Meditating upon the mystery of the flight into Egypt, I recalled how the Blessed Virgin, the Child Jesus, and St. Joseph were themselves little more than homeless immigrants…
The Holy Father’s Encyclical.
“Spe salvi” is surely a dense read, I skimmed through it, reading a few sections closely, but I intend to study the entire text more deeply later. It will be appropriate for Advent, although going beyond that, it seems to me it is an exhortation urgently needed in our days which often appear hopeless to many.
I was impressed with what the Holy Father had to say regarding prayer, as it corresponded to an understanding of what my personal prayer ought to be.
No longer alone…
No one lives alone. No one sins alone. No one is saved alone. The lives of others continually spill over into mine: in what I think, say, do and achieve. And conversely, my life spills over into that of others: for better and for worse. So my prayer for another is not something extraneous to that person, something external, not even after death. In the interconnectedness of Being, my gratitude to the other—my prayer for him—can play a small part in his purification. And for that there is no need to convert earthly time into God’s time: in the communion of souls simple terrestrial time is superseded. It is never too late to touch the heart of another, nor is it ever in vain. In this way we further clarify an important element of the Christian concept of hope. Our hope is always essentially also hope for others; only thus is it truly hope for me too.40 As Christians we should never limit ourselves to asking: how can I save myself? We should also ask: what can I do in order that others may be saved and that for them too the star of hope may rise? Then I will have done my utmost for my own personal salvation as well. - Spe salvi
The novena for the Immaculate Conception.
The novena for the Immaculate Conception begins today. Any prayer may be used. Since Our Lady is so pleased with the Rosary, I will use that. I’m praying for all of you, all of my family, and the mentally ill, the addicted, and those who hate the Church, as well as the most abandoned and those who have no one to pray for them.
The Monastic Community of Bethlehem.
The photo above is of two Sisters of Bethlehem. They wear a veil beneath the cowl, but adopted the male Carthusian habit. Their life is very Carthusian, each professed nun has her own hermitage wherein the Blessed Sacrament is reserved. Their monastic observance pretty much combines both East and West, while the Mass is a very reverent Novus Ordo. To find anything on the internet about the community is very difficult, but go here to learn more about them. (For Kat - In addition to foundations all over Europe, they also have one in the United States.)
There’s gonna be a fight…
That line was repeated over and over in a Laurel and Hardy film as the camera pulled away, revealing the inside hallways and staircase of a posh apartment building, while residents were rushing out of their apartments, following everyone down stairs to go outside and see the promised fight. (Whew! That’s a long sentence!) Anyway, there is going to be a fight in the Archdiocese of Minneapolis/St. Paul.
The Nienstedt affair.
All the blogs are picking up the story now that it has hit Catholic News Service and Lifesite News. Poor Fr. Tibesar, the local priest embroiled in the controversy, got himself more deeply involved in the controversy. To such an extent that he comes off as a priest completely disloyal to the Magisterium. He gave that bitchy homily you see…
The newspapers are getting involved.
So now Nick Coleman, a writer for a local newspaper in the Twin Cities has picked up the story in his Nov. 27 column, “Future Archbishop’s compassion stops short when it comes to gays.” Mr. Coleman interviews a few of the principals involved in the brouhaha, one key person being the official spokesman for the Archdiocese, Dennis McGrath. McGrath had this to say:
Dennis McGrath, a spokesman for the archdiocese, said Nienstedt’s comments were not aimed at families of gays, or at individual homosexuals.
“It was about the sin, the activity — not the person,” McGrath said. “He didn’t mean you must stop loving your child. But if you say, ‘Why don’t you go hit the gay bars tonight? …’ He was talking about those who encourage or promote homosexual activities, like a pornographer might.” - StarTribune
Crying out loud.
Of course, the emotional response from gay activists won’t be diminished no matter what the Archdiocese says. Active homosexuals want total acceptance and inclusion in the Catholic Church. In other words,, they want the Church to do the impossible and declare same-sex sexual relations to be no longer a sin. Christ gave the Church authority on earth, but not the authority to change natural and divine law. All Archbishop Nienstedt did was present a catechetical response to the issues regarding homosexuality and Church teaching:
“Those who actively encourage or promote homosexual acts or such activity within a homosexual lifestyle formally cooperate in a grave evil,” wrote Nienstedt, who is scheduled to succeed retiring Archbishop Harry Flynn in May. “If they do so knowingly and willingly, [they] are guilty of mortal sin.”
Nienstedt went on to set three conditions for such church members to receive communion: They must experience a “conversion of heart,” express “sorrow for their action” and receive absolution from a priest. - StarTribune
It’s emotionalism run a muck.
The Archbishop was fulfilling his duty as a faithful shepherd of his flock and simply clarifying Church teaching. This is what bishops do, they teach and guide the faithful in “faith and morals”. Nienstedt was not telling parents to reject their children who happen to be gay. He wasn’t demanding that they stop loving them. He was clearly speaking to people who promote the gay lifestyle as a viable alternative, on parity with heterosexual relations and marriage, in defiance of Church teaching.
The people who are protesting Church teaching are making this into a personalized, highly charged emotional issue in rebellion of the Catholic Church. One parent, Mary Lynn Murphy had this to say:
“It is a human right to express your sexuality,” says Murphy, who met last week with Catholic parents of gays who were in tears over Nienstedt’s statements on homosexuality.
“They are being tormented by a church that is driving a wedge between parent and child,” Murphy said. “They believe they are being asked to choose between loving their church and loving their child. And they are furious. For the most prominent religious leader in the state to use that kind of language, well, it brings shame on him.” - StarTribune
Crock-o-dile tears maybe?
Don’t these tearful parents realize that couples who have divorced and remarried outside of the Church, are under similar restrictions as active homosexuals when it comes to receiving Communion? Homosexuals, who wish to be Catholic, are not the only people who are required to obey God’s commandments regarding chastity.
Many single heterosexual men and women are also obliged to live chaste lives. If they live with their boyfriend or girlfriend and are in an active sexual relationship, they too are barred from Holy Communion. The Church does not ask us to disown or exclude these people from our families or list of friends. Neither does the Church order society to deny these people human rights. But the Church does require us to witness to the faith, and out of charity, admonish the sinner - at appropriate times - which at the very least entails our not promoting sinful behavior.
Saving souls.
The Church and her ministers are concerned for the salvation of souls. To misinform people on faith and morals, what is good and evil, is inexcusable for a Roman Catholic bishop, priest, or lay person - even parents - to do. It is misplaced charity to say that a sin is not a sin, in order that a family can pretend everything is all right. It suggests to me that parents really do not know what homosexual sex is all about.
Everyone is asked by Christ to deny himself, take up his own cross and follow him. In each of our lives we have something we must deny - and not seek to justify or conjure up an exception to. In contemporary culture we have lost any sense of sacrifice or self denial - and we would have our children find fleeting happiness in this life, only to lose their soul in the next. That really isn’t love, much less good parenting.
[On December 2, the First Sunday of Advent, LGBT activists will stage a rally on the steps of the Cathedral in St. Paul between 2pm and 3pm. It may be a good time to have a holy hour, either at the Cathedral or at your local adoration chapel, to pray for the conversion of sinners.]
The Blogosphere.
In keeping with the holiday spirit, Jeffrey Smith has posted a satirical critique of blogdom… I think it’s very fun.
East meets West?
News today that the Holy Father will not meet with the Dalai Lama next month, coincides with the little known feast of St. Buddha in the Roman Martyrology. (Obviously the Holy Father will not meet with the Dalai Lama in an official context because of tensions with China, although the Pope has indeed met with him privately off schedule.)
In India, near the Persian boundary, the Saints Barlaam and Josaphat, whose wonderful deeds were written by St. John of Damascus. - Martyrology
So where’s the Buddha?
Of course there is no mention of the Buddha in the entry for the Martyrology, yet a close reading of the lives of St. Barlaam and St. Josaphat present stunning similarities with the life of Siddhartha who became the Buddha. St. Josaphat’s life reads very much like the Buddha’s. Could it be…
Now, anyone who is familiar with the life of Siddhartha will clearly recognize the similarity between the life of Josaphat and with Siddhartha: indeed, it is easy to see that the life of Josaphat takes the basic format of the Buddha story and only modifies it in ways to add a secondary Christian content over it (indeed, much of what Barlaam says comes from the Apology of St Aristides). Both are secluded in luxury, and both, when they journey beyond their adolescent prison, are shown the sorrows which confront humanity. And it is in their similar meetings with a hermit which awakened within them the moment by which their lives were to change: Siddhartha would embrace the life of a hermit as a way to confront the sorrows in life and to find a way to overcome the power of death; Josaphat would embrace the Christian life and take upon the life of a hermit when providence allowed it. While one might believe it possible that, in India, two different kings with two different sons would live similar lives, one would have thought that Abenner would have learned from the life of Siddhartha that his plan would be doomed to fail. But that is not the case. Josaphat is the Buddha. The two stories are the same, modified, as it were, by centuries of retelling and the path by which the legend of Siddhartha moved into Christendom (through Persia). Indeed, what clinches this fact is the linguistic analysis which can demonstrate that the very name Josaphat is a Greek adaptation and corruption of the traditional Buddhist term of bodhisattva coming into the Greek world from a Persian adaptation of the legend, one which used the word Budasif. - Henry Karlson, Vox Nova
The history presented by Henry Karlson is quite remarkable, if not provocative. I suggest you read his entire post - it is an absolutely fascinating read.
[I sometimes can’t help but think we are all going to be very surprised when we get to heaven and see who is actually there. “Eye has not seen, ear has not heard…” - 1 Corinthians 2:9]
Feast of the Miraculous Medal.
The 27 of November marks the date when in 1830, St. Catherine Laboure experienced the vision of the Immaculate Virgin Mary and was shown the Miraculous Medal.
A brief history:
On 27 November, Catherine again saw Mary in the chapel, during community meditation. She was dressed in white, standing on a globe and holding a golden ball, with rings on her fingers flashing with light. An inner voice told her that the ball represented the whole world and that the rays coming from Mary’s fingers represented graces for individuals.
The golden ball then vanished as this apparition changed to represent Mary with her arms outstretched, inside an oval frame with golden lettering: O Mary, conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee. Again, an interior voice spoke, telling her to have a medal struck on this model. It would be a source of great graces and should be worn around the neck.
Then she was shown the reverse of the medal, consisting of a large “M” surmounted by a bar and cross, with two hearts, representing the hearts of Jesus and Mary, all encircled by twelve stars. Again Fr Aladel was reluctant to act, but once the medal was struck and distributed, it rapidly earned the title of the “Miraculous” medal.
A canonical inquiry was initiated by Archbishop de Quelen and this concluded that Catherine was of good character, that the apparitions she had reported were to be accepted, and that the Miraculous Medal was supernaturally inspired and responsible for genuine miracles. - The Miraculous Medal
The Desert Fathers On blogging.
O once a brother came to Theodore of Pherme and spent three days with the abba asking him for advice. Theodore did not answer and so the younger monk went away sad. Thereupon Theodore’s disciple inquired, ‘Abba, why did you not speak with the brother? Now he has gone away sad and unconsoled.’
Abba Theodore replied, ‘As a matter of fact I said nothing to him because he is only interested in getting credit by repeating what others have said to him.’
Astonishing!
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