New Document from the ITC

The International Theological Commission has issued a new document titled, "Theology Today: Perspectives, Principles, and Criteria."  

Here are a few excepts from the Introduction and the first chapter:

2. To some extent, the Church clearly needs a common discourse if it is to communicate the one message of Christ to the world, both theologically and pastorally. It is therefore legitimate to speak of the need for a certain unity of theology. However, unity here needs to be carefully understood, so as not to be confused with uniformity or a single style. The unity of theology, like that of the Church, as professed in the Creed, must be closely correlated with the idea of catholicity, and also with those of holiness and apostolicity.

3. . .The present text accordingly consists of three chapters, setting out the following themes: in the rich plurality of its expressions, protagonists, ideas and contexts, theology is Catholic, and therefore fundamentally one, [1] if it arises from an attentive listening to the Word of God; [2] if it situates itself consciously and faithfully in the communion of the Church; [3] and if it is orientated to the service of God in the world, offering divine truth to the men and women of today in an intelligible form. 

5. Theology is scientific reflection on the divine revelation which the Church accepts by faith as universal saving truth. The sheer fulness and richness of that revelation is too great to be grasped by any one theology, and in fact gives rise to multiple theologies as it is received in diverse ways by human beings. In its diversity, nevertheless, theology is united in its service of the one truth of God. The unity of theology, therefore does not require uniformity, but rather a single focus on God’s Word and an explication of its innumerable riches by theologies able to dialogue and communicate with one another. Likewise, the plurality of theologies should not imply fragmentation or discord, but rather the exploration in myriad ways of God’s one saving truth. 

18. The intellectus fidei takes various forms in the life of the Church and in the community of believers in accordance with the different gifts of the faithful (lectio divina, meditation, preaching, theology as a science, etc.). It becomes theology in the strict sense when the believer undertakes to present the content of the Christian mystery in a rational and scientific way. Theology is therefore scientia Dei in as much as it is a rational participation in the knowledge that God has of himself and of all things. 

19. A criterion of Catholic theology is that, precisely as the science of faith, ‘faith seeking understanding [fides quaerens intellectum]’,  it has a rational dimension. Theology strives to understand what the Church believes, why it believes, and what can be known sub specie Dei. As scientia Dei, theology aims to understand in a rational and systematic manner the saving truth of God.

Grab a BIG mug of coffee and read the whole thing!
___________________

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

Recommend this post on Google!

I'm on the radio!

If you subscribe to Sirius Radio, tune in to the Catholic Channel on Friday (3/9) at Noon (Central) and listen to me ramble on about this Sunday's readings with Fr. Gabriel Gillen, OP!

Despite my warnings, the Good Friar has invited me on his show, Word of Life, to discuss the Mass readings for the 3rd Sunday of Lent. 

I warned him that I am an associative thinker with a keenly disorganized mind who usually stumbles onto something to preach about after hours of begging the Holy Spirit to throw me a scrap of something, anything to say.

He asked for it.

Oh, and I also promised him that I would cut back on the morning caffeine. . .yeah, right.

___________________

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

Recommend this post on Google!

What persuades you to follow Christ?

2nd Week of Lent (Th)
Fr. Philip Neri Powell, OP
St. Dominic Church, NOLA

One says, Jesus tells us a story about the evils of wealth. No, insists another, it's a story about collective sin and the need for social justice. Still others shout out their opinions: it's about the existence of purgatory and hell; no, Jesus is teaching us about not ignoring charity. Well, any of these could be part of the purpose of the story. I want to add a spin of my own, one that gives the story something more than a moral lesson: the story of Lazarus and the Rich Man is a story about persuasion; that is, what does it take to convince an incredulous soul that he or she is created for a reason greater than eating, sleeping, reproducing, and dying? Though the story Jesus tells starts with Lazarus, I would start at the end. The Rich Man pleas with Abraham to send someone to warn his brothers to repent so that they might avoid hell. Abraham answers, “If [your brothers] will not listen to Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded if someone should rise from the dead.” If they will not be persuaded by Moses, the prophets, or someone risen from the dead, what will persuade them? What persuaded you to follow Christ, to live a life beyond your basic biological urges?

Think for a moment about what it means to persuade. The word itself simply means to convince or to influence. We are persuaded by reason, emotion, force, authority, deception, and convention. Most of us would like to think we are persuaded by evidence reasonably evaluated. But few of us would radically alter the way we live our lives simply b/c someone gave us a good argument to do so. Emotion and social convention are likely the two most influential elements in our decision-making. For Christians, especially Catholics, authority plays a huge role in persuading us to accept or reject ideas about the faith. It's a bonus if authoritative persuasion is also rational, emotionally satisfying, and socially conventional, but authority alone is usually enough. And there's an excellent reason for saying that authority alone is usually enough to sway us. Simply put, we believe all that we believe b/c we accept the truthfulness of the biblical witnesses and the experiences of God handed on to us by the apostles, their successors, and our ancestors in the Church. Added to these witnesses is the testimony of our experiences with God within that long tradition. Other elements may contribute to the lasting power of our faith, but it is essentially our stubborn refusal to abandon apostolic authority that keeps us persuaded!

Abraham tells the Rich Man that his brothers will not be persuaded to repent even if someone rose from the dead and told them to repent. How does Abraham know this? Because thus far the brothers have refused to listen to the witness of Moses and the prophets; they have rejected the authority of their ancestors in the faith. If they will not leave their heart and mind open to being touched by God through His living Word, they cannot be persuaded in any meaningful way. Rational arguments do not produce faith. Emotion might produce faith but it just as easily destroys it. Social convention produces a trendy faith, one that changes as soon as the conventions do. A lasting faith is built on the solid foundation of the apostles' witness and the Church's Christ-given authority to define what is and is not necessary for salvation. Christ preached the Father's mercy to sinners. He rose from the dead and left us to persuade with our words and deeds that the Father is indeed merciful. So, the question isn't really, “What persuaded you to follow Christ?” but rather, “Are you—by your words and deeds—persuading others to follow him?”

__________________

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

Recommend this post on Google!

Coffee Bowl Browsing

Slippery Slope:  contraception --> sterilization --> abortion --> infanticide --> euthanasia.  Next?  Reducing gov't health care costs through "selective elimination of nonproductive, high risk persons."  

This is for all my Lefty Catholics friends who voted for B.O. b/c W. was an Evil War Monger.

A vid of B.O. from his days at Harvard showing him praising race-baiting hack, Derrick Bell.  I'd rather see his transcripts.

The Church of Big Gov't. . .I've said it before:  it's gonna get Ugly, people.  Gird dem loins.

Speaking of "getting Ugly," it's looking more and more like that woman denied communion at her mother's funeral in MD pulled one over on the Good Father.  Brothers, note well: gentle as doves, wily as serpents. 

Here's a wily priest speaking gently about B.O.'s violation of our religious liberty.

Hacker group crashes Vatican website. . .here's an example where the Church's reliance on the latest tech from the 19th century is a good thing.

_____________________

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

Recommend this post on Google!

Satan says, "Non serviam!"

2nd Week of Lent (W)
Fr. Philip Neri Powell, OP
St. Dominic Church, NOLA

Satan and his angels rebel against Heaven. For their punishment, the Lord casts them into Hell. There Satan languishes for nine days in the fiery lake. When he rouses himself, he speaks to his ally, Beelzebub, and the “lost Archangel” boasts of his prison, “Here at least/We shall be free; the Almighty hath not built/Here for his envy, will not drive us hence:/Here we may reign secure; and, in my choice,/To reign is worth ambition, though in Hell:/Better to reign in Hell than serve in Heaven.” Though sprung from the 17th century imagination of the English Protestant, John Milton, this crucial moment in Paradise Lost perfectly captures the voice to an ancient yet still breathing rebellion, the all-too-glib swagger of a sinner boasting aloud his own damnation, Non serviam. Where is this furnance-lake? Where does rebellion rule? In the heart and mind that brags about and revels in the demonic verse, “I will not serve.” Satan and his angels are driven from Heaven b/c they refuse to be great as our Lord is great. Jesus says, “. . .whoever wishes to be great among you shall be your servant; whoever wishes to be first among you shall be your slave.” When we seek to be masters in this world, we are placed in worldly chains. To be great in the Lord, we must be servants in the world. 

In his self-serving speech to Beelzebub, Satan tells an astonishing lie, “Here [in Hell] at least/We shall be free. . .” Only the corrupted mind of a demon could look at the prison of Hell and call himself free. No state of being outranks Hell in the absence of true freedom. Hell is the “state of definitive self-exclusion from communion with God and the blessed. . .”(CCC 1033). When we definitively, finally exclude ourselves from communion with God, we are in Hell. Since God—Who is Love, Truth, Beauty, and Freedom—is our supernatural end, our ultimate goal in this life and the life to come, the choices we make are freest when they bring us closer to our goal. If we have already given up on our goal of being with God forever, then every decision we make thereafter is chained to some other goal, some other end. Lucifer abandons his supernatural goal—one that he has already achieved as an angel—and chains himself to pride, jealousy, and power. To soothe his deeply wounded sense of self-esteem, He boasts that he would rather rule in Hell than serve in Heaven. The lie that he lives is this: even though he imagines himself to be the King of Hell, he is actually a slave to every sort of corruption. He serves while believing himself to be the master. 

All this talk about Lucifer's fall from heaven and his imaginary rise as Satan, King of Hell, serves to make a rather simple point: if we will to be free, we will serve. We will serve God, His creatures, His Church, and we will do so with the same love with which He loves us. This means setting aside willful pride, that entitled sense of self-sufficiency and independence; surrendering jealousy, the dangerous coveting of another's blessings and gifts; and the idolatrous worship of control, popularity, wealth, reputation, and the need to always be right. Loving and humble service given for the greater glory of God brings peace to a raucous mind and troubled heart. And the best way to set yourself on the road to destruction is to declare yourself independent from our only source of true freedom: service in love, service given for no other reason than because God loves you. Satan says it best, “I will not serve. For me, it is better to reign in Hell than serve in Heaven.” Good luck with that.

___________________

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

Recommend this post on Google!

Thanks

My thanks to the HA reader who sent me the Denzinger book!

There was no invoice in the package, so I can't pray for you by name.  

___________________

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

Recommend this post on Google!

Monday Fat Report (Octave): UPDATED

Come Back Week, baby!  :-)

-3 to 323lbs.  I was afraid that I had plateaued.  

Keep those prayers going. . .they are probably the only thing keeping me from ravaging the local Chinese buffet like a diet-crazed Godzilla.

Fr. Philip Neri, OP

P.S.  I've been informed by some Know-It-All with a calculator that 327-3=324 not 323, meaning I've allegedly lost four lbs instead of three.   This is obviously an accounting trick borrowed from B.O.'s economic advisory council.  I'll stick with the facts, thank you very much.

___________________

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

Recommend this post on Google!

Love + Truth = Holiness

NB.  After the 5.30pm Mass yesterday, a parishioner said to me, "Father, you sounded like Savonarola up there!"  Me, "Oh, that didn't end well for him, did it?"  Him, "No.  At least they hung him before setting him on fire."  Me, "Somehow, that's not comforting."  :-)

2nd Sunday of Lent 2012
Fr. Philip Neri Powell, OP
St. Dominic Church, NOLA

Amen, I say to you, you have heard it said—by pastors, preachers, confessors, teachers, the Pope, every Hallmark card you have ever received, and your mama—you have heard it said that God loves you. And indeed He does. He can do nothing else for He is Love. Our heavenly Father is not a being that loves us most of the time, or on occasion, or only when we deserve it. Love is Who He is and What He does—eternally, without conditions, and for a single all-encompassing purpose: to change those who will receive His love into a holy people. The question—does God love me?—should never cross your mind. Why? Let's exercise our logic muscles: God is Love. You live and move and have you being in God. Only existing creatures are capable of asking questions. “Does God love me?” is a question, therefore you exist. Therefore, God loves you. To put that a bit more succinctly: that you (an existing creature) can ask the question at all means that God loves you. So, let's retire the question of whether or not God loves us. If He didn't, He would not exist and neither would any of us. There is a question about God and love that must be asked, and asked daily: do I love God? If so, what purpose does my love for God serve? On Mt. Tabor—in the presence of Peter, James, and John—the transfigured Christ gives us the answer. We love God for the same reason He loves us: so that we may be made holy.

Since we've retired the question of whether or not God loves us (He does and can do nothing less), and we already know why He loves us (so that we may be made holy), and we've answered the question about why we love God in turn (so that we may help God make us holy), let's ask a more practical question: how do we help God make us holy? That is, what do we do/think/say/feel on a day to day basis that assists God's love for us so that we are actually growing in holiness? Loving God, yourself, your family and friends, your neighbors, and even loving your enemies is easy in the abstract. It's easy to sit back and radiate an aura of loving care; it's easy to say, “I love my neighbors and all my enemies;” it's easy to think sweet thoughts about the poor, the persecuted, and the sick. It is far more difficult to get out there and perform loving acts; to perform forgiveness; to show mercy; to treat everyone you meet—at WalMart, at the bank, at the office, in traffic—to treat everyone you meet as another soul deeply in love with God and eternally loved by God. This is why the Church has always bound faith and works together: our loving works demonstrate our trust in God and our trust in God is made real in our loving works. When we fail to love, we confess these failures as sins in thought, word, and deed. So, how do we help God make us holy? Well, first, we understand that loving God and those He loves is not simply an abstract, intellectual exercise; next, we understand that love is a behavior—like driving or walking or getting dressed. To love is to see, hear, think about, and treat yourself and everyone else the way God Himself treats us all. With kindness, compassion, dignity, patience, and forgiveness. Do this and you grow in holiness. You become more like Christ. You are transfigured.

Becoming more like Christ is we have vowed to do. But we need to hear this: loving God, self, and everyone else—becoming more like Christ—is dangerous. Dangerous how? Besides Jesus' promises of persecution, trial, and death for those who follow him, we can point to the forty days he spent in the desert being tempted by Satan. We too are tempted by Satan with the lures of popularity, prestige, worldly power, and personal satisfaction. The Devil always takes God's gifts and tweaks them ever-so-slightly and then presents them to us infected with his poison. God's love and His command to us to love is no different. With God's love and His command to love comes His truth and His command to obey the truth. Love and truth cannot be separated. When we love intensely, we dwell intensely in the truth. Note well that the Devil never lied when he tempted Christ in the desert. Everything he said to Jesus was true; however, he was motivated by a desire for worship and power not love. We find ourselves similarly tempted. The Devil plays on our desire to love by pointing out all the ways we appear to fail at love. He accuses the Church of not loving women b/c we truthfully name artificial contraception, abortion, and sterilization evil. He accuses us of hatred b/c we truthfully call sex outside of a sacramental marriage evil. He accuses us of not loving orphans b/c we cannot place them in homes with two fathers or two mothers. He accuses us of not loving non-Christians b/c we truthfully teach that Christ is the only name under heaven through which all are saved. What Satan is tempting us to do, want us to do, is sever truth from love and love without truth. This we cannot do b/c our Christ is the truth, the way, and the life. And we follow him so that we will be transfigured, made holy in love and truth.

Satan and the world he rules teaches that “Love” is to be practiced without Truth. Love w/o truth is nothing more than lukewarm tolerance or indifferent permissiveness, an emotion that feels good to emote but ultimately leaves those who live it living a lie. Godly love is always true. Never a lie. True love is always gives the glory to God. Never to man. Love always carries us to goodness; never to evil. Love always binds us in obedience; it never frees us to be disobedient. Godly love always heals, always cleans, sometimes hurts, sometimes cuts away. Love never winks at sin, shrugs at injustice, or ignores the poor. Love always looks to Christ, his church, and his Mother. Love never uses the bottom-line, the convenient, the practical, or the efficient to destroy God’s creatures, especially His unborn children. Love always encourages spiritual growth from faithful experience. Love never gives hope to novelty for novelty’s sake nor does love trust innovation for the sake of excitement. Love can be a terrible whirlwind, a stone-shattering blow, a heart-ripping loss. But love always builds up in perfection, grows in wisdom and kindness; love attracts questions about eternal things, discourages attachment to impermanent things; and, when necessary, love will kick your butt, take your name, and call your mama! The love that Satan and the world he rules wants to settle for is a passion for indifference, permissiveness, choice w/o consequence, and, ultimately, death.

Will you be made holy? Let's ask that differently: do you will to be made holy? If you will to become a well-oiled, surgical tool for God’s Word, you will love as He loves you. You will speak the truth and only the truth; you will spread goodness and only goodness; you will honor beauty and only beauty; you will correct error, confront sin, expose lies, forgive all offenses; and you will build up his Body with works of mercy and open the doors of your faith to the stranger. And you will remember—if you will to be made holy—that you are not alone. God is with us, who can stand against Him?

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

Coffee Bowl Browsing

Rally for Religious Freedom:  March 23rd!  Any plans in your area?  Will you attend? 

Massive lies about the HHS violation of our religious liberty.  NB:  do not surrender the terms of the argument by referring to this controversy as "a fight over contraception."  That's what B.O. wants you to do. 

Speaking of massive lies about the mandate, here's one of the biggest:  opponents of the mandate want to ban contraception.  Now, tell me this whole controversy wasn't staged for short-term political gain.

The Catholic Senators who voted against our religious liberty.  One of my Senators voted against the Blunt Amendment:  Mary Landrieu.

It's looking more and more like that Denial of Communion in Maryland was a set up.  At the very least, the woman involved is spinning the story to politically embarrass the priest and the Church. 

Documents show that Pope Pius XII was not Hitler's Pope. 

We used to have a dog that would ball up all of our area rugs when we left her alone.

_____________________

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

Recommend this post on Google!

Love those who hate you. . .

1st Week of Lent (S)
Fr. Philip Neri Powell, OP
St. Dominic Church, NOLA

That we may be children of our heavenly Father, we must love our enemies, pray for them, especially those who persecute us. If there's a teaching in scripture that is more contrary to our animal instinct for self-preservation than this one, I'm not sure what it is. Loving family and friends comes easily. We can even manage to love God and ourselves without too much difficulty. But loving and praying for those who would see us destroyed is not only contrary to our survival it is downright suicidal. If our enemies defeat us b/c they are stronger, smarter, and more numerous, well, that's unfortunate for us but we can at least grasp the idea that we lost b/c our enemies were stronger, smarter, and more numerous. What is beyond comprehension is the idea that we would lose b/c we were too busy loving and praying to fight with all our strength, all our smarts, and all our numbers! That's not a battle, it's a retreat, a surrender. And it's suicide. Jesus must be winking at the disciples when he teaches them to love and pray for their enemies. He must've spoken this nonsense in a sarcastic tone. As strange as it might be to hear: no, he's deadly serious and there was no winking. We defeat our enemies by wielding a weapon called Truth. “[The Father] makes his sun rise on the bad and the good, and causes rain to fall on the just and the unjust.” God loves those who hate us. And we must be perfect as He is perfect. 

If we will be the children of our heavenly Father, we must be perfect as He is perfect. God is perfect in His love. He is Love. Love is Who He is and What He does. In every thought we think, every word we speak, and every deed we do, we too must be thinkers, speakers, and doers of love. If we pick and choose whom to love, sort through the options and select this one or that to love but not that one or this one, then we do not love as God loves. The sun shines on both the good and the bad; the rain falls on our friends and our enemies. Jesus asks us, “. . . if you love those who love you, what compensation will you have? Do not [traitors] do the same? And if you greet your brothers and sisters only, what is unusual about that?” In other words, how does loving only those who love you make you a child of the Father? What truth are you living when you only pray for those who pray for you? “Do not the pagans do the same?” Why imitate those who would see us destroyed? Yes, we might die if we love them, but it would not be by suicide.

The key to understanding this difficult teaching is to understand that Jesus is pointing us to our lives beyond this one. Though our mortal lives are immensely important, they are not ultimately important; that is, in the Father's plan for our salvation, our immortal lives, it is more important that we practice love than it is to merely survive. It is essential to our eternal survival that we practice the love He gives us by loving those He Himself loves. Our enemies hate us. We can fight them with our own hatred, and we might even mortally defeat them. But in fighting them with hatred, we are immortally defeated. We become our own enemy, haters of self and God. Jesus understands our natural instinct for survival, but he pushes us to think and feel beyond the limits of this mortal life and live in the perfection of his Father's love right now. We trust in the loving-goodness of our God. And this is our fundamental strength, our deadliest weapon against the hatred of our enemies. If we bombard them with prayer, then both we and they win the battle against our mutual enemy—Sin and the death it brings.

___________________

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

Recommend this post on Google!

More thanks. . .

Wow!  Three books in two days. . .just like the Old Days!

Thanks to Tara G. and Lynn C. for the old school books and Greg F. for the Kindle Book.

You guys made my otherwise mundane day!

God bless, Fr. Philip Neri, OP

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

On being denied communion at your mother's funeral Mass. . .

A couple of HA readers have written to ask me to comment on the recent controversy about the Maryland priest who denied communion to a self-identified lesbian at her mother's funeral. 

Fr. Marcel Guarnizo's superiors in the archdiocese have apologized to the woman, Barbara Johnson, and she's made a national media tour trashing the priest and demanding that he be suspended from ministry.  She fervently claims that she is not trying to make a political point or subject the Church to ridicule.  Given the media circus she's stirred up and her ridiculous demands, that's hard to believe.  She has also accused the priest of "bringing his politics" into the Church, an accusation that tells me she knows little about the faith she claims to profess.  And, of course, the media are playing this up from its usual left-liberal, anti-Catholic ideological biases. 

IF--and that's a huge IF--we have the whole story, then I would have to say that the woman should not have been denied communion.  I would never deny anyone communion w/o first talking to them privately.  And even then I would need to consult the bishop.  Though I often fail, I always try to presume the presence of grace.

Many supporting the priest's actions cite canon law and the obligation of priests to "protect the sacrament."  The requirements of canon law on this issue are hotly contested, but I do think it's clear that anyone denied communion must be obstinately, gravely sinful and their sin must create a public scandal.  Whether or not this woman fits the bill is doubtful.  And that's sufficient in my mind to err on the side of giving her communion.  If she were a parishioner, I'd ask to meet with her and discuss the Church's teaching on same-sex relationships and the necessity of being properly disposed to receive communion.  If she persisted in the relationship and still came forward for communion, a conversation with the bishop would follow.  

I think the Good Father made a snap decision in good conscience.  There's no reason to believe that he was being mean-spirited or uncharitable.  In fact, evidence demonstrates that he is anything but mean-spirited and uncharitable.   He's an excellent pastor by all accounts and his superiors in the archdiocese threw him under the bus in order to short-circuit any unpleasant controversy with the gay community.  The apology issued by the archdiocese makes no mention of the Church's teaching on same-sex relationships or the necessity of being properly disposed to receive communion. 

If anything good can come out of this mess, let it be this:  pastors DO NOT allow eulogies at funeral Masses.  The bishops have discouraged them precisely b/c individuals often use them to tell inappropriate stories about the deceased; take cheap pot shots at the Church; ridicule the faith in general; and to try and settle old family feuds.   I always tell the deceased's family that stories can be told at the grave site but not during the Mass.

___________________

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

Recommend this post on Google!

A new Dominican preaching blog. . .

The (In)famous Fr. Lawrence Lew, OP has started a homily blog, Releasing the Arrow!

You may be familiar with his work on Godzdogs or The New Liturgical Movement.

Fr. Lew is a Dominican friar of the English Province currently serving as campus minister at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland.

___________________

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

Recommend this post on Google!

No sign for you!

1st Week of Lent (W)
Fr. Philip Neri Powell, OP
St. Dominic Church, NOLA

Recently, I wandered out of the priory to search for some summer clothes. With an address and a printed Google map in hand, I headed out west toward Clearview Parkway to a men's clothing store that caters to those of us who require a bit more yardage in our wardrobe; that's to say this particular store has what I call a “Deep and Wide” department. While trying to find this store, I discovered that following a Google map of New Orleans is a lot like looking for pirate treasure using map on the back of a Captain Crunch cereal box. Less than useless. For example, I passed the store and needed to turn around. Easy. Just make a left turn, right? Wrong. The road was being repaired and drivers we directed by a large sign to make a complicated detour. So, I made the detour. But I couldn't get back on the parkway b/c another sign prohibited left turns. So, I drove a little further to make the turn. No dice. Looming ahead was the Hughey Long Bridge. I had to turn left at the next opportunity or go over the bridge. This opportunity arrived and proved worthy of New Orleans traffic. Another large sign directed traffic to turn left for a detour and another smaller sign just underneath it read, “No left turns.” I can now say that I've driven over the Hughey Long Bridge! The lesson here is: roads signs are useful only if they make sense, and in making sense of them, it helps to know the history of the place.

When Jesus tells the crowd that no other sign than the sign of Jonah will be given them, they know which sign he's talking about even if they're bit confused about how to read it. What the crowd would prefer is an unambiguous sign of Jesus' divine power. Call down some angels. Turn a big rock into gold. Change the desert into an oasis. A bold, dramatic sign; something obviously and undeniably divine. Jesus refuses to do this b/c he sees their clamoring for divine signs as a sign of their evil intent, a sign that they are not yet ready to trust in the Word of their Father. What good is a sign if the one reading it doesn't understand its meaning? What good is a sign if the one reading it isn't ready to follow its direction? Jesus knows that a heart needing proof is not a heart eager to trust. Rather than give the crowd a useless sign, he tells them—in effect—to wait and watch. Their much-requested sign was on its way: he would be killed and three days later he would rise from his tomb. Only those eager to trust in his Word would correctly read this sign of Jonah.

We know Jonah's story and we know that Jesus was killed and rose from his tomb. Still, like the evil generation that Jesus' refuses to coddle, we too clamor for signs. Living in this world of trials and temptations will send even the most faithful among us to our knees begging God for a clearer sign of His presence, a more tangible hint of His loving-care. We could see this as a weakness, a moment of betrayal; or, we could see it for what it really is: a chance to learn how to read the signs of His love a little more clearly. Faith is a powerful clarifying agent, a mighty force that draws sharp distinctions and provides trustworthy direction. Signs of God's love flood our daily lives, overwhelming any and all attempts by the Enemy to confuse and discourage us. The Lenten desert is the perfect time and place for us to beg God to strengthen our faith so that His signs become glaring neon and unmistakable. Start by giving Him thanks for His signs, especially when you don't see them clearly. Gratitude magnifies the smallest blessing into the brightest sign.

___________________

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

Recommend this post on Google!

Coffee Bowl Browsing

Democrat Rep booed by her bosses after she mouths W.H. talking points defending the HHS violation of our religious liberties.   This scene needs to be repeated nationwide.

Lefty Sisters pat B.O. and B.O.Care on the back.  Too bad the apostolic visitation was total bust. . .Naming Names: the signatories of the Court brief.

Interesting. . .self-insuring unions have been exempted from ObamaCare mandates.  But self-insuring religious institutions have not.  I guess those religious nuts haven't paid up their protection money. 

Young woman apologizes to the Religion of Peace in Afghanistan for those American soldiers who threw themselves in front of terrorist bullets. (Language warning)

Too bad Christians can't get someone in the W.H. to apologize to us for violating our God-given religious liberties. 

Walker Percy:  a candidate for suicide?  Fr. Robert Barron. . .

The Curt Jester has links to lots of BXVI ebooks.   Great Lenten reading!

Liberal Catholic Elite betray their tradition of supporting religious liberty.

Quick look at some basic logical fallacies in philosophy and theology.  These are the most common fallacies we all make all the time.

BBC boss confesses that programming critical of Islam is a No-No.  Anti-Christian programming is OK.

"I'd rather go to heaven with the androids."  Heh.

This is me today. . .sans the cool hat.

Nutella. . .it does a body good.

__________________

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

Recommend this post on Google!

Thanks!

A Thank You Shout Out to Brad and Adrienne P. from OR for the two BXVI books!

I've added these two to my Lenten List. . .God bless, Fr. Philip Neri, OP

___________________

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

Recommend this post on Google!

Will the Church have to give up hospitals for Lent?

Cardinal George of Chicago asks whether or not the Church will be forced to sacrifice her charitable institutions in the next few years.  I believe that this is the ultimate goal of the B.O. administration.  Mammon doesn't like competition. . .and right now, the Church is the only force standing in the way of Mammon's near total control of our lives. 

Why does a governmental administrative decision now mean the end of institutions that have been built up over several generations from small donations, often from immigrants, and through the services of religious women and men and others who wanted to be part of the church’s mission in healing and education? Catholic hospitals, universities and social services have an institutional conscience, a conscience shaped by Catholic moral and social teaching. The HHS regulations now before our society will make it impossible for Catholic institutions to follow their conscience.

[. . .]

What will happen if the HHS regulations are not rescinded? A Catholic institution, so far as I can see right now, will have one of four choices: 1) secularize itself, breaking its connection to the church, her moral and social teachings and the oversight of its ministry by the local bishop. This is a form of theft. It means the church will not be permitted to have an institutional voice in public life. 2) Pay exorbitant annual fines to avoid paying for insurance policies that cover abortifacient drugs, artificial contraception and sterilization. This is not economically sustainable. 3) Sell the institution to a non-Catholic group or to a local government. 4) Close down.

[. . .]

Practically, we’re told that the majority of Catholics use artificial contraception. There are properly medical reasons, in some circumstances, for the use of contraceptive pills, as everyone knows. But even if contraceptives were used by a majority of couples only and exclusively to suppress a possible pregnancy, behavior doesn’t determine morality. If it can be shown that a majority of Catholic students cheat on their exams, it is still wrong to cheat on exams. Trimming morality to how we behave guts the Gospel call to conversion of life and rejection of sin.

[. . .]

The provision of health care should not demand “giving up” religious liberty. Liberty of religion is more than freedom of worship. Freedom of worship was guaranteed in the Constitution of the former Soviet Union. You could go to church, if you could find one. The church, however, could do nothing except conduct religious rites in places of worship-no schools, religious publications, health care institutions, organized charity, ministry for justice and the works of mercy that flow naturally from a living faith. All of these were co-opted by the government. We fought a long cold war to defeat that vision of society.

[. . .]

Kudos to the Good Cardinal for this article! 

The most distressing part of this scandal is speed and eagerness with which some Catholics--including whole institutions and religious orders--have raced to the emperor's temples to toss their handful of incense on the altars' braziers.  

In the name of serving the poor (with tax dollars), these Catholics have sacrificed (quite literally) the lives of the children they claim to serve.  In their utilitarian moral calculus, the loss of our religious liberty and the funding of mortal sin are acceptable prices for us to pay for universal health care (assuming that's what ObamaCare is giving us). 

This will be a long Lent, folks.

___________________

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

Recommend this post on Google!

Fat Monday Report: 0

Nothing lost, nothing gained.

327 lbs.

Gonna do better this week!
___________________

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

Recommend this post on Google!

Thanks!

My thanks to Jason S. for the Kindle Book!  

Lots of activity on the regular Wish List too. . .hmmmm. . .I wonder if some HA readers decided to buy me some books for Lent.

God bless, Fr. Philip, OP

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

The deadliest traps have the sweetest bait. . .

1st Week of Lent (M)
Fr. Philip Neri Powell, OP
St. Dominic Church, NOLA

We've entered the Lenten desert with Christ and for forty days the Enemy will aggressively attack us, tempting us to betray our Lord and his Church. Like Christ in the desert, the Enemy will tempt us to turn away from God and embrace the kingdom of this world. In exchange for betraying the faith, we are promised the praise of our Social Betters; political influence and prestige; access to the public treasury and the use of public property; the approval of those who would otherwise cast stones and see us driven from the public square; and the promise to leave us alone to worship as we like within the walls of our churches. The deadliest traps must be set with the sweetest bait. What the Enemy knows and we ought to know is that so long as we agree that these grants of privilege are his to give, they are also his to revoke. The trap currently awaiting the Church has been set using the Lord's own words from today's gospel, “Amen, I say to you, whatever you did for one of these least brothers of mine, you did for me.” To the Church in the Lenten desert circa 2012, the Enemy says, “If you would serve the least of His, you must serve me first.” 

For 20 centuries, Christians have embraced teaching of Matthew 25, building, staffing, and maintaining hospitals, orphanages, universities, hospices, travelers' way stations, national and international charitable institutions totaling billions of dollars annually in free food, medical care, housing, and education. The Catholic Church is the single largest private provider of relief from the ravages of poverty, disease, and ignorance in the world. In fact, without the Church's determination to follow the teachings of Christ, there would be no universities, no hospitals, no orphanages, no scientific institutions; there would no concept of universal human rights; no understanding of individual freedom; no articulation or defense of human dignity. Without the Church's determination to follow the teachings of Christ, the west would likely still practice slavery, infanticide, gladiatorial games, constant tribal warfare, and the subjugation of women and children under the absolute authority of their male relatives. It is because the Church has embraced the least of God's children that we as a culture are civilized at all. Without a grounding in the teachings of Christ, none of what we have achieved will stand against the temptations of the Enemy, and nothing he offers us is worth the damnation of a single soul.

What every Christian must keep in sharp focus during these tempting times is that we serve the least of God's children out of love and for the greater glory of God. The problems inherent in a fallen world are with us until Christ comes again. Nothing we do will ever end hunger or disease or poverty or ignorance. That's not our goal. Our goal is to love and serve God and one another: the poor, the oppressed, the sick, the dying, and the imprisoned, to love and serve them for no other reason than that God loves them. When we love and serve the least of His, we praise His glory and show the power of His mercy for sinners. We are not charged with the duty of building a just world. We are vowed to live in the world as a just people. We are not charged with the duty of bringing peace to the world. We are vowed to live in the world as a peaceable people. Our duty is to live now as we would live in heaven—loving, serving, praising God by loving and serving those most of need of His care. We cannot do our duty to God and serve the Enemy at the same time. When tempted to do both, we must always choose God.

____________________

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

Recommend this post on Google!

Coffee Cup Browsing

Turning the Crystal Cathedral into a real cathedral?  I say:  raze it and start over.  

No, you do not have to confess missing Mass on Ash Wednesday. 

Anti-Catholic bigotry in the MSM:  a roundup.

Is it permissible to remove holy water from the church's fonts and replace it with sand during Lent?  NO.

Say the Black, Do the Red:  priest fired for his obstinate clericalism.

Pelosi says that the Church wants the feds to enforce a contraception ban.  Where's Thomas a Becket when you need him?

An Irish Lenten tradition. . .as only the Irish can do it.
___________________

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

Recommend this post on Google!

Thanks!

Many thanks to Michael S. for the Kindle Book!

Be assured of my prayers for you and your family, Michael.

God bless, Fr. Philip Neri, OP

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

Regs on Lenten Abstinence and Fasting

From the USCCB:

Ash Wednesday and Good Friday are obligatory days of universal fast and abstinence. Fasting is obligatory for all who have completed their 18th year and have not yet reached their 60th year. Fasting allows a person to eat one full meal. Two smaller meals may be taken, not to equal one full meal. Abstinence (from meat) is obligatory for all who have reached their 14th year.

If possible, the fast on Good Friday is continued until the Easter Vigil (on Holy Saturday night) as the "paschal fast" to honor the suffering and death of the Lord Jesus, and to prepare ourselves to share more fully and to celebrate more readily his Resurrection. 

Fridays in Lent are obligatory days of complete abstinence (from meat) for all who have completed their 14th year.

More links on the USCCB website.

___________________

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

Recommend this post on Google!

You Have a Choice to Make

Thursday after Ash Wednesday 2012
Fr. Philip Neri Powell, OP
St. Dominic Church, NOLA

Americans love options. We love the fact that we can walk into just about any store and have our choice of products. Different sizes, flavors, shapes, and prices. Take milk as an example: whole milk, skim milk, buttermilk, low fat, fat-free, 1%, 2%, organic, soy, half/half, heavy cream, milk with acidophilus, and even lactose-free milk. As the world's leading consumers, we thrive on the illusion that having these options available somehow gives us control of our lives! Choosing from a menu of options is a very American way of expressing our individuality, of showing others that we are independent and discriminating consumers. What we really don't like is being told that there are only two choices. Black or white but no gray. Yes or no but no maybe. Moses, for example, would've made a terrible American salesman. Here's his pitch, “Today I have set before you life and prosperity, death and doom. . .obey the commandments of the Lord. . .loving him, and walking in his ways [and] you will live [and He] will bless you in the land you are entering to occupy. If, however, you turn away your hearts and will not listen. . .and adore and serve other gods. . .you will certainly perish. . .” What?! Only two choices? Where's the compromise? The dialogue? Moses answers, “Choose life. . .that you and your descendants may live, by loving the Lord, your God.”

As a reformed secular humanist, I can tell you that this kind of Black/White thinking drives the enemies of the Church crazy! It drives them nuts when we say that abortion is always—under all circumstances—a moral evil. It drives them nuts when we say that women can never be ordained priests. They go bonkers when we claim that other faiths might teach religious truths but only the Church teaches the fullness of truth necessary for salvation. Those superlatives—always, never, only—send secularists into fits b/c they see themselves as the guardians of infinite options, the defenders of relative truth and value. Their Pick & Choose ideology demands that the we, the world, and even God Himself bow before their inalienable right to fashion for themselves a comfortable reality, a reality that somehow always manages to cater to every individual whim and “felt need.” For them, life is one long bargaining session, one long shopping spree.

For us Christians, reality is a little less confusing, a little less crowded with options. Moses says, “I have set before you life and prosperity, death and doom.” Now, choose. Love and obey God and you will prosper. Turn your backs on Him and worship false gods and you will surely perish. Jesus lays these choices out for us in slightly different terms, “I must suffer, be rejected, killed and on the third day be raised. . .If anyone wishes to come after me, he must deny himself, take up his cross daily, and follow me.” What?! That's it? Where's the compromise? The dialogue? Can I follow you w/o a cross? Can I take up my cross but not follow? How about denying myself, leaving out the cross, and just staying at home? What are my options here? Jesus answers, “Come after me or don't. Those are your choices.” Lent is an excellent season for contemplating this decision. And as the Church is pressed more and more in our consumer culture, making that decision becomes more and more imperative. Those who see our faith as an obstacle to their lifestyle options want to know if you are going to follow Christ or wait to defend their never ending shopping spree. Those are your options. Choose.

___________________

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

Recommend this post on Google!

Abstinence & Fasting: Just Do It!

Question:  "Father, what's the difference between abstinence and fasting?"

Answer:  Good question!  Since the Protestantizers squeezed an imaginary "spirit" out of Vatican Two and threw out many of our cherished Catholic traditions in the name of reform*, Catholics have been dazed and confused about abstinence and fasting. 

The two are easily distinguished:

Abstinence:  abstaining from eating X (usually meat).

Fasting:  eating less of everything.

On Friday's during Lent, Catholic abstain from meat and fast.  Fasting usually entails eating one small meal and two snacks.  Check your diocesan website for specific regulations.  

There are as many reasons for abstaining and fasting as there are Catholics.  Traditionally, the Lenten abstinence and fast is meant to rekindle in us a deep sense of humility, that is, a profound awareness that we are totally dependent on God for everything we have.  This evokes gratitude, which strengthens humility.

Most Catholics usually "give up" something for Lent as well; for example, coffee, smoking, chocolate, booze, etc.  I encourage Catholic to "take up" a devotional practice (rosary, Adoration, weekly confession) or focus on amending a habitual sin (gossip, missing Sunday Mass).  

Here's the thing:  being a faithful Catholic isn't supposed to be easy!  We've spent the last forty years trying to rub the hard edges off our faith in order to "fit in" with our Protestant Betters.  This has largely been a project of the Baby Boomers who find their grandparents' peasant Catholicism to be an embarrassment.  

The effort to Americanize the Church has led to numerous problems, including (but not limited to) a lazy attitude toward fulfilling the Sunday Mass obligation, frequent confession, the Lenten fast, and a general decline in the morality of Catholics across the board (use of contraception, abortion, co-habitation). Not to mention a dramatic decline in young men and women answering their call to serve the Church as priests and religious.

Nowhere in scripture, the Church Fathers, conciliar documents, or magisterial teaching will you read anything like the following, "Being Catholic is easy!  Just be nice to people and do what you can when you can!"  

Our faith demands perseverance, constant attention, and prayer.  Human beings are fundamentally good.  We are creatures of a loving God Who wants us to use His gifts to improve ourselves, to make ourselves holy for His greater glory!

Yes, God loves you just the way you are.  God is love, so loving is what He does by nature.  But He loves you SO THAT you will grow in righteousness.  One small way to jump start that process is to observe the Church's regulations on the Lenten fast. 

To borrow from the world of American commerce:  JUST DO IT!

*The actual documents of VC2 call for "renewal" and "repair."

___________________

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

Recommend this post on Google!

Still sick. . .

Apparently, I'm not over the flu.  Got really dizzy after imposing ashes at the 12.15 Mass and had to sit out communion.  

Cold sweat, dizziness, fever. . .   :-(

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

Recommend this post on Google!

Ash Wednesday: We're on a Deadline!

Ash Wednesday 2012
Fr. Philip Neri Powell, OP
St. Dominic Church, NOLA

Remember that you are dust! Remember that we are impermanent, transient, just passing through and passing away. From the moment we are conceived, we are dying. And the time in between is our time to receive the gift of eternal life—a permanent, imperishable life lived in the presence of God. Catholics have never shied away from the truth of mortality: we are here temporarily. But also know that dying is not our purpose, our reason for living. We are given breath so that we might give to God the praise and glory due His name; so that we might sow and harvest the fruits of His Word among His people. Our mortal task is to give our hearts, minds, and hands to the cultivation of our Lord's love. Remembering that we are dust, remembering that we are passing through and passing away is at once a call to pay attention to the work we've been given and a reminder that each of us works on a deadline. While you pray, fast and give alms during the next 40 days, rise and rest giving God thanks for everything He has given you, for everything that you are, and for everything you can become with His mercy.

___________________

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

Recommend this post on Google!

5 Things To Do With Your Ashes

Go git dem ashes!!!

And here's five things you can do once you Get Yours:

1).  Carefully cover your ashen cross with a big piece of clear packing tape so that it doesn't smear during the day.

2).  Use Elmer's Glue to outline your ashes and then sprinkle it liberally with glitter.

3).  Add two more ashen crosses on each side of the original and tell everyone you're fasting for the two pagans in your in family.

4).   Keep a small container of ashes in your pocket.  When someone says, "Hey, you got a little dirt on your forehead," whip out the ashes and Give Them Theirs before they can flee.

5).  Wash them off. . .you know, like Jesus tells us to do in today's gospel.  

Happy Fasting, folks!

___________________

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

Recommend this post on Google!

Fat Report Monday (Octave) +2

I completely forgot about Fat Report Monday!

+2 up to 327 lbs.  Not a great week.  Flu.  Not enough moving around.  Flopping around in bed coughing and sneezing doesn't count.

____________________

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

Recommend this post on Google!

Confession & Forgiveness: An Analogy

You and best friend have a fight.  You go to home and so does BF.

That night your BF prays and decides to forgive you.  BF sends you an email informing you of his/her forgiveness.

You read the email and decide to put off responding until tomorrow.  Tomorrow comes and goes.  The next day, the next week.  You get another email from BF.  You're still angry at BF and brooding over the fight.  Six months later you get another email from BF.   Before you know it, a year has passed and you still haven't responded to your BF's declarations of forgiveness.

You do a little checking with mutual friends and discover that BF has moved on in life and is apparently thriving in a new job and a new child.  BF asked around about you for a month or two and expressed regret about the fight but said that he/she was over it and just wanted to be friends again. 

While you've been wallowing in self-pity and anger, BF has forgiven you.  But the friendship cannot be re-established until you respond to BF's declarations of forgiveness.  BF can send you an email of forgiveness every minute of everyday until he/she dies, but there can be no friendship until you respond by receiving his/her forgiveness.  

Confession is about receiving the forgiveness that God has already given to us in the life, death, and resurrection of Christ!  All we have to do is go get it. Then your friendship with God is re-established. 

___________________

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

Recommend this post on Google!

Show us Godly wisdom!

7th Week OT (M)
Fr. Philip Neri Powell, OP
St. Dominic Church, NOLA

Let's see: who among you is wise and understanding? Show your hand! Anyone? No takers, a few takers? OK. Who among you is wise and understanding? Show your works! Show us a good life lived in the humility that comes from wisdom. Let's see you live day to day immersed in the love of God and in the full knowledge that you are totally dependent on Him for everything you have and everything you are. What should we see if we were to observe a wise and understanding soul live day to day? According to James, such a soul would be “peaceable, gentle, compliant, full of mercy and good fruits,” constant and sincere. A foolish and ignorant soul, James writes, is infested with “bitter jealousy and selfish ambition,” plagued by a manner of thinking and living, a wisdom that is “earthly, unspiritual, [and] demonic.” What distinguishes the wise soul from the foolish soul is not wisdom per se but the source of one's wisdom. The wisdom that brings peace comes down from above and is “first of all pure.” It's that divine purity that gives one's wisdom fertility, the unfettered ability to cultivate peace.

If you had to name the one thing you are pursuing in this life, what would it be? I hope, I pray, most of us here tonight would say, “I'm pursuing holiness by following Christ!” If we were wade into the Madri Gras crowds down on St. Charles tomorrow and ask, “What are you pursing in this life?” we might get a few coherent answers. More than likely, we'd get a Hurricane thrown in our face! Whether we know it or not, we are all chasing after something; we are all following behind someone or some idea. . .even if that someone is a potential mate or that idea is “just make it one more day.” We were created to desire the Good and we are given the tools to sift through all the flotsam we encounter to find the Good. But how often do we choose the Good? We desire it and we have what it takes to recognize it, but do we deliberately select what is Good and reject what it evil? The selection process can be daunting, even overwhelming if you are relying on human knowledge and experience alone. Thus, James tells us that true wisdom is Godly wisdom, “first of all [it is] pure,” from above. When you place yourself at the disposal of Godly wisdom, you place yourself in the way of righteousness, which is guaranteed to bear abundant fruit. And the first fruit of righteousness is peace.

Wisdom is one of those tricky words that needs a little explanation. Think of human wisdom this way: take knowledge add experience, throw in some prudence and over time you get human wisdom. A very valuable resource. More valuable still is Godly wisdom. Take knowledge gained from revelation (scripture, Christ, and creation) add the experience of the whole Church (2,000 yrs. of sacred tradition), throw in some faith, some prudence, and lots of perseverance and you get about as close to Godly wisdom as you can get this side of heaven. The difference that makes the difference here when it comes to fruitfulness is the source of the wisdom at work. Human wisdom can never evolve faster than humanity itself. Godly wisdom is always several stages beyond where we absolutely need it to be. This is why we are constantly astonished by the works of faith. This is why we are amazed by the lives of the saints. This is why we keep coming back to God over and over again no matter how many times we've run the other way. Who among you is wise and understanding? Show your works! Show us a good life lived in the humility that comes from Godly wisdom.

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

Just Name the Sin: No excuses, no explantions. . .

In the post below ("10 Random Thoughts on Confession") I urge penitents to avoid explaining their sins in favor of simply confessing them.  

Often, penitents feel the need to describe the circumstances of the sin or offer some sort of causal account of their sins.  Not necessary.  

Just. Name. The. Sin.  Easy, cheesy.  If your confessor needs more info, he will ask.  

Now, what do I mean by "explanation."  This definition is as good as any. . .from wiki:  An explanation is a set of statements constructed to describe a set of facts which clarifies the causes, context, and consequences of those facts.

Your confessor needs to know the nature of your sin ("name") and how many times you've committed the sin ("number"). He does not need to know the cause, context, or consequences--unless he does, in which case, he will ask you for a description.  

Good Example:  "I lied four times this week to my wife."  

Bad Example:  "I found out that my wife lied to me last week about how much money she spent on shoes, so I told her that my fishing boat only cost half what it really costs and when she asked me about at dinner last night--no, wait--it was lunch. . .anyway, when she asked about it I told her another lie. . ."  

Your confessor does not need to know:  1) that you know that your wife lied to you; 2) that your wife lied; 3) that she lied to you last week; 4) that she lied about money; 5) that she bought shoes; 6) that you lied about a the cost of a fishing boat; 7) what meal you were eating when she asked you about the cost of the fishing boat; 8) that she asked you about the cost of the boat a second, third, fourth time. . .

Your confessor needs to know:  1) that you lied to your wife; 2) how many times you lied.  Yes, lying to your wife is different than lying to a stranger.  A lie is a lie.  Period.  But lying to your wife raises different sorts of flags.  If you were to confess, "I lied four times this week." your confessor rightly asks, "To whom did you lie?"  He will not--I hope--ask, "What were you eating when you lied?"

Basically, I'm urging penitents to get out of the habit of explaining their sins because: 

1). explanations almost inevitably end up sounding an awful lot like rationalizations/justifications;

2). confession-time is not story-time, "Just the facts, ma'am."

3). explaining your sins can lead to Vicarious Confession, i.e., in the process of explaining who, when, why, where of Your Sin X, you end up trying to confess someone else's sin.

4). explanations are often veiled attempts at provoking sympathy in the confessor. 

Strip that confession to the bare bones so that there is a white-hot laser focus on YOUR sins--no excuses, no explanations, no causal accounts, no nothing but the wrong you did!  That way, you can get on with enjoying God's love and loving others in kind.

___________________

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

Recommend this post on Google!

10 Random Thoughts on Confession

A post over at Fr. Z's place got me to thinking about confession.  Since we're heading into Lent, I though I type out some random thoughts on the subject. . .

1).  Confession is all about receiving the forgiveness we have all already been given.   We cannot earn forgiveness by works, attitude, or even confession itself; if we could, it would be a wage not a grace (i.e. a gift).

2).  Penance is not a punishment for sin.  Completing the penance you've been given is a sign that you have received God's forgiveness and resolved not to sin again.  This is why I always assign sin-appropriate psalms as penance.

3).  Priests rarely remember the sins of individual penitents.  Some believe that this is a grace from God given so that the confessor is spared the difficulty of carrying around the memories of sin.  Sounds good to me.  Frankly, I think the explanation is more mundane: priests have heard it all and sin is boring.

4).  Explaining your sins in the confessional is unnecessary and time-consuming.  Just say what you did and leave it at that.  If more info is needed, your confessor will ask.  Explanations generally come across as attempts to excuse the sin.

5).  Ask for counsel if you need it.  Most experienced confessors will know when counsel is needed, but it never hurts to ask.  Just keep in mind that there are others waiting to confess!

6).  This is your confession, so stick to your sins.  You cannot confess for your kids, your spouse, your neighbors, etc.  And please avoid using your confession time to complain about your kids, your spouse, your neighbors, etc.

7).  Faithfully assisting at Mass (actually participating) absolves venial sins.  Why else would we recite the Confiteor and the celebrant pray for our absolution?

8).  If you are unsure about whether or not X is a sin, ask.  Remember:  mortal sins are acts of disobedience that "kill charity" in your heart.  You cannot sin mortally through accident or ignorance. Don't turn a venial sin into a mortal "just in case."  

9).  Keep your eye on the clock and the line.  Make a thorough confession but balance your thoroughness with economy.  Others are waiting.  One way to do this (if there's a long line) is to stick to your mortal sins and save the venial sins for Mass.

10).  Tell your confessor that you will pray for him. . .and then go out there and pray for him! 

___________________

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

Recommend this post on Google!

Conspicuous Absence

No Sunday homily from me this weekend. . .we have a visiting preacher from Cross International.

Next weekend our deacons will be preaching.

Yes, I'm still a member of the Order of Preachers.  Ahem.

___________________

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

Recommend this post on Google!

Malice was their motive?

A must read!  Paul Rahe hits the anti-Catholic, un-American B.O. powergrab right between the eyes:

[. . .]

We know that the President did not act on impulse, that he took his time in making this decision, and that he sought advice from a range of individuals within the Democratic Party.  

[. . .]

On the face of it, President Obama would appear to be shooting himself in the foot. Why would he risk losing the Catholic vote? One could, of course, argue that his aim was to excite the feminists and give them a reason to turn out in November. As a rationale, however, even this seems a bit lame.

This suggests that there can be only one reason why Sebelius, Pelosi, and Obama decided to proceed. They wanted to show the bishops and the Catholic laity who is boss. They wanted to make those who think contraception wrong and abortion a species of murder complicit in both.  They wanted to rub the noses of their opponents in it. They wanted to marginalize them. Humiliation was, in fact, their only aim, and malice, their motive.

[. . .]

Last week, when, in response to the fierce resistance he had deliberately stirred up, the President offered the bishops what he called “an accommodation,” what he proffered was nothing more than a fig leaf. His maneuver was, in fact, a gesture of contempt, and I believe that it was Barack Obama’s final offer. From his perspective and from that of Sebelius and Pelosi, the genuine Catholics still within the Democratic coalition are no more than what Vladimir Lenin called “useful idiots,” and, now that the progressive project is near completion, they are expendable – for there is no longer any need to curry their favor.

[. . .]

In 2008, when he first ran for the Presidency, Barack Obama posed as a moderate most of the time. This time, he is openly running as a radical. His aim is to win a mandate for the fundamental transformation of the United States that he promised in passing on the eve of his election four years ago and that he promised again when he called his administration The New Foundation. In the process, he intends to reshape the Democratic coalition – to bring the old hypocrisy to an end, to eliminate those who stand in the way of the final consolidation of the administrative entitlements state, to drive out the faithful Catholics once and for all, to jettison the white working class, and to build a new American regime on a coalition of  highly educated upper-middle class whites, feminists, African-Americans, Hispanics, illegal immigrants, and those belonging to the public-sector unions. To Americans outside this coalition, he intends to show no mercy.

Mark my words. If Barack Obama wins in November, he will force the Catholic hospitals to perform abortions, and the bishops, priests, and nuns who fostered the steady growth of the administrative entitlements state, thinking that they were pursuing “the common good,” will reap what they have sown.

[. . .]

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

Humanae Vitae: prophetic document

Pope Paul VI's prophetic document, Humanae Vitae (1968):

17. Upright men can even better convince themselves of the solid grounds on which the teaching of the Church in this field is based, if they care to reflect upon the consequences of methods of artificial birth control. Let them consider, first of all, how wide and easy a road would thus be opened up towards conjugal infidelity and the general lowering of morality. Not much experience is needed in order to know human weakness, and to understand that men -- especially the young, who are so vulnerable on this point -- have need of encouragement to be faithful to the moral law, so that they must not be offered some easy means of eluding its observance. It is also to be feared that the man, growing used to the employment of anti-conceptive practices, may finally lose respect for the woman and, no longer caring for her physical and psychological equilibrium, may come to the point of considering her as a mere instrument of selfish enjoyment, and no longer as his respected and beloved companion.

Let it be considered also that a dangerous weapon would thus be placed in the hands of those public authorities who take no heed of moral exigencies. Who could blame a government for applying to the solution of the problems of the community those means acknowledged to be licit for married couples in the solution of a family problem? Who will stop rulers from favoring, from even imposing upon their peoples, if they were to consider it necessary, the method of contraception which they judge to be most efficacious? In such a way men, wishing to avoid individual, family, or social difficulties encountered in the observance of the divine law, would reach the point of placing at the mercy of the intervention of public authorities the most personal and most reserved sector of conjugal intimacy.

[. . .]

22. On this occasion, we wish to draw the attention of educators, and of all who perform duties of responsibility in regard to the common good of human society, to the need of creating an atmosphere favorable to education in chastity, that is, to the triumph of healthy liberty over license by means of respect for the moral order. 

Everything in the modern media of social communications which leads to sense excitation and unbridled customs, as well as every form of pornography and licentious performances, must arouse the frank and unanimous reaction of all those who are solicitous for the progress of civilization and the defense of the common good of the human spirit. Vainly would one seek to justify such depravation with the pretext of artistic or scientific exigencies, or to deduce an argument from the freedom allowed in this sector by the public authorities.

___________________

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

Recommend this post on Google!