Saturday, February 27, 2010

The Author of Salvation, He Rose and Conquered the Grave



Lenten Spiritual Exercises Blog

Good stuff for Lent

Reflection on venial sin.

Grace: a growing intense sorrow and, if God so wishes, even tears for my sins.
Text for Prayer: 2 Samuel 11
Reflection: The devil is like a cunning general.  If he sees a strongly defended city, he will retreat and reorient his attack.  Inspecting the fortifications, he looks for the weak points and tries to exploit them.  Perhaps a small attack here, a sortie there, will eventually compromise the strength of the walls and weaken the resolve of the inhabitants to defend themselves.  This is a good metaphor for how human beings are led through venial sin toward a total rejection of God’s love through mortal sin.  Venial sins are like small cracks in the walls of our defenses which then become gaping cavities.
Venial sin, by definition, damages our relationship with God without destroying it.  If mortal sin destroys the grace of our salvation by willfully rejecting God’s offer of salvation, venial sin prepares the path by slowly weakening our trust in God and commitment to the life He offers us.  As one Jesuit has explained the matter: “Besides mortal sin, venial sin is the worst thing in the world you can do.”
Today we can pray with story of David and Bathsheba in 2 Sam 11.  We know where David’s sin ended: Uriah dead and Bathsheba pregnant with the king’s child.  But let’s not forget where David’s disgrace began.  Walking upon his roof in the early evening, his gaze fell upon Bathsheba and remained there.  Then he had inquiries made about her.  He sent for her.  His mind plotted.  How many small betrayals made his eventual demise possible?  At how many points could the process have been reversed?  But David carried on with tragic momentum.
Venial sins expose what St. Ignatius calls “undue attachments” to this world.  Yes, the world was made by God for His glory and our enjoyment, but always in a measure that is directed back toward God.  We are to use the world—but only in the way God wants us to use it.  We, however, become unduly attached to elements of this world and grasp them for ourselves.  We become like children with a toy, unwilling to relinquish our prized possession.  Thus, we cordon off a section of our lives from God’s influence.  During the first week of the Spiritual Exercises we want to shed light on these areas of our lives.  We want to name them and present them to Jesus who intercedes for us at the right hand of the Father.
Prayer and Questions:  Perhaps it will help your meditation upon this text by thinking of David, not in the process of gazing upon Bathsheba, but afterward.  See David as he sits alone on his roof, plotting and scheming, wrapped up inside himself.  As he builds up walls against God, he allows his walls of protection against evil to crumble.  What would you say to David in this moment?
Turn your attention to yourself.  What areas of your life have you cordoned off against God?  If God were to ask you about some aspect of your life, would your first reaction be “Don’t go there!”  What does it feel like to stand before God in my sinfullness?  These are difficult questions, but Lent is the perfect time to ask them.

Read more at the link above and check in every day.



The farewell to Paterson won't come soon enough

Just get out


A scandal-scarred Gov. Paterson formally ended his short-lived election campaign Friday afternoon.
Paterson, under investigation by Attoreny General ndrew Cuomo for contacting a woman who accused one of his top aides of domestic violence, made the announcement at his Manhattan office with his wife, Michelle, at his side.
"I am being realistic about politics," he said. "It hasn't been the latest distraction, it's been an accumulation of obstacles that has obfuscated me from bringing my message to the public.
"There are times in politics when you have to know not to strive for service, but to step back - and that moment has come for me," Paterson said. "Today, I am announcing that I am ending my campaign for governor of the state of New York."
"It has become increasingly clear to me in the last few days that I cannot run for office and try to manage the state's business at the same time. And right now, New York state needs a leader who can devote full time to this service."

Crocodile tears here in Pembroke!

The 15 minute Mass before Work

This guy could be onto something.

Attendance is skyrocketing.

Daily Eucharist and the Word.  Have a nice day.




Massive Earthquake in Chile

8.8 magnitude.

Damage 200 miles from epicenter.

Prayers for all, obviously.

Penance, penance, penance.

Who is Michael Sean Winters? What is his shtick?




In this post, Michael Sean Winters tries to get people to believe if Domino's delivers pizza to Planned Parenthood, this is akin to the Catholic Conference of Bishops giving money to fund groups promoting abortions.

I see what he's saying.

Sorta like waitress at Bickfords  who served the Taliban before they hoped on the plane and crashed into the twin towers is the same level of cooperation with evil as the people funding them.

Maybe he's onto something.

Could the war on terror could be won peacefully if Homeland Security would only shut down the restaurants in airports?

The wisdom of Winters little story, the morals of which seem to escape me, are supposed to be the antithesis to Catholics outraged over the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops' funding groups who lobby for abortion.

What doesn't Winters get about the distinctions between Catholic Bishops funding groups lobbying rights to kill other people and the guy delivering a pizza to Planned Parenthood?

The sole purpose of the Catholic Bishops is the Apostolic duty to uphold the teachings of the Church and guide the discernment of the Catholic population in the public square. The Church has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars, if not millions, training each Bishop in theology, philosophy, science, history and natural law.

The Church got the money to train these men from the Catholic consumers in the pews who expect a return on their money.

The money the Bishops are giving to groups who fund abortion has been given to the Bishops for the sole purpose of upholding the teachings of the Church so that their children and grandchildren, relatives, friends, neighbors and the faithful at large have the guidance they need to get into Heaven.

People making pizza, delivering pizza, eating pizza and disposing the remnants of our food into the dumps and incinerators aren't the institutions and people dedicated to uphold the teachings of the Church. Catholics in the pews aren't donating their money to the pizza store owner for the sole purpose of upholding the teachings of the Church.

A reader sent a post about Michael Sean Winters to me yesterday which was news to me.

I discovered that a guy I went to seminary with more than twenty years ago had turned into a kind of quixotic shill for the Catholic Church's opposition to DC Gay marriage. Michael Sean Winters was a very flamboyant gay man in the seminary. There is literally no other way to describe him. I always liked him in those days, and was always pleased that there did not seem to be any erotic energy between us. I liked hearing all his liberal postulations and glosses. I shared many of his views. But by nature I am more reserved about letting people know what I am thinking, even though gregariousness is a part of my nature. When I trust someone then it is a different story. Michael Winters was not someone you would trust, because he was really all over the place. It saddened me to hear other seminarians constantly make cruel fun of him for his psychological difficulties and his labyrinthine liberalism. I recall sitting in the refectory with him being entertained by his analysis of certain Church trends as "fascism". Being given personally to trying to understand systems of thought qua systems, I marveled that Michael did not seem to grasp in the inherently inhospitable nature of Catholic polity towards his logic, such as it was. Further, I remember humorously that Greg Rohde, who I think went on to be a Assistant Secretary of Commerce, was sitting there amazed by Michael's scattershot discussion, especially when he digressed into one of his favorite topics -- what a big girl our rector Larry Terrien was. (It really is amazing how far "big girls" go in the Roman Church. I remember seeing Terrien after I left the seminary in a famous gay restaurant in Dupont Circle).

This inability to understand the context of ideas still afflicts poor Michael Winters. Or Michael Sean Winters as he uses for his blogging. What can you say about a guy with such vaunted conceptual ambitions who spent many, many years as hostess with the mostess at Kramerbooks in Dupont. The chicken sandwich on focaccia was always good, and still is. It was always fun to run into him and hear about his perpetual search to get that doctorate in Church History. Fun and sad. Michael seemed more and more conceptually bereft as the years went on, ad the florid confidence of youth, settled into the bizarre juxtapositions of middle aged addled attempts at comprehensivess. Gossip replaced thought. It became too much to even listen to that at some point. It made me reflect on how hard it is to be a gay man in some ways. It brings psychological stresses for all of us. And the gay community has in some ways taken on that nasty fun-making cruelty I saw in those conservative seminarians. So I don't judge Michael. But I will not sit by while his mental confusion is used by right-wing nuts in the Catholic church to create a subtle conceptual space for their essential bigoted positions.

I'm not really tapped into the details of the characters posting Catholic dissent and so the fact that Winters is a gay man who was once in the seminary completely escaped me.

Interesting post here too.   (Occasionally, my friends or colleagues will say to me - what world are you living in!  "I don't know", I'll say,  "one that is gone 12 hours a day for work and then taking care of a house, family and friends?    I don't think we are reading the same blogs? " 


There is a lot to digest and discuss in this post, including the personal and spiritual impact of realizing the Church considers us "lost sheep" when our flesh and early desires leads us to reject Church teaching. At one point or another in our lives, we have all been there on one Church teaching or another. The alienation brings on a plethora of emotions that are very hard to set aside to get the motivation going to take a stab at understanding the the wisdom of the Church. Personally, I see promiscuity outside of Sacramental marriage, any promiscuity,pre-marital, extramarital, etc., as the same level of inequity in sin (apart from rape of course which piles theft on top of the sin of promiscuity).

Too much to discuss for this post, but a few observations about how Michael Sean Winters is conducting his apostolate are worth noting.

When Winters is discussing sins of promiscuity and abortion at America Magazine and the National Catholic Reporter, the twists and turns of his logic are always baiting people into malice for the teachings of the Church. He characterizes the people who have surrendered their will to the teachings of the Church,out in the public square teaching the tenets of the Catholic religion to others, as the enemy.

His posts give his readers the notion that the Church hates, which further alienates them from perhaps ever setting their emotions aside to conduct due diligence on the actual teachings of the Church. He's holding people hostage, away from the unconditional love of Christ and the Sacraments of His Church. I cannot imagine a worse offense against God.

I've spoken many times before about my own history (past history, thankfully) of railing against the teachings and disciplines of the Church - mostly about contraception and priestly celibacy vs. married priests. I was away from the Church and the Sacraments of the Church for several years. Fools they were in my eyes back then.

Like most mothers raised in the Catholic faith, there was enough seeds planted in my own conscience to want my own children to be raised Catholic and so I returned. When they were old enough for CCD, I went to the priest, told him I wanted to volunteer but spoke candidly about my feelings about the teachings of contraception. I made it clear to him that I would never pass on my own internal conflict to children and that I would study the wisdom of the Church and then teach it and keep my own doubts to myself. He agreed (to my surprise) to let me teach (which I did for ten years on the high school level).

Of course, teenagers have a way of posing questions that are actually quite deep. Because I was sincere in my own pursuit to not infect them with any scandal that they may take with them their whole life, I would often tell them their question was a good one that I would have to think about it, and do some research and get back to them on it. Off I'd go to do the research on how the Church answered their particular misgivings - really without the intention of learning it myself but crafting their answer so they would walk away with the fullness of the reasoning of the Church, while holding onto my own reservations.

It didn't take long before I realized they weren't the fools, I was! And, the next thing you know, I was teaching with conviction, zeal and fire.

Similar to life when friends come to us with troubles over a colleague at work, family, friends and we find ourselves giving them giving advice that we have been overlooking in a situation in our own lives. God in His mysterious ways sets things up so that we are imparting wisdom to others, He's killing two birds with one stone.

Personally, it's always a blow to me when the light goes on for me in those kinds of situations. Often, I've been struggling in dealing with a situation that I think I've been managing well but without real results. Realizing the divine intervention always catches me off guard. If you can't laugh at yourself, you're pretty much screwed in this life.

The picture in this post is another from my favorite artist William Bouguereau, a soul on it's way to Heaven.  

Feeding and fueling resentment and animosity over the tenets of the Catholic religion is causally related to the anguish and false sense of rejection of so many souls.   Can't they see what they're doing?  

Many times over at America Magazine, people have tried to post factual information about Church teaching.  They deliberately remove it or bar it.   What is going on there is more than confusion, it is a deliberate indoctrination into false teaching and fueling internal rage against Christ's Church.

 If you've got your own problems with the teachings of the Church, it's wiser to keep it to yourself.

Holding people hostage to your own animosity so that they're distracted from finding the wisdom of the Church?  Good luck with that in the hereafter.


Today's readings:


“This day the LORD, your God,
commands you to observe these statutes and decrees.
Be careful, then,
to observe them with all your heart and with all your soul.
Today you are making this agreement with the LORD:
he is to be your God and you are to walk in his ways
and observe his statutes, commandments and decrees,
and to hearken to his voice.







Friday, February 26, 2010

Keep the Faith, Change the Liturgy





After forty years of liturgical innovations that have included clowns, dancing in leotards, guns and garbage (actually happened here in Massachusetts), invalid matter, invalid prayer, invalid Mass, upcoming revisions to the Roman Missal are causing the chickens to come home to roost: America Magazine and the National Catholic Reporter Launch "Please Don't Change the Liturgy"


"Almost all of them are angry; none gave the revised version unqualified support. One correspondent, in a passage excised from the published version, went as far as writing: 'I hate you, hierarchy.' Feelings are running deep indeed," the newspaper said in an editorial.

"The anger of the people in the pews and many priests (and some bishops) seems to be rooted not so much in what they feel are anachronistic and clumsy translations -- vexing though they appear to be to many -- but in what they see as an arbitrary imposition of liturgical values that are foreign to them by faceless bureaucrats in distant Rome," the editorial said.



http://www.whatifwejustsaidwait.org/, a petition initiative of Fr. Michael Ryan's of Seattle (obtained 17,000 signatures), is being countered with another petition: What if we said why don't you just get over it by our friend Patrick Madrid.

Some entertaining schadenfreude in the comments section of the National Catholic Reporter.

Oh what about all the Catholics in 1969 who were appalled at the changes in the liturgy that were forced on them.Did many priests then say.."oh Wait" Paybacks a real bitch for Catholic liberals aint it hahahahaha....

Let's see, 17,000 out of 1.6 billion...what's the percentage there? I don't have my calculator.

Wednesday, February 24, 2010

71% Give Congress "poor" rating

10% say they are going a good job. 

That’s up ten points from the previous high of 61% reached a month ago.
Only 10% of voters say Congress is doing a good or excellent job.

Nearly half of Democratic voters (48%) now give Congress a poor rating, up 17 points since January. The vast majority of Republicans and voters not affiliated with either party also give Congress poor ratings.

Seventy percent (70%) of voters say Congress has not passed any legislation that would significantly improve life for Americans, up 10 points over the past month and the highest level of dissatisfaction measured in regular tracking in over three years. Only 15% say Congress has passed such legislation.

New Gingrich is encouraging the Republicans to walk out en-masse if it becomes clear Obama's come to Jesus meeting on healthcare tomorrow is a sham.

That would really be inspiring, wouldn't it?

Seeing it's Lent, they should refrain from throwing their shoes at him on the way out the door?

Rope-a-Dope Healthcare Summit Tomorrow

Healthcare drama returneth.


Obama will preside over the meeting at a moment when Democrats seem to be regrouping after Republican Scott Brown's victory in the Massachusetts Senate race -- the election that cost them their 60-vote, filibuster-proof majority.

Few leaders in either party see much possibility that the summit will break the partisan impasse and produce a consensus for a healthcare bill.

But that only raises the stakes.

A compelling performance from the president before a national TV audience could rally public opinion, which might lock down the votes of some liberal and conservative Democrats who've wavered in their willingness to endorse the Senate-passed healthcare bill. (Endorsing it is the only viable way to avoid a high-profile failure on their top domestic priority, Democratic leaders think.)

A weak performance, on the other hand, or a public display of partisan bickering or sloganeering by congressional Democrats could send prospects for healthcare and the party's political fortunes plunging.

Republicans, meantime, are expected to press their argument that Obama should throw out his overhaul proposal and start from scratch -- something the White House has indicated it won't do.



Meanwhile Durbin and others are claiming the Dems will railroad socialized medicine through with budget reconciliation.

"I asked how definite Durbin was about going forward this way; after all, Republicans have said it would be an outrage, and even moderate Democrats have qualms, though some have begun leaning in favor. 'I hope it doesn't come to that,' he said.
"But, are Democrats willing to pass this bill with zero Republican votes, even though surveys have shown most Americans oppose it right now? 'Of course we are,' Durbin said."

And knock themselves right out of political power in a few short months?

Interesting.

Fr. Pavone's Voting Initiative - tune in!

Dear Friend of Life:
 
Congressman Chris Smith, Thomas Peters of Catholic Vote Action and Dr Alveda King will join me for a powerful “Vote Pro-Life” conference call on Thursday, February 25, from 9-10pm ET. This call is an initiative of the “Vote Pro-life” Coalition, and we will continue to gear up for the elections of 2010. You can register to listen to the call either by phone or by internet. Register at www.priestsforlife.org/conferencecall/index.aspx and spread the word!
 
Please tell any clergy you know about a 45 minute conference call on Thursday, February 25 at 3pm ET. I will be joined by Fr. Jonathan Morris of Fox News, Fr. John Corapi and Fr. Stephen Imbarrato. We will give updates and encouragement to the clergy as they work together for a Culture of Life. Clergy can register for this call at www.priestsforlife.org/clergy/index.aspx.

Pretty Clever

DEMOCRAT
You have two cows.
Your neighbor has none.
You feel guilty for being successful.
Barbara Streisand sings for you.
   
REPUBLICAN
You have two cows.
Your neighbor has none.
So?
   
SOCIALIST
You have two cows.
The government takes one and gives it to your neighbor.
You form a cooperative to tell him how to manage his cow.
   
COMMUNIST
You have two cows.
The government seizes both and provides you with milk.
You wait in line for hours to get it.
It is expensive and sour.
   
CAPITALISM, AMERICAN STYLE
You have two cows.
You sell one, buy a bull, and build a herd of cows.
   
DEMOCRACY, AMERICAN STYLE
You have two cows.
The government taxes you to the point you have to
sell both to support a man in a foreign country who has
only one cow, which was a gift from your government.
   
BUREAUCRACY, AMERICAN STYLE
You have two cows.
The government takes them both, shoots one, milks
the other, pays you for the milk, and then pours the milk down the drain.
   
AMERICAN CORPORATION
You have two cows.
You sell one, lease it back to yourself and do an IPO on the 2nd one.
You force the two cows to produce the milk of four cows.
You are surprised when one cow drops dead.
You spin an announcement to the analysts stating you have down sized and are reducing expenses.
Your stock goes up.
   
FRENCH CORPORATION
You have two cows.
You go on strike because you want three cows.
You go to lunch and drink wine.
Life is good.
   
JAPANESE CORPORATION
You have two cows.
You redesign them so they are one tenth the size of an ordinary cow and produce twenty times the milk.
They learn to travel on unbelievably crowded trains.
Most are at the top of their class at cow school.
   
GERMAN CORPORATION
You have two cows.
You engineer them so they are all blond, drink lots of beer,
give excellent quality milk, and run a hundred miles an hour.
Unfortunately they also demand 13 weeks of vacation per year.
   
ITALIAN CORPORATION
You have two cows but you don't know where they are.
While ambling around, you see a beautiful woman.
You break for lunch.
Life is good.
   
RUSSIAN CORPORATION
You have two cows.
You have some vodka.
You count them and learn you have five cows.
You have some more vodka.
You count them again and learn you have 42 cows.
The Russian Mafia shows up and takes over however many cows you really have.
   
TALIBAN CORPORATION
You have all the cows in Afghanistan, which are two.
You don't milk them because you cannot touch any creature's private parts.
Then you kill them and claim a US bomb blew them up while they were in the hospital.
   
IRAQI CORPORATION
You have two cows.
They go into hiding.
They send radio tapes of their mooing.
   
POLISH CORPORATION
You have two bulls.
Employees are regularly maimed and killed attempting to milk them.
   
FLORIDA CORPORATION
You have a black cow and a brown cow.
Everyone votes for the best looking one.
Some of the people who like the brown one best vote for the black one.
Some people vote for both.
Some people vote for neither.
Some people can't figure out how to vote at all.
Finally, a bunch of guys from out-of-state tell you which is the best looking cow.
   
CALIFORNIAN
You have a cow and a bull.
The bull is depressed.
It has spent its life living a lie.
It goes away for two weeks.
It comes back after a taxpayer-paid sex-change operation.

You now have two cows.
One makes milk; the other doesn't.
You try to sell the transgender cow.
Its lawyer sues you for discrimination.
You lose in court.

You sell the milk-generating cow to pay the damages.
You now have one rich, transgender, non-milk-producing cow.
You change your business to beef. PETA pickets your farm.
Jesse Jackson makes a speech in your driveway.
The Assembly calls for higher farm taxes to help "working cows".
Hillary Clinton calls for the nationalization of 1/7 of your farm "for the children".
The L.A. Times quotes five anonymous cows claiming you groped their teats.
You declare bankruptcy and shut down all operations.
The cow starves to death.
The L.A. Times' analysis shows your business failure was Bush's fault.

Tuesday, February 23, 2010

What the gripe with the jobs bill?

It's no secret that I'm not a fan of the proabort Brown - and I've only read a short description of the jobs bill which certainly has big pricetag -- but for the most part, I don't understand what the gripe is from the tea party people

Is there pork in the bill we're all unaware of?
Do they hate it because it's Harry Ried's?
Is it the pricetag on a ship heading for bankruptcy?

Or is this just a game to people where the letter "R" after your name comes with a covenant to vote against the democrats even when their ideas may bring a good outcome for the country?


"The Onus Is On You Death with Dignity' Bill in Massachusetts

The wizards up at the Massachusetts State Legislature resurrected a "Death with Dignity" bill today.



The bill is being lobbied by a 61 year old Stoughton man who is undergoing treatment for stomach cancer.

But Lipkind, 61 of Stoughton, is a fighter. He knows he can’t defeat his cancer, but he’s determined to die on his own terms, and not at the hands of his disease.

He’s pushing legislation to allow doctors to legally write prescriptions for people who choose to end their lives by self-medicating. Only mentally competent people suffering from a terminal illness would be eligible under the proposed law.


I don't mean to be insensitive to his suffering and his situation but the truth of the matter is, if he wants to kill himself, nothing is stopping him but his own conscience.

Thou shalt not kill has a way of stopping you from carrying out such acts.

Setting aside mortal sins and offenses against God, the ethical problem with these kinds of bills is, it  forces other people  in society to carry out the murders.

“It’s a very personal decision (to end one’s life), and I don’t think I could make such a decision,” he said, “but people should have the wherewithal to die as they would prefer to die.”


At least Lipkind has the decency to be honest about it.   When it comes to taking a handful of pills, he couldn't do it but he'd like to give sick people the right to signal others to do it from their sick beds. 

It's "The Onus Is On You Death With Dignity Bill. 

Are the people who come up with these ideas the same people who say they don't want to force their ideas and convictions upon society?