Featured Post

SHADE // Brother Isaiah (updated 2 August 2020)

From the CFR facebook page: "SHADE" is a new acoustic series featuring the music of Brother Isaiah, CFR. Brother Isaiah offers si...

Saturday 29 January 2011

Fr. Barron comments on Abortion: Shocking Numbers out of New York


Father Robert Barron gives his usual profound insight.
Check him out at www.wordonfire.org
I highly recommend his weekly homily podcasts.

The Lottery of Life

I came across this in mid October last year and it keeps coming back into my mind and thought I should post it. It is from remarks made by the Archbishop Chaput of Denver. He is very outspoken on life issues and has a way of cutting to the heart of things. You can see the full address here. Below I have added my highlights:
Some of you may know the short story, “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson. If you don’t, I need to spoil the ending to make my point.  But I promise the story will still be worth reading.
“The Lottery” is set on a summer day in a small town in 1940s America. The people are assembling for a very old annual ritual.  The ritual has something to do with imploring a good corn harvest -- but there’s no mention of any God, and no clergy anywhere in the picture.
Each person in the village lines up to draw a slip of paper from an old wooden box.  Tessie Hutchinson, a young wife and mother, draws a slip with a black mark.
From that moment, the story moves quickly to its conclusion. The lottery official gives the word, and the villagers move in on Tessie.  And they stone her to death.
“The Lottery” is one of the most widely read stories ever published in my country. And for good reason.  It’s well told. The ending leaves you breathless. Teachers like it because it provokes sharp classroom discussions.
Or at least it used to. 
A few years ago, a college writing professor, Kay Haugaard, wrote an essay about her experiences teaching “The Lottery” over a period of about two decades.
She said that in the early 1970s, students who read the story voiced shock and indignation. The tale led to vivid conversations on big topics -- the meaning of sacrifice and tradition; the dangers of group-think and blind allegiance to leaders; the demands of conscience and the consequences of cowardice.
Sometime in the mid-1990s, however, reactions began to change.
Haugaard described one classroom discussion that -- to me -- was more disturbing than the story itself. The students had nothing to say except that the story bored them. So Haugaard asked them what they thought about the villagers ritually sacrificing one of their own for the sake of the harvest.
One student, speaking in quite rational tones, argued that many cultures have traditions of human sacrifice. Another said that the stoning might have been part of “a religion of long standing,” and therefore acceptable and understandable.
An older student who worked as a nurse, also weighed in. She said that her hospital had made her take training in multicultural sensitivity. The lesson she learned was this: “If it’s a part of a person’s culture, we are taught not to judge.”
I thought of Haugaard’s experience with “The Lottery” as I got ready for this brief talk. Here’s where my thinking led me:
Our culture is doing catechesis every day. It works like water dripping on a stone, eroding people’s moral and religious sensibilities, and leaving a hole where their convictions used to be.
Haugaard’s experience teaches us that it took less than a generation for this catechesis to produce a group of young adults who were unable to take a moral stand against the ritual murder of a young woman.  Not because they were cowards.  But because they lost their moral vocabulary.
Haugaard’s students seemingly grew up in a culture shaped by practical atheism and moral relativism. In other words, they grew up in an environment that teaches, in many different ways, that God is irrelevant, and that good and evil, right and wrong, truth and falsehood can’t exist in any absolute sense.
This is the culture we live in, and the catechesis is on-going. But I don’t think this new kind of barbarism – because that’s what it is; a form of barbarism -- is an inevitable process.
It’s not easy to de-moralize and strip a society of its religious sense. Accomplishing the task requires two key factors: First, it takes the aggressive, organized efforts of individuals and groups committed to undermining faith and historic Christian values. Second, it takes the indifference of persons like you and me, Christian believers.
I want to focus on the second factor, because it involves us.
Christians in my country and yours -- and throughout the West, generally -- have done a terrible job of transmitting our faith to our own children and to the culture at large.
Evidence can be found anecdotally in stories like Kay Haugaard’s. We can also see it in polls showing that religious identity and affiliation are softening.  More people are claiming that they’re “spiritual,” but they have no religion.
Religion is fading as a formative influence in developed countries.  Religious faith is declining in Western culture, especially among Canadian and American young people. This suggests that the Church is actually much smaller than her official numbers would indicate. And this, in turn, has implications for the future of Catholic life and the direction of our societies.
What’s happening today in the Church is not a “new” story.  We find it repeated throughout the Old Testament.  It took very little time for the Hebrews to start worshipping a golden calf.  Whenever the people of God grew too prosperous or comfortable, they forgot where they came from.  They forgot their God, because they no longer thought it was important to teach about him.
Because they failed to catechize, they failed to inoculate themselves against the idolatries in their surrounding cultures.  And eventually, they began praying to the same alien gods as the pagans among whom they lived.
We have the same struggles today.  Instead of changing the culture around us, we Christians have allowed ourselves to be changed by the culture. We’ve compromised too cheaply. We’ve hungered after assimilating and fitting in.  And in the process, we’ve been bleached out and absorbed by the culture we were sent to make holy.
If our people no longer know their faith, or its obligations of discipleship, or its call to mission -- then we leaders, clergy, parents and teachers have no one to blame but ourselves. We need to confess that, and we need to fix it. For too many of us, Christianity is not a filial relationship with the living God, but a habit and an inheritance. We’ve become tepid in our beliefs and naive about the world.  We’ve lost our evangelical zeal. And we’ve failed in passing on our faith to the next generation.
The practical unbelief we now face in our societies is, in large measure, the fruit of our own flawed choices in teaching, parenting, religious practice and personal witness. But these choices can be unmade. We can repent.  We can renew what our vanity and indifference have diminished.  It’s still possible to “redeem the time,” as St. Paul once put it. But we don’t have a lot of time.  Nor should we make alibis for mistakes of the past.
Sixty years ago, when Shirley Jackson wrote “The Lottery,” she could count on her readers knowing what right and wrong were. She lived in a culture that reflected a broadly Christian consensus about virtue and moral integrity.  That’s no longer the case.
The culture we live in today proselytizes for a very different consensus -- one based on political and moral agendas vigorously hostile to Christian beliefs.
A recent article in the New York Times went directly to this point. It was about a new ad campaign launched by supporters of homosexual “marriage” in New York. The campaign features politicians and Hollywood celebrities making a series of reasonable-sounding arguments.
One example is from the actress, Julianne Moore. Her ad begins, “Hi, I’m Julianne Moore, and I’m a New Yorker. We all deserve the right to marry the person we love.”
The New York campaign is misleading and ultimately ruinous to real marriages and families.  But when Christians don’t understand the content or the reasons for their own faith, they have no compelling alternative to offer.
The points I’ve been making are these:
First, either we form our culture, or the culture will form us. Second, right now, the culture does a better job of shaping us than we do in shaping the culture. And third, we need to admit our failures, and we need to turn ourselves onto a path of repentance and change, and unselfish witness to others. 
The central issue in renewing Catholic catechesis has little to do with techniques, or theories, or programs, or resources. The central issue is whether we ourselves really do believe.  Catechesis is not a profession.  It’s a dimension of discipleship. If we’re Christians, we’re each of us called to be teachers and missionaries.
But we can’t share what we don’t have.  If we’re embarrassed about Church teachings, or if we disagree with them, or if we’ve decided that they’re just too hard to live by, or too hard to explain, then we’ve already defeated ourselves.
We need to really believe what we claim to believe. We need to stop calling ourselves “Catholic” if we don’t stand with the Church in her teachings – all of them.  But if we really are Catholic, or at least if we want to be, then we need to act like it with obedience and zeal and a fire for Jesus Christ in our hearts.  God gave us the faith in order to share it.  This takes courage. It takes a deliberate dismantling of our own vanity.  When we do that, the Church is strong. When we don’t, she grows weak. It’s that simple.
In a culture of confusion, the Church is our only reliable guide.  So let’s preach and teach our Catholic beliefs with passion. And let’s ask God to make us brave enough and humble enough to follow our faith to its radical conclusions.

Tuesday 25 January 2011

ProLifeCon


Pro-life internet activists will gather at Family Research Council headquarters on January 24th, 2011 for ProLifeCon, the premier conference for the online pro-life community.  The event will be webcast live, and will feature experts and legislators to inform you about the cutting edge of the pro-life movement and give you ways to make a difference on blogs, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and the rest of the online world.
Event Schedule:

Saturday 22 January 2011

Music with Meaning - Satan Your Kingdom Must Come Down - Robert Plant


This a beautiful old gospel song. Robert Plant has done an amazing job on this cover version from his latest album "Band of Joy." I am in love with this dirge, simple but powerful. As the pope says in "Light of the World" - "Simplicity is Truth - and Truth is simple."

The picture shown above is of St Michael the Archangel defeating Satan.
We can pray to St Michael:
St Michael, Archangel
Defend us in battle
Be our protection against the wickedness and snares of the devil
May God rebuke him,
we humbly pray,
and do thou,
Oh prince of the heavenly host,
thrust into hell
Satan and all evil spirits who prowl through the world for the ruin of souls.

These days many people are confused about the idea of hell. "How can a forgiving God send anyone to eternal suffering?" they ask. But let us flip that around. Remember that it is not God who condemns to Hell, but people who themselves turn their back on God and deprive themselves of his presence. When we look back at the story of the first sin in the Garden of Eden we read: 
"And they heard the voice of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day: and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God amongst the trees of the garden." 
(Genesis 3:8)
They knew they had been disobedient and felt ashamed, but God still wished to be with them. However, they hid. They had wanted to be "as gods, knowing good and evil" (Gen 3:5b). And in an attempt at making themselves into gods they gave up the innocent beauty that was entrusted to them.
We too, continue in our pride to try and decide what is good and what is evil. It is only when we turn back to God and trust His goodness, when we give up wanting to justify ourselves that we can let ourselves look upon him in trust and joy. We cannot love God and impose our ideas on Him.
Hell is our choice to turn our backs on God. To be close to Him in the next life, but not allow ourselves to receive his loving embrace. God always calls us into His embrace, it is we who hide.


Thursday 20 January 2011

Friday 14 January 2011

UNPlanned by Abby Johnson - free previews

Just a quick one. There has been a lot of press in Pro-Life circles regarding the new book by a former director of a Planned Parenthood Centre who changed sides after seeing an abortion on ultrasound. You can get the first chapter as a free download and other previews here: http://www.ignatius.com/promotions/unplanned/

Some quotes from that page:
"The moving true story of the shocking truth of abortion and how God's love transformed Abby's life." - Fr. Benedict Groeschel, CFR
"Abby walked out of the abortion industry and came into my office just next door. After seeing her transformation from running a Planned Parenthood to joining our efforts to help women and save lives, I believe that ANYONE can change their mind on abortion." - Shawn Carney, 40 Days for Life

You can also listen to the launch party webcast in which 21,613 people participated (including Abby) earlier this week: http://instantteleseminar.com/?eventid=16864185

Unplanned: The Dramatic True Story of a Former Planned Parenthood Leader's Eye-Opening Journey across the Life Line
http://www.unplannedbook.com/

Tuesday 11 January 2011

Philosophy of the devil (Noses and diagnosis)

As the more observant of you may notice (from my reading list in the right hand margin) I am still reading The Karamazov Brothers. I know it is taking a very long time, but in my defense it is rather long (second only to War and Peace I believe). I have been totally enthralled in recent chapters. Not to give away too much of the story, but there is a delightful conversation between one of the brothers and the devil. The intellectual posturing is at times hilarious and at other times just fascinating. I would like to share with you what the devil thinks of philosophy (I know it is lengthy, but I promise it is worthwhile):
'Philosophy, indeed, when all my right side is numb and I am moaning and groaning. I've tried all the medical faculty: they can diagnose beautifully, they have the whole of your disease at their fingertips, but they've no idea how to cure you. There was an enthusiastic little student here, "You may die," said he, "but you'll know perfectly what you are dying of!" And then what a way they have of sending people to specialists! "We only diagnose," they say, "but go to such-and-such  a specialist, he'll cure you." The old doctor who used to cure all sorts of disease has completely disappeared, I assure you, now there are only specialists and they all advertise in the newspapers. If anything is wrong with your nose, they send you to Paris: there, they say, is a European specialist who cures noses. If you go to Paris, he'll look at your nose; I can only cure your right nostril, he'll tell you, for I don't cure the left nostril, that's not my specialty, but go to Vienna, there there's a specialist who will cure your left nostril. What are you to do? I fell back on popular remedies, a German doctor advised me to rub myself with honey and salt in the bath-house. Solely to get an extra bath I went, smeared myself all over and it did me no good at all. In despair I wrote to Count Mattei in Milan. He sent me a book and some drops, bless him, and, only fancy, Hoff's malt extract cured me! I bought it by accident, drank a bottle and a half of it, and I was ready to dance, it took it away completely. I made up my mind to write to the papers to thank him, I was prompted by a feeling of gratitude, and only fancy, it led to no end of bother: not a single paper would take my letter. "It would be very reactionary," they said, "no one will believe it. Le diable n'existe point (The devil does not exist). You'd better remain anonymous," they advised me. What use is a letter of thanks if it's anonymous? I laughed with the men at the newspaper office; "It is reactionary to believe in God in our days," I said, "but I'm the devil, so I may be believed in." "We quite understand that," they said. "Who doesn't believe in the devil? Yet it won't do, it might injure our reputation. As a joke, if you like." But I thought as a joke it wouldn't be very witty. So it wasn't printed. And do you know, I have felt sore about it to this day. My best feelings, gratitude, for instance, are literally denied me simply from my social position.'

Friday 7 January 2011

Story of our lives (from Matthew Kelly)

I just received this in the Matthew Kelly newsletter yesterday. He really is an inspiration. See his website http://www.matthewkelly.org/ and for American readers there is the opportunity to receive a free copy of his book Rediscovering Catholicism (I highly, highly recommend it).
Ideas shape our lives. Ideas shape history. We all have a need for a constant flow of ideas that inspire us, challenge us, illumine our minds, teach us about ourselves and our world, show us what is possible, and encourage us to become the-best-version-of-ourselves.
We need a diet of the mind just as much as we need a diet of the body. The ideas we feed our mind today tend to form our lives tomorrow.
Think of it in this way: We become the stories we listen to. It doesn't matter if we get those stories from movies, music, television, newspapers, magazines, politicians, friends, or books-the stories we listen to form our lives.
If you want to understand any period in history, simply ask two questions: "Who were the storytellers?" and "What story were they telling?"
Winston Churchill, Francis of Assisi, Charlemagne, Napoleon, Charlie Chaplin, Adolf Hitler, Bob Dylan, Mother Teresa, Mahatma Gandhi, Abraham Lincoln, Marilyn Monroe, Nelson Mandela, and Jesus each told a story.
If you want to know how your nation will be different tomorrow from the way it was yesterday, find out how the stories your nation is listening to are different from the stories of yesterday. If you discover that the stories we are listening to have less meaning, contain more violence, and, rather than inspire us and raise our standards, appeal more and more to the lowest common denominator, you can be sure that in the future our lives will have less meaning, contain more violence, and be more focused on the lowest common denominator.
We become the stories we listen to. But perhaps the more important question is, what stories do you listen to? What stories are forming your life?
~ excerpt from The Rhythm of Life: Living Every Day with Passion & Purpose

Monday 3 January 2011

Golfing with the Trinity, it's infallible

I just came across this speaker, Dr Ray Guarendi. He has been featured on EWTN and is very inspirational. He is the father of 10 and a practicing clinical psychologist. The second half of the clip talks about artificial contraception and the teaching authority of the Church.

Most popular