part II we spoke mostly of divergences. The first divergence was that Jewish prayer was mostly liturgical in character, in both its public and private manifestations, and that these prayers include a fervent element designed to strengthen the Jewish identity of the praying community or individual. We also saw than within this context, intimacy with God was assumed or conceived differently from the way we usually understand it from the writings of our greatest mystics. I said that if I were to encapsulate Jewish theology in one catchphrase, I would say that Jewish theology is “a theology of boundaries” between man and his Lord that cannot be crossed. These boundaries have dropped for Catholic Christians, and our communal experience of contemplative prayer has developed a vocabulary of “quest,” ascent, and union with God in the order of grace and that we found this “grammar of ascent” in the New Testament itself.
Some of the statements I said above regarding Jewish contemplative understandings are liable to further review, I am afraid. What I’ve written has been mostly based on very preliminary readings from a couple of authoritative primers. However, I must also say that the reasons why a number of Jesus’ own Jewish contemporaries picked up stones from the ground to throw at Him was because they understood very clearly the consequences of Jesus’ claims to be God’s ultimate, personal, Incarnate manifestation to them: that meant that the boundaries had fallen. Jesus was now the Temple and anyone could approach God in Him at any time without consideration of status or class. His claims must have been deeply unsettling and threatening to the Jewish identity of his hearers and to Israel’s claim of being God’s unique people, as well as deeply subversive to established political interests.
Modern Judaism exists because of the adhesion of most of Jesus’ Jewish contemporaries to “the eternal Israel”. We can see that in the quotes from Rabbi Neusner that Pope Benedict XVI included in his book Jesus of Nazareth. Hence the theology of dropped boundaries and direct, personal, and unmediated experience with God in incarnated human form didn’t make it into Judaism. Of course, post-biblical, post-second Temple Judaism was not impervious to Christian reflection on this issue and one may see here and there a “shifting of the boundaries” now closer to God, that allow the individual Jew a closeness and intimacy they never had before, when their sacrificial priesthood was in full functioning. But the barriers, and the boundaries, those closer to God than ever before, still remain.
We Christians must understand that why our Jewish brethren still set up and maintain these barriers and the motivations behind them. But we can’t make their barriers our own. The only limit we face in knowing God is Jesus’ own instrumental humanity which is, paradoxically, as finite as ours and yet bottomless and boundless in the expression of the eternal, infinite divinity of God. God in human form has become intelligible to our minds and senses while the mystery remains inexhaustible and unfathomable.
It’s a lot like looking at the Sun: we can tell it’s bright, hot, pretty large, and very active. But we can only guess at what’s going on in its core even though we dispose of a set of mathematical symbols that gives us an idea, but not the actual experience of what’s going on at the heart of the Sun.
Similarly, when we look at the Heart of the Son, we can use a set of symbols – words, phrases, and sentences – that may describe analogically and in fragments what’s going on in there, at the core of Jesus’ humanity; however, although we might never experience what is like in the core of our nearest star, we are called, even impelled, to “experience” the Trinitarian perichoresis –the “dancing together –going on in the Heart of the Son of God.
Therein lays the difference between the objects of Jewish and Christian prayers: Jewish prayer looks at God the way we would look at the Sun, but Christian prayers looks at God by looking at the Son, beyond symbol and expression and by full participation in the Son’s divine life.
This is not to say that Jewish prayer can never take us to the Heart of Christ. Remember that we said that all those very Jewish canticles and prayers we find in the Gospels and elsewhere in the New Testament and first and foremost Jewish in essence. The mystery is completely intelligible in Jewish-Hebraic terms to those who heard it and in the Gospel we are privy to their reactions: acceptance by some and rejection by others. In this the Jews of Jesus’ times were no different than the Jews and Gentiles of today, including Catholics who think they know Him and that hating the Jews is doing God’s service. But they do not. The message of God’s ultimate entry into contingent human history continues actual and fresh and challenging to this day.
We can pray the Our Father and those other prayers and hymns in the New Testament as Jews and only in this way we can experience them primarily as Christians. There’s simply no way around it. In this manner, all Catholics could and should pray like Jews. May the blessing of the Almighty God, Father, Son, and + Holy Spirit be with all of us.
Denouncing current Senate health care legislation as deficient because it provides federal funding for abortions and leaves Catholic hospitals and physicians bereft of conscience protection, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops emphasized in a December 22 letter that “until these fundamental flaws are remedied the bill should be opposed.”Please continue reading here.
The three coauthors of the letter-- Cardinal DiNardo of Galveston-Houston, Bishop William Murphy of Rockville Centre, and Bishop John Wester of Salt Lake City-- noted that the legislationviolates the longstanding federal policy against the use of federal funds for elective abortions and health plans that include such abortions -- a policy upheld in all health programs covered by the Hyde Amendment as well as in the Children’s Health Insurance Program, the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program -- and now in the House-passed “Affordable Health Care for America Act.” We believe legislation that fails to comply with this policy and precedent is not true health care reform and should be opposed until this fundamental problem is remedied.
Despite claims to the contrary, the House-passed provision on abortion keeps in place the longstanding and widely supported federal policy against government funding of elective abortions and plans that include elective abortions. It does not restrict abortion, or prevent people from buying insurance covering abortion with their own funds. It simply ensures that where federal funds are involved, people are not required to pay for other people’s abortions. The public consensus on this point is borne out by many opinion surveys, including the new Quinnipiac University survey of December 22 showing 72 percent opposed to public funding of abortion in health care reform legislation.
The abortion provisions in the Manager’s Amendment to the Senate bill do not maintain this commitment to the legal status quo on abortion funding. Federal funds will help subsidize, and in some cases a federal agency will facilitate and promote, health plans that cover elective abortions. All purchasers of such plans will be required to pay for other people’s abortions in a very direct and explicit way, through a separate premium payment designed solely to pay for abortion. There is no provision for individuals to opt out of this abortion payment in federally subsidized plans, so people will be required by law to pay for other people’s abortions. States may opt out of this system only by passing legislation to prohibit abortion coverage. In this way the longstanding and current federal policy universally reflected in all federal health programs, including the program for providing health coverage to Senators and other federal employees, will be reversed. That policy will only prevail in states that take the initiative of passing their own legislation to maintain it.
34. It would appear that, on the level of individual nations and of international relations, the free market is the most efficient instrument for utilizing resources and effectively responding to needs. But this is true only for those needs which are "solvent", insofar as they are endowed with purchasing power, and for those resources which are "marketable", insofar as they are capable of obtaining a satisfactory price. But there are many human needs which find no place on the market. It is a strict duty of justice and truth not to allow fundamental human needs to remain unsatisfied, and not to allow those burdened by such needs to perish. It is also necessary to help these needy people to acquire expertise, to enter the circle of exchange, and to develop their skills in order to make the best use of their capacities and resources. Even prior to the logic of a fair exchange of goods and the forms of justice appropriate to it, there exists something which is due to man because he is man, by reason of his lofty dignity. Inseparable from that required "something" is the possibility to survive and, at the same time, to make an active contribution to the common good of humanity.The Pope clearly established a balance between not allowing fundamental human needs to remain unsatisfied, and not to allow those burdened by such needs to perish and the necessity to help these needy people to acquire expertise, to enter the circle of exchange, and to develop their skills in order to make the best use of their capacities and resources. I'm still waiting for our pastors to apply these words to our current situation and to assist us laypeople to enact a healthy, balanced public policy more in line with the whole of Catholic Social Teaching. My scorecard for them is an "F".
Dedicated to: Lily, Sadie, Lily The Great, Daizie & Rosie and *Jake & Katie Bug* ATB
‘Twas the night before Christmas and all was quiet and sound, Not a creature was stirring not even my Hound.
She was snug in her bed all tucked in for the night, Until she suddenly awoke when something gave her a fright.
It was the sound of some footsteps on the rooftop she heard, Maybe it's a possum, a squirrel, or a bird.
So she ran to the window not knowing what would appear, And to her surprise she saw Santa with reindeer.
She waddled outside hoping Santa would play, When she finally made it to him, she let out a great Hound bay.
Santa stepped to her and gave a soft pat on the head, Hush now little Basset, I think everyone's in bed.
But Santa, said the Basset, I'm so happy you're here, I want to go with you tonight and spread cheer.
Well then, my little Basset as he held her by the paw, He said to her come and we will spread it to all.
As she leaped into the sleigh she saw a great bag of toys, Is this what you bring to all the little Basset girls and boys?
Why yes, said Santa, I show everyone love, Now hold on tight he said as they flew high above.
Up higher, up higher she flew in the sleigh without fears, As Santa looked to her, he saw her great flapping ears.
It was quite the adventure for the Basset Hound that night, She brought presents to a cat and they didn't even fight.
And to a Hound family of ten, lots toys did they need, Ten Bassets in one house is a lot of mouths to feed.
Worn out with so much fun the little Hound did tire, So Santa brought her home and laid her down by the fire.
A wooden house she lived in and the wind made it creek, Before Santa could leave he got a warm lick on the cheek.
Santa just smiled and with a glimmer in his eye, He winked to her once and he said his goodbye.
As she lay there in her bed, she glanced at the Christmas tree, Underneath was a giant bone labeled To: Houndie
She listened to his sleigh bells as he took off for his flight, Shouting, "A Merry Christmas to all and to all a goodnight".
THE ICON OF THE MOTHER OF GOD OF FÁTIMA:
MYSTERY OF THE LIGHT THAT IS GOD
The great union that Fátima's message has with Russia has already led many people to contributing in different ways to the expansion of this Marian devotion in this country. The icon of the Mother of God of Fátima that now I show you is a symbol that reinforces the predilection that Our Lady has for Russia. Certainly this love was shown very specially in the appearances of July 13th, 1917 in Fátima (Portugal), and of June, 1929 in Tuy (Spain), in which the Virgin spoke about the future of Russia as drill of mistakes and pursuit to the Church in the XXth century and about its conversion when the Pope consecrated this country to her Immaculate Heart. It serves to remember that because from these appearances million of persons have prayed for Russia during decades, and there has born in the whole world a current of love and prayer towards this country. In this respect the icon can help also to that Russia pays the great debt of gratitude that has with the Virgin of Fátima.
The idea of realizing this icon began in a trip to Moscow in the year 2000, but only at the end of 2002, when I started working as priest in Russia, the project began to be seriously prepared. First I asked about the project to priests, religious and lay people of Saint Petersburg, who encouraged me to put it into practice.
Then, for several months I devoted myself to study Marian iconography and also the diverse representations that until now have been done of the Virgin of Fátima. There are two principal types, which, in fact, were both images that sister Lucia had in the shelf of her room: that of our Lady of Fátima of the "Capelinha" and that of the Manifestation of Maria's Immaculate Heart in Coimbra. The latter is the one that has more influenced the icon for being, in my opinion, closer to the Marian iconography and because Russia has been devoted to the Immaculate Heart.
Both images have in common the elongated figure of the face and of the image, the white cloths - garment and mantle- Of the Virgin, the Rosary and the ball that hangs from the chest of Saint Mary, symbols that have remained in the icon. Of Coimbra's image there has been taken the trimming that crosses the mantle, as well as the centrality of the heart surrounded with thorns. Finally, when I already had the well-considered project I wrote to Coimbra's monastery, to know if sister Lucia liked it. The Prioress of the Monastery answered me sending information and saying to me that I could carry on.
In this moment Father Igor Chabanov introduced me to the orthodox Russian iconographer Ivan who was ready to realize it and both of us started working on it, with the idea that if the icon liked the catholic priest and the Russian iconographer, we would have obtained our aim.
Please, continue reading at the Svyatoy Nikolay Blog.
Veni, Veni Emmanuel is a synthesis of the great "O Antiphons" that are used for Vespers during the octave before Christmas (Dec. 17-23). These antiphons are of ancient origin and date back to at least the ninth century.
Folks, a propos of this thread taking place in the Free Republic Religion Discussion Board:
Celibacy will always seem ridiculous to those who lack the grace of practicing it, whether they have taken vows or not to live a celibate lifestyle. The former are dissolute, the latter are ignorant.
Celibacy is a sign of the Kingdom that is both here and yet to come. Those given the grace to practice it live in the world as an eschatological sign. The Protestant secularizing drive is part of today's multifaceted problems and confusions regarding sex, contraception and abortion, and not its solution. Protestant apologetic to the contrary, it was this obsession to destroy the sacrality of sex that has ended us where we are today.
Celibacy, like the one Jesus embraced and extolled and Paul imitated, stands as a sign of contradiction today as it did then. The devil, the flesh, and the world have never understood the gift of celibacy hence their relentless effort at its distortion and ridicule, even in God's own name, other than to destroy celibacy as a sign of the Kingdom and through it, the Kingdom itself.
As to for what purpose those who count themselves as "Christian" want to destroy elected chastity, I can no longer tell.
Finally, celibacy is not measured by those who promised to abide by it and then failed, but by those who didn't fail. These are the one's who set and continue to set the standard, starting by the Master himself, whose example we ought to follow as perfectly as possible. May His Name be blessed now and forever more, and may He lift the mist of ignorance and prejudice that has befallen many of those who count themselves among the number of His elect, I pray, in His Name.
I thought I would share my thoughts with you too. (I also corrected some misspellings that appeared on the original message)
A Reading from the Office of Readings
A sermon of St Bernard
The whole world awaits Mary's reply
You have heard, O Virgin, that you will conceive and bear a son; you have heard that it will not be by man but by the Holy Spirit. The angel awaits an answer; it is time for him to return to God who sent him. We too are waiting, O Lady, for your word of compassion; the sentence of condemnation weighs heavily upon us.
The price of our salvation is offered to you. We shall be set free at once if you consent. In the eternal Word of God we all came to be, and behold, we die. In your brief response we are to be remade in order to be recalled to life.
Tearful Adam with his sorrowing family begs this of you, O loving Virgin, in their exile from Paradise. Abraham begs it, David begs it. All the other holy patriarchs, your ancestors, ask it of you, as they dwell in the country of the shadow of death. This is what the whole earth waits for, prostrate at your feet. It is right in doing so, for on your word depends comfort for the wretched, ransom for the captive, freedom for the condemned, indeed, salvation for all the sons of Adam, the whole of your race.
Answer quickly, O Virgin. Reply in haste to the angel, or rather through the angel to the Lord. Answer with a word, receive the Word of God. Speak your own word, conceive the divine Word. Breathe a passing word, embrace the eternal Word.
Why do you delay, why are you afraid? Believe, give praise, and receive. Let humility be bold, let modesty be confident. This is no time for virginal simplicity to forget prudence. In this matter alone, O prudent Virgin, do not fear to be presumptuous. Though modest silence is pleasing, dutiful speech is now more necessary. Open your heart to faith, O blessed Virgin, your lips to praise, your womb to the Creator. See, the desired of all nations is at your door, knocking to enter. If he should pass by because of your delay, in sorrow you would begin to seek him afresh, the One whom your soul loves. Arise, hasten, open. Arise in faith, hasten in devotion, open in praise and thanksgiving. Behold the handmaid of the Lord, she says, be it done to me according to your word. (Source: Universalis.org)
Today’s Mass Readings
First Reading: Micah 5:1-4
Psalm: Psalm 80:2-3, 15-16, 18-19
Second Reading: Hebrews 10:5-10
Gospel: Luke 1:39-45
Along with several others to be beatified and canonized.
Folks, according to Catholic World News:
In a series of decrees issued on December 19, the Vatican has approved miracles allowing for the canonization of five people and the beatification of five others. The Vatican also recognized the 1984 murder of Father Jerzy Popieluszko by Communist intelligence officers as a martyrdom, preparing the way for his beatification.
The decrees, approved by Pope Benedict XVI during a private audience with Cardinal Angelo Amato, prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, also proclaimed that ten other candidates for sainthood had lived lives of heroic virtue. Those decrees make the candidates eligible for beatification if a miracle is attributed to their intercession.
The two decrees commanding the greatest public attention were those recognizing the heroic virtue of Pope Pius XII, who reigned from 1939 to 1958, and Pope John Paul II, who reigned from 1978 to 2005.
Read it all here.
Commentary. These are all welcome news. I recall the vile murder of Fr. Popieluszko back in the eighties by cowards intent on demoralizing the Polish resistance to communism. I celebrate his ascent to the altars.
Declaring Pope Pius XII “venerable” is going to give a whole bunch of people heartburn, but not me. Here’s a holy man whose character, honor, and record has been soiled by a crowd intent on destroying what is left of the Church’s global moral witness. Their heartburn is their business, not mine. I wish to see the Venerable Pope Pius XII raised to the altars.
Of course, the news that Pope John Paul the Great is now venerable and therefore, worthy of receiving a limited public veneration, are the most exciting to me. That’s because his life story is the one I most familiar with and the one that has affected me the most. For 25 years he was a part of my life and I could see in his smile and demeanor the fire that burned within him. To this day, sometimes I dream that I met him, got to talk to him, and see him smile at me with supernatural understanding and compassion.
Pope John Paul is responsible for many great deeds: he was instrumental in the fall of communism in eastern and central Europe, mediated in a number of conflicts, traveled extensively as a modern Apostle of Christ, defended human life, the dignity of all persons, and recognized the State of Israel, among many others. In his Theology of the Body he re-presented the beauty of human sexuality in the light of the Gospel to a world tired of sexual exploitation and manipulation.
But the greatest achievement of Pope John Paul is that he reclaimed his place to be the ultimate interpreter of the Second Vatican Council, which had been up to that moment hijacked by academic theologians bend upon changing the Church into something unrecognizable, out of shape, a pale reflection of what she was supposed to be. These theologians were ascendant until John Paul reigned them in and put them in their place. Much work remained to be done, and much of it is being continued by his worthy successor, but it is undeniable to me that Pope John Paul the Great initiated the great renewal in Catholic life we’re seeing today.
Let us then ask for the intercession of these venerable and blessed Catholics, so that the Church continues to grow to the full stature of Jesus Christ on earth.
Folks, in reference to my previous post, "Progressive" New Zealand Church Offends Christians Worldwide, some of you may be asking why am I so upset about this and why I think this is such a big deal. Let me explain.Dear Reverend Cardy:I can't tell you that the Lord isn't present in "progressive Christian" churches such as this St. Matthew's Church in Auckland, New Zealand. I don't pressume to tell the Lord where and where not to go. No one is ever far from His grace. But I also say that, judging from this disgusting display, the demonic infestation afflicting St. Matthew's makes for a very crowded congregation. Matthew himself must be pretty busy interceding for the shepperds and so many people who have so mangled the Gospel he once wrote to preserve the soft, gentle memory of faith of God's transcendent intervention in human history, through the humble vessel of a poor, Spirit-filled Nazarene virgin.
I've just read a news report published in the BBC website about your billboard distorting the meaning of Christ's virginal conception and mangling the marriage and family life of Joseph and Mary.
From half a hemisphere away I wish to register my hurt and my disgust at this blatant publicity stunt. I can't begin to fathom what you wanted to achieve with it.
Your stated justification to the effect that the billboard was meant to "challenge stereotypes of Christianity" is lame and disingenous, and an insult to the intelligence of millions of devoted, and yes, intellectually aware believers worldwide, not to speak of those of simple, childlike faith who will precede you and me in the Kingdom of Heaven whom have scandalized.
There are other ways to communicate messages challenging what Christmas has become in this materialist,secularized age. Yet, you have chosen to do so by means of a lurid portrait, a distortion of the biblical record, and a cheap shot at a love you have no business intruding, much less defacing in such a public fashion.
You have taken the low road. You have brought great shame and dishonor to yourself, your congregation and your denomination. May God, who we both agree is slow to anger and rich in mercy, forgive you.
Yours in Christ,
-T
(This sketch of the Seven Antiphons courtesy of Fr. Maurice Gilbert and Sandro Magister of Chiesa.Com)
They're sung one per day, at the Magnificat during vespers. They are very ancient, and extraordinarily rich in references to the prophecies of the Messiah. Their initials form an acrostic. Here they are in transcription, with a guide to interpretation
ROMA, December 17, 2008 – From today until the day before Christmas Eve, at the Magnificat during vespers in the Roman rite, seven antiphons are sung, one per day, all of them beginning with an invocation to Jesus, although he is never called by name.
The antiphons are very old, going back to the time of Pope Gregory the Great, around the year 600. They are in Latin, and are inspired by the texts of the Old Testament proclaiming the Messiah.
At the beginning of each antiphon, in order, Jesus is invoked as Wisdom, Lord, Root, Key, Star, King, Emmanuel. In Latin: Sapientia, Adonai, Radix, Clavis, Oriens, Rex, Emmanuel.
Read starting from the last, the Latin initials of these words form an acrostic: "Ero cras," meaning: "I will be [there] tomorrow." It is the proclamation of the Lord who comes. The last antiphon, which completes the acrostic, is sung on December 23, and the following day, with first vespers, the feast of the Nativity begins.
These antiphons have been plucked from obscurity by, unexpectedly, "La Civiltà Cattolica," the journal of the Rome Jesuits that is printed after review by the Vatican secretariat of state.
Also unusual is the place of prestige given to the article illustrating the seven antiphons, written by Fr. Maurice Gilbert, director of the Jerusalem branch of the Pontifical Biblical Institute. The article opens the pre-Christmas issue of the magazine, in the spot usually reserved for the editorial.
In the article, Fr. Gilbert illustrates the antiphons one by one. He demonstrates their extremely rich references to the texts of the Old Testament. And he points out one special feature: the last three antiphons include some expressions that can be explained only in the light of the New Testament.
The antiphon "O Oriens" for December 21 includes a clear reference to the Canticle of Zechariah in Chapter 1 of the Gospel of Luke, the "Benedictus": "The daybreak from on high will visit us to shine on those who sit in darkness and death's shadow."
The antiphon "O Rex" for December 22 includes a reference to a passage from the hymn to Jesus in Chapter 2 of the letter of Paul to the Ephesians: "That he might create in himself one new person in place of the two [Jews and pagans]."
The antiphon "O Emmanuel" for December 23, finally, concludes with the invocation "Dominus Deus noster": an exclusively Christian invocation, because only the followers of Jesus recognize the Emmanuel as the Lord their God.
Here, then, are the complete texts of the seven antiphons, in Latin and in translation, with highlighting of the initials that form the acrostic "Ero cras," and in parentheses the main references to the Old and New Testament:
I – December 17
O SAPIENTIA, quae ex ore Altissimi prodiisti, attingens a fine usque ad finem fortiter suaviterque disponens omnia: veni ad docendum nos viam prudentiae.
O Wisdom, who come from the mouth of the Most High (Sirach 24:5), you extend to the ends of the earth, and order all things with power and sweetness (Wisdom 8:1): come and teach us the way of wisdom (Proverbs 9:6).
II – December 18
O ADONAI, dux domus Israel, qui Moysi in igne flammae rubi apparuisti, et in Sina legem dedisti: veni ad redimendum nos in brachio extenso.
O Lord (Exodus 6:2, Vulgate), leader of the house of Israel, who appeared to Moses in the fire of the burning bush (Exodus 3:2) and on Mount Sinai gave him the law (Exodus 20): come and free us with your powerful arm (Exodus 15:12-13).
III – December 19
O RADIX Iesse, qui stas in signum populorum, super quem continebunt reges os suum, quem gentes deprecabuntur: veni ad liberandum nos, iam noli tardare.
O Root of Jesse, who stand as a sign for the peoples (Isaiah 11:10), the kings of the earth are silent before you (Isaiah 52:15) and the nations invoke you: come to free us, do not delay (Habakkuk 2:3).
IV – December 20
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 et umbra mortis.
O Key of David (Isaiah 22:23), scepter of the house of Israel (Genesis 49:10), who open and no one may shut; who shut and no one may open: come, free from prison captive man, who lies in darkness and the shadow of death (Psalm 107: 10, 14).
V – December 21
O ORIENS, splendor lucis aeternae et sol iustitiae: veni et illumina sedentem in tenebris et umbra mortis.
O Star who rises (Zechariah 3:8; Jeremiah 23:5), splendor of the eternal light(Wisdom 7:26) and sun of justice (Malachi 3:20): come and enlighten those who lie in darkness and the shadow of death (Isaiah 9:1; Luke 1:79).
VI – December 22
O REX gentium et desideratus earum, lapis angularis qui facis utraque unum: veni et salva hominem quel de limo formasti.
O King of the nations (Jeremiah 10:7) and their desire (Haggai 2:7), cornerstone (Isaiah 28:16), who reunite Jews and pagans into one (Ephesians 2:14): come and save the man whom you formed from the earth (Genesis 2:7).
VII – December 23
O EMMANUEL, rex et legifer noster, expectatio gentium et salvator earum: veni ad salvandum nos, Dominus Deus noster.
O Emmanuel (Isaiah 7:14), our king and lawgiver (Isaiah 33:22), hope and salvation of the peoples (Genesis 49:10; John 4:42): come to save us, O Lord our God (Isaiah 37:20).
Father Nicolas Schwizer
What do we celebrate at Christmas? We celebrate the birth of a child, but not that of a common child, rather, it is a Child who is God.
Now, if we compare this birth with other births, for example, with the births of our children, then we notice some strange things. This child is born in unusual circumstances, disconcerting, even annoying circumstances – since it has to do with the Son of God.
1. A first strange circumstance. He makes himself known to the shepherds. He came to earth. He did not warn the great ones. He did not warn the mighty ones. He made nothing known to the priests. He cast aside the hierarchy.
There was no press conference to announce to the world an event of such significance. Nevertheless, he was greatly interested that someone would know. Someone had the right to be the first to know the news. He sends his messengers to some shepherds who were camped near the city guarding their flocks. The shepherds live on the margin of society and also often on the margin of religion. They are uneducated, they do not know the law, and, therefore, they are destined to hell according to the Pharisees. It is precisely to these “excommunicated” ones to whom Christ sends his angels to announce his coming.
Jesus wants to make everything clear from the beginning. He sees everything in reverse. In his eyes, the great ones are the small ones. The last are the first. Those shunned by society are his privileged clients. The Good News is communicated first and first belongs to those who are “on the outside.”
2. A second strange circumstance. He is not recognized by mankind.
Let us think, for example, in the innkeepers at Bethlehem. If they had known that God was there, they would have opened the door and would have sheltered him because they were religious persons like we. But they thought it had to do with vagabonds, refugees from who knows where, a pair of unknown persons.
And they did not want to receive them. And we, would we have received them? How could we believe that God wanted to present Himself to us in this form?
3. A third strange circumstance about the birth. It is God and He is born in misery.
God is totally different from how we imagine him. God is the opposite of power, majesty, authority, richness…..opposite of the power which we have attributed to him.
But God is totally similar to the simple ones, to the poor…..similar to those who feel brotherly, similar to the merciful, to those who love, to those who are hungry for justice.
It isn’t that Christ is not a man as we are, rather it is that he is such a man…..the only true man: totally free, simple, loving, loyal, available. The Good News announced by Christmas consists in this.
To become like God, we do not have to become wealthy, strong, solitary or majestic. It is enough that we love a little bit more…..with serving a little bit more…..with approaching more the poor…..with fighting a little bit more for justice. We can quickly become Christ right where we are, at our social or cultural level. Without waiting for visions or miracles, but by becoming the last of everyone and the servants to all.
God is poor: poor about all those things we long for…..that we seek…..which we pretend. And let us not say that God hides or is absent from the world. God is extraordinarily present and visible: so present and so visible – or so little present or so little visible as are the poor in our lives.
If we want to meet up with the true God who comes to us at Christmas, we must go to meet up with the poor.
And if that love for the unfortunate is born in us, God becomes truly present in our heart. That is the Christmas we should make. That is the true Christmas in which we should believe. We are responsible for that Christmas taking place everywhere.
Questions for reflection
1. How do I experience Christmas?
2. Am I capable of seeing the Infant Lord among the poor of our times?
ANN ARBOR, MI – Tomorrow, December 16, 2009, at 10 AM PST, a panel of eleven judges of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals sitting in San Francisco will hear oral arguments concerning the constitutionality of San Francisco Board of Supervisor’s virulent resolution attacking the Catholic Church for its teachings against homosexual adoptions. The en banc panel will review the earlier opinion of a three-judge panel of the Ninth Circuit that upheld the resolution.Commentary. Evil, anti-Christian, and anti-Catholic people are no longer ashamed these days to show their faces and spew their hatred against the Lamb and his Church, not that they ever were. What is somewhat new in this country of ours is unabashed willingness of a large segment of the anti-Catholic public opinion to use the instruments of government power to compel Catholics and other Christians to act a certain away, to renounce their beliefs, and to say certain, more acceptable things, acceptable to the powers that be, that is.
Thomas More Law Center attorney Robert Muise will argue the case on behalf of the plaintiffs in the case, the Catholic League and two Catholic residents of San Francisco.
The Board’s resolution, sounding more like a Ku Klux Klan anti-Catholic diatribe, refers to the Vatican as a “foreign country” meddling in the affairs of the City and proclaims the Church’s moral teaching and beliefs on homosexuality “insulting to all San Franciscans, ” “hateful, ” “insulting and callous, ” “defamatory, ” “absolutely unacceptable, ” “insensitive and ignorant.” The Board’s resolution makes reference to the Inquisition; and it urges the Archbishop of San Francisco and Catholic Charities of San Francisco to defy Church directives. Click here to read the City’s resolution.
The anti-Catholic resolution, unanimously adopted by the Board on March 21, 2006, was challenged by the Thomas More Law Center on behalf of the Catholic League and two Catholic residents of San Francisco on the grounds it expresses government hostility toward the Catholic Church and its moral teachings in violation of the Establishment Clause of the Constitution. The lower federal court’s dismissal of the case based on the pleadings was later affirmed by the three-judge panel of the Ninth Circuit. However, on November 5, 2009, a majority of the Ninth Circuit judges voted to grant the Law Center’s petition for an en banc rehearing. Read the Law Center’s petition here. Moreover, on December 11, 2009, the Court requested both parties to submit a letter brief addressing whether plaintiffs had standing to sue. Read the Law Center’s Letter Brief here.
According to Catholic doctrine, allowing children to be adopted by homosexuals would actually mean doing violence to these children, in the sense their condition of dependency would be used to place them in an environment not conducive to their full human development. Such policies are gravely immoral and Catholic organizations must not place children for adoption in homosexual households.
Richard Thompson, President and Chief Counsel for the Law Center, commented, “It seems the only bigotry and prejudice these so-called liberal politicians tolerate is anti-Catholicism. To them the only good Catholics are the bad Catholics who ignore the teachings of their Church. Our constitution plainly forbids government interference in, and hostility toward, religion, including the Catholic faith. And we are fully committed to fighting homosexual activists who seek to promote their personal political agenda at the expense of our constitutional freedoms.”
According to the Law Center, the “anti-Catholic resolution sends a clear message to Plaintiffs and others who are faithful adherents to the Catholic faith that they are outsiders, not full members of the political community, and an accompanying message that those who oppose Catholic religious beliefs, particularly with regard to homosexual unions and adoptions by homosexual partners, are insiders, and favored members of the political community.”
Because I honor justice and the common good, I will not comply with any edict that purports to compel Christian institutions to participate in abortions, embryo-destructive research, assisted suicide and euthanasia, or any other anti-life act; nor will I bend to any rule purporting to force me to bless immoral sexual partnerships, treat them as marriages or the equivalent, or refrain from proclaiming the truth, as I know it, about morality and immorality and marriage and the family. I will fully and ungrudgingly render to Caesar what is Caesar’s. But under no circumstances will I render to Caesar what is God’s.And in the words of yet another document, so little read today and mostly forgotten, to this cause I pledge my life, my fortunes, and my sacred honor. I will not surrender, capitulate, comply, or submit to the unjust demands of Caesar nor will bend to the will of the anti-Christian populace eager to see the destruction of Christianity and the subversion of everything that is holy, true, and good. So help me God. Amen.
From today’s Office of Readings
A sermon by St Augustine
John is the voice, and Christ is the Word
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.
However, let us observe what happens when we first seek to build up our hearts. When I think about what I am going to say, the word or message is already in my heart. When I want to speak to you, I look for a way to share with your heart what is already in mine.
In my search for a way to let this message reach you, so that the word already in my heart may find place also in yours, I use my voice to speak to you. The sound of my voice brings the meaning of the word to you and then passes away. The word which the sound has brought to you is now in your heart, and yet it is still also in mine.
When the word has been conveyed to you, does not the sound seem to say: The word ought to grow, and I should diminish? The sound of the voice has made itself heard in the service of the word, and has gone away, as though it were saying: My joy is complete. Let us hold on to the word; we must not lose the word conceived inwardly in our hearts.
Do you need proof that the voice passes away but the divine Word remains? Where is John’s baptism today? It served its purpose, and it went away. Now it is Christ’s baptism that we celebrate. It is in Christ that we all believe; we hope for salvation in him. This is the message the voice cried out.
Because it is hard to distinguish word from voice, even John himself was thought to be the Christ. The voice was thought to be the word. But the voice acknowledged what it was, anxious not to give offence to the word. I am not the Christ, he said, nor Elijah, nor the prophet. And the question came: Who are you, then? He replied: I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness: Prepare the way for the Lord. The voice of one crying in the wilderness is the voice of one breaking the silence. Prepare the way for the Lord, he says, as though he were saying: “I speak out in order to lead him into your hearts, but he does not choose to come where I lead him unless you prepare the way for him.”
What does prepare the way mean, if not “pray well”? What does prepare the way mean, if not “be humble in your thoughts”? We should take our lesson from John the Baptist. He is thought to be the Christ; he declares he is not what they think. He does not take advantage of their mistake to further his own glory.
If he had said, “I am the Christ,” you can imagine how readily he would have been believed, since they believed he was the Christ even before he spoke. But he did not say it; he acknowledged what he was. He pointed out clearly who he was; he humbled himself.
He saw where his salvation lay. He understood that he was a lamp, and his fear was that it might be blown out by the wind of pride.
Source: Universalis.com
Today's Mass Readings
First Reading: Zephaniah 3:14-18
Psalm: (Ps) Isaiah 12:2-6
Second Reading: Philippians 4:4-7
Gospel: Luke 3:10-18
Guadalupe is, strictly speaking, the name of a picture, but the name was extended to the church containing the picture and to the town that grew up around the church. It makes the shrine, it occasions the devotion, it illustrates Our Lady. It is taken as representing the Immaculate Conception, being the lone figure of the woman with the sun, moon, and star accompaniments of the great apocalyptic sign with a supporting angel under the crescent. The word is Spanish Arabic, but in Mexico it may represent certain Aztec sounds.Commentary. I'm shocked and saddened by this turn of events. I've always maintained a high regard for Buddhism, particularly the Theravada Buddhism practiced in Sri Lanka. I've enjoyed on ocassion the insights of Bhante Henepola Gunaratana in two he books that he wrote, Mindfulness In Plain English and Eight Mindful Steps to Happiness.Rome, Italy, Dec 11, 2009 / 12:59 pm (CNA).- More than 1,000 Buddhist extremists armed with clubs, swords and stones ferociously attacked a Catholic church in the town of Crooswatta, Sri Lanka on December 6, destroying the altar, statues and pews.
L’Osservatore Romano reported that Father Jude Denzil Lakshman, pastor of Our Lady of the Mystical Rose, said “I still can hear their shouts in my ears, ‘Cut him to pieces, kill him’.”
The attack took place after the 7 p.m., Sunday Mass, leaving several parishioners wounded. “It is obvious that the attack was well-planned and that the mob waited for us to come out after Mass,” Father Lakshman said.
One parishioner told the Archdiocese of Colombo that as the congregation was leaving the evening Mass, they saw a mob coming towards them.
The parishioner added that the mob “set fire to Fr. Lakshman's car and then someone attempted to strike him with a sword,” but a young man heroically pulled him away.
The extremists “then damaged all other motor bikes, ordinary cycles of the poor people including a three-wheeler. Some persons armed with swords and batons went on beating the people. There are six Catholics in the hospital with cuts and injuries."
The archdiocese noted that Air Force personnel were deployed immediately to bring the mob under control. Guards are still in the area to guarantee the safety of the faithful, which include 293 families.
As of now, police have arrested 11 suspects from Buddhist extremist groups that have attacked the church in the past.
Disclosure of e-mails and documents from the Climate Research Unit (CRU) in Britain -- a collaborator with the U.N.'s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change -- reveals some scientists' willingness to suppress or massage data and rig the peer-review process and the publication of scholarly work. The CRU materials also reveal paranoia on the part of scientists who believe that in trying to engineer "consensus" and alarm about warming, they are a brave and embattled minority. Actually, never in peacetime history has the government-media-academic complex been in such sustained propagandistic lockstep about any subject.Commentary. Pretty much – but better said – the point I made recently in Climate change science going the way of Piltdown Man. The Post and former Vice President Al Gore wants us to believe that dissent from the climate-change orthodoxy originates mostly from benighted right-wing Republican “deniers” intent on defaming good, upright, and eminently rational scientific consensus that has all the facts at their disposal.
The Post learns an odd lesson from the CRU materials: "Climate scientists should not let themselves be goaded by the irresponsibility of the deniers into overstating the certainties of complex science or, worse, censoring discussion of them." These scientists overstated and censored because they were "goaded" by skepticism?
Were their science as unassailable as they insist it is, and were the consensus as broad as they say it is, and were they as brave as they claim to be, they would not be "goaded" into intellectual corruption. Nor would they meretriciously bandy the word "deniers" to disparage skepticism that shocks communicants in the faith-based global warming community.
Westminster Abbey in London is one of the few places in the world that doesn't disappoint. The main part of Westminster is the cathedral: an enormous, basilica-style monastery of Gothic architecture that leaves one with a breathtaking vision of the height and depth of, if not God, at least of the worshipers' concept of God.
With the sheer amount of space between the floor and soaring vaults, from the back of the nave to the altar, as well as the complicated artistry on every wall and window, you find yourself awed by everything that speaks of the unimaginable greatness of God. You have a peculiar sense that God is very present and yet not altogether accessible. This is not an unpleasant experience; on the contrary, you realize that your idea of God has probably been domesticated and confined.We might refer to such an experience as mystical, although the term is commonly associated in the Western mind with something that is highly subjective and meant for only the few. This is, however, a stunted definition. In ancient Christian theology, mystical refers to the wonder of the Christian story, the fulfilling of the Father's plan of redemption in Christ, which Paul refers to as the "mystery" (1 Tim. 3:16).Mystical also applied to a number of central elements of our worship of God.
Ambrose of Milan, the 4th-century bishop, declared that our very faith "is the mystery of the Trinity," as is the Lord's Supper and our Lord's baptism, which is our own baptism. John Cassian taught that Scripture too contains the mystery in the form of words, which describe the works of God that are disclosed to human minds only by grace. Because God himself is mystery, we should expect to find throughout the divine text depths and hidden realities that exceed our knowledge. None of these mysteries should be regarded as problems. The distance between creature and Creator is not something to be overcome or removed as if it were an obstacle to growth in the Christian life.
In fact, many of the earliest Christians (especially Greek Christians in the 4th and 5th centuries) contended that the way of spirituality is traversed by entering into a wonderful darkness that is everlasting and infinite. Paradoxically, only as the darkness grows will our knowledge of God grow.
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