Te Deum - A Hymn of Thanksgiving on New Year's Eve

We praise you, O God :
we acknowledge you to be the Lord.
All the earth worships you:
the Father everlasting.
To you all Angels cry aloud :
the Heavens, and all the Powers therein.
To you Cherubim and Seraphim :
continually do cry,
Holy, Holy, Holy :
Lord God of Hosts;
Heaven and earth are full of the Majesty
    of your glory.
The glorious company of the Apostles : praise you.
The goodly fellowship of the Prophets : praise you.
The noble army of Martyrs : praise you.
The holy Church throughout all the world :
does acknowledge you;
The Father :of an infinite Majesty;
Your honourable, true  and only Son;
Also the Holy Spirit, the Comforter.
Thou art the King of Glory , O Christ.
You are the everlasting Son of the Father.
When you took upon yourself to deliver man :
 You did not abhor the Virgin's womb.
When you overcame the sharpness of death :
You opened the Kingdom of Heaven to all believers.
You sit at the right hand of God  in the glory of the Father.
We believe that you shall come to be our Judge.
We therefore pray, help your servants
 whom you have redeemed with your precious blood.
Make them to be numbered with your Saints in glory everlasting

Life

A coworker of mine made an off-handed comment the other day that disturbed me immensely. She said "if I ever end up in a wheelchair, please just push me over a cliff." She laughed as she said it, and made a gigantic kicking motion with her leg. "Give me the boot. Life's not worth living if I can't walk." She is young, and athletic, and holds to the firm belief that LIFE is made up solely of the experiences you have while on the planet. Having "adventures" and "being present", squeezing every last bit of excitement out of this time that we're here is our "purpose". And that made me enormously sad. Surprising to no one, I guess... I couldn't keep my big mouth shut.

"Oh, do you really believe that? Do you really believe you're nothing more than a BODY? And that your only worth as a human being is what you DO with that body???" She looked at me like I was kind of insane. Of course. Everybody thinks that. She told me how she and her friends had long discusions about this very topic, and they all agreed. Off the cliff they go. They don't want to rely on anyone else or anything else. They don't want to be a "burden". And life was there to be LIVED, to have fun!

I think it's a very short jump from independence to pride. The thought that, if I need someone else, then I am weak, and weakness makes me less worthy of life. To my coworker friend, I pleaded, very near tears "what would happen to this planet if everyone thought that way? What if there was noone who NEEDED anyone else? We would lose our ability, as humans, to care for each other, to provide service to each other. To show love to someone, even when we're not getting anything back in return! What does that do to our humanity???"

I work with disabled children. It's what I do, it's what I love. And I see these families. I see that they LOVE their children, despite the fact that they are sometimes unable to do ANYTHING for themselves. I see the joy, along with the stresss. Yes, it's hard. Raising any child is hard. But I also see that not one parent, not ONE in my nearly 20 years as a therapist, has ever openly regretted having thier child. I have NEVER met a parent who wasn't in love with their child. Honestly. I had one mom, who never planned on being a mom before her "surprise" pregnancy, lament "why did I have a child? Especially THIS child?" That was when the baby was little. Within a year, she was the most devoted, loving mother I knew. Despite her little guys' challenges. Very possibly BECAUSE of her little guys' challenges. She had spent 40 years of her life living for noone but herself, and suddenly, she realized a whole world of giving, and it changed her profoundly. I'll never forget her transformation, it was so dramatic and complete.

I read a study once in one of my professional journals that claimed that 95% of children with Trisomy 18 are aborted on the recommendation of the medical profession. Doctors told families that having a child with a terminal illness would destroy them, that the stressors of having a child who would not walk or talk would be too traumatic. And so the vast number of these babies' lives are terminated. The study was interesting, though, in that it also interviewed the families who HADN'T terminated their pregnancies - families that may not have gotten any prenatal genetic testing, families who elected not to terminate their pregnancies. And fully 100% of those families stated that their families were HAPPY - not destroyed. That they loved their child, couldn't imagine life without them, despite their difficulties. And that their families had grown stronger as the result of a special needs child in their life, not been destroyed. So interesting. I shared the study with the mom of a little girl I work with who has Trisomy 18 and she concurred. "This is my daughter. I don't read anything on the internet about what's she's supposed to 'be like', and I don't listen when medical professionals paint me doomsday stories. I take one day at a time, and love her for her, today, and we are happy. She's the best thing to have happened to our family."

When I was on bedrest with my twins, I had a really difficult time. Lying around all day, yes that was tough. I tried to make the best of it though. For three months I read books, taught myself the guitar, kept a journal, wrote a play. Three MONTHS in bed. I could entertain myself just fine. Boredom wasn't necessariliy the hard part. The hard part was having to accept help. The church brought us meals, my mother in law cleaned my house, my sister in law folded my laundry. My husband had to bring me every last glass of water, every piece of food from the kitchen. Nothing was done on MY schedule, or the way I wanted it done. If Rob was outside and I was thirsty.... too bad. It SUCKED. It was doubly hard because I was fully CAPABLE of doing things for myself, I just wasn't supposed to. Because if I moved, my babies would be born too early and could DIE. That's pretty strong motivation to stay put. I remember crying to my OB during one of many stints in the hospital to stop premature labor. "I can't take this anymore. I hate having to rely on other people all the time!" I'll never forget his response to me.   I remember him sitting on the edge of my hospital bed, putting a hand over my hand and saying "Monica, you need to know that sometimes people NEED to help others, and you are allowing them that.  Accept it graciously."  That turned everything around on its head.  It wasn't always about ME (go figure). 

Edwarda O'Bara recently died.  You may not have heard of her - I hadn't until just now.  Here's the CNN piece that brought her to my radar screen.  http://www.cnn.com/2012/12/23/us/longest-living-coma-patient-dies/?hpt=us_t2.  She was in a coma for 42 years, and never woke up.  FORTY TWO YEARS.  Cared for at home by her family - not in a nursing facility.  She was not on machines, there was no artificial life support.  This lady was ALIVE - the care she received was food, water, shelter.  I was moved beyond words at the dedication to life and love that this family had.  I was moved at the impact this woman, who didn't move, didn't get out of bed - had on literally THOUSANDS of people the world over.  The word that popped into my head was SANCTITY.  And then I made the mistakes of reading the CNN commenters - which I should never do, because historically speaking, I have found that CNN commenters are the most vitriolic, hateful people on the planet.  But it was eye opening.  What I saw as a beautiful act of self-giving love, others saw as selfishness.  Edwarda had no "quality of life" for 42 years and her selfish family DIDN'T MURDER HER.  They didn't starve her to death, they didn't poison her, they didn't suffocate her with a pillow.  How could they allow her to live and call it love???  And I realize, these people agree with my coworker - LIFE is not a valuable gift in and of itself.  Life is only valuable if it EXPERIENCES. 
In stark contrast to that, was Colleen O'Bara, Edwarda's sister, who has given up everything to care for her sister.  Was she relieved that this "burden" was gone from her life?  Quite the contrary.   She states plainly that "My sister taught me so much about unconditional loveand patience, something I never would've learned without her".


Our society devalues life by reducing it down to a set of neuronal experiences.  That paradigm leads unceasingly and inexorably to abortion, to euthanasia, to suicide, to DEATH. Life, even in it's weakest forms - maybe ESPECIALLY in it's weakest forms - leads us on a path to LOVE.  And it is this LOVE that is the core of our humanity.  It is what makes us in the image and likeness of God Himself.

A Christmas Poem Shared

 

 

The House of Christmas

by Gilbert Keith Chesterton

There fared a mother driven forth
Out of an inn to roam;
In the place where she was homeless
All men are at home.
The crazy stable close at hand,
With shaking timber and shifting sand,
Grew a stronger thing to abide and stand
Than the square stones of Rome.

For men are homesick in their homes,
And strangers under the sun,
And they lay on their heads in a foreign land
Whenever the day is done.
Here we have battle and blazing eyes,
And chance and honour and high surprise,
But our homes are under miraculous skies
Where the yule tale was begun.

A Child in a foul stable,
Where the beasts feed and foam;
Only where He was homeless
Are you and I at home;
We have hands that fashion and heads that know,
But our hearts we lost – how long ago!
In a place no chart nor ship can show
Under the sky’s dome.

This world is wild as an old wives’ tale,
And strange the plain things are,
The earth is enough and the air is enough
For our wonder and our war;
But our rest is as far as the fire-drake swings
And our peace is put in impossible things
Where clashed and thundered unthinkable wings
Round an incredible star.

To an open house in the evening
Home shall men come,
To an older place than Eden
And a taller town than Rome.
To the end of the way of the wandering star,
To the things that cannot be and that are,
To the place where God was homeless
And all men are at home.

A Great Big Christmas Smile

Jerome Le Jeune

The scientist who identified Trisomy 21 (Down's Syndrome).  Well worth listening to.

“it is not medicine we should fear, but the folly of mankind. Every day, the experience of our predecessors increases our ability to change nature by using his own laws. But using this power wisely is what each generation must learn in its turn. We are certainly more powerful today than ever before, but we are not wiser: Technology is cumulative, wisdom is not;”

“We need to be clear : the quality of a civilization can be measured by the respect it has for the weakest members. This is no other criterion.”

Rant About the Election

I saw this, and nearly cried.  Fellow Catholics, how COULD YOU???  Does the color of your skin trump your moral code?  I get that we all want to vote for people who "understand" us better.  I can even understand the very legitimate differences about government-funded social supports versus private-enterprise social supports.  I'll give you that.   But to support the most anti-life President in history, one who has encroached on religious liberty more than any chief executive at the helm of this nation... how can you legitimately call yourselves Catholic??  Certain issues are far more important than others, and they MUST  take precendence.  Life and religious liberty first.  Economics and social issues follow a distant second.  Because we can have legitimate differences on how the financial system should be run, but how we respond to the wholesale slaughter of millions of innocent children?  That effects our eternal soul. 

So, so, so disappointed in my "brothers and sisters".  I would love for someone to explain themselves, because I just can't fathom it.    There are plenty of "religions" out there that agree with YOU.  If you don't agree with the tenets of the Catholic church, by all means, feel free to leave.  No one is compelling you to stay.  These tenets are not meant to be easy to swallow.  Truth never is.  And they were never meant to agree with you, either.  Your opinions are not the final call on Truth.  Truth just is what it is, and we are called by Christ to testify to IT... not see what fits with our own judgements. 

Lord, forgive this nation.  I fear for the future, for my children's future.  I fear the loss of all that is honorable, admirable, courageous, kind, and noble in America.  I fear a culture that is quickly becoming solely about the "me" and "my self-gratification".  America is losing it's heart and it's moral compass.  And the complicity of 50% of fellow Catholics in that very nearly brings me to despair. 

But I do know the "ending", and I know that these times are but the labor pains of things yet to come.  Renew your people, Lord.  Regardless of who is President, YOU still are King.  Nothing can change that. 

One Soul, One Heart, One Mouth

From Iraneus, Bishop of Lyons (130-202AD):

"Indeed, the Church, though scattered throughout the whole world, even to the ends of the earth, having received the faith from the apostles and their disciples... guards [this preaching and faith] with care, as dwelling in but a single house, and similarly believes as if having but one soul and a single heart, and preaches, teaches and hands on this faith with a unanimous voice, as if possessing only one mouth."

"For though languages differ throughout the world, the content of the Tradition is one and the same. The Churches established in Germany have no other faith or Tradition, nor do those of the Iberians, nor those of the Celts, nor those of the East, of Egypt, of Libya, nor those established at the center of the world..." The Church's message "is true and solid, in which one and the same way of salvation appears throughout the whole world."

 "We guard with care the faith that we have received from the Church, for without ceasing, under the action of God's Spirit, this deposit of great price, as if in an excellent vessel, is constantly being renewed and causes the very vessel that contains it to be renewed."

Verse Of The Day

"Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice.  Let all men know your forbearance.  THe Lord is at hand.  Have no anxiety about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.  And the peace of God, which passes all understanding, will keep  your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus."

Phillipians 4

Lord, please take away my anxiety, fill me with your peace.  I trust in You.

From the Catechism....

Was reading this today, and thought it was beautiful and profound. 

Part1:The Profession of Faith (26 - 1065)

 

Section1:"I Believe" — "We Believe" (26 - 184)

Chapter1:Man's Capacity for God (27 - 49)

I. THE DESIRE FOR GOD

27 The desire for God is written in the human heart, because man is created by God and for God; and God never ceases to draw man to himself. Only in God will he find the truth and happiness he never stops searching for:
The dignity of man rests above all on the fact that he is called to communion with God. This invitation to converse with God is addressed to man as soon as he comes into being. For if man exists it is because God has created him through love, and through love continues to hold him in existence. He cannot live fully according to truth unless he freely acknowledges that love and entrusts himself to his creator.
28 In many ways, throughout history down to the present day, men have given expression to their quest for God in their religious beliefs and behavior: in their prayers, sacrifices, rituals, meditations, and so forth. These forms of religious expression, despite the ambiguities they often bring with them, are so universal that one may well call man a religious being:
From one ancestor [God] made all nations to inhabit the whole earth, and he allotted the times of their existence and the boundaries of the places where they would live, so that they would search for God and perhaps grope for him and find him — though indeed he is not far from each one of us. For "in him we live and move and have our being."
29 But this "intimate and vital bond of man to God" (GS 19 § 1) can be forgotten, overlooked, or even explicitly rejected by man. Such attitudes can have different causes: revolt against evil in the world; religious ignorance or indifference; the cares and riches of this world; the scandal of bad example on the part of believers; currents of thought hostile to religion; finally, that attitude of sinful man which makes him hide from God out of fear and flee his call.
30 "Let the hearts of those who seek the LORD rejoice." Although man can forget God or reject him, He never ceases to call every man to seek him, so as to find life and happiness. But this search for God demands of man every effort of intellect, a sound will, "an upright heart", as well as the witness of others who teach him to seek God.
You are great, O Lord, and greatly to be praised: great is your power and your wisdom is without measure. And man, so small a part of your creation, wants to praise you: this man, though clothed with mortality and bearing the evidence of sin and the proof that you withstand the proud. Despite everything, man, though but a small a part of your creation, wants to praise you. You yourself encourage him to delight in your praise, for you have made us for yourself, and our heart is restless until it rests in you.

II. WAYS OF COMING TO KNOW GOD

31 Created in God's image and called to know and love him, the person who seeks God discovers certain ways of coming to know him. These are also called proofs for the existence of God, not in the sense of proofs in the natural sciences, but rather in the sense of "converging and convincing arguments", which allow us to attain certainty about the truth. These "ways" of approaching God from creation have a twofold point of departure: the physical world, and the human person.
32 The world: starting from movement, becoming, contingency, and the world's order and beauty, one can come to a knowledge of God as the origin and the end of the universe.
As St. Paul says of the Gentiles: For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. 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.
And St. Augustine issues this challenge: Question the beauty of the earth, question the beauty of the sea, question the beauty of the air distending and diffusing itself, question the beauty of the sky... question all these realities. All respond: "See, we are beautiful." Their beauty is a profession [confessio]. These beauties are subject to change. Who made them if not the Beautiful One [Pulcher] who is not subject to change?
33 The human person: with his openness to truth and beauty, his sense of moral goodness, his freedom and the voice of his conscience, with his longings for the infinite and for happiness, man questions himself about God's existence. In all this he discerns signs of his spiritual soul. The soul, the "seed of eternity we bear in ourselves, irreducible to the merely material", can have its origin only in God.
34 The world, and man, attest that they contain within themselves neither their first principle nor their final end, but rather that they participate in Being itself, which alone is without origin or end. Thus, in different ways, man can come to know that there exists a reality which is the first cause and final end of all things, a reality "that everyone calls God".
35 Man's faculties make him capable of coming to a knowledge of the existence of a personal God. But for man to be able to enter into real intimacy with him, God willed both to reveal himself to man and to give him the grace of being able to welcome this revelation in faith. The proofs of God's existence, however, can predispose one to faith and help one to see that faith is not opposed to reason.

Damnation

If you were in Hiroshima right before the first atom bomb, and someone told you what was about to happen, and offered a safe bunker... whose fault IS it if you get blown to smithereens?  The guy who told you what was about to happen, and offered a way to safety?  Or your own, for not believing him, and choosing not to take him up on his offer? 

"Salvation" is literal.  We hear the word too much to really understand what we're being saved FROM, in my opinion. 

The Big Picture: Salvation, as I understand it

 

God is love.  Pure, intense, all-consuming love.  As a result of Adam and Eve's fall, I am lost, wandering in the darkness.  Yet there is this....  He loves me, He wants me - just as he wants all of His creation.  He yearns to draw me towards Himself, to transform my nature so that I may partake in Heaven with Him forever.  This is His invitation, this is His call. 

In my mortal state, I have the infancy of a divine nature -  because I am made in His image, and am loved by Him.  I am more than an animal - I have a spirit, which is immortal and divine.   I am Pinnochio, the wooden puppet brought into a state of animation, but not yet a "real boy".  The fullness of myself will not be realized until I am in Heaven with my Father in my glorified body.   To get from my mortal state to my glorified body, from a "puppet" to a "real boy", I need God's intrinsic grace and power to change me.  I must become infused by grace to transform me to this complete, full version of myself - body, mind and soul.

I envision this love of God as a great tractor beam of light, pulling me ever closer to Him.  Out in the darkness, I am wandering, separated from Him.  I may see the light, but I am not inside the light.  Through His great love, and Christ's sacrifice, and through the gift of baptism, I am allowed entrance into God's transforming light.  It is Jesus who brings me there, who grabs me by the hand, pulls me from the darkness into the light, and says "here is the Way, the Truth, and the Light.  Stand in the light.  Come to the Father through me.  I have reconciled you."  I am not lost.  Jesus has found me, and I am now bathed in the love and grace of God, standing in the light. 

But my nature is not ready for the intensity of God's pure love.  After all, wooden puppets thrown into a fire will burn.  Jesus's sacrifice on the cross took that part of us that was so unworthy it couldn't even begin, and did away with it - overcame it.  He made a bridge to that "way of light".  He led us there, and invited us in.

So I'm here, bathed in this diffuse light of God's love, being pulled and called onward toward the Father.  But what do I do?  Often, the light is too bright.  Often, I get distracted, and turn my back, or shut my eyes.  Often, I resist the pull, fight it in an effort to "be in control".  This is sin.  My actions work to separate me from God.  The devil and his minnions do their best to lure me out of the light and back into the darkness.  My will responds, yes... or no.  Far away from God, the light is diffuse, the pull weaker.  I'm still struggling with my own will, and I make mistakes, often make mistakes.  I get lost, but never so lost that I leave the light.  These are venial sins.  I am not cooperating with the "pull", which is God's will.  My journey to Him is impeded by myself, because I am resisting.  But He has not lost His grip on me.  I am still His, and I am working my way towards Him, however imperfectly. 

When I am wise, when I finally realize how I am resisting... I stop, turn towards the light, and ask for forgiveness.  This is confession, and repetance.  I turn myself back towards Him, and relinquish my petty resistance, my own will that is not in accordance with His, and begin my journey again.  As I'm now turned towards Him, the pull continues, the stuff behind me no longer matters.  I am back on the "Way".  I have been forgiven.   This is a state of grace. 

If I die while my back was still turned, my eyes still closed - I am still in the beam of light, I am still His, but my nature is not yet ready for the intensity of His love.  I have not completed my journey towards Him.  I have not been fully transformed into my "full self", and my nature is not yet pure.    And so God purifies me, prepares me "as through a fire", until I am ready to stand in His presence.  He completes the work of transfiguring my nature to be in His presence for eternity - the work that was not completed during my time here on earth.  This is purgatory.  

If, during my time on earth, I pull away from that tractor beam of light so forcibly as to rip myself out of it's pull completely, I have committed a mortal sin.  I have chosen to resist His call, and while He desperately wants me, He will not force me to Himself.  I have chosen darkness, and rejected Him.  He allows me my choice, and I remain a wooden puppet, lost in the darkness.  At the fullness of time, when the New Heaven and the New Earth arrive, my nature has not been transformed.  I am still made of wood.  I cannot tolerate the intensity of God's love, the intensity of His light, and I burn.  This is Hell.  I put myself there.

If, however, granted entrance into "the Way of light", brought there by Christ Himself, I joyfully keep my entire person turned towards the Father at all times, and float along on His will,  He will pull me  towards Himself.  This is faith. This takes an enormous amount of trust, as the process is painful.  I am often blind and can't see where I am going.  I am weak, and am incapable of withstanding such a process on my own.   So He helps me.  This is grace.  He presents opportunities on the outside to nudge me back into the light - this is external grace , and I can cooperate with it or not, using my will.   He transforms me from inside - internal grace , which is soley His doing.   He grants me earthly means of receiving His grace, gifts to help me on my journey. He grants me HIMSELF, in the form of the Eucharist , so that He may come to reside truly and physically, body soul and divinity, inside me, and transform me from the inside out. The Holy Spirit comes upon me at Confirmation , to guide and lead me, grant me strength to stay on the "Way". The Anointing of the sick heals my soul when wounded, a salve to cleanse and heal.  He graces me with Marriage , so that I may understand the nature of His love for me and His bride, the Church.  My family is a microcosm of His relationship with humanity.  All these sacraments are truly GIFTS of grace, because God wants me for Himself, wants to transform my nature.  Who am I to reject His gifts? Who am I to reject God's freely-give grace and love?

 His grace alters me as He draws me to Himself, my nature  slowly being converted to His, in preparation for all eternity in His presence.  The intensity of His love no longer burns, but rather glorifies me.  I light up, just as Jesus did during the Transfiguration, but I am not consumed.  The closer I get towards God, the stronger the pull, the more my will succumbs to His.  This is holiness.    And when I die, I will live forever bathed in His eternal love, greater than the intensity of a million suns.  This is the beatific vision.  This is Heaven.  

This is my desire.  Through His invitation, His pull, His transformation, and my cooperation. Lord, may I always succumb my will to Yours, keep my face turned to the LIGHT, so that I may be in YOUR presence at the fullness of time. 

Thought Of The Day

Shroud of Turin

I have an admitted fascination with the Shroud of Turin.  I am convinced of it's authenticity - on a gut-level, as well as an intellectual level.  I look at this face, and see my Lord.  I recognize Him.  My heart says "oh yes.  That's Him.  There He is."  When I saw Passion of the Christ - I recognized Him.

When I saw Akiane's picture of Jesus, I recognized him.

  And when I saw "the real face of Jesus" from the History Channel's reconstructing the image on the Shroud of Turin... it was Him again.  

This is not the wan, frail-looking man from so many paintings.   This is the face I recognize from my most vivid dreams. Strong, robust. The face I KNOW. 

That's all highly subjective, though, and far from scientific proof.  My gut, although I trust it, could very well be wrong.  The scientific evidence supporting the Shroud, though, is actually substantive and extremely convincing. 

The most recent finding is this study by Marzio Boi, a university researcher at the University of the Balearic Islands who specializes in palynology, proving that the pollen on the shroud is the same as found on burial sheets in Asia Minor 2000 years.

Other recent findings show how the image was apparently created by a flash of intense radiation, of a quanity that is not currently able to be produced by known methods.  The infamous carbon dating is found to have been accurate - but taken from a sample of cloth that was repaired in the middle ages.  The blood type (AB) is the SAME blood type as found on the Sudarium of Oveido - believed to be the burial face cloth of Christ.  The wounds of the image, which is only microns thick, correspond directly to the wounds of Christ described in the Bible.  The cloth itself is made of a linen found in the burial cloths of wealthy people in an area just east of Israel, at the time of Christ.  I think at this point no one even contradicts the fact that this cloth covered an actual corpse of a crucified man - and is in no way, shape, or form a painting.

A summary of the scientific research can be found here, and at www.shroud.com.  Los Alamos Laboratories and the STURP committee have done extensive research as well. 

It seems to me that the evidence leads to a conclusion that many just don't want to make.  Skeptics say that the Shroud cannot be authentic because the idea that Jesus rose from the dead and left behind an image is IMPOSSIBLE - not because that is not the way the evidence points.  In essence ruling out a hypothesis because in their minds, it "can't" happen.  And generally, they'd be right.  Except this one, isolated time in all of history, when something absolutely FANTASTIC and UNBELIEVEABLE did happen.  And it changed everything.

Thought For The Day... Apostolic Succession

Also known as "WHY I'm Catholic".  I've had responses of surprise, shock, bigotry when people find out I'm Catholic.  I've had comments of "Isn't that really STRICT?", "You know you're going to Hell", "Well, in the Catholic church, if you have enough money, they think they can buy salvation", "The Pope is the antichrist" , "What about the crusades and the inquisition? Pedophile priests? The catholic church is the biggest most corrupt murderer of innocent people in history", and "Catholics think they can earn their way to heaven."   None of that is accurate, and furthermore, none of it matters.  THIS FACT ALONE, stated eloquently by a holy man a mere generation after the death of Christ, impells me to be Catholic.  Because it is God's good pleasure to guide His church.

From St. Iraneous, Bishop of Lyons, in 189 AD:

"It is possible, then, for everyone in every church, who may wish to know the truth, to contemplate the tradition of the apostles which has been made known to us throughout the whole world. And we are in a position to enumerate those who were instituted bishops by the apostles and their successors down to our own times, men who neither knew nor taught anything like what these heretics rave about" (Against Heresies 3:3:1 [A.D. 189]).

"But since it would be too long to enumerate in such a volume as this the successions of all the churches, we shall confound all those who, in whatever manner, whether through self-satisfaction or vainglory, or through blindness and wicked opinion, assemble other than where it is proper, by pointing out here the successions of the bishops of the greatest and most ancient church known to all, founded and organized at Rome by the two most glorious apostles, Peter and Paul—that church which has the tradition and the faith with which comes down to us after having been announced to men by the apostles. For with this Church, because of its superior origin, all churches must agree, that is, all the faithful in the whole world. And it is in her that the faithful everywhere have maintained the apostolic tradition" (ibid., 3:3:2).

"Polycarp also was not only instructed by apostles, and conversed with many who had seen Christ, but was also, by apostles in Asia, appointed bishop of the church in Smyrna, whom I also saw in my early youth, for he tarried [on earth] a very long time, and, when a very old man, gloriously and most nobly suffering martyrdom, departed this life, having always taught the things which he had learned from the apostles, and which the Church has handed down, and which alone are true. To these things all the Asiatic churches testify, as do also those men who have succeeded Polycarp down to the present time" (ibid., 3:3:4).

"Since therefore we have such proofs, it is not necessary to seek the truth among others which it is easy to obtain from the Church; since the apostles, like a rich man [depositing his money] in a bank, lodged in her hands most copiously all things pertaining to the truth, so that every man, whosoever will, can draw from her the water of life. . . . For how stands the case? Suppose there arise a dispute relative to some important question among us, should we not have recourse to the most ancient churches with which the apostles held constant conversation, and learn from them what is certain and clear in regard to the present question?" (ibid., 3:4:1).

"[I]t is incumbent to obey the presbyters who are in the Church—those who, as I have shown, possess the succession from the apostles; those who, together with the suc,cession of the episcopate, have received the infallible charism of truth, according to the good pleasure of the Father. But [it is also incumbent] to hold in suspicion others who depart from the primitive succession, and assemble themselves together in any place whatsoever, either as heretics of perverse minds, or as schismatics puffed up and self-pleasing, or again as hypocrites, acting thus for the sake of lucre and vainglory. For all these have fallen from the truth" (ibid., 4:26:2).

"The true knowledge is the doctrine of the apostles, and the ancient organization of the Church throughout the whole world, and the manifestation of the body of Christ according to the succession of bishops, by which succession the bishops have handed down the Church which is found everywhere" (ibid., 4:33:8).

For more Fathers on Church authority and apostolic succession, go here.

A Very Cool DIscovery

On Holy Thursday of this year, 29 lost homilies of Origen were discovered.  Origen (184-253AD) was an Alexandrian theologian and scholar from the very early Christian church.  Apparently, they were discovered in an 11th century Greek manuscript in Germany.   Experts will be translating the homilies this summer,  in the hopes of having full translations available to scholars in the very near future. 
The entire codex is photographed here.

What a treasure!   Can't wait to read the translations when they become available!

Quote Of The Day

Because We Were Just Discussing This In Prayer Group Yesterday

“I think the world today is upside down. Everybody seems to be in such a terrible rush, anxious for greater development and greater riches and so on. There is much suffering because there is so very little love in homes and in family life. We have no time for our children, we have no time for each other; there is no time to enjoy each other. In the home begins the disruption of the peace of the world.”

Mother Teresa

Holy Saturday [Sabbatum Sanctum]

This is an ancient homily written for Holy Saturday in Greek, dating back to the 4th century. 

Something strange is happening - there is a great silence on earth today, a great silence and stillness. The whole earth keeps silence because the King is asleep. The earth trembled and is still because God has fallen asleep in the flesh and he has raised up all who have slept ever since the world began. God has died in the flesh and hell trembles with fear.


He has gone to search for our first parent, as for a lost sheep. Greatly desiring to visit those who live in darkness and in the shadow of death, he has gone to free from sorrow the captives Adam and Eve, he who is both God and the son of Eve. The Lord approached them bearing the cross, the weapon that had won him the victory. At the sight of him Adam, the first man he had created, struck his breast in terror and cried out to everyone: “My Lord be with you all”. Christ answered him: “And with your spirit”. He took him by the hand and raised him up, saying: “Awake, O sleeper, and rise from the dead, and Christ will give you light”.


I am your God, who for your sake have become your son. Out of love for you and for your descendants I now by my own authority command all who are held in bondage to come forth, all who are in darkness to be enlightened, all who are sleeping to arise. I order you, O sleeper, to awake. I did not create you to be held a prisoner in hell. Rise from the dead, for I am the life of the dead. Rise up, work of my hands, you who were created in my image. Rise, let us leave this place, for you are in me and I am in you; together we form only one person and we cannot be separated. For your sake I, your God, became your son; I, the Lord, took the form of a slave; I, whose home is above the heavens, descended to the earth and beneath the earth. For your sake, for the sake of man, I became like a man without help, free among the dead. For the sake of you, who left a garden, I was betrayed to the Jews in a garden, and I was crucified in a garden.


See on my face the spittle I received in order to restore to you the life I once breathed into you. See there the marks of the blows I received in order to refashion your warped nature in my image. On my back see the marks of the scourging I endured to remove the burden of sin that weighs upon your back. See my hands, nailed firmly to a tree, for you who once wickedly stretched out your hand to a tree.


I slept on the cross and a sword pierced my side for you who slept in paradise and brought forth Eve from your side. My side has healed the pain in yours. My sleep will rouse you from your sleep in hell. The sword that pierced me has sheathed the sword that was turned against you.


Rise, let us leave this place. The enemy led you out of the earthly paradise. I will not restore you to that paradise, but I will enthrone you in heaven. I forbade you the tree that was only a symbol of life, but see, I who am life itself am now one with you. I appointed cherubim to guard you as slaves are guarded, but now I make them worship you as God. The throne formed by cherubim awaits you, its bearers swift and eager. The bridal chamber is adorned, the banquet is ready, the eternal dwelling places are prepared, the treasure houses of all good things lie open. The kingdom of heaven has been prepared for you from all eternity.

 The Apostle's Creed
I believe in God the Father, Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth:
And in Jesus Christ, his only begotten Son, our Lord:
Who was conceived by the Holy Ghost, born of the Virgin Mary:
Suffered under Pontius Pilate; was crucified, dead and buried: He descended into hell:
The third day he rose again from the dead:
He ascended into heaven, and sits at the right hand of God the Father Almighty:
From thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead:
I believe in the Holy Ghost:
I believe in the holy catholic church: the communion of saints:
The forgiveness of sins:
The resurrection of the body:
 And the life everlasting. Amen.

Hebrews 4: 1-13

The Believer’s Rest

¹ Therefore, let us fear if, while a promise remains of entering His rest, any one of you may seem to have come short of it. ² For indeed we have had good news preached to us, just as they also; but the word ^[a]they heard did not profit them, because ^[b]it was not united by faith in those who heard. ³ For we who have believed enter that rest, just as He has said, “AS I SWORE IN MY WRATH,
THEY SHALL NOT ENTER MY REST,” although His works were finished from the foundation of the world. ⁴ For He has said somewhere concerning the seventh day: “AND GOD RESTED ON THE SEVENTH DAY FROM ALL HIS WORKS”; ⁵ and again in this passage, “THEY SHALL NOT ENTER MY REST.” ⁶ Therefore, since it remains for some to enter it, and those who formerly had good news preached to them failed to enter because of disobedience, ⁷ He again fixes a certain day, “Today,” saying ^[c]through David after so long a time just as has been said before, “TODAY IF YOU HEAR HIS VOICE, DO NOT HARDEN YOUR HEARTS.”
⁸ For if ^[d]Joshua had given them rest, He would not have spoken of another day after that. ⁹ So there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God. ¹⁰ For the one who has entered His rest has himself also rested from his works, as God did from His. ¹¹ Therefore let us be diligent to enter that rest, so that no one will fall, through following the same example of disobedience. ¹² For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart. ¹³ And there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are open and laid bare to the eyes of Him with whom we have to do."

Symphony

It seems to me that our God is a symphony.  He is complex, vast – made up of all of everything, singing, playing, resonating.  He is the music of life.  And although He is all of everything at once, He is not chaos.  He is not cacophony.  Because there is order, precision, rhythm, pitch, harmony.  There is structure, there is flow, there is purpose, to this Music – it is the difference between noise and song, random soundwaves and a Masterpiece.  And this vast orchestration, made up of all of everything   - loud, soft, fast, slow, gentle, powerful– it is tied all together with a simple, heart-piercing melody.  Floating above everything, the reason for the song, supported by the infinite ensemble, is this:  LOVE.  As we soak in the most exquisite of all Music, we comprehend so little, but THIS we understand, THIS draws us in, THIS pulls us ever deeper into itself… the transparent melody.  Love. 

 It’s why a child's faith is oftentimes more complete than an adult's - because they haven’t gotten lost in trying to tease out the individual parts, or focus only on one instrument playing harmony.  A child simply hums the melody along with the Composer, sings it joyfully at the top of their lungs, however imperfectly.   A child finds opportunity for song at every flower, every grasshopper, every moment.  A child revels in the music, twirling as David in front of the Ark.  A child doesn’t lose the melody in search of something deeper, because the melody is the SONG to the child.  The wisest of listeners can delve headlong into the Music, rapturously marveling at the intricacies of the harmony, or the brilliance of the rhythm, always understanding their scope in the Great Orchestration.  Too many get lost, and forget the essence of the song. 

Infinite depth, richness, beauty, order and incomprehensible complexity, stitched inexorably, seamlessly together by the ultimate simplicity.  The Melody is LOVE. 

We Hold These Truths.....

Quote Of The Day

By one of my favorites, G. K. Chesterton:

"Do not be so open-minded that your brains fall out."

More Peter Kreeft - because he says it best....

The Three Most Profound Ideas I Have Ever Had

Dr. Peter Kreeft | February 28, 2012 | 0 CommentsMore

from the Integrated Catholic Life

Michelangelo's "The Creation of Adam"

Ideas are more precious than diamonds. The three most precious ideas I have ever discovered all concern the love of God.
None of them is original. But every one is revolutionary. None of them came from me. But all of them came to me with sudden force and fire: the “aha!” experience, the “eureka!” experience. They were all realizations, not just beliefs.
1. There Is Only “One Thing Necessary.” The first happened when I was about six or seven, I think. It was the first important conscious discovery I ever made, and I don’t think I have ever had a more mature or wiser thought than that one. I remember to this day exactly where I was when it hit me: riding north on Haledon Avenue between Sixth and Seventh Streets in Paterson, New Jersey after Sunday morning church with my parents. Isn’t it remarkable how we remember exactly where we were when great events happen that change our lives?
I had learned some things about God and Jesus, about heaven, and about good and evil in church and Sunday school. Like most children at that age, I was a bit confused and overwhelmed by it all, especially by what this great being called God expected of me. I felt a little insecure, I guess, about not knowing and a little guilty about not doing everything that I was supposed to be doing. Then all of a sudden the sun shone through the fog. I saw the one thing necessary that made sense and order out of everything else.
I checked out my insight with my father, my most reliable authority. He was an elder in the church and (much more important) a good and wise man. “Dad, everything they teach us in church and Sunday school, all the stuff we’re supposed to learn from the Bible — it all comes down to only one thing, doesn’t it? I mean, if we only remember the one most important thing all the time, then all the other things will be O.K., right?”
He was rightly skeptical. “What one thing? There are a lot of things that are important.”
“I mean, I should just always ask what God wants me to do and then do it. That’s all, isn’t it?”
Wise men know when they’ve lost an argument. “You know, I think you’re right, son. That’s it.”
I had perceived — via God’s grace, not my own wit, surely — that since God is love, we must therefore love God and love whatever God loves. I now knew that if we turn to the divine conductor and follow his wise and loving baton — which is his will, his Word — then the music of our life will be a symphony.
2. The Way to Happiness Is Self-forgetful Love. A second realization follows closely upon this one. That is, it follows logically. But it did not follow closely in time for me. Instead, it took half a lifetime to appreciate, through a million experiments, every one of which proved the same result: that the way to happiness is self-forgetful love and the way to unhappiness is self-regard, self-worry, and the search for personal happiness. Our happiness comes to us only when we do not seek for it. It comes to us when we seek others’ happiness instead.
It is an embarrassingly common lesson to take so long to learn, but most of us are incredibly slow learners here. We constantly try other ways, thinking that perhaps the happiness that did not come to us the last time through selfishness will do so next time. It never does. The truth is blindingly clear, but we are clearly blind.
The secret of love is not hidden, for “God is love,” and God is not hidden. God said through his prophet Isaiah: “I did not speak in secret, / in a land of darkness; / I did not say to the offspring of Jacob, / ‘Seek me in chaos.’ / I the LORD speak the truth, / I declare what is right” (Is 45:19).
Of course God’s secret plans, which we do not need to know, are hidden. And God’s infinite nature, which finite minds cannot know, is hidden. But the thing that we need to know, God does not hide from us. He offers it to us publicly and freely. Jesus invited prospective disciples to “come and see” (In 1:39). We are told by the apostle Paul to “test everything; hold fast what is good” (1 Thes 5:21).
This lesson is so well known that even a pagan like Buddha knew it profoundly, or at least its negative half. His “second noble truth” is that the source of all unhappiness and suffering (dukkha) is selfishness (tanha). All who teach the opposite—that selfishness is the way to happiness—are unhappy souls. “By their fruits you shall know them,” as Jesus tells us. Who are the happiest people on earth? People like Mother Teresa and her nuns who have nothing, give everything, and “rejoice in the Lord always” (Phil 4:4).
3. “In Everything God Works for Good with Those Who Love Him.” A third shattering realization was that Romans 8:28 was literally true: “In everything God works for good with those who love him.” This is surely the most astonishing verse in the Bible, for it certainly doesn’t look as if all things work for good. What awful things our lives contain! But if God, the all-powerful Creator and Designer and Provider of our lives, is 100 percent love, then it necessarily follows, as the night the day, that everything in his world, from birth to death, from kisses to slaps, from candy to cancer, comes to us out of God’s active or permissive love.
It is incredibly simple and perfectly reasonable. It is only our adult complexity that makes it look murky. As G.K. Chesterton says, life is always complicated for someone without principles. Here is the shining simplicity: if God is total love, then everything he wills for me must come from his love and be for my good. For that what love is, the willing of the beloved’s good. And if this God of sheer love is also omnipotent and can do anything he wills, then it follows that all things must work together for my ultimate good.
Not necessarily for my immediate good, for short-range harm may be the necessary road to long-range good. And not necessarily for my apparent good, for appearances may be deceiving. Thus suffering does not seem good. But it can always work for my real and ultimate good. Even the bad things I and others do, though they do not come from God, are allowed by God because they are included in his plan. You can’t checkmate, corner, surprise, or beat him. “He’s got the whole world in his hands,” as the old gospel chorus tells us. And he’s got my whole life in his hands, too. He could take away any evil — natural, human, or demonic — like swatting a fly. He allows it only because it works out for our greater good in the end, just as it did with Job.
In fact, every atom in the universe moves exactly as it does only because omnipotent Love designed it so. Dante was right: it is “the love that moves the sun and all the stars.” This is not poetic fancy but sober, logical fact. Therefore, the most profound thing you can say really is this simple children’s grace for meals: “God is great and God is good; let us thank him for our food. Amen!” I had always believed in God’s love and God’s omnipotence. But once I put the two ideas together, saw the unavoidable logical conclusion (Rom 8:28), and applied this truth to my life, I could never again see the world the same way. If God is great (omnipotent) and God is good (loving), then everything that happens is our spiritual food; and we can and should thank him for it. Yet how often we fail to recognize and appreciate this simple but profound truth.
These are, I think, the three most profound ideas I have ever had. However, there is one idea that I have heard that I think is even more profound. It is Karl Barth’s answer to the questioner who asked him, “Professor Barth, you have written dozens of great books, and many of us think you are the greatest theologian in the world. Of all your many ideas, what is the most profound thought you have ever had?” Without a second’s hesitation, the great theologian replied, “Jesus loves me.”

Point Of View

I readily admit that I share things on this blog that I do not share with another living soul on earth.  It’s why I started this in the first place – I wanted a way to express what I was learning spiritually, what I was “musing” about.  These things  rarely hold  interest, or resonance, with anyone else in my narrow little world, but they are aching to be expressed SOMEHOW.  My efforts to have conversations on some of these topics “in person” have far too often failed miserably, and ended up in hurt feelings and misconceptions.  So, instead, I write.  Here, in this blog that, despite its officially public nature, gets read by virtually no one.  And that’s okay.  It’s not really the purpose anyway.  It’s for me.  And maybe, someday, when they’re old enough, for my children.  But mostly for me.  Because there’s something in me that yearns to deposit these little tidbits into a capsule, and send them out there as a probe into the vast universe, in the hope of making a connection SOMEWHERE.

What do people see of me through the lens of social media?  I often wonder.  Facebook is a crazy, crazy thing.  Truly.  Sure, it’s a way to reconnect with long-lost people, those once thought to be relegated to mere distant memory.  But even for people that we see regularly in “real life”, facebook shows glimpses into lives that we normally wouldn’t see.  Those verboten topics of politics and religion don’t seem to be quite so off-limits in the virtual realm. People feel freer to share things (sometimes too much!!!) through the internet.  Maybe for the same reasons as me – sharing that article, or that opinion piece, or that status, is a little space probe to find SOMEONE out there, who thinks as we do, believes as we do, sees the world as we do. 

The present kerfuffle over the Health and Human Services mandate has been strange for me.  As a Catholic who is growing in her faith, I am mortified by the implications of a government MANDATING that I do something that is against my religious conscious.  When I hear “98% of Catholic women use birth control”, I know that the statistic is skewed, but wholly beside the point. Government MANDATING a church do something against its own teaching is violating a principle bigger than any statistic.  It goes against the fiber of democracy.  I see that so clearly, and yet it seems the vast majority of this society – as represented by the comments and posts I see on facebook and on blogs – sees the situation completely differently.  They see a patriarchal and outdated church, led by celibate men, trying to control women and their bodies.   And sometimes, for a second, I can see that view.  What’s the big deal?  Everyone does it, everyone uses it – why can’t it be paid for by insurance?  Big WHOOP.  Why the big stink? It’s  just a pill.  I can put myself in that point of view momentarily, but then…. I know.  I am a Catholic.   However archaic and patriarchal that may seem, I have LEARNED why the Church is right on this.  I have been taught by the Best.

 My own fertility (or lack thereof) was such a source of heartache for much of my life – I rue that solitary year when we first got married when I took birth control.  I am part of that 98% statistic – the Catholic woman who at some point in her life was on birth control.    Such a farce.  Me trying to stop something from happening that WASN’T going to happen ANYWAY.  Trying to control something that was so far out of my control, it’s laughable.  I shudder now at my support of Planned Parenthood, in seeking contraception there (how naive was I??  I knew something wasn’t right when they laughed at me, told me I was lying about my sexual history.  Had they honestly NEVER met someone who waited for marriage????)  Looking back, I see what an affront that was to God – my trying to seize control of something truly only He could control.  After that first year, I was misdiagnosed with a very serious blood disorder, and had to go off the pill.  I remember receiving the call at work – my doctor urgently saying “STOP taking the pill TODAY.  It can cause clots and KILL YOU.”  That gets a gal’s attention.   A trip to the geneticist proved that the tests were in error and my blood was fine, but still… I see the hand of God in that misdiagnosis now.  God telling me to STOP.  Let my body BE.  I never went back on after that fateful phone call. 

Five years after I stopped birth control, there was still no baby, and we had still not learned our lesson.  I still was seeking CONTROL – to reach out and take from God that which was His by right.  Fertility drugs, fertility treatments, IVF.  Birth control and fertility treatments were two sides of the same coin for me.  I’M in charge of my own body.   I KNEW that God wanted me to be a mother.  He would not have put the aching longing so intensely in my heart if He didn’t want that for me.  And yet, I could not see how it would happen unless I did something about it myself.  I did not trust Him and the promise He had made to me.  I would take over His job, or pay someone that could.  And again, looking back, I can see now how God was telling me to STOP.  Let my body BE.  He created it, and HE was in control of it. 

I’m forever thankful that we have a forgiving Father.  All that heartache, all the fear… it was all a lesson.  It was my Father teaching me to trust Him.  He wants good things for us, and will bless us abundantly,  in HIS time, in HIS way – not mine.  And so it was that, after five years of me stubbornly trying to control my own fertility, God manifested HIS power and glory, and blessed us with identical twins.  Naturally.  Or, probably more accurately, supernaturally.  Without an iota of “medical” assistance, but with plenty of “out of this world” assistance.  And to drive home the point even more… the boys were born on my birthday.  A gift from my Father, in no uncertain terms. 

The doctor wanted to put me on birth control after the boys were born, and this time… I refused, much to my husband’s dismay.  It became an area of tension in our marriage, but I could not deny the miracle of my boys, deny the lesson that was so dramatically taught to me.  “You know you’ll be pregnant again within the year” the doctor had told me.  If it was God’s will, so be it, I thought.  But there were pressures.  My husband didn’t want more children, and I couldn’t make him understand that my not wanting to be on birth control had very little to do with having more children or not.  It had EVERYTHING to do with learning my lesson.  With my not saying “Thank you very much, God, but I’ll go ahead and take control back now.”  So I refused, and he resented me for it, and things weren’t good on that front. 

I’ve written before about how the birth of my daughter was prophesied by 10 year old autistic boy while I was at work one day.  That I would have a little girl, who looked like me, and would be born in November.  To me, it was God bringing home the lesson once more.  “Let it be and let ME”.  I could not deny the hand of God in our lives – it was glaring and obvious, and not subtle in the LEAST.  After our daughter was born, Rob wanted me to get my tubes tied.  “We’re getting older, we don’t want any more kids”.   But see, even though the infertility, the miscarriages, and the subsequent miracles were happening to us as a couple, the lesson was being taught to ME specifically.  And my husband lived in the same world as the “98%”, who saw me as somewhat INSANE, who logically thought that if you wanted to avoid something, and medical technology was there, you did something about it.  It only makes sense.  I hear it, and it makes logical sense to me, too.   So my saying “but we need to let GOD be in control!” just sounded like a lame excuse for having a truck-load of kids, which he didn’t WANT.    I’m mortified at the arguments we had about this!   I BEGGED him to not make me violate my conscious in this way.  To not make me figuratively slap my Father in the face by saying “Thank you very much, but I’m going to take control back now”.   And eventually, I just plain refused.    How crazy I know it must’ve seemed to EVERYONE else.  It’s just a PILL.  It’s just a little SURGERY.  Everyone DOES it.  Why was I making it so hard on our marriage????  So, my husband did what he thought best, and had himself sterilized.  Despite my pleadings.  “Fine, we won’t have more children.    I GET that.  But please trust God in that, and don’t do this to yourself!”  I do not own his body, though, and I could not change his mind.  It is what it is, and my marriage remains as part of the “98%” statistic.

I can’t say that my husband regrets his decision, although at times he doubts it.  Sometimes, I know he wonders, just what IF we had another child… would it be so bad?  I never have been able to adequately explain that it really has very little to do with physically having another child or not.  It has everything to do with who is in CHARGE.  Letting our bodies work as they will, within their own natural rhythms as God created them, lets HIM decide – and after all, the Author has a vantage point and a wisdom that we will never have .    He knows us better than we know ourselves, and I have learned well that my job is to trust that. 

But I’m probably just being deluded by patriarchal, celibate men who want to control me through my uterus.