Have you ever wondered what it must have been like to meet Jesus?

TAKE A SECOND LOOK
Robert Gay O.P.
Fourteenth Sunday of the Year
5th July 2009

fr Robert Gay suggests that we need to recognise who we are in order to
know who Christ is.

Have you ever wondered what it must have been like to meet Jesus? Or perhaps wondered about what it would have been like to be sat in front of him as he spoke his parables and explained them? It would have been such a privilege to have heard him, to have seen the things that he did.Yet time and again in the Gospel, we find that when Jesus speaks to people, or when he teaches and preaches, people simply didn’t get it. It is easy to get frustrated when we read or listen to the Gospel, because people don’t understand who Jesus is. They don’t seem to understand what the message is about, and the power that the message might have. How could they be so blind?

Today’s Gospel is just such a frustrating passage. Jesus is acclaimed as one with wisdom and an ability to work wonders that does not match with his background as the simple carpenter, the son of Mary. The people are so distracted by their own ideas about who and what Jesus is, and cannot allow themselves to really listen to what he says, and look closely at what he does. They are not attentive enough to be able to truly see, and through seeing, truly believe.

If we are frustrated by this passage and by similar Gospel passages, we must take care that we do not fall into a trap. It would be all-too-tempting to pity these poor people who could not understand who Jesus was and come to believe in him. In doing so we might end up thinking that we are so much better than them. This would be to succumb to pride, something which St. Augustine refers to as the ‘love of our own excellence’.

Pride is certainly not good news, because it gives us the illusion that we already know it all, and prevents us being disposed towards receiving from God. We may think we know all about Jesus, about who he was, and about the message that he preached, yet how often do our lives fall short of the demands that following Jesus makes of us? We may think that we get the message, but our lives so often suggest otherwise.

So what are we to do? Well, we should take heart from our second reading. Paul had a dramatic conversion experience when he saw the risen Lord on his way to Damascus. This one profound experience was sufficient to change the whole course of his life, from being a person who persecuted the Church to being one of the greatest preachers and Church leaders.

Yet he understood that what he knew of Jesus might lead him to pride, and that God had his own way of keeping him in check. Paul’s weakness was God’s way of reminding Paul of who and what he was. The reality of Paul’s weakness shaped this energetic man into one who was truly zealous for the things of the Lord. It kept him humble, kept him in need of God’s grace.

And so it is for us too. The word humility comes from the Latin word for earth, or soil. To be good Christians we need to have our feet firmly on the ground, and this means knowing who and what we really are. This is important, because we are then open to looking more closely at Jesus, and recognising who and what he was. Then we can start living Christian lives that are shaped by God, attentive to his word, and open to the change that the Gospel message calls us to.

The next time we are tempted to think that we know all there is to know about Jesus, let us pause for a moment and think again. Let us dare to take a second look, and strive to live the Gospel at a deeper level, asking that we might receive that life which Christ has promised us.

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Heads Up!

REUTERS

An official watches as people take part in an annual public swimming event in Zurich, Switzerland. An estimated 1,800 people crossed Lake Zurich this year, either swimming or aqua jogging, on a 1,450-meter stretch that went from one lakeside beach to another and was marked by buoys. There were also life savers and boats stationed every 75 meters for those who didn’t feel they could make it.

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Dutch “Bavaria Beer”???

EU Court Allows Dutch ‘Bavaria’ Beer

The Bavarian fondness for a glass of local beer is legendary. But brewers in the picturesque southern German state are up in arms about a leading brand of Dutch beer — called Bavaria. After years of legal wrangling, Europe’s highest court has ruled that the Dutch brand can retain its trademark name.

This is how wars get started!

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the old self is the problem

Genesis 27:1-5, 15-29. Praise the Lord for he is good—Ps 134(135):1-6. Matthew 9:14-17

John’s followers were shocked.

The disciples of Jesus did not fast, thereby neglecting one of the basic Jewish religious practices of prayer, fasting and almsgiving.

Jesus defended his followers, giving a reason we might not expect. The brief time he was with them, he said, was like the few fleeting days of feasting, rejoicing and plenty which the friends of a bridegroom enjoyed at the time of a wedding. Being united with Jesus brings us joy but also an invitation to share in his suffering—to follow him more nearly.

Fill me with your goodness, Lord, so that I may more and more believe in you, hope in you and love you day by day.

Then the disciples of John came to him, saying, ‘Why do we and the Pharisees fast often, but your disciples do not fast?’ And Jesus said to them, ‘The wedding-guests cannot mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them, can they? The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast. No one sews a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old cloak, for the patch pulls away from the cloak, and a worse tear is made. Neither is new wine put into old wineskins; otherwise, the skins burst, and the wine is spilled, and the skins are destroyed; but new wine is put into fresh wineskins, and so both are preserved.’

I heard that some famous dietician says to weight-watchers, “It isn’t what you eat, it’s why you eat it.” He urges them to identify that ‘why’. That is what powers you towards the cookie-jar if you live across the water. Unless you can switch off the power at its source, your whole life will be a war of attrition with cookies.

A good idea pops up in more places than one: it connects different things in our life. ‘Not what but why’ is a good idea for any part of our life. It throws light equally on eating and on fasting – pursuits that might appear unconnected and even opposite.

I wonder why John the Baptist’s disciples were fasting. They were followers of a very ascetical leader, and I suppose that had a quenching effect on their appetite. But from the way they asked Jesus’ disciples about fasting, it appears that they also felt rather superior. “It was likely that the disciples of John the Baptist were thinking highly of themselves,” wrote St John Chrysostom, “and because of this Jesus put down this inflated conceit through what he said.” What do you think? I don’t believe that Jesus would engage in such tit-for-tat. It would make him no better than those conceited disciples. And besides, he told them why his disciples were not fasting: they were not fasting because it was not a time of preparation but a season for joy. They were not preparing for his coming; they were celebrating it.

But to get back to the fasters. St Jerome (347 AD – 420), who knew a lot about fasting, wrote, “What Jesus is saying is this: ‘Until a person has been reborn – putting aside the old person, and putting on the new – he or she cannot fast aright.’” The ego, the old self, is the problem; it will use even fasting as a way of fattening itself. Unless we have some inkling of our own Christ-nature our fasting and all our efforts will be expressions of ego.

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conforming to the prescriptions of Catholic doctrine the existing forms of government

Genesis 22:1-19. I will walk in the presence of the Lord in the land of the living —Ps 114(116):1-6, 8-9. Matthew 9:1-8.

I will walk in the presence of the Lord in the land of the living.

The odds are definitely against young Isaac and the paralysed man in today’s readings. One is tied up as a victim to be burned in sacrifice; the other is tied to his bed by paralysis. One is set free on account of the total faith and obedience of his father; the other through Jesus rewarding the faith and love of his friends.

As we look at these two happenings, we can look around our world at the sick ones, at those deeply challenged by the lives they are asked to live, at our own life challenges. From these circumstances we look at the face of Jesus as he bends over the sick man, as he confronts those who are opposing his care.

Into my life today, come, Lord Jesus.

And after getting into a boat he crossed the water and came to his own town. And just then some people were carrying a paralysed man lying on a bed. When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, ‘Take heart, son; your sins are forgiven.’ Then some of the scribes said to themselves, ‘This man is blaspheming.’ But Jesus, perceiving their thoughts, said, ‘Why do you think evil in your hearts? For which is easier, to say, “Your sins are forgiven”, or to say, “Stand up and walk”? But so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins’—he then said to the paralytic—‘Stand up, take your bed and go to your home.’ And he stood up and went to his home. When the crowds saw it, they were filled with awe, and they glorified God, who had given such authority to human beings.

Fergus Kerr OP wrote a highly significant book entitled Theology after Wittgenstein (first published in 1986),in which he identified two great pathologies of the western mind: the divide between the individual and the community, and the divide between body and mind; and he showed how Wittgenstein’s philosophy represents the healing of these divides.

In today’s gospel reading we see how close this is to the healing work of Jesus.  In the story we see both of these divides being bridged by Jesus.

  1. “When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic….”  He did not enquire about the paralytic’s own faith.  Peter Chrysologus whom I also quoted yesterday had this to say: “God does not inquire into the wants of those who are deliriously ill…. A doctor does not inquire into or examine the wishes of such a patient.”  The point, I think, is that we are always a community of faith.  For about four centuries now the western world has laboured under philosophies that are profoundly individualistic; all meaning is thought to repose in the individual rather than in the society or even the family.  It was on this basis that the theory of Limbo (only recently disowned by the Church) was constructed.  Even new-born babies, dying at birth or soon after, were thought to be on their own before God; the faith of their parents had no bearing on their destiny, and they could not be buried in consecrated ground.  This, even though St Paul, writing about marriage between believers and unbelievers, had written: “The unbelieving husband is made holy through his wife, and the unbelieving wife is made holy through her husband. Otherwise, your children would be unclean, but as it is, they are holy” (1 Corinthians 7:14).  We need not imagine that we have entirely cast off the individualistic mindset.
  2. The other great divide in western philosophies has been that between body and soul (or, depending on the particular interest, body and mind, or body and spirit).  St John Chrysostom (4th century) wrote, “[Christ] heals the paralysis in both soul and body. The healing of the soul is made evident through the healing of the body, even while the body still remains a creature crawling on the ground.”  Central to the Christian faith is the affirmation that the Word became flesh.  It is amazing that a portion of the world shaped in large measure by the Christian faith we should ever have been tempted to divide body and spirit.  But that is what we inherited and passed on.

The two great divides were expressed together in a leaflet that was handed out at a parish mission in my childhood.  On it were written the words: “Remember, man, thou hast but one soul to save.”  No community, no life of the body; just one soul.  (And there were no women in the world in those days!)  It was a far cry from St Paul’s teaching that we are the body of Christ and members of one another: see Col 1:18; Rom 12:4-5; 1 Cor 12:13).  Pius XII attempted to reinvigorate this teaching in 1943 in Mystici Corporis.  ”The unbroken tradition of the Fathers from the earliest times,” he wrote, “teaches that the Divine Redeemer and the Church which is His Body form but one mystical person, that is to say, the whole Christ.”  We still have much need for healing at these two sick places of the soul.

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Licet Multa

On Catholics in Belgium

Encyclical of Pope Leo XIII

August 3, 1881.

To Our Beloved Son Victor Augustus, Cardinal Deschamps, Primate of Belgium, and to All the Other Belgian Bishops.

Dear Son and Venerable Brethren, Health and Apostolic Benediction!

During these last years the cause of Catholicism has undergone, in Belgium, multiplied trials. We have, however, found comfort and consolation in the tokens of persistent love and fidelity which Belgian Catholics have furnished us so abundantly whenever they have had an occasion. And, above all, what has strengthened us, and still gives us strength, is your signal attachment to our person, and the zeal which you exert in order that the Christian people confided to your care may persevere in the sincerity and unity of the Catholic Faith, and may progress each day in its love for the Church of Christ and his Vicar. It is pleasant for us to give special praise to your solicitude in encouraging by all the means possible a good education for the young, and in insuring to the children of the primary schools a religious education established on broad foundations. Your zeal is applied with equal watchfulness to all that tends to the advantage of Christian education in the Colleges and Institutes, as well as to the Catholic University of Louvain.

2. On the other hand, we cannot remain indifferent, or at peace, in presence of events which would seem to imperil amongst Belgians the good understanding between Catholic citizens, and to divide them into opposing camps. It would be superfluous to recall here the causes and occasions of these differences, and the encouragement they have met with where it ought least to have been expected. All these details, Dear Son and Venerable Brethren, you know better than any one; and you deplore them with us, knowing perfectly that at no other epoch could the necessity of assuring and maintaining union amongst Catholics be so great as at this moment, when the enemies of the name of Christianity rage on all sides against the Church in an unanimous attack.

3. Full of solicitude for this union, we point out the dangers which threaten it arising from certain controversies concerning public law; a subject which, amongst you, engenders a strong difference of feeling. These controversies have for their object the necessity or opportuneness of conforming to the prescriptions of Catholic doctrine the existing forms of government, based on what is commonly called modern law. Most assuredly we, more than any one, ought heartily to desire that human society should be governed in a Christian manner, and that the divine influence of Christ should penetrate and completely impregnate all orders of the State. From the commencement of our Pontificate we manifested, without delay, that such was our settled opinion; and that by public documents, and especially by the Encyclical Letters we published against the errors of Socialism, and, quite recently, upon the Civil Power. Nevertheless, all Catholics, if they wish to exert themselves profitably for the common good, should have before their eyes and faithfully imitate the prudent conduct which the Church herself adopts in matters of this nature: she maintains and defends in all their integrity the sacred doctrines and principles of right with inviolable firmness, and applies herself with all her power to regulating the institutions and the customs of public order, as well as the acts of private life, upon these same principles. Nevertheless, she observes in this the just measure of time and place; and, as commonly happens in human affairs, she is often constrained to tolerate at times evils that it would be almost impossible to prevent, without exposing herself to calamities and troubles still more disastrous.

4. Moreover, in polemical discussions, care should be taken not to overstep those just limits that justice and charity alike mark out, and not rashly to throw blame or suspicion upon men otherwise devoted to the doctrines of the Church; and, above all, upon those who in the Church itself are raised to dignity and power. We deplore that this has been done in your case, Dear Son, who, in your quality of archbishop, administer the diocese of Malines; and who, for your signal services to the Church, and for your zeal in defending Catholic doctrine, have been judged worthy by our Predecessor of blessed memory, Pius IX., to take a place in the College of most Eminent Cardinals. It is manifest that the facility with which unfounded accusations are leveled vaguely against one’s neighbor, does injury to the good name of others, and weakens the bonds of charity; and that it outrages those “whom the Holy Ghost has placed to govern the Church of God.” For this reason do we desire with all our power, and hereby most seriously enjoin, that Catholics abstain from this conduct. Let it suffice to them to remember that it is to the Apostolic See and to the Roman Pontiff, to whom all have access, that has been confided the charge of defending everywhere Catholic truths, and of watching that no error whatsoever, capable of doing injury to the doctrine of faith and morals, or apparently in contradiction with it, be spread or propagated in the Church.

5. In what concerns yourselves, Dear Son and Venerable Brethren, use all your vigilance so that all men of science, and those, most especially, to whom you have confided the charge of teaching youth, be of one accord, and unanimous in all those questions upon which the teaching of the Holy See allows no freedom of opinion. And as to points left to the discussion of the learned, may their intellects, owing to your inspiration and your advice, be so exercised upon them that the divergences of opinion destroy not union of heart and concord of will. On this subject the Sovereign Pontiff, Benedict XIV., our immortal predecessor, has left in his Constitution “Sollicita ac provida,” certain rules for men of study, full of wisdom and authority. He has even proposed to them, as a model to imitate in this matter, St. Thomas Aquinas, whose moderation of language and maturity of style are maintained as well in the combat against adversaries, as in the exposition of doctrine and the proofs destined for its defense. We wish to renew to learned men the recommendations of our predecessor, and to point out to them this noble model, who will teach them not only the manner of carrying on controversy with opponents, but also the character of the doctrine to be held and developed in the cultivation of philosophy and theology. On many occasions, Dear Son and Venerable Brethren, we have expressed to you our earnest desire of seeing the wisdom of St. Thomas reinstated in Catholic schools, and everywhere treated with the highest consideration. We have likewise exhorted you to establish in the University of Louvain the teaching of higher philosophy in the spirit of St. Thomas. In this matter, as in all others, we have found you entirely ready to condescend to our wishes and to fulfill our will. Pursue then, with zeal, the task which has been begun, and watch with care that in this same University the fruitful sources of Christian philosophy, which spring from the works of St. Thomas, be open to students in a rich abundance, and applied to the profit of all other branches of instruction. In the execution of this design, if you have need of our aid or our counsels, they shall never be wanting to you.

6. In the meantime, we pray God, the Source of Wisdom, the Author of Peace, and the Friend of Charity, to accord you His favorable help in the present conjuncture, and we ask him for all an abundance of Heavenly gifts. As an augury of these graces, and as a sign of our special benevolence, we accord, with a loving heart, our Apostolic benediction to you, Dear Son and Venerable Brethren, to all your Clergy, and to the people confided to your charge.

Given at Rome, at St. Peter’s, the 3rd of August, 1881, the fourth year of Our Pontificate.

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A teaching for the citizens of the USA as well.     BJS

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Cautious Reactions

Bio-terrible: Considering that swine flu infected over 1,800 people in 72 countries within a month, “the Pentagon is looking to turbocharge the response to pathogens, stopping the bugs before they even start,” Danger Room reports. An Austrian journalist charges that mass A/H1N1 flu vaccine inoculations would be “bioterrorism for the purpose of carrying out a mass genocide against the U.S. population by use of a genetically engineered flu pandemic virus,” Natural News relays. A massive overhaul of Georgia’s health bureaucracy “involves agencies that will decide the state’s role should swine flu vaccine be distributed and the state’s response to a bioterrorism attack,” The Atlanta Journal-Constitution recounts.

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WELCOME ST MANG BASILICA IN FÜSSEN!

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“Seelos’ following had been building for decades”

The treatment for terminal cancer that Annapolis resident Mary Ellen Heibel took at Johns Hopkins Hospital in 2004 and early 2005 worked beyond anyone’s wildest hopes, wiping out malignant tumors in her lungs, liver, stomach and chest. Her doctor did not expect it, nor could he explain it.

Surely the outcome was remarkable, but was it - in the sense applied by the Roman Catholic Church in such cases - a miracle?

In a few weeks, a committee appointed by the Archdiocese of Baltimore will begin exploring that question, examining 11 witnesses, including Heibel, pressing her doctors, nurses and friends in an attempt to understand what happened. The findings gathered at the archdiocese’s downtown offices will be shipped to Rome, and ultimately will bear on a campaign to have Francis X. Seelos, the 19th-century Maryland priest to whom Heibel had turned in prayer for help, canonized as a saint.

For only the fifth time in its 200-year history, the archdiocese has launched a test of faith and science to help the Vatican determine whether one of its own was not only exemplary in virtue during life but now has the power in death to intercede with God. In the end, it will be up to the pope to rule on whether Seelos is to join the men and women held up by the church through the centuries as models of holiness.

“Did what happened come about by the intercession of Blessed Seelos? That’s what we have to discover,” said the Rev. Gilbert J. Seitz, the judicial vicar who heads the committee, emphasizing that its job is not to judge the case but to gather information in a process akin to taking a deposition.

The Rev. William Graham, a canon lawyer and member of the committee, says the purpose of the examination is to determine what took place and whether it can be attributed to natural causes.

Heibel and her husband, John, parishioners at St. Mary’s Roman Catholic Church in Annapolis, await word from the archdiocese on when they should appear before the committee to tell their story and answer questions.

In the meantime, they continue their weekly routine at St. Mary’s of early morning prayers seeking the help of Seelos, the Redemptorist priest who in several ways remains present at the church where he served two brief stints in the mid-1800s. The German native beams from stained glass in the nave, watches from a photograph on a wall near the church office, sits in a statue on a bench in the garden. A chip of his breastbone the shape and size of a pinkie fingernail is preserved in a reliquary kept in the rectory.

For years Seelos - who also served as a pastor in Baltimore and Cumberland - has been a physical presence for Heibel, 71, a slim mother of four, grandmother of 11. In a brass necklace reliquary about the size of a silver dollar, the retired antiques appraiser wears a fragment of his bone no longer than the “L” in relic.

She has carried Seelos with her this way since early 2003, when she was diagnosed with and underwent surgery for esophageal cancer at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington. About a year later, doctors there found that the surgery had missed a cancerous lymph node. So began a seven-week, five-day-a-week regimen of radiation and chemotherapy.

She prayed with Seelos. She asked fellow parishioners to do the same.

A reputation is honed
Seelos’ following had been building for decades. In New Orleans especially, where he died at the age of 48 in 1867 of yellow fever while tending to victims of the disease, his reputation was enhanced in the early 1970s. That’s when a local woman who had been diagnosed with terminal liver cancer was found free of the disease after prayers calling on Seelos. An investigation similar to the one in Heibel’s case affirmed this as a miracle, and Seelos was beatified in a ceremony in Rome in 2000.

The priest known as the “cheerful ascetic” would thereafter be officially known as “Blessed Seelos,” standing one difficult step away from sainthood.

The difference would be one more miracle, one more case confirmed by a process that has been developing for centuries, as saint-making transformed from a spontaneous phenomenon to a formal procedure giving ultimate canonization authority to the pope.

The method used today reflects a process developed since the 13th century, reformed in the 1600s, enshrined in canon law in the early 20th century and reformed again under Pope John Paul II in 1983.

While elements of the process have been simplified and made more speedy, that is only in relative terms; declaring saints remains a painstaking affair. The rare candidate on the fast track might move from start to sainthood in just under 30 years, Seitz said. The longer causes go on and on. Hundreds stall at the midpoint of beatification, either for lack of a verifiable miracle or the support necessary to bring such information to the Vatican’s attention.

Canonization, Seitz said, is “the way the church identifies those who have lived uniquely and remarkably their life in Christ. … In their single-mindedness, in their dedication to Christ, they could be a model.”

Christian virtue affirmed by an exhaustive biographical study is only part of the profile. Since at least the fifth century, these celebrated figures have been associated with some magical event, some evidence of supernatural power.

“The miracle is an indication that the saint is in heaven, this person is already holy and has led a holy life,” said the Rev. James Martin, associate editor of the Catholic weekly America and author of My Life with the Saints. “It’s an indication to the church that this person is praying for us in heaven.”

The Rev. Byron Miller of New Orleans, Seelos’ church-appointed advocate in the United States and director of the Seelos Center, is confident that his man has the stuff of holiness.

Copyright © 2009, The Baltimore Sun

http://www.baltimoresun.com/features/bal-to.fa.saint28jun28,0,473746.story

Prayers to Blessed Francis Xavier Seelos, C.Ss.R.

O My God, I truly believe You are present with me.
I adore Your limitless perfections.
I thank You for the graces and gifts
You gave to Blessed Francis Xavier Seelos.
If it is Your holy will, please let him be declared a saint of the Church
so that others may know and imitate his holy life.
Through his prayers please give me this favor …
(HERE MENTION YOUR SPECIAL INTENTIONS)

Composed by Byron Miller, C.Ss.R.:

O Lord, my strength and my Redeemer,
let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart
be pleasing in Your sight.
I offer praise to You for the grace You have bestowed
on Your humble missionary, Father Francis Xavier Seelos
May I have the same joyful vigorthat Father Seelos possessed during his earthly life
to love You deeply and live faithfully Your gospel.
Amen.

Divine Physician,
You infused Blessed Francis Xavier Seelos
with the gift of Your healing.
By the help of his prayers,
sustain in me the grace to know Your will
and the strength to overcome my afflictions.
For love of You, make me whole.
May I learn from the example of Father Seelos
and gain comfort from his patient endurance.Amen.
Bountiful God,
in Blessed Francis Xavier Seelos, You have given Your people
a model for those who labor joyfully in Your earthly kingdom.
May his smile dwell on those who find life burdensome.
In him, our eyes continually behold the gentleness of Jesus Christ, our Redeemer.
Amen.

http://www.seelos.org/index.html

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‘Lord, save us! We are perishing!’

Genesis 19:15-29. O Lord, your kindness is before my eyes—Ps 25(26):2-3, 9-12. Matthew 8:23-27.

The glory of God is people fully alive: those fully alive behold God.

Jesus, it is only by following you that these words of St Irenaeus are realised in my life. Sometimes I find the going rough. Like the disciples in the midst of the storm, I feel frightened when life threatens to overwhelm me. I feel down. I lose sight of you, and the Father’s glory becomes a blur.

Lord, please increase my faith, so that I may see these times as stepping-stones to friendship with you, the insecurities as a call to yield to you as my one surety.

Then, I will enjoy the sensation of being fully alive. And I will rejoice that, being fully alive in the glory of the Father, I am communicating to others the Good News of his salvation.

And when he got into the boat, his disciples followed him. A gale arose on the lake, so great that the boat was being swamped by the waves; but he was asleep. And they went and woke him up, saying, ‘Lord, save us! We are perishing!’ And he said to them, ‘Why are you afraid, you of little faith?’ Then he got up and rebuked the winds and the sea; and there was a dead calm. They were amazed, saying, ‘What sort of man is this, that even the winds and the sea obey him?’

“A windstorm arose on the sea….”  In the original Greek the word is seismos, which means an earthquake.  To this day, that would better describe the sudden storms that break over the Lake of Galilee.  The boat was “hidden”, the Greek says, in the troughs of the waves. 

If the only meaning of this story is that Jesus on one occasion calmed a severe storm on the Lake of Galilee – a long time ago and very far away – then it need not hold our attention for very long.  And we would be justified in asking why he doesn’t do the same again.  But there are great subtleties in these stories, and in the reasons for their inclusion in the gospels.  

Mark has Jesus reproach the disciples after the calming of the storm for their lack of faith (4:35-41).  But Matthew (whose version you read on this page) has him reproach them before the miracle.   This is telling us that at least some faith must precede a miracle.  It is consistent with Matthew’s general account.  Take for example the scene with the blind men.  “Jesus said to them, ‘Do you believe that I am able to do this?’ They said to him, ‘Yes, Lord.’ Then he touched their eyes and said, ‘According to your faith let it be done to you’” (9:28-29); or the scene where the woman had touched the hem of his garment; “your faith has saved you,” he told her.  Have faith and then something will happen – not the other way around. 

These simple details carry great weight and a great deal of encouragement for us in our struggles.  The Gospel is telling us: Every time you feel your boat is about to sink, just have faith.  What does this mean?  Does it mean, Put a special holy look on your face?  Hardly.  Does it mean, Have a special inner feeling?  Hardly.  I think it means: do the seemingly impossible thing and something greater than you planned will happen.  Douglas Hyde (not the Irish president of that name, but the author of I Believed) described his first fumbling steps to faith.  He had observed a girl praying in church, had seen the light in her face; and he forced himself to go through the exact motions.  “When I was sure no one was about I went, almost hang-dog fashion, down the aisle as she had done.  Down to the front, round to the left, put some coins in the box, lit a candle, knelt on the stool – and tried to pray…. The candle spluttered and flickered, growing shorter and shorter but no words came.”  Instead, gradually, faith in God dawned on him, replacing his faith in militant Communism. 

 

 

 

 

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Textbooks ‘whitewashing’ Islamic extremism

Amid concerns that history textbooks are downplaying the important role of Christianity in America’s founding comes a report that Islam extremism is being treated with kid gloves in some of those textbooks.

Christian historian David Barton, founder and president of WallBuilders, has for years advised parents to examine their children’s school textbooks. “Always remember that your children do not know as much about history as you do — and consequently have no basis for identifying bias,” Barton says on his website.

No doubt he would caution parents if their children’s classroom were using World History: The Modern World (Prentice Hall) — a textbook that the director of The American Textbook Council points out as one example in an educational trend that presents a biased view of Islam and a sugarcoated picture of Islamic extremism.

In his report “Islam in the Classroom: What the textbooks tell us” [PDF] Gilbert T. Sewall says he finds “uniquely disturbing” what he perceives as deficiencies in Islam-related lessons.

“[K]ey subjects like jihad, Islamic law, [and] the status of women are whitewashed,” Sewall tells Fox News — a treatment he attributes to pressure from Islamic activists on publishers to downplay Islamic terrorism and shine a favorable light on the religion. “The picture is incomplete…and the reason for this is that publishers are afraid of the Islamic activists. They don’t want trouble.”

In his review process, Sewall asked questions such as “What do textbooks say about terrorism?” and “What do they say about the September 11 air attack on the United States?”

According to Fox News, Sewall discovered that Prentice Hall’s The Modern World omits direct mention of the 9/11 hijackers’ religion, instead referring to them as “teams of terrorists.”

“In terms of content [about the historic attacks], so much is left unanswered,” he tells Fox News. “Who were the teams of terrorists and what did they want to do? What were their political ends?” And with such questions unanswered, he says it is hard to understand why the attacks took place.

Another question he asked: “Do [textbooks] describe and explain looming dangers to the United States and world?” The textbook History Alive! The Medieval World and Beyond (Teachers Curriculum Institute), he says, glosses over the violent aspects of Islamic jihad.

That textbook states that “Jihad is defined as a struggle within each individual to overcome difficulties and strive to please god. Sometimes it may be a physical struggle for protection against enemies.”

n his conclusions, Sewall states: “Deficiencies about Islam in textbooks copyrighted before 2001 persist and in some cases have grown worse. Textbook coverage of jihad and sharia are cases in point. Instead of making corrections or acknowledging contested facts, publishers and their editors defend misinformation and content evasions against the record. Bias persists. Silences are profound and intentional.”

He adds: “From what they read in history textbooks, students and teachers are not likely to grasp why the United States and its allies consider militant Islam an enemy. Students will not learn that broadly based Islamist factions sanction violence in countries all over the world. They will not grasp the connection between jihad and September 11.”

 

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Never Forget

Qaeda Qorner: “It does not exaggerate the stakes in Somalia to say that for the first time in its history, al Qaeda is about to have rule over an entire country,” AINA asserts — while the Post has State saying the United States has funneled some $10 million in military aid to Somalia’s embattled government. “Al Qaeda, whose dream is to create a Taliban-type super-state running from Mozambique to the north, has the potential to destabilize East Africa,” The Dar Es Salaam Citizen frets.. Algeria may be winning the military battle against North Africa’s al Qaeda franchise, but it’s losing the ideological war, a Washington Examiner op-ed observes. The number of al Qaeda extremists in Iraq has plummeted and their ability to maintain a high level of attacks has been eroded, AP has U.S. intelligence suggesting.

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KORAN IN TRANSLATION

Publishing Houses Compete to Bring out New German Editions

 

How beautiful must the words of Allah sound? Two German publishing houses are preparing new translations that seek to capture the spirit of the original.

If we are to believe Islamic tradition, the Koran was handed down through the clouds, one piece at a time. Muslims believe that the Prophet Mohammed received heavenly messages over the course of 22 years, sometimes as he lay in his tent and sometimes while napping in a palm grove at Mecca. Allah eventually communicated 114 verses, or Suras, to his obedient prophet, writing them directly “into his heart.”

The work of revelations of the Islamic faith is only considered holy in its Arab original. Translation is seen as defilement. Even in countries like Iran, Malaysia and Albania, children in religious schools learn the verses in the original Arabic, even though versions in their respective native tongues exist.

European scholars translated parts of the desert manifesto into their languages as long ago as the 17th century, but the reception was scathing. Voltaire called it “that unintelligible book which contradicts common sense in every page.” Goethe felt “disgusted” by some of the passages in the Koran.

Bad translations were often the reason for such rejection. There is a great deal of grammatical confusion in the original. In some sentences, it is not even clear what the subject and object are, which clearly makes translating the work an extremely difficult undertaking.

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The One and Only Theological Impasse

From Jeff Mirus:

The Problem of Fidelity
I’ve noticed that this year’s presidential address at the meeting of the Catholic Theological Society of America does not bode well for a renewal of Catholic theology in the United States, at least not anytime soon: The One and Only Theological Impasse.

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the love of God has to be seen in the way we relate to each other

THE HEALING OF THE NATIONS
Aelred Connelly O.P.
Thirteenth Sunday of the Year
28th June 2009

fr Aelred Connelly preaches on the healing power of Christ and the
sacraments.
A sermon for the Solemnity of SS Peter and Paul

The first reading tells us that death and sickness came into the world, through the devil’s envy. God’s response to this tragedy of sin and death was to send his own Son among us as one like us in all things but sin.

In today’s Gospel, we see the power of God at work in him, with the healing of the woman with the issue of blood and the bringing back to life of the little girl. Sickness and death are part of our fallen human condition. The very-down-to-earth experience of dealing with the reality of sickness and death close at hand in my own family has helped me to see the same experiences in the Gospel as more than just pious stories. Our modern day equivalent are the miraculous cures in answers to the prayers of the Saints, or the same such experienced in places such as Lourdes.

It is perhaps a reflection of our modern ills, that more is made of the healing of mental than of physical illness. If we think of the great recent saints, they reflect the needs of our times. Mother Theresa and the great work of caring for the very poorest and the sick and the dying. Padre Pio with his great healing manner in the confessional, after the manner of St John Vianney, the Curé d’Ars. The healing of body and soul went together for Jesus. What was harder to see and be believed: ‘Your sins are forgiven’ or ‘Rise take up your bed and walk’?

The part of the one who seeks healing is faith, that gift of God which moves us to seek necessary healing from the one who first created us, life in all its fullness. We see the witness to this in the Word of God in scripture, and in the gifts he left us in his body the Church, especially the gift of himself in the sacraments of initiation. To believe, hope and love in baptism; the strengthening with the gifts of the Spirit in Confirmation; above all the gift of himself as spiritual food that we celebrate in the Eucharist. He comes in the sacraments of return, Reconciliation and Anointing. We are maintained and grow as a community through the sacraments of Matrimony and Holy Orders. The sacramental imagery is further enhanced when we speak of the Church as the ‘Sacrament’ of Christ and the humanity of Jesus as the sacrament of God.

We see this enacted in today’s Gospel with the healing of long standing illness, and the bringing back to life of one who has died very young. Even the death of the ageing and the very old can leave us bereft. In having to deal with the immediate family needs, we sometimes have to postpone the grieving process. However the effects of the emotional, and physical reactions of the death of a close family member or friend, does eventually catch up with us.

This was as true for the closest followers of Jesus, witnessed to in the events of his passion, death and resurrection. As he leaves them again to return to the Father in the Ascension, there is a sense of sadness, loss and apprehension as they return to the upper room, to await the promised sending of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. The Spirit comes as teacher, comforter and advocate. As the depths of the revelation of God in Christ is communicated to us at the deepest levels of our being.

But as St Paul reminds us in today’s second reading, the love of God has to be seen in the way we relate to each other, both as individuals and as community. The economic crisis and the scandal of politicians expenses bring back to mind my father’s old political slogan, ‘Fair share for all and priority for the needy’. It might seem old-fashioned, but is surely a closer approximation to Gospel values than our present culture based on desires rather than genuine need. Surely the sacraments give us a model for the ‘Healing of the Nations’, in our own time, as we look forward to our sharing in the life of the Trinity in the time to come.

 

 

 

 

 

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A science writer is written off as ‘religious’ for defending uncertainty in science

At the Canadian Science Writers’ Association convention in Sudbury, Ontario, our Sunday dinner speaker was American theoretical physicist Lawrence Krauss of Arizona State University, who presented sample clips from famous sci-fi films. And a whole lot more. Would you be astonished to learn that the films portray implausible or impossible physics? No? Filmmakers value audience numbers more than atomic numbers. His clips entertained, but did not surprise:.

However, his talk frequently targeted religion and politics: although he professed to respect theists, he offered snarky asides suggesting that fear of science is growing in Canada (because it might damage religion), adding, “In many ways I hope it does, but it wasn’t designed to do that.”

Dr. Krauss also told the assembled science communicators that in many key science controversies, there is only one side and journalists confuse matters by seeking out both sides.

Not so. New discoveries in science often result from minor, not major, deviations from an expected result. A science can live with minor deviations, but it must remain open to disagreement about what they mean. Here is what Montreal neuroscientist Mario Beauregard and I said in The Spiritual Brain (2007):

In science, small, persistent effects cannot be ignored. Sometimes they force a revision of major paradigms. For example, Lord Kelvin remarked in 1900 that there were just “two little dark clouds” on the horizon of Newtonian classical physics of the day, namely, Michelson and Morley’s measurements of the velocity of light and the phenomenon of blackbody radiation. Kelvin was certain that these troubling little clouds would be blown away shortly. Yet all of modern physics—relativity and quantum mechanics—derives from these two little dark clouds.

Lord Kelvin, move over. I posted my skepticism, and soon heard from Dr. Krauss, as follows:

Needless to say, Ms. O’Leary misunderstood, or mis-represented much of what I said. but I now realize the reason for this, as it seemed she was at the wrong meeting. It was for science writers and not religious writers, which, as far as I can tell from her blog, is what she is. Her conceptions of science, and her understanding of modern issues, seem very confused.

Well, if I misunderstood or misrepresented him, it is curious that my recollections jive with online information. He has written dismissively of traditional religion and trashed Bush science policies. For the record, Dr. Krauss brought up religion, not me. Curiously, his certainty about the assured end of the (definitely flat) universe and the end of science as part of the preceding Tribulation evoked fundamentalist Bible camps. Later, Dr. Krauss expandedelsewhere, whereupon the moderator replied, defending my reputation as a journalist. Golly, you don’t get many bouquets in this business. But when people slam you for hearing both sides, you are certainly headed in the right direction. on this “misunderstood, or mis-represented” theme

The following Tuesday, I toured SNOLAB - which has observed the electron neutrinosCanadian mine (because a great many are mysteriously “missing in action”). SNOLAB is currently being repurposed for further experiments, and SNOLAB Plus, under construction, is attempting to capture a dark matter particle. put out by the sun from deep in a

Down there, the atmosphere was completely different. The SNOLAB physicists were humble before the facts, which is smart, given that they will be lucky to capture one dark matter particle per year. And they never once brought up religion or politics. While Dr. Krauss considers himself an advocate for science, SNOLAB seemed far more like real science.

This was instructive, but not unusual. Finding “frames” for science that cater to demands for certainty is a growing industry.

But the trend may be peaking. Consider Ida, or Darwinius masillae, the virtually complete “missing link” fossil. The discoverers had hyped the fossil to media for years as a holy Grail that proves human evolution. Unusual behaviour for scientists, and the media sent the frame back to the shop.

That was smart. As Brian Switek explains in The Times Online (May 26, 2009), Ida “may tell us more about the origins of lemurs than our own species.” Why? In an assumed split between two ancient primate groups 55 mya, Ida landed on the other side from us. So if she really is the missing link, the previously accepted primate family tree is wrong. But that’s no holy Grail; it’s just another warning against excess certainty.

Really bad pictures are sometimes marketed in an appealing frame, and the buyer needs good judgement.

Denyse O’Leary is co-author of The Spiritual Brain.

This article is published by Denyse O’Leary, and MercatorNet.com under a Creative Commons licence. You may republish it or translate it free of charge with attribution for non-commercial purposes.

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A New World Economic Order

Pope Benedict’s Encyclical and a New World Economic Order

In the midst of the release of his expected encyclical, Pope Benedict is calling for a new world economic order; a model that is “more attentive to the demands of solidarity and more respectful of human dignity.” Professor Philip Booth, editorial and program director of the Institute for Economic Affairs, and speaker at Acton University, was interviewed by The Catholic Herald, a UK paper, about the Pope’s upcoming encyclical…

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Robert Moynihan muses about the meaning of holiness and Padre Pio

What does holiness mean? What do we mean by the word “holy”?

 
It’s a serious question, just as serious as saying what do we mean by other words, like rain, or snow, or sunsets, or matter, or energy, or money, or life itself…
 
For a Christian, for a Catholic, the word “holy” has a central importance; that we know, even if we are at pains to give it a meaning.
 
The word “holy” is connected with God, with the nature of God, this we know — in the “Our Father,” which was the prayer Jesus himself taught us, the third phrase is “hallowed be the name” or “thy name be made holy” or perhaps even “your name is ‘HOLY’.”
 
Someone may contradict me, but it seems to me that this is near to the truth: that God’s “name” is to be regarded as holy, and, in fact, is “holy.”
 
So holiness is a quality of divinity, or the essence of divinity, or the nature of divinity. Which is a way of saying that holiness is something important, something truly real, not a dream, or a vision, but a reality connected to the eternal, and not just a word we use in this passing, temporal world.
====================
The odd thing about Padre Pio is that we find it almost redundant to call him “St. Padre Pio.”
“Padre Pio” by itself seems sufficient… By this I mean that the fame of sanctity of Padre Pio, who died in 1968 and was canonized on May 2, 1999 — 10 years ago — was so great, that his reputation for being close to God was so great, that to say “Padre Pio” was already to say “St. Padre Pio.”
Yesterday, on the turning point between spring and summer, Pope Benedict XVI went from Rome across Italy to the little town of San Giovanni Rotondo where Padre Pio, St. Padre Pio, lived, died and is buried.
What was the essence of Benedict’s message?
That St. Padre Pio’s devotion to the Church’s sacraments, thos mysteries of holiness we call the Eucharist and Confession, made him a model for all priests.
The Pope, who has just inaugurated the “Year of the Priest,” urged priests around the world to look to St. Padre Pio during this Year for Priests.

Confession, which has become much less common in recent years, whould be renewed in our time, Benedict added (Padre Pio spent many hours each day in hearing confession).

“The sacrament of penance must be valued more highly and priests must never resign themselves to seeing their confessionals deserted, nor limit themselves to noting the faithful’s lack of appreciation for this source of serenity and peace,” the Pope said.

Benedict also noted that Padre Pio fought continually againt sin, evil, Satan. His wasn’t a life of just sweetness and light.

“As it was for Jesus, the true battle, the radical combat Padre Pio had to sustain was not against earthly enemies, but against the spirit of evil,” Pope Benedict said. “The greatest storms that threatened him were the assaults of the devil, which he defended himself against with the armor of God, the shield of faith and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.”

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Lefebvrist ordinations

The traditionalist Society of St. Pius X is planning to ordain a group of new priests at the end of June.
 
But the ordinations, if they occur, will be illegitimate, the Vatican said last week, on June 17.

The Society of St. Pius X has announced it will ordain three priests and three deacons at its seminary in Zaitzkofen, Germany, June 27, and that another 18 men will be ordained at its headquarters in Econe, Switzerland, and in Winona, Minnesota.

Commenting on the possible ordination of new priests, Jesuit Father Federico Lombardi, Vatican spokesman, quoted from a March letter Pope Benedict had written to the world’s bishops explaining his actions toward the traditionalist bishops and clarifying the current status of the Society of St. Pius X.

Father Lombardi quoted the portion of the Pope’s letter that said, “Until the doctrinal questions are clarified, the society has no canonical status in the Church, and its ministers … do not legitimately exercise any ministry in the church.”

“Therefore, the ordinations are still to be considered illegitimate,” Father Lombardi said.

Here is a link to the complete story: http://www.catholicnews.com/data/stories/cns/0902770.htm

 
Courtesy of Inside the Vatican 
 

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a “Father of Mercies”

Genesis 17:1, 9-10, 15-22. See how the Lord blesses those who fear him—Ps 127(128):1-5. Matthew 8:1-4.

The experiences of Abraham and the leper are quite similar.

There is an emptiness in both lives that God and only God is able to touch. God fills this emptiness not just by removing a handicap or limitation—in these cases disease or infertility—but by giving himself in an intimate relationship. The covenant with Abraham is not just a legal contract: it comes out of sensitivity to deep human longing.

God’s response to Abraham and to us all is the same response as to the leper: ‘Of course I want to. Be cured.’ As our intimacy with the Lord becomes increasingly the centre of our lives, we sense the many moments in which God is responding to our personal needs. God speaks to us the same words: ‘Of course I want to …’

When Jesus had come down from the mountain, great crowds followed him; and there was a leper who came to him and knelt before him, saying, ‘Lord, if you choose, you can make me clean.’ He stretched out his hand and touched him, saying, ‘I do choose. Be made clean!’ Immediately his leprosy was cleansed. Then Jesus said to him, ‘See that you say nothing to anyone; but go, show yourself to the priest, and offer the gift that Moses commanded, as a testimony to them.’

There is some kind of polarity here: between public and private, between manifestation and concealment: “Great crowds followed him,” but he said, “Do not tell anyone.”

Talk (and especially gossipy talk!) creates a crowd.  Talk is itself a kind of crowd – a crowd of words.  Talk is endless, like the sand on the seashore.  Like the sand, it drifts and blows here and there.  Living today is like walking in a sandstorm of words (and here am I adding more!).

But Jesus told the healed leper to tell no one about his healing.  In another passage he took a deaf man “aside in private, away from the crowd” (Mk 7:33).  This tells us that sometimes it is necessary to stand in from the storm.  Sometimes it is necessary to be alone and think one’s own thoughts. He himself frequently went away by himself to pray: Lk 4:42; 5:16; 6:12; Mk 1:35; etc.  And there are moments when he tells others to keep silent about him: Mk 1:44; 8:30; Lk 9:21, and today’s passage.  And read the wonderful passage, Mt 6, in which everything is divided, so to speak, into two columns, headed “in secret” and “to be seen by others” (see June 17).  Why not meditate on this today:  the silence of Jesus?

The ancient world was terrified of leprosy, and in its terror it probably mistook many less harmful skin diseases for it.  By Jewish law the sufferer was isolated totally from society: “The leper…shall wear torn clothes and let the hair of his head hang loose, and he shall cover his upper lip and cry, ‘Unclean, unclean’.  He shall dwell alone in a habitation outside the camp” (Lev. 13:45f). No leper would ever have approached an orthodox rabbi, but the leper in this story approached Jesus confidently for help.  This was exceptional, but even more exceptional was what followed: “Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him….”  That touch healed him – healed his disease, yes, but healed also his feeling that he not only had a disease but was a disease; it healed his isolation, his loneliness, his despair, his belief that he was cursed by God…. This is the God revealed by Jesus, a “Father of Mercies.”

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A Question of Leadership

Obama-nators: “The Obama administration is preparing a grand downgrading of the CIA’s lead role in the war on terror [by] expanding the FBI’s role in global counterterrorism operations,” NewMajority’s Elise Cooper unhappily alleges. “It has become obvious that Mr. Obama’s allegiance is not to the United States,” Bob Kemp blasts for Renew America. President Obama’s “plan to deal with the head of the terrorist snake is to tell Iran and its terrorists, America has stopped using torture . . . Showing such weakness to the terrorists only adds fuel to the terrorist fire!” Gerald Flurry flails in The Philadelphia Trumpet. “Mahmood Ahmadinejad and Kim Jong-Il have threatened to wipe nations off the map because neither respects the Obama administration,” retrograde rocker and respected foreign policy analyst Ted Nugent admonishes in Human Events.

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Muslims in Europe

Germany Has 1 Million More Muslims than Previously Thought

A new Interior Ministry study has revealed that Muslims in Germany are much more integrated than previously thought: Around half are German citizens and 70 percent of women never wear a headscarf. There are also many more Muslims in the country than was previously estimated.

Are You Smart Enough to Be German?

Take the Citizenship Test: Are You Smart Enough to Be German?

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The tension exists

There’s a lot more attention focused on fathers right now than I can remember in decades. That can only be a good thing.

President Obama has especially centered the nation’s attention on fatherhood.

President Obama, who barely knew his own father, devoted his afternoon Friday to promoting the importance of being a good dad, saying he wanted to start a “national conversation” on the subject.

Two days before Father’s Day, Obama attended events related to fatherhood — gathering famous and not-so-famous dads for a series of service projects around Washington and a White House town hall meeting, then addressing young men on the South Lawn.

He spoke in deeply personal terms of “the hole in a child’s heart” left by an absent father and of the powerful influence his Kenyan father exerted during the only visit the senior Obama made after he and the president’s mother had divorced. Obama noted that during that visit — when he was 10 — his father gave him his first basketball and took him to his first jazz concert, stirring lifelong interests.

“Fathers are our first teachers and coaches, they’re our mentors and role models, they set an example of success and push us to succeed,” Obama said at the White House. “When fathers are absent, when they abandon their responsibility to their children, we know the damage that does to our families.”

Although presidents typically mark Father’s Day and celebrate the virtues of family, the attention Obama devoted was unusual.

Whatever else may be calculated for political gain in this man’s career, it is not this. His commitment as husband and father is genuine and clear.

Which is all the more reason why he has such great potential to inspire family values. But his definition of that term is in tension with the traditional understanding in our culture.

During the presidential campaign, he made the impromptu remark that if one of his daughters made a mistake, he wouldn’t want her “punished with a baby”. He didn’t say ‘punished with a pregnancy’, though that’s the general sentiment of the ‘pro-choice’ movement, to which he adheres. He didn’t say ‘punished with a fetus’, the euphemism to de-humanize the pre-born child in the womb. He did say baby, and that sentiment about his daughters was genuine, and lays bare the tension in his vision of family and human values.

Then on Father’s Day 2008, candidate Obama gave a rousing talk to a church congregation on fatherhood. 

‘We need fathers to realize that responsibility does not end at conception,’ he said.

He thus recognized that a child has been conceived at that moment, and the man has become a father. And yet…..he politically stands for the right to end that child’s life at any time prior to - and in the midst of - birth.

According to a Church prelate who spoke personally with him about the contradiction between what he says and what he does, Obama realizes the tension exists. He seems willing to live with it instead of trying to reconcile it one way or the other.

But on this subject he has as much conviction as on anything.

In his essay in Parade, Obama speaks of the struggles that he faces in common with much of the country in balancing work and family life, noting that at times he has been “an imperfect father.”

“I know I have made mistakes,” he writes. “I have lost count of all the times, over the years, when the demands of work have taken me from the duties of fatherhood.”

“On this Father’s Day, I am recommitting myself to that work, to those duties,” he writes, “to build a foundation for our children’s dreams, to give them the love and support they need to fulfill them, and to stick with them the whole way through.”

Good for President Obama. Time to recommit to fatherhood, from the moment of conception, “the whole way through”.

http://www.mercatornet.com/sheila_liaugminas/view/for_the_men/

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Jesus is more than a moralist

Isaiah 49:1-6. I praise you, for I am wonderfully made—Ps 138(139):1-3, 13-15. Acts 13:22-26. Luke 1:57-66, 80.

John was the fruit of God’s kindness to Elizabeth and all her neighbours rejoiced at his birth.

They were filled with awe and wonder: ‘What will this child turn out to be?’ I, too, am blessed by the Lord’s kindness. He has called me from my mother’s womb—for what?

John was the herald of the Lord, proclaiming hope and freedom for the people. Am I a prophet of joy, leading my neighbour to Jesus the Saviour? When I feel that I have toiled in vain or exhausted myself for nothing in my service of the Lord, let me recall God’s presence and strength in my life.

Lord, help me to realise that it is only you who can make my words ‘a two-edged sword’ and my deeds ‘a light to the nations’.

Now the time came for Elizabeth to give birth, and she bore a son. Her neighbours and relatives heard that the Lord had shown his great mercy to her, and they rejoiced with her. On the eighth day they came to circumcise the child, and they were going to name him Zechariah after his father. But his mother said, ‘No; he is to be called John.’ They said to her, ‘None of your relatives has this name.’ Then they began motioning to his father to find out what name he wanted to give him. He asked for a writing-tablet and wrote, ‘His name is John.’ And all of them were amazed. Immediately his mouth was opened and his tongue freed, and he began to speak, praising God. Fear came over all their neighbours, and all these things were talked about throughout the entire hill country of Judea. All who heard them pondered them and said, ‘What then will this child become?’ For, indeed, the hand of the Lord was with him. The child grew and became strong in spirit, and he was in the wilderness until the day he appeared publicly to Israel.

John the Baptist is like a first draft for Jesus.  They were alike in some ways: they were cousins, almost the same age; both came from the desert, urging people to a different way of life; both announced that events were coming to a head.  Jesus had called John the greatest man that ever lived (Lk 7:28), and had queued up with the crowds to be baptised by him. 

Yet they were different.  Despite all his fire, John’s message in the end was rather conventional.  “Tax collectors came to be baptised, and they asked him, ‘Teacher, what should we do?’  He said to them, ‘Collect no more than the amount prescribed for you.’   Soldiers also asked him, ‘And we, what should we do?’ He said to them, ‘Do not extort money from anyone by threats or false accusation, and be satisfied with your wages.’” (Lk 3:12-14).  He was, you might say, a moralist.  Though there are still disciples of John the Baptist in Israel, the impact of Jesus on history has been infinitely greater. 

Jesus is more than a moralist.  If he were only a moralist, he would be a very poor one, for his claims exceeded those of any moralist.  He claimed that he and the Father were one.  Any mere moralist making such a claim would not be credible for a moment.  We sometimes reduce him to a moralist.  But he alone was able to say, “The Kingdom (the Presence) of God is among you.”   This is much more powerful than all the moralism in the world.  An ounce of ‘is’ is better than a ton of ‘ought’. 

 

 

 

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America’s disappearing unity

Peter HeckIn a recent speech to the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, former President Bill Clinton stated the obvious: that we are a nation with a great deal of diversity.  Heralding this fact as a “very positive thing,” Clinton joined with the growing chorus of cultural commentators who apparently think that there is something inherently wonderful about diversity.

Sure, ethnic diversity has many benefits.  And the opportunity to learn about different customs and cultural characteristics is an enlightening exercise.  But the architects of our republic chose the Latin phrase “E pluribus unum” in describing our civilization for a reason.  The phrase means “out of many, one.”  It’s the notion that though having different experiences and varying backgrounds, the people of our country accept, embrace, and perpetuate similar values, a common belief system, and a unity in purpose.

In other words, what has made the United States so special is not the mere fact that we have welcomed in immigrants from many lands – that is merely diversity for diversity’s sake.  The true glory of America has come when that rich diversity of persons has united behind core principles and advanced shared ideals.

Unfortunately, at the behest of the politically correct and tolerant crowd, we are in danger of losing sight of that crucial reality.  Remember it was not long ago that President Obama made the declaration that, “Whatever we once were, we are no longer just a Christian nation.  We are also a Jewish nation, a Muslim nation, a Buddhist nation, a Hindu nation, and a nation of non-believers.”

Now, certainly Barack Obama is smart enough to know that this country has maintained populations of Jews, Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus, and atheists for generations – it’s not a new development.  So what was he saying?  Read in context, the President was suggesting that because of this diversity, the United States needs to fundamentally change its cultural foundation to incorporate values not just from the Christian faith, but from all these religions.  He called for us to begin to “translate our reasoning” to a more diverse approach.  This is a disastrous concept because it naïvely assumes that there will be no consequences from doing so.

Our Founding Fathers were wise and learned individuals who were students of political philosophy.  When crafting the basis for our civilization, they could have chosen any of a number of belief systems, but they chose Christianity for a reason.  No, it was not to use the power of government to force everyone to be Christian or abide by a strict Christian code.  The First Amendment clearly prohibited such action.  Rather, it was because they understood that the absolute, moral principles that come from Christian scripture – respect for life, private property rights, charity, frugality, stewardship, benevolence, peaceful living, responsible liberty – were the best friend to a free society and should be encouraged.

Don’t take my word for it.  John Adams said, “The Christian religion is, above all the religions that ever prevailed in ancient or modern times, the religion of wisdom, virtue, equity, and humanity.”  Dr. Benjamin Rush added that the only means of perpetuating our form of government was the, “universal education of our children in the principles of Christianity by means of the Bible.  For this divine book, above all others, favors that respect for just laws, those sober and frugal virtues, which constitute the soul of republicanism.”

Even Benjamin Franklin, commonly regarded as the least religious of all the Founding Fathers said, “History will afford the frequent opportunities of showing the excellency of the Christian religion above all others.”  If those words were uttered in our politically correct country today, whoever spoke them would be regarded as a narrow-minded, right-wing bigot.  Thus, you see the danger we are up against.

Again, our founders weren’t suggesting that we use the power of government to force everyone into the baptistery.  They were suggesting, however, that for our culture to survive and endure, it would take a unified recognition amongst our people that not all belief systems are equal, and Christianity stands above them all.

Mr. Obama is right in saying that this country is made up of people of varying beliefs.  But there’s a reason that peaceful Muslims have found it safer to live in this country than in those founded on Islamic law.  There’s a reason atheists have found it safer to live in this country than in those founded on the absence of moral authority.  It’s because our founders made Christian principle our cultural foundation.  And that’s something that if we’re wise, no amount of diversity will ever change.


Perspective: America’s disappearing unity

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Teacher fired for conservative website

A Kansas teacher says he was wrongfully terminated for his conservative views. Tim Latham has been teaching history and U.S. Government for over 19 years. But after teaching for just one year in the Lawrence School District in Lawrence, Kansas, Latham says his contract was not renewed because school officials did not like his conservative views — particularly a teacher website that Latham hosted and paid for himself. A teacher coach confronted him on that issue.

“She had concerns about it. I’ve never had a complaint about it — nothing but compliments. Parents love it because of their access to assignments, grades, etc. And she wanted a lot of the stuff that was on it removed. And when I asked why, I was told because it was too patriotic.”

Latham had an introductory video on the site where he stated that he wanted students to truly love the American way of life, and he says he was told to remove that as well because not everybody loves the American way of life. According to Latham, other complaints included that he was picking on Obama too much. When he asked for an explanation as to why his contract was not renewed he was told, “You refuse to conform” and “you just don’t fit in.”

“Those are word-for-word quotes given to me by the director of human resources, who says he is quoting what the administration told him — I refuse to conform and I just don’t fit in,” Latham notes.

He has since filed a grievance and is considering litigation if he does not get a satisfactory response.

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Why the arts matter even during a recession

At a concert in Erie, Pennsylvania, I sang a song called “In Good Hands.” Afterward, the church’s custodian stopped by. “When you was singing that song about Jesus’ hands,” he said, “the sun was setting behind you, and it was making them stained glass pictures of Jesus glow. The sound of your buddy’s violin was bouncing off these stone walls, and, well, you was saying more than you was even saying.”

In these tough times, I worry that violins and stained glass and folk songs may become extraneous. Many people are in a state of financial frostbite; just as blood flow to the extremities is restricted to save vital organs in a case of hypothermia, resources for less essential items must be diverted during an economic crisis. Who’s going to buy tickets to a film festival, ballet, or concert when there isn’t enough money for groceries?

What business do I have writing songs when there is practical work that needs doing? Do the arts matter? Are they expendables or essentials?

Saying More Than We Can Say at Christianity Today

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A Heart of Love

Some additional documents from Catholic Culture relative to the devotion to THE IMMACULATE HEART OF MARY:

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