Let's prepare today to honor the Immaculate Conception ...

Vestimentum tuum candidum quasi nix, et facies tua sicut sol.

Thy raiment is white as snow, and thy countenance as the sun (Ct 1:3, 4).

Let's start today.

Today is the First Saturday of Our Lady and this evening the traditional vespers for the Feast of the Immaculate Conception would normally take place, although the feast day is transferred to Monday since tomorrow is the Second Sunday of Advent.  Privately we can enter deeply into the grotto of the Immaculata and keep vigil, as if the feast has been graciously extended to assuage our longing to honor the Holy Virgin.  How much the Blessed Virgin loves us!  This week is her week.  The Immaculate Conception is patroness of the United States.  Within the 'octave' the Immaculata is again honored on the 10th as Madonna of Loreto.  On the 12th she is highly honored as the Virgin of Guadalupe, patroness of the Americas.  Advent is Our Lady's season.

Fr. Mark of Vultus Christi posts edifying meditations on the Blessed Virgin ... I'll excerpt a couple for today.  The first is on hope - and a holy priest Fr. Mark knew.  The photo from Lourdes at top is from father's post. 

From Hopes to Hope 

Many years ago, as I was standing in the rain in front of the grotto at Lourdes on a cold February morning, Chanoine Croset, the saintly old priest whose anniversary of death occurs today, told me that it was time for me to pass from having hopes to having hope. Passer des espoirs à l’espérance. He said something like, “Little brother, now it is time for you to let go of your hopes so as to live in hope.” It is a fearful thing to die to one’s cherished hopes, to pass from clinging to one’s own hopes so as to practice unconditionally the theological virtue of hope.

Darkness and Light 

Father Croset practiced the virtue of hope to an heroic degree.  As a young priest, successful in his diocesan ministry and full of promise, he was maligned by an unbalanced person. Overnight, his reputation was ruined. Without being given a hearing, he was exiled from his diocese and told never to return. Thus did he enter into years of profound moral suffering and, paradoxically, an extraordinary fecundity in the care of souls who sought him out for spiritual direction. Fifty years after the shame of being banished from his diocese, his case was reviewed by the bishop then in charge. The old accusations were proven false and Father Croset was declared innocent. Father Croset was invited to return to his diocese on 7 October 1986 in order to concelebrate with Pope John Paul II who was there on pilgrimage. - Vultus Christi

 I love how Fr. Mark notes Fr. Croset 'was maligned by an unbalanced person'.  How often that must happen in cases involving priests today?  I often reflect on posts I've written - how unbalanced was my point of view?  How subjective my opinion on certain situations?  How distorted by my own failures were my observations on the vocation and conduct of others?  What did the Pope say about such people?  "Those who live judging their neighbours, speaking badly of them, are hypocrites because they don’t have the strength, the courage to look at their own defects.”  Who can heal me?


 "Where Mary is present there will always be joy. Where Mary is absent there cannot but be sadness and gloom." - Fr. Mark

Sadness and gloom makes us mean.  With Our Lady there is hope for healing and purification - and balance - Our Lady is the Cause of our Joy.  "Blessed is the man that heareth me, and that watcheth daily at my gates, and waiteth at the posts of my doors. He that shall find me, shall find life, and shall have salvation from the Lord." - Proverbs 8: 34-35

Draw me!

“Thou art all fair, O Mary, there is no spot of original sin in thee.” (Ct 4, 7).

Let's start today!  Daily!

"Blessed is the man that heareth me, and that watcheth daily at my gates,

and waiteth at the posts of my doors." - Proverbs 8:34

Mary, a Garden Enclosed - "I am a Wall: and my Breasts are as a Tower" Canticles 8:10 -
by LOCHNER, Stefan - from Wallraf-Richartz-Museum, Cologne

 

Important things to remember.

Mr. Rogers with Daniel Striped Tiger. 

“Discovering the truth about ourselves is a lifetime’s work, but it’s worth the effort.”
― Fred Rogers

“There is no normal life that is free of pain. It's the very wrestling with our problems that can be the impetus for our growth.”
― Fred Rogers, The World According to Mister Rogers: Important Things to Remember

“It's a mistake to think that we have to be lovely to be loved by human beings or by God”
― Fred Rogers

I watched Mr. Rogers and Me on PBS last night.  I think Mr. Rogers is kind of like St. Nicholas, and Pope Francis is kind of like both of them. 

I liked something else Mr. Rogers said:

“I feel so strongly that deep and simple is far more essential than shallow and complex.” - Mr. Rogers

 

St. Nicholas Day

 

St. Nicholas,  detail, the Bari icon.

O God, who has glorified blessed Nicholas, your illustrious Confessor and Bishop, by means of countless signs and wonders, and who does not cease daily so to glorify him; grant, we beseech you, that we, being assisted by his merits and prayers, may be delivered from the fires of hell and from all dangers. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.

 

Pray to St. Nicholas

St. Nicholas Resuscitating Three Youths - Bicci di Lorenzo

St. Nicholas is a wonder-worker.

His miracles are not confined to the past.

His power with God is as efficacious today

as it was in his lifetime.

His wonders as abundant

as the innumerable miracles of history.

St. Nicholas gave me the childhood I had lost. 

He restored my soul and healed my sorrows.

He blessed me with wealth immaterial.

He rescued me from a wretched life.

He delivered my soul from a stormy sea.


It is the eve of St. Nicholas,

Pray for those held captive,

those suffering abuse,

and those lost at sea.

St Nicholas of Bari Rebuking the Storm - Bicci di Lorenzo

Bonus factoid:  St. Nicholas promised to help those who remember his parents, Theophanes and Nonna.  For more about the life of St. Nicholas, go here.

A Prayer of Impetration to Saint Nicholas

Glorious St. Nicholas, my special patron, from thy throne in glory, where thou dost enjoy the presence of God, turn thine eyes in pity upon me and obtain for me from our Lord the graces and helps that I need in my spiritual and temporal necessities (and especially this favor [mention your request], provided that it be profitable to my salvation). Be mindful, likewise, O glorious and saintly Bishop, of our Sovereign Pontiff, of Holy Church, and of all Christian people. Bring back to the right way of salvation all those who are living steeped in sin and blinded by the darkness of ignorance, error, and heresy. Comfort the afflicted, provide for the needy, strengthen the fearful, defend the oppressed, give health to the infirm; cause all men to experience the effects of thy powerful intercession with the supreme Giver of every good and perfect gift. Amen.

• Our Father, Hail Mary, Glory be

V. Pray for us, O blessed Nicholas.
R. That we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ.

Let us pray.
O God, who has glorified blessed Nicholas, Thine illustrious Confessor and Bishop, by means of countless signs and wonders, and who dost not cease daily so to glorify him; grant, we beseech Thee, that we, being assisted by his merits and prayers, may be delivered from the fires of hell and from all dangers. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.  - Source



Song for this post here.

Disordered attachment.

Fr. James Martin, SJ has a wonderful counsel on the subject ...

St. Ignatius Loyola often used to talk about "disordered attachments," those things we are so attached to that they keep us from God. It could be a desire for popularity or a love of money or an obsession with perfect health. Or maybe it's something even darker, like an unhealthy relationship that keeps you from freedom.

Another way of looking at this is as an entanglement. When Jesus first calls the disciples by the Sea of Galilee, the Gospels say the fishermen "dropped their nets," to follow him. Those nets are a great emblem for all that keeps us entangled in life.

Advent, when we prepare for the coming of Christ into our lives in a new way, is a good time to let go of those disordered attachments and to drop our nets.

Let it go. Leave it behind. Drop it.

You'll feel better.

We need to free ourselves to be open, so to be receptive to God, who is always present.

Art: Scene from Nights of Cabiria, Fellini, 1957.

The film is about a prostitute.  In the scene, Cabiria and Wanda (holding candle) join a procession to a shrine of the Blessed Virgin Mary.  Cabiria prays tearfully, “Madonna, help me to change my life.”  Then the next day, “We’re all the same as before.”

Sometimes it is difficult to disentangle our lives, sometimes we return to pick up where we left off.  The point is, we keep trying.  At each attempt we open ourselves to God - and he rushes in, and we, little by little become receptive to his presence, to his grace.  Without these attempts, these openings, these little responses of ours, we only close ourselves off.  So if we go one night to beg the Madonna, 'help me to change my life' and yet the next day we think, 'I'm the same as before' - don't give up. 

It is not true.  The Madonna hears those prayers and obtains the grace to change our life.  Maybe not always right away, but she enkindles a little flame which brings us back to keep asking, until, little by little, we are ready to walk away free, un-entangled by disordered attachment.
 

Just for fun! Fr. Z commemorates Archbishop Annibale Bugnini and the Novus Ordo and ...

Sacrosanctum Concilium or, Sanctimonious irreconcilable differences.

Just kidding.  The Novus Ordo is the Mass - but some people don't see it that way.  Fr. Z posts photos here which may explain why.

That said, the Novus Ordo, aka Ordinary Form of Mass is still the Mass.  It's the Mass all the popes since Vatican II have celebrated.  It's the Ordinary Form for the Latin Rite. 

What?

 

Spiritual warfare.

Take no part in the fruitless works of darkness; rather expose them.

A friend sent a comment regarding spiritual warfare this morning, mentioning that much of the writing these days - not unlike this month's article in Vanity Fair - are 'darkness' not 'light'.  My friend suggested Christians should be encouraged as they recognize the inconsistencies and errors in these things, because they affirm the teachings of Christ.

Everything exposed by the light becomes visible.

I agreed.  When I look back over the years, I see how the teaching of Christ always became most clear to me when the greatest evil around me was unmasked.   St. Paul sums it up here:

 Let no one deceive you with empty arguments, for because of these things the wrath of God is coming upon the disobedient.  So do not be associated with them.  For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light, for light produces every kind of goodness and righteousness and truth.  Try to learn what is pleasing to the Lord.  Take no part in the fruitless works of darkness; rather expose them,  for it is shameful even to mention the things done by them in secret; but everything exposed by the light becomes visible ... - Ephesians 5

Elsewhere, St. Paul asks:

What fellowship does light have with darkness? - 2 Corinthians 14

These lessons have been learned the hard way - through falling and rising - and more importantly, through rejection.

It is good to be rejected.  It is a grace.

Vanity Fair - Christmas Issue: The Vatican's Secret Life

Just about everything you have ever read about gays in the Vatican is compiled in this article.

Even the accusations against Pope Paul VI.  I dislike the tone of how the accusation is treated in the article, but I do recall the situation clearly. 

The Catholic priesthood’s contemporary gay cultural memory begins in the middle of the last century. When Paul VI assumed the throne, in 1963, by one account he took his papal name not from any predecessor but from a former lover, a film actor. That at least was the contention of the provocative gay French writer Roger Peyrefitte, whose 1976 allegations about Paul VI caused such a stir that Paul took to the balcony of St. Peter’s to denounce the “horrible and slanderous” accusations. - VF

The author writes "Paul looked a laughingstock".  I never thought so at all.  I admired his courage in denouncing such outrageous lies.  It was one of the many sufferings Pope Paul endured - even from those closest to him.

“Rumors are O.K., but not scandal”

The article perpetuates centuries of rumors - many of which may be documented and credible, yet without effect upon Catholic moral theology - in other words,  homosexual behavior never got approved.   I also think the historical accounts demonstrate there never was, nor is there now, a desire on the part of gay clergy to pursue any type of approval for homosexual acts or change in moral teaching, nor to establish any sort of gay culture as we experience it in secular society today.  It seems to me it was mostly about lust.

Tales of gays in the Vatican have been told for more than a thousand years. Pope John XII, who reigned from 955 to 964, was accused of having sex with men and boys and turning the papal palace “into a whorehouse.” While trying to persuade a cobbler’s apprentice to have sex with him, Pope Boniface VIII, who reigned from 1294 to 1303, was said to have assured the boy that two men having sex was “no more a sin than rubbing your hands together.” After Paul II, who reigned from 1464 to 1471, died of a heart attack—while in flagrante delicto with a page, according to one rumor—he was succeeded by Sixtus IV, who kept a nephew as his lover (and made the nephew a cardinal at age 17). Some such stories are better substantiated than others. Even while their reliability is questionable, they demonstrate that playing the gay card (even if you yourself are gay) is an ancient Curial tactic. “There are closeted gay priests who are vipers,” observes the theologian Mark D. Jordan, the author of The Silence of Sodom: Homosexuality in Modern Catholicism. “They are really poisonous people, and they work out their own inner demonology by getting into positions in power and exercising it” against other gay men, women, and anyone whom they perceive to be a threat. “Alongside that are suffering priests who seem sincere all the way down, who are trying to be faithful to God, and also to take care of people and change the institution. They are the ones who are always forgotten, and read out of the story from both sides.” - VF

"They may not act as a collective but are aware of one another’s existence."

The Vanity Fair piece is pretty much based on gossip and hear say - I'm not saying it isn't true - it seems fairly impossible to verify however.  Anyone who has ever been in a seminary or monastery, or who has spent a lot of time around clergy, or who has spent any time in Rome, might know the stories are true.  Gaydar is real.

One gay former priest, who still lives in Rome, describes clerical camp as “a natural way of expressing [gay identity] while celibate.” Socially, he says, it is “a key that unlocks a further element of trust.” There’s nothing earth-shattering about this—it’s what every institution does—but “the Church has a lot more experience and practice at protecting itself. As far as that goes,” he says, with a nod to Cole Porter, “they’re the tops.”

[...]

Where silence can’t strictly be kept, word games can compartmentalize the truth. In the Vatican office of a monsignor who I’d been told might have some firsthand knowledge concerning recent gay scandals in the Church, I asked, point-blank, “Are you gay?,” and he serenely answered, “No.” I replied, “I wonder, if a priest is homosexual—but does not participate in mainstream secular gay culture—could he say that he is not ‘gay’ and still think he’s telling the truth?” “What an interesting question,” the monsignor said, immediately standing up and gesturing me to the door. “I’m afraid I don’t have any more time to talk.” - VF

I knew that.

Post script:  The Vanity Fair piece - true, partly true, or not true - is a smear piece.  It is 'bar talk', gay-cocktail-party talk.  The major give-away is the vulgar speculation regarding Pope Benedict and Ganswein.  That's simply evil.  Gay priests and seminarians have always used 'drag names' for other clergy they do not like.  Likewise, 'functionaries' in Rome thrive on gossip.  Once again I'm sorry I posted this - but just remember, gays will be gays and history demonstrates that they come and go, much like the plague.

Link:

The Vatican’s Secret Life - By Michael Joseph Gross

 

Prayers needed: Syrian rebels - al Qaeda - abduct Syrian nuns from Mar Takla Convent

This is another horrible situation.

DAMASCUS, Syria — The head of a convent accused opposition fighters Tuesday of abducting 12 nuns from a predominantly Christian village near the capital that was overrun by rebels, and Syria's Greek Orthodox patriarch appealed for their quick release. 

Mother Superior Febronia Nabhan, head of nearby Saidnaya Convent, said the nuns and three other women were taken the day before from the village of Maaloula to the nearby rebel-held town of Yabroud, which also has a large Christian population.

Greek Orthodox Patriarch John Yazigi called for the release of the Maaloula nuns. "We appeal to the seed of conscience that God planted in all humans, including the kidnappers, to release our sisters safely," Yazigi said in a statement issued Tuesday. 

"We call upon the international community and world governments to (help secure the) release the nuns of Mar Takla Convent and the orphans who are being held since yesterday," he added. - Source

Pray.  Especially pray to The Blessed Virgin and St. Nicholas, the Wonderworker.

Fresco of St. Nicholas saving the Three Maidens from Decani Monastery

 

You revealed yourself, O saint, in Myra as priest, / For you fulfilled the Gospel of Christ / By giving up your soul for your people, / And saving the innocent from death. / Therefore you are blessed as one become wise in the grace of God.

 

Deliver your daughters from all violation, save the innocent from death.

H/T Ora et labora blog

I'm at the car dealership...

If I was on Twitter that would be tweet...

So this will be random.  Guess what?  Traditional religion sites are blocked on this system.  I'm at Honda in Richfield/Bloomington.  What that means is that I can't check Catholic news sites or people like Fr. Z.  I can get into my own site - but that is because I'm a Catholic who blogs - evidently my blog isn't categorized as a Catholic blog.

What does that mean?

I'll tell you what it means - all the Catholic sites are blocked so there are people not getting all your evangelization materials and religious fight club posts.  It means my posts do get through, because I am not a bigot like the rest of you.  What?  I'm kidding.

So anyway - I'm waiting for my tune up Mr. Honda.  I intended to blog while here, but if I can't access bigoted sites, how can I write what I intended to write?  I don't think I can load pictures either - oh wait, I can - not that they will make any sense.

I should do a list for something.

It is supposed to snow this week.

What should I write about?

I'm hungry.

My cat loves me.  She didn't come to the dealership today, but otherwise she goes with me everywhere.  In the house I mean.  She tucks me into bed at night, wakes me in the morning, goes to the bathroom with me, she sits with me all day when I paint or pray - she loves the rosary said out loud.  I never had a cat so attached to me.

Wasn't that interesting?

Let's see... what else?

I'm hungry.

Oh!  Oh!  This morning I ended up on a sedevacantist site.  I was searching for pictures depicting attributes of Our Lady from the Litany and I came across the site.  I was so impressed with the images and the commentary.  I intended to post about it until I noted they had a post on Francis as the anti-pope.  I think some Catholics could fall for that nonsense.  Creepy.

This key board is really dirty.  I wonder what is on it?  What if I contract a disease and die?

I'm hungry.

He's over there!

Escudos de monjas: Nun's shields and crowned nuns.

Escudo de Monja

Spanish colonial art is my favorite religious art - even the folksy Santa Fe style.  Icons were piously correct for me to paint and venerate when I was younger, but Spanish devotional art was not at all in favor.  Icons were preferred, while the Catholic Baroque was considered pre-Vatican II.  Which may be one reason why it is so desired by secular collectors these days.

Anyway - in preparation for the feasts of Our Lady: The Immaculate Conception, Guadalupe, and Loreto, I found a scrap of copper to paint my version of an escudos des monjas, depicting the Virgin of the Apocalypse.  It is such a small painting and I do not see very well at all - even using magnifying glasses.  I'm using acrylic on copper and I need to be careful to avoid any glaze build up as I paint.  The work isn't as refined as I'd like, although it is a wonderful meditation.  The Immaculate Conception is all joy to ponder over... Mary of Agreda called her the mystical City of God, didn't she?  As did St. Louis de Montfort, "The saints have said wonderful things of Mary, the holy City of God". Blessed are those found in Her.

So, for the first Sunday of Advent, I'll share a couple examples of these wonderful nun's badges - escudos de monjas.

Escudo with saints.

 

 

 

Monjas coronadas:Women who chose the monastic life

had dedication and purity worth celebrating. 

            Life-size crowned nun portraits appeared first in Mexico

to commemorate a young woman's profession of religious vows.

 

 

An early 20th century example

of a Conceptionist nun.

Note the rosary around neck.

 

 

What?

 

Mass Chat: The Vatican Survey

Pastoral Challenges to the Family In the Context of Evangelization

The Vatican survey was distributed at Mass this weekend.  The introduction seems rather long, and the questions may seem complex for the average person.  The responses are supposed to be limited to so many words, although I'm sure some people will need to write essays in response to each topic, which makes me wonder who will review all those responses?  As it stands, it will mean a lot of reading and data.

It's fine if people want to do it.  It's nice the Vatican is interested. 


I think I'll pass.


Besides - the web site address on the handouts must be wrong - I can't pull up the document - I can get the Australian site, the U.K. site, as well as other parish sites - but not 'our' site.  Links to other interested parties sponsoring the survey also pop up:

This project is sponsored by the following members of Catholic Organizations for Renewal (COR):
American Catholic Council
Call To Action
CORPUS
DignityUSA
Federation of Christian Ministries/Roman Catholic Faith Community Council in the Church
FutureChurch
New Ways Ministry
RAPPORT
Roman Catholic Womenpriests
Southeastern Pennsylvania Women’s Ordination Conference
Voice of the Faithful
Women’s Ordination Conference

Co-sponsored by:
Catholic Church Reform
Fortunate Families
WATER: Women's Alliance for Theology, Ethics, and Ritual 

I have my doubts as to how informative the survey results will be. 

I rejoiced when I heard them say ...

I rejoiced when I heard them say,

let us go to God's house.

Even now our feet are standing

within your gates O Jerusalem. - Psalm 122

I love this psalm so much.  It is the responsorial for the First Sunday of Advent.  For me it transcends time.  It signifies the great joy of entering the deepest recesses of our soul, into the house of God. 

Even now ... our feet are standing ...



A blessed Advent!

The last day...

"The Martyrdom of Saint Andrew" by Charles Le Brun

Of November.

November is the month of the Holy Souls - the souls in purgatory.  This year I did a month of daily prayers and works for the Holy Souls.  Using an old 'Purgatory Manual' I prayed the meditations offered.  It was rather instructive and very edifying.  The author often refers to the Holy Souls as penitents, and points out the purgation they undergo for various faults and attachments before the can see God.  It was very much like reading John of the Cross or other masters of the interior life, as regards the purgation the soul undergoes in preparation for union with God.

When I write about penance - I have such things in mind.  At every stage in our earthly pilgrimage most of us have need of purgation - penitence.  Even in the higher stages, particular saints have given example of this - Paul of the Cross, Therese of Lisieux, and more recently, Teresa of Calcutta - though already in a state of union, endured great interior trials.  As Garrigou-Lagrange notes:

The lives of some great servants of God especially dedicated to reparation, to immolation for the salvation of souls or to the apostolate by interior suffering, make one think, however, of a prolongation of the night of the spirit even after their entrance into the transforming union. In such cases, this trial would no longer be chiefly purificatory; it would be above all reparative. - The Three Ages of the Interior Life

The goal of the spiritual life is union with God.  And ...

It is through many trials and tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God. - Acts 14:22

 I wonder if we Catholics have a good understanding of that now days?  As it is, many of us think everyone goes straight to heaven.  Many give no thought to the purgation necessary to see God.  In fact, I bet it may be safe to assume many of us hardly prepare to receive Holy Communion.  I bet many more are convinced the sufferings of purgatory - if they exist - aren't that bad.  Many of us resist the idea of inconveniencing ourselves, much less doing any penance.  I laughed yesterday when I came across a blog post headline reminding readers that American Catholics had an indult saying they could eat meat on the Friday after Thanksgiving.  Like a day without meat would be so bad.  I have no problem with that - it's just funny.

Anyway.  I want to do some penance - maybe for Advent.  I actually need to.

You guys can do what you want.

Oh!  And happy feast day to all the Andrew poodles I know.

+ + +

 

"The soul, all immersed in pure love, without an image, in most pure and naked faith, suddenly finds itself, when it so pleases the Sovereign Good, plunged equally into the ocean of the Savior's sufferings" and sees "that the Passion is wholly a work of love." - St. Paul of the Cross

The Pope and Consecrated Life

Some interesting remarks were made by the Holy Father.

First, 2015 will be a year dedicated to the Consecrated Life.  That's nice.

The brief remarks I read at Vatican Information Service were more interesting however.

The first group of questions related to the identity and mission of consecrated life. A radical approach is required of all Christians, the Pope stated, but religious persons are called upon to follow the Lord in a special way: “They are men and woman who can awaken the world. Consecrated life is prophecy. God asks us to fly the nest and to be sent to the frontiers of the world, avoiding the temptation to 'domesticate' them. This is the most concrete way of imitating the Lord”.

Don't domesticate them.  I love that!   Don't box them in, don't limit them.  It is so Franciscan.

The Pope insisted upon the importance of formation, which he presented as founded upon four fundamental pillars: spiritual, intellectual, communitarian and apostolic. It is indispensable to avoid every form of hypocrisy and clericalism by means of a frank and open dialogue on all aspects of life: “formation is an artisanal craft, not a form of policing”, he commented; “its aim is to form religious persons with a tender heart, not acid, not like vinegar. We are all sinners, but not corrupt. Sinners are to be accepted, but not the corrupt”. - VIS

Not the corrupt.  Sinners are to be accepted - but not the corrupt.  See - one must repent, and 'lay aside every encumbrance of sin which clings to us'.  We must, come out from the midst of them, as St. Paul exhorted; leave our country, like Abraham.  So a conversion takes place.  When the Holy Father speaks of formation as an artist's craft, I think of St. Therese and how she cared for her novices, her sensibility to defective character, and so on.  Especially when he notes: “we must never act like managers when faced with a brother's conflict: conflict instead must be caressed”.

I've been thinking of the many people I've known in religious life - those who have persevered through many great changes and unbelievable challenges.  They persevered!  Most have had troubles, difficulties - some faltered - but they have persevered.  They never gave up.  That is what is most important, that is what fidelity is.

Even those who went 'out' from their religious orders, their enclosures, their monasteries.  Those who began new communities or embarked on a more contemplative, eremitical mission - they too have persevered.  Often with little support, under severe criticism.  But they persevere.  That is holiness. 

“They are men and woman who can awaken the world. Consecrated life is prophecy." - Pope Francis

 

How do we explain this away? St. Peter Damian and the Book of Gomorrah?

Don't say anything about the Book of Gomorrah...

I mentioned it once, but I think I got away with it. 

Actually I referred to it a few times.  It's a good way to lose followers.  Even when I make references to the period when the work was published - in jest, such as burnings at the stake - I can get some pretty hostile comments from the GLBTQ crowd.  I'm against it of course - burning at the stake and sodomy, I can call it that, right?

Seriously, the treatise by St. Peter Damian is a classic and deserves scholarly attention.  Evidently some have tried that before.  A new look at an old book,  Book of Gomorrah: An Eleventh-Century Treatise Against Clerical Homosexual Practices.  By St. Peter Damian. Translated and edited by Pierre Payer. Wilfrid Laurier University Press. 108 pages. $38.95: Getting another look and a new review by Anne Barbeau Gardiner at New Oxford Review.  I think New Oxford limits readers to subscription once articles are archived, so I'll reproduce some points which seem relevant to conditions in our day, and let the reader go to the original review for more. 

The more things change, the more they stay the same...

By the time he published the Book of Gomorrah around A.D. 1049, St. Peter Damian had been preaching for some time against homosexuality. He told Pope St. Leo IX, to whom he directed this work, that he needed his support against those who despised him for this preaching. While others in authority remained silent, he lamented, homosexuality kept spreading: “Vice against nature creeps in like a cancer and even touches the order of consecrated men.”

That homosexuality was indeed a problem at that time may be inferred from the fact that the vice was addressed at the Council of Rheims (A.D. 1049) in the canon de sodomitico vitio. Also, Damian received, in reply to his treatise, what he had requested from Leo IX, “a decretal writing as to which of those guilty of these vices ought to be deposed irrevocably from ecclesiastical orders; and to whom, truly taking the view of discretion, this office can be mercifully granted.”

Damian reports that he has endured persecution for preaching against this sin, and he begs the Pope to use his sacred authority to quiet “the complaint of perverse men” who reason that “a statement brought forward by one person…is rejected by others as prejudice.” At one point he addresses the dissenters as men “who are angry with me and who hate to listen to this writer.” He tells the Pope that some of them “accuse me of being a traitor and an informer on the crime of a brother,” while others think it “valid to attack me who am on the attack” and to “accuse me of presumptuous prattle.” They also denounce him for not being “afraid of picking on Christians.” 

In his reply, Leo IX gives Damian his full support and warns those who would dare to criticize or question his papal decree concerning sodomy that they will be putting themselves in danger of being deposed from their rank. He agrees with Damian that severity against this sin is needed, that he who does not attack it encourages it, and that silence about it is rightly thought to incur guilt. 

In this remarkable treatise, Damian condemns priests in authority who have been too indulgent with these sinners. As a result of their laxity, priests who have “fallen into this wickedness with eight or even ten other equally sordid men” have remained in their ranks. And so the sin has come “to be committed freely” without its practitioners fearing the loss of their priestly faculties.

Citing St. Paul’s condemnation not only of those who commit sodomy but also of those who “approve” it in others (Rom. 1:32), Damian observes that his adversaries’ silence can be interpreted as consent...

The Book of Gomorrah demonstrates that it was no easier a thousand years ago than it is today to speak out against this vice and to bring active homosexuals to repentance, to an acknowledgement of the natural law, and to the practice of purity. In his little treatise, St. Peter Damian warns us against keeping silence in the face of such a growing evil and thus becoming complicit. He offers us a needed model of how to speak out fearlessly against the corruptions of our age. - New Oxford  

What?

NB: For a contemporary example of what St. Peter Damian reports as 'persecution for preaching against this sin' go here: an Austin Ruse commentary on The Catholic Thing.

"You started it."

 

Oy! Stop being so meshuga! The first Thanksgiving was Jewish!

 Why can't you do anything like a normal person?

 

Georgie, don't listen to the Goys...

In fact, this year it's Thanksgivukkah.  Hanukkah and Thanksgiving coincide this year - which is fairly unusual and won't happen again until 79811.  Thanksgiving is from the Jews.

Thanksgiving, as in giving thanks, is a very Jewish thing to do. According to tradition, Jews are to give thanks 100 times each day. We are to give thanks before we eat, for having food, and after we eat, for having been able to have food. Each morning the traditional liturgy includes thank-yous for such simple acts as standing up and having the strength to get through the day. One more Jewish link is found in our Scripture: The initial Thanksgiving feast was probably based upon our fall thanksgiving festival of Sukkot (Tabernacles)  

But I think there is more to the American Jewish observance of Thanksgiving than our predilection to thankfulness. I think it has a lot to do specifically with our appreciation for and celebration of being part of life in America. - Source

So, my little Gefiltephish, before there was a Thanksgiving, there was Hanukkah.

“In a fascinating way, the idea of Thanksgivukkah is not such a stretch, as both are thanksgiving festivals based on the Biblical festival. Both are related to the desire to heal from a devastating war and to express gratitude for having survived, to promote a vision of a future time when peace will reign once more. Both tell us that we should take the long view that good will triumph over evil. Both festivals express our faith that even a tiny flame can illuminate a place of darkness.” - Source

Bonus factoid:   Catholics commemorate Hanukkah too...

Yes.  Yes, we do.  The readings from Mass last week were taken from the Book of Maccabees ... commemorating the re-dedication of the Temple by Judas Maccabee and his brothers.  That's Hanukkah*.


Now.  If you're Catholic and feel guilty about not celebrating Thanksgiving ...

Don't feel bad.  It's not a holy day of obligation, and remember, it is just an ordinary Thursday in every other country in the world.  And don't forget, it's better to light a candle than curse/kill a turkey. 

Happy Thanksgivukkah.

'Hanukkah, Thanksgivukkah,

send out for Chinese.'

 

This is the best Festivus ever!

* While Hanukkah is a relatively minor Jewish holiday, as indicated by the lack of religious restrictions on work other than a few minutes after lighting the candles, in North America, Hanukkah in the 21st century has gained importance as a symbol of Jewish identity. Both the Israeli and North American versions of Hanukkah emphasize resistance, focusing on some combination of national liberation and religious freedom as the defining meaning of the holiday.

The Apostolic Exhortation, Rejoice in the Gospel: What the gays are saying...

Not too much.

Skimming the document myself, it appears the Holy Father didn't have much to say about sexuality or homosexuality.  Nothing at all in fact.  One writer noted:

The document does not discuss sexuality, gender, or LGBT issues.  In fact, in chapter two, he outlines many of today’s social ills, and unlike the previous two popes, he does not single out any sexuality issues for discussion here.  His only reference to these topics is a passing one, and noteworthy for NOT naming any hot-button issues such as same-gender marriage:

“The family is experiencing a profound cultural crisis, as are all communities and social bonds. In the case of the family, the weakening of these bonds is particularly serious because the family is the fundamental cell of society, where we learn to live with others despite our differences and to belong to one another; it is also the place where parents pass on the faith to their children. Marriage now tends to be viewed as a form of mere emotional satisfaction that can be constructed in any way or modified at will. But the indispensible contribution of marriage to society transcends the feelings and momentary needs of the couple. As the French bishops have taught, it is not born ‘of loving sentiment, ephemeral by definition, but from the depth of the obligation assumed by the spouses who accept to enter a total communion of life’.[60] ”  (chapter 2, section 66) - Source

Another LGBT writer expresses his enthusiasm over the document:

The title itself is of major importance: “The Joy of the Gospel – Evangelium Gaudium”. Along with the announcement of the Year of Faith, Pope Benedict introduced what he described as the “New Evangelisation”. Under his papacy, there was always a danger that this “evangelisation” of the West would be seen as an opportunity to bang on about Catholic doctrines (especially on sex and the sacraments), and to chastise those perceived to be out of line. For Francis, the need for evangelisation is continuing and permanent, but with a very different emphasis.

This “Good News” applies to all – and that most certainly include sexual and gender minorities, along with the poor and all other previously marginalised groups. Historically, we have so often been subjected to different forms of textual abuse, based on a mere handful of verses (appropriately described as “clobber texts”, or “texts of terror”) that many gay men and lesbians look with deep suspicion on any references to “Bible”, or even to religion in general. But we need to remember that none of these verses are found in the Gospels, which displays many elements reflective of queer values, rather the “traditional family values” claimed by the Christianist right.  And so, fully in keeping with the relative importance of sexual considerations in the Gospel, Francis says on the subject – absolutely nothing. In the entire text of some 50 000 words, there is  not a single one to “sex” (let alone homosexuality), and only one in the footnotes, referencing a 2006 document of the US bishops). - Source

 Of course, the Gospels do not mention homosexuality either. 

It's interesting to me that anyone with a website, or a blog, or a Twitter account, feels compelled to inform their readers they will study the Exhortation more closely and follow up asap with further analysis.  If only they had been given a press kit beforehand.  Now with the holiday and all!

The world waits.

 

It was the day before Thanksgiving ...

And I haven't been to the liquor store yet!

The turkey is still in the bath tub thawing and I need a haircut.  How many times have you heard that?  And you haven't even started to clean!

Holidays are nerve racking - there is never enough time to get everything done and it's got to be perfect. 

I think my sister goes to the Indian casino with her family now days.  They seem to enjoy all the Hmong families.  Asians love to gamble you know.  It's true.  There is nothing like the holidays at the casino. 

Since my parents died, the holidays have never been the same.  You never knew if you had been invited or not, but sometimes you'd take your chances and just show up.  I sometimes did that until my mother  came up with the very chichi idea of 'going out' for Thanksgiving.  There was an 'upscale' motor-inn type of place they liked to stay at which boasted a 1 or 2 star bar and restaurant.  Out of the blue I'd get a phone call saying, "Your father and I are going to a hotel for Thanksgiving, so don't bother coming over."  Before you could respond, she hung up.  What that meant was they weren't going to pay for dinner if you showed up.

I suppose my sister has the better idea, Thanksgiving at the casino is a good way to avoid conflicts, fights, and other drama - old people can't hear a thing with all that background noise.  Which is why I prefer an old fashioned Thanksgiving at home.  Later in the evening, if you're lonely, you can always call some one you haven't talked to in years and tell them off. 

I miss the fights.

If only the liquor stores were open on Thanksgiving.  At least Walmart and Target are open.  Call me sentimental, but I suppose there really is a lot to be thankful for.

PSA: A World-Wide Warning that will happen in the sky...like the collision of two ... comets ... that do not fall down...

I know!

It's the prophecy from Garabandal.  First, a World-Wide Warning that will happen in the sky...like the collision of two stars that do not fall down...*  I inserted comets instead of stars for the heading of course.  But the visionaries said the warning will be 'like' two stars colliding.  What if what they were seeing was two comets?

Signs in the heavens? Two comets racing towards Earth and Sun: ‘unprecedented’

Comet Encke and Comet ISON are converging for a photogenic close encounter. “No they’re not going to hit each other – in reality they are millions of miles apart – but as seen from the STEREO-A spacecraft, they are going to get very close!” - Source

General Absolution.  It could happen.

*To view the entire account of the events at Garabandal see the Garabandal Story. 

Run!