Cluny Media

 I've been hearing a lot about Cluny Media lately. They republish old Catholic classics. They look like the real deal. Here is an article in First Things called, "Why we need Cluny Media," by Sohrab Ahmari. 

True Poetry and Philosophy

True poetry is not just about emotions, but about deep meaning. Philosophy is not just about ideas, but about deep meaning—the connectedness and hierarchical relationship of all things in God in the hearts of men. 

Devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary

Devotion to the Blessed Virgin is not a sentimental thing, although it involves sentiment. It is not just for those who have some kind of unmet emotional need. It is theological. It is intimately tied up with the faith.

At the foot of the cross Jesus gave us Mary as mother. All of us. Because we need her metaphysically.

I'd wager that the main problems in Protestantism stem from their rejection of devotion to the Blessed Mother. And even among Catholics. 

Even Islam venerates her!

Universal truths

There are universal truths that apply to all, no matter what their circumstances or background. What McIntyre was saying about good citizenship in the video by Gregory B. Sadler is simply true. It is valuable, indeed imperative, to speak at such an abstract level so we can better understand the concrete. Of course, Newman is right about real assent. The abstract articulation of principles is not usually very compelling. But, it provides a boundary. A good citizen must be thinking in terms of the common good. Virtue requires a consideration of the dignity of the human person made in the image and likeness of God.

Whatever the defects of the western tradition, such as latent or blatant racism, it is the place where the human race has reflected critically on the universals. And it contains within itself the resources to overcome its defects, just as Catholicism has within itself the resources to overcome the tendency to a dualistic denigration of the body.

Of course, sometimes the impetus to overcome the defects comes from a critique from outside. The Great Conversation. And, genuine insight that may be as valuable may come from outside as well.

A prayer for the heart

"If today you hear his voice harden not your hearts."

I frequently pray that my heart be softened--that my stoney heart be replaced by a heart of flesh. 

Recently, though, I have begun to also pray that my heart be strengthened as well as softened. A human heart is sensitive but also strong. We need courage, or fortitude, to be truly tender. Fear makes us tighten up and become hard and defensive. We cease displaying the vulnerability that is necessary for genuine love 

I would love to do a thorough study of "the heart."

After a visit to the Indiana Dunes

The yellow, wind-swept dunes

     Against the deep blue sky

Are marked with man-made wounds

     That make the seagulls cry.

Brubeck Take Five

Just for.

I loved the comment: "Those are the coolest accountants I've ever seen man."

Sankofa

At work I receive a magazine called In Trust. Its target audience is CEOs and board members of theological seminaries. The following quote is from one recent article by Anna M. Robbins, "The mission of seminary in an age of nostalgia" (Summer, 2020, pp. 14-17):

The Ghanaian concept of sankofa is one example of [the reminder that we can only go forward]--bringing the wisdom of the past to bear on the present in order to face the future. And it is important to look back so we can understand how we got to where were are now.

I think it is interesting that the author, whom I presume is a Christian, needed to look to Ghana for a word to describe what has traditionally been called "tradition." I suppose we sometimes need to look at things from an unusual angle to see them rightly--like Chesterton's use of the grotesque. Or, the usual word has become dead to so many people, or turns them off. The need to distance themselves from standard, classical expressions is endemic. 

I don't, however, see how you can keep the bridge with the past intact while distancing yourself from it at the same time. 

She should have easily said:

The Christian concept of tradition is one example of [the reminder that we can only go forward]--bringing the wisdom of the past to bear on the present in order to face the future. And it is important to look back so we can understand how we got to where were are now.

 

My enthusiasms

We usually go through phases when we are especially enamored of one writer or another. My big phase, of course, was de Lubac back in the late '90s. Before that there as Merton. Before that, Tolkien (which never died). 

Here is a list of current writers and thinkers that I especially pay attention to these days:

Anthony Esolen    literature

Joseph Pearce    literature

Fr. Robert Spitzer    philosophy and science

O. Carter Snead    law

J. Budziszewski    political science

Helen Alvaré    law

Bishop Robert Barron    prelate

George Weigel    I don't even know

Archbishop Charles Chaput    prelate

Mac Horton    literature, politics, and cultural critique mostly, but also a lot of television, which I don't watch

Msgr. Charles Pope    pastor

My attraction has something to do with depth, thoroughness, clarity, solidity of thought, and groundedness in tradition. It is not even that I agree with everything that they say. Note that only one of them is a theologian. Interesting. 

As I remember others, I will add them in a separate post. 

Two world views

I've recently run across two articulations of the two world views that vie for supremacy in our culture. The first was a short video by O. Carter Snead called "Carter Snead Explains the Secular Vs. Catholic View of the Human Person." Snead is a law professor at Notre Dame and the director of the De Nicola Center for Ethics and Culture. He talks about the modern idea of creating your own reality vs. the giveness of reality in the traditional view and our natural dependence on each other for flourishing. That hardly does what he says justice, so you'd do better to look yourself.

The second is an interview with science fiction writer, John C. Wright. In explaining why he converted to Catholicism, he talks about the two world views--the rich, fertile one that flows from Catholicism, and the sterile, bland one that flows from Gnosticism.

When pressed, Wright added, “Of the two competing worldviews vying for the souls of modern man, one is the orthodox Catholic scheme, which proposes certain mysteries about the Trinity and the Incarnation nearly impossible to imagine or believe, but, in the light of those mysteries, explains man, the cosmos and his place in it — whence he comes and whither he goes. All art, science, learning, law and literature spring from these traditional roots.” 

By contrast, Wright claims “the default worldview of the modern age is a degenerate form of Gnosticism, which takes some elements of the Christian worldview, such as compassion for the poor or the brotherhood of man, and then proceeds to cut and paste them awkwardly into a Darwinian or Hegelian background, before simmering the whole in Freud and Nietzsche until it is half-baked. The modern version goes by a variety of names subject to change every decade or so; names selected precisely because they mean the opposite of what they really mean.” 

 He summed this up as follows: “Neither ancient nor modern variations of this line of thought in Original Sin think that man’s evils spring from man, but instead from the world’s law and the world’s maker, so the world is false and must be destroyed.”

To me, this is it. This is the Great Divide. And I am totally committed to the Catholic version and all its consequences. This puts me in a distinctively marginal position, even among many Catholics!

Frankenstein

I have always thought that Mary Shelley's Frankenstein is a cautionary tale about the hubris of scientism. Well, it is, but I don't think that is the central theme. In fact, I think the central theme is the destructive nature of prejudice and impact that lack of love and sympathy has on a person. If only Victor had been able to overcome his spontaneous aversion to the looks of the monster he created....If only the family in the cottage had not automatically assumed the worst and responded with violence. The monster pleaded and pleaded to be treated like a person with value, to be treated as though he had an interiority that was more and superior to his outward appearance. 

Once can see how these themes might have applicability to our current situation. In a sense, the "black man" that some white people seem to fear is a creation of their own imagination that comes from having no acquaintance with real African Americans. 

The other theme I found fascinating was the importance of a relationship with the opposite sex. There are so many connections with the theology of the body in the monster's desperate plea for a female companion. 

Finally, Victor is a slave to his emotions. All his responses--the ones that cause his downfall, are an effort to avoid an emotion he does not want. He is purely narcissistic and controlled by his passions, which are not habitually subject to reason. 

If only....

controversy

Today's petitions in Morning Prayer give us guidance on how to express our opinion in controversial subjects:

"Grant that we may never condemn or despised others, for we shall one day face you as our judge."

The way, the truth, and the life

During the homily today the priest quoted Thomas a Kempis: "Without the way, there is no going. Without the truth there is no knowing. Without the life there is no living." It is from the fifty-sixth chapter of the Imitation.

While he was quoting it, when he got to, "Without the life, there is no...," I was sure he was going to say, "...growing." It seemed so obvious.

In Dutch, each clause ends in "niet," so it more than rhymes.

"Zonder weg gaat men niet ; zonder waarheid kent men niet ; zonder leven leeft men niet."

So, I'm "improving" a Kempis.

Without the way, there is know going.
Without the truth, there is no knowing.
Without the life, there is no growing.

Be safe

I think the measures we are taking to reduce the impact of COVID-19 are important. So, being safe is important.

On the other hand, I find the salutation, "Be safe!" to be off-putting. "God bless you" might be more to the point, or even, "Be at peace!" How about, as one of my friends so often ends his correspondences, "Corragio!"

If you are going to tell me to be something, how about, "Be good!"

Cinco de Mayo

Our Cinco de Mayo feast:

The devil in your heart

Ray Sullivan has a nice article about keeping the devil out of your heart. We can do it if we lean on God and take advantage of the helps He gives us, such as care for the poor, fasting, and the sacraments, especially the Mass.

There are two thing I would add to the list. The first is reading the Bible.  The Desert Fathers used scripture as a weapon against the temptations of the devil. Of course, if you attend daily Mass, you get a lot of scripture, but nothing beats the rich immersion in Scripture that comes through lectio divina.

The second "tactic" is orthodoxy. Not only need we obey, but we also need to assent to His Word as expressed in Scripture and in the teachings of the Church. In order to assent, of course, we have to know them, which is why studying the writings of solid, orthodox women and men is so important.

Charity is first, of course. Always. 

Equilibrium

I don't know who this Bartolucci guy is, but it is a nice article by Aurelio Porfiri, of whom I also don't know.

https://www.altaredei.com/2020/04/15/the-strength-of-memory-music-and-tradition/

Money quote:

Here there comes to mind a phrase of Doctor Plinio, who said: “Equilibrium is not the position of a man sitting peacefully in an armchair. True equilibrium is that of a knight riding on his horse while he realizes all of his potentialities with the maximum intensity.”

I don't know who this is, either, but it sounds Chestertonian.

Simple living

One thing I've always wanted to do since I was a kid was to dip candles. Simple living, like gardening and canning, and building stuff. Subsidiarity and distributism.

So, we finally got our act together yesterday and created these "beauties."



Unfortunately, the string we used for the wick does not burn properly!  So the candles fizzle out.

There must be a lesson here.

John 3:16

I am SO glad they are working to re-translate the Liturgy of the Hours! If I were to say, "John 3:16," what would come to mind?  Probably something like, "For God so loved the world that He gave His Only-begotten Son, that whosoever might believe in Him should have life everlasting..."

The Douay-Rhiems says, "For God so loved the world, as to give his only begotten Son; that whosoever believeth in him, may not perish, but may have life everlasting."

The Latin says, "Sic enim dilexit Deus mundum, ut Filium suum unigenitum daret, ut omnis, qui credit in eum, non pereat, sed habeat vitam aeternam."

What does the current Office translation say? Here is the antiphon for the Benedictus at morning prayer: 

"God loved the world so much that he gave his only Son to save all who have faith in him, and to give them eternal life, alleluia."

How poetically tone-deaf can you get? "to save all who have faith" vs. "that whosoever believeth in him may not perish."

Also, where is the only-begotten?

What we can do without

One thing we've learned from the safer-at-home culture is that we can really do without a lot of stuff. This may not be that good for an economy that depends on expansion and growth. Up with distributism!

The effect of social distancing on work

After observing my reaction to my changed work situation--doing everything through email and Skype, I have come to a conclusion: our social interactions are very important in the smooth running of our institution. I’ve had a couple of difficult situations in the past week. They were rendered more difficult to negotiate because I have not been interacting with the people involved socially. All we had to go on, so to speak, was the interaction about the difficulty.

I think we need to make a greater effort to make our interactions mimic our social relations. Also, we need to be more gentle in our virtual communications that we might be if we had other, more social contacts with the people involved. We need a lot more patience, because we can’t necessarily just go down to someone’s office to get an answer to any question we might have. And we don't have lunch with them or coffee breaks.

I believe that the body is so important in our social and professional relations. The shift to virtual everything will diminish our bonds. This is especially true in education. I have a friend who is a Montessori teacher. Can you imagine trying to do Montessori, a theology of the body pedagogy if there ever was one, virtually?

I'm not a Carthusian.

Symbiology

Alfred Hitchcock, of course, was Catholic. There are interminable discussions about the quality of his Catholicism. There is no doubt that his work is often permeated by a Catholic ethos and Catholic themes. More rarely, his works are explicitly informed by Catholic culture. I Confess, of course, is about the seal of Confession.

Another film that is explicitly Catholic is The Wrong Man (1956), staring Henry Fonda,  Vera Miles, and Anthony Quayle. We watched it the other night.

[spoiler] There is a scene--the climax in fact--where the resolution occurs because of a Catholic prayer. You can't get more explicit than that film about the power of prayer.

The point of this post, though, is about the content of one of the features. One of those famous people and talking head analyses of the film and of Hitchcock. One of the "experts" said something like, "The Wrong Man is the Hitchcock film with the most explicit Catholic symbiology in it." First of all, what is "symbiology?" I'm thinking he meant "symbolism." Besides that, though, there is nothing symbolic about the Catholicism in the movie. A mother asks her son to pray. He prays--before an image of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus no less--the resolution happens.

People are funny.

On a more practical note...

Ever since I was in junior high I have wanted to live a simpler, more natural life that included organic gardening, handicrafts, living in the land, etc. That is why I have been attracted to the Crunchy Cons and Caelum et Terra.

Yesterday my wife and I had a conversation about how to better put that into effect. One of the conclusions that we came to was that it is best to use what you have to make what you need, rather than buy things. 

The context was my intention to build a cold frame out of done old windows we have, and some raised garden boxes. I had ordered almost $200 worth of wood. 

It became clear, especially after talking to our son, that we had enough scrap wood from an old project that I could just build the cold frame with that. It wouldn't be as pretty, but it would certainly function adequately.

Also, we didn't really need the boxes.

My grandfather was a master at cobbling materials together that he had lying around. I realized that it is not only frugal, but rewarding to do the same.

Here is the cold frame:

Here is a wheel barrow made from an old bugger and a bin. It has the advantage of a detachable bin!:

When the handle broke on our push broom, instead it buying another, or even another handle, I attached an old pole from a broken "umbrella" clothesline we've keep around for decades:

I think this is fun!

My life is like a story, sort of

Yet another old one. 

My kids sometimes talk about my life, especially my childhood, as like a story. What they mean is that I had a life like you read about in a Beverly Cleary book--going to school, little adventures in the neighborhood, etc. In a way they were right, although growing up in the 1960s during a cultural revolution, some of the less wholesome aspects of life creeped in at the edge of my life sometimes, such as the time a drugged-out 17 year old invaded out house and beat up my mom. I'm not likely to tell most of those stories to my kids.

There have been times when my life was almost adventurous beyond the ordinary. "Almost" is the key word. It is like something almost thrilling happened. Like the time I almost started a race riot after a little league baseball game when I accidentally hit with my glove an African American opponent after his side lost. Or the time we almost helped an East German dissident escape from East to West Berlin using a friend's passport. Or the time a woman and I almost accidentally tried to steal a car in an African American neighborhood in a town where race tensions were high.

Other aspects of my life are just kind of cool or interesting. Like the time some chums and I broke into the South Dining Hall at Notre Dame in the middle of the night using the steam tunnel system. I hope they don't read about this and revoke my diploma. There must be a statute of limitations, right? Like the time I hitch hiked to Munich. Or skied in the Alps. Or jammed on the guitar with John Michael Talbot. Or rode down a mountain from the Europabruecke (highest bridge in Europe) on a wooden sled at breakneck speed with an Austrian woman and her thirteen year old daughter, whom I was teaching English. Or had a stammtisch at a tiny local gasthaus half way up a mountain in Austria. Or spent a year and a half volunteering for one of the most famous priests in Kentucky, Fr. Ralph Beiting. Or shook hands with Mother Theresa. Or, had her spiritual director as my spiritual director. Or was a co-blogger with Amy Welborn and Christopher West during the early, heady days of Catholic blogging.

I think anyone could tell there story in a way that was interesting, even exciting. I mean, what is so exciting about a fifteen year old stealing pears, anyway? (St. Augustine did that, not me.) I don't think there are dull lives. Even people who don't do much on the outside must have very interesting, even thrilling interior lives. I mean, maybe Immanuel Kant wasn't really boring inside. Maybe.

History of the Catholic Church

One would like to find in historians a fair presentation of the reality of the Catholic Church that acknowledges the complexity of the situation. I recently pulled two books down from our bookshelf to do some casual reading. Although the topic of the books had nothing to do directly with Catholicism, the passages I read displayed such unsubstantiated antipathy to the Church, I can't help but wonder how much of this exists in the academic culture of our day, and how young people can help but get alienated from the Church. Here are the passages:

"In the Netherlands the Reformation had an even longer and bloodier struggle to establish itself than in France, for while they, like Germany, were affected by the imperial ban of Charles V, they alone had to suffer the domination of Spanish fanaticism, particularly during the reign of Charles' son, Philip II...." (Alec Harman and Anthony Miller, Man and His Music: the Story of Musical Experience in the West, Vol. II, Late Renaissance and Baroque Music (New York: Schocken Books, 1962).

The authors had made it clear earlier that the fanaticism in question was religious. So, you wind up with the reasonable Dutch Calvinists vs. the Spanish Catholic fanatics. This is the normal, English view of thing. Guy Fawkes and all that.

The second example is even more weird. The book in question is Clocks and Culture, by Carlo M. Cipolla (New York: W.W. Norton and Co., 1978). Here is is describing the early middle ages (aka the "dark" ages).

"People were few in number, small in stature, and lived short lives. Socially they were divided among those who fought and hunted, those who prayed and learned, and those who worked. Thos who fought did so often in order to rob. Those who prayed and learned, learned little and prayed much and superstitiously. Those who worked were the great majority and were considered the lowest group of all." (p. 15).

Note there is no acknowledgement that the monks saved learning and had a genuinely rich religious life.

You also don't want a history of the Church written by a Catholic to be a Church always good, non-Catholics always bad whitewash. An egregious example is the handling of Augosto Pinoche by Anne Carroll in her Christ the King, Lord of History.

I agree with a friend on this one.

"I think it's important to understand that History is a very complex thing. For our understanding of History, we are always relying upon someone else's facts. Within the Catholic Church, there are many issues which are not agreed upon, and the Church doesn't say that you have to believe this or that side. I think this is a good concept for children (especially high schoolers) to understand. I would suggest having your children use this text, but discuss these important issues before you embark on your journey, and have them read materials from other Catholic sources as well."

I also think a perspective and interpretation that is sympathetic with the Catholic Church's role in the world and therefore prone to whitewashing and hagiography is closer to the truth than one that is antagonistic.

I've often found discussions of the Galileo affair to be simplistic and one-sided. Usually it is Galileo is the great hero for truth, the Church was the villainous enemy of scientific progress. This in no way does justice to the complexity of the issues involved--the relationship between scholastic philosophy and theology, the new humanism, and the new empirical sciences. Most people don't realize that the humanists (who opposed the scholastics), also apposed the new method of Bacon. Descartes was as critical of the humanists as he was of scholastic philosophy.

The Two Tiers

Yet another old, old post that was never published.

I had the opportunity to listen to Dale Ahlquist on Relevant Radio the other day. I am thoroughly convinced that G.K. Chesterton was a forward-seeing, prophetic voice in the Church that we need to continue to listen two.  I'm glad that Mr. Ahlquist and his associates is helping keep this voice alive. I myself was able to acquire for free almost the entire Chesterton corpus. I have only begun to dip into it.  Some of the wonderful kids in our homeschool group are associated with the Chesterteens blog. This has added an intellectual depth to our formal and informal discussions.

Now, for the point of this post.  One trap I think people can get into when they are enthusiastic about someone that God providential raises up in the Church to guide us through a particular set of challenges is the temptation to interpret everything through the lens of that person's thought or life.  I'm not accusing Ahlquist of this, by the way, but I can believe that anyone who listened to him talk on Relevant Radio would believe it about him.  I've noticed this about many enthusiasts in the Church. Opus Dei people have a tendency to quote El Camino;  Schoenstatt people will quote Fr. Kentenich; CL people will quote Giussani or Carron; Thomists will quote St. Thomas. 

I am convinced, however, that the center of anyone's spirituality and intellectual life should be these things that the providence of God has given us in the Church to sustain us--the Word of God, the liturgy.  It bothers me when someone can quote C.S. Lewis chapter and verse, but spend little or no time studying the Bible.  As Frank Sheed has pointed out, the important thing for Christians is to know Christ Jesus.  As St. Jerome pointed out, ignorance of Scripture is ignorance of Christ.   

I am a Franciscan so I am quite familiar with the tendency to interpret everything through a particular spiritual lens. But to truly follow Jesus in the footsteps of St. Francis, I should come to know the sacred text as deeply and as intimately as he did.  I should be able to interpret my own life and experience in light of the biblical text. 

The Exiled Wanderer: The Dream

My son just started a blog, called, "The Exiled Wanderer." He starts with a poem he composed.

The Exiled Wanderer: The Dream:
Behind the stars, which in their rolling course
Do turn around the Earth and back again;
Beyond the "rolling spheres," and spire...

What is wrong when something is wrong?

Old post #3.

The problem with us spiritual-minded people is that when things aren't going well we often interpret them in terms of spiritual warfare, as if Satan were attacking us because we feel uneasy or because things are falling apart. A good Catholic understanding of spirituality doesn't justify such an immediate leap because we believe that nature has a lot to do with the way things are going.

When things to wrong there are several possible causes. First of all, we may be experiencing physical stress due to lack of rest, inadequate nutrition or acute or chronic chemical imbalance. These are not the devil's fault! It may also be that we have made some bad choices, such as time-management, and are experiencing the consequences of those choices. Once again, not the devil's fault. Sometimes we have some significant defects in our psychological makeup that cause us problems. We are in need of healing. Finally, since we are a work in progress and still prone to make wrong choices, our problem could stem from an inadequately cultivated virtue or a sinful choice. Sometimes we are just plain selfish or inordinately attached to a carnal good. Or we allow anger to take root in us, thus alienating us from the good in others. The devil is pleased when this is so and certainly will take advantage of it, but, once again, he is not directly causing the problem--our own lack of conversion is.

Now, that does not mean that the devil doesn't try to interfere with our lives, even and especially us Christians. He certainly does, and that is what Ignatian principles of spiritual discernment are all about. The problem is when we do not resist his advances with spiritual means (self-examination, trust and humility, sacramental life, including confession, prayer, ejaculations, invocations of Mary and the saints and our guardian angel). Satan wants us to fear him. If you are living a Christian life of conversation and resisting his advances you really have nothing to fear. If you are dejected and confused, angry and bitter, despairing of your spiritual progress and you give up, you are letting the devil have an upper hand.

"Be sober and vigilant. Your opponent the devil is prowling around like a roaring lion looking for (someone) to devour. Resist him, steadfast in faith, knowing that your fellow believers throughout the world undergo the same sufferings." (1 Peter 5:8-9)

Disillusionment

This one is from several years ago.

Disillusionment seems to be a recurring theme in my life these days. Everything from conversations I've been having with my daughter about her work on Evelyn Waugh and Cervantes, to a discussion on Maclin Horton's blog about disappointments in implementing lifestyles and values, to the Church's reading of Ecclesiastes in the Office of Readings.

I have seen everything that is done under the sun; and behold, all is vanity and a striving after wind. What is crooked cannot be made straight,and what is lacking cannot be numbered. (Eccl. 1:14-15, RSV)

In my years as an active Catholic I have been involved in various efforts at personal, social and cultural renewal--the Charismatic Renewal, pro-life activism, home schooling, Caelum et Terra, St. Anthony's Parish in Milwaukee, St. Blog's parish, Secular Franciscans. I've watched other movements closely and with sympathy--the efforts to reform the liturgical reform, etc. I have experienced great blessings in each one, but also some pretty profound disappointments. In so many cases the flesh, the world, and the devil seem to have won a victory, or at least sapped the movement of its energy. I myself have found it difficult, and sometimes impossible, to fully implement even my most cherished spiritual values in the face of the complexities and ambiguities of life among a depraved generation--the depravity of which I am not completely free.

At the talk the other day by Fr. Rosetti of the St. Luke's Institute he said that cynicism is a disease. My kids can tell you that cynicism is something that I react strongly against because I sense that it is true.

Happiness

I was looking back in my "drafts" and realized that there are some posts I never published. I am going to spend the next few days publishing some of them. Here is the first.

There is a great deal of Biblical wisdom about happiness. If you are unhappy (and I know some people that are right now), you should take a look at these passages from the Psalms (I also link to the entire Psalm).

Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers. (Psalm 1:1). 

Serve the LORD with fear, with trembling kiss his feet, lest he be angry, and you perish in the way; for his wrath is quickly kindled. Blessed are all who take refuge in him. (Psalm 2:11-12)

There are many who say, "O that we might see some good! Lift up the light of thy countenance upon us, O LORD!" Thou hast put more joy in my heart than they have when their grain and wine abound. In peace I will both lie down and sleep; for thou alone, O LORD, makest me dwell in safety. (Psalm 4:6-8)

Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man to whom the LORD imputes no iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no deceit. (Psalm 32:1-2)

This is one of the most wonderful blessings of all. Yet, it takes genuine humility and repentance and a decisive break with sinful influence of world to receive it. It is not enough to live a worldly life and go to confession occasionally, presuming on the mercy of God.

O taste and see that the LORD is good! Happy is the man who takes refuge in him! (Psalm 34:8)

Blessed is the man who makes the LORD his trust, who does not turn to the proud, to those who go astray after false gods! (Psalm 40:4)

Blessed is he who considers the poor! The LORD delivers him in the day of trouble; the LORD protects him and keeps him alive; he is called blessed in the land. (Psalm 41:1-2)

Blessed is he whom thou dost choose and bring near,to dwell in thy courts!We shall be satisfied with the goodness of thy house,thy holy temple! (Psalm 65:4)

Blessed are those who dwell in thy house,ever singing thy praise! [Selah] Blessed are the men whose strength is in thee,in whose heart are the highways to Zion. (Psalm 84:4-5)
O LORD of hosts, blessed is the man who trusts in thee! (Psalm 84:12)

Blessed are the people who know the festal shout,who walk, O LORD, in the light of thy countenance. (Psalm 89:15)

Blessed is the man whom thou dost chasten, O LORD, and whom thou dost teach out of thy law. (Psalm 94:12)

Blessed are they who observe justice, who do righteousness at all times! (Psalm 106:3)
Blessed is the man who fears the LORD,who greatly delights in his commandments! (Psalm 112: 1)

Blessed are those whose way is blameless, who walk in the law of the LORD! Blessed are those who keep his testimonies, who seek him with their whole heart, (Psalm 119:1-)

Lo, sons are a heritage from the LORD, the fruit of the womb a reward. Like arrows in the hand of a warriorare the sons of one's youth. Happy is the man who hashis quiver full of them! (Psalm 127: 3-5)

Blessed is every one who fears the LORD,who walks in his ways! You shall eat the fruit of the labor of your hands; you shall be happy, and it shall be well with you. (Psalm 128: 1-2)

Happy the people whose God is the LORD! (Psalm 144: 15)

Happy is he whose help is the God of Jacob, whose hope is in the LORD his God, (Psalm 146:5)

Discernment of spirits vs. discerning the will of God

The emotivist tendency of U.S. culture makes it easy for Christians to conflate discernment of spirits with discernment of God’s will, esp. if you are of a more charismatic persuasion, because you associate discernment of spirits with an emotional state. This is a misunderstanding, I think, of Ignatian principles, but that is for another post.

The discernment of God’s will is a broader consideration than the discernment of spirits (even in the authentic, Ignatian sense) and includes knowledge of God’s will in general, as well as discernment of His particular will for you. As Fr. Jules J. Toner, S.J. says, “such factors as the signs of the times, the lessons of our own and others’ past experience, and reasonable projection of future consequences from alternative good courses of actions, in order to judge which of those courses of action or options is likely to be ‘more conductive’ to the glory of God.” pp. 12-13.

The will of God for us is expressed in Church teachings, the directives of legitimate authority, and the physical laws of nature and, more broadly, the Natural Law).

A day in the park

We went out to the local county park today for a hike. It was cloudy, damp, and 34 deg. Nonetheless, the path around the lake was crowded with individuals and families taking a hike. Getting out is so important during a pandemic. 

Catholic playing cards

We have a deck of playing cards that has printed on each card some fact about the Catholic Faith or some prayer. The three evangelical counsels are listed on the three of clubs. Below them are the following prayer. I have no idea where this prayer came from; I can't find it on the internet.

In order that a tree may grow, there must be rain.
In order that a soul may rise, there must be pain.
Let not, O Lord, Thy rainbow in my tears be e'er in vain.
But help me in Thy footsteps tread and with Thee, Heaven gain. 

fasting and mercy

Sowing and harvesting seem to be a big theme for me today. I just read in the Gospel of St. Mark the parable of the sower and the seed. It talks about producing fruit thirty-, sixty-, and a hundred-fold.

Then I read one of the Lenten non-biblical readings for the Office of Readings from Peter Chrysologus in which he discusses prayer, fasting, and mercy. This is the pay-quote:

When you fast, if your mercy is thin your harvest will be thin; when you fast, what you pour out in mercy overflows into your barn. Therefore, do not lose by saving, but gather in by scattering. Give to the poor, and you give to yourself. You will not be allowed to keep what you have refused to give to others. 

Ouch.
.

A Psalm-prayer

I hear grumblings about the psalm-prayers in the LotH. I like them. I don't have an opinion about the appropriateness of having them. The Church has given them providentially to me for my spiritual edification.

At any rate, in the Office of Readings yesterday, the following prayer was given for Psalm 69:

God our Father, to show the way of salvation, you chose that the standard of the cross should go before us, and you fulfilled the ancient prophecies in Christ's passover from death to life. Do not let us rouse your burning indignation by sin, but rather, through the contemplation of his wounds, make us burn with zeal for the honor of your Church and with grateful love for you.

This is not a touchy-feely prayer. The Cross takes front and center. We do not shirk from mentioning God's burning indignation. Using the word "burn" twice is a nice touch. I'm especially moved by "zeal for the honor of your Church."

I wonder where these prayers came from?

Spring!

Spring began yesterday evening late. Here in Milwaukee the daffodils, tulips, and garlic are pocking their heads out of the ground. The pussy willow has its little, fuzzy blossoms (is that what they are?).

I've already planted peas and radishes. Onions will go in as soon as the sets appear in the local garden center.

"A sower went forth to sow...."

Aquinas and social distancing

This book is in the library at the seminary where I work.

Social distancing and the Mass

I watched a little bit of Bishop Barron's Mass this morning. Watching Mass on YouTube is painful. There is such a longing to be there. I can't imagine being separated from the Blessed Sacrament for weeks.I can't imagine what it is going to be like to go to Mass again.

How to engage the world while remaining pure of heart

What is the basis on which I can partake in contemporary culture without being corrupted by those aspects of it which are opposed to my Catholic identity?

Here are some thoughts, which probably need refining:

1. We need to have an interior sanctuary which is pure and innocent. In other words, we need a robust spiritual life focused on allowing the Lord to purify us. This is the heart.

2.  Around that we need to cultivate the natural and supernatural virtues and be docile to the gifts of the Spirit.

3. Around that we need assent to the truths of the Faith and the right use of reason.

4. Around that we need to cultivate a Catholic imagination.

5. Around that we need harmony with nature.

One must keep these things secure in order to negotiate the culture without being compromised or corrupted in mind, will, imagination, or spirit.

We can't do it alone. We need to be part of a community that is intentionally pursuing the same goal.

Wherever there is order...

I found this quotation on a piece of paper. It is in my handwriting, but it is in quotation marks, so I assume it is someone else's.  I have no idea where it came from. If you have any ideas, put it in the comments.

Wherever there is order, there is consolation; wherever there is a work of love of the Spirit, there are His divine fruits.

Coronavirus

One of the things the coronavirus does is give us the opportunity to ask ourselves what we can do for those who suffer? If our exclusive concern is self-protection, we are only accomplishing half of what this challenge is presenting to is.

Of course, avoiding unnecessary exposure to the contagen has a social value. It isn't just selfish.

But we may be called to take sure risk in order to he of assistance and a consolation to those who become ill.

This is a reminder to me, lest I get obsessed, as I can see me doing.

What is a saint?

One of my colleagues at work, Dr. Steven Shippee, is preparing a catechetical talk on the saints. He has given me permission to share the following paragraph, which is the introduction to his talk. I think he expresses well and creatively the importance of the saints in understanding the Catholic faith.

[The saints] are not an appendix to Catholic faith, not something you can skip but still really understand the book of Catholicism.  They are not an ancient holdover as an odd list of names recited at the Mass. They are, rather, manifestations of Christ and the Holy Spirit and the essence and fruit of their work of salvation.  And so they are actually the living book of Catholicism; this is why we join with them in prayer at the Mass.

Pearce on the theology of the Lord of the Rings

I ran across this video of Joseph Pearce addressing students at Christendom College about the Catholicism of the Lord of the Rings. I hesitate to look at things like that because I'm afraid it is just going to be an allegorical catalog--like "Aragorn is this, the Ring is that...."

It was refreshing to see that Pearce's analysis was not cursory and shallow, but marked by careful attention to the theological structure of the story and by perceptive spiritual insight.

I was going to say "piercing" spiritual insight, but I thought that might be too cute by half.

The spiritual cancer of blaming

We all have pasts that have shaped our present decisions and reactions, for good or ill. It is impossible to be completely free from the influence, no matter how much we want to be freed.

On the other hand, it seems that we have a tendency to exonerate ourselves from responsibility for our present life by blaming it on our past experiences.

As an adult I have a choice whether to let the past determine my present or not. Granted that our past traumas can cause physiological changes that condition our character, it is not true that we are trapped by the consequences of our part traumas. Healing cannot really begin until I accept responsibility for my life and cease putting the blame for my present difficulties and defects on anyone or anything else.

Blaming feeds resentment. Resentment is a cancer that poisons our relationships and our souls. It prevents genuine forgiveness--which is refusing to treat another according to his past offense, but rather as a beautiful child of God whom I can help flourish by being a channel of Divine charity. If I continue to punish the other because of my past or present pain, I cannot be light for the other.

Eighth Day Books

Maclin Horton noted Eighth Day Books on the Light on Dark Water blog. I guess I was vaguely aware of it in the past. It appears to have an Orthodox origin, if I read the catalog correctly. At any rate, if I were a book-buying person, I would certainly want a lot of the books in the catalog.

Here is the range of topics. Wow:


Art
  -  American
  -  Appreciation
  -  Architecture
  -  Art History
  -  By Artist
  -  By Period
  -  By Region
  -  Essays and Criticism
  -  General History
  -  Graphic Design
  -  Photography
  -  Reference
  -  Sacred Art

Biblical Studies
  -  Bibles (English and Other Languages)
  -  Biblical Reference
  -  General
  -  General New Testament
  -  General Old Testament
  -  Intertestamental
  -  Jesus
  -  New Testament Commentaries
  -  Old Testament Commentaries
  -  Paul
  -  Used Bibles
Biography

C. S. Lewis and Friends
Calendars
Catechetical Studies
  -  East
Catholic Studies
  -  Catechetical
Children's
  -  Activity Books
  -  Art, Music & Poetry
  -  Biography
  -  Christmas
  -  Dover
  -  First Books
  -  General
  -  Graded Readers
  -  History
  -  Mythology & Folklore
  -  Picture Books
  -  Science & Sports
  -  Stories of Faith
  -  Young Adult Fiction
Church History
  -  Celtic Studies
  -  Early
  -  General Topics
  -  Medieval
  -  Modern
  -  Reformation

Desert Tradition
  -  Primary Sources
  -  Secondary Sources

Eastern Christendom
  -  Catechetical Studies
Education
  -  Parenting & Childcare
Eighth Day Press
Essays, Criticism & Memoir
  -  If You Want to Write

Fiction & Literature
  -  About Reading
  -  Drama
  -  Literature Anthologies
  -  Mythology & Folklore
  -  Shakespeare
  -  Theatre & Film
Foreign Language Texts
  -  East Asian
  -  French
  -  German & Dutch
  -  Greek & Latin
  -  Middle East & Africa
  -  Miscellaneous Languages
  -  Romance Languages
  -  Scandinavian
  -  Slavic
  -  South Asian
  -  Spanish

Gift Books & Journals
  -  Art
  -  Journals & Address Books
  -  Photography & Coffee Table Books
  -  Poetry
  -  Seasonal
  -  Serendipities
  -  Stationary
  -  Typography
Greek & Latin Classics

Health
  -  Cookbooks
History
  -  Americana
  -  Ancient
  -  Asian
  -  Byzantine
  -  European
  -  General Topics
  -  Greek & Roman
  -  Jewish History
  -  Kansas & Regional
  -  Latin America
  -  Medieval
  -  Post-War
  -  Regional
  -  Renaissance
  -  Travel Narratives
  -  World Wars

Iconography
Icons
  -  Angels
  -  Biblical Narratives
  -  Christ
  -  Festal
  -  Saints
  -  Virgin Mary

Liturgy & Worship
  -  Liturgical Service Books

Music
  -  Dance

Patristics
  -  Primary Sources
  -  Secondary Sources
Periodicals
Philosophy
  -  Ethics
Philosophy & Linguistics
Poetry
  -  Anthologies
  -  Criticism
Political & Social Thought
Psychology
  -  Bereavement

Reference
  -  Travel Guides

Saints
  -  Angels
  -  East
  -  Virgin Mary
  -  West
Science
  -  Natural World
Serendipity
Spiritual Life
  -  Devotionals
  -  Pastoral Resources

Theology
  -  Mysticism
Tools Matter

World Religions
  -  Asian Religions
  -  Buddhism
  -  General
  -  Gnosticism
  -  Hinduism
  -  Islam
  -  Judaism
  -  Sufism
  -  Taoism
  -  Yoga
  -  Zen

The priority of the interior

We do not know the interior life of others, even those prominent orthodox Catholics that we admire so much. They may be doing and saying the right things in public, but are interiorly disordered. It will eventually show. Their sin will bring them down. 

This has happened to so many prominent Catholics in the past 30 years that it could be quite discouraging. I hesitate to name names, but I think you can fill in the blanks. We tend to make idols of those who publicly manifest values we hold dear. Of course, if you do not admire the person in the first place, or think that he is off base, you may be inclined to gloat at his fall.

The danger of inattention to our interior life applies to us all. If we are not taking care of our interior life, all the good that we do will be destroyed and others will be scandalized or vindicated. We can't continue with a false front. You will know a tree by its fruits.