Mercy and Justice

Orual: 'Are the gods not just?'
The Fox: 'Oh no, child. What would become of us if they were?'

-CS Lewis in Till We Have Faces: A Myth Retold (1956)

The quality of mercy is not strain'd

It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven

Upon the place beneath: it is twice blest;
It blesses him that gives and him that takes:
It is the mightiest in the mightiest; it becomes
The throned monach better than his crown;
His sceptre shows the force of temporal power,
The attribute to awe and majesty,
Wherein doth sit the dread and fear of kings;
But mercy is above this sceptred sway;
It is enthroned in the hearts of kings;
It is an attribute ot God himeslf.
And earthly power doth then show like God's
When mercy seasons justice. Therefore, Jew,
Though justice be thy plea, consider this,
That, in the course of justice, none of us
Should see salvation: we do pray for mercy

And that same prayer doth teach us all to render

The deeds of mercy. I have spoke thus much

To mitigate the justice of thy plea;
Which if thou follow, this strict court of Venice

Must needs give sentence 'gainst the merchant there.

The Merchant of Venice
(V.i.179-197)

Reply to Catholic Cathy, Part One.

Dear Catholic Cathy,

        From reading your work, published in the twenty fourth issue of Quasimodo, I was given the (possibly false) impression that you don’t fully understand what it means to be Catholic. The work I refer to herein is a section of the article Split Personality that is under the heading Catholic Cathy. This open letter is to clarify - both for you and for others who may have read your work - what it does mean to be Catholic.

Firstly, the Catholic faith is not a set of ideals. It is a concrete way of living; ‘"Now this is the Catholic faith: We worship one God in the Trinity and the Trinity in unity, without either confusing the persons or dividing the substance; for the person of the Father is one, the Son's is another, the Holy Spirit's another; but the Godhead of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit is one, their glory equal, their majesty coeternal" (Athanasian Creed: DS 75; ND 16).’ [CCC 266] Admittedly, you do say that you are “not [t]here to rant about how great God is,” but what you do write about seems to be drastically inconsistent.
To highlight this inconsistency, I will quote directly from your writing. “’…trust no one but yourself’…this embodies the fundamental construct around which I life my life. When all of these [negative] things happen, I turn to my faith in God.” Or, “…even when you turn away from God, your faith never leaves.” And, again, “Just because you don’t go to church every Sunday does not mean that you don’t have the same views of what is right and wrong.”

There is a direct and logical contradiction contained within your third paragraph. That is to say, trusting no one but yourself is not the same as trusting God, in fact it is the complete opposite. Unless, that is, you are claiming to be God (which I assume you’re not because that would be contrary to the entire rest of your section of the article. Perhaps this is an unfair assumption.)

Considering the definition of the Catholic faith given in the Catechism of the Catholic Church  which is quoted above, ‘turning away from God’ seems to mean the same as ‘turning away from the Faith.’ Although what you have said here is not a logical contradiction, it still appears to be largely inconsistent. That is to say, turning your back of God is necessarily turning your back on the Faith. Admittedly, the Faith never leaves you: God never leaves you and your Baptism is forever. Also, your faith may not be the same as the Faith as described above.

This third point is one that I have a lot of trouble with because it too contains an implied logical contradiction. The Catholic Church clearly teaches the Six Precepts of the Catholic Church are binding on each individual, they have “obligatory character” (CCC 2041). “The precepts of the Church are set in the context of a moral life bound to and nourished by liturgical life.” (Ibid.) The First Precept is this: “You shall attend Mass on Sundays and holy days of obligation and rest from servile labour" (CCC 2042). That is to say, it is impossible to believe that you are “a good moral person”, hold the Catholic faith, and not go to Mass (“church”) every Sunday.

What, then, does it mean to be Catholic? It is this: To love and serve God with all our heart, mind, soul and strength, and to love our neighbour as our self. (Cf Matthew 22:37-40 ).

May God bless you, Cathy.
- "Orthodox Olivia"

Sola Scriptura?

Do You Believe in Sin?

The Rite

Almost all of the secular reviews I've seen on The Rite give it a pretty bad rap. For instance, Rotten Tomatoes gives 20% on their tomatometer.
Almost all of the Catholic reviews I've seen on The Rite give it an excellent rap. For instance, google 'The Rite, Catholic reviews.'
Being the interested-in-the-world's-view-of -the-Church kind of Cahtolic that I am, I went to see The Rite this evening and I am currently sitting somewhere between to two types of rap, as it were.
It wasn't a bad movie; however, it wasn't the thriller that the traillers would have you believe it is.

There were a couple of doctrinally dodgy things in the movie. Or, if they were not doctrinally dodgy, they could lead to someone having the wrong concept of the Faith. Which is fine for me, because I could see what was wrong; but for those who have little to no idea about the Church and what she teaches, this movie may be as helpful as going to a Mass full of liturgical abuses. 
Even for Catholics unsure in their Faith, I would recomend at least an Ave Maria before hand. And maybe a Sancte Michael Achangele for good measure.


Just little things like the girl that died after beinging hit by a truck.
There were priests around.
The reason Micheal Kovak hesitated to pray over her wasn't because he was only a deacon, but because he 'lacked faith' in what he was doing. [Can.  1003 §1. "Every priest and a priest alone validly administers the anointing of the sick."]
The thing is that some of these are 'just little' and, so, 'don't matter'. Just like those 'little' red letters in the Missal 'don't matter'.
Y'know?



The Rite opens with a quote that is attributed to our late Holy Father, Pope John Paul II that I'm having touble finding anywhere other than sites about the movie. That's not to say that our beloved JPII didn't say 

 The battle against the Devil, which is the principal task of Saint Michael the Archangel, is still being fought today, because the Devil is still alive and active in the world. 

it's just that I can't find it.

 

Then the question is asked to no-one in particular "Do you believe in sin?"

This is an interesting topic for everyone to look into, but it is something essential that we Christians consider.

Worse that not believing in sin is the answer Micheal gives in the film. "Yes, I just don’t believe that the devil makes us do it."

 If we are to fight the the good fight, as the Apostle puts it, we need to know who we are fighting against, lest we fight against ourselves, each other. 

It's good that The Rite didn't leave the audience with an apparent sense of 'Well that just adds to my proof that the Catholic Church is full of it."

It was a fairly even handed approach to the Catholic doctrine of the Devil, given that is was Hollywood.


If you want to see a Hollywood movie this season that doesn't make you turn from the Faith, this is it.
Just pray before during and after.
Sure, demons are real. But with Christ, we can over come them, so there is not need to fear them or worry about them.

"Pray, hope and don't worry." - St Padre Pio

I'm meant to be writing a blog for Lauren. This is not it.
This is an invitation to all who read this to join LarryD's Adopt A Priestess Poject.
Basically, there's some women who claim they've been ordained Roman Catholic Priests and, in making this claim, have commited apostasy.
Larry invites us to pray for their return home.
Totally worth it.

I would also like to recommend Kate's blog Australia Incognita.

The Ironic Catholic: Thursday Joke

The Ironic Catholic: Thursday Joke: "A guy goes into a restaurant and is greeted by the hostess, who asks: “Smoking or non-smoking?” “Non-smoking,” he replies. He is seated ..."

To Be or Not To Be

So it's not my most creative, nor my most accurate title.

For to me, living is Christ and dying is gain. If I am to live in the flesh, that means fruitful labour for me; and I do not know which I prefer. I am hard pressed between the two: my desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better; but to remain in the flesh is more necessary for you.  - St Paul to the Church of Phillipi, Chapter One, verses twenty-one through twenty-four²²²³²⁴


Also possibly my shortest post...

Cool Blogs

I've not blogged a lot myself lately, however, there are some cool blogs that it will be worth your while reading.

For those into knowing what Secular Society is doing to corrupt Religious Belief, I rocommend you check out the Religion Law Blog, written by Neil Addison.
Ubi Petrus, Ibi Ecclesia (Where there is Peter, there is the Church) is an anti-hetrodoxy, anti-heresy, faithful, pro-Peter, Catholic blog, writen by Fr. Larry who is an anti-hetrodoxy, anti-heresy, faithful, pro-Peter, Catholic Priest.

However, the best in this (short) list, in my opinion, is Acts of the Apostasy, which is written by LarryD.

God check them out.