Abbey-Roads2

“This is the one I approve, the lowly and afflicted man who trembles at my word.” - Isaiah 66: 2

Yet there is something nice about the quiet man across the alley who sits outside every morning on his porch and smokes his cigarette while he enjoys a cup of coffee.  (Maybe because after 10 months of not smoking I still crave that cigarette.)  Anyway, I’ve talked to him before - he is very content - has no time for religion - “I never hurt anybody” he says.  I never brought religion up with him, but he did; he knows I go to church and I think he wanted to let me know he was a good guy with out it.  I could tell that already though.  Many people who never go to church are much better people than I’ll ever be.

Last week at adoration I noticed an old lady sitting ahead of me reading her prayers.  I was impressed by her devotion and simple dress - such a contrast with the creek people - the affluent neighbors in the parish who live along the creek.  Nothing wrong with affluence, fashion and sophistication, or theology degrees - but this lady reminded me of bygone days.  A sort of 1950’s piety when women stayed at home and dressed 10 years older than they were.  Everyone looked old in the ’50’s - even kids.

Anyway - I thought of that verse from scripture:  “This is the one whom I approve, the lowly and afflicted man…”  Women in the ’50’s knew God called all mankind ”man” - they didn’t need to hear gender specific terms.  And yet few of the ordinary women went to college.  So how could they be so wise?

Being a religious.

Our grandmothers and great grandmothers were often content being what they were - and many of them were very devout and it seems almost all of them were virtuous yet modest.  They prayed without realizing that in many ways they were “common mystics”.  They went to confession and communion, prayed their rosary, read their prayers - without delving into the “science of prayer” or theological questions.  They admired - indeed, esteemed religious and priests, without desiring to be one.  Instead, they faithfully fulfilled the duties peculiar to their state in life.

Sometimes it causes me to tremble…

Anyone can still do that and become a saint.

Anyone who wants to be a hermit can be as well.

If you want to dress up like a nun or a monk at home, you can do that too.

If you want to begin a religious order you can write a rule and live it.

No one is stopping anyone.

Just like my friend across the alley, you don’t have to go to church either, you can sit at home and smoke, and contemplate nature.

However, I must say, I’m more attracted to that old lady’s spirituality than I am to any other.  I think - for me at least - it is better to tremble at God’s word than to try and define it.  Which brings up another point… lovers often tremble when they touch - that is the coolest.

Have a nice Sunday. 

Noise.

“I can’t talk now, I’m on the phone!” was a line from “Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman” - Louise Lasser’s character was explaining to the party she was speaking to on the phone, why she couldn’t talk at the moment.  I know!  Although it kind of makes sense in todays culture, when everyone seems to be always on the phone, or texting, or plugged into their ipod, or just online.  Interconnected… and yet still so superficial.

The sounds of silence…

Is now listening to other people’s phone conversations on the street corner or in the grocery store.  These days I’m cat-sitting and taking care of a friend’s house while he is home in Washington, D.C. taking care of his mother who is ill.  He lives in a very fashionable area of Minneapolis called Kenwood, and in order to get there I drive through the Lake neighborhoods and pass through a trendy area of town, known as Uptown.  The area has long been the cool area of town, it was the same when I hung out there, and it was the same for the generation before me - which makes me laugh because we all grew up, got old, are on our way to the grave, and that coolness, along with its youthful beauty and freaky clothes is long gone - just as it will be for the new cool people in a few years.  Although they are all VIP now.  But I digress.

I can’t talk now, I’m online. 

Anyway, what I have noticed going back and forth is how it seems everyone is plugged into something.  Drivers seem to always be on the phone, as do walkers.  I noticed several people carrying grocery bags as they walked with ipods plugged into their ears, although some were using hands-free phones - you know, the ones with the ear piece that looks like a hearing aid.  No one is quiet any longer, silence seems to be a lost art.  Reflection is only something one experiences in a mirror or store window.

“Shut-up!”

It occurred to me that not only is the new attention-craving generation more coddled than any before - even in employment their need for affirmation and approval cannot tolerate the least bit of indifference - but they have been raised with unending noise and entertainment which accustomed them to require a steady flow of music, conversation, and distraction.  Think about it - most of them were raised with toys that were interactive - they spoke, they sang, they had bells and whistles - and these were the inanimate objects.  Then of course they got their computers and computer games, and spent a great deal of time in front of the television - and music was everywhere.  It’s amazing isn’t it?  Noise baby-sat the kids.  No wonder text messaging can be in code or reduced to a couple of words - that is how many speak:  ”Dude!” “Whatever!”  “Shut-up!”  Inarticulate, one or two word sentences.

Got religion?

A week ago the world watched several thousand youth at World Youth Day, where once again noise seemed to be an essential ingredient.  Not a few people thus conclude all the youth of the world are becoming religious.  It is true, WYD is a very encouraging sign of young people’s openness to religion, but the fact is many others have no interest in it at all, and if they do, it is often occult based (Harry Potter generation), or else they are just media junkies.

Silence and solitude would kill them.

It seems to me everything in contemporary culture militates against all that is authentically spiritual, due in part to the noise factor.  I wonder if people are really afraid of silence and just being?  Even New Age spirituality, though emphasizing a certain type of silence, frequently calls for one to voice affirming mantras while the practitioner works to empty his consciousness - therefore avoiding anything associated with authentic self-knowledge.  Thus - even if the Holy Spirit was trying to get in, he might be rejected as a distracting thought.

Mary Hartman really meant to say - “I can’t think now…”

Something is off here.  I wonder if there isn’t an inability to think and meditate, to actually reflect on all of the information that bombards us today.  Critical thinking is often mistaken for dissent and criticism of what someone either doesn’t understand or of what contradicts an individuals preferences.  We seem to be becoming a society totally other-directed by media and technology, while any introspection is drowned out by the noise of popular cultures communication toys.

No wonder there is so little faith on earth.  When the Son of God returns, will there be any left at all?  The readings from todays Mass may speak to this as well:

“Two evils have my people done:  they have forsaken me, the source of living waters;  They have dug for themselves cisterns, broken cisterns, that hold no water.” - Jeremiah 2: 12-13

And:

“They look but do not see, and hear but do not listen or understand…” - Matthew 13: 10-17

The problem of innocent suffering and stuff you just can’t fix or explain away.

This past week there were two local news stories that really got to me.  One story concerned a newborn baby, born at a local hospital whose oxygen dome caught fire and the little kid is now in critical condition - badly burned.  The other story was about a toddler whose mother died and she just stayed by her mommy for three days until someone came in and found them.  The little baby still thinks her mom is just sick.

Doesn’t that tear your heart out?  What can you say about stuff like that!  You can’t say to the suffering - “Oh, it is God’s will.”  You can’t say to people close to them, “God is allowing this for your good, my good, anybody’s good.”  And you better not say, “God is punishing them for sin.”  We don’t really know that - I don’t care what theologians say - we don’t understand the mystery of innocent suffering.  Human beings cannot explain mysteries.  All we can do is speculate or parrot something someone else once said. 

Certainly God draws good out of evil, but it makes you want to tear your heart out and scream when confronted with innocent suffering.  Which is the reason why St. Francis wept at the sight of lambs…  they reminded him of the sufferings of the innocent Christ.

He simply wept.

Nothing but a post-it note.

I really have topics I want to post on, but I’m not in the mood to write.  Lately writing is a lot of work.   So I’ll simply post some notes here.

Gerald has a thing on Obama  - questioning why he is considered black if his mom is white?  And some other stuff about Barack’s church affiliation.  He cites Christopher what’s-his-name’s post  about it all.  I found it provocative, more interesting than the religion-on-the-sleeves candidates who are in the running. 

I watched the debates.  The other running mates don’t pay much attention to Ron Paul, do they.  I really hope ______ ends up winning the presidency. 

Rorate Caeli  has a couple of interesting posts.  One about the Jesuits and the “encouragement” Cardinal Rode  offered them to continue their apostolic dedication of service to the Roman Pontiff:  “The fundamental nucleus of Ignatian spirituality consists in uniting love for God with love for the hierarchical Church.”  A few sources have suggested the Cardinal was scolding the Jesuits.

The other Rorate post I found most interesting dealt with the canonical issue of a “state of necessity“.  Do you know what that means?  It is something SSPXers claim as their raison d’être  in justifying their claim they are not in schism.  And many people use the the same canonical loophole for justifying their attendance at SSPX churches and oratories.  What captured my attention is that rumor has it Pope Benedict is said to have recognized such a “state of necessity” exists:

“We, in our turn, can bring with us an opinion of greater weight on this argument. Pope Benedict XVI directly provided it, during the audience which he granted to us on August 29, 2005. At a certain point [during the audience], the Pontiff himself put the matter on the table: pondering on the state of the Church in countries such as France and Germany, Benedict XVI recognized as perfectly well-grounded the question of the subsistence of the state of necessity in such countries… “ - Bishop Fellay

So… that’s interesting, huh?

[Art: "When pigs fly" - James Christensen] 

And on the third day… I finally got back on this %*&&# blog.  From time to time, I get locked out - so if I haven’t posted on any given day, check out the other Abbey - I’ll be posting there.

Singin’ in the reign…

You know how those middle-school music teachers,  Marty Culp and Bobbi Moughan-Culp on Saturday Night Live, entertained us by singing their pop-rock songs straight?  How they slowed down the tempo, Bobbi singing classically, enunciating each word clearly?  Well, anyway - it occured to me that sometimes dissident Catholics may put on a similar act.

They can sound sweet, well-meaning, even ‘orthodox’ - but their lyrics are still twisted.  They may look straight and conservative - but they are still pushing the envelope for change.  Other great examples of this marketing of evil technique are the hypocrites running for the 2008 presidential nomination, competing in the Iowa caucus, saying whatever they need to say to come out on top.

I suppose we ought to be well acquianted with this type of duplicity by now, having endured so many bishops and priests in sheep’s clothing over the last several years.  Yet maybe we’ve become too accustomed to this sort of manipulation, to the extent we are taken in more easily by the Stepford clone act when it is continually rerun for us.

The suffering of the Infant Jesus and his friends…

The Nativity narratives, and the feast days of the martyrs (especially the Holy Innocents) which immediately follow the feast of Christmas, are fair warning to us that the peace of Christmas does not mean the absence of suffering.  What a great mystery this is for us to comprehend, and maybe, quite the surprise for not a few.  Perhaps this is one reason why families in our country wound, maim, and kill one another at this time of year - because of the stress of the holidays?  Or why others commit suicide.  While others may just over-medicate on alcohol, drugs, food, or find something else distracting enough to get them through the disappointment of the season of unreal expectations.

Unreal expectations.

Religious people have them too, especially around Christmas time.  It is difficult to maintain one’s emotional and spiritual balance during the Christmas season if a person is not well grounded.  Caryll Houselander wrote a wonderful book, Wood of the Cradle, Wood of the Cross,  a book on spiritual childhood in the light of the passion of the Child Jesus.  I expect there can be no greater reality for us than that of our all-powerful God, emptying himself, taking upon himself the suffering of our human nature, born in the extreme humility of a stable in Bethlehem.  [That is, if one is able to ponder the scene realistically, without falling prey to sentimentality.]   

Houselander on reality:

To accept oneself as one is; to accept life as it is: these are the two basic elements of childhood’s simplicity and humility. But it is one thing to say this and another to do it. What is involved? First of all, it involves the abandoning of all unreality in ourselves. But even granted that we have the courage to face ourselves and to root out every trace of pretense, how shall we then tolerate the emptiness, the insignificance, that we built up our elaborate pretense to cover?

The answer is simple. If we are afraid to know ourselves for what we are, it is because we have not the least idea of what trial is.

The acceptance of life as it is must teach us trust and humility. This is because every real experience of life is an experience of God. Every experience of God makes us realize our littleness, our need, our nothingness, but at the same time the miracle of Christ in us. Not only are we one of God’s creatures — which is in itself a guarantee of His eternal creating love — but we are also His Christ, His only Son, the sole object of His whole love. These two facts balance the scales of trust: our nothingness and our allness. 

If, in the light of this knowledge, we give ourselves unreservedly to life, every phase of it, every experience in it will lead us back to the inward heaven of spiritual childhood. “All the way to Heaven is Heaven,” says St. Catherine of Siena, and this is a thousand times true of the heaven of spiritual childhood, because it means becoming, not any child, but the Christ Child who is the life and the heaven of the soul.- Caryll Houselander     

The California wildfires.

Watching the news coverage, most of the evacuees were asked what they salvaged when they only had minutes or hours to flee their homes.  Most took very little, and their greatest concern was to rescue their families, children, and pets.  I thought back to the post Fr. Zuhlsdorf  wrote a week or so ago about this exact same topic.  I wondered if his readers in California remembered it, and if they thought Fr. Z’s post may have been prophetic?

Cruel judgement.

Mixed in with some of the news coverage was a brief piece about a radio talk show host.  The host was making fun of the wealthy residents, especially the Malibu celebrity community, mocking their potential need for aid, assistance, and shelter.  Elsewhere, on a couple of websites I read things like, “this is God’s judgement on the California sinners”, or “these people brought it on themselves because they built in a fire zone”, etc.   With comments like these, no wonder so many in our society hate Christians.  Where is the charity?

These people, no matter how affluent nor what their lifestyle, have lost home, property, possessions, and in most cases, a huge interruption in their abilty to earn a living - if not their entire livelihood.  If winter rains come, even more may be lost to mudslides.  What is wrong with people that they can so easily make light of others suffering such loss?

Loving our neighbor.

In today’s Gospel Our Lord anxiously proclaims, “I have come to set the earth on fire, and how I wish it were already blazing!” (Luke 12)  Our Lord is speaking of the fire of Divine love, the burning fires of charity, which at its core is the burning desire for the salvation of souls.  Indeed, it seems the fire of love has grown cold today, even in the hearts of Christians.

The love of Christians could ignite, and like the California wildfire, set the blaze, engulfing the dry wood of those alienated from the Church, in and through our patience, our understanding and our love.  If only we stopped continually condemning others, dictating how they should be living, and try to love them as God loves them, perhaps this would spark the fires of belief in hearts grown cold and indifferent.

Charity is not an emotion.

I’m at fault - I’ve failed to understand the immense love God has for every person, no matter what their religion, no matter if a person is an athiest, an agnostic, or an enemy of the Church.  God loves the homosexual, the woman who has an abortion - God loves the sinner.  I don’t think we comprehend that in all of its depth.  I don’t think we truly realize that God permits the rain to fall on the good and the bad, producing the harvest for both.  I don’t think we fully comprehend how he permits the weeds to grow amongst the wheat.  We hear “hate the sin” and we end up hating the sinner.

It is difficult to comprehend, but when Jesus cries out in today’s Gospel, “I have a baptism to endure, and what anguish I feel until it is accomplished” he is speaking of his passion.  In his immense love, he gave himself into the hands of the impious, to be mocked, scourged, beaten, and crucified.  Totally abandoned, rejected even by his own, he cried out from the depths of his Sacred Heart, “I thirst” echoing that same thirst for love his persecutors experienced.  Yet more deeply, the very thirst of God - for love and for souls.

“You will all come to the same end unless you repent.”

We can’t know this however, until we lose everything we possess and cherish, and realize we are no better than those we condemn or hate.  Our knowledge of dogma and theology is nothing with out love.  How are men and women ever going to be attracted to Christ and his Church if we do not have love?  The commandments, dogma, theology, and threats of damnation rarely attract the unconverted.  Love, that is charity, does.

Suffering is a great equalizer.  May all of us who profess to be Christian be blessed by the Cross that we may understand the sufferings of others.   

Incomplete thoughts on Sunday morning.

I went to St. Agnes this morning, and believe it or not someone actually followed me out to talk to me.  (I knew him.)  Normally, I rarely get a smile or a nod from anyone at that time of day.  This morning I held the door open for a couple, smiled, whispered ‘good morning,’  and they didn’t even make eye contact.  But that is why I go there - it is easier to pray in such solitude.  Moving on…

More on those fabulous shoes (gay stuff)…*

I received some emails about Gerald’s post, Empathy for Gay-Catholics.  First of all, ‘gay-Catholics’ is not a good term.  I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again, the word gay is a political term and to identify yourself as gay implies a person approves of the lifestyle or is sexually active.  If that is the case, that person is unfaithful to Church teaching - I’m not linking to all the documents - but it is the clear teaching of the Church.  In addition, if a person with homosexual inclination is attempting to live a chaste and celibate life in accord with Catholic teaching, to identify as gay is to keep oneself in that culture, emotionally, psychologically, and maybe even morally.

Having said that, I agree with Gerald on several of his points - although I am very much against homosexual adoption of children.  Having come from  a rather disordered household, I can tell you that children available for adoption should only be adopted by healthy couples in a stable traditional marriage.  I’m not going into detail why I know this.

Empathy for straight people…

As for empathy for gay persons, I think it is incumbent upon all Christians to respect every individual as a person; a human being created and loved by God.  However, what many people fail to realize is that when the lifestyle is continually in your face; whether in politics, media, promoted in gay rights campaigns, along with rhetoric which maligns traditional family values, lifestyle and religion, the average person’s tolerance is tested to the extreme.  When gays mock and attack all that straight people hold sacred, how can they expect the esteem they are crying out for?

The average heterosexual person, who cherishes traditional morality and strives to live a faith-based life, is repulsed by the very idea of sexual relations which are contrary to natural law.  The concept of homosexual sex disgusts and repels them.  No matter how Beaver Cleaver  gay activists want to portray the lifestyle, most straight people just can’t accept the sex part.

What is my point?

My point is this:  The more gay people cry ‘poor me’ or get all militant about equal rights and recognition of same-sex marriage, along with the endless marketing that accompanies it, the more angry the average person is going to get.  As emotions on both sides flare, hostility is the natural outcome.  You cannot force people to accept what is completely foreign to their nature, such as unnatural acts.

I honestly believe that gays who are constantly asking for compassion, understanding, and acceptance must stop and respect the traditional moral values of the majority of heterosexual men and women who are troubled by homosexuality.  At least for the sake of the common good.  (After all, gay people are only 1 or 2% of the population.)  Instead of continually campaigning for their rights to do whatever they want - let them slow down here and have a little bit of respect for those people who some term breeders.  Let gay people have some empathy for the people who feel activists are trying to shove a gay agenda down their throats.  (Maybe gay activists should try a bit harder  to cleanup the lifestyle instead.)

It is an emotional issue to begin with.  But everyone seems to be  letting their emotions over-ride their intellects on the subject.  

That’s all.

*Note:  “Those fabulous shoes” refers to Gerald’s original post at Cafeteria is Closed. 

“You, O man, are without excuse.” 

Every Wednesday we have adoration at my parish all day long, so I won’t be online much - although I want to fill the calendar in my sidebar and I’ll do a short post about nothing…

A very nice man commented on another post and told me I write a lot of rubbish.  I appreciate that and must say I agree with him.  Vanity of vanities - that pretty much sums up weblogs - or maybe just mine.

Mush for brains.

This morning at Mass, I had to battle thoughts about others… I often have to do that.  I think it is normal.  All of us make snap judgements about others - although in my case, because I live this virtual-cyber-life, which means I spend many hours alone, I tend to assess most people from a rather insulated paradigm.

For instance, every day at Mass there are a few people who continue to stand throughout the Eucharistic prayer, when the rest of the congregation kneels.  So I try not to think about them and do my best to mind my own business.  Nevertheless, one older couple in particular impressed me as being rather arrogant about it and I supposed they were progressive modernists.  Okay - so I stop myself right there - I say to myself, “Who cares?  Mind your own business.”

Getting down - to earth.

When Mass was over, Father comes to get me and insists I go downstairs with him for donuts and coffee - see, I never  do stuff like that.  I went down with him and sat at one of the tables where this couple I didn’t like  were sitting.  They turned out to be so friendly and nice to me, engaging me in a wonderful conversation.  They were the complete opposite from what my negative little mind was telling me.  Just like Father, who often doesn’t genuflect because of knee troubles, they too  have really bad knees and can’t kneel - I should add that they are in their late 80’s.

Afterwards, I went back upstairs for adoration and laughed to the Lord, thanking him for showing me what rubbish my judgements of others can be.  And when I got home, I found that wonderful comment - “what a lot of rubbish you write!”  How true, how true!

“You, O man, are without excuse, every one of you who passes judgement.  For the standard by which you judge another you condemn yourself, since you, the judge, do the very same things.” - First reading at Mass;  Romans 2