In the Service of What is Just and True

Before I head out to work this morning, I thought a quotation from Henri de Lubac would linger well here until I can find the time to post something later. About truth he writes,

There are some who say:"We reject every partisan attitude and profess objectivity. That is the only decent attitude." There are others who say: "We reject all dilettantism and we profess commitment. That attitude alone is worthy of man." ...And too often the former can believe in nothing and have not the courage to make any evaluation; they are condemned to perpetual neutrality and understand nothing thoroughly, because they are incapable of making a choice and of self-giving. Whilst the latter, even in their eager generosity and perhaps in the soundness of their choice, are forever making themselves unjust and sectarian by yielding to their passion...

We must shun both dilettantism and the partisan spirit. We must both become thoroughly committed, and remain clear-headed, in the service of what is just and true. Complete success is very rare, but whoever tends in that direction, even from afar, already deserves praise.

Returned from the States

It is Saturday afternoon and it is so good to be back in England. The temperatures in Florida were beyond what I am able to live with anymore. It was my first time back in six years and I would rather family come here to visit than me to visit Florida in August again!! I walked out of the airport in Orlando and the sweat immediately began to pour out...My mother asked me if I was alright. It is a good thing that air conditioning is everywhere you go.

I would like to thank all of my friends and readers for praying for me and my family. It was good to see family members that I haven't seen in years, some not even recognising me! It was also very good to spend some time with my dad who had two minor strokes a week before the passing of my grandmother. He has 100% blockage in his left carotid artery that does not look promising to be operable. So, it was nice to have some good time with my dad.

My last two days I went to southwest Florida to see my in-laws. My mother-in-law has been battling stage-4 ovarian cancer for two years. I was able to have a good visit with her and my father-in-law before returning to England. We had a very enjoyable dinner with one of their priests from the cathedral where they attend Mass.

Thank you to all of you for your prayers and notes of good wishes. I look forward to getting back into the swing of things as a very full and busy academic year begins this next week! Most of all, it is good to be home in England!

The above picture is from the parish Queen of Peace where I attended Mass while in Florida.

I Am Off To the States Tomorrow

Dear Friends,

Thank you for the kind words that you have sent. I am leaving early from Heathrow tomorrow to Florida for my grandmother's funeral. I would appreciate prayers for safety for myself and my family. It has been about six years since I was in the States and August is not a good time to visit Florida when you have become accustomed to the wonderful British weather! It will not be a long trip because I need to get back home to get prepared for work. Thanks for your prayers...God bless!

Lela Steel, A Loving Grandmother and Godly Woman, May She Rest in Peace

I ask for prayers for the soul of Lela Steel as I have just learned passed away a little over one hour ago. She was a godly woman who faithfully served Christ her entire life of 80 plus years. She returned from the mission field to the Ukraine one year ago due to a broken hip. She passed quickly of kidney failure in the night. She is in Florida and the funeral arrangements are under way. The memorial service is Sunday afternoon and the funeral is Monday. If there was ever a human who knew what it was to love, it was my grandmother. She has impacted thousands of people's lives for Christ and has shown all who came into contact with her how to live with suffering in this life. What an example!

I am trying to find a way back to the States from London. Thank you for the prayers!

Fr Barron: The Great Evangelization

Fr Robert Barron's Word on Fire

If you do not regularly visit Fr Barron, I do encourage you to go and look through his web site. He is a priest who really engages with the culture and is very humble and faithful in the way he does so. Pray for his ministry to many people.

Word on Fire.

To Welcome Suffering: Henri de Lubac

To welcome suffering is not to take pleasure in it. It is not love of suffering for its own sake. It is consent to one's humiliation by it. It is the opening of one's self to the blessings of what is inevitable, like earth which allows the water of heaven to soak right through it. There is an art in suffering--but it must not be confused either with the art of cultivating suffering or with the art of avoiding it.

Catholic Charity Adoption Agency Loses to Charity Commission

The Telegraph reports,

The Charity Commission agreed that organisations can sometimes bend the rules and it conceded that Catholic Care, whose adoption agency is part of a wider social care organisation run by the Diocese of Leeds, offered a “valuable, high-quality service”.

But it ruled that discrimination on the grounds of sexual orientation is a “serious matter” because it “departs from the principle of treating people equally”, and that religious views cannot justify such bias because adoption is a public matter.[Why is the life of a child's welfare a matter of political public opinion?]

The watchdog added that it believed same-sex couples can be “successful” adoptive parents and that even if Catholic Care closes down, the children it would have helped would be placed with new families through “other channels”.

Andrew Hind, the Chief Executive of the Charity Commission, said: “This has been a complex and sensitive decision which the Commission has reached carefully, following the principles set out by the High Court, case law and on the basis of the evidence before us. Clearly the interests of children are paramount. [So, does this mean that the child's 'desire' for placement is of paramount interest in deciding on where or how the child is to be placed? If the child is too young at the time of adoption when he/she becomes adopted does the child have the right to be removed from the home where the child was placed without choice if so desired? What law is there to protect the rights of the adoptive children in question? I think we all know the answer to these questions.]

All of this proves to me that we, as a society, have lost sight of what it means to be human, created in the image of God. Maybe the Holy Father will speak to this and personally to Labour leader Harman about the inequality law that she so boldly heralds. The principles that I live by as a Catholic Christian are not principles that I leave at home when I walk out the door. To require me to do so is to discriminate against me and to violate my own rights within this law. That is because the law is not a law about equality but utilitarian ideology.

The point I am making here was made in my earlier post concerning intelligence and checking one's framework for interpreting the world. None of this is new to Christianity. St Peter himself declared such things when he stood before the Council with John. With regards to what name St Peter was doing what he was doing he spoke boldly to the council and did so being filled with the Holy Spirit. The Acts of the Apostles records it as follows:

if we are being examined today concerning a good deed done to a cripple, by what means this man has been healed, 10 be it known to you all, and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead, by him this man is standing before you well. 11 This is the stone which was rejected by you builders, but which has become the head of the corner. 12 And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved." 13 Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were uneducated, common men, they wondered; and they recognized that they had been with Jesus. 14 But seeing the man that had been healed standing beside them, they had nothing to say in opposition. 15 But when they had commanded them to go aside out of the council, they conferred with one another, 16 saying, "What shall we do with these men? For that a notable sign has been performed through them is manifest to all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and we cannot deny it. 17 But in order that it may spread no further among the people, let us warn them to speak no more to any one in this name." 18 So they called them and charged them not to speak or teach at all in the name of Jesus. 19 But Peter and John answered them, "Whether it is right in the sight of God to listen to you rather than to God, you must judge; 20 for we cannot but speak of what we have seen and heard."

The Holy Father, who stands in line with this very same St Peter, will be with us in one month's time. He prays for the Church to have loving boldness in teaching and living the truth in the public sphere of society. The account of St Peter's sermon above is followed by the account of believers praying for boldness. This is what we too must do in joining in prayer with those who stood to hear St Peter speak with such boldness that day.

And now, Lord, look upon their threats, and grant to thy servants to speak thy word with all boldness, 30 while thou stretchest out thy hand to heal, and signs and wonders are performed through the name of thy holy servant Jesus." 31 And when they had prayed, the place in which they were gathered together was shaken; and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God with boldness.

Keeping With Truth Requires Checking One's Filter

Everyone has a conceptual framework or a 'hermeneutical' key if you will of interpreting the world and truth. It is the grid in our heads that filters in data from the world and it is then processed and interpreted then goes out again. Henri de Lubac once said

Everybody has his filter, which he takes about with him, through which, from the indefinite mass of facts, he gathers in those suited to confirm his prejudices. And the same fact again, passing through different filters, is revealed in different aspects, so as to confirm the most diverse opinions. It has always been so, it always will be so in this world. Rare, very rare are those who check their filter.

I agree with de Lubac when he reminds us that 'Intelligence does not naturally look for what is "intelligent": it looks for what is true.' Not seeking truth reduces the point of intelligence and becomes nothing more than a cult of itself for its own ends, de Lubac says. 'The cult of intelligence which, in point of fact, betrays and mocks it [intelligence], because it is not the cult of truth.'

Praying in Spirit and In Truth

Readers may have noted that I am doing some reading in Carthusian spirituality this summer and will do so for a good part of the rest of the Church Year. One book that I am presently reading is The Wound of Love. I think it is important that we recognise our human frailty in prayer. That is not to mistake a call to holiness with what amounts to cowardice by merely claiming human weakness as an excuse for habit that we do not really wish to face. Yet there is a very important part of our anthropology that we need to consider when seeking to learn what it means to pray in Spirit and in Truth.

Often, there is ambiguity in our spiritual lives and honesty with ourselves and our human need acknowledges this. Looking at the man in the mirror is not always the easy thing to do. But it is important to remember in coming to the place where Jesus heals in prayer as we reflect on the truth of Jesus' own poverty. Jesus' true greatness was seen in his becoming a man. The wealth of his poverty is defined by his love. The following words are from the book I'm reading now and I leave them for the reader to consider:

To pray in spirit and in truth implies that we accept ourselves in total lucidity just as we are: not passively, crushed by the weight of a fate from which there is no escape, but with courage and energy, turning our good qualities to the best account, and reducing the incursions made by our defects. We have received the energy of the Spirit of Christ. We should not lose courage since, in the last analysis, we do not count on a justice of our own, but on Christ, in faith. He it is who will give us, and indeed create out of nothing, the good works that give him glory. It may even be--and this applies particularly, I believe, to the solitary--that our trust, in spite of our very real poverty, our desire to love, in spite of the feeble results, our thirst and our hope, give him the greatest glory. His will is love, and we have only to espouse it with filial devotion. That is in no way depressing or servile; on the contrary, it is a true liberation, since our poverty, in itself, is no asset. But to accept ourselves as we are is to situate ourselves in the truth; and in the face of this true self is the love of God which itself is infinitely rich. Our poverty is the measure of our receptivity, not only with respect to God's gifts, but with respect to God himself in the union of love. We should aspire to this poverty as a crystal might seek to be perfectly transparent, in order to become pure light. In love, this poverty is freedom and joy, like God himself. Prayer in spirit and in truth, purity of heart, seeking God, the spirit of the Beatitudes: it is all the same thing, our very life as a monk.

It is my prayer that these words give the reader comfort and space to reflect on your prayer life. I think it is important that we not give up or get overly discouraged when we find ourselves confronted with our human weakness. We should be courageous and accept it and give thanks for the love of Christ. For, 'though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red as crimson, they shall be like wool (Isaiah 1:18).

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Journal Wish List--Add some to the List and I will Post

I was thinking today how nice it would be to have a journal wish list in the column to go along with the Amazon wish list (that needs revising and updating now that I think about it). But what journals would look good coming through the post in the door? Here are a few to start my wish list. Do feel free to recommend more...

American Catholic Philsophical Quarterly
American Catholic Philsophical Association

Catholic Biblical Quarterly, The
Catholic Biblical Association of America



Catholic Historical Review, The
American Catholic Historical Association

Chesterton Review, The
G.K. Chesterton Society

Christifidelis
St. Joseph Foundation

Communio: International Catholic Review
Communio

Faith and Reason
Christendom Press

First Things
The Institute on Religion and Public Life

Franciscan Studies
Franciscan Institue, St. Bonaventure University

Homiletic and Pastoral Review
Catholic Polls, Inc.

Inside the Vatican
Urbi et Orbi Communications

Latin Mass, The
Foundation for Catholic Reform

Medieval Studies
Pontifical Institute of Medieval Studies

Sacred Music
Church Music Association of America

Thomist, The
The Thomist Press

I know that there are many other great journals out there but these are a few that would be gratefully received and read after passing through the door. Does anyone have any others that they believe they would add to or subtract from the above list? Please do leave a comment!!

Apostolate Adds the following:
New Blackfriars
Second Spring
Saint Austin Review
Faith Magazine (Faith Movement)
Traces (Communion and Liberation)
Envoy Mangazine
NOTA (Una Voce America)
Fellowship of Catholic Scholars Quarterly
Logos Journal, Univeristy of St. Thomas
Christ to the World
30 days Mangazine
Christian Order
The Franciscans of the Immaculate have several academic journals

An Anglican Future in the Catholic Church, Fr Aidan Nichols, O.P.

In the latest edition of New Directions, a FiF publications in the Church of England, Fr. Aidan Nichols O.P. writes a wonderful article on the Christianization of Great Britain from an 'English' conceptual framework. He is writing about the evangelistic gift of Anglicanorum Coetibus published last year. As a note, if you have not read The Realm by Fr. Nichols, then you must get your hands on a copy now and read it over the remaining days of summer. I digress.

Fr. Nichols' point that 'de-Christianization has gone too far in England to be reversed by the strategies of civic religion' is absolutely spot on! According to Fr. Nichols the following is what is needed:

Re-Christianization needs a church that is not only doctrinally coherent (because an intellectual battle has to be won about Christianity's truth claims). It needs a church that also has a moral teaching, sacramental life and spiritual practice that in all respects are congruent with doctrine. Insofar as there is positive interest in religion today, it is mainly in what I would call a 'separated spirituality': a therapeutic, privatized religiosity ordered to individual soul-care which has very little to do with the faith and practice of historic Christendom.

But if our theological anthropology (as orthodox Christians) is right, and human creatures are so made in the image of God that they are restless till they rest in him, we should expect that, even after ceasing to take seriously traditional expressions of the transcendent people will continue to feel the need for that other dimension, a need no substitute can ultimately satisfy.

The typical contemporary response to this experienced need is to cultivate what have been termed 'self-expanding feelings,' possibly articulating these 'symbols borrowed from ancient traditions,' but without full commitment to the content of those symbols since the primary spiritual concern of late-modern or post-modern man is 'with his own states of mind.'...Such a mindset, I suggest, will only be awoken to real transcendence by a dogmatic Church offering serious catechesis like that which is made available in the 1992 Catechism of the Catholic Church described in Anglicanorum Coetibus as the common doctrinal benchmark of the Ordinariates.

Of course there will continue to be many people for whom the Church of England will provide the first glimpse of the City of God. But is it a halting-place, often haunting beauty, or is it a final spiritual home?

As one who converted in the 'traditional' way, I find the evangelistic mission in this article to be very refreshing and a vision of mission rather than 'fighting for a recognised place' in a civic establishment. I was reminded in the above quotation of the day in Rome where I knelt at St Peter's tomb and signed the Catechism of the Catholic Church as a coherent document of my own faith. The symbols of the Catholic Church found within the Anglo-Catholic Movement are symbols that also need to be more than a 'borrowing of symbols' from this transcendent body that is the Catholic Church and be reunited with her. I do pray that the evangelistic mission of the gospel in this gift will motivate many to take up this offer and sacramentally join the Catholic Church in 're-Christianizing' this land once again.

The entire article can be found on the New Directions site in the Lead Article. Enjoy!

H/T to James Bradley.

Conscience and Moral Theology: Is the Conscience Autonomous?

I was reading a news item recently where a story of a cleric in the Catholic Church was reported to state that Catholics do not owe obedience to the Pope and teaching of the Church but to their conscience first. In Catholic moral theology there is much to be said about prudence and conscience and our obedience to our conscience. I am not one to write and air private matters on the blog that becomes a place for gossip. I think matters of discipline remain private between a bishop and his priests. But the story that I read, along with the pertaining issues, and particularly the statements involved, reminded me of an episode in my own life where I was sat down and 'schooled' about Catholic moral theology.

The discussion was the autonomy of conscience defining the rightness or wrongness of an act that was in opposition to Catholic teaching on morality in one's private life. This 'education' was prior to my becoming a Catholic, but helped me to become Catholic in reality as well as name! It was this discussion that also sparked my interest in thinking about a Christian realist view of moral theology. That is what I want to post about here.

Yes Catholics are to obey their conscience. Supremacy of conscience is good Catholic moral teaching. But, Catholics should not continue to obey an erroneous conscience once informed. This is where moral theology and authority address the question. According to the Church's teaching, moral theology and the authority of the Magisterium extends to specific precepts of the natural law because observance of them is necessary for salvation. A poorly informed conscience can harm the person who acts from it. Where my 'schooling' (non-Catholic, though claimed to be Catholic in his views) partner argued was primarily from the position of subjective culpability while denying he was doing so throughout. My reasoning concluded that this approach provided no consolation to the question on moral acts at hand. The point I made at the time, irrespective of the result of vincible or invincible ignorance, was that the person who acts on the basis of an erroneous conscience still acts badly. So, it was recognized by early moral theologians that the emotions could gain such an upper hand in one's life that the whole shape of one's moral life could be the result of disordered passions. Of course Aquinas recognized that an ignorant conscience could excuse someone in a particular case, but an appeal to 'supreme conscience' has the very dangerous potential of moving someone away from the important attention to moral objects.

Reason and logic would thus teach that an erroneous conscience does not make a bad or imperfect act perfect, but rather may show something of innocence involved in the will and act in question. What I was attempting to argue was that I believed it was the teaching responsibility of those who have the cure of souls to instruct others by helping them to overcome and eradicate ignorance that get in the way of living in moral goodness. Upon further reflection on this it brings up the limits of circumstances as well when determining a moral act's goodness. What Veritatis Splendor does with circumstances is limit them by those acts that the Church has termed intrinsece malum (intrinsically evil). Therefore, the Dominican theologian Ramanus Cessario, O.P. concludes,

Those who offer moral guidance to others should avoid giving the impression that one's personal situation in life authorizes an individual to decide on the basis of historical circumstances and personal intentions about the basic moral goodness or badness of a particular action or course of action. To make this kind of compromise causes true theological scandal, for such bad counsel dissuades people from performing those actions whereby a person cleaves to God as the final perfection and blessedness of human life. To put it otherwise, an error about how circumstances direct moral decision-making shortcircuits the teleology that controls every moment of a Christian's life. (Intro to Moral Theology).

I came away from this discussion mentioned above thinking that moralities of compromise, as this person wanted to argue, actually hinders the growth in holiness of moral objects, which did not seem to come into the thinking of my discussion partner. Our discussion moved me to consider more deeply the teaching of the Catholic Church on moral theology. What this person, who was arguing that he held to Catholic moral theology, was actually doing was removing the concern for real human perfection and replacing actions with conciliating circumstances. My understanding is that this approach is not what the Catholic Church teaches when it talks about conscience in the person's life because such an approach has the potential of doing great harm to our persons (sanctification) as image bearers of God.

It is for this reason that Veritatis Splendor and the CCC will say,

As far as possible conscience should take account of the good of all, as expressed in the moral law, natural and revealed, and consequently in the law of the Church and in the authoritative teaching of the Magisterium on moral questions. Personal conscience and reason should not be set in opposition to the moral law or the Magisterium of the Church. (CCC 2039)

Thank God for the motherly care of the Church who grants us the mercy of God over all our sins in the Sacrament of Reconciliation and the nurturing grace of the ministry of the Word and the Sacrifice of the Mass!

Cardinal Newman: An Act of Love

1. My Lord, I believe, and know, and feel, that Thou art the Supreme Good. And, in saying so, I mean, not only supreme Goodness and Benevolence, but that Thou art the sovereign and transcendent Beautifulness. I believe that, beautiful as is Thy creation, it is mere dust and ashes, and of no account, compared with Thee, who art the infinitely more beautiful Creator. I know well, that therefore it is that the Angels and Saints have such perfect bliss, because they see Thee. To see even the glimpse of Thy true glory, even in this world throws holy men into an ecstasy. And I feel the truth of all this, in my own degree, because Thou hast mercifully taken our nature upon Thee, and hast come to me as man. "Et vidimus gloriam ejus, gloriam quasi Unigeniti a Patre"—"and we saw His glory, the glory as it were of the only begotten of the Father." The more, O my dear Lord, I meditate on Thy words, works, actions, and sufferings in the Gospel, the more wonderfully glorious and beautiful I see Thee to be.

2. And therefore, O my dear Lord, since I perceive Thee to be so beautiful, I love Thee, and desire to love Thee more and more. Since Thou art the One Goodness, Beautifulness, Gloriousness, in the whole world of being, and there is nothing like Thee, but Thou art infinitely more glorious and good than even the {332} most beautiful of creatures, therefore I love Thee with a singular love, a one, only, sovereign love. Everything, O my Lord, shall be dull and dim to me, after looking at Thee. There is nothing on earth, not even what is most naturally dear to me, that I can love in comparison of Thee. And I would lose everything whatever rather than lose Thee. For Thou, O my Lord, art my supreme and only Lord and love.

3. My God, Thou knowest infinitely better than I, how little I love Thee. I should not love Thee at all, except for Thy grace. It is Thy grace which has opened the eyes of my mind, and enabled them to see Thy glory. It is Thy grace which has touched my heart, and brought upon it the influence of what is so wonderfully beautiful and fair. How can I help loving Thee, O my Lord, except by some dreadful perversion, which hinders me from looking at Thee? O my God, whatever is nearer to me than Thou, things of this earth, and things more naturally pleasing to me, will be sure to interrupt the sight of Thee, unless Thy grace interfere. Keep Thou my eyes, my ears, my heart, from any such miserable tyranny. Break my bonds—raise my heart. Keep my whole being fixed on Thee. Let me never lose sight of Thee; and, while I gaze on Thee, let my love of Thee grow more and more every day.

In Constant Renewal: Experiencing True Freedom as a Catholic

Voices of freedom today cry out for release from institutions. Following those voices are voices of reform that would create a utopia and space for those yearnings to flourish. What follows the cries of freedom from institutions is freedom from what some would attempt to describe as freedom from unredemption. These truths the Holy Father has profoundly portrayed as self-indulgent attempts at freedom that is really no freedom at all.

I was recently asked what I have learned the past year or so after being united to the See of Peter. At the heart of my answer was freedom. Many people might think that a bit oxymoronic having moved from an ecclesial community within the Anglican family and into the hierarchical institution of the Catholic Church. But that is where we get to the heart of real communio.

What some mean by freedom is the demand to have their voices heard today no matter what that voice is saying. Freedom is the demand to no longer be under the "thumb" of what were known as prior givens; anything that keeps one from realizing their full potential is nothing other than a roadblock and an obstacle to true freedom. Therefore, to many, the limits of what the Catholic Church would demand in a world crying out for freedom would be even more burdensome. So how can freedom be experienced in a Church that demands rules and an ordering of one's public and private life? How can anything demand the course of my life to take a certain shape with such restrictive confines and so many commandments? Isn't this really an immature dependency rather than true freedom? Sadly, what often happens is that the idea of Church is not as our personal desires want her to be, which is an attack upon our freedom, and a new demand for her to conform to our own desires making her a place for "every freedom" to exist without limits, is shouted from the rooftops.

The first theological lesson to be learned that we find in the clear thinking of Cardinal Newman is that the Church is not a democracy of freedoms. New and 'fresh' ways of 'being Church' are being pushed making way for a Church that is 'really' free and formed by debate and compromise rather than something given to us. I am reminded of the Holy Father's words in the ad limina address to our bishops that speak of the experience of true freedom that I have experienced. He said,

In a social milieu that encourages the expression of a variety of opinions on every question that arises, it is important to recognize dissent for what it is, and not to mistake it for a mature contribution to a balanced and wide-ranging debate. It is the truth revealed through Scripture and Tradition and articulated by the Church’s Magisterium that sets us free. Cardinal Newman realized this, and he left us an outstanding example of faithfulness to revealed truth by following that "kindly light" wherever it led him, even at considerable personal cost. Great writers and communicators of his stature and integrity are needed in the Church today, and it is my hope that devotion to him will inspire many to follow in his footsteps.

The question that is begged is, 'who has the right to make decisions?' As an Anglican, I saw how fraught this system was. The minority, no matter how large, had to submit to the majority. There was no guarantee that the majority would speak 'my' position of freedom. Decisions from others must be accepted so as not to jeopardize the entire system. Everything that happened in one decision-making body could be undone by another. What was liked by one body could be hated by another and hence revoked and a new majority formed. What is this? This is a human church not something that is divine. It is not true freedom but bondage to a political system that is forever changing with the majority. Opinions replace faith and truth and self-made formulas become dogma. For me, there is no freedom in that at all. This system only forced me to be in more bondage to my own opinions and self. As the Holy Father said when he was still in the CDF, 'A self-made church is reduced to the empirical domain and thus, precisely as a dream, comes to nothing.'

What is so great about the freedom given in the Catholic Church that I discovered and continue to discover afresh each day I spend in her is that she is not something that is self-made by the opinions of others but is a gift from God that has come down out of heaven and given to us all. As Pope Benedict said,

The reform that is needed at all times does not consist in constantly remodelling "our" Church according to our taste, or inventing her ourselves, but in ceaselessly clearing away our subsidiary constructions to let in the pure light that comes from above and that is also the dawning of pure freedom.

This is exactly what I have experienced as a Catholic, true freedom. The Catholic Church gives me the freedom to live with the one who shapes my life after the image of Christ and cuts away those parts that are not a part of the sculpture but get in the way of what God wants to take shape in my private and public life. Freedom as a Catholic allows one to receive a gift from above and hence live in the freedom that truth acts upon us as the sculptor of our lives. When we step aside from believing that "we" need to make the church and rather learn to receive her as the gift she is, I believe we can and do experience true freedom. I conclude with a reflection on this from the Holy Father who describes freedom as ablatio in his book Called to Communion.

The maker values his own activity above all. He thereby restricts his horizon to the realm of things that he can grasp and that can become the object of his making. Strictly speaking, he sees only objects. He has absolutely no capacity to perceive what is greater than he is, since such a reality would set a limit to his activity. He squeezes the world into the empirical realm; man is amputated. Man builds himself his own prison, against which he noisily protests. True wonder, on the other hand, is a No to this confinement in empirical, this-worldly reality. It prepares man for the act of faith, which opens to him the horizon of the eternal and infinite. And only the unlimited is large enough for our nature and in accord with the call of our essential being. When this horizon disappears, every remaining freedom becomes too small, and all the liberations that may then be offered are a vapid substitute that never equals what has been lost. The primary, the fundamental ablatio that is needed for the Church is the act of faith itself, which breaks the barriers of finitude and thus creates the open space that reaches into the unlimited.

That is what it means to be truly free!

Lost Email and Mobile Contacts

I am very sorry to write this silly post, but when hooking my i-phone to i-tunes last evening I lost almost all of my contacts in my phone and many emails. If you read this and regularly speak with me in one of those ways, would you forward me your details once again? Thank you and I am very sorry about this!!

How One Enters Real Solitude with Christ

One can find it difficult to surf blogs as it seems that controversy and gossip often rule the blog world and comments. Everyone has a right to complain it seems. But attitudes of division do not allow for solitude with God. So, how does real solitude with Christ occur? A Carthusian writes,

As long as I maintain toward the other an attitude of division of any sort, I do not live in solitude because I am in dispute with him. I am not free as long as I have not abdicated my independence before him, in order to be possessed by the Spirit of Love. I will truly enter into solitude only the day when, by God's grace, I will have become sufficiently like him for the other to be no longer in any way a cause of dissimilarity between the Lord and me. God is my solitude, but how can I enter into God if I have not made my heart like unto his?

These considerations oblige us to enlarge our perspectives and to realize that the solitude pleasing in the eyes of God is not merely that of the soul withdrawn into the desert, but primarily, the solitude of the one who has found God through opening his heart to others. He who leads neither the contemplative nor the solitary life, but who has learned how to render his whole being available to the love of his brothers, is nearer to divine solitude than he who has enclosed himself in a cell in order to ruminate bitterness and foment discord with his brother.

There is a lot of spiritual wisdom to take away here. I leave it for the reader to ponder.

Weakness: A Discovery of the Father's Tenderness

Being honest with ourselves and our weaknesses can be a difficult process for us to tackle. But it is in facing our own weaknesses each day that we discover the Father's tenderness toward us. I have recently ordered six Carthusian spirituality books and the first one I am reading is titled The Wound of Love. Fear of facing weakness is a basic tenet of what it means to be human and sinful. Naturally we repel against the reality that we cannot rely on our own strength and this can cause us to grow in great anxiety. The fear of not being in control forces us to run from and try to hide our vulnerabilities and all sorts of hidden disorders and woundedness within. But, we must remember that Jesus calms the rough waters. When we really build up the courage to face our fears, we begin to really experience communion with the divine life. Our weaknesses are surprisingly transformed into communion. That is what the heart of prayer is really about. This is why one Carthusian writes,

So why be afraid of my own weaknesses? It is a fact that they exist; but for a long time I have refused to look them in the face. Gradually, I have assumed them, and am now obliged to recognize them as part of me. These are not extraneous to me, which I could rid myself of once and for all. Moreover, if I wished to forget them, the Father would soon bring them back to my attention. He would permit some fault or other in the face of which I would be unable to deny that I am a sinner. He would allow my health to play tricks on me, so that I would admit defeat and deliver myself defenceless to the love of the Father. He would make me realize, beyond the shadow of a doubt, how limited my abilities are.

What is new is that in the future these weaknesses, instead of representing a danger, give me the opportunity to make contact with God. For this reason I must gradually allow myself to become at ease with them, no longer considering them as a disturbing side of my personality, but as something willed and accepted by the Father; not as some hopeless inevitability but as a basic presupposition for the gift to me of divine life. When I suddenly find myself faced with a previously unknown weakness, my first reflex in the future will not be to panic but to ask myself where the Father may be hidden in it.

We cannot avoid asking ourselves a question: is this transformation of a weakness which seems to be nothing but defeat into a victory of love a sort of second thought on God's part, an alchemy whereby he changes evil into good or, on the contrary, are we not in the presence of a fundamental dimension of the divine order?

One could say a great deal about this. Let us be satisfied with simply stating that, even in the natural order, all true love is a victory of weakness. Love does not consist in dominating, possessing, or imposing one's will on someone. Rather love is to welcome without defences the other as he or she comes to meet me. In return, one is sure of being welcomed unreservedly by the other without being judged or condemned, and without invidious comparisons. There are no contests of strength between two people who love each other. There is a kind of mutual understanding from within which a reciprocal trust emerges.

Such an experience, even if inevitably imperfect, is already a very compelling one. Yet it is but a reflection of a divine reality. Once we really begin to believe in the infinite tenderness of the Father, we are, as it were, obliged to descend ever more fully and joyfully into a realm in which we neither possess nor understand nor control anything.

There it is; in weakness we discover the tenderness of the Father and that is what is at the heart of our life of prayer as faithful Christians and disciples. It is at the heart of everything we do in the Mass and outside of it. It is in our weakness that we have an encounter with the divine life in Christ. The world that wears blinders will never understand it. But, when you look at the man or woman in the mirror and face up to the weaknesses within, we can come to meet the one that the Apostle Paul described after his encounter saying, 'in my weakness, I am made strong.'