It Will Work Out All Right in the End

Matthew Warner has an interesting post about the HHS Mandate, he says it’s a good thing after all.

 

Every attack on Christianity — every attack on Truth — is an opportunity.

It's an opportunity to respond with Love. It's an opportunity to point out error and to teach Truth. It's a chance to talk about something that would never have been a part of the conversation. It's a chance to become holier than we were when we woke up this morning.

Think about how many more people are learning not to take for granted our religious freedoms. And learning the dangers and risks of giving too much power to amoral governments. What a good reminder that tyranny is not only an ancient ancestor to freedom, but a potential step-child. That "freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction."

What a chance to test our faith and to therefore grow in it. It's easy to believe in things that go unchallenged, but Grace abounds when our faith is put to the test. Like iron in fire, we come out stronger than before.

And through the whole ordeal, how many more Catholics have been reminded that things like sterilization and contraception (and abortion, of course) are not (like for real, for real) compatible with our Catholic Faith? And have, hopefully, learned a little bit more about why we believe that (If they haven't, then we've wasted this opportunity).

 

He’s right, of course, the recent actions of the Government should cause us all to wake up to the freedoms, and God given rights we can too easily take for granted.  But, what I really like about his post is that it is deeply refreshing to see someone take a long term view of all the issues we face, a view informed by faith and trust in God alone.  In this election season, it’s been so hard to do that, at least for me, sometimes I think I’ve even forgotten how to do that, I get so caught up in day to day events.  Please read his entire post, and, even better, say a Rosary for our country.

Read more: http://www.ncregister.com/blog/matthew-warner/thank-god-for-the-hhs-mandate#ixzz289Mf1hQB

Where Your Treasure Is . . .

On Monday, in the October Magnificat magazine, there was a wonderful meditation by Fr John Tauler, O.P, a 14th century Domincan, on detachment and eternal life. Here’s a quote:

“From this detachment is born kindness, and also separation from all worldly things; so that one now receives freely from God’s hands and with entire thankfulness, joy or sorrow, or whatever else, may befall him in the inner life or the outer: everything helps him to eternal happiness. Such a man has the grace to feel that whatever happens to him has been eternally foreseen by his heavenly Father, and in the very way it does happen, and, viewing all things as God does, he rests in peace of mind, no matter what occurs.”

The phrase that really struck me was, . . .”whatever may befall him in the inner life or the outer.” That’s the hard one, the inner life. Things don’t always go my way, and I find it easier to accept the external circumstances while still arguing and rethinking those circumstances in my mind. It’s hard to let it go. Fr Tauler tells us, and I really welcomed this reminder, that to be detached we need to accept the things that befall us and, even harder, be truly grateful for it. I remind myself that, whatever happens, if it weren’t for God’s grace in my life, I wouldn’t be here to be grateful for them. No matter how much they irk me at the moment.

Don't Know Much About History . . .

Image via Wikipedia

The business man too does not lay aside the desire of procuring wares, by means of which he may more profitably amass riches, because he would desire gain to no purpose, unless he chose the road which leads to it: and those men who are anxious to be decorated with the honours of this world, first make up their minds to what duties and conditions they must devote themselves, that in the regular course of hope they may succeed in gaining the honours they desire. And so the end of our way of life is indeed the kingdom of God. But what is the (immediate) goal you must earnestly ask, for if it is not in the same way discovered by us, we shall strive and wear ourselves out to no purpose, because a man who is travelling in a wrong direction, has all the trouble and gets none of the good of his journey. And when we stood gaping at this remark, the old man proceeded: The end of our profession indeed, as I said, is the kingdom of God or the kingdom of heaven: but the immediate aim or goal, is purity of heart, without which no one can gain that end: fixing our gaze then steadily on this goal as if on a definite mark, let us direct our course as straight towards it as possible, and if our thoughts wander somewhat from this, let us revert to our gaze upon it, and check them accurately as by a sure standard, which will always bring back all our efforts to this one mark, and will show at once if our mind has wandered ever so little from the direction marked out for it.

This is another lengthy quote from John Cassian’s Conferences in which he discusses purity of heart. What I find interesting about this section is his description of what it takes to gain purity of heart – single-mindedness. I think the greatest enemy today to faith, I know it’s my greatest enemy, is getting lost in all the distractions available: too much television, too much internet, even too much Bach, all make a shambles of my very best intentions to spend more time in prayer and sacred reading. But what I find even more interesting is that this isn’t a new problem. Evidently, monks and, I’m sure other Christians, have struggled with this throughout the centuries. Remember, this was written in roughly the 4th or 5th century A.D., over 1,500 years ago. There was no television, no internet, no news magazines or newspapers; there were still distractions, things that make our thoughts wander.


We like to think that those of us living today have somehow evolved and become different from those who lived before us. We think we’re better just for having come later. We think we have nothing to learn from those who went before us. Obviously, we are wrong. We have a great deal to learn from those who experienced life perhaps in its most real form. We can learn from the desert monks, if only we would. Reading them isn’t always exactly easy, and there are no brilliant pictures or graphics accompanying their writing, it takes some effort. I can’t help but feel that the reward would make the effort worthwhile.

Listening to Tradition, Tuesday, April 6, 2010

“Pray as though everything depended on God. Work as though everything depended on you.”  St. Augustine

Listening to Tradition, The Desert Fathers

The way of humility is this: self-control, prayer, and thinking yourself inferior to all creatures.

                                                                                              Abba Tithoes

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.

A Hymn of Praise

I confess to Thee, O Lord, and I give thanks unto Thee, because Thou
hast created in me this Thine image, that I may remember Thee, think upon Thee, love Thee, but so darkened is Thine image in me by the smoke of my sins that it cannot do that whereunto it was created, unless Thou renew it and create it again. I seek not, O Lord, to search out Thy depth, but I desire in some measure to understand Thy truth, which my heart believeth and loveth. Nor do I seek to understand that I may believe, but I believe that I may understand. For this too I believe, that unless I first believe, I shall not understand.

St. Anselm of Canterbury, Devotions