Some Good, Some Bad

"Jesus and Mary — and we aren’t them! This should give us great hope that, despite our moodiness, sins, good days and bad days, God is still calling us to be His saints. It is HE who makes us holy, not us who make ourselves holy." Fr Larry Richards, Surrender

I have to keep reminding myself of this truth, seems I have a lot more bad days than good.  I also have to keep reminding myself what St Ignatius said, to the effect that discouragement isn't from God.  So, suck it up and keep going. (He didn't say that last bit).

The Desert Fathers, Sunday, August 19, 2012, St Anthony of the Desert

Truthfully, my children, I tell you that everyone who delights in his own will and is subdued to his own thoughts, and takes up the things sown in his own heart, and rejoices in them, and supposes in his heart that these are some great chosen mystery, and justifies himself in what he does – the soul of such a man is the breath of evil spirits.

Friday Florilegia, Friday, August 17, 2012

This is, obviously, the second reading from the 21^st Sunday in Ordinary Time, next week.

Reading 2 Eph 5:21-32

Brothers and sisters:
Be subordinate to one another out of reverence for Christ.
Wives should be subordinate to their husbands as to the Lord.
For the husband is head of his wife
just as Christ is head of the church,
he himself the savior of the body.
As the church is subordinate to Christ,
so wives should be subordinate to their husbands in everything.
Husbands, love your wives,
even as Christ loved the church
and handed himself over for her to sanctify her,
cleansing her by the bath of water with the word,
that he might present to himself the church in splendor,
without spot or wrinkle or any such thing,
that she might be holy and without blemish.
So also husbands should love their wives as their own bodies.
He who loves his wife loves himself.
For no one hates his own flesh
but rather nourishes and cherishes it,
even as Christ does the church,
because we are members of his body.
For this reason a man shall leave his father and his mother
and be joined to his wife,
and the two shall become one flesh.
This is a great mystery,
but I speak in reference to Christ and the church.

A Word on Wednesday, Wednesday, August 15, 2012, St Ambrose -- The Assumption

"Let, then, the life of Mary be as it were virginity itself, set forth in a likeness, from which, as from a mirror, the appearance of chastity and the form of virtue is reflected.... Nor would I hesitate to admit you to the altars of God, whose souls I would without hesitation call altars, on which Christ is daily offered for the redemption of the body. For if the virgin's body be a temple of God, what is her soul, which, the ashes, as it were, of the body being shaken off, once more uncovered by the hand of the Eternal Priest, exhales the vapour of the divine fire. Blessed virgins, who emit a fragrance through divine grace as gardens do through flowers, temples through religion, altars through the priest." Ambrose, On Virginity

Early Church Fathers, Sunday, August 12, 2012 Tertullian

Tertullian (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

 

Early Church Fathers, Sunday, August 12, 2012 Tertullian

I

t is necessary to obey those who are the presbyters in the Church, those who, as we have shown, have succession from the Apostles; those who have received, with the succession of the episcopate, the sure charism of truth according to the good pleasure of the Father. But the rest, who have no part in the primitive succession and assemble wheresoever they will, must be held in suspicion.

The Truth, the whole Truth, and nothing but . . .

What is truth? Deutsch: Was ist Wahrheit? Français : "Qu'est-ce que la vérité ?" Le Christ et Pilate. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

R

ecent developments in this year’s presidential campaign with, at best, deceptive ads accusing Mitt Romney of causing death and destruction as a  direct result of his greedy, capitalist, bourgeois activities as the head of Bain Capital, make it clear that truth is no longer regarded as something to be desired.  Most people seem to simply shrug, accepting it as part of the new world we're living in.  This apathy is a mistake which inevitably leads to disastrous consequences, not just for society but also for each of us individually.

 
First, as Peggy Noonan points out in Friday's Wall Street Journal, the continual lies are making us a nation of cynics -- we don't believe anything anyone says.  We're being lied to with increasing wantonness by our leaders, to the point that we can't accept anything they say.  This is amazing to someone who grew up in the 1950's, when national leaders were expected to be truthful, most of the time anyway.  Yes, an occasional porky was expected, but generally our leaders spoke the truth, they could be relied upon and respected as decent men.  Not so now.  It's a distressing situation because not only does it make impossible full, responsible participation in the political process, it’s degrading to all of us as human beings.  We become desensitized, even brutalized, as human persons because all around are brutalized. 

 There's a spiritual cost being exacted that we’re possibly no longer able to even recognize.  Thomas Merton wrote in No Man Is An Island:

 

We make ourselves real by telling the truth. Man can hardly forget that he needs to know the truth, for the instinct to know is too strong in us to be destroyed. But he can forget how badly he also needs to tell the truth. We cannot know truth unless we ourselves are conformed to it. We must be true inside, true to ourselves, before we can know a truth that is outside us. But we make ourselves true inside by manifesting the truth as we see it.

Not knowing the truth, we lose touch with reality and, therefore our ability to conform our lives to it; we live a fantasy.  We need the truth; it’s not just something nice to have for those who can afford it.  Without it, we lose touch with our deepest selves, becoming lost to God in the process. 

I can't think of anything scarier, not even working for a company taken over by Bain Capital.

Friday Florilegia, Friday, August 10, 2012

This is the first reading for the 20 Sunday in Ordinary Time.

Twentieth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Lectionary: 119

Reading 1 Prv 9:1-6

Wisdom has built her house,
she has set up her seven columns;
she has dressed her meat, mixed her wine,
yes, she has spread her table.
She has sent out her maidens; she calls
from the heights out over the city:
"Let whoever is simple turn in here;
To the one who lacks understanding, she says,
Come, eat of my food,
and drink of the wine I have mixed!
Forsake foolishness that you may live;
advance in the way of understanding."

I would like, contrary to custom, to add a word to these regular postings that has to do with why I chose to do this.  Our culture, not just our country, is a critical juncture in history, civilization is declining at an alarming rate, I sometimes think that within 50 years it may disappear altogether -- we may end up living in caves, or some comparable condition.  Things are becoming more brutalized every day. 

The only answer I can see to this is prayer.  I've tried some political action and, other than voting, I don't think it's going to change things at all; I have doubts about voting, but it's vital that if you are legally eligible to vote, you do so in November.  But prayer is the only thing I see that has any real chance of reversing the course we are on.  So, I post these to encourage you to pray; with lectio if you choose, but in any way that you are able if lectio is not for you.