We've been so blessed at my parishes with wonderful sacred music through the years. Our wonderful director of sacred music for the past 7 years, Mr. Edward Atkinson, put this Christmas album together that I hope you'll consider downloading and sharing with others.
Thanks for helping our little parish be a light to the poorest community in Indiana!
A former parishioner is working on the ground in Syria as a researcher collecting info for global news sources. This person is in the direct line of fire, knows what is happening and what help is needed.
Saint Pope
Pius X once said that there is a great heresy, a false teaching, blowing
through the world in our day – and he called it the collection of all the world’s
heresies into one – and he said it is basically the denial of the supernatural.
The longer I’ve
been a priest, the more I see what he’s saying.If you think the world is a machine, and everything is determined by chemistry
and biology and that everything that happens in the universe can be calculated,
then the problem is this – there is no gratitude.
Not
thankfulness, because there’s nothing to be thankful for.It is all science, and math and physics and
genetics and neurons, it all has an explanation, even though no one has the
explanation, many people tell themselves “surely smart people have the
explanation for everything” or at least “surely someday smart people will FIND
an explanation for everything”
As a person
who wants to see everyone happy and at peace, who wants to see everyone know
and follow Christ, what breaks my heart in this denial of the supernatural is
that so many people tell themselves a monstrously awful thing: so many today
say that if they saw a miracle, they would certainly recognize it.
Let me say
that again, people tell themselves the lie that if they saw or experienced a
miracle, they would know it.
Since people
tell themselves that they don’t experience any miracles, since they don’t see
anything miraculous happening, there is nothing to be thankful for, nothing to
have gratitude in our hearts for, so we become a hard and cynical people who
rip each other apart on line, are lonely, and addicted and depressed because
nothing miraculous ever happens.
We’ve said
before that the current generation is walking away from the Faith at an epic
level, and it is happening today around the age of 13, and the studies suggest
it is largely over this supposed clash vs. science and Faith.
I want to
say something here: I’ve talked before about the fact that I studied math, but
I realized I need to say something if it might help a teen who sees “what can
be proved by science” and Catholicism proposes as being at odds.
I was the
Calculus student of the year in high school, and I was the math student of the
year my junior and senior year in college, and I was really close to going and
working on at least a masters in mathematics before deciding to go to the
seminary.I know it is absolutely gross
to talk about yourself, but I would say I’m probably better at math and science
than 98% of 13 year olds – I know – a really high bar.But St. Paul does this also to make a point –
he says no one was a more devout Jew than I.
I say this
about my science background in order to say “I’ve never seen anything in math
or science that contradicts anything in my Catholic Faith.AND, on the other side of that, I’ve had tons
of things that I’ve seen in math and science that have confirmed and
strengthened by Catholic Faith.
But if me
making a fool of myself talking about college math doesn’t help, I also reached
out to a medical doctor, two people I know who are in med school, and the best
chemistry brain I’ve ever seen, and I’ve asked lots of Catholic scientists and
mathematics people the same questions.None of them report ever having their Catholic Faith challenged by
anything in science, and they also report, though, what they have seen, as
strengthening their Faith a great deal.
Gratitude
comes from realizing we’ve been given something, that there is such a thing as
kindness and love, and gifts, and that we’ve been given a gift.
And what is
the gift?What are the miracles we’re
missing?
One of the
most amazing things I’ve seen in a while was a video clip of about 90
seconds.CNN host Anderson Cooper was
interviewing Steven Colbert who is the rare Hollywood person that doesn’t
brandish about his Catholicism but also never seems to be ashamed of it.
And the
video gets right to the heart of what we’re discussing – miracles – gratitude and
whether we have anything to be thankful for at all.Whether anything special ever happens or we’re
all just chemicals bumping into each other in a machine.
Anderson
Cooper, in the midst of a larger interview where I’m told they dive into
politics, set that all aside and go watch the 90 second clip.
Colbert lost
his father and two brothers in a plane crash when Colbert was only 10.Cooper starts to ask Colbert a question, and
as Anderson Cooper asks the question – he gets choked up.The question he gets out through tears is this:
“you once
told an interviewer to love the things you most wish had not happened.You went on to say “what punishments of God
are not gifts”Do you really believe
that?
Colbert says
“Yes, it is a gift to exist, it is a gift to exist, and with existence comes
suffering, there’s no escaping that…if you are grateful for your life, you have
to be grateful for all of it”
They went on
to talk more about suffering and Christ and Catholicism, and it was, in my
estimation, the Church’s teaching on the gift of existence even in the face of
suffering, all condensed into 8 minutes.I hope you’ll go seek it out.
Colbert
said, in that interview, the key Catholic rebuttal to those who want to strip
out mystery – it is a gift to exist
We are
grateful when we are given gifts.
And
gratitude is what fuels religion, it is what fuels our Catholic Faith and our
world view.
I’m here
tonight/today because God has given me many gifts – some I see, but MOST I don’t see
9 run off
after being healed from leprosy and don’t think to say thanks.
They don’t
see the miracles of their own healing, so they run off without a word of
thanks, on to the next thing.
Many of us
do the same
Don’t tell
yourself that if a miracle happened you would know it
Let us be
the Samaritan who sees the miracle of his healing, and return to Christ.Let us also say to Christ tonight and always
the two words that will totally change our relationship with Christ: “Thank you”
Ambiguous
and/or non-Catholic sermon topics for this weekend’s readings:
1) “In the
first reading, we see the curing of Naaman the Syrian.Jesus later mentions in Luke 4:27 “And there were many in Israel with leprosy
in the time of Elisha the prophet, yet not one of them was cleansed--only
Naaman the Syrian”, and that sends the Jews into a FRENZY of anger and they
try to kill Jesus right then and there.In our own day, lots of pharisaical Catholics don’t want to hear that
God is working outside the walls of the Catholic Church.They want to keep Christ in and want to keep
others out.They want to exclude and
judge.“Scribes and Pharisees,
hypocrites! For you shut up the kingdom of
heaven against men; for you neither go in yourselves, nor do
you allow those who are entering to go in.” (Matthew 23:13).
RESPONSE: In
the Old Testament, God’s Covenant was with a particular people (nation).The people who were upset with Jesus were upset
that He was saying that God can also work outside the Jewish nation. Now the New Covenant is open to
EVERYone.Any halfway decently
catechized Catholic knows that God works outside the walls of the Church as
well, but that He desires to draw everyone to the Church even when He works
outside it.So those who “lock people
out” would only be those who tell other people “you need not worry about
becoming Catholic…there’s nothing here for you that you don’t already have
outside the Church.”They are the ones
locking people out and not entering in themselves.
2) Jesus went
to the lepers in the Gospel today, a place where some don’t want him to go.Today there are places where some mean Catholics
do not want the Church to be present.
RESPONSE:This is false.Every true Catholic wants the Church to be as
present as possible to every person on the planet.That is why men and women, through the
centuries, have chosen celibacy and even the missionary life…in order to bring
the Gospel to ends of the Earth.That
missionary option needs to be encouraged and celebrated.
Also, St.
Augustine says about this weekend's Gospel: “The lepers may be taken
mystically for those who, having no knowledge of the true faith, profess
various erroneous doctrines. .. leprosy is a blemish in color, when true things
appear clumsily mixed up with false in a single discourse or narration…It is
plainly implied that leprosy is false doctrine which the good teacher may wash
away.”Augustine is saying that it
is clear that Christ desires to purify and wash away from people false
doctrines.Speaking about such false
doctrines as if they were something that the Catholic Church should celebrate would be
dangerously wrong, in the same way that people would not suggest that a healthy
person would benefit from contracting leprosy.
The Church
has historically, through missionaries, teachers, etc. never been afraid to go
to a place where non-Catholic ideas reside, but always with the goal of
bringing people TO the Church, “curing of the leprosy of false teaching” as
Augustine suggests.
All of us, in bringing the Gospel to places where it isn't celebrated (workplace, school, larger community, etc.) should show up and say "you all follow false teachings! CONVERT!" But working for the conversion to the Church of all we meet is a call we've been given by God. We ignore and/or demean that call at our peril.
3) “Our
second reading says that the “the Word of God is not chained”.Unfortunately, in our own day, many
bad Catholics want to chain up the Word of God and keep people from
receiving the Good News of the Gospel.Many bad Catholics today want to keep people from the Eucharist because
they want priests to be celibate men.”
RESPONSE: A
priest is not just a sacramental dispenser, a functionary whose role is only
significant because of the sacraments he “produces”.A priest is to be conformed to Christ, and is
called to be a type of “alter Christus” to the people.So the priest has value apart from his
ability to administer the Sacraments.We
don’t go to Mass to see the priest, but the priest’s presence among the people,
in his celibacy, continence and chastity, is an important aspect of
Catholicism, and celibacy has a long history (when lived)of being a dramatic
and effective sign that impresses non-Catholics that the Church is always
seeking to invite to a conversion to the Church.People in every age recognize the fact that a
person being willing to give up marriage (and sexual expression within
marriage) means a person believes, in a more radical way, the things he or she
is seeking to offer (in this case, the Truths of Catholicism).
The Catholic
priesthood has also been historically understood to be connected to the Old
Testament temple priesthood, where God required that the men who would offer
sacrifice practice a period of abstaining from sex for several days in
preparation to serve at the altar.
Canon 277
also says: “Clerics are obliged to observe perfect and perpetual continence for
the sake of the kingdom of heaven and therefore are bound to celibacy which is
a special gift of God by which sacred ministers can adhere more easily to
Christ with an undivided heart and are able to dedicate themselves more freely
to the service of God and humanity.”
I also
submit Chesterton: ““It is true that the historic Church has at once
emphasized celibacy and emphasized the family; has at once (if one may put it
so) been fiercely for having children and fiercely for not having children. It
has kept them side by side like two strong colors, red and white, like the red
and white upon the shield of St. George. It has always had a healthy hatred of
pink. It hates that combination of two colors which is the feeble expedient of
the philosophers. It hates that evolution of black into white which is
tantamount to a dirty gray. In fact, the whole theory of the Church on
virginity might be symbolized in the statement that white is a color: not
merely the absence of a color. All that I am urging here can be expressed by
saying that Christianity sought in most of these cases to keep two colors
coexistent but pure.”
G.K.
Chesterton, Orthodoxy, Chapter 6
In the past,
what has led to an explosion of the Catholic Faith around the world was a
consistent call for heroic missionaries.Are we issuing that call anymore?
4) “In the
lepers that Jesus visits in today’s Gospel, we see that Faith is present prior
to full incorporation into the Church.So
we see that non-Catholics and even non-Christian peoples are capable of
possessing Faith even prior to evangelization.So we can leave them where they are and not work with urgency to bring
them to the One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Faith.”
RESPONSE:First of all, it is important to note that
the 10 lepers in the Gospel this weekend cry out for Jesus!By name.And that matters.They do not cry
out for some other deity.They cry out
for Jesus.Theopholus notes: “They do not merely supplicate or entreat
Him as if he were a man, but they call Him Master or Lord.”
And
secondarily, yes, Catholicism acknowledges that Faith in God can be present
even prior to baptism and prior to a participation in the sacraments of the
Church.St. ThomasAquinas says it this way: man receives the
forgiveness of sins before Baptism in so far as he has Baptism of desire, explicitly or implicitly;
and yet when he actually receives Baptism, he receives a fuller remission, as
to the remission of the entire punishment. So also before Baptism Cornelius and
others like him receive grace and virtues through their faith in Christ and
their desire for Baptism, implicit or explicit: but afterwards when baptized,
they receive a yet greater fullness of grace and virtues III q. 69 a. 4.
There are specific gifts that Aquinas notes
for those who are baptized: 1) incorporation
in Christ, 2) enlightenment and 3) fruitfulness.So we should want all to come to the Church
and join in the sacramental life of the Church so that they receive these
amazing gifts.Again, it is why
countless missionaries gave up everything – they went to help incorporate
people into the life of the Church; to INVITE (never force.Always invite.Where anything other than invitation to the
Church has been used, the Church condemns that OUTRIGHT) them to a new reality altogether, a life as a
Son or Daughter of God through baptism, not through continuing to do what they
have been doing, nor to live as they had been living.I can’t believe we have to say this, but it
is important that a person become Catholic.If we understand Catholicism, we should desire that everyone join us in
the Church.
Aquinas also teaches that those who are not
baptized will at best enter into purgatory.“Suppose, therefore,
a catechumen to have the desire for Baptism (else he could not be said to die in
his good works, which cannot be without "faith that worketh by charity"), such a one, were he to die, would
not forthwith come to eternal
life, but would suffer
punishment for his past sins, "but he himself shall be saved, yet
so as by fire" as is stated 1
Corinthians 3:15 (III 68
a. 2 ad. 2).
We cannot be
content to let people outside the Church continue to live outside the
Church.Again, without force, our hearts
should desire completely that all know the Life of Christ in His Church.
I will say
up front that I’ve known Dr. Taylor Marshall for many years informally.We both hopped on “Catholic Twitter” about
the same time, and, as time goes by, you see a person’s stuff pop up and you
find yourself saying, over time, “I agree with that person a lot.”No one agrees 100% of the time, but over the
years you start to informally befriend those you keep coming across and those
you share ideas with.
I was
blessed to be able to be a chaplain this summer for a pilgrimage to the Holy
Land that Dr. Marshall led.It was asked
that we do the Latin Mass each day, so I was a little intimidated by that
prospect as I only celebrate that form of the Mass once a week.I didn’t know how intense Dr. Marshall and the
other 90 people coming on the trip would be.Let me tell you something, I’ve never been with 90 nicer people than the
90 people I went on pilgrimage with this summer.Dr. Marshall and his wife Joy brought their 8
children and there were lots of other young adults there, and the pilgrims were
just super normal and super down to Earth.
I share this so that you know 1) my bias and 2) I hope this gives a bit of
insight into the Dr. Taylor Marshall I’ve had the limited chance to get to
know.
Dr. Marshall’s
notoriety has also exploded over the last 18 months in the wake of the
(formerly Cardinal now Mister) McCarrick story that broke in the summer of
2018.Dr. Marshall had a podcast that
had started prior to the scandal breaking, but it was his episodes,
particularly the ones where he joined with Timothy Gordon, that put him in the
Catholic spotlight.
Dr. Marshall
and Tim Gordon, from the moment the McCarrick story first broke, started
talking frankly and clearly about the story in a way that the average Catholic
could understand (also in a way the average priest could not say things!).This
awful and (still very much ongoing) scandal needed (and still needs) the sort
of frankness and directness that Dr. Marshall and Tim Gordon have been bringing
to this topic for the last 18 months, and their viewership has grown
exponentially.
In covering
the twists and turns of any major story, any good reporter that is able to
explain to people what is happening in clear English will naturally unearth
lots of interesting and noteworthy information from interviews, from their own
research, and from information sent to them as people see the platform that the
reporter has.
So we now
come to the book “Infiltration” by Dr. Marshall which was published by Crisis
Publications in early 2019.The book
strikes me as essentially a combining together into one book the written record
of the research and information gleaned from his podcast over these past 18
months.I found the book to be concise
and full of good information that I had never seen before.I would say that the material laid out in the
book is stuff that the average Catholic can understand, and is also important
information that every Catholic needs to know about.
So let’s get
to the critics of the book.The
criticisms I’ve had the chance to come across generally fall into three
categories:
1) “Infiltration” is not academic enough.It contains good research in places, and then
it blends in the author’s own hypotheses in a way that serious research does
not.It is not as polished as the Oxford
Dictionary, and there are accusations dropped in that are messy and not always
explained.
2) In a related criticism, “Infiltration” is too
“conspiracy theory-ish” in nature.
3) More research should have been done before
publishing.
My response
to criticism 1: the book is written in a style similar to Dr. Marshall’s
podcasts, and that, in my mind, explains the book’s success so far.A lot of the people lamenting that
“Infiltration” is too informal are some of the same people that can’t get
anyone to read their books.It is fairly
obvious why people are drawn to Dr. Marshall’s podcast; he speaks in plain
English.People, it seems to me, are fed
up with “Church talk” and want to hear, in plain English, what’s going on and
what should be done.There will always
be jealousy by those who want more people to listen to their version of what is
happening, but can’t say it as clearly and concisely as the people that are
garnering praise and attention for their clarity.
“Infiltration”
isn’t written in theologian-speak.I
don’t believe I saw any instances of the words “ecclesiology” or “Christology”
or any other of the myriad of theological jargon that, while at times
important, puts the average Catholic to sleep really quickly.
My response
to criticism 2: yes, Dr. Marshall puts in some of his own hypotheses, but I
would say to the critics “You mean you really can’t tell where he’s inserting a
hypothesis?”To me it is quite obvious
where he is speculating and where he is sharing a fact.
As to the
book being to “conspiracy theorist”, I would say, first of all, the whole
premise is that there is some kind of conspiracy, so that would imply that the
book is “conspiracy theory-ish”.Secondly,
consider the fact that the following things all are matters of historical
record, and are not “theories”:
1) Bishop Athanasius Schneider endorsed the
book.
2) Paul VI in a HOMILY in 1972 REALLY said: “no
its’s not mysterious; through some crack the smoke of Satan has entered the
Church of God”
3) Pope Pius IX really did approve the apparition
of “Our Lady of La Salette”
4) Leo XIII in 1890 published the Saint Michael
Prayer.
5) Blessed Anne Catherine Emmerich really wrote in
the early 1800’s that Satan would be unleashed on the world in the second half
of the 1900’s.
6) Fatima happened, and even if nothing has been
hidden (John XXIII’s secretary has said the second half of the third secret was
hidden) there is much to pay attention to.That some in theChurch have covered
up and never revealed parts of what the children were told to share with the
world is a “conspiracy theory” in the sense that there is strong evidence that
people conspired to do something, but regardless, Fatima itself really happened
is not a conspiracy theory and has much to pay attention to.
7) VENERABLE Bishop Fulton Sheen actually said, in
a book, “He will set up a counter church which will be the ape of the Church,
because he, the Devil, is the ape of God.It will have all the notes and characteristics of the Church, but in
reverse and emptied of its divine content.It will be a mystical body of the Antichrist that will in all externals
resemble the mystical body of Christ.”That is an actual quote, not a conspiracy theory.
8) A former Communist agent Manning Johnson
testified before the United States House in 1953: “Once the tactic of
infiltration of religious organization was set by the Kremlin…the Communists
discovered that the destruction of religion could proceed much faster through
infiltration of the Catholic Church by Communists operating within the Church
itself…This policy of infiltrating the seminaries was successful beyond even
Communist expectations.” (public record…not a conspiracy theory on the
internet)
9) In 1958, 74 percent of Catholics went to Sunday
Mass, and today it is only 22%.That’s
not a conspiracy theory.
10) In 1965 there really were 49,000 seminarians and
in 2002 there really are 4,700. Not a conspiracy theory.
11) Cardinal Danneels is the one who first let
everyone know there was, as he himself termed it, a “Sankt Gallen Mafia” of
Church leaders.That’s not a conspiracy
theory.He said it.
12) Alice Von Hildebrand reports that Bella Dodd confessed
to her and Dietrich that Russian Communists were working with 4 cardinals high
in the Vatican.If you don’t trust Alice
Von Hildebrand, and put her in the conspiracy theorist category, I don’t know
what to tell you.
As to the
final criticism that there needs to be more research: I agree, as I’m sure Dr.
Marshall agrees and lots of other people agree.Dr. Marshall is a father of 8 children working hard to raise a family
and teach online and so forth, does anyone actually think one person would EVER
be able to unearth the depth of this situation?
The
Spotlight story that broke open the abuse crisis of 2002 in Boston had a team
of 5 full time reporters working on the story for years.How many reporters covered Watergate?But Dr. Marshall, through first interviewing
victim James Grein, uncovered an eerie connection with McCarrick and Sankt
Gallen (I’ve noticed some professional Catholic outlets criticize
“Infiltration” and then turn around and reference the information Dr. Marshall
unearthed in his interview with Grein, all while not crediting Dr. Marshall
with discovering the info.That’s
plagiarism where I come from.The same
has been done to some of the stuff that Church Militant and George Neumayr have
discovered.They’ve been described as
non-professional, and then, by the same groups, have their work
non-professionally plagiarized).
I am
confident in saying that Dr. Marshall would love nothing more than to see lots
of other people continue to do a deep dive and investigate all the strands of
this story.That no one else seems
willing to look any deeper into this story, given what Dr. Marshall has already
been able to unearth and pull together, will certainly only add fuel to the
fire of those who are tempted to see conspiracies.
I’m thankful
for the work being done by Dr. Marshall, the book “Infiltration” very much
included!
Some have asked for the optional prayers that I will be leading at the end of our weekend Masses that do not end with adoration. here is a photo of the back page of our new Mass booklet:
10 years ago classes I taught on Catholicism and homosexuality went viral on the gay blogosphere, putting me in the middle of an issue I had never imagined.
I said then (and still say) that if I could change one phrase in the English translation of the Catechism it would be the phrase in paragraph 2358 (see image below)
The proper English phrase should be, philosophically speaking, “not properly ordered”.
BUT Fr James Martin’s proposal is disastrously wrong. He wants “differently ordered”, which of course, as he knows, takes the discussion away from what attractions SHOULD be ordered to.
This is video highlights from the burial for Gary Gretter, a parishioner who moved back to Virginia about two years ago because of health reasons. Gary died several months ago. Gary was one of the more humble men I've ever met, so much so that I didn't even know he was a Lt. Colonel. This footage is absolutely stunning.
Most people that watch this will not be able to help being deeply moved.
What makes it stunning?
1) Precision of movement. Everything has been prearranged, there is absolutely nothing that is impromptu
2) Uniforms. People are dressed up, and, whether it is the family or the military folks assisting in the service, all who might walk by or see this service would know, by their dress "Something important is happening here."
3) The music. It fits the occasion, and it is not something the people in attendance say "play something that we can sing along with so we can join in"
4) Latin. Others who have watched it, particularly former marines, have responded "Semper Fi". That is the Marine motto, but it is interesting even here that having something in a language that isn't the vernacular seems to carry more weight.
5) The reverence. The way the body is treated and the way the flag is treated shows to ANYONE watching, even if they've never seen a casket before and even if they've never seen an American Flag before, they would know, by watching this ceremony that the body and the flag are both HIGHLY valued by those who are in attendance.
1-5 can also be said about the Catholic Mass when it is celebrated well.
Number one question I’m asked as a priest: “Father, can I do Yoga?”
Me: “No. but as a follow up, why would you want to?”
Person: “it’s like normal stretching”
Me: “Then just do normal stretching, since it is NOT attached to Eastern non-Catholic spiritualism”
“But Yoga is just body movements!”
Me: “So is genuflecting, giving someone the middle finger, making the sign of the cross...most of the best and worst things in the world are “body movements”. We must recapture the Catholic understanding that the body and soul are connected”
Person advocating for Catholic-Yoga: “But praying and stretching are so peaceful!”
Me: “It’s important to work out and take care of ourselves. But do you know what is more peaceful than stretching while praying...JUST praying. (Rosary/Scripture/adoration/holy hour/etc.)
Some have said Fr. James Martin is prompting some kind of “Catholic Yoga”. Well, I typically believe the exact opposite of Fr James Martin. That he likes “Catholic Yoga” does not surprise me in the least, sadly.
Some were saying St Ignatius asked for “Catholic Yoga” to be created. If so, I would confront St Ignatius on that, as Paul confronted Peter.
There’s no “Catholic Ouija Board” There’s no “Catholic Tarot Cards” There’s no “Catholic Chakra Wheels” There’s no “Catholic horoscope” There’s no “Catholic seance” There’s no “Catholic Yoga”
Some quotes
on celibacy from “The Directory on the Ministry and Life of Priests” (59-60)
"The example
is Christ, who in going against what could be considered the dominant culture
of His time, freely chose to live celibacy.In following him the disciples left “everything” to fulfill the mission
entrusted to them."
"For this
reason the Church, from apostolic times, has wished to conserve the gift of
perpetual continence [no sex] of the clergy and choose the candidates for Holy
Orders from among the celibate faithful."
"In today’s
cultural climate, often conditioned by a vision of man lacking in values and
incapable of giving a complete, positive and liberating sense to human
sexuality, the question of the value and meaning of priestly celibacy is often
presented, or at least the question of its strict rapport with ministerial priesthood."
"Difficulties
and objections have always accompanied, throughout history, the decision by the
Latin Church to confer ministerial priesthood only on those men who have
received from God the gift of chastity in celibacy."
"The
difficulties which some present even today are often founded on pretentious
arguments."
This was a great episode of The Journey Home. I hope you can watch it all. Very charitable with TONS of great quotes and takeaways.
Here were a few of my favorite quotes:
“Any answer
to the question: “Which Church should I attend?” that doesn’t have as its
singular conclusion “Whichever Church Jesus established” results in
consumerism.[if that’s not what I’m
asking] I’m therefore going to some place that [just] makes me comfortable or
that I THINK is right”
“And
actually we don’t know what we ought to think about certain contested issues in
the Scriptures; we wrestle with exegetical questions all the time, and you can’t
always sort that out with more exegesis.Wonderful exegetes disagree with each other so frequently. And so is
there a divinely protected organism in the world that is able to discern for us
or settle those matters for us?”
My goddaughter (middle) at prayer at my sister's rehearsal
My favorite picture of all time goes well with my favorite part of the Catechism (by an order of at least 10) on "The Battle of Prayer"
I hope you can read every word:
2725 Prayer is both a gift of grace and a determined response on our part. It always presupposes effort. The great figures of prayer of the Old Covenant before Christ, as well as the Mother of God, the saints, and he himself, all teach us this: prayer is a battle. Against whom? Against ourselves and against the wiles of the tempter who does all he can to turn man away from prayer, away from union with God. We pray as we live, because we live as we pray. If we do not want to act habitually according to the Spirit of Christ, neither can we pray habitually in his name. The "spiritual battle" of the Christian's new life is inseparable from the battle of prayer.
I. OBJECTIONS TO PRAYER
2726 In the battle of prayer, we must face in ourselves and around us erroneous notions of prayer. Some people view prayer as a simple psychological activity, others as an effort of concentration to reach a mental void. Still others reduce prayer to ritual words and postures. Many Christians unconsciously regard prayer as an occupation that is incompatible with all the other things they have to do: they "don't have the time." Those who seek God by prayer are quickly discouraged because they do not know that prayer comes also from the Holy Spirit and not from themselves alone.
2727 We must also face the fact that certain attitudes deriving from the mentality of "this present world" can penetrate our lives if we are not vigilant. For example, some would have it that only that is true which can be verified by reason and science; yet prayer is a mystery that overflows both our conscious and unconscious lives. Others overly prize production and profit; thus prayer, being unproductive, is useless. Still others exalt sensuality and comfort as the criteria of the true, the good, and the beautiful; whereas prayer, the "love of beauty" (philokalia), is caught up in the glory of the living and true God. Finally, some see prayer as a flight from the world in reaction against activism; but in fact, Christian prayer is neither an escape from reality nor a divorce from life.
2728 Finally, our battle has to confront what we experience as failure in prayer: discouragement during periods of dryness; sadness that, because we have "great possessions,"15 we have not given all to the Lord; disappointment over not being heard according to our own will; wounded pride, stiffened by the indignity that is ours as sinners; our resistance to the idea that prayer is a free and unmerited gift; and so forth. The conclusion is always the same: what good does it do to pray? To overcome these obstacles, we must battle to gain humility, trust, and perseverance.
II. HUMBLE VIGILANCE OF HEART
Facing difficulties in prayer
2729 The habitual difficulty in prayer is distraction. It can affect words and their meaning in vocal prayer; it can concern, more profoundly, him to whom we are praying, in vocal prayer (liturgical or personal), meditation, and contemplative prayer. To set about hunting down distractions would be to fall into their trap, when all that is necessary is to turn back to our heart: for a distraction reveals to us what we are attached to, and this humble awareness before the Lord should awaken our preferential love for him and lead us resolutely to offer him our heart to be purified. Therein lies the battle, the choice of which master to serve.16
2730 In positive terms, the battle against the possessive and dominating self requires vigilance, sobriety of heart. When Jesus insists on vigilance, he always relates it to himself, to his coming on the last day and every day: today. The bridegroom comes in the middle of the night; the light that must not be extinguished is that of faith: "'Come,' my heart says, 'seek his face!'"17
2731 Another difficulty, especially for those who sincerely want to pray, is dryness. Dryness belongs to contemplative prayer when the heart is separated from God, with no taste for thoughts, memories, and feelings, even spiritual ones. This is the moment of sheer faith clinging faithfully to Jesus in his agony and in his tomb. "Unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if dies, it bears much fruit."18 If dryness is due to the lack of roots, because the word has fallen on rocky soil, the battle requires conversion.19
Facing temptations in prayer
2732 The most common yet most hidden temptation is our lack of faith. It expresses itself less by declared incredulity than by our actual preferences. When we begin to pray, a thousand labors or cares thought to be urgent vie for priority; once again, it is the moment of truth for the heart: what is its real love? Sometimes we turn to the Lord as a last resort, but do we really believe he is?
“But one thing eventually became clear: my happy evangelical view of the Church’s “unity” as being nothing more than the worldwide clutter that we had under our general umbrella, was, for good or ill, not what the ancient Church had understood by the word unity. As an evangelical, I could pick which source of things appealed most to me:… And in one sense, variety is doubtless a sign of vigorous life in the Church. But in another sense, of course, it is a disaster.
The Montanists [heresy] were certainly zealous and earnest and had much to commend them: the difficulty, finally, was that they were not the Church. Likewise with the Donatists [heresy]. God bless them for their fidelity and ardor and purity, but they were not the Church...[heresies raised throughout history] did not remain open questions forever.
There was one Church, and the Church was one. And this was a discernible, visible, embodied unity, not a loose aggregate of vaguely like-minded believers with their various task forces all across the globe.
The Bishop of Antioch was not analogous to the general secretary of the World Evangelical Fellowship or the head of the National Association of Evangelicals. He could speak with the full authority of the Church behind him; these latter gentlemen can only speak for their own organization.”
