7 Quick Takes

This at the impetus from Jennifer Fulwilers blog.

1

 

I found this picture quite by accident on Friday on the internet. It was taken at Lai Khe, in Viet Nam. I'm in the picture -- there's a soldier on the far right side of the picture with a camera in his hand, I'm sitting on some ammo cases right behind the camera. I remember this concert quite clearly since it was the first, and only, USO show I saw during my entire Air Force enlistment. These were probably the first American girls I had seen in 6 or 7 months and I was quite impressed, I'll have to say.

Looking back on it, I feel only gratitude for the effort this little troupe made to come to Lai Khe to put on this one hour show. There was no little risk for them to do this, at least twice in the next three or four months shrapnel from rocket attacks landed in this same area. One of them came just short of killing me. It's hard to think that the entertainers here, well, all the people in this shot, are in their mid-60s or close to 70 and I doubt any of them would ever read this, but if they do, I hope they accept my sincere thanks for coming to Viet Nam to entertain the troops on that afternoon on an old French rubber plantation in Viet Nam. Well Done.

2

The Veep debates occurred this week, and the thing that struck me watching it is that I'm just sick of politics; the campaigns go on much too long and inform much to little. In this regard, we're victims of a media that has lost the desire or willingness to inform replacing it with the desire to inflame.

3

The current project is to get wood floors installed throughout the house, to replace worn carpets stained by the tenancy of 4 cats. It's a real trial but should be a great improvement once completed.

4

I wonder what I will do to come up with 4 more of these quick takes?

5

In the Sunday reading this week we hear the story of the rich young man. It occurred to me that Jesus was not just literally telling the young man to sell everything, selling material things wasn't really the important thing; Jesus was telling him to get his priorities straight, to be clear in his own mind who and what his God was. Was it the true and ever-living God, or was it his own self-sufficiency? Something we all need to be reminded of, perhaps more often that not.

6

Only one more to go!

7

One thing I've learned doing these "quick takes" is that this isn't a bad idea for a weekly series of blog posts. It may be a keeper -- thanks Jennifer for getting me started on this.

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A Hiatus

One of the authors in the brand new e-book, One Body, Many Blogs, is Frank Waters who has the blog, Why I am Catholic. I started reading his blog and quickly learned of his excellent practice of taking time of from his blog, "to go reading and praying." I am going to follow his excellent example and be away until the 19th of October.

There are two things driving this, one is just having a lot going on in life which brings on the need for a bit of time to read and pray. A second thing is the death of a high school classmate of mine. We joined the Air Force at about the same time and lost touch and didn't meet again until 7 years ago when we met up again at a class reunion. Dave was a good man, served his country proudly, raised a loving family, and lived a worthy life. I don't know what else, or what better, can be said of any of us. I ask for your prayers for him.

I have to admit though, that these two events remind me that it is most important to maintain perspective and have the proper priorities in life and I need to rediscover both at the moment.

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Surrender, A Book Review

Surrender, Fr Larry Richards, 2011, Our Sunday Visitor, Inc.

My first attempt at a book review and I’ve chosen a difficult subject. It’s just like me, if there’s an easy way and a hard way, I choose the hard way.

I’ll get the difficult part out of the way first. It’s difficult because it may seem a criticism, and it’s not. It’s a caution: If you are strongly prone to scrupulosity, read the book carefully, try to avoid your scrupulous tendencies. I think, to someone inclined that way this book will make them crazy. At first glance, it seems Fr. Larry presents rule after rule after rule of things you must do in order to go to heaven. You must spend 5 minutes a day in prayer, at a minimum, you must learn to offer things up, you must intercede in prayer for people, you must spend 10 minutes in prayer. Every chapter ends with a list of things you must do to surrender to God.

It may because I’ve been influenced too much by the Benedictine tradition, and because, too, I tend a bit to scrupulosity, but especially at the start, this book made me uncomfortable. All I could think of was, “I couldn’t possibly do all this!” However, I was able to take a step back to try to see what was going on. I remembered that while advice like this can be good, I needed to keep in mind the words of Dom John Chapman, “Pray as you can, not as you cannot.” A certain routine and direction in the spiritual life is good, but is not the point. Anyone who reads this book, needs to keep that in mind

Having said that, now the good news. Fr. Larry is clear on what the point of all this is. Each of us has a choice to make, whether we will love God or whether we will run from Him. We make that choice consciously and then, having made it, we must live it. Catholics can’t say they love God and not go to Mass or participate in the other sacraments. They’re giving lip service to their beliefs. No Christian can profess to love God and not spend time in prayer, according to the duties of their station in life, as the spiritual masters point out. You have to live what you believe. It’s Fr. Larry’s goal to make this clear, crystal clear.

He also, in fairness, makes it clear that when we do live out our love for God, we don’t do it with excessive scrupulosity, in fear and trembling. In the first chapter he writes, “Because God loves us, we do not have to be afraid. We talk about the fear of the Lord as being the beginning of wisdom, but the fear of God isn’t terror; it’s awe. ” Exactly right.

Fr. Larry has written a book that would be a good one for all Catholics to read. Surrender helps us to realize what is at stake as we make the central decision of our lives, how we will live and what we will live for. It’s too easy to take the issue lightly and not be mindful of the importance of making that decision now, today, for the rest of our lives. I would only add the caution, for those who focus too much on such things, that the rules presented are meant as a guide, not as a one size fits all regimen of how to become holy.

 

Early Church Fathers, Sunday, October 7, 2012, St John Chrysostom

English: John Chrysostom (Georgian miniature, 11th century) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

"I know my own soul, how feeble and puny it is: I know the magnitude of this ministry, and the great difficulty of the work; for more stormy billows vex the soul of the priest than the gales which disturb the sea."
John Chrysostom

Friday Florilegia, Friday, October 5, 2012

This week we have the first reading for the 28^th Sunday in Ordinary Time

 

Reading 1 Wis 7:7-11

I prayed, and prudence was given me;
I pleaded, and the spirit of wisdom came to me.
I preferred her to scepter and throne,
and deemed riches nothing in comparison with her,
nor did I liken any priceless gem to her;
because all gold, in view of her, is a little sand,
and before her, silver is to be accounted mire.
Beyond health and comeliness I loved her,
and I chose to have her rather than the light,
because the splendor of her never yields to sleep.
Yet all good things together came to me in her company,
and countless riches at her hands.

 

 

Will You Know Them by Their Clothes (or body piercings)?

Dr Charleton has revisited a topic he wrote about, say, a month ago. The question is whether Christians should make their faith known (self-identify), for example, by wearing a Crucifix.  In a post earlier this week, he took a different tack on the question, and between fighting a miserable head cold and working to get some wood floors installed, I've been trying to decide if I agree or disagree.   I've struggled with it, I can't completely disagree, but it brought another aspect of the question to mind.

To begin, his point is that Christians don't have to self-identify because those who aren't Christians, who are anti-Christian are doing a pretty good job of identifying themselves. Those who dress in ways, for instance, that fail the test of modesty or who display anti-Christian symbols on their clothes, or who have Wiccan bumper stickers on their cars, or body piercings in all the wrong places, are very evidently non-Christian.

Yet, I can think of cases that come close to disproving his theory.  In the last few years, I've seen many teens, who don't dress very modestly and who proudly (I guess) display such things as tattoos and body piercings, at Mass. They aren't anti-Christian, but you couldn't say they're fully Christian, either.   They are holding on to some sort of Christian customs, if not to faith, or maybe just trying to please their parents.  They've been pretty well absorbed by the culture and have no idea of the significance of what they're doing.

Also, for many of the people who deck themselves out as Professor Charlton describes, they're must also be at least some of them who aren't anti-Christian but non-Christian. They likely would not disagree with what Christianity teaches, but they totally disagree with what they think Christianity teaches.

To some extent, I think these factors make an argument against what he's saying being true.  But not entirely.  What is true, is that, to the extent they're valid, it's a horrible indictment against Christians and their churches.  It means Christians are failing completely in being witnesses to their faith and in showing others what it means to be a Christian. It  means that many Christians are allowing themselves to be absorbed by the culture rather than living,  their faith. It also means there's a good chance they have no idea that there's anything wrong, since they've never been taught what's right. I think this borne out in a poll I saw today that said 53% of Catholics who attend Mass regularly favor Obama. They don't seem to understand it's a mortal sin to do so. It's appalling.

I'm not sure what the answer is, but it would seem to be a call for Catholics and their bishops to become much more concerned about the state of catechesis in their dioceses. It also means, as I know another blogger suggested, though I can't remember who, that bishops need to clarify the messages they are sending out to the faithful. They don't need to, probably shouldn't, issue a statement on every conceivable issue, they should focus on the few most vital issues and stay with them.  It's also a call for all Christians to educate themselves on their faith.  If you don't know what you believe, how do you know you believe it?

I will have to say that I still like the idea of Christians self-identifying, I can't help it I'm anal, I'm an accountant, I want to see the documentation.

A Word on Wednesday, Wednesday, October 3, 2012, Bl John Paul II

Have no fear of moving into the unknown. Simply step out fearlessly knowing that I am with you, therefore no harm can befall you; all is very, very well. Do this in complete faith and confidence.
Blessed John Paul II

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