30 April 2014

Reality: preaching outside the modern fantasy

Excellent article from Dr. Jeff Mirus, The Challenge of Preaching:

An excerpt:

We moderns are adept at concealing our own hopelessness even from ourselves, but this message can awaken us to our misery and give birth to love. Nonetheless, there is a danger. This encouragement can become empty if it goes too far without introducing its corresponding challenge. Preachers must not forget that we need to learn how to respond to Christ’s love. Preachers must identify and explain, in a very practical way, the false attachments and misconceptions which drag us down and hold us back. Here I beg preachers to avoid those alleged clarion calls from the pulpit which “challenge” the faithful to stand up for whatever moral value the whole world is accidentally already standing up for.

What is needed is a deliberate focus on the characteristic evils of our age, the evils that most people take for granted to be goods. This means, among other things, [1] that preachers must be willing and able to explain God’s plan for the body and for our sexuality, which He built into nature, in all its life-giving and love-engendering splendor, so that we can begin to understand what is wrong with pornography, solitary sex, sex outside of marriage, contraception, serial monogamy, and same-sex liaisons. It means preachers [2] must be willing and able to explain the sanctity of human life and our call to generosity and love. It means they must help us to recognize our own attachments to material things, the dangers of our high standard of living, and the many substitutions we make for God and His love. [3] And it means talking about real personal sin, not politics.
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28 April 2014

My week & A difficult awakening

Blogging will be a bit light this week.

EVERYTHING is due by Friday! (Is there a Panic Emoticon?)

-- Annual Evals for my formation advisees (16 of them)
-- Four syllabi for fall classes
-- Rec letter for an entering novice
-- 20 or so questions for the NDS entrance exam
-- Grade final homilies/teaching plans 
-- Prepare retreat for OP Laity on Saturday
-- Etc., etc.
 
No worries though. . .I have years of practice as a Licensed Procrastinator. And a couple of really spiffy trophies to prove it.

After lunch yesterday here at the priory, I walked down the cloister hallway toward my room. Before entering my room, I said to no one in particular, "Geez, it smells like an old man up here." Then I opened my door and realized: that Old Man Smell was coming from my room!

Thus, I am renewing my demand that Renuzit produce and sell an air freshener called, "Sunday Afternoon at the Bookstore." Makes your home smell like fresh coffee, new books, and leather.
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