A good witch?

Today, I was asked by a gentleman to have lunch. At the restaurant, his favorite apparently, I was introduced to a so-called witch. A lady who is in the practice of Wicca. For those who may not be aware, Wicca is the practice of pagan worship of nature. It is also, more commonly, referred to as witchcraft.

There are numerous things we should be aware of when it comes to witchcraft, if only to help others steer clear of this ancient deception of false gods and godessess. For more information I found this article: http://www.catholicculture.org/library/view.cfm?recnum=1289 which I think does a pretty good job of dispelling some of the basics of this pagan religion.

However, I found her arguments very interesting. The gentleman who introduced me to the waitress told her I was an "expert in Catholicism." To which she immediately began to attack the notion of Catholicism because of the death of so-called witches during the Middle Ages. What I find interesting about this position is two things:

1) Arguements based on the acts of adherants to a religion do not make a religion false. Certainly, there are many witches, Protestants, Muslims, & Catholics, et al. who do horrible or just bad things in the name of their religion. However, this in no way makes the religion somehow false. This is precisely what Jesus meant when he said, "Judge not lest you be judged," I think. We do not know people or their reasons for why they do things. The deeper and more fundamental question is what does a religion propose and is that teaching itself correct or erroneous. This brings about a whole slew of further questions, which I won't go into here.

Suffice it to say, Jesus teaches us, "I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life." For this reason, a teaching which no other religion proclaims with its accompanying proofs, we Christians firmly can hold that the Christian Faith itself is certainly true. Jesus Christ has risen from the dead and established a Church for all, a universal Church (or in Greek a "Catholic" Church).

2) This lady's argument about the Catholic Faith was all based on emotion. She continued to return to the idea that Catholics had killed women in the name of religion. And she tried to also bring in St. Joan of Arc as an example of how bad the Catholic Church is. It was very interesting, because I noticed if I were her I would have at least begun to explain how Wicca was the superior religion, not in arrogance, but because I would want my listener to understand how good it is so that he or she might join too. We call this in Christianity an "apology." Not an "apology" as we understand it in English, which declares our sorrow for an action done, rather an apology in the Greek sense of an "apologia", that is a reason for why I believe what I do. This kind of apology aims at explaining that what I believe is sensible and intelligible.

At this restaurant, though it was painful not to, it would have been inappropriate to engage in a discussion of this because I was there with the gentleman who had invited me, and we were already engaged in a discussion, when this lady was introduced. For me this was an example of prudence, I had to choose which battle "to fight." It was clear this woman had a lot of issues with the Catholic Faith and no 2-minute conversation would clear anything up. Please pray for her, as I will.

Nevertheless, it was interesting that one other argument she tried to put forward was that 7 of the witches in her group, which I presume she was referring to her "coven", are former Catholics. As I said to her, it is not at all surprising since if we misunderstand the Catholic Faith then it is very easy to reject it outright. If we have half-truths about what it means to be Catholics, it is very easy to think one is wisely rejecting the "silly" Catholic Faith. But if one has the opportunity to fully consider what it means to be a Catholic then it can change our lives.

It is incumbent on each of us, as Catholics, to learn our faith well. The world is dying for the answers that Jesus provides in the Catholic Faith. For no other faith is so clear and so challenging as to ask us to "take up our cross, and follow [Jesus] daily." Yes, the Catholic Faith is challenging because we have to "die", so to speak, to our selfish way of thinking, and learn to live the all-encompassing love that God himself asks of us. BUT, we are not left to our own devices to do this! This is the whole purpose of the Eucharist - really of Jesus! God comes to us to teach us and give us the grace to overcome ourselves and to live a life filled with His love for humanity. But this means that we must first accept that gift! Many people have various reasons for why they reject the Catholic Church. If Catholics and Christians are to live the Christian Faith fully, then we must learn to live for Christ; we must be able to say, with St. Paul, "It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me (Col 1:13)."

By the way, the picture at top is a picture of St. Boniface taking a hatchet to a tree which the people believed was where their God, Thor, lived. St. Boniface famously said, "Where is your god now?" as he chopped the tree down! The story behind it is here!

So...

Any thoughts on who to vote for next year? I would be interested to know who people at St. Jude are voting for and why?

Yipes!

I didn't realize how few posts I have been putting on this blog. I just today took a look at the number of posts I have put on here which you find to the right --> of this column. I guess if this blog is published in the Church bulletin and our website I should get on this more frequently.

I guess my only excuse is that it has been a busy few weeks in the RE & RCIA departments. This year, for some reason, has been a difficult one for the RE department. We have had many teacher absences and registration has been kind of a mess due to many late registrations - don't get me wrong we are happy to have people in RE, but it is very difficult for our record-keeping and organization when people keep coming to classes late. It throws off all of our records, budget and materials. It has just been very busy that is all.

For RCIA, I am encouraging the adult catechists to engage more teaching activity this year. It is a real blessing to allow people to think about a given topic and observe them teach on it. It gives someone a chance to think about a given doctrine of the Church in a different way. Its one thing to hear about a teaching of the Church, its another to think about it, but it is another still to try to teach it to others in a concise and personal way. If you have never been to the RCIA, then please feel encouraged to visit sometime. If you have, then please let me know what you thought by posting a comment on this blog (below).

At any rate, I love this job. I love teaching the Holy Catholic Faith. There is so much to know and the more you know the more exciting it is to know Jesus the Son of God established this Church to fulfill not only our emotions and our hearts but also our intellect.

The funny thing about emotions is that they change so rapidly, no clearer is this seen than in teenagers. And, as one professor of mine put it, the Faith "doesn't give a fig about how you feel in the morning." This is what I think is pretty cool. The Catholic Faith will never change and does not adjust to our feelings or whims. We must allow our emotions to be satisfied in knowing the stability and the solidity of the Teachings of Jesus Christ. Even if sometimes this means we have to overcome emotion to understand why a teaching is proposed by the Holy Spirit through the Catholic Church for all humanity.

"Your my obessesion... "

I remember a song from the 80's called "Obsession." It was one of those songs of my youth that I never really liked, but at one point I just couldn't get it out of my head. It was emblazoned on my mind. Obsession is such a curious thing. How is it that love can become obsession? And in a sense, obsession is love - though it is a disordered love. What a mystery! God is love, says St. John's letter in the bible, but certainly God is not obsession in "a bad sense." And yet God is in a certain sense obsessed with love for each of us.

St. Catherine of Siena spoke of Jesus being a "divine madman" filled with love for us, willing to do whatever it took to bring us to heaven - short of forcing us. Now certainly, we can't take that to literally - primarily because no one is more sane than Jesus; neither is anyone more loving. Yet there is element of both of these which are true. From our point of view, Jesus is "mad" or "crazed" in that he would be willing to die for our sake so that we could go to heaven, even if we continue to ignore or reject him by our sin. He is obsessed with trying to fulfill us. As one poet put it, its as if there was a "hound of heaven" who continually chases after us.

Yet, in spite of all this, the Holy Triune God never forces. He tries to persuade, tries to invite, and offers grace - but never forces.

I came to think about all these things because my wife and I watched "The Prestige" last night. This is a very interesting movie about two magicians who become obsessed with learning each other's "tricks of the trade." It was, however, also a very dark and engrossing movie. I won't give away the ending, for anyone who might wish to see it, but it is one of those movies which helps us to re-consider our own obsessions. What do we put our time and effort into? Some people may never stop to think about this, I fear. And all of us have obessesions. For us Catholics, the Church does not ask us to deny these obsessions, only to maneuver them to something constructive. And, Holy Mother Church also gives us "models of obsession" - those people we refer to as Saints.

The Saints had an obssesion, but not an obsession that caused them to reject everyone else for the sake of their own desire. Rather, their obsession was their desire to love God by serving everyone else! Its quite an interesting thing when you think about it. Sometimes people portray us Catholics as being "fanatics." But what the world has a hard time understanding is that there is a difference between someone who belongs to the Catholic Church and someone who is a practicing Catholic - and that difference is vast. The practicing Catholic is one who desires nothing less than the establishment of the Sacred Heart of Jesus in every soul, so that every soul knows and grows in union with the love of God. While a Catholic, who is not practicing, may belong to the number of people whom Jesus has given his life in this world through baptism. We cannot be satisifed with merely belonging to the Catholic Church. If we are to live up to the life that Jesus gave to us then we must desire growth in that life. This means seeking to grow in union with God. The most primary way is through prayer - especially through the Holy Sacrifice of Mass.

In many aspects of life, if we focus on one thing too much then a lot of other things suffer in our lives. For example, if I want to be the best football player, then I must work out and practice and spend lots of time at those things. However, to be a good Catholic, Jesus tells us, "Seek first the kingdom of God and all else will be given to you." Even so, Jesus also added, "Your Heavenly Father knows what you need." In other words, to seek to be a saint is our purpose and our goal. God has given us the means to accomplish this, but we must be patient with ourselves. If we need to go to Confession, then we must go. Just as a football player must go to the gym, even if he or she doesn't enjoy it.

I guess what I am getting at is that we must think about where our efforts lie. Many times we can chase the good things of this life, but ignore our spiritual life. By focusing more on our spiritual life, we can learn to grow in the things which we know are the most important for us - namely loving God and neighbors. In the Catholic Spiritual life, "obssession for God" can become a real problem because our disproportionate desire can give us a mental complex about our service of God. But if from obsession we can transition into "devotion" then we will well be on our way to following in the company of the Saints. This because devotion denotes an active love and relationship with Our Lord; where obessesion ignores the other and seeks only selfish desire. This, unfortunately, is the saddest and darkest part of the movie "The Prestige." It leaves you realizing that these two magicians sought only their own selfish fulfillment. Let us not seek our own fulfillment, but as good servants of God let us seek His will and that His kingdom be established, for in seeking this "all else will be given us besides."

Come on... you know you want to comment on this!

I have been wondering about this topic myself. I have recently read a book by Monsignor Klaus Gamber called "The Reform of the Roman Liturgy: Its Problem and its background." The French Edition of this book had a preface written for it by, then, Cardinal Ratzinger who said, if I remember correctly, that "every priest and liturgist should read and study this book." One of the basic arguments in the course of the book is that the Priests of the Roman Rite should return to facing to the East during the Holy Sacrifice of Mass. I have to admit, after reading the text, I think I am sold on the idea. I had my doubts and questions, but it seems clear to me, anyway, that it is a practice which does make a lot of sense in the the light of our beliefs as Catholics.

Along the same lines, today there was an article from Zenit.org in which a certain Fr. Lang was interviewed about this very subject. You can find it here. I think this is an interesting topic for Catholics to reconsider today, not for the sake of getting into camps so that we can attack each other, but so that we can build a constructive discussion about what exactly the Second Vatican Council envisioned and what has transpired. Especially, since many people will immediately find this idea of the priest facing to the east, ad orientum, particularly bothersome at first hearing.

But given the recent Motu Proprio (if you want the official text it is here) by our Holy Father, it would appear, that this is not such a thing of the past. In fact, it would appear, if the extraordinary form of the Liturgy is to take its proper place in the worship of the Universal Church of Christ, then perhaps reimagining the Mass promulgated after Vatican II with more elements that were jettisoned is not such a bad idea.

Zooom!!!!

Time has flown by these last few weeks. I apologize, dear reader, for not having been keeping up to date with my little blog here. Nevertheless, I have often thought of you, but have just not found the time daily to keep up with this blog.

Part of that, thankfully, will soon end, as the beginning of RCIA and the Elementary Religious Education begins to settle in for the year. In these first few weeks there is little time for much extra beyond my duties in preparing the RCIA and in making sure all is well in the RE program.
At any rate, a good friend of mine sent me this link, which is a homily by a priest of the Priestly Confraternity of St. Peter. This is the religious order that was first approved to celebrate the Tridentine Liturgy, that is the Mass in the extraordinary form offered before Vatican II.

So "why provide this link to me?" you might ask of me. Well, what is interesting about this priest is that he is from France, and my friend (who sent me this link first met him in Arizona) sent me this link because this priest is now stationed at the F.S.S.P.'s parish here in Denver in Old Town Littleton. I have heard him preach and I think he is quite good, personally. Let me know what you think. If you do like him here are two more sermons: on the Seven Mansions of Prayer and on the Feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus.

Divine Providence

There are many things in our lives that seem like such coincidences. I am grateful to Our Lord Jesus that today I am able to hang with a friend of mine from college, whose name is Joe. This friend was one who I was privileged to study abroad with in the Austrian Program through Franciscan University. In fact, after the Spring semester in 1999 my friend and I were able to spend a month and a half traveling to Fatima, Portugal to visit the Shrine of Mary at Fatima. We also visited the Eucharistic Miracle at Santarem, Portugal. As well, we traveled on to Paris to see the shrine of the Miraculous Medal and the incorrupt body of St. Vincent de Paul.

After these great experiences we also went on to Ireland and traveled through from the South to the North. We were able to spend the better part of a month with a friend of ours who owns a hotel in Northern Ireland - in a little town called Ballykelly, Northern Ireland. It is a beautiful hotel outside of Derry City.

After all of that I finished up my last year at Franciscan University, got married, and moved to Rome. After 2 years there I got a phone call from Joe. He had decided to come to Rome to study. He was there for one year and we had many the adventure around the streets of Rome. He returned to America, while my wife and I stayed in Rome to finish our degrees.

Just a few months ago I was able to meet up with Joe for a conference in Steubenville, Ohio where Joe was living and going to school to finish his MBA. He had decided to come to Denver to look for work. And so here he is today.

The Sacred Scriptures tell us that "A faithful friend is a sturdy shelter, and he who finds one is blessed (Sir 6:14)." I have been blessed to have a friend like Joe. God knowing my own sorrow from moving from California when I was 16, in 10th grade in public school, has given me the blessing of some very good friends who have been great shelters.

I think many of us if we thought about could see that God has provided for us in many ways. What we often forget, however, is that that providence was not something God is just cooking up as he goes along. In fact, Almighty God has planned all of history from the beginning - even the creation of the world. Nothing has gone unseen in God's plan.

Of course, that begs the question of how are we able to excercise free will which Catholics always go on about? If we can only remember that "time," as such, is a human invention and perspective, then we begin to realize that God allows for our freely willed decisions from before we were even created. He has cooperated with us and our desires and our choices, even before the first plant or animal existed. His Divine Plan and providence takes into account all those things which we will choose wisely and unwisely. But not only your choices, but every human being's choice. No one is forced! We all freely choose, but God constantly provides grace for us to choose to love and respond to Him. While we try to comprehend God's merciful plan from our earthly and time-driven perspective, God has given us all we need to find our greatest joy and peace. For this is the reason that Jesus came into the world. As he said, "I came that they might have life and have it more abundantly (Jn 10:10)."

Let us abandon ourselves to God's glorious will in our lives. Nevertheless, the wisdom of the saints reminds us, a la St. Ignatius of Loyola, "Pray as if everything depends on God, and act as if everything depends on you." The question we must ask ourselves is whether we act in accordance with the teachings of Holy Mother Church, which are the teachings of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Have you seen "Robot Chicken?"

I haven't. But I have seen a few clips here and there. A friend of mine, who usually sends me that funny email or instant message each day (you know you have one too!) sent me this link to the best Star Wars parodies of the show "Robot Chicken." To fully enjoy these you had to have been a fan of the Star Wars movies.... but if you were, then you will laugh. I don't know how good or bad the show actually is, but these clips are pretty funny. I hope you enjoy them! Just click here.

More Latin fun

Who said Latin is a dead language, look what I found today! http://ephemeris.alcuinus.net/

The Holy See

Many Catholics unfortunately are unaware of how awesome the Vatican truly is. Let alone the beauty of its artworks - which when visited often provide an enhancement to one's faith, or its architecture - which draws one to contemplate the mystery of God, or the order by which the Church is run.

One of things that many may not be aware of are the outreaches which the Vatican has for those who desire to see the pilgrimmage sites of the world. The main branch of the Vatican is known as the Opera Romana Pelligrinagi - don't worry there is no singing here. The translation for this office is the Work of Roman pilgrimmages. In other words, this Vatican branch provides Christians with itineraries to travel throughout Christendom to many of the Church's most revered pilgrimmage sites. You can check out their website in English here.

Another of the Vatican's many branches is the Opus Fundatum Latinitas. This is a Vatican institute whose expressed purpose is twofold:
"1) to promote the study of the Latin language, classical literature and Medieval Latin;
2) to promote the increased use of the Latin language by publishing texts in Latin and other suitable means."

Unfortunately, one must have some grasp of the Latin Language to utilize the online magazine which they provide, but if one is so inclined one may view it for interest's sake here. You have to scroll down to the bottom of the page to get the articles that were written in Latin.

As I was growing up, I never thought I would be into Latin. I remember specifically thinking oddly of the "geeks" in High School who studied Latin. As I studied at University, however, it becamse apparent that much like in the movie "Braveheart" Latin is a language for those who are truly learned. It is not just a language for those who are "into it," but truly it is important for Western Culture as really our whole civilization and language rest upon the foundation of the Latin culture of Rome. Many of our words and customs continue to be excercised from their Latin roots. In fact, I remember reading an author who pointed to the sign hung on Jesus' cross reading "Jesus, the Nazorean, King of the Jews" which from the Latin is where we get the INRI on the top of crucifixes. This author pointed out that there, where this epitaph was written in Greek, Hebrew and Latin, we see an image of the culimation of the ancient world in Jesus: 1) The wisdom of the Greeks, 2) the worship of the Jews, and 3) the order or structure of the Latins. All of these three become combined in the Catholic Church.

More personally, for us Latin Rite Catholics, it is important that we begin to think about learning some of the most basic prayers of our faith in Latin. Why? In the recent presentation of the Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church the Holy Father encouraged all members of the Latin Rite, to which St. Jude parish belongs, to learn the most basic prayers found at the end of the Compendium - but don't worry Kevin or Dave (or any other readers out there) because you can find them online here (but I would copy and print them as the Compendium is a little long to be printing out). How beautiful it would be that we recall what many ancients saw about the Latin language - it is undoing the Tower of Babel! That is, when we pray together with our brothers and sisters in Christ, we undo the curse of the Tower of Babel by uniting in the common language of our Rite of the Catholic Church. Whether we meet a mexican, a German, an African or others who come from different parts of the world and don't speak our American-English language we could engage in prayer with the common language of our Holy Mother Church. As well, this reminds us of the real family we have been made a part of through our Baptism - the adopted family of Jesus Christ our Lord.

It is quite exciting to realize that we belong to an incredibly well established and active family that is the Catholic Church of Jesus Christ. Our current Holy Father watches over the whole family as the "face of Christ on earth" or vicar of Christ. From the one same chair of St. Peter, Pope Benedict XVI continues to guide the Church from the snarls and traps of this world. Probably the most beautiful image of this reality is what the ancients referred to as the Barque or boat of St. Peter, which is the Church. The Pope can be thought of as being at the helm of this great ship as it is fought from all sides by the turmoil and strive of our present age. And yet, with Christ as our food and the Holy Spirit in our sails, we will arrive at our destination if we perservere in our faith.

This whole analogy really gives a whole new meaning to the idea of "jumping ship" when one commits mortal sin! We can see precisely what the Catechism of the Catholic Church means when it is says that Confession or Reconciliation is "the second plank [of salvation] after the shipwreck which is the loss of grace." The main difference, of course, is that we are never swept away by sin, rather we are the ones who choose to jump ship. This is our human dignity, that God allows us the "luxury" of rejecting Him by our mortal sins. Let no one of us ever become so impoverished as those who are filled with this type of "luxury" for such is the will of God, that all come to eternal life.

This then is precisely the reason we have a Holy See - the Holy Chair of St. Peter that watches over us and calls us to renew our faith and love and hope in Jesus Christ Our Lord. See what great love the Father has for us, that we should become his children - and that we allow ourselves to rest in the shelter of the Church he has provided for us.