Abbey-Roads2

What’s in a name? 

A blogger buddy and I were having an email exchange concerning the personas some bloggers may adopt to hide their true identity when they write.  One man who says he is a priest, has received a great deal of attention from others who claim he is a fake.  I read his posts, I see nothing against the faith in what he writes, so I don’t understand the problem.  (Yet some priests do see it as a problem and present their credentials  for people to view - this isn’t a bad idea - it may be one reason why this priest has the most popular ‘priest’s blog’ on the net.)

I pointed out to my friend that no one knows if Sr. Mary Martha is a real nun or not.  (I never read Sister’s blog until I brought her up in our email exchange.)  My friend told me that if a person is pretending to be a priest or sister, they are giving the impression they have some authority, and what they write is in line with Church teaching.  If they write in error, unsuspecting people may be misinformed or misled.  I didn’t realize how this could happen until today.

Sister Blogger.

Reading Sister Mary Martha  today, I noticed something which sounded more influenced by Protestantism than Catholicism in her advice.  Responding to a question posed to her by a reader concerning the intercession of the saints, Sister wrote:

1. We do not pray to anyone but Jesus…or God…or the Holy Spirit, Who are One but also separate. It’s the Sacred Mystery of the Holy Trinity. Sacred Mystery is “Catholic” for “just let it go”.

2. We do not pray to any saints or Mary. Even though we often say, “Pray to St. Anthony” or whoever, what we really mean is “Pray for the intercession of St. Anthony”. We are asking St. Anthony to pray to Jesus..or God…or the Holy Spirit, Who are One but also separate. It’s no different than if I asked you to pray for me.” - Ask Sister Mary Martha

Always check the facts.

That sounds a little Protestant to me.  As Catholics, we have always been taught we may indeed pray to  the saints and request their intercession on our behalf.  Indeed, an older catechetical handbook I have states:

“We honor the saints by praying to them.  We honor them by praising them  in word and song, and asking their intercession.  Indeed, we may pray in private to anyone who we believe is either in heaven or purgatory.  But we are forbidden to give public veneration to anyone who is not beatified or canonized.”

“When we pray to the saints we ask them to offer their prayers to God for us.  This is what we call the intercession of the saints.” - My Catholic Faith,  originally published 1949.

From the current Catechism of the Catholic Church we have this:

“Their intercession (the saints) is their most exalted service to God’s plan.  We can and should ask them to intercede for us and for the whole world.” - CCC 2683

Talking to the saints.

To her credit, Sr. Mary Martha does write:  “It’s no different than if I asked you to pray for me.”   She is referring to our asking the saints to pray for us and comparing it to how we ask one another to pray for our intentions.  While in the body of the post she does say we ask the saints to intercede for us, her message is confusing, and gives the impression we do not actually pray to the saints.  Especially since she is so emphatic in stating  ”we do not pray to”   the saints.

When we pray, “Hail Mary, Full of grace…” who does Sister imagine we are addressing?  Indeed we may converse with Our Lady, the angels and saints at will, fully conscious they present our petitions before God.  In honoring Our Lady or the saints we honor God.  We also pray in union with all the Church, which includes the souls of the just who are living in heaven, or awaiting the beatific vision in purgatory.  This is what the Communion of Saints implies.

Maybe it’s just a question of semantics.

Of course all of us can make mistakes.  Even real priests and nuns and other “authorities” can make mistakes or express erroneous opinions on their weblogs.  Earlier this summer a priest posted on the devotion of the Scapular of Mt. Carmel  as being superstitious.  (It is not.)   So, when in doubt, always check the facts with your Catechism or another credible Catholic source book. 

The blogosphere is not the Magisterium. 

Abstinence.

It is good to remember Fridays are still days of penance.  Catholics continue to abstain from meat on Fridays, although it is no longer a sin if they do not.  However, another form of penance should take the place of abstinence from meat.  Many people fast on bread and water, or give up something else, perform some charitable work, give alms, and so on.

On conversion.

“The soul who rises from sin to devotion can be compared to the rising sun which does not dispel the darkness in an instant but little by little.  A gradual return to health is always more lasting.  Diseases of the soul, like those of the body, arrive at a gallop, but depart slowly, step by step.” - St. Francis de Sales 

[Art:  At the top: St. John Capistrano appearing to St. Peter of Alcantara.  Today is the feast of St. Peter of Alcantara.  At left:  St. Peter of Alcantara.]