Abbey-Roads2

My week in review.

Tony Snow died.

He was a good man.  Prayers for him and his family.

It has been a weird week.

I want to try to start living as if I am dying - which means going to confession more frequently and being a lot nicer and kinder, and not getting all worked up about stuff I have no control over.

“He laughs the proud to scorn.”

I have fallen into that egotistical trap of taking myself way too seriously again.  Did you realize every sin stems from pride?  Of course, of course, we all should know that - at least intellectually - but to really realize it is quite another matter.  As Meister Eckert said, “God laughs and plays” - and so it seems today, “He laughs the proud to scorn”, as the psalmist says.  So I’ll be going to confession, please pray for me.

Fairy tales are only based on reality.

I should note that my Tales From the Cloister about the errant nun was written for a very sensitive young person who plans on entering a monastery, and it was NOT about any particular religious I know… although I did combine data from several religious I have known to create the fairytale.  That’s all. 

Man bites dog.

Now I did read another priest’s post who wrote a wonderful warning to critics of priests whom trad Catholics may feel are not as Catholic as they are.  (I posted about it here.)  The priest had a very stern warning against attacking God’s anointed.  He is right of course.  However, I couldn’t help but wonder, “Now does this mean an anointed may critique and denigrate another anointed, say a liberal bishop or liberal priest?  Or that lay people who are good solid Catholics may do likewise - only if the culprits are against the TLM of course?   If so, is it only traditional and conservative priests one risks the wrath of God for if they criticise them?”

Don’t bite the hand of the man.

I don’t know, but I think it is better not to denigrate any priest or bishop - in any way - in the spirit of St. Francis of Assisi - who demonstrated devotion for the priesthood, no matter how immoral the priest.  That said, although the tone was rather imperious, the good father’s reprimand certainly is appropriate.  It caused me to reflect on the many times I have gone to confession to dissident priests - some were even gay - and yet they followed the rubrics for absolution perfectly, and my sins were forgiven.  Can I turn and criticise these priests who ministered to me and brought the grace of God to me?  How about the more hip priests whose Masses may have been a tangled mess, yet they confected the Eucharist properly, and I was able to receive Holy Communion?  Who dares to condemn these except their superiors?

Taking it to heart. 

It may be a good lesson for everyone to take to heart, especially priests who publicly criticse or denigrate their fellow priests and bishops - in the media or in conversation with their flock.  These priest-critics may not realize it, but they have already set the example by what they’ve said, and written. 

After the French-worker priests retired…

This past week I also read an article about the Church in France concerning the extreme shortage of priests, abandoned parishes, and how the remaining faithful have little to no opportunity for Mass or the sacraments in the provinces.  Astonishing, isn’t it.  We ought to be grateful for the priests we have - pray for them and for more of them.

Have a nice Saturday.  

The errors of the day. 

A terrific Catholic man I once worked with occasionally would come into work repeating, “We’re all going to hell!”  And since I had the greatest respect for his theology and spirituality, I cornered him as soon as he was alone to ask, “John!  Why?  What do you mean?” 

He usually came to these conclusions after spending time in adoration the night before, or after prayerfully reading documents from the Council of Trent, or the writings of Katherine Emmerich, or something out of “The Sources of Catholic Dogma”.  By way of explanation, he would go on to cite matters and conditions, once considered anathema and sinful, that have become commonplace in our day - yet they continue to be anathema and sinful.

Yep.

So today, as I was reading bits and pieces from  “The Sources of Catholic Dogma” - I pretty much came to the same conclusion.  Or at the very least, gained a better understanding that the sense of sin has definitely been lost in the 21st century - no doubt about it. 

Some errors:

(Remember to preface the following statements with, “It is an error to believe…”)

1174: 24.  To call upon God as a witness to a slight lie is not a great irreverence, because of which God wishes or can condemn man.

(So the next time your kid says, “Swear to God, I did not eat all the Alice B. Toklas brownies!”  Slap them out the door.)

1176: 26.  If anyone swears, either alone or in the presence of others, whether questioned or of his own will, whether for the sake of recreation or for some other purpose, that he did not do something, which in fact he did, understanding within himself something else he did not do, or another way by which he did it, or some other added truth in fact does not lie and is no perjurer.

(”I did not have sex with that woman.”  - Bill Clinton.)

1191: 41.  Since ready cash is more valuable than that to be paid, and since there is no one who does not consider ready cash of greater worth than future cash, a creditor can demand something beyond the principal from the borrower, and for this reason be excused from usury.

(And the credit card companies ask, “What’s in your wallet?”)

1198: 48.  Thus it seems clear that fornication by its nature involves no malice, and that it is evil only because it is forbidden, so that the contrary seems entirely in disagreement with reason. 

(Where have we heard that before?)

1199: 49.  Voluptuousness* is not prohibited by the law of nature.  Therefore if God had not forbidden it, it would be good and sometimes obligatory under pain of mortal sin.

(*V word =M word, or as Oprah likes to call it, ’self-cultivation’.)

The above excerpts taken from: The Sources of Catholic Dogma, Denzinger;  Innocent XI, Various Errors on Moral Subjects (II) - Holy Office, March 4, 1679.

Art:  Innocent XI