Quote Of The Day: On FAMILY

“The history of mankind, the history of salvation, passes by way of the family.... the family is placed at the centre of the great struggle between good and evil, between life and death, between love and all that is opposed to love. To the family is entrusted the task of striving, first and foremost, to unleash the forces of good, the source of which is found in Christ the Redeemer of man.” (Pope St. John Paul II, Letter to Families, 23.4, 1994)

The Bread of Life

 John 6:47-59

47 Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes has eternal life. 48 I am the bread of life. 49 Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. 50 This is the bread which comes down from heaven, that a man may eat of it and not die. 51 I am the living bread which came down from heaven; if any one eats of this bread, he will live for ever; and the bread which I shall give for the life of the world is my flesh."
52 The Jews then disputed among themselves, saying, "How can this man give us his flesh to eat?" 53 So Jesus said to them, "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood, you have no life in you; 54 he who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. 55 For my flesh is food indeed, and my blood is drink indeed. 56 He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him. 57 As the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so he who eats me will live because of me. 58 This is the bread which came down from heaven, not such as the fathers ate and died; he who eats this bread will live for ever." 59 This he said in the synagogue, as he taught at Caper na-um

Jesus, On Sola Scriptura

39 You search the Scriptures, because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness to me; 40 yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life.

John 5:39-40

 

These words of Christ are in a nutshell how I see the fallacy of Sola Scriptura.  The scriptures bear witness to Him, and are in the inspired word of God.  They bear witness.  And yet, the REALITY of Him is offered to us in the church in a very real and concrete way - that He may abide in us, and us in Him.  Like reading a story about someone (all very edifying) when the actual person is standing right in front of you... and choosing the story.    The real person is life-giving, even without the book - although the book tells us who that person really is. The book introduces us to the person standing before us.  The book, though, is not life-giving without the real person.  Because the book bears witness to, and the sacrament actually IS.  If someone who also knows Him accurately introduces us to this person  standing before us, we can know just as much about Him as reading the book, and recognize Him for who He is.  But if our nose is in a book alone, and we do not look up to see Him standing right before us in concrete reality... how can we accept in concrete reality the gift He is offering to us?

 

At church yesterday, I was looking at all the stained glass windows, the images around the church.  Each one told a story without words.  An image of John the Baptist was holding a seashell, dressed in animal furs.  If I had no access to the book (as the majority of Christians did NOT until the invention of the printing press) but someone had accurately told me the story, the image alone would confirm that he baptized with water, and lived in the wild.  An image of Mary was clothed in blue (indicating her purity) and stepping on the head of a serpent, as told in Revelation, symbolizing her role as the New Eve.  St. Paul held a sword, showing him as a defender of the gospel.  These images, everywhere I turned, played out the book in ways that would speak to me, even if I did not have access to the book or could not read.  Christians for 1500 years had images, and stories told to them.  A few could read, and if you could, then you could access the immensely rare and expensive hand-written Bibles at the local church.  But for the majority who could not, they were not lost.  Their salvation was not through the book alone.   They had the church, the liturgy.  They were introduced to the real and actual Christ not only through their eyes by reading, but through their ears hearing, their hands touching, their bodies moving, their lips tasting.  They lived the gospels with the rhythm of their lives as the celebrated feasts and the liturgical year.  They came to be healed by Him in confession.  They came to be made His child in baptism.  They celebrated the union of the Church with Him in marriage.  And - greatest of all - they became one with Him in the Eucharist, the most intimate union this side of Heaven.  Because He was standing before them, through all generations, in the church, His body.  When Jesus came to St. Paul, He did not ask why Paul was persecuting the church.  He asked "why are you persecuting ME?"  Because the church is the Body of Christ.  It is His hands, His heart, His presence, until He comes again.  And the Scriptures bear witness to that fact.   

 



 



Quote Of The Day: Theology

"In the old days, when there was less education and discussion, perhaps it was possible to get on with a very few simple ideas about God. But it is not so now. Everyone reads, everyone hears things discussed. Consequently, if you do not listen to Theology, that will not mean that you have no ideas about God. It will mean that you have a lot of wrong ones – bad, muddled, out-of-date ideas. For a great many of the ideas about God which are trotted out as novelties today are simply the ones which real Theologians tried centuries ago and rejected."
— C. S. Lewis

Wild Fire

We are out west, and wild fires are raging at the moment.  The summer in Washington has been hot and dry.  With the winds picking up, conditions are ripe for fires.  The middle of the state is in flames, there is another wildfire not 10 miles from here, and the sun here has been blocked for several days.  There is ash on the deck.  An entire town is gone.  This is tragic stuff.

In Montana, where my husband is camping... it is green.  There are no wildfires, surprisingly.  Here, everything is dry, the grass is brown.  There, it is still moist with life.  Life protects the wilderness from burning.  Amongst the thousands of acres burned in the middle of Washington, the only things saved were the apple orchards.  Because they had been watered, and had been bearing fruit. 

I can't help but think of judgement day, when the fullness and intensity of God's love is poured out onto everyone in it's full force.  If we are dead, if we do not have His life in us, if we have dried up in the sun of this world... we will burn, just as the standing dead tree burn, and the brown grass burns.  Who will survive?  Those still green with life.  Those bearing fruit. Life is from Him, fed by the water of His spirit, bearing the fruit of the Holy Spirit.  The fire will not harm us; although it may be painful, the fire will not consume us.  It will purify us, burn off the parts of us that are dead, in preparation for eternity in His presence. 

Some day, we all will experience the wildfire.  Of that I am certain.



Quote of the Day

"The Church, which has spread everywhere, even to the ends of the earth, received the faith from the apostles and their disciples . . . Having one soul and one heart, the Church holds this faith, preaches and teaches it consistently as though by a single voice. For though there are different languages, there is but one tradition."

St. Ignatius of Antioch (AD 35-98)

Quote of the Day....St. Augustine

Remarkable how this man is so relatable.  How much I see myself in this.....

"I was sure that it was better for me to give myself up to your love than to give in to my own desires. However, although the one way appealed to me and was gaining mastery, the other still afforded me pleasure and kept me victim. I had no answer to give to you when you said to me, ‘Rise, you who sleep, and arise from the dead, and Christ will enlighten you.’ When on all sides you showed me that your words were true, and I was overcome by your truth, I had no answer whatsoever to make, but only those slow and drowsy words, ‘Right away. Yes, right away.’ ‘Let me be for a little while.’ But ‘Right away—right away’ was never right now, and ‘Let me be for a little while’ stretched out for a long time."
— St. Augustine

A Picture I Love

... Because it reminds me of my boys, and that they are not only in my care alone.

Quote of the Day....

"Yesterday is gone. Tomorrow has not yet come. We have only today. Let us begin."
— Blessed Teresa of Calcutta

A Letter by Tolkein on Miracles....

I found this letter very touching and insightful. 

Letter 89   To Christopher Tolkien 7-8 November 1944 (FS 60)   20 Northmoor Road, Oxford

. . . . Your reference to the care of your guardian angel makes me fear that 'he' is being specially needed. I dare say it is so. . . . It also reminded me of a sudden vision (or perhaps apperception which at once turned itself into pictorial form in my mind) I had not long ago when spending half an hour in St Gregory's before the Blessed Sacrament when the Quarant’ Ore [Forty Hours Devotion] was being held there. I perceived or thought of the Light of God and in it suspended one small mote (or millions of motes to only one of which was my small mind directed), glittering white because of the individual ray from the Light which both held and lit it. (Not that there were individual rays issuing from the Light, but the mere existence of the mote and its position in relation to the Light was in itself a line, and the line was Light). And the ray was the Guardian Angel of the mote: not a thing interposed between God and the creature, but God's very attention itself, personalized.

And I do not mean 'personified', by a mere figure of speech according to the tendencies of human language, but a real (finite) person. Thinking of it since – for the whole thing was very immediate, and not recapturable in clumsy language, certainly not the great sense of joy that accompanied it and the realization that the shining poised mote was myself (or any other human person that I might think of with love) – it has occurred to me that (I speak diffidently and have no idea whether such a notion is legitimate: it is at any rate quite separate from the vision of the Light and the poised mote) this is a finite parallel to the Infinite. As the love of the Father and Son (who are infinite and equal) is a Person, so the love and attention of the Light to the Mote is a person (that is both with us and in Heaven): finite but divine: i.e. angelic. Anyway, dearest, I received comfort, part of which took this curious form, which I have (I fear) failed to convey: except that I have with me now a definite awareness of you poised and shining in the Light – though your face (as all our faces) is turned from it. But we might see the glimmer in the faces (and persons as apprehended in love) of others. . . . .

On Sunday Prisca and I cycled in wind and rain to St Gregory's. P. was battling with a cold and other disability, and it did not do her much immediate good, though she's better now; but we had one of Fr. C's best sermons (and longest). A wonderful commentary on the Gospel of the Sunday (healing of the woman and of Jairus' daughter), made intensely vivid by his comparison of the three evangelists. (P. was espec. amused by his remark that St Luke being a doctor himself did not like the suggestion that the poor woman was all the worse for them, so he toned that bit down). And also by his vivid illustrations from modern miracles. The similar case of a woman similarly afflicted (owing to a vast uterine tumour) who was cured instantly at Lourdes, so that the tumour could not be found, and her belt was twice too large.

Lourdes

And the most moving story of the little boy with tubercular peritonitis who was not healed, and was taken sadly away in the train by his parents, practically dying with 2 nurses attending him. As the train moved away it passed within sight of the Grotto. The little boy sat up. 'I want to go and talk to the little girl' – in the same train there was a little girl who had been healed. And he got up and walked there and played with the little girl; and then he came back, and he said 'I'm hungry now'. And they gave him cake and two bowls of chocolate and enormous potted meat sandwiches, and he ate them! (This was in 1927). So Our Lord told them to give the little daughter of Jairus something to eat.

"I'm hungry!"

So plain and matter of fact: for so miracles are. They are intrusions (as we say, erring) into real or ordinary life, but they do intrude into real life, and so need ordinary meals and other results. (Of course Fr. C could not resist adding: and there was also a Capuchin Friar who was mortally ill, & had eaten nothing for years, and he was cured, and he was so delighted about it that he rushed off and had two dinners, and that night he had not his old pains but an attack of plain ordinary indigestion). But at the story of the little boy (which is a fully attested fact of course) with its apparent sad ending and then its sudden unhoped for happy ending, I was deeply moved and had that peculiar emotion we all have – though not often. It is quite unlike any other sensation. And all of a sudden I realized what it was: the very thing that I have been trying to write about and explain – in that fairy-story essay that I so much wish you had read that I think I shall send it to you. For it I coined the word 'eucatastrophe': the sudden happy turn in a story which pierces you with a joy that brings tears (which I argued it is the highest function of fairy-stories to produce). And I was there led to the view that it produces its peculiar effect because it is a sudden glimpse of Truth, your whole nature chained in material cause and effect, the chain of death, feels a sudden relief as if a major limb out of joint had suddenly snapped back. It perceives – if the story has literary 'truth' on the second plane (for which see the essay) – that this is indeed how things really do work in the Great World for which our nature is made. And I concluded by saying that the Resurrection was the greatest 'eucatastrophe' possible in the greatest Fairy Story – and produces that essential emotion: Christian joy which produces tears because it is qualitatively so like sorrow, because it comes from those places where Joy and Sorrow are at one, reconciled, as selfishness and altruism are lost in Love.

Eucatastrophe

Of course I do not mean that the Gospels tell what is only a fairy-story; but I do mean very strongly that they do tell a fairy-story: the greatest. Man the story-teller would have to be redeemed in a manner consonant with his nature: by a moving story. But since the author if it is the supreme Artist and the Author of Reality, this one was also made to Be, to be true on the Primary Plane. So that in the Primary Miracle (the Resurrection) and the lesser Christian miracles too though less, you have not only that sudden glimpse of the truth behind the apparent Anankê of our world, but a glimpse that is actually a ray of light through the very chinks of the universe about us. I was riding along on a bicycle one day, not so long ago, past the Radcliffe Infirmary, when I had one of those sudden clarities which sometimes come in dreams (even anaesthetic-produced ones). I remember saying aloud with absolute conviction: 'But of course! Of course that's how things really do work'. But I could not reproduce any argument that had led to this, though the sensation was the same as having been convinced by reason (if without reasoning). And I have since thought that one of the reasons why one can't recapture the wonderful argument or secret when one wakes up is simply because there was not one: but there was (often maybe) a direct appreciation by the mind (sc. reason) but without the chain of argument we know in our time-serial life. However that's as may be. To descend to lesser things: I knew I had written a story of worth in 'The Hobbit' when reading it (after it was old enough to be detached from me) I had suddenly in a fairly strong measure the 'eucatastrophic' emotion at Bilbo's exclamation: "The Eagles! The Eagles are coming!'. . . . 

And in the last chapter of The Ring that I have yet written I hope you'll note, when you receive it (it'll soon be on its way) that Frodo's face goes livid and convinces Sam that he's dead, just when Sam gives up hope.

And while we are still, as it were, on the porch of St Gregory's on Sunday 5 Nov. I saw the most touching sight there. Leaning against the wall as we came out of church was an old tramp in rags, something like sandals tied on his feet with string, an old tin can on one wrist, and in his other hand a rough staff. He had a brown beard, and a curiously 'clean' face, with blue eyes, and he was gazing into the distance in some rapt thought not heeding any of the people, cert. not begging. I could not resist the impulse of offering him a small alms, and he took it with grave kindliness, and thanked me courteously, and then went back to his contemplation. Just for once I rather took Fr. C. aback by saying to him that I thought the old man looked a great deal more like St Joseph than the statue in the church – at any rate St Joseph on the way to Egypt.

He seems to be (and what a happy thought in these shabby days, where poverty seems only to bring sin and misery) a holy tramp! I could have sworn it anyway, but P. says Betty told her that he had been at the early mass, and had been to communion, and his devotion was plain to see, so plain that many were edified. I do not know just why, but I find that immensely comforting and pleasing. Fr. C says he turns up about once a year.

This is becoming a very peculiar letter! I hope it does not seem all very incomprehensible; for events have directed me to topics mat are not really treatable without erasions and re-writings, impossible in air letters ! . . . .

Your own father.

 

Quote Of The Day

"On the whole, God’s love for us is a much safer subject to think about than our love for Him. Nobody can always have devout feelings: and even if we could, feelings are not what God principally cares about. Christian Love, either towards God or towards man, is an affair of the will." – C. S. Lewis

Quote of the Day

"Love, and do what you will: whether you hold your peace, through love hold your peace; whether you cry out, through love cry out; whether you correct, through love correct; whether you spare, through love do you spare: let the root of love be within, of this root can nothing spring but what is good.” (St. Augustine; Homily 7 on 1 John ¶ 8: PL 35)

The Dream

A good friend of mine lost her 4 year old son to brain cancer two days ago.  They fought long and hard for one year.  Eight brain surgeries, shunts, chemo, radiation, alternative treatments.  But the tumors kept growing and growing, ravishing his little body.  It was heartbreaking to watch.  The last I saw him, he had no control of his head or eyes, no control of his mouth or limbs.  He had tried to kiss his mother - his jaw moved slightly - and we cheered at that victory.  I placed a kiss on his smooth cheek, and made a cross as blessing on his forehead before I left.  Every visit was potentially the last time I would see him, but I really didn't think that would be the case this time - I had made arrangements to see them the following week.  Just a week away.  I would see him again.

Except when I called to come over, they weren't home.  Tanya had rushed him to the hospital because he was breathing funny.  I was going to meet them at the hospital, but then... no.  They were being airlifted out to the University of Michigan.  We prayed them all the way there, the kids and I.  The little guy had aspiration pneumonia, but they caught it early - he was responding to treatment.  There was hope again.  And then, on Monday, Tanya texted to say that his blood pressure was skyrocketing, and they did a quick MRI to find that the tumors had grown out of control.  He was discharged from the hospital that night, and put on hospice.  He died the next morning.  Her text came as I was getting the kids ready for school.  "Brody has earned his wings". 

So, last night I had a dream.  I was at Brody's funeral, and it was filled to overflowing with people.  The family had not yet arrived - we were all waiting for them.  Finally, Tanya and Doug came in, carrying a little open casket, and I dreamt that I braced myself to see Brody.  But he wasn't lying down.  He was sitting up, eating an ice cream cone.  And I fainted.

In my dream, when I woke up, they had taken Brody up to the alter, and he stepped out of his casket and walked to a nearby little chair.  I was floored.  His parents told the gathered people that there would be no funeral today, only a celebration of this little boy's continued life.  Everyone cheered, like it was a big party, but I KNEW.  I knew he had been dead, because I had seen him right before he died. 

So I tracked down Tanya, followed her all over, pestering her with questions.  "Do you realize how improved his head control is?  Tanya, he took STEPS!  He hasn't walked in 4 months!  And he's eating food!  Do you realize this?  This is a miracle!"

But she wasn't listening to me, more kind of avoiding me as she moved through the crowds, greeted people, had pictures taken with her son.  But then some back stairs, and into a dark hallway and I confronted her one more time.

"Tanya, I saw him.  I know he was dying.  But look at him!  How did this happen???"  But instead of answering me, she fell to the ground and began seizing.  I stood there for a second, not knowing what to do, but then I dropped to the floor and put her head in my lap.  She woke up and looked at me, and then I knew...

"You did this, didn't you?  You took on his cancer so he could live."  And then I woke up.

Easter is just a few days away, Good Friday is tomorrow.  Jesus' sacrifice on the cross just hit home really hard.

Quote of the Day

St. Augustine of Hippo

"But you, ‘a chosen generation,’ weak things of the world, who have forsaken all things, so that you may follow the Lord, go after him, and confound the strong; go after him, you beautiful feet, and shine in the firmament so that the heavens may declare his glory, making divisions between the light of the perfect, although they are not yet like angels, and the darkness of the little ones, although they are not yet like those without hope. Shine over the whole earth, and let the day, brightened by the sun, utter unto day speech of wisdom, and let the night, shining with the moon, declare to the night the word of knowledge. The moon and the stars shine for the night, and yet the night does not darken them…Run into every place, O you holy fires, you beautiful fires! You are the light of the world, and you are not put under a measure. He to whom you have held fast has been exalted, and he has exalted you. Run forth, and make it known to all nations."

Quote of the Day

"Indeed, the whole world is only heaven’s womb."

Peter Kreeft

On the Feast of the Epiphany... For the Magi among us.....

By Evelyn Waugh.

“Like me, you were late in coming. The shepherds were here long before, even the cattle. They had joined the chorus of angels before you were on your way.

How laboriously you came, taking sights and calculating, where the shepherds had run barefoot! How odd you looked on the road, attended by what outlandish liveries, laden with such preposterous gifts!

You finally came to the last stage of your pilgrimage and the great star stood still above you. What did you do? You stopped to call on King Herod. Deadly exchange of compliments in which began that unended war of mobs and magistrates against the innocent!

Yet you came and were not turned away. You too found room before the manger. Your gifts were not needed, but they were accepted and put carefully by, for they were brought with love. In that new order of charity that had just come to life, there was room for you, too. You were not lower in the eyes of the holy family than the ox or the ass.

You are my especial patrons, and patrons of all late-comers, of all who have a tedious journey to make to the truth, of all who are confused with knowledge and speculation, of all who through politeness make themselves partners in guilt, of all who stand in danger by reason of their talents.

Dear cousins, pray for me, and for my poor overloaded son. May he, too, before the end find kneeling space in the straw. Pray for the great, lest they perish utterly.

For His sake who did not reject your curious gifts, pray always for the learned, the oblique, the delicate. Let them not be quite forgotten at the Throne of God when the simple come into their kingdom.”.

An Interview with an Author

Because it pertains to my life right now, I found this interview with author Michael O'Brien really profound.  This is what he has to say about his writing process:

"Prayer and self-discipline are the foundation of everything I do. Most often, the origins of a novel or a painting will appear during prayer, sometimes while I’m praying before the exposed Blessed Sacrament. I ponder it in the heart, listening interiorly, thinking about it too. Then if there is a strong peace and an inner sense of “rightness”, I begin giving a form to the essential “word” or logos that came with the light or grace. One can call it inspiration or the muses. But it is, I believe, the phenomenon of co-creation, grace and nature working together to bring into the world something that hasn’t been seen before. God-willing, it will be a work of truth and beauty. Thus the need to be constantly praying and at the same time working hard to develop the skills of writing and painting—all within the understanding that it is a vocation, a gift, not my personal possession."

And this advice, which I think he was giving directly to me.....

"Pray every day to the Holy Spirit, asking for the grace of docility to His inspirations. And continue to pray as you work, pray for the good of the art you are creating and its fruitfulness in the lives of others. Work hard, with self-discipline, to perfect your talent. And avoid any ambition or impulse to manipulate your own “success” in the world—it is absolute poison. Let grace work with your nature, and trust in this. Above all, trust!"

"Go to the very source. Go to Christ and ask for all that you need, ask for growth in skill, for the spirit of perseverance, for faith and courage and love. Ask for a spirit of discernment in order to find your way through the fog of our times. Ask for humility and faithfulness, and for the ability to incarnate Truth in beautiful forms. Be a servant of the One who is the source of all Beauty. Be his beloved. Be very little, and trust in this absolutely."

Quote of the Day

“It would seem that Our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.” (C. S. Lewis)

Quote Of the Day

"A child kicks his legs rhythmically through excess, not absence, of life. Because children have abounding vitality, because they are in spirit fierce and free, therefore they want things repeated and unchanged. They always say, "Do it again"; and the grown-up person does it again until he is nearly dead. For grown-up people are not strong enough to exult in monotony. But perhaps God is strong enough to exult in monotony. It is possible that God says every morning, "Do it again" to the sun; and every evening, "Do it again" to the moon. It may not be automatic necessity that makes all daisies alike; it may be that God makes every daisy separately, but has never got tired of making them. It may be that He has the eternal appetite of infancy; for we have sinned and grown old, and our Father is younger than we."

—G.K. Chesterton

That's Not What He Said.....

SOOOOOO..... a little vent here.  The same little rant millions of devout, orthodox people are doing around the world these past several months since the election of Pope Francis to the head of the Roman Catholic Church. NEWS FLASH: THAT'S NOT WHAT HE SAID.  Honestly.  People.  Good Grief.  Do not be spoon fed by a mainstream media headline and swallow it whole.  Get it straight from the horses mouth.  But then, that might not feed into your preconceived notions, or substantiate what you WANT to believe.  So in that case, go ahead and be spoon fed.  But don't think it's reality, because it's NOT.

I'll have to admit.  At first, I was thinking that it was the Pope who was naive.  He's new to the job and all.  Maybe he's not so "media savvy" yet, and he speaks in a way that is easily misconstrued, because he doesn't labor and mull over every tiny little thing he says.  He speaks extemporaneously.  A lot.  He just SAYS THINGS, and I thought... well, with a little seasoning, he will realize the sharks he's talking to and be more careful.  But that's not really fair to Pope Francis.   He's not naïve.  In fact, the man is making everyone on all sides uncomfortable - on PURPOSE.  He's shaking things up all over the place, and it's not by accident, not because he's stumbling along blindly.  He knows exactly what he's doing, he's rattling cages for a reason.  Do we know someone else who did that??  HMMMMM.  Maybe the one being in all of history that Pope Francis is trying most to emulate... Jesus himself.  And I'm thinking that Pope Francis is right where he needs to be, doing the job that he was called by the Holy Spirit to do.  Time to wake up.  EVERYBODY.

So back to the misconstrued thing.  Let's just take some of the headlines, and see what kind of picture emerges of this man:

Pope Francis Is a Flaming Liberal
Pope Francis: Church can't 'interfere' with gays – CNN Belief Blog 
Pope Says Church Is 'Obsessed' With Gays, Abortion and Birth Control
Pope Francis: Gays, Abortion Too Much Of Catholic Church's Focus
Pope francis calls on church to change focus - The Boston Globe
Pope on homosexuals: 'Who am I to judge?'
Why Pope Francis May Be a Catholic Nightmare
Pope Francis: Even Atheists Can Be Redeemed
Pope Francis on Women Priests: Who Am I to Judge?

OK OK OK .  Enough.  Because I can't stand it anymore.  You read the headlines, and you get this picture that the Pope isn't CATHOLIC!!  In fact, he abhors everything the Catholic church has stood for these past 2000 years, is ready to toss it all out the window (because he has the POWER and AUTHORITY to do that, you know - it's how that medieval church works) and he's jumped on the ideological liberal bandwagon, because he's so cool and he's one of US!  He's just like us progressive media types, because he cares for the poor, and wants to live simply, so he must be on OUR side!!  He sees the Church as archaic, stodgy, and evil as we do!  He's all about "acceptance" and "tolerance".  He justifies our every last belief about ourselves, even to the point of saying that it's okay to have no beliefs whatsoever.  He justifies US, this man in charge of the one institution that has told us for 2000 years that only the divine made human can justify us.

Like there are sides in humanity, an "us and them" in terms of the salvation of souls.  Because in a narrow-minded world, anything that sees every person as a sinner in need of redemption, and not an "us and them" - that's too deep to swallow.  I'll say it again.  GOOD GRIEF.

So.... that's when I started going to the horse's mouth, so to speak.  What did the man REALLY SAY??  Is the picture the headlines paint true??  Do I believe that the leader of the church established by Christ himself through the Apostle Peter is led by someone who disdains it?  Has the moral compass of all humanity lost its magnetism?  Has humanity finally lost its anchor, to drift aimlessly on stormy seas, being tossed wherever prevailing winds take it?

ARGH.  Learn how to read.  Stop projecting yourselves onto the man, big media types. 

Here's an actual quote from the interview he gave recently:

"We cannot insist only on issues related to abortion, gay marriage and the use of contraceptive methods. This is not possible… when we speak about these issues, we have to talk about them in a context. The teaching of the church, for that matter, is clear and I am a son of the church, but it is not necessary to talk about these issues all the time.
“The dogmatic and moral teachings of the church are not all equivalent. The church’s pastoral ministry cannot be obsessed with the transmission of a disjointed multitude of doctrines to be imposed insistently. Proclamation in a missionary style focuses on the essentials, on the necessary things: this is also what fascinates and attracts more, what makes the heart burn, as it did for the disciples at Emmaus. We have to find a new balance; otherwise even the moral edifice of the church is likely to fall like a house of cards, losing the freshness and fragrance of the Gospel. The proposal of the Gospel must be more simple, profound, radiant. It is from this proposition that the moral consequences then flow."

In other words... preach the GOSPEL, and the moral code will flow from that.  Preaching about  issues, without an understanding about the paradigm of the gospel, comes across as arbitrary.  When you understand that God is LOVE, that Jesus is REDEMPTION, and that all life is subsequently PRECIOUS and SACRED... it naturally follows that the wholesale slaughter of innocent children is not a "choice", but an abomination.  When you understand that man is created in the image of the Father, and that marriage is a reflection of Christ's relationship with the Church, when you understand that Eve was created from Adam's side for the purpose of completing and "becoming one" with him.... it naturally follows that unions contrary to that paradigm are "disordered".  Without the knowledge of a savior's love first, the "issue" loses its "moral edifice".  He exhorts us to focus on the rock, not the ripple, first.  Not to diminish the "issue", but to bring it into sharper focus!  To give it a moral heading from a deeper base, and not an argument in and of itself.  He wants us all to understand WHY the Church teaches as it does.  Not that he disagrees with the teaching itself!!

Try making a news headline out of that.

So, to all those  out there that think the Church (that solid, unchanging rock) has finally started to roll instead of stubbornly stay... you're wrong. It's not going anywhere.  It's not teaching anything different than what it was given from Christ Himself, 2000 years ago.  Trappings and emphasis might change, but TRUTH does not change. 

My favorite - GK Chesterton - says this, and I think it describes what Pope Francis is doing perfectly....
"
"All conservatism is based upon the idea that if you leave things alone you leave them as they are. But you do not. If you leave a thing alone you leave it to a torrent of change. If you leave a white post alone it will soon be a black post. If you particularly want it to be white you must be always painting it again; that is, you must be always having a revolution. Briefly, if you want the old white post you must have a new white post. "
The man is repainting a white post white.  Quit expecting red or pink.  He's getting us back to the heart of the Gospel, which is the purest teaching there is.  It is our core, and our "edifice".  It is the Church.

 

Quote Of The Day

G.K. Chesterton, that wise old sage.... truer today than the day he wrote it.

"All conservatism is based upon the idea that if you leave things alone you leave them as they are. But you do not. If you leave a thing alone you leave it to a torrent of change. If you leave a white post alone it will soon be a black post. If you particularly want it to be white you must be always painting it again; that is, you must be always having a revolution. Briefly, if you want the old white post you must have a new white post. "

This "torrent of change" we're seeing in the world today does demand a revolution.

Epistle of Mathetes to Diognetus

Heard excerpts of this 2nd Century AD letter today, and was so moved by it. Does the world recognize we Christians now as they were recognized then?



"Since I see thee, most excellent Diognetus, exceedingly desirous to learn the mode of worshipping God prevalent among the Christians, and inquiring very carefully and earnestly concerning them, what God they trust in, and what form of religion they observe, so as all to look down upon the world itself, and despise death, while they neither esteem those to be gods that are reckoned such by the Greeks, nor hold to the superstition of the Jews; and what is the affection which they cherish among themselves; and why, in fine, this new kind or practice [of piety] has only now entered into the world, and not long ago; I cordially welcome this thy desire, and I implore God, who enables us both to speak and to hear, to grant to me so to speak, that, above all, I may hear you have been edified, and to you so to hear, that I who speak may have no cause of regret for having done so....

For the Christians are distinguished from other men neither by country, nor language, nor the customs which they observe. For they neither inhabit cities of their own, nor employ a peculiar form of speech, nor lead a life which is marked out by any singularity. The course of conduct which they follow has not been devised by any speculation or deliberation of inquisitive men; nor do they, like some, proclaim themselves the advocates of any merely human doctrines. But, inhabiting Greek as well as barbarian cities, according as the lot of each of them has determined, and following the customs of the natives in respect to clothing, food, and the rest of their ordinary conduct, they display to us their wonderful and confessedly striking method of life. They dwell in their own countries, but simply as sojourners. As citizens, they share in all things with others, and yet endure all things as if foreigners. Every foreign land is to them as their native country, and every land of their birth as a land of strangers. They marry, as do all [others]; they beget children; but they do not destroy their offspring. They have a common table, but not a common bed. They are in the flesh, but they do not live after the flesh. They pass their days on earth, but they are citizens of heaven. They obey the prescribed laws, and at the same time surpass the laws by their lives. They love all men, and are persecuted by all. They are unknown and condemned; they are put to death, and restored to life. They are poor, yet make many rich; they are in lack of all things, and yet abound in all; they are dishonoured, and yet in their very dishonour are glorified. They are evil spoken of, and yet are justified; they are reviled, and bless; they are insulted, and repay the insult with honour; they do good, yet are punished as evil-doers. When punished, they rejoice as if quickened into life; they are assailed by the Jews as foreigners, and are persecuted by the Greeks; yet those who hate them are unable to assign any reason for their hatred.  To sum up all in one word--what the soul is in the body, that are Christians in the world. The soul is dispersed through all the members of the body, and Christians are scattered through all the cities of the world. The soul dwells in the body, yet is not of the body; and Christians dwell in the world, yet are not of the world. The invisible soul is guarded by the visible body, and Christians are known indeed to be in the world, but their godliness remains invisible. The flesh hates the soul, and wars against it, though itself suffering no injury, because it is prevented from enjoying pleasures; the world also hates the Christians, though in nowise injured, because they abjure pleasures. The soul loves the flesh that hates it, and [loves also] the members; Christians likewise love those that hate them. The soul is imprisoned in the body, yet preserves that very body; and Christians are confined in the world as in a prison, and yet they are the preservers of the world. The immortal soul dwells in a mortal tabernacle; and Christians dwell as sojourners in corruptible [bodies], looking for an incorruptible dwelling in the heavens. The soul, when but ill-provided with food and drink, becomes better; in like manner, the Christians, though subjected day by day to punishment, increase the more in number. God has assigned them this illustrious position, which it were unlawful for them to forsake. "

Quote of the Day

From N.D. Wilson
 

"We are all authors, creators of our own pasts, of the books that will be our lives. We stare at the future or obsess about the present, but only the past has been set in stone, and we are the ones setting it. When we race across the wet concrete of time without purpose, without goals, without laughter and love and sacrifice, then we fail in our mortal moment. We race toward our inevitable ends without artistry and without beauty.

All of us must pause and breathe. See the past, see your life as the fruit of providence and thousands of personal narratives. What led to you? You did not choose where to set your feet in time. You choose where to set them next.

Then, we must see the future, not just to stare into the fog of distant years but to see the crystal choices as they race toward us in this sharp foreground we call the present. We stand in the now. God says create. Live. Choose. Shape the past. Etch your life in stone, and what you make will be forever."

Learning lessons the Hard Way: Humility

"My child, conduct your affairs with humility,
and you will be loved more than a giver of gifts.
Humble yourself the more, the greater you are,
and you will find favor with God.
What is too sublime for you, seek not,
into things beyond your strength search not.
The mind of a sage appreciates proverbs,
and an attentive ear is the joy of the wise.
Water quenches a flaming fire,
and alms atone for sins." Sirach 3:17

 I am a product of my generation.  I was raised in a bubble of constant feedback and praise.  My education was very worried about my self-esteem.  Accolades received in response to academic success in school made me think that I was in some way special, smart, capable of doing something that other people couldn't. That I was destined for some form of greatness or success.  National Merit Scholar!  Full-ride academic scholarship!  Summa Cum Laude!  Think of all that potential!!  All the great things this young graduate is capable of, with only the right opportunities!! You can do and be ANYTHING!! I bought the picture.  I swallowed it whole.  And  I have subsequently had this overwhelming feeling as a middle-aged adult that I never "lived up to my potential".  That's a whole lot of labels, and a whole lot of expectations that I haven't lived up to. And it bothers me.  WHY I am ashamed of my ordinary life? 

Have you ever Googled your own name?  To see what the world would see if they did the same?  Stupid, I know.  No one is really curious enough about me to do something like that besides myself.   But still.  When I Google myself, I discover that my work profile comes up. And it labels me as "Monica Aho, PT".  And it lists my education as a Bachelors degree and a number of years experience.  BLAH BLAH BLAH.  I am embarrassed by that.  A Bachelors?  That's it?  Shouldn't someone with as much "potential" as I was told I had have many more credentials behind their name?  Shouldn't there be more letters there somewhere?  Ph.D. , DPT,  PCS.  Shouldn't I have something that distinguishes me?  Research, a patent?  Community accolades?  Shouldn't I be a big-shot business owner, or lecturer?  Leading the charge, forging the way somewhere?   Shouldn't I have a fancy house, a fancy title, a fancy car, a fancy something by now? 

I have pushed  myself out of my comfort zone on several occasions, trying in vain to live up to some sort of invisible expectation that I thought others had of me.  I designed an indoor park for children (won't the community look up to me!), and then failed at its construction.  I am apparently no architect or engineer.  Others stepped in and finished the job I couldn't.   I have tried to initiate research with the local university (I will seem so smart!),but I lack the funds and credentials to complete it.   I spent years, thousands of dollars, and considerable time/heart investment on trying to obtain a patent.  Yesterday... I found out that I failed at that, too.  And I am devastated.  The patent as I wrote it is indefensible.  It wouldn't be worth the paper I wrote it on, because I am not a lawyer, and did not know how to word things so that it is WORTH something to a manufacturer.    At the same time, my  job is jeopardy, because the hospital I work for is being sold to a for-profit company, and since I work with disabled children (read MEDICAID reimbursement) - the chances of being able to KEEP my job are pretty slim. 

As I was lamenting on the phone last night to my mother, crying tears of frustration, my four year old daughter tugged at my leg and begged for dinner.   My 9 year old son plainly said "Mom, you haven't made us a single meal today.  I fed myself breakfast, lunch, AND dinner."  My husband called from work to see if there would be dinner on the table when he arrived - there wouldn't.  It was 8 pm - I had forgotten to feed my family.   I had spent the day madly cleaning the house, barking at the children constantly, and then another 2 hours locked in my bedroom, on the phone with my lawyer, getting the bad news.    Apparently, even "mother" and "wife" are not on the list of things I am good at. 

So, I have discovered that I am not an architect, an engineer, a researcher, a lawyer.  I am not a doctor.  I am not a physical therapist who can get a company rich, like the sports-medicine or geriatric specialists are. I am not Super-wife, or Super-Mom.   In the eyes of this world, I am utterly ordinary and unimpressive. 


So, who am I?  WHAT am I?  Do I need a label?  Do I need accolades, or esteem?  Why?  WHY?  Why can't I be content to be who I am?  Why am I embarrassed about who I am? So I have an old house that is in sorry disrepair.  A dirty car.  Weeds in my flower bed.   A job that will never make me (or anyone I work for) rich.  My children are often messy, and far from well-behaved.  I am overweight, middle-aged.  I have wrinkles and gray hair.  I am not THE BEST at anything.  I struggle with my vocations as wife, mother, health care professional, friend.  I am utterly.... mediocre. 

But there's this, in the midst of my pity party.   I look around me, and I see the blessings God has granted me.  They are abundant.  SO abundant.  I have family.  There was a time I thought I'd never find someone to marry, never be able to have kids.  And look - God blessed me with a husband and a family.    I love the simple, country life I've been given.  I love that I get to work with children and their families.  I am blessed by all these little, inconsequential things that are not impressive by society's standards.   I don't have many friends, but the few I have are long-lasting and REAL. My family has security.  I have a job that I love and that truly makes a difference in the lives of others.  I have LOVE in my life - frazzled around the edges as it may be.  And I realize that the only label that really matters, the only label I should really care about, is "Child of God".  I SHOULD be nothing, because that's what I really am.  Nothing.  But Christ through me... that's something else entirely.  Even the moon - a dead, lifeless rock - can radiate the light of the sun, and offer light to a dark world.  There is my worth.  There is my acceptance.  There is the TRUTH of myself that matters.  I know this in my heart of hearts.  I am LOVED.

Now it's time to just stop it and get over myself already.

ADDENDUM:
OK.  I get it, Lord.  Insignificant is okay.

Today at a soccer game, a woman I only vaguely recognized came up to me and said the following:
"You're Monica Aho, right?  The therapist? I know you don't remember me, but 8 years ago, you worked with my daughter.  She was 2 years old and not walking yet.  You taught her how to walk.  And now look at her - she's playing soccer with all the other kids.  I never forgot what you did for us, and I've often wondered about you over the years.  You were a blessing to our family, and I want you to know that."

That woman probably didn't have the slightest inkling that this was EXACTLY what I needed to hear at this point in my life.  Little things DO matter in people's lives. 

 

The Most Beautiful Dream

 

The Most Wonderful Dream

Reagan woke up today in a half-sleep daze, and curled up in a little tangled bed-headed heap on my lap.  We rocked back and forth for a bit, and then she said the following:

Reagan: "Mom, they dance there.  It's so fun."
Mom: "Where do they dance?"
Reagan: "In Heaven!"
Mom: "They dance in Heaven?"
Reagan: "YES!"
Mom: "That does sound fun."
Reagan: "And he's making me a horsey room."
Mom: "What do you mean, horsey room?"
Reagan: "I love horses!  So he's decorating a room just for me!"
Mom: "Who's decorating a room for you?"
Reagan: "Jesus!  Up in Heaven!"
Mom: "Oh.  OK."
Reagan: "How many days are we here?"
Mom: "Where?  Here at our house?"
Reagan: "Yeah."
Mom: "Well, today we're going to Grandma's house for you to play, in a few hours."
Reagan: "NO!"
Mom: "You don't want to go to Grandma's house?"
Reagan: "Yes!  I mean, how long are we HERE, before we go to Heaven?"
Mom: "OH.  I don't know, Reagan.  Whenever God calls us home."
Reagan: "But will I hear Him?  I can't hear Him!"
Mom: "When it's time, you'll hear Him.  He'll say 'REAGAN!  It's TIME!  Come live with ME now!"
Reagan: "I want to go see my horsey room."
Mom: "When it's time, sweetie."
Reagan: "I miss grandma Fran up in Heaven."  (note: Grandma Fran died when Reagan was a year old.  There's no way she can remember her.)
Mom: "I miss her, too.  Do you remember her?"
Reagan: "Yeah.  We miss everyone up in Heaven.  But some day we'll see them again!"
Mom: "YES."
Reagan: "I dreamed I was dancing and playing with unicorns.  And picking beautiful flowers."
Mom: "That sounds like an amazing dream you had."
Reagan: "Well, one part was scary.  There was a dragon, and he was trying to eat me.  But the other part I liked.  With the unicorns and the flowers and the dancing."

Pondering on a Monday about... Bats

Bats, at least New World, nocturnal bats, do not see in color.  They use echolocation to "see", rather than vision (light bouncing off a retina), and as such do not "see" as we do, and certainly not in color.  In the bat-world, then, color does not exist, because they do not perceive it. Furthermore, a bat lacks the intellect to even imagine color.  That does not mean that color does not exist, but that the organism itself lacks the ability to perceive and understand some truth outside itself. You and I know, however, that when light waves bounce off a physical object and enters into our eyeball, our brain perceives color.  So WE know that color exists, because we are constructed to perceive it and interpret it.  WE are aware of a natural truth, because we have the capacity to do so.

SO.... thinking once again about how the perceptions and capacity of the creature impacts their ability to know what is TRUE about REALITY.  If an atheist purports that God is not real because He cannot be proved by science (what can be proven and perceived by our senses)... that argument is commeasurate to a bat saying that color does not exist because he is incapable of perceiving it.  The limits of the creature have nothing to do with REALITY.  To claim otherwise is extremely limited, biased, and unscientific thinking - the very thing that the atheist purports to abhor.

The really interesting thing about bats?  Their eyes have recently been found to have rods AND cones.    Bats have the capacity  to see color, and have daylight vision, but do not use it.    They rely instead on a sense of "vision" that works very well for them - but only when in the dark.   Evolutionarily, way back when... bats could see in color and they could potentially see in color again.   They have the capacity  to perceive light if it was honed and used.  But they have evolved in the night.

Do I really have to point out the metaphor there???  You "see" it, right?

Quote for TODAY... Because I've never thought about it like this before...

"God is real and he shows himself in the “today”. With regard to the past, his presence is given to us as “memory” of his saving work, both in his people and in each of us as individuals; with regard to the future, he gives himself to us as “promise” and hope. In the past God was present and left his mark: memory helps us to encounter him; in the future is promise alone… he is not in the thousand and one “futuribles”. The “today” is closest to eternity; even more: the “today” is a flash of eternity. In the “today”, eternal life is in play."

Pope Francis - Keystone address to the Bishops of Brazil, July 2013

Quote Of The Day....

“Help is desperately needed exactly now. For exactly at the time when the fatal knowledge of how to destroy the entire human race has fallen forever into our hands, the knowledge of morality has fallen out. Exactly when the vehicle of our history has gotten a souped-up engine, we have lost the road map. Exactly when our toys have grown up with us from bows and arrows to thermonuclear bombs, we have become moral infants.”

 (Dr. Peter Kreeft, Back to Virtue, 1986 Ignatius Press) -

What is Truth?

 

John 18:
³⁷ Pilate asked him, “So you are a king?” Jesus answered, “You say that I am a king. For this I was born, and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice.” ³⁸ Pilate asked him, “What is truth?”
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"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, and are endowed by their creator certain inalienable rights....." Thomas Jefferson, Declaration of Independence
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Today more than ever, we need to be reminded of this bond between faith and truth, given the crisis of truth in our age. In contemporary culture, we often tend to consider the only real truth to be that of technology: truth is what we succeed in building and measuring by our scientific know-how, truth is what works and what makes life easier and more comfortable. Nowadays this appears as the only truth that is certain, the only truth that can be shared, the only truth that can serve as a basis for discussion or for common undertakings. 

Yet at the other end of the scale we are willing to allow for subjective truths of the individual, which consist in fidelity to his or her deepest convictions, yet these are truths valid only for that individual and not capable of being proposed to others in an effort to serve the common good. But Truth itself, the truth which would comprehensively explain our life as individuals and in society, is regarded with suspicion. Surely this kind of truth — we hear it said — is what was claimed by the great totalitarian movements of the last century, a truth that imposed its own world view in order to crush the actual lives of individuals. 

In the end, what we are left with is relativism, in which the question of universal truth — and ultimately this means the question of God — is no longer relevant. It would be logical, from this point of view, to attempt to sever the bond between religion and truth, because it seems to lie at the root of fanaticism, which proves oppressive for anyone who does not share the same beliefs. In this regard, though, we can speak of a massive amnesia in our contemporary world. The question of truth is really a question of memory, deep memory, for it deals with something prior to ourselves and can succeed in uniting us in a way that transcends our petty and limited individual consciousness. It is a question about the origin of all that is, in whose light we can glimpse the goal and thus the meaning of our common path.

(Pope Francis, Lumen Fidei #25)

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So, this is what's got me thinking on this dreary Saturday morning.  How do we, as humans, currently define "TRUTH"?  More and more, it seems that truth is being defined as exactly what Pope Francis says above... "scientific know-how".  What we can prove with our tests, our labs, our peer-reviewed journals...what we can see, and touch, and perceive concretely... which hypothesis we can prove beyond a reasonable doubt....that constitutes objective TRUTH in this day and age.  But isn't what can be PROVEN limited by the capacity of the PROVE-ER?  A child cannot determine the molecular structure of water, but a scientist can.  Is the fact that water is two parts hydrogen, one part oxygen not true for the child as it is for the scientist?   And even our most intelligent, brilliant scientists are limited by the capacity of the human brain, by our limited perspective of the universe while sitting atop this tiny rock, by our paradigms that are shaped indelibly by life inside a concrete world.  So, our ability to prove something cannot be TRUTH, because we are as limited as a child (or even less so!) in the grand scheme of things.  Science cannot be TRUTH, because it's sole goal is to discover truth.   So truth, then, HAS to be outside of science, because science isn't discovering itself. 

I read the first line of the Declaration of Independence, and I wonder what atheists think of this statement.... regardless of the later reference to a "creator". "We hold these TRUTHS to be self-evident, that all men are created equal....".  How does an atheist see that phrase?  Can science prove that "all men are created equal"?  In what way are they equal?  Some are healthy, some are born with disabilities or illnesses.  They are not scientifically equal in that regard.  Some people are born with natural intelligence, others less so - not scientifically equal in that regard.  Some are born with beauty, others with deformity.  Some are born into wealth, others poverty.  By what STANDARD, then, can we PROVE WITH SCIENCE that all men are created equal????  Even on a molecular level, at a chromosomal level, not all men are created equal.  What then, is the atheist to make of our very own Declaration of Independence??

The Founding Fathers, however, knew something that I feel like we moderns are quickly forgetting.  Truth isn't what we can prove scientifically.  TRUTH IS JUST WHAT IS.  Truth is REALITY.  And reality, although perceived subjectively based on the eye of the beholder, doesn't change based on that perception.  Truth just IS.  It cannot be voted on, democratized, change based on individual (or even group) opinion.  It IS.  It's the proverbial elephant, perceived by three blind men at different ends.  We can catch glimpses of the truth, but the whole of REALITY is a bit beyond us, from our limited field of vision.  And that is where faith comes in....

 “Faith is not a private matter, a completely individualistic notion or a personal opinion: it comes from hearing, and it is meant to find expression in words and to be proclaimed. For ‘how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without a preacher?’ (Rom 10:14). Faith becomes operative in the Christian on the basis of the gift received, the love which attracts our hearts to Christ (cf. Gal5:6), and enables us to become part of the Church’s great pilgrimage through history until the end of the world. For those who have been transformed in this way, a new way of seeing opens up, faith becomes light for their eyes.”

 (Pope Francis; Lumen Fidei, #22)

Light, that recurring metaphor from the Bible, illuminates.  It helps us to see reality as it truly is, and not as it is only perceived through limited tunnel vision.  Truth is reality, and bedrock, and it is only through this reality that "all men are created equal".  What was "self-evident" to the Founding Fathers is no longer self-evident to modern-day us, in all our progressive wisdom. 

GOD is reality.  We are the construct.  That's why His name is "I AM".  He is the fiber of reality, and we are the created artwork from His hands.