Friday, September 30, 2011

In Soviet Russia...

I mean North Korea...

How long, oh Lord? How long?

Have you ever had the feeling of your heart been torn, very slowly, both out of your chest and into pieces?
Have you ever wanted to give a complete stranger a bear-hug and tell them that everything's alright and that they don't have to go through their pain anymore?
Have you ever wanted to cry, but not had the tears?
Have you ever asked God to allow you to suffer some horrible fate, rather than allow an injustice to occur?
Have you ever wondered what type of good He must be bringing out of a great evil, while thanking Him for that good?
Have you ever wanted to run away screaming, yet found yourself unable to tear yourself away?
Have you ever gone to speak, but no sound would come out of your mouth?
Have you ever wondered what their pain is like, and wished you could take it away?
Have you ever longed for them to stop, and been unable to show them why they ought to?

How do you say "I love you and I want the best for you" to people who don't want you to speak to them?
How do you piece your heart back together after the one you've loved has been torn apart?
How do you continue to get up in the morning, when the whole world seems to be against the love you long to show?
How do you give to the next person, when you've emptied yourself entirely for this one?
How do you explain what drives you to do it over and over and over again?
How do you explain why you are there and how you can stay there all day, without others around?








I just sat down to blog about today's experience of praying and side-walk counselling, but I don't know where to start or what to say. These are my questions.

Standing on My Head: Story from Jake Coffman

For your reading and contemplation:
Standing on My Head: Story from Jake Coffman

Going After Jesus

Then Jesus told his disciples, "If any man would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me." (Mt 16:24)

I was reflecting on discilpeship last night and, of the quotes from Scripture that I was given to reflect on, this verse stood out for me.

Self denial and detatchment are two things that I've been trying to get a better handle on in recent times, so when this verse stood out from the others, I assumed that this was the reason why.
However, after sitting with the verse in Adoration, the words "come after Me" struck somethig within me. A dissonance between the words and my life seemed to resound. As though a child were attempting to play a Major Chord, but only had the finger span of a Major 7th.
C.E.G.B.
I was (and still am) familiar with the parable of the Lost Sheep: the Good Shepherd goes after the one Lost Sheep, leaving the 99 others in the field.
But this was something new.

"Come after Me.
"Follow Me, yes; but true discipleship is more than that.
"Come after Me."
As the Good Shepherd goes after the Lost Sheep, so we must seek out Christ. With that ardent love which He has for us, we must love Him.

I don't need to be simply detatched from all that is not Christ, I need to run after Him; to seek Him where He is to be found: not in things of this world, but in Love.
I need to search out every possible way of loving Him more and follow that path diligently, without looking back.

Imagine a mother who has lost her child. Imagine the effort she puts into finding that child.
As she gets closer, her search becomes more and more focused.
So to with my search for Christ. As I seek Him out, look where He is found, I will draw closer to Him. As I draw closer to Him, my seach will become more and more refined, more pure.
Unlike the mother, however, I do not currently have a single minded focus in searching out my Goal. Part of the refining process will be getting rid of all the other goals to focus on the one Goal that matters.
This will involvem a higher and higher degree of detachment, a greater willingness to submit to God's will.

To become a Saint is to conform oneself - or, rather, to be conformed - to Christ in all areas, and supremely to His Pascal Mystery. To become a Saint, I myst strain ahead in the race that has already been won, to the Prize which I have already been given. As an athelete, I must suffer in order to conform myself to the One who has already run, already won, already perfectly conformed His Own Will to that of His Father.


Then Jesus told his disciples, "If any man would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me." (Mt 16:24)

Monday, September 26, 2011

What Jen Learnt From Praying Outstide Abortion Clinics

Over at the National Catholic Register, Jennifer Fulwiler writes about the five things she has learned form praying outside abortion mills (my words, not hers.)

She writes:
The first time I went out to pray in front of an abortion clinic as part of a 40 Days for Life vigil, it felt surreal. Not only am I naturally awkward about public displays of faith, but less than a decade ago I was still a pro-choice atheist. In fact, it felt like such an unnatural thing for me to do that I was tempted to back out at the last minute and see if I could find someone else to cover my hour. I’m very glad that I went through with it, because it ended up being a powerful, eye-opening experience. Here are a few things I took away from it:
  1.  The pro-life movement is well organized.  
  2. Average people are getting involved in the pro-life cause.
  3. Communities don’t want abortion facilities in their neighborhoods
  4. Pro-lifers care about the mothers just as much as they care about the babies.
  5. Spiritual warfare is real.
  6. Prayer works. 

Quote of the Now.

Do we recognise that the innate dignity of
every individual rests on his or her
deepest identity – as image of the Creator
– and therefore that human rights are
universal? … And so we are led to reflect
on what place the poor and elderly,
immigrants and the voiceless, have in our
societies. How can it be that domestic
violence torments so many mothers and
children? How can it be that the most
wondrous and sacred human space – the
womb – has become a place of unutterable
violence?
 - Pope Benedict XVI, Welcoming Celebration by the Young People, 17 July 2008

Wednesday, September 14, 2011

New Arrivals!

 Bridget has a new niece, Adelaide Margret Mary. :D
Moreover, she (Bridget) is home after five and a half weeks away. It's going to be great having her around the house again.

AND, guess what? My order from Fr Z's WDTPRS Store came yesterday!



Below is the pictorial evidence thereof.


Packaged goods with Linda's hand in the back ground.
 
The box, opening itself.


Taking up the kitchen bench. Again.
 
One of these

A mug

Some pins for my students


The entire collection

 
And the de-stress material to be used around exam time

Thursday, September 8, 2011

"I'm a Good Catholic, but..."

I was talking (and agreeing) with Catlin last night about needing to be fully committed to the Faith, whole and entire.
From that conversation, I was going to write a blog but it seems someone - not Caitlin - has beet me to it.

The story goes something like this:
I opened up blogger to write this but decided to check out some of the blogs I follow first.
I went to this post by Mark Shea from Catholic and Enjoying It, which links to this blog, which has a post on the topic I was going to write about.

Please go read that post at Gray Matters.
For the Catholic faith is not like a Jenga tower, where pieces can be removed and the tower will survive, so long as the basic structure remains. It is more akin to a log cabin. Remove one post, and the cabin collapses.
The truths of the faith are interconnected. They support each other; they cannot stand without each other.

Tuesday, September 6, 2011

Perpetual Adoration, Jangling Rosaries and Dodging Questions

An interesting post over at Get Religion.
Here’s a little secret known only to faithful religious believers and, perhaps, to journalists who are willing to pay close attention to their lives: People who pray a lot know more about doubt than people who dedicate little or no time to serious prayer.
...
I bring this up for journalistic reasons, after several GetReligion readers sent me notes about a recent Washington Post story about a Catholic parish that practices the 24-hour-a-day practice of the Perpetual Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament. This is a good idea for a feature story and this piece has its moments, even if it finally veers into that familiar pseudo-National Geographic tone suggesting that the reporter is writing about the obscure practices of an exotic tribe on the other side of the planet — not members of our nation’s largest religious flock.

Do go read it.
And the article it refers to.
:)

Saturday, September 3, 2011

'wymynpreests'

Please, please pray for these people. We MUST pray for all heretics and schismatics.
For your charity, pray.

Warning: don't watch this with kids nor disenters around, lest you breed a heretic.
Also, no one mention 'biological solution.'




You may want to consider LarryD's Adopt-A-Priestess campaign.
Either that, or join me in a prayer for Eileen diFranco and Rod Stephens

We Are



Up loaded onto youtube by DefendUsInBattle.
I think this is the same as who comments regularly on blogs I read,
namely 'Joe@DefendUsInBattle'.

We Are Catholic.
It isn't something we 'do', it is who WE ARE.
We are something positive, wonderful, and special.
We are loyal to the Church, to the Pope, our tradition, and our God.

Thursday, September 1, 2011

More Prayer Requests

For the Mother, child and staff involved in this; for Rosie; for new, current and old readers (and followers! - Welcome, Br Gilbert.) to this poor blog; for ND's liturgy, theology and ministry; for the staff and students at ND; for Pregnancy Assist and FLI(Aus); for those who work at Rivervale, Midland and Balcatta; for Fr Z; for my Mum and my Brother; and, if you get a chance, for me.

The Human Person, The Dignity of. Part Two.

 I'm finally getting around to posting the second installment of my The Human Person series.
 I cheated in this one a bit because it's baiscally the same as a paper that I recently handed it.
Here goes:

***   ***   ***

Our knowledge of the inviolable dignity of the human person is founded on two scriptural assertions: that man is made in the image of God (Gen 1:26) and that God became Man (Cf Jn 1:1-18). The Catechism of the Catholic Church puts it this way: “The dignity of the human person is rooted in his creation in the image and likeness of God; it is fulfilled in his vocation to divine beatitude.” (CCC 1700)

What is to be discussed, then, is this: what it means to have been created in the image and likeness of God, what about man’s dignity is transcendent and in what way - or how this is - and what is meant by divine beatitude. Along the way, we will explore how each of these things impacts what approach we take to justice generally and, in particular, to social justice.

God’s nature is communitarian; this is reflected in us. Blessed John Paul II comments that we are essentially social creatures. That is to say, it is part of our essence to be relational. Just as the Persons of the Trinity share in the one Nature or what-ness, we too share in common human nature yet are different persons. We are all able to do what pertains to properly to humans but it is not a nature that acts, it is a person. My nature doesn’t write this reflection, I write it; my nature is not in relation with other natures, I - as a person - am in relation. It is possible that all this talk about nature and personhood does not seem to relate to the inviolable dignity or social justice; but it does. It relates because social justice rests on the inviolable dignity of each human person who, because of his nature, is relational just as God is.  Moreover, just as the Father is not the Son, nor the Spirit either of Them, I am not you, nor you I. However, since we share the same nature, and our share of that nature is equal (for one cannot possess a lesser measure of nature), we are equal in our image-ness and likeness of God, particularly our ability to relate to other persons. This ability to relate is at the heart of social justice because it is from this - that is, the ability to relate - that society comes.

The word ‘society’ comes from the Latin societas, and that from socius, words that give rise to a new understanding of ‘society’ that can and should deeply effect the actions of those seeking social justice. The Latin socius, companion, connotes a deeper relationship than merely being civil to another. A companion is literally someone one shares bread with. (From the Latin cum - with , and panis - bread.) The intimacy of sharing food, and in particular bread, is not lost on the Christian mind: the sharing of bread is a powerful symbol of the Eucharist. The union of Christ with the believer; the believer with Christ; and the believers with is a principle effect of Holy Communion; they truly become one body by sharing in His Body. Companionship -  and, thus, society - for the Catholic, then, is realised when each responds to the call to become one with the Other. This call to oneness is best understood in light of Christ’s prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane: “That they all may be one, as you, Father, in me, and I in you.” (Jn 17:21) The perichoresis - mutual indwelling - that is the Trinity is the image in which we are made.

Christ, who is the Image of the Unseen God, (Col 1:15) is the fullness of humanity (Gaudium et Spes, 22, 41); Jesus Christ, who is bodily in Heaven and in whom the fullness of divinity is pleased to dwell (Col 2:9) has bestowed on humanity, the glory of Heaven. Pope St Leo the Great says on this:
“…the Nature of mankind went up, to pass above the angels' ranks and to rise beyond the archangels' heights, and to have Its uplifting limited by no elevation until, received to sit with the Eternal Father, It should be associated on the throne with His glory, to Whose Nature It was united in the Son.”
(Sermon LXXIII on the Ascension.)
Indeed, St Ephrem writes, rightly, that our nature is “our nature is worshipped in the heavens by every creature seen and unseen.” (Catechesis 7) The angels are naturally - that is to say, ordinarily by nature - higher above human nature than human nature is above ant-nature; the angels naturally transcend us. Yet, as Sts Leo and Ephrem say, our nature has now been taken infinitely above that of the angels when it was united to Christ in His Divinity and then ascended to the right hand of God the Father where it is worshiped - and honour due only to God - in the Person of the Son. Our dignity is in our nature, it is from what, rather than who, we are that our dignity comes; that is why we can say that it inherent. Because our dignity is inherent and our nature has been raised about all other created natures, we can truly say that our dignity is transcendent.

This amazing gift of God to us in our nature, the transcendence of our nature and, thus, dignity, draws us to love and serve one another. Since our inherent dignity not only stems from its creation in the likeness of the Creator but has also, and further, raised, the respect due to all persons with this nature (that is, all human persons) is easily understood. This is a further grounding for social justice.

‘Divine beatitude’ is difficult to find a meaning for. Most of the good, online, theological dictionaries do not contain the phrase. However, it is possible to discern the meaning from etymology and brief theological reflection. ‘Beatitude’ comes from the Latin beatus, an adjective meaning ‘happy’ or ‘fortunate.’ It is the same root of the Latin for felicity, beatitudo. The Vulgate translation of Mt 5:3 reads, in part, “beati pauperes spiritu…” which is commonly translated as “blessed are the poor in spirit.” We can conclude, therefore, that ‘beatitude’ is the state of felicity or perfect happiness. We know, of course, that ‘divine’ denotes having to do with God or His nature. Thus, ‘divine beatitude’ is taken to mean the happiness or felicity which God enjoys. We are made for happiness; we are called to eternal and supreme happiness; we have a “vocation to divine beatitude” (CCC 1700); we are created to share in a joy, a felicity that is infinitely above our nature. More still, we are called to allow others to enjoy the same.

Social justice, then, must be rooted in the understanding of this immense dignity of the human person. Human nature is made in the image and likeness of God, who is communitarian in nature. Therefore, we must commune with others and to totally empty ourselves for the love of them. God, in His unnecessary, unjustifiable goodness, united our nature with His own Divine Nature and then, at His Ascension, bestowed on this human Nature and even greater gift: to ascend far above the angels. The respect that is due to all who share in the human Nature, then, is multiplied. This respect manifests itself in wanting the very best for each. In the mind shattering realisation that God wants to share with us the supreme happiness that He, in Himself, enjoys, we come to realise that this felicity manifests itself in overflowing gratuitousness that wishes to share the Good with all whom it comes into contact with.

We know that God’s Will is unchanging and unchangeable. Concretely, we know this dignity of ours cannot be taken away or changed: there is an inviolable dignity which is inherent in every human person. Truly, then, we can say with Pope John XXIII that “the Church‘s social doctrine, in fact, develops from the principle that affirms the inviolable dignity of the human person.” (Mater et Magistra)

The "Tolerance Tyrants" are at it again.

If would all go and read this post by Catholic mother of seven, Stacy Trasancos about her desire to educate her children in the moral life and the difficulty she faces doing so in secular society, then read the comments below that post, and then say a prayer both for her and the commenters, that'd be great.
Also, a prayer for her children and all the children in the world will not go astray.