Consensus

I like David Mitchell's rants!

‘The prayer of both was heard…’

From Tobit Chapter 3:

Then in my grief I wept, and I prayed in anguish, saying,

“Righteous art thou, O Lord; all thy deeds and all they ways are mercy and truth, and thou dost render true and righteous judgment for ever.
Remember me and look favorably upon me; do not punish me for my sins and for my unwitting offences and those which my fathers committed before thee.
For they disobeyed thy commandments, and thou gavest us over to plunder, captivity, and death; thou madest us a byword of reproach in all the nations among which we have been dispersed.
And now thy many judgments are true in exacting penalty from me for my sins and those of my fathers, because we did not keep thy commandments. For we did not walk in truth before thee.
And now deal with me according to thy pleasure; command my spirit to be taken up, that I may depart and become dust. For it is better for me to die than to live, because I have heard false reproaches, and great is the sorrow within me. Command that I now be released from my distress to go to the eternal abode; do not turn thy face away from me.”

On the same day, at Ecbatana in Media, it also happened that Sarah, the daughter of Raguel, was reproached by her father’s maids, because she had been given to seven husbands, and the evil demon Asmodeus had slain each of them before he had been with her as his wife. So the maids said to her, “Do you not know that you strangle your husbands? You already have had seven and have had no benefit from any of them.
Why do you beat us? If they are dead, go with them! May we never see a son or daughter of yours!”

When she heard these things she was deeply grieved, even to the thought of hanging herself. But she said, “I am the only child of my father; if I do this, it will be a disgrace to him, and I shall bring his old age down in sorrow to the grave.

So she prayed by her window and said, “Blessed art thou, O Lord my God, and blessed is thy holy and honored name for ever. May all thy works praise thee for ever.
And now, O Lord, I have turned my eyes and my face toward thee.
Command that I be released from the earth and that I hear reproach no more.
Thou knowest, O Lord, that I am innocent of any sin with man,
and that I did not stain my name or the name of my father in the land of my captivity. I am my father’s only child, and he has no child to be his heir, no near kinsman or kinsman’s son for whom I should keep myself as wife. Already seven husbands of mine are dead. Why should I live? But if it be not pleasing to thee to take my life, command that respect be shown to me and pity be taken upon me, and that I hear reproach no more.”

The prayer of both was heard in the presence of the glory of the great God.

And Raphael was sent to heal the two of them: to scale away the white films of Tobit’s eyes; to give Sarah the daughter of Raguel in marriage to Tobias the son of Tobit, and to bind Asmodeus the evil demon, because Tobias was entitled to possess her. At that very moment Tobit returned and entered his house and Sarah the daughter of Raguel came down from her upper room. 

And the wonderful events of the story of Tobit and Tobias, Raphael and Sarah unfold from here. It's beautiful and comforting isn't it, how the prayer of two people at the end of their tether, desperate and sorrowful, reached God's ear and God set in motion events that did not answer their prayers exactly, but gave they greater joy and blessing that they dared ask for?

Our wills and our plans are so puny and mediocre. Let's always trust God's providence. He always gives us what is good for us. And try to be glad when things don't go the way we planned or expected, because, if that's the case, and we're sincerely trying to love God and love His will, nothing but the best is being stored up for us - in this world and in the next.

Thomas Shahan

I hate insects. But this, via Shankar, is just so awesome.

Aren't these works of art? Check out more of Thomas Shahan's photos on his flikr album. They're breathtaking. And visit his website too.

Here's a video of him in action.

A lesson to be learned

For I have learned, in whatever state I am, to be content.
I know how to be abased, and I know how to abound; in any and all circumstances I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and want.
I can do all things in him who strengthens me.

- Philippians 4: 11-13 

Seeing our good Father God in the worst misfortunes

And I am writing also for you, my good friend, and for all like you who have suffered, alone and in silence, when their longed-for child was born...but born blind. Yes, I do fully understand the sorrow you pour out to me in your letter. Please regard this book as my reply. I fully understand how sad you are...but I do not pity you, I will not pity you. The Lord has treated you as one of his strong and healthy children because he is not afraid of seeing you weep, although, as you admit in your letter, 'sometimes the cross becomes very heavy.' Let me tell you of Saint Teresa: 'Those whom God loves well, he leads by ways strewn with toil, and the more he loves them the greater the toil.'

As a christian and as a friend I can promise you that your Father God relied and is relying on that blind son of yours to do great things, perhaps to being the Light to the eyes of many men on earth. Do not think me heartless: indeed I have a very soft heart, and I am weeping with you in your misfortune, believe me. But I must tell you, as a christian, as a friend and as a priest, that your child's blindness is something good. I will help you to use all means possible, human and supernatural, to cure him. And I will celebrate it with you if some day he recovers his sight. But if God, our good Father God, decided that his eyes are to be opened only when he reaches heaven, then I will help you to give thanks because 'for those who love God everything is for the good' (Roma 8, 28).

- Jesus Urteaga, God and Children (1965), 16-17.

Custody of the heart

Today's circle was very useful. I've never really heard the topic before - at least not in such comprehensiveness. So I thought I'd share part of it. The second half was on the custody of the senses.


First though, a bit from the Gospel reflection.

'He who loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; and he who loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me; and he who does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me.'

- Matthew 10: 37, 38

There are values greater than friendship, greater even than family, values that you cannot compromise on, no matter how painful it is.

On to the circle proper.

The heart (in it's figurative sense, but also, at least indirectly, physically, since your heart beats faster when you are passionate about something) is the seat of your most intimate desires. It was made by God to love and it will always seek to love something or someone. In fact, it was made to love God, to love the Infinite (Cf. St Augustine: 'Our hearts were made for You, O Lord, and they are restless until they rest in You.') It thus has infinite desires, a great openness. Unfortunately, after the Fall, this was disturbed - the heart can love wrongly, and attach itself to the wrong objects: a wrong person or a thing.

Therefore our hearts need to be placed under custody and under several locks.

Spontaneity and following one's passions is not always the way to go. Spontaneity is good, but we must stop and think and examine our passions under the light of reason.

Guarding the heart can require serious struggle.
So now it's tears! It hurts, doesn't it? Of course, man! It was meant to. - The Way 158.

Suffering overwhelms you because you take it like a coward. Meet it bravely, with a christian spirit: and you will regard it as a treasure. - The Way 169.

Detachment is hard and comes with the pain of the three nails fastening our flesh to the cross.

It is fair to ask God - if You do want me to be detached from this certain thing, show me what the reward is. Because He certainly has a reward, something infinitely better, which he has kept for us.
Go, generously and like a child ask him: 'What can you mean to give me when. you ask me for "this"?' - The Way 153.




Some points of relevance regarding guarding the heart

- Love for a woman - which is the calling for most of us.
Our love for a woman, our pursuit of such a relationship, must always be in the perspective of it possibly leading to marriage. Do not embark on a relationship for mere enjoyment or comfort.

When we find the person you think is the right one - do not idealise her. Remember that she is not a perfect person. She might be 'perfect for you' - but she's not perfect!

Avoid falling into sensuality. Don't get carried away only by beauty, or worse, by attractive dress, etc. Keep the heart sufficiently detached so that you can ask yourself whether you like her for merely sensual reasons, or whether you can actually see her as the mother of your children.

Of course, once you make the decision to marry and enter into the sacrament, things change dramatically and an even more serious custody of the heart is required.

You are a squanderer of tenderness. And I tell you: charity towards your neighbour — yes, always. But — listen to me, apostolic soul — from Christ and for him alone is that other feeling which God himself has placed in your heart. Besides, isn't it a fact that the drawing back of any one of the bolts of your heart — and it needs seven of them — has more than once left a cloud of doubt floating on your supernatural horizon..., and, tormented in spite of the purity of your intentions, you asked yourself: haven't I perhaps gone too far in my outward show of affection? - The Way 161.

(The above was probably written for someone who has made the decision to live apostolic celibacy, but it very well applies to married life too.)

The heart must be guarded from other things too. For example
* Hatred, jealousy - struggle against negative, bad thoughts as if they were impure thoughts.

*Fear - do not allow irrational fear to enter your heart. Even rational fear must be kept under control.

 
None of these is 'suppression', as some psychologists might say. It is, rather, behaving like children of God who are aware that they are fallen.

It is the way to fly higher. To soar, one must have detachment. The heart should not be entangled. It does not matter if it is a thread, or an iron chain that binds the bird - both stop the bird from flying. If your heart is attached to things that you know are contrary to God's will, cut those chains, those threads.

That fine thread — that chain: that chain of wrought iron — of which you and I are conscious and which you don't want to break, that is what draws you from your way and makes you stumble and even fall.

Why do you hesitate? — Cut it... and advance
- The Way 170.


Surely God's Love is worth any love. - The Way 171.

So, filter your passions through the Sacred Heart of the Jesus and the Immaculate Heart of Mary. Those passions which are bad, will be filtered out. Those that are good will be arranged so that they might be in moderation.

The first 'Thou'

The clay became man at the moment in which a being for the first time was capable of forming, however dimly, the thought of "God". The first Thou that—however stammeringly—was said by human lips to God marks the moment in which the spirit arose in the world. Here the Rubicon of anthropogenesis was crossed. For it is not the use of weapons or fire, not new methods of cruelty or of useful activity, that constitute man, but rather his ability to be immediately in relation to God. This holds fast to the doctrine of the special creation of man ... herein ... lies the reason why the moment of anthropogenesis cannot possibly be determined by paleontology: anthropogenesis is the rise of the spirit, which cannot be excavated with a shovel. The theory of evolution does not invalidate the faith, nor does it corroborate it. But it does challenge the faith to understand itself more profoundly and thus to help man to understand himself and to become increasingly what he is: the being who is supposed to say Thou to God in eternity.

— Joseph Ratzinger

Via Wikipedia.

Help of the helpless, oh abide with me

I fear no foe with Thee at hand to bless.

How the Tea Cup Changed China's History

Very, not just quite, interesting!

12 Catholic Words that Don't Sound Like What They Mean

I was born a Catholic but that doesn’t mean I knew anything about the faith until I decided to investigate it for myself in college. In my research, I came across a number of things that weren’t true that I thought were, many things that were true that I hadn’t thought were true, and words that I misunderstood completely.
So to help others here’s a list of Catholic words that probably don’t mean what some may think they mean.

Acolytes - Sounds like something you drink to flush out your system. Hyper-Ade! Now with extra acolytes. In reality it’s one who assists in the celebration.

Aspergillum - Let’s be frank. It sounds like a fungus that wraps itself up in your intestine and makes you stay in the bathroom for three days. But it’s actually just a vessel or device used for sprinkling holy water during special blessings.

Beatification - is not a makeover. It’s actually for those who don’t need one.

Canon Law - Sounds like the title of a Steven Seagal movie. “Cannon Law -This Time It’s Personal.” But unfortunately, it’s not a thing that goes boom and knocks holes through the stomachs of henchmen. It’s the collection of laws (canons) governing administration of the Roman Catholic Church. Booooring!!!

Read the rest, by Matt Archbold, at the NC Register.

The Marriage Lifestyle

“Marriage” in its Judeo-Christian context means the self-gift of a man and a woman to each other, so that God might bring each to Himself through the other. A man and a woman who get married vow that they will embrace the natural consequences of their life together as a gift from God, be they joyous or tragic: abundant children or the pain of sterility, lobster dinners or store-brand fish sticks, death in sleep at 90 or cancer at 30. It’s what Catholics call a vocation, a specific path to holiness that structures an entire life and everything in it.

But as any pastor who prepares couples for marriage can tell you, that vision of marriage is about as far from most couples’ minds as Mars is from Venus. If marriage is a gift of self, we now make sure to leave the tags on and keep the receipt.

What we expect from a marriage has changed: no-fault divorce helped change when we imagine a marriage ends, contraception helped change how we imagine a marriage should give life, and pornography helped change what we imagine should be done to and by whom in a marriage. In all three instances, what was part of an entire pattern of life that included but surpassed my momentary tastes has been broken apart into small fragments that I can change to suit my whims.

Once marriage was a vocation; now it is a lifestyle. As such, it is little more than a legal sanctioning of two people’s sexual complementarity, usually involving an emotional bond, a general notion of physical exclusivity, financial intermingling, and the option of children. When any of these separable components interferes with the root purpose—personal satisfaction—then it has to go. And then worse problems intervene: career conflicts, squabbles about money, sexual apathy or disloyalty, or just the general feeling that the inevitable tensions and sacrifices of marital union aren’t worth it. So, divorce. Now the two people are free to live their lives independently again.

...Social conservatives risk giving up the game by attacking the excesses of Savage Love and same-sex marriage with utilitarian, sociological arguments about the benefits of mixed-sex, two-parent homes. Books like The Case for Marriage: Why Married People are Happier, Healthier, and Better off Financially serve a purpose—showing that the redefinition of marriage fails on its own terms—but they cannot address the orientation to personal satisfaction that has crept into our understanding of marriage in general. Speaking of marriage as the best lifestyle among many lifestyles might help change social policy, but it won’t change the convictions that underlie our marital misunderstandings.

The opposition to same-sex marriage must be part of a larger movement addressing the root causes that led Americans to quietly redefine marriage as a lifestyle choice long before homosexual marriage was on the table. Even passing a constitutional amendment defining marriage as the union of one man and one woman will have little effect unless it is accompanied by a renewed awakening of the intrinsically unitive and fruitful vocation of marriage.

Those who oppose same-sex marriage directly are doing laudable work. But the men and women who work to restore sanity to divorce laws, change the ubiquitous contraceptive mentality, and abolish pornography are also battling for marriage, and their work may prove decisive. And perhaps most decisive is the quiet witness of men and women living their marriages to the full.

Marriage is not just a word, endlessly redefined by slipping social values and ideology. Marriage is not a lifestyle, blithely focused on my organs and whims. Marriage is a mode of being. Only as such can it be saved.

Read the rest at First Things.

The Criminal Trial

For thousands of years, Western society has insisted that it is better for 10 guilty defendants to go free than for one innocent defendant to be wrongly convicted. This daunting standard finds its roots in the biblical story of Abraham's argument with God about the sinners of Sodom.

Abraham admonishes God for planning to sweep away the innocent along with the guilty and asks Him whether it would be right to condemn the sinners of Sodom if there were 10 or more righteous people among them. God agrees and reassures Abraham that he would spare the city if there were 10 righteous. From this compelling account, the legal standard has emerged.

That is why a criminal trial is not a search for truth. Scientists search for truth. Philosophers search for morality. A criminal trial searches for only one result: proof beyond a reasonable doubt.

That is why it was perfectly rational, though difficult for many to understand, for a civil jury to have found O.J. Simpson liable to his alleged victim, after a criminal jury had found him not guilty of his murder. It is certainly possible that if the estate of Caylee Anthony were to sue Casey Anthony civilly, a Florida jury might find liability.

Casey Anthony was not found innocent of her daughter's murder, as many commentators seem to believe. She was found "not guilty." And therein lies much of the misunderstanding about the Anthony verdict.

This misunderstanding is exacerbated by the pervasiveness of TV shows about criminal cases. On television and in the movies, crimes are always solved. Nothing is left uncertain. By the end, the viewer knows whodunit. In real life, on the other hand, many murders remain unsolved, and even some that are "solved" to the satisfaction of the police and prosecutors lack sufficient evidence to result in a conviction. The Scottish verdict "not proven" reflects this reality more accurately than its American counterpart, "not guilty."

Because many American murder cases, such as the Casey Anthony trial, are shown on television, they sometimes appear to the public as if they were reality television shows. There is great disappointment, therefore, when the result is a verdict of not guilty. On the old Perry Mason show, the fictional defense lawyer would not only get his client acquitted but he would prove who actually committed the murder. Not so in real life.

Read the rest of this useful article here.

AP

Casey Anthony after her acquittal at the Orange County Courthouse in Orlando, Fla., on July 5

Heart on the Cross

At times the Cross appears without our looking for it: it is Christ who is seeking us out. And if by chance, before this unexpected Cross which, perhaps, is therefore more difficult to understand, your heart were to show repugnance... don 't give it consolations. And, filled with a noble compassion, when it asks for them, say to it slowly, as one speaking in confidence: 'Heart: heart on the Cross! Heart on the Cross! '

This is a memorable passage from my favourite Way of the Cross meditations, by St Josemaria Escriva. I remember especially how beautifully it was prayed before the Legion Campus Mass last semester.

Heart: heart on the Cross! Heart on the Cross!

Missethed

Becoming Protestant

Every child that is baptized becomes, ipso facto, not only a Christian but a Catholic....Now, supposing the child lives, how long does it go on being a Catholic? Until it reaches the age of reason; it is quite certain that there are no Protestants in the world under the age of five. You cease to be a Catholic only when, with the full use of your reason, you consent , at least externally, to embrace the beliefs of some other religion; or when you begin to hold, with the full use of your reason, philosophical beliefs opposed to the doctrines of the Church....

And how is it possible for such a person to lose that unconscious membership of Christ's Church? He can, of course suspend the operation of grace, just as we Catholics can, if he commits mortal sin. On the other hand, he regains his lost state of grace if he makes an act of perfect contrition, just as a Catholic does. Only, whereas the Catholic is bound to make his sin known in confession, even though by God's grace it may already have been forgiven him, a Protestant is not so bound, because he either knows nothing about confession or thinks that he can satisfy his obligation by confessing his sins to an Anglican clergyman, or to his friends in the groups. but there's another way in which he can lose his membership of the Mystical Body. He does so when the claims of the Catholic Church are fully proposed to him, and he sees that they are justified, but does not become Catholic in spite of his knowledge. Pride, or indolence, or the hope of worldly advantage prevents him from taking the step which his conscience knows to be right. Then, in that hour, he becomes a heretic and a schismatic, formally as well as materially; he has refused grace.

- Ronald A. Knox, In Soft Garments (2010), 119-120

Don't Worry

H/T: Mark Shea

Metaphors

"How is it possible," an educated Mohammedan asked a missionary bishop, "that bread and wine should become the Flesh and Blood of Christ?"

The bishop answered, "You were tiny when you were born. You grew big because your body transformed the food you ate into your flesh and blood. If a man's body is able to change bread and wine into flesh and blood, then God can do this far more easily."

The Mohammedan then asked, "How is it possible for Jesus to be wholly and entirely present in a little Host?"

The bishop answered, "Look at the landscape before you and consider how much smaller your eye is in comparison to it. Yet, within your little eye there is an image of this vast countryside. Can God not do in reality, in His Person, what is done in us by way of a likeness or image?"

Then the Mohammedan asked, "How is it possible for the same Body to be present at the same time in all your churches and in all the consecrated Hosts?"

The bishop said, "Nothing is impossible with God - and this answer ought to be enough. But nature also indicates how to answer this question. Let us take a mirror, throw it down crashing on the floor and breaking into pieces. Each piece will multiply the image which the whole mirror previously had reflected but once. So, too, the selfsame Jesus reproduced Himself, not as a mere likeness, but in truth, in every consecrated Host. He is truly present in each One of Them.

- From Fr. Stefano M. Manelli, F.F.I. Jesus Our Eucharistic Love (1996), 57.

Like Jacob?

'If you fall asleep in church or in a sacred place, you may have strange dreams.'

- Fr Joseph commenting on today's First Reading.

I have a horrible habit of dozing off during homilies, but, in general, I rarely remember my dreams.... I might be missing out on something.

Coincidentally, yesterday's homily at St Joseph's also featured the theme of sleeping in church...

Honouring Mary's heart

(I meant to write this yesterday but I didn't have the time)

At yesterday's homily, Fr Edmund Chong talked about the Gospel reading for the feast of the Immaculate Heart. Why did Jesus allow Himself to be lost during their pilgrimage to the Temple? Father said that he thinks it was to prepare Mother Mary for her role as Mother of us all - with the same intensity with which You loved Me, love and care for Your other children too. 

It occurred to me then too that without this incident, Mary would not really experience having a 'wayward' child (of course our Lord was not wayward in this episode). And just as She sought Her Baby with all the intensity of Her heart, she seeks us too when we go astray.  

Mother of Christ, Star of the sea. Pray for the wanderer, pray for me

The Gospel chosen for the feast day is perfect for the feast honouring Mary's heart. You can almost feel for yourself the sinking of Her heart when She realised that Jesus was missing, the worry and the sorrow. You can feel Her heart leaping when She first glimpses Him, the relief, and finally a bit of puzzlement at His mysterious words.

I love the feasts of the Sacred Heart and the Immaculate Heart. :)

Today is the feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus

The Heart which on earth rejoiced and wept, was happy, excited, jubilant, troubled and sorrowful. The Heart which reminds us of the humanity of our God, the nearness of Him to our own condition. He understands us, for He has a Heart like ours.


The Heart that emptied itself so totally that it was pierced with a lance and 'there came out blood and water' (John 19:34) - He had nothing more to give us.

The Heart that awaits us in the tabernacle, in the form of bread - still demonstrating to us how much He loves us.

The Heart which gives us rest and solace and gently encourages us: 'Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.' (Matthew 11: 28-30)

The 'Heart which has loved men so much, and yet men do not want to love Me in return.' (Jesus to Saint Margaret Mary in a vision).

Sweet Heart of Jesus, font of love and mercy, Today we come, Thy blessing to implore.
Oh touch our hearts, so cold and so ungrateful And make them Lord, Thine own for evermore.