Abbey-Roads2

Photo source and story.

Or don’t take it at all.

Rather steady rumor has it the Vatican is reviewing the practice of Communion in the hand.  For some priests, as well as faithful, how one received communion was a sort of litmus test as to whether one was liberal or conservative - in other terms, pre-Vatican II or not.  We’ve all heard stories of people being refused communion because they desired to receive on the tongue while kneeling.  In one case locally, the priest actually threw the host at the communicant forcing her to catch it.

Remnant  and Wanderer  newspaper readers, as well as traditional Catholics everywhere, have read stories for years on how the practice of communion in the hand was introduced illegally shortly after the Council.  The custom becomes so wide spread “reformers” claimed it “sensus fidei” and therefore legitimate, and Rome reluctantly permitted it.  However, if anyone dared object to liturgists, bishops and priests, they were usually deemed traditionalist radicals, or God-forbid, pre-Vatican II.  In addition, it seemed as if the Vatican didn’t care, since we never heard anything to contradict the modernists.

Until now, praise God!  Cardinal Ranjith, Secretary for the Congregation of Divine Worship, has determined the practice will be reviewed by the Vatican and possibly reversed.  The post-Vatican II prelate is quoted as saying:

The Vatican wants the host “placed directly into the mouths of the faithful so they don’t touch it (with their hands)… because many don’t even realize they are receiving Christ and do this with scant concentration and respect,” Ranjith said.

The distribution of communion on the hands of those attending mass has been widespread since the so-called Vatican II Council - a series of reforms introduced in the 1960s aimed at making church celebrations more accessible to the world’s 1.1 billion Catholics.

But according to Ranjith the practice was “illegally and hastily introduced by certain elements of the Church immediately after the Council”.

“Some people keep hosts with them as a sort of souvenir, others sell them while in some cases the hosts have been taken away to be used in blasphemous Satanic rituals,” he said.

Ranjith said the measures to bring back “dignity and decorum” to mass celebrations were in line with Pope Benedict XVI’s wishes, but he did not specify when they would be introduced, nor if they would be issues as an order or a set of guidelines. - Entire story here.

So sad.

An artist in the UK hanged herself after aborting the twins she had been carrying.  As is often the case, her boyfriend was not pleased after she told him she was pregnant.  Her suicide note read:

“I told everyone I didn’t want to do it, even at the hospital. I was frightened, now it is too late. I died when my babies died. I want to be with my babies: they need me, no-one else does.  I should never have had an abortion. I see now I would have been a good mum.” - Telegraph.Co.UK

The woman was only going ahead with the abortion because her boyfriend Ben did not want the twins.

“Ay
So Sad, So Sad,
Sometimes She Feels So Sad.
Alone In Her Apartment She’d Dwell…” - McCartney

Pray for the suicides.  Pray and sacrifice for those thinking about it.

Are they few in number who will be saved? 

This subject seems to be on the mind of several bloggers these days.  This surprised me since I have been thinking a lot about it myself.  Most recently, considering the moral discussions which have taken place on this blog, I wondered if perhaps St. John of the Cross was correct when he told someone he believed most people go to hell.  Of course, no one knows how many people go to hell, in fact, when asked, Jesus simply replied, “Strive to enter by the narrow gate…”   You know the rest.

Most of us think we know who will go to hell if they do not repent of obvious sin; murderers, child molesters, terrorists, politicians, and so on, although we cannot know this for certain.  God’s mercy is inscrutable. 

I’m okay - you’re okay?

As Catholics, hopefully we all strive to live our faith in obedience to the commandments and the teachings of the Church.  We pray, frequent the sacraments, and try to live moral lives, therefore, we hope we will be saved.  Nevertheless, we dare not become complacent or presumptuous as regards our salvation, as Fr. Kimel reminds us in his post, Counting the Saved. 

For the rest of us, it is all too easy to confuse moral decency and goodness, or at least absence of grievous sin, with spiritual life. Christians presume a state of grace for those involved in the sacramental life of the Church, yet the Church has always warned her members of the mortality of sin and the need for continual conversion to Christ. We may not presume that others are saved or in the process of being saved because they are decent or at least not truly wicked people. We may not presume that we are saved or in the process of being saved because we are decent or at least not truly wicked people. There is no substitute for gospel, repentance, and prayer. We must cast ourselves upon the mercy of Christ and pray for the anointing of the Spirit. We must seek to be found in Christ, for he alone is the assurance that we are on the right path. - Pontifications

These thoughts must necessarily give one pause to stop and examine our own spiritual life.  Although, in charity, I also cannot help but think of others and feel concern for their salvation, especially dissident Catholics who reject various teachings of the Church, or those who have fallen away and simply do not believe any longer.  In the end, will Our Lord say to them, “Ah, my son, I know you could not accept the teaching of the Magisterium and taught others to reject it as well.  I know you were sincere and loving, filled with compassion for those who rejected my teaching, therefore, because you were so sincere and loved peace, enter into the kingdom of my Father.”

The chances of the Lord saying that are pretty slim, especially when  scripture tells us, “Even the just man is saved with difficulty.” - 1 Peter 4:18 

Erring Catholics.

Shelray, a contributor to  Cosmos, Liturgy, and Sex, posted a piece on this subject - actually, her article led me to read Fr. Kimel’s piece.  Within her post are excerpts from a pamphlet entitled, “Cry of A Lost Soul” - a narrative of a soul who had been damned and appears to her friend.  Who knows if it is authentic, the lesson rings true nonetheless:

“Deep down I was rebelling against God. You did not understand it; you thought me still a Catholic. I wanted, in fact, to be called one; The lost Catholics suffer more than those of other religions, because they, mostly, received and despised more graces and more light. He who knew more suffers more cruelly than he who knew less. He who sinned out of malice suffers more keenly than he who sinned out of weakness. But nobody suffers more than he deserves.” - You fool - this very night…

“O my Jesus!  Forgive us our sins, save us from the fires of hell, lead all souls to heaven, help those most in need of thy mercy!” - Fatima prayer.

Links:

Even Fr. Longenecker is writing about it - Go to Hell - his review of Thigpen’s book, My Visit to Hell, a sort of contemporary Dante’s Inferno.  I’m ordering it.

February 22:  The old feast of  St. Margaret of Cortona

I celebrate St. Margaret twice a year; today, the feast day according to the old Franciscan calendar, and also on May 16th.  The Church transferred her feast day to May 16th in order to coincide with my birthday, since Margaret and I have lived such parallel lives.  (Well, not as far as penance.  And I was just kidding as to why the Church moved her feast.)

Sadly, today few believe the Magdalen was the penitent the medievals thought, and at least one modern scholar tends to discredit the ‘revelations’ of St. Margaret as “manipulations” by the priest who recorded them.  That author, whom I refuse to link to, puts it this way:

Father Giunta’s manipulation of the voice of Jesus to regale, instruct, and teach Margaret is ingeniously calculated. By appropriating Jesus’ voice, Father Giunta effectively demonstrates his legitimacy as Margaret’s true hagiographer to the audience and more significantly, the divine legitimacy of what he himself deems to be proper female behavior and thought. He essentially projects his own beliefs regarding femininity on the voice of Jesus. - unidentified source

I don’t buy it.  Margaret enjoyed a great intimacy with Our Lord and he indeed chose her to demonstrate to sinners that his blood makes sinful souls virginal.  He told her:

“Daughter, I will place you among the seraphim, where you will find virgins burning with love.” Astonished, she answered: “Lord, how is this possible, since I am defiled with so many sins?” But Jesus, who had promised through the words of his prophet: “Turn to me and I will receive you,” found her humility and trepidation very pleasing, and said to her: “Daughter, your many sufferings have purged your soul of every impurity. Your contrition and your pains have restored you to virginal purity.” These words troubled Margaret, who asked Christ her teacher: “Lord, did you place MaryMagdalene in the heavenly choir of virgins?” The true Teacher answered: “Except for the Virgin Mary and the martyr Catherine, there is no one greater than the Magdalene.”- Words of Our Lord to St. Margaret of Cortona 

St. Margaret of Cortona, pray for us. 

Respectful evangelization.

Fr. Blake has a lovely post of two wonderful women and the Holy Name of Jesus.  I’ll let Father tell the story:

I was wandering along the street yesterday and saw two elderly sisters with a gang of young lads. Theresa was patting one of them on the shoulder and evidently praising him and telling the rest how splendid he was, he looked highly embarrassed, his friends a little bemused. Eventually they walked on looking back at the sisters with a bit of perplexity.

“What was going on there,” I asked when I caught up with them, Maureen, said, “Theresa was just praising that young lad for standing up for his faith, by wearing a “Jesus Rocks” belt”. It had the legend in studs around it. “Yes, she was saying how good it was that a young man was willing to proclaim the Holy Name amongst his friends and to the world.”

“That’s right, Father, I said that as he was proud of proclaiming the Holy Name he ought to think about a vocation to the priesthood”, said Theresa. - Fr. Ray Blake 

Father also tells of a woman who handed out rosary leaflets to all the people she ran into wearing rosaries, as David Beckham is modeling in the photo.  It is even more about love and respect, isn’t it.   (That wasn’t a question.)

Priests who blog…

I don’t read that many, but I must say, the very best blogs on the Internet are written by priests.  Here are my top ten favorites - the ones I check out regularly:

1) Fr. Zulsdorf

2) Fr. Ray Blake

3) Don Marco

4) Fr. Tim Finigan

5) Fr. Erik Richsteig

6) Fr. Dwight Longenecker

7) Fr. Valencheck

8/ Fr. Welzbacher

9) Fr. Schofield

10) Fr. Fox

Venerable “Lolo”

Manuel Lozano Garrido, a Spanish journalist and writer, who lived the last ten years of his life blind (although he had been confined to a wheekchair since he was 22 years old), has had a miracle attributed to his intercession, which opens the way for his beatification.

VATICAN CITY, FEB. 20, 2008 (Zenit.org).- A writer who was blind and long confined to a wheelchair, extolled as a model for journalists, has had a cure considered miraculous attributed to his intercession.Manuel Lozano Garrido, better known as “Lolo,” was declared venerable last December when Benedict XVI approved a decree recognizing his heroic virtue.

But, who is Lolo?

Lolo was a young man of  “Acción Católica” (A.C.) He was born in Linares  (Jaén, Spain) in 1920. At the age of 22, a creeping paralysis sat him on a wheelchair. Total blindness stuck him for his last nine years.

But Lolo was a young layman, a christian  who took the Godspels very seriously, or as Martín Descalzo said about him, “He devoted to be a christian. He devoted to believe”. So seriously he took the Godspel that one day someone (Brother Robert Taizé) came around to his house, watched him, listened to him, looked at that stiff tiny body, took the pen and wrote on the lamp shade on Lolo´s desk: “Lolo, sacrament of pain”

But this man of A.C. who kept constant joy in his permanent smile, on the one hand ‘man of pains’, on the other hand sower with joy for the hundreds of young and adults alike who came to him to ask for advice, had a secret, (“Lolo´s secret” the tittle of the biography in comic for children, published by Blanca Aguilar) - Source

Voluptuousness

Voluptuousness was once a discreet term for auto-eroticism, currently referred to as “self-cultivation” - if you watch Oprah, or self-pleasuring, although it is more commonly known as masturbation.  In the past, the sexual practice has also been called self-abuse or onanism - now usually considered archaic by many.

In fact, it seems the majority of health professionals, in both the medical and mental health fields, discard the notion there is anything wrong with masturbation.  Indeed, many Catholics since the late ’70’s and ’80’s were often taught masturbation is not a sin.  Progressive theologians and scripture scholars taught there is no evidence in the Bible which would condemn it as a sin, insisting the Church was wrong in the way various scriptures had been interpreted.  In addition, some consecrated persons, those who professed a vow of chastity,  came to the conclusion they too can indulge in masturbation without incurring sin or violating their vow of celibacy.  (Just so long as they didn’t do it too much.  Whatever too much means?) 

(1) While admitting that certain texts cited as condemning masturbation may have another interpretation (Gen. 38:8-10; 1 Cor 6:9; Rom. 1:24), Holy Scripture does include in its condemnation an irresponsible use of sex, and that would certainly apply to masturbation. The Vatican Declaration says that even if Scripture does not condemn this sin by name, “the tradition of the Church has rightly understood it to be condemned in the New Testament when the latter speaks of ‘impurity’, ‘unchasteness’ and other vices contrary to chastity and continence.” - Fr.John Harvey 

Nevertheless, the Roman Catholic understanding and teaching on chastity and celibacy, has not changed, no matter what the Dr. tells you.  Celibacy or virginity is understood to mean a person voluntarily renounces marriage and sexual activity for the sake of the Kingdom of God.  All Catholics are called to chastity according to their state in life, even married people.  For unmarried people to live chastely, it is necessary to abstain from all deliberate sexual behavior, including autoeroticism or masturbation.

Catholic Sexual Ethics also responds to the objection that masturbation is not a grave moral disorder in certain circumstances. Adolescent masturbation is given as one of the circumstances. The response is that the Church has always acknowledged that circumstances alter cases, and that there are degrees of responsibility in the different kinds of masturbation. But the Church holds that the act of masturbation remains OBJECTIVELY SERIOUSLY WRONG. Rightly she distinguishes between the objective gravity of the masturbatory act and the personal responsibility of the agent.- Fr. John Harvey

Interesting background on the term “voluptuousness”:

“Moral authorities grudgingly acknowledged sex to be not inherently sinful, but very strictly delineated the ways in which sex could be used without spiritual consequences. Medical authorities, by contrast, considered sex to be an essential part of bodily health, noting that abstention could lead to a dangerous buildup of the “seminal humor.” As a preventative measure, physicians recommended regular, but not excessive, sexual intercourse (too little being as bad as too much). However, they took into account that not all people had a morally acceptable way of engaging in sex, and to this end recommended masturbation, drawing on the authority of Late Classical writers such as Galen, who suggests that physicians or midwives “place hot poultices on the . . . genitals” of a celibate woman and “cause [her] to experience orgasm, which would release the retained seed” (Murray, 201). Unfortunately, this was an area in which the medical and the moral definitely clashed. Moral authorities such as the theologian Thomas Aquinas considered masturbation (also known as “onanism” from the Biblical story of Onan; see Genesis 38:7-10) to be “the sin of uncleanliness, which some call voluptuousness” and an “unnatural vice” because it is “contrary to the natural ordering of the sexual act that is proper to human beings” (Summa Theologica 154.5). The only way that moral authorities would excuse masturbation was when it was unintentional, as was the case with nocturnal emissions, because “there [may be] an excess of the seminal humor in the body” which needed to be expelled in order to keep the body in balance. Thomas assumes that the body will take care of this balance itself, and lumps all intentional masturbation under the rubric of voluptuousness.” - Sex, Society and Medieval Women 

Useful Links:

Fr. John Harvey - Good moral theology.

Cosmos, Liturgy, and Sex - Excellent posts dealing with the issue.

Catholic Education and Masturbation

Debate On the Morality of Masturbation 

Life doesn’t have to be ugly…

I love that saying, “lighten up!”  I left it on another site as part of my comment and I think someone was offended by it.  Gosh!  I just think we all need to lighten up - it’s lent after all, and we should be having fun fasting, flaggelating, wearing sackcloth and ashes, going barefoot in the snow, keeping vigils all night long, hoarse from unceasing prayer.

That said… 

On a more serious note, I have this story from Spirit Daily, it’s about the birds.  The Crows… the invasion of the crows!  (Dum-ta-da!)  Apparently they are going around in flocks now.  I can attest to it - in the park across the street from my house is a crab tree, full of dried fruit.  Like clockwork, every few days about 25 to 50 crows come and feed on the tree.  Everything is frozen in Minnesota and it seemed a logical place to come for food, so I never gave it a second thought, until Tippi called and told me to check Spirit Daily  right away. (Dum-dun-daaaaaaaaaaaaa!)

Frightened, I checked Spirit Daily  and sure enough, something is  going on with the crows - the headlines jumped right off the screen, “Crow invasion in city neighborhoods baffles experts”.    Freaky-deaky!  One baffled expert fielding all the calls from concerned citizens reported:

“We’ve received a large volume of calls by people reporting really large groups of crows in their neighborhood, and they’re asking why. Unfortunately, we don’t have an answer,” Estell said. - The Crows

Obviously Estell, the receptionist for The National Aviary in Pittsburgh, though shaken, was able to pull herself together enough and told reporters,  “Sometimes the callers are alarmed, but mostly they are just curious.”   That is what I call putting on a brave front in an effort to forestall city-wide panic.  That woman deserves a medal.

Many dead.

It appears the preferred “haunt” for the crows has been local cemeteries.  A spokesman stated the cemetery is normally the roost for Canadian geese, but now the crows have taken over.  He told reporters:

“The flocks arrive every day about 3 or 4 o’clock and make a terrible racket. It’s a nuisance, and I haven’t had any customer complaints, but I prefer they go somewhere else,” said Allegheny Cemetery President Thomas Roberts.” - The Crows

No one mentioned to Mr. Roberts that most of his customers in the cemetery were dead.  Investigators have yet to determine if that is why no complaints have been made, or something more sinister is going on.

“Tooweet!  Tooweet! 

[Photo:  Estell evacuating school children from the girl's restroom at The National Aviary in the Peckerwood Heights neighborhood of Pittsburgh.] 

(Extra bonus trivia:  Did you know that Tippi Hedren’s character in The Birds  was named Melanie Daniels?  Tippi’s daughter is Melanie Griffith - do you think she named her after her character?)