It's OK to complain to God. The Book of Job is the classic on faith and suffering. One should meditate on it regularly. In it the Lord hears our complaints.
Recently the Pope said that Tobit and Sarah’s wish to die could not be considered blasphemy. In some situations, lamenting one’s misfortunes before God is not a sin but a prayer. Even Job and the prophet Jeremiah cursed the day they were born. “The Lord hears, He listens to our complaints.”
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Saturday, June 29, 2013
Friday, June 28, 2013
Spiritual Fathers
During his daily Mass at the Vatican, Pope Francis reflected on the role priests play in society. He called on them to strive to be spiritual father figures. Their ministry, the Pope said, is only fruitful if they exercise it with joy and generosity.
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Thursday, June 27, 2013
Masculinity
A man is called to protect women and children from harm and suffering. He is to sacrifice his life for them if need be. Catholic liturgy should enforce this point.
Masculinity is opposed to sentimentality—not to sentiment, but to sentimentality. There is an absence of any trace of sentimentality in the Traditional rite, also called the Extraordinary Form. This is seen in its collects and prayers that are succinct and to the point without sacrificing beauty of language, and in its rubrics that prevent the personality of the priest from inserting his own feelings and choices into the rite itself. If we take note of Cardinal Newman’s insight that sentimentality is the acid of religion, meaning that it destroys true religion, then the rubrics of the Traditional rite are the little purple pill that prevents the reflux of sentimentality into the liturgy.
Link
Masculinity is opposed to sentimentality—not to sentiment, but to sentimentality. There is an absence of any trace of sentimentality in the Traditional rite, also called the Extraordinary Form. This is seen in its collects and prayers that are succinct and to the point without sacrificing beauty of language, and in its rubrics that prevent the personality of the priest from inserting his own feelings and choices into the rite itself. If we take note of Cardinal Newman’s insight that sentimentality is the acid of religion, meaning that it destroys true religion, then the rubrics of the Traditional rite are the little purple pill that prevents the reflux of sentimentality into the liturgy.
Link
Tuesday, June 25, 2013
Emasculation of Priests
The Catholic Church is in desperate need of masculine priests. They help the faithful to carry their crosses. Masculinity and liturgy are closely related.
Sacramental doctrine explicitly reserves to priests only the offering of the Eucharistic Sacrifice and the absolution of sin. However, to state that this defines all that is unique about their ordination mandate is to sponsor a doctrinal minimalism in regard to the sacramental priesthood that parallels what is being done to the Sacrament of the Eucharist. The promoters of a Eucharistic minimalism have been largely successful in their endeavor to confine the Eucharist to the act of consumption at Holy Communion. Any expansion of Eucharistic devotion such as Benediction, the reservation of the Blessed Sacrament within the sanctuary or Corpus Christi processions has been thwarted in large parts of the Western Church. The consequent loss of devotion to the Eucharist and a creeping heterodoxy among the faithful concerning Eucharistic doctrine have been well documented.
Link
Sacramental doctrine explicitly reserves to priests only the offering of the Eucharistic Sacrifice and the absolution of sin. However, to state that this defines all that is unique about their ordination mandate is to sponsor a doctrinal minimalism in regard to the sacramental priesthood that parallels what is being done to the Sacrament of the Eucharist. The promoters of a Eucharistic minimalism have been largely successful in their endeavor to confine the Eucharist to the act of consumption at Holy Communion. Any expansion of Eucharistic devotion such as Benediction, the reservation of the Blessed Sacrament within the sanctuary or Corpus Christi processions has been thwarted in large parts of the Western Church. The consequent loss of devotion to the Eucharist and a creeping heterodoxy among the faithful concerning Eucharistic doctrine have been well documented.
Link
Tuesday, June 18, 2013
Suffering and Marriage
Marriage is part of God's plan for happiness in life. But suffering and struggle are part of it too.
Husbands and wives can help each other face suffering and become saints, through the grace of the marriage Sacrament.
10 Marriage Questions
Husbands and wives can help each other face suffering and become saints, through the grace of the marriage Sacrament.
10 Marriage Questions
Saturday, June 15, 2013
Wednesday, June 12, 2013
True Freedom
The Ten Commandments are not a limitation, but an indication for freedom. Follow the Commandments for a peaceful life.
“The Ten Commandments,” the pope affirmed, “are a gift from God. The word 'commandment' isn't fashionable. To today's persons, it recalls something negative, someone's will that imposes limits, that places obstacles to our lives. … Unfortunately history, even recent history, is marked by tyranny, ideologies, mindsets that have been imposed and oppressive, that haven't sought the good of humanity but rather power, success, and profit. The Ten Commandments, however, come from a God who created us out of love, from a God who established a covenant with humanity, a God who only wants the good of humanity. Let us trust in God! … The Ten Commandments show us a path to travel and also constitute a sort of 'moral code' for building just societies that are made for men and women. How much inequality there is in the world! How much hunger for food and for truth! How much moral and material poverty resulting from the rejection of God and from putting so many idols in his place! Let us be guided by these Ten Words that enlighten and guide those seeking peace, justice, and dignity.”
Link
“The Ten Commandments,” the pope affirmed, “are a gift from God. The word 'commandment' isn't fashionable. To today's persons, it recalls something negative, someone's will that imposes limits, that places obstacles to our lives. … Unfortunately history, even recent history, is marked by tyranny, ideologies, mindsets that have been imposed and oppressive, that haven't sought the good of humanity but rather power, success, and profit. The Ten Commandments, however, come from a God who created us out of love, from a God who established a covenant with humanity, a God who only wants the good of humanity. Let us trust in God! … The Ten Commandments show us a path to travel and also constitute a sort of 'moral code' for building just societies that are made for men and women. How much inequality there is in the world! How much hunger for food and for truth! How much moral and material poverty resulting from the rejection of God and from putting so many idols in his place! Let us be guided by these Ten Words that enlighten and guide those seeking peace, justice, and dignity.”
Link
Monday, June 10, 2013
Extreme Suffering
It's all right to complain if done in a prayerful manner, directed toward God. God can take it. The pope recently said, “The Lord hears, He listens to our complaints.”
The pope was commenting on some biblical readings.
He explained how these readings applied in today’s world, by mentioning three examples of people living in conditions of extreme suffering: malnourished children, refugees, the terminally ill. The worst thing a Christian can do is to look at those who suffer “as though they were an [abstract moral conundrum].” “I do not like it when people speak about tough situations in an academic and not a human manner, sometimes with statistics ... and that’s it. In the Church there are many people in this situation,” the Pope said. When one looks at people’s suffering as a moral problem, they become closed and everything turns into an “intellectual game.”
Link
The pope was commenting on some biblical readings.
He explained how these readings applied in today’s world, by mentioning three examples of people living in conditions of extreme suffering: malnourished children, refugees, the terminally ill. The worst thing a Christian can do is to look at those who suffer “as though they were an [abstract moral conundrum].” “I do not like it when people speak about tough situations in an academic and not a human manner, sometimes with statistics ... and that’s it. In the Church there are many people in this situation,” the Pope said. When one looks at people’s suffering as a moral problem, they become closed and everything turns into an “intellectual game.”
Link
Thursday, June 6, 2013
Meaning of Poverty
Poverty in a word means being humble. Humility is not weakness but freely choosing to submit to Christ. Humility means we recognize our sins and beg Christ to save us.
Christ thus calls all to poverty.
The cross becomes much more bearable in humility.
The pope recently said:
Christ thus calls all to poverty.
The cross becomes much more bearable in humility.
The pope recently said:
For us Christians, poverty is not a sociological, philosophical or cultural category. No, it is a theological category. I would say, perhaps the first category, because God, the Son of God, abased Himself, made Himself poor to walk with us on the road. And this is our poverty: the poverty of the flesh of Christ, the poverty that the Son of God brought us with His Incarnation. A poor Church for the poor begins by going to the flesh of Christ. If we go to the flesh of Christ, we begin to understand something, to understand what this poverty is, the poverty of the Lord.
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Sunday, June 2, 2013
Eucharist
Receiving Christ in the Eucharist is very comforting in times of difficulty. He consoles and strengthens us.
After receiving communion in the Latin Mass the faithful say:
(Corpus tuum, Dómine, quod sumpsi, et Sanguis, quem potávi, adhǽreat viscéribus meis: et præsta; ut in me non remáneat scélerum macula.
May Thy Body, O Lord, which I have received and Thy Blood which I have drunk, cleave to my inmost parts, and grant that no stain of sin remain in me.)
That is, Christ literally becomes one with our bodies. He cleaves to us completely.
When we receive the Eucharist, we participate in a most intimate way with the person of Jesus Christ himself. When we consume the host, we are receiving the entire Body and Blood of Christ and when we receive from the chalice, we are receiving the entire Body and Blood of Christ. The formal term for this is “concomitance;” that is, the body, blood, soul and divinity of Jesus Christ are contained in either species. Therefore, one may receive from either species and still receive the whole of the Eucharist. We should not look upon the Precious Blood as being somehow “lesser” than the host. Both are equally the Eucharist.
Link
After receiving communion in the Latin Mass the faithful say:
(Corpus tuum, Dómine, quod sumpsi, et Sanguis, quem potávi, adhǽreat viscéribus meis: et præsta; ut in me non remáneat scélerum macula.
May Thy Body, O Lord, which I have received and Thy Blood which I have drunk, cleave to my inmost parts, and grant that no stain of sin remain in me.)
That is, Christ literally becomes one with our bodies. He cleaves to us completely.
When we receive the Eucharist, we participate in a most intimate way with the person of Jesus Christ himself. When we consume the host, we are receiving the entire Body and Blood of Christ and when we receive from the chalice, we are receiving the entire Body and Blood of Christ. The formal term for this is “concomitance;” that is, the body, blood, soul and divinity of Jesus Christ are contained in either species. Therefore, one may receive from either species and still receive the whole of the Eucharist. We should not look upon the Precious Blood as being somehow “lesser” than the host. Both are equally the Eucharist.
Link
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