Why do we pray?

1st Week of Lent (T): Readings

Fr. Philip Neri Powell, OP

SS. Domenico e Sisto, Roma

What if we decided this morning—just this once—to openly defy our Lord and pray as if we were pagans? We could probably manage to sound like pagans at prayer. We might even look like pagans at prayer. But we probably couldn't pull of thinking and believing like pagans while we prayed. It's one thing to imitate a pagan and quite another to become one. Before we could successfully paganize our prayer we would have to understand the theology, the mythos, the psychology, everything that goes into the make up of someone who lives and dies, prays and sacrifices in opposition to the precepts of the Lord. But it's not enough to simply reject Christ's teaching and the guidance of the Church. Being a pagan is more complex and much more subtle than living as a non-Christian or as an anti-Christian. In teaching his disciples how to pray, Jesus gives us a glimpse into one of the differences between the pagan's relationship to his deities and our relationship to the one God. If we were to decide this morning to pray as the pagans do, we would have to believe that our prayers might not be heard; that our prayers might be in vain; that our needs might not be met; that our health, our wealth, our lives rest on the reckless will of Fate, or Nature, or Fortune. Jesus teaches his disciples, “Do not be like [the babbling pagans at prayer]. Your Father knows what you need before you ask him.”

If the pagans of Jesus' day babbled at prayer, attempting to gain the favor of their fickle gods, then what is it that we do in prayer that distinguishes us from them? Why isn't Christian prayer just pagan babbling using a different vocabulary? The difference that matters is this: we do not pray in order to appease God, or to bargain with Him, or to cajole Him into changing His mind. We do not perform magical rites in order to gain control of God, or to summon Him before us to explain the mysteries of the universe, or to help us find buried treasure. He is not a wood sprite, or a water nymph, or a mountain spirit. Nor, for that matter, is He an impersonal Unmoved Mover, or an abstracted First Cause. Our God is our Father, a father who knows all that we need before we ask. What bargain could we strike with someone who knows us better than we know ourselves? What kind of father would subject his children to capricious fortune, to stultifying fate?

If we do not bargain or appease or cajole with our prayers, and if our Father already knows our needs, then why do we bother praying at all? By definition, it seems, Christian prayer is nothing more than vain babbling! Perhaps we are more pagan than we want to admit. And this would be true except that Christian prayer is first and foremost an exercise in transforming the ones who pray. Prayer changes us not God. By asking for what we need, even though God already knows what we need, we establish and nurture the deepest roots of our relationship with our Father: humility. By asking for what we need and receiving His gifts with thanksgiving, we feed, strengthen, and grow our obedience to His will and thrive by participating more intensely in His divine nature. 

And this is why the Word was made flesh: so that we might come to the Father perfect as He himself is perfect. Isaiah reports the Lord saying, “[My word] shall not return to me void, but shall do my will, achieving the end for which I sent it.” He sent His word among us with a purpose. Not to frighten us with threats of punishment, or beat us into submission, or bribe us with promises of fabulous wealth. He sent His word among us to love us and to return us to Him in love. We do not have to consult drugged-out oracles, or read the entrails of sacrificed animals to know our Father's will for us. We pray, “Your will be done. . .” and give Him thanks and praise. His word will achieve its end. And that end is our salvation.

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Coffee Bowl Browsing

I have a list of airports that I will not use--O'Hare, JFK, Miami, and Heathrow is edging its way onto the list.  Now I will have to add any airport using full body scans.  Curious:  will they have Extra Roomy Scanners for us full-figured passengers?  You know, like those open MRI machines?

Dude!  Pass the Spirit of Vatican Two peace bong!  Does this pic help explain what happened to the council?

Warning:  do not click this link if you are serious about Lent this year!

How do you say "cheese-eating-surrender-monkeys" in Dutch?

Tradition has it that Dominican wear their rosaries on the left side of the OP habit as a replacement for the knight's sword.  I wonder if a holstered .38 would be appropriate on the right side?

Technology put to the best use possible.

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Finally! The true cause of the medieval warming period. . .

 Heh.

(H/T:  Newsbusters)

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Satan: the First Poacher

1st Sunday of Lent: Readings

Fr. Philip Neri Powell, OP

SS. Domenico e Sisto, Roma

Who knows what tempts you better than you do? You know the sights that can draw your eye; the possibilities that make your heart beat a little faster; the delights that lead you off the righteous path into the wilderness of sin. If power and prestige can't tempt you, maybe vengeance or victory can. If food, drink, sex have no inordinate appeal to you, maybe possessions or dissolute daydreams can grab you. Though what tempts each of us is calculated to appeal to an individual weakness, all of our weaknesses together share a common theme: sell eternal life for the price of a moment's indulgence; exchange enduring love for temporary affection, divine mercy for worldly pardon. Temptation is all about showing us what we can have right now if we would just let go of all that we have been given as heirs to the Kingdom. The Devil whispers, “Sign over your eternal inheritance, and I'll give you everything you desire right now.” You do know what you want, right? I mean, you can draw up a list of desires; catalog everything you need, true? If you can't, no worries. The Devil is here to help. If anyone knows what you desire better than you do, it's the Fallen Angel. He's eager to parade all of God's eternal rewards before you. The catch? Nothing he can show you is his to give. Everything he can show you comes with a price. 

We might wonder why the Holy Spirit leads Jesus into the desert to be tempted by the Adversary. Is there really any chance that he might surrender to temptation and fall from his Father's grace? Could the Devil win? Nope. Jesus can be tempted, but he cannot sin. If he cannot sin, what's the point of tempting him? Why does the Devil waste his time? Quite apart from the fact that it is the Devil's nature to tempt God's children to sin, it's important for us to see how temptation works, to understand what's so appealing about what the Devil has to offer and why his wares are so dangerous. The first thing we must remember about the Devil is that he is a fallen angel. Once, he was placed at the pinnacle of the Lord's angelic hierarchy. He enjoyed God's favor; lived at the foot of the Throne. He has seen what awaits us if we endure in Christ. He also knows that if we endure in Christ and find ourselves face-to-face with the Divine, his self-imposed loneliness and despair is made all the more intense. By enduring in Christ, we abandon for eternity the demonic agenda of rebellion against our Father. And Rebellion longs for nothing more than it longs for miserable company. So, the Devil's recruitment program is simple: offer us our heavenly reward to be enjoyed now; tempt us to borrow against our inheritance and party 'til it's spent. 

Think about what tempts you. Why do those particular things appeal to you? What is it about power, prestige, sex, money, vengeance, food/drink, etc. that draws your eye? Are you so corrupted, so deeply fallen that you long for these delights? Maybe so. But your corruption doesn't explain why power, prestige, sex, etc. are appealing. Our fall from grace doesn't explain the lure of greed or envy or wrath. Pride, sloth, lust, etc. are all states of a soul already surrendered to temptation. Why do these souls surrender? Remember what the Devil knows. He has seen what awaits us if we endure in Christ. Having seen our perfected reward in heaven, he can show us imperfect copies, distorted imitations. In fact, the only thing he can tempt us with is cheap knock-offs, bootlegged versions of the prizes Christ has already awarded us. The temptation to indulge in inordinate sexual desire is nothing more than an offer to fake a genuine loving relationship. The temptation is indulge wrath through vengeance is nothing more than an offer to distort true justice in charity. Everything that tempts us to sin is a godly desire perverted to serve Rebellion.

This is what Jesus teaches us in the desert. Everything the Devil uses to lure Jesus into the demonic fold already belongs to the Lord. Christ already possesses all wealth, all power, all bodily fulfillment. The only course left to the Devil is to promise to give these treasures to Jesus now. Skip the teaching and preaching, skip the miracles; skip the beatings, the ridicule, the Cross. Skip all the nasty, brutal pain and suffering and all this can be yours. Jesus answers the Devil by saying, in essence, “These are mine already. You cannot give what is not yours.” The Devil is defeated not by the force of Christ's will to endure temptation but by the fact that the fallen angel has nothing to give, nothing with which to reward those who surrender to him. All he can do is hold a filthy mirror up to the Father's heavenly treasures and promise that the murky reflections are the real thing. The Devil is crushed by truth.

Can we turn this episode in the desert into a weapon against temptation? Yes! If the Devil is only able to tempt us using fun-house mirrors to make fraudulent promises of treasure, then all we need do is carefully examine what it is that tempts us. If we can discern our temptations, we can discern what it is that we most desire from God. If I am tempted by worldly prestige, then perhaps what I most desire from God is the chance to use my gifts for His glory. If I am tempted by inordinate sexual desires, then perhaps what I most desire from God is the gift to truly love without limits. Our weapon against temptation is not willful, stoic resistance but prayerful discernment for clarity about what gifts we need to do the work we have been given to do. Certainly, we can resist temptation but even the strongest walls eventually fall when placed under siege. At what point in the battle do we come to believe that by resisting temptation we are actually refusing a divine gift? That's the greatest temptation of all! How many Christians commit adultery in the name of true love? How many Christians welcome the abuse of worldly power in the name of social justice? Have you ever surrendered to temptation so that a “greater good” might be accomplish? It's a trap. A very dangerous, very devilish trap.

You can spend these forty days of Lent mulling over your sin and seeking after mercy. That's hardly a waste of the season. But here's a challenge for you: rather than contemplating past sins, contemplate on what tempts you to sin. Watch for those times that the Devil draws you in and then contemplate on what gifts you desire most from God. The Devil will promise you a knock-off. But only the Lord can give you a genuine grace.

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Coffee Bowl Browsing

Is the U.K. Labour Prime Minister physically abusing his staff? 

"Dark Age" theologians called witchcraft nonsense.  Enlightened Renaissance scientists believed witches had real power.  Heh.  (H/T:  Mark Shea)

More proof that SSM is all about pushing the Church out of the public square.

Why are condoms taking up 70% of the medical storage space in Haiti? 

The limits of left-liberal tolerance in Sweden:  Jews leaving b/c of rise in anti-Jewish attacks.  

What lives in the deepest depths of the ocean?

I wonder if this guy could build one of these to come clean my room: Japanese Rube Goldberg machines.

Someone is just a little TOO excited by the party favors. 

World suicide rates.  NB.  the world's poorest countries have the lowest rates of reported suicide.  The rate in the U.S. is 11.10/100,000.  In Mexico it's 4.05/100,000. 

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Lenten Reflection 3: the Divine HMO

“Those who are healthy do not need a physician, but the sick do. I have not come to call the righteous to repentance but sinners.”

Jesus isn't known as the Great Physician for no reason. The word “salvation” has its roots in the Latin word for health, “salus, salutis.” Our spiritual health is our salvation in Christ. To get well implies that one was sick. The well don't get well, only the sick can get well. Lent is a season of sacrifice to be sure, but it is also a season for diagnosis—to dia is to “split apart” and gnosis is knowledge, so to diagnose is to split apart knowledge, or dissect what you know in order to learn more. The exploration of your interior life with God is what the Church's Lenten exercises are all about. Think of fasting, prayer, alms giving, and charitable works as diagnostic tools for figuring out what's wrong with you spiritually. Difficulty fasting? Perhaps you are inordinately attached to food, drink, TV, smoking, etc. Having trouble with prayer? Maybe you are experiencing a profound lack of humility, a reluctance to submit to your total dependence on God. Alms giving causing you problems? Looks like trusting in the Lord's loving providence may be at the root of the problem rather than simple greed. Not open to doing charitable works? Could be that you are less than pleased to receive the charity of others, or perhaps you are making an idol of independence. Jesus says that he calls sinners—the sick—to righteous—good spiritual health. Those among us who live and breath righteousness have no need of a cure. The rest of us are in need of a good physician. Fortunately, we all participate in the Divine HMO of the Church. No exclusion for pre-existing conditions. No co-pays. And all the nurses are angels!

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Coffee Bowl Browsing

Dali Lama thrown out of the White House with the daily garbage?  Stay classy, B.O.!

Despite the fact the suicide bomber in Austin, TX was a publicly professed socialist and anti-Catholic bigot, the lefty MSM strains at portraying him as a right-wing zealot with connections to the Tea Party.  Clueless, anyone?

Sitting next to fat people on a plane. . .for the record, I never need a seat extender and I can sit with the arm rest down.

Deadwood university faculty:  what to do?  The Supreme Court ruled mandatory retirement for tenured faculty unconstitutional back in the late '90's.  This is a big part of the problem for new PhD's in the job search. 

The Unwashed Masses of Fly-over Country vs. Our Cultural Betters:  why we aren't buying the faux populism of those who think themselves our superiors.

On the use of nominalism in the war against terror. . .what's in a name?

What role does religion play in propping up a fascistic state?

"Using every licit means. . ."  Franciscan friars skateboarding for Jesus!

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Lenten Reflection 2: the hard way vs. the easy way

“This, rather, is the fasting that I wish: releasing those bound unjustly, untying the thongs of the yoke; Setting free the oppressed, breaking every yoke; Sharing your bread with the hungry, sheltering the oppressed and the homeless; Clothing the naked when you see them, and not turning your back on your own.”

The teens in the rehab program of the psych hospital I worked for were rarely happy to find themselves locked up. State regs required that all new patients be strip-searched for contraband and weapons. We weren't treating rich kids from the city's gated communities. Our male patients were mostly violent gang members, or gang-wannabes. When it came time for a new guy to go through the search, he usually balked and became very, very agitated. Inevitably, I found myself giving him a rather stark choice: “You can choose to do this the easy way or the hard way.” The hard way involved four or five 250 lbs staff taking him to the floor and putting him in restraints. In the four and a half years I worked on the unit, Staff never failed to carry out the required search.

We can take easy way or the hard way in practicing our faith. Unlike my stubborn patients, we are encouraged to choose the hard way. Isaiah reports that the Lord is not really all that interested in our ashes and sackcloth and weeping. You can be a brutal slave driver and still manage the charade of public penance at the end of the day: “Do you call this a fast, a day acceptable to the Lord?” Unfortunately, we sometimes do. So, what is the fasting that the Lord wishes from us? Setting free captives unjustly bound; feeding the hungry, giving food and shelter to the homeless; in other words, a fast of charitable service to those who need to see and hear and feel the love of God. Why is this the hard way? There are no 250 lbs staff members waiting to pounce and force us to be servants. There are no restraints involuntarily placed on our charity. We are as free to be as miserly or as generous as we choose. The real choice here is between being the master with an enslaved heart, or a slave with a heart truly freed. 

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Coffee Bowl Browsing

Technology and the Orwellian Age:  high school uses student laptops for spying!

Finally.  Heads are starting to roll over the U.N. "Climate Change" boondoggle.  NB.  This guy is a social worker NOT a scientist. 

Dominican friar appointed archbishop of Prague. 

Number of exorcisms on the rise in Poland. 

Most likely to attend Church:  Mississippians.  Least likely Vermontians.

The art of hiding. . .there may be one crawling on you right NOW!!!

Optical illusions:  these things drive me crazy.

During Lent, tape this pic on your 'fridge with the caption, "I'm watching you!"

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Lenten Reflection 1: the Devil's pretty hooks

"What profit is there for one to gain the whole world yet lose or forfeit himself?”

Few of us will be offered the chance to forfeit ourselves in exchange for gaining the whole world.  That would be a temptation worth thinking about twice!  Unfortunately, most of us are seriously tempted by far less than the acquisition of global power and wealth.   The Devil knows us well. . .too well.  He knows that trying to sell us on a deal of Having It All in exchange for our allegiance would raise suspicions.  Too big.  Too complex.  Not a workable temptation.  Instead, he offers us smaller, more manageable lures to catch us out.  Once we've taken the bait, it's just a matter of waiting for the hook to dig in deeper.  He gives us some slack.  Lets us run a while.  And then, just when we think our deal with the Devil has been just a little harmless fun, he snaps the line and reels us in.  Jesus says that we must deny ourselves daily, take up our cross daily, follow him daily. Persistence, vigilance, fortitude. 

The happiest fish is the fish that stays clear of fishermen fishing with pretty hooks.

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Coffee Bowl Browsing

SSM proponents in CA misunderstanding religious opposition to their agenda. . .they seem to think that religious folks oppose SSM for no other reason than that radically redefining marriage will encroach on the free exercise of religion.  It doesn't occur to them that opposition to SSM might be based on something more than raw politics.

A Rome-leaning Anglican bishop is talking directly with the CDF about the Holy Father's initiative to welcome alienated Anglicans into the Church.  Why direct talks with Rome rather than talking to the bishops' conference of England & Wales?  Look like the English and Welsh bishops aren't all that interested in seeing the Pope's plan implemented.

E.U. Nanny State begins a bloodless coup in Greece. . .bureaucrats as revolutionaries?

Strange but necessary:  AZ proposes law to bar judges from using foreign/religious law in making legal decisions in an American court. 

Report on the Holy Father's Ash Wednesday service at O.P. headquarters, Santa Sabina.  NB.  for those who insist that all Real Catholics wear their ashes all day. . .the Roman custom (cf. pic) is to receive the ashes sprinkled on the head rather than smeared on the forehead.

Aaaahhhhh. . .true Zombie love.

The American Psychological Association is revising its diagnostic manual.  They need to include ambulothanatophobia in the revision.  Just sayin'.

Oddly disturbing animal pics. . .the Gatorfrog?  G.I. Cow?

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Daily meditations & the BDWLE

I'm going to make an effort this Lent to post a short, daily reflection on the Mass readings.  I've tried this before and failed rather miserably.  Try, try again, right?

The Book Depository Wish List experiment continues. . .

Four of the seven original books on the list have been sent my way! 

I rec'd another surprise recently.

Please, remember to let me know via the combox here if you decide to make a purchase from this list.  B.D. doesn't delete a book from the list when it is purchased, so there's the risk of duplicate purchases.

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Now is the day of salvation

Ash Wednesday 2010: Readings

Fr. Philip Neri Powell, OP

SS. Domenico e Sisto, Roma

We begin the Lenten season of 2010 with this declaration: “Behold, now is a very acceptable time; behold, now is the day of salvation.” An admonishment from Paul against receiving God's grace in vain, the Church in Corinth back then and the Church gathered here right now are urged to remember that our salvation through Christ is not only a subject for ancient history and a concern for the distant future but also a decision to be made NOW. Paul, an ambassador for Christ, writes, “We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.” To choose reconciliation with the Father through His Son is the supreme act of humility, the recognition that we are completely dependent on His love for us—for our creation from ash, our re-creation out of an emptied tomb, and for our final rest in His kingdom. We receive the ashes of Lent this morning to celebrate our dependency, to mark our mortality. And, most importantly, to show ourselves as pilgrims on the way to Easter morning. 

To help us arrive properly prepared in Jerusalem on Easter morning, forty days of the Church year are set aside so that we might be summoned daily to the work of repentance. And so that we do not fall into the trap of believing that the work of repentance is merely a matter for the intellect alone but the work of the body as well, we are called upon to fast, to pray, to give alms, to do the good work of Christ among his people. Mind, heart, hands—all that we are must be reconciled. To his disciples, Jesus lays down a challenge: resist the temptation to play at being repentant; reject the performance art of public repentance; do not follow the hypocrites in drawing attention to yourself for the sake of pious praise. Instead, truly repent; receive God's forgiveness in secret; go out into the world clean, smiling, joyful. Wash your face, anoint your head, and receive all the Lord has to give you.

“Behold, now is a very acceptable time; behold, now is the day of salvation.”

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This Ash Wednesday. . .declare war!

Fr. Z. (always a good read!) offers the indispensable service of translating the Latin prayers of the Church  into English.

Today, he offers us a translation of the Collect for the Ash Wednesday Mass from the '62 Missale Romanum:

COLLECT:
 

Concede nobis, Domine, praesidia militiae christianae
sanctis inchoare ieiuniis,
ut, contra spiritales nequitias pugnaturi,
continentiae muniamur auxiliis.

[. . .]

LITERAL TRANSLATION:
 

Grant us, O Lord, to commence the defenses of the Christian 

field campaign by means of holy fasts, so that, we who are about

to do battle against spiritual negligences,
may be fortified by the support of continence.

Martial imagery in prayer, long out of fashion in the post-VC2 Church, has its appeal for those of us who must do more than merely struggle with temptation.  

May today mark a declaration of war on the Arch-Terrorist.

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Against the Leaven of the Pharisees

6th Week OT (T): Readings

Fr. Philip Neri Powell, OP

SS. Domenico e Sisto, Roma

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

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

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

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

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