Cardinal Burke Named Patron of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta: The real story...

The REAL STORY here.

It says absolutely nothing about being demoted or any rift with Pope Francis.


It's all good.



(Stay with Abbey Roads for up to the minute coverage: I go right to the source for my news!)

H/T  Victoria Brisbane

Get your cape! We're going to Malta!

Pick up my cappa!

It has been announced - finally.

Since the Pope is always warning against the evils of gossip and backstabbing, I highly doubt he's being 'mean' to Cardinal Burke.  I think media is making a mess here - not the Pope, and not Burke either.  Besides, if the Pope had a problem with Burke - he'd tell him to his face - even if it ended in fisticuffs.

Song for this post here.

Memorial of Bl. Elizabeth of the Trinity

Like Br. Lawrence of the Resurrection, Blessed Elizabeth understood the secret of sanctity, the secret of the indwelling of the Most Holy Trinity.   "God gives the lonely a place to live in..."  He in me, I in Him... on earth and in heaven for all eternity.

"I find Him everywhere while doing the wash as well as while praying."  - Bl. Elizabeth

"I think that in Heaven my mission will be to draw souls by helping them to go out of themselves in order to cling to God by a wholly simple and loving movement, and to keep them in this great silence within which will allow God to communicate Himself to them and to transform them into Himself." - Bl. Elizabeth

I am so grateful for Mass and the sacraments and Our Lady and the angels and saints and for the grace to receive Jesus in Holy Communion - who remains with us always...

St Teresa notes that we can obtain the prayer of recollection for ourselves, "for this is not a supernatural state [a passive recollection which can only be produced by divine motion], but depends upon our own volition; and by God's favour, we can enter it of our own accord."
.
Therefore, it is important to know what the soul should do in order to practise this prayer, and this can be reduced to two things: "The soul collects together all its faculties and enters within itself to be with its God" (ibid, 28). Our senses, imagination, and intellect tend spontaneously toward exterior things, on which they are dispersed; therefore, the soul, by a prolonged, resolute act of the will, ought to withdraw them from these exterior things in order to concentrate them on interior things -- in this little heaven of the soul where the Blessed Trinity dwells. This exercise, especially in the beginning, requires effort and energy and it will not be easy at first. However, the Saint teaches, "let the soul try to cultivate the habit, despite the fatigue entailed in recollecting itself and overcoming the body which is trying to reclaim its rights." Little by little, "as a reward for the violence which it had previously done to itself" (ibid.), recollection will become easy and delightful; the senses will obey promptly; and even if the soul is not entirely from distractions, it will not be so hard to overcome them.
.
"O my God, You are in me and I am in You. I have found my heaven on earth, since heaven is You, O Lord, and You are in my soul. I can find You there always; even when I do not feel Your presence, You are there nevertheless, and I like to seek You there. Oh! if only I could never leave You alone!" (cf. Sr Elizabeth of the Trinity, Letters) - Divine Intimacy

There is no reason to go here or there looking for our Lord - he is within - we are his tabernacle.

Off your meds? That may not be the problem ...

What if being on your meds is more dangerous?

I was reading the side effects information on the medication guide a friend received with his new prescription from the pharmacist.  One of his prescriptions is for a common antidepressant.  The side effects range in degree, may go away, or may not go away, or - this was my thought, what if the negative reaction to the drug suddenly occurs after longtime use?  That information wasn't included.

Here are a couple of serious side effects listed:

• Suicidal thoughts
• New or sudden changes of mood
• Attempts at suicide
• Acting on dangerous impulses
• Acting aggressive or violent

There are more side effects listed, but I just noted the scary ones.

Medication.  

I bet almost every single reader of this blog is on some form of medication for some thing - not necessarily anti depression drugs - just any kind of drug.  Most drugs can have side effects.  Likewise, drug interaction may pose another problem, then, if you drink, that may create more problems.  Today many states want to legalize marijuana.  Combine that with alcohol, prescription drugs, more illegal drugs, and emotional instability and what do you have?  Zombie apocalypse when the well runs dry.

Seriously, just last week a kind, gentle, older man in a local hospital freaked out in his room,  dismantled his bed, and went on a rampage savagely attacking nursing staff, beating them with a rod from his bed.  [Story here.]  It was totally out of character for him and he never acted that way before.  What happened?  Was he given a sleep aid or a tranquilizer, a pain killer?  We don't know yet - it is still under investigation.

It made me wonder however.  Adam Lanza for instance; what kind of meds was he taking before he attacked the school at Sandy Hook.  What about all of the other so-called sudden murder rampages, school attacks which happen almost regularly throughout the country?  How many school kids have been on some sort of psychotropic drug with or without therapy, during their formative years?  How many use or experiment with legal or illegal drugs as well?

What are the side effects?  How about long term use?  How does it change the brain?

People are different today.  How have drugs changed cultural-social anthropology?  That's a bigger question.

Back to everyday questions, problems: How many adults on these meds experience sudden mood swings, maybe suddenly get up one day and quit their job, leave a spouse, or freak out on a co-worker?  Or just go nuts in the com box of a blog?

Read the warning labels and medication guide for your prescriptions - I'm not sure the doctors are very good about doing that for you.   Before stopping any medication check with your doctor of course, and before going on a medication - make your doctor explains its function, side effects, and why he thinks you need it.

Where else can a guy talk man to man to a man - and for free?

Only in confession.

Go to confession, and keep going every single time you fall.

You don't have a friend?  Go to confession.

You don't have some one to confide in?  Go to confession.

You don't have a dad?  A brother?  Go to confession.

Pour out your heart.

They're not there to judge you but to forgive you.

Go to confession.

It's free.

The Holiday Season has begun: Best ad so far!

I. LOVE. THIS. AD!

Amy Poehler is great!

It's the falling in love ...

source

Lea DeLaria shouts down a subway preacher ...

A butch Italiana resorts to Blackshirt tactics ...

I love New York.

Lea DeLaria can be pretty funny too.  But gay humor can only tolerate so much, and New York can be stressful, you know.  Ms. DeLarious snapped when a comely Haitian evangelist was preaching the Good News on the subway.  She went all Howard Beale on the poor guy - in public, on the crowded train - and she was all suited up - black shirt, fatigues, with in-your-face signage, her printed Mein Kampf all over herself, forcing anyone and everyone who looked at her to read what she was wearing.  Then, suddenly, when some guy starts reading the Bible - she goes ballistic ... Video here.

No Free Speech for Preachers.  But Lea went to Catholic school for 12 years and knows the Bible line for line so she can tell that preacher guy to shut up.

What do 'they' like to say?  "haters gonna hate".

One more for the road.

Eve Tushnet posts a sort of summation of day two of the Gay in Christ colloquium...

I'm told there were about 75 people in attendance - which may explain the lack of coverage.  I seriously thought there would be a bigger crowd.  One friend told me he believed a key element in the conference might be summed up in this phrase,  "rehabilitating the Church's concept of 'eros'".  Eve Tushnet would probably disagree - she concluded her post on day 2 saying:

Overall: I initially walked away thinking we’d advanced the ball a lot on pastoral care, but very little on theology. Having mulled and discussed things a little, I’m less negative about our attempts to trace an orthodox Catholic theology which isn’t anti-gay. And anyway the more creatively, personally, and humbly we approach pastoral care, the more likely we are to understand the theology, since we understand the faith by living it. - Eve Tushnet

I think I had to be there in order to comment on the speakers.

It's a strange life they've chosen.

Gay-celibacy as a vocation?  I see it as a state in life.  Celibacy - not gay.  Gay is a condition.

That said, imagine getting up every day, and going to bed at night saying to yourself, "I'm gay", or "I'm lonely", or "I'm misunderstood"?  I think the focus is 'off'.

I found it interesting that the only religious speaker there brought up L'Arche - a community for disabled persons founded by Jean Vanier.  I love Jean Vanier very much - his spirituality is pure Gospel, deeply Catholic.  It is very much like today's Gospel, where the servants go out into the hedgerows and byways to collect the blind and the crippled to come into the Church.  It is also a very Franciscan concept - as in Pope Francis.  I get that.  That's what the Christian life is.  It's like Madeleine Delbrel, who would be a very good prototype for any effort in evangelization of gay people, BTW.

I still don't get the Spiritual Friendship - Gay in Christ stuff.  Unless it really is about disability... Nah!  They definitely don't think so.

Good patrons for these folks would be Madeleine Delbrel, Dorothy Day, and Jean Vanier - as well as Therese of Lisieux.  I like this thought from the life of Therese:

"To help me accept a humiliation, she once confided to me: 'If I had not been accepted in Carmel, I would have entered a Refuge (for fallen women) and lived out my days there, unknown and despised among the poor penitents. I would have been happy to be taken as one of them, and would have become an apostle among them, telling them what I thought of God's mercy.'" - Therese By Those Who Knew Her

That I get.

A Hybrid Spirituality

Morning on Magdalen Tower - Holman Hunt

Random thoughts ...

I was doing a lot of thinking about the Spiritual Friendship gay-Catholics this past weekend - because they met for a conference at Notre Dame.  I did a couple of posts on the colloquium, but no one read them - which is fine, because I didn't have much to say.  Although I was seriously trying to make sense of the movement as a new gay spirituality.  Gay celibates - I'm not sure how new that is.

I don't want to go through the long history of gay, lgbtq, gay liberation, gay, gay, gay history - but suffice it to say I connect the dots to New Ways Ministry, Dignity, Catholic U .... everything that has gone before leading to now.  Gay as an identity.  It's part of coming out, it's part of being immersed in lgbtq.  So everyone knows that.  The Catholic Church responded offering a very pastoral ministry known as Courage.  Courage has been maligned as being too much like a recovery, 12 Step program - and has even been accused of promoting ex-gay therapy.  That's a misunderstanding which, repeated often enough, is believed, and is even claimed today by some of the Spiritual Friends.

That's not true however.  Courage isn't a gay movement - it is a support group for men and women who wish to sanctify their lives in accord with Catholic teaching.  It is not a hybrid spirituality, such as a 'new' movement, sect or religious community/association may develop into.  Courage is an apostolate within the Catholic Church.  Go to the Courage site here to understand better.

In contrast, the Spiritual Friendship 'movement' strikes me as a bit more exclusive however - as if it is a step above.  Ever since my first acquaintance with the group, it has seemed to me to be a sort of hybrid spirituality, a gay spirituality.  Similar to various movements in history, especially the romantic movement, or as I wrote in a previous post, the Uranians - except the Spiritual Friendship movement is Catholic.  Gay celibate Catholics, aka 'New Homophiles' - in that sense, they seem more like Shakers.

I'm still trying to understand, but I'm not sure it's all that important for me that I do.  I think it's a sort of trend, a movement to something else perhaps, and that's my point.

[Metaphor alert!]

Movements have a short term flowering within an era.

Like Shakers, homosexuals - celibate or not - can't reproduce.  A homophile movement may flower, but it bears no fruit.

Usually movements are transitory, creating a sort of safe haven, or respite from mediocrity.  They offer a periodic sense of belonging and identity, and though non-binary if you will, they inevitably close in upon themselves, forming another species within an existing subculture.

One may witness the effect in various movements within religious groups throughout history - which is why I consider the Spiritual Friendship group somewhat analogous with Shakers.  Off the top of my head, I can only think of a couple of other movements, albeit completely different in purpose from Spiritual Friends; the Spiritualist Franciscans, the Holiness movement, Quietists, Oxford movement, various Protestant sects and revival efforts, even some Catholic religious groups.  Most are more or less experiential, and in many cases unstable and transitory.  That is not to say they do not effect change - they do.

[Metaphor alert!]

I may be wrong, but I actually see some of the late 19th early 20th century religious habits of women religious as a sort of metaphor for the rise and fall, the progress and demise, of hybrid movements.  Case in point, the crazy habit of the Religious of the Sacred Heart of Mary.

The foundress, M. St. Jean

Mid-20th century exaggeration.

The two examples shown above may help to make my point.  The religious women were organized into a community to serve a particular need in the Church at a particular time.  The habit was based upon folk dress of the time - albeit religious.  Perhaps somewhat exaggerated, it nevertheless was common to the time, fabrication natural and functional, and so on.  On the other hand, the 20th century hybrid denied the humanity of the person, confined and restricted vision and movement, and became an obstacle to the performance of duties, as well as restricting authentic freedom of spirit.  Components of the habit were rigid and artificial.  Religious life stagnated and withered.  The RSHM's remain extant, but it seems many religious congregations like them are fading away.  Although that's another post.

"All things are passing away: God never changes." - Teresa of Jesus

(Told you this was random.)

(Oh!  I may be wrong too.)

"...if it comes from God, you will not be able to stop it; 

you may even find yourselves fighting against God.” - Acts 5: 39

Song for this post here....


Yup.  That will do for now.

St Martin de Porres

Not many today could accept such a hidden, humble life ...

All Souls

Kids go there too.

I see dead people.

Since Friday really.  Halloween is about dead people.  All Saints is about dead people.  All Souls is about dead people.

Life goes on.

No, it really does.

There really is life after death...

Mums and dadums too.

Photography source.

Just a thought before the start of the Gay in Christ Conference at Notre Dame ...

"...if it comes from God, you will not be able to destroy them stop it; 

you may even find yourselves fighting against God.” - Acts 5: 39

The Conference schedule is here.

I'm not sure all that many Catholics are aware of the importance of this conference, which will most likely affect the way gay people are treated within the Catholic Church, at least throughout the United States.  Hence it is important to pray for the Conference, its speakers/presenters, as well as the participants/audience.  I may have fun with the event - but I respect those who will be attending.

I think Today's First Reading from Philippians is more than providential for the opening day of the Conference, as well as a good prayer to ponder:

I give thanks to my God at every remembrance of you,
praying always with joy in my every prayer for all of you,
because of your partnership for the Gospel
from the first day until now.
I am confident of this,
that the one who began a good work in you
will continue to complete it
until the day of Christ Jesus.
It is right that I should think this way about all of you,
because I hold you in my heart,
you who are all partners with me in grace,
both in my imprisonment
and in the defense and confirmation of the Gospel.
For God is my witness,
how I long for all of you with the affection of Christ Jesus.

And this is my prayer:
that your love may increase ever more and more
in knowledge and every kind of perception,
to discern what is of value, 

so that you may be pure and blameless for the day of Christ,
filled with the fruit of righteousness
that comes through Jesus Christ
for the glory and praise of God. - Philippians 1: 1-11

I could be wrong of course. 

Fortitude and Magnanimity

"The principal act of fortitude is endurance, that is, to stand immovable in the midst of dangers rather than to attack them." - St. Thomas

"Fortitude and magnanimity. They are like the two opposite sides of a pointed arch, supporting each other.

Fortitude is the moral virtue which strengthens the soul in the pursuit of the difficult good so that it does not allow itself to be shaken by the greatest obstacles. It should dominate the fear of danger, fatigue, criticism, all that would paralyze our efforts toward the good. It prevents man from capitulating in a cowardly manner when he should fight; it also moderates audacity and untimely exaltation which would drive him to temerity.

Fortitude has two principal acts: to undertake courageously and to endure difficult things. The Christian should endure them for the love of God; it is more difficult to endure for a long time than in a moment of enthusiasm, to undertake courageously something difficult. 

Fortitude is accompanied by patience to endure the sorrows of life without being disturbed and without murmuring, by longanimity which endures trials for a long time, and by constancy in good, which is opposed to obduracy in evil.

To the virtue of fortitude is also linked that of magnanimity, which leads to the lofty practice of all the virtues, avoiding pusillanimity and effeminacy, but without falling into presumption, vainglory, or ambition." - Garrigou-Lagrange

Disordered affection ...

Gay people hate the word disordered.  

It is one of the single most objectionable words used in Catholic teaching regarding homosexual acts.  It was even mentioned at the Synod - as hurtful language.  The use of the word disordered is one of the objections to the CDF documents regarding pastoral care of homosexual persons.  It is why not a few gay-Catholics dislike Cardinal Ratzinger - Pope Benedict - simply because he was in charge at the time and responsible for updating the Catechism as well as issuing the following clarification:

Since “[i]n the discussion which followed the publication of the (aforementioned) declaration..., an overly benign interpretation was given to the homosexual condition itself, some going so far as to call it neutral or even good”, the letter goes on to clarify: “Although the particular inclination of the homosexual person is not a sin, it is a more or less strong tendency ordered towards an intrinsic moral evil; and thus the inclination itself must be seen as an objective disorder. - Some considerations ...

The supreme pontiff, St. John Paul II, signed off on all of it - meaning the CDF or Ratzinger did not step outside Catholic doctrine.

Inordinate affection.

In the spiritual life - which every Christian is called to - terms such as disordered and inordinate are frequently used to describe obstacles to 'our perfect union with God'.  Recently, a meditation from Archbishop Luis Martinez appeared in Magnificat magazine, which may help us understand better the meaning of such terminology and the reason why it is used.

Whenever the affections of the heart are not an expansion of divine love, they are an obstacle to our perfect union with God. (an obstacle to sanctity)

Although every affection that blossoms from the love of God is holy, and increases our perfection rather than impedes it, the same is not true of any other affection that has purely human and natural roots; for from affections of this kind come forth sins, both mortal and venial.

Inordinate affections are the root of sin ...

When at any time an affection rises to the point of taking complete possession of our heart in such a way that it causes us to place our happiness and our final end in a creature, then mortal sin is committed; for mortal sin is nothing else but the triumph of an inordinate affection over the love of God.

Very often a disordered affection does not go to such an extreme, yet it can contrive to live side by side with the love of God.  Then it is a species of parasite that prevents the love of God from developing in all its fullness and in all its glory.  In this case, a disordered affection is the cause only of venial sins or simply imperfections, yet, in every instance, it hampers the perfect development of the love of God. - Archbishop Luis M. Martinez

Pope Francis on Big Bang Theory

"The Big Bang, which today we hold to be the origin of the world, does not contradict the intervention of the divine creator but, rather, requires it." - Pope Francis


Does this mean he will be on the show or not?

Meddling in the lives of others.

Telling people how to live, what they can and cannot say...

That's what we do online.  We might think we are simply clarifying something important - but oftentimes we are setting ourselves up as some sort of authority, judge, arbiter, advocate - or the more holier than thou excuse - exercising fraternal correction.

I had a dream I was in a cellar and there was a basilisk - though dangerous, and kind of scary, it was useful for something I was working on.  It was useful so long as I controlled it.  Suddenly I was distracted by something and it got away from me, I searched the cellar - which was really quite clean BTW.  Crossing the cellar floor, I glanced over my shoulder and saw another basilisk - this one was much bigger and more dragon like ...

Creepy Freudian symbology, huh?

Dreams are meaningless, right?  Maybe.  (I love dreams.)  Actually I know where all the symbols come from.  I could connect each to a certain encounter or something I noticed yesterday.  Nevertheless, as an artist, the symbols do mean more than the data recall my brain processed yesterday...

Without going into detail, just let me warn you: Don't go into the basement....  haaaahaaaaahaaaaa!

Actually - if I had more self knowledge the basement wouldn't be so scary.

What am I getting at?

As Christ told the disciples, "You know not of what spirit you are."

"Do not judge."

"Take the log out of your own eye first."

"The sins which defile a man come from within ..."

"And when the evil spirit returns, it finds the house swept and put in order. Then it goes and takes along seven other spirits more evil than itself, and they go in and live there; and the last state of that man becomes worse than the first."

"How can you judge what is right when you seek the approval of men?" 

 source.

Open mic

Random excerpts from recent emails ...

"He sounds almost typical gay-ssa-Catholic-celibate with issues. "

"It's really hard to find an honest ssa religious guy - esp. one who is in the 'business' or some movement promoting acceptance ..."

"So yeah, I don’t care who they are or how stable they seem:  we got issues."

"Least it's not as bad as the plight of the unwed mother ... what?"

"Some people online have serious mental problems and they may not always be on medication."

"How do you find this stuff?"

"I came across a site which actually charges a registration fee just to comment on the blog posts."

"I wonder if many of us who engage in social media will be saved?" 

"I don't get it. I don't whine about my parish. "

"Just curious if you receive my comments or if there is something you find offensive and decide not to publish them?  Just curious why my comments don't show up."

"Sorry to hear you’re not feeling well.  I won’t bother you for a while."

Some day I'll publish some of the comments I deleted from blog posts. 

I still love this ...

Unusual Ex Votos ...

"Doña Josefa Peres Maldonado offers this monument of her gratitude to the Most Holy Christ of Encino, venerated in the Church of Triana, and to the Most Holy Virgin Mary of El Pueblo, in perpetual memory of the benefit, due to her piety, that resulted from an operation that took place on 25th of April 1777, when the surgeon Don Pedro Maillé removed six cancerous tumors from her breast, in the presence of the gentlemen and ladies depicted on this canvas. Although the wound closed perfectly on the 25th of July 1777, other accidents befell her from which she died on Friday, the 5th of September, at 3 p.m., with clear signs of the patronage of the Holy Image and of her salvation." - Translation of what is written.

In thanksgiving for favors granted.

Ex Votos are often small to shoe box size paintings on tin depicting a miracle or answer to prayer, created and offered in thanksgiving to a particular saint.  Such paintings are left at shrines and altars in churches - especially in Mexico and Latin America.  Canon Law (Can. 1234 - 2) states that ex votos and such must be kept and maintained by the shrines.

I found a few even more 'unusual' ex votos on Tumblr ...

To see more and read the translations go here.