Make You a Bet!

This is from Domine, da mihi hanc aquam! (what a name, but a great blog): 

"YouKnow It's A Myth. This Season, Celebrate Reason," was one tagline offered up on a billboard by the American Atheists organization one holiday season. The atheists intend to put up more billboards this year, some featuring images of Santa, Jesus, Poseidon and the devil next to the message: "37 Million Americans know MYTHS when they see them."

     It seems the atheists are at it again with the billboards.  They ask us to celebrate REASON during the upcoming holy season of Christmas.  The problem is, I think reason would have to tell us that we DON’T know it’s a myth, we can’t possibly know.  There is no measurement we can make that will tell us definitively whether this is a myth or not.  It isn't reasonable to want something to be true and insist that is but not offer any sort of concrete proof.  There is, however, considerable historical evidence to suggest that the factual claims made in the Bible concerning those events, given by eye witnesses, are accurate.  Still, there is nothing that allows us to know or not know what is true about these events.

To paraphrase Pascal, there is a point to make if you find yourself in an argument with a similarly minded atheist.  If his claims that all of this is a myth are correct, none of us will ever know it; it will make no difference if I believe or not.  If my claims are correct, we’ll both know it forever.

What Was I Thinking?

When I wrote the previous post, I was thinking that to write on a broader range of topics than those relating to Benedictine monasticism, I really should start another blog not referred to as an Oblate blog. What was I thinking?

The rational I used to justify the new blog was that William of St. Thierry, a Cistercian father, wrote a book that didn’t deal directly with monastic topics but rather focused on what it takes to be a Christian. I was thinking that he wasn’t writing in the monastic tradition, why, I don’t know. He most certainly was, because after all, what is the point of a monastery except to form a community dedicated to seeking God? What is the point of being an Oblate, except to seek God within my own vocation. It means, as I have said so many times before, that the whole point to the Rule, is to create a way of life that encompasses all important aspects of our human condition, work, prayer, conversion, community, hospitality, or dealing with authority and the importance of obedience. It’s all in there. I don’t know what made me think a study of the most important tenants of my faith, or commenting on what is going on in my world would be subjects not to be covered on an Oblate blog. What was I thinking?

I guess I just wasn’t, so I decided to correct the situation in the name of stability, another topic covered in the Rule.

A New Direction (From Apologia of My Own)

[This post was originally entered on another blog of mine but I wanted to be sure it was posted here.  Another post explaining more will follow.]

For some time now, I’ve wanted to branch out in topics I cover during my blogging career. For some reason I can’t explain, the impetus came from reading William of St. Thierry’s The Golden Epistle. William was one of the Cistercian Fathers, a monastic, who wrote simply about seeking God. He didn’t spend much time on specifically monastic topics. I thought about that and realized that I hadn’t spent much time reading or studying what it means to seek God as a Catholic Christian living in the 21st century. More than that, I wanted to get back to the roots of some Church teachings that I wasn’t too familiar with and some teachings that I was just plain uncomfortable with. I suppose chief among the latter topics would be the so called area of “social justice.” On top of all that, I wanted to spend time reading either original documents, or writers who lived not later than the early 20th century. So my study will be one of the areas of focus for this blog.


Other areas will certainly include current events, skirting partisan political issues as much as possible, and possibly even supposedly trivial issues such as the weather, football, and ordinary events of daily life and reflections on my past. In other words, anything that occurs to me at the moment I sit down to type.

To possibly set the tone for the future of An Apoligia of my Own, I offer the following video from Red Skelton. This short bit gives a beautiful example of the impact some serious thought can have.

Listening to Tradition, Staretz Silouan

“Love takes to itself the life of the loved one.



The greater the love, the greater the suffering of the soul.


The fuller the love, the fuller the knowledge of God.


The more ardent the love, the more fervent the prayer.


The more perfect the love, the holier the life.”

Staretz Silouan

Monastic Wisdom

"The formation of a man is his moral training, his life is the love of God."  William of St. Thierry,  The Golden Epistle, # 169.

Thinking Too Much

I become consciously aware of a slightly ironic situation going on that surprised me when I thought about it. It’s one of those things that you know about but vaguely, and when you do wake up to it, you’re a little surprised.


I need to explain.

I have a study downstairs in our basement. It’s an ideal place to study, read, or write blog posts. It has lots of work space, cabinets, drawers, etc. I have a nice desktop computer with a big screen and great sound system. It really is ideal. The problem is, that for the last year or so, I’ll go down, sit myself in front of the computer, and stare at the screen. I can’t do a lick of work down there. I just go on automatic pilot and become a vegetable.

On the other hand, I have a little space in one corner of our living room with an old Kennedy rocker in it. It’s open to a fairly high traffic area, in fact to most of what goes on in the house. I also have a little net-book computer that has a small screen and touchy keyboard. Yet, when I take that netbook and sit down in that rocker, I could write or read or study all day. It’s crazy.

Oh, and to add a further little twist, one thing I use my study for on an almost daily basis, is lectio. Go figure.

I got to thinking about the situation, and my train of thought led me to think about the very essence of being Christian. If you think about it, the entire basis of our faith is paradox, if not downright irony. First, the very idea of a Messiah who comes as the sacrificial lamb who was slain, not the much expected conquering hero. There is the truth about Christ’s dying destroying death, and that we Christians must die to ourselves to live. Baptism, a sacramental drowning and rebirth is a huge paradox. I could go on, the mysteries are endless.

And that is why I came into the Church, at least one reason. The Church doesn’t deny or try to explain away these mysteries, they accept them as such. Coming from a Presbyterian background with its emphasis on the intellectual, this was a refreshing change and it made sense of things I had struggled with for years, and years, and years. It’s also present in Benedictine spirituality in spades. It is the ultimate paradox that a monk would retreat within cloister walls in order to be truly and finally free.



So, my little paradox has reminded me of many things that are deeply important and that I tend to take for granted in my faith. I think it was a touch of grace, or, perhaps I’m just thinking too much.