Obama's Anti-Catholic Moves

The bishops have a link on their web site objecting strenously to the Obama administrations decision on Friday, January 20th which ". . .ordered almost every employer and insurer in the country to provide sterilization and contraceptives, including some abortion-inducing drugs, in their health plans....Never before has the federal government forced individuals and organizations to go out into the marketplace and buy a product that violates their conscience. This shouldn't happen in a land where free exercise of religion ranks first in the Bill of Rights."

To sign a petition protesting this decision, follow the link on the Bishop's site.

Duuuuuh!

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I know if haven't posted much lately but hey, I'm an accountant, this is tax season, duh!

Idealogy vs Principle

Cover of C.S. LewisThis is from a piece by David J. Theroux on a site called the Independent Institute, noted by Fr Phillip Neri Power on his Hanc Aquam blog as a "must read.".  I was thinking about this this morning, that the problem in society today is that idealogy has replaced principle, or the First Principles.  Now I know why I thought so.

“We live in an increasingly secularized world of massive and pervasive nation states in which traditional religion, especially Christianity, is ruled unwelcome and even a real danger on the basis of a purported history of intolerance and “religious violence.” This is found in most all “public” domains, including the institutions of education, business, government, welfare, transportation, parks and recreation, science, art, foreign affairs, economics, entertainment, and the media. A secularized public square policed by government is viewed as providing a neutral, rational, free, and safe domain that keeps the “irrational” forces of religion from creating conflict and darkness. And we are told that real progress requires expanding this domain by pushing religion ever backward into remote corners of society where it has little or no influence. In short, modern America has become a secular theocracy with a civic religion of national politics (nationalism) occupying the public realm in which government has replaced God.

For the renowned Christian scholar and writer C.S. Lewis, such a view was fatally flawed morally, intellectually, and spiritually, producing the twentieth-century rise of the total state, total war, and mega-genocides. For Lewis, Christianity provided the one true and coherent worldview that applied to all human aspirations and endeavors: “I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen, not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else.” (The Weight of Glory)[1]

In his book, The Discarded Image, Lewis revealed that for Medieval Christians, there was no sacred/secular divide and that this unified, theopolitical worldview of hope, joy, liberty, justice, and purpose from the loving grace of God enabled them to discover the objective, natural-law principles of ethics, science, and theology, producing immense human flourishing. [2] Lewis described the natural law as a cohesive and interconnected objective standard of right behavior:

‘This thing which I have called for convenience the Tao, and which others may call Natural Law or Traditional Morality or the First Principles of Practical Reason or the First Platitudes, is not one among a series of possible systems of value. It is the sole source of all value judgements. If it is rejected, all values are rejected. If any value is retained, it is retained. The effort to refute it and raise a new system of value in its place is self-contradictory. There has never been, and never will be, a radically new judgement of value in the history of the world. What purport to be new systems or (as they now call them) “ideologies,” all consist of fragments from the Tao itself. Arbitrarily wrenched from their context in the whole and then swollen to madness in their isolation, yet still owing to the Tao and to it alone such validity as they possess. If my duty to my parents is a superstition, then so is my duty to posterity. If justice is a superstition, then so is my duty to my country or my race. If the pursuit of scientific knowledge is a real value, then so is conjugal fidelity’”. (The Abolition of Man)[3]

Founders Friday, January 20, 2012

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"Man, considered as a creature, must necessarily be subject to the laws of his Creator, for he is entirely a dependent being....And, consequently, as man depends absolutely upon his Maker for everything, it is necessary that he should in all points conform to his Maker's will...this will of his Maker is called the law of nature. These laws laid down by God are the eternal immutable laws of good and evil...This law of nature dictated by God himself, is of course superior in obligation to any other. It is binding over all the globe, in all countries, and at all times: no human laws are of any validity if contrary to this..."

Sir William Blackstone

A Word on Wednesday, Wednesday, January 18, 2012

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"If you are what you should be, you will set the whole world ablaze." -- St Catherine of Siena

Founders Friday, Friday, January 13, 2012, James Madison

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A popular Government, without popular information, or the means of acquiring it, is but a Prologue to a Farce or a Tragedy; or, perhaps both. Knowledge will forever govern ignorance: And a people who mean to be their own Governors, must arm themselves with the power which knowledge gives.

A Word on Wednesday, Wednesday, January 11. 2012, St Dominic

Image via WikipediaA man who governs his passions is master of the world. We must either command them, or be enslaved by them. It is better to be a hammer than an anvil.

Miscellaneous Musings, Tuesday, January 10, 2012.

I haven’t done much in the way of posting since early in Advent’ it seems I’ve had very little to say of any notable worth.  Fr. Don, at our parish, offered a good joke during at the start of the Christmas Eve Mass that I’ve been meaning to share.   

The parish only offered two or three masses on Christmas weekend, two were on Saturday, one in the sanctuary and one in the school gym, both at 4:00 PM.  The sound system in the school gym wasn’t the greatest, but the crowds were huge and there was no place left to sit but there.  At the start of the Mass, Fr Don commented that the sound was somewhat better than expected, and also commented on the changes in the Mass translation, for those who hadn’t been to Mass since Easter.  He said he welcomed the changes for many reasons.  One was he hoped to avoid the situation of a priest friend of his who was offering Mass in a similar setting to our own.  This priest was standing at the microphone, trying to get it to work and said to one of the nearby technicians, “There’s something wrong with the mike.”  To which the congregation immediately responded, “And also with you.”

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I noted that several bloggers I follow posted on plans for their blog for the coming year.  I’ve hesitated to do the same.  It seems everytime I announce some future plan for Colorado Musing, I’ve failed to follow through, so I’ll just say I have two or three new things planned during the year and see if you spot them when, and if, they appear. 

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I read a meditation in an inspirational magazine, written by a modern author and was disappointed.  I wonder sometimes if we have nothing to say, even on things so important to us as the Christmas season or the Epiphany.  Is simply stringing seasonal words together and hope they inspire someone the best that can be done?  It would be better, then, not to write anything at all and turn to the saints who have gone before us who did have something to say.  Why waste the ink on paper?

The Epiphany, which we celebrated this weekend, is an odd thing though.  We celebrate the revelation of the Incarnation to the world.  Yet, it was a quite limited revelation.  It involved, at best, only a few shepherds, perhaps the city of Jerusalem, and three kings from who knows where.  There is little Scriptural evidence that it spread any further until Jesus disappeared, only to show up three days later in the temple, and then it was hidden again until Jesus began his public ministry, perhaps10 years after that.  You would think that if God were to truly reveal himself, it would be an earth shaking event, yet nothing much seems to have happened.   

I’m reminded of one of Gibbs’ Rules, “The best way to keep a secret is to tell no one, the second best way is to share it with one other person, there is no third best way.”  God told a few persons, He chose the third best way, and it was enough.  Like so much that He does, it’s enough, no more was needed.  That is perhaps the best lesson we could have to begin this year with, remember that God will do enough to share His Truth with us.  We may have to look for it, but it’s there.

Early Church Fathers, Sunday, January 8, 2012 - Abercius

Image via WikipediaIf a man departs this life with lighter faults, he is condemned to fire which burns away the lighter materials, and prepares the soul for the kingdom of God, where nothing defiled may enter. For if on the foundation of Christ you have built not only gold and silver and precious stones (I Cor., 3); but also wood and hay and stubble, what do you expect when the soul shall be separated from the body? Would you enter into heaven with your wood and hay and stubble and thus defile the kingdom of God; or on account of these hindrances would you remain without and receive no reward for your gold and silver and precious stones? Neither is this just. It remains then that you be committed to the fire which will burn the light materials; for our God to those who can comprehend heavenly things is called a cleansing fire. But this fire consumes not the creature, but what the creature has himself built, wood, and hay and stubble. It is manifest that the fire destroys the wood of our transgressions and then returns to us the reward of our great works. (Patres Groeci. XIII, col. 445, 448 [A.D. 185-232]).  Abercius

Founders Friday, Friday, January 6, 2012, Thomas Jefferson

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If we can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them, they must become happy.

A Word on Wednesday, Wednesday, January 4. 2012, St John Vianny

“I can’t stop praying for poor sinners who are on the road to hell. If they come to die in that state, they will be lost for all eternity. What a pity! We have to pray for sinners! Praying for sinners is the most beautiful and useful of prayers because the just are on the way to heaven, the souls of purgatory are sure to enter there, but the poor sinners will be lost forever. All devotions are good but there is no better one than such prayer for sinners."

Early Church Fathers, Sunday, January 1, 2012, St Jerome

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Of the beliefs and practices whether generally accepted or publicly enjoined which are preserved in the Church some we possess derived from written teaching; others we have received delivered to us "in mystery" by the tradition of the Apostles; and both of these in relation to true religion have the same force. And these no one will contradict; - no one, at all events, who is even moderately versed in the institutions of the Church. For were we to attempt to reject such customs as have no written authority, on the ground that the importance they possess is small, we should unintentionally injure the Gospel in these matters… (On the Holy Spirit 27 [A.D. 375]).  Jerome