Megan's Optimism

I've been all up-in-arms lately about all the negative things happening, so it's time for an entry I've been meaning to post and haven't had the time to sit down and write about all the positive that's happened to/for me.  So here I go.

God has been so good to me.  Seriously, He's taking care of me.  He knows what He's doing, and has deemed it best that I, apparently, don't.  And for the first time in my life, I think I'm ok with that.  I'm ok with not knowing what will come next.  I'm ok with not knowing what I'll be doing this time next year.  I'm ok with being in this cramped city with crazy people running around everywhere.  I'm ok with my emotional and personal state of being.  I'm ok with having little more than my job, a few friends, and my God.  Because this is where He's asked me to be, this is where I'll stay until He leads me elsewhere, and this is what He's given me; no more and no less.  I have what I have because He, in His knowledge, mercy, justice, wisdom, and love, has deemed it necessary that I have it.  I do not have what I do not because He knows it is better for me to either wait or do without.  I know this sounds uncharacteristic of me, so here are a couple of concrete reasons why all of this is suddenly ok...

1) The Gift of True Friendship.  I have the most fantastic friends in all the world, because nearly all of them are rooted first and foremost in Christ.  We pray Rosaries, go to Mass, talk theology and philosophy, and have edifying conversations about current world issues.  How many people can boast of such a gift?  But I can say with confidence that I will not take this gift for granted again; I've had to walk away from one such gift.  But God, in His infinite mercy (again!) has seen it fit to allow this friendship to begin anew.  The knowledge that we can once again be friends, base our friendship in the Lord, and walk the path of life together, hopefully leading each other closer to salvation with each step, brings great joy and peace to me.  Even with my friends in seminary to whom I can only talk on occasion (or not at all, in the case of my dear brother Nick!), I know that the bond between us is stronger than the friendships between most people, because they're rooted as deeply as a human friendship can go - in Christ Himself.  I'm so blessed, so grateful, for each of these wonderful people.  I really can't put it in any other way.

2) The Gift of Giving.  I spent a good amount of time this summer writing a single piece of music.  It came to me phrase by phrase, parts of it just the melody, parts in a whole choral texture.  I wrote this piece of music to St. Ignatius Loyola's challenging prayer known as the Suscipe for the occasion of my Jesuit spiritual director's final vows ceremony.  I was able to sing in the choir that provided the music for the Mass, and the choir graciously agreed to sing my piece.  It went very well, and I was pleased with it, but having Father come up to me later and express his gratitude really touched me; giving a gift to someone truly is its own reward.  Another example of this: a coworker recently suggested that we get a group together to go Christmas caroling at a nursing home in the city.  I agreed to help out, but spent the day yesterday hoping it wouldn't work so I could go home after work.  Thankfully, that didn't happen.  We went around the nursing home singing, and seeing the expressions on the men's and women's faces as we went around was such a joy.  I feel like I got more out of it than they did.  Watching the bedridden tap their toes to our songs of Christ's birth was one of the most rewarding things I've done in a while.  And it was a corporal work of mercy, too!  God gives us so many opportunities to love others and share His love, so many opportunities for grace, that we often shrug our shoulders, as I did earlier yesterday, and shuffle along our own "merry" ways, and completely miss the gifts He is, in reality, offering to US!

3) The Gift of Reason.  People try to use reason against Catholics, saying that belief in Catholicism (or in God at all), is irrational, unrealistic, etc.  I won't go into all the reasons that I've come to believe and be convinced of my faith THROUGH my reason, logic, rationality, study, et alii, as that would take hours, days, even years to communicate, and possibly never exhaustively, but I will say that, in relation to me being ok with God taking His time in revealing His will to me, I won't fight it because I know I can't.  I know in my heart that He is in control, and that I must surrender myself to the guidance of His holy will.  With His love and grace, I am rich enough, and I will ask for nothing more.  Things will happen when He sees that it is best.  And not before then.  No sense in worrying myself.

So that's the nutshell version of why I'm suddenly deciding that I need to be patient and trusting.  (Funny thing about patience, by the way - every time I pray for this particular virtue, God gives me moooore than enough times to practice it.  I usually fail.)  Now let's see if I can keep it up.  But I can say with confidence that I have seen much fruit from it already, and that omnia possum in eo qui me confortat - I can do all things through Him Who strengthens me. (Philippians 4:13)

I can't end this post without mentioning Our Blessed Lady on the Feast of her Immaculate Conception (December 8).  If  you're reading this, remember that it is a Holy Day of Obligation - Ita ad Missam!  Go to Mass!

(On another note...it's amazing how much can happen in a year.  I can only hope that the next year proves as beneficial as this year has.  Fiat.  Deo gratias.)

--ad majorem Dei gloriam et animam salutem.--

Dealing with Heretics 101

A course in the art of the disposal of heretics, taught by the man of the hour, Saint Nicholas (whose feast is is today, December 6).

A fantastic article about the h-slap: the proper way to deal with heretics.  Compliments of a friend of mine via facebook.  Take notes and enjoy. ;-)

http://cantuar.blogspot.com/2009/12/st-nicholas-he-who-punches-heretics-in.html

More hate speech. Time for action. Write the White House.

Fr. Z recently posted on an anti-Catholic joke made by a White House speechwriter.  It's extremely offensive, unfair, and biased.  I just wrote a comment and sent it to the White House.  I would encourage all of you to do the same.  http://www.whitehouse.gov/contact  Below is my original letter - feel free to use it, modify it, or write one yourself.  If this offends us, we can no longer remain silent.

***

Dear Sirs,

I write to you with the utmost respect, but what I have to say deserves your attention and action.

Recently, White House Speechwriter Jon Lovett cracked a joke about TSA's new screening policies, and about the "defrocked priests" who, when employed with TSA, would be able to "lend a…Well, not lend a hand, but you know.”

This, while perhaps seen as humourous by some, is really a blatant attack on Catholic Christians throughout the world.  22% of Americans call themselves Catholic.  While not all will find this offensive, and while not all who do will write to you, I would like to humbly but firmly request that someone apologize for this statement.  Had this been a joke at a Muslim's expense, or at a homosexual's expense, or at an ethnic minority's expense, it would be labeled as hate speech and immediately retracted.  It saddens and offends me that Mr. Lovett's words have gone this long without retraction or apology.  America has certainly set a double standard in this case, and I cannot stand idly by and watch my beliefs and the 99% of faithful Catholic priests attacked in a poorly-thought-out joke by someone so esteemed in the White House.

I hope that something is done about this swiftly.  Thank you kindly for your time and for your attention in this matter.

Respectfully yours,
[Name]

Anti-Christ Christmas Ad

Father Z at WDTPRS has a very interesting post and poll about a Christmas ad that targets...Christians?!  This prompts the question in my mind: When does "free speech" become "hate speech"?  Is there such a thing in America anymore?  Why do Catholics allow the media and anti-Christians to walk on us?  Why not stand up for our beliefs and make a fuss ourselves?  (I had an entry on this last month.)  Turning the other cheek is one thing.  But even Christ upset tables in the Temple.

God, grant us the grace to never be complacent.

Made for Another World

I have just come to an important realization.  I will never - ever - be satisfied.  No one can give me what I truly want.  I can't win it for myself, nor can it be achieved through luck or hard work.  I will never be satisfied.

I want peace.  I want happiness.  I want joy.  I want Love.  And only God can fulfill these desires in my heart.  Our hearts are restless until they rest in Thee. - St. Augustine, "Confessions"

Some things will bring me closer.  Others further away.  To help myself get to this unattainable-in-this-life goal, I must cling to those things that bring me close to my Goal, and shun those that do not.

When I moved to San Francisco, I missed home terribly.  When I got over that, I missed Ave Maria horribly.  I visited Ave Maria last weekend and home this weekend.  Surprise, surprise...this isn't cutting it either.  Certainly there are things or people or experiences along the way that leave me teetering on the edge of what I want, but, in the end, they can only bring me so far.  The rest can truly only be filled by Christ's love for me - and my cooperation in that Love.

This is what I strive for.  If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world. - C.S. Lewis, "Mere Christianity"

Sometimes I think that religious life would be easier.  I'd get to pray, read, work, and truly do all for the glory of God without the distractions and ho-hum-ness of daily secular life.  Being in the world is a trial not easily overcome. 

I'm truly thankful (and not just because tomorrow is Thanksgiving Day) for all of my friends who have brought me closer to this ultimate goal, who continue to inspire me to lead a good life, who encourage me when I feel like I can't go on, and who never let me rest when I do something to hinder my progress along the road to salvation.  I can only pray that one day, I can return even a small part of this huge favour.

Oremus pro invicem.

Forgiveness

It is my humble but strong opinion that the words "I forgive you" are the most powerful that can be spoken by a human person.  More powerful, even, than "I love you".

Forgiveness presupposes profound love, humility, and freedom.  It encompasses love entirely.  Giving up your own pride and stubbornness, especially about something you yourself are not at fault over, something that you could justify holding onto, but instead choosing the good of another - THEN, you have managed to love as Christ loved.

Even Christ, in His last moments before His glorious death, spent His breath forgiving the penitent thief and granting him eternal life.  Love consecrates, but forgiveness redeems.

"Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy."

"Father, forgive them; they know not what they do."

Byzantine Chant

In other news...a friend of mine introduced me to a fantastic internet radio site: Ancient Faith Radio.  Lots of fantastic Byzantine chant on there.  Check it out!

The Death of My Voice

As a soprano, my throat is of the utmost importance.  It's pretty much the only part of me that I cannot tolerate not working properly.  Broken arm, ok, I can deal with it.  Broken ankle, I'm used to it.  Colds, headaches, back pain, ok, I'll live.  But a persistent sore throat that has become swollen to the point of me not being able to sing strongly at all, and not make a sound a 6th above middle C?  That's a problem.  A big one.  I went in for choir rehearsal before Mass this morning and couldn't sing at all.  It's as if my throat hired an assassin.  "HEY, she's been working us too hard again, and we won't stand for it.  *whisper whisper whisper*"  They planned a sabotage/sting operation whilst I was asleep last week and, unfortunately, my immune system let me down.

I've only had it this bad once before - and that was the beginning of 2010 when I had to go through all sorts of trouble - a specialist, a really expensive look at my throat, steroids, not speaking for a week, then NSAIDs, then strength training, and not singing for a MONTH.  Not my idea of fun.  So I hope this passes quickly.

Other than the death of my poor throat, it's been a good weekend.  No updates to report about the curveballs previously mentioned.  Something about the "P" word...what was that again?  Oh right, patience.  Clearly not one of my virtues!

Flight Risk

I was a flight risk
With a fear of falling
Wondering why we bother with love
If it never lasts
(Taylor Swift, "Mine")

Every time I wish that something would go right and then STAY that way (and YES, I'm speaking in general, not specifically about love), I remember that God made me a promise.  When I was at my lowest, He made me a promise that He had something better in store for me.  That I could have been happy with what I was lamenting, but that He had something better.  Whenever I say that I can't go on, this promise rings in my ears.  He has never let me down before, nor has He ever failed to deliver on a promise He's made.  I have no choice but to take everything with a grain of salt (or two), and wait patiently for Him.

My soul is waiting for the Lord, more than watchmen for the daybreak.  Let the watchmen count on daybreak, and Israel on the Lord.
(From Psalm 129)

It's not a matter of "if".  It's a matter of "when".  And I would fail to be faithful to my state in life if I preoccupied myself with the future...or with the past.  As Fr. McTeigue always tells me: "Patience is being present to the present."  (He also tells me, quite sarcastically: "Don't worry; I just know.  Everything will be ooooooooooo-kay!  LOL)

According to the multitude of my sorrows in my heart, Thy comforts have given joy to my soul.
(Psalm 93:19)

Joy is an objective reality.  Joy is NOT synonymous with happiness.  But being joyful is a choice, and a duty.  It is a gift from God, and something to be responded to.  I'm striving to be the woman that God created me to be...and He certainly didn't create me to be crabby and depressed and edgy all the time.  Relapsing into those categories would be, at this point, sinful.

Suffering

"Impassibilis est Deus, sed non incompassibilis." God cannot suffer, but He can suffer with. - Pope Benedict XVI


As I was walking to work this morning, I began my Rosary.  It takes an enormous amount of concentration for me to do this, partially because it's morning and I haven't had coffee yet, and partially because walking through Golden Gate Park, there are so many beautiful things to look at!  Consequently, I only got one decade prayed.  Today is Tuesday - the Sorrowful Mysteries.  As I was walking and praying and meditating, this line from Pope Benedict kept going through my head: Impassibilis est Deus...  I began to wonder.  How could God NOT suffer?  Christ was fully man and fully God, and He seemed to have suffered unthinkable sufferings in the Agony in the Garden, much less through the other events recounted in the Sorrowful Mysteries.  He suffered the worst tortures, and died the most horrendous death on the Cross.  And Pope Benedict's statement didn't make a lot of sense to me, until I thought about it as a whole: ...sed non incompassibilis.


"Passibilis", Latin, meaning "capable of feeling or suffering, susceptible to emotion"
Im- being a negating prefix
-com- being a linking word to mean "with"


God can not only not suffer, but He is incapable of suffering altogether.  He cares so much for mankind, however, that He deigned to descend to earth to suffer alongside our own suffering.


When Christ was agonizing in the Garden of Gethsemane, He saw the sinfulness of mankind in its totality.  He agonized with us, on our behalf, not for His own sake.  He assumed upon Himself the burden of our offenses.


We are never alone in our suffering.  Christ has already suffered-with us...suffered in our stead.  How little are our cares and sufferings in comparison to the burden He has shouldered for us.  And how ungrateful am I to persevere in my sinfulness, pride, and misery.

Curveballs, Fire, and Critique

I am copying Meryl's blog format for this post.  You will find below three sections.  1) My life, 2) A reflection on Purgatory, and 3) Something controversial.

SECTION ONE: Baseball on the mind...?

God likes to throw odd pitches to me at very strategic times, I've noticed.  Maybe He thinks I'm a good hitter and wants to challenge me...maybe it's a warning to say I should look out...maybe it's a test...maybe it's just Him laughing at me.  I don't know.  Sometimes He throws a curveball and I don't anticipate it (or know how to swing!), and sometimes He'll throw a slider and I'll basically run into the ground.  Whatever it is, it means that He's telling me something.  Oh, that I had ears to hear!

I got a pitch thrown at me recently, and it's in slow motion, so I'm not even sure if it IS a curveball.  All I know is that God is true to His word.  He told me that He has my life worked out for me.  So I guess I should stop worrying about the pitch and let Him tell me whether or not to swing instead of analyzing it from a thousand different angles.  Cooperation is the key.

SECTION TWO: A little more serious.

In dealing with frustrating situations, knowing that cooperation with God's grace and the situations in which I find myself can be directed toward a greater End: the greater glory of God and the salvation of my soul and of those souls around me.  It's important to remember that every action, every thought, every inclination, will be examined on the day of Judgment.  Everything will lead us further from Christ or closer to Him.  And we'll have to give an account of everything...EVERYTHING...at the end of our lives.  Modern society likes to tell us that there are no consequences, no rules, and nothing to worry about during life, and that there's nothing awaiting us after we die.  The Church knows something different...consequences are real, rules effectively gives us freedom rather than slavery, and that, after we pass from this fleeting life...there is Heaven or Hell forever.

This morning, Canon Jean-Marie Moreau, ICKSP, gave a homily that was nothing short of shocking.  It's the month of November (in your charity, please stop reading and say a prayer for the poor souls in Purgatory.  Pater Noster...Ave Maria...Gloria Patri...), so Father preached on the reality of Purgatory.  He said that the fire we know here on earth is a fire that was created for our convenience: cooking, heating, purifying, etc.  The fires in Purgatory are the same as the fires in Hell.  They were created for our inconvenience, for punishment.  The souls in Purgatory yearn to be relieved of their suffering and to be united with God. They can no longer help themselves while they are in Purgatory.  They rely on OUR prayers.

SECTION THREE: Some of you may not like this....

...but I've been reading Alice von Hildebrand's critique on Christopher West's take on A Theology of the Body, the popular work by Pope John Paul II on the meaning of human sexuality and love, and its relation to the Divine Persons.  Having read both the TOB (for a class at Ave Maria) and Alice von Hildebrand's critique, I very much recommend it to you.  The reason I bring this up at all is because I've gotten a few emails from an FSSP priest with various different resources on thoughts of the TOB.  (Side Note: He highly recommends reading St. Teresa of Avila's Interior Castle or St. Francis de Sales' Introduction to the Devout Life instead.  I must agree with him; trying to explore such mysteries without careful thought, great wisdom, and constant guidance is very dangerous.  Spiritual reading by the Doctors of the Church and the mystics is more edifying, tried-and-true, and conducive to salvation.)  However, if you are a TOB fan (or not!), you may find Mrs. von Hildebrand's reflections to be thought-provoking and beneficial to your own understanding.  You can find the link here.

When life gives you lemons...

Chuck them at people!

Not that I have any lemons at present.  :)  I just heard that yesterday on "Lie to Me" and thought it was brilliant.  On to better, greater thoughts...

America has set such a double standard.  If anyone twitches in the general direction of a Muslim, the media is outraged, nonsensical comments get posted on CNN, and people think it'll cause a nuclear strike against America in the coming weeks.  But when the Democratic party in Minnesota blatently attacks the Catholic Church, there are no such headlines, no outrages, no snide comments, no nothing.  On the one hand, we must be doing something right.  On the other...when will we stand up and fight for what we believe in?  Part of the reason that Islam is so powerful is that they are convinced of what they believe and will stop at nothing to achieve their goals.  When will Catholics have the same convictions?  Of course I'm not advocating blowing up people that don't believe as we do.  I am, however, advocating a renewal of true Catholic activism.  There's a lot of junk surrounding us in these days, and, as Catholics and as missionaries in the truest sense, it's our responsibility and obligation to work through it, be faithful, and save souls.  I don't care if you're a layman, husband, wife, student, child, priest, religious, bishop, the Pope, or run-of-the-mill apathetic cafeteria Catholic.  By virtue of your baptism and confirmation, you signed up in Christ's army.  Now it's time to fight the battles.  If you don't like it, don't pretend!!

"I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot. I would thou wert cold or hot.  But because thou art lukewarm and neither cold nor hot, I will begin to vomit thee out of my mouth." Apocalypse 3:15-16

Plans. Or lack thereof.

I'm not really famous for my cheery optimism or upbeat attitude.  Since being in San Francisco, however, I've received more compliments on my good work ethic and smiling face than I ever have in my life.  Maybe I'm good at faking it.  Or maybe that's the kind of results (read: happiness?) that you get when you try to do what God asks of you.

I didn't exactly beg God to let me end up in San Francisco after graduating.  In fact, I had a fantastic life plan, and a decent backup plan when that one proved to have failed.  But He asked something different of me and made it so that this was the only thing that worked out.  I had two choices: roll with it, come out here with no assurances on just blind faith, or deny Him and sit around doing nothing.  The choice was clear: this is what He was asking of me, and, no matter how afraid I was or how skeptical I was or how reluctant I was...this was it.  So now, I'm out here without a plan, save to go where He leads when He leads.  (I just pray it doesn't take too long!!)

God's will is a tricky thing.  I spent years discerning and praying for Him to show me His will about a million things.  Sometimes what I discerned was correct, sometimes it wasn't.  But it was always clear when the chips were down.  He doesn't hide His will from us; we hide ourselves from Him.

"Perhaps your own reiterated cries deafen you to the voice you hoped to hear." - C.S. Lewis

Transitions

Major life transitions are always tricky.  You have to have the proper balance among virtue, strength, poise, resign, trust, openness, and closedness.  A small Catholic university with which I have some familiarity and small-city Texas is just a little different from Fruit and Nut Central, California.  It's been a crazy ride, but, after 5 solid months of being here, I'm finally starting to adjust :-)  I have a good job, good friends, an opportunity to go to the Latin Mass and meet people of the same mindset as myself, and I sing in a good choir

Quid retribuam Domino pro omnibus quid retribuit mihi?
What shall I render unto the Lord for all that He hath rendered unto me?

It makes me wonder...what was the major life transition for Our Lady like?  She was just a young girl when the Angel rocked her world.  The prophecies rang through her ears: Behold, a virgin shall conceive..., By His stripes, we were healed..., He hath born the sins of many...  What an overwhelming and terrifying message.  And yet...through it all...she rose to the call, accepted  her "vocatio", as one called by God, even by name: FIAT.  But after that moment in the Incarnation/Annunciation, the Angel departed from her.  In Christoph Cardinal Schönborn's new book The Joy of Being a Priest (Ignatius Press, 2010), he describes Mary after this departure as being left with no consolation (con+solatio = to be with [another] in solitude), no ecstacies, no visions, nothing - save the promise of seven swords.  And the promise of VICTORY.  Mary "held all these things in her heart".  She didn't complain, she didn't protest, she didn't even defend herself when Joseph found out she was pregnant.  Assumedly, she would have accepted the quiet divorce from her upright husband.  What a burden it must have been to go through life alone.  At least, that's what we, on a human level, would think.  But Mary was the Theotokos, mother of God, full-of-grace, tabernacle of the Holy Ghost, one without blemish, without sin.  She was human, yes, but she knew better than any of us do that she was never alone.  She threw herself entirely upon the mercy and the love of God.  Her Magnificat is arguably the most glorious praise a human being could have ever rendered to God.  "The Almighty has done great things for me: HOLY is His Name."  She was called to a Love and an obedience so far above our own levels of comprehension, and she did not deny her Master.  (Side note: Reading St. Alphonsus Liguori on obedience is one of the most humbling and most eye-opening exhortations I've ever read.  It reminds me how attached to my own will I am every time.  Obedience is most pleasing to God, even if it sounds crazy, even if you don't understand it.)

"What shall I render unto the Lord...?"  Trust.  Humility.  Obedience.

"Do you truly trust Me?"
"Yes, Lord, I do."
"Then why do you keep worrying?  It has been taken care of."

Note the use of past tense.  From all eternity, He has a plan for us.  We worry on our own ends to no avail.

Vulgate editions

 Interesting! Again from Fr. Z:

A reader alerted me to this interesting post at Canterbury Tales:

How do you know which "Vulgate" you have? Open up your Latin Vulgate to Genesis 3:20. How is Eve’s name spelled? This will immediately tell which "Vulgate" you have in your hands:

• If it’s spelled Heva: Clementine Vulgate (1592) – the standard printed Vulgate of the Catholic Church for Scripture and Liturgy until the Nova Vulgata (1979)
  
• If it’s spelled Hava: Stuttgart Vulgate (1969) – a scholarly critical edition of the Vulgate from the German Bible Society, not used in the liturgies of the Catholic Church. This is an academic Vulgate with a critical apparatus – it often includes the Pslater iuxta Hebraeos.
  
• If it’s spelled Eva: Nova Vulgata (1979) – the official Catholic edition of the Vulgate currently used in the liturgies of the Catholic Church (i.e. Missale Romanum 1969 & Liturgia Horarum)
  

This is the only fool-proof way for knowing which edition of the Vulgate that you have in your hands. So grab your Vulgate and check it out. I checked out the New Advent Vulgate at Gen 3:20 and happily discovered that it’s the Clementine Vulgate.

 In case anyone cares/ uses this edition of the Vulgate, the Vulgate online is apparently the Stuttgart Vulgate.

The Pope's Message for Lent

Though it was published 4-Feb, I found it a little late.  Good thing Lent is so long.  This is the Pope's message:

From Zenit:

 Dear Brothers and Sisters!

Each year, on the occasion of Lent, the Church invites us to a sincere review of our life in light of the teachings of the Gospel. This year, I would like to offer you some reflections on the great theme of justice, beginning from the Pauline affirmation: "The justice of God has been manifested through faith in Jesus Christ" (cf. Rm 3, 21-22).

Justice: "dare cuique suum"

First of all, I want to consider the meaning of the term "justice," which in common usage implies "to render to every man his due," according to the famous expression of Ulpian, a Roman jurist of the third century. In reality, however, this classical definition does not specify what "due" is to be rendered to each person. What man needs most cannot be guaranteed to him by law. In order to live life to the full, something more intimate is necessary that can be granted only as a gift: we could say that man lives by that love which only God can communicate since He created the human person in His image and likeness. Material goods are certainly useful and required – indeed Jesus Himself was concerned to heal the sick, feed the crowds that followed Him and surely condemns the indifference that even today forces hundreds of millions into death through lack of food, water and medicine – yet "distributive" justice does not render to the human being the totality of his "due." Just as man needs bread, so does man have even more need of God. Saint Augustine notes: if "justice is that virtue which gives every one his due ... where, then, is the justice of man, when he deserts the true God?" (De civitate Dei, XIX, 21).

What is the Cause of Injustice?

The Evangelist Mark reports the following words of Jesus, which are inserted within the debate at that time regarding what is pure and impure: "There is nothing outside a man which by going into him can defile him; but the things which come out of a man are what defile him … What comes out of a man is what defiles a man. For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts" (Mk 7, 14-15, 20-21). Beyond the immediate question concerning food, we can detect in the reaction of the Pharisees a permanent temptation within man: to situate the origin of evil in an exterior cause. Many modern ideologies deep down have this presupposition: since injustice comes "from outside," in order for justice to reign, it is sufficient to remove the exterior causes that prevent it being achieved. This way of thinking – Jesus warns – is ingenuous and shortsighted. Injustice, the fruit of evil, does not have exclusively external roots; its origin lies in the human heart, where the seeds are found of a mysterious cooperation with evil. With bitterness the Psalmist recognises this: "Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me" (Ps 51,7). Indeed, man is weakened by an intense influence, which wounds his capacity to enter into communion with the other.

By nature, he is open to sharing freely, but he finds in his being a strange force of gravity that makes him turn in and affirm himself above and against others: this is egoism, the result of original sin. Adam and Eve, seduced by Satan’s lie, snatching the mysterious fruit against the divine command, replaced the logic of trusting in Love with that of suspicion and competition; the logic of receiving and trustfully expecting from the Other with anxiously seizing and doing on one’s own (cf. Gn 3, 1-6), experiencing, as a consequence, a sense of disquiet and uncertainty. How can man free himself from this selfish influence and open himself to love?

Justice and Sedaqah

At the heart of the wisdom of Israel, we find a profound link between faith in God who "lifts the needy from the ash heap" (Ps 113,7) and justice towards one’s neighbor. The Hebrew word itself that indicates the virtue of justice, sedaqah, expresses this well. Sedaqah, in fact, signifies on the one hand full acceptance of the will of the God of Israel; on the other hand, equity in relation to one’s neighbour (cf. Ex 20, 12-17), especially the poor, the stranger, the orphan and the widow (cf. Dt 10, 18-19). But the two meanings are linked because giving to the poor for the Israelite is none other than restoring what is owed to God, who had pity on the misery of His people. It was not by chance that the gift to Moses of the tablets of the Law on Mount Sinai took place after the crossing of the Red Sea. Listening to the Law presupposes faith in God who first "heard the cry" of His people and "came down to deliver them out of hand of the Egyptians" (cf. Ex 3,8). God is attentive to the cry of the poor and in return asks to be listened to: He asks for justice towards the poor (cf. Sir 4,4-5, 8-9), the stranger (cf. Ex 22,20), the slave (cf. Dt 15, 12-18). In order to enter into justice, it is thus necessary to leave that illusion of self-sufficiency, the profound state of closure, which is the very origin of injustice. In other words, what is needed is an even deeper "exodus" than that accomplished by God with Moses, a liberation of the heart, which the Law on its own is powerless to realize. Does man have any hope of justice then?

Christ, the Justice of God

The Christian Good News responds positively to man’s thirst for justice, as Saint Paul affirms in the Letter to the Romans: "But now the justice of God has been manifested apart from law … the justice of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction; since all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, they are justified by His grace as a gift, through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as an expiation by his blood, to be received by faith" (3, 21-25).

What then is the justice of Christ? Above all, it is the justice that comes from grace, where it is not man who makes amends, heals himself and others. The fact that "expiation" flows from the "blood" of Christ signifies that it is not man’s sacrifices that free him from the weight of his faults, but the loving act of God who opens Himself in the extreme, even to the point of bearing in Himself the "curse" due to man so as to give in return the "blessing" due to God (cf. Gal 3, 13-14). But this raises an immediate objection: what kind of justice is this where the just man dies for the guilty and the guilty receives in return the blessing due to the just one? Would this not mean that each one receives the contrary of his "due"? In reality, here we discover divine justice, which is so profoundly different from its human counterpart. God has paid for us the price of the exchange in His Son, a price that is truly exorbitant. Before the justice of the Cross, man may rebel for this reveals how man is not a self-sufficient being, but in need of Another in order to realize himself fully. Conversion to Christ, believing in the Gospel, ultimately means this: to exit the illusion of self-sufficiency in order to discover and accept one’s own need – the need of others and God, the need of His forgiveness and His friendship. So we understand how faith is altogether different from a natural, good-feeling, obvious fact: humility is required to accept that I need Another to free me from "what is mine," to give me gratuitously "what is His." This happens especially in the sacraments of Reconciliation and the Eucharist. Thanks to Christ’s action, we may enter into the "greatest" justice, which is that of love (cf. Rm 13, 8-10), the justice that recognises itself in every case more a debtor than a creditor, because it has received more than could ever have been expected.

Strengthened by this very experience, the Christian is moved to contribute to creating just societies, where all receive what is necessary to live according to the dignity proper to the human person and where justice is enlivened by love.

Dear brothers and sisters, Lent culminates in the Paschal Triduum, in which this year, too, we shall celebrate divine justice – the fullness of charity, gift, salvation. May this penitential season be for every Christian a time of authentic conversion and intense knowledge of the mystery of Christ, who came to fulfill every justice. With these sentiments, I cordially impart to all of you my Apostolic Blessing.
From the Vatican, 30 October 2009

BENEDICTUS PP. XVI

© Copyright 2010 -- Libreria Editrice Vaticana

Liturgical Issues in a new light...

A little comic relief from Fr. Z:

There is a fun post over at St. Louis Catholic:

If today’s faithful Catholic is represented by Elizabeth Bennet, bright, hopeful and coming of age, then the liturgical forms would have to be represented by Mr. Darcy and Mr. Wickham.

Mr. Wickham is immediately accessible, loves to talk—especially about how bad ol’ Darcy is—has some initial minor flash but soon proves to be tedious and unreliable.

Mr. Darcy at first glance looks stuffy and condescending, but proves over time to be noble, true, of high quality and charitable.

The ordinary and the extraordinary.

_____________

Yes, I actually thought this, and then typed it, and therefore I am a loser.  [No… people who can’t refer to Austen are the losers.]

P.S. Mrs. Bennet would represent Marek Bozek. Just sayin’.  [LOL]

8.8 Earthquake in Chile

In your kindness, say a prayer for Chile...  From Fox News:

BREAKING NEWS —  President Michele Bachelet declared a state of catastrophe in central Chile after a massive 8.8-magnitude earthquake struck early Saturday.
     The most powerful quake to hit the country in a half century cut electricity, water and phone lines to many areas, meaning there was no word of death or damage from many outlying areas.
     There have been conflicting reports on the death toll, with some placing the count as high as 122, a number Chilean officials expect to rise.
     ...

 Go to Fox to read more.

FSSP interview on opening of new chapel

From Rorate:

Recent FSSP Interview on EWTN Live

by Shawn Tribe

One of our readers sent in this video which shows a recent interview on EWTN of two members of the FSSP by Fr. Mitch Pacwa. The interview speaks about the FSSP, the matter of the sacred liturgy, the EF and OF, and about the forthcoming consecration of the new chapel at the North American Seminary of the FSSP.

---

Posted Friday, February 26, 2010

Click the link to view the video; I had some problems embedding it...

From WDTPRS: Update on OLGS

From WDTPRS:

Your the Brick by Brick file from the Journal Star with my emphases and comments.

Consecration at Denton seminary to celebrate ‘crown jewel’

By ERIN ANDERSEN / Lincoln Journal Star

Sitting atop a hill in Denton, Our Lady of Guadalupe Seminary is visible for miles around.

Passers-by sometimes confuse it with a hotel.

But in this sprawling complex of multicolored brick and glass live 72 men studying to become priests of the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite—priests who perform the traditional Latin Mass. [I admire the chutzpah in this phrase, but no Roman priest is ordained for a book.  Latin, Roman priests are not ordained for the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite.  We are ordained for the Roman Rite, which – juridically at least – has two forms.  If a man is in a group which uses only one form, that is another matter.  And we can debate whether or not there is really only one Roman Rite from a theological point of view.  But we are all priests of the Roman Rite.  So… that corrective in mind, let’s move along in reading the article, which from the first paragraph shows that the writer did some homework…]

Wednesday, the Catholic Church marks the completion of the $14 million seminary with the consecration of its newly finished Chapel of Saints Peter & Paul. It is the first U.S. chapel built for seminarians in the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite in 40 years, said Father Joseph Lee, former seminarian and now ordained priest serving in Kansas City. [Kanasas, I think.]

Lee and others refer to the chapel as "the crown jewel" of the seminary.

Designed by Thomas Gordon Smith Architects, the 10,000-square-foot chapel reflects a contemporary rebirth of classical Catholic architecture.

That includes wooden choir stalls facing the center of the chapel, rather than church pews facing the altar. The stalls seat 92 priests and seminarians. Chairs will be set in the back of the chapel for laity and visitors.

The seating, and the four-story-high ceiling, provide ideal acoustics for the awe-inspiring Gregorian chants through which seminarians present the liturgy. [Hmmm… okay.  Perhaps "pray the liturgy" might have been a little clearer, but that’s fine.  The good point here is "awe".]

An elevated white marble altar, featuring a 31-foot marble canopy or baldachin, stands at the end of the chapel. The ornately carved structure once sat in a Quebec, Canada, church that was decommissioned in 2000. Seven smaller altars named for saints are throughout the chapel. A choir loft sits in the back. [Do choir lofts sit?  Yah… picky, I know.]

The Denton seminary is operated by the Lincoln Roman Catholic Diocese. It is one of two southeastern Nebraska seminaries overseen by the Lincoln Diocese. St. Gregory the Great Seminary opened in Seward in 1998 – the first free-standing diocesan seminary to open in the U.S. in decades. It teaches priests mainly for the Lincoln Diocese.  [Do you get the sense that in Lincoln someone has his head screwed on in the right direction?]

Our Lady of Guadalupe Seminary, which opened in 2000, teaches priests from all over the world to celebrate Mass in Latin. It is the only seminary in the United States devoted exclusively to teaching the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite, Lee said.

Our Lady of Guadalupe is the English-speaking seminary of the Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter, an international community of priests dedicated to the traditional Latin Mass. The fraternity was established in 1988 by Pope John Paul II. The fraternity has two seminaries, one in Denton and the other in Bavaria, Germany.

Before 1962, Catholic Mass was always in Latin. But reforms by the Second Vatican Council (1962-65) allowed priests to celebrate Mass in the language of that country.  ["Allowed" that parts of Mass sometimes be in the vernacular.  The Council did not oblige this or that all the Mass be in the vernacular.  Indeed, the Council required that Latin remain the language of worship and that pastors should make sure their flocks knew to sing and speak the parts pertaining to them in Latin and their mother tongue.]

In the early 1980s, Pope John Paul II asked bishops from around the world how this new form of liturgy was being accepted. People stood on both sides – some liked hearing Mass in their language, and others said the traditional Latin Mass was more meaningful, explained Father Calvin Goodwin, Latin instructor at Our Lady of Guadalupe.  [This focuses on the language, but leaves apart the other issues of changes to the theology of the prayers.]

In 1984 the pope made some initial and cautious steps toward the re-emergence of the traditional Latin Mass, he said. Four years later, he expanded permission for Catholic churches to return to the Latin Mass.  [Remember!  The newer form of Mass in Latin is also "the Latin Mass".]

"In 1988 there were about six regular celebrants authorized for Latin Masses," Goodwin said. "By 2005, there were around 250 Latin Mass celebrants."

Since then, Pope Benedict XVI has made it possible for all priests to celebrate Latin Mass if they choose, [They always could, in the Novus Ordo, use Latin… clean up these terms when using them yourselves.] and has made it obligatory for churches to provide a Latin Mass if Catholics request it.  [Well… that has a long way to go yet.]

"Weekly up to around 400 churches celebrate Latin Mass," Goodwin said. "It has grown steadily over the past 20 years, as has our community (the Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter). We started with 10 to 12 priests; now we have well over 200 priests."

Many of those priests are younger; the average age is 36. Among other priestly fraternities, the average age is 65 to 75, Goodwin said.  [As I have been saying, younger men want this.  Even those not in the ranks of a specialty group want our Church’s patrimony.  In another few years, maybe five years or so… we are going to see something remarkable happening.]

Much of the demand for Latin Mass comes from younger Catholics seeking a return to the old ways of worship.  [Not just "old" ways, but "Catholic" ways… "traditional" ways… "continuous" ways.]

Experts may see Latin as a "dead" language, but it is ideal for the church because the meaning of the words stand the test of time, Lee said.

"Thus Latin is excellent for theology and the transmission through succeeding ages of the unchanging – and unchangeable – doctrines in which the continuity of precise meanings is necessary among different cultures and times," he said.  [Well said.]

"Also, one finds the sound of Latin to be sublime and lofty, devoted as it is uniquely to the worship of God."

Catholics do not need to understand Latin to appreciate the Latin Mass, Goodwin said.

In fact, it was only when Mass was said in the language of the community that "people drifted to the idea that the primary point of Mass was to understand everything that was said and going on," he said.

"Mass is not a lesson or a class, or a primary form for the exchange of information.

"The primary point (of Mass) is not to understand it for the information conveyed. The primary point is to be present with your heart and soul as our lady St. Mary and St. John were present at the foot of the cross," Goodwin said.  [We can add a lot to this, but I think that Fr Goodwin hit it on the head by steering the point of Mass away from the didactic.]

Mass is the re-presentation, in an unbloody manner, of the sacrifice of Calvary in which Jesus offered his life to atone for the sins of all humanity, Lee said.

Catholics attend Mass to "understand the experience and the reverence and the devotion and the solemnity that are proper to the worship of God," Goodwin said.

Well done.  And WDTPRS kudos to the Fraternity for their new jewel!

Brick by brick.

Please pray for vocations to the priesthood.  Fr. Z also posted a rant about how the Catholic faithful need to be much more specific in praying for vocations SPECIFICALLY to the PRIESTHOOD.