New York Times pays for hate speech *UPDATED*

Here is another reason why the American press is not worth reading or listening to anymore.  The vile, ill-informed-but-that-doesn’t-stop-her-from-spouting-off-opinions-(and getting paid for it)-which-are-hateful-as-well-as-wrong, Maureen Dowd, shows her ignorance of and outright contempt for the Catholic Church.

Dowd has never met a conservative anything that she didn’t trash.  I don’t mean “criticize” I mean “trash.”  Who reads her?  It should be declared hate speech. 

The New York Times is so consistently, liberally outrageous, it has become a joke.  Unfortunately, they lost their sense of humor when they lost their ethics and objectivity, so they haven’t gotten that the the joke is on them yet.  Perhaps when they go through a couple more cycles of firings and layoffs. 

Excuse me while I go shower off the Ick that was left on me by reading Maureen Dowd.  :-P

originally post stamp:  Published on: Oct 26, 2009 @ 13:58 Edit

UPDATE:   Well, Maureen really has done it now.  Seems Catholics Liberal and Conservative are equally offended by her rant.  Anna Arco’s Diary has the details.

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The antidote for Maureen Dowd

If you read through NYT’s Maureen Dowd spewing venom and rage in your face, then you may want need the antidote.  Via Without Having Seen (thanks Ryan!) comes the ever rational, ever calm, ever loving Fr. Barron to put a proper perspective on the Apostolic Visitation of U.S. Women Religious.  A perfect antidote!

 

 

Thank you Jesus for sending us lights to guide us in the darkness.  Thank you Holy Spirit for imparting Wisdom to lights like Fr Barron, that through them Truth might be known.  And thanks Fr. Barron for the right message at the right time.

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Rome: the beauty that saves

La Pieta by an evangelist named Michelangelo Buonarroti of Florence. Countless conversions have occurred at its pedestal.

From Paulist Father Tom Holahan at the Catholic News Service Blog (via Intentional Disciples) comes this beautiful description of the evangelizing qualities of Rome:

Rome, in its way, is a 500-year-old evangelization machine. The buildings and art created as a response to the Protestant critique still call to people who are searching and create a mood of reflection. Just before I arrived in Rome, I met an industrial psychologist who was a Christian but now follows a Native American practice. He told me that, when he went to the Vatican, sunbeams from the dome of the church hit Michelangelo’s Pieta and brought tears to his eyes.

A week ago I heard from two nuns, dressed in habits, who were stopped on the street by a Japanese tourist. She wanted to know, could they possibly spare a few moments to explain Christianity to her? Yesterday a Syrian found his way to our English-speaking church (he knew no Italian) asking the same question. He told me he had no particular faith, but he had been impressed with the Syrian Orthodox while in his own country and now, before he had to leave the country because of a document problem, he wanted to find out more. He asked his questions urgently, “And, so, Jesus was the Son of God?” “He promised eternal life?” Searching Americans approach the faith issue differently. One recently told me he “gave up on God” when the Supreme Being did not cure his depression and taking a little pill did. I said there may come a time when something can’t be fixed, then what?

Now friends, when you hear nonsense like “the Pope should sell the Vatican and give the money away to the poor”, you know the answer for yourself.  Even if the Pope could sell off Vatican treasures (he can’t) and there were someone to buy them (who could afford the price tag of the Pauline Chapel?), why would we sell off one of the best conversion-delivery systems we have?  That is why we are here, to bring ourselves closer to our Lord and bring all the world the Good News of Jesus Christ.  The wonder that is Rome– the collection of centuries of sacred art, architecture, and culture– belongs to all of us, rich and poor alike, Italian, American, Japanese, Syrian, Catholic or Agnostic who may walk around not only Rome but within the Vatican and share in their treasures, and bask in their beauty.  It is this beauty through which God permits His grace to flow, changing minds and converting hearts.   This is what Pope John Paul the Second called “the beauty that saves.”  Fr. Holahan is right:  Rome is an evangelization machine.

The Church has long recognized the power of the sacred arts to communicate truth and to turn souls devoutly toward Christ. Throughout Christian history, the Church has commissioned great works of art, architecture, and music to advance her mission of worship, catechesis, and evangelization, inviting the world more deeply into the mysteries of the faith.–The Foundation for Sacred Arts Mission Statement

Rather than feed the poor for a day, let’s give them the food of eternal life.

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Cooperate with grace — the butterfly effect of sin

That sneaky Mark Shea must have seen my previous post, cause he’s writing about to me in today’s Catholic Exchange.

Moral: It is not progress to make a little bad choice and then spend years (sometimes a lifetime) reinforcing and elaborating an immense psychological, physical and moral defensive mechanism to protect that (often forgotten) choice. Progress, in such a case, is to admit that our elaborate mechanism isn’t working and to take it apart, piece by piece, and give it all back to God till we arrive at the central sin that we have been guarding and incubating like a cancer at the core of our being.

I think what Mark is saying is that sin often usually has a butterfly effect:  a small seemingly innocuous disobedience leads on to more sin, often of a greater magnitude of offensiveness and the consequences may not be seen for years if not decades later.  We must, as Mark writes, give it over to God, and we must be willing to work as He wills.  But first, we must be still as Elijah, and hear Him in the whispering wind.  Only then may we finally recognize the paths of destruction that we have willingly taken ourselves down.

These paths of destruction could also be described as Cascading Failure,  an even better description of my young adulthood. 

The truth shall set you free! 

View full article here: Dismantling the Progress Machine!

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Anglican Ordinariate: “preparations have been made at levels that are higher than popes”

A sign? Relics of St. Therese Ecumenical Service, Bishop George Stack, Guest Preacher Rt Rev’d Graeme Knowles, Dean Of St Paul’s Cathedral. Oct. 13, 2009

 

For my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways, says the LORD.  As high as the heavens are above the earth, so high are my ways above your ways and my thoughts above your thoughts.  For just as from the heavens the rain and snow come down and do not return there till they have watered the earth, making it fertile and fruitful, giving seed to him who sows and bread to him who eats, so shall my word be that goes forth from my mouth; it shall not return to me void, but shall do my will, achieving the end for which I sent it.  –Isaiah 55: 8-11

As I read about the pilgrimage of the relics of St. Thérèse across Great Britain, I remember thinking, “Wow, how incredible that such a progression should be allowed in the land of the English Reformation, in a nation which cannot have a Roman Catholic Prime Minister.”  I thought that the crowds coming to see her relics were remarkable and the fact that the relics were on view in the cathedral halls of the Church of England was very…surprising, to say the least.

Now it appears that the Little Flower, St. Thérèse of the Child Jesus and the Holy Face has been interceding on behalf of our Anglican and Episcopalian brothers and sisters.  And she, via her relics, may have been sent to Great Britain as part of God’s plan, to ease the way for the Traditional Anglican Communion to return to the Mother Church. 

From the Catholic Key Blog:

Thursday, October 22, 2009

Anglican Bishop Confirms St. Therese is Behind Anglican Ordinariate

Yesterday we conveyed the suspicion of former Episcopal and now Kansas City Catholic priest, Father Ernie Davis, that the intercession of St. Therese of Lisieux was behind the Vatican’s move to provide a structure to welcome Anglicans into full communion. Now, the Anglican Catholic Bishop of Canada strongly confirms that thought.

Father Davis, who leads St. Therese Little Flower parish in Kansas City which hosts an Anglican Use community, wrote of the news from the Vatican:

Anglicans and Catholics flocked to visit the relics of Saint Therese of Lisieux as they made a very recent pilgrimage to England. Her relics rested on her 2009 feast day at York Minster, the Cathedral of the Anglican Archbishop of York. When I read about that, I told the people here at St. Therese Little Flower that she was working on something big. In other words, preparations for this Apostolic Constitution have been in process for 170 years, and some of the preparations have been made at levels that are higher than popes.   (emphasis mine)

The Traditional Anglican Communion Bishop of Canada saw the claim and sent an email today to Father Davis with remarkable details of St. Therese’ intercession. Here’s the email:

Dear Father Davis,

Your story about the Anglican Ordinariate and St Therese (which came to me via England this morning) is very interesting. And I can tell you another connexion with her.

I am the Anglican Catholic Bishop of Canada in the TAC. I was present at the Synod of TAC Bishops in Portsmouth England in October 2007 which voted unanimously to ask for full communion, and signed the Catechism of the Catholic Church. The first full day of the Synod was October 1st, the ‘new’ date of St Therese’s feast, and the actual vote to ask for full communion was taken on October 3rd ‘old’ date of her feast.

I also accompanied the Primate and Bishop Robert Mercer CR to deliver the Letter to the CDF where we had been directed by the Holy Father. My friend Mother Teresa of the Carmel in Edmonton had given me some holy cards with a piece of cloth touched to her relics. Each of us carried one of these cards, and we asked St Therese’s prayers on our venture. We also had similar cards from Poland of the Servant of God John Paul II.

I have continued ‘to bother her’ about a favourable response to our request, and now thanks to the generosity and love of the Holy Father who has taken a personal interest in us for many years, and the prayers of St Therese, something wonderful has come about.

God bless you,

+Peter Wilkinson, OSG
Bishop Ordinary
Anglican Catholic Church of Canada
TAC

Father Davis has posted the letter at his blog, which is also on our blog roll. He’s been quiet for a while, working on a book, but I’ll bet it’ll be worth checking in there as things progress.

It would seem that St. Thérèse is fulfilling her desire to be a missionary and her promise to shower the world with roses.  From the St. Thérèse Relics Blog (chronicling the visit across England and Wales), here is what Most Reverend Fernando Millán (Prior General– Order of Carmelites) had to say during the homily at the Farewell Mass at the Friars, Aylesford.  After remarking on the success of the visit in terms of number of pilgrims who attended and reported personal conversions that occurred, he said: 

– The second success is no less important. Many have underlined the ecumenical importance of this visit. Not only Catholics, but also Anglicans, Methodists, Buddhists, and people without religious affiliation… came to visit the relics. There is something so basic, so fundamental, so essential in the message of Therese that many people, no matter what their religious confession, feel she has something to say to them.

Perhaps (among many other elements of her spiritual teaching) we find with Therese that God is not a God of fear, a God of implacable Justice, a God before whom we feel afraid. When Therese listened to talk of the justice of God, instead of being sad and fearful… she was quite happy: “God knows how weak we are!” When Therese was writing this, in France there was still a very strong influence from Jansenism. That was a religious group or movement, with very good people and very committed Christians, who were worried about the level and the quality of religious life in France. They were asking for a greater seriousness, more commitment, and they were always stressing the justice of God and the gravity of sin. That is fine and there is nothing wrong with it. But, Jansenism forgotten the key point, the essential element, the basis of the Gospel and Christian life is not rules, justice, norms for punishment… but that it is about grace, love, mercy and freedom. That is the secret of Therese; that is perhaps also the secret of her success…

If, after this visit we are a little bit closer to the Gospel of Our Lord Jesus Christ; if we have been able to forgive somebody; if we have decided to remove form our hearts hatred and prejudice; if we trust more in God, even when we are suffering; if we are ready to feel the love of God in our lives… if only one person has received that message and is willing to live it… the visit has been a great, great success, and we can say that it was worthy to bring the relics of this Carmelite to this country. I am sure that not only one person, but a lot of people today are a little bit closer to God, and so a bit closer to others around them. I am sure that we all have grown these days in faith, in humanity, in tenderness in solidarity…

THANK YOU, LITTLE THERESE, FOR BEING WITH US. YOU SAID THAT YOU WOULDN’T BE PASSIVE IN HEAVEN, BUT VERY ACTIVE. PLEASE, INTERCEDE FOR US, FOR OUR FAMILIES, FOR OUR COUNTRIES, FOR PEACE AROUND THE WORLD. INTERCEDE ESPECIALLY FOR ALL THOSE WHO SUFFER, ALL THOSE WHO ARE SICK AND LONELY, ALL THOSE WHO NEED MORE OF OUR LOVE AND OUR PRAYER… AMEN

Emphasis mine.

We cannot know in what ways God is acting in the world, we cannot see as He sees but in hindsight, when we view how miraculously events unfold, we can see His Hand.  The convergence of the many known (and the countless unknown) events leading up to the Vatican announcement suggest a larger plan unfolding.  Providence?  We shall have to wait and see.  In the meantime, let us all pray that we the Church and our Holy Father Pope Benedict be guided by the Holy Spirit, that God’s will be done on earth.   We can be assured that God’s word will indeed achieve His Will. 

How awesome is our God! 

Anglican Bishop Confirms St. Therese is Behind Anglican Ordinariate.

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Faith of our (kneeling) Fathers

St. Stephen's Cathedral in Metz.

I came across this picture tonight.  It is an interior photo of the very tall nave in the Metz Cathedral (Cathédrale Saint-Étienne de Metz).  The nave it shows is over 40 meters high!   That’s impressive, but that fact is not why I am posting this photo. 

As I was admiring the beauty of the cathedral, I noted that it has chairs instead of pews.  My very first thought was about how hard it would be to set out all of those chairs.  My next thought was, boy, I sure bet it’s difficult to keep all them straightly aligned, they must be knocked about pretty constantly….My next thought (stick with me, my thought process is rather tangential) was remembering that all the great churches of Europe lacked pews and chairs, and I immediately went into my next thought about how many thousands millions of Catholics through the centuries got down on their knees on the cold stone floor to pray and worship our Lord.   Not for timed “one hour masses.”  No, these were full on liturgical, Gregorian chanted, only the ordained priests touched the sacrament, loooong affairs.  Several times a day.  Everyday.  When it was time to kneel, our predecessors got down on the stone…or tile…or bare floor.  On. Their. Knees.  And NOW we come to the reason why I posted the picture of the beautiful Metz Cathedral.  Seeing this picture reminded me….  

I remembered something my mom told me when I was a little girl.  It was a moment that will stay with me all of my life.  We were getting ready to go to church for Good Friday.  My mom told me that when she herself was a girl, she was moved to see, every Good Friday, all the faithful Polish men of her parish approaching the Wood of the Cross on their knees, and weeping profusely.  She told me, “Crying, they were crying.  Gruff men, men like Grandpa!”  And she repeated, shaking her head in awe, “They went the whole way on their knees!  on the hard floor!”  Though decades had passed, I could still hear the awe and emotion in my mom’s voice.

I remark this kind of faith and adoration, to approach our Lord in humility, in suffering, in sacrifice, in total gratitude.   Would that today we see such faith! 

I don’t know when I became aware that Protestants don’t kneel.  I do not know when I noticed a lack of kneelers in their churches.  But Catholics kneel.  I have always thought of our kneeling-ness.  And that reminds me of another family story.   Whenever we would see my mom’s extended family, my dad would tell the story of attending Mass early in my parents’ marriage with my mom’s cousin, the nun.   She stood next to my dad (then a Lutheran) and throughout the Mass “barked orders under her breath like a drill sergeant –‘Sit!…Kneel!…Stand!’”  I still think of that story at odd times and hear in my head, “Sit! Kneel! Stand!”  It makes me smile.  I love the kneeling.  I love the Church for kneeling.  It makes us special because it makes us submissive.   But over the decades, I have noticed a sad trend away from kneeling during Mass, even before and after Eucharist.   

Because of that story my mom told me when I was a kid, my attitude about kneeling during the Mass is completely different than most modern Catholics.  For instance, at my parish we have a few pew sections where there are no kneelers.  So,  I make sure that my family is the one which gets one of the ‘no kneeler pews’.  We are kneelers in my family, and I would just as soon that it be my kids and me on our knees on the uncomfortable floor, than another family which most likely would then feel permitted to sit all through the Mass.  I tell my kids, “With all Christ suffered for us, we can kneel on the carpet for 15 minutes.”  When our knees hurt, we know to think, “Thank you, Lord, for letting us share in your suffering.”  (When we first started doing this, the kids weren’t too happy but now they never complain.)    I have found that our example sometimes seems to affect others in ‘no kneeler pews’, although that is not why we are doing it.  We do it because we can choose to do it, we do it as a love offering to our fellow parishioners so that they don’t have to, and even more importantly, we do it so that they will not be tempted to ‘sit out’ the worship.  We are helping them avoid this near occasion of …ingratitude and complacency. 

In our modern society, we might think it is undignified to kneel.  We might feel like it is uncomfortable and unnecessary.  But kneeling has never been comfortable or dignified.  The whole point, in fact the very reason why kneeling is NECESSARY, is because it demonstrates physically that we honor God, and submit to His Will.  When we worship God, a necessary part of the worship is to acknowledge that He is great, and we are…not.  If we cannot prostrate ourselves before our Lord, I fear our faith is shallow and our self-importance deep. 

We are not doing God a favor by being in church on Sunday.  We are not working our way into God’s good graces.  We are allowed, through God’s infinite mercy, to be filled with all the blessings that the Mass imparts, to witness a miracle every Eucharist, to join in Christ’s divinity through it.  We are honored and we are humbled and we say, “For you alone are the Holy One!  You alone are the Lord!  You alone are the Most High, Jesus Christ!” 

The LORD’S fire came down and consumed the holocaust, wood, stones, and dust, and it lapped up the water in the trench.  Seeing this, all the people fell prostrate and said, “The LORD is God! The LORD is God!”  — 1 Kings 18:39

Prayer:   Jesus, You graciously and mercifully bore our sins upon Your back, suffering not only torture and death, but humiliation and scorn.  Thank you!  Lord, I beg You to work in me a miracle–convert my heart to love You with a fullness that drives out selfish thoughts for myself.  Do not permit that my pride keep me from worshipping You in true love, as You deserve.  Lord, You bring all sinners who seek You to forgiveness and grace.  Fill me with grace now, I humbly ask.  Amen.

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How wealthy is the Vatican?

Via Mark Shea’s Catholic and Enjoying It! blog comes this enlightening overview of ‘the immeasurable wealth’ of the Vatican. 

I’ve been re-reading The Fellowship of the Ring and the immeasurable wealth of Bilbo is mentioned as one of the fixed myths of the folk of Hobbiton. At one point, sundry residents of the town flood into Bag End, nosing about for treasure, convinced that there’s no end to it.

Something similar obtains in the world of ignorant popular anti-Catholicism in the English-speaking world concerning the limitless wealth of the Vatican (and, by the way, that world of ignorant anti-Catholicism extends to not a few Catholics in the US). The notion is that the Vatican is a sumptuous treasure house worth enough instantly end world poverty if those greedy prelate would just sell off their wealth (you know, the way the nationalization of the Russian Churches, instantly ended the state-created famines of the Stalin era).

Here’s the actual story from the intrepid John Allen:

In the public’s imagination, the Vatican is awash in priceless art, hidden Nazi gold, plundered treasures from around the world, and vast assets tucked away from prying eyes in the Vatican Bank. Reality is far more prosaic. To put it bluntly, the Vatican is not rich. It has an annual operating budget of $260 million, which would not place it on any Top 500 list of major social institutions. To draw a comparison in the non-profit sector, Harvard University has an annual operating budget of a little over $1.3 billion, which means it could run the equivalent of five Vaticans every year and still have pocket change left over. The Holy See’s budget would qualify it as a mid-sized American Catholic college. It’s bigger than Loyola-Marymount in Los Angeles (annual budget of $150 million) or Saint Louis University ($174 million), but substantially less than the University of Notre Dame ($500 million).

The total patrimony of the Holy See, meaning its property holdings (including some 30 buildings and 1,700 apartments in Rome), its investments, its stock portfolios and capital funds, and whatever it has storied up in a piggy bank for a rainy day, comes to roughly $770 million. This is substantial, but once again one has to apply a sense of scale. What the Holy See calls “patrimony” is roughly what American universities mean by an “endowment” – in other words, funds and other assets designed to support the institution if operating funds fall short. The University of Notre Dame has an endowment of $3.5 billion, meaning a total 4.5 times as great as the Vatican’s.

But what of the some 18,000 artistic treasures in the Holy See, such as the Pietà, that don’t show up on these ledgers? From the Holy See’s point of view, these artworks are part of the artistic heritage of the world, and may never be sold or borrowed against. Michelangeo’s famous Pieta statue, the Sistine Chapel, or Raphael’s famous frescoes in the Apostolic Palace are thus listed at a value of 1 Euro each. In fact, those treasures amount to a net drain on the Holy See’s budget, because millions of Euros have to be allocated every year for maintenance and restoration.

It was that notorious enemy of the poor, Dorothy Day**, who opposed stupid schemes to take art out of the Churches because she was perfectly aware of the fact that it was actually a scheme to make even more art the private property of a few rich people. At present, the “treasures of the Vatican” are the property of every beggar in Rome who wishes for something to alleviate the pain of his life and lift his thoughts to God. Under the Judas Iscariot Plan for Wealth Redistribution (Motto: Why were these things not sold and the proceeds given to the poor?”) the “treasures of the Vatican” become treasures in some guy’s villa or in some pricey museum where cultured despisers can go to sneer at the stuff people used to believe.

**Luce’s note:  I believe that Mark is being sardonic here.  If you do not know who Dorothy Day was, she was a lifelong champion for the poor.

Bilbo‘s Immeasurable Wealth.

update:  see related post  Rome: The Beauty That Saves.

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Surprising Vatican move invites Anglicans to come home with fewer hurdles *Update*

From the Associated Press:

VATICAN CITY – The Vatican announced a stunning decision Tuesday to make it easier for Anglicans to convert, reaching out to those who are disaffected by the election of women and gay bishops to join the Catholic Church‘s conservative ranks.

Pope Benedict XVI approved a new church provision that will allow Anglicans to join the Catholic Church while maintaining many of their distinctive spiritual and liturgical traditions, including having married priests.

This is surprising and I think good news.  It seems to have caught everyone off guard.  The article has the usual reporting-on-the-Vatican mistakes, as well as the seemingly mandated outlandish conclusions (“By welcoming them in with their own special provision, Benedict has confirmed the increasingly conservative bent of his church.”  Huh?  Come again? making special provisions is loosening, not tightening.)   Oh, and they managed to get in a snarky reference to the Bishop fiasco.  Arrgh.

We can hope that many Anglicans will jump at this chance.  They were coming home before, and this will only make returning home to Rome easier.  Heck, maybe even QEII will come home:  we ‘know’ that she has grown increasingly sympathetic to the Catholic Church while reports are that she is ‘appalled’ at the direction of the church which she nominally leads.  

Oh, how much I would like to see the evil wrought through one man’s lust reversed. 

Pray, brethren, pray!

 

UPDATE:  As usual, Thomas Peters, the American Papist, is all over the news, providing great links to the many important voices weighing in on this fantubulous development.

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Answering Russ’ question — 30,000 little popes can’t add up to the promise of Jesus

Herewith I answer Russ’ question from earlier today.  I am posting it separately instead of in the comments section because I got carried away again and it wouldn’t all fit into the comments box.

To those new to this discussion, these exchanges in the Comments started with my October 6th post  More on the Problem of Authority, continued into Answering Russ’ Questions–Many are Called, Few are Chosen, and went back to More on the Problem of Authority.  To catch you up, I have quoted below the most recent exchange between my reader Russ and me (his original comments are at More on the Problem of Authority).    Russ’ comment and question from earlier  today finishes the series and my answer follows:

Russ    October 12, 2009 at 2:33 pm

Can I ask you all a question? In Mathew 3:2 Jesus says, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand!” If you were alive at the time of Jesus and you heard Him say this, would you repent or would you ignore Him?

edit this on October 13, 2009 at 4:55 pm | Reply LuceMichael

Russ,

I believe wholeheartedly that upon hearing that the kingdom was at hand, I would have repented immediately.

….Unfortunately, I am pretty certain that by the next day I would have lapsed back into my neglectful, proud and sinful ways. >.>

I am in a constant state of conversion, but as my life and attitude mature, I find that I am getting better at avoiding temptation and near occasions, have improved judgment, (slightly) more patience and lots more charity.

My pastor just quoted an author in his homily who said, “God doesn’t expect us to be perfect, but He wants to see that we are making progress.”

I’m making progress.

Peace.

Russ   October 19, 2009 at 5:15 pm

LuceMichael,

Who’s interpretation would you use to know what Jesus was really saying? If you insist that people cannot interpret the word of God themselves, then you are insisting that the people who heard Jesus say, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” should just ignore Him until the first Pope, Peter, tells them exactly what Jesus meant.

God not only allows us to interpret His word, He expects us to know and understand and interpret His word even as He expected those that heard Him say, “Repent, for the kingdom…” to actually repent at the sound of His voice.

 

 

Christ's Charge to Peter by Raphael 1515-16 The master combines two different Biblical passages, Matt 16:18-19 (Keys to the Kingdom) and John 21:15-17 (Feed My Sheep)

My answer today: 

Russ!  welcome back!  what long pauses we have and it seems that we are still mired in this Catholic / Protestant debate.

First of all, I will reiterate that I am not a theologian.  I should also mention that I’m not an apologist either and my weblog is not about Protestant errors or conversions.  I do post Protestant-related material from time to time, mostly when it amuses me and sometimes when it confuses me.  I guess I kinda stepped in it this time.  :-P  I do worry that our back-and-forth tends to take my little weblog on a confrontational path that I would not want to continue down, although I will venture that way for a little while with you.

Your suggestion that listening directly to Jesus preach is analogous (is the same as) with reading Scripture (written 60-80 years after His death) in modern times— 2000 years after His Ascension, after many translations and through a different lens of history and culture–is sophistic and therefore, I am not going to address it.   However, I will answer the rest of the spirit of your comment.

I do not know where you get the idea that God “expects us to understand and interpret His Word.”  Is that in Scripture somewhere, because again, I’m not a Biblical scholar or theologian and I’ll need help finding the citation.  I wouldn’t want to put words in God’s mouth. ;-)   Having said that, I do know many places in Scripture where we are directed to ‘not lean on our own understanding’ (Prov 3:5)  but rather are encouraged to listen to the teachings of the Apostles and Church.  Here are some of them:

1. Now there was an Ethiopian eunuch…reading the prophet Isaiah…[Philip] asked “do you understand what you are reading?” He replied “How can I unless someone guides me?” and he invited Philip [note: the Apostle] to get in and sit beside him (Acts 8:30-31)
2. So the Levites read from the book, from the law of God, with interpretation. They gave the sense, so that the people understood the reading. (Nehemiah 8:8)
3. Jesus even told the rabbis:  “You are mistaken, not understanding the Scriptures, or the power of God” (Matthew 22:29)
4. Peter warned against personal interpretation of the prophetic writings (2 Peter 18-21)
5. Jesus didn’t consecrate all of us to the Truth, he consecrated the Apostles (John 17)
6. Nowhere in Sacred Scripture does Jesus command anyone to write and read.  However, there are repeated instances of Him commanding to PREACH and HEAR. (citations too numerous to list)
7. All of what Jesus said and did was not written down in the Gospels.  John admits as much.  Twice.  (John 20, John 21)  
8. However, we can be assured that the Apostles did not forget and preached and passed on the traditions that Jesus taught them.   “Therefore, brothers, stand firm and hold fast to the traditions that you were taught, either by an oral statement or by a letter of ours.” (Second Paul to the Thessalonians—2 Thess 2)
9. Somewhere, in one of the letters, I know Paul instructs his brothers to correct errant brethren, and if that doesn’t work, take it to the Church.  I am too tired to remember the verse.  (help?)

I disagree with your statement that God expected those who heard His voice to repent.  Scripture is clear that it was in fact just the opposite:  Jesus expected most people to turn away from Him and His message.  See:

• “Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the road broad that leads to destruction, and those who enter through it are many.  How narrow the gate and constricted the road that leads to life. And those who find it are few.”  Matt 7: 13-14
• “Many are invited but few are chosen.” — Matt 22:14
• “The Son of Man is to be handed over to men and they will kill him, and three days after his death he will rise.”  Mark 9:31
• “Brother will hand over brother to death, and the father his child; children will rise up against parents and have them put to death. You will be hated by all because of my name.”  Mark 13:13
• He departed from there and came to his native place,  accompanied by his disciples.  When the sabbath came he began to teach in the synagogue, and many who heard him were astonished. They said, “Where did this man get all this? What kind of wisdom has been given him? What mighty deeds are wrought by his hands! Is he not the carpenter, the son of Mary, and the brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon? And are not his sisters here with us?” And they took offense at him.  Jesus said to them, “A prophet is not without honor except in his native place and among his own kin and in his own house.”  
• The parable of the rich man and Lazarus–“‘If they will not listen to Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded if someone should rise from the dead.'”  Luke 16:31

Russ, where in the Bible does it say to rely only on the Bible?  Where does it say sola scriptura?  In fact, where in the Bible does it mention ‘the Bible’?  Why did Jesus commission His Apostles to go preach the Word, but didn’t commission them to write it down? 

Finally, I would suggest that if interpreting the Bible and leaning on one’s own IMPERFECT understanding were so ‘fool-proof’, then we would not see 30,000+ different Protestant denominations.  Wouldn’t God, whose Son Jesus desired unity for His Church, prayed for unity and told us that His Father would grant Him whatever He asked–wouldn’t Almighty God have made sure that all 30,000 of your “little popes” (Luther) would have agreed on interpreting His word?  If understanding God’s word were easily accomplished by everyone, laity and ministers and theologians all–IF THAT WERE THE CASE–then that would leave only TWO churches:  the CATHOLIC Church and the PROTESTANT Church.  Luther would have been proved right, and the apostolic church would have been proven wrong.  But you can see from history alone that not only was Luther wrong, but that his wrongness was heresy, because his legacy is not “the ONE PROTESTANT Church”.  No.  Instead, there are over 30,000 Christian sects fighting each other over a myriad of issues including baptism, salvation, sacraments, homosexuality, abortion, segregation, female ministers, rapture, creationism, divorce, Sabbath, end times, gambling, alcohol, head coverings, speaking in tongues, gay marriage, Trinitarian issues, infant baptism, tithing, governmental taxes, grace, prayer and even music. What we have is the Tower of Babel:   a loud, nonsensical clamor that is coming from literally thousands of different voices from ‘little popes’–

the Anglicans and Episcopalians (high and low)–[note: founded by an adulteror and murderer], the Lutherans (4 major American synods, 30+ divisions), the Unitarians, the Congregationalists, the Presbyterians (reformed and other), the Methodists, the Wesleyan division, the Baptists (Over one hundred subdivisions!), the African Methodist Church, the Dutch Reformed, the Disciples of Christ, the Assemblies of God, the Anabaptists, the Pentecostals (gee whiz, how many of them are there?), the Seventh Day Adventists, the Church of Christ, the Church of Christ Scientist, the Church of the Nazarene, the Church of God,  the United Church of Christ (so much for truth in advertising), the United Christian Church (ditto), Uncle Max’s Bible Church down the street, the Living Word church across from Wal-mart, the Bible Fellowship church in the old bowling alley, the Harvest Church out RR1, Grace Chapel in the mobile home, Calvary Temple, the Quakers, the Shakers, the Mennonites, the Mormons and uh, Jehovah’s Witnesses.

That’s a lot of popes!  Even Wikipedia can’t keep up:

Note: This is not a complete list, but aims to provide a comprehensible overview of the diversity among denominations of Christianity. As there are reported to be over 38,000 Christian denominations, many of which cannot be verified to be significant, only those denominations with Wikipedia articles will be listed in order to ensure that all entries on this list are notable and verifiable.

Note: Between denominations, theologians, and comparative religionists there are considerable disagreements about which groups can be properly called Christian, disagreements arising primarily from doctrinal differences between groups. For the purpose of simplicity, this list is intended to reflect the self-understanding of each denomination. Explanations of different opinions concerning their status as Christian denominations can be found at their respective articles.  [emphasis mine]

This is not the unity for which Christ prayed (John 17).  Even Martin Luther, at the end of his life, bemoaned that “there are now as many doctrines as there are heads.”  Which just proves 1 John 4:1 – “Beloved, do not trust every spirit but test the spirits to see whether they belong to God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.”   Clearly, there are about 40,000 false prophets.  In the meantime, the Catholic Church keeps on keeping on, still holding to, still teaching the same dogma it taught 2000 years ago. 

In defense and explanation of myself,  in regard to your original question about repenting if I heard Jesus say to, I would like you to know that (after our Lord died) I would have also repented had I heard Peter, Paul, Thomas, John the Evangelist, St. Irenaeus or any of the early Church fathers preach the Good News, which—by the way, Russ–is how the world was converted to Christianity.  The first 400 years after Jesus death, it was in fact the word of the Apostles, the teachings of the Catholic Church that spread the Good News, and those teachings were not clear even to the Apostles.  Peter and Paul debated (as we see in Acts) theological points and had many differences, e.g. the question of Jewish law applied to Gentiles.  The early Church decided how to resolve this, with the primacy of the chair in Rome being acknowledged within the first decades of the Church.  Heresies and the proliferation of “inspired Gospels” made it imperative for the Church to write down the oral tradition.  As I said before, it was the Church, the holy apostolic catholic Church that collected the writings.  Russ, when you sit down to read the Bible, you are *de facto* accepting the teaching authority of the Catholic Church, of the Magisterium and of the Pope.  You are saying, I agree that the Catholic Church was right about the canon of the Bible.  There is no way around that.  Your Bible is– at its foundation– the work of the teaching authority of the Catholic Church.  (You’re welcome.)

(Speaking of which, which version of the Bible are you reading?    Do you know Aramaic, Greek, Hebrew or Latin?  Do you read the texts in their original language?  Or are you RELYING on someone else’s interpretation?  Whose interpretation and translation are you reading?  I read on Christianity Today that a big battle is brewing over the newest ‘translation’ of the Protestant Bible.  Seems there’s going to be a lot of gender-neutral language in the next version.  Boy, I’m sure glad the Magisterium would never allow that in the Catholic Church.  Anyways…just thought I should let you know that decisions about the Word of God–translations, interpretations, changes to text, modernizing, etc.–are being made for you …not by the Holy Spirit but by some publishers in Wheaton, Illinois.  Oh, and did you know, Martin Luther added a word to your Bible.  He was called on it by other Protestant Reformers and he basically said, “I don’t care, it’s my Bible.”  I wonder what the Evangelist Paul would have to say about Martin Luther claming the Bible as his own plaything and changing Paul’s inspired text…. Oh, what was the word Luther added?  He added “only” to the passage about…oh gosh, I don’t want to spoil it.  You should look it up.)

Speaking for myself, Russ–

• I believe that Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross and His resurrection was sufficient to redeem the world. 
• I believe that ancient Hebrew Scripture reflects God’s plan for our redemption from the beginning of time, which is Salvation History, a history that was fulfilled in the coming of the Messiah, Jesus Christ.
• I believe that God’s salvific plan was completed in Jesus and Jesus alone. 
• I believe that Jesus consecrated His apostles and commissioned them to go preach the Good News to all the ends of the world. 
• I believe that they did just this, through the holy Catholic Church, and guided by the Holy Spirit that Jesus sent to them.   
• I do not believe that Jesus died on the cross and rose from the dead, only to have His message absconded by a whore and the antichrist, with the message perverted or lost for 1500 years until Martin Luther came and saved it.  I do not believe Christ failed, and I do not believe that the birth of Martin Luther was necessary to bail Him out.  I do not believe that God sent Martin Luther as the real messiah.
• I believe in our Savior, Lord Jesus Christ, and I, like the Catholic Church, “preach Christ crucified” (1 Corinthians 1:23), NOT ‘Martin Luther justified.’
• I do not believe Martin Luther is part of God’s salvation plan at all .  And that is what all the Protestant Reformation boils down to:  whether you believe Jesus Christ when He gave Peter the keys and promised eternal protection for the Church, OR whether you believe that a second messiah was needed to come and resurrect Jesus’ teachings. 

The question for yourself is what you believe.  It is up to each of us to decide for ourselves.  “As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”

Best wishes on your faith journey, Russ.  I do not think I can help you anymore, not only because I’m unqualified but most in particular because I get agitated, argumentative and somewhat snippy, and that’s not why I have this little online diary.  If you feel the need to debate Catholic theology further, I recommend that you click on the link to the right for Catholic Answers.  Those guys are great: smart, funny, truly Biblical and they are all Catholic Apologists–it’s what they do for a living.  It’s not really my gig. 

May the peace that surpasses all understanding be yours.

Luce

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Passing on the gift of reciting the Rosary

Okay, I have to make a separate post for these reflections from Sr. Nicolette Etienne’s weblog,  So That In All Things…God May Be Glorified!   Sr. Etienne apparently made all her students Job’s Tears Rosaries which she let them chose.  Then they had them blessed by the pastor.  They then prayed the Rosary together and wrote down their reflections.  These reflections are in several places in her ‘blog, but if you click on the September 2009 archive you will find them all.  They are really too awesome!  Here are a few gems (be sure to find them all):

Receiving a Rosary that was hand made by Sr. Nicolette meant a lot to me. It was nice and calm when we prayed the Rosary in church. It was a good reflection time. When the girls led the Rosary and the guys answered it sounded really nice to me. Having our Rosaries blessed by Fr. Stan made it even more special. Having a blessed Rosary feels good. This Rosary is special for three reasons: 1. Because it is hand made. 2. Because it is my first blessed Rosary. 3. Because I got to pick the Rosary I wanted. Thank you for making the Rosaries for us. It means a whole lot! Thanks once again. (Christian L.) (Kaitlin O.)

Whenever I have my Rosary I remember that Mary is with me. Since my Rosary is blessed it seems more special. When we prayed the Rosary…nothing else really mattered. I knew God was with me. While saying the Hail Marys all my worries were lifted off my shoulders. I prayed for my family and friends. I prayed for the poor and the sick. I felt so much better having prayed for all the people closest to me. I felt even better praying for people who never had anyone to pray for them. The best thing about my Rosary is that it will bring me closer to God!

The Rosary means a lot to me because my great grandmother and myself used to say the Rosary together. She passed away over the summer. Her favorite prayer was the Hail Mary. That is why the Rosary means so much to me. When I chose my Rosary I feel I didn’t just have the Mother Mary there with me but both my great grandmother and Mother Mary! When Father Stan blessed our Rosaries I was filled with joy. It brought back the time I had spent with my great grandmother. Thank you Sister for the beautiful Rosary you made for us. (Samantha A.)

It is my first blessed Rosary…and it is solely mine! I’ll probably put it in my room, in a place where I can see it. It will remind me to pray more and I think I’ll feel safe going to bed at night knowing that Mary and Jesus are with me. I think it will remind me to say a few Hail Marys before bed. My mom has a Rosary from her Aunt Kay. It’s about 105 years old. She keeps it in her treasure chest. I hope to keep this Rosary that long…and to pass it down to my children someday. (Joseph E.)

 

Catechists!  Let’s all do this for our students!

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