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April 28th, 2010
Atheism and Modern ScienceWe recommend you go to his website for an interesting discussion by Mark Mallet on the "painful irony" of modern scientists whose increasing knowledge of the world and its marvels has to that same extent increasingly led them away from the world's Creator and any devotion to Him. They have made a religion out of their own methods. Their faith is in the understanding of their own mind. And there, alas, it stops.
The things of this world reveal the unseen things above, St. Paul said. Not for many modern scientists. What will their excuse be when they face the Creator, the One who has allowed them to see and understand so much about the world He created?
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April 12th, 2010
"Christ is Risen" in Russia There's this legendary, presumably true account of a debate between a Soviet commissar and an Orthodox priest. It takes place in the early days after the Russian revolution, around 1925 or so. The commissar was an atheistic philosopher tasked with aiding in the destruction of religious faith in Russia. To that end, he arranged for a debate on the existence of God with an Orthodox priest, to be held in a stadium before thousands of citizens who were more or less obliged to attend. The atheistic philosopher delivered his address first, deriding the notion that there is a god. Then he invited the priest to respond. The priest stood up, looked at the crowd said to be about ten thousand, and announced in a loud voice, "Christ is risen!" The crowd responded in a single voice, "He is risen indeed!"
Now, just the other day (85 years later), we read this April 5th report by an Interfax correspondent who was present at the event.
Fans greeted each other on Easter at a Sunday evening soccer match at Moscow Lokomotiv stadium. At the beginning of the second half of the match thousands of fans of Dynamo team started chanting "Christ is Risen!" Thousands of fans of Lokomotiv team on the opposite side of the stadium responded by chanting "Truly He is Risen!" The exchange took place several times.
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March 29th, 2010
On the Benefit of Being DislikedGod's providence sends us two kinds of souls to help bring us to Him. The first soul reassures us, sees what Jesus intended in us, and makes us believe we are that person or at least are in the process of becoming that person. This first soul builds us up and encourages us on our way. The second soul is quite different. This soul sees what is amiss in us, reacts to it and makes us feel we are far from the person we should be, forcing us to reflect on what we are in and of ourselves, apart from grace, which picture is never consoling. It is always devastating to meet such a person, to experience his or her rejection. But in God's Providence, encounters with both souls are necessary and we should be thankful for what each of them works in that Providence. Children especially seem able to see what's wrong with us and often have the simplicity to say so where others would conceal what they think. I still smart from encounters with certain children. It is easy to like someone who likes us, difficult to even smile at one who does not. But there is value in bowing to truth.
--Excerpted from The Mystery of Work (click here)
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March 2nd, 2010
The Redeemer's Appeal to Consecrated SoulsIn 1936, as Europe was on the brink of WWII, Our Lord began speaking to a French nun, appealing through her to consecrated souls to live their consecration to Him more more profoundly. "Religious souls," he cried, "if you would have been more abandoned, more espoused, the world would not be as it is." What Our Lord said was recorded and published in France under the title Cum Clamore Valido, with the nihil obstat and imprimatur of ecclesiastical authorities. The key chapters of this book have been translated and made available here, freely downloadable.
Our Lord's appeal speaks no less to us today. Consider the statement by a Sister Laurie Brink, a keynote speaker at the Leadership Conference of Women Religious (LCWR) in 2007, to the effect that the more liberal congregations of sisters were "moving beyond the Church, even beyond Jesus." Surely this appeal must pierce the hearts of those who love Him!
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March 1st, 2010
Comforting Words this Lenten Season
(Given to the lay apostle known as Anne)
Jesus:
My dear friends, you are making progress. I, the One who sees all, can mark
progress in many ways which are not available to you. I can mark progress in
terms of your holiness, which you will experience as a greater awareness of
your flaws and weaknesses. I can mark progress in terms of the advancement
of My plan, which I experience in an increased longing for goodness in My
children. I can mark progress in the commitment of more and more of My
little apostles to the spread of My healing graces. I am pleased. Your time
on earth will be used to the fullest possible extent, if only you will
remain fixed on My presence in your day. So much depends on this awareness
of Me. Your comfort in this time of change will largely depend on this and
that is why I have come in the way that I have come and in the time that I
have come. I prepare you, My friends, so that you can then prepare others.
There is a groaning in My Church, a sigh of exertion as she pushes forward
into a renewed period. You feel this aching strain but you also feel the
spark of My hope. Dear apostles, for what reason would I come to you in this
way if not for a good reason? Why would I deluge My Church in grace if not
to renew her? Please. I urge you to rejoice. I am the Messenger who brings
salvation. You are the heralds of My salvation. Does a herald look
downhearted and hopeless? Of course not. One who heralds the King's return
stands with eyes alight, filled with anticipation and happiness. Be this for
Me in this world where darkness is delivered by so many. Be heralds of the
Light, rejoicing, so that others may see their future.
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February 21st, 2010
St. John Chrysostom on Prayer
Prayer and converse with God is a supreme good: it is a partnership and union with God. As the eyes of the body are enlightened when they see light, so our spirit, when it is intent on God, is illuminated by his infinite light. I do not mean the prayer of outward observance but prayer from the heart, not confined to fixed times or periods but continuous throughout the day and night.
Our spirit should be quick to reach out toward God, not only when it is engaged in meditation; at other times also, when it is carrying out its duties, caring for the needy, performing works of charity, giving generously in the service of others, our spirit should long for God and call him to mind, so that these works may be seasoned with the salt of God's love, and so make a palatable offering to the Lord of the universe. Throughout the whole of our lives we may enjoy the benefit that comes from prayer if we devote a great deal of time to it.
Prayer is the light of the spirit, true knowledge of God, mediating between God and man. The spirit, raised up to heaven by prayer, clings to God with the utmost tenderness; like a child crying tearfully for its mother, it craves the milk that God provides. It seeks the satisfaction of its own desires, and receives gifts outweighing the whole world of nature.
Prayer stands before God as an honored ambassador. It gives joy to the spirit, peace to the heart. I speak of prayer, not words. It is the longing for God, love too deep for words, a gift not given by man but by God's grace. The apostle Paul says: We do not know how we are to pray but the Spirit himself pleads for us with inexpressible longings.
When the Lord gives this kind of prayer to a man, he gives him riches that cannot be taken away, heavenly food that satisfied the spirit. One who tastes this food is set on fire with an eternal longing for the Lord: his spirit burns as in a fire of the utmost intensity.
Practice prayer from the beginning. Paint your house with the colors of modesty and humility Make it radiant with the light of justice. Decorate it with the finest gold leaf of good deeds. Adorn it with the walls and stones of faith and generosity. Crown it with the pinnacle of prayer. In this way you will make it a perfect dwelling place for the Lord. You will be able to receive him as in a splendid palace, and through his grace you will already possess him, his image enthroned in the temple of your spirit
--Second Reading from the Liturgy of the Houses for Friday after Ash Wednesday.
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February 3rd, 2010
The Holy Father on Consecrated Souls
Consecrated persons are called in a particular way to be witnesses of this mercy of the Lord, in which man finds his salvation. They have the vivid experience of God's forgiveness, because they have the awareness of being saved persons, of being great when they recognize themselves to be small, of feeling renewed and enveloped by the holiness of God when they recognize their own sin. Because of this, also for the man of today, consecrated life remains a privileged school of "compunction of heart," of the humble recognition of one's misery but, likewise, it remains a school of trust in the mercy of God, in his love that never abandons. In reality, the closer we come to God, and the closer one is to him, the more useful one is to others. Consecrated persons experience the grace, mercy and forgiveness of God not only for themselves, but also for their brothers, being called to carry in their heart and prayer the anxieties and expectations of men, especially of those who are far from God.
In particular, communities that live in cloister, with their specific commitment of fidelity in "being with the Lord," in "being under the cross," often carry out this vicarious role, united to Christ of the Passion, taking on themselves the sufferings and trials of others and offering everything with joy for the salvation of the world.
Finally, dear friends, we wish to raise to the Lord a hymn of thanksgiving and praise for consecrated life itself. If it did not exist, how much poorer the world would be! Beyond the superficial valuations of functionality, consecrated life is important precisely for its being a sign of gratuitousness and of love, and this all the more so in a society that risks being suffocated in the vortex of the ephemeral and the useful (cf Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation. Consecrated Life, 105). Consecrated life, instead, witnesses to the superabundance of the Lord's love, who first "lost" his life for us. At this moment I am thinking of the consecrated persons who feel the weight of the daily effort lacking in human gratification, I am thinking of elderly men and women religious, the sick, of all those who feel difficulties in their apostolate. Not one of these is futile, because the Lord associates them to the "throne of grace." Instead, they are a precious gift for the Church and the world, thirsty for God and his Word.
--From the homily by Pope Benedict XVI on Day of Consecrated Souls
( Zenit, Feb. 3, 2010)
NOTE: The reader is cordially directed to The Redeemer''s Appeal to Consecrated Souls.
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January 14th, 2010
Something Special
Here is link that you will be glad you followed. A true account of a father's love and a son's most remarkable accomplishment. Take a few minutes to view it here
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December 20th, 2009
Our Lady's Instruction to us all
(As manifested to Venerable Mary of Agreda "for the benefit of men")
"Now attend to the instruction, which I give thee. . . If I was the model to be imitated in the way I responded to the coming of God into the soul and into the world by showing due reverence, worship, humility, and thankful love, it follows, that if thou, (and in the same way the rest of souls), art solicitous in imitating me, the Most High will come and produce the same effects in thee as in myself; though they may be not so great and efficacious. For if the creature, as soon as it obtains the use of reason, begins to advance toward the Lord as it should, directing its footsteps in the path of life and salvation, his Most High Majesty will issue forth to meet it (Wis. 6, 15), being beforehand with his favors and communications: for to Him it seems a long time to wait for the end of the pilgrimage in order to manifest Himself to his friends. . . .
"Thus it happens, that by means of faith, hope and charity, and by the worthy reception of the Sacraments, many divine effects, wrung by his condescension, are communicated to souls. Some are communicated according to the ordinary course of grace and others according to a more supernatural and wonderful order; and each one will be more or less comfortable to the disposition of the soul and to the ends intended by the Lord, which are not known at present. And if the souls do not place any obstacle on their part, He will be just as liberal with them as with those who dispose themselves, giving them greater light and knowledge of his immutable being, and by a divine and exceedingly sweet infusion of grace, transforming them into a likeness of Himself and communicating to them many of the privileges of the beatified."
-- from City of God, vol. II, "The Incarnation," p. 143-144v v v
December 19th, 2009
Emmanuel--God With Us
Christmas Reflection
The Loneliness and Isolation of Jesus in the Midst of Creatures
(Private Revelation to Servant of God Luisa Piccarreta)
"Behold, I am the God who is isolated from creatures. I live in their midst; I am the light of each one of their acts; yet they consider Me to be irrelevant. Oh, how I weep over my solitude! I suffer the same fate as the sun. Every moment of its life the sun lives among creatures through its light and its heart. There is no fertility which does not come from the sun. With its heat it purifies the earth of so much filth. Its benefits are incalculable as it magnanimously pours them out on all. Yet it lives along in its heights, always alone; and man never gives Me even one "thank you' nor any other sign of gratitude for this sun.
So also am I--alone, always alone. Yet being among men, I am the light of their every thought, the sound of their every word, the movement of their every act, the footsteps of their every walk, the palpitation of every heart. Nevertheless, ungrateful man leaves Me in isolation, never giving me a 'thank you,' nor an 'I love you.' I am abandoned in man's intelligence because man uses for his own ends the light I give him, perhaps even to offend Me. I am abandoned in men's words, whose sounds often blaspheme Me. I am abandoned in his acts, which man uses to bring Me death. I am abandoned in his steps; and I am abandoned in his heart--a heart devoted to disobedience and to loving what does not pertain to Me.
Oh, how this solitude weights upon Me! But so great are my Love and magnanimity that, although being much more than a sun, I continue my course--always searching to find someone willing to accompany Me in the midst of such solitude! When I find such a soul, I continually accompany it and fill it to overflowing with my graces."
--From Book of Heaven, vol. 14, p. 82-83. The Cause for the Beatification and
Canonization of this Dominican Third Order Servant of God is being pursued at the v v v
November 19th, 2009
"Who shall find a valiant woman" (Prov. 31)
In reading the Old Testament, e.g., Ruth, Samuel, one cannot but be struck by how much the Lord depended upon (and achieved through) the fecundity of women. From Ruth came, ultimately, David. From Hannah came Samuel. From Bersheba, Solomon. From Mary, Jesus. But in our times, the cultural elites would have us believe the fecundity of women is something to be smirked at if not altogether stopped through abortion. Thus does the evil one seek to obstruct God's purposes through women. Does not the widespread detestation of valiant, fertile women in our times, like Sarah Palin and Michelle Backman, reflect just this? But at the same time, is not the simple fidelity these women exhibit to God and his purposes why they are so ardently admired by still others, just because these others see them as valiant women of God.
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November 12th, 2009
Remember When?
--Families were intact and living together outside of wedlock was a scandal.
--Birth outside of marriage was a tragedy.
--Families with lots of children were regarded with delight.
--Fathers were honored as heads of their household.
--Authority was generally respected.
--Music strove to touch upon beauty.
--Art sought to capture the wonder of nature, persons, things.
--Religion and religious symbols permeated society.
--Faith and reason lived in harmony.
--Natural law was viewed as the true measure of positive law.
--Life was respected at all stages, and abortion was sin.
--The Ten Commandments were to be observed and no one thought otherwise
--Marriage could only ever be between a man and a woman.
--Sodomy was a crime.
--Truth existed and could be known, even if imperfectly.
--A person would be considered sick if he or she thought the loss of any of the above represented progress.
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October 24th, 2009
Scientific Conference in Rome Refuting Evolution Theory
In November of this year, Darwin's "Origin of Species" will be 150 years old. Catholic scientists are observing the anniversary with a conference in Rome, Italy, aimed at the scientific refutation of evolution theory. The conference is being help November 9th at St. Pius V University. For more information, click here.
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October 4th, 2009
Aristotle's Argument for the Existence of God
Read in Aristotle last night an interesting argument for the existence of God, known as the argument from perfection. It goes this way: Among all things, some are better than other. And if this is so, then one must be the best, the most perfect of all things. And that best is God. St. Thomas develops this idea in his forth argument for God's existence and connects the idea of perfection with the idea of causality (Summa, Pt1, Q. 2, Art. 3). He writes:
The maximum of any genus is the cause of all that genus; as fire, which is the maximum of heat, is the cause of all heat. Therefore there must be something which is to all beings the cause of their being, goodness, and every other perfection; and this we call God.Aristotle also introduced the idea of God as "unmoved mover," another notion that St. Thomas develolped, but hardly anybody today is moved by these or indeed any arguments for the existence of God. People who should know better, like scientists, especially biologists for some reason, are content to explain all that exists to the operations of chance and the passage of time. Why so many presumably rational scientifsts and academics think billions of years is a sufficient explanation for all that is is a mystery. Billions of years rather than God. It must be because billions of years is behind us, not over us, leaving us free to go about doing pretty much whatever we wish, without the bother of a divine lawmaker following us in our rear view mirror, or, in short, without Someone calling us to his perfection.You might want to read the interview with Prof. Agnostini about belief in God. (Click here)v v v
September 4th, 2009
Our Lord to a French nun in 1940, as the modern world plunged into chaos,
telling us to go to the school of Mary for the defense and safety of souls.
August 29th 1940
"To imitate and touch the Mercy of your heavenly Father and by it to draw Mercy down upon the poor world, be merciful like your heavenly Father, and do not grow weary gazing at the Heart of Mary, the most accessible model that I have given. "Mistress as well as Mother of Mercy. Learn from Her to be like her, each of you, to be merciful mother to souls. Go to her school: She will teach you the great secret of maternal mercy."See most particularly the child in every soul, a potential Jesus, a Jesus to be realized, a Christ to be engendered so that the circle of the Father’s great family may be widened. Work of love that inspires pity and compassion because this potential Jesus in every soul in some way is a Jesus in peril, a Jesus exposed to contradiction, attacked, oppressed by thousands of enemies stirred up my great enemy, Satan."A Jesus waiting for deliverance, therefore well deserving of attracting a mother’s compassion, who thus sees in each soul a Jesus to be saved, a Jesus to be freed from the foe’s captivity, a Jesus to make flourish in some way, a Jesus to be raised up, as this word so profoundly put it, an ascension of life rising from the depths of a life created in the divine image. And finally, a Jesus to be offered to the Father."The art and the secret of the maternal apostolate of Mary is to bring forth souls to the Father by bringing forth Jesus in souls. All the love that She has for her Infant-God She bears to all the children of God, brothers of her Jesus, and especially to consecrated souls, they who are privileged among the privileged."Aides of her maternal love, meditate and meditate again on the sweet gentleness of charity, goodness, and condescension that you must have for souls that I have given you to defend, souls in which my life is ever more in peril in this hour of such infernal, satanic contradiction!"--Quoted from Chapter Two of The Redeemer's Appeal to Consecrated Souls,
a French spiritual classic being made available
in translation on this website, here.
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August 24th, 2009
"In so far as you know yourself, so shall you know God"
Jesus to the 20th century Italian mystic, Luisa Piccarreta:
“The greatest favor that I can grant to a soul is to make it know itself. The knowledge of oneself and the knowledge of God go hand in hand. In so far as you shall know yourself, so shall you know God. The soul that has known itself, seeing that of itself it can work no good, transforms the shadow of itself into God; and it comes to pass that it does all its operations in God. It happens then, that the soul is in God and walks beside Him, without looking, without investigating, without
speaking. In a word, it is, as it were, dead; for knowing in depth its nothingness, it does not dare to do anything of itself but blindly follows the influence of the operations of the Word.”
Luisa replies to Jesus:
"It seems to me that to the soul that knows itself, it happens as with those persons who go by train: while they pass from one point to another without themselves taking a step, they make long trips, but all in virtue of the train that transports them. Such is the soul: putting itself in God, as
the person on the train, it makes sublime flights in the way of perfection, knowing well that it is not of itself, but in virtue of that blessed God who carries it in Himself. Oh, how the Lord favors, enriches and concedes the greatest graces to the soul that, not to itself, but to Him attributes all! Oh soul that knows yourself, how fortunate you are! . . ."
Jesus:
“My daughter, only the little ones let themselves be handled as one wants–not these who are little in human reason, but those who are full of Divine Reason. I alone can say that I am humble. In man, on the contrary, that which is called humility should instead be called knowledge of oneself, and he who does not know himself already walks in falsehood.”
–from Luisa Piccarreta's writings, Book of Heaven, vol. 1, p. 19.
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A quote from Benedict XVI's new encyclical, Caritas in Veritate.
July 20th, 2009
Only in truth does charity shine forth, only in truth can charity be authentically lived. Truth is the light that gives meaning and value to charity. That light is both the light of reason and the light of faith, through which the intellect attains to the natural and supernatural truth of charity: it grasps its meaning as gift, acceptance, and communion. Without truth, charity degenerates into sentimentality. Love becomes an empty shell, to be filled in an arbitrary way. In a culture without truth, this is the fatal risk facing love. It falls prey to contingent subjective emotions and opinions, the word “love” is abused and distorted, to the point where it comes to mean the opposite. Truth frees charity from the constraints of an emotionalism that deprives it of relational and social content, and of a fideism that deprives it of human and universal breathing-space. In the truth, charity reflects the personal yet public dimension of faith in the God of the Bible, who is both Agápe and Lógos: Charity and Truth, Love and Word. (For the entire encyclical, click here)
This connection of truth and charity is well illustrated graphically in the drawing portfolio offered in Logos Review Two (click here).
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Developments on the No-Evolution Theory of Origins
July 2nd, 2009
For those who are following the debate between theistic (old earth) evolution and the view of origins according to Church tradition (young earth), we urge you to visit the Kolbe Center for the Study of Creation. (Click here) Theistic evolution, of course, entails a compromise with materialistic science. Theistic evolution accepts the materialists' view that life emerged over a process taking billions of years, rejecting only the materialists' view of pure chance as causality rather than divine intelligence. Those behind the Kolbe Center beg to differ, as reflected in the scientific conferences and publications the Center has been organizing or supporting in defense of young-earth theory. Scientifically-grounded, young-earth theory is a fresh, exciting development within Catholicism. It rejects macro-evolution outright, materialistic or theistic. It also takes pains to distinguish itself from a strictly fundamentalist view of creation. The Center's reports and newsletters (e.g., June 29th, 2009) describe recent scientific findings supporting young-earth theory and make worth-while reading.
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For those who see profound changes coming in our world
June 21st, 2009
There are many among the faithful who sense deep, global changes are coming and who are beginnign to pray as never before. For those who feel in the marrow of their bones that we are already entering a new time--one that will be glorious in the end but not before a time of grave peril and persecution--here's a most instructive website, discerning the writing on the wall. There is much here to ponder.
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St. Francis on the Secret of Perfect Happiness
June 11th, 2009
"This does not consist in giving good example, in performing miracles, in knowing all sciences and the Scriptures; it does not consist either in converting all infidels to the Faith of Christ, but in suffering all things with patience and with happiness, thinking of the pains of the Blessed Christ, which He had to suffer for love of us."
--St. Francis is quoted in The Sanctifier, by Archbishop Luis M. Martinez
(Pauline Books and Media, Boston, 1985, p. 313-314)
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May 26th, 2009
A very interesting hour-long video raising scientific questions about the theory of evolution may be viewed on the noevolution website at http://www.noevolution.org/
Five world-class scientists are interviewed, including:
--a paleontologist (who notes the absence of archeological evidence for evolution of species);
--a molecular biologist (who argues that science has no evidence life can be formed from non-
life);
--a sedimentologist (regarding sedimentary rock formation) whose scientific work challenges the
use of sedimentary rock to establish the age of geological time;
--an inorganic chemist (who questions the ability of radiometric dating (radioactive dating, e.g.,
Carbon-14 data) to establish the age of rock formations or the age of fossils in rock formations).
--a geneticist, who shows that the science of genetics cannot demonstrate that one species
evolves from an earlier species. All mutations, he argues, are a consequence of genetic loss, and
no evidence exists that proves mutation ever produces new genes with new genetic
information. This being the case, genetic science provides no comfort to neoDarwinism.
For those interested in this topic, we recommend you consult the Kolbe Center for the Study of Creation, at http://www.kolbecenter.org/ See also our webpage Things Scientific
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May 6th, 2009
Our Lord to the Italian mystic, Luisa Piccarreta, on September 11, 1906
"My daughter, all the works, words, and thoughts of the creature should be marked with the stamp of 'Gloriam Dei,' 'Gloriam Dei.' All the works and thoughts that are not so marked remain dark. Buried in darkness--dirty--they have no value; this way the creature does nothing but accumulate darkness and abominable things! In not working for the Glory of God, one departs from the purpose for which he was created by God. He remains separated from God, abandoned to himself!
"On the other hand, as God is all light, human actions done for God's Glory acquire light and value. Therefore, do not be surprised that the creature who does not work for the Glory of God not only remains buried in his own darkness, acquiring nothing with his efforts, but he also accumulates great debts."
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April 29th, 2009 - Feast of St. Catherine of Siena
The Father Speaks
(excerpted from The Dialogue 0f St.Catherine)
Presumption and trust in oneself, because they come from selfish love, darken the mind's eye by depriving it of the light of most holy faith. Then the soul walks without the light of reason and therefore does not discern my providence. Not that she does not experience it. There is no one, just or sinner, for whom I do not provide.... Certainly these souls receive my providence, but they do not understand it because they do not know it, and not knowing it they do not love it, and therefore they receive no fruit of grace from it...
How can they be so foolish? Ah, dearest daughter, how can they believe that I, supreme eternal Goodness, could want anything but their good in the small things I permit day by day for their salvation, after they have experienced in great things how I want nothing other than their sanctification? For all their blindness they can hardly, with the least bit of natural light, fail to see my goodness and the blessings of my providence.... But they falter in their own shadow because they do not use this natural light virtuously. Foolish as they are, they do not see how constantly I provided for the world in general and for all of them individually according to their particular situation. And because none of you are stable in this life but are constantly changing until you reach your final stable state, I am constantly providing for what you need at any given time.
St.Catherine Speaks
(excerpted from "Greetings from Heaven," in Directions for Our Time)
Embrace the crosses Jesus has placed with you. Often souls think they would do better with a different cross. Usually this is a form of rejecting the job Jesus has given you. Remember that Jesus has given you exactly the cross or crosses that will perfect your precious little soul. There is work to be done in your soul, of course. You know this. If there were no work to be done, Jesus would have brought you home. So, while you are on earth, with work to be done on your soul, work. We always tell you to serve... We know that through service to others and through service to Jesus, you will grow stronger and stronger. The enemy will not be able to divert you from your path to Jesus and by walking that path you will pull many in behind you. You might not believe this, thinking you are not that important, but I assure you that through even the quietest, most humble service, Jesus can save many souls.
References:
--Catherine of Siena, The Dialogue. Trans by Suzanne Noffke, O.P. Paulist Press (New York, 1980), p. 281-282.
--Anne, a lay apostle, "Greetings from Heaven," in Directions for Our Times, vol 7, p. 78. (See website).
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April 15th, 2009
From an Easter homily by Melito of Sardis, bishop:
The Lord, though he was God, became man. He suffered for the sake of those who suffer, he was bound for those in bonds, condemned for the guilty, buried for those who lie in the grave; but he rose from the dead, and cried aloud: Who will contend with me? Let him confront me. I have freed the condemned, brought the dead back to life, raised men from their graves. Who has anything to say against me? I, he said, am the Christ; I have destroyed death, triumphed over the enemy, trampled hell underfoot, bound the strong one, and taken men up to the heights of heaven: I am the Christ.
Come, then. all you nations of men, receive forgiveness for the sins that defile you. I am your forgiveness. I am the Passover that brings salvation. I am the lamb who was immolated for you. I am your ransom, your life, your resurrection, your light, I am your salvation and your king. I will bring you to the heights of heaven. With my own right hand I will raise you up, and I will show you the eternal Father.
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April 10th, 2009
Came across this favorite poem by the priest and poet, Gerard Manley Hopkins, and cannot resist posting it here.
God's Grandeur
The world is charged with the grandeur of God.It will flame out, like shinning from shook foil,It gathers to a greatness, like the ooze of oilCrushed. Why do men then now not reck his rod?Generations have trod, have trod, have trod,All all is seared with trade; bleared, smeared with toil;And wears man's smudge and shares man's smell; the soilIs bare now, nor can foot feel, being shod.And for all this, nature is never spent;There lives the dearest freshness deep down things;And though the last lights off the black West wentOh, morning, at the brown brink eastward, springs --Because the Holy Ghost over the bentWorld broods with warm breast and with ah! bright wings.Happy Easter!
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April 8th, 2009
Something BeautifulThere's a composer who lives with his wife, Erin and two daughters among the pines in the north woods of Canada. His name is Peter Baklinski and he has a CD of his piano pieces entitled Resonance of the Gift. These "resonances" both composed and performed by him are remarkable. If you are drawn to restful, contemplative music, we encourage you to listen to a selection here. (It takes a minute for the piece to download, but be patient. You will not be disappointed.) You can hear more of him playing his work at our on-line journal, Logos Review Three. His own website is: http://www.resonanceofthegift.com
If this sounds like a commercial, it is. For something quite beautiful.
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April 3rd, 2009
We urge you to read this remarkable, telling, impassioned address to the House of Representatives by Rep. Chris Smith (N.J.). Read it here.
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April 1st, 2009
"I was beside the master craftsman,
delighting him day after day,
ever at play in his presence,
at play everywhere on his earth,
delighting to be with the children of men"
(Prov 8:31 Jerusalem Bible)
From Book of Heaven, vol. 12, January 24th 1920: Our Lord to Servant of God Luisa Piccarreta:
"My daughter, if you knew how much I desire, sigh and love the company of the creature! It is so much that, if in creating man, I said: 'It is not good for man to be alone; let Us make another creature similar to him to keep him company, so that the one forms the delight of the other,' these same words I said to my Love before creating man: 'I do not want to be alone, I want the creature in my company. I want to create him in order to amuse Myself so as to share with him all my contentments. With his company I will give vent to my Love.' Therefore I made him to my likeness. Moreover, as his intelligence thinks of Me and He occupies himself with Me, so He keeps my Wisdom company, and my thoughts keep him company; we have a good time together.
"If his glance looks at Me and at created things in order to love Me, I feel the company of his glance. If his tongue prays or teaches what is good, I feel the company of his voice. If his heart loves Me, I feel the company of his heart, and so forth with all the rest. But if, instead, he does the opposite, I feel alone and like an abandoned king. Yet, alas, how many leave Me alone and ignore Me."
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March 27th, 2009
For those who are concerned about the direction our country is taking, we refer you to the latest Holy Love message from Our Lord, given on March 26th, 2009. Some ecclesiastics, it is true, question the authenticity of these Holy Love messages, others, among them bishops and priests, attach great importance to them. To our ears these words have the ring of truth. (Click here for this message). (Click here for the Holy Love website)
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March 16th, 2009
JPII and the Theology of the Body
Michael Waldstein neatly summarizes Pope John Paul II's teaching regarding human love in three telling propositions:
(1) love is a gift of self; (2) spousal love between man and woman is the paradigmatic case of the gift of self; (3) the origin and exemplar of the gift of self lies in the Trinity --Quoted from Waldstein's Introduction to his book on JPII:, Man and Woman
He Created Them: A Theology of the Body.To which we would like to add this little poem of ours:
We lay down together as twoAnd when we were threeOur child would crawl in between usJust as the SpiritMaking ThreeWould have us crawl in too.(If you have sound on your PC, click here to hear musical meditations on the Theology of the Body, now available in Logos Review III.)
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March 11th, 2009
A Stunning Thought
In answer to a query by a priest about parish life, the Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI, recently made this rather remarkable observation: “The meaning of a parish should really be the cultural, human and Christian formation of a personality, which must become a mature personality.” (in ZENIT 090305. Italics added)
The Pope’s observation is quite stunning actually: the parish as a place for “the cultural, human and Christian formation of a personality.” The inclusion of culture in parish life is what caught our eye. One does not normally think of the parish in cultural terms. The parish and the broader culture hardly seem connected. But certainly culture plays an immense role in anyone’s personal formation. And if this is so, should not the Church have a strong, clear voice in today’s culture. Admittedly, it is hard to find that voice nowadays. But if we are shaped by culture, can the Church afford to cede the culture to secular forces alone? These forces are fostering the very antithesis of Christian maturity. As the late Senator Moynihan remarked, our culture today is steadily defining deviancy down. The media is filled with images that would have scandalized our grandparents, images of indecency and violence we now take with little more than a shrug of the shoulder. So secular culture has been making steady inroads against our true interests.
But does theirs have to be the only cultural voice being heard? Christian culture uniquely understands the human person as no other culture ever has. We see this was abundantly true in the distant past, in Christian literature, art, music, and drama. Even as late as the 1950’s there were such things as the Black Friars, a stage theater in the heart of Manhattan run by the Dominicans. And a TV program that ran every Sunday afternoon on NBC presenting original, high-grade dramas relating to the life of faith. I knew the late Dominican priest, Fr. Dominic Rover, who wrote a number of these TV dramas and who also was prominent in the Black Friars. (He is also a good poet. Click here.)
You might wonder why we speak here of the arts this way. After all, culture is so much broader than just the arts. But imagine our sense of loss if, suddenly, there no longer were films or music of any kind, or TV dramas, or plays, or art museums to go to, no paintings on the walls of our homes, no icons in Church, and no novels to curl up with on rainy days. Something very much a part of our lives would be missing. By the same token, imagine our blessings if all these art forms were to become available imbued with Catholic and Christian sensibility. Think how these would help to shape our youth.
There are, of course, Catholic and evangelical efforts being made today in the media, and some are quite inspired. One thinks of movies like The Passion of the Christ, and Bella, and the truly remarkable evangelical films by Alex Kendrick, Fireproof, and Facing the Giants. Interestingly these last two, low-budget films were made by filmmakers associated with a Baptist church in Georgia after the church decided one day to make film-making part of its ministry. Church volunteers made up the support case and did much of the production work, with incredibly professional, artistic results, to say nothing of the truly profound spirituality of these films. And there is the Catholic film maker, Leonardo Defilippis, of Luke Films, who made the excellent film, Thérèse. There are also one or two dedicated theatrical troupes who go around to Catholic parishes presenting little playlets based on Scripture that are quite effective. And doubtless there are other things too, here and there. But what is being done, commendable as it is, seems hardly to dent the reigning secularism of our culture. And this circumstance hardly does justice to the great gift of faith we as a Church have received from Our Lord.
Does it have to be that way?
What a marvelous vision the Pope voiced here, of Christian culture operating at the parish (and we might add diocesan) level, to help bring us to personal maturity. What a marvelous opportunity for laity who already have this maturity (and many do) and the communication skills (and many do) to help priest and bishop in this broader reach of the parish and diocese--to employ cultural forms to teach and remind us what it means to be a mature human being, which is to say, what it means to become a child of God. The Church is the locus of Word and Sacrament, first and foremost, but for centuries these in turn gave rise to and abetted a rich cultural milieu that fed the minds and hearts of the world with inspirations of music, art, literature, drama, all teaching and reminding us what it is to be fully human. Society, indeed civilization, thrived when the voices of Church and culture sang God’s truth in harmony. One can hardly hear the Church’s counter-voice in today’s secular culture and the world suffers because of it.
One prays that someday, somehow, this too will change.
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February 27th, 2009
Not a few feel that the times we face now are different from anything in the past. Something unquieting seems afoot, what with a new mood in the nation's capital that seems intent on changing the way our society looks and functions--not to suggest here that change in and of itself is necessarily bad. But with deepening economic turmoil, with calamitous events in nature, with a growing sense felt across the entire world that all is not well, and so on, the times are far from reassuring. What's happening seems more than just another instance of economic dislocation. As if the fabric of a world we have grown accustomed to is starting to unravel. Is that possible? Here and there pundits are asking if we may be witnessing the end of an era, even of life as we have come to know it, certainly in the US and Western Europe. Who knows if any of this is true?
But one thing is certain: Our Lord can't be pleased with the way things have been, with the rampantly complacent godlessness that reigns everywhere in this world, lip service to Him notwithstanding. When our leaders say, "God bless you and God bless America," one hopes this is voiced from the heart, that these are more than fitting words to end a speech. But so much of what is being done, legislated, fostered, practiced (not only by our leaders but by us all, for we all fall short) can't be pleasing to Our Lord. Is this why so many see events as signs, and sense in their bones that something radically different is unfolding now?
One interesting little indication might be the rather inexplicable increase this Lent in Mass attendance at our parish here in west central Florida. Even more remarkable is the unprecedented way people are starting to linger after Mass to pray. I wonder if this is happening elsewhere as people begin to re-examine their priorities.
It is good to remember that the things that happen in our lives are never more than instrumental to something more profound in God's purpose, something that transcends history. In this life, what we have, what we do, what we encounter, have only one purpose, which is to shape the person we are to become when our personal histories are over and we must stand before our Maker.
Whenever what we have and do in our day-to-day living gets in the way of who it is Our Lord wants us to become, something will have to change, since his Will is not to be controverted. Listen to what Our Lord said to the 20th century Italian mystic, Luisa Piccarreta about this:
"It is now time that my Divine Justice must be satisfied; yet, this can happen only if a soul makes my entire Being her own. That which the Father found in Me--glory, delight, love, satisfaction, and perfect works for the good of all--He wants to find in these souls. His great desire is to see each of them become another Jesus." (December 9, 1916, Book of Heaven, vol. 11))
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February 26th, 2009
For a real treat, listen to three immensely gifted Irish Priests sing Pie Jesu
on YouTube. Click here.
If you have the patience to get through the TV folderol of this 2nd YouTube video, you'll hear one of the most lovely performances of Pie Jesu ever, from a remarkably gifted 13-year-old British lad. Truly worth catching. (Click here)
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Know Thyself: The unexamined life is not worth living (Socrates)
February 20th, 2009
According to what the Father reveals in The Dialogue to St. Catherine of Siena, the spiritual life begins with"holy desire, the ardent longing for God and for the salvation of souls, first for one's own salvation, then for others."
The Dialogue opens with this telling sentence: "A soul rises up, restless with tremendous desire for God's honor and for the salvation of souls. She has for some time exercised herself in virtue and has become accustomed to dwelling in the cell of self-knowledge in order to know better God's goodness toward her, since upon knowledge follows love. And loving, she seeks to pursue truth and clothe herself in it.
"But there is no way she can so savor and be enlightened by this truth as in continual humble prayer, grounded in the knowledge of herself and of God. For by such prayer the soul is united with God, following in the footsteps of Christ crucified, and through desire and affection and the union of love he makes of her another himself."
The spiritual journal begins, then, with holy desire, and this desire, we learn, must be fed, nurtured, in self-knowledge, for it is only through this self-knowledge of what we are in ourselves, apart from God, that we can come to a knowledge of his goodness. And the knowledge of his goodness gives rise to love and the pursuit of truth. And an ever increasing desire for God, and for souls and their salvation, including our own.
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February 18th, 2009
This morning we were blessed to read the following inspired meditation by the Irish lay apostle known simply as "Anne." It was originally published with the approval of her bishop and the encouragement of Archbishop Phillip M. Hannan (ret. Archb. of New Orleans). We reprint the excerpt below for our visitors' instruction and edification. Truly this is a compelling message by Our Creator to the entire world. It foreshadows the profound change in world outlook that is bound to come in God's time.
January 13, 2004
God the Father
My children of the world, I would like you to ask Me for everything you need. I am your Father and in this time I seek to be available to each one of you in a clear way. Ask Me for what you require and I will see that you have it. You are accustomed to fulfilling every need through the world. In this way, you forget to look toward heaven. Now you will look to heaven again and that is as it should be. Cry out to your Father, who sees all and takes all into consideration. You will become dependent on Me as past generations were dependent on Me. This is natural and holy. This is the way I designed your world. Independence is good in that you do not rely on other men. But you are designed to be reliant on your God. This is not a negative dependence but a respectful attitude of understanding Who is the Master of All Creation. . . . (from Direction for Our Times, Vol. 4, p. 15).
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Lenten Thought
February 9th, 2009
See Poem.
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Conversing with God
January 31st, 2009
I remember attending a dinner with friends some years ago. Our dinner party was composed of four married couples—ages thirty-something. One of the invited couples had ten children (yes, I said 10) and the children were all at home that evening under the supervision of (hopefully) an efficient babysitter.
The conversation around the dinner table was lively and stimulating. About half way through the meal, the mother of the ten children turned to the rest of us and said, “It’s so wonderful to have conversation with ‘big’ people!”
Her delight in being able to converse at an adult level got me thinking about our relationship with God. He, too, would like to talk with “big” people—that is, those who have “grown up” spiritually enough to understand Who He really is! If we never advance in our understanding of God any more than what we learned in second grade, perhaps at the time of our First Communion, our knowledge of God remains at a second-grade level. How stimulating can that be for God when we approach Him in prayer?
A Trappist monk friend of mine once remarked that it’s important for Catholics to rediscover the richness that is already ours through Baptism. If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature: the old one has passed away, behold the new has come. (2 Corinthians 5:17) The way for that “new creature” to make progress in the spiritual life is through a regimen of spiritual reading, prayer, fervent reception of the sacraments, the practice of virtue and self-denial (which my monk friend defined as simply accepting with patience our daily duties and given sufferings). This is how we Catholic faithful can “grow up” in the faith.
And, as for those who instruct others in the faith, my Trappist friend advises that catechesis in the faith should be integrated with life, with technology, with science, with philosophy, with culture. Teachings on the spiritual life should be based on revelation, he said, and catechesis should always keep Scripture in tandem. When the spiritual, the doctrinal, and revelation are all united, the result is true wisdom, not just knowledge.
Wisdom—that ultimate gift of the Holy Spirit, offered to us at Confirmation, will enrich our conversation with God. When He sees that we’re earnest in pursuing knowledge of Him, He’ll give us more, as Jesus tells us in Mark’s gospel: “. . . and you will receive more besides; anyone who has, will be given more.” (Mark 4:24)
--AJS
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Moses' Perfidy
January 31st, 2009
In the first reading for the Divine Office today, from Deuteronomy, we read how God tells Moses to go up to Mount Nebo in the land of Moab. The Israelites are on the verge of entering the territory promised to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and all that stands between them now is Jericho visible below from the height of this mountain. And off in the distance stretching out before their view, God shows Moses the land of Canaan, the land the Israelites are about to inherit as their possession. Moses and his people have been in the desert for forty years and they are about to enter into their promise. But not Moses. God informs him that, because of perfidy committed at the waters of Meribah-kadesh, Moses shall not enter with his people. He shall die on this mountain.
Moses' perfidy? What did he do?
Well, all we're told is that, in the desert, when the Israelites grumbled to Moses and Aaron about being without water and that it would have been better if he had left them in Egypt, Moses and Aaron fell prostrate before the Lord begging for help. The Lord responds by commanding Moses to take his staff, assemble the people, and in their presence order the rock to yield its water. Moses does as he is told, but instead of just ordering the rock as told, he takes his staff and strikes it twice. The water pours forth, but God is extremely displeased with Moses, telling him:
"Because you were not faithful to me in showing forth my sanctity before the Israelites, you shall not lead this community into the land I will give them" (Num 20:12). God tells Moses that he "rebelled against his order to manifest my sanctity to them by means of the water" (Num 27:12).
And when Moses pleads with God to allow him to enter, the Lord becomes angry: "Enough. Speak to me no more of this!" (Deut 3:26).
What are we to make of this? Moses, above all others, was faithful to God. But his faithfulness had a fatal flaw. Not fatal for others, not for the likes of you and me; but for one like Moses who knew and experienced God as had no other, his infidelity was most grave in God's eyes. And what did it consist of? That's the strange part. It's not entirely clear. Most Hebrew scholars say it was because Moses, rather than ordering the rock as God has said he should do, instead struck it. If he had just ordered it as the Lord told him to, these scholars say, then the result would have more perfectly manifested God's sanctity. But that's a puzzling interpretation. Moses always used his staff to accomplish God's work. In Exodus, in another account very likely of this same episode, God tells Moses: "Go over there in front of the people...holding in your hand the staff with which you struck the river. I will be standing in front of you on the rock at Horeb. Strike the rock and the water will flow from it for the people to drink" (Ex 17:5-6). So it's not likely to have been that Moses struck the rock that offended God, but that, as the account in Numbers states rather interestingly, he struck it twice.
What would be the significance of his striking the rock twice? Well, from our perspective it would merely suggest a human desire to make sure, just in case once wouldn't be enough. Or perhaps because striking it once, nothing immediately happened, and Moses began to doubt God, just as the Israelites were doubting that God would take care of them in their thirst. And it was precisely this doubt, this infinitesimally small act of faithlessness, of not believing in the sufficiency of God's word (whom Moses knew full well was standing there before him as he struck the rock) that led Moses to add his own two cents as it were and strike the rock a second time. The human instrument ceased for a moment to be a perfect instrument and took over with its own human providence. A small thing, a terribly small thing, but small infidelities matter greatly in perfect relationships, as we see from the small thing Adam and Eve did that affected the entire relationship between God and his creation. The closer we are to God, the more sensitive He is to us, the more He cares for us, favors us, blesses us. And the more any infidelity, even the smallest, pains him. This is why Our Lord admonishes us to be perfect, as the Father in heaven is perfect. We are not rejected for our imperfections, no more than was Moses, but the text suggests, does it not, that we shall not enter the promise until we are. This is why Catholics believe there must be a Purgatory. (Purgatory: a place of hope and purification, never of punishment.)
I had a spiritual father who once asked someone to pass him a Kleenex. The person passed him two instead. That became the occasion of an interesting instruction, of how we rarely do just what we are asked to do but have to add our own two cents. The two cents we want to add to prove something about our own good will. But it gets us nowhere. "Why do you spend money for that which is not bread, your wages for that which fails to satisfy" (Isaiah 55:2).
We can add our two cents if we like, but if we are to believe this story, it's not going to get us places with God. It's what He wills, in, through, and for us that matters. Ask Moses.
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God falls in love with us
January 31st, 2009
Here's a truly stunning locution from Our Lord to the Italian Servant of God,
Luisa Piccarretta on Feb 24th, 1919.
While continuing in my usual state, in coming, blessed Jesus said to me: "My daughter, you have said nothing about the creation of man, masterpiece of the Creative Power, where Eternal, not by drips or drops, but by rivers, casts his Love, his beauty, his mastery; and, in the excess of his Love places his own Self as center of man. But He wanted a worthy dwelling in him. What, then, does the Uncreated Supreme Majesty do? He creates man in his own image and likeness. From the depth of his Love He drew forth a breath, and with His Omnipotent Breath He infused life--giving man all his qualities, proportionate to the creature, making him a little god.
"Thus, all that you see in creation was nothing as compared to creation of man. Oh how many heavens, stars, and most beautiful suns were extended in the created soul! How many varieties of beauty, how many harmonies! It's enough to say that He looked at created man and found him so beautiful as to fall in love with him.
"Hence, jealous of this portent of his, He made Himself custodian and possessor of man, and said to him: 'I have created everything for you; I give you dominion over everything. All is yours, and you will be all Mine. Indeed, you will not be able to understand everything--the seas of Love, the intimate and exclusive relationship, and the likeness that runs between Creator and creature.'
"Ah, daughter of my Heart, if the creature only knew how beautiful her soul is, how many Divine gifts it contains, and how, among all created things, she surpasses all in beauty, in power, and in light--so much so that one is able to say that she is a little god and a little world that contains all in itself--oh, how she would value herself more and would not dirty with sin, even slightly, a beauty so rare, a prodigy so portentous of the Creative Power!
"But the creature, almost blind in knowing herself, and even blind in knowing her Creator, continues dirtying herself with a thousand filthy things so as to disfigure the work of her Creator so much, that He barely recognizes Himself. You yourself consider what our sorrow is for this. Therefore, enter into my Volition and come together with Me before the Throne of the Eternal One to substitute for our brothers--for all the acts that they ought to do for having been created as a prodigy of love of His Omnipotence, and yet they are so ungrateful."
--from Book of Heaven: The Call to the Creature to Return to the Order, to the Place,
and to the Purpose for Which It was Created by God. vol. 12
It's strange that of all the branches of science, biology has the highest number of atheists. They to whom it is most manifest how wonderfully and fearfully we are made, seem the least inclined to give God his rightful due. And they for their part will have the least right to say, "We didn't know." (Roman 1:20: "Ever since the creation of the world his invisible nature, namely, his eternal power and deity, has been clearly perceived in the things that have been made,. So they are without excuse." )
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If the shoe fits
January 12th 2009
From time to time we post passages on this website purportedly spoken by heavenly voices, including that of Our Lord. Can this possibly be a right thing do, to make private revelations (inspirations) public? Certainly, if Our Lord speaks to a bona fide, recognized saint, we may feel we can comfortably heed the words, unless we are Protestant or Protestant-prone, in which case we typically can't. And of course, secular minds think it absolutely delusional to suppose heaven speaks to earth in any guise or form. Even Sacred Scripture itself suffers from this mind-set. More than a few biblical exegetes (so-called) doubt the divine inspiration of much of Scripture (leading a witty friend of ours to characterize much of modern exegesis as exit-Jesus).
But does Jesus really talk to ordinary people? And if we allow that maybe in some way He does, is it proper to record for the benefit of others what He tells simple folk driving home from work, or preparing supper, or kneeling in prayer?
These are private inspirations. The Church has always acknowledged that private inspirations and revelations, properly discerned, are a part of the spiritual life of any soul. She also teaches that no one has to heed any of it if he or she is not inclined. What it comes down to is discernment, both ecclesiastical and personal.
If something Our Lord says to one soul speaks to another, and the Church does not object, that other soul does well to listen. Others should let it pass. Private is private after all. But we remember Our Lord's words in the Gospel of John: "I have many things to tell you but you cannot hear them now." When the moment is right He tells us things we now are able to hear. And need to hear. And we do well to listen.
So no apology for these postings, just as no special claim is made for them. What is true rings true, for those who discern it as true. But in all these matters, to be sure, we defer absolutely to the discerning judgment of the Church's Magisterium.
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January 12th, 2009
I was praying before the Blessed Sacrament asking Jesus to bring his blessings upon a whole bevy of people I had known in my life, people who, I felt, might be needing help right now of one sort or another. But as I prayed I wondered if praying like this was pleasing to Our Lord, or even whether it really did these people any good. Then it seemed I heard Our Lord say:
My son, look at Me on the Cross. I took the Cross for each and every one of these for whom you are praying, without exception, and by so doing I stored up for each the means of his or her salvation. There is therefore a vast treasury in Heaven with infinite funds more than enough to purchase the salvation of every soul that ever lived or ever will live. But it is my Father’s will for his children, my brothers and sisters, those who follow me and wish to be my disciples, that they must be the one’s who write the checks.
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Cum Clamore Valido
January3rd, 2009
Logos Institute Press has just released a new Electronic Book with the Latin title, Cum Clamore Valido, a phrase from Hebrew 5:7 meaning, "With loud cries and tears." This is a translation of a french spiritual classic comprising locutions by Our Lord to a french nun in the mid- to late 1930's as France teetered on the verge of WWII. The book has the Imprimatur of the Church. We are making it available today (as a downloadable PDF file) because what Our Lord said in those terribly trying days seems every bit as applicable to our troubled times. It is an "appeal" by Our Lord to the hearts and minds of consecrated souls, particularly priests and religious, calling them to be true to their vocation, which is to become other Christs. Had they been true, Our Lord plainly says, the present calamities could have been averted.
Though this is addressed chiefly to priests and religious, Our Lord's "appeal" does not exclude the likes of us ordinary people who nonetheless want to consecrate to God very ordinary lives lived in kitchens, garages, classrooms, fields, offices. In this respect, consider what Our Lord said in August, 2006 to the Irish lay apostle known simply as Anne. His messages to her sound very much like those of the late 1930's, but now addressed to anyone at all who will listen. Though the two locutions are spaced seventy years apart, one readily hears their common voice. Listen to what He says to Anne:
Our Lord: "Be at peace in the sufferings that I send. My apostles in this time will carry crosses with Me, in all resignation. Through your docile acceptance of the cross, I will draw two things. One, I will make you a saint. Two, I will flow rich and constant graces through you into the world. You will be allowed to glimpse the fruit of your suffering at times. This will be a gift from Me, this knowledge of the connection between your offering and the fruits I send to the world. You will know that the peace and conversion of your family members and loved ones is connected to the crosses you carry in quietness. As grace flows into the world, through your souls and homes, those around you will begin to become holy, also. Their holiness will assist you and your holiness will continue to assist them and between us all we will have God's Kingdom on earth. This is a summary of the new time and this time now is the beginning of the new time." (p. 3, Serving in Clarity, by Anne, a lay apostle. Published by Direction for Our Times. Justice, Illinois)
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January1st, 2009
The New Year begins. Hamas locates a weapons cache in a civilian quarter. The Israelis bomb it and three little children who live next door are killed. The Arab world protests.
The Israelis have this to say for themselves: "When the Palestinians love their children as much as they hate ours, maybe then there will be peace."
It is hard to see good in any of this. The Palestinians want their land back. The Zionist Jews, who returned to Palestine at the behest of the UN, want to protect themselves.
Here is a brief summary of the events that underlay the existence of modern Israel.
In 1517, the Turks controlled the Middle East for 400 years. In 1917, the British won the war and Britain, through the efforts of Lord Balfour, the British Foreign Secretary, recommended giving Zionist Jews a homeland comprising all of Jordan and the land west of the Jordan River. Termed the Balfour Agreement, it also called for preservation of the rights of the native Palestinians. This Agreement was ratified by the League of Nations in 1920. and was undone in 1922, when, under pressure from the Arabs, the British and the League of Nations took away Jordan. In 1947, as a consequence of Jewish suffering in WWII, the UN offered up the Partition Plan, but the Arabs rejected it. When, in 1948, the United Nations formally recognized Israel as a nation, the Arabs declared war on Israel. Israel defended herself, but Jordan took the West Bank. In the 1967 war the Israelis took back the West Bank which they regarded as legally theirs by international law. The Palestinians have never agreed to any of this, no more today than their ancestor Philistines did some thousands of years ago when wandering Jews moved in and took over their territory by force.
None of our present day preoccupation with the fate of Israel makes any sense, of course, apart from the covenant made thousands of years ago between God and this tribe chosen for a special destiny. We are familiar with that destiny. in part at least, for it gave us the Law and the Prophesies, and most importantly of all, Mary who bore the Christ. But that the peace of the entire world seems to hinge on the fate of this tiny Jewish state suggests there is unfinished business regarding its destiny. Why are the Israeli Jews so opposed? Why do they have only one real friend among the nations? Why does America as a nation care that much? Are we willing even to risk global war to prevent the destruction of this little nation? It's very possible. One has to believe that all this opposition stems from the fact that the Jews still have something terribly important to do in God's plan. Might it have to do with the conversion of the world, once their conversion is accomplished, as promised and prophesied?
Whatever the future brings will surely hinge in one way or another on the destiny of these chosen people, just as it has allways been since the beginning of salvation history.
What is happening in the Middle East these days is not good. But it must have to do with greater things than meet the eye. What meets the eye makes one want to cry. But, we remind ourselves of Paul's words, "Eye hath not seen...what God has prepared for those who love him."
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Marching Orders
December 21st, 2008
From Mary, Gate of Heaven, a book of locutions by Mary to a contemporary Spanish woman (translated by Archbishop George Pearce).
"If each person, upon rising, were to set for himself the goal of loving for those who do not love, of adoring for those who do not adore, and of praying for those who do not know how to pray or who do not want to pray, the world would be saved. For evil is great, but grace is superabundant. And the generosity and love of a few will draw down the mercy of God upon the world." (p. 85)
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Fiat Voluntas Tua
December 20th, 2008
Our object here is to reproduce something Our Lord said to Luisa Piccarreta, in 1921, that speaks to our times most tellingly. (For those not familiar with her, Luisa Piccarreta (d. 1947) is an Italian mystic whose cause is currently being pursued in the Vatican, and about whom the world will one day know a great deal more than it does now. She is that important to our times.)
What Our Lord tells Luisa is profoundly consoling and yet, at the same time, quite possibly disturbing to anyone who do not see the world as He does. We take the liberty of reproducing it here.
But first, we urge our readers to acquaint themselves with two rather stunning articles, one by Michael Minnicino, the other by Timothy Matthews. Both are well worth your perusal if you wish to understand the forces that are shaping our contemporary age. Whether you subscribe to dark conspiracy theories or not, what these authors refer to is historically factual and hard to argue with. And, indeed, the authors spell out very plainly precisely what it is that Our Lord is referring to when He speaks about our times in this locution below:
"'Oh iniquitous world, you are doing everything to chase Me from the face of the earth, to banish Me from society, from the schools, from conversations, and from everything! You are plotting how to demolish temples and altars, how to destroy my Church and kill my Ministers--and I am preparing an Era of Love, the Era of my Third Fiat. [See Note, below] You will go about trying to banish Me, and I will confound you with love. I will follow behind you, I will meet you head on, to confound you in love. Where you have banished Me I will erect my Throne, and I will reign there more than before--but in a more surprising manner, so much so that you will fall down at the foot of my Throne as bound by the force of My Love.'
"Then He added: 'Ah, my daughter, the creature always races more into evil. How many machinations of ruin they are preparing! They will go so far as to exhaust themselves in evil. But while they occupy themselves in going their way, I will occupy Myself with the completion and fulfillment of my Fiat Voluntas Tua so that my Will reign on earth--but in an all new manner. I will occupy Myself to prepare the Era of the Third Fiat, in which my Love will be demonstrated in a marvelous and unheard-of manner. Ah yes, I want to confound man in Love! Therefore, be attentive. I want you with Me to prepare this Era of Celestial and Divine Love, and we will work together.'" Book of Heaven: The Call to the Creature to Return to the Order, to the Place, and to the Purpose for Which It was Created by God.) Vol 12, p. 247-8.)
[Note: The first fiat of Our Lord had to do with Creation, the second with the Incarnation, and the third with the fulfillment of the prayer, "Thy Kingdom come, Thy Will be done," i.e., with the Reign of Christ the King.]
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December 15th, 2008
Everyone wants to pursue the good life, right? Aristotle equated it with happiness, and however happiness is defined, everyone wants it. And just as universally, no one wants to be unhappy. Indeed, most of our energies are spent in pursuing happiness and avoiding misery, not only for ourselves but for others as well.
So why, then, are we so drawn to bad news. Open the newspaper, turn on CNN or Fox. What catches our attention? Some Iraqi reporter has thrown his shoe at the President. Both shoes. That grabs our interest. A Wall Street guru has bilked his rich friends out of billions. That tickles our ears. If there's a devastating earthquake in Chile, a tragic school shooting in Colorado, a young mother who kills her child, we want to know about it. Why? What's the attraction?
Everyone wants to pursue the good life, so why are we drawn to spectacles of its opposite?
There must be other reasons too, but here's a shot at the three that occur to me. I'm not suggesting , dear reader, that your (and my) interest in bad news must be due to one of the following reasons. Truth is, in my case at least, all apply, in varying degrees, at various times.
Reason One: We take an interest in the misfortunes of others because it's them, not us. Of course, pleasure in the misfortune of others is perverse, so maybe we don't take pleasure exactly, but something here is holding our interest here, makes us read every line, listen to every detail. And even dwell on it. Why? The pleasure is not in the other person's misfortune as such but in the fact that his or her misfortune is not ours. It's the other person, not me. I'm doing fine. I'm OK.
Reason Two: We take an interest in the misfortunes of others because that's the way life is. We've always known life is fundamentally cruel in the end--after all we're all going to die--and the misfortunes of others reminds us how lucky we are that it hasn't hit us personally so far, not like these poor souls. But the interest here is not in our escaping the misfortune of others, that it's them and not me. That's the first reason cited above. This second reason is deeper than that. It's that, so far, witnessing the misfortunes of others reminds us that, so far, we have escaped the inevitable misfortunes of life. One thing or the other will catch up to us one day, but so far so good. And so all bad news is good news in that respect, so long as it hasn't touched us personally. Not yet.
Do you see the difference? The satisfaction here is not that we escaped the misfortune of others. No, it's that we've escaped, so far, the misfortune that await us all. We are drawn to bad news because it reminds us that we are all victims. The secret, hidden and largely unacknowledged appeal here is that if we are all victims, then we are all innocent. Nothing is my fault. If there's any blame, blame it on life (which can be read as divine non-performance, divine indifference, the absence of the divine, etc. etc.). Paradoxically, the worse things are for others the better I can feel about myself. Not because its them, not me. But because life is filled with cruel negativities, so much so that I needn't worry about these negativities I see in myself.
This second reason is subtle and may be hard to grasp, but ponderably true I believe.
Reason Three: We take an interest in the misfortunes of others because this sort of misfortune is what a perverse world invites upon itself. And ours is a perverse and godless world. So in misfortune we see justice at work and we cannot blame anyone for it but ourselves. Suffering and death entered the world because of human perfidy, and so no misfortune surprises us too much. So, to be sure, we lament the misfortune of others, and pray for them, but even more our hearts are grateful for so far having been spared the earthquake, the accident, the financial ruin or whatever it is that could have happened and had a right to happen. But just so far. For even the innocent and good must bear the brunt of human perfidy. Yet here there's a cause for hope. For whether we are innocent or not, if we have faith we have recourse to happiness even in the face of misfortune, even our own. By faith we can transcend all evils, including any of our own. So in a way, the attraction of misfortune in this third sense is that it calls a person to faith and prayer, to an awareness that, without faith and prayer, the misfortune of others would attract the likes of us for all the wrong reasons.
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I doubt many of our readers can remember Gabriel Heatter, the news broadcaster during WWII, who, as often as circumstance allowed, would open his evening newscast with the line, "Ahhhhhh, my friends! There's good news tonight!" There's not been anyone like him since. But, sure, when misfortune becomes so general and widespread, as it was during the Second World War, then what makes news is precisely good news. So we ask: Is there a time coming when this will again be true, when the only news we care to hear is good news? I'm no prognosticator, to be sure, but many nowadays are saying that a transformation such as this is coming, but that it will only come about through world-wide trials and tribulations. If that is true, and prophesy says it is, then the news we will be eager for will be the "good news" we find in the Gospel.
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December 3rd, 2008
Have you ever wondered why some verses in Scripture are there? Like, for instance, the verse in John 1:39, where it states that when John and Andrew went after Jesus (when John the Baptist had pointed Him out to them) and asked him where he was staying. the Gospel writer (John himself) thought it worth recording that when this happened "it was about four in the afternoon." Now why does John bother to tell us this detail?
Who can say, of course? But this is what passed through my philosophically beleaguered mind as I pondered the passage. I wonder what you might think of it. Understandably, God's dealing with us is always going to be bounded by time and place. And however He touches us, the time and place of that happening is going to be precious to our memory. So it's not strange that John wants to set the spatio-temporal stage for his first encounter with the Christ. It's precious to him. Our Lord answered their query by saying, "Come and see. So they went and saw where he was staying and they stayed with him that day. It was about four in the afternoon." And after that encounter nothing was ever the same for John and Andrew, and for a lot of other people in this vale of tears.
But is there something particularly instructive for us in John's record of this particular detail? To be sure, no different than with John and Andrew, God's dealing with you and me is always a happening that occurred in some place and moment of time. And in a way they are no less precious to us than his were to John. But the import of all these histories, the reason why they are so precious, whose ever they are, is not history and in the final analysis has nothing to do with history, not at all. Whatever the historical event, it's import, if it has any at all, is always beyond the spatial-temporal, beyond time and place. The true import, as we all know in our hearts, has to do with eternity. This is what makes the moment momentous. But this point is obvious and hardly need to be labored.
What's interesting is the implication one can find in this. If God's dealing with us at the historical level has its meaning, not in history but in eternity, then the significance of historical happenings have to be seen in non-historical terms. A philosopher might say the only important thing a bout any event in history is it's "ontological" consequences, how it affects not the history of a soul but the eternity of that soul.
If this is so, and it surely seems to be so, then the seemingly most terrible events of history may not be terrible at all if their eternal consequences are not terrible, if indeed, to the contrary, their eternal consequences are in fact glorious. This is how Christians view the Cross. We might want to view other things this way too, like the slaughter of Job's sons by way of testing his faith in God. Good for Job but what of these poor guys? Their personal history tells a horrid story, but what does it tell us about their eternal destiny? Nothing, except that we don't understand God very well. "Where where you," He asks Job, "when I laid the earth's foundations?"
One can safely believe that the destiny of many of history's most horrific victims, quite apart from known martyrs, is wonderful beyond words. If our faith tells us anything at all, it is that historical crosses can never be understood on historical grounds alone. God deals with us at two levels--one is historical and is bound by space and time. The other is timeless and is bound by his love.
What's so interesting, so unfathomable to our limited way of understanding, is the links God arranges between the two, connecting time and eternity. In some cases it's the precious detail of what took place at four in the afternoon. In other cases, an event of pain and suffering. Points in time that are filling heaven as we speak.
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November 16th, 2008
Footnote
This is more or less a footnote to the preceding blog (Nov. 6th)., meant for those of us who may be celebrating or lamenting the recent election, or don't know exactly what to think of it or to expect from it. In the Epistle reading for Mass this past Friday, Nov. 14h, the evangelist Saint John offers a telling piece of advice, "Anyone who is so "progressive" as not to remain in the teaching of the Christ does not have God" (II Jn 9, NAB). We quote this not by way of making judgement on any particular political figure, that is God's to do, not us. But one is obliged to make judgements about about policies which are furthered or hindered by our votes.
Richard Neuhaus (editor in chief of First Things) struck it right when he said, speaking for himself, that he is orthodox in matters of faith, conservative in social values, liberal in politics, and pragmatic in economics. Where that leaves a person on the current political spectrum is hard to say. Hung up, maybe. But there is an overriding issue as God see it. And thankfully, the American bishops are starting to speak out about what seems likely to happen now to the cause of pre-born life in this country. It's hard to understand why any good Catholic would not stand with them.
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November 6th 2008
Post-Election Points
1. Our Lord said in Mathew 13:52 that a wise householder brings out of his store both new things and old. A philosopher friend once observed that it's typically the liberals who concern themselves with the "new things", the conservatives with the "old." Our Lord tells us we would be wise to do both, something increasingly hard to do in this bifurcated political scene of ours.
2. Our Lord also reminded us of the two great commandments, to love God with all our heart, mind and soul, and to love our neighbor as ourselves. Conservatives tend to do far better with the first commandment, the love of God, than they do with the second. And with liberals, it's just the reverse. They tend to cater to the needs of others far more attentively than they do to the love that God asks of us.
It's true, statistically, that conservatives give more to charity than liberals do, so in one sense conservatives do consider the second commandment, to love our neighbor. But liberals go further. They want to redistribute wealth and liberals who agitate for this are often hardly poor. So there is a generostity here of sorts, even if more bureaucratic than personal.
When a conservative president spoke of "compassionate conservatism," many from both parties simply shook their head. And when certain liberals talk about God, many from both parties also shake their head.
3. Finally, in this regard, Our Lord asks of us, in John 13:34, that we "love one another as I have loved you." What this tells me is that the proper way (and the only true way) to fulfill the second commandment--to love our neighbor as ourselves--is by fulfilling the first commandment, to love God with all our hearts, minds and souls. For when we love God as we are asked to do, with our whole heart and mind and soul, we inevitably allow love to operate in us, his love. God is love, which must mean, after all, that all true love is from him.
4. So what we are to make of those liberals who want to fulfill the second commandment regarding the needs of others without caring very much about the first commandment and our duty to God, lipservice notwithstanding? (Or, to be fair, what are we to make of those conservatives who want to do just the opposite, fulfill the first commandment without caring very much about the poor?)
5. We may see an answer to these questions in another thing Our Lord said in John: "Anyone who loves me will be true to my word, and my Father will love him; and we will come to him and make our dwelling place with him" (Jn 14:23) Anyone who is true to God's word, who listens to it, heeds it, would fulfill both commandments regarding God and neighbor. We would be able to do so, and to do so well, because Our Lord tells us He and his Father would come and dwell with us. And with our house thus in order, all things, including care for the poor, would be attended to and done well.
6. As a country we have just invited our government to take an immense step to the liberal left. The election results reveal our nation generally cares more for its pocketbook than it does for the life of the unborn. It's true, many of the poor may seem to benefit, with tax breaks and the like. Let us hope so. But one wonders how well off anyone will be in the long run as divine laws are progressively turned upside down, one by one, through the fiat of secular law and human legislation. Go through the Ten Commandments and ask what has been happening to our observance of them in the last fifty years. How many have been discarded in favor of human rights? By force of human law we are no longer allowed to love God with all our hearts, minds and souls, not openly, not in public places, in public schools, in courts of law. And we can kill at both ends of the human lifespan. Scary. If God comes to us when we are true to his word, what will He do with us, how will things be with us when we are true to his word no longer?
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November 2nd, 2008
Mother Teresa of Calcutta and Christopher Hitchens, who hates her
The British author and notorious anti-Catholic, Christopher Hitchens, in his bitter, 98-page diatribe against the saint of Calcutta, accuses her of raking in millions of dollars from the rich, which money she never accounted for. He cites the case of Charles Keating of notorious fame (who mixed crime and politics in a way that embarrassed five U.S. senators in the 90's, include Senator McCain). Keating is reported to have given Mother Teresa one and a quarter million dollars. For Hitchens, taking money from criminals was enough to cast doubt on her character, even though the contributions were made before Keating's indictment. (After the indictment, Mother Teresa wrote a character reference about Keating to the judge handling his case (Judge Ito): "I don't know anything about Mr. Keating's work," she wrote, "or his business or the matters you are dealing with. Mr. Keating has done much to help the poor, which is why I am writing to you on his behalf." Hitchens criticizes her for trying to interfere with justice.)
All of the above as background for a true story about Mother Teresa and the rich, told to me by a priest who was present with her at the time it occurred. This priest, who was very close to Mother Teresa, was from an immensely wealthy family. On one of his visits to her in Calcutta, he brought with him a very wealthy friend who wished to make a contribution to Mother Teresa's work. At their meeting, this individual handed Mother Teresa a check for a million dollars. I am told she looked at it, looked at the individual, and asked, "Does this come from your surplus?" "What's the problem, Mother," the individual asked, "do you need more?" She shook her head and said word to the effect, "For our work we can only accept money that comes from a person's substance." and she handed him back the check.
One can believe this individual went away a bit like the "rich young ruler" of the Gospel story. One wonders how Hitchens would react had he been there. Pray for him.
An interesting footnote to Mother Teresa and the rich. This priest I know was a scion, as I said, of an exceedingly wealthy family and he stood to inherit a sizeable portion of that wealth himself. His was a late-vocation priesthood, brought about over some years by the intercessions of Mother Teresa and her nuns. When their prayers for him were finally fulfilled and he was about to be ordained, she asked if he would do her something for her. He told me he replied, "Anything you ask, Mother." She said, "I want you to give up your inheritance." Which is what he did.
(Note: See the article by William A. Donohue in Catalyst about Hitchens and Mother Teresa.)
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October 31st, 2008
On Praying
In public prayer, everyone is on the same page, saying the same words, more or less sharing the same thoughts. In private prayer, the kind of prayer we utter when we go into our rooms to be alone, as our Lord encourages us to do, and we can become lost in prayer, then everyone is on his or her own page, saying words, thinking thoughts that are his or hers alone. Our Lord loves both forms of prayer, those when our voices are united, and those when one is utterly alone with Him.
But there is a kind of private prayer that is different, a form of private prayer where one is far from alone. When we go into our room and pray for others, we are not exactly alone. But there's more to be said about that. You might care to read this, a sort of inspiration recorded during an Hour of Adoration on the Feast of the Little Flower earlier this month. If any of this interests you, do click here. Our private prayers take different forms and reach different depths at different times. That's as it should be. The kind of prayer described here admittedly is deep and not easy to slip into, but Our Lord's inspiration here makes a good case for it.
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October 27th, 2008
Note from a Correspondent
This is an astonishingly honest and beautiful plea and witness from Cardinal Egan, addressed to all people of good will who have eyes with which to SEE the profound and undeniable beauty of innocent life.
Please open your heart and your mind to this truth at :
Please share this with your friends, family, and neighbors.
In the Love Who IS,
and Who made YOU wonderful to behold,
joanne
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October 25th, 2008
Something to Ponder
By any standard we are a nation of well-off people. Even the poor are apt to have cell phones and television. Few it seems, except perhaps the utterly destitute, ever really go hungry, and even these know where to find breadlines. And emergency medical care is always available, even for the undocumented poor. So we're apt to think that the poor, who are always with us after all, are not something we need to worry about exactly, not personally.
Perhaps not, unless we are too well-off. In this case, as Jesus said, it will be hard for us to enter the Kingdom of Heaven (Mt 19:24). Not impossible, to be sure, since with God all things are possible (Mt. 19:26).
So when the very rich young ruler, a man who felt he had already fulfilled all the commandments, asked Jesus what more should he do "to possess eternal life," we know how Our Lord answered him: "If you would be perfect, go and sell your possessions and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven, then come, follow Me" (Mt 19:21).
St. Francis acted on Our Lord's injunction and his father wanted to lock him up as someone gone mad. It would strike most of us today as crazy too, or at least terribly impractical, and counterproductive. We have too many obligations and responsibilities even to think of such a thing. We need our cars and BlackBerrys and whatever just in order to do the things we have been given to do, to take care of the people we are given to care for, to make proper use of our God-given talents and opportunities, and so on.
So what are we to think?
Well, for one, the Catechism of the Catholic Church offers some stunning words from the 4th century Doctor of the Church, John Chrysostom (CCC 2445-6). Words still worth pondering.
"Not to enable the poor to share in our wealth is to steal from them and deprive them of life. The goods we possess are not ours, but theirs" (Chrysostom).
Each of us obviously has to decide what this could possibly mean personally. Are the poor something I need to think about more than I do? Can't I just pay my taxes and leave the poor to the bureaucrats?
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October 24th, 2008
A Thing About Jean-Paul Sartre
Sartre is my favorite atheist. Why? Because he saw his existentialist philosophy as "nothing else but an attempt to draw the full conclusion of a consistently atheistic position." The conclusion he draws is that life is "a useless passion," ending in existential "nausea." One has to believe God appreciates Sartre for his honesty. He is not one of these atheists who think a world without God can get along just fine, thank you. I've always admired him for that honesty.
Michael Novak relates that in Sartre's old age, he (in his book, The Words) reflected on "how difficult the practice of atheism had been for him." Novak adds, "[Sartre] often found himself spontaneously, naturally, giving thanks to he knew not whom--some transcendent presence interpenetrating all around him. A splendid sunset could propel that outward movement of the heart. Sartre instantly dismissed the thought, of course, as unworthy of a rational person. But in honesty, he noted it" (Novak, No One Sees God, p. 129).
In the latter years of his life, Sartre confessed to his wife, Simone de Beauvoir, "I do not feel that I am the product of chance, a speck of dust in the universe, but someone who was expected, prepared, prefigured. In short, a being whom only a Creator could put here; and this idea of a creating hand refers to God." But then he added, immediately afterwards, "This is not a clear, exact idea...."
About a month before he died (April 15th, 1980, of edema of the lungs), his assistant, Benny Levy, reported that Sartre conceived a new interest in Judaism, particularly, we are told, in its messianic message.
It is believed that in his last days a priest visited with him in the hospital and some speculate that Sartre may have experienced a deathbed conversion, but no real evidence for that has come to light.
But perhaps not so entirely.
I must tell you now of a most curious experience involving Sartre that my wife and I had fifteen years after his death, in 1995. I suspect that what transpired (described below) may have occurred just because of this special sentiment I have always harbored for the man.
We were in Paris and the business that brought me there was done with and we had a free day. It had been raining all morning but I wanted my wife to enjoy some delicious seafood crepes (crepe de mer) in a little Montparnasse crepe shop I knew about, all the rain notwithstanding. Then after our great lunch, we strolled along boulevard du Montparnasse, taking in the sights. The street was wet, the sky a dull overcast gray, but happily the rain had stopped for a while.
I was not familiar with the boulevard so as we walked we eagerly took in the locale with its street vendors and their colorful, laden carts. Then, on our right, we noticed the entrance to what look at first like a huge park but soon realized was a cemetary, in fact the famous Cimtière Montparnasse, where luminaries like Baudelaire are buried. We decided to go in and see if we could find Baudelaire's grave. It didn't take us long to realize the venture was hopeless. The cemetary is immense and a vast uncharted sea of gravestones stretched out before us. Baudelaire could be anywhere. So we turned around and headed for the entrance. That was when my wife spotted another grave, right off the entrance. "Look!" she said, "Sartre." And indeed, there it was, Sartre and with him his wife Simone de Beauvoir, in a single grave. Chancing upon Sartre's grave like that was special enough, given my feelings for him, but it's what happened next I must tell you about.
As we stood there, a sudden ray of sunlight abruptly broke through the overcast sky and lit directly on the grave. Just there and nowhere else. Truly. The sun had not been out all day and after one long minute never came out again that day. A shaft of light that just fell on the grave, and on the two tired roses that someone had placed there.
I have always taken that experience as a sign God knew and knows Sartre a lot better than we mortals who write and teach about his atheism. Which of course is obviously true, and in this case, very comforting.
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October 13th 2008
A Really Good Question
Last night on CSPAN2 we listened to the theistic philosopher Michael Novak discuss his latest book, No One Sees God, and heard two panelists discuss their reasons for being unable to acknowledge the existence of any God, seen or unseen. The panelists were (1) the gay journalist and author, Jonathan Rauch, and (2) the anti-feminist author, Christina Hoff Sommers, a resident scholar at the American Heritage Foundation, where this event took place. Rauch is an outright atheist, and Sommers an agnostic. Neither panelist was militant in his or her non-belief, and neither had any sympathy for the radical atheism of a Daniel Dennett or a Richard Dawkins. The anti-theistic conclusions they each had drawn for themselves it seemed were taken almost reluctantly, as if they would be perfectly willing to believe in God if only the evidence for such belief were there.
We report on the event here because of a simple question asked of these non-believers by a quiet man in the audience from Kenya, a rather startling question actually having nothing to do with the book. He began by saying that although the world has lots of ills, good things happen too, things which make us thankful. At such times, he asked, "who does an atheist or an agnostic thank?"
It was a telling question neither panelist could rightly answer. Both had to admit that, yes, there were these times when they indeed did feel thankful, and they said it made them a bit sad sometimes that there is no one to thank.
Judeo-Christians believe that we are made by God for a life with Him and that this deep-rooted appetite for God is what is most true about our nature, so much so that St. Augustine could truthfully say we will have no peace until we find our rest in God. So why then are some of us atheists and agnostics? One explanation of course might be that there's a certain discomfort in looking in the rear view mirror and finding someone is watching you, even reading your thoughts. And, on the other hand, a certain freedom in finding reasons to believe those eyes are not really there. That these might be kind and loving eyes seems beside the point, for some reason.
No one sees God. One might conclude from this that God hides himself from us. But those of us who understand ourselves in Adam and Eve know very well who is hiding from whom.
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October 3rd, 2008
JPII and A Little Thing
(From a letter to a priest friend in 2003, fround today in the bottom of a file)
Dear Father Raphael,
I have to tell you this rather amusing story involving A's sister, Del. Del is a very sweet and devout lady but given to all manner of anxieties and self accusations. The other day when attempting to adjust the time signature on her TV she pressed some buttons which caused the picture to disappear. All this happened in the middle of something on TV that she and her husband were watching. She played with the set, pushing buttons for an hour, trying to get the picture restored, all to no avail.
The next day after Sunday Mass she told us about it and how she had lain awake at night blaming herself for having done something so stupid. We had lunch together and then after lunch she asked me if I thought maybe I could do something about it.
So A and I went to their house and I played with the buttons for twenty minutes, still unable to get the picture back. All we could get was snow. We were about to give up when A, half jokingly, suggested we “turn to a holy channel,” EWTN, which I did. That was the last time any of us touched the set. There was no picture but now some sound came through and we could tell that the program was about the Holy Father in Madrid. Then, realizing this, Del cried out, again half facetiously, “Holy Father, please fix our TV," and believe it or not, instantaneously (and I mean instantaneously) the picture was restored, and on the screen appeared the face of John Paul II. The TV has been fine ever since.
This has given everyone a good laugh, with no little amusement in heaven too, I am sure.
Love,
B
(If any reader cares to believe that curious coincidences like this can be from God, the reader of course is at liberty to do so. Our Lord gave us free wills, afterall.)
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September 28th 2008
Not many people are acquainted with Dina Bélanger (1897-1926), known more formally as Blessed Marie Ste. Cécile de Rome. She was beatified by JPII on March 20th, 1993 and, I must tell you, she is well worth getting to know. You can learn a bit more about her here.
Blessed Dina was born in Québec on April 30, 1897, studied music in Manhattan as a young woman and in the process became an accomplished, concertizing pianist. But her calling was to become a nun and, by God's command, wrote an autobiography describing her profound spiritual journey. It is an account of a life being led into the deepest waters of Catholic spirituality. The writing is eminently accessible and has an appealing, contemporary ring to it. One will certainly profit from it.
Here is something from Dina's Autobiography read this morning, In this passage, Blessed Dina correlates the degree of happiness we may expect to experience in the next life with the degree to knowledge we gain of God in this life.
17 February, 1925
The Trinity is revealing itself to me more fully. In addition, I have a clearer understanding of the life of the angels and saints in God. How far we are from having any idea of the delights enjoyed by the blessed in heaven! Unless we are profoundly enlightened, we remain ignorant of the true nature of eternal bliss. We will never be able to grasp the immensity of infinite goodness towards every human soul. The longest life on earth lasts in reality but one moment. How foolish we are unless we devote each instant of our life on earth to the greater glory of the sovereign Master! What a multitude of surprises will be ours at that supreme moment when the veil of truth will be torn apart! What a Tabernacle of delight is the Heart of the Trinity!
In paradise, the measure of their knowledge of God is the measure of the happiness of the elect. They are totally happy. But one single degree, I venture to say the smallest degree, of knowledge of the Eternal is worth infinitely more than all the conceivable treasures of the created worlds, because it means penetrating one of the infinite secrets of Infinity itself... All the sufferings, all the physical and moral torture that car bear down on a human being, throughout millions of years, could never be worth one single degree of this knowledge. Quite simply, God in his goodness has to bestow this free gift on us. And how can we obtain it? By the least act of submission of our will to the will of our Father in heaven, the smallest act done out of love for him, the least act of obedience, a good desire, an act of self-denial, even a joy accepted in God out of love.
--Autobiography (Religious of Jesus and Mary: Canada, 1997) pp.215-216The present writer confesses he has a special fondness for Dina, not incidentally because of the fact that, well before he became aware of her as a mystic, the piano Dina owned and played on in Manhattan in the years before her novitiate (purchased for her by her father), happened to fall into the present writer's hands (a Knabe grand piano with a truly exquisite sound).. And for countless hours he played on her piano, unaware at the time of whose fingers it was that first touched these piano keys. The piano remains in the family and it is a treasure, but nothing compared to the life example and inspired prose left us by this blessed lady. Do find out about her.
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September 27th, 2008
There's some remarkably lovely music from Nigeria on our site. Check it out here.
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September 1st 2008 (Labor Day in the U.S.)
Labor Day celebrates labor by allowing us a day of rest, meaning, for one thing, we can sleep late. But when it comes to labor, whose labor ought we really celebrate?
For a person of faith, we often hear that we are to pray as if everything depends upon God, and to work as if everything depends upon us, upon our own labors. But is this the whole story?
Consider Our Lord's private revelation about this to the 20th century Italian mystic, Luisa Piccarreta, recorded here. (Her cause for sainthood is currently being pursued in Rome).
Abandon yourself to me and you will be surrounded by Me, as inside a circle in such a way that if enemies, occasions or dangers come, they will have to deal with Me, not with you, and I will answser for you. True abandonment in Me is rest for the soul and labor for Me. Moreover, if the soul is restless it means that she is not abandoned in Me. Restlessness is apt pain for one who wants to live in herself, doing Me great wrong, and herself great harrm.
--The Book of Heaven, Vol 12., August 6th, 1919
One is reminded here of St. Augustine's immortal line: "Our hearts were made for you, O Lord, and they are restless until they rest in you." (Confessions, Book I, Chapter I)
(Those wishing to know more about Luisa Piccarreta might look at http://www.divinewill.org/)
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August 31st, 2008
We don't normally want to talk about politics on this blog, but the selection of pro-lifer Sara Palin as VP candidate calls for some comment.
In I Cor 1:27, we read that "God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong." Is it possible that we on the verge of a profound instance of this? For what could be weaker than a Down-syndrome child? And who cannot be moved by its mother's words:
We knew through early testing he would face special challenges, and we feel privileged that God would entrust us with this gift and allow us unspeakable joy as he entered our lives. We have faith that every baby is created for good purpose and has potential to make this world a better place. We are truly blessed.
Who knows, this candidate may melt just enough secular hearts to give McCain the presidency. And with him the end of Roe v Wade. Should that happen, the hidden hero of such an eventuality might well be this helpless little child whom the wise and strong of this world would abort but a good mother would not, a child who, in God's hidden designs, may have been allowed to live, as its mother said, "to make this world a better place."
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August 24th, 2008
This morning l read something in a most remarkable little book which I feel compelled to quote below. The book is Mary, Gate of Heaven, published privately in Spain (the recently published English translation of which unfortunately is almost impossible to get here in the US). Mary, Gate of Heaven records private revelations by Our Lady to a contemporary Spanish lay woman. The book has the Nihil Obstat and Imprimatur of the appropriate ecclesiastical autholrities in Spain and was translated into English by an American archbishop (ret.), so its credentials are impeccable and its message trustworthy. The excerpt below is in Mary's words and must strike you as so beautiful and profound that one hardly needs to know anything more in this vale of tears. Certainly, to a reflective soul, Mary's words are of infinite value.
"When man is set free from vile thoughts, and when he allows Christ to love in his place, live in his place, and look upon all creation with his divine eyes, the change tales place. Peace floods the soul and one can see at a glance that this man belongs to God. For he loves as God does and to such a degree that God's divine love escapes powerfully from every pore of his body. Oh, what divine folly! When will you truly begin to say, "It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me."
I knew a priest who was like this. I once asked a Jewish friend of mine, a highly successful financial entrepreneur, whether he remembered the occasion of meeting this priest some years before. "Ah, yes," my friend answered. "I remember him well. The priest in whose presence you felt loved."
--diarist
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On the benefit of being disliked
God's providence sends us two kinds of souls to help bring us to Him. The first soul reassures us, sees what Jesus intended in us, and makes us believe we are that person or at least are in the process of becoming that person. This first soul builds us up and encourages us on our way. The second soul is quite different. This soul sees what is amiss in us, reacts to it and makes us feel we are far from the person we should be, forcing us to reflect on what we are in and of ourselves, apart from grace, which picture is never consoling. It is always devastating to meet such a person, to experience his or her rejection. But in God's Providence, encounters with both souls are necessary and we should be thankful for what each of them works in that Providence. Children especially seem able to see what's wrong with us and often have the simplicity to say so where others would conceal what they think. I still smart from encounters with certain children. It is easy to like someone who likes us, difficult to even smile at one who does not. But there is value in bowing to truth.
–diarist
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v May 17th, 2008
(extract from Luisa Piccarreta, Diary, Volume 12, entry for Oct. 4, 1917)
Man grows worse and worse and has built up so much poison inside himself that not even the war has been able to purge him of it. The war has not stopped man. It has hardened him even more. The revolutions will make him even more bitter, and misery will make him despair and give himself over to crime. It will draw out all of the corruption that man contains; and then my goodness, no longer indirectly on the part of creatures but directly from Heaven, will chastise man; and these chastisements will be like a healing dew that will come down from Heaven. Touched by my hand, man will recognize himself. He will awaken from the sleep of sin and will recognize his Creator. For this reason, my daughter, pray that all will be for man's good."
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v May 10th, 2008 -- Pentecost Sunday
(extract from Luisa Piccarreta, Diary, Volume 12, entry for Dec.18, 1918)
I said to my sweet Jesus: "I do not know how to do anything, nor do I have anything to give you. Nevertheless, I want to give You my nothingness. I unite my nothingness to the All that You are, and I ask You for souls. Thus, as I breathe, my breaths ask You for souls. With incessant cries, my heartbeats ask you for souls. The motion of my arms, the circulation of my blood, the blinking of my eyes, the movement of my lips, ask You for souls. Moreover, I ask this united with You, with your Love and your Will, so that all are able to hear in You my incessant cry that asks always for souls."
While I said this and other things, my Jesus moved in my interior and said to me:
My daughter, how sweet and pleasing to Me are the souls of those who truly know Me! In them I feel my hidden Life in Nazareth repeated without outward show, without people around, without the noise of bells. I lived so completely neglected and alone that I was hardly known. But I rose between Heaven and earth, and I asked for souls. Moreover, not even a breath or a heartbeat escaped Me that did not ask for souls. And, as I did this, my voice resonated in Heaven and attracted my Father's love to give Me souls. Indeed, my voice reverberated in hearts, and cried with a sonorous voice: "Souls!"
How many marvels I worked in my hidden life! They are known only to my Father in Heaven and to my Mama on earth. So, hidden soul, pray intimately with Me. If your voice is not heard on earth, your prayers, like bells, resound above, calling all of Heaven to unite with you in calling down mercy upon the earth. Thus, ringing not in the ears but in the hearts of creatures, your prayers dispose souls to turn back to Me.
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