Against the Leaven of the Pharisees

6th Week OT (T): Readings

Fr. Philip Neri Powell, OP

SS. Domenico e Sisto, Roma

James, writing to “the twelve tribes in dispersion,” neatly summarizes how we arrive at spiritual destruction: “. . .each person is tempted when lured and enticed by his desire. Then desire conceives and brings forth sin, and when sin reaches maturity it gives birth to death.” Desire tempts us to sin and sin leads to death. James' contemporary readers would have rightly assumed that the tempting desire that leads to sin is inordinate, that is, disordered or unnatural, a willful distortion of what is good and right. We know that not all desires immediately lead to disobedience; in fact, some desires lead us straight to God, to obedience and righteousness. Intriguingly, James writes that “desire conceives and brings forth sin. . .” If we pursue the image here—a desire conceiving like a woman conceives a child—we may ask: who's the husband to our desire and the father of our sin? To put it in more pedestrian terms: what can be added to a perfectly natural desire that changes it into a source for sin? Jesus warns the disciples, “Watch out, guard against the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod.” 

Since we are reading Mark's gospel this morning, it shouldn't surprise us that the disciples are dumbfounded by this rather enigmatic warning. It seems like Jesus spends most of his time in Mark's gospel thumping the thick skulls of the poor disciples! This time, when they misunderstand his warning, he scolds them, “Do you not yet understand or comprehend? Are your hearts hardened?” What have our slow-learning brothers missed? What truth has dashed itself against their rock-hard hearts? First, they have forgotten that Jesus identifies the “leaven of the Pharisees” as the sin of hypocrisy—the public pretense of holiness that hides spiritual corruption (Luke 12.1). Second, they have failed to understand completely the significance of the miracle of the fishes and the loaves. Like a stern school master, Jesus rehearses the correct answers with them. Alright boys, how many loaves were leftover when the crowds had finished eating the bread I provided for them? Seven and twelve, they respond. Now, do you understand, he asks?

The leaven of the Pharisees is hypocrisy—a show, a piece of playacting to please an audience. In fact, the first hypocrites were Greek actors who used elaborate masks and tricks with the voice to portray different characters in a play. They followed a script; choreographed their movements; and wildly exaggerated their emotions all to stimulate their fans. For the Pharisees, the husband to desire and the father of sin is pretending to be holy, pretending to be righteous, and all for show. Their desire to actually be holy is leavened, raised up and given life, as a parody of real holiness: white-washed tombs, clean on the outside, rotting on the inside. Jesus compares their showy pretense at righteousness with his own miraculous leavening for the benefit of nine thousand people on two occasions: real bread to feed the hungry with baskets-full leftover. The Pharisees put on a nice act; Jesus delivers the real deal. 

If we are to marry the desire for righteousness and conceive the Word, we too must be wary of the leaven of the Pharisees, remembering who it is that gives us life. James writes, “[God] willed to give us birth by the word of truth that we may be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures.” We ourselves are made by the Word of Truth, reborn in this Truth, and, if we choose to leaven our desires with true holiness, we will conceive and give birth to His Word made flesh, Christ Jesus.

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Death is a vanity

6th Sunday OT: Readings

Fr. Philip Neri Powell, OP

SS. Domenico e Sisto, Roma

Catholics are rarely accused of practicing an efficient or simplified faith. Two thousand years of accumulated philosophical and theological thinking woven together in the public celebration of the sacraments plus centuries of involvement in secular politics and international missionary efforts have bequeathed to the 21st century Church a vast global corporation with roots deeply embedded in human history. Thus, the practice of the Catholic faith is anything but culturally rigid and historically frozen. Sure, doctrinally, we share a single faith. But how that single faith gets lived on a daily basis around the world is hardly a matter of lock-step spiritual regimentation. Such orderliness and consistency would require the Church to “bottom-line” the faith, to boil it down, reduce it to a catch-phrase or a mission statement. And even then there would still be incredible variety in actual practice. But let's say we were going to take on the challenge of encapsulating the complexity of the faith into a single teaching, just one proposition that Really Mattered above all others. What would we come up with? I'm not sure we could do better than Paul does in his letter to the Corinthians: “If the dead are not raised, neither has Christ been raised, and if Christ has not been raised, your faith is vain; you are still in your sins. Then those who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished.” What would make our faith a vanity, a frivolity? That Christ never rose from the dead. Without the resurrection, we are still held captive by sin, perishing even as we breath.

Let's focus for a moment on the question of what it is that makes an act, or a belief, or a habit vain. First, we have to think beyond the typical use of the word “vain.” Cocky, conceited, or narcissistic. But why do we use “vain” to describe someone who is full of themselves? This brings us to the second, less common use of the word. Frivolous, hollow, futile. Someone who builds a life on looks, smarts, wealth and then lauds these qualities as valuable in themselves can be described a vain because they have inflated what is in realty a temporary condition into an illusion of something permanent. Since looks fade, smarts can be deceived, and wealth lost, it is vanity—futility, foolishness, emptiness—to count oneself worthy based on nothing more than that which can be destroyed. “How long will you be dull of heart? Why do you love vanity, and seek after lying?” (Ps 4.3). Loving trivially while you live is a curse. Loving the trivial at death is damnation.

Paul writes that our faith would be a vanity if Christ had not been raised from the dead. We would be foolish to put our trust in God if the promised resurrection had not occurred. We would be living lives emptied of eternal purpose, living our short lives as little more than exceptionally smart animals destined to ashes and then. . .nothing. If this were true, then our suffering while we live is the greatest vanity of all. The French philosopher, Albert Camus, once said that the only significant philosophical question is: why not commit suicide? Why suffer if there is nothing more for us than suffering? Perhaps our only chance to be courageous is to end it all now. Fear of pain or the unknown may cause us to hesitate, but overcoming this hesitation would be an act of freedom, pure liberated choice. Gun to the head, I choose to suffer no longer. POW! And then I am free. But can a bullet to the head truly free me from the futility of suffering? No. Assuming the impossibility of an afterlife, suicide can foreclose the possibility of any future suffering. But it does nothing to redeem the suffering I have experienced in the past nor the suffering I have caused to others. Death is not a new life. It's just the end of this one. Without the resurrection, death itself proves to be a vanity.

So, what does the resurrection add to the mix that changes the futility of death into the blessing of eternal life? The hope, the promise of life beyond life, another way of living that draws us—especially in our suffering—into a superlative renewal. Paul writes that if the resurrection had not occurred, then those who have died have truly perished and “if for this life only we have hoped in Christ, we are the most pitiable people of all.” We are indeed worthy of pity if we have hoped in Christ only to die into a permanent death. Think for a moment. How would we suffer if we knew that suffering was all we had to live for? We would mourn, hunger, weep; endure persecution, insult, torture; live in poverty and desperation; practice forgiveness and mercy all the while knowing that we would never been shown either. Where is the beauty of suffering if suffering is all we can hope for? Why mourn the dead if death is a release from pain? Why weep in hunger if hunger will bring us to an end? Why endure insult and persecution if those who would torture us are right about the vanity of our hope? Without the resurrection, there is no good reason for us to do anything but seek after our own pleasure while we can, regardless of the costs and knowing even as we celebrate that the party will end. 

Christ's resurrection, and our hope in following after him, turns the curse of inevitable suffering into the blessing of eternal life. The ugliness and disease of sin is redeemed into the beauty of godly perfection. Rather than curse those who mourn, weep, endure insult, hunger and thirst, we bless them, knowing that everything persevered here and now is also redeemed here and now, made new, wholly and utterly transformed into acts of praise and thanksgiving here and now. After death, our suffering is made perfect in the sufferings of Christ, but here and now, while we endure, we are blessed with the hope of that perfection. If we will, we can call the state of suffering with hope, Beatitude—the beautiful life lived in Christ. Jeremiah prophesies, “Blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord, whose hope is the Lord. He is like a tree planted beside the waters that stretches out its roots to the stream. . .” And as we stretch our thirsty roots, seeking out the waters of eternal life, the hope we share in Christ sings just one refrain over and over again: there is nothing we should fear. Nothing. The beauty of hope does more than oppose fear, it conquers fear. And that victory was won long ago. The rock of the tomb was pushed aside and the grave was found empty. Our perishing—though painful—is redeemed. And our beautiful lives in Christ, here and now, are blessed beyond measure.

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Coffee Bowl Browsing

In a concerted effort to find something good to write about B.O. once and a while, I note this courageous rebuttal of Chinese intimidation.  Bravo, Mr. President!

If it ever gets to the point where the following can be said about me, I hope I have the courage to just man-up and leave the Church:  "He doesn’t believe in the priesthood anymore, nor the virgin birth. . .In fact, he doubts that Jesus ever existed and although he is the spiritual leader of a 500-strong Christian community, he says he no longer prays because there’s “'no one to pray to.'”  There has to be some sort of serious psychological imbalance going on here. 

Planned Parenthood needs a new researcher for its anti-Catholic propaganda.  They are claiming that the RCC denies the pleasures of sex.  Here's the Catechism quoting Pope Pius XII (not exactly a big liberal) from 1951:  "Sexuality is a source of joy and pleasure:  'The Creator himself . . . established that in the [generative] function, spouses should experience pleasure and enjoyment of body and spirit. Therefore, the spouses do nothing evil in seeking this pleasure and enjoyment. They accept what the Creator has intended for them. At the same time, spouses should know how to keep themselves within the limits of just moderation.'" (n. 2362).  Took me about ten seconds to find that quote on the internet.

Bees find their Inner Grad Student:  they prefer nectar laced with caffeine and nicotine!

Hmmmmm. . .that Harvard-trained neurobiologist who killed three of her colleagues recently has a history of gun violence.  Oh, and she's a socialist.  Wonder if that tid-bit will make it into the MSM narrative?  Doubt it.

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Sexual Abuse in the Public Schools

How many articles in the NYT have you read about this study:  "According to a study she [Prof. Carol Shakeshaft of Hofstra] did of abuse complaints against Catholic priests over a five decade period she concluded that '…the physical sexual abuse of students in schools is likely more than 100 times the abuse by priests.'”  Not many?  Figures.

Public school teachers molesting their students doesn't serve the leftist-collectivist narrative, so we never hear about it.  

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Angelicum snow

 A snowy courtyard at the Angelicum yesterday. . .

 Pic credit:  fra. Charles Morerod, OP

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Neve a Roma (pics)

The snow has stopped falling. . .but we have pics!

 Lots more pics here.  H/T:  fra. Albert Glade, OP

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Roman snow

It's snowing in Rome!!!

The last snowfall in Rome was 24 years ago in 1987. . .

Update:  three hours later and it is still snowing hard!  From a second storey window we can normally clearly see the monument to Vittorio Emmanuele. . .it's only about two blocks from the priory.  Right now, it is almost completely obscured by the falling snow. 

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Coffee Bowl Browsing

Another "Kennedy seat" up for grabs in November.  At the rate Dems are jumping the Congressional ship, the GOP may return to the majority by way of attrition alone.

". . .the Tea Party engine is driven first and foremost by a desire to return government to its proper constitutional limits and run it with a lot less money."  If this is true, then count me among the Tea Partiers!

Deal Hudson asks, "Is it time for a Catholic Tea Party?"  I'd say, "Most definitely!"

From a privacy rights/anti-Nanny State perspective, this seems like a good idea.  I wish they had left all that "666"/Mark of the Beast stuff out of the discussion.

And yet even MORE exaggerations and outright lies from the IPCC Global Warming boondoggle. 

Dissident feminists pretend to be ordained into the Catholic priesthood.  As usual, media clueless in reporting on the faux event.

Heh.  And Catholics think our Spirit of Vatican Two vestments are ugly!  Note the absence of any sort of Christian symbolism on these rags.

On the difference between the firm, outspoken leadership of BXVI and the limp, waffling reactions of Rowan Williams.

Now for some good news about the Catholic Church in the U.S.  (corrected)

Is the issue of state secession a settled political matter?  I read the Volokh Conspiracy blog b/c I am a Legal Fanboy.  And I am always amazed at how often this blog's well-argued posts put my assumptions to shame. 

Video of the fireworks display at the Vatican last night.  I heard the explosions and wondered what was going on.  Now I know.

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Updates. . .

1).  Please continue to pray for Mama Becky.  She is now on a portable O2 tank. . .we're thinking of changing her nickname to "Scuba Mama"!  :-)

2).  I updated the Book Depository Wish List yesterday to include two books from the reading list of the curriculum from Wyoming Catholic College.  Very impressive list!  (H/T:  Fr. Z.)

3).  Summer plans are shaping up.  Looks like I will spend most of the summer in Houston, TX at Holy Rosary Church (my priory of assignment).  I'm hoping to spend Sept. at Blackfriars Hall, Oxford.  Excellent phil/theo library. . .AND they will let me cook for them!

4).  My province, St. Martin de Porres (a.k.a. "the Southern Province") is in the midst of its annual "1216 Campaign."  This is our fundraising drive.  The largest portion of our annual operating budget goes for initial formation.  I.F. includes the novitiate and the costs of 5-7 years of graduate theology studies for each student brother.   Please consider donating!

5).  Also, my province will hold an elective chapter in June.  We will be electing new provincial officers, including a new Provincial (the OP version of a bishop for the province).  Please lift the province up in prayer and ask the Holy Spirit to guide the electors.  

6).  AND the whole Order will be electing a new Master of the Order in Sept.  The Master serves a single nine year term.  More prayer, please!  :-) 

7).  There will be a homily this coming Sunday. . .if I have to steal something straight out of St. Augustine's work, there will be a homily.

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Being Cool with the Cool Kids

The Anglican Church of Canada provides progressive Catholics in the U.S. with an important object lesson:

The report, prepared for the Anglican Diocese of British Columbia, calls Canada a post-Christian society in which Anglicanism is declining faster than any other denomination. It says the church has been “moved to the far margins of public life.”

So, in a misguided effort to "get in steps with the times," the leadership of the ACA adopted progressively more secular policies and practices.  Rather than confront the culture with the gospel, they abandoned the gospel to accommodate the culture.  And once the ACA was thoroughly, fundamentally changed into nothing much more than a politicized-therapeutic group with colorful vestments, the culture said "bye-bye."

The lesson?  When the Church tries to Be Cool in the public arena by adopting the behaviors and attitudes of the Cool Kids, what counts as cool changes.  Rather than destroying who we are as Catholics in order to appease the fickle manufacturers of culture, we should be strengthening our counter-cultural witness as men and women steeped in a 2,000 year old philosophical and theological tradition.  

There's nothing more pathetic than a senior citizen trying to be hip among the professional hipsters.

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Italy freaks out over paranormal activity

There's a minor controversy roiling in Italy over the movie, Paranormal Activity.  

Apparently, some Italian movie-goers are freaking out during and after the movie.  Showing signs of classic panic attacks, children and teens are complaining of shortness of breath, rapid heart rate, etc.  

I'm not sure what to make of this.  My first reaction was:  the movie studio must be delighted at the free P.R.  Nothing promotes a book or film better than a call to ban it for producing unpleasant effects.

Then I started wondering if the attacks were more than just your typical teenager overreaction.  It would be interesting (though difficult) to find out if these afflicted teens have any connections to occult practices or worldviews.  Most of the attacks are being reported in Naples.  I've been told more than once that Naples is a center of occultism in Italy.  Rome has its share too. 

Hmmmmm. . .???

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Coffee Bowl Browsing

Why Are Liberals So Condescending?  Reaching back into my left-liberal days in grad school, I recall many cocktail party conversations with my fellow-travelers.  The target of our ire was the entrenched "white male dominated culture of western values" in the academic study of literature.  Of course, this bled over into our politics as well.  Unfortunately, we chose to adopt various versions of deconstructionism and Marxist ideology to uproot these scalawags.  Though we often differed on the details of how to carry out our Utopian revolution, we never argued over one essential point:  conservatives were beyond stupid; they were evil.

Fisking the pro-abort hysterical overreaction to the pro-life Tebow Superbowl ad.  Can you say "clueless"? 

As an academic, a philosopher-in-training, I thrive on discussion.  It's just what we do.  When it comes to ecumenical dialogue, I'm all for it.  Talking to other religions and other Christian bodies is not only a good idea, it's a moral duty.  However, Cardinal Kasper's latest idea is a really, really bad one:  the Ecumenical Catechism.  I have visions of the CCC being replaced on seminary bookshelves all over the world.  Talk about the rise of an alternative magisterium!

Should Catholic Charities be in the business of providing a needle exchange for heroin addicts? 

The Boy Scout Handbook:  the most conservative book published in America?  With sources in virtue ethics and Stoicism, just maybe.  Though I think "conservative" is the wrong label here.

The mind of Ratzinger and the heart of Roncalli:  Italian Archbishop Gianfranco Ravasi, President of the Pontifical Council for Culture.  John Allen profiles one of the Vatican's rising stars. (H/T:  New Advent).

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Are we driving men away?

On any given Sunday here in Rome, the congregations attending Mass will be mostly women, and most of them will be elderly women.  God bless them!  What you will almost never see is younger men.  Hispanic friars tell me that the same goes for Masses in Latin and South America as well.  Church-going is women's work.

Why is that?  Not so long ago it was suggested by critics of a modernist Church that the reforms of Vatican Two and the subsequent hijacking of those reforms by feminists had "feminized" the Church (esp. the liturgy) to the point where men felt excluded.  Men voted with their feet.  

As a student brother in St Louis I once attended a Newman Center Mass at a university in Illinois.  Among the 30 or so students in attendance there were exactly three men--me, the priest, and the boyfriend of a young woman who read the readings.  Father, unfortunately, was the stereotypical Newman Center chaplain--deeply committed to a 1973 reading of Vatican Two, tied-dyed vestments, syrupy homily, huggy-kissy liturgy, big chunky loaf of granola bread for consecration, etc.  

The Center's personnel were women.  All of the student officers of the Catholic Student Organization were women.  All of the communion ministers were women.  All the readers and the entire choir were women.  I saw several offices with name plates on the doors.  All women. 

The building itself was "female" as well!  Round building, the chairs arranged in a circle, the altar dressings were "hand-made" in that oh-so-1973 style.  Since the chapel was basically a multi-purpose religious celebration space, images of other religions were hung about.  The Episcopalians had recently painted the walls and ceiling pink and hung up "art" by their grade school children.  The whole place exuded the feeling of a kindergarten classroom. 

During the Mass, I noticed that the boyfriend was standing stoically by his girlfriend with his arms crossed.  He never opened his mouth.  He was especially resolute in his silence when we sung a hand-clapping rendition of the Gloria!  When Mass was over, I tried to introduce myself, but he hit the door faster than I could get to him.  

I asked the priest afterward about the conspicuous absence of men at the Mass.  He just shrugged his shoulders and seemed not the least bit worried that his summer camp Mass might be alienating his male charges. 

Fr. Z. has some thoughts on getting men back into the parish. 

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A Strange Sight: Nuns on Oprah!

The Holy Father recently called on priests to use the internet to preach and teach the Gospel.  The Dominican Order regularly calls on its friars, nuns, sisters, and laity to enter the fray in cyberspace and mark out a place for the Holy Preaching.  

In answer to these calls, the Dominican Sisters of Mary, Mother of the Eucharist will process onto the set of the Oprah Winfrey Show.

“When asked why they chose to accept the invitation and appear on the show, “Oprah is powerful -- we entrust this endeavor to Mother Mary for the greater glory of her Son! It's truly been a lot of fun as 'the world' does not begin to understand our life,” the Dominican said. “Hopefully, this will inspire more people to love God and serve Him in the manner He invites each of us -- and get the Gospel on the airwaves!!”

“The Dominican Sisters of Mary were founded in 1997 by four Dominican sisters responding to John Paul II’s call for a new evangelization. In the 13 years of their existence, they have grown to almost 100 members. Their newly constructed motherhouse is already filled to capacity.

Currently the average age of the sisters is 26 and the average age of their postulants is 21.

“Young people, inspired by John Paul the Great and Pope Benedict XVI, are generous and desirous of living sacrificial, authentic lives as God asks of them,” Sr. Joseph Andrew said.

“We agreed (to be on the show) because it will further understanding of Religious Life,” she added. “The Catholic Church is alive, well, and thriving as is authentic religious life,” she added.” 


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Rationalists, Doomsayers, & Survivors

Though not generally a big fan of horror movies, I really enjoyed The Mist (2001).  Here's a very brief thematic summary from Wikipedia (Spoiler Alert:  the full entry in Wikipedia outlines the whole movie, including the end):

[. . .] the central theme is what ordinary people will be driven to do under extraordinary circumstances. The plot revolves around members of the small town of Bridgton, Maine who conceal themselves in a local supermarket when a violent thunderstorm cuts off the power. While they struggle to survive an unnatural mist which envelops the town [. . .], extreme tensions arise amongst the survivors.

What's interesting to me about this movie is the way Stephen King (the novella's author) and the script writers of the movie present three distinct hermeneutical lenses through which the people in the supermarket view the crisis they find themselves in and how they come to deal with the horror they have little control over. 

The three lenses are clarified once a small group of those locked in the supermarket try to leave the building through the loading dock.  I won't give away exactly what happens, but this group witnesses an event that confirms for them earlier reports of what the mist conceals.  When they report what they have seen, the people divide into three hermeneutical groups:

Evidence-based rationalists who believe that the men are lying about the event they witnessed, steadfastly insisting on empirical proof and refusing to credit the incredible story w/o such proof.

Apocalyptic doomsayers who believe the men but interpret the event as a sign of God's wrathful judgment on a sinful world, demanding expiation in blood.

Pragmatic survivors who are unsure of what the men saw but nonetheless prepare themselves for survival as if the men are telling the truth.   

Each group proposes its own explanation of the crisis according to its hermeneutical lens and sets out possible responses to the crisis given their initial assumptions.   Each group is sorely tested by events, and each experiences potentially debilitating set backs.

The ending is heartbreaking.  And you will be very surprised to learn which of the three turns out to be true. 

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Coffee Bowl Browsing

American-style sex scandal hits the German Church.  The Church in Europe is under both external and internal attack.  Pay attention to the amount of energy and time the Holy Father puts into calling on European Catholics to return to the faith of our fathers.  He knows what's going on.

BXVI calls out the culture of death in the E.U.  Talk about a lone voice crying out in the wilderness.

Kudos to B.O. on making the right decision:  no plans for the U.S. to join the International Criminal Court anytime soon.

The decline of the global warming farce is not being hidden.  It's time to de-fund the whole thing and send the IPCC apparatchiks back to their dank basements at mama's house.

I watched highlights of Sarah Palin's address to the Tea Party convention.  What I heard wasn't all that impressive.  Some are painting her as a female Ronald Reagan.  Naw.  She's gonna need a MUCH better speechwriter to achieve that.  Governor Palin, have your people call my people.  I'm free this summer!

The other side of the CCHD story:  Fr. Frank Pavone, pro-life priest extraordinaire, defends the former head of the CCHD, James Carr, against accusations of being pro-abortion. 

Tom Peters, the American Papist, has a round-up of links about the CCHD controversy.

This is both cute and cruel.  But the really important question here is:  where's the sweet and spicy relish?

10 places you cannot visit. . .including the chapel containing the Ark of the Covenant!

Man survives polar beat attack:  gruesome pics that may make you lose your breakfast.

13 foreign words with no English equivalents.  During my time in China as an English professor, I had a very difficult time learning the rules of guanxi ("gwan-chee").

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Modernist crisis in religious life?

Cardinal Franc Rode, prefect of the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life, recently addressed the problems in contemporary religious orders, describing the situation as a "modern crisis." 

He argues that declining numbers, systemic dissent and disobedience, and spiritual malaise are all rooted in a surrender to secular worldviews, specifically, "the adoption of a secularist mentality and the abandonment of traditional practices."

The situation in contemporary religious life is not only a modern crisis but a "modernist crisis" as well; that is, a crisis brought on by the introduction, cultivation, and harvesting of the destructive fruits of modernist thinking.  

As a philosophical and theological worldview, modernism leads to several ways of thinking and acting that erode spiritually fruitful religious life. . .

First, modernism elevates scientific rationalism above mystery.  In an attempt to replace less reliable sources of knowing such as revelation, myth, mystery, etc., modernist thinkers placed materialist reason and science on the throne of knowledge.  Reason's patrimony as a divine gift for understanding God through His creation was up-ended.  Reason became an end in itself. 

Second, modernism, now committed to the pursuit of knowledge through reason alone, abandoned traditional metaphysics, the science of being.  No longer concerned with existence itself as a foundation for knowing, modernism replaced the divine with the natural, leaving us blind to everything but the material world.  Once our ways of knowing were naturalized, we no longer needed to appeal to any sort of objective ethical/moral standards.  There is nothing beyond nature that gives us a way of deciding between right and wrong, so there is no real  metaphysical difference btw right and wrong.

Third, if there is no real metaphysical difference btw right and wrong, how do we go about deciding which behaviors, beliefs, etc. are acceptable and which are not?  Since we are dealing only with the natural world--no objective standards, no appeal to God--we must appeal to emotion, affection.  Now, our moral decisions are made after asking the question, "how does this make me feel?"  Trusting in feelings over and above a rational assessment of objective truth inevitability leads to moral chaos. 

Fourth, by focusing exclusively on individual feelings, modernism rapidly declined into a project for self-fulfillment and narcissist projection:  the world and everyone in it is all about me and my needs.  As the sole creator and redeemer of my world, I am the final arbiter of what's good for me, bad for me, necessary for me to thrive, and you are just a player in my world--though a player I choose to respect as if you were totally independent of my decisions.   My respect for you, however, is premised solely on your willingness to stay out of my way.  Detached from community and transcendence, I am a morally free agent but, perversely, one largely determined by genetics, social forces, and biology. 

Fifth, as modernist rationalism slowly became more and more the possession of materialist science, the humanities surrendered to nihilism.  No objective standards.  Total suspicion of authority.  Elevation of liberationist politics over the search for truth.  Anti-realist appeals to language as the sole builder of "reality."  Collectivists models for knowing (philosopher Richard Rorty once noted, "The truth is what my colleagues will allow me to get away with saying.")  And the most destructive development of all for religious life:  the death of charity in the pursuit of individualized careers, agendas, etc. even to the destruction of the community.

Though Crdl Rode is correct in noting that secularization is destroying religious life, I do not think that an uncritical return to traditional religious practices will reverse this trend.  What we need is a renaissance in the humanist pursuit of mystery in the art, liturgy, theology, philosophy, literature of the Catholic sacramental imagination.  Simply picking up a rosary or wearing a habit is not going to revive religious life.  We have to come to a broadly, deeply held understanding of what it means to "stand under" the mystery of the divine and live toward our perfection in Him.  Traditional religious practices are more likely to lead us to this goal than the fabricated neo-pagan rituals many religious communities use now.  However, there is no magic in devotionals; no magic in habits or monstrances or anything else we associate with traditional religion. 

What we must do at every level is re-establish the notion that intellect, will, reason, emotion, etc. are all divine gifts oriented toward our divinization though Christ.  Nothing can stand above faith as the source and summit of our life in Christ, but every gift we have received as well-loved creatures can stand along side faith in order to clarify, enlighten, and distinguish.

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Coffee Bowl Browsing

B.O.'s adviser for faith-based initiatives continues his anti-Catholic bigotry.  This guy needs to go.

Will we witness another bloody revolution in Iran?

There is Hope for Change in Nevada.  It's coming Nov. 2, 2010.

Your Majesty, the peasants are revolting!

A little wake up music for you farm boys and girls out there.

I have no idea what this pic means or why it was taken. . .if you laugh at it, you're strange.  LOL.

Beware of Dog. . .he thinks he's Rambo.

The inexplicable.  Ummmm. . .I dunno. . .you tell me.

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Catholic identity at the University of Dallas

John Allen reports on his participation in a recent panel discussion at the University of Dallas.

The discussion topic:  "The Identity of a Catholic University."  

Oddly, Mr. Allen contrasts "intellectual openness" with "religious orthodoxy," as if one cannot be both open and orthodox.  Of course, what "openness" means to the Tolerant Crowd is a dogmatic adherence to leftist ideology, deviations from which result in swift prosecution and punishment at most secular universities. 

So, yes, it's true. . .one cannot be intellectually open and secularly orthodox.

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Just Say No to the Ouija

Now there's a pink Ouija board. . .just in case you want to introduce your daughters and granddaughters to the practice of occult divination.

And just in case you DO want to introduce them to such things:  DON'T!  Marketed as a parlor game, the Ouija board is anything but a game.  It's a doorway to Something that no sane person wants to play with.

Even if you reject the notion that divination is a way of invoking demonic forces (whatever they may be), and even if you reject the notion that there is any such thing as demonic forces, divination of any kind taps into the human unconscious and brings to the surface images, patterns, forces, ideas, passions, etc. that are unconscious for very good reasons.  

Chief among these reasons is the tendency of the human mind to shape its understanding of the world around the complexities of daily experience.  Guided by right reason, the mind is capable of rational deliberation, of weighing options and calculating consequences for self-preservation within the proper bounds of Right and Wrong.  Once we have opened ourselves to our more primitive impulses and passions, reason quickly begins to look more and more like a nagging restraint rather than a guide.  And what is left to guide us then?  Predator instinct? Power?

From a Christian perspective, occult divination is the outright rejection of Divine Providence.  We don't need to know the future (if such a thing is possible) b/c we trust in God's promise to provide and care for us.  All we need do is give God thanks for all the blessings He has already given us and do what is Right.  

If you own a Ouija board, Tarot cards, etc. get rid of them.  Destroy them.  There's no need to be superstitious about the process--just burn them along with other trash, or tear them up so no one else can use them. 

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India spanks IPCC

The evangelism arm of the Church of Global Warming, the IPCC, is starting to unravel at lightening speed. 

The Indian government has announced that it has pulled out of the U.N.'s effort to fabricate a global climate crisis and formed its own scientific foundation to track changes in the Himalayas. 

Can China be far behind? 

Pope Al Gore I was unavailable for comment.   The Nobel Peace Prize committee is too embarrassed to show its face in public.

Of note:  GreenPeace U.K. calls on the IPCC Chief Pachauri to resign.

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Powerhouses of Prayer: O.P. Nuns

Another excerpt from the Holy Father's Wednesday general audience on St Dominic:

+  +  +

When Dominic died in 1221 in Bologna, the city that declared him its patron, his work had already had great success. The Order of Preachers, with the support of the Holy See, had spread to many countries of Europe to the benefit of the whole Church. Dominic was canonized in 1234, and it is he himself, with his sanctity, who indicates to us two indispensable means for apostolic action to be incisive. First of all, Marian devotion, which he cultivated with tenderness and which he left as precious legacy to his spiritual children, who in the history of the Church have had the great merit of spreading the prayer of the holy rosary, so dear to the Christian people and so rich in evangelical values, a true school of faith and piety. In the second place, Dominic, who took care of some women's convents in France and in Rome, believed profoundly in the value of intercessory prayer for the success of apostolic work. Only in Paradise will we understand how much the prayer of the cloistered effectively supports apostolic action! To each one of them I direct my grateful and affectionate thoughts.

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I can personally attest to the fruits of our cloistered sisters' ministry of contemplative prayer.  Their intercessions have helped me, my family and friends, and the friars of my province dozens of times in the ten years I have been a Dominican.  For the Order as a whole, our nuns are a Powerhouse of Prayer! 

If you would like to learn more about our cloistered sisters, check out this link.  

Complete text of the Wednesday audience.

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Why is this Canadian premier coming to the US for surgery?

The Premier of Canada's Newfoundland province will travel to the U.S. for heart surgery.

This choice by Premier Danny Williams should raise serious questions in the minds of Americans who look to Canada as a model for socialized medicine in the U.S.  What's wrong with Canada's system of health care that scares the premier?

Not only does the premier's choice indicate a serious lack of confidence in the Canadian system, but it also points out the tendency of the rich and powerful to abandon the nationalized schemes of wealth redistribution they support when their own health and wealth is threatened. 

Of note here is the consistent refusal of Congressional Democrats to require Senators and Congressmen to use the public option they were trying to force on Americans.  Majorities in both houses of Congress voted against several GOP amendments requiring Congress to abandon its "Cadillac" health plan in favor of the much touted public-option.

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Recognize dissent for it is: corrosive

In his address to the bishops of England & Wales, the Holy Father challenged the prelates to "recognise dissent for what it is." 

Too often disguised as "dialogue," dissent endangers ecclesial unity and leads the faithful into serious error.  Lest anyone come away with the idea that calling out dissenters amounts to suppressing free speech or academic freedom, we must remember that the Holy Father himself is one of the best examples of how the Church can talk to a secular culture in a reasoned manner with fruitful results.  The orthodoxy of the Church is not a straitjacket nor it is a choir for parroting papal talking points.  As I have noted many times, a Church that boasts prominent theologians as diverse as Augustine, Bonaventure, Aquinas, de Lubac, van Balthasar, and Congar cannot be labeled an oppressive monolith of fossilized thought.  

There is a distinction to be made between the Truth of the Faith and how this Truth is understood and communicated.  Gregory of Nyssa in the 3rd century believed and taught the truth of the Holy Trinity.  Thomas Aquinas, a thousand years later, also believed and taught the truth of the Holy Trinity.  However, their approach in communicating this mystery couldn't be more different.

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BXVI on St Dominic

At yesterday's general audience, BXVI spoke about Saint Dominic Guzmán, the founder of the Order of Preachers:

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

Today I wish to speak of the great contribution made by Saint Dominic to the renewal of the Church in the Middle Ages. As a priest of the Spanish diocese of Osma, he was sent on missions throughout Europe, which drew his attention to the need for sound and zealous preachers to bring the Gospel to the people. He was entrusted with the task of refuting the heresy of the Albigensians, who denied the incarnation of Christ, the resurrection of the body and the value of marriage and the sacraments. Embracing a life of poverty, Dominic dedicated himself to the task of preaching the Gospel, and with a band of followers he established the Order of Preachers, also known as Dominican Friars. Adapting the rule of Saint Augustine to the needs of the apostolic life, Dominic placed emphasis on theological study, prayer and community life for his friars. Thus fortified, they would be sent out on missions as itinerant, mendicant preachers. Hence the Dominican motto, contemplata aliis tradere – to hand on to others the fruits of contemplation. One important way in which the Dominicans did this was by promoting the prayer of the rosary, a beautiful means of contemplating, through the eyes of Mary, the truth revealed in the mysteries of the life, death and Resurrection of her son. 

Some interesting facts about the OP's. . .

The Holy Father's household theologian is always a Dominican (there were a few Franciscans thrown in there Way Back When).  The current household theologian is from Poland, fra.Wojciech Giertych, O.P.  Fr. Giertych is also a professor of moral theology here at the Angelicum.

The Holy Father's distinctive white cassock is an adapted Dominican habit.  Pope Pius V, an O.P., wore his habit while pope and his successors adapted it for daily use.  It is traditional for O.P. friars to wear the full habit--including black cape and hood--while out in the city of Rome as a sign of respect for the Holy Father's distinctive garb.  Papal protocol does not allow those in private audience with the Pope to wear white.  Only heads of state are exempted.

The leaders of the friars--from the Master right on down to the priory's lector--are elected for limited terms.  There are no "until death" offices in the Order.  There is evidence that Thomas Jefferson was familiar with the Order's constitution and used some of its principles in drafting our nation's founding documents. 

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Coffee Bowl Browsing

Thomas Sowell discusses the role of intellectuals in American society.  As the last year has conclusively demonstrated being intellectually gifted doesn't necessarily indicate a gift for leadership.

If you like a good mystery and ancient Roman history fascinates you, you really can't do better than the novels of Steven Saylor. 

The murder of peer-review in the ClimateGate scandals. . .an autopsy.

Promising to keep lobbyists out of the White House:  grammatical nuance.  The surest way to become an object of suspicion is to rely on word games to defend outright lies.

Tea Partiers battling it out over a winnable political platform.  Gotta love American politics!

The Dept of Defense is rewriting the rules for Congressional use of military aircraft for personal travel.  We can dub these new rules:  "No to Nancy and Her Kids Rules."

B.O.'s DoubleTalk/DoubleThink:  Orwellian rhetoric done by a Master. 

Stuart Schwartz on K. Olbermann:  And so the venom drips, and the ratings sink. Olbermann is cruel to all who, as a class, have rejected him, such as joyful people and women...or people of faith and women...or people with traditional marriages and women...and those with well-adjusted relationships and women. Did I mention women?  OUCH!  Remind me not to get on Mr. Schwartz's bad side.

Dems support campaign finance reform b/c their corporate contributions skyrocketed after McCain-Feingold was enacted.   

The GOP is made up of Stalinists, right-wing fascists, Khmer Rouge communists, Talibanists, southern segregationists, and Nazis.  Wow.  And here I thought the GOP had such a small tent.  

The U.K.'s House of Lords stalls a government bill that would force the Church to ordain women and people in SSM's.  The bill isn't dead.  Let's call this one:  "Liberal Fascist Zombies Attack the Church."  

First I learn that the GOP is run by Talibanists and Communists and now I learn that it's not gypsies who are stealing babies but BAPTISTS!  My world is coming apart. . . 

The USCCB's point man for the Campaign for Human Development served on the board of a pro-abortion, pro-SSM political group.  Ah, now I understand how so much Catholic money got funneled to groups like ACORN.

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Love hurts

4th Sunday OT: Readings

Fr. Philip Neri Powell, OP

SS. Domenico e Sisto, Roma

Jesus, once again, riles people up! He's good at that. Like prophets before him, he tells people what they don't want to hear. By proclaiming that Isaiah's prophecy of the coming of the Messiah has been fulfilled in their hearing, Jesus challenges those gathered in the temple to step up and believe that he embodies God's promise of salvation. Instead, assuming that the authority of a majority is sufficient to determine truth, the crowd runs him out of town and tries to lynch him. He walks unharmed through the riot and leaves town. Why do the temple-goers reject Jesus' claim to be the fulfillment of God's promise to send a Messiah? Two reasons: 1) Jesus is a local boy, and we all know that “no prophet is accepted in his native place;” and 2) Jesus' use of proverb, “Physician, cure yourself,” indicates his refusal to perform a showy miracle to confirm his identity. What does he do instead? He does exactly what pastors and preachers are taught in seminary not to do when parishioners get twitchy. He throws down a challenge and a rebuke. In essence, he says, “God's own people have always rejected His prophets, and look at the results. He graces Gentiles before Jews and you people never learn.” Ouch. If Jesus had had a bishop, His Excellency's phone would be ringing off the hook! Remember how often we are told that Jesus is a uniter not a divider, a peace-bringer not a controversialist. He's all about harmony and consensus and living within the tensions of difference. Well, tell that to the screaming lynch mob. They might disagree. Obviously, Jesus lacked the cultured pastoral touch of a postmodern bishop. So, should we look to him and his prophetic style as a model for preaching his gospel?

Confrontation has its place in preaching. The prophets of the Old Testament were known and feared for their unwavering commitment to speaking God's message even in the face of torture and execution. Kings dodged them when possible, summoning them to court to answer for their traitorous speech only when necessary. Prophets were notoriously stubborn, self-righteous, and usually disreputably attired. Any one of these three characteristics was enough to warrant royal and public dismissal. Add to the scene the fact that prophets tended to be well-known local boys and you have the makings of a courtly farce. Is it any wonder then that the prophets of old resorted to confrontation when dealing with the cold-hearts and closed-minds of a nation's rulers? Sometimes you have to smash through a wall when the door is barred. Sometimes the shock of hearing the truth spoken aloud is enough to cure the deafness of the worst sinner. And sometimes it isn't. On these occasions, it's wise to get as far away from the condemned nation as possible. Why? Because quite possibly the scariest thing a prophet can say is: “Behold, you will suffer the consequences of your hard heart!” It's time to run.

Unfortunately, these days, it seems that every corner, every cable channel, every church/mosque/temple has its own prophet proclaiming the coming apocalypse. Like a flock of squawking crows, these folks fly around the world squeaking and squealing warning us of imminent local destruction and the inevitability of global disaster if we don't change our ways. They have adopted the confrontational rhetoric of the wildest biblical prophet. Do we listen? Some certainly do. Most don't. Confrontation oft repeated quickly devolves into annoying harassment. Those ominous crows start to look and sound like Chicken Little's. What's missing from their squealy prophesying is Godly love, a sincere concern for the good of the whole beyond the immediate personal benefits of power and prestige. What's missing is the divine authority that Jesus himself uses in the temple to announce his arrival as the Messiah. His authority is the power and glory of the most excellent way, the way of sacrificial love.

This leads us to the big question of the day: can sacrificial love be confrontational? Anyone who has ever marched in a pro-life demonstration or prayed outside an abortion clinic will tell you that the counter-protesters and the escorts are demonically vicious. For them this isn't just about freedom of choice and left/right politics. They hate us. Passionately hate us. You can expect that groups on opposite ends of the political spectrum to get feisty, maybe even a little rowdy, in the midst of a march. But the bile and venom spewed by pro-abortion activists at pro-life folks goes well beyond the kind of anger that normal politics generates. Why? The choice to have an abortion is intensely personal; it goes to the very core what most Americans think of us their untouchable autonomy in deciding what's best for them. An unwanted pregnancy attaches unwanted responsibilities and necessarily limits a woman's choice of options. But even more than this, pregnancy places a woman in the natural mode of motherhood and all that that implies. At the very core of motherhood is sacrificial love, giving oneself wholly to another. When pro-life marchers remind abortion advocates that the fetus is a person, a being deserving of love, those who would call the killing of this person a moral good react with unadulterated rage. They know the Church is right. And they must cultivate a self-righteous wrath in order to drown out their guilt. The gospel message of love used by the pro-life movement to stubbornly resist compromising with the culture of death shames them into hatred. Denied a convenient salve for their seared consciences, the venom flows and they fall more securely into demonic hands.

It should be shockingly clear to the Church by now that our best witness to the culture of death is sacrificial love. Paul writes, “Love is patient, love is kind. . .it does not rejoice over wrongdoing but rejoices with the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.” With some we can reason. With others we can demonstrate. But some we must simply love. Bearing up under the burden of hatred, believing solely in the power of mercy, hoping in the promises of the Father, and enduring insult, persecution, and trial, the Church must not be satisfied with merely presenting the truth of the gospel, flashing cue cards and murmuring sound bites. What will heal a seared conscience cannot be logically deduced and crammed onto a bumper sticker. Slogans on placards are easily refuted by other slogans on placards. What cannot be refuted is an act of love done in sacrifice, a willing act of surrender done so that another might be see the truth. Paul reminds us what we know by faith, “Love never fails.” Even as the prophet feels the sword cut into his flesh, he knows that he has succeeded in touching a conscience burned by hatred and malice. His persistence in telling the truth is not ended by death but rather vindicated by it, shown to be the undeniably divine power it truly is.

When he proclaims to the people in the temple that Isaiah's messanic prophecy has been fulfilled in their hearing and subsequently chastises the crowd for their unbelief, Jesus causes a riot. He holds up before the people their dishonesty, their faithlessness, their charred consciences. He shows them that they know he is telling the truth and yet still refuse to hear it spoken. For them to believe such a proclamation changes everything-- uproots centuries of tradition and belief, revolutionizes everyday life, forces them to make a choice and live by it. Rather than surrender, they riot and pour out the hatred and malice of those who have seen the corrupted state of their souls. How does Jesus respond? He dies on the cross for them. If we will be his Church, we must be prepared to do nothing less. The march for life is a march to the cross. . .not for ourselves but for those who will not see, will not hear.

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Notes on the Book Depository Wish List Experiment

Two generous HancAquam readers have used the BDWL to sent me two books.  

First, books do not disappear from the Wish List once purchased as they do on the Amazon Wish List.  I only discovered this today when a book arrived as a very pleasant surprise.  So, please, let me know if you buy a book so I can delete it from the list.

Second, also unlike the Amazon list, the BD list does not automatically include my shipping address when you add a book to the shopping cart.  I tried to include it in the notes that accompany each listing, but these notes only appear when I sign into the account.  My shipping address is at the bottom of this site on the right. 

I've contact BD about both of these issues, but they have not been able to help me out. . .yet.

Thanks again!

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Virtue & Vice: what's yours?

Virtues are good habits.  Vices are bad habits.

Virtues help us to become the best version of ourselves that we can be.  Vices prevent us from doing so.

What do you consider to be your single best virtue and your worst vice?

Remember:  keep it clean!

My Best Virtue:  I am an unrepentant idealist when it comes to doing the right thing.

My Worst Vice:  I am stubborn beyond reason.

Yes, the two are directly related.


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Coffee Bowl Browsing

This is not the Science we are looking for:  Climate data "tampered with," "useless for determining accurate trends," "skewed the data," "gravely compromised," "contamination by urbanization," "cherry-picking of observing sites," "data are missing and uncertainties are substantial."

B.O. bows to the Mayor of Tampa, FL.  In fairness to The One. . .a psychologist friend of mine once observed that I tend to give everyone I meet a little bow upon introduction.  I notice it now every time it happens.  Maybe I was a Chinese peasant in a past life?

Medieval justice:  trial by ordeal may have been just what the Judge ordered.

Dividing the shepherd from his flock:  lay folks don't always agree with the Church's political positions.  Fortunately, bishops are under no obligation to poll the pews when teaching the faith.  

Will Protestant clerical converts to the RCC be the answer to our vocations problem?  No, they won't.  They will certainly be a welcomed help, but the numbers aren't there.  The answer to the Church's vocation problem is for young called to priesthood to find the courage to say Yes to their call. 

A father's application for young men to date his daughter.  I should send this to my poor nieces.  Their father's version begins with threats of torture and death rather than promising them for later on.

Dihydrogen monoxide:  sign the petition to ban this dangerous substance!

Computer technology assist the morally weak in making those tough decisions.

Formal Apology template. . .I printed out 500 of these.  It's been a tough month.

A philosopher vs. a genie:  who wins?

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Coffee Bowl Browsing (Over-caffeinated Edition)

Need a sign that the Pro-life movement is winning the culture war?  Pro-abortion feminists don't want Super Bowl fans to know that Tebow's mom CHOSE to give him birth.  Now, why in the world would a group of self-identified pro-choice abortion advocates try to prevent CBS from running this ad?   Hmmmmmm. . .maybe b/c they are afraid that it might cut into their child-killing profits?  Bad for business, ya know.  Just maybe.

The gift that keeps on giving and giving and giving:  Climate Gate.  Glacier extinction predictions were lifted from a grad student's master's thesis.  Where did he get the numbers?  A perfectly scientific and impeccably reliable source:  ski instructors.  So, the U.N. spent millions on a conference whose single-minded goal was the extortion of billions from first world nations in a wealth redistribution scheme based largely on the guesses of snow bunnies.  Wow.  Settled science, indeed.

While back on the farm. . .record cold temps and snow in the south.

Everyone knows the Dominican's unofficial motto:  "To Praise! To Bless! To Preach!"  Here's another one:  "Never trust a skinny Dominican."  Apparently, the voting public is getting the message about skinny politicians?  Of note here is OP laymen, Tom K's own version of the unofficial OP motto:  "To Praise!  To Dine!  To Preach!" 

Are we getting tired of Olberman's televised fits of faux outrage?  I am. . .and I've never watched him.

Laws banning cell phone use while driving seem to be having little effect on road accidents.  Who cares?  Drivers talking on cell phones annoy me, so punish them!

Oops. . .the Bush/Cheny War Criminals meme is going up in flames. 

B.O. 'fesses up on health care options. . ."Ummmmm, well, no you can't keep your current health insurance."  We knew that, Mr. President.  How?  Because you said we could.

Free-thinking atheists mime concern for freedom of religion by protesting against a postage stamp:  "Mother Teresa is principally known as a religious figure who ran a religious institution. You can't really separate her being a nun and being a Roman Catholic from everything she did," [atheist] Gaylor told FoxNews.com.  And, of course, that's the real reason for the objection.  Can't have people thinking that the Catholic Church is a force for good.

Global Warming hoax science?  $1,000,000,000,000,000.  Proven Moon Mission science:  $0.  B.O.'s promise to honor science over ideology:  cheap.

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Grammar Nazis Unite!

For all the Grammar Nazis out there. . .

Is "snuck" the past-tense of "sneak"?

Yes and no.  Yes, it has become one of those words that has gained some legitimacy through repeated use.  So, when the word is used in common American English, it communicates.  No, it is non-standard English usage.  The proper past-tense of "sneak" is "sneaked." 

I have been on a one-man crusade to save the subjunctive mood from extinction.  I'm losing. 

Also, "hopefully" is an adverb not an adjective.  "Hopefully, I will see the Pope" translates into the nonsensical sentence, "I will see full of hope the Pope."  The original sentence communicates the idea that I hope I will get to see the Pope.  Correctly written, this would be, "I am hopeful that I will see the Pope."

What's on your Grammar Nazi agenda?

Sieg Heil.  Carry on.

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Coffee Bowl Browsing

The hits keep on comin'!  IPCC chair knew that the so called "glacier meltdown" was false before Copenhagen.  I do believe that that is a bus headed his way.

B.O. and the Dems are outraged--OUTRAGED, I say--at the Supreme Court's decision gutting campaign finance laws.  In the SOTU speech, B.O. falsely accused the S.C. of legalizing foreign contributions to political campaigns.  Good.  We look forward to the day when B.O. returns all the money he got from foreign sources during his campaign for the White House.  Oh, and all the corporate campaign money, including union money, he and the Dems received.

Has B.O. grown bored?  Hmmmm. . .maybe he'll take an early retirement?

Can we talk to Muslims?  Of course we can.  But there can be no negotiation on the principles of democracy and religious freedom.

Killer of abortion doctor convicted of murder.  We may never do evil in the cause of good.

Ralph McInerny has died.  A giant among American Thomists, McInerny was probably best known as the author of the Father Dowling Mysteries novels.

Perhaps the only good thing about the possibility of the U.S. joining the International Criminal Court is the long history of the ineffectiveness and incompetence of most international bodies.  We can join.  Look like good neighbors.  And go about our business.

The Ultimate Fr. Philip Movie:  Redneck Zombies.  Now, this movie can only be exceeded in my view by a potential sequel:  Catholic Redneck Zombies from Outer Space.  I'm working on the script.

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The coming Nunja smack-down

Hilarious!

In the face of Sisterly defiance of the Apostolic Visitation, the Vatican authorizes the use of its secret weapon:  the Nunjas! 

Make no mistake, these are not your ordinary nuns. They don’t correct the wayward with rulers. When NUNJAS correct you, you stay corrected. They are NUNJAS! These Nunjas mock albino monk assassins…to their pasty white faces.

Read the whole thing.

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T0rture: Right and Wrong

Tom K. at Disputations does what I do not have the patience to do:  round-up the Church teachings on the immorality of torture.

Noted many times by others but worth repeating here is all too common habit of Catholic dissenters to place their local politics over and above the authority of the magisterium.  Among Catholics on the left, the Church is wrong on all issues that involve the libertine use of one's pelvic area.  Among Catholics on the right, it seems that the Church is wrong on all issues having to do with the just use of violence (there is such a thing!) and the imperative of the Christian to pursue peace.

It is striking--though completely predictable--that Catholics who defend the moral use of torture use the argumentative templates of those who defend abortion, SSM, etc.  These arguments are always utilitarian and consequentialist; that is, what determines the rightness or wrongness of a human act is the amount of good or evil that results from the act.  This is not Catholic moral theology. 

There is Right and there is Wrong.  The physical and/or moral torture of another human being is always wrong.  Nothing can change this, most especially appeals to consequentialist/utilitarian considerations.

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Your generic news report

. . .the only thing missing is the "Blame Bush" meme and a gratuitous slap at Tea Partiers.  NB.  The "f-bomb" is dropped once.  Brits use this word more freely and with less negative reaction than we do.

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What is fulfilled in your hearing?

Finally!  Better late than never, I guess. . .

3rd Sunday OT: Readings

Fr. Philip Neri Powell, OP

SS. Domenico e Sisto, Roma

History is prophecy fulfilled. While history looks back at events, prophecy looks forward to well-ordered possibilities. When possibility becomes reality, we see prophecy most clearly. Pushed by our history and pulled by prophecy, our lives unfold in the tidal forces of what has been and what what will be. (No doubt this is why we often feel dragged under and swirled to dizziness!) With the unchangeable past under us and the vast expanse of what could be above us, is it any wonder that we turn to prophecy for both hope and direction? And that is the purpose of prophecy: to give us a living sense that our existence is not futile, to provide our wandering hearts with a path to follow. What's revealed by God's prophets is not a detailed road map or a spiritual GPS, but rather a broadly drawn outline of His providential care for us. Acting with (or against) this plan, we help to unfold (or wrinkle) His plan, and in doing so, we benefit (or suffer) accordingly. Even the most cursory glance at our history reveals that blessing and prosperity follow obedience. And sin is its own punishment. When Jesus reads aloud the messianic prophecy from Isaiah and proclaims to his listeners that the prophecy is fulfilled in their hearing, he changes history. Not just the possibilities for the future but the hard-set events of the past as well. From the word of creation spoken over the void, the promise of the coming Messiah sweeps human history, informing, shaping, pushing, and pulling. What was fulfilled in their hearing? Everything that has gone before and everything to come: the arrival of the Word made flesh among us.

The arrival of the Word as Man is both prophecy and history. Foretold and remembered, Christ is delivered to God's people as the fulfillment of a promise made long ago. Looking back, as Jesus does in the temple that day, we can read the signs of his coming—the long awaited King, the servant who suffers for us, the Anointed who serves and rules as a priest and prophet. Think of a triangle, pointing upward. Now, imagine another triangle turned upside-down so that the points of the two triangles touch—an hourglass figure. The bottom triangle is our salvation history, the record of God's promises to His people, the ancient narrative of His word and deed among us. The top triangle is prophecy, what's to come for the Church while we strive to live as one Body. Where the points meet is the arrival of the Word made flesh—that day on the calendar when prophecy became history. Now, scroll the bottom triangle up so that the history of the Church is transformed into the Church's future as it passes through the Christ. Neither triangle is emptied, neither triangle is exhausted. There is always more history, always more prophecy. . .until the coming the Kingdom.

Now, who sits at the transformative point between the historical past and the prophetic future? Christ, certainly. But in what form? The Son of God took on human flesh to become like one of us. He suffered, died, and was resurrected to sit at the Father's right hand. Yet, he is with us still. He is still with us in the Eucharist, Body and Blood. He is with us still as the Church, the Body and Blood, constituted by her individual members. In the eternity of heaven, Christ sits at the transformative point. Within the history of Man, his Church occupies that crucial spot. For us, here on earth, progressing in spiritual perfection, it is the Body of Christ, the Church, that mediates our salvation history into our prophetic future. As we draw in more and more of our past through the Church, we bring to completion more and more of our future. Today—right here, right now—prophecy is fulfilled in our hearing.

If the Church is to be who and what she was created to be, we, her members, must be who and what we were created and re-created to be. Paul writes to the Corinthians, “As a body is one though it has many parts, and all the parts of the body, though many, are one body, so also Christ.” Though distinct in our gifts and ministries, our purpose is singular. Though individuals talents, we collect our talents to produce a single work: to be the sacrament of Christ that shows the world his victory and makes that victory real. Each of us is a unique sign of Christ's love. And all of us together live as a Sign of his love. We contribute our treasures and take from the treasury what we lack. Without the Church our individual deficiencies remain deficiencies. Without our individual contributions, the Church is poorer and if the Church is poorer, so are we. And if we are poor, how can we contribute? Can you see the vicious circle? The cycle of vice that supplants the progress of virtue?

We can ask ourselves what prophecy was fulfilled in our hearing today? The better question is what prophetic word have we spoken today, what prophetic work have we done today that fulfills the Father's promise of eternal love? What have you contributed to the Church's treasury today that a brother or sister in Christ lacks? What talent are you hoarding? Are you withholding a gift that weakens the Church's ministry to shape a future in mercy and love? If we see ourselves as the collective mechanism whereby God's promises are made manifest in human history, what have we done, what are we doing, what have we vowed to do to be the healthiest, strongest, most vital Body that we can be? What is missing from the treasury that yourself lack? Do you wonder: who in the Church is clinging to the wealth I need to be who God made and re-made me to be? 

None of us can claim to possess the strength of the whole Church by ourselves. But we all share in her weaknesses. If you find this to be an occasion for despair, hear again Nehemiah's admonition to God's people: “Do not be saddened this day, for rejoicing in the Lord must be your strength!”

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On the Church & T0rture*

from the Catechism:

2297 [. . .] Torture which uses physical or moral violence to extract confessions, punish the guilty, frighten opponents, or satisfy hatred is contrary to respect for the person and for human dignity. Except when performed for strictly therapeutic medical reasons, directly intended amputations, mutilations, and sterilizations performed on innocent persons are against the moral law.

2298 In times past, cruel practices were commonly used by legitimate governments to maintain law and order, often without protest from the Pastors of the Church, who themselves adopted in their own tribunals the prescriptions of Roman law concerning torture. Regrettable as these facts are, the Church always taught the duty of clemency and mercy. She forbade clerics to shed blood. In recent times it has become evident that these cruel practices were neither necessary for public order, nor in conformity with the legitimate rights of the human person. On the contrary, these practices led to ones even more degrading. It is necessary to work for their abolition. We must pray for the victims and their tormentors.

* I have to use the zero in torture b/c the ridiculous nanny filter software the Vatican server uses won't let me open this post again if I spell it correctly.  I couldn't even use the searchable Catechism using the word as a search term!  The university & priory uses the Vatican server, thus we are subject the filter.

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