The Immaculate Conception

Posted on December 8, 2010 by Deacon Bob

There is a wonderful reflection on the role of the Blessed Virgin Mary today in the Office of Readings. It is written by St. Anselm, and I provide here an English excerpt translated from the Italian text I use.

“God gave Mary his only Son, whom he had generated from his own bosom as equal to himself and whom he loved as himself, and from Mary he molded (plasmare, in Italian) the Son, not as someone other but the same as him in such a way that according to his nature he was the only and same Son of God and Son of Mary. God created every creature and Mary gave birth to God: God that had created everything makes himself the baby (creature) of Mary, and has recreated thus all that he had created. While he had power to create everything from nothing, after the ruin of everything he willed to restore it with Mary….. God therefore is the father of all created things and Mary the mother of all recreated things. God is father of the world’s foundation, Mary the mother of its reparation since God had generated him through whom everything was made and Mary had given birth to him by whose work all things have been saved. God had generated him by whom all things absolutely exist, and Mary has given birth to him without whom nothing is well.”

I think this is a beautiful theology of Mary’s place in the salvation not only of we human’s, but all of creation. We sometimes forget that Jesus Christ redeemed not only mankind, but all of the created world.

Mary’s Immaculate Conception is such a marvel to celebrate today. Mary was conceived without sin, and remained sinless throughout her life by singular favor of God’s will who redeemed her even prior to her conception by the merits of the passion, death and resurrection of his Son, Jesus, who was her son too in the flesh.

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More on the Pope’s Comments

Posted on December 6, 2010 by Deacon Bob

In my November 30 post on “Random Thoughts”, I commented on the Pope’s remarks about the development of conscience, using the example of a male prostitute’s use of a condom as a first sign of taking moral responsibility for his actions. I was trying to point out that the Holy Father was not, in my opinion, legitimizing the use of condoms in certain situations, but rather explaining in a concrete example how conscience gradually develops in individuals.

I noticed today that the Catholic News Service (CNS) published an article clarifying once again the Pope’s comments. Fr. Maurizio Faggioni, a moral theologian and a consultant to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, spoke to CNS a few days ago and said the Pope’s comments should be seen in the light of traditional principles of moral theology which understands moral decision-making as a path that involves a series of progressions, that there can be intermediary steps toward moral awareness.

My point exactly.

Posted in Ethics and Morality | Comments Off on More on the Pope’s Comments

Bravo! Archbishop Sartain

Posted on December 5, 2010 by Deacon Bob

The new archbishop of Seattle is J. Peter Sartain, a fellow student at the North American College when I studied there in the late 1970s. Peter, as we knew him then, is someone I always remembered as a genuinely decent, holy and healthy man. A solid man (for those who know him, you will understand what I mean by that adjective).
I respect him highly.

The Catholic News Agency CNA, reported bits of his recent homily on which I think it is worth commenting.

“I have nothing at all of my own to offer you… Everything I have, I have received….. What I have, I will offer to you: the gospel of Jesus Christ…. It is the Lord Jesus who leads, guides, protects, and nourishes the flock….. It is first and foremost, in following him that we (bishops) shepherd the portion of the flock entrusted to our care…He is always before us, and we are to follow…. The name of Jesus should be on our lips: in every homily, at every meeting,in every counseling session, in every moment of prayer…. His name should be in every parish and school mission statement and as we go through the day, we should pray his name silently to remind ourselves of his nearness, and seek his protection…. for Satan does not like to hear his name, and he flees….In union with our Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI, and with Catholics around the world, we will follow the one whose name we call, day and night… We will proclaim his name, even when his name meets rejection and ridicule… We would not be the Church were we to be bashful about proclaiming Christ.”

Amen, Archbishop Peter!

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Quote for the Day

Posted on December 5, 2010 by Deacon Bob

“(John the Baptist) openly declares that… the coming of the glory of the Lord and the manifestation of the salvation of God to all of humanity will happen, not in Jerusalem, but in the desert.” — Eusebius of Cesarea

Let us look for him in the alone places of our lives, as well as in our churches and assemblies.

Posted in Spirituality | Comments Off on Quote for the Day

Another Opportunity to Speak Out

Posted on December 4, 2010 by Deacon Bob

This past week, the Illinois legislature passed Senate Bill 1716, in which it legalized civil unions and explicitly granted these unions the same status as marriage in state law.

This is yet another opportunity for all Catholics, and indeed for all Christians, Jews and Muslims to speak out in defense of marriage as a relationship only possible between a man and a woman. This reality is a truth self-evident in the natural course of human nature and explicitly declared by God as his will and his Law.

Those of us in Minnesota, beware…… there will be a major effort here to legalize same-sex “marriage” in the upcoming legislative session. Our bishops have launched an initiative to  preserve marriage in this state. Do not think you can be silent on this matter. Speak out. Do not be misled by arguments that same-sex “marriage” is a civil right. If it were, then one could argue that legal recognition as “marriage” should extend to other forms of relationships, such as parent-child, or one-man several women arrangements. Once we cross a barrier that human nature itself demands, we enter disorder.

This is also a call to look at our society and ask, “Where are we, as a community of men and women, heading? Is our social fabric being woven more closely together, stronger and healthier, or is it unraveling?” The breakdown of family is self-evident to anyone willing to accept what is seen and heard. Culture is eroding. Does anyone wonder why and when it really began to do so? Look to Roe v. Wade as the watershed.

The Catholic Conference of Illinois put out a statement on the passage of Senate Bill 1716. Take a look at it: Catholic Conference of Ilinois.

Posted in Church News, Marriage and Family | 2 Comments

Forgiveness, in Paradox

Posted on December 3, 2010 by Deacon Bob

I found the following in the book,  How to Forgive, by John Monbourquette.

The Great Paradoxes of Forgiveness

Easy but often inaccessible

Available but often forgotten

Liberating for the other and even more so for ourselves

On everyone’s lips and yet misunderstood

Innate the human heart and yet illusory

Vital for humans but so often feared

Bestowed upon the soul and yet menacing

Mysterious and yet an everyday occurrence

Utterly divine and utterly human

I love that last line. Christ-like. Always draws us into not only liberation and light, but also emptying of ourselves so as to be filled with the dignity of sons and daughters.

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An Act of Charity, as if to the Lord

Posted on December 3, 2010 by Deacon Bob

I heard recently a man I will call Jim (not his real name) tell me of his experience in a local public park. In Minnesota and Wisconsin during November and December it can get rather cold. Jim told me of walking through a park and seeing a homeless man, lying on a bench. Apparently, this homeless man was somewhat known to Jim in that Jim was aware of his alcohol problem. As he passed, the man asked him for a blanket.

Jim was no stranger to homelessness, for he too had been on the streets for a while in years past. Jim told the man to stay put and he’d be back. So Jim went back to his apartment (he is on Social Security Disability) and came back with a coat and an insulated vest and gave them to the man. The man cried. Jim cried as he told me what had happened.

Let no one ever say to me that only the religiously scrupulous go great deeds of love and alone fulfill the law of God. I have heard too many times of those who may be considered lax in the practice of their faith doing great deeds of love.

Walter Schindler, of Schindler’s List, comes to mind as an example.

So does Jim.

Jim is a good man.

If only we all had the heart of love Jim showed that day.

Posted in General Interest, Virtues | Comments Off on An Act of Charity, as if to the Lord

Here’s a Better Explanation

Posted on December 2, 2010 by Deacon Bob

In my random thoughts post a short while ago, I mentioned the misunderstanding of what the Pope said about condom us in the context of a male prostitute. I gave a very short explanation of what I understood him to be saying.

Here is a link to the National Catholic Bioethics Center that more fully and I suspect accurately explains all of this:The NCBCenter

Click on the link “Pope and Condoms” at the middle right of the page.

The article is not too hard to follow.

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Let’s Do Something!

Posted on December 2, 2010 by Deacon Bob

If you haven’t read the Gospel for today (Matthew 7: 21, 24-27), do so. Our Lord is essentially saying to us, “Once you have heard the Gospel proclaimed and heared the Word preached, you have to do something.  You can’t let it sit for if you do, you are the most foolish of all.”

To hear the Gospel, and then do nothing, is like being given a precious gem and letting it drop to the ground, trampling it underfoot and saying, “O well! I will come back tomorrow and God will give me another.”

No! God expects us to do something and do it today. The roots of our faith are in deeds of love. We must hear and respond.

In another place in the Gospel, Jesus tells the parable of giving gold coins to his servants and expecting them to do something with them other than lock them up and hide them.  If you recall, he had some harsh words to the servant who took the coin but buried it without a return.

Let us this day do something with the Word of God which is so readily available to us.

Read the Scriptures – and then do something. Today.

Posted in General Interest, Scripture | Comments Off on Let’s Do Something!

Congratulations, Archdiocese of St. Louis and Diocese of Trenton

Posted on December 1, 2010 by Deacon Bob

The archdiocese of St. Louis, Missouri has a new auxiliary bishop today, Msgr. Edward Rice. He was appointed to replace retiring auxiliary Bishop Robert J. Hermann.

Bishop John M. Smith’s retirement has been accepted by the Holy Father, and Bishop David M. O’Connoll, C.M. succeeded him today.

Congratulations to both!

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Quote for the Day

Posted on December 1, 2010 by Deacon Bob

“I do not praise poverty for poverty’s sake; I praise only that poverty which we patiently endure for the love of our crucified Redeemer and I consider this far more desirable than that poverty we undertake for the sake of poverty itself.” — St. Peter of Alcantara, OFM

Posted in Saints and Prophets, Spirituality, Virtues | Comments Off on Quote for the Day

Random Thoughts

Posted on November 30, 2010 by Deacon Bob

Can’t seem to find much I think is worth blogging about in the news recently. The big hubhub of course is the book that came out about Pope Benedict XVI, the result of an extensive and informal interview he gave to a German journalist.  The only thing people seem interested in reporting about it is the Pope’s comment about condoms in the context of a male prostitute and how using a condom by him may be a step toward accepting some moral responsibility. Of course, everyone is taking that to mean condom us is okay now in certain circumstances, but that is not what the Pope said. Anyone who understands moral theology will realize the Pope was commenting on not the licitness of condom use, but the development of a moral conscience. The Church doesn’t have an opinion about how to commit an intrinsically immoral act (which prostitution is).

I have been reflecting on the spiritual significance of boredom. What is God saying to us when we are in situations of boredom? Perhaps there is some equivalence of this with the desert experience of the early Fathers of the Church? Maybe, but then, I don’t thinks so if I adequately recall their writings. Boredom, though, may create enough space to accommodate God? Boredom has to be good for something, right?

Winter in Minnesota is winter in Minnesota. Unpredictable. Fall was unseasonably warm. The past few weeks have continued to be unseasonably warm and thus without snow. I want a little snow.  I have a new snowblower I want to use!

I continue to marvel at the liturgy of the Eucharist. Being up close and part of the liturgical action at the altar leaves me caught up in the mystery of the sacrifice of the Mass, and the proclamation of the word, especially when I am preaching thrills me more and more. The Gospel leads me into a mysterious participation in the suffering, death and rising of Jesus at the altar later.  Our Eastern brother and sisters in the Church have a beautiful understanding and experience of this in their liturgies.

On top  of all this, family life is such a blessing. Kids are healthy and happy and employed.  Grandfatherhood is a wonderful gift.  Marriage is a continual calling forth of all that makes us more human and loving, despite failings and all.

God is good, isn’t He?

Posted in Deacons, Ethics and Morality, General Interest, Marriage and Family | Comments Off on Random Thoughts

Update on NFP Post

Posted on November 30, 2010 by Deacon Bob

In case you haven’t read the comments on my recent post about doctors and NFP, Karen has provided us with the following  link to an expert in the field of the Lactational Amenorrhea Method of family planning.

 www.sph.unc.edu/?option=com_profiles&Itemid=6388&profileAction=ProfDetail&pid=7123235232

Thanks again, Karen.

Posted in Ethics and Morality, Marriage and Family | Comments Off on Update on NFP Post

Quote for the Day

Posted on November 30, 2010 by Deacon Bob

“In the early Church, the Christians didn’t know very much, and yet it was their good example, zeal, enthusiasm, and excitement for the Faith that led them to bring others to Christ.” — Archbishop Charles Chaput, OFM Cap.

Posted in General Interest | Comments Off on Quote for the Day

Papa Luciani on Role of Conscience in Moral Decisions

Posted on November 29, 2010 by Deacon Bob

Back on August 1, 1978, shortly before he was elected Pope, Cardinal Albino Luciani gave an interview in which he expressed his initial response to the then recent news of the birth of the first “test tube baby.” In it, he concluded with some comments about the role of conscience in moral decisions.

I am translating from the original Italian, as provided to me by Dr. Lori Pieper.

” ‘I have read in a few newspapers that it is ridiculous to burden with moral problems those who are trying to avail themselves of magnificent conquests of science. Besides, there is the right to freedom of conscience,’ Very well, but morality does not occupy itself with scientific conquests; it is concerned with human behavior by which persons are able to use, either for good or evil, the advances of science. In reference to individual conscience, I agree; it must always be followed, whether it commands or prohibits; the individual, however, must strive to have a well-formed conscience. Conscience, in fact, does not have the duty to create the law. It has two other duties: to inform itself first of all of God’s law, then to judge then whether there is a syntony betwen this law and our proposed action. In other words, conscience must direct, not obey, the individual person.” (Bold print mine.)

There is a lot of misunderstanding out there about the role of conscience in our lives. The part we seem to neglect is our duty to really learn of God’s law, and to turn to the Church, Scripture and Tradition to inform us.

Papa Luciani, pray for us!

Posted in Ethics and Morality, Papa Luciani (Pope John Paul I) | Comments Off on Papa Luciani on Role of Conscience in Moral Decisions