Saturday, 3 September 2011
Wednesday, 11 May 2011
A Beginning?
The Call went out from Dylan Parry aka A Reluctant Sinner for a gathering of Catholic Bloggers with the intention of forming a 'Guild' and in some way further promoting the Faith and supporting fellow Catholics in a more cohesive unified way - an extension to our own blogs or our commentary elsewhere [I have to concede with Brian Sudlow of The Sensible Bond that I am more a commentator than a blogger - time restrictions and the availability of a good argument elsewhere are invariably to blame]
Now let's make one thing clear:
I don't think there is one Catholic blogger out there who doesn't want this type of 'Umbrella group' - Most of us have been calling for something akin to it for years - Damian Thompson had a few ideas in 2008 [which sadly all came to naught thanks to our illustrious Cardinal- but that's water under the bridge] and old Holy Smoker Benedict Carter had a similar idea in early 2009 but logistics, calendar restrictions and geography also led to this idea fading away]. I've been nagging everyone for years that we needed to be a unified force within the country - promoting and defending the faith and reaching out to dispossesed and disenfranchised Catholics throughout the country and reassuring them that they are not alone....
Poor Red Maria was forever getting it in the neck from me that we had to do something, James [Free the Brum 3!] Preece concurred, and the suggestion was oft-repeated to Fr Tim Finigan & Fr Ray Blake & Fr Mildew
and Mulier Fortis and Laurence England and the marvellous Ttony of The Muniment Room have all either promoted or supported the idea of it...Fr Tim has always been one of the first to offer his services and his Parish for anything that would promote the cause [God bless him!]
But apart from a few blognics and Fr Mildew's lunches nothing was ever really done - then after a few run-ins with Radio4 regarding their choices of guests on their religious programming and Channel4 over the Jon Snow/ Joanna Bogle debacle of hiv/condoms
[and I advise everyone to watch it again - recognise just how well Joanna started - that the other lady repeatedly lied [yes lied - she knew exactly what the Cochrane report of 2007 said in regard to condom safety in serodiscordant hiv couples - only reducing the rate of infection by 80%] - and that Jon Snow was being his most pig-ignorant [ the issue continued on his blog; within two days he apologised - but ironically this fact has never been mentioned by certain individuals prominent in the catholic 'meedja scene' [ we all know who they are ] despite repeat reference to the incident itself] One of the bitterest ironies - there are two prominent people lengthily defending the Catholic position - yours truly and certain Mr D Parry!!!! [who'dathunkit!!!!?]
Now yes of course what the hell was Joanna Bogle doing on a TV news programme as an unofficial spokesperson for the Church? Where were the CCN? Where was Bishops' Conference - Archbishop Smith in particular [this being his remit - and his duty to support his Brother Bishop the Holy Father]? We know from some journalists' articles and blog comments that rather than arguing for the Catholic position they'd have said the exact opposite of Joanna's position - Both CAFOD & Austen Ivereigh support the idea that the 'prophylactic intention' overrides the contraceptivity issue in condom use.
Of course they were nowhere to be seen - and to be honest would they have used the truth to argue their case and defend the Faith? I think not! Now I don't think Joanna will mind my saying that I got tore into her and told her for her own sake that she really needed to get some media training [and why the bloody hell shouldn't conference pay for it given she was there in their stead - doing the job they refused to do?!!!]
Anyway back to what I was saying - this incident - together with +Vin and +Smiffy making major gaffes in radio interviews and guests on the Sunday programme, Beyond Belief, the Moral maze and TFTD being from the extremely progressive wing to the point of being fantasy-sushi-catholics rather than plain cafeteria ones; it seemed to everyone that the Tabletista had all of the media completely sewn up!
[to be continued - hopefully this evening]
Now let's make one thing clear:
I don't think there is one Catholic blogger out there who doesn't want this type of 'Umbrella group' - Most of us have been calling for something akin to it for years - Damian Thompson had a few ideas in 2008 [which sadly all came to naught thanks to our illustrious Cardinal- but that's water under the bridge] and old Holy Smoker Benedict Carter had a similar idea in early 2009 but logistics, calendar restrictions and geography also led to this idea fading away]. I've been nagging everyone for years that we needed to be a unified force within the country - promoting and defending the faith and reaching out to dispossesed and disenfranchised Catholics throughout the country and reassuring them that they are not alone....
Poor Red Maria was forever getting it in the neck from me that we had to do something, James [Free the Brum 3!] Preece concurred, and the suggestion was oft-repeated to Fr Tim Finigan & Fr Ray Blake & Fr Mildew
and Mulier Fortis and Laurence England and the marvellous Ttony of The Muniment Room have all either promoted or supported the idea of it...Fr Tim has always been one of the first to offer his services and his Parish for anything that would promote the cause [God bless him!]
But apart from a few blognics and Fr Mildew's lunches nothing was ever really done - then after a few run-ins with Radio4 regarding their choices of guests on their religious programming and Channel4 over the Jon Snow/ Joanna Bogle debacle of hiv/condoms
[and I advise everyone to watch it again - recognise just how well Joanna started - that the other lady repeatedly lied [yes lied - she knew exactly what the Cochrane report of 2007 said in regard to condom safety in serodiscordant hiv couples - only reducing the rate of infection by 80%] - and that Jon Snow was being his most pig-ignorant [ the issue continued on his blog; within two days he apologised - but ironically this fact has never been mentioned by certain individuals prominent in the catholic 'meedja scene' [ we all know who they are ] despite repeat reference to the incident itself] One of the bitterest ironies - there are two prominent people lengthily defending the Catholic position - yours truly and certain Mr D Parry!!!! [who'dathunkit!!!!?]
Now yes of course what the hell was Joanna Bogle doing on a TV news programme as an unofficial spokesperson for the Church? Where were the CCN? Where was Bishops' Conference - Archbishop Smith in particular [this being his remit - and his duty to support his Brother Bishop the Holy Father]? We know from some journalists' articles and blog comments that rather than arguing for the Catholic position they'd have said the exact opposite of Joanna's position - Both CAFOD & Austen Ivereigh support the idea that the 'prophylactic intention' overrides the contraceptivity issue in condom use.
Of course they were nowhere to be seen - and to be honest would they have used the truth to argue their case and defend the Faith? I think not! Now I don't think Joanna will mind my saying that I got tore into her and told her for her own sake that she really needed to get some media training [and why the bloody hell shouldn't conference pay for it given she was there in their stead - doing the job they refused to do?!!!]
Anyway back to what I was saying - this incident - together with +Vin and +Smiffy making major gaffes in radio interviews and guests on the Sunday programme, Beyond Belief, the Moral maze and TFTD being from the extremely progressive wing to the point of being fantasy-sushi-catholics rather than plain cafeteria ones; it seemed to everyone that the Tabletista had all of the media completely sewn up!
[to be continued - hopefully this evening]
The 'Cleverness' of things...
"Alexander, Caesar, Charlemagne, and I have founded empires. But on what did we rest the creations of our genius? Upon force. Jesus Christ founded his empire upon love; and at this hour millions of men would die for him." [Napoleon Bonaparte]
"If Jesus Christ were to come today people would not even crucify Him. They would ask Him to dinner, and hear what He has to say, and make fun of it." [Thomas Carlyle]
"Joined whom, what clever people?" cried Alyosha, completely carried away.
"They have no such great cleverness and no mysteries and secrets....
Perhaps nothing but Atheism, that's all their secret.
Your Inquisitor does not believe in God, that's his secret!"
['The Grand Inquisitor' from Dostoyevsky's 'The Brothers Karamazov']
On the Catholic Herald blog Fr Alexander Lucie-Smith comments on The Observer's '300 British Intellectuals' List and sadly notes the dearth of Catholics among the renowned [even the few Catholics present aren't exactly recognised for their Catholicism - did anyone know Mark Lawson was a Catholic? Tediously pretentious yes: But Catholic?] The Reverend Dctor asks is the Church so far out of touch with the mainstream as the list indicates? Where are the new Bl Cardinal Newmans, the new Graham Greenes, Evelyn Waughs, Malcolm Muggeridges?
I'll continue this and ask why is it so different elsewhere? The US recognises its Catholic Intellectuals and amongst the Clergy and 'professional' [in the real [i.e. good] sense] Catholic laity they have some really big hitters! Look at some of their {Arch]Bishops and Cardinals who are world-renowned for their intellect and erudition...Then there's Fr Benedict Groeschel, Fr Corapi, George Weigel, Michael Voris,Fr Frank Pavone, Fr Mitch Pacwa and on and on and on....it's phenomenal - the spirit of Fulton Sheen continues....
But in England and Wales?
Who do we have?
Let's face it shall we - Preaching and Evangelising have gone out of fashion in perfidious Albion
Our Bishops are most definitely NOT advocates for, defenders of, or evangelists expounding the One, True Faith.
Our Intellectuals and Academics much prefer to stick to their own specialised elitist circles and write for them
- whether it be desiccated tomes on the liturgy or Church history or autobiographies...hiding from the faithful.
Ever heard of Joyce Meyer? I wish to God she was a Catholic - but she's a better Christian preacher than ANYTHING I have ever heard from the Catholic Church in this country for decades...
The Redemptorists used to be fantastic - their missions would be phenomenal - unforgettable - and the Churches would be packed to bulging - even in the siales and chapels- children by the hundred sitting on the sanctuary because there was simply no room - and oecumenical? Ye gods! They were so popular we'd have atheist spouses, anglicans, methodists, jehovah's witnesses and the staunchest Orangemen or starchiest Eastern Star Matriarch for whom being seen in a Church would normally be a 'black affront'...but they were NOT going to miss out on the 'Reds' being in town...
What happened? Oh the Redemptorists found publication more lucrative, they found that watering down the faith made it more accommodating for themselves and the Conference/Diocesan keepers of the purse-strings....
What went wrong?
There's a tale of the Old Desert Fathers:
St Antony was praying in the desert when the devil dropped in to say hello, after the regular banter and boasting of his temptations throughout the world the exasperated Devil declared:
"Antony you pray for hours depriving yourself of sleep - I NEVER sleep;
Antony you spend days fasting and abstaining - I NEVER eat;
But Antony you are humble - and so you have defeated me...."
So answer one is Humility - we stopped being humble - oh we didn't stop being 'demure and self-effacing on occasions' but it was a sham...we lost the humility.
How? Well we became a mixture of Cafeteria Catholic and Pharisee - we knew all the answers and where the Church disagreed? Well the Church should change....but more on that at a later time.
WE STOPPED RECOGNISING THE SUBSISTENT TRUTH - THE PERSON OF CHRIST - WITHIN HIS MYSTICAL BODY - THE ONE, HOLY, CATHOLIC AND APOSTOLIC CHURCH
Answer two is easier and more recognisable:
How do you recognise a good text-book? Or a good history book or instruction manual?
The author is clever enough, wise enough, capable enough, experienced enough and empathic enough to be able to teach the truth with a childlike simplicity that anyone - given time and patience- can understand.
[The great language-mentor Michel Thomas argued that there is no such thing as a bad student - only bad teachers]
Oliver Wendell Holmes stated
"I would not give a fig for the simplicity this side of complexity, but I would give my life for the simplicity on the other side of complexity."
Was St Paul anything but a scholar? Was Chesterton an ill-read buffoon? Was CS Lewis a school drop-out with only a cse in woodwork to his name? Is St Francis de Sales being the patron Saint of writers a woefully inept designation? Are the two Ss Theresa not intellectually qualified to be considered as Real Doctors of the Church? Is Benedict XVI a 'bit backward'?
Then why have their writings the overwhelming simplicity of Truth which leaps from the page and thrusts itself all so simply and readily into our understanding?
Happenstance I have two moral theology books next to my keyboard - One is a massive annotated tome by Germain Grisez where he expounds every conceivable aspect of Catholic Morality - endlessly debating this and that aspect, reflecting on the overawing 'profundity' and 'complexity' and 'struggle', always advising caution in one's choices, reticence requiring reflection and never assessing anything's moral worth or the potential rightness/wrongness of an action without a scrupulous dialectical analysis. It gets to the stage wherehe refuses to make a decision on the important things while being rigoristly opinionated about the little and somewhat irrelevant things.
Next to it lies a tiny little battered, torn, coffee-stained copy of the Domincan Fr Gerald Vann's " Morals and Man" and I'm telling you now - That book has taken me to hell and back - led to sleepless nights - hours gazing distantly mid-air in thought - a whole day at work or doing housework and I cannot recollect a single instant of it because I've been lost in thought at a paragraph - or single sentence.
But it's a 'simple' book - very readily understandable - if one made the attempt one could complete it in a few hours..but it's diamond dust - for it contains that simplicity past complexity [something sadly lacking in the Grisez]
Take a look at contemporary theology books, or spirituality books and you find they are usually of two types - the first is dumbed-down and watered down beyond credulity - wasn't worth writing let alone reading.
The second type is even worse - exercises in narcissistic vanity; intense, complicated references and sesquipedalian terms to obfuscate and make the simplest of notions or principles incomprehensible - allusions to scripture or some 19th century german philosopher or a 17th century french poet or a dodgy latin phrase from some 'ahead of his time' monk who was burned for heresy in 1232 or whatever - all of which simply confuse rather than substantiate or edify; references to the greek nuances [usually eschaton and kerygma find their way in ] and page after page of guesswork by the author - usually on the hypothetical applications or metaphysical speculations or secret unmentioned motives or the conjectured actions of what someone might have thought, said or done. These authors should be charged for crimes against their own intellect - to have the arrogant deceit to hide a reality behind so many clouds of linguistics and ill-conceived flights of fancy - all to seem as if one is clever? Well - it's a travesty!
So - it's either Books you don't need to read: Or Books impossible for anyone to understand [I'm practically certain most of the authors can't - and those who swear by them as 'prescribed texts' have never even attempted to read them]
So answer two is intelligence and understanding - WE STOPPED CONVEYING THAT TRUTH
Now this is a long-term issue - it goes back over a century and for the necessity of brevity I'm going to have to refer you to a previous post and provide you with the conclusion here - We stopped using apologetics - we simply stated the what and the how without ever giving any cogent reasoned answers 'Why..."
Answer three is the doozie...so I'll state it then try to explain it - although I remain utterly incredulous.
WE WANT TO BELONG, WE WANT TO PLAY, WE DON'T WANT TO OFFEND OR MAKE OTHER PEOPLE THINK LESS OF US - WE WANT TO BE LIKED, WE WANT TO BE POPULAR, WE WANT TO BE ACCEPTED....
....BUT THE TRUTH GETS IN THE WAY! SO WE CONCEAL IT, OR HIDE FROM IT, OR DENY IT OR GO OUT OF OUR WAY TO DISPROVE IT - ALL BECAUSE WE WANT TO BELONG.
Virtually every day I have spent on the internet speaking on a Catholic issue I have been accused of being doctrinaire or cruel or uncharitable or thoughtlessly insensitive or arrogantly dismissive or ignorantly presumptuously unwilling to compromise or accommodate or give people's opinions and beliefs 'the respect they deserve'. I have been denounced as a 'Taliban' Catholic or an 'Ultra' - "more Catholic than the Pope" - an insensitive abusive Pharisee - a Jansenist - who 'neither reflects nor relates contemporary Catholic understanding or teaching on the issues' and I should be roundly condemned accordingly [One dear Catholic lady [an Austen Ivereigh fan] even suggested I should have my children removed by social services because I was so despicably hateful and must be prevented from indoctrinating my children with this vitriol].
I'm going to leave the response to Chesterton:
Now I don't know if anyone's said it before but here's the deal:
GETTING ON WITH GOD AND GETTING ON WITH LIFE IS NOT THE SAME AS GETTING ON WITH EVERYONE AND GETING ON IN LIFE.
So When Fr Alexander Lucie-Smith asks us "Where are the Catholic Intellectuals" The answer is sadly the majority have ceased to be intellectuals [much preferring to be elitist incoherent 'academics', populist dumbed-down well-loved 'characters' or socialite raconteurs who 'know everybody worth knowing'] and in the process they have also ceased to be 'public' Catholics - the price of Catholicism being far too high to be accommodated or acceptable in Modern social circles...The true Catholic Intellectuals are far too invisibly getting on with God and getting on with Life - and that's definitely not part of the Observer's understanding of the social milieu.
Where are our modern day Chesterbellocs and Muggeridges and Fulton Sheens?
They're all around us - they're just not wanted.
Remember the adage of the Abbot of Worth?
"The Media is no place to evangelise!!!!"
So many are so willing to oblige him!!!
"If Jesus Christ were to come today people would not even crucify Him. They would ask Him to dinner, and hear what He has to say, and make fun of it." [Thomas Carlyle]
"Joined whom, what clever people?" cried Alyosha, completely carried away.
"They have no such great cleverness and no mysteries and secrets....
Perhaps nothing but Atheism, that's all their secret.
Your Inquisitor does not believe in God, that's his secret!"
['The Grand Inquisitor' from Dostoyevsky's 'The Brothers Karamazov']
On the Catholic Herald blog Fr Alexander Lucie-Smith comments on The Observer's '300 British Intellectuals' List and sadly notes the dearth of Catholics among the renowned [even the few Catholics present aren't exactly recognised for their Catholicism - did anyone know Mark Lawson was a Catholic? Tediously pretentious yes: But Catholic?] The Reverend Dctor asks is the Church so far out of touch with the mainstream as the list indicates? Where are the new Bl Cardinal Newmans, the new Graham Greenes, Evelyn Waughs, Malcolm Muggeridges?
I'll continue this and ask why is it so different elsewhere? The US recognises its Catholic Intellectuals and amongst the Clergy and 'professional' [in the real [i.e. good] sense] Catholic laity they have some really big hitters! Look at some of their {Arch]Bishops and Cardinals who are world-renowned for their intellect and erudition...Then there's Fr Benedict Groeschel, Fr Corapi, George Weigel, Michael Voris,Fr Frank Pavone, Fr Mitch Pacwa and on and on and on....it's phenomenal - the spirit of Fulton Sheen continues....
But in England and Wales?
Who do we have?
Let's face it shall we - Preaching and Evangelising have gone out of fashion in perfidious Albion
Our Bishops are most definitely NOT advocates for, defenders of, or evangelists expounding the One, True Faith.
Our Intellectuals and Academics much prefer to stick to their own specialised elitist circles and write for them
- whether it be desiccated tomes on the liturgy or Church history or autobiographies...hiding from the faithful.
Ever heard of Joyce Meyer? I wish to God she was a Catholic - but she's a better Christian preacher than ANYTHING I have ever heard from the Catholic Church in this country for decades...
The Redemptorists used to be fantastic - their missions would be phenomenal - unforgettable - and the Churches would be packed to bulging - even in the siales and chapels- children by the hundred sitting on the sanctuary because there was simply no room - and oecumenical? Ye gods! They were so popular we'd have atheist spouses, anglicans, methodists, jehovah's witnesses and the staunchest Orangemen or starchiest Eastern Star Matriarch for whom being seen in a Church would normally be a 'black affront'...but they were NOT going to miss out on the 'Reds' being in town...
What happened? Oh the Redemptorists found publication more lucrative, they found that watering down the faith made it more accommodating for themselves and the Conference/Diocesan keepers of the purse-strings....
What went wrong?
There's a tale of the Old Desert Fathers:
St Antony was praying in the desert when the devil dropped in to say hello, after the regular banter and boasting of his temptations throughout the world the exasperated Devil declared:
"Antony you pray for hours depriving yourself of sleep - I NEVER sleep;
Antony you spend days fasting and abstaining - I NEVER eat;
But Antony you are humble - and so you have defeated me...."
So answer one is Humility - we stopped being humble - oh we didn't stop being 'demure and self-effacing on occasions' but it was a sham...we lost the humility.
How? Well we became a mixture of Cafeteria Catholic and Pharisee - we knew all the answers and where the Church disagreed? Well the Church should change....but more on that at a later time.
WE STOPPED RECOGNISING THE SUBSISTENT TRUTH - THE PERSON OF CHRIST - WITHIN HIS MYSTICAL BODY - THE ONE, HOLY, CATHOLIC AND APOSTOLIC CHURCH
Answer two is easier and more recognisable:
How do you recognise a good text-book? Or a good history book or instruction manual?
The author is clever enough, wise enough, capable enough, experienced enough and empathic enough to be able to teach the truth with a childlike simplicity that anyone - given time and patience- can understand.
[The great language-mentor Michel Thomas argued that there is no such thing as a bad student - only bad teachers]
Oliver Wendell Holmes stated
"I would not give a fig for the simplicity this side of complexity, but I would give my life for the simplicity on the other side of complexity."
Was St Paul anything but a scholar? Was Chesterton an ill-read buffoon? Was CS Lewis a school drop-out with only a cse in woodwork to his name? Is St Francis de Sales being the patron Saint of writers a woefully inept designation? Are the two Ss Theresa not intellectually qualified to be considered as Real Doctors of the Church? Is Benedict XVI a 'bit backward'?
Then why have their writings the overwhelming simplicity of Truth which leaps from the page and thrusts itself all so simply and readily into our understanding?
Happenstance I have two moral theology books next to my keyboard - One is a massive annotated tome by Germain Grisez where he expounds every conceivable aspect of Catholic Morality - endlessly debating this and that aspect, reflecting on the overawing 'profundity' and 'complexity' and 'struggle', always advising caution in one's choices, reticence requiring reflection and never assessing anything's moral worth or the potential rightness/wrongness of an action without a scrupulous dialectical analysis. It gets to the stage wherehe refuses to make a decision on the important things while being rigoristly opinionated about the little and somewhat irrelevant things.
Next to it lies a tiny little battered, torn, coffee-stained copy of the Domincan Fr Gerald Vann's " Morals and Man" and I'm telling you now - That book has taken me to hell and back - led to sleepless nights - hours gazing distantly mid-air in thought - a whole day at work or doing housework and I cannot recollect a single instant of it because I've been lost in thought at a paragraph - or single sentence.
But it's a 'simple' book - very readily understandable - if one made the attempt one could complete it in a few hours..but it's diamond dust - for it contains that simplicity past complexity [something sadly lacking in the Grisez]
Take a look at contemporary theology books, or spirituality books and you find they are usually of two types - the first is dumbed-down and watered down beyond credulity - wasn't worth writing let alone reading.
The second type is even worse - exercises in narcissistic vanity; intense, complicated references and sesquipedalian terms to obfuscate and make the simplest of notions or principles incomprehensible - allusions to scripture or some 19th century german philosopher or a 17th century french poet or a dodgy latin phrase from some 'ahead of his time' monk who was burned for heresy in 1232 or whatever - all of which simply confuse rather than substantiate or edify; references to the greek nuances [usually eschaton and kerygma find their way in ] and page after page of guesswork by the author - usually on the hypothetical applications or metaphysical speculations or secret unmentioned motives or the conjectured actions of what someone might have thought, said or done. These authors should be charged for crimes against their own intellect - to have the arrogant deceit to hide a reality behind so many clouds of linguistics and ill-conceived flights of fancy - all to seem as if one is clever? Well - it's a travesty!
So - it's either Books you don't need to read: Or Books impossible for anyone to understand [I'm practically certain most of the authors can't - and those who swear by them as 'prescribed texts' have never even attempted to read them]
So answer two is intelligence and understanding - WE STOPPED CONVEYING THAT TRUTH
Now this is a long-term issue - it goes back over a century and for the necessity of brevity I'm going to have to refer you to a previous post and provide you with the conclusion here - We stopped using apologetics - we simply stated the what and the how without ever giving any cogent reasoned answers 'Why..."
Answer three is the doozie...so I'll state it then try to explain it - although I remain utterly incredulous.
WE WANT TO BELONG, WE WANT TO PLAY, WE DON'T WANT TO OFFEND OR MAKE OTHER PEOPLE THINK LESS OF US - WE WANT TO BE LIKED, WE WANT TO BE POPULAR, WE WANT TO BE ACCEPTED....
....BUT THE TRUTH GETS IN THE WAY! SO WE CONCEAL IT, OR HIDE FROM IT, OR DENY IT OR GO OUT OF OUR WAY TO DISPROVE IT - ALL BECAUSE WE WANT TO BELONG.
Virtually every day I have spent on the internet speaking on a Catholic issue I have been accused of being doctrinaire or cruel or uncharitable or thoughtlessly insensitive or arrogantly dismissive or ignorantly presumptuously unwilling to compromise or accommodate or give people's opinions and beliefs 'the respect they deserve'. I have been denounced as a 'Taliban' Catholic or an 'Ultra' - "more Catholic than the Pope" - an insensitive abusive Pharisee - a Jansenist - who 'neither reflects nor relates contemporary Catholic understanding or teaching on the issues' and I should be roundly condemned accordingly [One dear Catholic lady [an Austen Ivereigh fan] even suggested I should have my children removed by social services because I was so despicably hateful and must be prevented from indoctrinating my children with this vitriol].
I'm going to leave the response to Chesterton:
"If a critic tells a particular lie, that particular lie can be pointed out. If he misses a specific point, that point can be explained. If he is really wrong in this or that, it will be on this or that that the insulted person will eagerly pounce. But “malice and spite” are vague words which will never be used except when there is really nothing to pounce on. If a man says that I am a dwarf, I can invite him to measure me. If he says I am a cannibal, I can invite him to dinner. If he says I am a coward, I can hit him. If he says I am a miser, I can give him half-a-sovereign. But if he says I am fat and lazy (which is true), the best I can answer is that he speaks out of malice and spite. Whenever we see that phrase, we may be almost certain that somebody has told the truth about somebody else."We are caled to be 'The Salt of the Earth" - both a part of it yet apart from it .
The Illustrated London News, 13 November 1909.
Now I don't know if anyone's said it before but here's the deal:
GETTING ON WITH GOD AND GETTING ON WITH LIFE IS NOT THE SAME AS GETTING ON WITH EVERYONE AND GETING ON IN LIFE.
So When Fr Alexander Lucie-Smith asks us "Where are the Catholic Intellectuals" The answer is sadly the majority have ceased to be intellectuals [much preferring to be elitist incoherent 'academics', populist dumbed-down well-loved 'characters' or socialite raconteurs who 'know everybody worth knowing'] and in the process they have also ceased to be 'public' Catholics - the price of Catholicism being far too high to be accommodated or acceptable in Modern social circles...The true Catholic Intellectuals are far too invisibly getting on with God and getting on with Life - and that's definitely not part of the Observer's understanding of the social milieu.
Where are our modern day Chesterbellocs and Muggeridges and Fulton Sheens?
They're all around us - they're just not wanted.
Remember the adage of the Abbot of Worth?
"The Media is no place to evangelise!!!!"
So many are so willing to oblige him!!!
Thursday, 5 May 2011
Sunday, 1 May 2011
Sunday, 24 April 2011
Traditional Latin Catholic Mass: Easter Sunday
It was all True after all!!!He is Risen: All else follows...
An Exultant Easter to One & All!!
Saturday, 23 April 2011
Thursday, 21 April 2011
Tuesday, 19 April 2011
Hinc illae lacrimae [My argument FOR a Guild of Catholic bloggers] Pt 1
It's never enough to Love someone: That someone needs to know they are Loved....
St Francis de Sales reminds us :
CONSIDER how noble and excellent a thing your soul is, endowed with understanding, capable of knowing, not merely this visible world around us, but Angels and Paradise, of knowing that there is an All-Mighty, All-Merciful, Ineffable God; of knowing that eternity lies before you, and of knowing what is necessary in order so to live in this visible world as to attain to fellowship with those Angels in Paradise, and the eternal fruition of God.
Yet more;—-your soul is possessed of a noble will, capable of loving God, irresistibly drawn to that love; your heart is full of generous enthusiasm, and can no more find rest in any earthly creation, or in aught save God, than the bee can find honey on a dunghill, or in aught save flowers. Let your mind boldly review the wild earthly pleasures which once filled your heart, and see whether they did not abound in uneasiness and doubts, in painful thoughts and uncomfortable cares, amid which your troubled heart was miserable.
When the heart of man seeks the creature, it goes to work eagerly, expecting to satisfy its cravings; but directly it obtains what it sought, it finds a blank, and dissatisfied, begins to seek anew; for God will not suffer our hearts to find any rest, like the dove going forth from Noah’s ark, until it returns to God, whence it came. Surely this is a most striking natural beauty in our heart;—why should we constrain it against its will to seek creature love?
In some such wise might you address your soul: “You are capable of realising a longing after God, why should you trifle with anything lower? you can live for eternity, why should you stop short in time? One of the sorrows of the prodigal son was, that, when he might have been living in plenty at his father’s table, he had brought himself to share the swine’s husks. My soul, you are made for God, woe be to you if you stop short in anything short of Him!” Lift up your soul with thoughts such as these, convince it that it is eternal, and worthy of eternity; fill it with courage in this pursuit.
...St Francis continues:
CONSIDER the Eternal Love God has borne you, in that, even before our Lord Jesus Christ became Man and suffered on the Cross for you, His Divine Majesty designed your existence and loved you. When did He begin to love you? When He began to be God, and that was never, for He ever was, without beginning and without end. Even so He always loved you from eternity, and therefore He made ready all the graces and gifts with which He has endowed you. He says by His prophet, “I have loved thee” (and it is YOU that He means) “with an everlasting love, therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn thee.” And amid these drawings of His Love He led you to make these resolutions to serve Him.
What must resolutions be which God has foreseen, pondered, dwelt upon from all eternity? how dear and precious to us! Surely we should be ready to suffer anything whatsoever rather than let go one particle of the same. The whole world is not worth one soul, and the soul is worth but little without its good resolutions.
...and our mantra? The words we must repeat every day to remember who we are - The Declaration of the Soul:
“I am not mine own, whether I live or whether I die, I am the Lord’s. There is no longer any me or mine, my ‘me’ is Jesus, my ‘mine’ is to be His. Thou world, wilt ever be thyself, and hitherto I have been myself, but henceforth I will be so no more.”
We shall indeed not be ourselves any more, for our heart will be changed, and the world which has so often deceived us will in its turn be deceived in us; our change will be so gradual that the world will still suppose us to be Esau, while really we are Jacob.
St Francis de Sales reminds us :
CONSIDER how noble and excellent a thing your soul is, endowed with understanding, capable of knowing, not merely this visible world around us, but Angels and Paradise, of knowing that there is an All-Mighty, All-Merciful, Ineffable God; of knowing that eternity lies before you, and of knowing what is necessary in order so to live in this visible world as to attain to fellowship with those Angels in Paradise, and the eternal fruition of God.
Yet more;—-your soul is possessed of a noble will, capable of loving God, irresistibly drawn to that love; your heart is full of generous enthusiasm, and can no more find rest in any earthly creation, or in aught save God, than the bee can find honey on a dunghill, or in aught save flowers. Let your mind boldly review the wild earthly pleasures which once filled your heart, and see whether they did not abound in uneasiness and doubts, in painful thoughts and uncomfortable cares, amid which your troubled heart was miserable.
When the heart of man seeks the creature, it goes to work eagerly, expecting to satisfy its cravings; but directly it obtains what it sought, it finds a blank, and dissatisfied, begins to seek anew; for God will not suffer our hearts to find any rest, like the dove going forth from Noah’s ark, until it returns to God, whence it came. Surely this is a most striking natural beauty in our heart;—why should we constrain it against its will to seek creature love?
In some such wise might you address your soul: “You are capable of realising a longing after God, why should you trifle with anything lower? you can live for eternity, why should you stop short in time? One of the sorrows of the prodigal son was, that, when he might have been living in plenty at his father’s table, he had brought himself to share the swine’s husks. My soul, you are made for God, woe be to you if you stop short in anything short of Him!” Lift up your soul with thoughts such as these, convince it that it is eternal, and worthy of eternity; fill it with courage in this pursuit.
...St Francis continues:
CONSIDER the Eternal Love God has borne you, in that, even before our Lord Jesus Christ became Man and suffered on the Cross for you, His Divine Majesty designed your existence and loved you. When did He begin to love you? When He began to be God, and that was never, for He ever was, without beginning and without end. Even so He always loved you from eternity, and therefore He made ready all the graces and gifts with which He has endowed you. He says by His prophet, “I have loved thee” (and it is YOU that He means) “with an everlasting love, therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn thee.” And amid these drawings of His Love He led you to make these resolutions to serve Him.
...and our mantra? The words we must repeat every day to remember who we are - The Declaration of the Soul:
“I am not mine own, whether I live or whether I die, I am the Lord’s. There is no longer any me or mine, my ‘me’ is Jesus, my ‘mine’ is to be His. Thou world, wilt ever be thyself, and hitherto I have been myself, but henceforth I will be so no more.”
We shall indeed not be ourselves any more, for our heart will be changed, and the world which has so often deceived us will in its turn be deceived in us; our change will be so gradual that the world will still suppose us to be Esau, while really we are Jacob.
Sunday, 6 March 2011
Monday, 28 February 2011
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