Domine, da mihi hanc aquam!

On not being stupid

2012-02-01T07:08:00.001-06:00

4th Week OT (W)
Fr. Philip Neri Powell, OP
St. Dominic Church, NOLA

The crowds who witness Jesus' miracles recognize that he is preaching and teaching with a new authority. More than just another rabbi, just another prophet. He is something more than a local holy man or a snake oil salesman. Having been repeatedly surprised by the wisdom of his teaching, the crowds are frightened when he removes Legion of a man possessed and casts the unclean spirits into a herd of swine. Whoever this Jesus guy is, he's doing something entirely new, something entirely different. That is, until he makes a visit to his hometown. After he teaches in the synagogue, the local folks ask, “Where's he getting all this wisdom? He's done some mighty things! But isn't he just Mary's kid? Don't his brothers and sister live right here in town?” And b/c he is just a hometown boy to them, “they take offense at him” and show him no respect. What's interesting here is that they are at first astonished by his teaching, but then they talk themselves into being offended. What happens to them between leaving the synagogue and deciding that Jesus is just another Local Nobody? We don't have to stretch our imaginations too far to figure out that the sin of pride asserts itself and convinces them that no matter how astonishing his teaching might be, Jesus is just a local boy trying to show them up; thus, pride nurtures stupidity.

Because the people of Jesus' town will not receive him as a prophet, they cannot receive the gifts of wisdom and healing that he offers. Mark reports, “. . .he was not able to perform any mighty deed there. . .” Mark also notes that Jesus “was amazed at their lack of faith.” Why should he be amazed? Despite eye-witness testimony; despite their own astonishment at his teaching; despite the fact that they have the people Jesus healed living among them; despite every bit of evidence available to them, they refuse to give Jesus the honor due his words and deeds. They simply could not get past the fact that this amazing preacher, this wise teacher, this miracle worker was a hometown boy. In their pride-fogged minds, Jesus came home for no other reason than to show them up as rubes, and they are offended. But are they harmed? By neglect, yes. I mean, they were harmed b/c by taking offense they were unwilling to receive all that Jesus had to offer them. Their pride stood like a wall between disease and healing, between sin and salvation. That day, pride did its job well and the prideful suffered for it.

The people of Jesus' hometown exhibit one of the deadliest symptoms of being infected with pride: thinking so highly of themselves that they refuse freely offered help. And not just any help but Divine Help! We might also say that pride serves as a cover for their own self-loathing. Isn't needing help a sign of weakness? Isn't asking for charity of any kind an admission of defeat? Jesus' offer of divine help sparks resentment: does he think we are children needing a father or mother to guide us? He's one of us! How dare he come in here and try to play the prophet of God! Pride is considered the worst of the cardinal sins precisely b/c it gives rise to all the other sins. Turning our faces from God and the Church and demanding to be left alone to live by our own wits is the height of stupidity. No one truly lives alone. No live lives at all without God. Faith, trust, like any good habit must be exercised or it becomes flabby. A spiritually flabby heart quickly becomes delusional, believing that it beats by human will alone. A truly faithful heart knows that it beats best when it follows the willful rhythm of the Lord's love and mercy. Do not let the Lord be amazed at your stupidity.

___________________

Follow HancAquam and visit the Kindle Wish List and the Books & Things Wish List

Recommend this post on Google!

Boycott Fat Monday!

2012-01-30T12:04:00.000-06:00

Got on the scale this morning. . .didn't like that number, so I'm boycotting the Monday Fat Report until the number gets where I want it!

(Needless to say, the number was higher than 327 lbs. . .gggrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr. . .)

___________________

Follow HancAquam and visit the Kindle Wish List and the Books & Things Wish List

Recommend this post on Google!

Why so fearful?

2012-01-30T06:49:00.004-06:00

4th Week OT (M)
Fr. Philip Neri Powell, OP
St. Dominic Church, NOLA

While preaching, teaching, and casting out unclean spirits, Jesus has met with a number of predictable responses: astonishment from the crowds; jealousy from the Pharisees; confusion from his disciples. The crowds are astonished by his authority to command spirits. The Pharisees are jealous of his influence over the people. And the poor disciples are confused by his parables and his reluctance to act like a proper prophet. Of all the responses he's garnered—amazement, envy, puzzlement—one stands out as unusual: fear. Looking back over our gospel readings last week, we read that the unclean spirits fear Jesus b/c he has authority over them as the Son of God. They beg him not interfere in their business of tormenting souls. The Lord casts them out despite their pleas. So, why do I say that fear is an unusual response to Jesus' preaching? Well, we can expect unclean spirits to be afraid of the Christ. But in this morning's reading we hear that a man possessed by an unclean spirit is freed from possession. The local folks approach Jesus and see that the man is calm and “in his right mind.” Are they astonished? Jealous? Confused? No, “. . .they were seized with fear. . .Then they began to beg him to leave their district.” Seized with fear? Why? Why are they afraid of Jesus? Why would anyone be afraid of a man who can free them from the chains of an unclean spirit?

Let's put the question in more modern terms and see what we can come up with. Why would someone in love with their sin fear another who has been freed from that sin? I've spent many an hour sitting in various kinds of 12-Step groups with clients who report that their efforts at recovery often evoke fear among their friends who are still indulging their addictions. I know a couple of men and women who struggle with same-sex attractions who have found themselves friendless b/c they have chosen to live chastely. In my own experience, there is no quicker way to get offered lots of fried food and sugary pastries than to announce that I am on a diet! You've heard it said that misery loves company. We can amend that saying to read, “Misery loves company and so does sin.” When confronted by the power and authority of the Christ to cast out unclean spirits, the people around Jesus become afraid b/c he is a source of radical change, a whirlwind of upheaval and potential destruction. If he can command demons, what can he do to my comfortable life, my cozy life of sin?

Now, of course, a big part of the peoples' fear is that Jesus is displaying what they think of as the power of a wizard—he casts demons into swine. But we can't discount the ability of their human minds to make a connection between the insanity of the possessed man and their own disobedience. Those possessed are possessed b/c of their sin. Jesus can handle Legion. He can certainly turn to me and radically alter my snug relationship with my favorite sin. That's scary. Especially if I'm not particularly inclined to think of my favorite sin as a sin. This raises another question: if being freed from my favorite sin is so terrifying, what does that say about the influence that sin has on how I see myself? In other words, am I more than just the sum total of my sins? If I am, then what's left over? Who am I w/o my sins? Seriously facing that question is terrifying for some of us. The Good News here is that w/o our sins we are all that much closer to being who and what we were created to be: Christs for one another. Fear may be a natural response to this truth, but fear is never the best response to being offered eternal life.

___________________

Follow HancAquam and visit the Kindle Wish List and the Books & Things Wish List

Recommend this post on Google!

Guess which graph I am most embarrassed by. . .

2012-01-29T16:47:00.001-06:00

Hint: it's not the one about Moe, Larry, and Curly or the one that looks like a doughnut.

___________________
Follow HancAquam and visit the Kindle Wish List and the Books & Things Wish List

Recommend this post on Google!

Time for Catholic Girls to Quit the Girl Scouts (UPDATED)

2012-01-29T12:34:00.001-06:00

To all Catholic Moms and Dads: Time to pull your daughters out of the Girl Scouts! Here's a vid of GSA CEO admitting that her organization uses Planned Parenthood as an "educational resource."

TXMom4Life notes in the combox: "To learn more: watch EWTN's Women of Grace, Monday-Friday the week of February 20th (2012). They will be airing a 5-part series called 'Girl Scouts: Mission Aborted.'

Also see www.100questionsforthegirlscouts.org and www.speaknowgirlscouts.com."

___________________

Follow HancAquam and visit the Kindle Wish List and the Books & Things Wish List

Recommend this post on Google!

A challenge to Catholic bloggers. . .

2012-01-29T09:13:00.000-06:00

Conscience Protection: Bishops Vow to Fight Coercive HHS Mandate. . .(USCCB)

Click here to find you what you can do to oppose this unprecedented attack on our religious liberties as both Catholics and Americans.

Also, I want to challenge ALL Catholic bloggers to link to the bishops' site and urge their readers to respond.

____________________

Follow HancAquam and visit the Kindle Wish List and the Books & Things Wish List

Recommend this post on Google!

Bishop raises an alarm. . .too late?

2012-01-29T05:57:00.001-06:00

Bishop Jenky of Peoria, IL tells it like it is! WOW. I've never read a more direct description of our current political position in this country:

[. . .] As your Bishop, I now believe it is critically necessary to raise an alarm among the faithful regarding growing threats to our religious freedom due to the increasing steps toward radical secularization taking place in Illinois. Beside the abrupt exclusion of Catholic Charities from childcare and adoption services and increasing attempts to intimidate Catholic healthcare, I am also concerned about possible future moves that could be made against the independence of our Catholic schools and other public ministries of our Diocese. Eventually it may come to pass that our fidelity to the Gospel of Christ and to Catholic tradition may place us in direct conflict with recent legal definitions of the State of Illinois. There are certainly some in our state whose commitment to aesthetic secularism is so intense that they may well try to restrict the Church’s role only to the sacristy and sanctuary.

I am especially scandalized by some “Catholic” politicians who willingly collaborate with efforts to restrict the civil liberty of the faith tradition from which they were originally sprung. Many of those in office who were taught to read and write in Catholic schools, now seem entirely indifferent to the consciences of those Catholics who live their faith. On Ash Wednesday, they like to be conspicuous with crosses on their foreheads, but the true Cross of Christ seems far from their hearts and minds. They enjoy parties on March the 17th and wearing green sweaters but in effect are ashamed of Saint Patrick’s unwavering zeal for the Catholic Christianity. They like photo opportunities with the hierarchy, but break their word to them without a moment’s hesitation. They may still use the rituals of Catholicism to mark their happy and sad occasions, but apparently would sell their soul for a vote or a dollar. What does it benefit a person to gain the whole world but lose their soul (Mark 8:36), but eternal loss for the sake of public office in Illinois is an extraordinarily foolish deal with the devil. Such people certainly need our prayers, but they should no longer be able to take our friendship or our support for granted [. . .]

I respectfully submit to Bishop Jenky that the lack of action on the part of his episcopal brethren in disciplining "Catholic" politicians has given these wayward souls the distinct impression that they can slap on green hats and parade their ashes and backslap Cardinals at fundraising dinners and still vote for abortion, gay "marriage," and ObamaCare w/o consequences.

It is well beyond time for our bishops and pastors to stop inviting these political leeches to public celebrations of Catholic cultural events. Whether or not individuals should be denied communion is a much more delicate and complicated matter. However, declining invitations to fundraising events, parades, etc. is not. The Bernadin Experiment in secular engagement has been a failure, a horrible failure, and our shepherds need to repudiate it before we all find ourselves under judgment.

___________________

Follow HancAquam and visit the Kindle Wish List and the Books & Things Wish List

Recommend this post on Google!

Just Say NO to B.O.

2012-01-28T18:15:00.002-06:00

Archbishop Gregory Aymond of New Orleans asked his pastors to read a letter at this weekend's Masses. When I read the letter to myself, I thought it was rather tame. However, when I read it aloud, I was struck by the force of his words and motivated to act.

Rarely have I asked HancAquam readers to anything specific. . .OK. . ."buy me books" counts, I guess! :-)

Let me ask you to do something now: contact your Congressmen and Senators and let them know that you strongly object to the Obama administration's intrusion into our lives as faithful Catholics.

Even those of you who think the Church's teaching on contraception and abortion is wrongheaded or too extreme, or even if you don't really understand the Church's teachings, you can appreciate the gross malfeasance of requiring Catholic institutions to pay for contraceptives and abortions. The Amish are exempted from buying health insurance and sending their children to public schools. The Quakers are exempted from serving in the military. Why are Catholics being required to violate their conscience in the funding of abortion?

Spirit of Vatican Two Catholics and JPII-BXVI Catholics can agree that the well-formed conscience of a religious believer is not subject to regulation by secular political forces.

B.O. is setting himself against both the leadership of the Church and against the free conscience of individual Catholics when he orders that we work in order to supply money to those who want to violate the natural law by killing their children. This is a rank, cynical political move to shore up his base before an election by demonizing the only institution left in this country that believes in objective truth and knowable moral norms.

Not only is he ordering us to give our money to abortionists, he's implicating us in mortal sin.

Let your representatives know that they have your support in opposing B.O.'s attempt to get you to pay for his supporters' abortions.

___________________

Follow HancAquam and visit the Kindle Wish List and the Books & Things Wish List

Recommend this post on Google!

Anxiety = Distraction

2012-01-28T14:34:00.001-06:00

4th Sunday OT
Fr. Philip Neri Powell, OP
St. Dominic Church, NOLA

Paul writes to the Corinthians: “I should like you to be free of anxieties. . .[so that you might adhere] to the Lord without distraction.” How does he suggest that we avoid anxiety and thus adhere to the Lord without distractions? Don't get married! “An unmarried man [or woman] is anxious about the things of the Lord. . .a married man [or woman] is divided,” he says, between pleasing the Lord and pleasing a spouse. Looking out over the congregation, I daresay, by Paul's standard, we have a lot of anxious folks here this morning! But this nothing to be worried about. Paul adds, “I am telling you this for your own benefit, not to impose a restraint upon you. . .” In other words, though he believes it is better to remain unmarried and thus undivided in the service of the Lord, he is not imposing celibacy as a restraint. Keep in mind that Paul's advice to the Corinthians is coming from personal experience—he had been a married man.* He knows all about the anxieties and distractions of having a wife. And that's his point, that's what he is teaching—not celibacy or virginity (worthy, even preferable choices) but the importance of serving the Lord without the anxiety of distractions. The unclean spirits possessing the man shout at Jesus, “What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth?” Jesus casts out the man's uncleanliness by saying, “Quiet! Come out of him!” And the man is distracted no more.

How do we become possessed by the unclean spirit of anxiety? It might go something like this: an ordinary seed of responsibility sprouts as a worry and that sprout of worry, with careful nursing, blossoms into a poisonous vexation. That poisonous vexation, if not quickly and mercilessly pruned, is left to ripen and become an anxious fruit, which then drops, bursting with rot to plant its distracting seeds in your spirit. Then the cycle of responsibility, worry, vexation, and anxiety to distraction not only repeats but it repeats in every part of your life. What might start as an ordinary responsibility to pay a bill can sprout, blossom, ripen, and rot into a distracting anxiety about money. “I have a bill to pay” becomes “If I can't pay this bill, I am a worthless husband, a useless wife.” If and when this happens, then you know that the unclean spirit of anxiety has possessed you. To that unclean, disquieting spirit, our Lord, say, “Quiet! Come out!”

You might have noticed that I left something out of my description of how we might become possessed by the unclean spirits of anxiety. I said that an ordinary responsibility can sprout in our souls as a worry. What can cause this? What is it that transforms a mundane responsibility like paying a bill into a worry about where the money will come from? To answer this question, we need to think about what anxiety is in Christian terms. And how anxiety is a distraction in our service to the Lord. There is no official Church definition of anxiety, but there is a revealing mention of it in the Catechism, a mention that gives us a powerful clue in figuring out exactly how anxiety hurts us spiritually. In its discussion of the Tenth Commandment, the one against coveting a neighbor's goods, the Catechism says this, “Abandonment to the providence of the Father in heaven frees us from anxiety about tomorrow. Trust in God is a preparation for the blessedness of the poor. They shall see God”(2547). If abandonment to the providence of God frees us from anxiety, then it is reasonable to assume that refusing to abandon ourselves to the loving-care of the Father enslaves us to worry. Anxiety then is the unclean spirit that possesses us when we fail to trust that God will provide for our needs. The job of this unclean spirit is to distract us from serving the Lord by focusing our time, energy, and talent on trying to solve the very problems we have created for ourselves by not heeding the Lord's will in the first place. I hope the irony of this doesn't escape you. . .

OK. We've all heard some version of “abandonment to God's providence” all our lives. It's right up there with “Offer it up” and “think of it as a few more days off purgatory.” What does the phrase mean though? When we think of abandoning something we think of leaving it behind, surrendering it, giving it away. We think of abandoned cars, houses, even abandoned children or spouses—those thrown out. When we abandon something we sever all ties to it, cut our affections, distance ourselves. But none of those really fit the idea of abandonment TO God's providence. We're not giving up on providence or cutting ties with God's loving-care. What we are doing to falling into the hands of God w/o looking first to see if He's really gonna catch us. Think of bungee jumping off a bridge w/o the bungee cord. You abandon your perch in order to abandon yourself to the rush of the wind and the pull of gravity. We always fall down. Spiritually speaking, when the need arises, we always fall into God's loving hands. Like needful objects hurtling toward the earth, at our most desperate, we tumble toward the Father. There is no question about this. It is His will. The question is whether or not we will acknowledge this as His will, give Him thanks for His care, and then continue on in the full knowledge that we have already been caught and cared for. The unclean spirit of anxiety is exorcised the moment we say to the first inkling of worry, “Quiet! Come out of me!” And when family and friends see that you are calm, collected, and cared for, they will be astonished.

Let's set the record straight on one important point: God's loving-care for you in your time of need will not likely appear in your checking account or as a magically transformed spouse or as suddenly obedient kids. His love for us can manifest as material goods. More often than not, His love for us sits as a reminder beyond this life that our lives here are impermanent, always in transition toward to a higher end with a greater purpose. God is not a heavenly banker, or a miracle-working therapist, or revolutionary psychotropic medication. He loves us b/c it is His nature to love, and the love He gives us is given so that we can transform our relationship to Him, to others, to ourselves, and to the things of this world. This means that all those relationships that invite the unclean spirits of anxiety into your life must be re-ordered behind your first love: God. Love your spouse b/c you love God first. Love your children b/c you love God first. Love your house, your car, your career, your hobbies b/c God comes first, before everything and everyone you love. That way, when your spouse passes, your kids move away, your car breaks down, and you lose your job, you still dwell faithfully in the only permanent source of love, Love Himself, God.

The Psalmist writes, “Come, let us bow down in worship; let us kneel before the LORD who made us. For he is our God. . .” Your life will be ruled by that which you love most. To place God at the center of your life, to make Him your heart—remove whatever else, whoever else occupies that place of honor and abandon yourself and all those you love to the only living source of Love: Christ Jesus and him alone.

*I changed this portion of the sentence b/c I'd confused Paul with Peter. Paul was probably a widower.

___________________

Follow HancAquam and visit the Kindle Wish List and the Books & Things Wish List

Recommend this post on Google!

Will your penance bear fruit?

2012-01-27T15:15:00.001-06:00

St. Angela Merici
Fr. Philip Neri Powell, OP
St. Dominic Church, NOLA

In the newly translated Confiteor we confess, “I have greatly sinned, in my thoughts and in my words, in what I have done and in what I have failed to do. . .” In that way that only Catholics can truly appreciate, we cover all the bases! Thought, words, deeds, and deeds we didn't do. This penitential prayer isn't just some casual way to start the Mass, nor is it an easy-cheesy wink at our sins. In that one sentence we rehearse not only the typical progression of sin but we also practice a way out of whatever sin we may have committed. Sin usually starts with a thought, then progresses to a word—to ourselves or someone else; then we move to the deed itself. How do we “reverse” this progression once it's finished? We start with a deed—going to confession. Then we move to the words—we confess, pray the act of contrition, and receive our penance. Then we move—literally, physically—out of the confessional and complete our penance, the final deed. Rightly conceived and executed, that penance can be the very seed of next witness; that is, our penance—whether public or private—can be both a seed planted for our own growth in holiness and the beginning of a holy life for someone else. Let me give you a very stark example. . .

In 1981, my high school Spanish class went to Mexico City to visit the newly built Shrine of Our Lady of Guadeloupe and the National Cathedral. I knew exactly nothing about Catholicism. Our tour bus pulled up into the plaza in front of the shrine and the cathedral and we all piled out to gape at all the weird stuff around us. Just as I stepped out, I heard this low moaning, a sort of chant coming from the right. The locals gathered for prayer parted and from among them came about 200 abuelas, grandmothers, crawling on their knees toward the shrine. They were all holding these strings of beads and muttering out loud. Never in my 17 years had I ever seen anything so bizarre! We all stopped and stared at them. They were dressed in loose-fitting black shawls with their heads covered and. . .the worst part. . .their knees and legs were covered in blood. They had been crawling over asphalt and gravel for miles. I asked my teacher, a Catholic woman, “What are they doing?” She said, “They are doing penance for their sons who are in jail.” Thirty years later, that image—those grandmothers on their bloodied knees doing penance for the sins of their sons and grandsons—remains a vivid image for me of what we are capable of when believe in the power of repentance. Though none of the abuelas know this, their witness that day put me in the Dominican habit. They planted the seed of my priestly vocation.

The new translation of the Confiteor is not all that different from the old one. The bishops restored the triple mea culpa, and thus reasserted the role of our free will in committing sin. This isn't a move toward darkening the joy of our celebration; this isn't a way for the clergy to “beat up” on the laity for your lack of holiness. Quite the opposite! That you are reciting the Confiteor at Mass in the first place is evidence enough that you are fully aware of your sin. The Confiteor is your chance to tell the truth about your spiritual state and to receive the mercy that God freely offers. How can you receive if you do not ask? When you leave here this evening, what penance will you perform? How will you show the Lord that you are repentant? Whatever you choose to think, to say, or do, let it be a witness that plants a seed, a seed that produces a marvelous harvest for the glory of the Lord!

___________________

Follow HancAquam and visit the Kindle Wish List and the Books & Things Wish List

Recommend this post on Google!

Liberty for the Amish & Quakers but not Catholics. . .

2012-01-27T14:23:00.000-06:00

In the editorial below, Archbishop Dolan makes an excellent point. The gov't respects the religious consciences of a number of Christian groups in the US by exempting them from otherwise obligatory laws. Why is it so difficult for B.O. to respect our 2,000 year old tradition of calling abortion murder and refusing to pay for it?

ObamaCare and Religious Freedom
How about some respect for Catholics and others who object to treating pregnancy as a disease?
By [Archbishop] TIMOTHY M. DOLAN

Religious freedom is the lifeblood of the American people, the cornerstone of American government. When the Founding Fathers determined that the innate rights of men and women should be enshrined in our Constitution, they so esteemed religious liberty that they made it the first freedom in the Bill of Rights.

In particular, the Founding Fathers fiercely defended the right of conscience. George Washington himself declared: "The conscientious scruples of all men should be treated with great delicacy and tenderness; and it is my wish and desire, that the laws may always be extensively accommodated to them." James Madison, a key defender of religious freedom and author of the First Amendment, said: "Conscience is the most sacred of all property."

Scarcely two weeks ago, in its Hosanna-Tabor decision upholding the right of churches to make ministerial hiring decisions, the Supreme Court unanimously and enthusiastically reaffirmed these longstanding and foundational principles of religious freedom. The court made clear that they include the right of religious institutions to control their internal affairs.

Yet the Obama administration has veered in the opposite direction. It has refused to exempt religious institutions that serve the common good—including Catholic schools, charities and hospitals—from its sweeping new health-care mandate that requires employers to purchase contraception, including abortion-producing drugs, and sterilization coverage for their employees.

Last August, when the administration first proposed this nationwide mandate for contraception and sterilization coverage, it also proposed a "religious employer" exemption. But this was so narrow that it would apply only to religious organizations engaged primarily in serving people of the same religion. As Catholic Charities USA's president, the Rev. Larry Snyder, notes, even Jesus and His disciples would not qualify for the exemption in that case, because they were committed to serve those of other faiths.

Since then, hundreds of religious institutions, and hundreds of thousands of individual citizens, have raised their voices in principled opposition to this requirement that religious institutions and individuals violate their own basic moral teaching in their health plans. Certainly many of these good people and groups were Catholic, but many were Americans of other faiths, or no faith at all, who recognize that their beliefs could be next on the block. They also recognize that the cleverest way for the government to erode the broader principle of religious freedom is to target unpopular beliefs first.

Now we have learned that those loud and strong appeals were ignored. On Friday, the administration reaffirmed the mandate, and offered only a one-year delay in enforcement in some cases—as if we might suddenly be more willing to violate our consciences 12 months from now. As a result, all but a few employers will be forced to purchase coverage for contraception, abortion drugs and sterilization services even when they seriously object to them. All who share the cost of health plans that include such services will be forced to pay for them as well. Surely it violates freedom of religion to force religious ministries and citizens to buy health coverage to which they object as a matter of conscience and religious principle.

The rule forces insurance companies to provide these services without a co-pay, suggesting they are "free"—but it is naïve to believe that. There is no free lunch, and you can be sure there's no free abortion, sterilization or contraception. There will be a source of funding: you.

Coercing religious ministries and citizens to pay directly for actions that violate their teaching is an unprecedented incursion into freedom of conscience. Organizations fear that this unjust rule will force them to take one horn or the other of an unacceptable dilemma: Stop serving people of all faiths in their ministries—so that they will fall under the narrow exemption—or stop providing health-care coverage to their own employees.

The Catholic Church defends religious liberty, including freedom of conscience, for everyone. The Amish do not carry health insurance. The government respects their principles. Christian Scientists want to heal by prayer alone, and the new health-care reform law respects that. Quakers and others object to killing even in wartime, and the government respects that principle for conscientious objectors. By its decision, the Obama administration has failed to show the same respect for the consciences of Catholics and others who object to treating pregnancy as a disease.

This latest erosion of our first freedom should make all Americans pause. When the government tampers with a freedom so fundamental to the life of our nation, one shudders to think what lies ahead.

___________________

Follow HancAquam and visit the Kindle Wish List and the Books & Things Wish List

Recommend this post on Google!

Prayer to St Michael the Archangel. . .yup, it's time!

2012-01-27T13:54:00.001-06:00

Bishop Daniel Jenky of Peoria, IL has asked parishes in his dioceses to reintroduce the Prayer to St. Michael the Archangel as a way of combating B.O.'s intrusion into our Christian consciences with his pro-abort/contraception mentality.

Hoorah for the Good Bishop!

Here at St. Dominic's we recite the prayer after each Mass. . .

Saint Michael the Archangel, defend us in battle.

Be our protection against the wickedness and snares of the devil.
May God rebuke him, we humbly pray; and do Thou, O Prince of the Heavenly Host--
by the Divine Power of God--cast into hell, satan and all the evil spirits,
who roam throughout the world seeking the ruin of souls. Amen.

Another version:

O glorious Archangel St. Michael, Prince of the heavenly host, defend us in battle, and in the struggle which is ours against the principalities and Powers, against the rulers of this world of darkness, against spirits of evil in high places. Come to the aid of men, whom God created immortal, made in his own image and likeness, and redeemed at a great price from the tyranny of the devil. Amen.

And there's an even longer version:

Fight this day the battle of the Lord, together with the holy angels, as already thou hast fought the leader of the proud angels, Lucifer, and his apostate host, who were powerless to resist thee, nor was there place for them any longer in Heaven. But that cruel, that ancient serpent, who is called the devil or Satan, who seduces the whole world, was cast into the abyss with all his angels.

Behold, this primeval enemy and slayer of man has taken courage, Transformed into an angel of light, he wanders about with all the multitude of wicked spirits, invading the earth in order to blot out the name of God and of his Christ, to seize upon, slay and cast into eternal perdition souls destined for the crown of eternal glory. This wicked dragon pours out, as a most impure flood, the venom of his malice on men of depraved mind and corrupt heart, the spirit of lying, of impiety, of blasphemy, and the pestilent breath of impurity, and of every vice and iniquity.

These most crafty enemies have filled and inebriated with gall and bitterness the Church, the spouse of the Immaculate Lamb, and have laid impious hands on her most sacred possessions.

In the Holy Place itself, where has been set up the See of the most holy Peter and the Chair of Truth for the light of the world, they have raised the throne of their abominable impiety, with the iniquitous design that when the Pastor has been struck, the sheep may be scattered.

Arise then, O invincible prince, bring help against the attacks of the lost spirits to the people of God, and bring them the victory.

The Church venerates thee as protector and patron; in thee holy Church glories as her defense against the malicious powers of this world and of hell; to thee has God entrusted the souls of men to be established in heavenly beatitude.

Oh, pray to the God of peace that He may put Satan under our feet, so far conquered that he may no longer be able to hold men in captivity and harm the Church. Offer our prayers in the sight of the Most High, so that they may quickly conciliate the mercies of the Lord; and beating down the dragon, the ancient serpent, who is the devil and Satan, do thou again make him captive in the abyss, that he may no longer seduce the nations. Amen.

Warning: the Devil prefers that Christians keep quiet and he more or less leaves us alone when we aren't causing him any trouble. Reciting this prayer just might rile him up a bit. You've been warned!

___________________

Follow HancAquam and visit the Kindle Wish List and the Books & Things Wish List

Recommend this post on Google!

Coffee Cup Browsing

2012-01-27T11:54:00.000-06:00

If the "values" expressed in this vid win out, our country cannot/will not survive. Caution: strong language.

B.O. leaves "clean energy" summit in a 22 car motorcade. I'll start to worry about "climate change" when the Alarmists start acting like they really believe their own propaganda.

Sonograms and background checks: "I’ll start taking their bleating about constitutional rights seriously when it becomes one tenth as hard to get an abortion as it is to bear arms."

200 Lefties camp out in a park and scream, "Eat the Rich" and we hear weeks of fawning media coverage. 300,000+ Pro-Lifers march through D.C. and all we hear is the Media Crickets chirping.

"The other nine nations on the World Watch List’s top 10 are all majority Muslim states. All told, the consensus estimate for the number of Christians killed for their faith each year around the world is 150,000."

Pastor issues letter, "Good Manners in God's House." Betcha he caught some flack for this one!

Our Petulant President: "very thin-skinned." Yeah, that happens when you're used to everyone thinking you're the Savior of Mankind.

Bishop blasts Catholic-bashing from the White House.

Suicide: the man accused of murdering Fr. Ed Everitt, OP is found dead in his cell. R.I.P.
___________________

Follow HancAquam and visit the Kindle Wish List and the Books & Things Wish List

Recommend this post on Google!

Update on Mom. . .

2012-01-26T16:15:00.000-06:00

Scuba Mom is home from the hospital. She's feeling fine.

Thanks for all the prayers and notes of concern.

God bless, Fr. Philip, OP

___________________

Follow HancAquam and visit the Kindle Wish List and the Books & Things Wish List

Recommend this post on Google!

What shall I do, Lord?

2012-01-25T15:47:00.001-06:00

The Conversion of St. Paul
Fr. Philip Neri Powell, OP
St. Dominic Church, New Orleans

Once, when I was 12 y.o., the carpenter helping us build our house in Mississippi whapped me in the back of the head with a 2x4. I've been hit in the face with a strand of barbed-wire. Had a tree fall on me while cutting fire wood. Almost drowned in a lake. My little brother bounced a brick off my head after I had hit him with two bricks. When I was 17, I rear-ended a truck on Hwy 78 going 60mph. Totaled both trucks. While working in a psych hospital, I've tackled and helped to restrain a police officer, an amateur wrestler, a woman who thought she was the Devil, and dozens of out of control adolescents. Been bitten, kicked, punched, spit on, bled on—well, name a execrable body fluid, and I've had it flung at me. Probably the most dramatic thing ever to happen to me was almost dying from a staph infection in my lower spine. Took seven weeks of IV anti-biotics and four months of bed rest to clear it up. Despite all this, never once did I see lightening or hear the voice of Jesus. Never once in all those moments of crisis did the thought occur to me: Go preach the Good News! Mostly I just laid around and watched Jerry Springer or re-runs of Hogan's Heroes. To get Saul's attention, Jesus has to smack him a around a little. Make him dependent on the charity of others in order to set him on the righteous path. Saul becomes Paul when he asks the Lord, “What shall I do, Sir?”

What difference does Saul's question make in his transformation into Paul? Remember who Saul was: "I am a Jew. . .educated strictly in our ancestral law and was zealous for God. . .I persecuted this Way to death, binding both men and women and delivering them to prison. . .” Saul was not an indifferent observer of the early Church. He was an active persecutor, a man on a mission to see the first followers of Christ executed for their heresy. He was on his way to Damascus to bring [them] back to Jerusalem in chains for punishment. . .” when he was enlightened to the errors of his ways. Saul's question to Jesus—“What shall I do, Sir?”—is more than just a polite question; it's a declaration of surrender, an admission to the Lord that he—Saul—is now subject to the Word of God revealed in the Christ. Saul the Zealous Persecutor of the Way becomes Paul the Zealous Apostle of Way when he bows his stiff neck to Jesus and asks him for a task, a job to do in his name.

Wouldn't Saul's question to Jesus make an excellent prayer to start your day? Before your feet touch the floor in the morning, ask Christ, “What shall I do for you today, Sir?” Make no mistake: it's a very dangerous question to ask, a very risky request to make. You might not like the answer; you might end up wishing you had never asked. But if you will go from being who you are in Christ to being everything you can be for Christ, you will take the risk and find joy in the answer. Because we have Saul's story of how he became Paul, we don't have to wait to be struck by lightening or blinded or sent off to live with strangers in order to ask, “What can I do for you, Lord?” We know how his story goes and how it ends. Paul evangelizes the whole Mediterranean region and ends his life a prison in Rome, probably executed by beheading—a mercy accorded Roman citizens. We don't die as martyrs to be good Christians. But we do have to find within ourselves and within our Body the Church Paul's zeal, his strength of resolve, and his fidelity to at once seek out the Lord's will for us and then do that will once it is made known. What can I do for you, Lord? “Go into the whole world and proclaim the Gospel to every creature.”

Follow HancAquam and visit the Kindle Wish List and the Books & Things Wish List

Recommend this post on Google!

Things Presbyterian Seminarians Say. . .

2012-01-25T10:09:00.000-06:00

Hilarious! Not sure how many Catholics will get this. . .but it is hilarious:

H/T: the Great Bearded Sage-Yeti of the Northwest (Mark Shea)

Follow HancAquam and visit the Kindle Wish List and the Books & Things Wish List

Recommend this post on Google!

Fool us once, shame on us. . .

2012-01-24T18:02:00.001-06:00

Mirror of Justice hits the target perfectly:

The Obama administration's abortifacient and contraception mandate is appalling, but I cannot claim to be surprised by it. In fact, I would have been surprised---indeed stunned---had the administration done anything significant to honor or protect the rights of Catholics and others on whose consciences the mandate will impose.

In every area touching the sanctity of human life and issues of sexual morality, the Obama administration is aggressively prosecuting the agenda its critics predicted and its most ardent left-wing supporters hoped for (There was never any reason to believe that he would do otherwise. In fact, his paper thin record as a Senator made it abundantly clear that a pro-abortion agenda was the only agenda that he held sacred). Those who are driving the train, including key administration officials who self-identify as members of the Catholic Church, have no regard for the ethical beliefs of Catholics and others when they are in conflict with left-liberal orthodoxy. Their task, as they perceive it, is to fortify and expand the "right to abortion" and "sexual freedom" wherever they can. They pursue this agenda with a religious zeal because, in fact, the ideology in which abortion is a "right" and "sexual freedom" is a core value is their religion (This is a point that cannot be made often enough: secular ideology operates very much like a program of religious proselytizing). These beliefs are integral to their worldview. If, like Kathleen Sebelius, they happen to be Catholics, you can be assured that it won't be Catholic teaching, or the Judaeo-Christian ethic, that shapes their policies on issues of life and death and marriage and sexual morality; it will be liberal ideology---pure and simple---that does the shaping.

Interestingly, Obama and his people have been willing to break the hearts of those on the left when it comes Guantanamo, rendition, basic procedural rights of detainees and those accused of supporting terrorism, targeted assassinations, drone attacks, and so forth. But they keep faith strictly with them when it comes to anything pertaining to abortion, contraception, and other central components of the ideology of lifestyle liberalism---the conscience rights of Catholics and others be damned. (For me, this is the most damning consequence of the 2008 election. So many otherwise faithful Catholics brushed aside B.O.'s radical pro-abort agenda on the shaky premise that his efforts to undo GWB's war on terror squared the proportionalist circle, allowing them to "balance" the scales of justice against the unborn in favor of a leftist pipe dream, i.e. playing nice with terrorists would make them go away.)

Pro-life citizens, including many Catholics, who in 2008 allowed themselves to be persuaded that Obama wouldn't, as his critics warned, push abortion hard and run roughshod over the religious liberty and rights of conscience of Catholics and other pro-life citizens and their institutions, have now gotten a rude awakening (Have they? I wonder. . .). His administration revealed its contempt for religious freedom and the rights of people and communities of faith when it embraced an extreme and utterly untenable position on the ministerial exemption in the Hosanna-Tabor case (This case was set to neuter the First Amendment by inviting gov't bureaucrats into the hiring practices of churches). In case anyone thought that was some sort of isolated mistake, the President's abortifacient and contraception mandate leaves the matter in no doubt.

In 2012, it is no longer possible to sustain illusions about what Obama and his people mean to do to us. They are already doing it. "Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me." (There is no way a faithful Catholic can claim--again--in 2012 this president should be given the benefit of the doubt when it comes to his radical pro-abortion/anti-Catholic agenda. It was nearly impossible to do so in 2008, but many managed it by twisting themselves into moral knots. Surely, the three years of an aggressive, secularist campaign of intimidation at the hands of B.O. and his minions has proven that.)

___________________

Follow HancAquam and visit the Kindle Wish List and the Books & Things Wish List

Recommend this post on Google!

The folly of Roman preaching. . .

2012-01-24T14:25:00.001-06:00

An anonymous commenter sent me a link to H. L. Menken's essay, "Holy Writ" (1923). Menken is one of my favorite writers, but I've never run across this particular piece of prophecy:

An excerpt:

Preaching is not an essential part of the Latin ceremonial. It was very little employed in the early church, and I am convinced that good effects would flow from abandoning it today, or, at all events, reducing it to a few sentences, more or less formal. In the United States the Latin brethren have been seduced by the example of the Protestants, who commonly transform an act of worship into a puerile intellectual exercise; instead of approaching God in fear and wonder these Protestants settle back in their pews, cross their legs, and listen to an ignoramus try to prove that he is a better theologian than the Pope. This folly the Romans now slide into. Their clergy begin to grow argumentative, doctrinaire, ridiculous. It is a pity. A bishop in his robes, playing his part in the solemn ceremonial of the mass, is a dignified spectacle, even though he may sweat freely; the same bishop, bawling against Darwin half an hour later, is seen to be simply an elderly Irishman with a bald head, the son of a respectable saloon-keeper in South Bend, Ind. Let the reverend fathers go back to Bach. If they keep on spoiling poetry and spouting ideas, the day will come when some extra-bombastic deacon will astound humanity and insult God by proposing to translate the liturgy into American, that all the faithful may be convinced by it.

Now, I disagree with HLM strongly. Why? Because to agree with him would put me out of business!

___________________

Follow HancAquam and visit the Kindle Wish List and the Books & Things Wish List

Recommend this post on Google!

Scuba Mom Update

2012-01-24T11:31:00.000-06:00

Just talked to Scuba Mom. . .she had an allergic reaction to the IV anti-biotics they were giving her and had to be moved to the ICU to recover.

She's feeling fine this morning and will be moving back to the regular unit soon.

Thanks for the prayers! Keep them going, please. . .

Fr. Philip, OP

Follow HancAquam and visit the Kindle Wish List and the Books & Things Wish List Recommend this post on Google!

Coffee Cup Browsing

2012-01-24T07:44:00.000-06:00

When words mean whatever we want them to mean. . .and by "we," I mean those in the Grievance Industry and their political puppets.

B.O.'s former economic adviser admits that the "stimulus" was mostly about paying off campaign promises.

Another Catholic health care giant takes its 30 pieces of silver b/c being associated with the Church "hampered some deals" in its effort for expansion. Ignore assurances that it will remain "in the Catholic tradition."

A MUST read: Secular Theocracy.

BAM! "What we’re watching emerge in this country is a new kind of paganism, an atheism with air-conditioning and digital TV. And it is neither tolerant nor morally neutral."

You were offended? OK. But were you harmed?

I protect mine with three layers!

Follow HancAquam and visit the Kindle Wish List and the Books & Things Wish List

Recommend this post on Google!

Prayers for Mom

2012-01-23T18:41:00.002-06:00

Just got off the phone with Scuba Mom. . .she's back in the hospital with pneumonia.

Please keep her and my father in your prayers.

God bless, Fr. Philip, OP

___________________

Follow HancAquam and visit the Kindle Wish List and the Books & Things Wish List

Recommend this post on Google!

No seed, no harvest

2012-01-23T14:09:00.001-06:00

NB. I forgot to note that this homily is a repost. . .from 2008, I think.

Day of Penance for Abortion’s Violence Against Human Dignity (GIRM 373)
Isa 32.15-18 and Matt 5.1-12 (Votive Lectionary nos. 887 and 891)
Fr. Philip Neri Powell, OP
St. Dominic Church, New Orleans

It doesn’t take long growing up on a farm to figure out the meaning of the gospel adage: you reap what you sow. We planted melon seeds and melons grew. We planted squash seeds and squash grew. Come harvest time we reaped melons and squash. The connection between planting seed and harvesting the fruit of the seed’s plant is almost too obvious to have a name. “Natural consequence” might work. Or perhaps something less philosophical like “biological process.” Regardless of what we decide to name the connection, the connection is significant not only for planning a useful garden—imagine planting spinach seeds and getting corn two months later!—but it is also significant for us as creatures who live and grow in the image and likeness of our Creator. The seed we sow in the private plots of our own hearts and the seed we sow in the public ground of the “Common Good” will grow to fruition for harvest and that harvest will make its way back to our plates. On this day of penance for abortion’s violations of human dignity, we must ask: are we eating our own condemnation?

We could spend most of today talking the coming financial disaster of Baby Boomer retirement and the lack of younger workers to pay into Social Security. We could talk about how the low birth-rate among the Boomers turned Gen-X into Generation-Narcissist, and Gen-Y into Generation-Entitlement. We could point out that the “freedom of choice” to procure legal abortions and the use of contraceptives have “freed” sex from its reproductive end and given us at least three generations of Americans that are at once obsessed with sex and neurotic about sex to the point of needing professional medical treatment. And we could spend some time talking about how legal abortion has functioned in our national moral calculus as an agent of human degradation, one focused tightly on racial minorities and the poor. This is where we are. Where are we going to be?

The Beatitudes teach us that there is a pattern to justice and peace that begins right where we are. Where we are always results in where we will be. Just look at the text. Blessed ARE they who mourn, for they WILL BE comforted. Blessed ARE the clean of heart, for they WILL see God. All the way through the teaching, Jesus makes the practical, moral connection between where we are with where we will be. Blessed are, blessed are, blessed are. . .will inherit, will be shown mercy, will be satisfied. This is the moral parallel to our sown seed/predictable harvest image.

Fortunately, as moral creatures, we are graced with intelligence and good sense. We are free to change where we are and therefore free to alter where we will be. Isaiah says it plainly, “Justice will bring about peace; right will produce calm and security.” So long as we sow the seeds of narcissism, entitlement, self-righteousness, material convenience, and violence against children and the unborn, we can expect to harvest nothing less than an aggressive contempt for life, an aversion to sexual responsibility and care, and a culture so soaked through with death that it stinks up the heavens. So long as we deny the justice of the most basic human right—the right to live—to our future, we have no future. There is Nothing beyond narcissism; Nothing beyond entitlement; Nothing beyond violence but more violence. We will not be shown mercy; we will not be comforted; we will not be called children of God, nor, for that matter, will we see God.

Our ministry today is penance. And preaching. Who out there doesn’t know that Christ’s peace follows God’s justice? No desert will become an orchard and no orchard a forest if we cannot quench the conflagration that consumes our yet to be born future. There is no soil rich enough to produce a harvest without seed.

___________________

Follow HancAquam and visit the Kindle Wish List and the Books & Things Wish List

Recommend this post on Google!

-6 Fat Report

2012-01-23T08:19:00.001-06:00

Down to 327 lbs.! Just another 100 lbs to go.

WooHoo!!! Keep those prayers going, folks.

Update: Ooops. . .I lost six pounds rather than three.

Follow HancAquam and visit the Kindle Wish List and the Books & Things Wish List

Recommend this post on Google!

Coffee Cup Browsing

2012-01-23T06:46:00.000-06:00

Archbishop Timothy M. Dolan, “In effect, [B.O.] is saying we have a year to figure out how to violate our consciences." Even pro-abort/pro-contraceptive "Catholics" have to see that this is only the first salvo in B.O.'s war on the Church.

B.O. knows who the enemy is.

Another extended crashed cruise ship metaphor: The Sinking of the West. Cf. the links above.

Let the E.U. Nannies find the money to defend themselves! The cradle to grave socialism of the E.U. is made easier to maintain by a massive subsidy called. . .the American Armed Forces.

Hmmmm. . .Pope BXVI establishes an academy for the study of science and faith. Maybe I left Rome too soon!

Newt wins in S.C. I think this is more about sticking it to the Palace Guard Media than it is about the voters' comfort with Newt.

Cardinal Mahony attacks B.O. and his power grab over the Church. Yes, you read that correctly. Maybe the 52% of Catholics who voted for The One might get it right next time around?

The Occu-Bears! (You make this stuff up, people.)

You GOT that!?

Funny. . .don't know why.

___________________

Follow HancAquam and visit the Kindle Wish List and the Books & Things Wish List

Recommend this post on Google!

Fr. Pontifex responses to Love Jesus, Hate Religion vid

2012-01-23T05:59:00.000-06:00

There's a Youtube video where some guy recites a poem about loving Jesus but hating religion. I haven't watched it. . .don't need to. . .I know the meme well b/c I used it for years to dodge my vocation.

Below you will find an excellent response to the shallow anti-Catholic vid from "Fr. Pontifex":

Lyrics:

What if I told you that Jesus loves religion
And that by his coming as man he brought his religion to fruition
See this had to be addressed, the use of illogical terms and definitions
You clearly have a heart for Jesus but its fueling atheistic opinions
See what makes his religion great is not errors of wars and inquisitions
It's that broken men and women to participate in his mission
Clearly Jesus says I have not come to abolish
I came to fulfill the law and I came to fulfill the prophets (Matthew 5:17)
And lines about building big churches and tending to the poor
Sounds a bit like Judas when the perfume was being poured (John 12:5)
See His religion is the largest worldwide source of relief
For the poor, the hungry, the sick and repentant thief
Oceans of compassion, opening wide the doors
For single mothers, widows and orphans, married and divorced (James 1:27)
We all detest hypocrisy, and empty show is just the worst
But blaming religion for contradiction
Is like staring at death, and blaming the hearse.
See the teacher will teach when the students are ready to listen
But those that choose to sit in the pews and refuse the good news
Is not the fault of religion.
And If I have the Jersey and I'm playing for the Bulls
There's going to be some boundaries, regulations and some rules.
You can't have Christ without his Church; you can't have the King without his Kingdom
Sins of the Body and internal treason will never ever make me leave him
And that Jesus said it is done, is absolutely true
But he also gave us a mission with many things to DO.
Jesus says if you love me, you will Do what I command. (JN 15:14)
Go and Baptize in the name of the Father, Son & Spirit in Every Land. (MT 28:19)
And on the night he was betrayed he took his men in the Upper Room
Take at eat this is my body take and drink my blood for you.
A New covenant you see, an act connected to the tree,
Do this time and time again in Memory of Me. (Mt 26:26-28)
And at last with crown of thorns beaten beyond comprehension
His eyes were looking for yours and mine; it was divine, no human invention.
So as for religion I love it, I have one because Jesus rose from the dead and won.
I believe When Jesus said IT IS FINISHED, His religion had just begun.

Fr. Claude (Dusty) Burns
Aka Pontifex

You can go to the Youtube page and see some of the other responses.

___________________

Follow HancAquam and visit the Kindle Wish List and the Books & Things Wish List

Recommend this post on Google!

Prayers, please. . .

2012-01-22T21:41:00.000-06:00

Going for an interview of sorts on Tuesday. . .please pray that it goes well!

More on this development later.

God bless, Fr. Philip Neri, OP

NB. This job would be in addition to my current assignment as parochial vicar.
___________________

Follow HancAquam and visit the Kindle Wish List and the Books & Things Wish List

Recommend this post on Google!

Getting your attention. . .

2012-01-22T16:25:00.000-06:00

3rd Sunday OT
Fr. Philip Neri Powell, OP
St. Dominic Church, New Orleans

What does it take to get our attention these days? A crisis? Some sort of disaster? Maybe something as simple as a name change for your favorite brand? Or maybe you're a fairly even tempered sort who reacts proportionally to all situations. You're calm in a crisis, controlled, and clear-minded. But think about it. What isn't a crisis? Global warming! A New Ice Age! Bird Flu! Terrorists! Record Unemployment! The End of America! Sex Scandals! Genocide! The Collapse of Europe! Just about anything that happens these days (no matter how minor) is presented to us as a crisis of earth-shattering proportions, a disaster on par with the worst punishments visited on sinners in the Old Testament. Digging through the hysterical rhetoric of a hyperventilating media can be exhausting work. If you're like me, you've come to the conclusion that “Wolf” has been cried once too often, and that it is far better to throw in with the providence of God and let human events unfold as they will, knowing that Love Himself has already won the victory for us. Squeals of panic from politicians, activists, and media talking-heads take on a whole new insignificance when placed along side the Word of God and His promise of loving-care. None of this, however, should close our ears to the His call for our repentance. Though He will not destroy us for our disobedience, He will leave us to face the consequences of failing to heed fair warning. “I tell you, brothers and sisters, the time is running out. . .”

So, what does it take to get your attention these days? The people of Nineveh hear Jonah announce in their streets, “Forty days more and Nineveh shall be destroyed!" Just forty days. And everything you know and love will be gone. Does that get your attention? Apparently, it gets the Ninevehites' attention b/c they repent and their city is spared. What's odd about this brief episode from the Book of Jonah is that the prophet sent by God to warn the Ninevehites never actually offers them a deal. You know the deal. . .repent or burn. Jonah simply goes around the streets yelling that the city will be destroyed in forty days. No conditions. No hedged bets against destruction. Just a straightforward warning. Why no conditions? Well, we might speculate that Jonah wanted the city destroyed. Or perhaps the Lord's punishment for his earlier reluctance to serve left him feeling a little petulant. Regardless, the threat of destruction is enough to send a city-wide wave of repentance through the population. Having secured the Ninevehites' attention without offering them a deal, Jonah secures the city for the Lord.

So, what does it take to secure your attention? Writing to the Corinthians, Paul announces, “I tell you, brothers and sisters, the time is running out. . .For the world in its present form is passing away.” Does knowing that your time will one day run out secure your attention? Paul's warning to the Corinthians is hardly profound. The world in its present form is always passing away. Time is always running out. Anyone with a watch and somewhere to be knows this. What might not be so obvious at first glance is that for time to run out, for the world in its present form to pass away, there must be a point somewhen in the future toward which we are moving in time. In other words, Paul is telling the Corinthians that time and this present world have an end and that end is swiftly coming to bear. Is this an attention-grabber? Hardly. We're told everyday that the end is near. It's either the ice caps melting or the scarcity of clean air or some new genetically modified plague that's coming to wipe us all out. . .any moment now! Just a few more minutes. . .one or two more hours. . .I mean, um, in a year or two. Maybe. Naw, telling us that time is short is nothing new, not scary enough to open our ears to news we do not want to hear.

So, for the last time, what will open your ears to hear what you really need to hear? How about this: “This is the time of fulfillment. The kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe in the gospel!” A time of fulfillment. Not the end of time, or the destruction of your city, but the fulfillment of God's promise to bring His kingdom to us. You are now living in that period of human history that will witness the keeping of a divine promise. Turn from disobedience toward righteousness and believe that the Lord wills that all sinners come to Him for His mercy. Notice the absence of a threat, the absence of a deal. Notice also that Jesus doesn't warn us or nag at us. He simply announces that the Kingdom of God is at hand and then he invites us to turn from our sin and believe that we are forgiven. We don't have to fast to be saved or put on sackcloth or wail our sins in the streets. All we need to do is turn from sin and believe that the Father loves us enough to announce the coming of His kingdom by sending His only Son to live and die as one of us. He fulfills His promise in the body and blood of Christ. The urgent choice we have to make is btw receiving him as Lord, or living with the consequences of sin.

Jesus calls all of us to believe his gospel. Not a gospel of loss, of grief and mourning; not of threat or bargain, or dust and fumes; nor the gospel of city-wide apocalypse or righteous war. His is a gospel of everlasting goodness and eternal life, permanent mercy and all-pervading grace; a gospel of ceaseless vitality and living strength. And it is our gospel! Our story! Our work in the world and, if we will take it up, our dare and our charge—to be with Christ in here and to be Christ out there. He says to Simon and Andrew, “Come after me, and I will make you fishers of men.” Follow after me and my gospel, and I will turn you into men who cast your nets to harvest the lives of men and women who long to give themselves to God. Simon and Andrew abandon all they know and follow Christ. James and John leave their father in his boat and follow Christ. And all of are made into the men that Jesus promises. How did he get their attention? Threats of impending apocalypse? No. Promises of damnation if they refuse? No. He simply tells them the truth. And that truth rings in their ears louder than family, friends, career, hobbies, or even the lure of this world's impermanent joys.

OK. I lied. I'm going to ask one more time: what does it take to get your attention? Sirens? Flashing lights? Threats of immediate death? How about an invitation from Christ himself to become an heir to his heavenly kingdom? To be a member of his Body with an eternal purpose? If so, here's the Good News: you are so invited. All you need to do to become a fisher of men is accept the invitation.

___________________

Follow HancAquam and visit the Kindle Wish List and the Books & Things Wish List

Recommend this post on Google!

Grazie to Poste Italiane. . .

2012-01-21T09:08:00.000-06:00

During my three years in Rome, I spent a lot of time casting stones at Poste Italiane. . .mostly at their ridiculous customs requirements and lackadaisical attitude toward a work ethic.

Now, I want to give them a thumbs-up. . .for delivering eight boxes of books, etc. from Rome to NOLA! While in route the boxes started to break open and P.I. put each box into a sturdy plastic bag and sent them on. . .

Mille grazie, Poste Italiane!

___________________

Follow HancAquam and visit the Kindle Wish List and the Books & Things Wish List

Recommend this post on Google!

On following a crazy person. . .

2012-01-21T07:27:00.002-06:00

St. Agnes
Fr. Philip Neri Powell, OP
St. Dominic Church, New Orleans

So, Jesus' family thinks he's crazy, “out of his mind.” We can see why they might think that. He running around the country doing things that only a prophet can claim to do: healing people, casting out demons, forgiving sins. He argues with respectable religious folks, claiming to have the authority to re-interpret scripture. He's got this gang of twelve hanging around with him, his disciples, men who once had decent jobs and families. And occasionally he runs off into the desert to be alone with God. Add all these to the fact that everywhere he goes a mob follows along, clamoring for his attention, and we can see why a normal, working family might think that Jesus is out of his mind. Of course, if they knew that he planned to reveal himself in the not too distant future as the Son of God, the Messiah, they might've decided to lock him up for good! If Jesus' relatives think that he's crazy, what must they think of those who follow him? How crazy do you have to be to follow a crazy man? Given what we know about Jesus' promises to his followers, you'd have to be pretty crazy. Well, brothers and sisters, dear followers of Christ, welcome to the looney bin! Do you feel like you're “out of your mind”? Do you think you're crazy for following a man who claims to be the Son of God, the savior of all creation?

Let's review the promises made by Christ to those crazy enough to follow him. He promises us persecution at the hands of our family and friends. He promises trial and imprisonment by governors and princes. He promises ridicule, opposition, and outright violence for his name's sake. He tells us that his Way is straight but exceedingly narrow, difficult to navigate at times but clearly plotted and mapped out. Along the Way, he promises us battle after battle in a war he has already won. We have before us a long, hard struggle against an Enemy who cheats, steals, lies and has no moral qualms about using whatever he needs to ensnare us. Finally, he tells us that to follow him with our whole hearts and minds and bodies, we must follow him all the way to the Cross and the Tomb. That's a promise too. Given all these promises, we would have to be out of our minds to even think of crowding around this guy and begging him for his help.

And yet, here we are. Why? Why are we here this morning? Why do we follow around a man whose own family thought he was out of his mind? All those promises of pain, loss, tribulation were not made to warn us off, to keep us away. They aren't predictions or punishments. Jesus' promises to us are the consequences of living in the world while not being of the world. IF you follow me, THEN you will be persecuted. It must happen b/c the world cannot abide its own imperfection and those seeking perfection in Christ are irritating reminders that there are more and better ways of being human, more and better means of being perfect. The world accuses: how dare you point out my diseases and disabilities by seeking a way to have your own healed? There's nothing wrong with me, do not tempt me to believe otherwise by pointing out your own faults and how you've come to have them mended! For all the suffering we are promised as a consequence of following Christ, there is one promise that balances the scales: we will be made perfect in the Father's love. In fact, even as we seek that perfection now, we abide in His love. We may be out of our minds for following a crazy man, but we follow him into an audience with the Father to see him face-to-face. Let us see your face, Lord, and we shall be saved.

Follow HancAquam and visit the Kindle Wish List and the Books & Things Wish List Recommend this post on Google!

Authenticating the Truth

2012-01-20T15:12:00.000-06:00

2nd Week OT (F)

Fr. Philip Neri Powell, OP

St. Dominic Church, New Orleans

It seems that for the last 40 years or so Americans and especially Catholic Americans have had a Love-Hate relationship with the concept of authority. We love having authority on our side when we think we are right, and we hate having it oppose us when. . .well, when we think we are right. In other words, authority is vitally important to discovering and defending the truth so long as whoever wields that authority agrees with me. The bad news here is that this particular way of treating authority actually leaves those in authority without much real power to discover or defend much of anything at all. The good news is that the truth isn't touched one way or another by whether or not we choose to accept or reject it. The truth is the truth and always will be. The authority of, say, a president or a scientist or a pope cannot create truth out of nothing. At most, legitimate authority has the power to authenticate some expression of the truth, or to point out that we are giving credibility to a falsehood. This distinction—btw creating truth and merely certifying an expression of the truth—is essential to our progress in holiness b/c we need to know whether or not we are holding on to and following the authentic teachings of Christ. Teachings don't save us—Christ does that—but like the apostles we are sent out to tell the truth about Christ and his Good News.

To ensure that his authentic message is spread, Jesus calls The Twelve together and then sends them out with the authority to preach and teach the gospel. They are not given the freedom to invent a wholly new gospel, or to spin the Good News for easier consumption, or to blend Jesus' teachings with the more exotic and interesting bits from fairy tale and legend. As eyewitnesses to his public ministry and the direct beneficiaries of his personal instruction, The Twelve are sent out to preach and teach what Jesus himself preached and taught. And they do exactly that. We know that they did exactly that b/c to this day—2,000 years later—the Church still teaches and preaches the apostolic faith of The Twelve. Resting on the building blocks of the martyred apostles, the Church has authenticated again and again the truth of the Good News of Jesus Christ and will continue to do so until he returns. We're not bragging. That's not a boast. It's a promise from Christ himself, the wellspring of the Church's power to define and defend the truth of our Lord's message of God's mercy to sinners.

Americans in general and Catholic Americans in particular have had a hard struggle these last few decades with the notion of authority. Our nation is rooted in rebellion against the alleged divine right of King George III to rule us as colonists. Since we declared our independence, we've been a tad shy of anyone claiming to hold authority over us as individuals or as a nation. But as Catholics we must be extraordinarily careful not to confuse the secular authority of the state (derived from the consent of the governed) with the authority of the Church (derived from Christ through his apostles). The truth of the Gospel is not subject to a referendum; we do not elect our bishops or pastors by popular vote; we cannot alter the apostolic faith b/c polls tell us to. This isn't a matter of ecclesial stubbornness or institutional authoritarianism. There is a Way, a Truth, and a Life beyond the grubby politics of the human passions and that way/truth/life is Christ Jesus—the way, truth, and life given to the apostles by Christ and given to us by them in turn. The Way is straight and narrow. The Truth never changes. And the Life we reap is eternal.

___________________

Follow HancAquam and visit the Kindle Wish List and the Books & Things Wish List

Recommend this post on Google!

He's not a celebrity. . .he's the Son of God!

2012-01-19T15:08:00.004-06:00

2nd Week OT (Th)

Fr. Philip Neri Powell, OP

St. Dominic Church, New Orleans

Listen Here (5.30 Mass)

While studying in Rome, I met several “church celebrities”: Cardinal Cottier (JPII's personal theologian) and Fr. Giertych (BXVI's), both Dominicans; Archbishops Burke and Rigali; and while teaching in Dallas, I served as tour guide and emcee for Cardinal Arinze during one of his visits. Though I've never met a pope, I did get to stand directly behind Pope Benedict during a Good Friday liturgy at St. Peter's. That's about it for my brushes with fame! And that's perfectly fine with me. I'm a bad fan, meaning I'm not one to get all crazy over an actor or a politician or even a pope. So, today's gospel provoked a question for me: Philip, you would be in that crowd chasing down Jesus, clamoring for his attention? I don't know. Ask anyone who visits St Peter's when the Holy Father is celebrating Mass and they will tell you that the most dangerous place to be at that moment is between the Pope and a little Italian nun! I'm 6'1” and 300+ lbs., standing there in full habit and le sorelle plow over me like a Roman taxi driver late for his nap! Clamoring for the attention of a celebrity is undignified; it's demeaning and. . .well, it's vulgar. But what if that celebrity is Christ? And you were blind or suffered from leprosy or were possessed by an unclean spirit? How about then? Well, now, that's a different story altogether, isn't it. . .? He is, after all, the Son of God.

Would you be among those chasing Jesus around the countryside? I mean, if you weren't sick or disabled or possessed? Would you follow him around just to watch him heal others or hear him preach? Maybe you've heard of him and just want to see for yourself what all the fuss is about? Is this guy for real? Too good to be true? You know that celebrities inevitable disappoint us, right? Athletes lose games. Actors make bad movies. Even popes sometimes fail to live up to the ideals they profess. The most apparently perfect celeb is still only human, only a man or a woman whose celebrity hides their many imperfections. Just like us regular folks they crack under pressure, succumb to temptation, and fall short of the glory of God. That's to be expected: they aren't God, and neither are we. When the pedestal we've put them on starts to wobble, we might groan and weep but can we really be surprised? What supernatural feats have any of them accomplished? Have any of them taught a truth so profound that we were astonished by their authority? Who among them serves as the foundation stone for an institution begun more than 2,000 years ago? Let their pedestal tumble. But don't mourn their fall. It's the Christ we celebrate; it's Jesus we here to hear!

Jesus' celebrity in his native land is easy to understand. He brings healing to those who would otherwise suffer and die from their afflictions. Medical science at the time was little more than folklore and herbalism. He cleans the uncleanable and brings back into the life of the community those thought forever cast out. He frees those held in slavery by unclean spirits, restoring their freedom and giving them back their dignity. He adds purpose to their lives, gives direction and strength, and he grants the one virtue most had probably never practiced: hope. He did all this then, and he does all this now. Instead of chasing him around the hill country like a rock star, we gather in his name. Instead of seeing him in the distance or hearing him as an echo, we sit at his feet and we listen. Instead of fighting over the chance to touch his tunic, we eat at his table. And we do all this by his invitation, by his grace. The Christ came to save us with his body and blood not wow us with his celebrity. We honor him when we make known that the invitation to his table is always open and the feast is always free.

Follow HancAquam and visit the Kindle Wish List and the Books & Things Wish List Recommend this post on Google!

Coffee Cup Browsing

2012-01-19T09:03:00.001-06:00

Guns! Guns! Guns! As gun ownership skyrockets murder rates. . .drop? Yup. Homicide is no longer one of the top 15 causes of death in the U.S.

Φεύγετε τὴν πορνείαν! Flee fornication! On the weak translation served up in the NAB. Heroes gotta have standards. . .otherwise, we will melt into the pablum mess of utilitarianism.

For example. . .

"I'm spiritual but not religious." And I'm on a diet but eat whatever I want when I want. Get it? It's a "diet" b/c I've defined "diet" to mean whatever I want it to mean.

That half sunken cruise ship as a metaphor for the Church in Italy. . .and Italy herself. Apt, indeed.

Thoughts on the heresy of feminism.

The gods must be tasty. . .or at least cavity-causing.

Just in case you've forgotten: it's coming.

This would be me at the National Museum, or something.

___________________

Follow HancAquam and visit the Kindle Wish List and the Books & Things Wish List

Recommend this post on Google!

Say NO to SOPA!

2012-01-18T13:53:00.001-06:00

You may have noticed that both Google and Wikipedia are acting a little funny today. . .

They've been "blacked out" in order to draw public opposition to a power-grab piece of legislation pending in Congress, the so-called Stop On-line Piracy Act (SOPA).

Like most gobbledygook coming out of D.C. these days, SOPA is a front for the Nanny State. Plain and simple. Yes, intellectual property theft is a real problem; and Yes, the internet has only served to worsen an already bad situation.

But how would the gov't use its power to shut down domain sites and confiscate domain names in the future? Written to prevent copyright infringement, SOPA (like RICO) is easily morphed into a political tool by a creative prosecutor or judge. Crying "copyright infringement" is already used by political parties, corporations, and various interest groups to silence their opponents. Youtube, Hulu, and other internet sites quickly remove vids for no other reason than that the unflattering content of those vids offend someone with a point-of-view.

Make no mistake. Our Nanny State Betters would love more than to have legal recourse to shutting out their opponents. Pro-life Christians? Out. Defenders of marriage? Out. Anti-public union activists? Out. Catholic bishops teaching the faith and "offending" delicate feelings? Out. Post a video of a politician saying something stupid? Out. Right-wing talk radio annoying you, Senator? No worries. You get the picture. Just about anything can become a dispute over intellectual property with the right politician writing the definitions.

The basic question for me is: when has giving gov't bureaucrats more power to define and regulate our lives been a good thing? The internet is one of the last arenas of truly free discourse in the U.S.

Let's keep it that way!

Follow HancAquam and visit the Kindle Wish List and the Books & Things Wish List

Recommend this post on Google!

Coffee: it's what's for breakfast. . .and lunch and dinner!

2012-01-18T07:33:00.001-06:00

Can I get an AMEN!

Follow HancAquam and visit the Kindle Wish List and the Books & Things Wish List

Recommend this post on Google!

Repairing a ruin with love

2012-01-18T06:52:00.001-06:00

2nd Week OT (W)

Fr. Philip Neri Powell, OP

St. Dominic Church, New Orleans

Listen Here (8.30 Mass)

We read this morning about two battles. The first is a contest between a Jewish boy and a Philistine warrior and is fought with a slingshot and a rock. The second is a battle between ruin and repair, and it is fought with the mercy of God and the rock of the human heart. Faced with an army of Philistines, King Saul agrees to send David against the enemy's best warrior, a giant with sword and shield, in a one on one fight to decide the war. Calling on the Lord's protection, David announces to the enemy, “All this multitude. . .shall learn that it is not by sword or spear that the LORD saves.” He slings a rock, kills the giant, and wins the war. In the synagogue, Jesus too faces a hostile force: a crowd of Pharisees whose hearts have been hardened by the Law. A man with a ruined hand is called before Jesus and the Pharisees wait to see if Jesus will violate the Law by repairing his hand on the Sabbath. Jesus asks, “Is it lawful to do good on the sabbath rather than to do evil, to save life rather than to destroy it?” His question is met with silence. He grows angry at the Pharisees and “grieves at their hardness of heart.” Jesus repairs the man's ruined hand and the Lord's enemies conspire to have him executed not realizing that he has already won this war. The Lord's mercy repairs the ruin of this world despite our opposition, despite our hardened hearts. We can benefit by stepping forward to help him, or we can suffer by testing his strength as a foe.

Though the Pharisees think that they are testing Jesus in the synagogue, it is actually Jesus who is testing them. They wait to see if he will violate the Law and heal on the Sabbath. Jesus waits to see if they will obey the Law and extend mercy to the disabled man. When the Pharisees fail his test, Jesus grieves for their hardened hearts. Why does he grieve? We grieve over the death of a loved one. We mourn their passing. Seeing into their hearts, Jesus knows that the Pharisees live with dead hearts. They cannot/will not see that under the Law they serve there is the Law of Love. Every commandment, each rule and regulation enacts, embodies the Lord's will that we seek out and make real the Good for ourselves and one another. Think back to David's announcement to the Philistine army, “All. . .shall learn that it is not by sword or spear that the Lord saves.” Indeed. He saves by willing that our ruin be repaired in His love. The Law the Pharisees worship is the Lord's plan for our repair, but the Law is not itself our repair.

Jesus grows angry with the Pharisees and grieves over their dead hearts. As the keepers of the Law, they should be the first to recognize that repairing a ruined hand is vastly more important to the fulfillment of the Law than obeying the rules against healing on the Sabbath. Their failure sets them against the Lord and blinds them to his already accomplished victory. As Jesus' brothers and sisters, we are vowed to battle against the hardened hearts of this world, and, more importantly, to battle against any temptation to hardened our own hearts when given the chance to show mercy. Lest we misunderstand, mercy does not create lawlessness. We are not called to abandon truth in order to be loving. No repair, no healing can come from a lie. When we speak the truth, we heal. And that healing will not always be comfortable. Sometimes, often repairing a ruin requires demolition. But no repair of another should begin before we have demolished and repaired our own ruin. First, we receive God's mercy for ourselves; then, we give it to others. This is the only path to victory.

___________________

Follow HancAquam and visit the Kindle Wish List and the Books & Things Wish List

Recommend this post on Google!

+ 2 Monday

2012-01-16T20:49:00.000-06:00

Almost forgot the Fat Report again!

+2 for a total of 333 lbs. I think last week's -7 was a fluke.

Keep praying, please!

___________________

Follow HancAquam and visit the Kindle Wish List and the Books & Things Wish List

Recommend this post on Google!

Freshly cured and newly sewn together

2012-01-16T07:10:00.001-06:00

2nd Week OT (M)

Fr. Philip Neri Powell, OP

St Dominic Church, New Orleans

Listen Here (8.30 Mass)

Like many converts to the Church, it took me a few years to toss out some of my religious, philosophical, and cultural baggage. I grew up a largely unchurched Baptist-Methodist. Was baptized an Episcopalian in college. Dabbled in various neo-pagan practices. Thought of myself as a Buddhist for a while. Returned to Anglicanism as an atheist-leaning agnostic. And eventually settled into that most American of religions: eclectic spirituality w/o a church. When I finally got around to swimming the Tiber, I packed up all my baggage and dragged it along with me, joining the Catholic Church as a fire-breathing progressive bent on reshaping this medieval museum of ours into a body worthy of having me as a member. Elected bishops, female priests, inclusive language bibles, and term limits for the pope were all good starts on reform. As I started seminary training, the possibilities for revolution were legion! It took one semester for me to feel the weight, the beauty of our 2,000 year old tradition and another year for me to realize the dangers of trying to cobble together a spirituality from both old and new pieces of my religious history. When the seams of my self-made cloak started to burst, I was left with two choices: continue on completely naked, making the same mistakes and suffering the same consequences; or wrap myself in the whole cloth of our centuries-old story of faith. When Samuel tells King Saul, “Obedience is better than sacrifice,” he was speaking to me as well.

So, why does Samuel berate his king? While Saul more or less complies with the Lord's commands, he does not obey; that is, he acts as God has ordered (more or less), but he does not listen, he doesn't “take in” the heart of the Lord's will and follow Him. In the imagery of Jesus' teaching from Mark, Saul sews the old patches of his willfulness onto the new cloak of the Lord's will. He pours the new wine of God's orders into the old wineskin of his habitual disobedience. Predictably, the seams of both the cloak and the wineskin tear apart, leaving Saul to clean up his own mess. His first attempt at cleaning up—excusing himself in virtue of his sacrifice—fails miserably. Samuel sets him straight right away, “Obedience is better than sacrifice!” Not just compliance, not just doing what you're told to do w/o question or doubt, but obedience, hearing and listening and taking in the heart of God's will and following Him.

Samuel—with a rough tongue—sorts out Saul's disobedience and Saul eventually repents of his sin. This is probably a familiar pattern to all of us. Old habits left over from a Life Before Christ intrude into our Life With Christ, and we find ourselves in disobedience and in need of repentance. Sometimes it takes a brother or sister in Christ to play the role of Samuel to our Saul. Sometimes circumstances are prophetic enough to turn us around. Sickness, accident, disaster. When confronted with our disobedience to God's Word, we do well to remember the conclusion of Jesus' teaching: “. . .new wine is poured into fresh wineskins.” The Spirit of God is the new wine and we are the new wineskins, if we will be. Freshly cured, newly sewn together, and lovingly washed and oiled, we are the brand spanking new containers of the Holy Spirit. There is nothing in our pasts left to mar us, nothing remaining to pollute the new wine of the Spirit; there is nothing for us to carry around but our willingness to follow Christ. No baggage, no sad habits, no sin. Obedience—listening to and then doing God's will—is better than sacrifice, better than dotting religious “i's” and crossing ritual “t's.” It is better to wrap ourselves in the new cloak of Christ than it is to go naked and alone into the cold darkness of error and sin.

___________________

Follow HancAquam and visit the Kindle Wish List and the Books & Things Wish List

Recommend this post on Google!

Dominican Interactive

2012-01-15T09:35:00.000-06:00

The friars of the Irish Province have started up a new venture on their Dominicans Interactive site:

Ears to Hear: Introduction to St Catherine of Siena.

Check out the whole site. . .articles, videos, pics, etc.
___________

Follow HancAquam and visit the Kindle Wish List and the Books & Things Wish List

Recommend this post on Google!

HancAquam programming note. . .

2012-01-14T09:37:00.000-06:00

No Sunday homily from me this weekend. . .the pastor assigns our deacons to preach the Sunday Masses once a month.

You can hear them at our mp3 links here.

Follow HancAquam and visit the Kindle Wish List and the Books & Things Wish List

Recommend this post on Google!

Questions for an Ordinary Friday

2012-01-13T11:41:00.000-06:00

1st Week OT (F)

Fr. Philip Neri Powell, OP

St. Dominic Church, New Orleans

Traditionally, in the Church, Fridays are penitential days, days for fasting and seeking God's forgiveness. We mark Christ's Good Friday suffering and death on the Cross with abstinence and prayer. Though the day is almost over, let's spend these next four minutes asking ourselves a few tough questions. Not to beat ourselves up, or to heap up useless guilt, not to cause ourselves anxiety. Rather, let's ask these questions with the full knowledge that the Holy Spirit will reveal to us the truth about ourselves, our relationship with God, and with one another. The truth will always, always, always set us free. Self-delusion is the subtle work of the Enemy. Our best weapon against this attack is the bright, shining light of God's truth. We will use our gospel narrative this evening as a guide:

First, am I paralyzed spiritually? Have I been struck lame when it comes to doing God's good work? Is my prayer life crippled? Am I limping along in loving God and my neighbor? What (if any) element of my relationship with God is feeble and in need of healing?

Second, how faithful am I to my baptismal vows? Do I believe in God's promises? Do I truly enjoy being in God's presence, rejoicing in the knowledge that He is always with me? Do other see me as someone brimming over with faith, exuding trust in God and behaving in a way that makes that faith contagious?

Third, do I hear the Lord speak to me through family, friends, neighbors, co-workers? Can I hear the Lord in scripture addressing my doubt, confusion, and despair? Whom do I trust to bring me closer to Christ? When the Lord says to the paralytic man, “I say to you. . .,” do I hear him speaking to me? When Mark writes that Jesus sees the faith of the man's friends, do I hear him reporting my own faith? Am I a friend of the paralyzed man?

Fourth, When I read that the Lord heals the leper, the man born blind, the hemorrhagic woman, and casts out demons by his authority as the Christ, do I believe that he can make me clean, relieve me of my blindnesses, my infirmities, and my demons? Do I live my life in the knowledge that the condition of my soul influences the condition of my body? That spiritual health contributes to physical health and vice versa? Do I understand that sin invites sickness?

Fifth, when I witness others prospering in the Lord's blessings, do I rejoice with them and give Him thanks? Or do I follow the example of the scribes and react bitterly; seeking fault, wallowing in envy and blame? Am I quick to accuse others of sin w/o first asking the Spirit to reveal my own faults, w/o first repenting of my own sins? Do I harden my heart to the joy others feel in Christ, and close my mind to the evidence of faith?

Finally, am I astounded at all that God has done for me and mine? Am I flabbergasted, gobsmacked, and thunderstruck at His kindness and generosity in providing me with all I need to come to Him in the perfection of Christ? Do I regularly say “Thank You, Lord” and report my abundant blessings to others? Those who see the paralyzed man healed at the word of Jesus glorify God. What do I do to give God glory?

The truth will set you free, let you loose; it will unbind you and rush you out into the world to shout the Good News. Nothing about the truth is scary. Stare the Lie in the face and speak a Word of Truth.

Follow HancAquam and visit the Kindle Wish List and the Books & Things Wish List

Recommend this post on Google!

Coffee Cup Browsing

2012-01-13T06:20:00.000-06:00

Aggie Catholic's Top 20 Catholic Blogs. . .great list!

Fr. Everyone: "Athletes, intellectuals, bon vivants, wet blankets, firebrands, gourmands, shysters, flirts, gentlemen, ascetics, exorcists, prophets, jokers, and weirdos."

Excellent post on the papacy from the indomitable John Zmirak.

What to do when you hear a bad homily. . .I agree with these suggestions. . .just don't throw a missal!

SupCrt unanimously shuts down B.O.'s attempt to use employment discrimination law to intrude into church business. This is the case that had Catholic Progs drooling b/c they wanted B.O. to sue the Church and force the "ordination" of women as "priests."

Wow. . .if you think our bishops can produce some obscure prose, try deciphering these babble-packed sequences of letters from the Presiding Bishop of the ECUSA.

Follow HancAquam and visit the Kindle Wish List and the Books & Things Wish List

Recommend this post on Google!

Be made clean!

2012-01-12T14:42:00.001-06:00

1st Week OT (Th)

Fr. Philip Neri Powell, OP

St. Dominic Church, New Orleans

Listen Here (5.30 Mass)

As far back as the 4th and 5th century B.C., Greek philosophers and physicians practiced an art called “physiognomy,” which roughly means “judging character by physical attributes.” Physiognomy seeped into the western world and flourished in the medieval period, especially in literature and popular plays. Think of the way Chaucer described the physical features of his pilgrims in The Canterbury Tales as a way of letting us know that this pilgrim is sneaky and that one is lazy. But even before the ancient Greeks and medieval Europeans discovered the dubious value of physiognomy, we find in scripture a closely related notion: our sins are written on our flesh; that is, one's sins are translated onto one's body as an ailment or deformity or disability. A man born blind was assumed to have committed some blinding sin. A woman suffering from hemorrhages probably suffered so because she or a relative in her past had sinned against purity. Thus, the Mosiac Law incorporated a strict set of purity laws for those with diseases, disabilities, and deformities. The equation of sin and sickness was nearly absolute. This is why our gospel account this afternoon is so extraordinary. Jesus breaks the Law of Moses in order to obey the Law of Love. He—a rabbi—touches a leper in order to heal him.

The conversation between Jesus and leper is telling. Notice in the story how fluently the two conflate health and cleanliness. The leper begs at Jesus' feet, “If you wish, you can make me clean.” Jesus says, “Be made clean.” And the leper is relieved of his disease. If we didn't know that physical disease and spiritual impurity were equated in first century Judea, we might think that Jesus is scrubbing the poor guy with a stout lye soap and a tire brush! And in one sense, that's exactly what he's doing. He's scrubbing the leper's soul. By healing his leprosy, Jesus is making the man ritually clean, fit to be presented to the temple priests for a declaration of cleanliness. After healing/cleansing the man, Jesus tells him to go to the priests for just such a declaration and offer the prescribed sacrifice. This order seems out of place b/c Jesus is telling him to obey the Law (by going to the temple) while Jesus himself is breaking it (by touching someone unclean)! This oddball order is accompanied by another oddball order from Jesus, “See that you tell no one anything. . .” The poor guy is ordered to the temple to show that he is no longer a leper, but he's not allowed to tell anyone how he was healed. Of course, he disobeys this last bit and shouts the news of his miracle all through the streets. Apparently, good news won't be silenced.

Though we have a much more nuanced understanding of the relationship between spiritual disobedience and physical disease than did our first century ancestors in the faith, we can still point to the fact that persons and not just bodies get sick. This is what is at the root of the conversation between Jesus and the leper. The leper is looking for more than just relief from a fatal skin disease; he's longing to be readmitted into his family, his community. Leprosy got him declared “unclean” and cast out. Healing got him declared “clean” and brought back in. When we sin, we separate ourselves from the community. To be brought back in, we must be made clean, healed of our spiritual disease. Our Lord accomplishes this through the ministry of his Church, the sacrament of reconciliation. Like the leper, we drop to our knees and say, “If you wish, you can make me clean.” The Lord says, “I do will it. Be made clean.” Now, do we follow the leper's example and spread this good news abroad?

Follow HancAquam and visit the Kindle Wish List and the Books & Things Wish List Recommend this post on Google!

Nannies lose. . .BIG Time!

2012-01-12T05:48:00.000-06:00

Yesterday's Supreme Court 9-0 smack-down of B.O.'s power grab over Churches is being hailed as truly historic. And it is. . .as these things go in the world of jurisprudence and among us Legal Fan Boys.

The case itself is fairly straightforward, nothing bizarre or particularly historic. What is bizarre and truly historic is the argument brought by B.O.'s Justice Department. From the NYT: "The administration had told the justices that their analysis of Ms. Perich’s case should be essentially the same whether she had been employed by a church, a labor union, a social club or any other group with free-association rights under the First Amendment." In other words, this administration hoped to convince the Justices that the Free Association Clause of the 1st Amendment trumps the Establishment and Free Exercise Clause. Given the social engineering ideology and impulses of B.O.'s nanny state mindset, I think we can see where this is going: governmental control of religious institutions. The NYT notes that the administration's argument came under "withering criticism" from the Justices, including B.O.'s two liberal appointees.

The gist of the unanimous opinion: “The Establishment Clause prevents the government from appointing ministers. . .and the Free Exercise Clause prevents it from interfering with the freedom of religious groups to select their own.”

So, why is this decision considered a landmark?

1). This is the first time the SC has recognized the "ministerial exception" to the federal law prohibiting discrimination based on X, Y, Z, ad.nau. For years, lower courts have dismissed employment discrimination lawsuits brought against religious organizations by their "ministers." These courts concluded that the Establishment and Free Exercise Clauses of the 1st Amendment prohibit the gov't from meddling in the hiring/firing of ministers. Imagine the chaos if priests who have been laicized by the Church could sue under federal law for discrimination. Imagine the kind of ministers that judicial nannies would impose on churches!

2). In the unanimous decision, Chief Justice John Roberts wrote, “We cannot accept the remarkable view that the religion clauses have nothing to say about a religious organization’s freedom to select its own ministers.” Why did the Chief note that this view of employment discrimination is remarkable? Because B.O.'s Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and his Justice Department argued that religious institutions do not have the constitutional right to decide who their ministers will be. You read that correctly. Remarkable, indeed.

3). So remarkable, in fact, is B.O.'s view of the Establishment & Free Exercise Clauses that a stalwart conservative (Alito) and a stalwart liberal and B.O. appointee (Kagan) issued a concurring opinion denouncing B.O.'s view! And there's more. . .this historic concurring opinion goes on to opine that all employees of religious institutions (not just the clergy) should be exempted from gov't meddling.

4). When this case first reached the Court, it was widely noted that a decision against the church involved in the case could force the Catholic Church to defend her all-male priesthood against discrimination lawsuits. Some in the NCR/LCWR crowd were chomping at the bit for the Court to open that can of worms. Deo gratis. . .they didn't. In fact, they pretty much welded the can shut and tossed it into the abyss.

Despite this victory for the 1st Amendment and religious institutions in the U.S., I am confident that the nannies will continue their tireless efforts to monitor and control our relationships with God. And I'm confident that there will be those in the Church who cheer on these control freaks. They just can't help themselves.

The Court's decision can be found here.

Follow HancAquam and visit the Kindle Wish List and the Books & Things Wish List

Recommend this post on Google!

His purpose is our command

2012-01-11T14:06:00.001-06:00

1st Week OT (W)
Fr. Philip Neri Powell, OP
St. Dominic Church, New Orleans

Listen Here (5.30 Mass)

After healing Simon's mother-in-law and curing a town's worth of sick folks and exorcising a host of demons, Jesus takes a well-deserved prayer break out in the desert. When his friends find him there, they say to him, “Everyone is looking for you.” Given the gifts our Lord has demonstrated, it's no wonder everyone is seeking him out! Jesus—ever the enigmatic one—replies, “Let us go on to the nearby villages that I may preach there also. For this purpose have I come.” Without saying so explicitly, Jesus indicates that though he is happy to preach and heal and exorcise in this village, his larger purpose is to preach to and heal and exorcise the larger world. Mark writes, “So he went. . . preaching and driving out demons throughout the whole of Galilee.” The Lord makes it absolutely clear that his purpose in coming among us is to preach the Good News. That's why he is here. Simon tells Jesus that everyone is looking for him. The villagers respond to him b/c they recognize his power. They acknowledge his authority to heal the sick and drive out demons by seeking him out for help. Even the demons know who he is and obey his word. How do we respond to Jesus and his stated purpose? When the Lord preaches, do we feel his power? Do we recognize his authority as the Son of God?

It would be strange for any of us to answer this question in the negative. Yes, I'm sitting here at Mass, taking communion, praying to God, but I don't acknowledge Jesus' authority. I don't recognize him as the Son of God. That would be more than just strange, it would be a form of self-condemnation, a public lie. So, we can safely say that those of us here at least understand Jesus to be who and what he says he is. But is that acknowledgment enough to lead us to holiness? It's a good start, that's for sure! But more is needed. When God calls Samuel to serve, Samuel confuses God's voice with his boss, Eli. Finally, after being awakened a couple of times by an eager Samuel, Eli tells the boy to answer the next call, saying, “Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening.” Samuel hears the Lord's voice again and answers obediently. Because of this obedience, the Lord makes Samuel a prophet, never allowing him to speak a false word. When the Lord calls us to attention and gives us a task, our response, if we believe that he is who he says he is, can only be, “Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening.”

Jesus tells his friends that the purpose of his coming among them is to preach the Good News of his Father's forgiveness to the sinner. He does this—he preaches—by healing the sick, exorcising demons, feeding the hungry, and teaching the truth for salvation. He does all this in the company of his friends, his students, those whom he will eventually name apostles, “the ones sent out.” Each of these men heard the Lord call his name and each of them responded, “Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening.” What did the Lord say to them? He said, “Follow me.” Do as I do, preach what I preach, teach what I teach. And I will be with you always, guarding your words against error and blessing your work by multiplying the fruit you produce. These men heard his voice and urged him to speak to them. This is our response as well. The Lord has called us, is calling us right now to serve him by serving his Church and the world we live in. His purpose was to preach the Good News. We follow him; therefore, our purpose is to preach that same Good News. Samuel said, “Here I am. . .here I am. . .here I am. I'm listening, Lord. . .just say the Word. Your servant is ready!”

Follow HancAquam and visit the Kindle Wish List and the Books & Things Wish List

Recommend this post on Google!

Do you believe that it is free?

2012-01-09T11:32:00.002-06:00

The Baptism of the Lord

Fr. Philip Neri Powell, OP

St. Dominic Church, New Orleans

Listen Here (5.30 Mass)

“Thus says the Lord: All you who are thirsty, come to the water!” The water is given. . .but we must go to the water. If we are thirsty, we drink. The water is given, but we must choose to drink. “You who have no money, come, receive grain and eat. . .” The grain is given. . .but we must go to the grain. If we are hungry, we eat. The grain is given, but we must choose to eat. As it is with God's gifts of water and grain, so it is with God's mercy, so it is with His forgiveness. If we are repentant, we confess. Forgiveness is given, but we must choose to receive that forgiveness. Who starves to death, or dies of thirst when grain and water are freely given? How many of us remain in sin when absolution is a gift just waiting to be unwrapped? One of the themes of Christmas, the Epiphany, and the Baptism of the Lord is our unworthiness to be given the gift of eternal life. Truly, we do not deserve this prize. However, we are made worthy, we are made to deserve this gift by the birth, the baptism, the death, and the resurrection of the Lord. Having been handed—without cost to us, without any work from us—the keys to our Father's Kingdom, why would we hesitate, why would we balk at stepping up to and stepping into a life of holiness with Him? “Seek the Lord while he may be found, call him while he is near!”

Our Lord is never nearer to us than He is right now. His call to us is never clearer than it is right now. His gift of eternal life is never more ready to be received than it is right now. The urgency that Isiah puts into his prophecy isn't simply rhetorical; in other words, he's not just being dramatic for the sake of being dramatic. The Lord says to Isiah that His Word will go forth from His mouth and it “shall not return to me void, but shall do my will, achieving the end for which I sent it.” That Word, the Word sent out to do God's will, is the Christ, the Son made flesh and he will not return to the Father until the job he was sent to do is done. Since the Christ has returned to the Father, we know that the job he was sent to do has been done. That job is our salvation. The offer of mercy in flesh and blood has been made—once, for all; to Jew and Gentile alike—and now it's our turn. Do we receive His mercy? Do you take all that has been given to you and put it all to work for the greater glory of God?If not, then you condemn yourself to starve and die of thirst within sight of grain and water.

Christ's baptism in the Jordan by John's hand is the baptism of the world. Every creature, every made thing is washed clean, made holy, and brought into a new creation. God's human creatures are given the freedom to follow Christ's example in baptism, or to continue as natural creatures until death. But b/c each of us is gifted with an immortal soul, the decision to continue on as a natural creature has consequences beyond death. Without God's mercy, without receiving His forgiveness, we perish by being forever separated from Him. Baptism brings us into the life of Christ and sets us on the narrow way toward our destined freedom in His love. Baptism makes possible every other means of receiving God's gifts. Baptism is the first but not the only invitation we get to come and enjoy the blessings of God's generosity. Why would we choose to remain natural creatures when our supernatural end is provided free of charge? Why would we remain in sin when our freedom from sin is already paid for, already purchased? Receive all that you have been given! Feast and drink on the bounty of the Lord!

Follow HancAquam and visit the Kindle Wish List and the Books & Things Wish List

Recommend this post on Google!

A note on the Mass mp3's

2012-01-09T10:26:00.000-06:00

Fr. Michael told me this morning that you can fast forward the mp3 files of our Masses to about the six minute mark and get the gospel and homily.

Try it out and let me know!

Follow HancAquam and visit the Kindle Wish List and the Books & Things Wish List Recommend this post on Google!

-7 Monday

2012-01-09T10:24:00.002-06:00

Monday Fat Report. . .

Must've done something right last week: 331 lbs.!!!

This is probably a fluke. . .but I'll take it.

Thanks for the prayers and good wishes.

Follow HancAquam and visit the Kindle Wish List and the Books & Things Wish List

Recommend this post on Google!

To reveal, to manifest, to unveil

2012-01-08T07:50:00.003-06:00

The Epiphany of the Lord
Fr. Philip Neri Powell, OP
St. Dominic Church, New Orleans

Listen Here (5.30 Mass)

I've spent many hours, days, and years in the classroom teaching college students to read and enjoy the mysteries of poetry. Most of my students—usually pre-law, pre-med, engineers—resisted reading poetry as anything other than some sort of perverse secret code used to punish non-liberal arts majors for choosing low-brow professions. But even the flaky liberal arts majors tended to read poetry as if there were a hidden message to be found, a profound moral to uncover. To combat this poetical heresy, I used a variety of ingenious techniques stolen from literary history, colleagues, and Nazi interrogation manuals (!) One of the most popular was something I called the “Ah-Ha Reading.” I would have a poem read aloud by several different students. While each student read, the others would note moments in the poem when they learned something they didn't know. No matter how insignificant, no matter how trivial, jot it down! Then each student would then share his/her “ah-ha moment” and tell us about how the poet revealed this new insight, the fresh bit of knowledge. What word, sound, image showed you this novel idea? Without telling them what I was doing, I had covertly introduced my future doctors, lawyers, and engineers to the art of reading poetry epiphanically; that is, reading for the epiphany, waiting to be suddenly gifted with a beautiful truth. Today we rejoice in the Epiphany of the Lord! The Son of God revealed to us in the flesh—the gift of everlasting life.

Our celebration of the Epiphany of the Lord is packed with references to the notion of revelation. The Lord is revealed to the Magi. He himself reveals once obscured truths. Even now, we—altogether—are revealing God to one another. We also hear “manifest,” “unveil,” and the phrases, “make known” and “made evident.” Something, someone once hidden is now manifest; the veiled is unveiled, the darkness is lit. What starts as a word from Mary and a shadow manifests as a child, a child revealed to be the Messiah. His coming is made known in scripture: Bethlehem, “from you shall come a ruler, who is to shepherd my people Israel.” His arrival is marked, “the star that [the Magi] had seen at its rising preceded them. . .and stopped over the place where the child was.” And his nature and purpose is made known, “[The Magi] prostrated themselves and did him homage.” With these revelations, these beautiful truths in mind, listen again to Isiah, “Your light has come, the glory of the Lord shines upon you. . .upon you the Lord shines, and over you appears his glory. . .you shall be radiant at what you see, your heart shall throb and overflow. . .” Every nation shall come to adore him!

Though we call today's celebration “The Epiphany of the Lord,” it also goes by another name, an older, more specific name, “The Manifestation of the Christ to the Gentiles.” The long-awaited Messiah is promised to the Jews. His arrival is the fulfillment of Jewish prophecy. He is born into the royal line of King David of Israel through Mary, his mother. He is presented at the temple, circumcised, and raised to read and understand the Hebrew scriptures. If this is true, then why do pagan priests, Gentile holy men travel from the east to give him gifts and do him homage as a king? The former Pharisee, Paul, writing to the Ephesians, answers this question for us, “. . .the mystery was made known to me by revelation. . .the Gentiles are coheirs, members of the same body, and copartners in the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel.” The Christ is promised to the Jews as their Messiah. And we—Gentiles—are made coheirs, co-partners in the fulfillment of that divine promise. The Magi visit the Christ-child b/c it has been revealed to them that this Child is the king of glory, the king before whom all nations will bend a knee and do homage. The Christ is made manifest to the Gentiles, shown to be the Savior of whole world.

With the manifestation of the Christ to Jews and Gentiles alike comes an astonishing cascade of revelations. The Law of Moses, written on stone, is revealed to be the Law of Love written on the heart. The worship of God in the temple is revealed to be service to others with the temple of the body. The bread and wine of the Passover feast is revealed to be his Body and Blood, broken and poured out for our sakes. The sacrifices of lambs on the altar is revealed to be the one sacrifice of the Lamb of God on the altar of the Cross. Our Lord uncovers sight for the blind; hearing for the deaf; speech for the muted. He manifests health for the sick; mobility for the lame; and freedom for the possessed. He unveils bread for the hungry; consolation for those who mourn; riches for the poor. And, most importantly, he makes known the mercy of God for the sinner. He is God's mercy for the sinner, forgiveness given flesh and bone. And when he is resurrected on Easter morning he reveals to us our end, our goal: everlasting life, perfection as God the Father is perfect. That tiny child, worshiped by the Magi, accomplishes all these things b/c he is the Son of God become man; living among us, dying as one of us, and revealing to us the freely given gift of eternal life.

On occasion, in the classroom, one or two of my students would look up from a poem and give me an “ah-ha” look. That look that says, “I get it! I get it!” It's that look that every teacher worth his pay longs to see. Coming to love poetry for its epiphanies takes practice; it's a habit formed from repetition and patience. The life of holiness is no different. There's nothing hidden in verse. There's no secret code to break or arcane symbols to decipher. There's the text and the reader. In the work of holiness, there's the human soul and the Holy Spirit. Everything we need to start, maintain, and finish a holy life has been revealed. It's all there, waiting for the patient, determined soul to begin. Start each day by giving God thanks for His gift of Christ. Maintain by celebrating his sacraments and doing good works for his glory. Finish each day receiving his forgiveness and forgiving those who sinned against you. Repeat, repeat, repeat. “Then you shall be radiant at what you see, your heart shall throb and overflow [and] the wealth of nations shall be brought to you.”

Follow HancAquam and visit the Kindle Wish List and the Books & Things Wish List Recommend this post on Google!

Above all, holiness. . .

2012-01-07T06:49:00.003-06:00

Christmas Weekday (S)

Fr. Philip Neri Powell, OP

St. Dominic Church, New Orleans

Listen Here (8.30 Mass)

Jesus and his mother mingle with the wedding guests. Near the end of the party, Mary reports to Jesus that the good wine has run out, “They have no wine,” she says. Jesus, being the good son, says, “Woman, why turn to me? My hour has not yet come.” Now, you can just see the look on Mary’s face. That look mothers get when a son gets a sassy mouth. No doubt she pinched her lips just a bit, took a deep breath, maybe rolled her eyes, and said to the servants, “Do whatever he tells you.” Jesus proceeds to change six stone jars of water into high quality wine. John writes: “This was the first of the signs given by Jesus: it was given at Cana in Galilee.” To mark his entry into a public ministry of teaching, preaching, and healing, our Lord chooses a wedding feast, the party after the formal liturgy to claim his divine Sonship. Why a wedding feast? Of all the opportunities to announce his public ministry, why does he jump at this chance to reveal himself? Well, Mary is pushing him to “do something.” There's a crowd with people from all over town. Everyone is in a celebratory mood. All true. But don't overlook the obvious answer: the wedding guests needed wine! The Lord provides, and he provides more than bare necessities.

Let's examine what Jesus does when he changes water to wine. What happens? Yes, he changes water to wine. Yes, he obeys his mother. Yes, he reveals his power. And he does all this in order to announce the start of his public ministry. More importantly, he stakes a claim to his divine Sonship by changing that which we need simply to live into that which we need to live well. He shows the wedding guests and all of us that he comes to change survival into celebration, changes “just getting by” into thriving on God's abundance. In the next three years, Jesus transforms the Law of stone into the Law of love; he transforms the sacrifices of the temple into the one sacrifice of the cross; he transforms suffering and death into joy and everlasting life. The Wedding at Cana is transform from just another nuptial celebration into the unique sign of Christ's Sonship and serves as the beginning of his wedded life to the church! The physical miracle of water changing into wine is also a sacramental sign, evidence of God's grace working in the world to seduce us and draw us into the life of the Spirit, a life of holiness.

If we take the miracle at the wedding feast of Cana as a sign that God wants us to celebrate and thrive and not just get by and survive, we come closer to understanding the nature of the Church as Bride. Where do we find the bond of love and self-sacrifice? Where do we find the clearest declaration of God's intention to bring us back to Him? Where do we go to receive His blessings and to give Him thanks and praise? The one Body, the Church, His Bride. We find all these—love, self-sacrifice, blessing—we find them all here. . .among brothers and sisters, among the worst and least of God's children, among the best and greatest of His saints. Jesus doesn't reveal himself as the divine Son to a clique, or a secret society; nor does he hoard his power and dole it out sparingly. He spends it. . .extravagantly, at a party. He creates a luxury and helps the guests enjoy God's abundance. Think of Mary Magdalen and the expensive perfume oil she pours out on Jesus' feet. Think of the 5,000 who feast on a few fish and a few loaves of bread. Think of the hundred-fold harvest reaped from a single seed. Think of the Cross and the expense of your redemption, Christ's blood poured out. For his Bride, the Bridegroom desires joy, peace, prosperity. And above all, holiness.

Follow HancAquam and visit the Kindle Wish List and the Books & Things Wish List Recommend this post on Google!

By Water, Blood, and the Holy Spirit

2012-01-06T06:14:00.002-06:00

NB. I like this homily. . .but it is also a little. . .stiff? formal? too ____? Not sure. Anyway, it's much better than yesterday's sad attempt.

Christmas Weekday (F)

Fr. Philip Neri Powell, OP

St. Dominic Church, New Orleans

Listen Here (5.30 Mass)

John asks, “Who indeed is the victor over the world but the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?” Those who believe that Jesus is the Son of God are victors over the world? Hmmm. . .would Stephen, who was stoned to death, say that? Would the Holy Innocents say that? Would John the Baptist, his head resting on a plate, say that? Would the 40 or so Nigerian Catholics burned to death by Muslim terrorists in their church after Midnight Mass say that? If these believers were also victors, what sort of victory did they win? John says that those who believe that Jesus is the Son of God win a victory over the world. But in all these cases of brutal martyrdom, it appears that the world won a decisive victory over the believers. And it appears so b/c the world considers death a defeat. We do not; that is, we do not consider death a defeat b/c death is not an option for the believer. Of course, we die. Our bodies give out, surrender to disease and accident. But b/c we believe that Jesus is the Son of God and that he lived and died for us, death is just a dramatic transition to an eternal life. God testified through His Son that by the Spirit, water, and the Blood of Christ, we are given “eternal life, and this life is in His Son.” We live our lives in His Son and not in this world, therefore our deaths are not of this world. We die in Christ and rise again with him.

To mark the transition from living in this world and living in Christ, we receive the grace of baptism. Washed in water made holy by the Spirit, we become blood brothers and sisters of the Son, the adopted children of the Father and co-heirs to His kingdom. Baptism not only joins us to the Holy Family by freeing us from the slavery of sin, it also makes us ready to live holy lives, lives constantly and consistently guided by the presence of the Holy Spirit. With the Holy Spirit and our family in Christ, each of us progresses toward holiness according to our gifts, enjoying the Lord's perfecting love and sharing that love freely and generously. The more we share our gifts, the more we use our gifts for the benefit of others, the more perfect, the more Christ-like we become. If Christ dies and rose again, so will we. If Christ will return, so will we. Death is not defeat, rather death is defeated through the re-creating love of God and our hard work in spreading that love.

John the Baptist says, “I have baptized you with water; [Christ] will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.” John baptized for repentance, turning from sin. Christ baptizes for life after repentance, the life of holiness. If the waters of baptism wash us clean, then the fire of the Spirit keep us clean. By constantly and consistently placing ourselves in the way of grace through the sacraments—especially confession and the Eucharist—we renew and reinforce our hearts and minds, leaving ourselves open and free to the guidance of the Spirit. This openness and freedom leave us vulnerable to the world's spite and in danger of ridicule and violence. So be it. Even as we live in this world, our eyes are set on world greater and grander than anything possible in this one. Not a “pie in the sky by and by” world, but the perfection of creation accomplished through Christ; the world as God made it to be. What we do with God's gifts adds to the world's inevitable perfection, brings it and us ever nearer to a holy end. What will you do today, what gifts will you use today to bring yourself and the rest of us closer to our Christ? Who will you forgive? Who will you love? To whom will you say, “Whoever possesses the Son has eternal life”?

Follow HancAquam and visit the Kindle Wish List and the Books & Things Wish List Recommend this post on Google!

Coffee Cup Browsing

2012-01-06T05:05:00.000-06:00

An Italian photojournalist documents how his colleagues manufacture Mid-East conflict for $$$.

Salvation Army supports abortion. Wish I had known this before Christmas. Not.One.Dime indeed.

Archbishop Chaput is selling his mansion. Good for him. Unless there's some sort of historical significance to an episcopal residence (e.g. the Vatican apartments), I say sell them all.

Oh, how The One has fallen. . .students laugh at B.O.

Harpoon snail swallows a fish whole. . .there was a Star Trek episode with a space creature that reminds me of this snail.

Future priest saved baby Hitler from drowning. . .that was also a Star Trek episode, wasn't it? Or maybe that was Twilight Zone?

LAT: "[Bishop] Gabino Zavala had a high profile in the archdiocese. His parenthood violates church celibacy laws." No, his fatherhood violates Church discipline with regard to chastity. Unless he married the mother of his children, he didn't violate his promise of celibacy.

Most unexpected question of the year? Is the Nanny State a Lesbian? Uh???

Something you didn't know about grizzly bears.

Been there, done that.

Follow HancAquam and visit the Kindle Wish List and the Books & Things Wish List Recommend this post on Google!

Calling those most in need. . .(Audio Added)

2012-01-05T06:37:00.004-06:00

St. John Neumann

Fr. Philip Neri Powell, OP

St. Dominic Church, New Orleans

Listen Here (8.30 Mass)

In his first letter, John writes, “Children, let us love not in word or speech but in deed and truth.” True love, to love truly, is a deed not a spoken word, a speech. John is warning us away from the lazy way of love, the way of speaking loving words and believing that our words are enough to love. It's important to keep in mind here that Jesus contested with the Pharisees off and on for the whole three years of his public ministry. Central to the contest between our Lord and his enemies ias the question of how a relationship with God is established and maintained. The Pharisees, following a strict interpretation of the Law, argue that a near obsessive attention to the picayune details of the Law—its rituals and purity codes—were essential to obeying God. Jesus always retorts by pointing out that the Law was created to serve God's children and not the other way around. For the Pharisees, it is enough to behave according to the letter of the Law written on stone. Jesus teaches us that the Law is written on the heart, that the first commandment of the Law is: “. . .we should love one another.” Not just speaking loving words, but doing loving deeds in truth. Caritas in veritatis. Loving deeds done for the love of truth. Notice that Philip does more than tell Nathanael about Jesus. He brings Nathanael to Jesus. When Philip says, “Come and see,” he's saying, “I can't tell you about him. You have to witness him for yourself. Follow me to Christ.”

When Philip delivers Nathanael to Jesus, he completes a loving act. Perhaps the only thing Philip can do greater than this is to die for Nathanael as his friend! Because Nathanael follows Philip to Christ, he's introduced to the only means of his eternal salvation. When they meet, Jesus greets Nathanael by saying, “Here is a true child of Israel. There is no duplicity in him." A bit stunned by this greeting, Nathanael asks, “How do you know me?” Jesus says, “Before Philip called you, I saw you under the fig tree.” What was Nathanael doing under a fig tree? Later in his public ministry, Jesus will tell the disciples that they are not to pray as the Pharisees do: in showy, public displays. Rather, they are to go somewhere private and talk quietly to God. Jesus saw Nathanael doing just that—praying quietly in private, fulfilling the heart of the Law in love. Jesus' arrival in Nathanael's life is the answer to his earnest prayers; thus, Nathanael proclaims, “Rabbi, you are the Son of God; you are the King of Israel.”

Philip proves to be an useful instrument in Nathanael's search for God. But it is Nathanael's sincerity in searching for God according to the Law of Love that gets him recognized by the Christ. Had Nathanael followed the Pharisees and made his search into a public drama, would Jesus have called him “a true child of Israel”? Not likely. Nathanael searches for the truth in love and does so without pretense or covert motives. He loves his God and acts accordingly, drawing the attention of the Christ not a crowd. When Christ recognizes Nathanael as a true child of the Law, Nathanael recognizes Jesus as the Christ. And having seen the Christ, Nathanael is ready to follow him and lead others to him. But let's not minimize Philip's ministry in this revelation. Philip is the one who says, “Come and see.” Philip is the one who leads Nathanael to Jesus. Philip acts in love and presents a searching soul to his Savior. Without Philip's invitation, without his apostolic call, Nathanael might never have met the Christ. Make it your ministry—as an apostle sent out—to call those to Christ who are most in need of love and mercy.

Follow HancAquam and visit the Kindle Wish List and the Books & Things Wish List Recommend this post on Google!

Review: The Art of Prayer, Fr. Martial Lekeux, OFM

2012-01-05T04:54:00.002-06:00

The one question that seems to plague serious Catholics more than any other is: how do I pray well?

This question comes after an admission that their prayer life is suffering from a dry spell or that they have more or less given up on prayer b/c the effort seems so fruitless.

Generally, I direct these earnest folks to the first few paragraphs of Part Four of the Catechism (nos. 2559-2565) and urge them to re-think their theology of prayer; that is, I urge them to reconfigure their notion of prayer as a way of jump starting a more fruitful conversation with God.

The author/source of this part of the Catechism (a Dominican friar named Fr. Jean Corbon) writes: "He who humbles himself will be exalted; humility is the foundation of prayer. Only when we humbly acknowledge that 'we do not know how to pray as we ought,^' are we ready to receive freely the gift of prayer. 'Man is a beggar before God'"(2559).

This is all well and good. . .and exactly right. But how do we do this? Knowing the theology of prayer is vital. Knowing the mechanics is also important. But being able to put the two together often eludes even the best pray-ers among us.

Enter Fr. Martial Lekeux, OFM and his 1958 book, The Art of Prayer (original in French, L'art de prier, 1957), reprinted by St Pius X Press.

The most impressive element of this book is its practicality; that is, its usefulness for daily prayer. Completely given over to the utility of prayer, Fr. Lekeux leads his readers toward a truly mundane practice of talking to and thinking with God.

With chapters on private vocal prayer, public prayer, meditation, affective prayer, and prayers of simplicity, Fr. Lekeux offers the earnest Catholic a simple yet profound way to stay in the conversation with God w/o an elaborate imaginative structure (a la Teresa of Avila, John of the Cross, etc.). What you get are concrete suggestions for turning everyday tasks into moments of time with God.

If you are looking for an instructive, orthodox guide to a better relationship with the Lord, this book is for you!

Follow HancAquam and visit the Kindle Wish List and the Books & Things Wish List Recommend this post on Google!

How to become an apostle (Audio Added)

2012-01-04T07:13:00.003-06:00

St. Elizabeth Ann Seton

Fr. Philip Neri Powell, OP

St. Dominic Church, New Orleans

Listen Here (8.30am Mass)

If we needed a shorthand way of referring to this morning's gospel, we might call it “The Hand Off.” John “hands off” two of his disciples to Jesus. We could also call it “The Hand Off Plus One” b/c not only does John hand off two of his students to Jesus but one of those students invites his own brother to join the class. We now have the kernel of apostles—three guys sitting at the feet of Jesus ready to hear the Word and obey. We might wonder why this seemingly insignificant scene deserves its own day in the lectionary: why do we spend time mulling over how two of John's disciples and Simon come to meet Jesus? Why is it important that we know something about how Jesus came to collect his first three disciples? What's striking about this scene is its ordinariness, its everydayness. No angels, no bolts of lightning, no burning plant life booming out a celestial voice. Just one teacher introducing his students to another teacher. The extraordinary part of this scene is how John introduces Jesus. Jesus walks by and John proclaims, “Behold, the Lamb of God!” Without further explanation or discussion, John's disciples veer off and follow Christ. Simon joins when he is invited by Andrew. The kernel of apostles is formed by a prophetic proclamation and a charitable invitation. This is how the Church is founded, thus this is how the Church grows and thrives.

John's proclamation should be very familiar. After the host is broken at Mass, it is raised above the chalice and John's proclamation is repeated, “Behold, the Lamb of God!” Christ, truly present on the altar, is broken for us, and his broken presence, once announced, is answered, “Lord, I am not worthy that you should enter under my roof. . .” Acknowledging our own brokenness, we say, “. . .only say the word and my soul shall be healed.” When we take his Body and Blood into our own bodies, we are healed. He has spoken the Word of healing that both restores our spiritual health and binds us one to another as one Body. In the same way that the first disciples meet the Christ at John's proclamation, so we too meet the Christ at the altar, receive our salvation, and give him thanks for bringing us into the Holy Family. What's left for us to do? What did the men who met Jesus on the street do? They invited another.

God's goodness and beauty are diffusive; that is, by His very nature, all that God is is distributed, spread out, freely given away. When we use the word “grace,” we mean “gift,” a freely given good. God's grace is the gift of Himself through Christ Jesus. So, when we receive Christ's Body and Blood in the Eucharist, we receive God Himself. We become more like Christ, more Christ-like. Being Christ-like means living sacrificially, giving away and giving up for the sake of another so as to grow in holiness. Andrew, for example, did not squirrel away his knowledge that Jesus is the Lamb of God, the Christ. He and the other disciple did not form a secret society and hoard Jesus' teachings. Simon is invited into the classroom and Jesus names him “Cephas,” Peter. Because they distributed the Good News, spread it out, Peter becomes the Rock upon which the Church on earth is built.

The seemingly minor scene in the Gospel this morning shows us how to build the Church. Proclaim Jesus as Lord. Hear his Word and obey—listen and act. Distribute his healing news far and wide. Invite others to become students, saying “We have found the Messiah.” This is how you become an apostle, how you become “one sent out.”

Follow HancAquam and visit the Kindle Wish List and the Books & Things Wish List Recommend this post on Google!

Updated W.L.

2012-01-03T21:29:00.002-06:00

I've updated the Books & Things Wish List to better reflect my current assignment as a parish priest.

You really can't do better than BXVI for theology and Church history, can you?

Follow HancAquam and visit the Kindle Wish List and the Books & Things Wish List Recommend this post on Google!

Coffee Cup Browsing

2012-01-03T07:18:00.000-06:00

Imagine the reaction from the Left if "W" had signed a bill allowing the military to indefinitely detain American citizens suspected of terrorist activities. Since B.O. signed it. . .cricket concerto.

As the "state-run media" becomes increasingly propagandistic the New Media does the hard job of actually gathering the news. Thus, the clamoring from the SRM for more gov't $$$.

This development in American culture is worrying all the right people.

How many of you saw folks texting/playing games on their mobile devices during Midnight Mass?

B.O. is running a "post-modern campaign, in which there is no objective truth but simply narrative." Well, he is a product of cultural Marxist "thinking."

Excellent post on St. Basil the Great. Find out why he's titled, "the Great." Too bad we can't clone him and elect him Pope!

Connecting an ancient heresy with its postmodern cousin: Arianism & Materialism.

A letter to Fr. Z. about a visiting priest who trashes the new translation of the Missal in front of a CCD group. Expect more of this sort of thing.

Fascinating post on the meaning of "freedom of the press."

Too smart to be a cop?

Meanwhile, in _______. A few national stereotypes.

Follow HancAquam and visit the Kindle Wish List and the Books & Things Wish List Recommend this post on Google!

It's the fiber. . .I just know it is!

2012-01-02T11:02:00.000-06:00

Fat Report. . .

Back to 338 lbs. I blame it on the fiber pills.

Off to SubWay for a chicken beast sub on wheat. . .no mayo.

Follow HancAquam and visit the Kindle Wish List and the Books & Things Wish List Recommend this post on Google!

A plague of Prophets

2012-01-02T07:00:00.001-06:00

NB. If you listen to this Mass all the way through, you will notice that I messed up the offertory prayer. For some strange reason I flipped to the propers for the Epiphany and read the opening collect. I was 2/3 of the way through it before I realized that I had messed up. Oh well. Ecclesia supplet!

Ss. Basil the Great and Gregory of Nazianzen

Fr. Philip Neri Powell, OP

St. Dominic Church, New Orleans

Listen Here (8.30 Mass)

As the early Church struggled to understand God's Self-revelation in the only languages they knew—4th century philosophical Greek and imperial Latin—three prominent figures rose to the occasion and provided believers with the means to glimpse into the nature of the divine: Basil the Great, Gregory of Nazianzen, and Basil's brother, Gregory of Nyssa, the so-called Cappadocian Fathers. All three of these men left the Church with a treasure trove of writings that parse the delicate terms we still use to describe the Blessed Trinity, the Incarnation, the life of holiness, and the general rules for monastic life. In every way that matters, these saints of the eastern Church were prophets for the Lord. They reached to understand divine revelation and put their understanding to work for the good of God's people. Today, we honor Basil the Great and Gregory of Nazianzen by asking a question that has been often asked but rarely answered adequately within the living tradition: what does it mean for one of us, or all of us together to be prophetic? That is, if we are exhorted to be prophets for the Lord (and we are!), what exactly are we being asked to be and do?

When the priests and Levites ask John the Baptist, “Who are you?” he answers enigmatically, saying, “I am not the Christ.” This is an enigmatic answer b/c they did not ask him if he were the Christ. He answers by telling them who he isn't. They ask again, “Well, what are you then? Elijah? Are you the Prophet?” He says, “No. I am not.” No fewer than three times does John deny being someone else; three times he says in effect, “I am not he, I am not that.” Aggravated with his obstinacy, they finally blurt out, “Who are you, then? What do you have to say for yourself?” John's answer defines what it means to be prophet of the Most High: “I am the voice of one crying out in the desert, 'Make straight the way of the Lord.'” We have to notice here that John says that he is “the voice of one crying out.” He doesn't say, “I am a voice crying out” but “I am THE voice of ONE crying out.” In other words, John is claiming to be the voice of another, the voice that cries out what this other one wants cried out. Prophets surrender their voices to God and speak His Word in order to prepare the way for His coming.

The Church is plagued by self-anointed prophets who speak on behalf of their personal agendas. Appointed to the role of prophet by nothing more than their private sense of urgency to fix problems only they can see, these voices no more speak for God or the Church than do those who hope to see Christ's work destroyed. Genuine prophets do not set themselves above the Church in order to light a revolution in their own image. Genuine prophets of the Lord cry out His Word within the Church in order to prepare us for His arrival among us. Genuine prophets of the Lord give their obedience to only one agenda: the necessity of repentance and forgiveness in our preparation for the coming of the Lord. God's Word must be heard and His saving works seen so that those who can see and hear will know the way to prepare for the consummation of His kingdom. As baptized members of the Body of Christ, as priests, prophets, and kings, we are vowed to both repentance and forgiveness, and we are vowed to speaking His Word and glorifying His saving works. Like Elijah, John the Baptist, and the Blessed Mother, we point toward the Lord, never to ourselves or our personal agendas, always toward the Lord, and announce His coming among us. To be a prophet is to cry out in the voice of another, the voice of Love Himself.

Follow HancAquam and visit the Kindle Wish List and the Books & Things Wish List Recommend this post on Google!

Mary, Mother of Our Freedom

2011-12-31T11:54:00.004-06:00

NB. Nevermind about the whole confusing Zechariah with Simeon. . .I was right the first time.

Solemnity of Mary, the Holy Mother of God
Fr. Philip Neri Powell, OP
St. Dominic Church, New Orleans

Listen Here (8.00am Mass)

We call her "Advocate of Eve," "Seat of Wisdom," "Cause of Our Joy," "Help of Christians," and "Mother of Sorrows." We greet her in prayer, “Hail, Mary! Full of grace!” And we call upon her intercession using a variety of names: Our Lady of Guadalupe, Our Lady of Knock, Queen of the Americas, and Our Lady of Prompt Succor. But all these titles and names are meaningless unless we understand the one title that makes all the others possible: Theotokos, God-bearer, the one who gives birth to God. Mary is who and what she is for us b/c she is first and foremost the Holy Mother of God. This title was settled upon in 431 A.D. by the Church Fathers at the Council of Ephesus. Fighting back a heresy that wanted us to believe that the Christ was actually two different persons—one human and one divine—the Fathers declared that Christ is just one divine person with two natures (human and divine). Mary gave birth to the divine person of Jesus Christ, making her the mother of God Incarnate. And since we never celebrate a Marian feast w/o remembering the One to Whom Mary always points us, we also celebrate her son, Jesus, the Messiah. Given all this, I'd like to propose another title for Mary: Mother of Our Freedom! Why this title? Paul writes to the Galatians, “When the fullness of time had come, God sent his Son, born of a woman. . .so that we might receive adoption as sons. . .So you are no longer a slave but a son, and if a son then also an heir, through God.”

We are no longer slaves but sons, heirs; and made so by God through the faithful cooperation of Mary. The Mother of Our Freedom cooperated (operated with) the Holy Spirit and received into her womb the seed of the Word, which grew into the divine person of Jesus. His birth into human history and his death into eternal life makes our salvation possible. He cuts a path through the thorny tangle of sin and death and draws us behind him to be taken up, made holy, and seated at our inherited place at the banquet table of God. Our release from the slavery of sin, our escape from the inevitability of death is accomplished by Christ through the cooperation of Mary. She is the Mother of Our Freedom b/c she gave birth to the only means of our freedom. From slaves to heirs, we move ever closer to the perfection of Christ.

Our perfection in Christ is both our work and the work of God. Just like our Blessed Mother cooperated with the work of the Holy Spirit to conceive and give birth to Jesus, we too are vowed to cooperate with the work of the Holy Spirit to conceive and give birth to the Word, making his flesh and blood our flesh and blood; surrendering our hearts and minds, and our hands and voices to the holy work of preaching and teaching the Good News to the world. The longer and harder we work at accomplishing this task, the higher we climb in holiness and the deeper we delve into divine wisdom. Like the shepherds who find the Holy Family in the manger and “made known the message that had been told them about [the Christ],” we too are vowed to finding Christ, following him, and making his message known. After seeing the Christ-child, the shepherds go home, “glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen.” And we too will return home, our heavenly home, glorifying and praising God, if we do what we have promised as followers of Christ to do. Mary held on the message of the shepherds, reflecting on it in her heart, remembering Simeon's warning in the temple that her heart would be pierced by the sufferings of her son. While the shepherds adored and the people were amazed, Mary quietly grieved, knowing the destiny of the one sent to redeem us all from the slavery of sin.

Mary's grief must have been nearly unbearable. Having assented to the conception of the Word and given him birth, she is left with the sure knowledge that her son is the long-awaited Messiah, the One who would suffer and die for the sins of men. To gain our freedom, the Mother of Our Freedom had not only to bear the Christ into this world, she had to witness his suffering and death for our sakes. And not only was she a witness to his passion, she suffered along with him as any mother would. Her heart, pierced by the sword of grief, bled out even as Jesus bled out on the cross. As painful as his death and her grief no doubt were, as a result, we rose as a race to be the adopted children of the Father, heirs to His kingdom. Granted the inheritance of the ages, in possession of God's promise of eternal life, and the possibility of perfection through His Christ, what do we do in order to give thanks? How do mere creatures show appreciation to the One who created and re-created them? There is nothing we can do or say that would equal this gift, that would express the enormity of this sacrifice for us. We are left to do only that which we have already vowed to do: bring the message of God's love and mercy to the world in all we do, say, think, and feel. Despite opposition, persecution, ridicule, and violence, we deliver the message that Christ is Lord! When we do as Christ did, and speak as he spoke, we grow closer to our perfection in him.

Some 1,600 years ago, a council of Church Fathers hashed out a theological statement that confirmed what most Christians at the time already believed: that Mary is the Holy Mother of God Incarnate. As the mother of God, she bore into the world the Son who grew up to teach and preach the saving word of his Father's mercy to sinners. Not only did he teach and preach his Father's mercy, he embodied that mercy; he gave that mercy flesh and bone and walked among us as a sign of contradiction, a rock upon which men's hearts and minds would be broken to reveal the truth inside. When confronted with the raw truth that your sins are forgiven and that you are no longer a slave to sin, the truth that dwells secretly within breaks out and flourishes in the light of Christ. The shepherds wandered the desert on the word of an angel until they found Christ. The truth in their hearts dropped them to their knees in adoration. Those near the manger, the ones who heard the shepherds' message, had their hardened hearts softened and exposed. They were left amazed by the Good News. Mary, Mother of Sorrows, had her heart broken on the knowledge that her son would suffer and die. The truth in her heart led her to a life of humble service to the Lord. Within the Body of Christ, his Church, there is a truth that will renew us, a truth that will bring us to remember our vows, and urge us to rededicate ourselves to the hard work that Mary started when she said Yes to God. That truth is this: each of us and all of us together are the flesh and blood of God's Word, not just people who believe or people who do good works, but the People of God who walk out into the world to be—however imperfect—Christs for one another. Mary, Mother of Our Freedom, gave birth to the only means of our freedom, Christ Jesus the Lord. Will you, will we say Yes to God, conceive His Word, and keep in the world the mercy and love that Jesus lived and died to bring to us? Do this holy work and the Lord will bless you and keep you! The Lord will let his face shine upon you. . .The Lord will look upon you kindly and give you peace!

Follow HancAquam and visit the Kindle Wish List and the Books & Things Wish List Recommend this post on Google!

Divinity Diva

2011-12-30T15:58:00.001-06:00

As long-time readers of H.A. know, my time in the studium (seminary) was hit and miss. Some of my profs wanted to hit me and most of them missed!

Anyway, it was all tolerable given the graces of God and my friendship with a fellow M.Div.'er, Deirdre Darr.

Deirdre is a wife, mom, pastry chef, and now a blogger. . .check her out: Divinity Diva. And tell her that "her first husband" sent you.

It's a long story. . .and a funny one.

Follow HancAquam and visit the Kindle Wish List and the Books & Things Wish List Recommend this post on Google!

Misc. . .

2011-12-30T15:49:00.000-06:00

Received Gary Taube's book, Why We Get Fat and What To Do About It. Started reading this afternoon.

So far, I can tell you that he's taking on the Nutritional Establishment and its "calories in/calories out" approach to losing weight.

He's tackling the problem of fat accumulation, focusing on the role that insulin plays in our metabolism.

For me, I can tell you that carbs are the enemy. If I eat no carbs for breakfast, I am good to go until dinner time. If I eat one piece of toast, I'm mowing through the fridge like a plague of stoner locusts by 10am. . .and anything not locked away or hidden is fair game until I pass out around 11pm.

Basically, Taubes is taking the Dr. Atkins approach w/o providing a specific diet plan.

I'll keep you posted!

Also, I'm working on a short book review for The Art of Prayer by Fr. Martial Lekeux, OFM. This is one of the books I rec'd from St Pius X Press.

Follow HancAquam and visit the Kindle Wish List and the Books & Things Wish List Recommend this post on Google!

Measuring the blessings of faithfulness

2011-12-30T06:49:00.001-06:00

NB. If you listen to this Mass you'll notice that I'm sputtering at the preface. I think a bug flew in my mouth!

Feast of the Holy Family

Fr. Philip Neri Powell, OP

St. Dominic Church, New Orleans

Listen Here (5.30)

One of the first abstract concepts we learn as children is the difference btw “less than” and “greater than.” Three is less than four but greater than two. Ten pounds of sugar is more than five pounds of sugar. $100 is less than $1,000. When we compare the size, weight, height, width, depth, etc. of two or more things we are engaged in what's called “measurement.” Any physical object can be measured, and we have a long list of words to us when measuring: pounds, feet, leagues, miles, volts, minutes, years, etc. Because we are both rational and creative creatures, we even have the capacity to measure abstract nouns like happiness, sadness, beauty, and trust. Bob is happier than Sue. Mozart's music is more beautiful than the music of the Rolling Stones. As Catholics, we often find ourselves using the human obsession with measurement in our spiritual lives. Sometimes this helpful, sometimes not so much. How many of us attend two Masses in one day in order to get “more grace”? Or confess the same sin multiple times in order to receive “more forgiveness”? We often talk about “days or years in purgatory,” as if we experience time after death. Even though we sometimes use this kind of language in our spiritual lives, it's vital that we understand that there is no such thing as “more faith,” or “enough faith,” or “better faith.” Faith is the good habit of trusting in God's loving-care. You either exercise this habit or you don't.

Abraham shows us the way. “By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called. . .By faith he received power. . .By faith Abraham offered up Isaac, his son. . .” Why did he obey the call, receive power, and offer up his son? Because “he thought that the one who had made the promise was trustworthy.” Abraham exercises the good habit of trusting in God's loving-care and the results speak for themselves. He receives from God an inheritance: though he was “himself as good as dead,” from him and his sterile wife, Sarah, came “descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky as countless as the sands on the seashore.” Because Abraham exercised the good habit of trusting in God's loving-care, he and his wife produced a holy family, a holy nation, a people dedicated to the love and service of the Lord. And some few thousand years later, we honor him still as “our father in faith.”

Abraham believed and acted “by faith” and he received a bounty from the Lord. His faith was not measured in pounds or feet or volts. He didn't pray for “more faith,” or “extra trust.” He heard the Lord's call and he acted, knowing that his God would not fail him. Though your own faithful relationship with the Lord may not produce “descendants as numerous as the stars,” you are still poised to follow after the Christ-child and his family when you trust His love. Luke tells us that after Mary and Joseph fulfilled the requirements of the Law by presenting the Baby Jesus in the temple, “The child grew and became strong, filled with wisdom; and the favor of God was upon him.” Mary and Joseph obeyed the Lord's commandments; they trusted in His Word, and they and their child found favor with God, growing in wisdom and strength. They did not measure their trust nor did they quibble over the niceties of the Law. They simply did what God asked them to do and b/c they trusted His promises and acted accordingly, they came to know God and grew in His divine love. This same inheritance awaits us, awaits anyone who will listen to God's Word, trust in His promises, and act according to His will. His blessings for faithfulness are immeasurable.

Follow HancAquam and visit the Kindle Wish List and the Books & Things Wish List

Recommend this post on Google!

What truth will Christ reveal for you?

2011-12-29T15:46:00.001-06:00

NB. OK. . .I confess: this one is a little weird. Too much afternoon coffee!

5th Day of the Octave of Christmas

Fr. Philip Neri Powell, OP

St. Dominic Church, New Orleans

Listen Here (5.30 Mass)

A devout and righteous man named Simeon went into the temple and laid eyes on the child Jesus. Having been promised by the Lord that he would not see death until the coming of the Messiah, Simeon blessed God for allowing him to be a witness to the Christ. Simeon sings out his praises to God, turns to Mary and Joseph, blesses them, and says to Mary, “Behold, this child is destined . . .to be a sign that will be contradicted. . .so that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed.” Just what every mother wants to hear about her son! A warning that he will grow up to be a sign of contradiction whose very presence will reveal the true nature of every man's heart! Of course, this warning is not original with Simeon. The prophet Isiah reports that the Lord encouraged him to “conspire with the Lord of hosts; [I] shall be your fear, [I] shall be your dread.” Similar to the warning Simeon offers to Mary about Jesus, Isiah reports that the Lord said to him: “[I] shall be a snare, a stone for injury, A rock for stumbling. . .A trap and a snare"(Is 8). The Christ is a sign of contradiction and the Lord of Hosts is a stone of injury. We are left to wonder how we got from the tender manger scene of the Nativity with the adoring Magi to this ominous scene in the temple with Simeon warning Mary about the destiny of her child. How does the Baby Jesus become a sign of contradiction that reveals men's hearts?

As we have already noted, Simeon's warning to Mary echoes the warning given to Isiah about the Lord of hosts. From this parallel we can see that Simeon is pointing to the Christ-child and saying, “This child is the Lord of hosts!” In the same way that the Lord of hosts is a stumbling block and a snare, so the Christ will be a rock upon which men will break their hearts. How is this possible? Because Christ is the Lord of hosts who gave this warning to both Isiah and Simeon! The child is the Lord but he has yet to become a sign of contradiction b/c his public ministry is still some thirty years down the road. What Simeon sees and declares is that the arrival of the Messiah into human history is like a gigantic boulder being dropped into a settled pool. Many have seen the splash but few have yet felt the waves. When those waves come to crash against hardened human hearts and closed human minds, the contradictory nature of the Messiah will split them wide open, revealing for all to see the truth buried within. Just yesterday, we read about Herod's heart and mind being cracked open by the arrival of the Christ. The truth revealed within lead to the slaughter of thousands of innocent children, all murdered to placate one man's fear.

When the waves of the incarnation crash against heart and mind, what truth will be revealed? More importantly, what will you do with that truth? Will you surrender it to Christ and bend your will to his? Will you declare your truth to be uniquely privileged, entitled to respect and deference even if it means denying God's will for you? If the truth revealed in your heart and mind aligns with God's will, will you act on it in love, uniting yourself with the Christ? John writes, “. . .whoever keeps [Christ's] word, the love of God is truly perfected in him. . . whoever claims to abide in him ought to walk just as he walked.” Walk just as Christ walked and become a sign of contradiction for his sake. Just remember the martyrs: Stephen, John, and the Holy Innocents. For that matter, remember Christ Jesus. And you will follow him all the way to Jerusalem and the Cross.

Follow HancAquam and visit the Kindle Wish List and the Books & Things Wish List Recommend this post on Google!

File Links to Masses at St Dominic's

2011-12-29T09:53:00.000-06:00

The pastor of St Dominic, Fr. Michael O'Rourke, OP is a Techie Genius.

He has started recording our daily and weekend Masses and linking them on-line.

Click here and pick a day. . .each Mass recording is linked through the preacher's name.

For example, Pippenger and Huck are our deacons, so you might get a file that starts with my voice but the homily is given by one of our deacons.

Follow HancAquam and visit the Kindle Wish List and the Books & Things Wish List Recommend this post on Google!

A poll on religious freedom

2011-12-29T06:03:00.000-06:00

Fr. Z. directs our attention to a poll on religious liberty:

Are religious rights being trampled on by the government?

I answered the poll. Why don't you?

Follow HancAquam and visit the Kindle Wish List and the Books & Things Wish List

More thanks!

2011-12-28T18:45:00.000-06:00

My thanks to the HancAquam reader who sent me, Our Lady of Weight Loss by Janice Taylor.

Very funny book!

Follow HancAquam and visit the Kindle Wish List and the Books & Things Wish List

". . .for this reason we also call Mary Mother of God. . ."

2011-12-28T15:16:00.001-06:00

NB. The coming Sunday, Jan. 01, is The Solemnity of Mary, the Holy Mother of God. Below you can read a bit about how the Church arrived at the title, Theotokos, "bearer of God."

(Reposted from Jan. 01, 2009)

The Solemnity of the Mary, Mother of God, celebrates the decision taken at the Council of Ephesus (431) against the teaching of the Patriarch, Nestorius, who held that a human person could not be said to have given birth to God. The Patriarch of Alexander, Cyril, argued that Mary, as the chosen instrument of the Incarnation, conceived and gave birth to the Word, Jesus, fully human and fully divine, one person with two natures. Mary, then, is properly understood to be “Theotokos,” God-bearer.

Cyril wrote (in part) to Nestorius:

"And since the holy Virgin brought forth corporally God made one with flesh according to nature, for this reason we also call her Mother of God, not as if the nature of the Word had the beginning of its existence from the flesh.

For In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was God, and the Word was with God, and he is the Maker of the ages, coeternal with the Father, and Creator of all; but, as we have already said, since he united to himself hypostatically human nature from her womb, also he subjected himself to birth as man, not as needing necessarily in his own nature birth in time and in these last times of the world, but in order that he might bless the beginning of our existence, and that that which sent the earthly bodies of our whole race to death, might lose its power for the future by his being born of a woman in the flesh. And this: In sorrow you shall bring forth children, being removed through him, he showed the truth of that spoken by the prophet, Strong death swallowed them up, and again God has wiped away every tear from off all faces. For this cause also we say that he attended, having been called, and also blessed, the marriage in Cana of Galilee, with his holy Apostles in accordance with the economy. We have been taught to hold these things by the holy Apostles and Evangelists, and all the God-inspired Scriptures, and in the true confessions of the blessed Fathers."

Cryril published twelve anathemas against Nestorius. Cyril's letters and his anathemas became the primary texts from which the council fathers drew up their canons for the council.

The first anathema reads: “If anyone will not confess that the Emmanuel is very God, and that therefore the Holy Virgin is the Mother of God (Θεοτόκος), inasmuch as in the flesh she bore the Word of God made flesh [as it is written, The Word was made flesh] let him be anathema.”

The fifth anathema reads: “If anyone shall dare to say that the Christ is a Theophorus [that is, God-bearing] man and not rather that he is very God, as an only Son through nature, because the Word was made flesh, and has a share in flesh and blood as we do: let him be anathema.”

As is the case with all Marian dogma and doctrine, we are immediately directed back to Christ as our Lord and Savior. No Marian dogma or doctrine is declared or defined in isolation from Christ. She is always understood to be an exemplar for the Church and a sign through which we come to a more perfect union with Christ. Though our Blessed Mother is rightly revered and venerated, she is never worshiped as if she were divine. She is rightly understood as the Mediatrix of All Graces in so far as she mediated, through her own body, the conception and birth of Christ, who is Grace Himself. In no sense are we to understand our Blessed Mother as the source of grace. Rather, she was and is a conduit through which we benefit from the only mediation between God and man, Christ. In her immaculate conception and assumption into heaven, our Blessed Mother is herself a beneficiary of Christ's grace. As such, she cannot be the source of our blessedness, our giftedness in Christ.

Follow HancAquam and visit the Kindle Wish List and the Books & Things Wish List

A favor?

2011-12-28T15:01:00.000-06:00

After six years publishing this blog, I'm still learning stuff about blogging!

Do me a small favor?

If you like a post, please go to the post's footer and click the "Recommend this on Google" button.

In fact, do this on all your fav Catholic blogs. . .that way, Catholic blogging will get a boost on the Google search engine.

Thanks, Fr. Philip Neri, OP

Follow HancAquam and visit the Kindle Wish List and the Books & Things Wish List

NB. The "Recommend" button is directly below. . .

Thanks!

2011-12-28T07:07:00.000-06:00

My thanks to T.M.P.S. for the Kindle Book!

Good choice. . .I needed something freaky to read.

Fr. Philip Neri, OP

Follow HancAquam and visit the Kindle Wish List and the Books & Things Wish List

Coffee Cup Browsing

2011-12-28T07:04:00.000-06:00

An atheist asks whether or not the War Against Nativity Scenes present atheists as "killjoy blights on the polity who are only out to destroy joy and good cheer, and who would leave a vacuum in the human spirit. . ." Um, why yes, it does.

Members of the Religion of Peace blow up Catholics in Nigeria on Christmas.

HA! A cookie recipe written in the style of the new Missal translation.

Muslim father dressed as Santa murders entire family in TX to prevent his daughter from dating non-Muslims.

This sort of thing is why indoor malls are closing. . .the trend now is toward outdoor malls.

Austrian court upholds blasphemy conviction. . .against Islam, of course.

Excellent post on the Feast of the Holy Innocents!

Speaking of the corruption of innocents. . .the Girl Scouts of America continues its leftist suicide.

When cartoonists forget history. . .

When sci-fi geeks do Christmas. . .

Lying bunny. . .he's gonna lie.

Follow HancAquam and visit the Kindle Wish List and the Books & Things Wish List

Holiness is a risk well worth taking. . .

2011-12-28T06:53:00.000-06:00

Feast of the Holy Innocents

Fr. Philip Neri Powell, OP

St. Dominic Church, New Orleans

The incarnation of the Son in the birth of Jesus brings with it the promise of eternal life for all those who believe, pick up their cross, and follow Christ. Born along with Jesus is a dark promise of persecution and violence for those who walk his narrow way. Just two days ago, we honored Stephen who was brutally murdered for publicly praising God in the name of Christ Jesus. Stephen's death fulfilled our Lord's promise: “You will be hated by all because of my name. . .” But Stephen reaped the glory of another divine promise, “. . .whoever endures to the end will be saved." Suffering at the hands of those who hate us and dying while persevering in the faith is the Church's most profound witness to the truth of the gospel. It is one thing to endure ridicule, argument, and imprisonment in the name of Christ. It is quite another to die by torture, execution, or a terrorist bomb all the while loving and forgiving your murderer for Christ's sake. Today is the Feast of the Holy Innocents. We honor those thousands of children slaughtered by Herod in a vain attempt to murder the Christ-child. Though they did not themselves profess the faith, they died horribly for Christ's sake. The Holy Family escaped into Egypt, while the children Herod massacred escaped into martyrdom: innocent of any crime, their lives were ended to assuage the political fury of a tyrant. We look to their innocence and their sacrifice to show us the way to holiness.

Herod's massacre of the Innocents reveals an ugly truth about human nature and the fallen order of creation: a man with nearly unlimited power will almost inevitably commit horrible crimes. The marriage of disordered passion and worldly power often gives birth to genocide, war, and the destruction of nations. But none of us here wields nearly unlimited power. That plague infects only a few. Most of us are burdened with a far less comprehensive but nonetheless potentially destructive plague—a wholehearted belief in our innocence. We believe that we are entirely free of sin. John writes, “If we say, 'We are without sin,' we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. . .If we say, 'We have not sinned,' we make [Christ] a liar, and his word is not in us.” Make no mistake here! We are free from sin, but being free from sin does not mean that we are free of sin. The prison doors are unlocked and jammed open, but we sometimes stand in our cells refusing to walk free. John continues, “If we acknowledge our sins, [Christ] is faithful and just and will forgive our sins and cleanse us from every wrongdoing.” The first step on the way to holiness, true innocence, is the acknowledgment of our sins and the reception of God's forgiveness. The pretense of innocence—that we are without sin—prevents us from receiving the forgiveness we have been given.

The Holy Innocents died at the hands of a sinful man seeking to prolong his corrupt rule. That innocents die everyday is a consequence of creation's fallen order and our own rebellion against God's Word. So long as we refuse to walk freely the narrow way of Christ—loving, forgiving, showing mercy—we prolong and give comfort to the corrupting rule of the Enemy. However, as Stephen and the Holy Innocents have shown us, choosing to step away from our culture's disordered passions and embracing the way of peace risks the dark promise of Christ's birth: we may die for his sake. Keep this truth close: “[Christ] is expiation for our sins, and not for our sins only but for those of the whole world.” Holiness is a risk well worth taking.

Follow HancAquam and visit the Kindle Wish List and the Books & Things Wish List

-3 Monday

2011-12-26T16:26:00.002-06:00

Almost forgot to post Ye Ole Weight on this Weigh-in Monday!

Down to 335lbs. Not bad considering we just finished the first day of Christmas. . .

Follow HancAquam and visit the Kindle Wish List and the Books & Things Wish List

Whoever endures to the end will be saved. . .

2011-12-26T15:36:00.000-06:00

St. Stephen, Martyr

Fr. Philip Neri Powell, OP

St. Dominic Church, New Orleans

I hope you're not surprised that we are celebrating the martyrdom of Stephen the day after we celebrated the incarnation of the Word in the birth of Jesus Christ. Yes, it's a bit weird that we draw ourselves away from the frolicking fun of the Nativity in order to take solemn note of the Church's first death by stoning. Yes, it is a bit morose for us to turn our attention toward a bloody execution and remind ourselves—after a day's worth of feasting, gift-giving, and family time—that there was a dark promise delivered along with the Baby Jesus. Stephen is the embodiment of that dark promise, and we remember him and his death not to harsh the buzz of Christmas but rather to prepare ourselves for the consequences of Christ's birth. What consequences are those? When the life-giving light of the Christ entered the world through our Blessed Mother, the world's darkness drew back and its soldiers furiously blinked in surprise and disgust. Now, a day later, they've regain their senses and readied themselves for a new battle. For them, Stephen was the first casualty in this war, the first victory for their side. Praying with Mary, Joseph, and the Christ-child in his crib, we know better. Stephen's death was our victory; his death at the hands of our enemies was a divine promise fulfilled.

If Christ's birth into the world of men frightened the forces of darkness, putting them on alert to the fact that their days are numbered, then those who follow Christ are just as frightening. Unable to do battle with God Himself, the armies of deceit and destruction will settle for laying waste to the lives of those of us who pick up the cross and follow Christ. Am I being a little too dramatic here? Maybe. Luke reports in Acts that certain members of a local synagogue debated Stephen, and he won against them b/c he was filled with the Holy Spirit. When they heard him praise God “they were infuriated, and they ground their teeth at him. . .they cried out in a loud voice, covered their ears, and rushed upon him together.” Did they insist on a respectful dialogue? Or suggest a inter-religious prayer meeting? No. “They threw him out of the city, and began to stone him.” So vile to their hearing was Stephen's praise that they murdered him. Stephen must've said something horribly insensitive or intolerant or divisive. What did he say to these men that provoked their murderous rage? He said, “Behold, I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.” And for this Stephen was beaten to death with rocks. Christ's dark promise to his Church is fulfilled: "Beware of men, for they will hand you over to courts and scourge you in their synagogues, and you will be led before governors and kings for my sake. . .”

Following the light of Christ comes with a promise of eternal life. Not as a reward for doing the right thing but as a consequence of setting aside failure, anger, and revenge, and embracing the liberating power of mercy granted in love. We are free b/c the Son of God was born a Man and died a Man. And when the appointed time came, he was raised from death to sit at the right hand of his Father. He opened for us the way to peace. For the Enemy and his allies, even the chance that God's children might be free is almost too much to bear. That we are in fact free provokes a murderous rage. In the face of this rage we have only one credible response: preach the truth of God's freely offered mercy; love those who hate us; and endure to the end. This was Stephen's victory, and it is ours as well if we persevere in holiness.

Follow HancAquam and visit the Kindle Wish List and the Books & Things Wish List

Becoming Theotókos

2011-12-25T16:43:00.000-06:00

Solemnity of the Nativity of the Lord

Fr. Philip Neri Powell, OP

St. Dominic Church, New Orleans

In 431 A.D., our Church Fathers gathered in Ephesus for a council and decreed that the Blessed Virgin Mary would be honored with the title, Theotókos, God-bearer or the one who gives birth to God. For a majority of Christians at the time, this decree was yawn-inducing b/c Mary had been known as Theotókos for a couple of centuries. However, one bishop, Patriarch Nestorius of Constantinople, objected to the title because he thought it was irrational to believe that a creature of God—a human woman—could be the mother of the God who had created her. He preferred the title, Christotokos or bearer of the Christ. This title makes it clear that Mary is the mother of Christ, the man, but not the mother of Christ, who is God. Nestorius was credibly accused of dividing Christ into two persons—a human person and a divine person—and thus destroying our means of salvation. After all, we are saved by Christ precisely because he is one person possessing both a human nature and a divine nature. The council fathers declared Nestorius' teachings heretical and supported the teachings of his opponent, the bishop of Alexandria, St. Cyril. In support of his position at the council, Cyril wrote, “I am amazed that there are some who doubt whether or not the Virgin should be called Theotokos. For if our Lord Jesus Christ is God, how is the Virgin who gave him birth, not the one who gives birth to God?”

Now, you are probably thinking to yourself: Father, we're all stuffed with ham, sweet potatoes, yeast rolls, and pie. . .and we have a big mess to clean up at home. . .what have we ever done to you to deserve a lecture on fourth-century Christological controversies? Well, you've probably done something in the last year to deserve it. . .but that's not really the point. The point is this: the event we celebrate today is not Jesus' birthday. . .this is not a Birthday Party. The event we celebrate is (quoting John's gospel): “And the Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. . .” The Word became flesh. Who is the Word? Again, quoting John, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” Don't miss that last bit: “and the Word was God.” God took on skin and bone and blood, and He dwelt among us as one us. Today, we celebrate the event of our Creator stepping into His creation to become a creature. This is most emphatically NOT a birthday party. . .this is an Incarnation Party! The Word of God, the Christ, who is God, becomes Man so that we might become Christs.

And that's the answer to my next question: why did the Word of God, the Christ, who is God become Man? So that we might become Christs. John writes, “. . .to those who accept [Christ] he gave power to become children of God.” To be a child of God is to be a co-heir to God's Kingdom, to be a brother or sister to the Son of God. To be one of the Father's children is to be one who sees “[Christ's] glory. . .full of grace and truth.” And to see Christ's glory, full of grace and truth is to see clearly the righteous path back to the Father. When we follow that path—with humility, in obedience; loving, forgiving, showing mercy all along the way—we grow closer to Christ and become more and more like Christ. But the only reason we can even begin to walk this path is because the Word of God, the Christ, became human like one of us; suffered and died like one of us; and rose from the tomb in order to show us how it's done. He had to go first, so that we might follow.

Today, Christ is born to the Virgin Mary. She is Theotókos, God-bearer, Mother of God Incarnate. And if you step onto the narrow way, the path of holiness, you too can bear Christ into the world; and not only bear him into the world, but become him for others in the world. Your words, deeds, thoughts can all reveal God's glory to the world just as Christ himself revealed God to us. When you leave this evening. . .when you go back out there. . .back to your Christmas mess. . .or someone else's mess. . .wherever you go. . .remember that this holy day celebrates the ultimate triumph of Light over darkness. . .and so, as you go, be “the true light, which enlightens everyone.” Be Christ!

Follow HancAquam and visit the Kindle Wish List and the Books & Things Wish List

A very important message. . .

2011-12-25T05:24:00.000-06:00

To all HancAquam Readers. . .

Merry Christmas!

Follow HancAquam and visit the Kindle Wish List and the Books & Things Wish List

Coffee Cup Browsing

2011-12-24T12:46:00.001-06:00

Grieve or die: nine minutes of N. Korean propaganda.

No. Mary was not an unwed mother nor was Baby Jesus an illegal immigrant.

This kid is grounded for life. . .and then some.

President Present is lazy. Who knew? Maybe we should have guessed, uh?

If you don't think that this vid is cute. . .you might be Scrooge's meaner second-cousin.

Where do I find an oil painting of circus clowns storming the beach at Normandy?

Change "Honey" to "Father" and "house" to "priory" and you have one of the friars talking to me.

Follow HancAquam and visit the Kindle Wish List and the Books & Things Wish List

Be guided onto the way of peace. . .

2011-12-24T07:27:00.000-06:00

4th Week of Advent (S)

Fr. Philip Neri Powell, OP

St. Dominic Church, New Orleans

Zechariah and Elizabeth's neighbors watch a cosmic drama play out before their eyes. For months, Zechariah has been rendered speechless as a consequence of his disbelief. Elizabeth, miraculously pregnant all this time, gives birth to a son. Refusing to follow the traditional practice of naming a son after his grandfather or father, she names her child John. Over the objections of family and friends, Zechariah confirms the name in writing, and his tongue is set free. His first words are blessings upon God for the birth of his son. Watching all this, the neighbors become increasingly fearful, saying, “What, then, will this child be?” Though they do not yet know the specifics of John's ministry, they feel his arrival signal the fulfillment of an ancient prophecy: their freedom is at hand. The long-promised Messiah is coming! Zechariah's song of praise recalls God's promise of freedom to His people and confirms what they have all believed for generations. The Lord has never and will never abandon His people to the slavery of sin. The sign of our freedom is the Christ-child born to Mary and Joseph. And John—the son of Zechariah and Elizabeth—is his herald.

Zechariah's hymn of praise lays out for us—over and over again—a historical pattern: “[The Lord] has come to his people and set them free. . .He promised to show mercy to our fathers. . .He swore to our father Abraham: to set us free from the hand of our enemies. . .free to worship Him without fear. . .and to guide our feet into the way of peace. What prompts Zechariah to sing this hymn of thanksgiving? Notice that he addresses his new born son, "You, my child, shall be called the prophet of the Most High. . .” Why is this child to be called a prophet? “. . .for you will go before the Lord to prepare his way. . .” How will John the prophet prepare the way of the Lord? “[by giving] his people knowledge of salvation [through] the forgiveness of their sins.” And it is through the forgiveness of our sins that we are set free. Since the establishment of the covenant with Abraham, God has promised His people freedom from the slavery of sin. Through the Law and the Prophets and with the advent of the Messiah, God's faithful people have been shown a path toward salvation, salutem in Latin, health. Our salvation is rightness with God, spiritual health, the fullness of peace.

Lest we forget, let Zechariah's song bring to mind again the whole point of our celebrations today and tomorrow: we are free; we are made free, given our freedom. We exchange gifts to mark the day. We do not buy stuff from one another. We do not work for one another in order to earn the stuff under the tree. We give gifts; we exchange graces, freely given and freely received blessings in celebration of our release from the bonds of sin. We cannot freely give or receive if we are bound by sin. Therefore, Zechariah reminds us to be prophets of the Lord, to prepare God's people for the arrival of the Christ-child, to give one another knowledge of our salvation by forgiving those who have sinned against us.

When you receive a brightly wrapped present from under the tree, you say, “Thank you!” Under a brightly lit star, lying in a stable, a tightly wrapped child presents himself to you as a gift. Receive his gift and say, “Thank you!” And do more than receive his gift of freedom and give him thanks, give freedom again and again. Release all those who have offended you. Free all those who have hurt you. Do not “dwell in darkness and the shadow of death.” Be guided onto the way of peace.

Follow HancAquam and visit the Kindle Wish List and the Books & Things Wish List

Why are they afraid of John?

2011-12-23T06:04:00.000-06:00

NB. I got a third of the way through this homily before I remembered that Deacon John is preaching at this morning's Mass. So, let's hear what you think about the question: Why would all those who hear of John's birth be afraid?

4th Week of Advent (F)

Fr. Philip Neri Powell, OP

St. Dominic Church, New Orleans

Doubting the word of the angel Gabriel, Zechariah's tongue is stilled. Because he failed to listen and believe, he is prevented from praising God's gift of a son while his wife, Elizabeth, is pregnant. In order to understand Zechariah's punishment we must remember that God has no need of our praise. Praising God benefits the one who praises Him and those who hear Him praised. Thus, Zechariah is denied the benefits he might have otherwise received by giving God thanks for his child. Once Zechariah agrees in writing to name his child “John,” his tongue is freed, and he heaps blessings on God for His gift. Zechariah's reaction to John's birth is perfectly understandable. Both he and Elizabeth are elderly, and Elizabeth was known to be barren. To be given a child is a spectacular blessing! Less understandable is the reaction of their neighbors. Luke reports that “. . .fear came upon all their neighbors, and all these matters were discussed throughout the hill country of Judea. All who heard these things took them to heart, saying, 'What, then, will this child be? For surely the hand of the Lord was with him.'”

Question: Why would all those who hear of John's birth be afraid?

Follow HancAquam and visit the Kindle Wish List and the Books & Things Wish List

Thanks!

2011-12-22T18:46:00.000-06:00

My thanks and Christmas blessings to Gregg F. for the Kindle Book!

I feel smarter just knowing that I have a Mamet book in my library. . .

Follow HancAquam and visit the Kindle Wish List and the Books & Things Wish List

The Way of Spiritual Magnification

2011-12-22T06:42:00.001-06:00

4th Week of Advent (Th)

Fr. Philip Neri Powell, OP

St. Dominic Church, New Orleans

Our Blessed Mother praises her Savior: Magnificat anima mea Dominum! My soul magnifies the Lord! She is “most blessed among women” b/c she believed that the Word of her Lord would be fulfilled. And even as she sings God's praises, His Word is being fulfilled in her body: the Christ-child readies himself to be born. The prayer we know as the Magnificat, or the Canticle of Mary is more than an outburst of joyful praise; it is also a recollection of God's promises to His faithful people. Not only do we hear a recitation of God's saving deeds, we also hear the Spirit rededicate Himself to the tasks of preserving, protecting, and providing for those who place themselves in His fatherly care. In other words, our Blessed Mother reminds us of all that He done for us; all that He is doing for us now; and all that He will do until Christ is among us once again.

What has our Lord done for His people? “He has mercy on those who fear him. . .He has shown the strength of his arm. . .[He] has scattered the proud in their conceit. He has cast down the mighty from their thrones. . . [He] has lifted up the lowly. He has filled the hungry with good things. . .[He] has sent [the rich] away empty. . . .[and] He has come to the help of his servant Israel. . .” Why has He done all these things? “[Because] He remembered His promise of mercy. . .” To whom did He make this promise of mercy? “[To] our fathers, to Abraham and his children for ever." We are the children of Abraham, the adopted sons and daughters of our father in faith, co-heirs to the kingdom of heaven through the grace of Christ Jesus. Our Lord has done these great deeds for us out of His mercy. . .not b/c we deserve them, not b/c we have earned them, not b/c we have purchased them but b/c He loves us and wills for us only what is good. Mary remembers the Lord's historical works; she proclaims His on-going works, and she prophesies His works for us in our future.

How do we as creatures—beings of ash and air—acknowledge the providence of God, His loving-care for us? Mary shows us the way when she sings, “My soul magnifies the Lord! My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord; my spirit rejoices in God my savior.” Following the Blessed Mother, the way for us is the way of spiritual magnification: to set our souls to the task of bringing the Lord's love and mercy into sharper, keener focus; to amplify, to enlarge the works of the Lord by acting, speaking, feeling, thinking—doing all that we do for His greater glory. We labor to ensure that our words and deeds expand His love and mercy. We work at making sure that our thoughts and feelings prosper in His promises of forgiveness. We do not wallow in self-pity, recrimination, or vengeance. We do not nurture grudges or pick at our wounds. We make gratitude our minute-by-minute prayer, sacrificing entitlement and greed, exchanging ingratitude for humility and feeding the roots of holiness with the same song of joy that our Blessed Mother sings. She exults in her Lord and shows us the way to Christ.

Is there a better time in the Church year to practice being Christ among your family and friends? We all wait for the birth of the Christ-child among us. Will there ever be a better chance for each of us to be born into the world as bearers of the Good News? To arrive among those we love as a herald of Love Himself? If you nurture bitterness, anger, a desire for revenge, why not risk forgiveness? Gamble them all on the mercy of God. He will magnify your soul as you magnify Him!

Follow HancAquam and visit the Kindle Wish List and the Books & Things Wish List

What is the Incarnation? (Repost)

2011-12-22T05:35:00.000-06:00

Just in time for the Solemnity of the Nativity of the Lord:

The Nativity of Christ, or Christmas ("Christ Mass"), celebrates one of the most important events of the Church: the incarnation of the Son of God. Like the Trinity, the Virgin Birth, the Resurrection, etc., the Incarnation is one of those rock-bottom Christian beliefs that most Christians assent to but probably don't really understand. Though Catholics all over the world affirm their belief in the Incarnation every Sunday by reciting the Creed, how many could explain this tenet of the faith in the simplest terms?

Let's start with a story. . .

The archangel Gabriel appears to Mary and announces to her that God has chosen her to be the mother of the Christ Child, His Son. Mary says, "Your will be done" and the Holy Spirit descends on Mary, giving her the child. Nine months later the Christ is born in Bethlehem.

Simple enough story, right? If we left the incarnation there, we would still have the basic truth of Christ's arrival into the world. Things get a little more complicated when we start to think about what it means for the Son of God (who is God) to take on human flesh and live among us. How does the God of the Old and New Testament become incarnated yet remain sovereign God? We are immediately confronted by what theologians call "the Christological question": how is the man Jesus also God?

Before this question was settled by the Council of Nicaea in 325 A.D., a number of answers were offered and rejected:

Jesus is really a man who possesses God-like qualities.

Jesus is really God in the appearance of a man.

Jesus is half-God and half-man.

Jesus' soul is divine but his body is human.

Jesus' body is human but his mind is divine.

Complicating matters even more was the lack of an adequate theological vocabulary with which to think about and write about the incarnation. Early Christian theologians turned to the available philosophical vocabularies for help. The most prominent philosophical system in the first few centuries of the Church was a developed form of Platonism. Borrowing heavily from the Platonists, the Church Fathers crafted a creedal statement that said: The Father and the Son are the same in substance ("consubstantial"), meaning that they are the same God: "God from God, light from light, true God from true God." The Son was not created in time like man but rather begotten from all eternity. He "became incarnate" through the Virgin Mary--fully human in all but sin.

This creedal statement defined the orthodox position of the Catholic Church. However, interpretations of the creed abounded and additional councils had to sort through them all in order to discover the orthodox expression of the true faith. In the end, the Nicene Creed was taken to mean that Jesus was fully human and fully divine: one person (one body/soul) with two natures (human and divine). "Person," "essence," "being," "nature" are all terms borrowed from Greek philosophy. So, as the West discovered new ways of thinking philosophically, these terms took on different meanings and our interpretations of theological expressions of the truth developed as well. The basic truth of the incarnation does not change; however, how we understand that truth does change.

For example, the Greek word we translate as "person" is prosopon, or mask. This term was used in the Greek theater to denote the different characters played by one actor. A single actor would hold a mask in each hand and shift the masks in front of his face to say his lines, indicating that the lines were being said by different characters. Applying this term to God, the Blessed Trinity, we arrive at a single actor (God) using three masks (Father, Son, Holy Spirit). Same actor, different characters. Ultimately, this metaphor is woefully inadequate for expressing the deepest truth of the Trinity. Yet, we still say that the Trinity is three divine persons, one God. "Person" as a philosophical term used to describe a theological truth had to be developed.

Eventually, we came to understand several vital distinctions: The Church uses the term "substance" (rendered also at times by "essence" or "nature") to designate the divine being in its unity, the term "person" or "hypostasis" to designate the Father, Son and Holy Spirit in the real distinction among them, and the term "relation" to designate the fact that their distinction lies in the relationship of each to the others (CCC 252).

So, God is one substance; three divine persons; distinguished from one another not by their natures or persons but by their relations one to another. The incarnation then is the second divine Person of the one God becoming a human person with two substances or natures.

You are one person with one nature: "I am human."

God is three divine persons with one nature: "I am divine."

Christ is one person with two natures: "I am human and divine."

Aquinas, quoting Irenaeus, writes, "God became man so that man might become God." The incarnation of the Son makes it possible for us to become God (theosis). This is how Catholics understand salvation.

Follow HancAquam and visit the Kindle Wish List and the Books & Things Wish List

A Catholic governor meets his bishops

2011-12-21T13:40:00.000-06:00

Cardinal George and several bishops in Illinois held a meeting with IL Gov. Pat Quinn in order to re-teach him the meaning of Catholic conscience. When the governor tried to downplay the teaching element of the meeting and play up the social justice angle, the Cardinal and bishops responded.

Their response is a good summary of Catholic teaching on the nature of moral conscience:

“As Catholic pastors, we wanted to remind the Governor that conscience, while always free, is properly formed in harmony with the tradition of the Church, as defined by Scripture and authentic teaching authority. A personal conscience that is not consistent with authentic Catholic teaching is not a Catholic conscience. The Catholic faith cannot be used to justify positions contrary to the faith itself. It is a matter of personal integrity for people who call themselves Catholic to act in a manner that is consistent with the teachings of the Catholic Church.”

Follow HancAquam and visit the Kindle Wish List and the Books & Things Wish List

What is it to believe?

2011-12-21T10:46:00.001-06:00

NB. This is not a very Advent-y homily, I know. But for whatever reason it needed to be preached. The preacher preaches to himself first.

4th Week of Advent (W)

Fr. Philip Neri Powell, OP

St. Dominic Church, New Orleans

“I believe.” We pray this sentence every Sunday when we recite the Creed, the Credo: I believe. The Creed is a set of beliefs that all Christians share. We believe in One God, the Father Almighty, maker of all things, visible and invisible, etc. We go on to repeat this nearly 2,000 year old statement of beliefs and, in doing so, we claim to believe in all sorts of outrageous things: a divine Son; his virgin birth as a man; his resurrection from the dead; even our own eventual resurrection from the dead! We claim to believe in someone named the “Holy Spirit” who proceeds from both the Father and the Son, and we believe in the oneness, holiness, catholicity, and apostolicity of a universal Church. As I said, we believe in sorts of outrageous things. And we believe these outrageous things without any obvious anxiety or fear of contradiction. If we were given some time and had the inclination to reflect critically on what we are claiming to believe, we just might feel the absurdity that so many of the early Church Fathers felt in repeating and defending these claims. Ultimately, we would likely say something like, “Well, this is what we believe to be true about the faith. It's just what we believe.” Leaving aside for the moment the content of the Creed, let's reflect on what it means to believe in something or someone. What is it to believe?

Mary, pregnant with the Christ, visits Elizabeth in Judah. Upon greeting one another, the child in Elizabeth's womb jumps for joy. Elizabeth is filled with the Holy Spirit and proclaims, “Most blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb. . .Blessed are you who believed that what was spoken to you by the Lord would be fulfilled.” Mary is blessed b/c she heard the Lord's Word spoken by Gabriel, listened to that Word, trusted in it, and acted accordingly. Think back to the scene with Mary and Gabriel. The angel tells Mary that she will conceive and bear a son, a son who is the promised Messiah. Despite her doubt and fear, Mary says, “Let it be done to me according to your word.” She doesn't merely say, “I hear you and trust what you say.” She says—in effect—I hear; I listen; and I assent to all that I have heard. Let it be done. Elizabeth calls this attitude “belief.” When Mary permitted the Lord to give her the Christ-child, she believed.

As we get closer and closer to our celebration of the world's most important event—the coming into human history of God's Son, the birth of our Savior—let's reconsider what we are saying when we pray the Creed. We are not merely giving intellectual assent to a series of theological statements. Yes, yes, I believe X, Y, and Z. Nor are we staking out a few controversial philosophical positions. Nor are we simply muttering $15 academic words and phrases: “consubstantial,” “incarnate,” “proceeds from,” “resurrection of the dead.” What we are doing—as we wait on the coming of the Lord—is committing ourselves to a way of thinking about the world and ourselves and a way of behaving in the world and among ourselves. We must believe and behave; we must accept and act, trust and perform according to what we know to be the truth. Otherwise, when we pray the Creed, we lie. We present ourselves falsely before God and His Church. The Blessed Mother—doubtful, fearful, probably deeply surprised—heard the Word, trusted in it, and acted accordingly. She believed. And b/c she believed, Elizabeth named her, “Blessed among women.” If you and I will be blessed among men and women, we too must believe; we too must pray, “Let me do your will, Lord!”

Follow HancAquam and visit the Kindle Wish List and the Books & Things Wish List

On Christmas gifts and much gratitude. . .

2011-12-21T08:49:00.001-06:00

Another happy surprise this morning! Several Kindle Books from faithful HancAquam reader, Jenny K.

Thanks so much, J.K.!

A note on Christmas gifts: several readers have written to ask what I might need/want as a Christmas gift (an annual question). Honestly, truly, I need nothing. My brothers in community and I have what we need. Now, having said that, I want all sorts of stuff! And that stuff is available on the Kindle Wish List and the Books & Things Wish List.

I have NO expectations of receiving anything from either list. I am always deeply grateful and often surprised to discover a package in the mail. . .BUT I never expect anything. This really can't be emphasized enough. Dominicans are mendicants (beggars), so when I need something, I ask for it. And H.A. readers have always come through.

For example, we asked for a newly translated English Missal for the chapel in Rome. And one appeared in the mail. I asked for books for our novices once. And they appeared. I asked for a DVD set one time to give to the novices. And it appeared. Also, the many books I've needed and used for my studies. . .all sent to me and received with gratitude.

So, I try to think/behave with my readers the same way I am with God: I expect nothing from Him that He has not already given and receive everything He sends with thanksgiving and praise!

Merry Christmas to you all!

Follow HancAquam and visit the Kindle Wish List and the Books & Things Wish List

Surprise!

2011-12-19T20:55:00.001-06:00

Received another poetry book quite unexpectedly today! Always a good surprise. . .especially this close to Christmas.

My thanks to C.N., B.J.N. and their kids: S., N., and J. You know who you are. :-)

God bless, Fr. Philip

P.S. I also rec'd my cell phone today. . .so, Big Brother knows where I am now. Sigh.

Follow HancAquam and visit the Kindle Wish List and the Books & Things Wish List

Individual Conscience & the Magisterium (Repost)

2011-12-19T17:09:00.000-06:00

Reposted by special request. . .

The relationship between an individual's conscience and the authority of the magisterium is often easily confused and intentionally distorted.

Let's start with a definition: "Conscience is a judgment of reason whereby the human person recognizes the moral quality of a concrete act that he is going to perform, is in the process of performing, or has already completed. In all he says and does, man is obliged to follow faithfully what he knows to be just and right. It is by the judgment of his conscience that man perceives and recognizes the prescriptions of the divine law. . ."(CCC, no. 1778).

Conscience "perceives and recognizes" moral truth. Contemporary Catholics often seem to believe that conscience is the ability to choose freely among available moral options. So long as I preface my choices with something like, "In good conscience, I believe. . .," I am safeguarded from error. This is false. Conscience is not the ability to magically turn an evil choice into a good choice. Conscience is what helps us to perceive the Good and recognize that Good in making moral choices.

When I walk into a bookstore, I perceive and recognize items that we call books. I do not walk into a bookstore and choose to perceive the books as squirrels and recognize them as squirrels. If I do this, I am in error. Announcing my erroneous judgment about the books with, "In good conscience, I perceive and recognize this collection of paper and cloth bound pages of printed material as squirrels," does not magically transform the books into squirrels.

Catholic teaching holds that the morality of human acts is as real as the books in a bookshop. Calling the intrinsically morally evil act of abortion "good" is the same error you make when you call a book a squirrel.* Conscience empowers you to perceive and recognize abortion as evil. If you do not perceive and recognize abortion as evil, then you are either ignorant and need to be instructed, or your conscience has been twisted into folly by sin and you need both instruction and confession.

The Church's role in conscience formation is to present the truth of the faith. Ideally, a Catholic will immediately perceive and recognize the truth and act accordingly. But because we have been mislead for a generation or two about the nature of conscience, many Catholics fail to perceive and recognize moral truth when they see it. Basically, we have been told for decades now that conscience makes truth, or that conscience assigns truth value to moral acts according to subjective, private standards of judgment. This is how we end up with pro-abortion Catholics, pro-same sex "marriage" Catholics, pro-torture Catholics, pro-women's "ordination" Catholics, ad. nau. These Catholics have falsely perceived and falsely recognized moral truth and misused "conscience" as a defense of their errors.

To repeat: conscience perceives and recognizes truth; it does NOT create truth.

Tom Krietzberg at Disputations has a very good post on how Aquinas' thoughts on conscience have been misunderstood and misused to push the Free Choice notion of conscience.

*Of course, the eternal consequences of these two errors are not the same.

Follow HancAquam and visit the Kindle Wish List and the Books & Things Wish List

Aquinas & Augustine on the Incarnation

2011-12-19T17:05:00.000-06:00

Excellent read for your Christmas contemplation!

10 Reasons for the Incarnation

1. Faith: Certitude in the Living God

2. Hope: A Strengthening

3. Charity: The Great Kindling

4. The Exemplar: The Life of Right-Doing

5. Theosis: Full Participation in Divinity

6. United to Christ: The Bodiless Evil Spirits

7. Dignity of Humanity: To Shun Sin

8. Human Presumption: Unmerited Grace

9. Human Pride: The Humility of God

10. The Thralldom of Sin: Divine Rescue

Go to the link above for an explanation of each point.

Follow HancAquam and visit the Kindle Wish List and the Books & Things Wish List

Monday +2

2011-12-19T11:15:00.002-06:00

Despite sharply cutting back on my caloric intake this last week, I still managed to gain 2lbs.

How? No idea. But I'll keep on trying to lose!

Thank you for your prayers. . .

Follow HancAquam and visit the Kindle Wish List and the Books & Things Wish List

Coffee Cup Browsing

2011-12-19T10:44:00.000-06:00

When my Nunya Libertarian Streak meets my Grouchy Driver streak. . .how many times have I almost been run over by drivers chit-chatting on a cell phone?

A vast Jesuit conspiracy! Oh No.

"Christopher Hitchens—the incomparable critic, masterful rhetorician, fiery wit, and fearless bon vivant—died today at the age of 62." Like a lot of Catholics, I found Hitch to be engaging and masterfully infuriating.

N.Korea's Dear Leader is dead. Dear Leader, Jr. is now. . .um. . .Dear Leader. Why do socialist worker paradises always end up being quasi-medieval serfdoms with hereditary princes?

The "serfs" mourn Dear Leader. The sad part is that this is probably genuine grief.

Feminist, pro-abortion ex-nun follows her conscience out of the Catholic Church. It's nice to see a dissident do the right thing.

Chinese Commies will wish you a Merry Christmas. . .too bad our out-of-touch leftists won't.

Funny courtroom exchanges

Big brothers can be cruel. . .yes, we can.

OK. But only if you insist.

Follow HancAquam and visit the Kindle Wish List and the Books & Things Wish List

Doubt His method but never His will. . .

2011-12-19T07:06:00.000-06:00

4th Week of Advent (M)

Fr. Philip Neri Powell, OP

St. Dominic Church, New Orleans

The elderly priest, Zechariah, is inside the temple burning incense on the altar. While going about his priestly duties, he is visited by Gabriel, the archangel. If this heavenly visitation were not surprising enough, he is also told that he and his barren wife, Elizabeth, will soon have a child and this child will grow up to be the herald of the Messiah, a second Elijiah who will “prepare a people fit for the Lord." Hearing this news, Zechariah asks, in an impious outburst, “How shall I know this?” His doubt earns him an unusual punishment: he is struck speechless by the angel, unable to speak until his son is born. We might wonder how a muted Zechariah serves as a warning to those who would question the power of the Lord to accomplish apparently impossible deeds? How does a still tongued punish a doubter?

Let's compare and contrast Gabriel's visit with Zechariah and his visit with Mary. First, both Mary and Zechariah are shocked by the appearance of an angel of the Lord. Sensing their fear, Gabriel assures both Mary and Zechariah in the power of the Lord and tells them not to be afraid. When Gabriel tells Mary that she will conceive and bear a son, her reaction sounds very familiar. Like Zechariah, she too questions the news, “How can this be, since I have no relations with a man?” Despite her doubt, Mary is not silenced; she is not punished for questioning the angel's announcement. What's the difference btw Mary and Zechariah that merits this divergent treatment? There are the obvious differences. Zechariah is an elderly priest, a man. Mary is a young woman, a virgin. But it's not clear why these differences would matter in their treatment by the angel. We could point to Gabriel's greeting to Mary, “Hail! Full of grace!” and note Mary's unique nature as a sinless person—her immaculate conception in her mother's womb, a singular grace. Despite this gift, she still doubts Gabriel's news. Maybe the difference that matters is to be found in what it is that each doubts. Notice: Mary accepts the truth of Gabriel's news and only questions the method of conception. Zechariah doubts both the truth of Gabriel's news and questions how his wife will conceive. Mary receives in faith the news of an apparently impossible feat. Zechariah fails to trust fully the news from the one who stands before the Lord.

For his failure, Zechariah loses the ability to speak. Why is this a just punishment? Rather than use his gift of speech to praise the Lord for accomplishing the apparently impossible, the elderly priest uses a God-given gift to express a deeply seated doubt. Even as he worships at the temple's altar of incense, he willfully denies the possibility that God can do what He says He can do. Zechariah's tongue is stilled to prevent him from sullying the good news of his son's impending conception. When Elizabeth becomes pregnant with John the Baptist, Zechariah is unable to rejoice out loud. He is denied the privilege of praising God for this gift until John is born. However, his rejoicing at John's birth is all the sweeter b/c he has spent so long unable to speak. So sweet is his rejoicing that we sing the words of his song every morning at Lauds—the Canticle of Zechariah, “Blessed be the Lord, The God of Israel; He has come to His people and set them free.”

Doubt if you must how the Lord will accomplish His wonders in your life. But never doubt that He will. Rely wholly on His loving care and be vigilant in waiting for the miraclous appearances of His mercy. Let your mouth be filled with His praise and your tongue everyready to give thanks!

Follow HancAquam and visit the Kindle Wish List and the Books & Things Wish List

Being a mother of Christ

2011-12-17T13:49:00.001-06:00

NB. Feedback on this homily would be greatly appreciated. It didn't seem to go over very well with the congregation. Too convoluted? Too harsh?

4th Sunday of Advent 2011

Fr. Philip Neri Powell, OP

St Dominic Church, New Orleans

As we approach the birth of the Lord and celebrate—this afternoon/morning—his conception in the womb of the BVM by the Holy Spirit, it may seem strange to ask, “What do we fear?” As a Church, as the Body of Christ, living in the world, what is there for us to fear? With some bravado, we might say, “Nothing! The world had better fear us!” A little more realistically, we might say, “There's always the temptations of the world to fear, to avoid.” Perhaps stoically, we could say, “There is much to fear, but we will endure.” None of these answers is wrong but none of them is exactly right either. There is much to fear but that doesn't mean we have to be afraid. We will endure but all those fearful things still exist despite our enduring strength. And the Church does cause the world some anxiety, some small amount of fear, but our task is not intimidation. When Gabriel appears to Mary and greets her with, “Hail! Full of grace! The Lord is with you,” the virgin is “greatly troubled at what was said and ponders what sort of greeting this might be.” Sensing her troubled spirit, Gabriel assures her, "Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God.” If Mary is troubled by being named “Full of Grace” (and she is); and if the angel Gabriel calms her spirit by telling her that she has found favor with God (and he does); and if Mary is the model of the Church (and she is), then the Church is at once full of grace, favored by God, and troubled. The Lord's message to us then is: “Do not be afraid!”

We do not fear b/c there is nothing to be afraid of. There is more than enough in this world for us to fear. Temptations, failures, persecutions, betrayals, and trials. More than enough to keep us busy, to keep us occupied running, hiding, being silent. We could fear ridicule and rejection, embarrassment and being made into fools. We could fear defeat, disease, disability, all sorts of physical and mental disasters. We could find ourselves lacking faith, failing to trust in the Lord; scrambling with the faithless to acquire more and more, to “get mine” before its all gone. Whatever “it” is: money, stuff, prestige, power, attention. We could wake up tomorrow morning, forgetting everything we have ever believed, and find ourselves swept along with the world toward a darkness so black we fear that no light will ever shine for us again. There is much to fear. But there is no reason to be afraid. All who believe on the Word of God, the Son made flesh, they have found favor with the Most High!

Like the virgin, greeted by Gabriel, when we are ready to receive the Word made flesh, we too are “full of grace”; we too stand in the good graces of God; we too will hear and believe, “The Lord is with you.” And we will say yes to being bearers of the Good News to the world and, like Mary, we will carry the Messiah in our bodies and deliver him to all those most in need of his healing mercies. If this sounds too poetical, too vague, let me be a little more prosaic: when you approach the altar to receive communion, you are receiving the Body and Blood of Christ into your body and blood. Much like Mary received the Holy Spirit and conceived the Christ, we too say, “Let it be done to be according to your word” and receive Christ Jesus—body, blood, soul, divinity. While the Holy Spirit placed the Christ-child in Mary's womb, the Church places the Christ Resurrected and Ascended into our mouths as food and drink for our perfection. Mary departed her encounter with Gabriel pregnant yet still a virgin, a walking tabernacle carrying her Lord. We too depart this Church as walking, breathing tabernacles, carrying the Lord out into the world. We walk out into the world as the Body of Christ carrying the Body and Blood of Christ. This is why the Lord's message to us is: do not be afraid! He is with us. Yes, there is much to fear. But there is no reason to be afraid.

In a homily a few weeks ago, our Holy Father noted that the Church should fear the sins of her members more than she fears persecution at the hands of her enemies. Being followers of Christ, we we have been promised persecution and there is very little we can do to prevent the Enemy from tempting us, from putting us on trial. However, we are more than capable of refraining from disobedience. We are given—daily given—every grace we need to listen to and comply with the Word God has sent among us. The only question is whether or not we will choose to cooperate with those graces and grow in holiness. Sin is the mark of our failure to receive God's gifts and use them to announce His glory, to give Him thanks and praise, and to work tirelessly for the spreading of His Good News. We should fear our sins b/c they distort who it is that God has made us to be; they twist our love for Him and for one another; they misuse His beauty and goodness and lead us off the narrow way of Christ. It's not God's punishment that we should fear, but rather the natural and supernatural consequences of openly declaring ourselves enemies of the One Who gave us life. By choosing to sin, we set ourselves against the Love Who created us and assign ourselves to living lives in a wilderness empty of the very graces that we most need. God never stops loving us; it is His nature to love. However, we are free to cease loving Him, free to disobey Him, and the consequences of that choice are fearful indeed.

As you leave here this afternoon/morning, filled with the Body and Blood of Christ, set your heart and mind to wondering what it is you can do to bring our Lord to your world—your school, your office, your home, all your family and friends. How can you be the “mother” of Christ among those you know best? What can you do or say or not do or not say that will give him glory and draw in souls hungry for his eternal feast? We are in the last week of Advent, ready to welcome the Christ-child among us as our Savior on Christmas Day. Even though we celebrate his incarnation on this special day, he is given flesh and bone everyday of the year, every time we approach this altar and receive the sacrament, we walk away as a Christ. We walk out into a fearful world, filled with grace, overflowing with grace. . .do what Christ himself did and give your life away for the love of another.

Follow HancAquam and visit the Kindle Wish List and the Books & Things Wish List

Odor of sanctity?

2011-12-17T10:52:00.000-06:00

A quick Thank You to D.G. for the cologne from the Wish List and to Anon. for the book of poems.

Now, I can smell refined AND read some refined poetry!

Thanks and God bless, Fr. Philip

Follow HancAquam and visit the Kindle Wish List and the Books & Things Wish List

A prayer for marriage

2011-12-17T05:36:00.001-06:00

Fr. Z. reports that a SSM pressure group has lost its frivolous case against the bishops of MN. What horrible thing did the bishops do? Support the universally recognized notion that marriage consists of an unbreakable bond between one man and one woman!

Archbishop John Nienstedt has issued a prayer for marriage that every faithful Catholic should offer:

Heavenly Father,

Through the powerful intercession of the Holy Family, grant to this local Church the many graces we need to foster, strengthen, and support faith-filled, holy marriages and holy families.

May the vocation of married life, a true calling to share in your own divine and creative life, be recognized by all believers as a source of blessing and joy, and a revelation of your own divine goodness.

Grant to us all the gift of courage to proclaim and defend your plan for marriage, which is the union of one man and one woman in a lifelong, exclusive relationship of loving trust, compassion, and generosity, open to the conception of children.

We make our prayer through Jesus Christ, who is Lord forever and ever. Amen.

The prayer is downloadable in PDF format for easy printing and copying here.

Follow HancAquam and visit the Kindle Wish List and the Books & Things Wish List

Notes on being fat

2011-12-15T14:05:00.001-06:00

Just a quick Thank You to all those faithful souls here on HancAquam and in the parish who have offered me advice and prayer for losing weight.

Over the years I have learned several things about my diet:

1). I love food. But I do not confuse food with love, respect, honor, etc. Food is food. And I love it.

2). I have total control over my eating. There have been times--when it really mattered to me--that I dropped 20, 30 lbs. When I was asked to serve as chaplain for the UD students on their Greece trip, I dropped close to 35 lbs b/c I knew there would be LOTS of walking/climbing involved.

3). When I have breakfast, I want to eat all day. Skip breakfast and I'm good 'til dinnertime.

4). Keep the meat, veggies, bread, fruit. . .give me ice cream! I've been here a week now with full access to a car and cash and not a spoonful of ice cream has crossed my lips.

5). While some use tobacco, alcohol, etc. for relaxation, I use food. I get hyper (not hungry) and food does the trick.

6). Caloric restriction diets don't work for me simply b/c I am constitutionally incapable of being disciplined enough to keep track. Any diet that requires anything remotely related to math is going to fail.

7). Diet pills usually contain substances that rev up one's metabolism. That makes me hyper. See #5.

8). The only diet that has ever worked for me is Atkins. I lost about 70 lbs in eight months. However, when finals time rolled around, I cracked and OD'ed on peanut butter cookies and ice cream.

9). Exercise poses a problem. I'm too fat to be comfortable exercising but losing weight means exercising. So, my solution is hold off exercising 'til I've lost a little weight. Getting to that point w/o cracking is the challenge.

10). Fast food (Burger King, Wendy's) is a fav of mine. In Rome, this poses no problem and I never missed them. Here, I have to watch out. My solution is to go to Subway. So far, so good.

Keep praying, people!! God bless, Fr. Philip

P.S. I've ordered a book that comes highly recommended: Why We Get Fat and What to do about It.

Follow HancAquam and visit the Kindle Wish List and the Books & Things Wish List

A new bishop. . .

2011-12-14T14:52:00.001-06:00

Fr. Charles Morerod, OP, former rector of the Angelicum in Rome, becomes His Excellency, Charles Morerod, OP, Bishop of Lausanne, Geneva, and Fribourg in Switzerland.

Please pray for His Excellency's people. . .he has a really corny sense of humor.

Congrats, mon frere!

Pic credit: Fr. Bernard Caruana, OP

Follow HancAquam and visit the Kindle Wish List and the Books & Things Wish List

But have you received?

2011-12-14T10:31:00.003-06:00

St John of the Cross

Fr. Philip Neri Powell, OP

St Dominic Church, New Orleans

If you've ever talked to an evasive teenager or an American politician, you know what it feels like to ask a question and get a non-answer. You might get an excuse or an accusation or a counter-question. Regardless of the form, the response you get isn't what you were looking for. Or even close. Listening to Jesus answer questions from the Pharisees and scribes could lead us to think that he's very much like a teenager with something to hide or a politician looking to say as little as possible. If you don't have ears to hear, it sounds as though he rarely—if ever—gives a straight up answer. However, if your ears are tuned to the Word—the prophets and their divine message—you can easily hear exactly what he's saying. Today's gospel is the perfect example of this! John sends some of his followers to question Jesus, “Are you the one who is to come, or should we look for another?" Jesus' answer is crystal clear. . .if you've listened to the the Lord proclaim to the prophet Isiah, “Turn to me and be safe, all you ends of the earth, for I am God; there is no other! To me every knee shall bend; by me every tongue shall swear, Saying, 'Only in the LORD are just deeds and power. Before him in shame shall come all who vent their anger against him.'” Jesus answers John's question by recounting his own powerful deeds and by blessing all those who take no offense at him.

Jesus' response to John's disciples is extraordinary. Without saying so outright, Jesus lays claim to his Sonship with the Father and announces to anyone with ears to hear that his ministry of healing and reconciliation is not only divinely approved but of divine origin. It can be nothing less. Jesus himself is Lord. Everything he does, everything he says is the word and deed of God. Luke reports, “At that time Jesus cured many of their diseases, sufferings, and evil spirits; he also granted sight to many who were blind.” Those healed by his hand are healed by God. Those freed from demons by his hand are freed by God. The poor who hear the good news of freedom from his mouth are freed by the Word of God himself. Jesus' answer could not be clearer: it is Lord God who has done these things! So, take no offense that sinners are turned to obedience; that the lame walk, the blind see, the mute speak; that the promised Messiah is among you. Blessed are those whose eyes see and whose ears hear.

Indeed, we are blessed, if we will to be blessed. Our Father's outrageous generosity, His overwhelming love is indiscriminately given, freely offered to any and all who will receive it. Those whom Jesus healed were healed b/c they took in the power he sent to them. They were made right b/c they welcomed in his righteousness and ran the streets shouting their thanksgiving and praise. No longer strapped to their afflictions, they were let loose to rejoice, to spread the Good News of divine mercy, showing themselves as living witnesses to what happens to those who accept the gift of the Holy Spirit's love. We are blessed if we take no offense at the Father's generosity and give Him thanks when His voice speaks a liberating word to our chains.

While we wait on the coming of the Lord, ask His Holy Spirit to reveal to you all that blinds you, all that deafens you; ask the Spirit to show you whatever or whoever it is that mutes your voice in praise and thanksgiving. If you cannot see or hear, if you cannot speak as a witness to grace, ask the Spirit: why? Why am I blind, deaf to the Word and not healed; why am I hungry and not fed? His answer may be: you have not received all that the Lord has given you.

Follow HancAquam and visit the Kindle Wish List and the Books & Things Wish List

Questions about the homily podcasts

2011-12-13T06:50:00.000-06:00

I uploaded an audio recording of Sunday's and yesterday's homily. The hosting site is reporting that these two homilies have been downloaded twice.

This stat leads me to ask: 1) is there a problem with the download that I need to know about? and 2) is there any interest in these podcasts?

Please let me know. Uploading is hardly a chore and if there's a problem I'd like to fix it.

Follow HancAquam and visit the Kindle Wish List and the Books & Things Wish List

Coffee Cup Browsing

2011-12-13T05:08:00.000-06:00

Cardinal John P. Foley has died at 76. R.I.P. I had the privilege of meeting him once in Rome at a North American College dinner. Great man!

Nobody's going to the movies anymore. . .and Hollywood is blaming everything under the sun except its own obsession with anti-American propaganda and scenes that would make rapists in Sodom and Gomorrah blush.

Speaking of Hollywood. . .have you heard about the pervasive culture of pedophilia out there? No, I didn't think so. The Old Media has nothing to gain from spreading that news. It's not like a priest is abusing a kid or anything!

Ahhhh. . .the Glories of a People's Socialist Republic! Where income equality and opportunity are guaranteed.

Speaking of the Glories of a People's Socialist Republic. . .fear of Big Gov't is at an all time time. There's hope for America yet, folks!

But shouldn't we fear Big Business more than Big Gov't? No. Big Business doesn't have a police force, a military, prisons, and it cannot make laws.

Should the Italian church pay taxes on its commercial property? Seems fair to me.

Can/should extraordinary ministers of holy communion give blessings? No. The proper thing to do is say to the person, "May God bless you."

Riots: First World Problem version.

I don't know why. . .just laugh and move on.

Titanic: the Movie. . .economy version.

I wouldn't sleep if I were you. . .

Meanwhile at the Burger King. . .

Follow HancAquam and visit the Kindle Wish List and the Books & Things Wish List

Mary, Juan Diego, and You (now with audio!)

2011-12-12T13:46:00.001-06:00

Our Lady of Guadalupe

Fr. Philip Neri Powell, OP

St Dominic Church, New Orleans

Audio

Just last week the Holy Father's household preacher, Fr. Raniero Cantalamessa named the Blessed Mother the model of the Church's new evangelization. This is completely unsurprising given that we have considered her the model of the Church almost from Day One. That she should also be imitated as the principle example of how Catholics are to reclaim western culture for the Lord is, well, the most natural thing imaginable. Mary's submission to a lifelong vocation of humble service as the mother of the Christ—“Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord”—shows us the way to be our perfection in her son. Her fiat—“May it be done to me according to your word”—shows us the way to receiving the Father's Word through the Holy Spirit. If we could achieve even for a moment the clarity and determination this young woman showed when confronted by Gabriel, we could bring this world to its knees before God. And more importantly, we ourselves would be brought to our knees in repentance and radical conversion. During her life on earth, our Blessed Mother had one substantial advantage working in her favor: her immaculate conception. We do not enjoy this singular, unrepeatable privilege; however, we can and do enjoy the immeasurable benefits of her intercessions for us before the throne of God. With her help, following her example becomes more than just a possibility.

We could ask whether or not Juan Diego had an idea that his encounter with the Blessed Mother would transform a culture. Did he suspect that her appearance and his report of her appearance would spark an international devotion and set the Church on a path toward evangelizing Central and South America? As a poor Aztec farmer only recently converted to the faith, we can guess that none of what followed from his meeting with the BVM ever crossed his mind. In fact, his story sounds quite a bit like the one we heard this evening. A perfectly ordinary soul is made extraordinary by an encounter with what appears to be a divine being. Mary meets Gabriel and receives the seed of God's Word in her womb. Juan Diego meets Mary and receives an icon that revolutionized a culture. Both Mary and Juan listened to the voice of God's Spirit and acted according to their respective gifts; each took away from their encounters all that they could carry, all that they could possibly share. And no matter how many of their abundant gifts they surrendered to the work of the Gospel, they remained full of grace. Mary and Juan both lived and died as witnesses to the freely given and boundless abundance of the Father's love for His people.

If you and I will reclaim creation for the work of God, we too must live and die as witnesses of a mercy so deep, a love so wide that not even the most vicious enemy of God can withstand the onslaught of His call to repentance. This means—at the very least—that we live each day in the eager anticipation of being called upon to receive God's Word and act accordingly; to be visited by divine grace and share that grace without meagerness or reluctance. To become ourselves angels, messengers sent to announce the goodness and beauty of the Lord. And to invite, to provoke, to tempt everyone we meet with the open-handed offer that Christ's sacrifice on the cross made real: to live and die as a well-loved child of the living God.

Let's ask ourselves an advent question: is the life I am living right now look and feel like the sort of life that draws others to Christ? If not, it is never too late to say, “May it be done to me according to your word”

Follow HancAquam and visit the Kindle Wish List and the Books & Things Wish List

Grazie

2011-12-12T09:41:00.002-06:00

My thanks to Robin O. for the Kindle Book!

Follow HancAquam and visit the Kindle Wish List and the Books & Things Wish List