A Prophetic Utterance by Pope Benedict XVI

Folks, I break my blogfast for a moment to bring to you a clarification. Recently, I shared with you a post entitled Who shares blame for the child sexual abuse scandal in the Church? Liberal, Postmodern, Deconstructionist “thinkers” do. On that post I commented briefly on a recent  address the Holy Father made to the Roman Curia. I’ve just happened to read the whole thing and I have to say, it is worth your reading. It is prophetic, hard-hitting, and holds no punches. Please, read it here. I’m now back to my break.

Blogfast until January 1st

Folks, I’m at home, enjoying a vacation before what looks to be a most challenging New Year. Therefore, I’m going to take a blogging break until January 1st. I may be minimally active on my Twitter Page or on my Facebook Page, both of which I invite you to follow. Please, enjoy the contents already online and I wish all of you who have found me worthy of a read or two the best in the upcoming New Year of Our Lord, 2011.

Fr. John Harvey, Founder of the Courage Ministry, Called Home

I ask your prayers for the repose of the soul of Fr. John Harvey, OSFS, who died yesterday.

Fr. Harvey was the founder and director of Courage, a ministry to homosexuals to help them live chaste lives.

Fr. Harvey’s funeral arrangements:

WAKE:  9:30 am – 11:00 am
MASS:  11am
Followed by Burial on the grounds of the Oblate property and luncheon.
All will be held at the Oblate Community:
De Sales Oblate Community
1120 Blue Ball Road
Childs, MD  21916-0043
(410) 398-1334

Hat tip to Fr. John Zuhlsdorf.

We remember today the Holy Innocents, First Martyrs

Even before they learn to speak, they proclaim Christ

The Holy Innocents: that's the name traditional Catholic piety uses to refer to the children, 2 years and under, that Herod killed in Bethlehem, hoping by this to also kill the Christ Child. Eastern iconography portrays the event as "Rachel Weeping for Her Children," a reference to the Prophet Jeremiah (3:15-17) also echoed in St. Matthew's Gospel (2:16-18):

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.

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)

Finally, the antiphon to the Benedictus in today's Morning Prayer is most eloquent:

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.

Today we remember St. John, Apostle and Evangelist

Source: American Catholic – Saint of the Day

It is God who calls; human beings answer. The vocation of John and his brother James is stated very simply in the Gospels, along with that of Peter and his brother Andrew: Jesus called them; they followed. The absoluteness of their response is indicated by the account. James and John “were in a boat, with their father Zebedee, mending their nets. He called them, and immediately they left their boat and their father and followed him” (Matthew 4:21b-22).

For the three former fishermen—Peter, James and John—that faith was to be rewarded by a special friendship with Jesus. They alone were privileged to be present at the Transfiguration, the raising of the daughter of Jairus and the agony in Gethsemane. But John’s friendship was even more special. Tradition assigns to him the Fourth Gospel, although most modern Scripture scholars think it unlikely that the apostle and the evangelist are the same person.

John’s own Gospel refers to him as “the disciple whom Jesus loved” (see John 13:23; 19:26; 20:2), the one who reclined next to Jesus at the Last Supper, and the one to whom he gave the exquisite honor, as he stood beneath the cross, of caring for his mother. “Woman, behold your son....Behold, your mother” (John 19:26b, 27b).

Because of the depth of his Gospel, John is usually thought of as the eagle of theology, soaring in high regions that other writers did not enter. But the ever-frank Gospels reveal some very human traits. Jesus gave James and John the nickname, “sons of thunder.” While it is difficult to know exactly what this meant, a clue is given in two incidents.

In the first, as Matthew tells it, their mother asked that they might sit in the places of honor in Jesus’ kingdom—one on his right hand, one on his left. When Jesus asked them if they could drink the cup he would drink and be baptized with his baptism of pain, they blithely answered, “We can!” Jesus said that they would indeed share his cup, but that sitting at his right hand was not his to give. It was for those to whom it had been reserved by the Father. The other apostles were indignant at the mistaken ambition of the brothers, and Jesus took the occasion to teach them the true nature of authority: “...[W]hoever wishes to be first among you shall be your slave. Just so, the Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many” (Matthew 20:27-28).

On another occasion the “sons of thunder” asked Jesus if they should not call down fire from heaven upon the inhospitable Samaritans, who would not welcome Jesus because he was on his way to Jerusalem. But Jesus “turned and rebuked them” (see Luke 9:51-55).

On the first Easter, Mary Magdalene “ran and went to Simon Peter and to the other disciple whom Jesus loved, and told them, ‘They have taken the Lord from the tomb, and we don’t know where they put him’” (John 20:2). John recalls, perhaps with a smile, that he and Peter ran side by side, but then “the other disciple ran faster than Peter and arrived at the tomb first” (John 20:4b). He did not enter, but waited for Peter and let him go in first. “Then the other disciple also went in, the one who had arrived at the tomb first, and he saw and believed” (John 20:8).

John was with Peter when the first great miracle after the Resurrection took place—the cure of the man crippled from birth—which led to their spending the night in jail together. The mysterious experience of the Resurrection is perhaps best contained in the words of Acts: “Observing the boldness of Peter and John and perceiving them to be uneducated, ordinary men, they [the questioners] were amazed, and they recognized them as the companions of Jesus” (Acts 4:13).

The Apostle John is traditionally considered the author of the Fourth Gospel, three New Testament letters and the Book of Revelation. His Gospel is a very personal account. He sees the glorious and divine Jesus already in the incidents of his mortal life. At the Last Supper, John’s Jesus speaks as if he were already in heaven. It is the Gospel of Jesus’ glory.

From the Orthodox Sinaxarion:

The Holy, Glorious All-laudable Apostle and Evangelist, Virgin, and Beloved Friend of Christ, John the Theologian was the son of Zebedee and Salome, a daughter of St Joseph the Betrothed. He was called by our Lord Jesus Christ to be one of His Apostles at the same time as his elder brother James. This took place at Lake Gennesareth (i.e. the Sea of Galilee). Leaving behind their father, both brothers followed the Lord.

The Apostle John was especially loved by the Savior for his sacrificial love and his virginal purity. After his calling, the Apostle John did not part from the Lord, and he was one of the three apostles who were particularly close to Him. St John the Theologian was present when the Lord restored the daughter of Jairus to life, and he was a witness to the Transfiguration of the Lord on Mount Tabor.

During the Last Supper, he reclined next to the Lord, and laid his head upon His breast. He also asked the name of the Savior's betrayer. The Apostle John followed after the Lord when they led Him bound from the Garden of Gethsemane to the court of the iniquitous High Priests Annas and Caiphas. He was there in the courtyard of the High Priest during the interrogations of his Teacher and he resolutely followed after him on the way to Golgotha, grieving with all his heart.

At the foot of the Cross he stood with the Mother of God and heard the words of the Crucified Lord addressed to Her from the Cross: "Woman, behold Thy son." Then the Lord said to him, "Behold thy Mother" (John 19:26-27). From that moment the Apostle John, like a loving son, concerned himself over the Most Holy Virgin Mary, and he served Her until Her Dormition.

After the Dormition of the Mother of God the Apostle John went to Ephesus and other cities of Asia Minor to preach the Gospel, taking with him his own disciple Prochorus. They boarded a ship, which floundered during a terrible tempest. All the travellers were cast up upon dry ground, and only the Apostle John remained in the depths of the sea. Prochorus wept bitterly, bereft of his spiritual father and guide, and he went on towards Ephesus alone.

On the fourteenth day of his journey he stood at the shore of the sea and saw that the waves had cast a man ashore. Going up to him, he recognized the Apostle John, whom the Lord had preserved alive for fourteen days in the sea. Teacher and disciple went to Ephesus, where the Apostle John preached incessantly to the pagans about Christ. His preaching was accompanied by such numerous and great miracles, that the number of believers increased with each day.

During this time there had begun a persecution of Christians under the emperor Nero (56-68). They took the Apostle John for trial at Rome. St John was sentenced to death for his confession of faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, but the Lord preserved His chosen one. The apostle drank a cup of deadly poison, but he remained alive. Later, he emerged unharmed from a cauldron of boiling oil into which he had been thrown on orders from the torturer.

After this, they sent the Apostle John off to imprisonment to the island of Patmos, where he spent many years. Proceeding along on his way to the place of exile, St John worked many miracles. On the island of Patmos, his preaching and miracles attracted to him all the inhabitants of the island, and he enlightened them with the light of the Gospel. He cast out many devils from the pagan temples, and he healed a great multitude of the sick.

Sorcerers with demonic powers showed great hostility to the preaching of the holy apostle. He especially frightened the chief sorcerer of them all, named Kinops, who boasted that they would destroy the apostle. But the great John, by the grace of God acting through him, destroyed all the demonic artifices to which Kinops resorted, and the haughty sorcerer perished in the depths of the sea.

The Apostle John withdrew with his disciple Prochorus to a desolate height, where he imposed upon himself a three-day fast. As St John prayed the earth quaked and thunder rumbled. Prochorus fell to the ground in fright. The Apostle John lifted him up and told him to write down what he was about to say. "I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end, saith the Lord, Who is and Who was and Who is to come, the Almighty" (Rev 1:8), proclaimed the Spirit of God through the Apostle John. Thus in about the year 67 the Book of Revelation was written, known also as the "Apocalypse," of the holy Apostle John the Theologian. In this Book were predictions of the tribulations of the Church and of the end of the world.

After his prolonged exile, the Apostle John received his freedom and returned to Ephesus, where he continued with his activity, instructing Christians to guard against false teachers and their erroneous teachings. In the year 95, the Apostle John wrote his Gospel at Ephesus. He called for all Christians to love the Lord and one another, and by this to fulfill the commands of Christ. The Church calls St John the "Apostle of Love", since he constantly taught that without love man cannot come near to God.

In his three Epistles, St John speaks of the significance of love for God and for neighbor. Already in his old age, he learned of a youth who had strayed from the true path to follow the leader of a band of robbers, so St John went out into the wilderness to seek him. Seeing the holy Elder, the guilty one tried to hide himself, but the Apostle John ran after him and besought him to stop. He promised to take the sins of the youth upon himself, if only he would repent and not bring ruin upon his soul. Shaken by the intense love of the holy Elder, the youth actually did repent and turn his life around.

St John when he was more than a hundred years old. he far outlived the other eyewitnesses of the Lord, and for a long time he remained the only remaining eyewitness of the earthly life of the Savior.

When it was time for the departure of the Apostle John, he went out beyond the city limits of Ephesus with the families of his disciples. He bade them prepare for him a cross-shaped grave, in which he lay, telling his disciples that they should cover him over with the soil. The disciples tearfully kissed their beloved teacher, but not wanting to be disobedient, they fulfilled his bidding. They covered the face of the saint with a cloth and filled in the grave. Learning of this, other disciples of St John came to the place of his burial. When they opened the grave, they found it empty.

Each year from the grave of the holy Apostle John on May 8 came forth a fine dust, which believers gathered up and were healed of sicknesses by it. Therefore, the Church also celebrates the memory of the holy Apostle John the Theologian on May 8.

The Lord bestowed on His beloved disciple John and John's brother James the name "Sons of Thunder" as an awesome messenger in its cleansing power of the heavenly fire. And precisely by this the Savior pointed out the flaming, fiery, sacrificial character of Christian love, the preacher of which was the Apostle John the Theologian. The eagle, symbol of the lofty heights of his theological thought, is the iconographic symbol of the Evangelist John the Theologian. The appellation "Theologian" is bestowed by Holy Church only to St John among the immediate disciples and Apostles of Christ, as being the seer of the mysterious Judgments of God.

• More information at the Catholic Encyclopedia.

Church Documents on Families

In observance of Holy Family Sunday, I share with you the following pontifical resources on the family.

• "Twenty years since 'Familiaris Consortio': The Anthropological and Pastoral Dimension" -- Pontifical Council for the Family Conclusions of the Theological-Pastoral Congress (December 20, 2001)
• Message on Familiaris Consortio -- 20th Anniversary (November 22, 2001)
• Preparation for the Sacrament of Marriage -- Pontifical Council for the Family (May 13, 1996)
• The Truth and Meaning of Human Sexuality -- Guidelines for Education within the Family - Pontifical Council for the Family (December 8, 1995)
• The Pastoral Care of the Family -- Message to Pontifical Council on the Family 1992
• Charter of the Rights of the Family -- Pontifical Council on the Family (1983)
• Familiaris Consortio -- On the Christian Family - Apostolic Exhortation, 1981

Today’s the Feast of the Holy Family

From Today’s Office of Readings
An address given at Nazareth by Pope Paul VI

The example of Nazareth

Nazareth is a kind of school where we may begin to discover what Christ’s life was like and even to understand his Gospel. Here we can observe and ponder the simple appeal of the way God’s Son came to be known, profound yet full of hidden meaning. And gradually we may even learn to imitate him.

  Here we can learn to realise who Christ really is. And here we can sense and take account of the conditions and circumstances that surrounded and affected his life on earth: the places, the tenor of the times, the culture, the language, religious customs, in brief, everything which Jesus used to make himself known to the world. Here everything speaks to us, everything has meaning. Here we can learn the importance of spiritual discipline for all who wish to follow Christ and to live by the teachings of his Gospel.

  How I would like to return to my childhood and attend the simple yet profound school that is Nazareth! How wonderful to be close to Mary, learning again the lesson of the true meaning of life, learning again God’s truths. But here we are only on pilgrimage. Time presses and I must set aside my desire to stay and carry on my education in the Gospel, for that education is never finished. But I cannot leave without recalling, briefly and in passing; some thoughts I take with me from Nazareth.

  First, we learn from its silence. If only we could once again appreciate its great value. We need this wonderful state of mind, beset as we are by the cacophony of strident protests and conflicting claims so characteristic of these turbulent times. The silence of Nazareth should teach us how to meditate in peace and quiet, to reflect on the deeply spiritual, and to be open to the voice of God’s inner wisdom and the counsel of his true teachers. Nazareth can teach us the value of study and preparation, of meditation, of a well-ordered personal spiritual life, and of silent prayer that is known only to God.

  Second, we learn about family life. May Nazareth serve as a model of what the family should be. May it show us the family’s holy and enduring character and exemplify its basic function in society: a community of love and sharing, beautiful for the problems it poses and the rewards it brings, in sum, the perfect setting for rearing children – and for this there is no substitute.

  Finally, in Nazareth, the home of a craftsman’s son, we learn about work and the discipline it entails. I would especially like to recognise its value – demanding yet redeeming – and to give it proper respect. I would remind everyone that work has its own dignity. On the other hand, it is not an end in itself. Its value and free character, however, derive not only from its place in the economic system, as they say, but rather from the purpose it serves.

  In closing, may I express my deep regard for people everywhere who work for a living. To them I would point out their great model, Christ their brother, our Lord and God, who is their prophet in every cause that promotes their well being.

Source: Universalis.com

Gaudete! Christus Natus Est!

The Christmas Kalend or Proclamation

In the year 5199 from the creation of the world, from the beginning, when God created the heavens and the earth; 2,957 years from the flood; 2,015 years from the birth of Abraham; 1,510 years from Moses and the Exodus of Israel from Egypt; 1,031 years from the anointment of David as king; in the 65th week of Daniel's prophecy; in the 194th Olympiad; in the year 752 of the foundation of Rome; in the year 42 of the reign of Octavius Augustus; the whole world being at peace; in the sixth age of the world: Jesus Christ, eternal God and eternal Son of the Father; wishing to consecrate the world through his most merciful Advent, having being conceived of the Holy Spirit, and having passed 9 months from his conception, He was born, He was made Man, from the Virgin Mary, in Bethlehem of Judah.

We wish you all a happy and blessed Christmas Day!

Strong Quake in Puerto Rico

Folks, this according to CNN:

(CNN) -- A magnitude 5.1 earthquake hit Puerto Rico on Friday, rattling residents but causing no immediate reports of damage.

The U.S. Geological Survey said the quake, which occurred at 7:43 p.m. (6:43 p.m. ET), stuck about 15 miles (25 kilometers) south of San Juan. It was some 64 miles deep, the USGS said.

There were no immediate reports of damage or injuries.

A Federal Aviation Administration official said the international airport in San Juan was open and operating normally.

"It lasted about 30 seconds and felt hard. Some guests did get a little scared," said Venus Nevarez, an employee at the El San Juan Hotel and Casino. She said nothing broke and that all the guests were fine.

Commentary. This is the second quake that shakes Puerto Rico in 2010. The previous one took place last May. That one resulted in some minor damage. This one apparently scared a lot of people. Let us pray for Puerto Rico and my fellow Boricuas there. May the Lord bless the Island of my birth this Christmas and grant that land and its people peace in the new year.

NPR: Dominicans Nuns of Saint Cecilia Thriving

Folks, paraphrasing Nina Totenberg, I sometimes listen to, pardon the expression, NPR. Yesterday I was glad to do so, as I listened to For These Young Nuns, Habits Are The New Radical. This is an excerpt and a picture:

For the most part, these are grim days for Catholic nuns. Convents are closing, nuns are aging and there are relatively few new recruits. But something startling is happening in Nashville, Tenn. The Dominican Sisters of St. Cecilia are seeing a boom in new young sisters: Twenty-seven joined this year and 90 entered over the past five years.

The average of new entrants here is 23. And overall, the average age of the Nashville Dominicans is 36 — four decades younger than the average nun nationwide.

Unlike many older sisters in previous generations, who wear street clothes and live alone, the Nashville Dominicans wear traditional habits and adhere to a strict life of prayer, teaching and silence.

They enter the chapel without saying a word, the swish of their long white habits the only sound. It is 5:30 in the morning, pitch black outside — but inside, the chapel is candescent as more than 150 women kneel and pray and fill the soaring sanctuary with their ghostly songs of praise.

A few elderly sisters sit in wheelchairs, but most of these sisters have unlined faces and are bursting with energy. Watching them, you wonder what would coax these young women to a strict life of prayer, teaching, study and silence.

You must read or better still, listen to the whole thing here.

Commentary. Why are these orders thriving when these are waning? Check out the picture below.

Where are the young sisters playing basketball?

Others have identified the causes of the decay of women consecrated life in the US in a more energetic, sharper way, like my friends at CatholicTV.com. I acknowledge the truth of that effort if not the tone, but that’s a personal preference.

Anyway, part of the reasons why the Apostolic Visitation of Institutes of Women Religious in the United States is taking place, is to ascertain why these women’s congregations are tanking. Check out their FAQ file for more information. Of course, many sisters from the old guard (like Joan Chittister) oppose the visitation, constantly carping and sniping against in order to undermine and delegitimize the Apostolic Visitation. Other orders have refused to answer the questionnaire, sending “respectful” copies of their Constitutions instead. Those who sisters who dare to be faithful and deviate from the party-line, are sidelined.

Archbishop Joseph Tobin, Secretary of the Vatican’s Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life, seems to have taken a stance favoring the liberal nuns. In an interview with the National Catholic Reporter, Archbishop Tobin commented on “how badly this thing has gone down” and that  “Rome must acknowledge the ‘depth of anger and hurt, provike by the Visitation, saying it illustrates the need for a ‘strategy of reconciliation’ with women religious.” The comments have greatly disheartened orthodox sisters and lay people who now question the value of the Visitation after all the trouble.

Not all is a loss. If you are an observant, orthodox Catholic, religious-vowed woman, who has been sidelined by your sisters inspired by “the spirit of Vatican II,” and wish to contact other holy women in a similar situation, Providence has provided. Sign up for the Sisters Supporting Apostolic Visitation Yahoo Group, meet other godly women, seek mutual support, and be edified.

Don’t worry, dear sisters, He has overcome the world, you will overcome the world too.

P.S. I also want to greet my cousin, Sr. María Cecilia, OP, of the Dominican Sisters of Fátima in Puerto Rico (pictured right), for her utter dedication to a fruitful vocation among those most in need while remaining faithful to the Rule of St. Dominic and the Constitutions of her congregation. I love you, Sr. Cecilia. Thank you for giving yourself to Jesus totally!

Who shares blame for the child sexual abuse scandal in the Church? Liberal, Postmodern, Deconstructionist “thinkers” do.

Folks, this according to the Catholic League:

POPE BLAMES PRO-PEDOPHILIA CROWD
December 21, 2010

In his Christmas address yesterday, Pope Benedict XVI chastised priests who have molested minors, saying it had reached an "unimaginable dimension." He also tried to put the problem in a broader context, and for this he has been condemned. The pope said, "In the 1970s, pedophilia was theorized as something fully in conformity with man and even with children. It was maintained—even within the realm of Catholic theology—that there is no such thing as evil in itself or good in itself."

Among those condemning the pope is Sinead O'Connor. "Exactly who held the theory that pedophilia was fully in conformity with man and with children? Please give us their names."

Catholic League president Bill Donohue answered O'Connor today:

You want names? Here they are: Michel Foucault, Jacques Derrida, Louis Althusser, Jean-Paul Satre, Simone de Beauvoir, André Glucksmann, Roland Barthes. All of these French intellectuals—and there are many more—signed a petition in 1977 demanding that all the laws on sex between adults and minors be stricken. Years earlier, in the U.S., Alfred Kinsey justified pedophilia, claiming that "the current hysteria over sex offenders" was detrimental to child development. So did his colleague, Wardell Pomeroy. Moreover, many other writers and activists have expressed a tolerance for pederasty that is extremely dangerous. They include Larry Kramer, Camille Paglia, Allen Ginsberg and John Money. And, of course, NAMBLA is expressly organized to further the cause of man-boy sex. So commonplace is this perversion that some scholars use the term "BLs" to refer to "Boy Lovers."

The Holy Father was not wrong about some Catholic theological circles getting caught up in this insanity. In the 1970s—the pope was right about the decade—under the auspices of the Catholic Theological Society, Anthony Kosnick's book Human Sexuality was published. Adopted by some seminaries at the time, it sought increased tolerance for every conceivable sexual deviancy. In other words, the pope got it right.

Commentary. Some make sure that Miss O’Connor – who once ripped Pope John Paul the Great’s picture during a Saturday Night Live showing – receives the answer to her question. Remember the names: Michel Foucault, Jacques Derrida, Louis Althusser, Jean-Paul Satre, Simone de Beauvoir, André Glucksmann, Roland Barthes, Alfred Kinsey, and Wardell Pomeroy; Larry Kramer, Camille Paglia, Allen Ginsberg , John Money and Catholic “moral theologian” Anthony Kosnick. They are all the architects and cultural enablers of the child sexual abuse scandal in the Church, and beyond. They were part of that ugly smoke of Satan that crept into the Church in the 50’s, 60’s and 70’s.

• Lee esta entrada en español

Nina Totenberg Apologizes For Saying 'Christmas' (VIDEO)

I have a confession to make. Some times I listen to, pardon the expression­, NPR.

Hers is another gratuitous insult to Christians by a member of the chattering classes.

Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Back in October, in the midst of the Juan Williams firing fiasco, she had this to say:

Some conservative commentators are ripping into NPR for hypocrisy in the termination of former news analyst Juan Williams — specifically pointing to 15-year-old remarks by legal affairs correspondent Nina Totenberg in which she appeared to wish harm to befall the late Senator Jesse Helms.

When I spoke with her earlier today, Totenberg called her comments "dumb" and read from letters she had sent over the years saying so in reply to complaints about those remarks.

"It taught me a lesson about being careful," Totenberg said. "I haven't said anything that stupid on the air in 15 years."

Uh, tsk tsk. Not any more. She has topped herself.

Lectio Divina and the Practice of Teresian Prayer

Introduction

To approach the subject of Teresian prayer (that is, prayer after the pattern of St. Teresa of Avila) we need a broad perspective. This is necessary, although perhaps surprising, because there is no distinctively Teresian way to pray. There is not even a uniquely Carmelite way to pray. Carmel’s spirituality is rooted in the greater tradition of lectio divina (literally, divine reading), a particular way of reading and praying over the Scriptures. This is why we read at the very heart of the Carmelite Rule of St. Albert: Each one of you is to stay in his own cell or nearby, pondering the Law of the Lord [i.e., sacred Scripture] day and night and keeping watch at his prayers unless attending to some other duty (Rule, no. 8).

Pondering sacred Scripture was the way the early monks, the desert fathers and mothers, and in fact the people of the bible, prayed. And the monks developed a traditional method for doing that, the ingredients of which we find rehearsed in John of the Cross when he writes: Seek in reading and you will find in meditation; knock in prayer and it will be opened to you in contemplation (Sayings, #158). [1]

We will see how those four elements of lectio perfectly serve Teresian prayer, or better said, how the Teresian approach to prayer serves lectio. But let us first examine some underlying Teresian notions and principles, looking at Teresa's methods and her preferred prayer orientation, as well as her understanding of the goals of prayer. All of these might be called Teresian attitudes, wonderfully helpful attitudes that enrich the monastic tradition of prayer and can broaden contemporary approaches to prayer.

Teresian Notions

Mental Prayer.

Teresa's understanding of prayer is a good place to begin. We may simply recall what she says about prayer in chapter eight of her autobiography: Mental prayer in my opinion is nothing else than an intimate sharing between friends; it means taking time frequently to be alone with him who we know loves us (Life, 8, 5). [2]

This puts prayer in the category of friendship. Clearly, it is God who has initiated the friendship; thus personal prayer is a response to a love already shown us by the God of revelation. One goes to prayer as to someone whose love for us is assured; the one praying answers the voice of benevolence and love in return. This implies that prayer is an art to be cultivated, for it requires often setting time aside to attend to the friend. As we shall see, the friend is Jesus Christ, the center of the entire Teresian system.

Please continue reading here. (It is a PDF file so you’ll need Adobe Acrobat Reader to open it.)

Copyright Washington Province of Discalced Carmelites, ICS Publications. Permission is hereby granted for any non-commercial use, if this copyright notice is included.

Wikileaks: Ye hypocrites, ye race of vipers

Folks, I can't let this one pass. According to The Atlantic Wire:

In a move that historians may record as among the most audacious and least self-aware complaint of all time, lawyers for WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange have loudly condemned the leaking of secret government documents pertaining to the rape charges against Assange. Swedish police files about the case against Assange were leaked to the Guardian, the same newspaper to which Assange recently leaked thousands of classified U.S. State Department cables.

The lawyers for Assange, who describes himself as an activist for "radical transparency," complain that the leaked police files unfairly damage Assange and make his legal defense more difficult. Assange's representatives are especially angered by what they call the political motivations behind the leak -- the same charge many critics have leveled against WikiLeaks.

Read it all here

Commentary. Let me see. Ahem. Ye hypocrites, ye race of vipers, ye white-washed tombs. So now there's such a thing as information that must be protected and kept confidential? No sunshine for Assange? I am sorry, but I will show to this poetic-justice leak the same concern Assange showed to my comrades in arms when he released all those tactical reports from Afghanistan and Iraq last summer. Which is to say, none.

Screwtape must be cheering

But not for long…

Folks, I’ve been rereading C.S. Lewis’ The Screwtape Letters and I found again these comments made by the senior tempter Screwtape to his charge, the apprentice demon Wormwood:

I have great hopes that we shall learn in time how to emotionalise and mythologise their science to such an extent that what is, in effect, a belief in us (though not under that name) will creep in while the human mind remains closed to belief in the Enemy. The 'Life Force', the worship of sex, and some aspects of Psychoanalysis, may here prove useful. If once we can produce our perfect work-the Materialist Magician, the man, not using, but veritably worshipping, what he vaguely calls "Forces” while denying the existence of “spirits” – then the end of  the war will be in sight.

I think that the demons have achieved this goal in our day with great success. From physicist Stephen Hawking’s recent pontification to the effect that the origin of the universe needs of no further explanation other than gravity, to the existence of this “Church of Jeddism”, human science has been effectively emotionalized just as Lewis foresaw. It has, in fact, become our new mythos draped in an ersatz, Hollywood-made, mysticism. The denial of God has led to the practical denial of reason, not solely among the general populace as atheists would have us believe, but across the culture, from the pinnacle of their thinkers all the way through the man on the street.

The denial of reason and the worshipping of “forces” has yielded a complete inversion of moral values underlying the decadence of the post-Christian West: abortion is good, resisting it evil; homosexual behavior is a valid, worthy lifestyle and to question it earns ridicule to the skeptic and the label of “bigot”; euthanasia is called “death with dignity”; a crucifix submerged in urine or covered by ants is called “art” while a crèche in a public space is termed a violation of the “separation” of church and state, a separation that should not be interpreted as stopping the state from dictating secular antivalues to church-sponsored hospitals.  The same “forces” motivates those who warn direly of the effects of global warming and climate change while neglecting the needs of the human heart, and so it goes, ad nauseam.

However, note that in Lewis’ fable, the senior demon declares that when science is thoroughly emotionalized and mythologized, “the end of the war will be in sight.” This is true, but not in the way the literary demon conceived this “end of the war.”

For you see, they have been defeated already; the devils, their willing minions, and their useful fools. The Babe of Bethlehem squashed the serpent’s head on the Cross. The victory has been won, the line on the sand, drawn and through it, evil shan’t pass. Remember these Good News this Christmas Day, as we start another year in which we are to give testimony of the salvation brought to us by the life, words, deeds, passion, death, and resurrection of Our Lord Jesus Christ.

Read The Screwtape Letters by C.S Lewis

Fourth Sunday of Advent, AD 2010

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)

Mission: Family

Fr. Nicolas Schwizer

If we want to take being missionaries seriously, we have to begin in our own home…..renewing and evangelizing our own family. Now then, why is the family a challenge today, why is it mission territory?

1. Because the family is in crisis today! The growing deterioration of the natural family is one of the most alarming problems in society today: divorces, separations, conflicts and family break-ups, absent fathers, single mothers, abandoned children and adolescents. Because it is difficult for today’s man/woman to grow toward a healthy, mature and generous love, the basic family attachments begin to dissolve.

And we know how tragic the consequences of all of these are for the healthy growth of our youths, for their psychological stability, their affective maturity and their religious experience.

2. The first experiences of love. The greatest importance of the family consists in that the family is the place where the first and the most unforgettable love attachments are experienced. Without the experiences in infancy, it will be difficult to be disposed to pay the hard price required by the apprenticeship of love and personal attachment: generosity, confidence, respect, understanding and fidelity.

It is true that the most important love for man/woman is the love for God. Nevertheless, to be able to love God, it is necessary – normally – to have first discovered the value of human love because God is love and we cannot reach out to Him if we have not been prepared through experiences of family love. For that reason, Father Joseph Kentenich, founder of the Schoenstatt Movement believes that the growth of atheism and the destruction of the family, march along hand-in-hand because – for many persons – the vital access to the world of God has been hindered for them by family traumas.

We can say that our most decisive contribution for the religious formation of our children does not take place through our teachings or testimonies of faith, but through the experiences of family love which we can offer them. As parents, we begin to lead our children toward God when we begin to love them.

3. The family is the foundation and sign of the Church. The Church is generated from each Christian home as a community and school of faith; therefore, it is given the title of “church in miniature” or “domestic church.”

Through the Sacrament, each Christian marriage should be a transparency and witness of the love of Christ for his Church. Each couple receives the mission to reflect in their life the generous, faithful, fruitful and heroic love of Christ. But it is not easy to achieve in our families the living presence of the Lord. It is not easy to evangelize our families; for example, fostering prayer in common, frequenting the Sacraments, Biblical or spiritual reading, a religious atmosphere, Christian customs…

4. Mary’s home in Nazareth represents the model of all Christian homes. There, Jesus was the center and his presence filled the entire life of the small family. The divine and the human meshed into a perfect harmony. For Mary, conversing with her Son-God was already praying.

Of course, this represented an exceptional situation – impossible of imitating. Nevertheless, Mary can and wants to educate our families today according to the spirit of Nazareth. And it is urgent that She do so because in proportion to the measure in which the exterior atmosphere becomes less Christian, the importance of the Christian family as a school of faith doubles. It is no longer evident that the children – by having been baptized – will always conserve the faith.

In the future, only those parents who have consciously made their homes a reflection of the home in Nazareth will be able to trust in having an influence of faith…..long-lasting and profound, in the hearts of their children.

Questions for reflection

1. How can I contribute to this family mission?

2. Am I on the battlefield or am I a simple spectator?

3. Am I aware that I have a divine mission as a member of my family?

Is awareness of the “endtimes” increasing in our culture?

“Endtimes” mentions in English and Spanish publications scanned by Google increasing since 1978.

Folks, perhaps you are already aware of Google’s newest tool, the Books Ngram Viewer. According to its creators, the viewer is a “corpus of digitized texts containing about 4% of all books ever printed”, enabling users to “investigate cultural trends quantitatively…focusing on linguistic and cultural phenomena reflected in the English language between 1800 and 2000.” The approach provides “insights about fields as diverse as lexicography, the evolution of grammar, collective memory, the adoption of technology, the pursuit of fame, censorship, and historical epidemiology.” They call this study, “Culturomics,” a tool that  “extends the boundaries of rigorous quantitative inquiry to a wide array of new phenomena spanning the social sciences and the humanities.” You may read a very insightful article about the tool here. I warn you, if you are a geek, you may find this tool addictive.

I ran several concepts before settling on the word “endtimes”, which is of relatively new vintage in English – when compared to “doomsday” – and this is what I got.

Please, click on the image to enlarge it.

The word had basically zero mentions in 1978, then climbed steadily until 2002, decreased a little until 2007, and then rose a bit in 2008, the last year for which data are available.

Of course, this might be due to several factors, like the publishing of Hal Lindsey’s bestseller The Late Great Planet Earth, the Left Behind novels, peaking in 2002 just after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. Mentions decreased a little since then but seem to be increasing again, but it is too early to establish a trend and we lack data for the last two years. A search for the equivalent phrase in Spanish, “fin del mundo”, yielded this graph:

Again, please on the graphic to see it larger.

Of course, these data must be interpreted with care and we should be careful not to read a lot into them. I will limit myself to state the obvious: preoccupation with the endtimes and the end of the world” seems to have been increasing among English and Spanish writers since the 1970s, therefore, these usages represent cultural markers of a sort.

Want to run your own experiment in the Books Ngram Viewer? Run the following words in the database by themselves or together (separated by commas) and see what you come up with:

• doomsday
• groovy
• marijuna
• cocaine
• heroin
• vampires
• ice cream
• yogurt

Have fun!

The time has come to pray the "O" Antiphons

(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).

The "Christmas as Pagan Festival" Myth

Folks, there's a great piece by William J. Tighe published by St George Greek Orthodox Church of Prescott via my friend's blog, Orthocath. The article's entitled Calculating Christmas and this is how it starts:

Many Christians think that Christians celebrate Christ’s birth on December 25th because the church fathers appropriated the date of a pagan festival. Almost no one minds, except for a few groups on the fringes of American Evangelicalism, who seem to think that this makes Christmas itself a pagan festival. But it is perhaps interesting to know that the choice of December 25th is the result of attempts among the earliest Christians to figure out the date of Jesus’ birth based on calendrical calculations that had nothing to do with pagan festivals.

Rather, the pagan festival of the “Birth of the Unconquered Sun” instituted by the Roman Emperor Aurelian on 25 December 274, was almost certainly an attempt to create a pagan alternative to a date that was already of some significance to Roman Christians. Thus the “pagan origins of Christmas” is a myth without historical substance.

A Mistake

The idea that the date was taken from the pagans goes back to two scholars from the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries. Paul Ernst Jablonski, a German Protestant, wished to show that the celebration of Christ’s birth on December 25th was one of the many “paganizations” of Christianity that the Church of the fourth century embraced, as one of many “degenerations” that transformed pure apostolic Christianity into Catholicism. Dom Jean Hardouin, a Benedictine monk, tried to show that the Catholic Church adopted pagan festivals for Christian purposes without paganizing the gospel.

In the Julian calendar, created in 45 B.C. under Julius Caesar, the winter solstice fell on December 25th, and it therefore seemed obvious to Jablonski and Hardouin that the day must have had a pagan significance before it had a Christian one. But in fact, the date had no religious significance in the Roman pagan festal calendar before Aurelian’s time, nor did the cult of the sun play a prominent role in Rome before him.

Great piece! It dispels the long-held notion that Christmas is an adaptation of a Pagan holiday. Read it all here.

The Erosion of Marriage

New Report Finds Worrying Trends

Author: Father John Flynn, L.C. | Source: Zenit.org

ROME, DEC. 12, 2010 (Zenit.org).- A report just published found that the middle class is experiencing increased levels of divorce and unmarried mothers, and that marriage problems are not limited to people with lower levels of education and income.

The 2010 edition of The State of Our Unions, "When Marriage Disappears: The Retreat from Marriage in Middle America," was released on Monday. It is a joint effort by the National Marriage Project at the University of Virginia and the Center for Marriage and Families at the Institute for American Values.

The report found that only among the highly educated and affluent is marriage stable and, in fact, it appears to be getting even stronger.

They defined Middle Americans as those with a high-school but not a college degree. This group makes up 58% of the adult population. College educated adults constitute 30% of the adult population. The remaining 12% are those who did not complete their high school education.

Among the changes highlighted in the report were the following.

- In the early 1980s, only 2% of babies born to highly educated mothers were born outside of marriage, compared to 13% of babies born to moderately educated mothers and 33% of babies born to mothers who were the least educated. By the late 2000s, 6% of babies born to highly educated mothers were born outside of marriage. The other two groups saw a sharp increase, to 44% in the moderately educated group and 54% for the least-educated mothers.

- The percentage of moderately educated working-age adults who were in first marriages fell from 73% in the 1970s to 45% in the 2000s. This compares to a 17-point drop among highly educated adults and a 28-point drop among the least-educated adults over this same time period. What is particularly striking, the report noted, is that moderately and highly educated Americans were both just as likely to be married in the 1970s; now, when it comes to their odds of being in an intact marriage, Middle Americans are more likely to resemble the least educated.

- Moderately educated Americans are increasingly likely to choose living together instead of marriage. From 1988 to the late 2000s, the percentage of women aged 25-44 who had ever cohabited rose 29 points for moderately educated Americans -- slightly higher than the 24-point increase for the least educated. Over the same period, cohabitation grew 15 percentage points among the highly educated. When it comes to cohabitation, then, Middle America again looks more like downscale than upscale America.

- Increases in divorce and nonmarital childbearing in poor and middle-class communities across America mean that more and more children in these communities are not living in homes with their own two biological or adoptive parents, especially in comparison to children from more affluent and educated homes.

Culture changes

According to the report three cultural developments have played a key role in weakening marriage in Middle America. The first is a change from being socially conservative on marriage related issues to being more permissive.

The second is that these Americans are more likely to be engaged in behaviors that endanger their future marriage prospects. This includes practices such as a greater number of sexual partners and a higher degree of marital infidelity.

The third cultural development is that moderately educated Americans are markedly less likely than are highly educated Americans to embrace the traditional values of delayed gratification, a focus on education, and temperance.

The report goes on to examine some other cultural changes, such as a decline in religious practice and the increased desire for a "soul mate" that sets the bar higher for marriage than before. Summing up the effect of these transformations they conclude: "A related problem with this newer model is that it disconnects the normative links among sex, parenthood, and marriage."

Why should we be concerned about these changes in marriage, the report asked. "Marriage is not merely a private arrangement between two persons," they replied. "It is a core social institution, one that helps to ensure the economic, social, and emotional welfare of countless children, women, and men in this nation," according to the authors.

The retreat from marriage in the moderately educated Middle America means that the lives of mothers become harder and it separates fathers from their families. The report added that is also will result in problems for children, with a greater number dropping out of high school and losing their way in society.

If marriage becomes something that only to be aspired to by those already at the top of the socio-economic scale then there will be a growing social and cultural divide, the report adverted. "Marriage is in danger of becoming a luxury good attainable only to those with the material and cultural means to grab hold of it," they stated.

"It threatens the American experiment in democracy and should be of concern to every civic and social leader in our nation," they admonished.

Protecting the common good

Religious leaders are also very concerned over what is happening to marriage. On Monday an open letter was released, entitled "The Protection of Marriage: A Shared Commitment." A press release from the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) explained that leaders from Anglican, Baptist, Catholic, Evangelical, Jewish, Lutheran, Mormon, Orthodox, Pentecostal and Sikh communities in the United States affirmed the importance of preserving marriage's unique meaning.

"The broad consensus reflected in this letter-across great religious divides-is clear: The law of marriage is not about imposing the religion of anyone, but about protecting the common good of everyone," said Archbishop Timothy Dolan of New York.

"Marriage is an institution fundamental to the well-being of all of society, not just religious communities," the letter affirms.

The letter is just the latest installment in a series of moves by the USCCB to defend marriage. Strengthening marriage is the top of five goals set by the bishops as pastoral priorities for the coming year.

One of the ways they are doing this is through the Web site Marriage: Unique for a Reason. The site provides resources for the education of Catholics on why marriage is unique and why it should be promoted and protected as the union of one man and one woman. At the moment the first of five planned videos is available, with a second due to be online by the end of 2010. The videos are complemented by viewer's guides and resource booklets.

Society's conscience

Pope Benedict XVI has also repeatedly expressed his distress over the breakdown of family and married life. "[T]the Church sees with concern the growing endeavor to eliminate the Christian concept of marriage and family from society's conscience," he said on Sept 13, when he received the new German ambassador to the Holy See.

In the following weeks the pope repeated his insistence that family and marriage should be defended in addresses to new ambassadors from Costa Rica, Eucador, Colombia and El Salvador.

Then, on Dec. 2, came his strongest statement, in his speech receiving the new ambassador from Hungary.

"Europe will no longer be Europe if this basic cell of the social construction disappears or is substantially transformed," he declared referring to marriage.

Marriage is under erosion due to greater possibilities of divorce, cohabitation prior to marriage and the introduction of new types of union that have "no foundation in the history of the culture and of the law in Europe," he told the ambassador. Words that apply not only to Europe, but to many other parts of the world.

100% Effective, Church-Approved Contraceptive

Completely safe, no negative, but lots of positive side effects:

100% Effective, Safe, Church Approved!

We remember today St. John of the Cross

Dark night of the Soul 

On a dark night,
Kindled in love with yearnings--oh, happy chance!--
I went forth without being observed,
My house being now at rest.

In darkness and secure,
By the secret ladder, disguised--oh, happy chance!--
In darkness and in concealment,
My house being now at rest.

In the happy night,
In secret, when none saw me,
Nor I beheld aught,
Without light or guide, save that which burned in my
heart.

This light guided me
More surely than the light of noonday
To the place where he (well I knew who!) was awaiting me--
A place where none appeared.

Oh, night that guided me,
Oh, night more lovely than the dawn,
Oh, night that joined Beloved with lover,
Lover transformed in the Beloved!

Upon my flowery breast,
Kept wholly for himself alone,
There he stayed sleeping, and I caressed him,
And the fanning of the cedars made a breeze.

The breeze blew from the turret
As I parted his locks;
With his gentle hand he wounded my neck
And caused all my senses to be suspended.

I remained, lost in oblivion;
My face I reclined on the Beloved.
All ceased and I abandoned myself,
Leaving my cares forgotten among the lilies.

The Holy Sacrifice of the Mass versus Human Sacrifice

Author: Fr. John A. Hardon, S.J. | Source: Father John A. Hardon, S.J. Archives

The title of our present meditation is certainly strange. In fact, it is really two titles wrapped in one. Both parts of the title are contrasts. The first is between the Holy Mass and the innocents who were killed by King Herod. The second is a contrast between the sacrifice of Christ and the sacrifices of human beings.

Our first task, therefore, is to explain what we are talking about. We are basically talking about two things. We are relating the Holy Eucharist as the Mass to the slaughter of the innocent boys whom King Herod ordered to be killed. Our second contrast is between the sacrifice which Jesus made of Himself on the cross and which is perpetuated in the Eucharistic Liturgy with the present-day paganism which imitates the pagan sacrifice of children in the religions of prechristian society.

Our best approach to this delicate and difficult subject is to restate the title in more prosaic terms. We wish to speak about the Sacrifice of the Mass as the source of the graces we need to live lives of sacrifice ourselves, and to obtain for others the corresponding grace to live sacrificial lives. All the while we keep in focus what is at the root of the culture of death that has penetrated once civilized societies.

Whatever else abortion is, it is the tragic result of self-idolatry even to the murder of unborn children who are considered an obstacle to self-gratification. There is no possibility of converting, or re-converting, what I have come to call the New Pagans. The old pagans, as we used to call them, had and have a plurality of gods whom they worship. The new pagans are strictly monotheistic. They believe in only one god. That one god is the Self.

To bring these new pagans to their senses and have them return to the worship of the one true God will require not just a miracle but a litany of miracles in countries like our own. It is not a question of how these miracles are to be obtained. It is rather a question of who will perform them. There is only one answer: it must be Jesus Christ whose death on the cross is re-enacted in the Sacrifice of the Mass. Just before He died on Calvary, Jesus worked the miracle of bringing the repentant thief back to the grace of God. The other thief did not receive this divine mercy. Why not? Because he did not repent. But the repentance of Dismas was the fruit of the grace which the dying Christ offered to a criminal who repented his life of crime.

The Mass as the Sacrifice-Sacrament of the Eucharist

As Catholics we all believe that the Holy Eucharist is a sacrament. We know that a sacrament is some visible or sensibly perceptible ritual which Christ instituted as a channel of grace which is signified by the ritual. Thus the sacrament of baptism, which involves the pouring or immersion in water, signifies the cleansing of the human soul from the guilt and consequences of original (and personal) sin. Thus again Confirmation, which is received by anointing with oil, shows the strengthening of the soul, which is signified by the oil that medically strengthens the body.

Certainly the Holy Eucharist is a sacrament. But it is a sacrament three times over. Pope John Paul II is especially clear in insisting on this triple way in which the Holy Eucharist is a sacrament. What is the fundamental grace which the Eucharist confers on human beings? It is the grace to practice Christian charity, as prescribed by Christ at the Last Supper. On Holy Thursday night Our Lord did two things. He told His disciples until the end of time they are to practice such charity towards others as He, who died for our sins, practiced by His death on the cross. Needless to say, He had to provide the means for His followers to love unlovable people. Consequently Our Lord went on to institute the Holy Eucharist, as a sacrament of love, to enable His followers to do the humanly impossible.

This sacrament of love provides the graces which the followers of Christ need to live up to Christ's expectations of them. Among these expectations is the need that a believing Christian has to surrender his will to the will of God which is the precondition for loving others selflessly. This is the first and most basic form of grace which the Holy Eucharist was instituted to give to the world. It is the sacramental grace of self-surrender which Christ merited by His sacrifice on the cross and which He now communicates especially through the Sacrifice of the Mass. In later conferences, we shall explain how the Holy Eucharist as the sacrament of love also confers the grace of seeing Christ in everyone who enters our life, and in sharing what we have with others as the fruit of Christ's sharing Himself with us in Holy Communion

We return to where we began: to see how the Sacrifice of the Mass is the Sacrament of the Mass. The Sacrifice of the Mass communicates, you might say radiates, the divine assistance that our wills need to surrender themselves to the mysterious and often demanding will of God. As one saintly apostle of the Eucharist declared, the world would have long ago been destroyed for its sins of selfishness except for the Sacrifice of the Mass which has been offered over the centuries.

The Holy Innocents who were killed shortly after Christ's birth were the beginning of so many murderers of unborn children since the time of Christ. As historians of early Christianity tell us, one striking quality of believing Christians was their acceptance of the children whom they believed God was giving them. Abortion in the Roman empire at the time of Christ was legal, universally accepted, and simply assumed as the culture of the age. Already in the first Christian century a formal document was issued, called the Teaching of the Twelve Apostles, which condemned abortion as murder. No follower of Christ, it was declared, would dare kill an innocent human being in his mother's womb.

Where did the Christians obtain the grace to live such lives of self-sacrifice? They obtained it from the Holy Eucharist. We have already said that the early Christians went to Mass and received Holy Communion every day. What we wish to stress in this meditation is that the Sacrifice of the Mass was instituted by Christ precisely to be the Sacrament of the Mass to enable the followers of Christ to live sacrificial lives.

There is more hidden here than appears at first sight. Left to himself, man is so selfish he will even destroy others to get what he wants. When God became man, He taught His followers to do the very opposite. They are to be willing to give up themselves, even their very lives, out of love for others. It is the Sacrifice of the Mass that offers us a share in Christ's generosity; and Christ offers us a share in the self-giving that He revealed by His death on the cross.

Abortion as Pagan Sacrifice

We know what the word "sacrifice" means. It means the surrender of something precious to the god in whom a person believes. Sacrifices have been part of world religions since the dawn of recorded history. Without exception, the deities of all the religions of the ancient world demanded sacrifices in their honor. The Egyptians and Babylonians, the Greeks and Romans, the deities of prechristian India and of the continent of Africa required that their inherents offer what we call sacrifices in their name.

What is less well known, however, is that these religions also required the sacrifice of children as an oblation and even as a condition, for obtaining blessings from the gods. We read in the Office of Readings for today's Divine Office that the Lord spoke through the prophet Jeremiah, charging the Jews of imitating the pagans in their practice of child homicide. Said the Lord, "They have built high places for Baal to immolate their sons in fire as holocausts to Baal: such a thing as I neither commanded nor spoke of, nor did it ever enter my mind."

As we read statements like the foregoing, we ask ourselves: how could human beings be so deluded as to seriously believe that their gods required human sacrifice as a condition for receiving divine favors? The key word is "deluded." Thirty years of teaching comparative religion has taught me that there is no limit to the irrational, indeed insane, practices that religious mythology will not put into practice as a mandate from the deities in whom they believed. Thus we read in the history of the Aztecs in South America before Columbus that they would kill up to ten thousand children on a major feast day in honor of one of their gods. Although seldom mentioned, infanticide as a religious ritual was practiced in India before its colonization by Great Britain.

We return to the thesis that should be explored far beyond the time we can give it in this conference. Abortion as the widespread practice that it has become today is incredibly a religious practice. It is inspired by the evil spirits who, in Christian terms, were and are the malignant deities of paganism. These deities, often goddesses, demanded the sacrifice of children to be propitiated. Unless children were killed and offered to these gods, they would avenge their anger against the people in the most devastating ways.

As believing Catholics, we know that behind the murder of unborn children is the superhuman mind and malevolent will of Satan and his minions. To know this is to also know that only divine power is a match for the demonic power behind abortion. This divine power is the power of the God who became man in order, as He told us, to conquer the devil as master of this world.

How did Christ provide for the conquest of Satan and his agents? He did so by dying on the cross. The one who died on Calvary was man, but this man was the living God. On these premises, Calvary is the divine sacrifice because it was God who assumed a human body and a human soul which could separate in a human death on Good Friday. Except for this divine sacrifice of Jesus Christ there would be no hope for the human race.

However, let us be clear. Christ did die for our salvation. He shed His blood on Calvary. In that sense, He completed the mission given to Him by His Father. But really that was only the beginning. By His sacrifice on Calvary, He won for us, the title to the graces we need to reach our eternal destiny. But this same Jesus Christ made sure that these graces would be communicated to mankind until the end of time. The principal channel of these graces is the Sacrifice of the Mass.

The graces which Christ pours out on a sinful world through the daily offering of Mass are the graces which a homicidal world needs to return to its worship of the one true God, and cease committing the crimes of abortion which are really acts of worship of the evil deities who we know are the evil spirits.

The Sacrifice of the Mass, therefore, provides us with the light and strength we need to live sacrificial lives. But we must use these graces and really live lives of sacrifice. If we do, and in the measure that we do, we shall obtain for the agents of death the miraculous graces they need to abandon their idolatry and return to the worship of the one true God.

Our faith tells us that the Sacrifice of the Mass is at once the sacrifice of Christ and our sacrifice, too. Christ has done all that He could by dying on the cross. We must do all that we can to follow in His footsteps and die to ourselves out of love for Him.

Video: Veni Veni Emmanuel

 

O come, o come Emmanuel!

Third Sunday of Advent, AD 2010

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

Also today, by a happy coincidence, we celebrate the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe, Mother of the Americas

From the Office of Readings of the Feast

From a report by Don Antonio Valeriano, a Native American author of the sixteenth century.

At daybreak one Saturday morning in 1531, on the very first days of the month of December, an Indian named Juan Diego was going from the village where he lived to Tlatelolco in order to take part in divine worship and listen to God's commandments. When he came near the hill called Tepeyac, dawn had already come, and Juan Diego heard someone calling him from the very top of the hill: "Juanito, Juan Dieguito."

He went up the hill and caught sight of a lady of unearthly grandeur whose clothing was as radiant as the sun. She said to him in words both gentle and courteous: "Juanito, the humblest of my children, know and understand that I am the ever virgin Mary, Mother of the true God through whom all things live. It is my ardent desire that a church be erected here so that in it I can show and bestow my love, compassion, help, and protection to all who inhabit this land and to those others who love me, that they might call upon and confide in me. Go to the Bishop of Mexico to make known to him what I greatly desire. Go and put all your efforts into this."

When Juan Diego arrived in the presence of the Bishop, Fray Juan de Zumarraga, a Franciscan, the latter did not seem to believe Juan Diego and answered: "Come another time, and I will listen at leisure."

Juan Diego returned to the hilltop where the Heavenly Lady was waiting, and he said to her: "My Lady, my maiden, I presented your message to the Bishop, but it seemed that he did not think it was the truth. For this reason I beg you to entrust your message to someone more illustrious who might convey it in order that they may believe it, for I am only an insignificant man."

She answered him: "Humblest of my sons, I ask that tomorrow you again go to see the Bishop and tell him that I, the ever virgin holy Mary, Mother of God, am the one who personally sent you."

But on the following day, Sunday, the Bishop again did not believe Juan Diego and told him that some sign was necessary so that he could believe that it was the Heavenly Lady herself who sent him. And then he dismissed Juan Diego.

On Monday Juan Diego did not return. His uncle, Juan Bernardino, became very ill, and at night asked Juan to go to Tlatelolco at daybreak to call a priest to hear his confession.

Juan Diego set out on Tuesday, but he went around the hill and passed on the other side, toward the east, so as to arrive quickly in Mexico City and to avoid being detained by the Heavenly Lady. But she came out to meet him on that side of the hill and said to him: "Listen and understand, my humblest son. There is nothing to frighten and distress you. Do not let your heart be troubled, and let nothing upset you. Is it not I, your Mother, who is here? Are you not under my protection? Are you not, fortunately, in my care? Do not let your uncle's illness distress you. It is certain that he has already been cured. Go up to the hilltop, my son, where you will find flowers of various kinds. Cut them, and bring them into my presence."

When Juan Diego reached the peak, he was astonished that so many Castilian roses had burst forth at a time when the frost was severe. He carried the roses in the folds of his tilma (mantle) to the Heavenly Lady. She said to him: "My son, this is the proof and the sign which you will bring to the Bishop so that he will see my will in it. You are my ambassador, very worthy of trust."

Juan Diego set out on his way, now content and sure of succeeding. On arriving in the Bishop's presence, he told him: "My lord, I did what you asked. The Heavenly Lady complied with your request and fulfilled it. She sent me to the hilltop to cut some Castilian roses and told me to bring them to you in person. And this I am doing, so that you can see in them the sign you seek in order to carry out her will. Here they are; receive them."

He immediately opened up his white mantle, and as all the different Castilian roses scattered to the ground, there was drawn on the cloak and suddenly appeared the precious image of the ever virgin Mary, Mother of God, in the same manner as it is today and is kept in her shrine of Tepeyac.

The whole city was stirred and came to see and admire her venerable image and to offer prayers to her; and following the command which the same Heavenly Lady gave to Juan Bernardino when she restored him to health, they called her by the name that she herself had used: "the ever virgin holy Mary of Guadalupe."