Ecclesial earthquake in SanFran

B.O.O.M!

The Holy Father has appointed Bishop Salvatore Cordileone as the new archbishop of San Francisco.  I can hear the wailing and gnashing of Prog teeth here in Nawlins'!

From Whispers in the Loggia:

After a half-century of occupants accused by conservatives of soft-pedaling church teaching in favor of a more conciliatory approach toward constituencies ranging from gays and lesbians to Nancy Pelosi -- a group of prelates among which even the recently-retired lead guardian of church doctrine, Cardinal William Levada, was not exempt from stinging criticism -- the move delivers the long-desired "Holy Grail" of the American Catholic Right firmly into the faction's hands, in the form of a prelate already known widely both for his forcefulness and a stringent doctrinal cred almost unequaled among his confreres on the national bench. 

For liberal Catholics, meanwhile, the appointment is likely to be received as something akin to the city's Great Earthquake of 1906, or even more apocalyptic events. In a nutshell, an appointment of this dramatic, potentially explosive nature is enough to make even last year's blockbuster move in the States -- likewise a final US move of the Curia's annual work-cycle -- appear almost mild by comparison. 

It's time to start praying and fasting for Bishop Cordileone!  

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Report: Boxes O'Books

Been busy unpacking boxes o'books. . .just four more to go. . .but no room left for them.  

Seeing all these books again reminds me that I need to say. . .

THANK YOU!

. . .to all my Book Benefactors.  Please know:  I pray for all my benefactors daily. . .at Office and at Mass.  You are all well-prayed-for.

I'd say 90% of my library comes from the Wish List and other contributions from you guys.

The sweetest box o'books opened this morning:  about 10 vols. on the history and practice of Catholic preaching from the Church Fathers to post-Vatican Two.  Sweet. . .indeed.

___________________

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My boxes and me. . .

Just got back into New Orleans and unloaded my boxes. . .all 22 of them!!!

I remember storing around 12 boxes.  Do boxes of books reproduce? 

Thanks for the prayers. . .everything went off without a hitch.

Fr. Philip
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Fr. INTJ, or not all astrologers see stars

In what seems like a life-time ago, I took a personality test.  Yes, I have a personality.  And it has been tested.  In fact, it's been tested quite often.  One of my grad school roommates was a psych doctoral student, and he used me as practice for his Measures and Diagnosis seminar.  I've also been through two psych evals during the application process for religious life.

Anyway, this personality test--the Myers-Briggs--indicated that my personality is best described by the initials INTJ.  That stands for something or another that I'm authoritatively told is an unusual type.  

Never paid it much attention until someone recently asked me if I had ever taken the Myers-Briggs.  She wanted to know my type.  I told her.  She giggled (yes, giggled!) and said that she could've won a bet b/c she would've guessed that I am an INTJ.

Needless to say, I had to find out what was so giggle-worthy about INTJ's.  So, to Google I went!

And found among the detritus of the intertubes lots of info on INTJ's.  Apparently, we are a rare breed of arrogant jerks who spend most of our time wandering around inside our heads entertaining ourselves and mostly ignoring social norms.  

My take on all this info is that it's much like a Zodiac sign, though spruced up with psycho-babble and the "astrologers" have Ph.D.'s.  Though I have to say that most of what I found applies to me: loves ideas, books, the Big Picture, averse to displays of emotion, aloof, introverted, low tolerance for B.S., etc.  The negative stuff is pretty true too: blunt, argumentative, hyper-critical, sarcastic, bordering on cynical, etc.  The one thing that doesn't fit me at all:  INTJ's are supposed to be obsessively orderly.  Not me, bubba.

This post really made me laugh b/c so much of it is true for me!  Of course, being a priest, I've learned to temper a lot of the more publicly negative aspects of my personality.  Thank you, Jesus. If I was called into the student master's office it was almost always b/c I had spouted off at table in some ridiculously pompous fashion and one of the sensitive friars took me seriously.  Yes, it was his fault for not having a sense of humor.  (See.  That's how a real INTJ works!).  :-)

BTW, I'm a Gemini in the western Zodiac and a Dragon in the Chinese Zodiac, which means I'm a schizophrenic big mouth who breathes fire.  HA!

BTW2, yes, I'm procrastinating b/c there's packing/unpacking to be done.  Blech.

___________________

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Audio file for St. Bridget (homily)

Tried preaching w/o a text this evening.

Meh.

I prefer preaching from a text.  There were several points I wanted to make but didn't b/c I was too busy trying to remember them.

___________________

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An unexpected surprise. . .

I'm one of the Kool Kids now!

All last week, Catholics bloggers were taunting the rest of us poor schmucks with the fact that they'd received a review copy of Sherry A. Weddell's new book, Forming Intentional Disciples.  I'm looking at you and your ginormous facial hair, Mark Shea!

I'll confess. . .yes, I was just a tiny bit envious.  But, I reasoned, even though Sherry works with Dominican friars and I'd met her once in Irving, TX. . .that was no reason for her to send me a copy of her book.  

Besides, it's only $12. . .

THEN! In the mail today. . .neatly wrapped. . .and lovingly signed by Sherry Herself. . .a copy of the very book I'd been coveting!

So, now that I'm one of the Kool Kids. . .I can suggest that you join Our Cadre by getting a copy of the book that's got everyone who's anyone in the Catholic blogosphere talking.  :-)

Oh, and thanks, Sherry!

___________________

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Road trip!

Taking a two day roadtrip to Irving, TX tomorrow and Wed.  Going to get the boxes that I stored there before going to Rome in 2008.  

Lots of books, clothes, and other useless but sentimental junk!

Pray for a safe trip, please.

___________________

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Are you ready to do a great deed?

[NB.  The deacons are preaching at St Dominic's this weekend.  I'm celebrating the vigil Mass today at Our Lady Star of the Sea.  This parish, I'm told, is used to slightly longer homilies.  So. . .]

16th Sunday OT
Fr. Philip Neri Powell, OP
Our Lady Star of the Sea, NOLA

Brothers and sisters, it will come as no surprise to you to hear it said, though being reminded of the fact never hurts, that God has done great things for us. He has done great things to us. And—if only if we will—He will also do great things with us! This bit of Good News is not news to us b/c we have long lived in the light Christ. No, not always perfectly, for sure, but living in his light most of the time is always better than living in the darkness all the time. And if, on those occasions when we are all too ready to listen to the enemy whisper, and if, when we listen, we hear what we want to hear, and do what we want to do, Christ's light always shines through that darkness to show us a smooth and level path back to the righteousness that is ours as heirs as the Father's kingdom. But you know this already. None of this is surprising. None of this is news to those who walk the way of love, behind the Lord, carrying a cross, looking forward, looking upward, looking beyond, beyond this world to the peace that passes all understanding in the world to come. If we know all this already, why do we need to hear it announced again? Well, the Good News of Jesus Christ might not be news to you. But it might be news to somebody, and that somebody is waiting to hear from you that he or she is profoundly loved, sacrificially loved, redemptively loved by the same God Who spoke the Word of Love into nothingness, and established by His love everything that is, everyone who is; and that same God holds by His love everything that is, everyone who is in being. Do not say—b/c you cannot say—that the Creator and Sustainer of all that is does not love you. He abandoned His Son to death for you, so that you might have life and have it abundantly, eternally. God has done great things for us. He has done great things to us. And—if only if we will—He will also do great things with us! Paul reminds the Ephesians of one great deed accomplished in the flesh of Christ. Christ, Paul says, is our peace. He made Jew and Gentile one, breaking down the walls of hatred and hostility, and abolishing the law with its divisive commandments. Why? So “that he might create in himself one new person in place of the two,” thus establishing peace, reconciling both Jew and Gentile with God, in his body and through the cross, putting that ancient enmity to death by his death. Is this a great deed we are prepared to imitate? To put an end to hatred and hostility through the faithful practice of sacrificial love? 

Let me be frank with you. Maybe even a little blunt. If you found the courage once upon a time to lay claim to your inheritance as an adopted child of the Father, and you found the time and energy to reap the benefits of God's abundant graces and His mercy, and you found the strength to walk this far along the crucified way, then you have the courage, the time, the energy, and the strength to present to this fallen world a mind and body formed in the likeness of Christ; a ready voice to speak the Word of Mercy and Truth to sinners; and the hospitality necessary to welcome into this family every leper, every tax collector, every prostitute, every politician, every Pharisee and scribe that crosses your path. You have everything—b/c it has been given to you—everything you need to live and die in love for the sinner, announcing the Good News of Jesus Christ to anyone with ears to hear, and—most importantly—you possess the power to grant mercy to all those who have offended you, showing them and reminding yourself that you too are a sinner in desperate need of receiving God's forgiveness. Anyone here w/o sin throw a stone, a hymnal, a shoe. Who isn't in need of mercy? Someone out there falsely believes that their loving Father, their Creator, does not love them, and they are angry, hateful, hostile, driven by despair, and quite possibly armed to the teeth. Can this lost soul look to me, to you, to all of us and see the face of Christ shining back at him, shining out the love that saved us from a darkness that never ends? If not, you and I, the whole Church have failed, miserably failed to be who and what we were re-created to be. We are a den of liars and thieves, deceiving ourselves and stealing from God souls that rightfully belong to Him alone. We cannot fault the world for its hatred and violence if we harbor in our own hearts the despair that feeds hatred and violence. If there is room in the soul of the Church for nurturing despair, disobedience, dissent, then there can be no room for Christ. We must be empty so that Christ might fill us up. We must be empty so that God's love fits perfectly, fully, and overflows and overflows and overflows. We must ask ourselves as individuals and as a Church: what takes up space in our hearts and minds that deprives us of the room we need for Christ? Truly, honestly can we pray with the Psalmist, “The Lord is my shepherd; there is NOTHING I shall want”? If we are busy wanting what has not been given, then we are too busy to love as we ought. 

You have heard it said: God has done great things for us. He has done great things to us. And—if only if we will—He will also do great things with us! The apostle Mark tells us in his gospel account that Jesus and the disciples are overwhelmed by the crowds and decide to jump a boat and escape across the sea. When they arrive on the other side, they discover that the crowd has followed them. Jesus surveys the masses before him and, Mark tells us, “[Jesus'] heart was moved with pity for them, for they were like sheep without a shepherd; and he began to teach them many things.” Note well the connection Jesus himself makes btw “lost sheep” and the need for instruction. Note well that it is compassion that motivates our Lord to teach these lost sheep “many things.” Out of his loving-kindness for the lost souls who follow him around yearning to know his truth, Jesus teaches them all that they need to know to live righteous lives; he teaches them all that they need to know to live in peace with one another and to live with justice for the least among them. We might want to ask here: what exactly does he teach them? To answer that we would need to spend several hours reading all four gospels! Or, we could look again at Paul's letter to the Ephesians and recall that Christ creates in himself one new person to replace both Gentile and Jew, thus establishing peace, thus placing the divine order over the natural order, thus dissolving the hardened hearts of accidental neighbors, so that both Gentile and Jew are reconciled with God, in his body, through the cross, and finally putting to death an ancient enmity that benefits no one but the Enemy and his legions. All that Christ teaches the lost sheep that day on the beach is tightly packed into one tiny word: love. No, not romance. Not being sweet like your mama said to be. Not indifference or passion or overwrought emotion. Rather, agape. Charity. Caritas. That Love Who spoke His creating word over the void and yanked into being all existing things. That Love Who spoke to the patriarch Moses and inscribed His commandments in stone. That Love Who spoke to Abram and made an everlasting covenant with a people not yet born. That Love Who spoke to His covenant-nation through the prophets and called them back to fidelity. That Love—agape, caritas—Who sent His holy spirit to the virgin, Mary, and gave to His creation a savior, a Son, to fulfill the obligations of the old covenant and establish a new covenant with a universal nation, a universal people. 

When Christ teaches the crowd on the beach, he says much and more but he exudes in his person and mission just one word: love. Packed tightly into that one little word is the salvation of man, the redemption of creation, and the whole promise of the Old Covenant: you are My people and I AM your God. When we do and say and think as we have vowed to do, say, and think, we too exude in our person and mission the healing power of Christ love. And nothing—not hatred, violence, anger, oppression, greed—nothing vile, nothing that abides in darkness or feeds on despair can withstand the creating and re-creating majesty of Holy Love! God will do great deeds with us. He will accomplish through us works mightier than the princes of this world will allow. When I fall, you continue on. When you fail, I will try all the harder. When both of us stumble—and we will—there will be brothers and sisters there to pick us up and move us along. We are one Body, reconciled in his flesh and blood, so that the Good News of God's love will always have the hands, the feet, the mouths, the hearts and minds of a holy people, a nation renewed to speak the Word of Truth and accomplish the righteous deed. Jesus tells the disciples to come away and rest for awhile. Well, break-time is over. There are lost souls out there and possibly in here that need to see and hear us acting and speaking in love. So, I will ask again: are you, are we prepared to submit ourselves in obedience to the law of love and put an end to hatred and hostility in our families, our parish, our ward, our city, our Church? Are we ready—through the faithful practice of sacrificial love—to forfeit the demands of pride and surrender the need for vengeance? If those of us sworn to love one another cannot/will not readily agree to reconciliation in the Body, how will those souls already swimming in hatred and violence ever see the light for rescue? The Church, the Body of Christ, demands nothing more from us than everything we are—the whole person, all that God has given us for his greater glory. We grow tired. But that's why we are here. We grow frustrated with our own failures. But that why we're here. We aggravate one another like siblings do. But that's why we are here. Take all that you receive here and go out there. Take Christ, the first Son of Love, take him out there and show the lost, the lonely, the hateful, the hostile, show them all that he has done for you and yours. Show them his light, show them a way home.

___________________

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With a text, or without? That is the question!

At 5.30 this morning the USCCB lectionary webpage indicated that today is the memorial of Mary Magdalene.  

I prepared a homily on the proper readings for the memorial.

When I got to the Missal in church, I realized that the USCCB webpage was wrong.  So, my homily was useless.

Tossing aside the text of the prepared homily, I solidered on with an improvised homily on what it means to say "Christ has fulfilled the words of the prophet."

After Mass, four different parishioners told me that it was my best homily ever.  One, a literary sort like myself, very excitedly said, "Father, I'm praying that your printer breaks down, or you spill remoulade sauce on your keyboard!"    

From all this, I take it that some would rather have an off-the-cuff homily than a prepared text.

So, there may be some experimentation in my homiletic future!

___________________

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Mercy IS a Sacrifice

[NB.  Feeling puny today. . .so, I'm borrowing from myself for today's homily.]

 

St. Appollnarius

Fr. Philip Neri Powell, OP

St. Dominic Church, NOLA

Like the sniping political operatives that they are, the Pharisees attack Jesus and his merry band for violating the Sabbath Law. Their crime? Some of the disciples absentmindedly pick grains of wheat and snack on them during a lesson. When the Pharisees pounce, Jesus—ever the scholar of Jewish history and the scriptures—remind them that David and his friends went into the temple and ate the bread of offering. Then he lowers the boom: “If you knew what this meant, I desire mercy, not sacrifice, you would not have condemned these innocent men.” This is a triple accusation. The Pharisees do not know their own history. They do not understand mercy or sacrifice. And they have condemned innocent men. Of course, their most egregious error is their failure to recognize Jesus as the promised Messiah. Had they done so, they would have known that the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath, thus making their condemnation of the disciples into a chance to show mercy. So, what does this scene tell us about the relationship btw mercy and sacrifice?

We might be inclined to conclude that the two are opposed. Jesus says that he prefers one to the other, therefore, we can either show mercy or offer sacrifice. The Law requires sacrifice, but Christ requires mercy. The two are incompatible. But this can't be right since Christ is the fulfillment of the Law. In the City of God, Augustine clears it all up for us. When Jesus quotes Hosea, “I desire mercy, not sacrifice,” Augustine writes, “. . .nothing else is meant than that one sacrifice is preferred to another. . .mercy is the true sacrifice. . .All the divine ordinances. . . concerning the sacrifices in the service of the tabernacle or the temple, we are to refer to the love of God and our neighbor” (X.5). In other words, every act of mercy is a sacrifice, an embodiment of the love God has for us and a demonstration that we love Him in turn. To set aside judgment and condemnation in favor of mercy is the sacrifice God desires from us. 

What might be confusing here is that we seem to be using the term “sacrifice” in two different senses. When Jesus says, “I desire mercy, not sacrifice,” he uses “sacrifice” to mean “the ritualistic slaughter of an animal in the temple by a priest according to the Law.” This is not the sort of sacrifice the Lord desires. Augustine gives the term “sacrifice” its contemporary meaning in the context of Christ's fulfillment of the ritual Law of animal slaughter. That is, he goes to the root of the word and discovers that sacrifice is what we do when we love the sinner and show him/her mercy. For Augustine, following Christ, without love, the sacrificing priest is just a butcher and his sacrifice is just killing. What makes “showing mercy” a sacrifice is our giving up on the prideful need to sit in the Lord's place as judge and executioner of His justice. When we show mercy to a sinner, we first acknowledge our own sinfulness and confess the need to be forgiven. None of this means that we're to be “soft on sin” or make a habit of excusing disobedience! It means just the opposite. Only a sinner needs mercy. Only a sinner can be called to repentance. 

Jesus tells the Pharisees that they are in the presence of something greater than the temple, something more fundamental, more vital than the Law. They are in the presence of Love Himself, mercy-made-flesh. Had they acknowledged this truth, their desire for sacrifice would have turned to pleas for mercy. And their accusations to songs of praise.

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Say NO to a Grand Bargain on Marriage!

Brilliant essay by Robert George of Princeton on the "inevitability/right side of history" rhetoric used by same-sex "marriage" pushers to pressure the rest of us into believing that we are cultural neanderthals for opposing their radical social experimentation.

[. . .]

The fundamental error made by some supporters of conjugal marriage was and is, I believe, to imagine that a grand bargain could be struck with their opponents: “We will accept the legal redefinition of marriage; you will respect our right to act on our consciences without penalty, discrimination, or civil disabilities of any type. Same-sex partners will get marriage licenses, but no one will be forced for any reason to recognize those marriages or suffer discrimination or disabilities for declining to recognize them.” There was never any hope of such a bargain being accepted. Perhaps parts of such a bargain would be accepted by liberal forces temporarily for strategic or tactical reasons, as part of the political project of getting marriage redefined; but guarantees of religious liberty and non-discrimination for people who cannot in conscience accept same-sex marriage could then be eroded and eventually removed. After all, “full equality” requires that no quarter be given to the “bigots” who want to engage in “discrimination” (people with a “separate but equal” mindset) in the name of their retrograde religious beliefs. “Dignitarian” harm must be opposed as resolutely as more palpable forms of harm.

As legal scholar Robert Vischer has observed, “The tension between religious liberty and gay rights is a thorny problem that will continue to crop up in our policy debates for the foreseeable future. Dismissing religious liberty concerns as the progeny of a ‘separate but equal’ mindset does not bode well for the future course of those debates.” But there is, in my opinion, no chance—no chance—of persuading champions of sexual liberation (and it should be clear by now that this is the cause they serve), that they should respect, or permit the law to respect, the conscience rights of those with whom they disagree. Look at it from their point of view: Why should we permit “full equality” to be trumped by bigotry? Why should we respect religions and religious institutions that are “incubators of homophobia”? Bigotry, religiously based or not, must be smashed and eradicated. The law should certainly not give it recognition or lend it any standing or dignity.

The lesson, it seems to me, for those of us who believe that the conjugal conception of marriage is true and good, and who wish to protect the rights of our faithful and of our institutions to honor that belief in carrying out their vocations and missions, is that there is no alternative to winning the battle in the public square over the legal definition of marriage. The “grand bargain” is an illusion we should dismiss from our minds.

[. . .]

George makes an excellent observation: early 20th century eugenics programs and abortion "rights" were framed by the Left as "inevitable evolutions" in science and reason.  Eugenics has been soundly defeated and abortion is well on its way to becoming a stinking political albatross gracing the throat of every Leftist in America.  

Please! Read the whole thing and share it.

___________________

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On being a mule for Jesus

15th Week OT (Th)
Fr. Philip Neri Powell, OP
St. Dominic Church, NOLA

Isaiah prays, “The way of the just is smooth, O Lord; the path of the just you make level.” By following Christ, we have chosen to walk the way of the just and our path is scraped smooth, made level by the Lord. For us, he fills the potholes; he flattens out the hills so that our pilgrimage along behind him is no burden, nothing and no one stands in our way. Can any one of us claim that our journey along the way has been free of bumps and bruises, free of aches and pains, and the occasional head-on collision? Can any of us claim that we have never encountered a nearly insurmountable obstacle along the way? The Lord has smoothed and leveled the way to Him, but the ways we must travel through this world remain as potholed, as steep, and as dangerous as ever. So, Jesus makes this invitation: “Take my yoke upon you and learn from me. . .For my yoke is easy, and my burden light.” When we choose to become beasts of burden in the fields of Christ, we do the work but he leads the way. And if we follow his lead, we learn all we need to learn to make this world's steep climbs and potholes level and smooth. 

The first thing we must notice about becoming beasts of burden for Christ is that we choose this way of life. No one sells us into slavery to Christ. We are not born as yoked pilgrims. Even if our parents gave us to Christ as children, at some point along the way, we deliberately choose to stay yoked and working. Having freely chosen the burden of working for Christ and with him, we are obligated to learn all that he has to teach us. And like all students everywhere, we sometimes see our instruction as an intrusion, something to be rebelled against, thrown off. It's a beautiful day. There's fun to be had. Friends call for our attention. And here we are: yoked, strapped in, and following behind the Master, pulling a wagon for Jesus! But we chose this yoke. We freely elected to be yoked. Why? Maybe we believed Jesus when he said that his yoke is easy and his burden light. Maybe we calculated the cost/benefit of being easily and lightly yoked and decided that the benefits outweigh the costs. Or, maybe, we recognized in Christ our only chance to live just and holy lives and jumped at his offer to become his beasts of burden. Regardless of our motivations, we chose this. We sold ourselves to the Lord and now we serve as wagon mules for Jesus! 

Before us, all the way to the Lord, the way is level and smooth. No potholes to dodge, no hills to climb. Behind us, a light load and a patient driver. The yoke we wear doesn't chafe. And yet, all too often for our own good, we feel bound and restricted, locked-in, and oppressed by our work. We know this road. We know every inch, every pebble, every stray blade of grass. The view never changes—always forward, toward another weigh station. How did go from sinners who gladly accepted the yoke of Christ to Christians who balk at the kindest command from our driver? When Jesus invited us to take on his easy yoke, he made it perfectly clear that his yoke is a tool for learning, an instrument for teaching us to be just and holy. If the way appears potholed and steep, it's b/c we have stopped learning, closed ourselves to being taught. Like a stubborn mule needing bridle and bit, we have rebelled against our freely chosen yoke and decided that being a sinner freed to sin is easier, lighter. Have we learned all that Christ has to teach us? Have we graduated from his school of virtue? When are we just enough, holy enough to liberate ourselves from his yoke and walk alone? If we sometimes see the way as potholed and steep, it's b/c we no long choose to learn from Christ. With Christ, as his beast of burden, his student, nothing stands in our way. No road is too rough, no hill to steep. Without him, we are just stubborn mules. 

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The saving power of a childlike faith

15th Week OT (W)
Fr. Philip Neri Powell, OP
St. Dominic Church, NOLA

Our Lord declares to his apostles and to us that he comes among us to slash the bonds of sin and bring peace btw heaven and earth, btw God the Father and His fallen creatures. With the bonds of sin forever cut, those who claim their freedom in Christ will find themselves uncomfortably set apart from those who choose to remain slaves to disobedience. The peace he establishes btw heaven and earth disrupts whatever temporary, worldly peace we might hope for in this life. Christ's explosive entrance into human history as a squalling baby and his bloody exit as an executed criminal uncovers a divine plan for creation's redemption. That plan can only be revealed. It cannot be deduced from evidence, discovered by exploration, or guessed at by chance. What God has hidden, no man may find. . .unless God Himself shows the way. In the presence of his apostles, Jesus praises the Father, saying, “. . .for although you have hidden these things from the wise and the learned you have revealed them to the childlike.” The sword Christ wields against the bonds of sin creates another division: those who trust their own judgment and those who trust the way of the Lord. 

We might rightly wonder why learning and worldly wisdom prevents us from seeing and following the way to God's hidden truths. Knowing is not trusting. If you tell me that you trust your spouse's fidelity b/c your private detective lets you know what he/she is doing all day, every day, I would say to you that you might know that your spouse is being faithful but you do not trust his/her faithfulness. If you tell me that you trust in God b/c scientists now know that the laws of nature have an intelligent designer, I would say to you that you might know that there is an intelligent designer but you do not trust him. Knowing is not trusting; knowledge is not faith. Faith is freely invested, freely endowed. Faith is recklessly given, surrendered. Trust that results from evidence, experiment, exploration is not trust. At most, it's a feeling of confidence, a provisional grant that assures you. If your faith is based on the testimony of miracles, apparitions, locutions, based on anything other than the apostolic witness of the Church and your own experience with the power of Christ's sword to sever the bonds of sin, then your trust is not trust; it's knowledge. And knowing is not trusting. Knowledge is not faith. 

Does this mean that knowledge has no place in the life of faith? Absolutely not! It means that all that we come to know we know as those who have given their trust to God. It means that we begin with faith, a childlike trust in God, and then we walk His way to a more profound Truth, to those truths that take us behind and beyond the knowledge that reason alone acquires. Worldly learning and wisdom cannot reveal God's truth, but they can both supplement, lend strength to all that God has revealed. The trap we must avoid is the belief that knowing all there is to know about creation tells us all there is to know about the Creator. If—in some possible future—we come to know the most fundamental elements and operations of the universe, exhaust every scientific tool we have in the exploration of matter, energy, force, motion, space, and time, and uncover the unifying law of nature, we have learned no more about trusting God than a child learns by loving his mom and dad. Loving God is knowing God. If you will know God, then love Him and love all that He has created. No matter how much we might learn, how wise we might become, nothing can replace the saving power of faith. 

___________________

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Praising the Idols of Death

What do you get when you cross narcissism, postmodern nihilism, elitist feminism, and the worship of the idols of the Culture of Death?

You get this woman:

Since I was 12 I’ve had an unappealing, didactic distrust of people with the extreme will to live. My father’s parents were Holocaust survivors, and in grade school I received the de rigueur exposure to the horror—visiting geriatric men and women with numbers tattooed on their arms, completing assigned reading like The Diary of Anne Frank and Night. But the more information I received, the less sympathy the survivors elicited from me. Each time we clapped for the old Hungarian lady who spoke about Dachau, each time Elie Wiesel threw another anonymous anecdote of betrayal onto a page, I eyed it askance, thinking What did you do that you’re not talking about? I had the gut instinct that these were villains masquerading as victims who, solely by virtue of surviving (very likely by any means necessary), felt that they had earned the right to be heroes, their basic, animal self-interest dressed up with glorified phrases like “triumph of the human spirit.”

I wondered if anyone had alerted Hitler that in the event that the final solution didn’t pan out, only the handful of Jews who actually fulfilled the stereotype of the Judenscheisse (because every group has a few) would remain to carry on the Jewish race—conniving, indestructible, taking and taking. My grandparents were not excluded from this suspicion. The same year, during a family dinner conversation about Terri Schiavo, my father made the serious request that should he fall into a vegetative state, he would like for us to keep him on life support indefinitely. Today he and I are estranged for a number of other reasons that are all somehow the same reason. 

The ONLY redeeming element of this woman's post is the combox feedback.  There, my confidence in the goodness of humanity is restored.

H/T: MCJ

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Fr. Hollywood may not ad-lib. . .

Many liturgical ad-libbers and revolutionaries invoke the ever-malleable "Spirit of Vatican Two" to justify editing the text of the Mass to suit their personal whims.  

What do the actual texts of the Second Vatican Council say about ad-libbing the liturgy?

From The Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy (Sacrosanctum concilium):

III. The Reform of the Sacred Liturgy

[. . .]

A. General Norms

22. 

1.  Regulation of the sacred liturgy depends solely on the authority of the Church, that is, on the Apostolic See and, as laws may determine, on the bishop.

2.  In virtue of power conceded by the law, the regulation of the liturgy within certain defined limits belongs also to various kinds of competent territorial bodies of bishops legitimately established.

3.  Therefore no other person, even if he be a priest, may add, remove, or change anything in the liturgy on his own authority.

Therefore, no priest has the authority to ad-lib a liturgical text.  The Fathers of the Council make no exceptions for "pastoral concerns" or "cultural adaptations."  

Add.: One of the things I find interesting about the whole "Spirit of Vatican Two" excuse is that it seems that the Spirit inspired the Council Fathers to write X in the council documents but now inspires interpreters of those texts to believe that He really meant not-X. 

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