Ratzinger and Newman

The thought of the Venerable (and soon to be beatified [19 September 2010 in Coventry, England by Pope Benedict) John Henry Cardinal Newman was formative in the thought of the young seminarian Joseph Ratzinger. He attests to this in his published memoirs Milestones, p. 43 and in his 28 April 1990 presentation on the centenary of the death of the Cardinal.

"In January 1946, when I began my study of theology in the Seminary in Freising which had finally reopened after the confusion of the war, an older student was assigned as prefect to our group, who had begun to work on a dissertation on Newman's theology of conscience even before the beginning of the war. In all the years of his military service he had not lost sight of this theme, which he now turned to with new enthusiasm and energy.

"We were soon bonded by a personal friendship, wholly centred on the great problems of philosophy and theology. Of course, Newman was always present. Alfred Läpple - the name of the above-mentioned prefect - published his dissertation in 1952 with the title: Der Einzelne in der Kirche (The Individual in the Church).

"For us at that time, Newman's teaching on conscience became an important foundation for theological personalism, which was drawing us all in its sway. Our image of the human being as well as our image of the Church was permeated by this point of departure."

http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/cfaith/documents/rc_con_cfaith_doc_19900428_ratzinger-newman_en.html

Every Man Belongs to Mary

"Woman, behold thy son." Jn. 19:27 With these words Christ crucified gives "the disciple" to Mary. In other words, the Mother of Jesus has a right to the reverence and honor (sonship) of each of His disciples. Our Lord, leaving her a childless widow (Saint Joseph probably having already left this world), entrusts His mother to the care of His faithful follower! To follow Christ is to care for Mary. The true follower of Christ must defend, promote, nurture and cherish Marian devotion, Christ commissioned it.

He first gives the disciple to Mary as her son. Christ from the cross gives first His beloved disciple to Mary--her property--"Woman, behold your son." So that every disciple of Christ, every human person (since all are called to be disciples of Christ) belongs to Mary. She has rights over us.

Even before we call her mother, she calls us son. This gives primacy to Mary, to her initiative, in our relationship with her. Because we are her sons she is our mother: because Christ gives us to her, she is ours).

Thus, every man is duty bound to Mary, we are her sons; therefore we must love and honor her as our mother: "Then he said to the disciple, 'Behold thy mother." And from that hour the disciple took her into his home." Mary has every right to our love and care in our families and in our homes.

Father Maximilian Heinrich Heim

In my continued search for experts in the thought of Pope Benedict I came across this Austrian Cistercian who is the Prior of the Kloster Stiepel

http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kloster_Stiepel.

Here are the websites for his monastery http://kloster-stiepel.org/ and the Heiligenkreuz mother house http://stift-heiligenkreuz.org/ from which that monastery was founded.

On his monastery website there is an icon for Austrian Radio Maria http://radiomaria.at/ which is great German Catholic radio programming.

Father Heim has a book on Pope Benedict's ecclesiology published by Ignatius Press (2007) called Life in the Church and Living Theology.

Episcopal Domineering

Below is an article reporting on the present day ubiquitous authoritarianism of the diocesan bishop trampling the rights of parish priests. Aside from the merits of this particular case, Pastors' term limits are contrary to the universal norm of the Church: Parochus stabilitate gaudeat oportet ideoque ad tempus indefinitum nominetur... (It is necessary that the pastor enjoy stability, and therefore be appointed for an indeterminate period of time...Canon 522).

Term limits are allowed only if the bishops' conference allows them, but the ideal remains: that each pastor be permanent so that he can accomplish his mission as the father of the parish family under God, under the Pope and under the bishop.

It is hard to find any parish where the pastor or any priest is the longest reigning member of the parish staff, usually with disastrous results for the parish, like a family without a father, and contradicting one of the essential elements of fatherhood which is long-lived permanence. Fathers are like oaks, they should take a long time to grow and seldom if ever move!

There is another law which is often ignored in the appointment of pastors which says that in order to be validly appointed pastor of a parish the priest "must be outstanding in sound doctrine and uprightness of character, endowed with zeal for souls and other virtues, and possessed of those qualities which by universal law are required for the care of the parish in question." (Canon 521, par. 2) This principle alone would annul many of our present day pastors' pastorship. Many, because of heretical doctrine and/or immoral character are not fit for the office they hold.


Monday, March 29, 2010
The Thiberville saga continues
The blog Osservatore Vaticano reports that Cardinal Hummes of the Congregation of the Clergy has rejected -- with unusual speed -- the appeal lodged by the Abbe Francis Michel against his sudden dismissal from the curacy of the parish of Thiberville (and of several other parishes) by his liberal bishop on January 3, 2010.

One wonders to what extent this decision will negatively impact on the implementation of Summorum Pontificum, not to speak of its effect on tradition-minded parish or assistant priests.

The following is a quick translation of the Osservatore Vaticano article, courtesy of our friend Natasja Hoven of Katolsk Observator:




Everybody knows the very famous Thiberville case, in the diocese of Évreux. This diocese is one of the most ill-fated in France. After Mgr Gaillot and Mgr David, the not so genial Mgr Nourrichard administers the collapse of a land which in times past was Christian, a land where churches are closed one after the other, catechism is deserted, vocations discouraged and finances dried up.

In this desert, a priest, abbé Francis Michel, maintains the most flourishing of parishes, Thiberville. This parish priest, not coming from a traditionalist milieu but profoundly traditionalist, in anticipation had applied the motu proprio Summorum Pontificum since many years back. In his church the masses are celebrated according to the form in our days called “the extraordinary form” and also masses according to the “ordinary” form, but in a manner in conformity with the wishes of Pope Benedict XVI, that is, turned towards the Lord.

And what was the result? Thiberville and the 14 parishes which abbé Michel is serving formed the most living Catholic ensemble and the one with the greatest missionary zeal of the diocese of Évreux : the church of Thiberville is full at all the masses, assuring the service “in turn” for the other churches ( desserte « tournante » des autres églises), there we find sound catechism, active participation of the faithful, abundance of ministrants, confraternities, all the churches magnificently restored, funerals celebrated by the parish priest himself … Those parishes where the communion of all the Catholics are lived in an exemplary way are a model for the application of the pope’s wish.

This is exactly what the “spirit of Vatican II”, with 40 years of delay, is not able to stand. At the end of December of last year, Mgr Nourrichard informed the parish priest … that his parish was abolished and brought together with a “parish ensemble”. By this procedure, the parish of Thiberville would no more have a parish priest of its own, as he was “withdrawn”.

We all know what followed: On January 3rd the bishop went to Thiberville with his collaborators in order to announce “with distress” the decision “beyond recall”. However he met with the revolt of the whole canton, which refused the end of the Catholic faith in this corner of the Norman land. A church full to the brim, on the first row of which were present the mayor and the county councilor together with the whole municipal council, acclaimed their parish priest and hindered the bishop to announce that he was suppressing the parish and its parish priest.

An appeal was then (twice) presented within the prescribed delay, before the Congregation for the clergy. The case was overwhelming for the bishop. It is necessary to understand that such an appeal is a delaying appeal: things remain as they are as long as the Roman decision does not intervene. In similar cases the Roman decision usually comes very late, when emotions have calmed down.

On the other hand everybody knows that Rome strongly disapproves of parish regroupings that are legally indefinable, this being a problem which retains the keen interest of the Roman canonists. Since the Council the rights of the parish priest have diminished. The traditional principal of the irremovability of the parish priest remaining (as in the popular saying: “the parish priest is the pope of the parish”). But the bishops’ conferences of each country have received the faculty of disregarding this right. This is how it is in France: the parish priests are from now on nominated "ad tempus", which is something that notably puts off balance the structure of the traditional diocesan life: the post-conciliar French bishop actually has much more power over his priests through the nomination “game” than the traditional bishop had. Moreover, it frequently happens that bishops do not nominate parish priests but only “parish administrators”, which makes the priests even more dependent on the diocesan administration.

In this case there was thus now the situation where there was a slow process while the Congregation of the Clergy examined the case, and thus there was a recovering of calm and common sense told that the Catholic life would continue in the parishes of abbé Michel and that the unjust – legally – and disastrous – pastorally – decision of the bishop could be nothing but reversed.

And then it was exactly the opposite that happened! The appeal that was presented in the end of February received a reply less than a month later …: On March 26th abbé Michel was informed … that his appeal was turned down and purely and simply rejected! The decision is signed by Cardinal Hummes, Prefect of the Congregation for the clergy: the parish of Thiberville does not exist anymore and thus has no parish priest.

Even in Rome one is dumbfounded. But everybody understands that the pressure exercised by the French bishops’ conference has had an uncommon force. The most eminent French instances have made it a question of principle. And they have won.

At least as yet. This decision is certainly going to be subject to appeal, and other means may be used. There is a rumor already on this matter. I will tell you more about it as soon as possible …

However it remains that for the good people of God, the negative sign that has been given is catastrophic.

posted by Carlos Antonio Palad at 4:41 PM 31 comments

Sanctity in Love and Life

Holy Matrimony is to love what Baptism is to life, the elevation and the sanctification thereof. Jesus Christ, through the ministry of the Church and by the power of the Holy Spirit changes the profane into sacred realities.

It is analogous to the consecration of bread and wine at Holy Mass, with the difference that the bread and wine are completely and substantially changed into the reality of the living God Himself: the Flesh and Blood of Christ our Lord.

In baptism and in marriage the human persons remain, but they are changed and made good, in the former in life and in the latter in love.

Be Ye Perfect

Every man needs to strive for perfection. The world needs great men. Enough with the mediocre. That is the essence of Christianity. Christ is the perfect man. Perfect God was needed to make perfect man! Christ is both, perfect God and perfect man. Because of Him men can be perfect, by His mercy.

"If good men were better there would be less bad [men]". Saint John Chrysostom

To make the world a better place and to make men better the only real way is to change yourself. Convert!

"If only it were all so simple! If only there were evil people somewhere insidiously committing evil deeds, and it were necessary only to separate them from the rest of us and destroy them. But the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being. And who is willing to destroy a piece of his own heart.

"During the life of any heart this line keeps changing place; sometimes it is squeezed one way by exuberant evil and sometimes it shifts to allow enough space for good to flourish. One and the same human being is, at various ages, under various circumstances, a totally different human being. At times he is close to being a devil, at times to sainthood. But his name doesn't change, and to that name we ascribe the whole lot, good and evil.

"Socrates taught us: Know thyself!

"Confronted by the pit into which we are about to toss those who have done us harm, we halt, stricken dumb: [let him who is without sin be the one to throw the first stone at her the Lord says to those about to stone to death the woman caught in adultery] it is after all only because of the way things worked out that they were the executioners and we weren't."
Alexandr Solzhenitsyn, The Gulag Archipelago, 168.

His holiness Pope Benedict XVI takes up this same theme in his encyclical on hope, Spe salvi, when he speaks of divine judgment after death.

"With death, our life-choice becomes definitive--our life stands before the judge. Our choice, which in the course of an entire life takes on a certain shape, can have a variety of forms. There can be people who have totally destroyed their desire for truth and readiness to love, people for whom everything has become a lie, people who have lived for hatred and have suppressed all love within themselves. This is a terrifying thought, but alarming profiles of this type can be seen in certain figures of our own history. In such people all would be beyond remedy and the destruction of good would be irrevocable: this is what we mean by the word Hell. (Cf. Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1033-1032) On the other hand there can be people who are utterly pure, completely permeated by God, and thus fully open to their neighbors--people for whom communion with God even now gives direction to their entire being and whose journey towards God only brings to fulfilment what they already are. (Cf. ibid., 1023-1029)

"Yet we know from experience that neither case is normal in human life. For the great majority of people--we may suppose--there remains in the depths of their being an ultimate interior openness to truth, to love, to God. In the concrete choices of life, however, it is covered over by ever new compromises with evil--much filth covers purity, but the thirst for purity remains and it still constantly re-emerges from all that is base and remains present in the soul...the way we live our lives is not immaterial, but our defilement does not stain us for ever if we have at least continued to reach out towards Christ, towards truth and towards love." The purification of that type of soul which is good and not perfect at death is Purgatory.
Spe salve, 46-47

"You therefore are to be perfect, even as your heavenly Father is perfect." (Mt. 5:48)

Furthering the Black Genocide

"Health insurance for all," covering contraception and abortion for all, will translate as further decimating the poor populations of the nation's citizens, a disproportionate amount of which are black. Thank God the poor illegal immigrant will be as yet unaffected, having to still pay for their abortions out of pocket. May the poor Catholic faithful save our nation and our world!


http://plinthos.blogspot.com/2010/02/afro-american-genocide.html

Purity is Necessary

One of the messages from yesterday's Gospel (5th Sunday of Lent [year C]) of the woman caught in adultery and forgiven with the advice "go and sin no more" is the essential Christian virtue of chastity. We could put it this way.



To be pure you need Jesus...and...

To be with Jesus you need to be pure.



He gives the grace; His love is the sufficient motor force for chastity. And purity of heart and life is necessary to see God.

Priestly Priorities

An old wise and faithful priest told me (a middle-age priest) that his good old pastor had told him:

"Buy a new breviary and re-plate your chalice (or buy a new one) every time you buy a new car."

I thought of this wise priestly advice in prioritizing in our spending (divine worship being our first love), on retreat at a Franciscan hermitage where the chalice badly needed re-plating. I guess the middle-age mendicant priest hermit neither ever heard the advice or has ever yet bought a new car! I don't judge him, but it does give me a point for self-examination on how I might spend more, much more, the maximum, everything!, on God. We can all do more in this area. Giving the best and most precious to God is a testimony and a buttress to faith.

God's Look Alike

Today's Mass reading from Hosea 6:16 speaks of the urgent need for real divine intimacy saying "Let us know, let us strive to know the Lord," not superficially but with the greatest depths.

In scripture "knowing" and "getting to know" is an image for the marital act, marital intimacy. "To know the Lord" is to be intimate with Him, to go deep with Him, to have Him on the inside and to get inside Him, to feel Him, to want to feel Him , to struggle to be one flesh with Him. Below is my translation of Saint John of the Cross' description of the likeness in beauty resulting from divine intimacy.

"'We shall see ourselves in Your beauty.' Through the exercise of [divine intimacy] we shall see ourselves in Your beauty; that is, that we shall be likened in beauty, and that Your beauty be such that, looking at one and the other, it shall look like You in Your beauty and shall see itself in Your beauty, which shall be transforming myself in Your beauty; and thus I shall see You in Your beauty and You me in Your beauty; and You shall see You in me in Your beauty, and I shall see me in You in Your beauty; and thus I shall be like You in Your beauty and You shall be like me in Your beauty, my beauty shall be Your beauty and Your beauty my beauty, and I shall be You in Your beauty, and You shall be me in Your beauty, because Your beauty itself shall be my beauty. This is the adoption of the sons of God, who will truly say to God what the Son Himself said through Saint John (17:10) to the Eternal Father Omnia mea tua sunt, et tua mea sunt; which means: 'Father, all things Mine are Yours and all things Yours are Mine'; He by essence, being the natural Son, we by participation, being adoptive sons, thus He said it not only for Himself, He Who is the Head, but for all the mystical body, which is the Church."

The Spiritual Canticle (A) 35 Song, 5 (BAC p. 548)

Therefore, in the highest level of human intimacy with God you shall see yourself in Him and He shall see you in Himself. And you shall see Him in you and He also shall see Himself in you!!! And that seeing will be a reflection of the metaphysical, you will see it because it will be so in fact. The reality of you being in Him and He in you shall be manifest in the shared divine beauty.

Knowing with the Heart

Known as the Seraphic Doctor because of his profound reflections on the six-winged angel, the stigmata, and the mysticism of Saint Francis of Assisi, Saint Bonaventure closes his great work on mystical union with God--Itinerarium mentis in Deum-- indicating the supernatural depth of interior union reached by the soul with God.


"If you now yearn to know how (mystical communion with God) happens, ask grace, not doctrine; desire, not the intellect; the groaning of prayer, not the study of the letter; the spouse, not the teacher; God, not man; darkness not clarity; not light but the fire that inflames everything and transport to God with strong unctions and ardent affections. ... We enter therefore into darkness, we silence worries, the passions and illusions; we pass with Christ Crucified from this world to the Father, so that, after having seen him, we say with Philip: that is enough for me" (Ibid., VII, 6).

(This thought was taken from Pope Benedict XVI's Wednesday Audience of 10 March 2010 http://zenit.org/article-28599?l=english.)

Divine Atmosphere

"In our homes and places of work we are careful to set up the most congenial environment. Spiritual environment is set up chiefly by meditation, prayer, examination of conscience and spiritual reading."

"Cling to the book that helps you to love God."

Steps to God, Rev. Stephen McSweeney, p.15

Mapquest's Religious Omission

Just on Mapquest, I thought to look for all the Catholic churches in the mapped area. But Mapquest has no icon for churches of any type. You can click on schools, hospitals, coffee shops and even specific hotel icons but no churches, which are among our major landmarks, not to mention among our most frequented buildings. Just consider how many people go through Saint Patrick's in New York everyday, and to think that Mapquest omits it entirely from it's categories.

A map that fails to clearly indicate what is contained within the parameters of the map is an incomplete map.

Mapquest needs to get religion!!!

In any case, it seems that the GPS industry has almost supplanted their business. That pains me a bit because I have found their service to be very practical and useful except for this one inconvenience. Perhaps they could add that feature and maybe with God's blessing they will survive.

Atheism is Unreasonable

Personal and consistent convinced atheism is untenable.

"...[A]s the knowledge of God can easily be gained from the contemplation of nature and the life of the soul, it will not be possible permanently to adhere to an honest and positive conviction of the non-existence of God.

[Therefore...]

"An inculpable and invincible ignorance regarding the existence of God is not possible for a long time in a normal, grown-up person, in view of the facility of the natural knowledge of God attested in Holy Writ and in Tradition. Cf. Rom 1:20; ita ut sint inexcusabiles." Fundamentals of Catholic Dogma, Dr. Ludwig Ott, p.16

A life-long avowed atheist is, therefore, most certainly a dishonest man, guilty of denying, and at least of avoiding, the truth.

New Ratzinger Study Center in Rome

In my continued search for world masters in the thought of Pope Benedict, I recently learned of a newly founded center of studies in Rome dedicated exclusively to the thought and works of Joseph Ratzinger/ Pope Bendict XVI (beginning this past Winter session 2009-2010).

It is called Centro J. Ratzinger http://www.ratzinger-papst-benedikt-stiftung.de/centro.html (sponsored by the German Pope Benedict Foundation [Papst Benedikt Stiftung] with offices in Salzburg and Munich) and is housed in Casa Balthasar http://www.casabalthasar.org/ .

My first knowledge of the new Center came through a priest friend who is presently doing a sabbatical year of studies there. Then, having forgotten the details, I more recently contacted Father Fessio about it who immediately referred me to the Casa Balthasar.

I shall add the Centro link to my blog sidebar "Great Links" so as to check it occasionally for updates on it's courses, seminars and projects. The experts at the Center are Stephen Horn of the Pope Benedict Schulerkreise (Passau) and Bruno Gautier.

New England 2010 Annual Easter Seminar For Priests

Opus Dei has an annual seminar (from Tuesday evening to Thursday morning of the Octave of Easter), for diocesan priests, just south of Boston. This year's (April 6-8 2010) featured speaker will be Mr. George Weigel presenting on the priesthood in light of the five year papacy of His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI and it's relationship to and transition from that of Venerable Pope John Paul II.

For registration or further information contact Father Roger Landry at fatherlandry@saintanthonynewbedford.com.

The Priceless Smile

Here is my translation of a Spanish poster on the value of smiling.





A SMILE

A smile costs little
but is worth much.
The one who gives it is joyful
and the one who receives it is grateful.

It last but an instant
and, at times, it's memory
continues all life long.

No one is so rich
that he does not need one,
nor is anyone so poor
that he cannot give one.

It produces joy in the home,
prosperity in business and is
a password among friends.

It is rest for the weary,
light for the disappointed,
sun for the sad,
and a remedy for problems.

It cannot be bought
nor borrowed
nor take or stolen;
it serves only as a gift.

And no one needs a smile
as much as the one
who has forgotten to smile.

Smile always because the smile
is the best gift that we can receive
and the best that we can offer.

If in haste I forget
to give you a smile,pardon me.
Would you have the goodness to
give me one of yours?

Because a smile is the
best identification card
for walking through life.


Exposing myself to the accusation of being saccharine, I propose that you smile to someone who needs it, at least once a day, with God's love, for Lent.


"...[I]f you continually wish to please God in the little battles that go on inside you--a smile, for example, when you don't feel like smiling; and I assure you that a smile is sometimes more difficult than an hour's worth of cilice--then there is little room left for pride, or for the ridiculous notion of thinking we are great heroes. Instead, we will see ourselves as a little child, who is hardly able to offer even the merest trifles to his father, but who then sees them received most joyfully." Saint Escriva, Friends of God, par. 139.

Time For Confession

Lent is the special time to convert, to change your life, to change the direction of your life or to change a habit or two from vice to virtue. Honest Confession is the God given way to be purified by the blood of Christ, and to change. Christ takes away our sins through the ministry of the priest.

Don't be ashamed to go to a priest for Confession during these days. Seek one out immediately, especially if it has been a long time. The bigger the sinner that repents the greater the joy in heaven over his confession. Saint John Vianney used to refer to the long time lapsed sinners as "the big fish!" Be the priest's "big catch" today. Decide to go to Father, your Father, and tell him everything.

Don't be ashamed to go to Confession, no matter what you have done, the greatest shame is to not believe in the boundless mercy of Christ in the ministry of His priests.

NFP (Natural Family Planning) in New Jersey in Spanish

Please note that yesterday's post is an advertisement for a new Spanish Natural Family Planning (NFP) course in New Jersey. The course is the Billings Ovulation Method http://www.woomb.org/and will be taught in one evening for a nominal fee. Being medically based it is most effective and, with some basic instructions, easy to learn and very easy to practice. And, above all, it is good.

NFP is moral and, therefore, harmonizes with the beauty and integrity of the marital act. While promoting marital responsibility, NFP helps build true marital unity! Every form of contraception and sterilization, however, destroys marital love by contradicting the beauty and the integrity of the marital act (the two never become one, never really giving and opening themselves to each other!). Contraception kills! (cf. Genesis 38:8)

http://www.matt1618.freeyellow.com/birthcontrol.html

Please pass on the link to any young Hispanic couples or any parishes or organizations which serve them in the New York metropolitan area.

Mater Misericordiae

Tomorrow I have to give a retreat on "The Fruits of Divine Mercy" and one of the insights that I found in re-reading Faustina's Diary is the reason that our Lord gives her for promoting this devotion which to her seemed redundant (since the Church is already primarily focused on the Mercy of God in Christ, why is He entrusting her with the urgency to spread His message of mercy and it's accompanying devotions). His answer: yes, but the Feast of Divine Mercy is unknown and neglected in the teaching and in the preaching. This devotion provides a fresh illustration of the Mercy of God in Christ and a practical way to promote it today and to make it better known and better preached and better lived.

"But, Jesus,...I am very surprised that You bid me to talk about this Feast of Mercy, for they tell me that there is already such a feast and so why should I talk about it? And Jesus said to me. And who knows anything about this feast? No one! Even those who should be proclaiming My mercy and teaching people about it often do not know about it themselves. That is why I want the image to be solemnly blessed on the first Sunday after Easter, and I want it to be venerated publicly so that every soul may know about it. (Diary, 341)


She also has a beautiful hymn to our Lady which greatly impressed and moved me.

O Mary, Immaculate Virgin,
Pure crystal for my heart,
You are my strength, O secure anchor,
You are a shield and protection for a weak heart.

O Mary, you are pure and unparalleled,
Virgin and Mother at one and the same time;
You're beautiful as the sun, by nothing defiled.
Nothing is worthy of comparison to the image of Your soul.

Your beauty enthralled the Thrice-Holy One's eye.
That He came down from heaven, forsaking th'eternal See's throne,
And assumed from Your Heart Body and Blood,
Hiding for nine months in the Virgin's Heart.

O Mother, Virgin, this will no one comprehend,
That the infinite God is becoming a man;
It's only love's and His inscrutable mercy's purpose.
Through You, Mother--it's given us to live with Him for ever.

O Mary, Virgin Mother and Heaven's Gate,
Through You salvation came to us;
Every grace to us streams forth through Your hands,
And only faithful imitation of You will sanctify me.

O Mother, Virgin--most beautiful Lily.
Your Heart was for Jesus the first tabernacle on earth,
And that, because Your humility was the deepest,
Wherefore You were raised above Angel choirs and Saints.

O Mary, my sweet Mother,
To You I turn over my soul, my body and my poor heart.
Be the safeguard of my life,
Especially at death's hour, in the final fight.
(Diary, 161)

Lenten Resolution Suggestions

Here is a numbered list of recommended Lenten resolutions from the Saint Escriva excerpt of my blog entry below (what is best is to commit to just one thing and to fulfill it) http://plinthos.blogspot.com/2010/02/lenten-penances-for-holiness.html.

1. Resolve to fulfill exactly the timetable you have fixed for yourself, even though your body resists or your mind tries to avoid it by dreaming up useless fantasies.

2. To get up on time and also not leave for later, without any real reason, that particular job that you find harder or most difficult to do.

3. To learn how to reconcile your duties to God, to others and to yourself, by making demands on yourself so that you find enough time for each of your tasks.

4. To lovingly keep to your schedule of prayer, despite feeling worn out, listless or cold.

5. To be very charitable at all times towards those around you, starting with the members of your own family.

6. To be full of tenderness and kindness towards the suffering, the sick and the infirm.

7. To give patient answers to people who are boring and annoying.

8. To interrupt your work or change your plans, when circumstances make this necessary, above all when the just and rightful needs of others are involved.

9. To put up good-humouredly with the thousand and one little pinpricks of each day.

10. To not abandon your job, although you have momentarily lost the enthusiasm with which you started it.

11. To eat gladly whatever is served, without being fussy.

12. For parents and, in general, for those whose work involves supervision or teaching, to correct whenever it is necessary. This should be done bearing in mind the type of fault committed and the situation of the person who needs to be so helped, not letting oneself be swayed by subjective viewpoints, which are often cowardly and sentimental.

13. To keep yourself from becoming too attached to the vast imaginative blueprints you have made for your future projects, where you have already foreseen your master strokes and brilliant successes. What joy you give to God when you are happy to lay aside your third-rate painting efforts and let him put in the features and colours of his choice!

[14. To give at least one (real) smile a day, (i.e. God's way), to someone who needs it.]

Iesu Tentationes

Here is the Catechism of the Catholic Church's (par. 538-540) explanation of the meaning of the temptations of Christ in the desert.

Jesus' temptations

538 The Gospels speak of a time of solitude for Jesus in the desert immediately after his baptism by John. Driven by the Spirit into the desert, Jesus remains there for forty days without eating; he lives among wild beasts, and angels minister to him.(Cf. Mk. 1:12-13) At the end of this time Satan tempts him three times, seeking to compromise his filial attitude toward God. Jesus rebuffs these attacks, which recapitulate the temptations of Adam in Paradise and of Israel in the desert, and the devil leaves him "until an opportune time".(Lk. 4:13)

539 The evangelists indicate the salvific meaning of this mysterious event: Jesus is the new Adam who remained faithful just where the first Adam had given in to temptation. Jesus fulfills Israel's vocation perfectly: in contrast to those who had once provoked God during forty years in the desert, Christ reveals himself as God's Servant, totally obedient to the divine will. In this, Jesus is the devil's conqueror: he "binds the strong man" to take back his plunder.(Cf. Ps. 95:10; Mk. 3:27) Jesus' victory over the tempter in the desert anticipates victory at the Passion, the supreme act of obedience of his filial love for the Father.

540 Jesus' temptation reveals the way in which the Son of God is Messiah, contrary to the way Satan proposes to him and the way men wish to attribute to him. (Cf. Mt. 16:21-23) This is why Christ vanquished the Tempter for us: "For we have not a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tested as we are, yet without sinning." (Heb 4:15) By the solemn forty days of Lent the Church unites herself each year to the mystery of Jesus in the desert.





Please see also Pope Benedict XVI's Jesus of Nazareth, chapter two, bearing this same title of the Catechism "The Temptations of Jesus" (pp. 25-45)

Lenten Penances for Holiness

From Friends of God, Escriva

138 Are you trying to make sincere resolutions? Ask Our Lord to help you to take a tough line with yourself, for love of him; to help you apply, with all naturalness, the purifying touch of mortification to everything you do. Ask him to help you to spend yourself in his service, silently and unnoticed, like the flickering lamp that burns beside the Tabernacle. And if you can't think of anything by way of a definite answer to the divine guest who knocks at the door of your heart, listen well to what I have to tell you.

Penance is fulfilling exactly the timetable you have fixed for yourself, even though your body resists or your mind tries to avoid it by dreaming up useless fantasies. Penance is getting up on time and also not leaving for later, without any real reason, that particular job that you find harder or most difficult to do.

Penance is knowing how to reconcile your duties to God, to others and to yourself, by making demands on yourself so that you find enough time for each of your tasks. You are practising penance when you lovingly keep to your schedule of prayer, despite feeling worn out, listless or cold.

Penance means being very charitable at all times towards those around you, starting with the members of your own family. It is to be full of tenderness and kindness towards the suffering, the sick and the infirm. It is to give patient answers to people who are boring and annoying. It means interrupting our work or changing our plans, when circumstances make this necessary, above all when the just and rightful needs of others are involved.

Penance consists in putting up good-humouredly with the thousand and one little pinpricks of each day; in not abandoning your job, although you have momentarily lost the enthusiasm with which you started it; in eating gladly whatever is served, without being fussy.

For parents and, in general, for those whose work involves supervision or teaching, penance is to correct whenever it is necessary. This should be done bearing in mind the type of fault committed and the situation of the person who needs to be so helped, not letting oneself be swayed by subjective viewpoints, which are often cowardly and sentimental.

A spirit of penance keeps us from becoming too attached to the vast imaginative blueprints we have made for our future projects, where we have already foreseen our master strokes and brilliant successes. What joy we give to God when we are happy to lay aside our third-rate painting efforts and let him put in the features and colours of his choice!

139 I could continue pointing out a multitude of details (I have just mentioned those that came immediately to mind) which you can take advantage of during the course of the day to come closer to God and to your neighbour. But here let me emphasise that, in giving you these examples, I am not in any way disparaging great penances. On the contrary, they may prove to be very good and holy, and even necessary, when Our Lord leads you by that road, always assuming that they have been approved by the person who directs your soul. But I warn you that great penances are also compatible with great falls, which are brought about by pride. On the other hand, if you continually wish to please God in the little battles that go on inside you — a smile, for example, when you don't feel like smiling; and I assure you that a smile is sometimes more difficult than an hour's worth of cilice — then there is little room left for pride, or for the ridiculous notion of thinking we are great heroes. Instead, we will see ourselves as a little child, who is hardly able to offer even the merest trifles to his father, but who then sees them received most joyfully.

So, does a Christian have to be mortified always? Yes, but for love. For this treasure of our vocation 'we carry it in vessels of clay, to show that the abundance of the power is God's and not ours. In all things we suffer tribulation, but we are not distressed; we are sore pressed, but we are not destitute; we endure persecution, but we are not forsaken; we are cast down, but we do not perish; always bearing about in our body the dying of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may be made manifest in our bodily frame.'



Saint Therese made the sacrifice of her own will her primary mortification.


http://www.cptryon.org/compassion/sum97/lisi.html

Give God to Men, That is Justice (Pope Benedict's Lenten Message 2010)

Pope Benedict's key insight for this Lent is his redefinition of justice

(http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/messages/lent/documents/hf_ben-xvi_mes_20091030_lent-2010_en.html).

He says that justice, dare cuique suum (to give each person what is his) includes divine love, because the first element in each man's suum is the gift of God. So that, you have not given a man what is rightly his as a man unless you give him God and His love, and for that you need to go to God to receive Him so as to be able to give Him to others in giving yourself (in the state of divine grace) to them.

He quotes Saint Augustine who says: "If justice is the virtue which gives each man what is his own,...how can you call human justice what takes away the true God from men and puts unclean demons in His place." (De Civitate Dei, XIX, 21)

The first justice is to give men God, the love of God, which is made possible in one's personal communion with Christ. Lenten conversion means turning to Christ in order that we ourselves may become (in our real and personal communion with Him) the very gift of God (Christ Himself in you) for the world. Then we can love others the way that they need to be loved, with the limitless heart of God, of Christ.

He gave us His Son. How can He refuse (not give) us anything else. What is He unwilling to give! (cf. Rom 8:32) His mercy is infinite! Ours too must reach that same level, for our own sake and for the sake of others. The world needs, each man needs the love of God, it is vital, it is right.

For Blogging's Sake

You have probably already heard the ubiquitous and, by now, cliche ridiculing expression about blogging:

"Never before have so many people with so little to say said so much to so few."

It's clever but false!



For "so many people with so little to say say so much to so few" and have done so,

--in all marriages and families from the beginning of time and forever,

--in all small communities, committees, gangs, etc.,

--in all relationships,

--on all cell-phones and e-mail accounts,

--previously, in all town squares of America (which were neighborhood friendly), and all ethnic clubs in our big city neighborhoods (often composed of Catholic men) before they were systematically dismantled (cf. E. Michael Jones The Slaughter of the Cities: http://www.culturewars.com/Reviews/SlaughterReviews.html).



A cliche is a clever and popular lie or exaggeration. It is the opposite of a proverb.

A proverb is an ornate and deep truth. A cliche is a disguised lie.



As Father L. says http://wdtprs.com/blog/2010/02/%e2%80%9cbroadcast%e2%80%9d-to-%e2%80%9cnarrowcast%e2%80%9d/, there are great advantages to the "narrow casting" of the blogosphere versus the "broadcasting" of the propaganda giants.

It is a great advance from uninvited highway billboards, TV commercials, pop-ups of elite marketing, and from the never ending general e-mailings and spam. It also beats the highly monopolized major news sources. This is the very definition of democracy, people freely exchanging their own ideas rather than only spouting the politically correct ideas from the "acceptable" angle. Perhaps the coiner of this cliche would prefer a dictatorship, one voice for everyone. I prefer the blogging model.

Why? Well, the small, discriminating and selective voices and audiences is the great novelty and advantage of blogging. It finally creates a worldwide forum enabling the freedom to be informative, informed and selective (i.e. studious [specializing in a specific area] as opposed to being scattered). It provides much greater freedom for discovering and sharing and refining truth!!! Universal sharing of truth is the greatest threat to and defence against those who would control others. It has been one of the keys to the worldwide Catholic Church, freedom in sharing and embracing the Truth in every land and every time. Granted, there is the danger of error being propagated by the blogs, but I should rather trust by discriminating search for the truth among the many voices (many of which are most excellent), guided by Catholic principles, than entrust that search to the hitherto news and information tyrants and their financiers.

We in the blogosphere are duty bound to be here to promote and defend the truth, and we strongly defend that same responsibility, and, therefore, that right to be here, against the objections of our detractors.

It should not be necessary to be the strongest voice in order to have a voice.

Non Dare Call It Conspiracy

Just a thought for all those who irrationally dismiss conspiracy as nonsense.

Friday Abstinence Canonical Exception

Often the question arises whether one needs a special mandate from the diocesan bishop to lift the Friday abstinence from meat when a solemnity (e.g. 19 March, Saint Joseph; 25 March, Annunciation) falls on a Lenten Friday. Canon 1251 of the 1983 Code of Canon Law appears to grant a permanent canonical exception whenever this happens, without any need for a diocesan mandate.

Can. 1251--Abstinence from meat, or from some other food as determined by the Bishops' Conference, is to be observed on all Fridays, unless a solemnity should fall on a Friday. Abstinence and fasting are to be observed on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday.

Therefore, Friday, 19 March 2010, being the solemnity of Saint Joseph, is not a day of abstinence, by virtue of the law itself, without any need for a diocesan mandate!

Concupiscence

Unusquisque vero tentatur a concupiscentia sua abstractus et illectus; deinde concupiscentia, cum conceperit, parit peccatum, peccatum vero, cum consummatum fuerit, generat mortem. James 1:14-15

(But every man is tempted by his own concupiscence, being drawn away and allured. Then when concupiscence hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin. But sin, when it is completed, begetteth death.)

Saint James tells here (the first reading of today's Mass [Tuesday of 6th week in ordinary time {year II}])of the ultimate interior source of temptation and therefore of sin, and that sin is the source of death. Adam sinned and thereby produced the heritage of original sin, concupiscence and death into the world. Our personal sins are caused by ourselves, therefore, by our internal inherited inclination toward sin. Our fallen nature tends toward what is forbidden. By the grace of God, through the sacraments and prayer and acts of self-denial (e.g. the bodily penances of the saints, even JPII, which are required for every Catholic, at least every Friday of the year) we can reduce that inherited concupiscence.

It is, therefore, false to say that God tempted you. You can say that the devil tempted you and that the world and other people tempted you. But, ultimately, every sin of which you are truly guilty is from you, from your own heart, your decision based on your disordered desire ("the flesh") which you have not purified. So, it is not strictly true to even say "the devil made me do it." We must correct our disordered orientations! Every man must, in order to be saved. Either we shall purify our hearts with a pious and upright life in Christ, by His grace, especially in the Sacraments, or we will destroy ourselves, individually and as a people.

For "when concupiscence hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin. But sin, when it is completed, begetteth death." The purpose of disordered desires is sin and the purpose of sin is the death of man. Neither has any benefit or good effect.

Every man should pray to be delivered from himself, from this fallen state of concupiscence: "Heavenly Father...lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. Amen."

Why Persevere James 1:1-11

In Spanish we say Lo que no mata engorda (what does not kill [you] will fatten [you up]). It means that most unpleasant things and even apparently harmful experiences are for the building of your character, just don't get discouraged; God is working on you!

Perhaps this folk wisdom comes from the Apostle of Spain's letter which is today's first reading: "Count it all joy, my brethren, when you meet various trials, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing." (v. 2-4)

Here he says something more than just "hang in there." He says love hanging in there. Love it. Cherish it. Realize what God is doing in your life and take joy in this hidden mystery that defies all appearances. Take joy in the substance: you are being built up by the Lord, pleasing to Him!

Joyfully let Him make you according to His good pleasure. Let Him use you. Love to let Him use you. Then you are perfect!

Abundance Key to Christianity

"Abundance is one of the key words of the New Testament."

(Benedict XVI at the Roman Seminary 12 February 2010)

In His creative, sustaining and saving action God's largess is boundless. And so, the reasonable response is a similar generosity. In our gratitude to God for all He has done for us and does for us through Jesus Christ we dedicate ourselves to Him with all our heart. Even more, we beg Him to give us His heart so that we might worthily love Him as He deserves.

In the same context the Holy Father quoted Saint Thomas Aquinas' words saying "The new law is the grace of the Holy Spirit." (Summa Theo. I-II, q. 106, a.1) It is not just a matter of following the rules, though we need to do that, but the new law is Emmanuel, "God is with us!" He makes everything possible in us.

I find it instructive that the first definition that Saint Thomas gives for "Eucharist" is "the gifts of grace." The Eucharist is primarily the divine gift of Self for our transformation into Him. That is the first meaning of the word Eucharist: grace: all is Gift. "What do you have which you have not received? says Saint Paul." The "Thanksgiving" is not the primary meaning but the response to the gift. But the "Thanksgiving" aspect goes well with this key of abundance. Our hearts overflow with His gifts, by His work in us, which we also welcome and corroborate in our little way, which in His mercy, is also significant and enlarging.

Unauthorized "Ministers"

Every non-Catholic "minister" commits the sin of Jeroboam, viz. attempting ordination outside of the divinely appointed order.

(cf. 1 Kings 12:31, 13:33, from the first reading of today's Mass [Saturday of 6th week in ordinary time, year II]).

Since the apostolic mandate of Christ, who, sent by the Father, and, in turn, sent the Apostles with the authority to send (and to confer the sending authority upon) their successors, the only divinely appointed order of ordination is Holy Orders. Men are chosen and sent by the legitimate successors of the Apostles (the bishops of the Catholic Church) in the unbroken historical line, by the laying on of hands and the words of ordination.

Jeroboam sinned against priestly Apostolicity and so does every non-Catholic clergyman. For every true Christian believes in the "One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church."

Some relevant Gospel texts:

All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me....

Receive the holy Spirit...

He who hears you hears me...

Go out to all the world...those who listen will be saved...

Afro-American Genocide

Given the disproportionate number of abortions among blacks in America (over 50% of the pregnancies of black women being aborted in some cities), an Atlanta based group has begun a campaign to get the word out and to stop this present day genocide.


It is discrimination to promote abortion (contraception and sterilization, and often with considerable coercion) among minorities and those in poverty. Minorities and the poor have just as much a right as anyone to conceive and bear their children. Go to the state of the art campaign web page below.

http://www.toomanyaborted.com/
The problem is not the pregnancies but the underlying social and moral disorder that needs to be addressed and corrected. Abortion is just another problem (extreme violence), never a solution to problems.
This issue and the Margaret Sanger genocide solution to increasing minorities and poverty in America is reminiscent of the Pharaoh in Egypt's attempt to control the Jewish population by decreeing the infanticide of all males that would be born. (Exodus 1:16)
Coercive Sterilizations
There is now another side to this issue, and that is the coercive sterilization of immigrant women. In my work with thousands of immigrants, I have found that sterilization (in America) is their most prevalent form of birth control, and many times the women are sterilized at the suggestion of a doctor, while in the child bearing process. Not infrequently, the doctors insinuate that they have enough or even too many children!!! So they get sterilized without even being informed that it is morally wrong, i.e. mutilation. Healthy organs should never be destroyed! They are deceived and operated in that deception.

True Enlightenment Comes to Lourdes

Less than a century after the French Revolution, when Reason was proclaimed the ultimate authority and deemed god; and liberty, equality and fraternity were to be the standards of morality, as opposed to the oppression of kings and the corruption of clergy, the Blessed Virgin Mary appeared to a girl in the French countryside to re-teach France and the world that all virtue comes from heaven, declaring "I am the Immaculate Conception." Mary is the enlightened one because she is the only human being that never had any stain of sin. She is perfectly united to God by this superlative purity of divine love in her. And that union with God is the only source of real fraternity.

God is the original society: Father, Son and Holy Spirit, three persons with perfect equality, freedom and cooperation. This heavenly messenger of consolation, mercy and healing for the sick and the sinner is just what the enlightened world needs. There was never a sadder world than this world of ours which has declared it's radical autonomy from it's Father. The enlightenment rejection of Jesus Christ and His Church is an attack on the very values it claims to champion: liberty, equality and fraternity. For Christ is the eternal Son Who makes all men brothers, He is the source of equality, for He and the Father are One, and He is the only source of perfect liberty because "the truth will set you free."

On this day in 1958 the Mother of Christ came to a little girl to teach us that God is still with us and cares for us and that He has given us a Mother so that we might all feel our common sonship and in gratitude show our fraternity, our openness and generosity to those around us. We owe mercy to our neighbor because God, the one true God, Jesus Christ our Lord, has loved us and given His life for us, and He is alive and cares for each one even now, from heaven and through the Blessed Virgin Mary and all the saints and through the ministry of His holy priests on the earth, until the end of time.

May our heavenly Mother make all men true and holy brothers of Christ our Lord.

Happy Feast of Our Lady of Lourdes!

De Donde Viene la Tristeza (The Origin of Sadness)

"En el mundo hay una sola tristeza: la de no ser santos, es decir, la de no estar cerca de Dios."

(De Benedicto XVI sobre la vida y la alegria de San Francisco de Asis, la audiencia general del miercoles, 27 enero 2010)

"There is only one sadness in the world: that of not being saints, that is, of not being close to God."

(From Wednesday Audience on the Joy of Saint Francis of Asissi, 27 January 2010)

The Wisdom of Solomon in the Temple of God

Today's first reading of the Mass (1Kings 10:1-10) is about the world renown of Solomon's wisdom. The queen of Sheba comes to him with the greatest abundance of gifts because of his superior refinement. One of the areas of his great magnanimity was building the great and magnificent Temple of Jerusalem: "The House of God." It would be the principle place for the praise and honor of God until the coming of God in the flesh: Jesus Christ.

Jesus Christ is the true temple of God, not made by human hands but eternally begotten of the Father and born of the Virgin Mary. So that the house of God is God Himself (cf. Rev. 21:22). God's house is not a place, therefore, but a Person. The circumstance for the encounter with God is not a matter of going to some special here or there but to the living Person of the Only Son who is eternally face to face with the heavenly Father.

We may, furthermore, speak of the house of God as being the one who conceived and bore Him and gave Him birth and created with Him and Saint Joseph the holy and chaste home of Nazareth. The true house of God is Mary, His Mother. Her Blessed womb is the Golden House of the great Messiah. Therefore, Saint Francis of Assisi wrote a prayer to Mary, the Mother of God as the House of God.

Greeting to the Most Blessed Virgin Mary

Hail, Lady, holy Queen, holy Mother of God, Mary, who are the Virgin made Church and chosen by the most high heavenly Father, who has consecrated you together with His most holy beloved Son and with the Holy Spirit, the Paraclete; you in whom was and is every fullness of grace and every good. Hail His palace, hail His tabernacle, hail His house, hail His vestment, hail His slave, hail His Mother.

Doritos Super Bowl Commercial 2010

The Doritos commercial from Sunday's Super Bowl with the boy telling the boyfriend to keep his hands of his mother was helpful in my seventh grade class as I was summarizing each of the ten commandments.

One child asked, "What is 'lust'?", which was the word I used to summarize the ninth commandment (Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's wife).

"Lust is what happened at the beginning of that video when the mother's boyfriend stared at her tail end as she pranced out, and perhaps she caused it by her strut. The boy noticing the lust gets angry and drops the game controls. Then he slaps the man, in part, for the lust, and says 'keep your hands off my momma!...'"

Everyone who has reached the age of reason (football fans included) should know that it is wrong to look at people in a dirty way and it is wrong to provoke impure looks by one's immodest attire and or manner. However, it is difficult to convey this truth to the adolescents needlessly making them curious or getting them excited. That commercial was a useful and sufficient tool to that end! Thank you Doritos!

Here is the link for the video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bptmb0Ygmus

Justifying "Bump"

I should like to respond to some pro-lifer negative responses to the reality series "Bump" (6 February post below).

http://plinthos.blogspot.com/2010/02/bump-share-your-story-join-conversation.html)

I love the series because it emphasizes the gravity of abortion and the reality of the child in the womb and the fact that abortion is evil, because all of the women would prefer not to be considering it.

The show highligts the fact that abortion (gravely and categorically sinful and always wrong for whatever reason) is a symptom of other grave problems (such as adultery, fornication, violence). Those underlying problems need to be addressed in the great war against abortion. And the greatest problem underlying them all is the ignoring of God and His incarnate love and mercy through our Savior Jesus Christ.

We are sick, individually and as a society, insofar as we reject Jesus Christ and His way. We have laws against physical violence. We used to have laws against sexual immorality, but because we have banned God from the public forum we have accepted every form of sexual perversion, and the consequence is death.

It is good for the world to see the underlying causes of abortion: immorality and abuse of all types. As is written repeatedly in the book of Proverbs, sexual immorality kills! And irreligion confuses the connection. It is no accident that the fifth and sixth commandments come one after the other. Life and love must always go together as they are in God.

And I do agree, furthermore, that if any of the girls decides to abort, that the abortion should be shown, including the baby in the trash, to show the horror of the abominable crime and that no circumstances can justify it. (The criminal act of) abortion is a symptom (of other underlying sins) and not a solution.

What this show emphasises is that abortion is a false solution because it ignores and circumvents the experience and the crisis of the woman. That is a great personalistic argument (avoiding moralism) against abortion. In other words, every woman needs to be listened to and helped and know that the baby is never the problem, and that, therefore, the abortion solves nothing! It just adds one very grave problem to all the other problems: it makes the mother (and father and doctor, etc.) a murderer!!!

Protestant Principles

Here are two basic protestant principles of faith and what is wrong with them.

1. Sola Scriptura.

2. Private interpretation of Sacred Scripture.

Both principles are heretical because the first is opposed to the Christian principle of Sacred Tradition and the second is opposed to the Christian principle of The Magisterium.

The Catholic and true principles of faith (the essential and interconnected sources of the transmission of Divine Revelation) are 1) the Magisterium, 2) the Sacred Tradition and 3) Sacred Scripture.

The fundamental error of all of the principles of protestantism (sola fide, sola scriptura, sola gratia, soli Deo gloria and solus Christus) may be summarized in the rejection of faith in the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church. So that the true protestant is left at the mercy of his own opinions. Protestantism entails an exaggerated subjective emphasis. As G.K. Chesterton once said, the problem with protestants is not that they reject the pope but that for them every man is pope!

In his renouned and prize winning "Regensburg Address" Pope Benedict argues that modern relativism and materialism have their origin in the Protestant Reformation rejection of Greek thought (since it was considered a corruption of true Christianity), and consequently of traditional logic and common sense. If there is no check, no external objective truth on which to judge private interpretation and internal faith (namely Sacred Tradition and the Church Magisterium), then anything goes, as long as you believe it! Then faith would be fiction, because many believe error. Then even the terrorists would be right!!! The relevant passage is where he explains the three stages of dehellenization about halfway into the talk. That, the error of dehellenization and its harmful consequences was the central theme of that notorious and landmark talk. Find it at the link below.

http://plinthos.blogspot.com/2008/03/regensburg-address-lecture-of-his.html

The world needs the pope, the Church always has a pope with the keys to the kingdom of heaven (to make Christ Himself accesible to men in every time and place against every political current), against whose teaching authority, given, inspired and defended by Christ Himself, "the gates of Hell shall not prevail!"

Wisdom is Shared

The smart man learns from his own experience: trial and error.

The wise man learns from the experience of others, he need not fall himself!

And the fool refuses to learn at all!

May the good God, Jesus Christ, grant that you and I be at least smart and even wise, to avoid falling ourselves and to serve as a guide to the wise and the smart. May we be guided by the infallible wisdom of the ages, the Magisterium of the Catholic Church.

(cf. 1Kings 3:9 "Give your servant, therefore, an understanding heart to judge your people and to distinguish right from wrong." Solomon's divinely pleasing prayer for wisdom from yesterday's daily Mass reading [Saturday of the fourth week of ordinary time, year II].)

--Buona Domenica!

Bump | Share your story. Join the conversation.

Check out this exciting new reality series of women considering abortion and why. Finally we can hear from the women themselves and their situations and bypassing all of the propaganda.

Most passionate! Excellent! Excellent for anyone with a heart. And challenging anyone with a mind. Please check it out below!

Bump Share your story. Join the conversation.

Might Does Not Make Right

Prugel sind keine Beweise.

Cudgels are no argument (prove nothing)!

Remunerate this fine German proverb which contradicts the Machiavellian law of the jungle "might is right."

In other words, physical fighting and bickering are a cheap substitute for intelligent resolutions, painstaking and charitable correction and amends.

Brains and a heart are infinitely stronger and more effective than fists!

There is no limit to the power of love! cf. 1Cor. 13