Today’s Memorial Day

Folks, today’s Memorial Day, and I want to inconvenience you for just a moment to remember those soldiers, sailors, marines, airmen, coastguardmen, and auxiliaries who gave the last measure of devotion in defense of our country. You know, this country is not perfect, and we know that, and that’s why we keep struggling for a better tomorrow for our children. Hence, I harbor no doubt that it is worth defending, just for that reason. Let’s pause, pray, think, and reflect, about the price we pay for our freedom.

Prayer to the Most Holy Trinity

by Blessed Elizabeth of the Trinity

O my God, Trinity whom I adore, help me to become utterly forgetful of myself so that I may establish myself in you, as changeless and calm as though my soul were already in eternity. Let nothing disturb my peace nor draw me forth f from you, O my unchanging God, but at every moment may I penetrate more deeply into the depths of your mystery. Give peace to my soul; make it your heaven, your cherished dwelling-place and the place of your repose. Let me never leave you there alone, but keep me there, wholly attentive, wholly alert in my faith, wholly adoring and fully given up to your creative action. 

O my beloved Christ, crucified for love, I long to be the bride of your heart. I long to cover you with glory, to love you even unto death! Yet I sense my powerlessness and beg you to clothe me with yourself. Identify my soul with all the movements of your soul, submerge me, overwhelm me, substitute yourself for me, so that my life may become a reflection of your life. Come into me as Adorer, as Redeemer and as Saviour. 

O Eternal Word, utterance of my God, I want to spend my life listening to you, to become totally teachable so that I might learn all from you. Through all darkness, all emptiness, all powerlessness, I want to keep my eyes fixed on you and to remain under your great light. O my Beloved Star, so fascinate me that I may never be able to leave your radiance.

O Consuming Fire, Spirit of Love, overshadow me so that the Word may be, as it were incarnate again in my soul. May I be for him a new humanity in which he can renew all his mystery.

And you, O Father, bend down towards your poor little creature. Cover her with your shadow, see in her only your beloved son in who you are well pleased

O my `Three', my All, my Beatitude, infinite Solitude, Immensity in which I lose myself, I surrender myself to you as your prey. Immerse yourself in me so that I may be immersed in you until I go to contemplate in your light the abyss of your splendour!

 

We Celebrate Today the Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity

Athanasian Creed

Whosoever will be saved, before all things it is necessary that he hold the Catholic Faith. Which Faith except everyone do keep whole and undefiled, without doubt he shall perish everlastingly. And the Catholic Faith is this, that we worship one God in Trinity and Trinity in Unity. Neither confounding the Persons, nor dividing the Substance. For there is one Person of the Father, another of the Son, and another of the Holy Ghost. But the Godhead of the Father, of the Son and of the Holy Ghost is all One, the Glory Equal, the Majesty Co-Eternal. Such as the Father is, such is the Son, and such is the Holy Ghost. The Father Uncreate, the Son Uncreate, and the Holy Ghost Uncreate. The Father Incomprehensible, the Son Incomprehensible, and the Holy Ghost Incomprehensible. The Father Eternal, the Son Eternal, and the Holy Ghost Etneral and yet they are not Three Eternals but One Eternal. As also there are not Three Uncreated, nor Three Incomprehensibles, but One Uncreated, and One Uncomprehensible. So likewise the Father is Almighty, the Son Almighty, and the Holy Ghost Almighty. And yet they are not Three Almighties but One Almighty.

So the Father is God, the Son is God, and the Holy Ghost is God. And yet they are not Three Gods, but One God. So likewise the Father is Lord, the Son Lord, and the Holy Ghost Lord. And yet not Three Lords but One Lord. For, like as we are compelled by the Christian verity to acknowledge every Person by Himself to be God and Lord, so are we forbidden by the Catholic Religion to say, there be Three Gods or Three Lords. The Father is made of none, neither created, nor begotten. The Son is of the Father alone; not made, nor created, but begotten. The Holy Ghost is of the Father, and of the Son neither made, nor created, nor begotten, but proceeding.

So there is One Father, not Three Fathers; one Son, not Three Sons; One Holy Ghost, not Three Holy Ghosts. And in this Trinity none is afore or after Other, None is greater or less than Another, but the whole Three Persons are Co-eternal together, and Co-equal. So that in all things, as is aforesaid, the Unity is Trinity, and the Trinity is Unity is to be worshipped. He therefore that will be saved, must thus think of the Trinity.

Furthermore, it is necessary to everlasting Salvation, that he also believe rightly the Incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ. For the right Faith is, that we believe and confess, that our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is God and Man.

God, of the substance of the Father, begotten before the worlds; and Man, of the substance of His mother, born into the world. Perfect God and Perfect Man, of a reasonable Soul and human Flesh subsisting. Equal to the Father as touching His Godhead, and inferior to the Father as touching His Manhood. Who, although He be God and Man, yet He is not two, but One Christ. One, not by conversion of the Godhead into Flesh, but by taking of the Manhood into God. One altogether, not by confusion of substance, but by Unity of Person. For as the reasonable soul and flesh is one Man, so God and Man is one Christ. Who suffered for our salvation, descended into Hell, rose again the third day from the dead. He ascended into Heaven, He sitteth on the right hand of the Father, God Almighty, from whence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead. At whose coming all men shall rise again with their bodies, and shall give account for their own works. And they that have done good shall go into life everlasting, and they that have done evil into everlasting fire. This is the Catholic Faith, which except a man believe faithfully and firmly, he cannot be saved.

All hail, adored Trinity!

All hail, adored Trinity!
all hail, eternal Unity!
O God the Father, God the Son,
and God the Spirit, ever One.

To thee upon this holy day,
we offer up our thankful lay;
thou hearest in thy love's great wealth,
and praising thee is all our health.

Three Persons praise we evermore,
our only God our hearts adore;
in thy sweet mercy ever kind
may we our sure protection find.

O Trinity! O Unity!
Be present as we worship thee;
and with the songs that angels sing
unite the hymns of praise we bring.

Saturdays are Mary’s

One of the things I like the most about the return of Ordinary Time in the prayers of the Liturgy of the Hours is also the return of the dedication of Saturdays as “optional memorials” to the Blessed Mother. Every Saturday in which a mandatory memory of a saint or a feast of the Lord is not observed may be dedicated to Mary and I must confess, I avail myself of this option every time I can.

I don’t know most of the hymns the Breviary suggests to introduce the prayers, so I sang Hail Mary, Gentle Woman, at least the part with the Hail Mary, not the rest of the hymn because I don’t know it.

Out in a whim, I looked for it in You Tube and found this beautiful rendition by Angelina. I loved it and downloaded one of her albums from ITunes. She’s definitely a pure singer whose praises to the Lord arise high in heaven. Enjoy the video, the song, and don’t forget to dedicate your Saturdays to Mary if not by praying the Hours, then by any other noble, suitable means, like praying a Rosary – also very fitting.
 

Congratulations to my son!

Folks, I want to publiclly congratulate my youngest son, Jonathan, who graduated from high school last night. He"s a Top 10, National Honor Society, National Mathematics Honor Society scholar, recognized for his achievements in college-level physics, computers, and calculus while still a senior, as well as his volunteer work at our local hospital.

I'm also pleased to observe that his achievements have not gone to his head, that he has remained humble through it all as well as a devout, practicing Catholic.

He will continue his studies at a renowned Benedictine college where he plans to major on computer science. May our Lord Jesus Christ continue to guide Jonathan's steps through life; may He forge my son into the good man Our Father intends him to be: holy, loving, and wise in the image of His Son Jesus. Amen!

Centered in the Eucharist

Fr. Thomas Euteneuer

As the Church departs the glorious season of Easter and returns to Ordinary Time, we take a moment to pause and remind ourselves how we may grow in holiness during the "normal" course of our spiritual lives. The liturgical seasons of the Church immerse us in the greatest mysteries of our faith, but as necessary as they are for our souls, true spiritual growth doesn't happen in just a season. It happens in an organic process, over long periods of time and with diligent effort. For advancement along that arduous pathway of holiness, then, we need to be sustained and encouraged: and that is the role of the Most Holy Sacrament of the Eucharist.

Let us never forget what the Church teaches about the Eucharist. Our Catechism tells us that the Sacrament of the Eucharist is the "source and summit" of our faith (n. 1324). That is another way of saying that it is the very reason why the Church and each individual Christian believer has the gift of faith at all. Accordingly, even those separated Christians who do not believe in the Eucharist have faith in Jesus Christ because of the Eucharist! As the "summit" of our faith, it is the culmination of all goodness, the treasure of God's Life and the very thing that holds the Church and all of reality in existence. What a marvelous source of grace, healing, virtue and union with God and man is this Most Blessed Sacrament!

In this Sacrament we find the entire Christ: Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity. His Body and Blood, given to Him by the Virgin Mary, we are now able to consume sacramentally for the transformation of our souls. He communicates and even squanders His Soul and Divinity upon us like a holy Prodigal Son who cannot cease spending Himself for those He loves. How is it that every Christian is not flocking to Mass every single day to be nurtured by the Lord's very Life?

We must never forget either that the Eucharistic is a sacrifice, not just a meal. To reduce the Eucharist to a fraternal sharing only is to miss the essence of Jesus' redeeming act of love, which was the perfect act of self-giving and dying to self on Calvary that He asks each of us to imitate. As such, this Sacrament is the one font of all consolation for all the myriad sacrifices of our lives, those willed directly and those suffered. Every pain and sorrow in heaven and on earth can be offered to the Sacrificial Victim on the altar and will be met with the deepest of compassion and understanding. We must just stay in His divine Presence long enough to hear His tender words that address our particular sorrows: "Be not afraid, my dearest friend, I have trod this path before you. You are not alone!" What strength that consolation gives us for the journey and difficulties of life!

As the absolute epicenter of our spiritual lives, rivers of grace flow inexhaustibly from the Eucharist. One font of grace is the obligation to "keep holy the Sabbath" which requires us to have weekly contact with God in the Eucharist. Many parishes nowadays even have Eucharistic Adoration chapels that allow us to pray before the Blessed Sacrament directly and with greater frequency. Thanks be to God! We may also see the Eucharist as a repository for all our intercessory intentions on behalf of others by presenting them to Christ any time we have contact with the Eucharist. How wonderful that the Eucharistic Lord allows every one of us to see Him face to face, something that was only allowed to Moses in the Old Testament!

In Ordinary Time, let us renew our love for the greatest gift ever poured out upon mankind, the gift of God's very essence that has no equal in this world. Given faith and time, this Most Blessed Sacrament transforms us, strengthens our virtue, detaches us from sin, purifies our imperfections, inflames our charity and perfects our souls. He Himself calls and invites us to center our lives once again on the Eucharist. Who could possibly turn down such a gracious invitation from the Eucharistic King of Heaven?

Vatican Archives on Wartime Pope Pius XII to Open Within Six Years

Folks, this is a very important piece of news, nary reported by the mainstream media, on the impending opening of World War II records pertaining to the pontificate of Pope Pius XII. This piece was written by David Goldman and published in the First Things blog:

Walter Cardinal Kasper, who heads the Pontifical Commission for Religious Relations with the Jews, told a Liverpool university audience yesterday that the Catholic Church had weakened itself by “cutting itself off from its Jewish roots for centuries . . . a weakness that became evident in the altogether too feeble resistance against the persecution of the Jews” during the Holocaust. Cardinal Kaspar also said that the Vatican would open all of its wartime archives to scholars.

This important address was covered by the London Times and Daily Telegraph, whose religion correspondent Guy Walters wrote,

It is impossible to underestimate the significance of the address made by Cardinal Walter Kasper at Liverpool Hope University on Monday night, in which he promised that the Vatican archives on the wartime record of Pius XII will be opened within six years. This is a hugely welcome piece of news, as the 260th Pope has been the focus of junk historians for decades. “It is our belief that we have nothing to hide and that we do not need to fear the truth,” said Kasper, and he may well be right.

It is noteworthy that the American media universally ignored Cardinal Kasper’s remarks, whose importance far exceeds the announcement that the archives will open. The vilification of the wartime pope, Pius XII, for alleged inaction during the Holocaust presumes that the Vatican had the power to stop the Nazi murder of six million European Jews simply by denouncing it. But the Cardinal made a far more important admission of Church responsibility, and one that Jews should accept in full satisfaction of their grievance against the wartime Vatican: by cutting off its Jewish roots, the Church had weakened itself to the point that it was incapable of offering adequate resistance to Nazi evil.

Cardinal Kasper stated that “the church must draw its vigor and strength from the rootstock of Israel. If the engrafted branches are cut off from the root, they become withered, weak and eventually die. Thus, cutting itself off from its Jewish roots for centuries weakened the church, a weakness that became evident in the altogether too feeble resistance against the persecution of Jews.”

Please, continue reading here.

Blinded by Scientism and Recovering the Sight Afterwards

Folks, two good articles published at the Catholic Education Resource Center you ought to read. The first one is titled Blinded by Scientism and it starts like this:

Scientism is the view that all real knowledge is scientific knowledge – that there is no rational, objective form of inquiry that is not a branch of science. There is at least a whiff of scientism in the thinking of those who dismiss ethical objections to cloning or embryonic stem cell research as inherently "anti-science." There is considerably more than a whiff of it in the work of New Atheist writers like Richard Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens, who allege that because religion has no scientific foundation (or so they claim) it "therefore" has no rational foundation at all. It is evident even in secular conservative writers like John Derbyshire and Heather MacDonald, whose criticisms of their religious fellow right-wingers are only slightly less condescending than those of Dawkins and co. Indeed, the culture at large seems beholden to an inchoate scientism – "faith" is often pitted against "science" (even by those friendly to the former) as if "science" were synonymous with "reason."

The second one is titled Recovering Sight after Scientism and it starts this way:

As I argued in part I, scientism – the view that all real knowledge is scientific knowledge – is either self-refuting or trivial. Moreover, consistently pursued, it leads to the "eliminative materialist" position that the human mind itself is a fiction – that there are no such things as thinking, perceiving, willing, desiring, and so forth. This position is not only incoherent, but undermines the very possibility of science itself – the very thing scientism claims to champion.

If you care about understanding reality and reasoning correctly, you ought to read them.

Please read:

• Blinded by Scientism


• Recovering Sight after Scientism

Video – John Michael Talbot – My Yoke is Easy

 

Liturgy of the Hours Reality Check

Folks, if you pray the Liturgy of the Hours habitually, in the Proper of the Seasons you should be on the Tuesday of the VIII Week of Ordinary Time, and the Tuesday of the IV Week of the Psalter. We observe today the memories of Saint Gregory VII, pope or Saint Mary Magdalen of Pazzi, Virgin or Saint Bede the Venerable, Priest, doctor, all these found on the Proper of the Saints. If you are using the 4 volume set printed by Catholic Book Publishing, you should find all these on Volume III (the light brown one). I figured that since we’ve transitioned to Ordinary Time, some of us may have some difficulty resetting our markers. Find your place and happy praying!

Musings from a Barred Spiral Galaxy

Praising the Lord from my island-universe

Folks, back in my childhood, when Pluto was still a planet, I was taught and learned to appreciate that we live in a large conglomerate of stars called “The Galaxy” or the “Milky Way,” one of billions of “island-universes” we find strewn throughout the cosmos. I also learned that we were a “spiral galaxy” much like our neighbor, the M31 galaxy in Andromeda. From afar, I learned, we might look like it:

Or we might look like “the whirlpool galaxy,” M33:

It was then when I became aware of the existence of “barred spiral” galaxies, so-called because they show a bar structure across its center diameter, much like the one below, number 1300 in the New Galaxy Catalog (NGC1300):

Click on the previous image to make it larger and appreciate it fully.

I appreciated the beauty of these objects and often wondered how it would be like to live in one of them, to have our sun circle the core of such a beautiful, almost ethereal shape. How would I feel. would I feel any different?

Well, as you know, knowledge advances in trickles and torrents and now that Pluto is no longer a planet, observations by the Spitzer Space Telescope in 2005 backed up previously collected evidence that suggested the Milky Way is a barred spiral galaxy. Observations by radio telescopes had for years suggested our galaxy to be barred, but Spitzer's vision in the infrared region of the spectrum has provided a more definite calculation, according to the Wikipedia.

I feel a tad displaced in the universe at this finding, but perhaps, that sense of displacement proceeds from other reasons, I don’t know. My loves, my ideals, my certainties and uncertainties have not changed at this new awareness. I have to say this, though: from my heart springs a hymn of awe and thanksgiving to God for the gift of our creation and our very selves.

Holy, Holy, Holy,
Lord God of Hosts,
the heavens and the earth
are full of your glory!

Today We Celebrate the Feast of Pentecost AD 2010

 Come, Holy Spirit

Come, Holy Spirit, come!
And from Thy celestial home
Shed a ray of light divine!

Come Father of the poor!
Come source of all our store!
Come within our bosoms shine!
Thou, of comforters the best;
Thou, the soul's most welcome guest;
Sweet refreshment here below;

In our labor, rest most sweet;
Grateful coolness in the heat,
Solace in the midst of woe.

O most blessed Light divine
Shine within these hearts of Thine.
And our inmost being fill!

Where you are not, man has naught,
Nothing good in deed or thought,
Nothing free from taint of ill.

Heal our wounds, our strength renew;
On our dryness pour Thy dew;
Wash the stains of guilt away:

Bend the stubborn heart and will;
Melt the frozen, warm the chill;
Guide the steps that go astray.

On the faithful who adore
And confess you, evermore
In your sev'nfold gift descend;

Give them virtue's sure reward;
Give them Thy salvation, Lord;
Give them joys that never end.
Amen. Alleluia

Video: Den al Señor (Sing to the Lord A New Song)

Folks, I want to share with you a video I put together to accompany the Spanish translation of that old praise song, Sing to the Lord, rendered in Spanish as Den al Señor. The song is played by the Music Ministry of the town of Aguas Buenas, Puerto Rico, long a center of the Catholic Charismatic Renewal in that island commonwealth. I heard the song for the first time in the late 1970’s and I owned the vinyl album myself. It was also one of the very first songs I learned to play in guitar. Come Pentecost, I become very nostalgic of the song which brings so many good memories to mind. Enjoy my photo montage.

 

The Catholic Charismatic Renewal

Folks, the Feast of Pentecost is upon us and I wanted to share with you this piece from Catholic Online about my alma mater of the Spirit, the Catholic Charismatic Renewal.

Yep, still some people find it shocking, but I am a so-called “charismatic”. And let me witness to you, that day of my “Baptism in the Spirit” when I was 15 years old was Anno Domini Primus for everything that has followed since in my life, Deo Gratias, all glory and honor to my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, with the Father and the Holy Spirit, in Triune Glory for Ever and Ever, World Without End.

Renewal for the Springtime of the Church

God sovereignly drew many Duquesne University students into the chapel at The Ark and Dove Retreat Center. Some were laughing, others crying. Some prayed in tongues, others (like me) felt a burning sensation coursing through their hands. God had planned it in the Upper Room Chapel. It was the birth of the Catholic Charismatic Renewal!

Come Holy Spirit and fill the hearts of the faithful.

WASHINGTON, DC (Catholic Online) - The Catholic Charismatic Renewal finds its roots at a retreat for Duquesne University's Chi Rho Scripture Study group in February, 1967. The retreat was held at The Ark and the Dove Retreat House, just outside of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

During the retreat, Patti Gallagher-Mansfield and others had a special encounter with the Holy Spirit. I will let her explain it in her own words:

In the Spring of 1966, two Duquesne University professors were ASKING, SEEKING and KNOCKING. They had pledged themselves to pray daily for a greater outpouring of the Holy Spirit in their lives using the beautiful Sequence Hymn of Pentecost. In the midst of this time of prayer, some friends gave them two books: The Cross and the Switchblade and They Speak With Other Tongues. Both books describe the experience of the Baptism in the Holy Spirit. The men from Duquesne realized that this Baptism in the Spirit was precisely what they were searching for.

In January 1967, four Catholics from Duquesne attended their first interdenominational charismatic prayer meeting - the Chapel Hill meeting - in the home of Miss Flo Dodge, a Spirit-filled Presbyterian. Interestingly enough, a few months before these Catholics came, the Lord led Flo to read Isaiah 48 where He announces that He is about to do "a new thing".

We were planning for our retreat in February and the professors suggested a new theme: "The Holy Spirit." In preparation for the retreat, they told us to pray expectantly, to read The Cross and the Switchblade, and to read the first four chapters of the Acts of the Apostles.

A few days before the retreat, I knelt in my room and prayed, "Lord, I believe I've already received your Spirit in Baptism and Confirmation. But if it's possible for your Spirit to be more at work in my life than He's been up until now, I WANT IT!" The dramatic answer to my prayer was soon to come.

On Saturday a member of the Chapel Hill Prayer Group came to speak on Acts, chapter 2. All we were told was that she was a Protestant friend of our professors. Although her presentation was very simple, it was filled with spiritual power. She spoke about surrendering to Jesus as Lord and Master. She described the Holy Spirit as a Person who empowered her daily. Here was someone who really seemed to know Jesus intimately and personally! She knew the power of the Holy Spirit like the Apostles did. I knew I wanted what she had and I wrote in my notes, "Jesus, be real for me."

Saturday night a birthday party was planned for a few of our members, but there was a listlessness in the group. I wandered into the upstairs chapel...not to pray but to tell any students there to come down to the party. Yet, when I entered and knelt in the presence of Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament, I literally trembled with a sense of awe before His majesty.

I knew in an overwhelming way that He is the King of Kings, the Lord of Lords. I thought, "You had better get out of here quick before something happens to you." But overriding my fear was a much greater desire to surrender myself unconditionally to God.

I prayed, "Father, I give my life to you. Whatever you ask of me, I accept. And if it means suffering, I accept that too. Just teach me to follow Jesus and to love as He loves." In the next moment, I found myself prostrate, flat on my face, and flooded with an experience of the merciful love of God...a love that is totally undeserved, yet lavishly given. Yes, it's true what St. Paul writes, "The love of God has been poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit."

My shoes came off in the process. I was indeed on holy ground. I felt as if I wanted to die and be with God. The prayer of St. Augustine captures my experience: "O Lord, you have made us for yourself and our hearts are restless until they rest in You." As much as I wanted to bask in His presence, I knew that if I, who am no one special, could experience the love of God in this way, that anyone across the face of the earth could do so.

I ran down to tell our chaplain what had happened and he said that David Mangan had been in the chapel before me and had encountered God's presence in the same way. Two girls told me my face was glowing and wanted to know what had happened.

Within the next hour God sovereignly drew many of the students into the chapel. Some were laughing, others crying. Some prayed in tongues, others (like me) felt a burning sensation coursing through their hands. Yes, there was a birthday party that night, God had planned it in the Upper Room Chapel. It was the birth of the Catholic Charismatic Renewal!

The experience of the "Duquesne Weekend" quickly spread to other campuses, such as the University of Notre Dame and those serving in campus ministry at Michigan State University in Lansing, Michigan.

The Word of God, an evangelistic outreach at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, MI ...

Please, continue reading here.

Read also:

• The Gifts of the Holy Spirit and God's Presence
• The Roots of Pentecost
• Fresh Wind, Fresh Fire: Pentecost and the Ecclesial Movements

Video – God of Wonders by Third Day

Folks, this has been a busy week for me and I haven’t had much time to blog much. I want to share this video again by Third Day. I’ve shared it with you in the past but I think it is so beautiful and so powerful that I want to do so again. Then, take a look at the icon that follows the video window and think about the wonders of the Word of God who brought everything into being.

 

Authors Defend Pope Benedict's Actions in Sex Abuse Scandal

Folks, Cathy Lynn Grossman wrote for USA Today's edition an interesting interview with Greg Erlandson and Matthew Bunson a propos of the publishing of their joint book, Pope Benedict XVI and the Sexual Abuse Crisis: Working for Reform and Renewal which you ought to read - the interview and the book both:

Pope Benedict XVI's legacy will be shaped by his response to the explosive global clergy sex-abuse crisis, say two Catholic authors who detail and defend his record in a book published this week.

The Vatican and Benedict are accused of "acts of neglect, cover-up, and disregard for the plight of the victims," they write. Pope Benedict XVI and the Sexual Abuse Crisis: Working for Reform and Renewal is their rebuttal.

Greg Erlandson, head of the Catholic publishing company Our Sunday Visitor, and church historian Matthew Bunson, editor of The Catholic Almanac, take a long view — tracing the church's confrontations with sinful clergy back to the fourth century.

In two current examples in the headlines, the authors argue that Benedict was either unaware of the abusive priest or made a decision in favor of mercy (by declining to defrock a dying Wisconsin priest decades after he abused 200 deaf children).

However, the book also includes a compendium of speeches, letters and documents so readers can draw their own conclusions. The authors discuss their findings (replies have been edited for length and clarity):

Q: You both rely on a Catholic, church-based readership. What if you found Benedict did something wrong?

Erlandson: If there were a smoking gun, it would be reported and it would be dealt with. I take my cue from Benedict, who says, "There is a need to tell the truth."

Q: Why can't Benedict just fire bishops who protected abusive priests and make new rules for the whole church?

E: The Catholic church is not a multinational corporation with bishops as branch managers that the pope can hire, fire and mandate actions. It's much more complicated. In history and canon law, bishops are descendents of the apostles. It would be like Peter firing James. ... But it's pretty clear that he is chiding the bishops as a group and individually. There's definitely some steel there.

Bunson: Look at Ireland, where a number of bishops' positions became untenable as a consequence of their failures in office. You see the direct timeline between their February visit to the Holy See and (three) resignations in short order.

Q: Before he was pope, as Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, he headed the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith under Pope John Paul II and was steeped in reports of abuse that reached Rome. How much blame for failure to act sooner falls to him and John Paul II?

E: I'm wary of a tendency to throw John Paul II under the bus. ... He was taking steps, working with Ratzinger every week on this and certainly not clueless or insensitive to what was happening.

B: We remind readers that the U.S. bishops, in close consultation with (Ratzinger) and Pope John Paul II, put together a program in 2002 that has proved remarkably successful.

Q: You say the U.S. bishops' approach — zero tolerance for abusive priests and clear provision for child protection — has worked well. Why hasn't Benedict pushed other nations to follow it?

E: What the U.S. bishops did was tough medicine — and controversial. As painful as it is right now, (global bishops) may need time to see this is what is needed.

B: We think (worldwide church law) based on the U.S. approach is coming soon, but each country in a church of more than 1 billion people has to deal with this in its own legal culture and society.

Q: Benedict calls for both mercy and justice. But does the public want mercy for abusive priests?

B: The church always has to remember both. Church and civil law can be frustrating. Each has its process and requirements, and equal justice is still required regardless of how horrendous the accusations.

The word I think everyone is really looking for is accountability. We think this pope is demanding accountability. What people really should know, and our book tries to tell them, is that the rules and guidelines (to prevent and root out abuse) were always there in church law, but many bishops just chose not to act on them.

E: We are in a really angry age. We are angry at everybody —Democrats, Republicans, the Tea Party, the coffee party, what have you. People want vengeance.

But sometimes the desire for justice cannot be met. The accused are dead or too old. The Catholic Church is about the salvation of souls. The question becomes: How do you save a person's soul and at the same time show penalties? No one gets a free pass.

- Purchase Pope Benedict XVI and the Sexual Abuse Crisis: Working for Reform and Renewal from Amazon.com

Towards Our Own Ascension

Father Nicolas Schwizer

How is Christ with us on earth?

Christ is present. Christ is here with us on earth and will never abandon us. He is present in the sacraments, and especially so in the Eucharist. He is present in the Christian community. He is present in our heart which is a temple of Christ and the Triune God.

The Ascension of the Lord wants to reveal to us something more than His invisible presence among us. It reveals to us how we and our earthly life will end. I think this is a question which is unsettling for all of us, and the feast of the Ascension of the Lord gives us an answer: our final end will be an ascension.

Someday we will meet in Heaven just as we are now gathered on earth. Our presence at each Sunday Mass does nothing more than prefigure, announce and prepare that grand final assembly with the Lord. At the end of Mass, we are dispersed; but it is something only transitory until the final hour of our ascension.

Everything is transitory: joys, sadness, goods…..

Because everything that happens here below on this earth is transitory. How often are we discouraged by whatever obstacle, whatever suffering and cross, saying: it is not possible that God exists and permits these things; it is not possible that God directs our life and that He transforms it in this way. Yes, it is true that things are not always easy, but let us hope, let us have patience, let us not judge until we have seen the end because we already know by experience that after the Passion and Calvary always comes the Resurrection and the Ascension.

Therefore, all sadness is transitory. We are unfortunate, but only for a brief time.

Why did I pray and why did God not hear me? Because God reserves the right to give me many things and much better things than those which I dared to ask for. Why am I still sick, with no strength? Because I will soon be healed forever. Why do I have to lament the death of a dear one? Or, why does life have to separate me from the only ones with whom I enjoy living? Because soon I will find myself reunited forever.

Also joy, all joy of this world is a passing thing. The children know that they cannot always have their parents with them. The parents also know that they will not take care of their little ones forever. And it is the same for a wife for her husband, a husband for his wife, and it is the same for all persons who love each other. Only one definite place exists where we will gather forever and this place is not here below on this earth.

The same is with our goods. We cannot take them with us: we will lose all of them. Someday our hands will open up to surrender them all. Today, we are still in time to open our hands and offer everything freely because everything which we do not offer to God we are going to lose.

To take the world to God. At all Masses we offer some bread, some wine – representing us, our lives, our work, our goods, and the priest will take all of this and then consecrate it, taking it to God’s world.

• Thus in each one of our Masses, a bit of our world passes to form a part of the other world.
• At each Mass, the ascension of a little bit of earth to Heaven takes place
• At each Mass, we Christians are invited to elevate ourselves, to separate ourselves a little bit from earth and to take a step towards God’s world.

Questions for reflection

1. Have I thought about my own ascension?

2. What would be hard for me to give up today: my goods…..?

3. Do I live as if I would never leave this world?

Puerto Rico shook this morning

Folks, my native Puerto Rico suffered and earthquake this morning, 5.7 in the Richter Scale. The epicenter was located on the northwestern corner of the island. Damage was minimal but everyone got a good scare.

Puerto Rico is undergoing some social upheaval too, spearheaded by state university students in strike. Every 3 or 4 years they go on strike, “to make a difference” or something like that. It’s a rite of passage for the strike leaders of today are to be the “vanguard politicians” of tomorrow. It’s all a good show that gains little for all involved while the general peace is disturbed.

If you find it in your heart, say a prayer or two for Puerto Rico. We are a nation of spoil-rotten ingrates in need of conversion.We needed this shakeup to remind us. I hope the churches be filled today in response. Sackcloth and ashes, that’s what we need.

Called to the Father’s House

Folks, my pastor, Fr. Paul Turnbull, was called to the Eternal Father’s House yesterday. He was 63. His departure was sudden but due to natural causes. Our parish community is grieving. He was a good pastor and administrator, a gifted musician and a real father to me. I’ll be saying the Office of the Dead throughout the day for his eternal repose. Eternal Memory to Fr. Paul Turnbull.

Tidbits from Hither and Thither

Vivificat’s Irregular News and Commentary Roundup

Folks, these are good reads with plenty of points to ponder:

• The New Missal: Disaster or Opportunity? by Rev. Robert Johansen. A quote: “I have observed that "something more" before, writing and speaking about what I describe as "ideologized" liturgy -- that is, liturgy being made to bear ideological burdens that are extrinsic and, in many cases, inimical to it. The highly charged language of many of those objecting to the new Missal is frequently ideological: When I see words like "archaic" and "tyrannical," and phrases like "a great step forward" or "a major step backward," being used in complaints about the Missal, I suspect that the train of thought is carrying heavy ideological freight. I use "ideology" here in the circumscribed manner of political theorists like Michael Oakeshott and Russell Kirk: to refer to the political fanaticism that results from elevating an abstraction to an absolute, all-explaining and all-encompassing concept, and making everything, including persons, subordinate to that concept. It is to take political concepts and impulses and make them serve ends that are properly religious.” Commentary. The sun is rapidly setting on the people who embrace a false “spirit” of Vatican II and on their intent to maintain a chatty, desacralized liturgy in English and they know it. Therefore, they have mounted an all-out effort to derail the new English translation of the Mass, with all the attending epithets, jargon, and emotional pleading. Father Johansen takes them to task.

• Catholics fight move to deny schooling to children of lesbians, gays. This is a CNN piece. A quote: “Progressive Catholic groups vented outrage Friday over the decision of a Roman Catholic school in Massachusetts to rescind the admission of an 8-year-old student because his parents are lesbians. ‘The idea that a child might be punished because he does not live with his two biologic parents is antithetical to notions of Christian charity and Catholic social justice,’ said Patrick Whelan, president of Catholic Democrats, in a statement Friday.” Commentary. All of us who opted to give our children a Catholic education know that we are required to sign a contract in which we promise to become partners in our children’s Catholic education and declare that we are an active, practicing Catholic family. A gay couple can’t in conscience sign that contract and make those promises because their union is not sacramental and also contradicts the Church’s clear teaching about the origins, nature, and ends of human sexuality. The problem is not the child, but the guardian’s unwillingness to accept the Church’s moral teaching on marriage and sexuality and their refusal to raise their child accordingly. I’m not deceived, but they lesbian “parents” of this boy are using their situation as a Trojan horse to force the Church to accept the intrinsic goodness of their partnering while hiding behind their child’s real spiritual and educational needs. Surely the situation is scandalous and even despicable, but not in the sense that “progressive Catholics” portray it to the world.

• Abortion, Gay ‘Marriage’ among the Most ‘Insidious and Dangerous’ Challenges: Pope. A quote: “In an address to assembled social and pastoral care workers in Fatima, Portugal yesterday, Pope Benedict identified abortion and the pressure for gay ‘marriage’ as among the most ‘insidious and dangerous challenges that today confront the common good,’ and expressed his ‘deep appreciation’ for those who fight for the rights of the unborn. Benedict hailed ‘all those social and pastoral initiatives’ that combat the ‘socio-economic and cultural mechanisms which lead to abortion, and are openly concerned to defend life and to promote the reconciliation and healing of those harmed by the tragedy of abortion.’” Commentary. Needless to say, I agree with the Holy Father and I will oppose any and every effort pretending to elevate same-sex partnership to the status of marriage, whether civil or sacramental, as well as any effort to expand so-called “abortion rights.”

• A vote for Elena Kagan is a vote for gay marriage. Ms. Kagan, of course, is President Obama’s nominee to replace retiring Supreme Court Justice Stevens. So says my favorite advocacy organization, the National Organization for Marriage (NOM). A quote: “Why are we so certain about Kagan's vote? Three main reasons: First, she is the number two official at the Justice Department, and the Justice Department (in a high-profile DOMA case in response to a letter by Human Rights Campaign head Joe Solmonese) filed a brief specifically repudiating the main purpose of marriage. The second reason is the extreme nature of her vision of what gay equality requires. This is public record. It is one thing to oppose Don't Ask Don't Tell. It is quite another thing to tell the military that it will not be permitted to recruit at Harvard Law School so long as it obeys federal law. The third reason we are so confident a vote for Kagan is a vote to impose gay marriage is that Joe Solmonese of the Human Rights Campaign believes it. His press release praising her nomination specifically mentions the "marriage equality" case coming up before the court and is thus clearly intended to reassure LGBT voters that a vote for Kagan will be a vote for imposing gay marriage on all 50 states.” Commentary. Right on! I urge you to contact your elected representatives as well as the members of the Committee on the Judiciary via this handy form.

• USSC Nominee Kagan Displays Strong Internationalist Sympathies . That comes from the Catholic Family and Human Rights Institute. A quote: “On Monday, President Barack Obama announced the nomination of Elena Kagan to the position of Associate Justice on the United States (US) Supreme Court.  Based on a review of the rather meager writings and public statements by Kagan, a picture still emerges of a liberal activist whose sympathies for foreign law raise serious questions about how she would follow the US Constitution if she is confirmed. During her Senate confirmation hearings last year to become US Solicitor General (the attorney that represents the US government before the Supreme Court), Kagan was asked about her view of the role of consulting foreign law in statutory interpretation. Kagan responded by saying, ‘At least some members of the Court find foreign law relevant in at least some contexts. When this is the case, I think the Solicitor General's office should offer reasonable foreign law arguments to attract these Justices' support for the positions that the office is taking.’” Commentary. The idea that foreign law should impact domestic constitutional law goes hand-in-glove with the intentions of the Left of reinterpreting the Constitution in a manner friendly to their agenda. Say for example, that we were to sign an international treaty with ambiguous wording that could be interpreted as recognizing the rights of same-sex couples to marry, it would become the law of the land here, denying the rest of us any say on the matter. Same thing with abortion “rights”, and other such artificial constructs inimical to the family and society. This is another clear reason why we must oppose Ms. Kagan.

This is all for now! Happy reading and take action!

The Hostile Spiritual Takeover of Our Nation

Rev. Thomas J. Euteneuer, President, Human Life International

Anyone who has watched national politics closely in the past year and a half has seen a panoply of aggressive political moves that are reported about in hostile terms. There are government "takeovers" of huge industries, public officials "moving against" businesses and individuals, court decisions "striking down" statutes and executive initiatives "attacking" fundamentally sane institutions and plans. Even in times of war, I don't think we have ever had such violent social and political maneuvering in our public life. The worst aspect of it is that all the rapaciousness is directed inward. If we were laying waste the enemies of the innocent citizens of our society in the same way we are consuming our own healthy institutions, how different our public life would be! The current hostile initiatives are nothing of the sort, however. They are essentially demonic takeovers of sacred institutions by the pagans who hold the reins of power.

Let me be clear: I am not saying that our public officials are demons. I am saying that they are acting like demons. Demons lie, cheat and steal - obsessively. It is their nature. Once the demons rejected God, they fell into a dark world devoid of love and dominated by the ethic of the survival of the fittest where "might is right". The human beings that serve them act in much the same way when they implement their agendas and policies. Whenever they are in control of institutions or governments, they lie, cheat and steal. In their minds, they are right because they have the might - and to the victors go the spoils.

But what did we expect, really? Our nation elected unabashedly pagan representatives who are possessed of a tapestry of unclean ideologies who have an almost religious fervor in advancing their control over greater sectors of our common life and economy. The sad part is that these people who govern us are simply being true to their convictions: before the election, they were not abashed in telling us how radical they are, and now we are reaping the fruits of the demonic agenda of the death and destruction that they have brought with them.

I would despair of this situation had I not met so many decent and God-fearing Americans who do not agree with the mainstreaming of paganism into our culture. I have met the virtuous side of America, and it is to these that I write these words of encouragement: be strong! We must be true to the core Christian principles that made this nation great! Be not afraid of the severe conflicts with the pagan world that we will have to endure in the very near future. We are not alone in this battle. There are many more moral and decent Americans than we realize. It's just that the good ones are busy about raising families and keeping the basic fabric of our society intact. They are not the hedonists and manipulators that strive obsessively to control public discourse and institutions. They are there in the background and form the true foundation of our society.

In time, the proper spiritual leadership will emerge which will bind us together and form us into a fighting force called the Church Militant - the only spiritual force that can truly resist the hostile spiritual takeover of our nation. Let us not forget, however, that we must get down on our knees and beg, plead, and implore God to restore our once-great nation to its grandeur. We will not see the dawn of a renewed nation without prayer and sacrifice. The momentum of righteousness, consisting of all the humble goodness taking place at the grass-roots level of the Church and society, will eventually build, and we will take back our nation - not only at the ballot box but above all in the hearts and minds of all those who love God and are doing their best to love their neighbor. We will then be able to cast out the unclean spirits that are destroying everything that we hold sacred, and society will once again be governed by righteous men. For such an end we place our deepest hope in Christ, our true and only Savior!

Today we observe the Solemnity of the Ascension of Our Lord

(some dioceses will celebrate this feast next Sunday)

From today's Office of Readings, a reading from a sermon by Saint Augustine, bishop:

No one has ever ascended into heaven except the one who descended from heaven

Today our Lord Jesus Christ ascended into heaven; let our hearts ascend with him. Listen to the words of the Apostle: If you have risen with Christ, set your hearts on the things that are above where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God; seek the things that are above, not the things that are on earth. For just as he remained with us even after his ascension, so we too are already in heaven with him, even though what is promised us has not yet been fulfilled in our bodies.

Christ is now exalted above the heavens, but he still suffers on earth all the pain that we, the members of his body, have to bear. He showed this when he cried out from above: Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me? and when he said: I was hungry and you gave me food.

Why do we on earth not strive to find rest with him in heaven even now, through the faith, hope and love that unites us to him? While in heaven he is also with us; and we while on earth are with him. He is here with us by his divinity, his power and his love. We cannot be in heaven, as he is on earth, by divinity, but in him, we can be there by love.

He did not leave heaven when he came down to us; nor did he withdraw from us when he went up again into heaven. The fact that he was in heaven even while he was on earth is borne out by his own statement: No one has ever ascended into heaven except the one who descended from heaven, the Son of Man, who is in heaven.

These words are explained by our oneness with Christ, for he is our head and we are his body. No one ascended into heaven except Christ because we also are Christ: he is the Son of Man by his union with us, and we by our union with him are the sons of God. So the Apostle says: Just as the human body, which has many members, is a unity, because all the different members make one body, so is it also with Christ. He too has many members, but one body.

Out of compassion for us he descended from heaven, and although he ascended alone, we also ascend, because we are in him by grace. Thus, no one but Christ descended and no one but Christ ascended; not because there is no distinction between the head and the body, but because the body as a unity cannot be separated from the head.

- Source: Universalis.com

Video: Sex Abuse and the Pope

Introduction to Spiritual Warfare – Index

Folks, this is a quick index to the Introduction to Spiritual Warfare series by Father John Bartunek, LC:

• Introduction to Spiritual Warfare - Part I 
• Introduction to Spiritual Warfare - Part II 
• Introduction to Spiritual Warfare - Part III 
• Introduction to Spiritual Warfare – Part IV – Getting Down to Action

Introduction to Spiritual Warfare – Part IV – Getting Down to Action

Author: Father John Bartunek, LC | Source: Catholic.net

I hope the first three parts of this series have succeeded in helping you understand the reality and nature of spiritual warfare. By now you may be piqued, though, at how theoretical it has been. That was necessary – no one can act intelligently without knowledge of the situation they are facing. But now it’s time to get practical. We know that our daily life as Christians consists in an ongoing battle, a steep climb beset with obstacles and enemies. The battle takes place in each person’s heart, where we make our decisions. In every decision, we can choose our personal, natural, and self-centered preferences, or God’s wise, redeeming, and often uncomfortable (for us) preferences. So, what can we do to defend ourselves against our enemies (the world, the flesh, and the devil), who are always trying to drag us away from God’s will and into the pit of self-will? Four things.

1) Steering Straight

First, we have to keep our mind clear. We have to stay focused on the truths that our faith reveals to us: the truth of heaven and hell; the truth of where happiness resides (in communion with God); the truth of whose voice is dependable (the voice of the Church); the truth of our own weakness and wounded nature… Jesus put it simply: “… You will come to know the truth, and the truth will set you free” (John 8:32).

Our spiritual enemies obscure the truth. They hide part of it, or exaggerate another part of it. They put before our mind’s eye a false promise. We can only avoid being deceived if we are consciously, purposely, and regularly feeding our minds with the truth. If you are driving and take your hands off the steering wheel, what will happen? Sooner or later (probably sooner), the wheels will turn whichever way gravity, momentum, friction, and the road pulls them, and you will crash. You have to keep your hands on the wheel so as to keep heading in the right direction. You don’t necessarily have to grip the wheel with all your might (unless you are in the middle of a storm). You don’t necessarily even have to grip the wheel with both hands. But you have to keep steering, or the forces of entropy will steer you to destruction.

Keeping our minds clear is like keeping our hands on the steering wheel. We have to stay in touch with the sources of our faith: the Bible, the teaching of the Church, the writings of the saints and spiritual masters. It doesn’t necessarily mean that you spend four-and-a-half hours a day in the library. But it does mean finding and regularly dipping into the sources that explain our faith and apply it to our lives. It means finding dependable explanations of current events and issues, explanations that shed the light of God’s revelation on them. It means actively asking questions about what you believe and seeking the answers from trustworthy guides. It means study, reflection, discussion, and an active pursuit of deeper understanding. How sad it is to meet grown-up Catholics who know no more about their faith than they did when they received their first Communion as a child! How happy the devil is with such Catholics, because it’s so much easier for him to lead them astray with a skewed story on CNN about the Church, or an article in the New York Times, or a seductive work of spiritual distortion like The Da Vinci Code!

2) Keeping the Pedal to the Metal

Second, we have to keep our will in shape. We have all been wounded by original sin, and by our personal sins. And so we all can identify with St Paul when he says, “I do not understand my own behavior; I do not act as I mean to, but I do things that I hate” (Romans 7:15). Even when we know what our faith asks of us, we often find it hard to comply. The mind (the intellect) may see our destination clearly, but the will (our willpower) may resist (our enemies egg on this resistance). If we have our hands on the steering wheel, it does no good unless we also put our foot on the gas pedal.

Keeping the will in shape requires self-discipline and self-governance. I wish there were a shortcut, but there isn’t. We have to discipline ourselves: use a budget; follow a personal schedule; go to bed at a reasonable hour so as to get up at a reasonable hour; eat and exercise healthily; keep our stuff (room, car, house, office, garage…) clean and in order; avoid over-indulgence in entertainment; do chores; don’t get distracted at work; avoid procrastination… Everything your mother taught you when you were growing up was steeped in wisdom. An ordered life is the backbone of a healthy will. This type of self-discipline, because it requires self-denial, can also be a fruitful source of penance. Sometimes we are attracted by exotic penances, like climbing the Holy Stairs on our knees. Nothing wrong with that. But the warp and woof of spiritual maturity are the quite unromantic realities of constancy and hidden sacrifice. These strengthen us, so that we can say yes to whatever our faith asks of us, no matter how wily our enemies get. Remember, it’s an ongoing thing – we will never be perfect at this here on earth; we will always be tweaking, adjusting, and recovering from bouts of disorder and laziness, but if the effort is constant, the fruits will be too.

Of course, we have to stay balanced. Some personalities tend to revere order for order’s sake, and they go berserk at the slightest alteration in their schedule or plans. They are constantly on edge, lest they arrive two minutes late, or lest the dishes don’t get done right away. If you have one of those personalities, you need to form your will in the other direction, disciplining yourself to relax and be flexible, to forgive and bear with the faults and personalities of others, without compromising the essence of an ordered, purposeful life.

3) Keeping the Gas Tank Full

Third, we have to keep our spiritual gas tank full of God’s grace. Jesus made this amply clear: “I am the vine; you are the branches… With me, you can do nothing” (John 15:5). The Christian life is a supernatural life. We have to do our part, because God doesn’t want us to be robots – he wants us to be friends. But our part is never enough. His grace is the lifeblood of spiritual maturity, wisdom, and lasting happiness. If you have your hands firmly on the steering wheel and your foot on the accelerator, you still won’t go anywhere if the car is out of gas.

We tap into God’s grace through regular and conscientious participation in the sacraments, especially the Eucharist and confession (both of which make the devil furious and send him packing), and through prayer. And, in fact, a lively and growing life of prayer is the secret to a conscientious participation in the sacraments. If you aren’t cultivating a personal relationship with your Lord on a daily basis, listening for his words to you and speaking to him from your heart, even your sacramental life will begin to fall into routine. So your daily God-time is crucial. It is your lifeline. It is the one thing that you need to protect the most.

If you were the devil, you would do everything in your power to empty the gas tank of grace, wouldn’t you? Don’t let him. To this end, it is often helpful to be part of a small group (Bible study, prayer group, ecclesial movement…) that can supply some accountability in your spiritual commitments. Life in today’s world is just so busy, so noisy. It never has been easy to stay close to God all by oneself, and it is even harder now. To this end, we also need to take time for spiritual retreats, pilgrimages, and special liturgical celebrations. Our lives should be punctuated by objective encounters with God’s grace. That’s why he gave us the Church.

4) Don’t Be A Fool

Fourth, we need regular, strong doses of objectivity. In other words, we need to be told that we are fools, but God still loves us. The devil loves convincing people that their subjective point of view is sufficient for growth in holiness – they are called, eventually, heretics.

Do you remember the two disciples that abandoned the Apostles after Good Friday? They were walking home to Emmaus, and Jesus (now resurrected) fell in with them, but they didn’t recognize him. They told him all about the events of the Passion, and explained that they had been wrong (so they thought, subjectively) about Jesus being the Messiah, so now they were heading home to go back to their old lives. And Jesus’s first words to them were: “You foolish men!” He called them fools! And then he explained the bigger picture and put them back on track. It was the first spiritual direction after Christ’s resurrection. We need spiritual direction. Just as even the best athletes will never reach their full potential without a coach to push, guide, and motivate them, so we will never really get in spiritual gear if we try to direct ourselves. Which, by the way, is why we started this blog.

In conclusion, if someone tells you that spiritual warfare is irrelevant, you can confidently discard their input. And now I think you can see that yes, indeed, it is extremely useful for our spiritual growth to understand, and to reflect deeply upon, the reality and dynamics of spiritual warfare. I hope these posts have helped you to do that. Happy fighting.

Yours in Christ, Father John Bartunek, LC

Haiku to the Month of May

 

Month of May month of
sadness of cold rain showers
of lonely mothers

Of puzzled children
awaiting the good night kiss
that never comes to

them stolen from them
by he who gave the seed and
now is far away

Month of May go away
I hate you month of May, month
of heart break and tears

Get lost don't look back
Month of May month of
Pain

Video: Simply Catholic

 

Introduction to Spiritual Warfare - Part III

Author: Father John Bartunek, LC | Source: Catholic.net

We have looked briefly at the reality of spiritual warfare, not as a distant and dramatic mystical phenomenon, but as the basic dynamism of our everyday life (Part I). And we have identified, again briefly, the three enemies against which we fight these spiritual battles: the world (understood as the sinful patterns of behavior that society in a fallen world tends to normalize), the flesh (the innate tendencies of our fallen nature that draw us towards self-centered decisions and habits), and the devil.

The devil was the first enemy that Jesus mentioned in his parable of the sower. There is something to that. We mustn’t forget that the devil is real, that he and his minions (the other angels that joined his rebellion against God and became demons) are our opponents, “prowling around like a roaring lion looking for (someone) to devour,” as St Peter explained it (1 Peter 5:8).

The devil prowls around in at least three different ways.

Possession

His most dramatic modus operandi is demonic possession. This involves the devil’s inner control of the actions of the human body. It can be permanent or intermittent. The Gospels describe multiple cases of demonic possession. Even in these cases, the victims maintain their free will – the devil can never force us to sin. Usually possession occurs as the result of someone’s dabbling in occult or esoteric spiritual activities, or through a free descent towards progressively more decadent sinful activities. But sometimes a victim can have no culpability at all. The main objective of demonic possession is to terrorize the victim and cause suffering. It is a manifestation of the devil’s hatred for those whom God loves so thoroughly.

Obsession

His second-most dramatic mode of operation is demonic obsession. This involves attempting an external control of a victim’s body or senses. Obsession can at times be violent, leaving bruises and injuries (as in the case of St John Vianney, for example). More often it takes the form of an assault on a person’s powers of sight (disturbing visions), hearing (disturbing sounds), imagination (disturbing images), memory, or emotional equilibrium. The main objective of demonic obsession is to deceive the victim, wear them down spiritually, and induce sin.

Diabolical possession and obsession are real, and I am sure this very brief summary has sparked questions. To get answers, I highly recommend Fr. Gabriel Amorth’s book, An Exorcist Tells His Story. It is also available in audio format. Fr. Amorth was the long-time exorcist in the diocese of Rome. He wrote this book in accessible – not theological – language, precisely for normal Catholics.

Temptation

By far, however, the most common activity of the devil is simply temptation. The devil’s best allies are the other two enemies: our own fallen nature (the flesh), and the fallen world. Many times, those forces are sufficient to lead us into sin. They are especially sufficient when combined with our own self-centered habits, which most of us freely spend so much time perfecting during our childhood and youth.

But as we grow in our friendship with Christ, with the help of his grace, we also grow in virtue. The gifts of the Holy Spirit bolster our humble efforts to be courageous, patient, chaste, generous, wise, joyful, and self-forgetful. As we move towards or along this path of spiritual progress, or as we set out upon it, the devil will sometimes tempt us directly. He does this by intensifying (in our perception) the seductive attractions of the world, or by turbo-boosting the drives and the tug of the flesh.

Sometimes this activity is identifiable by its suddenness, violence, and persistence. But often the devil’s temptations are extremely subtle, barely discernible to our conscious mind. They usually consist in the devil’s putting an idea – a deceptive idea, a half-truth – in front of us. This deceptive, alluring idea is a hook that, if we latch onto it, will either draw us away from God’s will, or draw our attention away from something God is trying to tell us

Rather than giving specific examples of how this happens, I would like to point you to a resource that dramatizes the process with an entertaining and brilliant accuracy, C.S. Lewis’s classic, multi-generational bestseller, The Screwtape Letters. The book compiles thirty letters written from a senior devil to a junior devil about how to engage in the tricky game of tempting humans. And for those of you who do most of your “reading” with headphones on or while you’re driving, I can also recommend a compelling (and, again, entertaining) audio dramatization of that book, recently released by Focus on the Family Radio Theatre and available here (at a discount for our readers – see below!). If you have already read this book, I recommend that you re-read it every few years. Nothing I have found exposes the devil’s tempting tactics more thoroughly or more enjoyably.

Avoiding the Extremes

Whenever we talk or think (or read) about the devil, we have to be careful. It is dangerous for us to forget about him, but it is also dangerous for us to give him too much credit. It is not difficult for Jesus to keep the devil under control. The devil is a created being; God is the Creator. The devil must obey Jesus, and is actually fearful of souls who are in the state of grace. True, he prowls around like a roaring lion, looking to make us fall into his deceits and traps, so that he can devour us. But his activity is circumscribed by God’s wisdom and omnipotence.

We can avoid giving the devil too little or too much attention if we reflect on this number from the Catechism (#395), which sums things up nicely:

The power of Satan is, nonetheless, not infinite. He is only a creature, powerful from the fact that he is pure spirit, but still a creature. He cannot prevent the building up of God’s reign. Although Satan may act in the world out of hatred for God and his kingdom in Christ Jesus, and although his action may cause grave injuries – of a spiritual nature and, indirectly, even of a physical nature- to each man and to society, the action is permitted by divine providence which with strength and gentleness guides human and cosmic history. It is a great mystery that providence should permit diabolical activity, but “we know that in everything God works for good with those who love him.

We still have one more spiritual warfare related topic to cover: how to fight against our enemies. That, God willing, will be our next post.

Yours in Christ, Father John Bartunek, LC

On the Net:

For more questions and answers on the spiritual life, go to www.rcspiritualdirection.com/blog

Christianity was cradle of scientific revolution

As published in The Johnstown Tribune-Democrat

Recently, a contributor to the Readers’ Forum took issue against another reader’s cherished faith and confidence in the special creation of man by God. Although I do not subscribe to a literal interpretation of the creation stories as recorded in the Biblical book of Genesis, I think that the critic deserves a considered retort.

The reader stated, among other things, that “unlike religions that cling to antique foundations in ignorance and superstition, science advances as it investigates and learns about what it doesn’t know” and that the believer’s “omnificent creator needed legs to meander about collecting Adam’s dust, opposable thumbs to mold him, and two eyes for depth perception to get his proportions correct. Too bad these characteristics resulted from human evolution.”

He finished ponderously by saying “how dare (the believer) expect people, including the 4.5 billion non-Christians on the planet, to buy into (the believer’s) sanctimonious self-centeredness.”

These are the faint, local echoes of the rants and ravings of Christopher Hitchens, Richard Dawkins and other self-described “bright” thinkers reverberating throughout the Conemaugh Valley.

Let me point out that the atheist letter writer interprets the Bible in a more literal manner than any fundamentalist I’ve ever known. Even “Bible-literalists” understand that the Bible’s descriptions of God’s actions and being are adaptive and metaphorical.

Ironically, our atheist is more of a fundamentalist in his reading of the Bible than the real fundamentalists are.

Rather than cartooning believers, the atheist critic should ponder this question instead: Why did modern science arise in Europe and nowhere else?

The answer: Because the fusion and ideas that in Rome we made of Athens and Jerusalem enabled us to take a quantum leap in thought that other global cultural centers failed to make. From classical Greek philosophy we got the notion of a rational order of the universe and the conviction that humans had the ability to describe this order rationally.

From Jerusalem, we received the notion that God is not only a God of law, but also a rational lawgiver who enabled His law to exist outside himself into the universe.

These ideas were not necessarily congruent. It took a long period of intense and orderly thought to bring them together into a cogent knowledge system. This was done in the often-derided Middle Ages, where an innovation was invented to explore these very issues: The university.

The church invented the university and with it, scientific knowledge. Let’s not forget that.

Let’s place this singular achievement into a larger cultural context and compare it with the worldview of Christianity’s most serious competitor in the West: Islam and the civilization it spawned.

We’ll see that Christianity succeeded where Islam failed.

It’s commonly known that for much of the Middle Ages Europe lagged behind Islamic civilization in terms of science, mathematics and other mechanical arts, as well as quality of life. Then came the Renaissance and the roles were reversed.

Why? Because Christianity inspired early empirical researchers with a revolutionary idea: That the universe is intelligible, knowable and describable because God made it that way. In Islam, there’s no law apart from God, therefore Muslim mathematicians were unable to leap from geometry or trigonometry – descriptive mathematics – to calculus, a mathematical discipline dealing with infinitesimal, continuous change in real time that was able to describe the universe in ways that geometry and trigonometry couldn’t.

Muslim theology did not conceive of God acting in accordance with his own natural law and therefore, their science and mathematics floundered. Islam did not conceive of science beyond the merely descriptive. That’s why classical Islamic civilization spawned great astronomers but no astrophysicists. In the Christian West, calculus went on to change the world, along with the rest of Christian-inspired, Western-devised empirical science.

Atheist ideologues like Hitchens and Dawkins, along with their faint local echoes, mischaracterize Christianity’s contribution to the development of science. They offer poor caricatures of Christian ignorance in its stead. They reach their extreme conclusions through selective use of evidence, while conveniently ignoring the remaining bulk substantiating the intellectual Christian achievement enabling the development of modern science. Perhaps theirs is the hubris and sanctimoniousness that we all ought to question and then set aside as unworthy of our intellectual consideration, as we all seek to understand the universe more and make this world a better place.

New Book by Michael O’Brien: Harry Potter and the Paganization of Culture

Folks, I want to plug in the latest book by one of my favorite authors, the Canadian Michael O’Brien. The book’s title is Harry Potter and the Paganization of Culture. What’s this book is about, in Mr. O’Brien’s own words:

The public discussion about the phenomenal development of neopagan fantasy for young readers and film-goers has been curiously one-sided, lacking the tools of discernment that Christians normally employ when considering cultural material for their families. It is my hope that Harry Potter and the Paganization of Culture will broaden the parameters of the debate, as we examine in greater depth the right use and and the misuse of symbols, stories, and the life of the imagination.

The corruption of Christian civilization’s symbols is a centuries-old phenomenon, yet until the modern age the mutations and inversions, along with the making of new diabolic symbologies, remained on the fringes of society in secret societies and small esoteric cults. Now the culture of the cults is visible everywhere, and with the Harry Potter series is entering (and captivating) the mainstream. Through it, the corruption of symbols has moved to a new level of influence, and it has done so on a scale that is unprecedented in thehistory of literature.

If we lose the language of true symbolism, we lose at a basic level of consciousness our way of knowing things as they are. Symbols are not items in some storage room or attic of the psyche that we can take up and discard at will, or rearrange without consequences. To tamper with them is to destabilize the very foundations of the house. While most Christians would never knowingly exchange symbols of evil for symbols of good, many have accepted a new realm of eclectic symbology that allows a mixture of good and evil symbols to influence their thoughts and feelings. But two contradictory symbol worlds cannot long remain in a state of peaceful co-existence within us. Either one or the other will come to dominate and will eventually demand the expulsion of the other.

From the introduction by Bishop Julian Porteous, exorcist and auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of Sydney, Australia:

"The influence of the Harry Potter series is complex because the universe created in it is one of the occult, and it reveals an ambivalent morality at work. Like nature there are laws which govern the moral life. There is an objective moral order to the universe—parents instinctively know this. The fantasy world needs to reinforce the laws of the moral universe. Every human being engages in a moral journey, and it is important that each individual has good guideposts to help him find the way. This is particularly important in the early formation of children.

"I have long had serious reservations about the spiritual underpinning to the Harry Potter series. Like Michael O’Brien, I believe Catholic parents need to be alerted to the possible negative influences that these books can have on the moral and spiritual formation of their children. Any parent concerned about the formation of the character of their children should read this book."

Please pray that this book will help families to become more aware of the challenges involved in children’s and young adult’s cultural material, and will help them in their discernment. - Michael O’Brien

The book is available at the publisher, http://www.fidestraditio.com/ with free worldwide shipping.

Marriage is a vocation

Father Nicolas Schwizer

The most beautiful pages of the Bible are those which speak of the different calls from God (Exodus 3, Isaiah 6, Jeremiah 1, among others). “I have called you by your name.” He tells Isaiah. Likewise it was God who awakened love between the spouses. It was Jesus Christ who also said to his apostles “Come and follow Me.” In the same manner, spouses were called to follow Him. The difference was that they were called by two.

Every call implies that God is the one who chooses and assigns a determined task in benefit of others. God has called them to be an image of the Love of Christ for mankind…..to be the channel by which that love goes to the spouse, to the children, and to the entire world. From all eternity, He thought of them united (JR 1, 5). As members of a parish, of a Movement, this election and our apostolic vocation become ever more clear. He needs us in order to save families and to collaborate in the building of the Kingdom of God.

Every call is free, by no merits of its own. God chooses the small for great tasks. In this way also, we are aware of our smallness and our limitations so that our spousal love is a reflection of the love Christ has for His Church.

We also see our limitations in the task of educating and leading, as priests, our children to God. “Father, Lord of heaven and earth! I thank you because you have shown to the unlearned what you have hidden from the wise and learned” (MT 11, 25).

In every call, there is a personal encounter with Him who calls (JN 1, 35-51). Perhaps at the moment of our marriage we did not know of this call nor did we know Him who was calling us. We only saw the spouse. “Come and see” (JN 1, 39). Perhaps with the passing of time we have discovered Christ more deeply or we sense the greatness of the love of God in our lives.

For every call there is a response without losing time… (MT 21, 22), there are no more excuses; suddenly it does not coincide with our plans (MT 19, 16-26 the rich young man). Every call implies a radical and unconditional response.

Where the call is, the grace is also there. Every call brings with it a promise. The condition for fulfilling the promise is fidelity in trials and difficulties. We listen to the angel at the Annunciation: “Do not fear, Mary, for you have found favor with God…” What happens is that often we do not trust and we do not seek the sacramental grace of our marriage.

Marriage is a call to sanctity as a couple. “Come and follow Me.” In her thinking, the Church has still not changed her concept of married life as a way to sanctity. Father Kentenich, the Founder of the Schoenstatt Movement, strives against this mentality and invites us to develop a lay spirituality on the way to sanctity where married life, sexuality, work, and education of the children have a particular place. Marriage is a “superior school of love” and there should be a holy competition between those consecrated and those married… to see who arrives first to sanctity and to the fullness of love. Everything in marriage can be a way to sanctity.

On the other hand, all human love will sooner or later disillusion us and becomes a diving board which leads us to find a deeper shelter in God. For that, God places difficulties in our marriage… to educate us in love. There is much which has to be polished and much to which we must become unattached.

Questions for reflection

1. What does this text say to me?

2. Did I ever think of sanctity for two?

3. What is the value and the meaning of disillusions?

USCCB: Vatican Approves New Version of Roman Missal

Bishops to Decide When to Implement in Dioceses, Parishes

WASHINGTON—The Vatican has given its “recognitio,” or statement of acceptance, of the proposed U.S. version of the new edition of the Roman Missal. The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) now must decide when to authorize its use in dioceses and parishes in the United States.

In a letter from Cardinal Antonio Cañizares Llovera, Prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, dated  March 25, 2010,  (Protocol Number 269/10L)  the text of the English translation of the Roman Missal, third edition, has been approved with the required recognitio. 

In addition,a series of adaptations and proper texts for the Dioceses of the United States also has been approved. Cardinal Francis George, OMI of Chicago, USCCB President, was in Rome to attend meetings of the Vox Clara Committee, of which he is a member, and received the decrees personally.  The complete text of the Roman Missal is still undergoing final editing by Vatican officials. It is expected to be forwarded to Conferences of Bishops later this spring, at which time it will be prepared for publication. 

Bishop Arthur Serratelli, Chair of the Bishops’ Committee on Divine Worship, voiced gratitude for the approval.

“I am happy that after years of study and review, the Congregation for Divine Worship has concluded its work and provided us with a text that will enable the ongoing renewal of the celebration of the Sacred Liturgy in our parishes,” he said.

In the coming weeks, the USCCB Committee on Divine Worship will offer to Cardinal George its recommendation regarding the date of the implementation of the new translation. Once the final decision is made, Cardinal George will announce the date to the bishops. It is also expected that a suggested implementation timeline and process will be offered to the bishops for implementation within their dioceses.

The receipt of the recognitio marks the beginning of the proximate preparation for the implementation of the Roman Missal. During the time leading up to actual first Sunday of use of the new text, pastors are encouraged to make use of the wide variety of resources available to prepare parishioners for the reception of the new text.  Some of these resources have been made available already in the remote preparation, while others are being released now, including the Parish Guide for the Implementation of the Roman Missal, Third Edition, from USCCB Publishing.  In addition, the Office of Divine Worship has launched Website to provide up-to-date information about the Missal: www.USCCB.org/romanmissal.

Msgr. Anthony Sherman, Director of the USCCB Secretariat for Divine Worship, said work already is in progress so that priests and congregations will be prepared for the first substantial changes in the Mass in decades.

“A great effort to produce the new Roman Missal for the United States of America is underway now among the publishers of liturgical books, along with the other necessary resources by publishers of liturgical music and catechetical resources,” he said. “Even as that work is underway a full–scale implementation of catechesis for the new Missal should be taking place in the parishes, so that when the time comes, everyone will be ready.”

Currently the Office of Divine Worship is leading a series of workshops for clergy and diocesan leaders as a first step in preparation for the changes.

Source: USCCB