Don't worry the devil hates Latin too

If anyone has been readin this blog so far, I apologize for not getting to it today. I am planning on blogging everyday that I am at work. However, it is now officially Friday (12:01am). Friday is the only day I do my absolute best not to come to work. In fact, I will likely spend the day with my son. This are few things in this life that can bring one more joy than really enjoying a day with someone you love, but rarely get to see.

No truer is that statement than with God himself. When we see Him on Sunday (or everyday if you make it a priority) He has been awaiting us to be with Him. Yet, do we truly spend time with Him? So many of our separated brethren (Protestants) seem to pray a lot more than we do as Catholics, perhaps it is only because as you flip through the channels on TV you see them doing so. But where is the intimate union that Jesus came to give us with God the Father. Jesus said, "If you have seen me, then you have seen the Father." Yet for us Catholics, do we realize that whenever we go to Mass our Catholic Faith tells us Jesus is truly present -body, blood, soul and divinity - in the Holy Eucharist?

Jesus also told us, "I will not leave you orphans, I will come to you." I love pointing this out in the RCIA, because it reminds us that we do not just belong to the Catholic Church, but we have been united to God as His children by our baptism. Moreover, He remains with us even today at St. Jude or any Catholic Church where His precious body and blood are.

Our Catholic Faith must be a way of life, what we commonly call today: a lifestyle. This I think is the beauty of the Latin language - bear with me here: One of the councils of the Church talked about how in the Catholic Church we are healing the wound of the Tower of Babel because we come to meet THE Divine Physician, Jesus. The beauty of the Latin language is that, though it is a so-called "dead language" it truly unites us to all of our brothers and sisters in Christ throughout the entire world. This is largely why Pope Benedict XVI has asked all of us to learn some of the most ancient prayers in Latin, for the upbuilding of our unity in the affluent soceity where travel is far more possible than any other time in history. I have first hand experience of this, having lived in Rome.

Sometimes we can think, as Americans, "when will I possibly ever pray with someone in Latin?" However, we would be forgetting all those other affluent people across the face of our planet who are able to visit our own country if we did say that. Moreover, who knows when one might come into money and desire to travel somewhere foreign (which we should do as Americans). If we are serious about our faith, as we should desire to be, then we will want to go to Mass wherever we go. We would do well to learn a few prayers in the Official Langauage of the Roman Rite of the Catholic Church, to which we (presumably) belong. I don't know a ton of Latin, but I want to learn more. My son and I often read "Virent ova, viret perna" which is a translation of "Green eggs & Ham" into Latin. He loves it and so do I! We are now working on Cattus Pettasatus (i.e. The Cat in the Hat). Oddly enough he likes the "Ave Maria" better than the "Hail Mary," as well.

A dear friend of mine has shirts for sale with the title of this post. I think its sort of funny how afraid of Latin we are as Americans. How else will the Church help us to overcome the wound of the Tower of Babel? If it is not in Christ, especially through the teachings and traditions of the Catholic Church He established, then I sure wish someone could tell me another way!

I want to relate this to the new Post-Synodal exhortation "Sacramentum Caritatis," but I haven't read it yet. I have to have something to do this weekend, when my son takes a nap, don't I?